Massachusetts loses billions in income after millionaire tax

Story by Greg Ryan •

(Bloomberg) –Residents exiting Massachusetts took a net of $4.2 billion in adjusted gross income with them in 2023, one of the largest totals in the country, after a tax on millionaires took effect.

Call it the Hochul Effect

The amountwas an 8% year-over-year increase, according to Internal Revenue Service data, even as the total number of taxpayers leaving the state slowed.

This was the first year that residentswere subject to a 4% surtaxon incomes over $1 million after voters approved the levy in 2022 to fund schools and transportation.

Several Democrat-led states have since approved or are considering similar taxes on top earners, partlyas a way to make up for federal funding cuts enacted under President Donald Trumpand also to pay for more ambitious agendas.

Supporters of the Massachusetts measurehail the more than $6 billion in revenue it’s brought to state coffers. Critics warn that it’s driving away entrepreneurs, even if Massachusettslacks the high-profile departures seen in California, which is weighing a wealth tax, or Washington, which enacted a millionaire tax earlier this month.

The new IRS data offers evidence for both supporters and opponents of the surtax.

Despite the tax’s implementation, the number of residents moving out of Massachusetts who reported income of $200,000 or more — the top bracket tracked in the IRS data — fell year-over-year. Net outflows from Massachusetts long predate the millionaires tax, especially to Florida and New Hampshire, its northern neighbor, which has no tax on wages or capital gains==. Total lost income was also higher in 2021 than 2023.

The state’s millionaires-tax collections have increased every year since 2023 and so far in fiscal 2026 have jumped 19% year-over-year to $1.3 billion.

That haul “shows most conclusively that the people with very high incomes continue contributing revenue at rising ratesbased on their residence in Massachusetts,” progressive organization Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center said in a statement.

The level ofincome leaving the state remained significantly higher than it was pre-pandemic, even as a Covid-induced explosion in moving activity abated. Thenet number of tax returns from outgoing residents dropped by 36% from 2022 to 2023.

The wealthy now make up alarger share of defectionsfrom Massachusetts. The top earners wereresponsible for 70% of the $4.2 billion in net outflows in 2023, a jump from the previous year andmore than doublethe level from 2019.

“We are trying to make money on a smaller tax base. It’s going to be harder,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank that opposes the tax.

Three business-backed organizations including Pioneer are backingballot questionsthis year, which they argue will recapture economic competitivenesslost because of the millionaires tax.One would lower the state income tax to 4% from 5%,while anotherwould cap how much state revenue can increase in a given year.(Voting is the way the leaders of the state to punish the higher earners still in the state, they’ll say the people voted it in, not us!)

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and other elected officials have blasted the proposed income tax cut, saying it will create a multibillion-dollar hole in an already-tight state budget.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-AA1Z4xdw

The article never explains how fiscally incompetent the leaders are in those states. TheNew Robin Hood affect, is to steal from the rich to pretend they are giving to poor!== Neither gets the benefit when states waste taxes on woke ideology. The states and counties should be forced to audit their states to see how much they waste, but they never do the rational or honest way to manage a budget.

BTW Hochul’s complaint on the Millionaires lost to FL is only going to get more billionaires and millionaires to leave, especially since she wants to go to Fl to drag them back to NY!

No offense to women but they mostly aren’t mathematically inclined, and running a budget in large states is about how much more than can spend on things they want. There are some brilliant women economists but not a ton. IMO

Iran Believes It’s Winning—and Wants a Steep Price to End the War

Tehran sees an opportunity to control the Mideast’s energy as it bets on outlasting Trump’s will—a risky gamble

By Yaroslav Trofimov 3/20/26

.1/2.

DUBAI—Three weeks into the war, the Iranian regime is signaling that it believes it is winning and has the power to impose a settlement on Washington that entrenches Tehran’s dominance of Middle East energy resources for decades to come.

This attitude may prove to be a dangerous misreading of President Trump’s determination, or of Israel’s capacity to inflict strategic blows on the Islamic Republic’s surviving leadership and military capabilities.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given mixed signals on how long the war would go on, as they try to talk markets down and keep Tehran guessing. Netanyahu said Thursday that the war would end “a lot faster than people think.” Trump said this week the U.S. would wrap up the conflict in the “near future” even as the Pentagon dispatched thousands of additional Marines to the Middle East.

The problem is, Iran also has a say in when the guns fall silent—and, for now, it seems to think time works to its benefit.

Despite optimistic U.S. and Israeli pronouncements about destroying launchers and missile stocks, Iran has retained the ability to fire dozens of ballistic missiles, and many more drones, every day across the Middle East.

Instead of declining, the rate of fire actually picked up in recent days compared with 10 days ago. Iranian strikes inflicted catastrophic damage this week on key energy installations in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates—while Iran’s own oil exports kept booming.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf’s chokepoint, remains only possible with Iranian permission. Surging oil and gas prices, meanwhile, are exacting growing pain on economies worldwide—and putting pressure on Trump to end the war that he began in expectation of swift victory on Feb. 28.

“The Iranians aren’t ready to end the war because they have learned an important lesson: They can, comparatively easily and cheaply, cause a lot of damage and disruption. They now want the whole world to learn that lesson, too,” said Dina Esfandiary, an analyst on Iran and author of a book on Iran’s foreign relations.

Seeing its leverage, Tehran has pledged that it will agree to a cease-fire only if Washington and the Gulf states pay a steep price. The spokesman of the Iranian Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee, Ebrahim Rezaei, said after Friday’s meeting with military commanders that any talks with the U.S. are off the agenda as Tehran “focuses on punishing the aggressors.” Other Iranian leaders have been just as triumphalist, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi describing Iran as another Vietnam for the U.S.

That rhetoric may underestimate Washington’s resolve.

“This hubris is dangerous because they are not smart enough to understand that President Trump will never let them win. They don’t understand how far he’s willing to go,” said Jason Greenblatt, who served as the White House special envoy for the Middle East in the first Trump administration. “This can come at a huge cost, but the cost of not taking care of the problem will be many times more expensive over many, many years.”

Demands voiced by Iranian leaders in recent days as conditions for ending the war include massive reparations from the U.S. and its allies and the expulsion of American military forces from the region. They have also called for transforming the Strait of Hormuz—an international waterway where free navigation is guaranteed under international law—into an Iranian toll booth controlling one-third of the world’s shipborne crude oil.

Iran is planning to enshrine a “new status” for the Strait of Hormuz to require every passing ship to pay fees to Tehran for the privilege, Expediency Council member Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to the supreme leader on economic affairs, told the country’s Mehr news agency. “Iran will turn its position from a sanctioned country to an enhanced power in the region and the world,” he said. “We will sanction those domination-seeking arrogant powers.”

https://archive.is/9kCtB#selection-961.0-993.445

>>24409637

.2/2.

It is hard to imagine the U.S.—or the Gulf states—accepting such an arrangement. Trump has repeatedly vowed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, by force if necessary, and has ordered Marine expeditionary units to sail to the Middle East.A U.S. effort to secure shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz would be “a simple military maneuver” with “so little risk,” Trump said Friday in a Truth Social post blasting European allies for refusing to join the mission.

In the age of drones and portable antiship missiles, retaking the Strait of Hormuz would be anything but simple, but not impossible, military experts say. Round-the-clock intelligence and surveillance flights that are now available because of U.S. air superiority, combined with rapid targeting of Iranian weapons systems, could make all the difference, said retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

“It’s not something that is going to happen overnight, but over time the Strait of Hormuz will be open back to the levels of shipping that we saw before this conflict broke out. It is a reasonable estimate that it will be a matter of weeks,” he said.“The Iranians are not going to end up with control over the strait, we are.”

Indeed, the geopolitical implications of allowing Iran to end up in charge of the strategic waterway would be unacceptable, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Chatham House think tank’s Middle East and North Africa program. “If the U.S. cuts and runs, leaving Iran’s Islamic Republic to do what it does best—hold everyone hostage—then the war will be a categorical failure for the United States and President Trump,” she said.

Even if Trump were to leave Iran in control of the Strait of Hormuz under pressure from markets or voters seeking a quick end to the war, the arrangement likely won’t be sustainable for a long time, leading to an imminent new round of warfare, diplomats and analysts say.

“This would not be a very tolerable or acceptable situation for the Gulf states, and I wouldn’t have thought that it would be tolerable or acceptable for a lot of the Gulf’s energy clients—not even for China, and certainly not for India and Japan,” said Robin Mills, chief executive of the Dubai-based Qamar Energy consulting firm. “Even for the U.S., the humiliation would at some point prompt Trump, or someone else, to come back and try to change that.”

While the Iranian leadership currently possesses significant leverage for a deal with the U.S. if it chose to negotiate,it also holds a record of sticking to unrealistically rigid policies since the early days of the Islamic Republic, said Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and author of a book on U.S.-Iranian relations. Back during the Iran-Iraq war, Iran liberated every inch of its territory by 1982—but only agreed to a cease-fire with Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1988, after massive destruction and hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides, he noted.

“The Iranian side has a history of not taking opportunities, on the diplomatic front and on the military front,” he said. “This regime cares a lot about the optics, about the slogans, about not looking weak. But it’s not just the Iranians who can escalate. The United States can also escalate.”

With all its horrors,the Iran-Iraq war also created the foundational myth of the Islamic Republic, cementing its power for the ensuing decades. The regime’s most dangerous enemy now is the Iranian people: The Islamic Republic killed thousands of protesters as it suppressed demonstrations in January.

The current conflict may provide the regime—if it survives—with renewed strength at home, cautioned Nicole Grajewski, an expert on Iran and a professor at the Sciences Po university in Paris. “The regime could play this off as a new Iran-Iraq war,” she said. “There is an outcome of this war that makes the regime more entrenched and more militaristic,with a new mythology around survival and around managing to withstand the U.S. and Israel.”

https://archive.is/9kCtB

InteractivePolls

@IAPolls2022

TEXAS SENATE GOP RUNOFF

🟥 Ken Paxton: 53%

🟥 John Cornyn: 37%

——

Fav-unfav

Ken Paxton: 64-31 (+33)

John Cornyn: 45-47 (-2)

——

• Impact Research for James Talarico (D)• March 12-17 | LV

6:57 AM · Mar 20, 2026

197.5K

Views

https://x.com/IAPolls2022/status/2034947497311748129?s=20

Yes, Yes, Yes, Cornyn is Fucked. Trump will have to back PaxtonBe aware Cornyn is the biggest cheater ever. No one thought he’d get re-elected last time!

‘Tax resistance’ gains attention amid ICE protests, Iran war — and IRS penalties could follow

PUBLISHED SAT, MAR 21 20269:30

KEY POINTS

• Amid the Iran war, some “tax protesters” are planning to withhold some or all of their federal income taxes owed.

• However, the IRS has said repeatedly that moral or religious beliefs don’t exempt filers from their tax responsibility.

• What’s more, failing to file returns or underpaying taxes can trigger hefty IRS penalties and other consequences, experts

Retards at it again

Chicago attorney Rachel Cohen owes more than $8,000 in federal income taxes— but has intentionally left that balance unpaid.(how can she be an attorney? She’s advising others to break the law. Take her law degree back)

“I’m not paying my federal income tax this year,” Cohen said in a widely viewed TikTok video from March 2 about her decision.

The 31-year-old community organizer filed her federal tax return, which shows a balance due of $8,830, according to a tax document reviewed by CNBC.But Cohen said she deliberately chose to withhold payment of that bill as a protest against immigration detention, including ICE facilities, and U.S. strikes on Iran launched without congressional approval.

While voicing resistance to taxes is legal, refusing to pay taxes owed can violate federal law and lead to serious penalties.

“It’s completely OK to be unhappy and be dissatisfied with our government,” said Josh Youngblood, owner of The Youngblood Group, a Dallas-based tax firm. “But not paying taxes, or engaging in tax fraud or evasion, is not the answer.”

In addition to penalties and interest that start accruing immediately on their past-due balances, tax protesters can face “long-term consequences,” such as wage garnishment, a tax lien on property or even jail time, according to Michele Frank, associate professor of accountancy at Miami University. Federal courts have a long track record of siding with the Internal Revenue Service in cases involving tax resistance, routinely dismissing these claims as frivolous and, in some instances, imposing additional penalties.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/21/tax-protesters-iran-war-ice.html

I’m in a large townhome community with a deck. A neighbor takes her shitty little dog for a walk or two daily, and that abominable creature, growls, barks, and attacks other dogs and people as they go by. It’s so loud you can hear it all over the neighborhood.

Did you ever notice it’s these shitty little dogs that make the most problems. I had a black lab and golden retriever and neither of them acted like that, they would try to run up and get petted or they could lick them.

My vent for the day.

Anna Bower

@AnnaBower

An absolutely excruciating moment at the Georgia Supreme Court this week.

Justice Peterson pressed state attorney Deborah Leslie over her citations to cases that apparently don’t exist.

(His disgusting look, is precious!)

2:21 PM · Mar 20, 2026

·4.4M Views

https://x.com/AnnaBower/status/2035059208010207433?s=20

RNC Research

@RNCResearch

SICK!

Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico — who's allegedly a devout Christian — is now talking about "God's sausage" and defends saying "God is nonbinary."

What is wrong with this sick freak?

1:06 PM · Mar 20, 2026

·255K Views

(How does he think that’s funny? He’s got to bi or tri sexual, maybe he likes animals too!)

https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2035040202578669913?s=20

Kim "Katie" USA

@KimKatieUSA

Florida communists in the Sunrise Movement were arrested outside the Krome ICE facility in Miami, Florida.

You commies need to understand that states like Texas and Florida don’t play. In fact, in Florida, vehicles could legally drive right through you.KEK

10:00 AM · Mar 20, 2026

·95.1K Views

https://x.com/KimKatieUSA/status/2034993488727875729?s=20

Trump's team game planning for potential Iran peace talks

After three weeks of war, the Trump administration has beguninitial discussions on the next phase and what peace talks with Iran might look like, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge.

Why it matters: President Trump said Friday that he was considering "winding down" the war, though U.S. officials said the expectation was there would still be two to three additional weeks of fighting. In the meantime, Trump's advisers want to start laying groundwork for diplomacy.

Behind the scenes: Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are involved in the discussions around potential diplomacy, sources say.

Any deal to end the war would need to include thereopening of the Strait of Hormuz, address Iran'sstockpile of highly enriched uranium, and alsoestablish a long-term agreementon Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missiles and support for proxies in the region.

There has been no direct contact between the U.S. and Iran in recent days, though Egypt, Qatar and the U.K. have all passed messages between the two, a U.S. official and two additional sources with knowledge said. Egypt and Qatar have informed the U.S. and Israel that Iran is interested in negotiating, but with very tough terms.

The Iranian demands include aceasefire, guarantees that the war will not resumein the future, andcompensation.

Between the lines: "Our view is we've stunted Iran's growth," said one U.S. official who believes the Iranians will come to the table. The official said the U.S. wants Iran to make six commitments:

No missile program for five years.

Zero uranium enrichment.

Decommissioning of the reactorsat the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear facilities that the U.S. and Israel bombed last year.

Strict outside observation protocolsaround the creation and use of centrifuges and related machinery that could advance a nuclear weapons program.

Arms control treaties with regional countriesthat include a missile cap no higher than 1,000.

No financing for proxiessuch as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen or Hamas in Gaza.

Reality check: Iran hasrepeatedly rejected several of those demandsin the past, and leaders in Tehran have noted the difficulty of negotiating with a president who has engaged in talks in the past only to suddenly bomb them.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Indian counterpart on Saturday thatnormalizing the situation in the Strait of Hormuz would require the U.S. and Israel to stop attacking Iranand commit not to resume the attacks in future, the Iranian foreign ministry said.

As for Trump, he said Friday that he does not oppose talks,but is not interested at the moment in meeting Iran's demands for a ceasefire.

Trump also sees the demand for reparations as a "non-starter," a U.S. official said.

Between the lines: A second official said there could be room tonegotiate over returning frozen assets to Iran.

"They call it reparations.Maybe we call it return of frozen money. There's many different ways that we can wordsmith so that it solves politically what they need to solve, to develop consensus in their system," the official said.

"That's wordsmithing.We have to first get to the place of having the high-quality problem of wordsmithing."

State of play: Trump's teamis currently trying to answer two key questions: Who in Iran is thebest point of contactfor negotiations, andwhich country is best mediator?

Araghchi has been the primary intermediary in past talks,but Trump advisers see him as a "fax machine" rather than someone who is empowered to actually deliver a deal, U.S. officials say.

They'retrying to figure out who actually makes decisions in Iranand how to get in touch with them, U.S. officials say.

And while Oman mediated the last round of nuclear talks,the U.S. is seeking a different mediator, ideally Qatar, due to mutual distrust with the Omanis. U.S. officials said theQataris proved themselves to be effective and trusted mediatorsin Gaza.

The Qataris are willing the help behind the scenes, butdon't want to be the main official mediators, two sources said.

What's next: The sources said Trump's advisers want to be prepared if talks with Iran take shape in the near future.

Witkoff and Kushner's terms will be similar to the ones they presentedin Geneva two days before the war started, according to the sources.

(Knowing how obstinate Iran is, this will be a long negotiation cycle, and of course they’ll demand outrageous requests.)

https://archive.is/Tt6qX

>>24409911. Clean copy

Trump's team game planning for potential Iran peace talks

After three weeks of war, the Trump administration has begun initial discussions on the next phase and what peace talks with Iran might look like, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge.

Why it matters: President Trump said Friday that he was considering "winding down" the war, though U.S. officials said the expectation was there would still be two to three additional weeks of fighting. In the meantime, Trump's advisers want to start laying groundwork for diplomacy.

Behind the scenes: Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are involved in the discussions around potential diplomacy, sources say.

Any deal to end the war would need to include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, address Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and also establish a long-term agreement on Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missiles and support for proxies in the region.

There has been no direct contact between the U.S. and Iran in recent days, though Egypt, Qatar and the U.K. have all passed messages between the two, a U.S. official and two additional sources with knowledge said. Egypt and Qatar have informed the U.S. and Israel that Iran is interested in negotiating, but with very tough terms.

The Iranian demands include a ceasefire, guarantees that the war will not resume in the future, and compensation.

Between the lines: "Our view is we've stunted Iran's growth," said one U.S. official who believes the Iranians will come to the table. The official said the U.S. wants Iran to make six commitments:

No missile program for five years.

Zero uranium enrichment.

Decommissioning of the reactors at the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear facilities that the U.S. and Israel bombed last year.

Strict outside observation protocols around the creation and use of centrifuges and related machinery that could advance a nuclear weapons program.

Arms control treaties with regional countries that include a missile cap no higher than 1,000.

No financing for proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen or Hamas in Gaza.

Reality check: Iran has repeatedly rejected several of those demands in the past, and leaders in Tehran have noted the difficulty of negotiating with a president who has engaged in talks in the past only to suddenly bomb them.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Indian counterpart on Saturday that normalizing the situation in the Strait of Hormuz would require the U.S. and Israel to stop attacking Iran and commit not to resume the attacks in future, the Iranian foreign ministry said.

As for Trump, he said Friday that he does not oppose talks, but is not interested at the moment in meeting Iran's demands for a ceasefire.

Trump also sees the demand for reparations as a "non-starter," a U.S. official said.

Between the lines: A second official said there could be room to negotiate over returning frozen assets to Iran.

"They call it reparations. Maybe we call it return of frozen money. There's many different ways that we can wordsmith so that it solves politically what they need to solve, to develop consensus in their system," the official said.

"That's wordsmithing. We have to first get to the place of having the high-quality problem of wordsmithing."

State of play: Trump's team is currently trying to answer two key questions: Who in Iran is the best point of contact for negotiations, and which country is best mediator?

Araghchi has been the primary intermediary in past talks, but Trump advisers see him as a "fax machine" rather than someone who is empowered to actually deliver a deal, U.S. officials say.

They're trying to figure out who actually makes decisions in Iran and how to get in touch with them, U.S. officials say.

And while Oman mediated the last round of nuclear talks, the U.S. is seeking a different mediator, ideally Qatar, due to mutual distrust with the Omanis. U.S. officials said the Qataris proved themselves to be effective and trusted mediators in Gaza.

The Qataris are willing the help behind the scenes, but don't want to be the main official mediators, two sources said.

What's next: The sources said Trump's advisers want to be prepared if talks with Iran take shape in the near future.

Witkoff and Kushner's terms will be similar to the ones they presented in Geneva two days before the war started, according to the sources.

https://archive.is/Tt6qX#selection-629.0-839.139

Acyn

@Acyn

Japanese PM: Tomorrow is the birthday of your son, Mr. Barron Trump, and I know he has grown up so much into a very tall, good looking gentleman. As I see you, Donald, it is very clear where he got it. There’s no doubt about it.

7:34 PM · Mar 19, 2026

·1M Views

https://x.com/Acyn/status/2034775531049427112?s=20

DrOzCMS

@DrOzCMS

Hospice fraud isn’t just about stealing your tax dollars – in some cases it’s about stealing your life.

Federal and state authorities raided this illegal hospice ring in southern California earlier this month,but there are plenty more like it. We won’t rest until seniors and taxpayers are safe.

3:02 PM · Mar 18, 2026

·181.3K Views

https://x.com/DrOzCMS/status/2034344602841268358?s=20

>>24409967. Anons you need to listen what Dr. Oz is saying about these fake Hospice prevent homeowners and their facility it’s hideously evil! Proving CA and others never check their credentials. These people took 6 seniors were even eligible for hospice. They were not never death but one patient died in that home because of the non treatment

Think about this that they were your grandparents or parents. These makes me hopping mad

‘The Five’: JB Pritzker outlines ‘Project 2029’

‘The Five’ co-hosts discuss the outcomes of key elections across Illinois

5:43

https://youtu.be/RA0GlIAgPmo

JUST IN: Trump says Iran is ‘FINISHED’yesterday

12:50

https://youtu.be/AKRj7PvUr_w

Pentagon to adopt Palantir AI as core US military system, memo says

David Jeans Sat, March 21, 2026 at By David Jeans

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Palantir (PLTR)’s Maven artificial intelligence systemwill become an official program of record, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg said in a letter to Pentagon leaders, a move that locks in long-term use of Palantir’s weapons-targeting ‌technology across the U.S. military.

In the March 9 letter to senior Pentagon leaders and U.S. military commanders, Feinberg saidembedding Palantir’s Maven ‌Smart System would provide warfighters “with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains”.

The decision is expected togo into effect by the close of the ​current fiscal year, which ends in September, according to the letter, which was reviewed by Reuters and has not been previously reported.

Maven is a command-and-control software platform that analyzes battlefield data and identifies targets. It is already the primary AI operating system for the U.S. military, which has carried out thousands of targeted strikes against Iran over the last three weeks.

Designating Maven as a program of recordwill streamline its adoption across all arms of the military and provide ‌stable, long-term funding, Feinberg said.

The memo ordered oversight of ⁠Maven be moved from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agencyto the Pentagon’s Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office within 30 days. Future contracting with Palantir will be handled by the Army, the letter said.

“It is imperative that we invest now ⁠and with focus to deepen the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across the Joint Force and establish AI-enabled decision-making as the cornerstone of our strategy,” Feinberg wrote.

Palantir and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Palantir rises further at the Pentagon

Feinberg’s order is a significant win for Palantir, which has landed a growing ​stream ​of contracts with the U.S. government, including a deal announced last summer with the ​U.S. Army worth up to $10 billion.Those awards have helped ‌double the company’s stock price in the past year, lifting its market value to nearly $360 billion.

Maven can rapidly analyze huge amounts of data from satellites, drones, radars, sensors and intelligence reports, and use AI to automatically identify potential threats or targets, like enemy military vehicles, buildings and weapons stockpiles.

During a presentation at a Palantir event earlier this month, Pentagon official Cameron Stanley, who leads its AI office, demonstrated how the company’s Maven platform could be used for weapons targeting in the Middle East, and he showed heat map screenshots from the Maven platform…

(Hiring a satanic company and leaders, that hate human beings, doesn’t sound like it’s a good idea to me)

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/exclusive-pentagon-adopt-palantir-ai-232821913.html

Late Mail Ballots at the Supreme Court Election Day is set by federal law.

Is that also an absentee deadline?

Mass mail voting has been bad for public confidence, and on Monday the Supreme Court can help. Mississippi law says absentee ballots that are postmarked on time are valid even if officials don’t receive them from the mailman until a week later. Other states have similar rules. The question for the Justices: Does accepting tardy mail votes violate the federal law that sets a uniform Election Day?

In a series of provisions beginning in 1845, Congress fixed federal elections on a Tuesday in early November. No problem, the state argues in Watson v. Republican National Committee:

Committee: “Mississippi requires that ballots for federal offices be cast—marked and submitted to election officials—by federal election day.” If early voting is fine, and if the counting process can go on for days after the polls close, then why not the arrival of absentee ballots that were marked and mailed on time?

Mississippi suggests that once the U.S. Postal Service takes custody of any outstanding ballots, then the election’s winner is already determined, however long it takes the mail to arrive and the result to become clear. “An election occurs when the voters have cast their ballots,” the state says. “The voters have then chosen and their choice is conclusive: the election is over. An election thus does not depend on when ballots are received.”

This is giving the reliability of the post office too much credit. In 2024 the National Association of Secretaries of State complained to the USPS that “officials in multiple states report receiving anywhere from dozens to hundreds of ballots 10 or more days after postmark.”

Another flub is when ballots show up without any legible postmarks. Sometimes judges rule that if they arrive two or three days after Election Day, it can be simply presumed they were mailed on time.

In a close election, the winner might turn on these kinds of postal hiccups and the ensuing litigation. Mississippi’s definition, that a vote is “cast” when it’s given to the USPS, creates a Schrödinger’s ballot box: The state might say the election is finished, but some candidate’s political career could be both alive and dead, depending on how much mail gets misdelivered that week or whether the postmark process malfunctioned.

By the way, what makes the USPS so special? Mississippi’s position lacks a limiting principle, as the challengers to its late-ballot law explain. “A State could say that a ballot is timely cast once the voter hands it over to a family member or a party operative to deliver,” the Republican National Committee argues in its brief. Could states that allow ballot harvesting offer those crews a two-day grace period, as long as they quit collecting on Election Day?

The other interpretation is more straightforward. “The ‘day for the election’ means the day that election officials close the ballot box,” the RNC says. Voting in person was historically the norm, and a ballot isn’t cast until officials have it: “That was the ordinary meaning of ‘cast’ for decades after Congress enacted the election-day statutes, and even long after absentee voting had become ubiquitous.”

Absentee voting is occasionally a necessity, and in modest numbers it isn’t a difficulty, but widespread mail ballots and lax deadlines have introduced slack into the election system. Calling races in California can take nearly a month, and at some point control of Congress could depend on its dreadfully slow tallying.

Opposing that transformation of American elections doesn’t require buying into President Trump’s wildest fraud claims, and it needn’t be partisan, since Monday’s case pits the Republican Party against GOP-leaning Mississippi.If the Justices rule that federal law means the ballot box is shut on Election Day, it won’t fix all of this. But it would be a start.

https://archive.is/6HTUt

If late delivered ballots are received after or even on Election Day by mail or any others delayed reason, of course it should not be counted according to the law; otherwise the cheaters will send more for weeks. Plus the voter will not even know if it was received or not. Believe me, the voting day is the same as the counting day and ==there’s no law that says a

Ballots can be counted after “election day”. ==So some late ballots have arrived late for years, but that doesn’t make them eligible to counted. Plus the voter wouldn’t know and probably care if not counted . If the SC doesn’t know this is what was done in all elections (200+ years) not taking or counting late ballots, then the Supreme Count is stupid partisan and fulfill the Dems Wet Dream, and we are then fucked.)