I would expect Harvard to challenge this ASAP. And I expect they will win.
I do, too. So does the Maddowblog.
I am not as sanguine about this. “Winning” means not only that Harvard is in the right, but also that the people in charge of granting the visas will actually grant the visas.
Canada reduced the number of students visas across the board a couple of years ago, and while the universities were unhappy about it, there was really nothing to be done. That wasn’t targeting a single, private institution, so it’s not the same, but it was a reminder that the federal government has to do its part in order to allow foreign students to attend.
I want Hahvahd to win not because I care about how many foreign students they get, because I don’t, but because the fucking orange menace regime is blocking them because dear leader is a weak piss baby, and this is all about punishing his enemies.
There’s an article in the Guardian about Russian troop increases on the Finnish border. I guess Putin wants to fight the Winter War but in Summer this time.
Yet there is a quote from Fatass;
Responding to Russia’s changing activities, Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday he was “not worried about it at all”, adding that Finland and Norway were “going to be very safe”.
So Finland (and who told him of the small border with Norway?) are thus fucked.
As I understand it, to a large degree modern “journalism” consists of just repeating the public relations release of whomever they are “investigating”. It’s cheaper that way.
I don’t understand what benefit they see in a visit to the Oval with Trump and Vance ready to tag-team all of them, including Starmer who never would have even made it through law school if he had Trump’s intelligence or accent.
Wow. He really doesn’t like fucking foreigners. Except, oddly enough, when he’s fucking foreigners.*
*Cribbed from a line in, IIRC, Crucifer of Blood.
Not in the corporate media, for sure. I caught part of a conversation with Chuck Todd on the radio today. He was saying reporters are running scared, being warned off stories that Trump wouldn’t like, and that capitulation and self-censorship are widespread in news organizations.
He thinks that because he believes everything that Putin tells him. And they just had a long phone conversation.
I’d love for Harvard to say “Do your worst. We’ll just wait 4 years for when a sane president repeals everything you’ve done. We’ve got enough billions in the bank to tide us over.”
From the Fifth Estate to the Fifth Column.
The felon’s big beautiful bill will cancel almost one million jobs.
And check out that last sentence. Leopards, do your thing!
Here’s a fun read about the big beautiful bullshit and Trump’s reneging on yet another promise.
Of course I was aware of the felon’s inane promise regarding tip income, but somehow I missed the bit about overtime pay. Making overtime pay exempt from income tax is right down there in the stupidity bucket with not taxing tip income. The staggered pay tier (time, time and a half, double time) exist so employers face a cost when forcing employees to work overtime (and let’s not pretend all overtime work is voluntary). Removing the income tax on overtime pay also creates new problems, such as in recording and reporting the income.
Another fun fact is this inane bill is federal. That means state income taxes will still apply if the filer is resident in a state which does have income taxes (that’s the vast majority of the country). And, of course, the state deduction for tax paid to the feds will be lower.
And how do you think the person who took the video felt about the felon waving it around like a perv in a teen beauty pageant dressign room?
When will this absurdity end?
Luckily, some very wise men once sung the praises of Finland, along with some concerns, around 50 years ago.
Does anybody know the nere-do-well from the Biden administration who left the White House taking the Sit. Room’s atlas?
The Sit Room’s Atlas? That’s the tacky gold leaf statue holding up the felon’s toilet, isn’t it?
On the change in the law to stop taxing overtime…
What’s to stop employers renegotiating workers’ contracts so they are all on zero hours, or say a token one hour a week if zero hours isn’t a thing in the US (I’ve no idea), with all other work being classed as overtime? Pay them less gross (because no tax), so the employer saves money, and the workers take home everything (maybe less one hour) tax free? Perhaps at a new hourly rate that slightly favours them in terms of their take home pay, so they are happy to sign the new contract. Everyone’s a winner. Except the US tax office. Am I missing something? That seems very stupid.
Not American, I see. Yes, you are missing a lot.
Assuming other laws hold, which I guess we should do for now, though that seems a bit naive…
While many US employees are on explicit contracts, many do not have an explicit employee contract in the manner you assume. The idea of “signing a new contract” would be bizarre to the average employee of a Wal-Mart or a fast food restaurant. Actually, I have a pretty good professional job and don’t have one in that sense, though my counterparts in our offices overseas absolutely do.
More than that, not every employee is even eligible for overtime in the first place, i.e. if you make too much (which is not that big a number, to be honest) you don’t have to be paid overtime at all or for any extra hours at all, i.e. the idea of getting paid extra for working more than 40 hours a week would be laughable to just about every American on a salary rather than paid hourly. Overtime itself is defined in a particular way in US employment law, so an employer can’t just redefine that. Generally if you work less than 40 hours a week (and many employers prefer to have more “part time” employees than “full time”), you don’t qualify for overtime at all.
And overtime pay is 1.5x base pay. So, it costs employers more money to have employees work overtime at no benefit to themselves (there’s a LOT of overtime abuse where employees are essentially made to work undeclared hours without the 1.5x pay).
And that’s just off the top of my head. The more I consider it, the more wrong your post seems. That’s not meant to be a knock on your intelligence at all, but at the same time, it’s very clear you are almost entirely unfamiliar with how employment works in the US, either in theory or in practice, which can be very different from each other.
Ahhh, if the tax is only eliminated for the bonus pay, the extra 50%, then it would be pretty hard to game. If on the other hand any hours at all over 40 aren’t taxed, even if you don’t get time and a half, it would be easier to game, at least on the margins. You could cluster one or two days on the margins of each week to make a longer, overtime, week, bumping up against two smaller weeks.
He’s putting out some crazy Truths this morning. And with the EV sales credit going away, the expensive annual federal fee for EVs and hybrids, and his dream of doing away with wind energy and drill, baby, drill, the right is truly trying to watch the earth burn.
I decided to not link to his three deranged Truths. The first says the EU is big, meanie poopieheads so they get 25% tariffs. 2nd says Tim Apple better build his iphones in the US but if they come from India, 25% tariff. The third says he loves UK but they need to get rid of their windmills and start drilling for oil