again: i'm not an economic populist, i'm more of an mmt/keynesian type. so, i'm not going to approach trump's tax policies through some filter of mid-twentieth century wild west progressivism, which seems to be the standard reaction on the pseudo-left, nowadays.

the reality is that the united states doesn't need to have taxes at all. it could just print the money it needs. so, it's less that i'm in favour of this or opposed to this and more that i realize that it doesn't actually matter.

will it do any of the things that trump claims? no.
will the united states collapse in some right-wing snuff fantasy of debt porn? no.

will some rich people get to sit on some money that they ought to be spending? yes.

what would i do, if i were the empress? i would take the money out of accounts and spend it. that's what the left is supposed to be about with fiscal policy: we're supposed to be about advocating increased levels of spending.

so, i look at what trudeau is doing and he's getting it wrong: he's taking money away from the right people, but he's not spending it. then, i look at what trump is doing, and he's getting it wrong, too: he's giving spending money to people that don't need it.

but - and i stated this previously - it is actually, in theory, less bad to let the money collect interest than it is to take it out of circulation.

i would advise the democrats to kind of shrug this off, and even try and use it for leverage. if i were a senator, i'd be willing to support tax cuts like this in exchange for increased spending, which in the united states would be mostly about infrastructure.

what's important is not that revenue stays high (that does not matter in a fiat monetary system), but that expenditures remain high. and, the way to get the economy moving is to get the state to spend more - regardless of how much it is taking in. that is what people should be focusing on...

i stand corrected - the kurds do have an ally, after all.

(although the israeli state has not officially recognized the results, either.)

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.812469

the kurds are not voting for independence, so much as they are voting for a war of independence - one that they can't possibly win.

nobody is going to recognize the results of the referendum, either.....although, that doesn't mean anybody is going to step up enforcement measures.

the reality is that they've had de facto independence for years and that the outcome of the referendum isn't actually likely to change very much on the ground, besides perhaps escalate a civil war between capitalist and communist elements in the kurdish population.

they're going to need some kind of breakdown in iran, first.

so, we talked about music last early on monday morning. i made some progress, but the heat was a bit of a problem due to the a/c upstairs (as mentioned, i'm waiting this guy out) and i ultimately had to stop due to interference. the same thing happened yesterday morning, but i think i was able to finish a proper mix this morning.

we're highly tentative around this. i'm going to need to spend the next 24+ hours verifying it.

but, the heat has also lifted, which means i'm pivoting to airing the apartment out and even plan to take a shower in the next 24 hours. i love the heat, but i can't overstate how much of a problem the a/c is. getting the a/c off should get me a bit more productive.

as i was waiting out the interference, i finished a lot of filing and typing, so there should be a quick procession through the end of 1999, as soon as i close inri031.

for now, i need to listen.

this is a picture of a tomb from the very end of the new kingdom period, which is just about the latest period of indigenous egyptian culture that existed - it was shortly after this that the sea peoples invaded and put an end to egyptian civilization as an independent entity. yes: there was a period of fundamentalism and decline before the area was conquered by the assyrians, but the bronze age collapse was really the end of egypt, as egypt.

we can clearly see that, by the end of the new kingdom, the egyptians very explicitly defined themselves neither as white nor black but as brown. they neither saw themselves as the nubians to their south nor as the semites to their east but as something in between - and they were cognizant that this something in between came from mixing.

you can't answer the question, and it doesn't make sense to ask it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Races2.jpg