Matthew Heaney

Trump II is a menagerie of evils, but never forget that a key theme has been, is, and always will be ostentatious corruption and monetization of the presidency.

This is a really important piece by @joncduffy.bsky.social. Please give it a read.👇

Updated after market close. S&P 500 is down >15% since Trump took office. See chart for how this compares to same period to date under prior presidential terms.

In 1862, a Union soldier found cigars wrapped in a piece of paper in a field of clover. The paper was a copy of Confederate Gen. Lee's invasion orders. The Southern sloppiness helped the Union stop Lee at Antietam.
It's unknown who lost the orders in the field, or if he was related to Pete Hegseth.

I cannot understand people who don't vote.

I have never not voted.

It's a democracy, my fellow citizens. Democracy doesn't work if you don't vote.

I am old enough to remember when a movie character said "PAPERS PLEASE" it was a universally understood signifier of an evil regime

Never forget

Without rule of law, you don't have a democracy.

Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government’s attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise.

With Trump reportedly planning to end the IRS Direct File program, there's no better time to remember how TurboTax owner Intuit spent two decades fighting to prevent Americans from filing their taxes online for free.

(Published 2019)

Investors dodge U.S. dollar and Treasurys, scared by Trump’s trade war The dollar has lost almost 10 percent of its value since Inauguration Day with more than half of that decline coming this month.

Ahem:

"The drop [in the value of the dollar] is especially striking because countries that impose tariffs usually see their currency rise. But the wobbly rollout of Trump’s tariff plans ... left investors doubting the administration’s competence."

wapo.st/4lvLKNq

Direct link for those interested:

onbeing.org/programs/der...

Worth a listen.

A fair point.

I don't have a good answer about whether he's lying. I give him the benefit of the doubt that his renunciation is sincere.

Read The Ox-Bow Incident for a parable about why not believing someone's claim of innocence has consequences too (and wrt current events, the need for due process).

I'm not defending white supremacy.

What I am advocating is a more productive engagement with your fellow citizens.

The white flight of Derek Black A former heir to a racial nationalist movement reconsiders the ideology he once helped spread.

I'm simply defending the idea that people have the capacity to change, and that if a former racist is persuaded by your arguments to not be a racist anymore, then you should treat that as a positive outcome. Democracy works.

Great story here about Derek Black:

wapo.st/4lvRAhU

I don't think that's a productive way to have a debate.

Opinion | Why I Left White Nationalism (Gift Article) I grew up in a family that embraced extreme views. I’ve moved on. The country can, too.

I think that in a democracy, ideas should be debated, instead of everyone trying to deplatform everyone else.

If you think he's still a racist, go on his podcast and make your argument about why he shouldn't be a racist.

People have the capacity to change:

www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/o...

Well if a person publically renounces their racist beliefs, that's progress and so maybe you should just take the win.

He can think the Civil Rights Act should be repealed without also being a racist.

Why don't you just ask him why he thinks it should be repealed? He says he's not a racist, so he must have some other reason.

To convince yourself whether he's still a "white supremacist grifter".

Why don't you just ask him what he thinks?

There's no need to litigate this on social media. Ask him and he'll probably have you on his podcast.

Well who has the burden of proof?

He renounced his prior beliefs. This is your desired outcome.

So why don't you believe him? What would he need to do to convince you?

He says in the article to which you link that he doesn't hold those views anymore.

Isn't that your desired outcome?

Is like defending the bank that deliberately wipes out your balance by saying that they sent you a bank statement correctly noting your balance is now zero.

Princess Leia says otherwise.

YouTube video by StaceyRPG THIS SONG IS GENIUS!! First Time Reaction to Boston - "More Than A Feeling"

Hearing Brad Delp for the first time:

"Especially the vocals. My God. Whoever this lead singer is, he can really get up there. That note that he was able to hit, right before the guitar solo, just absolutely took my breath away."

youtu.be/6rb434FpEY8?...

Vote. Because your life depends on it.

Hopefully it's in that order!

A point that deserves reiterating:

"...after 9/11; and our European allies did respond. Per capita more Danish soldiers were killed in the Afghan war than were American soldiers. Do we remember them? Thank them?

THANK YOU, DENMARK

substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Opinion | The Story of One Woman Who Fell Prey to the Medical Freedom Movement (Gift Article) With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, what was once a fringe movement now controls the halls of power.

On "alternative" medicine:

"And so while she agreed to undergo surgery to excise her tumor, she declined to follow up with an oncologist. Instead, she began searching for alternatives."

Read to the end of the article.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/o...