IHeartBadCode

The point is if Abbott is really going to stick this whole path.

Abbott is going to do what he's going to do. He's just digging a hole deeper and deeper for himself and for his State.

Abbott's statement indicates that the President is violating (insert a lot of stuff) but Abbott has not made that argument successfully in court. The courts have not sided with him on this point. Which is why he's trying to do this unilateral stuff and mentioning "compact" and what have you. None of it has legal standing and he knows it.

Good example in his citation of Arizona v. United States, Abbott is not quoting the majority opinion. He is quoting the dissenting opinion, you know the one that the Court as a whole DID NOT go with. And he's using Scalia's conceptualization of Art. I § 10 C. 3 which no one else on the Court agreed with. Abbott is using legal arguments that are not legal arguments, they are the opinion of a single justice. That's how incredibly shoddy the ground is on which he is placing his argument. The Governor of Texas is just randomly selecting opinions from Justices, and ones that were not the majority opinion, to make his case.

Even more so, Ted Cruz is in the Senate trying to get a bill passed that will legitimize some of what Abbott is doing. Abbott's current argument would be like him pointing to that bill and saying "Well Congress purposed it! It didn't pass and become law, but they purposed it, so I'm allowed to do (insert whatever)." Like he talks a lot of law in his statement, but none of it is actual legal arguments. That really the thing I think a lot of people are forgetting here. Abbott for lack of a better term, it quite literally just yanking shit form his ass and calling it law of the land.

The United States is fully aware that Texas has no leg to stand on, so the US is more than willing to give Texas as much rope as they feel they need to hang themselves with. The litigation costs are already skyrocketing for Texas and I guess Abbott and Texas as a whole is feeling okay to spend another billion losing in court.

So Abbott can continue to play this game if he feels so inclined, but it's all losses and litigation bills up ahead. He doesn't have a legal argument and the fact that Senator Cruz is trying so hard to "help him out" is evidence that Abbott has nothing.

And just to pour it on. Remember that Intuit had a PowerPoint presentation that leaked that indicated the number of challenges they have faced with Congress and the IRS repeatedly trying to create a return-free system. One of the slides from that PowerPoint.

It's amazing to think how much energy and money Intuit has spent to prevent simple taxes for the American public. Like it's been a thing they've been doing since the early 90s. They have gone to great lengths to deny people the ability to just click a button on the IRS website and call it done. The fact that we are actually getting Direct File is in itself an amazing accomplishment considering the massive amount of energy the tax preparation industry has tossed at ensuring this one thing, DID NOT HAPPEN.

Like if anyone actually sits and reads the history of Intuit and the US tax system, it's just some amazing, I cannot believe this happened IRL. Just the sheer knowing how evil they are and how they didn't care because it could affect their bottom line. They knew that they were falsely steering people into their paid product out of the Free File program and they didn't need to that to them. There were internal memos that were published where they admitted, "this is not in the spirit of the program" but failed to change course because "doing so would have significant impact of delivery of product to paying customers."

And the sheer level of money, people, energy, lobbying, etc they were throwing stopping all of this from happening. It's incredible. And yet, we're finally getting a pilot program to do some basic things directly with the Government. How Congress managed the squeak it out is a testament to how so many people wanted to indicate that Democrats did nothing with the two years they were given, and just this one thing was monumental and it's barely anything.

Because the people pushing back to prevent it, the term deep pockets, doesn't even begin to explain it. Like I never thought we would ever get a program like this. Yes, it's massively crippled BUT IT'S SOMETHING. It's just wild that this exists this year, I cannot even think of good words to describe how impossible this felt not but five years ago.

Just FYI, for people living in the following states:

• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Massachusetts
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New York
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Washington
• Wyoming

You will be able to participate in the pilot program called Direct File.

Unlike Free File, Direct File is open to any income level and is NOT through a third party provider. You are directly filing with the IRS. That said, it is indeed a pilot program and it does not offer many of the usual IRS forms, so check the website to see if you can use this or not.

And for those wondering. Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing Intuit et al lobbied hard to Congress back in 2022 to not pass.

Obviously this isn't the return free system we've been promised since the 80s. But it is a good first step. The IRS has been tasked to report back to Congress when the pilot is over this year. For all we know the new system may work correct right out of the box, may eat some children, or cause the Hoover dam to explode. This is the first time the IRS has been allowed to build such a thing for the public.

Hopefully this all goes off without a hitch, because every success with Direct File is a kick to Goodarzi's nuts. Here's hoping this is the first step towards simplified taxes/return free taxes.

Very light details from the court on this.

The application to vacate injunction presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is granted. The December 19, 2023 order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, case No. 23-50869, is vacated.

I would be cautious to read any deeper than that. The issue for the injunction wasn't "does Texas have a right to protect their border?" The lower court had sided with Texas that the US had waived its sovereign immunity from state tort claims seeking injunctive relief, via the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

Quick primer for those not knowing. A bill is a purposed thing in Congress, if both chambers approve it and the President signs it, it becomes law. These laws can be something like "The Department of Transportation shall build a highway that connects Wapakoneta, OH to Indianapolis, IN" The Department of Transportation is then allowed to build a road and they have to publish all kinds of rules about how they're going about building it (because remember the law only says build a road, not where to build it, out what material, etc...). We call this regulation. Regulation is NOT law (as Congress+President can only do that) but can carry the weight of it.

The APA is a law that sets up a procedure for regulation. Texas had argued that the Biden Administration did not check off all of the boxes required by the APA to remove the razor wire fence that Texas had erected. The Administration had indicated that, Texas was the one violating all kinds of Federal stuff, there isn't a need to check the specific boxes that Texas indicated in Court because Texas is the one who started this whole mess. The Fifth Circuit agreed with Texas that "Hey look, I get it, Texas is being a weak ass bitch. BUT, APA says so on those check boxes". It was a really technical win for Texas.

So it basically boiled down to a question of where those specific line items in the APA are applicable when Texas is the one being the bitch about everything? I'm doubtful SCOTUS viewed this as a larger question about State vs Federal because even the Fifth Circuit (who is very conservative) indicated that the Federal Government was mostly right, BUT, if they didn't like them forcing that part of the APA on them (the US Government), Congress ought to go back and clarify things.

EDIT: Oh I guess I should indicate what the whole spat started over. Last October Border Patrol snipped some razor wire fence that Texas had put up. Texas sued for destruction of State Property. That's what this whole thing is all about. Now that the fence can be fully removed with this order from SCOTUS, it's likely that Texas will seek recompense for their property (AKA, Texas will attempt to make the US taxpayer pay for the clean up of the fence and the US government will likely want to send the clean up bill to Texas).

Anyone remember that lady that was using the book ban in Texas to remove Scholastic books and do away with the book fair and failed to mention that she was employed by Scholastic's competitor?

I sure do.

Neither Brave Books nor Burkhardt disclosed that Burkhardt is an employee of Brave Books

That's always the fun thing about any law, but especially of really stupid ones. Give people and inch and they will abuse the fuck out of anything for their own gains.

We go live to the superintendent in a special event already underway.

that it isn’t simply the idealism of an age gone by

It is always this. I mentioned Angela Davis' book and in it she makes the point that we celebrate these monumental moments because they tell us a story. A story of democracy triumphant. But those events they weren't in reality 100% monumental, they were big yes, but always the details paint a complex story.

It isn't an age gone by because it is an age that hasn't come. And it's not an age to ever come. It's an idea, a dream, a thing for us to work towards always. If you ever look at the Great Seal of the United States you'll notice an incomplete pyramid. It's to symbolize that our work is never done. Because the people who created this nation knew, democracy was never going to be a government that could ever be a one and done situation.

The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.

— Thomas Jefferson

American history is not something dead and over. It is always alive, always growing, always unfinished.

— John F. Kennedy

The unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us.

— Barack Obama

If bad faith in kind breeds more bad faith and our own good faith is weaponized against the public good, then what?

The young. For all the ills and failures of society that old people seem to mete out, it is routinely the young that cure it.

It is short sighted, but just what else am I supposed to see beyond the cliff we’re hurtling towards?

That is perhaps the most beautiful thing about all of this. You cannot see beyond the cliff, it's not short sighted, it's being pragmatic. Big ideas like equality and democracy these are things that ask us to look past what's in front of us.

And for that reasons is why it is faith in each other that we're going to make this world better for the younger generations, that we will somehow provide the children of this world the tools that they need to continue onward with this unfinished work. There's a saying, I'm likely to butcher it, but it goes "nothing of value was obtained with ease." I know that faith is routinely shaken in this world, but though you cannot see it we must hold faith that we will keep going.

And I am no person of religion so faith in something isn't something that I just peg as ordained or providence will see us though. The faith I speak of is found in people. I have seen people come together in common cause to set off change. Heck, we've mentioned a few in our previous comments. People are strong and that strength is what strikes fear in all those who bring the ills we're talking about in this world.

That's how you know it's true, if there was no strength, they would not spend so much energy trying to divide us. They, the ruling class and rich, know this already and sometimes it's difficult for us to believe.

I see younger kids these days and goddamn are they clever as hell. Young and unbridled at times yes, but they seems to be keenly aware of the shoddy situation they've been placed into and seem more than ever willing to address it. Sometimes a bit misguided, but that's just inexperience not malice.

You know sometimes I listen to that song by Louis Armstrong, What A Wonderful World. The man lived through two world wars and segregation, what wonderful world could he have been talking about? And I am starting to see it now. He's talking about potential in this world. He lived in the "the worse" for him and the children he sees are born ahead of that with all the unseen possibilities ahead of them.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They'll learn much more than I'll ever know. And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I know that there's going to be a world I cannot even imagine, that's going to make the world I live in feel shameful. And I know that, because I have faith that it will come to pass. Maybe it is false hope, maybe we will not turn the wheel before we get to the cliff. But buying into the notion that it is a false hope seems to sell short the limitless possibilities this world can be made into and the great strength of the people who inhabit this world.

For melanoma at the moment.

However, it is a TLPO vaccine which teaches your immune system one of the tricks cancer uses to evade being taken care of by your white blood cells. So it's application could be huge.

That said, as you might have noticed, it has to be personalized for the patient as it targets the specific way your cancer is hiding itself. Personalized medicine is still very expensive, but quickly being able to ID the specific sequence of DNA that gave your cancer it's hiding ability could be something that computers help us with one day.

So if this does get approved, it will likely be incredibly expensive per patient.

If they still can recognize such a simple reality, that recognition comes with a price that is often decided as not worth paying for those people, for whatever reasons they tell themselves

Let me quote you something:

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.

— Judge Learned Hand (1944)

The fight of a right is indeed one thing, but it does not win the hearts of people. An injustice revealed at a cost of another injustice does not win the hearts of people. The US Civil War won us the 13th amendment but it did not win the hearts of the people. Law is a piece of paper and means only that which people extend to it and no more. Law protects the people to the extent that law is enforced by the people and no less.

Out of the Civil War came share cropping, Jim Crow laws, and disenfranchisement of those who were formerly enslaved. The evil didn't abate, it evolved. It was not the blood shed there that gave salvation, it was the blood there that began the march.

Wouldn’t it be better to still remain chattel while trying to think of how to solve this all amicably

Absolutely not, but at the same time it's foolish to think it was settled. And that's the point I am making, no win is absolute, but every loss is an erosion. This "win" that the other person believes it to be is not such. It is a win if you are of the mindset that the crimes or Trump require a person who took an oath to uphold the law in bad faith was justified.

In your life you've likely wanted this world to be different, to be equal. But that can only be found not by law onto others but by mindset by others. And if law requires equality and the minds of people have not change, no sheet of paper can protect us unless we have faith in that sheet of paper. No document can prevent evil unless we maintain faith in the people who have sworn an oath to do such.

Is that not the problem we see? People who wear uniforms who swear to serve and protect in constant violation of that? People who have taken oath to hold those in violation of that promise who fail to uphold their end of the bargain?

I would say, people taken it upon themselves to believe that ends justify the means is the root of the problem, not the solution. That is why I ask do we believe we got the win in the Civil War? With the 19th Amendment? And the answer is what I've said to the other person.

There is no top of the hill. There is no "out". Democracy is not a spectator sport, it requires all of us to continually and forever until the last of us is gone, fight the indoctrination with education, fight the power grabs with justice, and fight greed with humility.

The events I speak about are not a conclusion of things, but the start of things. They are not wins, they events that direct us. Change us and show our resolve to continue. Evil sinks back because they believe we are resolute and when we show that we are not, then our struggle becomes more difficult.

And to quote:

What I fear about many of these observances is that they tend to enact historical closures. They are represented as historical high points on a road to an ultimately triumphant democracy

— Angela Davis (Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Closures and Continuities)

In short, the idea that "freedom" continues with the shedding of blood is incorrect or in the best of light, short sighted. Freedom is maintained in the minds and hearts of the people and when ephemeral wins come at the cost of holding no faith to an oath to protect and uphold the law. Then it is no real win, it is an erosion. There are too many examples of how bad faith poisoned the US in the Reconstruction Era that followed the US Civil War. Of how bad faith fueled hate groups to win the hearts and minds of the people at that time.

Perhaps that won't be the case with this revelation. I honestly hope you all are correct and I am incorrect, to me that would be best for me to be incorrect on this event. I would want nothing more. But any weakness in our resolve to be a nation of laws is a strength to authoritarianism. Any action of bad faith courts more of the like and makes repulsion that more difficult.

I don’t think the costs of this will be very high

You know what? I'll give you that. I'm hopeful enough this blows over without much ado. But IDK, I've seen smaller mole hills turn mountains.

The kind of people who meaningfully distrust the IRS aren’t interested in facts

The thing is, it isn't binary. It's a range of folks. And I would rather us not lose ranks. It's easier to indicate trust in something if there's not an actual reason to distrust.

Also like how do you feel about jury nullification?

Aw man! Complicated. Because you can really start going all kinds of dark places if you start thinking a Judge willingly could hand out bad instructions to the jury. A not guilty is a lot harder to have an appellate review and if you try to fix it that way, do you want to have not guilty become easier to appeal?

Like we could have a big old day about that topic. Wooo. That's a can and it is marked "Oops all worms".

You cannot have rich and powerful people under such a system because the means for them to posses such status do not exist

Disinformation.

There is zero biological imperative that rich and powerful people must exist

There is a finite set of things and a means to obtain significant portions of those finite things.

Humans are inherently cooperative

Humans are complex.

Our world got to where it is through shedding the blood of tyrants, not asking them nicely

Let me ask you, all that blood shed previously. Did it work? Are we winning right now? You mentioned the US Civil War, ask yourself, did the slaves actually get free? Did the blacks actually get rights? Did the people who started the war face justice?

Also, all that those moments in history where there was shedding of blood. You do understand, if we had that today, you and I are pretty much assured to not make it. You do understand that? If we went to bloodshed, a lot of the people on this forum are highly likely the be part of the dead. You know in the Declaration of Independence there's a line:

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed

And reason why is because they knew, that overthrowing the government means most people die and the rich and power continue on. You do kind of notice how a lot of the folks who signed that document were also very rich and very powerful people and very not dead at the end of the Revolutionary war?

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Which is why I'm curious about you quoting Thomas Jefferson in his letter to John Adam's son-in-law. For me a real quote is:

It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.

Replace it with one where people have a say and not a ruling class?

You want everyone to vote on every issue? Because outside of that, we've already got that system you talk about.

There’s enough anarchist/communist/leftist literature out there discussing these issues, they’re not new

And those systems have flaws in them as well. It's not like rich and powerful means "Oh no, I cannot learn to exploit a new system!"

And the idea that you can vote your way out of this mess is adorable, naive, but adorable

See there's not an "out", that's where you've got it wrong. There's never a point where people stop pushing back on rich and powerful. That's literally the human condition, it's forever, always, until the heat death of the universe, an uphill. There is no top of the hill. There is no "out". Democracy is not a spectator sport, it requires all of us to continually and forever until the last of us is gone, fight the indoctrination with education, fight the power grabs with justice, and fight greed with humility.

At no point do we make progress by breaking laws and further showing how irrelevant that sheet of paper we call the Constitution is and rewriting it to be communist or foregoing it to be anarchist do not make it where suddenly human proclivities cease existing. You cannot do off with the evil side of human nature by adopting some magical means to live one's life and govern one's society. It is only with an enteral effort or the cessation of humanity itself that it can placed in check.

No you have all of this completely wrong. There is never "out".