Author: Raymond

 
From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

…Republicans already set the precedent five years ago when they released the returns of 50 “social welfare” organizations supposedly targeted by the IRS. (The mythical “IRS bias scandal” evaporated in October 2017 when an inspector general’s report revealed that during a 10-year span, the agency had applied similar scrutiny to nonprofits across the political spectrum.) Regardless, there’s little doubt that the House Ways and Means Committee, as Chairman Neal wrote, “has a responsibility to conduct oversight of our voluntary Federal tax system and determine how Americans – including those elected to our highest office – are complying with those laws.”

But in the case of Donald Trump, just as important as determining whether the president of the United States is breaking the law is understanding how he benefits even when he follows it. After all, President Trump wasn’t merely lying when he repeatedly promised his 2017 tax law would “cost me a fortune.” As it turns out, the $400 billion, eight-year tax-cut windfall for so-called pass-through businesses will doubtless pass through hundreds of millions of dollars to his own businesses.

– More –
 

 
From Scottie:

What if Fox News covered Trump the way it covered Obama?

MUST WATCH. Amazing clips of current/former Fox News employees, and conservative pundits, using lies and propaganda to attack Obama — that are actually factual about Trump, the fraud they now defend.

– More (with video) –
 

 
From Deborah Long at The Moderate Voice:

It is troubling to think that one half of the American electorate might be playing by a different set of rules than the other half. We all have the same needs: we all need better paying jobs as Kamala Harris says; we all need better and more affordable healthcare as Bernie Sanders says; and we all need more income equality as Elizabeth Warren says. Then why aren’t these policy proposals resonating with the vast majority of Republicans? Democrats are fighting for their lives, while the Republicans are merely fighting for their next win. What explains the idea that Republicans engage in climate denial while rising seas lap at their doors and 1,000-year storms flatten their neighborhoods? What explains their support for the right of anyone to own an assault rifle, even as gun violence continues to result in the massacre of grade-schoolers, maybe even their own children? And what could possibly explain their support of tax legislation that robs them of prosperity so that the wealthy are given the fruits of everyone else’s labor?

American politics have always been an exercise in strategic decision-making, but it has largely been played by the same set of rules. But what happens when one party starts to play by different rules?

– More –
 

 
From nojo:

Might as well call it: We’re about to endure one of the ugliest elections in American history.

Granted, we’ve only been around for sixty years of it, so we might be giving undue weight to the present, which, unlike the past, is always uncertain. And granted as well, the 1860 election had certain consequences that we’re not facing. Yet.

Funny thing about the Civil War: It broke out five weeks after Lincoln’s inauguration, and ended—

See, that’s the funny thing. It hasn’t.

We grew up thinking it had, that the Civil War was long past, that the colored drinking fountains of Jim Crow were artifacts revealed in old photos, that the moral arc of history was indeed bending towards justice, that there was an inevitability to it all, although you had to be very patient about it.

We were also born in an America that was almost nine in ten white folk.

– More –
 

 
From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

Everybody, even Trump’s biggest fans, knows he surely does have an enemies’ list. It likely includes both Democrats and Republicans whose lack of faith he found disturbing. I’ve noted that Sarah Huckabee Sanders Tweeted out a supposedly humorous media-based one. But then there’s the thirteen, or was it seventeen, or maybe nineteen, Angry Democrats that worked with Robert Mueller–those people, right? But what about the Muslim people he said he would ban from the US, and then did? And the migrants from South and Central America? And his political opponents, whoever they happen to be, who are subject to bratty name-calling and venomous treatment? He fights with even the dead, like the late Senator John McCain and First Lady Barbara Bush.

Trump is the president of malice towards all. If you can remember back to the 2016 campaign, Trump offered to pay the legal bill for anyone who popped a protester.

He was proud of a congressional candidate who assaulted a reporter. He encouraged a little bit of police brutality.

One of the astonishing things he said recently was that US troops at the border couldn’t get rough, almost as if he very much would like “someone” to. Like the “Second Amendment people” he wished would do something about his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton?

At roundtable in Texas, President Trump laments that US troops at the border can't get "a little rough," because "everybody would go crazy … can’t act like they would normally act — or like, let’s say, another military from another country would act." pic.twitter.com/q1TPW24Csa

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 10, 2019

– More –
 

 
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about whether Donald Trump should make his income tax returns public (or at least let Congress see several years worth of them). Personally, I think anyone running for public office should release at least five years worth of income tax returns — and ten years worth would be even better. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to take a court order to make Trump turn over his tax returns (and that court order will probably have to come from the Supreme Court).

There is a simple solution to all this — make everyone’s tax returns a matter of public record (which could be accessed by anyone). That may strike you as extreme, and I’m sure the rich will be aghast at that prospect. But it’s done in other countries, and has been done in the United States in the past (before the rich convinced Congress to outlaw it).

It’s not a crazy idea, and a good case can be made for doing it.

– More –
 

 
From PZ Myers:

Then you’re in luck! Carl Benjamin, anti-immigrant, anti-European Union, anti-feminist, all-around bigot, is running for a seat in the European parliament, on a platform of undermining the European Union. It’s a bit like those tea party fanatics who want to eliminate the federal government running for congress all the time, so it’s not that crazy.

Oh, wait…yes it is.

Anyway, his argument for why he should be elected is that he’s extremely popular with alt-right trolls on YouTube, so he has already succeeded in cultivating an electorate, which is, I guess, true.

– More –
 

 
From Frances Langum:

Getting Introduced by the Mayor of Austin

…this speech introducing Pete, is a barnburner, and also a funny attack on Donald Trump, worth the listen, and applicable to many Democratic candidates for president (all of whom wish their introducer’s speeches were this good). Good on ya, Steve Adler, mayor of Austin, Texas:

Let me ask you this question: Wouldn’t it be great if we had a president who was really smart? I mean really really really smart. Somebody who spoke multiple languages, including having a beautiful command of English.

Wouldn’t it be great, if we had a president who understood that freedom is sacred? And sometimes “freedom to,” like freedom to be who you are, and to love who you want, is as important as freedom from someone you fear. Who helps us understand and grow from what we fear, instead of weaponizing fear for political gain.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a president who was genuinely humble? Who knows good policy cannot be uncoupled from facts and science. Who stands for democracy and knows that our country’s march toward progress happens when we increase our access to the ballot, and that wealth inequality threatens that very democracy.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a president who listens? And actually answers questions. And in his answers teaches us something about nuance. Someone we would want our children to emulate. Someone who rallies our better souls.

– More –
 

 
From News Corpse:

Trump Whines that Congress Has NO RIGHT to See Mueller Report that He Said Exonerates Him

The smouldering fear that Donald Trump has been emanting for the past several months is escalating to a five-alarm fire. He is becoming ever more frantic about the legal jeopardy he faces if the report by special counsel Robert Mueller actually sees the light of day. Consequently, he is lashing out with renewed ferocity at Mueller, Congress, and the American people who overwhelmingly (87%) want the report released.

In an unusually light fit of Saturday morning rage-tweeting (he’s golfing), Trump reiterated his adoration for Kim Jong Un, whose leadership Trump praised for its potential to make North Korea “one of the most successful nations of the World!” It’s interesting that he has such confidence in this murderous, communist dictator, while he’s maligning American Democrats as “treasonous” and “socialists” who will destroy the nation.

Trump also retweeted his disgusting video associating Rep. Ilhan Omar with the terrorists of 9/11, despite the fact that he had already pinned to the top of his Twitter page. Apparently he wasn’t satisfied that enough of his Deplorables would see it and be incited to make more racist attacks and death threats.

In addition to those Twidiocies, Trump returned to his obsession over the investigation into his nefarious associations with Russia and obstruction of justice. It’s clear by the content and tone of his ranting that he is riddled with fear. And that all-consuming dread has driven him to a new level of panic and outrage…

– More –
 

 
From Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has done nothing to hurt Kentucky or Kentuckians.

Candy Barr, however, has done nothing in Congress BUT hurt Kentucky and Kentuckians with every suck-up vote supporting the Pumpkin Traitor and his efforts to impoverish, imprison and immiserate every non-male, non-white, non-christian, non-straight, non-rich resident of the Commonwealth.

Not to mention Barr and every repug lying non-stop about everything progressive Democrats say and do.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is fighting for economic, environmental and healthcare legislation that will lift Kentucky out of its repug-created morass of lethal dependence on coal, poverty and corruption.

Shame on you, Candy.

– More –