Yep, that's exactly right. De Minimis was intended to prevent people from shipping stuff back from vacation or family from paying taxes twice. These companies exploit that loophole to avoid the standard customs and imports procedures retailers normally go through. The Biden admin is currently looking to lower the De Minimis for that reason.
Not OC, but I don't doubt it. I've seen several people strapped with guns walking around their suburban home in my very red state. I saw a guy with a pistol clipped to his gym shorts getting the mail once, just dangling around, falling lower with every step. 2A bros are terrified of everything and panic without an emotional support weapon
Yes, same with Temu and Tic Tok Shop. Air shipping individual packages lets them fall under the De Minimis exemption in the US and hide from import taxes or nosey slave labor watchdogs.
That's not fair! The longest shutdown in US history was under Trump when GOP had full control of the government. They'll happily obstruct themselves too.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%932019_United_States_federal_government_shutdown
I don't think my fellow Americans are fond of money in politics, we've just come to understand that's a major factor in our elections. It's similar to how European election campaigns span weeks while the US's are months to years.
One sort of positive change I've noticed in the past few cycles are campaigns boasting the average donation size. Don't get me wrong, rich people throwing money at each other is still a factor. But at least our candidates that align closer to the average constituent can show that their average constituent is primarily funding the campaign.
Al Jazeera reported these numbers last week showing donations received since Biden dropped out in July: Small donors are defined as those contributing less than $200. Kamala Harris $209,442,720 Donald Trump $83,467,443
Looks like they are still very good. I have the C1 which is still made in Germany. I wouldn't buy a model made in China, regardless of manufacturer, but to each their own.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/1cban91/miele_vacuum_worth_the_cost/
https://www.rtings.com/vacuum/reviews/miele
The biggest knock Rtings has us the cost of operation (filter and bag replacements) but you can get reusable options for both. I have two very sheddy dogs and one reusable bag has worked fine as long as I've owned the vacuum.
Advice for any purchase really that I learned far to late, cheap is expensive. A $400 vacuum that is made well, repairable, and will run for 20+ years is better than a new $120 vacuum every 5 years.
I got a Miele a few years ago and love it it's a little pricy, but they are well made and have good warranties. A vacuum repair person recommended the brand to me saying that when they do finally break, they are much easier repair.
I'm all for banning it. But let's take an honest look at the election predictions and notice PA will almost certainly be the deciding state in November. Eastern PA is solid blue, so the election effectively comes down to Western PA, where fracking is a single issue vote.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. We have a two party system and that's not going away in 2 months. She can say she'll ban it and Trump wins PA, or she can reverse course, opt for greater regulation, and have a chance to be the most climate forward president in US history.
In 2024, the DOJ has collected over a billion dollars in plea agreements across 3 of the 6 cases brought. The other 3 appear to be unsettled.
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/related-enforcement-actions-2024
You're absolutely right, it's absurd and that's the point. For the GOP court to say the FTC can do that, they will expect Congress to pass a law saying "the FTC has the authority to ban non-compete agreements of every kind" but that's dumb and defeats the purpose of executive agencies, we agree. But that's the point. Congress will rarely if ever be that specific, so anyone can argue a law is not what they meant and the agencies have no deference.
The end goal is agencies are powerless and Congress is paralyzed, so the judiciary has all of the authority to decide what everything means.
Just the begining after striking down Chevron Deference. Sure, common sense says that is well within the purview of the FTC granted by Congress. But now, without chevron in place, the court is going to say anything that is not word for word directed by congress, is outside of an agency's jurisdiction.
This is one nice thing about a former president running again, we can see what kind of president they will be and....yea, he'd do that, because he kind of already did that, several times.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/05/coronavirus-trump-says-blue-state-bailouts-unfair-to-republicans.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-is-hardball-trump-and-republicans-bolster-red-states-punish-blue/2017/09/25/e114cea4-9ef5-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html