Source: Berkshire Eagle
“Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who single-handedly thwarted her party’s longtime goal of raising taxes on wealthy investors, received nearly $1 million over the past year from private equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists whose taxes would have increased under the plan. For years, Democrats have promised to raise taxes on such investors, who pay a significantly lower rate on their earnings than ordinary workers. But just as they closed in on that goal last week, Sinema forced a series of changes to her party’s $740 billion election-year spending package, eliminating a proposed ‘carried interest’ tax increase on private equity earnings while securing a $35 billion exemption that will spare much of the industry from a separate tax increase other huge corporations now have to pay.” (08/14/22)
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/ap/politics/sinema-took-wall-street-money-while-killing-tax-on-investors/article_55e94140-c1cc-50d2-9819-2e881ebb9199.html
Source: The Fifth Column
“w/ Eli Lake ‘Mar-a-lago Momentos and Nuclear Codes.'” [Flash audio] (08/13/22)
https://wethefifth.substack.com/p/368-w-eli-lake-mar-a-lago-momentos
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker
“It was a good but bizarre day when the CDC finally reversed itself fundamentally on its messaging for two-and-a-half years. The source is the MMWR report of August 11, 2022. The title alone shows just how deeply the about-face was buried: Summary of Guidance for Minimizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Individual Persons, Communities, and Health Care Systems — United States, August 2022. … The wording was chosen very carefully, not to say anything false outright, much less admit any errors of the past, but to imply that it was only possible to say these things now. … In English: everyone can pretty much go back to normal. Focus on illness that is medically significant. Stop worrying about positive cases because nothing is going to stop them. Think about the bigger picture of overall social health. End the compulsion. Thank you. It’s only two and a half years late.” (08/14/22)
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-deeper-dive-into-the-cdc-reversal/
Source: Town Hall
by Sally C Pipes
“Could Medicare for All have averted more than 330,000 deaths over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic? That’s the claim of a new study published by 10 researchers from four different universities in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To arrive at their figures, the authors compared the mortality risks of COVID and other causes of death among the insured and uninsured. Since the uninsured receive less medical care and are more likely to have preexisting conditions like diabetes, the researchers concluded that fewer lives would have been lost if there had been universal health care throughout the pandemic. It may seem intuitive that having health insurance should result in better health. But that premise is faulty. Studies based on real-world data indicate that the link between insurance and good health is weak.” (08/13/22)
https://townhall.com/columnists/sallycpipes/2022/08/13/medicare-for-all-wouldnt-have-saved-us-from-covid-n2611680
Source: ABC News
“At least 41 people were killed after a huge fire erupted at a church in Cairo during morning prayers on Sunday, health authorities and the Coptic Orthodox Church said. Egypt’s health ministry said 55 people were also taken to hospitals for treatment after being injured in the blaze, which engulfed the Coptic Orthodox Church of Abou Seifain in the working-class district of Imbaba. The fire erupted at 9 a.m. Cairo time. The interior ministry, which oversees the Civil Protection Authority, said the fire ‘broke out in an air-conditioner on the second floor of the church building, which includes a number of classrooms, as a result of an electrical fault.'” (08/14/22)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/dozens-feared-dead-cairo-church-fire/story?id=88359571
Source: Crooked Media
“”Nukes of Hazzard.” [Flash audio] (08/13/22)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nukes-of-hazzard-live-from-nashville/id1192761536?i=1000575950420
Source: The Atlantic
by David A Graham
“Although there are many rivals for the title, this week’s FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, the apparent mishandling of classified information that led to it, and the political fallout since is close to the paradigmatic Donald Trump scandal. The story is at once totally new and unexpected and yet entirely of a piece with everything we know and have seen from Trump. Both Trump and his most bitter opponents have noted that the search of a former president’s home is unprecedented — Trump to claim it was unjust, his critics to highlight his misdeeds — but it shares three important characteristics with previous Trump scandals. First, Trump is singularly terrible at keeping secrets. Second, Trump always says that what Democrats, especially Barack Obama, did was worse or caused it. Third, there are always more developments yet to come, and it always gets worse.” (08/13/22)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/trump-classified-documents-mar-a-lago-fbi-search/671124/
Source: SFGate
“For their 16th wedding anniversary, Democrats in Hawaii gifted Josh Green and his wife, Jaime, a comfortable margin of victory in the gubernatorial primary Saturday. Green, the state’s current lieutenant governor, handily defeated former first lady Vicky Cayetano and Kaiali’I Kahele, who decided to seek the governor’s office instead of a second term in the U.S. House. Green, with lei of yellow and purple flowers and green leaves piled high up to his neck, alternated between throwing fists in the air and giving the shaka sign to a boisterous crowd of supporters at his victory party. ‘On to November, we will win the governorship and lead Hawaii forward,’ he said to the cheering crowd. He will face former two-term Republican Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona in the general election, who defeated mixed martial arts championship fighter B.J. Penn in his party’s primary.” (08/14/22)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Hawaii-voters-picking-nominees-in-race-to-succeed-17371577.php
Source: The Intercept
by Jamie Kalven
“Harith Augustus left the barbershop where he worked on the South Side of Chicago and set out to run some errands. … he displays no unease as he passes three police officers chatting with each other at the corner of 71st and Chappel. A few minutes later, he returns, going west, and passes them again with the same air of nonchalance. Moments later, his body lay motionless in the middle of 71st Street, having been shot five times by Officer Dillan Halley. … Augustus’s death was the result of aggressive policing rather than any criminal conduct on his part. The police stopped him because he appeared to be carrying a gun, but in a concealed carry state that alone is not a sufficient basis for an investigative stop. Augustus had committed no crime, and at no point did he remove his gun from its holster.” (08/13/22)
https://theintercept.com/2022/08/13/chicago-police-killing-bodycam-harith-augustus/
Source: Common Dreams
by Michael Li & Chris Leaverton
“One of the most consequential outcomes of this redistricting cycle has been the continuing decrease in the number of competitive congressional districts. Under new maps, there are just 30 districts that Joe Biden won by less than eight percentage points in 2020 and, likewise, just 30 districts that Donald Trump won by less than eight points. All told, there are now fewer competitive districts than at any point in the last 52 years. If the good news is that both parties emerged with reasonable opportunities in coming years to win control of a closely divided House, the bad news is that they will fight that battle on the narrowest of terrains under maps artificially engineered to reduce competition.” (08/13/22)
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/08/13/partisan-gerrymandering-carving-us-democracy
