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Aliceinwonderland: That's the problem with our legal system...if someone tries to sue you...you have to hire a lawyer...and lawyers are very expensive. You can have a pro-bono lawyer assigned to your case but I'm sure they don't really have their full attention or interest in your case. If you have just a little bit of money saved up, you might be able to hire a lawyer but that will wipe you out. You could counter sue for a frivolous law suit, and if you are lucky, you may win.
It comes down to: that justice really is not blind before the law...it comes down to how good the defense lawyer is or how good, or honest the DA is, and how well they can convince a jury of their cause. That really does not prove who is guilty and who is not. So many people have been put on death row, because of our crooked legal/political system, for crimes they did not commit. DNA helped proved eventually, when that became widely available, that many of these people were innocent of the crimes. Others weren't so lucky and were executed.
And I just wonder how many people have been bankrupted trying to defend themselves against much lessor crimes, or disputes, with the lawyers they had to hire.
DAnne all of this is about how much a CEO is payed. Not the employees. The market determines what the wages will be. Here in Alberta where we can't get enough workers we have to pay more. In Ft McMurray where the oil sands are McDonalds has to pay about $25 / hr.
Yes I own my own business that's why I get pissed off when you would even suggest that the government should decide how much I should get paid by my own company. If I want to give massive bonuses to my key employees thats my business and mine alone. I can't believe anyone would think different.
DAnnemarc: Oh darn, did I misspell "from"? Anyway, I was reading an article in the Washington Post that went into the history of that Rancher. Seems he had been to court before and they ruled against him and he still didn't pay up. That was something like 20 years ago, if I recall. The recent "armed rebellion" had happened before and the BLM officers, who lived in nearby towns, got shunned by the local people...they couldn't buy anything from a local grocery store without someone making some kind of snide remark to them. In fact, a small bomb went off in one of the BLM main offices in Nevada. No one claimed responsibility.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/15/everything-you...
Seems to me that "states rights" was something that set off the civil war between the north and the south and "states rights" is what these people are claiming. They believe that the state of Nevada owns all of that BLM land and not the US Government. And they have a lot of people that believes that to be the case...not only in Nevada but in some other states as well.
Here come de judge! ;-} ⚖
Click here for a list of The Senators Who Voted "Not" To Extend Unemployment Benefits to contact them by email, facebook or twitter.NOTE: You will see that ALL on the list were REPUBLICANS.
Happy Easter unemployed... from your GOP Republicans...
Kend ~ None of your--and I must assume you mean the public's--business what a company pays it's CEO's versus the employees? Are you serious? The last time I looked you can't even open a lemonade stand without a public permit. Any real LEGAL business has to have licenses and permits for everything they do and be accountable to the public--the Government--for every cent that passes through them. (You see, I don't own a business; but, I did earn a minor in business management in college)
For example, some businesses have to obey laws concerning how they maintain their bathroom floors and are periodically inspected; yet, you suggest that moving huge amounts of cash flow anywhere they want is none of our business? Let me repeat that question. It is perfectly logical to have strict laws covering how I maintain my toilet, but how I move my cash around is none of their business? We regulate minimum wages, social security withholdings, workers comp withholdings, the hours they can work, the breaks they are entitled to, and lunch times, whether or not the workers environment is safe, whether they are discriminated against or denied their rights, whether they were injured on the job and entitled to just compensation; yet, for some reason regulating whether the company is paying them fairly is non of our business?
I have two more questions for you. #1 Do you really own a business? #2 Are you really from this planet?
I am very happy you have discovered an interest in the Common Core. It is not what it claims to be, and it is not simply a matter of flawed implementation. It is not new, and it is undermining public schools. I am a career teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, and I've seen it all. Both the Republican and the Democratic Parties are deluded by a shallow, naive frame for education, based on false assumptions about how children learn, and what the role of public education is in our past and our future.
Before I recommend Diane Ravitch's website, I want to mention David Berliner as a resource for understanding the Common Core.
I'm not sure who would give the best on-air interview, but at least in print there are several eloquent critics of Common Core, and all the Reagan/Bush era "reforms".
David Berliner is a professor who continues to write devastating studies that refute the entire paradigm that supports the Common Core project, which has overwhelmed the reality of public education. Most people, including many progressives, unconsciously accepted the frame Bill Bennet projected with "A Nation At Risk" in the early 80's. Berliner's "Manufactured Crisis" definitively debunks that illusion. But that's old news.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Manufactured-Crisis-Americas-Schools/dp/020144...
And here's a new one I haven't read yet:
http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Threaten-Americas-Public-Schools/dp/08077552...
Also, http://www.schoolbriefing.com/1967/the-manufactured-crisis-revisited/
I most highly recommend Diane Ravitch, an education historian, who has been an excellent critic, and guide to critics, of the entire "Corporate Reform" movement against public schools. Her recent book "Reign of Error" is a clear analysis and proposal for real reform.
See: http://dianeravitch.com/
She was a Bush administration official who helped plan and implement No Child Left Behind, until the data started coming in, and then she reversed her opinions. She is going through age-related health problems, and has had to curtail her travel schedule, but continues to post several times a day clear and cogent links to others working to really make schools better for everyone, instead of simply profitable.
"The Chalk Face" is a couple of younger professors: http://atthechalkface.com/ who have a blog and a podcast.
There are teacher activist groups in New York State, and elsewhere, but we are ignored.
Alice yes some companies don't pay taxes because of the way income tax is structured. I never said there should be tax breaks I don't believe in them For any one. we all have to pay. I must be out of touch. I am in Scottsdale right now and all of my freinds down here don't agree with you either the majority of people in the US are payed fairly. Who is it exactly that you are talking about. What percentage are payed unfairly?
Ckrob, you listen to to much leftist crap. Walmart bases it's corporate strategy on profit. That's what companies do. People are payed to make the share holders as much as they can. The companies don't make the rules government does. Government already tells us what min wage we have to pay, how much holidays we have to give, how much notice we have to give to lay someone off, etc etc etc. all I am saying is I don't think anyone has the right to tell us how much bonus money we can give out. We have unions to negotiate with the larger companies to protect the workers.
If we want higher wages get the economy going. Low employment rates are the best thing for driving wages up. Your government has done nothing to boost the economy. they have scared the money right in the pockets of those who have it. No one is going to invest their hard earned money with a anti business president that you have. Six years, six trillion more in debt, and still one in six doesn't have A job And the only solution is tax the rich. Are you kidding me.
Thank you BD! Thomas Paine sounds like quite a visionary, more than I ever realized. - AIW
Marc, by the time all legal options are exhausted, so are your life's savings. - AIW
Click here for a list of The Senators Who Voted "Not" To Extend Unemployment Benefits to contact them by email, facebook or twitter.NOTE: You will see that ALL on the list were REPUBLICANS.
Happy Easter unemployed... from your GOP Republicans...
Oh-oh, PD's messing with me.
MY FRIENDS!
Happy Easter!
Do you know where colored Easter eggs came from? It's a miracle from the time of the last supper. Jesus didn't trust humans to lead the Church and so he took a Rabbit and raised him up to be the founder of the church and he provided him with a miracle as a sign of legitimacy... and that miracle is the Easter Egg.
Rabbits do not lay eggs accept on Easter and then they are colored. If you go out in the woods hoping to shoot a bunny rabbit on Easter Sunday for rabbit stew, U R sure to find these remarkable eggs. U should remember it is miraculous as the first Pope of the church was Peter the Rabbit!
Palindromedary ~ Excellent question. However, we will never know that if it doesn't go to court first will we? Certainly trying to enforce you're own law doesn't help their case, does it? By moving in a way that evokes serious criminal charges upon yourself you might be losing the case before it is ever even brought before a jury. A case that could otherwise be won. In addition to swift legal action there is also the possibility of striking a deal with the state; or, seeking other means of handling your business.
If these people had a title, or some other legal claim to the use of the land and the state was refusing to recognize that then they would have my complete sympathy. Personally, I find it hard to believe that this isn't the case. I think there must be more to it than they are reporting. On the other hand, what is really different about land snatching now and when it was done to the Native Americans--a piece of paper? Written laws?
I think it is safe to say that after 150 years of successful use of this land there is grounds for a peaceful solution to this problem After all, these Ranchers are using the land productively for the betterment of everyone else. They are contributing to society. I can't imagine any legal excuse to force them off the land; unless, this is a case of Corporate owned politicians who are abusing their authority to snatch the land for a Corporate purpose. If that is the case, that is precisely why the courts exist in the first place.
As much as I sympathize with anyone threatened with losing their land--Native Americans as well--I can't justify using force until all legal options are exhausted.
Aliceinwonderland ~ I think that is the Palindromedary sense of humor at work for you... You need an explanation. I think he might be making light of the acute accent Asian-Americans have. ie they pronounce "life" "wife". Ha Ha Ha Him so punny!
An Alternative to Capitalism (since we cannot legislate morality)
Several decades ago, Margaret Thatcher claimed: "There is no alternative". She was referring to capitalism. Today, this negative attitude still persists.
I would like to offer an alternative to capitalism for the American people to consider. Please click on the following link. It will take you to my essay titled: "Home of the Brave?" which was published by the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm
John Steinsvold
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”Pogo quotation by Walt Kelly.
The American Revolution was an uprising to cut "Political Bands" with usurping King George wed to Corporatecrafters and demonic Christiancrafters to take their "equal Station" in life entitled by the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." U.S. First Vets gave their lives for the Dream of true Egalitarian and Economic Justice for all citizens. By definition and in letter and spirit the U.S. Declaration of Independence affirms Deism as true theology in denial of all man-contrived religioncraft in its many evil forms as false theology. True theology must be based on the study of the Creation via astronomy and science and realized through scientific discovery free from dogma of man-contrived religioncraft. After Common Sense created a revolution in the minds of free-thinkers Thomas Paine turned the political tide for Revolution via Four Letters On Interesting Subjects. Written between May 22 and July 2, 1776 just days prior to the Declaration on July 4, the Great Paine to noted Usurpers passionately wrote at the close of Letter III: "As to Corporations themselves, they are without exception so many badges of kingly tyranny, and tend, like every other species of useless pomp [King wed to Christian Church], to the oppression and impoverishment of the place, without one single advantage arising from them. They keep up a perpetual spirit of distinction and faction, engross emoluments and advantages to themselves, which ought to be employed to better purposes, and generally get into quarrels and lawsuits with the other part of the inhabitants. They diminish the freedom of every place where they exist....But of all Corporations that of Philadelphia is the most obnoxious, its power resembling that of an hermaphrodite, or is at least a kind of aristocratical Corporation made hereditary by adoption." The pennyless Paine's influence is seen in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution safeguarding Egalitarian and Economic Justice for all citizens under Article III "Law and Equity." The Founders had the wisdom to safeguard our constitutionally mandated Republic bound in Article III "Law and Equity." "'Equity' has said to be the name of the principles under which substantial justice may be attained in particular cases where the prescribed or customary forms of ordinary law seem to be inadquate [such as legislative and judicial legal fiction]. The word describes a system of jurisprudence and it is employed to designate the principles or standards of that system. Such a use of the word is illustrated by the maxim, 'Equity' regards as done that which ought to be done.'" Jur (1996), p. 520-21. Bear in mind that Paine raised Egalitarian hell for the imagined nobility upon arrival in Philadelphia as he began to champion the rights of slaves, Native Americans and women. Paine, the most influential Founder on all others from all walks of life, especially those dying in the trenches for their "equal Station" in life, knew that the natural laws of equity would eventually trump the creation of legislative and judicial legal fiction making mockery of Egalitarian and Economic Justice for not only citizens of the United States but humankind in general. Our Egalitarian Republic safeguards equality for all: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness---That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Got it?! U.S. is an Egalitarian Republic. Period. Case closed.
Nevada Constitution also says: Sec: 2. Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States. All political power is inherent in the people[.] Government is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair[,] subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full power on the Federal Government to maintain and Perpetuate its existance [existence], and whensoever any portion of the States, or people thereof attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the Execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its Authority.
A legal entity such as a corporation or a sole proprietorship can pay their executives whatever they want.
Our country has more expenses than cash coming in. So we need to reduce expenses or increase revenues. A good portion of our expenses is paying for 11 years of war and our national defense/security. It would be absolutely amoral to reduce our expenses on the elderly, poor, disabled and working poor--there really are no cash expenses to reduce except for program(s) waste. Therefore the country needs to increase its revenue. It's doubtful that USA will invent or come up with a product or service or industry and produce something a lot of people would want to buy, that would bring in a lot of extra cash, but it would have to be a material dollar amount or a very large proportion of our GDP and that just doesn't seem possible, especially for the short term. I think the probability that we'll invent something that fantastic or happening is very small.
Our country needs to increase its federal income tax rates. It's as easy as that. For the past 30+ years the distribution of wealth has gone from the middle-class and the working poor to very, very wealthy. And when I say very wealthy, I mean people making over $50+ million annually. And yes, the poor little guy that makes only $1 to $10 million per year will have to "cough-up" a few more $10K's per year to help their country's economy.
I don't understand why the very wealthy feel like they're victims if their income taxes need go up to help get their country's finances in order, when over the past 30+ years they've been taking more than they should because of our 'bought' Congress. Governments were devised to manage very, very large masses of people, to promote a civilized society, to ensure that the powerful and wealthy do not take advantage of the poor and the weak and less fortunate, to promote liberty, justice and good Public Policy for all of its citizens and the Commons. Our Congress over the past 30+ years has basically shunned every one of those above principals, including our middle-class and the working poor in order to transfer our country's income/wealth to just a few individuals and corporations, the top 1-2% of American's.
For us older American's, we remember living in times when the USA prospered and when we did not prosper. We remember/know about the last 100 years of our country's economic and financial history. The below schedule shows the top individual federal income tax rates by year beginning in 1913. Remember the 1929-1932 stock market crash that mirrors the Sep 2008 crash? Look at the income tax rate for the years prior to 1932, they were pretty low. Supply-side economic philosophy (trickle-down economics or Reaganomics) didn't work in the 1920's and has not worked starting in 1982 in the Reagan Administration. That was the beginning, again, of the decline of our middle-class and working poor and the beginning, again, of transferring our county's income/wealth to the very wealthy.
Historical US Federal Income Tax Rates
Highest Individual Marginal Income Tax Rates
For the Years 1913 - 2012
Top Top Top
Year Rate Year Rate Year Rate
1913 7.00% 1947 86.45% 1981 69.13%
1914 7.00% 1948 82.13% 1982 50.00%
1915 7.00% 1949 82.13% 1983 50.00%
1916 15.00% 1950 91.00% 1984 54.00%
1917 67.00% 1951 91.00% 1985 50.00%
1918 77.00% 1952 92.00% 1986 50.00%
1919 73.00% 1953 92.00% 1987 38.50%
1920 73.00% 1954 91.00% 1988 28.00%
1921 73.00% 1955 91.00% 1989 28.00%
1922 56.00% 1956 91.00% 1990 31.00%
1923 56.00% 1957 91.00% 1991 31.00%
1924 46.00% 1958 91.00% 1992 31.00%
1925 25.00% 1959 91.00% 1993 39.60%
1926 25.00% 1960 91.00% 1994 39.60%
1927 25.00% 1961 91.00% 1995 39.60%
1928 25.00% 1962 91.00% 1996 39.60%
1929 24.00% 1963 91.00% 1997 39.60%
1930 25.00% 1964 77.00% 1998 39.60%
1931 25.00% 1965 70.00% 1999 39.60%
1932 63.00% 1966 70.00% 2000 39.60%
1933 63.00% 1967 70.00% 2001 38.60%
1934 63.00% 1968 75.25% 2002 38.60%
1935 63.00% 1969 77.00% 2003 35.00%
1936 79.00% 1970 71.75% 2004 35.00%
1937 79.00% 1971 70.00% 2005 35.00%
1938 79.00% 1972 70.00% 2006 35.00%
1939 79.00% 1973 70.00% 2007 35.00%
1940 81.01% 1974 70.00% 2008 35.00%
1941 81.00% 1975 70.00% 2009 35.00%
1942 88.00% 1976 70.00% 2010 35.00%
1943 88.00% 1977 70.00% 2011 35.00%
1944 94.00% 1978 70.00% 2012 35.00%
1945 94.00% 1979 70.00% 2013 39.60%<--This is too low.
1946 86.45% 1980 70.00%
Source:
The Urban Institute, Federal Tax Policy, Joint Committee on Taxation, Summary of Conference Agreement on the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, JCX-54-03, May 22, 2003;IRS Revised Tax Rate Schedule
Web Page:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/81305281/Historical-Federal-Income-Tax-Top-Rat...
http://taxfoundation.org/article/us-federal-individual-income-tax-rates-...
Thom,
I am getting a little bit frustrated with the spin-driven reporting on both sides of this complex story. I think in the name of journalistic integrity, it would behoove someone, and I am hoping it is you, to report on all aspects of the story including the Chinese solar project angle, foreign maneuvering to translate chunks of our paper debt into US govt mineral resources on BLM land, manipulation of the Endangered Species Act to bully ranchers off of land they have grazed for decades, and BLM changing the rules of the game for ranchers in the capricious (or conniving) manner in which it did. I expect a journalist of your caliber t rise above the partisan fray and present this story within the deep contextual framing that we deserve. Please don't let me down. This stuff is way too important to have it treated in such a partisan and undignified manner.
Late Roman Republic...first century BCE. Massive corruption in government, military control of various other countries, rigged elections, but still technically a nation largely controlled by voters. When the generals began to vie for power one (Caesar) finally took over. He didn't last long but when Augustus, his nephew, established the empire he kept the fiction going that it was still a republic and he was just the "first man" in it. History doesn't exactly repeat itself, but we seem to be going down the same path.
Why "Oriental"? I don't get the connection.
Interesting how you would mention jury duty, Palin, 'cuz I served on a grand jury a couple months ago. When first summoned, I was kinda grudging about it, but it was an interesting enough experience that I soon forgot my initial misgivings. - AIW
Thank you Aliceinwonderland! I voted, and all I got was this darn jury duty! And speaking of jury duty...I have learned from a friend who has made the mistake of using different variations of her name on her drivers license and on her voter's registration that now she is getting summons for jury duty under both names. Get lucky to get out of one jury duty and you get yet another summons under the other name a month later. ☮