November 16, 2019: White House Press Secretary Avoids Press Briefings!

 

11/16/19: President Trump arrives at Walter Reed Hospital at 2:45 p.m. We are told he’s there to get an early start on his annual checkup, scheduled for February. 

White House Fable Maker Stephanie Grisham issues a statement explaining the accelerated timing. “Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, D.C., to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed.” 

Grisham likes to issue “statements” because if she gave a press conference, she’d get asked a whole flock of questions she’d have trouble answering, unless she lied. Since taking over for Pinocchio Sanders on June 25, as official “White House Press Secretary,” Ms. Grisham has not held a press briefing.

 

She has found time to buzz over to Fox News and do interviews, complete with actual questions – easy ones – at least a dozen times. She has also visited with Eric Bolling, last seen harassing female co-workers at Fox, currently shilling for Sinclair Broadcasting. Finally, she squeezed in an interview with One America News, a cable channel that makes Fox seem positively liberal.  

As of November 16, 250 days (including time when Pinocchio Sanders was still bouncing around the White House) have passed since the last White House press briefing.

 

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NOT MUCH else happening on a cold Saturday in November. The Dow Jones did close above 28,000 on Friday. 

That’s good. 

Even better, this morning the Great Firewall of Trump (see comparison to Communist China) was breached. Mark Sandys of the Office of Management and Budget appeared to testify in a closed door session, despite White House efforts to block him. Sandys is said to have information about how the decision to withhold nearly $400 million in vital military aid to Ukraine was made. Based on what we’ve heard from witnesses, and read in transcripts, so far, you figure Acting White House Chief of Enabling Mick Mulvaney has his fingerprints all over this.

 

Speaking of witnesses, Don Jr. proves that, like father, like son, he’s a giant asshole on Twitter.

April 18, 2021: Did You Pay More in Taxes than Netflix?

 

4/18/21: Imagine that you could pay your federal income tax today and give only 1% of your earnings for the year (legally) to IRS. Would you be pleased? Would you be getting a fat refund? 

Imagine that you are single and earned $52,000 for the year. Your bill from Uncle Sam would normally be $4,617.50, plus 22% of income over $40,125. So 22% of $11,875, or another $2,612.50. 

You would normally pay $7,230.

This is mean after a hard day of yard work.
I paid more in taxes than Netflix/

 

Unless you were a giant corporation with white shoes lawyers! For example, you could stash cash in the Cayman Islands and pay zero dollars. Or you could be a little more aboveboard and incorporate in Lichtenstein, where the corporate tax rate is so alluring that there are (on paper) more corporations than people. 

That would mean Corporation-R-You might fork over as little as one percent of profits. Wouldn’t that be great! 

Then the taxpayer earning $52,000 would cough up $520.

 

When President Biden talked about being tired of seeing ordinary Americans “fleeced” at tax time, this is what he meant. 

You. Yes, you. You undoubtedly paid more in taxes to the federal government this year than, for example, Nike. In 2018, the first full year under the new Trump Tax Cuts, we know Nike managed to avoid all federal income taxes. Amazon had $11.2 billion in profits and paid 0. Amazon paid that same amount in 2017: 

0. 

A few other big names in Big Business also joining the Zeros Club in 2018: 

Chevron: 0. 

Delta Airlines: 0. 

General Motors: 0 

Netflix: 0. 

“I’m not trying to punish anybody,” Mr. Biden said, in defense of his plan to raise corporate taxes. “But damn it, maybe it’s because I come from a middle-class neighborhood, I’m sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced.”

 

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IN RELATED, nutty right-wing news, Pearson Sharp, a correspondent for One America News (sometimes referred to as “Trump TV”) opines, “There’s still serious doubts about who’s actually president.” True. Fools who fall for all the ridiculous right-wing propaganda still have their doubts. 

Yet, there he is in the White House. 

Joe Biden. 

More than two months after the inauguration – which the network refused to air live – the folks at OAN still refer to President Biden only as “Biden,” or “Joe Biden.” Former President Trump, or Rejected-President Trump, as we like to call him here, is still “President Trump” in terms of One America reporting. 

In fact, on OAN, the perpetrators of the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill are still described as Antifa types, spurred on by Democratic voices. 

This is proof that the people who report for OAN are lazy ignoramuses, unwilling to dig for facts. (See: 6/22/21.) 

 

POSTSCRIPT: When reporters from The New York Times talked to eighteen former OAN employees, sixteen said the channel had broadcast reports that they considered misleading, inaccurate, or untrue.