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Awwww, a homeless ex-President? Let's have a pity party! Ken =========== https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/mar-a-lago-problem-just-got-even-uglier-for-him/34858/ Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago problem just got even uglier for him Shirley Kennedy | 7:30 pm EST December 17, 2020 Palmer Report ? Analysis When and if Donald Trump tires of fighting the inevitability of his departure from the White House, he will have plenty left to fight, including criminal charges awaiting him in New York. One of the most contentious fights for Trump will occur when he moves to Mar-a-Lago, where neighbors are letting Trump know he is not welcome. The Washington Post is reporting that Trump put himself in this position. He signed an agreement in 1993 that made him choose between declaring Mar-a-Lago a home or a private club. Because he chose the club, his neighbors, the DeMoss family, allege that Trump lost his legal right to live at the club. Whoever thought a defeated president would have to fight to live in the place of his choice? This is certainly not a normal occurrence, but then, nothing is normal when it comes to Donald Trump. New York does not want him — well, the New York Attorney General does — and Palm Beach does not want him either. Where on Earth will he go? Not our problem. We did not want him in the White House, and we’ve accomplished that mission. It seems that the DeMoss family is fighting as hard as we did. The family’s attorney sent a demand letter, requesting that Trump be notified that he cannot use Mar-a-Lago as a residence to save him the embarrassment of having to leave. “There’s absolutely no legal theory under which he can use that property as both a residence and a club,” according to Glenn Zeitz, another neighbor who has joined in the fight. Trump did it to himself, out of desperation. According to WaPo, Trump signed the agreement to help pay for the staggering costs of maintaining Mar-a-Lago because his finances were not in good shape. That should not be much of a surprise, as Trump has never properly handled his businesses and quickly turned them into money-bleeders. Under the agreement, members were banned from spending more than 21 days a year at the club and could not stay longer than 7 consecutive nights. To get Palm Beach to agree, Trump’s attorney claimed that Trump would never live at Mar-a-Lago. My, how times have changed, and Trump is scrambling for shelter. WaPo revealed that yet another agreement may preclude Trump’s residency at Mar-a-Lago: Trump deeded development rights to Mar-a-Lago to the National Historic Trust, a non-profit centered around preserving historic sites. Since Trump served as president, Mar-a-Lago could be considered an historic site, further limiting Trump’s ability to do much of anything with the property. In signing this deal, Trump agreed to “forever relinquish his rights to develop Mar-a-Lago or use it for any purpose other than club use.” Oh, well. Once again, Trump stepped on his own foot. Now, he wants to change things. Trump is in for a fight. The neighbors have already vowed to sue to uphold the agreement between Trump and the city. When asked about the demand letter and suit, Reginald Stambaugh, counsel for the neighbors said, “Palm Beach has many lovely estates for sale, and we are confident President Trump will find one which meets his needs.” -- "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician

The numbers in here don't make sense if you wish to point a finger of fraud at Dominion. It takes a special type of mathematical innumeracy to keep positing the fraud they claim. And I will keep repeating this fact: One supporter of "THE STEAL" hypothesis, when asked for evidence, insisted with a straight face that there was no evidence since the fraud committed by the Democrats was so good as to be undetectable. OK, that's laughable on the face of it when you really think about it. If the Democrats are so good that they can perpetrate fraud to that extent without being detected, then the Democrats deserve to win based on pur intelligence differences. And for such a fraud to be undetectable, you need to see the 7 million vote surplus Biden had over Trump and ask if there's any way on Earth for that many people to keep a secret of this sort. The odds of a secret of that extent staying secret are so infinitesimal as to be zero in anyone's book. Ken ============ https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-biden/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6141 Dominion Voting Systems fires back with legal action against Sidney Powell Photo via Screengrab. Meaghan Ellis December 17, 2020 Dominion Voting Systems is now taking steps toward legal action against Sidney Powell. Dominion and its voting machines have been at the center of several conspiracy theories and falsehoods surrounding the 2020 presidential election. Although President Donald Trump initially spread misinformation about mail-in voting, he and his allies began circulating falsehoods targeting Dominion voting machines as election results proved favorable for Biden. Since then, Dominion Voting Systems claims it has been subjected to a "'relentless and reckless disinformation' campaign, led by Powell, Rudy Giuliani, other allies of President Donald Trump, and Trump himself," according to Law & Crime. The election technology company Smartmatic has also released a similar demand letter seeking a retraction from Powell. On multiple occasions, she has insisted the company has ties to Dominion. Powell also claimed conspiracy insisting a ploy to rig the election was funded by "communist money." "The Dominion Voting Systems, the Smartmatic technology software, and the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here as well, not just Dominion, were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez to make sure he never lost an election after one constitutional referendum came out the way he did not want it to come out," Powell claimed. Despite Powell's claims and the long string of conspiracy theories and falsehoods circulating on social media, Dominion has adamantly insisted that the claims are false. In fact, Trump managed to win the vast majority of the counties that used Dominion technology in various swing states. A review of 10 key states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) finds that Dominion systems were used in 351 of 731 counties. Trump won 283 of those counties, 81 percent of the total. He won 79 percent of the counties that didn't use Dominion systems. In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. In other words, if you eliminated every county that used Dominion systems, Biden still got more votes. Biden won Dominion-using counties by about two points overall compared with his 0.5-point margin in non-Dominion counties. On Monday, Dec. 14, the Electoral College affirmed President-elect Joe Biden's win as Trump continues to insist he won the election. -- "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician

I continue to be amazed that anyone with half an IQ could believe in the "trickle down" myth. This piece pretty much puts nails in the coffin for those beliefs. Ken ========== https://popularresistance.org/huge-study-of-50-years-of-tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy/ Huge Study Of 50 Years Of Tax Cuts For The Wealthy By Grace Dean, Business Insider. December 16, 2020 | Educate! Above photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP. Suggests ‘trickle-down’ economics makes inequality worse. “Cutting taxes on the rich increases top income shares, but has little effect on economic performance,” the researchers concluded. Large tax cuts for the rich don’t lead to economic growth and employment but instead cause higher income inequality, a new study that examined tax cuts over 50 years suggested. A recent paper by David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King’s College London found that tax cuts for the rich in 18 countries predominantly benefited the wealthy. “Our analysis finds strong evidence that cutting taxes on the rich increases income inequality but has no effect on growth or unemployment” in the short and long term, the researchers wrote. After major tax cuts for the rich were introduced, the top 1% share of pretax national income increased by almost 1 percentage point, they found. Their findings counter arguments that tax cuts for the rich “trickle down” to benefit other people — which the researchers noted have been part of the rationale for major tax reforms in the US. Supporters say tax cuts for the rich can lead wealthy people to put in more hours and effort at work, boosting economic activity, the researchers said. Other arguments for trickle-down tax cuts include that they allow wealthy people to invest more and benefit the economy. Hope and Limberg analyzed major tax cuts for the rich in 18 countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including the US, Japan, and Norway, from 1965 to 2015. Top incomes have risen rapidly since the 1980s — and as they grew, more tax cuts for the wealthy were introduced, the researchers said. The researchers said their results were in line with a 2014 paper published in the American Economic Journal that suggested that lower taxes for the rich caused high earners to seek pay raises. “Cutting taxes on the rich increases top income shares, but has little effect on economic performance,” Hope and Limberg concluded. Taxes have been scrutinized during the pandemic as countries look for ways to fund COVID-19 relief efforts. Earlier this month, Argentina enacted a one-off “millionaire tax” to help pay for its pandemic response. Fewer than one in 100 earners will pay the tax, which the government hopes will raise $3.78 billion. UK experts have also called for a similar one-time wealth tax, which the Wealth Tax Commission has said could raise ?260 billion, or about $348 billion, in five years. In July, 83 millionaires — including the Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Jerry Greenfield and the Disney heiress Abigail Disney — signed a letter asking for higher taxes on the superrich to pay for COVID-19 relief. In an opinion article for Business Insider in August, Max Burns, a veteran Democratic strategist, said President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 relief proposal with a 50% cut in weekly unemployment payments and a payroll-tax cut was “just another tax cut for the wealthy in disguise.” Finance and the Economy Taxes wealth inequality Wealth Tax -- "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician

-------- Forwarded Message -------- Today's best political cartoons Artists take on anti-maskers, the Pfizer vaccine, and more Dave Whamond Copyright 2020 Cagle Cartoons Steve Sack Copyright 2020 Cagle Cartoons

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/43GjCh72bxWVSqSB84ZDJw0/reith-lectures-2020-how-we-get-what-we-value If you aren't familiar with the Reith Lectures, you have been missing out on some true gems of thought. Yearly, the BBC sponsors an expert in some area to talk about that subject and how it applies to today's world. The 4th of four hasn't been delivered yet, but the first three are good. You could do a lot worse than spending time listening to them. To get the full value, you should consider appropriating an hour four separate times. It's a commitment for sure but you will realize that you know more about the world when you finish listening to each one. The current one (#3) is about the value of human life and starts with Hobbes' idea that protecting its citizens is the highest duty of government. He approaches the current Covid pandemic through that lens. The last one will be released next week. Ken ======= How We Get What We Value Mark Carney’s Reith Lectures will chart how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and how we have gone from market economies to market societies. He argues that this has contributed to a trio of crises: of credit, Covid and climate. And the former Bank of England governor will outline how we can turn this around. Lecture 1: From Moral to Market Sentiments (9am, Wednesday 2 December 2020, BBC Radio 4) In this first lecture, recorded with a virtual audience, Mark Carney reflects that whenever he could step back from what felt like daily crisis management, the same deeper issues loomed. What is value? How does the way we assess value both shape our values and constrain our choices? How do the valuations of markets affect the values of our society? Carney argues that society has come to embody Oscar Wilde’s old aphorism: “knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing". Mark Carney Lecture 2: From Credit Crisis to Resilience (9am, Wednesday 9 December 2020, BBC Radio 4) Dr Carney takes us back to the high drama of the financial crisis of 2008, which ended a period when bankers saw themselves as unassailable Masters of the Universe. More than a decade on, how much have the bankers changed their ways? How far has the financial sector changed? Carney says that we must remain vigilant and resist the “three lies of finance". If we don’t, he warns, we will live with a system which is ill-prepared for the next crisis. Lecture 3: From Covid Crisis to Renaissance (9am, Wednesday 16 December 2020, BBC Radio 4) Dr Carney observes that the pandemic has forced states to confront how we value health, wealth and opportunity. During the first few months of the crisis, most states chose to value human life more than the economic well-being of the nation-state. But if that seems to be changing, how do we assess value in this sense? Carney elucidates surprising differences in the financial value put on a human life in different nations and goes on to argue that this reductionist approach fails to take into account deeper thinking about the worth of human existence. Lecture 4: From Climate Crisis to Real Prosperity (9am, Wed 23 Dec 2020, BBC Radio 4) In this final lecture, Dr Carney turns his attention to climate change, arguing that the roots of our environmental emergency lie in a deeper crisis of values. He suggests how we can create an ecosystem in which society’s values broaden the market’s conceptions of value. In this way, individual creativity and market dynamism can be channelled to achieve broader social goals including inclusive growth and environmental sustainability. The series is chaired by Anita Anand. And for the first time, you will be able to watch all the lectures on BBC iPlayer. -- "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician

"What I like in a good author isn’t what he says, but what he whispers." -- Logan Pearsall Smith, American/British author/essayist (1865-1946)

“The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.” — John Lewis, member, US House of Representatives, civil rights leader

Referencing the last one, I can contribute some packages of Kool-Aid. Can you chip in some cyanide to help with that effort? :) And if you aren't old enough to understand the meaning in that last one, then we will wait for you to look it up! Try Google and "jim jones guyana". For whichever person volunteers to check those boarding against the list, please be sure Rudy G and Mitch M are in the crowd and board. Ken -------- Forwarded Message -------- The World According to Jambo: 12-10-2020 The fake news written and published today by satirist James Schlarmann. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? And one more just in case you missed it: -- "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician

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