What to do with Pete

The generals cannot simply refuse all orders all of the time. Gone are the days they could take the Roman solution. They could ask a friendly member of Congress to impeach and remove him - although that seems to be foreclosed for partisan reasons. That leaves one option - draft him, arrest him (even without drafting him) and deliver him to the Hague as a war criminal. Discuss.

Is A New Constitutional Convention Around the Corner? | Civics Made Easy

State legislators and members of congress serve on the same local party committees. There is no incentive for them to really call a convention. Forget term limits.

The agenda to undo the civil law related to the Constitution is profoundly reactionary, while the balanced budget amendment is essentially the minority party protection amendment because the work around requires that running a deficit happen only when an adequate number of votes exists - more than any majority party usually has.

Congress has no rules for dealing with convention calls. Do they expire with each Congress or are calls permanent? The rules do not say and need to be clarified. Must they be on a single issue or are they plenary in nature? Again, Congress needs to clarify this in its rules. Currently, with no rule, Congress can ignore calls under the political question doctrine. They cannot limit what a convention talks about - so the Congress, at a minimum (and a maximum) specify that all convention calls from the states run out at the end of each Congress. This provides the  certainty needed to actually call a convention - although it raises a high bar.

As for likely amendments (convention or not), expect in the future the creation of regional vice presidents directly elected, the creation of regional legislatures and a national caucus which - with the regional VPs - elects the President and Vice President, a provision allowing different value added tax rates for each region (which can be used to limit taxing and spending in the region- with a regional balanced budget requirement that requires national caucus approval to breach) and a provision to add regions to the Union - with an end to the requirement for natural born citizenship and specifying that regions must acknowledge the nature of individual rights as inalienable to be admitted.

Finally, unless America first transitions from capitalist speculation to large scale employee ownership and economic cooperation, an ever increasing national debt is essential for liquidity. The nation can either borrow from rich people and pay them back with interest - allowing them to use their bonds as leverage for other investment - or we can simply tax it away from them, pay down the debt and redistribute some of this taxation to people who will consume the money rather than save it.

How Trump is doing: someone tell Melania

Legislatively: the tax cut bill passed. The real bad stuff on business taxation passed as permanent law in 2017. The remainder to be made permanent was just for show if it had lost. Most of it was needed.

If Trump wants a legacy, he would rationalize business taxation - using value added tax rather than tariffs while taking everyone off the rolls - as well as passing an asset value added tax. It would end cheating. Trump passing that would be ironic, eh?

Most of the permanent government - which is outside of Trump's reach - is doing fine - or at least not too badly. Nothing is getting coverage.

The failures are where Trump is looking. Homeland Security and Justice are major fails - and are losing in court on a consistent basis. The OMB director is attached to the Heritage Foundation agenda - but without legislative concurrence he has no rea power. Tariffs are optics and Ukraine is working out despite Trump. Europe is driving the salvation of Ukraine and Trump knows he must either help or get out of the way.

If Trump went bipartisan, worked on tax reform - including trade, and fired the department heads mentioned (maybe RFK, Jr. - although he is a paper tiger),

Is Melania in on the dysfunction or is she tired of staff who breaks Rule #1 - which is never embarrass the boss. Anyone who has an in with her should share this post if she cares about Donald's (and her) legacy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The AI Race to Regression || Peter Zeihan

The creativity features need parallel processing that checks the creative work (thinking), improves storage and data collection (including identifying gaps) and integrates values - both common and from a single ethical code, as well as evaluating the usefulness of the current ethical frameworks - raising questions. That covers all the personality elements that ChatGPT+ misses.

The second piece is to expand the polity at the macro level while bringing many decisions to a more local/regional level. Also, the American President cannot be the automatic king of the world - the leader of the combined polity should be personal, not rotating, and chosen by a mix of regional leader and the allied legislative chamber (eventually from former or current regional leaders) - avoiding the profound weakness of the electoral college as well as providing the allied legislature with direct election - thus claiming some form of sovereignty. International governance should be allied, not global. Until the CCP is overthrown, the PRC cannot be  let in - nor Russia nor Israel, Iran or Pakistan - India only with reform.

Trump v BBC

Call Trump's bluff. You win on jurisdictional grounds if he files in U.S. He loses in Britain. Counter sue for damages. Also, depose everyone on his side who was involved in January 6th. 

The Justice Department, the last one, this one - even the next one - will not go after him for the actual insurrection. You MUST! It would also be the story of the Millennium.

Depose the lead rioters and find out what they would do if they got to the members of Congress. Depose Stone, Meadows and everyone in the Willard Hotel War Room. Depose Team Crazy and see if they got their marching orders from Moscow - and if Melania was involved. Depose Trump.

It is your public duty to fight this. The world needs you to. Don't blow this opportunity.

The Most Consequential First Lady of our time

Which is not always good news for Melania Trump, given her husband's results. 

According to former Trump aid, Kate Bennett, it was Melania who ran the 2016 VP search and held Pence to promise not to invoke the 25th Amendment. That he stuck to it is not good for his legacy. In that term, staff walled off Trump from being Trump. This time out, where he can do official acts with no criminal blowback, the brakes are off.

I will give you three guesses on who writes the midnight tweets. Think about the level of both anger and language proficiency. It might not be Donald or some glorified intern. Just saying.

The latest is that she is the back channel to Putin. Maybe she always has been. Remember, when she was born, Slovenia was part of the Soviet Union. Some say Gabbard is Putin's woman in the White House - but maybe it goes higher. We will never know. If it is the First Lady, it is so classified that even Donald is not allowed to see it.

Remember Team Crazy? Putin was the common denominator. Maybe Melania too. Remember, this was before the official acts immunity decision. The Trump's had real exposure on any quid pro quo between cancelling Javelin missiles and funding the 2018 Protect the House PAC and the America First SuperPAC with Russian money.  See https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-2020-how-parnas-and-frumans-dodgy-donation-was-uncovered-by-two-people-using-google-translate and https://www.opensecrets.org/joint-fundraising-committees-jfcs/protect-the-house/C00669622/2018/summary.

The Supreme Court case that found presidential immunity now protects any of the dodgy behavior the insurrection was designed to cover up by keeping Trump in power. Had he not been vulnerable, what was obviously a GRU type of op would not have been attempted on January 6th. What did Melania know and when did she know it? Due to spousal immunity, we will never really know.

Melania is the power player. I would be surprised if she is not the decider when the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce are on one side of an issue and the White House Staff is on the other. Her job is to stop the President from looking bad. At the very least, that meant that Elon had to go. We will see how long the OMB Director and Stephen Miller are allowed to stay around - as their antics are truly making the boss look bad. At some point, Melania will pull the plug.

One last issue - one which the networks will not allow us to talk about - which is what was her involvement with Epstein and Maxwell before she was introduced to her husband by them? This is the question the media will not let you ask. Again, spousal immunity. Just saying.

Melania does not show public affection - sometimes not even affect. It is very Soviet. The reality is she is devoted to her husband and his legacy. Underestimate her at your own risk.

Obamacare and Abortion Restriction - Susan B. Anthony Fund Redux

First of all, Susan - a friend of my mother's family (my great grandma - Maggie Allen was in the Temperance Movement - which included all aspects of women's rights) - would never have supported curtailing the reproductive rights of women. She would oppose this organization with every fiber of her being - and twice on Sunday.

Second, note that this latest fight is about curtailing reproductive rights of poor and working class women. The Hyde Amendment has not been applied to insurance provided by either small business employers through personal income tax subsidies for business owners or through corporate income (aka profits) taxes - which have an exclusion - but not a credit - for employer provided insurance. SBAF is unwilling to die on that hill. They are willing to kill the GOP in 2026. Are they tone deaf? Dobbs is already hurting the GOP - only misogynism in minority communities (as well as some Catholic Democrats who stayed home) kept Kamala out of office. Banning abortion is not a winner for the GOP - just as being anti-trans is not either. Youngkin focused both of these - and won because McAuliffe beat himself with his Northern Virginia strategy.

Now, the Speaker is right about Obamacare having problems. The fix is to separate Medicaid for Seniors into a federally run program - taking it off state budgets - while putting everyone else on Medicaid and Obamacare generally into a no or low cost Public Option subsidized through an employer paid subtraction value added/net business receipts tax. Taxpayer funding for employees and their families in their top tier plan would by through an inclusion, while for the Public Option, a higher child tax credit, paid family leave and employer provided or subsidized childcare would all be credits. The tax rate would be high enough so that all credits and exclusions are taken - and if there is an excess of tax benefits they would be against the additional goods and services tax collected by the enterprise - which would also limit the extent of benefits so as to not have a firm exist entirely to pay out benefits but with no other commercial purpose.

If SBAF really wants to honor their namesake, they would go for this plan and eliminate the need for women to have abortions.

You're Wrong About Birth Rates & Aging Populations

Mitigating inequality will definitely increase the ability of families to have more kids if they want - including paying students after 10th grade to go to either technical or academic school at the same level of income as provided to people on long term unemployment insurance ($13.25 per hour equivalent with 26 hour week), a working minimum wage of $14.50 per hour and a child tax credit of $1000 per month per child - paid with either wages or benefits as an offset to an employer paid net business receipts tax (aka subtraction value added tax). This scheme makes the employer or educator the paymaster rather than using the government to distribute funds (unless they are on LTIU - where the government would pay - as well as disability insurance above an LTIU level - where LTIU is no fault - meaning you get it if fired or if you quit.

Paying young people allows for us to return to the evolutionary framework for bearing children while preventing pecuniary existence for life. Schools would also provide childcare - maybe using other students as providers during the day in shifts. Total birth control.

The fourth factor is how we deal with inflation mitigation. Cost of living adjustments are by proportion of pay rather than an equal dollar amount regardless of wage. Prices, especially for housing, chase the 90th percentile of income - which is why things started getting worse in 1971 and have done so on a consistent basis, regardless of invention or economic conditions. No conspiracy, just bad maths.

I write books and do congressional comments on this stuff. See my blog at fiscalequity.blogspot.com for  more complete treatments.

Here's Why Your 2026 COLA Adjustment "Feels Wrong"

COLAs need to go up by an equal dollar amount - the same average amount that goes to Urban Workers. The minimum wage also needs to increase (which will raise the wages and spending of the latter). This needs to be back dated to the last time the minimum wage went up. The 25,000 tax cap also needs to go up - but on a percentage basis - since it was enacted. Social Security benefits should be financed by a 6.5% VAT to replace to Employer Contribution and with an employee contribution equal to 30 hours a week at the minimum wage and capped at the median wage.

Virginia AG Double Standard

The two largest DEI categories are Veterans and women. Virginia's proud of being both and has benefited from affirmative efforts to put Vets on the ballot (DEI also gives Vets a 5 point preference in federal hiring - which then translates to post-retirement jobs in the private sector - especially in Virginia).

Representative Spanberger is a very public advocate for Veterans.

The Attorney General of Virginia (whose job is to lead, not prosecute) supports ending DEI, signing a letter by other Republican AGs encouraging Costco from gutting their program.

What is worse, supporting a candidate for private email that are disagreeable or one who actively supports ending a vital program that helps a great many Virginians in the Tidewater and Northern Virginia areas?

How can the highest ranking woman in Virginia elector history justify supporting an AG candidate who acts against the interests of a very large portion of the Commonwealth? I sense some cognitive dissonance here.

Somebody needs to ask the Lt. Governor her views on the current AG. He does not deserve to be rehired. Given the current climate, nor Republican really does - so how can Mrs. Earle-Sears even continue in this party - rather than running as an independent?

SNAP funding during shutdown

The two largest DEI categories are Veterans and women. Virginia's proud of being both and has benefited from affirmative efforts to put Vets on the ballot (DEI also gives Vets a 5 point preference in federal hiring - which then translates to post-retirement jobs in the private sector - especially in Virginia).

Representative Spanberger is a very public advocate for Veterans.

The Attorney General of Virginia (whose job is to lead, not prosecute) supports ending DEI, signing a letter by other Republican AGs encouraging Costco from gutting their program.

What is worse, supporting a candidate for private email that are disagreeable or one who actively supports ending a vital program that helps a great many Virginians in the Tidewater and Northern Virginia areas?

How can the highest ranking woman in Virginia elector history justify supporting an AG candidate who acts against the interests of a very large portion of the Commonwealth? I sense some cognitive dissonance here.

Somebody needs to ask the Lt. Governor her views on the current AG. He does not deserve to be rehired. Given the current climate, nor Republican really does - so how can Mrs. Earle-Sears even continue in this party - rather than running as an independent?

Not a king?

First, props to Trump for stopping Gaza fighting. Sadly, neither UN nor US forces are making sure Gaza can eat.

Second, we know Trump is no king. He does not (even as much as MAGA wants him to be).

Third, Trump wants money. The domestic emoluments clause prohibits pay beyond his salary. He can sue when out of office. He may have a case because he is charged with conspiracy on the paperwork. Epic fail by Smith.He is guilty of knowing and supervising efforts to confront House members and Senators. There is no proof until someone pardoned is made to testify. 

Four, the Ballroom. Even if built, which he can do. the gold will be ripped out. He really wants a throne room.

Trump may not live to get cash, be prosecuted or see the gold go. We must rely on history and divine intervention.

Ballroom or Throne Room?

Note to WH Press Corps: Ask him where he will put the thrones.

The Church of England Has Competition Now?

The African churches need to associate with the Copts, as the Patriarch of Alexandria is recognized by Orthodoxy as having jurisdiction of all of Africa. The Anglicans and Catholics overstepped when they sent missionaries rather than working under his direction. Further, OP Melitos and the Great Synod recognized the Church of England as having valid orders - making it a Great Church. As the practice in Orthodoxy is Autocephality, the African Anglican bishops would have a free hand.

South American provinces should link with the Patriarch of Washington, who has oversight over North and South America in Orthodoxy. 

The Australians need to join the Catholics as an Ordinate.

Other mainline protestant churches should follow the lead of each of these regions. It is time for unity rather than protest. At some point, the Catholics will also rejoin Constantinople in a more formal fashion, as can the remaining Church of England and Anglican Communion.

The Evangelicals cannot join a Communion that is only symbolic for them. I recommend attending a mainline protestant Real Presence Eucharist and experience the difference that this makes in experiencing the Lord in their hearts - then act accordingly.

Economists Predict When the US Economy Will Crash, THIS is the Date

The economy is collapsing - and not because of the budget deficit. It is because rich people have too much money to buy real investments and too much in speculation.  Raising taxes on business profits and capital gains is the way out of the debt crisis and to rehabilitate the economy. We also need higher minimum wages (double it), a higher child tax credit (also double it) and equal dollar (as opposed to equal percentage) COLAs. If businesses eat tariffs rather than pass them along, it is similar to higher taxes on capital - or can be.  

Debt is not supported by the economy, however. It is supported by the ability and willingness to tax the investor class adequately.  That means higher capital gains, pass through and corporate profits taxes. Tariffs may serve part of that function, especially to the extent that upper income individuals use some imported goods more often for their high end lifestyles. Tariffs or a value added tax were inevitable. The question is whether we are willing to raise wages, equalize COLAs and raise the child tax credit so that such taxes are affordable.

Edi Bilimoria - Transhuman Consciousness?

Creating a routine that simulates consciousness won't make up for the fact that, if you somehow are able to simulate physical awareness, you would be aware of yourself as a machine. Sensory data may be accessible, but will it be knowable in the same way we know with our bodies? The fact is, nothing will stop some part of your soul from transforming into the spiritual realm - if there is one. NDE experiencers provide good evidence that this is the case. Quit trying to hide from God. God does not judge you - you judge yourself. No one has experienced being uploaded to a machine. A significant sample have had the experience of being uploaded to an afterlife. How is this even a question? The data is clear - only your values are standing in your way.

Pope Leo’s ‘Dilexi Te’ in continuity with Pope Francis | Inside the Vati...