Why the Tax March?

The Tax March is this weekend, Saturday April 15. Find national information here; San Francisco information here. Thousands say they will participate; why?

Organizers stress their demand that Trump share his tax returns with the rest of us.

Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump told the American people he would release his tax returns. Despite intense public pressure, President Trump has not yet done so – breaking with 40 years of precedent in the process. His administration's excuse? "People don't care."

We do care. Without seeing his tax returns, we have no idea what he's hiding – shady business deals? Financial ties to foreign countries? Conflicts of interest? – or who his policies are really benefiting.

We say "You work for us, and we demand answers."

I think the essential impulse is deeper than this: the man occupying the Whitehouse is swindler who thinks anything he can get his hands on should enrich him, personally. He's a crook. And the members of his family are also crooks.

Most of us pay taxes because that's the price of a civilized society; these people just steal for themselves from anyone they can put something over on. And they intend to use the government as just another acquistion; in the immortal words of Leona Helmsley, another crooked real estate mogul, "taxes are for little people." That one went to jail, briefly. Might prison be the future address for these crooks?

When I read about the Trumps making $ off the presidency, I think back to Trump voters who argued that he couldn't be bought bc he was rich

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) April 13, 2017

These days, the Trump family and hangers-on seem to be trying to get the Cheeto to act a little more like a standard issue Republican, instead of as a bombastic, Holocaust-denying, racist nationalist. Why? According to the Washington Post, they are worried he's hurting the family business.

.... The Trump heirs are interested in any changes that might help resuscitate the presidency and preserve the family’s name at a time when they are trying to expand the Trump Organization’s portfolio of hotels.

“The fundamental assessment is that if they want to win the White House in 2020, they’re not going to do it the way they did in 2016, because the family brand would not sustain the collateral damage,” said one well-connected Republican operative, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s family. “It would be so protectionist, nationalist and backward-looking that they’d only be able to build in Oklahoma City or the Ozarks.”

It's not about the country for these people, it is about their money.

For the moment, Trump is making out fine from his new perch:

Money is pouring into Trump’s coffers, from foreign governments and everyone else, the hot brand only getting hotter each time his Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and New York properties are in the spotlight. He’s “forcing the federal government and states to produce a Trump Organization infomercial almost every weekend,” as former White House ethics lawyer Norman Eisen put it to USA TODAY.

The guy is a thief? Reason enough for me, I'll be dropping into the Tax March.