Did Rep. Paul Ryan Help Putin Hack House Races In The 2016 Elections

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According to the New York Times:
The impact of the information released by the hackers on candidates like Ms. Taddeo in Florida and others in nearly a dozen House races around the country was largely lost in the focus on the hacking attacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But this untold story underscores the effect the Russian operation had on the American electoral system.[…]
The intrusions in House races in states including Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, New Mexico and North Carolina can be traced to tens of thousands of pages of documents taken from the D.C.C.C., which shares a Capitol Hill office building with the Democratic National Committee.
“This is not a traditional tit-for-tat on a partisan political campaign, where one side hits the other and then you respond,” said Kelly Ward, executive director of the D.C.C.C. “This is an attack by a foreign actor that had the intent to disrupt our election, and we were the victims of it.”
 The information gathered in this cyber attack was then fed to a Florida PAC supporting Paul Ryan, according to a Salon report:
After Florida Democratic House candidate Joe Garcia appeared at a primary debate against opponent Annette Taddeo with a printout of some of the hacked DCCC documents to attack Taddeo, the National Republican Campaign Committee and The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with close ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan, used the hacked documents to defeat him in the general.
And it appears many in Washington have known about the attacks for a while:
After Guccifer 2.0 targeted the chair of the DCCC, New Mexico’s Ray Lujan, the Democrats sent a letter to his Republican counterpart on Aug. 29 arguing that “the NRCC’s use of documents stolen by the Russians plays right into the hands of one of the United States’ most dangerous adversaries,” and if the National Republican Campaign Committee continued using the materials, the GOP “will be complicit in aiding the Russian government in its effort to influence American elections.”
Let that sink in for a minute:  “The GOP will be complicit in aiding the Russian government in its effort to influence American elections.”   Not only are Americans questioning the legitimacy of the Presidency, they are questioning the entire Republican-led Congress is as well.
This cheating and scheming should catch up to them someday – hopefully in landslide defeats in 2018 sending their butts home.


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Seoul rejects Trump demand it pays for missile system


South Korea's government has brushed aside US President Donald Trump's suggestion that it should pay for a $1bn missile defence system the two allies are installing in South Korea to guard against threats from North Korea. The first components of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system have already been delivered and set up at…

As Trump Faces Overseas Challenges, US Diplomatic Posts Remain Unfilled


As Trump Faces Overseas Challenges, US Diplomatic Posts Remain Unfilled

With U.S. President Donald Trump facing challenges overseas in Syria and North Korea, as well as growing tensions with Russia, the public face of his his administration remains largely unknown, with hundreds of top U.S. diplomatic positions still unfilled. So far, only two new U.S. ambassadors have been confirmed — to Israel and the United Nations.…

Trump’s Tax Cuts Ignore History and Arithmetic


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It all started in December 1974, on Dick Cheney’s cocktail napkin. Four Republicans had gathered that night at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. and the conversation turned to economics and taxes. The group—Cheney, then the deputy White House chief of staff and the future vice president; Donald Rumsfeld, then the White House chief of staff and…

'Stealthing': Everything You Need To Know About The Disturbing Sex Trend


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Many men will complain about sex with a condom; the protection is necessary, but not enjoyable. Wearing a condom helps prevent pregnancy and the spread of STIs, but a disturbing new sex trend may increase the odds for both. A new study published in Columbia Journal of Gender and Law found an online community of men…

Trump Named As Witness In Pedophilia Case


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It was revealed that President Trump has been named as a witness in a civil trial involving convicted pedophile billionaire Jeffery Epstein and a lawyer suing him for “malicious prosecution.”
Law Newz has just reported that Florida attorney Jack Scarola announced that “President Donald Trump has been identified as an individual who may have information relating to these allegations.”
Scarola says he has evidence that a worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was allegedly recruited by Epstein and became “involved in a pattern of alleged molestations:”
The civil trial, which is expected to begin soon, is a complicated one and dates back to 2009.  It involves allegations of malicious prosecution, and defamation filed by Florida attorney Bradley Edwards. Edwards also represents several of Epstein’s alleged victims who brought separate civil cases against Epstein.  But, what is particularly interesting about this latest case is that it now appears to involve President Donald Trump himself.
This is not the first time Trump has been linked to Epstein. During the election campaign, Trump was sued by a woman who accused him of violently raping her when she was just thirteen years old at one of Epstein’s notorious underage sex parties.
Defendant Trump initiated sexual contact with Plaintiff at four different parties. On the fourth and final sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted.
Two more witnesses stepped forward to corroborate the story, but the case was ultimately dropped after the victim was intimidated into silence by death threats.
The links don’t stop there. Bradley Edwards, who Scarola is representing, announced that that:
“Trump and Epstein have acknowledged that they were friends, that they have socialized together. We have reason to believe that Trump was a guest in Epstein’s home during the period of time that Epstein was engaged in molestation.”
The affidavit also accuses Trump of flying on Epstein’s notorious private plane, where he held underage sex parties. Furthermore, it states that “Epstein’s phone directory from his computer contains 14 phone numbers for Donald Trump, including emergency numbers, car numbers, and numbers to Trump’s security guard and houseman,”
Epstein got a mere 13 months in prison for raping or molesting nearly 40 different underage girls at his notorious underage sex parties thanks to his white privilege and his billions. While it’s highly unlikely that Donald Trump will actually be deposed or called to testify, it’s just another sharp reminder that Trump’s past is dotted with heinous accusations.

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The Mnuchin Test Could Fix Trump Really Bad Tax Plan

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The best test for judging any Trump administration tax plan is the Mnuchin test — the standard that President Trump’s own Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, laid out a few months ago:
“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. There will be a big tax cut for the middle class, but any tax cuts we have for the upper class will be offset by less deductions that pay for it.”
I’ll repeat the key phrase for emphasis: “there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class.”
Mnuchin was right to make this commitment. While middle-class incomes have stagnated, the top 0.01 percent of earners have had their average inflation-adjusted income roughly quadruple to $11.3 million since 1980. Their taxes have fallen, too. There’s no justification for cutting those taxes further.
Yet on Wednesday Trump, with Mnuchin as the pitch man, proposed precisely that, violating Mnuchin’s own standard.
The Trump plan will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, cutting the top income-tax rate, cutting taxes on stock holdings, cutting corporate taxes and eliminating the estate tax. And when a reporter asked Mnuchin yesterday about all the benefits that would flow to the affluent, he ducked the question and offered a vague talking point. The straightforward Mnuchin of a few months ago was nowhere to be seen.
It would be entirely possible to put together a conservative tax plan that simplified the code without exacerbating inequality. But the Trump plan is nowhere near that plan.
In The Times, Nick Kristof cuts through the rhetoric about the plan. Elsewhere, Len Burman of the Tax Policy Center explains “the enormous tax shelter” in the plan. Dylan Matthews of Vox walks through why it’s a “a really, really huge giveaway to Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and the entire Trump family.”
The Times editorial board also has a piece on the many problems with the plan.
The full Opinion report from The Times follows, including Nancy-Ann DeParle and Phil Schiliro — two architects of Obamacare — on what Trump could do to fix its problems.


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Trump will unveil his tax “reform” plan

Trump will unveil his tax “reform” plan Wednesday. Part of it is a huge cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent to 15 percent, in order to “make the United States more competitive.”
This is truly dumb, for 5 reasons:
1. The White House says the United States has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Baloney. After corporate deductions and tax credits, the typical corporation pays an effective tax rate of 27.9 percent, only a tad higher than the average of 27.7 percent among advanced nations.
2. Trump's corporate tax cut will will bust the federal budget. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center projects that it will reduce federal revenue by $2.4 trillion over 10 years. This will either require huge cuts in programs for the poor, or additional tax revenues from the rest of us.
3. The White House says the tax cuts will create a jump in economic growth that will generate enough new revenue to wipe out any increase in the budget deficit. This is supply-side nonsense. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both cut taxes, and both ended their presidencies with huge budget deficits.
4. American corporations don’t need a tax cut. They’re already hugely competitive as measured by their profits – which are at record highs.
5. The White House says corporations will use the extra profits they get from the tax cut to invest in more capacity and jobs. Rubbish. They’re now using a large portion of their profits to buy back their shares of stock and to buy other companies, in order to raise their stock prices. There’s no reason to suppose they’ll do any different with even more profits.
Don't fall for Trump's corporate tax plan. It will be a huge windfall for corporations and a huge burden on ordinary Americans.
What do you think?


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Josh Earnest fires back at Ellison's critique of Obama

Josh Earnest fires back at Ellison's critique of Obama
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, sitting in for Brian Williams, discusses the criticism Pres. Obama is receiving from fellow Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison. Nicolle and the political panel discuss.



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Pres. Trump's threat to Congress fails

Pres. Trump's threat to Congress fails
President Trump lost his first fight over health care and Monday night he appeared to back off threats to force Democrats and Republicans to pay for the border wall. Fmr. GOP Congressman David Jolly and MNSBC's Joy Reid join Lawrence O'Donnell.




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John Dean, Jeff Sessions incompetence

Comey politics undercuts confidence in Trump Russia investigation

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Comey politics undercuts confidence in Trump Russia investigation Matt Apuzzo, reporter for the New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about how 2016 politics guided FBI Director James Comey's actions on Hillary Clinton and what that means for how he'll conduct the investigation into the Donald Trump campaign 







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We’re Investigating Hate Across the U.S. There’s No Shortage of Work.


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An African-American homeless man slain with a sword on the streets of New York. A mosque attacked in Fort Collins, Colorado, its windows smashed by a man who finished off his assault by hurling a Bible inside the Muslim house of worship. A portion of Junction City, Wisconsin, evacuated after a man angry with his Hmong…

What the Trump team should consider before axing Meals on Wheels funds




By David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Kristina Lambright, Associate Dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs, and an Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York. To justify President Donald Trump’s aim to spend less on social services, Office of…