The Cause Of All Lies

EU emergency meeting over Italy!  Syrian protestors attack US embassy - probably pro-government (ya think?)!  Murdock empire in deep water!  Congress, Obama at odds over debt!  IMF orders US to raise debt ceiling!  Final shuttle flight underway!  One in five college graduates unemployed!  Obama wants trillion-dollar tax hike on low, middle classes!  Global stocks slide!  US sticks to guns on ousting Qaddafi!  Girl mob attacks mom and child!  China says US spending too much on military!  TSA agents pat down 6-year-old boy twice!  BP chairman kills Gulf of Mexico, walks away millionaire!


Believe it or not, all these problems have one common and deceptively simply cause, and the solution is just as easy.

person

n. 1) a human being. 2) a corporation treated as having the rights and obligations of a person. Counties and cities can be treated as a person in the same manner as a corporation. However, corporations, counties and cities cannot have the emotions of humans such as malice, and therefore are not liable for punitive damages unless there is a statute authorizing the award of punitive damages.

That is the legal definition of a 'person.'  They have rights and obligations, just like a 'real' person, but they have no emotions and if they do something wrong, there's no one to throw in jail.


In fact, if you win a major decision against a corporation, it simply declares bankruptcy, transfers all its assets to a new 'person', and all the people inside who made the bad choices go home counting their money.  What's worse is that most mega-corps have multiple shell entities, which hold the mother company's debts, but have little of value.  Therefore, on any given project, if something goes wrong and you try to sue for damages, you can't touch the mother company and there's little more than a dried husk in the entity that damaged you.

That is exactly why BP could walk away untouched from the Gulf of Mexico disaster.  The actual 'person' that was operating the well and platform was a Bahamas shell corporation, or something similar, and most of its liabilities were transferred contractually to sub-contracting shell corporations.  It's the same with Exxon's current and past disasters, any of the pharmaceutical giants, or any other 'person' you can think of.


It's all a game of three-card monty, in which you are the loser before you even begin, because they've already hidden the target card after showing it to you.


Read the definition again.  Corporations have all the rights and obligations of real people.  The trick is, they've taken and abused all the rights, and completely hidden all the obligations in a rat hole of unbelievable legal mumbo-jumbo and strawmen.


You can spend a lifetime jousting with shadows and never come close to the heart.  On top of that, notice the key component of the definition.  They are assumed to have no emotions.  In other words, they have no soul, no conscience and no concerns that even approach 'human.'


They are, in fact, the same as drone attack aircraft.  The machine is sent into battle, causing massive damage, and if you destroy it, there's another waiting behind it.  The pilot is thousands of miles away in a bunker swilling coffee and taking lives with no possibility of real consequences for his actions.  If something goes wrong, the corporation simply blames the machine and goes on with its business.


Cold, heartless and completely without any redeeming value that we attach to real 'persons.'  They are strawmen, or Golems.  They are Frankenstein's Monster.


Here's how it works: Megacorp, a Delaware corporation, wants to do business drilling for oil in, oh let's say Indonesia.  Megacorp finds a local shyster, I mean lawyer, pays him a stipend every month and sets up an Indonesian company called a "PT."  The lawyer is made the local head of the company and his office serves as the 'address of service.'  Megacorp capitalizes PT Megacorp Drilling with one million bux, as a loan to the local company.


So far, there's nothing of value in PT Megacorp Drilling.  It's a shell using someonelse's office space and the only operating capital it has is a paper loan from the parent.


PT Megacorp Drilling (the Company) obtains a drilling permit and gets down to work.  The key people are brought in from the parent to manage the operation, but full responsibility rests on the local 'faces' that front PT Megacorp Drilling.  Notice we substituted the 'term' Company, which being capitalized means that it is a special term now, and not the common word we all use daily.


The Company contracts with Megacorp Oil Singapore, Pte, Ltd., yet another shell corporation, to operate the project.  The Singapore corporation contracts with Megacorp Vessels (Bermuda), Inc., to lease the drilling platform and any other equipment needed to operate the project.


In all cases, the money is going around in circles, because they are all subsidiaries of Megacorp, but they operate independently when we look at the whole thing 'at arm's length.'  In every case, there is a 'corporate veil' that protects the key people at the top from any personal liability for, well, anything.


Now, the Board at Megacorp makes some bad decisions in the interest of cost-savings and time-savings.  This causes a chain of events that leads to a blow-out that causes a massive oil spill, which destroys hundreds of square miles of pristine marine habitat.


Natually, the Indonesians are a bit upset at this and want to sue for damages.  They file against the Company in local courts, but find the Company is little more than an empty shell with a big debt to Megacorp for one million bux and a rented office.  So, they go after Megacorp Singapore, Pte. Ltd.  But, the Singapore corporation just supplied personnel who did their jobs, got paid and went home.


So, Indonesia turns to Megacorp Vessels (Bermuda), Inc., but that company just supplied equipment, and according to the contract, it didn't have liability for the operations.


In their frustration, Indonesians turn back to the Company, but find there is nothing of value in it and no legal ties, other than a couple of names on the Board, to Megacorp mother, and the local lawyer just shrugs his shoulders and walks off.  Since the Company was an independent entity and only shared a couple of Board members with the mothership, the Indonesians are left holding the bag.


Oh sure, Megacorp gets some bad press.  Maybe they 'sacrifice' a key player, who gets a nice severance package and a juicy consulting contract, and the whole thing blows over in a year or two.  In fact, Megacorp went ahead, in the meantime, and set up a new PT, so when the smoke cleared they could get right back to drilling in sensitive environments again.


While this is vastly simplified, it's a pretty good example of how 'hide the sausage' works on a global corporate scale.  In fact, this leads to our second word of interest:

1400–50; late Middle English  < Late Latin corporātiōn-  (stem ofcorporātiō ) guild, Latin:  physical makeup, build. See corporate, -ion

The whole thing goes back to Latin, corpus, or body.  In creating a corporation, you create a 'body,' much like the Golem mentioned earlier.

By allowing legal fictions called 'corporations' to exist, and to have rights like human beings, we have created a literal monster that now threatens our very existence.  But, it is also the key to the solution.

Actually, there are two solutions, but one is much more complicated and requires years of study.  The other requires that people retake their governments and simply...change the law.  By removing the law that shields corporations, creates 'corporate veils', and allows lifeless automatons to operate like real people.

Deceptively simple, right?  However, if it could be done, then the real people operating the corporations would become personally liable for the actions of the organization, as a whole.

Furthermore, if you take away the ability for a corporation to set up multiple shell corps all over the world, then they have no way to hide liability or shuffle assets and debts between entities and jurisdictions.

What's the alternative?

Well, for many years folks have been fighting what's known as the 'strawman.'  When you are born (in most countries, now), a 'birth certificate' is issued and filed with a government agency that creates an entity called "YOU."  In fact, you are incorporated at birth.

The secret to using this fact is first, noticing anytime a document uses your name in all-caps, like BERNARD GROVER.  When you see that, then the enclosed information is addressed to your 'strawman.'  

Second, you can never answer your name (especially in court) with something like "present," or "here," or "that's me."  You have just declared that you are the embodiment of your corporation, and you are now liable for anything attached to the strawman.  You must always say that you "represent" the strawman.  You are just the corporate officer in charge of speaking for the corporation.  You con't have any personal liability.  You have a 'corporate veil.'

A Golem

Does it work?  Yes, of course.  Will it get you in trouble?  Absolutely, especially if you are not 100% sure of what you are doing and watch every word you utter.

Here's an example.  You get a traffic ticket and go to court.  When you are talking to the judge, you answer to your name as if it is you.  Then, you start talking about your 'vehicle' and 'driving.'  What you've just done is tell the court that YOU are the corporation, in body.  YOU were 'driving' (engaged in commerce on the roads) a 'vehicle' (road machine used in commerce), therefore, YOU are guilty because YOU (a commercial enterprise) were engaged in commerce on the public roads, and so are liable for the actions of your strawman.

The trick is, you must get the court to acknowledge that you are a representative for your strawman, and that you are answering for YOU, since YOU is mute and unable to speak for itself.

Oh yes, they will give you a ration of shit and do everything they can to foul you up.  Trust me, I know.

So, which option seems more appetizing?  Spending years teaching yourself the intricacies of legal terms and the strawman?  Or putting massive public pressure and governments to change the laws and remove these things called 'corporations' from the definition of 'person?'

All companies must be associations of contract, in which the officers are jointly and severally liable for the actions of the company.  And, a company may only have one operating entity registered anywhere in the world.  Any and all subsidiaries are considered part of the whole for legal purposes.

See how easy that is?  We just solved the world's problems in two simple sentences.