# Profoundd archive — Epstein Files # Bates number: EFTA01195251 # Title: Attachments: # Dataset: 9 # Pages: 29 # Images: 29 detected # Tags: epstein, doj, dataset-9, image-described # Source PDF: https://profoundd.com/epstein-docs/EFTA01195251/download # Doc viewer: https://profoundd.com/epstein-docs/EFTA01195251 # # Text below is what Profoundd has extracted from the source PDF. # 'ocr-enriched' tag means OCR was applied to scan-only pages. # Image descriptions are AI-generated factual captions (llava:13b). #---------------------------------------------------------------------- === SUMMARY === From: To: Bcc• Subject: Date: Attachments: Inline-Images: Gregory Brown undisclosed -recipients:; jeevacation@gmail.com Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.. 08/16/2015 Sun, 16 Aug 2015 04:08:47 +0000 Avocados_Aren't_The_Only_Trendy_Food_That_May_Be_Endangered_Because_Of_The_ Drought_Huff_Post_April_24,_2015.docx; Gun-Death-Injury-Stat-Sheet-5-Year-Average- 2013-Updates-Jan-2015.pdf; I_Madt$41,879_As_An_AirBNB_Host_Kelly_Kampen_Huff_Post_June_1,_2015.docx; Why_conservatives_are_able_to === EXTRACTED TEXT === From: To: Bcc• Subject: Date: Attachments: Inline-Images: Gregory Brown undisclosed -recipients:; jeevacation@gmail.com Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.. 08/16/2015 Sun, 16 Aug 2015 04:08:47 +0000 Avocados_Aren't_The_Only_Trendy_Food_That_May_Be_Endangered_Because_Of_The_ Drought_Huff_Post_April_24,_2015.docx; Gun-Death-Injury-Stat-Sheet-5-Year-Average- 2013-Updates-Jan-2015.pdf; I_Madt$41,879_As_An_AirBNB_Host_Kelly_Kampen_Huff_Post_June_1,_2015.docx; Why_conservatives_are_able_to_pass_such_harsh_restrictions_on_the_poor_Christopher_In graham_TWP_June_1,_2015.docx; Billy_Joel_bio.docx image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png; image(13).png; image(14).png; image(15).png; image(16).png; image(17).png; image(18).png; image(19).png DEAR FRIEND Our Country's Cartoonish Gun Debate Isn't Just Idiotic It's Really Damaging On average more than 32,000 people were killed by gunfire each year. Additionally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 70,000 suffered nonfatal injuries from guns EFTA01195251 with an economic toll from gun violence that costs America an estimated $229 billion plus a year. Yet there is still a debate in America on whether or not to pass any new laws that might lower these numbers. To illustrate the banality of this is Mark Follman's article in Mother Jones magazine - Our Country's Cartoonish Gun Debate Isn't Just Idiotic—It's Really Damaging. To illustrate the core of the debate, Follman recants a KQED's Forum on gun violence where a former US Marine came on the air and criticized the National Rifle Association for lying, the next caller, another gun owner, promptly denounced him for speaking against the Second Amendment and being 'full of it." That was followed by a woman who wanted to know what could be done to prevent gun manufacturers from manufacturing guns, whether "we could stop it at the source." And that, in a nutshell, is pretty much the state of America's gun debate. Here's more of it—but also some vivid stories and data from those who know gun violence firsthand: Having reported on this subject intensively for the last three years, I'm still not totally sure whether guns kill people or people kill people, but I'm almost certain that you can be riddled to death with inanities. (See, for the umpteenth time: "Knives, baseball bats, and hands and feet kill people tool!"), said Follman. America has a problem with gun violence • One in three people in the U.S. know someone who has been shot. • On average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns every day and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room. • Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun. • The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population. • A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense. 5= Gun Violence Takes a Massive Toll on American Children • More than one in five U.S. teenagers (ages 14 to 17) report having witnessed a shooting. • An average of eight children and teens under the age of 20 are killed by guns every day. • American children die by guns 11 times as often as children in other high-income countries. • Youth (ages o to 19) in the most rural U.S. counties are as likely to die from a gunshot as those living in the most urban counties. Rural children die of more gun suicides and unintentional shooting deaths. Urban children die more often of gun homicides. EFTA01195252 • Firearm homicide is the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle crashes) for young people ages 1-19 in the U.S. • In 2007, more pre-school-aged children (85) were killed by guns than police officers were killed in the line of duty." Gun Violence is a Drain on U.S. Taxpayers • Medical treatment, criminal justice proceedings, new security precautions, and reductions in quality of life are estimated to cost U.S. citizens $ioo billion annually. • The lifetime medical cost for all gun violence victims in the United States is estimated at $2.3 billion, with almost half the costs borne by taxpayers. Americans Support Universal Background Checks • Nine out of to Americans agree that we should have universal background checks, including three out of four NRA members. • Since the Brady Law was initially passed, about 2 million attempts to purchase firearms have been blocked due to a background check. About half of these blocked attempts were by felons. • Unfortunately, our current background check system only applies to about 60% of gun sales, leaving 40% (online sales, purchases at gun shows, etc.) without a background check. This standoff is the result of media and political influence of the NRA, as the gun lobby has pulled off a messaging feat decades in the making — its leaders perpetually blasting away with the idea that any discussion of guns in America can be nothing other than a brutal dichotomy. You're either a defender of constitutional liberty, their premise goes, or you're an anti-freedom "gun grabber." While the American medical community is nearly unanimous that gun violence is a serious public health threat, but yet, there remains precious little research on the problem, let alone funding to do more. This is really destructive to our ability to make progress. The debate posed as an "either or," which was done by strategists working for the NRA over a long period of time. They wanted people to think that either you protect the rights of all gun owners to keep their guns, or you do research on gun violence, and that the two are diametrically opposed. And they had a zero-tolerance philosophy that said, "You can't even discuss research on gun violence because that leads down the slippery slope of all of us losing our guns." And that's led us into the morass where we are today. We have seen with the Ebola scare how quickly and decisively the collective in America can move when it really wants. So what is different here? And where is the sanity of our politicians and the American public? Follman points out that after the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado (which cost that community at least floc, million), Mark Rosenberg, the former director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and one of his fiercest old adversaries, former Republican Rep. Jay Dickey of Arkansas published a joint op-ed in the Washington Post: "We were on opposite sides of EFTA01195253 the heated battle 16 years ago," they wrote, "but we are in strong agreement now that scientific research should be conducted into preventing firearm injuries and that ways to prevent firearm deaths can be found without encroaching on the rights of legitimate gun owners. The same evidence- based approach that is saving millions of lives from motor-vehicle crashes, as well as from smoking, cancer and HIV/AIDS, can help reduce the toll of deaths and injuries from gun violence." So why is this still a debate and I actually started writing this before the massacre in Charleston? ****** Dying to Breathe A Short Film Shows China's True Cost of Gold Saanxi, China: Since 2004 He Quangui has suffered from silicosis — an incurable disease that scars and hardens the lungs. He is one of six million Chinese workers with a lung disease caused by breathing dust in mines. Once farmers, men like Mr. He left en masse in the late 199os to work in gold mines — part of the army of migrant workers who powered China's economic boom in recent decades. They dug deep into the mountains for treasures. Years later, they came back with the lung disease silicosis, and now wait in their homes for death. He Quangui, lives in an old earthen house with his wife, Mi Shbdu. Mr. He has been struggling with silicosis for over ten years—surviving longer than most in his area. He keeps a notebook to record the names of those who've succumbed to silicosis. Flipping through it, he says: "I've watched them die, one by one. I know one day it will happen to me too." This is the unseen cost of gold mining in China — the world's top gold producer. In China, silicosis is considered a form of pneumoconiosis, which affects an estimated six million workers who toil in gold, coal, or silver mines or in stone-cutting factories. It's the country's most prevalent occupational disease. What the statistics can't capture are the miners' slow deaths. The men waste away, their lungs gradually scarring or becoming hardened from the dust they breathed years earlier. The disease is EFTA01195254 irreversible — a lung transplant is the only known cure — but is preventable with protective gear and ventilation while drilling. Mr. He says the type of mines he worked in lacked such safety measures. In recent years, mining conditions have improved, but out here in hardscrabble rural China, most workers cannot track down mine owners to cover medical bills and don't get treatment until it is too late. Most just give up as costs mount. Some commit suicide. Mr. He, once a healthy 143 pounds, deteriorate to a mere 88 pounds. He has suffered repeated collapses, and one suicide attempt in the middle of the night. He has said good-bye to his wife, family and friends many times, and then miraculously fought off severe tuberculosis and other ailments, living through another winter—the season silicosis patients fear most. The wooden coffin he built for himself sits under a dusty plastic shroud in the attic. For five years, his wife has been preparing the hand-sewn cloth shoes, five shirts, and three pairs of trousers he will wear to his grave as dictated by custom. After one of his many collapses, he whisper instructions in her ear: Buy thick white paper to line the coffin, do not spend too much money on religious rites or he will come back and haunt her, and wash his favorite faux leather jacket so he can wear it in death. Web Link: kttpiljproof.nationalgeographic.com/ams&thtlying-to-breathe-a-short- film-shows-chinas-true-cost-of-gold/? utm source=NatGeocom8rutm medium=Email&utm content=pom 2015o5318zutm ca mpaign =Content As one reader commented. They are the real heroes of the economic miracle which is China. It's painful to see millions like Mr. He suffering this way, after spending the best part of his youth trying his best to provide for his family. I want to focus on the positive messages in this video. Firstly, Mrs. He's love and affection for her husband is beyond anything I've seen. Not forsaking him and still taking great pains to care for him. I truly have the greatest respect for Mrs. He. As much as Mr. He is suffering, I hope he will fight on, for the sake of his loving wife. My prayers are with the He family and the many families suffering the same fate. • humbled and inspired at the same time. Thank you for making this great video. With this I invite you to click on the above website to see the video. ****** AGAIN: YOUNG, BLACK, UNARMED AND NOW DEAD Young, Unarmed Black Man Killed By Cop Didn't Want To 'Die Too Young EFTA01195255 An unarmed black teenager in Texas was shot dead by a cop who had only recently graduated from the police academy. Just over a week before his death, a Twitter account that appears to belong to 19-year- old Christian Taylor includes messages about being afraid to die young. UOctober 13th @he_got_sneaks I don't wanna die too younggggg 5:16 PM - 30 Jul 2015 tl 10,332 * 6.418 V Follow Cops in Arlington responded to a burglary call around i MI. on August 7, 2015 when they came upon the suspect, Taylor, who had crashed his vehicle into a car dealership. Police said a struggle ensued between Taylor and 49-year-old officer Brad Miller before Miller fatally shot the suspect. The officer graduated from the police academy in March and was working under the supervision of a training officer. Police said Miller had no experience prior to joining the Arlington Police Department. He has been placed on paid administrative leave. Another social media post last year appearing to belong to Taylor said he didn't feel protected by police. October 13th ne_got_sneaks 0+ I don't feel protected by the police 8/12/14, 2:03 PM 150 RETWEETS 133 FAVORITES EFTA01195256 Taylor, who was a football player at Angelo State University in San Angelo, was described as a "good kid" by his great-uncle, Clyde Fuller. "He was a good kid. I don't see him stealing no car or nothing like that," Fuller told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Police Sgt. Paul Rodriguez told The Star- Telegram that surveillance video at the dealership shows Taylor damaging a parked car and later driving through the showroom glass. However, Rodriguez said that officers are not equipped with body cameras, and that they haven't found security video at the car dealership that would have captured the fatal encounter. This is an epidemic and for our political leaders and general public to not recognize the importance of addressing this tragic nationwide trend immediately it is beyond belief. We have to stop our police from acting as judge, jury and executor. How many children and young adults have to die before we stop excusing this abomination because in a humane society.... Black Lives Do Matter Obviously police training is a major part. But the idea that a black kid is considered a thug when he is killed by a police officer is ridiculous, even when he is a twelve year old playing with friends in a city park or obvious person suffering from a mental condition or an unarmed college football player who might be stealing a car, killing them is unacceptable. As someone who as a teenager took a joyride without permission, there but for the grace of God could have been me... By the way police in Norway hardly ever use their guns, a new report released by the Scandinavian country's government shows. In fact, it's been almost ro years since law enforcement shot and killed someone, in 2006. Perhaps the most telling instance was when terrorist Anders Breivik opened fire in 2011 and killed 77 people in Utoya and Oslo. Authorities fired back at him, all right, but only a single time. In 2014, officers drew their guns 42 times, but they fired just two shots while on duty. No one was hurt in either of those instances. Considering that police officers in the United States have killed more than 600 people this year alone, the report certainly is eye-opening. Of course, law enforcement officials in the United States face greater threats of violence while on duty. Still Norway is living proof that not only can a country produce almost all of its electric power using renewable energy, policing can be done without an epidemic of killing civilians. 5 Tax Myths That Republicans Believe 2, U.S. federal tax return 1040 form. The overwhelming premise is that every economic ailments can be cured with a tax cut. Here are some perennial Tax Myths -- and why you shouldn't believe any of them. MYTH #1: The way to create jobs and grow the economy is to cut taxes -- a lot. When Republicans talk about cutting taxes on the middle class you may end up with a few extra bucks in your pocket each paycheck, but the real winners are the rich and big corporations. The standard GOP position on tax cuts is to slash the top tax rate on the rich by more than one third and the corporate tax rate by about 3o percent. Millionaires would get an average tax cut of at least $200,000 a year, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. The only way they can pay for these gigantic tax cuts is to EFTA01195257 slash benefits and services for average Americans, cutting into everything from Medicaid and Medicare to child nutrition and education services. When it comes to taxes, what really matters to working Americans is seeing that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. The loophole-ridden tax code encourages corporations to hide profits and ship jobs overseas. This holds down wages and denies us the revenue needed to fix roads and bridges, build schools and conduct life-saving medical research. As for the economy, rebuilding our infrastructure and providing Food Stamps for hungry kids generates a lot more jobs than does more take home pay for millionaires. If you want to address inequality, create a fair tax system. MYTH #2: The American corporate tax rate is the highest in the world and lowering it would boost our economy. The only number that matters when you're talking about tax rates is what is actually paid. While the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent, the effective tax rate paid by U.S. companies on their worldwide income was a meager 13 percent in 2010, according to the Government Accountability Office. Many corporations — General Electric, Verizon, Priceline.com and 23 other big firms -- paid nothing at all in federal income taxes over a recent five-year period. The problem isn't that U.S. corporate tax rates are too high. It's that American corporations aren't paying what they should. While workers' wages are stagnant and corporate profits are sky high, the corporate share of federal revenue has plummeted. Real corporate tax reform would stop subsidizing U.S. corporations that ship jobs offshore and close loopholes so that they pay their fair share. MYTH #3: Corporations are holding more than $2 trillion in profits offshore because our corporate tax rate is too high, so we should drastically cut the tax rate to entice that money home. The reason there are $2.1 trillion in U.S. corporate profits offshore is to avoid paying U.S. taxes on the money. It's a giant tax dodge. Corporations can do this because of a loophole called "deferral." It allows them to delay indefinitely paying taxes on their offshore profits as long as they do not bring them back home as dividends paid to shareholders. However, companies can still bring the profits back and invest them in Treasury bonds or even the stock of other companies. In fact, much of the profits offshore are actually invested here. The answer isn't -- as Republican candidates will suggest -- drastically lowering the taxes due on that money to encourage corporations to "repatriate" it. We tried such a "tax holiday" before (in 2004). The only beneficiaries were the corporate executives and shareholders who used the money they brought home to beef up stock prices through repurchases, according to the Congressional Research Service. Many of these profits are "booked" in tax havens, where the tax rate is next to nothing - if not zero! But a lot of it is earned by the labor and innovation of U.S. workers. EFTA01195258 We need to make corporations bring those profits home. But they shouldn't get a sweetheart tax break to do it. They should pay what they owe each year. Congress should end deferral. Corporations would then play by the same rules as the rest of us. This would raise $600 billion over to years, according to Congress's Joint Tax Committee. MYTH #4: We need a flat tax to simplify the tax system and make it fairer. Americans angry about a rigged tax system are drawn to flat taxes. They assume that if everyone pays the same tax rate, special interests won't be able to bend the tax code to their will. But flat taxes are not fair taxes. Despite its loopholes, our current income tax system is still progressive: the higher your income the higher your tax rate. (I know income from investments, which are mostly owned by the rich, are taxed at a much lower rate.) Why? Flat taxes are regressive. Under a flat tax, the hedge fund manager on Wall Street would pay the same tax rate as the teacher educating his kids. Take former Gov. Rick Perry's flat tax plan. Someone making from $40,000 to $50,000 would pay about $250 more in taxes. Millionaires would get a $495,000 tax cut, on average, according to the Tax Policy Center. MYTH #5: The IRS has become a rogue agency and needs to be seriously reformed, if not abolished. Any staff abuses at the IRS must be addressed (and that process is underway), but hobbling the agency makes no sense. Unlike almost any other government agency, the IRS actually makes money for U.S. taxpayers: every dollar spent on enforcement brings in $io of revenue. If were really interested in bringing down our deficit and investing in our communities, we need to adequately fund the IRS. Cuts to its budget (an 18 percent reduction since 2010) hurt honest taxpayers because there are fewer employees to answer questions and fewer watchdogs going after tax cheats. ****** Why are conservatives able to pass such harsh restrictions on the poor EFTA01195259 Welfare restrictions have lately become fashionable in certain states, especially red ones. Missouri Republicans are trying to keep food stamp recipients from buying steak and seafood. Kansas wants to keep the poor from going to movies or the swimming pools. It also recently enacted cash withdrawal limits on welfare recipients that could drastically increase the amount of ATM fees the poor will have to pay. A new survey from YouGov helps explain why legislators may be able to enact such harsh restrictions. As you can see in the results below, Americans generally are uncomfortable with limits like the ban on steak and seafood or the ATM withdrawal caps. But they do support, by and large, limits on spending on adult businesses, movie theaters and alcoholic beverages. More than 4o percent of Americans even oppose low-income Americans using their welfare benefits to bring their kids to a swimming pool during the summer. And in all cases, Republicans support the limits more than Democrats or the general population. So when legislators in red states advance these types of policies, if they frame it as working to stop wasteful spending (and don't mention the most restrictive policies), they may actually get quite a bit of support. After all, when YouGov asked people if the poor should be ashamed for applying for or using welfare benefits, 1 in 5 Republicans said "yes," while another third of them said they weren't sure. Among Democrats those numbers were 9 and 12 percent, respectively. Take a more detailed look at the survey results below: EFTA01195260 Mixed feelings on welfare restrictions support Pycncasng loot stamo Urraungcaz rotraCiAvaiS ler Proms:sag . rtochents from &rung stews, *!flare f000ents to $25 a day fulls at $w seafood. coolues. era:mend energy dralkS 140 102 IN) 40 40 40 CT 40 02 40 20 20.1.I . O. O ALL D R ALL D R ALL D R Pron04 soma.% welfare funds Arabi:as% spending welfare at 40010e0nesses funds at move treaters I . 102 e CO CO 0 • ALL 0 It ALL 0 R Proutasng wonting *elate funds on tobacco products Faohetng spooaseg *elate flats at castros or 04021 gaming