Menu
Paynal © 2008
Robert Mueller And Floyd Ferris By Jacob G. Hornberger!!
(2018-08-07 at 18:04:53 )
Robert Mueller and Floyd Ferris by Jacob G. Hornberger
When they could not get Al Capone on booze charges, they resorted to the income tax to get him.
That is what all too many people fail to realize - that the income tax not only funds the gigantic welfare-warfare state that the federal government has become, it, along with the regulated economy, also provides an excellent means for going after people.
That is what special counsel and former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller is doing with former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Muellers team, which is supposed to be investigating some supposed unlawful conspiracy between President Trump and Russia, is instead spending its time prosecuting Manafort for income-tax violations.
What do Manaforts supposed income-tax violations have to do with some illegal conspiracy that President Trump supposedly entered into with Russian officials??
Nothing. Paul Manaforts supposed income-tax violations have absolutely nothing to do with the supposed Trump-Russia conspiracy.
So, why is Mueller prosecuting Manafort for income-tax violations?
By securing a criminal conviction of Manafort for income-tax violations, Muellers hope will be to squeeze him into disclosing any economic crimes that Trump may have committed as a businessman.
If Manafort refuses to sing against Trump, Mueller will inevitably ask the judge to impose the maximum possible jail sentence for income-tax violations.
That is how the federal criminal-justice system operates. Go after lower-ranking people, squeeze them, and get them to rat out higher-ranking people.
Here is something else to consider:
Have you ever wondered why there are no CEOs of major corporations or banks taking a public stand against the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the rest of the national-security establishment and their forever wars, secret surveillance schemes, and violations of civil liberties???
The reason is this: When businessmen live under a complex system of income taxation and federal regulation (and secret surveillance), they know that the feds can come after them whenever they want, just like Putin and Russian officials do to Russian businessmen who cross them.
The rules and regulations on income taxation and regulation are so overwhelming and complex that it is virtually impossible for any businessman to be in compliance with all of them. Thus, at any given time any large corporation, bank, or high business executive is going to be in violation of some income-tax provision or some business regulation (or have personal secrets known by the governments surveillance machinery). They all know that they are vulnerable at any given time.
That is also why the United States mainstream press is so obsessed with getting hold of President Trumps income-tax returns.
No, it is not just curiosity or envy. It is with the aim of having a well-trained income-tax team scour the returns for criminal violations. And with the complexity of the tax code, the probability is that they would find several income-tax violations that President Trump has committed, even inadvertently.
The situation is even more difficult for businessmen in places like New York and in foreign countries.
Thousands of taxes, rules, and regulations to comply with. No businessman could possibly comply with all of them. Moreover, there is always the possibility of bribes that must be paid in foreign countries to engage in business.
There is nothing Mueller would love more than to find someone who is willing to testify that Donald Trump approved the payment of bribes to construct a hotel in some foreign city.
That is the idea behind squeezing people on charges that do not relate to the supposed Trump-Russia conspiracy. The hope is that the person squeezed will disclose economic crimes of the person targeted, thereby enabling the special prosecutor to go after the latter on income-tax violations, insider trading, commercial bribery, building code violations, or any other violation of the (multi-thousand page) Internal Revenue Service Code or for committing one or more of the thousands of economic crimes that are on the books.
The slimy bureaucrat Floyd Ferris in Atlas Shrugged described perfectly how this racket works:
-"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You had better get it straight that it is not a bunch of boy scouts you are up against - then you will know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures.
We are after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you had better get wise to it.
There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there are not enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens??
What is there in that for anyone?? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt.
Now, that is the system, Mr. Rearden, that is the game, and once you understand it, you will be much easier to deal with."
Another real-life person who experienced the full force of this racket is Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of QWEST. After the 9-11-01 attacks, United States officials were secretly exhorting the heads of various telecoms to engage in illegal activity, including illegally and unethically divulging to the feds confidential information relating to their clients, in the name of protecting "National Security." Nacchio said no. He said that he would never sell his clients down the river by revealing confidential information to the feds.
Nacchio ended up paying a high price for his integrity. The feds knew that they could not put him in jail for his decision, as their counterparts in China and North Korea would.
So what did they do???
They followed the lead of that slimy bureaucrat Floyd Ferris. They found some economic regulation - in this case, "insider trading" - that Nacchio had violated and used that as an indirect way to prosecute, convict, and incarcerate him.
Keep in mind something important: Before 1913, people like Mueller could not go after people for income-tax violations.
That is because there was no income tax and, consequently, no Internal Revenue Service. When the federal government was called into existence by the Constitution, the last thing Americans wanted was an income tax or any other direct tax.
They knew that direct taxes are the essence of a tyrannical system. They also knew that a regulated economy would provide government officials with the power to go after anyone they wanted. That is why Americans brought into existence a free-market economic system rather than a government-regulated economic system.
Too bad for Donald Trump - and too bad for freedom - that 20th-century Americans adopted the type of income taxation-regulated economy system that exists today in Russia and in other authoritarian countries.
Is that not ironic??
Printed here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!