IRS Reportedly Wins Against ALH&Co. - Investors Lose All
IRS Reportedly Wins Against ALH&Co. - Investors Lose All
By Phil Osborn
Posted Saturday, September 17, 2005 on Skinny-Dipping the Deep End of the Memes
Discussion: US Domestic
For a more complete discussion of the Anthony Hargis story, see my previous article
I recently received a letter from the Justice Dept. informing me that no one had shown up to represent Anthony Hargis & Company at the most recent hearing and so the Judge had decided to decide the issues himself. Then, this past week, the Court Receiver informed me that the Judge had decided to award everything to the IRS, even though they have not presented any proof for their claims, while the hundreds of various investors have offered proof as to their equity. So it goes in 21st Century Amerika.
This is almost a paradigm textbook case, from what I've been able to gather. The IRS makes a claim - "Warehouse Bank" - which is basically a crime of their own invention, then seizes all the assets, leaving the defendants with nothing to fight with legally, no way to hire an attorney or do the research necessary and pay the court costs. Meanwhile, the courts assume that the IRS position is correct from the start, and the destitute defendants are now required to go hat in hand to the court and attempt to "prove" their innocence.
In this case - Anthony L. Hargis & Co. - Anthony apparently made the error of attacking certain sacred cows, namely the Federal Reserve System as well as the IRS itself, online at his business website. No matter that he had founded his business explicitly with the intent - or so I understood it - of getting people out of their dependence upon the Federal Reserve, and away from the use of "dollar" accounting via gold-denominated accounts, neither practice being in the slightest illegal. Thus, his critiques of the established order were part and parcel of the business and an important part of its advertising, just as much as an auto company might promote the 'joys of driving.'.
The court, however, had apparently already determined the "truth" in these matters, and so Anthony was essentially ordered to tell everyone that he was wrong, wrong, wrong, and stop the practice of putting out these dreadful lies. Instead, he went to jail for about six months, never charged with any crime, while the various federal agencies systematically looted his assets and then laid unproven claim to all of them.
My question: in the light of this and many, many similar actions in recent years by the courts and federal, state, and local agencies, as well as the ridiculous provisions of the "Patriot Act," (appropriately named, as it makes being a Patriot illegal) is there any further justification that anyone can name that would convince some kid who was aware of the state of affairs to have the slightest respect for the law? And I mean ANY kid, whether from Whitebread Middle Amerika, the Watts ghetto, or Baghdad.
Not that this is a bad thing... I certainly don't have any respect for the law. I respect morals and ethical conduct and human rights, which is the exact opposite of what our legal system has come to stand for. However, fine discriminations are not so likely among the illiterate Jihadi, whose abominations are excused by their holy motives. If it's ok for the U.S. to commit terrorism - under which class torture certainly should fall, to forget about inalienable human rights - the central concept of the founding of the U.S., and to justify it on the grounds of a holy mission to promote "democracy," whatever that means minus human rights, then why is it wrong for him - or her - to blow themselves up in the middle of a wedding party?
However, a LOT of the kids - and adults - are simply becoming totally cynical. Everyone's a hypocrite and a jerk or else a gullible victim. So, which would you rather be?
This sounds all too much like that age-old scam of religion: make anything that people enjoy and want into a sin, and then cash in on the guilt.
Some of the kids are rejecting the whole shtick and becoming the equivalent of modern day hippies, living in communal houses, doing volunteer work, protesting against perceived injustice, and often getting sucked into the very scams that they struggle to escape.
The problem - and here I'm going to sound so much like a conservative, I'm afraid - is that it is so much easier to destroy than to build, to loot rather than to produce, etc. So much of the incentive to be truly productive is bound up in the expectation of stability and certainty on a social level. You expect that if you work hard and deal honestly and benevolently with your fellow man and make your life decisions based on reason and evidence, then your chances of living long and prospering are good. And much of your enjoyment of life comes from your knowledge that you are responsible for yourself and your community, that you can look anyone in the eye, that you don't have to hide who you are for fear of arrest or persecution.
But then the War on Drugs, then ENRON, followed by the Neo-Con silly agenda, the Patriot Act, serial incompetence such as in the Katrina disaster, and a dozen minor tragedies day by day that wear you down and ultimately undermine and defeat that faith, or cause you to grasp at straws and fight strawmen, because you really no longer believe that the good will triumph or that your commitments are anything but a delusion and a waste. You should've been partying and figuring out the next scam against the contemptible suckers - like yourself.
What happens now when the dollar REALLY tanks? When gas is $10/gallon? When a dirty bomb takes out Los Angeles? Or when the Big One out here in SoCal makes Katrina look like a frat party? How much is still in the tank of good will and expectations in a culture that increasingly seems to paint "VICTIM HERE" on the backs of anyone who tries to do the right thing?
By Phil Osborn
Posted Saturday, September 17, 2005 on Skinny-Dipping the Deep End of the Memes
Discussion: US Domestic
For a more complete discussion of the Anthony Hargis story, see my previous article
I recently received a letter from the Justice Dept. informing me that no one had shown up to represent Anthony Hargis & Company at the most recent hearing and so the Judge had decided to decide the issues himself. Then, this past week, the Court Receiver informed me that the Judge had decided to award everything to the IRS, even though they have not presented any proof for their claims, while the hundreds of various investors have offered proof as to their equity. So it goes in 21st Century Amerika.
This is almost a paradigm textbook case, from what I've been able to gather. The IRS makes a claim - "Warehouse Bank" - which is basically a crime of their own invention, then seizes all the assets, leaving the defendants with nothing to fight with legally, no way to hire an attorney or do the research necessary and pay the court costs. Meanwhile, the courts assume that the IRS position is correct from the start, and the destitute defendants are now required to go hat in hand to the court and attempt to "prove" their innocence.
In this case - Anthony L. Hargis & Co. - Anthony apparently made the error of attacking certain sacred cows, namely the Federal Reserve System as well as the IRS itself, online at his business website. No matter that he had founded his business explicitly with the intent - or so I understood it - of getting people out of their dependence upon the Federal Reserve, and away from the use of "dollar" accounting via gold-denominated accounts, neither practice being in the slightest illegal. Thus, his critiques of the established order were part and parcel of the business and an important part of its advertising, just as much as an auto company might promote the 'joys of driving.'.
The court, however, had apparently already determined the "truth" in these matters, and so Anthony was essentially ordered to tell everyone that he was wrong, wrong, wrong, and stop the practice of putting out these dreadful lies. Instead, he went to jail for about six months, never charged with any crime, while the various federal agencies systematically looted his assets and then laid unproven claim to all of them.
My question: in the light of this and many, many similar actions in recent years by the courts and federal, state, and local agencies, as well as the ridiculous provisions of the "Patriot Act," (appropriately named, as it makes being a Patriot illegal) is there any further justification that anyone can name that would convince some kid who was aware of the state of affairs to have the slightest respect for the law? And I mean ANY kid, whether from Whitebread Middle Amerika, the Watts ghetto, or Baghdad.
Not that this is a bad thing... I certainly don't have any respect for the law. I respect morals and ethical conduct and human rights, which is the exact opposite of what our legal system has come to stand for. However, fine discriminations are not so likely among the illiterate Jihadi, whose abominations are excused by their holy motives. If it's ok for the U.S. to commit terrorism - under which class torture certainly should fall, to forget about inalienable human rights - the central concept of the founding of the U.S., and to justify it on the grounds of a holy mission to promote "democracy," whatever that means minus human rights, then why is it wrong for him - or her - to blow themselves up in the middle of a wedding party?
However, a LOT of the kids - and adults - are simply becoming totally cynical. Everyone's a hypocrite and a jerk or else a gullible victim. So, which would you rather be?
This sounds all too much like that age-old scam of religion: make anything that people enjoy and want into a sin, and then cash in on the guilt.
Some of the kids are rejecting the whole shtick and becoming the equivalent of modern day hippies, living in communal houses, doing volunteer work, protesting against perceived injustice, and often getting sucked into the very scams that they struggle to escape.
The problem - and here I'm going to sound so much like a conservative, I'm afraid - is that it is so much easier to destroy than to build, to loot rather than to produce, etc. So much of the incentive to be truly productive is bound up in the expectation of stability and certainty on a social level. You expect that if you work hard and deal honestly and benevolently with your fellow man and make your life decisions based on reason and evidence, then your chances of living long and prospering are good. And much of your enjoyment of life comes from your knowledge that you are responsible for yourself and your community, that you can look anyone in the eye, that you don't have to hide who you are for fear of arrest or persecution.
But then the War on Drugs, then ENRON, followed by the Neo-Con silly agenda, the Patriot Act, serial incompetence such as in the Katrina disaster, and a dozen minor tragedies day by day that wear you down and ultimately undermine and defeat that faith, or cause you to grasp at straws and fight strawmen, because you really no longer believe that the good will triumph or that your commitments are anything but a delusion and a waste. You should've been partying and figuring out the next scam against the contemptible suckers - like yourself.
What happens now when the dollar REALLY tanks? When gas is $10/gallon? When a dirty bomb takes out Los Angeles? Or when the Big One out here in SoCal makes Katrina look like a frat party? How much is still in the tank of good will and expectations in a culture that increasingly seems to paint "VICTIM HERE" on the backs of anyone who tries to do the right thing?
posted by Phil Osborn at 6:49 PM
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