The 545 Jerks

[Vito]

I see all these arguments about Democan vs. Republicrat (there’s no significant difference, as far as I’m concerned), liberal vs. conservative…and all the other “us vs. them” games people play in choosing their preferred sides in the circus called politics. Meanwhile, everyone is getting conned by the political hacks, and we just sit around and wallow in petty arguments while they give us the shaft. The whole thing makes me wanna barf.

I’m not the only one. Here’s an article written by Orlando Sentinel columnist Charley Reese in 1985. It's as relevant today as it was then. There are many versions of this floating around the Interwebz, but I’ve done my best to ensure that this is the original. I don’t think the article itself is Rubber Room material, onna counta it contains only facts. Anyone who tries to turn it into a political argument is missing the point. For my part, I’m not making any other editorial comments. The article speaks for itself.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 235 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excused the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I exclude all of the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.

No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Don't you see the con game that is played on the people by the politicians? Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. The cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O'Neill*, who stood up and criticized Ronald Reagan for creating deficits.

The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses — provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

Source: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/reese.asp

• *For those who don't know or don't remember, Tip O'Neill was Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1985, and Ronald Reagan was the President.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm biting my tongue on this one.

:face:

 

[monbla256]

Hit's the nail on the head!

 

[Richard Burley]

Democracy!

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[Puff Daddy]

The falacy with the argument that congress did this is the fact that the 545 don't work for the electorate, they work for the money suppliers. They pander to the electorate in order to win the popularity contest which gets them into the money game, but beyond that any actual civil service is purely coincidental and for show. The problem is the system that doesn't hold the 545 criminally liable, with serious long, hard time prison sentences, for playing the game. If we passed laws that forced prosecution and heavily enforced them, things would change. That no such refferendum has yet been passed by majority vote of the people is the fault of the people, not the 545.

That was my best attempt at responding without rubber rooming the thread, which simply by it's poitical nature, is probably inevitable. We almost have to refuse to discuss the topic to keep it from going there.

 

[Anonymous]

Additional tongue biting.

:face:

 

[Vito]

PD:

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the money suppliers, but I assume you mean the guys with deep pockets who buy political influence, not the guys (like the Federal Reserve, who essentially are the big international banks) who fiddle with the "money supply".

But that's the point of the article — namely, that these elected clowns are in the pockets of the fat cats who unabashedly buy these political whores. But it's still their fault for whoring themselves out, and they all do it — Democans and Republicrats alike.

I'm not sure I agree that much of anything would change if we held these bastidges' feet to the fire, but I'm willing to admit that it's at least worth a try. We sure as hell haven't done anything like that yet. That's what John and Ken are constantly advocating on KFI 640 AM here in L.A. They call it "Heads On A Stick"—their name for a seriously notched-up accountability.

I could say plenty more (as you well know ), but at this point I'm taking the Yakkian route and sinking my teeth into my tongue so as to not get my own thread bounced into the Elastic Chamber, where I cannot (will not) follow it. :mrgreen:

 

[puros_bran]

Off topic but brought up because it was...

y'all act like the rubber room is a bad thing.....
personally I think it's the best part of BoB.

It's the closest to actual free speech you'll encounter..

Liken it to a real cool college professor at Xaviers School for the Pipe saying "class dismissed, you may go or stay". Still at school, but a symbolic release from the power structure... And the ability good or bad to participate as you see fit, subject to unofficial peer review..

 

[Vito]

pb:

I've never been there, but I was around when some of the uncivil and out of control exchanges that necessitated the RR's creation occurred. Some of the individuals involved then are no longer here...or at least they don't post any more...which is (partly) why I'm back, and why I find BoB to be a more hospitable place than at certain times in the past.

I dunno what happens there now, but I assume that at least some of the discussions are political. You know my disdain for political stuff, so 'nuff said there.

I imagine the RR is the perfect venue for folks who enjoy whatever it is they do there. More power to 'em. I'm happy with the climate outside the RR. More than that I'm not qualified to say.

 

[Richard Burley]

Ah, if it were only about money--that seems almost innocent compared to other factors, most notably coercive ideology. Hitler and Stalin both bragged about how they owned nothing. The trend toward statism is the overriding evil, and always has been throughout history. We were gifted with a constitutional republic, and it has been transmogrified into warring camps of advantage seekers, whether they be the "poor," "fat cats," or numerous groups in between. Strip the mob masters of their power and influence, and they wouldn't have any influence to sell, nor the power to do damage, like spending ourselves into oblivion. Most of what our government does is illegal, by any sane reading of the Constitution. It's interesting that they just again swore fidelity to this document. This makes them perjurers, and they should face charges on those grounds alone. But above all, we should separate the state from economics. But this is not going to happen, because this (the US of A) is no longer a freedom-loving country, as I will perhaps prove by the following comments, if any. :bom:

 

[puros_bran]

Fine Vito, stay out of the rr..You weren't invited anyway.. so there.. miss out on the fun, see if I care.. don't come crying to me when you don't get any of beet's cake.. no to late, your out of the club..







actually I think I ran all the bad ones and a few of the good ones off.. I get accused of it anyway..
Some crybaby fagboi johnny come lately entitlement retards even go so far as to call me a tyrant or an 'internet tough guy'.. I'd take a day off work and have the Waffle UU (two letters meaner than the SS, plus they make waffles .. ) imprison them until I could find time to internet karate them (an internet tough guy would most likely use internet violence right? And what's more violent than a waffle syrup powered internet karate chop to the internet groin) but I'm too busy earnin money for the 545.

 

[Planemech]

Hell, I would just like to see anyone in congress with some sort of knowledge about economics. :shock: Everyone is celebrating that we did not go off the fiscal cliff.....and no one realizes that they raised taxes on everyone and did nothing to cut spending, and even spent more..........hmmmmm I wonder what everyone will think when their pay checks are a bit short because the payroll tax credit was eliminated. I love my country, but I fear my government.....

 

[Puff Daddy]

Vito, to make ana analogy to my point, if someone kept breaking into your house night after night and you continually did nothing about it because you expected that it was the responsibility of some civil servant type to be there protecting you, then it's your fault and nobody else's that you got fleeced. Keep blaming the cop who'd rather sit outside the bar chatting with the hookers than patrol and/or respond, but when the response is no response and you refuse to do anything about it, it's your own fault.

 

[Anonymous]

I keep waiting for people to recognise that our situation is grave enough to put our heads together about it. This I regard as evidence of sanity, given that we are real people living in the real world.

One insight, PeeDee, into the nature of the system is that, to the extent possible, those pulling the strings that shape what the system is have made response into a crime in itself. You took the law into your own hands !

The 545 is a good synopsis of the symptoms. Any diagnosis begins with one.

The mob masters' power is another symptom description. (The choice of Germany rather than the Soviet Union for poster child is not a very historically well-informed one).

There are two root issues. I.e., issues that, if effectively addressed, would actually reform the current system.

One is that the Common Law-based Constitution has been replaced, bit by bit, with Admiralty Law by people who knew exactly what they were doing. As one result, the Constitution now "means" whatever the Supremes say it does, and lawyers are the peers of the contemporary realm. Ferret Admiralty law out and destroy it -- root and branch -- and the legal system has a chance to once again be the justice system.

The other is the Federal Reserve System. One of many relevant quotations :

I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people.

Reginald McKenna
Chairman of the Midland Bank addressing stockholders in 1924

Credit creation is the engine ; perversion of the legal system into "Due Process" with foreordained conclusions through control of the legislative & executive branches is the transmission.

The rest is the styling and the paint job.

IMO.

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Why did it take this long to learn the term "fagboi?" New-to-me catchphrase sure to raise some hackles. Awesome. :lol: If it weren't for Internet Tough Guys, I'd be continually living under a rock. Here's to the dawn of my amusement! :lol:

All hail the Rubber Room--Yak's tongue-biting was getting irritating anyway. :twisted:

8)

 

[Vito]

pb:

Hey, thanks for the tip. It might come in handy if I lose my mind, act like an assclown, run myself off, and need a scapegoat to blame it on. Based on the bit of recent BoBian history you provided, I can always say, "It's all pb's fault!" :mrgreen:

 

[Anonymous]

:joker: --

it occurs to me that a possible misconception might be that "politics" in the RR is the kind of "Hillary Clinton is the Devil" stuff that the late & beloved :king: di tutti :king: :king: :king: ( ) used to run.

It's not that. People have finally seen through that charade, for the most part.

(Now watch me be wrong . . . :lol: )

Hasn't been any recently, at least.

(FWIW)

:face:

 

[Vito]

Esteemed Yakstopher:

Isn't it amazing how we — I mean all of us — remain so firmly convinced that our respective perspectives are The Right One<img class="emojione" alt="" title=":tm:" title=":tm:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/2122.png?v=2.2.7"/>? How long have we (as pipular brethren) been debating subjects like this? If you take it all back to the KCC BB, it's gotta be for something like 9 or 10 years now, methinks.

Anyhow, I know where you're coming from. You know I do. The supplanting of the Constitution is unquestionably part of the process by which its original intent has been undermined. The Vitonian view (admittedly, way too radical for most folks to accept) that the operating premise of the Constitution (not the overarching intent to let the people rule themselves, which is noble) that you can provided self-governance through a coercive state mechanism is a flaw so fundamental to the Constitution's structure that it can't be extirpated or corrected.

Nevertheless, in lieu of advocating its overthrow (an action I would not support and, in fact, firmly oppose), the gradual evolution of societal structure away from the state mechanism is the only non-violent way out of the mess...and is the one I favor. That would be the rational and moral course...which (OK, call me a cynic) suggests it will not be the one favored by the majority of my fellow humanoids. :roll:

As for the Federal Reserve, there's no question that it has irreparably corrupted the entire structure of society through its stranglehold on the monetary system. Get rid of that, and great harm would be undone...not permanently, or irreversibly (as long as Congress can still pass laws that create such monstrosities), but at least for a time…er, until the next time the 545 jerks shove another such abomination down our throats.

Or, in deference to PD's admirably responsible perspective, until the next time we let them do it.

 

[Anonymous]

All true.

As I was figuring it,

1) You gotta start somewhere

and, as in any therapeutic endeavor,

2) with short-term, (accomplishment-)measurable goals.

Fraternally

:face:

 

[puros_bran]