As a reality check, here are a few facts:

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Michael Smith

As a reality check, here are a few facts:

The net worth of all of America’s billionaires is roughly $2.4 trillion. 
Liquidating all of their assets would:

- Pay roughly 54% of the US budget for one year (fund Social Security and Medicare for one year), or
- Pay for the budget deficit for 3-4 years (depending on spending increases), or
- Pay off 11.5% of the national debt, or
- Send a one-time cash payment of $7,362 to every person in America.

Federal income taxes are paid by the:

Top 1% - 39.48%
Top 5% - 59.97%
Top 10% - 70.88%
Top 25% - 86.78%
Top 50% - 97.25%
Bottom 50% - 2.75%

If you make $32,400 a year ($15.50 per hour), you are in the upper 1% of incomes in the world.

70% of American households make more than $35,000 a year.

The average tax return filed for a single filer was $35,000.

Moral of the story?

America is a rich country across the board and you can join the “democratic socialists” to eat the rich - but you better enjoy it because it will only be one meal."

You ought to know!

Twitter is run by Democratic donors and activists

Twitter is run by Democratic donors and activists:

Last month, Twitter purged more than 380,000 of Trump’s followers, claiming they were fake accounts, and it’s now assisting special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump for alleged obstruction of justice based in part on his tweets.
Twitter did not respond to questions about its one-sided pattern of political donations.
While the company says it’s not engaged in political censorship, it’s clearly run by Democratic donors and activists. And though it says its algorithms for policing “healthy conversations” aren’t politically motivated, it’s clear that their effect is the censorship of Republicans and conservatives.

CEI: Proposed Changes to CAFE Standards Are Good News for Consumers | Competitive Enterprise Institute

CEI: Proposed Changes to CAFE Standards Are Good News for Consumers | Competitive Enterprise Institute
"...the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency released proposed revisions to future fuel economy standards set under the Obama Administration.

Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment Myron Ebell said:

“The administration’s announcement that it will relax future fuel economy (CAFE) standards is good news for consumers.  
It means that the federal government will have slightly less control over the kinds of cars and trucks people can buy.  
It might even cause car prices to stop increasing so rapidly.  

• Even better news is the decision to take California out of the driver’s seat for setting CAFE standards for the entire country.  Letting one state make decisions for people in other states makes a bad program even worse, especially since the state is California, which has been pursuing an anti-car agenda for decades.”

CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman said:

“CAFE was recognized long ago as a threat to highway safety. 
That recognition came from analysts, consumer advocates, and even a federal court..."
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AM Fruitcake

Beth Lindstrom calls on Elizabeth Warren to apologize for 'racist' justice-system jab - Washington Times

Beth Lindstrom calls on Elizabeth Warren to apologize for 'racist' justice-system jab - Washington Times:

Republican Senate hopeful Beth Lindstrom called Monday on Sen. Elizabeth Warren to apologize for denouncing the U.S. criminal-justice system as “racist … front to back.”
“Sen. Warren needs to apologize to every police officer, judge, corrections department employee, probation worker and the many other honest and decent people in our criminal justice system who have been smeared by her alienating and careless rhetoric,” Ms. Lindstrom said in a statement.

History for August 7

History for August 7 - On-This-Day.com
Nathaniel Greene 1742, Mata Hari 1876, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer 1927


B.J. Thomas 1942, Garrison Keillor 1942, David Duchovny 1960


1789 - The U.S. War Department was established by the U.S. Congress.


1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart.


1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel received a patent for the revolving door.


1934 - The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses."


1942 - U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.


1960 - The Cuban Catholic Church condemned the rise of communism in Cuba. Fidel Castro then banned all religious TV and radio broadcasts.


1974 - French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.


1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, CA, announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found strong indications of possible life on Mars.

Elizabeth Heng Gets Facebook Blocked | National Review

Elizabeth Heng Gets Facebook Blocked | National Review:

Is the Cambodian Genocide now a non-event? Or just too icky for the Silicon Valley Boys? Or maybe this ad-rejection is yet another powerful Republican political message that fails some subjective standard contrived in a liberal hotbed?
The Heng campaign released this statement yesterday:

The way we were-----Johnny Cash Hurt

Boob-tube-----Video Vault #31: Products You Don't See Advertised on TV Anymore (vintag...

James Woods Targets Jim Acosta with Biggest Twitter Knockout We Have Ever Seen

James Woods Targets Jim Acosta with Biggest Twitter Knockout We Have Ever Seen
"...This month Acosta aired his hurt feelings concerning the Trump administration’s accusation that Acosta and his fellow journalists were peddling “fake news.”
“It is not fair. It is not fair. It is not just. It is un-American to come out here and call the press the enemy of the people,” Acosta said, according to Business Insider.
But a fellow journalist did not share Acosta’s belief that presidential administrations should play nice.
In response to Acosta’s complaint, David Shuster, formerly of MSNBC, wrote that reporters should not be “sad or happy” about how administrations treat reporters.
But the most devastating attack on Acosta came from someone outside the journalistic profession: conservative actor James Woods.
Woods sought to educate Acosta about how reporters should behave in a free society:

The cynical rise and painful fall of the euro

The cynical rise and painful fall of the euro
"The euro and the damage it wrought.
“...When the American subprime meltdown resulted in tightened credit markets 10 years ago, Greece’s entire economic system collapsed, threatening to take other European countries down with it. 
The episode revealed flaws not just in the way Greece’s government had run its economy but in the design of the euro itself.
The single currency had already undermined Greece’s prosperity, albeit while making Greeks feel rich.
The ability to borrow at rock-bottom interest rates more suitable to venerable corporations in Stuttgart had brought inflationary pressures...
There is a profound mystery about the euro, according to economist Ashoka Mody.
‘Why,’ he asks, ‘did Europeans attempt such a venture that carried no obvious benefits but came with huge risks?’
Today, despite what Pierre Moscovici and his colleagues said in Luxembourg, Greek debt, at 179 percent, is higher still.
...The country is in some respects worse off than it was when Greek protesters mobbed the parliament in May 2010, howling, “Let the whorehouse burn!”
...Germany has been the main actor in this story since the euro was conceived a half-century ago.
The strange thing about the euro is that it is an incomplete currency. 
“Germany plays the role of a hegemon in Europe,” Mody writes, “but is unwilling to bear the cost of being a hegemon.”
What he means is that countries that share the euro do not share a fiscal policy..."
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12 times Christopher Steele fed Trump-Russia allegations to FBI after the election

12 times Christopher Steele fed Trump-Russia allegations to FBI after the election:

Congressional investigators know that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the Trump dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign, kept supplying allegations to the FBI after the 2016 election — and even after he was terminated as a source by the bureau for giving confidential information to the media.
Because he had broken his agreement with the FBI, bureau procedure did not allow agents to keep using Steele as a source. But they did so anyway — by devising a system in which Steele spoke regularly with Bruce Ohr, a top Obama Justice Department official whose wife worked for Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to search for dirt on Donald Trump in Russia. Ohr then passed on Steele's information to the FBI.

95% of plastic in oceans comes from just ten rivers

95% of plastic in oceans comes from just ten rivers

• "Scientists analysed data on plastic from 79 sampling sites along 57 rivers
• Their results showed that 10 rivers account for the majority of plastic
• Eight of these are in Asia, including the Yangtze and Indus rivers
• Targeting these rivers could halve the amount of plastic waste, experts predict 
• Up to 95 per cent of plastic polluting the world's oceans pours in from just ten rivers, according to new research.

The top 10 rivers - eight of which are in Asia - accounted for so much plastic because of the mismanagement of waste.
About five trillion pounds is floating in the sea, and targeting the major sources - such as the Yangtze and the Ganges - could almost halve it, scientists claim.
...THE 10 MOST POLLUTING RIVERS

• Yangtze East China Sea Asia
• Indus Arabian Sea Asia
• Yellow River Yellow Sea Asia
• Hai He Yellow Sea Asia
• Nile Mediterranean Africa
• Ganges Bay of Bengal Asia
• Pearl River South China Sea Asia
• Amur Sea of Okhotsk Asia
• Niger Gulf of Guinea Africa
• Mekong South China Sea Asia

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Gun-free zone?

Noon-toon

The Clinton campaign sought dirt on Trump from Russian officials. Where’s the outrage?

The Clinton campaign sought dirt on Trump from Russian officials. Where’s the outrage?:

By contrast, the Clinton campaign proactively sought dirt on Trump from Russian government sources. They did it through cutouts. In April 2016, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias retained opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile incriminating information on Trump. Fusion GPS in turn hired Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 operative with sources among Russian government officials. The result was the salacious dossier, whose sources included “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” and “a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.” Steele’s work was paid for by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. That means a paid agent of the Clinton campaign approached Russian officials for damaging material on Trump.

Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions - Slashdot

Traders Are Talking Up Cryptocurrencies, Then Dumping Them, Costing Others Millions - Slashdot
"Dozens of trading groups are manipulating the price of cryptocurrencies on some of the largest online exchanges, generating at least $825 million in trading activity over the past six months -- and hundreds of millions in losses for those caught on the wrong side, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. 
From a report:
In a review of trading data and online communications among traders between January and the end of July, the Journal identified 175 "pump and dump" schemes involving 121 different digital coins, which show a sudden rise in price and an equally sudden fall minutes later. 

A pump-and-dump scheme is one of the oldest types of market fraud: Traders talk up the price of an asset before dumping it for a profit and leaving fooled investors with shrunken shares..."Read on.

#1 Movie this Week 1967-----In the Heat of the Night Official Trailer #1 - Rod Steiger Movie (1967) HD

Three hours in Chicago!!!-----30 people shot in 3 hours of overnight gun violence | Chicago Sun-Times

30 people shot in 3 hours of overnight gun violence | Chicago Sun-Times
"Shootings ripped through Chicago early Sunday, leaving 2 dead and 28 others wounded from midnight to 3 a.m.
Five mass shootings, in which three or more people were shot, accounted for 25 of the shooting victims during the three-hour span.

A single shooting in the Gresham neighborhood wounded eight people, including four teenage girls.
The eight people, ranging from 14 to 35 years old, were standing in a courtyard about 12:40 a.m. in the 1300 block of West 76th Street when several males approached them and opened fire, according to Chicago Police. 
Their conditions stabilized at various hospitals.
A teenage girl was killed and five other people — including an 11-year-old boy — were wounded in Lawndale’s second mass shooting early Sunday on the Southwest Side, police said.
About 2:35 a.m., several people were standing on a sidewalk in the 1300 block of South Millard Avenue when two males approached on foot and opened fire, police said. 
A 17-year-old girl suffered a gunshot wound to her face and was pronounced dead at the scene..."
Read all.