The State of The Hammer - 2

A while back we commented on the criminal trial of Tom "The Hammer" Delay and the prospects of Texas justice.

Eventually a Texas jury found him guilty.

More recently Mr. Delay was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for conspiracy, 5 years for money laundering, with probation for 10 years.

The net effect was three years in prison to be followed by 7 years of probation.

Delay is a now a "probie" unless he wins on appeal.

His Enron buddy Skilling appealed all the way to the Supreme Court which held that the federal statute he was convicted under was ambiguous in some flawed degree, so they sent it back for further consideration by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Expect Mr. Delay to follow the same path, however, he has a more difficult path because his crime spree was not based on the same federal statute that Mr. Skilling's was, but instead was based on Texas state criminal law.

Evolution From Left To Right

What are the forces that cause the morph from a left wing oriented political philosophy into a more centrist political philosophy, and then on to a right wing political philosophy?

The photos in this post depict the dynamic personality evolution of Jared Lee Lochner, which, "coincidently", also tracks the evolution of the political philosophy of the body politic in the United States over the past few decades.

Some writers opine that some of this is a result of a broken mental health system:

There are countless unanswered questions about why Jared Loughner allegedly went on a shooting rampage, but of this we can be sure: across America there are thousands of parents of older adolescents and young adults who are terrified that their child’s strange behavior, paranoid rants, drinking, drug abuse, conspiracy fantasies, and other red flags of mental illness will lead to violence—possibly against a public figure like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, possibly against a family member. That most of these parents have no idea what to do is frightening enough. It’s a national scandal that, even if they succeed in getting their child mental-health care before tragedy strikes, the system is set up to thwart them at every turn.

(Newsweek). Regular readers of Dredd Blog know that we have advanced the theory that national propaganda, ongoing for several generations now, has consequences, yes, even mental health consequences inflicted on the citizenry:

THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
...

Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons — a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty [now 320] million — who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

...

It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice.

(A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 4). In that post we introduce the Father of Spin who not only wrote the book Propaganda, he also firmly believed in propaganda as a force for the good of the nation.

He was quite popular with public relations firms and politicians for obvious reasons.

In that post we also discussed new discoveries about DNA, and how experience works to morph DNA from point A to point B, from one generation to the next.

We quoted noted scholars in the post The Deceit Business, who point out that propaganda has grown into the very fiber of our national being.

In another series we question the validity of the theories of The Father of Spin, and point out the mysterious, incurable, but epidemic proportions of mental illness in these United States:

Some researchers are convinced that, whatever its cause, Alzheimer's disease is essentially an inflammatory condition, similar to rheumatoid arthritis ... there is no cure ... According to a report released in June 2001 by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Alzheimer's disease was the 8th main cause of death in the USA in 1999, rising from 12th position in 1998.

(Etiology of Social Dementia). In yet another post we see the epidemic coming at us with growing negative consequences:

Starting on Jan. 1, our 79-million-strong baby boom generation will be turning 65 at the rate of one every eight seconds. That means more than 10,000 people per day, or more than four million per year, for the next 19 years facing an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. Although the symptoms of this disease and other forms of dementia seldom appear before middle age, the likelihood of their appearance doubles every five years after age 65. Among people over 85 (the fastest-growing segment of the American population), dementia afflicts one in two. It is estimated that 13.5 million Americans will be stricken with Alzheimer’s by 2050 — up from five million today.

(Will Elections Cure The Disease?). The Newsweek article quoted at the top of this thread further shows how lack of funds exacerbate the problem:

“The mental-health-care ‘system’ in America is a broken system,” says Michael Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). “The system was already in crisis, and has become even less accessible over the last three years as state budgets for mental health—psychiatric beds [in hospitals], counseling, and other services—have been cut by $2 billion. States have eliminated 4,000 in-patient psychiatric beds.” NAMI’s Katrina Gay adds, “In many cases you can’t even get an evaluation for two to three months—and that’s assuming you know how to get one in the first place.”

(Newsweek). The funds are being spent at outrageous rates in foreign lands where the rogue and mavericky military says they are creating and protecting our freedoms.

We know they are not doing that, and we know what they are doing is causing us to morph in The W Direction at an increasing pace.

The next post in this series is here.

The Graphs of Wrath - 2

We Americans are a clever bunch, especially our media who spend all their time telling us not to worry about the writing on the wall, declaring "its only graffiti".

They are the experts of MOMCOM, expert in their own eyes.

They spend the bulk of their time sound-biting out their message that "Amurka is the greatest nation in the history of the world".

Ok groovy sound-bite historians, you have done you propagandic duty, but now lets get real.

Somehow your MOMCOM pabulum seems like some sort of cover-up, especially when it is obvious that you in MOMCOM's media are ignoring the warnings of a plethora of actual experts who keep in touch with economic realities that are relevant today, relevant now:

The following experts have - at some point during the last 2 years - said that the economic crisis could be worse than the Great Depression:

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan (and see this and this), Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, Economics scholar and former Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin, The head of the Bank of England Mervyn King, Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, Former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead, Economics professors Barry Eichengreen and and Kevin H. O'Rourke (updated here), Investment advisor, risk expert and "Black Swan" author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Well-known PhD economist Marc Faber, Morgan Stanley’s UK equity strategist Graham Secker, Former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae Edward J. Pinto, Billionaire investor George Soros, Senior British minister Ed Balls...

How could that possibly be, when the stock market has largely recovered? (Let's forget for a moment that the stock market rallied after 1929, but then crashed in a double dip).

(Global Research). The writing is on the walls of garage doors of foreclosed America, and it is spreading like the plague:

An influential economist who long predicted the housing market bubble cautioned Tuesday that the slump in the U.S. housing market could cause prices to fall more than they did in the Great Depression, and bailouts will be needed so millions don't lose their homes.

Yale University economist Robert Shiller, pioneer of the widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, said there's a good chance housing prices will fall further than the 30 percent drop in the historic depression of the 1930s. Home prices nationwide already have dropped 15 percent since their peak in 2006, he said.

"I think there is a scenario that they could be down substantially more," Shiller said during a speech at the New Haven Lawn Club

(ABC news). The writing is also on the walls of city halls:

As cities across the nation face increasing budget strains, the vocal group of experts warning about municipal defaults has gained a powerful member: Jamie Dimon.

The JPMorgan CEO said he expects to see more U.S. municipalities declare bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reports. His concerns echo those of Meredith Whitney, the analyst who has said the next major financial crisis will come from a wave of local government defaults, and those of famed investor Warren Buffett, who has called the municipal debt situation a "terrible problem."

"If you are an investor in municipals you should be very, very careful," Dimon said, according to Bloomberg.

(City Bankrupties Will Increase). Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has attempted to associate the endless wars with our current endless economic problems.

For examples see Graphs of Wrath or States of War Budgets, and note that we have figured out that the military section of MOMCOM does not go down without a bloody fight, and is always religiously looking for a resurrection of war:

We have seen that MOMCOM has been resurrected over and over again as a life-death-rebirth deity:

The Pentagon needed to help Bush II get elected, to save the military oil complex from becoming a class like the military in other countries of the world:

Until more money arrives, the defense apparatus is literally feeding on its own parts, pinching this and that, scrimping here and there, in order to keep the same Cold War force structure in place and the same lineup of new weapons moving through the pipeline of development. During the Cold War era, the military institution acquired a reflexive appetite for growth that it's now unwilling to give up. Instead, it lumbers toward a self-induced crisis of malnourishment, as when an addict's starving body eats its own liver.

(Is There A Shadow Government - 2). That was the state of the military just as Bush II was being elected, with the help of GE and the GE CEO, Bush II's greatest campaign contributor.

(GE Serves The Pentagon On TV Near Yoo). Birth and death are worshiped faithfully by the military priests who believe they are the saviors of the world.

(The Virgin MOMCOM). Two blogs recently carried quotes and/or statements from David Stockman, a former government official concerning the impacts of a rogue and mavericky MOMCOM:

We are now at a historical inflection point at which the time has arrived for a classic post-war demobilization of the entire military establishment," David Stockman said in an exclusive interview.

"The Cold War is long over," he continued. "The wars of occupation are almost over and were complete failures -- Afghanistan and Iraq. The American empire is done. There are no real seriously armed enemies left in the world that can possibly justify an $800 billion national defense and security establishment, including Homeland Security."

Short of that, he suggested, the United States has "reached the point of no return" with its artificial creation of wealth, and will eventually face a sharp economic decline.

(Washington's Blog, see also Raw Story). One of our regulars, disaffected also picked up on that story recently and shared a link to it in comments.

Hey you MOMCOM media folks reading this, did you think Dredd Blog was kidding when we said you were enablers and perpetrators of the mode to Destroy The U.S. In Order To Save It?

You need to grasp that your behavior modifies your DNA. so change your experience to make it like the real Americans who know that war will destroy America if we do not stop those wars YESTERDAY (and if it is not already too late).

The previous post in this series is here, the next post in this series is here.

The Battle of Immunities & Diseases

By the end of this post I hope you will understand that the adage or point of law "the King can do no wrong" is a form of "immunity" that was supposed to be left back in the 15th century, back long ago when our forefathers and foremothers left that liberty forsaken place.

I also hope you understand that for every "official immunity" there is an equal and opposite spread of disease into the populace.

I hope to show that when government officials are pronounced immune through the operation of the "judge created' doctrines of absolute immunity or qualified immunity, it means that the wrongs they are pronounced immune from are then and thereby propagated into the populace.

Clearly, the immunity to a government official is part of the same instance where a wrong has been done to a citizen from which that citizen then has no cure and no immunity.

For example, the most "popular" immunity (in terms of quantity, not quality) currently propagated against the citizenry these daze is "qualified immunity".

The policeman who wrongfully does this or that, from shooting a citizen to breaking into the wrong house on a drug bust, can "qualify" for immunity.

The wrongdoer can receive a pronouncement from the Doctor Judge that the official is immune, forgetting for the moment, for the sake of the glory of government, that the citizen is not.

No disease here folks, move along now, is what they want us to believe, but as we saw yesterday in A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 4 , that wrong evolves to propagate itself.

The problem is that the "folks" are crippled or killed without recourse, but the official who did them wrong is squeaky clean a.k.a. "immune" because "the King can do no wrong".

The less "popular" immunity (again, in terms of quantity, not quality), is "absolute immunity" which applies to judges, prosecutors, and a few other higher officials (e.g. George, Yoo, Bybee & Dick) who do wrong to the citizenry without commensurate accountability.

For "some unfathomable reason", as the great Professor Prosser was want to say, the alien doctrine of "official immunity", which has its origin in the legal doctrine of England which was that "the King can do no wrong", sneakily made its way into American Jurisprudence decades after the Declaration of Independence from that very doctrine.

If we take a close look at this doctrine, it is obviously nothing more than immunizing the government from accountability, while at the same time forcing harm, damage, or disease upon those in the citizenry who have been wronged by that government action.

Some discussion, which is more comprehensive than what I can do in this one post today, can be perused in posts at the Toxins of Power Blog, which show how this erroneous, anti-democracy doctrine spreads to eventually infect millions.

Lets tune in to one typical, every day case that qualifies for a fractured flickers episode:

The Government presents an impressive array of theories which would preclude it from any liability ... we ... hold that the Government should escape unscathed ... It is often said that the doctrine of sovereign immunity is a derivative of the common law maxim "The King can do no wrong." But conceptually it is far older. Zeus himself carried an aegis or breastplate, a buckler, and a thunderbolt which made him, the mythological sovereign, immune from all that could beset him. And common law provided its sovereign with the immunity of Zeus ... The tide of history is running clearly against the concept of sovereign immunity. The disfavor into which the doctrine has fallen was observed as far back as ... 1939 ... [and] this Court pointed out that the assault upon the citadel of immunity continues presently apace.

(Somebody vs. The King). Since they concluded "we nonetheless ... hold that the Government should escape unscathed", we should note that "the assault upon the citadel of immunity continues presently apace" in the wrong direction.

The words "There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke" are in Bob Dylan's lyrics in "All Along The Watch Tower", and are in the minds of others of the citizenry as well.

Where did this crap come from, how did it swim the great ocean between the King's England and the people's new America?

The answer is that regal immunity is like the toxins released into the Gulf of Mexico last summer, they go with the flow even as the government denies their existence.

We now have immune officials like Dick Cheney and Bush II walking around bragging about torturing, water-boarding, and how good that perversion is for America.

Unwittingly, they seek to make corruption a disease from which there is no immunity.

Yes, they are immune we are not, but unless we become immune and they become accountable again, this trickle down madness will eventually take all of us down.

A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 4

MOMCOM feeds the hoi polloi

In this series we have been investigating the forensic trail of MOMCOM's DNA.

In the last episode A Closer Look At MOMCOM's DNA - 3, we looked forward, but in this episode we are going to take a look back into the origin of MOMCOM's DNA.

DNA scientists have gone and done it again, they have relegated some cool textbooks to the dust bins of history.

Nevertheless the new scientific information will help us to investigate MOMCOM's DNA more accurately.

Because the new science is in accord with what Dredd Blog has been saying about MOMCOM anyway.

In might seem that just when we grasp the theory that genetic DNA has virtual control over us as determined by random mutation, another scientist, Skinner, comes along to tell us that DNA is instead developed substantially by the experience of our forefathers rather than random mutation.

Check it out:

"Michael Skinner has just uttered an astounding sentence, but by now he is so used to slaying scientific dogma that his listener has to interrupt and ask if he realizes what he just said. Which was this: 'We just published a paper last month confirming epigenetic changes in sperm which are carried forward transgenerationally. This confirms that these changes can become permanently programmed.'"

(Sins of the Grandfathers). That does sound like the issue discussed in the Dredd Blog series The Peak of Sanity, in the sense that father and mother can evolve into duh faddah and duh muddah if we play fast and loose with reality.

Anyway, let's continue with the article:

"... the life experiences of grandparents and even great-grandparents alter their eggs and sperm so indelibly that the change is passed on to their children, grandchildren, and beyond. It’s called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: the phenomenon in which something in the environment alters the health not only of the individual exposed to it, but also of that individual’s descendants."

(Sins of the Grandfathers). Were we not saying just that yesterday? Were we not saying that a while back in The Etiology of Social Dementia series, together with the Jabber The Whut? series?

Yes indeed, because we believe that the brain is more of a factor in experience, in what people consciously perceive, and in what people consciously do.

We have indicated that the DNA of MOMCOM is passed down that way more so than by random mutation.

Ok, so now it is probably a safe time to pull back the curtain to reveal the wizard of odds, the father of MOMCOM DNA:

"THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Edward L. Bernays

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons — a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty [now 320] million — who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
...
It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice."

(Propaganda, by Edward L. Bernays, emphasis added). Old Fast Eddie totally believed in propaganda, and was not all "don't ask don't tell" in the closet about it.

He is, therefore, "affectionately" called The Father of Spin, for which his grand ole daughter MOMCOM is so proud, even causing many heads to spin with pride.

Many of us now know how wrong faddah Eddie was, and how wrong MOMCOM propaganda ("spin") really is.

The experience of those deceived by MOMCOM propaganda has now been passed down for many generations, and madness is growing like an economic bubble.

Even elections can no longer cure the disease now can they?

Even more revolutionary DNA discoveries have been made indicating that microbes also effect genetics.

The next post in this series is here., the previous post in this series is here.

The Glory Daze of Trickle Down Violence

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog, in order to try to determine what is ahead, tends to look out the windshield to focus on what is coming, rather than looking in the rear view mirror to focus on what has passed by.

The notion that "the past will tell the future because history always repeats itself" can be a false way of thinking ahead, because logically only what is coming is the future, and only what has already gone by is the past.

We were looking ahead in the post Pop a Cap For Jesus and Justice when we discussed a case where the police shot a man in open court who was protesting a speed trap. How will that affect the teens there in that traffic court who were thinking of becoming peace officers?

That man who was protesting the speed trap who was gunned down in court was the Fire Chief. How will that affect the teens there in that traffic court who were thinking of becoming firemen?

In the post Terrorism and Hate Crimes Merging? we quoted some political figures who implied that if they didn't win at the ballot box they would use the bullet box. How will that affect the teens there at the political rally who were thinking of becoming elected officials?

Yesterday in Constitutional Ignorace Kills The Judge we faulted national leaders for glorifying massive displays of violence.

In The Greatest Source of Power Toxins? we quoted an American Sage or two who pointed out that wars will damage a nation for as long as those wars last, and destroy a nation if they last long enough. How will endless wars affect the teens there watching the TV who are thinking of getting some glory?

These cases all point out that even though trickle down economics does not work, trickle down violence does "work".

That is, the young are inevitably pulled into the growing realm of violence if those they look up to glorify violence, because violence trickles down, yes, it runs downhill as fast as the current gravity will allow.

Leaders do not convince the young by glorifying war, where hundreds of thousands of innocent people are massacred, by later condemning a tiny-by-comparison massacre.

The young are not stupid, but they are pliable. They know the difference between a pile of crap and a hamburger.

So MOMCOM, even though it is not possible for you to feel shame, it is possible for you to eventually feel the fruits of the seeds you plant around this world every day.

Dredd Blog's Second Anniversary

Wow that was fast.

Thanks to all the readers of Dredd Blog who have made it an interesting year.

Hope you found something here that helped you in some way, made your day once in awhile, and challenged you always.

If not, there is always a chance it will happen in 2011.

The sad, the funny, the profane, the criminal, the wrong, the good, and the next are all happening. Everything is happening so it is difficult sometimes to catch what will help or inform most.

Two other blogs, Toxins of Power and Ecocosmology, were initiated during last year so that some specialized issues could be put there.

Keep the comments coming, they are a true value both for lurkers and for other bloggers who like to comment too.

Constitutional Ignorance Kills The Judge

What does one do when the authorities do not portray the U.S. Constitution properly?

Point it out at least?

When an Arizona Sheriff characterized the First Amendment in this way he was wrong:

“Let me say one thing, because people tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that,” the sheriff said during a press conference. “That may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences.”

(Sheriff Exudes Error, emphasis added). The error is to equate free speech with violent, false, or reckless speech, then to imply that our Constitution is weak to allow free speech because free speech is "not without consequences".

That is an ignorant view of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Americans have never been "free" to yell "Fire!" in a movie theater when there is no fire and when the person who yells it intends mischief.

That isn't freedom, it is intellectual debauchery.

We have never been "free" to print libel or speak slander, both of which would appropriately have consequences.

There are no consequences for having Free Speech, but many consequences for not having it, thus, the exercise is to know what Free Speech is and is not.

It would probably help to use the terms "legal speech" and "illegal speech" to clear the air of misunderstanding.

For example, recently a radio host was sent to prison for advocating violence against certain judges:

The ultra right-wing talk show host and blogger, once popular with white supremacists, protested his innocence and blasted U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter and the Chicago-based assistant U.S. attorneys who prosecuted him for manipulating the legal system to finally win a conviction after three trials.

“The charge against me was a lie from the beginning, and the verdict was invalid because it was based on fraud,” declared Turner, 48, of North Bergen, dressed in a dark grey prison jump suit

In a rambling, nearly hour-long diatribe, Turner accused the judge of “legal skullduggery” for changing the legal definition of a threat and ignoring more than 40 years of Supreme Court case law on freedom of speech and advocating violence.

(Shock Jock Hal Turner Goeth Down). The bad mouthed wing nut as well as the liberal sheriff both have an impure view of the First Amendment.

Perhaps we have all forgotten that decency really is cool, forgotten that decent Free Speech is as big as the sky, forgotten that Free Speech does include opinionated speech which does not advocate violence against those who hold different opinions, and perhaps we have forgotten that ad hominem speech on steroids is not Free Speech, but is for those void of the cognitive ability to actually use Free Speech effectively.

The thing is, free speech does not go into the utter gutter where hate filled vitriol is spewed like a broken sewer line run amok.

The fault for this ignorance must be placed upon the individuals who use it, but also upon those who advocate it.

That would be MOMCOM and the wannabe minions who are intellectually bankrupt:

Words matter, as candidate Barack Obama said in the 2008 election campaign. What to make, then, of President Obama’s pep talk last month to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in which he lauded them as “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known”? Certainly, he knew that those words would resonate with the troops as well as with the folks back home.

In fact, this sort of description of the U.S. military has become something of a must for American presidents. Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush, for example, boasted of that military as alternately “the greatest force for freedom in the history of the world” and “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.”

...

I’m a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a historian who teaches military history. The retired officer in me warms to the sentiment of our troops as both unparalleled fighters and selfless liberators, but the historian in me begs to differ.

...

To use a sports analogy, we wouldn’t call the Pittsburgh Steelers “the finest team in NFL history” simply because they annihilated Penn State in football.

(William Astore). Astore goes on to point out what boils down to the national glorification of bullying, along with the glorification of bullying speech.

It gives new meaning to "the bully pulpit".

It is perverted when a giant of a man pummels a 10 year old kid and thereafter calls himself a great fighter.

It is perverted when politicians say in public that if they loose at the ballot box under the First Amendment, they will vote with their rights to sights under the Second Amendment; which is a clear advocation of violence by poor losers, and is not free speech.

When the wing nut crowd's sails become filled with the ill winds of enslaved speech, not free speech, then some decent people will inevitably die.

Like yesterday when a federal judge, a child, and others were killed by a cowardly bully who had them out gunned, like yesterday when a federal congresswoman and others were wrongly harmed, like yesterday when we saw that slave speech does not bode well for our tomorrow, because tomorrow must be free if it is to be American.