As the law crumbles

Biden's handlers take a page from a really old playbook

The Friday Letter / No. 459 / Orlando, Florida

Joe Biden's puppeteers must be getting their inspiration from the American Revolution. While the facts are different, the legal principle seems to be similar between writs of assistance authorized by the Townshend Acts of 1767 and Biden's plan to let the IRS rummage through your bank account if you are rich enough to have $600 squirreled away.

Assisted by the local sheriff or constable, British officials could enter any house without a warrant to search for smuggled goods, without specifying either the house or the goods.

Joe Biden wants to do essentially the same by allowing the Internal Revenue Service, a political arm of the Democrat Party, to inspect anyone's bank account for ways to tax hidden wealth. If you think this is an exaggeration, remember that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is a big fan of the wealth tax. She's the sponsor of SB 1788, euphemistically called the “Restoring the IRS Act of 2021.” What could make the treasure hunt easier?

Never mind that the 4th Amendment to the Constitution frowns on this practice. It says, in plain English,

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

We went to this dance once before, remember, when Obama's intelligence goons combed through the phone records of ordinary (i.e., innocent) Americans without search warrants that are clearly required by the 4th Amendment. Here we go again.

If the bill passes, “banks would be required to report every deposit and withdrawal from an account to the IRS in order to target audits,” Rebecca Long writes at the Ocala Post. “The plan targets the self-employed middle class who self-report their income and deductions.”

But just so you won't feel you are being treated unfairly, the bill exempts Members of Congress.

And just so you don't try to get clever and replace the deteriorating U.S. dollar with PayPal or crypto currency, they fall into the Democrats' net as well.

Says the White House, the scheme “would prevent tax evasion and the IRS would know how much money is in an individual's bank account in a given year, and exactly how much is going in and out.”

Thanks for explaining this. We're weren't sure what you meant. Now we are. You intend to snuff out the last remaining shred of privacy we Americans once had. This bill should be called “The Lois Lerner 4th Amendment Repeal Act of 2021.”

Trump's secret mentor from long ago

He was convinced that the country's future lay not in fighting endless wars but in pursuing peaceful commerce. He was “a blunt, fiercely honest savant” portrayed as otherwise by his political enemies from both flanks and in the press. He made taxes more fair by eliminating exemptions that favored the rich at the expense of the working class. He took on corruption and expanded workers' rights.

He “was soon under attack from all quarters,” one report said. Some called him an atheist because he did not attend church. The establishment skewered him for not waging a war over events occurring far away that did not concern him or his people. In response, he proposed aggressive but peaceful means as an alternative to what he considered reckless and costly wars. Even after he was run from office, he continued to fight for the survival of freedom and his country.

One has to wonder if Donald Trump learned his moral, economic, and political principles from Baron Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Louis XVI's minister of finance.

The French king refused him an audience when Turgot tried to warn him against getting involved in foreign entanglements – in this case war with England when France supported the new United States. Turgot wrote to a friend, “I shall part with the regret of seeing a good dream disappear, of seeing a young King, who deserves a better fate, and a kingdom lost entirely by one who ought to have saved it.”

We Americans could apply that statement to ourselves, that we are seeing a good dream disappear, of seeing the world's greatest society ever created lost entirely, not by the leader we once sent to straighten things out, but by those who turned him away when we needed him most.

In the news . . .

Some of the uninvited guests who grace our land include two drug cartel hit men still at-large for the July 25 home invasion and murder of a 22-year-old man in Laredo, Tex., the Loredo Morning Times reports. Two of their enablers have been arrested and – unlike in New York – are being held without bond. These are among the gentlemen who, according to our Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, “enrich the fabric of the nation.” . . .

Why culture matters. Two men were charged with violent assaults at Fort McCoy, Wis., where they are among the thousands of mostly unvetted immigrants from Afghanistan who were ushered into the country during Biden's chaotic surrender to the Taliban. The Justice Department said one of the men, Bahrullah Noori, 20, “is charged with attempting to engage in a sexual act with a minor using force against that person, and with three counts of engaging in a sexual act with a minor, with one count alleging the use of force.” The victims are all under 16. Another man was charged with suffocating his wife. – from a story at The Blaze. . .

Why the state always has the upper hand. A 3-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrates how easy it is for the state to deny 2nd Amendment rights – just wait out the case until it becomes moot. That's what happened Wednesday when the panel threw out a gun rights ruling from July that said the denial of a gun purchase to a person under 21 is unconstitutional. Its reasoning: The plaintiff has since turned 21. Never mind that she filed the suit five years ago in 2016, when she was 16, after she was denied the right to buy a handgun to defend herself against an abusive ex-boyfriend. Marshall v. AFT, reported at Just the News. The unanimous vote was tri-partisan: James Andrew Wynn, an Obama appointee from the left, Julies N. Richardson, a Trump appointee from the right, and G. Steven Agee, a G.W. Bush appointee from the squishy middle. . .

We aren't aware of any Pentagon plans to court martial either Joe Biden or Mark Milley for their gross dereliction of duty in handing over our weapons to the Taliban, but it isn't ruling out dishonorable discharges and courts martial for troops who refuse to take the CCP coronavirus vaccine. The White House said it “strongly opposes” an amendment to the defense bill put forth by GOP Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee that would prohibit anything other than an honorable discharge for the 800,000 troops who thus far have refused the vaccination. Read more about this at the Daily Mail.

Videos worth watching

Steve Scalise asks Dr. Fauci and the head of the CDC to explain the difference in mask requirements for citizens and illegal aliens.

Ted Cruz gets Democrats who accuse Texas of having racist voter ID laws to squirm.

Senator Kennedy exposes the hypocrisy of a Biden judicial nominee, who repeatedly dodges a simple question that has a yes or no answer.

Quotes for today

“To finance global health security, that builds on our existing development assistance, and global health tre — es an and and the global health threat kownkill – council – that is armed ...” – Joe Biden, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly's opening session

“Don't believe everything you read on the Internet just because there's a picture with a quote next to it.” – Abraham Lincoln, submitted by our correspondent Jake Phake

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