Tag Archives: russia

Jeb Bush Has a Tax Plan, But He’s a Little Shy About Sharing It

by MartyWhitehouse Posted on September 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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This is nuts. Apparently there is a detailed Jeb Bush tax plan. His website now features a document laden with specific savings that various taxpayers can expect, which can exist only if there are specific proposals to work from. And a team of friendly economists has produced a paper scoring the tax plan, which can also exist only if there’s a detailed document to draw on. And yet, that document doesn’t appear on his website. What’s going on? Why is Jeb’s plan a secret?

For what it’s worth, the economists say that:

The plan will cost $3.4 trillion over ten years.
But the tax cuts, along with Jeb’s proposed regulatory changes, will supercharge the economy enough to reduce the actual cost to $1.2 trillion.
If we limit federal budget growth to 3.2 percent per year, that will save $1.4 trillion. Voila! We’re ahead by $200 billion.

If you believe all this, Jeb has some swampland in his home state he’d like you to take a look at. But on the bright side, this paper does finally solve the mystery of where we can find the details of Jeb’s tax plan: they’re outlined in an appendix at the end of the paper. I guess it’s meant as a special treat for people who actually read the whole thing.

But why is this the only place the details of Jeb’s tax plan are available? Why not post it on his website? It’s a mystery. But at least there’s enough there that independent folks like the Tax Policy Center can probably take a pretty good swipe at scoring it themselves and figuring out the distributional impact. I can’t wait.

Originally posted here: 

Jeb Bush Has a Tax Plan, But He’s a Little Shy About Sharing It

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The Secret Decoder Ring for Donald Trump

by MarceloBoyd Posted on September 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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Dan Drezner, an allegedly serious professor of international relations, insists that we attend to two Donald Trump nuggets today. Twitter makes this kind of thing far too easy. First is this one, from a Rolling Stone profile:

With his blue tie loosened and slung over his shoulder, Trump sits back to digest his meal and provide a running byplay to the news….His staffers at the conference table howl and hoot….When the anchor throws to Carly Fiorina for her reaction to Trump’s momentum, Trump’s expression sours in schoolboy disgust as the camera bores in on Fiorina. “Look at that face!” he cries. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!” The laughter grows halting and faint behind him. “I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”

And now for the explanation, as told to Trump’s biographer:

When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.

You wouldn’t be surprised to hear a first-grader get all giggly over childish insults about his teacher, would you? That’s what first graders do. At age 69, that’s still what Donald Trump does too.

But it’s actually even weirder than that. In purely conventional terms, Carly Fiorina is both perfectly attractive and perfectly businesslike. Lots of people might think she shouldn’t be president—anyone who cares about actual success in some field of life, for example—but even a stone misogynist’s first thought wouldn’t be that he just couldn’t stand to look at her face for four years. Even Trump’s hand-picked circle of sycophants apparently wondered what he was talking about.

But wait! It’s even weirder yet: Trump says this kind of stuff in front of a reporter? WTF?

Source article – 

The Secret Decoder Ring for Donald Trump

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Dick Cheney Caught Out in a Lie Too Brazen Even for Fox News

by BrittnyMacaluso Posted on September 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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This weekend, Chris Wallace asked Dick Cheney whether he and George Bush had any responsibility for the growth of Iran’s nuclear program. Not really, Cheney said. That’s all on Obama:

“But the centrifuges went from zero to 5,000,” Wallace pressed.

“Well, they may well have gone but that happened on Obama’s watch, not on our watch,” Cheney replied.

“No, no, no,” Wallace said. “By 2009, they were at 5,000.”

“Right,” said Cheney, who seemed to be losing air from somewhere in his lower back. “But I think we did a lot to deal with the arms control problem in the Middle East.”

These guys wreck the economy, and then complain that Obama hasn’t fixed it fast enough. They blow a hole in the deficit, and then complain that Obama hasn’t quite filled it yet. They pursue a disastrous war in Iraq, and then complain that Obama ruined it all by not leaving a few more brigades behind. They twiddle their thumbs over Iran, and then complain that Obama’s nuclear deal isn’t quite to their liking.

It’s hard to believe that even their own supporters still listen to a word they say. And yet, somehow, conservative rage toward Obama for wrecking the country continues unabated. Truly, conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed.

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Dick Cheney Caught Out in a Lie Too Brazen Even for Fox News

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Pope Francis Decides to Make Divorce Easier

by ConsuelOmar Posted on September 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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Here’s the latest from the Vatican:

Pope Francis announced new procedures on Tuesday to make it easier for Roman Catholics to obtain marriage annulments, a change intended to streamline a process long criticized by many Catholics as too cumbersome, complicated and expensive.

Under the new rules, the process will be much faster for cases in which a couple is not contesting the annulment.

Such cases had required two separate judgments from a diocesan tribunal. Now, the process, overseen by local bishops, will require only one judgment. Moreover, the new rules require that the hearing process be held within 30 days of application, eliminating a longer waiting period.

Obviously, this is fine with me. But it’s difficult to understand theologically. The Bible contains virtually nothing on the subject of abortion, and yet the church considers it a grave sin. Conversely, Jesus could hardly be clearer about his disapproval of divorce, and yet the church is making divorce easier.1 Aside from the fact that men often want divorces, while abortion is limited to women, what accounts for this?

1And let’s hear no nonsense about annulment being different from divorce. Even church leaders admit that there’s usually little substantive difference.

Original source: 

Pope Francis Decides to Make Divorce Easier

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What Does Sarah Palin Have Against the Department of Energy?

by ansonsten Posted on September 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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Sarah Palin says she wants to eliminate the Department of Energy. This is a perennial conservative hobbyhorse, so let’s dig in a little bit. Just what does this bureaucratic tax sinkhole do, anyway? Here’s a brief summary:

Program
Cost
Comment
Nuclear weapons R&D and cleanup
$18 billion
Can’t do without this, can we?
National laboratories (Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Yucca Mountain, etc.)
$5 billion
This is mostly basic science, including accelerators, fossil/nuclear/renewable energy research, and nuclear waste disposal. I don’t think Palin has anything against this, does she?
Dams and hydro power
$0
Does Palin want to sell off all the dams we built over the past century? If not, we might as well pay for their upkeep by selling the hydro power they generate.
Energy efficiency
$3 billion
Perhaps this is what she wants to cut? Republicans hate energy efficiency.
Miscellaneous
$3 billion
Good luck finding anything of substance to get rid of here.

Hmmm. There might be some bits and pieces that Republicans object to here, but not much. So why all the hate for the Energy Department? Is it just because it was created by Jimmy Carter? Nah. Who would be childish enough to hold a grudge like that?

In any case, even Republicans agree that we need to do the vast majority of this stuff. So even if Palin managed to kill off the Department of Energy, its functions would just get disbursed to other departments. Would that make any difference? I suppose it means one less chair at cabinet meetings, but it’s hard to see the point otherwise.

One intriguing possibility, raised by Brad Plumer, is that Palin was actually thinking of the Interior Department. He makes a good case. But Palin told Jake Tapper, “I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby.” That being so, it seems unlikely she’d make a mistake so boneheaded. Right?

POSTSCRIPT: It’s worth noting that this is the same con behind nearly every call to eliminate the Department of ______. It sounds dynamic! It cuts the budget! It slashes red tape!

But departments don’t matter. Functions matter, and they just go somewhere else if their department is eliminated. Unless a presidential candidate is willing to specify exactly which functions they want to defund, they aren’t serious. They’re just hawking snake oil to the rubes.

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What Does Sarah Palin Have Against the Department of Energy?

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There Is a "Truck Line" Tearing America Apart

by PollyGraf09 Posted on September 6, 2015

Mother Jones

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A few minutes ago, President Obama’s former “car czar” Steven Rattner tweeted the map below. Marcy Wheeler tweaks him for calling Hondas and Toyotas “imports” even though most of them are made in the US. I’d tweak him for saying the map shows the best-selling “cars” in each state, since it also includes trucks. Trucks aren’t cars.

But that’s enough tweaking. I’m willing to cut people a lot of slack on Twitter. Here’s what I’m curious about. You’ve no doubt heard of the famous “soda line” in America: in New England and the West, most of us call fizzy sweetened drinks soda. In the South, it’s coke. Up north, from Washington to the Ohio Valley, it’s pop.

Apparently we also have a truck line in America. In the Midwest and mountain states, people buy Ford F-series trucks. In the Great Lakes region, the Chevy Silverado reigns supreme. Out West, we seem to prefer Dodge Rams.

What’s up with that? Is this just a weird coincidence? Or is there some genuine historical reason that different trucks are popular in different regions?

More here:  

There Is a "Truck Line" Tearing America Apart

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Friday Cat Blogging – 4 September 2015

by CarmonKTRqhvjz Posted on September 4, 2015

Mother Jones

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Like Hillary Clinton, we’ve been watching a lot of HGTV lately. This has inspired Marian to create a long list of renovation projects she’d like to do. It’s inspired me to wonder if literally everyone in the world wants an open-concept floor plan these days.

And one other thing: It’s also made it clear that most interior designers on TV are dog people. How do I know? Because they seem to be very fond of rectangular sinks in bathrooms. However, as we more refined types know, this is entirely unacceptable. Ovals fit the requirements of a properly outfitted household much better.

BONUS FEATURE IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The prefecture of Hiroshima, in the cat-crazy country of Japan, has created the first cat’s-eye version of Google Street View. Check it out.

Link: 

Friday Cat Blogging – 4 September 2015

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This Map Shows Who Wants To Move To Your Country

by CleoYanezbx Posted on September 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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As the migration crisis in Europe continues to unfold, the images of dead children, crowded train platforms, and people trying not to be sent to migrant camps have triggered worldwide concern. Those jammed in Hungarian train stations or washing up on the shores of Greece each have very specific stories, but they are also a part of a long history of displacement. As long as there has been starvation and war, there has been migration to countries of peace and economic opportunity.

What is new, however, is the ability to look for information about a potential destination before going there. And all over the world, people are clicking on Google searches to learn more about lands of opportunity, especially the prosperous G-8 countries—France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, Canada, and Russia.

In the map below, the Google News Lab has come up with a way to chart comparative levels of curiosity about the G-8 countries from others all over the world. For instance:

And here is the interest of Syrians in France:

Check out Google’s full map below:

Original post:

This Map Shows Who Wants To Move To Your Country

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Hungry polar bears trap Arctic researchers

by WalkerLetcher30 Posted on September 2, 2015

Hungry polar bears trap Arctic researchers

By on 2 Sep 2015commentsShare

Earlier this summer, we found out that some polar bears like to skip hibernation in order to snack all year like spoiled little divas (blame Coca Cola). So naturally, we took it upon ourselves to fire them from their role as humanity’s climate change mascot — could you imagine the PR nightmare we’d have on our hands if we had gluttons as the face of a sustainable future? Unfortunately, it looks like the polar bears are taking the news a little something like this:

According to the BBC, a group of polar bears has camped out next to a weather station in northern Russia and is preventing scientists at the station from leaving in order to do their work of taking daily ocean measurements. The scientists tried to scare the bears off with flair guns to no avail. The standoff has been going on for about a week now, and authorities are reportedly on their way with more protective gear.

Flairs don’t scare those bears.Victor Nikiforov/WWF Russia

Polar bears don’t usually attack humans, the BBC reports, but that’s mostly because they’re not around humans very much. As climate change brings the bears closer to civilization, attacks are becoming more common.

Listen — we get it, guys. You’re upset. But this is ridiculous. The BBC says you started fighting over some food, and now you’re not even afraid of flair guns. Frankly, we’re starting to worry about you. Pull yourselves together, and give us a call. Maybe we can work something out.

Source:

Polar bears halt Arctic research in north Russia

, BBC.

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Hungry polar bears trap Arctic researchers

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Iran Nuclear Deal Reached Betweeen World Powers

by Kyung Wilhoite Posted on July 14, 2015

Mother Jones

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Following years of negotiations, Iran and six other world powers have finally reached a historic agreement set to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities. In return, longstanding international sanctions will be lifted.

The accord, perhaps the most significant diplomatic victory of Obama’s presidency, was struck between Iran, the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia, after a grueling 18-day negotiation in Vienna, Austria. It includes an agreement to allow Iran to continue its nuclear program, but reduce its current stockpile of low enriched uranium by 98 percent and its centrifuges at its main enrichment facility by two-thirds, for at least a ten-year period.

Under the agreement, United Nations inspectors will also be allowed into the country, but their entry is not guaranteed. If denied, the world powers would convene to assess the situation.

Hours after the announcement early Tuesday morning, President Obama praised the landmark agreement and indicated he would veto any legislation attempting to halt it, in a televised address from the White House.

“Today, because America negotiated from a position of strength and principle, we have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons in this region.”

“I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal,” Obama said.

Congress now has 60 days to review the deal.

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Iran Nuclear Deal Reached Betweeen World Powers

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