Tim: Let's talk about the two big stories and how they affect our liberty as Americans. The tax bill, the historic, landmark, whatever you want to call it tax code revisions.
Scott: Or most recent is how I would refer to it.
Tim: Most recent.
Scott: We'll see if it's historic or not.
Tim: 31 years - first time in that period of time this has been done. The other one is the investigations into Donald Trump writ large. Let's talk about the, as you headline it, the trillion and a half fewer dollars that will be confiscated from the American people by the federal government in this tax reform bill.
Taxation = Theft
Scott: Tim, I think that it's very important to always think of taxes as being theft. Taxes are money that is stolen from people against their will, and if they don't pay, men will come to their houses with guns and imprison them or steal their stuff to be sold in order to pay those taxes. It's not some sort of contribution that we make to the betterment of society. It's one group of people forcing -
Tim: It is for the left.
Scott: Yes, and one of the things I think, Tim, that was the most vulgar and disgusting things I ever heard come from Barack Obama's mouth was when informed that a certain tax policy would actually yield lower receipts - in other words if the rate was increased that it would result in a less of a total for the treasury - he favored the increase anyway because of the messaging that it sent.
I think that there's a lack of understanding or appreciation for the fact that you're stealing somebody's money. 1.5 fewer trillion dollars are going to be stolen from Americans is fantastic. It's a huge number. It is a real boon to liberty. Every dollar that is not taken from an American and that they can spend on, whether it's a new Rolls Royce for Donald Trump, or a new pair of underpants at Walmart for John Q. Public in the middle of nowhere, that's a great dollar for them to have.
Tim: Every time that we talk about reducing taxes, there's a phrase that's come up that every politician in Washington with a few exceptions, like maybe Rand Paul, have bought into, which is that it must be revenue neutral. In other words, God forbid we lower taxes and starve the government of a little more money.
Scott: How are you going to pay for that, Tim?
Tim: Yeah, how are you going to pay for that? It's remarkable that people will buy into this, but you know what this bill does, Scott? Most of all, I think it was Regan that said you have to starve the beast. In other words, if the Democrats with their born-again concern about deficits and the national debt after Obama doubled it over the last eight years, if they're concerned about the deficit, then the way to correct that is just -
Scott: How are they going to pay for their programs. They're going to have to cut them.
Tim: It's like lowering spending is never even an option on the table ever for Democrats, and often not for Republicans.
Scott: The hysteria is out there. I've already seen it, what they believe is going to happen as a result of this. You and I know that what's going to happen is when people have their own money to spend on things, they will make their choices, and those choices will probably not be to give the money to Nancy Pelosi's friends. That's something that is a great thing.
Memorandized
Tim: Okay, let's talk about James Comey's private memos on Trump conversations did contain classified material. I want you to talk about that a little, and then broaden it a little more to discuss how these investigations affect our liberty as Americans writ large.
Scott: The reason why I thought this was important, and this concerns the memoranda that James Comey allegedly wrote to himself, and then shared with Columbia Law Professor, Dan Richmond for the purpose of getting Mr. Richmond to leak that information to the New York Times and other outlets in order to damage the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
We have process crimes that are being prosecuted by the FBI. That's all we have so far, basically are these process crimes that involve using the power of the federal government in order to punish Trump and his allies. We have the power of the federal government so far, and we've been able to determine this based on ... what's the gentleman's name that you know how to pronounce?
Tim: Peter Strokes. (Strzok)
Scott: Peter Strokes.
Tim: Or Struck.
Scott: Struck, whatever. We know that he sort of downgraded the language that was going to be used to describe Mrs. Clinton's behavior in order to remove it from the criminal, so what we see, Tim, time after time.
Tim: By the way, specifically that's from gross negligence, which is a felony to extreme carelessness, which is legally meaningless.
Scott: Right, and so what we see is that the people who have the reigns and the control are using the power and the reigns of their control in order to punish what we now believe to be their political enemies. When their friends do the exact same thing, this would be a process crime. Nobody thinks that Mr. Comey I think is committing treason. I wouldn't put him in prison for it. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, is it not?
In this case, we're not seeing that, and I think that that is destruction of liberty, and it becomes what happens in Venezuela or some tinpot state where one group comes in and the other group has to flee or go to jail. That's where we're headed I think. I think it's a real troubling feature of the FBI under its current and recent leadership, and that's why I bring it to the table.
Tim: Well said - current and recent.
Let's talk about snowflakes. We often do on this show, but there are almost always these left wing kids on campuses living in an ivory tower and are so over sensitive to free speech and being offended, and yet now we see a case of what you call.
Scott: And they're enablers, by the way.
Tim: And they're enablers. But now we see a case of what you call conservative snowflakes. Explain if you would.
Free Speech Attacked From the Right
Scott: Well this comes from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and the professor there called Courtney Lawton. Ms. Lawton is presumably not a supporter of Mr. Trump. She went to a TP USA rally and said, "Just say no to neo fascism," sort of counter protesting some students chanting, "No KKK, no neo-fascist USA," and she was told that her contract is not going to be renewed for the upcoming semester because of the complaints that were rendered against her. It seems quite clear that those complaints were based solely on her Constitutionally-protected freedom of speech. The University of Nebraska Lincoln is a public school, and they are not permitted. Just like if a kid wore a maga hat to a political science class, and his commie professor told him to go to hell or get out of the class or whatever, that would be also impermissible. When done this time from the right against a person on the left side of the aisle - they need to reverse themselves and they need to be punished for it. We cannot have viewpoint-based discrimination in the United States from the government, which is what this is.
Tim: No matter whether it comes from the left or the right.
Scott: Yes, sir.
A Giant Falls
Kozinski
Tim: Judge Alex Kozinski resigns. Why should we care about this?
Scott: Well Judge Kozinski is the first of the sexual impropriety cases in the judicial sphere to resign. He was or is a lion in the judicial movement for conservatives and libertarians. He is the former chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and was an active senior member of that court at the time of his resignation. He in almost every case gave a stalwart defense of liberty, often in the face of withering opposition. Often as the sole proponent of it. His eloquence and intellect was unparalleled.
It's a real shame that he's now off the judiciary. He, for instance, stood up and said that Lon Horiuchi, who was the sniper that murdered Vicki Weaver and their child, the Weaver's child, he stood up and said that they could prosecute him for murder. He stood up when the stolen valor act when it seemed like the forces of anti speech in this country were aligned in a way to stifle free speech by protecting. It was an unpopular opinion, Tim, that people should be able to lie and say, "I served in the military, and I'm a Medal of Honor winner for instance," in order to get the unaccrued glory benefits of being a hero.
Tim: One of the most despicable of all acts.
Scott: One that is absolutely protected 100 percent by our First Amendment and must be if we're to have freedom in this country, and Alex Kozinski was one of the few who stood up and gave a passionate and eloquent defense of that position. He was a great Libertarian judge, and it's really a shame what happened, and it's a shame that he's gone. I thought his passing, judicially, should not go unremarked.
