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Mr. Big Brother IRS man, take my
pound of flesh and sleep well
Joseph
Andrew Stack (1956-2010)
This Is the Original Letter/Website Written By The Distubed
Joe Stack
(TheAmericanDeviant.com
in no way supports his actions & wish they never occured. That
being said, we also recognize that his letter/website made
some
good points about our government and his feelings about our government
are shared by many around the world.)
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
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