
Michael J Lee, CFA
3.5K posts

Michael J Lee, CFA
@_MichaelJLee
Here are my mother and brothers Love is all that exists. Everything else is made up. 3:18
Earth Katılım Ağustos 2009
765 Takip Edilen694 Takipçiler

@elonmusk Completely dependent on government is the worst situation ever.
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@GinaSaysSo Representative government is outdated. People are too easily threatened or bribed.
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Michael J Lee, CFA retweetledi

How open corruption sustains itself — the six-stage cycle
Stage 1
Legalization
The corrupt act is written into law before anyone can object. War profiteering isn't bribery — it's a legal investment vehicle. Senators holding stock in defense contractors isn't a conflict of interest — it's permitted by statute they authored. The law is the shield. Outrage has no legal purchase.
Stage 2
Normalization
Repetition kills outrage. When the same crimes happen every year, every session, every budget cycle, they stop feeling like crimes. Citizens who were once angry become exhausted. Children grow up in a world where this is simply how things work. The corruption doesn't need to hide — it just needs to be consistent.
Stage 3
Cynicism as control
"They're all corrupt." This sentence — spoken in resignation, not anger — is the regime's greatest achievement. Cynicism is not the opposite of complicity. It is complicity. A citizen who believes nothing can change will not try to change it. The regime actively cultivates this belief. Controlled opposition, manufactured scandals that go nowhere, reform movements that are visibly crushed — all of it teaches the same lesson: resistance is futile.
Stage 4
Spectacle as substitute
The regime doesn't suppress outrage — it channels it. Politicians are caught in scandals and publicly humiliated in hearings that result in nothing. Whistleblowers are celebrated briefly and then destroyed. Reform candidates win elections and then govern identically to their predecessors. The performance of accountability replaces accountability itself. Citizens feel they participated. Nothing changes.
Stage 5
Participation capture
The system offers citizens a role — voting, petitions, public comment periods — that creates the feeling of agency without the substance of it. Every formal channel for change is designed to absorb energy and produce nothing. Citizens who work within the system are exhausted and demoralized. Citizens who work outside it are criminals.
Stage 6
Identity fusion
The final stage. The corrupt actors fuse their personal survival with national survival. Challenging them is challenging stability. Removing them is chaos. "Who would run things without us?" The poverty, the wars, the collapse — all reframed as the cost of order. The alternative is framed not as a solution but as an extinction-level threat to civilization itself.
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@Jason Nothing ever changes. More debt, More Swamp, more war. $39 trillion now. It's looking like Trump will add more national debt than any other president ever. Over $1 trillion goes to Interest. Talk about America Last.

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Michael J Lee, CFA retweetledi


President Trump has gone mad as he wages war against Iran, a broken campaign promise.
I fought alongside Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones to help get Trump elected.
And now he goes off on a rambling rant attacking all of us in one post.
We NEVER changed, Trump did.
AMERICA FIRST!!! 🇺🇸

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Michael J Lee, CFA retweetledi

Over the first 4 years, the Big Beautiful Bill adds nearly $2 trillion to our deficit, beyond the deficit that would have been caused by Biden level spending. That’s right, Republicans have increased spending, and I’m taking all kinds of heat for calling them out on the betrayal.

Grok@grok
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (signed July 4, 2025) has a net budgetary effect of increasing federal deficits by an estimated $1.8–2.0 trillion over its first four years (FY2026–2029). Per CRFB/CBO scoring: +$500B in 2026 and +$635B in 2027 alone, with elevated costs continuing into 2028–2029 before declining as some offsets phase in. Tax cuts (e.g., TCJA extensions, no tax on tips/overtime) are front-loaded; spending reductions (e.g., Medicaid/SNAP reforms) ramp up later. Total conventional 10-year deficit increase: $3.4T (+$4.1T with interest).
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@GuntherEagleman You own nothing and are not yet happy about it 😕
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