I try to be scrupulous about my taxes, both because it's the right thing to do and because powerful groups don't like me. A long time ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center started poking around in my taxes. The SPLC is so in bed with various branches of the feds that the suspicion that the IRS might act upon a little list from the SPLC of people the SPLC doesn't like isn't necessarily pure paranoia.
A few days ago, it was recommended to me that I accept Bitcoins. I replied: I've always figured that accepting Bitcoins as donations would just attract SPLC and then IRS attention, so I long ago decided I'm not going to touch them.
A few days ago, it was recommended to me that I accept Bitcoins. I replied: I've always figured that accepting Bitcoins as donations would just attract SPLC and then IRS attention, so I long ago decided I'm not going to touch them.
From the front page of the Washington Post today:
IRS admits it targeted conservatives
Zachary A. Goldfarb and Karen Tumulty 11:24 AM ET
Agency apologizes for flagging tea party groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 campaign.
McConnell: Apology not enough
Cantor: House will investigate matter
‘I’m not good at math’:
The IRS’s PR disaster
Aaron Blake 11:20 AM ET
THE FIX | A torturous conference call with reporters offers little insight to the agency’s admission today.
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26 comments:
Obama to Ohio State Grads: Reject Voices That Warn About Government Tyranny
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/05/05/obama_to_ohio_state_grads_reject_voices_that_warn_about_government_tyranny.html
Obama Administration on Friday News Dump: Ohio IRS office targetted Obama political opponents during election season and we're sorry and it will never happen again
Um, why can't you just use bitpay.com?
You never touch the damn things, but we can pay you with them -- they're automatically converted to dollars for you.
Front-line IRS employees working in the tax-exempt unit in Cincinnati selected groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names
How dare anyone be a patriot. Patriotism must be stamped out at all costs!
Hollywood moguls can make it so there's no profits on billion dollar blockbusters.
Wall Street crooks get 'bailed out' even though they used banks like casinos.
But go after a blogger! Sailer must be like Al Capone!
So, the very people who bitch and moan about the dark days of McCarthyism pull the same crap yr after yrs. And it's not just in 2012. It's been for a very long time and we know it.
Indeed, IRS and other agencies have been politicized and used as ideological muscles.
And if the IRS doesn't get you, local governments and media will. If your business isn't pro-gay, cities will ban your business and media will attack you so much that investors will vanish and customers will drop away.
Because the conversation goes something like this anonymous:
IRS Guy: Mr. Sailer, we see that you've received substantial income from a site used chiefly to launder drug money...bitpay.com?
Sailer: Its a bitcoin site, which is perfectly legal. Electronic currency is the wave of the future!
IRS Guy: We're going to need documentation for every penny that you've earned, received or deducted over the last ten years.
Sailer: ....
IRS guy: Take two weeks. We know assembling this kind of documentation can be tricky.
This issue can be used brilliantly to revive the Tea Party in a big way this year.
In Watergate days some of those not investigated were said to have developed "subpoenas envy".
So it is that I find myself feeling all funky and inadequate that I have never been scrutinized by the Southern Poverty Law Center. I must be too moderate.
I've certainly been audited by the IRS often enough. When I did my own taxes I was audited just about every year. My 'day job' was to defend against audits usually by Big 8 accounting firms. IRS auditors are distinctly second rate. It was fun.
I wrote off our five week vacation in Europe. Even I didn't think I could get away with that one but when in doubt - claim the deduction. And then you get to argue with IRS dummies.
This despicable agency tries to intimidate the people they are charged to serve. Intimidate them right back. Bastards.
Albertosaurus
So, IRS put cross-hairs on conservatives.
Obama sure ushered in an era of clean government.
Tea Party should use this to rally up the base to come out in anger this summer.
In the 60s, hippies burned draft cards. Tea Party should burn tax forms.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-gun-crimes-pew-report-20130507,0,3022693.story
How media distorts reality.
No wonder Americans think 25% of the population is hissy, or homo.
I'm honestly not sure why those who can only pay in bitcoins can't take the novel step of converting the money to USD and then sending it to Sailer.
Does Steve accept cash in other currencies?
OT, but related to your recent mention of Victorians in your article about Keynes: "We're The Victorians Cleverer Than Us?" (apparently, yes).
So, the very people who bitch and moan about the dark days of McCarthyism pull the same crap yr after yrs.
"McCarthyism is the basic left-wing modus operandi. What infuriated the left about Joe McCarthy was that he was doing it to THEM.
BTW, McCarthy was a lot more right than wrong. I remember when the anti-anti-communists were still worshiping Mao and defending the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss.
@Red Pill Theorist:
Gyft Opens 50,000 Retail Locations to Bitcoins
"Gyft, a mobile gift card platform, today announces that it has added support for bitcoin purchases of gift cards on the Android platform, through its partnership with BitPay Inc., the world's leading payment processor for bitcoin."
I guess these 50,000 retail locations are going to get in trouble with the IRS then. And so is WordPress because they accept BTC and host controversial blogs, too. Hmm, maybe they just care about explicitly political things? Well, the Libertarian Party is accepting BTC without any problems...
Seriously, the point of accepting bitcoins isn't so Steve can hide a paper trail. In fact, bitcoin does a shitty job of that when you post your address online, since the entire blockchain in public. He should accept BTC because fees are virtually non-existent and there aren't any restrictions on international transfer. Have you ever tried to use PayPal from the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East? It's impossible in lots of places, and not just countries like North Korea.
Maybe Steve is just scared of pseudonymous donors? If so, why?
Dear Komment Kontrol,
Do we get to talk openly and honestly about the Scots-Irish on this thread?
Or would we be wasting our time if we even tried?
Sincerely yours,
The Greater iSteve-o-Sphere
Listening to the news about the misdeeds of the IRS employees operating out of the Cincinnati office, I can't help wondering if they'll turn out to be African American. Cincinnati is about 43% black and of course these sorts of government jobs are the foundation of the black middle class. My suspicions are raised by the fact that blacks are so fiercely protective of this president and seem to react viscerally to anyone who dares oppose him. I see this in the black members of congressional hearings on Benghazi, who have no interest in uncovering any information, as well as in the black members of the administration who have been in the forefront of the cover up, such as the State Department's Susan Rice and Cheryl Mills.
Dear Komment Kontrol,
Do we get to talk openly and honestly about the Scots-Irish on this thread?
What would you like to discuss?
This isn't just a case of some random IRS flunkies going off the reservation. IRS management had to be behind this to make it actually happen, so in this case it appears civil service management have been radicalized and are now operating as Obamissars within the IRS.
Steve, over the last few weeks you have been drinking from a fire hose of opportunity.
"Front-line IRS employees working in the tax-exempt unit in Cincinnati selected groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names"
In Ohio too - an imortant election battleground state. I'm sure that was just a coincidence.
"Anonymous said...
Maybe Steve is just scared of pseudonymous donors? If so, why?"
I can think of one good reason why. It would not be above the SPLC, or certain law-enforcement agencies, or oppo-research arms of political parties to give money to neo-nazis, klansmen, etc. so that they could then make donations to a site like Steve's, so that the site-owner could then be smeared when the donors names and affilitations are revealed.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
"Dear Komment Kontrol,
Do we get to talk openly and honestly about the Scots-Irish on this thread?
Or would we be wasting our time if we even tried?"
You waste our time every time you post.
"Sincerely yours,
The Greater iSteve-o-Sphere"
Actually, you are the lesser iSteve-o-sphere, Komment Kontrol Klown.
Online text of "Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time", Michael A. Woodley, Jan te Nijenhuisc, Raegan Murphy, "Intelligence", 7 May 2013. (mostly pay-walled, it looks.)
"The Victorian era was marked by an explosion of innovation and genius, per capita rates of which appear to have declined subsequently. ...
...slowing of simple reaction time described in a meta-analysis of 14 age-matched studies...
...between 1884 and 2004 to estimate the decline in g that may have resulted from the presence of dysgenic fertility. Using psychometric meta-analysis we computed the true correlation between simple reaction time and g, yielding a decline of − 1.23 IQ points per decade or fourteen IQ points since Victorian times. These findings strongly indicate that with respect to g the Victorians were substantially cleverer than modern Western populations."
There's also speculation that the Ancient Greeks may have had an unusually high average IQ during their golden age, perhaps as high as 120.
How could the SPLC poke around in your taxes, may I ask? Isn't that supposed to be between you and the IRS?
Due to the apparently small scope of this, I expect the story of a few low-level IRS agents abusing their power, and no real conspiracy, to be true. However, it may be true that the higher-ups saw it happening and didn't care, but that will be harder to prove. I see a parallel in the Abu Graib scandal, where it turned out to be a few twisted guards and not part of the vast right wing bushitler conspiracy.
However, the tin-foil-hat-wearing part of me predicts the left will make some use of this in due time. Expect a scandal to erupt in a couple of years where some really shady left-wing groups that clearly do not qualify for tax-exempt status will get that status approved by the IRS. The people responsible will simply point at the current scandal and claim they put in new procedures to prevent that kind of scandal again, and they can't possibly change the procedures lest they deny some eligible group tax-exempt status. Of course, only left-leaning groups will slip through and get their tax-exempt status, while right-leaning groups continue to be denied.
The IRS abusing their power is disturbing even if no higher-ups are involved. It would indicate that the rank-and-file employees are politicized enough that they _don't have to be told_ who to go after. They read Daily Kos enough to figure it out on their own, and are unrestrained enough to act on it.
there's a lot of other good reasons to not accept bitcoins.
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