Remember this nut that decided to climb the Millennium Tower without thinking about the crazy ass downtown traffic it would cause? He was found guilty today of creating a public nuisance and delaying his own arrest. When sentenced he will face a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail. The moral of the story: don’t mess with downtown traffic!

A German tourist was struck by a car and killed this weekend while riding a bike in the North Panhandle on Masonic and Turk. While just last weekend, another German tourist was shot and killed by a stray bullet just one block from Union Square on Mason and Geary. It’s hard to believe that German tourists were involved in both of these tragic incidents. The shooting last weekend was particularly tragic, since the lady that was shot was only walking down the street after dinner, not riding a bike through city streets which is inherently dangerous. Stay safe.

The pilot of the plane that crashed into the IRS building in Austin, Texas earlier today, Joseph Andrew Stack, left an online suicide note. Since I have no idea how long the website will be up, I have reprinted the suicide note here in its entirety. It’s a fascinating look at some loser who just gives into the crazy in his head.

Page Title: Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man… take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?”  The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time.  The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.  Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it.  I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head.  Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy.  Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all.  We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers.  Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”.  I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood.  These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind.  Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?  Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies.  Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”.  It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system?  Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand.  Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand.  The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is.  If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s.  Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English.  Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions.  In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.  We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God).  We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.  However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0.  It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie.  It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father.  I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker.  Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement.  Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement.  All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time.  When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me).  I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread.  I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made.  I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL – Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. – This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. – The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

• “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
• “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
• “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated.  The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d).  Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave.  Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time.  I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity.  This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”.  Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise.  The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists).  This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle.  If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks.  Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s.  Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that.  The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco.  However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall.  Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed.  Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare.  Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months.  This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive.  Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!  After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change.  Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while.  So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done.  I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work.  The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA.  This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income.  I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need.  The sleazy government decided that they disagreed.  But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out.  Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present.  After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again.  But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle.  After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order.  I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting.  Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit.  By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented).  Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone.  The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything.  Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”.  Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone.  The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government.  Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough).  In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand.  It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants.  I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after.  But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change.  I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.  I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.  Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.  The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different.  I am finally ready to stop this insanity.  Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been deemed the “testicle bomber” or “ball bomber” due to this Reuters article quote:

…the device consisted of a six-inch (15.25 cm) packet of powder and a syringe containing a liquid, which were sewn into the suspect’s underwear so they would be near his testicles and unlikely to be detected.

I mean this guy literally tried to blow his balls off! “Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!!!”

You would think that terrorists around the world know that after United 93 if you try and act a fool on a plane, your fellow passengers will beat your ass first and ask questions later. Especially American passengers. We have a lot of pent up rage in this country and peeps are just looking for an excuse to kick some ass, and to do it with a legitimate reason is just icing on the proverbial cake.

First, Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, tried to light his kicks on fire just a few months after 9/11 and got his ass beat which is termed “subdued” in news reports. Subdued means you got your ass beat. In 2007, a passenger tried to open a plane’s cockpit door and he got his ass beat and duct taped to a seat. But these incidents are ancient history, here are some that happened just this year. In January, a guy yelled “I’ve got a bomb” as a plane was landing at LAX and got his ass beat before the plane even touched the ground. In April, another guy tried to open a cockpit door on a flight to Israel (!) and he got his ass beat. In August, this guy punched a woman in the face then took off all his clothes on a flight from Oakland to (not returning from) Las Vegas. Needless to say he got his ass beat.

Basically, if you even remotely look like you are going to act up on a plane you are getting your ass beat, Fight Club style.

A decomposing body was found in Golden Gate Park “just a few feet from the sidewalk” near the intersection of Fulton Street and 8th Avenue (see map above). The body of a woman was found by a City Parks and Rec gardener who was a bit shaken up by his discovery. Crazy that someone would dump a body in the heart of the city!

Reason #17 not to ride on a Muni bus: fighting. And don’t even think that the driver provides you with any protection whatsoever. After all of this craziness, the driver did not call the police or report the fight. People have been beaten worse than this, and even stabbed, without any trace of a police report or video of the assailant. Thankfully, this fight was caught on video and posted on Youtube. Now there is a pending Muni investigation. Stay safe San Francisco.

A student in Baltimore was burglarized.  The burglar returned later the same evening and instead of calling police, the student confronted the burglar with what is being described as a Samurai sword. It could have been a ninja sword. The burglar lunged and the student killed the burglar, damn near hacked the burglar’s hand off with the sword. Moral of the story: don’t steal from a ninja.

Bat-Shit-Crazy Phillip Garrido wrote and recorded love songs to young girls that he gave to a business acquaintance.  The business acquaintance claims that Garrido wrote these while in prison for a kidnap and rape conviction and believes “some of the lyrics could reflect a predilection for young girls.”  Some of the sick lyrics are:

“For every little girl in the world, they want to be in love, yeah…Please tell me that you want me…The way she walks, yeah, subtle, sexy. What can I do? I fall victim too. A little child, yeah, look what you do.”

What a sick fuck this guy is!  I can’t believe it took this long to catch this bastard.  The fact that he had a chance to record a 2-disc, 20 song album to little girls is proof positive that this guy thought he was untouchable by law enforcement. Life in prison with no possibility of parole is the only sentence for this crazy mofo.

By now you have heard the story of how Phillip Craig Garrido kidnapped an 11-year-old girl in Lake Tahoe 18 years ago and fathered two kids with her (ew!).  He kept the kidnap victim and her offspring in his backyard compound with makeshift building and tents (double ew!).  Many of his neighbors didn’t even know there were kids living on his property.

He was already known as an oddball by many who knew him, based on interviews of people that knew him in the last couple of days. Well, he wasn’t going to be happy just be a kidnapping rapist, he wanted to be the voice of God.  This psycho mofo kept a blog! A scary effing blog called Voices Revealed where he claims that God has given him the ability to talk in tongues, links to an UCLA study that supposedly prove he’s not crazy for “hearing voices” in his head, and a “package of information” addressed to attorneys, universities, and law enforcement.

In the information package he claims to have “new insight that has the potential of helping people who hear voices to possibly stop and reexamine their thinking before committing a violent act on themselves and/or others”  by including  notarized and signed affidavits from six people that he knows (whom he probably scared the shit out of to sign them).

Uh, sure I’ll sign it Phillip as long as you leave my store!

This guy is crazy-as-bat-shit!

Garrido’s quote from jail, “In the end, this is going to be a powerful, heartwarming story…my life has been straightened out. Wait till you hear the story of what took place at this house. You’re going to be absolutely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning, but I turned my life completely around.”

Uh, yeah it will warm *your* heart when the lethal injection hits it.  We’re waiting to hear the story from the victim!  When are we going to hear her speak about her ordeal?

A Seattle woman has sued magician David Copperfield, contending he sexually assaulted and threatened her while she was a guest on his private island in the Bahamas.  I don’t know what is more shocking, the accusation or the fact that this mofo can make enough money to buy an effing island in the Bahamas!  An island!? Craziness.

Some mofo is lighting cars on the streets of San Francisco on fire in the middle of the night!  Last night 4 cars were torched, and authorities say that the count is up to a dozen cars.  People that park on the street are not scared, they are pissed.  I feel sorry for the bloodshed that will take place when someone catches this guy around their car.  This case is ripe for some sweet vigilante justice.  Stay tuned.

Belgian prison inmates escaped today with the assistance of a hijacked helicopter that landed right in the middle of the prison yard.  The helicopter flew to a field 12 miles away where the mofos got into some sinister looking Mercedes sedans and vanished.  I want to see this movie!

Some lady in Corona (near Riverside) claims that her father was the Zodiac Killer and even took her with him (when she age 7) to commit some of the murders.  The claim sounds extraordinary, but she has eyeglasses that she claims belonged to one of the victims that may have sufficient DNA evidence to prove if she is telling the truth.  You have to admit that at first glance this sounds like a woman in desperate need of some attention.  I mean, her press conference was on the sidewalk in front of the Chronicle Building!  SFPD said “they would look into her claims”but are surely not amused.

It seems like everyone is talking about Keri Ferrell, the hipster grifter and criminal from Utah that continued scamming people in Brooklyn, New York.  One Observer post followed by several Gawker posts has several Internet observers looking for this crazy con girl.  According to Gawker, there are three reasons why following her exploits is becoming an Internet meme:

1. She is so much like you or your friends or someone you know. All us young urban cools relate, right? Yes! Just like your neighbor!

2. But yo she was seriously totally psycho. Come on, the frauds and ripoffs or the fake cancer or the fake pregnancies or the other assorted lies would pass for normal one at a time. But all in one place—she was the holy grail of the outwardly cool, inwardly crazy and dangerous person you met at a bar one night.

3. She had the misfortune to perpetrate her fraud in the midst of the most self-absorbed, writing-intensive demographic, and zip code, in all of America. Sucks for her.

Sucks for her indeed. There’s even a link to the Observer article from SFGate!  I cannot believe that modern day con artists think they can outrun the long arm of the Internet. They may be able to outrun the law, but not the Internet.  Fascinating.

A group of vandals and/or thieves cut a couple of fiber optic cable trunks on Thursday.  The cut cables knocked out 52,000 land lines, Internet connections and cell phones all over southern Santa Clara county.  People were really pissed.  Now police have increased their reward to $250,000 for information on this case.  I wonder if there were any large robberies (diamonds, large wads of cash, or something) while these lines were down.  Because this sounds like some Ocean’s 11 type shiznit.  You know, a distraction to commit a much bigger crime or to turn off an alarm or something.

Above is a photo of an ATM card skimmer found on a WAMU ATM in NYC.  The guy noticed that the reader was right in front of the ATM card slot and misaligned and was able to rip it right off of the machine and take it inside the branch.  The reader consisted of a small chip for storage and a mini-USB connector.  Please make a note of this and examine ATMs before sticking your card in it.

A Yahoo! engineer went nuts and shot everyone in his house, including himself, on Sunday.  Authorities are trying to figure out why the guy would shoot his entire family, including his wife’s brother and the brother’s spouse, who were visiting from India.  If there is any good news about this mess is that his wife survived and is in critical condition.  Perhaps she will be able to shed light on what happened after her recovery.  Crazy.

A Nigerian 419 gang created official looking documents to trick Citibank into wiring $27 million to bank accounts all around the world.  They illegally accessed an account that the National Bank of Ethiopia held with Citibank.  When Citibank contacted the fraudsters to verify the wire transfers they went as far as impersonating Ethiopian bank officials.

They were ultimately caught because several of the banks that received the wire transfers could not complete the transactions (for one reason or another) and contacted Citibank.  At which point the real National Bank of Ethiopia was contacted and the FBI were involved.  They would have gotten away with too it if they had simply used only a single bank account to receive the wire transfer and emptied it immediately.

This is a highly sophisticated con pulled off by a few very talented people.  Nobody thought that these Nigerian guys could pull-off an Ocean’s 11 type heist.  Well, it wasn’t that complicated, but it yielded amazing results.  Crazy.

Gary Ross (see previous post) was sentenced to 6½ years in prison, a $5,000 fine, and 10 years of supervised release, according to court documents.  Adding insult to injury, his attorneys are resigning.  Likely because Gary no longer has the means to pay them, which means he has little or no chance to appeal.  Don’t drop the soap!