;)
The Commentariat -- November 3, 2017
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Because They're Blinded by the Stupid. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Three conservative House Republicans are expected to file a resolution Friday calling on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, accusing him of conflicts of interest. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who wrote the resolution, accuses Mueller of having a conflict of interest because he was serving as FBI chief when the Obama administration approved a deal allowing a Russian company to purchase a Canada-based mining group with uranium operations in the United States, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post."
Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was dishonorably discharged from the Army on Friday by a military judge, but received no prison time, for desertion and endangering troops, ending a drama that began more than eight years ago in war-torn Afghanistan."
As contributor Ken W. writes, Dylan Matthews of Vox does a fine job of explaining the House's tax bill. Because of all the variables, unless you're in the top one percent, you'll just have to guess whether or not you stand to gain or lose, but most Americans -- including those of you who are financially comfortable -- are losers & as the deficit rises & more benefits for the rich kick in, more will become losers.
*****
Binyamin Appelbaum & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump nominated Jerome H. Powell to chair the Federal Reserve on Thursday afternoon, bypassing Janet L. Yellen for a second term but turning to a replacement who is expected to stay the course on monetary policy if the economy continues its steady growth.... Mr. Powell, a member of the Fed's board of governors since 2012, has consistently voted with Ms. Yellen, and colleagues consider him a centrist and pragmatist. But his tenure as a central banker has been relatively brief, and he has expressed skepticism in the past about the unconventional measures that the Fed has taken in the wake of the severe recession of 2008 and 2009. Mr. Powell could also depart from the Fed's current trajectory when it comes to regulating banks and other financial institutions -- rules Mr. Trump has said should be loosened." (Also linked yesterday.)
Greg Sargent: "When Trump dismisses discussion of Russian interference in the 2016 election as a hoax, he isn't merely saying the charge of collusion with that meddling is a hoax. He's also saying that the alleged Russian sabotage itself, irrespective of whether his campaign colluded with it, definitively never happened at all and, by extension, doesn't merit any inquiry or discussion. Some new reporting out this morning underscores in a fresh way just how reckless, irresponsible and potentially dangerous to our democracy this stance has become." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ken Dilanian & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected a proposal by a junior campaign aide [-- George Papadopoulos --] who offered to use his 'Russian contacts' to try to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.... This new revelation is significant because Sessions told Congress under oath in June [actually January 2017] that he had 'no knowledge' of any conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign about 'any type of interference with any campaign' by Russians. Congressional investigators want to question Sessions about the new disclosures and his new recollection, multiple Congressional officials told NBC News. Both the judiciary and the intelligence committees have an interest in doing so, the officials said. The meeting at which Papadopoulos floated the idea of Trump sitting down with Putin occurred March 31, [2016] and Sessions can be seen in a photo sitting at the head of the table. At the other end was Trump." ...
... Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "After Trump declined to rule out the idea, Sessions weighed in and rejected the proposed meeting, according to a person who attended.... Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 in Republican leadership who serves on the intelligence and judiciary panels, said he was unaware of Sessions' attendance at that meeting until now. He added: 'I certainly think it's a legitimate area of inquiry' for lawmakers to pursue." ...
... Manu Raju & Jim Acosta of CNN: "Candidate Donald Trump did not dismiss the idea of arranging a meeting with Russia's president when it was suggested in a meeting with his campaign foreign policy advisers last year, according to a person in the room. The idea was raised by George Papadopoulos as he introduced himself at a March 2016 meeting of the Republican candidate's foreign policy advisers, according to a court filing. 'He didn't say yes and he didn't say no,' the official said, declining to be more specific about Trump's response to Papadopoulos." ...
... Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page privately testified Thursday that he mentioned to Jeff Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign -- as new questions emerge about the attorney general's comments to Congress about Russia and the Trump campaign. During more than six hours of closed-door testimony, Page said that he informed Sessions about his coming July 2016 trip to Russia.... Page described the conversation to CNN after he finished talking to the House intelligence committee." ...
... Page Pleads the Fifth. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Carter Page invoked his Fifth Amendment rights Thursday when asked by House Intelligence Committee members why he hadn't turned over documents for their probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, lawmakers said." It is not clear what subpoenaed documents Page withheld. ...
... Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "Standing before reporters in February, President Trump said unequivocally that he knew of nobody from his campaign who was in contact with Russians during the election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told the Senate the same thing. Court documents unsealed this week cast doubt on both statements and raised the possibility that Mr. Sessions could be called back to Congress for further questioning.... The court documents represent the first concrete evidence that Mr. Trump was personally told about ties between a campaign adviser and Russian officials.... At a Feb. 16, 2017, White House news conference, a reporter asked Mr. Trump, 'Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with Russia during the course of the election?' 'No,' Mr. Trump said. 'Nobody that I know of. Nobody.'... [At the March 2016 meeting, when campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos proposed arranging a meeting between Trump & Putin, Trump showed interest, but] Mr. Sessions vehemently opposed the idea, meeting attendee J. D. Gordon recalled. 'And he said that no one should talk about it.'... On Thursday, as news of Papadopoulos’s Russian ties continued to ripple through Washington, [Sen. Al] Franken [D-Minn.] sent a stern letter to Mr. Sessions. 'This is another example in an alarming pattern in which you, the nation's top law enforcement official, apparently failed to tell the truth, under oath,' he wrote." ...
... Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Jared Kushner has turned over documents in recent weeks to special counsel Robert Mueller as investigators have begun asking in witness interviews about Kushner's role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey, CNN has learned.... Their questions about Kushner signal that Mueller's investigators are reaching the President's inner circle and have extended beyond the 2016 campaign to actions taken at the White House by high-level officials. It is not clear how Kushner's advice to the President might relate to the overall Russia investigation or potential obstruction of justice." ...
... Juliet Eilperin & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientist nominee, Sam Cloviswithdrew his name from consideration Wednesday amid revelations that he was among top officials on the Trump campaign who was aware of efforts by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials.... In a letter to the president Wednesday, Clovis explained that he did not think he could get a fair consideration from the Senate, which was slated to hold a hearing on his appointment on Nov. 9. 'The political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to receive balanced and fair consideration for this position,' wrote Clovis, who currently serves as USDA's senior White House adviser. 'The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases with intensity each day.'" Thanks to MAG for the link. See also Dana Milbank's column on Clovis, et al., linked below. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So unfair that meanies are picking on completely unqualified Trump nominees who also may be under suspicion of collaborating with the Kremlin. ...
... John Santucci & James Meek of ABC News: "The White House first learned one of its senior staffers met with the grand jury hearing the case presented by the special counsel into alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 election not from the staffer but from media reports, sources with knowledge of the investigation tell ABC News. Former Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis recently testified before that grand jury into his role on ... Donald Trump's campaign. Clovis currently serves as the senior White House adviser to the Department of Agriculture."...
... Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Buried deep in Robert Mueller's indictment of Paul Manafort is a new link between Donald Trump's former campaign and Russian organized crime. The indictment ... includes an extensive look into Paul Manafort's byzantine financial dealings. In particular, it details how he used a company called Lucicle Consultants Limited to wire millions of dollars into the United States.... The Cyprus-based Lucicle Consultants Limited, in turn, reportedly received millions of dollars from a businessman and Ukrainian parliamentarian named Ivan Fursin, who is closely linked to one of Russia's most notorious criminals: Semion Mogilevich. Mogilevich is frequently described as 'the most dangerous mobster in the world.'" --safari ...
Ryan Goodman in a New York Times op-ed: We should stop using the word "collusion" to describe what Trump and Co. did or did not do. Except in a very limited case, "collusion" is not a legal term. Besides, Republicans and the Trump camp in particular, have used the nebulous term to muddy the waters, accusing President Obama & Hillary Clinton of "colluding" with the Russian government while denying that they themselves have "colluded" with Russian interests. ...
... The Art of the Troll. Ben Collins & Joseph Fox of The Daily Beast: "Jenna Abrams, the freewheeling American blogger who believed in a return to segregation and said that many of America's problems stemmed from PC culture run amok, did not exist.... Her account was the creation of employees at the Internet Research Agency, or the Russian government-funded 'troll farm,' in St. Petersburg.... But Abrams got very real attention from almost any national news outlet you can think of, according to a Daily Beast analysis of her online footprint.... Abrams' pervasiveness in American news outlets shows just how much impact Russia&r's troll farm had on American discourse in the run-up to the 2016 election -- and illustrates how Russian talking points can seep into American mainstream media without even a single dollar spent on advertising." --safari
The USA of, for, by Trump. Jesse Byrnes of The Hill: "President Trump pushed back Thursday on concerns about a lack of nominees for key positions at the State Department, arguing it wouldn't affect his agenda. 'Let me tell you, the one that matters is me, I'm the only one that matters because when it comes to it that's what the policy is going to be,' Trump said on Fox News when pressed about vacancies by Laura Ingraham." --safari
Fossil Fuels & Sex Crimes. Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault. Speakingduring an energy policy discussion about energy policy..., Perry discussed his recent trip to Africa. He said a young girl told him that energy is important to her because she often reads by the light of a fire with toxic fumes. 'But also from the standpoint of sexual assault,' Perry said. 'When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sunshine may be the best disinfectant, but apparently solar energy doesn't have as much policing power as good ole fossil fuels. ...
...Vive la Corruption! John Bowden of The Hill: "The Trump administration said Thursday it would exit an international effort to fight corruption that targeted revenue from oil and natural gas extraction. The U.S. will no longer participate in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global initiative that requires member nations to disclose their revenues from oil, gas and mining assets, according to Reuters." --safari
Today is a reminder that the best investment 99 percent of American adults can make is to vote for candidates who have the interests of the general public in mind. There is no up-front cost to it (except in time), and the financial pay-off is real & substantial. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... Jim Tankersley & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Republican lawmakers are unveiling the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades, outlining a plan to cut taxes for corporations, reduce them for middle-class families and tilt the United States closer, but not entirely, toward the kind of tax system long championed by businesses, according to talking points circulated on Thursday. The House plan, released after weeks of internal debate, conflict and delay, is far from final and will ignite a legislative and lobbying fight as Democrats, business groups and other special interests tear into the text ahead of a Republican sprint to get the legislation passed and to President Trump's desk by Christmas. The bill keeps a top rate of 39.6 percent for the highest-earners and roughly doubles the standard deduction for middle class families. It expands the child tax credit to $1,600 from $1,000 and will not make any changes to the 401(k) plans. It does propose changes to the popular mortgage interest deduction. Under the Republican plan, existing homeowners can keep their mortgage interest deduction but future purchases will be capped at $500,000. The bill cuts the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, from 35 percent.... One of the biggest flash points will be how the bill treats the state and local tax deduction, which lawmakers are proposing to cap at $10,000. That will not be enough for Republicans in some high-tax states, where middle-class families make heavy use of the deduction." No word yet on the estate tax proposal. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The story has been updated. Among other additions: "The proposal will double the estate tax exemption to roughly $11 million, from $5.49 million, meaning families can avoid paying taxes on large inheritance. And it eventually repeals the estate tax altogether, phasing it out entirely in six years." ...
... Ivanka at Work? Marie Solis of Newsweek: "Unborn fetuses would be eligible to be beneficiaries of tax savings accounts under the GOP's new tax plan. That means expecting parents would have the option of opening a 529 savings plan, which sets aside money for college or other higher education, before their child is even born.... The clause has stunned leading tax experts. 'It's clearly a politically motivated issue that's playing to the GOP base,' Bill Gale..., of the ... Tax Policy Center told Newsweek. He added: 'There's a normal presumption that 529s apply to people who have been born.'" --safari ...
... New York Times Editors: "With their new bill that would slash taxes on the wealthy and blow up the federal budget deficit, House Republicans and President Trump are making it absolutely clear whom they are working for -- the top 1 percent -- and whom they consider dispensable. Well, that's pretty much everybody else.... The changes that could affect middle-class families the hardest include the elimination of the deduction for state and local income taxes. And the property-tax deductible would be capped at $10,000.... One particularly hardhearted change would eliminate the deduction for medical expenses, which is primarily used by people with serious and chronic illnesses. Gone, too, would be important tax credits and deductions for college tuition and interest on student loans."
... Paul Krugman: "On Thursday, House Republicans unveiled a tax 'reform' bill with the same good order and careful deliberation with which they unveiled their various attempts to repeal Obamacare. That is, after having had years to prepare, the G.O.P. waited until the last minute to throw something together, without any hearings or serious analysis. Budget wonks are frantically going through the legislative language, trying to figure out what it means and what it would do -- but they can take some comfort in the fact that the bill's authors are almost equally in the dark. O.K., some things are clear: ... You won't go far wrong if you think of the big tax cuts in the law as having been custom designed to benefit the Trump family. But these big tax cuts would blow a multitrillion-dollar hole in the budget, so Republicans have been scrambling to find 'pay-fors' that limit the addition to the deficit.... Since the point of these measures is to offset tax cuts for the rich, they will, more or less by definition, end up raising taxes on large numbers of middle-class families."
Donna Brazile writes a startling confessional in Politico Magazine. The title of the piece is, "Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC." Brazile fingers both Clinton & Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, from whom Brazile took over as DNC chair after the party forced out Wasserman-Schultz. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Sophie Tatum of CNN: "Asked Thursday by CNN's Jake Tapper whether she believes that the Democratic campaign organization was tipped in favor of Clinton over her primary opponent, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren responded without hesitation: 'Yes.'" ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: Brazile's "piece ... is remarkable -- both for the substance of its allegations and the melodramatic tenor of its prose.... Brazile's ... tale is by turns informative, stale, and (literally) unbelievable." ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "The title of Brazile's piece, 'Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC' is seriously misleading. Back in May of 2016, Kenneth Vogel and Isaac Arnsdorf reported on almost everything Brazile covers. Other reports followed, like the one from Jeff Stein. Here's what Brazile adds to the reporting: 'The [Hillary Victory Fund] agreement ... specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party's finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.'... But ... there was also a Bernie Victory Fund, it's just that Sanders never raised any money for it.... It demonstrates that the party was willing to work with any candidate in the primary who sought such an agreement.... There are similar questions that have surfaced about the RNC.... I'll leave it to the political historians to document how far all of this has come from the days when the RNC and the DNC were the powerhouses that controlled politics in this country. But right now there are two competing forces that are decimating these organizations: 1. The Supreme Court's Citizen United decision that allowed unlimited political spending by the oligarchs, and 2. The unleashing of grassroots politics that started with Howard Dean, was successfully marshaled by Barack Obama, and inflamed the candidacies of both Sanders and Trump." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic has quite a few observations about Brazile's piece, but the most interesting one is his conclusion: "Brazile's bound toward the Bernie bandwagon is another indication of how Sanders is, at least for the moment, the de facto leader of the Democratic Party."
... Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "The Democratic National Committee dismissed its top fundraiser [-- Emily Mellencamp Smith --] Thursday after just five months on the job, two Democrats familiar with the move told Politico.... The committee's slow fundraising has been a serious problem for the party since the 2016 election." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND kudos to DNC chair Tom Perez for making the announcement the very day people are talking about sneaky Democratic party fundraising tricks. Nothing like calling attention to the party's failures. AND you wonder why Democrats lose. Answer: They haven't got a lick of political sense.
Joseph Bernstein of BuzzFeed: "Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who has come under media scrutiny for his role in helping elect Donald Trump, announced today he would step down from his role as co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies. The decision, announced in a memo to Renaissance employees, followed a BuzzFeed News exposé revealing the connections of Breitbart -- partially owned by Mercer -- to white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Sources familiar with Renaissance informed BuzzFeed News in recent days of significant anger within the company about the report, which revealed that former Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos had cultivated white nationalists and used them to generate ideas and help edit stories on the site. Mercer's statement specifically denounces Yiannopoulos and states that 'I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him.' He also announced his intention to sell his stake in Breitbart to his daughters."
Kate Aranoff of The Intercept: "National outrage has led to the cancellation of a suspicious $300 million contract doled out to a tiny Montana company that was oddly tasked with rebuilding large parts of Puerto Rico's electric grid. A separate $200 million contract has faced little scrutiny, but may ultimately be even more scandalous for what it says about the effort to rebuild the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The deal was inked with a company called Cobra Acquisitions LLC, which didn't even exist until this year." --safari
Oh Noes! Michael Calderone of Politico: "Mother Jones magazine's editor and chief executive acknowledged on Thursday that they investigated Washington bureau chief David Corn for inappropriate workplace behavior three years ago, warning him about touching female staffers and insensitive descriptions of sexual violence, and would now probe the allegations further in light of two emails written by former staffers in 2014 and 2015 and obtained by Politico. One of the emails, written in 2015 by a former staffer outlining concerns she had heard from other women in the Washington office, said Corn ... made 'rape jokes,' 'regularly gave [several women] unwelcome shoulder rubs and engaged in uninvited touching of their legs, arms, backs, and waists,' and 'made inappropriate comments about women's sexuality and anatomy.' The other email, from 2014, was by a former female staffer who claimed that Corn 'came up behind me and put his hands and arms around my body in a way that felt sexual and domineering.'"
Alex Jung of Vulture: "Earlier this week, the actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when he was 14 years old.... Since then, others have come forward with further allegations against Spacey, including the filmmaker Tony Montana, who said that Spacey groped him in public in 2003, and the actor Roberto Cavazos, who said he witnessed Spacey court and inappropriately touch younger male actors at the Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was the artistic director from 2004 to 2015." ...
... Chloe Melas of CNN: "Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix's 'House of Cards' into a 'toxic' work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment, eight people who currently work on the show or worked on it in the past tell CNN.... [A] former production assistant, whose account has never previously been disclosed, told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him during one of the show's early seasons. All eight people, each of whom spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity..., described Spacey's behavior as 'predatory,' saying it included nonconsensual touching and crude comments and targeted production staffers who were typically young and male." ...
... NEW. He'll Never Work in This Town Again. Jordan Crucchiola of Vulture: "Now [Spacey's] publicist Staci Wolfe has confirmed to Vulture that she has dropped the actor and producer as a client, while a source close to the actor confirms he has also been dropped by the talent agency CAA."
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Reader Comments (24)
Question:
Will the Pretender take the sterling foreign policy advisors he relied on during his campaign with him on his East Asia trip to avail himself of their proven expertise--they do seem to know a lot about Russia anyway--or to keep them far, far away from the Special Counsel?
@Ken Winkes. Nah. They've all had their passports confiscated & are wearing ankle monitors.
Remember how Wonderboy Kushner used to be Trump's "expert" on China, then all the sudden in September he was disinvited from the Asia trip? Think house arrest.
"[Robert Mercer] also announced his intention to sell his stake in Breitbart to his daughters."
Handing off the Neo-Nazi advocacy to his daughters, whatta guy! Ol' Bob must be so steamed that he's had to distance himself from his pet project, surely he'll be joining the local chapter of his "Woe-Is-Me" self-condolence therapy group organized by white, male conservatives across our butthurt nation. But I'm not sure how this would appease the unease of fellow investors knowing that the white nationalist fever dream is still very in-house. Robert and his daughter Rebekah are known to be two peas in a diseased pod. Surely he's trying to push media sources to "whitewash" his image, but we shouldn't allow a crack of daylight between him and his financing of evil, divisive forces in our country.
On another note, this Jeff Session merry-go-round of continuously "cleaning up" recurring false testimonies is making the most astounding mockery of the supposed power of speaking "under oath". And this, most embarrassingly, coming from the top law enforcement officer in the country! Oh wait, that actual title belongs to the President, our law-bender-in-chief. Lying under oath sans consequences is just another norm shattered by this unscrupulous administration.
Unfortunately, the irony is left for only us to ponder. These shameless souls haven't a decent bone in their body. If it advances their interests, "norms" will follow.
Can we please, now, dispense with the mealy mouthed euphemisms regarding collusion with Russia and the Trumpies? Enough already with “cast doubt on” and “possible untruths”. Trump and Sessions and everyone else lied through their teeth. Period. Enough with this bullshit. Plenty of reporters had no problem calling Obama a liar when he dragged his feet on producing his birth certificate signed by Ayatollah Khomeini showing that he was born in seven different Muslim countries. Sessions’ lies are especially obvious and egregious, as he lied under oath. What do you think he would suggest as punishment for one of his enemies had they lied to Congress? He’d probably ask for 20 years solitary confinement. Let’s see what he gets. “Dear Jeffbo, please try not to lie so much in the future. ‘kay? Signed, your fellow Comfederate liars.”
And speaking of "shameless souls: The GOP tax plan takes from orphans, but gives to Trust-fund kids.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/the-gop-tax-
plan-hurts-orphans-helps-trust-fund-kids.html
The Donna B. buzz: The lady is pissed, obviously felt dismissed. But what a shame this had to come out now––another thing Fox will glom on to and milk to death.
Curious to see how Laura I. is handling her new show I peeped in last night for a short while. She doesn't shut up––her poor guests are talked over––listened to her rant on Michelle Obama's speech about sexual harassment ––how we raise our boys––Laura's take? "What does SHE know about raising boys!"
And our wee Keebler elf with that twinkle in his eye is gonna get it––by and by.
Here's another little nugget: Trump's drive to repeal the Johnson Amendment ( that has been silently ignored by many churches) shows how he's sucking up to the Christian right–-those white conservative Evangelical voters.
One of my liberal fever dreams is taxing ALL religious entities. Fat chance, that.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/trump-tax-bill-repeals-limits-on-politicking-from-the-pulpit.html
Please explain Elizabeth Warren to me. Someone? Any one?
To provide some perspective for those who don't live in tax hell.
Why is the 10k limit on state and local taxes is such an issue? Forget state tax. Lets look at property tax. The average in my town NJ is $13,500.
(I pay about $11,500). The average in town next to ours is over 20k. Yes, when it hits $35,000, those people can handle the increase in Trumptax. But there are many who can barely handle the current numbers. They are called the middle class.
@safari: A person who testifies under oath in any circumstance can always “correct” his testimony after the fact.
During a deposition in a case to which I was a party, opposing counsel handed me a photocopy of a five-year-old document – purportedly written by a deceased third party – which his client had produced. He asked me if I had seen that handwritten document before. The contents of the document contradicted some of my assertions in the case, but the handwriting did look to me like the handwriting of the third party. I hesitated in answering. Although the page did look vaguely familiar, I could not remember with any certainty whether or not I ever had seen it, especially since it differed in fact from my recollection of what I recalled the third party had told me in conversation. That is how I testified, & my testimony was truthful. My opponent's attorney repeatedly hammered me on my “convenient” lapse of memory and “inventive,” “distorted” and “self-serving” recollections of old conversations.
When I got home, I rummaged through my old papers and found a very similar document, which I believe the writer had sent to me years earlier. The gist of the doc in my possession supported my contentions and contradicted my adversary's. So I amended my earlier testimony and presented a copy of my document to be included in the exhibits to my deposition. I also asked opposing counsel to show me the original of the document he had entered into evidence. Well, lo and behold, my opponent's “original” had some strategic whiteouts along with significant asterisks that did not appear in my original. My adversary explained away the whiteouts as having been made to cover up “mustard stains” her children had splattered on her original. Uh-huh. These were really strategically-splattered condiments. As for the asterisks in her “original,” it would have been pretty easy to add them without betraying that she written them in herself. She agreed to settle, sparing me the necessity of hiring some forensic specialist to find out what-all was really under the many dabs of White-Out.
During that same depo, I made another statement (don't remember what that was) that I suddenly realized during a break was not true. I told my attorney about it, and he told me to correct my testimony when we resumed the deposition. In other words, “I forgot” or the old chestnut “I don't recall” is sometimes truthful. But the oath-taker also has a duty to correct the record when s/he realizes s/he has made a false statement.
So Sessions honestly could have forgotten one meeting or brief conversation, just as I honestly forgot a five-year-old document and some long-past occurrence. But Sessions would have had to “correct” his testimony immediately after learning the facts from other sources (in his case, the media). Even if Sessions still didn't remember this or that, he could amend his testimony to say that while he has no independent recollection of an event, he had received information that it occurred. Sessions apparently has not done that. So, just as you & others write, Session is just a liar, not a forgetful little elf. His perjurious remarks still stand for all to see.
Marie
@Bea Mc.
Oh, your hard-headed realism takes so much of the fun out of the impending Asia trip. No Carter Page smirking on the sidelines, no Sam Clovis to impart to Asian scientists the vast scientific knowledge with which he is so obviously stuffed, and as you say, no barely wet-behind-the-ears Wunderkinds available to share their ignorance, so many fun possibilities dashed.
But enough of my whining! Permit me instead to re-post the "Vox" article I recommended yesterday, in case some didn't get to it. I think it's worth the time to read.
https://www.vox.com/2017/11/2/16596896/house-republican-tax-reform-cuts-trump-ryan-explained
@Marvin Schwalb: Thanks. I suspect the limitation on the property tax deduction is going to be very hard on many retirees. Their incomes are likely much reduced, and if they're living in homes they've owned for decades, their property taxes are apt to be very high for people in their "new & reduced" income bracket. They're still living in their homes because they want to or because it would be hard-to-unfeasible for them to engineer a move.
I've just gone through several years of fixing up my old house in Florida (which isn't sold yet). If I couldn't afford or find help and/or if I were ill, it would have been impossible to do all the needed repairs.
So, thanks, GOP, for whacking some millions of older Americans who have been long-term tax-paying homeowners so that Ivanka & Rebekah Mercer can maximize their inheritances. Assholes.
Anyone have the email address of the Twitter employee who cut off the Pretender's account for a blessed eleven minutes?
I (and I suspect millions of others) would like to write him a letter to thank him...
Enjoy your French Fry.
Not just a liar. A Fucking Liar. And pretty sucky at math too.
So Lyin' Ryan is running around lecturing everyone on what a boon the Confederate tax scheme is to the middle class. Boon-doggle is more like it.
Let's take his now oft-repeated figure of the $1,200 his "typical" middle class family of four will get back. First, I don't trust a single figure oozing from the flapping pie hole of Paul Ryan. This is an average. If you take a family making $60,000 and calculate their savings, but add in the billions being saved by the Trumps and Mercers, naturally it will look better for those in lower tax brackets. But, okay, let's go with this number for right now.
So, 1,200 bucks. Ryan is talking about this as if they can buy that vacation home in Aspen or get that convertible Bentley dad's been eyeing. Right. How about they each get a Happy Meal? Because that's about what they'll be able to do. We're talking $100 a month. That's $25 a week, divided by 7 is about $3.58, divided by each of the four people in the family, is....oops. Did I say a Happy Meal? Sorry they'll have to split a Happy meal. All of them.
Meanwhile Trump will bank millions. And then there's this :
"Finally, there is the abolition of the estate tax. To be sure, Trump may have already taken precautions to avoid the estate tax, by, for example, setting up specialized family trusts. But if he lived another ten years and then left his heirs, say, two billion dollars of unsheltered assets, then, under the current system, they would face a federal tax bill of eight hundred million dollars. Under the Republican bill, that liability would disappear."
So while John and Jane Doe and their two kids are splitting that Happy Meal, Ivanka, Little Dracula, Junior, and the other two kids will be rolling in it.
Oh. And I forgot something. And so did Ryan. He forgot to tell people that that Happy Meal he's going to let that family of four split? That's only for the first year. After that, their taxes go back up. But Trump's taxes and corporate taxes? Those cuts stay. Even though, for slimy accounting purposes, Confederate liars are saying "Oh, those cuts are only temporary, they'll phase out after year 5 or 6" that's only so the deficit hit doesn't look as astronomical as it will actually become. Those cuts will NOT be phased out. Can you imagine going to Giant American Corporation that has been handing out goodies to these schmoes for decades and saying "Gee, sorry Mr. Gigantor CEO, those cuts we promised for years and finally delivered? They're gone." Ain't gonna happen.
But Mr. and Mrs. Happy Meal? They get it right in the neck.
As always, courtesy of Trump and Ryan and the Confederates. What is the little king calling this? A yuuuuuge Christmas present for everyone? For himself, yes. For us? A bite of cold cheeseburger and a French Fry. One.
Merry Christmas, America!
Ken,
Trump is sending him to Gitmo along with the other terrorists. His waterboarding starts tomorrow morning.
@Ken Winkes & Akhilleus: Maggie Astor of the NYT has the story but neither the name nor fate of the "rogue customer support worker had done it on his or her last day at the company." I suppose the person will remain another unknown American hero.
This makes no sense.
So you were expecting that it would? This tax cut scheme is so ridiculously stupid and irresponsible, it makes no sense at all. It won't improve the economy, just the opposite. The enormous increase in the deficit means it will cost us more money to pay it down. The rich don't need the extra money, the poor won't get a thing, the middle class will get a French Fry. The only real beneficiaries are corporations and hammock lolling rich kids who won't have to pay their estate tax when mom and dad kick. And that bullshit being flung around about how some mythical workers will all be making an extra $4,000 a year because corporations will be so glad to have all that extra money, they'll just give it away, is a bald-faced lie. This has never happened. It will never happen.
Even worse, there's no need for us to increase the deficit (which this will do in spades) because the numbers are pretty good right now. Unemployment is down (thanks, Obama!), and interest rates are still pretty low. The market is up. But cutting taxes so dramatically means that we'll have to start cutting services. Forget any kind of infrastructure improvements. Education will suffer along with every other government sector, which, I suppose, is what the Heritage assholes have wanted for years. No government, no taxes. We'll be living in a Libertarian paradise. Which is fine as long as you can afford your own private security service.
There really is no good reason to do this. This whole pile of shite is being shoved at us so that the Confederates and their goblin king can get a W.
That's it.
Hey, has anyone seen Young Jared and Blessed Ivanka lately? Weren't they supposed be the avatars of Modern Young Couple Rapaciousness and Brilliant something, something, something, business, expert, something or other? Has Young Jared already finished remaking the entire federal government AND brought peace to the Middle East? Sheesh. And I missed it!
Repeat after me, Donnie: Nep-O-tizm ain't no way to run a railroad.
Now it seems wunderkind Jared is in the little king's crosshairs. Oh, he's the worst evah, according to KKK Steve. So much for being a world class savant at picking the best talent. Everything this guy does is a disaster. He really is a moron.
At what point do the brainless Trumpbots begin to realize what a complete fraud this guy is? I know, I know...it's a rhetorical question.
Yes, should have referred to the artful Twitter "rogue" as her or him...
These days pronoun plurals and genders drive me nuts. Like so many other things, the English language was much easier to deal with back in the 1950's, when America was Truly Great.
Will those wonderful days never return?
@Bea
Thanks for the clarification. I'm still astounded that the "swear to tell the whole truth" actually comes with a giant asterisk that allows apparently unlimited "revisions" to your testimony. A whole bunch of "oh yeah, that" and "that, too" and a later added "oopsy daisy" are all it takes when you've got your ass covered politically.
A major legacy after Trump finally leaves D.C. is going to be his exposing to the general public the gaping holes in our lauded system of checks and balances that can be pried open consequence-free by those who don't give two fucks.
This Asia trip should be fun.
Expectations are so low that as long as Trump doesn't ask Xi Jinping if his laundry is ready, it will be considered a huge success. I'm wondering also if officials in Vietnam will be interested in stories about Trump's own Vietnam War. Maybe he could regale them with tales of underage ogling and unwanted groping. I'm sure that would be a big hit. It will be a relief to have the First Thug out of the country for a while. Maybe he and Duterte can get into some late night capping of suspected drug dealers. I'm sure he'd love to shoot a few people. He's made a big deal of that in the past.
The worst thing is, instead of the United States being adequately represented by a serious, smart, informed, respected person, we're sending our racist, mentally unstable, Fox obsessed, drunk uncle off to represent us, mouth open, fly down, tiny hands gesticulating madly, paying more attention to his twitter feed than the business at hand.
Can't suck enough.
Assholes never sleep.
So Asheville, NC has this judge. He's black. He's the only black judge. And that's waaaaay too many for NC Confederates who have gerrymandered the shit out of his district and moved him into a new one. An All-Trump district.
"...next year, when [Chief District Judge Calvin Hill is] up for reelection, the people of Asheville won’t be voting on whether Judge Hill keeps his job.
The lone African-American judge in the liberal mountain city, Hill will have to run in a newly drawn district composed largely of white rural and suburban Republicans, including many of the 55,000 locals who voted for President Trump last November.
'As an African-American who is now in the primarily Republican area, I don’t know how racial gerrymandering as it is applied to me – I don’t know how that’s not clear,' ...The new district is part of a broader effort by the part of state Republicans to redraw the state’s judiciary...Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, call it an effort to 'rig the system'."
So Confederates in NC, after trying an illegal Voter ID vote suppression tactic are not letting legalities and Constitutional fairness stand in the way of getting rid of unwanted interference in their plans for political domination, especially if it involves letting uppity black judges rule on superior white people.
But read the article. It's more than just standard right-wing racism. Asheville, described as a "mountaintop Berkeley" is an oasis of tolerance. They have gender neutral bathrooms and aren't likely to burn gay people at the stake in the town square. This really pisses off Confederates in the surrounding areas. How dare they not kowtow to Robert E. Lee and Donnie J. Trump!
It never stops.
I am worried about Hope Hicks going along on T's Asian tour and returning to testify to the Special Counsel's office, or is it to one of the Congressional committees. She's going to be solely in their company constantly for those however many days. I know she has worked for/with Lewandowski for quite a while, but she is only 29 years old. My daughter turned 29 last month, and while my girl is a pistol and brave as all get out, I think this entourage of worthies could intimidate anyone. Anyone heard anything about this?
@FE, HH knows what she signed up for.
Fleeting Expletive,
(Great moniker, by the way)...
I have not heard about Hicks' Excellent Asian Adventure, but I'm thinking she has OD'd on the Trump Kool Aid a long time ago.
I don't think cajoling, enticing, blandishments or threats are necessary to get her to spin the Trump lies. Although I'm pretty sure, were KKK Steve on board the Trump Orient Express, he'd have no problem threatening her to lie for the cause, he being such a manly man and stand-up, decent sort of chap.