Month: July 2018

Arizona Chamber of Commerce uses ‘fuzzy math’ to attack InvestInEd tax initiative

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Our corporate overlords at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has subverted numerous campaigns with its “dark money” over the years and created the GOP culture of corruption which exists in Arizona, has filed a lawsuit against the InvestInEd tax initiative to once again thwart the will of the people.

The Arizona Capitol Times reports, Foes of education tax proposal base legal challenge on arithmetic:

A new lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry contends the petitions circulated by the #InvestInEd committee are “objectively false and misleading.” GOP Attorney Kory Langhofer wants a judge to block the issue from getting on the November ballot.

Part of Langhofer’s contention is that the measure, if approved, would do more than boost income tax rates on individuals making more than $250,000 and couples in the $500,000-plus range.

He argues it also would rescind a 2015 law that indexes all income tax brackets, a move that would affect those in lower-wage categories and that the 100-word description fails to inform voters of that fact. Jim Barton, attorney for the campaign, counters that Langhofer is off-base and the indexing is preserved.

But much of the litigation is based on numbers — and how voters may understand them.

Here comes the GOP “fuzzy math.”

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Emoluments Clause case can proceed to discovery

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On Wednesday a federal judge allowed one of the three Emoluments Clause cases against President Trump to proceed to discovery — produce all of your tax returns! In Ruling Against Trump, Judge Defines Anticorruption Clauses in Constitution for First Time:

In the first judicial opinion to define how the meaning of the Constitution’s anticorruption clauses should apply to a president, Judge Peter J. Messitte of the United States District Court in Greenbelt, Md., said the framers’ language should be broadly construed as an effort to protect against influence-peddling by state and foreign governments.

He ruled that the lawsuit should proceed to the evidence-gathering stage, which could clear the way for an examination of financial records that the president has consistently refused to disclose. The Justice Department is expected to forestall that by seeking an emergency stay and appealing the ruling.

The two constitutional clauses at issue restrict a president’s ability to accept financial benefits or “emoluments” from domestic or foreign governments, other than his official salary. No federal judge before has ever interpreted what those bans mean for the president.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland, say that Mr. Trump is violating those bans by accepting profits from the Trump International Hotel, a five-star hotel just blocks from the White House that is frequented by foreign and state officials. The judge earlier ruled that the local jurisdictions had standing to sue because the Trump hotel arguably siphons off business from their convention centers or hotels.

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House GOP Freedom Caucus are accessories to a conspiracy to obstruct justice

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Our do-nothing GOP Congress is readying to leave town today for a five-week August recess. (When they come back in September, they have scheduled only 12 legislative days to fund the government and avert a government shutdown. What could possibly go wrong? McConnell, Ryan pitch Trump on plan to avoid shutdown).

But before leaving town, the wild-eyed radicals of the House GOP Freedom (sic) Caucus (it would be more accurate to describe them as the GOP Fascist Caucus) decided to file articles of impeachment — not against the Putin-loving traitor who stood on a stage last week in Helsinki and committed treason by siding with the former KGB agent over the unanimous consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies, and Putin’s own admission in the same press conference that he ordered the Russian attack on the U.S. election to aid Donald Trump — but rather against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who is overseeing the Special Counsel’s Russia investigation.

As I have previously explained:

These authoritarian Trumpkins are requesting to see the prosecutor’s evidence in an active ongoing criminal investigation of  the president and his associates, information they are not entitled to receive in the oversight function, so they can then turn that evidence over to Trump’s legal team and to selectively leak it to the GOPropagandists at FAUX News aka “Trump TV,” as they have already done with information the DOJ has previously inappropriately turned over to the committee under unprecedented threats from these authoritarian Trumpkins.

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Overcoming adversity, LD 24 Candidate Jennifer Longdon has devoted herself to a life of public service based on compassion and human interests.

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LD 24 Democratic State House Candidate Jennifer Longdon

Jennifer Longdon symbolizes what a person can do when he or she overcomes great adversity. A native of Chicago (she favors Deep Dish Pizza to New York Style), Ms. Longdon has lived in Arizona since 1999. A successful businesswoman and mother, she was the victim of a random shooting in 2004 that permanently paralyzed her from the waist down. The shooting financially ruined her with her health insurance dropping her coverage while she was in a medically induced coma. After recovering, Ms. Longdon dedicated her life to championing for the most neglected, “disenfranchised,” and persecuted minority group in the country, the disabled. In the course of becoming a public advocate for the disabled, Ms. Longdon became a champion for other social justice and progressive causes, including education, LGBTQ rights, reducing gun violence, and health care. Believing that she is the best candidate because of her life experience on health care and gun violence and her activism in those areas, she believes “legislating is an extension of the work I have been doing for a long time.”

LD 24 encompasses all or part of Phoenix and Scottsdale. A reliably Democratic District, Republicans have not seen a victory here in several election cycles. There are seven Democrats, including an incumbent (Ken Clark) vying for the two state house seats in the primary election. Based on recent history, the results of the primary will undoubtedly determine which two candidates are seated in the legislature in January.

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Donkey Feed: Wednesday July 25th, 2018

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By Michael Bryan

Alas, I have not found a good solution for noting web articles and posting them here to the blog since Digg changed its business model. So, for now, I’m going to try a bi-weekly compilation of the best I’ve read so far that week.

Unavoidably, some of the articles will be a few days old, because I’ll be compiling throughout the week and posting (hopefully) twice a week: on Wednesdays and on Sundays (alongside Blue Meanie’s Calendar and Editorial Cartoon posts). I’ll try to stick to articles of note that will stand the test of a little time, or more considered looks at the breaking news of the week.

So, here we go after the “Continue Reading…”.

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