Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

James Downey writes on the illogical arguments being made by defenders of likely tax fraudster Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump about why he can't release his tax returns (tax returns that his acting lickspittle Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney says Democrats will never see):

With the House Ways and Means Committee chairman requesting President Trump’s tax returns on Wednesday, the White House’s representatives were tasked with explaining how the president could refuse to release them. They did so with a healthy dose of classic Trumpian spin.

Of course, illogic has long been a feature of Trump and his allies’ excuses for keeping his returns hidden. You see, he can’t release his returns because the Internal Revenue Service is auditing him! Yes, it’s true he can’t provide proof that he was being audited during the 2016 election campaign, nor point to a law prohibiting him from releasing his returns while under audit. And sure, almost every other president since Richard M. Nixon has released his tax returns even though the IRS automatically audits a sitting president’s personal tax returns. But that doesn’t mean he’s hiding anything! You’ll just have to take him at his word, the president’s defenders say.

(The State of New York might have come to a different conclusion about keeping Trump's State tax returns secret, though, and could blow the lid off things.)

As with his compulsion to hide what's in his tax returns, a growing compulsion to hide what's in the Mueller report is leading all but the most credulous to wonder "Why's Trump so skeert?"  After last Wednesday's reports in the New York Times and Washington Post about Mueller investigators speaking out about Trump consigliere William "Low" Barr's "alarming and significant" omissions in his coverup letter, Congressional Democrats have ramped up pressure for release of the full Mueller report, something Trump once favored but now doesn't, as the initial Barr letter coverup starts to un-spool before Trump's beady eyes:

The oversight escalation on Capitol Hill comes as Democrats continue to demand an unredacted copy of Mueller’s approximately 400-page report, which was provided to Attorney General Bill Barr more than two weeks ago. That request shows congressional Democrats “will never be satisfied,” Trump stated Saturday.

But as Barr’s self-imposed deadline to submit a copy of Mueller’s report to Capitol Hill fast approaches, Trump’s confidence in its “complete and total exoneration” of him has waned, according to one Republican close to the White House.

“He wouldn’t be bringing this up still if everything was hunky dory,” this person said, referring to the president’s tweets about Mueller and his team of federal investigators.

Barr has testimony scheduled for this Tuesday and Wednesday on the Justice Department's appropriations.  If he has sack enough to show up, he'll be grilled about releasing the report to Congress minus his Trump- friendly redactions.

The Office of Special Counsel (not Mueller's group) is exploring allegations of wrongdoing in how the Trump regime has approached providing nuclear technology and support to "Bone Saw" bin Salman's Saudi regime:

One of the government’s top investigative agencies has looked at allegations of potential wrongdoing by individuals in the Trump administration about their planning of a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, according to two individuals with knowledge of the probe.

The line of inquiry is part of a broader investigation in the Office of the Special Counsel—an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency—into alleged politically motivated personnel decisions at government offices.

The OSC, which can seek corrective and disciplinary action, is looking at whether officials were retaliated against for raising concerns about the administration’s work related to a Saudi nuclear deal. As part of that investigation, OSC has also reviewed allegations about potentially improper dealings by senior members of the Trump administration in their attempt to map out a nuclear deal with Riyadh, according to two sources with knowledge of OSC’s work.

The scandals, corruption and norm- busting are just overwhelming at times.

Emptywheel remembers the Rwandan genocide which began on April 7, 25 years ago, and says we must learn from that tragedy:

25 years ago today — within hours after the assassination of Rwanda’s and Burundi’s presidents — Rwanda’s Hutus began systematic killing of minority member Tutsi and Pygmy Batwa.

By mid-July 1994, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandan citizens had been brutally killed — 70% of the Tutsi and 30% of the Pygmy population wiped out by xenophobic rage. It’s not clear exactly how many Rwandans had been slain during the roughly 15-week period because the deaths weren’t documented as they occurred. [snip]

Hate speech and eliminationist talk is not acceptable. It is toxic and corrosive to a democratic society in which every human is equal under the law. Do not look away or ignore xenophobic talk; it is already excusing the loss of lives both American and Central American alike and it can get worse without intervention.

We owe it to the Rwandans who died 25 years ago to learn something from the hateful madness which took them.

As always, we recommend Infidel 753's excellent blog round- up to get a big picture of interesting topics from around the internet.  One of the posts he links to offers some hope that the young 'uns are more savvy -- and more Democratic- leaning -- than ever (so, register and vote!).  Lots to absorb, as usual.