- a fairy tale

But enough about your autobiography already, Bradford.

""If all of your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned" an ABC News reporter asked, "doesn't that send a message that you don't want a fair political fight?" But Putin, once again, sidestepped the question, comparing January 6 insurrectionists in the US with democratic dissidents his government is repressing in Russia " a comparison Biden rightly called "ridiculous."

By meeting with Putin, and letting him showcase his signature evasive style, Biden was able to use the Russian president as a prop " a show-and-tell for his campaign to demonstrate that authoritarianism is a malign force.

Still, overall, the meeting was a loss for Putin, who sounded defensive and cryptic. He refused to utter opposition leader Alexei Navalny's name, blaming him for his own predicament amid a slew of falsehoods, and he denied any responsibility for recent cyberattacks in the US.

And yet, he went out of his way to say he respects Biden, calling him "an experienced statesman... very different from President Trump" " a comparison sure to hurt his predecessor.

Biden looked satisfied when it was all over, appearing convinced that he had drawn some clear red lines in the roughly 160 minutes of face-to-face meetings."

excerpts

"The surprise move elevating Khan to one of the most powerful regulatory positions in Washington was announced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., at the start of a hearing on Tuesday. It came shortly after the Senate confirmed Khan as a commissioner in a 69-28 vote.

Democrats will now have a majority on the five-member commission, which Khan likely will steer toward more aggressive examination of tech companies' alleged abuse of monopoly power.

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Khan leading the FTC is "tremendous news," saying in a statement that "giant tech companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon deserve the growing scrutiny they are facing and consolidation is choking off competition across American industries."

===
The rapid rise of Khan, 32, a Columbia Law School associate professor, followed a 2017 scholarly paper entitled "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox" that she wrote as a law student at Yale University. The paper went viral in some influential circles and led some to call her the leader of the progressive movement known as "hipster antitrust."

She argued that the unmatched dominance of tech titans like Amazon shows that U.S. antitrust laws are broken and that regulations need to be rewritten to curb abuses of power.

Since the late-1970s, courts have largely interpreted U.S. antitrust law to mean that if prices are lower for consumers, then markets are working as intended. But Khan said that view is out of step with the modern economy. She argued that tech companies have used predatory tactics to kick competitors out of the game, which she says should be seen as illegal under fair competition laws.

"She challenged an orthodoxy with others, built a new community, that has changed the debate," said Bill Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.

In recent months, Khan helped write a sweeping 449-page report for House Democrats that outlined the case for paring back the power of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google. House lawmakers last week introduced five bills to greatly regulate, and perhaps even break up some of the companies."

Damn that liberal-hating Joe Biden!

- dems are going to allow to take the country over forever.

Oh, the drama!

White House to Democrats: Get ready to go it alone on infrastructure

White House officials told House Democrats Tuesday to get ready to go it alone on infrastructure if bipartisan talks founder, setting the stage for party leaders to tap an obscure budget procedure to move President Biden's top domestic priority without Republican support.

Huddling in person in the Capitol for the first time since the COVID-19 crisis hit, members of the House Democratic Caucus were briefed by Steve Ricchetti, a top adviser to Biden, and Shalanda Young, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, who said they would give Senate negotiators seven to 10 days to reach a bipartisan agreement, according to Democrats in the meeting.

If no deal is reached in that time, the officials said, Democrats will gauge the progress of those talks and charge ahead with a partisan package if need be.

"We're assuming right now that everything will be done by reconciliation "everything meaning the jobs plan and the families plan," Yarmuth said. "That doesn't preclude a bipartisan agreement. If one happens, we just take that part out of the instructions. But right now we're assuming everything will be [done by reconciliation]."

Original article....

- This is not about the voters.

It's always about the voters... your apocalyptic predictions notwithstanding.

- The only people stopping liberals from seizing our last chance to save the country from a fascist cult are moderate democrats. FACT.

#14

Fact-free more like. "liberals" are not the majority of the voters... now there's a FACT.

And the GOP is the culpable party, not most Dems. Another FACT.

"Imagine what would have happened to any protester who broke into the Kremlin and propped his feet up on Putin's desk."

They'd still be falling. It's a long drop out that window!

This is prolly harbingers more US rwing nutjobs on Russian state TV, including current House Reps/NRA/Q-Ball nutjobs.

#10

All Dems are Manchin!

(sighs)

- a fool.

Bros need to get used to the fact that that describes at least 40 percent of voters.... and deal with that reality.

One way to do that is to let them show swing voters, you know, the ones who decide elections, that they are still fools as often as is necessary.

- the Tweet of Damocles

From the Twit of Mar-a-Lago.

#4

Bernie wept.

Joe gave the fascist confederate cult a chance to show America that they had no intention of werking with him, and they took it. Now, unless the Purist of the Pure interfere, Bernie will have a chance to put forward his plans for the country.

#2

Give reality a chance?

"From the beginning, Sanders has said Democrats should forgo rounds of negotiations with Republicans on a smaller, traditional infrastructure bill that addresses roads, bridges, and broadband. Instead, he's argued that Democrats should immediately push a larger bill along party lines.

"He's focused on building momentum for a reconciliation bill that will be the most consequential legislation for working people enacted since the 1930s," said a Sanders aide.

Sanders isn't as concerned as other progressives are about their priorities being left out of the overall infrastructure package because the budget process is only just beginning, the aide added. And Sanders believes strong climate provisions " one of his biggest priorities " will be in a reconciliation bill."

He's always been way ahead of his Bro base.

HyperboleBomber, Prisoner of Myths.

Nuttyahoo is claiming he will be reinstated as PM on Aug the 15th.

Coincidence? I think not!

"One of the best-kept secrets in economics is that there is no case for the invisible hand. After more than a century trying to prove the opposite, economic theorists investigating the matter finally concluded in the 1970s that there is no reason to believe markets are led, as if by an invisible hand, to an optimal equilibrium " or any equilibrium at all."

Harvard Business Review

Much, much worse than that......

I love it that middle-class rwingers take the side of their hero billionaires every time.... because they think that they might be one someday, rofl!

It's as funny as Ayn Rand worshipping the titans of bidness... and modeling her "Superman" after a serial killer and child mutilator that she adored.

"Rand had been working in Hollywood at the time of the murder and trial, and like most people, was transfixed by the case; she wrote about it in her journals several times. However, unlike most people, she did not see Hickman as a monster.

Unlike the small-minded masses, Rand saw in Hickman the perfect Neitzchean "superman" " "a man with no regard whatever for all that society holds sacred, with a consciousness all his own."

When she read this quote by him in the newspaper " "I am like the state: what is good for me is right," " she wrote in her journals that this was "the best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I ever heard."

In fact, her only criticism was reserved for the public, because they, "mediocre" as they were, rushed to judgement. "The first thing that impresses me about the case," Rand wrote, "is the ferocious rage of the whole society against one man."

- Unless they are breaking the law, how can they be faulted?

Well, most of the fault lies with people who don't realize the economic deck is stacked against them and for the wealthy and corporate.... and work to raise capitol gains taxes, among many other economic and political reforms.

"The Beginnings of the U.S. Capital Gains Tax Preference

Unsurprisingly, the benefits of the capital gains tax preference disproportionately go to the top income earners. In 2016, according to estimates by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, nearly 76 percent of all capital gains went to households earning more than $1,000,000 a year."

How Much Is a Million? A Billion?

Imagine someone gave you a million dollars and told you to spend $1,000 every day and come back when you ran out of money. You would return, with no money left, in three years. If someone then gave you a billion dollars and you spent $1,000 each day, you would be spending for about 2,740 years before you went broke.

How many dollar bills does it take to make a stack 1 inch high? Well, we'll give you the answer: 100 dollar bills. That means a $1,000 stack is 10 inches high. Since a million is a thousand thousand, a million dollar bills would make a stack 10,000 inches high. How many feet high would that be?

A billion is a thousand million. A billion dollar bils would be 10,000,000 inches high. How many miles would that be?

more

Bezos got 4K back per child, while paying no taxes.

Which makes him brilliant to Republicans.

Just as it should be! - von MythesBomber aka Ayn Random

I don't know what Clarence was like, but Linc has some attitude... kinda like this guy: