The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The standoff over the federal shutdown has exposed deep fractures within the GOP, particularly around health care — a longstanding vulnerability for Republicans.

The New York Times highlighted in a report Sunday that while Democrats insist they will not support a spending deal without extending the expiring tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that safeguard coverage for millions, Republicans are split between ideology and electoral reality.

On one end, hard-line conservatives still press to eliminate the ACA outright; on the other, pragmatists recognize that wiping it out without a credible replacement could inflict “a political disaster” on their party, per the report.

The shutdown has forced the GOP into a public tug-of-war over what to do with a law they largely oppose but cannot realistically undo without major risk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) insisted the dispute is not about health care, calling Democrats’ insistence on subsidies a “red herring” that distracts from the funding fight.

At the same time, top Republicans such as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) pledged to vote against extending the credits, arguing they would “bail out insurance companies,” even as many recipients live in GOP-held districts.

At least 14 House Republicans and several senators signaled they would support a renewal of the credits through 2027, recognizing what some advisers called “a potential political catastrophe for the G.O.P.” if coverage were lost.

The report noted that the broader dynamic reveals why the party remains stuck. Even though Republicans have long pledged to “repeal and replace” the ACA, they have repeatedly failed to articulate what “replace” means in practice. The 2017 Senate health care bill collapsed amid conservative-moderate splits, leaving GOP leaders without an alternative mapped out.

According to the report, Democrats "have forced the G.O.P. to wrestle publicly with its divisions about what to do with the health care law, which most Republicans revile but many recognize would be impossible to unravel without bringing political disaster to their party.”  (our emphasis)

The bind the MAGAt Republicans are in politically is as a result of their dystopian views on health care and what government's priorities should be in general.  Democrats have all the leverage and are using it surprisingly well.  Please continue.

The bad:

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed through Santa Ana, California, in June, panicked calls flooded into the city’s emergency response system.

Recordings of those calls, obtained by ProPublica, captured some of the terror residents felt as they watched masked men ambush people and force them into unmarked cars. In some cases, the men wore plain clothes and refused to identify themselves. There was no way to confirm whether they were immigration agents or imposters. In six of the calls to Santa Ana police, residents described what they were seeing as kidnappings.

“He’s bleeding,” one caller said about a person he saw yanked from a car wash lot and beaten. “They dumped him into a white van. It doesn’t say ICE.”

One woman’s voice shook as she asked, “What kind of police go around without license plates?”

And then this from another: “Should we just run from them?”

During a tense public meeting days later, Mayor Valerie Amezcua and the City Council asked their police chief whether there was anything they could do to rein in the federal agents — even if only to ban the use of masks. The answer was a resounding no. Plus, filing complaints with the Department of Homeland Security was likely to go nowhere because the office that once handled them had been dismantled. There was little chance of holding individual agents accountable for alleged abuses because, among other hurdles, there was no way to reliably learn their identities.

Since then, Amezcua, 58, said she has reluctantly accepted the reality: There are virtually no limits on what federal agents can do to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportations. Santa Ana has proven to be a template for much larger raids and even more violent arrests in Chicago and elsewhere. “It’s almost like he tries it out in this county and says, ‘It worked there, so now let me send them there,’” Amezcua said.

Current and former national security officials share the mayor’s concerns. They describe the legions of masked immigration officers operating in near-total anonymity on the orders of the president as the crossing of a line that had long set the United States apart from the world’s most repressive regimes. ICE, in their view, has become an unfettered and unaccountable national police force. The transformation, the officials say, unfolded rapidly and in plain sight. Trump’s DHS appointees swiftly dismantled civil rights guardrails, encouraged agents to wear masks, threatened groups and state governments that stood in their way, and then made so many arrests that the influx overwhelmed lawyers trying to defend immigrants taken out of state or out of the country.

And although they are reluctant to predict the future, the current and former officials worry that this force assembled from federal agents across the country could eventually be turned against any groups the administration labels a threat... (our emphasis)

Let's not mince words:  this is a budding fascist police state in America.  This is part of what the "No Kings" protests were about.  Please read and share the rest of ProPublica's chilling report on "How Trump is building a violent, shadowy Federal police force" with every one you know who's not paying attention to what's happening (and even those who are).

The ugly: 

Israel launched airstrikes on southern Gaza early Sunday in the first major test of its ceasefire with Hamas, as the two sides traded accusations of significant breaches of the deal brokered by President Donald Trump.

Israel said that Hamas had carried out “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement” with attacks on its forces in the Rafah area.

Hamas restated its commitment to the truce and said it had no knowledge of any clashes. A senior official accused Israel of working to “fabricate flimsy pretexts” for its own actions.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had begun strikes around Rafah “to eliminate the threat” posed by militants and “dismantle tunnel shafts and military structures used for terrorist activity.”

Israel said it was acting “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement,” accusing militants of firing an anti-tank missile and gunfire toward IDF troops in the area.

An Israeli military official earlier accused Hamas of a “bold violation of the ceasefire” with incidents including a rocket-propelled grenade attack and a sniper attack against Israeli forces.

“Hamas carried out multiple attacks against Israeli forces beyond the yellow line,” the Israeli military official said, referring to the area where its military is now positioned inside Gaza under the first phase of the ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in statement that he had directed officials to take "strong action" against "terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip." Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “Hamas will learn the hard way today that the IDF is determined to protect its soldiers and prevent any harm to them.”

Izzat Al-Rishq, a senior member of Hamas’ political wing, said the group “affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement,” accusing Israel of violating the agreement and working to “fabricate flimsy pretexts” to evade its responsibilities.

In a longer statement Sunday, Hamas said it had "fully, accurately, and faithfully committed to implementing the agreement" and accused Israel of repeatedly violating the truce. The group alleges Israeli forces have killed civilians, delayed the release of detainees and blocked aid delivery, warning that Israel would be responsible if the deal collapsed...

"Hello, Nobel Committee?  Sane world here.  You might want to put a hold on any talk about a 2026 Peace Prize for the Malignant Fascist.  The 'ceasefire' the MF said meant the region was 'finally at peace' seems to have ceased in less than a week."  It looks like it was one of those "ceasefires for thee, not for me."

Mega-Wealthy: Taxes Are For Thee, Not For Me

 

ProPublica today released a fascinating and infuriating analysis of the taxes that 25 of the wealthiest Americans pay, and you won't be surprised to know that it's a paltry sum at best. The story of how they manage to avoid paying their fair share in taxes centers in large part around the way they accumulate wealth. Average Americans' main source of income is a salary, wage, or an annuity. Most live paycheck to paycheck and are only able to save or invest a nominal amount of that income.

The wealth of the top billionaires grows through increases in the value of stocks, property and other assets, and those assets aren't taxed until they are sold (capital gains):

"To capture the financial reality of the richest Americans, ProPublica undertook an analysis that has never been done before. We compared how much in taxes the 25 richest Americans paid each year to how much Forbes estimated their wealth grew in that same time period.

We’re going to call this their true tax rate.

The results are stark. According to Forbes, those 25 people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That’s a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%."  (our emphasis)

That 3.4% is compared to a median household with $70,000 in income paying 14% in Federal taxes. Here's one example:

"No one among the 25 wealthiest avoided as much tax as [Berkshire Hathaway's Warren] Buffett, the grandfatherly centibillionaire. That’s perhaps surprising, given his public stance as an advocate of higher taxes for the rich. According to Forbes, his riches rose $24.3 billion between 2014 and 2018. Over those years, the data shows, Buffett reported paying $23.7 million in taxes.

That works out to a true tax rate of 0.1%, or less than 10 cents for every $100 he added to his wealth." (our emphasis)

That's just one element of a tax code that's skewed to the ultra-wealthy. There are the arcane tax loopholes that the wealthiest take advantage of, thanks to their coin-operated Congressmen who write the tax laws and take campaign contributions.

In the months ahead, ProPublica says that they will look into how the ultra-wealthy avoid paying their fair share in taxes through a variety of legal mechanisms. Legal but nonetheless inequitable.

(image: via Boston Review)

 

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We always knew what they were, but the "debate" over the coronavirus relief bill has flushed out those hypocritical, sociopathic Republicans:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that more than a third of Republican senators will not vote for any coronavirus relief package, underscoring division with his caucus.

"I think there are 15-20 of my guys that are not going to vote for anything. ... It's a statement of the obvious that we will not have everybody on our side," McConnell told WHAS, a Kentucky radio station.

McConnell's estimate comes as congressional Democrats and the administration are struggling to reach an agreement after days of talks about a potential fifth coronavirus package as cases climb across the country and an economy bludgeoned by the pandemic. [snip]

McConnell, asked why a sizable portion of his conference is opposed to another bill, noted the growing size of the country's debt after Congress has already appropriated nearly $3 trillion in the previous four coronavirus bills.  (our emphasis)

The "debt"!?!?  Where was their concern when they were shoveling a trillion dollars into the pockets of their oligarch donors in 2017?

Peter Principle princeling Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner and Princess Ivanka have done quite well for themselves while performing botching their White (Supremacist) House duties.  Seems a little swampy:

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner earned at least $36.2 million as they served in the White House last year, reporting a boost in income from some companies they own that hold residential and commercial properties, new disclosures released Friday show.

President Trump’s daughter and her husband, who serve as top advisers to him, reported a minimum combined income that was at least $7 million higher than in 2018, when they reported making at least $29 million, according to their personal financial disclosures, which they are required to file annually.

Their minimum income was lower last year than it was in 2017, the year they entered government service, when they reported earning at least $82 million, the disclosures show.

However, it is impossible to determine the exact amount that the couple earned or their net worth, because documents they are required to file with the Office of Government Ethics require administration officials to only report the worth of assets and liabilities in ranges.

Still, the filings, which were submitted last month and released Friday, show that the couple continue to collect huge sums from their outside businesses even as they work inside the administration. Their combined income last year ranged from $36.2 million to $157 million, according to a Washington Post analysis of the disclosures.  (our emphasis)

Not that any of this accumulated wealth resulted from their practice of leveraging their names or positions to get bailouts or favored treatment.  Oh, no, no!

Paul Krugman writes about the "nightmare boss" Trump is for the country, and why he'll be "fired":

Thanks to Republican inaction, millions of unemployed workers have seen their last checks from the Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which was meant to sustain them through a coronavirus-ravaged economy; the virus is still raging, but their life support has been cut off.

So Trump has completely botched his job, bringing unnecessary pain to millions of Americans and unnecessary death to thousands. He may not care, but voters do. So he should be trying to turn things around, if only as a matter of political and personal self-interest.

But here’s the thing: Even if Trump were the kind of guy who could learn from his mistakes, it’s too late. If we had found ourselves in our current situation a year ago, there might still have been time for Trump to get the virus under control and turn the economy around. But the election is just around the corner.

Suppose that the numbers on deaths and jobs were to get somewhat better over the next three months. How much would that improve voters’ views of the denier in chief? How much credence would the public give, even to genuinely good news, after the false dawn this past spring? At this point Trump is simply a failed president, and everyone except his die-hard supporters knows it.

But as I said at the beginning, Trump is one of those nightmare bosses who can’t do the job but won’t step aside.  (our emphasis)

ProPublica explores the problems with reporting coronavirus data, especially after the Trump regime decided to intrude in the process:

In mid-July, the Trump administration instructed hospitals to change the way they reported data on their coronavirus patients, promising the new approach would provide better, more up-to-the-minute information about the virus’s toll and allow resources and supplies to be quickly dispatched across the country.

Instead, the move has created widespread confusion, leaving some states in the dark about their hospitals’ remaining bed and intensive care capacity and, at least temporarily, removing this information from public view. As a result, it has been unclear how many people are in hospitals being treated for COVID-19 at a time when the number of infected patients nationally has been soaring.

Just as under the guise of "reform and streamlining" the Trump regime is bollixing USPS mail delivery to impede mail- in voting, so too are they attempting to bottleneck data medical professionals need to address the spread of the pandemic for the short- term, self- defeating purpose of downplaying the threat of the virus.

As always, Infidel 753 has compiled a link round-up of scores of interesting topics from around the Internet.  Additional prodding should not be necessary at this point.

Oversight Weakened For Nuke Facilities

Part of the disgraceful strategy of the Trump administration is to deregulate those entities that have proven in the past that they pose a risk to the public health -- which is why they were regulated in the first place. Some of the deregulation stems from unfit sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump's vindictive desire to tear down every accomplishment of President Obama, but much of it seems to stem from a warped right-wing laissez-faire ideology and from corporate greed. The most egregious examples can be found in the Rump gang's assault on the Environmental Protection Agency, with virtually each week bringing new attacks on clean air and clean water regulations. It doesn't stop there: reactionary policies affecting endangered species, climate monitoring, opening up national monuments to mining and timber interests, and more have altered or eliminated important regulations that the general public benefits from.

While it's not on many radar screens, the Rump gang has just issued orders to curb the independence of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which oversees safety issues for the nation's nuclear defense facilities. According to ProPublica and its partner The Santa Fe New Mexican, the Energy Department has quietly issued orders:

"....preventing the board from accessing sensitive information, imposing additional legal hurdles on board staff, and mandating that Energy Department officials speak “with one voice” when communicating with the board."

DOE's defense nuclear sites have a very checkered history at best regarding nuclear safety. For decades, the Rocky Flats site in Colorado was infamous for significant radiological contamination, as is the Hanford Nuclear facility in eastern Washington which is under environmental remediation. Most recently, New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory was cited by the Board for "major deficiencies" in a building housing plutonium production facilities, given the seismic risks identified for the area.

We don't expect this thoroughly corrupt and cynical administration to do anything but continue to expose us to danger out of greed, ideology, vindictiveness or incompetence. That's another reason why the November elections -- and every election thereafter -- is vital to reining in those forces.