On The Off Chance . . . November 21, 2025 . . . you haven’t seen it: The Mark Kelly, et al, video that Trump considers sedition, punishable by death (90 seconds).* . . . you think he’s advancing our interests with his latest proposal to end the Ukraine war (“on Day One”): Timothy Snyder’s Five Reasons the US should not help Russia subjugate Ukraine (4 minutes).* . . . you don’t know what he’s done to farmers: Export-killing trade wars, rising equipment and fertilizer costs, huge increases in health care costs (27% of farmers rely on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance), impending rural hospital closures. . . . you know someone who’s thinking of joining ICE: Borderland Talk with Jenn Budd . . . Often times, [the young people] who are about to hear me speak come up and introduce themselves. They are interested in joining ICE, CBP and Border Patrol. The pay is outstanding, the benefits are incredible. You start at about $50k a year and can be earning over $100k in three years. You do not have to have a college degree or even a high school diploma as a high school equivalency is enough. No work experience, no prior military required. You can have prior arrests for DUIs and even sexual assault, and they will still hire you. For many, it is difficult to say no. Most think they know what these agencies are and claim that ICE, CBP and Border Patrol were once honorable. It is only Trump who has made them so corrupt and brutal. This makes me smile like the way I smile at a little child who believes Santa Claus is real. I always start out with a bit about myself. I joined in June of 1995 and rose to the rank of Senior Patrol Agent, and so on. . . . But all of that was a long time ago. So, I bring it forward to today, and show the slides of todays agents who are raping, sexually assaulting, strangulating, using their rank to force female agents into sex, sexually abusing children, producing child pornography, smuggling migrants, smuggling drugs and even trafficking children into sex. I show how Border Patrol agents commit more violent crimes than the migrants they arrest. I show how Trump’s policies created crises after crises on the southern border and how the right-wing media has sold Americans on a fake invasion that was caused by the feds simply refusing to process anyone. I show how people are still crossing today but that the agencies are lying and the media is not covering it. I leave them with the fact that these agencies see their agents arrested five times more than other law enforcement agents, that the Border Patrol has more suicides than any other agency. And then I raise my hands and show them how deformed they are from my own attempt. I beg them to not [enlist] because it will leave them destroyed. Their children will hate them, their families will disown them. They will lose their marriages and they will look in the mirror one day and not recognize themselves. . . . Recently, I have ended with making it clear that these agencies have violated their oath to the Constitution . . . They must be abolished. People say I am brave for making these speeches. You should know that it terrifies me and emotionally drains me to do them. But I have to do them, because I don’t see anyone else willing to. These young adults are where the agencies go to recruit. If all they know is the post 9/11 propaganda, they will enter these agencies and repeat history. I cannot live with that. . . . you can help: Now is the time to fund the Democratic infrastructure that all our 8,000+ candidates will rely on next fall. Have a great weekend! *Thanks to Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles for pointing me to these links. I try to read him every day.
Disappearing Data; Presidential Death Threats November 21, 2025 Catherine Rampell at the Bulwark: In 1937, Olimpiy Kvitkin, a statistician, was executed by firing squad. His crime? Producing inconvenient census numbers, which showed the Soviet Union contained about 6 million fewer residents than Joseph Stalin had claimed, probably because of that teensy-tiny famine the country had just been through. Oops. We’re (thankfully) not at that penal stage yet. She details “Trump’s Trick for Eliminating Bad News.” (Spoiler alert: Just delete it.) Senator Elissa Slotkin: Earlier this morning, President Trump threatened me and a group of service and veteran Members of Congress with arrest, trial, and death by hanging. Here is my response [80 seconds]. Senator Chris Murphy: The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. This is not normal. We cannot allow this to feel normal. . . . Let this really sink in: The President of the United States just called for members of Congress to be executed. . . . [He] is engaged in the wholesale incitement, endorsement and rationalization of political violence in this country. . . . This is a moment for people to step up, for Republicans to step up, for business leaders to step up. Anybody who has a voice or a soapbox in this country needs to draw a line in the sand and say that it is not acceptable for the president of the United States to call for the murder of his political opposition. Trump Launches a $10 B Spying Operation Targeting American Liberals, Classifying Some As Pre-Terrorist. (Here’s the September 25 presidential decree that story refers to.) CNF CNF is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting December 10 to vote on a proposal by management to issue them a new class of shares effectively handing them complete control over governance. I’m voting NO.
Strong Floor, No Ceiling November 20, 2025 What readers are saying about Oliver Libby’s just-published Strong Floor, No Ceiling: Building a New Foundation for the American Dream: “Finally, a Book That Made Me Feel Hopeful About Our Future.” “A rallying cry for the radical center.” “A must read and what America needs right now.” A bold, unifying vision for America Strong Floor, No Ceiling is exactly the kind of book we need right now. It’s smart, hopeful, and deeply pragmatic. Oliver Libby takes on the most pressing challenges of our time, from economic mobility to political polarization, and offers a plan rooted in common sense, shared responsibility, and optimism. What makes this book powerful is that it speaks to people, not at them. It’s written for the “frustrated majority”, or those of us who still believe the American Dream should belong to everyone, not just a lucky few. Libby’s “radically moderate” framework brings together the best ideas from both sides of the aisle and shows how we can rebuild opportunity without tearing each other down. It’s equal parts manifesto and roadmap. It leaves you feeling like a brighter, fairer, more united America is actually achievable. A must-read for anyone who’s ready to move past the noise and start rebuilding together. I agree. PRKR David T.: “In case you missed it, a board member bought a million dollars worth of their stock a few days ago. I’m sure I’m grasping at hopeful straws, but that’s got to be a good sign…. maybe?” → I thought so, too, and bought more at 21 cents, though only with money I can truly afford to lose.
Tax Tweaks For Your Consideration November 18, 2025November 17, 2025 In response to last Thursday’s post, How To Make $60 Billion, Bob F. reminded me that you’d have to win more than $200 million a week for more than 1,000 weeks in a row, not $100 million, because “the cash option is valued at less than half of the total of the annuity option.” And the other problem, Bob notes, is that “the jackpot resets to $50M after a win, so you can’t win $100 million (let alone $200 million) drawing after drawing. But luckily there are two drawings per week, Tuesday and Friday, so it will still only take 2000 weeks if you win every time.” Pull that off, in order to match the poorest of today’s 25 richest Americans, and you’d face yet another problem: In the 38 years of extraordinary good fortune it took to net $60 billion this way, the fortunes of those 25 richest Americans may have grown considerably. By just how much would depend, in part, on whether we reform the tax code. Which leads me to today’s topic. Tom L.: “A friend suggested that once you hit a net worth of $1 billion, you should be given a parade and a little award that says, “you won capitalism.” After that, all income is taxed at 100%. If you complain that you can’t live on $1 billion, we take the award away (at least you had the parade).” → I love it! Sort of. What I’d really like to see is an end to the “stepped-up basis at death” and other tax loopholes that make the estate tax a joke. And income from wealth and speculation taxed at the same rate as income from work (though I would keep the Qualified Small Business Stock exemption that incentivizes innovation). With that rate rising to 45% (say) on income above $25 million (say). And an IRS adequately funded to collect the taxes due — out of fairness to the majority who already pay every penny due. And a voluntary corporate tax surcharge — like this — that would only begin to kick in if the corporation’s highest paid employee (typically, the CEO) makes more than 50 times as much as her median employee . . . and that would steepen gradually to 5% when top total compensation exceeded a thousand times the median. Voluntary, because the board of directors could choose to raise median worker pay and/or limit top pay in order to avoid the tax if they felt that was in the best interest of the shareholders. If inequality has become a problem in America (and does anyone think it has not?), this would be a nice little way to lean against it. See, also, the Patriotic Millionaires Equal Tax Act. (To make tougher capital gains treatment more palatable, we should perhaps consider netting out inflation in calculating taxable gains. So if you had bought something for $1,000,000 40 years ago and sold it now for $2,500,000, you’d have no tax to pay, because after inflation you’d actually have lost money. As it stands now, you’d have to pay nearly $500,000 in federal and state tax on that capital “gain.” Now that virtually all preparation is computerized, the logistics of the calculations might not be difficult at all.) BONUS Who Will Replace MTG In Trump’s Clown Car— Andy Borowitz at his substantive best.
Fixing Capitalism November 17, 2025November 13, 2025 [I’m traveling for a couple of days — without my computer! — so here’s something I never got around to posting years ago that might still be of interest.] Kara Swisher’s interview with Mariana Mazzucato. Stop Whining About Big Government. The narrative that the private sector drives innovation is only half the story. Ms. Mazzucato — who counts the pope, the billionaire Bill Gates and the U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez among her readers — says governments should act more like venture capitalists, rather than let the private sector hog all the glory and the rewards. BONUS? My name is Joey Garrand, and I believe a book of mine may interest you. The title of the book is Fixing Capitalism: A New Redistribution System. It’s free. I seek nothing more than to share this book and the ideas within. I appreciate your time, and let me know if you read! Thanks. I took the briefest look . . . is he Andrew Yang, only a half decade too young to run for President? . . . so I can’t say for sure it’s worth your time. (Andrew’s The War On Normal People, long since recommended, definitely was and is.) But I plan to take a closer look when things slow down. Let me know what you think.
Tax Tweaks For Your Consideration November 16, 2025 In response to Thursday’s post, How To Make $60 Billion, Bob F. reminded me that you’d have to win more than $200 million a week for more than 1,000 weeks in a row, not $100 million, because “the cash option is valued at less than half of the total of the annuity option.” And the other problem, Bob notes, is that “the jackpot resets to $50M after a win, so you can’t win $100 million (let alone $200 million) drawing after drawing. But luckily there are two drawings per week, Tuesday and Friday, so it will still only take 2000 weeks if you win every time.” Pull that off, in order to match the poorest of today’s 25 richest Americans, and you’d face yet another problem: In the 38 years of extraordinary good fortune it took to net $60 billion this way, the fortunes of those 25 richest Americans may have grown considerably. By just how much would depend, in part, on whether we reform the tax code. Which leads me to today’s topic. Tom L.: “A friend suggested that once you hit a net worth of $1 billion, you should be given a parade and a little award that says, “you won capitalism.” After that, all income is taxed at 100%. If you complain that you can’t live on $1 billion, we take the award away (at least you had the parade).” → I love it! Sort of. What I’d really like to see is an end to the “stepped-up basis at death” and other tax loopholes that make the estate tax a joke. And income from wealth and speculation taxed at the same rate as income from work (though I would keep the Qualified Small Business Stock exemption that incentivizes innovation). With that rate rising to 45% (say) on income above $25 million (say). And an IRS adequately funded to collect the taxes due — out of fairness to the majority who already pay every penny due. And a voluntary corporate tax surcharge — like this — that would only begin to kick in if the corporation’s highest paid employee (typically, the CEO) makes more than 50 times as much as her median employee . . . and that would steepen gradually to 5% when top total compensation exceeded a thousand times the median. Voluntary, because the board of directors could choose to raise median worker pay and/or limit top pay in order to avoid the tax if they felt that was in the best interest of the shareholders. If inequality has become a problem in America (and does anyone think it has not?), this would be a nice little way to lean against it. See, also, the Patriotic Millionaires Equal Tax Act. (To make tougher capital gains treatment more palatable, we should perhaps consider netting out inflation in calculating taxable gains. So if you had bought something for $1,000,000 40 years ago and sold it now for $2,500,000, you’d have no tax to pay, because after inflation you’d actually have lost money. As it stands now, you’d have to pay nearly $500,000 in federal and state tax on that capital “gain.” Now that virtually all preparation is computerized, the logistics of the calculations might not be difficult at all.) BONUS Who Will Replace MTG In Trump’s Clown Car— Andy Borowitz at his substantive best.
Praise And A Suggestion For The President November 15, 2025 PRAISE Trump unveils deal to expand coverage and lower costs on obesity drugs. This is great. Dr. Oz Proclaims Americans Could Lose ‘135 Billion Pounds’ by Midterm Elections With New Weight Loss Drug Pricing — by which he meant 135 million not billion, but still. The true goal should be somewhere in between, because surely we 340-or-so million Americans are on average more than 6 ounces — but less than 400 pounds — over our healthiest weight. SUGGESTION You could lose a pound or two yourself. But that’s not my actual suggestion. My suggestion is that — because surely the President of the United States cannot be a pedophile — you release the Epstein files. If your suspicions about the Democrats whom you’ve ordered the Justice Department to investigate are true, you’ll kill two birds with one stone: exposing them while exonerating yourself. (Another suggestion: Rename the “Department of Justice” the “Department of War on People You Don’t Like”). Also: Release the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Your supporters know they are of true national significance. So why shield the Bidens? And release what the investigators you sent to Hawaii found about Barack Obama’s birthplace. You said, “They can’t believe what they’re finding!” So let us see! (And release your 2013, 2014, and 2015 tax returns? Are they still under audit?) HOAXES The whole Epstein thing is a hoax. The climate crisis is a hoax. Your rape of E. Jean Carroll was clearly a hoax — because why would you have attacked her? In your words, “she’s Not My Type.” (Though she seems happy in this photo with Epstein, whom you allegedly regaled about the incident shortly after it happened.) Your 2020 election defeat was rigged — a hoax. The Russia thing, obviously, is a hoax . . . but Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi was real. In point of fact, though — on that last point, Russia versus Benghazi — there is a difference. Here it is: No fewer than six Republican-led investigations cleared Hillary of any wrong-doing; whereas the Mueller report, which none of your supporters have read, found nearly 400 pages of evidence pointing to collusion that could not be proven in its strict legal definition because of your obstruction of justice, for which more than 1,000 former Republican and Democratic federal prosecutors said any other American would have been indicted. So Benghazi — though tragic — was not a justifiable stain on Secretary Clinton’s service; while the only tragic thing about the Russia investigation is that you and Bill Barr managed to get no one to read it. BONUS A blast from Trump’s past — Trump’s generosity knew no bounds. It is well worth affirming you are “not a robot” to read this account. (Actually, he was promoting a start-up that, like his steaks and airline and university and foundation, seems now nowhere to be found. But, boy, does he know how to put on a show.) Our DNC LGBT dinner last night was great. The carrot cake was amazing. Governors Whitmer, Hochul, and Healey. DNC Chair Ken Martin. Congresswoman Sarah McBride, HRC President Kelley Robinson — and Emily “Hawking” Shiller, a trans Navy fighter pilot who flew 50 combat missions before retiring after 20 years and who leads SPARTA, with more than 3,000 members (of the estimated 18,000 trans members of the military). Thanks to all of you who contributed to help fund the opposition party! And to all of you who still will! Have a great weekend.
How To Make $60 Billion November 13, 2025November 13, 2025 If you have $60 billion, you’re around the bottom of the 25 wealthiest Americans. To make $60 billion, Gary Gulman has noted, you need only win the Mega Millions $100 million jackpot every week for 600 weeks. Except that lottery winnings are taxed as ordinary income, so he’s wrong. Even in a no-tax state you’d need more like a 1,000 straight wins. So how do a few people grow so rich? Often it’s by making great advances for society for which they should be celebrated rather than demonized. But . . . . . . it sure helps not to pay taxes. If your billions came mainly from investments, that’s easy. Instead of selling some of your $60 billion in stock and paying an already low capital gains tax, just borrow a few million against it each year instead. Problem solved. If it came from inheritance? “Only morons pay the estate tax,” says White House’s Gary Cohn. (See, also: The Haves and the Have-Yachts.) In her new book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, Ray Madoff warns: The United States has allowed many of its wealthiest individuals to quietly secede from the country that benefits them financially. As the richest 1 percent of Americans have come to control more than 30 percent of the country’s wealth, the tax code has given them the tools to abdicate their responsibilities and, in a sense, to relocate to a tax-free version of American life—a wealth island of sorts. While millions of working Americans . . . pay substantial portions of their resources to support the expenses of the country—its social safety net, national defense, interest on the national debt, and the myriad other expenses that are needed to support the most economically developed country in the world—the individuals on wealth island are insulated from such workaday burdens by a tax system that imposes little or no tax on their most common sources of wealth: investments and inheritances. Their ability to avoid taxes in those areas allows their wealth and power to grow unabated and exponentially. The existence of these two different systems—one for people who earn money, one for people who own wealth—bears remarkable resemblance to the tax system of prerevolutionary France, in which the aristocracy was written out of the tax system, leaving the burdens of the country’s expenses to everyone else. As the French economist Pierre-Samuel du Pont de Nemours (who later fled to America with his two sons, one of whom founded DuPont chemical company) said to the French National Assembly, “In order to become noble, it is sufficient to become rich; and to cease to pay taxes, it is sufficient to become noble. So there is only one way of escaping taxation, and that is to make a fortune.” In France, these untaxed rich were known as the Second Estate—nobility who enjoyed sweeping financial and social privileges on the basis of their wealth. As was the case then, the existence today of a class of untaxed elites signals something broken and alarming about the US economy. It also invites the question of how a country founded on principles of equality—and with a special aversion to aristocracy—could end up where it has. High tax rates suck when you’re struggling to build a comfortable life and security for retirement. I’m against them. But once you have $20 million? Or $50 million? Or $200 million?? Or a billion??? Which is nothing compared to what some Americans have. It’s this kind of inequality that leads to demagoguery and dictatorship. Cuba, Russia, and China spring to mind; likewise, Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler. Join the Patriotic Millionaires! Support the party that votes for affordable health care, against tax cuts for the ultra-rich! Have a great weekend.
Shoot The Messenger November 13, 2025November 13, 2025 If you don’t like the unemployment numbers, just fire the guys who calculate them. Right? If you don’t like the outcome of the most secure election in American history, just pressure Georgia’s secretary of state to find you 11,780 votes — is that really asking too much? — or submit a slate of fake electors . . . or pressure your Vice President to throw the election into the House of Representatives . . . or rally the Proud Boys to storm the Capitol and maybe hang the Vice President, watching on TV for hours as the violence continues, ignoring pleas to call it off. And . . . If you don’t like an ethics investigation, just axe the investigators. To wit: US ethics officials removed for inquiring into improper access of mortgage files. It’s quite a story, and totally in keeping with a corrupt authoritarian regime. Andrew R.: “This reminds me of a line from Last Man Standing, following the narrator’s murdering three men: ‘The sheriff didn’t disappoint me: he investigated the whole thing and arrested the hooker.’” > Support “my” 26th annual DNC LGBT Leadership Council dinner even if you’re not L, G, B, or T and even though you can’t come tomorrow. An adequately funded opposition party is absolutely necessary to restore checks and balances. Next year: give to candidates. This year: to infrastructure. Thanks! HYMC Up another buck yesterday, I’m selling a chunk in my tax-sheltered IRA for a triple.
Warren Buffett’s Wonderful Thanksgiving Letter November 12, 2025November 12, 2025 But first . . . POLITICIZING THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Fox News Weekend host with a drinking problem reshapes the U.S. Military (2 minutes) — Elissa Slotkin. BASTARDIZING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT Watch the first three or four minutes of this one, on just whom Trump is pardoning. You know it; but seeing it this way! CAVING ON THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN Andrew Yang’s take: Voting to open the government was not the colossal mistake many (terrific) Democrats believe it was. It was, in fact, the right thing to do. Susan Del Percio agrees: Republicans warned they’ve trapped themselves ‘in a box’ GOP political strategist Susan Del Percio [says] the Republican Party is now trapped by its promise to hold a vote on the ACA, also known as Obamacare, which has the potential to be a loser for them no matter how the vote turns out. “That’s what the Republicans have been afraid of all along, is this vote. Will they support those subsidies to the Affordable Healthcare Act? That’s going to put them in a box.” “So if they if they vote yes, then the Democrats can say ‘We won, we pushed it, we got it.’ And if they vote no, the Democrats have a great election issue come 2026. So I think that the Republicans are more or less scratching their heads, saying, ‘Why aren’t the Democrats, why are they not taking this as a big win?’ And it’s just more reflective of the intra-party fighting in the Democratic Party,” she concluded. (And as I suggested yesterday, if the Republicans DO vote to kill affordable health care, Democrats can withhold funding again in January . . . when, perhaps, the GOP will give in — or look horrible again.) David M. Perry on BlueSky: Maybe senate Dems should say: “The Republicans were going to kill people by starving them to death, and because we aren’t monsters, we decided to let this fight go. We’ll keep fighting. Stop electing monsters.” The comments he elicited suggest that, having slept on it, some Democrats think he may have a point. And now . . . “Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.” — from Warren Buffett’s wonderful Thanksgiving Letter. > Join Indivisible! > Support “my” 26th annual DNC LGBT Leadership Council dinner Friday night even if you’re not L, G, B, or T and even though you can’t come. An adequately funded opposition party is absolutely necessary for democracy to prevail — and now is the time to lay the groundwork for success next year.