Great Thom: At least one public voice is not in denial, as it seems all the rest are, including especially MSNBC, although there are signs that some, like Nicole Wallace, are catching on.
I have noticed that all the TV talking heads, stop short of calling Trusk out as a liar, a thief, a grifter and leave it to guests (analysts) to do that
The consequence is that lying, cheating, grifting, and treason, yes treason, as Trump, Musk, Vance, Vought, Leo et al are not only siding with Putin and Orban and Erdogan, but are hard at work deconstructing the fabric of this country, and it's defensive capabilities, and all of this passes muster with the talking heads.
Until they come right out and call Trump and his clowns, what they are, lying, treasonous scum, we are on a greased slide into a dictatorship.
Also Meidas Touch Network (younger POV), Hysteria (women's POV), and if you want a laugh, Josh Johnson (especially his Montreal show). These are all on YouTube.
I am with you Daniel. As you know, the MSM is actually corporate media, most of it is owned by another corporation, and the individual shareholders are the likes or Shari Redstone and her brother, the Newhouse Family, Brian L Roberts, Robert Iger, and the institutional shareholders are by and large Vanguard, Blackrock and State Street Group (those are the biggest) . Blackrock is a private equity fund founded and owned Larry Fink, it also has major investments in other cable media channels, PhRMA, Defense, the Health Industry
In the case of Robert Iger (Disney) and Brian L. Roberts (NBCUniversal, Comcast) they are also, besides being the major individual stockholders, the CEO and Chairman of the Board.
Anyone with time and curiosity can verify my statements via google, just remember to keep googling who is who, after you get a result, then google who is CEO of a corporation, then do the same for Board of Directors.
Thanks Daniel, but that is an hour long podcast, and I just don't have the time and werewithal (patience) to sit an listen to podcasts. In fact I don't quite comprehend who is listening or watching these thousands of podcasts, that inhabit the interewebs these days.
I am also getting a lot of emails to watch this or that live video. I don't have the time or patience, so I delete them unread. If I listened or watched every video or pod cast, I wouldn't have time to perform body functions., much less anything else.
But we watch I HIP every night... MSNBC pisses me off.... We also watch a lot of Ukraine oriented stuff. My wife has all the books...last night Malcolm Nance re Greenland....
What is 1 HIP? I don't have much use for MSNBC anymore, Ari Melber, a lawyer, toes the line, if he says anything which can be construed as negative, he is sure to have it as a quote, if that. Velshi is pretty good.. Nicole Wallace is also very careful about what she says, but she does have on guests who tell it like it is.
Ayman Mohelydin, well he is Muslim and his loyalty to the Ummah is all to evident
Thank you William for talking straight. This is what upsets me the most. This conversation always just a little off center to the facts. I think of how our angry young people start thinking they owe no loyalty to truth , law, kindness…. or even to seeking a satisfactory purpose. This is what we in America have allowed…. Not giving a “ shit” for excellence , purpose of soul comfort, empathy, compassion, duty!! Parents too must take blame where it is the total truth. Be home while you can be with those you thought were so “cute, your kids”.
What makes a really really interesting human???? Any clues? Not dollars. But an inner curiosity of being a bit different. Being educated , being informed, being healthy in moral ideals. Looks come last. If you have no connection to truth, if all you can measure your worth on is a hot “unpaid for” sporty ,noisy car, and or a power grab without thought, you are never going to be attractive. Not to a really attractive human. Why? Because you are boring. Like trump and musk and vance, and all the heritage foundation sad sacks…. you are boring. So sad.
The rest of us better well pay attention . We are stuck in the “down” mode.
I have never received a tax cut, all the tax cuts that congress has ever passed, and the President signed, have benefited millionaires and billionaires,investors, private equity and hedge funds, but not the tax paying middle class.
On the contrary, as each new tax cut is signed, I find that my income taxes go up.
The tax initiatives that benefitted my family were savings like IRA, Keough, Roth. We could not write off stuff like school tuition and expenses that eventually made the government boucoups beacuse increased earning power increased Treasury payments. The Trump tax cuts punished high earning Republicans who happen to live in blue states.
It's like the Republicans flunked Econ 1. Trickle down is bullshit that's been disproven.
Allocation of resouces. Guns v butter. In Ukraine, low cost drones defeated aircraft worth billions. We buy at inflated prices at DOD -- reject low cost innovation.
DOD is a contractors racket. McDonnell Douglas,Boeing, Raytheon, Oshkosh.
The Swedes, who have been neutral, have a cheaper and more efficient defense industry, and is supply Ukraine with advanced weapons systems superior to American.
The MIC is going banana's since Ukraine destroyed billions of dollars worth of bombers and missiles with cheap commercial drones. They don't know how to react, they are so use to living off the tax payers teat.
Yes, you have. When you buy a house, all the payments are tax-deductible for the next 6 years because they are mostly loan interest. When you retire and sell your house, as long as the capital gain is under half a million - you pay no tax. If you are married, your IRS and most state taxes shrink. If you have a ROTH IRA, you pay no tax on capital gains.
Source Google AI: Congress did not eliminate the mortgage interest deduction. However, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly altered it.
Specifically, for mortgages taken out after December 15, 2017, the deduction was limited to interest paid on the first $750,000 of mortgage debt (down from $1 million). The TCJA also eliminated the deduction for interest on home equity loans unless the funds were used for home improvement.
Importantly, the majority of the TCJA's provisions, including these changes, are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress extends them.
It's also worth noting that the TCJA dramatically increased the standard deduction, leading to fewer taxpayers choosing to itemize deductions and therefore, utilize the mortgage interest deduction.
Feb 28, 2025 — Will mortgage interest deduction expire if Tax Cuts and Jobs Act does? * Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by Trump in 2017, expires at end of 2025. *
The mortgage interest deduction is only of use to filers whose itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction.
Yeahbut, anybody who buys a house and does not itemize, regardless of income, is a schmuck. If you can qualify for a mortgage, you have enough income to justify itemizing - Hello H&R Block. Early in my worklife, because of frequent relocations due to my military career, I started buying fixer-uppers to prevent losing money on closing costs which usually eat up any profits at resale in 3-6 years. Because banks take all their interest the first 6 or so years of a 30-year mortgage, all my loan payments were deductible. I used my IRS refunds to buy tools, paint, plaster, windows, and whatever else was needed to bring the house up to standard. That always gave me a profit at resale, which I plowed into the next fixer-upper when I got transferred. It was a successful strategy, as I always had loan interest refund money for my entire worklife. It also generated enough equity to pay cash for my 2,600 sqft retirement dream house on the FL Atlantic beach.
Trump is dumb, but he does not bite the hand that feeds him - banks. The $750K limit only hits people who live beyond their means. I never had a mortgage that high much less higher. It was the same with capital gains. Reselling often, my capital gains never exceeded $500K with each resale - just my equity did - haha.
When the interest on my mortgage was high enough to enable me to itemize (Schedule A),I itemized, but after enough of the principal was paid off, to yield an interest payment that was not high enough to make filling out Schedule A, worth my time. I have had to default to the standard deduction, and now the mortgage is paid off, and I have an unencumbered title to my property, so stuck with Standard deduction.
This must be the Mandala effect, but I can distinctly remember that during Trump's first administration, the mortgage interest deduction was eliminated.
I figured that was his way of getting back at the "liberals" on the East and west Coast, as voters in rural America generally live in homes that are multi generational, built of owned by a grandparent or great, even great great grandparent. and thus the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction had no effect on Trump voters, only on blue state voters.
Like I said, probably the Mandela effect
The wife has almost a half mil in a tax deferred investment, not an IRA.
This state enacted a law that allowed jurisdictions to opt out of Social Security and invest in a 401(a) Social Security replacement program. The taxes were computed on the basis of after 401(a) deduction, there was a 407(a) program which enable one to further reduce their tax liability. So she had $2,000 a month invested in the same program (Now managed by MISSION Square)
he has to start withdrawals before April of next year, but since the contributions were made before tax, and tax has not been paid on interest yearly, we have a huge tax bill looming when she finally takes her contributions, also because Social Security charges for their benefits (we pay $175.10 a month each at the moment), and the SS premium is based on the previous 2 years income. Our social security will go up to the maximum
As I mentioned, the interest deductions die off after 6 years once banks get their interest up-front. But if you relocate often, the deduction is for life until you escape mortgages altogether. Sadly many are scammed by IRAs taxwise. I asked a friend who is an expert in retirement planning if shifting to a Roth made sense. Her staff ran the numbers and concluded NO because the drop in capital invested in ROTH due to taxing the transition, would likely reduce the ROI amount gained by staying in a taxed-status 401K, even including the tax paid. My friend was correct, and even with RMDs our IRA is growing every year.
The BIG news is the Musk/ Trump split on the budget. Musk calls the Trump spending bill a "disgusting abomination."
Both are in denial about whether DOGE has cost the Treasury bigly. 6 Nobel Prize-winning economists warned that Trump’s budget bill would gut Medicaid and food stamps, increase debt by over $3 trillion, and fuel inflation and inequality, despite GOP lies that it would boost growth.
Hope that Musk and Trump will beat up each other, causing outright defeat of the Big Beautiful budget.
Not only do I hope that these two babies beat the poopy doop out of each other, but wouldn’t it be ironic if it’s actually muskrat who wakes up a few of the magats?
it is truly outrages. Thom's entire list is and he needs to use this platform to continue roiling! I can't digest any of it. We eat while watching TV and my husband pleads with me to stop screaming expletives, worrying that it'll affect my digestion....
Step by step, this is how it plays out. You didn't miss anything as painful as it is to have to face it, in particular this piece:
"Sebastian Haffner, another German observer, noted in Defying Hitler that even he, a staunch anti-Nazi, found himself one day saluting, wearing a uniform, and marching (and even secretly enjoying the feeling of authority associated with it).
“To resist seemed pointless;” he wrote, “finally, with astonishment, he observed himself raising his arm, fitted with a swastika armband, in the Nazi salute.”
We must all check ourselves to be sure we don't sucumb to this.
My fear: Part of the play book is to keep the citizinry as uneducated as possible. Education does not emphasize civics. Take the democracy for granted, as long as we have the internet to entertain us.
What I can't figure out: (if I have this right) The insurrection clause in the contstitution says that anyone who is party to an insurrection is banned from public office, or at least the presidency. There is no requirement of impeachment or an act by congress, and yet no suprement court justice voted to uphold this requirement in the case of Jan. 6th.
Here is my sad prediction. Come mid terms, it the polls show a landslide for the Dems, is a declaration of martial law far behind under the pretext that the country is being invaded?
I wish I could be more optimistic, but, "we the people" as you often allude to seem to possibly not care if we go in the direction of a dictatorship.
Inarguably, we now live in a fascist nation. However, as a psychologist, I am astonished that, in light of the Biden dementia cover-up media frenzy, there is scant mention in the MSMedia of Trump's obvious megalomania.
Megalomania is the symptom of all fascists. You don't think Hitler or Mussolini were normal, well-adjusted adults do you? Historically, all fascist leaders built support from voters by promising revenge against their previous governments - just like Trump. All those leaders brought down their nation's economies, just like Trump is doing (check out Hungary and Turkey for example - not just the USA). All past and current dictators talk like they are king of the world.
If Biden is a nut, he is a sunflower seed whereas Trump is an off-the-wallnut. Everything coming out of his mouth is both incoherent and aggressive. To Trump, his self-flattering delusions are facts, and everything else is a lie. He attacks anybody who publicly offers criticism or presents facts that betray his leadership failure - and that is a daily occurrence. His disregard for the law might seem like insurrection of dictatorship, but it is likely just megalomania - he is superior to courts in his deteriorating mind.
His own staff have pointed out that he had difficulty reading - a condition called aging-related presbyopia. In fact, his public behavior is textbook dementia. Yet the MSM cannot shut up about Biden's rather minor mental lapses, whereas Trump offers a tsunami of them. Thus, it is hard not to view the MSM as sanewashing their reports to enable today's fascism.
Ten years ago, Americans would have said that 'it can't happen here'. "But it did. And now the real danger is that we’re getting used to it."
Unfortunately, most Americans still believe that it can't or won't happen here. They simply cannot identify true malice, evil, and abject ignorance when they see it. You and I are not getting used to it. We are in panic mode, and the people who are demonstrating and organizing do not believe they are impotent and are not getting used to it. The question is whether the numbers are great enough, the resistance is strong enough, and institutions can withstand the assaults. My real question is why have Americans been asleep and why was the authoritarianism that was gaining so much popular acceptance able to infiltrate society without encountering massive resistance long ago. Could it be that obedience training and conforming to unconstitutional laws cause citizens to ignore the danger signs and to subject children to oppressive conditions which desensitizes them? This might be a good time to answer those questions if it isn't too late already.
I would like to know where the young people are at the protests. People at the protests I've attended here in Philadelphia are mostly old...the same ones that protested the Viet Nam war in the 60s and 70s. We need the youth who will be affected for years.
Yes, I have noticed the predominance of older people at the protests and worried about the younger generations. Do not get me started on schools which are failing us on a massive scale. But the young people who protested then were witnessing the sacrifice of their peers. It wasn't because they were well-educated or well-informed. Maybe when more young people get disappeared, the word will get out. I do believe that some real facts and info are reaching social media and having an effect if it isn't too late.
No, there's a different feel...a general complacency. I used to show up at every protest on racial injustice I could. What about climate changethat could wipe out mankind if not checked? Young people need more people to disappear to be bothered? What I am really afraid of is a complacency that culminates in an authoritarian situation....
Does the complacency come from a feeling of powerlessness and impotence, from a false sense of security, from abject ignorance, or simple indifference and apathy? Probably from all of the above, depending on the "news" of the day or the mood and the individuals involved. The things which typically counter complacency, I believe, are anger and fear. I am somewhat optimistic that more people will recognize the threats and become fearful and angry. Social media can be utilized effectively towards these ends. That's about our only hope I suspect.
A very good question, although I have seen a lot of younger ones in news stories. So were our civics and history classes so much better? Or was the horror of the Vietnam War so singularly captivating to us that it awoke our fighting spirit? Four Dead In Ohio is something I will never forget.
Robert,great post. Tech has a lot to do with why Americans are asleep. Our inability to have conversations because our phones or smart watches are continually going off,creating an attention span of 19sec is part of the problem. The other is social media,especially Facebook and X and since people don't read newspapers or magazines any longer,they are informed only by the worst sources which the " Nazi" have taken over,much like Victor Orbans Hungary. When will Americans wake up,probably until it too late. OH,how about AI's influence,which will in the not to distant future control all of us and the Technocrats run the country. Our biggest enemies should be tech,including Zuckerberg,Bezos,Tim Cook(Apple) Alex Karp( Palantir) and especially the Nazi supporter Peter Thiel.
You have correctly identified a serious issue. However, the dependence on and obsession with tech and social media, etc., is a symptom, rather than a cause or in addition to a cause. We need a miracle and that isn't likely. The R's are self-destructing and the people are raising a lot of hell, so one can hope we can buy enough time to figure out how to wake more people up and to deprogram them. I'm not giving up yet.
Some of YOU in the "US" may have thought you were free, but WE have always known better. Stark, but true. Welcome and be mindful that " the Owl of Minerva flies only at dusk."
This post manifests all your time and work. Not just anyone could have written it. It takes a lifetime of reading, learning, and sorting. "Wake Up," and "Get off your ass," are just words with little meaning beyond a nanosecond. In sales, a rule is to give a prospect 5 reasons to purchase your product. You did a beautiful job of selling here. THANK YOU!
Trump won 77,284,118 votes, or 49.8 percent of the votes cast for president. That is the second-highest vote total in U.S. history, trailing only the 81,284,666 votes that Joe Biden won in 2020.
Trump won 3,059,799 more popular votes in 2024 than he won in 2020 and 14,299,293 more than he won in 2016.
Clearly, many American voters enjoy being kicked in the teeth by a convicted fascist.
Trump is just a symptom. 1/2 of America is the disease. He's the whitehead atop one mountainous boil of GOP malevolence.
Don's merely Manson. The real monsters are Tex, Squeaky, et al, without whom Charlie is another wannabe musician, failing miserably in LA.
The GOP boil needs to be lanced, so the gunk inside can no longer support him.
Yes. Trump is a symptom. Your reminder of the millions who voted for him is sobering. WTH happened to these people? Forty years of Reaganism finally wearing down families? The digital world supplanting the REAL world?
I was told by a fellow soldier my visit to Dachau would have me feeling the victims around me. That didn't happen. What hit me was how close it was located to Munich. People don't WANT to believe their eyes.
This nation is in the midst of the Tapper book onslaught, while TRump's words get crazier every day. That debate kicked the Dems in gear to do something about Biden. It hurt, but we did it. Dictator TRump and his fascist cult would deny the meaning of truth right after reading it in the dictionary.
The steady drip of lies and cruelty doesn't result in plasticity in us. In fact, it just makes us angrier. We will NEVER accept this shit that is all around us. A good portion of us have already proved we are not like the people of Munich.
Let's protect those we can. We are loud, but we can get LOUDER! See you in the streets.
It seems like this gradual tilt toward separation of people and state began just after WWII with the establishment of the national security state. Having defeated fascism, we began our own drift toward fascism, which accelerated after 9/11, and even more so with Trump. Similarly, Israel, having established a refuge from Jewish persecution, began drifting toward its own form of fascism, persecuting the local Palestinian population. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Another great synopsis of what is happening. I have written about it for years on my legacy site as well as on my Substack. People are more apt to believe and follow authoritarian regimes when they continue to assert the falsehoods and misinformation while continually increasing their criminal activities. Eventually they become numb to it and many begin to believe that the lies are true, and that the conspiracy theories have merit.
Think globally AND locally. When America falls so does the world order. It has already started with severe funding cuts to scientific research and USAID. China rises as we stumble. The Orwellian future is now. The time to take ACTION is now!, Don't worry about how big or small your voice may be... Don't worry about being alone in your resistance... Don't worry about the consequences of your moral decisions... But DON'T PANIC and BE KIND.
This IS the time to "worry about a thing" because "every little thing" is NOT alright! Every action, every conversation with friends and family, every call to an elected representative, every protest, every boycott, every op ed , EVERY THING IS WHAT WE ALL MUST DO TO PUSH BACK THIS EVIL TIDE.
All of this IS TRUE! Every word is true and also terrifying. I feel terrorized everyday by all of what you mention. I want to stand up and scream about the normalization of this regime. I am bewildered by the fact that trump was allowed the privilege of running for a second term. The system was already in decay before the 2024 election. We, the people who vote as Democrats, submitted our votes for Harris while feeling totally scammed that this trump monstrosity was even on the ballot. We had already lost our democracy before the votes were counted. And, yet, we were trying to believe that there was hope and that it couldn’t happen here. This is my experience and I wanted to share it with all of you. I sincerely want to turn this tragedy around before it is too late .
An excellent reflection on the past and a strong reminder of what's needed NOW to avoid a disastrous future. The long slow normalization of evil is a pattern of political deception that's used over and over again, because it works so well. As Thom points out, the masses must stand up NOW, not later when it will be too late.
"If we still believe in this republic, in its ideals, and in the sacred value of a free and fair society, then our answer to Trump’s authoritarianism must be more than words. It must be peaceful action."
Yes! I'm trying to my small part by the articles in my Substack site, as well as papers I'm trying to get published on how to analytically solve the democratic backsliding problem, using root cause analysis. This is my top priority in life, until the problem is solved.
"No Kings" day is only 10 days away. We need to PEACEFULLY protest this abomination of a President and let everyone in the world know that are not going quietly!!!
Great Thom: At least one public voice is not in denial, as it seems all the rest are, including especially MSNBC, although there are signs that some, like Nicole Wallace, are catching on.
I have noticed that all the TV talking heads, stop short of calling Trusk out as a liar, a thief, a grifter and leave it to guests (analysts) to do that
The consequence is that lying, cheating, grifting, and treason, yes treason, as Trump, Musk, Vance, Vought, Leo et al are not only siding with Putin and Orban and Erdogan, but are hard at work deconstructing the fabric of this country, and it's defensive capabilities, and all of this passes muster with the talking heads.
Until they come right out and call Trump and his clowns, what they are, lying, treasonous scum, we are on a greased slide into a dictatorship.
We love Hartmann. Heather Cox Richardson. Malcolm Nance. I've Had It. Olberbann. Politics Girl. On Democracy.
If I were king, I'd displace MSM with these folks.
Also Meidas Touch Network (younger POV), Hysteria (women's POV), and if you want a laugh, Josh Johnson (especially his Montreal show). These are all on YouTube.
I find Meidas has become too goal oriented...
I am with you Daniel. As you know, the MSM is actually corporate media, most of it is owned by another corporation, and the individual shareholders are the likes or Shari Redstone and her brother, the Newhouse Family, Brian L Roberts, Robert Iger, and the institutional shareholders are by and large Vanguard, Blackrock and State Street Group (those are the biggest) . Blackrock is a private equity fund founded and owned Larry Fink, it also has major investments in other cable media channels, PhRMA, Defense, the Health Industry
In the case of Robert Iger (Disney) and Brian L. Roberts (NBCUniversal, Comcast) they are also, besides being the major individual stockholders, the CEO and Chairman of the Board.
Anyone with time and curiosity can verify my statements via google, just remember to keep googling who is who, after you get a result, then google who is CEO of a corporation, then do the same for Board of Directors.
Daniel, I don't understand this part of your sentence: I've Had It. Olberbann. Politics Girl.
Are you saying that you've had it with Olbermann and Politics girl?
"I've Had It" is a podcast and youtube from Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan from OK City. They also have I HIP News, which we also watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xybWsRh8jGU
I have a history with Okie City..... and Tulsa.
Thanks Daniel, but that is an hour long podcast, and I just don't have the time and werewithal (patience) to sit an listen to podcasts. In fact I don't quite comprehend who is listening or watching these thousands of podcasts, that inhabit the interewebs these days.
I am also getting a lot of emails to watch this or that live video. I don't have the time or patience, so I delete them unread. If I listened or watched every video or pod cast, I wouldn't have time to perform body functions., much less anything else.
We spend most of our time making doctor visits.
But we watch I HIP every night... MSNBC pisses me off.... We also watch a lot of Ukraine oriented stuff. My wife has all the books...last night Malcolm Nance re Greenland....
What is 1 HIP? I don't have much use for MSNBC anymore, Ari Melber, a lawyer, toes the line, if he says anything which can be construed as negative, he is sure to have it as a quote, if that. Velshi is pretty good.. Nicole Wallace is also very careful about what she says, but she does have on guests who tell it like it is.
Ayman Mohelydin, well he is Muslim and his loyalty to the Ummah is all to evident
Edit added: I just got email from the VA, encouraging me to watch Trump's birthday parade. Of course, the VA is now controlled by Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa2mr0CgSHfgNL0ORZF2EA4tIFIYQOhYg
William, Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC calls tRump a liar, a cheater, and a criminal every night of the week.
Thank you William for talking straight. This is what upsets me the most. This conversation always just a little off center to the facts. I think of how our angry young people start thinking they owe no loyalty to truth , law, kindness…. or even to seeking a satisfactory purpose. This is what we in America have allowed…. Not giving a “ shit” for excellence , purpose of soul comfort, empathy, compassion, duty!! Parents too must take blame where it is the total truth. Be home while you can be with those you thought were so “cute, your kids”.
What makes a really really interesting human???? Any clues? Not dollars. But an inner curiosity of being a bit different. Being educated , being informed, being healthy in moral ideals. Looks come last. If you have no connection to truth, if all you can measure your worth on is a hot “unpaid for” sporty ,noisy car, and or a power grab without thought, you are never going to be attractive. Not to a really attractive human. Why? Because you are boring. Like trump and musk and vance, and all the heritage foundation sad sacks…. you are boring. So sad.
The rest of us better well pay attention . We are stuck in the “down” mode.
We can only blame ourselves, We were raised (well many of us) and in turn raised our children to think that they are special and entitled.
Like the Incels and Viagra crowd, they believe they are entitled to sex.
Totally agree with you.
The annual deficit will be $2.5 trillion over each of the next 2 years. We need a tax cut like we need a hole in the head. The fiscal irresponsibility is unfathomable. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/the-25-trillion-annual-deficit-plan?r=3m1bs
I have never received a tax cut, all the tax cuts that congress has ever passed, and the President signed, have benefited millionaires and billionaires,investors, private equity and hedge funds, but not the tax paying middle class.
On the contrary, as each new tax cut is signed, I find that my income taxes go up.
The tax initiatives that benefitted my family were savings like IRA, Keough, Roth. We could not write off stuff like school tuition and expenses that eventually made the government boucoups beacuse increased earning power increased Treasury payments. The Trump tax cuts punished high earning Republicans who happen to live in blue states.
It's like the Republicans flunked Econ 1. Trickle down is bullshit that's been disproven.
Allocation of resouces. Guns v butter. In Ukraine, low cost drones defeated aircraft worth billions. We buy at inflated prices at DOD -- reject low cost innovation.
DOD is a contractors racket. McDonnell Douglas,Boeing, Raytheon, Oshkosh.
The Swedes, who have been neutral, have a cheaper and more efficient defense industry, and is supply Ukraine with advanced weapons systems superior to American.
The MIC is going banana's since Ukraine destroyed billions of dollars worth of bombers and missiles with cheap commercial drones. They don't know how to react, they are so use to living off the tax payers teat.
Yes, you have. When you buy a house, all the payments are tax-deductible for the next 6 years because they are mostly loan interest. When you retire and sell your house, as long as the capital gain is under half a million - you pay no tax. If you are married, your IRS and most state taxes shrink. If you have a ROTH IRA, you pay no tax on capital gains.
Source Google AI: Congress did not eliminate the mortgage interest deduction. However, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly altered it.
Specifically, for mortgages taken out after December 15, 2017, the deduction was limited to interest paid on the first $750,000 of mortgage debt (down from $1 million). The TCJA also eliminated the deduction for interest on home equity loans unless the funds were used for home improvement.
Importantly, the majority of the TCJA's provisions, including these changes, are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress extends them.
It's also worth noting that the TCJA dramatically increased the standard deduction, leading to fewer taxpayers choosing to itemize deductions and therefore, utilize the mortgage interest deduction.
Feb 28, 2025 — Will mortgage interest deduction expire if Tax Cuts and Jobs Act does? * Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by Trump in 2017, expires at end of 2025. *
The mortgage interest deduction is only of use to filers whose itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction.
Yeahbut, anybody who buys a house and does not itemize, regardless of income, is a schmuck. If you can qualify for a mortgage, you have enough income to justify itemizing - Hello H&R Block. Early in my worklife, because of frequent relocations due to my military career, I started buying fixer-uppers to prevent losing money on closing costs which usually eat up any profits at resale in 3-6 years. Because banks take all their interest the first 6 or so years of a 30-year mortgage, all my loan payments were deductible. I used my IRS refunds to buy tools, paint, plaster, windows, and whatever else was needed to bring the house up to standard. That always gave me a profit at resale, which I plowed into the next fixer-upper when I got transferred. It was a successful strategy, as I always had loan interest refund money for my entire worklife. It also generated enough equity to pay cash for my 2,600 sqft retirement dream house on the FL Atlantic beach.
Trump is dumb, but he does not bite the hand that feeds him - banks. The $750K limit only hits people who live beyond their means. I never had a mortgage that high much less higher. It was the same with capital gains. Reselling often, my capital gains never exceeded $500K with each resale - just my equity did - haha.
Almost Tom, almost.
When the interest on my mortgage was high enough to enable me to itemize (Schedule A),I itemized, but after enough of the principal was paid off, to yield an interest payment that was not high enough to make filling out Schedule A, worth my time. I have had to default to the standard deduction, and now the mortgage is paid off, and I have an unencumbered title to my property, so stuck with Standard deduction.
This must be the Mandala effect, but I can distinctly remember that during Trump's first administration, the mortgage interest deduction was eliminated.
I figured that was his way of getting back at the "liberals" on the East and west Coast, as voters in rural America generally live in homes that are multi generational, built of owned by a grandparent or great, even great great grandparent. and thus the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction had no effect on Trump voters, only on blue state voters.
Like I said, probably the Mandela effect
The wife has almost a half mil in a tax deferred investment, not an IRA.
This state enacted a law that allowed jurisdictions to opt out of Social Security and invest in a 401(a) Social Security replacement program. The taxes were computed on the basis of after 401(a) deduction, there was a 407(a) program which enable one to further reduce their tax liability. So she had $2,000 a month invested in the same program (Now managed by MISSION Square)
he has to start withdrawals before April of next year, but since the contributions were made before tax, and tax has not been paid on interest yearly, we have a huge tax bill looming when she finally takes her contributions, also because Social Security charges for their benefits (we pay $175.10 a month each at the moment), and the SS premium is based on the previous 2 years income. Our social security will go up to the maximum
which will be over $500 a month each.
As I mentioned, the interest deductions die off after 6 years once banks get their interest up-front. But if you relocate often, the deduction is for life until you escape mortgages altogether. Sadly many are scammed by IRAs taxwise. I asked a friend who is an expert in retirement planning if shifting to a Roth made sense. Her staff ran the numbers and concluded NO because the drop in capital invested in ROTH due to taxing the transition, would likely reduce the ROI amount gained by staying in a taxed-status 401K, even including the tax paid. My friend was correct, and even with RMDs our IRA is growing every year.
The BIG news is the Musk/ Trump split on the budget. Musk calls the Trump spending bill a "disgusting abomination."
Both are in denial about whether DOGE has cost the Treasury bigly. 6 Nobel Prize-winning economists warned that Trump’s budget bill would gut Medicaid and food stamps, increase debt by over $3 trillion, and fuel inflation and inequality, despite GOP lies that it would boost growth.
Hope that Musk and Trump will beat up each other, causing outright defeat of the Big Beautiful budget.
Not only do I hope that these two babies beat the poopy doop out of each other, but wouldn’t it be ironic if it’s actually muskrat who wakes up a few of the magats?
it is truly outrages. Thom's entire list is and he needs to use this platform to continue roiling! I can't digest any of it. We eat while watching TV and my husband pleads with me to stop screaming expletives, worrying that it'll affect my digestion....
Step by step, this is how it plays out. You didn't miss anything as painful as it is to have to face it, in particular this piece:
"Sebastian Haffner, another German observer, noted in Defying Hitler that even he, a staunch anti-Nazi, found himself one day saluting, wearing a uniform, and marching (and even secretly enjoying the feeling of authority associated with it).
“To resist seemed pointless;” he wrote, “finally, with astonishment, he observed himself raising his arm, fitted with a swastika armband, in the Nazi salute.”
We must all check ourselves to be sure we don't sucumb to this.
My fear: Part of the play book is to keep the citizinry as uneducated as possible. Education does not emphasize civics. Take the democracy for granted, as long as we have the internet to entertain us.
What I can't figure out: (if I have this right) The insurrection clause in the contstitution says that anyone who is party to an insurrection is banned from public office, or at least the presidency. There is no requirement of impeachment or an act by congress, and yet no suprement court justice voted to uphold this requirement in the case of Jan. 6th.
Here is my sad prediction. Come mid terms, it the polls show a landslide for the Dems, is a declaration of martial law far behind under the pretext that the country is being invaded?
I wish I could be more optimistic, but, "we the people" as you often allude to seem to possibly not care if we go in the direction of a dictatorship.
Inarguably, we now live in a fascist nation. However, as a psychologist, I am astonished that, in light of the Biden dementia cover-up media frenzy, there is scant mention in the MSMedia of Trump's obvious megalomania.
Megalomania is the symptom of all fascists. You don't think Hitler or Mussolini were normal, well-adjusted adults do you? Historically, all fascist leaders built support from voters by promising revenge against their previous governments - just like Trump. All those leaders brought down their nation's economies, just like Trump is doing (check out Hungary and Turkey for example - not just the USA). All past and current dictators talk like they are king of the world.
If Biden is a nut, he is a sunflower seed whereas Trump is an off-the-wallnut. Everything coming out of his mouth is both incoherent and aggressive. To Trump, his self-flattering delusions are facts, and everything else is a lie. He attacks anybody who publicly offers criticism or presents facts that betray his leadership failure - and that is a daily occurrence. His disregard for the law might seem like insurrection of dictatorship, but it is likely just megalomania - he is superior to courts in his deteriorating mind.
His own staff have pointed out that he had difficulty reading - a condition called aging-related presbyopia. In fact, his public behavior is textbook dementia. Yet the MSM cannot shut up about Biden's rather minor mental lapses, whereas Trump offers a tsunami of them. Thus, it is hard not to view the MSM as sanewashing their reports to enable today's fascism.
Ten years ago, Americans would have said that 'it can't happen here'. "But it did. And now the real danger is that we’re getting used to it."
Unfortunately, most Americans still believe that it can't or won't happen here. They simply cannot identify true malice, evil, and abject ignorance when they see it. You and I are not getting used to it. We are in panic mode, and the people who are demonstrating and organizing do not believe they are impotent and are not getting used to it. The question is whether the numbers are great enough, the resistance is strong enough, and institutions can withstand the assaults. My real question is why have Americans been asleep and why was the authoritarianism that was gaining so much popular acceptance able to infiltrate society without encountering massive resistance long ago. Could it be that obedience training and conforming to unconstitutional laws cause citizens to ignore the danger signs and to subject children to oppressive conditions which desensitizes them? This might be a good time to answer those questions if it isn't too late already.
I would like to know where the young people are at the protests. People at the protests I've attended here in Philadelphia are mostly old...the same ones that protested the Viet Nam war in the 60s and 70s. We need the youth who will be affected for years.
Yes, I have noticed the predominance of older people at the protests and worried about the younger generations. Do not get me started on schools which are failing us on a massive scale. But the young people who protested then were witnessing the sacrifice of their peers. It wasn't because they were well-educated or well-informed. Maybe when more young people get disappeared, the word will get out. I do believe that some real facts and info are reaching social media and having an effect if it isn't too late.
No, there's a different feel...a general complacency. I used to show up at every protest on racial injustice I could. What about climate changethat could wipe out mankind if not checked? Young people need more people to disappear to be bothered? What I am really afraid of is a complacency that culminates in an authoritarian situation....
Does the complacency come from a feeling of powerlessness and impotence, from a false sense of security, from abject ignorance, or simple indifference and apathy? Probably from all of the above, depending on the "news" of the day or the mood and the individuals involved. The things which typically counter complacency, I believe, are anger and fear. I am somewhat optimistic that more people will recognize the threats and become fearful and angry. Social media can be utilized effectively towards these ends. That's about our only hope I suspect.
A very good question, although I have seen a lot of younger ones in news stories. So were our civics and history classes so much better? Or was the horror of the Vietnam War so singularly captivating to us that it awoke our fighting spirit? Four Dead In Ohio is something I will never forget.
Robert,great post. Tech has a lot to do with why Americans are asleep. Our inability to have conversations because our phones or smart watches are continually going off,creating an attention span of 19sec is part of the problem. The other is social media,especially Facebook and X and since people don't read newspapers or magazines any longer,they are informed only by the worst sources which the " Nazi" have taken over,much like Victor Orbans Hungary. When will Americans wake up,probably until it too late. OH,how about AI's influence,which will in the not to distant future control all of us and the Technocrats run the country. Our biggest enemies should be tech,including Zuckerberg,Bezos,Tim Cook(Apple) Alex Karp( Palantir) and especially the Nazi supporter Peter Thiel.
You have correctly identified a serious issue. However, the dependence on and obsession with tech and social media, etc., is a symptom, rather than a cause or in addition to a cause. We need a miracle and that isn't likely. The R's are self-destructing and the people are raising a lot of hell, so one can hope we can buy enough time to figure out how to wake more people up and to deprogram them. I'm not giving up yet.
Some of YOU in the "US" may have thought you were free, but WE have always known better. Stark, but true. Welcome and be mindful that " the Owl of Minerva flies only at dusk."
Hegel.
"A wet bird never flies at night." Jackie Vernon. The true meaning of life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9gHlgakMAY
This post manifests all your time and work. Not just anyone could have written it. It takes a lifetime of reading, learning, and sorting. "Wake Up," and "Get off your ass," are just words with little meaning beyond a nanosecond. In sales, a rule is to give a prospect 5 reasons to purchase your product. You did a beautiful job of selling here. THANK YOU!
Trump won 77,284,118 votes, or 49.8 percent of the votes cast for president. That is the second-highest vote total in U.S. history, trailing only the 81,284,666 votes that Joe Biden won in 2020.
Trump won 3,059,799 more popular votes in 2024 than he won in 2020 and 14,299,293 more than he won in 2016.
Clearly, many American voters enjoy being kicked in the teeth by a convicted fascist.
Trump is just a symptom. 1/2 of America is the disease. He's the whitehead atop one mountainous boil of GOP malevolence.
Don's merely Manson. The real monsters are Tex, Squeaky, et al, without whom Charlie is another wannabe musician, failing miserably in LA.
The GOP boil needs to be lanced, so the gunk inside can no longer support him.
Yes. Trump is a symptom. Your reminder of the millions who voted for him is sobering. WTH happened to these people? Forty years of Reaganism finally wearing down families? The digital world supplanting the REAL world?
We wuz robbed. Psyops.
Plasticity
I was told by a fellow soldier my visit to Dachau would have me feeling the victims around me. That didn't happen. What hit me was how close it was located to Munich. People don't WANT to believe their eyes.
This nation is in the midst of the Tapper book onslaught, while TRump's words get crazier every day. That debate kicked the Dems in gear to do something about Biden. It hurt, but we did it. Dictator TRump and his fascist cult would deny the meaning of truth right after reading it in the dictionary.
The steady drip of lies and cruelty doesn't result in plasticity in us. In fact, it just makes us angrier. We will NEVER accept this shit that is all around us. A good portion of us have already proved we are not like the people of Munich.
Let's protect those we can. We are loud, but we can get LOUDER! See you in the streets.
It seems like this gradual tilt toward separation of people and state began just after WWII with the establishment of the national security state. Having defeated fascism, we began our own drift toward fascism, which accelerated after 9/11, and even more so with Trump. Similarly, Israel, having established a refuge from Jewish persecution, began drifting toward its own form of fascism, persecuting the local Palestinian population. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
You missed the civil war.
Yes: NOT letting our vigilance become numb is key!
Thom,
Another great synopsis of what is happening. I have written about it for years on my legacy site as well as on my Substack. People are more apt to believe and follow authoritarian regimes when they continue to assert the falsehoods and misinformation while continually increasing their criminal activities. Eventually they become numb to it and many begin to believe that the lies are true, and that the conspiracy theories have merit.
All the best and watch your six,
Steve Dundas
Think globally AND locally. When America falls so does the world order. It has already started with severe funding cuts to scientific research and USAID. China rises as we stumble. The Orwellian future is now. The time to take ACTION is now!, Don't worry about how big or small your voice may be... Don't worry about being alone in your resistance... Don't worry about the consequences of your moral decisions... But DON'T PANIC and BE KIND.
This IS the time to "worry about a thing" because "every little thing" is NOT alright! Every action, every conversation with friends and family, every call to an elected representative, every protest, every boycott, every op ed , EVERY THING IS WHAT WE ALL MUST DO TO PUSH BACK THIS EVIL TIDE.
All of this IS TRUE! Every word is true and also terrifying. I feel terrorized everyday by all of what you mention. I want to stand up and scream about the normalization of this regime. I am bewildered by the fact that trump was allowed the privilege of running for a second term. The system was already in decay before the 2024 election. We, the people who vote as Democrats, submitted our votes for Harris while feeling totally scammed that this trump monstrosity was even on the ballot. We had already lost our democracy before the votes were counted. And, yet, we were trying to believe that there was hope and that it couldn’t happen here. This is my experience and I wanted to share it with all of you. I sincerely want to turn this tragedy around before it is too late .
An excellent reflection on the past and a strong reminder of what's needed NOW to avoid a disastrous future. The long slow normalization of evil is a pattern of political deception that's used over and over again, because it works so well. As Thom points out, the masses must stand up NOW, not later when it will be too late.
"If we still believe in this republic, in its ideals, and in the sacred value of a free and fair society, then our answer to Trump’s authoritarianism must be more than words. It must be peaceful action."
Yes! I'm trying to my small part by the articles in my Substack site, as well as papers I'm trying to get published on how to analytically solve the democratic backsliding problem, using root cause analysis. This is my top priority in life, until the problem is solved.
"No Kings" day is only 10 days away. We need to PEACEFULLY protest this abomination of a President and let everyone in the world know that are not going quietly!!!