A lot of countries in the world find it necessary to have a Ministry of Information, Ministry of Truth or, in a few very candid cases, a Ministry of Propaganda.
Not here in the land of the Big PX. In the US it seems every federal, state, and local government puts out its own propaganda with occasional help from a ‘spokesman’ who is skilled at handling the press.
The best part of the story in the US is that the press pretty much repeats whatever it is told by whatever government agency, occasionally going “in depth” to ask a few rhetorical or sophomoric questions. The g-types just tell the press where to turn their cameras (or few remaining pencils) to get the latest ‘news you can use.’
It’s tax season all across America right now so the propaganda coming out of the government offices at all levels concentrates on stories about people in deep shit because they tried to avoid paying their “fair share.”
Several things amuse me about this propaganda push. First is the fact that all of these stories (and the prosecutions behind them) seem to happen between January 1 and April 15. Nobody goes to court for tax fraud in July. Second, the government and their lap-dogs in the press concentrate on the rich, the famous, and the successful just to make sure that we common slobs know that while Hollywood or Wall Street or a prominent local judge can get away with a lot of shit because of their lofty status, NO ONE gets a pass on taxes. Government is more than happy to ignore the Bernie Madoffs of the world as long as they’re only stealing from other taxpayers.
A few samples gleaned at random from the day’s press:
Chula Vista Tax Preparer Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Tax Evasion The message here is that even the smart guys, who know the Tax Code inside out and can conjure every questionable deduction and hide income in all sorts of unlikely places cannot deceive America’s crack revenuers. David Canales faces up to 25 years in prison for his sins. If he can’t beat the system, what hope is there for a dumb guy like you?
Celebrity Goes to Jail, Pays Heavy Fines, Assets Seized for Tax Fraud We can’t count on someone well-known to get his tax tit in a wringer at just the right time of the year so here’s how the revenuers cover this one. They replay an old case with some new bits. Girls Gone Wild producer Joe Francis got himself in all sorts of trouble beginning in 2007. The case lasted a couple of years but it pretty well wrapped up in November 2009, too early for the Ministry of Propaganda to get maximum impact out of it. So what to do? This week they put out a big story on how they’ve reached a plea bargain with Joe’s ex-partner on a bribery charge. No fine, no jail, no story here but the feds get to repeat all the naughty details about Joe: 2009 federal tax lien in the amount of $33,819,087.14; IRS seizure of over $100,000,000 in cash from various bank accounts; credit for the time he has served in jail; subject to one year of supervised release.
Retired FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion Geez, Jan Lindsey worked for the FBI (Fumbling, Bungling, and Ineptitude) for 26 years as an agent and another 10 as a contractor. He was arrested last May and copped a plea but, somehow, the court didn’t get around to accepting the plea deal until the middle of tax season.
City Councilman Goes to Jail for Not Paying Taxes And, what’s worse, he lied! Horrors! Columbia SC Councilman E.W. Cromartie did not pay federal taxes and lied about it to investigators. As a result, Cromartie will go to prison, according to a plea agreement filed late last week. City Councilmen should stick to shaking down real estate developers.
Oregon Woman Indicted on Tax Charges Nothing here, except she’s 68. They just want you senior citizens to know that you’re fucked, too.
Doctors Plead Guilty to Failing to Report Income You always want a doc getting nailed. This one is prime because it involves a husband wife with a small practice in Nebraska. Obama may not know exactly where Nebraska is but the revenuers do.
UBS to Provide Data to IRS on 4500 Clients This happened last August but the story has been resurrected for tax season on the pretext of an “update” on UBS. What’s really great is that UBS is a Swiss company. These 4500 presumably wealthy Americans thought maybe their money was safe in Switzerland.
If rich, famous, well-connected, elderly, professional insiders get nailed, what chance do you have?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 8:26 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Breakin’ Rocks in the Hot Sun
A lot of countries in the world find it necessary to have a Ministry of Information, Ministry of Truth or, in a few very candid cases, a Ministry of Propaganda.
Not here in the land of the Big PX. In the US it seems every federal, state, and local government puts out its own propaganda with occasional help from a ‘spokesman’ who is skilled at handling the press.
The best part of the story in the US is that the press pretty much repeats whatever it is told by whatever government agency, occasionally going “in depth” to ask a few rhetorical or sophomoric questions. The g-types just tell the press where to turn their cameras (or few remaining pencils) to get the latest ‘news you can use.’
It’s tax season all across America right now so the propaganda coming out of the government offices at all levels concentrates on stories about people in deep shit because they tried to avoid paying their “fair share.”
A few samples gleaned at random from the day’s press:
Chula Vista Tax Preparer Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Tax Evasion
The message here is that even the smart guys, who know the Tax Code inside out and can conjure every questionable deduction and hide income in all sorts of unlikely places cannot deceive America’s crack revenuers. David Canales faces up to 25 years in prison for his sins. If he can’t beat the system, what hope is there for a dumb guy like you?
Celebrity Goes to Jail, Pays Heavy Fines, Assets Seized for Tax Fraud
We can’t count on someone well-known to get his tax tit in a wringer at just the right time of the year so here’s how the revenuers cover this one. They replay an old case with some new bits. Girls Gone Wild producer Joe Francis got himself in all sorts of trouble beginning in 2007. The case lasted a couple of years but it pretty well wrapped up in November 2009, too early for the Ministry of Propaganda to get maximum impact out of it. So what to do? This week they put out a big story on how they’ve reached a plea bargain with Joe’s ex-partner on a bribery charge. No fine, no jail, no story here but the feds get to repeat all the naughty details about Joe: 2009 federal tax lien in the amount of $33,819,087.14; IRS seizure of over $100,000,000 in cash from various bank accounts; credit for the time he has served in jail; subject to one year of supervised release.
Retired FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion
Geez, Jan Lindsey worked for the FBI (Fumbling, Bungling, and Ineptitude) for 26 years as an agent and another 10 as a contractor. He was arrested last May and copped a plea but, somehow, the court didn’t get around to accepting the plea deal until the middle of tax season.
City Councilman Goes to Jail for Not Paying Taxes
And, what’s worse, he lied! Horrors! Columbia SC Councilman E.W. Cromartie did not pay federal taxes and lied about it to investigators. As a result, Cromartie will go to prison, according to a plea agreement filed late last week. City Councilmen should stick to shaking down real estate developers.
Oregon Woman Indicted on Tax Charges
Nothing here, except she’s 68. They just want you senior citizens to know that you’re fucked, too.
Doctors Plead Guilty to Failing to Report Income
You always want a doc getting nailed. This one is prime because it involves a husband wife with a small practice in Nebraska. Obama may not know exactly where Nebraska is but the revenuers do.
UBS to Provide Data to IRS on 4500 Clients
This happened last August but the story has been resurrected for tax season on the pretext of an “update” on UBS. What’s really great is that UBS is a Swiss company. These 4500 presumably wealthy Americans thought maybe their money was safe in Switzerland.
If rich, famous, well-connected, elderly, professional insiders get nailed, what chance do you have?
Like this:
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 8:26 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.