I received the following email in response to this post and thought I’d share it and my reply:
“That kind of thing can only cause harm if you are too chicken to put your name in it so that both you and they can stop filling up the recycle bin in the first place. Do something useful.”
Well, let’s address the “too chicken” accusation first. I don’t include my name in the envelopes in order for the Dumbocrats to continue sending me their junk mail so I can send it back to them and have them waste money. If I was “too chicken” I wouldn’t have written and signed the post.
DUH!
Now, as to the environmental concern…
If this effort were to mean just ONE 2,000-pound American bomb weren’t dropped on Gaza, shredding and vaporizing dozens of children, sending ambulances and a school or hospital into a towering, billowing column of smoke and dust that would offset any environmental effect of this small effort to stop the genocidal US/Israel genocide by a factor of millions.
But, feel free to ride on on your moral camel. Just turn around in the saddle.
I’m with you, already sent a copy of code pink newsletter to at the time Biden and now Schumer campaigns, don’t know how they got my address, never being registered as democrat
Good job! I'm sure Biden and Schumer will be excited to read of the good work of Code Pink. I wonder how they get addresses. I'm sure there are companies that buy and sell mailing lists from magazines, newsletters to candidates and parties.
I exposed the most serious corruption in the history of the Democratic Party of South Africa, yet my family and I received their election ads without having supplied our cell numbers, which means they were illegally obtained. Consequently, I have to love your spirit of citizen defiance across the water.
Oh, now there's a good idea. I mean, heck, it's worked so well in the past. Right?
When it comes to two promoters and defenders of genocide, there is no "lesser evil'. They are both evil and rotted to the core. There is no greater crime than genocide.
Democrats say, "But, but, Kamala says she'll maybe kinda' sorta' possibly, maybe when she thinks of something, do some good stuff!"
Even if she were to bring us Medicare For All -- the idea she campaigned on before and has now abandoned, just like her position on banning fracking -- it would not off set genocide. Hell, even Hitler did a bunch of good stuff; brought jobs after the Great Depression and built the Autobahn and NONE of that outweighed his genocide.
None.
It's one corporate party and until people tell it to go to hell, the only change that will come is it will get worse. Our politics are dead n' done. Time for direct action: strikes; general strikes; work slow-downs; sit-ins; targeted boycotts; people in the streets; mutual aid ... telling this entirely rotted system to F-off. Anything less is doomed to failure.
People do not understand that fascism is HERE and all we can do is delay the effects here a few years while we build mutual aid. I’d prefer to try to do that NOT dodging deportation for being a “pro-Hamas radical” like the Republican Party platform calls for. We did this in 2016. We got trump. Who you may remember, was also not great for the Israel genocide situation (moving the embassy to disputed territory and naming it the capitol) while also getting Americans killed in a pandemic and through massively increased hate crimes. Also, since his election, far right governments have popped up worldwide, almost like he emboldened the fascists. What am I missing?? Oh right, trump is bffs with Bibi and has been telling him to not ceasefire for MONTHS exactly so people like you do this. I know it hurts and feels disgusting, but if you want to be able to continue helping others you need to vote for your own oxygen mask first.
Of course fascism is already here. No argument there ... and it is completely bipartisan.
Oxygen mask?
Voting Democrat -- or Republican -- is like wrapping your lips around the end of an exhaust pipe on a diesel truck and inhaling deeply.
Kamala is all about joyfully helping the Israelis to continue slaughtering defenseless refugee camps. She has said it -- no conditions on continued unlimited military aid to the ZioNazi government of Israel: Whatever they want for as long as they want it, as long as a Palestinian remains in Palestine.
She and Trump are both genociders and as such, BOTH will turn on any dissenters because, heh, that's what fascist genocidal mass murdering monsters do.
Too strong a critique?
Remember, it was Kamala who was "honored" to accept the endorsement of Dick Cheney, one of the worst fascist war criminals of all time. A criminal whose policies and initiatives continue to reverberate across the Middle East with every 2,000-lb American bomb dropped on innocents.
"Honored"... and the Democratic Party giddy about such an "honor." Tells you all you need to know about who and what today's Democrats really are.
Did Dick's endorsement brighten up your day, Jack?
The election is between 'Ass Hat A' and 'Ass Hat B'. Vote for either of them if you wish, but recognize the karma that comes with the complicity of in any way enabling continued genocide.
And what are you doing to resist the genocide? Please provide us all with your wisdom and some guidance.
What has been the reaction from the Internal Revenue Service to your announcement that you are withholding your tax payments to the death machine?
What kind of IRS hearings and audits did you have to go through not paying your taxes?
Was there a court hearing and were they willing to hear your good moral arguments against paying your taxes? What was the response of the judge?
Obviously, Dean, you have stopped paying your taxes to not fund the genocide, right? Please inform us all of your experiences with tax protest. Obviously, you have figured out how to do that. Very courageous of you. Please contact me and I'll do a Substack post on your courageous stand and we can all join you.
Pasting my response to your same query on my restack:
Ooh! I think I touched a nerve! What’s wrong, friendo, don’t like being called out for useless performative “protest” in the name of very real human suffering? I’m sorry it stings.
BUT, assuming your query to be legitimate and from an honest place, i’ll answer:
I don’t pay federal or state income tax. I’ve worked very hard to reduce my income to be below the federal poverty level (helps that i’m a farmer, LOL) and therefore do not owe year over year. My total reportable income last year was well below the taxable threshold. This has not been easy to achieve, but it’s doable. One must fill in the gaps with barter, trade, and mutual aid. One must learn where the good food banks are. One must learn how to upcycle, recycle, and build what’s needed. One must cultivate relationships with neighbours and friends. One must build and contribute to systems of support and mutual aid and be prepared to bring something to the same table from which he wishes to eat. And i’ll add that I happily take SNAP benefits and any other federal/state “entitlement” programme dollars in order that I may bleed even a small amount of resources away from the PIC/MIC.
All of this requires work, forethought, effort, and sacrifice. It’s actual resistance. Not bourgeoisie arts and crafts bullshit that legitimises the very system it claims to fight. i find it curious that your immediate response is to lean on the threat of government punishment or sanction by way of discouraging tax protest. As if resisting a totalitarian governmental system that daily inflicts lethality around the world with the blasé attitude of a highschool goth chick should just involve a few markers and some fucking trash. Resistance should not, cannot, be comfortable. You mislead your readers when you imply anything else.
Not a nerve, curiosity. And as to responding on your repost...I'm sure you support free speech and open debate.
Good for you, Dean. But not all people can go the path you have taken. Most people live in the cities, many in small apartments, not on farms where they can grow their own food and most have little to barter or swap or live in communities where much of that goes on. Some have physical or family limitations and couldn't do that side economy stuff you describe and have to work salaried jobs.
What is your plan when you are on Social Security? Perhaps you already are. The feds siphon away the federal tax before the monthly benefit goes to your bank account. Maybe refuse Social Security? What's your plan for that, or what are you doing now to keep that hard-earned cash out of the death machine?
Such a lot of words to use when what you mean to say is "I will not attack root causes or do what's actually effective; instead I will do things to feel good and virtue signal while collecting payment from Substack."
Circular firing squad indeed. If only your methods were that effective.
Quit making excuses. You're just arguing for comfort over action. Your entire point seems to be in support of minimal action with minimal disruption. Your lack of imagination is only offset by the total folly of your "resistance."
A city isn't a community? There's nothing to barter/swap/trade for folks living in apartments? You're an enabler of the soft violence of inaction.
Honestly I didn't even read that far down because I find your response flaccid and disappointingly predictable. It's not about being pure, friend. It's about being effective. You going to Staples and buying shit so you can, what, annoy some fuckin DNC mailroom flunky, is the opposite of effective.
So you mocked me on tax resistance until you found out I'm a real tax resistor. I mean, you asked me what I do and I told you. Then you attempt to undermine my resistance by marginalising it and calling it either untenable or too ideologically pure to be possible for literally anyone else.
What's your end game, Mark? Like, how do you actually see this playing out if you're actively encouraging the 99 percent of people who could really do something meaningful to instead do pretty much nothing for fear of consequence or--gasp--discomfort?
No, really, I'm interested in how you are now -- or in the future --- dealing with the Social Security tax withholding question. Given your critique of my position, it is a legitimate question and ignoring it throws a shadow across your argument. Simple question: Do you, or will you, refuse SS benefits?
I appreciate your admission that you did not read down through my whole response. Before responding, one should read through what they are attacking. I have read through each of your notes at least three times before responding and then again when you blast back to make sure I didn't miss something.
That lack of reading through my whole comment suggest you have not read other posts I have on Substack and aren't familiar with other things I have written, positions taken, actions taken and networking to others taking actions. Additionally, you would not know about my work in journalism and the mental health field working with the victims of our sick system.
While I have not gone into great detail on them in Substack, I experienced some big professional costs experienced in challenging the systemic issues that lead to such problems both within the healthcare system and political world.
Since you may well not have read through my entire post, you might want to consider the closing section of the post where I made it clear that my recommendation was a PIECE of resistance, not the only kind of resistance; it was offered as a small tool in the tool box of resistance.
Here's the closing section with a note at the end:
Now is this gonna stop the Democrats’ sponsorship of the US/Israel genocide? No, of course not.
Will extra postage bankrupt the billionaire-bought n’ funded Democrats? Nope.
Will Kamala Harris ever see my message or give a cat turd for it if she did see it? No and no.
But it is a small act of resistance and those who do see it — be it a postal worker, clerk at the processing center or the person carrying out the trash — might pause for a moment to consider, doubt and question this nation’s immoral, murderous behavior. Small messages and signs of resistance spread across daily life can have a cumulative effect in changing awareness, perception and opinion.
Daily resistance on all levels, from mass street demonstrations and voting third party down to bleeding off a few cents from the Democratic Party war machine, is important. Multiply it all by thousands — maybe eventually millions — and you have what we saw with the Vietnam and Civil Rights movement — a shift in public perception, opinion and, eventually, policy.
So, if you are getting such fundraising trash from either party, take a few minutes and stuff the pre-paid return envelopes. Cutting up macaroni boxes is a good way to get them plump and weighty. Remove your name and address from anything you cram into the envelop. Maybe get on a few Republican mailing lists to make your patriotic effort bipartisan and you can waste both party’s money coming and going.
I’m not sure, but I think if a prepaid envelope is taped atop a box filled with junk mail the recipient has to pay the postage. Or maybe an old lawn mower? But maybe not.
In the midst of such grim times, have some fun as you screw back the duopoly.
Resist wherever possible.
Or perish.
SOLIDARITY.
COMMENT: One reason the left is so miserably ineffective in this country -- to the benefit of the oligarchy -- is the left has the habit of doing circular firing squads. Rather than finding ways to unite and knit together broad approaches to resistance it goes to who is being more pure; a kind of radical wokeness. Such a self-destructive habit of the left is the oligarchy's greatest asset.
Also, to your point re: social security, I can't really say I have a response to that other than it's something to think about. Assuming the nation is solvent--let alone existing--by the time I qualify, that's a bridge I'd have to cross.
That said, I fail to see how that might "cast a shadow" over my entire argument. Unless
You perceive my argument to be that you have to solve 100% of the problem 100% of the time overnight by effectively, actually resisting in order to have a valid argument viz methods. My entire argument is that you need to actually do something effective if you want to call it resistance. Crafting ways to mimimise your contribution to the corporate state via consumerism or taxation is effective--imagine how much more so if folk with an audience would advocate for it loudly, boldly, unapologetically. Instead you're legitimising the corrupt and thoroughly bought-and-paid for political system by trolling the DNC. That's really all you're doing. Trolling. And that does literally nothing to affect the systematic virus of our polity or effect change for the oppressed both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, you marginalise someone who has engaged in actual tax resistance and offers some feedback on how he did it, and accuse him of being an artefact of the self-sabotaging left. I find that curious.
As I understand it, there is no easy way to not pay taxes on Social Security. Some states -- like mine -- don't tax SS benefits.
Did you read the last segment of the post -- the last part of my last reply?
I offered the mail idea as a small PIECE of resistance, noting that small actions can have a cumulative effect. Specifically: "Daily resistance on all levels, from mass street demonstrations and voting third party down to bleeding off a few cents from the Democratic Party war machine, is important. Multiply it all by thousands — maybe eventually millions — and you have what we saw with the Vietnam and Civil Rights movement — a shift in public perception, opinion and, eventually, policy."
To dismiss every thing I've done and written and specifically said in the excerpt above is itself trolling and just more of the pointless lefty circular firing squad stuff. If you want to have an effect consider building alliances rather than dismissing others as lackey in your own purity. That is not "curious" ... it is obvious.
I received the following email in response to this post and thought I’d share it and my reply:
“That kind of thing can only cause harm if you are too chicken to put your name in it so that both you and they can stop filling up the recycle bin in the first place. Do something useful.”
Well, let’s address the “too chicken” accusation first. I don’t include my name in the envelopes in order for the Dumbocrats to continue sending me their junk mail so I can send it back to them and have them waste money. If I was “too chicken” I wouldn’t have written and signed the post.
DUH!
Now, as to the environmental concern…
If this effort were to mean just ONE 2,000-pound American bomb weren’t dropped on Gaza, shredding and vaporizing dozens of children, sending ambulances and a school or hospital into a towering, billowing column of smoke and dust that would offset any environmental effect of this small effort to stop the genocidal US/Israel genocide by a factor of millions.
But, feel free to ride on on your moral camel. Just turn around in the saddle.
MT
I’d be proud to put my name on such an envelope!
That guy mounts with his RIGHT foot in the stirrup 😉
Actually it was a lady!
As noted, I do the anonymity because now I want them sending me that crap, so I can send it right back -- with more -- at their expense.
I’m with you, already sent a copy of code pink newsletter to at the time Biden and now Schumer campaigns, don’t know how they got my address, never being registered as democrat
Good job! I'm sure Biden and Schumer will be excited to read of the good work of Code Pink. I wonder how they get addresses. I'm sure there are companies that buy and sell mailing lists from magazines, newsletters to candidates and parties.
I exposed the most serious corruption in the history of the Democratic Party of South Africa, yet my family and I received their election ads without having supplied our cell numbers, which means they were illegally obtained. Consequently, I have to love your spirit of citizen defiance across the water.
Hey, good one, Mark!
I’m on it!
Save up those cereal boxes!!!
Great blog - thank you.
Fill those envelopes, Boris!
Brilliant! 🤣😂🤣
I just cut up the box my latest load of Friskies cat food came in. Can't wait for the next fundraiser letter! Now I look forward to such junk mail.
Good idea. I certainly would do this if I were in the USA.
Good ideas.
OMfuckinG Mark I LOVE IT!!! Can’t wait to do it myself! Why didn’t we think of this before???
But no cat food coupons puleez…it’s bad enough that the fuckin Canadians eat horses! 🤬
I love this.
The electoral college exists and U.S. presidential elections don’t have ranked-choice voting.
The US presidential election is irrelevant. It's one corporate party, the Republocrats ... the CU ... the Corporate Uniparty.
Think of voting for the lesser of two evils as a form of harm reduction.
Oh, now there's a good idea. I mean, heck, it's worked so well in the past. Right?
When it comes to two promoters and defenders of genocide, there is no "lesser evil'. They are both evil and rotted to the core. There is no greater crime than genocide.
Democrats say, "But, but, Kamala says she'll maybe kinda' sorta' possibly, maybe when she thinks of something, do some good stuff!"
Even if she were to bring us Medicare For All -- the idea she campaigned on before and has now abandoned, just like her position on banning fracking -- it would not off set genocide. Hell, even Hitler did a bunch of good stuff; brought jobs after the Great Depression and built the Autobahn and NONE of that outweighed his genocide.
None.
It's one corporate party and until people tell it to go to hell, the only change that will come is it will get worse. Our politics are dead n' done. Time for direct action: strikes; general strikes; work slow-downs; sit-ins; targeted boycotts; people in the streets; mutual aid ... telling this entirely rotted system to F-off. Anything less is doomed to failure.
People do not understand that fascism is HERE and all we can do is delay the effects here a few years while we build mutual aid. I’d prefer to try to do that NOT dodging deportation for being a “pro-Hamas radical” like the Republican Party platform calls for. We did this in 2016. We got trump. Who you may remember, was also not great for the Israel genocide situation (moving the embassy to disputed territory and naming it the capitol) while also getting Americans killed in a pandemic and through massively increased hate crimes. Also, since his election, far right governments have popped up worldwide, almost like he emboldened the fascists. What am I missing?? Oh right, trump is bffs with Bibi and has been telling him to not ceasefire for MONTHS exactly so people like you do this. I know it hurts and feels disgusting, but if you want to be able to continue helping others you need to vote for your own oxygen mask first.
Of course fascism is already here. No argument there ... and it is completely bipartisan.
Oxygen mask?
Voting Democrat -- or Republican -- is like wrapping your lips around the end of an exhaust pipe on a diesel truck and inhaling deeply.
Kamala is all about joyfully helping the Israelis to continue slaughtering defenseless refugee camps. She has said it -- no conditions on continued unlimited military aid to the ZioNazi government of Israel: Whatever they want for as long as they want it, as long as a Palestinian remains in Palestine.
She and Trump are both genociders and as such, BOTH will turn on any dissenters because, heh, that's what fascist genocidal mass murdering monsters do.
Too strong a critique?
Remember, it was Kamala who was "honored" to accept the endorsement of Dick Cheney, one of the worst fascist war criminals of all time. A criminal whose policies and initiatives continue to reverberate across the Middle East with every 2,000-lb American bomb dropped on innocents.
"Honored"... and the Democratic Party giddy about such an "honor." Tells you all you need to know about who and what today's Democrats really are.
Did Dick's endorsement brighten up your day, Jack?
The election is between 'Ass Hat A' and 'Ass Hat B'. Vote for either of them if you wish, but recognize the karma that comes with the complicity of in any way enabling continued genocide.
love it
Thinks he's resisting; still pays taxes.
This is performative AT BEST.
And what are you doing to resist the genocide? Please provide us all with your wisdom and some guidance.
What has been the reaction from the Internal Revenue Service to your announcement that you are withholding your tax payments to the death machine?
What kind of IRS hearings and audits did you have to go through not paying your taxes?
Was there a court hearing and were they willing to hear your good moral arguments against paying your taxes? What was the response of the judge?
Obviously, Dean, you have stopped paying your taxes to not fund the genocide, right? Please inform us all of your experiences with tax protest. Obviously, you have figured out how to do that. Very courageous of you. Please contact me and I'll do a Substack post on your courageous stand and we can all join you.
Unless...
Pasting my response to your same query on my restack:
Ooh! I think I touched a nerve! What’s wrong, friendo, don’t like being called out for useless performative “protest” in the name of very real human suffering? I’m sorry it stings.
BUT, assuming your query to be legitimate and from an honest place, i’ll answer:
I don’t pay federal or state income tax. I’ve worked very hard to reduce my income to be below the federal poverty level (helps that i’m a farmer, LOL) and therefore do not owe year over year. My total reportable income last year was well below the taxable threshold. This has not been easy to achieve, but it’s doable. One must fill in the gaps with barter, trade, and mutual aid. One must learn where the good food banks are. One must learn how to upcycle, recycle, and build what’s needed. One must cultivate relationships with neighbours and friends. One must build and contribute to systems of support and mutual aid and be prepared to bring something to the same table from which he wishes to eat. And i’ll add that I happily take SNAP benefits and any other federal/state “entitlement” programme dollars in order that I may bleed even a small amount of resources away from the PIC/MIC.
All of this requires work, forethought, effort, and sacrifice. It’s actual resistance. Not bourgeoisie arts and crafts bullshit that legitimises the very system it claims to fight. i find it curious that your immediate response is to lean on the threat of government punishment or sanction by way of discouraging tax protest. As if resisting a totalitarian governmental system that daily inflicts lethality around the world with the blasé attitude of a highschool goth chick should just involve a few markers and some fucking trash. Resistance should not, cannot, be comfortable. You mislead your readers when you imply anything else.
Have a better one.
Not a nerve, curiosity. And as to responding on your repost...I'm sure you support free speech and open debate.
Good for you, Dean. But not all people can go the path you have taken. Most people live in the cities, many in small apartments, not on farms where they can grow their own food and most have little to barter or swap or live in communities where much of that goes on. Some have physical or family limitations and couldn't do that side economy stuff you describe and have to work salaried jobs.
What is your plan when you are on Social Security? Perhaps you already are. The feds siphon away the federal tax before the monthly benefit goes to your bank account. Maybe refuse Social Security? What's your plan for that, or what are you doing now to keep that hard-earned cash out of the death machine?
Such a lot of words to use when what you mean to say is "I will not attack root causes or do what's actually effective; instead I will do things to feel good and virtue signal while collecting payment from Substack."
Circular firing squad indeed. If only your methods were that effective.
Quit making excuses. You're just arguing for comfort over action. Your entire point seems to be in support of minimal action with minimal disruption. Your lack of imagination is only offset by the total folly of your "resistance."
A city isn't a community? There's nothing to barter/swap/trade for folks living in apartments? You're an enabler of the soft violence of inaction.
Oh, now, someone's nerve got tickled!!!
I'm guessing it's the Social Security thing, right?
Hard being clean and pure in a dirty, imperfect world.
Honestly I didn't even read that far down because I find your response flaccid and disappointingly predictable. It's not about being pure, friend. It's about being effective. You going to Staples and buying shit so you can, what, annoy some fuckin DNC mailroom flunky, is the opposite of effective.
So you mocked me on tax resistance until you found out I'm a real tax resistor. I mean, you asked me what I do and I told you. Then you attempt to undermine my resistance by marginalising it and calling it either untenable or too ideologically pure to be possible for literally anyone else.
What's your end game, Mark? Like, how do you actually see this playing out if you're actively encouraging the 99 percent of people who could really do something meaningful to instead do pretty much nothing for fear of consequence or--gasp--discomfort?
No, really, I'm interested in how you are now -- or in the future --- dealing with the Social Security tax withholding question. Given your critique of my position, it is a legitimate question and ignoring it throws a shadow across your argument. Simple question: Do you, or will you, refuse SS benefits?
I appreciate your admission that you did not read down through my whole response. Before responding, one should read through what they are attacking. I have read through each of your notes at least three times before responding and then again when you blast back to make sure I didn't miss something.
That lack of reading through my whole comment suggest you have not read other posts I have on Substack and aren't familiar with other things I have written, positions taken, actions taken and networking to others taking actions. Additionally, you would not know about my work in journalism and the mental health field working with the victims of our sick system.
While I have not gone into great detail on them in Substack, I experienced some big professional costs experienced in challenging the systemic issues that lead to such problems both within the healthcare system and political world.
Since you may well not have read through my entire post, you might want to consider the closing section of the post where I made it clear that my recommendation was a PIECE of resistance, not the only kind of resistance; it was offered as a small tool in the tool box of resistance.
Here's the closing section with a note at the end:
Now is this gonna stop the Democrats’ sponsorship of the US/Israel genocide? No, of course not.
Will extra postage bankrupt the billionaire-bought n’ funded Democrats? Nope.
Will Kamala Harris ever see my message or give a cat turd for it if she did see it? No and no.
But it is a small act of resistance and those who do see it — be it a postal worker, clerk at the processing center or the person carrying out the trash — might pause for a moment to consider, doubt and question this nation’s immoral, murderous behavior. Small messages and signs of resistance spread across daily life can have a cumulative effect in changing awareness, perception and opinion.
Daily resistance on all levels, from mass street demonstrations and voting third party down to bleeding off a few cents from the Democratic Party war machine, is important. Multiply it all by thousands — maybe eventually millions — and you have what we saw with the Vietnam and Civil Rights movement — a shift in public perception, opinion and, eventually, policy.
So, if you are getting such fundraising trash from either party, take a few minutes and stuff the pre-paid return envelopes. Cutting up macaroni boxes is a good way to get them plump and weighty. Remove your name and address from anything you cram into the envelop. Maybe get on a few Republican mailing lists to make your patriotic effort bipartisan and you can waste both party’s money coming and going.
I’m not sure, but I think if a prepaid envelope is taped atop a box filled with junk mail the recipient has to pay the postage. Or maybe an old lawn mower? But maybe not.
In the midst of such grim times, have some fun as you screw back the duopoly.
Resist wherever possible.
Or perish.
SOLIDARITY.
COMMENT: One reason the left is so miserably ineffective in this country -- to the benefit of the oligarchy -- is the left has the habit of doing circular firing squads. Rather than finding ways to unite and knit together broad approaches to resistance it goes to who is being more pure; a kind of radical wokeness. Such a self-destructive habit of the left is the oligarchy's greatest asset.
Also, to your point re: social security, I can't really say I have a response to that other than it's something to think about. Assuming the nation is solvent--let alone existing--by the time I qualify, that's a bridge I'd have to cross.
That said, I fail to see how that might "cast a shadow" over my entire argument. Unless
You perceive my argument to be that you have to solve 100% of the problem 100% of the time overnight by effectively, actually resisting in order to have a valid argument viz methods. My entire argument is that you need to actually do something effective if you want to call it resistance. Crafting ways to mimimise your contribution to the corporate state via consumerism or taxation is effective--imagine how much more so if folk with an audience would advocate for it loudly, boldly, unapologetically. Instead you're legitimising the corrupt and thoroughly bought-and-paid for political system by trolling the DNC. That's really all you're doing. Trolling. And that does literally nothing to affect the systematic virus of our polity or effect change for the oppressed both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, you marginalise someone who has engaged in actual tax resistance and offers some feedback on how he did it, and accuse him of being an artefact of the self-sabotaging left. I find that curious.
As I understand it, there is no easy way to not pay taxes on Social Security. Some states -- like mine -- don't tax SS benefits.
Did you read the last segment of the post -- the last part of my last reply?
I offered the mail idea as a small PIECE of resistance, noting that small actions can have a cumulative effect. Specifically: "Daily resistance on all levels, from mass street demonstrations and voting third party down to bleeding off a few cents from the Democratic Party war machine, is important. Multiply it all by thousands — maybe eventually millions — and you have what we saw with the Vietnam and Civil Rights movement — a shift in public perception, opinion and, eventually, policy."
To dismiss every thing I've done and written and specifically said in the excerpt above is itself trolling and just more of the pointless lefty circular firing squad stuff. If you want to have an effect consider building alliances rather than dismissing others as lackey in your own purity. That is not "curious" ... it is obvious.
I love it!