What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Pass the popcorn.
From HuffPost “The Louisiana Republican Party filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee on Wednesday, accusing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) of improperly using his official Senate website and Twitter account for partisan attacks on billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.
“Americans are fed up with the type of hyper-partisan campaigning, and it is appalling that Harry Reid would use taxpayer resources to breach Senate ethics rules and pursue this kind of activity in his official capacity as Senate Majority Leader,” Jason Dore, Louisiana GOP executive director, said in press release Wednesday.
Reid has criticized the Koch brothers on the Senate floor several times over the last few months, calling them “un-American” for spending millions of dollars on ads attacking vulnerable Senate Democrats for their support of the Affordable Care Act.
Chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party Roger Villere, the author of the ethics complaint, cited an April 9 post on Reid’s Senate website titled “The Facts About the Koch Brothers” — which outlined the brothers’ opposition to Social Security, the minimum wage and equal pay — as evidence of the majority leader’s misconduct.”
______________________________________________
2. This seems unethical too. Chasing out an American rancher to make way for Chinese solar panels, and the financial benefit of his family members. Dirty Harry is a name that’s fitting.
______________________________________________
3. The Cold War is heating up again.
From TheDailyBeast “Since the invasion of Crimea, President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama have had regular phone calls in an often half-hearted attempt to deescalate the ongoing crisis inside Ukraine. But as the U.S. and EU prepare to unveil new sanctions against Russia, Putin has decided the interactions should stop. The Kremlin has ended high-level contact with the Obama administration, according to diplomatic officials and sources close to the Russian leadership. The move signals an end to the diplomacy, for now.”
“Diplomatic sources close to the process confirmed that Putin is not interested in speaking with Obama again in the current environment. The two leaders might talk again in the future but neither side is reaching out for direct interaction, as they had been doing since the Ukraine crisis began. The failure of the agreement struck last week in Geneva between the contact group of the U.S., EU, Russia, and Ukraine has made further direct Washington-Moscow interactions moot.”
“Other top U.S. officials are also now out of direct contact with their Russian interlocutors. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is also getting the cold shoulder from his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu. Pentagon officials have reached out to Russia on Mr. Hagel’s behalf within the past 24 hours but have not gotten any response, according to Pentagon Spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.”
_______________________________________________
4. Nothing is free. It might seem to be for some, but others are paying their bills for them.
From TheDailyCaller “Taxpayers will pay over $53,000 per each person newly insured under Obamacare, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of the Congressional Budget Office data.
Last week’s highly debated CBO report found that Obamacare will cost slightly less than expected over the next decade. The budget office shifted its assessment of the health care law due to unexpectedly low premiums, which it attributed not to lowered costs but on “less attractive” health insurance offerings than it assumed would be available.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal fiscal policy group, released its own analysis of the CBO findings Tuesday, concluding that the CBO had also cut the estimated cost of the Medicaid expansion on state budgets.
The CBO predicts that on average, federal taxpayers will now pay over 95 percent of the total cost of the Medicaid expansion. Fewer than expected Americans who were already eligible for traditional state Medicaid programs signed up for coverage while programs received free publicity due to the furor over the Medicaid expansion, leading to a lowered estimates of the Medicaid costs states will incur.”
______________________________________________
Wandering Views 
This article is ample proof that Wall Street is not conservative. It is also another piece of evidence that poltically the Bushes have much in common with the Clintons.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/wall-street-republicans-hillary-clinton-2016-106070.html?ml=al_1
LikeLike
Wall Street, like business in general, is apolitical.
LikeLike
Coke and Pepsi – Democrats and Republicans
1. Why else do politicians have Twitter etc accounts — to get their message out.
2. Man doesn’t pay rent to the government for over a decade ….
3. Ukraine is in Russia’s “near abroad” draw the line at Poland and call it a day.
LikeLike
Almost forgot why I came here. Thought Ricky might enjoy this essay;
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/reaganomics_killed_americas_middle_class_partner/?utm_content=buffer7fc66&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
LikeLike
HRW, I don’t know if it was the author of the piece or the headline writer who was the true imbecile, but your hero Jimmy Carter was president through all of 1980.
Reagan was the last president who understood and represented the middle class. The rich supported Bush in the primaries against him. The rich opposed his 1986 Tax Reform bill. However, Reagan prevailed and gave us an a Indian Summer of American greatness.
LikeLike