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Ok first the good news-Nadler and Schiff are clearly drawing a hard line on today’s deadline for Barr to release the full, uredacted Mueller report. If-as he has said he will-Barr blithely blows through this deadline the Dems will subpoena it tomorrow.

For some reason post Trump’s fake ‘exoneration’ Bannon’s been doing a lot of talking-for some reason the MSM think this imaginary ‘vindication’ means you not only normalize everything Trump has ever done but that somehow even Bannon is now normalized.

Bannon clearly like to talk-as Michael Wolff can attest-and now the House Judiciary Dems are giving him his platform.

There was even more good news yesterday as the news came of a whistleblower who has revealed to the Elijah Cummings and Friends that she knows of at least 25 cases of Trump’s people getting security clearance after their applications were rejected. 

Still the structure of this Washington Post report bothers me-for some reason authors Rachel Bade and Tom Hamburger quoted the GOP rebuttal-that the Dems were just being partisan and ‘cherrypicking’-right 25 examples is cherrypicking-before they even quoted Chairman Cummings himself.

That is just weird-why would you hear from the defense before you even hear from the prosecution-the allegations in proper context? You might say I’m making too much of this but or maybe this was an oversight by Bade-Hamburger but I’ve seen lots of cable news shows-Hallie Jackson does it all the time-where yet another bombshell about Trump hits and they don’t even explain the allegations before immediately pivoting to ‘but what is President Trump saying?’ or maybe a rebuttal by Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, Lindsay Graham, Devin Nunes, et al.

In other words this is a clear pattern-where when a bad story about Trump breaks the MSMers can’t allow it to breath and fester for a moment-are they scared of a mean tweet or the threat of a lawsuit, do they fear they’ll lose their vaunted access with the(fake)President?

Or maybe they’ve normalized him to the point they now see him as totally legitimate and normal. But whatever the reason they give Trump and his GOP co-conspirators the right to refute allegations before they’re even actually made it’s what they MSM has been doing.

Another example of MSM double standard is the breathless focus on Joe Biden’s ‘handsiness.’ What about Trump?

The media reported on Alva Johnson literally for one day then buried it never to be mentioned again. What she has alleged is far more serious than anything being alleged against Biden. For that matter Biden’s camp itself ought to mention this.

One point I’ve been very clear about is that winning in 2020 is necessary but far from sufficient to rid the world of Trumpism. Indeed the theory of this book is that Trump is not the root of the problem but simply the logical conclusion of years of GOP retrogression. The GOP has been a violently reactionary party for 80 years-if you trace it to 1938 after FDR had his run on the New Deal.

As for Trump himself he needs to be impeached if that’s where the facts lead-regardless of Senate math or political calculus-all the political calculus has made the strange assumption that impeaching Trump will almost certainly hurt the Democrats. Why is it so certain it won’t hurt the GOP? I’ve analyzed this zombie idea in greater detail in other chapters but this strange assumption always begins with the entirely false premise that impeaching Clinton hurt the Republicans. It really didn’t-ok in the short term they did lose a few seats in the 1998 election. But they plowed on-to use Mitch McConnell’s viciously vile expression-the GOP doesn’t look to simply win they look to gang rape the opposition-and impeached Clinton in the lame duck when he had an approval rating in the 60s and 70s.

Trump has a 42% approval rating and the MSM-and often the Democrats-make it sound like it’s 72%-while the GOP was fine impeaching Clinton who really was at 72%.

My predominant concern in riding the Impeachment Train so hard-this is what I ran on as a candidate in the NY2 primary-is the Rule of Law and precedent-what history will say. To fail to impeach him if he’s done impeachable things-and illegitimately gaining his Office is impeachable-is to normalize him for history.

If the Democrats fail to hold him accountable-regardless of the 2020 result-then the system has failed. Tricia Newbold, the long time security adviser who has now taken this great risk in publicly coming out and telling us the truth about how Trump has abused the security clearance process is counting on the Democrats as the check on Trump. Are they going to fail her-by not pursuing this vigilantly? Are they going to fail all of us who voted for them in 2018 and thought we were voting for a strong check on Trump?

What seems impossible to get into Democratic heads sometimes is this: Rule of Law matters, precedent matters.

As the GOP obtained 800,000 pages on the FBI’s investigation of Clinton we need to see the same-really more-of raw intelligence on Trump-Russia. Otherwise the Rule of Law is destroyed.

It sure seems Richard Neal is not only uninterested in being a check on Trump but is positively opposed to the idea.

President Trump’s absurd claim that a four-page summary of the Russia investigation’s findings grants him “total exoneration,” and his efforts to bully Democrats and the mediainto groveling for forgiveness for supposedly having gotten this scandal wrong, are all about what lies ahead. The obvious game is to chill further scrutiny — which very much constitutes a live threat to Trump that no amount of furious tweeting about “exoneration” can make disappear.

Which is why Democrats should, if anything, be intensifying their effort to access Trump’s tax returns right now, not dragging their feet on it.

The Center for American Progress is trying to increase the pressure on Democrats to do just that — by releasing a new memo which argues that getting the returns is a legal slam dunk, and is absolutely justifiable, or even imperative, as a matter of basic oversight and good governance.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has delegated the job of getting at Trump’s tax returns to Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Under the law, the committee can request any individual’s tax returns, after which the Treasury Department “shall” furnish them.

Neal has asked multiple House committees to each furnish a rationale rooted in governing or oversight for getting the president’s returns, with the theory being that it would place the request on firmer institutional footing and make the legal case stronger. The Trump administration will challenge the request, likely leading to a lengthy court battle.

Now, HuffPost reports reports that Neal is saying this whole process could end up meaning we don’t see Trump’s returns until after the 2020 election. Neal is claiming he has little control over this — “I can’t substitute my timetable for the federal courts,” he says — but this does not say anything about why he is not acting with more urgency.

That is simply absurd. I mean if what is even the point of obtaining them if you won’t get them before the 2020 election?

Enter the Center for American Progress memo, which argues at length that the law is unambiguously clear. “If Congress asks for any tax returns, the [Internal Revenue Service] must provide them,” the memo says.

The idea is that, while it may be understandable for Democrats to want to build a strong institutional and legal case, this cannot become an excuse for further delay. Notably, the memo points out that while there is no precedent for seeking a president’s tax returns under this particular provision of the law, it’s because, for decades, presidents and presidential candidates voluntarily released them.

Exactly the Democrats are so scared of being accused of breaking a precedent they fail to see that Trump is who broke the precedent in not releasing his tax returns.

But they upbraided the GOP for two years for not voting on their bills to get Trump’s tax returns. Now are in control and they’re bailing? So is this a broken campaign promise? While the GOP protected Trump’s tax returns for two years, Richard Neal is doing so now. Apparently he wants to be Trump’s buddy-and work with Steven Mnuchin on the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Neal often would rather talk about the alternative minimum tax, infrastructure, healthcare, or dozens of other in-the-weeds tax code issues than grab a headline for blasting Trump.

“I’ve spent a career working on [the] alternative minimum tax,” Neal bragged in a 2017 onstage interview in Washington.

In a recent hearing with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Neal declined to bring his anticipated request of Trump’s tax returns, which will go directly to the Treasury secretary. Instead, Neal used a portion of his time to focus on an area of general agreement between Democrats and the Trump administration: A major upgrade to the country’s infrastructure.

That was actually amazing-Mnuchin asked him if he was asking for Trump’s tax returns-and Neal was like ‘certainly not!’

Again with this nonsense that Trump cares about infrastructure-still not listening to Rachel Maddow and putting more focus on what Trump says than what he does. It’s been demonstrated time and again if he has any interest in an infrastructure plan it’s some sort of privatization scheme.

And look-while healthcare and infrastructure are very important so is the Rule of Law. I don’t  think an AMT fix-or any positive policy agenda item-is worth sullying the Rule of Law. And Neal and the Democrats should understand should understand the terrible precedent they are setting here. They are setting the precedent that only Democratic Presidents can be held accountable-that not only will the GOP in lockstep always protect a GOP President-regardless of the offenses-collusion with a foreign government, putting children in cages, shooting someone on 5th avenue-but about half the Democrats will ultimately decide it’s not worth the fight.

And look regarding infrastructure-here’s the reality-Hitler did great infrastructure projects and the German economy did very well. 

Obviously I’m not making the upside GOP argument-that you shouldn’t do infrastructure projects because Hitler did them but what I despise is all this commentary that implies Trump’s destruction of our democracy doesn’t matter if the economy is doing-pretty good, though it was the same under Obama and wages are still not where they should be for the median American-and if he does an infrastructure deal with the Democrats-not that there is any reason to believe he’s interested in doing so. Yet the commentary still always takes it on faith he really wants to do an infrastructure plan.

But this is why I unlike many really feel even debating Trump’s ‘policies’ is kind of obscene-he didn’t win that election legitimately. If he isn’t there legitimately nothing he has done in two plus years has been. Meanwhile Richard Neal wants to totally sully the Rule of Law because of the hope that he and Steve Mnuchin-a guy who evicted someone over $25 dollars-can work out a ‘bipartisan deal’ on the AMT.

Thank God for Adam Schiff-who clearly gets this is a fight worth having-he’s said this is a fight worth going to the mat over. Neal though is still living in some rarefied world with his rosy bipartisan glasses on. Don’t get me started on bipartisanship-there’s simply no history to support this canard. If you look at the big achievements in terms of progressive victories and achievements-the New Deal, the Great Society, for that matter Obamacare-they all came with overwhelming Democratic majorities.

‘Working with Republicans’ is simply a myth that deluded Democrats like Richard Neal believe in-the GOP laughs behind their backs as they exploit such gullibility and cluelessness for all its worth. The history shows that the great achievements of social and political progress have happened when the Democrats had supermajority control of Congress. Yet we keep hearing that the solution is to be nice to Republicans and work with them. In truth the GOP that great party of reaction-I call them great with all sincerity they really are great at being reactionary-has been the impediment to social and political progress for 80 years.

https://twitter.com/RowdyDowgz/status/1111051039573245953

On Thursday there will be protests across America if Barr fails to release the Mueller Report by today as he has said he will do. This is good-the Powers That Be need to understand that this is not just a Beltway concern.

https://twitter.com/NoOneIsAboveLaw/status/1111730023940214790

We, the Democratic voters-or all who voted for them in 2018 for a check on Trump-and who hoped to see his tax returns need to be holding them to their vow to release the returns.

Call Chairman Richard Neal to demand he subpoena Trump’s tax returns

The Center for American Progress urges action on Trump’s tax returns:

Donald Trump has reneged on a promise he made nearly four years ago to release his tax returns publicly. By keeping his returns hidden, he has broken the precedent every president and major party nominee for president has followed over the past 40 years. His actions also heighten concerns about what he could be hiding.

Yes but: what about Richard Neal and the Democrats? Aren’t they also breaking a campaign promise?

The new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has pledged to conduct the kind of vigorous oversight of the executive branch that has been lacking for the past two years. As part of that oversight agenda, House leaders have said that they intend to invoke their authority under the law to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to review them. Trump’s Treasury Department is threatening to withhold the returns from Congress and take the issue to the courts, where his team reportedly hopes to bog down the request in a “quagmire of arcane legal arguments.”1 But the law could not be clearer: Congress’ tax committees have the authority to obtain Trump’s tax returns on request—and the U.S. Treasury Department has no basis for refusing. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin would be violating the law if he directs the IRS to stonewall Congress.

This report explains why Congress has not only the clear authority to obtain Trump’s tax returns, but also the constitutional responsibility to do so given his secrecy and his domestic and foreign business entanglements, as well as the powers of the office. It explains that the law giving Congress this authority was intended for situations such as this—to enable Congress to exercise oversight over the executive branch and monitor conflicts of interest. While regular citizens can expect that their tax returns will remain private, the president of the United States should have no such expectation, especially when he refuses to divest his domestic and international business holdings. Tax returns contain information not available elsewhere that could provide critical information to complete the president’s financial picture.”

Very important-the Democratic Congress has not just the right but the duty to obtain the tax returns. Richard Neal’s evident plan not to obtain them is a dereliction of his duty. We as the Democratic voters must to everything we can to let him know this is not what we want and that the Democrats need to stop taking their own voters for granted. Forget about the Trump voters being angry in 2020-what if their own voters are demoralized? With all the anti Trump energy what will it amount to if the Dems are going to punt on the  vigorous campaign oversight they promised?

I’ve always defended my party-when the Left was more anti Obama and anti Hillary than anti GOP I pointed out the absurdity-that they may as well admit they are helping the GOP and get it over with. But if they punt this time even I will have run out of defenses. Suffice it to say if this were Hillary Clinton we’d already have the tax returns.

Only Democrats let themselves get thwarted over such over abundance of concern over process. In Clinton’s case Roger Stone and Julian Assange would probably hack and release them and then Barr would come out and ‘exonerate them’ and the MSM would say ‘it’s settled’ and interview Roger Stone every night for the next two weeks and  that would be that.

“Congress has multiple reasons to obtain and review President Trump’s tax returns—reasons that are not only legitimate uses of its legislative powers, but also urgently needed, including:

  1. To determine if U.S. national security is at risk of being compromised by the president’s financial conflicts of interest
  2. To determine if Trump has conflicts of interests bearing on his trade and tariffs policies
  3. To determine whether the president is violating the U.S. Constitution by receiving benefits from foreign countries without Congress’ consent
  4. To determine whether he is benefiting from his tax policies despite his many public assertions to the contrary
  5. To determine whether the IRS is adequately auditing the president
  6. To inform the consideration of additional disclosure requirements for candidates and officeholders

On Election Day 2016, the American people did not know that throughout 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump had been pursuing a Trump Tower Moscow deal that could gain him as much as $300 million in profits. The public did not know about the deal, because Trump and his campaign repeatedly lied about it.2 The extent of Trump’s dealings with Russia, or with other foreign governments or interests, remains unclear—and Trump’s finances in general are still murky.

Regarding 5, the question is: was he ever under audit in the first place?

Under these circumstances, it is not only appropriate but also vital to the functioning of our democracy for Congress to seek an answer to the basic question: Is President Trump working for the interests of the country, or himself? As this report explains, Congress cannot adequately answer that question without first obtaining and reviewing his tax returns.”

Not just his personal returns either but his business returns.

If Hillary’s buddies over at Center for American Progress can’t get through to Neal and friends no one can. It’s a very interesting and compelling piece-CAP probably knows at least as much as Neal does about AMT!-that goes through the history of this law that lets Congress obtain the President’s tax returns. President Calvin Coolidge was obstructing Congress’ ability to investigate the Teapot Dome scandal-so they passed a law that enabled them to obtain a President’s tax returns-or any other member of the Administration without his/her consent.

The legislative history behind the provision is richly described by University of Virginia School of Law Professor George Yin in a recent article.10 In sum, in 1922, President Warren Harding’s secretary of the interior accepted bribes from businessmen in exchange for favorable no-bid leases on public oil reserves, including the Teapot Dome oil field in Wyoming. Word of the shady transactions got out in the press, and Congress began a multiyear investigation.11 As part of that investigation, Congress sought some of the tax returns of those involved in the scandal.12 But President Harding’s successor, Calvin Coolidge, initially refused. At the time, Congress had no power to compel tax returns; the president had to approve any release, including to Congress.13 Although Coolidge ultimately granted Congress’ request, this episode helped convince Congress that its requests for tax return information to aid investigations should not be dependent on the president’s approval.14

Around the same time, some members of Congress were also frustrated by their inability to obtain tax information from Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon to determine whether his sprawling business interests influenced his recommendations to Congress on tax policy. Mellon was one of the country’s wealthiest men, and the tax policy changes he recommended to Congress would surely have affected his finances; thus, members sought information on those interests to determine how much weight to place on his recommendations.15 The Senate also launched an investigation into the Bureau of Internal Revenue, now known as the IRS, including whether it was showing favoritism toward businesses owned by Mellon. Senators found their investigation hampered by their reliance on the executive branch to obtain tax returns and by President Coolidge’s hostility to the investigation.16

Against this background, Congress, via the Revenue Act of 1924, gave itself the power to compel the secretary of the treasury to furnish tax returns upon request.17 In approving the provision, legislators cited Congress’ need to review tax return information “to evaluate Administration tax proposals, develop its own tax legislative initiatives, and carry out investigations.”18 The provision faced opposition from some parties, including Coolidge, Mellon, and members of the business community, on the grounds that it could compromise taxpayer privacy. But in enacting the provision, Congress determined that access to tax returns was important for its legislative prerogatives, including gathering information for prospective legislation and performing oversight of the executive branch. The 1924 provision, with some amendments, is still in effect today.”

And yes, Ways and Means-Neal’s Committee-can make Trump’s tax returns public-the law gives them this discretion.

IRC Section 6103(f) also gives Congress the discretion to make tax returns or return information public in appropriate circumstances. Professor Yin describes this as Congress’ public “informing function.”

Note that while the nontax committees may submit taxpayer information to the full Senate or House “only when sitting in closed executive session,” that secrecy requirement does not apply to the tax committees.29 This is not an accident. Professor Yin’s analysis of the historical record confirms that this language reflects a deliberate decision by Congress to grant the tax committees the discretion to make tax information public, since the tax committees’ subject matter expertise best enables them to weigh the need for public disclosure against any taxpayer’s privacy interests.”

Richard Neal needs to show us the tax returns or maybe it’s time to show him the door-at least to the Chairman’s Suite.

Speaking of unkept promises:

UPDATE:

 

UPDATE 2.0:

Interesting point regarding impeachment.

UPDATE 3.0: Ryan Cooper is also over Neal’s King Hamlet routine.

I’ve used an analogy by Michelle Goldberg in diagnosing the Dems in this book-that they are the female party governed by society’s harsher rules for women’s behavior. The fact that the Democrats tend to be rather ginger and timid about wielding power further underscores this thesis.

Often you hear from women’s groups and advocates that women are a little ‘queasy’-to use Comey’s word-about utilizing power. This seems to apply very much the same way to the Democrats.

UPDATE 4.0:

Say it aint so Chairman Schiff

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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