Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

SO, IT SEEMS THAT:

OK, I have made it through Thanksgiving Day.  I even ate some turkey (we family-less people sometimes are regarded with charity and invited into other family homes to eat).

It being a nice holiday, this year (for a change) I started to work on a philosophical, generalized letter on “where it’s at” to a variegated distribution list.  Before “that marriage,” when to write such a letter would be either to pretend, or to write some ugly truths that no one appreciates hearing at this time of year, I used to love writing these up, reflecting on things, and sharing narratives.

“The Former Years”

During the marriage, the pretense factor was at an all-time high around holidays, and the (physical) incidents sometimes revolved on even a potential embarrassment for an imperfect public presentation.  There had been a routine established of “right-before” and “right-after” (meaning, immediately before and immediately after someone came, or left, our home) assaults.

People from all categories of association were aware.  But I got no real help until stumbling? across a nonprofit domestic violence corporation.  You can imagine how glad someone in this situation might be to have found out that laws actually existed, and consequences, to prevent me from becoming a statistic; from being (more) seriously injured or killed in a marital home, and to get away safely, one that didn’t include entering a battered woman’s shelter pregnant and giving birth to another welfare baby.

However, that temporary helped from organizations themselves propped up by government funding WILL get a long-term payback from the same government, different branch — and there are many branches.

The DV nonprofits (those that have survived their own mergers) have now been themselves domesticated and consolidated under the statewide “coalitions against domestic violence” and rarely break the party line, that while this crime might be prosecuted (if it comes to bloodshed, or obvious injuries), “not to worry” — in the family law venue, the concept of criminal behavior has been disarmed; it is now merely “conflict’ and all it needs is counseling (of both parties, and probably their kids, too),  supervision, and the least effective, most expensive, and longest possible solutions involving the most court-ordered personnel, around.

Mothers are not told this upfront — they are not told or warned at all  (last I checked, including checking the published material on-line, and some brochures) how temporary their reprieve is, or what lays ahead.  They are taught domestic violence speak, when the real need is to become quickly aware of “custodyspeak,” and to quickly get up to speed on the gauntlet they are about to run — they already know plenty about “batterers and abusers!”   They also, properly, should’ve been alerted to the impact of 1996 welfare reform on the child support system, but are instead left to figure it out by trial and error.  Some of these do not survive the “trial” portion and become headlines.

Thus society is billed extra for someone actually reporting this behavior.  Society is already financially stressed out and groomed that it’s responsible for the trillion-dollar USA debt, that it’s easy to join the perpetrating parties and scapegoat the perp’s targets (or a category they tend to fall under after they report, or leave) — single mothers and uppity independent women —  for social unrest.

Therefore, built into my current awareness is the awareness of so many “aware” parties not intervening, referring, or even speaking up against what they witnessed.  Of the subset of those not intervening who are not doing the samething in their own households, I’d have to characterize most of them then AND now STILL clueless about domestic violence law.  And while the DV, Fatherhood, and other industries really have morphed and transformed themselves into a force to be reckoned with, the public response doesn’t seem to have changed as rapidly.  In practice, compartmentalized thinking still reigns, and until it’s their turn, who has to confront their own rationalization and collective denials, which go (it seems) approximately like mine did, until loss of innocence through School of Hard Knocks:  police enforce, district attorneys prosecute, and by and large family court judges (except a few bad apples, maybe) make good decision.   There is a “Violence Against Women Act.”  Surely therefore violence against women is being reduced, right?  There are judges aware of domestic violence law.   Therefore whoever has the children post-divorce and post-custody challenge, was meant to have them.  And if now, what can I, a lowly individual, do anyhow? Is it my job to enforce and obtain justice for others?

Next stages of denial and rationalization, when confronted that most of the above isn’t true — “so what do you want me to do”

“I’ve got my work to maintain, family to feed, rent to pay, mortgage to pay, retirement to plan for, health insurance, AND I gave at the office.  Plus (in some cases), I’m active in my church (mosque, synagogue, temple, or new-age religion, etc.).  I’m a progressive liberal, faithful Republican, constitutional libertarian, what more do you want, quit my faith-based institution?  CHANGE my WORLDVIEW?  It works for me, what’s your problem? You probably asked for it anyhow.  Be thankful you weren’t killed, and reinvest, along with us, in pretending — rejoin these institutions.”

Oh?  Here’s my answer to that:

No.  I don’t have a death-wish, and too much of this is leading to death for others, for people that did nothing to deserve it.  Either the institutions change their trends, or we find new institutions.

THE SAME OLD WINESKINS IF IT’S THE SAME OLD WINE.  BUT IS THERE A NEW WINE AVAILABLE, WHICH ISN’T THE COLOR OF BLOOD?

When an essential truth (or doctrine, practice, philosophy) is discovered, and it doesn’t fit into institutions or programs that have calcified, it shows up the older ones.   Then their containers burst:

The container of genocide and empire expansion to gain more money to build more public monuments with more slave labor, which all the citizens are supposed to accept — and also contribute towards, for the glory of the civilization and being under its umbrella and protection (?) — that container is force, AND propaganda. Would you agree?

OLD WINESKINS FOR OLD WINE THAT HAS ALREADY FERMENTED.  BUT NEW WINE (TRUTH, FOR EXAMPLE) WON’T FIT IN THEM. (THE TRUTH OF THIS ONE BEING, WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THE EMPIRE).

***Mark 2 (after, in public, healing a paralyzed man AND telling him his sins were forgiven, going to dinner with a tax collector (traitor to his own people!), “publicans and sinners” (the wrong crowd), and — this was probably the real problem — drawing a following. ..in short it reads as though Jesus didn’t fit the mold, in fact, by showing up genuinely problem-solving (as well as not obeying rules) he was showing up as an authority and exposing that the current status quo (religion under license from the Roman military power) was bankrupt of good — of healing power of any sort.   I think this is a better answer:

21No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. 22And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.

Someone that says this is claiming access to a more relevant truth for his time than the current institutions could hold, and is speaking with authority that the institutions exist to hold the truth, and not vice versa.

The “new wine” analogy occurs in all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) and in Job 32 — after 3 older “miserable comforters” had analyzed Job’s life disasters, a younger one, “Elihu,” who had been biting his tongue, hearing out his elders, describes his spirit within him as “new wine” about to burst out.  As it turns out later in the book (about Ch. 38), the LORD has the last word, but look at his words (Elihu speaking):

JOB 32:7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. 8But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. 9Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. 10Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion. 11Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say. 16When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;)17I said, I will answer also my part, I also will shew mine opinion. 18For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me.19Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.20I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer.21Let me not, I pray you, accept any man’s person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man.22For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away.

And (while on this analogy), the indicator that physical wine is OLD is when it was about to burst out of those wineskins.

I’m only including it here to demonstrate what happens when a nation, and/or its leadership, is stupid and makes a “league” to its own destruction with people whose approach is in all respects deceitful and dishonest:  “We are ambassadors, we are afraid of you (flattery), see our exhibits?”  in short, attempting to identify with the party they are actually afraid of, to obtain a VOLUNTARY alliance.  In this case, Joshua (being deceived) had his princes sware to the same league.  Oops!

For the agnostic, atheist, and any “true believers” who haven’t checked their minds, and scruples, in at the door through the lifelong habit of submission to external authorities (however entrancing the its art, architecture, music, or socialization perks):

WINE is a heady and powerful substance.  At first, it sticks to its containers, but then it ferments, and unless those containers are stronger than the truth, they burst.  Jesus spoke as an authority on truth (having demonstrated initiative, independence, and ability) — actually a previous truth which (allegedly) had diminished and diluted by the same faith/state (in this religion’s eyes, the pagan compromise from monotheism) over time.  The religion was now hostage to the foreign state, and as such its leadership (per the gospels) was going about abusing and controlling their own, in exchange for “position” in the state.  In short, they had become figureheads, departing from the original spiritual truths (“wine”) of the scriptures.  Only the forms remained, the inherent vital force was gone.

JOSHUA 9: 3And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, 4They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; 5And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. 6And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us. 7And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? 8And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? 9And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, 10And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth. 11Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. 12This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: 13And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey. 14And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD. 15And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. 16And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.

In that passage, “old wineskins” was used literally, not figuratively.  In context (a short chapter to read), after “the battle of Jericho” and allegedly others in the neighborhood wanted to make a league with the latest dominant side, i.e., the invading Israelites.

But to get a VOLUNTARY cease-fire (knowing who they were dealing with), they had to feign being outsiders, ambassadors, and then hold them to the contract.  Wine about to burst out of its bottles was among the disguises.  (In colonization deceit also initiates the first contracts, right?)

However notice the text actually faults Joshua (leadership) for not seeing through it, he didn’t “ask counsel of the LORD.”    Apparently it’s possible not to be deaf, dumb, blind and deceived, and so, consequences for remaining in that state.  

Actually, the people who are portraying themselves as the nation’s “Messiahs” often hold the exact same reasoning (among themselves first, later to “the multitudes”)– they are not subject the institutions – the institutions were created FOR them, and can be changed at will, according to the newest wine (symbolizing “truth”) coming from their lips.

This attitude, and presumption, is what I quoted at the bottom of a recent post; itself a quote from one of the primary references in that post, former FHA Commissioner in the Bush, Sr. administration:

Pride, arrogance, despising standards, discussion, rule of law. Complete indifference to impact on others. Empire. Monarchy. Dictatorship — the Divine Right of Kings.  It makes utterly no sense to attempt to dialogue with that.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

BACK TO ANECDOTAL, DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING:

Regarding my own situation; in “Urban America,” being assaulted and extorted (essentially) in the home, witnessed by many, interfered with by NONE, stopped by NONE until, after years of this, I saw where it was heading (fast) and managed to get someone to force a separation.  Next to none expressed any indignation, even.  I got a “certifiably insane restraining order,” not knowing about welfare reform, fatherhood.gov, access/visitation grants, or the domestic violence agency sell-out.

But had I not gone that route, we might be dead anyhow, to it’s kind of a moot point. 

But — if the price of life is silence about who threatened to kill you, how often and how, and for how long (under the public oath, a vow to love and cherish, with “an abiding Christian love” so long as we both shall live), really — how much more am I supposed to subscribe to and underwrite this same society?  

We people who report on this family-style didn’t realize what an earth-shaker it was to actually tell the truth about the institution of marriage, not to mention about so many churches’ tolerations of it, also.

What it reveals is just how much violence is acceptable throughout our society and how saying “NO!” — completely and permanently, in all forms — to this violence, would rock its foundations, — which are in violence-based empire expansion (as it turns out).   For civilization as we know it to exist, we HAVE to tolerate oppression of all kinds, and socialize each other to tolerate it, our children from a very early age, or there might be further, and more horrible repressions?

Even if one goes into a family courtroom, the brochures about “domestic abuse” (if they exist) are understated and don’t NAME which criminal laws it’s in violation of; imagine how much less faith-based groups are likely to publicize (I’ve seen the thumbnail brochures… little has changed…).

“HOLIDAYS” ARE OFTEN THE WORST; IT’S WHEN FAMILIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE MOST FUNCTIONAL…

But I quit even pretending to pretend around major holidays many years ago when I filed a domestic violence order with kickout.  I became an “I call it like I see it” person.   When a person reports what other witnesses wouldn’t, these are made fools of — unless the reporting person can be made to look foolish.

Strangely, the fact that someone was assaulting his wife in the home made nearly no enemies and had few social consequences for my husband all those years; but the fact that I said this formally has had plenty for me, most of them punitive.    And as before, the so-called major holidays were horrible times, all of these no doubt affected our kids, too.

Of course this leads to plenty of soul-searching and search for solutions; ways to reconstruct a life in the presence of people determined one shall not do so, and with the means to sabotage it.   Eventually, you figure out what the foundations are.  Where’s that “rock” on which to build anything, at all?

“Losing One’s Appetite for the Routine.”  (The Day after Thanksgiving)

But this morning (another bright, shining, radiant day in the Golden State), I began clearing out accumulated stuff, and was overwhelmed with an extreme discontent, a desire to regurgitate not just from my own alimentary canal (and I didn’t overeat, really), not just the contents of my car, my house, and but also, while at it, the concept of even attempting maintain friends from one’s past,  and in general trying to handle STUFF that has nothing to do with LIFE, only with preventing various forms of death (either risk of sudden, or gradual by increments).  A determination not just that I deserve, but that I am going to actually get, a fresh start, some realistic vision worth putting the effort into, even though what most of society would rather have (women like me) do is simply continue to get along with, reason with, and in all ways prop up incredibly destructive systems.

In other words, I reject the message “shut up and feed the beast some more.  It’s hungry!”  I say, overall, such a ravenous beast needs a fast, and to be incarcerated somewhere while it undergoes that fast.  It is grants AND contracts from HHS and DOJ (primarily) blended with privately controlled wealth from foundations — which either comes from family wealth, or serious corporate success (i.e., Rockefeller, Annie E. Casey, Ford, MacArthur, you name it) which drive the courts, and as the courts are also completely out of control while crying “broke!” and “everyone needs treatment!” –more people start grasping this reality (or sooner or later, it’ll be your turn).

How was it, I wondered, that I lived so long not understanding that a central purpose of ANY society has to include monitoring and controlling their own government, and vigilant protection of freedom?

Luckily I’m old enough to realize that extreme discontent, even disgust (this hardly being the first round; life happens!) is just a symptom — it just means, “Time to Change!”

Why are we still propping up Government?

Why do we still expect it to straighten up and fly right when caught acting crooked?

Is that a good deal for both parties — the funders and the funded — or don’t we yet know which is which.  Who is serving whom?

It’s not naturally nutritional, in fact it’s sucking the life out of us, yet we keep stuffing it with labor, dollars earned from that labor,* and sustaining the idea that it’s somehow sustaining US.

*even though between World War I and World War II, it demanded citizens give-up their gold (under the vestiges of a “War Powers” act (war’s expensive, and someone has to pay for it, plus emergency authority acquired in wartime is fun to have), replacing it with non-bona-fide money as “legal tender” and meanwhile artificially raising the price of gold.  The USA has no problem holding gold — it just doesn’t want it subjects actually competing with the business it is in….   I may not have summarized that precisely, but the bottom line is — we’re still not off emergency rule established in 1933 (last I heard), and as we know by now — anything is possible when there’s an emergency, law and rules have to be suspended, right?

And we’re supposed to pledge (which means to swear, with hand over the heart) some kind of allegiance to this and its flag  and the Republic for which (that flag) stands, even when that Republic doesn’t exist anymore, literally?  It seems to me schoolchildren (through grade 12?) have to start their day with such a pledge, so we’re training them up in the same mythology.

CONSIDER:

Life is precious, it is valuable, and it is not worth investing in  a house of cards scenario.  After all, time is irreplaceable, and some wind is going to blow.  And the truth is, trusting to an unrestrained force to be generally benevolent, or for one to stay out of its path a lifetime, is to build a house of cards.

So many charitable bystanders witness the long-term destruction of someone they know hauled into courts, or in front of police, and witness the people they knew flopping around frantically, gasping for air, and learning how to breathe without gills.  The survivors, that is.

Absent a solid philosophical AND experiential understanding of “how government  works,” as opposed to “an agreed-on model of how we expect it to work,” people are literally stranded, and become food.  Approaching this understanding and acting with some success on it is very empowering but unfortunately involvestelling the truth about the prior model, which those in power wish MOST people would believe still exists, while rapidly restructuring the innards such that it doesn’t.

As we begin to understand the Brave, New World, we are alienated from others and working with a vestiges of the Mythology of the Old World.

ACTING ON EXTINCT MYTHOLOGY LEADS TO EXTINCTION.

Exhortation:  “Wake the Hell Up!”**

Pay attention to historic trends and changes in the environment.  We LIVE in the environment, and under the shelter (sic) of the United States of America, and all the subsidiary critters.  If you work here, are married here, get a birth certificate here, drive a car here, incorporate a business here, pay taxes here (under any of the above), or start a lawsuit of some sort here, in fact engage in any legal (above-the board/on the radar) commerce or business with the USA —  you are living, breathing, and existing within this government.  And yet we don’t scrutinize it and continue to pay attention.  I know I didn’t.  “Thrice burned, a dozen times shy.”

“We” means every citizen of any of the states, which puts such people into citizenship in “The United States of America.”

If you had all your life lived in one country, then emigrated to another speaking a different language, would you not be smart enough to learn that language and how things work there?

Then how is it that when our own governments are continually changing languages (if not economic systems) and government itself, we somehow are still in “boiling frog” mode and do not understand what those changes mean?  Step outside the average immersion mode for a while and look at it with a different set of eyes.  For example:

Please review my last post (it’s not that long), particularly the quotes from Ms. Fitts and Mr. Burien, and the evidence from the Massachusetts League of Women Voters that Massachusetts did indeed, as Mr. Burien noted abolish several of its counties (leaving the shell geo-political designation, but governmentally up to the “commonwealth” (state, for most of us) level.  And note that this happened AFTER 1996 welfare reform.  Here are some teasers from (that post,) “Government:  Same Turkey Outside, but Who Changed the Stuffing?”

I think the analogies are just fine. Grabbing an image (without much reference from where; give me a break, OK?), and the passage below, I want us to hear, really hear, the terror and disturbance of Daniel this prophet with his vision.  After all this particular prophet had been through (carried away captive during the period of diaspora, i.e., his own nation being basically overthrown; having been thrown into the lion’s den, his friends cast into the fiery furnace for not bowing at the sound of all the “musick!” to a large idol (apparently about the size of a giant phallic symbol), as commanded to by official decree, and in general, the prophet Daniel stands as one towering figure of resilience, survival and courage throughout this time….. including living through the transition from one empire to another).

Point:  Kingdoms as Beasts — but the fourth Kingdom as a Beast of an entirely different kind.  MY POINT, AGAIN, is not for me to interpret this, but to emphasize that kingdoms were spoken of as beasts that tear and devour (men, specifically), and that the last one was “diverse in  kind.”  Other than that, I am not interpreting here, OK?  If the analogy doesn’t help, then skip over it and read the post below.  But this is how (per the scriptures anyhow) such a powerful prophet, having obtained some prominence, and held onto it, in a foreign land, responded in his gut to what he was foreseeing.

I’m telling you, I’m feeling about this way also towards what I see coming down in this country also.  Some of us have not been “carried away captive” but simply made strangers, alienated from basic humanity and sense of belonging to this country or what it allegedly represents, while still living here.  There are many vestiges of functionality, but we have seen — the core, the foundation, is not sound.  It’s rotten.  The foundation consists of having everyone possible contribute to an empire whose basic reason is to extort others, but with discretion because some are in different positions — so long as they do not whistleblow on the depth, extent, and INTENT of the root of extortion built into the place.

DANIEL 7: 1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. 2Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 3And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. {{winds – spirits?  Angels?  Wind is typically associated with spirit…I’ll lay that aside for now, except to note that four “winds” (wind is invisible, as is spirit) striving on the sea.  preceded four beasts arising FROM the sea.  Apparently the winds are cause, and the beasts arising is effect.  Most VISIBLE EFFECtS seen do indeed have less visible CAUSES.  In the context of the Bible, spirit causes, flesh manifest results (miracles, etc.).  Is that such a big deal?  Or is there not really a spiritual, essential agent or causation in human matters, by any other name?….It’s a matter of language, to me.} {{These beasts were not all the same; they looked and functioned differently…The best interpretation of “sea” i’ve heard of, to date, is a sea of people; the multitudes..There are masses of population on the planet, but over time, various kingdoms rise up and dominate them}} 4The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feetas a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. {{This one’s primary characteristic was LION — and its appearance as a man didn’t eradicate that its origins were lion with eagle’s wings. That would appear to cover earth and the skies….}} 5And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. {{I have no idea about the “3 ribs” but note:  WHO said unto it, WHO commanded it to arise and devour much flesh?  Also, it wasn’t a bear, but “like” a bear.}} 6After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. {{The beast like a leopard (not a leopard, but like one), again with wings — four heads, and dominion GIVEN to it.  I’ve heard this was Alexander the Great who conquered vast territories FAST (and whose kingdom was after him divided into four generals as he had no offspring).  Again, this beast had dominion because it was GIVEN dominion.. WHO gave it dominion?}} 7After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. {{I think “residue” might refer, of prior beasts?}} 8I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.* {{*now that’s starting to resemble politics and religion as we know it now, right?  Acting human, speaking great things….And, honestly, whatever horns represent, it wasn’t size that counted here, but apparently VOICE.  WORDS are what change things, to the extent that they motivate to action, that they command things.  This little horn uprooted the first three, and started speaking “great things.”  What great things, we don’t know. It wasn’t the content that counted, evidently — but the grandiose rhetoric:  “Great things.”}} {{Eyes See — and Mouth Speaks.  But what this mouth speak might not be seeing as real men see, but “Like” the eyes of a man.  cf.  “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be filled with light” (Jesus).  EYE = Seeing.  Mouth, Speaking.  But where is the heart, where is the “soul” of this beast?  Is it even really alive?}} {{Then it gets into a vision of what we might only call “God” and judgment day..a glorified superior power to all the beasts and the four winds, etc…}} 9I beheld till the thrones {{what thrones??}} were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 11I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheldeven till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.12As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. 13I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. 15I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 16I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. 17These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.18But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. 19Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; . . .

Daniel, whoever he was, as written here, was REALLY disturbed by this fourth beast.  Considering all the mayhem and destruction, plunder, and captivity he’d already been exposed to, for this vision to have so disturbed him, is notable — in other words, something categorically worse lay ahead.  If you know anything of the history of this area, it would hardly seem there could be much worse than was already around.  For example, while I am out of my chronology (offhand, at this point) were there not kings who went and skinned the leadership of a city and put them outside the city walls to terrorize the inhabitants?  It must have been an utter nightmare — but somehow this one was worse, to Daniel the prophet:

20. . . And of the ten horns that werein his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. 21I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. 23Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time

What I want us to notice here, other than “think to change times and laws” (more below), and I am thinking of a very notable change (and intentional) from celebrating the 7th day of the week (today known as “Saturday”) in association with the Jewish Sabbath, to the 1st day of the week (today known as “Sunday”) as an association specifically with Christianity.  This essentially was a power play.  Are not the three major religious (Abrahamic) religions distinguished in part by which day of the week is celebrated as the day of rest?  Commonly called, by the rest of us “pagans” (Gentiles, etc.) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday?

Holidays are indeed significant in any nation, unifying its mores and customs, and its economy; regulating people.  In this matter, our current culture is, quite honestly, confused:  ADHD to the extreme, and polytheistic — resulting in the ultimate allegiance simply being to the state anyhow. The norm is supposedly the five-day work week (compromise with two of those religions?? I don’t know)… and the concept of “weekend” during which people can work and shop on “Saturday” unless they are 7th-day-sabbath keepers, and party Saturday night, then go to “church” on Sunday if they are Sunday-keepers.  It’s basically keeping the people on a nearly monthly roller-coaster.

The family court system (because of custody and parenting plans) of course plays by these rules, for the most part.  People that don’t are just plain “weirdoes” and subject to losing their kids as religious eccentrics, unless that eccentricity (i.e., not being standard Western) is on the chosen winning side of some custody.

Regarding Empires as Beasts, the Prophecy is of one that totally outclasses all known ones:

OK, back to this topic here — Regarding that awful 4th beast — here’s some scholar talking about the Assyrian kingdom of this time.  From what I can tell, what Daniel was frightened of was worse than this one, if that be possible.  I am putting it up to make just a few more points here:

Editor, H. S. (2002;2002). BAR 17:01 (Jan/Feb 1991). Biblical Archaeology Society.

Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death (website URL is “University of Massachusetts/ Lowell” and from a faculty site (faculty.uml.edu)

By Erika Belibtreu

In the first part, he basically dates the Assyrian/Neo-Assyrian from 14th century BC (“Before Christ”) to a bit past the destruction of Nineveh by the Babylonians, 610 BC.

The Black Obelisk

Assyrian national history, as it has been preserved for us in inscriptions and pictures, consists almost solely of military campaigns and battles. It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.

Assyria emerged as a territorial state in the 14th century B.C. Its territory covered approximately the northern part of modern Iraq. The first capital of Assyria was Assur, located about 150 miles north of modern Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris River. The city was named for its national god, Assur, from which the name Assyria is also derived.

From the outset, Assyria projected itself as a strong military power bent on conquest. Countries and peoples that opposed Assyrian rule were punished by the destruction of their cities and the devastation of their fields and orchards.

Sound familiar yet?  see “Manifest Destiny, etc,”

By the ninth century B.C., Assyria had consolidated its hegemony over northern Mesopotamia. It was then that Assyrian armies marched beyond their own borders to expand their empire, seeking booty to finance their plans for still more conquest and power.

It took in other words about 500 years to consolidate its power over northern Mesopotamia and start expanding, infinitely.  This is what empires DO, for the most part…

By the mid-ninth century B.C., the Assyrian menace posed a direct threat to the small Syro-Palestine states to the west, including Israel and Judah. The period from the ninth century to the end of the seventh century B.C. is known as the Neo-Assyrian period, during which the empire reached its zenith. The Babylonian destruction of their capital city Nineveh in 612 B.C. marks the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire, although a last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, attempted to rescue the rest of the Assyrian state, by then only a small territory around Harran. However, the Babylonian king Nabopolassar (625–605 B.C.) invaded Harran in 610 B.C. and conquered it. In the following year, a final attempt was made by Ashur-uballit II to regain Harran with the help of troops from Egypt, but he did not succeed. Thereafter, Assyria disappears from history.

So, after about 300 years or so of expansion, Nineveh fell (see the prophet “Jonah” in the  Bible).  Now that we have an approximate timeframe (in the march of the centuries), a quick look at what this empire DID.

As there are monuments recording the glorious conquests, the atheists among us can now quit mocking and tossing aside Bible (per se) for a while (if you would, please) and read some of the inscriptions, or summaries of the inscriptions and images left in the palaces to this, now-defunct, empire.  This is how it worked, then (how different is it, really, now?)

Ancient looters, the Assyrian soldiers carry away their booty after conquering Lachish in 701 B.C., depicted in this detail from a relief in Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh. The riches thus acquired provided important funding for the monumental construction programs that the Assyrian kings undertook.

So, you like the monuments?  Where did the money (materials, labor) for all the monuments (in America, I mean) come from?

REGARDING HOW, ABOUT THAT TIME SENNACHERIB ABANDONED HIS SIEGE OF JERUSALEM, AFTER ALL THE OTHER SUCCESSES (AND YOU MUST IMAGINE JUST HOW TERRORIZED THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM JUST MIGHT HAVE BEEN), A NON-RELIGIOUS AUTHOR PROPOSES ANOTHER EXPLANATION, WHICH ALSO UNCOVERS (WHAT ELSE) THE RACISM THAT PERVADED ARCHAEOLOGY (AND HISTORY) OF EGYPT.

I found (and was interested) in this book from a perspective of interest in the Biblical texts.  This book was well-written, very thorough notes, and (all things considered) not that hard to read.   It also talked about the role of the “scramble for Africa” in who funded what expeditions for manuscripts during that time (i.e., Great Britain could hardly credit the territories it was colonizing with as advanced civilizations, and/or armies, as actually existed — or the myth of racial superiority wouldn’t hold water.

The author (Henry Aubin) talks about the “collective historical amnesia” regarding this Kushite culture, and weaves archaeology, history and varieties in the Biblical texts together fairly well.

(Promotional blurb for the book):

In the summer of 701 B.C.E., the powerful Assyrian army laid siege to Jerusalem, threatening the Hebrew kingdom with destruction.

Suddenly, the invaders fled, leaving the City of David intact. Why? The Bible, which tells the story in the Book of Second Kings, says only that an angel slew the many of the foe. The real reason for Assyrian retreat has been one of history’s most enduring mysteries. The Rescue of Jerusalem demonstrates that Jerusalem was saved by the army sent by Egypt’s 25th Dynasty.

There is disagreement among historians as to how many of ancient Egypt’s 31 dynasties were black. But all scholars agree on one thing: At least one of these dynasties was black – the 25th. It was this dynasty, which ruled for about 75 years, that sent the army to Jerusalem.

The pharaoh was Shebitku, who came from Kush (or Nubia), located in what it today northern Sudan. He sent an expeditionary to Jerusalem headed by his 21-year-old cousin, Prince Taharqa. This Kushite army seldom figures in modern biblical scholarship – the result, the book argues, of modern scholarship’s blind spot to Africa’s accomplishments.

Click here for an informative map of the theatre of war in The Rescue of Jerusalem.

Top experts on Egypt and Nubia assess The Rescue of Jerusalem

“Absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in the Nubian pharaohs, in Biblical history, or in Assyrian imperialism…Well researched, brilliantly reasoned, and a mine of new information for the ancient historian – as well as the historian of modern racism.”
Timothy Kendall Leader of numerous archaelogical expeditions to Nubia Dept. of African-American Studies, Northeastern University

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“I am greatly impressed by the scope of Aubin’s evidence and the trustworthiness of his thesis. I sincerely hope his important book will receive a large audience.”
Jean Leclant Former secretary-general of the International Association of Egyptologists Former Egyptology Chair at the Collège de France

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As someone who has spent much of his professional life studying ancient Egypt and the Sudan, I have read with great interest and admiration Henry Aubin’s The Rescue of Jerusalem. The author addresses a poorly understood, but important, historical episode – King Sennacherib’s abandonment of the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.E., an event which is widely held to have made possible the development of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In his powerful, wide-ranging analysis, Aubin has demonstrated that a key problem that has hindered the analysis of this event is the pervasive racism that led scholars to discount the effectiveness of the Kushite kings who controlled Egypt during the 25th Dynasty. By successfully countering this image, Aubin is able to construct a highly plausible argument that it was the arrival of an Egyptian army that saved Jerusalem at this time. He is also able to account for why this explanation does not survive in the Hebrew accounts that are available to us.

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“Aubin successfully achieves his primary goal: he provides the most convincing explanation of what caused the Assyrians to retreat from Jerusalem. In the course of doing this, however, he accomplishes three other goals that in my opinion are of even greater importance:

First, he presents the most persuasive panorama I have read of interstate relations from Babylon all the way to Meroe around 700 B.C.E.

Second, his unbiased view of the Kushite rulers of Egypt during the 25th Dynasty completely revises our understanding of Egyptian society at this period. “As someone familiar with the evidence he uses, I reproach myself for not drawing the revolutionary and totally convincing conclusions about these rulers that Aubin has formulated.

Third, he has unmasked, thoroughly and effectively, the unconscious racism that has mangled the scholarly understanding of Egypt for more than a century.
“Aubin’s insights are of astonishing breadth, originality and importance and deserve to be known to as many readers as possible.”

Bruce Trigger McGill University Author of Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context, History of Archaeologicals Thought, History and Settlement in Lower Nubia, The Late Nubian Settlement in Arminna West and Ancient Egypt: A Social History

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Just a little more timeframe, if you’ll bear with me.

See title, because I am talking about what happens when empires keep expanding, tribute is too high, and/or people revolt.  I have presently characterized our government, for now, as basically a Turkey Carcase with Different Stuffing inside it, that stuffing not being what our current national myths say actually exists. THIS BLOG narrates some of the replacement mixtures being excavated and stuffed back into the buildings and institutions which we think represent Bill of Rights, Due Process, Freedom, or Justice — either for us (should we need it), or for some of our close family, friends, or neighbors, with whom we may share local neighborhoods, and whose troubles are affecting our property values, safety, and bottom line — income.

Right now, we are in the middle of discussing this government as a beast, referencing the beasts in the B ible, and bringing up the fact that even the prophet Daniel, who was acquainted with war, destruction, captive populations (having been part of this himself as a youth) — was seeing something in the future which terrified and disturbed even him.  He spoke of this and experienced it as a dramatic vision, and sought (even IN the vision itself) to understand it.  In so doing this, we have to understand that another term for the word “prophet” is commonly called “seer.”  They SAW things that others didn’t, and as a result were often at odds with their own people, who these words were for (as warnings, in other words).

The word “prophecy” is used today as a metaphor for this reality.  We have all kinds of hired “prophets” in government employ today as royalty did in prior times, these times.  I’ve got some in my own life, personally — they prophesy my destruction, and have been documented helping engineer some of the same.  Both the speaking and the machinations paint the whole picture — neither one alone.

One short suit people who simply reject the idea of God have is lack of access to the language and mindset that (in a moment, as it is familiar territory) understand when something functioning in a religious mode (i.e., “priest and prophet”) but under another dress, is on the scene.  One supreme shortsuit that religious flocks have, these days, is listening too much to their prophets, and ignoring the handwriting on the while – including who’s paying them, and when they are lying!

So, in truth I believe we need each others’ points of view in this matter, as “laypeople” dealing with the matter of this government, particularly the government of the United States of America.  We NEED each others’ languages to handle the beast, let alone each other.  No one can really “handle” human nature (which shouldn’t be the function of government); but a collective effort is needed to understand, this beast has to be tamed, and can not be tamed if it has teeth to devour with and feeds off human blood and other life substances (energies, etc.) – so to speak.

I just published (it was in draft a while) another post describing it as a “Giant Squid.”  That’s a fun one, and also probably metaphorically accurate.  In short, government is a live animal with predator characteristics, subterranean depths, and like any predator, deceptive and distracting tactics.  It needs to eat.

Government sends men off to wars (and women, some of who end up being raped by their colleagues in arms, some who do not), and who come back injured, traumatized, PTSD’d and at times terrorizing their own families, some of them, really how much can you blame the guys after war — but it cannot be endorsed by keeping their families in the line of fire back home, can it?  So there’s a HUGE social expense to engaging in empire expansion, boundary protections, and nonstop wars.  War costs money and lives; it’s bad, and it’s never left the human race, that I can tell of, for long at a time.

Government does not exist on its own strength (YET…..) it requires labor, tribute (although with the large investment pools collectively held by the USA and ALL the subsidiary government entities in the land, we are I’m sure being taxed far more than is necessary.   Because we allow it…and see neither an alternative — nor a reason to look for an alternative (such as understanding to what degree we were deceived, and participating in others’ exterminations, etc.)

I am just one of several messengers telling us that it ain’t necessarily so any more, hasn’t been for a long time and isn’t about to be in the near future (barring heavenly or human intervention of “biblical” (epic, unprecedented, etc.) scope or, at least, persistency and force.)

OK, back to the Scholarly Quote on the Neo-Assyrian Empire, timeframe:

Ancient looters, the Assyrian soldiers carry away their booty after conquering Lachish in 701 B.C., depicted in this detail from a relief in Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh. The riches thus acquired provided important funding for the monumental construction programs that the Assyrian kings undertook….

Because the kings left behind pictorial, as well as written, records, our knowledge of their military activities is unusually well documented:

1. Ashurnasirpal II—883–859 B.C.

2. Shalmaneser III—858–824 B.C.

3. Tiglath-pileser III—744–727 B.C.
4. Sargon II—721–705 B.C.

5. Sennacherib—704–681 B.C.

6. Esarhaddon—680–669 B.C.

7. Ashurbanipal—668–627 B.C.

Just in case that’s too many strange-sounding names, and more to come, just glance over the form of these Assyrian king’s names, ending in “ipal” “eser” or Sennacherib & Esrshaddon — and realize that the Israeli and Judean ones below are much more likely to end in “ah” (Hezekiah, Judah, Pekah), “az” (Ahaz, Jeohoahaz), “el” (Israel, etc.).  Then there’s Hoshea, and a well-known name, Ahab. The names really do look different.  If you could scan (read quickly)  the following, please:

Incidentally, Assyrian records, as well as the Bible, mention the military contacts between the Neo-Assyrian empire

and the small states of Israel and Judah.

An inscription of Shalmaneser III records a clash between his army and a coalition of enemies that included Ahab, king of Israel (c. 859–853 B.C.). Indeed, Ahab, according to Shalmaneser, mustered more chariots (2,000) than any of the other allies arrayed against the Assyrian ruler at the battle of Qarqar on the Orontes (853 B.C). For a time, at least, the Assyrian advance was checked.

An inscription on a stela from Tell al Rimah in northern Iraq, erected in 806 B.C. by Assyrian king Adad-nirari III, informs us that Jehoahaz, king of Israel (814–798 B.C.), paid tribute to the Assyrian king: “He [Adad-nirari

III of Assyria] received the tribute of Ia’asu the Samarian Uehoahaz, king of Israel], of the Tyrian (ruler) and the Sidonian (ruler).” †

From the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III and from some representations on the reliefs that decorated the walls of his palace at Nimrud, we learn that he too conducted a military campaign to the west and invaded Israel. Tiglath-pileser III received tribute from Menahem of Samaria (744–738 B.C.), as the Bible tells us; the Assyrian king is there called Pulu ( 2 Kings 15:19–20 ).

In another episode recorded in the Bible, Pekah, king of Israel (737–732 B.C.), joined forces with Rezin of Damascus against King Ahaz of Judah ( 2 Kings 16:5–10 ). The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III successfully intervened against Pekah, who was then deposed. The Assyrian king then placed Hoshea on the Israelite throne. By then Israel’s northern provinces were devastated and part of her population was deported to Assyria ( 2 Kings 15:29).

At one point, Israel, already but a shadow of its former self and crushed by the burden of the annual tribute to Assyria, decided to revolt. Shalmaneser V (726–722 B.C.), who reigned after Tiglath-pileser III, marched into Israel, besieged its capital at Samaria and, after three years of fighting, destroyed it ( 2 Kings 18:10 ). This probably occurred in the last year of Shalmaneser V’s reign (722 B.C.). However, his successor, Sargon II, later claimed credit for the victory. In any event, this defeat ended the national identity of the northern kingdom of Israel. Sargon II deported, according to his own records, 27,290 Israelites, settling them, according to the Bible, near Harran on the Habur River and in the mountains of eastern Assyria ( 2 Kings 17:6 , 18:11 ).

Later, in 701 B.C., when King Hezekiah of Judah withheld Assyrian tribute, Sargon II’s successor, Sennacherib, marched into Judah, destroying, according to his claim, 46 cities and besieging Jerusalem. Although Sennacherib failed to capture Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 19:32–36 ), Hezekiah no doubt continued to pay tribute to Assyria.

The two principal tasks of an Assyrian king were to engage in military exploits and to erect public buildings. Both of these tasks were regarded as religious duties. They were, in effect, acts of obedience toward the principal gods of Assyria.

The historical records of ancient Assyria consist of tablets, prisms and cylinders of clay and alabaster. They bear inscriptions in cuneiform—wedge-shaped impressions representing, for the most part, syllables. In addition, we have inscribed obelisks and stelae as well as inscriptions on stone slabs that lined the walls and covered the floors of Assyrian palaces and temples.

In all of these inscriptions, the king stands at the top of the hierarchy—the most powerful person; he himself represents the state. All public acts are recorded as his achievements. All acts worthy of being recorded are attributed only to the Assyrian king, the focus of the ancient world.

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MAYBE IT’S TIME THERE WAS LESS FOCUS ON THE GOD-KINGS, OR PATERNALIST, PATRONIZING GOD-GOVERNMENTS, WHICH ARE NOT REALLY ADMINISTRATORS OF “JUSTICE” BUT INOCULATORS OF MILLIONS TO EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT, WHILE THEY CONTRIBUTE TO ONE MONUMENT TO CIVILIZATION AFTER ANOTHER….

PERHAPS IT’S BEST TO THINK OF IT AS A SCARECROW, A FICTION, A MYTH (ALTHOUGH A VERY DANGEROUS ONE TO SUBSCRIBE TO — AND YOU MAY BE ENDANGERED IN TRYING TO FREE OTHERS FROM THEIR FAVORITE MYTHS AS WELL.

ANYHOW, ANOTHER TERM FOR “LEGAL FICTION” (which by definition of a corporation, a “person” is.  A “person,” in other words, could be a multi-person corporation, a single-owner corporation, or it could be claimed by a single entity with a social security number who sought permission to do business with any particular government.  Clint Richardson is doing to describe this some more in re: Sheriffs. Same intro as above, different contents: