Hilarious!

I laughed out loud when I saw this proposed California ballet initiative:   

California Require State to Pay Spousal Support Initiative (2024)

The initiative would require the state to pay for any court ordered spousal support payments. 

I have a vivid image of a guy who, like me, experiences just how unfair family court is and decides if the judges are going to rule unjustly then the state should be the one paying. To be clear, I have know actual knowledge of the situation which participated the initiative but I suspect my vision is more likely that not. 

Note that the initiative never made it to the ballet and I can't image it ever being implemented even if voted in but, hey, it is fun to dream. 

The Seneca Falls Convention

The Seneca Falls Convention, originally known as the Woman’s Rights Convention, was a meeting held from July 19 to 20, 1848 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York which advocated for the rights of women. 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the meeting’s organizers, began with a speech on the convention’s goals and purpose:

“We are assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without the consent of the governed—to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in case of separation, the children of her love.”

Notwithstanding the fact that in today's world it is often men who have inferior rights, I wholeheartedly agree with the statement above. 

The 11 resolutions passed were:

1. Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature and of no validity, for this is “superior in obligation to any other.”
2. Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.
3. Resolved, That woman is man’s equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.
4. Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance by asserting that they have all the rights they want.
5. Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is preeminently his duty to encourage her to speak and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all religious assemblies.
6. Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman.
7. Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in feats of the circus.
8. Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.
9. Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.
10. Resolved, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities.
11. Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as a self-evident falsehood, and at war with mankind.

Cipolla's Laws Of Stupidity

Carlo M. Cipolla was an Italian economic historian who obtained his undergraduate degree  in 1944 from the University of Pavia. Yes, this was during World War 2 in Italy. Subsequently, he studied and worked around the world eventually settling in as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1977 he came up with the Fundamental Laws of Stupidity.

1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

    Corollary: a stupid person is more dangerous than a pillager.

These have been on my mind lately. 

In our legal system, I think pillagers are the most common. 

Politically, stupid people dominate. 

In Texas But Applicable Everywhere In The U.S.

The naked truth. Well articulated and, for people who have gone through what I have gone through, heart wrenching. 

 

Family Court Corruption in Wisconsin

World justice Day is February 20th and this year Cheryl Geske wrote a letter to the editor of the Point/Plover Massachusetts Metro Wire newspaper to mark it. 

Geske gives a good perspective on corruption in Wisconsin family court. 

Letter: ‘Widespread corruption’ found in Wisconsin courts

February 19, 2024

Editor’s note: World Day of Social Justice is on Feb. 20.

To the Editor-

In recognition of World Social Justice Day, I engaged in a community-in-action call to view and discuss the documentary: “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”

According to Lewis, “My philosophy is simple. When you see something that’s not right, not just, not fair, say something, do something.” That’s pretty much the teaching given to elementary students in school bullying prevention efforts. Adults, how can we hear what you teach when your leadership actions speak so loudly?

The Christine Center, located in west central Wisconsin, hosted the community-in-action call. It is an interfaith retreat center, grounded in the Franciscan tradition whose mission is: Spiritual Deepening for Global Transformation. In that vein, they offer abundant programming, online and in person to grow a more just, compassionate, sustainable and inclusive world.

In Wisconsin, we have trouble. A group of dedicated, loving fathers, most notably organized under the title Wisconsin For Children and Families (WFCF) anguished by Wisconsin child support policy, often living a shoestring, would be qualified candidates for 50/50 placement of their children. However, the government does not make money from a 50/50 approach. Having child support standard orders with inequitable placement does not feed a robust cadre of workers and lawyers and judicial hours to support it. In many instances, children carry the pain of the drama and trauma the courts draw out and even encourage. Some families and children are, unbeknownst, placed on the fast track to the real money maker; foster care. Wonder why child human trafficking is on the rise in Wisconsin, described as an epidemic? Isolated and traumatized children, looking for love in all the wrong places, are cut off from regular familial caring connections.

There is widespread corruption in our Wisconsin courts. Some judges and family court commissioners, much like child protective services, have very little oversight, emphasize confidentially, and engage in wide ranging opportunities to abuse their powers and prey on the weak.

These systems are reactive to being called out — if someone is saying something — much like a schoolyard bully. Watch your back; then comes retaliation and abuse of power. There are networks of parents seeing that they are treated as playthings, or annoyances, or enemies when seeking loving connections with their children.

When experiencing something not just, not fair, I said something, took some self-represented reins. This led to punishment in the form of further legal abuse. It does not feed the monetary objectives of the system and challenges the patriarchy/power. Then, powered by modem, I saw a cartoon that hit home; see no family court evil, hear no family court evil, speak no family court evil. Oops, too late. In the John Lewis documentary, in a moment preceding the police batons and beatings he was told “there would be no words” to consider alternatives to the impending violence.

Anybody reading this see any patterns?

What is becoming clear is governmental systems have only grown more corrupt. In a report published by The Center for Public Integrity headlines: Wisconsin gets D grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation. Noteworthy to this review are F’s given in the areas of Judicial Accountability, State Civil Service Management, and Public Access to Information.

We seek to address youth mental and pour money into mental health bandaids, but fail to look at some of the roots of violence in policy and practice. And yes, the networking on social media, and the power of the internet can be educational. Discernment, and critical thinking are important. So are open minds, open hearts, and open will. That is how we access the field of the future.

Perhaps we need more people to say something to achieve this — good trouble, necessary trouble. While speaking, always know your opinion is just that….open to differences, adjustment, and refinement.

Cheryl Geske

Amherst

How Your Divorce Attorney Is Manipulating You

An interesting and practical podcast on how divorce attorneys manipulate you into spending more money on a divorce than necessary. From Divorce and Your Money. 

The Dark Side

Caroline Douglas, attorney and the author of "Dark Side", disuses family court corruption at the U.S. capital in 2017. Unfortunately not much has changed since then.