As tensions escalate between California and the Trump administration over immigration, another potential battlefront is emerging over taxes.
The spat began with reports that the Trump administration is considering cutting funding for California’s university system, the largest higher education system in the nation with about 12% of all U.S. enrolled students.
In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote Friday afternoon in a social media post that California provides about $80 billion more in taxes to the federal government than it receives in return.
“Maybe it’s time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump,” Newsom said.
just fucking do it, you asshole.
It’s grandstanding…but it pisses off the Orange Turdburgler so I can’t complain too much.
California should just leave the US and form its own country.
One thing that might be misunderstood here is that California not paying taxes wouldn’t harm Trump. Trump’s goal, made clear from a sum of lots of behaviors, is the destruction of the United States. Defaulting on its debt, zeroing its GDP, destroying the livelihood of its inhabitants, and ultimately killing its war machine, so that they can’t fight Putin’s army. California’s lack of payment may just hasten that goal.
I don’t think Trump is as much of a lackey that’s following the plan as he is a useful idiot that’s easy to manipulate. I believe that Trump believes that the US is the biggest and the best - it suits the same image he has of himself as the biggest and best leader - but he’s so dumb and narcissistic that he won’t realize that he’s being led on a leash.
I don’t think Trump consciously wants to destroy America, I think he wants to make it what he considers to be great (a militarily powerful dictatorship built on worshiping him), but he’s absolutely fine with making it weaker in the interim if it either:
A. Makes him gain something
B. Feeds his egoI don’t think he is a puppet of Putin. I think he really, really likes money and power, that’s it. He does things to further his own grip of the country, thus increasing his power. Or, he does things to increase his wealth. Nothing more. He likes authoritarian leaders because they have more of a hold on their respective countries (a weird form of respect), or because they give him money (or expensive planes).
But if it’s not Putin’s fault,
- US people would have to face the reality that there’s stupid people among them
- and there’d be no “external threat” to distract from internal problems!
They’ll find a way to blame someone or something else. Cognitive dissonance and all.
It might put California on the track to surviving Trump’s destruction and becoming a civilized country opposed to Putin, unlike other US states.
stopping paying taxes is one of the essential elements of a “soft secession”, one where the state disintegrates from the federation, but not “all at once”, but “step by step”.
Maybe it was Trump’s plan after all to cause a number of states to secede? After all, GOP has talked about Texas’ secession for a while, iirc?
His plan to lose his most valuable states? Probably not. He’s just an idiot out of control.
Although, from a Russian perspective, that would be an ideal outcome. I’d put nothing past these traitorous criminals.
Project 2025 shows that the Republicans have at least one person with the ability to plan long term strategy.
you don’t need to wait for the government to do that.
This is, hands down, the funniest version of this that I have seen.
I even heard it in his voice goddamnit.
This is art.
Cross posted to BoycottUnitedStates @ europe.pub
Hey, now we’re even boycotting ourselves!
…
More seriously:
Welp, I don’t see another option than lie down and roll over, but also, if Newsom actually does it, this will basically cause a civil war… or at best a ‘Russia is pacifying Chechen terrorists’ kind of situation.
Hope everyone has their popcorn / bugout bags ready.
This would be madlad behaviour if it actually happens
If just New York and California did this, it would cripple some red states
All red states. It would cripple the country and thus ALL red states.
Good. Even my state provides more, than we get. Fuck em! Let them have their Jesus Land. That will make America great, no red states.
Same, I’m in one of the few red states that actually makes money. But honestly I’m at the point where I’m just like whatever. Fuck it, right? Just burn it down so our rot doesn’t infect the rest of the world. Seriously, this would be a mercy killing at this point. Please don’t let this spread.
The guys that are currently restoring confederate monuments would perform a takeover of the state by the federal government. US states no longer share core values, sometimes very hypocritically so.
I’m of the opinion that California, Oregon, and Washington should succeed and join Canada. Hell, New York and Massachusetts too if I’m indulging in this fantasy scenario.
All of new england pls
Unfortunately not something really he has a lot of control over, though he could start a movement
Ain’t happening anyway
Fucking do it. I’ll cum buckets.
I don’t think there’s really a way to do this, since federal taxes are paid directly to the fed without state involvement. This is just to poke the bear, which I am all for.
Companies, no. But the state employs a lot of people.
And county, and cities
Still, the feds will come after the individuals, not the state.
Good. Keep poking until he has a heart attack. If he recovers, rinse and repeat until we get it right.
I’m all for it too, but keep in mind that successors to dictators are never better; only worse. It only ever gets worse.
~Hide your kids. Hide your couch!~
Yeah but there seems to be something about this fucking guy. I don’t think his successor will have the same draw.
This dictator is the leader of the GOP, a cult of personality. That’s not easily replaced
This dictator is merely a puppet; plain and simple. The real Palpatine is someone else. Maybe it’s Putin, or maybe it’s Thiel. We haven’t gotten to that episode yet.
But this puppet is who the cultists at the bottom support. They won’t get their support for anyone else so easily, if they even need them at that point.
I would argue that now that the GOP has all three branches of government, Darth Trump is expendable.
The hypothetical way to do it is severely penalize companies within California that pay federal tax. Make it so financially burdonsome they have to relocate or stop paying federal tax of their own accord. This is just what’s been suggested before when this has come up.
Yeah, given his history and it’s pretty fair to assume Trump doesn’t know that
I thought you were going to talk about the physical improbability of cumming buckets.
This is a test comment. Will delete.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m afraid I agree. I’m not sure how you could enforce this. Paying federal tax seems like a personal choice and the consequences would be felt by individuals (tax evasion charges, unless trump manages to get it treated as a terrorist act). I’d be interested to see if the state was actually offering to shield CA citizens from being arrested by federal agents or subpoenaed by federal courts.
Also, for the most part the Fed already has our money, right? The majority of that federal tax is withheld from paychecks and goes directly to the Fed…
You can withhold paying your federal taxes from your paycheck. Most people don’t because they don’t want to get stuck with a big tax bill in April with no way to pay it if they spent that money or lost it on a bad investment. if enough people all did that at once, regardless of state, it could put a big financial burden on Trump. The government heavily relies on this steady source of income, and unless you make a lot of money, you are probably getting a federal return every year, which means you gave the U.S. Government an interest free loan of sorts.
You also get hit with an underpayment penalty if you do this and don’t pay estimated taxes too.
Be sure to hydrate if you do.
I don’t think I want a bucket coming out if that particular hole.
Prude.
Sounds painful.
It’ll be like a firehose connected to a main
Holy fucking shit. I’m amazed, I was just saying the other day that this would eventually get into this point. Didn’t think it’d be this week
I didn’t expect it to be Gavin Newsom. Pleastly suprised
Fascism only has one speed: Blitzkrieg.
Any other speed would be slow enough for people to have enough time to band together and organize a resistance to this horseshit.
That’s literally the only playbook. Break everything: Go fast. Hit people with so much horseshit they are still stuck trying to process the one from 2 weeks ago, because since then 5 other constitutional crisis’ have happened and now they’re deporting both of your neighbors.
That’s not really the case, though. This rise of fascism has been building for decades now. It’s been a slow, steady, drip drip drip. Perhaps not so noticeable except from the outside - Americans are embedded in a pervasive atmosphere of propaganda. The Republicans have been getting more and more authoritarian over the years, more and more extreme, and the Democrats have been letting them. It’s been more than four years since the last violent coup attempt, after all, and those were the same people behind this play.
It’s not progressing fast. You just haven’t noticed its progress until now, when it’s nearly done.
We’re not talking about the rise of fascism. It took decades for that to ferment in Germany and Italy as well.
We’re talking about when they seize power. Then they make their move.
We’re talking about the powergrab of fascists once they’ve laid the groundwork.
That’s the part they need to move lightning fast to achieve a result, before resistance can organize against them. That’s the part in history we’re at right now.
Tom8to, tom@to, IMO. The “groundwork-laying” is also a process of seizing power, there just aren’t quite so many guns going bang.
I think it could be just tom@o
You say tom8o tom@o, I say tom8to tom@to.
What’s a tomatto?
I actually say tomarto haha
America has been fascist since the early 1910s, busting unions and putting capital first. Then Banana Republics were formed because democracy got in the way. And then half of Africa was invaded with American bases and money in an effort to bring the scattered oil fields under American corporate control. And India lost tens of thousands of lives to an American corporate disaster and no one could challenge the super military force guaranteeing popular democracy around the world (except where people actually heeled business interests).
America has been a fascist superpower for over a century. It’s professional name is neoliberalism.
More people really ought to read Against The Fascist Creep.
A better way to describe it is logistic growth. It reaches a certain tipping point, accelerates to the maximum rate, then slowly slowing down to some sort of equilibrium.
At this rate they’ll be deploying the Marines to LA’s streets by July!
Um aren’t they doing this now?
It is, sorry - I am making a sardonic joke about how American democracy is collapsing unexpectedly fast
Oops sorry
Aren’t the Marines sworn to uphold the constitution? WTF?
In a shocking twist rural Californian conservatives now want to pay federal taxes.
