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How Uncle Sam Became Uncle Tyrant -- If Washington Wants To 'Get' You, It Now Can
Forbes ^ | Jun 1, 2016 | Steve Forbes

Posted on 06/17/2016 7:00:21 AM PDT by expat_panama

OUR FOUNDING FATHERS understood that tyranny wasn’t likely to come from a foreign invasion but from the step-by-step erosion of our freedoms by an expanding government. This is what we are facing today....

...ominous trends threaten us...

...the typical professional in this country unknowingly commits several federal crimes during a typical workday.

If Uncle Sam wants to get you, he can.

– An 11-year-old girl in Virginia, who saved a woodpecker from a cat, was hit with a fine for “transporting” a protected species.

– A fisherman who threw back some undersize fish he had caught was hauled into court and convicted of violating the antishredding clause of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act...

– A Maryland developer, James Wilson, was prosecuted and sentenced to prison for violating the Clean Water Act, when he improved a piece of land the Army Corps of Engineers claimed as “navigable water,” even though the nearest river was six miles away...

– An outdoorsman named Tom Lindsey and several others began rafting down Idaho’s Snake River at 7 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. and used gas stoves for cooking at their campsite. The feds hit Lindsey with several indictments...

– An Alaskan fisherman sold ten otters to a person he thought was an Alaska Native. Selling otters to non-Alaska Natives is a felony, and the fisherman, who was hardly rich, pleaded guilty to a felony.

– A chief engineer at a retirement home diverted backed-up sewage to a storm drain. Unbeknownst to him, the drain wasn’t connected to the city’s sewage system but to a stream that emptied into the Potomac River, a “protected” waterway. Result: a felony conviction and probation.

Bureaucrats and prosecutors love this criminalization binge...

...reform enjoys widespread support in the House, it’s meeting stiff resistance among several Senate Republicans...

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: biggovernment; economy; government; investing; liberalagenda; overregulation; tyranny; uncletyrant; weareallcriminals
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1 posted on 06/17/2016 7:00:21 AM PDT by expat_panama
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To: expat_panama

...reform enjoys widespread support in the House, it’s meeting stiff resistance among several Senate Republicans...

What this country needs is a binge of gallows building, lots of rope, and a few tyrants necks placed into rope loops.


2 posted on 06/17/2016 7:05:03 AM PDT by baltimorepoet
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To: expat_panama

— If Washington Wants To ‘Get’ You, It Now Can

Always could...nothing new.


3 posted on 06/17/2016 7:05:19 AM PDT by GoldenPup
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To: expat_panama

Someone “in the know” please refresh my memory - wasn’t it Ayn Rand who wrote that, ultimately, everyone will be a lawbreaker or something of that nature?


4 posted on 06/17/2016 7:06:18 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: expat_panama

bttt


5 posted on 06/17/2016 7:06:31 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper ((Just say no to HRC))
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To: baltimorepoet

That will definitely have an effect on improving their attitude.


6 posted on 06/17/2016 7:06:48 AM PDT by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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To: expat_panama

Overreaching government bump for later....


7 posted on 06/17/2016 7:06:57 AM PDT by indthkr
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To: expat_panama
.ominous trends threaten us...

...the typical professional in this country unknowingly commits several federal crimes during a typical workday.

If Uncle Sam wants to get you, he can.

– An 11-year-old girl in Virginia, who saved a woodpecker from a cat, was hit with a fine for “transporting” a protected species.

– A fisherman who threw back some undersize fish he had caught was hauled into court and convicted of violating the antishredding clause of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act...

– A Maryland developer, James Wilson, was prosecuted and sentenced to prison for violating the Clean Water Act, when he improved a piece of land the Army Corps of Engineers claimed as “navigable water,” even though the nearest river was six miles away...

– An outdoorsman named Tom Lindsey and several others began rafting down Idaho’s Snake River at 7 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. and used gas stoves for cooking at their campsite. The feds hit Lindsey with several indictments...

– An Alaskan fisherman sold ten otters to a person he thought was an Alaska Native. Selling otters to non-Alaska Natives is a felony, and the fisherman, who was hardly rich, pleaded guilty to a felony.

– A chief engineer at a retirement home diverted backed-up sewage to a storm drain. Unbeknownst to him, the drain wasn’t connected to the city’s sewage system but to a stream that emptied into the Potomac River, a “protected” waterway. Result: a felony conviction and probation.

Bureaucrats and prosecutors love this criminalization binge...

...reform enjoys widespread support in the House, it’s meeting stiff resistance among several Senate Republicans...


Inner city salves and urban serfs deserve no more or better than their masters, the ruling political class allow them.

What good is the Constitution and especially the Second Amendment if the serfs and slaves would use the weapons they have?

8 posted on 06/17/2016 7:10:26 AM PDT by The_Republic_Of_Maine (politicians beware)
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To: The_Republic_Of_Maine
Should have read: What good is the Constitution and especially the Second Amendment if the serfs and slaves won't use the weapons they have?
9 posted on 06/17/2016 7:11:34 AM PDT by The_Republic_Of_Maine (politicians beware)
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To: GoldenPup
To paraphrase Larry Arne of Hillsdale College: Just because we may have "free speech" in this country which does not restrict you calling an elected official pretty much whatever suits you, try that with an unelected bureaucrat and see what happens -- That's the massive part of our government which owns and controls you!
10 posted on 06/17/2016 7:11:57 AM PDT by glennaro
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To: expat_panama
How Uncle Sam Became Uncle Tyrant -- If Washington Wants To 'Get' You, It Now Can

It all started with the abrogation of the Tenth Amendment. States, instead of being the sovereign entities envisioned and portrayed in The Constitution, are little more than vassals of the Federal Government. This is due to the Feds controlling purse strings and federal courts continually seizing power for the federal government. Now bureaucrats in any of the obscure agencies in DC can issue decrees that have the force of law.

11 posted on 06/17/2016 7:12:00 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Muzzie terrorist slaughters 49, but it's the GUN's fault, not the raidical islamic animal.)
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To: expat_panama
“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” ― Ayn Rand
12 posted on 06/17/2016 7:12:50 AM PDT by JimRed (Is it 1776 yet? TERM LIMITS, now and forever! Build the Wall, NOW!)
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To: expat_panama

Uncle Sam is a nice moniker, but he doesn’t exist. They are petty bureaucrats who behave as they do because they fell safe in doing so.


13 posted on 06/17/2016 7:13:45 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Wolfie
Uncle Sam is a nice moniker, but he doesn’t exist. They are petty bureaucrats who behave as they do because they fell safe in doing so.

Seems to me that too many of the petty little bureaucrats working for Uncle Sam think they are Uncle Joe Stalin.

14 posted on 06/17/2016 7:17:53 AM PDT by Perseverando (For Progressives, Islamonazis & other Totalitarians: It's all about PEOPLE CONTROL!)
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To: expat_panama

I like to say I commit half a dozen crimes before breakfast, and it’s a slow day when I don’t have a felony or two before lunch.


15 posted on 06/17/2016 7:20:03 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: baltimorepoet

There is a law to bag everyone of us from the moment we step out of bed and surely while were in bed,asleep


16 posted on 06/17/2016 7:20:38 AM PDT by CGASMIA68
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To: Perseverando

Everyone on FR proudly proclaims that they would never live under HOA control but the Federal government is just a larger version of the petty know it alls running the HOA.


17 posted on 06/17/2016 7:29:33 AM PDT by heylady
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To: expat_panama

Selective enforcement of laws against those who can afford it.


18 posted on 06/17/2016 7:32:48 AM PDT by jcon40
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To: baltimorepoet
...reform enjoys widespread support in the House, it’s meeting stiff resistance among several Senate Republicans...

Republicans, at least in the Senate, are not our friends or allies.
(See here.)

What this country needs is a binge of gallows building, lots of rope, and a few tyrants necks placed into rope loops.

There's a poem about this.

19 posted on 06/17/2016 7:34:16 AM PDT by Edward.Fish
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To: heylady

living under an HOA is a voluntary choice.


20 posted on 06/17/2016 7:34:32 AM PDT by bankwalker (Does a fish know that it's wet?)
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