Four developments in one year have introduced a disconcerting squishiness to the whole notion of taxes. (Of all things.)

1. The confirmation that self-styled billionaires like the former president just don't pay them.
2. With the relief and infrastructure bills, the introduction of a monetary policy not predicated on taxes & budgets.
3. No protests among even conservative economists about these things.
4. The shift in the date of Tax Day two years running.
One more oddity: The fact that the IRS seems like a ghost ship.

Maybe this is terrifying, a break with the whole history of nations. Or maybe it's liberating, the end of the fiction that there's a small pie & someone else is always cheating & getting more.

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More from @page88

19 Apr
And 69% approval rate for one Joe Biden.

Maybe White House victories have less to do with hinky “culture wars” than we’ve been told?
Maybe politics are downstream from public health?
...or good government?
Read 5 tweets
18 Apr
This is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time.
The evolution of individual American intellects — like the brilliant one @espiers gives here—is almost the only thing I want to read.

Did you split with your parents on culture or politics (like Elizabeth)? Are you afraid of your kids splitting with you (like Mad Dad)?
My question for the expanding group of antiwoke parents: What does your perfect private school teach? If you pull your kid out of Brearley what’s your best antiwoke option? And what does the curriculum have in place of CRT? Locke/Virgil/scripture/home economics/“leadership”?
Read 5 tweets
17 Apr
With 30% of adults fully vaccinated, 50% with one shot, what’s left are <18s and the vaccine-hesitant.

Scare stories abt the superstitious & the GOP refusing the vax miss the fact that there are various types of hesitancy & not all are absolute.
Most public health campaigns have to persuade people to take action. Get out the vax. Peoples’ reasons for not getting the vax are rarely ideological or religious. Many more fear needles; lack tech skills; are defeated by red tape; find it inconvenient; overestimate side effects.
Vaccine hesitancy is the new public-health issue.

If you’re persuasive, have a car, or are good at finding appointments, you can encourage someone who’s hesitant and make sure they get to their appointment.
Read 4 tweets
15 Apr
Thanks @jeremymbarr for giving the dynamics of @TuckerCarlson harassment campaigns against the press, esp women.

My experience is here, as well as those of @TaylorLorenz & @BrandyZadrozn. @FBI take note. Like gamergate, this can tilt into violence fast.
washingtonpost.com/media/2021/04/…
Apologies: @BrandyZadrozny.
I should say Tucker has also been vile to @GrimKim, @chick_in_kiev and @laurenduca.

He'd have been sued if this harassment and intimidation happened in the office, but it happens IN PLAIN SIGHT so he gets a pass. Hm.
Read 7 tweets
14 Apr
As far as I know, in the history of markets, there has never been a business that has endeavored to make potential consumers ineligible to consume

As in early Christianity, every market is seen as persuadable

But Republicans have given up because they have nothing to sell
So all they can do is try to shrink the market & sideline *potential* consumers of the competition

It doesn’t matter if these biz folks are sincere or not; ultimately sidelining voters OR consumers is not just immoral it’s counter-adaptive
It doesn’t matter if these particular CEOs are sincere.

Markets have their own logic.

The 57% (!) who approve of Biden must appreciate that we chose him, & didn’t just certify him under orders fr/the Kremlin, the Q Shaman, or the armed thugs who threatened to hang Pence
Read 5 tweets
11 Apr
The only fix for anything you’re stuck on in public life is to learn more languages
The #StopAsianHate curriculum could drop the unscientific sensitivity stuff and have native speakers teach a semester of conversational Korean and Chinese, including slang, and advance the cause exponentially.
It’s not punitive. It’s not politically torqued. It’s just education, deference to expertise. And no matter where you go, even if you speak one of these languages already, it’s useful & a workout for the brain.
Read 4 tweets

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