American Politics 3.0 - Back to Brunch

[KootenayFlamesFan]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1616118423704010752

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Mother####er...

Is he seriously considering that just as consumers are still feeling the after effects of sticker shock due to inflation? Is he a monster or just an idiot? Or both?

Jesus ####ing christ. Nobody ever say both sides/many sides to me again about these parties.

[PsYcNeT]

Consumption taxes, notoriously fairly applied across all demographics.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Consumption taxes, notoriously fairly applied across all demographics.

Also absolutely impossible to evade. Wealthy people would never just shift a significant part of their tconsumption abroad. And with no real IRS any more (which is generally part of these proposals), I'm sure it'd be extremely difficult to evade paying it in a bunch of ways.

Seems like a political loser too. The Republicans' base is old people. Imagine working your whole life paying tax on that income and then when you retire and generally have a lower income and tax burden, all of they sudden they introduce a 30% consumption tax on everything you buy.

[timun]

Originally Posted by photon

... the Old Post Office in DC, used to be a Trump hotel but he sold it ...

Nice! When I visited DC in 2016 the Old Post Office was in a sad, sorry state; security fencing erected, armed guards all around, and "TRUMP" signage in his signature tacky gold/brass.

(N.B. he never owned it: the US government does. He just had a lease to operate the hotel.)

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Also, #### you Ron DeSantis.

Florida Rejects A.P. African American Studies Class

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/u...n-studies.html

“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” the department’s office of articulation, which oversees accelerated programs for high school students, wrote on Jan. 12. In the future, should the College Board “be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion.”

The letter, with no name attached to it, did not cite which law the course violated or what in the curriculum was objectionable. The department did not respond to questions asking for more details. But last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed legislation that restricted how racism and other aspects of history can be taught in schools and workplaces. The law’s sponsors called it the Stop WOKE Act. Among other things, it prohibits instruction that could make students feel responsibility for or guilt about the past actions of other members of their race.

There's more, but this in particular makes me ####ing furious.

Not only is it illiberal to restrict academic freedoms, but they aren't even saying what the problem is or how to fix the curriculum. It's just more dog whistle bull####.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Also absolutely impossible to evade. Wealthy people would never just shift a significant part of their tconsumption abroad. And with no real IRS any more (which is generally part of these proposals), I'm sure it'd be extremely difficult to evade paying it in a bunch of ways.

Seems like a political loser too. The Republicans' base is old people. Imagine working your whole life paying tax on that income and then when you retire and generally have a lower income and tax burden, all of they sudden they introduce a 30% consumption tax on everything you buy.

It's not like living in a world where capital has become something a rent seeking perpetual motion machine generating more capital, leaving more money in the hands of those who do not consume all of their liquidity on a year to year basis for longer will exacerbate the problem of rent seeking capital creating more capital without actually being productive. I just can't see why it would be a good idea to tax them when the money comes in, rather than waiting for them to never spend their money, until they set up a tax exempt charitable organization that will pay the next 5 generations of their family a 7 figure income to give away the wealth they hoarded.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Also absolutely impossible to evade. Wealthy people would never just shift a significant part of their tconsumption abroad. And with no real IRS any more (which is generally part of these proposals), I'm sure it'd be extremely difficult to evade paying it in a bunch of ways.

Seems like a political loser too. The Republicans' base is old people. Imagine working your whole life paying tax on that income and then when you retire and generally have a lower income and tax burden, all of they sudden they introduce a 30% consumption tax on everything you buy.

Actually fairly easy to evade for the rich, you just create a company that then buys pretty much everything you need, a house, the Lambo etc that then leases it to you at minimal cost and then uses the loss on the lease as a tax write off thus shifting your consumption into a corporation loss, basically your rule of thumb should be if the GOP propose it then it will be easy for the rich to avoid

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Why is it that the deficits balloons during Republican presidencies but the debt ceiling is only ever a thing during Democratic presidencies?

So bizarre.

[Lanny_McDonald]

That's fiscal conservatism in a nutshell.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Also absolutely impossible to evade. Wealthy people would never just shift a significant part of their tconsumption abroad. And with no real IRS any more (which is generally part of these proposals), I'm sure it'd be extremely difficult to evade paying it in a bunch of ways.

Seems like a political loser too. The Republicans' base is old people. Imagine working your whole life paying tax on that income and then when you retire and generally have a lower income and tax burden, all of they sudden they introduce a 30% consumption tax on everything you buy.

Without some form of reimbursement a 30% tax would probably kill tourism. If my future trips to the US were going to 30% more expensive I would be shifting my travel elsewhere.

[ResAlien]

Dems still hold the senate it has a zero percent chance of becoming law. Putting this to a vote was one of McCarthy’s concessions to the radical right to get speaker.

[MoneyGuy]

We’re frequent travelers but with our low loonie, an exorbitant sales tax and the politics and gun culture, no way we’re going back to the States. It’ll never pass, though.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Also, #### you Ron DeSantis.

Florida Rejects A.P. African American Studies Class

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/u...n-studies.html



There's more, but this in particular makes me ####ing furious.

Not only is it illiberal to restrict academic freedoms, but they aren't even saying what the problem is or how to fix the curriculum. It's just more dog whistle bull####.

This is so terrible. Reminds me of the white washing of history in Japan and the controversies of their government-approved history curriculum and textbooks downplaying their war crimes related to comfort women and in Nanjing or altogether omitting it. If one can keep tight lips on it for 3 generations, nobody remembers anymore. Good luck with that though regarding African American history and what was done to their people. So, not sure what Florida is hoping they can accomplish here...

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I can't see behind the pay wall, so I don't know if they've explained in any detail what the curriculum entailed, but I can certainly imagine a version of an AP African American History class that is more concerned about ideology and presenting questionable moral propositions as undeniable than about historical fact. I can also envision a perfectly benign, reasonable version of such a curriculum that nonetheless challenges students to think about the legacies of systemic racism that persist to this day. Without more information I have no idea who's wrong. I mean it's pretty easy to see "DeSantis" in the headline and make an educated guess about who the a-hole is, but given that there's no indication he was directly involved...

[KootenayFlamesFan]

In a January 12 letter to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that oversees AP coursework, the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter stated.

While the letter did not elaborate on what the agency found objectionable in the course content, DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said in a statement to CNN that the course “leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow.”

“As the Department of Education has previously stated, if the College Board amends the course to comply, provides a full course curriculum, and incorporates historically accurate content, then the Department will reconsider the course for approval,” Griffin added.

In a statement to CNN, the College Board declined to directly address the decision in Florida but said, “We look forward to bringing this rich and inspiring exploration of African-American history and culture to students across the country.”

Lisa Hill, the history department chair at Hamden Hall Country Day School in Connecticut and one of the teachers piloting the new course, said she was “baffled” by the DeSantis administration’s criticism.

“I must tell you, for sure, we don’t have a political agenda,” Hill told CNN when reached by phone Thursday. “It is not a course of indoctrination. My philosophy of education is you learn and discuss and debate so you get a better understanding of what’s presented to you.”

“We teach facts,” she added. “We’re not delving into theory.”

Hill, who was a co-chair on the committee that helped develop the course, said they spent a decade creating the framework and ensuring the historical accuracy of the material, but she noted that it’s also not a history course. It’s a multidisciplinary study of the African American diaspora that includes literature, the arts, science, politics and geography.

“I just know that we have taken the time to make sure we have been careful to be inclusive, to make sure the students are getting information that many did not know about,” she said. “My students have embraced it, they have been inquisitive. It will be fair, because sometimes history is ugly, and I don’t believe you need to shy away from that.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/polit...ies/index.html

[Dion]

Trump is being held accountable for his frivolous lawsuits

https://twitter.com/user/status/1616481112913764352

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/polit...ies/index.html

America has some of the best quality education in the world in some private institutions, but so much of the system is a mess, and public policy is often just stirring the stick that keeps it that way. I find it so weird when I interact with American educators who think their way is the way things should be done.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I don't really understand how a "multidisciplinary study of the African American diaspora that includes literature, the arts, science, politics and geography" can be restricted to facts and not delve into theory, but whatever... I just think comparing this to omitting genocide from history classes is a bit much.

[marsplasticeraser]

Just a reminder that if you step back and look at the state of the USA, it’s obviously a declining nation.

Yes lots of wealth, but what are they doing to ensure the next generation is a world leader? Infrastructure? Education? Policy?

The US is in obvious decline across almost all metrics other than super rich people.

Having lived in Argentina and UK it seems pretty obvious the outcome of the US.

The unknown is that the the US has a massive military presence and nuclear weapons. Can they sustain supporting their military considering their domestic issues? At some point there will be a reckoning, and what happens then is unpredictable.