Today In Biden Land

**Kirkland Laing** · 08-10-2021 01:09 AM

https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/sta...92052159225857

Interesting that the right are now talking about nationalising the means of production. Karl Marx would be applauding this.

https://twitter.com/Mrs_Wld_History/...97069314748427

https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1424350710418837510

https://twitter.com/lawindsor/status...67744418897925

**Master** · 08-10-2021 08:32 AM

It's just like Bernie Sanders was president.

**Kirkland Laing** · 08-10-2021 10:51 PM

https://twitter.com/ModeledBehavior/...81213539643396

https://www.mediaite.com/news/over-9...rom-covid-cdc/

https://twitter.com/nielslesniewski/...04002475220999

**Kirkland Laing** · 08-12-2021 12:03 AM

In November 2017, with the administration of President Donald Trump rushing to get a massive tax overhaul through Congress, Sen. Ron Johnson stunned his colleagues by announcing he would vote “no.”
Making the rounds on cable TV, the Wisconsin Republican became the first GOP senator to declare his opposition, spooking Senate leaders who were pushing to quickly pass the tax bill with their thin majority. “If they can pass it without me, let them,” Johnson declared.

Johnson’s demand was simple: In exchange for his vote, the bill must sweeten the tax break for a class of companies that are known as pass-throughs, since profits pass through to their owners. Johnson praised such companies as “engines of innovation.” Behind the scenes, the senator pressed top Treasury Department officials on the issue, emails and the officials’ calendars show.
Within two weeks, Johnson’s ultimatum produced results. Trump personally called the senator to beg for his support, and the bill’s authors fattened the tax cut for these businesses. Johnson flipped to a “yes” and claimed credit for the change. The bill passed.
The Trump administration championed the pass-through provision as tax relief for “small businesses.”
Confidential tax records, however, reveal that Johnson’s last-minute maneuver benefited two families more than almost any others in the country — both worth billions and both among the senator’s biggest donors.
Dick and Liz Uihlein of packaging giant Uline, along with roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, together had contributed around $20 million to groups backing Johnson’s 2016 reelection campaign.
The expanded tax break Johnson muscled through netted them $215 million in deductions in 2018 alone, drastically reducing the income they owed taxes on. At that rate, the cut could deliver more than half a billion in tax savings for Hendricks and the Uihleins over its eight-year life.
But the tax break did more than just give a lucrative, and legal, perk to Johnson’s donors. In the first year after Trump signed the legislation, just 82 ultrawealthy households collectively walked away with more than $1 billion in total savings, an analysis of confidential tax records shows.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/s...utiful-tax-cut

Byung J. Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, told congressional investigators on Wednesday that his abrupt resignation in January had been prompted by Justice Department officials’ warning that President Donald J. Trump intended to fire him for refusing to say that widespread voter fraud had been found in Georgia, according to a person familiar with his testimony.

[...]

While he did not discuss Mr. Trump’s role in his decision to resign at the time, he told the Senate panel that the president had been dismayed that Mr. Pak had investigated allegations of voter fraud in Fulton County, Ga., and not found evidence to support them, according to the person familiar with the statements.
Mr. Pak testified that top department officials had made clear that Mr. Trump intended to fire him over his refusal to say that the results in Georgia had been undermined by voter fraud, the person said. Resigning would pre-empt a public dismissal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/11/u...ion-fraud.html

The Biden administration is preparing for Afghanistan’s capital to fall far sooner than feared only weeks ago, as a rapid disintegration of security has prompted the revision of an already stark intelligence assessment predictingKabul could be overrunwithin six to 12 months of the U.S. military departing, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

One official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity, said Tuesday that the U.S. military now assesses a collapse could occur within 90 days. Others said it could happen within a month. Some officials said that although they were not authorized to discuss the assessment, they see the situation in Afghanistan as more dire than it was in June, when intelligence officials assessed a fall could come as soon as six months after the withdrawal of the U.S. military.

“Everything is moving in the wrong direction,” said one person familiar with the military’s new intelligence assessment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ce-assessment/

**Kirkland Laing** · 08-12-2021 12:12 AM

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/sta...93500213686274

We should have a sweepstake on when Afghanistan falls to the Taliban. American troops are supposed to be out by September 11th and I'm thinking about going either 16 or 36 days after the last troops leave, largely because I like the number six. I'm going to put some thought into it and come up with a concrete date. Using your skill and judgement come up with your own bet.