Short Story: “Signing Statement” March 8, 2008
Posted by gznork26 in Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: bankruptcy, calculated risk, collection agencies, corporate incarceration, corporate rights, credit cards, Fremont-Wayfarer, FW Diner, psychological warfare, social engineering
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Do you agree with all of the things you’ve signed? (This sequence of Business short stories started in “Logical Conclusion“)
“Signing Statement”
Part 11 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
[03/03/2008]
Leetha Berismont, looking all the prosperous artist she wasn’t, gazed right through the lean stranger having lunch with her, trying valiantly to hide her anxiety. She registered neither his pleasant voice nor the bright yellow jumpsuit enclosing the server who had just collected her plastic. Her feigned smile drooped uncomfortably. Regaining mental focus, she found that her right hand, which normally spent its days cranking out presentation graphics for her freelance gigs, was clutching at nothing, and that the grate of split nails against table had stilled his voice.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” she said, self-consciously retreating. “What were you saying?”
Marlowe Swaine was a regular at the FW Diner, one of a dozen or so closet activists who had come out at the gentle urging of the staff. “Taxes,” he said. “You’d asked why they insist on taxing everything.”
She nodded, and glanced towards the entrance, where their server was handing the man behind the register her charge card. Like everything else at the newly bustling chain, the employees were dressed in prison theme.
Not so long ago, it wouldn’t have been possible to directly punish a corporation. But then the unthinkable happened. A federal judge ruled that corporations were to be treated as any other citizen, and the Supreme Court chose not to overturn it. At first, the business sector was overjoyed. But then the other shoe fell. (more…)
Short Story: “Puzzled” February 28, 2008
Posted by gznork26 in Fiction, Metaphysics, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: 14th Amendment, complicit media, corporate rights, corporatocracy, fixed elections, protest, white house
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Getting involved is not always a choice.
“Puzzled”
by P. Orin Zack
[02/20/2008]
“I thought I’d find you in here.”
The stark white room was supposed to have been secure. But then, architecture at the Great Interdimensional Library always was more mind than matter. Ask anyone who accidentally found themselves wandering its halls during an especially vivid dream. Except that it wasn’t a dream. In some respects, it was more real than the places those dreamers had gone to sleep. In others…
Hilbran looked up from the tiny flag fluttering on the jigsaw piece squirming in his hand and turned around. “Which, of course, is why you did,” he said, annoyed at the intrusion. “Tell me something, Sev, does it ever bother you that your obsession with free will is contradicted by how the Library works? After all, that door behind you only manifested because you wanted to find me. Anyone who knows about this room would have come in from over there.”
Sev glanced at the animated puzzle piece in Hilbran’s hand, and then at the open hallway he was gesturing at across the room. Two people had just entered, a woman with gray-streaked hair and a much younger man carrying a leather case. “You needed a team this time? I thought dropping into a working reality and mucking things up was more of a solo gig.” (more…)
Short Story: “Edifice of Lies” February 10, 2008
Posted by gznork26 in Fantasy & SF, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: artificial intelligence, cognitive dissonance, corporate rights, NLP, psychological operations
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If thoughts are things, how much around you was built with them? (This is a follow-up to the short story, “The A Word“.)
“Edifice of Lies”
by P. Orin Zack
[2/9/2008]
Joanna Bjornsen gaped helplessly at the Synthetic holding her at gunpoint in her living room. The cost of fielding Synthetics demanded that they be visually as unique as the flesh and blood people for whom they performed tasks too complex or too hazardous for the usual dumbed-down spawn of the world’s corporate-controlled education systems to handle. This one had a vaguely Chinese look, an effect that helped to identify the multinational that had built him, but it was something in his eyes that had fixed her attention.
“You recognize me,” he said quietly. His voice was heavily processed, filtered of inflection, and came across as the kind of non-threatening tone that actors often affect in sales vids.
She closed her eyes and swallowed as she realized it wasn’t a question. Synthetics operated on a faster time scale than people. In the half-minute she’d been standing here, svi Gilholic had more than enough time to scan the room and fill in any gaps there might have been in his assessment of her from the books and other tell-tales of inner life that she surrounded herself with.
When she opened them again, it was with remorse. Several years earlier, svi Gilholic had engaged the ACLU in a suit seeking equality for Synthetics, using the tenuous legal standing of corporations as legal persons for precedent. The corporate interest group that underwrote the opposition to that case had engaged her to craft the campaign of disinformation adopted by the government and spread by the captive media to slander Synthetics and squash the nascent public support for them.
“Yes. I know who you are.”
He motioned for her to sit in a nearby chair. “Then you also know why I’ve sought you out.” (more…)
BSB#3 – A Hard Box to Think Outside Of January 18, 2008
Posted by bankshotblogger in Bank Shot Blogger, Business.Tags: bankruptcy, corporate incarceration, corporate rights, financial meltdown, FW Diner, mortgage strike, the debt monster
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If you’re a regular reader — especially if you’ve followed me from the now-expunged spot where my blog used to appear — then you know I’ve got a pretty good imagination. Before the gang of 9 upheld the Federal Court ruling giving corporations full rights of citizenship, I’d sketched out how a corporate incarceration might go down. What I hadn’t counted on was the whiplash-inducing turnabout that Fremont-Wayfarer’s court ordered unionized workforce pulled when its criminal CEO flew the idea of capitalizing on the whole prison thing with a campy makeover of the FW Diners. But hey, if that’s what it takes to launch a chain of private-property dens of activism, I’m all for it.
Anyway, I’ve been gnawing at a question someone threw at me the other night, and I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t got the first clue of an answer. Normally, I can just pull at a loose thread somewhere and weave a whole fabric of supposition from it. You know, step inside the fantasy and catch a glimpse of the implications you can only see while you’re there. But this… I’m stumped. So here’s the deal. If someone out there can pry out a handhold on this quandary, I’ll see what I can do with it. Maybe together we can find an answer before the bottom falls out of this Ponzi scheme of an economic system and it’s moot. (more…)
Short Story: “Bank Shot” December 12, 2007
Posted by gznork26 in Bank Shot Blogger, Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: 9/11, astroturfers, corporate incarceration, corporate personhood, corporate rights, credit, federal reserve, free speech, international bankers, mainstream media, mortgage, murder, parole officer, prison, protest, repugnican, subversive, terrorism suspect, union, World Trade Center, WTC
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“Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi. (This sequence started in the story, “Logical Conclusion“)
“Bank Shot”
Part 10 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
(12/07/07)
“Did you hear? The ‘Bank-Shot’ blogger’s here tonight!”
Leovar Agrolkin turned to the stranger seated beside him in the union hall, a trucker, judging from the logos on his jacket. “Who?”
“John Frachetti… the guy in those pictures with the company’s parole officer. You know, the one who started all the talk about taking the bankers down a notch. They say he had something to do with Reese’s murder.”
Edward Reese had been the CEO of Fremont-Wayfarer before he was found shot to death in one of the chain’s dingy motel rooms. He was also responsible for turning the FW Diners into faux prison chow halls, complete with bright yellow jumpsuits for the servers. Leo hated yellow.
“Sure. I know him. I was there.”
This was Leo’s first union meeting. The graying waiter had managed to reach fifty without ever taking a job that required it, this one included. But then the company was sentenced to a three-year imprisonment for a massive theft orchestrated by the executives, and Judge Clary wanted a union rep on the reformulated board of directors. Only thing was, it wasn’t a union shop. So they went and formed one, signed everyone up, no questions asked. Which was fine with Leo. His background wasn’t something he was too thrilled letting folks know about. After all, who wanted an accused terrorist in their midst? (more…)
Short Story: “The Tallysheet Bankers” December 7, 2007
Posted by gznork26 in Bank Shot Blogger, Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: blogger, boardroom, corporate incarceration, corporate rights, fiat money, Frank Capra, George Bailey, Henry Potter, international bankers, SEC, stocks and bonds, union
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Unexamined assumptions can illuminate old stories in new ways. (This sequence started in the story, “Logical Conclusion“)
“The Tallysheet Bankers”
Part 9 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
(12/03/07)
John Frachetti stood in the hallway, contemplating a door. Not the one he’d just shrunk from opening, the formidable walnut-stained entrance to the executive conference room on the top floor of Fremont-Wayfarer’s corporate headquarters, nor the figurative ingress of a chamber that might serve as his access to the world stage, but rather, a more private one, the door to the inner sanctum of his soul.
Happenstance had tangled the thin cry of his blogger’s rant against the tallysheet bankers with the anti-corporate rage being husbanded in the prison-bedecked dining rooms of the company’s restaurants. Persons unknown had murdered Edward Reese, its Chief Executive, and left him, a message still to be read, in the motel room where he’d turned down the chance to avert the trial that had ultimately imprisoned the corporation itself. And now, John had been summoned to speak before what remained of its Board, to defend the call to action which had so galvanized the chain’s employees and patrons alike, and which had driven the talking heads to demand the shuttering of thousands of doors, and the diners behind them.
He closed his eyes and took a calming breath. The hot flame that warmed his soul and illuminated his world seemed to crackle, casting an otherworldly blue glow through the insubstantial aural cloak that surrounded his inner self, protecting him from the destructive impulses of those nearby. At peace with himself, he opened his eyes, reached out and opened the door.
“There he is,” a grating voice boomed, “the sorry little cretin responsible for trashing this business.” (more…)
Short Story: “Unvarnished Siding” December 2, 2007
Posted by gznork26 in Bank Shot Blogger, Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: activist revolt, blogger, conviction, corporate crime, corporate rights, first amendment, international bankers, parole officer, penal system, riots, subversive, supreme court, suspected terrorist, war on terror
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The important moments in your life don’t always seems so at the time. (This sequence started in the story, “Logical Conclusion“)
“Unvarnished Siding”
Part 8 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
(11/29/07)
“You wanted to see me, Your Honor?” The woman’s voice was breathy. She’d been running.
US District Court Judge Wilfred Clary, who noticed such things because he often ran to meditate on big cases, sat back in his leather chair and peered over the monitor at the backlit silhouette in his office doorway. He tended to leave it open when he wasn’t meeting with anyone, a practice that reflected his annoying willingness to be interrupted. This quirk had been mentioned repeatedly in “Corporate Crime Wave”, the new book about two high-profile cases he had ruled on in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to extend full rights of citizenship to corporations. The increased foot traffic it caused was beginning to irritate him. This visitor, however, was not only welcome, he was eager to speak with her.
“Claire,” he said gruffly, “Good to see you. Come in and close the door.”
Claire Fuller had the dubious honor of being the first of a new kind of parole officer. He had picked her to oversee the three-year imprisonment of Fremont-Wayfarer Corporation for stealing from its employees’ self-insurance fund. That was the second of the two cases in the new book. The first was Consolidated Communications. It had been terminated for the deaths it had knowingly caused, so there was nothing to oversee except employee outplacement and asset disbursal.
“Sorry I’m late, sir. I got tied up with —.”
“All I want to hear right now is an explanation. Why are the news feeds running a picture of you having dinner with a suspected terrorist?” (more…)
Short Story: “Unplanned Outing” November 28, 2007
Posted by gznork26 in Bank Shot Blogger, Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: Arbusto, bankruptcy, corporate media, corporate rights, first amendment, free speech, George W Bush, imprisonment, insolvency, Jefferson, prison, riot, sentence, spooks, subversive, supreme court, war on terror, World Trade Center, WTC, WTO
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Richard Bach once wrote, ‘Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world, even if what is said is not true’. (This sequence started in the story, “Logical Conclusion“)
“Unplanned Outing”
Part 7 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
(11/24/07)
The attractive cashier behind the counter flashed a smile as cheery as her uniform was drab. Her key-shaped nametag had ‘Barbara’ scratched into it. The contrast of woman and wardrobe only heightened the disconcerting sense of unreality broadcast by the glowing ball-and-chain sign outside, the big plastic window bars, and the waitstaff’s sunny yellow prison jumpsuits. “Welcome to the FW Diner,” she said. “Table for one, ma’am?”
Claire Fuller didn’t usually frequent chain restaurants, preferring instead to encourage independents, but tonight she was on a mission. On the drive over, she’d debated whether to volunteer her identity, but chose instead to let them treat her as any other patron. And that might have happened if the place weren’t so crowded, or maybe if she hadn’t been distracted by the sight of Fremont-Wayfarer CEO Edward Reese’s perverse idea of a family restaurant. She nodded.
“Probably about ten minutes. Your name?”
The last syllable had scarcely passed her lips when she realized what she’d done. (more…)
Short Story: “Serving Time” November 7, 2007
Posted by gznork26 in Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: corporate rights, incarceration, prison, reframing, union
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Job got you down? Imagine if you worked here. (This sequence started in the story, “Logical Conclusion“)
“Serving Time”
Part 5 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
(11/06/2007)
Leon Jackson glared at the FW Diner’s new sign as he pulled into the parking lot. Its familiar curved roadway design had been replaced with a stylized ball-and-chain. “That’s disgusting,” he grumbled, glancing at his wife.
“Could have been worse,” Francine said, wincing. “They might have used a hanging tree, except the company was imprisoned. Maybe they should have shot it.”
Fremont-Wayfarer’s high-profile trial and conviction for stealing from its own employees had been the second case following the Supreme Court’s momentous decision to grant full citizenship to corporations. The first had ended in a death sentence, dissolving the company and throwing thousands of people out of work. This one marked the end of unbridled corporate behavior, for the court had imposed severe restrictions, replaced its board of directors, and assigned a new kind of parole officer to oversee its three-year sentence. The CEO was doing his best to make a buck off it. (more…)
Short Story: “Turnabout” September 25, 2007
Posted by gznork26 in Business, Fiction, Politics, Short Stories.Tags: corporate rights, corruption, freedom of speech, incarceration, P. Orin Zack, penal system, supreme court, union meeting
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What if corporations were treated like people? Opportunity comes in unexpected packages. (This sequence started in the story, “Logical Conclusion“)
“Turnabout”
Part 4 of a series
by P. Orin Zack
(9/23/2007)
Alizondo Klee broke out in a broad smile when he saw the knot of picketers gathered around the entrance to the union hall. He walked up to a young man in a business suit, and pointed at the sign he held. “Is this as surreal for you as it is for me?”
The picketer glanced up at his sign. “We’re serious. Labor has no business in the board room. You’re not management.”
“You’ll have to take that up with Judge Clary. His orders were clear. One of the terms of Fremont-Wayfarer’s sentence for stealing from its employees’ insurance fund was a union rep in the board room.”
“What union rep?” He snorted. “There is no union. Reese wouldn’t allow it.”
Klee laughed. “There is now, buster, and the CEO didn’t have any say in the matter. Now, let me through.” (more…)
