HomePosts tagged 'irony'
Wonder When They'll get Round To Making Blogging Illegal?
June 5, 2015 June 3, 2015 fasab Crime, Current Events, Legal, Politics, Rants	$250, 000 fine, avoid, bank accounts, Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, capitulate, caught by a law, charged by the Feds, charges against him, cheer, committing a crime, communist states, compulsory for US banks, connections, control, corrupt political system, corrupt politician, corruption, criminalize ordinary people, currency, Current Events, de facto criminals, democracy, Dennis Hastert, deposits, education, enacted so many laws, enrich himself, fact, facts, federal bank reporting requirements, Federal Court, federal felonies, file a "currency transaction report", five years in federal prison, former Speaker, fraud, government law enforcement agencies, Hastert, heinous crime, helped to create, high school student, I could care less, in office, indicted, information, invasive, irony, Justice Department, law abiding people, leaks, legislation, lying to the FBI, making blogging illegal, member, money, money-laundering, national security, Opinion, paying off, penalties, personal gain, political graft, political leverage, political power, politicians, politics, punish, pursued, Rants, routine, sexual abuse, shocks, Soviet era, specific transactions, spend you own money, structuring cash withdrawals, stupid bureaucrats, suspicious activity report, tax evasion, terrorist threats, those in charge, Thoughts, to terrorize, transfer it, unnecessary, US House of Representatives, Western governments, withdrawals, wrong idea
While he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the former Speaker, Dennis Hastert, used his political power and connections to enrich himself. No shocks there. He is just one among many politicians who routinely do likewise.
But unlike most of the others, Hastert was charged by the Feds with five felonies, each of them carrying a minimum of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
But, before you get the wrong idea and start to cheer, Hastert's use of political leverage for personal gain has nothing to do with the charges against him.
What he did when in office was merely corruption and we live in a corrupt political system that those in charge like to call 'democracy'.
No, Hastert has apparently committed a far worse crime than political graft. And it wasn't anything to do with the leaks doing the rounds that he had been paying off a high school student for alleged sexual abuse decades ago. He hasn't been charged with anything related to that either.
Instead, he has been pursued and indicted for the heinous crime of
"structuring" cash withdrawals from his bank accounts so as to avoid federal bank reporting requirements, and lying to the FBI about what he was doing with his money.
Now, I could care less what they do to a corrupt politician like Hastert. There is a certain irony that he has been caught by a law that he probably helped to create.
But the problem is that many of us could be similarly indicted simply because most of us don't even know we are committing a crime in the first place.
Stupid bureaucrats have enacted so many laws in recent years, using misleading cover titles such as 'money laundering', 'terrorist threats', or 'national security', that they have turned millions of law-abiding people into de facto criminals, without them even knowing it.
The piece of invasive and unnecessary legislation that Hastert has been caught breaking is the 'Bank Secrecy Act of 1970', which makes it compulsory for U.S. banks to file a "currency transaction report" for deposits or withdrawals of more than $10,000 in currency. Banks suspicious of specific transactions are further required to file a "suspicious activity report."
If the banks don't capitulate to this government nonsense then they face penalties. This means that the banks comply, over-zealously so as not to ever infringe the regulations – which many of them don't even understand. Now as a matter of routine they report ALL large cash transactions as suspicious, whether they really are or not.
Hastert didn't intend or commit any money laundering, fraud or tax evasion. But the authorities don't care about that. He had a legal and legitimate agreement in place with another individual and he withdrew his money in smaller amounts because he didn't want this private arrangement to become public knowledge. The Justice Department even admits as much. But the authorities don't care about that either.
So why have they charged Hastert when they know he really did nothing wrong apart from infringe on a stupid law that was never intended to catch the likes of him?
They did it to terrorize the rest of us.
What most western governments are about nowadays is control. The type of control that used to pervade communist states in the Soviet era. They want to criminalize ordinary people by making trivial and harmless acts into major felonies.
Woe betide you now if you want to spend you own money or transfer it to someone else. It's your money, you earned it, you saved it up, but touch it in a way not specified by the government and you're in Federal Court, you criminal bad person you!
All these spurious and unnecessary laws give government law enforcement agencies the ability to punish anyone at any time because there are so many regulations that everyone is in breach of something.
Think I'm joking???
Did You Know? – Another Round Of Fabulous Facts!
August 12, 2014 August 9, 2014 fasab Factoids, Unusual	100 year anniversary, 1800s, 1971, 1986, 19th largest empire in history, 2014, adventurer, American businessman, ancient Egypt, Are we boring you Mr. Rodale, assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, attract flies, bank robbery, battlefield, belief that insanity is caused by changes in the moon, believing they saw what the really didn't, bomb, bomb squad, Bosnian Serb, Brian Wells, burning ice, cavalry charge, choose your own favorite, coffins, compulsive hoarders, convince, country, covered in honey, delude, derived, Dick Cavett, Dick Cavett Show, died, died on the toilet, Disney, doctors, Duchess Sophie, education, Elvis Presley, Entertainment, exoplanet, fact, factoid, factoids, facts, fast asleep, first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon, future year, Gavrilo Princip, german, German infantry division, Great War, heart attack, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Homer and Langley Collyer, information, interviewed, irony, James Stephen "Steve" Fossett, Jerome Irving Rodale, June 28, killed, languages on Earth, last words, Latin word, light years, live to 100, luna, lunatic, mechanisms, Mongolian, Mongolian cavalry division, Moon, necklace, organic farming, Papua New Guinea, People, people were buried alive, pharaoh, pizza deliveryman, prescription drugs, proponent of healthy eating, Random, record-setting aviator, ring a bell in the graveyard, Roman Empire, run down by a a sugar-crazy taxi driver, sailor, Sarajevo, servants, spelling and grammatical errors, stopped by the police, story, Tomorrowland, trivia, US Constitution, World War I, WWII
Another random bunch of facts for you today.
I think I prefer the final one the best because of its irony and the fact that it illustrates that people can sometimes delude and convince themselves into believing they saw what the really didn't.
Anyway, here they are, so choose your own favorite, but whatever you do….
The US Constitution contains many
spelling and grammatical errors.
The term 'Lunatic' is derived from the Latin word 'luna' meaning 'moon'.
It originated from the belief that insanity is caused by changes in the moon.
Thirty-three light years away there is an
exoplanet completely covered in burning ice.
James Stephen "Steve" Fossett was an American businessman,
and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer
who, in 2002, became the first person to
fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon.
At its peak the Roman Empire
stretched for 2.51 million square miles,
but it was only the 19th largest empire in history.
Throughout the 1800s people were buried alive so often
that coffins included mechanisms to allow those people
to ring a bell in the graveyard.
Homer and Langley Collyer, two compulsive hoarders,
were found buried beneath a collapsed pile of
the things they had stored in their house over the years.
The last time a cavalry charge was used on the battlefield
was during WWII when a Mongolian cavalry division
charged a German infantry division.
Two thousand Mongolians were killed
and not a single German died.
In ancient Egypt some servants were covered in honey
to attract flies away from the pharaoh.
(I suppose it's better than the alternative!)
June 28, 2014 was the 100 year anniversary of the assassination
of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria,
heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
who was killed in Sarajevo along with his wife Duchess Sophie
by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip.
This was the incident that led to the Great War,
also now known as World War I.
Although several notable people died on the toilet,
one of the most famous is probably Elvis Presley.
Doctors attributed his death to too many prescription drugs.
When pizza deliveryman Brian Wells
was stopped by the police in the middle of a bank robbery
no one believed his story that he had been forced to do it
by some people he had delivered pizza to.
He kept on pleading with the officers saying that
the necklace he was wearing was a bomb.
Unfortunately for him though,
the bomb squad didn't show up early enough.
Almost one-seventh (840) of all the languages on Earth
are spoken in one country…
Papua New Guinea.
When it was first built,
Disney's Tomorrowland
was supposed to represent
the far off future year of 1986.
A famous proponent of healthy eating and organic farming,
Jerome Irving Rodale died of a heart attack
while being interviewed on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971.
Some of his last words were that [he] would
"live to 100, unless [he was] run down by a a sugar-crazy taxi driver".
Appearing fast asleep during the show, Dick Cavett joked
"Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?"
before discovering that his 72-year-old guest had indeed died.
Many people are convinced they saw this on TV
but the incident was never aired.