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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Category Archives: Legal/Political Columns

A collections of my popular ramblings concerning the law, Natural Law, and political issues. Enjoy!

State by State Guide to Tax Theft Rates

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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government, States, taxes, theft

Too often I focus on the criminal insanity emanating from Washington, D.C. The Empire also has 50 accomplices in the constant looting of your wallet. Martin Armstrong ran the numbers and came up with some informative maps.

Now filter in the State Income Taxes and what emerges is human nature. For all the people who complain about multinational companies moving offshore and then deny that it is tax related and try to characterize that as simply labor is cheaper, need to look more closely. The multinational companies I restructured we looked at the whole picture. Wages were a small part and only one component. What was the amount of social taxation on top of the wages, property taxes in a region, and then the corporate tax. Gee – it looks like the individual is making the same analysis.

The net migration of people within the United States mirrors the same thing taking place corporately on a global scale. They are leaving the highest taxed states and moving to the lower taxed states. Taxes are more than just what you pay, they push up the cost of living because everyone is paying a higher tax rate and raises all consumer goods. I took a friend out with his family down from NJ and they bought ice cream cones here in Florida. The bill was about half that of what they pay at the Jersey shore. I said see: high taxes ripple through everything within the economy raising the price of everything you buy. The net bottom line – taxes rob much more of your disposable income than anyone actually attributes to the government directly.

State-Income-Taxes-768x570

Armstrong Economics / Attom Data.

This report focuses on the combined effects of property and income taxes. There’s an overlay map of the two: red for higher taxes, green for lower. Go for the green, if you want to keep your own.

Note: In some few of the states with positive income tax rates, said taxes do not kick in before a certain income level is reached, or they apply to certain types of income. For example: NH has no tax on “wages” but they tax investment incomes (while taxing the fire out of property).

The Empire Falters

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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America, collapse, Empire, government, James Madison, War

John Whitehead muses over the new, emerging wars of stupidity in conjunction with all the other wars, programs, policies, debts, and expenditures which are pushing the U.S. closer and closer towards fifth-century Rome.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. — James Madison

Waging endless wars abroad (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Syria) isn’t making America—or the rest of the world—any safer, it’s certainly not making America great again, and it’s undeniably digging the U.S. deeper into debt.

In fact, it’s a wonder the economy hasn’t collapsed yet.

Indeed, even if we were to put an end to all of the government’s military meddling and bring all of the troops home today, it would take decades to pay down the price of these wars and get the government’s creditors off our backs. Even then, government spending would have to be slashed dramatically and taxes raised.

…

The government is $19 trillion in debt: War spending has ratcheted up the nation’s debt. The debt has now exceeded a staggering $19 trillion and is growing at an alarming rate of $35 million/hour and $2 billion every 24 hours. Yet while defense contractors are getting richer than their wildest dreams, we’re in hock to foreign nations such as Japan and China (our two largest foreign holders at $1.13 trillion and $1.12 trillion respectively).

The Pentagon’s annual budget consumes almost 100% of individual income tax revenue. If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off, especially when it comes to paying the tab for America’s attempts to police the globe. Having been co-opted by greedy defense contractors, corrupt politicians and incompetent government officials, America’s expanding military empire is bleeding the country dry at a rate of more than $57 million per hour.

…

The U.S. government spends more on wars (and military occupations) abroad every year than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety. In fact, the U.S. spends more on its military than the eight highest-ranking nations with big defense budgets combined. The reach of America’s military empire includes close to 800 bases in as many as 160 countries, operated at a cost of more than $156 billion annually. As investigative journalist David Vine reports, “Even US military resorts and recreation areas in places like the Bavarian Alps and Seoul, South Korea, are bases of a kind. Worldwide, the military runs more than 170 golf courses.”

…

Add in the cost of waging war in Syria (with or without congressional approval), and the burden on taxpayers soars to more than $11.5 million a day. Ironically, while presidential candidate Trump was vehemently opposed to the U.S. use of force in Syria, as well as harboring Syrian refugees within the U.S., he had no problem retaliating against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on behalf of Syrian children killed in a chemical attack. The cost of launching a 59 Tomahawk missile-strike against Syria? It’s estimated that the missiles alone cost $60 million. Mind you, this is the same man, while campaigning for president, who warned that fighting Syria would signal the start of World War III against a united Syria, Russia and Iran. Already oil prices have started to climb as investors anticipate an extended conflict.

Clearly, war has become a huge money-making venture, and the U.S. government, with its vast military empire, is one of its best buyers and sellers.

Yet what most Americans—brainwashed into believing that patriotism means supporting the war machine—fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with enriching the military industrial complex at taxpayer expense.

These facts and figures are staggering and Whitehead shoots on the low side of the costs involved. But he nails it that, whatever the cost, there benefits are nonexistent. Of course,the usual suspects are cleaning up. The rest of us are fleeced, lie to, and in some cases, maimed or killed.

collapse-of-American-Empire3

Not sure what these numbers refer to, if anything. Symbolism, this. Pagun View.

It’s always the internal affairs that bring down great nations and empires. We are no different. The problem is repeated throughout history: government’s run wild; the people are willfully blind. I can’t and won’t give any date as accurate as, say, 476 for the default – even that is speculative. But it’s coming, happening now, been happening…

“America first” would have gone a long way to “make America great again”. Make it just American again. Sadly, these slogans were empty as any and didn’t even remotely materialize.

The good news is that, eventually, life will go on. The average man in the Italian Alps circa 550 lived essentially the same life as his counterpart from 450. The getting there, getting through the end game, will require a little stamina and preparation. If you didn’t pay much attention to the recent past, at least give a little thought to the near future.

 

Nica: Cigars or Surveillance?

10 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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America, cigars, Nicaragua, Russia, spying

I go ahead and call it: Nicaragua is the new Cuba – simply the best tasting cigars in the world (with some stiff competition from numerous countries).

Nica also has a long, sad history of civil strife, coupled with international meddling. The U.S. has been involved for decades as have the Russians. Now, the NZ Herald reports on new suspicions over a Russian facility outside Managua.

US officials are keeping a keen eye on a Russian complex nestled on the edge of a volcanic crater in Nicaragua.

The center, which is believed to be a satellite station, has been built near the Laguna de Nejapa in Managua – the capital of the Central American nation, according to Daily Mail.

The Washington Post reports the local government described the complex as, “simply a tracking site of the Russian version of a GPS satellite system”, but not everyone is convinced it isn’t something more sinister.

“Clearly there’s been a lot of activity, and it’s on the uptick now,” a US official and expert on Central America, told the newspaper.

Other officials said there are concerns the hub could be a “dual use” facility, meaning it could house equipment and workers with the ability to conduct electronic surveillance against American citizens.

From where the compound is located, it offers those who are based there a clear view of the US Embassy about 10 miles away in the heart of Managua.

I have no idea what is going on down there and, unless and until it disrupts the trade from Esteli or Jalapa, I don’t really care.

manuf2

Leave these folks to work. Smoke Shop Mag / Perdomo.

Nations spy on each other, tensions and reasons or not. That’s not my concern. My concern is earthy-flavored smokes. Let me make it clear to Washington and Moscow: leave my friends and sticks alone. Keep your braindead BS in Syria or Ukraine or anywhere else. Don’t make me come down there…

Well, This Isn’t Good

09 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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America, Donald Trump, foreign policy, Putin, Russia, Syria, War

There is good news tonight: congratulations to Sergio Garcia on a Masterful performance at Augusta. One may have noticed a slight lack of color on CBS; they let the azaleas slip for once (no one is perfect, even the National). I guarantee the color will be back next year – along with many, many astounding changes (more on that later [HUGE doings in Augusta in years to come…]).

In Russia, the color is red. That’s what Putin is seeing and how he describes the line Trump crossed last week in Syria.

One of the things that got Trump elected was the fear that a second President Clinton would merely be a shill for the war parties, who would steer us uncomfortably close to armed conflict with Russia. Trump channeled his inner 2000-era W and promised a humble foreign policy. That all went out the window – missile tube, rather – last week.

Vladimir+Putin+Russian+President+Vladimir+Y_IZ_7L-rq0l

Honestly, I would have picked another man to piss off… Drudge.

From The Daily Mail:

The Assad regime has denied it was responsible and the Russians have claimed it was a ‘false flag’ incident carried out by jihadists who want to stir up tensions between Russia and the US.

President Trump infuriated Moscow when he authorised an airstrike on a Syrian air base on Friday, which killed at least six people.

British Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said today it was the ‘right call’ for the Americans to bomb the air base as retribiution for a ‘barbaric, immoral and illegal’ act by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who he described as a Russian ‘proxy’.
But in a joint statement the Russian and Iranians said: ‘We will respond to any aggression’.

The Sun reported that a joint command centre in Syria said: ‘What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.’

The Sun has a parallel story, perhaps most interesting because they dial back the rhetoric on the “definitive” narrative of the chemical attacks. Now, it’s only “suspected”. Next, will be privately written off and publicly ignored.

Right now, this all looks like two things: First, there’s tremendous rah-rah for Trump’s actions from the British Foreign Secretary. Second, there’s militant posturing from Damascus and Tehran. All well and good if it stays like that. Cooler heads might have a chance to prevail.

The British always have our backs. No change expected there. And neither Iran nor Syria have the ability to harm the U.S. in any significant fashion. It’s Russia that should worry sane people. They do have detrimental abilities.

Concerns mount that Kim-Jong Un(well) may have the ability to get one ICBM to Hawaii. Russia can get thousands of them everywhere. They can certainly disrupt American operations in Syria and the Med.

None of this is remotely good and it represents one of the major fears of last year’s campaign. Worst of all, is the fact that there is no rational basis for any of it – not for our intervention in Syria nor for anything but friendship with Russia.

To my previously dejected liberal friends, I say, “congratulations; it looks like your girl won after all”. To my Republican chums, I say, “congratulations; you elected Mr. Hilary Clinton”. To the rest of us, I say, “pray”.

The long odds are that this will all blow over. The short call is that it may blow up.

Developing…

 

About that Missile Strike in Syria

09 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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Donald Trump, Syria, War

Virtually all American foreign policy and military action over the past 120 years has been based on lies and deception (and a desire to profit from destruction). Mr. Clinton’s Trump’s misadventure in Syria last week was no exception.

Speaking of foreign policy, it’s nice to once again have Amy Carter Ivanka Trump providing driving consultations on weighty matters.

DONALD Trump’s decision to rain down 59 Tomahawk missiles on a Syrian air base was sparked by his daughter Ivanka’s “heartbroken” response to Assad’s chemical attack, insiders have claimed.

Trump has long opposed military intervention in Syria – both as a private citizen when he criticised Obama’s intervention in the region, and as President.

But the Republican firebrand is believed to have made his dramatic U-turn after being convinced by his daughter Ivanka’s impassioned response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons on Tuesday.

A source close to the first family said: “Increasingly, Ivanka is having more and more influence over her father.

The feelings… It was all the “beautiful babies” killed that got the attention of the White House. No word of concern, yet, for the other babies killed by the missile strike. Gotta break some eggs I suppose…

There is still no evidence whatsoever that Assad gassed anyone. Of course, evidence is no longer required. The government and the media need mere allegations, sensational or otherwise, and little else. The gullible public will believe what they’re told. Their goldfish-like attention span always expires by the time the truth comes out.

The truth, here, in the earliest stages of the aftermath, appears that ISIS or some other “rebel” group stored crude chemical weapons in a warehouse. These are the people Assad is fighting to free his nation from. The Russians are fighting them too. As part of the fight Moscow bombed the warehouse. Gases incidentally escaped and killed people.

The CIA (likely backing the “rebels” or whoever) knew all of this. Where known truths fail, lies will work. Blame Assad and drop some bombs. Stir the pot into further frenzy.

Ron Paul called it like it is:

“The peace talks have ended now. They’re terrified that peace was going to break out! Al-Qaeda was on the run, peace talks were happening, and all of a sudden, they had to change, and this changes things dramatically! I don’t expect peace talks anytime soon or in the distant future.”

Peace, Dr. Paul knows, isn’t very profitable for the Empire and its owners. The strike was worse than useless from a peaceful standpoint. It will keep the Syrian cauldron boiling. It keeps ISIS happy and busy. It destabilizes the already shaky region. It did nothing to ISIS operations in Egypt, Sweden, or anywhere else. And it risks further needless confrontation with Russia. Some beautiful babies are dead. But, hey, we’s tuff!

Now, if you will simply turn your attention back to the glowing screen on the wall, I think some men are playing with balls. Beer might be advertised.

58e8494ac4618807168b4647

Money for jobs, schools, and healthcare?! That sounds like America first… Damn, even communist protesters get it… RT.

Congratulations. You Elected Hilary Clinton…

07 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

America, Donald Trump, idiocy, ISIS, Russia, Syria, terrorism, War

America is completely and utterly out of control. Any hopes that a Trump Presidency would reverse course or hold position have now faded away. Last night the President lobbed nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria.

  • The US military fired more than 50 tomahawk missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield at 8.45pm EDT Thursday
  • Moves comes just hours after Trump said ‘something should happen’ following Tuesday’s gas-attack atrocity
  • Trump took action after more than 80 were killed and many more were injured in the Sarin poison gas attack
  • ‘Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack,’ he said after launching the strike
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a furious response calling airstrike an ‘illegal act of aggression’
  • US called ‘a partner of ISIS’ by al-Assad’s spokesman who said missile strikes are ‘reckless and irresponsible’
  • Trump says airfield used to store toxic weapons and was the base for the aircraft involved in the Sarin attack
  • Claims that nine were killed, and more were injured, in the strike which has severely damaged the airbase
  • US told Moscow it was launching an airstrike about 30 minutes in advance – but did not ask for permission

U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea

Bombs away, suckers… Daily Mail.

The public, those few who are somewhat awake, seems elated. As of this writing, 65+% of a Drudge poll see the action as favorable. I ask, “favorable to whom”?

Not everyone is happy. Rand Paul cautiously reminded the President that, per the Constitution, Congress is supposed to approve war. A little too late, Rand. This episode, if worth nothing else, proves definitively that the old Constitution is dead and gone. Cling at your own risk.

Nigel Farage, an early Trump supporter, cautioned:

The MEP hit out by warning that those who voted for the US president would be ‘worried’ by his retaliation.

‘I am very surprised by this. I think a lot of Trump voters will be waking up this morning and scratching their heads and saying “where will it all end?”, he said.

‘As a firm Trump supporter, I say, yes, the pictures were horrible, but I’m surprised. Whatever Assad’s sins, he is secular.’

He added: ‘Previous interventions in the Middle East have made things worse rather than better.’

Current UKIP leader, Paul Nuttal, was a bit more blunt: “The U.S. bombing of Syria last night was rash, trigger happy, nonsensical and will achieve nothing. I hoped for better.”

We all hoped for better. Hope in one hand and ….

Vox Day criticized the move:

That being said, I will certainly be disappointed if the God-Emperor makes regime change in Syria an objective of his administration, and I will continue to oppose any military involvement in the Middle East, Europe, the Ukraine, and any military activity directed against China or Russia.

The Russians are beyond livid:

“That’s it. The last remaining election fog has lifted. Instead of an overworked statement about a joint fight against the biggest enemy, Isis (the Islamic State), the Trump administration proved that it will fiercely fight the legitimate Syrian government, in a tough contradiction with international law and without UN approval, in violation of its own procedures stipulating that the Congress must first be notified of any military operation unrelated to aggression against the US. On the verge of a military clash with Russia.

“Nobody is overestimating the value of pre-election promises but there must be limits of decency.

“Beyond that is absolute mistrust. Which is really sad for our now completely ruined relations. And which is good news for terrorists.

“One more thing. This military action is a clear indication of the US President’s extreme dependency on the opinion of the Washington establishment, the one that the new president strongly criticised in his inauguration speech.

“Soon after his victory, I noted that everything would depend on how soon Trump’s election promises would be broken by the existing power machine. It took only two and a half months.”

-Dmitry Medvedev

Medvedev correctly pointed out the attack was both illegal and came within an inch of initiating a real war with a real and capable enemy.

Where to start with this???

The underlying Sarin gas attack is questionable at best. The U.S. media has taken the government’s word verbatim. Still, there is no definitive proof it happened. And, if it did happen, there’s no proof Assad was behind it. And, even if it happened and Assad is responsible, there is absolutely no American interest in the matter and nothing to be gained from intervention. It is not our damned business.

Is this what you voted for? Trump is now enacting the worst fears associated with the Clinton campaign. He’s running headlong towards war with Syria, North Korea, and maybe even Russia – in addition to ongoing actions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and God knows where else. Madness. Sheer utter madness. I advised you all to abstain from the election. Hey, voters, this is on you!

The problem, for us, with radical Islamists, has nothing to do with their activities in their home nations. The problem is with their terrorism in our countries, like Sweden, home of the latest predictable attack.

The solution is very simple: 1) stop bothering these people in their countries, and 2) get them out of ours. Damned simple. And obviously not going to happen just yet. There must be a little more money to be given the banksters and the MIC. You voted for this.

You also voted for the jumbled, same-as-always home agenda. Trump, the businessman and outsider, is working hard to surround himself with more insiders and Wall Street criminals. He cannot marshal the idiots in the GOP, even as they hold a complete majority in D.C. No healthcare reform. No tax cuts. The wall may stall. The deportations and travel bans also stall even as easy solutions abound. A “neutral” budget with no redress of the $20 Trillion (on-books) debt nor the Fed’s funny money. Your vote wasted again.

*In fairness, the man is working to create some jobs and cut some regs. There’s that. Small things, mice among the elephants.

As Vox noted, the real war for the West will be fought in the West. The other side has been fighting for some years now, even as you’ve stared at the TeeVee. All the attacks on all the foreign nations are mere distractions. They garner easy support. Yet, few actually want to fight at home – fear of being called “racist” or something. I hear local Muslims are concerned about fictional backlash from tomorrow’s terrorist attack… The media, the SJWs, and the dullards will lend pitiful support. Madness.

None of our interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere over the past 25+ years have done anything except kill people, displace people, overrun the West with “refugees”, break things, empower terrorists, and waste money. We can’t ever win these wars because there is nothing to win or to gain. Syria is no different except that we risk war with Russia. And, that, we certainly cannot win.

All the while a real war (we must win if we are to survive) rages around us.

I love fun and games as much as the next man; I’m having a blast this Masters’s week. Yet, maybe, just maybe, it’s time to wake up and wise up.

Expect nothing but trouble (certainly no help from) the Washington-Wall Street-Fed-globohomo-MIC-media-GOP-DNC-Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump cabal.

Nothing. Maybe it’s time to revive that letter to Putin…

Yeah, About that Constitution Thing…

05 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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America, Constitution, government, law, Lysander Spooner

Butler Shaffer explains the painfully obvious about the “rule of law” and the Constitution in America:

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops – no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

In case any reader still clings to the platitude that the American political system is based on the proposition that ours is “a society of laws, and not of men,” I urge you to pay close attention to the events of recent years. Political behavior does not exist in abstractions, such as the “state,” or the “government,” or a “constitution,” but is activity engaged in by such men and women who find the machinery of state power a useful device for accomplishing ends that they value. Those who desire to control others through access to the tools of violence that define the state, have rationales to convince their intended victims of the “rightness” of their rule. From explanations such as “God’s will” to the “divine right of kings,” the authority of some to enjoy coercive power over others – along with their subjects’ duty of obedience – is so engrained into the minds of people as to seem as self-evident as the forces of gravity.

…

The Constitution, itself, should remind us that “laws” do not exist in a vacuum, but are the products of human action which, in turn, is behavior driven by people pursuing their self-interests. With legislation created by a political system that enjoys a monopoly on the legal use of force, it is clear that laws are but the means by which some people pursue their ends at the expense of others.

From the very creation of the national government, to how its different branches would act, there has always been a fuzziness as to the meaning of words used in the Constitution. This is due to the fundamental nature of all words. Being abstractions, their application to real-world events inherently depends upon their interpretation. When the Supreme Court tells us that it will have such authority, it is telling us that the government thus created by this document will be the interpreter of its own supposed “limited powers.”

…

CmqcrWqWIAITntg

Tommy Kaye.

Some lament that “we should just get back to ” the system as originally established by the Constitution. I agree that would be preferable to the way things are now. However, it was that Constitution, that stronger central government model, that set in motion what we currently endure. It was a monster designed to grow and concur. And it did.

Spooner observed, long ago: “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

Sad but true. And, at this time, it’s all a moot point.

 

Article 50!

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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Article 50, BREXIT, England, EU, Europe, law

The UK boldly goes where no European country has gone before!

Theresa May will issue an appeal to the country to “come together” as she formally launches the process for the UK to leave the European Union.

Nine months after the divisive Brexit referendum last June, the Prime Minister will officially trigger Article 50 in a letter that will be hand delivered in Brussels.

At the same time, in a statement to MPs in the Commons, she will pledge to get the right deal for everyone in the UK, including EU nationals living in this country.

“We are one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future,” she will say.

“And, now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, it is time to come together.”

Brexit

“Dear EU: Later losers.” Sky News.

There’s still a potential two-years of red tape; the exit process could be draconian. Could be – no one has ever done it before. Whatever it takes, it will be worth it. No Brit can serve London and Brussels.

We could have used an Article 50 in that … what was it called? Constitution… The 1860’s might have been a lot more peaceful.

God Bless England!

Aiding, Abetting, and Going to Jail

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

immigration, invasion, jail, law, politicians

A Massachusetts Sheriff is calling for leaders in sanctuary cities to be charged with federal felonies. They are, after all, committing them.

A Massachusetts law enforcement official testifying before Congress on Tuesday called for leaders of sanctuary cities to be arrested.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson told the House Subcommittee on Illegal Immigration that sanctuary cities “have become magnets for illegal aliens, some of which have violent criminal records.”

“If these sanctuary cities are going to harbor and conceal criminal illegal aliens from ICE, which is in direct violation of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, federal arrest warrants should be issued for their elected officials,” Hodgson said. “Our citizens would be safer if we never stopped enforcing immigration law and if we never formed or turned a blind eye toward sanctuary cities.”

Mass of all places! Hats off to this man. And, if the comments with the story are any indication, the Yankees are fed up with the invasion. Hope, that.

hodgson

A lawman for the law. Amazing. CSPAN

You may recalling reading about this concept and Title 8 a while back. I expounded the same thought four months ago.

Now that Trump is headed for the highest office, it remains to be seen if he will follow through. One sign that he might do so is his pick for Attorney General: Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. Under existing law Trump and Sessions will have great power to tame immigration.

The other side refuses to lie down, even after their electoral beating this month. Their tenacity is to be commended. Like their criminal friends and constituents, their leaders have vowed to evade the law. The mayors of “sanctuary cities” across the nation declare they will allow illegal immigrants to stay in spite of the coming crackdown. Sessions may have a harsh answer for them.

The Senator has indicated he may well use his coming authority to strip said cities of federal funding. He also has a more drastic option at his disposal (or, he will).

8 U.S.C. § 1324 makes aiding, abetting, and harboring illegal aliens a felony:

Any person who …

knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation …

[Or who] aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished…

in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both…

Being a mayor or city official is not an exemption to “any person” as contemplated by the law. And certain circumstances elevate some violations to 20-year felony status.

Always ahead on everything. Read it here, today, or wait months for the world to catch up.

By the way, don’t look for too many prosecutions anytime soon. Republicans, we’re dealing with here…

Is This 1986? Let’s Hope Not

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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1986, Donald Trump, government, Ronald Reagan, taxes

I love the 80’s. I live in the past. Duran Duran, the A-team, etc. There are, however, some things I would prefer to leave in the past. Political “compromise” for instance.

Here’s a doubtful article about the relationship between Trump’s tax cuts, today, versus Reagan’s in 1986.

The fundamentals of tax overhaul were strong some 30 years ago.

A popular president, Republican Ronald Reagan, pushed the landmark 1986 measure. Powerful and experienced congressional leaders shepherded the legislation with bipartisan support. Key players had established, trusting relationships.

The situation facing President Donald Trump features none of those advantages. His party is divided and his congressional leadership is weakened after the health care debacle. Key players are inexperienced. Trump has record low approval ratings. Republicans who control all of Washington are planning on going it alone, without help from Democrats.

Now, there isn’t even basic agreement on what revising the tax code is. Trump is promising “massive tax relief for the middle class.” Congressional leaders are pushing an overhaul that would keep gross tax revenues roughly the same – “revenue neutral” in Washington-speak – while clearing away many tax breaks and using the resulting savings to lower rates, with the top brackets getting most of the benefit.

So much is different; so much the same. 50% or 40% – any tax rate above 0% is too high for my tastes. I may be alone in that thought.

Reagan had been in office five years, a veteran at that point. Congress was run by, whatever else they were, professionals. Other than that, things were pretty much the same: in 1986:

Conservatives claimed and agenda they either didn’t believe in or didn’t understand.

Liberals wanted more government in your life and knew how to get it there.

Millions of illegals wanted to stay for a variety of reasons, most the ancient English would not understand.

Terrorists were just starting to think of America as a target. (Back then OBL was a CIA contract employee….).

Ordinary people loved guns; liberals hated and feared them.

Aside from loving guns (and Duran Duran and Alf) the people were largely asleep.

Nothing much has changed. Therein lies the danger of a repeat of history. We could end up with; a little tax reform (some cuts and some increases); amnesty (never to happen again – just like in 1986), and some more gun control.

Ronald Reagan

1986: Reagan: cuts taxes, raises taxes, bans guns, and legalizes illegals. Yay. AP.

Or, given this generation of the GOP, we could see nothing. And, sadly, nothing would be preferable to the awful, historical alternatives.

Okay, back to sleep…

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Perrin Lovett

From Green Altar Books, an imprint of Shotwell Publishing

From Green Altar Books, an imprint of Shotwell Publishing

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