Corrupt Systems Are Hard To Change

Corrupt systems are hard to change. From 1880 until 1950 over 4000 lynchings occurred agaisnt blacks in 12 southern states. How did the perpetrators get away with this? Because the legal system was rife with corruption. Police, lawyers and judges all let it happen and often were complicit themselves. In almost all cases, even those who knew it was wrong did nothing to stop the murders from being committed. 

To be clear - I believe that the majority of people, in general and within the legal system, during this time did not participate or condone lynchings. But they did not actively work to stop it. The result is that they let a small group of vile and criminal people define their collective morality.

The reason they did not speak up is that they feared the consequences of doing so. Speaking out would jeopardize not only their and their family's social bonds but also their income and even lives. It was easier and safer to remain silent.

A recent study has demonstrated the downsides to whistleblowers.

"In sum, our findings showed that blowing the whistle had—for a large majority—an adverse effect on life and a very negative impact on the mental health of those who blow the whistle, while society in one way or another benefited from their actions. This apparent misbalance in burden needs to be targeted, not only for current whistleblowers but also for future cases to prevent as much as possible that people no longer blow the whistle because of the negative consequences as shown in our and previous studies."

And the larger the scale of where the corruption exists the greater the risk. Blowing the whistle on accounting practices in a small law firm is a lot less risky than blowing the whistle on common, yet criminal, practices within the legal system. I have had lawyers tell me outright that what happened to me is wrong and criminal but that is just the way the system works. I have had lawyers tell me that they disagree with lawyers associations but cannot speak out agaisnt them as they would be ostracized by their peers.

The corrupt individuals are the cancer that sickens the whole.

This site has provided unquestionable evidence of criminal actions within the legal system. Yet the people who have committed the crimes not only have not been punished but have been greatly rewarded for their actions. And the crime continues.  Every day innocent men, women and children are hurt. Many of those victims become violent or self-destructive. No one knows how many people end up dying but it is pretty clear that not a day goes by without someone dying due to corruption within family court. If you do not believe this you are ignoring reality. 

I Need A Michael Osgood

I need a Michael Osgood.

Although he failed, NYPD’s Special Victims Division's Michael Osgood tried to take down Harvey Weinstein in 2015. Why was he unsuccessful? After all he had a victim, Italian model Ambra Battilana and he had solid evidence. What he didn't have was the support of the district attorney. Quite the opposite the DA actively tried to obstruct justice and protect Weinstein. 

In an amazing story, Osgood not only had to put together a case against Weinstein, but had to do so while hiding it from the DA's office as he knew they would dismiss the case given that Weinstein was arguably the most powerful person in Hollywood at the time. 

Like in the divorce industry bringing people to justice takes a lot more than evidence, it takes overcoming the inherent and often pervasive corruption within the legal system. We like to believe that all people are equal under the law but in practice that is far, often very far, from the truth. 

I have the best evidence imaginable that Nelly Wince lied in court and committed fraud. The reaction of the county attorney's office was to tell me there is no law in the state agaisnt a lawyer lying in court. Furthermore, they told me that there is no such thing as fraud upon the court in Minnesota statues despite the very first result when searching Google using the phase "fraud upon the court Minnesota" demonstrates otherwise.  The fact they told me both in writing shows just how normal obstruction of justice is for them. 

I need a Michael Osgood because even though he failed in 2015, just look where Harvey Weisntein is today. And that DA that tried to thwart Osgood's investigation? Today he is fighting for his job. 

How Immoral Behavior Becomes Common

Immoral behavior, whether it be killing innocents in war, genocide, discrimination against people of a certain skin color, gender, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation as well lawyers lying in court, institutions acting corruptly, or law enforcement officials protecting criminals has always fascinated me. How are people able to preform such horrible actions?

I remember hearing about an Iraqi-American who was being tortured while detained in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. She said her torturer paused for a bit to take a call from his wife. In a perfectly normal, even touching conversation they discussed plans for their daughter's upcoming birthday party. When he was done with the call, he resumed his torturing. 

Maybe the reason is that behavior is considered more moral the more common it is as a Swedish study has recently found.

Altruistic behaviour was considered more morally right than selfish, but both behaviours were judged to be more moral and less deserving of penalty if the majority exhibited them than if they were uncommon.

I suspect most people like to think that if they lived in 1930s Germany they would not have been an avid supporter of Hitler. They would not be the ones in the death camps killing innocent men, women and children. Maybe everyone should examine their present actions a bit more closely.

The core reason that immoral and criminal actions are so common in family court and why the perpetrators are able to get away with such horrible acts and crimes, is that these actions are common, even normal. They are ubiquitous.  It is just the way the system works as has been stated to me many times. It is time for the system to change.

Critical Thinking And Good Judgement

I have often told my children that the greatest value of education is that it improves judgment.

Yet many people who are educated have poor judgment. How can this be? The key I believe is critical thinking. Especially self-aware critical thinking.

So what is critical thinking? In essence it is thinking rationally in all aspects.  Especially about your own thoughts and actions. Some would call it mindfulness but it is more than that. It is mindfulness grounded in reality. Perhaps it is easier to look at a few examples of not thinking critically.

• Being convinced an unknown light in the sky is an alien spaceship. 
• Believing a squeak in your house is ghost/fairy/poltergeist/gremlin/leprechaun.
• Believing you have superhero powers and if you just concentrate hard enough you can move objects. Like a Jedi.
• Committing perjury in court like Spring did, yet maintaining that you are a good person and not a criminal. 
• Blatantly breaking the Lawyers Code of Professional Conduct and the law as Nelly Wince did yet believing that you are moral person and upright lawyer. 
• Being responsible for disciplining attorneys who break the Lawyers Code of Professional Conduct as the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board (LPRB) is, yet mostly doing the exact opposite - shielding lawyers from the consequences of their unethical and criminal actions. 
• Knowingly providing false information in order to cover up a crime as County Attorney Bennie Sonsang did. 

Now possibly Spring, Nelly Wince, the LPRB and Bennie Sonsang do think critically and know their actions are abhorrent and criminal but I really doubt it. I think they, like most people who do bad things, mentally avoid thinking critically about their actions. They live delusional lives. 

This delusional thinking is the root cause of nearly all bad things humans do to each other. 

Alimony and Child Abandonment

One of the strange consequences of alimony is that it often allows a parent to effectively get away with child abandonment. 

In Minnesota parental rights can be terminated when:

"the parent has substantially, continuously, or repeatedly refused or neglected to comply with the duties imposed upon that parent by the parent and child relationship, including but not limited to providing the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, education, and other care and control necessary for the child's physical, mental, or emotional health and development, if the parent is physically and financially able"

Now in my case Spring after the divorce (actually before but legally our monies were pooled then) not only never provided a single dime of her income to support the children but actually reduced my ability to provide for them due to her receiving alimony. This despite the substantial amount of money and property she received from her divorce of me and the fact the employment evaluation determined she could make just as much money as me.

If she had done this while single or a widow the court would have taken the children away from her for child abandonment. Now I highly doubt that would have happened because I think, or at least hope, she would have not abandoned the children in such a situation. I think she would have acted in at least a minimally responsible manner. Quite possibly more than minimally.  Indeed, she might have even become a good person not only for the children but for society as a whole.

Responsibility is one of the things that tends to build on itself. If you do the right thing, even if  only because you have little choice, it tends to  build over time. Responsibility is really a learned self-reinforcing behavior. Sadly so is irresponsibility. 

The Real Reason I Loath Corruption

Spring's divorce of me has taught me many things. I learned that she has no problem committing perjury and fraud. I learned that receiving  money from me is worth more than her self-dignity or relationship with the children.

Even more distributing I learned that lawyers such as Nelly Wince commit crimes, crimes which devastate innocent people including many children, as a normal part of their careers.

I leaned that institutions such as the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, whose very existence is designed to ensure lawyers not only act within the law but in accordance with the Lawyers Code of Professional Conduct operate in a way which is nearly exactly the opposite. They protect lawyers from the consequences of their inappropriate and illegal actions. Indeed, according to their own published statistics they virtually never discipline a lawyer unless the lawyer has already been convinced of a crime. Amazingly they have not been able to provide me a single example where they disciplined a divorce lawyer for lying in court. Ever. As a consequence, it is widely known that many divorce lawyers encourage their clients to commit perjury as well as regularly lie and commit fraud themselves. In practice many lawyers seem to use ethical oath as a reverse guide to figure out the best strategies for illegal and unethical behavior.

I learned that many judges, county attorneys, mediators and others regularly act in ways which are quite simply abhorrent.

The consequences of all this are enormous. Innocents are hurt and die. Our economy is negatively affected. And probably worst of all humanity itself is tarnished.  It is depressing that we as humans can act like this. If evil exists, this is it.

Yet ironically, despite all this, I am an optimist. It is absolutely irritating to me that I have to be the person who has to point all this out. This is not what I want to do. What I want is to focus on much bigger issues. I am most interested in the long future of humanity.

I do not really want to write about corruption in the divorce industry. I want to write about how humanity is going to survive and prosper. How we will evolve as a species. How we will expand beyond our home planet. I have had letters published in both Wired and Scientific American on this subject.

I imagine all those corrupt people operating in the divorce industry can't even imagine why this would be important because they have an inability to care about anything but themselves. They have no vision because they care only for themselves. They have lost their souls.

I hope really hope that there are enough people who do care, care for more than just themselves, for our species to survive.

No One is All Good or Bad

On a long flight the other week, I watched the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which is up for an Oscar and I can see why.  It is an amazing film.

What strikes me most is that all the main characters are bad. They do terrible, sometimes horrendous things. But event the worst of them is also at times and in some ways good. Exploring this dichotomy is what makes the movie so great. And the ending, which I won't give away, is not some trite it all works out in the end if we just love each other feel good message.

Given all the unethical and criminal actions committed against me and my children it is easy to view the perpetrators not as people who did bad things but as as bad people. And not just bad but wholly evil. I know that is not the case. Spring, Nelly Wince, Judge Mearly,  and others who committed such horrible acts against me and almost without question agaisnt many others as well, are not 100% evil. No doubt they have family and friends that they like and who like them. No doubt they have done good things as well.

It is good remember sometimes that people are complicated. Good and evil are a range, with no one sitting entirely at one end all the time. Even Jeffery Dahmer had friends who liked him.