The Patriot Post Digest 5-31-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-31-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

May 31, 2016

THE FOUNDATION

“The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.” —George Washington (1779)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Syrian Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing1

Syrians, Palestinians and other Middle Easterners are trying to reach the United States by committing fraud through getting on the registry of Honduran citizens and then applying for U.S. visas, a Honduran newspaper reported2. Hundreds of individuals allegedly have committed the act, and they didn’t do it on their own. It required organized crime in the Honduran government to find Honduran citizens who either died or did not apply for an identification card, and then to give those identities to Syrians, et al., seeking entry. Who wants to bet that terrorist cells exploited this con and “Honduran” jihadists are now in the U.S.?

This news comes at a time when the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border is beginning to increase. Border Patrol agent and union representative Chris Cabrera told The Washington Post3 that Border Patrol is beginning to see an increase of fence hoppers that might match the illegal immigration surge of 2014. Indeed, Mexico has detained more illegal immigrants from Central America traveling through the country this year than it did two years ago.

Meanwhile, leaders in American cities seem oblivious to the security threat. Philadelphia, a city that already forbids its law enforcement from working with ICE, set up a hotline that essentially tips off illegal immigrants whenever ICE shows up in a neighborhood. So not only has Philly refused to work with ICE, it’s actively undermining the federal government’s efforts to protect our borders.

Speaking of sanctuary cities, the family of Kate Steinle4 is suing over her death at the hands of a repeatedly deported illegal immigrant. The suit alleges a series of mistakes on the part of government workers that put an illegal immigrant and a gun at a San Francisco pier last year. “Most of the actors involved were following federal government policy which flows straight from the White House, combined with official positions taken by the City of San Francisco,” points out5 Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw. “This wasn’t an error or an oversight… the system was functioning as implemented by those in charge at the federal, state and municipal levels.” It’s a policy that continues to leave Americans exposed to crime6, and if left unresolved, terrorism.

The VA’s ‘Amusement’ Ride7

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has riled the nation by callously comparing8 ailing veterans on waiting lists to park goers at Disney. “When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line?” McDonald wondered. “Or what’s important? What’s important is, what’s your satisfaction with the experience? And what I would like to move to, eventually, is that kind of measure.”

As House Speaker Paul Ryan responded, “This is not make-believe, Mr. Secretary. Veterans have died waiting in those lines.” And for reasons like the following: According to Fox News9, “A newly released study hammered the Department of Veterans Affairs for spending a fraction of its budget on new doctors while devoting millions to lawyers and public affairs officials — as thousands of veterans were waiting for care. The study from OpentheBooks.com shows that between 2012 and 2015, just one in 11 new hires were ‘medical officers.’ The findings are fueling criticism that the VA’s problems amount to more than just resources.”

Of the 39,000 job positions added since 2012, only a fraction of them — 3,591 — were filled by medical officers. But the agency also added another 175 lawyers, raising its legal team to 1,060 members who collect $454 million in compensation annually. As nefarious and corrupt as this department is, it’s no wonder it needs so many lawyers.

In related news, a new Senate report could help explain why the situation isn’t getting any better. According to USA Today10, a “probe by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee” into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, Wisconsin, “found the inspector general’s office, which is charged with independently investigating VA complaints, discounted key evidence and witness testimony, needlessly narrowed its inquiry and has no standard for determining wrongdoing.” Moreover, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the investigating committee, calls the VA’s failures “systemic.” The VA is corrupt, but so is the inspector general. Who’s going to watch the watcher?

Editor’s Note: Don’t miss Obama’s latest attempt at social engineering in the military with ridiculous “LGBT Pride Month” posters11.

The Mass Killings Leftists Won’t Talk About12

Every time an armed sociopath goes on a murderous rampage, leftists — before any facts are even known — quickly and collectively demand additional gun control measures. But in cities like Chicago, hundreds of lives are taken every year, mostly by gang members, though the majority of Americans generally won’t find news of their deaths floating across their television screens. The reason has to do with the circumstances. The same deafening response to issues like urban violence will be repeated regarding the scores of people we now know have been murdered through Barack Obama’s Fast and Furious gun control scheme13.

According to Judicial Watch14, “Justice Department documents [reveal] that weapons sent from the U.S. into Mexico as part of the Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious gunrunning program have been widely used by major Mexican drug cartels. According to the new records, over the past three years, a total of 94 Fast and Furious firearms have been recovered in Mexico City and 12 Mexican states, with the majority being seized in Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa. Of the weapons recovered, 82 were rifles and 12 were pistols identified as having been part of the Fast and Furious program. Reports suggest the Fast and Furious guns are tied to at least 69 killings.”

All lives matter. Sadly, the media believes mass killings are worth covering only when the circumstances surrounding their deaths fit the narrative. That narrative doesn’t include a government-sanctioned program that resulted in dozens of murders.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Burt Prelutsky: The Morphing of America15
Hans von Spakovsky: Senators to AG: Stop Targeting Opponents of Obama’s Energy Policies16
Peggy Noonan: Hillary Embodies Washington’s Decadence17

For more, visit Right Opinion18.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Government-Orchestrated Theft19

By Arnold Ahlert

Two fundamental principles America used to honor were one’s right to be left alone, and the idea that one is innocent until proven guilty. According to the Institute for Justice, from 2005 to 2012, the IRS turned both principles upside down. In more than 2,500 cases, the tax-collecting agency seized20 an astounding $242.6 million from individuals they accused of money “structuring” violations. In 618 cases from 2007 to 2013, the agency seized $43 million — even when there was no other evidence of criminal activity. “Every American knows that for the IRS to take somebody’s money and to threaten to put them in jail because of how they deposit money in the bank is wrong,” testified21 Institute for Justice attorney Robert Johnson, during a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee last week. “It’s not how our country should work.”

That’s putting it mildly.

Most structuring cases are tied to a 1970 law called the Bank Secrecy Act22, that created structuring and civil forfeiture laws ostensibly enacted to combat large-scale drug dealing and money laundering. Yet there is a damned if one does, damned if one doesn’t aspect to them that is quite disturbing. The law requires23 banks to report to the government any deposits, withdrawals or transfers of more than $10,000, essentially an invasion of privacy in search of malfeasance. Yet if one decides to make deposits below that threshold, and the financial institution suspects one of doing so to avoid such scrutiny, they are also required to report it. And absent any other indication of criminal activity, if the government decides one is guilty of structuring, one can be charged with a felony punishable by a fine and/or up to five years in prison.

It gets worse. Even as banks are required to report suspicious activity to the feds, they are prohibited from letting the customer know they are doing so. Moreover, banks deemed to have insufficiently scrutinized those customers can be financially sanctioned, and bank employees determined to have neglected their duty in that regard can also be criminally charged and sent to jail.

The inevitable result? “There’s lots of risk in under-policing for structuring, and virtually no risk of losing customers due to a policy of over-reporting them to the government,” writes columnist Radley Balko. “Most customers will never know. The problem of course is that when you force banks to cast such a wide net, they’re going to report a lot of people who have done nothing wrong.”

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The Patriot Post Digest 5-31-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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That’s exactly what has happened to a number of innocent victims. In 2012, two armed IRS agents informed24 dairy farmer Randy Sowers that the IRS had seized $60,000 from his bank account because of structuring. The owners of Vocatura’s Bakery, a family-owned and operated business started in 1919, were accused of the same crime and the IRS seized $68,382.22. Lyndon McLellan, owner of L&M Convenience Mart, had $107,702.66 seized25 from his business’s bank account.

The agency also helped26 itself to almost $33,000 from the checking account of Carole Hinders, owner of a cash-only Mexican restaurant she has operated for nearly 40 years. “How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders asked. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”

Government-sanctioned shakedown artists, that’s who.

Even more infuriating, when the IRS discovers no crime was committed, those whose funds were seized have to fight to get them back. The IRS gave $33,436 back to Sowers and kept $29,500. They offered McLellan 50% of his money back if he agreed to a settlement before March 30. And after seizing $447,000 from Bi-County Distributors in 2012, the IRS didn’t agree to return the money until January 2015 — after attempting to settle27 with the company by taking $275,000, then $200,000, and finally $50,000 of the total amount before ultimately caving.

That particular gambit was orchestrated by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York — run by then-U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. In 2014, The Wall Street Journal called28 Lynch’s office a “major forfeiture operation.”

Why would an innocent victim settle? Because the alternative could be years of litigation and attorney fees. “In criminal cases, defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Civil forfeiture cases flip this basic legal tenet on its head,” said Jason Snead, research associate at The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

Prior to last Wednesday’s hearing, Committee chairman Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) put this outrage in the proper perspective, saying, “It’s so clear on its face: this is an abuse of power.” He further reminded Americans these actions are taking place within “the larger context of IRS targeting based on political philosophy and religious beliefs,” and the public’s concern regarding whether government is watching out for them — or coming after them.

Over the last two years, the IRS and Justice Department altered their internal policies regarding structuring, ostensibly pursuing structuring cases only where the funds involved arise from criminal activity.

Nonetheless, Roskam emphasized government’s “dismissiveness,” highlighted by the fact that, despite Committee members from both parties twice sending letters29 to the IRS, the Treasury and the Justice Department urging them to return “inappropriately” seized funds, government remains obdurate. “They’re not seeing an obligation to go and make things right,” Roskam explained. “Their feeling, at least what they’re communicating so far, is that was then, this is now, and if someone suffered, then someone suffered.”

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen apologized to the victims and insisted that “as of a year ago there are no more seizures by the IRS and I think that’s important to know that we’ve reached out to do that.”

Yet Johnson insists the IRS is still harassing small business owners, and many of those who were previously harassed and found innocent still haven’t gotten their money back.

Who to believe? Johnson works for an organization standing up for people who’ve had their lives needlessly upended by government. Koskinen is an arrogant government bureaucrat facing30 congressional impeachment for allegedly failing to comply with a subpoena requiring him to preserve documents related to the IRS Tea Party targeting scandal, and lying about erased backup tapes containing copies of disgraced former IRS employee Lois Lerner’s emails.

Perhaps it won’t matter. Congress is considering31 the Clyde-Hirsch-Sowers Respect Act, named after victims of this abuse. The “novel” idea behind the bill? Prohibiting the IRS from punishing those who haven’t committed any crimes. That such a bill is necessary should tell Americans all they need to know about the tenuously thin divide between constitutional governance and banana republic lawlessness.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

ANALYSIS: The TSA Is Failing the Public32
Making the Military Fabulous11
Crooked Hillary Gets Caught Lying Again33
It Might Be Time for Congress to Boost Defense Spending34
Louisiana Affirms: Blue Lives Matter35

TOP HEADLINES

Zoo’s Killing of Gorilla to Rescue Boy Sparks Outrage36
Last of Pentagon-Trained Syrians in Jeopardy37
At Yale University, the Bullies Win38

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report39

OPINION IN BRIEF

Burt Prelutsky: “Those who argue from the Left will insist that socialism is the better option because it provides a safety net for everyone, the smart and the not so smart, those who are ambitious and those who aren’t. One for all and all for one. Not only equal opportunity, but equal results. An end to greed. A little bit of Heaven right here on earth, as we all join hands and sing ‘Kumbaya.’ The problem is that like all pipedreams, it ignores the reality of human nature. Why should those who work the hardest or think the most creatively have to share equally with those who don’t work or think at all? We might want to share with those we have reason to love, but who wants to work on behalf of people they don’t even know? And if they knew them, chances are they wouldn’t like them. Isn’t that what most people think of as slavery? … The basic problem with socialism isn’t that it inevitably morphs into totalitarian communism, which it does, but that it ignores human nature by denying the competitive spirit of people, and is therefore based in fantasy. Which, if you think about it, is why it inevitably morphs into totalitarianism. Because it is unnatural at its core, it requires force to make people comply.”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”

Upright: “When Senator Sanders cries, ‘The system is rigged!’ no one asks, ‘Just what specifically does that mean?’ or ‘What facts do you have to back that up?’ In 2015, the 400 richest people in the world had net losses of $19 billion. If they had rigged the system, surely they could have rigged it better than that.” —Thomas Sowell

A vast right-wing conspiracy: “Hillary Clinton is going to win this primary. I say enough is enough. Let’s get to the major problems facing this nation. … I think this is a woman who wants a little bit of a private life. She wants to be able to communicate with [her] husband, with [her] daughter, with friends and not have somebody looking over her shoulder into her emails.” —Sen. Dianne Feinstein downplaying the Clinton email scandal

“We can certainly argue about the way in which [NSA leaker Edward] Snowden did what he did40, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made.” —Eric Holder

Braying Jackass: “Start a family devalues any couple who doesn’t happen to have kids, for whatever reason. It even sells single people short, who may not have children but do have ‘chosen’ families of friends — not to mention families of origin (the ready-made kind, no assembly required). … For the sake of all the ways to be in the world, it’s time to put an end to start a family.” —Washingtonian magazine’s Bill O'Sullivan

Dezinformatsia: “If people have found the U.S. to be preachy in the years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki about the use of weapons, it’s because we’re the only nation to have used them in anger.” —MSNBC’s Brian Williams

Late-night humor: “A new survey asked Americans which candidate they’d want to sit next to on a plane and 37% chose Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the other 63% missed their flight waiting in the TSA line.” —Jimmy Fallon

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.