The Commentariat -- December 28, 2017
** IRS Hits Brakes on Tax Prepayments. Washington Post: "Many Americans have rushed to prepay their 2018 property taxes and save on their federal taxes, hoping to take advantage of a tax deduction that will be scaled back in the new tax law passed by Republicans last week. The Internal Revenue Service confirmed Wednesday that taxpayers will be able to take advantage of the maneuver -- but only under limited circumstances. The IRS said that taxpayers can claim an additional property tax deduction when paying their 2017 taxes if they pay the tax this year and if the local tax authority has notified homeowners prior to 2018 of how much they owe in property taxes, known as a tax assessment. State and local laws vary as to when this occurs." This is a developing story. Mrs. McC: Looks like Medlar & I are screwed as I don't think the 2018 assessments in our town will be out for months. Florida, BTW, does not allow propertyowners to prepay their 2018 taxes in 2017. ...
... Here's the New York Times story, by Ben Casselman. ...
... The IRS advisory notice is here. ...
Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "Already, lawyers and accountants are eyeing several provisions [of the tax overhaul] that investors and companies could potentially exploit. The bill, for example, lowers the taxes on so-called pass-through income, which is earned by partnerships and other types of businesses. Congress sold the provision as a way to help smaller companies. But lawmakers added language that allowed big real estate developers to benefit. The result could be a tax break for any company that buys and operates a building for its business. The new law is also supposed to encourage companies to make investments in the United States. But the rules were written in such a way that they could give businesses an incentive to keep their money in foreign countries and build factories abroad." And so forth. Mrs. McC: Fortunately, the IRS is making it difficult for middle-class Americans to even mitigate the downsides the law aims at us. Thanks, Republicans!
Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday told firefighters that he had signed more legislation at this point in his presidential career than any previous president.... In actuality, Trump has signed 96 bills, the fewest of any president since before Truman."
Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "President Trump's legal team plans to cast former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn as a liar seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or his senior aides of any wrongdoing, according to three people familiar with the strategy. The approach would mark a sharp break from Trump's previously sympathetic posture toward Flynn, whom he called a 'wonderful man' when Flynn was ousted from the White House in February. Earlier this month, the president did not rule out a possible pardon for Flynn, who is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election." ...
... digby: "I'm sure Flynn was told by his attorneys that Trump was going to turn on him and make him into a lying, treasonous Benedict Arnold. At this point one doubts that his feelings will be hurt. He has to know by now that cozying up to Trump was the biggest mistake of his life. He could have been making millions quietly lobbying for all those foreign countries right now and instead his life is ruined."
Kevin Hall of McClatchy News: "A jailed Russian who says he hacked into the Democratic National Committee computers on the Kremlin's orders to steal emails released during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign now claims he left behind a data signature to prove his assertion. In an interview with Russia's RAIN television channel made public Wednesday, Konstantin Kozlovsky provided further details about what he said was a hacking operation led by the Russian intelligence agency known by its initials FSB. Among them, Kozlovsky said he worked with the FSB to develop computer viruses that were first tested on large, unsuspecting Russian companies, such as the oil giant Rosneft, later turning them loose on multinational corporations. Kozlovsky first came to public attention in early December when word spread about his confession last Aug. 15 in a Russian courtroom that he was the person who hacked into DNC computers on behalf of Russian intelligence. The Russian was jailed earlier this year, alleged to have been part of a hacking group there that stole more than $50 million from Russian bank accounts through what's called the Lurk computer virus."
Josh Marshall: "From the Devin Nunes Intelligence Agency, we have theory 14 why Donald Trump should be immune from the rule of law." Nunes is attempting to prove the Steele dossier was part & parcel of the Russia disinformation campaign. "This is not an inherently nonsensical idea.... We shouldn't think that because Russia wanted to elect Donald Trump that they couldn't simultaneously be involved in undermining Trump. But there are numerous reasons to doubt this new theory. First and foremost is that it comes from Devin Nunes and House 'investigators' working on his behalf.... Next, when counter-intelligence agents at the FBI first got hold of Steele's materials this is basically the first trap they would have run.... Congressional Republicans have increasingly focused in on the Steele dossier as the lynchpin undergirding the entire Russia probe. Discredit its origins or invalidate its claims and the whole Russia probe falls apart. But that's clearly not true.... Nothing Mueller's team is doing now relies on Steele's work...."
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "In just the last few weeks, [Robert Mueller's] prosecutors have begun questioning Republican National Committee staffers about the party digital operation that worked with the Trump campaign to target voters in key swing states. They are seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of Russian trolls and bots aimed at influencing the American electorate, according to two of the sources."
Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors have requested records related to a $285 million loan that Deutsche Bank gave Jared Kushner's family real estate company one month before Election Day, the company confirmed this week. The records were sought by prosecutors in Brooklyn and do not appear related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. A Kushner Cos. spokeswoman said that the firm is cooperating in the review of what it called a 'routine' transaction."
Michael Weiss of The Daily Beast: "This [article] is the first of a three-part series based on never-before-published training manuals for the KGB, the Soviet intelligence organization that Vladimir Putin served as an operative, and that shaped his view of the world. Its veterans still make up an important part of now-Russian President Vladimir Putin's power base.... The first installment of this series, directly relevant to the question of how Putin's minions played members of the Trump campaign, looks specifically at the use of third parties to target individuals and organizations." --safari...
...Russian Snowflakes. Adam Raymond of New York: "A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman with a sense of humor accused the U.S. of 'direct interference in our electoral process and internal affairs' after the State Department chided the Kremlin for barring a political opponent of Vladimir Putin's from challenging him in next year's presidential election.... [T]he Kremlin is still keeping Alexey Navalny, a charismatic opposition activist, from running." --safari
** Richard Haass in The Atlantic: "When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it's normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers. This describes what happened with France and Great Britain in the case of Germany's emergence after World War I.... But the United States has now introduced a third means by which a major power forfeits international advantage. It is abdication, the voluntary relinquishing of power and responsibility.... Trump is the first post -- World War II American president to view the burdens of world leadership as outweighing the benefits. As a result, the United States has changed from the principal preserver of order to a principal disrupter." --safari ...
... Aaron Miller & Richard Sokolsky in a Washington Post op-ed: "At the end of his first year in office, the president's approach to foreign affairs doesn't fit the platitude-ridden narrative laid out in [his national security strategy] speech as much as it lines up with six key components that define the Trumpian way abroad: America first, politics over policy, ego, deconstruction, risk aversion and dictators over democrats. They don't make a neatly defined doctrine, but these components have a certain cohesion -- at least in Trump's mind -- that hints at how he'll operate for the rest of his tenure." Read on. ...
... BUT. Rex Tillerson, in a New York Times op-ed, says he & Trump are doing a great job meeting international challenges, especially compared to do-nothing previous administrations.
Preaching to the Choir. Harriet Sherwood of the Guardian: "A senior Church of England bishop has lambasted conservative evangelical Christians in the US for their 'uncritical support' of Donald Trump, urging them to reflect on how their endorsement of the president relates to their faith. Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, said 'self-styled evangelicals' risked bringing the word evangelical into disrepute.... Last month, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said he could not comprehend the strength of support for Trump among conservative evangelicals in the US. 'I really genuinely do not understand where that is coming from.'... According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 80% of self-identified white evangelical Christians said they voted for Trump in the 2016 election, and three-quarters have since said they approve of his presidency." --safari...
...Rachel Cohen of The Intercept, tells the story of how, "A Manhattan playboy, who campaigned as friendly to the LGBTQ community and has dubbed himself 'very pro-choice,' is now leading the most extreme anti-choice, transphobic, and anti-gay administration in modern history. The movement's prayers have been answered." --safari
Katie Van Syckle of New York: "Ivanka Trump has stepped away from her namesake label, but that doesn't mean she's stopped wearing her brand's pumps, shoes, dresses, bags, and jewelry. In fact, a Wall Street Journal investigation tracked one hundred of her outfits and found that she wore her own brand to official appearances 68% of the time...[S]he still gets some financial information about the brand..Despite all the photo opportunities, sales at the company are reportedly down, and she was dropped from Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus earlier this year. Ethically, of course, she's in uncharted territory." --safari
Pigs at the Taxpayer Trough. Nicole Goodkind of Newsweek: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... is still on the public payroll despite resigning from her position in mid-December.... The White House announced on December 13 that Omarosa ... had resigned 'to pursue other opportunities' but that her departure would 'not be effective until January 20, 2018.' Still, the Secret Service said it had deactivated her pass to the White House, which means she is no longer working there.... Omarosa ... continues to be paid her full, $179,700 annual salary despite not showing up for work." --safari
** Chiraag Bains in a New York Times op-ed: "Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions retracted an Obama-era guidance to state courts that was meant to end debtors' prisons, which throw people who are too poor to pay fines into jail. This practice is blatantly unconstitutional, and the guidance had helped jump-start reform around the country. Its withdrawal is the latest sign that the federal government is retreating from protecting civil rights for the most vulnerable among us. The Justice Department helped shine a light on the harms of fine and fees when it investigated Ferguson, Mo.... As one of the lawyers on that case, I saw firsthand the damage that the city had wrought on its black community."
Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "The Trump administration is poised to make it harder for members of Congress to help immigrants deal with the government.... [An] email, sent Dec. 18 from a top official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), says the agency will put new restrictions on how members of Congress can help immigrants looking to get green cards or citizenship. It indicates that the agency will soon be demanding extra forms in many circumstances, as well as requiring certified translations and notarized signatures. USCIS insists this is all to protect immigrants' privacy and that any claims it s intended to make things more difficult for them are 'baseless.'" -safari
** Hotbed of Hate. Liz Posner of Alternet: "Since the beginning of 2017, [Whitefish, Montana]'s name has popped up repeatedly in stories about the far right. Whitefish is the home base for Trump's potential private spy agency [Amyntor Group], as well as the tiny company contracted to restore power in Puerto Rico, and early in the year, the town drew media attention as the proposed meeting point for an anti-Semitic rally.... All three are clearly linked to the Trump White House.... Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke grew up in Whitefish and has personal and business ties to the energy group contracted for the work in Puerto Rico.... The town is home to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer and Chuck Baldwin, a radical-right extremist minister who preaches Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia among other strains of hate.... This year, journalist Wayne Madsen reported that Zinkes' two sons 'were friends of former Whitefish resident Richard Spencer,' and that part of the reason Spencer moved his headquarters to Washington, D.C., after Trump's election was to be closer to the Zinkes, as well as his friend Stephen Miller." --safari
Democracy Now! looks into the effects of the Trump minions packing the courts at record pace. --safari
Senate Race. Sore Bigoted Loser. AP in the Guardian: "Republican Roy Moore has filed a lawsuit to try to stop Alabama from certifying Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of the state's special Senate election on 12 December. The court filing occurred about 14 hours before Thursday's meeting of a state canvassing board to officially declare Jones the winner. Jones defeated Moore by about 20,000 votes." --safari
House Race. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon has cut ties with Paul Nehlen, the far-right activist who is challenging Paul Ryan for his congressional seat and who has received extremely favorable coverage from Breitbart in the past. 'Nehlen is dead to us,' said Arthur Schwartz, an adviser of Bannon's who is familiar with the former White House chief strategist's thinking. Nehlen, who became a lightning rod for his anti-immigrant views, has escalated his rhetoric in recent days with a number of incendiary tweets. In one tweet, Nehlen proudly revealed that he is reading 'The Culture of Critique,' a book about Jewish culture widely considered to be anti-semitic. In other tweets, he has used the '#ItsOkayToBeWhite' hashtag.... Schwartz told CNN the decision was made earlier this month after Bannon was alerted that Nehlen had appeared on a white nationalist podcast."
More Fucking Morons. Sarah Kliff of Vox: "One-third of American adults believe that President Trump has successfully repealed Obamacare, a new poll from the Economist and YouGov finds. The poll of 1,000 adults shows that 31 percent believe Trump has repealed the Affordable Care Act, 49 percent say he hasn't, and 21 percent are unsure. Of those who identify as Republican voters, 44 percent say that Trump has repealed Obamacare." --safari
Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "Americans once again are most likely to name Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the man and woman living anywhere in the world they admire most, as they have for the past 10 years. The pair retain their titles this year, although by much narrower margins than in the past. Obama edges out Donald Trump, 17% to 14%, while Clinton edges out Michelle Obama, 9% to 7%."
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Politicians, and others in positions of power, should stop corroding civil discourse and seek to unify society, the former US president Barack Obama said in a rare interview conducted by Prince Harry for BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Obama did not mention his successor, Donald Trump, by name, but said social media could lead to facts being discarded and prejudices being reinforced, making public conversation harder. 'All of us in leadership have to find ways to recreate a common space on the internet,' he said.... Trump has been fiercely critical of Obama personally and politically since he entered the Oval Office, but Obama in his first interview since leaving office did not take the chance to hit back, possibly reflecting his wife Michelle's famous dictum: 'When they go low, you go high'." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Here is reputedly audio of the full interview. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McC: I have no idea if this is true, considering the source. News.au: "BRITISH government bureaucrats are urging Prince Harry not to invite the Obamas to his wedding for fear of infuriating Donald Trump. Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle have told aides they want the former US president and wife Michelle at their big day on May 19, according to The Sun." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ben Doherty of the Guardian: "Children caught in war zones are increasingly being used as weapons of war -- recruited to fight, forced to act as suicide bombers, and used as human shields -- the United Nations children's agency has warned.... Rape, forced marriage, abduction and enslavement had become standard tactics in conflicts across Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as in Nigeria, South Sudan and Myanmar. Some children, abducted by extremist groups, are abused again by security forces when they are released. Others are indirectly harmed by fighting, through malnutrition and disease, as access to food, water and sanitation are denied or restricted." --safari
Juan Cole: "The US military says that the number of ISIL fighters in eastern Syria has fallen from 3000 a month ago to only 1000 today. Moreover a lot of the latter are fleeing into al-Assad-controlled territory, a severe security concern for the Syrian state. The US is apparently declining to intervene, watching with some satisfaction as the fighters flee into the country's urban areas.... [Putin] expects to continue to fight terrorism (the Nusra front) and to maintain two bases in the country. Obviously, the withdrawal noises are propaganda." --safari
** "New Arctic". Eric Holthaus of Mother Jones: "Last week ... a group of polar scientists made a startling declaration: The Arctic as we once knew it is no more. The region is now definitively trending toward an ice-free state, the scientists said, with wide-ranging ramifications for ecosystems, national security, and the stability of the global climate system.... In the NOAA report, Arctic scientists lay out their best ideas of what this shift could mean for the world. Their depictions are sobering." --safari
Share Article
Reader Comments (14)
Can of worms!
Ben Casselman New York Times writes: Prepaying Your Property Taxes? I.R.S. Cautions It Might Not Pay Off "...to Prepay or Not to PrePay " that is the question!
"I think people should be aware that there could be some administrative headaches that come out of this,” Mr. Grewal said.
You think? A tax 'reform' that was rushed through.
Might a backlash be building as people begin to realize the impact from this act ?
Perhaps a new Clueless game.
Oh, and wait for the upcoming Tweet storm when the bigly unpopular Trump sees the new Gallup Poll with Obama as the most admired man.
That 14% of Gallup voters would still vote Trump as the most admired man, after witnessing a year of baby fits, rages, blatant sexism and racism, is downright depressing. And he crushes the Pope, albeit due to his popularity cult. The signs pointing to American moral degradation are blinking as red as our presidents* fake bake leather balm.
Safari linked a post today by Vox's Sarah Kliff that put some of the other news in perspective. Kliff cited a poll that showed "31 percent [of American adults] believe Trump has repealed the Affordable Care Act...."
Now look at the radical, "base-pleasing" stuff Team Trump does all the time. In today's sample, we're reminded that Sessions revived debtor prisons last week & that the USCIS is adding red tape to the red tape to make it harder for Congressional offices to help (usually legal) immigrants. Add to that -- Trump's Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has a connection to white supremacist Richard Spencer (as does Trump aide Stephen Miller, but we knew that).
Let's face it. Trump & his made guys are not really doing this stuff as political moves. Do you think people who are too ignorant to know that Trump/Republicans failed to repeal ObamaCare are keeping up with Jeff Sessions' 25 latest rules rescissions? Or that Trump's immigration people just added new rules to make life harder for immigrants? Of course not.
Trump, et al., do this stuff because they're nasty bigots, not because they feel they must continually prove themselves to base voters. During the campaign, Trump said he loved uneducated people. Of course he does. He can tell them anything. Since they know nothing, they'll buy his bull. A couple of weeks ago Trump had staff stack up reams & reams of 8-1/2 x 11 paper, whereupon he invited in the press & claimed the papers were regulations his people already had eliminated. Turned out the prop was a yuuge stack of blank paper. He could pull this stunt weekly (Look at the stack of red tape I cut this week!) & Trumpbots wouldn't know any better.
There is absolutely no politically-opportunistic need for Trump & his wiseguys to do most of the cruel things they're doing. Trump can tweet he did something, "Fox & Friends" can report it, Glenn Kessler can give him 4 Pinocchios for making it up, & polls will show 31 percent believe Trump did it. Done in a tweet. No need to risk getting Sharpie ink on his tiny fingers.
Marie
@MAG: You make a good point about a possible backlash. In 2016, Trump won suburban voters, the so-called moderate Republicans. Many of those voters live in big houses with big property taxes & in good school districts with big school taxes, & they also pay other state & local taxes that, in total, far exceed the $10K deduction limit.
This will likely kick some suburbanites into standard deduction territory (the standard deduction has increased slightly). So let us not forget the loss-of-status factor: "Oh, you're not itemizing this year, dear? How sweet."
Sort of 'international'.
"Trump is the first post–World War II American president to view the burdens of world leadership as outweighing the benefits." Wrong. Replace last words with 'his guts' or 'his balls'.
"Church of England bishop has lambasted conservative evangelical Christians" Impossible set of words. Since, in America, 'conservative' means I don't give a damn about anyone except myself, you can't have that word and Christian together.
And Bea, I think we win on property tax deduction. Our bill goes from Aug. 2017 to June 2018.
One of the reasons some people are ignorant of what this administration has done or hasn't done is because they get their news in drips and drabs or not at all. If you are a hard working person on a daily basis, when you finish that work at the end of the day, settle down with a beer, you want to be entertained and I doubt whether the news is going to do it for you. Maybe some bloke will tell you, "Hey, didcha know Trump destroyed Obama Care?" "Oh yeah?" you say and then go about your day and maybe tell a few others on the way.
When I served on our town's democratic committee and went around canvassing for an official running for office I was shocked at how many––and many of these people were academics–-were ignorant of the issues and politics of the town. But then I got off my high horse and remembered when I, too, was ignorant and was too busy with what was going on in my life to give a tinker's damn about my country's ways and means, much less the town I was living in at that time.
Now this is what should wake people up and probably won't–-the Mother Jone's piece is pretty darn terrifying. We need an Orson Wells going from town to town with a megaphone.
"That the Arctic is now a relic of a time gone by—the first major part of the planet on a countdown clock—should shock us. It’s one of those facts that those of us who closely follow climate change knew was coming. And with its arrival, it is devastating in its totality."
On a lighter note: I have always had a bit of a romantic streak––raised on fairy tales albeit some of them pretty grim. So watching the video of Harry and Barry I felt absolutely thrilled. The fact that these handsome specimens are friends is just the bees knees as they used to say in high British circles while dining on kumquats and honey cakes. And listening to Obama made me weep––clear, beautifully constructed sentences–-it was almost too much to bear.
Court packing with rubber stamp Confederates
I suppose if you had to pick a "worst" from the appalling array of Terrible Trump Shit, it might have to be how he is remaking the federal court system in his own image (just like god!): ignorant of precedence, cavalier about the rule of law, bigoted, amoral, and just downright mean. I mean, vicious.
A court system thus comprised promises to overrule justice on a frighteningly regular basis. And not just overrule it, but kick it in the head on the way out the door, just because. Of course undermining the rule of law is a necessary first step for any authoritarian for whom law is what he says it is.
There are lists of "worsts" connected to Trump the length of a football field, but sabotaging the rule of law, subverting the sense of justice and fairness essential to democracy, is right at the top.
And even though it seems like a coordinated plan (and maybe in some respects it is), it's just Trump being a terrible person. A mean, soulless, black-hearted prick.
And now the courts are filling up with equally mean, soulless, black-hearted pricks.
And Confederates cheer them on.
Goody for us.
From the Daily Beast article linked above:
" "But I believe—and you would have to ask those folks who will know the real answer—we have more legislation passed, including the record was Harry Truman a long time ago. And we broke that record, so we got a lot done." In actuality, Trump has signed 96 bills, the fewest of any president since before Truman. Trump may have been referencing a similar claim his then-press secretary Sean Spicer made in April, when Trump had signed 28 bills, slightly more than other modern presidents had signed at that point in their terms, but considerably less than predecessors like Truman and Roosevelt."
Here is part of the problem with DiJiT's lies. His claim ("more bills ...") was sort of true (but, not really) in April, and so he probably thinks it is still true. seven months later. He just ignores the change over time and selects the thing that sounds best at the time his lips are moving. Extrapolate this concept and you can see why he can always persuade himself that he's doing great; somewhere in his cerebrum he's remembering the day that he was momentarily doing well, and he just pushes that to the forefront and enunciates it. That's kind of a psychopathic talent.
Well, here's something out of the blue you could never have predicted. Defenestrated child molester, Roy Moore, challenging the legitimacy of the election of a decent guy to the US Senate. A guy not him.
And don't miss this one...Roy-boy says he took a polygraph right after the election was over, and by jing! he PASSED! Ain't it great? I mean, he passed! He showed all those liars what's what, right? What? You want to see the test results and the questions and interview the tester? Well Jesus, if you're gonna get all fucking technical and fake newsy about it...you'll,...um, you'll just have to take his word for it.
I'll give them this, Confederate liars have serious cojones.
I should have tried that with that trig test in high school. "Sister! Honest to god, I took that test last night at home, while watching Johnny Carson, and I nailed it! Cosine, tangent, secant, sine, all that good shit. I was a reg'lar Einstein! How 'bout an A, huh?"
Maybe Confederates can find about 20,001 ballots that can be jiggered so that it looks like voters "meant" to select Moore. Hey, it's working in Virginia.
Patrick,
As for the latest (god, it's getting so annoying) Trump claim of "I'm the Best Ever", Tamara Keith of NPR, last night on ATC, cleared the air on that score.
Most ever?
Not even close. In fact, Trump is far behind almost all his most recent predecessors. Even Incurious George has him by 13. As for beating Truman, it's a joke.
"We don't have an exact figure handy, but [Truman signed] around 240-250. According to Statutes at Large, Congress passed 292 bills in that session. Subtracting from January-April, minus few vetoes, gets to that figure."
Unless the little king is now trying to change the laws of mathematics (I wouldn't put it past him), 250 is still a tad more than 96.
But, as Marie put it earlier, it doesn't matter if his lies are easily disproved. His base won't bother to check. If Trump said he spent the previous evening learning Swahili and was now the world's expert, millions would believe him.
Want a prolonged chuckle?
I'm only half way through it and he ain't no Edward Abbey, but Bill McKibben's jape, "Radio Free Vermont," does lighten the spirit a bit.
My only regret is that, close as we all are in many ways, when I've finished it (later today) I can't just reach out and pass it around.
"Drawing Trump" / From Politico
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/drawing-trump/
Jolly Holidays, New Year & A Return To Authentic Democracy!
From-Off-The-Grid
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
NYT Breaking News: An Alabama judge rejected Roy Moore’s suit challenging the Senate election results, and the state certified Doug Jones as its new senator
Brisk business at our upstate NY town hall today. The Receiver of Taxes had printed out everyone's 2018 bill, and the crew happily scribbled down addresses and produced the correct piece of paper. It looked as if it had been a steady stream.