An analysis prepared for The New York Times by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank that studies fiscal issues, shows that the tax cuts Mr. Biden has signed for individuals and corporations are larger than the tax increases he has imposed on big corporations and their shareholders.

The analysis estimates that the tax changes Mr. Biden has ushered into law will amount to a net cut of about $600 billion over four years and slightly more than that over a full decade.

"It's reasonable to conclude from those numbers that the Biden tax policy hasn't been some kind of radical tax-raising program," said Benjamin R. Page, a senior fellow at the center and author of the analysis.

The analysis strictly looks at changes to taxes over the course of Mr. Biden's presidency, including some direct benefits to people and businesses that flow through the tax code.

Mr. Biden has partly offset all of his tax cuts with a pair of major new levies. Corporations are now required to pay a tax when they buy back their own stock. Another tax requires large corporations to pay a minimum 15 percent federal income tax, even if they qualify for deductions that would have made them owe less.

It's smelled like a Putin/Russian false flag all along.

I fully disagree. If it were an intentional false flag Putin wouldn't have criticized the US for alerting him. If anything, he would have prenamed Ukraine as the one behind any such chatter. US Intel isn't the only one with ears and eyes on ISIS.

And even more importantly, ISIS-K has both a lengthy history of grievance with Russia most Americans have no idea about because we're not tuned into Eurasian regional beefs that don't directly impact us, our allies, or our troops.

#1 why would you believe this?

Common freaking sense, that's why I believe it. I watched these events myself. The only new information now becoming public was that it was ISIS-K all along. Did you bother to read the information published weeks ago? The US Embassy specifically told Americans to avoid concert halls (among other larger gathering places) in its publicized warnings.

This is the rump-GOP minority's redline to Johnson NOT to bring up any funding of Ukraine that will be passed majorily with Democratic votes. The anti-Ukraine/pro-Putin GOPers know that they cannot defeat any funding bill if brought to the floor, so they threaten Johnson not to even contemplate going there unless he wants to sacrifice his Speakership simultaneously.

Then the question becomes will Democrats 'save' Johnson for pushing legislation they're in favor of in case a vote to vacate is taken(?). And if Democrats do save Johnson, MTG and her ilk will paint Johnson as beholden to the liberals and nothing more than a RINO in the attempt to make him toxic for other Republicans moving forward.

And Trump has yet to be heard on Marge's powerplay either. Stay tuned, this kabuki is just beginning.

After a period of relative quiet, the Islamic State has been trying to increase its external attacks, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Most of those plots in Europe have been thwarted, prompting assessments that the group had diminished capabilities.

"ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years," frequently criticizing President Vladimir V. Putin in its propaganda, said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York. "ISIS-K accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow's interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria."

Parnas said after the Biden investigation turned up nothing substantial at all, Giuliani and journalist John Solomon - who was responsible for pushing many Ukraine conspiracy theories - started "trying to push narratives that were - we had no, they were not validated."

Parnas said Giuliani then began working with Russian agents and Russian assets to spread anti-Biden propaganda and disinformation "around May, June of 2019."

He also testified that Giuliani was "absolutely" aware that those Russian sources were working on behalf of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He also said Giuliani had no problem with spreading lies "as long as it fit the narrative."

Parnas also named others. "There was also other people that were doing the bidding for the Russians. People in congress, like Sen. Ron Johnson, like congressman Pete Sessions, who sits here right now, that was with me from the very beginning of this journey into finding up digging dirt on Joe Biden," he said.

In fact, Fox News cut away from the hearing during [Parnas'] testimony ...

Oooh, did Elon and Rupert and Sly transition?

Naw. They're still plain simple ------.

Trevor Morrison, a former dean of New York University School of Law, wrote to foundation chair Julie Opperman Thursday that he found it "deeply worrisome" that the award would go to people whom he said "exhibit none of the values that animated the Justice's career, and none of the things that she herself emphasized when celebrating the inauguration of the RBG Award."

Ginsburg, a friend of the late Dwight Opperman, a lawyer and legal publisher, was still alive and gave her approval when his family's foundation decided in 2019 to create an award in her name for powerful women.

What an ish show....

Ken Block's new book, "Disproven," will be released Tuesday. In the book, Block reveals how, again and again in the months after the November 2020 election, he was tasked by Trump's campaign with batting down implausible and inaccurate allegations that Joe Biden had won the election through fraud.

Block writes that it has disturbed him to see so many Republicans embrace Trump's false claims, including in his home state of Rhode Island. And he says he fears that even more claims will come this year from Trump and those who follow him.

"It's important to understand why the claims of fraud that were made were not just wrong but were demonstrably wrong. We have a narrative that's false that the election was stolen," he said in an interview. "The election wasn't stolen, and you can prove it."

Gassley, Comer and Jordan should be investigated prosecuted as russian spies.

FTFY

"These groups gave jet fuel to misinformation at a crucial time in the pandemic," Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said. "The richer they get, the worse off the public is because, indisputably, they're spouting dangerous nonsense that kills people."

The influx of pandemic cash sent executive compensation soaring, boosted public outreach, and seeded the ability to wage legislative and legal battles to weaken vaccine requirements and defend physicians accused of spreading misinformation.

"These groups gave jet fuel to misinformation at a crucial time in the pandemic," Caplan said. "The richer they get, the worse off the public is because, indisputably, they're spouting dangerous nonsense that kills people."

Some doctors following guidance by Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance or America's Frontline Doctors have been disciplined or face the possibility of discipline from state medical boards alleging substandard medical care. In cases involving two doctors alleged to have followed Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance guidance, three patients died.

Public health experts, including Caplan, worry that the well-funded anti-science movement could lead to devastating long-term public health consequences if childhood diseases once vanquished by vaccines come roaring back.

At this point, it's clear what House Republicans should say. Members such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer could begin by apologizing for their role in this debacle. They could then announce that they've decided to wrap up their pointless and evidence-free impeachment crusade, recommitting themselves to a more constructive, reality-based approach to governing.

The GOP members could conclude by issuing a plea to federal prosecutors, asking that they not launch an investigation into Republicans' reliance on lies from foreign intelligence services.

Alas, that's decidedly not what the impeachment crusaders had to say after their case collapsed.

Goldman added that the evidence now suggests that Republicans "are willing to be used as assets of Russian intelligence," concluding that "the real danger" in Congress is members "operating at the behest of Russian intelligence and Vladimir Putin."

Looks like it's time to investigate the investigators again - this time with the Trump-chosen prosecutor and House Republicans getting the treatment instead.

The implications of this Russian operation are staggering, especially for the willing Republicans and right-wing media stooges who were the useful idiots propagating the disinformation for years. The James Comers, Chuck Grassleys, Jim Jordans of the world have been trafficking in this stuff as the purported basis for a Biden impeachment, which is itself tightly yoked to Trump's campaign for re-election. Right-wing outlets, most notably Fox News, have been amplifying the claims not dozens or hundreds but thousands of times over the past several months.

It has dominated right-wing media, become an accepted "fact" among MAGA adherents, and allowed elected Republicans to play mainstream media like a cheap fiddle.

We're nearly a decade into Putin's sustained, unrelenting attack on American democracy through misinformation and mischief. Among other things, the Republican Party and its standard bearer have been successfully enmeshed in it and thoroughly compromised. When this all began, Putin in his wildest imagination could not have conceived of this level of success.

Calling MAGAts Putin sympathizers doesn't begin to scratch the surface of their willing complicity in placing Russia's interests over those of the American people. It's past time to shine the light of truth on all the Republicans and insurrectionists blindly denying Russia's non-stop role in subverting our democracy and destabilizing the globe by allowing Russia treachery to go insufficiently answered.

Because Trump keeps a firehose of outrages gushing each and everyday, sometimes many fail to see the breadth and depth of his career-long wealth grift based mainly on lies and fraud. The very conscious acknowledgement of someone having been found guilty of illegally running a fraudulent school, a fraudulent charity, and for using fraudulent valuations as a continuous business practice shouldn't be followed by the thought - "Let's elect THIS GUY President of the United States."

Maybe the absolute worst thing about Trump's political legacy is the reality that in 2024 America a large portion of our society actually believes that this life-long walking, talking crime spree is the person they think most qualified to be in the White House.

How in hell do we ever recover from that?

It's worth appreciating the fact that it takes a special kind of person to get caught overseeing a fraudulent charity, a fraudulent "university," and a business that repeatedly committed fraud.

But some see him as a messenger sent from above.

If Trump is indeed delivering a message, you can count on a couple of things: 1) There's a high chance that anything he says or does is illegal, unethical, immoral, or just plain idiotic; 2) It has to benefit Trump personally in some way.