It's His Tax Man. Wonkagenda For Fri., April 5, 2019

Trump put his own tax guy in at IRS, more Mueller fallout, and a 'warning' for Mexico. Your daily news brief!

Morning Wonketariat! Here's some of the things wemaybe talking about today.

Attorney General Bill Barr's whitewashing of Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia report has wrinkled brows throughout DC, with anonymous officials close to Mueller's team whispering to reporters that Barr has been putting Trump's words in their mouths. Now congressional Democrats wonder if Barr himself is obstructing justice in trying to cover up Trump's obstruction of justice.

In yet another last minute attempt to delay his prison sentence, Michael Cohen says he's willing to give Congress another 14 million documents in exchange for Democrats telling prosecutors how much of a good boy he's been. With Cohen expected to be living in a prison onesie in just under a month, his lawyers are hoping the voicemails and TAPES will convince everyone that he's still got something to say. 

After House Democrats told the IRS to cough up six years of Trump's tax returns , Trump huffed and groused, "They'll speak to my lawyers and they'll speak to the attorney general." Politico notes that the quiet chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal, feels he's on solid legal ground and thus has no need to make a ton of noise or broadcast what his moves are. This morning the New York Times reports Trump curiously asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to prioritize confirming his own tax guy as legal counsel to the IRS. He was confirmed last month.

 Trump walked back his threat to close the Mexican border yesterday, tweeting that he'd given Mexico a "one-year warning." After criticizing Mexico for the US's drug problem and threatening to impose auto tariffs, Trump praised the Mexican government for stopping all the drugs coming over the "in the last three or four days," prompting Mexican authorities to respond, "Que?"

Citing two unnamed Pentagon officials, Newsweek reports Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps, personally allowed memos to leak that called Trump's border wall cash grab an "unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency" because "he didn't want the Marines and families at Camp Lejeune [in North Carolina] to get fucked." To put the military pushback of Trump's wall and border shenanigans in context: This is like taking a dump on your boss's front porch and then signing your name on the lawn with Greek fire.

The House voted to end US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen (again), setting the bill up for another Trump veto, and more dead kids in "shithole countries."

Trump's White House has suddenly withdrawn Ron Vitiello as its pick to head ICE. The administration and DHS aren't telling anyone WHY they suddenly pulled him, but Vitiello was scheduled to take a field trip with Trump to the Mexican border later today.

Failed 2012 presidential candidate and ALLEGED sex monster Herman Cain has been tapped for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Cain, A Idiot and Islamophobe, has advocated for a return to the gold standard, but is most famous for promoting Sim City's 9-9-9 cheat codes as a legitimate tax policy.

The House voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, but not before Republicans loudly bemoaned provisions that would restrict creepozoids with misdemeanor convictions for domestic abuse and stalking from buying guns (AKA: "the boyfriend loophole"). Amid crass shouts from Republicans, Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell asked, "Why would you not close a simple loophole that says if someone has been convicted — convicted, not accused! — convicted of domestic violence, that they not have access to a gun?" [ Full Video ]

After @RepDebDingell -- speaking on behalf of Violence Against Women Act reauthorization -- urges members to "not l… https: //t.co/n6hqSOfsFJ

— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1554394889.0 

Politico has an interesting long read about how the House Freedom Crazies used Mick Mulvaney and Fox News to mindmeld with Trump and shutdown the government (again). 

Self-described Florida man Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz is said to be considering a Senate run in Alabama. The Hill reports Trump World is egging Gaetz on in the hope he can snatch the Senate seat of Democrat Doug Jones, but first he'd have to win a primary fight against Rep. Bradley Byrne, who's been criss-crossing the state for over a year. The nudging of Gaetz is rumored to have started after internal polls showed Byrne getting his ass stomped by Republican Rep. Mo Brooks in a head-to-head matchup.

 Rep. Eric Swalwell says #HesRunning on a platform of gun control. Blech.

Arizona state Rep. David Stringer resigned last week over allegations he used to drive to Baltimore and pay 15-year-old boys $10 to let him rape them back in the 1980s when he served as a US House rep. Now the Arizona Central reports that Stringer, as recently as last year, told a child sex trafficking activist that child sex trafficking isn't a problem and he was super awful and terrifying about it and it's about "uncles" and congratulations everyone, everything is swell.

After a former Democratic candidate for the state legislature called Republican Rep. Paul Gosar a "pig," Gossar responded by calling the man a "porn loving whiny bitch" from his personal Twitter account. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tennessee legislators don't want to give US citizenship to the newborn babies of undocumented immigrants, so they've introduced a law that makes fathers jump through a half a dozen legal hoops in order to prove they themselves are US citizens. Tell it to Wong Kim Ark. 

After meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the liberal Labor Party, British Prime Minister Theresa May has formally asked the EU for ANOTHER Brexit delay. The move is expected to piss off members of her conservative base as the head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has been lobbying members of the EU for a "flextension."

Polish authorities say four (probably drunk) English men spotted by an AP photographer wearing lime green mankinis while riding in a horse-drawn carriage could be cited for "indecent antics," and locked up for 30 days or fined 5,000 zlotys ($1,300) each.

Wikileaks is freaking out over reports that Julian Assange is about to be kicked out of Ecuador's British embassy. According to Wikileaks, the move comes in response to their posting of documents that accuse Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno of laundering money while serving as a UN special envoy for the disabled in Geneva, and this has nothing to do with the government taking away his cat or calling him a filthy house guest who peddles conspiracy theories.

The Mormon Church had another "revelation" and announced it no longer considers gaymosexuals and their kids as heathens living in sin, and willallow the babies of Satan's buttsex cult to be baptized. Members of the LDS do still think the LGBQT have a bad POV, but it's a start.

We can only assume Tucker Carlson got high before he ran a three-minute segment wondering if Trump was purposely sabotaging himself in 2020 for considering a hike on the gas tax. Tucker leaned into the camera with his trademark vacant stare and slack jaw, and asked, "How would you like to spend your 70s locked in the White House?" Well, how about prison? [ Video ]

The local government of a San Francisco suburb says a multimillion-dollar house resembling "The Flinstones" family home is a nuisance, and the homeowner needs to take down all of the large, goofy crap scattered about the yard. Neighbors and city officials contend the bulbous, red and purple house -- with its large dinosaur and mushroom sculptures -- is an eyesore, but the homeowner says they're a bunch of dicks who hate "The Flintstones" and freedom and gay old times. 

And here's your morning Nice Time! IT'S MOE! Look at him (slowly) go!

Moe's New Home - Cincinnati Zoo    www.youtube.com 

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