2024 - Page 61 of 65

IRS Expects to Collect $561 Billion from Scofflaws and Tax Cheats

February 7, 2024 Buck Banks

$561 billion

“The IRS is poised to take in hundreds of billions of dollars more in overdue and unpaid taxes than previously anticipated, according to new analysis released Tuesday by the Treasury Department and the IRS,” the AP reports. “Tax revenues are expected to rise by as much as $561 billion from 2024 to 2034, thanks to stepped-up enforcement made possible with money from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in August 2022.”

The Death Throes of the Old Republican Party

February 7, 2024 Buck Banks

“Politics used to be the art of the possible. Now it’s the art of the impossible. Meaning, let’s put forward proposals that can’t possibly pass so that we can say to our respective bases, ‘Look how I’m fighting for you’ … We’ve gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.”

— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), commenting on his party’s inability to govern, quoted by Punchbowl News.

Stupidity or Malice … Or Both?

February 6, 2024February 7, 2024 Buck Banks

“This era of American politics will end, one way or the other. And when it does, historians are likely to debate whether its defining characteristic was stupidity or malice. … I’ve gone back and forth in my own mind, but I now realize that the two traits have almost fully merged. Malice is creating stupidity, and stupidity is creating malice.”

Almost Half of Americans Want Trump Verdict Before Election

February 6, 2024 Buck Banks

48%

CNN Poll: “About half of Americans, 48%, say it’s essential that a verdict is reached before the 2024 presidential election, and another 16% that they’d prefer to see one.”

Haley Slams Trump for Praising Xi

February 6, 2024 Buck Banks

“Praising dictators is not normal. Make America normal again.”

— Nikki Haley criticized Donald Trump’s recent praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling it abnormal.

Four Convicted Capitol Rioters Are Running for Congress

February 6, 2024 Buck Banks

4

“Nearly 900 people have been convicted of crimes related to breaching the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Now, at least four of them are trying to make their way inside the building again, but this time as elected officials,” NOTUS reports. “House Republicans say they’re fine with it.”

Trump Is Immunodeficient

February 6, 2024February 7, 2024 Buck Banks

He thought he could trample our laws with impunity,
While sowing fascism, chaos, discord and disunity.
But Donald Trump has just found,
That by jurisprudence he’s bound.
He might have chutzpah, but he ain’t got executive immunity.

Trump Ordered to Pay Carroll Almost $90 Million

January 29, 2024 Buck Banks

$88.3 million

A jury said that Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll an additional $83.3 million for repeatedly defaming her — including while this trial was underway, the New York Times reports. The award is on top of $5 million that Carroll was awarded at an earlier trial.

Newsom: Trump Is the Most Flawed Candidate in My Lifetime

January 29, 2024 Buck Banks

“He can’t be beaten in a primary, but in a general election, I think he’s the most flawed candidate in my lifetime. He is damaged goods. He is not as entertaining as he once was. He’s more unhinged than he ever was. More extreme, obviously more dangerous across the spectrum of issues.”

— Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), quoted by MSNBC, on Donald Trump.

MoveOn to Spend $32 Million to Support Biden, Dems in 2024

January 29, 2024 Buck Banks

$32 million

“The liberal activist group MoveOn will spend more than $32 million this year to back President Biden and Democratic candidates for the House and Senate, the organization’s leader said this week,” the New York Times reports.

$561 billion

“Politics used to be the art of the possible. Now it’s the art of the impossible. Meaning, let’s put forward proposals that can’t possibly pass so that we can say to our respective bases, ‘Look how I’m fighting for you’ … We’ve gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.”

— Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), commenting on his party’s inability to govern, quoted by Punchbowl News.

— David French

48%

CNN Poll: “About half of Americans, 48%, say it’s essential that a verdict is reached before the 2024 presidential election, and another 16% that they’d prefer to see one.”

“Praising dictators is not normal. Make America normal again.”

— Nikki Haley criticized Donald Trump’s recent praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling it abnormal.

4

$88.3 million

A jury said that Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll an additional $83.3 million for repeatedly defaming her — including while this trial was underway, the New York Times reports. The award is on top of $5 million that Carroll was awarded at an earlier trial.

“He can’t be beaten in a primary, but in a general election, I think he’s the most flawed candidate in my lifetime. He is damaged goods. He is not as entertaining as he once was. He’s more unhinged than he ever was. More extreme, obviously more dangerous across the spectrum of issues.”

— Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), quoted by MSNBC, on Donald Trump.

$32 million

“The liberal activist group MoveOn will spend more than $32 million this year to back President Biden and Democratic candidates for the House and Senate, the organization’s leader said this week,” the New York Times reports.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

“Your generation has a great bullshit meter, because you’re fed bullshit online all day. And the Democratic Party brand right now is so bullshit.”

— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), quoted by The Atlantic, speaking to college students.

“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”

— Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), on CNN.

Numerati

+175,000

“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.

$4,600

11

30%

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

61% to 35%