DL Open Thread Thursday, June 10, 2021

The week’s biggest story has been brought to us via Pro Publica, which got its hands on a trove of secret IRS files that show many famous billionaires pay a lower income tax rate than you, even if you earn $17,000 a year. David Cay Johnston at Raw Story provides a helpful synopsis that boils down to, “Congress has rigged the system for the ultra-rich.”

BTW, fans of bipartisanship might note that the Biden Department of Justice has reacted to this by vowing to find whoever broke the law by leaking the information. Never doubt, dear readers, who this republic is run for the benefit of.

One facet of this story everyone has missed (except for this guy at Daily Kos): Pro Publica had to have spent months assembling their report, which means this leak came during the Trump administration. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to see the benefit to Captain Fatass if it’s shown that lots of rich people pay no taxes, so Trump isn’t unusual. The only difference is that those other people are actually rich, not pretend rich like the Last Guy.

Wonder why Joe Manchin is acting like a Republican? Wonder no longer. Manchin’s positions on the filibuster and SB1 are taken straight from the Chamber of Commerce, which — better sit down —has resumed donations to Manchin after a decade without them. Money might not change everything, but it works wonders at changing politicians’ minds.

This story is flying under the radar on purpose: Biden is quietly moving to close the Muslim torture center at Guantanamo Bay.

An analysis of 2020 voting patterns has helped identify who voted for the Last Guy. It found his strongest support came from blue-collar workers with above-average incomes for their education level — in other words, greedy union types who’ve got theirs, Jack.

Finally, from the I Can’t Believe They’re This Gullible file, Josh Hall, a 22-year-old DoorDash driver from Mechanicsburg, Pa., faces 22 years in prison for bilking people into making “political” donations by pretending to be Trump relatives. He would have gotten away with it, too, if he hadn’t come to the attention of Trump himself — who, naturally, fell for it, believing that his sister really posted the tweets Hall wrote under her name.

The floor’s yours.