If we want to give our children and grandchildren a brighter future, the wealthiest Americans and large corporations must pay their fair share in taxes. https://t.co/zqlZr6UpLe
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 23, 2021
99 Responses to “Pay Your Fair Share”
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The People’s View
- Follow me at my new venture: Reclaim the Fight Spandan Chakrabarti
- Ignore the bait: Why it’s the right strategy for Democrats to focus SCOTUS fight on health care Spandan Chakrabarti
- BIG: Judge halts Trump administration attempt to shortcut the census Spandan Chakrabarti
- Trump doesn't want peaceful transition of power. Legally, it doesn’t matter. Spandan Chakrabarti
- Fauci goes off on Rand Paul Spandan Chakrabarti
Smartypants
- If the U.S. Experienced Another Pearl Harbor, Republicans Would Blame Biden
- In a World That Seems to Have Gone Crazy, Dana Milbank Provides a Dose of Sanity
- Democrats Don't Have to Chose Between "Defund the Police" and Being "Tough on Crime"
- Does McConnell Actually Care About Winning Back a Senate Majority?
- On the Supreme Court, Ingraham Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
Steve Benen
- 'We do have a rule of law here': Why Justice Dept. should act if Meadows ignores subpoena
- Alexander Vindman: Meeting with Putin 'occurred about as good as it needed to'
- Instagram CEO to testify before Congress on safety of teen users
- Young Democrats are more likely to despise the other party, according to polling
- Biden, Putin set for call amid growing tensions over Ukraine
The Obama Diary 
Couldn’t agree more. Rich people and corporations haven’t paid their fait share for a long time. #BuildBackBetter could and should change that!
thx NW…so many lifesaving, long overdue jewels for the people and the planet in the BBB.
FACT SHEET: Biden Administration Releases Agency Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plans from Across Federal Government
“Building a more equitable future.
Climate change and its impacts may exacerbate existing health and socioeconomic inequities,
placing certain populations at particular risk. To tackle this challenge, agencies outlined their actions in support of this Administration’s environmental justice objectives. For example, the Department of Transportation will advance climate equity by committing to consider the impacts of heat, poor air quality, vector-borne disease, and other hazards more likely to affect environmental justice communities when siting and designing projects.”
Full: (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/07/fact-sheet-biden-administration-releases-agency-climate-adaptation-and-resilience-plans-from-across-federal-government/)
Timothy Snyder’s new reportedly beautiful graphic edition of “On Tyranny”.
–came out this week.
“The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew,
the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”
(timothysnyder.org)
“A historian of fascism offers a guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism.” (Penguin)
From the new graphic edition of “On Tyranny”:
“A nationalist might do all of these things, but a nationalist is not a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst and then tells us that we are the best.”
The new edition brings us up to date.
😆
I saw him say that and cracked up!
😎🤣
i don’t know whether to laugh😁 or cry.😢..Imagine being in the hospital , seriously ill.. begging the nurse not to give them the vaccine…
Congressman Raskin,
House Select Committee/Jan 6, to Joy Reid:
“Mike Pence was facing a mob that was chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”
They’d set up a gallows outside of the Capitol. And this was a coup, not against the president, but by the President against Mike Pence. Because for that one day he decided not to follow Donald Trump, but to follow the Constitution of the United States….
We have got a strong bipartisan committee that is determined to get to the truth
about the worst violent assault on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812. An attempt to overthrow the counting of Electoral College votes to basically oust Mike Pence, kick him out of the way, and then deny Joe Biden his rightful majority in the Electoral College, which he won, 306 Electoral College votes. In order to force the election into the House of Representatives for a so-called contingent election, where we’d be voting not one member one vote,
but one state one vote.
And they knew that they could win that, so they just needed to destroy most of the electoral process. And now Mike Pence, in his desperate effort to curry favor with the right wing in his own party, is trying to cover the whole thing up. It’s just pathetic.”
This gon’ be good!
👏🏾😎🌟👍🏾
Listen to FLOTUS, Ladies! Get your mammogram! 💗
* Dudes, you get your prostrate checked too, mmkay?
Your Nerdy-Cool Moment of the day:
Way to go Marvel! Love that they’re doing this!
This is incredible!
Translation from Italian:
“Moses by Michelangelo, 1513
Carved into the forearm is a small muscle that the human body contracts only when lifting the little finger, otherwise it is hidden. Perfection is made of details.”
Fantastic news for the kiddos! 💉
Including my two great grandsons! Yay!
Yay! 🤸♀️🤸🤸
OUTStanDiNG
When people show you who they are…
We see you now Barbara Corcoran 😡
One year ago: Kamala Harris debates The Fly 😆😂🤣
LOL! 🎃
so moving Dudette! Congrats to Ms. Brown.
So happy for her! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Only took 84 years!
So, another day of zero consequences goes by? Great, juuuus great.
This!
the guys who want unlimited guns are the same ones pushing deadly anti-vaccination.
—the death party doesn’t care about our children.
—lay down your arms.
LOL! I don’t blame Ms. Warwick one bit! 😆
The accuracy! 🔥
That’s My Vice President! 💙
I saw that earlier – it’s fabulous! She’s fabulous!
Yes indeed, she is!
Can’t stand Jake Sherman. Glad that Soledad called him out.
Remember all the bellyaching about tester from the loony left for years?
april ryan is whining about the veep ‘not taking’ her silly q’s? does she not remember how the traitorous thug’s gang treated her with contempt literally? guess, whpc is pathetic regardless of their color.
❤️💛💜
We saw it coming. That’s why no one votes for his sorry carpet-bagging ass.
Sanders does the same thing…he runs in the DEM primary anethen when he wins…he says he is an independent…the VT Dem party allows it..
Yep. 😡
Can’t wait to read this! Too sleepy tonight, but saving it for tomorrow.
Goodnight, Nerdy darlin’, and TODville – and all the ships at sea!
Nope, you ain’t getting out of jail. Yet. Begging face ain’t gonna cut it anymore.
Poor little thing. Free him!
Same thing DU said. wimmin/smh
Lol, won’t be long till he jumps right over da wall!
🐕
#sixfootwallcomingup
Yeah. Sure. Of course
Lol! Woof!
yup.
Go Marc. Wish the dem establishment followed his example.
Political hijacking of Justice Department by Trump
raises cleanup questions for AG Garland
“Rachel Maddow points out that while the newly released Senate Judiciary Committee interim report on the investigation into Donald Trump’s pressure on the DOJ to help him overturn his 2020 election loss has a clear focus on one particular scheme, it also shows other high ranking officials acquiescing to Trump’s political requests, raising the question of how Attorney General Merrick Garland will hold those officials accountable for abusing their positions. “
SUBVERTING JUSTICE:
How The Former President And His Allies Pressured DOJ To Overturn The 2020 Election
(https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Interim%20Staff%20Report%20FINAL.pdf)
18 U.S. Code § 610 – Coercion of political activity
“It shall be unlawful
for any person to intimidate, threaten, command, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, command, or coerce, any employee of the Federal Government as defined in section 7322(1) of title 5, United States Code,
to engage in, or not to engage in, any political activity, including, but not limited to, voting or refusing to vote for any candidate or measure in any election, making or refusing to make any political contribution, or working or refusing to work on behalf of any candidate. Any person who violates this section shall be fined
under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Neal Katyal,
fmr Principle Deputy Solicitor General for the U.S.
(In the republican staff report): “Grassley argues that Donald Trump couldn’t have been that bad because he didn’t go through with firing Attorney General Rosen and installing Jeff Clark.
But the only reason that happened was is because there was a “murder- suicide pact” of everyone at the Justice Department to mass resign if Trump tried to pull that stunt.”
“The report today isolates a case for a violation of 18 USC 610 which is the Coercion of Political Activity,
that it’s a crime to coerce government officials to engage in political acts. And I’m not saying that necessarily happened. I am saying that the evidence in the report is a deep cry for an investigation by law enforcement with law enforcement tools behind them.”
“Written by a staff full of Jeff Clarks.” (Lawrence O’Donnell)
If not for the rethugs, the rate would have been 97% for the entire US given the stockpile of vaccines.
Federal Judge Pauses Strict Texas Law Banning Most Abortions
“A sharply worded ruling sided with the Justice Department, which sued to block the measure last month after the Supreme Court declined to intervene.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/politics/texas-abortion-law.html)
Nancy Northrup,
President and CEO, Center for Reproductive Rights,
to Chris Hayes:
“It is a beautiful decision by Judge Pittman. He makes very clear in those 100-plus pages that it is a blatantly unconstitutional law. It is a devious scheme that Texas set up and that it can`t just deputize other people to do its work and get away with it. So, it`s very carefully reasoned.
It goes through every argument that the state of Texas makes and rejects it.”
July 2020:
“Mississippi asks the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in upcoming abortion case”
https://www.businessinsider.com/mississippi-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-roe-v-wade-abortion-2021-7
Ali Alexander, far-right activist:
“I was the person who came up with the January 6th idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and then Congressman Andy Biggs.”
(Reidout)
Ways Congress can enforce subpoenas if the 3 trump stooges ignore them:
Glenn Kirschner, American attorney and former U.S. Army prosecutor:
“Well there are 3 vehicles for Congress to enforce its subpoenas.
Civil enforcement: I would say let’s just throw that one out because that’s what they tried with Don McGahn. And he ran out the clock for more than 2 years and he was never compelled by a court to testify. He ultimately negotiated some very favorable terms behind closed doors testimony.
That leaves two alternatives:
One, criminal contempt. What the Congress can do is vote out a contempt against the witness who fails to appear and refer it to the Department of Justice.
And then the law says that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia “Has a duty to present the matter to the grand jury for its action”. What does that action look like? A criminal indictment for contempt of Congress.
And that can be used as a vehicle to force a witness to testify or send him to prison for a year if he declines.
The 3rd option that I hope Congress will seriously consider is its inherent power of contempt.
It was last used in the 1920s and ’30s, used successfully by Congress. And the Supreme Court has affirmed that it’s a lawful tool in Congress’ toolbox. When it comes to a guy like Steve Bannon who there can be no claim of executive privilege for, he left the (trump) administration in August of 2017. I hope Congress seriously considers using its power of inherent contempt and force him to testify.
Because not all contemptuous witnesses are made equal.”
Op-Ed: Words to fight the many faces of tyranny
(Timothy Snyder)
Begins:
“It was one of those uncanny nights when everything blurs and then clarifies. It was July 20, 2017, and my family had just arrived in Warsaw. A protest march was underway in defense of an independent judiciary, so we joined it.
As the march proceeded down a long boulevard toward the presidential palace, I put my daughter, then 5, on my shoulders. The route was long, and I had just about given up when a bicycle taxi appeared and gave us a ride, for free, to the edge of the woods around the palace. Now in the dark, we walked hand in hand through the trees toward a voice I heard projected by microphone.
I had a dreamy sense that the words were familiar: a protester, I realized, was reading aloud from a Polish translation of my book “On Tyranny: Lessons From the Twentieth Century,” which had been published a few months earlier. It was lesson No. 2, “defend institutions.”
Full: (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-10-03/lessons-on-tyranny-timothy-snyder-op-ed)
Pandora Papers:
Massive Leak Exposes How Elite Shield Their Wealth & Avoid Taxes in Colonial Legacy
“The Pandora Papers, described as “the world’s largest-ever journalistic collaboration,”
have revealed the secret financial dealings of the world’s richest and most powerful people.
“We’ve uncovered a system that benefits a few at the expense of the many,” says Ben Hallman,
senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who details some of the project’s main revelations so far.
We also speak with Vanessa Ogle, professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley and an expert on tax havens, who says the growth of tax havens like the Bahamas and Switzerland
is directly linked to wealth extraction from the developing world.
“The seed money for the expansion of these tax havens comes out of the colonial world,” she explains.
(https://www.democracynow.org/2021/10/5/pandora_papers_leak_global_elite)
Good West Coast Fri-YaY morning Nerdy and TOD family!!!
And in other good news!
Wooooot! 💃🏾
This is the rising star …in full view that hardly anyone notices
hi Sheila, Ms Underwood is super 3D to me!!!
Happy Birthday Yo Yo Ma!
Btw, his instagram is great!
SOON: President Biden delivers remarks on protections for national monuments.
Glenn Kirschner, legal analysit:
That leaves two alternatives:
One, criminal contempt. What the Congress can do is vote out a contempt against the witness who fails to appear and refer it to the Department of Justice.
And then the law says that the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia “Has a duty to present the matter to the grand jury for its action”. What does that action look like? A criminal indictment for contempt of Congress.
And that can be used as a vehicle to force a witness to testify or send him to prison for a year if he declines.
The 3rd option that I hope Congress will seriously consider is its inherent power of contempt.
It was last used in the 1920s and ’30s, used successfully by Congress. And the Supreme Court has affirmed that it’s a lawful tool in Congress’ toolbox. When it comes to a guy like Steve Bannon who there can be no claim of executive privilege for, he left the (trump) administration in August of 2017. I hope Congress seriously considers using its power of inherent contempt and force him to testify.
Because not all contemptuous witnesses are made equal.”
—-Dems act in this narrow window to save our future.
—-Donald Trump only cares about winning by any possible means. Cut him off this time!
Biden to restore protections for three national monuments
(see video from today above!):
“Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments on Friday, the Biden administration announced Thursday. The three monuments’ protections had been scaled back during the Trump administration.
“The President’s protection of these three national monuments is among a series of steps the Administration has taken to restore protections to some of America’s most cherished lands and waters, many of which are sacred to Tribal Nations,” the White House said in a memo announcing the decision.
The statement cited national monument conservation as a key component of improving climate change, public health, the economy and wildlife preservation.”
(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-restore-three-national-monuments/)
—–Wow trump had diminished the size of Bears Ears by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 50%.
President Biden is restoring these monuments to the original. Bears Ears and Esclante, highly significant paleonotological and culture resources, will again be fully protected, as established by the Obama administration in 2016. Fab T-Rex skull shown in this article was found north of the Rainbows and Unicorns Quarry on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah in 2019.
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument
“Deep in the oceans exist some of the world’s oldest and most mysterious sea canyons and mountains, or seamounts.”
(https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/habitat-conservation/northeast-canyons-and-seamounts-marine-national)
Summary of the Inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa
“Summary of some of the events for the Inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa, including at Parliament Hill featuring “Little Bones” by Moose Cree First Nation’s Shibastik and Doug George-Kanentiio,
a journalist and author from Akwesasne who survived the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont. The University of Ottawa held space for people to write in light of Orange Shirt Day where a Rwandese mother and daughter reflect.
At Beechwood Cemetary, ‘Project of Heart’ showcased 57,000 pieces created by students across Canada in commemoration of those who survived and lost in Residential Schools. This was supported by a tour by the Indigenous youth group Assembly of Seven Generations which included the grave of Dr. Peter Bryce, an early whistleblower to the injustices in the Indian Residential Schools where in 1922 wrote “The National Crime.”
Speaking of 4 calls to action Doug George-Kanentiio adds:
“Every residential school site — all 130 of them — has to be declared a criminal site, a place were the most grievous crimes were brought to bear upon those children. Every site has to be protected,” George-Kanentiio said as the crowd cheered in agreement.
“Anyone who took part in the abuse of those children has to be held liable under the criminal laws of Canada,” he continued. “Age is not an excuse. Age is not a defense. Age is not a cover.”
Aki no yo wo/ Uchikuzushitaru/ Hanashi kana
秋の夜を 打ち崩したる 咄かな
In the autumn night,
breaking into
a pleasant chat.
(Basho)
—-We’re here. Happy friday to all !!
Monday is Indigenous People’s Day
New post.