Author: Lance Garrison
I recently learned how big of a scam taxes in America are, not the actual tax rate, but how we actually pay our taxes, all of this. In countries like the Netherlands or Japan or New Zealand, none of this exists. Like if you search how to pay your taxes in Estonia, you get a video that is less than three minutes long. “Should be all fine. So let’s confirm. Submit.” What? How does this exist? These are places where the government operates a free — “Free.” “Free.” — internet portal where the citizens can pay their taxes. Meanwhile, here…
With Donald Trump seemingly unstoppable in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the law professor Mary Ziegler considers what a second Trump term would mean for abortion rights. In this audio essay, she argues that while Trump may seem indifferent on the campaign trail to tightening abortion laws, there is a real possibility that if re-elected he will seek to appease his base by using his executive power to ban abortions nationwide.(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication, and can be found in the audio player above.)The Times is committed to…
The Electoral College is the reason we choose the president in 50 separate state elections and not in a single national election. What this means, in practice, is that it is not enough for a third-party candidate to have a large national constituency. That candidate could win a lot of votes — as Martin Van Buren accomplished in 1848 under the banner of “Free Soil,” as John Anderson did in 1980, and as Perot managed to do twice, in 1992 and 1996 — but would have a hard time winning electors.Instead, to have any hope of fulfilling the constitutional requirement…
This is a critical week for Pakistanis. On Thursday, we will vote in nationwide federal and provincial elections with the future of our democracy in question. We are not the only country facing such a moment this year. National elections will be held in more than 60 countries, which account for nearly half the global population.But I suspect that millions of voters around the world are, like me, wondering whether they even believe in the promise of democracy anymore. Pakistan has never been able to get it right; next door in India, the world’s biggest democracy, elections a couple of…
Modern nations can’t — practically or politically — have open borders, which allow anyone who chooses to immigrate.The good news is that America doesn’t have open borders, and there is no significant faction in our politics saying we should. In fact, immigrating to the United States legally is fairly difficult.The bad news is that we’re having a hard time enforcing the rules on immigration, mainly because the relevant government agencies don’t have sufficient resources. And right now, the reason they don’t have those resources is that many Republicans in Congress, while fulminating about a border crisis, appear determined to deny…
An operating room. Surgeons around a table. On it, a stainless steel bucket with something bloody inside. A step or two back, a man in a yellow gown, his brow furrowed and his arms behind his back.The object in the bucket is a kidney that is being transplanted from one person to another. The man in the yellow gown is Alvin Roth — a doctor, but of operations research, not medicine — and he is keeping his hands out of sight to make sure nobody tries to hand him anything. (Such as the kidney.)Roth shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in…
Feb. 5, 2024 – “Beep — Beep – Beep”: Your alarm clock signals that it’s time to slip on your workout clothes and head to the gym. You’re trying to muster the motivation to get up so your pricey gym membership doesn’t go to waste, like it really did last year. Day after day, adults and young people alike find themselves in this scenario. Scheduled exercise seems to fall by the wayside after a few months, weeks, or even days.According to a recent Forbes Health study, about half (48%) of Americans had fitness-centered 2024 new year’s resolutions. But the study also found…
To the Editor:Jessica Bennett’s compelling essay “The Audacity of E. Jean Carroll” (Opinion, Feb. 4) vividly captures the events in that New York courtroom last month.It is truly astonishing to me, even in the wake of the verdict, that the former president continues to command a substantial base of support, especially among women of all ages. I find it perplexing how women of integrity can seemingly compartmentalize his abhorrent behavior and still cast their ballots for a notorious womanizer.What’s even more disturbing is his public trashing, maligning and dehumanizing of anyone who dares to hold him accountable. Remarkably, the women…
I believe this is happening for two reasons: First, I’m embracing a theory in the world of social networking known as “preferential attachment”: The tendency for the rich to get richer applies not only to money, but also to the ability of the well connected to garner more attention. Second, I believe that vast wealth uniquely insulates the rich from the consequences of their speech. All gas, no brakes.The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision — which declared that political spending is a protected form of free speech — started as a legal judgment, but is slowly becoming a cultural…
The “pick a woman” theory also runs counter to the fact that politics is not about biology, or even chemistry, but about math and science. Indeed, Mr. Trump beat Mrs. Clinton in 2016, snatching from her the all but certain title “first female president of the United States” while a majority of voters were women. While some Republicans worry about a gender gap in November and understandably think a female vice president could help attract more women voters, I don’t disagree, but also see it differently for two reasons: Mr. Biden has his own problem with male voters, and a…