Posts on Saturday, April 6, 2019
BEVERLY HILLS, California—Late Friday afternoon, Donald Trump landed in Los Angeles for a re-election fundraiser. The event was organized by Trump Victory, a fundraising partnership between the Republican National Convention and Trump’s campaign, and aimed to raise an estimated $5 million for the party. It was the president’s third visit to the celebrity-hub city and, by all accounts, not a star-studded one. “Celebrities? No celebrities,” Rabbi Marvin Hier said of the event. Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and gave the prayer
Kinfolk said President Trump, Californie is the place you oughta be, so he loaded up Air Force One plane and flew to Beverly. Hills that is. Dinner party. Raising funds for Republicans. Drew 170 to 400 guests who paid from $15,000 to $150,000 to attend. And 10 protesters. That´s it. In a state of 28 million native Americans and 11 million immigrants (27% of the state is foreign born), the Marxist fascists couldn´t get more than 10 people to care about protesting Drumpf.
Former Vice-President Joe Biden isn’t just creepy with his inappropriate mannerisms, he’s also tone-deaf about it. During a speech today at a construction workers conference, Biden brings kids on stage and then makes jokes about touching them…. this guy is creepy. Everything about this is stunningly wrong. Making a joke about touching a child, while the children are hoisted on stage as props for political benefit is jaw-droppingly tone deaf, and quite frankly, sick, to anyone with common sense watching this display.
HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes has an excellent op-ed today in the Washington Examiner where he discusses the end of the Russia collusion-consiracy hoax. Everything inside the op-ed is 100% accurate; however, something very important is missing. (Snip) there were two parallel operations, two investigative paths, at work in the 2016 election. There was an official government investigation, Crossfire Hurricane via the FBI; and an unofficial investigation, dossier assembly via Chris Steele and Fusion GPS. Both operations originated in synergy with the vast Russian conspiracy narrative. One operation was a function of elements outside the traditional framework
For the Democrats it´s still all about the collusion narrative. They don´t care that the Mueller Report concluded that Donald Trump´s campaign and the Russians did not cooperate to steal the 2016 election. President Trump´s crazed enemies in Congress and in the liberal media will never believe Trump won fair and square. You can give the House committees headed by Democrats Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler two more years of digging around in Trump World for impeachable crimes. You can give them 800 pages, a thousand pages, ten-thousand more pages of interviews. You can give them another $30 million to
For years, Hollywood has marveled at Woody Allen´s ability to attract A-list talent to his films. Is that still the case? That´s a question that may now be probed in the filmmaker´s $68 million lawsuit against the company for terminating a multi-picture deal. Allen´s suit alleges "no legitimate ground" to cancel a deal based on an old allegation he sexually abused his daughter while Amazon responds that its decision was "justified," pointing to Allen´s comments about the rise of the #MeToo movement, saying these statements made it impossible to promote his films. On Friday, both sides outlined the case
Within his homeland, Winston Churchill’s colossal contribution to saving his people from Hitler eclipses all else, and he is widely regarded as the greatest Briton of all time. So it came as something of a surprise when a senior Labour Party politician recently described him as a “villain” for having ordered troops to fire on striking workers in the Welsh town of Tonypandy in 1910. The claim provoked vigorous denunciations from prominent politicians, as well as more sober reflections in op-ed pages. When the dust settles, as it soon must, Churchill will revert to being the figure of sanctity
Friday, 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) voiced her support of eliminating the Electoral College, something many Democrats have supported since President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. “So we know you support Medicare-for-all, you support Bernie Sanders’ bill there. What about eliminating the Electoral College?” MSNBC’s Willie Geist asked on “Morning Joe.” Gillibrand revealed she does want to end the Electoral College and quickly shifted to talking about health care without explaining why such a move would be a good idea. “Yeah, I support getting rid of the Electoral College,” Gillibrand replied. “But let me tell you
The Pentagon should draft all “genders,” not just men and women, according to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She casually spotlighted her revolutionary rejection of biology, sex, and the male-or-female society during a live Facebook chat in which she was asked about her views on the military draft. “As long as we have a draft, I support people of all genders being drafted,” she said. Male and female are the two sexes — but transgender advocates now claim more than 50 “genders” — including agender, bigender, gender fluid, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, intersex, two-spirit, etc, plus “cis-gender” for the 99+ percent
Democratic presidents have found it hard to achieve the goal of universal health insurance coverage. Jimmy Carter promised it when he ran in 1976, but he was unable to get a bill passed. Bill Clinton enlisted Hillary Clinton to craft a plan, but it failed in Congress. Barack Obama managed to pass the Affordable Care Act, but it fell well short of covering everyone. Even Obama’s relatively cautious plan was bad for the Democratic Party, which lost the House in 2010, after Obamacare passed — just as it lost the House in 1994 after the Hillarycare push.
How bad was it? Chelsea Handler describes how Trump’s election win devastated her, led her to weed
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The right is often criticized for calling Democrats out for being “unhinged” when it comes to President Donald Trump, or for putting an emphasis on the “deranged” in Trump Derangement Syndrome, but a revelation by comedian Chelsea Handler put that all to rest.In an appearance Friday night on HBO’s “Real Time,” Handler told host Bill Maher she had to see a shrink after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, saying her life never felt “so unhinged.”How bad was it, given that the liberal media had all but declared that Trump had no chance of winning?Bad enough for Handler to turn
Joe Biden on Why He Hasn´t Launched a 2020 Bid Yet: He Wants to Be the Last Democrat to Enter Race
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Former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that he hadn´t made an announcement about his potential 2020 presidential bid because he wants to be the last Democratic contender to enter the race, if he chooses to run. (Snip) But Will Marshall, president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, questioned why Biden would want to delay his official announcement. "If he´s going to run, it´s hard to see what Biden gains by delaying his announcement," Marshall told Newsweek. "Jumping in now might help him change the tenor of the coverage he´s been getting. In any case, the prospect of
Comedian Michelle Wolf, who made headlines last year for mocking White House press secretary Sarah Sanders’ looks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD), declared that President Donald Trump won’t go to the dinner because he’s afraid. “You got to love someone that just can’t handle being made fun of,” Michelle Wolf told Variety at Lifetime’s “Power of Women” event. “I think he doesn’t have a big enough spine to attend. If a president can’t take someone making fun of them, I don’t really care about ’em.” Michelle Wolf hosted last year’s WHCD, using the event to viciously attack press secretary Sarah Sanders
What kind of Twilight Zone are we living in when Democrats pretend that the mainstream media are objective journalists and Fox News is an arm of the Trump administration? People are always talking about media bias, so why am I bringing this up now? Well, because of two news alerts that popped up on my phone. First, I read that the Democratic National Committee is refusing to partner with Fox News for the 2020 primary debates. The stated reason, according to DNC Chair Tom Perez? "Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration
Everyone’s favorite self appointed world speech policeman, Mark Zuckerberg, recently took part in a long form sit down interview with leftist hack “journalist” George Stephanopoulos on ABC, where they talked about user’s privacy on Facebook, putting “strong data controls in place” for policing speech. Zuckerberg also complained that there’s too much free speech, especially “divisive” political speech, even suggesting that the FCC should regulate speech online.Facebook has been shutting down traffic to conservative websites since the 2016 election.Conservatives dominated social media in 2016 where they were able to get the truth uncensored. Facebook ended that in 2017 and 2018.The Gateway Pundit
IOWA CITY, Iowa — It was hard to miss Cheri Pichone´s excitement about Bernie Sanders´ second presidential run. She showed up to a recent Iowa rally decked out in Sanders gear, complete with a figurine of the Vermont senator and progressive icon. But underneath her exuberance, the 36-year-old was still mad about the last Democratic primary, when Sanders´ bid for the presidency fell short to Hillary Clinton. "They cheated," she said, directing much of her anger at the Democratic National Committee. The party establishment, she lamented, was "actively working against us." Pichone voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in
The headline of Jonathan Zimmerman´s article in the Washington Post, "How Trump finally turned Republicans against McCarthyism," alerted me to the possibility that Zimmerman has never spoken to a Republican in the wild. The subhead, "After nearly 70 years, Republicans have stopped defending Joe McCarthy," confirmed my suspicions. Zimmerman insists that the "new consensus" among Republicans is that "McCarthyism was, in fact, a massive, unpardonable assault on freedom, fairness and the rule of law." This is nuts. In reality, McCarthy´s status among Republicans is higher now than it has been since his untimely death in 1957.
A new Rasmussen poll conducted this week indicates that 67% of likely United States voters believe that illegal immigration is a "serious problem" in the country today, but the plurality of those who took the survey do not believe that the Democratic Party in Congress "wants to slow or stop illegal immigration." The percentage of likely voters who said illegal immigration is a "serious issue" has not changed since a similar poll conducted in January asked
The knives are out for Joe Biden. To read some of the media accounts, Biden is the latest politician to run afoul of the “MeToo” era. His accusers have followed the usual script, “breaking their silence” after much introspection. They insist they want the truth to come out. What truth? Biden is handsy. And, to borrow a Bidenism, this is a big f?-?-?- ing deal. But is it? The allegation that he’s too physically familiar with people —
A 67-year-old man died after falling over the edge of the Grand Canyon, bringing the number to three deaths at the popular tourist destination in the past eight days. The visitor fell Wednesday near the Yavapai Geology Museum, which is on the South Rim in Grand Canyon Village, according to the National Park Service. Grand Canyon National Park rangers responded and found the man´s body about 400 feet below the rim. Helicopter and technical rescue teams recovered the body and park service officials are investigating.
National Review’s Jack Fowler beat me to the punch on this today, but the point is still worth making: The oil and gas giant Chevron keeps proving the way to stop shakedown artists is to fight them, honorably and relentlessly. And in this case, “relentlessly” means for more than a decade. It was 11 years ago next week that I drafted for the Washington Examiner my first of well more than a dozen editorials and columns explaining how the corrupt leftist government of Ecuador, aided by apparently corrupt American lawyers, was trying to bilk Chevron for up to $16 billion.
JERUSALEM — When Israel’s top satire show launched its recent election special, it depicted an impersonator of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu breaking out of chains in a Houdini-like feat. With a smirk he turned to exit, before realizing his foot was still shackled. Netanyahu has escaped many a peril in the quarter-century that he has been a dominant figure in Israeli politics, including 13 years as prime minister. There was the first “Bibigate,” when he dramatically confessed an extramarital affair to the Israeli public, and the second, when he was investigated during his first year in office amid allegations
Reparations? Please!
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The Democratic presidential candidates are parading in front of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, and the topic of the day is reparations: Beto O’Rourke had just finished speaking about racial injustice to the National Action Network when the Rev. Al Sharpton, its president, pushed him to say a little more. “Your fellow Texan, Sheila Jackson Lee, has proposed a commission to study reparations,” Sharpton said. “If that passes, and you are president of the United States, would you sign that bill?” O’Rourke, who had spent 15 minutes talking about how white America left black America behind,
If an idea is being put forward these days by a Democratic candidate for president or a freshman member of Congress, it is probably a good idea not to take it too seriously. This is not to say that there are not legitimately dangerous things being proposed by the Kamala Harrises and AOC’s of this era — tuition-free college, Medicare-for-all, fossil-fuel elimination, 70 percent tax rates, racial reparations, court-packing, ending the Electoral College, legalized infanticide — but I am not so sure that an elimination of private health insurance (Harris) or the funnier implications
If you were skeptical of Jussie Smollett´s story from the beginning, join the club. It sounded unlikely to begin with, and it just got worse every time he opened his mouth. By the time he started lying his ass off to an utterly credulous Robin Roberts on GMA, even his staunchest defenders couldn´t come up with any good excuses (which didn´t stop them from spouting a bunch of bad ones). He was obviously guilty as hell. Everybody acted shocked when the Cook County state´s attorney suddenly dropped the charges anyway, but to me it was just a reminder
The deported MS-13 gang member who was caught back in Long Island this week snuck into the US over the southern border — and may have had help from ganbangers in Suffolk County, law enforcement sources told The Post Friday. William Umberto Martinez Chavez, 40, was first kicked out of the country back in 2017 for a fatal 2000 stabbing — but was found in Huntington on Tuesday morning and arrested by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents for illegal reentry. Investigators don’t think he crossed into the States at an official port of entry —
Bernie Sanders has effectively been running for president steadily since, at least, 2015. And over all that time -- which now spans two campaigns for president -- we´ve seen exactly one year of his tax returns. In the 2016 campaign, Sanders released the two summary pages of his 2014 returns only. He said he would release a more robust tax history if he became the Democratic nominee, which, well, didn´t happen. By contrast, Hillary Clinton released eight years of returns -- spanning 2007-2014 -- in August 2015. A year later, in the midst of the general election against Donald Trump,
Bill Cosby this week arrived at a settlement with several women who had accused the disgraced comedian of defaming them when he said their sexual misconduct allegations where not true. According to court documents filed on Friday in Springfield, Mass., the 81-year-old comedian negotiated a confidential settlement with seven women, including Tamara Green, Therese Serignese and Barbara Bowman, who say Cosby defamed them when he called them liars after they publicly accused him of sexual assaut. (The settlement still requires a judge´s sign-off.)
After about an hour of deliberations Friday, a jury in Las Vegas rejected former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s lawsuit against the maker of an exercise band that Reid claimed was responsible for injuries he suffered in January 2015. The injuries included blindness in one eye for Reid, 79, a Nevada Democrat and former party leader who asserted in his lawsuit that his injuries forced him to retire early from the Senate, where he had served for three decades.
The Democrats´ Implosion
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Looking back on the first 100 days of 2019, the year’s biggest story by far has been the astonishing implosion of the Democratic Party. From the defeat of their claims of collusion, to undermining their self-appointed authority on social justice, to turning into their caucus into a legislative laughingstock, Democrats have fallen apart at every turn to kickstart the year. The Democrats’ worst timeline began on January 30th when Virginia Governor Ralph Northam endorsed a bill to lift all restrictions on abortion in his state and remarked that, after delivery, a discussion could ensue between a mother and her physicians on
Donald Trump Visits ‘The Wall’
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President Donald Trump visited a new barrier on the Southern border on Friday, touting success for his campaign promise to build a “big, beautiful wall.”“This is the wall,” Trump said to reporters who joined him on the trip. “It looks great.” (Photo) The steel border barriers were at the Mexican border of Calexico, replacing existing fencing. “It’s better and much more effective than the previous wall. And we actually can do it faster and it’s less expensive if you can believe it,” Trump said. “So it’s better, faster, and less expensive.” Trump spoke in front of a concrete barrier that
A first-ever image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy is expected to be released Wednesday — giving astrophysicists hope that visual evidence of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity might be at hand.The Event Horizon Telescope project — an international array of telescopes aligned with the specific purpose of capturing an image of the “supermassive” Sagittarius A* black hole — is expected to make the announcement and release the image April 10 in Brussels. A press release is touting “a groundbreaking result from the EHT.” The science press is interpreting that to mean the long-awaited image
In an interview with SiriusXM Radio on Friday morning, Kamala Harris was asked whether, if she wins the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, she would consider naming a woman as her running mate. "Yes, I would," she responded, adding that an all-female ticket would be "fabulous." Pressed by SiriusXM´s Mark Thompson on whether Americans, who have still not elected a female president, are ready for such a thing, Harris was more circumspect: "We´ll see if it happens.". And she´s not the only female candidate considering it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also told Thompson: "I´d put a woman on my
Representative Tim Ryan from Ohio has stepped into the race and kicked off his campaign with a speech in Youngstown Ohio earlier today. “Flyover states are my states,” he proclaimed. (Video) Ryan is not a viable candidate. The larger Club objective with Tim Ryan is to assemble more data from voters in specific ‘rust-belt’ regions if they are going to try and thwart the Trump blue-collar coalition. Much like the Club’s design for Joe Biden, the board members know they must fracture the rust-belt Trump alliance if they are to have any success in 2020. Winning by one vote, or
Democrats are working quietly to bring into the mainstream the narrative that GOP victories are by default illegitimate, thereby weakening and undermining duly elected Republican officials. It is dangerous stuff — just as dangerous as when President Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election, which Democrats and the media rightly condemned as a threat to a healthy, functioning republic. But that was when Democrats thought their hold on the White House was a sure thing. It is funny how the shoe ends up on the other foot. The latest example of Democrats casting doubt on the legitimacy of
Survey after survey shows young Americans are increasingly unhappy, depressed, and even suicidal. They are America´s future, and their outlook makes that future look grim. What´s the matter with kids today? Recent years have seen a rise in Americans 12 to 25 saying they are unhappy. Since 2012, the proportion of 8th and 10th graders who tell the Monitoring the Future survey that they felt unhappy has crept up from 13 percent to 18 percent. In roughly the same time, the proportion of 18- to 25-year-olds who say they are unhappy has risen from 11 to 17 percent, according to the
The Tampa Bay Lightning were dominant for the entirety of the 2018-19 NHL season, so it´s no surprise their final game before the Stanley Cup Playoffs cemented their place in history. With a 6-3 rout of the rival Boston Bruins on Saturday, the Lightning not only wrapped up a Presidents´ Trophy-winning campaign with momentum for the postseason, but also with their NHL-record tying 62nd regular-season victory -- a feat accomplished only one other time, by the Detroit Red Wings, in 1995-96. Tampa´s 128 standings points also rank fourth among all teams in NHL history. And that´s not all. By beating
Multiple law enforcement agencies descended this week on the Phoenix home of a former Mouseketeer missing since July, where police say they found human remains. A body was found Thursday at 510 Pine St., according to a release issued Friday evening by Oregon State Police. The home belongs to 76-year-old Dennis W. Day, a longtime Southern Oregon resident missing since July who is known for his childhood acting gig as a “Mouseketeer” in the 1956-57 seasons of Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club” TV show. (Snip) Day’s disappearance went largely unnoticed for months — even by his loved ones who are
President Donald Trump will deliver remarks to National Rifle Association (NRA) members this month at the pro-Second Amendment organization’s annual meetings and exhibits in Indianapolis. The president is expected to deliver his third keynote address at the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) Leadership Forum on April 26 at the Indiana Convention Center—Lucas Oil Stadium. “Donald Trump is the most enthusiastic supporter of the Second Amendment to occupy the Oval Office in our lifetimes. It is truly an honor to have President Trump address NRA members for the fifth consecutive year,” said Chris Cox, NRA-ILA Executive Director. (Photo) e added,
During his speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition´s Annual Leadership Meeting on Saturday, protesters interrupted the president and had to be escorted from the venue.Speaking at the Venetian Resort, owned by prominent GOP donor Sheldon Adelson, Trump greeted the crowd with the traditional "Shabbat shalom!"Seconds later, protesters from a progressive Jewish organization began chanting, "Jews are here to say white nationalism is a plague." Some of them held signs that read, "The Occupation Is a Plague."
Former President Barack Obama on Saturday chided fellow Democrats for creating a “circular firing squad” that targets party members who don’t support far-left views. “The way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don’t agree with you,” he said at an Obama Foundation town hall event in Berlin, Germany. “And that by definition means you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want.“One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives,” he continued, “we start sometimes creating what’s called a ‘circular firing squad’ where you start shooting at your allies because one of
Earlier this week House Ways and Means Committee chair Richard Neal, a Democrat, submitted a letter to the IRS requesting access to President Donald Trump’s tax returns. In defense of this unprecedented move — one which some allege represents an abuse of power — he claimed that he simply wants to ensure that the IRS is auditing taxpayers correctly. Speaking Friday on CNN about the committee chair’s dubious claim, Republican Sen. John Kennedy bluntly accused Neal of being a partisan hack and moron. “Chairman Neal, powerful man, head of Ways and Means, I know he’s an adult,
Ocasio-Cortez plays victim card after getting busted for fake accent, pandering to black audience
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., just can’t help herself, it seems. A la Hillary Clinton, the self-declared democratic socialist unpacked a previously not heard accent Friday evening while speaking to a predominantly black audience at the annual convention of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. An accent that took on a curious southern drawl… “This is what organizing looks like,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is what building power looks like. This is what changing the country looks like. It’s when we choose to show up and occupy the room and talk about the things that matter most, talking about our future.”
President Donald Trump has hired attorneys to fight a congressional request for his tax returns, according to a letter made public Friday. In a letter to the IRS’s general counsel, William S. Consovoy, of the firm Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC, argued that Congress “cannot legally request — and the IRS cannot legally divulge” Trump’s tax returns without what he calls a “legitimate legislative purpose.” On Wednesday, Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, requested Trump’s personal tax returns for the past six years as well as returns for eight Trump family companies.
A video promoting President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection has begun making the rounds on social media, and while it’s unclear who produced it and whether or not the producers are actually affiliated with the president’s reelection campaign, judging by the initial reaction it appears to be a hit. The video begins by reminding viewers of the disrespect that the president faced going into the 2020 election: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist,” a caption reads. [Video] As Trump began gaining ground in the 2016 presidential election,
Two Arkansas men were recently released from jail after getting drunk and allegedly shooting each other while wearing a bulletproof vest, according to a police report obtained by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. According to the report, Charles Eugene Ferris, 50, was admitted to Mercy hospital last Sunday with a red spot on his chest. Ferris told hospital authorities a harrowing tale of a gunfight he got into while protecting a man he called his “asset,” who had paid him $200 for security. Ferris said he had been shot several times while wearing a bulletproof vest.
It’s make-it-or-break-it time for Joe Biden’s presidential bid, and he hasn’t even formally entered the race. “Uncle Joe,” as the 76-year-old former vice president is called, finds himself accused of physical contact with women who didn’t welcome it. Hugging. Back rubbing. Kisses on the cheek and back of the head. And in at least one instance, nose rubbing. Biden released an “I get it” video that was promptly hijacked by President Trump (or, more likely, someone in his orbit with tech skills) to show a Creepy Joe nuzzling the back of Uncle Joe’s head. On Friday, Biden sort of
Americans have not yet forgotten about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State almost a decade ago. She served in the role from 2009-13. A new poll finds that nearly three-fourths of Americans still deem that practice a “serious” practice according to new research. Six-out-of-10 also say the use of the server was illegal, says a wide-ranging Economist/You Gov poll released this week. • 74% of Americans say Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email to conduct government business while secretary of state is a “serious” problem;
Hey, what’s up . . . wait, where are you going? Why the dark glasses? Did you dye your hair? What’s with all the deleted tweets and Facebook posts lately? Oh, I get it. Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller didn’t find any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Ruskies to throw the 2016 election, you want to move on. Act like it never happened. Or at least pretend that you weren’t part of the whole damn hoax from the start. But . . . not so fast.
Actor Isaiah Washington has slammed Barack Obama for not supporting ´Africa or the Black Agenda´ while praising Donald Trump for inviting him to the White House to celebrate the First Step Act prison reform. The former Grey´s Anatomy star tweeted his thanks to ´45´ while criticizing ´44´ in a series of posts where he shared pictures of the current president from this week. Washington was at the White House to see the celebrate a prison reform bill, the First Step Act, which is focused on inmate rehabilitation. He wrote: ´I voted for 44 twice. I even checked my emails in
Democrats often complain that tax cuts primarily benefit “the rich,” but apparently they only think it’s a problem when rich conservatives get a tax break, because they’re outraged that President Trump’s tax cuts scaled back a generous subsidy enjoyed by well-off taxpayers in liberal states. A key provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a new cap on the so-called State and Local Tax (“SALT”) Deduction, which allows taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes on their federal tax return. This provision forces taxpayers in low-tax states such as Florida and Texas to effectively subsidize
A Tale of Extravagant Greed
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I first met the man whose opioid products have supposedly killed 200,000 Americans 51 years ago, at the Hotel du Cap-d’Antibes. Mortimer Sackler looked old even back then, had a Noo Yawk accent, and without ever having been introduced approached me after a tennis match I had just lost with some unsolicited advice: (Snip)His family is now in deep poo-poo. They’ve been reportedly discovered shifting hundreds of millions of dollars from the business, Purdue Pharma, to themselves through offshore entities, and the state of New York has sued them. The state wants to claw back funds
In 2018, various journalists wanted to talk to me about a couple of tweets I’d posted in favor of Kanye West. They couldn’t seem to believe that I supported his “crazy” feed, especially when he said he liked Trump, and couldn’t fathom why I tweeted “Hail Kanye!” in response to his weird blend of transparent prophet and calculated p.r. prankster. Enlarge Image Bret Easton EllisBret Easton EllisAP I’d known Kanye since 2013, when out of the blue he texted me to ask if I’d like to work on a movie idea of his. We’d never met, but I was intrigued
A former IT aide to New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan mounted an “extraordinarily extensive data-theft scheme” against the office, the culprit’s plea agreement states. The plot included the installation of tiny “keylogging” devices that picked up every keystroke. Between July and October 2018, former IT aide Jackson Cosko worked with an unnamed accomplice, a then-current Hassan employee, who repeatedly lent him a key that he used to enter the office at night and who allegedly tried to destroy evidence for him.
Dirty dental utensils may have exposed Seattle schoolkids to risk of HIV, hepatitis B, C: reports
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More than 1,000 students could be at risk for HIV and hepatitis B and C after getting dental care at 12 schools in and around Seattle, local reports said Tuesday. The utensils, which were used to treat 1,250 kids at the schools’ dental clinics, weren’t properly sterilized, KING-TV reported. The King County Department of Health said the risk was low, but recommended students who may have been exposed get tested, according to KING 5. Neighborhood Care, which operates the clinics for low-income families, said in a statement in part, "We immediately re-trained all school-based dental staff in sterilization processes
It’s almost Tax Day. Unless you’ve had your head in the sand, it would be hard not to know something about the college admissions scandal. Prosecutors charged 50 people in an alleged scheme to secure spots at top universities by illicit means, from fixing test scores, to faking athletic prowess, to rigging donations. (Snip)The tax angles are huge, and the potential taxes, penalties and interest seem serious. Criminal tax charges are possible, and they could be serious in themselves.
President Trump appointed the famously NeverTrump Elliott Abrams into his Venezuela point man job to scare the hell out of Maduro. Why is he helping the Venezuelan dictator sleep more soundly at night instead? The conservative/libertarian PanAm Post´s Orlando Avendaño lays it out forcefully: Elliott Abrams, the United States envoy to Venezuela, has surrendered: “I do not think Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States are thinking, at this moment, of a military reaction.” It was his response to concern about whether interim president Juan Guaidó should request a military intervention, or cooperation, through the activation of Article 187
Two years ago, Liz Smith, director of nursing at Franciscan Children’s hospital in Brighton, Mass., was headed toward the elevator at work when she saw her: a tiny girl with bright blue eyes and a single soft brown curl swept across her forehead. “Who’s this beautiful angel?” Smith asked the nurse who was wheeling the infant down the hall. “Her name is Gisele,” the nurse told her. The infant, a ward of the state, had been at the hospital for five months, but Smith had never seen her before. Smith learned that Gisele, then 8 months old,
President Trump received a warm welcome in at least one section of LA today, a day after backing off his latest threat to close the border between Mexico and the United States. After inspecting the 30-foot ´bollard wall´ at the Calexico-Mexicali border, the president flew on to Los Angeles for a private fundraising event in Beverley Hills with a key GOP donor, reported to be healthcare executive Lee Samson. Later, he was cheered as he arrived at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf club where he shook hands with enthusiastic guests and enjoyed dinner with his son Eric. While guests at
President Trump flew to Las Vegas on Friday night, with plans to address the national leadership of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak at the same gathering, according to reports.The president had left Washington earlier Friday, arriving in Los Angeles in the afternoon to attend a re-election fundraiser after meeting with officials earlier in the day at the Calexico-Mexicali border where he toured a two-mile stretch of newly built fencing.Upon landing at Los Angeles International Airport, Trump boarded a helicopter to take him to Beverly Hills. The event was held at the