Wherever I wander I wonder whether I’ll ever find a place to call home…
Why didn’t they take him to court over it? tRump has lost all the cases that companies actually took to court. The only ones who “lost” were the ones who capitulated, paid a settlement, fired the people trump didn’t like, then changed their editorial positions to comply with the party line as dictated.
No, that’s a putty knife. Spoons are elliptical and concave.
Some capitalists might argue on ideological grounds that government intervention is not a truly free market (although none would turn down government funds if offered, because they’ve sold their souls to the infinite pursuit of greed).
In reality though, most modern capitalism is crony capitalism. So the distinction loses meaning.
Cronyism implies someone with their hands on the levers of power pulling them to help their friends/accomplices, which this certainly is an example of.
tRump hands out favors to anyone who bows to him. It’s cronyism.
That’s not what authority is.
And don’t pretend the inane drivel that comes out of steven miller’s mouth constitutes valid legal rationale.
I agree, and I even explained that in a different comment somewhere. I just find it highly doubtful that enough people will do it for it to make a difference.
I know you meant it to be humorous. If I thought you were seriously trying to claim that he has the authority, my response would have been much sharper and likely gotten me banned.
That being said, I disagree that I took it too seriously. I take it very seriously. It’s a serious matter. I believe we must be firm and clear about that.
And I understand that so far he seems to be getting away with flagrantly violating the constitution at every turn. That pisses me off to no end. But it doesn’t change the fact that he is subject to the restraints imposed by the constitution. He has no legal basis for disregarding it, and I won’t mince words about that. Nor will I joke about it.
It’s already bad enough that he’s getting away with it. Let’s not pretend that means he’s actually allowed to do anything he wants.
Wrong. By unilaterally withholding congressionally-allocated tax funds (which is unconstitutional), he’s using executive power to bypass Congress.
In other words, the representational branch of the US government is being boxed out of their constitutional duty to allocate federal funds. The people’s elected representatives are not having the final say on how that tax money is being distributed, as the constitution prescribes.
The people are still paying taxes. Their elected representatives are being bypassed (unconstitutionally) by the executive, who is unilaterally withholding congressionally-allocated tax funds. That is not what it means to have representation.
What authority he has is spelled out in the constitution, and the authority to do what he’s doing is given to Congress. Doing it without congressional approval is unconstitutional.
Congress and the judiciary being spineless or complicit doesn’t confer authority. It might give him the leeway to overstep his authority, but that doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t have the authority.
Let’s not muddy the waters. He would love for you to believe he does have the authority.
We’ve already seen enough examples of “doing things at the individual level” to know that not even close to “everyone” will be on board.
By all means, do it. But don’t expect the level of solidarity required to make the federal treasury even notice.
Things like this require collective action, and since the average american is union-phobic, the only organizations we can look to are the state governments. But since they don’t handle federal taxes, there’s not much they can do short of seceding from the union. Which would be a bit too extreme as long as there’s even an inkling of hope in a free and fair election followed by a peaceful transfer of power saving us.
In short, we’re fucked.
The executive doesn’t have that unilateral authority. What he’s doing is illegal; unconstitutional, even.
“No taxation without representation” ring any bells?
What are they gonna do, build a wall?
You are correct. Unfortunately, state governments don’t have a hand in federal taxation. Employers typically withhold the estimated amount from employee’s paychecks, and at the beginning of each year everyone submits a tax form. If they paid over their obligation, they get a refund; if they underpaid, they owe money.
Even if someone opts out of tax withholdings, they’re responsible for sending their taxes to the federal government each year; typically through a third-party for-profit business (especially now that Republicans trashed the recent IRS pilot which allowed people to file their taxes directly to the federal government for free).
The only solution would be for every resident of that state to individually opt out of federal tax withholdings from their employer, but then they’d be individually liable for submitting their taxes each year. While the IRS doesn’t currently have the staffing to handle that if everyone does it, that would require a level of collective trust-in-ones-fellows that simply doesn’t exist in this era.
It would be much better if states could offer their protection, but apparently states can’t even keep ICE out so the IRS would be no different…
For real, if California and New York alone stopped paying federal taxes, the federal government would go bankrupt immediately.
Why pay into a system that won’t pay anything back out to you? Those funds are just going to the likes of Thiel and Musk, who already don’t pay enough taxes. Fuck em.
Cronyism. They always say “There’s no money for that” when it comes to helping people who need it, but as soon as it comes to helping their rich friends or building monstrosities of vanity, suddenly they find the money for it.
At this point, ordinary income-earners in america should just stop paying taxes, because they’ll never see that money come back to help them in anyway. It’s all getting funneled directly to the rich, who also happen to be receiving enormous tax cuts.
It’s stealing from the poor to give to the rich…
I wonder how many staff members are Hispanic immigrants. Is ICE just gonna save those for last because they’re changing their sheets for them, and round them all up the morning before they move on to somewhere else?
“Govern this by strength, fascist!” 👊
That’s the point Steven Miller was trying to make. Don’t give it validity. The international community must insist on following the law, as it’s written on paper.
He’s giving some serious Hitler vibes. Also, Thrasymachus.
He’s also basically saying that if anyone is capable of violently overthrowing the US, then they have a right to do so.
Also, dismissing international treaties as “niceties” comes very close to treason, as he’s basically saying to disregard the laws as they were written by constitutional authority.
If legal documents no longer count for anything, then neither does the constitution. That would mean the US government has no legal authority.
It’s a dangerously slippery slope, but I think he’s lusting for the chaos that would result.
Don’t worry, you’re protected by France’s nuclear umbrella
Can they say they abducted him?