Author: Data and Research Manager

Warren And Whitehouse Demand Probe Of Tax Avoidance By Ultra-Wealthy

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Two prominent members of the Senate Finance Committee are calling for an investigation into tax avoidance by the ultrawealthy, citing ProPublica‘s “Secret IRS Files” series.

In a letter sent today, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote to the committee’s chairman, Ron Wyden (D-OR), that the “bombshell” and “deeply troubling” report requires an investigation into “how the nation’s wealthiest individuals are using a series of legal tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes.” The senators also requested that the Senate hold hearings and develop legislation to address the loopholes’ “impact on the nation’s finances and ability to pay for investments in infrastructure, health care, the economy, and the environment.”

Last month ProPublica began publishing a series of stories about tax avoidance among the ultra-wealthy, based on a vast trove of tax data concerning thousands of the wealthiest American taxpayers and covering more than 15 years. ProPublica conducted an unprecedented analysis that compared the ultra-wealthy’s taxes to the growth in their fortunes, calculating that the 25 richest Americans pay a “true tax rate” of just 3.4 percent. Continue reading.

DFL Party Calls on Representative John Thompson to Resign Immediately

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the Minnesota DFL Party is calling on Representative John Thompson to resign after recent reporting revealed numerous allegations of domestic violence against Thompson.

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“Numerous allegations against Representative John Thompson have recently come to light that show an incredibly disturbing pattern of violent and abusive behavior. The reports that Thompson physically assaulted multiple women, often in the presence of children, are absolutely sickening. Physical and sexual violence are anathema to everything we stand for as DFLers and as Minnesotans, and nobody credibly accused of such heinous acts has any place in elected office. I am calling on Representative Thompson to resign from office effective immediately.”

Michigan GOP official who said Trump ‘blew it’ resigns from executive director post

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The executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, who said the 2020 presidential election wasn’t stolen and blamed Donald Trump for the GOP loss, has resigned.

Jason Roe, a veteran strategist who was brought on in February, stepped down from the post but declined to expand on why he resigned less than six months later, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“I resigned my position as executive director and the reasons will remain between me and Chairman Weiser,” he said in a statement to the newspaper, referring to Michigan GOP Party Chairman Ron Weiser. “We’ve built an amazing team and I know they will be very successful in 2022. I look forward to helping however I can.” Continue reading.

H.C. Commissioner Chris LaTondresse (Dist. 6) Update: July 16, 2021

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July 16, 2021

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week I attended the National Association of Counties (NACo) Annual Conference. These gatherings offer county officials nationwide the opportunity to share best practices and join forces in advocacy to better serve our residents.

During the gathering I connected with with Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, the Federal official responsible for local government implementation of the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Hennepin County is receiving $240 million in Federal ARP investments. It’s an historic opportunity to build back better post-pandemic.

Hennepin County also received 17 awards from NACo, including top honors for an innovative training program intended to reduce disparities and improve racial equity. More details on those awards are below.

Continue reading “H.C. Commissioner Chris LaTondresse (Dist. 6) Update: July 16, 2021”

Leaked Kremlin documents suggest Putin holds blackmail leverage over Trump — and that’s why Russia backed him

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A leaked document appears to confirm rumors that the Kremlin holds blackmail leverage over former president Donald Trump.

Russian president Vladimir Putin personally authorized a secret spy agency to back “mentally unstable” Trump for U.S. president during a Jan. 22, 2016, closed session of that country’s national security council, according to what appears to be leaked Kremlin documents obtained by The Guardian.

“It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his [Trump’s] election to the post of U.S. president,” the paper says. Continue reading.

Man who dangled from Senate balcony pleads guilty in Capitol riots, will cooperate against others

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An Idaho man photographed hanging from the Senate balcony and sitting in the presiding officer’s chair in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony obstruction of Congress, admitting to joining a group who came to Washington armed with firearms, knives and body armor to support President Donald Trump.

Josiah B. Colt, 34, became the latest defendant to agree to cooperate in the breach investigation, seeking to pare down a possible recommended five-year prison sentence.

Though Colt is not accused of being part of a larger militia-like group, he admitted in plea papers to joining at least two men from Nevada and Tennessee who arranged travel, raised funds, bought paramilitary gear and recorded themselves before breaking in to the building and rushing to the Senate just evacuated by lawmakers. Continue reading.

Trump went on profane rant about ‘krauts’ after getting into argument with Angela Merkel: bombshell book

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CNN on Wednesday reported that a new book written by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker claims that former President Donald Trump used an ethnic slur to rant about Germans after getting into an argument with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

While discussing the new book — titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year — reporter Jamie Gangel paraphrased an excerpt that detailed Trump’s “strained” relationship with Merkel, with whom he regularly clashed over foreign affairs.

While discussing the new book — titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year — reporter Jamie Gangel paraphrased an excerpt that detailed Trump’s “strained” relationship with Merkel, with whom he regularly clashed over foreign affairs. Continue reading.

Joint Chiefs chairman feared potential ‘Reichstag moment’ aimed at keeping Trump in power

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In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters.

As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”

Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship. Continue reading.

House Dems launch investigation into Arizona ballot review

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The oversight committee is seeking a wide range of information from Cyber Ninjas, the firm overseeing the Arizona effort.

The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into the ballot review being run by the Republican-controlled state Senate in Arizona, the committee announced on Wednesday.

“Americans’ right to vote is protected by the Constitution and is the cornerstone of our democratic system of government,” Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who helms the subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, said in a statement. 

The committee is seeking a wide range of information from Cyber Ninjas, the firm overseeing the Arizona effort, including communications it had with Maricopa County officials, former President Donald Trump or his representatives, and those who have advanced election-related falsehoods such as Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell and Lin Woods. Continue reading.

How Trumpism has become outright ‘fascism’

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Although conservative journalist David Frum has been a blistering critic of Donald Trump, he has been reluctant to use the word “fascist” to describe the former president. The words “fascist” and ‘fascism,” Frum has stressed in the past, should never be used casually simply to attack policies one does not like. But in an article published by The Atlantic on July 13, the Never Trump conservative lays out some disturbing reasons why Trumpism does, in fact, fit the definition of fascism.

“Through the Trump years, it seemed sensible to eschew comparisons to the worst passages of history,” Frum explains. “I repeated over and over again a warning against too-easy use of the F-word, fascism: ‘There are a lot of stops on the train line to bad before you get to Hitler Station.'”

Frum continues, “Two traits have historically marked off European-style fascism from more homegrown American traditions of illiberalism: contempt for legality and the cult of violence. Presidential-era Trumpism operated through at least the forms of law. Presidential-era Trumpism glorified military power, not mob attacks on government institutions. Post-presidentially, those past inhibitions are fast dissolving.” Continue reading.