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April 2017

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 26, 2017 18 Comments
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn spoke to the press at the White House today about President Donald Trump's tax reform plan. Trump wants to slash the corporate tax rate to 15%, which I covered yesterday. But he also wants to place income taxes for us regular Americans into three brackets. From The Wall Street Journal:
“Clearly we have a unique opportunity to do something major here,” Mr. Cohn told a small group of reporters in the White House on Wednesday morning. “It’s our intention to create a huge tax cut and equally as important, a huge simplification of the tax system in America.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2017 6 Comments
Yesterday Rasmea Odeh pled guilty to immigration fraud for failing to disclose when she came to the U.S., among other things, that she was convicted in 1970 of the bombing of the Supersol supermarket in Jerusalem that killed two Hebrew University students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner. A second bomb planted in the supermarket on a delayed fuse, intended to hit first responders, was disarmed just seconds prior to detonation. In August 2017, Rasmea will be sentenced to deportation and will be stripped of her fraudulently-obtained U.S. citizenship. She will not, however, serve more jail time beyond the 5 weeks she spent in jail earlier in the case.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 26, 2017 25 Comments
In what should be a new low for women rights in Europe, Austria's leftist President Alexander van der Bellen has called on "every woman to wear headscarf" in order to fight growing "Islamophobia," Austrian media reported today. Going by the Austrian media coverage, the otherwise perpetually-offended feminist groups in Austria and Europe have failed to respond to this outrage. "[I]f it goes on like this, with the rampant Islamophobia, a day will come when we will have to ask every woman to wear a headscarf," President Van der Bellen, Austria’s recently elected Head of the State could be seen saying in a video clip addressing young students.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 26, 2017 34 Comments
In honor of the recent "March for Science", I have decided to review a scientific assertion that is completely settled. Salt is bad for you because it raises blood pressure. A sample of this consensus is on the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focused on salt safety:
Most Americans Should Consume Less Sodium Most of the sodium we consume is in the form of salt, and the vast majority of sodium we consume is in processed and restaurant foods. Your body needs a small amount of sodium to work properly, but too much sodium is bad for your health. Excess sodium can increase your blood pressure and your risk for a heart disease and stroke. Together, heart disease and stroke kill more Americans each year than any other cause.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on April 26, 2017 23 Comments
There's a wall being built on the Mexican border. You just can't see it. But Mika Brzezinski could feel it. On today's Morning Joe, Brzezinski mimed an invisible border wall. Mika's shtick came in the course of a discussion suggesting that the Trump administration might settle for less than a 2,200 mile-long wall, substituting surveillance of various types. Joe Scarborough helpfully suggested "wild coyotes wearing cameras."

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 26, 2017 27 Comments
Online shopping has led to many American retailers to file for bankruptcy at a fast pace, which could possibly set records for 2017. Fourteen chains alone have filed in the first three months of this year. Turns out no retailer is safe when it comes to shopping online. S&P found that "discount shoe-sellers, outdoor goods shops, and consumer electronics retailers have all found themselves headed for reorganization." Bloomberg reported:
Meanwhile, America’s retailers are closing stores faster than ever as they try to eliminate a glut of space and shift more business to the web. S&P blamed retailer financial struggles on their inability to adapt to rising pressure from e-commerce.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 26, 2017 12 Comments
A new left wing group called "People's Action" invaded the office of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday afternoon. Protesters carried signs that said they want a "budget for the people" and they clearly targeted Heritage for the trust President Trump has placed in the organization. Phillip Wegmann reports at the Washington Examiner:
Liberal protest mob storms Heritage Foundation Barack Obama broke his silence yesterday to speak about the importance of civic engagement. The former president talked about things like "listening to understand" and working "to create trust." Altogether it was a good primer on the importance of polite political activism.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2017 25 Comments
I appeared on The Tony Katz Show in Indianapolis to discuss the Iran Nuclear deal in light of a Politico report, Obama’s hidden Iran deal giveaway. The Politico report describes the Obama administration deception on a prisoner swap that secretly was part of the Iran nuclear deal. We reported in January 2016 that the Iranian prisoners released were not low level, Here’s who Iran is getting back in prisoner swap. Here is a partial transcript of my interview, via Tony's website:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 25, 2017 70 Comments
A federal judge in California blocked a portion of President Trump's January Immigration Executive Order Tuesday. Jude William H. Orrick of United States District Court for the Northern District of California targeted the Trump administration's promise to cut federal funding from "sanctuary cities" or cities who refused to cooperate with federal law enforcement concerning immigration matters.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 25, 2017 17 Comments
Representative Hank Johnson has had an ethics complaint filed against him for using his position in Congress to assist Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Johnson's former aide, in his bid to win Georgia's 6th district special election. The complaint filed by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) alleges that Johnson used his tax payer-funded House website for political purposes in support of Ossoff's campaign.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2017 11 Comments
This afternoon in federal court in Detroit Rasmea Odeh pleaded guilty, as expected, to immigration fraud. She received no jail time, but will be deported and stripped of her U.S. citizenship, which she fraudulently obtained. The plea agreement (pdf. here) is embedded at the bottom of this post. We have told Rasmea's story many times, and thoroughly debunked her claims and those of her supporters that she is the victim in this process. The only victims are Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, who were killed in the 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing for which Rasmea was rightly and justly convicted in 1970.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 25, 2017 10 Comments
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off talks with the visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel over his insistence on meeting anti-Israel NGOs. Netanyahu had previously urged Gabriel not to meet with organizations that are involved in anti-Israel activism. According to German newspaper Die Zeit, “Netanyahu tried to reach Gabriel on the phone on Tuesday, but the Foreign Minister refused to talk.” Disregarding his host's request, Gabriel went ahead with his plans to meet the representatives from Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem, two groups fueling anti-Israel activism and the boycott campaign. Gabriel, who also holds the position of Germany’s Vice Chancellor, serves as the chairman of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partner.
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