Monthly Archives: May 2015

Despicable Denny Proves a Point (Several in Fact)

31 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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Warning: the subject matter de jure is downright sickening.  The other day I stated that I really hate politicians.  If you’ve ever met or smelled one, then you understand.

News came last week of the indictment of yet another filthy, criminal pol.  It was spun in rather drab fashion I think.  People are so used to this sort of thing it’s not really news anymore. Yet, and still, the people clamor for their “representatives” whenever an election comes to town.  That’s proven point number one – the public is composed of voting idiots.

Dennis “Denny” Hastert was a Republican Congress-criter from Illinois. He served as the 59th Speaker of the House from 1999 until 2007. This coincided, largely, with the reign of Jorge Bush, the Dimmer.

You may recall how Hastert helped Bush double the national debt while creating new cabinet agencies and several undeclared wars – conservative stuff.  Proven point number two – politicians of any party and their governments are a band of criminals and the scourge of civilization.  Denny’s House Whip (the following story lends new and lurid speculation as to this term) was Tom DeLay. DeLay narrowly avoided a felony conviction and prison for election violations in Texas.  Hastert now faces felony charges of his own from the federal government.

Remember my piece on “Structuring?”  No?  Read it again for good measure.

Cash transactions in excess of $10,000 are automatically flagged by banks and referred to the FBI for investigation. No crime needs be committed.  Just withdrawing your own money for any reason is suspicious enough for the ever-nosey feds to examine.  One would think they’d be busy fighting terrorists or child rapists or something.

Anyway, it is also illegal to split cash deposits or withdrawals into smaller increments so as to evade the reporting process. It seems criminal intent is in the Eye of Sauron of the government beholder.  Consult the U.S. Code – 31 U.S.C. 5324 – for specifics on this idiotic law.

Dear Denny has been charged with structuring his cash withdrawals.  Some time ago he began to withdraw $50,000 at a time from his bank accounts.  Five times the “legal” limit, these transactions were automatically flagged.  The bank or the cops must have informed Denny because he began to make withdrawals (lots of them) at just under the $10,000 limit.  Denny withdrew several million dollars in such fashion.

These lesser withdrawals were noted by the bank.  Concerned Denny was being blackmailed or something, the bank reported the new, lower withdrawals to the Empire. While any cash transaction over $10,000 must be automatically reported any amount the bank deems suspicious can be reported on a “STR” or suspicious transactions report.

Let’s be clear for a second.  Your money is your money.  You have the right to do whatever you want with it and in any amount or combinations of amounts.  It is your damned property.  Or you should have the right.  The government and “your” bank are infringing your rights.  Thus, poor Denny is a victim of this Draconian, illegitimate law. Point number three – federal banking laws exist to control and hurt people.

Denny is also charged with lying to federal officials.  This proves another point of mine – do not talk to any officers or agents of any police force – ever.  If you’re not talking, you’re not lying.  Point four – do not talk to the cops.

It turns out Denny had a rather pressing reason to move his funds around as he did. Before Denny descended into the cesspool of Washington he was a fat teacher and wrestling coach at a high school in a small Illinois town.  Either from a deranged mind or a strategic training regimen for his future political career Denny began to sexually molest one (or more) of his underage male charges.

I have not researched the specifics of these allegations and I do not plan to.  I will assume they were lecherous, debased acts of the Jerry Sandusky variety.  It is technically possible Denny is innocent in this matter (the sex matter).  It is also technically possible a black hole will materialize overnight and swallow the sun, thus bringing a tomorrow without dawn.  The odds of both are roughly equal though weighted in favor of the astronomical anomaly.  Denny obtained the cash in order to pay off his would be accuser(s).  Child molestation or rape charges don’t help a grafting political career and may cause inconvenient jail time.

I imagine these boys (or boy) were younger and smaller than most.  Predators seek out the weaker members of the herd for attack.  In any event they were young men, children, in need of molding and guidance.  Instead, they suffered physical trauma and psychological damage no-one, especially a child, should ever experience.

Men (and women) who molest children should be disposed of in the most brutal manner conceivable.  Hastert, Sandusky, Michael Jackson, that lowlife down the block – not one of them contributes to society and each is a unacceptible danger.  Hang them from the highest trees.  This is point five:  “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6 (KJV)(mind you, Jesus says this tortuous execution would be better than what awaits the degenerate in Hell).

deeny the queer

(Cash, rape and politics.  Ready the millstone.  Chicago Tribune.)

One would think the government would be more interested in prosecuting child rape than imagined financial irregularities.  One would be wrong in America.  Jesse Ventura once noted the excellent point that people under the age of 21 are treated as children in America, forbidden to drink alcohol by the government.  The same government sends people under 21 off to war to die in jungles and deserts.  Thus, the U.S. government sends children to war.  This is a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

Sad, but true, in America the government cares more amount money and systemic process than about protecting innocent children.  Given enough time to metastasize all governments eventually behave with such disregard for morality.  This brings up point number six – government is utterly useless and extraordinarily dangerous. Tell that to the Diebold voting machine next time you are asked to sanction the system.

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Trial By Combat

27 Wednesday May 2015

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Not too long ago I wrote about my experiences with the American Jury system in the 21st Century.  It is broken.  End of story.  Any acquittal you read about is an anomaly – a celebration of truth and luck in a world gone wrong.  Juries are no longer the last check against tyranny they were intended to be in ancient Rome or Athens.

Most people plead guilty to criminal offenses.  Most of the rest elect to the convicted (not just tried) by a state appointed and employed Judge.  The small few who make it before a jury – not of their peers – are usually found guilty.  Everything goes the state’s way. Many celebrate this fact. I do not.  We were supposed to have due process and equality under the law.  This is especially important to the little person facing the endless resources of the government.  It is also, now, a fiction.  We have none of it.  Just convictions.

united-states-courthouse

(Temple of doom.  Google.)

The defendant in the Boston Bombing trial, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted and sentenced to death.  His was one of the oddest trials I have ever heard of.  It lacked even the plausible credibility of some Soviet-era show trials.  In June Tsarnaev learns whether the judge will condemn him to die.  He surely will be executed.

If, indeed, he did commit the alleged terror attack, Tsarnaev deserves to die.  However, as I have noted before, there is amble evidence to suggest a government link to the plot. If the government is involved in any way, there is usually a plot participation.  This might not excuse Tsarvaev but it would implicate others.  It won’t though.  There was absolutely no mention or murmur of this in court on Tsarnaev’s account.  Alarmingly, there was no murmur at all from the defendant.  There was no defense whatsoever.

In a way the defense strategy made some sense.  They knew, as do I, there is no hope for honest truth or justice in an American court.  Accordingly, they adopted an approach which plead Tsarnaev guilty while attempting to shift the blame to the defendant’s dead brother.  The ultimate attempt was not to evade a conviction (a given) but, rather, to avoid the death penalty.  The approach did not work.

The government opened with a sympathetic case – no-one likes terror attacks on innocent people.  The defense then opened by acknowledging the crime and the defendant’s participation therein.  “Yeah, he did it. But…”  They closed the same way.

Then, the government called witnesses.  These were victims who had survived the attack.  They told the jury and court of their terrible injuries.  Terrible as they are, they do not establish, at all, any criminal culpability.  No mind – Tsarnaev had already admitted guilt. In most cases these statements of victims come at the very end of the trial – after guilt has been adjudicated.  They are usually used to determine what level of punishment is deserved of the convicted.  This case saw all phases conveniently wrapped into one show.  No challenge or examination at all was conducted on behalf of the accused.

I, as a defense attorney, could have lessened the blow of these witnesses but asking them if they had ever seen (in person) my client before.  None of them had.  They had no way to link Tsarnaev to the crime scene.

That tenuous link came from a video and pictorial collage presented by the government. Cameras are everywhere these days and there were numerous shots of the Tsarnaev brothers at the Marathon.  Nothing showed them setting off or planting the bombs. Then again, the defendant had already admitted his guilt.

No challenge came to this presentation.  There was equal evidence of former government employees – current “security” contractors at the event – with the same backpacks and in the same places as the accused.  The difference was that several (not presented) photos showed the brothers leaving with laden backpacks while the agents walk away unencumbered.  Nevermind.  Guilt admitted, remember.

The government presented weak findings as to how the alleged bombs were made.  A good munitions expert could have dissected these as ridiculous.  None did.  All evidence was submitted without protest.  There was then the matter of an alleged admission written on the walls of a hideout boat.  No objections.

Given what they were presented with the jury rightly found the defendant guilty.  He lost his gamble as to the jury’s recommendation of death.  That should have come as no surprise.  To the open-eyed and open-minded it should come as an alarm as to where the system has settled.

This is no system in which to place any faith of fairness.  The prosecution will get whatever it seeks in most cases.  Nothing will change.  There are efforts to reform the game but it is too far gone.  There is no public support for such efforts.  Thus, any alternative seems logical, if it be at all feasible.

Before I go further let me state that everyone is entitled to a defense at trial in cases of alleged criminal offense.  Ages ago several British soldiers were tried and acquitted in the Boston Massacre.  Their attorney believed in justice, no matter how unpopular the accused.  His name was John Adams.  You may have heard of him, he served as our second President.

There is an older, if more archaic, alternative to the jury system in criminal or civil cases.  You have never heard of it.  No American lawyers understand it nor would they encourage it.  The Courts will surely be averse to it though it has never been stricken from the codified law (like that matters anymore).  No law school will teach it.  No agent of the state would wish to face it.  No right-minded person would assert the alternative. But, it is there.

There is (or was) a thing called Trial by Combat.

Trial by combat (also wager of battle, trial by battle or judicial duel) was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it was a judicially sanctioned duel. It remained in use throughout the European Middle Ages, gradually disappearing in the course of the 16th century.

Wikipedia (May 27, 2015).

trial-by-combat-granger

(Fighting it out.  Google.)

Wikipedia says this was a Germanic legal tradition, which is true.  However, the custom was known to many other ancient cultures.  Also, it continued into the somewhat modern age.

The defense continued in regular practice into the Seventeenth and even Eighteenth Centuries.  The accused or defendant would assert or demand his right. The prosecutor or plaintiff or a chosen champion would then join the accused in singular combat.  This was to the death or to a submission – usually death.  I cannot imagine too many district attorneys, police officers, or offended ex-wives going along, willingly, with such strategy. Then again, I cannot see most fat, lazy Americans demanding such a right let alone conducting such as trial.

In 1774 an attempt was made in Parliament, partly in response to the Boston Tea Party, to abolish the practice.  This and all other reform efforts failed.  No bill or law has ever rescinded the ancient right.  The right was in place, part of the English Common Law, when the American colonies declared independence from the King.  Thus, the right remained available to Americans.  Mostly, such spectacles took form in gentlemanly duels – outside of the courts.  Alexander Hamilton participated in one of these with fatal consequences.

Still, no state or Congress has ever formally repealed the practice.  The courts have not definitively ruled on it either.  This is the case in old England as well as in America.

As recently as 2002 a demand for trial by combat was made in Britain.  In Suffolk a man made the demand as his defense in an administrative hearing concerning the local DMV. The magistrates in charge, deeming, him deranged at best, ignored him and fined him a small sum for failing to register (or de-register) his motorcycle.  No appeal was made.

You would likely never assert this right as a defense or alternative course of trial.  Nor would I.  However, if facing severe criminal charges and punishment, trial by combat might mean the difference between prison and a mental hospital.  Which seems better to you?

If, though, you should succeed in joining a wager of arms, you may count yourself among the fortunate, even mythical, few.  In a federal criminal matter you may consider yourself Fingolfin doing battle with Melkor himself.  May the honor and victory be yours.

If You Have Nothing to Worry About, Then Why Did You Call Me?

27 Wednesday May 2015

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The police are supposed to keep us safe from harm.  Government was allegedly instituted solely to protect our rights, integrity and freedom (all lies).  If this was true then Clover would be correct in his oft stated mantra, “if you ain’t doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”

I don’t believe that.  I have been in the system and around it.  Even now I can smell its faint odor of maliciousness.  Yuck!

A long time ago I penned a piece called How to Interact with the Police.  It was a short guide on protecting oneself from unnecessary prosecution.  I have given several speeches on the subject and advice innumerable to individuals over the years.  In short, just don’t talk to them.  They are necessarily your friends.

Many cops do a great job enforcing the law while preserving individual freedoms.  Many others do not.  Consult YouTube for countless abuses of police power in America.  Half of the videos there concern people who know and assert their rights and successfully escape the dragnet of police corruption.  The other half are of innocent people tased, arrested or murdered by the police, usually for nothing.

In most of those latter cases the “suspect” either invited the police into his life or answered their questions.  Don’t do either.  There is a reason you have the right to remain silent.  This is one commonality between police reality shows and police drama shows (both big hits in Amerika).  The suspect always breaks down and confesses or says enough for the police to link him to a crime.  This happens in real life too. Oftentimes, the only evidence the cops have of any wrongdoing is the defendant’s statement or admission.  Don’t do their job for them.

Don’t talk and you’ll likely walk.

As for calling them or inviting them into your home – never do it.  Police are like vampires.  They usually need permission to enter but once inside they proceed to destroy. Again, don’t help them.

My friends over at LewRockwell.com have posted another grand article on this topic – a video with instructions.  Both are worth a review.  Know your rights when dealing with the government’s armed agents.

Kitten_Flyer_small_0

(Don’t be cornered.)

This problem of malicious police exploration can effect anyone, even the police.  A friend of mine, an agent with a powerful federal police agency, called me recently.  He knows I no longer actively practice criminal defense but he wanted my unofficial opinion anyway. He happens to be a lawyer himself, by the way.

It seems his agency is conducting some internal investigation into something trivial, something which does not involve my friend.  However, despite his doing nothing wrong, for some reason he seemed to have something to worry about.  Explain that, Clover.

Given his position, his predicament may be a little more nuanced than that of the average citizen.  However, knowing very little, all I could advise him was to say nothing. If the matter concerns written records, then the investigators will have them to review. Let the record speak for itself.  There is no need to explain or expand anything.  Such actions might lead in a direction no rational person could foresee.

I told him, “You know how you guys are.”  He seemed a little offended by the statement but sheepishly agreed with me.  Investigators are usually on a fishing expedition and not using some concrete science as portrayed on television.  They need a suspect (or witness) to tell them something in order to have any chance of prosecuting anyone. Don’t be that someone.  Don’t effectively prosecute yourself.  Don’t talk.

Rub a Dub Nub: Small Cigar, Big Smoke

27 Wednesday May 2015

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Nub: 3) “a lump or small piece.”

Nub by Oliva: “Rather than wait for a cigar to develop and evolve, which typically occurs an inch to two inches in, the idea behind Oliva’s Nub was to specifically blend it to hit its sweet spot right off the bat and remain at its peak right through to the end. Each size is short and stout in stature.”

A few evenings ago I was working digitally at my favorite hangout of all time – Top Shelf Cigars.  In walks Mike Walters of the Oliva Company (Family).  Mike offered me my choice of delectable smokes, freebies from the great maker.  Note: Cigar Representatives always frequent good shops; they present their wares to regulars as a gesture of goodwill and as a research tool (another benefit of the hobby!).  Running short on time I chose a Nub, the little brand of which I have had some prior experience – all positive. The Nub: short, sweet and to the point.  This stick was in stark contrast to the excellent but enormous titan of a cigar I last reviewed.

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(This may be larger than the actual cigar.)

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(It’s a business card size smoke.  Visit, call or email Russell for details.)

The Camaroon or Maduro Nub delivers an excellent experience, rich with taste for those in a hurry.  Under normal conditions it is good for maybe 30 to 45 minutes of enjoyment.  It’s perfect for the lunch hour break.

Surprisingly, given its diminutive size, the little fellow packs a punch.  Born in Nicaragua this gem is (in those blends I noted) rich, earthy and, perhaps, a little woody.  I don’t write for Aficionado so I am unable to find notes of coffee, pencil eraser, or chocolate raspberry liquorice. None-the-less, the Nub is an outstanding choice.  A lighter blend makes an excellent first cigar as it is not overpowering nor bitter.

As the Oliva site says, it cuts to the chase of the smoke – straight to the good flavors that usually take a minute or two to develop.

Remember the Nub.  Just because you’re short on time doesn’t mean you must be short on smoke.

American Disturbia

26 Tuesday May 2015

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This is the first blog post created and published entirely from my new smarty phone. Please forgive me if something goes wrong. It’s the phone’s fault…

Rumors of War:

The neocon nuts in the Central regions of Mordor have been picking a fight with Russia for years now. Bereft of the cold war they desperately want a hot war. The banks and defense contractors just aren’t making enough money in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

Now the fools and their tools want a war with China.  This is beyond dangerous, beyond reckless. It borders on national suicide in the name of corporate profit.  If we can’t beat “enemies” in places the size of Alabama and with half the martial capabilities, how in the hell do we battle world powers? Russia and China have nukes and the ability to use them. This can’t end well. It can’t start well either. There is no just reason for animosity with either country.

Then again, it would give the rabble an excuse to wrap themselves in the flag, go to “church,” and worship their real god – Mars.

Meanwhile:

On the home front, while their parents wave flags at church, our young people are busy trying to summon a demon.  Priests are, naturally, sounding the alarm. “I want to remind you all there is no such thing as innocently playing with demons,” said father Stephen McCarthy.

I once spoke to a Priest about this subject. The fact is, as bored as teens may be with school, with sexting, and with MTV, demons are real. When you summon the shadow world, there is no telling what might answer and it might answer.

The Bible is clear: Jesus did not deal with Casper The Friendly Ghost; He expelled Satanic monsters destined to destroy men, body and soul.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that demons came about from the original original sin and the fall of Lucifer. See: CCC 391, et seq. These hateful beings want to destroy. The last thing anyone should do is foolishly invite them in. Find me a Baptist or Methodist Minister who disagrees with the Church on this point.

The dark forces of Hell are best left to the Lord, to Jesus, and Their Angels.

Let us, on Earth, concern ourselves with exorcising those demons of Washington, who threaten all mankind with the profitable, yet Satanic spectacle of world war.

1334871924_wsh5-satanic-overlay

(More related than one might think, these stories.  Google.)

This was a bit more tedious that computer publishing. It’s done though. You may thank me later.

PS: This post was modified by PC after the fact.

Political Party Time!

24 Sunday May 2015

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I hate politicians.  In Christian terms it is wrong to hate any man.  Politicians are less men than rodents.  Thus, I feel exonerated in my feelings.  Elections are exercises in stupidity and herd-think.  Presidential elections are the worst.

H. L. Mencken summed it up best: “All of the great patriots now engaged in edging and squirming their way toward the Presidency of the Republic run true to form. That is to say, they are all extremely wary, and all more or less palpable frauds. What they want, primarily, is the job; the necessary equipment of inescapable issues, immutable principles and soaring ideals can wait until it becomes more certain which way the mob will be whooping.”  Mencken, 1920.

The difference between 1920 and 2015 is that, back then, there were people pretending to be true patriots.  At some point they dropped the pretense and proceeded from a desire for pure, unadulterated power.  The mob of the American people conveniently ignore this fact.  The television is just too entertaining to disagree with.  The country sinks lower into the sewer of politics.

A political “party” sounds like a fun time until one realizes the term refers not so much to an event as to a lowest, dumbest degenerates ever assembled under the sun (in truth, like all roaches, they prefer the darkness).  Washington warned against them. Mencken ridiculed them.  The people, ever plumbing the depths of stupidity, embrace them with jealous fervor.  It’s “us” Democrats against “them” Republicans and visa versa.  Spare the sane the idiocy of it all.

America is dominated by two predominate political parties.  They are nominally referred to as conservatives and liberals.  As I see it they both liberally dispense what may be conservatively described as bullshit.  The people seem to like it.

Third parties exist, apparently to provide comic relief for the big two.  I experimented with what I thought the most honest of these alternatives, the Libertarians.  Given the choice I would gladly be ruled by Libertarian politicians than those which currently plague us.  However, given power, I am sure they would be corrupted by the mainstream of political discourse.  Anarchy is the only happy solution.  The people do not like happy solutions.  Thus, we are suck with the rats and the roaches.

These parties care nothing about you.  They’re priorities are: bankers, Israel (Likudniks), and anyone else.  Not you.  Not me.

I am sick of this G*****ned nonsense and what it to f**king stop.  Okay? There is no difference between Democrats and Republicans!  They respect and represent neither democracy nor any republic.

fiscal-irresponsibility

(Different approach, same results.  Google.)

An illustrative story from the popular news presses:

If the God-fearing Republicans exist to save us from the Godless, communist Democrats, then why are Republicans Rallying to Save Obama’s Secret Trade Deal?  You can read more about this phenomenon here and here and here.

I’m not entirely sure what this new “secret” trade deal means for America.  But, first, it’s secret.  That means bad when it comes from Washington.  Second, it’s a trade deal. NAFTA and CAFTA, etc. have given American the SHAFTA.  I remember being lied to about NAFTA.  The dirty manufacturing jobs of old, they said, would give way to a new world of high-paying service jobs which would benefit everyone.

In truth, we have lost the industrial work, pay and all.  In exchange we have gained menial minimum wage employment serving hamburgers and such.  Robots and immigrants and Indians now do the productive work for real pay.  What a change.

I’m sure the new law – sure to happen – will be more of the same.  It supposedly grants the President new powers concerning foreign trade.  I understand Obama caught wind of a few, final high-paying jobs left in American and is determined to stamp them out. The displaced workers will receive healthcare and cell phones for the bargain – at a cost.

A few Democrats and Rand Paul (son of the mighty Ron Paul), realizing the potential liabilities of robbing the people of their last shot at the American Dream, have stood in the way.  Paul filibustered against the deal in the Senate.  His speech fell of deaf and stupid ears.  The President will get his way, supported by the “conservative” opposition.  Trade will be geared ever towards non-American interests.  Americans will lose jobs.  Reality TV will continue to be popular among the uneducated rabble.

Just remember this when the election rolls around and the Bush/Romney/Christie machine makes the usual patriotic rumblings.  Remember it when Hitlary bashes the GOP for being unsupportive of freedom.  Blah, blah.  Sounds like the same old BS to me.

Remember, if you can, how the various Democratic Congresses and Bill Clinton ran up the national debt, creating new and useless government programs along the way.  George Bush, the dimmer, was elected to change all that.  He promptly created new agencies and doubled the debt while commencing new wars everywhere.  His Excellency, Barack Hussein Osama, was elected to reverse course.  Dutifully, he doubled the debt again while continuing and adding to the wars.  Now he wants to finish off the trade work began by Clinton and Bush the Vomiter.  I see a conspiracy.

The people, bloated by beer and television see nothing.  They hear nothing.  They say nothing.  One of the new fools (or an old fool) foisted upon us by the elite will be the next President.  Business will continue as usual.

Spare me your partisan rhetoric this year and next.

 

Valediction

24 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in News and Notes

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As I type this bit up I am listening to several of my friends discuss the graduation of their several children from high school.  It’s that time of year.  All across America eighteen-year-olds are preparing to say goodbye to lifelong friends, to embrace college, to join the workforce, and to become adults.  It is a joyful time.

The local fish wrapper ran, today, a separate pictorial section dedicated to our young people, their early accomplishments and their future plans.  In particular the paper dwelt upon the lives and missions of the valedictorians and salutatorians of local schools. These are young men and women who are poised to go far in life.

The news calls them the “best and brightest.”  By the popular measure of educational achievement, this moniker fits.  However, these words are today minced in a somewhat incorrect manner.  “Valedictorian” and “salutatorian” come from Latin roots – valediction and saluation.  The former is a farewell, the latter a greeting.

At ceremonies coast to coast these meanings serve a justifiable purpose.  The valedictorian speaks first to bid the class farewell to the sheltered academic lives the members have known.  The salutatorian then speaks to the promise of the coming years. Or, something like that.

Those acquainted with the works of John Taylor Gatto or who have children of school age, surely understand the decline of quality in American public education.  Gatto was formerly New York’s teacher of the year (State and City).  His distinguished career spanned decades.  Now he speaks and writes of the critical need for drastic school reform.  His writing is frequently published at lewrockwell.com.  He is the author of The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling (2000).

Gatto has related the American model of public education to Soviet-era brainwashing:

Two years before I ran across that Atlantic broadside, I encountered a different analysis in the financial magazine Forbes. I was surprised to discover Forbes had correctly tracked the closest inspiration for school psychologizing, both its aims and its techniques, to the pedagogy of China and the Soviet Union. Not similar practices and programs, mind you, identical ones. The great initial link with Russia, I knew, had been from the Wundtian Ivan Pavlov, but the Chinese connection was news to me. I was unaware then of John Dewey’s tenure there in the 1920s, and had given no thought, for that reason, to its possible significance:

The techniques of brainwashing developed in totalitarian countries are routinely used in psychological conditioning programs imposed on school children. These include emotional shock and desensitization, psychological isolation from sources of support, stripping away defenses, manipulative cross-examination of the individual’s underlying moral values by psychological rather than rational means. These techniques are not confined to separate courses or programs…they are not isolated idiosyncracies of particular teachers. They are products of numerous books and other educational materials in programs packaged by organizations that sell such curricula to administrators and teach the techniques to teachers. Some packages even include instructions on how to deal with parents and others who object. Stripping away psychological defenses can be done through assignments to keep diaries to be discussed in group sessions, and through role-playing assignments, both techniques used in the original brainwashing programs in China under Mao.

The Forbes writer, Thomas Sowell, perhaps invoking the slave states in part to rouse the reader’s capitalist dander, could hardly have been aware himself how carefully industrial and institutional interest had seeded Russia, China, Japan, and the Pacific Islands with the doctrine of psychological schooling long ago, nearly at the beginning of the century, and in Japan’s case even before that. All along we have harvested these experimental growths in foreign soil for what they seem to prove about people-shaping.

 – Gatto, The Empty Child, Chapter 13 of The Underground History of American Public Education (2000).

“Slaves,” “people-shaping,” and “brainwashing” are alarming and damning.  However, from my experience I find them succient and apt discriptions of American education.

I was lucky growing up.  I had a slew of teachers, older and steeped in the traditions of real education – the old school way, who actually dared and cared to teach.  I remember them fondly.  Also, in high school, college and graduate school I possessed a hard-headed resilience and independence which plagues me to this day.  You may sense in my writing.

Today schools are little more than prisons crossbred with day care centers.  Our children are marched around like cattle by overweight nitwits.  They are subjected to communist indoctrination and cultural immorality.  State-worship is everywhere.  Rules must be obeyed perfectly.  Freakism of every strip is revered.  God is banned from the building.

In all this idiocy the one thing missing is teaching – learning and educational experiment are vacant in our public schools.  They are unwanted qualities among the people.  As George Carlin used to say, the system wants people just smart enough to operate the machines and file the paper – they do not want educated people capable of free thought or consideration.

By the grace of God Almightly the “best and brightest” are often times exempted from this nonesense.  Many possess those rebellious traits I hold dear.  Many are allowed to pursue real studies in real academic subjects.  These are statistical outliers.  The other children, the majority, are treated like sheep and criminals.

A boy in West Virginian was recently ARRESTED for wearing a t-shirt which expressed support for the NRA and the Second Amendment.  No-one was bothered by the shirt. The lad harmed none.  However, the Second Amendment representing the last hope of freedom for oppressed people (like students), the shirt had to be banned and demonized. In an overreaction typical of modern schools administrators, the teacher and principal called the local Gestapo.  The child was led away in handcuffs – for wearing a shirt.

The charges were later dismissed by an honest judge.  However, great damage has been done.  The boy’s mother is suing the school for violating her son’s civil rights.  Go mama!

Long ago, public schools had civics classes.  In those classes the Constitution, its traditions and foundations were taught.  This included the second amendment and the necessary right and obligation of rebellion against tyranny.  Revolution was celebrated. Today, as best I can gather, such thought or instruction would constitute a criminal offense.  Our babes are taught the government is the end all and be all of human existence.  Its supremacy and place must never be challenged.

This is a crime, in and of itself, equal with all the positive modern instruction concerning dependence, homosexuality, death culture, etc.  Anything goes and is okay, our children are taught, so long as it does not make any sense.  I imagine that math, being completely based on absolute truth, is completely absent from the new schools.  Robots and foreigners can always add for us.  This subtracts from the ability of our people to independently endure.  It cries out for vengeance.  Most ears are deaf to that cry.

Back to our new graduates … the fish-wrapper relayed to its readers how a valedictorian and salutatorian of a local high school treated their classmates to the verse and wisdom of Dr. Seuss.  This is a commonality in schools these days.  Oh, the places you’ll go… This small child’s book was read, in part, in one of my law classes.  Maybe it was at our graduation.  It was foolish and inappropriate.

drseussbook

(Dr. Seuss, keeping children and adults shit stupid since 1937.  Google.)

What kind of world is it when the words of Jesus, Jefferson and Cicero are absent and replaced by the sophomoric rhymes of the kindergarten?  Seuss is the level of the new school – childish, pointless, and optimistically vacuous.

Were I permitted to address a graduating class I too would present a Seuss book.  I would introduce the Cat in the Hat. I would then rip it in half, throw it on the floor and proceed to tell the children that they were, that day, freed from one form of government oppression.  I would congratulate them for surviving without arrest records. I would then extol them of the crucial importance of real learning.  Never let schooling interfere with education.  Never let education interfere with learning.  Question everything.  Accept no mastery.  Put down with brutality that slavery prepared for your adult lives.  I would never be invited back again.

Before I wrote about my experience in college and in law school.  I ridiculed myself for opportunities lost and the system for lack of substance.  Schooling is what one makes of it.  I hope our future generations grasp this.  I hope they reject the new theories of dumbed-down complacency.  I hope they prosper.  Congratulations to the Class of 15.

 

Let’s Be Frank

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes, Other Columns

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When last you read I promised a big story by hook or by crook.  Well, it has to be by crook.  Or, maybe by hook.  Not sure.  Anyway, all you get for now is a short preview. I’m busy revising, editing and discussing movie rights.  Seriously, it is a comparative political piece about Tolkien’s Numenor and America.  Here goes:

This essay concerns the rising peace and glory and downfall of Tolkien’s Numenor as compared to the rise and fall of republican America…

…the author is aware the details and history of Numenor are both idyllic and fictional. There are, however, many similarities between that mythical tale and the, albeit romantic, history of the great republic of the United States of America. Much of what we remember of America’s founding and glory is largely fictionalized as well. Thus, this short work is philosophical and perhaps even religious in nature.

…the story of the downfall of Numenor, the ancient island home of the “Men of the West” of Tolkien’s Arda, the Edain/Dunedain, is included at the end of the Silmarillion book but are separate from and independent of the story of the Silmarillion – so says Christopher Tolkien,  Silmarillion, Forward…

First I will set up the historical and physical commonalities of the two subject Nations. My good readers are, no doubt, steeped in the history and geography of America. Many are familiar with Tolkien and Middle Earth (at least and insofar as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are concerned, thank you, Peter Jackson). Numenor and the allegedly murky (a slanderous allegation) Silmarillion might require additional explanation…

That’s all for now.  The real thing is coming soon.

One more thing!  Frank the Frog, in anticipation of his possible election bid, will shortly hereafter release his autobiography, Frankly Speaking.  Frank will share his insight on foreign policy, dispel rumors about his alleged firefly addiction, discuss growing up tough surrounded by hawks and snakes (perfect prep for politics), and much much more.  Get over to Amazon and reserve your first edition copy now.

frank book cover

(It’s as if a little green founding father hoped out of the history book to grace us modern Americans with his wisdom.)

Shootout at the Boobie Corral

20 Wednesday May 2015

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You have undoubtedly heard by now of the second great shootout in Waco, Texas.  The first involved the FBI, the U.S. Army and some unfortunate parishioners at the local Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Over twenty-two years ago the government decided to “rescue” some women and children from the clutches of their own church.  In typical government fashion the rescue attempt became an inferno (literally).

ruby21

(Saving the children, government style.  Google.)

This time around the action featured members of various biker clubs.  The Bandidos and several other gangs met at the local Twin Peaks restaurant to discuss recruitment and territorial matters.  It was a sort of corporate retreat for overweight, balding druggies and felons.

Twin Peaks is famous for its sophisticated culinary offerings.

TWINPEAKSS

(Steak Tartare and Foie Gras, anyone?  Google.)

Bikers are famous for … well …

Ugly-People-Unite-119

(Yeah… Why, Google, why?)

Bikers clubs, frequently rivaling the State in criminality, are often subject to intense police scrutiny.  The government suffers no rivals.  As was, the local police were keeping a malicious eye on the two-wheeling hooligans.  They apparently warned the management of Twin Peaks the event would turn out poorly.

At first, things seemed to go well.  “You like riding a dangerous over-sized bicycle without a helmet?”  “Me too!”  Friendships were forming.  Then, sadly, someone said or did something someone else did not like.

A fight began which left nine dead and eighteen seriously injured.  About 170 were arrested following a mass assault by the police who were, conveniently, staging nearby. When the shooting started the cops were ready and participated immediately.  SWAT units and tanks were already on site.

Authorities investigate a shooting in the parking lot of the Twin Peaks restaurant Sunday, May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas. Authorities say that the shootout victims were members of rival biker gangs that had gathered for a meeting. (AP Photo/Jerry Larson)

Authorities investigate a shooting in the parking lot of the Twin Peaks restaurant Sunday, May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas. Authorities say that the shootout victims were members of rival biker gangs that had gathered for a meeting. (AP Photo/Jerry Larson) (Read: Costumed gang members arrest other costumed gang members while others retire neath yellow tarps…)

Many of my fellow conspiracy theorist friends have judged that the police, seeking to eliminate corrupt competition, staged the event and sniped those key members of the clubs whom most threatened their dominance.  I, as of yet, do not share this conclusion.  However, if the media resoundingly silences the results of autopsies and reports (as in the first murderous Waco affair), much credence will be given to this view. Already, things are “returning to normal.”

As nothing really surprises me anymore, this would make perfect sense.  It would also make sense if this was just the result of redneck stupidity – a sign of the demented times of modern America.  I recently wrote about blacks in Baltimore burning and looting their own neighborhoods in acts of flagrant stupidity.  I also touched on the incessant need of Muslims to shoot up cartoon conventions.  It’s only natural for marginally educated or employed white boys to get in on the senseless violence.

So it goes in America.  What a great country we had.  Remember the 70’s? Or the 80’s? 50’s? 90’s?  It seems like such a long time ago.  Time marches on.  The culture regresses.

I’ve been forecasting a giant, scholarly post of late.  Today will be the day.  I intend to publish a draft today or tonight by hook or by crook.  It’s coming.  As sure as the boobs of Texas are upon you.

Democracy in America: A Charming Children’s Story

17 Sunday May 2015

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Last week I mentioned that an election was coming.  I also presented my own favorite candidate – Frank the Frog.  Frank will not win and the election is in vain.  Vote if you care.  I don’t.

The Illustrious Barry Hussein El Islam Muhammad Obama the Magnificent has finished the job begun by his predecessors – the country is in ruins.  For his replacement the Democrats have dug to the very bottom of the bag of wrinkled has-beens, to one Hillary Clinton, the wife of “good times Bill, the slickster.”

The Republicans have other, similar ideas.  They would foist upon the people yet a third member of the Bush clan.  Obviously, the people are okay with two families maintaining a grip on national power for two or three or five decades.  Their business.  Is there some national obsession with rats and roaches of which I am not completely aware?

In Iowa the Republicans “think they must soften their image and expand their appeal in particular to women and Latino voters.”  I assume women and Latinos enjoy constant war, perpetual debt and crushing loads of government buffoonery.  Again, their business.

However, down in South Carolina, the GOP still caters to the Budweiser and NASCAR crowd.  There, apparently, women and Latinos are still at odds.  A woman, who had once been a Democrat, shouted, “People are coming in this country across the borders like rats and roaches in the woodpile! … The audience applauded.  She complained that states were registering people to vote and failing to ‘check them out.’ ‘We’ve got to get control,'” she bellowed while munching on a Twinkie.

“You would think that after all this time conservative conference planners would have learned the one most important lesson about conservative conferences: Never let the audience speak. Ever.”  They don’t learn.  No-one learns.  Ten thousand years of history demonstrate unequivocally than government does not work.  Democrats love it. Republicans still love it.  The people hoot and holler like chimps in a cage.

Capture

(Large gathering of fat, illiterate white people.  Google.)

The universal message provided by the freedom-loving Republican candidates may be summarized as follows: more war!; Mexicans bad!; Muslims bad!; Democrats bad!; give taxes to banksters!; huff; puff.

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(Bubba believes in the flag.  Google/Getty.)

Such fairy tales are humorous but foolish when taken seriously.  If the Democrats false egalitarianism had been real thirty years ago things might be better today.  If flag-worshipping Republicans actually had sought freedom, things might be better.  In reality, their lies and deceit have done us in.

Following his in-depth observations of early nineteenth-century America, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote Democracy in America, 1835.  The book is a masterful account of the political and demographic expanse of early America.

De Tocqueville wrote of the three races in the new world at that time: whites, blacks, and indians.  He proposed that whites and blacks would have to get along together in a future in which they formed the vast majority of the populace.  The fate of the native people seemed doubtful to Tocqueville.  Sensing there would be unnecessary, faction-based strife among the people for years to come, he refrained from any ultimate prediction in favor of a “time will tell” conclusion.

Time has told.  Following the two major parties, the people have chosen a sort of mass suicide followed by uncertain government managed life support.  Currently, while the bloated carcass of the American public drools on the gurney, the plug is being pulled.

This all leads me to a charming little tale, told in the far distant future.

In the cold winter of 3187, in the nation of Utopia, two young children dined with their old grandfather.  Following their meal the children enjoyed a brief holographic conversation with their parents.  Mom and Dad were enjoying a well deserved vacation on Mars.

As the evening deepened outside grandpa built a cozy fire on the hearth.

“Come and tell me about your school day,” he eagerly beckoned.  Little Timmy and Suzy recounted with wonder the day’s history lesson.  “Teacher read to us from an old book by Alex Me Folkville!,” volunteered Timmy.  “It was all about the ancient Americans,” exclaimed Suzy.

Timmy inquired of the smiling old man, “Have you ever heard of the Americans?”

“Yes, they were once a great people,” said Grandpa with a sigh.

“What happened to them,” asked Suzy, snuggling under Grandpa’s flannel-clad arm.

6573676575_4e93045b4c

(A future history unfolds.  Google.)

“Well, if you really want to know, I can tell you of the Americans and their strange fate.”  Grandpa began:

A long, long time ago in a land far away, a group of wise men built up a great nation. The people were virtuous and hard-working.  Sure, they had their troubles, but they always tried to resolve them.

In such fashion they became wealthy, powerful, and happy.  They, it were, who invented many of the things we enjoy today – airplanes, spaceships, and cheeseburgers.

Just when they reached the zenith of their prosperity a funny thing happened…

“What’s a ‘zenith’,” asked Timmy as he enjoyed the wood fire.

“‘Zenith’ means ‘height’ or ‘best’,” answered Grandpa.  He continued:

The Americans were a diverse and happy people. De Tocqueville, your Me Folkville, noted their main divisions – white, black and indian or Mexican.  But, for reasons no-one really understands, they all fell under the dominion of two parties of deranged fools.  When I was a lad our teachers referred to the two groups as the rats and the roaches.  I think their real names were the Democrats and the Republicans.

Inexplicably, the free people of America, the most self-reliant and strongest of all people on earth, ceded all control of their lives to the most vile, idiotic, debased and degenerate lowlifes imaginable.

Every few years or so the people would hold a big popularity contest.  There was no need.  Everything was fine as it was.  But the rats … the Democrats and Republicans convinced the people there was good reason to place them in power.  The people filled their time with television, sports, food, and other trivialities.  Politically, they adopted an ‘us’ verses ‘them’ mentality.

Slowly, the politicians took control.  They perverted everything good about America. They made war on all other peoples just for the fun of it.  They spent money to the point the money had no value.  They encouraged the people to hate each other and themselves.  The times were vicious and confusing.

At last, in the middle of the 21st century, things fell apart.  All those great Americans had become a host of overweight, lazy, angry couch potatoes.  They traded their freedom for false security.  They were all on welfare. The world hated them.  They were poor.  They had no purpose.

The politicians and their huckster friends took the last of the money and fled abroad. The people were left in abject squalor.  Bereft of their jobs, their entertainment and their dignity they resorted to primitive tribalism.

The indians/Mexicans were centered in the southwest.  One day it was discovered that there was not a drop of water left there.  The Mexicans, those who survived, all returned to Mexico.

The southeast of the country was inhabited almost entirely by blacks.  In their collective psychosis, they decided to revert to an earlier way of life.  They decided to become slaves on various cotton plantations under the rule of white masters.  Lacking real whites, they appointed several of their own number to serve in this role.  They fared poorly and became extinct.

The whites fared no better.  Living mostly in the mountainous west, after a night of hard-drinking, they became enamoured of the idea of re-enacting the cowboy and indian wars of old.  As all real indians were then fled to Mexico, they held a giant game of shirts and skins amongst themselves. Thus, they uniformly perished.

The great American northeast, cradle of the original nation, was inhabited by one man – a Canadian named Jacque Strapp.  It was never known what became of him.

So the great land became uninhabited.  The old forests overtook the cities and after a whil, few traces of civilization remained.  And now, it is all history.  It happened so long ago…

“Would you like to live like the Americans?” Grandpa asked the children.  “Would you vote for fool politicians to ruin and destroy your lives?”

“No!” yelled both of the little ones in unison.

“Well then, good! Let us enjoy the fire,” said grandpa.

So ends the tale yet untold.  Will it become a reality?  Do we, the living, have the ability to change our fates and future history?

Will you continue to vote for your own destruction?

I hope not.  Take a queue from Timmy and Suzy.  Dispense with the rats and roaches of democracy.