Sunday, August 21, 2022

Militarized Federal Agencies:

Militarized Federal Agencies Wage War Upon The American People


The ink was hardly dry on the Senate passage of the deceitfully named “Inflation Reduction Act” before the IRS issued a call for 87,000 new agents to be hired. As many are already aware, the job requirements included a willingness to use lethal force. Lethal force? For an IRS agent? Not even someone in the Justice Department with law enforcement training and supervision? 

As we will soon see, this is not just about the IRS, but for the moment, let us take a closer look at this most immediate act by a justifiably mistrusted government agency. 

Aside from the lethal force aspect, just what other qualifications for this new administrative army will apply? How will these people be recruited and vetted? Are there that many people competent in investigative accounting who are looking for work? Will there be selection based on ideological tests or voting history? What about red-flag-style psychological tests for people actually willing to use lethal force in an audit setting? How many would be able to pass background checks required of normal gun purchasers? 

Imagine a veritable army of Antifa and BLM activists, recruited, armed, and trained by the IRS to go forth and audit. Picture such agents authorized to review every financial transaction you ever made, noting any political or charitable contributions you made, who you made them to, and any other “questionable” purchases made at conservative websites or gatherings. Imagine someone authorized and armed to shoot you dead if you object to their tender ministrations. Sound paranoid? 

What would deter or stop them? The rule of law? A conscience? The Constitution they hold to be obsolete and no longer valid? A Department of Justice that sought fit to prosecute peaceful demonstrators on January 6, but ignored arson, murder, and billions of dollars of damage by rioters in 2020?

Presently, there are just under 181,000 active duty US Marines. Since it is expected that military operations would be conducted under hostile conditions, any force operating in a battlefield environment must provide its own food, fuel, munitions and other supplies. This logistic tail consumes most of the manpower, leaving only about 15%, or 27,000 actual combat troops available. Since the IRS would not have such a logistics requirement, that means that the new IRS army would have potentially over three times the number of combat trained and equipped agents available as does the US Marine Corps! It actually gets worse. 

The IRS 2021 annual report outlines some of the training that special agents receive. This training includes use of firearms, breaching actions, and defensive tactics, in addition to general use of force. Included are a few weeks of training in tax law, investigative methods, how to detect and identify tax evasion and money laundering and how to prove the presence of unreported income.

Anyone surviving the initial audit activities will have the opportunity to present their defense to the tax court – a court specifically for tax related matters and where most decisions cannot be appealed. It is surprisingly difficult to find information on how many cases are won by taxpayers contesting IRS actions.

If all the recruiting and training can be accomplished before the 2022 midterms, this new army of agents could be unleashed on the public, or at least a portion of the public, just in time. Could most of the Republican candidates end up defending themselves from charges of tax evasion, improper use of campaign funds, and other tax matters instead of spending their time and resources campaigning? What about all those conservative voters on whom this new army of auditors descends just before election day? Might not happen, but can we trust an organization with a history of being weaponized against the Right?

This militarization of the IRS is not just a recent thing. An article in the Wall Street Journal in 2016 during the Obama regime, pointed out how the IRS was being armed even then. They asked a number of questions about why the IRS with 2,300 special agents at the time needed over 11 million dollars in guns, ammunition and special tactical equipment such as bullet proof vests. 

The article also pointed out expenditures by other agencies besides the IRS. We will look at some of that next. 






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