Stupid Taxes

[Xist]

People always say bad things about loopholes. People always say good things about transparency, but I do not believe that either will change because the people they benefit are powerful.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Consider for a moment the masterful troll — shipping border jumpers to the sanctuary cities. That's not brilliant?

Brilliant? When the idea is to get people not to come here? So instead of shipping the ones you catch home, you're going to let them stay in the US, and give them free transportation to places that might welcome them? Seems pretty stupid to me - not to mention actually illegal.

[freebeard]

To get them to not come takes an adequate barrier. The President is doing it to get Congress to come back from the hiatus and (do their job and) fix the laws.

Tim Pool thinks it's a good idea because the sanctuary cities are more prepared for the onslaught. The Democrat objection is that you are taking people from some established routine and relocating, when they should be new arrivals.

As for legal, search on 'Eisenhower Little Rock 1957'.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

People always say bad things about loopholes. People always say good things about transparency, but I do not believe that either will change because the people they benefit are powerful.

There's some of that, perhaps even a substantial amount of that, but nearly everyone is represented by some form of tax silliness. Our tax code is progressive, and then that's balanced out by giving wealthy people $7,500 to buy an expensive EV, or a home buyer $8,000 to purchase a house.

There's no political advantage to fixing the tax code because it's uninteresting to propose something that benefits absolutely everyone. In a polarized political climate, we've got to only think of solutions that benefit a select group of people at the expense of some other despicable group.

[Fat Charlie]

Well, it's bad policy if it benefits people I don't like. Even if it benefits me more.

[Xist]

Yes, well, I really want X for a given group of people, so they should have it, even if they do not want it--yet.

[Hersbird]

There is no political energy to simplify the taxes because that is the biggest way politicians of all kinds make themselves important. If it was just a simple fair number everybody paid you take away 1/2 the power. It leaves them the power on how to then spend the money but I would argue there is more power in how they get the money.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by freebeard

To get them to not come takes an adequate barrier.

No, to get them not to come takes changing things in their homes so that they don't want to come. "Adequate barriers" really don't apply when you have e.g. thousands of miles of coastline, not to mention airplanes.

And you have to remember that this "adequate barrier" idea comes from a person who thinks that water bombers are an appropriate way of fighting a building fire, that forest fires can be prevented by raking up pine needles, or that women won't talk about having sex with you if you pay them.

The President is doing it to get Congress to come back from the hiatus and (do their job and) fix the laws.

That's your opinion. IMHO, it's more likely that he's perfectly serious.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Brilliant? When the idea is to get people not to come here? So instead of shipping the ones you catch home, you're going to let them stay in the US, and give them free transportation to places that might welcome them? Seems pretty stupid to me - not to mention actually illegal.

Politics is all about sticking it to the other guy. That's the only way to improve society.

A little late for this year, but if you make less than $66k a year, you can file for free. https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/ I used H&R Block and it was exactly the same as the paid version.

[freebeard]

No, to get them not to come takes changing things in their homes so that they don't want to come. "Adequate barriers" really don't apply when you have e.g. thousands of miles of coastline, not to mention airplanes.

Why not both? You have a fair point, but that's why the qualifier is 'adequate'. It doesn't have to be impermeable, but just channel movement toward the legal points of entry. The 'big beautiful door'.

And you have to remember that this "adequate barrier" idea comes from a person who thinks that water bombers are an appropriate way of fighting a building fire, that forest fires can be prevented by raking up pine needles, or that women won't talk about having sex with you if you pay them.

No. The idea comes from his predecessor[s]. Like those cages for children.

Thanks for mentioning the building fire. I'm in awe of the 500 firefighters who ran toward that pyre.

This morning I was thinking again about subsonic drones to kill brush fires with sound. It occurred to me that the main rotors of a quadcopter could flutter at ~20-100hz and it wouldn't affect the lift, it would just require fast pitch control. Add tanks of foaming flame retardant for weight so the rotors have something to work against.