Month: July 2018
More and More of What We Do Depends on Government Permission
The granting or withholding of that approval is a powerful lever over our lives.
Do you have permit for that? If you want to keep that permit, you’d better do as you’re told.
Increasingly, that’s the theme of modern America. More and more of what we do is dependent on permission from the government. That permission, unsurprisingly, is contingent on keeping government officials happy. Rub those officials the wrong way and they’ll strip you of permission to travel the roads, leave the country, or even make a living.
That’s not a recipe for a free country.
In February of this year, the IRS began sending the U.S. State Department lists of Americans who have a seriously delinquent tax debt, so that these individuals can be denied the right to travel overseas.
“[T]his only applies to a seriously delinquent tax debt,” cautions tax attorney Robert W. Wood, “more than $50,000. Even so, that $50,000 includes penalties and interest. A $20,000 tax debt can grow to $50,000 including penalties and interest.”
Passport revocation isn’t contingent on criminal conviction, or suspicion of flight. Your travel documents can be yanked just for the outstanding debt—even if you’re already outside the country.
“If you’re already overseas, the State Department may, but is not required to, provide a passport permitting your return home,” writes former federal prosecutor Justin Gelfand. “And a 1952 statute makes it a crime for a U.S. citizen to enter or exit the country without a valid passport.”
That law requiring a passport to cross the border in either direction, combined with the threat to strip passports from alleged tax debtors, effectively makes the country one big debtors’ prison.
What connection is there between taxes and the right to travel? None. Members of Congress and other government officials just thought they could coerce more people into meeting IRS demands if they made the right to travel (not so much a “right” any more) dependent on keeping the taxman happy.
Not that the right to travel within the borders remains free of government demands. If you take a look at the website for your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, chances are you’ll find language similar to: “Once the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is notified by the Attorney General of Texas, or a Texas Court ordering a revocation, DPS will revoke a Texas resident’s driving privilege for failure to pay child support.”
Texas didn’t impose that requirement on its own—it was required to do so by the federal government. Under the provisions of the welfare reform law passed in 1996, “States must adopt laws that allow them to suspend driver’s, professional, occupational, and recreational licenses of individuals who owe overdue support,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Which means that not just travel but also the right to hold a job and make a living is at issue in a country that now requires licenses of roughly one-quarter of all workers.
All 50 states have complied with that federal requirement, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports, although the triggers for revocation vary. Some states allow for temporary licenses—or allow debtors to travel to and from work so they can at least earn the money to pay the outstanding debt. But that’s up to the state.
Also up to states is the process for suspension, which is administrative with little in the way of due process.
“Arizona law has given the [Department of Child Support Services, or DCSS] authority to administratively suspend a professional or occupational license (such as a contractor’s license) without going to court,” boasts the state’s Division of Child Support Services. “The DCSS may request the court to suspend or restrict a driver’s license or recreational license.”
While the details vary, most states allow for a window of time, from a couple of weeks to a few months, to pay up or appeal the bureaucratic gut-punch. Good luck with that appeal.
What connection is there between licenses to drive the roads and work in your field and child support obligations? Again, none. They’re just a handy lever to extract compliance from the population without too much muss and fuss. They’re such a handy lever, in fact, that government officials have succumbed to the temptation to extend their use.
“[I]n 19 states, government agencies can seize state-issued professional licenses from residents who default on their educational debts,” The New York Times reported last fall. “Another state, South Dakota, suspends driver’s licenses, making it nearly impossible for people to get to work.”
As with revoking passports to extract tax payments and denying licenses to collect child support, stripping licenses from people who fall behind on student loans involves administrative procedures with limited due process. It also, finally, may be a bit much for even some politicians.
“Difficulty repaying a student loan debt should not threaten a graduate’s job. It makes no sense to revoke a professional license from someone who is trying to pay their student loans,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). He and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced a bipartisan bill to “prevent states from suspending, revoking or denying state professional licenses solely because borrowers are behind on their federal student loan payments.”
Assuming the bill passes, that’s great as far as it goes. But it doesn’t solve the underlying problem: Too many activities—a growing number—have quietly transformed from rights that we quietly exercise at will into privileges requiring state approval.
“As a general rule, until 1941, U.S. citizens were not required to have a passport for travel abroad,” the National Archives report.
Assuming the bill passes, that’s great as far as it goes. But it doesn’t solve the underlying problem: Too many activities—a growing number—have quietly transformed from rights that we quietly exercise at will into privileges requiring state approval.
“As a general rule, until 1941, U.S. citizens were not required to have a passport for travel abroad,” the National Archives report.
On a similar note, only about 5 percent of American workers needed licenses to do their jobs in the 1950s.
And, “In 1930, only 24 states required a license to drive a car and just 15 states had mandatory driver’s exams. South Dakota was the last state to begin issuing licenses (without exams), in 1954,” the History Channel tells us.
Those bureaucratic developments, all justified as improvements in safety and national security, put people increasingly under the thumbs of government officials and make us incredibly vulnerable to pressures and penalties that are entirely unrelated to our supposed transgressions. Get on the wrong side of a vindictive official or a mindless bureaucracy, and you’re effectively subject to house arrest and an economic knee-capping.
Such government control over vast areas of our lives makes it very difficult to pretend that we’re free. Free people don’t fret that they may lose government permission to work and travel.
Photo Credit: Ingram Publishing/Newscom
One of the Best Westerns ever put out by Hollyweird!
Attachments area
YUBA CITY (CBS13) – A Yuba City man says law enforcement confiscated his money but he didn’t commit a crime. Now he’s fighting to get back tens of thousands of dollars.
Yuba City resident Josh Gingerich buys and flips trucks. A recent buying trip to do that cost him a bag of cash which was seized by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) drug interdiction task force at O’Hare Airport.
Yuba City resident Josh Gingerich buys and flips trucks. A recent buying trip to do that cost him a bag of cash which was seized by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) drug interdiction task force at O’Hare Airport.
“A little over 29 grand,” the amount taken said Gingerich who was not arrested and did not break any laws. “No marijuana, no drugs.”
He believes an airport TSA agent saw the money in his backpack and tipped off the DEA.
“They take you down to a dingy basement room,” said Gingerich. “No cameras…no nothing.”
Gingerich said he was set up by the officers who he says claimed to smell marijuana on a plastic bag filled with dirty laundry in his backpack. He said officers dumped the clothes, filled the bag with cash, then brought it to the drug dog.
“They can just do what they want,” said Gingerich.
Within the United States, it is legal to carry cash, says Benjamin Ruddell of the ACLU.
“There’s no prohibition on carrying cash, or carrying a large amount of cash,” said Ruddell who points out what they believe is flawed with the DEA Civil Asset Forfeiture Program.
“If the purpose of this is to disrupt illegal drug activity…we’d see some of these people be arrested,” said Ruddell.
Last March, the U.S. Justice Department Inspector General released a report saying from 2007–2016, the DEA seized $3.2 billion with zero convictions tied to this money.
“It should be against the law,” said Gingerich.
Gingerich also questions whose being given this seizure power. In his case, there was a Chicago police officer working on the DEA drug interdiction team. The officer has at least 27 Chicago Police Department complaints. He was cleared on all but one. Six of the 27 were for illegal searches. He has also been sued, resulting in two settlements involving bad searches and a bad drug arrest.
This happened to Gingerich in February, and he hired Attorney Michael Schmiege to get his money back.
“It’s not a quick and easy process. It’s not like traffic court. It can drag on for years,” said Schmiege.
Schmiege also says drug dogs often hit on the money.
“Most United States currency has trace amounts of narcotics on it,” said Schmiege.
Another twist is that Gingerich lives in California, where marijuana is legal.
“You’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty,” said Gingerich who wants his money back and interest too.
If Gingerich fails to get his money, it will be divided up between the federal government and local police on the task force.
The ACLU says Illinois gets $20 million to $30 million a year from these seizures.
DEA Statement: “The Asset Forfeiture Program aims to employ asset forfeiture powers in a manner that enhances public safety and security. This is accomplished by removing the proceeds of crime and other assets relied upon by criminals and their associates to perpetuate their criminal activity against our society. Asset forfeiture has the power to disrupt or dismantle criminal organizations that would continue to function if we only convicted and incarcerated specific individuals. Seizures made during the course of interdiction operations do not rely on only one fact when determining probable cause. Multiple facts, circumstances, statements and other factors go into the decision to seize an asset. These must be taken as a whole in order to understand the probable cause for a seizure, each of which, has a process for contesting available to them.”
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So be careful out there Folks as there are a lot of thieves out there! Grumpy
Categories
A M-1 Garand up for sale
Lot 1362: Springfield Armory John Garand Presentation M1-Garand
Item Views
4403
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Serial #
Manufacturer
Springfield Armory U.S.
Model
M1-Garand
Type
Rifle
Gauge
30-06
Catalog Page
156
Barrel
24 inch round
Finish
blue
Grip
Stock
walnut
Class
Curio & Relic Long Gun
Rating
See Condition
Description
This is absolutely the apex of any advanced M1 Garand rifle collection or any high end martial arms collection. This is the exact, original M1 Garand milestone serial number “1000000” that was authorized for presentation to John C. Garand and given to him at his retirement ceremony on April 30th, 1953, at the Kimball Hotel in Springfield, Mass. It was manufactured in November of 1942. The name John C. Garand needs no introduction to anyone that is remotely familiar to the U.S. martial firearms or any WWII historical facts. Every Army, USMC, Navy and Air Force veteran from WWII through Vietnam and well beyond intimately knows how wonderful and significant this rifle design was and that it ultimately helped save the United States, Europe, and the free world during WWII. His rifle design and U.S. Government service work was so significant that the M1 Garand is still in use by thousands of collectors and rifle enthusiasts who flock to Camp Perry for the annual High Power rifle matches today that bear his name. The M1 is highly regarded as one of the most prolific and collectible rifles, even today, almost 80 years after its development. This beautiful rifle is pictured and described in the book “The M1 Garand rifle” by Canfield on pages 815-822. During his lifetime, John Garand only received his standard government salary, selflessly allowing the U.S. Government to manufacture these rifles with no royalty payments. An included letter from Dorothy Jerome of Helena, Montana, expressed her wish to contribute to Garand’s “share of what is due…for his invention of the M1” by personally sending Garand a check for $1.00. The check is uncashed.
In 1973, the U.S. Congress introduced a bill to award Garand $100,000 for his service related to the development of the M1. The bill did not pass. This rifle was manufactured in early Oct/Nov 1942. It has the standard receiver markings over serial number “100000”.
The barrel is stamped on the side “S-A-10-42.” The rifle has the following correct parts: op rod (“D35382-6 SA,” unmodified), bolt (“D28287-12/A8W”), trigger housing (“D28290-8-SA”), milled trigger guard and hammer (“C-46008-3 SA”), and all internal action parts. It is fitted with a WWII narrow gas cylinder, front sight with the screw cover intact, the round top gas cylinder lock, single slot gas plug, and a set of the WWII locking bar rear sights.
The rifle is mounted in the most beautiful, highly figured, regular production M1 Garand stock and handguard sets we have ever seen. It has full fiddleback/flame figure from the front of the handguard to the buttplate.
The stock has a faint boxed “SA” cartouche followed by a faint cross-cannon inspection/acceptance proof. This beautiful and historic rifle comes with its original inscribed walnut presentation/display case that measures 9 x 46 inches and has a green felt interior.
The top of the lid has a small brass plaque that reads: “PRESENTED TO/JOHN C. GARAND/BY AUTHORITY OF/THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY/ROBERT T. STEVENS/APRIL 30, 1953”. It comes with a presentation silver plated clip inscribed “SPRING DIVISION/BORG-WARNER CORP.” and “John Garand/April 30 1953” holding 8 gold plated dummy cartridges each inscribed with a name of an associate (Jack Becker, Adolph Bergetz, Dan Gillespie, Pat Gillett, Jim Niblick, Bill Schumacher, Harry Troendly, and Art Welch), retirement banquet program and photo album, 8×10 inch photograph of Garand holding this rifle at his retirement party, and other John Grand personal effects such as his guest name tag for the Merchants Bureau Breakfast Club, American Society for Metals medal presented in Oct. 1941 with framed certificate,
The Rice Medal for Meritorious Service presented in Nov. 1941 with framed certificate, framed honorary doctorate of engineering from Lehigh University presented in 1949, his Springfield Armory photo ID with his signature on the back, health insurance and retired federal employee cards, Christmas/New Year card with 1923 post office date on the envelope, drafting set, Garand’s induction to the Ordnance Hall of Fame letter, Garand’s bumper medallions for entry at Springfield Armory, and newspaper articles.
This rifle, along with the 63rd NRA President Allen Cors, is featured on the cover of the “Blue Book of Gun Values” (36th edition). A copy of this edition is included and is signed by Cors and author S.P. Fjestad.
This rifle was also featured in “The American Society of Arms Collectors” (bulletin #101) and “American Rifleman” (July 2009). These issues are also in this lot. The rifle won the Ten Best Arms Exhibited at the NRA Award in 2009, and the NRA medal for this honor is part of the extensive archive. One cannot improve upon this!
Condition
Exceptional, as presented, with 99% of the arsenal presentation grade blue/black type finish on all the metal surfaces. The stock and handguard are also like-new with beautiful, full figured, tiger-striped walnut showing no handling marks anywhere.
The original presentation case is also in excellent condition. Mechanically excellent. Just a superb and historic example of a rare one of a kind John C. Garand presentation M1 Garand rifle serial number “1000000”. Arguably the most historic 20th century weapon we have ever offered at auction!