| Romney speculates Turkey called Trump's bluff: 'Are we so weak and inept?' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:20 PM PDT  The Utah senator delivers an impassioned speech on the Senate floor that accuses the president of betraying American values.
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| Former concentration camp guard, 93, goes on trial in Germany Posted: 17 Oct 2019 11:50 AM PDT  A 93-year-old former concentration camp guard arrived in court in a wheelchair on Thursday, in what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazi war crimes. Bruno D., whose surname cannot be given for legal reasons, is accused of being an accessory to 5,230 murders in the final months of World War Two.
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| House GOP Leader Praises Mark Zuckerberg for Political Ads Policy Posted: 18 Oct 2019 09:26 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to ban political ads that Democrats say are inaccurate drew praise from the top Republican in the House of Representatives Friday.Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said he appreciated Zuckerberg's comments on Thursday that policing political speech would be undemocratic."The idea of banning speech you might not like is nonsense, but sadly the mindset is creeping into places like college campuses and our presidential campaign platforms," McCarthy told reporters. "Yesterday was a heartwarming reminder that free expression is the best business model in the world."In recent weeks, the presidential campaigns of Democrats Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren have called on Facebook to remove ads from President Donald Trump's campaign that include claims with no evidence. Facebook has declined to do so, raising the larger question of whether such ads on social media should be regulated."I don't think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100% true," Zuckerberg said Thursday at Georgetown University in Washington. "People should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.""In a democracy, I believe people should decide what's credible, not tech companies," Zuckerberg said.\--With assistance from Emily Wilkins.To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, Laurie AsséoFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Moms Demand Action founder says advocacy group is not anti-gun Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:08 PM PDT  Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts spoke with CBS News' Major Garrett for this week's episode of "The Takeout"
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| Volvo launches very first fully electric vehicle: the XC40 Recharge Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:13 AM PDT  Volvo has officially launched its very first EV line and its very first EV: The XC40 small SUV is the first member of the Recharge family. To add to the firsts surrounding this launch, the XC40 small SUV is also the first of the brand equipped with an Android-powered infotainment system -- it's better late than never. This premiere has been coupled with an announcement by the company about their plans to launch a fully electric car every year "with the rest hybrids." Recharge will be the name encapsulating all the brand's electrified vehicles.
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| Murderer who triggered Hong Kong protests will go to Taiwan: pastor Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:05 PM PDT  A man who inadvertently triggered Hong Kong's huge protests after he murdered his girlfriend in Taiwan has agreed to return to the island to face justice, a clergyman who has visited him in prison said on Friday. Chan Tong-kai, 20, is wanted in Taiwan for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend during a holiday the two Hong Kongers took there in February last year. The case triggered an ill-fated proposal by Hong Kong's pro-Beijing government to ram through a sweeping extradition bill which would have allowed the city to extradite suspects to any territory, including the authoritarian mainland.
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| Trump massively undermined Mike Pence's mission to stop Turkey's invasion of Syria, saying publicly that it's none of his business Posted: 17 Oct 2019 03:02 AM PDT  Pence is en route to Turkey to convince its president to stop his offensive on Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria. His boss isn't helping.
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| Marine Corps says another WWII hero misidentified in iconic, flag-raising Iwo Jima photo Posted: 17 Oct 2019 12:45 PM PDT  Three historians using film footage from Mount Suribachi identified one of the six flag-raisers as Cpl. Harold 'Pie' Keller - not Pfc. Rene Gagnon.
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| Clinton email probe finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:09 PM PDT  A U.S. State Department investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state has found no evidence of deliberate mishandling of classified information by department employees. The investigation, the results of which were released on Friday by Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley's office, centered on whether Clinton, who served as the top U.S. diplomat from 2009 to 2013, jeopardized classified information by using a private email server rather than a government one.
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| Macron Says U.K. Shouldn’t Get New Delay If Johnson Loses Vote Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:59 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron heaped pressure on the British Parliament to back Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, saying the U.K.'s departure from the European Union shouldn't be delayed a moment longer.With Parliament due to vote on the revised agreement on Saturday, Macron's remarks echoed the message Johnson himself has been sending to reticent MPs: it's now or never. "I don't think a new extension should be granted," Macron told reporters after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, where the deal had been rubber stamped. "The Oct. 31 deadline must be met."Macron's stance increases the risk that the U.K. will crash out of the EU without a deal on Oct. 31. But the reality is more nuanced, according to EU diplomats who doubt the bloc will ever throw the U.K. off a cliff without a safety net. The pound dipped on the comments, and then recovered.Selling the DealAfter sealing a revised deal with the EU on Thursday, Johnson is spending Friday frantically talking to politicians from his own and other parties as he tries to rustle up a majority. The prime minister needs to add 61 votes to the tally his predecessor Theresa May managed when her version of the Brexit deal was defeated for a third and final time in March.The new agreement differs from May's agreement because only Northern Ireland rather than the whole U.K. will continue to apply the EU's customs rules. That's upset the province's Democratic Unionist Party whose MPs say they won't back Johnson's deal on Saturday.If Johnson loses the vote, he's obliged by law to request from the EU another extension by the end of the day. But any postponement must be approved unanimously by the EU's 27 leaders so Macron would have a veto.EU officials were expecting such an intervention by Macron, who made similar noises before approving a Brexit delay in April, but they said that it's very unlikely that he or any other leader would prevent another one, particularly if the U.K. was headed for a general election. While the bloc is just as keen to get Britain's departure over the line as Johnson, it considers a no-deal exit in two weeks a far worse prospect than another postponement.Envoys from the 27 remaining countries and the European Commission are due to meet on Sunday to discuss next steps should Johnson's deal fall.The French have consistently taken a hard line in Brexit negotiations and Macron argues that the tight deadline he insisted on the last time the process was extended helped force Johnson into concessions. Several EU governments privately now regret delaying Brexit from April until October, acknowledging that it took the pressure of the U.K. to pass a deal."I was alone and I don't think I was wrong," Macron said, referring to the decision six months ago.Other leaders were more circumspect on the issue, with Leo Varadkar, the prime minister of Ireland, which stands to be affected most by a no-deal Brexit, saying a delay isn't guaranteed and Luxembourg premier Xavier Bettel insisting the ball was now in the U.K. Parliament's court."We have done our job," he said. "There's a plan A, but there's no plan B."(Updates with context throughout.)\--With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni.To contact the reporters on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net;Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Rep. Nunes tries to use Steele dossier to defend Trump during closed-door hearing Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:18 PM PDT  During a closed-door impeachment meeting on Capitol Hill, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) brought up a topic that surprised some attendees: the Steele dossier. The context, according to three sources familiar with the episode, was his effort to explain why President Trump might be "upset" about Ukraine.
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| Clever-Approved Travel Gear That Looks Good and Works Even Better Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:34 PM PDT |
| One year on, migrant caravan leaves unexpected legacy Posted: 18 Oct 2019 06:25 PM PDT  A year ago, thousands of Central American men, women and children chasing the American dream arrived in Mexico in a massive caravan that has left a lasting legacy -- just not the one people generally thought it would. Fleeing chronic poverty and brutal gang violence at home, they banded together in hopes of finding safety in numbers against the dangers of the journey, including criminal gangs that regularly extort, kidnap and kill migrants. The images made an impact around the world: carrying their meager belongings on their backs, many migrants pressed small children to their chests or held them by the hand.
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| Atatiana Jefferson's death highlights a long history of police violence in Fort Worth, and the community says it's time for a 'reckoning' Posted: 18 Oct 2019 08:07 AM PDT  Atatiana Jefferson was shot and killed by Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean. Her death was the sixth fatal police shooting in the city since June.
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| Trump's former personal lawyer says Rudy Giuliani has 'gone off the rails,' has a secret Ukraine ledger Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:50 PM PDT ![Trump's former personal lawyer says Rudy Giuliani has 'gone off the rails,' has a secret Ukraine ledger]( "Trump's former personal lawyer says Rudy Giuliani has 'gone off the rails,' has a secret Ukraine ledger") Jay Goldberg, President Trump's personal lawyer for 15 years, told MSNBC's Ari Melber on Thursday night that he warned Trump not to hire his current personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani."I think he's gone off the rails," Goldberg said of Giuliani, now being scrutinized by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his work in Ukraine. "I think he will have legal liability." When Trump asked him last March if he should retain Giuliani's legal services, "I said despite his background, which as extraordinarily good, Giuliani would not make a good defense-type lawyer," Goldberg said, because "he had spent too much time as a prosecutor; prosecutors can generally go outside the line and there's nobody to correct them." He added that he thinks "Giuliani has been seduced by Mar-a-Lago, the lifestyle.""Does Rudy Giuliani have any evidence or records that could resolve what he was doing with Ukraine?" Melber asked, and Goldberg dropped a potential bombshell: "Yes, there's a book that he kept of all the contacts that he made while in the Ukraine. It hasn't been subpoenaed thus far, it hasn't come to light, and I tell you that if the subpoena is issued for that book that he prepared, it will redound to the detriment of Donald under an agency kind of concept, that Donald will be responsible for all the things that he did. And Giuliani did a lot of the things that he's used to doing while he was a prosecutor.""Rudy Giuliani prepared this book, you say?" Melber asked. "Yes," Goldberg replied. "I've seen the book." Melber pointed out that now he has disclosed its existence on national TV, it is likely to be subpoenaed. "Let the chips fall where they may," Goldberg said. "Giuliani likes to keep a log of the things that he's doing because he wants to show it to the client.""This is crazy," journalist Marcy Wheeler said of Goldberg's revelation. "In what capacity did he see the book? And why does 'cybersecurity' expert Rudy G have a book of his mob ties?" There's also a question of whether the likely subpoena will arrive in time. > Rudy Giuliani right now thanks to Jay Goldberg on the @TheBeatWithAri pic.twitter.com/slNaxSg7NC> > -- Mickey (@Mickey115207446) October 17, 2019
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| Joe Biden digs at Elizabeth Warren after debate: Polls don't show 'anybody else as a frontrunner' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:23 PM PDT  "You know, I haven't seen any polling showing that nationally, on average, that anybody else is a front-runner," Joe Biden said.
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| U.S. Democrats Pelosi, Schumer call agreement with Turkey to pause Syria assault a 'sham' Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:48 PM PDT  The agreement "seriously undermines the credibility of America's foreign policy and sends a dangerous message to our allies and adversaries alike that our word cannot be trusted. President Erdogan has given up nothing, and President Trump has given him everything," Pelosi and Schumer said in a statement.
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| The Latest: Mayor: Chief drank before falling ill in car Posted: 18 Oct 2019 02:21 PM PDT  Chicago's mayor says that the police superintendent told her that he had a couple of drinks with dinner the night he later pulled over his vehicle because he felt lightheaded and fell asleep. Mayor Lori Lightfoot tells the Chicago Sun-Times that Superintendent Eddie Johnson also told her what he told the media about that he had recently changed medications and felt ill while driving home early Thursday and pulled over. Lightfoot says she has "no reason to doubt" Johnson's account of what happened, saying that she knows about various medical issues including high blood pressure that Johnson is dealing with.
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| Mexicans Outraged After Cornered Son of ‘El Chapo’ Released Posted: 18 Oct 2019 03:28 PM PDT ![Mexicans Outraged After Cornered Son of 'El Chapo' Released]( "Mexicans Outraged After Cornered Son of 'El Chapo' Released") (Bloomberg) -- The decision by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's security cabinet to release the captured son of the world's most notorious drug lord left him struggling to contain the damage amid public outrage.AMLO, as the president is known, said the government took the decision after Mexican forces were overpowered Thursday as they attempted to take in Ovidio Guzman Lopez, son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The son is said to have taken over some criminal operations from his father. The confrontation, which left eight dead, occurred in Culiacan, the capital of the western state of Sinaloa.His public security minister, Alfonso Durazo, admitted that the operation to capture Guzman Lopez was a failure. Reporters peppered him with questions at a news conference in Culiacan, asking if he would resign. Durazo deflected, suggesting that he could do so if the moment arrives when he decides he no longer can contribute to securing peace in the nation."The government clearly looks bad after this," Daniel Kerner, an analyst at Eurasia Group, wrote in a research report. "It clearly failed to plan and anticipate the response that going after the son of one of the most notable drug leaders in Mexico would generate given the cartel's influence in the city. As such, it looks like it had no strategy and no coordination."The incident presents the biggest security challenge yet to Lopez Obrador, who was elected on promises to stop years of violence and has maintained an approval rate of more than 60% in polls despite a stagnant economy. Homicides are on pace to break last year's record, according to data through August, rising more than 3% to exceed 23,000.Cartel members on Thursday turned Culiacan into a war zone after Mexican authorities surrounded Guzman Lopez at a house where he was taking refuge. Homemade tanks complete with machine guns rumbling through the streets, stopping traffic and firing repeatedly. The city was littered with burning vehicles as residents posted videos on Twitter of gunfire and chaos. Plumes of black smoke rose over buildings.How AMLO's Plans to Transform Mexico Ran Into Reality: QuickTake"This decision was taken to protect citizens," Lopez Obrador said at his morning news conference Friday in the southern state of Oaxaca. "You can't put out fire with fire. That's the difference between our strategy and what previous governments have done. We don't want deaths, we don't want war."'Pandora's Box'Responding to the violence in Culiacan by letting Guzman Lopez go free sends a dangerous message to drug cartels that the Mexican government can be cowed by terrorist-like attacks against civilians, said Alejandro Schtulmann, who heads Mexico City-based political consultancy Empra. It's also embarrassing because the Sinaloa cartel's firepower has been diminished in recent years and pales in comparison to that of other ascendant groups like the Jalisco New Generation.Now, other groups when facing an arrest may "resort to the same methods," he said. "This may have opened the Pandora's box in the context of fighting organized crime in Mexico."The case rips open an old wound for Mexico, where El Chapo twice escaped from prison before he was recaptured and finally extradited and convicted in the U.S. It comes in a week when more than a dozen police were killed in an ambush in the deadliest attack on law enforcement since Lopez Obrador took office last December. At least 15 more people were killed in another shootout with the military in the nation's south.Lopez Obrador said that the suspect had an arrest warrant and an extradition request. His father was sent to the U.S. in early 2017 just as President Donald Trump was taking office.The son's release was immediately decried across Mexican media, with one of the nation's largest newspapers, Reforma, running a headline saying "Little Chapo Subdues the Fourth Transformation," referring to the nickname that Lopez Obrador has given to his government.AMLO Lays Out Broad Plan for Addressing Violence in MexicoMexico has fought a decades-long war against drug gangs, in part because it serves as a connector between cocaine-producing nations in South America and consumers in the U.S.AMLO's strategy focuses on deployment of tens of thousands of members from a new National Guard force to the most violent parts of the country, as well as education and subsidies for youth. But the phrase he has used to summarize his philosophy, "hugs, not shots," has been criticized by political rivals and many security analysts as naive and Pollyannish.The release of Guzman Lopez "sends a message of weakness to the blackmail of narcos," said Veronica Ortiz, a lawyer and co-host on Mexico's nonpartisan Congress channel. "It's particularly serious for the military, because their own supreme commander is weakening them. For citizens, we're left unprotected against criminals."\--With assistance from Nacha Cattan.To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Martin in Mexico City at emartin21@bloomberg.net;Lorena Rios in Mexico City at lriost@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Ethan BronnerFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Meet the Nanchang Q-5: China's Nuclear Bomber Posted: 18 Oct 2019 07:36 AM PDT  Beijing's got deterrence.
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| What attacked a 13-foot great white shark pulled from the ocean? One that is even bigger. Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:07 AM PDT  Ocean researchers have pulled a 13-foot-long great white shark from the seas that had bite marks from an even bigger predator.
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| Cathay woes pile up as passenger figures dip again in September Posted: 17 Oct 2019 11:44 PM PDT  Cathay Pacific cut its economic outlook on Friday following a second successive drop in monthly passenger traffic after the airline faced a backlash from Beijing over Hong Kong's heated pro-democracy protests. The marquee brand has had a torrid few months, coming under fire from Chinese state media and authorities because some of its 27,000 employees took part in -- or were sympathetic to -- the anti-government demonstrations. Overall passenger traffic fell 7.1 percent in September, the airline said, with inbound traffic into its Hong Kong hub plunging 38 percent for the second month running.
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| Serial Bank Robber Who Wrote Book About Prison Time With Bernie Madoff Faces Fifth Robbery Charge Posted: 17 Oct 2019 02:15 PM PDT  Multnomah County Detention CenterRalph Griffith, a serial bank robber who penned a self-published book about his time in prison with Bernie Madoff, appeared in federal court Wednesday to face his fifth bank robbery charge.Griffith spent his 68th birthday at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, where he was ordered to remain in jail pending his trial for an alleged armed robbery of a Milwaukie Wells Fargo Bank in July, The Oregonian first reported.The career criminal, who describes himself as the founder and executive producer of XAK Media Group, was released from California prison in August 2017 after spending time behind bars for three San Francisco bank robberies in 2003. He was also previously convicted of a bank robbery in 1985.Billionaire David Koch, Who Reshaped American Politics and Paved the Way for Trump, Has DiedShortly after his 2017 prison release, Griffith wrote a self-published book, The Real Bernie Madoff: Our 7 Years Together in Prison, about his time behind bars at a North Carolina federal prison with the former financier, who was convicted of running one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history."I lived with the man," Griffith said in a YouTube video about the book. "After about seven years I got a pretty good understanding about what Bernie Maddoff was up to."The 68-year-old has also written fictional accounts of his life of crime, including a four-paragraph story called "The Proper Way to Rob a Bank" and another involving a character "who inadvertently robs a bank and a star is born."On Wednesday, prosecutors argued that his stories about his misdeeds prove he is still a danger to the community. Griffith's defense lawyer, Mark Ahlemeyer, insisted his client's books are protected under the First Amendment. Ahlemeyer declined to comment about the allegations to The Daily Beast on Wednesday, citing the "active criminal case." On July 26, authorities allege Griffith walked up to a Wells Fargo teller at around 10:30 a.m. wearing sunglasses, a black wig, a white surgical mask under his chin, and clear gloves. Court records show Griffith rested what authorities believed to be a black handgun on the counter before pointing it at the teller and saying, "Give me the money and no one will get hurt."Stephanie Madoff Mack Talks Mark Madoff's Suicide, Bernie Madoff & MoreAfter the teller handed him a stack of cash with a GPS tracker hidden inside, a second bank employee walked over—and Griffith allegedly demanded money from her as well."You too, sweetie," he said, according to a federal affidavit obtained by The Oregonian, before stuffing the cash into a grocery bag. Griffith allegedly threw away the two GPS devices and left. One tracker was later located in some bushes with a ripped $20 bill attached, and the second was found in the middle of the street. Surveillance video caught Griffith fleeing the scene in a blue Nissan Sentra.On Tuesday, Griffith was allegedly on his way to rob another bank when he got into a minor accident, prosecutors allege. While searching the car, authorities found multiple medical masks, wigs, and black sunglasses in the front passenger seat."It is my belief that Griffith was on his way to conduct another bank robbery at the time of his traffic accident and arrest,'' FBI agent Zachary Clark reportedly wrote in the affidavit. Griffith is currently being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center. He is expected to be back in court on Oct. 24. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Income Inequality Has Soared While Taxes Have Become Dramatically Less Progressive . . . or Not Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:00 AM PDT  The truth gets its boots on pretty quickly in the Internet age. On October 6, the New York Times ran a piece broadcasting the striking claims made by the economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in the new book The Triumph of Injustice. Just a couple of weeks later, it's clear that these claims are built atop a foundation of often questionable and sometimes indefensible assumptions.Per Saez and Zucman, while the rich have been pulling in more and more of the nation's income — grabbing about a fifth of it now, double what they got a few decades back — they're paying lower and lower tax rates. Indeed, in 2018, the richest 400 Americans paid the lowest overall tax rate (including state, local, and federal taxes) of any income group. While the very richest Americans in 1950 paid two-thirds of their income in taxes, in 2018 it was down below a quarter; even the full top 0.1 percent barely pay more than the bottom 90 percent these days. It's not that much of an exaggeration to say we have a flat tax system, not a progressive one.The debunkings came from everywhere: a Twitter thread by Journal of Public Economics editor Wojtek Kopczuk, an article by the economic historian Phil Magness, an academic response from the economist David Splinter, a report from the Republican side of the Senate's Joint Economic Committee (JEC), a traditional book review in Le Grand Continent, and more.Let's take the two claims, rising inequality and rich people paying low tax rates, in turn. Both of these problems are probably overstated, in the latter case quite dramatically, in Saez and Zucman's numbers. And I say "probably" only because no one writing about these trends should pretend that even the best estimates are much more than guesswork, and necessarily so, because the data here are spotty and there are legitimate disagreements over what should even count as income and tax payments.The alleged rise of income inequality was recently the focus of some congressional hearings about the government's plan to start reporting more data on the topic, as well as an extensive but readable summary of the academic literature from the JEC Republicans. You might think this would be an easy question to answer, whether the rich are pulling away from the rest of us, because the IRS can tell you how much income people report to the government. But — I hope you're sitting down — not all income is reported to the government. And that's only the first big obstacle to measuring inequality accurately.We know from the "national accounts," the data we use to monitor overall economic activity, approximately how much money goes unreported overall. But to account for the missing money while measuring inequality, we need to know how much unreported income goes specifically to the rich versus the poor, and that is hard to do. Splinter, for example, argues that Saez and Zucman use a method that gives too much of this income to the rich; Splinter's own approach relies on data from IRS audits and gives more of it to folks down the income scale.If your eyes are glazing over, I have bad news: As the JEC report details, this is only the first of many technical decisions researchers must make that affect the results. Should we worry about income inequality before or after taxes are taken out? Should we include governmental transfers as income? Should we analyze married couples together or separately, bearing in mind the decline of marriage in recent decades, especially among the poor? How to handle corporate profits that are retained rather than given out to shareholders? How to handle stocks that have grown in value but have not been sold?The JEC report provides a remarkable buffet of options to anyone wanting to find a study to cite in favor of a preferred narrative, with the general pattern being that Saez and Zucman's work is on the high end. By all accounts, pre-tax income has become more concentrated at the top, though this trend is more dramatic in some estimates than others. But the share of post-tax income going to the top 1 percent may have risen only from 7.2 to 8.5 percent from 1979 to 2015.If it's hard to tell how much money people make, it's even harder to calculate their total tax rates, which requires you to know not only their income but also their payments to several levels of government. Once again the IRS is very helpful when it comes to what's reported to the federal government, but then you also have to estimate how much money people across the income spectrum spend on state income taxes, sales and property taxes, etc. It's no easy task.And here too, beyond problems with the basic data, there are arguments over what to include. A big one — a way that The Triumph of Injustice departs even from its authors' own previous work — has to do with the tax on corporate profits. Since corporations are just legal entities, they don't really pay these taxes; people do. And there's a lot of debate over how much of this tax burden falls on corporate shareholders, as opposed to other folks, including workers and customers, who tend to be less wealthy and might benefit if the government didn't take this money. Faced with this conundrum, the right-leaning Tax Foundation will point to studies showing "that labor bears between 50 and 100 percent of the burden of the corporate income tax," while the left-leaning Tax Policy Center assigns 60 percent of the burden to shareholders, 20 percent to capital in general (because the corporate tax has spillover effects for other forms of capital), and 20 percent to labor.Saez and Zucman's approach? To assume the entire corporate tax falls on shareholders, and to make this clear only after their number-crunching has been reported as fact in the national media. As the economist Tyler Cowen put it in a scathing post, "no Western fiscal authority I have heard of thinks of tax incidence in these terms." And as this animation from Kopczuk shows, this new assumption largely explains a big change in the trend for rich people's taxes even relative to Saez and Zucman's own approach in a recent paper with Thomas Piketty:> So why is sky falling in the S-Z book? Recall this animation. There are just two changes of relevance here. One is corporate tax incidence. This is what turns very mild decline in progressivity into rapid drop. The other somewhat important one is treatment of capital gains pic.twitter.com/vOQchHMGAY> > -- Wojtek Kopczuk (@wwwojtekk) October 15, 2019There are other points too at which anyone making a chart like this needs to make decisions about what to include as taxes, and for whom. For instance, what are we to make of "refundable" income-tax credits that are paid even to people with no income-tax liability to offset? Should we treat those as offsetting the other taxes that people pay, which after all is one of their purposes? Or should we just classify them as outright transfers, not part of the tax system at all? Unsurprisingly, Saez and Zucman do not include them, because they would boost income and thereby reduce taxes as a percentage of income for the poor.As with inequality, we can point to other sources of data on tax progressivity to show that Saez and Zucman are an outlier. Splinter's response illustrates this, and so does this from Jason Furman, who headed the Obama administration's Council of Economic Advisers:> The standard data shows that the tax system is overall progressive. This chart combines CBO estimates for federal taxes with ITEP estimates for state & local taxes. Federal income taxes highly progressive, when you add in payroll/state/local/etc. is still progressive but less so. pic.twitter.com/WTOgm58Fyo> > -- Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) October 7, 2019At every step of the way, Saez and Zucman made decisions that skewed the income distribution toward the top and the tax burden away from it. You can have a reasonable debate about the best way to analyze these data and what they say about our tax policies. But it does no one any favors to treat these estimates as established fact, the way the New York Times did.
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| View 2020 Chevrolet Corvette vs. Porsche 718 Cayman Cargo Comparison Photos Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:26 AM PDT |
| This 5-Hour Window Could Be Key to Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:24 AM PDT  "I asked the President: "What do you want from Ukraine?"
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| UPDATE 2-Global watchdog keeps Pakistan on terrorism financing "grey list" Posted: 18 Oct 2019 04:07 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-Global watchdog keeps Pakistan on terrorism financing "grey list"]( "UPDATE 2-Global watchdog keeps Pakistan on terrorism financing \"grey list\"") A global finance watchdog kept Pakistan off its terrorism financing blacklist on Friday but warned Islamabad it only had until February to improve or face international action. The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, which tackles money laundering, said it was concerned that Pakistan had failed to complete the action plan first by a January deadline, then a May deadline and now October. "The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020," it said in a statement.
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| Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border Posted: 18 Oct 2019 05:46 PM PDT ![Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border]( "Asylum-seeking Mexicans are more prominent at US border") Lizbeth Garcia tended to her 3-year-old son outside a tent pitched on a sidewalk, their temporary home while they wait for their number to be called to claim asylum in the United States. The 33-year-old fled Mexico's western state of Michoacan a few weeks ago with her husband and five children — ages 3 to 12 — when her husband, a truck driver, couldn't pay fees that criminal gangs demanded for each trailer load. "I'd like to say it's unusual, but it's very common," Garcia said Thursday in Juarez, where asylum seekers gather to wait their turn to seek protection at a U.S. border crossing in El Paso, Texas.
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| Plane collides with pickup truck while landing, pilot killed Posted: 18 Oct 2019 04:07 PM PDT  Witnesses reported the airplane was at an altitude of just 5 feet as it crossed a county road near the airstrip and struck a pickup truck.
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| U.S. Air Force F-35s Are Knocking on Russia’s Back Door Posted: 17 Oct 2019 10:30 PM PDT  The U.S. Air Force has stood up a fighter squadron to operate F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters in Alaska. It might not be long before F-35s join Alaska-based F-22s in intercepting Russian bombers and other warplanes that frequently probe American defenses.
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| Erdogan threatens to restart Syria operation Tuesday if deal not respected Posted: 18 Oct 2019 08:51 AM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday warned that Ankara would restart its operation against Kurdish forces in Syria on Tuesday evening if they did not withdraw from a "safe zone". Turkey has agreed to suspend its offensive for five days in northern Syria while Kurdish fighters withdraw from the area, after high stake talks with US Vice President Mike Pence in Ankara.
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| Convicted Killer Now Charged in Estranged Wife’s Cold-Case Murder: Prosecutors Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:18 AM PDT  Virginia State Police/HandoutA Virginia man who is behind bars for killing his girlfriend has now been charged with the murder of his wife three decades ago, prosecutors announced Friday.Jose Rodriguez-Cruz, 53, was indicted by a Stafford County grand jury for the May 1989 murder of 28-year-old Marta Haydee Rodriguez. Rodriguez-Cruz is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for the 2009 murder of his girlfriend, Pamela Butler, who was a federal worker in Washington, D.C.During a Friday press conference, Stafford County Commonwealth's Attorney Eric Olsen announced that the former military police officer, who was discharged after threatening to harm his female superior twice, has been charged with first-degree murder and the unlawful concealment of his wife's body, finally bringing a 30-year investigation to a close. Cops: NYPD Officer Ordered Hit on Estranged Husband, Boyfriend's Kid"This is the ultimate act of domestic violence and it's noteworthy that in the month of October justice is going to be delivered for Marta Rodriguez," Olson said, pointing out that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Rodriguez was last seen on May 1, 1989, as she walked to a bus stop after leaving her job as a nurse's aide. Prosecutors allege Rodriguez-Cruz murdered his first wife shortly after she told police he had assaulted and kidnapped her—but before she could testify against him in court."If I can't have her, no one will," Rodriguez-Cruz once said, according to 2017 court documents.The 28-year-old's body was found in 1991 on an Interstate 95 median but was not positively identified until last year.Twenty years after his wife's 1989 disappearance, Rodriguez-Cruz fatally strangled Butler, an Environmental Protection Agency analyst and his girlfriend of seven months, during a heated argument before hiding her body. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2017, at which point he confessed to killing the 47-year-old in her basement in 2009 before slipping her body out of a first-floor window.Air Force Major Charged With Murder After Missing Wife's Remains FoundOne of Rodriguez-Cruz's friends told authorities that he once said it was "easy" to get rid of a body because "if you dig a hole deep enough, no one will find it," according to testimony at his plea hearing. As part of his plea deal, Rodriguez-Cruz told police he buried Butler in 2009 along Interstate 95—where Rodriguez was found—but her remains were never discovered. Derrick Butler, Pamela's brother, also attended Friday's news conference and told reporters he was relieved to hear news of Rodriguez-Cruz's latest charge.Authorities believe his pattern of abuse stretches beyond the death of his two former lovers. In 2017, investigators testified that the 53-year-old told his second wife he knew how to make sure a body was never found. Another woman, a security guard at a federal office, also told detectives that Rodriguez-Cruz allegedly duct-taped her wrists, held a gun to her head, and sexually assaulted her in 2004. "This man doesn't impulsively kill. He abducts women, duct-tapes them, sexually assaults them, and then holds them captive," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner said at the 2017 hearing. "Duct tape and a gun are his weapon of choice."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Fears of military build-up as China secretly leases entire island in Solomons Posted: 17 Oct 2019 05:33 AM PDT  The government of the Solomon Islands has reached a secretive deal with a Chinese company with close ties to the Communist party that grants it exclusive rights to develop Tulagi, once the seat of British colonial rule in the Pacific archipelago. The confidential arrangement has alarmed residents and raised fears that Beijing could be planning to use the tiny territory for future military rather than just commercial purposes. Tulagi, which has a protected deepwater harbour, has long been viewed as a strategic outpost. Japan occupied the island during the Second World War in 1942 before it was seized by the US marines in a fierce battle. China extended its reach last month after it persuaded the Solomon Islands and the Pacific nation of Kiribati to switch formal diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing, as it seeks to expand its influence in the Indo-Pacific region while undermining the US and its allies' strategy there. A copy of the "strategic cooperation agreement" which sets out a renewable 75-year lease was granted to the China Sam Enterprise Group, a conglomerate founded in 1985 as a state-owned enterprise, according to the New York Times, which obtained a copy. The vague wording of the document has sparked suspicion that it could be used for infrastructure that shares both civilian and military uses, causing concern among US officials who see the island chains of the South Pacific as crucial to protecting important sea routes, said the Times. Dated September 22, the deal mentions provisions for a fishery base, an operations centre, and the "building or enhancement of the airport," noting also that the company has ambitions to build an oil or gas terminal even though there are no confirmed natural reserves. The Solomons' authorities have not commented on the reports, but Stanley Maniteva, the provincial governor, told the local media earlier this week that the agreement had not been completed and formalised. But the news follows reports earlier this year that Pacific nations would seek new, stronger ties with China as they pivot away from traditional allies towards Beijing. In a speech in February in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Dame Meg Taylor, the secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum, an intergovernmental body, said it was time to debate how to "collectively engage" with Beijing to gain access to its markets, technology, financing and infrastructure.
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| Boeing Pilot Lied to F.A.A. Regarding 737 Max Jet Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:43 AM PDT  A Boeing pilot who tested the 737 Max jet in flight simulators in 2016 admitted in a series of text messages that he lied to the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the plane's performance.The text messages, reviewed by the New York Times, show that the lead technical pilot for the plane, Mark Forkner, was having trouble with an automated flight system known as MCAS. Malfunctions with MCAS caused two 737 Max jets to crash, killing a total of 346 people."It's running rampant in the sim," Forkner wrote to a colleague, referring to the simulation. "Granted, I suck at flying, but even this was egregious."Eight months prior to the messages, Forkner had asked the F.A.A. to remove the MCAS from the 737 Max pilot's manual. The F.A.A. approved the request, believing the system didn't present a danger."I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)," Forkner texted.Boeing had provided transcripts of the texts to the Justice Department earlier this year as part of a criminal investigation. The transcript was provided to Congress on Friday in advance of hearings this month at which Boeing chief executive Dennis A. Muilenburg is scheduled to testify on the crashes for the first time.Forkner and Boeing did not immediately comment on the report.F.A.A. Administrator Steve Dickinson castigated Boeing for not providing the messages to the F.A.A. at an earlier stage."I expect your explanation immediately regarding the content of this document and Boeing's delay in disclosing the document to its safety regulator," Dickinson wrote.In March 2019 world aviation authorities grounded the 737 Max after two of the planes crashed within five months. Lion Air Flight 610 took off from Jakarta, Indonesia in October 2018 and crashed 12 minutes later, while Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 left Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in March of this year and crashed six minutes after takeoff.
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| Top Navy Seal who oversaw Osama bin Laden raid: ‘Our Republic is under attack’ by Trump Posted: 18 Oct 2019 06:19 AM PDT  A top US Navy admiral hailed as the architect of the Osama bin Laden raid has denounced Donald Trump, writing in a scathing editorial on Friday that the president was seeking to "destroy" the country.William H McRaven, a retired admiral who served as the commander of the United States Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014, condemned Mr Trump in the New York Times article titled "Our Republic Is Under Attack From The President".
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| Chicago principal who watched boy's forced ejection retires Posted: 17 Oct 2019 04:20 PM PDT ![Chicago principal who watched boy's forced ejection retires]( "Chicago principal who watched boy's forced ejection retires") A Chicago elementary school principal who looked on as a security guard physically forced a fourth-grader out of the building on a cold day has retired. Cynthia Miller retired from her job at Fiske Elementary School on Friday. In a letter to parents, she wrote that leaving wasn't easy but was the right thing to do, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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| Long-extinct Tasmanian tigers spotted at least eight times, officials say Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:23 AM PDT  Between 2016 to 2019, the report notes seven sightings of the Tasmanian tiger. It "had black stripes on the back side of the body."
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| See This Plane? It Was Suppose to Turn Aircraft Carriers into Scrap Metal Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:23 AM PDT  As in make them obsolete--but the carrier remains. Here is what happened.
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| Netanyahu's Latest Call for Unity Government Is Quickly Rejected Posted: 17 Oct 2019 07:37 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival turned down the Israeli prime minister's renewed call to set aside political differences and join a national unity governmentNetanyahu has until late next week to form a ruling coalition or risk the country's president handing the mandate to former military chief Benny Gantz. Short of a majority in parliament, the premier's efforts to coax Gantz's Blue and White bloc, the largest in the legislature, into a power-sharing agreement have so far failed."All of Israel's citizens look around and see how the Middle East is changing for the worse in front of our eyes," Netanyahu said Thursday in a tweet. "Those who need to know, know that the security challenges are growing, and they are not waiting for us."The prime minister didn't specify the threats facing Israel. But his statement follows the decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria as he seeks to end America's presence in long-running Middle Eastern conflicts.The U-turn has boosted Israel's main regional foe, Iran, which is a key supporter of the government in Damascus, and stoked speculation in Israel over the future reliability of the country's superpower patron.Gantz quickly rejected Netanyahu's offer."I received a proposal today that one must refuse,'' Gantz said in a tweet. "We will wait for the President's mandate and begin serious negotiations for the establishment of a liberal unity government that will lead to change and restore hope to the citizens of Israel."\--With assistance from Ivan Levingston.To contact the reporter on this story: Yaacov Benmeleh in Tel Aviv at ybenmeleh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Atatiana Jefferson's neighbor thought he asked police to do a wellness check, but the police didn’t investigate it that way Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:01 AM PDT  Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was killed in her home on Saturday by Aaron Dean, a Fort Worth police officer who has resigned and been charged with murder.
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| Return of Argentine Peronism throws shadow over Falklands Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:15 AM PDT  Argentina is going to the polls on October 27 with a Peronist politician backed by former president Cristina Kirchner expected to win an outright majority, something that has got Falkland Islanders worried. The Falklands have been in British hands since 1833 but Argentina has waged a diplomatic battle -- that spilled into economic and then actual warfare -- since the 1960s to try to gain control of the archipelago. Argentine troops invaded the windswept islands for 74 days in 1982, before Britain swiftly defeated them.
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| McCarthy tries to defend Mulvaney’s clarification on quid pro quo Posted: 18 Oct 2019 10:34 AM PDT  At a press conference on Friday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., took several questions about White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's initial statement and clarification on whether there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and the president of Ukraine.
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| View Photos of the 2020 Porsche Macan Turbo Posted: 18 Oct 2019 11:29 AM PDT |
| Mystery traders 'made $1.8bn from stock bet' placed hours before Trump tweeted talks with China were ‘back on track’ Posted: 18 Oct 2019 01:16 PM PDT  */Unknown actors may have made billions from the turmoil Donald Trump has created in the markets through erratic tweets, shoot-from-the-hip foreign policy, and the trade war with China, according to a new report.
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| Amazon fish wears nature's 'bullet-proof vest' to thwart piranhas Posted: 17 Oct 2019 08:08 AM PDT  One of the world's largest freshwater fish is protected by the natural equivalent of a "bullet-proof vest," helping it thrive in the dangerous waters of the Amazon River basin with flexible armor-like scales able to withstand ferocious piranha attacks. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego and University of California, Berkeley on Wednesday described the unique structure and impressive properties of the dermal armor of the fish, called Arapaima gigas.
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