Jared Kushner’s legal tax evasion shows how wealthy real estate investors steal from taxpayers

The New York Times published a new report showing how Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, largely avoided paying any federal income tax between 2009 and 2016. The financial documents the Times reviewed offer a detailed look at how real estate developers like Kushner and Trump manipulate the law to essentially steal millions of dollars - legally - from the American people.

Let’s talk about the odds of something happening

You and your polls! You said Hillary Clinton had a 90 percent chance of winning/that Clinton would win in a landslide! Polls are wrong and you don't know what you're talking about! It's not the case that polling was generally wrong in 2016. Clinton had a wide advantage in the polls multiple times over the course of the campaign, but those leads consistently narrowed again.

Mitch McConnell says he’s ‘increasingly optimistic’ Republicans will hold the Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he is increasingly optimistic Republicans will maintain control of the Senate, calling a GOP defeat in November a "scary prospect" for voters who want to see more conservative judges on the nation's courts. In an interview with NPR's Kelsey Snell , McConnell said he generally refrains from making predictions but that he's pleased with how the midterm elections are shaping up for Senate Republicans.

State Supreme Court ruling makes Washington the 20th state to abandon capital punishment

The state's death penalty system, repeatedly revised since the 1970s, left black people roughly four times more likely to get a death sentence than similar white defendants. Cal Coburn Brown, killed by lethal injection in September 2010, will be the last person ever executed by the state of Washington after the Supreme Court there permanently ended capital punishment in a ruling Thursday.

Wheeler’s first big science test shows alignment with Pruitt agenda on EPA board appointments

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks to staff at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters on July 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. CREDIT: Mark Wilson/Getty Images Acting Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler appears to be continuing in the vein of his predecessor Scott Pruitt, after the official largely opted out of appointing scientists to an advisory panel on air pollution.

Rebecca Traister’s all-American anger: ‘In my dissent, I am deeply patriotic.’

If you are a woman, and you have always had a feeling that much of the power in this country is interconnected; and that all of those connected things are in cahoots against you - yes, you , personally! - not by accident, but actually by design; and this feeling has intensified over the last 24 months or so; and you worry that harboring these suspicions mean you are, as it is no longer in vogue to say, being hysterical, Rebecca Traister is here with an assurance: You are not. "It's not a conspiracy theory," she tells me by phone.

Premiums for popular ACA health insurance dip for the first time

The average price tag for the most popular level of insurance sold in the Affordable Care Act's federal marketplaces is dropping slightly, the first time the rates have stopped going up since the health plans were created a half-dozen years ago. In the 39 states that rely on HealthCare.gov, the monthly premium is dipping by 1.5 percent for 2019 in a tier of coverage that forms the basis for the ACA's federal insurance subsidies, according to federal figures released Tuesday.

As Demands Grow for Probe Into Alleged Murder of Khashoggi, Trump…

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the Oval Office at the White House, March 14, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Nine days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, President Trump has expressed only vague concern over reports that he had been murdered by a Saudi "hit team" -and late on Wednesday he all but took off the table the possibility of cutting off arms sales to the Saudis if they are found responsible for Khashoggi's likely death. "We have jobs.

Ire Aimed at Trump and Kushner for Not Pressing Saudi Prince Over Missing Post Journalist Believed Murdered

Top advisor Jared Kushner, his wife Ivanka Trump, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Sulman in this White House photo. The Saudi-born Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi has been missing for over a week -with reports strongly indicating he was murdered last week by a 'hit team' sent by the government of Saudi Arabia while inside the country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey-but critics from across the political spectrum say the Trump administration still has not used its close ties to the ruling Royal Family, and especially with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Sulman , to get anywhere nearer the truth of what happened to Khashoggi or hold the Saudis feet to the fire over the possible assassination of a U.S. resident and journalist.

‘I Know This Is Shocking,’ Says Sanders, But Trump ‘Lying About Medicare for All’

In reaction to President Donald Trump's op-ed on Wednesday-titled, " Democrats 'Medicare for All' plan will demolish promises to seniors "-Sen. Bernie Sanders responded in a sensible and honest way by calling the president a liar. "No, Mr. President.

resist trump

People protest against U.S. President Donald Trump in front of the White House on July 11, 2017 in Washington, DC. As the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress face mass protests in Washington, D.C. against their attacks on healthcare , immigrants , women , and the poor -as well as well as their support for white supremacists and men accused of sexual assault -civil liberties advocates are speaking out against an "unconstitutional" National Park Service proposal that would severely limit Americans' ability to protest near the White House and on the National Mall.

“Any ‘Her’ Will Do”: Due Process for Boys Like Kavanaugh, But…

President Donald Trump encouraged rally-goers in Iowa on Tuesday in a chant of "Lock Her Up," appearing to refer to Sen. Dianne Feinstein . Two days after apologizing to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh "on behalf of our nation" for subjecting him to one Senate hearing and a brief FBI probe into several sexual assault allegations against him before allowing him to be confirmed to his lifetime appointment, President Donald Trump clearly dropped the pretense of defending "due process" as he laughed along as audience members chanted "Lock her up!" after he criticized Sen. Dianne Feinstein in Iowa on Tuesday night.

Too Little, Too Late for Many Gubernatorial Candidates on Education Funding

After slashing their states' education funding for years, some incumbent governors up for re-election in 2018 are trying to convince voters that they've seen the error of their ways by claiming that they will prioritize education going forward. But voters should be cautious about believing such promises.

Deported parents face losing custody of their children

As the deportees were led off the plane onto the steamy San Salvador tarmac, an anguished Araceli Ramos Bonilla burst into tears burst into tears, her face contorted with pain: "They want to steal my daughter!" It had been 10 weeks since Ramos last held her 2-year-old, Alexa. Ten weeks since she was arrested crossing the border into Texas and U.S. immigration authorities seized her daughter and told her she would never see the girl again.

Rapidly Expanding 287(g) Program Suffers from Lack of Transparency…

Among other things, the executive order-"Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States"-called for a rapid expansion of harmful 287 agreements, through which state and local law enforcement personnel are deputized to enforce federal immigration laws. Since then, the number of local jurisdictions that have signed 287 memoranda of agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has more than doubled.

10/08/2018

I would post the scary new story about the fact that we're all going to die from climate change much earlier than we thought but I thought maybe Margaret Sullivan's meta story about it might be easier to take: After a week of dire news - the certainty of our ruptured nation, the likelihood of a journalist being murdered - the United Nations' report on climate change was, for some people, a bridge too far. "I heard something about it," a normally well-informed friend told me, "but I'm on a week-long hiatus from the news."

The myth of the neutral non-partisan impartial justice

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan expressed concern Friday over the court's lack of a swing vote with Justice Anthony Kennedy's departure from the bench. "In the last, really 30 years, starting with Justice O'Connor and continuing with Justice Kennedy, there has been a person who found the center or people couldn't predict in that sort of way.

10/07/2018

The Kavanaugh court is going to decide a lot of extremely important cases that will affect all of our lives. It's a good bet that they will uphold any GOP cases that degrade or destroy much of the social safety net, they will dismantle regulations and uphold corporate interests across the board, reverse anti-discrimination and voting rights legislation and, obviously, they will whittle away if not outright ban the right to abortion and possibly even marriage equality and other gay rights.

The Russia Investigations: The New Era Of Foreign Threats

Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, left, speaks as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott W. Brady, 3rd from left, FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Cyber Division Eric Welling, 2nd from left, and Director General Mark Flynn, right, for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police listen during a news conference to announce criminal charges Thursday.

Final Senate Vote On Kavanaugh Nomination Expected Saturday

The Senate is expected to vote Saturday on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and - barring a major unforeseen development - in all likelihood, he will be confirmed by the narrowest of margins. Friday, after the nomination cleared a key procedural hurdle with a 51-49 vote, two previously undecided senators, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced they would support Kavanaugh .