90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, March 30, 2023

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #2036

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Visage à trois #1341

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #999

Visage à trois #1340

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Historian Arnold Toynbee observed “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.”

It’s hard not to think about this reading the results of the latest Wall Street Journal-NORC poll, appearing under the headline “America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It.”

Only 38% of Americans now say patriotism is “very important,” compared to 70% in 1998. Thirty-nine percent say religion is “very important,” compared to 62% in 1998. And 30% say having children is “very important,” compared to 59% in 1998.

The results that follow from these attitudes are not surprising.

Marriage rates are way down. Birthrates are way down.

In 1990, 67% of American adults between the ages of 25-54 were married. This was down to 51% in 2021.

In 2020, there were 56 births in the U.S. for every 1,000 women ages 15-44. In 1990, there were 70.9.

And, among the births we do have, in 2021, 40% of our babies were born to unmarried mothers.

Not surprisingly, our population is hardly growing. In 2022, the U.S. population increased 0.4%, a modest increase from the 0.1% increase in 2021, the lowest annual population growth since the founding of the nation.

Looking at the same polling data results among the youngest sector of our population, the picture looks even more dismal.

Among those under 30, just 23% say patriotism is “very important” to them, 31% say religion is “very important,” and 23% say having children is “very important.”

What is important to Americans today?

Although 70% say marriage is either “very important” or “somewhat important,” 65% say belief in God is “very important” or “somewhat important,” 73% say patriotism is “very important” or “somewhat important,” 91% say self-fulfillment is “very important” or “somewhat important,” and 90% say money is “very important” or “somewhat important.”

The devaluing of marriage, children, and patriotism and the focus on “self-fulfillment” and money are, of course, signs of a culture sunk into egotism and materialism, with a loss of a sense of being part of something larger than oneself.

It is not an encouraging picture for a country that hopes to have a future.

Our health care and retirement systems depend on a growing population. Stagnant population growth means more and more retirees per each individual in the workforce. It’s why our Social Security system is bankrupt.

Zero population growth means an aging population and increasing health care costs. In 2019, 56% of all health care costs were in age groups 55 and above. The overall burden of health care costs will continue to increase as the percentage of the population over 55 increases.

There are also implications on national security of attitudes that devalue patriotism and national service.

We now have a volunteer military. This can’t work with a population of young people who feel no sense of identity and obligation to their nation.

Again, the results are predictable. In 2022, the Army fell 15,000 short of its recruiting goal.

National defense spending is 3% of gross domestic product, very low by historical standards.

The Wall Street Journal reports our Navy’s fleet of ships will shrink to 291 by 2028 from 297 today. And the number of aircrafts in the Air Force is...

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #999

The IRS Makes a Strange House Call

Democrats are denouncing the House GOP investigation into the weaponization of government, but maybe that’s because Republicans are getting somewhere. That includes new evidence that the Internal Revenue Service may be targeting a journalist who testified before the weaponization committee.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter Monday to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seeking an explanation for why journalist Matt Taibbi received an unannounced home visit from an IRS agent. We’ve seen the letter, and both the circumstances and timing of the IRS focus on this journalist raise serious questions.

Mr. Taibbi has provoked the ire of Democrats and other journalists for his role in researching Twitter records and then releasing internal communications from the social-media giant that expose its censorship and its contacts with government officials. This effort has already inspired government bullying, with Chair Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission targeting new Twitter owner Elon Musk and demanding the company “identify all journalists” granted access to the Twitter files.

Now Mr. Taibbi has told Mr. Jordan’s committee that an IRS agent showed up at his personal residence in New Jersey on March 9. That happens to be the same day Mr. Taibbi testified before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about what he learned about Twitter. The taxman left a note instructing Mr. Taibbi to call the IRS four days later. Mr. Taibbi was told in a call with the agent that both his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had been rejected owing to concerns over identity theft.

Mr. Taibbi has provided the committee with documentation showing his 2018 return had been electronically accepted, and he says the IRS never notified him or his accountants of a problem after he filed that 2018 return more than four-and-a-half years ago.

He says the IRS initially rejected his 2021 return, which he later refiled, and it was rejected again—even though Mr. Taibbi says his accountants refiled it with an IRS-provided pin number. Mr. Taibbi notes that in neither case was the issue “monetary,” and that the IRS owes him a “considerable” sum.

The bigger question is when did the IRS start to dispatch agents for surprise house calls? Typically when the IRS challenges some part of a tax return, it sends a dunning letter. Or it might seek more information from the taxpayer or tax preparer. If the IRS wants to audit a return, it schedules a meeting at the agent’s office. It doesn’t drop by unannounced.

The curious timing of this visit, on the heels of the FTC demand that Twitter turn over names of journalists, raises questions about potential intimidation, and Mr. Jordan is right to want to see documents and communications relating to the Taibbi visit.

The fear of many Americans is that, flush with its new $80 billion in funding from Congress, the IRS will unleash its fearsome power against political opponents. Mr. Taibbi deserves to know why the agency decided to pursue him with a very strange...