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Joe Stack Is Sign of the Times
No pitchforks, but expect more airplanes or more likely guns. Everyone wants a just, fair country back, but the black guy didn’t take it.
Ordinary Citizens are Being Driven to the Ground, The Last Flight of Joe Stack
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Joseph Stack, frustrated American, flew his airplane into an Austin, Texas, office building. He was one of the 79 per cent of Americans who have given up on ‘their’ government.
The latest Rasmussen Poll indicates that the vast majority of Americans are convinced that ‘their’ government is totally unresponsive to them, their concerns, and their needs. Rasmussen found that only 21 per cent of the American population agree that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed, and that 21 per cent is comprised of the political class itself and liberals. Rasmussen concludes that the gap between the American population and the politicians who rule them ‘may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.’
Indications are that Joseph Stack was sane. Like Palestinians faced with Israeli jet fighters, helicopter gunships, tanks, missiles and poison gas, Stack realized that he was powerless. A suicide attack was the only weapon left to him.
Stack targeted the IRS, the federal agency that had gratuitously ruined him. He flew his airplane into an office building occupied by 200 members of the IRS. This deliberate plan and the written explanation he left behind segregate him from deranged people who randomly shoot up a Post Office or university campus.
The government and its propaganda ministry do not want to call Stack a terrorist. ’Terrorist’ is a term the government reserves for Muslims who do not like what Israel does to Palestinians and the U.S. government does to Muslim countries.
But Stack experienced the same frustrations and emotions as Muslims who can’t take it any longer and strap on a suicide vest.
‘Violence,’ Stack wrote, ‘not only is the answer, it is the only answer.’ Stack concluded that nothing short of violence will get the attention of a government that has turned its back on the American people.
Anger is building up. People are beginning to do unusual things. Terry Hoskinsbulldozed his house rather than allow a bank to foreclose on it. The local TV station conducted an online survey and found that 79 per cent of respondents agreed with Hoskins’ action.
Perhaps the turning point was the federal government’s bailout of the investment banks whose reckless misbehavior diminished Americans’ retirement savings for the second time in eight years. Now a former head of the most culpable bank is campaigning to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits in order to pay for the bailout. President Obama has obliged him by creating a ‘deficit commission.’
The ‘deficit commission’ will be used to gut Social Security, just as the private insurance health plan is paid for by cutting $500 billion out of Medicare.
It could not be more clear that government represents the interest groups that finance the election campaigns. …
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=17763
Posted by Yanira Farray on Feb 24 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
COMMENTS
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Cut the head off the snake, K and Wall Street. A very small percentage of bad guys have the brains to create this madness. Deal with them and the rest of the low lifes will crawl back under their rocks.
The flames in the IRS bldg. weren’t even under control yet before the Government and it’s bastard-child–the Main Stream Media–threw their propaganda machine into full-throttle and began to paint/dismiss Joe Stack as a murderous, Right-Wing loon. Not surprising. It wouldn’t be to their advantage for Americans to understand the significance of Stack’s well-thought-out/articulated final act of defiance. The Tree of Liberty got a long over-due drink.
Suicide Bomber Joe Stack is no hero! He murdered an innocent Vietnam Veteran and injured others to make his point and further his cause. Terrorism, the act of killing to make a point and to frighten the public and/or government, is unacceptable and needs to be condemned by all normal people. If you disagree with government policy, then there are ways and means to express and influence. If you really hate it, you can also choose to leave, which would have been a more noble choice by Suicide Bomber Joe Stack. Now if you so disagree that you want to engage in armed conflict against the government, then you are an enemy combatant working for an underground army. I trust our Homeland Security is monitoring this site and making notes as they should be.
“I trust our Homeland Security is monitoring this site and making notes
as they should be.” It is really sad when an American spouts that kind of
fascistic nonsense. Johnny, have you ever read the Constitution or the
Bill Of Rights? George Bush did not create Homeland Security and the TSA
out of concern for the citizens of this country. He did it for the same
reasons Richard Nixon did when he created the DEA. They both did it for
power and control. Nixon fabricated a phony “war on drugs” that has become
a war against American citizens. Bush and company used 9-11 as an excuse
to launch two wars with no end in sight for either one and as payback for
the assasination attempt on his father. Which makes them accessories after
the fact. If you feel so strongly about this, why not post under your
real name?
To all of you who hate the US government so much, why don’t you leave this country? Joe Stack was no superstar. He tried very hard not to pay taxes and it bit in the you know what. When the penalties and fees plus the taxes he owed became too much for him to pay, he quit on life by killing himself and another innocent man. He also left a wife with nothing.. some hero, huh? His intentions were to kill a lot more but luckily, that did not happen. By the way, the IRS does not write the tax code, so all you IRS haters need to take up your issues with your Congressmen, they are the ones who write it.
“To all of you who hate the US government so much, why don’t you leave this country?”
You know I really hate dipshits like YOU in MY country.If you have such issue with criticism of the IRS and FED I guess you have your head in the sand,idiot.
There are so many stories of people being ruined by these suit wearing goons.
As far as deaths go, I see it this way.I will never do what I do not believe in and if the compartmentalized monkeys in the IRS do not understand that one day they will be held accountable for actions, I have no sympathy.Sorry
And when the day comes for us Americans to call upon the French to borrow the guillotine they will feel the wrath of the peoples plight.
Ask Marie Antoinette.
american,
Why don’t we leave this country? Where would we go? Many of “us” are native born. We don’t know any where else and have no desire to leave. Our family and friends and history are here. It is not the country we hate. It’s not even government we hate.
It is primarily “taxation without representation” that we hate. It is the denial of individual liberty, usually in the form of financial extortion that we hate. It is corrupt politicians we hate. It is the socialization of private debt that infuriates us. It is many, many things which we hate. But the country where we were born and/or raised and is not one of them.
Joe Stack may not be a superstar. He is a celebrity, however, whether you deny it or not. I’m not sure what your point is in stating that he’s not a superstar.
You insinuate that Joe Stack made attempts at “cheating” on his taxes, got caught, could not deal with the wrath of the IRS, therefore decided to end his own life plus one other.
I don’t know whether Stack was more aggravated that he was caught evading taxes or that he was even required to pay the tax to begin with. There are many people who believe that the current Federal income tax is constitutionally illegal. I have never seen any evidence to prove them incorrect. It seems to me from reading his suicide manifesto that the existence of the federal income tax itself is what started a series of events in Stack’s life which ultimately led to his final actions. It appears to me that he dedicated his life to activism and failed to achieve any real accomplishment. In the process he realized that the great democratic republic known as the United States of America and touted as “land of the free” was a mere illusion.
Joe Stack, as well as many others, viewed his final actions as the ultimate sacrifice in a display of patriotism (not to be confused with nationalism).
You suggest that Stack had planned to kill an innocent man all along. How do you know this. Joe stack did not declare his intent to kill an innocent IRS employee. Why just one? Why not more? You claim that was his intent, where is the proof? Just maybe the one “innocent” death was unintended collateral damage. Though I’m sure that from Joe Stack’s perspective, any IRS employee is an agent of the Federal government and therefore the enemy. So why didn’t he just show up in the parking lot with an automatic rifle or walk into the offices strapped with a bomb? I’m a lot more inclined to believe that symbolism was Stack’s motivation rather than murder.
“Left his wife with nothing”…. well, why do you think? Do you really suppose the IRS/gov would just let his wife keep the home or any other assets, if the Stack were in so much trouble with taxes? Mrs. Stack is already being sued by the survivors of the victims. Joe knew his family would have nothing whether he lived or died. Whether or not Joe Stack is a hero is really a matter of perspective.
I don’t know how much IRS employees have to do with writing tax code. But I do know that IRS employees assist in the enforcement of tax code. If you had read Joe Stack’s suicide manifesto, you would know that he did take up his issues with congresspersons and found his efforts to be futile.
I appreciate your input, but I think it really lacks substance.
r u in anyway related to him? jus curious.
No I am not related to him that I know of. I had never even heard of Joe Stack before he made national news headlines this month.
There are endless places to go.. but none as great as where you are now and you know that. Unless you are a Native American, your ancestors came from another country. They left their family and friends knowing they would probably never see them again, they risked their lives, probably couldn’t speak English and most likely had very little money to make the journey on… but for some reason, they took the risk anyway. Why would they do that? Could it be because they wanted a better life in a country that allowed them more freedom and endless possibilities and a chance to create a better life for their family and future generations? Maybe you should do some research on your ancestors and reflect on the hardships they endured just to create a better life for you. Why do you think the US is such a great country and so many people have immigrated here in the past and continue to do so?
Every country requires taxes; and believe it or not, compared to some countries, the US falls in the lower end in comparison. No one likes to pay taxes, I grumble at tax time just as everyone does; however, I am grateful for what I have and am willing to pay to keep our armed forces going to be able to protect us, to pay for our elderly to have healthcare, to pay for better education, transportation, etc. What I don’t do is spend beyond my means an I don’t try to cheat the system. I don’t drive the latest model automobile and I don’t own an airplane. Joe Stack could have solved many of his self created problems by selling his airplane which is worth approximately $100,000, and paying his debts. Joe Stack was too selfish to do what was right for not only himself, but his family. All his problems were caused by someone else… never himself. He knowingly left his wife to clean up his mess.. (Texas is a community property state)although, as a selfish coward, he may have blamed her too and did this to her intentionally (according to news reports, they were having trouble in their marriage and she had taken her daughter to a hotel the night before. She returned to find her home in flames.)
And yes, I did read his suicide letter and do believe he intended to kill innocent people. Why else would he fly an airplane into a building?!?! He also made it quite clear in his note when he said
“… but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.”
Joe Stack is a terrorist and should be referred to as such. And by the way, all of you anti-government types may not realize it, but actions such as this only create MORE government to watch for nuts like him.
I know where my ancestors come from. I know why they left. I know where they went. I know I am a fifth generation Texan. I know much of my family still lives a life similar in fashion to my ancestors that first came to this country. And indeed, some of my ancestors were natives of this land called the United States. I know the trials they went through. I know we still have many of the same obstacles in life. Of course modern life is somewhat better for most of us than it was back all those years ago. That is primarily due to human and technological advancements. It has little to do with living under the thumb of the United States federal government or paying taxes to the IRS.
Your federal income taxes do not go toward half that crap you think it does. Transportation? Education? Please. Fuel taxes, property taxes and many other taxes pay for all of that kind of stuff. Health care? Medicare is funded through payroll taxes SEPARATE from income tax. Medicaid is a joint state-federal effort which the states pay for about 50% of the cost and operates on a Robin Hood system of taking from the richer states and giving to the poorer states.
Federal income tax goes mostly toward paying the interest on debt to the Federal Reserve. Money which the federal government “borrows” whenever the hell they want to, to finance offensive wars (not defensive) and “bailout” rich people who already have abused their position and/or simply failed at their task (it’s theft either way).
I encourage you to investigate the matters on your own, rather than propagate your false sense of reality to others.
I’m not too fond of this government right now, but I won’t run from it. As a citizen of the greatest nation on earth and a patriot, it is my duty to stay and try to make it even better. Even if it means that, out of love for my nation and it’s people, I must oppose the abuses of it’s government. Although I am in complete agreement with everything you say about Loser Joe.
And the one time I had a problem with paying my taxes, I went to the IRS and asked for help. Pretty decent people, actually. We worked things out, I got caught up, and nobody suffered. And my kids still have their father.
If you do have a tax problem, go to them. Don’t wait for them to hunt you down.
Joe Stack could be both categorized as a right and left wing loon, and neither would be correct. He lauds achievements like the civil rights movement and also criticizes capitalism, a view that would be more closely associated with the left. He also wanted simplified, lower taxes and less government intrusion, a classic libertarian sentiment. I think when you look at it objectively, without the lens of partisanship, you will see he was expressing a general exasperation towards a system which increasingly serves the needs of the wealthy few instead of the many. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are beholden to their corporate masters, which means we really have a one party system with two wings – neither of which prioritizes the needs of the average Joe. This act of terrorism was good old-fashioned blowback, and I think incidents like this will continue as long as “liberty and justice for all” fails to be our highest principle.
About the suicide pilot:
I started reading his “rant”, and the first line, “Why did this have to happen?” pretty much clued me in as to how the rest of the rant was going to go. Blah, blah, whine, whine… poor little guy, sitting there all innocent and happy when the big, bad IRS/George Bush/Corporate America came along and squashed him like a bug.
Sheesh. I’ve known 10-year-olds who were better at accepting responsibility than this guy.
Please allow me to respond:
Dear Sir:
As your cooling carcass lies in that taxpayer-provided refrigerated box in an Austin morgue, I must point out that none of this “had” to happen. You made it happen. You are the one who made the decisions that led you to this point. The IRS does not pick out citizens at random to destroy. You made the choices which placed you on their radar screen. You made the choices that left you owing a tax bill that you wouldn’t pay. You made the decision to move to Austin without doing basic research to find out whether or not you could live on the income you would likely receive there. The fact that you could only afford to own one airplane is entirely your own fault.
But you don’t see it that way. Your entire rant was devoted to blaming others for the results of your own bad decisions. Not one word accepting responsibility for yourself. One giant pity-party.
Well, I don’t feel sorry for you. I don’t feel one bit of sympathy for you, you selfish bastard. Because you took the cowards way out, and true to form, left it to others to clean up your mess.
Let’s look at what you accomplished:
You killed your children’s father, pretty much destroying their lives for now.
You killed an innocent, and caused great pain to everyone who loved them.
Same for the ones you injured.
You dumped all of your tax problems on your wife. What did you think, that when you died, the liability would just go away? You were MARRIED, you idiot!
But none of it was your fault, right? You immature, selfish bastard.
Do you know what happens next? Once your worthless carcass is properly planted, that is?
Life goes on. Your wife will work things out with the IRS. She won’t starve, your kids won’t go hungry. People like me will see to that. Your duty, but you ran away, didn’t you.
Your kids will probably hate you, for running away and leaving them to face this world alone. But it’s not your fault.
Maybe someday they’ll start calling another man “Daddy”, because you won’t be there. You ran away.
He’ll be at their graduation, you won’t.
He’ll stand at their weddings, not you.
And when they get older, when that man finally dies, your kids will remember him with love. Not you. Because you ran away.
You selfish bastard.
Maybe the federally regulated public school system should stop teaching children that they are free and live in a free country. Stop teaching people that this is a democracy when it is surely not. Stop teaching the virtues of patriotism. Stop teaching the principles of liberty. Stop teaching the philosophy of the founders of the United States of America.
Then they wouldn’t grow up to be depressed and disillusioned upon discovering they have been indoctrinated with a lot of propaganda.
Or maybe we should teach our children to accept responsibility for the results of their own decisions. That with freedom comes responsibility, and that they should make decisions as adults, not as whiny little children, always blaming others for the poor results of their own poor decisions.
And if you are going to teach them the philosophy of our founding fathers, a good place to begin would be to teach them that, indeed, the USA is NOT a democracy, nor was it ever intended to be. It is a constitutional republic.
Not once in his entire rant did Joe Stack ever accept responsibility for any of the bad things that happened in his life. And now he’s dead, leaving, as usual, a mess for others to clean up.
What a loser. A selfish, whining loser.
Mr. Stack was NOT sacraficing himself for the greater good – he was exiting this world to run from his pain. His actions were his final kick at those he identified as his tormentors. It was selfishness cloaked in a cause. I’m sure those cheering him on would sing a different tune if someone they cared about (or they themselves) had been injured or killed by his violence. Whether one empathizes or sympathizes with him – his actions were simply wrong and anyone who sings his praises should seriously consider what they’re advocating by picturing the world they’d be living in with more Joe Stacks.
His actions are wrong. I think the author Roberts, and I agree, see that this man was driven to a murderous pathology with tragic consequences.
You’re right of course, no excuse; just this did not happen out of thin air.
Though I disagree with his target, it should have been K street, Wall Street or any branch of leadership in the federal government, I do understand his rage.
Having lost my little brother to “The War on Drugs” I know full well the pain his family is enduring at this moment. I have spent the past 12 years without my best friend because he was murdered by the police. People in our country via government decided my brother didn’t deserve live because of his drug use. He didn’t force others to use drugs, he chose to use them himself. Its been said theres no such thing as a drug problem, its a reality problem that causes people to escape the world via drugs.
Innocent people around the world have lost theirs and their loved ones lives to the various actions of our government. Remember colateral damage? It an unfortunate side effect of bringing “Freedom” to the World. How long do we have to except a class of people get to play God and can murder whomever, whenever they wish?
We all find ourselves in this world together, class and entitlement are figments of the human imagination. Respect and restraint are necessary from all or expect none in return.
I would suggest the innocent man killed at the IRS building be considered a Human Shield. His death should be a wake up call to everyone who earns a living by working for our government and enabling it to continue its war on Humanity. It cannot make that War without a willing workforce. I would suggest everyone considering employment with traitors and thiefs consider that before applying. “I was just following orders” has been done already.
You win the prize for the most self serving piece of twisted logic I’ve read this week.
You should have been on John Yoo’s staff when Dick Cheney needed “legal” opinions.
Please enlighten me if you can. Your insult does not replace the substance of my comment for anyone but you. If you continue to insult your readers you will be banned.
John Yoo is a free man courtesy of the “opposition party”. I can’t help but wonder if you possess a government job, health care, pension or some other connection. That would answer to your lack of anything other than insults. Do you have an alternative method of reforming the system? Perhaps your strategy is to wave a purple finger in the air come 2012.
If everyone holding a government job staged a walk out for as little as one week this problem might end without violence. That would require courage and more than insults though.
So you are saying w
e should have no government at all? Exactly how would that play out, just curious.
A walk out for a week is hardly “no government” not to mention I am suggesting a walk out of federal employee’s. State government would still be in place and running the show. I see no ill effects for the average American. Without a news source most would not even realize anything had changed. If you rely of the feds for some type of income though this might prove to be an issue.
This is a pointless diatribe for Mr. Higgins consumtion. I like that Social Security is providing for the elderly, welfare for the impovershed, and the Armed Forces for Security. The problem is the misuse of these resourses and tax dollars for crimes against Humanity such as unjustified Wars, Torture, Corporate Welfare, Bribary, ect…
I would love to believe thngs will change for the better without violence but history teaches a different lesson. I certainly am not going to attack anyone but I know others will as things continue to deteriorate. That I would experience pleasure if that plane had found its way to K or Wall Street does not make me twisted. Unless you discount the lives that would be saved if the Sociopaths that reside there were removed from this planet.
The problem is that federal government is taking all of our money (the fruit of our labor) and rather than providing anything of substance are saying, “we will give back SOME of your money IF you do this”.
They control us with our own money, while they skim off the top.
There is very little the federal government does that couldn’t be handled more effectively and more efficiently by the state governments.
My father died at the age of 55 from a heart attack brought on by the stress from an IRS audit. So you can imagine why I feel the IRS is an evil agency which should be dissolved and the fair tax implemented.
The current system costs $265 billion a year in compliance costs?!? The current tax system killed my father it has now killed 2 more Americans. How many lives has the current tax system destroyed and will continue to destroy?
Everyone should go to fairtax.org and educate yourself on a far simpler, fairer, cheaper, less stressful way for government to make money.
May everyone destroyed by this complex, corrupt tax system RIP.
I am certainly with you on the Fair Tax.
A simple, ‘fair tax’ system/rate would be acceptable, however it isn’t to the Governments/IRS’s advantage to implement one, so don’t expect one in your life time…if ever. I can’t speak for the rest of you, but as for me, I’ll quote Patrick Henry…
….AND he WASN’T Muslim!? The horror! white people CAN be terrorists too, I guess.
Why do you have to inject racism into this discussion?
Andrew Joseph Stack was nothing but a coward, to his family, to god, to our country. Boo, hoo, hoo, I have money problems and its not my fault, it the big bad government. This domestic (white trailer trash) terrorist who first burned his house and crashed his plane into a building during business hours and killed Vernon Hunter a 27 year Federal employee and 20 year veteran of the US Army with two tours in the Vietnam War.
That post was like maybe 10% fact and 90% speculative b.s.
A coward? To you obviously. You don’t know how the rest of the world feels about it.
Not everyone even believes in a “god”.
He had his own airplane and a nice home in Austin. Doesn’t sound to me like his “money problems” were all that bad.
(White trailer trash) terrorist? So you are racist? Prejudiced? Where is this coming from?
In my opinion you are no better than a lynching mob or a witch hunter.
Much has been made of the IRS agent being a Vietnam veteran, which to me is ironic
because VC tax collectors were prime targets for SEALs and Special Forces. Joe
Stack is not a hero, but he is a symptom of a much bigger problem. If you keep
forcing someone into a corner, especially someone who feels they have nothing
to lose a situation like this is ineveitable. I put the IRS in the same class
as the DEA, ATF and most other government agencies. They exist in violation of
the Constitution and they blatantly ignore the Bill Of Rights. Americans lose their
homes, jobs, freedom and even lives because Federal agents were “just following
orders”. That excuse didn’t work for concentration camp guards and it sure as hell
shouldn’t work in what is supposed to be a free Republic. Was Stack wrong? Yes and
so was the government. It’s like a row of dominoes: knock one over and you set a
chain of events in motion that can’t be stopped. This will happen again. Count
on it.
I agree Wes, well said.