US Politics

[bustamente]

Mnuchin shielded Trump when he was the treasury chairman, maybe they should have a chat with him.

[17to85]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Trump May Have Committed Tens Of Millions Of Dollars In Tax Crimes

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) of the House Ways and Means Committee said that Trump’s tax returns suggest that he had tens of millions of dollars in unsubstantiated claims.
Rep. Doggett said on CNN, “I think you will see tens of millions of dollars in these returns that were claimed without adequate substantiation. The extent to which the IRS made an effort to get that substantiation, I invite you to look at the reports. But I think you’ll be surprised by how little there is, and I have my doubts that another taxpayer could go into audit and provide as little as was provided here and expect to have a completed audit. 

 

[Wideleft]

Regarding the public release of Trump's tax returns (from today's Washington Post):

In its investigation, the Ways and Means Committee homed in on a little-known provision in the IRS’s internal rules that has mandated tax audits for sitting presidents since 1977. The panel found that the program was effectively dormant under the Trump administration.

And after the IRS started an audit in 2019, Trump took steps to try to slow it down, such as seeking information under the Freedom of Information Act, “failing to provide all the facts needed” and other measures. The IRS’s shortage of needed employees also slowed down the audit, the report said.

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

Regarding the public release of Trump's tax returns (from today's Washington Post):

In its investigation, the Ways and Means Committee homed in on a little-known provision in the IRS’s internal rules that has mandated tax audits for sitting presidents since 1977. The panel found that the program was effectively dormant under the Trump administration.

And after the IRS started an audit in 2019, Trump took steps to try to slow it down, such as seeking information under the Freedom of Information Act, “failing to provide all the facts needed” and other measures. The IRS’s shortage of needed employees also slowed down the audit, the report said.

I wonder if the average American feels that the IRS is understaffed.

[Tracker]

Trump Secretly Paid For Lawyers And Then Tampered With 1/6 Witnesses

CNN reported:

Though the committee declined to identify the people, CNN has learned that Stefan Passantino, the top ethics attorney in the Trump White House, is the lawyer who allegedly advised his then-client, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, to tell the committee that she did not recall details that she did, sources familiar with the committee’s work tell CNN.

Trump’s Save America political action committee funded Passantino and his law firm Elections LLC, including paying for his representation of Hutchinson, other sources tell CNN. The committee report notes the lawyer did not tell his client who was paying for the legal services.

Hutchinson dumped the secretly Trump-financed lawyer and hired her own counsel who supported her decision to tell the truth to the committee. Hutchinson’s testimony was a bombshell. She detailed Trump’s demand to go to the Capitol on 1/6 and his altercation with his Secret Service detail.

The 1/6 Committee has referred Trump for prosecution by the DOJ on an obstruction charge. The committee has made references to Trump witness tampering since the summer.

Donald Trump used funds from his super PAC from his donors to tamper with 1/6 witnesses. Trump’s super PAC should also be under investigation, and if the campaign finance laws in the United States were functional in any way, the PAC would be shut down, and it would become another area of criminal investigation focus.

The 1/6 Committee was not deterred by Trump’s witness tampering. They have put the pieces together to tell a comprehensive picture of how Donald Trump led an insurrection to overturn a presidential election.

[johnzo]

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

I wonder if the average American feels that the IRS is understaffed.

as an immigrant to the USA I am of two minds about this:

1. yeah, you can't have a government unless you can collect taxes, dummy.  the US federal government spends money as stupidly as any other trillion-dollar organization, but it pays for medicare, medicaid, social security, infrastructure, weather safety, food safety, javelin missiles for Ukraine -- lots of good ****.  there is value in those tax dollars.

2. American tax law is so jacked up that you can buy your way free of taxes with the right help.  Many wealthy Americans will happily pay their accountants $100K to avoid a $101K tax bill.  So is the extra IRS enforcement going to help mitigate these structural issues and make the wealthy pay their fair share?  Or is the burden of the extra attention going to fall on the smaller fry?

[Tracker]

3 minutes ago, johnzo said:

as an immigrant to the USA I am of two minds about this:

1. yeah, you can't have a government unless you can collect taxes, dummy.  the US federal government spends money as stupidly as any other trillion-dollar organization, but it pays for medicare, medicaid, social security, infrastructure, weather safety, food safety, javelin missiles for Ukraine -- lots of good ****.  there is value in those tax dollars.

2. American tax law is so jacked up that you can buy your way free of taxes with the right help.  Many wealthy Americans will happily pay their accountants $100K to avoid a $101K tax bill.  So is the extra IRS enforcement going to help mitigate these structural issues and make the wealthy pay their fair share?  Or is the burden of the extra attention going to fall on the smaller fry?

The rank and file Trump supporters have not realized that every dollar he has grifted from the US treasury/IRS is a dollar that has been taken from them. 

[HardCoreBlue]

On 2022-12-20 at 10:56 AM, Tracker said:

The 1/6 Committee Has Big Bombshells To Drop

Call records, with the exception of ones that the committee has found relevant to the probe, would likely remain secret as well, according to the chair.

Even so, the panel’s introductory materials gave tantalizing clues about what’s to come. The committee’s executive summary referenced just over 80 of the panel’s interviews and documents collected from 34 agencies or witnesses; among them, Christoffer Guldbrandsen, a documentarian who captured footage of Trump ally Roger Stone, and Bernard Kerik, who advised Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in his bid to collect evidence to challenge the 2020 results.

The summary also reflects voluminous contacts among key players in Trump’s alleged plot that were not previously known but could be of interest to federal prosecutors. For example, the document describes numerous contacts that then-DOJ officials Jeffrey Clark and Ken Klukowski had with Trump campaign attorney John Eastman in the closing days of 2020 and into early 2021.

The people who should be very nervous about the report are those who were involved in the operational commission of crimes to steal an election. Jeffrey Clark, Roger Stone, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), Rudy Guiliani, and Trump’s lawyers and members of his campaign team should expect that evidence of criminal activity will be in the report.

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/12/20/the-1-6-committee-has-big-bombshells-to-drop.html

Since January 6th 2022 (and one could argue well before this time), he has not stopped inciting violence, lying, cheating, grifting, stalling the justice system on multiple fronts, breaking multiple laws and pointedly saying the election needs to be overturned and he needs to be re-instated as the President of the United States.

While Merrick Garland does what sorry? And then to hear from some, sure he's bad, do Biden next.

Can we just finish with him first please then we will move on to the next?!

It feels literally like watching a person of influence and status over a continued long period of time repeatedly rob banks in broad daylight while the DOJ tells us no one is above the law, due process is needed and everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Just when I think I've succumbed to being numb to the realization of some are in fact above the law, the feeling of anger and frustration comes in hot out of no where. 

[Tracker]

27 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Since January 6th 2022 (and one could argue well before this time), he has not stopped inciting violence, lying, cheating, grifting, stalling the justice system on multiple fronts, breaking multiple laws and pointedly saying the election needs to be overturned and he needs to be re-instated as the President of the United States.

While Merrick Garland does what sorry? And then to hear from some, sure he's bad, do Biden next.

Can we just finish with him first please then we will move on to the next?!

It feels literally like watching a person of influence and status over a continued long period of time repeatedly rob banks in broad daylight while the DOJ tells us no one is above the law, due process is needed and everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Just when I think I've succumbed to being numb to the realization of some are in fact above the law, the feeling of anger and frustration comes in hot out of no where. 

As easy as it is to succumb to fatalism and cynicism of the glacial progress of Garland's DOJ, I continue to believe that the mills of the gods grind exceeding slow but they grind exceeding fine. The fate of the American justice system, the trust that Americans have (perhaps naively) in their justice system and even their government may well hang on the next few months. This shattering of confidence serves the ends of fascism and may be what the GOP wants.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Tracker

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

As easy as it is to succumb to fatalism and cynicism of the glacial progress of Garland's DOJ, I continue to believe that the mills of the gods grind exceeding slow but they grind exceeding fine. The fate of the American justice system, the trust that Americans have (perhaps naively) in their justice system and even their government may well hang on the next few months. This shattering of confidence serves the ends of fascism and may be what the GOP wants.

Wish we had a 'I hope you're right' emoticon.

[Tracker]

28 House Republicans vote against bill to protect child sex abuse victims

The bipartisan Respect for Child Survivors Act, a law that would aid victims of child sex abuse and their families, just passed the House in a 385-28 vote.

All 28 votes against the bill came from Republicans.
The bill would require the FBI to form multi-disciplinary teams to aid sex abuse victims and their families in order to prevent re-traumatization from investigation and any cases from being dropped. These teams would include “investigative personnel, mental health professionals, medical personnel, family advocacy workers, child advocacy workers, and prosecutors,” Newsweek reported.

U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Chris Coons (D-DE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the legislation.

“I applaud Senator Cornyn’s leadership on this issue to correct an egregious wrong committed by certain FBI agents regarding their treatment of victims of sexual abuse,”said Sen. Graham.“Requiring the FBI to use appropriate, tried and true methods to interview child victims will help ensure the FBI’s failure in the Nassar case doesn’t happen again. This legislation will make it clear that we expect better.”

However, not all Republicans expect better from the FBI, it seems.

The bill was opposed by the following GOP Representatives: Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar (Ariz.); Dan Bishop and Virginia Foxx (NC); Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mo Brooks and Barry Moore (Ala.); Louie Gohmert, Ronny Jackson, Troy Nehls, Chip Roy, and Michael Cloud (Texas); Andrew Clyde, Jody Hice, Austin Scott, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.); James Comer and Thomas Massie (Ky.); Rick Crawford (Ark.); Byron Donalds and John Rutherford (Fla.); Bob Good (Va.), Clay Higgins (La.), Tom McClintock (Calif.), Ralph Norman (SC), Scott Perry (Pa.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), and Jeff Van Drew (NJ).

Despite this, the bill is supported by the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network, the National District Attorneys Association, Army of Survivors, the National Children’s Alliance, Keep Kids Safe, Together for Girls, Darkness to Light, the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and the Brave Movement.

https://www.alternet.org/28-house-republicans-abuse-victims/

“Hundreds of millions potentially at stake”: Experts say Jan. 6 report opens door to Trump lawsuit

The Jan. 6 committee released its final 800-plus-page report on Thursday, calling former President Donald Trump the "central cause" of the attack on the Capitol. 

Legal experts noted that in addition to four criminal referrals, the committee's report may open up other legal liabilities for Trump, including potential liability in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the former president's allies.

New York University Law Professor Ryan Goodman pointed out that the report "opens doors wide for Dominion Voting Systems to sue former president Trump for defamation," and that there are "hundreds of millions of [dollars] potentially at stake."

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/23/hundreds-of-millions-potentially-at-stake-experts-say-jan-6-report-opens-door-to/

[bustamente]

Transcripts are being released and apparently all of Trump's stooges and cronies do not recall

[Tracker]

Revealed: Trump wanted 10,000 National Guard soldiers to protect him on walk to the Capitol on J6

At the end of November, House Select Committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told reporters that they hadn't yet heard from a Secret Service agent that had corroborated the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The full report on the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election detailed in Chapter 6 that Hutchinson's testimony was confirmed by other White House staffers.

"On the evening of Dec. 27th," the report said, "President [Donald] Trump boosted the upcoming event on Twitter: 'See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it. Information to follow!' The Select Committee learned that this tweet came after the White House spoke with a former Trump staffer, Justin Caporale, who was asked to help produce the Ellipse rally. That same evening, the President had dinner with Donald Trump, Jr., and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who spoke with rally organizer Caroline Wren during the meal."

According to those who testified, Wren sent Guilfoyle talking points describing her hopes for the event that “buses of people are coming in from all over the country to support you. It’s going to be huge, we are also adding in programming the night of January 5th.”

Guilfoyle’s call with Wren was then followed by several calls with senior White House staff.

A Dec. 29th text to Wren to Caporale explained that after Trump's Jan. 6 speech there “maybe [sic] a call to action to march to the [C]apitol and make noise.”

It marks the first mention of Trump's plans to call on the rally-goers to march on the Capitol.

"On Jan 2nd, rally organizer Katrina Pierson informed Wren that President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, had said the President was going to 'call on everyone to march to the [C]apitol,'" the report cited. "Inside the White House, the President’s intent was well-known. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows, recalled in her testimony that she overheard discussions to this effect toward the end of December or early January. One such discussion included an exchange between Meadows and Rudolph Giuliani that occurred on January 2nd. Hutchinson understood that President Trump wanted to have a crowd at the Capitol in connection with what was happening inside—the certification of the electoral count."

The goal, she explained was to delay the certification and then they'd be able to send the vote to state legislatures to overturn it. The questionable legal theory is now before the Supreme Court as a question about the future of elections.

"During a call with members of the House Freedom Caucus," the report continued describing the tea party members, "the idea of telling people to go to the Capitol was discussed as a way to encourage Congress to delay the electoral college certification and send it back to the States. On January 4th, [Women for America First's] Kylie Kremer informed Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and an ally of President Trump, that 'POTUS is going to have us march there [the Supreme Court]/the Capitol' but emphasized that the plan 'stays only between us.' The 'Stop the Steal' coalition was aware of the President’s intent. On January 5th, Ali Alexander sent a text to a journalist saying: 'Ellipse then US capitol [sic]. Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol [sic] at the end of his speech but we will see.'"

Pierson then told the committee that Trump thought, "Well, I should walk with the people," but at the time she didn't take him "seriously." Advisers tried to talk him out of it, including White House Senior Advisor Max Miller, who "shot it down immediately," the report said, because there were concerns about Trump's safety. Pierson agreed, but Trump was firm. That's when he first floated the idea of 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by leftwing counter-protesters.

Trump has said over and over again that he told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi he wanted 10,000 National Guard soldiers. He has made it seem like he warned her that there would be violence, in fact, the truth is that Trump wanted them to protect him on a march to the Capitol.

"Miller again rejected the President’s idea, saying that the National Guard was not necessary for the event," the report says. "Miller testified that there was no further conversation on the matter. After the meeting, Miller texted Pierson, 'Just glad we killed the national guard and a procession.' That is, President Trump  considered having the National Guard oversee his procession to the U.S. Capitol."

Only the president can order the National Guard in Washington, D.C. As former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper's deposition makes clear, there are only about 1,200 Guard soldiers in the Washington, D.C. guard, so it would require the president to call on multiple states to bring together such a number. The idea was floated in June. 2020 when protests broke out in cities over the murder of George Floyd. Esper told the committee that he made it very clear to Trump the difference between active-duty soldiers and guardsmen and what it would entail calling up just 5,000 to serve in Washington, D.C. during the Black Lives Matter protests.

"Pierson’s agenda for the meeting reflected the President’s plan for protestors to go to the U.S. Capitol after the rally," the report explained. "But President Trump did not give up on the idea of personally joining his supporters on their march..."

In Nov. 2022, writing for The Bulwark, Navy veteran and Brennan Center for Justice fellow Theodore Johnson argued that former President Donald Trump believed that just because he was the commander-in-chief, the military "swore an oath to him personally," and could be ordered to do whatever he wanted, regardless of whether it was legal or constitutional.

At the end of the report, in Appendix 2 on page 742, there's a key comment that that an email was sent by then chief of staff Meadows explicitly saying on Jan.5 that the Washington, D.C. National Guard would be on hand to “protect pro Trump people.”

[JCon]

What a little baby. 

[Tracker]

Trump’s bigoted dinner guest Nick Fuentes favors burning women alive

Nick Fuentes, the 24-year-old white Christian nationalist who dined last month with former President Donald Trump (R) and anti-Semitic rapper Ye at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, is using misogyny to build a large “incel” following of angry men advocating violence women, Mother Jones reports.

“I’m a proud incel,” Fuentes declared in January on his nightly America First podcast. Incel means “involuntary celibate,” a group of men who blame overprivileged feminist women for disempowering them and denying them sex. Fuentes said he refrained from sex with women because, “I’m choosing instead to lead a historical right-wing movement.”

Right Wing Watch noted that in June, Fuentes said on his podcast, “We need to go back to burning women alive more” when they’re convicted of crimes. He lamented that “everything went all out of control” when women stopped being burned as witches during the medieval period. He said women are now casting spells, molesting children in schools, and falsely accusing men of rape while also raping men.

In January 2022, Fuentes launched Cozy.tv, a streaming platform that he said would be “anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Black, [and] antisemitic.” A month after launching the platform, he said women aren’t “as rational as men” and should be beaten by their partners. He added a racist twist by saying that Black men understand this.

https://www.alternet.org/nick-fuentes-2659009391/

[Tracker]

Trump Calls Himself “Clairvoyant” in Unhinged Christmas Message

The mind that brought you “very stable genius” has taken self-praise to a whole new plane of existence. Former President Donald Trump gave us the Christmas present we didn’t ask for in the form of a rambling post on Truth Social, in which he took swipes at the usual suspects—the “Radical Left,” “LameStream Media,” Department of Justice, and Federal Bureau of Investigation looking into his multiple alleged Espionage Act violations. Having taken to referring to himself in the third person, Trump posted in part that the media is pushing for President Joe Biden over “Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump,” apparently referring to the magical ability to see into the future or communicate with the nonliving. “LOVE TO ALL!” the post concluded.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-president-donald-trump-calls-himself-clairvoyant-in-unhinged-truth-social-christmas-message?ref=home

 

[bustamente]

Trump says he has total immunity for 1/6, there you have it the King could do whatever he wanted and no penalty should be had only one problem he is King in his mind. You would think such a powerful man could stop the release of his tax returns to the general public, hide the ketchup.

[Tracker]

3 hours ago, bustamente said:

Trump says he has total immunity for 1/6, there you have it the King could do whatever he wanted and no penalty should be had only one problem he is King in his mind. You would think such a powerful man could stop the release of his tax returns to the general public, hide the ketchup.

Trump's world and his imagined immunity from prosecution is crumbling around him. Like all malignant narcissists, his response is and will continue to be bluster and threat. 

[bustamente]

30 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Trump's world and his imagined immunity from prosecution is crumbling around him. Like all malignant narcissists, his response is and will continue to be bluster and threat. 

In the end the only people that will be left will be the crazies with limited to no funds and they are no of no use to him

[Tracker]

'Our children have the right to live': Record 6,036 American kids killed or injured by gunfire in 2022'

With just a few days left until the new year, 2022 has already set a grim record: so far at least 6,036 children across the United States have been killed or injured by gunfire, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

As of Tuesday, 306 children under age 12 were killed by guns and another 668 were injured nationwide. For those ages 12-17, 1,328 were killed and 3,734 were injured. 
Those figures include the 19 kids—but not the two adults—killed in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and come just a few weeks after the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

https://www.alternet.org/6036-kids-killed-injured-guns/

[Tracker]

Co-Leader Of Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Gets 16 Years In Prison

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison for conspiring to abduct the Democrat and blow up a bridge to ease an escape.

Adam Fox returned to federal court Tuesday, four months after he and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of conspiracy charges at a second trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

They were accused of being at the helm of a wild plot to whip up anti-government extremists just before the 2020 presidential election. Their arrest, as well as the capture of 12 others, was a stunning coda to a tumultuous year of racial strife and political turmoil in the U.S.

[bustamente]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

'Our children have the right to live': Record 6,036 American kids killed or injured by gunfire in 2022'

With just a few days left until the new year, 2022 has already set a grim record: so far at least 6,036 children across the United States have been killed or injured by gunfire, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

As of Tuesday, 306 children under age 12 were killed by guns and another 668 were injured nationwide. For those ages 12-17, 1,328 were killed and 3,734 were injured. 
Those figures include the 19 kids—but not the two adults—killed in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and come just a few weeks after the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

https://www.alternet.org/6036-kids-killed-injured-guns/

Nothing will ever change in the United States kids will continue to die because a certain segment does not give a ****.

[bustamente]

We have come to the portion of the former administration burning documents in the WH, yup nothing to see here move along.

[JCon]

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

Co-Leader Of Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Gets 16 Years In Prison

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison for conspiring to abduct the Democrat and blow up a bridge to ease an escape.

Adam Fox returned to federal court Tuesday, four months after he and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of conspiracy charges at a second trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

They were accused of being at the helm of a wild plot to whip up anti-government extremists just before the 2020 presidential election. Their arrest, as well as the capture of 12 others, was a stunning coda to a tumultuous year of racial strife and political turmoil in the U.S.

Poor white trash going to jail. The corrupt GOP enablers just line their pockets. 

[Tracker]

Trump’s Tax Returns Will Be Made Public On Friday Morning

Donald Trump's tax returns will be made public for the American people to see on Friday morning.