I find it incomprehensible that the people in Congress don’t recognize the existential threat of a national police force. History abounds with this type of thuggery and if the Democrats play their cards well those who voted for this abomination will be sent packing. Thus crippled by a loss of power Trump will continue to blather incoherently and flame out. Trouble is these actions will take decades to reverse. We need someone to lead us out of this crisis who speaks loudly and forcefully with a giant stick.
Either they're blind to it, wilfully ignorant, or secretly want it. A small contingent definitely want it - a militarized secret police force - and the rest are pathetic boot lickers. It's appalling but we see it again and again around the world, just look at the Duma or the Knesset.
I am repeatedly suggesting that we insist that our democratic legislators introduce legislation to get rid of federal taxes and have states only taxes and states responsible for taking care of their people. Right now, the federal taxes under Trump have 3 priorities:
1) billionaires (and whatever tax breaks they are getting is going to add 3-4 trillion. to our deficit)
2) the military with a budget of 1 trillion
3)ICE whose budget has gone up from 8.7 mil to 780 bil.
So, we are left to fund health care, education, housing, disasters, research, transportation, environmental safety, nursing homes, poverty, social security. On the other hand, it also allows us to be more aware of what is being taxed and where it is going. Call it the local movement in taxes.
Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland rely much more on local taxes than on federal. These countries do much better on many measures, particularly happiness, freedom of speech and safety.
If you pay you get the say. This way states can decide for themselves if they want scientific research, schools, abortion, gun control, immigrants and how to manage them. States can also decide to pool their resources for things like disaster relief, or pension investment.
States can afford this. I compared GDPs of US states with similar sized population countries in Europe and US State GDPs are larger.
Federal taxes can exist in wartime only if there is a direct attack on our country, like they originally were in the civil war to fund the war.
That’s a really interesting line of thinking, and isn’t it what the Republicans have wanted all along? But the elephant in the room is that very few red states could survive on their GDP, I think?
I posit that Red States would behave differently because they would have to. They aren't getting any money from this administration either. So, what are they going to do? Nothing? No. I posit that even this much unrest about Epstein is tied to the Big Bad Budget without people being fully conscious how scared it is making them, in the undertones that they may be hearing about.
I was just reading today in a discussion of Ursula von der Leyen's EU budget of 2 trillion that who controls the budget has power. Right now Trump has the power and the Congress is letting him have it. If the states have the power that is going to be many more states that Trump won't have influence over, and he will not have the money to throw at things that are going to set up mass incarceration of people who stand up the government, or even just don't comply. He just set up a funding for a humongous private police force. First is it immigrants, then it is everyone. I am thinking of ways to stop it and another issue for people to see Trump's hypocrisy over. I am open to other ways, but this is my recommendation.
Is Denmark Libertarian? Sweden? Norway? Finland? I suggest not. Switzerland isn't really either. So, you don't need to be on board with my changed taxing plan, you need to come up with another idea that defunds the largest police state budget in the world. I am not saying NO taxes, I am saying NO federal taxes unless there is an emergency, and something agreed on ahead of time, so that these crooks don't just create or make something up to then tax us on. That is not neoliberal or libertarian.
I pay taxes in 2 countries and I would like to say that there are better ways that what the US has devolved into under this regime.
I am saying Federal taxes. State ones are different. First of all I directly voted for the people representing me, and secondly, it is easier to oversee, and can be more responsive to the needs of the people of the state.
Linda, de-funding the federal government, making it "small enough to drown in a bathtub" has been a prime Republican objective since the days of Grover Norquist. Aren't you singing that song here? You worry about federal taxation funding ICE. Well it also funds social security, Medicaid, Medicare and numerous beneficial beneficial social programs. You seem to not only want to drown the baby in a bathtub but to also throw out the baby with the bathwater! Did you vote for Harris? I don't think she would agree with your idea or any other democrat I know of.
Michael, I am turning the tables on the Republicans hoping that they cannot find a reason to say no. I have listed all of the reasons why states can manage their own budgets and be the sole taxers of their people. I am not singing their song. Their song is not to pay more in state taxes and make up the difference that they are paying in federal, their song is no taxes at all.
I do not see how I can make it any clearer. What happens is you hear someone used some idea, but the devil is in the details. I am looking at countries who use this formula and ALL of the ones I have looked at are doing better than the US under Trump. I am saying the rules have changed under him and instead of trying to hold on, another way to go is to turn it on him quickly before there can be any organization against it.
I am glad you are at least asking questions, but you are not really hearing what I am saying. I can tell by what you are saying. Please go over the parts I have listed, and this is not fully articulated because I do not have the time right now, but may post a piece on it later. Not NO taxes, NO federal taxes.
Please argue the parts that I am telling you about like states have big enough GDPs to run themselves. This gives states more power. They need it. Right now Trump is amassing the funds to run everyone over. At this point you will. be getting almost nothing for your federal tax dollars except to support
1) billionaires,
2) the military
3) ICE
I have thought about how the entitlement program can be handled. And maybe someone else has better thoughts on it. I am not going into it now, but understand all of the countries I listed cover health care, and retirement funds for their people. They all have universal health care. That can be a statewide decision. I would love not to hear, "no that cannot be done," but ideas on how to switch these big entitlement programs either over to states, or to have people get this money through their states and not the federal government.
I did vote for Harris, and for Biden. I do not need Harris to agree with me. I voted for Barack but felt he was too neoliberal and his education policy was more of George Bush with venture capitalists taking over "charter schools" a shocking US experiment that was not criticized enough.
Who I voted for in Germany is much more supportive of social welfare that most Americans don't even think about.
I just feel sorry that most people cannot envision things any differently than they are used to and if a Republican had an idea which was bad in the way they wanted to carry it out, but not inherently bad, you cannot see it. NO Republican wants high state taxes. That is what I want.
Linda, this has been a very instructive colloquy and I thank you for your civility. You have the last word. I might add that in the U.S. the so called red states have been as often as not on life support from the blue states. Federal taxation here acts as a re-distribution system, but I think you alluded to incentives and disincentives already
Thank you again for a stimulating and civil discussion!
Right now I'm pessimistic the coup can be overthrown . The implementation of Project 2025 is only months and already the U.S. is mortally strickened. I don't think the writers of the plan counted 1) the thoroughgoing compliance of the Supreme Court, 2) the resistance of the lower courts, 3) the weakness of the Democrat Party resistance, 4) the impact of Musk's assistance, 5) the mental disabilities of the President. On one hand the coup plotters achieved more than they expected but the Project has started going off the rails with the low quality of Trump's high level appointments and the cognitive decline of the president with the result that fringe figures like Loomer got influence. The Project writers were ideologue intellectual think tank type people like Vought- they never factored in the possibility that Trump might let zany fringers get influence or become zany himself. Right now the Project is still on course but is going to roll along increasingly erratically and be afflicted with infighting between the planners and the new hires. The nation is crippled but the coup itself is damaged as well. The outcome is impossible for me to predict.
I like this analysis, especially the list of ancillary factors. I assumed the Supreme Court would go along to some degree but it wasn't until the string of shadow docket rulings this year that I realized just how obsequious they were willing to be.
An interesting thing is happening when the puppeteers must decide to satisfy Trump’s petty revenge schemes … and forwarding Project 2025; the former is diversionary threat and the latter the real prize, white supremacy.
We all are cognizant of the scary parts. We need ideas on how to push back. We need organized push back at the leadership level. We need ideas that have been brokered through legal channels. We need to push the legal envelope just like they do. I need a course of action, not nightmares…..
Okay Rachelle we know armed insurrection is a no-go. Or at least I hope we know that. Nobody except the far right wants another Civil War. What we do have as an option is something called a General Strike, a powerful non-violent means of protest. It is the absolute best weapon in our arsenal. The Republicans made it illegal with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. and it requires widespread involvement to be truly effective but it's the best we've got.
Everything is pointing to a violent end to all this, unless it implodes from the inside. The Regime's track record so far is only to run fast and break things. Soon, ICE agents will either buy into this 100% or not - because many will feel like they won't have a choice. The pay will be too good, or their loans will be forgiven, or there may be threats if they leave. A lot could still happen to foil the haphazard plan of the Regime. It will get worse, no doubt, but people on the inside have to decide what kind of world they want to live in. The more public pressure, the better. It's worth it to keep speaking out, especially if you know an ICE agent. They need your voice, your support to walk away. Whatever they had planned for their life is over now. They'll need help starting over.
Inside the Regime, the only governing is done by Russ Vought at OMB. He needs time to do it, and the Democrats seem willing to give it to him. The Recission package is the latest example of Ds circle jerking right into the Regime playbook. I hope all Aaron's followers contact as many D Reps as possible to let them know how they're fumbling their response (or lack of one) to the Regime's actions. Better yet, find their donors and let them know how you feel. Silence is consent.
Vought is supremely dangerous, the beating heart of it all. Both he and Miller are cartoonishly evil, and both are vile beyond belief. The recission vote was depressing and the compliance of R's was entirely unexpected given they finally get a chance to slay their great perceived enemies, NPR and PBS. And screw over more poor people in Africa, always a win for these guys.
But Carl, even if the papers are released, will it be enough? This coup is not just one man. Lightning could strike Trump's golf cart tomorrow but then we would still have Vance, Bondi, Miller, Vought, the billionaire supporters, the Court, and the millions of red hats who want to take this country back to an idyllic place it never was. The cancer metastasized and I see no easy cure.
Thank you for this straightforward assessment. It is shocking to me how few people are willing to connect the dots. Where I grew up we'd say all these non-alarmists "need to be hit up-side the head with a 2x4" to see what is right in front of them.
It’s going to happen that elections will not be fair. Just like 4.7 million votes were not counted or people were wrongly removed from the rolls. It’ll just be worse in 2026.
Seems to me that Trump 2.0 mostly depends on the cult’s sense of superiority—democracy be damned, just as long as we can keep the Negro (and Latino and women and Dems) down. BUT, of course, we enshrine the one SCOTUS “liberal” decision, Loving v. Virginia.
I find it incomprehensible that the people in Congress don’t recognize the existential threat of a national police force. History abounds with this type of thuggery and if the Democrats play their cards well those who voted for this abomination will be sent packing. Thus crippled by a loss of power Trump will continue to blather incoherently and flame out. Trouble is these actions will take decades to reverse. We need someone to lead us out of this crisis who speaks loudly and forcefully with a giant stick.
IF, that is, elections are allowed next year …
That's my worry too David.
These guys are drunk with power; they can smell the Fifties - Brylcreem? - and the sweet aroma of supremacy.
"Brylcreem, a little dab'll do ya!
Brylcreem, you'll look so debonair.
Brylcreem, the girls will all pursue ya,
They'll love to run their fingers through your hair!"
But in Trump's case we better put the word "little" before the word "girls"!!!
Those girlies! So much less hassle than adults. And Ivanka-esque!
Either they're blind to it, wilfully ignorant, or secretly want it. A small contingent definitely want it - a militarized secret police force - and the rest are pathetic boot lickers. It's appalling but we see it again and again around the world, just look at the Duma or the Knesset.
Very good to bring those two institutions up.
I am repeatedly suggesting that we insist that our democratic legislators introduce legislation to get rid of federal taxes and have states only taxes and states responsible for taking care of their people. Right now, the federal taxes under Trump have 3 priorities:
1) billionaires (and whatever tax breaks they are getting is going to add 3-4 trillion. to our deficit)
2) the military with a budget of 1 trillion
3)ICE whose budget has gone up from 8.7 mil to 780 bil.
So, we are left to fund health care, education, housing, disasters, research, transportation, environmental safety, nursing homes, poverty, social security. On the other hand, it also allows us to be more aware of what is being taxed and where it is going. Call it the local movement in taxes.
Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland rely much more on local taxes than on federal. These countries do much better on many measures, particularly happiness, freedom of speech and safety.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-freedom-of-speech
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/
If you pay you get the say. This way states can decide for themselves if they want scientific research, schools, abortion, gun control, immigrants and how to manage them. States can also decide to pool their resources for things like disaster relief, or pension investment.
States can afford this. I compared GDPs of US states with similar sized population countries in Europe and US State GDPs are larger.
Federal taxes can exist in wartime only if there is a direct attack on our country, like they originally were in the civil war to fund the war.
That’s a really interesting line of thinking, and isn’t it what the Republicans have wanted all along? But the elephant in the room is that very few red states could survive on their GDP, I think?
I posit that Red States would behave differently because they would have to. They aren't getting any money from this administration either. So, what are they going to do? Nothing? No. I posit that even this much unrest about Epstein is tied to the Big Bad Budget without people being fully conscious how scared it is making them, in the undertones that they may be hearing about.
I was just reading today in a discussion of Ursula von der Leyen's EU budget of 2 trillion that who controls the budget has power. Right now Trump has the power and the Congress is letting him have it. If the states have the power that is going to be many more states that Trump won't have influence over, and he will not have the money to throw at things that are going to set up mass incarceration of people who stand up the government, or even just don't comply. He just set up a funding for a humongous private police force. First is it immigrants, then it is everyone. I am thinking of ways to stop it and another issue for people to see Trump's hypocrisy over. I am open to other ways, but this is my recommendation.
That's a very libertarian argument. Not on board with it at all.
Is Denmark Libertarian? Sweden? Norway? Finland? I suggest not. Switzerland isn't really either. So, you don't need to be on board with my changed taxing plan, you need to come up with another idea that defunds the largest police state budget in the world. I am not saying NO taxes, I am saying NO federal taxes unless there is an emergency, and something agreed on ahead of time, so that these crooks don't just create or make something up to then tax us on. That is not neoliberal or libertarian.
I pay taxes in 2 countries and I would like to say that there are better ways that what the US has devolved into under this regime.
Of course, get rid of all taxes … saves us from clumsy tax exemptions on meme coins, golden tennies, patriot bibles, warrior perfume and the like.
I am saying Federal taxes. State ones are different. First of all I directly voted for the people representing me, and secondly, it is easier to oversee, and can be more responsive to the needs of the people of the state.
Linda, de-funding the federal government, making it "small enough to drown in a bathtub" has been a prime Republican objective since the days of Grover Norquist. Aren't you singing that song here? You worry about federal taxation funding ICE. Well it also funds social security, Medicaid, Medicare and numerous beneficial beneficial social programs. You seem to not only want to drown the baby in a bathtub but to also throw out the baby with the bathwater! Did you vote for Harris? I don't think she would agree with your idea or any other democrat I know of.
Michael, I am turning the tables on the Republicans hoping that they cannot find a reason to say no. I have listed all of the reasons why states can manage their own budgets and be the sole taxers of their people. I am not singing their song. Their song is not to pay more in state taxes and make up the difference that they are paying in federal, their song is no taxes at all.
I do not see how I can make it any clearer. What happens is you hear someone used some idea, but the devil is in the details. I am looking at countries who use this formula and ALL of the ones I have looked at are doing better than the US under Trump. I am saying the rules have changed under him and instead of trying to hold on, another way to go is to turn it on him quickly before there can be any organization against it.
I am glad you are at least asking questions, but you are not really hearing what I am saying. I can tell by what you are saying. Please go over the parts I have listed, and this is not fully articulated because I do not have the time right now, but may post a piece on it later. Not NO taxes, NO federal taxes.
Please argue the parts that I am telling you about like states have big enough GDPs to run themselves. This gives states more power. They need it. Right now Trump is amassing the funds to run everyone over. At this point you will. be getting almost nothing for your federal tax dollars except to support
1) billionaires,
2) the military
3) ICE
I have thought about how the entitlement program can be handled. And maybe someone else has better thoughts on it. I am not going into it now, but understand all of the countries I listed cover health care, and retirement funds for their people. They all have universal health care. That can be a statewide decision. I would love not to hear, "no that cannot be done," but ideas on how to switch these big entitlement programs either over to states, or to have people get this money through their states and not the federal government.
I did vote for Harris, and for Biden. I do not need Harris to agree with me. I voted for Barack but felt he was too neoliberal and his education policy was more of George Bush with venture capitalists taking over "charter schools" a shocking US experiment that was not criticized enough.
Who I voted for in Germany is much more supportive of social welfare that most Americans don't even think about.
I just feel sorry that most people cannot envision things any differently than they are used to and if a Republican had an idea which was bad in the way they wanted to carry it out, but not inherently bad, you cannot see it. NO Republican wants high state taxes. That is what I want.
Linda, this has been a very instructive colloquy and I thank you for your civility. You have the last word. I might add that in the U.S. the so called red states have been as often as not on life support from the blue states. Federal taxation here acts as a re-distribution system, but I think you alluded to incentives and disincentives already
Thank you again for a stimulating and civil discussion!
Thank you Michael.
Right now I'm pessimistic the coup can be overthrown . The implementation of Project 2025 is only months and already the U.S. is mortally strickened. I don't think the writers of the plan counted 1) the thoroughgoing compliance of the Supreme Court, 2) the resistance of the lower courts, 3) the weakness of the Democrat Party resistance, 4) the impact of Musk's assistance, 5) the mental disabilities of the President. On one hand the coup plotters achieved more than they expected but the Project has started going off the rails with the low quality of Trump's high level appointments and the cognitive decline of the president with the result that fringe figures like Loomer got influence. The Project writers were ideologue intellectual think tank type people like Vought- they never factored in the possibility that Trump might let zany fringers get influence or become zany himself. Right now the Project is still on course but is going to roll along increasingly erratically and be afflicted with infighting between the planners and the new hires. The nation is crippled but the coup itself is damaged as well. The outcome is impossible for me to predict.
I like this analysis, especially the list of ancillary factors. I assumed the Supreme Court would go along to some degree but it wasn't until the string of shadow docket rulings this year that I realized just how obsequious they were willing to be.
As some have noted, it is probably the worst Court and the worst Chief Justice in our nation's history.
And in using that shadow docket to dispense with legal reasoning or justification.
An interesting thing is happening when the puppeteers must decide to satisfy Trump’s petty revenge schemes … and forwarding Project 2025; the former is diversionary threat and the latter the real prize, white supremacy.
Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best America.
But not Soupy Sales or “You Bet Your Life”. Still, Eddie Haskell, MAGA progenitor.
We all are cognizant of the scary parts. We need ideas on how to push back. We need organized push back at the leadership level. We need ideas that have been brokered through legal channels. We need to push the legal envelope just like they do. I need a course of action, not nightmares…..
Okay Rachelle we know armed insurrection is a no-go. Or at least I hope we know that. Nobody except the far right wants another Civil War. What we do have as an option is something called a General Strike, a powerful non-violent means of protest. It is the absolute best weapon in our arsenal. The Republicans made it illegal with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. and it requires widespread involvement to be truly effective but it's the best we've got.
Well the bigger unions best start organizing that with Indivisible and such because if we’re waiting on a “fair” election, we’re doomed.
Too true. Sorry about the misspelled name!
Everything is pointing to a violent end to all this, unless it implodes from the inside. The Regime's track record so far is only to run fast and break things. Soon, ICE agents will either buy into this 100% or not - because many will feel like they won't have a choice. The pay will be too good, or their loans will be forgiven, or there may be threats if they leave. A lot could still happen to foil the haphazard plan of the Regime. It will get worse, no doubt, but people on the inside have to decide what kind of world they want to live in. The more public pressure, the better. It's worth it to keep speaking out, especially if you know an ICE agent. They need your voice, your support to walk away. Whatever they had planned for their life is over now. They'll need help starting over.
Inside the Regime, the only governing is done by Russ Vought at OMB. He needs time to do it, and the Democrats seem willing to give it to him. The Recission package is the latest example of Ds circle jerking right into the Regime playbook. I hope all Aaron's followers contact as many D Reps as possible to let them know how they're fumbling their response (or lack of one) to the Regime's actions. Better yet, find their donors and let them know how you feel. Silence is consent.
Vought is supremely dangerous, the beating heart of it all. Both he and Miller are cartoonishly evil, and both are vile beyond belief. The recission vote was depressing and the compliance of R's was entirely unexpected given they finally get a chance to slay their great perceived enemies, NPR and PBS. And screw over more poor people in Africa, always a win for these guys.
Few will come right out and say it. All are dancing around it. I researched why that is. I came up with a lack of transparency fueling an inferno. The truth is coming out. Exactly when remains to be seen, but it is coming. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/a-properly-probative-pedophile-president?r=3m1bs
But Carl, even if the papers are released, will it be enough? This coup is not just one man. Lightning could strike Trump's golf cart tomorrow but then we would still have Vance, Bondi, Miller, Vought, the billionaire supporters, the Court, and the millions of red hats who want to take this country back to an idyllic place it never was. The cancer metastasized and I see no easy cure.
Hasn’t “the truth” been out since 2016?
Thank you for this straightforward assessment. It is shocking to me how few people are willing to connect the dots. Where I grew up we'd say all these non-alarmists "need to be hit up-side the head with a 2x4" to see what is right in front of them.
Your conclusions do seem obvious. Back to work: "the fascists are coming ..."
It’s going to happen that elections will not be fair. Just like 4.7 million votes were not counted or people were wrongly removed from the rolls. It’ll just be worse in 2026.
That’s all it will take.
Seems to me that Trump 2.0 mostly depends on the cult’s sense of superiority—democracy be damned, just as long as we can keep the Negro (and Latino and women and Dems) down. BUT, of course, we enshrine the one SCOTUS “liberal” decision, Loving v. Virginia.