Ivana Trump Laid To Rest… Near First Hole of Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, NJ

There’s a rumor goin’ ‘round that “The Donald” buried his now-late first wife Ivana on his Bedminster, NJ golf course.

It’s no rumor.

It’s true.

Dr. Brooke Harrington, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, who focuses upon the economic & organizational aspects of sociology, has a professional credential in wealth management, and specializes in “tax optimization” research. She has authored several books on wealth management, and about the mind-boggling efforts that wealthy elites go to, the shenanigans they participate in, and stunts they pull, all in order to avoid paying numerous kinds of taxes.
See: https://faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu/brooke-harrington
See also: https://works.bepress.com/brooke_harrington/

She wrote that, “As a tax researcher, I was skeptical of rumors Trump buried his ex-wife in that sad little plot of dirt on his Bedminster, NJ golf course just for tax breaks.

“So I checked the NJ tax code & folks… it’s a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated.”

She followed up on that theme by writing that the “full text of NJ tax code for land used for human burial” states that there is “no stipulation regarding a minimum number of human remains necessary” for the tax breaks to kick in — [and it] looks like one corpse will suffice to make at least 3 forms of tax vanish.”
See: https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/sales/anj22.pdf

She further substantiated that claim by pointing to extensive investigative reporting published by ProPublica in their Non-Profit Explorer online search tool which showed that “Trump Family Trust” in Hackettstown, NJ (20 miles from Bedminster) has been a 501(c)(13) tax-exempt organization as a cemetery company since May 2016, and was formed exclusively for that purpose.
See: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/465718872

The TFT organization’s 2014 form 990, a tax return which is a public record document, as all tax exempt organizations’ tax returns are, shows that on Schedule O, the Supplemental Information form accompanying form 990, on Part III, Primary Exempt Purpose, and on Part III, Line 28, First Accomplishment, reads that, “The corporation will

It’s not a joke. Republican voting states have lower education & income.

Like it, love it, or hate it… there must be something to 1.) Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” and; 2.) The line made famous (or infamous, depending upon one’s perspective) by then-Washington Post reporter Michael Weisskopf in 1993 about being “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command.“ And, for the readers’ benefit, in context, he wrote, “Corporations pay public relations firms millions of dollars to contrive the kind of grass-roots response that Falwell or Pat Robertson can galvanize in a televised sermon. Their followers are largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command.”
— Washington Post reporter Michael Weisskopf in a February 1, 1993 news story.

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America’s Best (and Worst) Educated States

Published October 15, 2012

24/7 Wall St., Michael B. Sauter and Alexander E.M. Hess

The number of Americans with college degrees has increased steadily in the last decade. According to the latest government data, 28.5% of U.S. residents 25 or older had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2011, up only slightly from 27.2% in 2005. While the number is relatively unchanged, there are substantial differences across the country. In West Virginia, the state with the lowest graduation rate, 18.5% of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree. In Massachusetts, the state with the highest graduation rate, the figure is 39.1%.

Best & Worst educated states & Presidential voting record

This article was originally published by 24/7 Wall St. 

Based on education data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s’ American Community Survey, 24/7 Wall St. identified the U.S. states with the largest and smallest percentages of residents 25 or older with a college degree or more.

The difference in median income between those with only a high school diploma and a college degree is dramatic. The median pay for U.S. adults with just a high school diploma was $26,699 in 2011. For those 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree, median annual earnings came to $48,309. Residents with a graduate or professional degree did even better; median annual earnings was $64,322.

Differences in poverty rates related to education are just as dramatic. For U.S. adults with at least bachelor’s degrees, the percentage living in poverty in 2011 was just 4.4%. For adults with only a high school diploma, 14.2% were living below the poverty line.

The effects of wage gap by education becomes clear when comparing the states by graduation rate. Of the 10 states with the largest percentage of college-educated residents, eight are in the top 10 for median income. Among the worst-educated states, eight are among the 10 with the lowest median income.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the percentage of U.S. residents 25 or older with at least a bachelor’s degree for 2011 from the annual American Community Survey. From that survey, we obtained

Mentally Sick Residents in 20 States Petition White House to Secede from Union

I can’t believe that I’m really reading this.

It’s unfathomable.

Genuinely.

That this could happen is stupefying.

It is unimaginable.

Literally.

If I were to continue, I would unleash a stream of less-than-wholesome language to characterize those who agree with such ludicrously asinine actions.

But, let us remember this, my friends – that is not only ANTI-AMERICAN, it is the actions of TRAITORS – TREASON.

Here’s hoping that only the truly mentally sick were the ones who filed, signed and endorsed such petitions.

Reckon Alabama Governor Dr. Robert Bentley signed it?

He’s promised to repay nearly $1/2 BILLION to the Alabama Trust Fund, saying “Trust me,” but never quite put it into writing that he’d repay.

The sad thing about that is, that the people of Alabama believed him.

Maybe it should be renamed the “Alabama Mis-Trust Fund“?

Naah.

The majority of people trust him.

After all, he’s the governor, AND he’s a doctor.

Does that mean that the people can sue him for malpractice after he screws everything up?

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Alabama joins states where residents petition White House to secede from U.S.

By George Talbot | gtalbot@al.com
on November 11, 2012 at 9:24 PM, updated November 12, 2012 at 7:31 AM

(Bob Daemmrich/Texas Tribune)

Alabama is one of 20 states – and counting – where residents have petitioned the White House in the days after the Nov. 6 presidential election, seeking to withdraw from the United States and create their own governments.

The informal petitions are created by citizens on the White House web site under a “We the People” program created by the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama was re-elected Tuesday, defeating a challenge from Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

The Alabama petition was filed Friday by Derrick B. (no last name given) of Mobile. It was the third petition filed overall, following an initial petition filed Wednesday, the day after the election, on behalf of Louisiana. The second petition was filed Friday on behalf of Texas.

“We petition the Obama Administration to peacefully grant the State of Alabama to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government,” the petition reads.

The Alabama petition had received 4,426 signatures as of Monday morning.

Other states making similar requests include Arkansas,

Zzzz… Day 2 of the GOP Convention. Yawn.

No matter how many hackneyed, tired old phrases the speakers threw out – including Ann Romney‘s “lovey-dovey” message, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s attempt to whip up the delegates – there was no getting them fired up.

None.

Poor Governor Christie even had to TELL the delegates to STAND UP.

Good grief.

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How the Republicans Built It

August 28, 2012

It was a day late, but the Republicans’ parade of truth-twisting, distortions and plain falsehoods arrived on the podium of their national convention on Tuesday. Following in the footsteps of Mitt Romney’s campaign, rarely have so many convention speeches been based on such shaky foundations.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, in the keynote speech,

States find private prisons too costly, move toward employment model

Many states and individuals complain about budget items, but few ever discuss the booming private prison industry in this nation – a Wall Street-traded for-profit prison system supported by tax dollars… a corporate welfare program if ever there was one.

A key paragraph is this one: “Although states spend significant amounts of money on criminal justice—it’s second only to Medicaid in state budgets—the vast majority of those costs go toward prisons, with limited emphasis on preparing prisoners for life on the outside. The costs of incarceration include an annual $82 billion spent on corrections nationwide, including millions for oversight of parole systems overseeing the 75% of prisoners released short of their full sentences.”

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From Prison to a Paycheck

Instead of training and counseling, Newark is trying work first—with promising results

By HOWARD HUSOCK

• LIFE & CULTURE
• August 3, 2012, 6:51 p.m. ET

Former inmate Hector Morales at work; the Office of Reentry in Newark, N.J., intervened to help him. He says he was tired of being a bad role model for his kids.

Hector Morales might not seem, at first, to be an American success story. At age 50, he works the graveyard shift—7 p.m. to 5 a.m.—at the back of a garbage truck, part of a three-man crew that lifts and loads 80,000 pounds of waste each night in New York City. It’s his first job in years. The native of Paterson, N.J., a high-school dropout, still owes more than $9,000 in child-support payments to the state of New Jersey.

Former inmate Hector Morales at work; the Office of Reentry in Newark, N.J., intervened to help him. He says he was tired of being a bad role model for his kids. Katie Orlinsky for The Wall Street Journal

But compared with Mr. Morales’s situation a year ago, his story is a success.

Then, he was completing a five-year sentence at the Northern State Prison in Newark, N.J. The former heroin addict has spent, by his own estimate, 18 years behind bars, mostly on drug-related charges. Today, Newark-based Action Carting, one of the largest commercial disposal firms operating in New York, considers Mr. Morales to be a model employee and a good prospect for promotion if he completes his plan to get a commercial truck driver’s license. Currently, he’s on track to earn more than $60,000 a year, including overtime. Every week, part of his check goes to pay off his child-support debt.

Part of the change is due to Mr. Morales’s own attitude. “I got tired of being in jail, tired of officers controlling my life, tired of being the wrong kind of role model for my children,” he says.

His success says much about an unusual intervention by Newark. In April 2009, with the help of

FDA Announces Food Recalls

To ensure public health and safety, the United States Food and Drug Administration has recently announced recalls of certain food items.

And, if you can imagine it – believe it or else – there are politicians and people who say the FDA should be eliminated. Hint: They’re “TEA Party,” Libertarian or Republican. And you know what their argument is? It’s not in Constitution.

Honestly, that stupefies me. It boggles my imagination.

Following are the two most recent recall announcements.

New Registered Nurse Grads Face Tough Job Market

For the first time in many years, new Registered Nurse graduates face a contracted job market, and may face tough employment prospects, adding to an already dismal national economic portrait.

Researchers such as Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, FAAN, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and others have warned about the impending Nursing shortage. However, because of the poor overall economic conditions of the United States, many experienced RNs have foregone retirement, and or have come out of semi-retirement or translated part-time and PRN jobs into full-time status and have therefore made many hospitals flush with Nurses.

Previously, many experienced Nurses would have taken PRN (Latin for “pro re nata,” meaning “as needed”) or part-time positions, working anywhere from one shift every two weeks, 12 hours weekly, or in some cases no more than 24 hours weekly at most. Most Nurses are hospital-based employees, and work 12-hour shifts, and a typical full-time work week for Nurses is three, 12-hour shifts in a 7-day (one week) period.

Nursing has been, and continues to be a predominately female-populated profession, so the indicator of hospitals flush with Nurses is indeed a fascinating observation on at least two accounts. It speaks volumes about dire national economic conditions because women have found themselves in the unenviable position of having to work, and in many cases being their family’s primary breadwinner.

In an article published by Alabama & New Jersey’s State Nurses Association, Dr. Buerhaus shared his perspective on “The Short and Long-term Outlook for Registered Nurses in the US.” He wrote in part “that once the jobs recovery begins and RN’s spouses return to work, many currently employed RNs could leave the workforce.”

He noted further that while RNs’ employment prospects continue to be… To read more, click here.

Is marriage about me, we, you, us or exactly what?

It’s all about ME, ME, ME… or, is it WE, WE, WE… all the way home?

Pssst… hey, buddy, chickie!

We have some “new” news about marriage.

Okay, you’re skeptical. I would be too, if every self-proclaimed “expert” out there was yammering at me.

Seems that somebody (or somebodies) think that husbands and wives ought to be friends with each other!

What a novel concept! (I can hear it now… ‘I married you because I wanted to create a marriage.’)

Duh!

Good News! California’s Nurse:Patient Ratio Law Saves Lives!

Extra! Extra!

Read all about it!

Should that, or

“Told ‘ya so!”

be the cry?

California and her residents, often maligned within and without, on occasion do come up with some good ideas.

Here’s one of the better ones.

“Attention, Wal-Mart customers: All Black people, leave the store now.”

Yo yo yo yo yo!

Wassup brutha’ and sistas! It be lookin’ like muh folks in ‘da hood wuz dissed in Washington Township, New Jersey!

Yo yo yo yo!

We ain’ down wid it!

Breaking now from the jive blinglish, we shall continue in plain, ordinary, everyday English.

Last Sunday evening at a Wal-Mart store in southern New Jersey’s Washington Township, a calm male voice came over the public-address system and announced: “Attention, Wal-Mart customers: All black people, leave the store now.”

Moments later, a store manager quickly