Who really won this case? Plote pays total of $1,500 and will now comply with hours of operation until the special use expires.
For background information on this case go to: http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2014/09/9-18-2014-update-on-plote-case_22.html
January 21, 2018 6:14 pm / 0 Comments / Congress, Economy, Headlines
The billionaire Koch brothers were apparently quite pleased with the passage of the GOP’s tax scam bill.
In fact, as International Business Times reports, Charles Koch handed House Speaker Paul Ryan a nearly $500,000 thank-you gift mere days after the House passed its version of the bill.
The report notes that five other wealthy donors also contributed $100,000 each to Ryan’s joint fundraising committee in the last quarter of 2017.
And Ryan’s Democratic challenger, ironworker and military veteran Randy Bryce, made sure that these massive gifts and the context around them did not go unnoticed.
Above is from: https://www.nationalmemo.com/paul-ryan-pocketed-tip-koch-brothers-following-tax-cut/
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By Alex Kotch @alexkotch On 01/19/18 AT 5:04 PM
In the months leading up to the passage of the Republican Party’s long-awaited tax bill last year, the powerful political operation run by the billionaire Koch brothers was one of the strongest forces pressuring lawmakers to pass massive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations.
“Republicans never hid the fact that this tax bill was about pleasing their big donors,” Adam Smith, communications director at campaign finance reform nonprofit Every Voice, told International Business Times. “And it looks like House Speaker [Paul] Ryan is quickly being rewarded for passing this legislation that overwhelmingly benefits the Kochs and billionaires like them.”
Thirteen days after the U.S. House passed its version of the tax legislation, Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, combined to donate nearly $500,000 to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising committee, according to a new campaign finance report released Thursday. These two donations were by far the largest sums added to Ryan’s coffers in the fourth quarter of 2017, but they were by no means the only major contributions: Marlene Ricketts, the wife of billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, donated $100,000, as did five other individuals.
In addition, as Politico reporter Gabriel Debenedetti noted, of the roughly $5 million Ryan received in the 4th quarter of 2017, more than $330,000 arrived in the two days after the House passed the tax bill.
On the same day as their donations to the Ryan committee, Charles and Elizabeth Koch each donated the maximum possible amount of $237,000 total to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s main, legal and building accounts. These Nov. 29 donations were the Kochs’ first to the NRCC in 2017, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In June, mega-donors in the Koch political network had threatened to withhold contributions to GOP members of Congress unless they repealed Obamacare and passed tax reform.
Team Ryan, the joint fundraising committee, raises money for Ryan’s campaign committee, the NRCC and a separate political action committee that Ryan operates called Prosperity Action. The day after the Koch donations, Ryan transferred close to $1 million from Team Ryan to the NRCC; $488,000 to Prosperity Action; and $219,000 to his campaign. Ryan is reportedly considering leaving Congress after this year, but the speaker has not yet made an announcement.
Above is from: http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/after-scoring-huge-tax-cuts-charles-koch-floods-ryan-cash-2643260
By Chris Kirk
There are many reasons to dislike the Electoral College: It gives a handful of states the lion’s share of campaign attention; it allows a candidate with fewer votes to win; it depresses voter turnout in “safe” states; and it’s plain confusing. Now add this one: The electoral power of your vote depends on where you live.
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The average electoral vote represents 436,000 people, but that number rises and falls per state depending on that state’s population over 18 years of age. (The map above shows the population 18 years and older per electoral vote by state.) The states with the fewest people per electoral vote, and therefore the highest “vote power,” are Wyoming, Vermont, and North Dakota. In Wyoming, there are 143,000 people for each of its three electoral votes. The states with the weakest votes are New York, Florida, and California. These states each have around 500,000 people for each electoral vote.
In other words, one Wyoming voter has roughly the same vote power as four New York voters. (Mouse over the map and it will show you where your state ranks in voting power.)
Electoral votes are allocated to the states each decade to reflect population shifts, but every state is guaranteed three electoral votes before allocation kicks in, leaving the least populous states with the most disproportionate number of electoral votes and improving their vote power. That’s why the five states with the most vote power have only three electoral votes.
A state’s vote power also depends on how close the state is to an additional electoral vote. The closer it is, the higher the population per electoral vote. Although the math behind apportionment minimizes this factor, it still results in situations like this: Minnesota has 22,000 more people than Colorado and one more electoral vote, while Wisconsin has 33,000 more people than Minnesota and the same number of electoral votes.
“Vote power,” in the sense used here, doesn’t entirely describe the probability that your individual vote can decisively influence the outcome of the presidential election. To determine that, you also need to know how tight the election is in your state and nationwide. Although a vote in Washington, D.C. is the third most powerful, for example, the probability it will change the outcome of the election is incredibly low.
In the aggregate, though, vote-power disparity does change outcomes, yielding elections, such as the 2000 election, in which the winner is not the one with the highest popular vote. And because the Electoral College mirrors the allocation of representatives in Congress, this map also charts legislative power; 143,000 people in Wyoming have the same number of legislators in Congress as 500,000 in New York.
