Sepharad—I look at it this way; I rode horses all of my life and broke one ankle.

I rode motorcycles for about 5 yrs and almost died.

It takes a human machine to really fu*k you up!

I grew up riding Quarter Horses (or part). When I was married, we raced Standardbreds and, then, I taught at an Ag Tech INsti, mostly Arabs (who are pretty fiesty, but I love them)

I wish I could come out and ride them!

It sounds like an Austrailian type saddle? I mostly rode bareback as a kid…maybe stupid. I had a saddle, but, like you say, if you get to know the horses, if youre bareback, esp. all you have to do is “think”...I am homesick for my horses…

terry freeman:
‘If we actually had something approaching laissez faire, I’d be glad to hear criticism of it. ...’

Well, laissez faire is French….  Oh, wait, the French are good this week.

KDelphi—Peruvians are ridden Spanish-style (no saddle horn, but more under you than an English saddle, legs straight instead of bent,)mostly neck-reined with heavy Peruvian reins and bit. Depends on the horse, but once you and the horse are used to each other you can almost steer it by looking where you want to go. We are indeed in the boonies but there are lots of teenage girls in high schools in Forestville and Sebastopol but they are not like you and I. (I gather from your post that you cleaned stalls to ride. I did too. Also—at age 15, when my dad couldn’t afford any more riding lessons, which he’d gotten me for a few months—I went to a different stable in St. Louis’ Forest Park and flat-out lied. Told the manager I knew everything about riding and would exercise the rich people’s horses FOR FREE all winter long, when they didn’t want to ride their own horses.  That was a major education: all those big crazy thoroughbreds; lucky I didn’t get killed but definitely learned how to ride.) Anyway, the kids now want you to teach them how to ride, let them come at a specified time, pick them up and take them home, and after a few times get tired of it or discover boys or something. More trouble than it’s worth. Also, has gotten hard to ride around here safely—proliferation of boutique wineries and every damned one of them has “tastings” so the roads we have to ride down to get to areas where we can ride are getting pretty dangerous. Also people think it’s funny to screech up and honk their horn to watch the horse get scared.

So we trailer out after work to do long rides (depending on how long it stays light), on weekends and whenever we can figure out how to do it Self-employed people don’t get to take vacations. If you are ever out here we’ll figure out a way. Riding horses is always dangerous of course; they are big and nervous or wouldn’t have survived this long. But Peruvians are pretty intelligent—though there are exceptions—and are about as safe as horses get. They can be initially scary if you haven’t been on one before, as they have this tiger-in-the-tank energy that fires up BUT is easily manageable. We’ve had accidents and I’ve gotten hurt but not as badly as I would’ve on any other horse. If it comes to a somersault, these guys twist so they don’t land on you. They don’t run madly into trees or fences if scared. And unless you treat them badly they don’t try to get you off their back.

Sepharad—Peruvian Pesos are some beautiful horses!! Like riding in a rocking chair, as they say, if I remember correctly…very lucky..are there some young girls around the area? When I was ten, I would clean stalls for a few hours to “ride for a few hours” (lol—the guy I finally bought my fav horse from would let me ride till the sun went down or my ass bled…)..but, you are out in the boonies, no?

Course, there is the problem, if someone would get hurt…Just an idea…I wish I lived near there, I would sure give it a shot..they are ridden English, no?

KDelphi, I swim at the local year-round heated public swimming pool 4x week and it is a big help. Wish you lived around here as we have too many horses for the two of us to keep conditioned properly, and they’d be comfortable for you. They’re Peruvian Pasos and don’t trot, and have brains (i.e., if there is a bad situation they don’t freak out and get you killed). I no longer can start the young ones and have to be really careful riding (so I don’t get the kind of injury that would keep me from riding again), but it’s hard to ride and be careful at the same time. (We explore; lots of off trail. The point is the freedom, and being careful cuts into that. We live in Northern California, closest to Forestville.) Divorces are tough, at best. But then you’re free to find the right person. Even my Catholic cousins forgave me for my divorce, but must say they were glad when I remarried and stayed that way. Told me I challenge their faith in Catholic doctrine (which is a good thing). If they knew that I’m not a religious Jew it would upset them; they are counting on that special covenant Jews are supposed to have with Yahweh to keep me out of hell. (These cousins are the only religious people I know who don’t bother me.)

Sepharad—Yes, I do, off and on, as you say.

I also have osteoarthritis from a few motorcycle accidents, but, I still get around, with some pain.

Some days it is really horrible, isnt it? The water really helps and I’m supposedly moving there , if this thing goes thru (wont bore you with details) I used to ride horses, growing up. I raced them , when I got married, then lost all the horses in the divorce, even though we had acquired them together…

I miss horses alot…I used to teach disabled kids to ride horses as volunteer work. It was one of the best things I ever did…

KDelphi—Totally off topic, but you wrote scrolling and scrolling is hard if you have RA. Do you have rheumatoid arthritis too? (I’ve struggled with it for 21 years now and as you know if you have it some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you. Getting a little hard to play piano and ride horses as freely as I’d like but still in the game. Also SLE. Yecch.)

foggyjones—To be very honest with you, I would like to read his opinions. I tried from the start. It is just that when someone preaches at me, my eyes glaze over. I cant concentrate. I do have “selective AADD”, I think. When someone just says the same things over and over, my brain gets numb. I learn to not “hear ” those people anymore.

When you have RA, scrolling and scrolling gets tiresome.

I dont think it really bothers him do you? If he really wanted to reach people with an important message,(one that everyone hasnt heard already, or , if they were interested in such, would go to a site on that topic) he would listen when people say that theyve had enough of the preaching, and get about covering his OTHER chosen topics…

I see my post is gone from yesterday , and it should be…if you had watched the hearings on torture yesterday, and, had friends arrested at the Baucus’ hearings, all in a couple days and, saw the response of the Administration as SO LAME, you would be angry too. I was very angry.

I dont “hate” any one group of people and I apologize.

But, I am tired of hearing the same thing applied across the board.

If you want people to be able to read others opinions, please stop encouraging DWIGHT…

foggy jones—Yeah. I “kindve hate “christians” alot!! I was raised one, and I didnt used to hate them. I think it has something to do with not being able to , even watch Congres on tv or an inaugeration , in the uS without a fricking PRAYER! If christians are hated, they did it to themselves.

There are christian websites. That is where people should preach.

DWIGHTBAKER, May 9 at 10:27 pm #

DB
***********************

Nah…

5 huge long, boring, pointless posts by D-B—another thread killer.

D-B, communication is two ways, not a series of interminably long rants on subjects on which you usually know very little, but assume so much.

Inherit—You’ve GOTTA have a twisted sense of humor to deal with this.

DWIGHTBAKER, May 5 at 1:42 pm #

DB
****************************

More like a really twisted one!

foggyjones—I said that I was giving OPINIONS.That is what yours, and DB’s posts are, also.

It is just NOT personal to you. You seem to wish to make it so.

some have even thought of robbing graves, now that is depravity about as bad as it gets.
************************************

“Good thing we’re not grave-robbers!”—Indiana Jones in “Crystal Skull”.

Just think of it as….current archeology!

foggyjones—You have an intense problem with taking things personlly, everytime someone disagrees with you, as in “can you really handle the truth” or “have a nice life”. I am simply voicing opinions.

“Can you really handle the truth? It is available to you but one can only hand you the key and show you the door into truth, you must make the effort to enter. The invention of Christianity is clearly a Jewish invention. One only needs to study the details of Paul and nothing could be more obvious. ...”

I have told you that I studied catechism. It is not interesting to me anymore. Neither is the “forest for the tress” stuff. YOu may look at a forest and see god. That is your right. I see the logging industry, and feel that I must save the tress rather than waiting for god to do it..

ITW—How lame.

I just listened to Pres. Peres on c-cpan. How lame.

As for “radical groups” please continue to count christianity as one of the most virulent..

KDelphi, May 4 at 1:22 pm #

ITW—Please explain to me why you think that “this system” (capitalism or republic or what?) will work.Without starting a major world war…
*******************************************

Since you never bother to read my posts, and have admitted as much, I leave you to figure it out on your own.

Just remember this: Socialism has NEVER worked. 

Einstein said that to keep trying the same thing and expecting a different result is the mark of insanity.

Yet “TC” want to go do to the US and the world what keeps failing.

truedigger3, May 4 at 12:36 pm #

Obama worshiper
******************************************

Since you are a hard-core member of “The Contingent” it’s nice to see you FINALLY get something right.

You want easy, simple answers that fit on to a bumper sticker or a 30 second sound byte.

It doesn’t work that way.  The personal, economic decisions of 300 million Americans, from poverty level to unimaginably rich, are far too complex individually and in their interactions to be neat and clean.

I see I’m starting to get the use flap and insults from “TC”. 

Our economic breakdown has NOTHING to do with Israel or “Zionism”.  NOTHING.  It may be redundant to say this but anyone who thinks it does should join a racist party because that’s what they are.

Inherit, actually I think you and cyrena have a firmer grip on the economic nuts and bolts than I do. You’re like my husband (who explain things the same way). I understand the explanations but wouldn’t be able to formulate them as concisely as you have. My biggest obstacle: my visceral reaction when I read about banker cushions at the same time I see the hardship all around us, cutbacks on Medicaid meaning that many people reliant on it are not getting needed treatments, families homeless for the first time in their hard-working lives, etc.

ITW—Please explain to me why you think that “this system” (capitalism or republic or what?) will work.Without starting a major world war…

Inherit The Wind wrote:
“With the possibility of Sepharad, nobody here but Cyrena has an inkling or a clue what is going on.”
___________________________________________________

ITW,

So, ONLY sepharad who is an ardent zionist like you
and cryena who is an Obama worshipper have a clue
of what is going on.
OOOKKAAY, that saves me some time. why bother
responding to you, Oh wise one.!!!! Bye.!!!

Obama worshiper

DWIGHTBAKER, May 4 at 9:30 am #

The vile open festering wound…
***************************************

You wrote this 4 months ago and think it’s so brilliant that you take 3 full posts to show it off?  Are you SERIOUS, DB?

Why don’t you just post a link to it?  Or do you realize that NOBODY is going to click on your link?

That’s because nobody’s interested in reading this pedantry.

Why don’t you begin the post with “I need to quote the smartest person I know, and that’s myself, DwightBaker.” ?  I mean, talk about EGO!

With the possibility of Sepharad, nobody here but Cyrena has an inkling or a clue what is going on.  It’s like primitive shamans trying to exorcise the demons of a bacterial infection with smoke, rattles and dance, when what the patient needs is an antibiotic.

Much is made of saving the banks but not the car makers.  Yeah, this gets under everyone’s skin, but it means they don’t know just how much more cataclysmic the failure of AIG will be to the nation than even the failure of GM.

It doesn’t mean I love AIG, or like it, or even think its practices were ethical.  I don’t.

Yes, it’s critically important to understand how this fire got started—and it wasn’t by accident.

Yet the old Viet Nam adage about being “up to your ass in alligators….” is just as true now.  The fire has to be put out, the ship gotten to a safe harbor before we can decide to fix the ship or junk it for a properly designed one.

The automakers in America have been making junk cars and ignoring the obvious since at least 1968.  They made NO allowance for the coming oil crisis that was obvious in the late 608’s and early 70’s.  Hell, the first Earth Day happened under Nixon BEFORE the Oil Embargo by OPEC and Detroit did…nothing.  When the gas lines started in 1973, Detroit did…nothing.

When the Pinto blew up with a faulty tank design did Ford acknowledge and fix its mistake? No. It fought tooth and nail against litigation and regulation.

GM spent its profits in the 70’s and 80’s on styling, not engineering.  I found the same stupid items like bad latches that were on my 81 Chevy were still on the 87 and 91 Chevrolets!  And we wonder why Detroit is in trouble?  It’s not a mystery, gang! They’ve been selling $#itty products for decades and NEVER addressed the question “why?”.

So have the banks. But fixing the banks is a lot easier.  Banking “products” are nothing—they can be gone tomorrow because they aren’t products at all.  Yeah. Throw out the bums at AIG, BofA, Chase, etc and re-regulate the crap out of them so they can’t pull this again.  That can be done in weeks and months.

But re-engineering Detroit to make cars that aren’t pieces of crap?  That takes YEARS!

So let’s not get so hung up on idiot ideas of revolution and socialism (which has failed SO many times I’m amazed anyone is still “for” it). We have to make our system WORK, because it can.

foggyjones,

DWIGHTBAKER is religious nut whose material mostly
are coppy and paste. Occasionally when he writes something himself, most of what he writes is disjointed gibberish.
All in all he sounds like a broken record, and
no offense, he is bonafide stupid asshole and a real pest.

Hey, why don’t we start pestering our “reps” in congress to ban Rudolph Murdoch from American media for 20 years as penalty for inciting criminal behavior, e.g. arbitrarily calling the election for the Bush Regime, Texas succession, Teabagging Parties…

of course the elite won’t touch this sacred cow because it’s even better—its milk is cash. The FCC is such a joke, a party favour pay-off for humdrum political hackery. Time for a smoke.

Dwight, Not sure what you are getting at ... chickenhawks, intellectual Druids ... what makes you think that? Being against monarchs and oligarchs and preferring peace and prosperity for most doesn’t mean that people are not willing to fight for their beliefs, or, come to that, for their country whether in the military or in politics or for the Constitution at home. In my family we’ve done all of the above, some still doing it. (I don’t know much about Druids save that they were priests of some ort in pre-Roman Britain, left the rocks at Stonehenge for later peoples to puzzle over. Perhaps Druids were intellectuals for their time, perhaps not, but don’t get the connection.) Religion, in this country, is supposed to be separate from political
policy. When the two have been mixed, historically the results have not been good. Religious principles may be guides for laws and individual ethical codes, but go beyond that and you’re courting tyranny of the priests.

foggyjones—how much of DWIGHT’s postings have you read? For how long??

If you can cipher through all the religious blather, have at it. As I’ve said ,he makes some good points.(and then throws in things like “within your limited intelligence”—as a “christiaN”??) Most adults do not like to be preached to, except in church. ThaT is where religion belongs. We have a separation of church and state. They are many, I’m sure, “nice religious blogs”...

Harman, too. She is guilty of crimes against the state. I’m not saying that DWIGHT is. I already told him I have had catechism. If you want religion, go to such a site.

This is supposed to be a political site. The topic (although I often deviate from it) is the middle class…

foggyjones-I might be able to take DWIGHT, if he werent so damn judgemental and so passive aggressive

He will have a few good points, and, then, he throws in something like ‘you of “limited intelligence” aND a bunch of Bible quotes….

Sorry for the double post…I’m at my daughter’s house and using her laptop and I really hate those damn things.

I guess the parts of Obama’s plans that were designed to help the middle class have been shot down by the Senate, right?  No real tax relief and no help with foreclosures, and no tax increases on the ultra-wealthy.  Never mind that the divide between them and the middle class has about tripled in the past few decades.

I had hoped he would bring real change, but I don’t see a lot of change happening here.  More like chump change.  To be sure, he’s a far better diplomat than GB could ever hope to be, but that’s basically just all talk, and I don’t see enough action to back it up.

Meanwhile, the ranks of the middle class are thinning fast.

I guess the parts of Obama’s plans that were designed to help the middle class have been shot down by the Senate, right?  No real tax relief and no help with foreclosures, and no tax increases on the ultra-wealthy.  Never mind that the divide between them and the middle class has about tripled in the past few decades.

I had hoped he would bring real change, but I don’t see a lot of change happening here.  More like chump change.  To be sure, he’s a far better diplomat than GB could ever hope to be, but that’s basically just all talk, and I don’t see enough action to back it up.

Meanwhile, the ranks of the middle class are thinning fast.

DwightBaker, re your 1:45 comment: husband yelled when post office man said charger had arrived there via priority mail, but it could take another week to get to our mailbox yet refused husband’s offer to come to post office and pick it up himself. Yelling seemed to help; it arrived two days later. As for my sanity, it’s usually intact. If there are people and causes you love, you can’t afford the luxury of mental meltdowns. (There are MANY basically sane people on TD—KDelphi, Leefeller, Shenonymous, Inherit the Wind, Parcelsus to name just a few.)

Folktruther, don’t you think there is a possibility that things will get so much worse than they already are that people WILL find the will and ways to rebel? (Someone suggested boycotting elections, but boycotts do not move anything forward—or bring systems down—the way general strikes have in the past.) Must admit, though, I hear and see a lot of free-floating anger without a focus. Yet. (I’m not sure if the Horowitz you refer to is David Horowitz, but if so I thought he moved to Israel to edit some publication years ago. What does he have to do with firing professors or anything else in the U.S.? Which professors, where and why? Haven’t heard anything about that—or, for that matter, nothing about Horowitz for quite a while. Journalists are not usually in the business of getting professors fired. But I don’t want to go too far off the topic here.) And what concentration camps are already built? For whose occupancy? I thought I was the paranoid one here.

Globalization has destroyed the American unions, and the unions were necessry to mobilize the population to keep the parties in line economically.  Now the Amereican people are fragmented, the ruling class united, and class ienquality is growing to monstrous proportions.

The ruling class knows that inevitably the population will react.  So it appears that the Gops ae kind of ignoring the electorial element and focusing on their base on religious fanatics who will support a police state.  Their supporters are like Trith; they have no sense at all.  His philosophical position is: I gibber, therefore I am.  He is in favor of mass killing, torture, oppression of every kind, and he is an example of what the Gops are counting on.

Obama, aside from the hypocracies, is not offering any solutions because there are none satisfactory to the ruling class.  So things will get worse. And the solution of the Gops are the prisons and concentrations camps that already have been built.  Zionists under Horriwitz are already getting professors fired from universities, and this is under Obama.  Unless there is some instituional way to unite the population, the policies of Bush-Obama will continue, class inequality will increase, and the ruling power structure will resort to mass violence against the American people.

Sepharad and truedigger3—I dont expect Pres. Obam to fix everything—especially not yet—but I do expect him to take the country in a new direction…you know, change…

Hiring on Clinton’s Wall St is the same direction…been there, done that..

truedigger3, Yeah, you’re right about that. Bothers me a lot that Obama has let some of these guys walk out even richer while not doing much about people losing houses, jobs, hope. I really do hope things get better and he makes better choices—because he’s going to be President for next 4, maybe 8, years, and there are all kinds of crises out there just waiting to be handled for better or worse. Have been following Paul Krugman’s columns—one economist I trust—and he is not exactly overflowing with optimism re either Obama or the developments to date.

DWIGHTBAKER,

Are you insisting on showing everone how stupid idiot
you are.
Dolt, take a long hike and don’t come back.

sepharad wrote:
“truedigger, I agree with what you wrote re the auto industry and banks, but it’s too early to blame it all on Obama. He’s made some horrible mistakes, but the financial crisis was, is, such a fruit-basket-upset situation that it would take a true genius to get everything right.”
____________________________________________________
sepharad,

I am not blaming the crisis on Obama, but it is
obvious that all he wants to do is to bail out wall St. banksters and the hell with rest of the economy and the common struggling folks.
His economic team is cosisting from the very same
people who caused that disaster.
Compare the trillions of dollars shoveled on Wall St.
with the “struggle” of the auto companies to get some few billions more which would have saved tens of thousands of jobs.
Yes, some major banks should be saved, but you can
save the banks without saving the corrupt management
with their obscene bonuses and without bailing-out the super-rich bonds and stocks holders.

truedigger, I agree with what you wrote re the auto industry and banks, but it’s too early to blame it all on Obama. He’s made some horrible mistakes, but the financial crisis was, is, such a fruit-basket-upset situation that it would take a true genius to get everything right. I think Robert Reich could have been more useful than some of the people he chose, I hate it that he’s empowered the same people who wrecked the system, but he’s a smart guy and probably won’t make the same mistakes again (unless he is a bona fide class traitor, which is far from clear yet).

cryena wrote addressing Marie Cocco:

“Obama is ‘allowing’Chrysler to go bankrupt. They did that to themselves. Other corporations have gone bankrupt and come back out of it well enough. Allowing the banks to go under is a bit different. But then, you wouldn’t get that.”
_________________________________________________

No, Chrysler didn’t do that to themselves. Chrysler and ALL the other auto companies are in trouble because of the economic crisis brought by
the fraudster and banksters of Wall St. who selected and financed your beloved Obama to get elected.
Its mangagement took that chance with the colllusion of the governmrnt to declare bankruptcy to bust the labor unions and cancel
all its obligations to the workers and retirees.
Yes, Chrysler will emerge from bankruptcy, but with a workforce with much lower wages and benefits and top management with bigger salaries
and bonuses.
You wrote: “allowing the banks to go under is a little different”
No one is calling for the banks to go under, what
has been called for is the government to take over the insolvent banks and save what is savable and shut down the hopeless cases. FDIC did that tens of times before.
Why the government is giving the same failed
managers trillions of dollars and let them still
get their bonuses as a reward for their abject
corruption and incompetence.
Where were you? I thought you were hiding from
embarrassment watching your beloved Obama rolling
on the same tracks left by W Bush. But you are still defending and find execuse for beloved Obama. I cann’t believe that. I am flabbergasted.
Go back to your hiding and take DWIGHTBAKER with
you.

Miss Marie,

Just as sort of an FYI, “The End of the Middle Class As We Knew It” began a real long time ago, with Reganomics, and it’s never let up.

This is SOOOO typical of this author…

“The cool calculation with which President Barack Obama signaled that he was willing to let automakers go bankrupt but would not contemplate the failure of big financial institutions is one marker of his first 100 days in office.”

This ‘cool calculation’ which signaled what to WHOM? How the hell would YOU know what President Obama has ‘calculated’ or ‘signaled’. There’s no way in science that you could ever interpret what an intelligent mind is considering in terms of administering to the current needs of a state that has become little more than a corporate welfare state under 40 years of previous administrations, most of them repugs.

Give it a rest Miss Marie. Catch up with the times. Obama is ‘allowing’Chrysler to go bankrupt. They did that to themselves. Other corporations have gone bankrupt and come back out of it well enough. Allowing the banks to go under is a bit different. But then, you wouldn’t get that.

Sepharad—Yes. Thanks. Even here, I hear people refereed to as “them” alot—sometimes I think, do they mean moi? lol

I’m sure many others here have spent their time flipping burges and waiting tables. If anyone hasnt, maybe they should practice….

KDelphi—“Middleclawss” indeed. You are BAD ... but also kind, unlike myself: I can think of any number of people I would wish misery on—but most of them are untouchable. I’d expected some of the bank guys to be hobnobbing with the Enron guys in prison by now but instead they got their bonuses, and still others crow about having “plenty of cash.” There is such a world of hurt around our area as well as the rest of the country ... and the world for that matter. Was glad to hear Obama managed a tiny bit of anger at speculators today. I wish he’d get really mad and throw things and yell. Was hoping maybe some of Rahm Emanuel’s tantrum-prone behavior would rub off on his boss and deployed at the right times.

To Hippie4Ever, who said:

“Capitalism is intolerant of an educated peasantry because they are needed as cannon fodder.”

Also because they are needed as good little factory workers…oh wait, I guess a lot of those jobs have been shipped overseas, haven’t they?  OK then, they are needed as good little hamburger flippers and coffee-servers…including a lot of our college grads.

If I saw a way to drop out of this society, I would, in a heartbeat.

hippie4ever—nailed it…

I do not wish misery on anyone—well, maybe a few Wall St bankers, some working for Pres. Obama, but…

All in all, the middle class drove themselves off of this cliff. They jumped into the Casino stock mkt with both feet, giving up the right to secure pensions , in return for bigger investment dollars(or so they were told, so it seemed at the time) with 401ks, etc.The Unions relished in Generous Motors reliable BS/BS health insurANce, which, basically set the standards for what would be treated medically in this country- when and how long…and never stopped to think about those that couldnt get coverage.(until they couldnt)The middle class happily signed in “welfare reform” and allowed multinationals to send the working classes and poorkids off to war, while they went to college, to get a “new ” degee in computer engineering or some such, and, smiled while they signed NAFTA and CAFTA and now PAFTA and all this other crap, to ship working class peoples’ jobs to countries where people are forced to work for pennies…all in the name of growth and “free mkt capitalism”—I guess they didnt think it would move up to “white collar”, but it has..

No body thought about the poor—maybe they will , now that they themselves will get a taste of it..I hope, that the middle clawss will demand better, not just “hope”.

voice of truth,

My previous posting was addressed to you.

The same people who were calling for regulating
Fannie Me and Freddie Mac, were the same people who
were sparing no effort to deregulate the financial
markets and the banks and let them run wild turning
the financial system of this country to a betting
parol of the connected and super-wealthy.
Without Wall St. and its financial shenanigans, the
current economic crisis would have been a mangable
contained problem mostly confined to slow down
in the housing market with some defaults.
Wall St. “innovations” from subprime to bundling
all kind of mortgages in bonds and selling them as
AAA rating investments, when in reality they knew that many of these bonds are risky and of questionable value which depended on the continuing rise in the deliberately inflated houses prices which they knew damn well it will not last indifinitely. All bubbles are destined to burst.
The worst offenders of Wall St. “innovations” were
CDS aka “credit default swaps” which allowed anyone
to bet on the ourtcome of any transaction without
being a party to that transaction. It is like all
the neighbours insured a car driven by a reckless
teenager in the area. So in case of a bad wreck,
the insurance companies will be obliged to pay
for maybe 100 accident instead of a single accident.
Many of these policies were used as a collateral
in more investments. It was a Ponzi pyramid.
These CDS are the reason for the debacle in AIG and many banks and financial houses who sold these CDSs
to anyone who wanted and in the beginning made hefty
profits and hefty bonuses.

I am not defending Barny Frank or Schumer. Both of
them and the rest of the banking committes both Democrat and Republican were water carriers for Wall St.
If you blame someone, then blame all of them for letting Wall St. and the banks run wild without any regulations or supervision from the government.

whwhich are quasi government
enteties to help housing mar

Two issues here:

1. The bourgeois lifestyle is environmentally nonsustainable, and in truth the “Middle Class” has always been a peasant class with baubles made possible by the Industrial Revolution, i.e. the Rape of Earth.

2. Capitalism is intolerant of an educated peasantry because they are needed as cannon fodder.

thank you Barney Frank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM

They got away with it, they robbed the people of this country, and now they’ve gotten away with it.

The laws, that are supposed to protect people from their rip off’s have just made it safer for the bigger criminal, the one whose too big to go to jail to get away with it.

So here it is, the Bush gang gets a pass because we’re not supposed to dwell on the past got to move forward, and the bankers get a pass, because their too big to let fail, and usury get’s pass because people need pay day loans.

But, what about you and me? We’re allowed to fail, and we’re failing everyday, because they are forcing us into bankrucpy. The the tax laws, the immigration laws, the health care laws, you name it they were all designed, by them to take from us, well now they’ve taken just about everything.

Pretty soon your going to start hearing news stories about the return of the middle class, just like we’re hearing about the recovery instead of the depression, the rescue instead of the bailout.

Psy Ops, B.S…..cultural therapy….This country is done for..

We are in a world of trouble and myopic business leaders only see their obscene pay and government leaders worry about their re-election.

Our manufacturing base in down to about 11% of our economy. It was 25% when Reagan took office in 1982. Aerospace is subsidized by government and its new products like the 787 are mostly made overseas, much in Japan. Education is in the toilet compared to countries like Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China.

Our automobile industry is tottering.

No wonder China worries about the treasury bills it holds in the hundreds of billion of dollars.

We are has-beens in terms of technology. We have trade deficits, service industries, and a finance industry that shot us all in the foot

Some people make less when advancing in education.  Not only must one have received a bachelors or masters degree but one must also have sacrificed his or her values in addition to sucking up to his superiors.  The responsibility of honesty was shoved off to the shoulders of others under the rationalization that “everybody” is doing it, or, that one would lose their job if they maintained their values.  So it seems that most everyone weakened and became corrupt. Not everyone however did so.  Some thoughtful and dedicated stalwarts carried the increasingly heavy burden of honesty for themselves and others.  They did the heavy lifting.  They lost their job, or did not receive that promotion and they and their families suffered.

Well guess what?  What goes around comes around!  Now the self inflicted degradation of the middle class has caught up with them, and no amount of repentance or sorrow can wipe them clean.  They have lost their moral right to criticize and must now endure what they themselves have in the past hoisted onto others.  So be it.

I believe this trend began about 40 years ago.  Then I noticed the europeanization of america underway.  Through these 40 years working folks have been convinced to vote against their own self interest.  Unions have been and continue to be vilified.  Corps have profited by the corportist orientation of the government heavily since the Regan administration and continued to through Bush II’s.  Probably will through this one too.

It is not just about the GOP, please peeps…Clinton and the New Dems sold the middle class down the river a long time ago…the inevitable occured…

There are some really insightful people on this thread, but, where does it all go?? I think that it is time we had someone in the WH who was NOT Ivy League….before you complain that they wouldnt be
“smart enough” (the uS obsession with thinking that they can actually measure intelligence and that it is a constant, innate thing), remember that the Bush family are blue bloods and all those working for Obama…

Unions are indispensible, as has been shown over and over, but, US Unions are total sell-outs…..they need to stop cowtowing to the elites, and explain to people that , if you shop at Wal Mart long enough, you will be working there soon! The people need to realize that, if you work, you deserve to be paid. I mean really, its almost that simple..

But, with income actually declining and, stagnant for decades, what else can many do? I SHOULD shop there, but I cannot…I feel too shitty about it.

Folk is right—have you heard Obama mention poverty   more than once? The parties never talk about class—-they like to refer to the poor as ‘aspiring middle class” or “those in need of opportunity or education”. Thats just bullshit…

FT says: “The diffculty is developing institutions which can support truthers to do so.  The historical problem is that institutionalized deception has gone on so long that not only does the ruling class want to delude the population, the population wants to be deluded.  How this cycle can be broken in the US is a major historical problem. Until then Americans will continue to be deluded by the Dionnes and Coccos.”

Bingo…

To the Bastille sounds good to me…anyone? Nah, didnt think so…one of these days, you will look at YOUTube and there will be a video of a person just running at Wall St—it wil be me..lol..nothin to lose..

Cocco, having in her previous piece argued for a Truth Commission for torture similar to the 9/11 Conission’s fake expose of the 9/11 Truth, now obfuscates the class oppression in the US.  As Michael Parenti detailed in BLACKSHIRTS & REDS, there is no working class in the Amrican mainstream truth, just one big middle class with a few unimportant rich and poor.  Therefore there is no class strutggle and no ruling class according to the maisstream American truth.

As Anarcissie implies, the working class has to realize that they must become a class for themselves.  They must struggle against the class-based funding of the banksters and the breaking of the auto workers union by defunding the auto industry.

This can only be done if the working class shakes off the power delusions imposed on them by the Educated classes.  An essential part of the class struggle is the truth struggle, and the truth about political and social reality is obfuscated by Progressive media truthers like Cocco.  But the major historical problem is not intellectual ignorance-not knowing- but emotional denial- not wanting to know.  Most Americans don’t want to know the reality-based truth because this subverts the American Dream taught to them from childhood.

The simple holistic truth about people and power subverts the power delusions that the Educated classes impose on the working population to legitimate their power.  To effectively counter the disinfomrationa and diseducation of the mainstream truth, the working population must develop their own truthers to combat the mainstream truth, and the mainstream conceptual language that conveys it.

The diffculty is developing institutions which can support truthers to do so.  The historical problem is that institutionalized deception has gone on so long that not only does the ruling class want to delude the population, the population wants to be deluded.  How this cycle can be broken in the US is a major historical problem. Until then Americans will continue to be deluded by the Dionnes and Coccos.

Remember, health care is a service industry, just like ‘burger flippers’.  It does pay better and many positions like nursing need to be filled.  We are still hiring many nurses from the Philippines and Canada to fill a shortage.  Health care is not a product like cars and does nothing to stop the trade deficit from continuing to grow.  After the domestic auto industry and suppliers go bankrupt, just what will the U.S manufacture to pay for health care?  Let’s hope Ford hangs in there.

At some point, maybe working people will begin to understand that they, and not the ruling class, are the source of wealth and the power that comes from it, and stop looking to elites to run their lives for them.  I don’t see much sign of it here, though.  It’s all about what the elites should do to be nicer—cheaper degrees (class filters) and all that.

On college: yesterday, the CUNY radio show on WBAI covered every angle of college for a working class.  “A Dream Deferred” is the show’s name http://www.wbai.org
The show is archived for 90 days, free.  CUNY is the City University of NY.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, city colleges in NYC were FREE.

Making college only for the rich, once again, is nasty.
Removing working class noncollege jobs is nasty, mainly by shippping them overseas,etc.

Students are coming out of city and state universities with massive debt from school loans that are not much regulated.  David Cay Johnston, tax expert, was on DemocracyNow speaking on the bailout a few months ago (but free archived,transcript)and mentioned (also that his son faces the loan debt/huge interest by Sallie Mae)how profit on school loans is 50% a year! He urged something be done. If, for some reason, you have to defer payments, due to no job, illness the Sallie Mae has a creative bookkeeping system and the debt escalates wildly.  There is NO bankruptcy on school loans. 

.

Professor Harry J. Holzer states: “As a society we demeaned people who worked with their hands.” As if the expensive college educations acquired by the ownership class have anything to do with intellectual pursuit. No, much of their highly vaunted higher education is simply about acquiring marketing skills and the social networks to find incompetent people in well paid jobs (George and Neil Bush immediately come to mind). As for those in prison who could have been electricians and plumbers… well not in an economy that seeks to destroy trade unions and guilds, courtesy the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A skilled well paid work force is the last thing the Ownership elite desires. Continuing acquisition and consolidation reveal that the wheelers and dealers at the highest echelon of predatory capitalism, could not care a rat’s ass about the fate of the workers.

The American people need to rise up and demand that the companies who have moved off shore, cannot sell their cheap, shoddy merchandise in the U.S.  If they want to sell in the U.S. it should be manufactured in the U.S.
I realize that would not solve all our problems but it would be a first step.

Since 1789, it has been the government’s duty to assist business in subjugating and exploiting labor, occasionally throwing it a bone or a compliment when it’s especially needed (1942-1945). Government by the rich, for the rich, and of the rich is now breaking the tape.  Goal achieved!!