From: Thomas Buckner (tcbevolver@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri May 28 2004 - 19:58:20 MDT
--- Mike <mikew12345@cox.net> wrote:
> > The most one could do to influence them is sheer
> persuasion.
>
> Uh, what about bribery/coercion/blackmail/etc?
>
It's illegal now, and it oughta stay that way. The
big, big, big problem with bribery/coercion/blackmail
now is that the people in charge of catching and
prosecuting criminals of this sort are stymied when
the crimes are committed by people ABOVE THEM in
higher government positions, and various roadblocks
are put in the way of a prosecution. There's a lot of
real lawbreaking happening at the top which is going
unpunished because of 'bugs' in the governmental
software. It's getting worse, fast. I first began to
truly grok this phenomenon twenty years ago after I
read the dialogue in Godel, Escher, Bach wherein the
Tortoise kept bringing records designed to destroy
Achilles' hi-fi, and kept bringing new records
designed to go after the flaws in improved hi-fi's. I
began to understand it was the same principle that
kept predators and prey in a constant evolutionary
arms race, the same principle that we now see with
computer viruses and antivirus software.
It's like the AIDS virus. If the immune system is
doing a good job, it is still possible to attack the
immune system itself. The United States has a
goverment whose immune system is almost fatally
compromised. A determined, ruthless and well-financed
coalition of enemies forced the last president into a
perjury trap (using a perjured plaintiff in a lawsuit)
and impeached him because they had the votes in
Congress necessary to bring impeachment. I remember
hearing conservatives brag that they would impeach
Clinton after they won control of the Congress in the
1994 elections, before he had even met Monica
Lewinsky! In other words, the votes were there, the
charge would be supplied later. I am not making this
up.
Now we have a president who is truly illegitimate
(gregpalast.com has the details) and rampantly
corrupt, surrounded by blatant crooks, etc., etc. yet
he cannot be charged or impeached because all the
mechanisms that are legally empowered to deal with his
crimes are controlled by forces friendly to him. If he
is reelected, the transition to a one-party state will
be complete. The democracy will exist in brand name
only.
As an aside, the folks in Iraq are not retarded. They
see what this man has done to democracy in his
homeland. How can he claim to be exporting it to them?
It would be funny if it were happening to some other
planet.
Now, I know I've gone off on a diatribe here, but it's
that important to me. I have seen this stuff coming
for years. The people on this list know how lonely it
can be to be surrounded by people who can't see the
tsunami. As Ben knows, I wrote a piece last year
outlining how a Singularity may be the only thing
standing between the human race and an unbreakable
Orwellian/theocratic tyranny.
And I do believe I have said all I am going to say on
this subject. It makes me ill.
Tom
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