Monday Reading

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

Less than 48 hours before the first Presidential debate, dynamite goes BOOM!

The bombshell of Mango Mussolini's tax avoidance, business incompetence and mountain of debt (much held by foreign entities) is another story that would bury any other president or politician.  But, as we know, the committed Trump Cultist hears and sees only what its Dear Leader wants them to.  However, the average Joe Lunchbucket taxpayer should be bristling at the thought that the supposed billionaire paid ZERO taxes for many years and only $750 in 2016. In other words, he's paid more in hush money to his porn star hookups than he has in taxes. His enormous debt, with payments coming due, and the real prospect of undue influence by foreign debt holders is a huge national security red flag.  Needless to say, this is a huge story with major on- going implications.

File under "I Hire The Best People":

Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump who was replaced by the President less than four months before the 2020 election, was armed with a gun and threatening to harm himself at his Fort Lauderdale home on Sunday afternoon, according to police and campaign officials.

Police responded to a home in the upscale Seven Isles neighborhood around 4 p.m. in reference to a man barricaded inside a house. When officers arrived on the scene, they made contact with the woman, the man’s wife, who had called 911. She told police that her husband was armed, had access to multiple firearms inside the house and was threatening to kill himself.  (our emphasis)

What a collection of crooks, psychopaths and traitors.

No surprise here.  The Washington Post endorses Joe Biden for President this morning:

In order to expel the worst president of modern times, many voters might be willing to vote for almost anybody.

Fortunately, to oust President Trump in 2020, voters do not have to lower their standards. The Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, is exceptionally well-qualified, by character and experience, to meet the daunting challenges that the nation will face over the coming four years.

Those challenges have been, to varying degrees, created, exacerbated or neglected by the incumbent: the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more lives in this country than anywhere else in the world; rising inequality and racial disparities; a 21st-century, high-tech authoritarianism ascendant in the world, with democracy in retreat; a planet at risk due to human-caused climate change.

Underlying them all is the question of whether U.S. democracy is any longer capable of meeting even one such challenge, let alone a host of them. Here is where Mr. Trump has done the most damage — and where Mr. Biden is almost uniquely positioned for the moment. He would restore decency, honor and competence to America’s government.

The Post led up to this endorsement in an eight- part series they called "Our Democracy in Peril."

Biden also got endorsements over the weekend from former Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, who served as the first Secretary of Homeland Security under Dumbya, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (14.8 million Twitter followers).

Moody's Analytics has a message for voters who still think Mango Mussolini and Republicans would be better for the economy:

Moody’s Analytics, an economic-research firm, has published an economic forecast weighing the effects of Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s proposals. It finds Biden’s plan would produce dramatically faster job growth and higher wages for most workers.

Biden’s proposals would lead to 18.6 million new jobs during his first term, and the average American’s income (after taxes) would increase by $4,800. Trump’s policies would lead to an increase of 11.2 million new jobs by 2025, with minimal real income gain for average households.

The main reason Biden’s plan would produce a faster recovery is that it would increase short-term deficit spending. With interest rates very low and demand depressed, an infusion of deficit spending can accelerate growth quickly. (our emphasis)

Here's how they chart out job and GDP growth under several scenarios (click on images to enlarge):

As always, we strongly recommend heading over to Infidel 753's latest link round- up for many more roads to enlightenment (or at least some finely curated links to posts on multiple topics from around the Internet).

BOMBSHELL -- Trump The Tax Dodger

 Surprised not surprised:

The New York Times has obtained tax-return data for President Trump and his companies that covers more than two decades. Mr. Trump has long refused to release this information, making him the first president in decades to hide basic details about his finances. His refusal has made his tax returns among the most sought-after documents in recent memory.

Among the key findings of The Times’s investigation:

• Mr. Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years that The Times examined. In 2017, after he became president, his tax bill was only $750.

• He has reduced his tax bill with questionable measures, including a $72.9 million tax refund that is the subject of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

• Many of his signature businesses, including his golf courses, report losing large amounts of money — losses that have helped him to lower his taxes.

• The financial pressure on him is increasing as hundreds of millions of dollars in loans he personally guaranteed are soon coming due.

• Even while declaring losses, he has managed to enjoy a lavish lifestyle by taking tax deductions on what most people would consider personal expenses, including residences, aircraft and $70,000 in hairstyling for television.

• Ivanka Trump, while working as an employee of the Trump Organization, appears to have received “consulting fees” that also helped reduce the family’s tax bill.

• As president, he has received more money from foreign sources and U.S. interest groups than previously known. The records do not reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia. (our emphasis)
  

 Some initial reactions --

Holy crap.

The New York Times got its hands on Trump’s long-hidden tax info. Blockbuster reporting.

The punchline:

Trump is in bad financial shape, is in massive debt, may owe the federal gov $100 million, and shows all kinds of tax fraud red flags.

https://t.co/YJlFhNV5q8

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) September 27, 2020

 

Federal income taxes paid in 2017 (jointly with spouse):

Joe Biden - $3,742,974
Kamala Harris - $516,469
Bernie Sanders - $343,882
Elizabeth Warren - $268,484

Donald Trump - $750 https://t.co/1KkuViDUCe

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) September 27, 2020

 

.@JoeBiden & @DrBiden paid 6160% more in federal income taxes in ‘08 than pretend billionaire @realDonaldTrump did in ‘16.

— Kevin Cate (@KevinCate) September 27, 2020

 

How do you lose 915.7 million dollars in a year?

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) September 27, 2020

 

No wonder he didn’t want to release his taxes

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) September 27, 2020

 

The inability to run a casino was perhaps a clue.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 27, 2020

 

Old enough to remember when John Edwards’s $400 haircut was a huge scandal in American politics.

Guessing Donald Trump writing $70,000 off his taxes for hairstyling won’t even register, let alone him not paying taxes most years in the last two decades! https://t.co/Co3OwAjJkg

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) September 27, 2020

 

This has to come up at Tuesday's debate.  When and if it does, there'll be flop sweat rolling from Mango Mussolini like a waterfall.  This throws him off any script he might have right before this critical head- to- head with Joe Biden.  Biden should definitely pound him and remind taxpayers what he must think of them ("suckers" and "losers") at every opportunity.

Judge Rejects Trump Effort To Block Tax Investigation

A very bad week for COVID Donnie just got a little worse:

A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Trump’s latest effort to block the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining his tax returns, roundly dismissing Mr. Trump’s arguments that the prosecutor’s grand jury subpoena was “wildly overbroad” and issued in bad faith.

The ruling by Judge Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan marked another setback for the president in his yearlong legal fight to block the subpoena. The conflict has already reached the Supreme Court once and could end up there again if, as expected, Mr. Trump appeals.

The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, has been seeking eight years of Mr. Trump’s personal and business returns and other financial records as part of an investigation into the president’s business practices. [snip]

... Judge Marrero agreed with Mr. Vance’s argument that throwing out the subpoena would effectively amount to shielding the president and his associates from an investigation, potentially allowing the statute of limitations to expire on any potential crimes.

“At its core, it amounts to absolute immunity through a back door,” Judge Marrero wrote.

But, before you get too excited --

Even if Mr. Vance were to obtain the tax records, they would be covered by grand jury secrecy rules and would most likely not become public. They might surface in public only if charges were later filed and they were introduced as evidence in a trial.

We're willing to wait as long as it takes for this malignant crime family boss to be held accountable in a court of law.  "The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine..."

Tweets Of The Day -- Normalizing The Abnormal

If the Mueller report were GOOD for Trump we would've seen it already.

— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) April 10, 2019

The fact that so desperately hiding his finances doesn’t get treated as a presumption of corruption in most of the press is some real normalizing bias.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) April 10, 2019

Your tweet could point out that his remarks are pure bullshit, and also that not one reporter in that room challenged him and said “sir—that is untrue”. https://t.co/vKctTOmNNC

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) April 10, 2019

how many days until Barr starts promoting Seth  Rich conspiracies? https://t.co/SPcKkLa9KK

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) April 10, 2019

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.

Tax Day's Coming. Remind You Of Something?

In one of the several outrages over the weekend, piranha-human hybrid and Orwellian liar-for-hire Kellyanne "Alternative Facts" Conway declared that sociopath and Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump wouldn't be releasing his tax returns, as every President has for decades.  Recall that during the primary campaign and general elections, Rump made a point of saying that he'd release his Federal income tax returns, but that they were being audited (a claim that's never been verified -- the only comment from the IRS was that they were not stopping Rump from releasing his tax returns).

Speculation that Rump was hiding something (a "bombshell" per "Mittens" Romney) ranged from dealings with Russian financiers/banks and organized crime connections, to that he pays no income tax, to the more mundane possibility that his income was far lower that he's boasted. It could be a combination of all three. Whatever it is, his inner circle considers it damaging enough to resist releasing it, despite overwhelming public opinion (74%) saying that he should (contrary to Alternative Facts Conway's patent lie that the people "don't care"). One would think our intrepid "journalists" would see this as an investigative challenge to them, given the highly suspicious resistance by Rump and Co. We'll see, but we're not optimistic when it comes to the majority of the access-addicted Fourth Estate. Perhaps more nationwide marches or other forms of protest will be in order around April 15. Or perhaps hackers will do the job.

With taxpayers struggling to balance their expenses and doing their best to pay taxes owed, it's almost certain that he's been paying no Federal income taxes for at least 20 years, taxes that pay for everything from our national security to food safety and disease control. Whatever he's hiding must be so perilous to him that he's willing to try to ride out public disapproval. We can't let him get away with it.

Tax Dodging Humor

Satirist Andy Borowitz has a scoop again:

Obama Signs Executive Order Requiring President Of United States To Be Taxpayer

It's disgraceful, but the next occupant of the White House will not have paid Federal taxes for at least a decade, passing the tax burden on to the lower and middle income voters that voted for him. Not a cent from his income to support everything the Federal government is responsible for, not that his adoring base would care one whit about it.