Americans when making a mistake, used to have their hearts in the right place but were just screwing it up. With Trump, the heart isn’t in the right place. Trump has destroyed conservatism and Christianity. Christianity was about helping the meek, not power and vengeance. Schools and society have become too focused on self-actualization rather than becoming better and more capable people; too focused on specific career skills rather than improving character.
Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security doesn’t know basic things about rights and abilities granted to Americans in the Constitution. She reaches for any bullshit she can to justify illegally expanding Trump’s power.
Tip culture is already out of control. This can only make it worse.
“the Senate passed the No Tax on Tips Act 100–0, which “creates a federal income tax deduction of up to $25,000 a year for certain types of cash tips for eligible employees,” per The Washington Post. (“Cash tips” include tips given not just in cash but also via credit and debit cards.) This applies to employees earning $160,000 or less annually.”
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“If you actually wanted to help the household budgets of working-class people, the best thing you could do is refrain from imposing 10 percent across-the-board tariffs (and more for goods imported from China). It’s not clear to me that no taxes on tips, though President Donald Trump touted it repeatedly from the campaign trail, will do all that much, or that there was a ton of accurate tip-reporting happening in the first place.”
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“creates an opportunity for people to try to categorize their normal income as tips, and how much they can now get away with remains to be seen.”
“the mess is real, and it’s because habitual deficit financing—the very disease fiscally-minded Founding Father Alexander Hamilton warned against—has become business as usual.
The reckoning comes as House Republicans push to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts with a “big, beautiful bill.” If handled correctly, it’s a good idea. But while the legislation aims to avoid tax hikes, it pairs modestly pro-growth provisions with a smorgasbord of costly special interest giveaways. Worse, it assumes we can afford yet another $3 trillion to $5 trillion in debt without serious consequences. That’s the kind of magical thinking that spurred the credit downgrade.”
“Congress established the FTC in 1914 to prevent unfair competition and deceptive business practices. This has primarily meant “protecting Americans in their role as consumers,” according to Ferguson. The FTC enforces the Clayton Antitrust Act, which outlawed price discrimination between customers, exclusive dealing, interlocking directorates, and mergers or acquisitions that “substantially reduce competition.”
But Khan was more interested in Americans’ role as producers than consumers. In 2022 she signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Labor Relations Board to “protect workers against unfair methods of competition, unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and unfair labor practices,” such as restrictive contract provisions. In August 2023, Khan signed a similar MOU with the Department of Labor recognizing both agencies’ shared commitment to protecting workers from deceptive earnings claims, restrictive noncompete and nondisclosure contracts, and the “impact of labor market concentration.”
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Ferguson’s endorsement of the 2023 joint merger guidelines, along with his hostility to the tech industry and support for enforcing the anti–price discrimination Robinson-Patman Act, all suggest a continuation of Khan’s activist antitrust ideology. The Joint Labor Task Force is yet more evidence.”
“Last night, outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed by a gunman who yelled “Free, free Palestine” after being taken into custody. The deceased—Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26—were set to get engaged to one another; Lischinsky was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem.”
“Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passes the House…It passed narrowly, 215–214, with one voting present, and now faces the Senate.”
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“This bill will extend the 2017 tax cuts that were passed during the first Trump administration.”
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“The old $30,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions will be raised to $40,000 (a bit of a concession to Republican representatives and constituents from New York and New Jersey). Border states will get big chunks of change to offset extra immigration enforcement costs under the Biden administration (or so the framing goes). There’s some reduced Medicaid and food stamp spending, cutting federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $267 billion over the next decade. The child tax credit will be expanded.”