Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Why Republicans Can't Just Pivot to Tax Reform
TheAtlantic | Russell Berman | 08/07/17

The White House is promising swift action on the GOP's next priority. But Congress must first pass a budget, and the details are once again dividing the party.

Forget health care: Republicans are moving on to tax reform. With last month's collapse of their No. 1 legislative priority, the White House and GOP congressional leaders have made a nearly complete pivot to agenda item 1A -- rewriting the nation's tax code for the first time in more than 30 years.

... But the biggest immediate obstacle in the way of quick action on tax reform is a fundamental one: Republicans have been unable to pass a budget for 2018, and without that, they can't unlock the fast-track reconciliation process that would allow them to enact tax reform without Democratic votes in the Senate. It's that same mechanism the GOP used to advance health-care legislation that would have passed the Senate last month with just one more Republican vote. Ordinarily, the annual budget is a non-binding document that sets spending levels for the government, which only take effect once Congress passes appropriations bills. But a budget is a prerequisite for the reconciliation process: It contains formal instructions for the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate to draft legislation. ... Read more

The World's Most Feared Investor
Bloomberg | Nabila Ahmed, Scott Deveau | 08/07/17

Aggressive, tenacious and litigious to a fault, Paul Singer may be the most feared activist investor in the world--by hedge fund rivals, companies and even countries. Singer's Elliott Management Corp., which manages $34 billion of assets, has rarely been out of the headlines the past 18 months. And there's little indication that will change soon.

Singer has targeted the world's biggest mining company, taken on Warren Buffett in a battle for Texas's largest electricity distributor, ousted chief executive officers on both sides of the Atlantic and set off a chain of events that led to the impeachment of South Korea's president. ... Read more

Kushner subpoenaed for issuing green cards while the administration takes them away
ThinkProgress.org | Rebekah Entralgo | 08/03/17

It turns out government officials selling green cards to wealthy foreigners might not be okay.

Federal prosecutors in New York subpoenaed the company of President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner late Wednesday over their use of the EB-5 federal visa program. The program issues green cards to immigrants who invest $500,000 in U.S.-based developments, 85 percent of which are Chinese.

The irony of the subpoena is difficult to ignore. The Kushner family company is in trouble for essentially selling green cards at the same time the Trump administration is pushing a plan to curtail the number of green cards issued each year. The new immigration policy President Trump rolled out Wednesday would crack down on legal immigration in favor of English-speaking, "high-skilled" workers. EB-5 applicants do not have a way of proving their level of "skill," beyond the ability to finance projects for U.S. developers. ... Read more
Trump's Son-In-Law Jared Kushner Subpoenaed | TYT | 08/04/17 | 8:37

Europe Swelters Under a Heat Wave Called 'Lucifer'
NYT | author | 08/06/17

The meteorologists agree: The long hot spell gripping parts of Europe this past week is uncommon. People looking for relief from the heat in countries like France, Spain and Italy grappled for just the right name for the phenomenon -- and settled on "Lucifer."

... High temperatures this summer have brought punishing heat to regions in the United States like the Pacific Northwest -- where generations had shunned air-conditioning -- reaching as high as 104 in Seattle and 107 in Portland, Ore. In parts of Asia, like Pakistan, a blast of scorching weather this year also had people there reaching for comparisons to hell on earth as records fell. ... Read more

Trump doesn't believe in climate change, but it's going to drown Mar-a-Lago
Click to zoom in Vox.com | Sarah Frostenson | 06/02/17

President Donald Trump has called climate change a "hoax" and a very expensive "tax" on American businesses that make the US less competitive. He has signaled he will withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, in which countries around the world pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to keep temperatures from rising past the critical 2°C mark.

And yet climate change is already imperiling Mar-a-Lago, the crown jewel of Trump's extensive real estate portfolio and his preferred location for carrying out many of his official presidential duties. Rising sea levels are causing more frequent and more damaging tidal floods on the Florida coast, and projections suggest that the risk to lives and property from climate change-related flooding events is only going to increase dramatically in the coming years. ... Read more
Mar-A-Lago Not Hiring American | TYT | 08/06/17 | 4:16