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The true threat to our Democracy is conservatism and its brethren, libertarianism. These philosophies argue for a minor role of government. Allow the “Invisible Hand” to guide the market place. "Government is an intrusion! Starve this beast!,” stated conservative ideologue Grover Norquist during his time as the ‘general manager’ of the Reagan revolution in the 1980s

The “beast” happens to be our government, which redistributes (taxes) wealth to fulfill human needs. Government is vital because capitalism DOES NOT fulfill human needs. Government is vital because our “free market” system DOES NOT care for the earth, or provide for healthy and safe citizens. Capitalism simply provides for the creation of private wealth. The conservative mantra of less government means 1) Less taxation, 2) Less Regulation, 3) Less Responsibility. Less government. Less opportunity. Less liberty and justice.

Private profits MUST be taxed to simply to correct the negative symptoms of capitalism: the exploitation of humans and the earth, our source of all life on this planet. Understandably, NOW we need MORE government. The term “government" is now being used interchangeably with “Democracy” by our wise Elder, President Biden. Democracy (our government) is meant to insure the rights of people, as established in the Preamble to the Constitution.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Let’s add to this one more line ....

The moral underpinning of the US (in my humble opinion) is our last line of the Pledge of Allegiance, “for liberty and justice for all.” Let’s combine the Preamble and the Pledge - THIS is our moral compassion! This is progressivism or liberalism. To ensure Basic Human Needs.

The generation, or creation, of wealth MUST be taxed at a rate commensurate to fulfill the societal needs AND for the protection of the Earth, our home to all life. Massachusetts has the highest tax rates AND the highest average incomes, highest college graduation rates and highest percentage of post graduate degrees. High incomes. Spending on the Common Good (as opposed to Corporate Greed). In the future, I hope to see an America which guarantees universal health care; universal college education; and a safe planet for all peoples and creatures. Let us take care of our home )Mother Earth), as we do our own home.

So, let America tax and spend, on the healing of society and our Mother Earth!

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"The shocking revelations from former acting attorney general Jeffrey A. Rosen about former president Trump’s direct efforts to use the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 election…"

From my perspective, the use of the word 'shocking' is entirely overdone. Angering, certainly. Distressing, obviously. Enraging, a bridge too far, simply because we do not know the man, who at the last moment, apparently remembered his oath of office, and refused to cave into Trump's demands to subvert the recent election.

The real villain of the piece is one Jeffrey Bossert Clark, the then-acting chief of the Civil Division who acted on behalf of President Trump, prepare draft letters to state officials in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere that expressed official concern that the recent election had been manipulated and that the vote counts in those days should not be honored. Had Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue acceded to Clark's suggestion, and sign the draft letters that Clark had prepared, the Trump coup d'état would likely have been successful. Subsequent news reports indicated that division chiefs within the Department of Justice at Jeffrey Clark's grade level had no independent authority to contact the White House on their own motion. Clark comes off as a scheming adventurer, a freebooter on the make, who sought to leverage his subordinate position, important enough as it was, into something much grander. Jeffrey Clark has since left the Justice Department, and according to Wikipedia, he currently serves as the Chief of litigation and Director of Strategy at the conservative-libertarian New Civil Liberties Alliance. But that may not last.

How long he remains with the New Civil Liberties Alliance remains to be seen. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing Clark exchange his bespoke suits for prison khakis or an orange jumpsuit. Understandably, Dr. Richardson is not a lawyer, but I would wager there are enough lawyers in her fanbase who would be able to comment authoritatively on the treasonous behavior that we have witnessed emanating within the Justice Department as knowledge of their sordid acts gradually became public. As of right now we do not know the lengths to which Acting AG Rosen or Associate Deputy AG Donoghue went to fend off President Trump's requests, until it became obvious that they were being asked to sign their names to a letter that was subversive in purpose and treasonous in content. It is our collective good fortune that they resisted. We know that Jeffrey Clark was scheming with the president to replace Jeffrey Rosen with himself. Several weeks ago, it was reported Rosen and Donoghue had threatened to resign in protest if Trump went ahead with his scheme. Eventually, this will all be sorted out, whether it will be as part of the House of Representatives ongoing investigation into the January 6 insurrection, a report by the Department of Justice Inspector General, or a grand jury indictment. I believe the latter will be the case, and here is why. I believe that the facts will support an indictment against Jeffrey Clark for conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States, as defined by 18 U.S.C. 371. One of the public resources that I have used over the years in my law practice, and elsewhere, is an online document titled the Justice Manual, a compilation of Department of Justice policy statements along with a Criminal Resources Manual that describes in detail the elements of various crimes, the facts that need to be proved, and the burden of proof.

Without getting into a lengthy dissertation, it is sufficient to say that Mr. Clark, based upon numerous authoritative press and media reports, has apparently put himself in legal jeopardy with a high potential for prosecution. This is the most egregious case that I have come across in the 53 years that have passed since I graduated law school, where a government official, falsely and with knowledge of the facts, sought to achieve an illicit end by manipulating a government agency to take action and had no business doing. The closest example I can recall was when Richard Nixon told his Attorney General, whom I recall to be Richard Kleindienst, to warn off the FBI from investigating the Watergate break-in on the spurious grounds that it was a CIA operation. Here we have Jeffrey Clark preparing an array of draft correspondence addressed to election officials and political bodies in various states that were hotly contested in the 2020 election, the gist of which letters was that the Department of Justice had determined that the election returns in those states were fraudulent. In law school, we were taught that the substantive crime of conspiracy involves the agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime. The substance of the crime is the agreement in and of itself, supported by an 'overt act', which act itself might not necessarily need to be criminal, but which indeed was intended to further the objective of the conspiracy, such as an arsonist purchasing a quantity of gasoline that would then be used as an accelerant in the subsequent fire that followed. We have an agreement between President Trump and Jeffrey Clark to overturn the election by misleading election officials in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and other states where Trump was contesting the vote count, where the purpose of such misdirection was to put the moral and political weight of the United States Department of Justice behind the false allegation that those state elections and their results were tainted by fraud, when no proof of the alleged frauds existed anywhere. How do we know that there was an agreement? We know, because the news reports had Trump and Clark linked together, with Clark on track to supplant and replace Jeffrey Rosen, with Clark being in personal communication with Trump, and taking direction from him, resulting in the draft warning letters that he asked his superiors, Rosen and Donoghue to sign and transmit to their respective addressees. Like pieces of an intricate jigsaw puzzle, the pieces of evidence fit together in only one way, because without the other pieces which they were connected, none of them make any sense standing alone. That rules out any sort of innocent explanation for what was going on.

It follows, then, that the agreement between Clark and Trump was intended to disrupt the official counting of the ballots of those contested states as reflected in the recorded votes of those states in the Electoral College. On January 6, Congress would be counting, ceremonially at least, the ballots of every state in order to determine the winner of the 2020 election. It follows further that Clark and Trump intended to inject confusion and ambiguity into that vote counting, with the hope and expectation that the final vote would be pushed into the House of Representatives where each state delegation was entitled to cast a single vote. With most state delegations favoring Trump, Trump's reelection would have been assured. That was the purpose of staging the January 6 insurrection and invasion into the Capitol building on that same date that Congress was tallying the Electoral College ballots. And it almost succeeded!

I believe it is imperative that we get to the bottom of this. And Jeffrey Clark is a key figure in that accounting. Undoubtedly, Clark will not be spending a great deal of time overseeing the litigation schedule of his new employer; rather, I strongly suspect he will be looking to hire the best criminal defense lawyer he can afford to avoid going to prison for the foreseeable future, possibly decades. By linking his fortunes to that of Donald Trump, Clark has made himself criminally accountable for whatever criminality, and punishment, that the ex-president has created for himself. On his own account, Clark may have incriminated himself in a variety of crimes stemming from his conspiratorial agreement with Trump. Right now, I anticipate that Justice Department attorneys and their investigators are conducting interviews and compiling evidence to see where that evidence leads, and identify the individuals to be held accountable. And in Jeffrey Clark's case, the sheer outrageousness of what he did may, in and of itself, to be sufficient to indict him and bring them to trial. But, as the saying goes, the wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine, and we may yet see an entire laundry list of criminal acts that Jeffrey Clark may be called to account for. I certainly hope so, and that it not take too long.

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Please, House "progressives," for once in your lives take "yes" for an answer and realize you are not even the majority in Congress, and are far from that status among Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans whose votes you are going to be in desperate need of next year. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you people were to do that, you might have a chance of keeping and even expanding your numbers and not have to lose the opportunity to do even more during the last two years of the first Biden term. Just once, don't get greedy and miss the opportunity. Shooting the moon hardly ever gets there, in Hearts or in politics.

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Sadly, the jobs report was blown from the top of the news in such a short time span due to so much going on.

However, I would suggest that our elected officials tout it and shout it from the roof tops. Especially since so many are getting ready to go back home.

Here's another suggestion for our elected officials.

Business cards, for informational purposes that has info on both sides about the big issues that are coming for a vote or have been voted on.

When my husband first got Lewy Body Dementia, we had business cards made up. One side explain LBD and Aphasia in short bullet points

The other side had his medical info and my contact info.

We made them back when he was still able to be out on his own. Mostly because we worried that something could come up and this could explain things, but also as a way to educate people.

I still carry my knot making cards in my purse, because I don't remember a lot of them, but if I ever need to know how to tie one, I've got the info at the tip of my fingers.

Stay safe. Tell people you love them.

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"In the next ten years, [the first infrastructure bill] is expected to create nearly 3 million jobs."

The bulk of those jobs, as I've understood, will require a high school diploma, but not a college degree. This has the potential to rebuild the middle class and to reduce poverty. And that will help rescue our democracy.

There's a glimmer of hope!

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"What are the costs if we do not?"

Time to rock and roll, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Climate, people, and our resilience in the face of predicted change of climate. FAST, we must move and our country has a hope that we will lead in the slow race to mitigate our fossil fuel catastrophe. Partisan tropes be damned, keep us below 2 degrees C!

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George H. W. Bush used the term, "Voodooo economics" to criticize the manipuilations of our economy. HW is the only Republican since Eisenhower that I had any respect for.

The longheld myth Republicans hold about themselves is that they are good for a growing economy. They are not. They are good for growing the wealth of the wealth class; period. As one who spent a fifty-year career in the private business sector, I know from fact and experience one important axiom: Money out, money in. Ploughing more money "out" into the economy as the Biden administration is attempting to do equals more money into the pockets of families. Ergo, more money for those families to spend. Thus, more money flowing back into the economy. "Trickle down" is a sadistic myth.

Ronald Reagan was Middle America's economic death knell. Since Reagan, every Republican with the exception -- perhaps -- of HW has been yet another ringer of that death knell.

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Dominion Keeps Up Defamation Lawsuits, Filing Against OANN, Newsmax and Patrick Byrne

Dominion Voting Systems has filed yet more defamation lawsuits over false statements about the 2020 elections, requesting $1.6 billion in damages each from Newsmax, One America News Network, and ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne.

The suits add to a growing list for the voting machine manufacturer, which has separately sued former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Fox News.

The complaints spend dozens of pages walking through the ragtag cast of characters that’s fueled lies about the 2020 election. Both Byrne and OANN, for example, promoted Edward Solomon, who they characterized as an expert mathematician who had evidence that Dominion machines manipulated votes.

In fact, Dominion’s OANN suit alleged, Solomon was no “expert mathematician” but rather “a convicted drug dealer who never graduated college and whose current job was setting up swing sets in Long Island, New York.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dominion-keeps-up-defamation-lawsuits-filing-against-oann-newsmax-and-patrick-byrne

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The incredible thing about the tax cuts that were enacted is they were effectively a double tax cut. With 80% of the stock market being held by the wealthiest 10%, cutting corporate taxes caused stock prices to rise. That massively increased the wealth of the wealthiest as nobody pays taxes on higher asset prices. [source below]

Have been a fiscally conservative and socially liberal indie for my whole life. Today politics are out the window. We live in a world where there are facts and lies. Skirting the issue by saying claims are "baseless" minimizes the deleterious nature that lies have on our Democracy today.

Thank you for the work you do - this is a fantastic, honest, well-researched and well-sourced way to start the day!!

Grateful for all you are doing.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/02/perspective-on-the-stock-market-rally-80-of-stock-value-held-by-top-10/

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Here’s another revelatory piece of news, from the LA Times: — The Texas governor appealed for out-of-state medical help as COVID-19 hospitalizations soared but stopped short of reversing his ban on mask mandates, even as leaders of the state’s largest cities and school systems imposed them.

File under: Helluva Nerve.

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Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Whatta guy that Furman is, don't you think? Having been retired for the past four years, I cannot say I have contributed to the jobs growth we are currently seeing. But through the purchase of my two Biden/Harris coffee mugs last year, I can say it was an investment that is showing positive returns. Proud to be part of the solution!

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"modern-day Republicans have argued that the government should simply cut taxes in order to free up capital for wealthier Americans to invest."

As if that is the only possible use for all the money floating to the top. As if there are no tax havens in the Caribbean or no Swiss banks. No more homes, yachts, jewels, or cars to buy. Republicans really do think we're fools, don't they?

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All should be paying their fair share in taxes. The fact that Republicans would not support additional staff in the IRS to enforce this tells us what their screams of “socialism” really means. Shame on Ron Johnson, failure 45, Mitch McCon (the farmer) and every other tax cheat. Time for an executive order to bring fairness and honesty and $$$$$ into tax collection.

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The Democrats, God bless 'em, have common sense; the Republicans have nonsense!

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The game changed in favor of the American people, and the world, the moment we all learned that President Biden had enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Now with these legislative victories, common sense appears to be winning the day. It’s a great start. Weneed to keep encouraging our elected representatives to go further. Our voices matter to them because we vote. Our democracy is always tenuous… that is how the founders intended it to be. The will of the people can be frustrated at times by a highly focused minority bent on having its own way. Right now the minority is in retreat on multiple fronts as the majority decisively asserts its will. This is long overdue. So now, the majority gets a chance to set things right. As more legislation is passed the true strength of the will of the American people is felt again The hard work of making our democracy develop and grow depends on all of us to put our shoulders to the task. That’s what Franklin meant when he quipped, (in answer to a question posed to him as he exited the Constitutional Convention in 1787), Dr Franklin, do we have a Republic or a Monarchy? …” A Republic…if we can keep it”. It’s not easy to do, but when we try…very good things start happening, again. Thank you to all the dedicated legislators who stayed up late to pass the first part of the infrastructure bill in the Senate and to our hard working president and administration who are giving it their all. Keep up the good work…we like and appreciate what you are trying to do to keep our Republic truly strong.

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Propublica out with a story about the Trump tax cuts being a piece of forced engineering by Republican Senator Ron Johnson of WI who held the tax cuts hostage. He did so to add a tax cut for pass-through companies. Documents now coming to light show that his demand, which Trump accepted, "....benefitted two families more than almost any others in the country - both worth billions and among the senator's biggest donors." That change reduced the taxes of those two families by $215ml in 2018 and, according to propublica, could reduce taxes payed by these TWO FAMILIES by over half a billion.

Fiscal conservative and socially liberal independent here so I am not some "radical." This is a revolting attack on our entire system of government. The news is out and the evidence is in: the United States tax code was successfully amended to benefit two very specific billionaires.

This is crony capitalism (at best) run to benefit a few kleptocrats.

Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-irs-files-reveal-how-much-the-ultrawealthy-gained-by-shaping-trumps-big-beautiful-tax-cut

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