"They're arresting me for daring to tell the truth in a courtroom!!!"

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On the morning after the state of the union when Barack Obama announced that the "state of the union is strong" I had a court date for some trivial fee from an incident ten years old. The fee was added years after the fact for reasons that I still haven’t figured out.

This was also the morning after Christopher Dornan was cornered and apparently died and about the same time that the Carnival Cruise disaster was beginning to unfold, not that this should have anything to do with this story.

Whether it was relevant or not I wondered if they would be increasing security as a result of the Dornan incident; but clearly it was overblown around the country by the media like everything else and when I got to court I found out something else that I hadn’t realized was quite so bad.

The place was swamped; it’s been years if not decades since I spent much if any time in traffic court which is what this turned out to be and I had seen busy court rooms before but nothing like this and I made the mistake of showing up early.

The security was relatively mild; in fact with all the people they apparently had on a regular basis it would almost certainly have bogged things down even more than they already were bogged down if it was any tougher which might be why they didn’t have tougher security; either that or they were just trying to save money.

I decided to use the rest room first, which turned out to be just as well. There was only one bathroom for both sexes; fortunately there was only one person in it and I didn’t have to wait that long. I thought about this a little more later when I saw how many more people would show up, but that is beside the point.

I managed to get what might have been one of the few remaining seats in the back of the court room which was fairly large even though there were already a fair amount of people standing; and I started reading my book while I waited, or at least I tried and actually managed to get a couple paragraphs.

“The people running the oligarchies don’t have to deal with crowds like this; nor do they have to even worry about going to court for trivial things like this or even major things.”

Looking around I couldn’t figure out who said that but I did notice others were looking around or away and some of them seemed to be suppressing slight grins.

I didn’t think about whether or not this might not be normal and went back to my book.

“They commit real crimes that actually do deserve real investigation but they don’t seem to have to worry about that.”

On the occasions when I used to wind up in traffic court I don’t remember people talking quite so loud if at all. They used to be careful to whisper if they ever even talked to anyone but this court room was packed and the clerk was at the front and probably far enough away so she couldn’t hear this …. For now.

But still I just try to go back to my book.

“That’s why so many of us are here you know.”

Well since I’m not going to be able to read my book I may as well listen to what this guy has to say; it might pass the time a little quicker; it turns out he’s right in front of me practically just a couple seats to the right.

“Every four years they break the record when it comes to campaign contributions and last year both presidential candidates spent over one billion dollars each and that doesn’t even count the amount of money that was spent on congress and governors offices or even all the money that was pent by undisclosed organizations that no longer have to tell us who they are or how much they spend.”

“And you know what that means Don’t you?”

Everyone looks around and avoids answering many of them with slight grins; he’s still talking load enough for all of us to hear but presumably not load enough for the clerk to hear and the few people that actually work hear all seem to be busy talking to someone because there are so few people to address their problems or I suspect they aren’t even in the room.

"That means they need to get a return on their money that is much bigger than what they invested. Otherwise there is no way they would be donating all that money."

“And if they’re going to get their return on that money the government is going to have to get the money they need for what ever it is that they do including provide corporate welfare for the campaign contributions from some place else.”

“You know where that comes from? It comes from us; not because of whatever petty reason most of us are hear for but because they have to stick someone without political power that doesn’t donate to campaigns with the bill even if those people don’t have any money to pay for it.”

At this point the lady next to him asks quietly what he is here for.

"I'm just here for a broken tail light which I didn't even know I had until the cop pulled me over. If they weren't trying to milk people for everything they could get they would have just let me off with a warning. The cop didn't have to make a big deal out of it and I told him I would have it fixed the next day. twenty years ago that would have been an acceptable answer for something so petty. It's not like I gave him a hard time or anything. And now I had to take the day off from work to deal with this petty thing."

"It's not like I have connections like those that donate to campaigns."

“You don’t think people with money have to pay their bills in this country any more do you? Well I suppose they pay some of their bills but not to the government; instead they just pay the lobbyists who get them out of their fair share of taxes and get them an enormous amount of subsidies to boot.”

“I’m not making this up there are literally hundreds of books in the library on the subject and even more information on the alternative news outlets that you can find on the internet or from other sources. Some of it is so blatant that even the commercial media reports about it; but most of the information on this is routinely ignored by the commercial media.”

“You know why that is; don’t you?”

I can guess but by now I know it doesn’t matter whether I answer you or not; you’re going to tell us any way unless the court room starts moving faster which I doubt.

“It’s because the commercial media is getting as much if not more of these subsidies as any of the other campaign contributors; they contribute as much as any of the other corporations that are robbing this country blind. And they get plenty in return for it; they get virtual monopoly or oligarchy rights over the air waves that reaches the majority of the public while the rest of us don’t have any access to the air waves. If we want to get our views across we can only tell handful of people at a time.”

“You know what they pay for exclusive access to the public air waves? Nothing. That’s right they don’t pay for it at all it is all corporate welfare. It didn’t used to be that way; or at least it didn’t quite used to be that way. They never actually had to pay for their exclusive rights but they used to allow a much more diverse point of view to be presented to the public and they were required to provide some kind of public service in return for their free access.”

“But they’ve been donating to campaigns for a long time so when most of us weren’t paying attention they gradually and quietly eliminated any public service requirements so now they just get it for free and those six conglomerates get control of the vast majority of the media without any accountability at all.”

“Well almost no accountability at all. I suppose they do have to fill some obligations if you want to call it that. They’re obligated to provide coverage to the candidates that support their oligarchy control while suppressing or ridiculing any candidates that manage to get support from the grass roots despite the fact that they can’t get any coverage from the oligarchies that took over the press.”

"So since they can't charge the people that are robbing this country blind to pay for the bills they rack up they have to figure out a way to charge someone else and they stick it to everyone else including those without any money at all."

"Do you know how much money it costs to try to collect money from people without any money?"

"Neither do I; but it must be a fortune when you consider they're trying to do this all over the country. They must be spending billions of dollars around the country trying to collect from these people and they rarely ever collect anything so it is a total waste. Even if they do collect a little bit of money it means they're taking the last dollar some people have and what do you think is going to happen then?"

"Do you think some of them will wind up committing crimes? Or do you think some of them will wind up on welfare? They may not want to work anymore but who can blame them anymore? That may seem absurd to many people and it would be if they actually had a chance to get decent wages with reasonable treatment anymore but that isn't the case. If they won't allow abuse on the job and it is possible to ship the jobs over seas that is exactly what the oligarchies do so they can drive wages down so the vast majority of people can't get a job so they have to settle for anything that is available which is either welfare or miserable low paying jobs that still don't give people enough money to get by."

"But that isn't the biggest problem with welfare of course. The real problem with welfare isn't the welfare that poor people get; it's the welfare that rich people get."

"They get much more welfare!"

At this point the girl sitting next to me asked if I knew where the bath room was. She was looking at him kind of funny before this. After I told her she got up and looked around; the court room was much more crowded by now and more people were still coming in. I stood up to see how crowded it was an noticed that it would be extremely difficult to get through now without asking people to let me or her by. She seemed to come to the same conclusion and sat back down before she lost her seat.

I guess she didn't have to go that bad.

"The oil companies get all kinds of welfare and Wal-Mart is a big welfare recipient; they even have a Wal-Mart subsidy watch page that tells people all about all the tax payer incentives that Wal-Mart extracts from communities. And there are many more subsidies for many other companies with political connections including the sports industry. Do you know who is paying for all these stadiums that are being built around the country? In many cases it is the government not the private sector."

"I'm not making this up; David Kay Johnson, one of the few reliable sources that the mainstream media actually gives any air time has reported on this in several of his books and has even mentioned some of them briefly on TV. Of course you won't find the best material on TV. The commercial media is too busy stealing from us to report on these things until they get so bad that even they can't ignore it which is why they have begun to report on some of it. You know they waited until it was too late to report on Enron before they finally did so; well that is now standard operating procedure."

"That's why they have to collect much more money from every man woman and child in this country; whether it is the money the oil companies, Wal-Mart or the well connected owners of sports teams they have to help them get their returns on their campaign contributions and that means they have to stick it to every one of us even more. And that doesn't even count the health care industry or all the money we have to spend paying for one war after another based on lies that the politically connected come up with."

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"Do you have any idea how much money we could save if we stopped fighting all these wars based on lies; or how much cheaper it would be if we could eliminate the enormous amount of money spent on ads for the health care industry or other bureaucratic expenses that are necessary in a private insurance system but could be eliminated by a Single Payer system?"

"There should be no doubt that there are attorneys who are out there every day squeezing ordinary citizens on some very thin grounds and taking them to court; but that doesn't mean that we can wait for the appointed politicians that pretend to stand up for us and simultaneously break all the records when it comes to collecting campaign funds even if they do come up with some rhetoric that sounds good. Now that it has reached an absurd extreme they will clearly have to address some of it but you can expect them to fight tooth and nail to make sure they don't have to stick it to the most well collected people so there rest of us will continue getting the shaft even while there are demagogues in the senate pretending to stick up for us."

He was starting to get a little louder now and I was wondering how long it would be before someone that worked for the court would notice.

I didn't have to wonder much longer.

"Damn there starting to pack us in here like sardines here. If they're going to rob us blind can't they at least give us enough room to breathe while they rob us? Or can they at least find a quicker way to rob us without making us stand here all day?"

That was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

Or so I thought; I stood up enough to get a look at the room and noticed that just about everyone was looking this way .... except the court clerk who was talking to someone that was asking her a question or something and another person that seemed to work here that was dealing with someone else.

"This isn't going to work anyway because we don't have enough money to compensate for all the money that all those campaign contributors are robbing from us."

"Why don't you start charging some of those people that actually have money for a change instead of doing more to help them steal from the rest of us and sticking us with even more bills that we can't afford to pay?"

This was really loud but I can't see what is happening up front and I'm not drawing too much attention to myself.

"They could pay off all their debts if they just started charging those that have been robbing us!"

Then I heard a voice from the front, "Settle Down there! We'll get to you as soon as we can!"

"You know who we owe this big deficit to anyway; some of it might be to the Japanese and the Chinese like they keep telling us in those propaganda ads but that is only a small percentage. Much more is to the same Wall Street financial institution that have been robbing us blind. If they held them accountable they could simply give them the bill for all the money they stole from us and then apply it to the debt which would cancel out a lot of our debt immediately and you wouldn't have to keep us in her like sardines while you try to rob us to compensate for the money that you let them steal!"

"I said settle down or I'll have you charged with disorderly conduct!"

"Is that what you call it when people start telling the truth in a court of law about the real reasons they're issuing all these petty fines to thousands if not millions of people across the country, 'disorderly conduct?'"

At this point I stand up to see what is happening up front.

"Be Quiet you're disrupting a court of law! Come up here and we'll settle this."

"How am I going to do that when I'm packed in here like Sardines?"

Now the court officer calls into his radio and starts ushering people out the door.

"This is highway robbery!"

"You're only charging us these petty fines so that you can avoid holding people accountable that have been robbing this country of billions of dollars if not trillions of dollars."

The people that started for the door are heading back in for some reason.

"We're not being charged with petty crimes we're being extorted; that is what the government has turned into they extort money from those that don't donate to campaigns so that they can give it to those that do!"

There are still more people coming in for more violations that's why the people have turned around and started coming right back in again instead of making room so they could arrest this guy.

"This is a Soviet style purge you're attempting!"

"Only instead of purging people because they challenge a centralized authoritarian government control of the economy and the enforcement institutions, we're purging people that challenge centralized authoritarian corporate control of the economy and the enforcement institutions."

The cops are finally getting the crowd heading in the other direction; they still only have a couple court officers in the room but that might be because they can't get in against the flow of the crowd yet.

"How many years do you give out to people who dare to tell the truth in a court of law now a days?"

"You can't tell the truth in a court of law any more than they will allow many of the most important facts to be mentioned on the mainstream media!"

"They give corporations overwhelming amounts of protected speech and they allow them to have complete control of the media; but do you know where they get all the money they spend on their speech? they get it from consumers! that's right they pass on the cost of their speech to the consumers as a business expense but they don't pass on any influence along with it."

"They can do this because they have complete control of the economic system through their oligarchies. If anyone wants to buy basic necessities they have to buy it from these oligarchies and they include the cost of their speech whether it is their deceptive advertising or their lobbying and campaign contributions with the purchase."

"So ultimately the consumer has to pay for the speech for the corporations; then when they try to use their own rights to free speech you know what the courts say?"

"They say you can't speak unless you're in a free speech zone where no one can hear you!"

The court room is finally clearing now and there are cops running in in riot gear towards this guy.

"After we pay for the speech for the corporations that have been robbing us blind they say shut up or we'll charge you with disorderly conduct or trespassing or something. Free speech isn't for every one only those with connections!"

They approach him and surround him right in front of me and wrestle him to the ground.

"This is a Soviet style purge!"

They pull his hands behind his back and start to handcuff him.

"They're arresting me for daring to tell the truth in a courtroom! Any one who tells the truth in court will be thrown in jail!!"

"This is a corporate police state where the government helps those that run corporations rob the rest of us blind!"

They pick him up and start dragging or half carrying him to the door.

"Tell people what you see here today! This is a Soviet style purge!"

"I regret that I have but one life to give to expose this scam!"

They finally carry him out the door.

Things calm down soon after that and they don't fill in the court room with a ll the other people again; instead they have more cops standing by and ask those of us who are left who we are and they have more people to handle our citations quicker. They just told me that it will be handled at another time and that I would receive a notice in the mail.

On my way out I noticed that the other people were outside waiting to have their cases handles and they were calling them in in smaller groups. They also had more cops standing around than they did previously. I walked past some of the people waiting that were a little farther away from most of the cops and started to ask if they saw what happened after they carried that guy out of the court room. Before I could get an answer one of the cops came over and asked me if I had settled my case yet; when I told them I had and that I was waiting for a notice in the mail he told me to move on because I was loitering.

So I did; I never did hear what happened later.

Huh, what was that?

Clint how have you been? I haven't seen you in a while and I didn’t even see you sitting there.

You've been reading my blog for a while now? I'm glad to hear that I've always wondered who if anyone reads what I've been writing.

Huh, er, ah wait a minute how did you come to that conclusion that doesn't sound like the kind of rhetoric I would come up with on my own at all it all came from that guy that I heard in the court room.

Ahem um don't be silly I didn't come up with it myself; if I was the one that went on that rant do you think I would be out of jail so that I could post this on the internet?

Er um you think I made it all up? I can't believe you would come to that conclusion.

Well it's good to here you think there I one line in there that doesn't sound like something that I would come up with; the obvious explanation is that it wasn't me that came up with that rant.

What? you think I plagiarized that line from someone? Who do you think I am Mike Barnicle? Um I don't know who this guy is that you think I plagiarized it from is but I can't believe you came to that conclusion.

Fine her; when was this statement supposedly made? The day after? Um Well then the explanation should be simple shouldn't it. She must have heard about that rant and plagiarized the guy I was telling you about the next day! Doesn't that seem like a much more reasonable conclusion than the one you seem to have come up with?

I don't know what the date this blog was posted has to do with it the important thing is when he went on that rant besides; if she really was the great defender of the people she would have done much more to discuss many other issues that target the working people like the use of sweat shop labor and deceptive advertising by corporations and the practice of planned obsolescence when manufacturers cut so many corners that all their products fall apart; instead she came up with that silly "over-consumption myth" that she claims that we should ignore.

Just because she comes in to take credit for fixing something that has become so extreme that even the senate believes that they have to fix it doesn't mean we can trust her.

Good, I'm glad to here you don't like her either.

What do you mean the rest of it bunk?

Have you ever seen how packed traffic court is?

Do you have any idea how much more money they're trying to squeeze out of people this way than they used to?

Look who's stuttering now.

You're not going to try to claim that the commercial media or the courts or the politicians aren't doing what they can to let off the richest people in this country while they rob us blind?

You can't deny that while they let the corporate criminals that donate to campaigns off the hook for stealing hundreds if not trillions of dollars they're sticking the rest of us with a much bigger tab?

You can't deny that the corporations have almost complete control of the media and they don't let many of the most important views get presented at all?

Hah, you can't refute that can you?

What is that the best thing you can come up with?

I am not a schizophrenic who talks to imaginary people in chairs!

I got news for you Clint it wasn't me that spoke at the RNC last summer.