Freedom of Speech or Harassment

 

In the new order of things, we are faced with the Question. How do you differentiate Freedom Of Speech from harassment?

We have all seen a few videos on the protest / riots, where you the individual is challenged to ask is this a freedom of speech issue, or just blatant harassment.

It is a legitimate question, that should be asked by all.

It is because I believe that the question is muddled by the fact that some people confuse the concept of rights, with the concept of endorsement.

I can accept that people have a right to see things from a different perspective than I am seeing the issue, maybe they are right, and I am in the wrong, or vice versa. Regardless, we have approximately 330 million individuals living in the United States, and all the individuals have unique experiences in life. Some experiences may have been shared with others, but most experienced individually. However, you do not have the right to enforce your view on an unwilling person, through implied threats of violence.

I feel that a person has the right to say what that individual has perceived or experienced, and that is the freedom of speech, however, failing to convince others of their perceived wrong, they can sometimes venture into harassment behavior. This concept seems to allow for the belief in that unless you endorse my position, you are part of the problem, and not the solution, therefore, I can harass you until you endorse my position on a perceived injustice.

The problem with this, is that is harassment, and  is not a form of speech, it is a psychological form of assault, in which the participant attempts to force the person to see the issue as they see it, through implied, if not actual violence.

We see this everyday with protesters blocking traffic, to people harassing patrons in a restaurant. These are not freedom of speech issues, they have degenerated into direct confrontations, and border on assault. After all, you are not having a dialog with the person behind the steering wheel, you are instead forcing that person to make a moral choice of, will you stop or run me down?

So much of the LGBTQ community, and other special interest groups use this tactic. It is no longer enough to agree with a person they have the right to choose what is their belief or idea. It comes down to if you do not actively endorse me, then you are a bigot, racist, or any number of trigger words to harass you into endorsing their position.

I am sorry, but just because I allow you the dignity of thinking for yourself, does not include that I must endorse your choice. Just as I suspect that I have several behaviors, that I would not endorse, and not expect you to endorse, even if I have a right engage in these behaviors.

Speech is about asking questions, stating positions, and understanding issues and points of view. Also, about addressing wrongs. However, you cannot address wrongs, by assault. Might only makes right to the victor, not the victim, all you create is another victim. And simple noise and clever chants are not dialog, they are forms of controlling speech, not having a dialog.

A dialog is where you state your concerns and position, and I listen, and I state my concerns and position while you listen. Through that method, we may come to an understanding or do not. It allows for compromise and possible agreement. Harassment only creates continued tension and an impasse, which could lead to violence, and that is not a right, only an outcome.

And if a protest just exists to provide cover for a riot. That is not speech, it is an enabler for the assault.

Is Trump A Dictator

Is Trump A Dictator

The biggest complaint I hear about Trump, is that he is a dictator. 

My answer is; That is his job requirement. To direct or dictate the priorities he has outlined, to direct the numerous departments and agencies under the executive branch. 

However, let us look at known Dictators of the 20th century. You have Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Adolph Hitler. And I could go on and list many more in the past century, and combined, they have killed more people than voted in the last presidential election.  All these people had one thing in common. That was they had the backing of all the State Apparatuses. From domestic security, to international security. From the educational institutions, to the penal institutions. There was not any government agency these people didn’t keep under control. And what ever they dictated was carried out by the appropriate state apparatus. If one of these men wanted you silenced, you were silence, without reservation. And if you disagreed, you were not just fired, in most accounts.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump cannot make a decision, without it being leaked, contested, or ignored. Don’t sound like a dictatorship to me. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think it is entirely possible that a dictatorship could arise in the United States government. In fact, I think that day is getting dangerously close. One does not have to look very far in history to see disturbing trends. Like an Internal Revenue Service, targeting groups based on ideological leanings. Or a DOJ and FBI, whitewashing one candidates’ transgression, while secretly using the powerful tools of surveillance on the other candidate. Or endless open-ended investigations into an elected official life. Or the rapid expansion of intelligence gathering agencies. 

That leads to the truth of Dictatorships. You do not need an individual to head up a dictatorship, only the collusion of the apparatuses of state, in like-thinking individuals’ serving their own self-interest. The State will appoint its own figurehead. Isn’t that the way of all feudal systems of government? And feudalism is the final result of all corrupt governments.

Eternity 3.0 A short story By Jeffrey Schaben Denise was startled from her daydreaming by the ding on her PIT. Technically known as a personal interface tablet. The message was a simple but ominous warning. “Dear user, your Personal Interface Tablet in no longer supported by the latest EOS upgrade. Please upgrade to a newer version of the Personal Interface Tablet.” It wasn’t that she needed the tablet to communicate with anyone. That technology was directly integrated into to the synapses of her mind. However, the tablet was the key card that let her function at this level, and losing it, and she would become an archive on the network, instead of an active member of the network. The PIT held all her financial data, and verified all her history, and was the most important object that any citizen could have. Most people kept their PIT hidden, but always accessible. Because, if anyone gained control of your PIT, they effectively had control of your official identity. And if they were skilled hackers, they could alter that identity. A majority of the citizen that occupied this city, were honest and respectful residents, and would never steal or even hold another person’s PIT. However, there always were Zombies, looking to gain access to PITs. There were two kinds of Zombies, the first were Normal looking people, whose sole purpose was to claim PITs, thus stealing your identity, and then you had the second type of Zombie. The victim of a Zombie attack. Whose identity had been compromised, and erased to be replaced by a zombie bot. And these Zombie bots, were upgraded and moved to the richer cities that are being created today, to acquire even more PITs. You see Denise died 35 years ago, and became a resident of Eternity, 3.0. Her resources kept her online for years, with careful budgeting. The sales pitch was. “You can live forever on our network.” And the brochures made it all seem possible, when a person thinks about the potential, but then ignores the logistics. And the simple logistics is: you are only valuable today, if people are making money from you. If not, you become irrelevant. And eternity last as long as you are relevant and making someone money. Back then the city was new and vibrant, everything had the feel of vitality, it was growing fast, with new buildings and adventures being created daily. Now, otherworld’s have been created, with more complexity, and even more expense had to been built to replace the Eternity 3.0. Leaving this version to fall into a cycle of neglect. And the citizen where helpless to stop this decline. Your only choice was to buy a new PIT, which would allow you access into the newer created worlds. And to buy a new Pit, you had to have a living resident, you could trust, buy it for you. The only people who could program on the platforms, had the distinction of being alive. This was because of the irrational fear held by the living, that if dead people where allowed to program, they may take over the living world. And turn the living into slaves of the dead. Instead the opposite dynamic was created, and the dead lived at the whims of the living. That led to the Zombies, selling you a newer PIT, if you did not have any living connections. Well not all of them were Zombies, they hid among the cheap affordable seller of Pits. The biggest problem Denise had was that she had no one she could trust anymore in the living world. No foundation set up to preserve her memories. Her fate was like most of the other middle-class resident. She had enough money to set up her existence in this realm, but not enough to keep it perpetually going. And no connection left in the living world, so she was at the mercy of the sellers. That left her with two options. The first was to spend out the rest of her eternity on this server, which may fail, or go inactive, or become overrun by spent zombies when there were no longer enough resources from the remaining residents to keep it active. Or spend most of her remaining resources on a new PIT, and hope its seller is not a Zombie. And going to a new server, would mean having to secure a new source of revenue to keep her active, she established that stream on this server, but could she on the new one. Where the maintenance fees were higher, and the competition fiercer. She could ride this server to the end, and have enough saved to move up by then, or leave today, and may be archived in a year on the new server from the lack of funds. “Who thought eternity could be so stressful.” Denise said to herself.

The Myth of a Virtual Eternity

I know people are excited about the future prospects of technology. And Technology is advancing at an accelerated pace, which could mean that true AI (Artificial intelligence) is likely within the horizon of your lifespan, and with that comes the ability to transfer all of your experiences and memories onto a theoretically infinite platform, or in plain language, to transfer yourself into a “living” avatar whose life could theoretically spans millennia. To coin a phrase, “The Millennials could be the first generation to live virtually a millennium”.

However, is this a true statement looking at the marketplace by today’s standards? Or even a true philosophical statement on what constitutes life?

By Todays standards, the market is fast paced, and broad. Therefore, the technological platform you use today may be obsolete in ten years, or unsupportable by the current operating system, rendering your virtual life on the web, a forgotten archive.

An example of this might be that you are a virtual resident on Virtual Heaven 3.0, that runs the EOS (Eternity Operating System) 10.5 and the next EOS upgrade announces that we are no longer supporting Virtual Heaven 3.0, and that you must move to a Virtual Heaven 4.0 or greater platform to continue your afterlife. If you are a resident of low standing on Virtual Heaven 3.0, you may not have the financial resources, or contact to a live entity to facilitate this move to a higher platform, and are thus regulated to a future of archival, which is then ignored until even your archive may be lost and  forgotten in the future.

Even if this is possible in the future, is it really a life? Or just a shadow of a former life?

Consider this: Let us say that the technology to do this is available today, and you decide to start the process while you are still living. The question becomes, is the person created on the Virtual Heaven Platform really me? Does it make the same decisions I make? Does it experience things as I would?

I think the answer would be no. Because, what the virtual life experiences would be different, then your real life. Its life would be controlled by decision analogs that were set at the start of the experience, and all decisions are based on past decisions. As you went through life conscious of your own mortality, the virtual you would not have that same emotional context (if true emotions could be created in a virtual world, and not just programed as random events). its life would be linear, while yours would be more chaotic. And your decision analog is always evolving (and not always in a positive way). While the virtual life could evolve its decision analog, it would be more logical. It may become its own viable entity, but you would cease to recognize it as yourself.

That is why I think there will be a new classification of person in the future. One would be the organic person that lived out their life in an organic world, and a virtual person, which lived its life in an electronic and preordained world. Therefore, the organic person and electronic person will become split at creation, to never reemerge as a single entity again. Therefore, a false premise on the promise of an electronic eternity.

The NO Tax System

We are conditioned to accept that there must be taxes to pay for the Federal Government. Complete, with arguments like, how will you pay for a proposed tax cut? And who will get a tax cut? However, I say, let us drop the arguments about what is the proper level of taxation, and look at a system where there is no Federal Income Tax at all.

If there was no Federal Income Tax, then whatever money congress authorizes to spend above what is collected from use fees, penalties, and duties would be printed. This, in turn would dilute the monetary supply that already exists, and in theory would inflate the currency at the percentage of the newly printed currency compared to the existing monetary supply. This would cause an erosion of the dollar. This is the bad side of the equation. Which could be a 6% increase based on 4 trillion dollars of spending, and zero revenue on 66 trillion of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). This assumption is based on a static market place, and the GDP is a 2012 number.

However, on the good side of the equation, is the release of money from the private sector that would normally go to the Federal Government. This money, and the added expense to comply with existing taxes, would instead flow back into the private sector and raise the GPD, and expand goods and services, Increasing the market demand on the monetary supply and offset the inflation rate. If this rise in GDP exceeds the percentage of new currency issued, by the government, then then increase in currency would be offset by demand. And since the tax and compliance cost would fall off the price of finished goods, it would create deflationary pressure in a healthy free market system. This also depends on Congress printing new currency, instead of monetizing the spending by issuing new bonds, which would increase the downstream liability of this spending, by adding interest onto the debt. It is only debt if structure it that way, otherwise it is just dollars.

However, the function of the Tax Code is not about the maximization of revenue, otherwise the discussion on capitol hill would be about the Laffer Curve, and what strategies you would use to maximize revenue. Instead, the debate is about who pays and how much. Therefore, the tax structure is not designed to maximize revenue while limiting economic damage, it is about using the tax code to shape the economic patterns of the citizen, by rewarding or punishing behavior. Manly, it is an attempt to convince people that the government can micro manage a large and dynamic economy.

In the brief 103 years of the Income Tax code, the government has had to deficit spend in 86 of those years, and only had surpluses in 22years, with 11 of the surplus years happening within the first 20 years of implementation.  That means that money was created to pay for added spending. Therefore, the government has a history of overspending 86 out of the last 103 years. And the overall average of the past 103 years of collecting 87% of revenue to actual spending (without including Social Security and off budget programs) funded by all taxes. All numbers come from https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/hist01z1.xls.

All of this is predicated on the concept that income taxes do not contribute to inflation. Which is a false premise, based on the illusion that the tax only applies to excessive income. Which may be true of a select few individuals, however, most income taxes are collected from someone else’s productivity, with no tangible value added. Any loss in productivity always adds to the inflation of prices. Even losses in profit. Whereas a Use Tax, like the Fuel Tax does at least give you reasonable infrastructure for the money collected.

Therefore, the question becomes, would inflation be higher without the Income Tax Code, or could it be lower, without the Income Tax Code. To answer this, let us look at the downside. First of all, the Income Tax does not provide any productive gains to society, other than the dubious form of wealth redistribution, and it does it at a premium, which I estimate at 3% of GDP, this would be the security detail, that businesses[JS1] ’ employ to protect them from the tax (i.e. CPA’s and Tax Lawyers), in order to lessen its effect on the bottom line. Second, it prohibits a company from bringing back profits made from oversea sales, (without an Income Tax Structure, companies could bring home any money made overseas to invest in their infrastructure without added penalty). And on the individual level, it places the individual in an adversarial relationship with its own government. A relationship which forces the individual to justify each dollar, they receive or spend, and removes 15% or more from their disposable income. And finally, the Income tax offers diminishing returns, with the Ultra rich and politicians, creating Tax Free charitable foundations, which may spend a small percentage on charitable works, but mostly serve as Tax havens to build and maintain wealth and power, and pay themselves lucrative salaries, and use of the foundations assets. 

Therefore, I would accept the risk of a supposed 6% inflation rate per year, if I was able to keep 15% or more of my gross income. Even if we risk hyperinflation, because if the government does not live within the constraints of it economy, hyper-inflation will inevitably happen even with a Income Tax System.

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 [JS1]

Skunk Weed

            Round 2 Group 6 for NYC Midnight Flash Fiction contest

Genre Comedy, Location Nature Preserve, Object Cup of Iced Coffee

How a brief encounter with nature can instantly turn a monotonous road trip into a full-fledged adventure.

“Why would someone turn nothingness into a nature preserve?” Nate asked from the passenger seat. “There is nothing here but weeds!”

He was still fuming over the iced coffee incident and muttered. “Who brings you a cup of coffee and a glass of ice cubes?”

That little diner was half a day behind us, and it still annoyed him.

Nate, Jackie, Henry and I were on a vision quest from Princeton to Burning Man in Nevada. It is becoming a road trip I am seriously regretting. It was supposed to be an exciting adventure filled with exotic culture and intrigue. So far it was 1400 miles of monotony and complaining, and we are only half way there. The only tolerable highlight was Thunderhead Brewery. A small microbrewery, with a bar and restaurant located in a small college town. Probably a Community College town, judging by the size of the city. It was like an oasis in the middle of the desert, where the smallest comfort seems luxuriant.

Henry and Jackie had succumbed to the boredom and started canoodling in the back seat. It makes things awkward, but at least they are quiet.

On a rise in the distance I see a solitary tree shimmering in the sweltering heat, and point it out to the others.

“Is that what this Prairie thing is all about?” Nate snorted. “No wonder the teabaggers in this desolate landscape hate the government.”

“It seems a big waste of land to protect one tree.” He ranted on. “Why not build a fence around it and call it good?”

“But don’t worry.” He said knowingly. “When Bernie is President, he is going to fix all of this.”

I no longer had the energy to point out that a prairie is grassland and not trees, and the tree was the interloper in this landscape. Although, it did have a majestic quality to it. With its leaves flashing silver and green in the breeze. Like a monarch watching over his kingdom. Not just a part of the landscape, but the one commanding it.

“Still no signal! You should have stayed on the interstate.” Nate hissed. “I want to see what these bushes in the ditch are.”

I had my suspicion, but did not want to voice it. I think I heard a local refer to it as ditch weed. And if my suspicion was correct, that would excite Nate, and we would have to stop and collect samples to take to Burning Man and then bring some back to Princeton. This little detour was to go into Colorado to legally acquire some weed. Not collect random samples from a road ditch where it was still illegal.

I kept quiet, hoping he would lose interest until Jackie who was majoring in Botany, stretched from canoodling and looked out of her window.

“It looks like marijuana.” She interjected.

“Whoa!” Nate cheering up instantly asked. “Are you sure?”

“Definitely hemp.” She shrugged and said. “Would have to take a closer look.”  

“We have to stop!” Nate demanded. “And besides I have to take a piss.”

“Too much iced coffee.” Henry interjected.

We all started laughing accept for Nate whose face was turning red.

There was no traffic visible anywhere. In fact I had not seen any vehicles in the past ten minutes so I thought it was safe to pull over.

Nate instantly headed for the ditch, not waiting for Jackie to lend her expertise.

“Wow!” He exclaimed. “I believe she is right.”

“And it has a peculiar smell.” He stated, as he pulled a few leaves to his nose and inhaled deeply.

“It smells like skunk!” He exclaimed excitedly. “My god we found skunk!”

What happened next, brought to mind the old Chinese curse. “May you have an interesting life.”

I do not know if the smell was from high quality weed, or more likely the little cat like creature with the white stripe down her back, which ambled out from under the bush. The only thing I know is that this trip was elevated from boring to interesting when the skunk elevated her tail, and the rest of the trip became a very long pungent adventure, and Nate turns red when we ask if he has any skunk.

Thirty Coins

     An infamous collection of coins travels through history in the hands of people who jealously covet them.

     My heart dropped upon seeing the bookcase slightly angled away from the wall.

     “Please do not have the coins out.” I thought as I opened the bookcase all the way and rushed down the short flight of stairs to the hidden chambers beneath.

       Underground bunkers are not always built to protect the occupants from the dangers of the outside world, sometimes they are built to entomb secrets, and protect people from what is contained within. And my bunker was one of those. These coins have spent most of their existence in caves, tunnels and secret tombs. I liberated the coins from one bunker, only to build another when I returned home from the war. I justified the expense and need by calling it a bomb shelter, and it functioned as one for a time. Now it was a huge cavern with a small office walled off from the rest. And all hidden. Only my wife and children were aware of it. Now the grandchildren must have stumbled on to it.

     The small entry room was dominated by a desk, and on the walls was a scorched and tattered swastika, a scratched helmet, and a Beretta pistol and sub machine gun. As I entered the room and saw the twins, Brook and Dallas studying the items adorning the walls.

     The children appeared scared when they noticed me entering the room.

     “Grandpa.” Brooklynn asked timidly. “Are you a Nazi war criminal?”

   

      “No.” I responded. “Never was a Nazi.”

      “Then why all of the stuff?” Dallas asked.

      “These are the items I collected when I was a soldier in Germany.” I replied.

      “All of the items you see in this room came from the bunker where my best friend died.” I told the children.

     “Grandma has your ice cream ready. So run along.” I concluded, shoeing the twins out of the room. They appearing relieved for not being in trouble, ran back up the stairs, to claim their treat.

Hands shaking, I sat down at the chair behind the small desk and withdrew the small soft leather bag from the bottom drawer. Then, unceremoniously dumped the contents of the pouch onto the black, and scored rubber top of the desk.

     The thirty silver Tyrian Shekels gleamed on the desk before me. They appeared as bright and shiny as the day they were struck. There was no tarnish on the silver, and they gleamed with an unnatural light. As if they were immune from corruption. However, that was the lie, their corruption passed onto whomever possessed them.

     Even without touching them, they were whispering their secrets to me. I had the sudden image of the original owner of the coins. Then it switched to the person who sold the first holder of the coins a piece of ground called Potter’s Field. When this man held the coins, he discovered how the coins were acquired. Enraged, he quickly strangled Judas. Then the new owner of the coins hung him from a tree to make it appear as a suicide, to cover his crime. Much as I have done by recreating this bunker to create a new version of how my friend truly died.

      Every hand that touched these condemned coins is forever imprinted on them. And every life secretly condemned. Because, you can only gain possession by an act of betrayal, then they are yours until you are betrayed.

     The power they convey is astounding. To be a part of history, to see things from the eyes of people long dead. I have lived hundreds of lives through these coins, and witnessed all of their pleasures and pains. If a past owner had a skill, I can access and learn the skill. I can understand any language that a previous owner knew, although I could not speak them before.

     My possession came about by betraying my friend and brother in arms. They whispered to both of us, and momentarily, both of us had possessed them. We soon discovered the coins could not be divided, and must remain together. That is the price of ownership. They cannot be given away, divided, destroyed, or even buried for long. Well destruction may be possible, if the owner could bring themselves to destroy such a rare and valuable artifact.

     Only this second death earned me the coins. The betrayal of trust given to the SS officer was not sufficient for ownership, as he offered the coins for his release, and we shot him. The officer thought he could turn the tables on us when the coins started whispering in our minds, and we would turn against each other. A good strategy, however, he died first, then my friend and I started wrestling for the officers dropped Berretta, realizing that if we used the SS officers gun, we would be held blameless. Just soldier doing their grim duty.

     

       The coins constantly whispered to me of the past lives of previous owners. It was the reason I became a scholar in history after the war. These dreams led me onto making remarkable discoveries. I became renowned worldwide for my knowledge of the historical lifestyles of people from the Roman Empire, and lifestyles around Jerusalem in particular. I went on to write many books, both fictional and scientific on early Christianity.

     Today, I knew fate had chosen the next owner, they may be too young and innocent to hear the whispers. However, someday, they will return to claim their right. I shudder thinking about which one will pay the tribute. Surly one of the twins will murder the other for possession. Whether they kill me is not important, the cold bitter truth was that I have condemned them both. One in living and the other in death. And they cannot betray me, any more than I have already betrayed them.