Living in an Imperial World: We're the Law and You're Not

From California comes this tale of equal justice under the law, as long as "equal" means those with "authoritah" receive benefits not offered to ordinary citizens:

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It's 1:45 p.m. on a Wednesday in February and a Toyota Camry is driving west on the 91 Express Lanes, for free, for the 470th time.

The electronic transponder on the dashboard – used to bill tollway users – is inactive. The Camry's owners, airport traffic officer Rudolph Duplessis and his wife, Loretta, have never had a toll road account, officials say.

They've never received a violation notice in the mail, either. Their car is registered as part of a state program which hides their home address on Department of Motor Vehicles records. The agency that operates the tollway does not have legal access to their address.

Their Toyota is one of 996,716 vehicles registered to motorists who are affiliated with 1,800 state and local agencies and who are allowed to shield their addresses under the Confidential Records Program.

An Orange County Register investigation has found that the program, designed 30 years ago to protect police from criminals, has been expanded to cover hundreds of thousands of public employees – from police dispatchers to museum guards – who face little threat from the public. Their spouses and children can get the plates, too...

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Read the whole thing, then jump to Billy Beck, who will give us today's vocabulary word:

Nomenklatura

Do you have nomenklatura where you live, boys and girls?

I'll bet you do.

And I'll also bet there's precious little you can do about it, either.

You're just a civilian.

Remember that - if you know what's good for you.

We are the "Only Ones".

And you're not.