monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

It seems like everyone of good faith should be eager to investigate how a false, fraudulent dossier full of fake, inflammatory claims made its way to the highest levels of the US Government and then into the heart of US political and media discourse for two-plus years.

DAN PFEIFFER (CROOKED MEDIA): Let me say my bigger point here, which is the Fox -- a lot of very important grassroots work has been done, by Sleeping Giants, Media Matters, a lot of incredibly important reporting from people like Jane Mayer, and Gabriel Sherman to expose Fox News for what it is, which is not some conservative version of MSNBC. It is a corporate-funded racial-grievance machine for the sole purpose of electing Republicans. It exists to protect Trump, it exists to destroy Democrats, news is the coffee grinds in which they smuggle in the cocaine of propaganda. And a great amount of work has been done to make that case to advertisers, to make that case to the public, to make that case to other reporters to take what they say as a grain of salt. We have come a million miles since Obama was dealing with Fox when we were in the White House in terms of public understanding of the danger of Fox. And if all of a sudden 19 Democrats all go on Fox, it undermines that work. Right? It allows Fox's advertising department to go back to the advertisers who have pulled out because of things Sean Hannity has said, Tucker Carlson has said, Laura Ingraham has said and say look: Bernie Sanders comes on here, Amy Klobuchar comes on here, Pete Buttigieg comes on here, and see we are legitimate and to get those advertising dollars back.

JON FAVREAU (HOST): You think that works? You really think that the advertisers would be like oh, I'm going to second-guess my decision to pull the ads because Bernie's on the channel?

PFEIFFER: That's the view of Media Matters, which has been leading the effort to do this. I mean, basically during the Tucker Carlson, Fox has been showing basically dead air because they can't get enough advertisers to fill the inventory for that show. And see, money is fungible so that comes out of Fox's bottom line. So I do think we have to think about the fact that if you do things that help Fox sell more ads, what you are doing is making it easier for them to keep Tucker Carlson on air. You are supporting their white supremacist programming, which is incredibly dangerous to America, right? And I think that is my concern, is that in -- if the Democratic Party all of a sudden embraces Fox again, and I think we're doing it for sort of dumb political reasons outside of the context of your own campaign strategy. We are doing a lot of work to rehabilitate Fox in the minds of corporate America and the public writ large. And I think that is potentially damaging the long-term progressives' cause of undoing Trumpism in America which requires limiting the influence of the danger of propaganda networks, most notably Fox.

Drug notes from all over.

Serious chest pain yesterday so back to hospital. They said, "We'll have to give you morphine". I've never had morphine and the news made me cheerful.
What a disappointment. As a secondary matter, no pain relief even after they zonked me with it four times. But the primary disappointment was that the floor wasn't covered with jolly VW bus flowers and the nurses didn't suddenly become lithe hippy girls. I'm rethinking my allegiance with our medical system.

don't try to hitchhike to the ER.

Ugh. I’m always more horrified by the embarrassment of his trips to Britain than others. What kernels of wisdom will he share with May on Brexit? Maybe he’ll have solace for Queen Elizabeth—reassure her that he won’t let her little garden sink into the sea.

The White House has refused to meet an extended deadline to deliver President Trump's tax returns to Congress.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal had said failure to comply with the 23 April deadline would be interpreted as a denial of request.

Mr Trump says he does not want his information disclosed and will not release his tax returns while under audit.

Democrats have warned that legal action could follow.

"The president is pretty clear: Once he's out of audit, he will think about doing it," White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News on Tuesday.

"He's not inclined to do so at this time."

The IRS has previously said that he could release the returns even if they were under audit.

Mr Neal had initially given the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) until April 10 to turn over Mr Trump's personal tax returns, and those of several entities connected to the president, for 2013 through to 2018.

The deadline was extended to April 23 after the Trump administration failed to comply.

Most presidents have turned over their tax returns since the 1970s even though it is not required by law.

One of Mr Trump's top aides said this month that the Democrats would "never" see his tax returns. Republicans have called the request an overreach of confidential taxpayer data.

The US Treasury Department said it was reviewing Mr Neal's request and consulting with the Justice Department, and that there were "serious constitutional questions" related to the request.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has told Mr Neal that the department would make a final decision by 6 May on whether or not to comply.

Democrats have warned that legal action, such as a subpoena of financial data, could follow if the president does not comply, a move that could lead to a lengthy battle in the courts.