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TRUMPS TAX CUT TO A SMALL GROUP WAS ENOUGH TO WIPE OUT AMERICAN POVERTY!!
ALI VELSHI
ProPublica investigation uncovers how much 82 ultrarich families gained by Trump’s 2017 tax cut
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New reporting by ProPublica found that a specific tax break that found its way into President Trump's 2017 tax bill benefited only “82 families” per one of the reporters, Justin Elliott. That Republican tax bill gifted the wealthiest of corporations $233 billion in tax cuts, according to the Center for American Progress. $233 Billion in tax cuts to corporations. $69 Billion to lift low-income families above the poverty line. Those tax cuts to people and companies that didn’t need them could have solved American poverty. Says Elliott, “this part of the Trump tax bill was extremely tilted towards the richest people in the country.”
ProPublica investigation uncovers how much 82 ultrarich families gained by Trump’s 2017 tax cut
SHARE THIS -
COPIED
New reporting by ProPublica found that a specific tax break that found its way into President Trump's 2017 tax bill benefited only “82 families” per one of the reporters, Justin Elliott. That Republican tax bill gifted the wealthiest of corporations $233 billion in tax cuts, according to the Center for American Progress. $233 Billion in tax cuts to corporations. $69 Billion to lift low-income families above the poverty line. Those tax cuts to people and companies that didn’t need them could have solved American poverty. Says Elliott, “this part of the Trump tax bill was extremely tilted towards the richest people in the country.”
Just sending a little 'warmth' your way....
I've heard and read about how cold things are for many on here, so here's a little warmth (for your heart, at least
). Blessings!
). Blessings!
Another 'heart-warmer' for the winter
Tiny Alabama Town Shocked to Learn Farmer had Secretly Paid People’s Pharmacy Bills for a Decade
Upon the occasion of the funeral for one Hody Childress from Geraldine, Alabama, it was revealed that for a decade this quiet and humble gentleman was a sort of guardian angel for the town’s poor and sick. A farmer and U.S. Air Force veteran, Childress began his covert charity campaign when he visited the local Geraldine drugstore and learned that all too many of the town’s 900 residents couldn’t afford to pay for their prescriptions.
Life up until that point had been difficult from a health standpoint. Childress lost a son in 1973, and his first wife in 1999—whom he used to carry into the stands for local football games due to her multiple sclerosis. Upon hearing of his neighbors’ inability to always afford their medications, he handed Brooke Walker, owner of Geraldine Drugs, a $100 bill.
“Here, this $100 is for anyone who can’t afford their prescription,” Walker recalled in an interview with local news. “Do not tell a soul that the money came from me, tell them it’s a blessing from God.”
A month later, Walker saw Childress again walking into her store to hand over another $100 bill, with the exact same instructions—’do not tell a soul that the money came from me, tell them it’s a blessing from God.’ He would return on the 1st of every month for the same motivation for years, until in late 2022, because he wasn’t able to walk due a pulmonary disease and other health conditions, he decided he needed to enlist someone for help. He entrusted the task to his daughter, Tania Nix.
“I was shocked – I had no idea that he was helping people at the drugstore.” At his funeral on January 5th, 2023, Nix told the story of Childress’ decade of giving, and how it was able to cover the cost of expensive medications for 2 Geraldine residents per month. The word got out that they had an angel in their midst, and WVTM reports that the townspeople have agreed to carry on his legacy.
“There are so many people in Geraldine who have lived longer because of Hody,” pharmacist Heather Walker said. “Hody was a true humble servant who will always be loved.”
AWESOME!!!
Upon the occasion of the funeral for one Hody Childress from Geraldine, Alabama, it was revealed that for a decade this quiet and humble gentleman was a sort of guardian angel for the town’s poor and sick. A farmer and U.S. Air Force veteran, Childress began his covert charity campaign when he visited the local Geraldine drugstore and learned that all too many of the town’s 900 residents couldn’t afford to pay for their prescriptions.
Life up until that point had been difficult from a health standpoint. Childress lost a son in 1973, and his first wife in 1999—whom he used to carry into the stands for local football games due to her multiple sclerosis. Upon hearing of his neighbors’ inability to always afford their medications, he handed Brooke Walker, owner of Geraldine Drugs, a $100 bill.
“Here, this $100 is for anyone who can’t afford their prescription,” Walker recalled in an interview with local news. “Do not tell a soul that the money came from me, tell them it’s a blessing from God.”
A month later, Walker saw Childress again walking into her store to hand over another $100 bill, with the exact same instructions—’do not tell a soul that the money came from me, tell them it’s a blessing from God.’ He would return on the 1st of every month for the same motivation for years, until in late 2022, because he wasn’t able to walk due a pulmonary disease and other health conditions, he decided he needed to enlist someone for help. He entrusted the task to his daughter, Tania Nix.
“I was shocked – I had no idea that he was helping people at the drugstore.” At his funeral on January 5th, 2023, Nix told the story of Childress’ decade of giving, and how it was able to cover the cost of expensive medications for 2 Geraldine residents per month. The word got out that they had an angel in their midst, and WVTM reports that the townspeople have agreed to carry on his legacy.
“There are so many people in Geraldine who have lived longer because of Hody,” pharmacist Heather Walker said. “Hody was a true humble servant who will always be loved.”
AWESOME!!!
online today!
A rigged Russian election... how is that possible?
I see in the news, Russian president Vladimir Putin is up for reelection and there is no one (who survived) who is running against him. He's expected to win the election this week, making it his 7th consecutive term.
That means parades and parties in the street to celebrate...
That means parades and parties in the street to celebrate...
Trump - breaking the law (again) in encouraging others to break the law.
Yesterday from VOX;
In response to:
Trump keeps telling people to vote twice, even though that’s a crime
The president’s baseless campaign against mail-in voting continues.
By Cameron Peters
9/12/2020
President Donald Trump violated Twitter rules once again on Saturday, by encouraging North Carolina voters to commit a felony offense.
In a tweet, the president urged voters in the state, which is expected to feature a number of competitive races in November, to vote twice — once by mail and once in person. Voting twice is illegal in the state of North Carolina, as it is in all states. Twitter quickly hid the tweet for violating site rules about protecting “civic and election integrity,” though it has not been taken down, having been deemed to be of public interest.
Not only is voting twice is a crime in North Carolina, even Trump’s tweet might be a violation of North Carolina election law, which specifies that “to induce another to [commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time], in the same primary or election” is unlawful.
Saturday’s tweet is not the first time Trump has made the suggestion that it would be wise to vote twice, which, again, is very much illegal. He also urged voters to vote twice earlier this month at a campaign stop in Wilmington, North Carolina, and he has repeatedly railed against mail-in voting, though there is no evidence that the system is any more vulnerable to fraud than in-person voting (all forms of voter fraud in the US are vanishingly unlikely).
In addition to being illegal, Trump’s advice is also wrong. As North Carolina board of elections director Karen Brinson Bell explained the first time Trump suggested double voting, “absentee ballots that are received on Election Day are not counted until after the election.”
In other words, if a North Carolina voter’s mail-in ballot hasn’t been counted by Election Day, that doesn’t mean anyone is trying to “take your vote away” — their ballot will still be counted as long as it’s postmarked by November 3 and received by November 6. Those who requested a mail-in ballot, but did not use it, are still allowed to vote in person, however.
It’s also not a great idea for voters who have already cast a ballot to be thronging to polling places on Election Day from a logistics perspective. As Bell notes, “it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading Covid-19.”
The president has made it clear that the real motivation for his attacks on mail-in voting is political. In March this year, he told Fox & Friends that he was opposed to Democrats’ efforts to make it easier to vote because “if you ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
In other words, his opposition to vote-by-mail — and his advocacy for double voting — are nakedly political gambits, ones made all the more transparent for the fact that he himself voted by mail in the Florida primary recently.
However, Trump could actually be undermining his own chances this November, particularly with respect to his attacks on mail-in voting. According to Politico’s Anita Kumar, some Republican strategists are worried that the president’s fusillade of anti-mail-in voting rhetoric could drive down turnout and cost him the election.
Though an overwhelming majority of all registered voters, and a slimmer majority of Republicans, reported confidence in mail-in voting in a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted by Ipsos, a far higher proportion of Republicans than Democrats and independents indicate that they are not confident in a mail-in ballot being accurately counted.
Trump keeps telling people to vote twice, even though that’s a crime
The president’s baseless campaign against mail-in voting continues.
By Cameron Peters
9/12/2020
President Donald Trump violated Twitter rules once again on Saturday, by encouraging North Carolina voters to commit a felony offense.
In a tweet, the president urged voters in the state, which is expected to feature a number of competitive races in November, to vote twice — once by mail and once in person. Voting twice is illegal in the state of North Carolina, as it is in all states. Twitter quickly hid the tweet for violating site rules about protecting “civic and election integrity,” though it has not been taken down, having been deemed to be of public interest.
Not only is voting twice is a crime in North Carolina, even Trump’s tweet might be a violation of North Carolina election law, which specifies that “to induce another to [commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time], in the same primary or election” is unlawful.
Saturday’s tweet is not the first time Trump has made the suggestion that it would be wise to vote twice, which, again, is very much illegal. He also urged voters to vote twice earlier this month at a campaign stop in Wilmington, North Carolina, and he has repeatedly railed against mail-in voting, though there is no evidence that the system is any more vulnerable to fraud than in-person voting (all forms of voter fraud in the US are vanishingly unlikely).
In addition to being illegal, Trump’s advice is also wrong. As North Carolina board of elections director Karen Brinson Bell explained the first time Trump suggested double voting, “absentee ballots that are received on Election Day are not counted until after the election.”
In other words, if a North Carolina voter’s mail-in ballot hasn’t been counted by Election Day, that doesn’t mean anyone is trying to “take your vote away” — their ballot will still be counted as long as it’s postmarked by November 3 and received by November 6. Those who requested a mail-in ballot, but did not use it, are still allowed to vote in person, however.
It’s also not a great idea for voters who have already cast a ballot to be thronging to polling places on Election Day from a logistics perspective. As Bell notes, “it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading Covid-19.”
The president has made it clear that the real motivation for his attacks on mail-in voting is political. In March this year, he told Fox & Friends that he was opposed to Democrats’ efforts to make it easier to vote because “if you ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
In other words, his opposition to vote-by-mail — and his advocacy for double voting — are nakedly political gambits, ones made all the more transparent for the fact that he himself voted by mail in the Florida primary recently.
However, Trump could actually be undermining his own chances this November, particularly with respect to his attacks on mail-in voting. According to Politico’s Anita Kumar, some Republican strategists are worried that the president’s fusillade of anti-mail-in voting rhetoric could drive down turnout and cost him the election.
Though an overwhelming majority of all registered voters, and a slimmer majority of Republicans, reported confidence in mail-in voting in a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted by Ipsos, a far higher proportion of Republicans than Democrats and independents indicate that they are not confident in a mail-in ballot being accurately counted.
Murderous Blame Game - 4 officers - one murder of George Floyd
Today in The Independent;
(continued in first comment below)
In response to:
George Floyd: Former police officers charged over killing turn blame on each other
Holly Bailey
The Independent•September 11, 2020
The four former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's killing appear to be turning on each other, with each offering significantly different versions of the infamous arrest that acknowledge Floyd should not have been allowed to die that day but also deflect the blame to others.
The four men have said in court documents that they all thought someone else was in charge of the scene on May 25 - with rookie officers arguing they were deferring to a veteran, and the veteran saying he was simply assisting in an arrest that was in progress. All have said in court documents that the relationship between the veteran officer - Derek Chauvin - and the others is at the heart of the issue, as each officer perceived their role, and who was in charge, quite differently. Chauvin was the officer shown with his knee on Floyd's neck as he struggled to breathe in videos of the ill-fated arrest.
"There are very likely going to be antagonistic defenses presented at the trial," Earl Gray, a lawyer for Thomas Lane, wrote in a legal motion filed here this week. "It is plausible that all officers have a different version of what happened and officers place blame on one another."
Gray and lawyers for Chauvin, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao have been arguing to separate the former officers' cases for purposes of trial, citing competing stories from their clients about the events that led to the 46-year-old Black man's death. The officers are scheduled to appear in court Friday as a judge takes up that question; prosecutors have been asking for a joint trial.
Minneapolis authorities are locking down the area around the courthouse because of planned protests Friday. Windows on government buildings have been boarded up and law enforcement officials are setting up a perimeter to keep protesters at a distance.
Floyd died May 25 while handcuffed and restrained facedown on a South Minneapolis street as police investigated a 911 call about a counterfeit $20 bill that had been passed at Cup Foods, a local convenience store. During a struggle with police, Floyd was placed on the ground, where Chauvin pressed his knee into the man's neck for almost eight minutes as Floyd repeatedly complained of struggling to breathe until he lost consciousness and no longer had a pulse.
Floyd's death sparked a nationwide movement for social and racial justice, with protests emerging in cities from coast to coast along with a renewed and widespread push for police reform. Some of the protests have pitted social justice activists against those backing law enforcement officers.
While police often stand in solidarity during use-of-force investigations, Floyd's case could be an unusual departure, with the officers who allegedly played a role in his killing arguing that other officers should be held to account instead.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin's lawyer, said his client didn't know the full picture of what was happening when he arrived on the scene at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue and saw Kueng and Lane struggling to get Floyd into a squad car.
Nelson, who has argued that Floyd died of a drug overdose and not from Chauvin's knee restraint, blamed the rookie officers in a motion filed this week, suggesting they had mishandled the scene and caused Floyd's death. He said the former officers delayed in requesting an ambulance when they suspected Floyd might be on drugs or was having a medical issue and that they did not do enough to try to calm Floyd down by "sitting him on the sidewalk" or "render aid instead of struggle."
George Floyd: Former police officers charged over killing turn blame on each other
Holly Bailey
The Independent•September 11, 2020
The four former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd's killing appear to be turning on each other, with each offering significantly different versions of the infamous arrest that acknowledge Floyd should not have been allowed to die that day but also deflect the blame to others.
The four men have said in court documents that they all thought someone else was in charge of the scene on May 25 - with rookie officers arguing they were deferring to a veteran, and the veteran saying he was simply assisting in an arrest that was in progress. All have said in court documents that the relationship between the veteran officer - Derek Chauvin - and the others is at the heart of the issue, as each officer perceived their role, and who was in charge, quite differently. Chauvin was the officer shown with his knee on Floyd's neck as he struggled to breathe in videos of the ill-fated arrest.
"There are very likely going to be antagonistic defenses presented at the trial," Earl Gray, a lawyer for Thomas Lane, wrote in a legal motion filed here this week. "It is plausible that all officers have a different version of what happened and officers place blame on one another."
Gray and lawyers for Chauvin, Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao have been arguing to separate the former officers' cases for purposes of trial, citing competing stories from their clients about the events that led to the 46-year-old Black man's death. The officers are scheduled to appear in court Friday as a judge takes up that question; prosecutors have been asking for a joint trial.
Minneapolis authorities are locking down the area around the courthouse because of planned protests Friday. Windows on government buildings have been boarded up and law enforcement officials are setting up a perimeter to keep protesters at a distance.
Floyd died May 25 while handcuffed and restrained facedown on a South Minneapolis street as police investigated a 911 call about a counterfeit $20 bill that had been passed at Cup Foods, a local convenience store. During a struggle with police, Floyd was placed on the ground, where Chauvin pressed his knee into the man's neck for almost eight minutes as Floyd repeatedly complained of struggling to breathe until he lost consciousness and no longer had a pulse.
Floyd's death sparked a nationwide movement for social and racial justice, with protests emerging in cities from coast to coast along with a renewed and widespread push for police reform. Some of the protests have pitted social justice activists against those backing law enforcement officers.
While police often stand in solidarity during use-of-force investigations, Floyd's case could be an unusual departure, with the officers who allegedly played a role in his killing arguing that other officers should be held to account instead.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin's lawyer, said his client didn't know the full picture of what was happening when he arrived on the scene at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue and saw Kueng and Lane struggling to get Floyd into a squad car.
Nelson, who has argued that Floyd died of a drug overdose and not from Chauvin's knee restraint, blamed the rookie officers in a motion filed this week, suggesting they had mishandled the scene and caused Floyd's death. He said the former officers delayed in requesting an ambulance when they suspected Floyd might be on drugs or was having a medical issue and that they did not do enough to try to calm Floyd down by "sitting him on the sidewalk" or "render aid instead of struggle."
(continued in first comment below)
President Trump Is America's (And The Free World's) Last Best Hope
30 years ago when I went back to college after dropping out the first time I took two history classes from a "renowned" Harvard University history professor.
On day one I felt that something was wrong.
The entire course was about how horrible America was, how we killed Indians and took slaves, started wars, pillaged and plundered.
Classes regularly broke into small discussion groups with history graduate students leading the groups. I thought I was in some kind of alternate universe. This wasn't the history that I learned in high school.
If you said anything good about America in your o.ral presentations or papers, and didn't just regurgitate what a horrible country it was for what it did to the Indians and slaves and to the Japanese dropping a bomb on them and for starting all the wars in history, your papers received a poor grade and you were ridiculed and harassed not only by these graduate students who reminded me of Gestapo, but by the other students who were almost all younger than me and who I realized I had already been brainwashed. This was Hitler Youth!
This was a geographically diverse student body at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. That's when I first came to understand that something terrible was happening in the classrooms of America. Kids were being taught that America is an evil country and needs to be "fundamentally transformed." They were being taught that America is the root of all evil in the world, precisely what America's enemies and adversaries would like Americans to believe in order to undermine their support for their own country and weaken its foundation.
Ever since then I've been arguing that the most dangerous risk to America is not what's happening in Washington or on the Internet or in social circles, but what's happening in our classrooms where kids are being systematically indoctrinated into anti-American ideology.
It's been happening quietly and under the radar for so long, that I'm not sure there's any way to reverse it at this point. Patriots are late to the revelation and I'm not sure they understand it even now.
The enemies of our country have been working this plan quietly and patiently for all these years in order to be able to reach this point: the point where they can put up an anti-American candidate who will turn this country over to our enemies and easily have them elected. They can destroy the country without firing a single shot.
I've never seen anything this scary.
Why someone from my generation would be on their side, since our minds weren't polluted with that garbage when we were in school, is a mystery to me.
The only possible explanation I can think of, is that they're weak-minded and afraid of the ridicule and harassment they will receive if they don't go along with the anti-American party line. They are afraid of sticking up for America because the tide has shifted, and that has become forbidden. It's much easier to go along with the anti-American thugs, and hope that they will leave you alone, than stand up to them and face a firestorm of harassment, political persecution, and even violence.
It's the exact same syndrome that some Jews that supported Hitler had. Some of them thought that if they supported him he would leave them alone. It was fear and weakness that drove them to do such a crazy thing. How did that work out for them?
But the difference is that supporters of the left today, are not without an historical context by which to understand that that behavior will not get them a pass, and in fact will lead to their being the first ones to be sent to the work camps when the dictators get into power.
The problem is that they are not even conscious of their own psychological weakness. If you are not aware you even have a problem the fact that there is ample context in which to understand and overcome it is worthless.
Continued in first comment below...
On day one I felt that something was wrong.
The entire course was about how horrible America was, how we killed Indians and took slaves, started wars, pillaged and plundered.
Classes regularly broke into small discussion groups with history graduate students leading the groups. I thought I was in some kind of alternate universe. This wasn't the history that I learned in high school.
If you said anything good about America in your o.ral presentations or papers, and didn't just regurgitate what a horrible country it was for what it did to the Indians and slaves and to the Japanese dropping a bomb on them and for starting all the wars in history, your papers received a poor grade and you were ridiculed and harassed not only by these graduate students who reminded me of Gestapo, but by the other students who were almost all younger than me and who I realized I had already been brainwashed. This was Hitler Youth!
This was a geographically diverse student body at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. That's when I first came to understand that something terrible was happening in the classrooms of America. Kids were being taught that America is an evil country and needs to be "fundamentally transformed." They were being taught that America is the root of all evil in the world, precisely what America's enemies and adversaries would like Americans to believe in order to undermine their support for their own country and weaken its foundation.
Ever since then I've been arguing that the most dangerous risk to America is not what's happening in Washington or on the Internet or in social circles, but what's happening in our classrooms where kids are being systematically indoctrinated into anti-American ideology.
It's been happening quietly and under the radar for so long, that I'm not sure there's any way to reverse it at this point. Patriots are late to the revelation and I'm not sure they understand it even now.
The enemies of our country have been working this plan quietly and patiently for all these years in order to be able to reach this point: the point where they can put up an anti-American candidate who will turn this country over to our enemies and easily have them elected. They can destroy the country without firing a single shot.
I've never seen anything this scary.
Why someone from my generation would be on their side, since our minds weren't polluted with that garbage when we were in school, is a mystery to me.
The only possible explanation I can think of, is that they're weak-minded and afraid of the ridicule and harassment they will receive if they don't go along with the anti-American party line. They are afraid of sticking up for America because the tide has shifted, and that has become forbidden. It's much easier to go along with the anti-American thugs, and hope that they will leave you alone, than stand up to them and face a firestorm of harassment, political persecution, and even violence.
It's the exact same syndrome that some Jews that supported Hitler had. Some of them thought that if they supported him he would leave them alone. It was fear and weakness that drove them to do such a crazy thing. How did that work out for them?
But the difference is that supporters of the left today, are not without an historical context by which to understand that that behavior will not get them a pass, and in fact will lead to their being the first ones to be sent to the work camps when the dictators get into power.
The problem is that they are not even conscious of their own psychological weakness. If you are not aware you even have a problem the fact that there is ample context in which to understand and overcome it is worthless.
Continued in first comment below...
online today!
High crimes and misdemeanors...
High crimes and misdemeanors is the key phrase if you plan on impeaching someone in government. It was used on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month. Tonight, I hit a link where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked former Biden family associate Tony Bobulinski about what crimes he alleges he witnessed President Biden commit during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
The committee is proceeding without specific allegations.
The committee is proceeding without specific allegations.
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