This article describes a new report that the Trump and the Republicans are doing nothing to prevent future attacks on our elections.
The article states:
The report concludes that the US has no “coherent, comprehensive and coordinated approach to the Kremlin’s malign influence operations, either abroad or at home.”
Judges ruled today that North Carolina’s congressional map was invalid because of Republican gerrymandering. This is great news. It could have long-term implications for the future of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering has been done based on race and based on party. Both parties have done party-based gerrymandering but the Republicans have done more since they control many more state governments.
Votes in the state had been close in votes for governor and president but Republicans have 10 Congress members and Democrats only have three. Here’s what the congressional districts look like.
Their legislative districts had already been determined by the courts to be unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. They concentrated African-American voters in a few districts to reduce their presence in other districts.
Republicans in North Carolina are also trying to gerrymander state judicial districts. Sad!
The Roundhouse was damaged by a heavy snowstorm in 2003. Here are pictures of the damage and some of the repairs.
Here are photographs I took at Market Place in the late 1970s. The area has been renovated. Port Discovery is now where the Wholesale Fish Market was. 10 Market Place is the building in the picture above.
Here are pictures of 10 Market Place and 16-18 Market Place
The Trump administration is pushing businesses to withhold less in taxes by February. Democrats want to make sure that 2018 tax tables for the new law are accurate and don’t show artificially low rates. That would cause people to think they got a bigger tax cut than they did and they won’t know the truth until 2019 when they file their 2018 returns. I wouldn’t put it past the Trump administration to do this.
This article has a table with estimated tax deduction changes.
Sad!
Trump’s refusal to fully acknowledge Russian meddling in the 2016 election leaves us vulnerable to more interference in future elections. I strongly recommend this very thorough investigation by the Washington Post. It documents Trump’s skepticism about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
We don’t know why Trump never says anything bad about Putin when he is critical of many world leaders including our allies. Trump will attack Democrats and members of his own party. Yet, he refuses to criticized Putin who has damaged our electoral process. I think Russia has something on him. I don’t believe in the pee tape. I suspect he owes them money. We need to get to the bottom of this. Sad!
Trump’s lawyers should be nervous about having him testify, especially if it is under oath. In a libel case a decade ago, Trump admitted under oath that he had lied 30 times.
Here are questions Mueller may want to ask Trump if he testifies. Who knows if Trump will tell the truth? Sad!
Walker Evans was a great photographer who worked for the federal FSA during the depression. His FSA pictures, along with those by the other FSA photographers, are available from the Library of Congress as downloads or prints.
I have a copy of “Frame Houses and a Billboard, Atlanta, Georgia” from 1936 which features a movie poster for Love Before Breakfast. I had assumed for decades that the Carole Lombard’s black eye was graffiti and not part of the original poster. I was surprised when I finally saw the film and she did get a black eye in it.
More information on the picture is here. Love Before Breakfast is part of Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection.
There are many articles and books on the FSA photographers and their work such as this. The Library of Congress collection is here.
Depression Era Photos (@USHistoryPhotos on Twitter) post pictures
Update 4/10/18: videos on Evans
update 9/18/18
I think this is an FSA photo:
Charities may get fewer donations under the new tax law. A study estimated donations could drop by 4.5% or $13 billion. Under the new law, the higher standard deduction will mean that many middle-class taxpayers will not qualify for the charity deduction. It is not expected to affect donations from the wealthy. The article notes that wealthy people donate more to museums and universities while donors of smaller amounts are more likely to donate to social service or religious organizations.
This article discusses tax-related strategies for donating under the new law.
update: Projected impact of tax cuts on deductions
Trump has sought support from farmers but this New York Times article says that his tax law could hurt farmers.
The article states “New analyses of the tax law by economists at the Department of Agriculture suggest it could actually lower farm output in the years to come and effectively raise taxes on the lowest-earning farm households, while delivering large gains for the richest farmers.”
Trump had lied earlier and said the estate tax was a burden on farmers. However, only 153 out of 38,328 farm estates paid any estate tax in 2016.
Sad!
Sad! 