America’s Politicized Tax Enforcement Is a Harbinger of Decline

Victor Davis Hanson

 

. . . "Al Sharpton is again prominently in the news, blaming various groups for the Baltimore unrest. But Sharpton currently owes the U.S. government more than $3 million in back taxes, according to reports. His excuses have ranged from insufficient funds to pay them to sloppy record-keeping and mysterious fires.

"Sharpton, a frequent White House guest, apparently assumes that his community-organizing provides him political exemption from federal tax law. He seems to be right, at least as long as the current administration is in power.

"The Clinton Foundation is expected to refile its tax returns for 2010, 2011, and 2012 after failing to separate government grants from donations. If an average citizen tried to amend his taxes for such huge sums and from that long ago, he would probably be under indictment.

"News reports of undocumented donations from foreign governments caught the foundation underreporting its income. The well-connected Clinton clan apparently had assumed that their political status ensured them immunity.

"In the current political landscape, ideology also offers cover for tax noncompliance. Two of the most liberal talking heads at the MSNBC cable news network, Touré Neblett and Melissa Harris-Perry, known for their advocacy of higher tax rates on the affluent, turn out to be both quite well off and quite unwilling to pay their fair share of taxes. Reports indicate that Neblett and Harris-Perry both owe more than $50,000 in delinquent taxes." . . .

 

. . . 
 "Increasingly in the United States, the degree to which a law is enforced — or whether a person is indicted — depends on political considerations. But when citizens do not pay any income taxes, or choose not to pay taxes that they owe and expect impunity, a complex society unwinds.

"And when the law has becomes negotiable, civilization utterly collapses."

 

True Liberalism vs. Political Correctness

I have a cherished 1945 Boy Scout Handbook, passed on to me by a cousin who was once a West Point cadet. Here are two pages encouraging boys to be role models and exemplary citizens of their country.
I would ask if any out there think of this liberal standard encouraged here as being a "war on women"?

Next, are these qualities shown below considered offensive by anyone, and why?

Just asking. 
The Tunnel Dweller.

Angry, old white men?

http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/hillary-the-baggage-lady/

Garland shooting: Some people are sheep, others wolves. Then there are the sheepdogs...

Free Fire Zone- Kudos to the Texas Sheepdog

We call jihadis like the ones who attacked in Garland Texas Known Wolves. They were on the radar screen and somehow we failed to stop them from making their attack. But one member of our law enforcement community who didn’t fail is the officer who put down these two rabid dogs in the parking lot. His courage under fire saved countless lives and we salute him for his valiant efforts.

We call officers like him , and the many other police, fire, first responders and military personnel, who protect the rest of us, sheepdogs. They battle the wolves so that we don’t have to. This officer is a fine example of the breed. In the face of two Islamist fanatics wearing body armor and charging while firing AK 47s, he remained calm and killed them both.

So from all of us who sleep safe in our beds because rough men (and women) like you are standing watch, thank you Sir

 

Obama Sent 3 Officials to Criminal Freddie Gray’s Funeral – No One to NYPD Officer Brian Moore’s Funeral

The Gateway Pundit Friday, May 8, 2015, 8:59 AM
"Officer Brian Moore’s funeral is this morning in New York City.
Moore was shot in the head by a felon.

 "Obama sent three White House officials to criminal Freddie Gray’s funeral. How many should we expect for decorated Officer Moore’s, murdered by a criminal? CNN reported:

The White House sent Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, chair of the Obama administration’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force; Heather Foster, an adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement; and Elias Alcantara from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Gray also had a history of run-ins with the law. According to court documents CNN obtained, there were more than 20 criminal court cases in Maryland against Gray, and five of those cases were still active at the time of his death.

"The Obama White House sent three officials to robber Michael Brown‘s funeral in Ferguson.


"But the White House did not send any officials to Officer Brian Moore’s funeral today. New York 1 reported:" . . . Read more: here.

6 Funerals Obama Cared Less About Than Michael Brown   . . . "Which [prompts] the question: why would the Obama administration send not one but three attendees to the funeral of a strong-arm robbery suspect who allegedly punched a police officer in the face – but ignore the funerals of other, more worthy characters?

"Here are six people whose funerals the Obama administration took less seriously than Brown’s."

Guess who was missing at funeral of highest ranking officer killed in combat since Vietnam War (Update: Hagel attended)

  Byron York ✔ @ByronYork

To those who asked: Yes, Obama was, in fact, on course at Vineyard Golf Club during Gen. Greene's funeral.

9:02 AM - 16 Aug 2014 

Obama was golfing right after his tribute to Beheaded journalist James Foley

 

Operation Jade Helm? Chill.

 

This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article was written for the primarily civilian readership at American Thinker. Judging from their comments, the citizens of this nation are so distrusting of the Obama administration that they are willing to believe our military would turn its guns against them on Obama’s orders. That is very sad. I’ve been writing for American Thinker for more than a decade and never have I been so vilified as I was for this article. We live in interesting times.

 "We’ve been getting concerned e-mails from friends in Texas as to whether or not the long-ago announced and now being staged large-scale military operation, called Jade Helm and taking place in several western states, is some sort of federal testing of the ability of the Obama government to seize control of our nation and use our military forces to disarm and subjugate our citizenry.

"The short answer is no, . . .
. . .
"Another thing to ponder: there are no dummies in special operations. You have to be top tier mentally to even be considered. On a per capita basis, they probably have a far higher IQ than any other military organizations other than perhaps the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I wouldn’t bet the farm on that. Now, if you’re going to use military forces against the people and the nation they are sworn to defend, are you really going to pick as your vanguard the very warriors who possess the intellect to realize that you are asking them to violate their oaths of service? Of course not . . .

"Those of you out there feeling queasy about Jade Helm? Chill."

On the other hand, this writer is having none of it:   Jade Helm Is Proving America to be a Nation of Cowards and Traitors

 

Baltimore and Obama

Mark Levin: U.S. Gives Terrorists More Consideration Than Cops  . . . "He went on to assert that the officers are “being railroaded,” noting that they are not even receiving the same legal protection America affords terror suspects.
“How can it be,” he wondered, “that terrorists in Guantanamo Bay have more due process rights … that they are treated one way and police officers another?”
He concluded that America as a nation is increasingly hostile toward the law enforcement community, suggesting many hold police to a higher standard than others in society.
“Well, law enforcement isn’t perfect,” he acknowledged. “Reporters aren’t perfect. Obama’s not perfect. That’s not the test. The fact of the matter is if we lose order, we lose liberty and we lose the society.”

J. Christian Adams; Dreams Into Dust: The Speech on Race Obama Will Never Give
. . . " Imagine how different race relations would be in this country today if, starting in January 2009, President Obama used his office to better the black community and race relations. What a difference this could have made in places like Baltimore and Ferguson, where racially motivated violence has set cities ablaze." .
 . .

Instead Obama was mentored by this man who has influenced today's Justice Department through him:

Baltimore Indicts the Welfare State  . . . " What are those problems?  Well, chief among them might be that hordes of black mobs regularly erupt in frenzies of thievery, arson, and violence in a pack-mentality response to perceived injustices and without knowledge or consideration of facts.  But that’s just the symptom, the president suggests, of the “root causes of the tension in urban areas.' ” . . .

. . . "It can be expected that Baltimore having been under uninterrupted Democrat control since 1967 will not stop Barack Obama and the bleating sheep like Baltimore’s current mayor (who suggests that the wealth just hasn’t been spread around properly yet) from demanding that more and more government redistribution."

 Victor Davis Hanson;Decoding the Rules of Baltimore

 For the left, rioting is an effective political tool.

 

. . . "Certainly, identification largely by racial affinity is a dangerous thing to do in America, because such solidarity only breeds solidarity in others that may be more numerous and growing just as angry. Vocal and ubiquitous talk of white supremacy as the mother lode of all racial unhappiness does not sell well outside the New York television studio — especially among the lower middle classes and poor who are not black and do not feel themselves particularly privileged at the expense of blacks.
"A year from now, an out-of-the-news Baltimore will be a little poorer, smaller, and less frequented."

From 2011!10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The United States Are Now More Likely Than Ever . . . " The sad thing is that these riots accomplish absolutely nothing.  The recent London riots did not create any jobs and they certainly did not solve any economic problems.  Instead, they actually hurt the economy even more because a huge amount of property was destroyed and people are even more afraid to continue with business as usual." . . .

2012: New Threats to Riot if Obama Loses Election

 Riots test Obama’s power to heal racial divide. . . "But on this score, Obama has mostly come up short, often leaving his supporters wanting more and his adversaries blaming him for exacerbating age-old conflicts." . . .

Pamela Geller: Heroine or Hateful Islamophobe? UPDATED

UPDATE:  Muslim cleric: Pam Geller should be tried by Sharia court and killed

. . . " 'And now this woman was to draw cartoons or have people draw cartoons to insult the prophet knowing full well that this carries the death penalty in Islam," he added. "She should be put before Shariah court and tried and of course she would face capitol punishment."
"The discussion also covered a death fatwa placed against Geller. When she said that ISIS used the term "khanzeer," or "Jewish pig," Choudary said the term was too good to be used on her. "Khanzeer," Geller noted, is the same term Muhammad used before beheading thousands of Jews." . . .

Jewish World Review 

 

 . . . "It was very disappointing to read comments from those who should know better that Geller's contest was pointless and meant nothing. Au contraire, Mon ami-it exposed two of ISIS' suicidal cell dwellers that fortunately were put down Texas-style before they could slaughter the sold-out crowd attending. We can't depend on this administration, the FBI or Homeland Security to protect us from ISIS and jihadists attacks. The FBI had one of the shooters under surveillance for years and sent out a memo concerning the Muhammad art contest that ruled out a likely attack on U.S. soil. Not surprising since the Obama administration has bent over backwards to make sure these agencies receive sensitive training to respect Islam. " 

"Meanwhile Christians are being slaughtered all over the world and the media is silent. I'll tell you what hate speech is. It is the Ayatollah Khameini of Iran, presently in nuke talks with Obama, telling a crowd in Iran, "Of course yes, death to America."

Read more:  here.

 The New York Times LOVES Blasphemy… Except When It Targets Muslims 

 “Some of those who draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad may earnestly believe that they are striking a blow for freedom of expression, though it is hard to see how that goal is advanced by inflicting deliberate anguish on millions of devout Muslims who have nothing to do with terrorism,” the Times editorial reads. “As for the Garland event, to pretend that it was motivated by anything other than hate is simply hogwash.”

 In Defense of Pamela Geller

Should we condemn these African-Americans for provoking the police?

 

 . . . "Just two months ago President Obama and former President Bush joined together in Selma, Alabama, to celebrate the work of “provocateurs” who knew — and were warned — not to march across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge in support of black voting rights in 1965. As history records, Selma’s Sheriff Jim Clark faced the protesters at the head of a collection of billy-club wielding, horseback-riding troopers and used a bull horn to warn that the protesters “are ordered” to return to their homes or churches. Thus warned — quite specifically warned — that they were in danger of provoking violence, the marchers refused to turn back and kept coming. At Clark’s signal the troopers launched — and so ruthlessly inflicted violent beatings on the protesters that the event became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Did this man's being gay provoke his killers?

. . .

"Where does this stop? Just as Islam forbids images of The Prophet, so too does it forbid homosexuality. If Americans are not supposed to “provoke” Muslims by doing something that offends their religion, does this mean the push that is on now for gay marriage should come to a screeching halt? Should the Supreme Court make gay marriage illegal because to recognize gay marriage would deliberately provoke Muslims across America and around the world? Indeed, isn’t an American approval of any gay “right” a deliberate provocation of Muslim sensibilities?" Read more here

Hat tip to http://www.lucianne.com/

Don’t Draw Muhammad Day   "Please submit your examples of what not to draw to – BigFurHat.mail@gmail.com – and I will post them as a reminder to infidels of what not to draw." Read more at iOTWreport.

No, Calling the Baltimore Rioters ‘Thugs’ Does Not Make You a Racist

NRO

"The mayor of Baltimore, who will spend the rest of her days living light-years from the word “Churchillian,” recently apologized for two gaffes. First, she walked back her statement that she gave rioters space to “destroy.” That’s not what she meant, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.

" It sure sounded like it to me, and the facts on the ground seemed to line up with the rhetoric (this new video of Baltimore cops fleeing rioters is pretty compelling). 

"But fair enough. People often say things clumsily in stressful situations. But then the mayor apologized for calling the destroyers “thugs.” 

“There are no thugs in Baltimore,” she added. “Sometimes my own little anger translator gets the best of me.” 

"Really, there are no thugs in Baltimore? It’s a thug-free zone?"   Jonah Goldberg

Criminalizing reasonable police work  "An incompetent prosecutor — or worse, a politically driven prosecutor who also happens to be incompetent — can do worse things than blow an important case. The more one scrutinizes the case against six Baltimore police officers said to be implicated in the death of Freddie Gray, the more one worries that the prosecution will cost lives.

Andy McCarthy

" And most importantly, they shouldn't be called "thugs" because it might be code for the dreaded n-word. 
. . . " Which, frankly, we consider to be an n-sult to our n-telligence." . . .

Hillary Clinton: our gift from the American Left

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Ever the Political Pragmatist, Bill Clinton Willing to Sell Out His Presidency for Hillary’s    "Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged on Wednesday that an anti-crime crackdown he pushed in 1994 went too far, and said he now supports his wife Hillary’s plans to reverse some of those justice policies.

"Bill Clinton signed into law a crime bill that imposed tougher sentences, put thousands of more police on the streets and helped fund the building of extra prisons.

"But the era of mass incarceration is now being questioned because of the continuing high proportion of Americans – especially black males – who are in prison.

"The anti-crime legislation was known for its federal “three strikes” provision that sent violent offenders to prison for life. The bill was backed by congressional Republicans and hailed at the time as a success for Clinton.

"But the former president told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that it was imperfect."  Stephen Kruiser

A Mother's Day gift from Hillary  "Still searching for that perfect gift for mom for Mother's Day?  Well, do I have one for you!  A former First Mom and now a wannabe First Grandmother, Hillary Clinton herself is willing to call your mom on her special day to wish her the best.  And no, she won't charge her standard $300,000 speaking fee; she--or her campaign--just wants your name, phone number and e mail address for a chance to win "a Mother's Day call from Hillary"," "a Mother's Day gift to remember." 

 A Mother’s Day call from Hillary?

 

Hillary Clinton’s betting that America is moving left  ..."Hillary Clinton is doing the country a great service.
 "By making it clear she is going to run for president as an unapologetic left-liberal — with emphasis on the “left” — she has made sure that the 2016 election will be exactly the referendum on America’s future it ought to be." . . .John Podhoretz

Hillary Email Scandal Not Going Away "Too bad Hillary destroyed all those, ahem, exonerating emails."
 . . . "Hillary Clinton still has one thing going for her. She’s not a Republican.
"As we all know, she would already be finished if she was."

LIBERAL MEDIA: The Fifth Column of Jihad

 

Doug Ross Journal. . . "As we noted in a previous column, “The [Southern Poverty Law Center] targets its critics by name…labeling them ‘hate groups’ and running photographs of officers and employees so they can more easily be identified.”

"The SPLC sends its “intelligence reports” around the country, listing people and groups by name with their locations. This puts the leaders of these groups and their families at risk of terrorist attack.
Rather than express disgust with this tactic, the media regard the SPLC as somehow a credible source of information.

"This brings a human face to the slogan “if it bleeds, it leads,” and makes the media complicit in the planned jihad on American soil and its victims.

"The SPLC exercises what journalist James Simpson calls “partisan tolerance,” which means conservatives and Christians must be demonized and destroyed. On the other hand, anyone on the left is acceptable. That’s why the SPLC hailed the “educational” work of Weather Underground terrorist bomber Bill Ayers." . . .

"As the leading spear-carrier in the cultural Marxist war on America, the SPLC is one of the most despicable groups on the political scene these days, and yet it is accepted by the media as somehow authoritative and respectable." . . .

The Real Haters and Their Targets  . . .  "The SPLC’s “Teaching tolerance” project ran an article praising unrepentant communist terrorist bomber Bill Ayers as a “civil rights organizer, radical anti-Vietnam War activist, teacher and author.” An “editor’s note” went so far as to say that Ayers had become “a highly respected figure in the field of multicultural education.' ” . . .

From All-Caps Ann: SMART POLICING: LOCK UP LIBERALS

 Visiting New York two months before 9-11, I asked a policeman what Giuliani did to reduce crime. He replied simply that Mayor Giuliani told them to begin enforcing the laws that existed, regardless of what ethnic group they belonged to. The officer told me they knew Mayor Giuliani would support them and they did not have to fear retribution for political reasons. TD


Ann Coulter ..."Astronomically low crime rates may be one of the greatest public policy triumphs in history. All this time, liberals have been lying in wait, dying to undo all the accomplishments of the last 20 years.

A quarter century of peace has lulled ordinary people into taking their safety for granted. They naturally assume that everyone regards it as a good thing that people are able to go about their lives without being raped, beaten, slashed or murdered.

"They don't know liberals. I've been warning you since 2001 that, as soon as we left the room, liberals would start emptying the prisons and loosing predators on us again.

"The stunning crime reduction of the last couple of decades is being called a "public policy disaster" from every news outlet -- even the news outlets currently being looted in Baltimore.

"Last week, The New York Times' Andrew Rosenthal praised Hillary Clinton, saying she had "correctly identified this country's racist incarceration policies as a wrong that must be righted."

"The New York Times' working assumption is that the only way to judge the criminal justice system is to ask if Al Sharpton is unhappy.

"Yes, we spent all of the 1970s and 1980s trying those solutions -- and our cities were war zones.

"It wasn't politicians, but the public that finally demanded that the criminal class be taken out of circulation. Politicians had no choice: Either they had to build more prisons or be voted out of office.

Democrats, social workers, liberal judges and criminologists fought like mad to keep criminals on the street, coming up with ever-more creative excuses for why prison doesn't work and continuing to demand that we "close the achievement gap."

"So much blood is on their hands! The "root cause" advocates are directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of murders, rapes, slashed faces, broken limbs and ruined lives.

"By abandoning the left's "close the achievement gap" crime-fighting policies, the nation's murder rate was halved -- to say nothing of the rape, assault and burglary rates. At least 150,000 Americans who would have been murdered under the old policies are still alive.

In New York City alone, about 10,000 people -- almost entirely minorities -- are not dead because the "close the achievement gap" crime policies were finally jettisoned.

"But now we're hearing the exact same nonsense.

"No -- we tried this. Remember?

"The left has been in a blind rage ever since all their idiotic ideas about fighting crime were unceremoniously dropped by New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"Instead of understanding criminals, Giuliani thought we should lock them up. And guess what? It worked! In his first three years as mayor, the drop in crime in New York City alone was responsible for 35 percent of the reduction in crime nationally.

"When the murder rate in New York plummeted an amazing 20 percent his first year in office, The New York Times heralded this accomplishment with an article titled: "New York City Crime Falls but Just Why Is a Mystery."

"Over the course of his mayoralty, the number of murders in New York declined from about 2,000 a year to a few hundred a year –- and kept falling as Mayor Michael Bloomberg continued his predecessor's crime policies.

"The results weren't so great in cities that refused to implement Giuliani-style policing. While New York became a wonderland, some cities continued their decline into dystopian nightmares. Detroit didn't turn around. Baltimore didn't turn around. Philadelphia and St Louis didn't turn around.

"The end of crime in New York made life possible again.

"Major building projects, redeveloped waterfront areas, concerts in the park -- all this would have been impossible, but for Giuliani and Bloomberg virtually eliminating crime in New York.

It never occurs to Brooklyn hipsters -- i.e., white liberals -- just why it is they can live in Brooklyn at all. Before Giuliani, among the borough's famous residents was Tyrone Graham, known as the "Spiderman rapist," a criminal with a long rap sheet, who nonetheless managed to spend a few months of 1986 breaking into a dozen apartments, mostly in Brooklyn, to rape, rob and brutalize the occupants.

"Tyrone was finally put away for the two-hour rape of Eileen Ross, a blind woman, in her 500 East 77th St. Manhattan luxury apartment, forcing her to flee the city and move to Oregon.

"As New York Newsday described the Dinkins era attack:

"Graham smashed Ross on the head with a wooden mallet, raped her twice at knifepoint, forced her to cook him breakfast, tormented her by saying he had killed one of her beloved beagles, and did blind one dog.

"After tying her up with wires from a stereo headphone, Graham stole a leather suitcase stuffed with a $2,000 mink coat. He also stole a videocassette recorder, jewelry, five pounds of shrimp, $80 and a bank card."

"This was an everyday occurrence in the 1980s. Today, the Upper East Side, as well as most of Manhattan, is safer than any small town in Utah.

"That was life in New York pre-Giuliani. Liberals want it back. " (Hillary may just give it back to them.)


Emphases and pictures added by the Tunnel Dweller


MSNBC Guest Links David Dinkins to Lower NYC Crime, Ignores Giuliani 

In 2008, Rush asked, Will Obama Be a General Dinkins?   . . . " The real question is will he be another General David Dinkins? New York City's mayor for life. Another elitist, incompetent, smooth talking will have liberal that all the white people, all the white effete snobs happen to love simply because his election made them feel better about themselves. Well, gotta give Dinkins his due. He could play tennis. But you get past the tennis, he was a disaster, and that's what you need to ask yourselves, not is he another Dukakis. Is he another Dinkins? Because Dinkins got elected, but what's New York got to show for it? (laughing) What did it lead to? It led to a Republican . . .

"Rep. Jeffries did not even mention that dramatic drops in crime occurred primarily after Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani succeeded Dinkins. Jeffries: - See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2013/08/16/msnbc-guest-links-david-dinkins-lower-nyc-crime-ignores-giuliani#sthash.0WEjUoxp.dpuf

Rep. Jeffries did not even mention that dramatic drops in crime occurred primarily after Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani succeeded Dinkins. Jeffries: - See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2013/08/16/msnbc-guest-links-david-dinkins-lower-nyc-crime-ignores-giuliani#sthash.0WEjUoxp.dpuf