Just a question... call it... umm... a clarification:
You folks aren't ashamed of America when you read my newsbites...???
The lack of feedback really does make me wonder.
How can one simply "accept" what's happening to our country?
Yes, yes... I know... "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change..."
Is that it? (Because I know that at least one of my "followers" is an atheist who certainly doesn't "Trust God to make all things right.")
Oh, well...
(*SIGH*)
Anyway... BodyPump at 9:30 a.m.! Newsbiting will commence after I get home!
6 comments:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329067/Congress-hosts-IRS-bloodbath-slamming-tax-authorities-partisan-targeting-conservatives-official-refuses-answer-questions.html
Tempers flared in a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, with members on both sides of the aisle castigating the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups with special scrutiny, and then hiding the practice from Congress. Rep. Darrel Issa, the committee's chairman, said that the committee learned just yesterday that the IRS completed its own investigation a year before a Treasury Department Inspector General report was completed.
* "...THE COMMITTEE LEARNED JUST YESTERDAY THAT THE IRS COMPLETED ITS OWN INVESTIGATION A YEAR BEFORE A TREASURY DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT WAS COMPLETE." (AND THUS... LONG BEFORE THE 2012 ELECTION.)
But despite the IRS recognizing in May 2012 that its employees were treating right-wing groups differently from other organizations, Issa said, IRS personnel withheld those conclusions from legislators. "Just yesterday the committee interviewed Holly Paz, the director of exempt organizations, rulings and agreements, division of the IRS," Issa said. "While a tremendous amount of attention is centered about the Inspector General's report, or investigation, the committee has learned from Ms. Paz that she in fact participated in an IRS internal investigation that concluded in May of 2012 - May 3 of 2012 - and found essentially the same thing that Mr. George found more than a year later."
Neal Wolin, the Deputy Treasury Secretary, also disclosed that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew got a heads-up in March - a month before White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler - that an Inspector General report would soon be issued. That notification, he said, came from the Inspector General himself.
* AND LEW DIDN'T GIVE HIS BOSS... PRESIDENT OBAMA... A HEAD'S UP? LEW DIDN'T BRING THE MATTER TO THE ATTENTION OF ERIC HOLDER - THE ATTORNEY GENERAL? COM'ON, FOLKS... THERE'S "PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY" AND THEN THERE'S "SHIT THAT JUST DOESN'T TRACK."
U.S. Treasury Inspector-General for Tax Administration J. Russell George, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Director of Exempt Organizations for the Internal Revenue Service Lois Lerner, and U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin appeared before the House Oversight Committee, but Lerner refused to answer questions. Lerner made a brief opening statement recounting the recent history of the agency's scandal. Her attorney told the committee on Tuesday in a letter that she would refuse to answer questions by invoking her protections under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Issa dismissed Lerner from the hearing, over objections from other Republicans who insisted that she should be forced to answer questions - [reasoning that] she had waived her right to refuse by offering an opening statement.
* LISTEN... I WOULDN'T HAVE DISMISSED LERNER. I WOULD HAVE HAD HER TAKE THE STAND AND EVEN IF SHE ASSERTED HER 5TH AMENDMENT RIGHT AFTER EACH AND EVERY QUESTION AT LEAST THE QUESTIONS WOULD BE OUT THERE AND HER REFUSALS TO ANSWER WOULD BE OUT THERE TOO!
* LISTEN... I THINK I UNDERSTAND ISSA'S LOGIC. HE FIGURES THAT ASKING THE QUESTIONS PUBLICLY WILL ALLOW LERNER AND HER FELLOW CONSPIRATORS TO COME UP WITH SOME SORT OF BARELY PLAUSIBLE ANSWERS THAT IT'LL BE HARD TO DISPROVE LATER. MAYBE SO... BUT, AGAIN... HOW WOULD THEY JIBE MANUFACTURED LATER TESTIMONY WITH HER EARLIER REFUSAL TO ANSWER...?
Issa then kept Lerner in the hearing room, asking her if she would answer any questions at all. "I will not answer any questions or testify today," she replied. Issa then asked if she would answer questions about her previous testimony before Congress. "I decline to answer that question, for reasons I have already given." Lerner was dismissed a second time and left the hearing room with her lawyer.
http://www.fox19.com/story/22380127/reality-check-exclusive-cincinnati-agent-giving-orders-in-irs-scandal
The claim that the ongoing IRS scandal is limited to low level employees is falling apart.
The six Cincinnati workers we have identified, who sent scrutinizing letters to conservative groups with words including "patriot, liberty, tea party or 9-12" in their names, are Mitchel Steele, Carly Young, Joseph Herr, Stephen Seok, Liz Hofacre and a woman identified only as "Ms. Richards."
But was all of this done at the hands of a small group of Cincinnati employees working together? During Friday's congressional hearing that appeared to be the theme. Now... that explanation just became less likely.
Thanks to two FOX19 sources connected to the IRS, we now understand the chain of command for these workers.
Mitchel Steele, Carly Young, Joseph Herr and Liz Hofacre are IRS agents. Stephen Seok is a supervisor IRS agent. But according to the IRS employee directory that FOX19 has obtained exclusively, each of these agents has a different manager and then above them a different territory manager. (That is important because while it may sound reasonable to the average person that these workers began targeting groups on their own, the IRS structure is designed to prevent that.)
Here is how that works:
When an application for tax exempt status comes into the IRS, agents have 270 days to work through that application. If the application is not processed within those 270 days it automatically triggers flags in the system. When that happens, individual agents are required to input a status update on that individual case once a month, every month until the case is resolved.
Keep in mind, at least 300 groups were targeted out of Cincinnati alone. Those applications spent anywhere from 18 months to nearly 3 years "in the system" and some still don't have their non-profit status. Three hundred groups multiplied by at least 18 months for each group, means thousands of red flags would have been generated in the system.
So... who in the chain of command would have received all these flags?
The answer, according to the IRS directory, one woman in Cincinnati - Cindy Thomas.
Ms. Thomas (not to be confused with Ms. Richards) is the Program Manager of the Tax Exempt Division. [A]ll six of our Cincinnati IRS workers have different individual and territory managers; Cindy Thomas is one manager they all have common.
It turns out Cindy Thomas' name is one we have heard before. The independent journalism group ProPublica says in November of 2012 they requested information on conservatives groups that had received non-profit status. Along with that information, the IRS released private information on nine conservative groups that had not yet been approved [where] personal information had not been redacted. The person who signed off on that release... Cindy Thomas.
What this means for you... consider this chain of command since the story broke:
Former Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller... retires
Joseph Grant, Commissioner of Tax Exempt and Government Entities... retires.
Lois Lerner, Head of Exempt Organization… invokes her 5th Amendment Right to not incriminate herself when called before Congress on today.
Holly Paz, Director of Exempt Organizations, subpoenaed to Washington to be interviewed by members of Congress.
All of this IRS leadership [and former leadership]... [based] in Washington D.C.
Then one level down is Cindy Thomas - the highest ranking employee in Cincinnati in this Tax Exempt and Government Entities Department that no one in Congress is talking to... yet.
http://www.infowars.com/armed-dhs-guards-protect-irs-from-tea-party-protesters/
The DHS appears to have finally found a use for all those bullets it’s been buying. At a Tea Party protest outside an IRS building in St. Louis yesterday there were no regular police – only armed Homeland Security guards.
* FOLKS... I KNOW... SOME OF YOU BELIEVE IF IT'S NOT BEING REPORTED BY THE NYT OR CNN IT'S SUSPECT. OTHERS WILL SEE "INFOWARS" AND AVERT THEIR EYES. WELL, FOLKS... I MYSELF VIEW BOTH INFOWARS AND THE NYT THROUGH A CYNICAL PRISM. BOTTOM LINE... IF I'M INCLUDING SOMETHING HERE YOU CAN TRUST THAT IT'S NOT BULLSHIT. (THE QUESTION YOU MIGHT WANNA ASK YOURSELF IS WHY WHEN YOU GOOGLE THIS THE ONLY HITS ARE "CONSERVATIVE OPINION" SITES - NOT THE NYT... NOT CNN... NOT THE AP.)
Video footage from the demonstration at which protesters...chanted “no more harassment” shows numerous DHS Federal Protective Service vehicles along with several armed DHS guards. There is not a regular police officer in sight.
* YEP. FIVE MINUTE VIDEO EMBEDDED SHOWS JUST THAT.
The St. Louis demonstration was just one of numerous similar protests against the IRS’s punitive targeting of conservative groups that took place across the country yesterday. (Homeland Security agents also kept a watchful eye on a Tea Party rally in Florida.)
* THE ARTICLE ITSELF PROVIDES LINKS..
(*SHRUG*)
The DHS was supposedly founded to protect against and respond to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters. It was not created to protect the IRS from peaceful protesters, but in the decade since its inception, Big Sis has morphed DHS into an entity that polices and monitors political free speech as one of its primary functions.
* YEP! ABSOLUTELY TRUE!
Homeland Security has routinely been caught spying on protesters from both ends of the political spectrum via its nationwide network of “threat fusion centers.” (In 2011, the DHS asserted that it had every right to spy on peaceful protest groups and had been using Federal Protective Service agents to do so since at least 2006.)
* FOLKS... I WAS OPPOSED TO CREATING "HOMELAND SECURITY" IN THE FIRST PLACE. I'D LIKE TO SEE IT DISMANTLED NOW.
* AND SOME OF YOU WONDER WHY I WRITE THAT I'M NO LONGER PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN? REALLY...?!?!
* FOLKS... WEINER... AND THEN THERE'S THE DICK'S WIFE, HUMA ABEDIN - WHO'S INVOLVED IN HER OWN SCANDAL - "STANDING BY HER MAN."
* AND THESE TWO SCUMBAGS WILL GET SUPPORT! THEY'LL GET FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS!
* WEINER... ABEDIN... RANGEL... CORZINE... OBAMA... CLINTON...
* YEP. I'M OFTEN ASHAMED TO BE AN AMERICAN.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-21/thanks-qe-bernanke-has-injected-foreign-banks-over-1-trillion-cash-first-time-ever
Two years ago, Zero Hedge first made the observation that the bulk of Fed reserves (also known simply as "cash created out of thin air") had been parked not with U.S. banks, but with foreign banks with U.S.-based operations.
We followed that with more analyses, showing explicitly how the Fed was providing a constant cash injection to foreign banks courtesy of the rate on overnight reserves which is the amount Fed pays to banks that hold reserves with it, as the bulk of reserves continued to end up with foreign banks - a situation set to become a huge political storm some time in 2014-2015 when the IOER has to rise and the Fed is "found" to have injected tens of billions of "interest" not into U.S. banks but in foreign banks operating in the U.S., and which then can upstream the "profits" to insolvent offshore domiciled holding companies.
* READ THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH AGAIN IF NEED BE TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE FOLLOWING!
So it was our expectation that while if not slowing down its rate of money-creation...the Fed's reserves would at least revert to being accumulated at U.S.-based banks.
No such luck.
In fact as the latest H.8 report demonstrates, as of the most recently weekly data, the Fed's policies have led to foreign banks operating in the U.S. holding an all time high amount of reserves - surpassing $1 trillion for the first time! ($1,033 billion to be precise.)
This means that, as we expected several months ago, the only recipient of ongoing Fed money printing are not U,S, banks, but foreign banks operating in the U.S.
For those confused about the big picture, here is a chart showing the breakdown of cash held by big and small U.S. banks as well as foreign banks, superimposed to total reserves created by the Fed since the start of the Great Financial Crisis. The correlation is 100%.
* USE THE LINK - YOU'LL SEE THE CHART(S)
And just to prove that ALL the unsterilized cash from both QE2 and QEternity has essentially gone to support offshore banks, here is the conclusive chart showing the change in Fed reserves and cash held by foreign banks:
* DITTO RE: LINK
Finally, tying it all together, here is chart showing cash at U.S. banks vs. cash at foreign banks operating in the U.S. At $1.03 trillion in foreign cash, the Fed's policies have once again led to more cash being held by foreign banks than all cash held by domestic banks.
We are confident that we speak for all when we say: "Thank you Ben - insolvent foreign banks appreciate your ongoing QE2 and QEternity-funded generosity."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bernanke-signals-fed-maintain-stimulus-140054253.html
Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that the U.S. job market remains weak and that it is too soon for the Federal Reserve to slow its extraordinary stimulus programs.
* FOLKS... THE SPIGOTS HAVE BEEN OPEN SINCE 2007... THESE PEOPLE HAVE NO INTENTION OF GIVING UP THE CONTROL OVER THE ECONOMY THEY'VE BEEN EXERCISING VIA "EXTRAORDINARY" STIMULUS PROGRAMS.
* FOLKS... THIS IS THE OLIGARCHY. THERE'S NO LEFT vs. RIGHT FIGHT ON THIS. BERNANKE WAS BUSH'S GUY BEFORE HE BECAME OBAMA'S GUY. IF MEMORY SERVES BERNANKE'S RE-APPOINTMENT GARNERED OVERWHELMING GOP SUPPORT AT THE TIME.
(*SHRUG*)
Reducing the Fed's efforts to keep borrowing rates low would "carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery," Bernanke said in testimony to the Joint Economic Committee, a panel that includes members of the House and Senate.
* THERE'S BEEN NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY. WHAT BERNANKE IS REFERRING TO IS THE STOCK MARKET. ONCE AGAIN... THE OLIGARCHY FOR THE OLIGARCHY, BY THE OLIGARCHY, OF THE OLIGARCHY! ALL HAIL THE OLIGARCHY!
The Fed has been buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds since September. That has helped lower long-term interest rates and encouraged more borrowing and spending.
* AND... THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A GOOD THING! YES! UNDERSTAND! THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A GOOD THING...!!!
Stocks surged after Bernanke spoke.
(*SHRUG*)
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 94 points in midday trading.
* FOLKS... THEY'RE DELIBERATELY PUMPING UP ANOTHER BUBBLE AND YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THAT WHEN THE TIME COMES... THEY'LL KNOW WHEN TO GET OUT WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD! FOLKS... FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES WE HAVE A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY RUNNING THE U.S. ECONOMY.
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