Guest Post by Jesse
Suicide is a prohibited form of violence in my own belief, as are all other forms of murder. Therefore I would not hold this type of protest up as an example to anyone.
However, an even worse offense would be to completely ignore the message which this young man delivered, as most of the mainstream media has done in the US.
I did not even know what really happened until I read this article below from Wall Street On Parade today. The police and media referred to it as a ‘social protest.’
Before he killed himself, the young man held up a sign that said “Tax the One Percent.”
Perhaps an even more pointed message might be ‘shut down the loopholes for the Top .01%.’ Those who make their money from wages and ordinary income pay fairly significant taxes.
However, the uber-rich have so many loopholes and tax avoidance schemes that they often pay much lower percentage than even those in the lowest income levels. The top .01% use the upper middle class as shields for their antics.
You may read the entire article about this here.
Rather than one young light be extinguished and quickly overlooked by the powerful, perhaps it would be better if a million people were to march on the Capitol, and effective shut it down in protest this Summer. That might get their attention. Alas, the apathy in the people is pervasive, at least for now.
Wall Street On Parade
22-Year Old Commits Suicide at Capitol to Send Congress a Message
By Pam Martens: April 14, 2015
At approximately 1:07 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, April 11, during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival celebrating springtime in the Nation’s Capitol, a 22-year old man took his own life with a gun on the Capitol grounds with a protest sign taped to his hand. According to the Washington Post, the sign read: “Tax the one percent.”
Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Department released the young man’s name. He was Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois. Based on what is currently known, the young man had traveled to Washington, D.C. for the express purpose of making a political statement with his sign and then ending his young life.
The Chicago Tribune reported that “Thornton’s parents filed a missing persons report on the morning of April 11 after he never came home from work on April 10, Lincolnwood Deputy Police Chief John Walsh said.”
Those are the tragic facts of the incident itself. But there is a broader tragedy: the vacuous handling of this story by corporate media. The Washington Post headlined the story with this: “Rhythms of Washington Return after Illinois Man’s Suicide Outside Capitol.” The message he delivered to his Congress – tax the one percent – has yet to be explored by any major news outlet in America in connection with this tragedy.
Was the message of Leo P. Thornton of Lincolnwood, Illinois a critical piece of information for this Congress to hear at this moment in American history. You’re damn right it was. Outside of Wall Street’s wealth transfer system, provisions in the U.S. tax code are the second biggest wealth transfer system to the one percent. Together, these two systems have created the greatest income and wealth inequality since the economic collapse in the Great Depression. They threaten a repeat of the 2008 financial collapse because the majority of Americans do not have the wages or savings to support the broader economy…
That will teach them. Now the 1 % will change their ways.
That will teach them. Now the 1 % will change their ways.
Kinda what I was thinking… that, and “what a dumbass”…
Guy drives all the way from Lincoln Log, Illinois to DC, tapes a fuckin’ sign to his hand and BANG!!
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Sorry, folks. The One Percent is mostly made up of smart, hard-working people whose wealth is the result of a lifetime of toil, savings, and investment. The top .001 percent is where the real theft is. These are the creeps on Wall Street and elsewhere who have rigged the game for their own benefit. Don’t be fooled.
That stupid kid wasted his life to perpetuate the focus just as TPTB want it be. That’s exactly what they want is to keep everyone at each others throats arguing over who isn’t paying enough in taxes. The fact is you could “tax the rich” 100% of their income and still not balance the budget or hope to ever pay off the Debt.
The only real answer is to cut spending. Cut the size of Government and I’m talking substantial cuts like at least 50% or more. But no, TPTB don’t want that idea to ever take hold. That would result in loss of power for them and their ability to control and Fuck us over.
So that stupid kid did exactly what TPTB want. Keep us angry and fighting each other over how to get the other guy to pay more taxes. That way the real, the obvious solution never gets considered.
Laughing the elite say “1 more useless eater gone….6.5 billion to go.”
I think no government employee should have to pay taxes. What’s the point? File a tax form and pay taxes and have those same taxes put back in their own pocket.
The public must demand that no federal, state, or local public employee pay taxes. They should just receive a lower salary that reflects the reality that the public pays them.
Their needs to be a constitutional amendment to this effect which will change the moral thinking of the people. That way this brain washed idiot may have at least held up a different sign.
Easy, folks. Tranquillo.
He was 22 yoa. He lived with his parents. And he committed suicide. That’s about all we know OF SUBSTANCE.
What was his background, especially his mental health background? If we get the answer to that question, then we can comment more rationally.
Me? I bet he had big mental issues and was taking psychotropic drugs. Just a guess at this point. Did I just violate my own advice to you? Why, yes, I did.
“The fact is you could “tax the rich” 100% of their income and still not balance the budget or hope to ever pay off the Debt.”
With our fraudulent money system, if ever the debt were paid off, there would be no more money in circulation. Every dollar is a debt instrument.
Am I wrong Jim?
SSS, mental issues is a given he killed himself.
What a dumbass. Waste your life begging to have this irredeemably corrupt govt get even bigger and waste even more money. Speaking of wasting money, I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and say this kids death means a solid 100k in student loans will not be getting repaid…..
“SSS, mental issues is a given he killed himself.”
—-Overthecliff
Of course. The question I posed is WHY he killed himself, and I answered: psychotropic drugs. Dollars to doughnuts those drugs were involved.
Mark,
You’re thinking too narrowly. Paying public sector “workers” less and not having them pay taxes is merely symbolic. It accomplishes nothing.
Taxation is theft, and income taxation is the worst form of theft (with the possible exception of the inflation tax). Short of advocating an anarchist society, where there is no public sector to leech off the rest of us, any revenues collected should be based on consumption, not income.
If I save and invest, I am contributing to the ongoing increase in productivity and rising living standards via capital accumulation. If I donate to charity, the recipient benefits.
Only if I buy to consume, should this be subject to fees. The higher the rate, the less demand there is, thus acting as a natural check on an excessive and abusive political class.
But such a system bypasses the ability of Congress to enrich itself through a monstrously complicated tax code fraught with corruption and lobbying. A Congress whose power to influence-peddle is neutered becomes a triviality. The Capitol Hill blowhards would have to do something useful, and that scares them senseless.
Steve ,you give me a hard on and I’m not a fag.
Where it is made publicly known -meaning the information is actually made available and not suppressed- all the bizarre suicides and mass killings other than terrorist attacks involve the use of psychiatric drugs, and usually the forced use of them starting at an early elementary school age.
So during the upcoming election cycle if you actually get a chance to publicly ask a candidate a question make it something like “Mr. Candidate, since psychiatric drugs are virtually always involved in the mass killings in America what do you intend to do about this if elected?” (phrase it the way you would say it)
As I said, do it as publicly and as often as possible, force the issue. Nothing will change unless you force a change, and the force needed is public opinion.