Broken Justice - Change.org Petition

Mamadou Diakité has a Change.org petition to reduce crime and corruption in family court. As he states:

My goal here is to lobby the U.S. Congress for the introduction of:

1. a required continuing education addressing professional misconduct for Family Law attorneys.
2. an adequate case management system and ethical and technical training for attorneys and judges in Family Law. 
3. an easier way to report professional misconduct to the appropriate professional authority. 
4. an attorney earnings cap in certain cases of Domestic Relation. 

Diakité, asserts, "statistics show that more money passes through Family Court than any other Court and the more the attorney charges, people are willing to pay because they think money equals skills. Family Court in the USA is a highly profitable business.  The only winners in these courts are the attorneys.  This is not what it was intended to be.  Let's change it!

Unethical attorneys' conduct and bad Family Court judgements leave family broke, emotionally and financially damaged.  Please sign my petition to help me make my case and indict the system; and hopefully make legislative changes to help improve the legal process to better serve the families that utilize it."

Diakité has written a book, Broken Justice, about his experience with family court. I have yet to read the book, but my guess is Diakité's experiencing is similar to mine as well as so many others. 

Is Alimony An Outdated Concept?

Dhrishni Thakuria believes alimony is an outdated concept and I wholeheartedly agree with her. She has an interesting take on the historical reasons for alimony which I have not heard in quite the same way before: 

Alimony has an interesting history, one that was basically a somewhat derogatory assistance for women who were seen as the “weaker sex.” The law in the United States is based on the laws found in Ecclesiastical Courts in England. Since the husband was the sole owner of all marital property, and the wife depended upon him to provide for her sustenance, the English Ecclesiastical courts consistently ruled that the husband had the duty to provide for the wife after divorce as well. Otherwise she would become, “a burden of the people.” Heaven forbid there should be any burdensome women around!

Most people who desire alimony are just looking for free money. They effectively claim they are so weak and incompetent they are unable to support themselves so need their ex-spouse to do so. And keep in mind it is usually the person who receives alimony who asked for the divorce. (Of course there are cases where long-term alimony is deserved - for example, imagine a person who has a debilitating disease and cannot work at all along with a n ex-spouse who wasted marital assets due to gambling or such, but these cases are quite rare) 

Receiving alimony when you are perfectly capable of supporting yourself seems not only immoral but, given that 98%+ of the time the man is paying, quite sexist as well. The funny thing is that that men who argue against permanent alimony are taking a strong feminist position.  

This reminds me of the move The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. In it, Tatum accuses Bullock of mans-planing to which Bullock states she can be mans-planing because she is a woman. Tatum replies that he is a feminist and believes a woman can do anything a man can. 

Injustice

My case and this site are all about justice. Justice is about fair and equal treatment under the law.  What I have found out from experience is the reality of our judicial system is much, much different.  In some cases, such as mine, the people who break the laws and rules are richly rewarded while the victims are punished. In other cases, such as below, punishment for crimes committed varies, sometimes incredibly so, depending on who you are. (click on image to enlarge)

Justice is at best inconsistent in our legal system. Which, in the end, only creates contempt for the law. 

Divorce Is Both Lucrative And Corrupt

Lucrative and corrupt are go hand in hand.

Here is an interesting new video from Dr. Brooks McKenzie on just how corrupt the divorce industry is. I like they way he handles an obviously hostile to men audience member. I'll have to check out Dr. McKenzie some more. He seems like a reasonable and even sided person. 

Morons

I sometimes watch Australian news as I like their direct and often humorous style. This video on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is both hilarious and disturbing.

Putin's FSB in faking evidence for a  fictional Ukrainian plot to assassinate one of his favorite journalists actually signed a document literally "Illegible Signature" because they were told to make a document with an illegible signature. This is what they presented to the world as evidence. 

I cannot help but compare the Russian FSB's actions to those of the Ramsey County Attorney's office who claim in writing that lawyers commit no crime when they commit fraud in court and the term "fraud upon the court" does not exist in Minnesota statutes. And then refuse to explain or even discuss their statements at all. Not just morons but dangerous ones. 

Marriage Irritations

The Atlantic had an interesting article -  a man ruminating on his divorce. 

For a long time after his divorce Mathew Fray would say: 

My wife left me because sometimes I leave dishes by the sink.

He left dishes by the sink and it drove his wife crazy. It took Fray a long time to realize it wasn't about the dishes. He could have easily not left dishes by the sink and his wife could have easily not cared that he did. It was just their way of expressing an ever deepening alienation with each other.

I find the story interesting because I am one of those people who does not leave dishes lying around. But when others do it does not bother me - I just put them away. I always thought of it as building karma and a what would Jesus do type of action. I rarely get upset about little things. 

When people get upset by little things I do, I just don't do those things anymore. Unfortunately, that sometimes causes me to miss that it isn't the little thing that upsets the person, it is something deeper. 

Sometimes people get together for the wrong reason, or one person believes the other is different than they really are, or thinks they can change the other person, or the other person does change but not in a good way. Every failed relationship is different. Sometimes broke can't be fixed. Sometime it shouldn't  be fixed. 

Even long after Spring lost interest in me as anything other than a source of money, I tried to keep the marriage together. I failed to realize it was well beyond fixing. Maybe I would have realized this if I had paid more attention to the little things.

Women Who Pay Alimony

Although the vast majority of alimony is paid by men (+98%), there are cases of women having to pay it as well. They are none too happy about it. Sonia Delgado is one such woman who has written in support of Florida's proposed alimony reform bill. 

However, during the divorce, I learned a word I had never known — alimony. It never occurred to me that if I left this horrible situation, I would have to continue to work to pay a significant amount of my hard-earned income to a man who refused to work, abused his familyand still refuses to even look for work.

How could this happen to me in the land of the free? It happened because current Florida law allows it to happen and divorce lawyers drain families of all their savings and assets to get as much alimony as possible for their clients ... in this case, my ex-husband. The inconsistency of outcomes in court encourages lengthy and costly litigation. And, who really wins? Divorce lawyers do.

Exactly.