Author: admin

Should This Obnoxious Drunk Be Punished for His Political Views?

It is pretty clear that Timothy Trybus broke the law when he harassed Mia Irizarry for wearing a T-shirt featuring the Puerto Rican flag at a park in Chicago last month. But now that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has charged Trybus with hate crimes in addition to assault and disorderly conduct, the government is trying to punish him for his opinions as well as his actions.

During the June 14 incident, which you can watch in a viral video that Irizarry recorded with her cellphone, an audibly intoxicated and belligerent Trybus repeatedly confronted her in and near a gazebo she had reserved for a birthday party and berated her. “Why are you wearing that?” he asked, pointing at the flag shirt. “This is America….You’re not gonna change us, you know that?…You should not be wearing that in the United States of America….If you’re an American citizen, you should not be wearing that shirt in America.”

Trybus did not touch Irizarry, but he got uncomfortably close and raised his voice, notwithstanding her requests that he leave her alone. Meanwhile, a park police officer who has since resigned stood by passively, ignoring Irizarry’s pleas for help, although he did ultimately tell Trybus to “shut the fuck up.”

The initial charges against Trybus seem to fit his behavior. Under Illinois law, someone commits assault when he “knowingly engages in conduct which places another in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery.” Disorderly conduct includes “any act” committed “in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace.” Both offenses are Class C misdemeanors, punishable by a fine of up to $1,500 and up to 30 days in jail. By contrast, the hate crime charges filed last week, taking into account the enhancement for offenses committed in a public park, are Class 3 felonies, punishable by two to five years in prison.

The hate crime provision applies when someone commits any of several offenses, including assault and disorderly conduct, “by reason of the actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals.” In this case, the allegation presumably is that Trybus harassed Irizarry at least partly because of her race, color, or ancestry, which seems like a reasonable supposition.

But even if that’s true, it’s hard to deny that Trybus faces the possibility of years rather than weeks behind bars because of the views he expressed about the propriety of displaying the Puerto Rican flag. If he had instead objected to T-shirt advocating marijuana legalization or Donald Trump’s impeachment, he might still have been arrested for assault and disorderly conduct, but he would not be charged with felonies. The subject he chose and the position he took were crucial in determining the penalties he now faces.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who joined Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia and the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Illinois in calling for hate crime charges against Trybus, made it clear that the goal is to emphasize that certain opinions are beyond the pale and should never be publicly aired. “People have to learn there are consequences, especially in the era of Trump,” Gutierrez told the Chicago Tribune. “I really do believe there are people who say to themselves, ‘If Trump can do it, I can do it. Why can’t I go out there and say the things the president says?'”

Gutierrez, in other words, hopes the threat of prison will deter people from echoing the president’s controversial views on matters related to race and immigration. That expectation should give pause to anyone who doubted that enhancing criminal penalties based on a defendant’s bigoted beliefs poses a danger to freedom of speech.

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Why Nuclear Energy Is Critical For Russia

Authored by Vanand Meliksetian via Oilprice.com,

As the world’s largest natural gas and oil producer and exporter, Russia plays an important role in setting the global geopolitical agenda. The recent agreement with OPEC is evidence of Moscow’s ability to set prices. However, in another field of energy production Russia captures an even more dominant position: nuclear technology.

The Russian nuclear industry is one of the oldest and most mature in the world. After the end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War, nuclear technology was not only essential for security purposes as a deterrent towards the competing power bloc, but also as a sign of prestige. The first nuclear power plant connected to the grid was opened in 1954 in the USSR. Global nuclear power plant construction in later years was dominated by three countries: France, the U.S., and the Soviet Union.

The demise of communism and the end of the Cold War significantly reduced the development of nuclear technology by the Soviet Union’s successor: the Russian Federation. In 2007 President Putin signed a decree in which a government owned holding company was created to solidify the domestic civil nuclear technology sector. The downward spiral steadily reclined and has turned out to be a resounding success.

The order book of Russia’s state owned Rosatom has steadily increased to $300 billiondollars in recent years. Currently, 34 reactors in 12 countries are under construction while several other states have shown interest. The order book adds up to a global market share of 60% of all nuclear power plants planned or under construction.

(Click to enlarge)

China also hosts an ambitious civil nuclear power sector where the largest number of reactors in a single country is under construction. Beijing’s export-oriented nuclear power technology development, renders risks for Rosatom in the long term. However, despite significant progress made by Chinese developers, Russian reactors remain popular in the Asian country – as illustrated by the recent approval of another four reactors during a state ceremony in Beijing.

Russian civil nuclear technology appeals to a host of customers due to attractive agreements. To many, the power plants will be the first in their history while several locations are in the developing world. In most cases, Russia’s nuclear packages are attractive as Rosatom provides both financing and day-to-day management of the power plants as well as actual construction and the shipping of nuclear fuel. Furthermore, Rosatom offers far greater discounts than its competitors.

Previously, the civil nuclear power sector was dominated by western firms: Areva and Westinghouse (part of Toshiba). The major success of Rosatom abroad coupled with a declining demand for civil nuclear technology in the West, has reduced the flow of revenues for these companies. Westinghouse even filed for bankruptcy, but has been able to reach a deal with its creditors to resolves some of the financial issues.

However, Rosatom – and therefore Moscow – also faces risks. If all plans are executed according to plan, the Russian company will be facing a mountain of nuclear waste, which (in some cases) it is contractually obliged to take care of. Furthermore, the hazardous waste also needs to be protected against theft, with a real threat of terrorists or criminals getting their hands on it.

Moscow’s strong support for national champions in various sectors such as oil and gas (Rosneft and Gazprom), defence (Rosoboronexport), and nuclear energy (Rosatom) is not solely based on financial reward. High profile deals in these crucial sectors also provide the Kremlin diplomatic clout in the countries concerned.

Furthermore, the civil nuclear energy sector is highly sensitive to public perception. Changes in attitude can quickly halt or rollback developments. The multiple methods of electricity production provide alternatives for decision makers in case the nuclear option falls out of grace. The disaster with the plant at Fukushima is the most recent example of the world’s love-hate affair with civil nuclear energy. The meltdown at the Japanese power plant dramatically changed the energy policy of the third and fourth largest economies of the world: Japan and Germany. As a result, demand for LNG and investment in renewable energies has skyrocketed in recent years in these countries.

Although Rosatom’s order book is already impressively full and several potential orders could be concluded in the foreseeable future, unforeseen actions can seriously hamper developments. The high-risk nature of the nuclear energy business renders unique mitigating factors unlike others in the power production business. As the nuclear energy sector is highly dependent on reputation and safety, one mistake or accident could break Rosatom’s winning streak overnight.

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Police Kill Man with Bulldozer over 10 Marijuana Plants

BulldozerPennsylvania State Police killed a man with a bulldozer over a 10-plant marijuana grow “operation” on state lands in Berks County.

The man’s death was likely an accident, but it highlights how recklessly and foolishly police have perpetuated the drug war, even as Americans want to pull back.

On July 9 a state worker on a bulldozer was clearing out some brush to improve hunters’ access to state lands. He saw a suspicious car off the road and called the cops. When law enforcement came out to investigate, the Reading Eagle reports, they found those 10 marijuana plants.

They also found two men: David B. Light, 54, and Gregory Longenecker, 51. Light surrendered to police immediately. Longenecker ran.

The police called in a helicopter to follow Longenecker, but they lost him in the dense brush of the state lands. A trooper jumped onto the bulldozer and used it with the state worker to try to chase the grower. What happened next is a little vague, thanks to police spokespeople’s propensity to describe events in ways that leave out any sort of clear cause-effect relationship. But according to State Police spokesman David Boehm, the bulldozer was clearing a path through the underbrush when the state trooper on the bulldozer told the worker to stop. Then they looked behind the bulldozer and saw Longenecker’s body.

The subsequent autopsy determined that Longenecker died of “traumatic injuries.” At the time of Longenecker’s death, Boehm had tried to float the possibility that maybe the man died of a heart attack prior to being run over by a bulldozer. (Presumably the terror of having a bulldozer bearing down on him, about to run him over, caused Longenecker to have a heart attack and die, right before the bulldozer actually ran him over.)

Boehm also told the Eagle that the police do not think Longenecker’s death was the result of a “police pursuit.” He insisted they were just trying to “locate” him by commandeering a bulldozer and sending it racing into the brush while a helicopter hovered overhead.

That defensive posturing is likely a reaction to angry questions wanting to know why the police responded so harshly to a grow operation involving 10 whole plants. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has trashed the State Police’s behavior, reports the Associated Press:

“We simply cannot understand how a man is dead over an investigation involving 10 cannabis plants,” said Patrick Nightingale, executive director of NORML’s Pittsburgh chapter and a former Allegheny County prosecutor. “The whole investigation was ridiculous. I’ve seen law enforcement take down major heroin traffickers that haven’t engaged in this level of aggression.”

The officer who had been on the bulldozer is on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation.

Recreational use of marijuana in Pennsylvania is still a crime, though Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have decriminalized the possession of small amounts. The state legalized medical marijuana use in 2016 to treat a limited set of conditions.

Light has been charged with felony counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to deliver, as well as drug possession, possession of a small amount of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and criminal trespass. He was released on a $25,000 bail. Jeff Reidy of NORML tells the Associated Press that the 10 marijuana plants probably had a street value of less than $5,000. He theorizes that they were probably only for personal consumption.

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“Surprised” Trader Returns From Vacation: Do Stocks Really “Believe The Fix Is In”?

Last week’s ebullient equity market rally (in China, Europe, and US) after Trump raised the specter of 100s of billions more in trade tariffs left many scratching their heads – especially in light of the collapsed in the yield curve and safe-haven bid for the long-end of the bond market.

As former fund manager and FX trader Richard Breslow notes, after a brief two-week break from the perceived reality of tick-by-tick headline-interpretation:

“Having assiduously read the news and analysis from outlets of record on three different continents, you can imagine my surprise and chagrin in seeing my screens chock-full of asset prices that are either unchanged or ‘happier’ than when I left.”

“Surprised” indeed!

Via Bloomberg,

Years of quantitative easing and sovereign wealth funds picking winners and losers has turned the vigilantes on page one into mere cynics when it comes down to the mundane task of buying and selling.

Do we really think the fix is in? Apparently so. Despite all the uptight people out there, the message, time and time again, is to just go with the flow. It sounds great, but central banks should remember the famous words of General Colin Powell, “If you break it, you own it”.

So if there is no informative value in the traditional risk-on and off trades and everything is ultimately meant to be risk-on, what is worth following for some bigger picture view of investors’ mental state?

Certainly the Treasury yield curve. The 5s/30s spread sitting near 20 basis points is a sign of true skepticism lurking in the weeds of a stock market attempting a retest of all-time highs.

There is nothing innocuous in the inability of duration to command any sort of premium. Nothing else tells a truer story, nor makes the dots more interesting. I for one look forward to Fed Chairman Powell’s testimony later this week. He’ll do fine, I just wish I could be the one asking the questions.

The dollar has had a strong second quarter. It looks like it is running out of steam.

Forget the yen. More broadly speaking, there’s no momentum. I doubt it has anything to do with everyone else gaining escape velocity, nor the possibility that the ECB will take away the punch bowl a year from now by erasing 10 basis points of negative yield. The currency is sitting right on an inflection point. If everything is great, the dollar shouldn’t fail here.

Lastly, at least for today, continue to watch the great Mexican peso rally of the AMLO era.

The 21-long club is now projecting something in a 16-short.

If that happens you can be sure of one thing. It remains business as usual.

However, there is one area of reality in the world, as Breslow notes. Having been away for two weeks, I must say, I’m grateful for the best efforts of Turkey’s President Erdogan.

At least the lira has had the intellectual honesty to cheapen with the story line. Of course, it’s stable today just to play with me. The downgrade was, after all, priced in, I’m told.

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Putin Admits “I Wanted Trump To Win”: Full Highlights From Historic Summit

Talking heads, Democratic politicians and other opponents of President Trump flew into an apoplectic rage Monday morning as President Trump and President Putin answered questions from reporters about their joint summit in Helsinki. The historic meeting contained more than a few controversial revelations, and the media is apparently fixating on Putin’s admission that he wanted Trump to win in 2016 – though both Trump and Putin denied that Russia had meddled in the race to benefit the president.

Putin said he wanted Trump to win “because he talked about bringing US-Russia relations back to normal.”

Asked point-blank if he had collected “compromising material” on President Trump when Trump traveled to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013, Putin said he wasn’t even aware of Trump’s visit at the time, and that there were hundreds of American business luminaries in town at the same time. Collecting information on all of them would have been impossible, Putin said. Trump added that if Russia did have the long-rumored kompromat, “it would have been out long ago.”

Both Trump and Putin insisted that there was no collusion between Russia and the US, and that the Mueller probe is – as Trump has repeatedly described it – a witch hunt that has gone far beyond the original focus of what happened during the campaign.

“There was no collusion,” Trump said at joint presser with Russian Pres. Putin. “I didn’t know the president. There was nobody to collude with.”

“We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president.”

Trump said that Putin convincingly denied interfering in the US election. Asked by a reporter if he would denounce Putin for interfering with the 2016 election, Trump refused and instead asked questions about the DNC’s failure to grant access to its compromised server to the FBI.

“30,000 emails gone – just gone. I don’t think in Russia they’d be gone so easily. Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. He offered to have people working on the case come and work with their people.”

Putin later added that Russia has never, and will never, interfere in US affairs, and that Russia is “willing to analyze” any evidence to the contrary.

“I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs including election process,” Putin said. “Any specific material, if such things arise, we are willing to analyze together.”

Pundits bashed Trump for treating Putin amicably during the press conference, with CNN’s Anderson Cooper describing the conference as “disgraceful.”

“You have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly than I’ve ever seen.”

Meanwhile, Trump tweeted video of the full press conference:

 

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John Brennan Blasts Trump’s Press Conference As “Nothing Short Of Treasonous”

The neocon deep state is furious apparently.

Former Obama-era CIA Director – and ubiquitous tweeter of anti-Trump rhetoric – John Brennan just unleashed the most ‘jump the shark’ comment yet on the Trump-Putin Summit, claiming it was an act of treason.

“Donald Trump’s press performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’” Brennan tweeted. “It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”

Additionally, Brennan called on Pompeo, Kelly and Bolton to resign over Trump’s behavior at presser with Putin…

CNN’s Anderson Cooper was apparently reading from the same gospel, calling the Trump-Putin press conference “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly that I’ve ever seen”:

 

 

 

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Tribune, Sinclair Tumble After FCC Chair Rejects Merger

US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday that he has “serious concerns” about the merger between the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media. In a statement, Pai said that he has proposed sending the $3.9 billion deal before an administrative law judge, a process that could kill the merger’s chances of being approved.

“The evidence we’ve received suggests that certain station divestitures that have been proposed to the FCC would allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law.”

According to many analysts, the proposed move is a step toward killing the merger altogether. In 2011, AT&T and T-Mobile withdrew a merger application after then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a similar proposal to the commission.

The announcement comes a welcome surprise for many opponents of the deal who had been concerned that the FCC was giving Sinclair special treatment.

According to the Hill, the agency’s inspector general had opened an investigation into whether Pai’s efforts to deregulate the broadcasting industry were intended to clear regulatory roadblocks for the deal. Pai has denied that his campaign to roll back media ownership restrictions was designed to help any single company.

As Bloomberg adds, Sinclair, which grew from a single TV station in Baltimore in 1971, is trying to leap into nationwide prominence with the deal for 42 Tribune stations in cities including New York. The purchase would lift Sinclair’s station total above 200. It’s being examined by the FCC and by antitrust regulators at the Justice Department.

In kneejerk response to the news, Sinclair shares tumbled as much as 7.9%, the most since February. Shares were down $1.55 to $31.40 around noon, after falling as low as $30.35. Tribune plunged as much as 18%, with frequent pauses for high volatility, for the biggest intraday drop since January 2017.

 

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It’s Amazon Prime Day! Support Reason by Buying Stuff You Would Have Bought Anyway!

Today is Amazon Prime Day! We’re not saying you have to go buy anything, but if you were going to partake anyway, consider using our affiliate links so that Reason gets a cut. If you’re not already a Prime subscriber, you can get a free trial and if you’re in college you can get 50 percent off. And you nerds can try Twitch, too. All the deals kick in at 3:00 today and last for about 36 hours.

Lots of our readers do their Amazon shopping via Reason already, which lets you toss a few pennies to your favorite (?) magazine while you shop anytime, not just on Prime Day. A pleasingly large number of you, for instance, bought The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin last year.

And shoutout to the readers who bought The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason.

We helped some of your mourn with Anthony Bourdain’s last book, Appetites. Some of you have found that you can’t go wrong with some classic H.L. Mencken. Or heck, you can go all in on some John Stuart Mill.

And of course you can get all of your ordinary life stuff at Amazon Pantry too. Those family size packs of beef jerky aren’t going to schlep themselves, friends.

(Don’t worry, by the way: We don’t know what specific readers buy, just what y’all buy in the aggregate.)

Whether you’re picking up a new space cat shirt or Bruce Lee’s memoir (both purchases your fellow Reason readers have made in past years), Reason gets a little piece of the pie if you start at our link.

Thanks for supporting Reason in all the weird ways that our weird, wonderful world makes possible. Go shop a bit, then come back and read more.

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Make Trade Math Great Again, iPhone Example: Globalization In Reverse

Authored by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk,

Trump’s trade thesis with China misses the boat. The iPhone provides an excellent starting point for discussion.

Supply Chain Analysis

As trade barriers break up, world-wide supply chains, the real costs are higher prices and fewer choices for consumers says Greg IP, my favorite WSJ author.

Globalization in Reverse

Please consider That Noise You Hear Is the Sound of Globalization Going Into Reverse by Greg Ip. I reordered some paragraphs below.

While globalization is routinely portrayed as bad for U.S. workers, the truth is more subtle. Routine, blue-collar jobs do get outsourced but high-end research, marketing and design work gravitates to the U.S.

Canadian steel uses iron ore from Minnesota, so Mr. Trump’s tariffs hurt both. About 17% of the value of Mexican-made cars exported to the U.S. originated in the U.S., according to Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

Beckett Gas Inc., family-owned manufacturer of components for boilers, furnaces and water heaters, has over the years shifted production from abroad to its Cleveland-area factories. By continuously improving its production process, it has avoided price increases and now sells all over the world.

But that arrangement has been endangered by the 25% tariff on imported steel, the dominant input into Beckett’s products. “There are only foreign competitors to what we do,” Morrison Carter, the company’s chief executive, says. Those competitors now have a 25% cost advantage.

Assembling an iPhone entirely in the U.S. out of American-made components would add up to $100 to its cost, according to a 2016 article in MIT Technology Review. This assumes, of course, Apple successfully relocates its supply chain. When, under pressure from the Obama administration, it began assembling computers in Austin, Texas, it encountered numerous quality-control and workforce headaches.

Of course, supply chains that took years to take shape won’t change location overnight. Businesses still hope the protectionist wave burns itself out, and the logic of globalization reasserts itself. But a growing number are no doubt drawing up backup plans that look a lot like Harley’s.

Spotlight iPhone

The Conversation reports We estimate China only makes $8.46 from an iPhone – and that’s why Trump’s trade war is futile.

When an iPhone arrives in the U.S., it is recorded as an import at its factory cost of about $240, which is added to the massive U.S.-China bilateral trade deficit.

IPhone imports look like a big loss to the U.S., at least to the president, who argues that “China has been taking out $500 billion a year out of our country and rebuilding China.” One estimate suggests that imports of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus contributed $15.7 billionto last year’s trade deficit with China.

But, as our research on the breakdown of an iPhone’s costs show, this number does not reflect the reality of how much value China actually gets from its iPhone exports – or from many of the brand-name electronics goods it ships to the U.S. and elsewhere. Thanks to the globe-spanning supply chains that run through China, trade deficits in the modern economy are not always what they seem.

China’s Biggest Exports

​

Who Really Makes the iPhone?

Start with the most valuable components that make up an iPhone: the touch screen display, memory chips, microprocessors and so on. They come from a mix of U.S., Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies, such as Intel, Sony, Samsung and Foxconn. Almost none of them are manufactured in China. Apple buys the components and has them shipped to China; then they leave China inside an iPhone.

So what about all of those famous factories in China with millions of workers making iPhones? The companies that own those factories, including Foxconn, are all based in Taiwan. Of the factory-cost estimate of $237.45 from IHS Markit at the time the iPhone 7 was released in late 2016, we calculate that all that’s earned in China is about $8.46, or 3.6 percent of the total. That includes a battery supplied by a Chinese company and the labor used for assembly.

The other $228.99 goes elsewhere.

That’s it. Of the $237.45 attributed to China as an import, China gets $8.46. The result is US imports from China are overstated by $15- to $16-billion on the iPhone alone.

The Conversation concludes:

Trump’s trade war is based on a simplistic understanding of the trade balance. Expanding tariffs to more and more goods will weigh on U.S. consumers, workers and businesses. And there’s no guarantee that the final outcome will be good when the dispute ends.

This is a war that should never have been started.

Trade and Supply Chain Math

Trump understands neither trade nor supply chain math.

The US is a huge beneficiary of China’s role in assembling the iPhone. As per Greg Ip’s article, the US benefits greatly from auto manufacturing in Mexico.

Trade Math Gone Haywire

In Trump Reverses Course, Promises “Great Trade Deal” With UK I posted this amusing chart.

​

The US and and UK both claim to have a trade surplus with each other. Of course, that is impossible. And it highlights how silly these discussions are. I offered this “perfect solution”.

Perfect Solution

Change the methodology such that trade surpluses and deficits cease to exist anywhere. If anyone can do that, Trump surely can.

My sarcastic comment aside, Trump’s trade math is wrong on numerous fronts. Yet, even if corrected, the US will still have a deficit.

So what?

Make Trade Math Great Again

As I suggested, let’s revise the math to make it work, declare victory, and praise Trump for his brilliance (which is all his ego demands anyway). Then we can stop the trade war madness.

Make trade math great again. That’s all it takes.

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IRS to revoke 362,000 passports from US citizens

About two and a half years ago, I told you about a particularly nasty piece of legislation that President Obama quietly signed into law towards the end of his administration.

They called it the “FAST Act”, which stood for Fixing America’s Surface Transportation.

Yet despite $300 billion earmarked for infrastructure repairs, they didn’t manage to fix very much of America’s surface transportation.

The legislation did, however, have two major effects:

1) The FAST Act authorized the US government to plunder excess capital from the Federal Reserve… which is about as stupid as thing as anyone could possibly do.

The Federal Reserve is America’s central bank; they control the value and fate of the US dollar… which is still the most dominant currency in the world.

You’d think that having some excess cash on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet would be viewed as wise and conservative.

But not Congress.

These guys are so broke, they’ll grab every penny they can get. Even from their own central bank.

So they buried a provision into the FAST Act demanding that the Federal Reserve hand over any excess capital to the Treasury Department at the end of every calendar year.

They started doing that almost immediately, in December 2015. And in 2016. And in 2017.

This is one of the reasons why, to this day, the Federal Reserve is borderline insolvent… which hardly inspires confidence.

Now, I could go on for quite some time about what an idiotic idea this was.

But believe it or not, there was an even worse section of the FAST Act– one they only started implementing recently:

2) Section 32101 of the FAST Act required the US State Department to revoke or deny the passport of any taxpayer that the IRS deems to have “seriously delinquent tax debt.”

They define seriously delinquent tax debt as owing $50,000 or more.

Well, it took them a couple of years, but the IRS has finally started enforcing this law.

Earlier this month the IRS acknowledged that they had sent at least 362,000 names to the State Department to start revoking or denying passports.

And that’s just the beginning.

The IRS is sending these names out ‘in batches’, so there will be many more to follow. They hope to be finished by the end of the year.

Now, there are so many things wrong with this.

For starters, it’s pretty clear there’s no due process here. It’s purely an administrative matter. Which means there’s limited oversight.

Your name could accidentally end up on some list because the IRS couldn’t keep its own records straight. Or there was a problem with the data integrity. Or someone simply mismatched one John Smith for another.

The IRS literally has billions of records being managed by antiquated technology that’s prone to data breaches.

The idea that they could come up with a list of hundreds of thousands of people without making a single mistake is just farcical.

But, again, there are few real checks and balances. You end up on a list… at which point you’re arguing with an entirely different agency about why your passport has been revoked. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare.

The larger point, though, is what this really means about citizenship.

Think about it– a passport is the most common document to evidence an individual’s citizenship.

And… poof… they can take it away from you with the click of a button.

To me, if they can take something away so easily, then it wasn’t really yours to begin with.

It’s like property.

If you own your home… think again. Even if you have your mortgage fully paid off, you still have to pay property tax.

This means that it’s ultimately the government who really owns your property. You’re just renting it from them.

And if they believe (in their sole discretion) that you owe them property tax, they’ll take the property away from you.

Likewise, the enforcement of the FAST Act shows that you’re not even really a citizen. You’re just renting your citizenship from the government.

And if they believe (in their sole discretion) that you owe them income tax, they’ll take it away from you.

Source

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