Notations On Our World (Special W-End Edition): An Alternative View of the @GOP Tax Cut Plan

As the tax plan has been introduced, this has been released by the team at the National Priorities Project:

If the Trump tax plan were an object, you can bet it would be gold-plated. The official tax plan released November 2 by the House of Representatives is a massive reworking of the tax code. It's easy to get lost, but a few measures stand out.  A Long-Term Blow to Middle and Lower Income Families Get the big picture: NPP's Lindsay Koshgarian covers the bad, worse and worst of the tax cuts in a piece for Truthout. Corporate Tax Cuts The Institute for Policy Studies' Sarah Anderson recently showed that paying lower taxes is actually associated with cutting jobs - not creating them. This is as the Institute for Policy Studies released this "snapshot" the day after the Plan was rolled out: This week, Republicans in Congress released their tax plan. The long and short of it: if this thing passes, it’s gonna hurt. The plan includes weakening, then eliminating the federal estate tax, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, and dropping the corporate tax rate — all of which exclusively benefit the super rich. Meanwhile, it puts middle class benefits like state and local tax deductions and the student loan interest deduction on the chopping block. This tax plan is the biggest wealth grab in modern history. Even Reagan’s tax plan wasn’t as friendly to the rich and big corporations. The GOP is trying to get away with this as quickly as possible before the public has a chance to react. But it’ll be hard to hide the consequences of cutting Medicare, Social Security, and jobs. In other news, Jessicah Pierre sheds light on the fastest growing segment of our prison population — women. Since 80 percent of women in jail are mothers and primary caretakers for their children, this can mean incredible hardship for their families(and the economy). We leave you with this courtesy of the Atlantic's David Frum about what could have been possible: Politics of the carbon tax aren’t great, but they’re less bad than attacking 401(K)s. https://t.co/7dM2SINBSB — David Frum (@davidfrum) November 1, 2017

Notations From the Grid (Special Friday Edition): On Our World.....

The Financial Times of London had a recent depiction of the State of the Republican Party as the anniversary of President Trump's 1-Year Election:

This is as the Haaretz' Chemi Shalev laid out a "State of the Presidency" Report:

The post-traumatic year since Donald Trump’s inconceivable election as U.S. presidenthttps://t.co/ew7DaSjWwp

— DailyOutsider (@ordinaryfaces) November 2, 2017

Interesting times indeed Especially as the Economist of London declared Social Media to be the key threat to Democracy in the aftermath of information that has come out about how Facebook, Twitter and Google were manipulated by the Russians:

Our cover this week looks at how social media harm democracy. Twitter, Facebook and Google were supposed to improve politics. Instead, from Russian meddling in America’s election to political manipulation in South Africa, they are spreading fake news, partisanship and mistrust. They need to change

Notations From the Grid (Special Thursday Edition): On The Prowl in Our World.....

The Big Five of Tech (Apple; Google; Microsoft; Amazon & Facebook) have been under scrutiny this week epitomized by what happened before Congressional Committees yesterday.     Ads bought by Russian Trolls apparently were watched by an estimated 136 Milllion Americans during the Elections--and some are noting that th estimate is undesrtated.

Please enjoy this interesting and engaging view of the Solar System Thanks to the team at CB Insight: