We need to get out the vote so Dems Win!!!…It could provide nothing short than saving our rule of law! This could become the most important news story at any point after the midterms, where Trump has long sought to install a puppet as Attorney General. As Trump schemes to get away with his crimes, which I believe many were committed both during the campaign & the subsequent cover up, he wants to put in place a person who could help him derail the Mueller probe: donald-trump-jeff-sessions-mueller-russia-matthew-whitaker-partisan-column. The excerpts below from inside jeff-sessions-attorney-general-trump-mueller also offer up potential candidates which Trump may try installing as an acting AG without going through the normal Senate confirmation process. Putting in place a doting Trumpeter like Whitaker or Azar could prompt a moment in our history going beyond a constitutional crisis, it could become a constitutional disaster. Our rule of law could be abridged in such a way it might never come back. Should Trump cultists trample on our laws, stifling the probe we as Americans are awaiting all the answers on how the Russian interference in our election unfolded, the Constitution could become null & void if we allow our president to get a pass on potential crimes possibly approaching treason. So let’s get out the vote, since if the Dems don’t at least take the majority in the House, Trump could become emboldened to take such lawless acts while putting our democracy in jeopardy:
Whoever becomes the next attorney general will ultimately take charge of the Mueller investigation, assuming the investigation is still ongoing, and so long as Trump’s nominee doesn’t have any conflicts that would force them to recuse themselves. That person will have the power to let Mueller keep doing what he’s doing — or curtail or shut down the investigation altogether. In short, this is all going to make for some intense confirmation hearings. Trump has indicated that he believes his attorney general should protect him. His pick for AG will almost certainly be questioned about this, and about whether Trump extracted any loyalty pledges. Lawmakers will also likely grill the nominee on his stance or opinions on the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation. But if Trump wanted to tinker with the Mueller investigation, he wouldn’t necessarily have to wait for a new attorney general to get confirmed. If Sessions quits, Trump will be able to appoint an acting attorney general who’ll also take control. That could be Whitaker; it could also be Azar, Sullivan, or Bradbury, who’ve all been Senate-confirmed already and are also eligible to serve in an acting capacity under that Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
There’s some debate as to whether Trump could use the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to chose a replacement if he fires Sessions. A veterans advocacy group challenged former VA Secretary David Shulkin’s interim replacement on these grounds, but the lawsuit didn’t get anywhere because the case was dismissed when the issue resolved itself — and so the question still hasn’t been tested in court. No matter how Sessions officially leaves — whether by resignation or outright firing — it’s clear that Trump’s pressure campaign ended up working. Sessions has dutifully carried out the Trump agenda on crime and immigration. But his decision to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation has haunted his tenure and irrevocably damaged his standing with the president. If Sessions departs, Trump may have the chance to pick an attorney general who’ll continue to carry out his policy agenda — and maybe one who won’t do the very “unfair” thing and recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
Let’s Talk Impeachment
With the midterms approaching & Mueller’s team working diligently behind the scenes, it’s a good time to frame the discussion around a background review of what impeachment is all about. It’s valuable to know based on the battles likely to play out after the midterms & into 2019 as the Mueller findings become known. So here are informative excerpts from sunday-review/is-trump-on-a-collision-course-with-impeachment:
In Mr. Trump’s case, a Democratic House might impeach him, but even if Democrats take the Senate, they would still be far from the two-thirds necessary for conviction, meaning that 15 or more Republicans would have to go along. Such a scenario seems unlikely unless the special counsel, Robert Mueller, produces a report with such damning information that it transforms the current political dynamics. But once again, the country would be confronted with the question of what the framers meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Intent on differentiating the president from a king, immune from accountability, the authors of the Constitution inserted Article II, Section 4, to create a check on the executive. They started out by authorizing impeachment in cases of treason or bribery, but George Mason found that too limiting and suggested adding “maladministration.” James Madison pushed back, worried that would make a president too beholden to Congress. Removing a bad president is what elections were for. Mason backed off and proposed instead “or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” which was readily accepted. The Constitution included no further explanation, but in their discussions the framers made clear they had in mind any president who would employ his office for personal profit, “betray his trust to foreign powers” or injure society itself, among other possible offenses. Intriguingly, the framers anticipated the possibility that a president might try to use his power to thwart investigations into his actions. During the Virginia ratification debate, Mason asked what would happen if a president chose to “pardon crimes which were advised by himself” or to “stop inquiry and prevent detection” of a crime he or an associate had committed? Madison responded that “the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty.”
The only three impeachment efforts that seriously endangered a president came in the Johnson, Nixon and Clinton cases. The House impeached Johnson for violating a law blocking him from firing cabinet secretaries without Senate approval, a law later found to be unconstitutional. But the underlying dispute was one of policy — Radical Republicans considered the president, a Tennessee Democrat, far too lenient on the South and unwilling to protect freed slaves following the Civil War. The Senate acquitted him by a single vote. Nixon’s case was a more clear-cut abuse of power and obstruction of justice: the Watergate burglary to spy on his political opposition and the resulting cover-up, including the payment of hush money and, finally, a transcript of the “smoking gun” tape of him trying to order the C.I.A. to block the F.B.I. investigation. The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach, and Nixon resigned rather than continue to fight after fellow Republicans abandoned him. Bill Clinton’s case fell somewhere in the murky middle. Charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for trying to impede a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones by hiding his affair with a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, Mr. Clinton was impeached on a nearly party-line vote in the House and acquitted in the Senate. Defenders were left to argue that yes, he may have violated the law, but it was not such a profound violation to merit removal.
More than any other president, however, Mr. Trump has lived under the shadow of impeachment since before he took office. Within days of his election in November 2016, speculation began about impeachment because of the many ethical issues surrounding him. Regardless of whether Mr. Mueller reports any ties with Russia during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump’s critics have a laundry list of what they consider impeachable offenses, from hotel and other private business activities that benefit from foreign governments to the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, after trying to get him to drop an investigation of a former aide to hush money paid to two women to keep them from talking publicly about sexual encounters before the election. The public is more supportive of impeaching Mr. Trump than it ever was of impeaching Mr. Clinton and more than it was of beginning impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon until near the end of the Watergate scandal. In August, 49 percent of Americans surveyed by The Washington Post and ABC News favored impeaching Mr. Trump, while 46 percent opposed it.
Nobody is above the law!
If crimes are proven, there is no other choice but to bring articles of impeachment. The constitutional rule of law demands it. Especially if there’s a serious crime through having concrete evidence of collusion with the Russians to win an election, that required response becomes a no-brainer. For more on Trump’s potential crimes, see excerpts from It-s-not-about-impeachment-it-s-about-the-rule-of-law, which also emphasizes the importance to get out the vote:
From the day he took office, Donald Trump has been violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, and thus has been vulnerable to potential impeachment proceedings. And then there is the recently revealed evidence that Trump has committed massive tax fraud. And then there is the obstruction of the Russia conspiracy scandal. And then there is the Russia conspiracy scandal itself. It seems certain that when all comes out into the open, this will be known as the most corrupt administration in American history. It seems certain that when all comes out into the open, the Russia conspiracy scandal will be known as by far the most massive and dangerous in history.
We think we know where this ends, but we don’t. What has unfolded the past two years seems to make clear that the Trump-Russia scandal, in particular, is not less than it seems but more. Much more. Reports from witnesses who have testified before Mueller’s team repeat similar experience, and the one aspect that stands out the most is that Mueller knows a lot more than has been revealed to the public. He may, in fact, know everything, and is only granting immunity to increasingly higher ranking former Trump officials because he needs evidence he can present in courts of law and public opinion. As long as his investigation is allowed to continue, Democrats must keep out of the way. But that doesn’t mean that they won’t have plenty to investigate on their own, right from the start. And it must mean that they are prepared to follow any leads Mueller presents them.
This is politics, but it’s also about the rule of law. It’s about restoring trust in the Constitution and the institutions that make it work, when it does work. And it is about making those institutions work better, so the American experiment can continue on a path of improving itself, in quest of living up to its greatest mythological ideals. The republic may be facing an unprecedented existential crisis, but how the crisis is resolved will determine whether it really is resolved. And if the Democrats take control of at least one house of Congress next month, how they respond will reveal whether that resolution will have begun. They must be fair. They must be comprehensive. They must be transparent. And they must demonstrate that the system can work. Because it’s not about impeachment, it’s about the rule of law. And it will only happen if you make it possible, by voting.
Tax Bill & Tax Cheats
It’s bad enough the unpopular & budget-busting tax cuts for the rich weren’t targeted towards middle class workers, while Trump threw in some extra perks for giving his real estate business even more tax breaks. But Trump also lied about the tax bill to sell it, which isn’t surprising since he lies about everything else. Plus as we’ve recently seen in reports about the Trump family finances, Trump back then regularly engaged in tax fraud. We may soon find out Trump is still committing tax fraud to this day. See these excerpts patched together from Donald-Trump-is-America-s-tax-cheater-in-chief:
A new Gallup poll last week once again confirmed that Americans are decidedly unimpressed by the GOP’s “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” passed in December. Coming just weeks after a Fox News survey found Obamacare enjoyed greater popularity than the Republican tax cuts, Gallup’s latest tally revealed that respondents continue to disapprove of President Trump’s signature legislative achievement by a 46 to 39 percent margin. Those dismal numbers should come as no surprise to anyone. For starters, the wealthiest, stock-holding Americans have pocketed the lion’s share of the benefits of the tax cuts. Exactly as predicted, the steep corporate tax reductions have not led to increased business investment or higher wages for workers, but instead fueled an avalanche of stock buybacks and mergers and acquisitions.
It’s no wonder 51 percent of those surveyed by Gallup reported “the law has not helped their family’s financial situation”, while 26 percent say it has helped “a little.” Only among families earning over $90,000 a year did the combined percentage stating the tax cuts helped a little (34 percent) or a lot (13 percent) exceed the share (45 percent) responding the TCJA hasn’t helped their families at all. (Making matters worse, the Republicans’ $10,000 cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes means larger payments to Uncle Sam for residents in high-tax, high-service states like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California.) Adding insult to injury, the extra economic growth and cash back to working Americans the GOP confidently forecast have not come to pass, while a multi-trillion hemorrhage of red ink from the United States Treasury is already underway—just like Democrats said.
But as Election Day approaches, Americans might find one additional reason to be disgusted with this budget-busting windfall for the wealthy courtesy of Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan. As it turns out, the president of the United States lied about almost every aspect of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” The man who in August 2016 promised voters “I will always tell you the truth” lied about the impact of his tax plan on your family—and his. As we learned recently, Trump has grossly misled the American people—and tax authorities in New York City, New York State, and Washington, D.C.—about his financial worth.
As Jesse Eisinger and Paul Kiel of the Times explained, “Starting in 2011, Republicans in Congress repeatedly cut the I.R.S.’s budget, forcing the agency to reduce its enforcement staff by a third.” In addition to recovering lost revenue, Fort explained, tax fraud cases brought by the IRS are needed to “influence taxpayer behavior for the hundreds of millions of American citizens filing tax returns.” With the steep drop-off in such cases, the authors cautioned, “experts fear [that] Americans will get the message that it’s all right to break the law.” And that message carries a massive price tag in dollars lost to the United States Treasury. In 1998, then-IRS director Charles Rossotti warned Congress about an epidemic of tax cheating creating an estimated “tax gap” (that is, the difference between taxes owed to the federal government and revenue actually collected) of $195 billion a year.
For America’s gilded class, the result has been the equivalent of a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. IRS audits have dropped by 42 percent since the budget cuts started, with criminal referrals down by almost half. And while the agency focused on higher income earners in 2009 (when the audit rate was 3 percent for those earning over $200,000 a year compared to around 1 percent under that level), Republicans have pushed the IRS to monitor lower-income households, especially those benefitting from the Earned Income Tax Credit (IRS). Which brings us back to America’s Tax Cheater-in-Chief, Donald Trump. In trying to sell his tax cuts in December 2017, Trump took to Twitter to proclaim, “TAX CUTS will increase investment in the American economy and in U.S. workers, leading to higher growth, higher wages, and more JOBS!” As detailed above, that prediction has not been borne out. (While GDP and job growth is little changed since Trump took the oath of office, wage gains have been largely wiped out by inflation.)
Trump pledged “the rich will not be gaining at all with this plan.” But even without seeing his tax returns, there was never any doubt Donald Trump was lying all along. Because even when he wasn’t defrauding Uncle Sam (as the New York Times laid out in pain-staking detail), Donald Trump was rigging the system in his favor. The big tax cut for pass through businesses wouldn’t go to Trump’s “plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers, the pipe fitters … the people that like me best.” No, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explained, the winnings would go to people exactly like Donald Trump. Without Donald Trump’s tax returns, there is still much we do not know about the shell games—legal and illegal—that may have enabled the reality TV star to stiff Uncle Sam. By all indications, that’s just fine with congressional Republicans and those that voted for them; as Gallup found that while only 8 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of independents approve of the Trump tax cuts, Republican support for the GOP law is 76 percent. But for the 64 percent reporting they’ve seen no increase in their take-home pay, the Republicans’ “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is probably just another scam from America’s tax scammer-in-chief, Donald Trump.
Let’s see those tax returns!
As New York investigates the Trump family for civil tax fraud, Congress should demand to see Trump tax returns from more current years. More reason to get out the vote, since a Dem Congress could probably retrieve Trump’s taxes. This next article also reveals the IRS is badly understaffed, underfunded & overloaded. Beyond that, there should be a concerted effort to fix our broken tax code, clamping down on wealthy business owners for their chronic cheating of the U.S. Treasury, & in particular large real estate developers. These posts are taken from new-york-times-donald-trump-tax:
When the New York Times exposed decades of tax cheating and “outright fraud” by the sitting president, it prompted people to ask important questions about the corrupt practices of the Trump family. The answers are central to the future of America. Where was the Internal Revenue Service? How did the Trumps get away with decades of schemes the Times said allowed them to evade close to a half-billion dollars of income and gift taxes? Is Donald Trump continuing these practices? Is that why he refuses to make his own tax returns public? Can anything be done about it? I’m in a unique position to answer those questions. I am the Times’ former tax reporter, the journalist who has covered Trump longer than anyone else, more than 30 years. And my next book will propose an entirely new tax system for the US and other advanced nations. The answers to the first and second questions are as easy as they are awful. Congress, which makes tax law, has never properly supported the IRS, which I like calling the Tax Police Department. Since 1992, the American population has grown 27% but the IRS staff has shrunk by 34%, to less than 78,000 people. At the same time, Congress has added enormous complexity to the tax code. On top of this, the big accounting and law firms have devised all manner of complex new tax shelters. A few years ago, the IRS told Congress it lacks the expertise to thoroughly investigate such shelters and determine which are within the law and which are frauds that should be demolished.
If the Times is right and some of the Trump tactics were criminal, why weren’t they indicted? The Trumps benefited from complex ownership structures that, among other strategies, let them inflate invoices for such things as new stoves in rental units. This meant they got bigger income tax deductions than were lawful. It also helped Fred Trump, Donald’s father, pass money to his children without incurring income and gift taxes or reducing the amount paid. Fred Trump created 295 separate revenue streams to funnel money to his children without incurring gift or income taxes. They did it with buildings too, reducing the value of more than a thousand apartments by more than 94%. I have held in my hands real estate transfer records for more than a $1bn of real estate that parents owned in the morning but after lunch belonged to their children. I’m sure these were tax crimes but Congress makes gift tax returns secret so I have no way to prove it unless someone leaks me those documents. One reason for my certainty: a government court filing stating that gift tax cheating in real estate is rampant, ranging from a low of 85% of gifts in the most honest states to 100% in others.
You can expect to see Trump’s returns within about a year if the Democrats win control of the House or Senate. That’s because Congress has granted itself the authority to see tax returns. The returns would not just be thrown out there. The Democrats are likely to employ skilled auditors and investigators to go over the returns and hold public hearings at which the returns would be examined. Let’s hope Congress does not limit itself to the issue of whether the sitting American president is engaged in ongoing tax crimes. Let’s hope it decides to work on equal enforcement of the tax laws. Every dollar of tax evaded adds to America’s debt. It means less money to invest in basic scientific research, education and modernizing crumbling infrastructure. Taxes are at the core of democracy. The power to tax is the specific reason the American constitution was adopted, replacing the government-by-bake-sale financing under the Articles of Confederation. Wage earners and others whose income is independently verified and whose taxes are withheld before they get their money are fully taxed. But people who control businesses can cheat with abandon. Their risk of detection is small only because the tax police have been handcuffed. They need to be set free to do their job.
Let’s fix the tax code!
Another clear sign on how our tax laws need revamped are found in jared-kushner-companies-dodged-income-tax-for-years, showing how sonny-in-law Kushner seemingly employed the same shady tax practices as his father-in-law. If some good can evolve from this Trump era, it could come out of the recent revelations detailing how our current president engaged in widespread tax fraud with his business practices, highlighting the need for the systematic crackdown on tax cheats who abuse a flawed tax code. For one thing, our government could sure use the revenue with our growing deficits. These excerpts come from business/jared-kushner-taxes:
Over the past decade, Jared Kushner’s family company has spent billions of dollars buying real estate. His personal stock investments have soared. His net worth has quintupled to almost $324 million. And yet, for several years running, Mr. Kushner — President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser — appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes, according to confidential financial documents reviewed by The New York Times. His low tax bills are the result of a common tax-minimizing maneuver that, year after year, generated millions of dollars in losses for Mr. Kushner, according to the documents. But the losses were only on paper — Mr. Kushner and his company did not appear to actually lose any money. The losses were driven by depreciation, a tax benefit that lets real estate investors deduct a portion of the cost of their buildings from their taxable income every year.
The White House last year championed a sweeping revision of the nation’s tax laws that expanded many of the benefits enjoyed by real estate investors, allowing them to reap even larger deductions. “The Trump administration was in a position to clean up the tax code and promised to get rid of some of the complexity that certain taxpayers use to their advantage,” said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Instead, they doubled down on those provisions, particularly the ones they have familiarity with to benefit themselves.” The revelation about Mr. Kushner’s minimal tax payments comes as his father-in-law’s taxes are under renewed scrutiny. A Times investigation published this month found that Mr. Trump participated in outright fraud that shielded his family’s fortune from estate and gift taxes. Mr. Trump has broken with decades of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns. But portions of a 1995 tax return previously published by The Times show trends similar to the one visible in the documents detailing Mr. Kushner’s finances. Mr. Trump at the time reported nearly $916 million in losses, which could have permitted him to avoid any federal income taxes for almost two decades.
Brief Bits on Russian Probe
With no evidence, Trump again tried to blame China as a deflection away from the real crimes, those involving Russia: trump-threatening-china-to-distract-from-russia-scandal. And Trump’s henchmen in Congress & the echo keep trying to divert from the Russiagate scandal by blaming the DOJ, FBI, Dems, media, the dossier, Hillary’s emails or any other crazy conspiracy they can think up. One update in the news is the fact Michael Cohen knows a lot, is saying a lot, & is being thoroughly examined over his numerous dealings with Trump as his fix-it man: michael-cohen-prosecutors-confirm-ongoing-grand-jury-investigation & also michael-cohen-trump-investigation.
Midterms mostly a Referendum on the President, so let’s get out the vote!
The choice is clear. In the midterms, a vote for Dems is basically a vote to keep Trump in check & hold him accountable. Voting for the GOP is essentially a vote to cover up or excuse his increasingly apparent criminal behavior, while giving tacit support to corruption, deception, conspiracies, gaslighting, extreme echo-rhetoric, radicalized pseudo-conservatism, stubborn cluelessness, obfuscation, chaos, dysfunction, bullying, divisiveness, racism, white supremacy, Neo-Nazism, bigotry, xenophobia, misogyny, sexual abuse, separating families, fiscal recklessness, income inequality, trickle down, anti-worker, cozying up to large multinational corporations, voter suppression, gerrymandering, dark money, authoritarian governing, emboldening dictators, disregard for human rights, isolationism, moral debauchery, lack of human values, attacking the First Amendment & a disdain for the constitutional rule of law. That’s a mighty long list, so we have to question, how could any American in their right mind vote for all that?
It’s still a free country where we can vote how we choose, but let’s communicate with our fellow Americans what their vote is really all about. We can try preventing them from making another big mistake with their vote. It’s still a mystery to me why any patriotic American would want to vote for such subhuman values, immorality & evil. Plus it could literally put our democracy at stake! A GOP Congress has shown far more willingness to protect an autocratically-minded Trump than Mueller. Please share this part 1 section or our blog site address with many others. Let people far & wide see how in just a few short years, the GOP has been transformed from rational to radical! More than at any time in our nation’s history since the Civil War, it has become not so much a vote for Dem vs. GOP or liberal vs. conservative, but at its core our vote coming up is all about right vs. wrong.
Here in part 1 we normally focus more on the Russian scandal, but with the midterms coming up & Mueller presumably not wanting to interject himself into the election, the news has been relatively sparse on the Russian front. But we do have several articles below on the midterms, since the election could have a major impact on the Russia probe. If the GOP should somehow hold onto both the Senate & the House, Trump would likely be emboldened to take reckless/lawless actions against the Mueller investigation. And as we’ve seen, the GOP Congress shows no desire to rein him in. This is the most important/consequential election ever to vote Dem, as a way to provide a check on this despot president, plus make sure we find out all the facts about who may have colluded with Russia to taint the presidential election.
For most of us, Trump is impossible to love because of who he is (hear our song at bottom of part 3). It’s basically because he’s a jerk. Sorry, he just is. And no matter what we think of Stormy Daniels, Trump just called her “horseface”: trump-calls-stormy-daniels-horseface. Unbelievable. And this is our president? What’s wrong with this guy! And in what country, world or universe is such name-calling appropriate for a democratically-elected president? All the more reason to be energized to vote. Women & young people might make the difference for the election if they turn out in droves, but Dems are still concerned about the leanings of the Latino vote. Join us in encouraging people to get out the vote. And take your pick among the links listed here about the midterms:
Voter enthusiasm way up among Dems:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/411338-voter-enthusiasm-up-sharply-compared-to-2014-poll
I’m sensing an anger & energy among women & young people, which should that translate into very high turnout should usher in a massive blue wave!:
Blue Wave comes from Pink Wave:
Dem women very amped up over Kavanaugh:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/brett-kavanaugh-democrats-midterms#~o
While the GOP is only pretending their voters are:
So it’s looking good for Dems:
house-and-senate-democrats-are-in-much-better-shape-than-in-2016
And let’s finally see those taxes!:
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-democrats-trump-tax-returns-public-if-retake-house-2018-10
In the purple industrial Midwest states, GOP candidates are weighed down by the Trump factor & people not experiencing economic gains in their personal lives:
This clown has always been a racist/bigoted nutjob!:
And let’s stop the racist cheating:
I’m very open to quality centrist independent candidates if they have a legitimate chance of winning:
It’s ironic that I would now agree with this guy’s sentiments:
Boot suggests we shouldn’t stoop to Trump’s level:
We do need to fight hard for it, since we dare not underestimate the power of the evil Trump cult!:
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/411301-if-you-want-a-blue-wave-you-have-to-fight-for-it
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