The Tax Burden of the Middle Class

The Heritage Foundation recently sent me the following information on taxes and the middle-class  regarding taxes in a mailing:

1. President Donald Trump and members of Congress campaigned and won in 2016 on a platform of lowering taxes for the American people.
2. The federal government continues to face massive deficits year after year, despite taking more and more of the taxpayer's money - and the national debt has surged to $21 trillion.
3. With debt and deficits mounting, politicians in Washington [on the east coast] blame taxpayers for not paying enough in taxes. [Okay, so it's also true for our deep blue state here in the Northwest.]
4. President Trump has stated that "our tax code is a giant, self-inflicted economic wound," and started the process to simplify the tax code with his 2017 tax cuts - but there is still much work to be done to eliminate special interest tax breaks and make tax day easier for all Americans.
5. Liberals stopped Congress from fully repealing the Death Tax, which deprives children of their parents' hard -earned wealth, kills jobs and imposes a severe burden on businesses. [I can related personally to this, as my mother-in-law who passed away recently has revealed to us in handling the estate that the government takes its share.]
6. The middle-class tax cuts of 2017 are temporary and will eventually expire, which will revert taxes back to sky-high levels.
7. Taxpayers in Washington [D.C.] are seeing an average tax cut of $1,393 - a 11.0% decrease in taxes - after the 2017 Trump tax cuts, with  an average increase in take-home pay of $23,855 over the next ten years. Tax plans proposed by liberal politicians who control the U.S. House of Representatives would undo these tax cuts and add new taxes on people in your area. [Great! On top of what our own state legislature and governor are proposing in the current legislative session that started just last week.] 

Update: Here's what's come out on MLK Jr.'s day from the Kitsap News.

“This governor campaigned twice on not raising taxes, yet every budget he’s ever proposed has raised taxes,” said Rep. Drew MacEwen, (R-Union). “It’s time to start reining in spending.” That’s what Republicans are saying about Inslee and Democrats pushing an income tax. Last week, the Legislature began evaluating the first of the laundry list of Inslee’s tax proposals. (Kitsap Daily News)

The irony to me, and most others who understand basic economics, is that while we have record surplus revenue - thanks to the president's tax cuts - the liberals in the state's legislature (new majority as of November's election) and our liberal governor - who's spending more time running for president in 2020 than taking care of a number of problems in his home state - are wanting to "ding" the middle-class out of more of their hard earned income despite this unprecedented circumstance.

Get Over It!

Apparently there are a few Nigels in Great Britain who understand. Nigel Farage of the UKIP party is one, while Nigel Evans is another. The latter apparently told off many of the liberals in his cabinet well enough to have it go around the web. Here it is:

Upon watching this video, I was inspired to look up on YouTube this song w/ lyrics of Don Henley's song of the same title as this blog post's. So, here it is for those who may not recall it off the bat. However, for those of you who would enjoy seeing them perform the same song, Enjoy!

It's Starting to Unravel

The truth about what Bruce Ohr told the Congressional hearing committee last August is only now beginning to come out as to what really went on behind the Obama administration's DOJ looking into presidential candidate, and later president-elect Donald Trump.

Here's the link to the site's page, but below is the full text if you don't already have an account with the Wall Street Journal, or don't want to get one.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

What Bruce Ohr Told the FBI

The Justice Department official’s testimony raises new doubts about the bureau’s honesty.

 

 

607 Comments

By 

Kimberley A. Strassel

Jan. 17, 2019 7:22 p.m. ET

 

Justice Department official Bruce Ohr arrives for a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., Aug. 28, 2018.  PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/ASSOCIATED PREss

Everybody knew. Everybody of consequence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department understood fully in the middle of 2016—as the FBI embarked on its counterintelligence probe of Donald Trump—that it was doing so based on disinformation provided by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. That’s the big revelation from the transcript of the testimony Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave Congress in August. The transcripts haven’t been released, but parts were confirmed for me by congressional sources. 

Mr. Ohr testified that he sat down with dossier author Christopher Steele on July 30, 2016, and received salacious information the opposition researcher had compiled on Mr. Trump. Mr. Ohr immediately took that to the FBI’s then-Deputy Director Andy McCabe and lawyer Lisa Page. In August he took it to Peter Strzok, the bureau’s lead investigator. In the same month, Mr. Ohr believes, he briefed senior personnel in the Justice Department’s criminal division: Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bruce Swartz, lawyer Zainab Ahmad and fraud unit head Andrew Weissman. The last two now work for special counsel Robert Mueller.

More important, Mr. Ohr told this team the information came from the Clinton camp and warned that it was likely biased, certainly unproven. “When I provided [the Steele information] to the FBI, I tried to be clear that this is source information,” he testified. “I don’t know how reliable it is. You’re going to have to check it out and be aware. These guys were hired by somebody relating to—who’s related to the Clinton campaign, and be aware.”

He said he told them that Mr. Steele was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected,” and that his own wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS, which compiled the dossier. He confirmed sounding all these warnings before the FBI filed its October application for a surveillance warrant against Carter Page. We broke some of this in August, though the transcript provides new detail. 

The FBI and Justice Department have gone to extraordinary lengths to muddy these details, with cover from Democrats and friendly journalists. A January 2017 memo from Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, flatly (and incorrectly) insisted “the FBI’s closely-held investigative team only received Steele’s reporting in mid-September.” A May 2018 New York Times report repeated that claim, saying Mr. Steele’s reports didn’t reach the “Crossfire Hurricane team,” which ran the counterintelligence investigation, until “mid-September.”

This line was essential for upholding the claim that the dossier played no role in the unprecedented July 31, 2016, decision to investigate a presidential campaign. Former officials have insisted they rushed to take this dramatic step on the basis of a conversation involving a low-level campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, which took place in May, before the dossier officially came into the picture. And maybe that is the case. Yet now Mr. Ohr has testified that top personnel had dossier details around the time they opened the probe.

The Ohr testimony is also further evidence that the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in its Page warrant application. We already knew the bureau failed to inform the court it knew the dossier had come from a rival campaign. But the FISA application additionally claimed the FBI was “unaware of any derogatory information pertaining” to Mr. Steele, that he was “reliable,” that his “reporting” in this case was “credible.” and that the FBI only “speculates” that Mr. Steele’s bosses “likely” wanted to “discredit” Mr. Trump.

Speculates? Likely? Mr. Ohr makes clear FBI and Justice officials knew from the earliest days that Mr. Steele was working for the Clinton campaign, which had an obvious desire to discredit Mr. Trump. And Mr. Ohr specifically told investigators that they had every reason to worry Mr. Steele’s work product was tainted.

This testimony has two other implications. First, it further demonstrates the accuracy of the House Intelligence Committee Republicans’ memo of 2018—which noted Mr. Ohr’s role and pointed out that the FBI had not been honest about its knowledge of the dossier and failed to inform the court of Mrs. Ohr’s employment at Fusion GPS. The testimony also destroys any remaining credibility of the Democratic response, in which Mr. Schiff and his colleagues claimed Mr. Ohr hadn’t met with the FBI or told them anything about his wife or about Mr. Steele’s bias until after the election. 

Second, the testimony raises new concerns about Mr. Mueller’s team. Critics have noted Mr. Weissman’s donations to Mrs. Clinton and his unseemly support of former acting Attorney General Sally Yates’s obstruction of Trump orders. It now turns out that senior Mueller players were central to the dossier scandal. The conflicts of interest boggle the mind.

The Ohr testimony is evidence the FBI itself knows how seriously it erred. The FBI has been hiding and twisting facts from the start.

Write to kim@wsj.com.

Appeared in the January 18, 2019, print edition.

 

Why Liberals and Non-Gun Owners Don't Get It

For about the fourth or fifth time in as many years I've been sent a message from one of my e-friends about the "Lazy Glock". In reading it for the fourth or fifth time, it suddenly dawned on me why it might be that liberals and non-gun owners focus on the defense tool, and not the operator of the tool. There must be a disconnect somewhere; that's obvious to most of us.

In today's mass use of cell phones to communicate so easily, we continuously hear about some dim-wit who gets in trouble on Twitter, SnapChat or whichever social media app they're using because they've not thought about how it's going out on the web to the world. And, boom, hyper-reaction ensues. In other words, they believe they're anonymous and can say things which they later regret.

And, the more I've been experiencing interaction - both in my classroom and in doing business - with millennials who've never learned that they must be accountable and responsible for their actions, the more I've come to realize that they fall back on shucking their responsibility off onto others, or the device, or tool they use, as the reason why they've gotten in "hot water" for having done something stupid which got them in trouble, or worse, like a conviction of some type.

So, my thinking is that they also pass off blame on the defense tool people use, and why they're so focused on doing everything they can to limit law abiding gun owners from using their weapons to protect themselves. 

Then too, liberals NEVER will blame their own kind for having the highest murder rate in the urban centers they control politically. Then too, the greater majority of those shootings are gang related and have no connection to defending one's life from a criminal. But then, that seems to go with the liberal mindset these days.

Perhaps my logic is faulty, but read the "Lazy Glock" first and think about where I coming from on this idea. 

You know, this one:

Today, I placed my Glock pistol on the table right next to my front door. I left its clip beside it, then left it alone and went about my business.

While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor's son across the street mowed the yard, a girl walked her dog down the street, and quite a few cars stopped at the "stop" sign near the front of my house.

After about an hour, I checked on the gun and it was quietly sitting there, right where I had left it.  It had not moved itself outside.  It had not killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do that.  In fact, it had not even loaded itself.

Well you can imagine my surprise, with all the hype by the Left and the media, about how dangerous guns are and "How They" kill people. Either the media is wrong, or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the world.

The United States is 3rd in murders throughout the world. But if you take out just 5 'left-wing' cities: Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, St Louis and New Orleans -- the United States is 4th from the bottom, in the ENTIRE world, for murders.

These 5 cities are controlled by Democrats. They also have the toughest gun control laws in the USA. It would be absurd to draw any conclusions from this data, right?

Well, I'm off to check on my spoons. I hear they're making people fat!

The Grand Deception

We've all learned of the story from ancient Greece of the Trojan Horse. 

In the guise of gift giving, a sufficiently large wooden horse is constructed for an adequate squad of soldiers to be hidden inside, and, once it is taken inside the city walls, the soldiers inside wait until everyone has gone home to sleep and those on watch are off guard. Then, the slaughter commences after they lower themselves down from inside, and victory is achieved.

This, in my opinion, is essentially what our own elected leaders are currently doing unwittingly to our country. Of course, there are those among us who view such a notion as being ridiculous, or alarmist, and their promotion of those from outside our country to enter as loving and benevolent to those who are poor and in need. At the same time they deliberately and deceptively deny these same people are any threat to the country in any way. After all, they claim, they make America "stronger". Sadly, while they come across as caring for those less fortunate than American citizens, but what they have no concept of is the underlying threat they pose to the bigger issue; liberties and freedoms of us citizens.

It is crystal clear to me, and others who've carefully monitored the developing dynamics of our country's circumstances and events, that this is a very slow, persistent, and deliberate move on the part of those two groups I cite in this post in concert with the liberal/socialists who ultimately want to take this country over.

In their interest of looking magnanimous and inclusive, too many politicians have allowed those who have no real allegiance to the values of our representative republic (no, it's not a democracy in the strict sense) to come into our country over decades. Muslims who have clearly written and said they want to eliminate the "Great Satan" (the United States) and Jews (Israel) through Jihad, and immigrants from the Central American countries to the south, who today have no intention of assimilating into the American culture by sheer numbers which are overwhelming, are those two groups.

I've recently pointed out the latter issue cited above, but have not mentioned the former for several months on this blog because of the distraction created by the immigrants taking center stage more recently. Fortunately, there are a few patriots in our Congress who are intelligently seeking solutions to this dire circumstance. While hopeful, given the control of the House by Democrats where funding originates, the chances are slim to none that it will be rejected.

But what is it that has allowed this situation to develop? As I've pointed out in previous posts on this topic, I believe it is the effect of a combination of factors in our modern culture; affluence, indifference, brainwashing by the complicit news media, distractions by those things which have no real significance, and the gradual elimination of accurate learning in the public schools, from K - 12 as well as college, of history, economics, and morality in any form.

The Value of Illegal Immigrants

...AND WHY THE DEMOCRATS DON'T WANT TO ASK CITIZENSHIP QUESTION ON THE 2020 CENSUS....

The MAJORITY of Americans don't realize just how much POWER & MONEY the Democrats make off Illegal Aliens being in our country even without voter fraud!!! 

THIS is why they created 'Sanctuary' cities and states.

Simply by including their numbers as part of the population in the US Census, they get MOUNTAINS of money from the federal government and for every 770,000 illegal aliens in their Democrat-controlled area, they get a seat in the US House ofRepresentatives apportioned to their area following the census.

YES! READ IT AGAIN!!!

After the US Census (performed once every 10 years), the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are divided up by state populations and the last one resulted in one seat for roughly every 770,000 people...

Soooooooo, let's say California has about 4 MILLION non-citizens living there right now... That means that FIVE of their seats in the US Congress are due to people who are not Americans being counted in the Census!!!

NOW, imagine if by 2020, when they do the next census, they had 10 MILLION non-citizens living in California ..

That would mean California would get 10 SEATS in the US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES due to non-citizens...

NOW, do you see why Democrats want Open Borders???

Don't believe it the next time you hear the bleeding-heart liberals and Democratic Party Leadership claiming how they 'care' about these poor illegal aliens.

The Democrats found a way to get money and seats in Congress without even having to rig elections!!!

EXPOSED: Foreign Drug Kingpin Behind "Impeach Trump" Movement

I knew things were bad. I've known that the level of corruption and evil have been getting worse, but this adds a whole new dimension to the situation.

A year or two ago, I shared with a few friends my question, "What will be the consequences if Trump is successful at getting the wall built on the southern border and essentially brings the flow of drugs into this country to a complete stop?" I asked it because it occurred to me that there will be a sudden spike in addicts without their fix; and it not a feat of mental gymnastics to conclude what would ensue across the nation if that situation becomes a reality.

So, it makes perfect sense when we learn through this article who's funding the liberal/socialist's determination to impeach Pres. Trump.

As for me... I pray every day for President Trump's protection and victory in fighting this kind of evil and corruption he's trying to expose and remove from impacting our nation. We all, who care about and cherish the blessings that law and order, right over wrong, and the safety of our law abiding citizenry provides us, should support, in whatever means possible to us, this president to accomplish his goals!

Below is an article which was shared by a long-time friend just today:

= = = = = = = = = =

January 15, 2019

 

by Frank Holmes, reporter

It’s no secret that Democrats want Donald Trump impeached — but you won’t believe the blood-soaked international criminal they’ve teamed up with in order to make it happen.

Their new partner is Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria. The American public might know him better as the older brother of Pablo Escobar… and the co-founder of the Medellin drug cartel!

Roberto launched a campaign to raise $50 million to impeach President Trump — and he’s looking to the Democrats and the Deep State to make his dreams come true.

“I am going to eliminate Trump from power,” Roberto told Global News.

“He is the worst cockroach in history!” he said.

Roberto, who goes by the nickname “El Osito” (“The Little Bear”), even seemed to threaten to assassinate the president.

“Cockroaches don’t die easily but when they do, they do it on their backs with their feet up and intimate parts exposed,” Escobar said. “Remember that I said that.”

“My brother Pablo killed hundreds of judges and thousands of policemen,” he admitted. The Escobars’ crime syndicate killed 6,000 people every year in their hometown alone.

But instead of ordering a hit like they would in some Third World banana republic, the Escobars have new partners in the Democratic Party.

“This time we will do it the legal way, peacefully,” Roberto said.

Instead of murder, he plans to use one of the drug cartels’ favorite tools: Bribery.

“If we pay the right connections, they will come forward and testify in Congress and co-operate with Robert Mueller,” Roberto said.

His website says he will also “pay for professional lobbyists to go against Donald Trump.”

The Democrats filed articles of impeachment on the very first day they controlled the House of Representatives…and they’ll take help anyplace they can get it!

Escobar is already well on the way toward his goal: A screenshot shows that he raised almost $10.8 million before GoFundMe pulled the page for the campaign, which he called, “Bye, Bye, Trump!”

Now, he’s launched his own website — ImpeachTrumpFund.com — and a cryptocurrency called the “ESCOBAR token” to accept donations.

When asked why he was so obsessed with driving Trump out of office, Roberto played the race card—saying he hated Trump’s “discrimination of the Latino American people.”

But the real reason Colombian drug lords hate the president is obvious: At one time, the Medellin cartel was responsible for 80% of all cocaine that flowed into the United States.

And Donald Trump’s border wall would shred their profits.

“The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year, vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress,” Trump said in his Oval Office address.

Politicians have known this for decades… but nobody dared to do anything about it until Trump.

“Most of the cocaine, foreign-source marijuana and methamphetamine, and Mexican-source heroin available in the United States is smuggled into the country across the (Southwest border),” the FBI testified before Congress in 2010.

The Mexican border is “particularly vulnerable to drug smuggling because of the enormous volume of people” crossing, agents said.

Now Trump wants to pay for the wall by cutting into drug traffickers’ profits…and El Osito isn’t going to let that happen.

“Nobody is as bad as Trump!” Escobar said.

The Democrats agree—nobody is as bad as Trump, even the co-founder of the world’s deadliest cocaine cartel.

Escobar said he’s accepting donations from all over the world—Russia, China, Cuba and his buddies in South America’s thriving drug cartels.

But have the Democrats—who want to impeach Trump over “Russian collusion”— promised not to meet with the pro-impeachment lobbyists Escobar and his drug-running associates will pay for with their blood money?

Of course not.

Have Fake News reporters—who spent every waking minute of the last two years trying to paint Trump as a Russian tool—reported that Colombian drug lords have marked our president for removal from office?

Their coverage has been an embarrassment — only the entertainment media reported this blockbuster story at all!

So far only TMZ and BET have reported on Escobar’s impeachment scheme.

Some overseas outlets like the Asia Times, Russia’s Sputnik News, and a slew of British tabloids (but not the BBC) have picked it up.

The Herald of Nigeria even has a story… but not a single major U.S. media outlet.

CNN? Zip.

Rachel Maddow? Nada.

“Morning Joe”? Zilch.

The fact that the Democrats haven’t refused to meet with anyone who could have received a dollar from this death merchant — and their buddies in the media have covered it up — is the real foreign collusion story.

Frank Holmes is a reporter for The Horn News. He is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”