News, Opinions & Events
Read this account of a routine West Bank scenario carefully with the words “terrorism” and “justice” in mind:
First, Settlers Attacked the Palestinian Home. Then the IDF Joined In – Haaretz
“Joint attacks by soldiers and settlers are taking an increasingly deadly toll on West Bank Palestinians. These acts of terror – including a recent one in the village of Surif – are barely reported in Israel, and no one is blamed for them.”
“…This act of terror, resulting in one death and one serious injury, was barely reported in Israel. Well, no Jews were hurt.
“Later, in the pogrom in Sinjil, one of the two Palestinians who were killed was a U.S. citizen, so the event attracted a lot of international attention. There are no American passports in the village of Surif, where the Hor family lives: The victims of terror incidents there are nameless and no one is blamed for perpetrating the attacks.”
Settler Leader Daniella Weiss Tells Piers Morgan: ‘Gazans Finished Their Chapter of History’
Meanwhile in Gaza, Israel continues killing hundreds of civilians each week:
Two dead and several injured after Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church – Independent
MAP: See How Cuts to SNAP Food Assistance Would Affect Your State – USNWR

Does SNAP Cover the Cost of a Meal in Your County? – Urban
“In 2024, SNAP benefits did not cover the cost of a meal in 99 percent of counties.“
One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Tax deductions for working Americans and seniors – IRS
Accounts of how the Israeli government and settlers are systematically choking the economy and human rights in the West Bank and pushing Palestinians off their land. Why can’t one find reporting like this in US media?:

Unequal pay and settler attacks: What it’s like to work in the West Bank – The Paper
Explainer: Israel’s Settlement Enterprise (West Bank & East Jerusalem) – IMEU
The economics at the heart of Israeli settlements – New Humanitarian
Arab Israelis have less income, die younger than Jewish peers, data shows – Times of Israel
Crypto corruption and un-Stablecoins – Michael Roberts
“Cryptocurrencies are vulnerable to corruption, fraud and money laundering; and as private tokens, they function at wildly varying exchange rates to state-issued money. As such, they will allow the large financial institutions to make huge profits with no visible gain in value for society.
“Bitcoins and other crypto currencies increasingly move in step with the prices of other forms of fictitious capital. Recent studies and market analyses show that Bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 has significantly increased over the past five years. Especially during macroeconomic crises—like COVID-19, inflation spikes, or monetary policy shifts—both assets have tended to move in tandem. For instance, the 30-day correlation between them has surpassed 70%, showing shared sensitivity to global risks and monetary decisions.
“As such, any future instability in financial markets and any significant downturn in the so-called ‘real economy’ will hit the crypto market and its ‘stable’ coins hard.”
Zohran Mamdani protest dubbed Netflix comedy sketch – msn
Zohran Mamdani meets with Democrats as he attempts to gather key support – Newsweek
Mamdani Talks ‘Intifada’, Taxes in Grilling by Business Leaders – Bloomberg
“The meeting, which came at Mamdani’s request, is one of several scheduled this week between the Democratic nominee and the business community, which is grappling with the potential impact of Mamdani’s leadership on the city. Mamdani campaigned on promises to freeze the rent on affordable housing, and fund free buses and government-run grocery stores with new taxes on corporations and high-earners.”
The government wants AI to fight wars and review your taxes – msn/WaPost

Grok’s “MechaHitler” meltdown didn’t stop xAI from winning $200M military deal – Ars Technica
Capital continues replacing labor. BTW, could AI replace some functions at the top of the executive branch? For example, would turning over White House communications to Grok result in more, or fewer, random insulting and sarcastic public statements?
“The US is punishing UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her scathing reports on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Featured
Branko Milanovic: The World Under Capitalism – Stone Center/Toronto Public Library
Prof. Milanovic discusses two types of capitalism – “liberal capitalism” in the US and “political capitalism” directed by the Chinese Communist Party. Both systems have produced relatively high levels of income inequality.
Comparing United States and China by Economy – Statistics Times
Just-enacted 2025 budget legislation makes Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent. Here’s a CCSE presentation from just after Congress passed that bill:

What has changed? Remains the same?

2025 Social Security groundhog day:
US needs $28 trillion more over 75 years to pay promised benefits
“A few months after the Trump Administration chain-sawed Social Security’s leadership and staff, four newly installed senior officials overseeing the program released the annual report on its declining financial condition. This year’s actuarial forecast is a bit gloomier due in large part to a benefit expansion enacted by the previous Congress. However, in the big picture, not much has changed. Social Security’s looming insolvency remains…
“As I have pointed out to the Senate Budget Committee, the process of spending down Social Security reserves already is increasing overall federal spending and pushing up annual deficits. Drawing down reserves in the Social Security trust funds requires the Treasury to sell bonds (or find other sources of revenue) to raise cash to pay the program’s 74 million beneficiaries.
“On pp. 51-52, this year’s report estimates that Social Security will draw down $181 billion from the combined trust funds in 2025 with the amount rising to $405 billion in 2033. As a result, the federal government is gradually moving to finance part of the program’s benefits through newly issued debt substituting for now-insufficient payroll taxes...”
More on these issues can be found in these CCSE articles and testimony:
- Why Social Security’s big benefit cut won’t happen: The U.S. Treasury already is filling its funding gap – statement to U.S. Senate Budget Committee
- A ‘conservative/progressive’ path to Social Security solvency: bend the benefit cost curve, grow revenue, and protect lower earners – statement to Senate Appropriations Committee
- A Widening Gap in Life Expectancy Makes Raising Social Security’s Retirement Age a Particularly Bad Deal for Low-Wage Earners – Society of Actuaries
- Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s revenue. Revitalizing its tax base could help restore solvency without cutting benefits.
- Center on Capital & Social Equity work on Social Security and retirement savings (updated January 2025).
OBBBA’s 30-Year Price Tag – CRFB
“The House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) would add $3 trillion to the debt through Fiscal Year (FY) 2034 as written and $5 trillion if made permanent. Over the long run, it would add far more to the debt.”
Trump, Tariffs, and the Economic Outlook – AEI discussion
“Helping young people learn how to save and build up money for college and adult life are worthy goals. But new ‘Trump kids accounts’ embedded in the massive Republican tax and spending bill before the US Senate not only duplicate existing programs. They also would widen financial gaps between families in our already very unequal country. In addition, tax subsidies for money invested in Trump accounts would go mostly to well-off families and push up the national debt…”
Letter to US citizens:
Student expulsions are an attack on all Americans’ freedom of speech
“This is how fascism happens. First, they come for the powerless. In time, they
will come for you.”

“The federal government has had authority since 1986 to criminally prosecute individuals and companies employing workers not legally in the United State, but it has rarely used that authority regardless of the administration in office. A one-year snapshot taken during Trump’s first term found that no company was criminally prosecuted for having workers not authorized to be in the country, a Syracuse University study shows…
“Changing the equation to incentivize employers to help enforce, rather than skirt, the nation’s immigration laws does not mean subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment. No need to suspend billionaires and entrepreneurs in cages from a tower or use branding irons. It does mean applying and stiffening laws against hiring illegals and tax avoidance. Financial penalties, public shaming, and loss of contracts could be a start. If that isn’t sufficient, start putting law-breaking employers in jail. They are lining their pockets by stealing jobs from American workers, both native born and those immigrating legally.”

Multiple conflicts of interest:
“By directing a high-powered federal agency working to alter the size and nature of the federal workforce, Elon Musk may be jeopardizing the ability of companies he owns and directs, including SpaceX and Tesla, to contract with the federal government.”
Thanks to the Virginian-Pilot for running our op-ed:

Many questions, few answers about exempting tips from taxes – Karl Polzer/Virginian-Pilot
“Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to exempt tipped income from state taxes — like President-elect Donald Trump’s on a national level — could help some low-wage workers. However, it also poses risks for others and raises complex issues facing scrutiny as the state legislature begins its work…”
To provide access to all readers (the newspaper’s op-eds are gated), below is the original submission including links to sources:
Statement to 11/20/24 US House Appropriations Committee hearing on Social Security:
“As keeper of the federal government’s purse strings, the House Appropriations Committee plays a part in maintaining Social Security’s commitment to American workers, their families, and taxpayers. First, Committee members can weigh in as Congress and the Treasury find hundreds of billions of dollars annually in cash outside the appropriations process to draw down Social Security reserves. The Committee can also help ‘leave room’ in future budgets for revenue increases that might be necessary to keep Social Security solvent as it coordinates with House Ways & Means, Budget, and other Committees on tax and spending issues.”

The next President and Congress will face daunting fiscal issues. In the shadow of historic levels of national debt, lawmakers will be bargaining over trillions of dollars of taxes and spending as they deal with expiration of the Trump tax cuts. On top of that loom major Social Security financing gaps. Paying promised benefits will require the government to raise more than $2 trillion in cash over the next eight years and more than $24 trillion to achieve long-run solvency.
This paper presents policy options – some favored by conservatives, others by progressives – as a framework for negotiating a solution. Taken together, the changes could generate more than twice as much in savings and revenue than needed to balance Social Security’s books.
The nation’s biggest banks in effect have become today’s payday lenders.
Which U.S. Households Have Credit Card Debt? – St. Louis Fed
46% of American households held credit card debt in 2022.

– Expand the child tax credit to help more working-class parents and grandparents raising kids.
– Provide Social Security credit for unpaid work raising young children.
– Update/improve SSI so more people with disabilities can work, save.
– If taxes must go up, hold the working poor harmless.
Click here for longer version including references and related articles.
CCSE work contributes to Congressional hearing on financing Social Security
Center on Capital & Social Equity (CCSE) analysis and advocacy were evidenced during the June 4 House Ways & Means subcommittee on Social Security hearing of the program’s trust fund. Over the past years, CCSE has worked to explore issues affecting low-wage workers and lay groundwork to defend their Social Security benefits when Congress eventually refinances the nation’s most important social program.

It’s Social Security ‘groundhog day’ as trustees repeat annual forecast of declining finances
“…The trustees’ report, however, neglects to mention how Social Security already is impacting the overall federal budget. As pointed out to the Senate Budget Committee, the mechanics of spending down Social Security’s reserves require the Treasury to draw funds from general revenue and issue new debt to the public. As a result, Social Security is gradually and organically moving to paying for current benefits through debt substituting for now-insufficient payroll taxes that it traditionally relies on.”

Missing the obvious: life expectancy in the U.S. is closely related to income – Karl Polzer
“The underlying theory is simple: More income and wealth allow people and governments to support more years of life. Fewer resources put them at a disadvantage. Some politicians who see the connection may be leery of talking about it. Doing so would lead to awkward questions about improving working and living conditions for millions of Americans and dealing with growing economic inequality.
“The strong relationship between income and longevity is clear when comparing states… (E)ight of the nine states with the lowest median household income also are among the bottom nine in longevity. Similar clustering occurs comparing the highest ranked states across the two categories. Seven of the nine states with the highest median household income also are among the top nine in life expectancy.
“Realizing they are rowing in the same economic boat could prompt states to join forces on policy changes, particularly Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, New Mexico, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and others ranking at or near the bottom…
“Presidential candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley strongly proposes raising the program’s retirement age on the premise that increased life spans are undermining Social Security’s long-term solvency. If long-held assumptions about longevity were challenged, and potential losses to low-income workers and low-income states caused by raising the eligibility age came to light, would she change her position? Republican candidate Donald Trump, by the way, opposes cuts in Social Security as do most Democrats…”
Thanks to the Washington Examiner for running this op-ed:

Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible – Washington Examiner
For longer version with references, see:
Previous work on this issue:
One way to make living easier in Virginia – letter to WaPost
Yes, raise the minimum wage, but don’t stop there – op-ed
“More Americans are rightly asking if Israel could neutralize Hamas without massive destruction and loss of civilian life. Indiscriminate air attacks by the Netanyahu regime already have killed and injured tens of thousands of Gazans with no end to the violence in sight. To put this in perspective, imagine how Washington, D.C., would look if a foreign government with the power to fence in the District of Columbia dropped a comparable number of bombs here while shutting off access to water and food and destroying most of the capital area’s housing and medical system. UN officials say conditions in Gaza are catastrophic.”
Thanks to the Washington Post for publishing our letter to the editor:

One way to make living easier in Virginia – Karl Polzer/letter to WaPost
“Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) told reporters he is ‘concerned about the cost of living in Virginia and we’re continuing to evaluate how best to address that,’ as reported in the Nov. 26 Metro article ‘Budget battle looms in Virginia. Facing a tighter fiscal environment and Democratic control of the legislature, Mr. Youngkin and fellow Republicans could help working families without denting the budget by making an expected Democratic push for a higher minimum wage a bipartisan affair.
“The GOP has been trying to attract more minority and working-class voters. However, party leaders have stopped short of addressing core economic issues, such as supporting higher wages and better benefits, and mainly stress cultural issues…”
Background Information on these issues provided to Virginia legislators

McCarthy & Co. offer themselves up on the cross to help motivate lazy poor people back to work
Work requirements are a policy failure: Why are they still an option? – The Hill
Thanks to the Washington Post for running our letter:
“Letting Americans Down”
“How can House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), President Biden and Senate leaders claim to represent the working class and poor when Medicaid work requirements are a focal point in the debt ceiling standoff and the Trump-era tax cuts are not? According to the Congressional Budget Office, the work requirements in the Limit, Save, Grow Act would have a tiny impact (about $5.6 billion in fiscal 2025) on the nation’s $31.4 trillion national debt, but they would increase the number of uninsured and state costs and have no effect on hours worked by Medicaid recipients.
“In contrast, ending the Trump-era tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, could put a major dent in the national debt….”
Because most of this site’s readers won’t be able to get through the newspaper’s pay gate, here’s the draft of the letter sent to the Post:
Debt ceiling negotiators focus on a ‘speck’ in benefits for the poor, ignore the ‘logs’ in their own eyes.
“Legislative Choices for Paying Promised Social Security Benefits”
Statement of Karl Polzer, Center on Capital & Social Equity,
U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing: “Protecting Social
Security for All: Making the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share”

Has DT crossed the line into delirium tremens?
“It came out of his mouth during a campaign speech last month.”