memeorandum: Saudis Escalate Crackdown on Dissent, Arresting Nine and Risking U.S. Ire (New York Times)

9:55 AM ET, April 6, 2019

Top Items:

The Reluctance of Bernie Sanders to Release His Damn Tax Returns Is Part of a Bigger Issue — Why hasn't Bernie Sanders just released his damn tax returns already? — It's a question that's something of a Rorschach test for Democratic primary voters. For veterans of the great war of 2016 …

Discussion: CNN, TheBlaze and Washington Post

CNN:

Trump lawyers issue letter fighting tax return request — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump continues to hold his ground against Democratic efforts to obtain his tax returns, with one administration official telling CNN that the President and his team are willing to fight …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, The Week, Trending Home, Test Feed Using Fields, Joe.My.God. and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

David French / National Review:

The Trump Era Should Make Libertarians of Us All — Democrats' quest for Trump's tax returns once again highlights the distortions in American law. — Democrats and many other Trump opponents are thrilled that House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal has “formally requested” six years of Donald Trump's tax returns.

Discussion: Viking Pundit and Patterico's Pontifications

New York Times: Trump Lawyer Asserts President's Right to Keep Tax Returns Private

Nancy Cook / Politico: Mnuchin losing two senior Treasury aides

Brian Faler / Politico:
Democrats face minefield if they get Trump's tax returns

Discussion: Raw Story

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump says law ‘100 percent’ on his side in tax return fight

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Breitbart, Axios and IJR

Steve Benen / MSNBC:

Trump raises eyebrows by saying, ‘We should get rid of judges’ — A reporter asked Donald Trump this morning why, after all of his rhetoric, he didn't close the border like he said he would. The president replied: … On the first point, the idea that Mexico is suddenly implementing policies …

Discussion: The Guardian and The Daily Beast

Washington Post:
‘Our country is full. . . . So turn around,’ Trump warns migrants during border roundtable

Discussion: Breitbart

Gabby Orr / Politico:
Trump's border threats jam up Pence's trade tour

Discussion: Raw Story

Associated Press:
‘Our country is full’: Trump says migrants straining system

Discussion: CBS San Francisco

Tarpley Hitt / The Daily Beast:

‘No Celebrities’: Embarrassing Turnout at Trump's Beverly Hills Fundraiser — Tickets for the event allegedly started at $15,000 and went as high as $150,000. — BEVERLY HILLS, California—Late Friday afternoon, Donald Trump landed in Los Angeles for a re-election fundraiser.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA and Raw Story

Washington Post: Trump visits his for-profit golf course during California trip for dinner with son, local officials

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Congress' new Mueller fight: Do Dems need to begin impeachment to see secret files? — Do Democrats have to begin the process of impeaching President Donald Trump in order to access special counsel Robert Mueller's secrets? — That legal debate began raging inside the House Judiciary Committee …

Discussion: Raw Story and Slate

Katelyn Polantz / CNN:
Ruling on grand jury records could affect release of Mueller report details

Discussion: Raw Story

Roger Cohen / New York Times:

Biden, Honorable Patriot, Should Side With Restraint — It's mean out there. Retrospective judgment makes no allowance for changed mores. — I watched Joe Biden at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. “We will be back, we will be back,” he declared.

The Babylon Bee: Joe Biden Appointed As Head Of TSA

Kevin Robillard / HuffPost:
Joe Biden Is Betting The Democratic Party Hasn't Changed

Discussion: Washington Post, ABC News and PJ Media Home

Corky Siemaszko / NBC News:

Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski might have been a woman or intersex — Researchers noticed the Polish officer's delicate bone structure after the skeleton was extracted from the Pulaski monument in Savannah, Georgia. — Casimir Pulaski, hero of the Revolutionary War and the pride …

Marcy Wheeler / Washington Post:

We already knew Barr's summary was too easy on Trump. Public records prove it. — Court filings and congressional testimony show the attorney general left out a lot of Mueller's findings. — When Attorney General William P. Barr released a four-page memo two weeks ago opining that …

Discussion: Raw Story

Paul Kane / Washington Post:

Pelosi outlines a path to victory for House Democrats in 2020 — and guarantees it — Barely three months into her second turn in charge, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already mapped out a plan to overwhelm Republicans in the 2020 elections. — “I'm going to have our races won by this November,” the California Democrat said.

Discussion: Political Wire

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:
Elizabeth Warren just called for eliminating the filibuster. She's got a point.

Discussion: Vox and The Mahablog

Abraham Riesman / New York Magazine:

Whatever Happened to the Israeli Left? On the eve of the Jewish state's elections, an appraisal of the battered opposition. — Barreling down a barely existent road in the South Hebron Hills, as I sit in the passenger seat of Nasser Nawaja's well-worn Dacia Duster, the conversation turns to the fate of the Holy Land.

ProPublica:

The IRS Tried to Take on the Ultrawealthy. It Didn't Go Well. — Ten years ago, the tax agency formed a special team to unravel the complex tax-lowering strategies of the nation's wealthiest people. But with big money — and Congress — arrayed against the team, it never had a chance.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Raw Story

Liz Mair / USA Today:

Free speech means I don't have to be nice to Devin Nunes on Twitter. So why's he suing me? — I didn't act like Miss Congeniality toward a member of Congress. He's upset that I did my job, so now he's trying to stifle my free speech and yours. — CONNECT

Discussion: Liberty Unyielding and Talking Points Memo

Post and Courier:

Former SC Governor, U.S. Senator Ernest F. ‘Fritz’ Hollings dies at 97 … Fritz Hollings celebrates his 1998 victory over Republican challenger Bob Inglis to retain his U.S. Senate seat. It would be his final campaign. File/Matthew Fortner/staff — Fritz Hollings is sworn …

Colby Itkowitz / Washington Post:

Ex-spy Valerie Plame eyeing return to Washington — as a member of Congress — Valerie Plame, the former CIA officer whose identity was leaked in 2003 by members of the George W. Bush administration, is seriously considering running for Congress in New Mexico in 2020.

Associated Press:
Ex-spy Valerie Plame eyes run for Congress in New Mexico

Discussion: twitchy.com and Axios

Richard Fausset / New York Times:

3 Black Churches Have Burned in 10 Days in a Single Louisiana Parish — ATLANTA — Three historically black churches have burned in less than two weeks in one south Louisiana parish, where officials said they had found “suspicious elements” in each case. The officials have not ruled …

Hell World:

I hate what they've done to almost everyone in my family — Progress is made one funeral at a time — Mom don't read this one. I love you very much and I will call soon I promise but don't read this one ok because it's about me jacking off just kidding it's about a sore spot …

Neil Irwin / New York Times:

What's at Risk if the Fed Becomes as Partisan as the Rest of Washington — The credibility of the Federal Reserve around the world has been built over decades. — Politicians have had strong opinions on what the Federal Reserve should and shouldn't do throughout its 105-year history.

Associated Press:

The Latest: Jury rejects Harry Reid therapy band injury case — LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's injury lawsuit against the maker of an exercise band (all times local): — A jury in Las Vegas rejected former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's lawsuit against an exercise band maker …

Discussion: twitchy.com