A free country that applies the law in an unequal manner, or uses its laws to punish or deceive its citizens, is destined to fail. One of the things that has differentiated the United States from every other country in the world is our judicial/legal system. The tyrants of the world despise the example that we have set since our founding. Their subservient subjects clamor to be like us. There are two ways their wishes may be answered. They can fight the tyrants and demand a justice/legal system similar to ours. That is not likely to happen. Or, we can continue to allow our government to chip away at, and erode, our system to the point it mirrors those established by tyrants. Incidents of unequal treatment by various government agencies go back, at least, to J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI in the early-mid 20th century. As far as this blog is concerned I will mention only those governmental abuses of the law that occurred in recent years.
In the months preceding the 2012 presidential election, Lois Lerner, the Director of the Exempt Organization Unit of the IRS, was systematically delaying, or outright denying, the approval of tax exempt status for conservative political groups. If the group included the words Tea Party, or patriot, it was singled out for “special” review. It is impossible to know if Lerner’s weaponization of the IRS led to the reelection of President Obama. It would be irresponsible to suggest it didn’t have an impact. As for Obama, he came out solidly against the actions of his IRS. He said it was “outrageous” and that “the IRS had to be held accountable.” To prove his anger, he put Lerner on PAID administrative leave until she retired with full government benefits. No disciplinary action was taken against any IRS employee. When there are no consequences for illegal behavior one should expect more illegal behavior.
The 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and precludes the government from censoring its citizens. But where there is a will, there is a way. Democrat leaders decided if it couldn’t directly censor Americans, it would do so indirectly. Given the reach of social media S/M, and that tech leaders lean far Left politically, they proved to be the perfect shills for shutting down conversation. It was a given that the press/media would turn a blind eye. Knowing those things, our government launched an attempt to treat American citizens as if we are third world subjects. In October of 2020 the New York Post (NYP) reported noncomplimentary, salacious, perhaps illegal, activities involving candidate Joe Biden’s son. Twitter immediately froze the NYP account. That was followed by a similar action taken by Facebook. Anyone who mentioned the NYP report found their SM accounts frozen as well. Government repeatedly claimed it had nothing to do with this action. I am not a big Elon Musk fan, but it was his purchase of Twitter and subsequent release of emails that proved the government was lying. His release of emails proved the government was colluding with social media to keep information from Americans, specifically voters. Unlike the situation with the IRS, it is relatively clear that this collusion had a direct impact on the election. Months after the election, when this info was made public, 15% of those who voted for Biden said they wouldn’t have had they been aware of this information. Biden did not win by a margin of 15%. So we replaced a man who had been wrongfully accused of collusion with a man who actually colluded.
A similar situation occurred during the COVID pandemic. Those who disagreed with the government, including practicing MDs and Virologists, concerning masks, vaccines, the use of hydroxychloroquine, etc. found themselves shut down by SM. Some were threatened with loss of license. This is a blatant case of covert government censorship. The difference is it didn’t have anything to do with elections. It did have a lot to do with life and death decisions that affected millions of Americans.
Only a third world country would lock its citizens in jail for years without a trial. Only a banana republic would withhold videotapes from Judges that would exonerate the accused. The January 6th fiasco deserves its own blog, but it had to be mentioned in a blog written on unequal application of the law. Enough said on that topic.
We also saw unequal execution of the law pertaining to the Department of Justice decision on two nearly simultaneous events. While waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade, protestors picketed in front of the homes of those Justices expected to vote to overturn the law. That is a direct violation of the law. The FBI was instructed by the Dept. of Justice to stand down, unless the life of a Justice, or a family member was threatened. A bit earlier, the same Dept. of Justice, ordered the FBI to surveil parents who were speaking at school board meetings against practices they felt were harming their children. There is no evidence that any of the protestors at Justice’s homes were being watched. Attorney General, Merrick Garland, admitted that as many as 20-22 parents had been surveilled.
For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back on government censorship was the frightening events following the testimony of journalist Matt Taibbi. On March 9, Mr. Taibbi was testifying to Congress about his receiving and reporting on the Twitter files that were released to him and other journalists. Until Elon Musk bought Twitter, Democrats had monopolistic control over SM. Musk’s purchase sent shock waves throughout the Democrat caucus. It didn’t just mean they had lost part of their grip on the levers of communication. It also opened the possibility that their collusion could be reported. So what did they do? They sent an IRS agent to Mr. Taibbi’s house, while he was testifying. This is unconscionable in a country that prides itself on being a country of laws. Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, and the ultimate head of the IRS sat dumbfounded when questioned by Congress about this egregious incident. She conceded that the IRS rarely sends agents to people’s homes. Yet they did this time. This is nothing more than bare knuckles partisan politics. It is an attempt to intimidate an American citizen. Congress must give Sec. Yellen a very short period of time, days not weeks, to find out why the IRS agent went to Mr. Taibbi’s home and who sent him. Democrats want to hire an additional 75,000 IRS agents. One can only shudder at how many Americans who disagree with our government will receive a surprise visit from one of these agents. All of the above are things we are used to reading about in third world countries.
Every one of us, regardless of political persuasion should be frightened by the above. The examples above involve misconduct by Democrats. That is not to say that Republicans are straight shooters. They are not. It is just that Democrats have been guilty of trying to hinder free speech and intimidate citizens, lately. Remember that J. Edgar Hoover’s overreach came from a conservative world view. As Americans we must defend our right to express ourselves. If we can’t speak freely, we are not free.
I hope you enjoyed reading this latest post. Please tell your friends about it. Thank you, Bob.