US Politics January 2019: we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger

remains a frustrating mystery

eyeballs, clicks, ad revenue. also, cable news must fill every minute of every 24 hours.

kinda love jumaane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-gw5I0MoSk

Eh, 70% would be nice, but these fine countries do fine with top marginal income tax rates (including provincial/state/subnational taxes) above 50%:

Sweden 60.15%
Canada 58.75% (in Quebec, other provinces lower)
Japan 55.945%
Denmark 55.85%
Austria 55%
Finland 52.25%
Luxembourg 52.45%
Ireland 52%
Netherlands 51.95%
United States 51.8% (37% max federal + 13.3% max state + 1.5% max city).

Personally, I'd be content with a 40% top Federal rate, but eliminating the provisions that privilege unearned income from capital gains (taxed at only 15% or 20%) compared to earned income, and of course simplifying the code to eliminate shelters.

if I ran the zoo I'd pay our UN fees and introduce a global 80% tax rate on the top 2% of people in all countries to eliminate safe havens under the penalty of sanctions but idk I like to wish/dream

is there a mainstream economic argument for taxing capital gains lower than income? or is is entirely political?

Everything about gifting, trusts, estates and inheritances needs to be revamped too.

people with lots of money should have it all pooled and redistributed

It's kind of amazing that VP Pence has been relegated to meeting with congressional staff. Here's what that means in Washington code: It show he has no clout to make any deal, and it completely devalues the office he represents.

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 6, 2019

lol

This too:

https://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MIKE-PENCE-KIRSTEN-SINEMA-PIC-OF-THE-WEEK02-810x608.jpg

Having to swear in noted atheist and bisexual (and new Arizona senator) Kirsten Sinema with a law book instead of a Bible.

Kyrsten, even.

Fuck him up Kyrsten

Like, how can this old guard ^^^ even compete. "Only game in town" is a sad, sad, losing strategy.

fully half of her last name is "SIN". Run, Mike, run!

sorry for nerd but ive just been enjoying all the talk about marginal tax rates etc

is there a site that chucks out even a best-guess income-tax-only figure for tax youd be liable for on a given income?

sanpakus list had me wondering, because even at that theres serious variance in the thresholds for that highest marginal rate to kick in (and thresholds under which no tax is paid) and itd be a v useful comparator

google is frend

https://i.imgur.com/ru73bVd.png

yeah the threshold question is crucial to creating an apples-to-apples comparison both in budgetary terms and in terms of trying to reduce income inequality.

it completely devalues the office he represents.

Uh, it devalues an office that has been notoriously characterized as 'not worth a bucket of warm piss'?

now think of that, but one worse

two buckets of warm piss?

one bucket of cold tbh

good morning!

so how long til Bolton gets fired
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/07/trump-syria-withdraw-plan-1084328

I give him three months.

“We’ll have offers on the table when we find somebody that’s not crazy to deal with,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We’re not going to put any offers on the table as long as people in charge of these negotiations accuse all of us who want a wall of being a racist.”

He did not refer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by name, but criticized her answer to a question of whether she would be open to putting one dollar toward funding the border wall. “A dollar? A dollar? Yeah, one dollar,” she told reporters Thursday.

How long until Trump is running around an otherwise empty WH in nothing but stained briefs and no longer even pretending to be president?

coupla days

hope he gets teargassed at the border

you folks and your endless optimism

NYT reports he wants to address the nation tomw night

first he has to convince the lyin' media to carry it?

looks like Senate Dems are going to block all legislation until this gets resolved:

In the Senate, some Democrats are floating an idea to block all business until Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agrees to take up the House-passed appropriations bills. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) broached the plan that now has support from several prominent Democrats. [this includes Sanders, Booker, Cardin]

The idea, Van Hollen told Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent, is gaining traction in the Democratic caucus and from outside groups. The AFL-CIO endorsed it Monday morning. Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) came out in support of it in the afternoon.

good

We will abort one fetus an hour until resolved

a preview (except no one will cut away from trump)

Israel Channel 10 cuts away in the middle of Netanyahu's "dramatic announcement" once it becomes clear he's just complaining about minutiae of the investigations against him.

— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) January 7, 2019

imagine if US media had the balls

Bibi is still alive?

other countries' media seem to have far less reverence for pols than our MSM

Trump should have a shoe thrown at him whenever he appears in public tbh

Whomp whomp

During a private meeting with aides at Camp David on Sunday, Trump said he wanted them to come up with a resolution to the shutdown fight that would reopen the government—without him appearing to have capitulated to Democrats. w/@peterwsj https://t.co/o7xZJBLzUR

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) January 7, 2019

President Deals, everybody!

other countries' media seem to have far less reverence for pols than our MSM

I thought it worthy of note that no network cut away from programming to carry this dipshit's live events the last few days.

I would just take the one dollar offered by Nancy before that too is off the table

"And while you are at it, here is a room full of straw which you must spin into gold for me," Trump said to his aides and advisors, " Pronto!"

just delegatin'

If Nancy took the dollar, progressive libs would eat her alive

NANCY CAPITULATES

This was all meant to make him look good to his die-hard base. It won't matter to them that he will lose this stupid fight because he'll just blame Democrats and they'll accept that without any problem. It won't diminish their love for him one bit. So, mission accomplished, insofar as there was anything you could call a mission here at all. No matter how you slice it, it's still governance by catering to stupidity.

Leaked Trump plans for $1 Pelosi wall:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DT1ZRGmW0AAPmFf.jpg

Trump should just say he already built the wall. Hell, he should just say he used his own money, billions of it! His fans would love it and, let's face it, America would be much safer.

think that the problem may have been that there was a border wall in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.

The wall just got 10″ higher

It's not your job to be as confused as Donnie is

The New York Times reports:

President Trump announced on Monday that he would address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening to discuss what he called the crisis at the southern border, and the White House said that later in the week he would travel to the border as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the need for a wall — the sticking point in negotiations with Democrats which caused a government shutdown.

It was not immediately clear which outlets would carry his address. The four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC — confirmed receiving the White House request on Monday for Mr. Trump to speak during the 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time slot, but producers had not decided whether to grant him the time. Pre-empting prime-time coverage is an expensive proposition for television executives, who have sold millions of dollars’ worth of advertising against entertainment programming.