Lee Feagin

On Friday’s episode of the Businessweek podcast Everybody’s Business: Salaries are for Suckers, host Stacey Vaneck Smith is interviewing Professor Ray Madoff (Boston College Law School) about this very subject:

Professor Madoff:

The more taxable income you get, the higher taxes you pay. For our richest Americans, all these guys in Silicon Valley, they have found ways of avoiding taxable income. The first step is they avoid salary. So, they’re taking extremely modest salaries. Jeff Bezos gets a salary of $82,000 dollars. So low that he actually qualified for the child tax credit, which he took. It’s not ‘cause he’s just a modest, humble guy. It’s because he knows that salaries are for suckers. Because salaries are subject to lots of taxes. They’re subject to both income taxes and payroll taxes.

Stacey Vaneck Smith:

Is it just really tricky to tax people who have a lot of resources?

Professor Madoff:

I don’t think that’s the actual problem. We easily could tax our wealthiest Americans by adopting one rule that was proposed by both Barack Obama and Richard Nixon, which was that we tax these gains whenever the property is transferred. Instead of requiring sale, we should say when these people transfer their property by gifts (which they’re doing a lot of gifting) or death, they’re gonna recognize the gains then. And then the other thing that we need to do is to tax inheritances by pulling them into the income tax system. The current estate tax system is so deeply flawed, it’s not even a tax system. And then I think we could also adjust the rules of philanthropy. And then we’d have a system that I think does a pretty good job of treating everybody the same, bringing everybody into the tax system.

It’s amazing how the class that will NEVER reach this kind of wealth and privilege will not only put up with, but defend with their dying breath, the rights of the ultra-rich to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Contrary to popular belief, we are not all the same. If you don’t believe me, don’t ask the rich. Ask their team of accountants.

In a Bluesky post, Nick Pettrigrew said:

I’m convinced AI is our generation’s radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid’s toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

This is exactly how I feel. For example, AI is an incredibly useful tool in programming. But it’s NOT for my mother to use. It should NOT show up in televisions. It should NOT be handling therapy for people. It should NOT be running accounting platforms.

By its very nature, it’s non-deterministic. And that’s a problem. We should be using it as a tool to assist in building more complex and (very) deterministic software systems.

Something I never thought I’d see. The Trump administration has Democrats scrambling to support states’ rights. While the Republicans are continuing to push for more government intervention.

“The world turned upside down…”

This thought came to me from several vectors.

The first came when I was listening to an episode of The Daily about the new TrumpRx program. What I’ve heard for the past 30 years is how (the collective) we should “let the market do what the market does”. “The government should not be involved in business.” Regardless if this program succeeds or not (I’m betting on the latter), it’s interesting to see the exception play out in real time.

The second vector was from a discussion (I would link it here but I don’t remember which podcast I was listening to, to be honest) about the upcoming midterm elections and how states are suddenly having to defend their own election laws and processes. Obviously, this strems from the Fulton County election office raid (yes, I intentionally used that word) by the FBI last week. On a personal note, I am incensed that my own vote is in that collection and I am certainly questioning any potential ramifications of them having/knowing my vote.

We really are living in the upside down.

(Man, a Hamilton reference and a Stranger Things reference in the same post. Look at me!)

I love this take from Rich Eisen on the Super Bowl halftime show:

Let’s talk about Bad Bunny‘s halftime show. I was highly impressed at the jump and then got more and more impressed as I learned more and more about it. Because I didn’t see a lot of of what you saw on television. I ran to, umm, run an errand, if you will. I got back and the set-up had started and it was just as the first notes were being played. And I thought to myself “my god, that’s a lot of greenery on the field”. Like “what is happening?!”

And what is happening was. And I didn’t understand a word of it. And all I could see was the building was rocking. The many Spanish-speaking people around me were losing their minds. It was joyous, and then, you know, the ultimate message about “the only thing more powerful than hate is love” was awesome. And at the end, I just looked around, and everyone was smiling and dancing.

I understand the conversation around the Bad Bunny selection and how it is “un-American”, or is not welcome. I’ll just say this. I sat next to Stuart Scott for seven years when all he heard was from some people saying “what you are doing and how you were doing it is wrong” and “I don’t like it” and it’s because they sensed it wasn’t for them. That Stuart wasn’t talking to them, he was talking to an audience and saying things that was for that audience and you’re not part of that audience, and you felt it was exclusionary rather than taking a moment and listening to what he was saying and how he was saying it and who he was saying it about and getting into it and understanding it.

And I kind of got that vibe last night. He’s not being exclusionary. He’s trying to be inclusionary about what he’s about and what his upbringing is and how it is uniquely American as well. And all I’m gonna say is this, is that if you feel that your way of life and your value system and your upbringing is under attack and you want your way of life and your upbringing to rule the day, the only way for you to feel respect for your way of life and your upbringing is to have mutual respect for someone else’s. And have a curiosity about it, and an interest in it. To know that, collectively, we can all do it together. That’s the message I got last night sitting in that stadium and it’s unfortunate if somebody didn’t see it or sense it because they tuned it out before.

Kind of related is another take yesterday from Rachel Lindsay (Higher Learning podcast):

If you were hating on what you saw, you really are just in denial of your own racism against Puerto Rico, Latinos, and the entire culture.

Yep.

I don’t have any particular love for Stephen A. Smith. I think he’s a loudmouth who loves to hear himself talk. And he just happened to come up in an era where society rewards loudmouth, sometimes unhinged opinion yapping. He’s certainly done well for himself in that arena. So, I guess, good for him. He just always tends to lean where that proverbial wind is blowing.

Having said all of that, I came across a reel yesterday that did stop me and I listened. From his show “Straight Shooter” on SiriusXM, Smith says:

I just wanted to address this subject. And that’s essentially involving the President Donald Trump posting a video depicting, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady, Michelle Obama, as apes. I’m gonna say that again. Depicting the first black president in United States history and the first black first lady in United States history as apes. Monkeys. In the year 2026, that has happened.

Now before I go into it, let me say this. The White House says that it wasn’t the president’s fault. Even though the video has been removed from the president‘s Truth Social account, the guy in the White House, using his administration to tell you he had nothing to do with a post that has his fingerprints, and his smell, and his stench, written all over it. That’s who we’re talking about here. And that same man must be universally condemned for having his platform associated with such an insulting, classless, despicable post that was on his platform for 12 hours. Anybody who doesn’t speak against him on this is complicit. You’re telling us what you think about Black people, plain and simple. There is no way around this. This requires universal condemnation.

Doesn’t mean he’s gonna leave office, but it could mean that we need others in office during the midterm that aren’t necessarily on the right so more checks and balances can take place, and perhaps (dare I say he’ll be a bit more guarded from doing nonsense like this) because again, I believe believe he is guilty of this. Do I have proof? No. But I’ve told y’all on many occasions: If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it ain’t a damn mongoose. It’s what it is. His behavior, his tendencies, his rhetoric, his petulance, his belligerence all fall in line with what we’re talking about right now. Do you want to be associated with that or not?

That’s a pretty unequivocal statement. I agree with everything he said. But before I/we can applaud him, let’s just see if this hot take sticks for over, say, a week. That proverbial wind has been whipping to and fro pretty hard recently.

I think Instagram may have me wrong, but another Christian-based reel showed up in my feed this morning. This time, it was from the Holy Post Podcast. In episode 705, founder and Editor in Chief Skye Jethani said the following:

Nobody wants to believe that they are on Team Evil. And there’s a lot of people in this country, 70-something million of them, who voted for Donald Trump, for a variety of reasons, and now they’re watching what’s unfolding, and none of them wan to believe that they contributed to this. And so when the horror that comes out on video is shown to them, they have to come up with some narrative that excuses their endorsement of this man and this administration. So they are predisposed to pick the narrative that alleviates their guilty conscience.

Because no one wants to be on Team Evil.

I don’t want to condemn my fellow citizens who voted for Trump for various reasons, but this is when everything else breaks down. When Congress breaks down in their role and holding the president accountable, is given up, they have no backbone. When the courts break down and they don’t hold the president accountable, especially not quick enough. When the political parties break down and they allow somebody with a demonstrably, terrible character and an inability to follow the Constitution to get the nomination again. All of our structures have broken down and the last one is the people themselves. And unfortunately, the only way they can be informed is if we have people of integrity in the media presenting the narrative as it actually unfolded. And it’s very evident that that’s not happening. So you can live in your narrative bubble that protects your conscience.

I see this in (right-leaning) news clips. I hear this in talking to actual people in my life. The excuses flow freely, even if the originating offense is utterly indefensible. I think Jethani hits the nail on the head here.

On the February 5th (2026) episode of The Sacred Slope podcast, pastor and author Cody Deese espouses the following:

Here’s a truth that I never wanted to see that I’m coming to see. I made excuses for years of why my evangelical family supported Trump. And when I say support him, I mean signs in the yards, attending rallies, supporting him. I was like “well it’s the economy. I mean, I kinda understand why they voted him. Quit making it a big big deal, Cody. It’s just like it’s the economy. I mean he’s a shrewd business man.” Heard the comments: “I didn’t vote for a pastor. I voted for a president.” Or those that are like “I just learned to compartmentalize. I don’t agree with everything he does, but he’s the lesser of two evils.” I heard it all. Like all of these.

And I gotta be honest. I made excuses for them because I didn’t want it to be true what I’m seeing. But it’s one thing to vote for that one time. It’s another thing to vote for that two times. But when you vote for it three times in a row, here’s what that is telling me. Many, not all, but many support him because he mirrors back the very behaviors they already excuse in themselves. It’s a defense of the part of themselves they’ve long wanted permission to keep. And I know we don’t want to see that, but misogyny, racism, an insatiable hunger for power, sexual sin without accountability.

I am coming to see they justify him because they’re justifying themselves. And that is a realization that’s really, really difficult to stomach. But I will go back to this truth: If we can’t name that, we can’t heal that. So we have to hold all of those.

And, in some way, maybe what all of this is is all of the stuff that I had buried within me as an individual is true for the nation. The nation, as one body, has buried history, slavery, so many atrocious things and we want to just move on without any therapy at all. We want to pretend it never happened. And maybe what is coming out of this movement is we are watching it surface for the first time. It’s no coincidence that Trump is the president in a time when we have cameras in our pockets, This is the moment of what I call the “great exposure”. It’s not that it hasn’t been going on. It’s been buried within this nation since it’s origins. It’s just, for the first time, we are in a culture where we are actually seeing it.

And this is why my heart goes out. I get why people are frustrated that white people are just waking up because two white individuals were killed. I get it. Where were you when George Floyd, Briana Taylor? I get those conversations. My God, half of our spiritual collective are brown and black individuals, people of color, and I hear them and I want to say to them publicly thank you for giving people like me grace. Thank you. That’s not an easy task. Thank you for giving space for people like me to wake up. And what I wanna say is there are many people waking up. And it’s sad it takes white individuals to be killed for people to wake up. Nevertheless, we are here and many people are waking up.

I’m not a religious person. But this excerpt came across my Instagram feed this morning and I listened. To all of it. As he says, he’s not without blame in this. But he called it out. He articulated the very idea I’ve been trying to find words for. Kudos for saying it out loud.

I was watching a Season 5 episode of “The Americans” last night. One of the characters was talking about potential colleges their son might attend. He said “he has his eye on the University of Minnesota”. That sparked a curiosity.

Keep in mind, the data points that follow are simple Google searches. So I can’t verify their legitimacy. I’m only using it for ballpark, and I think this suffices. Also, I’m not picking on the University of Minnesota in the least bit. It just happened to be the one he mentioned.

In the 1983-1984 academic year, the tuition for the University of Minnesota was:

• MN Resident: $1,455
• Non-Resident: $4,002

In the 2025-2026 academic year, the tuition for the University of Minnesota was:

• MN Resident: $18,482
• Non-Resident: $41,368

Comparatively, in 1984…

• $1,200 is equivalent to roughly $4,535 in 2026
• $4,002 is equivalent to roughly $12,478 in 2026

Just wondering, which Democratic president should I blame this on? (Asking for a friend)

As you may know, I’ve been binge-watching The Americans. I’m at the end of Season 3 and have been really enjoying it. One of the newer characters (I think this season) is named Pastor Tim. As the name implies, he’s a pastor (and the youth minister) at the church that Paige (the Jennings’ 14 or 15-year old daughter) attends. Given that very dry, just-the-facts-ma’am description, his character seems fairly innocuous.

But as we see in the course of season 3, Paige develops a relationship with Pastor Tim (and his wife). Not in the way you might be thinking and/or fearing, just a close relationship. To the point where during one of the episodes, she leaves a note for her parents saying she’s gone to a church lecture and will be spending the night with Pastor Tim and his wife afterward.

If you’re anything like me, that sounds…well…icky. This would in no way be okay with me (as the parent). Even allowing for the culture changes in the past 30 years, I can’t imagine my parents being ok with a 15-year old me spending the night at my pastor’s house outside of a youth group outing. And I’m a guy. Imagine if I’m a 15-year old girl. Hard “no”.

But why is that? After all, (at least from what we’ve seen so far) Pastor Tim has done nothing to indicate he’s creepy or bad for Paige. In fact, during this season, he’s served as an adult (dare I say father) figure for Paige when Phillip has not been available. (Let’s face it, Phillip and Elizabeth have not exactly been poster parents).

The answer is simply reputation.

I have grown up in a time when:

• Men have repeatedly taken advantage of teenage (or even younger) girls. And guys for that matter.
• Supposedly religious men have taken advantage / outright abused young people (of both sexes).
• People of authority / Mentors have overstepped that authority and taken advantage of mentees.

Time after time, story after story, allegation after allegation, these themes have pierced our collective consciousness to the point where the idea of a male mentor / female mentee relationship raises suspicions right away.

Is it justified in every case? No, of course not. Is it always in the back of people’s minds? Absolutely.

That’s the power of reputation.

And that’s what troubles me the most in the wake of the first year of Trump’s second administration. The reputation of so many things are just being tarnished. And the result, the damage, it is causing might not be felt for months, years, or even decades.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you believe that elections are fair?
• Do you trust vaccines?
• Do you trust experts?
• Do you believe the president is supposed to obey the law and/or the Constitution?
• Do you believe America stands for the ideals and principles it espouses?
• Did you ever believe that you could watch a killing with your own eyes but be told by “officials” exactly the opposite?
• Do you believe that any country has the right to simply take another sovereign country?
• Do you believe that the world looks to America as a moral leader?

All of these questions were (I think, at least) easily answered 12-18 months ago. Or at the very least 10 years ago. Not only did we have laws, we had laws that were obeyed (by everyone). We had norms that a civilized society (one in which we believed we lived in) abided. I would argue (and have vociferously argued) that the answers to these same questions are now very different.

One of the most powerful statements I’ve heard recently was from an opinion columnist Aaron Retica at the NYT describing the recent killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. In describing the incident, he said:

She had crossed over a border without realizing it. She thinks she’s still living in the regular world and she has moved into an irregular world.

That’s terrifying.

Up is down. Down is up. Laws are suggestions. Norms are “woke”. Doing what is right is weak. Doing whaterver you want, however you want, is seen as strength.

I ask you this: What does America stand for now?

How long will that reputation last?

NOTE: There’s a longer explanation of the idea of the Dual State, as explained by David French here. Well worth a listen/watch. If you’re interested in the actual work, the Internet Archive has the German translation here.