Our Federal Government doesn't need revenue. Taxes serve as a gas pedal or brake for an economy. They drive the need for currency. They stave off inflation and can be used to break up pooled concentrations of wealth that are destructive to a functioning democracy and economy.
1/x

So what's the fuss about marginal income tax rates and "fair share"? Why the chatter about how will the government get money to fund its operations?

First we must decouple the idea that spending and taxing are linked. Taxes are not a financing operation at the federal level. In fact, taxes are destroyed upon receipt. You see, the dollar is nothing more than a tax credit. A unit of measure. Just like a run in a baseball game

All government spending is new money. Every cent. From social security to government contracts. All new money. Accounts are merely debited & credited. Marked up or marked down. Congress issues instructions to the Fed who makes deposits in the Treasuries accounts & spending ensue

Second, wealth inequality destroys a functioning society. You can easily see how the issue began in earnest in the 1970s and went absolutely crazy in the 1980s as government spending withered on the people and deregulation became the norm.

The U.S. Attorney's office announced an update on charges related to the U.S. Capitol insurrection soon.

As I cover that, my colleague @ColinKalmbacher will live-tweet the Aaron Mostofsky hearing.

The briefing is about to begin.

FBI Washington Field office's Steven M. D'Antuono is up first.

"We have opened 160 case files, and that is just the tip of the iceberg."

D'Antuono:

We have received more than 100K pieces of digital media.

He solicits more at 1-800-CALL-FBI

D'Antuono:

He credits pre-siege intelligence to the arrest of Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio before Jan. 6

My wife and I attended the “Stop the Steal” Trump Insurrection on Wednesday (as observers, NOT participants) and there are FIVE big take-aways from what we witnessed and heard outside the Capitol that I'd like to share. (We took all the pictures below). 1/22

"National Security Directive-1" What the hell? A short

Listen, there has been a simple pattern for my entire lifetime. When Nixon and Ford issued presidential directives, they we called National Security Decision Memoranda or NSDMs.

When Carter took office, he renamed those documents "Presidential Directives." This kicked off a process in which Republican and Democratic Presidents used different naming conventions for presidential directives. It was childish, sure. But so what?

Republicans always started with "National Security." So, naturally Reagan changed it back:
National Security Decision Directives (Reagan)
National Security Directives (GHW Bush)
National Security Presidential Directives (GW Bush)
National Security Presidential Memoranda (Trump)

Democrats, by contrast, never ever used "National Security."
Presidential Directives (Carter)
Presidential Decision Directives (Clinton)
Presidential Policy Directives (Obama)

“Donald Trump is nothing less than a threat to the American way of life. His term in office comprises an existential threat to the republic, the gravest since the Civil War. Not since 1860 has the future of the Union itself been in such doubt.”

[THREAD]

1/ I wrote that in DIRTY RUBLES the spring of 2018. This—right here, right now—is what I was worried about—although I will confess that things have gotten scarier and uglier than I could ever have imagined.

2/ On 1/6, we came within a hair’s breadth of a full-on overthrow of our federal government. This is not hyperbole. Trump & his disciples organized, instigated, and carried out a coordinated attack on the Capitol, for the purpose of subverting democracy. People died.

3/ This is NOT time for business as usual. We have to IMMEDIATELY discard outmoded forms of thinking to get through the next eight days. Hard ball. Here. Now.

4/ Calls for “unity” from Republican collaborators are cynical & hallow. Unite with the United States, or join the Trump insurrection. There is no middle ground. You’re with America, or you’re with Trump. Period.

#BREAKING
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Al-Qaeda has a new home base. It is the Islamic Republic of #Iran. We ignore this Iran/al-Qaeda nexus at our own peril.

Al-Qaeda has had a relationship with Iran for nearly three decades.

Based on the latest info I could find, here's why what happened on Jan. 6th was worse than we thought.

It was coordinated. This was not merely a crowd of protestors accidentally incited to storm the Capitol by the intemperance of the President & other speakers at the rally.

Security experts are combing through the online chatter leading up to the rally and have found extremist groups planning violence. People came w/ malice aforethought, thus armored insurrectionists pushing to the front of the crowd, pipe bombs, & so

But it gets worse. The feds seem to be investigating several Republican members of Congress for connections to the organizers of the rally. (The FBI has warned lawmakers in closed door hearings that they may be shocked with what comes out.)

Indeed, at least one member of Congress, Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) alleges that these GOP members gave some of the insurrectionists tours of the Capitol building on January 5th, the day before.

The implication is that these GOP congressmen used the walkthroughs to familiarize the insurrectionists with the building layout so that they could push into the building and confront their colleagues who were opposed to overturning the electoral ballot count.

There are a few points we need to discuss about how this year has begun and where we’re heading in the immediate future.

This is 2021 and your world is about to change drastically, so get prepared for the struggle that will ensue.

The Great Reset is officially upon us.

1/12

The “storming” of Capitol Hill was a defining moment, not because it was real, but because of how it will be used.

As @_WhitneyWebb has already been warning, the US intelligence were already looking to pivot from international terror threats to domestic terror.

2/12

To concentrate on domestic terror, those in power needed an event that they could allow them to label any anti-globalist Americans as “domestic terrorists”.

They stood down part of the D.C. police knowing that the peaceful protests would spill over into a minor skirmish.

3/12

Those who organised this debacle risked the lives of their police officers & innocent protesters by undermanning the security on Capitol Hill.

They now call it a coup attempt, infiltration & sedition. But it was really a disorganised rabble, many with legitimate issues.

4/12

The MSM have hyped up this event as though it was the end of US democracy & ironically that’s exactly what it signalled, but not in the way they portray it.

All world governments are planning to end most democratic processes, many of which have been suspended due Covid.

5/12

1. On Wed. 20 Jan.Military Intel Contact said that by Sun 24 Jan things should become clearer. The illegal presidency of pedo-Sat*anist Joe B*iden should begin to be disclosed, along with the disclosure of the crimes of many other traitors / criminals in DC.

THREAD: So @UKLabour think they can win back the red wall by "use of the union flag, veterans & dressing smartly?" Here's why this is ludicrous fantasy

1. You don't "use" the union flag & especially veterans. You believe in them, from the patriotic heart. Anything else is lies

2. How can Keir Starmer pretend to love the Union flag, when he knelt to BLM, who set fire to it at the Cenotaph? No way will patriots swallow this co-opting of the flag for votes

3. Labour MPs are secretly or even openly ashamed of our flag & history, esp Corbynistas

4. Labour want to win back working class voters? First, believe in Brexit. Except Starmer led Labour's #PeoplesVote movement to cancel Brexit & most Labour MPs are ardent Remainers, so there goes that one

5. Labour are so soaked in identity politics, their top brass believe the white working classes are "privileged" - even though WWC boys are the least likely to go to Uni & perform worst at school. Instead, they are fixated with minority projects, so get minority numbers of votes

6. Trans issues: huge majority of British people are not "transphobic" & want people to live happily. But they don't want trans women in women's toilets, jails, changing rooms or sports. That is a majority position. Crying "transphobe" doesn't help: it repels moderate voters

For most of my lifetime, people on the Left focused on the perils of Big Business while ignoring, or actively embracing, the menace of Big Government. A great deal of the Right did the reverse. Both Bigs are perilous, especially when they fuse into a combined threat to liberty.

The growth of both government and corporate titans was inevitable, especially after a century of industrial and technological revolutions. Technology makes it possible to have larger endeavors, both public and private. Economies of scale bring enormous benefits.

Industrial advancements meant government had to get bigger to handle even its most basic responsibilities, like national defense. The World Wars erased the model of a tiny central government handling a few key elements of defense. Every war became a clash of industrial titans.

After the wars, people - not just voracious political opportunists, but many average voters and nearly all of the intelligentsia - fell in love with the notion of using the power of industrialized warfare to address domestic issues. Every crisis became "equivalent" to war.

People expected more of government, so it grew - and then it exploded. Meanwhile, Big Business was growing too, and it delivers tangible benefits that would be impossible to achieve with only small, decentralized local companies. There is an inescapable logic to corporate growth.

Lodestone - Wikipedia

Pieces of lodestone, suspended so they could turn, were the first magnetic compasses,[3][4][5][6] and their importance to early navigation is indicated by the name lodestone, which in Middle English means "course stone" or "leading

Thread👇🏼 Well, we got committees today. I had been told by Dem leadership, who talked to GOP leadership, that I wouldn't be getting anything I wanted.

I didn't vote for the speaker or the Secretary of State and I call out folks on social media for voting on bad bills or saying icky or racist stuff. I'll be honest, sometimes I feel like I am still teaching teens with behavioral disorders😉

If I was in the US Senate I wouldn't vote for Mitch McConnell and I would bet you $100 if Cameron Sexton was in the US House he wouldn't vote for Nancy Pelosi. We don't share the same values--I think healthcare is a right, he does not, and so on....

Pretty simple stuff, I am not casting a vote for someone who says BLM is the same as the insurrectionists in DC, I just can't do it, not even for my most favorite committee.

And he should put people where their strengths are for the good of the state, not because they bend to his will, that's not leadership.

1/11

An article worth thinking about: “As changes to the world structure accelerate, China’s rule is in sharp contrast with the turmoil in the West,” says Beijing.

I agree, but I draw a different conclusion. The world is certainly currently

2/11

through "a period of turbulent change", in Beijing’s words, and great structural adjustments, but usually when that happens, what matters in the long run is not how stable a system seems but rather how successfully political, economic and social institutions adjust to...

3/11

the new conditions. In the past these adjustments have almost always been messy, chaotic, and disheartening to most, but ultimately they were necessary even if we were unable to judge them so at the time.

I would argue that the world today is undergoing both a reversal...

4/11

and rejection of the current model of globalization and an urgent need for most countries in the world, including China, to initiate a major rebalancing of the way income and wealth (and ultimately political power) is distributed, but there are few if any historical...

5/11

precedents in which this level of restructuring and rebalancing have been neat or orderly.

Beijing's response, which is to do whatever it takes to maintain stability, may look good in the short term, as this strategy always does, but if it prevents the necessary...

Been too busy to post videos/pics from Jan 6 at the Capitol. Here are some.
At 11am, we got a sense of what was to come. Protestor blows a shofar & says “We are not going to give in to rioting, they are not going to hurt anybody.” Crowd jeers & a guy yells “Blow it out your ass!”