DELEITURAS

The average American’s tax refunds are up in 2019, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Mainstream media has reported for weeks that President Trump’s tax plan had negatively impacted refund amounts, but new data shows they got it wrong.

“The average refund at this point in the filing season is now up 1.3 percent over last year based on 47.7 million individual returns processed thus far in 2019 compared 49.2 million returns processed in 2018,” the Treasury Department said Friday in a statement. “Through four weeks of the filing season, the average tax refund in 2019 increased to $3,143, a significant jump from last week’s average of $2,640.”

“Tax refunds normalized as we expected. #TaxCuts #refunds working,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tweeted Saturday morning, but the Treasury Department also warned that weekly filing data is variable and will continue to fluctuate.

Even with fluctuations, Mnuchin saying that refunds normalized “as expected” indicates that they expect the trend to remain around the average from 2018.

The increase in the weekly data is primarily due to the remainder of the Earned Income Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits being paid out this week.

The media also dishonestly cast the lower refunds received during the first few weeks as representing higher taxes paid under Trump’s tax reforms. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“The size of someone’s refund is a separate issue from whether their taxes have increased or decreased,” Treasury said.  “Most people are benefiting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by receiving larger paychecks throughout the year, instead of tax refunds that simply result from people overpaying the government throughout the year.”

The United States is deeply concerned by the sentencing of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang in Tianjin, China on January 28 to four-and-a-half years in prison on charges of “subverting state power.” Wang was among the first individuals detained during the Chinese government’s July 9, 2015 (“709”) crackdown on legal advocates for rule of law and human rights defenders, and the last to be tried.

“We are troubled that China has subjected Mr. Wang to a three-and-a-half-year period of pre-trial detention, and has been held incommunicado, has been deprived of legal counsel of his choosing, and that his chosen lawyer has been subjected to reprisals,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement Tuesday. “We call on China to release Mr. Wang immediately and allow him to reunite with his family. We remain concerned by the deteriorating situation for the rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms in China, and continue to urge China to uphold its international human rights commitments and to respect the rule of law.”

Wang often defended farmers who’s land the government took, members of out-of-favor religions, and scholars who spoke against Beijing’s human rights abuses.

More than 200 Chinese lawyers like Wang were arrested in the 2015 crackdown.

Source: U.S. Department of State

If a Marvel hero has made it to the big screen, there’s a pretty good chance they show up in the studio’s next film in the Avenger series – Infinity War.

This teaser trailer for the movie released Wednesday is action-packed and includes some surprise appearances so be sure to watch until the very, very end.

Avengers: Infinity War hits U.S. theaters May 4.

• The bank for Russia-born lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin flagged as suspicious hundreds of thousands of dollars into his account in 2016 and 2017.
• Akhmetshin worked closely with Fusion GPS in 2016 and was also one of the attendees of the infamous Trump Tower meeting.
• Akhmetshin worked for Fusion GPS to investigate the lobbyist behind the Magnitsky Act, which was discussed at the Trump Tower meeting.

Wells Fargo in 2017 flagged half a million dollars in wire transfers and bank deposits to the account of Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russia-born lobbyist who has worked closely with opposition research firm Fusion GPS and also attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting.

According to BuzzFeed News, Wells Fargo flagged the transactions for the Treasury Department upon the request of federal investigators looking into the Trump Tower meeting, which was held on June 9, 2016.

Wells Fargo deemed the deposits suspicious because of “overseas origin” and because of “a suspicion that they showed Akhmetshin had violated federal lobbying law,” according to BuzzFeed.

Akhmetshin has been interviewed by several congressional committees and testified to the grand jury being used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

BuzzFeed’s report focuses on Akhmetshin’s involvement in the Trump Tower meeting, while largely ignoring his connection to Fusion GPS, which commissioned the infamous Steele dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.

BuzzFeed, which was the first news outlet to publish the dossier, mentions Fusion GPS only once in its report, on the 24th paragraph.

The BuzzFeed report does not accuse Akhmetshin of wrongdoing, though the implication of the piece is that the payments to Akhmetshin are somehow linked to his visit to Trump Tower. The report does show that Akhmetshin received much more in wire payments and deposits from his lobbying client, the Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, than he reported on lobbying disclosure reports filed with Congress.

Akhmetshin’s lawyer responded to the story, telling NBC News that “it is appalling that BuzzFeed published this misleading article.”

“Mr. Akhmetshin categorically denies that he engaged in any form of unlawful activity, and BuzzFeed’s unsupported suggestions to the contrary are completely untrue.”

Akhmetshin gained national prominence when it was reported in July 2017 that he was part of the Russian delegation at the Trump Tower meeting, which was hosted by Donald Trump Jr. and attended by Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.

Akhmetshin accompanied Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya and several other associates to the meeting.

The meeting has drawn scrutiny because Trump Jr. accepted it after an associate said that a Russian lawyer — later identified as Veselnitskaya — sought to provide the campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

“If it is what you say, I love it,” Trump Jr. wrote in an email accepting the offer.

Most of the Trump Tower attendees, including Akhmetshin and Trump Jr., have testified that the meeting was a dud. They’ve all claimed that Veselnitskaya did not provide information on Clinton. Instead, she focused on the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that imposed sanctions on Russian human rights abusers.

Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya and Fusion GPS all worked as part of a multi-faceted campaign aimed at undermining the Magnitsky Act. Fusion’s main task was investigating Bill Browder, the London-based financier whose lobbying efforts let to the law’s passage.

Browder claims that his former lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Russian jail in 2009 while investigating a $230 million money laundering scheme involving a Russian organized crime syndicate.

The ultimate client for Fusion, Akhmetshin and Veselnitskaya was Katsyv, whose firm, Prevezon Holdings, was sued by the Justice Department for allegedly laundering money stolen during the tax fraud scheme uncovered by Magnitsky.

Some of Prevezon’s payments to Akhmetshin and Fusion GPS were routed through its U.S. law firm, BakerHostetler. That arrangement in an arrangement that mirrored its work for the Clinton campaign and DNC. On that project, Perkins Coie, the law firm for the Democrats, paid Fusion GPS $1 million to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. BakerHostetler paid Fusion $523,651 in 2016.

Fusion GPS’s work on a seemingly anti-Kremlin project (the dossier) and a project backed by Russians is one of the stranger twists of Russiagate.

Despite the overlap in Fusion’s work, the firm’s founder, Glenn Simpson, has denied knowing about the Trump Tower meeting until it was reported in the press. That claim has drawn some skepticism because Simpson was with Veselnitskaya hours before the meeting for a court hearing in the Prevezon case.

According to BuzzFeed, documents show that in the months before and after the Trump Tower meeting, Akhmetshin made $40,000 in cash deposits and received a wire transfer of $100,000 from Katsyv. BakerHostetler paid Akhmetshin another $97,400 over five months, according to BuzzFeed.

Akhmetshin also received $52,000 from the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, a foundation financed by Katsyv that Akhmetshin used as his lobbying vehicle on Capitol Hill.

BuzzFeed lists a series of other deposits that Wells Fargo found suspicious and reported to Treasury.

Work is expected to begin next year on a long-planned expansion of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the cemetery’s executive director told Congress.

The cemetery now occupies about 625 acres of land near the nation’s capital and is the final resting place of more than 400,000 service members and their family members.

But, after more than 150 years of service, the cemetery is running out of room.

“The expansion will add 37 acres of burial space and extend the cemetery’s active life,” Karen Durham-Aguilera said during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies.

Arlington National Cemetery lies on the former Arlington Estate — land that once belonged to George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington and stepgrandson of George Washington.

By the start of the Civil War, the property had passed into the family of Robert E. Lee through marriage. In May 1861, Union troops occupied the estate after the Lee family fled south.

The property served as a Union Army camp and headquarters throughout the war, and starting in 1863, as the site of Freedman’s Village, a home for freed slaves that provided housing, education, training and medical care to help former slaves transition to freedom.

The first military burial at Arlington, for William Henry Christman, was made on May 13, 1864. By war’s end, more than 16,000 soldiers had been buried there.

Today, the cemetery holds funeral services Monday through Saturday (except federal holidays), conducting between 27 and 30 services each weekday and between six and eight services each Saturday. Information on burial eligibility and military honors is available on the cemetery’s website.

FreedomHouse (CC)

The Obama administration has stated that they will send weapons to the rebels in Syria at this point, regardless of what the citizens in the U.S. or Syria think. And there isn’t a great deal of support for this action, in fact, it appears that even the recipients of the assistance are not wanting it. According to CNN:

If the outside world was excited about a U.S. retaliatory plan for the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against rebels, the families in the capital’s old Mezzah neighborhood struck a tone in utter contrast.

“America is inventing stories about chemical weapons,” one man told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen. “The Syrian government never used chemical weapons. The rebels have used them, not the government. So they are inventing stories because our army is winning.”

Another man, also shopping for household staples, said the U.S. action won’t make a difference. The government will prevail in the civil war, he asserted.

The intervention is in the wake of reports that the Assad regime is using chemical weapons against its own citizens. But, there remain reports that this simply isn’t the case on the ground. As Al Jazeera reports:

“The White House has issued a statement full of lies about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, based on fabricated information,” a statement issued on Friday by the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.

“The United States is using cheap tactics to justify President Barack Obama’s decision to arm the Syrian opposition,” it said.

Russia, a staunch ally of the Syrian government, also disputed the US charge on Friday.

President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that the information provided by US officials to Russia “didn’t look convincing”.

Russian officials are also not supporting U.S. plans for a no-fly zone over Syria.

“There have been leaks from Western media regarding the serious consideration to create a no-fly zone over Syria through the deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles and F-16 jets in Jordan,” said Mr [Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei] Lavrov, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow with his Italian counterpart.

“You don’t have to be a great expert to understand that this will violate international law,” he said.

Mr Lavrov also said evidence presented by the US of chemical weapons use in Syria apparently did not meet reliability criteria set out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The three-year-long conflict in Syria has been increasingly involving neighboring nations, and Hezbollah leaders have stated that they do not intend to back down in the conflict. This does not bode well for any plans that the U.S. could have for assisting the Syrian rebels – without taking into account arguments from within the U.S. that getting involved at this point would only be giving weapons to existing enemies of the U.S. There is no secret that Al Qaeda has been making in-roads in the Syrian resistance. Add to that it appears that even Israel does not foresee a stable nation in Syria with or without Assad, there seem to be very few, if any, redeeming factors to the U.S. stepping in any more than it has already.

Where are we? Italy? Tuscany? The Riviera? NO! We’re in the MUNCHIES Test Kitchen! And Matty’s showing us how to make a flawless steak sandwich. And because everyone loves healthy right now, Matty adds a crunchy chopped kale chimichurri and a beautiful little tomato salad.

Defense Department officials announced the details of DOD’s fiscal year 2020 budget request.

Highlights of the $718.3 billion budget include:

Great Power Competition

The budget request reflects focus on the great power competition with Russia and China, as called for in the 2018 National Defense Strategy. The past two budgets did begin to focus on the NDS, but the greater focus was on replenishing depleted munitions stocks and addressing readiness concerns that were the result of sequestration.

Focus on Space and Cyber

Space and cyber are the two newest warfighting domains. They got a big boost in defense dollars: $14.1 billion for space, a 10 percent increase over last year’s budget, and $9.6 billion for cyber, a 15 percent increase over last year.

In space, funds will go toward standing up the new Space Force, space communications, space-based warning systems and space launch capacity, and position, navigation and timing. Cyber funding will go to improved offensive and defensive capabilities, protecting the network and moving to a multi-cloud environment.

Multidomain Operations

Multidomain operations is a relatively new concept of the joint force. Future battles will be fought on land, at sea, in the air and in space and cyberspace, with allied troops operating together across all five domains in support of defeating the enemy.

The budget request asks for funding for multidomain weapons and equipment upgrades. DOD has requested $2.6 billion for disruptive technologies such as hypersonics, $3.7 billion for unmanned and autonomous systems, $235 million for directed energy weapons, and $927 million for artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he had a “very good call” with Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding progress on a comprehensive trade deal.

A deal could bring an end to what has been a back-and-forth trade war that has lasted for months.

After campaigning on a platform to end China’s “unfair” trade practices with the U.S., Trump has gone on to tax billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods. The U.S. slapped the communist country with a 25 percent punitive tariff on $50 billion worth of their imports in June. The president upped the ante in September, imposing a 10 percent levy on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Trump threatened to go even further, announcing his administration was ready to hike the tariff rate to 25 percent.

However, during a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early December, Trump and Xi reached an agreement, with the Chinese president submitting to a number of concessions in return for Trump agreeing to postpone the tariff hike.

Xi agreed to purchase more agricultural products from U.S. farmers, along with a pledge to buy more industrial and energy products. The Chinese leader also agreed to label the opioid fentanyl as a controlled substance — making any person who sells fentanyl to the U.S. subject to stricter penalties under Chinese law — and pledged to adhere to a number of cybersecurity and property theft concessions.

In return, Trump is postponing the tariff hike for 90 days, giving U.S. and Chinese negotiators time to reach a permanent deal.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is hoping to pull National Guard troops away from the U.S.-Mexico border to help protect his state’s struggling marijuana industry.

Faced with competition from a robust black market, the legal cannabis industry in California has not experienced the growth that supporters had expected. Newsom — who enjoyed hundreds of thousands in campaign donations from the marijuana lobby — wants to aid the industry by redeploying at least 150 California National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border and instead use them to combat illegal grows in Northern California.

“There are legitimate concerns in Northern California particularly as it relates to illegal cannabis grows. They are getting worse, not better,” Newsom stated, according to the Los Angels Times. “I want to see more enforcement.”

California citizens voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November 2016, and the law officially changed in January 2018. Proponents initially anticipated a thriving cannabis industry within the country’s most populous state. California officials, for example, estimated there would be up to 6,000 licensed cannabis shops within the first few years and that the industry would bring up to $1 billion a year in revenue.

Instead, the state only issued 547 temporary and annual licenses by December 2018, and California is only expected to rake in $471 million in revenue this fiscal year. New Frontier Data, a firm that analyzes marijuana sales, estimated the black market accounts for as much as 80 percent of the marijuana sold in the state. California’s illegal pot market is estimated to be four times that of the legal market.

Beyond a thriving black market, experts blame California’s lackluster marijuana sales on complex and burdensome regulations by the state government.

Newsom’s plan to target drug cartels and illegal grows comes after he blasted the Trump administration’s security prioritization at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Democratic governor announced on Feb. 11 that he would be pulling most of the state’s 400 National Guard troops from the southern border, rebuking an agreement his predecessor made with President Donald Trump in 2018 to beef up border security.

“We are not interested in participating in this political theatre. I think it is political theatre,” Newsom said in Sacramento as he announced his decision. He went on to claim that border crossings are at record lows and argued that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens. “The whole thing is ludicrous,” he said of Trump’s border security efforts.

The Democratic governor — who is serving his first year in office — offered further criticism of the president’s border agenda in his State of the State address.