Tag: politics

It’s Been 10 Years Since the IRS’s Tea Party Scandal. Will Congress Finally Act?

A bombshell revelation came to light 10 years ago this week in 2013, when the IRS apologized for years of deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status from right-of-center organizations. Hundreds of groups were improperly subjected to baseless investigations, invasive and improper demands about their donors, and lengthy delays in processing routine paperwork. The IRS’s actions at the time put a severe chill on conservative speech at the height of the Tea Party movement and leading up to the 2012 presidential election.

The revelation set off years of investigations and resignations at the IRS. Yet the agency secretly continued its efforts to silence nonprofits disfavored by the agency’s bureaucrats and political appointees. In November 2013, the IRS proposed new regulations that were nearly as damaging to the First Amendment as the targeting itself.

The agency proposed severe limits on issue speech by certain nonprofits, which would have forced many nonprofits to reclassify as political action committees and publicly expose their donors’ names and home addresses. The IRS also solicited comments on potentially expanding the restrictions to cover trade associations and other groups in the future. After backlash from across the political spectrum, the proposal was withdrawn, but that victory does not change the sad fact that federal law governing nonprofits is no safer today than it was when IRS officials decided they had the authority to discriminate against groups based on their views.

Enter the American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act, the subject of a full committee hearing tomorrow in the Committee on House Administration. The legislation addresses a broad range of election, free speech, and privacy-related issues, including remedies for the IRS’s sordid history of policing speech. The bill, first introduced in 2022 and awaiting reintroduction this Congress, would prohibit the IRS from writing new speech-chilling rules for nonprofits and codify Trump-era reforms protecting nonprofit donors against unnecessary disclosures and warehousing of their personal information.

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San Francisco Repeals Boycott of Conservative States; California May Follow

San Francisco repealed its boycott of conservative states over legislation on social issues on Tuesday because the boycott did not work and raised costs for the city. California may also soon repeal a similar boycott law.

As Breitbart News reported in February, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors decided to reconsider an ordinance passed in 2016 that banned city-funded travel to states that had passed laws like transgender bathroom ordinances. The ordinance also banned contracting with companies headquartered in those states. The boycott eventually expanded to include states that passed voter integrity laws and abortion restrictions.

But over time, the boycott failed to deter such laws, and raised the city’s contracting costs by 10% to 20%.

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

Supervisors rolled back the entire law in a 7-4 vote just one month after the board agreed to exempt construction contracts from the boycott. Mayor London Breed has already said she supports repealing or reforming the underlying law.

“It’s not achieving the goal we want to achieve,” said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who sponsored the legislation that repealed the whole boycott. “It is making our government less efficient.”

As Breitbart News noted last month, California is also reconsidering its ban on state-funded travel to conservative states — a ban that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has repeatedly flouted by vacationing in such states or by visiting them to campaign against their laws and policies.

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Bernie Sanders keeps licking that boot

Gotta say it’s been quite a journey watching Bernie Sanders go from revving up a grassroots campaign that energized young people in America in a way that hadn’t been seen in several generations…to shilling for a drooling bully and, now, a spiteful cop. 

It was clear back in March that Bernie didn’t have what it takes to lead a real political movement in a time of massive uncertainty and political upheaval. He wasn’t flexible enough — and in the end, he simply didn’t have the fight in him. After getting stomped by a juiced-up Joe Biden in the last Democratic debate, he sold out his supporters at the snap of the finger — even as the pandemic was starting to rage across America. It was depressing to watch then, and it gets more and more depressing every time he does it. 

My only comment on Bernie’s total capitulation to the neoliberal Democratic Party is this: Imagine if Gennady Zyuganov didn’t just lose to a clinically deceased Boris Yeltsin in a clearly fixed election back in 1996, but actually went out campaigning for him. Imagine Zyuganov telling all the starving pro-Communist Party pensioners that had been impoverished by Yeltsin’s neoliberal shock therapy to go to the polls and vote for Yeltsin because Yeltsin can be pushed to the left. That’s Bernie. That’s what Bernie’s been doing.

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Prominent DeSantis ally who shot himself dead last year was under investigation for using sold out Taylor Swift tickets to lure teen to his office and show him her breasts – then trying to buy family’s silence

The political donor behind Ron DeSantis‘s rapid rise to prominence took his own life after he was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an underaged teen, a DailyMail.com investigation has revealed.

Kent Stermon’s suicide in December came shortly after the girl’s father turned down a ‘five-figure sum’ in a hush-money deal and reported him to the police instead, we have learned.

The prominent DeSantis ally and GOP donor, who was based in Jacksonville, Florida, was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with the girl, for whom he obtained highly sought-after Taylor Swift concert tickets which he said he’d give her if she sent him a photo of her breasts.

After the girl reluctantly complied, Stermon insisted she collect the tickets at his office – but when she turned up he refused to let her leave until she ‘showed him the real thing,’ law enforcement sources say.

The teenager balked at the idea and he eventually let her go.

She later told her boyfriend and her father about the encounter, prompting her dad to furiously confront Stermon at an arranged meeting at a diner in Atlantic Beach, according to sources. 

It was there that Stermon offered him the five-figure sum to keep quiet, but the dad refused.

Not too long after on December 8, Stermon killed himself just as Jacksonville police were launching their probe into the girl’s claims.

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Attacks on US churches tripled since 2018, often politically motivated, report says

Attacks on churches in the United States have nearly tripled in the last four years, and many have political motivations, according to a new study.

Evangelical activist group and think tank The Family Research Council (FRC) argues that criminal acts of vandalism against a church, among other forms of attacks, are “symptomatic of a collapse in societal reverence and respect for houses of worship and religion.” With an emphasis on Christianity, FRC researched the trend of criminal acts against churches over the last four years.

FRC utilized FBI data for its report, which groups Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox and “other Christians” under Christianity.

The report released earlier this month found a significant upward trend in attacks or “acts of hostility.”

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