What Caught My Eye forMay 14 - 20 (#16)

Trump’s various projects — his monuments to himself — also appear to be little more than state-sanctioned opportunities for graft. The president has collected hundreds of millions of dollars from wealthy donors and large corporations for his proposed ballroom, presidential library and triumphal arch. Tens of millions of dollars marked for the library are unaccounted for, according to a report in The New Republic.

Last but far from least is the president’s $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S., for damages for leaking his tax returns to the public in 2019 and 2020. According to a recent news report, lawyers for the president are in talks with the I.R.S. to settle. This is tantamount to presidential looting of the Treasury, little different than if Trump had stolen the money outright.

Regardless of whether Trump suffered actual harm from the release of his tax returns, the fact of the matter is that it is a profound violation of the spirit of public service — to say nothing of the oath of office — to sue his own government for cash. And for his officials to then arrange a settlement would be unconscionable. As with nearly all of this president’s most transgressive moves, it shows total contempt for the American people.

The Trump Administration continues to go after the Trans community and I’m really hoping they fight to quash this subpoena with all their legal might. Trans rights are human rights and they need to be protected.

Suspending the gas tax also won’t help farmers because they already get an exemption from the gas tax, Metcalf said.

“If eliminating the tax leads to a little bit more demand for gasoline, then that’s just going to drive up the pre-tax price, which will just hurt farmers yet again,” Metcalf said.

It’s important to point these things out. Policies may sound good in politics, but that doesn’t always translate to the nuts and bolts of reality.

The grift continues.

The Trump family have used the powers of the state to enrich themselves to a staggering degree. They have made billions of dollars off of their crypto scams, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars from more terrestrial forms of corruption. Now they’re taking your money, some of which will be used to offer fig-leaf payments to the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol, but most of which the Trumps will hoard for themselves.

Let’s first dispense with the most obvious bit of the charade: the idea that this is actually related to the “settlement” of Trump’s already corrupt bullshit lawsuit against the IRS. That’s how this is being presented, but this is entirely separate. Trump needed to drop that lawsuit in order to end it before a judge called bullshit on the fact that he was negotiating with himself to take $10 billion from American taxpayers.

As for the actual “fund” everything about it is about as corrupt as you can imagine. This is impeachment-worthy — and not in a partisan way. Republicans should be as offended by this as anyone else, if they actually (I know… I know…) believe in things like rule of law and fiscal responsibility.