The real scourge of modern society is the effect of programming and algorithms on the structure of thought. To reduce reasoning to zeros and ones, yes or no and black and white is to encourage perpetual ignorance and unforgiving idealism that has no compassion nor capability of distinguishing nuances that the real world encompasses.
The Law is supposed to be a healing art and profession. The tangled perceptions and occurrences in the lives of us all make each entanglement the subject of unique definitions.
For instance, this morning I heard the report on KCBS news radio about a man driving without his lights. He never had a ticket and when the officer returned to let him off with a warning he was snorting (or about to vacuum) a line of cocaine.
Later, I go by an open storefront on Shattuck in Berkeley of a deli with a man at the door and his pants down. Was he urinating? defecating? (Was he even aware he could be arrested for a sex offense?) The post office restrooms are just a half block away. Toleration is not compassionate. Toleration seems to be a euphemism for ignoring others.
Ignoring others has led to where we are, wallowing in fear and ignorance. Ignore and ignorance must have the same root.
It has been said, I’m told, that ignorance is bliss. If so, why are so many angry?
Confused? Semantics has a wonderful saying, “The map is not the territory”. This means that the colors aren’t the real color and mountains are different than depicted. Same for words. Words are not the thing (or person).
The Common Law is based upon reason and what a reasonable person might do in this or a similar situation and then how far the acts and mental state are to be evaluated as being in concert or too negative to allow. What is allowed is the subject of politics. (More on that when I can discuss Medical Marijuana and addressing iatrogenic fatalities in a future column (Google Hint: top five causes of death)).
It has been reported that a society is judged by it’s treatment of children and elders. The United States, from what I have seen, fails.
In a recent matter in Probate Court regarding a conservatorship several troubling aspects became more than apparent and indicate a judicial corruption coupled with appointive and elected offices and officers such as to take one’s breath away.
Available proof exists in abundance of the drugs a child might arrange through the current crop of “pill” doctors to be prescribed for their parent in a scheme to create the illusion or bring the onset of dementia-one that destroys the seat of memories and new brain cells: the hypothalamus! Benzodiazepines in response to unnecessary anxiety from thyroxin when no clinical hypothyroidism is indicated are a known problem.
After 9 months of this therapy (cute, n’es pas?) the parent is taken to another “doctor” for more and finally the “doctors” declare the parent senile and with dementia and incompetent. Induced diminished capacity.
Of course, the other vultures stand by. New scheme or old? You be the judge.
First, why wait for my inheritance if I can take control of my parent and their assets? Clever children everywhere are waking up to the fact that elderly parents might “waste” their inheritance.
If you have the funds the game gets more fun for the rich kids. Dig it: they get a conservatorship mill to crank up. Some of the children feel left out by one or some of their other siblings. Revenge and excitement like an old Greek play or Shakespearian history begin to unfold and the particulars can be quite shocking.
The mill has lawyers, real estate agents, appraisers, financial planners, trustees and, most importantly, conservators ready to fleece the old darling who has been pharmaceutically muffled. (Sometimes, the Red Star Elder Rescue Service has been able to get an elder off the drugs only to watch the court system accept the corrupt schemes as long as they can “dip their beaks” as well into the elder’s “assets”.)
This happened, in essence to Bill Graham’s orphanage mate. The Judicial system is broken. I watched the court reporter pack up and leave off taking transcripts for the case despite having sat and court-reportered through the previous eight matters which, as the one to be unreported, were of the same theme – Trusts.
The unreported minutes have included the appearance of a retired judge (who is not subject to Judicial Performance Review but perhaps the bar and certainly by history)(Is it true a U.S. Senator has a relative in the same or similar pharmacuffs?).
The retired judge was sitting at the request of the Chief Judge , after the Chief had denied a temporary order and was sent in to give a certain outcome to a certain troublesome lawyer and make a statement to that lawyer. The order was Granted. Conservatorship of a competent and lucid eighty plus year old was Granted.
That is how they hamstring good lawyers:they punish their clients! ( Google Hint: .theguardian judge-bias-corrupts-court-cases)
But, back to the present trust case without the transcripts. That Judge Granted with modifications: covering forgery, legally insufficient and unclear passage of title while shielding the fiduciaries, past and present, from liability – generally dusty and cleaning – and failing to actually file a substantive order, just the title. The Attorney General of California should talk to the Lieutenant Governor of the State of California about this.
Breaking news in Berkeley includes the homeless and my friends at the protest around City Hall and the Berkeley Post Office. The camp was broken up but the agents of the government unzipped Mike’s tent to arrest him in a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment strictures against unlawful and unreasonable searches and seizures. They went into a structure without a warrant ( I have counseled that a tent and the shelter it provides is a homeless right to shelter and privacy under Supreme Court decisions like Griswold v Connecticut and hence a protected “home”).
This could get Mikes name in the annals of the US Supreme Court.
Next time I will give you some inside on the “Shrimp Boy” case in Federal Court in San Francisco. (And my email from his defense lawyer thanking me for the help.)
In the meantime, is it fair for the Federal Government to use a non-cannabis state to call into a pro-cannabis state and set up a business in order to arrest and charge someone for money laundering, conspiracy and drugs ( herbs?) ? Ask Kamala Harris. Ask Leland Yee. No, better, yet, ask Ed Lee about Conroy being assigned to supervise San Francisco Federal attorneys in charge of snaring someone.
Do States rights also apply to counties and Siskiyou County disallowing all medical marijuana? Isn’t this likely to cause different standards for medical care in different states and counties?
Question Authority! Cue up Queen, “We are the Conquerors”.
This column is hereby adjourned until the same time and place next week. Aloha!