Tax March Saturday April 15

a reply to: allsee4eye

Using the presidency to enact policy, foreign or domestic, that benefits the personal financial situation of the president is against the law and violates the US Constitution.

a reply to: windword

Congress enacts policy. The president only controls the executive agencies which is very narrow in scope. Besides, if Trump does anything unethical, the MSM would report it and bye bye re election 2020.

Okay - home again, home again. Feet much hurty, Taco Cabana takeout waiting for later (because I don't feel like cooking.)

For those asking "why" - ATS once had a culture where we did reports like this; someone doing "live and on the spot" reporting of events/marches/rallies. I'm posting here to encourage others (of all political persuasions or just the adventuresome) to provide original content in the form of reporting or diaries.

For those asking "why (again)" - it's because I believe in something strongly enough to get up and do something rather than sit at my computer and gripe or send a check. Admittedly, I do all THREE, but...

So for those still following, some notes from the rally:

notable and unexpected The crowd included a number of Libertarians as well as Liberals and Democrats. I encountered several Bernie fans. Not sure if there were any Republicans; with a crowd this small, it's hard to say. As you can see from this photo of the start of the march, the crowd was around 300 or so.



It was ethnically diverse (skewed toward Caucasian; about 85% Caucasian) and most seemed to be middle class working folk. Ages ranged from young parents to senior citizens (some of them came to march although they had difficulty walking.) The parade itself had a permit for a 18 block stretch (basically down to 9th street and back to 1st Street by a different route. One or two Trump fans tried to cat-call, but we drowned them out with the "This is what democracy looks like" chant. There were a large number of signs but I know that many people brought more than one and those were handed out to the crowd.

The rally before the march introduced several people who are running for political positions in next month's elections (and two who are trying to take out two of our very prominent Republican senators.) There was a firey mayoral candidate that I would have voted for if I lived in Ft. Worth.

So even on a small scale, such rallies allow you to make connections and learn about local candidates (or at least they do in the Liberal/Democratic ones. I obviously have no experience with Trump rallies but it would be interesting to see reports on them.)

The signage emphasized three main points: Trump's (failed) promise that he would release his tax returns, concern about which countries he is indebted to, and the question of how much he's divested.

I think that this was the best "sign" of all:




BTW, if you're protesting here in Texas, the answer to "P-hat or Stetson" is "Yup."


Here's lookin' at you, kid.

Larger protests took place across the country. Apparently there were over 10,000 protesters in LA

There's reports of some violence at Berkeley but in general reports are of peaceful demonstrations.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: allsee4eye

Using the presidency to enact policy, foreign or domestic, that benefits the personal financial situation of the president is against the law and violates the US Constitution.

It's a good thing your president isn't doing that then, isn't it?

a reply to: Perfectenemy

According to you everybody has cleared trump of everything.
What documents can you provide to support that the IRS cleared him of anything because the number one rule of the IRS is that your information is completely private and protected making it impossible for them to speak out on the matter in any form.

a reply to: SBMcG

We don't know. He won't reveal any of that.

originally posted by: SBMcG

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: allsee4eye

Using the presidency to enact policy, foreign or domestic, that benefits the personal financial situation of the president is against the law and violates the US Constitution.

It's a good thing your president isn't doing that then, isn't it?

It really, really looks like he is doing just that! A paper trail, i.e. tax records could put a period on that.

a reply to: Middleoftheroad

Wow. I saw hours of coverage with protest across the nation.
No mere minute of fame.
Enough to get the commander in tweet to send out a stupid comment about.

Did it achieve the goal?

Or was it just like a tailgate party?

a reply to: allsee4eye

Congress enacts policy.

Trump is enacting policy through his executive orders. But, Congress' ability to enact policy has nothing to do with Trump's possible ties and debts to foreign governments and his ability to be bribed or compromised.

a reply to: Byrd

Thank you for your involvement and information about the event!
It is very much appreciated.

originally posted by: Lysergic
Did it achieve the goal?

Or was it just like a tailgate party?

Can't speak for the other rallies but I would say that yes, it did.

Single protests seldom cause a big turnaround and it would have been surprising if Trump actually caved and released his tax returns. However, he's been saying for months that the public is not really interested in his tax returns and the march (which he commented on) got his attention and demonstrated that yes we do want to see them.

Now - if you read research papers about politics and elections, you'll see emerging a pattern similar to what happened when the Tea Party rose to power.

On a local level the demonstrations (and the groups that came together planning this -- it's been in the planning for several months) are having some impact. People are stepping up to run for office in areas where it was considered so impossible for a Democrat to win that nobody even tried running for office against the Republicans. We've seen a near upset in a recent election where a Republican went from a 20 point lead to a narrow 7 point win and Georgia's special elections show Democrats with a chance in a district where it's been a shoe-in for Republicans for as long as anyone can remember.

It's getting Congress a bit spooked. There's an awareness at the national level (as well as at the state level) that people are fed up with things. And when someone makes a tone-deaf response to the public (Ted Cruz constantly dodging requests for Town Hall meetings while other politicians are holding them), it's no longer a tiny news bit in a newspaper but turns into a fairly big local or even national news story.

This is what happened with the Tea Party, if you remember. Individual coordinated rallies did not accomplish the aims of the rally - but it did overall cause a groundswell of support which got people into positions of power and then changed things.

originally posted by: SteamyJeans
Agreee with other posters...

Sure Trump should releases his taxes but a "tax march " might be better off addressing the 1/3 of our earnings being taken..

I will march to protest income taxes ... but cmon who really cares about Trumps that does not help the people just the democrats or anyone looking to say "I told you so " about Trump.



a reply to: Byrd

The only people whom are concerned about Trumps taxes are the exact same people whom don't pay taxes to begin with. I get the joy of writing a 20K+ check every year and I could care less about Trumps taxes because He is a victim just like Me.

a reply to: Byrd

Those marches would have been 100 times smaller if Trump's bomb order would have injured one innocent civilian. Turns out it was right on the money, so the anti-Trump crowd didn't have anything to complain about besides the worn out, lame tax return BS.

originally posted by: Perfectenemy
Why are people still hung up on his tax returns? The IRS cleared him from any wrong doing. The generation x cares only about stupid causes to show the world hey look at us we are so progressive. F#ck this sh!t.

Gen X? Don't you mean Millennials?

why am i in this topic? i dont remember hitting it.

a reply to: slapjacks

yeah, it is raining here.

originally posted by: Perfectenemy

originally posted by: ScepticScot

originally posted by: Perfectenemy
A tax return march? Who came up with such a useless idea? And btw the science march is not for science i saw the list who is attending and it's just used to protest Trump again. The LGBTQ crowd is marching with them but there is only one slight problem because science proved already that there are only 2 genders. Oops. Those people are a disgrace and just hypocrites.

And when exactly did science prove that? Short answer to save you trouble is it didn't. It's just something you made up.


Besides which what relavence would the number of genders have on LGBTQ community supporting the march?

Penis and Vagina. Man and woman. It's not rocket science. To be clear i don't have anything against the LGBTQWHDASZNVX crowd. It just got out of hand pretty quick and we need to pull the plug so to speak. Pepple identify as a eggplant now and instead of treating it as a mental illness we encourage them. We are at a point where parents feed their little kids hormones to change them into a boy or a girl. That's just f#cked up and cruel. Children change their opinions all the time until they get older and still there is no telling what the negative longterm effects of the actions of their parents will be. They are also in a minority but demand we change our laws that worked for centuries to fit their needs. Hell there was a debate over the use of he and she in the news and banning them because it's now deemed racist and they should switch to genderneutral terms. The f#ck?

It got the democrats a few million more votes, that's all they were going for with that entire mess. Who cares that they caused more division in the country, they got what they wanted. . .until normal Americans got sick of it.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: Byrd

People keep forgetting that Trump promised to release his tax returns almost 2 years ago, and still hasn't met that promise, as a matter of fact, he withdrew and reneged on that promise!

Donald Trump Promised to Release His Tax Returns a Year Ago: ‘I Have No Objection’

Another broken promise from the tRumpster!

Good, I'm more concerned with our fight against our enemy, not your fight against Trump's tax returns. If the IRS hasn't found anything in 2 years, and you damn well know they've been picking his taxes apart, then the IRS isn't finding anything. Drop it and focus on real issues.