Category Archives: terrorism

Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin Risk Their Reputations – The New York Times

 

In the early stages of promoting Trump’s tax cut, they have made a series of statements that are blatantly false — not merely shadings of truth or questionable claims but outright up-is-down falsehoods mocked by various fact-checkers. The statements make the two look more like Trump press secretaries than serious business executives whom members of Congress can trust.They fall into two main categories. The first is who benefits from the tax plan. “Wealthy Americans are not getting a tax cut,” Cohn said on “Good Morning America.” He was echoing a promise that Mnuchin had made before the inauguration: “Any reductions we have in upper-income taxes will be offset by less deductions, so that there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class.”No one needs to read a sophisticated analysis (although you can do that, as well) to know these claims are ridiculous. Trump’s tax plan is reducing the top income-tax rate to 35 percent, from 39.6 percent. It is deeply cutting corporate taxes, which benefits people who own a lot of stock. It is eliminating the estate tax.Want to guess how many families in New York State — population 20 million — are wealthy enough that they’re likely to pay any estate tax next year, according to an estimate based on I.R.S. data? Just 470. The number is so low in Montana, Vermont, West Virginia and four other states — likely fewer than 10 families in each — that the I.R.S. doesn’t provide details, to avoid privacy concerns.There is no way to make up for tax cuts this large by eliminating deductions, as Mnuchin claimed. The administration isn’t trying very hard, anyway. The deductions for charitable donations and mortgage interest, including on second homes, will remain.

 Bulgaria and their rightwing’s love affair with Nazi’s – will preside over EU for a year…

Volen Siderov, the head of one of the three parties (“Ataka”), forming the United Patriots, once called on the Roma minority (Gypsies) to “behave themselves,” if they did not want to be deported to India. In a book, he wrote that “a gang of Jews” have “ruined the orthodoxy.”[4] Valeri Simeonov, Chair of a second party in the United Patriots, the “National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria” (NFSB), referred to Roma as “human-like creatures, who have become beasts,” and said that their children were playing “in the streets with pigs.”[5] Since May 4, Simeonov has been in office as the Vice Prime Minister, in charge of the economy and demography, as well as being Bulgaria’s Commissioner for Integration.

Twice, photographs have already emerged showing high-ranking officials of Bulgaria’s government, elected to office in May, in poses honoring the Nazis. May 17, Pavel Tenev, Minister of Regional Development, at the time, was forced to resign, after publication of a photo, showing him with his right arm extended in a Nazi salute, standing in front of a wax figure of a Nazi officer in Paris’ Musée Grévin. May 19, another photo was published on the internet, showing the freshly appointed department director in the Ministry of Defense, Ivo Antonov, also giving the Nazi salute in front of a Second World War tank of the Wehrmacht. (On the right, german-foreign-policy.com documents a segment of this photo.) His most senior employer, Defense Minister, Krasimir Karakachanov, Chair of the IMRO-Bulgarian National Movement, refused to fire him.[6]

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

New Russian Facial-Recognition Tech May Fight Crime But It’s Already Misused Against Opposition

Clearly, FindFace and similar programs will be used not only by cities in CCTVs to fight crime and terrorism, and intelligence agencies everywhere, but will be used by all sides in every conflict, for good and ill. The policy question then will likely becomes how to create remedies for misuse rather than deterrence.Devising remedies means a lot more research is needed on the misuse of the technology. But in the Russian setting, there are so many factors at work against the opposition already — including covert surveillance of their private lives by state TV and broadcasting without their permission —  that isolating the effect of FaceFind could be difficult.

Source: New Russian Facial-Recognition Tech May Fight Crime But It’s Already Misused Against Opposition

Kim Wall ‘stabbed 15 times’ onboard Danish inventor’s submarine | World news | The Guardian

The suspected killer of Swedish journalist Kim Wall will be detained for four more weeks after a Copenhagen court heard that 15 stab wounds had been found on her body.Peter Madsen, 46, faces a murder charge over the death of the 30-year-old journalist, whose headless, dismembered torso was found floating off Denmark’s capital city 10 days after she boarded the inventor’s self-built submarine for an interview.Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen told the court that cause of death had not yet been formally established, but that the multiple knife wounds had been inflicted “at the time of death or shortly afterwards”.Traces of Madsen’s DNA had also been also recovered from Wall’s body, as well as traces of a saw blade consistent with the removal of her head and limbs after her death, Buch-Jepsen said. An examination of Madsen’s computer had also uncovered material featuring women being tortured and killed.

Source: Kim Wall ‘stabbed 15 times’ onboard Danish inventor’s submarine | World news | The Guardian

Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Don’t Count Black Lives

There is no official death toll, but most historians agree that the count was around 250, because many African Americans were buried in mass graves, while others fled the city. No one was ever convicted of a single crime.

Source: Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Don’t Count Black Lives

‘A white girl had to die for people to pay attention’: Heather Heyer’s mother on hate in the US | US news | The Guardian

“I think we’ve got to have some difficult, very difficult conversations about people’s beliefs and their anger and their hurt and what it is they need fixed to feel right again,” she said. “We’re not going to hug it out and be happy. That’s just not reality. But we can listen to one another.”“People are listening to me right now, so I’m talking right now,” she said. “When they stop listening, I might shut up, I might not. I’m not good at shutting up.”

Source: ‘A white girl had to die for people to pay attention’: Heather Heyer’s mother on hate in the US | US news | The Guardian

While He Was Tweeting: The Puerto Rico Edition, Week 36 | Dame Magazine

Congress let CHIP expire on Saturday by not holding a vote to reestablish the program’s $15-billion appropriation.   No biggie, it’s just the Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program insuring 9 million children in the United States.

Source: While He Was Tweeting: The Puerto Rico Edition, Week 36 | Dame Magazine

President Trump the divider exploits another opportunity in NFL attacks: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

Remember this about Trump: He’ll always be a divider, never a unifier. He owes his entire political existence to a strategy designed to tear the country apart by exploiting issues related to race, culture, religion and economic standing. Absent continuous chaos, his support crumbles. That need to constantly divide explains his newfound, and laughable, loyalty to our flag. When Vietnam came calling nearly 50 years ago, Trump pigeonholed his patriotism, seeking and receiving five draft deferments, allegedly for bone spurs in his feet.

Source: President Trump the divider exploits another opportunity in NFL attacks: Brent Larkin | cleveland.com

TBS Friday! Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinds Obama-era guidelines on campus sexual assault – LA Times

“Those documents have led to the deprivation of rights for many students – both accused students denied fair process and victims denied an adequate resolution of their complaints,” the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Candice Jackson, said in a letter Friday. (Poor guy babies – raping and abusing females forever and getting away with it – one guy maybe falsely accused and the world has to stop being better? Total BS pimping for rightwing white guy votes!)

Source: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinds Obama-era guidelines on campus sexual assault – LA Times