Heather, it is his JOB to use his BRAIN to represent his constituants.
When he KNOWS he is too ill, but still hangs on because, paycheck, it is not wrong of us to call out his incompetence, Look we called out Dianne Feinstein too, she was beond the sell date and literally could nto do her job either.
Olderwoman: it is my opinion that it is disgusting to use a person’s physical ailments as a gotcha. It’s just gross. There’s plenty to say about his behavior without invoking his ailments. It’s too bad you lack that ability, I guess. But that lacking won’t drive ME to make comments about your health. Because it’s bad form.
Mom came home from grocery shpping and found him on the floor in a pool of blood. The doctor said he had alsheimers. I think doc was wrong His cognitive functioning dropped in step functions post strokes, and not gradually. The doctor btw did not have a particularly good reputation. Very bad reviews all over. But in a smaller community this is what one is stuck with. The changes were sudden and immediately after the strokes.
My.Mom went to the emergency room for chest pains. Perfectly healthy. When my brother and I got there, she didnt know who we were! The nurse said, well she has Altzheimers, right?
Well NO . WE never got an answer. Just deemed it a stroke. BS. MY Mon never took any drugs. We thinks they hit her with something powerful that caused it. Didn't matter. She was never the same.
I'm sorry to say that when he was elected, I sent him my munny. I never saw this bullsh*t coming way back then. I thought he was a champion for the people.
We all did. Rich. That's one reason why I am not just blindly giving to anyone. Id rather support who I want ,not who they tell me I need to. Thats MEIDAS TOUCH NETWORK!
He won't resign as he's got a good gig going. Wonder if he's getting pay-offs on top of it. I don't know how one gets a Senator to resign when they are physically ill (dementia).
It's all about the excellent healthcare coverage U.S. senators get. A senator cannot be forced to resign. Look at Senators Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell. And one can't forget the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. She refused to resign even with all the long absences from D.C. due to multiple health problems. I think at one point it becomes less of being dedicated and more of having one big ego and the power that comes with being in the Senate. In 1996 Senator Susan Collins (Maine) pledged that she would serve only two terms. Yet, she is still there and running for re-election in 2026.
How do they give up the notoriety, money, benefits and influence for mostly fundraising and perfunctory “work”? Not to mention how effective is anyone as they pass 85 years old? It’s not ageism it’s the aging process.
Maybe we could get Al Franken to run against him. I've never forgiven Kirsten Gillibrand for her scalp-hunt against him over a really minor issue. I was an early feminist (1960s-70s). She has no idea what sexual harassment is. That was horseplay, nothing else.
Dialogue with folk, who are susceptible to the extreme right-wing White identity fascist propaganda of the GOP and other right-wingers who roll in that yuuuuuge metaphorical unregulated racist swine lagoon(ie Clinton{Please listen to the episodes of 'The Dollop' about Slick Willie.}), and any Democrat who voted to confirm "Jackie" Roberts, be our way to move forward together. Being snarky to fellow members of the rabble class is extremely counter-productive. All be not lost. Some are, but without getting to know each other and how we came to our current framework for understanding our shared existence, we have no way of knowing. They may continue to seek safety in numbers, if we don't treat them like human beings. THen we are helping bring about our own demise. Truth, reconciliation, and solidarity can bring us back to the centre, which is what Senator Bernard Sanders and his allies are agitating for, a New Deal without the White identity and other anti-minority politics that made Jesse Helms a loyal Democrat, as long as his White followers got to feed at the slop trough first and foremost.
I do hope that I made meself clear. Of all the things that I currently believe, I absolutely believe that we can overcome what ails our shared big blue bubble. 🌐 🧐
The paragraph is your friend. It's easy, just hit the 'enter' button every once in a while if you don't know how to identify paragraphs. I'm sure you had useful information in there, but it was impossible to read.
I haven’t read the full update yet but I felt compelled to share my enjoyment of the descriptions of the liars. You especially captured the essence of Vance. Thank you and also for the hard work you do to prepare the update!
I've gone and watched that Vance interview in full on YouTube, the whole 12:41 min. It's infuriating but also in a certain way revealing. Vance starts with a statement of about one minute too vague to actually be false but very misleading after that Stephanopoulos asks four or five questions that need to be asked, asks two follow ups every time, receives misleading answers mixed with half-truths each time. Vance is even warning that he won't go any nearer to truth two or three times. Then there's that cut you will probably miss it you don't know it's there.
It's obvious that the White House now edits their interviews at least on ABC and is allowed to keep it quiet. Disgusting!
Here is the ugly truth the Vance & Johnson are not saying—the president made a deal with the millionaires & billionaires that if they would finance his campaign and get him elected he would give them big tax cuts. And that is why there is no money for anything else and the citizens are getting screwed and people are going to suffer! If the top 1% were just paying their fair share we would have what is needed.
Yes, DJT wants his American version of the Arc de Triomphe; just like he wanted a military parade in his honor after the one he saw in France during Trump 1.0.
Not an actual base of its own; it’s a bunch of buildings on an existing base. How exactly is that supposed to improve Mideast security? Are Qatari fighter pilots going to do nothing like the Saudis? Of course, the more pilots trained to fly US made warplanes, the more of those can be sold.
Agreed. It doesn’t feel like a simple training deal, which if they bought US made planes they’d get anyway. This all part of the corruption. Can Jared’s corrupt hands be far away?
Gives me flashbacks of the 9/11 terrorists coming to America to learn how to fly commercial planes. Didn't work out to well did it. And we trained them, thanks to Bush. Even after they said they didn't need to learn how to land 🙄
What's bizarre is that the U.S. has an air force base in Qatar.
The U.S. sells F-15 all over the world like candy. I used to work for a company that produced military aircraft engines. We cranked out F-15 parts like crazy.
Yeah, it’s not like those planes are only at a few bases in the US. As with anything out of the ordinary with Trump, the likelihood of corruption is huge.
Unfortunately, my country, Switzerland 🇨🇭, bought a bunch of them during the Biden administration and has really lived to regret that one. There’s talk about annulling the deal now. The USA 🇺🇸 has lost so much sympathy everywhere in the world 🌎.
Imagine if they had been paying their fair share from the time those tech companies were started. They’d be used to it and the world would be a much better place without their sense of entitlement, maybe, just maybe.
I can't think of a better outcome for the AGI contestants than to borrow themselves into a hole and have their VC investors wake up to the massive grift they invested in. Boom! No more money, no more data centers, and the richest people in the world lose a HUGE chunk of their ill gotten gains along with what's left of their reputations.
More people like Gary Marcus, Karen Hao, and Ed Zitron need to persistently tell the truth about this unprecedented investment in an over-hyped scam. I hope the big 10 lose everything so some small, ethical startups who want to serve society, not destroy it stand a chance at improving the human condition.
Yes. And our electricity bills are going up while they drastically deplete the water table in, for example, AZ, which already doesn't have enough water for its residents. That alone is a good enough reason to ban crypto and rein in unregulated AI.
Gil Duran also writes about AI and techno-fascism. A book he recommends, which I read and found informative, is “More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity.”
Yes. I subscribe to Duran's Nerd Reich newsletters and watch his YouTube channel. Haven't read the book yet, but listened to a long interview of him about it.
Taxes can get you thinking about fairness. For instance, when I’m calculating deductions on my salary and watching a decent chunk go to Uncle Sam, I can’t help but wonder: What if the ultra-wealthy paid the same percentage of their income in taxes that regular people do?
Find Out: I Asked ChatGPT To Explain How Rich People Avoid Taxes Like I’m 12 — Here’s What It Said
So I decided to ask ChatGPT a simple question: “What would happen if billionaires paid taxes at the same rate as the middle class?” The AI’s response was more nuanced than I expected — and revealed some surprising truths about how our tax system really works.
Earning passive income doesn't need to be difficult. You can start this week.
Setting the Record Straight
First, ChatGPT corrected a common misconception I had. Based on actual data from PolitiFact and ProPublica investigations, the 25 wealthiest Americans currently pay an average federal income tax rate of 16% under existing law.
Meanwhile, households earning $50,000-$100,000 (where most teachers, firefighters and other middle-class workers fall) typically pay an effective tax rate between 0% and 15%.
So contrary to what I’d heard, billionaires don’t actually pay less than teachers under current tax law. But here’s where it gets interesting.
How Wealth Grows vs. How Wages Work
ChatGPT explained that the issue isn’t necessarily the tax rates themselves, but how different types of income get taxed. This is where the system becomes genuinely unfair.
“Billionaires benefit from tax strategies that lower their effective tax burden compared to what ordinary income earners face on wages,” the AI explained. “The current system taxes work more than wealth.”
Here’s what that means in practice: When I get my salary, taxes come out immediately. When a billionaire’s stock portfolio increases in value by millions, they don’t pay taxes on that growth until (or unless) they sell those stocks.
The ‘Buy-Borrow-Die’ Strategy
ChatGPT broke down something called the “buy-borrow-die” strategy that wealthy people use to minimize taxes. It sounds like financial wizardry because, honestly, it kind of is.
Here’s how it works: Billionaires borrow money against their stock holdings (which isn’t taxed), live off those loans and then pass their assets to heirs largely tax-free when they die. Meanwhile, regular people like me can’t defer taxes on our paychecks or borrow against our retirement accounts without major penalties.
The AI used ProPublica data to illustrate this: “The top 25 billionaires saw their wealth grow by $401 billion from 2014-2018, but paid just $13.6 billion in federal income taxes — an effective rate of 3.4% on wealth growth.”
That 3.4% figure is what really stung. While they’re paying their legal tax obligations on realized income, their actual wealth is growing at a rate that’s taxed far below what middle-class workers pay on their salaries
What If We Changed the Rules?
ChatGPT ran the numbers on what would happen if billionaires paid taxes at the same rate middle-class families do — around 15%-22%.
Using the ProPublica data, if those top 25 billionaires had been taxed at a 20% rate on their wealth growth, they would have paid around $80 billion instead of $13.6 billion.
“Extrapolate that across approximately 1,000 billionaires?” the AI asked. “You’re talking hundreds of billions in added revenue annually.”
What a great thing to watch. George Stephanopoulos, that's the way to do it sir! 👏 loved to see you take it right to the lack of facts. Also VD 's extreme snarky BS. Thank you !!
Welker let him get away with most of it. His comment, when presented with about 4-5 videos of Trump from several years ago saying a shutdown is the president’s fault, was to gaslight that it was politics when Obama was president, but now it’s about governance. As if those two things are somehow entirely separated. And his smugness was seen during the VP debate, when he whined about being fact-checked.
I'd almost wish Trump would be pulled for Dementia and Vance gets so chewed up as President to go down flaming in the next election. Not sure Stephen Miller can tell him what to do and those two will duke it out. Vance doesn't have the persona to win over Pritzker or Newsome or anyone else in 2028.
Welker is weak. She was a bit stronger tonight ,but she was out done by George Stephanopoulos. Try harder. Tell your colleagues. Lets go. This should be happening everyday
Not. Anymore. Its been like that for months. Just do not give them the oxygen. Catch up later and give views to Inpendents, and the rating by watching them do re caps. Boycott the BS
Welker is horrible. I stopped watching Meet the Press after her first interview with Trump where she fed him softball questions and never followed up on any of the lies that came out of his mouth. Tim Russert must be rolling over in his grave.
A laughable piece of cheap c$@p for $75. This family of grifters just can't stop. They are horrible. And how many stars are scattered onto the flag- 37?
My contention all along since 1/20/25 is that the regime wants us sick; broke, and dead. There is no other way to explain the demolition of the CDC, the eradication of education, the idiotic tariff wars that will only hurt US, and the total strafing and castration of Congress. The American public is adrift on a sea of ugly corruption and at the mercy of every incompetent dumbfuck that Donald Trump counts among his slavish and conspiracy addled circle of associates. We are sitting ducks as a nation as every bad actor across the world is alternately laughing and planning to attack. We should be scared. I’m scared. And I don’t know how we make it for another THREE YEARS when this amount of damage was inflicted on us in 8 months.
Project 2025 gave a detailed preview of where this is headed. Serfdom for most of us, with religious propaganda for education. And they do think they’re ordained by “God”.
For an insight into what the US dystopian future will look like, study the "Hand Maids Tale" Series 1. Women relegated to be housekeepers, servants & child-bearers; prohibited from reading or learning, (on pain of physical mutilation), a gestapo-like secret police that spies on everyone, and a small elite group of rich men running everything. This is Trump's dream - and Project 2025 will propel the United States into the Dark Ages.
I have done that. Margaret Atwood was prescient and didn’t even know any of this was possible. The mantra: It can’t happen here. We are now about halfway there to Gilead. We are a failed nation. We have allowed this to happen to us. And the electeds have betrayed us on every level. My heartache is that it will take a generation to repair this damage. If ever. Unless something precipitous happens.
I saw an interview of Atwood; she said everything she put in the Handmaid's Tale came from actual historic examples. She said she did that because she wanted it to be plausible enough that people would realize it could happen anywhere. She knew very well it was possible.
Hegseth has similar aspirations... isn't he a Doug Wilson adherent? See The Independent's article (Hegseth Attended Service at Church of ‘Christian Nationalist’ Pastor Who Doesn’t Think Women Should Vote and Wants US To Be a Theocracy):
"Doug Wilson has faced criticism for right-wing views on feminism, slavery, and gay marriage... 'The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson,' Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Independent. 'The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.'”
Contrast that with Hegseth's weird wife fixation... Per The Daily Beast (Pentagon Pete’s Angry Wife Stirred Up His War With Reporters):
"In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hegseth had added his wife, who is not an employee of the Defense Department, to Signal chats in which details of a strike on Yemen were discussed, and brought her to sensitive meetings with foreign officials. That same month, it was reported he had plastered the walls of the Pentagon with photos of his spouse and showcased her presence in internal videos." (See the article for pictures...)
“JD Vance lied repeatedly on Sunday shows with his trademark smug insufferability. Trump lies like a huckster televangelist - like he knows he’s trying to con you with obvious bs so he keeps checking to see if you are buying it and can’t believe his luck that so many are. Mike Johnson lies with a monotone smooth sliminess that reminds me of the character Kevin Spacey played in The Usual Suspects. But Vance tells preposterous lies with a tone of indignancy if you dare suggest that he might be full of shit.”
Never. They’ve flopped forward onto the knees of their knees at this point, and their corporate overlords have capitulated and actually PAID Trump to be insulted and demeaned. But we have RON. So we’re not wandering around in the dark.
Thank you Ron for once again cutting through the shit show and laying out the facts. Your descriptions of Vance and Johnson were spot on. They, along with all the others of course, are beyond the lowest level of despicable. AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!
When will congress do it. That's what is needed. He is insane. Lacks respect for our laws. Preparing to declare war on our own cities. The current cucks kissing up, will be needing lawyers and protection from inmates, when the end up in jail. All of them need to be held responsible. Protest responsibly. No violence. Record everything. This must end.
Congress will never call out Tiny Johnson and Lady Maybelline the Couch Cuddling Ratface. The Republikkkans are gutless and soul-less. I pray that their constituents are so angry they vote them out.
My God, what an absolute shit show, and yet the media still doesn't get it. Just lies upon lies upon lies. These people are despicable Nazis, and I hope the absolute worst happens to them.
MSM gets it, they just won't do anything about it. With a few exceptions, they are no longer journalists because the truth doesn't mean anything to them anymore. The only truth you will find is with the independent journalists like on Substack.
Yes yes Lady Maybelline is INSUFFERABLE. Such an insufferable cheesy ratface. Esp the way he keeps repeating the interviewers' names. It's a cheap powerplay to try to show dominance like a grabby handshake or trying to tower over someone. I would not call him "JD" I would refer to him to his face as "Mr Bowman" to point out that he even lies about his own name. James Donald Bowman. 🤮🤮
Where is the accountability for the fired Federal workers during the Doge Boys massacre. Not talking about the fact they had already gutted every imaginable position across the board. Now, they cut more and its all the democrats? Sorry. Not gonna work. You thugs cut everybody for tax breaks for the rich. And have only worked 12 days in months. Failures and incompetence times over any in history. The worst legacy ever will be your future. For your kids to hate you for.
That the richest person in the world took medical and other support from the poorest by demolishing USAID is the epitome of cruelty. These people may have a brain but they certainly don’t have a heart. I feel devastated.
I really love the fact of that George Stephanopoulos (not that I liked him in the past( but he did the exact right thing there and that needs to be repeated about 10 times a day
I think more like George are finally going to start waking up and stop being afraid of telling the truth. Trump loses in court almost every time. He tried to sue to make it hard on others. More need to cover him up in lawsuits where he has to give depositions. Tie up all his time in court.
I think they're also noticing how popular independent news is in proportion to how many viewers corporate "news" is losing. Thank you, Meidas Mighty and MTN.
Fetterman is officially a trumpthuglican. He should seriously just resign. What an embarrassment
Uncle Fester has even taken to depicting himself as a victim of his colleagues abuse. What a horse's ass!
He fits right in with Trump and the cult. They are also ALWAYS the victim, screaming and whining. Fuck Fetterman. What a terrible disappointment.
Exactly
I am from Minnesota and was so pulling for Fetterman back in the day....but now? Ish.
God, I know. He’s so disappointing.
Definitely a Trumpanzee! He should be so ashamed of himself. His vascular dementia is on full display.
Why?
It's true, he's loosing it mentally, if not he has already lost it.
If he was a private citizen we would not dump on hiim, but in his capacity as a US Senator he is fair game.
Heather, it is his JOB to use his BRAIN to represent his constituants.
When he KNOWS he is too ill, but still hangs on because, paycheck, it is not wrong of us to call out his incompetence, Look we called out Dianne Feinstein too, she was beond the sell date and literally could nto do her job either.
Olderwoman: it is my opinion that it is disgusting to use a person’s physical ailments as a gotcha. It’s just gross. There’s plenty to say about his behavior without invoking his ailments. It’s too bad you lack that ability, I guess. But that lacking won’t drive ME to make comments about your health. Because it’s bad form.
Like the leader of the Regime does, right?
I'd be happy to never see another quote from him. He's a lost cause. Sorry I ever gave his campaign a donation.
Same!!
I think the stroke he had affected his critical thinking skills.
they've been known to do those things. My dad had a few. Seen the effects myself with him.
Same with my mom.
My Mom as well. But she didn't sit in Congress. .
neither did dad.
Im so sorry for you.
Mom came home from grocery shpping and found him on the floor in a pool of blood. The doctor said he had alsheimers. I think doc was wrong His cognitive functioning dropped in step functions post strokes, and not gradually. The doctor btw did not have a particularly good reputation. Very bad reviews all over. But in a smaller community this is what one is stuck with. The changes were sudden and immediately after the strokes.
My.Mom went to the emergency room for chest pains. Perfectly healthy. When my brother and I got there, she didnt know who we were! The nurse said, well she has Altzheimers, right?
Well NO . WE never got an answer. Just deemed it a stroke. BS. MY Mon never took any drugs. We thinks they hit her with something powerful that caused it. Didn't matter. She was never the same.
I am so sorry.
Fetterman crying woe is me, it's been very isolating. Give me a break. He deserves to be shunned.
I'm sorry to say that when he was elected, I sent him my munny. I never saw this bullsh*t coming way back then. I thought he was a champion for the people.
We all did. Rich. That's one reason why I am not just blindly giving to anyone. Id rather support who I want ,not who they tell me I need to. Thats MEIDAS TOUCH NETWORK!
Me too. I'm very selective about who I donate to now.
I'll never trust the DNC after what they did in the 2012 primary.
I want my donations back.
Fetterman should Stay isolated. No sympathy. He misled everyone.
He’s worse than Manchin who at least had the excuse of having to run in WV. Can’t wait for Sen. Lamb.
He won't resign as he's got a good gig going. Wonder if he's getting pay-offs on top of it. I don't know how one gets a Senator to resign when they are physically ill (dementia).
It's all about the excellent healthcare coverage U.S. senators get. A senator cannot be forced to resign. Look at Senators Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell. And one can't forget the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. She refused to resign even with all the long absences from D.C. due to multiple health problems. I think at one point it becomes less of being dedicated and more of having one big ego and the power that comes with being in the Senate. In 1996 Senator Susan Collins (Maine) pledged that she would serve only two terms. Yet, she is still there and running for re-election in 2026.
How do they give up the notoriety, money, benefits and influence for mostly fundraising and perfunctory “work”? Not to mention how effective is anyone as they pass 85 years old? It’s not ageism it’s the aging process.
I think it is the residual effects of his stroke(s).
His statement to Bartiromo made absolutely no sense, yet she buttered him up with flattery. I just don’t get it.
Maybe we could get Al Franken to run against him. I've never forgiven Kirsten Gillibrand for her scalp-hunt against him over a really minor issue. I was an early feminist (1960s-70s). She has no idea what sexual harassment is. That was horseplay, nothing else.
Same here. I curl my lip whenever I see a photo of her.
His hoodies and shorts disrespect the Senate, and thus disrespect the people of PA, his constituents.
The democrats did an awful job of vetting Festerman.
Yup, for sure no mirrors in THAT house!
Agree! So sorry I donated to his campaign. He's a virtual Manchurian Candidate.
As a person with half of me roots in Pennsylvania mining country, the line betwixt a PA Republican and a PA Democrat be very thin, sometimes to the point of invisibility. This, like my home state, was and, to a degree, continues to be a place where blue dog Democrats are extremely vulnerable to extreme right-wing White identity politics. Jesse Helms was the leader of the exodus of extreme right-wing White identity fascists from the Democratic party(and not just the Southern Democrats) to the GOP where, with the help of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and North Cackalakey native son, Lee Atwater, racist appeals were made in numerous ways. (®© NOTE: John Glover Roberts, Junior, the objectively worst justice to ever sit on the SCOTUS, be just as nasty, hateful, and dumb as any 4chan, 8chan, 8kun, #️⃣RacistReddit, #️⃣SomethingAwful, StormFront, the #️⃣JohnBirchSociety, InfoWars, and any place that regards the civil rights movement with contempt. Roberts, Thomas, and Kavanaugh need to recuse themselves because these 3️⃣ clowns all committed high crimes and misdemeanors before they were nominated by the awful ones, Reagan, Bush the Lessor, and the Trumpedee Dumpetee WatchaDaPee. I remember listening to Don Curtis's editorial programme after the GOP stole more SCOTUS seats. His guest were the leader of the 'John Locke Foundation' and he is just as ignorant and dumb as the John Locke of 'LOST' but with no sense of empathy and an extreme right-wing White identity view of property rights versus human rights. That foundation also tries to continue propagating the lie that the GOP of Abraham Lincoln's time be equivalent to the modern GOP. Their "film" about the bona fide successful insurrection by White supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, is a historically inaccurate disgrace. Honestly, I would have been genuinely surprised if it had been accurate. Da Whitewash were laughably inelegant. These two jackarses cackled and guffawed, on Curtis's programme, at how their Republican party plays the game better. However, fascist clowns, governance be not a game, and those who believe this and act accordingly(⚖️ like French Fry Roberts ⚖️) should not have those jobs. ©®)
Dialogue with folk, who are susceptible to the extreme right-wing White identity fascist propaganda of the GOP and other right-wingers who roll in that yuuuuuge metaphorical unregulated racist swine lagoon(ie Clinton{Please listen to the episodes of 'The Dollop' about Slick Willie.}), and any Democrat who voted to confirm "Jackie" Roberts, be our way to move forward together. Being snarky to fellow members of the rabble class is extremely counter-productive. All be not lost. Some are, but without getting to know each other and how we came to our current framework for understanding our shared existence, we have no way of knowing. They may continue to seek safety in numbers, if we don't treat them like human beings. THen we are helping bring about our own demise. Truth, reconciliation, and solidarity can bring us back to the centre, which is what Senator Bernard Sanders and his allies are agitating for, a New Deal without the White identity and other anti-minority politics that made Jesse Helms a loyal Democrat, as long as his White followers got to feed at the slop trough first and foremost.
I do hope that I made meself clear. Of all the things that I currently believe, I absolutely believe that we can overcome what ails our shared big blue bubble. 🌐 🧐
🧕🏼🐝🆓🌈🌈💟🌌
The paragraph is your friend. It's easy, just hit the 'enter' button every once in a while if you don't know how to identify paragraphs. I'm sure you had useful information in there, but it was impossible to read.
Kind of a dickish comment Georgetown. Feel superior ?
Nope. Just trying to be helpful.
Yes because people love being ‘helped’ by some random asshat like yourself..
I haven’t read the full update yet but I felt compelled to share my enjoyment of the descriptions of the liars. You especially captured the essence of Vance. Thank you and also for the hard work you do to prepare the update!
I love these updates. Vance is terrible. Smug and oily and just completely repulsive.
A slimeball.
Johnson is awful, too “Big Lie Mike” (BLM) So smarmy. Such a Christian!
CINO. Xtian. Whited sepulcher.
Ditto on that!
Yes, the Vance take is getting close to the non-essence of this irrelevant being!!
I've gone and watched that Vance interview in full on YouTube, the whole 12:41 min. It's infuriating but also in a certain way revealing. Vance starts with a statement of about one minute too vague to actually be false but very misleading after that Stephanopoulos asks four or five questions that need to be asked, asks two follow ups every time, receives misleading answers mixed with half-truths each time. Vance is even warning that he won't go any nearer to truth two or three times. Then there's that cut you will probably miss it you don't know it's there.
It's obvious that the White House now edits their interviews at least on ABC and is allowed to keep it quiet. Disgusting!
Here is the ugly truth the Vance & Johnson are not saying—the president made a deal with the millionaires & billionaires that if they would finance his campaign and get him elected he would give them big tax cuts. And that is why there is no money for anything else and the citizens are getting screwed and people are going to suffer! If the top 1% were just paying their fair share we would have what is needed.
It is particularly galling to see a ballroom being added to the WH and a proposed arch. The Qatari military base is also frightening.
Yes, DJT wants his American version of the Arc de Triomphe; just like he wanted a military parade in his honor after the one he saw in France during Trump 1.0.
Not an actual base of its own; it’s a bunch of buildings on an existing base. How exactly is that supposed to improve Mideast security? Are Qatari fighter pilots going to do nothing like the Saudis? Of course, the more pilots trained to fly US made warplanes, the more of those can be sold.
Regardless of the particulars it is a permanent or semi-permanent military presence on US territory and I don’t like that. Just my humble opinion
Agreed. It doesn’t feel like a simple training deal, which if they bought US made planes they’d get anyway. This all part of the corruption. Can Jared’s corrupt hands be far away?
Gives me flashbacks of the 9/11 terrorists coming to America to learn how to fly commercial planes. Didn't work out to well did it. And we trained them, thanks to Bush. Even after they said they didn't need to learn how to land 🙄
What's bizarre is that the U.S. has an air force base in Qatar.
The U.S. sells F-15 all over the world like candy. I used to work for a company that produced military aircraft engines. We cranked out F-15 parts like crazy.
Yeah, it’s not like those planes are only at a few bases in the US. As with anything out of the ordinary with Trump, the likelihood of corruption is huge.
Unfortunately, my country, Switzerland 🇨🇭, bought a bunch of them during the Biden administration and has really lived to regret that one. There’s talk about annulling the deal now. The USA 🇺🇸 has lost so much sympathy everywhere in the world 🌎.
I think he's going to their soldiers against US citizens, because he knows the US military won't do it!
He is shameless . Humiliating. Abhorrent. A Maniac . Unqualified.
SHAMU the killer squid 🐙 .
Imagine if they had been paying their fair share from the time those tech companies were started. They’d be used to it and the world would be a much better place without their sense of entitlement, maybe, just maybe.
I can't think of a better outcome for the AGI contestants than to borrow themselves into a hole and have their VC investors wake up to the massive grift they invested in. Boom! No more money, no more data centers, and the richest people in the world lose a HUGE chunk of their ill gotten gains along with what's left of their reputations.
More people like Gary Marcus, Karen Hao, and Ed Zitron need to persistently tell the truth about this unprecedented investment in an over-hyped scam. I hope the big 10 lose everything so some small, ethical startups who want to serve society, not destroy it stand a chance at improving the human condition.
AI and crypto are enormous users of electricity and water via the data centers
Yes. And our electricity bills are going up while they drastically deplete the water table in, for example, AZ, which already doesn't have enough water for its residents. That alone is a good enough reason to ban crypto and rein in unregulated AI.
Gary Marcus has a new post on Substack today. Highly recommended: https://open.substack.com/pub/garymarcus/p/the-grand-agi-delusion?r=2nt1ay&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Gil Duran also writes about AI and techno-fascism. A book he recommends, which I read and found informative, is “More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity.”
Yes. I subscribe to Duran's Nerd Reich newsletters and watch his YouTube channel. Haven't read the book yet, but listened to a long interview of him about it.
Taxes can get you thinking about fairness. For instance, when I’m calculating deductions on my salary and watching a decent chunk go to Uncle Sam, I can’t help but wonder: What if the ultra-wealthy paid the same percentage of their income in taxes that regular people do?
Find Out: I Asked ChatGPT To Explain How Rich People Avoid Taxes Like I’m 12 — Here’s What It Said
So I decided to ask ChatGPT a simple question: “What would happen if billionaires paid taxes at the same rate as the middle class?” The AI’s response was more nuanced than I expected — and revealed some surprising truths about how our tax system really works.
Earning passive income doesn't need to be difficult. You can start this week.
Setting the Record Straight
First, ChatGPT corrected a common misconception I had. Based on actual data from PolitiFact and ProPublica investigations, the 25 wealthiest Americans currently pay an average federal income tax rate of 16% under existing law.
Meanwhile, households earning $50,000-$100,000 (where most teachers, firefighters and other middle-class workers fall) typically pay an effective tax rate between 0% and 15%.
So contrary to what I’d heard, billionaires don’t actually pay less than teachers under current tax law. But here’s where it gets interesting.
How Wealth Grows vs. How Wages Work
ChatGPT explained that the issue isn’t necessarily the tax rates themselves, but how different types of income get taxed. This is where the system becomes genuinely unfair.
“Billionaires benefit from tax strategies that lower their effective tax burden compared to what ordinary income earners face on wages,” the AI explained. “The current system taxes work more than wealth.”
Here’s what that means in practice: When I get my salary, taxes come out immediately. When a billionaire’s stock portfolio increases in value by millions, they don’t pay taxes on that growth until (or unless) they sell those stocks.
The ‘Buy-Borrow-Die’ Strategy
ChatGPT broke down something called the “buy-borrow-die” strategy that wealthy people use to minimize taxes. It sounds like financial wizardry because, honestly, it kind of is.
Here’s how it works: Billionaires borrow money against their stock holdings (which isn’t taxed), live off those loans and then pass their assets to heirs largely tax-free when they die. Meanwhile, regular people like me can’t defer taxes on our paychecks or borrow against our retirement accounts without major penalties.
The AI used ProPublica data to illustrate this: “The top 25 billionaires saw their wealth grow by $401 billion from 2014-2018, but paid just $13.6 billion in federal income taxes — an effective rate of 3.4% on wealth growth.”
That 3.4% figure is what really stung. While they’re paying their legal tax obligations on realized income, their actual wealth is growing at a rate that’s taxed far below what middle-class workers pay on their salaries
What If We Changed the Rules?
ChatGPT ran the numbers on what would happen if billionaires paid taxes at the same rate middle-class families do — around 15%-22%.
Using the ProPublica data, if those top 25 billionaires had been taxed at a 20% rate on their wealth growth, they would have paid around $80 billion instead of $13.6 billion.
“Extrapolate that across approximately 1,000 billionaires?” the AI asked. “You’re talking hundreds of billions in added revenue annually.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/i-weasked-chatgpt-what-would-happen-if-billionaires-paid-taxes-at-the-same-rate-as-the-middle-class/ar-AA1I2aW5
Exactly! It’s been said before but needs to be brought up again more and more.
What a great thing to watch. George Stephanopoulos, that's the way to do it sir! 👏 loved to see you take it right to the lack of facts. Also VD 's extreme snarky BS. Thank you !!
Welker let him get away with most of it. His comment, when presented with about 4-5 videos of Trump from several years ago saying a shutdown is the president’s fault, was to gaslight that it was politics when Obama was president, but now it’s about governance. As if those two things are somehow entirely separated. And his smugness was seen during the VP debate, when he whined about being fact-checked.
I'd almost wish Trump would be pulled for Dementia and Vance gets so chewed up as President to go down flaming in the next election. Not sure Stephen Miller can tell him what to do and those two will duke it out. Vance doesn't have the persona to win over Pritzker or Newsome or anyone else in 2028.
He has the personality of wet bread.
Or wet doughnuts!!!
Welker is weak. She was a bit stronger tonight ,but she was out done by George Stephanopoulos. Try harder. Tell your colleagues. Lets go. This should be happening everyday
They are so afraid of losing access. What good is access when you are just fed a stream of lies and can't respond forcefully?
That’s endemic inside the Beltway.
Did you watch Face the Nation? It was terrible. One more like that and I'm outta here.
Not. Anymore. Its been like that for months. Just do not give them the oxygen. Catch up later and give views to Inpendents, and the rating by watching them do re caps. Boycott the BS
Done!
I’m not a fan of any of them, and often walkout of the room when needle on bullshit meter gets pegged.
I sorely miss Chuck Todd. Welker is weak.
Chuck let plenty go unchallenged, but when he pushed, he showed some backbone.
Welker is horrible. I stopped watching Meet the Press after her first interview with Trump where she fed him softball questions and never followed up on any of the lies that came out of his mouth. Tim Russert must be rolling over in his grave.
Stephanopoulos is one brave guy.
ABC will likely get sued again by Trump.
That Christmas ornament 🤮 🤮 🤮 🤮 is gawd awful!
Just as godawful as I’d have imagined. Gawdy and devoid of anything suggestive of Christmas.
Money can't buy taste or class
Grifters all.
Disgusting!
What does it even say on the bottom part? I can't even read it. Is that the idea?
It says “Who cares about fucking Christmas?” To quote Melania herself.
LOL!
It says “Made in China”
🤣
A laughable piece of cheap c$@p for $75. This family of grifters just can't stop. They are horrible. And how many stars are scattered onto the flag- 37?
Hideous. Even for my americana tree in the basement.
There is money, like 20 billlion for Argentina, and money for congressional salaries, but none for the working folks. How shameful
My contention all along since 1/20/25 is that the regime wants us sick; broke, and dead. There is no other way to explain the demolition of the CDC, the eradication of education, the idiotic tariff wars that will only hurt US, and the total strafing and castration of Congress. The American public is adrift on a sea of ugly corruption and at the mercy of every incompetent dumbfuck that Donald Trump counts among his slavish and conspiracy addled circle of associates. We are sitting ducks as a nation as every bad actor across the world is alternately laughing and planning to attack. We should be scared. I’m scared. And I don’t know how we make it for another THREE YEARS when this amount of damage was inflicted on us in 8 months.
Project 2025 gave a detailed preview of where this is headed. Serfdom for most of us, with religious propaganda for education. And they do think they’re ordained by “God”.
I want nothing to do with their idea of "God."
Per The New York Times, Russ Vought quotes the Bible and never swears. Good to know, huh? (sarcasm)
(The Man Behind Trump’s Push for an All-Powerful Presidency)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/politics/russell-vought-trump-budget.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20250929&instance_id=163459&nl=the-morning®i_id=288007245&segment_id=206807&user_id=10f5ce712dd5ffaa9a1b50f896b42bee
His wife got tired of him. Not surprising.
??
If Trump and the people around him are not foreign agents, they might as well be for all the damage they are doing to the United States.
They’re malignant. And have no scruples or principles. Just hate, racism, greed, and proud xenophobia.
Poster BOY: Stephen Miller
For an insight into what the US dystopian future will look like, study the "Hand Maids Tale" Series 1. Women relegated to be housekeepers, servants & child-bearers; prohibited from reading or learning, (on pain of physical mutilation), a gestapo-like secret police that spies on everyone, and a small elite group of rich men running everything. This is Trump's dream - and Project 2025 will propel the United States into the Dark Ages.
I have done that. Margaret Atwood was prescient and didn’t even know any of this was possible. The mantra: It can’t happen here. We are now about halfway there to Gilead. We are a failed nation. We have allowed this to happen to us. And the electeds have betrayed us on every level. My heartache is that it will take a generation to repair this damage. If ever. Unless something precipitous happens.
I saw an interview of Atwood; she said everything she put in the Handmaid's Tale came from actual historic examples. She said she did that because she wanted it to be plausible enough that people would realize it could happen anywhere. She knew very well it was possible.
😭
Have you read her sequel, "The Testaments"? It will give you hope.
Hegseth has similar aspirations... isn't he a Doug Wilson adherent? See The Independent's article (Hegseth Attended Service at Church of ‘Christian Nationalist’ Pastor Who Doesn’t Think Women Should Vote and Wants US To Be a Theocracy):
"Doug Wilson has faced criticism for right-wing views on feminism, slavery, and gay marriage... 'The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson,' Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Independent. 'The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.'”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/hegseth-christian-nationalist-church-doug-wilson-b2803969.html
Contrast that with Hegseth's weird wife fixation... Per The Daily Beast (Pentagon Pete’s Angry Wife Stirred Up His War With Reporters):
"In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hegseth had added his wife, who is not an employee of the Defense Department, to Signal chats in which details of a strike on Yemen were discussed, and brought her to sensitive meetings with foreign officials. That same month, it was reported he had plastered the walls of the Pentagon with photos of his spouse and showcased her presence in internal videos." (See the article for pictures...)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pentagon-pete-s-angry-wife-stirred-up-his-war-with-reporters/ar-AA1Oeqtw?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=68e9b717c2264b929343037626e26597&ei=17
Hegseth is sick. He is ,supposedly newly sober. Those tattoos. His manic behavior and an ex Foxhead. Now on a powert trip.
Just insane. This wont end well
Lard-haired dry drunk frat boi.
Hilarious. And just yuck.
Genius! Pure genius!
“JD Vance lied repeatedly on Sunday shows with his trademark smug insufferability. Trump lies like a huckster televangelist - like he knows he’s trying to con you with obvious bs so he keeps checking to see if you are buying it and can’t believe his luck that so many are. Mike Johnson lies with a monotone smooth sliminess that reminds me of the character Kevin Spacey played in The Usual Suspects. But Vance tells preposterous lies with a tone of indignancy if you dare suggest that he might be full of shit.”
He is as full of shit as a don old diaper ,after a meltdown.
This is so comprehensive. Thank you so much Ron Filipkowski.
JD Vance lies like a man auditioning for victim of the year. Indignant tone. Empty cart.
Trump’s grift is televangelist chic. Pass the plate. Hide the facts. Praise be to tariffs that don’t exist.
Mike Johnson talks like a customer service bot that found a Bible and a thesaurus for slime.
Layoffs during a shutdown? That’s not policy. That’s a purge with a press release.
We’re not confused. We’re counting. Ballots, not vibes. Receipts, not rants.
So tired of having to look at their smug smarmy lying faces.
Good job VMB!
When will journalists start calling out the lies made by Vance and Johnson. Enough of the crap.
Never. They’ve flopped forward onto the knees of their knees at this point, and their corporate overlords have capitulated and actually PAID Trump to be insulted and demeaned. But we have RON. So we’re not wandering around in the dark.
Thank you Ron for once again cutting through the shit show and laying out the facts. Your descriptions of Vance and Johnson were spot on. They, along with all the others of course, are beyond the lowest level of despicable. AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!
When will congress do it. That's what is needed. He is insane. Lacks respect for our laws. Preparing to declare war on our own cities. The current cucks kissing up, will be needing lawyers and protection from inmates, when the end up in jail. All of them need to be held responsible. Protest responsibly. No violence. Record everything. This must end.
Congress will never call out Tiny Johnson and Lady Maybelline the Couch Cuddling Ratface. The Republikkkans are gutless and soul-less. I pray that their constituents are so angry they vote them out.
My God, what an absolute shit show, and yet the media still doesn't get it. Just lies upon lies upon lies. These people are despicable Nazis, and I hope the absolute worst happens to them.
MSM gets it, they just won't do anything about it. With a few exceptions, they are no longer journalists because the truth doesn't mean anything to them anymore. The only truth you will find is with the independent journalists like on Substack.
I hope so too !
Thx Ron. You have described JD Vance in the most accurate way. I’ve been using “creepy JD Vance.” Then, again, one doesn’t exclude the other, right??
“smug insufferability” was my particular favorite.
Slimy is good.
Yes yes Lady Maybelline is INSUFFERABLE. Such an insufferable cheesy ratface. Esp the way he keeps repeating the interviewers' names. It's a cheap powerplay to try to show dominance like a grabby handshake or trying to tower over someone. I would not call him "JD" I would refer to him to his face as "Mr Bowman" to point out that he even lies about his own name. James Donald Bowman. 🤮🤮
No redeeming qualities that i can detect.
He’s the kind of man whose very presence provokes me to ask, “Do you still beat your wife?”
My heart goes out to the laid off and fired workers. All unnecessary. As difficult as it will be, please join the No Kings protest this Saturday.
Where is the accountability for the fired Federal workers during the Doge Boys massacre. Not talking about the fact they had already gutted every imaginable position across the board. Now, they cut more and its all the democrats? Sorry. Not gonna work. You thugs cut everybody for tax breaks for the rich. And have only worked 12 days in months. Failures and incompetence times over any in history. The worst legacy ever will be your future. For your kids to hate you for.
That the richest person in the world took medical and other support from the poorest by demolishing USAID is the epitome of cruelty. These people may have a brain but they certainly don’t have a heart. I feel devastated.
The richest people in the world killing the poorest people in the world.
I remember when Malaria didn’t give a f*ck about Christmas.
Gym Jordan thought the guy at Ohio State was doing a good job, too.
Ron, you are amazing. Thank you.
FDT and RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!
I really love the fact of that George Stephanopoulos (not that I liked him in the past( but he did the exact right thing there and that needs to be repeated about 10 times a day
I think more like George are finally going to start waking up and stop being afraid of telling the truth. Trump loses in court almost every time. He tried to sue to make it hard on others. More need to cover him up in lawsuits where he has to give depositions. Tie up all his time in court.
I think they're also noticing how popular independent news is in proportion to how many viewers corporate "news" is losing. Thank you, Meidas Mighty and MTN.
Ditto
Ditto
YES!