I Want to Tell You a Story

21 APR 15.- IRS Scandal - day 711

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam on IRS targeting 

“I want to tell you a story. I want to take you back to 1996. A friend of mine in Illinois, my former law partner, Al Salvi, was running for the United States Senate. He loaned himself some money to his campaign. The Federal Election Commission—different agency than we’re talking about—but stick with me. This is like a Seinfeld episode—it’s all going to come together at the end. The Federal Election Commission said, ‘You did that the wrong way. You violated federal election law.’ They placed him under investigation. World War II headlines in the Chicago papers. He goes on and he loses the election for the United States Senate. Now, political scientists can debate whether he would have won or whether he would have lost. But let’s face it: being under investigation by the Federal Election Commission generally does not help you in a political campaign.

“At the end of that campaign, the Federal Election Commission came and they made a very large settlement demand—I don’t remember off the top of my head how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they were demanding from him. But he said, ‘I didn't do anything wrong and I’m not going to pay you any money.’ Federal Election Commission said, ‘That’s fine. We’re going to sue you,' which they did. They filed a lawsuit in federal court. The federal judge reads the pleadings [and] dismisses the case against the Federal Election Commission—finds in favor of Al Salvi. You would think that this drama all ended there. No, no, no. No, the Federal Election Commission came back. They said, ‘Well, we know you won, but we’re still going to make a settlement demand of you. We’re going to lower the amount, but we’re still going to make a demand. Because if you don’t pay us we’re going to appeal the judge’s ruling.’

$120,000+ bonuses during the three criminal targeting years.
She was recommended for the increase by IRS commissioner
Steven Miller and Joseph Grant, the deputy commissioner of
the tax-exempt division; both men would later resign in
connection with the targeting scandal.

 “Al Salvi’s a pretty sophisticated lawyer and he talked to the lawyer at the other end of the line and said to that person, ‘Give me the person, and let me talk to the person who had authority on this case. Because you don’t understand—I won, you lost, I’m not going to pay any money. Let me talk to the person with authority on the case at the Federal Election Commission.’ That person got on the phone with Al Salvi and said this, ‘If you pledge never to run for office again, we’ll drop this case.’ Al Salvi said, ‘Put that in writing.’ The person said, ‘We don’t put that in writing and we never lose.’ That person was Lois Lerner.

“Now, you take that disposition. You take that attitude. You take that long arm of a bureaucrat and reach into the sanctity of the ballot booth. And you've got a real problem. And you up the wattage on that, and you move her over, and you give her the type of authority not that the Federal Election Commission has, but the Internal Revenue Service. To grab somebody by the throat and do whatever they want with them with the possibility of imprisoning them. That is a problem. And that’s a problem that Representative Renacci is trying to make go away.

“We had a hearing in the last Congress. And I hear a lot of testimony—we all hear a lot of testimony. But this testimony was inspirational to me. Because these were people that came in before our Committee. Committee members you’ll remember this. They told us how they had been targeted. But you know what was the most incredible thing? They kept faith with their country when it didn’t look like their country had not kept faith with them. And they said, ‘This isn’t America. My America doesn’t target me. My America doesn’t shun me out of the public square.’

“But you know the one that got the most attention in my mind was the pro-life group in Iowa, who was asked by the Internal Revenue Service, ‘Tell us about your organization. Tell us about your activity.’ And they gave a list of activities and one of the activities they said was ‘We have prayer meetings.’ And the IRS said, in writing, ‘Under penalty of perjury, tell us about your prayer meetings.’ The hair on the back of my neck is tingling at this moment as I am describing this to you because it is so scandalous.”

         From roskam.house.gov, reported in Forbes, USNews, WashingtonTimes, and others who continue to track the IRS scandal.  It's not over yet, apparently.

I think we passed our turnoff ...

It's disappointing to realize the highway you wanted is a hundred miles back.  Continuing along that nice road is easy, but without benefit.

Welcome to Christendom.  It's huge, expensive, and off course.

Decades ago, a teacher described the lifecycle of such things.  From a legitimate beginning, a pure concept with tremendous power and purpose, often the history reads like this:

'Paintbrush Warrior' by Mark Hanson, 2009

• Man with a vision - he makes a wonderful, purposeful impact that changes things for the better
• Men with a mission - those among the hearers who rise up to formalize the changes, but no vision
• Mankind with a monument - the institutionalized legacy, the speeches and rules and micro-details, but no more changes and no vision

Christendom's curse began in the fourth century with the state establishment of institutionalized religion.  Church became government and big business.  Church politicians played for power, and visionless spokesmen fought furiously over inconsequential details.  And heretics were tortured and killed.  Church became something you attend instead of something you are, and worship became something you watch instead of something you give.  Along the timeline, serious attempts to get back on the highway risked being swallowed up by the same sequence.  

What's obscured in it all?
The short answer; the Author and the vision's purpose.

There was more than one man carrying the vision, of course.  John the Baptist was early on the road, later Paul and Peter, John the Apostle, and more.  None were looking for followers.  They were encouraging folks to connect with the Author of the vision for themselves.

Before them, Elijah, Isaiah ... there's a long list of folks who were pointing the way to the vision's source.  They found themselves struggling against stagnant institutional thinking, much like today, I suppose.  Not every religious leader stayed in that manmade box, but enough did and do to make matters difficult.  Their constituents live under the burden of it, yet the vision lives on despite the mess in the 'upper ranks'.

Today, there are still such folks who encourage us, not to join and be members, but to connect with the vision's Author for ourselves.  Perhaps these are the "apostles and prophets," we're told about.

The emerging church, the one that has turned to pursue the Author, is growing at an extraordinary pace.  In Africa particularly, it's encouraging.

Our hope in it all is not for institutional growth, but for a new awareness and a broad sweep across the nations of those who truly want to know the Author for themselves.  It's happening now, it seems, mostly a divergence from the mainstream.  Many have found the highway.  The high way.

We live in interesting times.

Economic Solutions: Exile?

Perhaps every corrupt politico and business exec should be permanently exiled to the world's poorest country... with just the clothes on their back.

Those who took multimillion dollar bonuses for crashing the world marketplace, those who defrauded investors, those who lied when they created worthless mortgage instruments, and those who let big business buy the laws they wanted ...

There are so many fair-minded folks in the world, willing to work hard and earn their way.  Then there the greedy ones who have everything and want more even if it is at the expense of another, or a million others.

I've been to some of the world's poorest countries.  Most of the folks I met were gracious and hospitable.  It wouldn't be fair to send them our maggots, I suppose.  They deserve better than to have a gaggle of JP Morgan players in their midst even if it would be humorous.  I have to admit, though, I'd love to see Deeb Salem and a flock of Goldman Sachs execs down at the river doing their laundry.

Napoleon was exiled.  Twice.  
He'd unified Europe, brought an end to feudalism, established legal equality, and religious toleration.  He made an attempt at ending slavery.  He gave Europe the Napoleonic Code which forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs should go to the most qualified.  The code influenced the world thereafter.

Despite such auspicious beginnings, things didn't work out well for Napoleon.  Too many power players, too much closeted wealth, and stunning avarice.  Perhaps we exiled the wrong leader.

Today's empire builders wage economic warfare, extracting wealth from the developing world with impunity, manipulating the entire world's marketplace for their betting table.  Here's hoping their Waterloo doesn't take the rest of us down.

The Path to Irrelevance

"He's in the third year of the best four years of his life," the bullied victim observed, "on the path to being irrelevant." 

He'd been pushed hard up against the wall yet again by a bigger boy in high  school.

An insightful comment.

The high school bully might enjoy his brief playtime before entering the real world.  Soon enough, real life will swallow him. He'll slide into an amoral lifestyle (criminal, business), or he might just suppress it all and waste his years becoming an angry, bitter fellow.

New on the agenda, cyberbullying.

Unless change comes.

Studies show that children who bully tend to be overly aggressive, lacking in a moral compass, and plagued with conflict in relationships. In addition, they tend to associate with bully-backers and others who bully.

School bullying does not just go away once kids finish school.  Instead, it increases the odds of future problems. By their mid-twenties, former bullies have a four times higher rate of criminal behavior than their non-bullying peers. By their mid-thirties, more than half of people who bullied in grades 6 through 9 have at least one criminal conviction.  Bullying behavior often continues into the workplace.  They'll have more failed or distressed relationships, and antisocial behavior disorders.

The bully is twice a killer; first in choosing to harm another, and second in destroying their own soul.

A practised bully struggles with listening objectively and with compromise.  Common inabilities will include loving unselfishly, selfless giving, and letting down the walls.  A difficult life of continual distress.
Unless change comes.


School is a child's other world, away from parental oversight where they can be someone else.  Today, social media is a similar venue. Children who bully there are at risk with significantly higher probability of following a destructive path. Parents, talk openly with your children about bullying.  Catch it early, understand it and deal with it appropriately.



________________________________________________________________________________
For starters, see the PBS article: What to do when your child is a bully
See: Bullying Prevention is Crime Prevention and The Bully's Way Out
See: Bully-proofing your child by Dr. Laura Markham for a first look at insulating your child from emotional harm.
For the studies and statistics, see: School bullying as a predictor of violence later in life: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective longitudinal studies, Maria M. Ttofi, David P. Farrington, Friedrich Lösel, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
See: Bullying and Victimization in Elementary Schools: A Comparison of Bullies, Victims, Bully/Victims, and Uninvolved Preadolescents, Developmental Psychology, American Psychological Association 2005, Vol. 41, No. 4, 672– 682

The GAP - Part VII

We've not yet recovered.  Today, more than twenty million previously employed are unemployed or in part-time work as a survival option.  Actual recovery will take decades, it appears.

Meanwhile, Wall Street is doing quite well in the aftermath of the Great Recession.  Salaries and bonuses are good.  Attempts to reign in the 'too big to fail' institutions have stalled; you can ask your congressman why.  Indictments for causing the worldwide economic collapse remain at zero.

From the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, "Nonfarm payrolls fell by more than 8.7 million, or 6.3 percent, and the number of unemployed climbed to 14.7 million over the course of the recession, peaking at 10 percent of the nation’s labor force in October 2009. Further, many workers faced extended bouts of unemployment or left the labor force altogether. The ranks of the underemployed (those who want a job but can only find part-time work) and frustrated job seekers (those who become discouraged and give up looking for work) rose to 12 million, a 94 percent increase. In July 2013, four years after the recession is deemed to have ended, labor underutilization remains intractably high: 11.5 million people are unemployed and an additional 10.6 million are underemployed or frustrated."

The GAP between rich and poor continues to grow.  It affects everything from academic performance of children to employment, health, and life expectancy.

While this inequality is now quite clear in the U.S., it is strongly evidenced in countries around the world as well.

The Impact on Education?

The inequality GAP self-perpetuates through many factors but perhaps most troublingly via the impact it has on the quality of available education.

The only way for a small group of people to become obscenely rich is for huge masses of others to be kept quite poor. 

Food Fight!

The world's war today includes food ... among other things related to money.

In places where people go hungry, it's the money makers and power players that channel the food available to the highest bidder. There is no food shortage.

It's not a new tactic.  In the six year 'Potato Famine', a million Irish poor died unnecessarily and another million fled the country because business and government consciously chose against them in their time of need.  There was plenty of food.

Sixty years before, "... Ireland had a famine in 1782–83, ports were closed to keep Irish-grown food in Ireland to feed the Irish. Local food prices promptly dropped. Merchants lobbied against the export ban, but government overrode their protests.^[76] No such export ban happened in the 1840s.^[77]

Throughout the six years of the Potato Famine, Ireland was exporting enormous quantities of food. ... "Although the potato crop failed, the country was still producing and exporting more than enough grain crops to feed the population. But that was a 'money crop' and not a 'food crop' and could not be interfered with."^[78]

... Almost 4,000 ships carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London during 1847 alone, when 400,000 Irish men, women and children died of starvation and related diseases. ,,, exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon and ham actually increased during the Famine. ...  peas, beans, onions, rabbits, salmon, oysters, herring, lard, honey... 822,681 imperial gallons of butter ... The problem in Ireland was not lack of food, which was plentiful, but the price of it, which was beyond the reach of the poor.^[80]"

Now as the food business continues to pursue the money, for the first time in human history the number of overweight people rivals the number of underweight people, according to a report from the Worldwatch Institute. While the world's underfed population has declined slightly since 1980 to 1.1 billion, the number of overweight people has surged to 1.1 billion.

Both the overweight and the underweight suffer from malnutrition, a deficiency or excess of what is needed for healthy living.

The public health impact is stunning.  More than half of the world's disease burden - measured in "years of healthy life lost"- is attributable to hunger, overeating, and dietary imbalance. "The century with the greatest potential to eliminate malnutrition instead saw it boosted to record levels," according to recent research.

In a world without any food shortage, it's still hard to get a healthy meal for many folks.

In the developed world, folks are barely aware of the differences between processed food and natural, and little emphasis is placed on balance. 

In the developing world, access to the right foods for a balanced diet is perhaps the greatest challenge.

Again, in places where people go hungry, it's the money makers and power players that channel the food available to the greatest return instead of the greatest need.  The same applies at the far end of the availability spectrum where sales are more important than health.  Eating is marketed as recreational and the end product is unhealthy overweight.  The 'healthy eaters' among us and the 'health food stores' are a miniscule minority.

All in all, today's marketplace is orchestrated to sell rather than to serve well. 

Among our family friends in east and west Africa, many of the children are under height for age and under weight for height due to a lack of protein.  It wasn't a problem for the coastal villages until the fish populations were destroyed by illegal commercial fishing.  My fishermen friends tell me they remember catching tuna regularly within a mile or so of the shore.  These days, they go out 10-20 kilometers in their sailing dugouts and often come home with nothing.  Sometimes, they don't come back.

These are just normal, hardworking folks who can pretty much take care of themselves, except they're being robbed by the rich countries illegally fishing in their territorial waters.

In the world of food, there's something missing if the only driver is money, it seems.  I wonder how things might best be adjusted at the personal and national level.

See more of the story here.