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Banks and Vaccines
He never wants anything but what's right and fair; only when you come to settle what's right and fair, it's everything that he wants and nothing that you want. - Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays
It is typical of the petty that they are inflamed by the news of what they perceive to be the inequitable distribution of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. The inflammation occurred when it was learned that Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, among others, have been receiving doses of the scarce H1N1 vaccine. According to reports, as of November 2, 2009, Goldman had received 200 units and Citigroup had received 1200 units. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the vaccine must be given to those who are considered to be in the high-risk category of developing serious complications from the swine flu such as pregnant women and children aged 6 months to 24 years. That would not, obviously, include banks that were in mortal danger a year ago not from swine flu but from the consequences of their improvident behavior. Although it is obvious that banks might have within their ranks, individuals falling in the high-risk category, the fact of the delivery to the banks was perceived by some to be evidence of preferential treatment.
Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union said: "It's obscene that Wall Street bankers think they are entitled to private shipments of H1N1 vaccinations while health-care workers, pregnant women, and other at-risk Americans are either waiting in line for hours or getting turned away because of shortages. She suggested the recipients should donate the vaccine they have received to local hospitals where it could be distributed to a more worthy population. (It is likely that Ms. Burger may have been motivated in part by the thought that poetic justice would be served if those serving at the banks were to perish from a disease with the name of pig.)
There were, of course, defenders of the distribution. Jessica Scaperotti, press secretary of the New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Department explained that the financial firms were not given preferential treatment. As she explained: "It's not that they received it over someone else, it's that they placed an order...This is not out of the ordinary. A lot of businesses hold vaccination programs for their employees. These locations are important vehicles for vaccinating people." A Goldman Sachs spokesman reminded the critics that: "It is important to understand that the [New York City] Department of Health decides in its sole discretion who receives H1N1 vaccines-both the amount and timing. Goldman Sachs, like other responsible employers, has requested vaccine and will supply it only to employees who qualify based on the requirements laid down by the CDC and Department of Health." In an e-mailed statement Citigroup offered a similar explanation saying in part: "The H1N1 vaccine is being provided through our clinics only to employees in high-risk categories as defined by the CDC."
In all the discussion over whether or not the distribution has been fairly effected, one very important fact is not mentioned. The banks fail to mention it out of fear. The critics do not mention it because it would explain why the banks have received the vaccine ahead of others and would, if publicized, mute, if not emasculate, their criticism. The important fact is banks are receiving the vaccine because of their employees' importance to the financial well being of the country. The banks survived a financial meltdown of gigantic proportions and were, almost to an institution, saved from financial collapse by a governmental bailout. Every day brings new evidence of the banks' renewed vitality and none is more renewed than Goldman Sachs that not only paid back all the money it received from the taxpayers but is once again restored to profitability. Goldman Sachs announced plans to pay $16.7 billion in bonuses in 2009, the largest bonuses ever paid by that firm and $6.7 billion more than it had received scarcely a year earlier (and repaid) as a bailout package. When answering those who criticize the size of its bonuses, they explain that those bonuses must be paid in order to retain the extremely talented individuals who are responsible for their present successes and (this is mentioned less frequently) their earlier failures. These are people who would bolt if their bonuses were one penny less than the amount to which they believe themselves entitled because of their good work.
It would undeniably be a shame if banks that promised to pay more than $16 billion in bonuses in order to avoid losing their highly talented people to the competition, were to lose them instead to the Lord because of a killer virus named pig. When the critics realize this, I am confident their carping will come to an end and they will, instead, be filled with gratitude for all the banks have done for us.
13 Comments so far
Show AllAnd the elites maintain that they are not a privileged class.
I was under the impression that some experts are very circumspect about the benefits of these mass vaccinations, subjected as they tend to be, to very limited testing, due to the brief time-scale adopted, and attribute them to the unbridled enthusiasm for profits of Big Pharma.
The public, too, were reported to have been reluctant to avail themselves of them, so I've been inclined ot interpret a number of similar news items to a kind of double-bluff campaign - to make people feel they're being unfairy disadvantaged. But maybe I'm wrong.
Yes, we should all be grateful for the elite who rule our country. Whereas the poor are sinful/slothful and innately untalented (and thus deserving of their miserable lot in life), the God-given natural talents of the wealthy elite have been refined through dedication and much schooling and study at the best institutions in this country and world, and they work harder and longer hours than the rest of us. This exemplary behavior of theirs merits the huge salaries, benefits packages, bonuses, tax breaks, second-home ski chalets in Switzerland (where they can hobnob with other, global wealthy elites), preferential medical treatment, and other privileges that they receive in this true democratic meritocracy of ours. No one else is as deserving as them.
God bless 'em.
(hint: in case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic).
obviously this writer hasn't been paying much attention to the now emerging facts about the perils of taking this toxic vaccine
let's see: to begin with - it is man made - reconstituted from the dna of a dead frozen inuit woman who died in 1917. it was made by baxter labs in switzerland and it is both untested and unproven
it is so dangerous that the makers of the vaccine asked for and were given (after the appropriate campaign donations i am sure) legal immunity from any deaths or other medical disasters that this "vaccine" will cause
like the bank bail out - the responsibility for the damages has fallen to - are you ready - you may have guessed - the taxpayer
the "vaccine" contains among other things: hini, cat cancers, ebolas, retro viruses, lead, cadmium and mercury
as part of the rockefeller plan to kill off the world population we see the "target" group for this killing technique are two groups: children and pregnant women
so this is what bio-terrorism 101 looks like - this is population control in action
as for wall street taking these shots: i say make it mandatory for all investment bankers - bankers in genral - to take this toxic death disease in a needle
my other target groups would include the congress, the senate, the pac's starting with aipac, right wing talk radio, fox news - well all the media i guess
just to be safe i would include the entire bush an palin families - as i say just to be safe...
everyone else would be wise to stay way from this nwo killing mechanism
Awesome post buff. I've also read that some labs are using the Kidney Cells from African Green Monkeys in a ?Vara?"Cell" or something to produce the replicant. It's anybody's guess what animal virus come free of charge with that approach.
Maybe that's what happened to Bush's brain. He shot himself up with DOD untested vaccines when he was growing up in the White House. We Gulf War guinea pigs can tell you all about the horror of biowarfare in Saudi Arabia. What's worse? The Anthrax fired by Saddam's Scudds (that he got from CIA), or the monkey vaccine DOD injects you with to "protect" you?
Luckily, being subcontract, I had neither a shot or a gas mask. :( We just sat there on the ramp, like a scene out of "X-Files" were everybody else had biosuits and masks except us. TWA pilots were so pissed about this they launched a major stink with their management and MAC. Years later, many of them suspect it was the Navy that shot down TWA 800. (They expressed this to me as I jump-seated in the cockpit to work.) I always wondered if the two events were related. But since the FBI's Louis Free banned the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) from participating in the ocean recovery, we'll never know for sure. The Navy jerked the 747 remains off the ocean floor before anything could be photographed, allegedly on direct orders from Bill Clinton. All this was documented by the Mcgraw-Hill publication: Aviation Week and Space Technology.
None of these things are "conspiracy theories". They are just now standard operating procedure for a government that has mutated into organized crime.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
At least in Canada it was the hockey players who jumped the queue. The thinking was that when the rest of Canada is home sick with the flu what else do they have to do but watch the good old hockey game?
Counterpunch interesting snippet:
People of lesser ambition than Blankfein would wonder why $16 trillion in money held by banks and big non-financial corporations is not making its way to the American workforce, in new jobs, better pay, a future. Why sit on so much cash while American communities go down the tubes? With so many kids in poverty?
Like Blankfein, President Obama understands the dynamics of ambition all too well, whereby recovery hinges on achieving return on investment without emotionalism or compromise, a concrete goal that inspires Lloyd Blankfein and keeps alive the wellspring of human ambition. And sells lots of yachts.
Said President Obama this fall to a group of high school students, “Don’t ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself you give up on your country.” Most of all, don’t expect much from your country, unless you’re an ambitious banker looking for relief.
Carl Ginsburg is a tv producer and journalist based in New York. He can be reached at carlginsburg@gmail.com
My kids are all sick and my wife's got the flue
and I was just thinkin' of callin' on you
'cause I'm busted. I'm broke. No dough. Ray
The elites do not even answer to us. Why should they? They own the place don't they?
I say give Goldman Sachs all the vaccine they want! I wouldn't put that stuff in my body if I were offered a million dollars to do so. There is no reason to believe that the H1N1 vaccines are safe, unless you trust the government and big pharma, both of whom have shown they are not trustworthy. So yes, please give all the vaccine to the bankers, to congress, to the corporate-owned senators and representatives...and let's watch as a percentage of them develop neurological disorders, or just die.
There is always the possibility that the 'vaccine' given to Goldman Sachs, Citi, et.al., is not necessarily the same 'vaccine' given to us lesser mortals...
Side note; my wife, who just happens to be an RN working in the Labor and Delivery ward at Nashville's Metro General hospital, was required to take a flu vaccination as a logical precaution given the nature of her job. She has repeatedly cared for and been exposed to pregnant women, new moms and babies who tested positive for H1N1. In our household, which includes myself, my wife, my son, my daughter and granddaughter, guess who is the only person to come down with the flu?
Your skepticism is healthy.
Joe
I wouldn't let the syringe holding H1N1 vaccine come within a ten-foot pole of me. No joke.