To nutshell even further: the Determinations Unit of the IRS, which is manned by “determination specialists,” didn’t understand the rules for determinations, of which unit they were the specialists, and therefore burdened all of the groups with “TEA Party” in their names.
Moreover, no really really high-ranking IRS officials knew any of this, despite reports to the contrary that are backed by paper trails, and even if they did, they were powerless to stop the determination specialists, who were not adequately trained to be specialists, just as immediate management was unable both to inform these determination specialists of their inappropriate methods nor curtail them, try as they might — not being determination specialists themselves, and so who are they to presume?
So these determination specialists, acting alone and with no oversight, it seems, were dead set on targeting the TEA Party — non-politically, mind you — and this was in direct defiance of rules implemented by their superiors. Who either didn’t know about any of this or if they did, were powerless to stop it.
…
I just wanted to spell out for both you and me, in words, what it is we are being asked to believe. And of course, WHY CAN’T YOU BITTERCLINGERS JUST ACCEPT THAT THIS WAS A NON-POLITICAL LOW-LEVEL MISTAKE MADE BY UNTRAINED SPECIALISTS WITH THE POWER TO FRUSTRATE CONSERVATIVE GROUPS ACROSS TWO ELECTION CYCLES?
To which I’ll answer: because we’re racist, obviously. Now let’s get that whip snapping, House Republicans, and get to the bottom of what is, I guarantee, a massive and decidedly political scandal.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the progress (heh) of the Democrat Party in two easy names.
Harry “the buck stops here” Truman
and
Barack “I am not aware of any buck” Obama
Why can’t I accept that these scandals all originated from low-level employees?
2 words: Abu Ghraib.
gearing up for 2014
IRS Faces Lawsuit After Stealing 60 Million Medical Records
Ruh-roh.
The IRS is good at keeping those filthy God-bothering clerics in their place.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/15/exclusive-prominent-catholic-prof-claims-irs-audited-her-after-speaking-out-against-obama-and-demanded-to-know-who-was-paying-her/
Speaking of surreal, look at what I got myself into on Twitter. I’m starting with the initial tweet, then including stuff I have on my own timeline with the rest of the thread. Caveats about the non-linear nature of Twitter all apply.
Nassim N. Taleb ?@nntaleb
Nature doesn’t have a naturalogist running it so why do you want the economy to be understood by economists? @alexapostolides #SovietHarvard
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Economy and society are not natural. Are simply an effect of the struggle for power between individuals & tribes
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
evolution is glacial in speed. Unlike nature learning means that it does not take 1million year to become antifragile
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
doctors are what makes humans anti fragile: why not social science try to make role? Econ has to change, but not be eliminated
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
or those who are interested in ” the ordinary causes of things”- human interaction. That is a useless atack on econ
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
did economics take a wrong turn? Maybe. Is anti-fragility a contribution to social science? Yes. But both have uses.
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
The free market is a self-organizing system among independent players, just like nature.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
This is a nice fairy tale ;)
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
Dismissiveness isn’t an argument, it’s a pose.
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
Planned economies turn out as well as Biosphere II and the fire-suppression efforts in Yellowstone.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
LOL
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
who said anything about plans? An economist should try to understand & let ppl know= less fragile system
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
Another pose. Mockery is the recourse of those who don’t have a coherent position.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Not dismissive at all… Sorry if it sounded like it. natural Economics as u call it are ideological
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Position is very clear .If you belive in the invisibile hand I can tell you it is very much visibile
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
To put it in other words everything human is fruit of history and struggle No false naruralism pl
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
i like new theories. Yet very rarely do they replace established, although they make leap in science.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
The shift of paradigm appears when a radical new theory burst in or the normal theory gets weary
alexapostolides ?@alexapostolides
not all economics are bad. Knowledge helps us, and i think that is were i disagree.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
I’m not throwing the baby with the dirty water, of course. A new paradigm will not be born from void
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
You summerised what I was about to say..agreed
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Just add integrate theory of progress as a multidisciplinary project
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
A couple of hothouse flowers deciding when alpine perennials should bloom. Please. Just leave us alone.
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
False naturalism. As opposed to what, neo-Marxism? Centralized control by do-gooders? Ppl like you?
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Common sense and fact searching .. Opposed to blind faith
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
God Almighty, if you ppl don’t confirm every stereotype of the control-freak, head-in-clouds academics.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Keep your cool flower… Differences of opinion are the way to enrich each other
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
OK, then, explain why the free market is NOT a self-organizing system. Leave the biosphere analogy out.
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
It is self organizing but flawed with imperfections on information and wealth distribution due to history
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
I’m into empiricism, because it comes up against natural limits. What limits U besides the scorn of peers?
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
Free-market theories are ideological? As opposed to common sense? @JonahNRO, please call your office
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Free market theories without redistribution of wealth are ideological . Unless u r blind
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
Redistribution of wealth makes an econ theory NON-ideological? Am I getting this right?
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Empiricism is coming from a “rational” set of hypothesis that make one choosing what’s relevant
Dicentra spectabilis ?@dicentra33
::Grad-school word-salad flashback::
What’s in a name? Everything apparently.
– There are two kinds of people in any econ system di. Those that are self reliant and enterprising, and produce, and those that steal.
I share your frustration, di.
Fundamentally economics is exchange. Econ is the limited, cloistered psuedo-science of what view of exchange some clown is relegated by myopia to undertake.
Meanwhile exchange is as fundamental as the subatomic. It is the height of hubris for the progressive mind to segment economics away from exchange to then pronounce it purely an artifact of thought and thereby its “science” linear, predictable, and especially manageable. Atoms don’t think.
Even the Fed doesn’t think, not in the sense that it has either joint best interest or predictable outcome handled by way of its expert considerations. It reacts in slices of time to an exclusive best interest.
Um, ideology.
HAHAHAHA.
JHoward, isn’t there a line that goes something like: “Economics exists in order to make astrology respectable.”
Blake:
“It’s almost worth the Great Depression to learn how little our big men know.”
– Will Rogers
andrea libero liberi ?@AndreaLiberi
Free market theories without redistribution of wealth are ideological . Unless u r blind
This is the dumbest, most nonsensical statement I have ever encountered.
– When you don’t have any bankable talent you can use in “exchange”, then chaos is your only means to steal.
She misspelled “sane.”
This is the dumbest, most nonsensical statement I have ever encountered.
– Its an honest admission of the petty envious thinking that animates the theafs mentality. It can’t be due to my lack of any redeeming qualities. It has to be the system. Paranoia pudding with hubris to the death.
I think even if you accept that this was initiated by “low level” employes, you have to ask what made them think it was OK or that they would get away with it?
JHoward, Will Rogers was a gem. Died way too young.
bgbear, not only did the employees think they could get away with it, they saw nothing wrong in what they were doing.
– Among the clan cult Bumblefuck, the anal control is iron-fisted. One can’t cut the cheese without permission. Obediance is everything.
– Except when caught red-handed (pun intended). Then suddenly the honcho’s all hide behind “mistakes of rogue underlings”.
– Think Monty Python: “…..Oh that….its only a flesh wound.”
This is the dumbest, most nonsensical statement I have ever encountered.
Maybe so, but that’s exactly what Karl Marx meant when he used the term ideological. Which might give one pause about the term. But usually doesn’t, nowadays.
Asked him (I think Andrea is a man’s name in Italian) what “ideological” meant, and I got this:
“Ideology driven theories are using facts to protect interest in a covered fashion That’s my definition”
THAT’s why they say that they’re not ideological: they’re pure in heart!
I responded that such a definition was called SOPHISTRY, and why commandeer other words…
Meh. Europeans.
I think I can nutshell this even further:
Sure, we’re living under the guns of a fully armed and operatioal Death Star, but you personally have hardly anything to worry about, because command and control is in the hands of the expert managers from the Mos Eisley cantina, so the odds of you getting blown up accidently are astronomical.
Is sophistry where you use a lot of words to not say anything? Cuz that’s what I see right there.
It’s possible to see the proposition “nature isn’t” in there, if you look a little. This was Marx’s view, and with effort has been the view to be imposed these 150 last years or so.
“gearing up for 2014”
They won’t have to steal them then. They’ll have them “legitimately”.
I can’t wait until the IRS gets to decide whether or not I get medical treatment.
Umm, don’t you have to be rather ideological to not see that the free market is nothing other than a system for redistributing wealth (along with goods and services) efficiently?
– There’s nothing wrong with redistribution, as long as its earned. Otherwise, by any definition, it’s simply theft.
There’s nothing wrong with redistribution, as long as it’s voluntary and consensual.
Ernst, by your reading “free market theories without redistribution of wealth” are impossible. That’s why I doubt that’s how Andrea is using the term.
I like this one from Darcentraleen’s* comment above:
The clinical trials in Russia, China, Eastern Europe, Cuba, India, vast swaths of Africa and so forth all failed.
*I know it’s Dicentra, but I’m covering my bases anyways.
That’s because she’s been blinded by science, McGehee.
ceci n’est pas une crime
Ernst, If you believe reducing the total human population is a good thing, then the clinical trials were a smashing success.
I didn’t realize that the cure for emiseration was more emiseration. My
EurocentrismOccidentalism must be showing. I thought we were making an analogy to medicine, not homeopathy.Why do I hate The Other? Because I’m a hater, that’s why.
The free market is a deck stacked in favor of the haves, wingnuts.
Meh. Europeans.
We’ve been dressing up theft as ideology for a whole lot longer than you colonials, missy.
Andrea? Is that you?
I prefer to think of myself as an acolyte to the adepts of the voodoo cult of the Supply Side Witch Doctors.
thank you very much
Dicentra, your plans are judged against perfection, there fore they can be categorically dismissed. Their plans are judged against their intentions, which are pure.
Anybody want to bet that the solution to fixing the IRS will be be to spend more money on the IRS?
Dicentra, did I also detect the whiff of the Marxist theory of labor value in your antogonists?
Anyway, look, squirrel!
I prefer to think of myself as an acolyte to the adepts of the voodoo cult of the Supply Side Witch Doctors.
– I could cop to that. Except the getting trinkled on part, not so much.
“Scandal drunk”?!
Looks like we have a late entry for dumbest statement ever.
Prog-style “thinking”: Dear [girlfriend], your face would be a lot prettier if it weren’t all bruised and swollen from where I’ve been hitting it.
Love, [prog boyfriend]
“… the hydraulic stamping and seizing module on the back of this metal mutha will keep you punching until you’re DRUNK with POWAH!”
— Firesign Theatre “I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus”
– @SW’s link.
– Unfortunately they have to pen something, ANYTHING, or we’re all in danger of immersing ourselves in an orgy of unrelenting Democratic scandals. The fact that this president and his Dem Senate have still not produced a budget worth talking about in his 5 years seems to not be a worthy enough squirrel.
– They’re just not making squirrels like they used to.
If you jam your foot up a squirrel’s ass hard enough, they make a decent slipper, bbh.
Dicentra, did I also detect the whiff of the Marxist theory of labor value in your antagonists?
Historicity of Values = Marxist
“Ideology” as Sophistry to Preserve Power = Marxist
Free Market as Soulless Darwinism = Marxist
Denial of Marxist Substrate = Marxist
Marxist turtles all the way down, way I see it.
I’m thinking that would only work under cartoon physics, SW. In the real world you’d probably get squirrel gibs and very messy feet.
F. N. : *** “Formerly all the world was insane,” — say the subtlest of them, and they blink. ***
You can use metaphorical squirrels, mondamay. I’m just a simple country boy. Round here we think a critter’s innards are somewhere warm to put your hands on a cold day.
Nutshells this big must hold some enormous nuts.
It takes a supersized nut-cracker to get at the buttery nuts inside.
Gives new meaning to Crunch -time!
Don’t do that with freshly killed varmints, SW. Tuleramia will kill you dead.
Tularemia, even.