How To Actually Drain The Swamp
President Trump is draining the swamp – of his own appointees – and doing nothing to disfigure the political crime-wave that has astounded the American populace with governmental ineptitude for many decades.
Actually, the ineptitude belongs to the voting public for allowing greed-borne officials to attain office in the first place and to build upon their ill-gotten wealth to assure success in re-election after re-election, flouting the power of incumbency.
But it is not entirely their fault, either, because political parties tend to limit their picks to career politicians or their families as the most horrible choices from which to choose. It is not a positive, but a huge negative in the general elections. “Who will do the least harm?”
Political parties think it’s easy to control nitwits with highly questionable backgrounds, so that’s what they give us.
The Iconoclast has taken “draining the swamp” to task and with the help of two experts who have studied governance for many years has developed a workable plan to make it happen in less than 10 years, maybe as few as five.
The basic purpose is to remove the influence of both Democrats and Republicans from American culture, to take away the power of political parties that dictate when grid-lock occurs, and to order all elected officials to stand on their own two feet.
The author of this editorial is a former small-city mayor, elected to three two-year terms, whose aldermen did not run based on political party and were not influenced by party politics. Its members were individualists who made decisions on their own, standing on their own two feet, and voting in a manner that they felt best represented their constituents.
It was not a matter of Republicans vs. Democrats, or right vs. left, or liberals vs. conservatives. The concept was more in league with that great statesman of yore William Jennings Bryan and his humanitarian approach to progressivism which many cities have long embraced because it involves dealing directly with the masses.
In a meeting of the minds with two very reclusive subjects who are experts in political dissection, The Iconoclast has not only developed an outcome but also a game plan designed to rid the swamp of maggots while in the process to build bridges that will re-institute the vim, vigor, and growth of the middle classes.
The first individual who offered input goes by the name of Lowell McIntyre, a rancher who was the subject of a book entitled “Epitaph” about his Bee Rock Philosopher days. He has studied the ramifications of politics his entire lifetime, its ups and downs, its malady for greed, and how political parties are like murderers who keep interjecting themselves into the crime-solving process to screw things up.
The other was a scientific recruit who has intensely studied the effects of reverse “suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus” and its impact on embryonic political behavior as the fetus loses its ability to detect the difference between chivalry and ethical deficiency. Dr. Manfred Meriwether does not normally offer his expertise, but felt that the nation is at a tipping point and it is crucial for immediate action.
He said, “Doors are quickly opening and closing, and generally not in favor of the American public. The choice of which doors to open and which to close is, in today’s world, of extreme importance.”
He, too, favored a resurgence of the middle classes and offered this quote from a movie, “There now, you see how more people be. That there’s what you might call a doorway to a place of enchantment.”
THE GAME PLAN
According to the Bee Rock Philosopher, a man known for his down-to-earth savvy, the first step is to think outside the box and do something that at first sounds like attempting the opposite to gain the proper finished product.
“Join with the Democrats and Republicans,” he explained. “It does not matter which state you are from, but all states need to participate for the needed numbers. We need to form a group that is linked nationally. In stealth mode, run a Democratic and a Republican candidate in each statewide and national race, each of these candidates popular and electable who shares our concept and is secretly willing to do something unheard of upon being elected.
“It does not matter which of the candidates finally wins in the general election, but one of them must. Let them ride and do their usual service when they win. But in the next election, in which the original candidates are still in office, do the same thing, loft a Republican and a Democrat as candidates and get one of them elected. Run the numbers in the House and Senate, and when enough of our constituents are elected to be able to change policy and override a presidential veto, set a date. It is now time for all of our elected group to resign from their political parties and vote to change the law whereby you don’t have to be a Republican or Democrat to get elected. Independents and individuals will now have a chance, too.
“Change the way politics works, whereby elected officials cannot run for re-election. They serve just one term. They cannot get involved in the endorsement of and the campaigning for other candidates.
If it is a four-year term, the final two years are no longer spent trying to get re-elected or going on lavish vacations funded by taxpayers. They are, basically, full-time officials with only one chance to do what’s right.
Ban intervention from political parties in the creation of policy. The elected official stands on his own two feet and can vote however he wishes, knowing that he has only one shot in that position. There are millions of people who are qualified for each position, so let’s give them a chance.
“He can run for a different office, but not while he is serving his current term. Political contributions by corporations will be outlawed, as will contributions from think-tanks and 501-C 3 entities, along with lobbyist groups. If an office-holder violates this trust, he will be immediately removed from office.”
Dr. Meriwether explained that this concept would force lawmakers to reassess their positions. “Republicans and Democrats could still offer candidates, but upon election the winner would be forced to immediately resign from the party and serve as an individual, free from the shackles of the party machine. The psychological impact would be immense.
“It would also serve best to do away with run-off elections, instead having voters rate candidates, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. as to their preferences. If a candidate falls short of 50 percent, step down to the second choice and recalculate both sets, and so forth, until a candidate attains enough votes. If an officeholder is removed from office, the appointment to fill an unexpired term goes to the second-place candidate, eliminating special elections or political appointments. The appointment is therefore being made by the voters.
“Basically, for this plan to work, you would be finding like-minded candidates who crave this type of change and are committed to it, get them elected based on the highly corrupt old-style format currently in place, and then abruptly, when enough are elected, sweep in and force party resignations and make changes to the electoral process. Do away with the electoral college and base all elections on popular vote, since the electoral college essentially makes many votes not count and provides the likelihood of a government by the minority. If you vote, you want it to count. It doesn’t matter where you are from,” offered Dr. Merriwether.
The end result of this type of change as voiced by our two experts would deflate the power of the minority few and would bring new power to the middle classes, while really putting America first, not just with lip service to falsely make us comfortable.
We agree with Trump in that the swamp must be drained. When we learn that someone in national or statewide office is running for re-election, we automatically cringe. They have become career politicians who embrace their political parties as their rulers. When elected, they are not subject to the populace, but are being controlled by big corporations, big money from lobbyists, greed, and of course, their party.
Because of their lack of interest in having changes made in the electoral process, for it will not favor them and will shroud them with transparency, they have become maggots feeding on the highly partisan antiquated system that put them there.
This plan is a workable way to truly drain the swamp and must be done to bring integrity back to government and to revive the vanishing middle class citizenry.
It will take leaders to pull this off and individuals who are willing to actually do something to make it happen, which is also the proverbial roadblock, for few people have the guts to do it. They are quick to belch whines, but are dainty and timid when it comes to action. We hope we are proven wrong about this.
Trump says he is going to drain the swamp.
He won’t.
The Iconoclast sent him an e-mail prior to his taking office suggesting that the first thing he should do upon filling Obama’s seat was to resign from the Republican party and become a president of all the people and distance himself from the minority elite.
You know what his answer was, quite the opposite on all counts.
It is therefore now incumbent upon ourselves to drain the swamp for him.
–W. Leon Smith
‘Getting Life’ A Must Read
Texans need to read Michael Morton’s new book, Getting Life, An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey From Prison To Peace.
The memoir details his life in prison after being erroneously convicted of killing his wife, and the ordeals that pervade in a justice system that has again failed.
The horrible murder occurred on Aug. 13, 1986, in which his wife, Christine, was savagely bludgeoned to death in the couple’s bed after Mr. Morton had gone to work. His son was an eyewitness who said that it was not his father who committed the murder, but law enforcement politics dismissed this and pompous officers aggressively pegged Morton with the killing anyway. It wasn’t until DNA evidence became available and the testing of a bandanna with the killer’s DNA on it that Morton was finally released. It was also learned that the same murderer had killed another woman in a similar fashion near the Morton house.
As has happened frequently in other Texas cases, evidence had been collected just a few days after the murder that was never investigated. The rush to convict even an innocent person was the paramount goal of authorities.
The book includes information logged by Morton as a prisoner – recollections, court transcripts, and journals he penned during the two-and-a-half decades of incarceration where he was stripped of his freedom and was subject to the real dangers and hellacious ineptitude of Texas prison life.
Morton describes the inner workings of the prison system in great detail and the heartbreaking mental conflicts that he went through. For instance, a truly innocent person in Texas does not qualify or parole, since the inmate has to admit the crime and show remorse. Do you lie about your innocence in order to qualify and forever possess the label of confessed murderer even if you didn’t do it, allowing a free pass to the real killer who can continue to murder, or do you remain steadfast in the truth that you are innocent and perhaps spend the rest of your life in prison? There were also conflicts regarding family members who knew he was innocent but felt incapable of proving it because of dramatic flaws in the justice system that is fraught with roadblocks for those wanting truth to prevail.
DNA testing was not available 25 years ago. Now it is, which has caused the release of many innocent victims whereby law enforcement personnel have protected the guilty parties and gone after the wrong man.
Recently it came to light that personnel in the DPS labs have for years lied about results in order to obtain convictions, which throws into question whether their trust is ever warranted. One lab individual had over 3,000 such cases that came into question, where errors were purposely made. This has caused backtracking on cases and the release of several innocent people. However, some had already served their full term. Again, the powers that be protected the guilty in accomplice fashion, allowing the guilty to continue to commit crimes while destroying the lives of the innocent.
We highly recommend Morton’s book Getting Life. It is an adventure nobody should ever have to take. His writing style is compelling, his descriptions moving, and the story itself one of a kind. It’s a book that you won’t be able to put down.
Two endorsements on the back cover are noteworthy:
Dan Rather wrote, “A true Texas story of how our system of justice can itself be criminal. Michael Morton’s powerful take will take you with him into mourning, into prison, and finally, thankfully, back out into the light.”
David R. Dow, founder of the Texas Innocence network, wrote: “Imagine spending 25 years in prison for a murder you did not commit. Imagine the murder victim was your wife, the love of your life. And imagine it all happened because prosecutors and law enforcement officials cooked up a case against you and hid evidence that would have identified the real killer. Michael Morton doesn’t have to imagine, because he lived it. It’s usually a cliché to say someone has been to hell and back, but in Morton’s case that is exactly what happened, and his stunning and lyrical account of the journey will break your heart, then make you mad, and finally fill you with hope.”
The book can be ordered on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Life-Innocent-25-Year-Journey/dp/1476756821. There is also a DVD version entitled An Unreal Dream – The Michael Morton Story, which also gets high praise. It is a documentary film by Al Reinert and can also be ordered from the same Amazon link previously provided.
— W. Leon Smith
Political Parties Crush Democracy
Someday – when Americans come to their senses – there will no longer be political parties.
Party politics have devastated the landscape of nearly all levels of government since day one, and the trend seems endless.
Let’s take a hint from John Lennon’s song “Imagine.” Imagine there’s no political parties, a land where elected individuals stood on their own two feet without worshiping the idols of the bully machines, where the vote of the public is not controlled by vestiges of evil, corruption, and greed which political parties have grown to represent.
Elected officials these days do bidding for their party, not the public. Just ask anyone who has witnessed the machinations of public policy turn into gridlock. The Republicans do it this way; the Democrats do it that way. The Greens, Libertarians, and other political groupings are left in the cold.
All are assigned a code, or a name, or a party by which their policies must track. To diverge could spell political suicide—a compromise toward party allegiance is their only answer in today’s world.
Several years ago this writer served as a mayor in a small Texas community. Political parties were part of the Federal, State, and County governments. You ran in the primaries labeled as to party, then ran again in the general election, usually Democrat vs. Republican. However, in local government this did not apply. You ran as an individual, or an independent candidate.
During the mayoral term, nobody was labeled a Democrat or Republican. The individuals serving stood on their own two feet and voted however they wished on issues. The body consisted of both Democrats and Republicans in the broad sense, but these monikers were never mentioned at the meetings. There were no smoke-filled sections where group factions tried to rule. For the most part, it was a successful way of conducting the public’s business. Conservatives might approve a liberal initiative and liberals might take a conservative stand, depending upon the wishes of the voters. It worked quite well.
Unfortunately, today most federal and state candidates are chosen by corporations or lobbyists who dictate our country’s future, usually out of greed. The doctrines of democracy are skewed and the general public is screwed due to the overwhelming influence of party machines that redefine the character, abilities, and mindset of elected officials. They are brainwashed, to put it bluntly.
Imagine, if you will, an election whereby the first act of each newly elected office holder is to resign from the political party that put them there, to become a tool of the general public instead. What if Trump upon election had resigned from the Republican party and said his was a movement for the people, not the party, that he welcomed input from everyone?
Didn’t happen, and probably no elected official has the guts to do so, primarily because they are already bought and paid for.
But here’s wishing.
–W. Leon Smith
Actively Support Jill Stein For President
2016 Lone Star Iconoclast Endorsement
Actively Support Jill Stein For President
Bring America Together
Few Americans would have voted for Barack Obama four years ago if he had promised that, as President, he would continue to sustain the failed missions of former President George W. Bush, perpetuate endless unnecessary wars, and exhibit ineptitude in dealing with crises at home. Obama promised change and did not deliver.
Under Obama, we have seen, for instance: racial division at an all-time high, the United States nine trillion dollars more in debt, education policies that failed to curb college costs, disastrous vetting policies of Muslim immigrants, war waged with Libya without congressional approval, aiding in the birth of ISIS, NSA spying on American citizens, Benghazi, disappearing tax money, Obamacare, poorly staffed agencies with legislative directives to be nonproductive, zero immigration reform, and the list goes on…..
He is now ready to pass the presidential baton to his former Secretary of State so that Hillary Clinton can become yet another “dynasty” president, much like the disastrous Bushes, and continue with the Clintons’ growth of personal wealth and power, the hell with middle class America.
A distinguished and highly respected Texas journalist, Molly Ivins, explained in one of her last columns that Hillary Clinton’s vote for the Iraq War “disqualified” her f
rom being president, a chant that reverberates even stronger when considering the Benghazi episode and e-mails that put our soldiers at risk. Her neo-liberal policy positions have been exploited to increase the wealth of the Clinton Foundation, plus her support of NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement make her a most disagreeable presidential nominee.
And, if elected, we not only get Hillary, but Bill, too, a confirmed compulsive liar who signed the death warrant of the Delaney Amendment that allowed big companies to freely incorporate cancer-causing agents into our foodstuffs, companies that became big donors to the Clintons. The Bushes had their Halliburtons and the Clintons have their Monsantos. Why would any sane political party offer us a highly dysfunctional family to run our country when there are and were other choices?
Or you could vote for Trump, the gambling casino mouthpiece who due to inheritance is a billionaire, someone who does not know what it’s like to have to struggle to survive. He’s not self-made and, moreover, he hasn’t released his most recent tax returns. We don’t know if his wealth has grown or shrunk. So how do we know he will help grow the economy and create jobs?
Also, regarding his immigration policy, which side of the Rio Grande does he plan to have the Mexican government build the border wall? If it’s the American side, we’ll lose access to the Rio Grande. If it’s on the Mexican side, the Mexicans would basically own the wall. So maybe no wall is better than a wall, and no Trump is better than a Trump.
Today, the leaders in the Republican and Democratic Parties have demonstrated that not only in the United States, but globally, they cannot be trusted. They are the left and right hands of the same mafia-type operation. That’s why each party has witnessed extreme dissent this election year. The Trump camp has pulled away from the Republican base and cannot obtain endorsements from the party core. Bernie Sanders acted similarly in the Democratic Party, only he came up vote-short due to gross shenanigans perpetrated by Hillary Clinton in the DNC camp to steal the nomination.
Focus has been turned upon these squabbles and power plays when it should instead be turned upon other choices — third-party candidates who by design have been virtually eliminated for consideration due to demands by the Democrats and Republicans to maintain a two-party system. This translates to voters being led to choose one of the two mistrustful “lesser of evils.”
Today, The Lone Star Iconoclast is endorsing Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president because of her believable vision to return our country to normality. It is time to distance ourselves from the lies, deceit, bigotry, and scandals that prevail in the two major parties. It would be a clean re-start with plain, intelligent, progressive, everyday folks, not the billionaire elite who are consumed by personal greed.
Dr. Jill Stein, a Harvard-trained physician, favors single-payer health care, campaign finance reforms, and student loan debt forgiveness. Like Bernie Sanders, she has refused to accept money from corporate donors.
There is much work to be done in our communities, from infrastructure to affordable education. We need to elect someone like Jill Stein who has both the desire and the ability to make things happen and knows how to do it. Her training in medicine has given her the ability to analyze minute details and step-by-step answers. She had the intelligence to become a doctor. Can you say this about Donald and Hillary?
Stein wants to have the power given back to the electorate, the people, and has a plan to create a “deep system change, moving from the greed and exploitation of corporate capitalism to a human-centered economy that puts people, planet, and peace over profit.”
On her website, she addresses topics that hit home:
Education as a Right: Abolish student debt to free a generation of Americans from debt servitude. Guarantee tuition-free, world-class public education from pre-school through university. End high stakes testing and public school privatization.
A Green New Deal: Create millions of jobs by transitioning to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030, and investing in public transit, sustainable agriculture, and conservation.
Jobs as a Right: Create living-wage jobs for every American who needs work, replacing unemployment offices with employment offices. Advance workers rights to form unions, achieve workplace democracy, and keep a fair share of the wealth they create.
End Poverty: Guarantee economic human rights, including access to food, water, housing, and utilities, with effective anti-poverty programs to ensure every American a life of dignity.
Health Care as a Right: Establish an improved “Medicare For All” single-payer public health insurance program to provide everyone with quality health care, at huge savings.
A Just Economy: Set a $15/hour federal minimum wage. Break up “too-big-to-fail” banks and democratize the Federal Reserve. Reject gentrification as a model of economic development. Support development of worker and community cooperatives and small businesses. Make Wall Street, big corporations, and the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Create democratically run public banks and utilities. Replace corporate trade agreements with fair trade agreements.
Protect Mother Earth: Lead on a global treaty to halt climate change. End destructive energy extraction: fracking, tar sands, offshore drilling, oil trains, mountaintop removal, and uranium mines. Protect our public lands, water supplies, biological diversity, parks, and pollinators. Label GMOs, and put a moratorium on GMOs and pesticides until they are proven safe. Protect the rights of future generations.
Racial Justice Now: End police brutality and mass incarceration. Create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to understand and eliminate the legacy of slavery that lives on as pervasive racism in the economy, education, housing, and health. Ensure that communities control their police rather than police controlling our communities, by establishing police review boards and full time investigators to look in to all cases of death in police custody. Demilitarize the police.
Freedom and Equality: Expand women’s rights, protect LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination, defend indigenous rights and lands, and create a welcoming path to citizenship for immigrants. Protect the free Internet, legalize marijuana/hemp, and treat substance abuse as a public health problem, not a criminal problem.
Justice for All: Restore our Constitutional rights, terminate unconstitutional surveillance and unwarranted spying, end persecution of government and media whistleblowers, close Guantanamo, abolish secret kill lists, and repeal indefinite detention without charge or trial.
Peace and Human Rights: Establish a foreign policy based on diplomacy, international law, and human rights. End the wars and drone attacks, cut military spending by at least 50% and close the 700+ foreign military bases that are turning our republic into a bankrupt empire. Stop U.S. support and arms sales to human rights abusers, and lead on global nuclear disarmament.
Empower the People: Abolish corporate personhood. Protect voters’ rights by establishing a constitutional right to vote. Enact electoral reforms that break the big money stranglehold and create truly representative democracy: public campaign financing, ranked-choice voting, proportional representation, and open debates.
Ultimately, America needs to move past the concept of a horse-race, winner-take-all approach to elections. We need to recognize the strengths of viewpoints of all of the candidates who, against all odds, have offered themselves as alternatives. We suggest that all trustworthy candidates agree to participate in a fusion type of administration by bringing their ideas and specialties to the table for consideration.
It is Americans who are the government and those elected are working for us. In this way we signal to the world not just the election of a candidate but a change which goes far deeper, by learning the needs of our citizenry over the needs of a political party.
For a clearer picture of where to cast that vote, there needs to be a series of debates featuring all five candidates — Jill Stein (Green Party), Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Rocky de la Fuente (Reform Party), Donald Trump (Republican Party), and Hillary Clinton (Democratic Party). Currently, all you get are Donald and Hillary, an absurd snub to prevent “we the people” candidates from participating. The Commission on Presidential Debates needs to rethink the 15 percent polling threshold, but it is not likely since the commission is controlled by Democrats and Republicans who have put up barriers in order to gain exclusivity.
Remember, our first president, George Washington, refused to align himself with any political party. He was right in his belief that partisanship and division in the federal government would decimate its ability to effectively handle the country’s affairs. That’s why the Iconoclast has always encouraged those elected to office to immediately resign from their party as their first act and, in effect, stand on their own two feet as individualists, not corporate peons and certainly not political party lobbyists. Maybe someday!
True power rests in the hands of the people as individuals and in the communities they build, something that has been bypassed of late. Transforming America into a world that is sustainable and responsive to life and the earth requires this be visibly acknowledged. The coming together for a fusion administration can become that symbol, sending out notice of a new direction and very different reality, one filled with cooperation and putting the wishes of the electorate first.
In reality, the two major political parties are medieval parasites that suck creative negotiations and arrays of ideas from individuals elected to serve. The end result? Stalemates, gridlock, inaction, and never finding Point B. This is a good reason for conservatives who might not initially be completely on board with Stein’s positions to get involved in her campaign, to share their positions and attempt to arrive at ideas that work for all. She is the honest candidate, something currently unattainable from the Democratic and Republican Party offerings. With the bigger parties falling apart, you do have a solid place to go with your influence and support.
Our country is at a crossroads. Jill Stein will inclusively and imperatively represent the masses as a positive force for our nation. We must put an end to the toxic turmoil that has been force-fed to us.
The voters have a choice, billionaires whose visions reside in Wall Street and gigantic corporations, who are pro-war because of profits and have personally amassed, often illegally, vast wealth, or the other choice, “we the people.”
— W. Leon Smith
Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute this editorial.
Public In Dark Over Pacific Trade Treaty
Although Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning has urged every United States Senator to read the current version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership prior to voting on granting President Barack Obama trade promotion authority on it, reports suggest that most Republican members have not yet read it and probably won’t prior to the vote.
Republican Senators wanting to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership are siding with President Obama without reading the details. According to opponents, Obama is ignorantly plunging ahead to expedite passage of a treaty that he calls “the most progressive trade deal” in history, even though “living agreement” language could doom the President’s intended fundamental transformation of America through this highly speculative treaty.
Unprecedented is the secrecy surrounding the TPP deal.
“If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door,” Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere has reported. “If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving. And no matter what, you can’t discuss the details of what you’ve read.”
The “living agreement” protocol allows participating nations to add countries to the TPP without Congress’ approval and would allow any terms of the agreement to be changed without congressional approval.
Conflicts with federal, state, and local laws could be impacted, allowing for sudden tariff changes, regulation alterations, and dispute tribunals falling outside the United States.
Although a few Presidential hopefuls, apparently without reading details of the proposed treaty, are for it (Cruz, Rubio, Bush, Perry, Clinton), a few are yet to commit (Graham, Paul, Carson, Christie, Walker).
Upsetting is the secrecy surrounding the document, the act of keeping its details out of the public domain.
Indeed we do have a secret government where faith in its competence supercedes truth.
— W. Leon Smith
Perry, Time To Step Down!
The recent indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry on two felony counts that charge he abused his power brings to the limelight the type of individual he actually is, especially since he has publicly admitted the reasoning behind the veto to not fund the public corruption unit at the Travis County DA’s office, targeting one individual.
His outrageous actions go far beyond the DWI charge against Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney. It is a punishment extended to her entire department and will disable a division of oversight against public corruption, where, these days, there is a hope for the return of accountability of office holders.
If Perry runs for President, and heaven forbids he wins, then if an official with the EPA gets a DWI, would he shut down the EPA? The same goes for the Social Security Administration, school districts nationwide, plus other divisions of government. Would he decide to exercise this new-found power to the hilt, as he has in Texas?
For Perry, we call his latest offense a “Power DWI.”
“Tricky Ricky,” known far and wide as a double-crosser and liar, has deserved for a long time to be led through the political gallows of inquest. He is a traitor to his citizenry and has chosen the role of dictator as his mask, which was recently partially unveiled.
Don’t forget. Texans did not want the Trans-Texas Corridor (aka the “corridor of corruption”) or the NAFTA Superhighway, which he bargained expensively to attain — largely for corporate interests. He has been a champion of job exports and sweatshops.
And who can forget his love affair with Merck, the pharmaceutical company that, along with Perry, wanted to enslave young women to an expensive and largely untested drug in order to force Texans to deliver their hard-earned dollars to a private company of his choosing. This alone was an impeachable offense and speaks of his intrusions upon individual choice. Perry’s HPV vaccination mandate would have converted school-age girls of Texas into guinea pigs.
We expect this latest “case” against Perry to drag along for perhaps years, at which time it will blend into the wind and be forgotten.
In the meantime, we suggest to Perry that unless he resigns his office as Texas governor immediately and steps aside, the American public will veto his winning the Presidency should he decide to run. We predict it will occur even if he retains his office, but it would be nice to see him come clean, even though it will likely not happen. We are braced for the usual onslaught of excuses and posturing.
Perry has worked diligently to destroy the watchful eye of truth and justice in Texas, just as have the Bushes and Obama nationally. We certainly do not need another loose cannon void of accountability in public office, especially one inclined to rip apart an established agency because he has a personal vendetta against one individual.
— W. Leon Smith
VFDs Being Ripped Off By The State
Volunteer Fire Departments in Texas may be slighted financially again this year and the next by the state, as dedicated funds might be targeting other causes. These funds were established to mitigate the cause and spread of fires and to pay for specialized firefighting services.
As budgetary decisions are being completed, it appears that the majority of the Texas House and the Senate are leaning toward holding back these funds.
In his budget proposal for 2014 and 2015, Gov. Rick Perry is favoring re-appropriation of funds for things like strategic economic programs such as $35,000,000 for video game development, television shows,and films; $94,000,000 per year for temporary jobs, and $132,000,000 for emerging technology.
Nearly 80 percent of fire departments in Texas are volunteer. So why would the state decide to inhibit training and properly equipping VFDs when multifunctional approaches are required to contain and extinguish large fires? The funds are statutorily intended for VFDs to equip and train volunteer firefighters.
Firefighters play an important role in safety and put their lives at risk for their communities. They help with roadway accidents, disasters, and contribute indirectly economically in the realms of job creation, tourism, industrial development, rebuilding, and help alleviate the cost of hiring outside firefighting services.
The VFD Assistance Dedicated Account is replenished each August to the tune of $30,000,000 by property insurance companies, funded with taxpayers’ premiums, not as taxes. However, in 2012-13, the state only appropriated $7,000,000 per year to the VFDs, using the remainder of the money for other things. This year the number being discussed by the state legislature is $13.5 to $18.5 million per year. The estimated balance on Sept. 1, after $30,000,000 in premiums is deposited, is estimated at $91.9 million.
Opponents of the state’s short-changing local VFDs and the communities they serve claim that the extra money remaining in state coffers helps to make the state budget look balanced and is discretionary for spending elsewhere, when the money was collected from insurance companies, paid for by their customers, to assure quality services from volunteer fire departments, a giant rip-off by the state.
Many community VFD members conduct fund-raisers to help pay for upgrades to equipment, which goes beyond fighting fires, but it is necessary, especially when the state does not deliver intended funds.
A campaign to have the money rightfully allocated has been started and the public is urged to help by voicing outrage at state office holders for even considering the plunder of these dollars. To sign a petition, log onto www.signon.org/sign/reinstate-funding-for-1. It is emphasized that calling one’s state senators, legislators, the governor, and lieutenant governor could likewise be helpful. Find elected officials by logging on to: www.texastribune.org/directory.
–W. Leon Smith
RFIDs Invade Texas Schools
It has long been established that public schools are not a democracy. Students have little or no voice in what is taught and how, or for what purpose. They don’t vote on their teachers and are subjected to schedules upon which they have little influence.
Defining the exact form of authoritarian government embraced by a particular public school depends largely upon actions taken by its board of trustees. Some trend toward leniency, some prefer cash-based systems, and some march lock-step with state government mandates never questioning the antics of lawmakers who listen solely to lobbyists who are literally making a killing off our kids.
The newest adventure by a Texas school district — Northside Independent School District in San Antonio — to electronically monitor nearly 4,000 students, moment by moment wherever they go by utilizing active RFID tracking devices exhibits a new low and is based on a concentration camp mentality.
Students who refuse to be tracked are expelled and the trustees are taking a “no debate” position with the public regarding this experiment, even in light of a lawsuit after a student declined to wear the radio frequency identification (RFID) badge and was removed from school. Her family took legal action against John Jay High School Engineering Academy.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans recently sided with the school board, but attorneys for the family are awaiting a trial date, their argument resting on “the merits of our constitutional claims.”
The Iconoclast has long sided with independent freedom. This blatant removal of freedom should never have happened. Each trustee should be held accountable for treating our children like lab rats by being removed from office and being charged with several felonies that evolve from destroying individual rights and victimizing our school children.
Some controls in school administration are necessary, but some, such as this one, are way out of bounds. The Iconoclast, of course, encourages every student at that school to refuse to wear the badge. It is a right of humanity not to be recklessly intruded upon.
— W. Leon Smith
CAFR — New Video A Must See
Jerry Day of FreedomTaker.com has posted a new video entitled “Introduction to the CAFR – Why You Can’t Get Ahead” which delves into manufactured scarcity by government to keep control of the populace.
He explains that there are two sets of books, the budget and the CAFR, which stands for Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. He says that the public is usually given access to budget numbers which are mere guesses, but the CAFR which are the actual dollar numbers that usually sit in the bank are generally kept secret and are used as tools of manipulation. He notes that CAFRs exist in every level of government, local, state, and federal.
In the video, Day says that abundance is hidden from the public so that control can be maintained by the elite. “The squandering and destruction of newly created wealth is an essential element of controlled tyranny and exploitation. “
He goes on to say that the “scarcity myth is maintained by a matrix of partnerships between corporations and government.”
The video goes into great detail about how this matrix evolves and what its implications are.
Since to solve a problem is to first identify it, this video plays an essential role in that quest. The Iconoclast highly recommends that its readers follow this link and listen to what Jerry Day has to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2aif0Wk9E0&feature=em-uploademail
— W. Leon Smith
Texas Education In Tragic Crisis
Texas Legislature Totally To Blame
Teacher layoffs, bulging classrooms, unfunded mandates, teaching to an idiotic test, students being forced to take drugs, the list goes on.
Education in Texas is spinning downward in a tragic crisis that was created during the Bush years and has swelled even more under reason’s jester, Gov. Perry, and his madcap crew of legislators, 95 percent of whom are undeniably insane.
The Iconoclast has quite often pointed out major problems with public education in Texas, but the same old legislators who are in the hip pockets of corporate lobbyists keep getting re-elected so that they can continue to plunder our children.
You would think Perry’s Gardasil rampage would have put a stop to our government’s forcing children to take drugs.
Nope.
This year, college students were mandated to get vaccines for meningitis, complete with the problems of possible horrible side effects. Many students have refused the jab and were therefore forbidden from registering for classes. Just another idiotic swipe at education by the druggies that run our government.
Every time the legislature has tried to mess with education, including taking studies out of the hands of teachers and local school districts, disaster has followed. It is no coincidence that corporate interests lie in the background of these initiatives. Some lawmaker is getting rich at the expense of Texas schoolchildren.
During his run for governor, Perry played a card that described the Texas economy as being in great shape.
After the election, teachers began getting the pink slip and now nobody even whispers “no child left behind” because every schoolkid has been left behind. Actually this was occurring during the days of GeorgieBoy Bush, only back then he propelled a lie that many bought into.
Each and every legislator who has been involved in creating the education crisis, and that’s nearly all of them, do not deserve to be re-elected. They are incompetent when it comes to serving the public and should not only be booted out, but scorned, ridiculed, and perhaps tried in court in the process.
Putting education in crisis in Texas is not a forgivable sin.
And to think — it was totally unnecessary.
— W. Leon Smith
Taxpayers Forced To Support Perry
Taxpayers in Texas have decided to forgo an adequate education for their children and instead feed that money to Governor Rick Perry to help pay for his Presidential bid.
Unfortunately for some, this means that Perry, through Texas taxpayer theft, has stolen a 100 percent endorsement of all Texans, even those who know him as scum. You don’t donate to a Presidential campaign unless you support the candidate, do you? This rule, of course, does not apply in Texas, where lobbyists and corporatists decide where the money goes and who gets supported, not you and me.
Several weeks before making his bid official, Perry decided that it was okay for the Texas Department of Public Safety to pay for his security.
“I’m going to be promoting Texas,” he said. “I’m going to be traveling to places where the Texas story needs to be told, and we will tell it.”
One might argue that other Presidential candidates in the past have done the same thing to Texans, including former Gov. George W. Bush, to the tune of $3.9 million. Other candidates currently running for the GOP title aren’t sinking to these tactics, so why does Perry think it is okay for Texans to lavish him as he snaps at the dangling carrot?
If you are pro-Perry, you might argue that he needs protection and deserves it.
Actually, the only protection he needs is what he’s willing to personally pay for. He has the money, more than most Texans.We owe his campaign absolutely nothing.
What he has pulled is an un-American stunt, stained with the type of filth that is reminiscent of something Santa Anna might applaud. Forcing people to help pay for his deceptive campaign is about as low as you can get.
The Iconoclast opinion is that if you are planning to venture out into the rain, carry your own umbrella, not mine.
We do not need yet another terrorist in the White House who will strive to ruin this country.
Perry’s record in Texas is horrible. Do we really want to have another idiot like George W. Bush in charge? If honesty, integrity, and accountability were involved, Bush would today be stomping at rats in his cell at Sing Sing, as would his papa.
Perry is a dumbified version of Bush, if you can sink that low.
He should pay for his own security. That’s what a true Texan would do. He, obviously, is not one.
— W. Leon Smith
Time To Tell A Big Bank ‘Good-Bye’
“Occupy” movements throughout the United States are becoming more numerous each day. The masses are talking and yelling, which is encouraging.
They are finally awakening to a world awash in greed and war and no conscience.
The masses have begun a dangerous trek amid police brutality and acts of inhumanity brought about by our corporate-owned governments, both national and state, which have dealt an inside hand to Americans and are glorifying in the defeat of American ideals.
Their bluffery and buffoonery must be attacked.
Occupationists have made a solid first step in trying to persusade the 99 percent of Americans not privy to great wealth and power to join them in shouting down the big boys.
This, of course, will ultimately not be enough.
A not-too-distant future step must involve taking down a major corporation. A specific one or ones.
This will not be an act of violence, since corporations are not human or animal.
They are political structures designed to bring wealth to stockholders.
There is nothing wrong with individuals deciding that they will not do business with a corporation.
An example might be for occupationists to, for instance, choose a specific financial institution and initiate a “run” on that bank, withdrawing all their funds, closing all of their accounts, and refinancing all of their loans. They could put their money in smaller community banks and attempt to bring down the monster. Occupationists could encourage others to do the same thing, while researching the bank to determine which big corporations do business with that institution and provide “no business” runs against those businesses, as well. An international effort would have to be foretaken, since the United States is becoming a small player in some globalists’ financial empires. We alone are not enough.
To bring down one giant, involving no violence, would be a giant victory in providing undeniable strength to the movement and going beyond words and into action to turn things around.
Members of the 99 percent who are reluctant to cooperate would, of course, be proof that they are slaves to the debauchery caused by these corporations. The influence of the mainstream media to their absurd way of thinking will show that they have been brainwashed to not think outside the box….or even for themselves. They are owned.
The recent violence caused by paid-for-hire anti-constitutionalist officers has been prevalent in many cities where free speech advocates have suffered unprovoked attacks.
These baboons in blue illustrate how far our country has degenerated.
But the anti-war messages are being heard, if not by the corporate bosses, at least by other parts of the 99 percent who are daily becoming enraged at how our elected officials have plundered this country and others at the sway of the corporate world for enormous profits, while the rest of us barely get by even while working multiple jobs while our children are becoming victims of officials pushing to “dumb them down.”
Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Banks, Wall Street, and others have vulturized Americans too long.
The time is now to do something about it.
We encourage more of the 99 percent to help, if only to close that bank account and tell the thieves to take a walk, all the way to their cell block.
— W. Leon Smith
Gov. Brown Defecates On Calif. Parents
California 12-Year-Olds To Be Vaccinated Without Parents Knowing
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law AB 499 which will allow 12-year-old children to be vaccinated without parental knowledge or consent.
It was idiotic for the state legislature to even forward such a destructive bill for his signature. But now Gov. Brown has not only reduced the status of parenthood in California by signing it, he has also proved his ownership by Big Pharma and is offering human sacrifices of California’s schoolchildren in the name of greed.
Gov. Jerry Brown, California
If ever there was an “occupy” movement crying out for a new vista, Gov. Brown’s doorstep should be permanently trounced upon, with Brown followed everywhere he goes for the rest of his political life and chided for the psychological, physical, and destructive influences he has wrought upon his constituency.
His actions, and those of every legislator who voted for this insanity, are due a revolutionary recall. The state of California has unsympathetically taken away parental rights and lost all integrity in the process.
According to Eileen Dannemann, director of the National Coalition of Organized Women, the emphasis of this new bill currently applies to the Gardasil and Hepatitis B vaccines, “but will expand to include ANY new STD vaccine that is brought to market in the future.
“This means that as of tomorrow, boys and girls as young as 12 will be alone in their doctor’s office, or pulled into the nurse’s office at school, be offered a vaccine and told that if they don’t get it, they can get sick and die, the child will be given the shot and parents will never know.
‘This also means that parents no longer have access to their child’s full medical records, but are only able to request PARTS of their child’s heath records once they turn 12.”
Dannemann notes that the package insert for the Gardasil vaccine is 30 pages long.
“Take a look at it,” she advises. The State of California has decided that 6th graders are competent to read and properly digest this information, to fully understanding the risks and benefits of this vaccine, and to make an informed consent decision. Absurd.
“This is nothing more than a marketing ploy for Merck (who makes Gardasil) to get around parents who understand the risks of these specific vaccines, and the corrupt public officials in Merck’s pocket who are handing innocent children over to them for power and profit. The California legislator that introduced this bill, Toni Atkins, took money from Merck and then lied about it when confronted on her motives for this bill.
“And this morning on Fox, our friend and Canary Party member Rebecca Estepp, who is the communications director for the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy, debated former California state assembly woman Sally Lieber, who previously introduced a bill making the Gardasil vaccine mandatory for 11-year-olds. Lieber had to remove her name from the leadership on the bill when it was discovered that her family was heavily invested in Merck.”
Unfortunately, other states will likely now be in Merck’s scope, as Texas was a few years ago under Gov. Rick Perry, who tried to sell out his state for personal gain and that of his favored lobbyists.
It will be interesting to see how parents in California react to this abominable decision.
The first time a little girl dies or become permanently ill due to the administration of one of these secret vaccines caused by governmental abuse should awaken a call to sue every individual lawmaker and the governor for letting this happen. We are talking about a criminal lawsuit, with a sentence of decades in prison, or worse, for they will have become premeditated accomplices in physical abuse or murder.
Of course, if a child becomes ill or dies due to administration of one of these drugs, will parents know how to trace the symptoms and get treatment for their child? Will they have any clue as to what has happened to their loved one and will there be time to coordinate appropriate medical help — or is the secret safe for Gov. Brown and his illicit cronies?
Accountability is everything. This ridiculous law must be overturned and it will require a definitive, continuous march against the perpetrators of this horrible crime to have any impact.
— W. Leon Smith
Death-Causing Ingredients Going Unlabeled
They call it “proprietary” information.
It doesn’t appear on the labels of products offered to the general public. The federal government, including the Environmental Protection Agency, are in league with corporations who don’t want you to know that their products contain highly hazardous ingredients.
Deceptive trade practices abound and the populace is left in the dark.
As an example, Scotchgard, which contains dangerous chemicals that off-gas after purchase, lists on its warning label just a smidgen of information, not the “proprietary” ingredients that supposedly protect the company from competitors finding out what’s really inside. Scotchgard products are used largely for waterproofing, but are even found in medical applications (such as use in some eyeglasses).
Consumers think these items are safe when actually they can be far from it. A company does not have to reveal the “bad chemicals” used in production that linger thereafter and do not warn of the dire consequences that can come from exposure to these items.
The Iconoclast recently interviewed a chemist/whistleblower from one of these corporations who flatly stated that most companies are allowed to keep some ingredients quiet — and these ingredients are usually those that the general public would not embrace.
“In fact,” he said, “if people knew the ingredients of what we are producing, they would be scared to death to go near the stuff. It’s highly dangerous, especially with prolonged exposure, so we don’t tell anyone the negatives of what’s in it. That’s our secret. If we were to put it on labels, nobody would buy it and we would go out of business. It’s a shame. I realize that. But we have our jobs to protect.”
He continued, “The exposure can result in horrible results over time, but how do you prove that we caused it? You can’t, really. Especially since so many companies are doing the same thing.”
The bottom line here is that all ingredients, even the proprietary ones, should appear on labels.
If you have an allergic reaction to a certain chemical and do not know that it is in the product, how do you trace what to avoid? It’s nearly impossible.
Essentially, many companies have ventured into a form of genocide by selling items that are unsafe but that our government allows, thereby nullifying questions from consumers who naturally assume that the products are safe. This act of protecting corporations who knowingly inflict health predicaments and even death on unsuspecting individuals makes elected officials in the federal government and its agencies assassins, too, for allowing this to happen.
Lobbyists have greased our public servants from squeaking the truth.
This is yet another hidden agenda that Americans must withstand, most unaware that this can change their lives…or even end them. If you get cancer or contract respiratory problems, how do you prove it was because of the chemical laden eyeglasses you wore for years that resulted in your breathing bad chemicals every day. You can’t if you have no clue that the hidden exposure was even present.
Accountability continues to be a major problem, and it won’t happen until Americans un-elect people who are owned by corporations and seat honest representatives who are willing to work for the individuals who elect them.
A movement to demand complete labels on all products would be nice, too.
Drug manufacturers wouldn’t like it though, since it would cut into their bottom line by reducing the need for so many of their products to treat inflictions caused by unlabeled products.
Just face it. Big companies control our government and we are their pawns … unless we obtain a few guts and do something about it.
— W. Leon Smith
This May Be The Last Iconoclast Editorial
This May Be The Last Iconoclast Editorial
As Iconoclast publisher W. Leon Smith was planning for perhaps the most intense Iconoclast editorial to ever be written, one involving false flags and the upcoming anniversary of 9/11, forces were working to see that this did not happen.
On Thursday, Aug. 26, he had just completed writing the lead story in this issue of the Iconoclast entitled “How Many Total War Deaths In Iraq?” As he was giving the story one last click with his computer mouse he suffered what has been termed by medical professionals as a stroke. He had lost functionability of his right hand, some of his speech, and part of his right leg, but he was able walk uphill half a block to get assistance. Continue reading
Texas Government ‘IS’ A Business???
The Iconoclast received a press release from Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs recently entitled “Running Government Like the Business It Is.” In the release, the Comptroller flatly stated: “As the state’s Comptroller responsible for Texas’ finances, acting as tax collector, chief accountant, revenue estimator and treasurer, I can assure you it IS a business. To run it even better as the business it is, we must tap the talents of men and women with business training, skills and perspectives.
“While our overall business fell by 1.7 percent last year, as measured by our gross state product, we still outperformed our ‘competitors’ in places like California and New York.”
We’ve known for a long time that Texas government, under the rule of Gov. Rick Perry, often dishes out vast numbers of taxpayer dollars to big corporations to “help” them locate here.
But to have the Comptroller issue a statement that government “IS” a business makes you wonder where the line is drawn. When do you become a corporate state (another term for “fascist” state)? You either are or you are not.
Since when does the State take on making money for big corporations that, incidentally, contribute to officeholder political campaigns?
Are the “taxpayers” stockholders?
Where are our dividends?
They are most certainly not co-mingled with the high insurance rates we pay, or taxes on just about everything we buy, or in “agencies” that do lip service only and never pursue complaints.
The dividends do not exist in the infrastructure and appropriate maintenance of roadways, nor in extremely high unemployment taxes, nor in a political education system that’s gone to pot.
No, Combs, a former porn writer, described the populace here as “customers.”
What a put-down!
— W. Leon Smith
BP Toxic Surge Act Of Terrorism
No Action By President Obama, Congress
People of the Gulf Coast states have been besieged by the spectre of a polluted coastline that will likely cost them lives, health, and financial heartache — not to mention what it is doing to the environment. They are being terrorized by the menace of an oil eruption caused by British Petroleum, Halliburton, and Transocean that may go down in history as the worst disaster ever seen by the American continent.
The answer to this “attack” has been shuffled under the table by President Obama, who is owned and controlled by the oil companies ruling America. They hold total power over him and want nothing done to dampen their profits.
A “real” president would have immediately called a state of emergency and moved in everyone from the military to NASA to contain the massive distribution of oil throughout the Gulf.
He would have frozen all funds of the three mega-corporations and begun an investigation into who will pay for this disaster with jail time — be it the insane execs who think they control the world, or even those who continue to reap gigantic profits off the backs of Americans — anyone in the companies whose cohorts received $50,000 or more in annual bonuses instead of the money properly going toward safety measures to keep this sort of failure from ever happening.
A “real” president would have immediately put into motion the scientific community, including plumbers, to solve this problem and not rely on Wall Street stockbrokers to call the shots, which they do.
A column by Will Durst in this edition of The Iconoclast expresses the sentiments of the American middle class regarding this disaster. It is entitled “The Third Gulf War” and is excellent reading.
Another excellent read is a column by Capt. Eric H. May published in 2007 entitled: “The Texas Triangle: Terror and Treason,” regarding problems with BP .
<http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/07/10/22/may.htm>
The Iconoclast published an editorial on March 23, 2008, demanding an investigation into BP. It was entitled “Time To Investigate Houston Is Now,” <http://iconocla.w02.winhost.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=2525&z=8>
Of course, our urgent message went unheeded by elected officials, again congress and the president owned by the oil companies and other corporate giants.
Had the oil surge perpetrators not been BP and company, you can bet the punishment would have been severe and Obama would have acted promptly.
In this case, he did not. He is owned by them.
The Iconoclast editors have occasionally wondered if it would ever be possible to find a worst president than George W. Bush.
Little did we consider who stood just around the corner.
— W. Leon Smith
Check Every Line Of Your Phone Bill For CRAMMING!
Most people have never heard of it, but it became allowed when Congress’s telecommunications act of 1996 permitted third-party charges on local phone bills.
The unauthorized implementation of these third-party charges is known as “cramming,” the billing of fake charges on your phone bill to benefit good-for-nothing corporations who are actually outright thieves.
This practice is becoming a monster and most people don’t know it, but they are paying for things every month that they did not order or even realize is on the bill, since the wordage often looks like it might be legitimate. Many think they are simply paying their “phone bill” when actually other entities are piggybacking to secretly stick it to you.
Perpertrators make millions for doing nothing but billing an unsuspectinig pubic and Congress won’t do anything about it, probably because perps have lined officials’ pockets with kickbacks. Otherwise, action would likely have been taken to disrupt this outright horse-thievery.
The publisher of the Iconoclast was recently “crammed” — twice!
What we found when we recently did a complete audit of one of our phone bills was that there were unexplained charges.
First, we realized that the phone company itself had been charging a monthly fee regarding our phone system for several years — a system we owned outright. To us, the wording had been disguised on the bill. When we called to be reimbursed the money stolen from us we were told it would take about four weeks to investigate. At the same time, we noticed a third-party charge that had been on the bill a few months and asked what it was. We ended up getting into a conference call with the third-party vendor and the telephone company. When the third party was finally satisfied that we ordered nothing from them since we were unaware of who they were, they agreed to credit our bill, but it would take awhile. So here we were, on hold for a four-week investigation for which we would be informed of the outcome.
Three months later, we received a check in the mail for partial payment of the telephone company’s fraud and since there had been no explanation or follow-up, we made a call to the company. Here, we were informed that only a partial payment of reimbursement from the telephone company could be made on its illegitimate charges since there was a “statute of limitations” in play and that it was partially OUR FAULT that they were allowed to steal money from us since we had not called them on it earlier. Therefore, we had made a donation (?) to the phone company. Additionally, the third-party crammer’s stolen money from us would appear on our next bill as a credit, we were told.
We were informed during the conversation when we wanted to rest assured that this third-party had ceased billing us that there remained a third-party charge (another third-party company) — one that creates websites. I informed the operator that we do our own websites and knew nothing about this third-party vendor. Again, a conference call was made and the perp was downright offensive, outlining a bunch of demanding and rude-like questions to set the tone of the conversation. The end result was that he was a scammer and crammer who said he would cease these charges, to which we will be supposedly credited in the future — so we guess we made a no-interest loan to him with the money he stole from us initially. All legal. Thanks, Congress!
The wordage of phone bills is often quite vague so you don’t always know if it is third-party. Look closely under “services,” however, and be prepared to call your phone company for anything listed, because it could look like a legitimate phone company charge even when it is not. Sometimes the charges are quite small and sometimes larger (maybe $100 a month or more). Look for phone system charges, as well, for they are often bogus. Also, examine the bill for services that some companies charge on behalf of crammers (like ESBI, ILD, and Americatel, to name a few).
Simply put, you cannot trust your phone company or the Congressional perps who set this up. It is ridiculous to allow phone companies to add third-party charges to your bill. It is actually outright thievery and should be dealt with accordingly. However, right now it is legal for big corporations to steal. They are immune from justice. It’s just a “mistake” when the phone companies get caught.
They’ll review it and get back to you. Later. Much later.
Yeah, right!
— W. Leon Smith
New Health Care IRS
Health care for individuals in need is important. However, the way the Federal government went about it is stupid.
Maybe “stupid” is too mild a word, for it was yet another purposeful assault on individual freedom and marked a turning point toward control of and intrusion into the masses.
It is one thing to force drivers to deal with insurance companies with a requirement that they possess liability insurance. To opt out, just don’t own a car. But to force all Americans to deal with insurance companies regarding health insurance is insane. It removes all individuality and the choice to have or have not. To live in America you must now reckon with one of the sleaziest industries on earth — or be fined.
This is a direct act of fascism that the Democratic Party has embraced, just as its dancing partner, the Republican Party, pushed flagrant assaults on the populace under the Bush Administration. The two parties are corporate owned and operated. Individualism is their enemy and does not play well in their “owning” individuals.
A health care program should have been pursued that offered a net for those really in need, to be funded by the Feds, leaving insurance companies completely out of the mix. Most of the funding could have come from not bowing to big corporates in their flawed profit-based extensions of wars. It would be a simple matter of bringing the money home and using it here to take care of Americans.
The approved plan takes away Americans’ rights to choose and puts them in even deeper control of the Federal government which is providing a gigantic award to the insurance industry that has been out of control for decades.
This commentary is not in praise of the Republican Party whose members, while in total control of the government, lavishly exploited Americans for corporate friends while trying to destroy the U.S. Constitution. The latest acts, by Democrats, are merely extensions of Republican strategies. Both parties are crooked, and their adherents are blind to what is real.
Let’s face it. Individualism is dead.
You can thank both political parties and their array of “neocon” and “weeocon” suits for the rotten economy, for instigating unnecessary wars, for no accountability, and for losing touch with traditional American values, which — to them — are additional obstacles to wipe out in their pursuit of greed.
Sinister forces rule in Washington. It’s a shame that 99 percent of our so-called leaders haven’t a clue (or simply don’t care) about the true spirit of America. They’ve either been bought or bowed to threats.
Washington is no longer “us.” It is “them.”
— W. Leon Smith
I Pledge Allegiance To The…
“I pledge allegiance to the …Republican Party.”
“I pledge allegiance to the …Democratic Party.”
“I pledge allegiance to …Wall Street.”
“I pledge allegiance to …War.”
“I pledge allegiance to …Trafficking By Drug Companies.”
“I pledge allegiance to …Media Propaganda.”
“I pledge allegiance to …Political Lobbyists.”
“I pledge allegiance to …Monsanto.”
“I pledge allegiance to …Walmart.”
“I pledge allegiance to …the IRS.”
“I pledge allegiance to … the United States of America.”
Okay, so we finally got it right.
Or did we?
Actually, the upper part of the above list could be extended, but you get the idea.
The United States has a problem. For one, it keeps electing people who got us into this mess. For two, the top two political parties are nothing but trash. You’d think that anyone worth his salt would not have to bow down to a party to get elected, to give up his soul. Instead we get saddled with wimps whose allegiance might be to the United States, somewhere way down the line — but his party always comes first, as does catering to the dictates of big corporations.
It is because of the elitist values overtaking America that family values are waning. For instance, can you name one current TV show that espouses family values? How many shows do you watch that have no drug company commercials and no sex commercials?
Ever know a President that didn’t lie?
Or a Senator?
Or a Congressman?
Americans have grown to not only accept political/corporate corruption, but to expect it. Now, we are on the verge of a new phase — not just expecting it, but embracing it, which is why the two idiot parties are likely to flourish. You have the Clintons, the Bushes, and the Obamas to look after you, to make decisions for you, and to protect you with their own obscene values.
These are the current heads of your households, those who come up with convolutions instead of solutions.
Of course, you could do something about it.
But you won’t.
Proof is in the polls.
— W. Leon Smith
