Black Robe vs. Black Belt Part 2

There were no oil lamps tonight. No whiteboard questions waiting when the students arrived. The dojo was lit the way it was lit on an ordinary Tuesday—overhead fluorescents, two mats rolled back against the wall, eight folding chairs arranged in a loose arc.

Marcus was there again. He had come back. He sat in the same chair as before, near the wall, but differently this time—upright, not folded. Mara was beside him. Kenji and Priya and Dale had heard something was happening and come without being asked. Three others filled the remaining chairs.

Shidoshi Broe stood at the front with his hands in his pockets. Kerrie sat behind him, off to the side, not on the bench. In a chair. Like a student.

That was the first thing anyone noticed.

Shidoshi Broe:

I want to start tonight with something I should have said at the beginning of this whole series. Something I want on the record before we go any further. The only Americans who owe Federal Taxes, including property taxes, are Federal Employees or their direct dependents.

He paused.

Shidoshi Broe:

Marcus—what happened to you was not your fault. I want every person in this room to understand that before I say another word. The frozen account, the lien, the revenue officer at the door—none of that originated with anything you did wrong. It originated with a system that was built, deliberately and over a very long time, to produce exactly that result. Tonight I am going to show you the system. Not the theory of it. The history of it. The documented, dateable, traceable history of how the trap was constructed and when each piece was put in place.

He walked to the whiteboard and uncapped a marker.

Shidoshi Broe:

Most people assume this story begins sometime in the twentieth century. With the Federal Reserve, or the income tax, or the IRS. It does not. It begins in the year 1100. And once you see where it actually begins, the whole architecture of what has been done to Americans becomes unmistakable...