The Strange Case of Manafort . & Some other Musings.

I have to tell you that for the Trump Administration there is a momentum that seems blur reality.His business  associates have been  a complete embarrassment to from the start . (1)>>WE have a list of names , The administration has been rocked by a series of high-profile exits —In the past six months, the Trump administration has seen the firing or resignation of its chief of staff, communications director, press secretary, FBI director, ethics director, national security adviser and more. So far many top-level people who've either been fired or have resigned from the administration. The Exodus of Manafort ,Now, months after the Republican operative left Trump's campaign last fall, Manafort finds himself among the central figures in investigations regarding Russian election meddling and possible ties between members of the real estate mogul's team and Moscow. the recent (1.2)>>"investigations" of Mueller .How rich are Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and where did they travel? That question lingered over the pair's court hearing on Monday after both faced the first indictments from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into (1.3)>>Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.Because both men appeared to be globe-trotting multi-millionaires and faced charges for serious crimes related to their work abroad, the government said they should be held under house arrest.   White House shake-up into motion, including bringing back former campaign officials, hiring a crew of outside lawyers to work on the Russia investigation and having his tweets monitored by White House advisors, reported the Wall Street Journal.  Attorneys for Paul Manafort defended him in a court filing Thursday as a (2)>>"successful, international political consultant" who, by nature of his work on behalf of foreign political parties, was necessarily involved in international financial transactions. They argued that Manafort, who led Trump's campaign for several months last year, had done nothing wrong and did not pose a risk of fleeing the country. In a court filing on Thursday, Manafort defense lawyer Kevin Downing said the money laundering count, the most serious facing his client with a 20-year maximum sentence, was based on a “tenuous legal theory” tying it to his failure to register as a  (3)>>foreign agent of the former Ukrainian leader.  For all the talk of Russian collusion, there isn’t really a federal crime that matches what the press, critics, and Capitol Hill lawmakers have been calling collusion, a word that refers legally to a narrow segment of antitrust law. And there’s almost zero chance anyone will be charged with treason, a charge that’s available to use only against enemies in a declared war.Perhaps more significant than Manafort’s actual charges is the fact that Mueller revealed to the public that a Trump foreign policy adviser named George Papadopoulos had pled guilty to lying to the FBI in an interview about his contacts with a professor who claimed to have links to Russian sources closely connected to the Kremlin or Vladimir Putin. What is clear at this point is that Mueller is just getting started. Trump may have lied about a whole series of things, but Trump didn’t say any of it under oath, so Trump can fall back on his well-worn “fake news” defense with no legal consequence.

& Some other Musings. 

Are we ready for the new TAX Plan ? Taxes are on my mind as well , since I live in a heavy tax and spend state like California . A state like mine just raised its "gas tax" to pay for road construction  is utterly ridiculous . (4)>>Californians should be mad at this , for the first part over the last decade Californians voted in ballot propositions that included to raise taxes on road renovations . While all this money is being raised , it never goes to where its intended . Its money at tax payer expense that is always flushed down the toilet . Getting our Federal taxes cut requires many obstacles . President Trump leaves little doubt about how great his tax overhaul is going to be when he is in front of crowds, urging them to pressure Congress to pass it. (5)>>"Does anybody in this room mind getting a massive tax cut?" Trump said last week at a White House reception for Hispanic Heritage MonthAfter the audience shouted, "No," Trump continued: "Does anybody object to paying less taxes?" Another loud "No" followed. CNN reported that  " Much like with their as-yet-unsuccessful Obamacare repeal and replace efforts, the Grand Old Party has spent years talking about tax reform. Details? They can wait. The "Unified

Framework" for tax reform that the President and his Republican compatriots released at the end of September looked like a high school book report puffed up to meet the teacher's page count requirements". (6)>>The new Republican tax proposal is arguably the pinnacle of Paul D. Ryan’s legislative career, the culmination of years spent in the wonky trenches of conservative think tanks and esoteric congressional budget and tax debates. It could be a legacy-defining achievement for Mr. Ryan, the self-proclaimed “policy guy” who only reluctantly took the helm of the House in 2015 and found himself in that most political of positions as speaker. It could also be a colossal disaster that imperils Republican control of the House, threatens Mr. Ryan’s reputation and position and leaves his party without a noteworthy legislative achievement despite control of Congress and the White House. In unveiling the House Republicans’ tax bill, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., touted its positive impact for a typical American family. "With this plan, the typical family of four will save $1,182 a year on their taxes,"Ryan said Nov. 2.  House Speaker Paul Ryan said he thinks his chamber will pass a GOP-backed tax reform plan by Thanksgiving and the Senate will follow about a week later, keeping with President Trump’s timetable to give Americans a “big beautiful Christmas present.”

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>"investigations" of Mueller. The indictment (PDF), unsealed on Monday, includes an extensive look into Paul Manafort’s byzantine financial dealings. In particular, it details how he used a company called Lucicle Consultants Limited to wire millions of dollars into the United States.   (1.2)>>WE have a list of names. Of people who left the Trump Administration . Its mind boggling .Tom Price, Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, Anthony Scaramucci, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, James Comey, Mike Flynn, Sally Yates, and  Paul Manafort. (1.3)>>Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Putin has denied interfering in the U.S. presidential election, despite the continuing evidence from U.S. intelligence agencies. President Donald Trump has refused to fully endorse the findings about Russian hacks and tweeted this week there was "NO COLLUSION" between the Kremlin and his campaign.  HOWEVER there is still no evidence how the Russians somehow took the voters for a ride . While the recent "hearings" on social media like Facebook and Twitter presented that fake accounts were set up by Russian trolls to somehow "influence" the outcome is laughable . There is more evidence of internal rigging as in the case of the Democratic Party { perhaps the Republican party as well} Calling it an inside job .  (2)>>"successful, international political consultant". Manafort currently has three US passports, each under a different number. He has submitted 10 passport applications in roughly as many years, prosecutors said.* This year, Manafort traveled to Mexico, China and Ecuador with a phone and email account registered under a fake name. (The name was not disclosed in the filings.)* Over the past year, Manafort traveled to Dubai, Cancun, Panama City, Havana, Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo and Grand Cayman Island.* Both Manafort and Gates were frequent travelers to Cyprus. "Extensive travel of this nature further evidences a risk of flight," the prosecutor's filing said.* Manafort wrote on loan applications and other financial documents that his assets were worth between $19 million in April 2012 and $136 million in May 2016.* In some months, like while he served as Trump's national campaign chairman in August 2016, Manafort's assessment of his total worth fluctuated. In August 2016 he said his assets were worth $28 million, then wrote he had $63 million in assets on a different application.  (3)>>foreign agent of the former Ukrainian leader. Association and collusion are not the same. There is no doubt there is significant assocations and relationships between Trump people and Russians.  Paul Manafort had had a contract for tens of millions of dollars to “greatly benefit the Putin Government” . Manafort faces a long list of charges that includes conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, false statements, acting as an unregistered agent as a foreign principal, making misleading statements in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, and seven counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. (4)>>Californians should be mad at this.  Gov. Jerry Brown may have violated the notion of "taxation without representation " when he bypassed voters to push for his Gas tax hike . What Brown did sent shock-waves trough out the state , increasing the cost of fuel means that other commodities will cost more . Your groceries will go up , and up !. The bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will raise the state excise tax on gasoline by 12 cents, from 29.7 cents per gallon to 41.7 cents per gallon. The excise tax on diesel fuel will increase by 20 cents, from 16 cents per gallon to 36 cents per gallon, and the sales tax rate on diesel will increase from 9% to 13%. What Californians need to know about the state's $52-billion transportation plan » Most Republican lawmakers opposed the tax increases, saying the state should instead divert billions of dollars from wasteful spending and a bullet train project they believe is not cost-effective and direct it toward transportation.Many Republicans have already latched onto the tax increases as a hot-button issue for the 2018 elections. (5)>>"Does anybody in this room mind getting a massive tax cut?" . Everything is on the line for Mr. Ryan and his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill as they embark on a push to enact the most ambitious tax overhaul in three decades by the end of the year. Their bill would affect virtually every taxpayer in the country, dropping the top corporate tax to 20 percent from 35 percent and delivering more modest cuts for many families through changes to the tax brackets and other measures. To offset some of the cost, it would also limit or end some popular deductions, like mortgage interest and state and local income taxes, potentially leaving some taxpayers with higher bills.  (6)>>The new Republican tax proposal is arguably the pinnacle of Paul D. Ryan’s legislative career. So Ryan has some mathematical detail to back up the figure. But it leaves out at least three caveats. The median household income is $59,000, but the median family income is almost $73,000: The Ways and Means Committee used the figure for median household income, but Ryan referred to the "typical family of four." The major difference is that households can include one person living alone, whereas a family is a group of two or more people related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together.So among families, a $59,000 income is not necessarily "typical" -- it’s actually in the bottom half of the income spectrum. The last time the median family income was as low as $59,000 was in 1985.