America From Freedom To Fascism - A Film By Aaron Russo

[matty]

Oiii who said you could butt in Matty @rse off

 

hahah only joking m8 opps sorry mate

 

 

I'll get me coat!!!

 

/crack on!!

[Chinahand]

I've just posted a review of this dross in my Blog.

 

As is typical of me its over long and so I've not posted it here, but if you are bored and enjoy strangled prose give it a go!

 

My main points is that Russo doesn't understand the idea of legislative intent which is an important part of law.

 

He deliberately distorts the Constitutional changes that paved the way to create a Federal Income tax ... he's right the ammendment didn't create any new powers - why: cos powers already existed to create indirect taxes. But the ammendment did was remove the requirement that Taxes have to be apportioned which was THE main stumbling block to a Federal Income tax.

 

Russo deliberately avoids supreme court rulings in the 50s and 70s which addressed the legislative intent of the Congress in its taxation statutes - these rulings clearly found that Congress was intending to create an income tax system and include the taxation of wages within this. Legislative intent is important: there may be no single line of statute that says: set up an Income tax system. But the question is what did the legislators intend to do. Since these ruling the Supreme Court has been happy about income tax and let problems with it be dealt with by the lower courts.

 

Russo seems not to understand that when the Supreme Court Justices refuse to take an appeal of a lower court action it is because they do not think there is any controversey in law with the lower courts ruling. Lower courts have consistently upheald the legality of the Federal Income tax and the supreme court, in its refusal to get involved, agrees with them.

 

I find the final parts of the film simply anti-globalization drivel. Free trade, open boarders, cross national cooperation are all portrayed as evils destroying our freedoms. I totally disagree; freedom has flourished under these conditions and it is when they are restricted that fascism and totalitarianism flourish.

 

About the only part of this film I agreed with were the sections on the Patriot act. On income tax, the Federal Reserve, technology, free trade, the free movement of people I think he is plain wrong and fails to seriously address the issues.

 

I presume a considerable number of the people posting praise for this drivel firmly believe the world is controlled by evil bankers destroying our freedoms. I'd really like to know why you think this is so. We live in a prosperous age, where trade and finance and people's hard work are creating wealth at a rate almost never seen before in world history. Of course there are terrible problems, and even in the richest countries of the world there are genuine difficulties that will result from this process, but to see this as enslavement and fascism is just so much rhetorical bull.

 

Russo's got an agenda and is using every trick in the book to push it. Fine, he's welcome to try to do that, but when I've looked at what he's saying it just doesn't stack up.