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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Note to our European friends who have been so patient with our current Yank madness, not complaining, ever bearing our silly American periodic conniptions, I thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Your friendly neighborhood omnipotent moderator, spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Warning, this post contains even more of it, piled higher and deeper, and I haven’t even gotten to my particular burden: un-auditable electronic voting machines, and the next logical question, what happens in the very realistic scenario where it comes down to one state (as happened in 2000) and somehow… the internet goes down.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Then when the smoke clears… no one knows whose finger legally goes on the trigger to global nuclear holocaust, and we have no legal means of finding out. What then? Are we really hanging all that on the continuous flawless performance of the internet, when few even know how the hell it works? Anyone? Please? Anders? Anyone?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Clark<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Repudiating the national debt<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 8:13 AM, Dave Sill <<a href="mailto:sparge@gmail.com" target="_blank">sparge@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>> >…</span>You wouldn't want government to know you were holding that stuff if you wanted to cheat on your taxes.<span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></blockquote></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>> >…</span>Or maybe it's none of the government's business what you own, only what sell.<span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>>…</span><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Perhaps, but Trump wants to be the boss of the boss of the IRS…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>John, you do know that until very recently, the IRS wasn’t at the command of the White House, ja? It was assumed that organization ran independently from the rest of the government. You are also aware that presidents and senators generally avoided contact with the IRS, certainly visible contact, and that we suddenly experienced a jarring change? We see the IRS was used as a law-enforcement tool, but only on actual criminals and only very rarely, but suddenly it is being used in the role for the masses of law-abiding citizens, ja?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>>…the very organization that insists it <b>IS</b> the government's business to know what you own!... John K Clark<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>On the contrary sir, the IRS has no legitimate right to know what you own. They may tax only what you earn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>The reason I am finding this question important is because we were faced with a new question under the current administration. We know that Nixon had his enemies list (and that Hilliary Milhous Clinton has hers) and there was evidence he was willing to use the IRS as a weapon. Now, the current IRS was actually caught using tax law against a political party. CAUGHT! GOT EM! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Then a bizarre thing happened: nothing. No one has gone to prison. The most important perp testified she did nothing wrong, then pled the fifth (OK so which is it then? (It is a contradiction.)) She contradicted herself under oath, then walked away unscathed. She has never faced any legal consequences, and walks free to this day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>This was a scary revealing demonstration, for now we ask: where in the constitution does it actually say the IRS cannot be used as a political weapon? Where does it say it may not be used to functionally outlaw every political party other than its own? Answer: it doesn’t. The constitution doesn’t even mention political parties; it predated them. It has always been understood that the IRS is not to be used that way, but… it can be, legally. Now we have a choice of two candidates, neither of which anyone is at all confident would not use that power for that purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Before, decency, honor and reason had a place in government. Today we see that the man who revealed the government used Jedi mind tricks on child-reporters to lie to us is not being allowed to testify. Please, where is the decency, reason and honor in that?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Consequently… I am cheering for Bernie Sanders in the primaries. Reasoning: if we get down to a contest between Trump and Sanders, we will have a Republican candidate who is not really a Republican vs. a Democrat candidate who is not really a Democrat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>That contest will reduce the risk that America will descend into a one-party nation, a (slightly) scaled up nuclear armed version of California, which is now a one-party state.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>