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The Crisis That Could Bring Down Obama
Goldman Sachs reports better-than-expected profits this quarter. Wells Fargo cleared record profits last week. The President, understandably, points to signs of hope and encourages Americans to be optimistic about the economy. But when do we move from healthy confidence to a confidence game? The banks are reporting profits thanks to massive infusions of taxpayer bailout funds. It's simply silly to be lulled by cheery-sounding reports when the institutions are actually insolvent. At some point we have to take a clear-eyed look at the massive failure of our financial system. Ignoring it won't make it go away.
That's more or less what Elizabeth Warren, the distinguished chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, says in her panel's six-month report on the bank bailout. Warren, the government's watchdog, concedes that there are differences of opinion on her panel, which probably accounts for her very carefully couched discussion of the crisis. Although she told The Observer that it is "preposterous" that the government hasn't fired the bank managers who are responsible for the derivatives disaster, her panel's report is cautious, with a scholarly explanation of the crisis in her video introduction. Nonetheless, the underlying criticism is obvious.
In a financial crisis like the current one, Warren explains, the government has three choices: 1. Liquidate failed banks. (That's what happened in the S&L crisis. The government took over institutions, fired the managers, wiped out investors, but protected depositors. A lot of savings and loans simply went out of business.) 2. Put them in receivership. (That's what Sweden did in the 1990s: failed managers were fired and replaced, depositors were protected, and the banks were returned to private hands under new management with healthier balance sheets.) or 3. Subsidize the banks. This last option is what led Japan to its "lost decade"--the real value of bank assets are obscured, as the government funnels tax money into insolvent banks, propping them up indefinitely. This last is the approach the United States is now taking.
If you want to hear someone absolutely destroy that approach to the current crisis, check out a round of recent interviews with William Black, the professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri who was deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. during the S&L crisis in the 1980s. Black, who liquidated a few banks in his time and earned the eternal enmity of Charles Keating, minces no words in describing the massive fraud by bankers and the regulators, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, whom he describes as abetting them.
"This whole bank scandal makes Teapot Dome look like some kind of kids' doll set," Black told the investors' journal Barron's in an interview published in the print edition on April 13. (The interview appeared online on April 9, but you need a paid subscription to access the site). He covers the same points in a highly watchable interview on Bill Moyer's Journal..
"We have lost the ability to be blunt," Black tells Barrons. He is talking about the person he describes to Bill Moyers as a "failed regulator," Geithner. "Now we have a situation where Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner can speak of a $2 trillion hole in the banking system, at the same time all the major banks report they are well capitalized. And you have seen no regulatory action against what amounts to a $2 trillion accounting fraud. The reason we don't see it--aren't told about it--is that if they were honest, prompt corrective action would kick in, and then they would have to deal with the problem banks."
In other words, the banks are insolvent. That's why they must rely on the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But at the same time, they are claiming to be healthy. Both things can't be true.
So we get smiley-face reports about how Goldman and Wells Fargo are posting record profits. Investors and citizens are supposed to be excited to see those profit numbers--comprised of their own tax dollars plus the banks refusing to accurately value their toxic assets.
This is more than an unfortunate downturn, Black says. It is the result of massive, pervasive fraud, and a deregulatory culture that has nurtured criminal behavior by very highly paid bank executives.
The whole culture is rotten. And the regulators come right out of that corrupt, Wall Street culture.
"No one has to tell someone to stretch the numbers," Black says of the way corruption trickles down through these institutions. "It is all around them. It is in the rank-or-yank performance and retention systems advocated by top business executives. Here, the top 20 percent get the bulk of the benefits and the bottom 10 percent get fired. You don't directly tell your employees to lie or cheat. You set up an atmosphere of results at any cost."
Yet we live in a broader culture so enamored of the money-making magicians of Wall Street that a front-page story in the Sunday New York Times is still lamenting the "brain drain" on Wall Street. The lead anecdote features former UBS employee (whose firm's major screw-ups turned it into a prime TARP welfare recipient). He is so disturbed by shrinking bonuses and a climate of gloom in his old gig that he has moved to the high-rolling Aladdin Capital. That's the real name. As in Poof! There goes your money!
It's time for real regulation to stop all this, says Black. Geithner must go.
"Unless the current administration changes course pretty drastically, the scandal will destroy Barack Obama's presidency," he predicts.
The beauty part: real regulators will have no trouble getting through Congress, Black tells Moyers, because they pay their taxes.
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176 Comments so far
Show AllOnly if you claim 'ignorance of the law.' But then that only happens if you are a peasant who, while perhaps highly literate, has about as much time to read every law book and changes as he/she has to indulge in retirement fantasies.
If I were a judge I would certainly accept Geithner's plea of ignorance.
E v e r y _ s e c o n d _ a _ n e w _ c r i m e
C R I M I N A L _ F R A U D
multi-trillion$ from the top down - banksters against All of Humankind
W A R _ C R I M E S , __ D O M E S T I C _ & _ I N T E R N A T I O N A L
FISA, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan, … against All of Humankind
K I D N A P P I N G _ & _ E X T O R T I O N
America & World held hostage to banksters
America & World held hostage to Military Industrial _ Multi-Media _Propaganda Complex
Namaste
Did anyone catch Elizabeth Warren on Jon Stewart's Daily Show last night? It was wierd. She got real red-faced and looked like she was trying not to say something, or trying to say something she shouldn't. She just kinda locked up for a minute, and said something like "pipsqueak", and that she couldn't remember what it stood for. It was funny and strange, and then they went to break. When they came back her makeup had been repaired and she could talk right again. What the hell was that about?
One man's meat....
I ,too, watched with great interest as I think Elizabeth Warren one of the truly good guys in govt., especially in Obama's govt. I must have missed the "distress" you cite though I hung on every word. She did try for the comedic touch, I found it touching frankly.
When asked if she had veto power she said that her power lay in speaking out without pause. I dug the heck out of that!
I see no way out. The world is changing radically and all at one time. It has been reported on Global Research that there is one quadrillion in derivatives in existence right now. Insolvent banks and unpayable derivatives cannot be rescued by the American taxpayer, the needs are too great. American elites no longer control world commerce and the dollar is in ultimate decline as nations construct a new world currency. In brief, the American Financial System has collapsed and is on life support courtesy of the tax payers with the support of politicians and Obama. It is a futile attempt to put off the day of reckoning. The message from Washington, Wall Street, and the Fed is, "if we're going down America's going down," thus their willingness to expend unlimited amounts of money, taxed, borrowed, or printed. The answer is to join the more sustainable economy that is simpler, and green in order to protect yourselves from the ultimate coming complete collapse. Abruptly end your denial and prepare yourselves.
-Abruptly end your denial and prepare yourselves.
Don't underestimate the power of denial. Yes the Dear Leader and the corrupt ones are doomed, ultimitely...but between then and now, they are going to party(with America's money) like it is five minutes to doomsday. So, no healthcare, no peace, no affordably education, no rescue for foreclosed homeowners, as long as Obama keeps the romper room's welcome mat out for the Democrat's favorite banks.
Goldman Sachs for example is getting their money's worth. Take a guess how much they gave to Obama, go on take a guess...I'l give you a clue, a whole lot of money. But what they gave to him and the others in congress is chump change compared to what they are receiving now. They must think they have died and gone to bankster heaven!
Drug kingpins rely on a network of drones to peddle their wares to the masses on the street. Crack dealers are often less than trustworthy users who are given their inventory on consignment. Very often a crack dealer will consume his own inventory before he can reach the break even mark. Profits are so high that accounting is not necessary, and poof, before ya know it all the crack goes up in smoke. The dealer cannot pay his supplier. The supplier makes a decision either to eliminate the dealer in default or finance his next venture by fronting him more crack with which to recoup the losses from the last shipment. Again, profits are so high that this can be done easily. But suppose the same dealer, smokes up all of his crack again and again, never making any sales or generating any revenue with which to work. The supplier might threaten to cut him off or slow down or reduce the volume of shipments to get his attention, but in the long run, the supplier will continue to take this risk and enjoy the rewards.
If necessary the kinpins of Washington will replace the dealers on Wallstreet, but the rules in place make earining that money back so easy that it won't be, and if it does comes to that, they will still be selling the same ol' crack.
You know nothing of the street and drugs. No dealer accepts losses as no supplier does. Most big dealers are distributors not dealers. The dealers are on the street. They get hurt and killed for breaking bread without having the dough for inventory.
The real crisis is that O Bomb A is one of the criminals. The real crisis is that O Bomb A is nothing more than a silver tongued, con man that fools a lot of fools with his smooth rhetoric. He has sold that bridge in Alaska to the American sheeple and they love it. When he put his hand on the Bible and took the oath to defend the Constitution it did not mean anymore to him that it did to Bush.I think to be honest, that oath should be amended to leave out stitution and be replaced with an oath to defend the CON!
We must progress beyond _ d e n i a l,
◎ b y s m a l __ is __ a __ P S Y C H O P A T H
No aggregate of citizen activity, nor mountainous calls to representatives -- can shame a psychopath nor pathocracy to change his ways -- as he has no shame and the cavernous feeding of his power delusion is without bounds.
Namsaste
adamantly so:
As you say, in dealing with our President we must progress beyond denial, recognizing the mental constitution of the person who has been chosen as our leader.
However, to imply that citizens can do nothing about the situation, because Obama cannot be "shamed," might not be the best definition of "progress" in our thinking about the matter. My own (very amateur) observation about Obama is that he has a narcissistic personality, one which craves constant attention (will he ever stop talking for a day?) and constant approval (look how smart, handsome and friendly I am!) I think this personality type is very susceptible to being "shamed," to the point that he is reluctant to deal with any kind of disapproval. (The incident early on when he made a "friendly" visit to the White House conference room and was asked what he deemed an "unfriendly"---that is probing---question by reporter and he said "l guess I won't be stopping be here if you're going to be grilling me" is emblematic of his avoidance of negative responses).
Of course it isn't easy to express disapproval if leaders have tin ears for hearing bad news about public reaction to their policies, and I promised only "progress" and not a "solution" to this hearing problem when I counseled against dismissing Obama as a shameless psychopath. I think it will be "healthy" for Obama or any narcissist (I include myself in this category) as citizens recover from the kool-aid effects of excessive adoration of the Dear Leader and begin to treat him like a human being with all the frailties and potentialities of a person, but also entitled to all the love and respect to which any person is entitled. I know this isn't a perfect answer to the "denial" problem, but I hope it makes a little step at least toward "progress" in our learning how to be citizens of a democracy and our leaders to become truly our representatives in dealing with public issues.
PS sorry about double-posting of an earlier comment on this thread; it was an accident!
No, I absolutely do not believe the populous is powerless, as you imply I said with :
" that citizens can do nothing about the situation "
What I meant is that American's attempting shaming or appealing to ◎'s "better nature" is foolhardy and ultimately ineffective.
The core issue is denial of the reality behind the scenes.
For you to go as far as label ◎ as merely " he has a narcissistic personality, one which craves constant attention ", shows that you attempt to trivialize the psychiatric scope of the problem.
You also misrepresent the scope of his self-protective cocoon, when you say he has " constant approval (look how smart, handsome and friendly I am!) " and " if leaders have tin ears for hearing bad news about public reaction to their policies ", which implies that the public is a required part of that envelope around ◎.
Consider the impact on ◎, of his having adoring legions of _s y c o p h a n t s_ ( parasitic puppets ) and _a p p a r a t c h i k s_ ( bureaucrats willingly follows and implements the party line, either in a spirit of blind obedience or one of cynical ambition ) always bombarding him with praise, regardless of the USA approval rankings.
The entire purpose of a politician's camp followers is being his loyal flatterers and influencers, none of which has the role of saying that 'the emperor has no clothes', nor that the majority stakeholders of reality disagree.
Accepting that ◎ is in isolation from his shameful actions is a key issue, to motivate the masses of people to realize what is happening and to waken.
We must influence out own thinking and thoughts first and foremost, and choose better ones consistent with our children's future.
While popular participation in a Democracy is effective for representation of citizen issues, perhaps it isn't clear yet that corporate participation in a Pathocracy is effective for representation of ONLY elitist prosperity, greed, and power issues ( through filters that exclude common = vulgar-to-them Americana ).
We continue to breath in the toxic a$$et's fumes of ◎ b y s m a l __ being _ so _ much different _ than $hrubbish, while the evidence is that the key unlimited unitard executive control -- and lack of 800 year old Habeas Corpus rights -- is unchanged.
We do "feel" safer, but the corporape of America continues, regardless … ( thus we're in denial of our true safety )
Namaste
absolutely so:
I (and an increasing number of disillusioned former Obamots) am not in denial that Obama's is every bit as bad as Bush's administration, and maybe more dangerous because it is promoted by such powerful emotional underpinings, such as the (talk about the psychopathic) subconscious feelings about race of both black and white Americans. I'm merely asking for some idea of whether and how we can break the "cocoon" around Obama that is formed by his aides, the media and much of his still-loyal followers among the public. As you suggest, we can shout ourselves blue in the face but they won't hear. But I persist in my sense that being the narcissist that he is (no "trivial" matter for one who would be President), he can be "shamed" by those who persist often and intelligently enough in shouting about his lack of clothing. This of course is what "journalism" (Face the Nation) used to be about, but that is a dying breed today. We need more Helen Thomases and more voices of those like yourself who won't hestitate to call a spade what it is. Letters to the editor can have cumulative effects. It's a little like Horton Hears a Who when it took every single voice in Whoville for the microscopic folks to be heard by the kangaroos and monkeys who determined their fate. If voices are not enough, pots and pans can be banged as they were in Iceland; as they say (in a very offensive statement) at sports arenas: "Make some noise!" Make a lot of noises of every kind. We're the people and we will be heard (eventually).
We're not yet there, …
but I now better appreciate the advice that Gandhi had for the Jews in Germany:
( http://die_meistersinger.tripod.com/gandhi9.html)
"Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous, terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.
Can the Jews resist this organized and shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected and forlorn? I submit there is. No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though, as a matter of fact in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless. If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this,
I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can.
Indeed, even if Britain, France and America were to declare hostilities against Germany, they can bring no inner joy, no inner strength. The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the godfearing death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep."
There is no more vivid or direct manner of getting the attention of humankind's focus -- than massive numbers of deaths in one place and time -- regardless if self inflicted or not.
We shall not go quietly into that dark night,
rage we will,
against the dying of the light ( ~ Dylan Thomas )
Namaste
What I find interesting is that just recently I got another tax cut in my paycheck, and this protesting is nothing but Rightwing Puppy Kickers listening to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and his propaganda!
The phrases of socialism, well I have to laugh at the intellect, when it was the Republicans in charge at the time of deregulation back in 1998. What they did was put the Prisoners in charge of the Prisons, and now there is a mess to clean up!
The problem with the Puppy Kickers is that they can’t get over the fact that they got their butts kicked!
The way I see it, it is a monarchy and has been for the past eight years. The Rightwing Puppy Kickers are yelling about too much spending, “well isn’t that the Kettle Calling the Pot Black”. Over the past eight years the Puppy Kickers did nothing but spend, spend and spend....and now there is a problem?
Where were these people when it was happening over the past eight years?
The way I see it they are nothing but a lazy bunch of A-holes, who have nothing better to do with themselves, I guess all that money they made from the Moron’s (Bush Jr’s.) tax cuts, they now have a lot of time on their hands!
What they fail to see is that All Politicians are to blame not just the Democrats, but the Rightwing Puppy Kickers, Conservative Bible Thumpers and the Republicans!
Likes of Ron Paul who are yelling the loudest, and yet the only reason he ran for President is to get donations for his campaign back home. It wasn’t the media’s fault that he didn’t get the recognition, with 6 million dollars in donations he could have bought the airtime just like every other candidate that ran, but he didn’t....just a typical politician!
If spending is the case that the Rightwing Puppy Kicker Politicians have a problem with then why don’t they give up their Salaries and Healthcare that the taxpayer is paying for...? I know I would just to prove a point!
But we know that will never happen....who does come first in this country the Politicians or the Citizens, the way I see it, the Politicians, hence Monarchy!
Conniff sez:
"So we get smiley-face reports about how Goldman and Wells Fargo are posting record profits. Investors and citizens are supposed to be excited to see those profit numbers--comprised of their own tax dollars plus the banks refusing to accurately value their toxic assets."
In short: we are getting screwed royally.
Where is Bin Ladin Mr. Moron (Bush Jr.)?
Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction Mr. Moron?
What happen to 12 million dollars in Cold Hard Cash that you sent to Iraq that time in 2003...it didn't happen in the form of a Check or Wire Transfer, it was Cold Hard Cash, on a pallet, put on a plane from the US Treasury straight to Iraq!
Where is it Mr. Moron?
Why, on the day of 9/11 did the Bin Ladin family have a pass to fly home, when all of the planes were grounded at the time?
It was $12 billion in $100 bills. Franklins, Ben Franklins,
12 billion USA dollars worth. On pallets. Shrink wrapped.And probably unmarked, since they cannot find a dime of it.
Thanks for correcting that!
But unfortunately that doesn't matter to the Rightwing Puppy Kickers!
"Probably unmarked" it was unmarked in fact there was no paper trail for it, and yet they are bitching because there's to much money being spent....it's just appalling!!!
I wonder were they were at the time it happen, I suppose that they think it was a good thing that president Moron (Bush Jr.)did!
No doubt 911 was a false flag and no longer a conspiracy theory, but do not take my word for it, make a comprehensive study of 911 and you cannot help but arrive at the same conclusion and now we have the loaded gun that our whore media will not touch with a ten foot pole that after an exhaustive study, European scientists have detected thermite at the 911 site. You would think that would be headlines 24/7, but not a peep, except in the foreign press and the net.
Hey Rightwing Puppy Kickers did you have a good time with that stimulus check that the Moron (Bush Jr.) gave last year, boy! that really stimulated the economy didn't it!
Make your own hope
No! you people have no hope of getting in control again, all of the Rightwing Puppy Kickers, Conservative Bible Thumpers had your butts kicked!
Republican control congress deregulated the Financial System back in 1998, essencially putting Prisoners in charge of the Prison, and now the Rightwing Puppy Kickers are bitching because of to much money being spent!
Back in 2003 "12 BILLION dollars" of cold hard taxpayers dollars went from the Treasury to a Plane and then to Iraq!
No paper trail!
Where is it?
When the people who authorized it were brought before Congress, NONE HAD A CLUE!!!!
Rightwing Puppy Kickers,Conservative Bible Thumpers,Republicans are a party of NO ideas, NO solutions.
Nothing but the same 40 year old fear and scare tactics. There motto is, if you haven't got anything, make something up!
Lying sacks of sh......
There are some really good comment's on this thread so far. Good analysis too.
Sioux Rose, Jerry and Dave in the main but kivals and some others too. Very interesting.
Let's name the specific accounting fraud and its effects:
Under Obama Administration regulations, banks don't have to mark their foreclosed houses to the neighborhood's market price -- what the neighborhood houses are actually selling for. If a bank wrote a million dollar mortgage and the house would sell for $200,000, then the bank can now write down that it has a million dollar asset and that its million dollar mortgage on the foreclosed house is 100% sure to be paid off when the house sells.
When the house sells? To who?
Expect to see millions of dead hulks of houses sitting around for years, some in your neighborhood, officially on the market, unofficially eyesores. Thieves will rip all the pipes out of the walls and sell them. Local dealers will sneak in and grow pot plants in secluded courtyards and sunspaces. Midnight dumpers will leave their barrels of toxic waste in the backyards. Maybe the bank will eventually cut down the poison ivy vines, and maybe not, because they know the place is never going to sell anyways.
The banks will stay schizophrenic for a decade. They are actually bankrupt. They will pay dividends to stockholders to maintain the mirage. If the government hands over another trillion dollars they will grab all the money and run, but then they will use the money on real stock investments such as buying up other banks, not on mortgages. Stock investments can just possibly skyrocket, pulling the bank out of certain bankruptcy. The mortgage business can never, never rescue the bank. If I were a bank I might go to Vegas and put the whole boodle down on red 35 on one spin at the roulette wheel. A 3% chance of avoiding bankruptcy is better than a 0% chance. Of course, such a tactic ensures quick bankruptcy, and every bank president wants to keep drawing a fat fat salary on a bankrupt bank for many years if possible, because he won't have to give the fat salary back. So the bank executive always goes with the long-term gamble, not the short-term bet.
"Under Obama Administration regulations, banks don't have to mark their foreclosed houses to the neighborhood's market price -- what the neighborhood houses are actually selling for."
Thats actually a good thing, but he should do it for the entire banking industry, even for securities backed by mortgages that have not been foreclosed. It was mark to market that caused this whole crisis.
Market price does not reflect the true value of an asset. In volatile markets, mark to market is a bad idea. Banks should be able to book the loss when it is a real loss, and not a hypothetical loss based on models which are not very reliable, or a panic market subject to manipulation by those who profit from their manipulations. The new banking regulations of Basel and our accounting regulation changes forced banks and financial institutions to mark to market just as interest rates started to rise, precisely the worst time to do so. It was not an accident.
Let me give you an example. Say I bought Citigroup at 2 dollars a share, which I did. It is now 4 dollars a share. On paper, I doubled my money, but it is paper profit, subject to the whims of the market. Until I sell it, I make nothing. Now, say the price goes down to 1 dollar a share, on paper, I have lost 1/2 of my money, if I were a financial institution, I now have to find assets to replace this paper loss. But what is the true value, maybe nothing, maybe 10 dollars a share.
Those who think it is nothing, will sell the shares, and those who think it is 10 will buy. Let the market decide, but don't let the market dictate that Citi and other banks must cover their paper losses with real money, money given them from taxpapers who don't have it, but who must borrow it from those they will give the money to. Also, when the tide turns, this mark to market works in their favour on the upside, and allows an even stronger bubble to form, with more dire consequences when it is burst.
Banks have been holding on to bad loans for centuries, and China has thrived by doing the same thing. A loan is money created out of thin air, it's loss should not be so harmful.
The scam is genius really. You have to admire those behind it, even if they should all be all be sent to GITMO.
Last year Obama already made his economic intentions crystal clear and yet most of the voters chose him or Mccain anyway. The only thing that will bring Obama or for that matter both of these parties down is the electorate finally waking up and voting based on issues, NOT ON "PERSONALITY" CELEBRITY crap. Even today, it's disgusting when the Obamabots go way out of their league and make lame defense remarks on the Obama administration such as telling us to shut up and wait another X months or Y years or that Geithner is somehow doing what Ronnie Raygun did to stimulate the economy ! When the hell will the Democratic Party ever learn that following the Raygun code on economics is very bad policy and very bad politics?
"The only thing that will bring Obama or for that matter both of these parties down is the electorate finally waking up and voting based on issues, NOT ON "PERSONALITY" CELEBRITY crap"
Here is a story. I grew up in a poor working class Irish community which had a lot of racial tension over forced busing. The few African Americans who were eligible to vote in this district were living in the projects on the outskirts, very few in total, perhaps 3% of the total population. A fellow named Murphy ran for city councilor in our district. It was a good Irish name, he got about 30% of the vote. Didn't win, but it was clear most did not know who they were voting for, except a name, as he was African American. And no, they were not enlightened ones.
At the national level, folks rely on 30 second commercials. For every voter who trys to make informed choices, there are another 10 who vote based on these commercials, or a name they recognize, or they just vote the party line, treating party loyalty like a religion or a favourite baseball team.
Thats why our founding fathers rejected out of hand a Democracy. The majority are too stupid, uninformed, misinformed or lazy to make informed choices. Majority rule always leads first to anarchy and then tyranny, sometimes skipping the anarchy and moving directly to tyranny.
Democrats and Republicans are 2 branches of the same party of the ruling elite. they have some differences on matters of no concern to the ruling elite, and take their orders on matters they care about. We no longer have a representative government, and have not had one for over 35 years, maybe even 95 years.
There is a fourth alternative: Nationalize retail and residential mortgage banking and turn them into public utilities. This, together with single-payer health care, would end the dictatorship of the FIRE sector over the rest of the economy, allowing companies with less than Brobdignagian proportions, conspicuous profit margins, and magical stock prices to keep their doors open. It would also allow a whole new crop of small businesses to start up.
Newt Gingrich recently opined that the GOP should repackage itself as the party of small business. Adopting these measures – thereby doing a volte face on their current platform – would be the biggest and best move they could make in that direction, if they really meant to change.
Newt Ging-Rich wants to co-opt, not support, the localism movement. He recognizes that the beans are spilled, that USans are understanding that successful economies rely on protection of local, relatively small-scale producers. Newt is telling the elites that the grand illusion should be shifted, so that the political machine that exists to protect the elites can now appear to protect this other group in the eyes of the people.
There is little in the bailouts that is new. In my area, Boeing "faces disaster" each year. Sales are down, many thousands of top scale workers must be fired, Boeing tells local government that if they don't get still more tax breaks and perks, they must go elsewhere.
They get their breaks, their incentives. Then comes the annual report. Boeing is showing the greatest profit in its history! They have new orders and must hire thousands at bottom scale to meet their orders.
The next year, it is the same thing all over again! Thousands are fired, new perks are demanded and received. We are run, not by business men, but by con men. (Perhaps an oxymoron here)
My bankster told me there was no money for retired folks and people struggling to survive, but when the bailout came, they proudly announced they bought another bank. They still have no money for their customers, except the wealthy, for whom they roll out the red carpet. The rest of us can "go fish."
"In other words, the banks are insolvent. That's why they must rely on the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But at the same time, they are claiming to be healthy. Both things can't be true."
Ya know what that really is? Blatant psychological warfare. They've discovered this ultimate dichotomy that, repeated enough times, actually deactivates a large amount of brain function.
Bank crisis? What bank crisis?
Exactly. Cognitive dissonance in action. It is a well known technique for paralyzing action on injustice.
Cognitive dissonance is much more debilitating than being unable to act on injustice. It prevents any decision to act, rendering the individual unable to discern between opposing concepts if they exist. Information overload can create such stasis itself. The human brain can absorb so much of intense studying over years that it simply stops absorbing until there is resolution of the information. This occurs because new synapses are not being formed or have been 'backlogged' by the older pathways of behavior.Even if that 'pathway' formed last week.
First Mistake: A courtroom comment by a judge regarding the application of the rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment as they might apply to corporations was elevated to the status of legal precedent by an over-reaching court reporter. That is when corporations acquired the same rights as those of us with blood in our veins.
Second Mistake: Ratification of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution that took the power of voting for U.S. Senators from the individual state legislatures and conferred that power to the popular vote of the people. Senators are no longer directly accountable to the state governments from which they come. They enjoy the longest terms of any elected body in Congress, which enables them to act with almost no regard for the wishes of the states. They are probably the most insulated, self-serving and corrupt of any body in our Federal Government. This action effectively created the monolithic federal government in Washington, D.C. under which we all labor today. It was this action that effectively destroyed the separation of powers envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.
Third Mistake: Emasculation of the Fourth Estate as the free and independent watchdog on government by permitting corporate ownership of the news media. The Fourth Estate is no longer the vanguard of the rights of citizens. Rather, it is now the instrument for selling and advocating for oligarchs, corporations and their government hacks. What used to pass for hard news and information has been reduced to little more than entertainment passed off as news by the networks and cable outlets. News personalities have now become a part of the oligarchy and our brains have turned to mush. Were it not for the Internet and blogs, God only knows where we would be today.
Beginning with Ronald Regan, the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats began to blur to the point that, as of today, they appear to be different in name only. They all sing from the same sheet of music, feed from the same trough and seduce the body politic with the same rhetoric and pursuit of the same agenda.
Bill Clinton enabled the deregulation of the financial industries. The financial henchmen from his administration went on to gorge themselves on the fruits of Wall Street. Bill and Hillary are now multi-millionaires and Chelsea was last reported to be working for one of the largest hedge-funds on Wall Street. Coincidence?
The Bushies just helped themselves to the banquet that awaited them.
Barack promised the people change and a new way of doing business in Washington. Why did he, instead, re-establish the cabinet of Bill Clinton whose financial henchmen he shrouds in secrecy and so jealously guards from any real transparency. Why has he gone soft on torture and the usurpation of power by the Bush Administration that resulted in such egregious assaults on the Constitution and the rights of citizens? Why does he categorically ignore the best economic minds in the country while giving free reign to the likes of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner?
Did Barack and Hillary strike a deal during the primaries that essentially agreed to the same administration in Washington, regardless of which one of them won the Presidency? Both harbored the same ambitions (first woman vs. first African American President); just a question of sequence as to who moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue first?
There is little residual doubt in my mind that any real distinction between the Democrats and Republicans is academic. We have what I fear was, perhaps, a possibility articulated by William Black -- corporate government. A party of corporate, financial and political oligarchs who stand on the verge of destroying the very foundations of our government and society for the sake of their own greed and avarice.
Did no one bother to tell them that the end result of the relationship between the parasite and host is the death of both?
God help us.
Sioux Rose
SAGEBRUSH: Profound words. I hear you. I've thought these things, too; but you laid out quite a compelling case.
They weren't mistakes. They were calculated acts of predatory aggresion to concentrate power and money in fewer hands. It worked. Now the elite have their escape pods ready to go while they ride this space ship into ecologocal disaster. It's a phyrric victory for us that when we are dispensed with, the elite won't have a world worth enjoying. The ultimate stupidity is evil. Thank God our spirit goes on after this brief life in the valley of tears.
Absolutely correct! The deliberate insertion of that concept by a court clerk who was a former railroad executive in fact:
Wiki
The corporate personhood debate refers to the controversy (primarily in the United States) over the question of what subset of rights afforded under the law to natural persons should also be afforded to corporations as legal persons.
Opponents of "corporate personhood" believe that large corporations as juristic persons have enjoyed certain constitutional rights intended for natural humans as the result of a misinterpretation of an 1886 Supreme Court Case, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Opponents claim that certain rights of natural persons, such as the right to political and other non-commercial free speech, are now exercised by corporations to the detriment of the American democratic process as provided under the Constitution. Some opponents point to the recent discovery of correspondence [1] between then Supreme Court Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite, and court reporter J.C. Bancroft Davis as proof of a conspiracy among the railroad corporations to intentionally create a misrepresentation of that decision for the benefit of the railroads.
Proponents of corporate personhood believe that corporations, as representatives of their shareholders, were intended by the founders and framers to enjoy many, if not all, of the same rights as natural persons, for example, the right against self-incrimination, right to privacy and the right to lobby the government.
As Sioux Rose stated earlier, yes, Obama himself is an enigma. Here we all are, trying to figure out what his role is, where does he really stand... WE want so badly to believe the best so that we won't have to experience the worse...
My take is that it doesn't really matter. I feel that the problems we are having are so deep and so systemic, not just in the economy, but in the way we think, our value system and what we expect.
We are at a cross roads. But it is a cross roads of needing to evolve to or into a new species. Yeah, that's sounds really out there. Of course, this will take place over a very long time period ( or will it -2012).
I think that no matter what they do with this economy ther is no fix. There is too much change down deep in our core... each group is spintering off to some different expetation and others do not have a clue... still expect things to go back to the old way...
The earth cannot sustain anything like the way we have been living. She is doing her own thing and we have to change with her.
When you hear that scientist think that they can CHANGE HER WITH TECNOLOGICAL WEATHER TOYS AND TOOLS, then you know we are grasping at straws...
theinitiate, yours is the most realistic post I've read on this topic. I fully agree with you. Getting there is the hard part.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Hi Kathy,
The 7-league boot trick to really create transformational change of _ C O N T E X T _,
is to understanding that the current context -- lets call it "The Titanic" -- is doomed, sinking, and without any useful "stuff" to float US upon, in the bitterly cold wind-swept seas of life in these days.
As said many times before, rearranging the deck chairs ( C O N T E N T S ), regulatory agencies, and icebergs seen to the stern -- will provide nothing constructive to saving lives nor "The Titanic" itself.
We must __ each of us __ gird our loins for moral, constructive, collective, and authentic ways of BEING, as that is the kernel of our new EMERGENT context.
No one knows what it will look or feel like ( CONTENTS ), other than not looking like "The Titanic", and that time will literally tell us what we need to BE.
The context is all about the ineffable formlessness that proceeds the tangible creation of forms.
___ That without the still silence there is no chance for sound to form, and
___ without surrounding space, there is no place for matter to form.
When we see that LIFE is always about the combination of formless and form -- we begin to learn of the greater part of our ( usually unexperienced ) existence.
There is no humankind, without spirit -- no light without darkness.
SPIRIT ( the source of all that is ) is lonely for the human race to awaken to its grand potential possibilities
Namaste
Hi adamantly so, your writing has a familiar ring. Did you formerly post under a different username, as did I?
What you say is true.
Kathy AKA kathyodat
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
I'm already a changed person, once again.
Presence
Namaste
nspire
npwr.luv
Change is inevitable, those who accept it with good grace benefit from it as they are more able to control it.
I'd know you under any name, my friend. :-) And, yes, the invisible, formless 'world' is so much vaster than the formed--if only we had 'eyes' to see, and 'ears' to hear. It has been said that the inner determines the outer, and that the outer is always a 'spiritual' reflection of the same. Until or UNLESS we more fully understand ourselves, the snowball of mankind will continue to roll down its dark cosmic slope. Few seem to notice that the RATE of acceleration is INCREASING, as is worldwide suffering. We have much inner work to do in our lives, but most refuse it in favor worldly gain. They prefer to merely embellish the cage, even though it is destined to dissolve within the winds of time.
Yes, very well articulated, that which is beyond words.
And more concise too ( which reminds me of the Woody Allen joke about the two elderly ladies complaining about their recent meal that the food was : "under-seasoned", "cold", "over-cooked", "dry", AND that the "portions were small" ).
We need to focus on how much easier it is to create a breakthrough, with the current of change are so vastly swifter and more powerful. To channel that enhanced aspect and energy potential, toward inner being, serenity, and love -- or to feed that "other caged wolf" -- that is the "real" question everyone will come to know.
Ego does so love its gilded cages, and the fateful pangs of mere HOPE
Namaste
If it takes a crisis to bring down Obama, bring on the crisis.
And who are you going to replace him with?
Dante
Good God, we might get down to Nancy Pelosi. Joe, for God's sake take good care of yourself! Look both ways before crossing anything.