Code Pink protesters with ‘bloodied’ hands SHRIEK at ‘murderer’ Blinken during Senate hearing October 31, 2023 | Kevin Haggerty

 

Code Pink protesters with ‘bloodied’ hands SHRIEK at ‘murderer’ Blinken during Senate hearing

October 31, 2023 | Kevin Haggerty |  Print Article

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Ceasefire shrieks and “bloodied” hands disrupted a Senate hearing as pro-Hamas hecklers protested their way into cuffs during testimony from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Anti-Semitic rabble-rousers have crawled out of every nook and cranny across the United States, from dorm rooms to hospital suites, and on Tuesday they made their way to Capitol Hill as Code Pink sought to upend a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing about funding for Israel.

Alongside Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared to testify about a supplemental request for around $14 billion, but it was during remarks from the former that the organized protest commenced.

Sporting red-stained hands and “Free Gaza” signs, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin was among those dragged out by police as she demanded, “Stop the brutal, brutal massacre in Gaza.”

“Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!” she chanted while being taken out of the proceeding.

Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk reacted to the protests as word spread and posted to X, “Democrats SCREAM at Democrats in Senate hearing with Antony Blinken as he asks for $14 billion in aid for Israel. Hamas and Jew hatred has awakened the anti-war spirit within the left, a contingent that was eerily silent in recent years so long as the people dying were innocent women and children in East Ukraine. The war in Israel is quite literally tearing the Democrat Party apart.”

Signs held aloft during the hearing included messages like, “All the walls have got to go,” and “Free Gaza” as others escorted out shouted “Blinken, you have blood on your hands! Murderer.”

After several of their protesters were arrested, Code Pink’s media relations manager Melissa Garriga proudly shared images from the disruption and wrote with heart emojis, “BREAKING: @codepink Activists Arrested for Disrupting Sec. Blinken and Defense Sec. Austin in Senate Hearing. They were demanding #CeaseFireInGazaNOW!”

After he had found the opportunity to resume his testimony, Blinken acknowledged the position of the protesters and stated to the committee, “I also hear very much the passions expressed in this room and outside this room. All of us are committed to the protection of civilian life.”

The protest came the day after the House GOP announced their intention to reappropriate $14.3 billion in funds from the Inflation Reduction Act meant for the Internal Revenue Service as part of a standalone measure to support Israel with military aid.

Objections from Code Pink, which counts a slew of organizations calling for “Justice for Palestine” among their allies, were further voiced in their own press release where Benjamin asserted pro-Hamas talking points, “How can you send more weapons to Israel while it mercilessly bombs Palestinians, including a child every 10 minutes, and levels hospitals, schools, residences. The American people don’t want to fund Israeli war crimes; 66% of Americans call for a ceasefire. So who are you representing? The weapons industry? AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)? Ceasefire now.”

Similar points were dismissed outright by President Joe Biden during a press conference last week as he addressed concerns over civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” he said before encouraging Israel to “be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are…propagating this war against Israel. And it’s against their interest when that doesn’t happen.”

Reactions to the demands from the terrorist sympathizers included stark reminders of the atrocities committed by Hamas that led to Israel’s counteroffensive.

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Deceptive tactics used by IRS to ‘harass and intimidate’ taxpayers, House Judiciary probe reveals October 31, 2023 | Frieda Powers

 

Deceptive tactics used by IRS to ‘harass and intimidate’ taxpayers, House Judiciary probe reveals

October 31, 2023 | Frieda Powers |  Print Article

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A newly released congressional report revealed that IRS agents have used fake names when dealing with American taxpayers and have used methods deemed as harassment.

Investigations of the Internal Revenue Service by the House Judiciary Committee have exposed alarming tactics used by the agency in intimidating working-class Americans, in some cases appearing to potentially break the law in the process. A 22-page report released by the committee focused on disturbing incidents with agents.

“The House Judiciary Committee documented a case in Ohio where an IRS agent showed up at a taxpayer’s home unannounced, lied about his name and the reason for his visit, refused to leave when told to do so by the woman’s lawyer, threatened to freeze the taxpayer’s assets and then filed a complaint against the police when they responded,” The Washington Times reported.

Convinced the man was an imposter because of the bizarre behavior, police checked him out only to find after an inquiry with the IRS inspector general that he was, in fact, “a real agent using a fake name, ‘Agent Bill Haus.’ The IRS even confirmed after the whole debacle that the woman never actually owed any taxes.

A Marion Police Department major told the Judiciary Committee he “found this entire situation odd.”

“She is truly in fear of this man. What is more concerning, she had contacted the IRS, verified she has a zero balance and she indicates that the person she spoke with on the phone has no idea why an agent would be coming to her home,” the major said.

The House committee’s inquiry into the “weaponization” of the IRS included the account of the harassed and traumatized woman but also included details on the unannounced visit paid to journalist Matt Taibbi – which coincided with his own testimony to Congress.

“The Republican investigation also revealed that the IRS was so eager to target Mr. Taibbi that it opened its investigation on Christmas Eve, which was also a Saturday, just three weeks after he broke his first story about what has come to be known as the ‘Twitter Files,” The Times reported, adding that Taibbi also owed the IRS nothing but was owed a refund.

According to The Washington Times:

In the Ohio case, the agent first claimed he was checking up on an estate of a deceased person for which the woman was the fiduciary and said she owed a substantial amount of money. The taxpayer showed that the taxes had been paid, and the agent then said he was actually there about delinquent returns.

The committee report said those stories should be concerning given the tens of billions of dollars Democrats in Congress pumped into the IRS in last year’s budget-climate bill.

 

“When the IRS visited my home, Jim Jordan actually did something about it,” Taibbi said of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.

“No American should fall victim to deception from their own government to threaten and pressure them into submission,” the Republican-led report stated. “The details that the committee and select subcommittee gathered about IRS abuses are shocking examples of the federal government’s weaponization.”

The agency has reportedly made some policy changes after the GOP probe.

“The Committee’s and Select Subcommittee’s oversight revealed, and led to the swift end of, the IRS’s weaponization of unannounced field visits to harass, intimidate, and target taxpayers,” the report said.

“Taxpayers can now rest assured the IRS will not come knocking without providing prior notice — something that should have been the IRS’s practice all along.”

But the IRS raised eyebrows when it announced back in July that it “will end most unannounced visits… to reduce public confusion and enhance overall safety measures for taxpayers and employees.”

“The IRS’s attempt to justify its decision as being in the best interest of the safety of its revenue officers lacks concrete evidence. To the extent this data does exist, the IRS has not made it publicly available or supplied it to the Committee or Select Subcommittee,” the report said.