Why the Emoluments Clause Does NOT Apply to Donald Trump

#1

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/17/why-the-emoluments-clause-does.html

Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH the 1787 Constitutional Convention debate conclusively demonstrates why the Emoluments Clause was never intended to apply to Donald Trump!

#2

Well, last time I checked, the IRS was an insular, take-no-shit, lock you up for misfiling group of institutional thugs who simmer with rage every time they cannot club someone for not paying taxes.

But then again, this is drumpf and the GOP we’re talking about, so the blackmail and veiled threats have probably already been sent.

#3

Bolling’s a genius!

#4

"A real Puss-Grabber"

tumblr_ojsivd4eez1rlg8ulo1_540.jpg540Ă—540 26.9 KB

#5

Then I guess you haven’t checked. I’ve worked there with some very ordinary paper-pushers. Like any organization, the IRS does not have feelings. That’s your own guilt you’re sensing.

#6

He’s already audited all the time. He brags about it.

#7

Human beings aren’t an organisation?
Yet if you “dismantle” a human being you won’t find any seat of “feelings”.
Of course the IRS or any other organisation has feelings; they’re the sum of the collective feelings of the individuals who work in them, modulated according to their organisational power. And according to their behaviour, we have feelings about them.

#8

Next you’re going to try and tell me that police departments can be racist instead of the dispassionate, egalitarian, and ultimately fair organization that everyone assumes they are. ::rolls eyes::

#9

It’s only corporations that are people, my friend.

#10

Yes, those jack-boot thugs getting ~2300 out of ~67,000,000 people convicted of tax related crimes in a year. Clearly 0.0034% shows massive abuse in the justice system. Add in the ~200 cases against the non-filing citizens and you have a true door-to-door hunt for not paying payroll taxes on your babysitter.

EDIT

Fixed the numbers, off by a 1000

#11

Jesus, are those the real stats?

#12

You must have checked before the enforcement arm of the IRS was gutted and auditing the richest of the rich was heavily discouraged.

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/07/17/house-guts-irs-tax-enforcement-budget-nonprofit-sector-silence-is-deafening/

#13

OT, speaking of the IRS, The Pale King is an enjoyable read.

#14

I’m picking what I can find: ~2300 convicted in 2005, ~2500 in 2004, the same year the ~200 non-filing convictions. The numbers that have been filed by individuals/households was the 67 million in 2013.

It gives he appropriate scale though. If you include corporate taxes I think the number is more like 230+ million filings. Basic google-fu here.

#15

That’s exactly what an agent of the IRS would say!

(also, I wish I could like your comment twice!)

#16

I do appreciate your overall point, but 67 billion people?

#17

It’s funny because it’s not at all true! But one party is going to do its damnedest to pretend like it is…

#18

Haters gonna hate, apparently.

Trump has perfect, perfect skin. Very soft. Very thick. He doesn’t need your stupid emollients clause.

So there.

#19

#BUILD THE WALL! 

#20

Well, you know. In the multiverse.