Authored by Prabhat Ranjan Mishra via Interesting Engineering,

Chemists in the United States have discovered a new way to turn natural gas into liquid fuel.

The team from Northwestern University has successfully converted methane directly into methanol in a single step. They harnessed tiny bursts of plasma — or mini “lightning bolts” — in glass tubes submerged in water.

Methanol is a versatile, high-demand industrial chemical used to make many products people use every day.Employee/Alexander/Driscoll

Using pulses of high-voltage electricity

“We’re using pulses of high-voltage electricity,” said Northwestern’s Dayne Swearer, the study’s corresponding author.

“If the electrical potential is high enough, lightning bolts form inside of our reactor the way they do during a summer thunderstorm. We’re taking advantage of that chemistry to break methane’s bonds without heating the entire system to extreme temperatures.”

While the current method is reliable, it’s energy intensive and emits millions of tons of carbon dioxide per year globally. Using just electricity, water and a copper-oxide catalyst, the new process could offer a cleaner, electrified path to producing one of the world’s most widely used chemical building blocks, according to a press release.

Methanol is a versatile, high-demand industrial chemical

The team also revealed that the methanol is a versatile, high-demand industrial chemical used to make many products people use every day. It also is commonly used as an industrial solvent and is gaining attention as a cleaner-burning fuel for ships and industrial boilers.

One of the world’s most used commodity chemicals, methanol is a key ingredient in plastics, paints and adhesives. More recently, researchers have explored methanol as a promising liquid fuel because its combustion produces lower sulfur emissions and particulate pollution than gasoline and diesel, as per the release.

Industry generates methanol through a multi-step process

The team also pointed out that currently, the industry generates methanol through a multi-step process, starting with steam reforming. First, methane is reacted with steam at temperatures exceeding 800 degrees Celsius to break it into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Then, those gases are recombined under extremely high pressures — 200 to 300 times standard atmospheric pressure — to form methanol. Tearing methane apart and rebuilding it consumes an enormous amount of heat and inherently generates carbon dioxide along the way.

“The extreme temperatures are needed to break the unreactive chemical bonds between carbon and hydrogen in methane,” Swearer said.

“Then, you must use high pressure to squeeze all those molecules together onto the catalyst in order to make the methanol molecule. It works, but it’s not the most straightforward path to making methanol from methane.”

For the new single-step process, James Ho, a Ph.D. candidate in Swearer’s lab and the study’s first author, built a plasma “bubble reactor,” which is essentially a porous glass tube coated with a copper oxide catalyst. Then, the team flowed methane gas through the tube while applying electrical pulses.

The electricity transformed the methane gas into plasma, splitting methane and water into highly reactive fragments. Those fragments then recombined to form methanol, which immediately dissolves into the surrounding water. That rapid “quenching” stopped the chemical reaction at the right moment, preventing the methane from decomposing into carbon dioxide.

“More than 99% of the observable universe is comprised of plasma,” said James Ho. “But even though it’s ubiquitous, it really is an untapped resource in the field of chemistry. The reason we use cold plasmas is because we can produce them at low temperatures and normal atmospheric pressure conditions.”

Bloomberg is out with a new report saying Tesla’s Cybertruck sales were “propped up” in the fourth quarter by purchases from companies inside Elon Musk’s business empire.

SpaceX accounted for 1,279 Cybertruck registrations, or about 18% of all U.S. Cybertruck registrations during the last quarter of 2025. The report went on to say that xAI, Boring Co., and Neuralink also purchased the stainless-steel EV during the period.

“That means almost one in every five Cybertrucks registered during the period were delivered from one part of Musk’s sprawling business empire to another,” Bloomberg’s Dana Hull noted.

Hull added, “Without those sales to other Musk-run companies — which included xAI, Boring Co. and Neuralink, in addition to SpaceX — Cybertruck registrations in the fourth quarter would have fallen 51%.”

Hull quoted Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting for advisory firm AutoForecast Solutions, who said, “Tesla is running out of buyers for the Cybertruck.”

Hull said the registration data was sourced from S&P Global Mobility and, in her words, suggests only that “demand for the pickup is fading just two years after launch.”

Cybertruck’s struggles are not unique to Tesla. In fact, electric pickups have been a major bust across the U.S. EV market. Ford recently converted its electric F-150 Lightning production lines to extended-range hybrid vehicles. And we’re sure in President Trump’s war economy, autos will be converting EV lines or other production lines into making weapons (read report). 

Despite the continued downturn in EVs, Cox Automotive data show the Cybertruck was still the top-selling EV truck in the U.S. in the first quarter.

High sticker price and elevated interest rates are likely major factors behind the Cybertruck’s dismal sales. Bankrate data show the national average 60-month loan rate for new vehicles is still above 7%, down from 8% during the Biden years but still sharply higher than the sub-4% levels seen in 2021.

Federal subsidies for EVs have also been cut under the Trump administration’s second term.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The hunt is on…

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used Tax Day to announce a new fee targeting wealthy people who still linger in the city after moving their primary residences to other states.

The tax, called pied-à-terre (or “foot on the ground”) is designed to hit people who still maintain high-value properties in the city. It is a remarkably moronic effort to ensure that wealthy people cut all ties with the city. However, Gov. Kathy Hochul has yielded to the far left and joined the effort.

Mamdani, a socialist who supports the “decommodification” of private property, is seeking major tax increases, including a 10% property tax, to fund his pledges for free buses, city-run stores, and other policies.

He will need it. Mamdani not only recently admitted that he cannot fulfill his pledge for free buses this year, but that he will only build the first of five promise city-run stores next year at the cost of $30 million — almost half of what he set aside for all five promised stores.

The new measure would add a fee to existing taxes for owners of high-value properties worth more than $5 million.

Mamdani declared the new fee part of “Happy Tax Day,” which will generate $500 million more to “help fund things like free child care, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods.”

He is also pushing Hochul to increase taxes on the 33,000 New Yorkers earning more than $1 million annually as well as those corporations that have not left the state. Other blue states from Washington to Virginia are moving toward similar millionaire taxes.

The move is consistent with other blue states seeing the same exodus of wealthy taxpayers and businesses due to the rising budgets and tax burdens. Rather than seeking to make their states magnets for investment, California and other states are pursuing retroactive wealth taxes and so-called “Teddy Bear laws” that refuse to recognize changes of residency.

New York has used its “Teddy Bear” regulations to declare that people who fled to other states are still residents subject to taxation because of the location of their sentimental attachments in New York (like a Teddy Bear) from pets to children.

In my new book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss these taxes and how they are the final stage of economic atrophy for states like New York. Politicians like Hochul cannot muster the courage to face bloated budgets, excessive union pension contracts, and runaway spending. In other words, it is too difficult to create a state that draws investment and residents like so many red states. Instead, they are chasing the remaining wealthy people who still maintain contacts with the state.

The result is a form of economic Darwinism in which the herd of wealthy taxpayers is thinned further by capturing the slowest or most nostalgic individuals.

The irony is that Houhul and Mamdani are working to cut the final ties of these former residents, convincing them that they are viewed as parasites to be pursued relentlessly for more taxes.

In Rage and the Republic, I discuss these efforts as a dangerous form of “economic factionalism,” a popular tactic historically used by demagogues to curry public favor by vilifying the wealthy.

Mandani denounced those who “store their wealth in New York City real estate [and] reap the huge financial rewards” while “hurt[ing] working New Yorkers.”

This is evident in the renewed claims of figures such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who used Tax Day to renew calls for her unconstitutional wealth tax.

Warren posted on X that “It’s time to make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. It’s time to pass a wealth tax.”

Socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also made the same claim. In a Guardian op-ed, Sanders cited shocking figures claiming that Elon Musk pays a tax rate of only 3.3% while Jeff Bezos pays less than 1%.

The claim comes from the dubious source  ProPublica, which performs a statistical sleight of hand. In reality, the publication shows that figures like Jeff Bezos paid $973 million in taxes on income of $4.22 billion. That is a 23% tax burden, not less than 1%. Musk paid 30% with a $455 million tax bill.

The top 1% of taxpayers in this country paid roughly 40% of all taxes. The top 5% pays over 40% of taxes.

The Democrats are committed to economic factionalism as a strategy for the midterm elections. It is a major driver of the rage politics that many hope will allow them to regain power in November. It will come at a great cost to states like New York.

Hochul and Mamdani can hunt down the remaining wealthy taxpayers lingering in their state. In the end, it will not generate nearly as much revenue as it will cost as residents and businesses look elsewhere for position living and business environments.

The best way to improve the standard of living in these states is to improve their economies and tax bases. Instead, blue states like California and New York are raising costs across the board, including through pushes for a $ 30-per-hour minimum wage. In California, the massive increases in the minimum wage have already resulted in substantial job losses and business closures.

It is unlikely that many wealthy individuals will stick around to experience what Mayor Mamdani calls “the warmth of collectivism.” Instead, it will be average New Yorkers who are burned by his “eat the rich” policies.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”

The rise of “war unicorns” will be an impressive development to watch over the next several years, as we’ve diligently laid out for readers for months, well before the U.S.-Iran conflict, how a massive government push and in capital markets would begin to prioritize the next generation of defense-tech firms rather than big, bloated legacy defense contractors.

Aevex, a military drone maker backed by Madison Dearborn Partners, is the latest example of capital markets getting excited about war unicorns, with the company selling 16 million shares at $20 each in an IPO, with shares expected to begin trading on Friday. The deal was reportedly oversubscribed multiple times, according to Bloomberg sources.

Aevex is a direct public-market play on low-cost kamikaze drones, with a sizable portion of last year’s revenue linked to Ukraine. It has two unmanned systems programs, Phoenix Ghost and EUCOM AOR Deep Strike, that have delivered or committed to deliver more than 9,300 units, representing about $1.2 billion in contract value through the end of this year.

The war unicorn is positioned to benefit from the Department of War’s massive shift toward startups that can produce advanced weapons at a fraction of the cost and on a faster timeline than the large primes, such as Lockheed and Boeing. There is also a major shift within the DoW toward low-cost advanced weapons systems, such as drones and AI kill chains.

Aevex sees demand for unmanned systems expanding to $11 billion in the U.S. and $26 billion globally by 2030.

Bloomberg noted that Aevex posted a net loss of $16.9 million on $432.9 million in revenue in 2025, compared with net income of $78.5 million on $392.2 million in revenue a year earlier.

Aevex’s public debut is only the beginning of war unicorns tapping public markets. We’ve outlined how the DoW’s procurement process has been reset to favor startups. The DoW is also setting up a 30-person investment banking team called the “Economic Defense Unit” to deploy $200 billion in private equity over three years to fund these unicorns.

Follow the money: President Trump’s war economy is being spun up …

War Economy Returns: From Trucks To Tanks, Pentagon Looks To Automakers To Rebuild America’s Arsenal

What comes next, particularly in the U.S. market, is a rapid push to harden the airspace over critical infrastructure, data centers, and other high-value assets, because there is an alarming gap in the low-cost air defense layer against FPVs. Lessons from conflict areas across Eurasia are being learned at hyperspeed. 

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

“Mr. Biden lives abroad.”

Those four words in a filing from Barry Coburn confirmed what had long been rumored about his client: Hunter Biden has left the country as his former lawyers and creditors seek millions in unpaid debts.

He added, “He cannot pay his current lawyers.”

As I wrote about years ago, Biden’s art grift would dry up as soon as he could no longer deliver influence and access to power. Reportedly unable to move art, Hunter has moved out of the reach of many creditors. He is rumored to be in South Africa, where his wife, Melissa Cohen, was born and raised.

Hunter is the Blanche DuBois of American politics. He has always relied on the kindness (and greed) of strangers when he could allegedly offer influence or access to his father, Joe Biden.

Hunter told a South African podcast in November that “We’re trying to be between Cape Town and the States, go back and forth.” He added, “I’ve fallen madly in love with Cape Town. You guys do not know how good you have it here. It’s the most beautiful city in the world.”

It just also happens to be roughly 9000 miles away from creditors in Delaware.

According to his former counsel at Winston & Strawn LLP, Hunter has not paid a “substantial portion” of the fees owed to his legal team.

Hunter told the podcast that he is facing “$17 million in debt … as it relates to my legal fees.”

His criminal defense did not ultimately protect him. He was found guilty of a variety of crimes, and his father then broke his repeated promise to the public and pardoned his own son in December 2024.

I have been a long-time critic of the Bidens, going back to when Joe Biden was still a senator. The family was long accused of influence peddling and corruption. Hunter Biden was hardly subtle in marketing his access and influence. He is now without a law license and any known means of support despite an enabling media that pushed his past books and art.

For those of us who have written about the Bidens for decades, the relocation to South Africa is about as surprising as having his father pop into dinners at Cafe Milano with foreign clients. Hunter Biden is the Enfant terrible created by his father and released upon the world.

I recently wrote that the Swalwell scandal reveals an ironic analogy to Hunter’s signature lifestyle.

Swalwell supported Hunter and was by his side as he defied a congressional subpoena. Like Hunter, he has controversial dealings, including using tens of thousands of campaign contributions for child care. He even had the campaign support of Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, who appears to have a proclivity for narcissistic, self-destructive personalities.

Swalwell could also face the same financial crunch as Hunter, as his campaign and congressional money run out. If so, there is always South Africa.

The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – which was notoriously abused so spy on the 2016 Trump campaign, and has been used for “backdoor searches” targeting Americans. Friday’s vote – via unanimous consent after a longer five-year reauthorization pushed by Republicns failed to advance – extends Section 702 until April 30. 

The short-term measure now moves to the Senate, which faces a looming deadline: the current authorization expires April 20. The vote comes despite a well-documented history of FISA abuses spanning both individualized Title I warrants and the bulk warrantless collection under Section 702, as detailed in multiple Department of Justice Inspector General reports, declassified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions, and congressional oversight findings.

President Donald Trump had urged Republicans to support a clean extension, citing the law’s critical role in national security while personally recounting what he described as “the worst and most illegal abuse of FISA in our Nation’s History.” Trump referenced the FBI’s use of FISA during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign. At the same time, he stressed that the U.S. military “desperately needs” Section 702 to protect troops and diplomats, particularly amid ongoing operations against Iran’s nuclear program.

“With the ongoing successful Military activities against the Terrorist Iranian Regime, it is more important than ever that we remain vigilant, PROTECT our Homeland, Troops, and Diplomats stationed abroad,” Trump said. He added that generals he consulted called the authority “VITAL,” especially in the current geopolitical climate.

Heaven forbid he demand reforms and more oversight. 

Section 702 permits the government to collect communications of non-U.S. persons located outside the United States without a warrant. However, it inevitably captures “incidental” communications involving American citizens, who can then be searched in the database through so-called “backdoor” queries – often without a warrant or probable cause. Critics on both sides of the aisle have long warned that the program effectively enables warrantless domestic surveillance.

Long-Standing and Systemic Abuses

FISA was enacted in 1978 in direct response to revelations from the Church Committee about executive-branch spying on civil-rights leaders, anti-war activists, and political opponents. Yet official records show recurring compliance failures and misuse in the decades since.

The highest-profile case of targeted surveillance involved Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser. A December 2019 DOJ Inspector General report by Michael Horowitz identified 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions across four FISA warrant applications and renewals. These included heavy reliance on the unverified Steele dossier – funded by the Clinton campaign and DNC – without disclosing its political origins, lack of corroboration, or exculpatory evidence (such as Page’s prior reporting as a CIA source). The FBI also failed to correct the record with the FISC.

FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith later pleaded guilty to altering an email to falsely claim Page was not a CIA source, helping secure a renewal. Special Counsel John Durham’s subsequent investigation further criticized the FBI’s predication and handling of the Russia probe. The DOJ later admitted in court filings that it lacked probable cause for at least some of the Page renewals. Recent 2026 disclosures by Sen. Chuck Grassley have raised similar questions about possible FISA surveillance of another Trump adviser, Walid Phares, involving the same FBI attorney.

These were not isolated. A 2002 FISC review found the FBI had included false or misleading statements in at least 75 FISA applications, leading to the barring of a senior counterterrorism official from ever appearing before the court. A 2020 IG audit of the FBI’s “Woods procedures” (accuracy-check protocols) examined 29 applications and found apparent errors or inadequately supported facts in every one of the 25 reviewed in detail.

Section 702 “Backdoor” Searches on U.S. Persons

The scale of abuse under the warrantless program has drawn even sharper criticism from the FISC itself, which has repeatedly described FBI compliance failures as “persistent and widespread.”

Between 2020 and early 2022, the FBI conducted more than 278,000 searches of Section 702 data that violated legal standards or internal policy. In 2021 alone, total U.S.-person queries reached approximately 3.4 million, with hundreds of thousands flagged as improper.

Declassified FISC opinions document concrete examples of misuse:

Queries on Black Lives Matter protesters, Jan. 6 arrestees, and participants in purely domestic criminal investigations (health-care fraud, gang violence, public corruption) with no foreign-intelligence nexus.
A batch query on 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign.
Searches targeting a U.S. Senator, a state senator, a state court judge, journalists, political commentators, and even FBI “Citizens Academy” participants.
Personal abuses, including agents querying data on romantic partners, family members, online-dating matches, or rental tenants.

FISC rulings from 2018 through 2023 repeatedly faulted the FBI’s minimization procedures, record-keeping, and “batch” querying practices. A 2025 DOJ OIG report acknowledged some improvement after the 2024 Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act but warned that ongoing oversight remains essential.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) offered an amendment April 15 that would have required the Justice Department to obtain a court order before querying Americans’ data, with narrow exceptions for urgent threats. “FISA 702 is too critical to allow it to expire, but the legitimate concerns about the possibility of abuse also demand that we consider additional reforms,” Himes stated. The amendment was not adopted.

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US intelligence is flagging early signs that Beijing may have been eyeing a move into the Iran conflict – quietly considering sending advanced radar systems, which it is said to have been mulling since near the opening of the US-Israel war which kicked off last month.

These anti-Beijing allegations are contained in fresh CBS News reporting, citing analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), who conclude China was actively weighing whether to equip Tehran with upgraded radar capabilities.

via GT

It should be recalled that earlier parallel reports said Moscow was feeding Iran intelligence on US military positions across the Middle East – raising the specter of a broader shadow alignment forming behind the scenes.

“This technology would significantly enhance Iran’s ability to detect and track incoming threats, like low-flying drones and cruise missiles, and could help protect its air defense systems against advanced strikes,” CBS writes.

The report continues, “It remains unclear whether China ultimately moved forward with the transfer but the assessment underscores Washington’s concern that the Iranian war is drawing in not only regional adversaries but also global competitors willing to provide critical support, short of direct military involvement, the officials said.”

The ability of the Iranians to hit faraway precision targets, including for example an expensive US radar base in Jordan, suggested it may have already had some external satellite and targeting help. Any new China radar transfer could help Iran rebuild its largely decimated defenses.

The significant Iranian retaliation against US regional bases and against Gulf facilities last month came as a surprise or even shock to the US administration, which appeared somewhat unprepared – and this has been subject of much recent reporting. For example:

Such anti-China allegations have been previewed before, but the idea of advanced Chinese radar technological on the ground in Iran might have been a game-changer in terms of preserving more of its own anti-air and missile capabilities.

All of these allegations, which come anonymously via unnamed US intel officials, must be treated with appropriate skepticism, however – given that war propaganda will inevitably be thick in such a hot conflict.

China, for its part, has been vehemently denying these repeat charges of some kind of deepened support for the Islamic Republic amid the war. It says it stands for peace and dialogue, and has called for urgent de-escalation and the unblocking of the Hormuz Strait.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to look into reports of multiple U.S. scientists who have either died or gone missing in recent months.

“I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half,” he told reporters, adding that “I just left a meeting on that subject.”

The reports, he added, are serious, because “some of them were very important people, and we’re going to look at it over the next short period.”

The president provided an update a day after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the Trump administration is investigating.

A reporter asked Leavitt about 10 scientists who died or disappeared over the past several years, with some of them having access to nuclear or aerospace material.

“I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it. I will certainly do that, and we’ll get you an answer. If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into,” she said in response.

At least one House lawmaker, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), asked the FBI to investigate the reports.

“The disappearance of multiple scientists and military personnel with ties to advanced research is deeply concerning. I’ve already requested FBI involvement, and we will keep pressing for answers,” Burlison wrote in a post on X in late March.

Another, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), also called for an investigation into the disappearances.

“The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research. I think we’d better be paying attention, and I don’t think we should trust our government,” he told the Daily Mail in March.

Burchett also made reference to the disappearance of a former Air Force general, William McCasland, who vanished from his New Mexico home without his phone or glasses in February. Media reports said that a colleague of his, Monica Reza, a rocket scientist, went missing in June 2025 after she did not return home from hiking in the Angeles National Forest in Southern California.

The lawmaker appeared to suggest that McCasland’s disappearance was linked to his aerospace or UFO research, saying that “those folks are very secretive about what they know” and he believes that McCasland “was involved in some of that.”

A former Department of State analyst, Marik von Rennenkampff, told NewsNation on Wednesday that the disappearances are unusual and could be connected.

“It’s bizarre,” he said. “I go through various potential scenarios. These are large organizations. Could these be coincidences? I think we might have passed that threshold.”

The Epoch Times contacted the FBI for comment Thursday.

* * * These mangoes are pretty damn good

Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com,

In April 1971, Keith Richards loaded his family and his Bentley onto a cross-Channel ferry and drove south until he hit the Mediterranean. He rented a 19th-century villa called Nellcôte on a hillside above Villefranche-sur-Mer, and converted the basement into a recording studio.

Over the following year the rest of the Rolling Stones rotated through the house and nearby properties to record the double album that became Exile on Main St., while staying deliberately out of reach of the British tax authorities.

The top marginal income tax rate in Britain at the time was 75%, and a surcharge on the highest earners pushed the effective rate on the wealthiest past 90%.

Three years later, under Denis Healey’s 1974 budget, the top rate on earned income would climb to 83% and the rate on investment income would reach 98%.

Britain would spend the rest of the decade watching capital flee and begging the IMF for emergency loans.

David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, and a long line of less famous wealthy Britons eventually ran the same arithmetic as the Stones and reached a similar conclusion. Capital left the country in every form it could fit into, including bonds, businesses, luxury cars, and rock stars.

But politicians never learn.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has backed legislation that would push the top federal income-tax rate to 43%.

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is pushing a version that lands at 49%.

Both men describe it, as they always do, as wealthy Americans finally paying their “fair share.”

What exact percent is their fair share? Are we to believe they will be satisfied at 43% or 49%?

As always, that phrase is deliberately left undefined.

Never-mind that the top 1% of filers already paid 40.4% of all federal income taxes in 2022 while the bottom 50% paid roughly 3%.

They are also conveniently ignorant of the fact that raising the top marginal rate doesn’t actually raise revenue at all.

Since the end of the Second World War, U.S. federal tax revenue has averaged around 17% to 18% of GDP, dipping toward 15% in deep recessions and climbing near 20% in booms. The swings track the business cycle, not tax policy.

The top marginal rate, over that same stretch, has been all over the map: 91% under Eisenhower, 28% under Reagan by 1988, 39.6% under Clinton, 37% today. Yet regardless of whether tax rates were 91% or 37%, the IRS always collects around 17% of GDP.

The conclusion is obvious: if the government wants to collect more tax revenue, they should focus on setting the right conditions for an economic boom.

In short, make the pie bigger for EVERYONE, and hence the government’s slice will grow as well.

Making the pie bigger isn’t that hard, either. America’s private economy is legendary.

All Congress has to do is get out of the way. Attempt to run a balanced budget. Restore credibility. Make it easier for businesses and individuals to be productive. REMOVE idiotic laws instead of creating new ones.

But they’re not interested in any of those things.

Congress has documented evidence of hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud. Yet they  do nothing. They have also pledged to do nothing about Social Security— which is set to run out of money in six years.

The regulatory code in the Land of the Free already runs over 188,000 pages. Yet they expand it every session.

This is the opposite of what they should be doing. And instead of figuring out how to live within their means, they just demand more resources… even though it never works.

Britain tried its 98% tax experiment in the 1970s and spent a decade regretting it.

Ironically the current Labour government has forgotten that painful lesson; they recently abolished the 110-year-old “non-dom” regime, and more than 10,000 millionaires have already left the country.

In the United States, Elizabeth Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax proposal does not just impose a wealth tax. It bundles her wealth tax with an additional 40% exit tax on anyone who renounces US citizenship.

You do not create a 40% tollbooth at the border unless you fully expect people to try to walk through it.

These are not serious ideas to grow an economy.

Rather, they are insidious policies designed to trap people in a system which steals their prosperity.

That is why a Plan B makes so much sense.