Fri: It's Not a "Hush-Money" Case. It's Election Fraud Case

A Solution in Search of a Problem

Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are holding a big press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Friday where they will reportedly propose a bill that was already passed 28 years ago in 1996.

According to USA Today, the men will demand passage of a bill that would prevent immigrants from voting in an election. The problem is that this is already a law on the books.

"All non-U.S. citizens, including unauthorized immigrants, are ineligible to vote in federal elections. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996... introduced criminal penalties for noncitizens who vote in federal elections," quoted reporter Jennifer Shutt from the Congressional Research Service cited in its report "Unauthorized Immigrants: Frequently Asked Questions," published Aug. 10, 2022.

USA Today's promotion of the Trump event neglects to mention that there is already a law for this.

Democrats have criticized the Republican-led Congress as the body unproductive. Thus far, the "Do Nothing Congress," as critics have referred to it, has passed 47 bills. The last previously known "Do Nothing Congress," was named after President Harry Truman for passing only 906 bills.

"As with most things the GOP is looking for solutions to a non-existent problems," complained one person.

"It’s pure BS. Unauthorized immigrants cannot vote in federal elections," complained Mike Walker, a former FEMA senior official.

You Don't Want to Use this in Laser Tag

A UK high-power laser weapon could be sent to Ukraine to take down Russian drones, the defence secretary says.

According to Grant Shapps, the weapon could have "huge ramifications" for the conflict in Europe.

The DragonFire weapon is expected to be rolled out by 2027, but Mr Shapps said he wanted to "speed up" production and make it available sooner.

It follows a successful trial of the laser, carried out against an aerial target for the first time in January.

The laser was originally expected to be operational by 2032, but new reforms intended to speed up government procurement of weapons mean that it will now be ready five years earlier.

Despite this, the defence secretary told reporters while on a visit of Porton Down military research centre near Salisbury that he wanted to speed this up even further.

"Let's say that it didn't have to be 100% perfect in order for Ukrainians perhaps to get their hands on it," he said.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the faster timetable comes in response to the "rapidly changing threat environment" faced by the UK.

Ukraine Has to Last This Long. MAGA Mike Needs Spend Less Time at Mar-a-Lago and More On Ukraine Aid.

Another Big Election Coming Up in the Land of Cheese Curds.

Liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley reversed course on Thursday and announced she would not seek a fourth 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court next year, a move that creates an open race for a pivotal seat that could once again determine control of the court.

Though Bradley had declared she would "absolutely" run again last year immediately after progressives won their first majority on the court in 15 years, the 73-year-old jurist said in a statement on Thursday that "it's just time to pass the torch, bringing fresh perspectives to the court."

Puerto Rico, You Magic Island.

Tax cheats are taking advantage of Puerto Rico — the US government can stop them

Thousands of ultrarich individuals are in Puerto Rico thanks to Act 22 (now folded into a broader law known as Act 60), a local law that allows non-Puerto Ricans to pay zero tax on passive income from interest and dividends or capital gains. The theory was that these individuals would invest, create jobs and help prop up a Puerto Rican economy in the midst of a decades-long crisis despite the law having no actual investment or job creation requirements.

The reality has been far different.

An in-depth study by Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism found that the tax incentives have failed to spur meaningful economic growth. Instead, they are exacerbating Puerto Rico’s economic troubles. The housing crisis on the island that began after Hurricane Maria has also accelerated as Act 22 beneficiaries displaced locals to acquire properties, driving up home prices.

Puerto Ricans, who cannot keep up with the buying power of these tax-evading millionaires, increasingly find themselves without access to housing. The downstream effects are troubling; for example, Puerto Rican nonprofits recently announced that they’re having trouble finding transitional housing for domestic violence
survivors.
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Mark Gold, founder of the heavily investigated Ticket Clinic, put it this way at a Cocktails and Compliance party that new wealthy residents throw for themselves every year:

“I was looking at different tax havens. Andorra, Lichtenstein, Monaco. But the problem is, you have to give up your U.S. passport,” Gold told partygoers.

“When I heard about this, it was too good to be true. But it's real. I live in paradise. I live at the Ritz-Carlton. I drive my golf cart to the beach club for breakfast. Then I go to my sunset yoga class on the beach.”

Gravity. Gravity is working against me, And gravity wants to bring me down

MG: The ice isn't disappearing. I mean, it turns into water. The water has to go somewhere. So, when it ends up in the oceans, what does that mean?

WC: Oh, boy. It's pretty complicated, actually. So, Greenland is losing so much ice. In addition to the study that we're talking about today that just came out, this is... they're just talking about, 40 million tons of the floating ice at the edge of the ice sheet. But all together, the ice sheet is losing about five times more than that or about, you know, it's 9 or 10 thousand tons a second. And it's so much ice that the gravity is weakening over Greenland. And that has an impact on how the ocean is shaped.

MG: Sorry, the gravity is weakening over Greenland.

WC: Isn't that weird?

MG: Because the displacement is less?

WC: Well, the mass in Greenland is less.

MG: Yeah.

WC: And I mean, if you think of how the moon orbits Earth and it pulls a tide around with it. Greenland is a relatively massive object, and it holds sort of a permanent tide of water close to it. And so, as Greenland begins to get smaller, its gravity begins to get weaker, and that water that it holds tight begins to slosh away to faraway places in the world where the gravity is not weakening. So, the upshot is, is that when Greenland loses mass and dumps ice into the ocean, most of the sea level rise is felt in the Southern hemisphere. And on the flip side, when Antarctica loses mass and weakens its gravity. That's when the sea level is felt in the Northern hemisphere.

It Must Be Something in the Water

Millions of Americans rely on drinking water systems that have recently exceeded new limits for toxic “forever chemicals” that the EPA announced on Wednesday.

USA TODAY found 608 systems across the country that have measured PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, at or above the newly established limits since last year. Together, they serve nearly 35 million people.

Map: Where PFAS exceed new EPA limits