Why the Constitution is now null and void

[Politesse]

"Fondness" is a stretch. A lot of people died, and nostalgia won't being them back.

 

[Swammerdami]

@RVonse -- Are you still playing along? We hope to play a lottery on an over-under of when you come to your senses. I think you really DO have a 100+ IQ and am betting on "before the end of 2026." But I'll lose my bet unless you start reading real news, and try sincerely to attain objectivity.

I hope you will click to alternet.org and glance at the headlines. Read 2 or 3 stories that seem like they might challenge your preconceptions. If you run into a paywall, tell me and I'll try to find an alternate link for you.

One of the headlines is "Army erases WWII vet Medgar Evers from Arlington National Cemetery website." That saddened me; I clicked; and copied an excerpt below. Is that the sort of thing you are proud of Trump for? Oddly Trump once called him “a great American hero." Does Trump's willingness to change this view demonstrate cognitive agility?

Some other headline's at today's Alternet:

• "'They put me into a freezer': Trump’s ex-lawyer describes '51 days of abuse and torture'"
• "The US is on its way to becoming 'a totally lawless state': anti-Trump Republican"
• "'Already happening': Outrage as seniors claim Trump is already 'stealing' benefits "
• "The end of capitalism – or the end of civilization? The choice could be that stark"
• "Republicans lay down the law: Call us racist and we’ll crush you like a bug."
• "Trump halted a clean-up that puts hundreds of thousands at risk for poisoning."
• "Trump’s trade war imperiling 'global economy' — and igniting fears of 'stagflation'."
• "'I will not be silenced': Congressman posts letter Trump DOJ sent him for criticizing Musk."
• "'Wreck' the economy: 'Shocking' consumer sentiment plummets as Trump's policies take hold."

This is only a small sample of the stories at the site. Surely you will be proud to click 2 or 3 and debunk them. Or show your objectivity if you can and read FOUR of the stories! There are other sites on the 'Net that offer real news instead of the fake news you ingest. Can you show some acumen? I'm rooting for you!!

Other headlines around the 'Net include
* "Elon Musk says his DOGE team works 120 hours a week."
* "Trump trade war to sap Canadian, Mexican and US growth, OECD says"
* "'Goal is destruction': Fired Calif. NOAA scientists warn of dire global consequences" -- https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/monterey-noaa-doge-layoffs-20204423.php

Instead of complaining that you can only read fake news -- real news is too often pay-walled, read one of those stories.

It would be interesting to hear your take on plans to lay off 20% of NOAA personnel. "Hurricane Helene (2024) is estimated to have caused between $225 billion to $250 billion in total damage and economic loss." Losses would be even greater without the timely predictions NOAA -- best weather experts in the world -- provide. @RVonse -- Is it your contention that the lives and billions of dollars saved by timely evacuation warnings are "fake money", while the firings gain "real dollars"?

Or is destroying NOAA just part of the plan to turn its parent NASA over to Musk control? Why give NASA scientists real money, when Musk's SpaceX is happy to work for fake money? (Or do I have real/fake reversed? Have you linked to a preprint explaining this novel distinction?)

World War II veteran Medgar Evers, whom President Trump called “a great American hero,” has been erased from the Arlington National Cemetery website, which featured a section honoring Black Americans who fought in the nation’s wars.

The U.S. Army purged the section that had lauded the late Army sergeant and civil rights leader, who was assassinated by a white supremacist in Jackson in 1963. The decision to erase Evers came after an executive order by Trump to eliminate all Diversity, Equality and Inclusion programs.

Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson, who gave Trump a 2017 tour of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, said he can’t imagine the president would want Evers removed. “That’s got to be a mistake,” he said. “That involves a great American who served in the military and was one of the most courageous Americans of all time.”

The White House could not be reached for comment.

Evers is far from the only war veteran whose name has been struck from the website. So was Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.

“He got shot three times in Vietnam and survived,” said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson. “History has not been kind to minorities, whether women, people of color or religious groups. Part of what we do in the greatest democracy known to man is to correct the record.”

The Mississippi Democrat said if the Trump administration truly cared about veterans, it wouldn’t have fired 80,000 people from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “You think it’s hard to get a medical appointment now?” he asked. “You take 80,000 out of that system, and it’s not going to work.”

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I'm kind of startled by how few Americans seem to actually know what USAID does, what the CIA is responsible for, what the Department of Education does, etc as revealed by these recent conversations. I guess that makes me an "ivory tower academic" but how can people have so little curiosity about how their own government works? We are (or were) a democracy, there aren't many well kept secrets at the federal level. If you're ever in DC you can just walk into most of those buildings and get a little tour... It's just a few hundred thousand employees across a few dozen departments that handle much of the bureaucratic infrastructure of the country, and our taxes pay all their salaries. I get having positive or negative views on this or that department and how it functions but how could someone have no opinion at all? Do y'all live in this country or not?

You are joking right? Just one department of the federal government alone, the IRS is so huge and vast not even the most educated certified lawyer accountant can possibly know and stay up to date on all of the countless tax code there is. And there are other departments even more vast such as the department of defense. The department of defense is orders of magnitude bigger than the largest US corporations. Look at the 574 page budget just provided in this thread for foreign affairs everyone is so proud to be paying for. Money that Americans had to earn that is freely given away to the rest of the world.

The federal government is big. Way too big IMO.

And once again you demonstrate your ignorance.

Consider the IRS that you're hating. You're hating it because the Republicans tell you to hate it. Because if they starve it the rich tax cheats won't be caught. The middle class has returns that are mostly easily cross-checked by computer and thus evasion is likely to be caught without a human in the loop.

The reality is that increasing the size of the IRS benefits everyone but the rich. $1 on enforcement yields a lot more than $1 in tax cheats being caught.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

RVonse isn't a Republican. He is anti-Government, especially as far as tyranny is concerned. Which makes his support for Trump unbelievably ironic.

 

[Elixir]

Why the Constitution is now null and void​

Homan claimed in a Fox News interview Monday that the two deportation flights to El Salvador did not need to be turned around because they were already above international waters when the order came through.

• "We are going to make this country safe again ... I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming," he added.
• Asked what was coming next in the administration's deportation efforts, Homan said: "Another flight. Another flight every day."

FUCK this criminal regime. People should be doxxing these fucktard traitors, buying sniper rifles and threatening their families.
You know - like trumpsuckers do, except with better aim.

Short of that, is there ANY recourse, or are we now in the grip of a 100% lawless fascist coup?

 

[RVonse]

How about this....for decades I heard "it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem. We ow trillions and the interest on that debt is approaching a trillion. SO....how about we give it two years before we have any additional talk about cutting taxes. Let's SEE the debt drop. Use the savings to pay the debt, not to cover the tax cut. Bring it down first and THEN reward the upper class with a tax cut. THen...in THAT tax cut, require that the debt NOT increase. If it goes up, even a little bit that first year after a cut - revoke it until lawmakers can learn to spend within their means.

I agree with you. This is not yet the time for a tax cut.

Then why did you vote for someone who ran on tax cuts for the rich? And why are you supporting the DOGE checks? They're (if they exist, they won't) are a form of tax cut.

I don't support the DOGE checks, I merely state that if they are given out they won't be inflationary.

 

[RVonse]

What would you say when 95% of a doctor's patients die on the table? (That's about the % of the supposed DOGE savings that have turned out to be utterly wrong. And that doesn't mean the remainder were a good idea.)

I’d love to see the look on Vonse’s face when HE was deemed fraud and waste, based on performance that was never reviewed.

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career. If they move your plant to China, you don't have a job. Doesn't matter if you can walk on water or if you are the best at brown nosing the boss......you don't have a job.

The plant I current work (Granite City, Illinois) was marked for death right before Trump got elected the first time. He actually came to our facility with his daughter and told us he would make sure we would stay open if he got elected. Then against all odds, Trump got elected. And then also against all odds, suddenly our CEO had a change of heart and our plant was un-marked for death. In the meantime, we endure a pandemic, Biden gets elected, and our CEO marks our plant for death again. The one time I would not mind a plant closing since I am ready to pack it in at 67 but Trump gets elected again (against all odds) and our plant is again un marked for death again.

And I have seen a lot of plant closings first hand. But this is the first time I will probably have to quit before they lay me off. And I actually hope this is the case for the sake of younger workers and the general area around the plant.

 

[Shadowy Man]

What would you say when 95% of a doctor's patients die on the table? (That's about the % of the supposed DOGE savings that have turned out to be utterly wrong. And that doesn't mean the remainder were a good idea.)

I’d love to see the look on Vonse’s face when HE was deemed fraud and waste, based on performance that was never reviewed.

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career. If they move your plant to China, you don't have a job. Doesn't matter if you can walk on water or if you are the best at brown nosing the boss......you don't have a job.

The plant I current work (Granite City, Illinois) was marked for death right before Trump got elected the first time. He actually came to our facility with his daughter and told us he would make sure we would stay open if he got elected. Then against all odds, Trump got elected. And then also against all odds, suddenly our CEO had a change of heart and our plant was un-marked for death. In the meantime, we endure a pandemic, Biden gets elected, and our CEO marks our plant for death again. The one time I would not mind a plant closing since I am ready to pack it in at 67 but Trump gets elected again (against all odds) and our plant is again un marked for death again.

And I have seen a lot of plant closings first hand. But this is the first time I will probably have to quit before they lay me off. And I actually hope this is the case for the sake of younger workers and the general area around the plant.

This anecdote sounds like the plant closure threats were political in nature and not economical decisions.

 

[Jarhyn]

What would you say when 95% of a doctor's patients die on the table? (That's about the % of the supposed DOGE savings that have turned out to be utterly wrong. And that doesn't mean the remainder were a good idea.)

I’d love to see the look on Vonse’s face when HE was deemed fraud and waste, based on performance that was never reviewed.

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career. If they move your plant to China, you don't have a job. Doesn't matter if you can walk on water or if you are the best at brown nosing the boss......you don't have a job.

The plant I current work (Granite City, Illinois) was marked for death right before Trump got elected the first time. He actually came to our facility with his daughter and told us he would make sure we would stay open if he got elected. Then against all odds, Trump got elected. And then also against all odds, suddenly our CEO had a change of heart and our plant was un-marked for death. In the meantime, we endure a pandemic, Biden gets elected, and our CEO marks our plant for death again. The one time I would not mind a plant closing since I am ready to pack it in at 67 but Trump gets elected again (against all odds) and our plant is again un marked for death again.

And I have seen a lot of plant closings first hand. But this is the first time I will probably have to quit before they lay me off. And I actually hope this is the case for the sake of younger workers and the general area around the plant.

And you think, what, that this wasn't your CEO manipulating you so that you would vote with his interests?

They can just conveniently own your votes by flipping on an arbitrary marker to make you panic and you think this is in your own interests?

The CEO can just arbitrarily lie to you, close a plant even without too much worry to really drive it home (he has a share in whoever he sells it to, anyway; he's selling it to himself).

They get cheaper workers and the people in the town get more desperate for lower wage jobs.

You are being played.

 

[Elixir]

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career.

“YOU’RE”
(No wonder!)

 

[KCFlyer]

What would you say when 95% of a doctor's patients die on the table? (That's about the % of the supposed DOGE savings that have turned out to be utterly wrong. And that doesn't mean the remainder were a good idea.)

I’d love to see the look on Vonse’s face when HE was deemed fraud and waste, based on performance that was never reviewed.

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career. If they move your plant to China, you don't have a job. Doesn't matter if you can walk on water or if you are the best at brown nosing the boss......you don't have a job.

The plant I current work (Granite City, Illinois) was marked for death right before Trump got elected the first time. He actually came to our facility with his daughter and told us he would make sure we would stay open if he got elected. Then against all odds, Trump got elected. And then also against all odds, suddenly our CEO had a change of heart and our plant was un-marked for death. In the meantime, we endure a pandemic, Biden gets elected, and our CEO marks our plant for death again. The one time I would not mind a plant closing since I am ready to pack it in at 67 but Trump gets elected again (against all odds) and our plant is again un marked for death again.

And I have seen a lot of plant closings first hand. But this is the first time I will probably have to quit before they lay me off. And I actually hope this is the case for the sake of younger workers and the general area around the plant.

Great...they were already here and decided not to pay risk the tariffs. But if a company is already in another country - Mexico or Canada, then the tariff will cost the consumer more. IF the tariffs reach a rate that would justtify moving plants back the the US, then the company will have increased costs of building facilities. They might bring back 500 jobs, but the product without tariffs will now cost the same or more than with tariffs. Bottom line...good for 500 people but bad for 299,999,500 people,

 

[Loren Pechtel]

You are joking right? Just one department of the federal government alone, the IRS is so huge and vast not even the most educated certified lawyer accountant can possibly know and stay up to date on all of the countless tax code there is.

You watch too much TV!

Yes, the tax code itself is famously convoluted, but the basic purpose and role of the IRS is not too complicated for the average adult person to understand. You pay tax whether you understand taxation or not, so why not invest a few minutes of reading time into how it is assessed, collected, and recuperated?

Yeah. For most people tax returns are actually quite simple. They only get messy when you get into the complex stuff the average person doesn't deal with, or when you're dealing with foreign stuff.

And where things are a mess it's almost always because of Congress messing with the tax code. Politicians love to squeeze out some dollars while pretending it's not a "tax increase" and it can be a mess. Last year they changed some edge case with self employed medical (no idea what, I wasn't seeing any path through the forms that ended up with a different result but I didn't attempt a detailed analysis), ended up with a whole bunch of people paper filing because the IRS didn't have time to get the forms ready for the tax program guys to get the stuff ready to e-file. That's not the fault of the IRS, it's the fault of a last minute change from Congress.

 

[Politesse]

You are joking right? Just one department of the federal government alone, the IRS is so huge and vast not even the most educated certified lawyer accountant can possibly know and stay up to date on all of the countless tax code there is.

You watch too much TV!

Yes, the tax code itself is famously convoluted, but the basic purpose and role of the IRS is not too complicated for the average adult person to understand. You pay tax whether you understand taxation or not, so why not invest a few minutes of reading time into how it is assessed, collected, and recuperated?

Yeah. For most people tax returns are actually quite simple. They only get messy when you get into the complex stuff the average person doesn't deal with, or when you're dealing with foreign stuff.

And where things are a mess it's almost always because of Congress messing with the tax code. Politicians love to squeeze out some dollars while pretending it's not a "tax increase" and it can be a mess. Last year they changed some edge case with self employed medical (no idea what, I wasn't seeing any path through the forms that ended up with a different result but I didn't attempt a detailed analysis), ended up with a whole bunch of people paper filing because the IRS didn't have time to get the forms ready for the tax program guys to get the stuff ready to e-file. That's not the fault of the IRS, it's the fault of a last minute change from Congress.

And the teeming sea of tax exemptions that get written in, as well. There are only so many ways of redistributing resources and influencing social behavior without touching the much-contested actual budget, and altering tax law is one of them.

 

[RVonse]

What would you say when 95% of a doctor's patients die on the table? (That's about the % of the supposed DOGE savings that have turned out to be utterly wrong. And that doesn't mean the remainder were a good idea.)

I’d love to see the look on Vonse’s face when HE was deemed fraud and waste, based on performance that was never reviewed.

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career. If they move your plant to China, you don't have a job. Doesn't matter if you can walk on water or if you are the best at brown nosing the boss......you don't have a job.

The plant I current work (Granite City, Illinois) was marked for death right before Trump got elected the first time. He actually came to our facility with his daughter and told us he would make sure we would stay open if he got elected. Then against all odds, Trump got elected. And then also against all odds, suddenly our CEO had a change of heart and our plant was un-marked for death. In the meantime, we endure a pandemic, Biden gets elected, and our CEO marks our plant for death again. The one time I would not mind a plant closing since I am ready to pack it in at 67 but Trump gets elected again (against all odds) and our plant is again un marked for death again.

And I have seen a lot of plant closings first hand. But this is the first time I will probably have to quit before they lay me off. And I actually hope this is the case for the sake of younger workers and the general area around the plant.

Great...they were already here and decided not to pay risk the tariffs. But if a company is already in another country - Mexico or Canada, then the tariff will cost the consumer more. IF the tariffs reach a rate that would justtify moving plants back the the US, then the company will have increased costs of building facilities. They might bring back 500 jobs, but the product without tariffs will now cost the same or more than with tariffs. Bottom line...good for 500 people but bad for 299,999,500 people,

The main point to be made though is this. That for the first time in my 67 year life there are corporations thinking twice about how they're going to offshore to other countries while still enjoying US sales.

All of a sudden the Democrats hate tariffs because it's Trump's idea. They don't stop to realize how important targeted tariffs can be to keeping union jobs. Actually a lot of Democrats (Biden excepted) don't really like the unions very much anymore even though they are the basis of the middle class.

Regardless, a tariff is nothing more than a consumption tax and why not decrease consumption and offset that tax with less other taxes related to income?

Knowing the condition of our treasury should our government encourage people to consume or produce?

Trump is right but most of you just can't get yourselves to admit it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Okay, but accept multiple meanings. My dog Bogie takes a trump in the basement every time I forget to walk him.

So when I'm hiking in the woods and come upon one of those plastic bags on the ground waiting for the doggie poop fairies to take away, I need a sharpie to label it a "Trump bag!" I like it!

Hey, are you calling me gay?!?!

Because I've brought several such bags out of the wilderness, I must be a (dog poop) fairy. (Hey, morons, I'm pretty sure most of you are well intentioned and intend to pick it up on the way back. But pay attention to where you set it so you'll see it on the way back! 90% of what I find is in places where the person couldn't have seen it on the way back.)

 

[Politesse]

What would you say when 95% of a doctor's patients die on the table? (That's about the % of the supposed DOGE savings that have turned out to be utterly wrong. And that doesn't mean the remainder were a good idea.)

I’d love to see the look on Vonse’s face when HE was deemed fraud and waste, based on performance that was never reviewed.

Your too late Elixir, this has happened many times my entire working career. If they move your plant to China, you don't have a job. Doesn't matter if you can walk on water or if you are the best at brown nosing the boss......you don't have a job.

The plant I current work (Granite City, Illinois) was marked for death right before Trump got elected the first time. He actually came to our facility with his daughter and told us he would make sure we would stay open if he got elected. Then against all odds, Trump got elected. And then also against all odds, suddenly our CEO had a change of heart and our plant was un-marked for death. In the meantime, we endure a pandemic, Biden gets elected, and our CEO marks our plant for death again. The one time I would not mind a plant closing since I am ready to pack it in at 67 but Trump gets elected again (against all odds) and our plant is again un marked for death again.

And I have seen a lot of plant closings first hand. But this is the first time I will probably have to quit before they lay me off. And I actually hope this is the case for the sake of younger workers and the general area around the plant.

Great...they were already here and decided not to pay risk the tariffs. But if a company is already in another country - Mexico or Canada, then the tariff will cost the consumer more. IF the tariffs reach a rate that would justtify moving plants back the the US, then the company will have increased costs of building facilities. They might bring back 500 jobs, but the product without tariffs will now cost the same or more than with tariffs. Bottom line...good for 500 people but bad for 299,999,500 people,

The main point to be made though is this. That for the first time in my 67 year life there are corporations thinking twice about how they're going to offshore to other countries while still enjoying US sales.

All of a sudden the Democrats hate tariffs because it's Trump's idea. They don't stop to realize how important targeted tariffs can be to keeping union jobs. Actually a lot of Democrats (Biden excepted) don't really like the unions very much anymore even though they are the basis of the middle class.

Regardless, a tariff is nothing more than a consumption tax and why not decrease consumption and offset that tax with less other taxes related to income?

Knowing the condition of our treasury should our government encourage people to consume or produce?

Trump is right but most of you just can't get yourselves to admit it.

No one opposes all tariffs. Democrats oppose using them stupidly and aggressively, not using them at all.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This is exactly the same Russian propaganda talking point spread by barbos.

Yup. Pay attention people's actual positions rather than what they say they're for. Compare the correspondence between specific positions vs overall claimed goals vs other possible overall goals.

We used to see a lot of this with the greens--a better match for Moscow's interests than the environment. I do not think most of the people involved realized that they were being played. We see it repeatedly with the "pro-life" crowd. Correspondence with making sex dangerous: basically 100%. Correspondence with actually reducing abortions: nowhere near so good. They would oppose anything that would reduce the oops rate when they should be favoring it. Now we see it with The Rat and The Felon--everything's Moscow's position, an awful lot of it is bad for the US.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

But I still like to pay less in Missouri and get less public service service in Missouri. And yes, I might feel differently if I were Mark Zukerburg or some uber wealthy tech guy working in a super heavy tax state like California. Those guys have so much income blowing out their ears they need not ever worry about taxation or disposable income. But at my income level I know I would rather get less and pay less so I can enjoy a better life with my family. I just wish the federal government could act more like Missouri. Missouri might seem backwards to many but they always balance their budget and during the pandemic even send back money when their government collects more than it needs. Illinois is just the opposite spending more than they really have.

It will suit me just fine if Musk helps our federal government become more like Missouri and less like Illinois.

But do you realize just how much less you get? Some of it isn't at all obvious.

Like your schools are shit. A better life for you, a worse life for your children.

And your environmental rules are shit. You might have a "better" life until the pollution takes away your health.

https://rockinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Balance-of-Payments-Federal-2024.pdf

(sorry it's big. There's a viewer that's not working for me so I'm just linking the whole report.)
And send what money back? You're being subsidized to the tune of about $5k per capita. Your economy would crash and burn if you weren't sucking on blue tits.

 

[KCFlyer]

All of a sudden the Democrats hate tariffs because it's Trump's idea. They don't stop to realize how important targeted tariffs can be to keeping union jobs. Actually a lot of Democrats (Biden excepted) don't really like the unions very much anymore even though they are the basis of the middle class.

Here's why democrats oppose these tariffs. Our dear leader renegotiated NAFTA to create "the greatest trade agreement ever" That agreement also addressed tariffs. HE negotiated the damned treaty. And suddenly we have this need for tariffs, and pretty stiff ones at that. For what? Was it jobs? Was it immigration? Was it fentanyl? It certainly couldn't be because of "unfair tariffs" unless he is saying he was a complete dolt when he renegotiated NAFTA and the tariffs in that agreement? Were Mexico and Canada violating USMCA? And then Germany. And France. Are there any tariffs on Russian Vodka? Then after that was his 200% tariff threats against Canada and now France. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Tariffs are Trump's hammer. But he's playing whack a mole. And finally, he seems to have been blindsided by retaliatory tariffs. Did he think other countries would just roll over?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A few billion worth just from US farmers.

I wonder, Barbos. How does supplying grain to starving people install favorable government leaders?

Ask Hamas how to curry loyalty to the government by rewarding loyal citizens with international aid.
This is not new.
Tom

HAMAS supplies international aid? Do tell.

Open your eyes!

He's not saying Hamas supplies international aid. He said they use it. Two very different words. Hamas takes most of the aid that enters and sells it to the people. Cash, sex (and that can hardly be considered consensual), participation in the fighting etc.