Move To Canada? Help Design My Sign? Save The IRS? June 2, 2025 If you can find a few minutes, watch Tim Snyder explaining why he moved to Canada. Last Year’s Move to Toronto It’s not what I thought — and a completely absorbing call to action. And, boy, do we ever need action! Speaking of which, where are you protesting June 14? The same day Trump is throwing a military parade for his birthday, with tanks in the streets. (Did you watch yesterday’s 90-second clip?) Here are your choices. They’re everywhere — but none is yet set for the little gay beach community I can’t bear to leave in the summer. (Patriotism has its limits.) So I may organize my own. The theme of the June 14 protests, as you probably know, is NO KINGS. The obvious protest sign for my community would be: “NO KINGS (Just Queens).” But I’m one of those gays not comfortable being called a queen — no disrespect to the vast majority of gays who are less uptight — so in case you can think of a good alterative, let me know! Alabama Al: Regarding the upcoming parade, and that clip you posted, I’m looking forward to three things: 1) Watching how badly tanks and other heave equipment will tear up Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. The surfaces of the venues in Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, and other sites where grandiose military parades are held, are specially constructed to handle such stress. None of the streets in D.C. are. It may cost as much to repair the streets as the cost of the parade itself. 2) Watching how well American military units march. In countries that do regularly stage military parades, if the soldiers marching look particularly sharp and precise it’s because the military units you see are specialty units that do nothing but train for these parades. Though there are a number of small ceremonial units, the American military generally see their personnel as having better things to do than parade down streets. Don’t expect soldiers who may not have marched in formation since basic training to be precisely in lockstep. 3) Seeing whether Trump wears his “Commander-In-Chief” uniform. During Trump 1.0, he talked about having one designed, but was apparently dissuaded. He may be foolish enough to actually wear one this go around. → Thanks, Al! Another “headline that says it all,” added to yesterday’s. From FactCheck.org: RFK Jr. Denies Cuts to Scientific Research While Slashing Staff, Funding And finally, this message from the Patriotic Millionaires (whose ranks you should consider joining, if one of our crazy speculations hits): Stop Trump’s pick for IRS Commissioner! After a slew of Interim Commissioners leading the IRS in just four short months, Trump has officially nominated someone to be the permanent Commissioner: former Congressman Billy Long. While he was a member of Congress, Long sponsored legislation that would have abolished the IRS and instituted a 30% consumption tax instead. This would remove taxes such as the federal income tax, all while letting millionaires like us off the hook and taxing working people into (or further into) poverty.1 Since he retired from Congress, Long has used his connections to enrich himself by exploiting a tax loophole commonly known as a “magnet for fraud.” He encouraged businesses to apply for the pandemic-era Employee Retention Tax Credit in exchange for a portion of the refund received by the company.2 Since his nomination to lead the agency was announced, we’ve seen several individuals who benefited from Long’s tax schemes donate to Long’s failed U.S. Senate campaign. In doing so, they are helping him pay himself back $130,000 that he’d previously lent his campaign years before.3 This is corruption in plain sight. The Senate could vote on Long’s nomination as early as next week. Click here to send a message to your senators demanding they reject Billy Long as the next IRS Commissioner. SEND A MESSAGE If confirmed, Long puts at risk all of the progress the IRS has made in serving working people and businesses, and in cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. If you ran a business, particularly a struggling one, would you ever fire your accounts receivable department? No. It would be the last department you would cut. But with Long heading the IRS, there’s a strong likelihood he will fire auditors or reassign them to other roles. He’s one of the lawmakers who continuously hacked at the IRS budget while in Congress. If he’s tasked with leading the agency, he’ll be sure to look after his wealthy friends and donors, because he doesn’t want them to get taxed and audited. During the last year of Trump’s first term—2020—households earning $1 million or more were audited at a lower rate than low-income households receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit.4 In contrast, during the Biden Administration and under the leadership of the most recent Senate-confirmed IRS Commissioner, Danny Werfel, the IRS hired more staff, allowing it to begin audits on 60 major corporations with over $500 billion in profits and notify Microsoft that it owed $29 billion in back taxes.5 The IRS also recovered over $1.3 billion from millionaire tax cheats in less than a year.6 Recent moves from the Trump administration, coupled with the president’s nomination of Billy Long who wants to abolish the agency, demonstrate a mutual desire to allow their tax-cheating friends and donors to continue avoiding taxes with impunity. The Senate must reject this nomination. Join us in calling on the Senate to vote against Billy Long’s nomination for IRS Commissioner. 1 He Promised Huge Tax Refunds. Now Trump Wants Him to Lead the I.R.S. 2 He Promised Huge Tax Refunds. Now Trump Wants Him to Lead the I.R.S. 3 Trump IRS Pick Was Just Enriched By Tax Schemers 4 New Analysis Shows Trump-Era IRS Audited Low-Income Workers at a Higher Rate Than Millionaires 5 IRS Investment Update: Business Account Launches, Noncompliant US Subsidiaries Targeted 6 IRS says it has recovered $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from rich Americans → My only quibble is the use of “tax cheats” as a blanket term for all the millionaires from whom audits produced that $1.3 billion. Some surely were cheats. But some underpayment surely resulted from simple error (the tax code is complicated!) and some because the IRS insisted on its interpretation in a gray area as opposed to the taxpayer’s accountant’s interpretation (the tax code has gray areas!). That said: hurray for the IRS. It needs to be strengthened, not weakened — and appreciated for the vital work it does. Have a great day. Happy Pride.