PBC News & Comment: Tax Returns Are Obsolete

Filing tax returns is huge waste of time and money…IRS already has most info, but tax prep lobby blocks any change….--Austin Goolsby, former Obama economic advisor, tells Trevor Noah that IRS already has most of the data we report—they could just send us a tax bill
--this taxpayer is still steamed about form 8962, which forces Obamacare clients to waste time on pointless math exercises
--Dem tactic of opposing all tax “reform” until Trump releases his tax returns seems to be gaining traction, as 12 Repubs now support release
--with minutes to deadline, Supreme Court blocked execution in Arkansas
--despite reduced applications for H1-B visas, Trump will sign order to promote hiring of Americans in Kenosha, WI
--Trump sent VP Pence and an armada to threaten North Korea, but when Pence got to DMZ, the carrier group was 3,000 miles away, in the Indian Ocean
--despite voter fraud allegations, Trump calls Turkey’s Erdogan to congratulate him on referendum that expands his powers
--in complete about-face, British PM Theresa May calls for June “snap election”
--in new, in-depth interview, African American commentator Wilmer J. Leon III tells why he thinks Clinton lost
--in remarkable event, Georgetown University hosts descendants of slaves who were sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help fund the school
--AG Sessions manipulates crime stats to support his call for new war on crime and more incarceration
--Cleveland fugitive Steve Stephens killed himself as cops closed in, and Mark Zuckerberg makes vague apology for Facebook video of murder by Stephens
--79% increase in searches of phones and computers at border crossings reported by CBP
--ICE is trying to break Obama’s record for deportations by expelling people with no criminal record
--4 years after Boston marathon bombing, investigative reporter Michele McPhee publishes book that challenges the official narrative of the investigation
--little outrage in response the last week’s Glenn Greenwald article about CIA boss Mike Pompeo’s threats to WIkiLeaks and freedom of speech