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Irwin Schiff, R.I.P.

October 24, 2015 by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism)

This past week, we had news that Irwin Schiff passed away on October 16. Schiff was a U.S. veteran, author, heroic income-tax protestor and, sadly, a U.S. political prisoner.

photo of Irwin Schiff
Irwin Schiff, 1928-2015

Big Government advocates will sometimes claim that the U.S. tax system is voluntary. They say it because they want to deny the obvious: that government is force (by its nature, it operates by forcing people against their will) – and that, as advocates of Big Government, they do basically want a dictatorial, regimented society.

I’ve seen lefties making the “voluntary” claim in GP comments. But as a stronger example, here is Democrat leader Harry Reid saying, “Our system of government is a voluntary tax system…We have a voluntary system.” Because, says Reid, if you don’t pay taxes in the U.S., “You don’t go to jail.”

That “voluntary” claim is nonsense, in practice. Some people, such as Eric Garner in 2014, are hounded by the police for selling untaxed cigarettes and then fatally assaulted by the police. Others like Gilbert Hyatt may be hounded by State authorities for decades, although they paid all taxes in full. Others like perceived Tea Party groups may be blocked (silenced) by the IRS for their political beliefs, before they could even have a chance to file tax reports.

And those who refuse to pay income taxes due to their outspoken moral and constitutional principles, such as Irwin Schiff, are jailed – and then forced to die in jail from untreated cancer. So much for the U.S. system being “voluntary”. You can be a conscientious objector to the draft! But not to the federal income tax.

I could try to tell more of Irwin Schiff’s story, but Peter Schiff does it best in his article, Death of a Patriot. Read the whole thing.

And consider downloading and reading Irwin Schiff’s last book, The Federal Mafia: How the Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes. It’s free.

It’s free because, during Schiff’s lifetime, the government enjoined him from selling it. That makes it a banned book; indeed, it’s supposed to be the only book banned in the U.S. in the last 50 years (other than libel cases).

The book also claims that the U.S. income tax system is voluntary. I must suggest that Mr. Schiff’s own experience shows that, as a practical matter, he was mistaken about that. But he covers the history of the income tax in the U.S. and the IRS’ own use of the word “voluntary”. As such, Schiff may well have been right about the underlying Constitutional principle, or what *should theoretically* be true under the U.S. Constitution (which today’s U.S. government flouts in many ways).

Anyway, the book’s unusual ban, and Schiff’s cruel death in federal prison, should tell you something about our government’s true priorities. Hint: It’s much more to do with protecting the government’s power and jobs, than protecting or serving you.

Filed Under: Constitutional Issues, Free Speech, Freedom, Government Accountability & Ethics, Harry Reid - FAIL, IRS/Tea Party Scandal Tagged With: banned books, Constitutional Issues, Free Speech, freedom, Government Accountability & Ethics, Harry Reid - FAIL, IRS, IRS/Tea Party Scandal, irwin schiff, tax protest

The Taxman cometh to Bitcoin

March 25, 2014 by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism)

Since Bitcoin came up recently in a GP thread, I thought I’d note that the IRS has just ruled it is property (not currency).

This means that, in the eyes of the IRS, every Bitcoin transaction is a property-for-property barter. If you’re paying Bitcoin, for example, then you must figure out its worth in dollars on the day you paid it, and pay the appropriate capital gains tax (if your Bitcoin had a gain, measured in dollars).

Bitcoin is NOT crashing on this news, but I believe that it will kill Bitcoin over time – to the extent that the IRS enforces it. The record-keeping alone will be an onerous burden for anyone who uses Bitcoin often. The main reason any alternative-currency scheme works is because it lets people escape painful tax burdens. When there’s no escape, then…

Filed Under: Economy, Technology Tagged With: bitcoin, Economy, IRS

Potluck

March 11, 2014 by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism)

These items have been all over, and deserve to be noticed here at GayPatriot.

Liberal bias, in media & academia? Why, yes.

  • Sharyl Attkisson, the Fast and Furious investigative reporter, found out that her bosses at CBS only loved her when her reporting supported Democrat narratives.
  • Juan Williams recently asked out loud, “why do liberals have so much hate for black conservatives?”

More people seeing that the Emperor Has No Clothes? Thankfully, yes.

  • Obama is under water on the Ukraine crisis. 42% approve his handling, 43% disapprove.
  • While a bipartisan majority support sanctions against Russia, they’re mainly older people, because younger people say no. Among the Obama-voting 35-and-under, 55% are against it.

IRS / Tea Party scandal as real as ever? Yup.

  • Great, daily coverage at TaxProf Blog.
  • Yes, Lerner targeted the Tea Party, and even what she called “organizations woven by the fabulously rich and hugely influential Koch brothers”. More Koch Derangement Syndrome. Some people are on too much Koch!
  • Lerner continued last week to plead the 5th. The IRS will give up all her emails, supposedly; I put it that way because enough time has passed that only God knows what they may have scrubbed.

FROM THE (OTHER) COMMENTS: In the other Koch Derangement Syndrome thread, some fine comments are relevant here.

  • runningrn says “The Koch brothers didn’t even crack the top 10 when it came to the top political donors. In fact they are way the heck down the list at number 59…The 6 biggest union donors in American politics gave 15 times more to mostly Democrats…”
  • And Annie gives us the WSJ link.

One should ask why the IRS doesn’t target all that union money? Or target, to coin a phrase, “organizations woven by the fabulously rich and hugely influential George Soros”?

AND SOME FOLLOW-UPS:

  • Rep. Alan Grayson (D – FL) won’t be charged after allegations that he physically abused his wife. GP talked about it here. The video evidence – which was incomplete (having gaps in it) – did not support Lolita Carson-Grayson’s story. Nonetheless, a judge granted her a restraining order against Rep. Grayson. We’re still waiting for the new feminist campaign, “I BELIEVE YOU, LOLITA!”
  • Gary Lyngar answers his son, who had made a splash by claiming “I lost my dad to Fox News”. Hint: The son was about as real and honest with us as you’d expect from a writer who whines about his parent’s politics. As the elder Mr. Lyngar puts it, his son was “dead wrong” and “a lot of it’s his perception of what’s going on and not reality”.

Filed Under: Democratic Scandals, Democrats & Double Standards, Fast and Furious, FDS (Fox Derangement Syndrome), IRS/Tea Party Scandal, KIDS (Koch Industries Derangement Syndrome), Media Bias, Misrepresenting the Right, National Security, Obama Incompetence Tagged With: alan grayson, Democratic scandals, Democrats & Double Standards, Fast and Furious, fox news, gary lyngar, IRS, IRS/Tea Party Scandal, juan williams, KIDS (Koch Industries Derangement Syndrome), lois lerner, media bias, Misrepresenting Republicans, National Security, Obama Incompetence, sharyl attkisson, ukraine crisis

Chez Obama: The fun never stops

June 5, 2013 by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism)

I know some of you are up-to-the-minute newshounds, while others are slower to the mark, like me. Once more, I’m playing catch-up on the last few days and shocked at how bad it is. Here’s my summary, for anyone else who might be “behind” like me.

On the IRS / Tea Party scandal, and mostly via HotAir:

  • May 31 – IRS admits to Congress that as many as 88 employees may have been involved, in some documented way, with activities to target conservatives. Remember, the IRS previously said “a few low-level employees”.
  • June 2 – Was the targeting deliberate and political? The “low-level employees” are testifying that it was.
  • June 3 – But are they willing to say who ordered the targeting? No, they aren’t. (Fear of retribution? Or the classic culture of underlings who protect corrupt superiors?)
  • June 4 – A Tea Party activist shows her face as an IRS victim. Her facts start at 1:20.
  • Likewise a pro-life activist, who the IRS demanded to not engage in peaceful, lawful protests of Planned Parenthood.
  • Did the IRS contribute to intimidation of conservative donors by illegally leaking their names? Seems that way. There’s an HRC, gay-marriage twist in it. Some detail appeared earlier here.
  • Yet friendly Rep. Jim McDermott (D) manages to blame the victims.

Over in the Obama DOJ’s spy-on-the-media scandal, AG Holder is pleading a technicality to get out of a perjury charge, as I thought he might.

But hey – At least a low-level (for real) Federal worker who committed fraud, got some just desserts.

Please feel free to add more stuff that I should be noticing, in the comments!

UPDATE: McDermott, still at it, wonders aloud if yesterday’s committee witnesses might have lied. At 3:21 he says, “People can say anything, and they do, before committees. But the fact is, we don’t know [it] to be true.”

And at MSNBC, Martin Bashir plays the RAYYYSIST! card. He calls the reaction against the IRS abuses part of, in his words, “the war against the black man in the White House.”

How low can these people go? I need something uplifting, now. Here it is, via Ace and The Right Scoop: Becky Gerritson reminding us what the Tea Party is about.

Filed Under: Democratic Scandals, Dishonest Democrats, Gay Marriage, IRS/Tea Party Scandal, Mean-spirited leftists, Media Bias, Tea Party Tagged With: Democratic scandals, dishonest democrats, Eric Holder, gay marriage, hrc, IRS, IRS/Tea Party Scandal, planned parenthood, Tea Party

The Changing IRS Scandal Timeline….by The White House

May 20, 2013 by GayPatriot

From Politico:

The White House on Monday once again added to the list of people who knew about the IRS investigation into its targeting of conservative groups — saying White House chief of staff Denis McDonough had been informed about a month ago.

Press secretary Jay Carney said again that no one had told President Barack Obama ahead of the first news reports: not his top aide McDonough, nor his chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler, nor anyone from the Treasury Department.

Monday’s revelation amounts to the fifth iteration of the Obama administration’s account of events, after initially saying that the White House had first learned of the controversy from the press.

Various folks that I follow on Twitter have asked important questions over the past few days such as this one:

I want to know the names of the folks who get to decide what Obama doesn’t need to know. What are their credentials? Who elected them?

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) May 20, 2013

If Obama Doesn’t Know What Going On, Who’s Running This Administration? bit.ly/19VEQFr

— Duane Lester (@Bodhi1) May 20, 2013

And my observations regarding the multi-scandals now enveloping our supposed brilliant and awesome President?

Obama had time to get personally involved with @sandrafluke‘s birth control obsession, but not #Benghazi or #IRSabuse. Got it.

— GayPatriot (@GayPatriot) May 20, 2013

 

Filed Under: Democratic Dirty Tricks, Democratic Scandals, Obama Dividing Us Tagged With: Barack Obama, Benghazi / Libya crisis, IRS, scandal

Jesus, on tax collectors

May 19, 2013 by Jeff (ILoveCapitalism)

With apologies to the GayPatriot blog’s many Jewish friends and to its many “secular conservative” atheist/agnostic friends.

My only comment on the following material shall be this summary: It seems that Jesus took note of who was a tax collector and was willing to forgive them, on the premise that they were sinners who obviously needed to repent of their many crimes against their fellow man.

Matthew 9:9-13, English Standard Version (ESV), Jesus Calls Matthew

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

10 And as Jesus[a] reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 15:1-32, English Standard Version (ESV), The Parable of the Lost Sheep [Read more…]

Filed Under: Democratic Scandals, Faith, Government Accountability & Ethics, IRS/Tea Party Scandal Tagged With: IRS, Jesus, taxes

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