Does that mean it’s ok for me to refuse to pay taxes that fund the military, ICE, and DHS?
Federal tax dollars don’t materialize out of thin air - the populace pays these taxes with the understanding that this money will be used to fund things we need. If the government decides “fuck it we aren’t giving anything back to you” that feels like a clear violation of the social contract (not that Trump knows anything about honoring any form of contract). Why the fuck should we be expected to put anything back into it?
And even that’s breaking down with his continual power plays to divert money toward pet projects like his stupid border wall. Power plays that are being upheld by the same courts he’s stacking with the many unqualified far-right judges that the Senate is pushing through as fast as they can.
People did used to withhold a portion of their tax, the percentage that went to the military. I forget details, but it happened in the sixties, and at least sometime after that, maybe today. You’d want to look up details before trying anything. Try the War Resisters League. Joan Baez did it.
I suspect for some, it was just easier to live a simple life so they werenn’t paying taxes.
Seattle was home to the 1919 Seattle General Strike, and the Wobblies were involved.Some blamed it on "ooutside agitators " from Russia (or was it the USSR by then?).
I’m surprised that Seatle or Portland weren’t a major location for the Wobbly free speech fight a bit earlier. I thiught both were places where the Wobblies were, but only Spokane in the Pacific Northwest was a major campaign.
As much as I wish this was the case, as far as I’m aware there’s no legal or legitimate to way earmark your federal taxes to be only used for certain things.
Sadly, he will be President for at least another four years. Biden is doing about as well as Clinton was in 2016, and Trump has many more advantages. Add in the huge number of “Biden and Trump are just the same. I’m not voting/voting third Party” fuckpuddles and I’m afraid it’s in the bag. Wish to God I had a non-US passport
Not being “Tommyknockers” and rather inventive use of the concept of “shitweasel” are literally the only good things about Stephen King’s “Dreamcatcher”.
Which is why I said to look up details. I can’t remember them, or the outcome. There’s no checkbox to refuse war taxes, but people did it so something was done. You probably get hiunded, but I can’t remember if people ended up in prison. “I won’t pay taxes” is different from "I am withholding the percentage of my taxes thst goes to the military ". The latter likely falls into incomolete payment.
I’m sick of media even letting him talk without immediately asking him for evidence or clarification. They’ve given him too much leeway to spew bullshit and make it sound real.
Who fucking talks like this other than a complete idiot?
Who stands there and listens to somebody who just makes up general superlatives that are obviously some made-up bullshit on the spot that a five-year-old could do?
Why do people keep amplifying this tired bullshit routine as news?
Everyone debating whether he can do… whatever he’s talking about… is missing the point. There’s a reason he’s saying things like this, and I think NPR Politics has the best breakdown of it. It goes like this:
The only card Trump has to play is “law and order”. It’s historically very effective for R presidential campaigns and Trump has nothing else to run on because he’s such an unmitigated disaster. However, the problem is, the argument he has to make is “under Biden the country will be full of violent protests because leftists”. However all the violence and unrest has happened on his watch. An incumbent can’t campaign on “the country is broken”, but that’s what he has to try and do.
His attempt to get out of that paradox is to blame “democrat cities”. To point to cities like Portland and Seattle and say they are microcosms of what the country would be under democrats. It’s a very very thin argument and the GOP knows it, but it’s the only card they have to play.
This guy has been doing it since the Iraq invasion in 2003. I’ve not kept up with his blog in a while, but he adjusted his lifestyle where he essentially had no taxable income. (He’s also described himself as an anarcho-capitalist and later adjusted his method so he was not paying any Fed. withholding at all, including Social Security.)
It’s thin, but it is working well. The Republicans I have the opportunity to see in everyday life are basically on a wartime footing. They do not see covid as a threat, never have. They believe all the illegal things Trump is doing are just sly ways to act in their interest, against the Liberals, so they laugh.
The protests have solidified into a single “Us v Them” metaphor. “Race war” has always been the foundation of the racist Trump supporter narrative. It may be the only card they have to play, but it is a big tent that includes race, immigration, gun control, all of the Republican scare tactics, and folds them into what is being perceived as an imminent threat.
Yeah, that’s really struck me. The people fantasizing the most about the coming of the “Antichrist” and how they’d oppose him, jump into bed with the real-life version without missing a step…
…because basically White Evangelical Christians in the US are basically what Christians imagined (fantasy) Satanists were like. Evil authoritarians willing to sacrifice large numbers of Americans for their own benefit. Turns out it was projection - they were imagining themselves, but on a different side of the theology.
Trump can do whatever he wants because everyone who’s in a position to stop him is either benefiting from his corruption and corrupt themselves, or otherwise too big of cowards to do anything.
