Peanut,

Yeah, I remember ol' Bozo blathering that slop that was fed to him on a teleprompter, or an earpiece, with the instructions, "Repeat after me. Repeat after me." The success was tied to the greed for power and money gripping the minds of segments of my generation, and the one immediately after, who missed the part of the sixties and seventies that were emphasizing sustainable living patterns, earth friendly architecture of using the detritus of an industrial society for those purposes. And more thought and realization along the same lines of thought.

Those are the real leaders of the 'Boomer' generation, not these inbred vestigial rejects such as the Clintons and Bushes. These people have inserted their redundant, goody two shoe, high school personalities into the American political arena by being the homeliest, most prosaic representation of a generational refutation of current culture that has been marketed into brand name labels, drug wars, corruption, private armies, illegal surveillance, illegal wiretapping, illegal entry and search, illegal confiscation of property, illegal ex post facto laws of immunity, illegal use of the NSA and the CIA for domestic policing, illegal use of the U.S. military for policing U.S. domestic security, illegal use of private security forces within the U.S. for preemptive detainment by entry, abduction, search, confiscation, wiretapping and unneccessary use of force. The illegal destruction of private property under cover of authority while prosecuting arrest for destruction of private property.

This is the continuance of not a culture rich in life and it's creative manifestations of intellectual thought. It is the continuance of prosaic minds based simply on the prosaic mental capacities of offspring succeeding in prosaic structures of status. The acceptable emphasis of quantifiable indicators over anything that might reflect a culture of thought and beauty or even critical analysis of a government ignoring the learned intelligentsia not in business law or business administration, monday night football or 'defense' engineering.

It is an anthropological curiosity of a world empire by money and might for so little public expression of the people who carry, create and guide with true knowledge regardless of financial gain.

In a thousand years will N. America and the U.S. have remnants of architecture, the arts, literature, philosophy as still exists in Europe, Asia and the Middle East? S. America is rich in these cultural examples. Yet the same achievements are grapes withering on vines, flowers failing to bloom having been buried away from the eyes of it's people.

As chessgame says, this makes sense.

It's the only way out, but it's not the way things will be done; I can guarantee that!

The pyramid is inverted with the government controlling everything at the base. Not Stable!

chessgame,

My immediate response is, "All this writing, lip service about strong foundations and support from the bottom up, then Wham, one authoritarian, paternalistic rule from a dickwad god, "...homeowners must not be given "free" mortgages,..."

But...We will give, when all is said and done, $300,000,000,000.00 FREE to corporate shitbags, FREE to the so called 'Federal Reserve' to prevent a non-existent boogieman from destroying the world economy after governmental leaders failed in their financial responsibility to American citizens to prevent this manipulation to begin with.

And remember a corporation's assets are valuable only if it isn't used as criminal enterprise to launder and extort through manipulation of markets and bribe political brain dead leaders.

The 'fed' is a private bank that can always print more money. What will this lead to? I would expect massive inflation and a drop in the value of the dollar vis-a-vis world currencies.

Why is money and the paper markets privatized at all? Their value is completely dependent on what the society as a whole produces and consumes? If the current circumstances don't prove once and for all the collective interest and social health tied to the integrity of paper markets, what will?

We the tax payer get ripped twice in this deal, because they get richer while we pay for it, and we get poorer.

Think about it. This is the inevitable conclusion to the old concept. It has been allowed to play out its course, and now we should well understand the outcome. Dinking around with this rule or that rule in order to try and contain the beast is just postponing the inevitable - ultimately, you can't privatize the wealth earned by a society and expect a long term equitable result.

I agree. But, and that it seems is always the case or however. Remember that Ma Bell breakup? And now, after deregulation, it is like puddles of mercury or the new Terminator whose parts are immediately reattached and functional. Curiously when Microsoft ran into monopoly problems here the general 'aura' of that important case was muted compared to similar European courts addressing the same issue. The Europeans seemed much more ready to chop up Microsoft.

All the U.S. regulations on the banking industry came undone of most regulation before the 1999 Clinton undoing of the 1933 act, name ?sorry, hammered on by Sen. Phil Gramm, that set the final act leading to this mess.

Why is it when alternative solutions are proposed, that the so-called big players did not bring forward or develop, that have shown to be more productive, those ideas, technologies are ignored or minimized politically, when the obvious solution is to encourage? This is not a naive question, even as it sounds so on the surface. I'm not talking about some off the wall half baked urban myth. The first incident of consequence was the gas crunch of '74 with Toyota and Honda making giant inroads selling more efficient autos. It was known twenty years before that oil was a finite resource, that WWII was won, partly, by running Germany 'out of gas." Now a half a century later the same political ball is being tauted, the same arguments of offshore drilling, both the technologies and the environmental problems. Yet with the proven technologies of wind and sun, also known in the 70s' and functional, we as a nation continue to pay lip service with minimal incentives 35 years later. Sure there are huge financial forces at work, and with the financial collapsing going on now, universal health care, alternative power, toxic cleanup, anything intelligent to advance knowledge and the human condition is dead on arrival.

And there is no one on this planet, no matter the logic, is going to tell this bastard that I do not know what I'm talking about when I say, "It's been planned since Nixon, executed in other countries, and is coming home to finish the job."

Naomi Klein put it together perfectly in 'The Shock Doctrine,' an articulation of patterns I was seeing but unsure of what I was seeing. I think she knows a lot of people were in that same cloud of thought. Now we all know for a fact this is our 'Shock' and what is next.

This election is a farce no matter who wins. If some ubiquitous religious icon drifted down with 95% of the vote in a wide screen Cecil B. DeMille manifestation of good over evil occurred would not matter.

Without more awareness by the public, there is nothing but continuation. That saddens me at 61. Especially when my generational peers are facilitating this disgusting abuse of entrusted power for nothing more than a few bucks and two ounces of increased power. These were never my leaders in any attributable way. I see no thinkers, generational philosophers, artists, literary giants of my generation.

I see two bit lawyers for business. I see dead people.

Amen!

I wouldn't count on this. The precise nature and extent of regulation is still wide open for debate. And such discussion will still be framed not by the little people but by the power brokers, pundits and special interests.

I'd agree except for one thing. The Democrats are steadfastly refusing to hammer any nails. In fact, they seem to be holding on to the edge of the lid of the coffin and straining with all their might to make sure it doesn't close.

I think the same thing about this as I thought about Katrina. Both expose the fundamental flaws in what has passed for Republican philosophy for the last couple of decades. This, like Katrina, seems to provide a wonderful opportunity to go straight for the juggler vein of Republican policy.

But, I've sat and watched for the last two years while the Democrats steadfastly avoided going after the vein that Katrina exposed. Obama's convention speech would have been a wonderful time to do. Make a strong statement that sometimes we all face problems bigger than what we can handle on our own. And that in these times, we need to come together as a people to handle these situations. And that the government is the structure for how the society comes together to do this.

But the Democrats won't do that. And now, they seem to be avoiding at all costs going after the exposed juggler that says that deregulation and removing oversight is a good economic policy. We've seen the result. We've seen people abuse the system and the lack of oversight to make fortunes for themselves. And now we've seen that in the long run we, the citizens and taxpayers of this country, end up paying the price.

A wonderful opportunity to go after this deregulation meme and put a stake in its heart for at least a couple of generations. But again, the Democrats are mostly avoiding this. Some talk around the edges. But, in general, the Democrats are willing to smile and wave goodbye to our money as hundreds of billions of dollars flow from our public bank accounts into the accounts of private companies. And I've seen no real attempts at really making the case that says that we regulated these industries for a reason back after the last Great Depression, and that is was a mistake to remove those regulations.

Of course, the reason is that the Democrats and Obama are flush with Wall Street money right now. And that's nothing new. For instance, the vote on the Gramm-Leach bill that repealed Glass-Steagel was passed by a vote of something like 90-8 in the US Senate. Almost all the leading Dems who were in the Senate in 1999 approved it. And it was signed by Bill Clinton who had a little love-fest session with Phil Gramm during the signing ceremony. And there's a statement from Bill Clinton at that ceremony that can be found online where he's glowing about the billions of dollars that this wonderful bill will save consumers.

Yeah right. Some of us knew that was BS at the time. Its one of many reason that some of us supported Nader in 2000. Because we could see that Clinton and the Democrats were as much in the pockets of corporate Amerika as the Republicans.

So, yes, I think you are right in terms of the opportunity to do this being there. But don't hold your breath waiting on the Democrats to take it.

----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"

www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com

Glass Steagall was under Clinton/Gore--let's not forget the unbroken chain of malfeasance. And remember the Telecom Act of 1996--again it is an unbroken chain of malfeasance. The Federal Reserve is a private bank w/out any accountability to Congress. A century of corruption!

Shock Doctrine: privatizing wealth and socializing debt. It's what we used to do to other countries, but as Naomi Klein predicted, we're now importing it.

Everyone's busy freaking out about this meltdown, but jclientelle has nailed it.

The Commando in Thief has NEVER called for anything that would benefit the American people or slow the cash flow to his handlers. And his cries for fast-track action have been reserved for the most egregious of anti-Constitutional acts (PATRIOT act, Military Commissions Act, and all the various legislation designed primarily to retroactively protect his sorry ass from prosecution).

Congress is about to spend the weekend hammering out a fix. I'll save you the wait ...

1) Republicans, under orders, will lard a gravy-train bill filled with non-existent "dollars" to be distributed to the oligarchs who created this crisis.
2) Democrats will roll over on every point.
3) There will be NO regulations and NO repeal of any laws that gutted oversight of the financial/insurance/mortgage industry. There will APPEAR to be some kind of token regulation put on the money boys, but a closer examination will reveal a shocking lack of enforcement apparatus or authority.
4) The smirk will sign it, simultaneously praising Republican congressional efforts on behalf of hard-working Americans, slamming Democrats for trying to obstruct the desperately-needed aid for these self-same citizens, and attaching a couple of just-in-case signing statements absolving himself of responsibility for anything.

It would be a simple task to separate those that , say, got equity loans to pay medical bills, or to buy a small family home, from the flippers and speculators. Its just an excuse. Just admit that you dont give a fu**.

It's a daylight robbery alright. That's social security flowing into Wall Street right now. They couldn't get it by a vote; they're just gonna take it by hyperinflation.

I see no really significant changes in the Obama tax plan that will help the "middle class". And what about the poor (many of which eroneously call themselves "middle class" - especially in "Mountaineer" country)?

No major changes to the tax rates are proposed by the Obama campaign.

No new regulations, or a reinstatement of old repealed regulations - like Glass Stegall. He regards this stuff as "the failed policies of the 60's and 70's".

He does want to waive capital gains taxes for owners of "startup small businesses" - this hardly sounds like a middle class tax break to me.

Good points Rose. It's enough to keep you from filing an income tax return (if you anticipate owing money).

The "invisible hand" is really none more than government providing the RIGGED market corporate welfare checks.

Very nice! I am glad to know someone here sees the ground covered before this pathetic last 30 years, mostly the last 16 consisting of my generation in power. See my other comments, if interested.