Clown Car IV: The Dotard and Dunce Parade

[Kyriakos]

Pretty much. That's what happens to everything politically significant nowadays... Trump gets booed at a baseball game and that steamrolls coverage of everything else.

I saw that video. This will leave a scar and trauma to 5-year old Trump.

 

[rah]

He'll just do something else illegal so people will forget about this by tomorrow. Suckering the press is his one skill.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I saw that video. This will leave a scar and trauma to 5-year old Trump.

He will get his revenge when he succeeds Empress Ivanka to the throne of the United Empire of America.

 

[Sommerswerd]

It was noted. I was confused as to why they weren't gunned down by the guards for Violating National Security or whatever

Because they weren't unarmed black people with their backs turned.

He'll just do something else illegal so people will forget about this by tomorrow. Suckering the press is his one skill.

It's not even suckering, really. They are willing participants, with full awareness of the harm they have been causing. Trump and the press have had a symbiotic relationship since he announced his candidacy.

 

[Lexicus]

Because they weren't unarmed black people with their backs turned.

That Fresno one is really bad.

 

[Estebonrober]

It’s interesting politically for GOP leadership. Everything Trump has touched turns to ash and by extension any gop legislation is now dead on arrival for a generation because of this unwavering support. They will never have enough control over house and presidency to force feed the nation their legislative agenda BUT! Legislation really isn’t the agenda anyways. Just obstruction and stacking courts. Imo

 

[Lexicus]

They will never have enough control over house and presidency to force feed the nation their legislative agenda

I don't think this is necessarily true. They're only going to get more brazen about gerrymandering and outright rigging of the vote.

 

[rah]

It's not even suckering, really. They are willing participants, with full awareness of the harm they have been causing. Trump and the press have had a symbiotic relationship since he announced his candidacy.

The willing part I agree with, but full awareness, no.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Another one gone
He lasted all of 3 months

Trump's Russia Director To Leave National Security Council Amid Impeachment Inquiry
but the timing so close to his testimony is notable, according to two people familiar with Morrison's plans.
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/30/7748...ional-security-council-amid-impeachment-inqui

 

[Takhisis]

Big think energy

Funny aneurism time!

Did we already cover how a bunch of Republicans stormed a closed, secure hearing to complain about the impeachment? Or did that get lost in the noise?

That was such a sham. There are Republicans on those committees at those hearings. That was a dog and pony show they expected to work specifically because they think their constituents are idiots.

You know, today my smother and I were listening to a politician on a talk show make a lot of… let us call them statements, and I stated that the only way anybody could believe any of that was if that person was an uninformed idiot and that that, unfortunately, was exactly the average voter.

GOP congressman just stormed out/refused to vote on a bill that would provide healthcare coverage for female veterans because the Democrats refused to allow them to debate attaching gun rights riders to the bill.

This is the new form of the old pork-barrel politics which Tim said had been phased out. Not completely.

 

[Estebonrober]

I don't think this is necessarily true. They're only going to get more brazen about gerrymandering and outright rigging of the vote.

How tenable is that strategy long term in the US? I get the feeling that even regular people are starting to catch onto the voter suppression. It would help if democrats had a spine and fought for voter rights with some authority. Like not pass another spending bill until citizens united is over turned and voter suppression stops. Anyways even with weak dems I don't see how this continues to play out well for Republicans.

 

[Arakhor]

Another one gone
He lasted all of 3 months

At this rate, the White House should start paying royalties to Queen.

 

[r16]

It was discussed in the 2020 election thread. It might have been a win if his press conference where he announced it weren't so ghoulish and self serving.

thanks for the info , should have perhaps went around a bit , but politics in Turkey gives me so much headache already .

 

[Socrates99]

How tenable is that strategy long term in the US? I get the feeling that even regular people are starting to catch onto the voter suppression. It would help if democrats had a spine and fought for voter rights with some authority. Like not pass another spending bill until citizens united is over turned and voter suppression stops. Anyways even with weak dems I don't see how this continues to play out well for Republicans.

Things are tribal enough the Republican voters wont care as long as it's a W for them.

 

[Lexicus]

How tenable is that strategy long term in the US?

I don't understand the question. Are you under the impression the US has had fair elections for most of its history? The period of relatively fair elections after the Civil Rights Act but before Shelby County is a historical aberration.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't understand the question. Are you under the impression the US has had fair elections for most of its history? The period of relatively fair elections after the Civil Rights Act but before Shelby County is a historical aberration.

Even with the Civil Rights Act in force, you had Mississippi passing asinine laws governing how elections are 'won' that more or less shut out people of color from the state government. Those laws are only just now being challenged.

 

[Lexicus]

Even with the Civil Rights Act in force, you had Mississippi passing asinine laws governing how elections are 'won' that more or less shut out people of color from the state government. Those laws are only just now being challenged.

Yes, things like this are why I said "relatively fair".

 

[Estebonrober]

Things are tribal enough the Republican voters wont care as long as it's a W for them.

I don't understand the question. Are you under the impression the US has had fair elections for most of its history? The period of relatively fair elections after the Civil Rights Act but before Shelby County is a historical aberration.

Even with the Civil Rights Act in force, you had Mississippi passing asinine laws governing how elections are 'won' that more or less shut out people of color from the state government. Those laws are only just now being challenged.

Sadly all of your are probably right and my moment of optimism is thoroughly crushed by facts and political reality.

Just read. Ryan Lizza article of Warren and M4A about how M4A was going to tank her campaign in Politico. The corporate world has pulled their media guns out and are shooting anyone getting in their way now. So yea it’s been depressing watching this cycle.

 

[Broken_Erika]

The IRS Tried to Hide Emails That Show Tax Industry Influence Over Free File Program
After ProPublica sued the IRS, the agency released emails that show it has allowed the tax preparation industry to write the rules.
For a decade and a half, the IRS program to allow most Americans to file their taxes for free has been floundering.

Now, IRS emails obtained by ProPublica help show why: The agency has allowed the tax preparation industry to write the rules.

The IRS tried to hide the documents from public view, initially withholding more than 100 pages of emails between agency officials and industry representatives in response to ProPublica’s Freedom of Information Act request filed in April. The agency released the emails this month only after ProPublica sued.

This year, as part of our coverage of the IRS and TurboTax maker Intuit, we filed a request for correspondence between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, an industry group. The request sought records surrounding a public-private partnership called Free File.

Under that program, which has long been championed by Intuit, the IRS agrees not to create its own tax filing system that would pose a threat to the industry’s profits. In exchange, Intuit and several other tax prep companies agree to offer free tax filing to most Americans. But the program has been declining for years, with less than 3% of eligible Americans using it this year.

The email correspondence sheds light on a pivotal moment for the future of Free File in the fall of 2018: An expert body called the IRS Advisory Council (IRSAC) had spent months investigating the program. It was preparing to publish a blistering report concluding that the IRS’ “deficient oversight and performance standards for the Free File program put vulnerable taxpayers at risk.”

A draft of the report had been delivered to the IRS but not publicly released, as ProPublica previously reported. Just weeks before the scheduled release, Tim Hugo, the head of the Free File Alliance, and Stephen Ryan, its lawyer and a lobbyist for Intuit, reached out to the IRS with an “urgent” request to extend the program, even though it wasn’t expiring for another two years.

The newly released correspondence shows what happened next: Hugo emailed IRS officials a slate of potential changes to the memorandum of understanding that governs the program. The reforms — which, Hugo wrote, reflected IRS concerns — included restricting the industry’s ability to market paid services to Free File users.

“In return for these significant and valuable enhancements in the Free File Program, the Free File [Alliance] requests that the current Program be extended for one year to October 31, 2021,” Hugo wrote.

The emails are striking for what they lack: no counterproposals or efforts by IRS officials to push for a better deal. Less than two weeks after the industry proposal, the IRS official who oversees the program, Ken Corbin, signed a new memorandum of understanding.

The new deal reflected all of the industry’s proposals and contained no other significant changes. And it had been extended, just as the industry requested, to Oct. 31, 2021.

A spokesman for the Free File Alliance said in a statement that the group had discussed proposed changes with the IRS “for many months” before its push for changes last October.

“The notion that the Free File Alliance ‘dictated’ the terms ... to the IRS is absolutely false,” the spokesman said. “When IRS decides on any issue, the agency gets what it desires. No one dictates to IRS.”

The IRS didn’t respond to questions.

When the IRS withheld the emails in response to ProPublica’s request this year, it cited an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act that protects internal deliberations among government officials. But the withheld emails were written by industry officials. After ProPublica sued in federal court, the agency dropped that objection and released the records.

In racing to sign the new memorandum of understanding, the tax prep industry got out in front of the advisory council’s critical report, which was released just two weeks later.

The industry solutions fell far short of IRSAC’s recommendations.

The council thought, for example, that the IRS wasn’t doing enough to oversee the tax prep companies and recommended that an outside auditor conduct an “objective and transparent” review of each company’s practices.

The industry proposed something far more modest, which became part of the new agreement. Instead of an outside auditor, the IRS and the industry group agreed to work together to perform reviews. There is also no provision for making the results of the reviews public.

One big problem with the Free File program, the IRSAC report said, was that few people know it exists. It’s the IRS’ responsibility, under the Free File agreement, to advertise the program, but the IRS hasn’t had an advertising budget for years. IRSAC recommended that the tax prep companies pony up money to promote the program. Neither the industry’s proposed revisions, nor the ultimate deal the IRS signed, had anything along those lines.

It was far from the first time that the industry had tweaked the program in response to criticism. While the industry has often had an ally in the IRS, consumer advocates have assailed the program. In response, Intuit’s strategy has been to keep “government out of the game,” as a 2007 PowerPoint slide prepared for an Intuit board of directors meeting put it. The company embraces changes that it deems palatable in order to make Free File seem like an adequate alternative to the IRS building a free tax filing system. “Focus on ‘good enough’ to fight off government encroachment,” said the PowerPoint, which was obtained by ProPublica.

Going back to the mid-2000s, the industry has agreed to modify the Free File program several times. Generally, the changes have, bit by bit, restricted the ways that tax prep companies could make money off people eligible for Free File. Back in 2005, the companies could pitch any sort of product, even ones that had nothing to do with taxes, like mortgages. The changes last year finally banned pitching any paid product other than a state tax return. These restrictions have had little effect because Intuit has been successful in steering people to a similarly named program, Free Edition, that its website markets as free, but then customers are often charged.

The newly released records also show the Free File Alliance aggressively attacking a prominent critic of the program, University of California, Davis, law professor Dennis Ventry, who was the chair of the IRS Advisory Council.

In a July 2018 email that was previously redacted by the IRS, Hugo complained to agency officials that Ventry was seeking to “inflame partisan politics in Congress against IRS” by publicly criticizing Free File and trying to meet with members of Congress.

“It is black letter law that it is illegal for U.S. government funds to be used to lobby. I believe IRS may have a duty to prohibit reimbursement of Mr. Ventry’s travel expenses if his trip includes any such lobbying visits,” Hugo wrote. Asked about the email, the Free File Alliance spokesman told ProPublica, “If reimbursed by the government, such trips for lobbying are totally inappropriate.”

Ventry, who said his expenses were reimbursed, told ProPublica the criticism was “patently absurd.” Pursuing multiple matters is standard practice when traveling to Washington as an advisory council member, he said.

https://www.propublica.org/article/...er-free-file-program?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

[Estebonrober]

https://www.propublica.org/article/...er-free-file-program?utm_source=pocket-newtab

classic regulatory capture.