Making America sick.

A roundup of 2025 charts shows DOGE was idiotic, Trump’s tax bill enriched the rich and impoverished the poor, and the Trump administration wants more lawbreaking by rich tax cheats.

Here's a shot I got in May of a Cliff Swallow colony on the central coast. There were so many nests I lost count and I can't wait to get back there in 2026! #Birds #Photography #Nature

Trump's DOJ was monitoring all the movements of the Miami Herald reporter who was covering the Epstein case.

Incompetent, destructive, wasteful, expensive idiots. Truly mind boggling.

Context you rarely hear: global stocks are up about 30% over the past year. U.S. stocks? Around 18%. That means American investors underperformed the world by about 12 percentage points, even while headlines called it a “fantastic year.”

Killing his base. Merry Christmas!

When even Mitt Romney wants to tax the rich, it is time for every elected official of every party to step up and get moving.

"HAH: If you search "Trump" on the Files you get zero results. But if you search "Trump " with a space after, you get 600+ results. So, they blocked "Trump" searches, but they're so stupid they didn't block the workaround. Have fun! 😅 Criminal Idiots"-U.S. Democratic Socialists

Our inept medical establishment is doing nothing as viruses close schools around the country. North Carolina 🧵 www.witn.com/2025/12/17/s...

A win! Thanks to everyone who spoke out. Following public backlash, Mike Lee backtracked on the National Parks proposal, which would have rescinded legislation protecting national parks and maintaining their boundaries as federal lands.

Still having trouble getting my head around the magnitude of this reversal. In 2012 Romney ran for president on estate tax repeal. Now he wants to end stepped up basis, and is concerned about "billionaires avoid[ing] capital gains tax." Dude must be scared as hell. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...

21. And before team Yglesias responds by saying "yeah, but it's bad politics to run on climate and energy"... I'd point out that I've won 4 elections in a very purple district running on climate and energy. Pro-tip: leadership is possible! You don't have to be stupid to win!

3) Repeal stepped-up basis " for mega-estates over $100 million." A decent start. President Biden proposed, more or less, doing this for unrealized gains exceeding a more aggressive, but still generous, $10 million per married couple. ITEP's Steve Wamhoff explains here: itep.org/revenue-rais...

This means the 12.6% payroll tax has gotten more regressive, since the 17% of wages that are exempt go entirely to top earners. As @amyhanauer.bsky.social testifies, one way of fixing this proposed by Sen. Whitehouse would apply the tax to income over $400,000 as well. (176 to $400K still exempt.)

1) "increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied." The 12.6% fed payroll tax applies only to the first $176K (in '25) of wages. @amyhanauer.bsky.social explains that the share of wages above the cap has increased from 10% in 1983 to 17% in 2023. itep.org/testimony-ta...

Romney's current views on tax reform also appear to dovetail pretty nicely with what @itep.org 's been pushing. Here's an annotated guide to the specifics we can glean from his @nytimes.com piece, with links to helpful ITEP pieces where available: (1/x)

Broadcom's latest annual report says it just "CAMT" quit the alternative minimum tax. The company's taking a $1.3 billion tax hit reflecting a writedown of the company's minimum tax carryforwards. This is an admission that they're likely to be CAMT taxpayers indefinitely. www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Arch...

Even Romney agrees: tax capital gains income before heirs inherit, scrap cap on earnings taxed for social security & fix carried interest loophole.

Good ideas here. Also: tax billionaires more.

He’s anti-woke

I don’t know how it works at the New York Times, but my editors at The Guardian would never let me publish this if they knew that I was one of the elites who spent time with Epstein. And if I published it without telling them, I would be out of a job.

Over 20 million Americans are about to see their health insurance rates skyrocket. Instead of addressing that, the House GOP is going home for the holidays. Just so happens they won't be in town to answer tough questions about the Epstein files, either.

Awesome! 10 should be plenty for any one who cares about the country.

We could have given 37 reasons but we stopped at 10

Oh look, the unemployment rate hasn’t been this high since…. the last time Trump was president.

So excited to dive into this new book by @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social. Taxes are how we care for each other. Those with wealth have always tried to hoard power too. And look where it’s taking us!

one of our facilities that hosts a lot of meetings had big compost bins added to their largest conference rooms and i just think that's a great thing.

Oh great, orange toxic minerals in Alaskan rivers!

Remember when Kyrsten Sinema conspired with every Republican in the Senate to make sure that we didn’t pass reasonable taxes on private equity?

Hey states: decouple. Before it’s too late.

Tax the rich. Take care of the kids. It’s extremely popular.

This wouldn't just be a national tragedy but a global one. Just mind-boggling vandalism.

Climate alarmism komonews.com/news/local/h...

Today the BLS releases two months of payroll data and one month of household data. A little jarring to see the first gap in data on the unemployment rate in the history of the survey. Second thing to note is that the unemployment rate is now 4.6% a significant rise from 4.0% in January. #NumbersDay

Why is everything so unaffordable? Ask the American Prospect

Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who tackled one of the Bondi killers, became an Australian citizen 3 years ago. His deed was "his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship." He took 5 bullets, and fears he'll lose his left arm. www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

Trump, in his tax bill, gave $1 trillion to top 1% over next decade. Never has a president been less well suited to the mood of the country. Tax the rich.

We’re used to the Trump administration’s dishonest, inappropriate behavior. Here we’ve got Bessent trying to worsen state budgets. Fortunately Indiana redistricting resistance shows that even red states can reject their pressure tactics.

"House Democrats on Thursday voted to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership role on the House Appropriations Committee following his presidential pardon on federal corruption charges." JICYMI - Shameful, repulsive move by House Democrats and their leaders. Disgraceful.

CAVS!

A Blue Jay giving a mid-flight glance over his/her shoulder while showing those beautiful blue feathers.

1. For at least 10 years, Pepsi has conspired with Walmart to force up grocery prices. That’s the shocking evidence made public today in an unsealed FTC lawsuit. The suit was abandoned in May by the Trump FTC just before it was to be un-redacted. We went to court to get it unsealed & won.

For the first time in decades, I handed my successor an air traffic controller workforce that was growing instead of shrinking. Disturbingly, the Trump administration can't or won't say whether that’s still the case.

U.S. military spending is set to hit a record $1 trillion. Roughly half of defense spending goes to private contractors that routinely price-gouge the government. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has failed seven straight audits. This is the military industrial complex on steroids.

Wide childhood measles vaccination ⬆️ Americans personal earnings by about $450 per person per year. Estimate contrasts long-run adult earnings of people who grew up just before vs after measles vax rolled out decades ago. Burning our present & future, for what? www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Why are we not surprised?

But Fox News said...