Mike

Absolutely terrible. The biggest tax hike in decades, and 100% of the revenue would go to (often wealthy) retirees so that they can keep collecting more than they paid in. Oh, and it keeps Social Security out of deficit for just 4 years. What happened to the Republican party?

Everyone should be against FISA. With or without Bill Pulte or the SAVE America Act. FISA 702 is unconstitutional. It lets the government search Americans’ communications without a warrant. Add a warrant requirement as the Fourth Amendment demands—or leave it expired forever.

Sunset lighting up our recent snowfall on the summit. #NHwx #NH #mountains #sunset

This is the day that the Lord has made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Exactly. Budget hawks were screaming 15-20 years ago not because those debt levels were a crisis, but because any coherent observer could see what was coming when the boomers retire and interest rates rise. The idea was to avoid the entirely-predictable spot we're in now. The time to deal with the termites is when they enter the house - not after the floor collapses. The best time to avert a debt spital was when the boomers were young enough to phase-in Social Security & Medicare reforms, and those 2% interest rates on the debt could be locked in long-term. But we were dismissed during the big spend-and-tax-cut party ("interest rates are low, there's no reason to hold back!") Now the boomers are mostly retired, their benefits are locked in, and interest rates are dangerously rising on a bloated debt - and we have the OECD's largest deficits, and an unsustainable debt path. And the inevitable fiscal reforms will be much more painful because we waited so long.

And another thing ... when establishment Republicans shrug their shoulders and campaign for corrupt politicians immediately after calling them out for their corruption, they demonstrate how few principles they have. If corruption is only a dealbreaker in the primary, then it's no dealbreaker at all.

I’m sorry, that’s absurd. By virtually every measure he’s less disciplined and more erratic.

NEVER COUNT US OUT 🦃 #Hokies | @DeltaDentalofVA

So now that everyone has seen the disappointment of attempts to squeeze out a bit more federal power and the risk that it might be used against you... can we all agree we should give federalism a shot and limit the federal government to just its specifically enumerated powers?

I am a founding member of the President's Evangelical Advisory Board, a member of Pastors for Trump, and the informal spiritual adviser to the most powerful man on earth.  I need you to understand that the 22-foot golden statue we unveiled at Trump National Doral on Wednesday is not a golden calf. I said it at the podium. I said it on social media. I will keep saying it until you believe me. I am very good at saying things until people believe me. I told CNN I had a Bachelor of Science degree. I did not. I told them I was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. I was not. I told them my congregation was 300 strong. It was closer to 12. I said all these things with the same conviction I now bring to this podium, at the base of a 22-foot golden image of a living president, when I tell you: this is not a golden calf. This is a celebration of life. And you will believe me. You always believe me. That's my gift. Let me walk you through the ceremony. Palm trees. White chairs. A clearing at the president's own golf course in Doral, Florida. We draped the statue in white and blue fabric — like a Greek toga, which someone pointed out is a pagan tradition, but I said it's Western civilization and Western civilization is close enough. Then we pulled the drape and there it was. Fifteen feet of gold-leafed bronze on a seven-foot pedestal. Fist raised. The Butler pose. The moment the bullet missed by a quarter inch and I decided that was God. The sculptor, Alan Cottrill, has molded the likeness of 16 presidents. He made this one in bronze for $300,000. Then I pitched gold leaf to Trump's team. Sixty thousand dollar add-on. The president approved by text. He said "It LOOKS FANTASTIC." I consider that a prophetic utterance. Anything in all caps from that number is revelation. The funding came from a collective of crypto investors promoting their memecoin, $PATRIOT. They wanted visibility for their coin. I want you to understand the funding mechanism here. A speculative digital currency — designed to transfer money from late buyers to early buyers — paid for a golden idol of a president — erected on that president's own property — dedicated by that president's own pastor — while the coin pumps in real time as photos circulate. The money changers didn't just get back in the temple. They built the temple. They ARE the temple. And I blessed it. I blessed it because that's what I do. I bless things. I am very good at it. No one has ever checked my credentials for blessing because I radiate certainty and certainty is the only credential this movement has ever required. Now. The moment. The moment I need you to understand. During the dedication, I held my cell phone up to the microphone. And the president's voice came out. From the speaker. At the base of the statue. His voice — emanating from the golden image. Speaking to the assembled worshippers. Blessing them. Thanking them. The faithful heard the voice and wept. They lifted their hands. Some fell to their knees. The voice said: "I want to thank Mark Burns, a pastor, he's a good pastor, he's a good man. He's been with me from the beginning, right from the beginning, maybe about two days later." The voice said: "I know it was done from love." The image spoke and the people worshipped. I need you to open your Bible to Revelation 13:15. "And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Now close your Bible. That's a completely different situation. That's about compulsion. Nobody was compelled today. People wept voluntarily. People knelt voluntarily. The image spoke and the people fell down of their own free will and that's the difference. Free will. The beast forces worship. We just made worship so easy and so gold and so loud that choosing otherwise never occurs to anyone. That's not the same thing. It's not. The theologian from Fuller Seminary sent a letter afterward. Nine pages. Every verse. Exodus 32. Revelation 13. Daniel 3. The golden calf. The image that speaks. Nebuchadnezzar's statue — sixty cubits tall, gold, in a field, with a ceremony, and everyone commanded to fall down when they heard the sound. I said brother, Nebuchadnezzar's statue didn't have a memecoin. Completely different context. He didn't write back. Now I want to tell you about Dorothy. She's 74. She's been in my congregation since before I was on CNN, before Trump, before any of this. Her husband Ray died in 2023. Colon cancer. She has his wedding ring on a chain around her neck. She had it. After the ceremony, Dorothy came up to the statue. She took the chain off her neck. She placed Ray's ring at the base. On the pedestal. Like an offering. She said: "Ray would have wanted to be here. This is as close as I can get him." I watched a 74-year-old widow leave her dead husband's wedding ring at the feet of a golden statue of a president who would not know her name if she died in front of him. And I felt the Spirit move. I felt warmth. I felt confirmation. Because that's what I'm built to feel. I am a machine that converts surrender into confirmation. That is my function in this system. Dorothy gave her last sacred object to a golden image and I said amen. She can't get it back. I checked. Maintenance collected everything from the base that night. Liability reasons. It's in a bin somewhere at Trump National Doral. Ray's ring. In a bin. At a golf course. Beneath a golden statue funded by cryptocurrency speculation. I will not tell Dorothy this. I will tell her God received it. Here is what I need you to understand about Jesus and the money changers. Everyone reads that story as Jesus being angry at commerce in sacred space. Wrong. Jesus was angry because the money changers were middlemen. They took a cut. They added friction. We have removed the middleman. We ARE the sacred space AND the commerce AND the product AND the customer. The money changers are running the temple now. There is no table to flip because we are the table. Jesus would need to flip the whole building. He would need to flip the golf course. He would need to flip Florida. He isn't coming to flip anything. That's the other thing I know that the Fuller theologian doesn't. Nobody is coming down any mountain. There are no stone tablets. There is no whip. There is only us, in a clearing of palm trees, with a golden image that speaks, and a congregation that kneels, and a memecoin that pumps, and a widow's ring in a bin, and a pastor at the podium whose credentials are fabricated and whose certainty is absolute. Two thousand years we worshipped a God who was born in a barn. Who was homeless. Who was a refugee. Who said sell everything. Who washed feet. Who touched lepers. Who said blessed are the poor, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. Who said whatever you do to the least of these you do to me. Who overturned the tables and drove out the sellers with a whip. Who forgave his executioners from the cross. And we built a 22-foot golden image of a man who lives in a tower with his name in gold letters. Who has never been poor. Who has never been meek. Who has never made peace. Who has never served anyone. Who has never washed anyone's feet. Who has never forgiven anyone. Who raw-dogged a porn star four months after his third wife gave birth and paid $130,000 in hush money and we said that's fine because grace covers everything as long as you appoint the right judges. We put it at his golf course. On his own land. Paid for by a pump-and-dump. Dedicated by a pastor with a fake degree. Blessed by the man himself speaking through a phone at the base of his own image while widows knelt and wept and left their dead husbands' rings at its feet. And I stood at the podium and said: this is not a golden calf. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Then I turned around and faced twenty-two feet of gold and felt nothing. No conviction. No shame. No still small voice. Just warmth. Just certainty. Just the absolute peace of a man who has been lying so long he can no longer locate the difference between faith and performance. The Israelites at least had the decency to be ashamed when Moses came down. We will never be ashamed. We have too much invested. The statue cost $360,000. The memecoin is pumping. The ring is in the bin. The congregation is growing. The revenue is up 340%. And if it were sin the money would stop. The money has not stopped. Therefore it is not sin. That's the theology now. That's all of it. Moses never had a memecoin.

If the U.S. taxed personal income in the same way that Denmark does, all income over $82,000 would be taxed at over 55 percent. hubs.ly/Q04f0Gtc0

A takeaway from nearly two decades in intel: Most people telegraph what they’re going to do. We just don’t pay attention.

TWO KINGS. 👑

I’m sorry, I was reliably told this was going to be privately funded.

A lot of people are asking why more politicians are not like Ben Sasse. Because voters will not elect them, that’s why. They may say they care about character, but most don’t vote that way. Instead they vote party line, ideology, self-interest, or out of pique against a perceived enemy. How can we expect our leaders to embody higher levels of virtue if a majority of voters don’t make personal character a red line? It looks like we get the leaders we deserve.

No falling asleep. Put them away.

The MAGA takes about the new White House ballroom being a necessity now are getting stupid. It is mind-boggling. @samstein is -as often the case - 💯 right. So Pls no more on the need for a WH ballroom. It’s not relevant- this event would never take place there. This was a private function, not USG. The WH ballroom won’t be rented out…So let’s just be thankful no one got seriously hurt. Need an AAR on security for the event. Secret Service will do so. Congress should/will amplify that requirement. May take time and there will always be improvements to be found. Look to experts for substantive comments (see @fred_burton and @stick631 amongst others) on what occurred and where breakdowns may have taken place. Meanwhile, and importantly, thanks to all in LE on the ground who stepped up and into the fray.

Wrote this @thedispatch a month ago and it remains true. thedispatch.com/article/virgin…

Only one chance in this lifetime… Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @Astro_Christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens. @AstroVicGlover was in window 3 watching with @Astro_Jeremy next to him. I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view…this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.