dedicated to bobknight:
https://videosift.com/video/david-cay-johnston-its-even-worse-than-you-think

Listening to far left nuts don't make their spin true.
david cay johnston Really -- you can't get more Alt Left than this nut. Well may be but they anchor MSNBC.

@bobknight33

mueller finding evidence of russian collusion during the campaign?

yeah..you are probably right.still have yet to see concrete evidence,just a lot of circumstantial pearl clutching.

however..

there IS a lot of evidence,and growing larger by the day of trump colluding with the russian government and russian oligarchs to:
illegally launder money from russia.
tax evasion with the help of russian banks.
and a ton of hanky panky money exchanges to cover that all up.

which of course is not really news.
if anybody had bothered to pay attention trump has been mobbed up for decades.

david cay johnston has been exposing trumps corruption for quite awhile.

Agreed! Thank you for turning me onto David Cay Johnston! I was all over the webs searching him. Very impressive man. I plan on getting his book soon. Watched this last night.

@Fairbs
i agree that trump is dangerous.i am reading david cay johnstons "the making of donald trump"...and boy oh boy...

i viewed trump as a used car salesman,a circus barker but he is worse..far worse.

as for obama acting on russian interference,and the fact that nobody is pointing out the obvious...is just depressing to me.

the ability for a president to do that never existed until GW and his merry band of neo-cons.

but thanks to addington and woo,the president has the power to do,what previously took approval from congress.

as i told newt,IF the russians DID hack and therefore influence our elections,then this would equate to two things:
1.this is an act of war.
2.the election would be considered compromised,and trumps presidency would be illegitimate.

i am confident that there was cyber-spying going on.all nations engage in this tactic,and as dore points out,we even spy on our allies.we can safely assume that along with the spying,there was hacking,again...all nation states participate in this tactic.

but as of now there is NO evidence that putin directed russian intelligence to hack the 2017 election in order to put in his muppet trump.

so until such time as they provide such evidence.
i will remain skeptical.
would not be the first time intelligence reports have been manipulated to politicize a cause.

see:iraq
see:vietnam
see:korean war
see:panama

shall i continue?

just a totally expected and easily anticipated reaction to trumps inauguration.

the very people whose paycheck relies on partisan politics are putting on a show.

/golfclap

so when obama won,we saw white,lower income americans lose their shit..riot on the streets,and openly bemoan the end of american exceptionalism.

we saw republican mouthpieces and commentators somberly criticize obamas inauguration speech.like someone had just taken their last cookie.

and what did those giants of intellect,and power-houses of political analysis focus on over the next few months?

birth certificates.
kenyian born.
muslim.
richard wright.

they were not really making accusations,they were just asking.
juuuust asking questions.nothing wrong with that right?

so during the obama years,the political pundit class made issues of the most inane..and quite frankly..stupid of all things to focus on,and IGNORED the very real problems that obama deserved actual criticism for.

so all we are seeing here,is the political pundit class doing the exact same thing.

i have called trump "americas greatest used car salesmen" and "the best internet troll",but now that i am reading david cay johnstons "the making of donald trump",it appears i was being kind.

trump is far more despicable,grotesque and venal than i ever could have imagined.

but for this pundits to take such an easy,and lazy tact to create drama where there is none...just reveals just how far they will go to subvert their own integrity.

hitler references?
dude...that is lazy.

@bcglorf
i hear ya,but that is our responsibility,not the journalist or speaker.

for example i am reading david cay johnstons book "the making of trump".
johnston is a pulitzer prize winning journalist from the la times and the washington post.who also happens to be a republican.

the fact that he is republican does not automatically equate to his investigations being rightwing,slanted or biased.

the time for putting the onus on the outlet,or the individual was destroyed by FOX and it's "fair and balanced" bullshit.

we can lament the passing of walter cronkite,wooward and bernstein and I.F stone,or edward morrow.

but those days are gone,and it is up to us..all of us..to push back the ever increasing avalanche of propaganda and fake news.

Romney could definitely spend some of that hard-earned money of his that's parked in The Cayman Islands to create some jobs over here. Him stowing away millions overseas instead of investing it at home, yes, I have a BIG problem with that!

>> ^quantumushroom:

Any evidence for any of this will be welcomed.

Idle corporate cash piles up
IRS data suggests that, globally, U.S. nonfinancial companies hold at least three times more cash and other liquid assets than the Federal Reserve reports, idle money that could be creating jobs, funding dividends or even paying a stiff federal penalty tax for hoarding corporate cash.
The Fed’s latest Flow of Funds report showed that U.S. nonfinancial companies held $1.7 trillion in liquid assets at the end of March. But newly released IRS figures show that in 2009 these companies held $4.8 trillion in liquid assets, which equals $5.1 trillion in today’s dollars, triple the Fed figure.
---------------------
“I’m afraid of the president,” said Wynn. “I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, Jon, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.”
--Steven Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts

Any evidence for any of this will be welcomed.


Idle corporate cash piles up

IRS data suggests that, globally, U.S. nonfinancial companies hold at least three times more cash and other liquid assets than the Federal Reserve reports, idle money that could be creating jobs, funding dividends or even paying a stiff federal penalty tax for hoarding corporate cash.

The Fed’s latest Flow of Funds report showed that U.S. nonfinancial companies held $1.7 trillion in liquid assets at the end of March. But newly released IRS figures show that in 2009 these companies held $4.8 trillion in liquid assets, which equals $5.1 trillion in today’s dollars, triple the Fed figure.

---------------------
“I’m afraid of the president,” said Wynn. “I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, Jon, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.”

--Steven Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts

What you call social engineering, when viewed from the other side of the wealth-equation, many would call social justice.

Here's an interesting read from Forbes on the subject of taxation which presents a picture quite different from that which you've offered.

http://www.forbes.com/ceonetwork/2004/02/12/0212chat_transcript.html

CEO Network Chat
Q&A: David Cay Johnston
02.12.04, 4:11 PM ET

"What follows is the transcript of a Feb. 11 online chat on the Forbes.com CEO Network with New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston, author of Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else (Portfolio, $25.95). The chat was moderated by Mark Lewis of Forbes.com.

Mark Lewis: Welcome, everyone. Let's get started. David, you begin your book with the statement, "I believe that taxes are at the core of our democracy." What do you mean?

David Cay Johnston: All governments have taxes. And governments that lose their tax systems cease to exist. Taxes are the means by which we decide how we're going to finance maintaining our democracy--who pays how much, how the burdens are distributed.

What's wrong with our current tax system?

Most Americans believe what turns out to be a myth--that we heavily tax the highest-income Americans to subsidize the poor. What the government's data show is that the middle class and upper middle class--people making $30,000 to $500,000 per year--are subsidizing the highest-income taxpayers. Tax rates on the middle and upper middle classes are rising, the government's data show, but for the people who make millions per year, effective tax rates are falling dramatically.

Secondly, law enforcement has collapsed. I name two billionaires who've testified under oath that for 30 years they never filed a tax return while running a business in New York. Nothing has happened to them, or to most of the many other people I name in my book who admit or even brag about not paying taxes.

How did things get this way?

Most Americans, if they ever meet a senator or congressman, shake their hand in the mall at election time. Important donors, about one in 850 Americans, get to sit down with their congressman and explain in detail their grievances. Every politician will tell you, you cannot buy their vote. All you can buy is access. Well, access has bought the attention of Congress, so that members are focused on the needs and welfare of their donors, not their typical constituents.

Proof? Two days after 9/11, the first tax bill introduced in Congress was estate tax relief for the victims, which did absolutely nothing for the firefighters, police officers, secretaries and volunteers who died. It wasn't a guaranteed college education for the orphans of 9/11. It was tax relief for the very narrow group, probably less than 2% of those who died, who would owe estate taxes.

How would you change the tax system?

I don't know, but you do. By "you" I mean that all of us, if we understand the reality of how our current tax system works and the principles of taxation, can come up with a better system, one that encourages strivers and rewards those who play by the rules instead of focusing its benefits on those who are already stunningly rich.

You direct numerous barbs at the "super-rich," whom we at Forbes like to celebrate as wealth-creators. Do you think the tax system should be designed to prevent the amassing of great fortunes?

The tax system should be encouraging prosperity and wealth, and making sure those are as widespread as possible. But what the government's data show is that we are taxing away the ability of the middle class to save, and damaging their prosperity. And by radically lowering the effective tax rates of the highest-income Americans, we are concentrating wealth and income very, very, very narrowly.

In 1970, the top 1/100th of 1% of Americans had about 1% of the income. And the bottom third of Americans had more than 10% of the income. Now, they're equal. Just 27,000 people have as much income as the bottom 96 million Americans, who in real terms have less income today than in 1970. And the number of people it takes today to account for 1% of all income? In 1970 it was more than 20,000 people. Today it's less than 400.

How high would the top rate be in your tax system?

Again, I don't know. What we do know is that relatively lower marginal rates reduce tax cheating, but for them to work, we have to broaden the tax base. We only tax about half of income each year. So if we tax all income, clearly we could significantly lower rates on everyone.

What do you think Congress should do about the Alternative Minimum Tax?

The taxpayer advocate at the IRS recommends repeal. The problem is, some really good tax lawyers say that would create new loopholes. Some other ways to address this are to set a high-income threshold for the tax to apply, say $500,000 per year and up, and eliminate, in the AMT calculations, the ordinary deductions and exemptions people take for themselves, their spouses, their children, their state and local income and property taxes, and the standard deductions. Otherwise, in 2013 about 43 million households will be on the AMT.

In this morning's New York Times you write about a gentleman named Irwin Schiff, who asserts that the federal income tax is illegal and does not have to be paid. Schiff clearly is an extreme case, but how deeply do Americans in general resent the current tax system? Can that resentment be harnessed to support the reforms you advocate?

The number of people who believe that the United States government is a criminal organization that illegally extracts income taxes and imprisons those who challenge it with no legal cause is a lot bigger than I ever imagined. There are at least 7,500 business owners who don't withhold taxes and turn them over, according to the General Accounting Office--and those are just the ones the government knows about. There are people all over the country who grit their teeth and pay their taxes but subscribe to this dangerous and nutty idea that the federal government is a criminal organization. That's a sign of how oppressive the tax system has become on the bottom third of Americans whose incomes in real terms have been falling for years, while they're being squeezed by rising taxes at all levels of government.

Every thoughtful American should be concerned when a man whose own psychiatrist says he's crazy--Irwin Schiff--has among his supporters business owners and others who are not on the economic fringe.

Any final thoughts?

The promise of our Constitution is that we together can work out the solutions to our problems. But doing that requires that, one, people understand what's actually happening in our tax system rather than the blather of politicians, and two, that people participate as voters and as citizens who discuss public issues with their friends and neighbors. The reason our tax system is out of whack is that the narrow segment of very high-income people who don't want to pay taxes has been actively engaged in exercising their citizenship. And too many of the rest of us have been watching Jennifer Lopez.

That's all we have time for today. Thanks for participating."