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it's not a raid, it's not a recession, it was 0.0 inflation
and hunter is the smartest person I know
Offsetting guilt: Eco-minded descendants of billionaire oil barons are PAYING hundreds of activists $25,000-a-year to protest around the world because they feel 'a moral obligation to put genie back in the bottle'
Aileen Getty, Rebecca Rockefeller Lambert, Peter Gill Case paying salaries for eco-thugs through non-profits
Getty, whose granddad created Getty Oil, has so far splashed out $1million through Climate Emergency Fund
Lambert and Case, members of the Rockefeller family, have forked out $30million on The Equation Campaign
They've put eco-activists on the payroll for around $25,000 as well as pumped money into the organizations
It comes as eco-warriors have been continuing to wreak havoc across the world with stunts in recent months
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11099581/Three-oil-scions-PAYING-hundreds-eco-activists-25-000-year-professional-protesters.html
Three American oil scions have been bankrolling mobs of eco-zealots who have terrorized the world by slashing tires, blocking traffic and attacking firms.
Aileen Getty, Rebecca Rockefeller Lambert and Peter Gill Case, who are heirs to their families' huge fortunes, are paying the salaries for thugs through their non-profits in an apparent bid to offset their relatives' legacies.
Getty, whose grandfather created Getty Oil, has so far splashed out $1million through her California-based Climate Emergency Fund.
Lambert and Case, who are both members of the Rockefeller dynasty that founded Standard Oil in 1870, have forked out $30million on The Equation Campaign.
They have put eco-activists from groups such as Just Stop Oil on the payroll for around $25,000 each as well as pumped money into the organizations themselves.
It comes as eco-warriors have been continuing to wreak havoc across the world in recent months, including in the US, Europe, the UK and Australia.
SUV cars tires have been slashed in America, Britain and Australia, while famous oil paintings have been targeted in EU countries.
Meanwhile huge protests with thousands of activists taking to the streets have descended on large cities across the globe throughout the year.
AMERICA: Tire Extinguishers eco-zealots are slashing tires on SUVs across the globe in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An impacted car is pictured in NYC
AUSTRALIA: Australian police swap the stairs as the protesters refuse to go quietly, dragging out the ones who won't walk out of Parliament House in Canberra
EUROPE: An Italian security guard tore protesters' hands off a priceless Botticelli painting at a Florence art gallery and dragged them away in Florence
Getty told the New York Times she backed the effectiveness of the activists she was bankrolling and revealed she had put $1million of her own cash into the Climate Emergency Fund so far.
She said the civil disobedience of the grassroots organizations was supposed to only be an alarm but said their destruction was minimal compared to what was at stake.
She told the newspaper: 'Let's not forget that we're talking about extinction. Don't we have a responsibility to take every means of trying to protect life on Earth?'
The Climate Emergency Fund was started three years ago and believes causing issues for millions is an important way to get its message across.
It has splashed out just over $7million on causes it believes in, with executive director Margaret Salamon comparing it to suffragist, civil rights and gay rights activists throughout history.
She said: 'Action moves public opinion and what the media covers, and moves the realm of what's politically possible. The normal systems have failed. It's time for every person to realize that we need to take this on.'
She dismissed the idea her group was helping spread misery across the world by saying Martin Luther King had a poor approval rating in the years before he was assassinated.
The Climate Emergency Fund has also dished out $170,000 to Save Old Growth, a Canadian group which blocks roads used by loggers in British Columbia.
Co-founder Zain Haq said: 'We're not trying to be popular. Civil disobedience historically is about challenging a way of life.'
Meanwhile in Britain the nonprofit handed eco-zealots from Just Stop Oil nearly $1million and helped with paying 40 protestors and organizers.
Miranda Whelehan, who is part of the group, said: 'Obviously, you can only do so much as volunteers. Huge oil companies have millions, if not billions.'
And in the US the Climate Emergency Fund chucked $100,000 at Scientist Rebellion - which counts NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus among its ranks - to pay for consultant wages and travel costs.
He said he had been looking for ways to save the planet for 16 years but decided the best way to do it was to cause mayhem for ordinary citizens.
He joined around 1,000 scientists in 25 different countries in blocking traffic and chaining themselves to notable buildings - including the gates of the White House.
After the attack, Kalmus said: 'I get messages every day from people who said it had given them hope. It seemed to communicate that urgency far more than anything else.'
Meanwhile Lambert and Case have been pumping money into The Equation Campaign, which they founded in 2020 to give financial backing and legal advice to those trying to stop fossil fuel expansion.
The fund has helped those who have hammered through gas pumps, glued themselves to paintings and chained themselves to banks.
About $30million was pumped in by the two members of the Rockefeller dynasty, with both looking to right the supposed wrongs of their family.
Case said in an email to the New York Times: 'It's time to put the genie back in the bottle. I feel a moral obligation to do my part. Wouldn't you?'
The Equation Campaign has seen relative success at stopping oil and gas expansion, having helped cancel an extension of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
It is also campaigning against other fossil fuel projects and is helping eco-warriors targeted by what it claims are exaggerated charges and false arrests.
Executive Director Katie Redford said: 'For the climate and literally for humanity to win, we need them to win, and to stop the industry from building more stuff that puts greenhouse gases into the environment.'
The Equation Campaign and Climate Emergency Fund stressed their groups only pump money into legal activists including training, education, travel and recruitment.
They also shot back at claims paying the activists made their work less authentic, saying receipts have to be shown to ensure nothing illegal has taken place.
The eco-warriors have said to money is desperately needed, with some ditching school or juggling multiple jobs to spend their lives protesting.
The most recent protest to hit the US took place last week as demonstrators tussled with cops before being wrestled to the floor and carried out of the stadium at the Congressional baseball game in DC two weeks ago.
Some of the activists managed to enter the Nationals Park stadium, and unfurl banners. Outside, three people were arrested as the game between Democrat and Republican lawmakers unfolded.
One man rushed officers, and was swarmed on and pushed to the ground. Another pair of demonstrators tried to get in to the venue, but were marched backwards, smirking, by a burly security officer.
When they tried to walk past the Metropolitan Police officer, he shoved one of them hard, causing him to fall backwards. Still trying to enter the area, he was surrounded by police who shepherded him away.
A blond woman was seen being carried by her arms and legs from the scene, while another activist stood nearby, zip ties on his wrists.
A group called Now Or Never claimed that they were behind the demonstration. 'Tonight we converged on the Congressional Baseball Game,' they tweeted.
'We are living through a climate emergency. Yosemite is on fire. An ice shelf the size of NYC just broke off of Antarctica. We're dying by the million from pollution.
'Congress must seal the deal. It's time.' They added: 'Baseball can wait. The climate cannot.'
The group said they want Joe Biden to declare a 'climate emergency', and Congress to spend billions on clean energy.
'We are deeply offended that our elected leaders continue to play games in the face of our impending doom,' said Michael Steffes, a spokesperson for the group.
'Our congresspeople are choosing to play ball while the world burns around them. Unless they treat this as a climate emergency and take immediate climate action, we are doomed to climate hell.'
The group said they were angry at politicians 'wasting the world's time with their indefensible antics,' and said evidence of the scale of the problem was all around.
'St Louis is underwater, California is on fire, Lake Mead is running dry, the country's glaciers are melting, and drought is hammering the midwest, stretching the country's ability to cope with the growing number of people whose lives have been upended by the crisis,' they said.
'The one time that they come together in agreement is to play a literal game.
'Unless the United States government takes immediate & drastic climate action, they are sentencing billions of people to an unlivable future on a dead planet.'
Italy
While British police officers have stood by helplessly as eco-protesters have blocked roads and vandalised priceless paintings, the Italian authorities have dealt with the activists without hesitation.
On Friday, an Italian security guard tore protesters' hands off a priceless Botticelli painting at a Florence art gallery and dragged them away.
The security official stormed over to the young activists and pulled their superglued hands from the Renaissance masterpiece shortly after they began their short-lived protest in the Uffizi Gallery.
The unnamed man and two women were from climate activist group Ultima Generazione ('Last Generation') and had rolled out a banner which read: 'Last Generation No Gas No Coal'.
The activists, who had paid for tickets to get into the gallery, were removed from the gallery by police after the security guard dragged them away from the painting.
It struck a jarring contrast to the inaction shown by British guards at the Trafalgar Square gallery this month, where Just Stop Oil zealots were allowed to cover over John Constable's The Hay Wain with their own version.
More than an hour later, Brighton students Hannah Hunt, 23, and Eben Lazarus, 22, were finally arrested.
Meanwhile, Extinction Rebellion activists were forcibly removed from a motorway by furious Italian motorists after they blocked the busy road in Rome last month.
Demonstrating over environmental issues, the protesters sat in a row across Rome's Raccordo - the city's main ring-road and one of its busiest - holding banners.
A video shot from the side of the two-lane road showed the demonstrators using road-block protest tactics also used in Britain, causing a huge traffic jam to snake back as far as the eye could see, with no police officers or vehicles in sight.
In response, irate Italian motorists at the front of the queue jumped out of their vehicles to take action - dragging the protesters across the tarmac and dumping them on to the side of the road.
One man ripped an orange banner from the hands of the Extinction Rebellion activists and threw it over the side of the motorway barrier. A woman, dressed in a summer dress while still carrying her handbag, tore a second sign from their grasp.
After removing the banners, a second man joined the first in forcibly dragging the protesters by their arms across the tarmac to the side of the road, making enough of a gap for several vehicles to get through and past the demonstration.
However, as the first man was dragging the remaining protesters off the road, the activists he had first removed saw an opportunity and ran back into the middle of the road, and in front of the on-coming traffic - only to sit down again with their banner.
With the traffic again being blocked, the man grabbed one of the female protesters by the hair and dragged her again to the side of the road. This did not deter her, however, as she quickly shuffled back in front of the traffic.
The video showed the man - wearing sunglasses, shorts and a T-Shirt - shouting in the face of the female activist who had sat back down in the middle of the road.
This time, he picked her up and threw her to the side of the road. In the meantime, the second man was able to make a gap in the activists long enough for more cars and trucks to drive through and away from the scene.
By the end of the video, however, the protesters are shown persisting with their efforts, blocking at least half of the road - again with their orange banner.
Corriere Dello Sport reported that the protest was eventually broke up with the arrival of local police, the Carabinieri (federal police) and the Digos (special forces) - with the protesters being taken into custody.
France
Tour de France fans became so fed up with a group of eco-protesters who were threatening to disrupt the historic bike race by sitting in the middle of the road they angrily removed the activists.
Eight climate activists from French campaign group Dernière Rénovation (Last Renovation) sporting T-shirts emblazoned with the message 'we have 978 days left' to tackle environmental decline tried to stop the race during the 20th stage between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour on Saturday.
But their attempts to wreak havoc at the stage were thwarted by spectators, who stormed onto the road and dragged them out of the path of the oncoming bikes even before the police arrived on the scene to make arrests.
Striking pictures have emerged of the enraged fans bowling into the road to pull, push and harry the protesters off the tarmac to prevent them from ruining the race.
Police officers were pictured arresting the eco-protesters by the side of the road.
Started earlier this year, Dernière Rénovation (DR) is a French faction of the international climate activism conglomerate 'A22', which includes the likes of Just Stop Oil - a UK-based group which attempted to disrupt the British Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 3.
DR employ similar tactics to those used by the likes of Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain, such as gluing themselves to the road to create congestion in large cities or putting themselves in harm's way to disrupt major events.
Many did not take so kindly to the protestors' actions, with several social media users in France expressing their disapproval at the 'pathetic' attempts to stop the historic bike race.
''Again with these charlatans... take action that is useful and not counterproductive... because no one supports you with your extremist positions,' one user wrote, while another tweeted: 'Their battle is lost - you don't change the mentality of 66 millions people by blocking an event of French heritage'.
Most seemed to sympathise with the cause, but disagreed with the way in which DR tried to raise awareness.
'I understand the group's motivations - but not by doing this kind of thing at such a cycling event... Frankly pathetic, especially since pro cyclists almost fell because of you... that's pathetic,' one user said.
---------- continues in link with pictures --------------
Some good news: Ratings for Chris Cuomo’s podcast sinking fast three weeks after launch
By Alexandra Steigrad August 10, 2022 1:26pm Updated
Disgraced ex-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s new podcast is plunging in the charts just three weeks after its launch.
According to Apple iTunes’ ranking of top podcast shows, “The Chris Cuomo Project” ranked in 72nd place — down sharply from 51 a day after its July 21 debut despite recent interviews with Sean Penn, Sen. Joe Manchin and former New York Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.
Cuomo’s new show ranked 9th on Apple’s news podcast list, which represents a much smaller pool of shows that includes “The Daily” from The New York Times, “The Dan Bongino Show” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” among others.
The fired CNN anchor’s first episode included an interview with Penn about his upcoming documentary about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But as of Wednesday, Cuomo fell to 13th place of all news podcasts, sandwiched between “The Charlie Kirk Show” in 12th place, and “The Megyn Kelly Show” in the 14th spot. Out of all podcasts, he now ranks just behind “True Crime with Kendall Rae.”
Cuomo’s slide could be attributed to novelty; most podcasts debut at a higher spot before they settle to a more regular ranking. Rankings also fluctuate in the days after new episodes drop.
Case in point: Cuomo’s podcasts have see-sawed to as low as 117th place to as high as 3rd place across all podcasts, according to podcast ranker, Chartable.
A week after his debut with Penn, Cuomo on July 28 welcomed Sen. Manchin, who spoke about his reputation in the Democratic Party, his roots in West Virginia and his thoughts on President Biden’s chances at a second term.
Cuomo’s most recent show, which included a 78-minute interview with Yang, touched on topics like “how the media twists words to serve specific agendas:,” as well as the Forward party, a third-party the politician founded.
On Twitter, some listeners sounded off about Cuomo’s Yang interview.
“I was genuinely interested in Chris Cuomo’s new podcast. Went to Spotify to give it a listen. His guest? Andrew Yang. I didn’t listen even for 1 second. If he’s going to have people like that as guests, it is a hard pass for me,” one user tweeted.
Other fans said they were happy to “hear his voice again” since he was fired from CNN last year.
CNN showed Cuomo the door after he advised his brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, throughout a sexual misconduct scandal. Soon after, the anchor was accused of trying to destroy the network by exposing an affair between former CNN boss Jeff Zucker and his aide Allison Gollust. In March, Cuomo slapped CNN with a $125 million lawsuit, alleging wrongful termination.
Since then, Cuomo has been teasing a comeback. The podcast was his first foray back to public life. As exclusively reported by The Post, Cuomo will be joining the fledgling TV network NewsNation on Oct. 3 where he will host a show at 8 p.m.
Details of the show have not yet been revealed, but sources told The Post that Cuomo has taken a massive pay cut in compensation and amenities to return to the small screen.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/ratings-for-chris-cuomos-weeks-old-podcast-sinking-fast/
Washington Post deletes tweet accusing Merrick Garland of ‘politicizing DOJ’
By Ariel Zilber August 10, 2022 2:01pm Updated
(The battle is far from over. Too many twerps covering for the demorrhoids and their egregious behavior.
The Tweets are at the link.)
The Washington Post deleted a tweet promoting one of its stories on Wednesday that suggested Attorney General Merrick Garland “politicized” the Department of Justice by authorizing an FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Garland vowed to depoliticize Justice. Then the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago,” read the headline of a story written by Justice Department reporter Perry Stein.
The headline in the tweet sparked outrage on Twitter, which apparently prompted the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet to remove the tweet and re-post it using a different headline.
“No, he’s in the middle of unraveling a crime spree committed by the former president of the United States. There…fixed it for you,” one Twitter user wrote.
“This is so embarrassing I worry for the future of journalism,” another Twitter commenter said of the original headline.
Jay Rosen, who teaches journalism at New York University, said the original headline was “painfully under-thought” because it “seemed to say that Garland was shifting course and unduly politicizing DOJ.”
The newspaper on Wednesday posted a tweet which read: “Clarification: A previous tweet of this story had a headline that has changed after publishing. We’ve deleted the tweet.”
The new headline reads: “FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago lands Merrick Garland in a political firestorm.”
FBI agents on Monday searched Trump’s Palm Beach estate — marking the first time that federal investigators descended on the private residence of a former president.
The raid was conducted as part of an ongoing federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents that were apparently removed from the White House in the waning days of his presidency.
Trump is also the subject of a federal inquiry into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters mobbed the US Capitol as Congress was in session to certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
Republicans accused the Biden administration of using the Justice Department as a tool to persecute political opponents.
Even some Democrats expressed unease with the search.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted: “DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid & it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation & legitimacy of January 6 investigations.”
Trump is expected to announce whether he’ll seek another run for White House. Polls show him leading the field of GOP hopefuls.
Garland has refused to comment if he authorized the FBI’s search.
In her story, Stein writes that “some lawyers questioned why the Justice Department and FBI would execute such a high-profile search on a former president’s residence over missing documents, even if some of them are classified.”
The paper’s Twitter gaffe comes on the heels of an internal drama that played out on the social media site.
One of its political reporters, Dave Weigel, was suspended for a month without pay in June for retweeting a post that was deemed sexist.
Weigel’s colleague, Felicia Sonmez, who first flagged the retweet, was fired weeks later after she criticized management and other co-workers on the social media site.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/washington-post-deletes-tweet-accusing-merrick-garland-of-politicizing-doj/
"Payback is going to be a hoot!"
I sure as hell hope so, but I'm feeling beaten up and discouraged at the moment.
The friggin' demorrhoids have taken the moral compass, thrown it on the ground, and stomped it to pieces.
They never quit.
They just get dirtier and dirtier.
Part II: When it comes to Trump, pelousi crows: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also celebrated the decision, calling it “an important victory for the rule of law.”
“Access to the former president’s tax returns is crucial to upholding the public interest, our national security & our Democracy,”
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/house-panel-can-get-trumps-taxes-appeals-court-says/
But Biden gets to slide when Republicans want to examine Brandon's tax returns to look for connections between him and Mr. Dirty Money Hunter. What about "the rule of law?" This is from May.
Biden likely to avoid IRS audit that could’ve revealed if he made money from Hunter’s deals
By Steven Nelson May 5, 2022 6:52pm Updated
Quote: “If Republicans win back control of Congress next year, they should conduct rigorous oversight as to why the IRS has reportedly spent a decade auditing Donald Trump, yet does not want to scrutinize what tax experts of both parties have called Joe Biden’s legally questionable conduct.”
President Biden is likely to avoid an audit that could reveal whether he made money from his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings — because the Internal Revenue Service has rejected a whistleblower complaint that alleged he owes at least $127,000 in taxes, The Post has learned.
The IRS allows people to inform on fellow taxpayers and win a slice of the proceeds — prompting Chris Jacobs, a former Republican staffer on Capitol Hill, to submit complaints against Biden and his accountant, though he said he didn’t want any financial reward.
Jacobs shared with The Post a reply from the IRS titled “denial” that explained that the government didn’t use his information.
Tax law expert Bob Willens, who teaches at Columbia University’s business school, said the rejection means Biden is likely to run out a three-year statute of limitations, meaning Republican claims that Biden owes up to $500,000 in taxes are unlikely to be resolved.
“It looks like the question of whether the president underpaid his Medicare taxes will never be aired,” Willens told The Post.
The dispute concerns more than $13 million that Joe and Jill Biden routed through S corporations in 2017 and 2018 to avoid paying a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on most of the haul by declaring a small part of it as “salary.” Many wealthy people use S corporations to lower their tax bills and the IRS pursues relatively few cases of lowballing the amount of income that counts as taxable.
The income is believed to be linked to Biden book sales and speaking fees after he left office as vice president. Experts say income that is the direct result of a person’s labor generally should count as subject to the Medicare tax, and ethics experts are calling on Biden to reveal the precise sources amid scrutiny of the president’s links to his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business relationships.
Jacobs did not specifically seek information on the first son’s links to his father, but an IRS audit would necessarily require a review of how Biden earned various income streams.
University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter, who was chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told The Post recently that without the corporate returns, “you don’t know where the money’s coming from.”
“This exactly why it’s better to disclose — then every card is face-up on the table,” he told The Post last month. “Otherwise, people have no idea what’s in there … and that undermines public confidence in the government.”
IRS auditor Tresa Williams wrote to Jacobs in a reply dated April 22: “Under [IRS rules], an award may be paid only if the information provided results in the collection of tax, penalties, interest, additions to tax, or additional amounts based on the information provided. Therefore, you are not eligible for an award.”
“Although the information you submitted did not qualify for an award, thank you for your interest in the administration of the internal revenue laws,” Williams wrote.
Jacobs filed two separate complaints: one in February against Biden and another last month for Tax Day that mentioned both Biden and his accountant. The IRS notified Jacobs on March 31 that it received his February complaint — before writing 22 days later to say it would not act on the tip. He has not received a reply to his more recent complaint, but the underlying facts are nearly identical.
The IRS generally has a three-year statute of limitations to go after back taxes, so long as the evasion isn’t a willful non-reporting of income.
“Here, without any interest on the IRS’s part in bringing an enforcement action, there’s no way for Mr. Jacobs, that I’m aware of, to prosecute the case himself,” Willens said. “So, clearly, there will be no whistleblower award here because the [IRS] indifference to the information he provided means there will be no ‘proceeds’ out of which these awards are ordinarily paid.”
Willens said that the three-year statute of limitations hits on either the anniversary of Biden’s 2018 tax filing or the filing deadline in April 2019 — meaning the clock’s probably up already or will be in the near future. Biden released an amended copy of his 2018 tax return dated July 7, 2019, and it’s unclear when he initially filed.
“The only other statute of limitations extension that I’m aware of is where the taxpayer ‘fails to report gross income in excess of 25 percent of the gross income he or she reported on the tax return.’ In those cases, there is a six-year statute of limitations imposed. However, here, I don’t think the president failed to ‘report’ his gross income. Instead, what he may have done is ‘mischaracterize’ a portion of his income,” Willens said.
“If the income is merely mischaracterized, rather than omitted, the six-year statute is not operative.”
Willens added: “Of course, filing a ‘false’ return with ‘an intent to evade tax’ means that the statute of limitations never expires, but I don’t think anyone expects the IRS to make that assertion with respect to the president’s tax return(s) … the dispute here, regarding what is ‘reasonable compensation for services actually rendered,’ probably doesn’t rise to that level since the question of reasonable compensation is a factual, rather than a legal, question.”
Jacobs said he’s concerned about the IRS decision to deny his claim.
“It seems highly curious that the IRS could spend five months processing a simple change to fix a typographical error made by one of my clients, and yet dismiss a complaint regarding Joe Biden’s conduct in just three weeks,” Jacobs said.
“If Republicans win back control of Congress next year, they should conduct rigorous oversight as to why the IRS has reportedly spent a decade auditing Donald Trump, yet does not want to scrutinize what tax experts of both parties have called Joe Biden’s legally questionable conduct.”
Republicans indeed are vowing to investigate Biden’s tax situation next year if they retake control of Congress, and accuse him of hypocrisy in urging the wealthy to pay their “fair share.” Biden last year proposed legislation to close the tax loophole and boost IRS enforcement.
Democrats say Biden used a common tax strategy and that there’s no directly analogous case that indicates he was wrong in his calculations.
The White House did not offer comment for this article, but Biden spokesman Andrew Bates noted last year in a statement to the Washington Post that House Republicans weren’t eager to review Trump’s tax records. The former president, unlike Biden, refused to release his tax returns, saying that they were under audit.
“[Biden] has released over 22 years of tax returns and is proud to have restored the bipartisan tradition of being transparent with the American people about the personal finances of the chief executive,” Bates said.
“After a four-year hiatus, he also welcomes this born-again support for that critical tradition from congressional Republicans, and congratulates them on their 180,” Bates added.
“With the Build Back Better agenda, the president is fighting to ensure our economy delivers for middle-class families — not just those at the top — which means the wealthy pay their fair share and the IRS is given the resources they need to crack down on wealthy tax cheats. He encourages his GOP colleagues to reverse themselves on that, as well.”
Republicans such as Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana say Biden may need to pay a half-million-dollar tax bill. Banks last year requested a report from the Congressional Research Service on what constitutes “reasonable compensation” for S corporations.
Although no cases identical to Biden’s were documented by the CRS report, Banks said that “according to the criteria CRS provided to my office, he owes the IRS and the American people hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes” and “every American should know about Joe Biden’s tax hypocrisy.”
Banks told Fox News last year that “when we take back the House in 2022, Oversight [Committee] Republicans won’t forget about Biden’s legally dubious tax avoidance schemes.”
Willens told The Post last year that each case is unique and that “the question remains whether the compensation [Biden] exacted from his corporation was ‘reasonable.'” But Willens said that “in my view, the case can easily be made that reasonable compensation should be multiples of $300,000,” referring to the 2018 figure that Biden deemed as subject to the Medicare tax.
Willens later told the Washington Post, “I don’t have any problem with what he did. In fact, he would have been almost derelict had he not channeled his earnings through an S corporation.”
Political debate over the use of S corporations has raged for decades, impacting other politicians, including 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
John Bogdanski, a former member of the IRS Commissioner’s Advisory Group and a professor at Lewis & Clark law school, told The Post last year that Biden would not have to pay Medicare taxes for the share of income made off the labor of other people, which can be complicated to determine. He said people generally make assumptions in their own favor and get away with it.
“There are millions — literally millions — of S corporations. So there might be a half a million S corporations that are playing this game. And the IRS doesn’t have anywhere near enough of a budget to bring a half a million cases every year,” he said.
Bogdanski added that he thinks it’s “quite rich” for Republicans to focus on Biden’s taxes when Trump never released his own tax returns.
David Gamage, a tax law professor at Indiana University Bloomington, said “the general view among tax experts is that it’s quite easy for taxpayers to get away with this form of tax planning to the point of it being very abusive.”
“This is not the sort of tax planning that should be going on as a matter of tax policy, but it’s very hard for the IRS to police,” Gamage told The Post. “I would hope that increased attention to this issue, whether that be through focus on a President Biden using this form of tax planning or more generally, would increase the case for reform.”
https://nypost.com/2022/05/05/joe-biden-to-likely-avoid-irs-audit-that-could-have-revealed-hunter-income/
Part I: Hey, Gmenfan. It's never going to end is it. I had read the first two. The third reminded me I forgot to read the tax form story I saw earlier. This one really pissed me off. We've got a BIG witch hunt going on here.
House panel can get Trump’s taxes, appeals court says
By Callie Patteson August 10, 2022 10:26am Updated
The House Ways and Means Committee does have the right to see former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, denying his claim that the request for the documents was “politically motivated.”
The three-judge panel on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court ruling from December that found the committee’s ask to be justified.
The House panel, chaired by Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), first requested the 45th president’s business and personal returns in 2019 — seeking documents for the years between 2013 and 2018 as part of an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s audit program and tax law compliance by Trump. Federal law says the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.
Trump has long claimed the committee’s action was driven by opposition to him personally. However, Senior Circuit Judge David Sentelle wrote in his ruling that lawmakers having personal political motives “as well as legislative ones” is nothing new.
“Indeed, it is likely rare that an individual member of Congress would work for a legislative purpose without considering the political implications,” wrote Sentelle, who added that courts “do not probe motives of individual legislators.”
“These motives are explicitly protected by the Speech or Debate Clause.”
Sentelle also ruled that the committee’s request does not violate the separation of powers principle and the Treasury Department’s decision to hand over the returns does not violate Trump’s First Amendment rights.
“While it is possible that Congress may attempt to threaten the sitting president with an invasive request after leaving office, every president takes office knowing that he will be subject to the same law as all other citizens upon leaving office,” the judge wrote. “This is a feature of our democratic republic, not a bug.”
In December, a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled that the committee has the authority to obtain and potentially publish the records.
“A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquires,” US District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote at the time. “Even the special solicitude accorded former presidents does not alter the outcome.”
Neal praised the ruling on Tuesday, saying it has “yet again” affirmed the committee’s position.
“I’m pleased that this long-anticipated opinion makes clear the law is on our side,” Neal said. “When we receive the returns, we will begin our oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also celebrated the decision, calling it “an important victory for the rule of law.”
“Access to the former president’s tax returns is crucial to upholding the public interest, our national security & our Democracy,” the California Democrat said in a tweet.
“We look forward to the IRS complying with this ruling and delivering the requested documents so that Ways and Means can begin its oversight responsibilities of the mandatory presidential audit program.”
The appeals court’s decision came one day after the former president’s Florida estate at Mar-a-Lago was raided by FBI agents. The raid was reportedly part of a probe into whether Trump illegally took classified records from the White House.
Trump has claimed the raid was the result of “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
The former president has yet to announce whether he intends to seek another White House bid.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/house-panel-can-get-trumps-taxes-appeals-court-says/
Payback is going to be a hoot!
Hi K². Here's more articles for everyone's viewing displeasure!
https://conservativefighters.co/news/fbi-searched-melanias-wardrobe-and-asked-staff-to-switch-off-security-cameras/
https://conservativefighters.co/news/judge-who-approved-fbi-raid-disparaged-trump-shared-woke-content-on-facebook/
https://conservativefighters.co/news/the-witch-hunt-continues-irs-ordered-to-turn-over-trump-tax-returns-to-democrats/
FBI Trump raid exposes Washington’s secrecy shams
By James Bovard August 9, 2022 8:00pm Updated
Quote: Unless the feds can quickly reveal proof of far more serious Trump crimes (fat chance), Monday’s raid was one of the most prominent outrages in recent law-enforcement history.
FBI agents raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday reportedly looking for boxes of classified material that Trump allegedly removed from the White House when his presidency ended in January 2021. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the raid showed the Justice Department’s “intolerable state of weaponized politicization.”
Trump is accused of violating the Presidential Records Act. Congress enacted this law in 1978 after former President Richard Nixon claimed his secret Oval Office tapes and other records were his personal property. The law asserted, “The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records.”
“The Presidential Records Act is critical to our democracy, in which the government is held accountable by the people,” Archivist of the United States David Ferriero declared earlier this year.
In reality, the Presidential Records Act is the Presidential Damn-Near-Perpetual-Secrecy Act. Former presidents pocket multimillion-dollar advances for their memoirs while their records are mostly quarantined for decades from the citizens they often misgoverned.
The Nixon Library did not release the final batch of his secret tapes until 2013 — 39 years after Nixon was driven from office. The Lyndon B. Johnson Library delayed releasing the final batch of his secret tapes of presidential conversations until 2016 — 47 years after he left office.
President George W. Bush in 2001 issued an executive order that “effectively rewrote the Presidential Records Act, converting it from a measure guaranteeing public access to one that blocks it,” as law professor Jonathan Turley noted. Congress overturned parts of that order in 2014.
Obama White House lawyers repeatedly invoked the Presidential Records Act to “delay the release of thousands of pages of records from President Bill Clinton’s White House,” Politico reported. At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama trucked 30 million pages of his administration’s records to Chicago, promising to digitize them and eventually put them online — a move that outraged historians.
More than five years after Obama’s presidency ended, the National Archives webpage reveals that zero pages have been digitized and disclosed. People can file requests via the Freedom of Information Act (a law Obama helped wreck) to access Obama records, but responses from presidential libraries can be delayed for years, even more than a decade, if the information is classified.
Similarly, President Joe Biden double-crossed Americans on disclosing records from his 36-year Senate career. In 2011, Biden donated 1,875 boxes of documents from his Senate days to the University of Delaware, which received federal subsidies to curate the collection while it was locked up. Biden and the university library promised to unseal the records “two years after Biden retires from public office.” Biden retired as vice president in January 2017. But the library announced just before Biden launched his presidential campaign that secrecy would continue until two years after Biden “retires from public life.”
The FBI raid was also purportedly justified because Trump possessed classified documents. Classification is one of DC’s biggest con games. A federal commission headed by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan lamented in 1997, “Secrets in the federal government are whatever anyone with a stamp decides to stamp secret.” Yet any information that is classified is treated as a political holy relic that cannot be exposed without cursing the nation.
The federal government creates trillions of pages of new secrets every year, the vast majority of which should never have been classified. Even Biden’s director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, lamented to Congress that this excessive secrecy of federal documents “erodes the basic trust that our citizens have in their government.” Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for the iron curtain that now shrouds dozens of federal agencies.
Did the FBI conduct a massive, heavily armed raid on a former president’s home merely because of paperwork violations? Is the FBI too busy crusading against Trump’s paperwork errors to drop the hammer on the cavalcade of crimes documented on Hunter Biden’s Laptop from Hell?
Unless the feds can quickly reveal proof of far more serious Trump crimes, Monday’s raid was one of the most prominent outrages in recent law-enforcement history. Even New York’s former Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned, “DOJ must immediately explain the reason for its raid & it must be more than a search for inconsequential archives or it will be viewed as a political tactic and undermine any future credible investigation.”
James Bovard is the author of 10 books and a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/fbi-trump-raid-exposes-washingtons-secrecy-shams/
Just in time for the midterms: China warns of new virus that has sickened 35 people
By Lee Brown August 10, 2022 11:22am Updated
(Start printing the mail-in ballots. Let the panic begin.)
Nearly three dozen people have been sickened by a new virus spreading in China — with scientists warning it is too early to tell if it is deadly or spreads among humans.
The Langya henipavirus — or LayV — appears to be jumping from animals in parts of China, nearly three years after the coronavirus pandemic started there.
It belongs to a family of viruses that “are known to infect humans and cause fatal disease,” a Chinese-led team of international scientists wrote in a peer-reviewed study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
That includes the Nipah virus, which spreads from pigs and kills up to 75% of those infected, according to the World Health Organization.
However, so far none of the 35 confirmed LayV cases found in Shandong and Henan provinces have proven deadly.
Of those cases, some 26 were found to only have LayV, not other illnesses — and all of them suffered fevers, with half also having fatigue and coughs.
There were other “abnormalities,” with more than half — 54% — developing leukopenia, a decrease in disease-fighting white blood cells in the blood. More than a third also had impaired liver function, and 8% also saw worsening of kidney functions.
After testing 25 species of wild animals in the surrounding areas, scientists found it in 27% of the tested shrews, suggesting the small, furry mole-like mammals “may be a natural reservoir of LayV,” the scientists wrote.
The same family of viruses has previously been known to spread among humans — but there have not been enough LayV cases to “determine the status of human-to-human transmission,” the scientists warned.
“There was no close contact or common exposure history among the patients, which suggests that the infection in the human population may be sporadic,” the study said optimistically.
“Contact tracing of 9 patients with 15 close-contact family members revealed no close-contact LayV transmission, but our sample size was too small” to be certain, the report stressed.
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is among those paying close attention to the virus’ spread, Channel NewsAsia stated.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/newly-identified-langya-henipavirus-infects-35-in-china/
Donald Trump refuses to answer questions by AG James, claims he ‘did nothing wrong’
By Kevin Sheehan and Sam Raskin August 10, 2022 9:54am Updated
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he refused to answer questions from New York prosecutors — led by State Attorney General Letitia James — about his resort and real estate businesses.
“I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” Trump said in a statement, referring to the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?'” Trump said. “Now I know the answer to that question. When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice.”
Trump wrote that the FBI’s Monday raid of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. — reportedly a search for presidential records that may contain classified information — “wiped out any uncertainty” about whether to cooperate.
The ex-commander-in-chief showed up at a parking garage in the lower Manhattan building where one of James’ offices is located just before 9 a.m., rolling up in one of several black SUVs that escorted him.
Trump said in an extended statement afterward that James “openly campaigned on the policy of ‘Get and Destroy Trump.'”
“James developed a political platform and made a career out of maliciously attacking me and my business before she was even elected, or reviewed one of the millions of pages of documents we willingly produced,” the ex-president said.
“We cannot permit a renegade and out-of-control prosecutor to use this investigation as a means of advancing her political career.”
Trump added, “I did nothing wrong, which is why, after five years of looking, the Federal, State and local governments, together with the Fake News Media, have found nothing.”
The former president departed Trump Tower at 8:34 a.m. for 28 Liberty St. as a helicopter trailed him and his multi-car caravan.
The arrival followed reports Tuesday that Trump would be grilled as part of a probe into the Trump Organization.
In a social media post, the 76-year-old Floridian confirmed the meeting, while moaning the probe is a “witch hunt” and claiming James is a “racist.”
James says her office has evidence that Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of its buildings, golf clubs and other assets to obtain loans and tax breaks.
Eric Trump, the former president’s son and a Trump Organization executive, defended his father on Truth Social.
“As my father sits for a deposition in front of the most corrupt New York Attorney General in the United States (Letitia James), I want to remind all all (sic) Americans EXACTLY who this evil woman is,” he seethed.
“The weaponization of the legal system – everything you are seeing – it is all a coordinated effort to stop what they know will happen in 2024.”
Reps for the AG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deposition follows years of delays, lawsuits and appeals in connection to the investigation — launched in 2019 based on the sworn testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
James recently postponed depositions for Trump and his adult children following the July passing of Ivana Trump. Ivanka and Donald Jr. have since been deposed.
The Trump Organization’s finances are also the subject of a probe conducted by Manhattan prosecutors.
The former president is facing a slew of legal troubles.
The Department of Justice is also investigating Trump’s role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his culpability in the violent Jan 6., 2021, Capitol riot.
Meanwhile, Georgia prosecutors are mulling subpoenaing Trump in connection with an election fraud inquiry in the Peach State.
Trump has denied all accusations of wrongdoing as he considers launching a White House bid for the third consecutive presidential cycle.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/donald-trump-arrives-to-be-grilled-by-ag-james/
Santa doesn't have the money.
He's waiting for another inflation-fighting stimulus check.
Catch you later.
As long as Biden gets ice cream with his banana,
he's a happy, old fool.
Time for me to do something.
First, I have to figure out what "something" is.
It is a fine morning. The cloudiness is keeping the heat down.
I'm tempted to mow the back but I think I'll wait for Friday.
We're no better than a banana republic with Bobo Biden at the helm sinking the ship.
Despite the cloudiness, it's a fine morning! The next couple of weeks have to potential to be really perfect summer weather. Lets cross our fingers.
Agreed, though the music behind the color segment was a little too schmaltzy for me. <g>
Note: they didn't dare pull that stunt when President Trump and his family were at Mar-a-Lago.
That move was so over-the-top.
I'm still completely flabbergasted.
Time for America to WAKE UP... if it hasn't already.
Very nicely done. And the B&W is sadly true. Lets pray the color part is too!
But, but if we don't offer benefits unheard of in the private sector, we won't have the brightest and the best working for the government.
How's that working out?
Outlaw municipal unions and start treating the servants the same way the private sector treats its minions.
GM, Jersey Gent.
Open windows and just the ceiling fan circling overhead.
Happy girl I am this a.m.
Dems’ Inflation Reduction Act is a $700B midterm Hail Mary for Biden
By Rich Lowry August 9, 2022 9:57pm Updated
Every dog has his day, and apparently so does every miserably inadequate president.
Joe Biden, who has been out of touch, tone-deaf, and disturbingly incompetent from the outset of his presidency, suddenly has the “Big Mojo,” or at least the “Moderate-Sized This-Isn’t-Quite-the Legislative-Debacle-We-Expected Mojo.”
The climate and health-care spending deal forged by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and longtime Democratic holdout Joe Manchin has revived talk in the media and among Democrats of Biden’s transformative agenda as — if not quite FDR- or LBJ-level — substantial and to be reckoned with.
There’s no doubt that Biden has spent a lot of money between the so-called $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package and now $700 billion in the latest bill.
It’s also true that winning is better than losing, success is better than futility, and passing something is better than nothing.
The Schumer-Manchin bill, though, is a shadow of the original sprawling proposal that constituted nearly the entire progressive wish list, from free community college to universal pre-K to expanded parental leave, stuffed into one legislative casing.
The scaled-back version is a not particularly coherent combination of whatever Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and his fellow resistant Democrat, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, were willing to support.
Its claim to reduce inflation is a joke; its deficit reduction is backloaded and has already been vitiated by other unpaid-for spending; its taxes will hit Americans earning less than $400,000 a year, despite Biden’s promises; its electric-car subsidies are frustrated by its own requirements that key components not come from China — requirements that no car can currently meet.
The bill doesn’t remove any of the doubts about Biden, whose main contribution to the process of cutting the deal was to stay out of the way.
Agenda still flailing
Otherwise, the president still hasn’t successfully made the public case for anything. Indeed, he has almost zero capacity for persuasion — something that the White House clearly realizes and that’s reflected in his limited schedule and interactions with the press.
He’s allowed the left to lead him around by the nose on most things, mouthing its lines about the Georgia voting law supposedly being “Jim Crow on steroids” and slamming the Supreme Court while he was on a trip overseas.
His agenda has been almost entirely removed from the concerns of ordinary Americans. The title of the new spending bill is a nod to inflation, but what it really offers Americans groaning under double-digit price increases in key goods is — just what they need — more solar panels and wind turbines.
Of course, Biden’s first big achievement, the COVID bill, turned out to be most consequential for what it did to stoke an inflation that has disrupted the lives of much of the country and eroded its standard of living.
It is this failure, more than the border or Afghanistan, that has sent Biden below 40% approval in most polls. It’s one thing to sag in popularity before a midterm election — that’s normal. It’s quite another to convince almost everyone in the country, including members of your own party, that you are unsuited to running for president again.
Only 18% of Americans in the latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll say that Biden should run for a second term. Just 29% of Biden voters are ready for him to suit up and ride again in 2024, an astonishing repudiation from people who presumably wish him well and were hoping for the best.
Well, at least Biden, the oldest man ever to serve as president, set up his succession with foresight and care, right? Naturally, only 30% of Democrats and Democratic independents want Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee in 2024.
Perhaps it makes Biden’s legislative achievements all the more impressive that he’s been able to manage them while simultaneously cratering. If that’s a distinction of sorts, it’s not one any president should welcome.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/inflation-reduction-act-a-700b-midterm-hail-mary-for-biden/
Because the spineless "leaders" of these states (seem to be the worse of the wose on this topic) never did and never will switch these workers to a 401k like all the other workers have been switched to.
Trump to be deposed Wednesday in NY attorney general investigation
By Jesse O’Neill August 10, 2022 1:05am Updated
Attorney General Letitia James. The deposition comes this week after years of delays and appeals.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutters
Donald Trump will be grilled by New York prosecutors Wednesday as part of Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the Trump Organization.
The pending deposition will take place behind closed doors at an undisclosed location, according to Fox News.
The 76-year-old former president confirmed the meeting on his social media platform Truth Social Tuesday — and blasted it as a “witch hunt.”
“In New York City tonight. Seeing racist N.Y.S. Attorney General tomorrow, for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history! My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. Banana Republic!,” he wrote.
James says her office has evidence that Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of its skyscrapers, golf clubs and other assets to secure loans and tax breaks.
The deposition comes after years of delays, lawsuits and appeals in connection to the probe, which was launched in 2019 based on the sworn testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Most recently, James agreed to postpone depositions for Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Jr. after the July passing of Ivana Trump. Ivanka and Donald Jr. have since been deposed.
The Trump Organization’s finances are also part of a wide-ranging probe by Manhattan prosecutors, who are set to try former CFO Allen Weisselberg for tax fraud.
On Monday, the feds raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, and reportedly cracked open a safe while looking for presidential records and classified information suspected to have illegally been taken from the National Archives.
The Department of Justice is also investigating Trump’s role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his culpability in the violent Jan 6., 2021 Capitol riots.
Additionally, Georgia prosecutors are weighing subpoenaing Trump in connection with an election fraud inquiry in that state.
Trump has denied all accusations of wrongdoing as he mulls a third consecutive White House run
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/trump-expected-to-be-deposed-wednesday-in-ny-ag-investigation/
Trump ‘fired up’ despite FBI raid, has ‘made up mind’ about 2024 run
By Lee Brown August 10, 2022 7:50am Updated
(I have no idea who any of these people are except for the tall guy in the middle.)
The House Republican Study Committee met with former President Donald Trump following an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Twitter / Jim Banks
Former President Donald Trump remains “very upbeat” and “fired up” despite the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago — and has “made up his mind” about running in 2024, according to a Republican lawmaker who met him late Tuesday.
Rep. Jim Banks was one of nearly a dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee who met Trump, 76, just a day after the shocking raid on his Florida estate.
“He didn’t seem defeated in the least bit — he was very fired up, very upbeat,” Banks told Fox News of the ” great three-hour-long” chat at Trump’s New Jersey golf club, Bedminister.
The former commander-in-chief told the group he “has made up his mind” about his long-teased run, and “enjoyed encouragement” from them to “get the decision out sooner rather than later.”
“He said we are going to like his decision and it is only a matter of time before he will make that decision known,” Banks told Fox News of Trump, who hours earlier released a campaign-style video promising that “the best is yet to come.”
“The Republican Party is bigger and stronger than ever before because of Donald Trump’s leadership,” insisted the study committee chairman.
Banks joined others in saying that “what happened at Mar-a-Lago unifies Republicans in our outrage.”
“If anything, what the left and the corrupt Biden administration has done will only backfire on them, as they see that the American people stand with President Trump,” he told Fox.
“The House GOP is fighting back. We stand united in outrage against the Biden White House and DOJ, and we stand with President Trump.”
Trump left Bedminister later Tuesday and headed back to Trump Tower in the city ahead of being grilled by New York prosecutors Wednesday in what he called “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in US history!
“My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. Banana Republic!” he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/fired-up-trump-has-made-up-mind-about-2024-run/
Looks like DeSantis just jumped aboard the 2024 Trump train.
I can't keep up with all this. Sure hope we swamp the House and take back the Senate in November.
Thanks, Larry.
LIVE: Gov. Ron DeSantis Holds Unite and Win Rally for Trump Backed Candidates in AZ August 14, 2022
Join RSBN LIVE from Arizona at a Unite and Win Rally with Ron DeSantis in support of President Donald J. Trump backed candidates Kari Lake, and Blake Masters. With live coverage from the field with Brian Glenn. Coverage begins at 7 PM ET.
https://rumble.com/v1fcou3-live-gov.-ron-desantis-holds-unite-and-win-rally-for-trump-backed-candidate.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Right+Side+Broadcasting+Network&ep=1
Defund the FBI. They're out of control.
“It was astounding to me that a good presidency would do this,” Mr. Naftali said.
Why is he astounded?
"Good?" The obummer occupancy of the White House was awful.
(And his proxy is now in there.)
I thought Chicago was fighting the use of the park for this nonsense.
And... why the hell do they need a recording studio?
So obummer can rap with his hip hop friends while he powders his nose?
FBI Seized Rep. Scott Perry’s Cellphone One Day After Mar-a-Lago Raid
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/08/09/fbi-seized-rep-scott-perrys-cellphone-one-day-after-mar-a-lago-raid/
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said the FBI seized his cellphone just one day after the raid on former President Donald Trump’s home.
Perry was approached with a warrant for his cellphone by three FBI agents while he was traveling with his family on Tuesday, Fox News reported.
“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said in a statement to Fox News. “They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish.”
Perry also criticized U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for his leadership over the Department of Justice.
Perry said:
I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress. My phone contains info about my legislative and political activities, and personal/private discussions with my wife, family, constituents, and friends. None of this is the government’s business.
Perry noted his phone was seized just one day after Monday’s FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Perry continued:
As with President Trump last night, DOJ chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys. These kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every Citizen — especially considering the decision before Congress this week to hire 87,000 new IRS agents to further persecute law-abiding Citizens.
Although no motive for the seizure of Perry’s phone has been reported, the Philadelphia congressman has been a target of the Democrat-led January 6 Select Committee for months.
Perry was the first House member the January 6 committee sought testimony and documents from, including all “relevant or electronic or other communications” Perry had with Trump and his legal team.
The Obama Presidential Library That Isn’t
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/arts/obama-presidential-center-library-national-archives-and-records-administration.html
By Jennifer Schuessler
Feb. 20, 2019
The Obama Presidential Center promises to be a presidential library like no other.
The four-building, 19-acre “working center for citizenship,” set to be built in a public park on the South Side of Chicago, will include a 235-foot-high “museum tower,” a two-story event space, an athletic center, a recording studio, a winter garden, even a sledding hill.
But the center, which will cost an estimated $500 million, will also
differ from the complexes built by Barack Obama’s predecessors in another way: It won’t actually be a presidential library.
In a break with precedent, there will be no research library on site, and none of Mr. Obama’s official presidential records. Instead, the Obama Foundation will pay to digitize the roughly 30 million pages of unclassified paper records from the administration so they can be made available online.
And the entire complex, including the museum chronicling Mr. Obama’s presidency, will be run by the foundation, a private nonprofit entity, rather than by the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency that administers the libraries and museums for all presidents going back to Herbert Hoover.
The plan was revealed, with little fanfare, in May 2017. Few details of the digitization were made public until Tuesday, when the foundation and the archives unexpectedly released a legal agreement outlining procedures for creating what is being billed as “first digital archives for the first digital president,” which they say will democratize access.
But as awareness of the plan has spread, some historians see a threat to future scholarship on the Obama administration — and to the presidential library system itself.
Without a dedicated repository, they argue, the rich constellations of related material found at the other libraries — papers donated by family members, cabinet members and aides, as well as pre-presidential and personal papers — could end up scattered, or even uncollected. And without help from specialized archivists, the promised digital democratization could just as easily turn into a hard-to-navigate data dump.
More broadly, there’s concern that the creation of a privately run presidential museum undermines the ideal of nonpartisan public history.
Timothy Naftali, the former director of the Richard Nixon library, where he is credited with overhauling museum exhibits to give a more honest accounting of Watergate, called the decision “a huge mistake.”
“It was astounding to me that a good presidency would do this,” Mr. Naftali said.
“It opens the door,” he added, “to a truly terrible Trump library.”
‘An Act of Faith’
The current system had its origins in 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt donated his papers to the federal government and began building a library to hold them near his home in Hyde Park, N.Y. (Before the Presidential Records Act of 1978, a president’s papers were considered his private property.)
“It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith,” Roosevelt said at the opening in 1941, standing on the porch
of the modest Dutch colonial-style structure, which also housed a small display of artifacts.
The library, paid for with private funds, was donated to the National Archives. Since then, the federal system has grown to include all 13 presidents going back to Hoover, whose library was created retroactively.
Today, the museums may draw the crowds, but it’s in the research libraries where historians piece together a more accurate view of a presidency. White House records and other collections at the libraries have, for example, overturned the idea of Dwight D. Eisenhower as a genial, golf-playing figurehead, and revealed the depth of internal debate in Lyndon B. Johnson’s White House over the escalation of the Vietnam War.
P.S. That explains why they went to the Epstein-connected judge.
It all makes perfect sense now. Thanks.
Sweating is good for your skin.
It cleans out your pores.
(That was the only up side I could think of.)
Stay cool, cap.
Let's hope relief arrives sooner rather than later.
rotf... Good Morning, rf.
Still pretty hot and humid here, but some relief is supposed to be on the way.
Have a good one.
Trump: America in Decline Video
On YouTube of all places. We'll see how long it stays up.
Love the transition from black and white to color.
The was a favor for the Big Guy, he wanted something to sniff.
As perverted as is son is. That might not be a joke.
GM
Got it. Thanks, cap. Did a search in the meantime. Most of the hits said she's recruiting demorrhoids to switch parties for the primary to improve her chances.
https://www.newsweek.com/liz-cheney-wyoming-dems-switching-gop-primary-data-1731628
After Raid Mar-a-Lago, that may backfire big time.
I'm still reeling from that move.
Next Tuesday is the WY primary.
Should be very interesting to see what happens.
On a bright note. 68 DRY degrees finally.
Windows open. Smile on face.
Feels like heaven.
Hope you have a taste of heaven (on Earth) too.
Nothing right now, she's just expected to lose her primary soon.
Oooo. I missed something that sounds like good news.
Morning, cap -- you tease. <g>
What happened to Mz. Liz?
Good morning. Step #1... Liz Cheney, you're out.
Soros-backed DA David Soares wants NY’s criminal-justice laws fixed ASAP
By Post Editorial Board August 9, 2022 7:26pm Updated
(Finally, real progress.)
Progressive, black, George-Soros-backed Albany County District Attorney David Soares has joined Mayor Eric Adams’ pleas for a special legislative session to truly fix the state’s criminal-justice laws.
The “black lives” cited to justify the no-bail and Raise the Age reforms “are the very black lives most impacted by the violence” these “reforms” have triggered, Soares points out. “The same young people” apprehended for “very violent acts [are] back out on the street” engaging in the same behavior, he warns.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is ignoring all the substance of Adams’ and Soares’ case, shifting all blame to the states’ judges (who are in fact heeding what they believe to be the clear intent of the reforms).
Soares, incidentally, was one of the nation’s first prosecutors to win office thanks to funding by Soros back in 2004.
Major crime in Gotham this year is up 36%, and though murders are down a bit, last year wrapped with a whopping 53% more killings than two years earlier — and 67% more than in 2017, just before Raise the Age and bail reform began taking their toll. Former NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller calls the reforms “an atom bomb” that “set us back a decade” in terms of crime.
No matter. Hochul, joined by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, insists all the needed fixes are done; it’s just those darn judges doing wrong — though it’s her own Democratic Party that places most of them on the bench in the first place.
Hochul now says she’ll “look” at any changes “the Legislature wants to put forth to make sure New Yorkers are safer.” Hah! She knows all too well that Heastie opposes any meaningful fixes. He claims he wants to wait “to see data” before acting, even though crime stats have already proven the reforms a nightmare.
Hochul’s opponent in the governor’s race, Rep. Lee Zeldin, vows to fix the laws. He rightly equates the gov’s weasel words with “spitting in the face of our judicial system.”
As Soares notes, lives are at stake — mostly black lives. If Hochul and Heastie truly care about that, they’ll act now.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/soros-backed-da-david-soares-wants-nys-criminal-justice-laws-fixed-asap/
FBI searched Melania’s wardrobe, spent hours in Trump’s private office during Mar-a-Lago raid
By Miranda Devine August 9, 2022 8:15pm Updated
(Lots of pictures at the link.)
FBI agents scoured Melania Trump’s wardrobe and spent several hours combing through Donald Trump’s private office, breaking open his safe and rifling through drawers when they raided the former First Family’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida Monday morning.
The Post has learned that the search warrant used by the FBI to enter the palatial Palm Beach property focused solely on presidential records and evidence of classified information being stored there.
A source close to the former president expressed concern that FBI agents or DOJ lawyers conducting the search could have “planted stuff” because they would not allow Trump’s attorneys inside the 128-room building to observe the operation, which lasted more than nine hours.
The raid by over 30 plain clothes agents from the Southern District of Florida and the FBI’s Washington Field Office extended through the Trump family’s entire 3,000-square-foot private quarters, as well as to a separate office and safe, and a locked basement storage room in which 15 cardboard boxes of material from the White House were stored.
Feds arrived at 9 a.m. and didn’t leave until 6:30 p.m.
An eyewitness to the raid said all of the boxes were confiscated by federal agents Monday, but it is unknown if anything else was taken as no itemized list of items was provided by the FBI. (Wonder if any of Melania's underwear is missing.)
The boxes contain documents and mementos from Trump’s presidency, reportedly including letters from Barack Obama and Kim Jong Un, and other correspondence with world leaders.
A legal source said that the boxes had been packed up by the General Services Administration and shipped to Mar-a-Lago when Trump left office in January 2020.
Trump’s attorneys, led by Evan Corcoran, had been cooperating fully with federal authorities on the return of the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, according to sources.
In May, Corcoran granted access into Mar-a-Lago’s windowless storage room to FBI agents who spent several hours searching through the boxes. Trump stopped by the basement to say hello at one point, says someone who was there.
Mar-a-Lago is closed for the season and only a skeleton staff, including groundskeepers, were present during Monday’s raid.
Access to the 20-acre private country club is believed to have been granted by heavily armed US Secret Service (USSS) agents stationed at the front gates and toting M4 carbines. Lawyers for the former president, who were caught off guard by the raid, arrived an hour later.
The FBI would not have executed a warrant without notifying the Secret Service first, according to a retired high ranking USSS agent.
“USSS legal counsel probably would’ve directed [them] to see copy of warrant and then step back.”
Once inside the air-conditioned, white marble-clad private quarters, agents fanned out to search every room, while shocked staff were instructed by Trump’s lawyers to unlock doors and provide the FBI access to every room, including the sumptuous Versailles Master Bedroom, renovated by Melania two years ago.
Another group of agents, including a professional safe cracker, moved to a separate part of the enormous 1924 Spanish stucco building to search Trump’s office and safe.
The demeanor of the three DOJ lawyers who accompanied the FBI was described by one eyewitness as “arrogant,” and they repeatedly told Trump representatives: “We have full access to everything. We can go everywhere.”
Despite the sweltering 91 degrees temperature Monday, Trump’s lawyers were forbidden by the feds to shelter inside the cool lobby, or to observe the search in any way, but were left outside in the baking sun near a parking lot.
The feds instructed Trump’s representatives to switch off the security cameras but they refused.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/fbi-even-searched-melanias-wardrobe-in-trump-raid/
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