After the catastrophe of 2020 many Americans are wondering, “why should I pay taxes? The government did nothing for me in 2020, so why in the hell should I give it money?”

After 432,031 coronavirus deaths, the Capitol Riot, the election, 37 million Americans without food, and Trump such gripes are rational. However, there are still good reasons for Americans to pay taxes.

Reasons Americans should Pay Taxes in 2021 include:

1. Ex-President Donald J. Trump’s (R-Florida) millionaire children need 24-Hour-a-day Secret Service protection to keep lynch mobs out of their homes.
2. President Joe Biden’s (D-Delaware) wealthy children need 24-hour-a-day Secret Service protection to keep them safe from lynch mobs. …

The cryptocurrency story of 2020 was Polkdadot (DOT) and most people missed it.

To explain, CoinMarketCap began tracking Polkadot (DOT) at $3.00 on 20 August 2020. By 25 January 2021, Mr. Market was paying a $17.49 Coin Price for Polkadot.

On 25 January 2021, CoinMarketCap estimates Polkadot had a $15.809 billion Market Capitalization, and a $3.311 billion 24-Hour Market Volume. Thus, Polkadot has become one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies around. CoinMarketCap based these estimates on a circulating of 904.113 million DOT and a Total Supply of 1.038 billion DOT.

On 25 January 2021, CoinMarketCap estimates Polkadot had a $15.809 billion Market Capitalization, and a $3.311 billion 24-Hour Market Volume. Thus, Polkadot has become one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies around. CoinMarketCap based these estimates on a circulating of 904.113 million DOT and a Total Supply of 1.038 …

Now that 2020 is over, it is a good time to examine the political losers and winners of 2020.

I will ignore n the obvious winner President Joe Biden (D-Delaware) and the biggest loser President Donald J. Trump (R-Florida). Instead, I will concentrate on some lesser figures whose gains can point to the future directions of American politics.

Winner #1 Barack Hussein Obama

Former President Barack Hussein Obama (D-Illinois) had the most curious political winner of 2020. In fact, Obama took the greatest political risk of 2020 and succeeded.

Obama relinquished his role of aloof and disinterested ex-President and elder statesman, by intervening in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. …

Many people will wonder what historical parallels are best for modern America.

In particular, what historical events are reminiscent of the 6 January Trump Riot at the US Capitol. Frighteningly, the apparent parallels for those events include some of history’s worst bloodbaths and the fall of some Republics.

Unfortunately, ignorant Americans will ignore some of the most telling historical parallels and take the simple path of comparing everything to Nazi Germany. I think there are better historical analogies for the danger America faces than Hitler’s barbarism.

Four ominous parallels for modern America include Pinochet’s Chile, the Spanish Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Roman Republic. I will examine these frightening parallels in the order of the events I consider most appropriate. …

America could face a constitutional crisis, or crisis of governance, and few people realize it.

To elaborate, there are superficial similarities between the present civil unrest in America and the situation that led to the Constitutional Convention in the 1780s. In fact, 6 January 2021 was not the first time a mob attacked Congress.

On June 20, 1783, a mob of 400 soldiers from George Washington’s Continental Army surrounded Philadelphia’s Independence Hall where the Continental Congress was meeting. The soldiers were demanding back pay, which Congress did not have.

Fortunately, the soldiers allowed Congress to leave and reconvene in Princeton, New Jersey. Eventually, soldiers from the Continental Army put down the Pennsylvania Mutiny. However, the mutiny marked the beginning of a wave of civil unrest that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. …

Participants in the 6 January attack on the US capitol could have received 28.15 Bitcoin (BTC) from a mysterious French computer programmer, Chainalysis alleges.

On 8 December 2021, 28.15 BTC, worth $938,428.11 on 22 January 2021, were sent to 22 addresses in the United States, Chainalysis Insights claims. Most of those addresses belong to far-right activists and internet personalities, Chainalysis alleges.

For instance, Chainalysis claims podcaster Nick Fuentes, an alleged white nationalist, received Bitcoin (BTC) worth $450,045.45 on 22 January 2021. Fuentes was seen at the Capitol on 6 January but claims not to have entered the building or participated in the attack. Other alleged recipients include the VDARE Foundation which operates VDARE.com …

Strangely, IBM (NYSE: IBM); a company many investors dismiss as a dinosaur could be the best investment in cloud-computing.

IBM (IBM) is leveraging Red Hat’s Linux expertise to become a leader in multicloud applications, ZDNet’s Larry Dignan speculates. Multicloud is the use of multiple cloud-computing and storage services to host applications and store data in a single architecture.

IBM’s mutlicloud solutions run can run an app or platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and the Google Cloud Dignan claims. Moreover, IBM is accumulating cloud-consulting expertise through acquisitions.

Note I think IBM’s most valuable subsidiary is Red Hat. To explain, Red Hat makes IBM a leader in Linux and open-sourced solutions. Hence, IBM has expertise in the world’s most popular open-sourced operating system Linux. Using open-source makes it easy for IT professionals to install Red Hat and IBM solutions on several clouds at once. …

Many investors bet that America’s income inequality will get worse. For example, First Republic Bank’s share price rose from $118.18 on 17 January 2020 to $155.59 on 20 January 2021.

Moreover, Mr. Market paid $163.30 for First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC) on 12 January 2021. I think income inequality is driving First Republic’s share price because First Republic is a wealth management company.

Specifically, First Republic (FRC) offers personal banking, business banking, and private wealth management services to high-net worth individuals; a popular euphemism for rich people. …