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In April, the federal government took in a record sum of $515 billion in taxes, according to a newly released Congressional Budget Office report. During that time, we spent $297 billion. Yes, you read that correctly: We actually took in more than we spent — a lot more. That $218 billion surplus is, in fact, a new record, beating the previous record set back in 2001 ($190 billion) by $28 billion.
sadly the surplus doesn't get returned or pay down debt.
“Now this is, we are here, you heard after they did their tax scam that they were giving this tax break to corporate America. That 83 percent of the benefits of the tax scam will go to the top 1 percent in our country.
“And a big chuck of that, uh milli-, uh billi-, uh a trillion and a half dollars will go to corporate America, but don’t worry they are going to create jobs, raise wages, give bonuses and the rest,” Pelosi muttered.
meanwhile in the safest gun-free zone in the world:
(K.R.) BREAKING NEWS - MASS SHOOTING IN AUSTRALIA
Seven people are dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Australia. It’s the country’s worst mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre led to stringent gun control laws.
The dead include 3 adults and 4 children. Two firearms were located at the scene. The victims suffered gunshot wounds.
...
The tiny community south of Perth in Western Australia consists consists mostly of farmland properties and vineyards.
This week, one of the Russian companies accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of funding a conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was revealed in court to not have existed during the time period alleged by Mueller's team of prosecutors, according to a lawyer representing the defendant.
A national popular vote just got one step closer to reality
By Christopher Ingraham May 8 at 6:00 AM
Lawmakers in Connecticut have approved legislation that would add the state to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, bringing electoral reformers closer to their goal of sidestepping the Electoral College to elect presidents by a nationwide popular vote.
Under the compact, states pledge to allocate all their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote in presidential elections. It would not go into effect until it's adopted by states representing at least 270 electoral votes, a majority.
Connecticut's seven electoral votes join the 165 electoral votes of 10 other states plus the District of Columbia, putting the compact fewer than 100 electoral votes away from becoming reality. The last state to join the compact was New York, in 2014.
So far only blue states typically won by Democrats have joined the compact — California, New York and Illinois being the largest among them. But the compact's organizers point out that legislative chambers in a number of red and purple states have also approved legislation adding those states.
Under the Constitution, states are given wide leeway in allocating their electoral college votes. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact simply requires states to allocate their votes according to the nationwide, rather than the statewide, popular vote. It allows for what amounts to a nationwide popular vote without eliminating the electoral college. It's a way of having one's electoral cake and eating it, too.
The issue has gained new urgency in recent years. In two out of the past five presidential elections, candidates have won the electoral college but lost the popular vote. Reformers have pointed out the fundamental capriciousness of the state-level winner-take-all electoral system -- in 2016, for instance, a tiny number of changes to state borders would have resulted in a completely different electoral outcome. A 2016 NPR analysis found that it's possible to win the electoral college with just 23 percent of the popular vote.
Legislators in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Virginia have expressed little interest in joining the compact, for the obvious reason that those states receive a hugely disproportionate share of political attention, including events and advertising dollars, in presidential election years. Some Republicans are likewise skeptical, given that the beneficiaries of the two most recent popular-electoral vote splits have been Republican candidates, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
But polls show that most Americans would prefer to elect their presidents directly through a nationwide popular vote. And that proposal has at least one major Republican backer, at least in theory: President Trump, who recently told “Fox & Friends” that “I would rather have the popular vote because it's, to me, it's much easier to win the popular vote.”
I hereby formally accuse one of Braineack's cats (the youngest one) of improper sexual conduct, and also with having instigated the Franco-Prussian war.
I hereby formally accuse one of Braineack's cats (the youngest one) of improper sexual conduct, and also with having instigated the Franco-Prussian war.
No one seemed to notice when a large white crane that had been working at the doomed Florida International University bridge lurched away down Tamiami Trail shortly after the span collapsed. There was a disaster to respond to: Mountains of concrete. Horribly mangled cars. Dead and injured people.It wasn't until some time later that authorities began wondering what happened to the crane and its operator, a close eyewitness who might help the investigation into the collapse. But he, and the crane, were gone.
"He drove away in the crane and nobody stopped him," said Carl Robertson, 73, a homeless man who lives near the site of the bridge. Robertson was right there and saw it fall down. He was the first person to call 911, using his aging cell phone.
Photos and video taken immediately after the March 15 accident show the crane - rented from a Sweetwater firm called George's Crane - still present on the downed bridge's northwest side. When a Miami Herald photographer took a wide-frame aerial shot of the disaster about an hour later, the crane was nowhere in sight.
meanwhile in the safest gun-free zone in the world:
Quote:(K.R.) BREAKING NEWS - MASS SHOOTING IN AUSTRALIA
Seven people are dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Australia. It’s the country’s worst mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre led to stringent gun control laws.
The dead include 3 adults and 4 children. Two firearms were located at the scene. The victims suffered gunshot wounds.
...
The tiny community south of Perth in Western Australia consists consists mostly of farmland properties and vineyards.
Appears to be something that the grandfather had been planning for some time.
The grandfather killed his wife, daughter and all 4 grandchildren, who were all living together, then phoned the police and killed himself.
The father has been estranged from the family for several years and has made comments along the lines of "You wouldn't want to cross the grandfather."
I suspect that the grandfather was a controlling figure and that his world was collapsing around him since it's known that he was looking for work.
Needless to say, this has shocked Australia and affirmed the desire to maintain our strong anti-gun laws.
05-08-2018, 03:14 PM
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