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http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-17/wealthy-clintons-use-trusts-to-limit-estate-tax-they-back.html

...Obama didn’t want any press around while he was hitting up the one-percenters for big bucks, so he sent them to their room. No word on whether they got supper beforehand.

Obama is departing Wednesday on a three-day West Coast trip to glad-hand donors at five or more fundraising events, including four events in one day. The trip highlights the president’s focus on the 2014 race, where the GOP is on track to win a slight majority of the Senate and to slightly increase its majority in the House.

Money Paul Frees

Four years ago, I wrote a column about how the state of California had passed a law to make retailers turn over any unused gift cards to the State after a set period. The law did not consider any effects on the retailer; just the fact that California was grubbing for new revenue flows and once greedy politicians see a target they can devise any rationale for why the money or new tax should be placed into their coffers. The column also explored how the State was taking money from unclaimed bank assets as if it were another revenue...

...President Obama headlines a fundraising event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the organization that raises money for Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives... Ted Deutch, who represents Broward and Palm Beach counties, is on the invite list for the Miami event, as is U.S. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the DCCC, according to a copy of the invitation posted online by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit group that tracks government information. Deutch and Israel aren't really the draw. The hosts are Tracy and Alonzo Mourning. He's the former Miami Heat center and a major...

Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers applauded as the team was sold for $2 billion, and cheered with each expensive new addition. Now the bill is coming due. And guess who is going to pay the price? Actually, you don't need to guess. The way baseball finds ways to separate fans from their money knows no bounds... At the heart of the issue is a new regional sports network that will pay the Dodgers $8.35 billion over the next 25 years. It was created by Time Warner Cable solely to broadcast the team's games, and it's the reason the new...

Jesus once rebuked the people of his time for their stubborn and unrepentant hearts: This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At...

Fear and Greed index. Interesting. Click link.

A recent report on a school in Queens, N.Y., is so unbelievable, so terribly sad, that it has left many readers practically speechless. A public school in Far Rockaway Queens, N.Y., has been accused of operating under unacceptable conditions (image source Google Maps) From students reportedly being forced to attend class in vermin-infested “temporary classrooms” that “smell like urine” to Principal Marcella Sills, 48, apparently being a frequent no-show, public school (PS) 106 in Far Rockaway, N.Y., is a “school of no,” according to the New York Post.The students don’t get gym or art classes, one source said. Instead, many...

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, D-Va. Military veterans are pressuring Congress to move quickly when it reconvenes this week to cancel cuts in pensions for working-age vets - a change set in motion as part of last month's budget deal. However, reversing the decision to reduce cost-of-living pension increases could be difficult and, at best, would take some time to negotiate, say some legislators and lobbyists. Federal lawmakers from Hampton Roads, which has one of the nation's largest concentrations of retirees and active-duty service members, strongly support undoing the cuts. Most have already proposed or are co-sponsoring legislation...

4. Make Everything Owned by EverybodyHoarders blow. Take, for instance, the infamous one percent, whose ownership of the capital stock of this country leads to such horrific inequality. "Capital stock" refers to two things here: the buildings and equipment that workers use to produce goods and services, and the stocks and bonds that represent ownership over the former. The top 10 percent's ownership of the means of production is represented by the fact that they control 80 percent of all financial assets. This detachment means that there's a way easier way to collectivize wealth ownership than having to stage uprisings...

LAREDO, Texas — Out behind the nursing home where Josefina Alexander Gonzalez turned 99 Saturday, there’s a dilapidated green ranch house, its porch cover still held up by rough-hewn tree trunks. To the southeast, you see a lot of tall brush and honey mesquite, a view that hasn’t changed much since the 1940s, when her parents bought a 1,000-acre ranch … any other direction, and you’ll see new construction on her property, as developers cash in on the last large tract of open space inside of Loop 20 in north Laredo, now worth as much as $150 million. But if...

Many people feel strongly about not shopping on Thanksgiving. Well, I have a cause of my own. Not doing business with any company that offshores its call centers. After dealing with some script-reading cretin out in God-Knows-Where because Old Navy's online credit card payment isn't working, I've decided that enough is enough. With so many Americans out of work, businesses should set up call centers here in the USA, not in some Third World slum half a world away. This may not be PC, but we all know it's true.

Zo tells you the story about some disrespectful liberals who tried to intimidate him into lending them his drums. Zo wanted to rent the drums out for $15.00, but the liberals called him greedy. Really? Zo thinks that this sense of entitlement sums up liberal culture.

... Obama made three fundraising stops during an overnight South Florida visit Friday, including an event in which he met with senior leaders of the Cuban exile community.... ... "For me it was an honor and a privilege to host a fundraiser for the President of the United States, who has been a friend," said Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, who hosted the second local event Obama attended in his own home.

Barack Obama, doing what he does best, is back campaigning and fundraising hard for the next five weeks. Obama’s plans include eight fundraisers for Democrats in the House and Senate. The events include: 1. New York: Fundraising for House Democrats and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). 2. Boston: a House Democratic fundraiser on Oct. 30. 3. November 6, Dallas: No: another fundraiser 4. November 8, Miami: an event for Senate Democrats. 5. November 14, Philadelphia: another event for Senate Democrats 6. Seattle: fundraising for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) 7. San Francisco: more fundraising for House Democrats. 8. Los...

The pastor of a North Carolina megachurch has built a $1.7-million-dollar mansion for himself and his family which he told his congregation at Sunday's sermon is a 'gift from God.' Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick, 33, is unapologetic about his ostentatious new seven-and-a-half bathroom, 16,000-square-foot home built on 19 acres in Weddington. He spent the first part of his sermon talking about the controversy surrounding its construction and apologizing to his parishioners for any 'uncomfortable conversations,' they may have been forced to have about it.

(Watch Dog) – The federal government’s dream of a renewable energy empire hinges on a scrubby outpost here, where scientists and executives doggedly explore a new frontier. If you live outside Colorado, you probably haven’t heard of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – NREL for short. It’s the place where solar panels, windmills and corn are deemed the energy source of the future and companies who support such endeavors are courted. It’s also the place where highly paid staff decide how to spend hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. And the public pays those decision-makers well: NREL’s top executive, Dr....

The world's 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over, Oxfam has revealed, adding that the global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich. “The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,” while the income of the top 0.01 percent has seen even greater growth, a new Oxfam report said. For example, the luxury goods market has seen double-digit growth every year since the crisis hit, the...