Two recent stories have caught my attention and seem to be open-and-shut cases that prove there is actual authoritarianism at the heart of the Democratic Party’s political worldview. I would be very curious to see how liberals and civilian Democrats could possibly defend such practices.
The first involves IRS monitoring of transactions exceeding the meager amount of $600 per year by individuals using payment apps like Venmo and PayPal. The threshold used to be $20,000 or 200 transactions within a year, which seems a bit more reasonable.
But this latest change, which was included in the so-called American Relief Act of last year, clearly targets middle- and low-income Americans who are involved in insignificant transfers of cash for various, largely innocuous things.
Why? Why did the Democrats feel they needed to go after such people in order to raise additional taxes? What will such a massive extension of government surveillance of private interactions do to our liberty and freedom? We know Democrats are obsessed with taxing people as much as possible to fund their ever-expanding campaign to centralize government control of our economy and society in general. That is bad enough.
But to hide such a provision in a bill sold as “relief” for the American people suffering from Covid, suffering almost as much from government shutdowns and draconian limitations on our freedoms as from the disease itself, is simply despicable. It just shows how the folks in control of the Democratic Party are not your friend, not the friend of the poor or working class, but are instead abject authoritarians bent on wresting as much control from individuals as possible in order to impose their neo-Marxist vision on the U.S.
As further proof of this accusation, I will quote the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which claimed in a Feb. 7 bulletin that the terrorist threat level to the U.S. is heightened for reasons such as “the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions….”
Oh, sure, they go on to talk about some legimtiate threats and incidents involving anti-semitic violence and the recent, lamentable bomb threat of Historic Black Colleges and Universities, but the previous quote is not qualified to mean only truly extreme threats.
In fact, the bulletin goes on to say: “For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and Covid-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021.”
Get that? Whoever has voiced suspicion of the dominant Covid narrative (including yours truly, by extension) is now effectively a suspected terrorist. Those who even questioned the integrity of the 2020 election, which was wrought with irregularities even if the result was legitimate, are now overtly associated with the January 6 rioters and considered, again, as suspected terrorists.
So, now we have a government who is targeting average Americans who use Venmo to pay friends back for dinner, and who doubt the veracity of government assertions on Covid. This, even though the government has contradicted itself on masks, vaccine efficacy, lockdowns, etc.
Right now, state governments across the country, many of them Democratic, are ending mask mandates in spite of what the CDC continues to recommend. Are those governors therefore also guilty of fostering “false … narratives regarding … Covid-19”? Perhaps the DHS should just take them out and replace them with persons who will uncritically toe the government line no matter what facts or the will of the people dictate.
Does that sound even remotely like the USA?
Final question: is there any way to defend such policies and positions by our friends in the Democratic camp? These policies are coming 100% from the Democratic Congress or the Biden administration and cannot in any way be blamed on Republicans.
If anyone is truly guilty of endangering Democracy and freedom in this country, it is the Democrats currently in power. They want to monitor your smallest financial transaction and label you a terrorist for questioning their narrative.
And to think, Biden was elected to return our country to “normalcy” and restore dignity to the White House. He and his comrades Congress have done the exact opposite and must be stopped via the ballot box and the courts. Perhaps even a Canada-style trucker convoy is necessary, but I shudder to think what may happen to me or anyone who advocates such a peaceful measure given the mentality of our current police-state-like political leaders.
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
I am probably, as usual, late to the conversation. The new IRS law does not apply to individuals. “The tax-reporting change only applies to charges for commercial goods or services, not personal charges to friends and family, like splitting a dinner bill” (Fitzsimmons, 2022). Mr. Hoffman, the remainder of your letter uses facts out of context and adds factless fluff. Legislators and voters who are members and or vote with and for the Democratic party are not moving to authoritarianism, and neither are the institutions within our three branches of government. Taxing the wealthy is okay. Mr. Biden’s statement, ““Nobody making under 400,000 bucks would have their taxes raised, period, bingo” passed all the fact check sites (Annenberg project and more) as “true.” I don’t make that much and if I did, I would feel the same way I feel with my under $50k income, I’m happy I live within a civic democracy where basic services are paid for with my taxes. That’s not authoritarian, it’s democracy working for us. Thanks for reading my comments.
It’s called the Disinformation Governance Board. I feel so much better our government will vet information for us. (eyes rolling) Even the Washington Post noted it would certainly be nice to know more about what precisely it is — and what it will do.
Projection. It’s always projection.
Thank goodness Trey has a new rant to entertain us — I was getting so sick of the multiple “BUT DO YOU REALLY THINK TEACHERS SHOULD TEACH WHITE PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SYSTEMIC RACISM?” demands from Tcher1 over in the Black History Month thread. Asked and answered, sir!
Trail Walking, StrangerTF, and Doon have all responded very reasonably to Trey’s concerns about having to report cash income on your taxes. What a funny thing to be concerned about! (This is so obviously targeted at small businesses that hide their cash income, some multi-level-marketing companies are warning their “distributors” to have customers clearly mark their payment for products as “dinner” in their Venmo, Cash and Zelle apps so they won’t be taxed for this income!) I don’t think Trey needs to worry this is a sign of totalitarianism!
But regarding this:
“In fact, the bulletin goes on to say: ‘For example, there is widespread online proliferation of false or misleading narratives regarding unsubstantiated widespread election fraud and Covid-19. Grievances associated with these themes inspired violent extremist attacks during 2021’.”
It’s not totalitarian to want to save lives by stoppering, as much as possible, the flow of COVID misinformation and lies about the election! Trey feels targeted because, despite being vaccinated himself, he continues to spread misinformation about the vaccine and the effects of COVID. (Just see his last letter about the imaginary “COVID Industrial Complex” or his previous “Galileo v COVID.” Trey is part of the problem!)
But the only thing happening here, by Trey’s own reporting, is that the Dept of Homeland Security said a threat level could be heightened because of the proliferation of false or misleading information (which has been linked to previous unrest). Um … why would that cause alarm, that the DHS is staying on top of terrorist threats? That’s kind of their job. Trey would like it if the DHS only examined potential leftist terror threats, not right-wing ones, I guess …
I wonder if Trey’s family members are ever embarrassed by his silliness – or do they go along just to get along.
$600 has been the reporting threshold for good and services transactions for 1099 contractors (and especially lawyers, because they get a special requirement for 1099 reporting). The law was clarified to include reporting goods and services transactions issued by payment providers.
Should congress not update laws to address advances in the world? Or would you be happier if we returned to a society where certain people should not be allowed to vote?
So, this week Trey is aggrieved by being personally identified as a terrorist by the authoritarian Democratic state, even though he has not been labeled a terrorist and the Democratic state is not authoritarian. The jump in logic to arrive at his conclusion requires mental gymnastics worthy of Marjorie Greene or Alexandria Cortez.
The Department of Homeland Security transparently declares that it will monitor domestic terrorist threats like the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 – a riot that both Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy have confirmed was a violent insurrection. Where might those groups congregate? Maybe a good place to look is at online postings of election outcome deniers who largely overlap the vaccine misinformation purveyors. I’m sure the DHS is also monitoring Antifa and paramilitary sites just as eagerly. No security agency wants to be caught unaware when violence breaks out on its watch. Apparently, Trey never heeded his mother’s advice to avoid hanging around shady characters lest you be identified with them.
And the chants of “Lock him/her up” are a staple of the authoritarian president’s Republican rallies, not the Democrats.
I posit that Hoffman is comfortably safe until disseminating paranoia and logic-deficient arguments are codified as criminal offenses.
I’m neutral on the subject because I don’t know all the facts. I understand there was immense backlash from financial institutions because of the significant regulatory implications and the cost/difficulty of compliance. Furthermore I understand many have argued about privacy concerns given the recent unethical behavior of the IRS targeting various legitimate political groups.
Sounds like the GOP found an opportunity to oppose a Democrat initiative. Both parties are extremely guilty of this disease of party-line voting and unwillingness to compromise. If party A proposes something, party B doesn’t really care about the potential benefit of the legislation. They simply MUST oppose it to ensure part A doesn’t get a win. This is my observation, maybe there are behind the scenes negations taking place that our inept media fails to report. <—stories of compromise doesn't equate to higher viewership thus no change in corporate profits?
Again, no opinion on the $600 reporting requirement. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad. Don't know. Just disgusted by the inability of our politicians to consider compromise before declaring political war.
Trey, the IRS change with regards to payment apps that you mention is not a tax change, but it’s a reporting change. Personal transactions (non-business) are not considered taxable. The aim of the new provision is to clamp down on unreported “taxable” income. So, the only people who should be worried about the reporting rule change are actually those who weren’t reporting some or all of their business income in the first place. Trey, me thinks you worry too much, but then …
And lest we forget one year after its passage (American Rescue Plan Act of “21), the bill’s economic-relief provisions in response to the global pandemic recession, is overwhelmingly geared toward low-income and middle-class Americans. Upon completion of one’s tax returns this year (another authoritarian act placed upon us – huh Trey?) … most Americans will see continued relief and benefits from this bill.
And despite a polarized Congress and universal opposition from Republicans towards the Rescue Plan, a CBS News poll released the day after its passage showed that 75% of Americans approved of the stimulus bill, including 77% of independents, nearly half of Republicans (46%), and 94% of Democrats. This is a clear example that current congressional Republicans are not really in tune with their constituents.
And I wonder how many of them love this inflation, and supply chain issues that it brought. It bought the Democrats a majority in the senate through outright bribery with their promises of $2000 if GA voted in Ossoff and Warnock, it also moved the line where now a majority (61%) paid no federal income tax at the expense the the 39% that did. Those numbers will continue to grow as the majority votes the tax burden on someone else. 3 Wolves and a Sheep hold elections as to what is on the dinner menu, and then what. Pick a failed communist dictatorship for the answer, as this is what is in our future. When there is not enough people working, and nobody left to tax to support the non-working, along will come the gulags — forced labor camps.
LOL, watch the fall elections for your answer.
Advice on Authoritarianism from a guy who wanted the government overthrown. Got it.