If you believe the GOP, their tax “reform” bill (or as we call it, the Plutocrat’s Dream Act of 2017) has the support of “137 Economists.” That strikes us as a hop, skip, and a degree from Trump University away from Joe McCarthy’s claim of up to 200 “known communists” in the State Department” (or, if you’re feeling a little less generous, Senator Johnny Iselin, thundering over the 57 Communists in “The Manchurian Candidate”). The Intercept has tracked down (or tried to track down) all of them, and has found a few discrepancies. More than a handful are no longer working, a few are employed by right-wing think tanks, and at least one gets a check signed by the Koch Brothers, who damned well better support this tax bill—they paid for it, and practically wrote it. No, the signatory that catches our interest is Gil Sylvia, of the University of Georgia. Just one problem. There is no Gil Sylvia at the University of Georgia. There never was. Of course, cynics amongst you will claim this is just more proof of GOP chicanery, more proof that they have no real interest in honestly dealing with the country. And that’s entirely possible. But we here think that, given the Republican insistence on repealing the Estate Tax, or as they insist on calling it, the “Death Tax,” the actual dead are coming out to support it.
We’re big fans of courtroom drama around here—we figure anything where life or death can hang in the balance is worth our interest. But things got mighty Shakespearian at the Hague this week, when Slobodan Praljak, a Bosnian General before the International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia decided to take sentencing into his own hands. When the verdict was announced the 72-year-old looked directly into the courtroom camera and shouted “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.” He then drained a small brown bottle, announcing “I just drank poison. I am not a war criminal. I oppose this conviction.” We don’t know if Dick Wolf is planning a “Law and Order: Den Hague,” but know if he was, would end with one of the prosecutors making a dark quip, something along the lines of “well, that’s one way to appeal the verdict.” Duh-DUN
On the other hand, in Max Fleischer’s classic “Minnie The Moocher” cartoon, ghosts can be sent to the electric chair, so maybe not. (Is this a stretch? You bet. But it’s Betty Boop and Cab Calloway! We’ll accept any excuse to post that…
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