ISREAL AND THE CUBS

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration:  Sent by one of you who usually sends texts or articles.  Self-explanatory.


This, on the other hand, was sent to me by one of you who usually deals with images, not prose:

"You cannot say I am anti-Semitic because I hold no animosity toward the other Semite tribes who live in the area. I am anti-Israeli. Like most of my generation, I was raised to believe that Israel was our friend  our ally, and I blithely believed that and supported them for lo these many years, but after so long and so many failed negotiations - I see  these supposedly "wise" people have not been able to negotiate a peace with the original inhabitants of the area as  mandated them by the UN after WWII; - 60 odd years, they have not been able to make any progress? That doesn't sound very smart . In the meantime, they almost sank our ship "Liberty" and killed how many of our sailors -120?  There are many other indications of their non- alliance and their willingness to forge war against their neighbor on their own forever up to and including this latest announcement to build 1600 houses for Israelis in Jerusalem and I have come to believe that Israel should be "proverbially" driven into the sea with all expediency and with  an announced lack of any support from the US to back them. "

***

Now the following may be a bit "dense" as one reader describes it, but I think it is worth pointing out:

Many Americans, well, some Americans, expect that Israel and the Palestinians will accomplish a two-state solution and that peace will reign.  Both Moslems and Christians, especially, think that prophesy signals the end of Israel.  The end has something to do with Al-Aqusa Mosque (pardon the spelling) and the "Wall" and the domicile of David -- the old David.  Predictions run from about 10 to 60 years.  Our media seem to think that everything will be worked out way before that.

There have been a few interesting developments.  Hootenanny's government announced the construction of 1,600 dwellings in Jerusalem, an extremely contentious announcement and issue.  Even worse, he did it during the visit of the U.S. Vice-President, making him look like a dupe.  Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, called  and berated him for 45 minutes and announcement that Israel had "insulted" the United States.  Hm -- what happens to countries the United States have described as "insulting"?

The last peace talks that had a chance of going somewhere, between Arafat, Bill Clinton, and Barak, were, in truth, abandoned by Israel, and over the capitol city.  Of course, we were told the bad guys did it.

Well, how soon is a solution likely?  Never.  A two state solution is as likely as the Chicago Cubs winning a World Series.  It is worth a moment to consider that.  Americans, aptly called the "United States of Amnesia," a third of the electorate can not even FIND the United States on a map, can hardly be expected to remember 1812.  (It is worth pointing out, rather than the insulting adage that "You get the government you deserve," it is more to the point that the Government gets the electorate it deserves.  Bush was so egregious that his administration got an idealistic, progressive, forward looking electorate and the Republicans were thrown out on their asses.  Obama is so feckless, not at all representing the electorate he had, so that he will eventually get an electorate I can not bear to describe, but it will be what he deserves.

At any rate, back to 1812,  Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo, the "Eroica" symphony of Beethoven, our own little war with Briton, and so on.  It was a long time ago.  It was the time of the New Madrid earthquake, named after a town in the "Louisiana Territory," now called Missouri. 

This could go on and on, but you get the idea.  96 years later, nearly a century later, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.  To this date, 102 years later, they have never won another.  So, it has already taken longer the the time from the war of 1812 to the Championship that since the last time until now.  Still, you will find people in Chicago who actually believe that the Cubs will win the World Series soon.  All I can say is that it is much more likely that the Cubs will win a World Series than a Two-State solution in the Middle-East.

IDIOTS

THE ABSURD TIMES

Illustration:  Just one of the many birth defects in Fallujah which has a defect rate about 32 times expected.  I seem to remember something about our being "protected" from the evil lurking in that city.

One of you sent me this:

If a tree is dying, you don't pour water on the dead branches to revive them, you cut the suckers off and burn them so new sprouts take hold and grow. At the same time, you put the water on the roots so they can support the new growth. The workers are the roots - the ordinary people. You have bought in and followed the old way and supported the damn corporations like they are too big to fail, instead of giving support to the workers and the ordinary people, so what you have done is bound to fail. And you wont get another 4 years to try to fix it.



Of course, the problem is that the Obama Cabal already knows this.  The problem is that the electorate, such as it is, screams against any sort of movement towards helping them as they are carefully brainwashed by corporate agents. 

Take healthcare, for example.  People are convinced that having the government, instead of insurance companies, provide for our right to healthcare, it will make paupers of them all.  They fail to realize that Health Insurance Corporations are not in the business of insuring anything but higher quarterly profits for their stockholders.  It makes no sense to criticize them for this, as it is what they were designed to do and will continue to do so long as we allow them to exist.  In fact, if they are concerned with health care at all, it is that people be sick so the they give them more money.  It is ludicrous for usw to expect anything different from them.

Actually, if we really believed that having the government provide for our health would make us paupers, it is also quite true to say that having the government provide for defense against terrorism makes all of us cowards.  We should, by this logic, pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps, buy flame throwers, and be on the lookout for Jihad Jane and her type, not that anyone below the Mason-Dixon line has a thing to worry about.

*****
Another sent along this article.  Since I was not aware of this site, some of you might not be as well, and so I pass it along:

COMMENTARY Last Updated: Mar 8th, 2010 - 00:48:41 Perpetual fraud By Jim Miles Online Journal Contributing Writer Mar 8, 2010, 00:38 Email this article  Printer friendly page For historians who like dates and bookends for their events, the “global war on terror” started with the destruction of the Twin Towers and the attack on the Pentagon (9/11). The idea of perpetual war provided large benefits to a few and pain and terror to much of the world, and to the rest of the world an increasing disbelief in the intents, means, and rationales for the war. Unfortunately, for the academic writers of history, history itself does not operate within the confines of given dates -- the flow of actions and counter actions never ceases. The 9/11 attacks were by any real accounting only another incident in the fraud that the imperial powers of the world have ‘perpetuated’ on the citizens of the world. Rather than speak of war, which is an act of violence with many differing excuses and exercises, it is rather a perpetual fraud perpetrated by these self-acclaiming empires -- fraud that goes beyond acts of war into the daily lives of citizens around the world -- that is the basis for the crimes against humanity (and the environment as a whole). ‘Fraud’ is defined as “Criminal deception, use of false representations to gain unjust advantage; dishonest artifice or trick” with the addition of ‘pious fraud’ as a “deception intended to benefit those deceived, and especially to strengthen religious belief.” Both of these definitions need to be applied to our current global situation. Criminal deception has been used by various governments, notably the U.S., Great Britain, and Israel, with the support of various sycophant allies, to try to gain advantage militarily and economically over much of the world. This is combined with pious deception as those deceived to a great part are the citizens of those countries, with the aspect of religion being used to reinforce and support the overall criminal fraud. The big lie The big lie is simple, that there really is a global war on terror. The truth is more realistically that there is a global war of terror. Those self-righteous countries that proclaim against terror are themselves the greatest sources of terror around the world. The United States has an ongoing history of occupations, invasions, covert and subversive activities against any nation that dare raise a voice that contradicted U.S. wishes and desires, most of which reflected the corporate agenda to control the natural resources and economies of the world. Great Britain’s empire (along with most of the other European empires of Spain, France, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands) produced terror and war wherever It was established. In spite of its many proclamations of civilizing the savages of the world, the real intentions were the same, military and economic control of global wealth. Its only ‘success,’ at least from the eyes of the invaders, were the colonies of Australia, New Zealand and North America (U.S. and Canada), successful in that they eliminated any opposition from the indigenous people through the violence and terror of war and genocide. Israel’s empire is much more modest when considered in terms of occupying and settling territory for their own advantage. All they have endeavoured to gain has been the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river, a desert land empty of people that they wished to make bloom with the fruits of their civilization and religion. That ‘empty land’ however contained a significant indigenous population that was already successfully cultivating the land and had for millennia a distinct cultural environment. The occupation of Palestinian territory fits both definitions of fraud, as a criminal activity against international law and most certainly as a pious deception based on an arguable fundamentalist belief that they and only they should occupy Palestine. All three of these states, apart from the historical frauds of claiming lands and resources that were not their own, have extended this fraud into the much larger global war of terror. Nuclear terror A recent comment by Obama highlighted this fraud: “Iran is not just a challenge for Israel. I believe it is a challenge for the whole world. I can hardly think of a stable world order with a nuclear Iran.” This fraudulent claim only extends the previous fraudulent claims that led to invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan (okay, only aerial invasions so far, plus a whole bunch of covert operatives) -- for the U.S., the list is almost endless, but I will stay with current events for now -- Lebanon, and Gaza. “A stable world order” will never exist with countries carrying nuclear weapons. The U.S. and Soviet Union perpetrated their lies and counter-lies for decades while maintaining overwhelming arsenals of nuclear weapons. I for one did not feel any stability concerning international affairs during that period of my life -- at any given moment of carelessness or rhetorical stupidity one country could easily have triggered a civilization ending war. That situation still exists. Nuclear weapons are a grand deception for a ‘stable world order.’ The U.S. is the main rogue state in this regard, maintaining its superiority in all areas of their nuclear arsenal. India developed nuclear weapons outside the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the U.S. has recently worked with them in developing their nuclear industry and weapons even more. Pakistan similarly developed weapons outside the NPT, and with its mainly Muslim population, and a government in conflict with India on many issues and subordinate to -- yet resistant of -- U.S. influence, is hardly stable. Israel has an arsenal of an estimated 200 nuclear weapons (estimates can be made from the kind of reactors used and the availability of materials to fuel it) that have never been questioned by the U.S. or its allies, even though they are outside the NPT’s bounds. Somehow all this makes Iran the greatest threat to a ‘stable world order’? But nuclear weapons, as catastrophic as they may be, are really just another part of the overall deception. The deception is there to hide the reality of U.S. corporate-military intentions to contain and control the majority of resources and peoples of the world as they can, to accumulate as much of the wealth and power as they can for the benefit of their own elites (as part of the deception involves deceiving their own population.)

After I had copied the above, the below appeared on my browser, so I pass it along for your delight:

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Procrastination Week

THE ABSURD TIMES

ILLUSTRATION:  The Senator from Kentucky.

    He was a pitcher which means he had to be stubborn (unless he actually believed the catcher, and he didn't) and creative, at least as far as baseball players go.  Any professional pitcher is capable of shutting out all considerations, thoughts, and images to focus on a rectangle about 12 inches to 18 inches wide and about 24 inches high (depends on the umpire) exactly 60 feet and 6 inches away.  A good pitcher will perhaps hear crowd noise, insults, bench jockeys, etc. on the way to the mound but, once he looks first at how the batter stands and then at the catcher's signals, he focuses entirely on that rectangle, or a 2 inch by 2 inch section of it. 
    This is why Jim Bunning was able to ignore to plight of hundreds of thousands of the unemployed, the imprecations of his own party, even animal turds thrown at him, and continue to hold up the bill for so many days with no concern for anything else.

*****

    NATIONAL PROCRASTINATION WEEK started on Monday, so we thought we'd finally get around to mention it.  We might celebrate it next week.  consider joining us.

****

THE MOTHER OF ALL FATWAHS

We at the Absurd Times have learned of a Fatwah issued by a cleric in London that has been quoted over and over again by people is the Government in Israel.  Essentially, it says that anyone who is a suicide bomber is going to Hell.

Well, we have asked around to find out what credentials someone needs to issue a Fatwah.  We haven't gotten a straight answer from anyone.

We, therefore, hereby issue our own Fatwah, the Fatwah to end all Fatwahs (and this includes Papal Bulls and Pentacostal, Babtist, Jewish, Torah, Eastern, and Whatevers).

We do not issue this without full and proper research, all the way back to Homer.  We chose as our authority a figure well-known to religious scholars, the 18th Century Demoniac, Lawrence Sterne.

In fact, we plagarized most of it and made only a few emendations.

This will be pronounced of he who makes any further religious pronouncement:

'By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and
of the undefiled Virgin Mary, mother and patroness of our Saviour, and
of all the celestial virtues, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions,
powers, cherubins and seraphins, and of all the holy patriarchs,
prophets, and of all the apostles and evangelists, and of the holy
innocents, who in the sight of the Holy Lamb, are found worthy to sing
the new song of the holy martyrs and holy confessors, and of the holy
virgins, and of all the saints together, with the holy and elect
of God,--May he' (Xxxxx) 'be damn'd' (for tying these knots)--'We
excommunicate, and anathematize him, and from the thresholds of the
holy church of God Almighty we sequester him, that he may be tormented,
disposed, and delivered over with Dathan and Abiram, and with those who
say unto the Lord God, Depart from us, we desire none of thy ways. And
as fire is quenched with water, so let the light of him be put out for
evermore, unless it shall repent him' (Xxxxx, of the knots which he
has tied) 'and make satisfaction' (for them) 'Amen.
 
'May the Father who created man, curse him.--May the Son who suffered
for us curse him.--May the Holy Ghost, who was given to us in baptism,
curse him' (Xxxxx)--'May the holy cross which Christ, for our
salvation triumphing over his enemies, ascended, curse him.
 
'May the holy and eternal Virgin Mary, mother of God, curse him.--May
St. Michael, the advocate of holy souls, curse him.--May all the angels
and archangels, principalities and powers, and all the heavenly armies,
curse him.'
 
'May St. John, the Praecursor, and St. John the Baptist, and St. Peter
and St. Paul, and St. Andrew, and all other Christ's apostles, together
curse him. And may the rest of his disciples and four evangelists, who
by their preaching converted the universal world, and may the holy and
wonderful company of martyrs and confessors who by their holy works are
found pleasing to God Almighty, curse him' (Xxxxx.)
 
'May the holy choir of the holy virgins, who for the honour of Christ
have despised the things of the world, damn him--May all the saints,
who from the beginning of the world to everlasting ages are found to be
beloved of God, damn him--May the heavens and earth, and all the holy
things remaining therein, damn him,' (Xxxxx) 'or her,' (or whoever
else had a hand in tying these knots.)
 
'May he (Xxxxx) be damn'd wherever he be--whether in the house or the
stables, the garden or the field, or the highway, or in the path, or
in the wood, or in the water, or in the church.--May he be cursed in
living, in dying.' (Here my uncle Toby, taking the advantage of a minim
in the second bar of his tune, kept whistling one continued note to the
end of the sentence.-- 'May he be cursed in eating and
drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in
slumbering, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying, in working,
in resting, in pissing, in shitting, and in blood-letting!
 
'May he' (Xxxxx) 'be cursed in all the faculties of his body!
 
'May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly!--May he be cursed in the hair
of his head!--May he be cursed in his brains, and in his vertex,'  'in his temples, in his forehead, in
his ears, in his eye-brows, in his cheeks, in his jaw-bones, in his
nostrils, in his fore-teeth and grinders, in his lips, in his throat, in
his shoulders, in his wrists, in his arms, in his hands, in his fingers!
 
'May he be damn'd in his mouth, in his breast, in his heart and
purtenance, down to the very stomach!
 
'May he be cursed in his reins, and in his groin,' (God in heaven
forbid! 'in his thighs, in his genitals,' 'and in his hips, and in his knees, his legs, and
feet, and toe-nails!
 
'May he be cursed in all the joints and articulations of the members,
from the top of his head to the sole of his foot! May there be no
soundness in him!
 
'May the son of the living God, with all the glory of his
Majesty'
 
--By the golden beard of Jupiter--and of Juno (if her majesty wore one)
and by the beards of the rest of your heathen worships, which by the bye
was no small number, since what with the beards of your celestial gods,
and gods aerial and aquatick--to say nothing of the beards of town-gods
and country-gods, or of the celestial goddesses your wives, or of the
infernal goddesses your whores and concubines (that is in case they wore
them)--all which beards, as Varro tells me, upon his word and honour,
when mustered up together, made no less than thirty thousand effective
beards upon the Pagan establishment;--every beard of which claimed the
rights and privileges of being stroken and sworn by--by all these beards
together then--I vow and protest, that of the two bad cassocks I am
worth in the world, I would have given the better of them, as freely as
ever Cid Hamet offered
 
--'curse him!',--'and may heaven, with all the
powers which move therein, rise up against him, curse and damn him'
(Xxxxx) 'unless he repent and make satisfaction! Amen. So be it,--so
be it. Amen.'

Health and Reality TV

I realize that such a title will be enough for many people to skip over it, but I do mean reality TV, not what is advertised as such, which could better be described surreality TV, if not outright crap.  I've never been able to watch one of those thing for more than a minute or two, so I offer this in its place.  

At this very moment (2/25/1010) a tremendous farce is being telecast all over the cable networks.  After all, it kills or fills time for free, is ultimately meaningless, and helps fill in the pauses between commercials.  Obama is sitting at a "peace-table" with a bunch of politicians and vows that the thing will be settled before today is over.

I hope he means by that he will then pressure the rest of the Democratic cowards to go ahead with reconciliation and shove the "public option" down the Republican throats and those of the insurance companies.
  
Meanwhile, below is a video that aired last night that expresses in direct and clear terms what is really at state and I do not detect even a second of artificiality about it.  I realize that many did not catch it, that many of you may be too busy to watch the 12 minutes, but I think it is worth making available here.

	The following video link was sent to you by: Absurd Times
		Countdown: An American cry for help
	Absurd Times says:
		Reality TV
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Congress fiddles

This was posted by Jim Hightower on Facebook.  I do miss his radio program:

 Yesterday at 2:00am

Who says Americans can’t find agreement on anything? All it took to bring us together in determined unity was that black-robed gang of democracy thievessitting on the Supreme Court.
The latest national poll shows that Americans of all political stripes overwhelmingly oppose the recent 5-4 decree by the Supremes to allow unlimited corporate spending in our elections. “Holy Thomas Jefferson,” shouted 85 percent of Democrats to the pollsters – “No!” Likewise, 81 percent of independents said “No way.” But get this – 76 percent of Republicans also joined in this emphatic national “ uh-uh” to the Court’s corporatization of our politics. Indeed, the decision was opposed by big majorities of all ages, education levels, and racial categories.
So, with eight out of ten Americans united in opposition to this gaping wound that the Court inflicted on our democracy, we can expect quick action by Congress to heal it. Right?
Uh… No. First, Republican leaders (who’re ever-faithful, tail-wagging kowtowers to any whim of their corporate sponsors) have cheered this unleashing of special-interest money and will oppose any efforts to restrict it. Second, the Democrats’ designated leader for dealing with the court’s ruling is Sen. Chuck Schumer, a notorious corporate servant whose chief skill is rasing corporate campaign cash. Sending Schumer to restrain the political power of corporations is like going lion hunting with a flyswatter.
Sure enough, Schumer is not even considering a constitutional amendment to force these corporate powers out of our elections, instead offering a patchwork of regulatory bandaids to cover the wound – but not heal it. To get real action, we have to produce it ourselves. Connect with these two grassroots coalitions: FreeSpeechForPeople.org and MoveToAmend.org.

Cyber Mobilization

Thanks to one of you for sending this along!



It looks worth being a part of:

Subject: So Let's Mobilize! 80% Of ALL Americans Oppose Supreme Court Edict Declaring Corporations To Be People, Bulk Bumper Stickers Available and More

In a moment, the 5th installment of our legal analysis of the various
inexcusable errors in the EDICT by five Supreme Court wolves to rip
apart limits on corporate influence on the people's elections.

But first, a major poll released just yesterday by the Washington
Post reports 80 percent of all Americans, crossing all party lines,
are opposed to this indefensible ruling (65% STRONGLY opposed). Now
it is our job to mobilize all those people to take real action to
reverse it as a practical reality. In the first instance there must
be congressional legislation (already in process) to mitigate the
damage to our Constitution in the short term, while we are working on
the optimum repudiating constitutional amendment as the direct long
term cure.

Here's a short list of things YOU can do right now to help build the
visibility of this movement:

1) In response to your many requests we have set up a special page
where you can order bulk quantities (packs of 25, 50 and 100) of the
incredibly hot Supreme Court protest bumpers stickers for your
political group, your special event, for swap meets, etc. Based on
your input and feedback we have set the price as low as we can in
quantity, and still to keep the initiative going.

Bulk Bumper Stickers:
http://www.peaceteam.net/bumper_stickers_bulk.php

2) If you just want one of the "Corporations Are NOT The People" or
"Impeach The Supreme Court 5" bumper stickers for YOURSELF, remember
we will continue to give them away entirely for free to anyone who
wants one. Now that we have the second printing in house, all
requests in so far will ship tomorrow by first class mail, so please
get your request in ASAP if you have not already. No donation
required, but appreciated, which is what makes it possible for us to
send stickers to anyone who cannot make a donation right now.

Free Individual Bumper Stickers:
http://www.peaceteam.net/bumper_stickers.php

3) Help us give the bumper stickers away by putting a button on your
site linking to the page above. Get the code from the section at the
very top of any of the bumper sticker pages or the action pages on
these issues. We KNOW thousands of you have blogs and web pages of
your own of various kinds. It is so easy, just copy the short code
block and paste it into your page code, and you will automatically
get a courtesy link back on all our own pages. We need EVERYBODY to
post these buttons. C'mon folks, let's get serious.

4) And most importantly, spread the word about the action pages so we
can generate as many messages to Congress as possible. Email all your
friends with the links. If you are on Facebook or Twitter use the
special resource links below for them, and all aspects of the social
media, to spread the word. With 80% of the entire country on the side
of truth and justice we SHOULD be able to generate 100 million action
page submissions on this. C'mon folks, let's get serious. Here are
all the links.

Corporations Are NOT The People Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1029.php

Impeach The Supreme Court 5 Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1030.php

The above are the regular action pages, for Facebook use these links:

[Facebook] Corporations Are NOT The People:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum1029

[Facebook] Impeach The Supreme Court 5:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum1030

And this is the Twitter reply for the Corporations Are NOT The People
action

@cxs #p1029

And this is the Twitter reply for the Impeach The Supreme Court 5
action

@cxs #p1030

5) And while we are talking about sending emails to friends, be sure
to add links for any of the above to your own email "signature", to
put them at the bottom of each of your own outgoing emails. If you
are not sure how to do it, check out the help function of your email
program, or email us and we'll provide tech help.

OK then, now here we go with the fifth installment of our analysis of
the worst errors in the unleash the corporations ruling from The
Supreme Court 5. And we don't mind telling you we still have quite a
slog to go yet, so if you are getting the impression that some law
school could build an entire semester's lecture course around
EVERYTHING that is wrong with this case, as an text book example of
bad legal work, it is because they could.

We have already covered what an abortion on the facts the decision
was in so many ways. Based on this foundation of factual smoke,
Kennedy, writing for the Supreme Court 5 (including also Roberts,
Alito, Scalia and Thomas), then proceeds to build his castle of the
preposterous by committing every sin of legal case precedent citation
possible.

To help you understand what is really going on here, first we must
explain the concept of "weight". Simply put, when reviewing the
language of previous case precedents, which are presumed to be
binding on all court decisions to follow at the same court level or
lower, all words in a decision are not equal.

The greatest weight, indeed the only thing that is SUPPOSED to be
followed is the essential heart of the decision itself, the key
language that explains the logical basis for what the court actually
ordered, the WHY of what they in fact did. This is known as the
essential "holding". This is what is meant by a "controlling"
opinion, the whole basis of stare decisis.

Elsewhere in an opinion a court may comment on other matters, perhaps
to suggest they might have been open to arguments that could have
been made but were not, perhaps to indicate they were expressly NOT
ruling on a particular alternate basis, footnotes of tangential
interest, or whatever. Since the actual decision did not turn on any
of these things, this is what is generally known as "dicta", the
judicial equivalent of shooting their mouths off. "Dicta" is not
binding on any later court decision, so while it may be referred to
in a later decision as context for the state of mind of members of a
previous court in a prior case, it has much less weight than the
"holding".

Finally, there may be separate opinions by individual or smaller
groups of justices either concurring (agreeing with the majority on
some part of the holding but amplifying with additional reasons NOT
endorsed by the majority) or dissenting (disagreeing with the
reasoning of the majority holding).

Of all these things, whatever is found in a dissenting opinion
carries the LEAST weight of all as far a later court should be
concerned. This would be the opinion of the side that LOST, the
minority, the side that would not join the majority that carried the
decision, the judicial equivalent of griping.

And yet, this entire decision, which every person capable of critical
thinking is so upset about, is riddled with references to, and
fundamentally based on, dissents and other divergent minority
opinions mostly by Gang of 5 themselves. (opinion pp. 11, 15, 16, 22,
26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 44, 46, 47, 49). Often
these dissents are deceptively not even identified as "dissent",
listed only labeled as "opinion" in Kennedy's new logical hatchet
job. Moreover, many were the dissents in the very cases that this new
decision now so rudely presumes to overturn.

And Kennedy has the utter unabashed gall to conclude his compilation
of basically his own dissents and those of his cronies to state, "For
the reasons stated above, it must be concluded that Austin was not
well reasoned". (opinion p. 47) But all he's REALLY saying is that
they were right all along, as they turn the whole concept of judicial
precedent completely on its head.

Well, in a sense they WERE "right" all along ... far, far, extreme,
off the deep end right. And the obvious danger now is that having
finally executed their long plotted judicial palace coup (three of
them dissented in 2007 in the WRTL case that they should have done it
then, but perhaps Roberts and Alito, still new on the bench, feared
the political uproar that has in fact resulted now), now suddenly you
can be sure that this decision will be elevated by them to the most
sacred stare decisis precedent that ever was.

If a first year law student turned in a piece of work like this,
cobbled together as it is from dissents, and dicta from stray
footnotes (for example opinion p. 25), from other cases, they would
earn nothing but a dismissive scowl from their professor.
Unfortunately these five incorrigible men are now Supreme Court
justices, until the people act to remove them.

Oh, but it gets so much worse, for even where Kennedy does cite from
controlling opinions he dishonestly twists and misconstrues their
actual holdings. For that, he would have been, and should be
expelled. But for that analysis, we will have to keep you in suspense
a little while until the 6th scary episode in this series coming soon
to an email inbox near you.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.millionfaxmarch.com/in.htm

The Pilot's Manefesto

A PRIMARY SOURCE

I was curious about this, but everywhere I looked I found it in small multi-page format, or otherwise hard to print out.  So, I found it (The original site was taken down) and am passing it on.  Whatever.  :) 

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
How did I get here?
My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.
The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.
That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.
Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.
On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.
The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.
In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.
Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.
For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).
SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.
(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:
(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.
Note:
· “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
· “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
· “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.
Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.
During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.
After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.
Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.
Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.
Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.
By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.
To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.
So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.
When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.
This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.
I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.
As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.
I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010