All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[numberthirty]

Lordy, there is a second whistleblower.

And this one is about his taxes.

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) says he’s looking into making public a complaint by another whistleblower who claims to have evidence of misconduct regarding the Internal revenue Service’s auditing of President Trump, Bloomberg reports.

The allegations, made by a federal employee, says there were “inappropriate efforts to influence” the audit process. According to Neal, the complaint’s release to the public hinges on whether or not House lawyers think it’s a good idea.

Lemme see if I have this straight...

The guy was actually being audited just like he said?

While it seems like folks have said he never was under audit a bunch of times on the usual cable news outfits, you cannot make an "inappropriate effort to influence" an audit that is not actually in progress...

No?

It must actually exist to be something that you can make an inappropriate effort to influence it's outcome.

This is actually the last thing I would have guessed he was being on the level about, but this seems like it would establish that he was being audited.

[Tami]

Lemme see if I have this straight...

The guy was actually being audited just like he said?

While it seems like folks have said he never was under audit a bunch of times on the usual cable news outfits, you cannot make an "inappropriate effort to influence" an audit that is not actually in progress...

No?

This is actually the last thing I would have guessed he was being on the level about, but this seems like it would establish that he was being audited.

From what I have heard, all Presidents, once elected, must have their taxes audited. Only difference is that, all for the past few decades have voluntarily made their taxes public prior to being elected. Trump's claim of being audited before he was elected was a ruse to avoid making them public.

Still, even if they are being audited, they can be made public. there is no rule against that.

[Gray Lensman]

From what I have heard, all Presidents, once elected, must have their taxes audited. Only difference is that, all for the past few decades have voluntarily made their taxes public prior to being elected. Trump's claim of being audited before he was elected was a ruse to avoid making them public.

Still, even if they are being audited, they can be made public. there is no rule against that.

If I remember my history correctly, the first person to do (Nixon) did it BECAUSE he was being audited.

[Kirby101]

The President's taxes are always audited. He was not under audit during the election when he used that nonsensical excuse to not reveal his taxes. Which he could have even if they were being audited.

[numberthirty]

From what I have heard, all Presidents, once elected, must have their taxes audited. Only difference is that, all for the past few decades have voluntarily made their taxes public prior to being elected. Trump's claim of being audited before he was elected was a ruse to avoid making them public.

Still, even if they are being audited, they can be made public. there is no rule against that.

Yep.

Since Minuchin's name come up in the article, it feels like it had to be an audit from after he was elected.

I just went right to "Wait a minute..." on the audit.

Clearly read it all wrong.

Edit:

Well, wait a minute.

While it says it was an audit, it doesn't say anything past that to narrow down when it is an audit regarding.

Never mind. I'm fine with going back to assuming he is fibbing, and not actually knowing.

[JCAll]

Lemme see if I have this straight...

The guy was actually being audited just like he said?

While it seems like folks have said he never was under audit a bunch of times on the usual cable news outfits, you cannot make an "inappropriate effort to influence" an audit that is not actually in progress...

No?

It must actually exist to be something that you can make an inappropriate effort to influence it's outcome.

This is actually the last thing I would have guessed he was being on the level about, but this seems like it would establish that he was being audited.

The IRS confirmed that Trump was under audit almost as soon as he was elected. I'm pretty sure he's been audited before too. It's just that he claimed he couldn't release his taxes (even though he said he would) because of a rule that they couldn't be released while they were under audit, which the IRS said wasn't so also basically immediately after the election.

[JCAll]

Never mind. I'm fine with going back to assuming he is fibbing, and not actually knowing.

Well the President is an liar and an idiot. Assuming that's he's fibbing or just doesn't know is my default expectation as well.

[numberthirty]

One minor story from the "Illinois" corner of things. Got my personal doubts about where this one goes from here as far as if Sterigenics will pull the same thing somewhere else.

- https://wgntv.com/2019/09/30/sterige...rook-facility/

Sterigenics to close Willowbrook facility

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well the President is an liar and an idiot. Assuming that's he's fibbing or just doesn't know is my default expectation as well.

Which brings us back around to the suspicion that Trump is hiding something he most definitely DOESN’T want made public. Like perhaps he’s in debt up to his eyeballs to the Russians.

[InformationGeek]

So much news, so hard to keep up with all the crazy bullshit. With how things are going, we'll probably end up with another political thread before the end of the year. Heck, probably before the end of October at this rate.


...oh, and Trump cited a Briebart poll on his Twitter account to say that people stand with him. Sure, whatever.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

So much news, so hard to keep up with all the crazy bullshit. With how things are going, we'll probably end up with another political thread before the end of the year. Heck, probably before the end of October at this rate.


...oh, and Trump cited a Briebart poll on his Twitter account to say that people stand with him. Sure, whatever.

Well, his crackpot base stand with him, so Trump is right in that regard.

[Tami]

A little reading material: Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community’s Statement on Processing of Whistleblower Complaints

[Tami]

Why are so many black children being shot dead in one US city?

Growing up between abandoned buildings and empty lots, Xavier Usanga brought love and affection whenever he could. Those who knew him say he gave off joy like it was a superpower, enveloping everyone he knew in the glow.

Last month, a day before starting second grade, the seven-year-old was shot dead in crossfire outside his home.

His story is grimly familiar in St Louis, Missouri, a city of more than 300,000 that sits on the west bank of the Mississippi River and where 13 black children have been fatally shot since April.

Had those 13 children died in one fast hail of bullets, that tally would rank in the nation’s 20 deadliest mass shootings. If they had been white, it is likely they would have had more media attention.

Instead, these children died in the dilapidated parts of town most people are told to avoid – sometimes alone, sometimes as family stood helplessly by. In these corners of the city, parents tell their children the loud banging outside is fireworks, but because it is really gunfire, they don’t let them outside to see.

Xavier was in his backyard. He was heading back from a neighbor’s house with two of his older sisters – Trinity, 10, and Angel, 12 – when gunshots rang out. The girls ran into their home, where they realized Xavier wasn’t with them, and turned back and found his body under a bush. They told their grandmother he took a deep breath and was gone.

‘More access to guns than wallets in their back pockets’

For at least four years of Xavier’s short life, St Louis has been the murder capital of the US.

It has had the highest gun homicide rate per capita of any big city since 2014. This violence disproportionately affects the city’s poor black neighborhoods, and this year children as young as two have become a symbol for how entrenched the city is in violence. St Louis County, the suburbs which border the city, have also seen a high child murder rate with seven children shot dead.

St Louis’s mayor, Lyda Krewson, has offered $25,000 for information on four of the dead children’s cases, a grand total of $100,000. The city is also planning to spend $500,000 on the lauded crime reduction program, Cure Violence, and another $1.5m on violence prevention efforts.

The city also has programs to provide food, recreation and jobs to low-income people, as well as large-scale efforts to demolish derelict homes. This year, St Louis plans to tear down 700 homes, and has programs that allow people to purchase homes for $1.

“It’s a multipronged effort, but we all know this violence is a function of generational poverty and a lack of opportunity and it’s something that St Louis is not immune to just like all these other cities,” said Koran Addo, director of communications for the office of the mayor.

Missouri’s governor, Mike Parson, announced on 19 September that the state would deploy more police to the area and provide prosecutorial assistance. This plan of “targeting violent criminals and getting them off the street” does not include any changes to the state’s lax gun laws, which allow people to carry handguns and rifles without a permit.

[InformationGeek]

Is it just me or is Stephen Miller looking worse? Everytime I see him, he looks like he aged another 3 or 5 years.

[Tami]

Is it just me or is Stephen Miller looking worse? Everytime I see him, he looks like he aged another 3 or 5 years.

Nah, he's just shedding his human-skin and reverting back to his vampiric true form.