{"id":11590,"date":"2019-01-07T23:34:45","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T07:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11590"},"modified":"2019-01-15T13:11:13","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T21:11:13","slug":"an-epidemic-of-erasures-redactions-omissions-and-perjuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-epidemic-of-erasures-redactions-omissions-and-perjuries\/","title":{"rendered":"An Epidemic of Erasures, Redactions, Omissions, and Perjuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdcp-drop-cap-default\">I<\/span>magine the following: The IRS sends you, John Q. Citizen, a letter alleging you have not complied with U.S. tax law. In the next paragraph, the tax agency then informs you that it needs a series of personal and business documents. Indeed, it will be sending agents out to discuss your dilemma and collect the necessary records.<\/p>\n<p>But when the IRS agents arrive, you explain to them that you cannot find about 50 percent of the documents requested, and have no idea whether they even exist. You sigh that both hard copies of pertinent information have unfortunately disappeared and hard drives were mysteriously lost.<\/p>\n<p>You nonchalantly add that you smashed your phone, tablet, and computer with a hammer. You volunteer that, of those documents you do have, you had to cut out, blacken or render unreadable about 30 percent of the contents. After all, you have judged that the redacted material either pertains to superfluous and personal matters such as weddings and yoga, or is of such a sensitive nature that its release would endanger your company or business or perhaps even the country at large.<\/p>\n<p>You also keep silent that you have a number of pertinent documents locked up in a safe hidden in your attic unknown to the IRS.\u00a0<i>Let them find it<\/i>, you muse. And when the agents question your unilateral decisions over hours of interrogatories, you remark to them on 245 occasions that you have no memory of your acts\u2014or you simply do not have an answer for them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amgreatness.com\/2019\/01\/06\/an-epidemic-of-erasures-redactions-omissions-and-perjuries\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Imagine the following: The IRS sends you, John Q. Citizen, a letter alleging you have not complied with U.S. tax law. In the next paragraph, the tax agency then informs you that it needs a series of personal and business documents. Indeed, it will be sending agents out to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1211,1150,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-30W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5954,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/nixon-is-a-fair-comparison\/","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":0},"title":"Nixon Is a Fair Comparison","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner There have been lots of comparisons, most hotly dismissed by the president\u2019s defenders, between Nixon and Obama, but in some ways the latest scandals have the potential to match or even trump those of 1973\u20134. Nixon\u2019s sins were primarily domestic; no one died. Benghazi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Retrospective&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10005,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/law-takes-a-holiday\/","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":1},"title":"Law Takes a Holiday","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And anarchy follows. by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/National Review In the 1934 romantic movie Death Takes a Holiday, Death assumes human form for three days, and the world turns chaotic. The same thing happens when the law goes on a vacation. Rules are unenforced or politicized. Citizens quickly lose faith in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8610,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/as-the-epa-and-irs-have-shown-with-big-government-comes-little-accountability\/","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":2},"title":"As the EPA and IRS Have Shown, with Big Government Comes Little Accountability","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Social observers from Aristotle and Juvenal to James Madison and George Orwell have all warned of the dangers of out-of-control government. Lately, we have seen plenty of proof that they were frighteningly correct. The Environmental Protection Agency spilled 3 million gallons of toxic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Political Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"EPA chief Gina McCarthy on Capitol Hill. (Alex Wong\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/government-officials-are-not-held-accountable-gina-mccarthy-b-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6042,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/pick-you-scandal\/","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":3},"title":"Pick Your Scandal","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Violating Americans' privacy while failing to identify the terrorists among us. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online All can agree that the Obama administration is mired in myriads of scandals, but as yet no one can quite figure out what they all mean and where they will lead. Benghazi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Political Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5942,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/there-is-no-there-there\/","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":4},"title":"There Is No There There?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Senator Harry Reid may be right that we should wait for the full sordid details before demanding resignations from an increasingly politicized and now apparently confessional IRS (yet the proof of the pudding is that groups such as\u00a0Media Matters, Think Progress,\u00a0Moveon.org, and Organizing for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Benghazi&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Benghazi","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/benghazi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8055,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-the-law-is-a-drag\/","url_meta":{"origin":11590,"position":5},"title":"When the Law Is a Drag","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media In the Ferguson disaster [1], the law was the greatest casualty. Civilization cannot long work if youths strong-arm shop owners and take what they want. Or walk down the middle of highways high on illicit drugs. Or attack police officers and seek to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Immigration&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via PJMedia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/america_anarchy_flag_11-30-14-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11602,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11590\/revisions\/11602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}