Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #119
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
'Build Back' Bill Adds 87,000 IRS Agents, Cuts Money for Hospitals in Red States: 'It's Mean-Spirited'
Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, which is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate, has drawn even more questions about controversial items in the proposed $2 trillion bill.
One of those items is $80 million for hiring 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents, according to multiple sources, including Americans for Tax Reform and Headline USA.
In a statement released on the Build Back Better framework in late October, the White House said "the IRS does not have the resources it needs to pursue wealthy tax cheats." But new evidence indicates tens of thousands of those new IRS agents would be tasked with targeting middle-income Americans.
The White House insists, "The framework will create a fairer tax system through transformation investments in the IRS: hiring enforcement agents who are trained to pursue wealthy evaders, modernizing outdated IRS technology, and investing in taxpayer service..."
Biden and members of his administration have said Americans with income less than $400,000 would not be affected, but House Republicans warn that the House version of the bill noted that half (nearly 600,000) of the expected 1.2 million new audits would target average American households earning less than $75,000, Politico reported.
In a tweet on Monday, Senate Republicans also warned about the increase in IRS audits as the administration focuses on collecting unpaid taxes to help pay for the president's multi-trillion-dollar domestic agenda.
"Build Back Better will increase the cost of living. Build Back Better will raise taxes. Build Back Better will increase IRS audits. Build Back Better is bad for working families," the tweet said.
The tweet also included a link to a document explaining how the President's plan would hurt working families.
The administration has also toyed with the idea of giving the IRS new powers to...
"Internet's On Fire Right Now": Millions Of Devices At Risk Over New Software Vulnerability
A newly discovered flaw in a common piece of open-source software is prompting researchers and companies to update their systems in a bid to prevent hacks and ransomware attacks.
The vulnerability, known as CVE-2021-44228, was disclosed on Dec. 9, which allows remote access to servers and code execution, some experts have said. Meanwhile, Log4j is used in a large number of enterprise systems, raising concerns that it may be easily exploited.
Since the vulnerability, which some dubbed “Log4Shell,” so is widespread and is likely present in highly-trafficked websites and apps, users may also see their favorite websites and apps be impacted.
Cybersecurity firms Mandiant and Crowdstrike said that hacking groups are trying to breach systems, and Mandiant described to Reuters that they are “Chinese government actors,” in reference to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
“Given that Log4j has been a ubiquitous logging solution for Enterprise Java development for decades, Log4j has the potential to become a vulnerability that will persist within Industrial Control Systems (ICS) environments for years to come,” according to a blog post by cybersecurity researchers at Dragos.A cybercriminal can exploit the flaw by sending a malicious code string that will get logged by the Log4j version, allowing the attacker to load an arbitrary Java code to a server. The vulnerability could potentially allow them to take control of the server.
Federal cybersecurity officials also reportedly expressed alarm over the vulnerability in recent days.
“This vulnerability is one of the most serious that I’ve seen in my entire career, if not the most serious,” Jen Easterly, the head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said on a phone call. The Epoch Times has contacted CISA for comment.Easterly warned that CISA can “expect the vulnerability to be widely exploited by sophisticated actors and we have limited time to take necessary steps in order to reduce the likelihood of damaging incidents.”
The proverbial canary in the coal mine was when researchers noted that Minecraft’s servers could be compromised via the vulnerability. Microsoft last week posted instructions for how players could update the...
Chestnuts Not Roasting On An Open Fire....
What If The Deep State Liked To Recruit Pedophiles In Powerful Positions To Control Them? Control Their Votes, Control The Policies, Enrich Themselves And Basically Run The Whole Country...
Saturday night I was down town
Working for the F.B.I.
Sitting in a nest of bad men
Iskey bottles piling high
Boot legging boozer on the west side
Full of people who are doing wrong
Just about to call up the D.A. man
When I heard this woman singing a song.
Lincoln Project Donors Are Bankrolling Liz Cheney
Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney raked in almost $55,000 from the same donors who fund the Lincoln Project, according to a Federalist analysis of public finance records.
After cementing a perpetual feud with former President Donald Trump and Republican voters as a hallmark of her legacy in the lower chamber, Cheney’s goals now seem indistinguishable from those of the super PAC cloaking Democrat attacks as Republican. The shared donor base makes that clear.
According to receipts dated in August by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, a “top donor” to the Lincoln Project, gave Cheney and related campaign committees $21,600.
Billionaire John Pritzker, who has given at least $100,000 to the Lincoln Project, according to Forbes, also gave Cheney $21,600.
As Cheney faces a competitive primary from Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman next year, three more prime billionaire donors of the Lincoln Project also jumped in to help fund Cheney’s re-election battle, including Martha Karsh, Stephen Mandel, and Christy Walton. Karsh donated $5,800 in May, while Mandel gave $2,900 and Walton gave $2,800 in March. While FEC receipts show Karsh with a -$2,900 transaction listed with her name, an FEC spokesman told The Federalist the money was merely reallocated to the general election fund, which the records also indicate.
Mandel was identified by Forbes in the summer of 2020 as the Lincoln Project’s “largest donor,” giving the group a seven-figure sum to take down President Trump and reclaim a Democrat majority in the Senate. Karsh gave the operatives at least $50,000 to aid the effort, and Walton donated...
It's Good To Know That Pfizer Just Bought A Drug Company That Specializes In Cardiac Medicines...
We Don't Need A Big Pharma Rescue, It's Time For Jim Dandy To Rescue Us FROM Big Pharma!
Once upon a time, I went to Maine
Got a ticket on a DC plane
Mr. Dandy didn't need no chute!
I was high and ready to boot!
Jim Dandy to the rescue!
Go, Jim Dandy! Go, Jim Dandy!
Jim Dandy to the rescue!
Jim Dandy to the rescue!
Jim Dandy to the rescue!
Go, Jim Dandy! Go, Jim Dandy!
Free Speech Platform Gab Developing Big Tech Alternative GabPay Payment Processor
Free speech internet company Gab announced the development of a GabPay online payment processor this week, standing to deliver one of the first standing financial institutions of what its founder Andrew Torba has dubbed the “parallel economy.”
GabPay offers to deliver an opportunity for conservatives in the online economy to “spend your processing dollars with companies who share your values rather than major monopolies who’ve hijacked our payment processing sectors. We must first begin to vote with our dollars to cripple these “woke” processing companies while we continue to explore new payment methods that don’t contribute to causes we directly oppose.”
GabPay’s administrators have clarified that building a truly uncancellable financial institution is a tall order, with any project of its kind potentially liable to denial-of-service measures from credit card companies Visa and MasterCard. As of now, GabPay is accepting pre-applications from businesses and merchants, providing them with a means to reserve use of the service. GabPay is promising not to utilize the instant cancellation tactics of establishment financial institutions such as PayPal or Stripe; instead assessing each potential merchant according to national banking standards from the get-go and providing an honest assessment of the ability to provide banking services.
Gab has proved more resilient than competing “free speech” social media platforms, incurring consistent growth since its foundation in 2016 as sites with similar aims collapse under the weight of Big Tech blacklisting and liabilities to the modern-day internet’s hegemonic infrastructure.
Follow Me On Gab: https://gab.com/90miles
Justice Department Moves to Conceal Police Misconduct on January 6
Preventing defendants from telling juries exactly what happened on January 6 is the Justice Department’s latest attempt to cover up pervasive police misconduct.
fter months of foot-dragging, Joe Biden’s Justice Department is preparing for the first set of trials related to its sprawling prosecution of January 6 defendants: Robert Gieswein, who turned himself in and was arrested on January 19 for his involvement in the Capitol protest, is scheduled to stand trial in February.
A week after his arrest, Gieswein, 24 at the time, was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts including “assaulting, resisting, or impeding” law enforcement with a dangerous weapon that day. He has been behind bars ever since, denied bail while Judge Emmet Sullivan delayed his trial on numerous occasions. Gieswein is among 40 or so January 6 defendants held in a part of the D.C. jail system solely used to detain Capitol protesters.
Federal prosecutors accuse Gieswein of using a chemical spray against police officers and carrying a baseball bat. Clad in military-style gear, Gieswein climbed through a broken window shortly after the first breach of the building. He told a reporter on the scene that “the corrupt politicians who have been in office for 50 or 60 years . . . need to be imprisoned.” Democratic politicians, Gieswein complained, sold out the country to “the Rothchilds and the Rockefellers,” a remark the FBI investigator on his case described as an “anti-Semitic” conspiracy theory.
Ahead of Gieswein’s trial, the Justice Department asked Judge Sullivan to strictly curtail how Gieswein can defend himself. A motion filed earlier this month argued Gieswein should not use self-defense against law enforcement as a reason for his actions on January 6. (Prosecutors also stated that Gieswein should not blame President Trump for his alleged criminal behavior, claiming it is “objectively unreasonable to conclude that President Trump could authorize citizens to interfere with the Electoral College proceedings,” a legal torpedo to the Democrats’ nonstop accusations that Trump “incited” the events of January 6.)
“[The] Defendant will not be able to put forth any evidence that he had a reasonable belief that his actions were necessary to defend himself against the immediate use of unlawful force,” Matthew Graves, the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote in the December 1 filing. “Through his words and actions, the Defendant made plain his intent. The Court should exclude any testimony and evidence purporting to assert a claim of self-defense.”
Preventing Gieswein from telling a jury exactly what happened on January 6 is the Justice Department’s latest attempt to cover up pervasive police misconduct. Gieswein’s alleged offenses coincided with the time frame when Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers started attacking thousands of protesters assembled outside the building on January 6.
Law enforcement deployed explosive devices known as “flashbangs,” which emit a powerful burst of light and sound to temporarily stun the intended victim, into the crowd around 1:15 p.m. on January 6, just moments after Trump finished up his speech at the Ellipse less than two miles away. Police also used rubber bullets, tear gas, batons, and in some cases...
Stolen Valor Blumenthal Speaks at Communist Party Awards Ceremony
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| Sen. Richard Blumenthal at the Connecticut People's World awards event |
Event organizers used the ceremony to invite people to join the Communist Party
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) spoke at an awards ceremony over the weekend hosted by a Communist Party affiliate whose leaders used the event to recruit potential members to the organization.
Blumenthal, one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, presented certificates of special recognition from the Senate to three winners of the "Amistad Award," given annually by the Connecticut People’s World Committee, an affiliate of the Communist Party USA and the Marxist People’s World news site.
related:
Trump re-ups attack on Senator ‘Da Nang Dick’ Blumenthal for stolen valor
Blumenthal appeared even as Democratic leaders have downplayed allegations that many in the party support socialist or communist policies. President Joe Biden distanced himself from the left-wing ideologies during the 2020 presidential campaign, at one point bragging that he defeated a socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), in the primaries. Blumenthal used his speech at the ceremony to tout Democratic legislative policies, including voting rights reform, ending the filibuster and the Build Back Better Act, according to the Yankee Institute, a free market think tank in Connecticut that reported details of the event.
Blumenthal was introduced at the event by Lisa Bergmann, a Communist Party member who blamed corporations for the "imperialism that exists in our world that is undermining the labor and environment."
Bergmann and her fellow communist emcee, Ben McManus, issued invitations at the ceremony to join the Communist Party.
"If you are not already part of the Communist Party, we invite you to participate and contribute and join," Bergmann said after Blumenthal's speech. "There's more and more people talking about socialism in this country as it becomes more and more clear that capitalism is not going to work for our future."
"I’m a member of the Communist Party, I love it. I think it’s an...
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