An article, a couple of weeks ago, by Joan Whitely at the Las Vegas Journal-Review told of a business that made use of a bit of a loop-hole (at best) in tax law regarding payment of their contractors (employees?). Essentially, they violated the spirit of the law by paying their people (employees, contractors, whatever) in gold or silver coins, of the US mint. So what? It's real money, right? But the catch is that the noted dollar value has since multiplied several times in today's inflated, fiat-based dollar value. So the employers reported the face value of the coins regarding taxation, whereas those paid received current-day dollar values much higher than the face value would lead one to believe.
Oh, horror! (Never mind the practices of the Fed have opened up the staggering difference between minted face value and comparative "paper" dollar values found today.)
So, that's enough of a story right there. The feds are prosecuting for "tax evasion, tax fraud, and criminal conspiracy" (a bit harsh).
It turns out, the Las Vegas Journal-Review has an area where readers can comment on the article. This is where it gets spooky, as author Thomas Mitchell writes:
Can you believe that? Off-hand comments and rantings in the comments section of a news article are being subpoenaed by a federal grand jury? Really? Welcome to our brave, new world, folks. Apparently what we're endowed by our Creator, is revocable by mere mortal.This past week the newspaper was served with a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office demanding that we turn over all records pertaining to those postings, including "full name, date of birth, physical address, gender, ZIP code, password prompts, security questions, telephone numbers and other identifiers ... the IP address," et (kitchen sink) cetera.
Tantamount to killing a gnat with an A-bomb.
There was no indication what they were looking for or what crime, if any, was being investigated, just a blanket subpoena for voluminous and detailed records on every private citizen who dared to speak about a federal tax case.
Yep, I anticipated something like this happening here--someday.
In contrast, I never really expected a lecture on the nature of freedom from ex-leadership personnel from ex-USSR. And yet, we have a fine article to that effect today by none other than Mikhail Gorbachev--calling, essentially, for a second American revolution in the spirit of perestroika. Wow.
I guess I've got my surprise quota for the day.
1 comment:
I don't even know what to do with the discouraging immorality and fly-in-your-face killing of the constitutional rights of our present corrupt government. The news sucks. The governement sucks. Everything points to socialistic, communistic captivity and a total loss of freedom--which is only a reflection of what the people of this nation want. All governements are bound to corruption and corrosion and failure b/c we are a lost people who are bent on rebellion. If we look to our present, sad circumstances of the state of our union and stop there, we will become discouraged. And on your most recent article you even pointed to flawed reporting from the right--where Rachel exaggerated (and twisted?) the facts. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. There is a lot of hate getting spewed around right now, and a lot of theft, corruption, greed.
If it came to a revolution...do you see anyone worthy of joining sides with? Do you see a leader you would join forces with? Unless Sarah Palin heads it up, which doesn't seem probable, I see nobody to follow. So perhaps we will revolt, but I do not believe America is in any condition to survive a revolution--because it would be spurred by hate and not moral fiber.
So we look up. In Chronicles the Israelite army is doomed and the author says, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You."
Perhaps a worthy leader will emerge. Perhaps He already has and it is time for us to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions. We are accountable. Our nation is lost. The only hope is up.
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