CURRENT EVENTS - TAX DAY - April 20

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights​



“The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department's annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.

Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform Congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won't condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on "free and fair elections."

Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations.


According to an editing memo and other documents obtained by NPR, State Department employees are directed to "streamline" the reports by stripping them down to only that which is legally required.

The memo says the changes aim to align the reports with current U.S. policy and "recently issued Executive Orders."

Officially called "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," the annual documents are required, by statute, to be a "full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights."

Human rights defenders say the cuts amount to an American retreat from its position as the world's human rights watchdog. …”
Where is this coming from? I mean, I understand it fits with his broader authoritarian bent but it feels a bit wonky to have entered Trump’s mind on its own. Someone suggested it. Vought? Vance? Orban? Putin?
 

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights​



“The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department's annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.

Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform Congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won't condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on "free and fair elections."

Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations.


According to an editing memo and other documents obtained by NPR, State Department employees are directed to "streamline" the reports by stripping them down to only that which is legally required.

The memo says the changes aim to align the reports with current U.S. policy and "recently issued Executive Orders."

Officially called "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," the annual documents are required, by statute, to be a "full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights."

Human rights defenders say the cuts amount to an American retreat from its position as the world's human rights watchdog. …”
Keep in mind, though, that the UK's hate speech law is an affront to civilization. As is the Germans' prohibition on Nazism. Terrible violations of human rights. Torture and confinement -- eh.
 
Ah yes, I'm fighting against oligarchy riding in luxury things emitting greenhouse gases. Hypocrites!
1. They aren't taking private planes because they are luxury. They are taking them because you can't do a whirlwind tour commercial. Everybody does the private jet thing while campaigning. Did you ever hear anyone criticize Trump for flying a plane when campaigning?

2. Are only oligarchs allowed to have luxury things? That's news to me.

3. It is not hypocrisy to ask for everyone to be regulated. There is no duty to unilaterally disarm.
 
Ah yes, I'm fighting against oligarchy riding in luxury things emitting greenhouse gases. Hypocrites!
Who helps you spell the big words? You sure as hell don't seem to know what they mean. What's that? About a tenth of a golf week in Florida?

I got to admit that's a neat racket. The citizens are flying him home to play golf on his course and paying to him for his friends, staff and security stay in his place.
 
1. They aren't taking private planes because they are luxury. They are taking them because you can't do a whirlwind tour commercial. Everybody does the private jet thing while campaigning. Did you ever hear anyone criticize Trump for flying a plane when campaigning?

2. Are only oligarchs allowed to have luxury things? That's news to me.

3. It is not hypocrisy to ask for everyone to be regulated. There is no duty to unilaterally disarm.
You don't claim to be fighting against the 1% and then do things only the 1% do. Sounds like having nice things isn't the problem then. Just imagine if they fed the poor with those donations!! But they didnt!
 
You don't claim to be fighting against the 1% and then do things only the 1% do. Sounds like having nice things isn't the problem then. Just imagine if they fed the poor with those donations!! But they didnt!
So if Bernie and AOC would be taking a Greyhound bus to events criticizing Trump's lawbreaking...you would be ok with that ?
 
Of all the shit going on with this administration and all of the damage they're causing in so many ways and spending/wasting/stealing/losing vastly larger sums than 221k, idiots like you remain obsessed with whether Sanders & AOC spent 221k on jet travel. It is fitting that Trumpers would remain obsessed over such things, but likely not in the way you think.
 


“… Shapley is the Internal Revenue Service’s fourth leader in less than four months as the Trump administration rapidly shrinks the agency. During the Biden administration, Shapley rose to prominence as an IRS supervisory criminal agent who came forward to Congress and contended that the Justice Department had slow-walked its tax investigation into Hunter Biden.

… Shapley replaces Melanie Krause, who had been acting commissioner since late February and announced her departure after the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security signed a data-sharing agreement aimed at helping the government find some immigrants suspected of crimes. Krause had succeeded Douglas O’Donnell, a longtime agency employee who retired in February. O’Donnell had succeeded Danny Werfel, who resigned on Inauguration Day.

… Shapley brings a profile significantly different from any recent commissioner, entering the job without long experience in the senior ranks of the IRS and starting after sharply criticizing the agency from the inside.

…Since the beginning of the administration, the IRS has lost or is losing its chief financial officer, chief tax compliance officer, chief risk officer, chief privacy officer and its top lawyer and human-resources executive, among others. Shapley will now take over the agency without that core group of managers. …”

Wow, a shorter stint than a cabbage?

Head of I.R.S. Being Ousted Amid Treasury’s Power Struggle With Elon Musk

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to President Trump that the acting commissioner had been installed without his knowledge.

“The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is being replaced after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to President Trump that the latest leader of the agency had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, according to five people with knowledge of the change and the sensitive discussions that precipitated it.

Mr. Bessent believed that Mr. Musk had done an end run around him to get Gary Shapley installed as the interim head of the I.R.S., even though the tax collection agency reports to Mr. Bessent.

Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushed the appointment through White House channels, but Mr. Bessent was not consulted or asked for his blessing, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

Mr. Bessent got Mr. Trump’s approval to unwind the decision. The next acting head of the I.R.S., which has seen a conveyor belt of temporary leaders under Mr. Trump, is expected to be the deputy secretary of the Treasury, Michael Faulkender. He would hold the role until the president’s nominee for the permanent role, former congressman Billy Long, if approved by the Senate, takes over.

Mr. Trump picked Mr. Shapley on Tuesday to run the agency after the previous I.R.S. interim head, Melanie Krause, decided to resign. Ms. Krause quit after the Treasury Department agreed to use I.R.S. data to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement deport undocumented immigrants. After telling colleagues on April 8 she would take the administration’s deferred resignation offer, Ms. Krause remained in the role until Mr. Musk forced the change on Tuesday. …”

[In case you missed the prior post, Shapley didn’t have the typical depth of experience for the role to head the IRS BUT he had been the House GOP’s IRS whistleblower in the Hunter Biden tax case, whose testimony got a lot of criticism for being more a matter of his personal opinions how the case should have been handled by prosecutors rather than whether prosecutors did anything out of the ordinary for similar violations]

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Now that’s what I call government efficiency!!
 
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