Palin Vs. Ryan. Anybody Vs. Ryan.

The experienced and celebrated blogger Tristero writes

1. Just because Sarah Palin declines to endorse Paul Ryan does not make Ryan a centrist.

2. Just because Sarah Palin declines to endorse Paul Ryan does not make Palin rational. 

Well, yes and no.  CNN reports 

Sarah Palin reiterated her support for Paul Ryan's primary challenger Friday night immediately after her political ally, Donald Trump, endorsed the House speaker.

Trump on Friday evening said in Wisconsin that he would back Ryan in his Republican primary against Paul Nehlen, a little-known challenger. That announcement was a reversal from earlier in the week, when the presidential nominee declined to endorse the speaker.

Minutes after Trump announced his support during a rally in Ryan's home state, Palin wrote on Facebook that she was "proud to be standing with Paul Nehlen since May 9th."

"Wisconsin, please vote for this man 'of the people' this Tuesday!" she wrote.

Evidently, very few people are taking Palin's advice, a blow for the middle class and the poor, Paul Ryan's targets for several years.

After announcement that the US government had transferred $400 million to Iran, exploited by a Republican Party cynically claiming it constituted "ransom" for return of four American hostages, Ryan remarked

If true, this report confirms our longstanding suspicion that the administration paid a ransom in exchange for Americans unjustly detained in Iran. It would also mark another chapter in the ongoing saga of misleading the American people to sell this dangerous nuclear deal.

If true that the temperature has not risen above 40 degrees Fahrenheit in Miami this summer, climate change is a hoax.   Unsurprisingly, the temperature has risen to at least 90 degrees for the last twenty days in Miami. However, "if true...."

Five weeks ago, Citizens for Tax Justice reviewed the GOP's latest budget scheme and observed the

“A Better Way” plan would reduce taxes for the top 1 percent of Americans icans (a group with average annual household income of $1.7 million) by an average of $137,780 per year. This massive tax reduction for the rich equals a 60 percent share of all the individual tax cuts. The top 0.1 percent of Americans would receive $798,000 a year in tax cuts or a 35 percent share of the total tax reductions.

CTJ found the plan would "overwhelmingly benefit the top 1 percent of taxpayers while resulting in a net loss for the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers" and would "add $4 trillion to the national debt over a decade."

Ryan's plan would eliminate the estate tax, which (the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out) currently applies to only .2% of estates because it is "levied only on the portion of an estate’s value that exceeds a specified exemption level — $5.43 million per person (effectively $10.86 million per married couple) " Whenever a Republican proposes elimination of what they vilify as a "death tax" (thank you, Frank Luntz), hold on to your wallet because he's diverting your attention while emptying your pockets.

When Ryan was running for vice-president, he told high schoolers outside of Denver

I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, when I was flipping burgers at McDonald's, when I was standing in front of that big Hobart machine washing dishes, or waiting tables, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life.  I thought to myself, I'm the American dream on the path or journey so that I can find happiness however I define it myself.

Ryan may have mentioned that he was six years old when his father died of a heart attack but neglected to note

In the year after his father's death, Ryan's maternal grandmother set up the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, which remains an important part of Ryan's finances with assets of up to half a million dollars, according to the congressman's 2011 financial disclosure statement. Ryan continues as the general partner running the entity for the family.

Court records indicate Ryan's father left a probate estate of $428,000, though the number of assets existing outside the will or the probate remains unknown. Ryan was to receive $50,000 when he turned 30. The will leaves the bulk of the estate to Ryan's mother, who now lives in an oceanfront condo in Florida.

In addition to the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, Ryan also benefits from another family entity, Ryan Limited Partnership, which was established in March 1995 by an aunt. Ryan's share of that is worth up to $500,000. Ryan makes no investment decisions in either partnership, the campaign spokesman said.

By the time Ryan had entered Congress in 1999 at the age of 28 and filed his first disclosure statement, he reported assets between $167,000 and $1.3 million, owned a home and had three rental units.

Ryan opponent Paul Nehlen is from the far right of the far-right Party, though he knows enough to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sarah Palin is, well, Sarah Palin (two months ago in an alliterative way, below.  But if a blind squirrel can find an acorn once in a while, this is the former governor's once in a while moment, however she may have happened upon the acorn. Paul Ryan is a very, very dangerous man and as Charlie Pierce has written, is the.... Biggest. Fake. Ever.
















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