kanesrealm

Donald Trump wants to change the tax code and accomplish something that so far has eluded him, a legislative victory. Our tax code absolutely needs serious reform but preliminary indicators suggest that's not what this is. Trump insists that the rich, including himself, will not benefit from the changes he and the Republicans are proposing. So we begin with a lie, how then do we trust anything else in the legislation? The old drum is once again beating it's favorite tune, the elimination of the estate tax. Currently for an individual the first 5.49 million dollars is exempted from this tax which means for most people this is never a factor. The argument for repeal of the estate tax has always been about the family farm and small business owners, it is a false argument. There are no real small businesses or family farms worth more than the exempted amount. Let's, just for the hell of it, act like it's true. The tax, which is 40%, doesn't kick in until after the exem...

Donald J. Trump is now the 45th President of the United States and make no mistake in your thought process, his Presidency is legitimate. True, he won because our electoral system failed but that does not change the facts. The Russians did not steal our election, Americans are responsible for the outcome. No evidence of any kind has been suggested or proved that a foreign power directly placed their hands on our voting machines and changed votes to guarantee Trump a victory in the Electoral College. If you feel the need to assign blame, put it on F.B.I. Director James Comey, who went out of his way, in contradiction of Bureau protocols, to smear Hillary Clinton with false innuendo. First in the early summer of 2016 and again two weeks prior to the General Election. Blame the Democratic Party as a whole for believing, like the Republicans, that Donald Trump was not a serious threat to them. Blame the hundreds of millions of Facebook users who love to share lies over and over again. Blam...

The new session of Congress officially began yesterday. The super duper amped up Republican control of all branches of government is at hand and up first in the House on the night of January 2, while no one was watching a group of Republican delinquents moved to get rid of the Independent House Ethics Commission. Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McCarthy didn't want this to happen but they were ignored which tells you they have no power over their own caucus. But the public was watching and reached out in rage bombarding Congress with phone calls. Even Donald Trump tweeted his displeasure that they had chosen this as their first act. To be clear, Trump doesn't mind them getting rid of the ethics commission, he just feels they should wait, (read the tweet.) So down the drain went this first initiative. So what to do? Oh yes, the chestnut, the official introduction of the Bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If you read regularly you're about to experience dejavu, get u...

It's just one non-revealing revelation after another. This time it's about Hillary Clinton and leaked excerpts from those Wall Street speeches we've heard so much about. The focus is on her saying that people get nervous about what goes on in behind closed doors discussions and that to get anything done in Washington you have to take a "private and public position." That is a factual statement about politics going back thousands of years. But for the sake of this discussion we'll stick to our country going all the way back to it's founding, that's the way it is folks, if you don't like it tear down the Republic and replace it with a dictatorship, then you won't have to worry about any of these things. The simplicity of legislation is this, when it's working, negotiations between legislators and the executive involve bartering. If you vote yes on x, I won't oppose you on y. Public policy is created by give and take. Each party sets at ...

Wells Fargo C.E.O. and Chairman John Stumpf once again appeared before a House Committee today concerning the ongoing scandal surrouding the company's fraudulent opening of two million additional accounts without the permission of it's customers. The company has terminated 5,300 employees since 2011 for engaging in this behavior which was motivated by the internal mandates that every customer have at least eight accounts. The majority of those fired were low level employees, including whistleblowers. Those low level employees are in the compensation range of $12 to $15 an hour. Anyone that believes these employees created the problem on their own are deluding themselves. The people who had the most to gain from these actions were Branch Managers and above, particularly those above right up to John Stumpf. Watching this hearing reveals a number of things wrong with the culture of banking in general but which will get lost in the news and never change. Stumpf was asked why he r...

If you're a regular reader you already have deduced that I don't put much stock in polls, you're a clever lot. There's a poll for everything, especially in politics. The problem is we rarely know the exact words used in the questions, how many people were asked and exactly who are they. Most polls use hundreds of participants, occasionally thousands but beyond that would be virtually impossible. Experienced pollsters are gifted at getting the responses they need but equally gifted at justifying their accuracy by walking way into the weeds talking about demographics and "snapshots" in time. But if you follow a long series of polls on a variety of political topics you will find dramatic inconsistencies. Here's an example. There is a poll that says 70% of the American people say the Country is headed in the wrong direction. Conservatives and Republicans say this is a direct rebuke of President Obama and liberals. They say the Country wants to move to the ri...

As everyone knows (I'm being generous) there is a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court because of the death of Antonin Scalia. There is a lot discord being sown as to what should happen but it is quite simple, we have a Constitution which guides. President Obama must nominate someone to fill this vacancy because it is his legally charged responsibility to do so. Equally the U.S. Senate must fulfill their Constitutional duty, which is to provide advice and consent. The Senate under a Republican Majority is advising the President not to make a nomination. That advice is incorrect, however, they are under no Constitutional directive to hold hearings or move forward on a nomination if they choose not to. I believe they would be making a mistake not to but on the other hand I am not the Majority Leader of the Senate. Rancor and personal attacks on either side of the aisle is neither helpful nor warranted. If the decision of the Majority is to stay the course they have indicated then so b...

Paul Ryan has been elected Speaker of the House by his fellow Republicans, at least enough of them. The public vote will occur on the floor tomorrow. Enjoy the evening Paul, sit in the Speakers chair, spin around and soak in the glory cause after tomorrow your nightmare begins. John Boehner did Ryan a big favor by cutting a budget deal, including raising the debt limit into 2017. Ryan's response was to say it stank but then he said it's okay. After winning the grand poobah seat he gave Boehner a backhanded compliment for his service but then made it clear there's a new sheriff in town and things are gonna change. If you aren't really familiar with Paul Ryan here's your best insight. He is a disciple of Ayn Rand. He began playing that down when he ran for Vice-President in 2012, particularly when he was hit with questions revealing that he is as ignorant of the true Ayn Rand as everyone else who embraces her political philosophies. But there is a long on the recor...

When last this little blob of insight seriously addressed the issue of Speaker of the House, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was about to ascend the throne. On the very day of the preliminary vote he said emphatically he was running, less than four hours later he was out and the vote delayed. Oh to be a fly on that wall. What could possibly of transpired in that four hours to stop the ambition of a man who so clearly wanted the job? For most of the history of our country anyone serving in the House of Representatives most certainly would like to be Speaker of the House. Only in the last several years of Republican dysfunction has it become a stinko position. For a party that was once known for it's discipline they can no longer agree on what to have for lunch. The cries went out, we need a hero, we need Paul Ryan, the one man who adamantly said he didn't want the job. Yes his Chairmanship of Weighs and Means is the plum job of the House but it's not better than being Speak...

It's not a clever post title. It's not witty or snarky. It's not funny, it's just the fact. Hillary Clinton testified at the Select Committee on Benghazi for eleven years, I mean hours, but it felt like years. Let me reiterate that the true name of this committee is Scamgazhi. Institutional Abuse of Power, how does that make you feel? Do you care? The phrase is not a new one but has it become so commonplace that we're numb to it? Are we so bitter and resigned to accepting this shameful behavior from the highest legislative body of the land that we look the other way and say pass the cheesepuffs? I don't care whether you like or dislike Hillary Clinton, facts are facts. Seven Congressional Committees and one federally mandated independent review have all closed the books on Benghazi and issued their findings. Speaker of the House John Boehner did not want to form this select committee because he felt it served no purpose. He was forced to form it by the hyper ...

You can't escape death and taxes. That's not entirely true, the super wealthy do a pretty good job of beating the tax man. Nothing illegal mind you, I would never suggest such a thing. Our tax code is so bloated and complicated it's as though it were specifically written to aid powerful forces at the top, nah. The House of Representatives passed it's bill to eliminate the so called death tax. It's actually the estate tax but years ago it was dubbed death, it sounds much more sinister and who would support taxing a dead person, creepy. It's fascinating how Republicans despise modern Europe but they sure love old Europe. A place where vast wealth was passed from generation to generation guaranteeing a small ruling class. Here in the U.S. of today there is no estate tax for individuals with under 5.4 million dollars in assets and for couples it's around 10.9 million. Are you leaving behind anywhere near that? No, didn't think so. The elimination of the ...

All of the 2016 Presidential Election talk reminds me once again that our British friends have it right by restricting electioneering to a few weeks before the General. Let's face it the 2016 campaign began immediately after the 2012 election was over. We have been bombarded with it for over a year. To hear some talking heads Hillary Clinton should have announced her candidacy the day she stepped down as Secretary of State. We have created a system that requires candidates to raise huge sums of money. Where do you think that money comes from? A lot of small donations from the general public can add up to significant sums but  nothing compared to what gets dumped in by major special interests and extremely wealthy individuals. This has boomed since the Citizens United case was decided, not our Supreme Court's finest hour. We are subjected to ads financed by forces we know nothing about and they can easily smear a candidate with enough repetition. True election reform has three...

I think we all can agree that the Iranian Government is not our friend. They routinely organize their domestic "death to America" rallies. They are a Theocracy and there in rests the problem. Whenever religion becomes the ruler of the State it results in an inflexible attitude toward other nations. We are now engaged in an attempt to place a diplomatic agreement in place which would stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. This has been of great concern for quite sometime, leading to international sanctions against them. The sanctions have hurt and motivated them to come to the bargaining table. The outline of the potential agreement is available for review and you should do that before jumping to conclusions. The actual agreement, which will be far more than four pages, will not be signed until the end of June, if we actually make it to that point. There is bipartisan doubt in our country about this deal. Most of that is sincere and Congress should absolutely do it's j...

What happened in Benghazi should never be forgotten but Congress has nothing further to discover on this matter. They won't stop of course because Republicans are desperate to tar and feather Hillary Clinton for this horrible butchering of our American diplomats. How about doing the unbelievable in Washington and blame the people who are truly responsible for this bloody deed. Let me spell it out for you geniuses, it's the scumbag murderers in Libya. For the record all murder is an act of terror and it's irrelevant how quickly you choose to use the term, if at all. Our Foreign Service personnel put their lives on the line everyday, we simply don't think about it unless something terrible happens. Congress has repeatedly refused to increase funding for embassy security especially before, during and after Benghazi. This was a terrible tragedy but it is not Hillary Clinton's fault. She could not have prevented it, if she could have she would have. Get a clue, get ...