Hypocrisy, dishonesty, lying, and cheating don’t even begin to describe today’s Democrats.
The total politicization and weaponization of the IRS and FBI by the Democrat party is now complete as evidenced by the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home this week and the morbidly obese spending bill voted on by every Democrat member of the U.S. Senate. Not a single Republican voted for this monstrosity.
FBI agents meet on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago after riffling through Melania Trump’s closets.
There are only 27,000 border agents, and Democrats refuse to add to that or build the border wall. But the Democrats voted in a dreadful bill to add 87,000 new IRS auditors to go after you and me. This is in addition to the current 75,000 employees the IRS already has.
Instead of going after the tens of thousands of illegals including drug smugglers, terrorists, murderers, sex traffickers and others illegally crossing our southern border they’re coming after us and former President Trump. In their nine-hour rampage of the former president’s house these government thugs even rummaged through Melania Trump’s closets.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis agrees, saying this week: “The fact that the Left is turning taxpayer-funded government agencies into extensions of the Democrat Machine to do their political bidding right before our eyes should be alarming to every American. These are not actions indicative of leaders in a free republic. This mirrors a Banana Republic. This blatant overreach by the federal government is an attack on our democracy and the American people.”
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott said this week: “The FBI, Merrick Garland, and Joe Biden must explain what happened TODAY – or face impeachment.”
Marco Rubio, our other Florida Senator, echoed Scott’s sentiment saying: “Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from Marxist dictatorships, but now, we’re seeing it from the Biden administration.”
Even if you’re a Democrat be worried, very worried. If you make only $10,000 a year and own a business, no matter how small, and you’re sitting in your yurt reading this by candlelight, they’re coming after you too. If the FBI can barge into the former president’s home you’re small beer to them, a push over. If the FBI doesn’t nail you their pals at the IRS will.
Like FBI agents, IRS auditors are armed and authorized to use deadly force if necessary. That’s scary.
A current IRS recruiting ad says qualifications include: “Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary. Be willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments.”
A letter from the IRS is frightening enough for most people causing them to possibly rethink that deduction of a Denny’s “Grand Slam” while they chatted with a casual business acquaintance on a cell phone.
Recent actions by Democrats make it clear why they want to take guns from American citizens.
Himmler, left, and Garland, right, or is it vice versa?
The Democrat party now resembles the Nazi party of the early 1930s with the FBI’s Christopher Wray acting as Attorney General Merrick Garland’s chief lieutenant backing up the new armed IRS recruits, much like Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Schutzstaffel (SS) did for the Nazi’s Heinrich Himmler. Both the Gestapo and SS were under the control of Himmler, who bears a striking resemblance to Garland. Both are mousey looking, nasty little men, who depend on the muscle of others to enforce their party’s obscene programs.
The FBI and DOJ have enabled the Democrat party’s illegal activities for years. Following are just a few examples.
- 2008 Jeffrey Epstein non-prosecution agreement
- The Russia collusion hoax they participated in
- Spying on law-abiding Americans
- Lying to FISA court
- Lying about Hunter’s laptop, saying it was Russian disinformation
- Ignoring Hillary’s server escapades
- Ignoring Biden Family criminal activity
- Persecuting journalists at Project Veritas
- Treating January 6 trespassers like terrorists
- Going after parents for criticizing school boards, calling them domestic terrorists.
Where were the FBI and DOJ when ANTIFA and BLM were rioting and destroying federal buildings? Where have the resources been to investigate any wrongdoing by anyone on the left? What is the name of the Supreme Court clerk who leaked information about the Dobbs decision and why hasn’t this person been as ardently prosecuted as those who were involved in the January 6th “insurrection”? Why was the IRS’s Lois Lerner allowed to retire with a full pension even after it was proven she targeted conservative groups?
Even some Democrats are alarmed at their party’s thuggish tactics including Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York who resigned following accusations of sexual misconduct. Unless the FBI and DOJ found something huge their blunder is backfiring, propelling Trump into contention as the favored 2024 GOP presidential candidate, among independents, Republicans and even some Democrats who don’t want to see America run like a banana republic.
The raid at Trump’s home is a disaster for the U.S. domestically and in the eyes of foreign governments, who are now looking at us like we do those third world countries that jail or exile their former elected leaders.
The Biden administration is probably looking at this fiasco as a positive since it has been keeping the public from focusing on raging inflation, a stumbling incoherent buffoon in the Oval Office, and the coming avalanche of IRS agents and tax increases as a result of the misnamed ‘Inflation Reduction Act” which is the height of recklessness and stupidity.
Insanity doesn’t begin to describe what’s happening.
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Things I Wish I’d Said: “Always be yourself – unless you suck.” – Senator John Kenney (R-Louisiana).
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The Good, The Bad & The Awful: I’ve been a press spokesman for a variety of corporations, and I’ve volunteered as press secretary for politicians running for office.
My background as a newspaper reporter prepared me for the onslaught of hostile questions I could expect when standing at a lectern in front of a group of journalists anxious to score an exclusive or publicly attack the enterprise conducting the media event.
The job offered an opportunity to fail or succeed in a public arena and I’ve witnessed folks who have done both.
Tony Snow
One of the best spokespeople ever was the late Tony Snow, who served as the 25th White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from May 2006 to September 2007.
Snow, who was a journalist, political commentator, anchor, columnist, and musician, radiated charisma and charm. He came to the lectern fully prepared. When he didn’t have an answer he admitted it and then got back to the questioner. He managed the toughest press secretary’s job in the world with self-confidence, composure, humor, and grace. Sadly, ill health forced him to leave the position and just a few months after departing, he died of cancer at 53.
Currently the best in the business is unflappable Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw.
How good is she? So good that Washington Post antagonist and media reporter, Paul Farhi, in a failed attempt to disparage her did just the opposite by penning the following: “In the 14 months since joining DeSantis’s staff, she has transformed the typically buttoned-down role of gubernatorial press secretary into something like a running public brawl — with Twitter as her blunt-force weapon. Her usual targets: Democrats, the news media and anyone else she deems insufficiently supportive of DeSantis’s agenda and her own conservative politics.”
Farhi’s lame attempt to discredit Ms. Pushaw inadvertently painted her as one of the best professionals in the business.
Christina Pushaw
She doesn’t back down, staying on the offensive General George Patton style, continuing to advance even when her adversaries are retreating in disarray. Her targets include biased and inaccurate outlets ranging from The New York Times and the Associated Press to the USA Today and CNN among other media outlets that get the facts wrong and allow their biases to slant their articles.
Farhi’s feeble Post piece quotes a publisher of a Sunshine State political website as saying that “She’s the Dennis Rodman of Florida politics,” referring to the professional basketball player who specialized in getting under the skin of his opponents.
Last month when a group of liberal media outlets publicly whined about being denied access to the conservative Sunshine Summit in the south Florida town of Hollywood Ms. Pushaw mocked them on Twitter saying: “Liberal media in Florida doomed itself to irrelevance because these ‘journalists’ make every story about themselves & their delusions of persecution,” she wrote. “People don’t want to read your handwringing. It’s not news. Nor is the 500th hit piece on Gov. DeSantis.”
The putrid media garbage Ms. Pushaw contends with is unrelenting. For example, when DeSantis sacked Florida Hillsborough County’s State Attorney Andrew Warren last week for pledging not to enforce laws that restrict abortions after 15 weeks and sex changes for minors, the reliably leftwing Tampa Bay Times described the action as: “politically craven, legally suspect, suspiciously timed and odorously soaked in autocracy, partisanship and bad faith.”
Last Friday, August 5, when the Florida Board of Medicine voted to begin the process of banning transgender hormone treatments for little children Ms. Pushaw blasted the media for their misleading reporting with numerous headlines saying: “Florida medical board moves to block gender affirming treatments for minors,”
In tweets posted Saturday, August 6, she called out the media for playing games with the “Orwellian euphemism ‘gender-affirming care.’”
Under her direction her office recently rejected a DeSantis invitation by ABC’s The View to appear on that show providing a producer a list of vile statements that program’s hosts previously made to smear the wildly popular Florida governor.
Someday this lady will make an outstanding White House press secretary.
Two of the worst White House press secretaries ever came back-to-back: Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre. These two are up there with Baghdad Bob.
While staying calm under pressure, Ms. Psaki was arrogant, condescending and an outright liar. Her successor, Ms. Jean-Pierre, is flat out awful.
Like her boss in the Oval Office, the pathetic Ms. Jean-Pierre doesn’t appear to know where she is or what she is supposed to be doing. She provides answers that have nothing to do with the questions. She reads material unrelated to the question word-for-word from a thick briefing book without ever looking up. She is ill-prepared and easily flustered. Her appearances are cringeworthy. Her only qualifications appear to be that she’s a black lesbian.
I don’t know who is in charge of appointing White House press secretaries in the Biden administration but whoever it is should consider Admiral John Kirby, the knowledgeable former Pentagon spokesperson who is currently spokesman for the National Security Council. He’s smart, articulate, well-informed and can address issues without reading from notes or briefing books. However, since he’s as white as Snowy Bleach and doesn’t tick off any of the LGBTQA, etc. boxes he’s probably not under consideration.
(An abridged version of this commentary is also available on Biz Pac Review at https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/08/09/press-secretaries-the-good-the-bad-the-awful-1271572/)
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Fernandina Beach Mayor Mike “Left Coast” Lednovich advertises why folks shouldn’t vote for him
Who NOT To Vote For: A number of folks ask me for my suggestions on who to vote for in local elections. Instead of suggesting candidates I tell them who I’m casting ballots for. I also tell them that if they want to know who NOT to vote for they should drive down Alachua Street in downtown Fernandina Beach and look at the names of candidates on campaign signs in the yard of admitted socialist News Leader columnist Ron “Get Off My Lawn You Little Bastards” Sapp.
In case you’re thinking of voting for California transplant and current Fernandina Beach Commissioner and Mayor Mike “Left Coast” Lednovich here’s a photo of him a number of months ago marching in a Fernandina Beach parade. He’s blatantly supporting the Marxist Black Lives Matter (BLM) group while it was busy burning and rioting in various U.S. communities as well as beating, robbing, stabbing, and shooting bystanders. He’s either a supporter of this militant anti-American group or a naïve idiot, probably both. The only thing that makes sense in the photo is the red clown’s nose he appears to be wearing. This should be his campaign poster.
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Meanwhile Back At The Ranch: Fernandina Beach City Clerk Caroline Best announced Monday, August 8, that the Budget Workshop meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 9 was cancelled “because the City Commission, at their 8/04 Workshop, reached consensus to move forward with the 2022/2023 Proposed Budget as submitted by staff.”
She announced that the “the tentative date for the next Budget Hearing and Reading of Millage Rate is September 6; Final Budget Hearing is scheduled for September 20. New fiscal year begins October 1.”
Fernandina Beach City Manager conducting the annual budget session.
So, the city staff and its ruling don, Dale Martin, get all the shiny new stuff and new employees they requested, and the taxpayers get hosed. Also, Mayor Mike “Left Coast” Lednovich said he is planning on using impact/capacity fees for purposes that I understand may not be within state law.
Even former City Comptroller Patti Clifford is fed up. She penned a note to a crowd of citizens recently writing: “Clearly, the City Commission is not interested in lowering the millage rate.”
“Bradley Bean did an honest job looking for ways to lower capital spending but to no avail.
“It is very frustrating to see them not challenge a thing!
“Hugh pay increases and adding staff… no efficiencies looked for or expected.
“Adding 3 new full-time firefighters AND increasing Overtime!
She closes her note adding: “Also, the Mayor is looking to use Recreational Impact Fees for very inappropriate uses.”
She said she’s planning on writing to the state authorities about the mayor’s proposal, but she may have to get in line as from what I understand there is already a crowd of folks knocking on State Attorney Ashley Moody’s door with requests to come down here and take a look at the city’s Three-Card Monte financial shenanigans.
She signed her note: “A very frustrated Patti Clifford.”
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More About Rick Keffer’s Favorite Book: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Emmy” award was rescinded when the truth about his behavior became known. Regarding the undeserved accolades bestowed on the New York Times’ “1619 Project”, when will the “Pulitzer” committee follow suit? Debunking the 1619 Project, scholar Dr. Mary Grabar’s book surely will give them food for thought. Naïve News Leader columnist Rick Keffer, who admits he doesn’t do much reading, wrote an entire column a few weeks ago praising the “1619 Project” book saying he is now working with activists to get that load of bunkum introduced to institutions hereabouts including the school system. Let’s hope rationale, well-read heads prevail, and he fails miserably.
Your words and images are wonderful. I enjoy them so. Likeminded.Roz Latimer Simpson
Will,
Should the FBI call the local police if they need to make an arrest? How about DEA or Secret Service. By the way, IRS Special Agents have been assigned to assist Secret Service in protection details and Presidential campaigns. Should they throw their number 2 pencils as the attempted assign?
“Business as usual” at City Hall needs to stop now! City manager needs to go now! For those city residents who haven’t heard it, you might want to watch the video clip of
the city’s Aug 4 budget workshop – appalling is an understatement!
https://fernandinabeachfl.new.swagit.com/videos/178330
Fast forward to ~50 min to hear Chip Ross attempt to make a motion on voting on accepting the city manager’s budget only to be warned by city attorney Bach that the commission doesn’t typically make motions and cannot take action during a workshop. So Ross rephrases it calling it a consensus vote & proceed anyways! I believe this could be a violation of our Sunshine laws. At the very least, It is certainly a slap in the face to city residents because with this vote (decision as it is called later), with the exception of Commissioner Bean, they are telling them they’ve already made up their minds. So what’s the point of holding upcoming public hearings on the budget as required by law when they’ve already decided to accept the budget?! It’s just falling on dead ears & they are as usual going to disregard any comments from their residents.
It’s time for change at city Hall and the time is now. We need true LEADERS now more than ever.
Trump and his Republican sycophants remind me of the character in Breaking Bad, who upon getting busted by his parents for having a meth lab in the basement, cries invasion of privacy in defense of the indefensible. You can’t get more ironic than trying to weaponize the DOJ for all 4 years in office only to accuse the same DOJ of being weaponized against you. Of course there’s not a shred of evidence, but it sure smells like Karma nevertheless. Some things Trump said: “If you’re innocent, why plead the fifth?”. “Only the mob pleads the fifth.” Something Trump did:. Increase the penalty for mishandling classified documents from 1 year in jail to 5 years in jail. You can’t make this stuff up. Pure comedy if it was fiction. Sadly, it’s real.
-Hunter Biden
-Hillary Clinton
-Andrew McCabe
-Peter Strzok
-Lisa Page
-Lois Lerner
-Portland rioters
-Supreme Court threats
But don’t worry, Merrick Garland assures us that DOJ prosecutes cases without “fear or favor.”
Your attempt at making a point falls flat. Every one of the names you list is currently under investigation or was investigated by the DOJ/FBI. What you didn’t have was high ranking Democrats whining about political witch-hunts. Nor have you heard Biden say “Lock him up” despite Trump giving him every reason to do so. Cue the conspiracy theories in an attempt by the Right to explain the highly classified documents sized from Mar-a-Lago.
Another case of the blind, trying to lead the blind… pitiful Dick…
Fred. Nobody at the IRS needs to be armed. Call local authorities if need be.
I was banned from my gym of almost fifteen years, Club 14 because I asked Mayor Mike about the photo and if he still agreed with the organization. He stood up and screamed at me “you are the gyms biggest fxxxing axxxxe”. I said nothing back. Yet since he is acting like a Mayor he was not disciplined. He is not suited for the job. He’s triggered easily. Can’t defend his “woke jump on the bandwagon” follow the crowd decisions.
Highly unlikely that Club 14 would ban you for that.
Here’s an axiom I keep in mind in these troubled times by Senator Barry Goldwater:
“Radicalism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”
Sorry Dave you did not do your due diligence on this one.
There is a difference between an IRS-Revenue Agent, IRS- Collection Officer and an IRS-Special Agent (IRS-CI).
An IRS revenue agent audits taxpayers. An IRS collection officer collects tax money when it is determined that there is a deficiency. IRS Special Agents from the IRS, Criminal Investigation are Federal Agents just like FBI Agents, Secret Service Agents, Drug Enforcement Agents or Homeland Security Agents.
Dave, you referred to an advertisement “A current IRS recruiting ad says qualifications include: “Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary. Be willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments.” This advertisement that you referred to in your article is for IRS-Special Agents, not Revenue Agents or Revenue Officers.
IRS-Criminal Investigation is the third oldest federal law enforcement agency in the United States, third only to the US Marshal Service and the US Postal Inspection Service. IRS-CI serves the American public by investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner that fosters confidence in the US tax system and compliance with the law. IRS-CI not only does its own investigations on tax crimes but assists other Federal and local law enforcement agencies, using the expertise of IRS-CI Special Agents on various task forces. Special Agents are involved in investigation of terrorism, narcotics, money laundering and cybercrimes. Almost all of the major prosecutions in the United States have IRS-CI Special agents as an integral team member of the investigation unit as well as the prosecution team.
Training is a keystone of IRS-CI to ensure safety of the public as well as of the Agents. Agents train in law enforcement techniques as well as the current criminal law and tax laws.
Al Capone, as well as major traditional and non-traditional organized crime, and narcotics violators were prosecuted on tax and money laundering charges by “following the money”, no other agency follows the money better than an IRS-CI Special Agent
Dave and “due diligence” go together about as well eating popcorn and chewing gum at the same time. And the 87,000 additional IRS agents number is about as accurate as a blind man pissing into a 1-inch drain during an earthquake.
I fly the American flag proudly
and will continue to do so till my
last breath. Unfortunately we as
ardent supporters of our country
have an uphill fight on our hands.IE: The media,academia,
most govt.agencies and the now
Socialist Progressive Democratic
Party.For years this group hid in
dark places like the rats they are
but now it’s all out in the open.
Just look at the number of Marxist politicians in Congress
that continue to be re-elected.
Our forefathers are spinning in
their graves at the destruction
of America and what it stands for.Free Speech is an almost dead exercise and will continue
to deteriorate as time passes.
Our only immediate hope is a
mid-term rout in both houses.
This is a must or God help us.
Dave, your blog here is outstanding, as usual.
On the national level, I fear that we are in the most dangerous circumstance since the Civil War. Can anyone think of anything worse than this for our Constitutional Democratic Republic?
Ron DeSantis is leading our state with rational decisions and positions. Some say that some of his moves are “extreme”. I don’t think so, but even if true, I recall an axiom that read something like “Extraordinary action in the face of outrageous decisions is not only permissible, but required.” I don’t mean we should do anything that is illegal, but it’s better to confront evil, corruption and weaponization of government agencies when the behavior is beginning than when it is strong. Ask the Germans and Japanese.
Local government demands local engagement, and I applaud Bradley Bean’s stand against ever more spending.
When I was running some public services with budgets in the $300 million range, my response to requests for resource increase was “no”. If the organization head persisted, I invited a data-driven analysis and comparison to similarly situated organizations, focusing on productivity and per unit costs.
Any leader must have the knowledge to understand the best course of action, the courage to do it or advocate for it, and the willingness to put it all on the line of that is what it takes.
The U.S.Generals leading in Afghanistan and the puzzle palace Pentagon could have said “We will NOT abandon Baghram Air Base, and we will NOT reduce our fighting force until every American, every supporter of our mission and their families have been given the free choice to get on a U.S. aircraft and leave if they wish to do so. Any interference from the Taliban will be treated as an act against our troops and response will be swift and final. These are our orders. If you wish otherwise Mr. President, you must fire all of us, and many under our command who believe as we do.”
If they had done that, we would likely not bear the shame that we now endure for the historic failure in our exit. With the world watching.
There’s a song that says “I’ll be watching you” and unluckily for them, politicians seem to have forgotten that. Whether it was written, spoken, texted, emailed, in a speech, and on and on, it’s out there for the press to bring it back up to remind them what they had said a day, week, or month earlier. We are expected to believe various politicians that they never said something, and we’re also expected to believe that the press made it all up. How forgetful both can be. And how hard it is for John Q, Public to decide who is telling the truth. Lastly, how difficult it is for both the politicians and the press to go back and admit they were wrong….