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Trump's "Vietnam" Expands with the Surge of STD Rates in the U.S







DAILY SPECIALS









Monthly Treasury Statement of Receipts and Outlays of the United States Government For Fiscal Year 2018 Through June 30, 2018, and Other Periods 

Bottle Shock: Treasury Challenges Tax Break for Wine Importers

Who Gets the 20% Pass-Through Tax Break?



IT'S HERE! The wait for rules dealing with the tax law's 20 percent deduction on pass-through income is over.
The Treasury Department and IRS released proposed regulations in that area on Wednesday morning — and the key takeaway, via Pro Tax's Aaron Lorenzo, is that multiple businesses will be able to combine into a single unit to claim the tax relief.
The goal, a senior Treasury official told reporters, is to keep those businesses — whose reasons for organizing through multiple companies frequently don't have to do with taxes — from restructuring themselves in order to get the 20 percent deduction. Pass-through advocates say letting such companies aggregate — essentially, unite under one umbrella — would help them more fully capture the deduction, and get their effective tax rates near the average effective rates corporations pay under the new law, HR 1.
The rules for the pass-through deduction are among the most anticipated for the new tax law, and some of the major decisions — like which industries will qualify for the very coveted tax break — are still to come. [POLITICO's Morning Tax, August 8, 2018]




The State Department promised not to impose direct sanctions against Aeroflot 

Imposition of Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act Sanctions on Russia


👊 “Crushing sanctions”

The newspaper Kommersant has published a full draft of the proposed “Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act,” which demands a U.S. investigation into Vladimir Putin’s personal wealth and whether Russia sponsors terrorism, and would impose a ban on U.S. citizens buying Russian sovereign debt, though the U.S. Treasury publicly opposed this idea in February, warning that it would disrupt the market broadly. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the initiative’s sponsors, says one of the draft legislation’s goals is to impose “crushing sanctions.”
Kommersant’s August 8 publication of the U.S. legislative initiative knocked the ruble’s exchange value to its lowest point since November 2016, though the text had been circulating among insiders for at least a week.
Banning the banks. The draft bill proposes banning Russia’s biggest state banks — Sberbank, VTV Bank, Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank, Promsvyazbank, or Vnesheconombank — from operating inside the United States, which would effectively prevent these institutions from conducting dollar settlements.
Oil and gas. In the energy sector, the legislation would impose sanctions on investment in any projects by the Russian government or government-affiliated companies outside Russia worth more than $250 million. Businesses would also incur penalties for any participation (funding or supplying equipment or technology) in new oil projects inside Russia valued above $1 million.
Lists and research. If the bill is submitted in its current form and adopted, the U.S. president would have 180 days to begin implementing its provisions; within 60 days of adoption, the White House would need to provide a new list of Russian individuals suspected of cyber-attacks against the United States; the Treasury Department would have 180 days to update its “Kremlin list” of Russian state officials and oligarchs; the director of national intelligence would be tasked with completing a “detailed report on the personal net worth and assets” of Vladimir Putin and his family; and the State Department would have 90 days to determine whether Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.
A new Sanctions Office. In order to shore up the 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, the draft legislation would also create an “Office of Sanctions Coordination” within the State Department to coordinate work with the Treasury. [The Real Russia. Today. August 8, 2018]




DOJ APPEALS SANCTUARY RULING: The Justice Department on Tuesday moved to appeal a federal judge's ruling in favor of California's so-called sanctuary laws. U.S. District Judge John Mendez in July rejected the bulk of a Trump administration lawsuit against California state laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The appeal takes the case to the 9th Circuit, which ruled last week that part of a Trump executive order that sought to block federal funding to uncooperative jurisdictions was unconstitutional. Read the notice here. [POLITICO's Morning Shift, August 8, 2018]











MIKE POMPEO  
Secretary of State    

Pompeo says US ‘confident’ North Korea will denuclearize 

Pompeo presses Turkey to release American pastor Andrew Brunson

U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo, North Korea minister Ri shake hands

Trump's refugee crackdown plans put Pompeo on the spot



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is building Trump’s Iran regime change army. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-pompeo-forms-iran-action-group-for-post-nuclear-deal-policy/]
Pompeo’s newly-appointed “Iran Action Group” sounds like bureaucracy as usual. In reality, it's anything but. Pompeo just appointed a bunch of people to formal positions in the U.S. government whose job is regime change in Iran.
And what’s even scarier? They’re not the only ones. This new agency is just one small piece of a large and powerful Iran-regime-change industry within U.S. government, media, and think tanks.
Win Without War has been taking on this industry for years. We’ve got the expertise, stubbornness, and grassroots power to expose the truth about Pompeo’s new regime change buddies and neutralize the lies they’re pumping out to build the case for war with Iran. But we need your help to foil their plans before they can drag us into a devastating war with Iran.
Trump’s foreign policy on Iran is paving a clear path from killing the Iran Deal to sparking a war with Iran. And the “Iran Action Group”—better named Iran War Group—is only offering more sanctions that isolate the U.S. economically and politically, without reducing Iran’s destructive militarist presence in the region one bit. 
Exactly 65 years ago, the United States and the United Kingdom overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran after he nationalized the Iranian oil industry away from British control. It's no accident that Pompeo announced his new regime change buddies on the very anniversary of that coup d’etat. The United States’ reckless determination to destabilize Iran was disastrous then, and it’s disastrous now.
There is a clear alternative to war with Iran: Diplomacy. That’s why Win Without War will continue stopping the colossal industry dedicated to Iranian regime change.
We’ll expose Iran-hawk faux-experts in the media, we’ll pressure Congress to speak out against sanctions, and we’ll hold public events advocating for non-military solutions for U.S.-Iran relations. We are using every tactic at our disposal to stop the powerful Iran War Group before Trump’s next deadline to re-impose sanctions this fall. And we need your support.
Thank you for working for peace,
Erica, Ben, Cassandra, and the Win Without War team
August 25, 2018






The Department of Defense's original name was the National Military Establishment, which had the unfortunate abbreviation NME (enemy). [POLITICO Huddle, August 8, 2018]



JAMES MATTIS     
Secretary of Defense    

MAD (DOG) ABOUT ELECTIONS — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday said his agency is ready to help protect the upcoming midterms and potentially strike back against would-be meddlers. "I have all the authority I need," Mattis told reporters Tuesday during a Pentagon ceremony for his British counterpart. "I'm not going to get into the specific authority. I prefer not to let any adversary know what we have up our sleeve." But, he added, DoD is "engaged in support" of DHS and law enforcement "in order to maintain the integrity of the election."
Mattis' remarks come days after the White House had top national security officials speak about their efforts to combat ongoing Russian digital meddling. U.S. Cyber Command and NSA chief Army Gen. Paul Nakasone closed the briefing by saying his "guidance and ... direction from the president and the Secretary of Defense is very clear: We're not going to accept meddling in the elections. And it's very unambiguous."
"We all saw what happened in 2016 when the Russians, and possibly others, but the Russians for certain tried to do both influence operations and actually get in and corrupt some of the election process," according to Mattis, who added that activities are being carried out with "official Russian support." However, "that is not exclusive. There [are] also other activities that went on that perhaps are not directly ascribed to the official Russians. But we watch for all of it and we can trace at least parts of it back to the Russian government." U.S. troops "are part of protecting the Constitution, protecting the integrity of the elections and protecting what we stand for," Mattis told reporters. [POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, August 8, 2018]

— MATTIS: DoD AND ADMINISTRATION IN LOCKSTEP: The Pentagon and the Trump administration are in "complete agreement" on creating a Space Force, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday.
"We are working our way through all this. We are in complete agreement," Mattis told reporters. "The vice president is kind of the point man for the president on this. We are working closely daily with his office and with supporters on Capitol Hill and the relevant committees." [POLITICO's Morning Defense, August 8, 2018]

FOR YOUR RADAR — MATTIS LEAVES SUNDAY FOR SOUTH AMERICA: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will leave Sunday for his first official trip to South America, the Pentagon announced today," via our colleague Wesley Morgan.
"Mattis will emphasize the military's 'strong defense ties with Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia,' the four countries he will visit, the Pentagon said in a statement. 'These relationships are critical to a collaborative, prosperous and secure Western hemisphere.' ...
"The visit comes shortly after an apparent suspected assassination attempt against Venezuela's head of state." [POLITICO's Morning Defense, August 10, 2018


ENVIRONMENT

Children Exposed to Lead in Drinking Water at Day Care Centers 

How to recycle the right way

Want to Achieve Better Electric Car Policies in Your City or State? Look No Further



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