*The Top 20% of Households Pay 88% of Federal Income Taxes:
According to the Congressional Budget Office:
-The top one percent of households pay 39.4 percent of federal income taxes and 26.2 percent of total federal taxes.
– The top 20 percent of households pay 88.1 percent of federal income taxes and 69.5 percent of total federal taxes.
– The top one percent of households pay an average income tax rate of 24 percent while the middle quintile pays an average income tax rate of 3 percent.
– The top one percent of households pay an average total tax rate of 33.3 percent while the middle quintile pays an average total tax rate of over 14 percent.
– The top 20 percent of households pay an average total tax rate of 26.7 percent while the middle quintile pays an average total tax rate of 14 percent.
*Green New Deal Could Cost in Excess of $90T – 4 Times Nat’l Debt:
How much will the Green New Deal backed by leading Democratic candidates for President cost? Up to $90 trillion, says a Washington think-tank. As Reason Magazine notes, the estimated cost of the Green New Deal is at “least $50 trillion and possibly in excess of $90 trillion, according to a report released today by the American Action Forum (AAF). The AAF, a center-right think tank that focuses on economic issues, projected costs for six aspects of the Green New Deal,” such as its “reworking the electricity grid,” “revamping the nation’s transportation network,” and “affordable housing.”
$90 trillion is more than four times the size of America’s entire national debt, and more than four times the size of the entire U.S. economy.
AAF’s cost estimate does not appear to be an exaggeration: For example, Reason’s Ron Bailey came up with a higher cost estimate than AAF for redoing the electricity grid. Bailey’s own estimate of the cost for reworking the power grid is $1.6 trillion to $7.6 trillion higher than AAF’s. Thus, AAF’s estimate is “not an outlier.”
The Green New Deal would pay for a vast array of new construction projects, many of them pointless white elephants. As Joel Pollak notes, the Green New Deal proposes “‘upgrading all existing buildings in the United States.’” In many cases (such as where buildings are approaching the end of their lifespan), that would consume more energy than it would save.
*Survey: 27% of Americans Prefer to Live in the Country, 12% Prefer
the Big City:
A new survey shows that, if given the choice, 27% of Americans would prefer to live in a rural, country area and only 12% would prefer to live in a big city. The remainder of the respondents were divided in their answers, with some preferring a small city or town and some preferring the suburbs thereof.
In the survey, Gallup asked, “Thinking about something else, if you could live anywhere you wished, where would you prefer to live — in a big city, small city, suburb of a big city, suburb of a small city, town or rural area?”
Twenty-seven percent said rural area and 12% said big city. Seventeen percent said a small city and 12% said a town.
*Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: Not Enough Minorities and Women
Run Dope Shops:
During a House hearing about “banking services for cannabis-related businesses,” socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.) discussed what she called the “racial wealth gap” and noted that white males dominate in the legal pot shop business while “80% of the people kept in federal prison are Black orLatino.”
“So, my question is, are we compounding the racial wealth gap right now based on who is getting the first mover advantage?” she said. “According to an industry trade publication, 73% of cannabis executives in Colorado and Washington are male, 81% are white,” said the congresswoman. “In the state of Massachusetts, just 3.1% of the marijuana businesses in the state were owned by minorities and just 2.2% were owned by women.”
Rep.Ocasio-Cortez then explained that, in her estimation, although minorities and women were deeply affected by anti-marijuana laws, they are now benefiting the least from new laws that allow the operation of cannabis stores. “Is this [legal pot] industry representative of the communities that have historically bared the greatest brunt of injustice based on the prohibition of marijuana?” she asked. She then added, “it doesn’t look like any of the people reaping the profits of this are the people who were directly impacted.”
*Lara Logan Says Media Standards Have Led to ‘Horses–t’ Reporting:
Reporters have become “political activists” and even “propagandists,” CBS News’ foreign correspondent Lara Logan said during a recent podcast. The war correspondent was speaking to Navy SEAL Mike Ritland on Friday when she delivered the broadside against the media.
“The media everywhere is mostly liberal,” Logan said. “Most journalists are left or liberal or Democrat or whatever word you want to give it.”
She added that journalistic standards have been lowered, resulting in “horses–t” reporting.“I mean, you read one story or another and hear it and it’s all based on one anonymous administration official, former administration official,” she said. “That’s not journalism. That’s horses–t. Sorry. That is absolute horses–t.” The journalist highlighted how former New York Times editor Jill Abramson wrote in her new book that most of that paper’s coverage of President Trump was negative.
*Ilhan Omar’s District Is ‘Terrorist Recruitment Capital Of The US,’ Report Says:
Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), is the terrorist recruitment capitol of the United States, according to FBI statistics.
According to FBI statistics “more men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country.” “FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq– and Syria-based ISIS combined,” Fox News continued. “And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS. Both numbers are far higher than those of alleged terrorist wannabes who left or attempted to leave the country from other areas in the country where Muslim refugees have been resettled.”
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Dr. Srini Pillay, Best-Selling Author & Neuroscientist, Poses Questions on the Mental Well-Being of “El Chapo” Jurors
Dr. Srini Pillay is a Harvard psychiatrist, former brain researcher and author of “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind.” He is also an entrepreneur and an assistant professor at Harvard University, where he has spent a large chunk of his career subverting ideas on creativity and the processes behind human thinking. Now, he poses questions on the mental well-being of jurors in the infamous “El Chapo” case.
“The psychological challenges that jurors face are well-known. They range from depression to anxiety and even post-traumatic stress disorder,” explains Dr. Pillay, “After hearing testimony about live burials and other horrendous acts, (many of them sexual) who could expect otherwise?”
The facts check out. For trials as long and intense as the “El Chapo” trial, 86-96 percent of people have reported feeling stressed, “numb and detached” and “tense.” The stress comes from worrying, having to concentrate, tolerating monotony, and making decisions.
While many of these symptoms may strike one as “all in a day’s work”, when the jury makes decisions in the ‘El Chapo’ case, there is one big concern that will impact decision-making: the ego-depletion effect. Formally known as self-regulation depletion (SRD), this phenomenon refers to brains that “switch off” when there is too much emotion to process or when a situation demands too much attention. After hearing 200 hours of testimony, emotional fatigue and distorted thinking is to be expected.
“We live in a world obsessed by focus. And we erroneously believe that continuous focus will help us gather more data and interpret that data more effectively too,” concludes Dr. Pillay, “Yet, after three months of deliberation on the case, it would be inhuman to expect jurors to think clearly. As frivolous as brain breaks may sound, they will significantly ameliorate the disastrous consequences of SRD. And a fair and just trial for ‘El Chapo’ will be much more likely too.”
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*EXAMINER–COMMENTARY by Kevin Miller:
I have to praise President Donald Trump. I mean, don’t get me wrong. As a die hard liberal I oppose pretty much everything he stands for and I personally think he’s a poor excuse for a human being. But no-one can deny that ever since he began his campaign for the Presidency Donald Trump, for better or for worse has single handedly made the entire country pay attention to their government and politics. Whether you love him or hate him, President Trump has you glued to your own personal news source to see what he’s going to do next.
*EXAMINER–COMMENTARY by Tamara Blustein:
Re: David Brooks commentary on the MAGA-hat-wearing students:
It’s been shown over and over again (on video) that the students DIDN’T surround the Native American, that he came up to them and played his drum under their noses. They were being harangued by the Black Israelite group. If Brooks is going to comment, at least get his facts right.
*EXAMINER–COMMENTARY by Thomas L. Friedman:
A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important? Their answer: the ability to master “two codes” — computer science and the U.S. Constitution.
Since then they’ve been adapting the SATs and the College Board’s Advanced Placement program to inspire and measure knowledge of both. Since the two people who led this move — David Coleman, president of the College Board, and Stefanie Sanford, its chief of global policy — happen to be people I’ve long enjoyed batting around ideas with, and since I thought a lot of students, parents and employers would be interested in their answer, I asked them to please show their work: “Why these two codes?”
Their short answer was that if you want to be an empowered citizen in our democracy — able to not only navigate society and its institutions but also to improve and shape them, and not just be shaped by them — you need to know how the code of the U.S. Constitution works. And if you want to be an empowered and adaptive worker or artist or writer or scientist or teacher — and be able to shape the world around you, and not just be shaped by it — you need to know how computers work and how to shape them.
With computing, the internet, big data and artificial intelligence now the essential building blocks of almost every industry, any young person who can master the principles and basic coding techniques that drive computers and other devices “will be more prepared for nearly every job,” Coleman and Sanford said in a joint statement explaining their initiative. “At the same time, the Constitution forms the foundational code that gives shape to America and defines our essential liberties — it is the indispensable guide to our lives as productive citizens.”
*EXAMINER–A DIFFERENT VIEW:….
