Today's Takes: Friday, July 9

ProPublica has released a series of "bombshell" investigative pieces over the past month or so using a trove of IRS documents given them by a whistleblower to examine how the ultra-wealthy like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos avoid paying taxes. In light of Biden's aggressive push to massively increase the IRS operating budget to bring in an additional $700 billion in tax revenue, ProPublica looks like a regime mouthpiece, wearing a populist cloak, spreading the gospel that the rich need to be reigned in and the IRS (which they have consistently claimed is underfunded) is the one to do it. What they don't want you to know is that the burden of a more aggressive IRS will fall far more heavily on the middle class—something in line with Biden's attempt to put even the best, most honorable of us on the government dole.

• How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank

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• Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

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• How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes

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• Donald J. Trump: Why I’m Suing Big Tech (WSJ)
  • Donald Trump does a column in the Wall Street Journal
• Tokyo Olympics to Be Held Without Spectators During Covid-19 State of Emergency (WSJ)
• Travel Is Bouncing Back Strong, and Airlines Are Racing to Keep Up (WSJ)
• Haiti President Jovenel Moïse Assassinated at Home, Official Says (WSJ)
• Amtrak to Spend $7 Billion to Upgrade Passenger Trains (WSJ)
• Tucker Carlson claims he was ‘unmasked’ by NSA for seeking Putin interview (NY Post)
• Michael Avenatti, former Stormy Daniels lawyer, sentenced to 30 months in Nike extortion case (Washington Post)
  • A pet favorite of the "Orange Man Bad" crowd

• Fed Pencils In Earlier Interest-Rate Increase

  WSJ

• U.S. Jobless Claims Edged Up to 373,000 Last Week

  WSJ

• Fed Officials See Earlier End for Bond Buying, Emphasize Patience

  WSJ

• Bay Area city may explore allowing undocumented residents to vote in local elections

  SF Chronicle

• Scientists in Wuhan should be awarded Nobel Prize, rather than being blamed

  Global Times

• Seattle politicians deem suburbs racist, begin CRT-inspired dismantling

  MyNorthwest

• 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' and the Evergreen Ills of American Politics by Jerod Hollyfield

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• Avuncular Tom by Jerod Hollyfield

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• The Man Who Sued the World by Megan Lee Podsiedlik

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• Tenured Negligence by Jerod Hollyfield

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