Young People Losing Faith in BigGov!

This is very telling, and very encouraging.  Young people are losing faith in big institutions.  There's also some shifts in voting preferences.

http://www.businessinsider.com/poll-millenials-have-historically-low-levels-of-trust-in-government-2014-4

Bundy Narrative Gets Yet Another Monkeywrench

Pity the poor CNN anchor...  Not.

Via Lew Rockwell via Bob Murphy

Tax-Cheating IRS Staff Got Bonuses

Via ZeroHedge!

If you read this without saying "umm, what?" read it again... USA Today notes that a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration shows the IRS handed out $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with disciplinary issues - including more than $1 million to employees who didn't pay their federal taxes.

As USA Today continues,

The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said 1,146 IRS employees received bonuses within a year of substantiated federal tax compliance problems.

The bonuses weren't just monetary. Employees with tax problems received a total of 10,582 hours of paid time off — valued at about $250,000 — and 69 received permanent raises through a step increase, the report said. The report looked at bonuses in 2011 and 2012.

Employees' tax problems included "willful understatement of tax liabilities over multiple tax years, late payment of tax liabilities, and underreporting of income," the report said.

The IRS said it has instituted a policy to take conduct into account when handing out bonuses to senior executives. Making that policy apply to all of the agency's workers would require negotiations with the National Treasury Employees Union. The union did not respond to a request for comment.

"We take seriously our unique role as this nation's tax administrator, and we will strive to implement a policy that protects the integrity of the tax administration system and the reputation of the service," IRS chief Human Capital Officer David Krieg said in a written response to the audit.

So - if you are a non-government-employee who doesn't pay your taxes, you get jail and accounts frozen... but if you're an IRS employee... you get a fucking bonus!!!

Crony Capitalist Watch - US Taxpayers Forced to Loan Richest Austrailian $649 Million USD

While Crony Capitalist Mikey Bwoomberg has been getting all the attention for dropping $50 Million on an astroturfing mission, the richest person in Australia got a massive $649 million loan for her mining company.

http://www.progress.org/news/subsidies-waste-public-debt/the-richest-aussie-lady-drains-us-taxpayers/

...And there's more!  The article also notes that the second largest crop insurance company, also Australian, get's $59 Billion a year in crop subsidies!

While this stuff probably burns your cheese (like it does mine), I can remember not too long ago when this stuff "flew under the radar".  Now it the stuff is flying around like...  Um...  Mud in a tornado!!!

Goodbye Attorney-Client Privilege

This is really, really bad, and needs to be spread far and wide:

"...in a United States Tax Court decision announced on Wednesday, the court dismissed attorney client privilege, stating that:
“When a person puts into issue his subjective intent in deciding how to comply with the law, he may forfeit the privilege afforded attorney-client communications.”
In other words, if a person works with legal counsel within the confines of the tax code to legitimately minimize the amount of taxes owed, that communication is no longer protected by attorney-client privilege...."

http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/new-court-decision-destroys-the-last-element-of-the-justice-system-14212/

Feds shot Bundy cattle, destroyed infrastructure, tortoise burrows, piled cattle in mass grave

"Bundy told Swann that federal agents have fled the area and left a great deal of gear and equipment and that they aren’t likely to return any time soon for it. He also said that federal agents destroyed much of the grazing infrastructure on the land, including water lines, water tanks, troughs, corrals, and fences.


The damage didn’t stop at just destroying infrastructure: Bundy revealed that their cattle, about 40 or so, had been killed by federal agents and thrown into a mass grave."

Read more: http://benswann.com/did-blm-bury-bundy-cattle-in-mass-grave-warning-graphic-images/#ixzz2zBqACYaf

-=-=-

This is evidence that the Feds are NOT good stewards of land and resources, and why the vast majority (if not all) Federal land should be auctioned off and sold to the public.

See my post on Geolibertarianism/Georgism for how to avoid oligarchic monopolization of the land:  http://libertyiswinning.blogspot.com/2014/04/geolibertarianism-aka-georgism-answer.html

Second Amendment Sister Slams Bloomberg on Public Radio

"Jennifer Coffey, national spokeswoman for the pro-gun-rights Second Amendment Sisters organization, says she sees Bloomberg's investment as a waste of money.

"I think he has a very unhealthy fascination with firearms, and how this inanimate object is a threat to everyone in the world," she says. "He lives in a state where people are in food lines with not enough to eat, who are jobless — why doesn't he focus on them? Or on criminals running through his streets, destroying homes, families, businesses?"

Coffey says her major concern with gun-purchase background checks is proposals that would put mental health records into a national database. She predicts that first responders who have sought counseling because of job stresses would be targeted, as would those who have been treated for depression.

"Mental illness is not a crime," Coffey says."

http://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=303772324

-=-=-=-=-

I hope the Irony of Bloomberg spending $50,000,000.00 on a "grass roots" campaign is not lost on the public...

Soros 0, Bundys 1

Ulsterman has the story on George Soro's failed attack on the Bundy Ranch:

Excerpt:


" “The Center for Biological Diversity” – that title jumped out at me.  Like so many insidious groups formed by progressive/socialist interests, the name reeks of a collective mindset, where all things must be forced into the same narrow view of how society should function. (Any time a progressive uses the term diversity, they ultimately mean conformity – we must all think the same or face the consequences)
So I looked up this “nonprofit” group, that was pushing so hard for federal authorities to shut down the Bundy family ranch, and here is what I found:
“the Center for Biological Diversity(CBD) filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) if the Service does not create a new nationwide wolf recovery plan“ KBC NOTE: CBD is funded by Earthjustice, which is funded by George Soros. The same CBD who is presently suing to take more Klamath Basin irrigation water by changing the biological opinions.
The Green $$$ Scam, Range Magazine, posted to KBC 2/2/11. KBC NOTE: This article articulates the billions of dollars funding the green groups taking our land, water and rights through lawsuits. Last week Center for Biological Diversity, Oregon Wild, Environmental Protection Information Center, and The Larch Company sued to list another endangered species (Environmental groups want Klamath River salmon listed as Endangered Species.) The first 3 groups along with some “friends”, “stakeholders” in the KBRA, are all in a coalition together: George Soros, Tides, Ford Foundation, Weeden and dozens more including the federal government fund their litigation to destroy our infrastructure/dams and take our land and water.  LINK

All the familiar names – Soros, Earthjustice, The Larch Company, Tides, Ford Foundation, Weeden – all entities bound by the familiar theme of centralized control of lands, food, water, and other related resources.  Control those resources, and you control the people"

Geolibertarianism AKA Georgism: The answer to our problems?

Charles Hugh Smith recently posted another interesting article which has been getting passed around the blogosphere:  What’s the Difference Between Fascism, Communism and Crony-Capitalism? Nothing


CHS gets it mostly right, except that a consumption tax is regressive.


Having read voluminously regarding the issue of taxation to support a minimal state, I formed the idea of a land tax (with a high minimum threshold) as the only fair way to:  A)  Collect tax in an unambiguous, non-preferential way and B) Address the issue of vast fortunes amassed over the generations by force, fraud and graft.

Lo and behold, it turns out that I was not the first person to figure this out (shocking!).  Please take a look at Georgism or Geolibertarianism as the (IMO) solution.  Overview:  http://geolib.pair.com/welcome.html also http://www.foldvary.net/

The keys IMO are:

A)  Setting a high minimum threshold for the land tax.  This allows for those that wish to be self-sufficient to live w/o any interference (e.g. your typical Amish/Mennonite farmer),

B)  Setting a maximum for the total national/state tax rate.  A country cannot collect more than about 22% of the total economic output in taxes before it experiences diminishing returns.  The revenue generated would have to be split among federal, state and local, which is a policy issue beyond the scope of this particular post.

C)  The prohibition of government debt.  The reason for that should be self-evident at this juncture in history.