Someone asked how we allow Trump to refuse to release his tax returns

[maxrandb]

Well, you see...

President Obama didn't fix all of America's problems within a week of taking office, and even had to gall to not deliver ponies as demanded.

We decided that the way to make America "more progressive" was to sit out the 2010 Mid-term election (A CENSUS YEAR), and allow unhinged racists with tri-corner hats and Medicare provided "My Scooters", and screaming like banshees for 14 months about getting "gubmint out of my Medicare", to take over 65% of all State Legislatures and Governorships, as well as a majority of the Federal Government House and Senate.

Then, we sat back as a racist fucking orange circus clown spent the next 14 months demanding to see the first African American President's Birth Certificate. We never showed up to protest at the studios of ...NOT ONE SINGLE one of the 1,500 Hate Radio stations, (MANY BASED ENTIRELY WITHIN THE CONFINE OF 80-20 BLUE TO RED CITIES), who spewed racist birther shit 24/7.

Then, it became perfectly normal for CBS, NBC, ABC, the NY Times, the WA Post, and of course Faux News to present the entire racist birther shit as nothing more than a "he said-she said" issue.

Then we gleefully watched "Game of Thrones" and wondered how people could allow such a fucked up...but totally entertaining...leadership structure take hold in Westoros.

Then we got busy with our kids and our lives as our newly empowered T-baggers drew state and federal congressional districts that looked like a sheep fucking a housecat...we expressed a little bit of concern when all of these "snake swallowing a shriveled penis" districts ensured our new overlords could win 45% of a states voters, while getting 86% of its representation...coincidental of course.

Then we nominated a fantastic candidate, and one that was probably the most qualified ever to serve as President, but all anyone wanted to talk about was some "scandal" about some "email" bullshit...except for some of "us"...who preferred talking about how "our wonderful, started from nothing and worked her ass off to get where she was, truly historic candidate, was just EXACTLY THE SAME as an orange colored, racist freak-show, carnival barking, used-car-powered-by-snake-oil selling and serial unwanted pussy-grabbing moron".

Then, just to ensure we went completely through the Looking Glass and were using the broken shards to slit out wrists, we enabled the party of the "orange colored, racist freak-show, carnival barking, used car, snake oil selling and serial unwanted pussy-grabbing moron", to be the only check on his power.

There's something in there about some Russians doing some shit, but truly...THIS SHIT SHOW IS ALL OURS.

and that's the story of "How on earth have we let Trump get away with hiding his tax returns?"

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. We "let him get away with it" because there's no law on the books that says

he had to do it - it was just an accepted norm - and therefore no way of making him do it (not that he obeys laws or norms anyhow). So what "we" need to do is make sure laws are passed requiring future candidates to disclose them. We might never see Spanky's tax returns (though we can be sure Bob Mueller has), but at least no future grifter will get away with hiding his scams.

[JHB]

3. And let's not forget that role of "reasonable" Republicans in that...

They let Mitt Romney pass with just a figleaf release -- one partial and one that could be amended after everyone's attention was elsewhere. This despite his presidential ambitions for over a decade.

That was all the more notable because the accepted form was established by Mitt's own father, Michigan governor George Romney, who released 12 years of returns because he outright said that one or two years could be sanitized, but a dozen would reflect how a candidate actually comported himself.

After Republicans treated Romney's near-nondisclusure as a yawner, the path was clear for Trump to toss it aside entirely.

[BSdetect]

4. So much to recall like this point. They churn out lies and stunts making it impossible to keep up.

[PatSeg]

10. I think that was what infuriated me

about Romney the most. Like you said, he had been planning a presidential run for years, but never took the time or trouble to make sure his tax returns would look acceptable. To me, it was like he was saying he didn't care all that much, the presidency was just a vanity prize for an over indulged spoiled brat who thought he was better than the rest of us.

I suppose Romney was one of many steps that led us to where we are now, preceded by eight long years of Bush era incompetence and hubris. I knew it was possible that things could worse, but I couldn't have imagined how much worse.

[louis c]

14. No law, but no one should vote for a guy who refuses

and that includes sitting out an election of voting for some third party air head.

I agree. The American voter is to blame and only they can fix it.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. One Item You Forgot

You mentioned HRC started with very little, but didn't reinforce that by mentioning that the carnival barker started out with 200 times the $ (in the 70's) that over 50% of people will make in their whole life.
How anybody thought a Silverspoon with a TV show where the tag line was "You're fired" would be for the common man is a mystery! (Other that, we can't fix stupid!)

[Autumn]

5. We didn't allow the tax returns crap, the Republicans allowed it.

That was not up to us to decide. The "fantastic candidate" got over three million more votes than the "orange colored, racist freak-show, carnival barking, used-car-powered-by-snake-oil selling and serial unwanted pussy-grabbing moron" that became president, Obviously that was not our decision either. I myself have never sat out an election, I've never watched Game of Thrones, not much for TV. I have never been invited as a regular on to a media studio to talk about issues in rebuttal to the bullshit spin, birther shit or any other bullcrap they lie about. No this shit show is NOT on us. Put the blame where it belongs. Square on the backs of those who have been elected to represent the American people.

[maxrandb]

6. Right, because in a "government of, by and for the people"

Last edited Sat Aug 11, 2018, 11:17 AM - Edit history (1)

we "people" have no responsibility for what we've wrought.

[Autumn]

7. That's the system we have, I don't get to choose how other people vote.

Last edited Fri Aug 10, 2018, 10:51 AM - Edit history (1)

Neither do you.

[tavernier]

22. Or choose

Sorry. Bad habit of mine.

[Autumn]

25. Thanks, I forget to use spell check . Such a PITA

[maddiemom]

18. AND the Electoral College.

[ancianita]

20. Totally agree. Our body politic had for decades been cancerous with black market racketeers who,

unseen and under-regulated, pushed the political, laundering, land-grabbing rackets of strongman rule across continents.

So entrenched was this suited thug network, that when some "pesky" political woman dared run for President of the United States -- a woman who knew about global rackets, and might upend them through rule of law and commander-in-chief power -- this uppity ex-senator and secretary of state had to be stopped across continents by any means necessary. It didn't matter if these males ran different rackets -- in her run for leader of the free world, they found a common "enemy."

Bringing down Hillary Clinton was those cocksuckers' act of self-preservation.

We The People had already taken blows during the Big Selloff of 2007-2008, and were scrambling against the "austerity" economics imposed on us. We voted for hope and change. We hoped one great president could mitigate the economy's damage, and bring at least a sense of fairness back to financial forces.

We The People were never to know of the growing racketeering cancer that President Obama worked to contain. We had had enough to contend with.

SO. Now that we do know what the OP describes, we will not neurotically beat our breasts and take the blame.

We have the sovereign power of a Constitution, law and order and not-yet broken justice. We must not ever overburden ourselves with guilt that drains our will and hope.

That is exactly what the strongman order wants. To beat us down with fascism as the "natural order" of things.

Like cancer.

[Autumn]

23. I'm not about to take the blame for this shit storm, I've done my part

for over 40 years. Our elected Dems knew what was going on behind the scenes , we the people were not informed of much of this and the holy grail of bipartisanship kept it from being taken care of. I will not have this laid at my feet. Screw that.

[malaise]

8. An excellent post

Deserves more than 500 recs

[jcgoldie]

9. Nice synopsis

Cliff's notes on how the world went into the shitter.

[PatSeg]

11. Well said

[louis c]

12. I agree with everything you said (NT)

[SCVDem]

13. Dump is the reason

Toasters come with a warning not to use it in the bathtub.

Seemed obvious, but without a law............

[lisby]

15. Bra-fucking-O. NT

[bdamomma]

16. here we go I found the article

when he said Americans don't care about his tax returns. What a fucking liar.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2017/live-updates/trump-white-house/confirmation-hearings-trump-speaks-and-vote-a-rama-analysis-and-updates/trump-says-he-still-wont-release-his-tax-returns-and-claims-americans-dont-care-at-all/?utm_term=.f9c227953232

[mountain grammy]

17. I actually agree with you..

Much of this is on Democrats and the Democratic party. As someone active in our party for years, I agree. We went silent as the right wing ran over us, got scared and shed many of our core values to hold on to a sliver of power. We made the huge mistake of trusting our fellow Americans who disagreed with us, expecting them to compromise and never understanding that what they've wanted all along is to annihilate us. This shit show is all ours for not recognizing the clear and present danger of the Republican party and fighting back every way possible.

[bdamomma]

21. mountain grammy

the repigs have been screwing us for years. We need to fight back or it will get worse. Logic and truth are out the window with some of trump cult members. He has divided the American people with his lies and there are those who are taking the bait. You don't hear anything from the Congress as much as we should be. We definitely have criminals running/ruining the United States.

[mountain grammy]

33. So true

We should have been fighting years ago, but we better start now. It just takes lying, stealing and treachery and we’re not anywhere near republicans on that but we’re not gonna win this with goodness..
I remember years ago how the media snickered and outright laughed when Hillary Clinton talked about a “vast right wing conspiracy.” Well, I didn’t laugh and here it is, and the complacent American media helped it along.

[ancianita]

29. Trust and good faith, reciprocal compromise politics are the DEFAULT of civilized societies.

Democrats and the people of this country are supposed to trust and support the trustworthy.

They cannot be blamed when they are lied to.


So no. I will never accept even the charge of unlearned lessons, because the atheist allowance for "evolving," and the christian principles of "forgive and give others a chance to change for the better" are the common practices of decent people of all areas of democratic life.

[mountain grammy]

34. I hear you, and I agree

But, at some point we needed to call out evil. We did it with segregation and fought loud and long for Civil Rights, voting rights and workers rights and against an unjust and evil war, and we made progress.. but, at some point we stopped fighting, and, as it turns out in America, that’s something we can never do. We have to be loud, mean, and ruthless, because the other side sure is.

[ancianita]

35. Defensive posture is a good thing. Beating our breasts and blaming ourselves is a bad thing.

We do need to fight. But cleverly, strategically, tactically, with a long term plan. We've got the street protest thing down already. I don't know about "loud, mean and ruthless." We can't play into the "they both do it" propaganda who only want to mislead.

To lead, we should never a) lower ourselves to their level of dirty politics, and b) be neurotic about our responsibility in the way things have turned out.

Every "thanks, Obama" has now been vindicated. Though "they" won't admit it, they sure as hell wish they could say it with sincerity this time.

The real suffering in this country is with the very people who voted for this shitgibbon.

Except for your last sentence, I'm with you in the spirit of defensive out-thinking and out-maneuvering. Because we empathize, doesn't mean we'll be suckers.

[Roy Rolling]

19. Advertising Dollars

To think, the unprincipled orgy of advertising money around the Obama-Trump conflict is to blame for where we are. His shit was broadcast at zero production cost for years because of the entertainment value for white racists. Trump got a free ride with "news" coverage he paid nothing for, but was really political advertising. It was a gift of billion$ of dollars.

Him publishing his taxes would immediately end the show.

[SCantiGOP]

24. Harsh, but accurate

[dsc]

26. amen

but in addition Sanders got away with essentially the same thing. While he was constantly assailing her as irredeemably corrupt he had released two pages of one tax return. She had released all of hers since the 1970's. The media had a constant double standard throughout the campaign. The NYT published excerpts from a crackpot, Clinton hater about the Clinton foundation which was one of the most respected charities in the country while they published not a syllable about the utterly corrupt Trump Foundation. I could go on but we all get the point.

[no_hypocrisy]

27. That would be like having a suspicion that someone committed a murder.

And the body's in his/her house. And the murderer is not allowing his/her house to be searched without a warrant. The police only want to look in the closet and the suspect outright tells them "You can't look in my closet".

What we're doing here metaphorically is waiting for the court to issue a search warrant.

[HopeAgain]

28. Citizens United

The two worst words to happen to American politics. Money for votes for favors. Our government can be legally purchased by the rich, lock stock and barrel. Income and wealth disparity is no accident.

[Farmergene]

30. Ain't it amazing?

What "We the people" can do given false information false hope.

In November "We the people" have a chance to protect our Democracy and provide meaningful and assertive checks and balances to those that would run rough shod over our rights and freedoms while enriching themselves.

[beachbum bob]

31. "we" have no choice as NO requirement exists....

[UTUSN]

32. One of the most *excellent* posts *ever*!1 Thank you.

[joshcryer]

36. You forget: the whole time we bashed Obama and the Democrats.

Over every little irrelevant thing.

[MadDAsHell]

37. Yeah but meanwhile we were posting really cool memes of President Obama in sunglasses...

You’re saying that wasn’t productive?

[fallout87]

38. So genius...

Tell us exactly what could have been done to force the release of his tax returns.... really, tell us how you would have accomplished this... go ahead, we all want to know what the genius on an internet forum would have done that the democratic party didn't figure out....

[maxrandb]

39. Thanks for asking

I’m not really a genius, I just play one on the internet.

But, since you so nicely asked what I would have done differently than the Democratic Party and DNC, I’m happy to throw my two-cents in.

First, the entire premise of my original post is that “the reason we allow Donnie Short Fingers (his mob name), to get away with hiding his tax returns is that we didn’t do enough to…at a minimum…ensure there was a check on his power. Had Democrats come out in sufficient numbers to win the Presidency (electorally since that’s the rule), we wouldn’t even care about Donnie Shit for Brains tax returns, with the exception that multiple copies of multiple years would be delivered to the proper IRS criminal investigators. Had Democrats come out in sufficient numbers to control at least one chamber of Congress, then the guy with an orange raccoon swirled around his head would have had to choose…release them, or we subpoena them.

Here's what I definitely would have done differently as a party.

- In my city that voted 69-31 for Clinton and the Democrats, the most powerful AM radio station broadcasts nothing but right-wing hatred, lies and propaganda 24/7. This is true in hundreds, if not a thousand cities around the country. Employees of these stations in these blue cities should have have to walk through a gauntlet of protesters every single day. Sinclair, Clear Channel and the other “national” radio conglomerates don’t give a shit because it’s difficult to reach them, but a few hundred protesters on the sidewalk in front of these local stations passing out lists of local and national advertisers, I believe, would make a huge difference.

We’ve set the wrong standards for advertisers for these stations as well. When JC Penny and GM came out and said they were no longer going to advertise “during the Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh” show, people celebrated. THAT’S NOT THE STANDARD. It’s not enough to “not advertise during a particular show”. I don’t care if they advertise on nothing else but the local cooking show…if they buy advertisement from these radio stations THEY ENABLE AND FOSTER HATRED, BIGOTRY AND RACIAL DIVISION. They MUST pay a price for it.

Fighting dirty and relentlessly against hate-radio is one thing Democrats could do a much better job at.

Then there is the DNC, Panetta and the whole email thing. If I were the DNC and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Panetta, I’d have stood defiant and strong. I would have released all the DNC email and challenged the RNC to do the same. You want transparency? Here you go. Look, the pricks on the other side turned a risotto recipe into a child pedophilia conspiracy…what was the downside to releasing the emails? It’s not like people who hated Hillary Clinton were suddenly going to go to the polls and vote for her because they loved that she did Yoga?

As for Bernie’s folks, if I were the DNC, I would have said; “you’re god damned right we are supporting and pushing for the DEMOCRATIC PARTY nominee to win the primary…if Bernie wants the support of the Democratic Party, then maybe he should…oh I don’t know…JOIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.”

Honesty and straight-forwardness could have gone a long way to calming the flames, instead of the constant “drip, drip” fanning them.

Maybe you push all the emails out, dare the RNC to do the same, and then maybe the focus becomes ensuring we defeat the evil fuck that is Donald “Short-Dick-Man” Trump.

Also, there was a Techno song big in South American and West African discos and nightclubs during my last Navy Deployment called “Don’t Want No Short-Dick Man”…I would have blasted that tune from Pete Townshend’s Marshall Stack at every Donnie Fuckwad rally.

Would my suggestions have worked? I don’t know, but I do know that we are in an existential battle for the United States of America.