Raise your hand if you’ve ever encountered a ‘bizarrely deferential’ Internal Revenue Service

Gilead

Donald Trump

Finances

Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Even once the belated audits commenced, agency staffers were bizarrely deferential to Trump’s tax counsel. Reports from the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee and the Democratic-led Ways and Means Committee note that Trump’s team was often uncooperative, “failing to provide all the facts needed to resolve certain issues.” Yet IRS staffers apparently let it slide.^[1]

Dareh Gregorian and Sahil Kapur, “House committee votes to make public Donald Trump’s personal and business tax records,” NBC News, December 20, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-committee-votes-donald-trumps-personal-business-tax-records-rcna62212

Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Mike McIntire, “Trump’s Taxes: Red Flags, Big Losses and a Windfall From His Father,” New York Times, December 21, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/us/politics/trump-tax-returns-findings.html

Charlie Savage and Alan Rappeport, “I.R.S. Routinely Audited Obama and Biden, Raising Questions Over Delays for Trump,” New York Times, December 21, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/us/politics/trump-irs-taxes.html

Catherine Rampell, “Why did the IRS drop the ball on Trump’s tax audits?” Washington Post, December 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/22/irs-trump-tax-return-enforcement-timid/

Coup attempt

Fig. 2. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022,^[2] public domain.

Perry Stein, “Past cases with classified papers show legal risk for Trump, experts say,” Washington Post, December 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/22/trump-classified-prosecutions-mar-a-lago/

Twitter

Fig. 3. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,^[3] fair use.

Michael Race and Monica Miller, “Elon Musk: Only blue tick users to vote in Twitter polls on policy,” British Broadcasting Corporation, December 20, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64034892

Reuters, “Musk to step down as Twitter CEO once he finds ‘someone foolish’ enough as successor,” December 20, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-says-hell-step-down-twitter-ceo-after-finding-replacement-2022-12-21/

Laura Forman and Dan Gallagher, “Elon Musk Offers Worst Job in Tech,” Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-offers-worst-job-in-tech-11671648139

Suzanne Vranica, Patience Haggin, and Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk’s Campaign to Win Back Twitter Advertisers Isn’t Going Well,” Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-twitter-advertisers-exodus-11671722594

White Christian nationalism (Trumpism)

Fig. 1. A Ku Klux Klan meeting in Gainesville, Florida, Dec. 31, 1922, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

David French’s explanation^[4] is interesting and certainly part of the truth. The other part, and you might consider its omission a traditionalist conservative tell, is that fundamentally, cosmopolitanism and diversity strike at the core of what white Christian nationalists believe society should be.

David French, “The Oddly Intense Anger Against Zelensky, Explained,” Atlantic, December 23, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/the-third-rail/63a5e158b9e06100378ecce9/ukraine-aid-right-wing-republican-anger/

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure

Fig. 4. Post-collapse scene at the Fern Hollow Bridge, photograph by National Transportation Safety Board, January 29, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I haven’t been over the new Fern Hollow Bridge yet, but I had a passenger in my car coming up South Braddock Avenue (from south to north) and the first thing I noticed was that the left turn lane onto Forbes Avenue was no longer closed. The second thing I noticed was the traffic that had presumably come over the bridge. The story that remains uncovered is of a stark discrepancy between the dispatch with which this bridge was built and the stark absence of such for every other road and bridge project around Pittsburgh.

Julia Felton, “Dozens of bridges maintained by Pittsburgh in need of repairs within 6 months, report says,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 21, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/dozens-of-bridges-maintained-by-pittsburgh-in-need-of-repairs-within-6-months-report-says/

Kris B. Mamula, “Pittsburgh’s new Fern Hollow Bridge is engineering marvel, officials say,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 21, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/12/21/pittsburgh-fern-hollow-bridge-engineering-collapse/stories/202212210108

Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh’s new Fern Hollow Bridge reopens to traffic,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 22, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburghs-new-fern-hollow-bridge-reopens-to-traffic/

Kris B. Mamula, “With stray honking car horns and some cheers, Fern Hollow Bridge opens early,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 22, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/2022/12/22/fern-hollow-bridge-pittsburgh-gov-tom-wolf-rich-fitzgerald-rebuilt-open/stories/202212220128

Ukraine

Fig. 1. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,^[5] fair use.

^[1]Catherine Rampell, “Why did the IRS drop the ball on Trump’s tax audits?” Washington Post, December 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/22/irs-trump-tax-return-enforcement-timid/↩
^[2]Devlin Barrett, “Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden, moved classified papers,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/31/trump-documents-removed-storage-room/↩
^[3]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
^[4]David French, “The Oddly Intense Anger Against Zelensky, Explained,” Atlantic, December 23, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/the-third-rail/63a5e158b9e06100378ecce9/ukraine-aid-right-wing-republican-anger/↩
^[5]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q ↩

Irregular Bullshit