Pardon the typo. I meant to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! And I hope it was.

****************

Hope no one still wonders where the loyalty of
the office of president and all of congress and
our sold out supreme court is directed. Of course
this could change when the newly elected crop of
wannabes start ‘serving’ their terms, couldn’t it?

I also should not leave out law enforcement and
the justice system who are forever ferreting out
the ‘terrorists’ to this country. Good thing is they
are easy to spot and recognize. Bad thing is, they
are the ones in the financial sector who created
and are maintaining this dastardly financial
terrorist attack and who the law enforcement and
justice system protect.

aacme88 wants “two villains” to be held accountable,
but there are not just two.

1) deregulating the financial system into a rigged
crap game happened with the passing of the Gramm-
Leach-Bliley bill with a veto-proof majority. All
three names on the bill are Republicans. But, both of
Clinton’s Treasury secretaries (Robert Rubin and Larry
Summers) had been working to get something like this
done. They were so in favor of it that they allowed
CitiBank and Travellers Insurance to merge BEFORE it
was legal to do so.

2) the first guy who wanted to give money to the banks
was Bush Treasury head, Hank Paulson. He submitted a
3-page plan that would have prevented any oversight of
what the government and the banks did, including
judicial oversight.

A slightly less private version passed with oversight
reporting but without any power to improve problems.

Since then, the two villains are the government and
the financial industry. Way more than two guys.

And finally American capitalism is exposed for what it is: a system of greed, exploitation, financial con artists and a shameless scheme of theft by the one percent of the population abetted by the political establishment!

What a sad story! And yet no signs in sight of a corrective revolution by the crushed masses!

A young Greek immigrant came to this country with nothing more than the shirt on his back. He took up residence, worked in a low level job, and started using his tea bags twice. 

With the money he saved from that he went to Vassar and then to Harvard Law School. 

After slaving way at a law firm in Boston, he decided to take his wife’s advice and run for Governor of the State of Massachusetts. He won.

His wife was the daughter of the lead cellist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

His name is Michael Dukakis. 

And later he ran for President of the United States of America.  He lost.

Oh, yeah! His father arrived on our shores before Michael did with a foot locker full of $50s, but that’s not really part of the story.

Not only Wall Street for some time now corporate heads have been getting huge bonuses for taking companies into bankruptcy.  What is the incentive to do anything right and why would anyone want to invest in anything so crooked?  Oh yeah Bush said he was disappointed that he did not get Social Security Insurance funds put in the stock market before it tanked.

If ever there is an honest history of these events two villains will stand out above the rest:

1) the guy who deregulated the financial system to allow it to become a rigged crap game

2) the guy who, when the people couldn’t pay their mortgages and were endangering the banks, said “We’ve got to give money to the banks”, rather than “We need to help people pay and restructure their loans so the banks won’t fail and neither will the people.”

Robert Scheer gets most of his facts right. However, the title of the article is quite misleading, as it refers to a vaguely undefined “capitalism.”

As a supporter of capitalism, I note that anti-capitalists like to be sloppy with their definitions. So let me start by giving a clear concise definition of what I mean by “capitalism.”

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned, and the government has no say in picking which companies will succeed, and which will fail.

Scheer somehow makes the fantastic stretch of applying the term “capitalism” to recent government intervention in the economy, in which it bailed out politically-connected companies to the tune of well over a trillion funny-money dollars created out of thin air by its banking division, the Federal Reserve.

This, folks, is NOT “capitalism.”

To be precise with definition, this is a description of fascism, or what Mussolini called “corporatism.” The same benighted system has gone by different names throughout history. In England in the early 19th century, it was called “mercantilism.” Lincoln called it simply “the American system.” Republicans today call it “Business-government partnership.” No matter the name, it reeks of corruption.

A common tactic in criticizing capitalism is to blame it for the faults of its opposite. America is falling apart, and our economy is slowly spinning down the drain, because of the fascist government/corporate alliance, NOT because of capitalism, properly defined.

When extending unemployment insurance is voted down next year and a million Americans are left to the soup kitchen (Oh, that is going to play well internationally), maybe a leader will emerge who realizes the only way to challenge this rigged system is to blockade K-Street. Let the the banking lobbby leave for their martini lunches and don’t let them back in. I don’t wish for this scenario to play out. Just wish we’d protest and picket where the problem originates.

FiftyGigs,
“progressives are hung up looking for a Messianic figure to wave a magic wand”

Look at what they do, and not what they say.

There is not one shred of evidence that Obama would wave such a wand had he one.  His election campaign was a fraud conning the American public into believing that he was on their side, rather than being a representative of the financial elite that he is.

FDR was repeatedly re-elected specifically because he was a champion of the people in actual fact rather than in campaign rhetoric only.

Look at who Obama appointed to be his head financial guys and tell me he isn’t quite culpable. Larry Summers, Obama appoointed this Wall Street shill, enough said.

We here in the US are at a point where it’s becoming apparent that not much substantial is going to change for the better within our current corrupt 2 party system. The “Citizens United” decision makes it all even harder.

The worrisome things is that if true progressives can’t break through and force change to the left we may go hard right all the way to total fascism. People ought to read up on Germany circa 1931.

See, it’s true! Socialism DOES work!!!!!

In some circles it would go without saying.  To the casual encounter, it is a nicety, but on this thread and on this topic, the sentiment seems counterintuitive.

REDHORSE is just that, a horse’s ass.

HAPPY THANKGSIVING TO YOU ALL!!

The diagnosis, was made a long time ago. The illness is terminal, the economy is on
life support. And although it seems that there is no hope at all, the remedies lie in the
awareness by the body politic, that the treatments are being administered by a bunch of
quacks.  Once this economy has completely expired, then those that prey on our
suffering now, will have no place to hide. Ironically, they have destroyed themselves.
The people will live on, the plutocracies future is over, because without money they will
have no power and no influence. With 50 states looking for payback.

WE FARMERS ARE IN THE FIELDS ...YEAR AROUND..BATTLING NATURES
CAPRICE..BUT THE SATISFACTION OF ENDURING..IS WORTH THE
EFFORT..TRYING TO MOVE THE POLITICAL PROCESS IS SO
INNERVATING..BECAUSE THE MOUNTAIN OF LIES TO OVERCOME ARE
DAUNTING..BUT THE FARMERS ETHIC OF KEEP ON PLOWING LEADS TO
SUSTENANCE…AMERICA IS ADDICTED TO SPEED..SLOW DOWN YOUR
CAR..SLOW YOUR WALK..SLOW YOU SPEECH..SLOW YOUR MIND AND
PLANT A TREE OF THANKSGIVING..AND LASTLY..LAUGH LOUDLY..

Failure is the key to Success? I knew it!  I’m a day late and a dollar short.  I was born before my time.  If anyone could fuck up a wet dream, it’s me. 

Failure is now in vogue?  I used to say in high school that if they turned the grade rankings upside down, I’d be near the top.

I heard it on Amy Goodman’s DemocracyNow! this morning.  The corporations’s profits were something like $1.6 Trillion.  They need a tax break to hire.  What does ‘hire’ mean?

Entrepreneurship is the way to go.  As Dick Cheney and Meg Whitman would say, “Go eBay.”

Success all around.  Sell your shit to a bigger fool. Be a fuck up and win.

The bad news is, though, that the entry requirements to this cabal are that you are a proven Sociopath, like Jack Welch’s 100 Management Sharks of GE fame.

Only the few.  Those few.

Now, get back to work or get back to looking for a yob.  That’s Swedish for job.  That’s where the Democratic Socialist regime seems to be working.

Visit Sweden.  Find out for yourself.

I remember G. Will spouting off about unemployment in the Socialist-Democratic countries in Europe during the heyday of Bush years, 2005.

In those days anyone who wanted a ‘manufacturing’ job making hamburgers could get one.  The schmuck for Bush (I can picture him, but I’ve forgotten his name), said in front of the Senate that making hamburgers was manufacturing.  Senator Nelson quoted the Bible in response to that one.

I guess the Schmuck would add that a making a ‘chee’ burger, chee’ burger’ was a skill.

Does anyone remember, 2005, when the Bush blocking team was in full force, and they would question any criticism with remarks like, “Don’t you want the President to succeed?” 

I remember.

But then again, 5 years, that was a long time ago.

supremacists [fascists, if u prefer?] have heeded biblical command: those that do
not have much, even the little they have, will be taken from them.
case in point: life of a soldier, her/his healthcare, right to know, etcetc.
tnx

what madisolation said @2:52 pm!!

“I think the majority of liberals would just like him to do the damn job he was elected and promised to do”

the losers in Personality politics are the citizens

If Obama is the best representative of a constitutional scholar, we’re all even more farked up than anyone could have imagined

Financial companies now get about 42% of their
revenues from fees and only 58% from interest
(compared with 20% and 80% in 1980.)  No longer
responsible for defaults, banks push more
loans…debt, slicing, dicing, repackaging, the loans
are sold and resold.

We’ve paid off the ‘gambler’s iou’s, but we’re not
dealing with their addiction.  Since the ‘80’s the
financial sector has speculated, swindled and cheated
its way to overwhelming wealth.

Under monooply-finance capital an accumulation of
misery is a necessary condition, corresponding to the
accumulation of wealth.  Wealth not accrued in the
productive side of the economy, but on the financial
side which now more closely resembles a casino.

Congrats Scheer - your are once again off the Prez’s back and on the backs of the real thieves, con men and snake oil salesmen - people I think you should put on your WATCH LIST - Wall Street, Banks, Insurance Companies, most Lawyers, some Pundits, all Politicians and Used Car Salesmen - go get ém tiger!

LETS JUST WAVE THE EXXON FLAG IN WASHINGTON DC AND GET IT OVER WITH….

Caviar and Truffles for the Wall St. Fraudsters, but “eleven cent cotton and 40 cent meat” for the citizens of America.

“The problem is that progressives are hung up looking for a Messianic figure to wave a magic wand and turn everything around, no muss, no fuss, no mistakes.”
I hate this “people expect him to wave his magic wand” crap. I think the majority of liberals would just like him to do the damn job he was elected and promised to do, which was to defend the poor and the middle class. He’s failed on purpose, with his phony talk of bipartisanship and reaching out, when he really just wants to enrich the wealthy, thereby enriching himself. He’s a total narcissist.
And he ain’t no Roosevelt. Not by a long shot. He’s a combination of Reagan and Hoover on steroids.

How else to explain last quarter’s outrageous profit figures?

First, most of the growth in GDP in the past two years, is in the financials. This is mostly due to a change in accounting rules. See: FASB 157, 166, and 167, or “Extend and Pretend”.

More recently, the US Dollar has taken a hit. The growth and profit numbers are not adjusted for inflation.

The government doesn’t control the value of assets, but it does control the value of the currency.  It can do something that actually fools almost all of the people almost all of the time.  The government can devalue the dollar. It can create inflation.  What the government can do is it can take that hundred thousand dollar asset, that wants to fall to $20,000 in real terms, and let it fall, but still make it worth $200,000 in nominal terms simply by devaluing what each of those dollars are worth.  Which means the homeowners are no longer underwater, and the banks are no longer insolvent.

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1259867857.php

It’s all smoke and mirrors, that’s why there has been no real recovery.

I’m not completely familiar with the GM-UAW contract, but aren’t workers getting a chunk of stock? Doesn’t the UAW now have people on the Board of Directors? I believe that was the trade-off for lower wages. I hear people saying that the workers should own the means of production. Well, which one is it? High wages, or ownership?

GMAC? I paid off my truck loan in January. I have yet to receive a lien release from them, despite calling and complaining twice. I hope they fuck up and come repossess my truck, so I sue the balls off them. I use my truck for business, so I can add up all losses in income, and then some. Fuckers.

There’s no liquidity trap. The banks are insolvent. Lack of liquidity refers to lack of reserves. Insolvency, is lack of capital. There’s a difference. A big one. the Federal Reserve is trying to recapitalize the banks, not just provide liquidity. Currently, liquidity is being provided by TLGP (Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program) by the FDIC.

http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/resources/tlgp/index.html

Capital requirements are set up and determined by BIS, the Mother of all central banks.

http://www.bis.org/

so left i am right

That reminds me of an old plumber’s saying to a new apprentice.

“The only thing you need to about plumbing is, shit flows downhill, and you’re at the bottom.”

This is a remarkably balanced commentary by Scheer.

He is indeed correct that the data is proving incontrovertibly that trickle-down economic theory is total bologna. He also correctly realizes that President Obama isn’t a proponent of trickle-down theory.

The problem is that progressives are hung up looking for a Messianic figure to wave a magic wand and turn everything around, no muss, no fuss, no mistakes. A Harry Potter spell creating idyllic economic harmony without anybody so much as having to get off their hogwarts is fiction.

Change involves grouping. Grouping is power. Progressives are adverse to power.

FDR didn’t establish his economic plans because he had “backbone”, folks. The man was elected four times.

Duh.

“Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s sensible regulations were gutted by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and tragically Obama has failed to restore them”

This is quite a generous op-ed of the work of Summers/Geithner/Obama.  Obama’s team has cemented the position of the Banksters during the financial crisis, which is the only reasonable time in which they might be controlled.  Obama is the Bankster’s anti-FDR solution to citizen/voter backlash.  He has earned every cent of their bribe money.

Urine “trickles” downhill…