A Welcome IRS Admission Debunking A Long-Running CtC-Suppression Scheme

Though no one should need to see this in print, it's good to have it that way, nonetheless.

WAY BACK IN EARLY 2014 the fake "frivolous position" list and its "ARG44" entry had emerged as the leading last-ditch effort of an IRS desperate to slow the swelling tide of CtC-educated Americans. This hoax (or fraud, depending on how harsh one might be feeling), as most reading this page will remember, was, and is, designed to suggest that simply disputing W-2s and 1099s with Forms 4852 and otherwise as described in CtC-- rather than mindlessly (or slavishly) transcribing their assertions onto one's 1040-- is somehow a "position" subject to penalty under the law.

44. Zero Wages on a Substitute Form: Taxpayer generally attaches either a substitute Form W-2, Form 1099, or Form 4852 that shows "$0" wages or no wage information. A statement may be included indicating the taxpayer is rebutting information submitted to the IRS by the payer. Entries are usually for Federal Income Tax Withheld, Social Security Tax Withheld, and/or Medicare Tax Withheld. An explanation on the Form 4852 may cite "statutory language behind IRC 3401 and IRC 3121", or may include some reference to the company refusing to issue a corrected Form W-2 for fear of IRS retaliation.

(If you are not already fully up-to-speed on this sleazy little pretense and ploy, go here and read the page through.)

In those early days, and despite the uninterrupted flow of CtC-educated refunds hitting mailboxes across the country (among other indisputable admissions of the truth), the "frivolous penalty" thing was successfully sowing confusion and concern among newly-educated folks. These folks hadn't had the time (or, in some cases, the temperament) to put to rest their deeply-conditioned, reflexive presumptions that government officials are honest and competent. They were still struggling to really grasp the fact that what they had learned in CtC is the absolute truth and that anything at odds with CtC is wrong-- even though CtC is itself at odds with everything they had believed all their lives about the income tax.

The then-active and open-access national forum, especially, became a bit of a mess with anxious posts from newbies targeted with, or simply fearful of, these bogus penalty threats. The anxious posts were exploited with malicious posts designed to fuel those anxieties by the many IRS trolls (and useful idiots) with which the forum had, by that point, become infested.

EVENTUALLY, THE POSTED "ARG44" ANXIETIES and the trolleries which it enabled so compromised the forum that I closed it down for a few years until a reopening with restricted membership rules. But first I proposed to those anxious souls a simple exercise with which to assuage their fears, in the hope of settling things down.

What I suggested was a straightforward inquiry of the tax agency as to how exactly a filer who felt that a W-2 or 1099 was in error should rebut the disputed allegations. Plainly there had to be a way to do so, it being absurd on its face to pretend that all such "information return" allegations were inherently and indisputably correct, and if the agency was going to behave as though doing so with Forms 4852 and other rebuttal mechanisms was so wrong as to merit a penalty, it had to be able to explain the more proper alternative.

I drafted two inquiry templates and posted them on the forum for use by anyone concerned about the "frivolous penalty" and not yet well-enough rooted in their new knowledge of the tax and of the "ignorance tax" scheme. (Later I incorporated these templates into a discussion about the natural legal dynamics of allegation and rebuttal, which can be seen here and should be read by everyone.)

To my disappointment, no one stepped-up and ran with this opportunity. Or, if anyone did, the effort was thwarted by a stone-walling IRS or never shared publicly. Until now.

NOT LONG AGO, the excellent John Gartner sent me an email containing the inquiry letter he had sent to the IRS asking how he was to rebut 1099-R allegations with which he disagrees (the only variety of 1099s to which a Form 4852 is suited, and for which John very capably customized the first of the inquiry templates I have posted), here in major part:

...and here in its entirety. John also sent the very pleasing IRS admission in reply, here in relevant part:

...and here in its entirety.

As seen, John's embrace of my "action item" has at long last yielded a nice admission by which the always-ludicrous proposition of the bogus "ARG44" hoax-- that the rebuttal of disputed "information return" allegations is somehow prohibited and legally liable to penalty, including if done by way of the treasury department's own Form 4852 despite it being published for the express purpose of rebutting erroneous W-2s and/or 1099-Rs:

Btw, the boilerplate characterization in this IRS reply of the amounts in question as "income" is to be expected, of course, and is to be disregarded, of course. Whether those amounts are or are not "income" is the heart of the matter in dispute, and something of which the IRS has no independent knowledge whatever, unless they're the creator of the W-2 or 1099 at issue (and even then, they could be misinformed or lying).

Remember, agency SOP requires the IRS to presumptively treat all amounts that change hands as being effectively connected with a taxable activity, and so it does. That's fine-- the IRS is permitted to engage in this kind of push-propaganda and exploitation of the gullible. Understanding of the law and the agency's limitations is the responsibility of the public (fulfillment of which is, of course, the mission of CtC):

"Whatever the form in which the government functions, anyone entering into an arrangement with the government takes the risk of having accurately ascertained that he who purports to act for the government stays within the bounds of his authority. ... And this is so even though ... the agent himself may be unaware of the limitations upon his authority."

United States Supreme Court, Federal Crop Ins. Corp. v. Merrill, 332 US 380-388 (1947)

"Persons dealing with the government are charged with knowing government statutes and regulations, and they assume the risk that government agents may exceed their authority and provide misinformation."

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Lavin v. Marsh, 644 f.2d 1378 (1981)

"The Tax Code represents the genius of legal fiction... The IRS has never really known why people pay the income tax... The IRS encourages voluntary compliance, through FEAR."

Jack Warren Wade Jr., former IRS officer in charge of the IRS Nationwide Revenue Officer Training Program, in his book ‘When You Owe The IRS’

"If the taxpayers of this country ever discovered that we operate on 98% bluff, the entire system will collapse."

Reported remark by an internal revenue service officer to Sen. Henry E. Bellmon (R. Okla.) on April 15, 1971.

I hope everyone will see to it that this article gets to the eyes of everyone who has suffered confusion, timidity or discouragement from the "ARG44" frivolous return penalty hobgoblin. There's a lot of madness and corruption manifesting in Washington and throughout too many American institutions, private and public, and right now would be an especially good time to help refresh the CtC tidal wave of good, upstanding American men and women armed with state-restraining, individual-empowering knowledge, the swelling of which years ago had prompted the "ARG44" hoax in the first place.

"Like a muddied stream or a polluted fountain is the righteous man who gives way before the wicked."

-Proverbs 25:26

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I should do and, with the help of God, I will do."

-Everett Hale

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them, and these will continue till they have been resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress."

-Frederick Douglass

"A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves."

-Edward R. Murrow

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

-Mohandas Gandhi

***

Now, seriously. Do you want this article to make a difference? It only will do so if YOU PASS IT ON TO OTHERS. Please do that.

Use the permalink address given above or below to post on social media. Or use the "e-mail this article" link to send it to someone else by that method.

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*****

What The Evidence Suggests Is REALLY Going On In Washington, And Why

...along with a few other topical observations, such as on the Biden ease-out, immigration, the anti-depressant fraud revelations, and more.

"There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men."

-Edmund Burke

I AM INCREASINGLY DISTURBED BY punditry on the Right (especially) which speaks of the actions of Democrat-controlled federal agencies and overall policy in Washington with a quizzical or condescending air, apparently being of the view that those making the policy-- however destructive these pundits recognize it to be-- are simply senile or otherwise incompetent. Would that it were so!

At risk of offending with stridency, I must argue for a correction of this view, and urge all such pundits to open their eyes to what I believe to be the much more serious truth: The policies they decry are not the products of senility (or incompetence from other causes). The policies they decry are part of a deliberate, concerted effort to literally destroy America, under the cover of senility (or other incompetence).

After all, is it really credible that Janet Yellen, whatever you may think of her, doesn't understand the mechanics of inflation?

Is it really credible that even as low-wattage and unwell a person as Pete Buttigieg doesn't recognize the dire and growing dysfunction in America's transportation systems?

Is it really credible that Alejandro Mayorkas doesn't know that the southern border is wide open and thick with trespassers?

Is it really credible that the Pentagon and related policy-makers don't know the truth about what's going on in Ukraine right now?

I could go on all day in this vein. The point is that what we're seeing from these folks isn't just a huge and sustained screw-up. Instead, it is systematic, with the common element of these listed policy issues and all the other bad behavior we are seeing from those in power in Washington and those in control of the mainstream media being the promotion of chaos, disunity, breakdown of the rule of law, and the denigration and dismantling of the tenets of Western Civilization, from which are derived the principles of liberty by which those in power are (or could be) constrained.

The fact is, evidence suggests that a collection of sociopaths with too much time and money on their hands for the safety of the rest of us are advancing a very deliberate and relentless program of depopulation and the enserfment of the remnant, the secure accomplishment of which requires that the American experiment with individual liberty and autonomy be scuttled. Destabilization of American society and our political norms, along with the gutting of the rule of law, are tools toward these ends.

DOES THIS SOUND HARSH, or overheated? Well, I said it would...

But consider. The billionaires of the world don't know you, and don't need you. Reasonably (in a manner of speaking), to them you are just clutter on what would otherwise be their pristine, empty beaches and parks, as well as being perpetual and pointless engines of waste, noise, clamor, impositions and strife.

These folks would plainly be better off with about 6.5 billion fewer people on island Earth. You would, too, frankly.

Of course, you aren't so sociopathic as to hold other people's live in such complete disdain that you would, for example, force (or trick) medically-useless, directly dangerous, long-term-immunity-destroying and reproductive-system-damaging drugs on them-- which evidence suggests will end or prevent hundreds of millions of lives-- under the pretense that a more-or-less standard annual respiratory virus was an existential threat, and while suppressing actual known cures for that virus. Nor could you afford to do anything like that even if you DID hold everyone you don't personally know in such reptilian disdain.

But some folks can afford to do so. And some, at least, have shown themselves willing to do so, with the help of the sycophantic courtiers in the media and corporations and public offices who serve that sort of arrogant plutocrat.

Likewise, you can't devise, sell with a massive and sustained propaganda campaign which has been targeting children in elementary school for decades and fills the mainstream media at all times, support with "science" produced by researchers whose access to grants you control, and impose by executive fiat a ruinous "climate change" scheme based on the absurd proposition that the current routine climatological behavior is 1. human-activity driven, and 2. a deep threat to human well-being-- in particular, more of a threat to human well-being than the prosperity- and liberty-destroying measures being advocated and adopted for its supposed mitigation.

But they can. And they are doing so, even while brazenly telegraphing their own understanding that the whole hobgoblin flog is just that.

Consider, for instance, the tonnage of private jet fuel expended by these folks every time they gather somewhere for well-cushioned meetings from which to issue dark warnings of impending climate disaster. Flying commercial would use far less per attendee, with corresponding reduction in "greenhouse gas" production. But plainly, they don't really worry about "greenhouse gas".

Consider, for instance, Barack Obama's 2019 purchase of a $12 million oceanfront estate on Martha's Vineyard.. Plainly, Obama, despite leading the charge to scuttle the productive and prosperous American economy in the name of "climate change" concerns, doesn't really believe in the sea-level elevating threat he and his fellow-travelers describe when urging the rest of us to "lower our expectations" and turn more control of our lives over to him and his friends.

Now remember that endless rhetoric by these "climate change" fear-mongers and the track record of those involved so far shows that their increased control over other people's lives will be used to reduce the number of those lives, one way or another.

Again, they don't know you (or me); they don't need you (or me). We're just pollution, in their eyes.

Maybe I'm wrong about all this, of course. I would like to think that I am.

But I don't.

***

AS I POINTED OUT HERE several months ago (and more comprehensively and importantly here before that, in a piece which VERY MUCH needs re-reading RIGHT NOW), Biden is about to be tossed overboard. It is very important that everyone immediately stop referring to anything being done in Washington as a "Biden policy".

First of all, no such policy is a "Joe Biden" policy anyway-- the man has been incapable of formulating policies for years. They are policies of Biden's handlers and those put into office during the last 20 months.

More importantly, tossing Biden overboard will be done in large part in the hope that Democrats can then persuade voters in the upcoming election that all the horrendous assaults on American well-being and the rule of law over that last 20 months will shuffle off with old Joe, so the rest of them can be safely left in office. They can't, but it'll be harder to keep that clear to especially the Democrats and independents who right now are champing at the bit to change horses big time if all those pointing the finger at the bad policies keep ascribing them to Biden.

Those bad policies are not "Biden administration policies" or "Biden's policies". They are Democrat policies, and should be called nothing but that.

***

IMMIGRATION ISSUES continue to occupy a big place in public discourse right now, as well they should. The essentially open Southern border being maintained by the Democrats over the last 20 months is an unhealed wound doing considerable harm.

I have posted two relevant discussions on these pages over recent years.

One is an argument in favor of strict immigration control, despite its seeming conflict with my libertarian perspectives.

The other explains, through a comprehensive legal analysis, why there is actually no such thing as "birthright citizenship" under US law-- the 14th Amendment and a flawed ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (169 US 649, 1898) notwithstanding (and in case you missed it, the second link in the preceding item on "Biden policies" applies this analysis to Kamala Harris's invalid claim to US citizenship under the "birthright" fiction...).

I'd be very pleased if everyone would read through both of those discussions, and share them as widely as possible.

***

IT HAS RECENTLY BEEN brought to the attention of a wide audience (if with way too little depth and drama) that the anti-depressants being fed to many millions of Americans (and others) over the last fifty years or so do nothing to relieve or cure depression (except as placebos). Among other implications of this revelation is that every penny that has found its way into the pockets of the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries has done so by fraud.

That's big news-- even if it isn't being treated as such by big media.

Equally (if not more) important than the fraud is the fact that while no evidence indicates that these powerful psychotropic drugs (like Prozac and Zoloft, for instance) do anything for depression, they DO have significant and dangerous side effects (which perhaps should simply be called "effects", since they are "side" to no other effects). One such effect is the observed potential to induce suicidal thoughts in their victims. Another is the prompting of violent rage.

Being suicidal (not to mention violently enraged) would seem likely to create a welcoming environment to disregard the interests and well-being of others. Perhaps it might even create a sense that if the drug-addled victim's world is so crappy as to prompt a desire to leave it, then some of that sh*t world might properly be taken down with him, at the same time.

Doesn't this sound like roughly the mental dynamic of the average random mass shooter?

I make no diagnosis here, being entirely unequipped by relevant facts in the case of such shooters to do any such thing. But I think my speculation here might be worth consideration by others with that knowledge of the pharmacological history of shooters over the last few decades-- a time when not only have many people been taking these useless but powerful drugs directly, but many folks have been ingesting increasingly steady doses of the stuff as it bleeds into water supplies in various ways over all those years.

***

FINALLY, IT WAS RECENTLY SUGGESTED (in a Tucker Carlson segment last week) that "Monkeypox" be renamed "Mid-term variant". I like that idea a lot.

Still, I think we should wait.

Let's see whether it is the "Monkeypox" hobgoblin (which is for some reason being said to have dangerously erupted just this year despite having been around since at least 1970 and to have appeared in the US and elsewhere numerous times over the last few decades without noteworthy significance) or a newly-minted COVID-19 mutation preying on the immune-system-compromised "vaccine" victims which is chosen by the usual suspects as the rationale for fraud-prone mass absentee voting in November. Whichever purported medical peril is chosen for that panic-mongering is the one that should end up with the label "Mid-term variant"

BTW, here's a little something on the subject of "Monkeypox" generally.

That disease flourishes in the Western world almost exclusively amongst homosexuals, and is spread from one to another by sex acts. Even the WHO and CNBC admit these facts.

Why, then, are we not seeing the long-since absurd and widely scoffed-at drumbeat of tax-funded PSAs promoting unsafe and ineffective COVID-19 vaccinations being replaced with PSAs urging homosexuals to refrain from sexual contact with each other for a month or two?

During that month or two, the spread would stop and "Monkeypox" would largely (and perhaps entirely) die out here in the United States. This seems a glaringly obvious and incontestable no-brainer as a matter of public policy.

Why is this not happening?

***

So, do you want this article to make a real difference? It only will do so if YOU PASS IT ON TO OTHERS. Please do that.

Use the permalink address given above or below to post on social media. Or use the "e-mail this article" link to send it to someone else by that method.

Set a brushfire-- E-mail this article to a friend

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*****

Tools For Leveraging The CtC Superpower

You've got magic in your hands, if you will use it...

*****

The Income Tax Law, In Seven Pages

Really.

HERE IS THE LAW, IN 7 PAGES.

HERE IS HOW THE SCHEME WORKS, IN 8 PAGES.

HERE IS HOW TO OVERCOME THE SCHEME AND ENFORCE THE LAW, IN 256 PAGES.

Share these all, everywhere you can. Be your most creative self in sending and "selling" these links. Do memes; make gifs; respond to everything in the news that would be or have been better had the state been small, or if Americans kept their money for their own uses.

If you pay attention to the news and train yourself to apply these perspectives, you will see a dozen things of which you can make use in awakening other Americans to the virtues of having the income tax correctly administered. Please, for my sake, for your own sake, for the sake of your children and their future, make that use.

*****

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE FOR EVERYONE!!!

IF YOU'RE NOT ALREADY GETTING THE NEWSLETTER delivered to your email inbox, go to this page and subscribe to the group-- leave all options in their default states.

YOU CAN ALSO usually find (and share and repost) links to new articles on GAB (click here to follow me and receive the announcement posts).

If you choose the social media option (or use it in addition to other means, as I wish you would), PLEASE get the full value out of them by diligently "sharing" or "reposting" my posts! That will significantly improve their visibility to others, and very much help the cause!!

• My RSS feed:

(Members of the state CtC Warrior forums in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, MI, MN, MO, NE, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, SC, TX, UT, VA, WA or WI, will continue to get the regular announcements if the membership is set to receive email updates.)

NOTE: I will still not be engaging in correspondence by any of these alternative means-- those wishing to correspond with me should continue to use direct email, as specified here, for this purpose.

NOTE II: PLEASE help ensure that others in the CtC community know about this change in newsletter delivery!!

*****

Not Letting This "Crisis" Go To Waste...

...an important action item opportunity.

FRIENDS, THE SPORADIC BITS OF EASING of the despotic measures to which most of the country has been subjected under the fraudulent mantle of COVID-19 mitigation should not be allowed to bleed off the head of steam you probably had been developing. The offenses happened, and they're far from over. Stay hot.

And while you are all warmed up, and while others, if they're smart, are just as hot, I'd like you to send an email (and Facebook post, or whatever) with the following content to everyone you can (with a request that they pass it along, in turn):

[Name], since March of 2020 you've watched as over-fed state power has been used to literally destroy classical Western civilization and impose a new despotic paradigm. No dissent or debate permitted-- no permission or agreement sought.

YOU KNOW where this will end up if the arrogant state power being used to make this happen isn't radically diminished in size, influence, resources and popular support, and exposed as an opportunistic exploiter of legal ignorance (an ignorance which it has been nurturing in the average mind for decades).

Those things having not yet happened, you should be quaking in your boots-- and you probably are.

Isn't it time-- and past time-- for you to begin helping to make those desperately-needed defensive changes take place? There is only one way these things can happen short of a who-knows-what we'll-end-up-with explosion of violence. I'm going to show it to you.

Read this little two-page document. Click on the links at the end.

When you're done with that reading, you'll know what to do next.

BTW, REMEMBER, ALSO, THAT EVERY AMERICAN has lately been given a stark lesson in the fact that government officials at all levels will lie to you and violate the law without batting an eye. They will do so any time it serves their agenda, and you don't call them out for it.

If you know anyone who has been persisting in denial on the truth about the income tax, you know such nonsense is usually be grounded in some version or another of, "That can't be true..." or "They would never do something like that...". Now's the time to put a pin in that delusional bubble.

As the C19 hoax has starkly shown, "that" certainly CAN be true, and they certainly WOULD do something like that.

Use this evidence in all your outreach efforts.

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error."

-United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

CARE TO COMMENT on this article (which is permalinked at this address)? Click here.

Aren't able to do so? Click here to learn how to earn that privilege.

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*****

Regarding Trolleries

(Deceitful efforts to discourage Americans from learning the truth about the "income tax")

FOR ALL THE YEARS SINCE 2003 when CtC was first published, the government has engaged in a concerted effort to frighten people away from its truths. This effort involves official government websites and press releases touting an occasional court ruling that appears to be at odds with some CtC-revelation (but without details sufficient to expose the real substance of the ruling)-- and sometimes even more mendacious behavior.

Click here for the rest of this article

*****

Are the presentations and resources offered on this site and in my other work of any value to you?

Tim Kendrick has posted a video on YouTube regarding donations. I didn't know what to do about it to begin with; I don't do what I do intending for anyone to feel obligated in any way.

But of course, no one IS obligated. I will continue to make my work freely-available here, and in my books for only the cost of a cheap paperback.

Thus, even though I post it here below, Tim's very thoughtful personal resolution and encouragement to others is just an invitation for consideration by those who may not be conscious of the fact that I can't do what I do without support. No one is to feel any pressure from it; if it moves anyone to act let it be solely because it seems right.

*****

How To Be A Leader In The CtC Community

It's simple:

KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TAX IN DETAIL

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

KNOW WHERE TO FIND THE RESOURCES

BE FAMILIAR WITH THE SCAMS, THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS, AND THE TROLL-POLLUTION

TAKE CHARGE IN YOUR STATE FORUM, HELPING EVERYONE TO THINK CLEARLY AND STAY ON TOPIC

All-in-all, just be the sort of person for others that you would go to yourself for trustworthy leadership.

Leadership is a challenge. But it's not complicated, and you can do it.

*****

Are You Having Trouble Spreading The Word?

SKEPTICISM (SOMETIMES INVOKED BY FEAR) IS TO BE EXPECTED when you're trying to explain to someone that everything they've been encouraged their whole lives to believe about something as entrenched and significant as the income tax is basically nonsense. So here's a way to help cut through the resistance:

Ask your listener how he or she would react if you were to show an announcement from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue admitting that the tax doesn't apply to the earnings of most Americans and is misapplied most of the time because people don't understand how it works? Or how about if you showed a ruling from the Supreme Court saying the same?

Now you just have to explain that you're going to show exactly those things-- but because the state really doesn't want people to know this, these things haven't been said quite as forthrightly as we would all wish. It's going to take a bit more work to take these admissions in than is sufficient for just reading a press release. But it'll be worth the effort...

*****

The Liberating Truth About The 16th Amendment

IF YOU'RE NOT SPREADING THIS LINK with every bit of energy you can, to school libraries, homeschool families and community groups, your neighbors, your family members, your pastors and co-congregationalists, journalists, lawyers, CPAs, members of congress, tax-agency workers, Wikipedia, Anonymous, WikiLeaks, the Tax Foundation, everyone in the "tax honesty" movement, the 9/11 truth movement, other activist movements and everyone else, you have only yourself to blame for your troubles with the tax, and a whole lot else of which you might complain. It's on you.

WRITE A NICE, FRIENDLY AND BRIEF introductory note explaining what will be seen at the link-- cryptic is bad; excited is good-- and then send this WMI (weapon of mass instruction) far and wide.

Remember: Real Americans don't accommodate fog, lies and a sliding scale of adherence to the rule of law. Real American men and women stand up for the truth and the law, come what may, knowing that it is only by setting the bar at the top and enforcing it, come what may, that liberties are secured.

"Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated."

-Thomas Paine

OUTREACH!!!

JOB ONE, PEOPLE!!! SPREAD. THE. WORD.

ONLY ONE THING WILL WIN YOU YOUR LIBERTY: Spreading the truth. Accordingly, I've assembled outreach resources into a new, dedicated page. Find it here, and please, USE THESE TOOLS!! I can't do this all by myself.

"In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

-George Orwell

*****

Other Voices (followed by an important afterword)

The 1968-69 "Hong Kong Flu" Pandemic Revisited

by Jeffrey A. Tucker

It was a very bad year for the flu. The pathogen came in two large waves. This is only obvious in retrospect. At the time, not so much. Life went on as normal. There were gatherings. There were parties. There was travel. There were no masks. Doctors treated the sick. Traditional public health reigned as it had during the flu pandemic ten years earlier. No one considered lockdowns.

It’s a good thing because it was in the thick of this that many “super-spreader” events took place, among which was Woodstock itself. That event influenced all popular music after, and continues to do so today. No one was denied schooling or worship or separated from loved ones while they were dying. Weddings took place as normal. Indeed, hardly anyone remembers any of this.

This flu strain (H3N2) spread from Hong Kong to the United States according to the predictable timetable, arriving December 1968 and peaking a year later. It ultimately killed 100,000 people in the US, mostly over the age of 65, and one million worldwide.

Lifespan in the US in those days was 70 whereas it is 78 today. Population was 200 million as compared with 328 million today. If it would be possible to extrapolate the death data based on population and demographics, we might be looking at a quarter million deaths today from this virus. (As for precisely how many died from Covid, we are not really in a position to know yet due to confusion between cases and infection, forced mass testing, inaccurate testing, and widely admitted cause-of-death misclassification.)

So in terms of lethality, it was deadly and scary. “In 1968/69,” says Nathaniel L. Moir in National Interest, “the H3N2 pandemic killed more individuals in the U.S. than the combined total number of American fatalities during both the Vietnam and Korean Wars.” It was not as grim as 1957-58 but it still carried a 0.5% case fatality rate.

And this happened in the lifetimes of every American over 54 years of age.

You could go to the movies. You could go to bars and restaurants. John Fund has a friend who reports having attended a Grateful Dead concert. In fact, people have no memory or awareness that the famous Woodstock concert of August 1969 – planned in January during the worst period of death – occurred during a deadly American flu pandemic that only peaked globally six months later. There was no thought given to the virus which, like ours today, was dangerous mainly for a non-concert-going demographic.

Stock markets didn’t crash because of the flu. Congress passed no legislation. The Federal Reserve did nothing. Not a single governor acted to enforce social distancing, curve flattening (even though hundreds of thousands of people were hospitalized), or banning of crowds. The only school closures were due to absenteeism.

No mothers were arrested for taking their kids to other homes. No surfers were arrested. No daycares were shut even though there were more infant deaths with this virus than the one we just experienced. There were no suicides, no unemployment, no drug overdoses attributable to flu.

Media covered the pandemic but it never became a big issue.

Click here to read the rest of this article

...and then proceed to the afterword below...

Afterword

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

-Vol-Voltaire

SO, I LIVED THROUGH the Hong Kong Flu pandemic-- I was 13 at its onset. Everything Jeffrey Tucker says about it in his well-taken article is exactly correct. So much so, in fact, that as much as I've written about the COVID-19 affair over the last two-and-a-half years that usefully-comparison-rich subject never crossed my mind. As Tucker says, back then, we addressed periodic virus outbreaks-- even serious ones-- with a mature perspective.

We rode them out. We employed sensible, hysteria-free mitigations and practices; we let doctors operate independently and share information with each other unhindered; and we went on with our lives.

No one back then would have dreamed of shutting down businesses or normal freedom of movement or congregation-- indeed, Americans would never have allowed such things, at that time.

We did two years ago in large part because in the intervening decades between 1968 and 2020, the state has grown like Topsy. Today's state has far greater control of public opinion, research and published "science", and today's American population is far less accustomed to standing up and putting its foot down on matters of public policy.

Hence, the destruction visited upon us under the mantle of the dread C19 virus.

OUR VULNERABILITY TO THAT HARM has arisen from one simple factor-- the enormous resources handed over to the federal government, which are far higher today than they were even just 54 years ago:

Those resources pay for all of Washington's bad behavior, and also finance the politically-driven control of information and inquiry, resulting in a largely ignorant or misinformed population, vulnerable to manipulation.

There is an answer, of course-- withhold from the state the resources by which these evils are accomplished. Starve the eight-hundred pound gorilla back down to the more-or-less safe and tolerable size that allowed Americans to become the most prosperous and free people the world has ever seen, before the wealth thus produced began to be bled away to fuel the growth of Leviathan with the successful imposition of the ignorance tax scheme in the early 1940s.

One simple act by each individual American will do the trick, and it needs no approval or agreement from any institutional authority. That one simple thing will function as a catalyst, compelling the beneficial reorganization of our whole societal and political structure as a natural and inevitable process.

You can see a learn all about this solution in this little two-page paper. Read it, think about it, share it.

P.S. DO YOU WANT THIS ARTICLE to make a difference? It only will do so if YOU PASS IT ON TO OTHERS. Please do that.

Use the permalink address below to post on social media. Or use the "e-mail this article" link to send it to someone else by that method.

Set a brushfire-- E-mail this article to a friend

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A Little Extra

EVEN AS ARDENT A STATIST as Abraham Lincoln, in announcing his willingness to burn the Southern states to the ground in order to keep them paying the tariff for the benefit of Northern interests in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861, paid at least lip service to the Founders design of leaving control over the fuel available to feed the fires Washington wants to light in the hands of the individual citizenry when he said, "Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means..."

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Lawyers: It's Way Past Time For You All To Queue Up!

[Y]ou really need to familiarize yourself with Pete Hendrickson's absolutely magnificent work at his website and in his book(s). He has, brilliantly and lucidly, "cracked the code" regarding the federal income EXCISE tax(es)."

-Mark C. Phillips, JD

"...I find your work fascinatingly simple to understand."

-Jerry Arnowitz, JD

"Your book is a masterpiece!"

-Michael Carver, JD

"Received your book yesterday. Started reading at 11 PM, finished at 4 AM." "I have 16 feet (literally 16' 4.5") of documents supporting just about everything in your book." "Your book should be required reading for every lawyer before being admitted to any Bar." "I hope you sell a million of them."

-John O'Neil Green, JD

�Thanks again for your efforts, Pete. They mean an awful lot to a lot of people.� ��as an attorney, I am humbled by your knowledge and ability in navigating the law. THANK YOU for your hard work and sacrifice.�

-Eric Smithers, JD

"I am an attorney and want to give a testimonial to your book, which I find to be compelling. I am exercising these rights for myself and my adult children. I'm even considering making this my new avenue of law practice."

-Nancy "Ana" Garner, JD

Learn what these colleagues already know, then step forward and become part of a coordinated, mutually-supportive squadron focused on developing strategy and deploying the law in courtrooms across the country. There's a lot of suing that needs doing right now.

Are you ready for a challenge that'll put some real meaning behind all the effort you went through to get your credentials? Send me an email.

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Are You Ready For More Power?

"Peter Hendrickson has done it again! 'Upholding The Law' does for individual liberties what 'Cracking the Code' did for tax law compliance: exposes the reader to the unalienable truth!"

-Jesse Herron, Bill Of Rights Press, Fort Collins, Colorado

Click here for more information

And don't miss:

Was Grandpa Really a Moron

picks up where 'Cracking the Code- The Fascinating Truth About The Income Tax' leaves off.

Click here for more information

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Do you have a victory to share? Click here to learn how to do so.

Learn The Liberating Truth About The Tax

NEW! Orders of twelve or more books now come with a free DVD on request containing six informative and inspiring videos-- 112 minutes in all. Click here for the details.

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Do you know someone truly steeped in the Kool-Aid?

I mean someone who finds it easier to believe that the far-better-educated, far-more-suspicious-of-government Americans of a hundred years ago were complete morons who granted authority to the state to take whatever it wished from themselves and their posterity than to imagine that they themselves simply misunderstand the true nature of the income tax? Even while knowing that their beliefs about the tax are derived entirely from the representations of those who profit from those beliefs (like tax bureaucrats and "tax professionals")?

Do you know someone like that? Shake them awake with the latest (sixteenth) edition of CtC!

Selected Features From Recent Editions:

This is not mere rhetoric:

What A REAL "Existential Threat" Looks Like

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Insight into one of the more important contests in this year's election, and,

A Showcase Of Today's Republican Political Spectrum

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Congress Showers The Pentagon With Cash While Americans Pinch Pennies

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This is not mere rhetoric:

It's Declaration Day

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Regarding the inherent anti-Americanism of EVs and the illegality of "preferred pronoun" punishments,

A Couple Of Quick Comments

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

How Sex Became Gender

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Sharing interesting information about a few things, including:

Key Facts About "Fossil Fuels"; A Miracle Medical Treatment; More...

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Purveyors of gender confusion have succeeded in a disturbing imposition of,

Life Imitating Art

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Going To War For Globalism

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As I celebrate more real American heroes, I have to ask,

How Many Times Does This Have To Be Said?

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The Founders understood, and we should, too:

Why Americans Need Weapons Of War

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Monkeypoxmania

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In a classic "disinformation" campaign,

'2000 Mules' Is Attacked With Shameless Lies

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Col. Douglas Macgregor Shares Important Truths About Ukraine

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Let's discuss something that doesn't exist under the rule of law...

A Few Words About Executive Department Latitude

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Now more than ever America needs to learn how to,

Bring 'Em Out Alive

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Brief comments on selected subjects of interest:

Potpourri

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Is There Any Chance of Restoring Our Lost Freedoms?

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I've explained this before but it matters more than ever now:

Kamala Harris Is Not Legally Qualified For Office

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Now that corruption has come to a head in the UK...

Lawyers For Julian Assange Must Be Sent This Material

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Kramatorsk Train Station Attack

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The brainwashing of the American people is deep in the spin cycle, and calls out loudly for some countervailing, truth-based,

Narrative Management

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

The Magic Kingdom Is Coming For Your Kids

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As lunatics in Washington and many statehouses attack the civilization that made us prosperous and free,

Let's Celebrate Some New Victories By Americans Who Are Saying "NO!" To The Madness

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

The US Press Again Becomes A Conduit For Pro-War Propaganda

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Along with some housekeeping notes, the Irish Letter, and a salute to Greg Abbott for a recent virtuous act:

Cutting Through The Mind-Numbing War-Monger Drumbeat

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

It's Always About Fear

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Three things, starting with:

I Keep Saying This-- Why Don't I Hear Anyone Saying "Amen"?

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Why Die for Ukraine?

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At long last... but with caveats...

The CDC Finally Admits The Superiority Of Naturally-Acquired Immunity

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On "playing it safe"...

It's A Good Time To Remember That In The End, It's All On Us

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

A Tale Of Two Authoritarians

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At long last...

I Believe We Are About Ready To Turn The Corner

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

Farewell, 2021, year of weird speaking

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It's that time again:

Resolution Day

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It's time to get serious; it's time to get angry.

A Recap Of The Recent Past And A Prescription For The Future

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

The Malicious, Historically Illiterate 1619 Project Keeps Rolling On

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An uplifting poem by William Cullen Bryant which is especially fit for the times in which we find ourselves:

The Antiquity Of Freedom

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Winter is upon us, and we must take action against it.

Some Sober Observations-- Dark And Light-- To Consider As We Go Forward

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'Biden's Bounty On Your Life: Hospitals' Incentive Payments For COVID-19'

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Virtue can be found all over this wonderful country of ours:

A Small But Bright Point Of Light

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Short takes on selected items in the news...

Comments In Brief

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This is important, especially now...

The REAL Story Of Thanksgiving

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'The First "Climate Change" Diagnosis Is Here. It Will Not Be The Last'

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Catholic Archbishop Viganò calls for a halt of the goose-step march to madness and death.

A Thoughtful And Persuasive Rejection Of mRNA "Vaccines"

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Short takes on selected items in the news...

Comments In Brief

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'"The Public Good" Isn't Mark Zuckerberg's-- Or Congress's-- Priority'

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Putting the lie to a vicious narrative theme:

Those Saying "NO!" To "Vaccine" Mandates Are NOT Quitting Their Jobs

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'Liberty in Peril'

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Here's a good way of knocking the pins out from under the evil narrative:

Getting The Numbers Right

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There's a lot out there to choose from...

Target Shooting

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'"Programmable Digital Currency": The Next Stage Of The New Normal?'

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You're familiar with the "stopped clock" metaphor, yes?

W. Is Right-- January 6 REALLY IS Just Like 9/11. Let's Talk About That.

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Julian, Beverly and Scott offer inspiration, uplift and the solution to today's dire peril to all with eyes to see and ears to hear...

Three Powerful New Video Testimonials To Share

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'C'Covid, 9/11 & Forever War'

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Let's take a break from the C19 Kool-Aid madness and get pumped with the good stuff:

New Victories In Enforcing The Rule Of Law, Including A Nice One Over A Typically-Bogus Notice Of Deficiency

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Picking some of the low-hanging fruit on offer this week...

A Few Comments-- Nuclear And Otherwise-- On Selected Current Events

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'On Track For Calamitous Policy Outcomes'

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This should turn the tide, if shared around sufficiently:

Two Reports Tear A Gaping Wound Into The COVID-Coup Narrative

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'Indian Bar Association Charges WHO Chief Scientist For Mass Murder'

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Offered in the hope of equipping an army of dissenters to the COVID death-cult:

A Quiver-Full Of Common Sense

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'We Will Not Comply: A Campaign Against Medical Tyranny'

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Among other ways in which the Biden/Harris claim to the White House is unraveling...

The COVID-19 - Election Fraud Connection

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Checking in on the true Americans who are standing up and starving down the dangerous beast:

MorMore CtC-Educated Victories For The Rule of Law

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Because something really needs to be said...

Brief Comments On Selected Subjects In The News

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'The FBI Is Orchestrating Its Own Terrorism Plots'

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Among other ways in which the Biden/Harris claim to the White House is unraveling...

New Evidence Emerges Of Election Fraud In Georgia

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Those just sitting on the sidelines and spectating had better get up and suit up.

The Assault On Liberty And The Rule Of Law Under The C19 Pretext Accelerates

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In rebuttal of a despicable and agenda-driven calumny:

A Few Words About Thomas Jefferson

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OthOther Voices (with an important afterword)

'Pseudopandemic'

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Here's a very serious, very important question:

Declaration Day. Did You Do It?

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Hurray for the heroes!

More Victories In Upholding The Law And Defunding The Increasingly Rogue State

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You can't throw a stone blindfolded anymore without hitting five things that richly deserve it...

Random Comments On The Current Madness

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'The 'Conspiracy Theory' Charade'

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No culture can long survive the embrace of delusions and denial...

Speaking Plainly About "Transgender" Madness

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People too often get this backwards:

The Second Amendment Is NOT For "Peaceful, Law-Abiding Citizens"

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'Was There A Wuhan Lab Leak?'

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The The CtC-educated keep leading America away from business-as-usual political corruption...

New Testimonial Videos To Share, Along With A Very Handsome $158K Victory And A Very Obnoxious IRS Dodge

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In the news:

The Fauci Emails Are Being Furiously Spun By The Usual Suspects

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'Dr. Anthony S. Fauci: America's Angel Of Death'

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There's a chance right now for a welcome reversal of a long-standing corrupt practice in Washington...

Clinton, Bush, Obama And Trump All Committed This Crime; Will Biden Do The Same?

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Why is it that...

Challenging Questions On A Few Selected Current-Event Topics

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Switching gears and going for some uplift:

It's Time To Celebrate Some More CtC Victories

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'The Ignorant World And What To Do About It'

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A disturbing little exercise in reverse engineering:

Have American Educators Decided To Throw Real Teaching Under The Bus?

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It's all about staying on subject...

Dealing With IRS Opportunism

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Sorting out facts and despicable fictions:

On "Vaccines" And "Variants"

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'The Political Economy Of Fear'

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It's a street-fight, with no rules honored by the opposition. So...

Are You Counting On The 2022 Elections To Set Things Right? Don't Be Naive.

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Why are Biden and the MSM not asking you this question:

Are You Ready To Die For The Neo-Nazis In Kiev?

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Other Voices (with an important afterword)

'We Must Never Forget The Old Normal'

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See Prior Editions In Their Entirety:

Newsletter Archives

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Get All Newsletters As They Are Published:

Newsletter Delivery Options

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Btw, a copy of CtC from anywhere except the link above may not be a current edition. CHECK. It matters. Also, there ARE no e-book, Kindle or .pdf versions of CtC. Don't get taken in by efforts to sell you-- or even give you for free-- any such thing.

Get The Short, Easy Intro To The Liberating Truth About The Tax

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A Few Words About "Climate Change" Fraud

You NEED to defend yourself and your kids against this now-high-inertia effort to destroy liberty.

Watch this fascinating 12 minute video on how climate data are misrepresented.

Then share this link with everyone you can

H/T to Jonesy for circulating this fun little meme and video link.

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Hey! If you're not getting the newsletter delivered to your email inbox every Monday, go to this link and subscribe to the group-- leave all options in their default states.

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Which Storm Is It Going To Be For You? 1776's? Or 1984's?

Choose wisely and well, and may the FOURCE be with you.

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No one can guarantee success in all they do in life. But anyone can guarantee that they DESERVE success in anything they do.

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Rick Van Camp's Excellent Outreach Letter

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Notes And Tips For Educated Filers

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A Two-Minute Review Of CtC

David Bindel reminds us that there's either the rule of law, or there isn't.

HEY! SAYING IT AGAIN!! DON'T YOU WISH YOUR INSPIRING BEING-THE-STORM VIDEO was posted? This is easy to do, and very important (plus it can get you some great LHC swag!). See (and carefully read) these guidelines and encouragements.

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Eric Copenhaver With A Great Video Testimonial

SEE MORE GREAT VIDEOS.

Learn how (and why) to share YOUR testimony, here.

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The Best Response To Tax Agency Bad Behavior

This simple step will make a world of difference in how things end up.

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IRS Desperation Gets Truly Bizarre As CtC Warriors Continue To March Forward

A "Notice of Deficiency" for... $0. The most imaginative writer in Hollywood couldn't dream this stuff up.

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JFK conspiracy? No problem... Income Tax conspiracy? C'mon, man, don't be silly! How could that ever happen?!

Cognitive dissonance in action.

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Do You Know Who Pays For All That "Patriot Theater" At The Stadium?

Every victim of the "ignorance tax", 'cause it's all just statist consent-engineering propaganda.

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The 'Watching the Watchmen Amendment'

If you're not talking this one up everywhere and helping generate a buzz, you don't really want liberty and the rule of law...

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Did you miss the 'Set Your Church Free' commentaries?

Set Your Church Free

Ignorance of the true nature of the "income" tax has gagged, gutted and seduced-into-disgrace America's ministerial community. This must change.

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You're a passenger on a riverboat that relies on regular contributions of fuel from the passengers to keep moving forward. You see an unsurvivable waterfall ahead, and note a soon-to-be-irresistible current growing stronger each day. What does common sense suggest?

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Test Your "Income" Tax IQ!

CtC Warrior SanDiegoScott has put together a great little 20-question quiz to test your knowledge of the law regarding the United States "income" tax. Test yourself, test your friends and family! Test your accountant and tax attorney, and help them learn the liberating truth!!

Click here to take the test

Click here for more Tax IQ tests

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"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

-James Madison

How About You?

Are You Governing Yourself?

Get The Knowledge, Reclaim Your Power, And Stand With The Founders

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There is little more important to the long-term health of America than how our children are educated...

HOMESCHOOL YOUR KIDS!

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Want to get on the Newsletter mailing list? Just click here and subscribe to the group, leaving all options at their defaults!

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Some Observations Regarding Educated And Accurate Filing

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Have You Taken A Military, Law Enforcement or Public Office Oath To Uphold And Defend The Constitution?

Renew Your Promise

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IGNORANCE TAX: An unnecessary income tax exaction suffered out of ignorance as to lawful objects of the tax and the means of its application by someone too lazy, frightened or misled to learn how it really works and to what it really applies.

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"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error."

-United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

The Choice Is This Stark

Wear this new T-Shirt proudly, and tell the enemies of the law that if they don't like Constitutional limits, they should find someplace else to live!

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'The BOSTONIAN'S Paying the EXCISE-MAN, or TARRING & FEATHERING' (1774) (How our forefathers responded to arrogant "Rule of Law defiers"...)

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The willingness of some people to trade liberty for convenience is without limit...

Regarding "Tax Reform"

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