>

Rettig made over 100,000 dollars a year renting out trump properties in Hawaii.  All while denying congress access to trump's taxes and failing to do a mandated yearly audit of trump's taxes.  The guy had to know this was going to be found out.  I guess trump finds folks who prioritize short term gains over long term pains......
It feels like Trump was a demonstration of how pretty much every institution failed America. There’s all these “checks and balances” but we got to see how nearly every single one was relying on the president to just follow norms, then when it came right down to it they chose to do next to nothing in the name of “not being divisive.” Inaction was still an action, and it was the wrong one. >

Reminds me a lot of the fall of Rome as a republic. Just a bunch of norms holding the status quo in place until someone breaks the norms and a bunch of power hungry fucks go, oh, I guess we could always have done that!
(That's a simplification of course, a lot of them plausibly thought they were doing the right thing at the time.) >

I just imagine all the Roman senate going “Huh. So Caesar just brought his army over the Rubicon? Interesting…” >

The optimates in the Senate kept violently crushing every attempt at dilution of their own wealth and power, from having the Gracchi brothers killed for daring to attempt land reform, to the dictatorship of Sulla who used his own powers decrease any political influence from the plebs. 
Caesar wasn't going to just stand idly by and let himself be crushed when he saw how history played out for those who didn't have enough loyal legions to defend themselves.
Probably sheer arrogance kept the Senate thinking that the populares were just going to let themselves be stomped on every few decades since it worked out great for them until that point. >


dictatorship of Sulla 

Wasn't he the one that owned the fire department that charged for putting out fires, and then he let them go around starting fires to put out? If you couldn't pay, they would put the fire out, but claim your property if I recall. Seems a lot of people would like that kind of system today.
(oops, looks like I mixed him up with Crassus) >

Crassus owned the fire department but the money to purchase the firemen came from Crassus being one of Sulla's top henchmen. Sulla started purging 'disloyal' citizens and Crassus job was publishing the lists that basically said 'go ahead and kill these people and take all their shit, signed- Sulla' But the one actually posting, and therefore with final say on who goes on the list was Crassus.
Plutarch, Life of Crassus, 6.6–7 (trans. Perrin, 1916). "It is said that, in Bruttium, he actually proscribed a man without Sulla's orders, merely to get his property; and that, for this reason, Sulla, who disapproved of his conduct, never employed him again on public business."
I would like to add the amount he stole was 220 tons of gold, worth 14 billion in todays money. >

And the punishment for his crime? He was never employed again... >

Funny how the 'Law and Order' Party consistently votes against fully funding the IRS.
After 9/11 Bush has the FBI reassign about 600 agents from financial crimes to anti-terrorism, then forgot to hire replacements.
Almost like they don't want rich people to have to follow the rules. >

We saw this push before midterms with the "87,000 armed IRS agents are coming to your homes!"
Without mentioning:

This is the total staff expected to be hired in the next 10 years (a small percentage of agents).  
52,000 are set to retire in that timespan.  
It would bring the number of total staff to basically the same number as the early 1990s.  
The plan commits to not raising audit rates for those making under $400,000
It is geared towards combatting the many loopholes that wealthy tax evaders use.

So of course the GOP, with their former tax-fraud-king President, is screaming about it and trying to gaslight the public. >

Yea the IRS is going to get my barely above poverty line dude to audit my ass. My taxes are Fucking simple as fuck. Yea bob, your working poor ass working at dollar general is going to get an audit from armed IRS agents. How are these people are so fucking gullible as fuck, Jesus Christ. >


How are these people are so fucking gullible as fuck

gestures broadly at the systemic dismantling and undermining of public education over the past several decades >

It doesnt help that the reasonable people have been coddling the unreasonable like "its ok you think chemtrails are real, surely your opinion on the economy is still valid"
Crackpots should be laughed out of the room, not catered to politically. >

We could also teach the fuck outa stuff like critical thinking, logic, civics, programming & influence, & how disinformation works. >

I was already a hyper critical person, but I lucked out and got an amazing history teacher my Jr. year of high school. He was adament to teach us, practically, how to use critical thinking skills. If you only paid attention to the curriculum and ignored his asides about this, you still were cleverly taught the lesson through the assignments. You'd learn a lot more if you listened and participated in the discussion it was meant to spark, but none of it was going to make you fail if you tuned him out. 
He taught me how to sort out and focus it instead of just constantly having critical considerations for basically anything that wasn't just cold hard lifeless facts. >

I love when you get amazing teachers like that. My fic lit professor and my physci and earth sci teachers in highschool were like that. I often think about what it would be like if I had not met those teachers and the friends I made in those classes that pushed me to keep reading and writing and thinking about the world around me. >

Yeah that dude had me figured out immediately and he tolerated the fact that I was very aimless but also capable and articulate. I turned in a test one day and he said something that cut straight through my bullshit and has stuck with me ever since "you crush it on your tests, you participate with valuable input in discussions....so why aren't you actually trying?". I still haven't sorted that part out but he definitely left a permanant mark and I often recall what he said when I'm getting in my own way. >

I lucked out with an amazing history teacher. I also had a fantastic government professor that taught me so much i almost changed my major. >

Like most regulatory agencies and Gov. services that work for the public good, understaffing and budget cuts have yielded what the GOP wants; barely functional and easy to manipulate.    
That likely reached a pinnacle during the Trump administration. >

I remember a Reagan-era quote of making the “government so small you could drown it in the bathtub.” >

That’s Grover Norquist. He goes around to GOP politicians forcing them to sign a pledge that they won’t raise any taxes for any reason at all, ever. >

And a lot of them hold that pledge more sincerely than their office-holder's pledge to protect and defend the Constitution. >

Well yeah, because for a lot of them, that was the plan regardless of the Norquist pledge. After all, they're protecting their own money first and foremost anyway. >

The Deep State turned out to be real and more GOP projection? >

Incidentally, that's what the P in GOP stands for. >

I think the “O” could also be “obfuscate” in addition to “obstruct”. >

Oh no.... the "G" could stand for Gaslight! >

Gaslight, Obstruction, Projection. That does seam to be the party line. >

More like it's a Pokémon monster. GO! PROJECTION!
Trump appears and starts crying! >

Well, he did keep calling them corrupt. Now we know how he was so sure. >

Trump controlled the IRS when he was president.  He put his own people in there (Charles Rettig).  So, Trump controlled the IRS.  They did what he wanted.  And he wanted to NOT be audited.
Edit:  I hate editing.  It makes people feel like I've changed something they already agreed with.  I promise I'm not doing that here.  Just adding to the original comment:  Rettig made hundreds of thousands of dollars per year renting out Trump properties in Hawaii.  All the while denying congress access to Trump's tax returns and - perhaps more damaging to our republic - failing ?refusing? to audit Trump's yearly tax returns. >

I worked there up until a few months ago, from the early Obama years. There was a marked change when he was in office. Lots of weird policy changes that I wish I could share. >

I wish you could share them also.  Trump was a master of moving people into positions where they could protect him.  Even if it meant breaking laws.  I'll never understand his ability to get them to do this. >


I'll never understand his ability to get them to do this.

He's a con man. It's his only skill. >

I know.  But he could not convince 84 million of us common slobs to buy into his crap.  How in the hell does he get highly educated folks to lie for him when they know they could end up in jail?  And it's not just one or two.  These folks are all over the damn place. >

Appealing to greed. Apparently Rettig was getting money from Trump on the side through some real estate somewhere.  
And jail? Really? Almost no white collar criminals go to jail. And when they do it's country club jail. 
Go to anyone remotely corruptible and offer them $5,000,000 to spend a year in country club jail and they get a cushy job paying twice their current salary when they get out due to all the contacts they made in there. How many would take it? Probably most wouldn't but he doesn't need most. He needs some. 
One of the great skills of a con man is finding the right mark. Trump shopped for a group of people who were most easily controlled and corrupted (Republicans) and appealed to their worst nature. If Democrats were the easiest to corrupt he would be a Democrat. He chose his mark well and applied his skill. The only thing that really saved us is he's otherwise completely incompetent and he's incredibly lazy. Oh and he's mentally ill - his malignant narcissicism got in his way.