It’s April 15, 2019 and it’s time to review five of the most outrageous, infuriating,
or just plain baffling things that have happened lately.
It’s your Facepalm Five.
Let’s count ‘em up!
1.
Congress considers banning IRS from offering free tax-filing software.
Since today is Tax Day for me and my fellow Americans, it seems only fitting to start
with a story related to us paying our taxes, what a pain in the ass it is for many of us,
how many companies are deeply invested in profiting from that pain in our collective
ass, and how Congress looks out for the best interests of those companies at the expense
of us, the taxpayers.
Here’s the deal: Congress is currently considering a bill titled the Taxpayer First Act.
You’re suspicious already, aren’t you?
And well you should be; given the track record of the United States Congress, it’s reasonable
to assume that any bill titled something like the “Putting the People First Act” will
contain at least one important provision that does not, in fact, put people first.
In the case of the Taxpayer First Act, that provision comes in the form of a section that
bans the IRS from creating its own free online filing system.
People who earn less than $66,000 annually can already file their taxes for free online
– I should know, that’s how I’ve always done my taxes – but the free tax preparation
software currently available is provided by private companies like H&R Block.
Under the current arrangement, the IRS agrees not to develop its own free tax preparation
software as long as private companies offer free online tax filing to those who are eligible.
This bill would essentially inscribe this agreement between the IRS and the private
tax preparation companies into law.
What’s so bad about that?
For one thing, the companies who offer this Free File service use it to upsell more expensive
options, and to collect private information from taxpayers which the companies then use
to market other products to those same taxpayers.
For another thing, online tax prep software created and managed directly by the IRS itself
could just be a lot quicker and easier to use.
The main group lobbying in favor of this provision of the bill is called the Free File Alliance,
which represents the private tax prep companies.
The Free File Alliance insists it only wants to make tax preparation as easy and affordable
for taxpayers as possible, but last year ProPublica reported that the Alliance stated in an SEC
filing that the IRS creating its own free online tax filing system would be “a competitive
threat to our business” and have “adverse revenue implications.”
That’s scumbag-business-lobbyist-speak for “we’re against it because it’d cost
us money.”
The House version of the Taxpayer First Act passed the Ways and Means Committee week before
last and currently enjoys significant bipartisan support.
Happy Tax Day, everyone!
2.
Ohio enacts one of the country’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws.
Last week the governor of Ohio signed that state’s version of the so-called Heartbeat
Bill into law, making abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detectable.
In many cases a fetal heartbeat is detectable as early as five or six weeks, before many
pregnant people even know they’re pregnant.
I wonder what we’d find if we checked the sponsors of this bill for heartbeats.
Similar laws enacted in other states have been struck down in court as unconstitutional,
and the ACLU has vowed to fight the Ohio version, as well.
But these setbacks haven’t discouraged the anti-abortion lobby, which enjoys a great
deal of influence in the Republican Party and has made measures like the Heartbeat Bill
central to its efforts to block funding and access to abortion for as many Americans as
possible.
Laws like the Heartbeat Bill have another purpose, as well – to provoke legal challenges
that could eventually find their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it’s hoped a right-leaning
court will issue a ruling favorable to anti-abortion activists, perhaps even overturning Roe v.
Wade.
The Ohio bill was entitled the Human Rights Protection Act, which distorts the issue so
brazenly that if it didn’t threaten to rob the people of Ohio of one of their most precious
and personal human rights, it would almost be funny.
3.
Republicans change Senate rules to more easily confirm Trump nominees.
Week before last Republicans in the U.S. Senate invoked the so-called nuclear option, voting
to change Senate procedures, cutting debate times for most presidential nominees from
30 hours to two hours.
The change is intended to streamline the confirmation process, which has been stalled by Democratic
opposition to Donald Trump’s nominees.
Prior to the rule change, in a move that was shameless even by his own standards, Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell published an op-ed wherein he complained about Democratic
obstruction.
In the piece, McConnell accuses Democrats of breaking with Senate tradition to engage
in “all-encompassing, systemic” obstruction.
He also warns of the consequences of continuing this “partisan paralysis.”
Just in case you forgot, McConnell is the one who made obstructing the agenda of President
Barack Obama a very public priority.
McConnell is also the one who refused to even consider Obama’s nomination to fill a vacancy
on the U.S. Supreme Court that occurred during the final year of Obama’s presidency.
In fact, many of the court vacancies McConnell is now complaining about the Democrats obstructing
him from filling are left over from the previous administration, when McConnell spent years
blocking and delaying President Obama’s nominees.
This is like the Joker blaming Gotham City’s homicide rate on Commissioner Gordon.
The new rule change will allow Republicans to begin confirming more of Trump’s nominees
to fill vacancies in U.S. district courts, which could in turn have a devastating effect
on the aforementioned fight to protect access to abortion, as well as voting rights, LGBTQ
equality, and other areas of social progress the Republican Party has set itself to destroy.
4.
Trump administration approves dozens of denied security clearances.
Two weeks ago, Tricia Newbold, a veteran security advisor who served under both Republican and
Democratic presidents for nearly twenty years, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee
that twenty-five individuals were given security clearances by the Trump administration after
first being denied those clearances by herself and her colleagues.
The officials who received these questionable clearances were not named by the committee,
which met with Newbold behind closed doors, but the list includes two current senior White
House officials.
According to Newbold, one of them, identified publicly only as Official 1, was initially
denied a security clearance after a background check revealed “significant disqualifying
factors,” including foreign influence, outside business interests, and personal conduct.
That sounds like it could have been Trump himself.
Or literally anyone who has ever worked for him.
Doesn’t really narrow it down, is what I’m saying.
Newbold told the committee that her concerns about Official 1 were overruled by Carl Kline,
who at the time was director of White House personnel security and Newbold’s direct
superior.
After Official 1 was granted that security clearance, they applied for a higher level
of clearance, and Newbold was contacted by someone from another agency – I’m not
saying it was the CIA, and neither is this Washington Post story, though granting security
clearances at the highest level is something the CIA does, for whatever that’s worth.
The person from this other agency that could plausibly have been the CIA but who knows
was calling Newbold to figure out how Official 1 – who is probably Jared Kushner, but we
don’t know that for sure, so don’t spread that around – managed to get a security
clearance after that background check.
Newbold also said she was punished for her refusal to cooperate with the administration’s
demands for security clearances.
In January she was suspended without pay for two weeks and subsequently demoted despite
having a spotless disciplinary record.
Well, she must have done something!
Why else would they suspend her?!
This is far from the first time concerns have been raised about the way Trump is abusing
the security clearance process.
Last year, Trump ordered his then-chief-of-staff John Kelly to get a top secret clearance for
Kushner, whose application had been rejected.
Stories like this are upsetting, obviously, but they’re also important to talk about,
because they help to fill out one of the most basic and important truths about the Trump
presidency, namely that it is awful and inexcusable in every conceivable way – so much so, that
even if you’re not particularly troubled by one facet of the awfulness, there’s still
more than enough awfulness left in play to justify removing this man and his criminal
cronies from power as soon as possible.
Even if you agree with Trump’s politics – and hey, fuck you if you do, by the way,
that’s a personal message from me – but even if you agree with his politics, you shouldn’t
be able to just shrug off the fact that he has staffed his administration with people
who could not pass a background check!
And not just a handful of people who were quickly replaced, but at least two dozen people
who failed their background checks and were given clearance anyway!
This shouldn’t be a political issue.
Even if you hate Muslims and refugees as much as Trump does – and again, fuck you, if
that is the case – this ought to bother the hell of you.
The fact that it doesn’t bother more people on Trump’s end of the political spectrum
is one of the most damning facts about the Republican party and American conservatism
in general that I know.
And now it’s time for the segment devoted to some of the other things Donald Trump has
done recently to disgrace the presidency and embarrass and/or endanger the United States
and the rest of the world:
5.
The Further Misadventures of Lord Dampnut.
Please keep in mind as always: the following is not a complete list.
Speaking of how much Trump hates refugees, especially ones from Mexico and Central America,
his Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, announced her resignation last week,
reportedly because Trump was unhappy with how she was carrying out his immigration policies.
One of the major points of contention between the two of them was Nielsen’s refusal to
go along with Trump’s demands to resume and escalate the practice of family separation,
which resulted in thousands of undocumented children being taken from their parents and
essentially lost.
So Trump didn’t force Nielsen out because she carried out all those crimes against humanity
– he forced her out because she wouldn’t carry out even more.
He said repeatedly over the past two weeks – during a visit to a Border Patrol station,
during a speech in Las Vegas, and of course, on Twitter – that the United States can’t
take any more immigrants or refugees because “our country is full.”
The day after he posted that tweet, The Week published an article about a recently released
study by the Economic Innovation Group which found that 41% of American counties are facing
serious population declines, particularly in demographics that typically make up the
workforce.
In other words, the opposite of what Trump said is true.
Which is almost always the case.
I could chop down the running time of any one of these videos if this segment was just
me saying “Trump said something, but the truth is actually the opposite of the thing
he said.”
It wouldn’t be specific, but it would be true.
Anyway, what else: he declared, for like the seven-thousandth time, that the media is the
enemy of the people.
He said Congress should reform the immigration system, including getting rid of the whole
asylum system, and getting rid of judges!
Even if you assume he meant specifically immigration judges – and it’s hard to be certain,
because he’s such an erratic, inarticulate shithead – it’s still the President of
the United States saying “We’d be better off without those judges, wouldn’t we?”
He sees judges as impediments.
Judges are the people who tell him he can’t do things.
Which is the very reason we need to keep them around – particularly in the immigration
system, given the racist and brutal attitude shown toward immigrants and refugees by this
president and his administration.
He tweeted a video attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has received death threats.
The President joined in on attacking a member of Congress who has gotten death threats.
Just wanted to say that one again so it sank it.
Last week he tweeted that he was considering releasing undocumented immigrants into sanctuary
cities, saying “The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy
-- so this should make them very happy!”
So, either Trump is tacitly admitting that all his fearmongering about the dangers posed
by undocumented immigrants is the made-up bullshit we know it is, or he’s telling
us he intends to release what he considers to be a horde of violent thugs into cities
controlled by his political enemies.
As with so much of what Trump says and does, no matter how you interpret his intentions,
they’re horrible.
And finally, on Friday Trump’s trans military ban went into effect.
Absurdly, the Pentagon claims the policy is not actually a ban on transgender people serving
in the armed forces, because trans people can still serve, as long as they don’t transition
and continue to live as the gender they were assigned at birth.
So as long as trans people pretend to not be trans, they can still join the military
and everything will be fine?
Their presence won’t threaten effectiveness or unit cohesion?
That kinda confirms that trans people were never the problem in the first place, though,
doesn’t it?
The problem was never trans people, but the small-minded prejudice felt toward trans people
by those who put this policy into place – a policy, by the way, that no one asked for
prior to Trump assuming the presidency, and which an overwhelming majority of the American
people does not support.
You really want to strengthen the readiness and effectiveness of the armed forces?
Don’t ban trans people – ban transphobes.
The military would be better off without them, and so would every other institution.
That’s five.
Speak out, act out, resist, look after each other.