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Remember the Communists? The Red Menace? You young people won't of course, because as I sit here Monday night writing this sorrowful recitation Public Television is furnishing me with a gleaming, glowing, grand video hagiography of Ronald Reagan, by which I understand that The Great Communicator defeated those evil, dangerous threats to the American Way Of Life through toughness, resolve and horsemanship. Communists were before your time and you may be forgiven for worrying more and properly about our current threat to The American Way Of Life, International Terrorism.
But if you do recall those decades, you remember we, the self-proclaimed Greatest Nation On Earth, with the most modern, powerful weapons at our disposal, and the bravest soldiers and the smartest generals and the benevolent will of Great God Almighty watching over us and guiding us, nevertheless lived in fear of them-those Communists. We were bigger and we were better, and we were scared, but we were also bold and belligerent and self-assured. But deep down inside, we were scared.
But though Nikita Khrushchev (a fat, bald, loud, funny Communist) or Chairman Mao (a goofy little Communist from China-Red China), or even Fidel Castro or Ho Chi Minh (secondary or subservient Communists we sometimes called "puppets", but of whom we were also fundamentally afraid, yet contemptuous), while any or all of these might wish to annihilate us with atomic bombs or multi-million-man armies that would march across the Pacific and into the living rooms of good, TV-watching, barbecuing Americans, there was one glorious weapon, of immeasurable power and undeniable goodness that would render us triumphant: our economic system.
Capitalism! This, they beat into us all through high school, was what made us great. Maybe the Soviet Union and even Red China could build big chemical rockets and equip them with nuclear warheads. But they could never build as many or update their design as frequently or keep them as shiny and oiled and pretty as ours because those nations labored under the handicap of the government ownership of the means of production. Communists (and to a somewhat lesser but still disturbing degree, Socialists) believed that factories and farms were owned by the citizens collectively, through the agency of government. In America, by contrast, our teachers assured us, individuals started, owned and ran the machinery that made us great.
And, in doing so, each of us who might choose to start a business, build a factory, create jobs, add to the Gross National Product, had a chance to become comfortable, secure, and if everything worked just right, even rich. We might also, of course, make bad decisions and go bankrupt, but that didn't often happen, my teachers told me. This was the Land Of Opportunity and only the lazy, those who would not apply themselves, work hard, get their hands dirty, would fail to prosper. Persons who failed to prosper might end up on welfare. (Years later, Bill Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it", and pretty much did, so now life might be just a bit rougher even for those lazy misfits lacking sufficient ambition.) That was the deal, and most people most of the time believed it was a good one.
But time passed. Conditions, I guess, changed. In 1979 Congress took pity on the Chrysler Corporation, the smallest of America's three giant automobile manufacturers, and provided an infusion of half a billion dollars or so to help those good folks over a rough spot in their road. Then, after being freed from some troublesome government regulations in the early 1980s, America's savings and loan institutions went into the real estate business in a bad way, and began imploding suddenly and publicly. Neil Bush, son of a president and brother of the current officeholder, ruined an institution called Silverado Savings And Loan. When the federal government stepped in to rescue that one institution alone, it set back the taxpayers more than a billion dollars. Taken all together, this episode, known as "The Savings And Loan Debacle", cost us about 124 billion dollars. More or less.
These were memorable and costly government interventions, but each time we were assured that the cost was well borne because the institution or industry was "Too Big To Fail." That is, if Chrysler stopped making cars or Neil Bush's bank went under due to its own bad business ethics, moral turpitude or criminal stupidity, we, the individual taxpayers and wage earners of America, wouldn't like the result.
So government dabbled in the business of "bailouts'. But, except for a few excursions into total ownership (such as, for instance, the taxpayers' assumption of the insurance exposure of nuclear power plants which the private insurance companies consider too risky to insure), the washing of corporate wounds in the salve of our money has been limited to a crisis every decade or so, and as time has passed even the very numbers have seemed to diminish-only five hundred million for Chrysler?
But now, in the space of a single summer, Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have, one concludes, gone over to the enemy. No longer proper Capitalists, trusting in The Miracle Of The Free Market, they've been casting cash at pretty much any old mortgage company that lent all its money to crack house entrepreneurs or took the company bank account to Vegas. Oh, they got tough with Lehman Brothers, but only after pledging seventy billion to an outfit called AIG-the American Insurance Group. I sleep better now, knowing a giant insurance company has been rescued.
Merrill-Lynch may have been saved by the Bank Of America (concentration of capital no longer an issue) and Bear-Stearns was swallowed by JP Morgan-Chase, but tonight my computer crackles with news that Morgan-Stanley and Goldman-Sachs are panicky. Fortunately, if theoretically reluctantly, government will ride to the rescue not of single entities any longer, but now comprehensively to lift out of the mire any struggling member of the "Financial Services Industry."
People, this is no industry. It's a shell game. This is not a bailout; it is an unraveling. You and I are being sold out, blatantly, publicly, and with the cooperation and collusion of the press and Congress. Was it a bad thing, that idea Karl Marx and Fred Engels hatched for the people to collectively own truck factories and potato farms? Maybe it was. But it's a far, far worse idea that we should put up our savings to buy discredited institutions that exist primarily to shuffle and reshuffle money in the interest of ever-greater, ever-shakier and more precariously-propped-up profits.
Do you know what a "credit default swap" is? No, of course you don't; neither do I; neither do most members of Congress. Can you define "mortgage-backed securities" or "collateralized debt obligations"? I didn't think so. Well, you're buying a slug of 'em. Seven hundred billion dollars worth, they tell me. But it "might top a trillion." Sure. OK. Whatever. How'd the Red Sox do last night? Of course the press has whored itself out to megabusiness; we know that. And, as ever, Congress is startled and agitated but will, as always of late, go along with whatever gross deal Bush and the bankers and the moguls and the morons of Wall Street cobble together. But are any of my neighbors angry about this? Will we stand for it? Will we accept that it's for our own good?
I just popped up the Population Clock on my computer here Monday night just shy of midnight, and found the estimated number of persons with whom I share these United States stands at 305,229,725. If the burden were to be borne equally across the population, each of us would be assessed $2293 dollars as our share of the seven hundred billion. A family of four would be debited $9173. But you and I, fellow laborer, will inevitably pay much more because so many will pay nothing. Remember those tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires we all thought were such a good idea just a few years ago when we still reveled in the satisfaction that, however low we might have fallen or yet fall, we were still, one and all Capitalists, and what benefited the wealthy would trickle down to us as the marketplace worked its magic and business, free of burdensome regulation, rolled gloriously onward.
So Dick Cheney got his tax breaks and his trillion dollar war, and now his buddies who screwed up, lost, corrupted, twisted, misused, tainted or pissed away every decent dollar they were entrusted to handle will slide out the back door with their salaries and stock options, and any worthwhile thing the next president might have done for us or our country or the world will be hostage to the inevitability of paying the vig on the loan we're going to take out to make this terrible deal go down. Because we don't have the money. There is no seven hundred billion at hand. We'll borrow it. From the Chinese. The (still) Red Chinese.
So we'll raise the cash and we'll put aside our principles and we'll put a good face on it, won't we? John (The Maverick) McCain wants a bit more oversight in the future (too little and too late, you shallow dotard), and Barack (The Great Compromiser) Obama will vote for the bailout as long as it's attached to "an overall plan." Make of that endorsement what you will. Congress will posture, then Congress will approve, and you will pay. And your children unto the seventh generation. They're even calling it a "rescue", as though an innocent animal or person was being saved from cold or fear or hunger or maltreatment. These men in suits will bugger the language as well as the law.
What are we getting for our money? "Devalued Assets." Houses nobody else will buy. Bad paper. Failed institutions. Worthless instruments. Crap, waste, detritus, byproduct, junk, trash, nothing you need, nothing you want, nothing that will do any of us any good. I'm going to use a bad word now, and if you don't like vulgar language, I'd suggest you put this journal down right now and go mow the lawn. And I'm counting on my editor to stand by me today and fight for my right, my duty to speak plainly and forcefully if crudely when I am compelled to discuss what pretty much everybody agrees is the worst mess this country has been in since the Great Depression.
My mother used this expression, and in the thirty-seven years since she died and in the nearly fifty-nine years I've lived in this marvelous Capitalist wonderland and paid my taxes and been screwed by insurance companies and given numerous banks their per centages and worked as many jobs as required to close the hole and hold firm the door against the wolf of cold and the terrors of hunger and despair, I've not heard a better description of the plan being put together today, tonight, this week, by the men who rule America. We are getting, as mom used to say, "shit and shoved in it."
Be careful with your credit cards. Nobody believes you're too big to fail.
56 Comments so far
Show AllWe The People should not give Wall Street one single dime.
Here is how I understand this mess: It is a book bought for $25 on credit. That credit debt was sold by institution A to institution B with an added amount of what they figure the real worth of that book to be defined by how much they can possibly make the book buyer pay, say $50. Then institution B sold to institution C and they figure that the book buyer really could pay $75 for that book because you were already paying all that interest and such jacking the original price of $25 to $50 anyway and on it goes from one institution to another.
And, all these institutions figured they would be saved by We The People if they could not collect the $75 or whatever it got up to because they own Congress.
So, we are expected to pay for air if we pay for this bailout. We support greed and fraud in doing that.
Not one dime. Not in my name.
When Bush, et al, stole office the first term they intended to bankrupt this country and loot this country and the world for all they could possibly get until someone comes up with a way to stop them. Then they stole office the second term and still had not accomplished all their PNAC looting goals and the wet dreams of their fascist corporate cronies. This turmoil caused by them through Wall Street is to impose their last plans for this country and our treasury. If it looks to you like they care one hoot about the future of this country you are wearing golden blinders and just looking at your own greedy inhumane dreams reflected back on you.
Not one dime for this bailout.
This bailout is to keep prices inflated for as long as possible until this house of cards eventually falls, or do you really think those houses are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and that huge interest rate is anything sustainable. Let that house of cards fall now. Let the crooks be identified for even the blind to see.
Sioux Rose
KATFISH: I would say the wave of karma is only beginning, but like the hurricane waves, it's such a shame that the "little people" on coastlines get hit hardest. My idea of karma is that the ones RESPONSIBLE pay the biggest tab, although I agree there is certainly NATIONAL KARMA at work. I have lived among Buddhists and they believe there are many levels of accountability, or layers of blame. Someone who runs over an animal to avoid hitting a pedestrian would have less blame than someone who willingly aims at a living target. Intent, or what is called "mens ria" (I believe?) in American jurisprudence.
YOU DECIDE: I noticed that same troubling thing, the economic extension of "Unitary executive." And what's so amazing in its depravity here is the onstensible record (so many broken things, lost lives, missed opportunities to do the right/caring/decent thing!) of those claiming the right to own yet more power!
Excellent posts: CEE MIRACLES, TOAST, MARK KULINSKI, and HEDOLOGY (good poem).
It's funny considering that this market that's so scared is not based in anything real. We should just let it collapse and outlaw such financial practices in the future.
I think that's precisely why there's so much fear - recognition on some level that this is a house of cards. The whole of conventional reality is illusory, and when we can get our minds around that, we'll get sprung from the fear. Until then, we're powerless to fix this. By "this" I mean much more than the markets.
I don't know into whose mind Mr. Cooper is peering, but no one, not even his staunchest enemy, ever thought of Mao as "goofy," and certainly not "little."
I tripped on that too - I think he must have been referring to some characature of Mao that existed in some people's minds. I never saw him as "goofy" either.
Funeocons is right. Let 'em fall and start over. If the Republicans are such believers in the free market and in having less government interference in business, they need to shut up and put their money (not our money) where their mouths are. It's just a $700 billion giveaway to the rich.
Or what if we just let all the banks fail. Just let this corporate, over-stretched, money- and blood-hungry beast die. Wipe the slate clean and start anew. Promise each other we will take good care of each other and get everyone through it. Apologize to the rest of the world.
What if ALL of us stopped paying on our credit cards. Would we then be "too big to fail" and get a bail out?
Fuck Ronald Reagan and if public television likes Ronald Reagan then fuck them, too.
We aren't going to sit still while our freedoms are stolen and our nation destroyed.
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
Bernanke and Paulson undressed are central planners. Corporations are central planning units. Paulson now wants the power of the purse placed in his hands only, more central planning. It looks more and more like Kruschev was right.
You Decide
1. Pass something that gives Paulson sole authority (Tsar), not reviewable by any court (above the law), to spend $700 billion (weaponry) to deal with a crisis(war) which has yet to be fully evidenced.
2. Use this as precedent.
3. Create October surprise. Assign sole authority to one person (Bush), not reviewable by any court (above the law), to launch weapons (spend money, kill people), to attack another country (Iran) which will not be fully evidenced.
4. McCain suspends his campaign to deal with financial "crisis".
5. Bush to suspend the election to deal with October surprise enemy.
If No. 1 happens, No. 2 is possible. If No. 2 is possible, No. 3 becomes a more probable event.
Everyone is focused on the 700 billion and executive compensation. Forget that.
Everyone should be focused on the sole authority and above the law precedent.
If No. 2 happens, you will immediately be living in a fascist country.
The media, people of all colors and creeds, Demos and Repubs and everyone needs to shout this down!!! If we don't, the great experiment known as America is over.
us army martial law units comming 1 oct. 2008.
you asked for it and you got the govt. you deserve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYxTzDFofZQ
Bullshit. The time is neigh to convince the army and local law enforcement to set their sights a different direction. Anyone who draws the line in the sand so low may as well jump off a cliff. No revolution is possible without a large-scale mobilization of working-class stiff soldiers. Read your goddamned history.
us army martial law units comming 1 oct. 2008.
you asked for it and you got the govt. you deserve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYxTzDFofZQ
That's right folks, "Domestic Operations", like "Enemy Combatants", I s'pose. Thanks, Mr. Cooper, man Commie Pinko Red, hit the dirt, hide in the hallway with our heads tucked between our knees to protect us from the "A" Bomb! My parents paid cash for everything until 1977. I kid you not. As you Mr. Cooper, I do not have a dime in the "Markets", been working since I was 12 but I can pay my bills...this month.
Were the arrests and other police violence at the RNC a sign of things to come? Will we see another Kent State massacre?
From Democracy Now today (9/22/08)
Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations
Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
BillofRights
As Christopher Cooper, Naomi Klein and others indicate, our perspective and points-of-view are important.
Our understanding affects outcomes of the current Wall Street situation, the state of our national government and possible threats on the horizon.
Unique viewpoints are explored in the articles:
Wall Street drama: Deliver the $700 billion, or the economy’s dead
AmericanChronicle.com
September 24, 2008
http://americanchronicle.com/articles/75325
Wall Street's special offer – but you must act now!
PopulistAmerica.com
Populist Party of America
September 24, 2008
http://www.populistamerica.com/wall_streets_special_offer_but_you_must_act_now
Surprise! This is the October Surprise a few days early [but who knows? ... maybe there'll be another one.]. Timed perfectly since Congress is going on recess on Friday.
We gotta' fix it right now!!!! the Money Men say. And it WILL BE FIXED with a few twists and twinks in the 3-page document handed over to Congress by Henry Paulson looking agitated as hell because a little bit of his own fortune is threatened or maybe as the water boy, he's a little uncomfortable at being ordered to declare himself King of All the Money on paper.
Except for a few in Congress, likely the fix is in, but this is THE SHOCK DOCTRINE and it is already affecting other countries -- no accident -- and all the garbage will be paid for eventually by the peasants.
Of course, in a perfect world, with all those tax cuts G.W. gave the rich, and with all the loose millions, even an extra billion or two, in the bank accounts of the very people [including our own Vice President, for sure] interested in being bailed out by janitors and office workers and sales people and book-keepers, hair dressers and barbers, farmers and waitresses, and the folks on the assembly line et al., maybe among all those very rich, who suddenly grew a conscience, they could chip in their excess millions and billions and come up with $700 billion in no time if they wanted to prop up the walls of Wall Street. But I'm not going to hold my breath on that one, and I recommend you don't either.
FDR had it right ... in politics [including surprises such as this], nothing is an accident. This has been in the works for ages, and the timing just before the election ... so that whatever president is Selected, he will continue on from what has been decided on purpose now.
Once upon a time I loved my country, flaws and all, but this, this is disgusting, wicked, rotten, insane, psychopathic ... and, thanks to your mom, Chris, we the people are having shit thrown at us in one big stinking pile and we are being shoved in it as our representatives and senators and moron [more off than on] of a President run around as if this were some big surprise. R U kidding me?
This was planned ... just as 9/11 was planned, executed and carried out, just as the Iraq War was already on paper three or more years before and the bombing of Afghanistan was committed to paper as well, and before 9/11.
So now when all the Congressional papers are signed, likely by Friday ... [and George W. is going to tell us on TV in about an hour from now ... why we serfs must sacrifice for our country to bail out the War Lords of Wall Street ... for our own good and the good of the Red, White and Blue] ... everything will die down and each one of us will owe about $8,000 to $9,000 just for starts to pick up the tab for the rich and for the corporations, who and which, respectively, will likely be able to write all of this off on their income tax and still get an extra income tax break come April, 2009, and sit in their saunas after a dive in their swimming pools and then dress for dinner ... cook, maid, butler and all.
And here's the really bad news ... what is anyone going to be able to do about it?
Blackwater and the riot police are ready for all of us, fellow sheople, and the media will ignore our heads getting bashed in or the tremors in our hands from being tasered too many times. Welcome to FASCISM!
However, since I use the name Cee Miracles, and often do, here's something for all of us to think about, including me: I'm breathing; you're breathing, and we're alive. And where there is life there are always infinite possibilities, sometimes even if it is to withdraw, simplify, unite with others you care about, make some new friends, enjoy, and wait and/or get out there and do your thing. ... This too shall pass. And then it will be the next thing. ... It's called Life. And what we do with our own life is what counts, no more, no less. And that's to think about.
peace ...
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THE MEASURE: DEEDS, ... NOT WORDS.
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"And it WILL BE FIXED with a few twists and twinks in the 3-page document handed over to Congress by Henry Paulson looking agitated as hell because a little bit of his own fortune is threatened..."
No... that's a misread.
He is not agitated from ANY threat but one... the possibility that we might make a little too much noise and this travesty might not materialize in the way it was designed by CheneyOilCo engineers (and their buds).
Suppose for one moment that I asked you to divest all your assets and turn the account over to me.
And then... (here's the kicker), I stipulated that when you did so, you forfeited all rights to accountability. Hell... I could give all your assets to my friends (or some to those damned puppeteers who pull my strings)... or better yet, I could even put all your funds into my own personal account... you wouldn't know, as you would have no access to any information as to WHAT I did with your funds... nor would you have any legal recourse to examine my activities... or even if you found out, no basis for any complaint whatsoever... in fact, I might force you to thank me if you did find out.
Why, I could turn the measly $700 million that is in my bank account to $700.7 billion if I wanted to... man... what I could do with that... some new shoes and finally shut up that old girl friend who has been threatening to expose me, and... or well... you get the idea... you would never know... I hold allll the cards. Chump. Sucker. American.
Just give me everything and shut the hell up about it...
And hurry up!!!
"'And it WILL BE FIXED with a few twists and twinks in the 3-page document handed over to Congress by Henry Paulson looking agitated as hell because a little bit of his own fortune is threatened...'"
"No... that's a misread.
"He is not agitated from ANY threat but one... the possibility that we might make a little too much noise and this travesty might not materialize in the way it was designed by CheneyOilCo engineers (and their buds)."
++++++++++
I agree with your well-taken points. I was being somewhat facetious, however. I saw Henry Paulson early in the morning, and his expression was strange and he looked very uncomfortable, a giant-size man looking like a little kid with his hand in the cookie jar. First I wanted to believe he was feeling the pangs of conscience, but then settled for his upsetment about being worried about his own bank account as sort of my private joke.
Yeah ... just heard the last five minutes of GW's speech, and then listened to the commentary about how since GW had an MBA that he was comfortable with this subject and terminology, but another commentator reminded the first one that GW had good speech writers. The most important points they made, however, was that the speech was misleading and much of what was said was not in the three pages that "Hank" Paulson presented to Congress, and that if Congress pushed for oversight or someone, like Volker, to work with Paulson and provide oversight that Bush would veto that idea fast and most other attempts at regulating and oversight.
So when you said at the end of your comment: "Just give me everything and shut the hell up about it... / And hurry up!!!" ... unfortunately you are so right on.
And Congress just passed a bill for more big money for the ongoing Iraq War, which should make all the arms dealers and defense industry owners/investors [Carlyle et al.] very happy.
Yup: "Chump. Sucker. American."
Eight years ago my angst began as soon as Kenny Lay came on the scene with his whiz-kid ideas and was an advisor in Cheney's secret energy meeting.
And now when these rats leave office, they will be rolling in it more than ever.
I wonder if Dick and Lynn Cheney will wear turbans with jewels dripping down in their new home in Dubai?
Mission Accomplished! And how!
I will be glad when they are gone; hopefully, they will be gone. I'm tired and numb as are so many people. ... What a mess. ... And then it will be the next round, and it's anyone's guess, toast, whether the U.S. of A. will become a third-power piece of toast, burnt toast.
Cheers ... cm
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THE MEASURE: DEEDS, ... NOT WORDS.
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Chris Cooper is the writer. He is much more convincing in his approach and lack of 'loudness.'
Besides you repeat yourself, no matter the content of the article.
You are a boreing boor.
Please shut up.
Dahling Dog Leg - I guess you're talking to me. Sounds like I hit a nerve. And if I'm boring to you, don't read what I write. As soon as you see my name, just scroll to the next post. That way you won't get your underwear all twisted out of shape.
And if you are some silly troll who can't stand the thought of your Republican or other icons turning out to be trash, well, never make anyone or anything an idol. Every idol has feet of clay and will disappoint you sooner or later and sometimes make you crazy.
And yes, Chris Cooper is a wonderful writer, but I've been paid for my writing too. It's just different that's all, but certainly you don't have to read it or like it.
so, peace, fella' [I'm assuming you're a boy dog] lifting that old leg pissing on everything that gets in your way. That's one way to do it. Sometimes it makes you feel better ... and sometimes not.
c/m
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THE MEASURE: DEEDS, ... NOT WORDS.
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You know so little...
&YYY&
As soon as the speculators the direction of the wind smell and feel,
they invest large money promises, with computers tracking the deal.
The Vampire States is the place where the money can materialize and grow,
With Freedom to spend, speculate, spin, leverage, the profits induced to flow.
So the banksters, hackers, backers, crooks, fraudsters, flock to feed on your cash,
It is so easy for them, as they can lose other peoples money in a flash.
If the markets go down, the gamblers demand of the government all recompense
If you do not fund our debts, they say, your currency dollars will become cents
How easy is it to thwart and corrupt the honest legislature.
To lie about consequences, and hide the greedy and vicious nature.
And when no more the honestly elected man can be found.
Life is about making large profits the quickest way around.
Trash all the regulations and controls, sign away laws that might hurt.
As wealth and finance enrich players, and leave the people in the dirt.
So old fashioned are notions of trust, probity and security.
that losing the peoples trillions is a global sign of maturity.
Now that foreigners have bought in so much, believing it a money making trust,
What will they do when they decide that you have really gone bust?
Look and see, the Vanity'd States have changed money into electronic dust.
Corrupt and decayed, the once gold dollars have transmuted into rust.
...oh, just in case you didn't see this right away - i had to do a little scrounging - knew the lyric, but couldn't place the song:
But it grieves my heart, love,
To see you tryin' to be a part of
A world that just don't exist.
It's all just a dream, babe,
A vacuum, a scheme, babe,
That sucks you into feelin' like this.
Bob Dylan, To Ramona
Wow. Thanks.
Let us now consider what the real intent of the Bush proposal of putting social security funds into the stock market has been all along. One must concede that this proposed 700 billion dollar bailout is a proposed transaction that would be almost an equivalency to putting some of the social security money into the stock market. The rationale given for putting the social security money into the market was to "save" social security and that it was in the best interests of social security. The rationale for putting the 700 billion of the bailout money effectively into the stock market is to prevent the stock markets from an economic collapse which could be on the scale of a deep rececession or even reach the level of a depression.
So, might we conclude that the real reason that an attempt to put social security money into the stock market was to prevent the stock markets from an economic collapse which could be on the scale of a deep rececession or even reach the level of a depression?
Another thing to consider now is how is the republican strategy of cutting taxes further going to help alleviate this crisis? Obviously, that strategy makes even less sense now than it ever did.
I would like to see Paulson or Bernacke asked these questions. If you read this and have any political contacts that might be able to "get er done", please send them an email on this.
Thank you, Chris, for the best o'the best words on this multi-dimensional debacle. I'm grateful you stopped my grinding compulsion to wordsmith my own responses and observations. Don't wanna be lazy, but you're REALLY good.
I have always wondered why poor Americans haven't risen up and slaughtered those rich people in their sleep before now. I've always been told that Americans don't do that because they have hope, that because of Capitalism they too have a chance to become a rich person. So they are not going to protest a system that offers them a kick at the can. Looks like that hope is shredding a little at the edges.
I have a brother who is also a big fan of free market methodolgy. He's lost $100,000 in the last six weeks or so and he isn't even an American. Have friends in India who have lost big in the Indian market too.
We are hoping American people will get over their illusions.
The capitalist menace is in your TV.
The capitalist menace is on your dinner plate.
The capitalist menace sleeps in your bed with you.
The capitalist menace wants a new car for his/her 16th birthday.
"The revolution will not be televised."
And in the mirror.
Thank you for your fine article, Mr. Cooper.
We beat those Commies, we did. Capitalism prevailed over the evil socialist state. We buried them. Too bad capitalism's legacy might be that it buried the global economy.
its ok, they can just print much, much more Reichsmarks, um i meant to say dollars
atheist, yes total failure on the part of the Dems! I am beginning to think thats the best and only thing they are good at!
They asked for unity after the primaries ... and they don't seem to be able to do it themselves ! I'm astounded. Maybe it's coming, maybe I just don't understand the complexity of staging a press conference and announcing a plan, which I PRAY is no bailout. As Ron Paul and many other people say, we need this adjustment.
Does anyone else agree that this is a failure of the Dem party ???
The post-Bill Clinton Democratic party IS a FAILURE, the whole damn thing!
Not baiting here ... Obama supporters, where is your candidate ? Why is he not seizing the moment to prove to the nation that he can handle this mess ? If he wins in November, he'll have to deal with it. Does he actually have a plan and the media is ignoring him ? Why aren't Pelosi and crew sharing the spotlight ? I'm amazed that the Dem party isn't taking advantage of the situation to promote Obama.
It would be the perfect coup, after McCain stole his thunder by announcing Palin for VP the day after Obama's convention speech.
Does anyone else agree that this is a failure of the Dem party ???
The Democrats, like the Republicans, are running for positions patching up and smoothing the way for the corporate power elite, the very people who get rich on speculation and other parasitical practices. That being the case, populism (except by-rote phony populism) has to be a wanderer outside the bounds of the estate. It can't get in because it's not wanted...no, it is positively feared. (Look at the system that is being put into place to contain dissent.)
So, it's not us the Democrats can realistically favor. All they can do is look sincere in an immobile kind of way and make sure an uprising is mostly contained in the false story of their "populism" and "progressivism".
Because the false story is getting so ragged and events are making themselves clear, the Democrats look more and more "weak", with "no backbone", etc. That's missing the point.
If there was ever a time for revolution, it is now. The first step is to realize that the future is in our hands, not in the hands of Obama, McCain, or Pelosi.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iFZoKx_qR_tpP1O-dGH0vh_zPWwg
I do. It is a failure of capitalism most of all. It is a failure of both parties to confron the situation, (which, if you live in an urban area, you need only look out of your door to see).
But, (see the link above on McCain "suspending his campaign"--now THAT is BULLSHIT!)
I'd tell you who "my candidate is", but I dont really think I have one, anymore.
Polls show that 20% of US citizens, fell that way. Someone could win them over. Apparently, neither candidate wants to, or, they just both believe in the same capitalist bullshit.
OK, this is a good sign for the Dems, " Obama rejects McCain's call to delay debate"
This crisis should take up 50% of the debate. Obama had better have some solid action plans instead of his usual deftly-worded but painfully vague platitudes of "hope" and "change".
BeetleOut
My dad, back in the late '50's and early '60's, was a Joe McCarthy-type anti-communist. He used to hand me books about the communist menace, and managed to persuade me that by the time I was his age I would likely be, either Red or DEAD (unless, of course, Barry Goldwater might manage to rally the troops sufficiently to fry the "commie vermin"). The Soviet Union and it's "fellow traveler" states were, as Reagan famously said, "The Evil Empire".
By the time I was in the Coast Guard ('67 to '71), Dad was on to a somewhat new track --- He handed me a book called THE NAKED CAPITALIST, by a guy named Skowsen. The Old Man was now ranting and grousing about the "Tri-Lateral Commission", The Federal Reserve Bank, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, Mellons, et al.
Having survived the Red Scare a decade or so earlier, I was by then somewhat inoculated - less intimidated - by the new menace -"International Bankers". And yet, I thought my dad might be on to something, possibly, valid. Since then, we've heard the oft-repeated warnings of other fringe thinkers (Anthony Russo comes to kind).
Seems to me that these fringe radicals, like my old man, may have been on to something that we might all have been paying more attention to, if we hadn't (so many of us) been having a pretty good time of it, for so long. I, now pushing sixty, had a pretty good time of it, myself, for most of the 1960's, '70's & '80's. The Nineties and the Naughties haven't been quite so generous to folks like me who've worked for a living. A few people - the more "ambitious" sort - have managed to get their degrees in finance, banking, insurance, business (MBA's) and have managed ( like The Little Bush Child) to shell-game themselves into some nice corner offices, with great dividends and paychecks. . . UNTIL NOW.
One way or another, the average peasant is going to be living into some nasty times in the coming years. For Pete's sake - let's not spare the rich weasels who brought us this colossal fiasco, some measure of discomfort - by paying them for emptying out the henhouse.
The best the bailout can do is put off the reckoning ahead of us. Meanwhile, let's be sure to remember who's pushing this Bonus Dividend package for the pigs at the top, and be sure to tie buckets around their necks at every opportunity.
If we didn't think that the rich people of the world were running the show, fundamentally for their own benefit, we are surely catching on to their game, lately.
TO HELL WITH THE SHELL GAME CLASS!
Thanks, Cooper!
Beetle Out
Tree Beetle,"International Banker" is just a code word for "Jews". Are you saying your dad was right about his economic policies? Read James Carroll's "Constantine's Sword" (yes, THAT James Carroll, who often posts articles on CD), about the history of where that "international banker"(blame the Jews) stuff comes from. And, google the title for a documentary of the same name, based on the book, but made more "peopled".
Chris, your mom's phrase is not popular here in Minnesota, but I truly like it and hope it catches on. If we can get a bit of pleasure from those words, then desperation is still at least a step or two away.
Thanks Chris. The best of the straight talk so far.
Americans have been wallowing in shit since the election of Richard Deathhouse Nixon 40 years ago this November. They wallow in shit; they drink Kool-Aid; they bugger their children; they breathlessly await the End of the World; they have, for the past nearly 60 years, spent 6 - 8 hours a day watching television resulting in a national lobotomy that has played a great part in giving us one of history's greatest collections of egg sucking motherfuckers: the fascist Republicans and the post-Clinton Democrats, now officially known as the FLP, the Filthy Lucre Party. Stupidity is much prized in the United States but practically no one has read the warning label, the one with the black skull and crossbones attached.
YOU CAN HELP THIS MILLIONAIRE OR YOU CAN TURN THE PAGE.
We found poor Paul on the golf course without his personal caddie. "I had to let him go," sniffed Paul. "He was like a son to me. I even gave him a raise to four dollars an hour last year." Paul's misfortune doesn't end there. "The golf cart is last years model. The other guys in the clubhouse are laughing at me."
Why is Paul in such dire straits? "I was too trusting. I was sand-bagged by a bunch of poor people who told me they could pay their mortgages. I don't think I'll ever trust a poor person again."
How can we help Paul? "Just a few hundred million. That's all I'd need. I'm not greedy. A few hundred million and no accountability."
Can you help? Tell Congress to authorize the bailout. Tell them now, before Paul is forced to undergo even further humiliation.
"I'm down to drinking Johnny Walker Red," sniffs Paul. "It's not even single malt."
ha! Okay... I'll give you this as it appears we have a commonality at last... but I would suggest that you edit your post and change the "million" to "billion"...
There's an exponential difference in the ledger entry.
"I'll give you this as it appears we have a commonality at last"
Who'd have thought it? :-)
Sioux Rose
This administration has brought us death, impoverishment, and resource/ecological depletion to the point of systems COLLAPSE and the McCain-Palin bandwagon says, "Hey! It's us! Vote for us! Vote for more of same," and as I have been well-educated by intelligent, courageous voices in this forum, the democrats (with a few notable exceptions) have NOTHING to be proud of here... as whether for personal comfort, fear of retaliation, ignorance, or equal corruption... they did NOTHING to stop this DEADLY machine from mowing so many irreplacable persons and things down! NO NUMBERS are sufficient to measure what's been stolen, raped, murdered, broken, decimated... neither words to encompass the vastness of the carnage, why even words have been divorced from their meaning along with the principles this once reaching-for-ideals nation was founded upon! Only Shakespeare could do the wrongs justice in language!
Sioux Rose
Dear Chris Cooper, I think you are far too polite. There are not enough curse words available to begin to touch the damage this band of criminals cum "leaders" have let loose on not only the American citizenry, but a number of nations round the world. One would almost pray that the engines of karma speed up a bit here, that we might see these psychopaths NOT walk away with the bounty they STOLE from sometimes starving souls. We're witnessing a banquet not just of the vanities but of all things just, wise, sacred and necessary. Seems to me the frat boy invited all his friends in to raid the house before he had to leave. His whole legacy has been one of loss, covered by family name, prestige and likely strong-arming tactics behind the scenes. That our oh, so sagacious Supreme Court Justices are ULTIMATELY responsible for the decision that placed so much power in the hands of the few who had neither the tools, nor moral compass to manage it wisely or equitably tells us all we need to know.
IF we didn't have Blackwater aiming the weapons WE taxpayers paid for at us, with underground networks spying on our conversations and pre-empting our plans to meet in protest... if the weapons weren't things as lethal as tasers, perhaps we would see a "Storming of the Bastille." I, for one, who tend to be compassionate and forgiving would gladly make an exception in this case, and HAPPILY ROAST like pigs, every one of the responsible parties that have brought such calumny, suffering and virtual poverty onto so many. I'm ready to ask others to a mountain top, dress as Moses as need be, and use a megaphone to petition the lords of karma to act now!!!!
Siouxrose,
Be careful what you wish for. The collective karma of this nation belongs to all of us. Every one of us. And it's not coming down in the future, it's here in the present. What we're experiencing is what we have wrought, both personally and through our reps, in our name. What we do with it will determine what our future karmic harvest will be. Time to start making REALLY wise choices.
The only vision my memory calls up for Moses (you suggest "dress like Moses") is the Cecile B. DeMille movie, "The l0 Commandments". Charleton Heston. (I was a little girl, and went with my grandmother.) Was he Moses or God or both? Ironic,yes. But a timely suggestion, as next week is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashonah. Even though Moses was associated with Passover in the Spring, I like your suggestion.
Excellent piece, but wrong math. Dividing the dollars by the total population hides the true cost TO THE TAXPAYERS, of which there are approximately 130 million per year.
IOW, we, THE TAXPAYERS, are on the hook for $8,000 per every TRILLION handed over to the criminals of the "financial services industry." That's $8K for AIG, $24K for Fredie/Fannie, another $8K for another $1 TRILLION in misc. bailouts, and, of course, $80,000 to cover the $10 TRILLION National Debt... oh, and another $24K for the $3 TRILLION off-the-books invasions/occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
That's about $144,000 PER TAXPAYER, the average of whom earned $32,000 gross in 07, $25K net assuming a med. tax rate of 25%.
Need perspective?
"The chief executive of a Standard & Poor's 500 company made, on average, $14.2 million in total compensation in 2007."
"Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005..."
Good article Mr. Cooper. Gotta love that downeaster pragmatism.
As always Chris comes straight through with his home town, homw grown attitude that obviously is born of good, old time, common sense, and from having a Mother who knew crap when she saw it. If only our representatives had all had mothers like Chris Cooper's.
The red menace has been replaced by the terrorist menace.The powerful,wealthy, elite always need a bad guy for their nefarious schemes to keep the American people in line and to support the military. Oderint dum mutant, works. Think about it folks: who had the most to lose from a Communist government? Who has the most to lose from a real Democracy? Except for a small number of nut cases, the majority of the so called terrorists hate our governments foreign policy and hegemony that props up corrupt leaders that support our corrupt leaders. If you are naive enough to think that the 700+ military bases around the world are there to protect the average American; then I have bridge in Alaska to sell you.