Yes, H.R.9495 is awful. The claim is that it " terminates the tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organization." But obviously the IRS isn't going to extend a tax exemption to anything they know to be a terrorist front now, and that's without this bill having passed. So the effect would be to cut off nonprofits with rumors against them, or ties to what aren't really terrorist organizations at all. Anyone opposing Israel's actions in Gaza and beyond will presumably be harassed.
It's also a really stupid bill for conservatives to support. Russiagate shows that Democrats are fully capable of playing this game. The next time they're in power, you don't think they'll hassle right wing groups for ties to Russia or the European far right? Please.
2 comments:
How does any entity determine who or what organization supports terrorists? Who makes that determination and on what evidence, I wonder? It's pretty obvious just what's so awful about this bill is that just about any institution or assembly could be targeted. Churches and charities are the first to occur to me but there are so many more groups that could effectively be criminalized - or at the very least be debanked. Who would contribute to an organization that had been charged as such?
I recall the Patriot Act as a huge document was passed without anyone possibly having time to read it through - or even scan the thing. I hope H.R. 9495 won't pass the Senate. I know - fat chance, but it would be very dumb to support a bill so easy to turn against you.
When I read your post this morning I thought of the theory about how The Wizard of Oz was related to the monetary system of the 1900s. Not being sure we'd talked about it before (or if you already are familiar) I found an old article you might enjoy reading. It also discusses how there was no income tax until 1913. Property tax, yes, but not the other.
https://ellenbrown.com/2007/09/11/whats-the-wizard-of-oz-got-to-do-with-money-reform/
(There are other more contemporary articles but this one is the most forthright.)
You hit the nail on the head. The bill is a star chamber waiting to happen. You'll be told that the evidence is so explosive, so compromising to national security, that it can't even be shown. You just have to trust the bureaucrats acting as judge, jury, and executioner. Sure, buddy.
And yes, the Patriot Act is the most obvious predecessor. Ever wonder how such a massive bill with so many crazy provisions was ready to pass just a few weeks after 9/11. It's almost as if it was a security state wish list they'd been sitting on for years, but of course that couldn't be. I wish the people who make these decisions would actually learn from history, but maybe they have and I just don't like what they've learned.
Interesting article on the money system and The Wizard of Oz. It was a big issue when the books were written, and of course has never completely been settled. While these and the Alice books have different tones both Baum and Lewis Carroll satirized contemporary events. Wonder who the Cowardly Lion represented.
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