Don’t most jobs allow a worker to adjust how much is taken out?
True though, that’s a moot point for taxes on 2024 income.
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You mean withholding? Sure, but that doesn’t change that something is coming out, even if it’s only soc sec, medicare, medicaid, etc…
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Huh, never thought of those as “taxes,” but I suppose they can be seen that way.
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It is, I’d argue, since it’s not going into a kind of savings account for you, but rather is paying out to the current folks using these benefits (like my mom and her husband, who is currently fighting cancer), and if they get their way on gutting the social safety net (as meager as it is), we’ll be forced to KEEP paying it, and not get any benefit. It’ll probably go straight to Elon’s companies.
Maybe I’m missing something about her argument, but not filing our taxes would likely not do much, other than deny us our refunds. And most of us don’t really have a way to not pay our taxes, since they go through our employer (most of whom will not go this route).
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The democrat who held up a picture of musk and called him a dick got a letter from the DOJ.
They pardoned violent felons for threatening public officials with actual weapons, how seriously do they take threats?
Dear Rep. Garcia:
As United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, I receive requests for information and clarification. I take these requests seriously and act on them with letters like this one you are receiving.
At this time, I respectfully request that you clarify your comments from February 12, 2025. During a live interview with CNN, when asked how Democrats can stop Elon Musk, you spoke clearly: “What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy.”
This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk - an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a “dick” - and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry.
We take threats against public officials very seriously. I look forward to your cooperation with my letter of inquiry after request. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Please respond by February 24, 2025. Should you have further questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to call my office or schedule a time to meet in person.
All the best.
Sincerely,
Edward R. Martin, Jr.
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An interesting/entertaining take from Lewis Black about how the current regime is bringing corporate enshittification and corruption to government agencies:
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He couldn’t pretend he was doing the “throwing my heart out” gesture because it is well known that he has no heart
Even French Nazis admit it was one!
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FYI & FWIW: The person who does sniggle.net has been doing this for years (since the Second Gulf War)… in his case, it means living very frugally (he has/had a pet; no spouse; no dependents; no car; rents his home) & working as a contractor (1099? instead of a W-2), which makes him responsible for filing his own SocSec & Medicare, which he doesn’t.
A lot of what he had to write was extremely interesting (e.g., now I know a lot more about Thoreau & Tolstoy). He also writes as a self-described anarcho-capitalist, so (I’ve inferred) it wasn’t all about the pacifism. I looked in at his blog not long ago for the first time in a while &, although he’s still doing the tax resistance, he feels the other stuff he does (like volunteering locally) is more important.
I think (based a lot on reading the guy’s blog) there are Mennonites & Quakers (for example) who perform tax resistance one way or another, & presumably some or many of them are W-2 employees…
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Oh, did you mean that “provocative gesture that resembled the controversial salute Elon Musk gave at a post-inauguration rally last month”? As the Daily Beast described it. Although to be fair, they also described what Musk did as a “VERY controversial salute.” Who knows why it was “controversial” - total mystery, really, but I guess people should avoid doing things that look like what Musk did, for some reason.
(So many words to avoid saying “Nazi salute”!)
French (and other European) Nazis right now:
Totally shredding that fig leaf of pretense that they’re not Nazi Nazis.
This strikes me as a deliberate strategy. Given that the president has direct control over the military (which is why Trump always uses them, at great expense, to do things without getting funding, e.g. deporting immigrants on military flights), cutting military program expenses while increase the DOD budget seems like it could be intended to be a Trumpian strategy to create a huge slush fund he can use as he likes. Which seems so utterly ridiculous that it’s probably a point in favor of it being true.
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Meh, the AfD would be fine with it. They have also been snubbed by the French Nazis for being too nazi and they associated with Musk after his nazi salute
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Okay! Thanks for the info…
Okay… that seems like an option only available to a few, though. If you have a family to raise, that is far less viable an option, no?
So a fascist then… I know lots of people embraced the anti-tax revolt idea, but that came directly from angry white people who hated that Black people were getting anything from the Federal government. It’s so bound up in the far right take over of the GOP, that I don’t know if it’s a viable strategy to embrace for most people. If we all up and quit our jobs tomorrow and become contractors, that’s going to be bad for everyone involved.
I don’t know… maybe I’m just being obtuse here, but it just seems to me that this isn’t a workable strategy as it stands right now. Maybe if they take enough of a sledge hammer and make us all contract workers, it will be, but by then, things are already going to be apocalyptic…
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Michael Harriot:
I love how I don’t have to say anything about why one might want to read the article. You see the name, you know you want to read it!
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The French are fed up with nazi salutes.
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Holy moly, I just saw this video on MSNBC, she told him and then he threatened her.
He asked Mills, who attended Friday’s event, whether she would direct her state to follow the order. Maine’s governing body for high school sports, the Maine Principal’s Association, previously said it would not bar transgender athletes from competing on teams that match their gender identity, citing a state anti-discrimination law preventing the organization from doing so.
“I’m complying with state and federal law,” Mills responded.
“We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get federal funding,” Trump said
“See you in court,” Mills said.
“Enjoy your life after governor,” Trump responded, “because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Mills, who has served as governor of Maine since 2019, is term-limited and cannot seek reelection for a third consecutive term in 2026.
Earlier Friday, Mills said the state “will not be intimidated by the President’s threats” to withhold federal funds.
“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children from the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she said in a statement.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) called Trump’s warning “disturbing.”
“Any attempt by the President to cut federal funding in Maine unless transgender athletes are restricted from playing sports would be illegal and in direct violation of court orders,” Frey said in a statement Friday morning. “Fortunately, though, the rule of law still applies in this county, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the President to bully and threaten us.”
The exchange is at 1:35
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More of this, please!
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Doesn’t one box,
National Park Service firings hit Mount Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades
Reduced staffing could mean closed campgrounds and trails as well as unsafe conditions, advocates said.
Whole article at: https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/02/20/national-park-service-firings-hit-mount-rainier-olympic-north-cascades/
“The cuts at Mount Rainier included the popular park’s only plumber”, Wade said Thursday.
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Standing up there in a careless slouch, mumbling threats to an august group like a bloody gangster boss. 
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I wonder if this came after that:
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