a common sense approach to a liberal world
Note: This a repost from October 16, 2017. It remains relevant on this historic day.
There is one over-arching issue that I’ve been almost singularly focused on.
The Supreme Court.
This institution shapes our national character more than any other – and its presence is felt far past any president’s time in office.Continue Reading
President-Elect Trump has proposed lowering the Corporate Tax Rate from 35% to 15%. And that’s a good idea – but it doesn’t go far enough. The Corporate Tax Rate should really be lowered to Zero.
Some quick facts: The United States’ 39% marginal corporate tax rate (35% federal and 4% average state and local) is the third highest in the world. It is the highest of the 34 industrialized nation members of the OECD – and it compares poorly with Europe’s average tax rate of 19% (26% weighted by GDP).
Why do we have differing corporate and individual taxation systems in the first place?
Our nation’s tax system evolved in fits and starts with various taxes being implemented and then repealed – some ruled unconstitutional. Our modern tax era began in 1909 – in response to rising political pressure to tax the rich – when Congress enacted an excise tax on corporations at the urging of President William Howard Taft. In a concurrent move, President Taft proposed the 16th Amendment to establish a personal income tax. The excise tax on corporations did not require a constitutional amendment and was originally intended to be a temporary measure until the passage of the 16th Amendment which occurred in 1913. Like all things government, legislation once enacted does not die and so the two concurrent tax systems – corporate and individual were born. And they have been creating inefficiencies and needless complexities for our nation ever since.Continue Reading
A quick update. Devin Nunes has sent a letter to Chairman Gowdy and Chairman Goodlatte.
In it, Nunes refers 17 highly recognizable names to the joint task force of the Committees on Oversight & Government Reform and the Judiciary for interviews.Continue Reading
You’re not dealing with Russia. You’re making Russia richer. – President Donald J. Trump
President Trump attended a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
It didn’t exactly go as Stoltenberg hoped:Continue Reading
“No doubt realizing that he was losing the cable-news message war, President Trump has called for a witch hunt in an attempt to prove the voter fraud lie he has been telling himself about why he lost the popular vote in November.” – There’s a Reason Trump Keeps Lying About Voter Fraud – The Washington Post – Jason Kander
“There are varying degrees of absurdity in the fallacies President Trump peddled during his first week in the Oval Office. Perhaps the most damaging was his insistence that millions of Americans voted illegally in the election he narrowly won.” – The Voter Fraud Fantasy – NY Times Editorial Board
Democrats are out in force stating that Voter Fraud and illegal voting is not only non-existent – it is a lie – an attempt to undermine our Democracy.
Now consider the following voting requirements by state as detailed by the National Conference of State Legislatures (National Map included):Continue Reading
On Sept. 18, the four Democratic members of the Gang of Eight sent out what can only be described as a highly unusual and inflammatory letter, addressed to the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray.Continue Reading
Turns out there really was something to those reports of a mystery North Korean train arriving in China:
The arrival of a North Korean train in the Chinese capital sparked frenzied speculation that Pyongyang had sent a senior figure—perhaps even leader Kim Jong Un —on a mission to strengthen ties with Beijing ahead of a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.Continue Reading
Andy Ngo, a Portland, Oregan, based editor & photo-journalist for Quillette, was assaulted and hospitalized by masked and hooded far-left Antifa extremists on Saturday.
Ngo, who has extensively documented violence by Antifa, had written on Twitter a day earlier that he was nervous about the coming rally, noting that Antifa members had been “promising ‘physical confrontation’ & have singled me out to be assaulted.”
Following the assault, Ngo was hospitalized with multiple contusions, a black eye, and a torn earlobe. He also suffered a brain bleed that required overnight hospitalization. Ngo posted a video of himself moments after the attack, appearing shaken and covered in a white substance. Portland police later said that Antifa was mixing quick-drying cement into milkshakes to be thrown at those they targeted. It is not known if Ngo was hit with one of these mixtures.Continue Reading
By Hans Mahncke (May 31, 2022)
The Russiagate saga began in early 2016 as a scheme by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to vilify her rival, Donald Trump, as an agent of the Kremlin. Clinton’s scheme comprised two prongs: former British spy Christopher Steele’s fictitious dossier and Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann’s false Alfa Bank data.
While special counsel John Durham’s Russiagate investigation, having focused on those two prongs, is now in serious jeopardy with the acquittal of Sussmann, very little attention has been paid to how the FBI weaponized Clinton’s scheme to turn up the heat on Trump.
Documents made public at Sussmann’s trial add to a growing body of evidence that Clinton’s scheme gradually converged with FBI leadership’s own scheme. What started out as a political smear campaign carried out by a political candidate became co-opted by the nation’s top law enforcement agency to not only damage a sitting president, but to try to remove him from office.Continue Reading
The House Memo is likely to be released today.
There has been an incredible amount of obfuscation in front of the Memo’s release. There will be even more intense efforts following its release.
Which is why it’s important to keep one thought foremost:
The goal of the Memo is not the release of the Memo itself.
The goal of the Memo is to force release of all underlying documents.Continue Reading