To the credit of Great Wealth, we are on the eve of a "close" mid-term election. We are also witnessing the end of representative republican democracy (a poor means of conducting government, but which is superior to all alternative forms).
Unprecedented amounts of money (during a depression!) are pouring into this mid-term election. Because of a Supreme Court appointment by the previous administration, by one Judge's vote, we now have a system which permits corporations, and unidentified "persons", to electioneer. We have no idea who is funding the political ads, and MOST of them are factually misleading.
This de-regulation and privatization of public elections will live in infamy along other Bush era catastrophes:
(1) Appointing inexperienced and "political" judges.
(2) Tax cuts to the Super Rich - with ZERO economic benefit for anyone else. The fact that the rich are richer while the middle class has collapsed, is the single achievement of the neo-Conservative take-over.
(3) Changing the laws so that "investment bankers" could destroy banking system. Glass-Steagal Act passed in the 1930's prevented banks from taking savings and putting money into investments with risk. The "new" (actually resurrected 1920's products) mortgage-backed securities, negative default swaps, and fraudulent investment "products" (literally toxic), destroyed the financial system.
(4) Oct 2008 tax payer bail-out for Wall Street -- unprecedented transfer of the risks to the public, providing yet another splurge of billion-dollar commissions to the bankers who had destroyed their institutions.
(5) Selling WMD to Iraq, then ignoring the UN inspection and attacking Iraq without a plan, leaving us with an un-winnable war, and the spectacle of rising religious intolerance and mass migration of refugees.
(6) Ignoring bin Laden in Afghanistan - repeatedly, and in spite of his large family, known relationships, and his control of a network of
(7) Ignoring terrorism until after 9/11,
(8) Ignoring deterioration of infrastructure with results such as the Katrina disaster,
(9) denying Global warming,
(10) destroying the civil justice system,
(11) making our schools the most expensive and least effective among nations,
(12) making our health care the most expensive and least effective among nations.
(13) starting with an income surplus, creating the biggest debt in history.
(14) Creating a hostility to independent journalists: Is it coincidence that in the Bush decade, journalists were increasingly singled out and killed by organized crime? This global rise of tyranny reached its apex in 2009, with the murder of 76 journalists killed in connection with their jobs. Organized crime and right-wing militias became the biggest threats. After Obama took over, the murder rate plummeted. In 2010, the death toll was down 25% to 57. Reporters without Borders, annual report from Paris.
(15) destroying the military - exhausting the Forces, and crippling the National Guard concept by pulling the citizen-soldiers out of their civilian employment for year-long war duty tours.
(16) privatizing the military and support services - Halliburton black no-bid "contracts" which guarantee huge profits to short-term fortunes while soldiers facing more risks have less to gain.
(17) Indifference to infrastructure - what utilities were not "sold" with corrupt discounts to private enterprises which promptly raised rates, were left languishing without maintenance and repair. Bridges, dams, highways, parks, water and power are all collapsing and deteriorating.
For the past couple years, many people have been working on this large hole which the Bush-Cheney-Rove Enron Halliburton cabal placed us into.
Showing posts with label Bush-Cheney-Rove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bush-Cheney-Rove. Show all posts
Friday, October 15, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
How the Republicans plan to govern: The Same Way
From John Kerry: Yesterday, the Republicans released their "Pledge" of how they'd govern, and Republican Leader John Boehner let the truth slip out:
"We are not going to be any different than what we've been."
They are the gift that just wants to keep giving -- OUR money.
"We are not going to be any different than what we've been."
They are the gift that just wants to keep giving -- OUR money.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Depression is psychological. So is Recovery. But empty suits are not the answer.
We do not have a "broke" economy. Our house has been burgled, from inside. All our intelligence, information and good humor remain available to us. We can use what we have to refill the house, looted as it may be.
Remember the "Peace Premium" and the budget surpluses set up after the Carter and Clinton Administrations?
In eight years, Reagan managed to convert the world's largest creditor nation into the world's largest debtor nation, with virtually nothing to show for it. We bought B1 bombers and Space War systems which do not work and cannot be built, and Polaris submarines with nuclear weapons which cannot be used.
In eight years, Bush Jr managed to appoint people who despise "government" and had no experience with large organizations (public or private) into positions of authority, doing nothing. The people in charge of the SEC (under Orange County's politician, Cox!) devoted their entire working days in the entire year of 2008 to collecting pornography. Apparently they believed it was not necessary to glance occasionally at the nonproductive re-tranching of low-risk mortgages into high-risk securities which could be used by predators to bet against in forms of credit default swaps which had been illegal since the Great Depression, but which were made available once again by a Congress owned by the Lending Industry.
Now, the people who own this country--having seized most of its real estate in foreclosure and shipped most of the industrial capacity off-shore--have frozen credit and refuse to make loans. This leaves any possible "recovery" at a stand-still, and they know it. They want to find another empty suit to run as President so they can take back that branch of government which they lost. The surest and really at this point only viable way to pull this off in 2012 is simply continue to refuse to make sensible old-fashioned secured loans to small business, which has always been the fastest, surest, most reliable engine of recovery. The Lenders can put anyone they want up for President, and the voters will vote against all incumbents because "it's the economy".
Is the Lending Industry making loans to the middle class? No. Why not? This is the same group of people who created the financial crisis by making highly leveraged high risk investments in which they lost their shirts, in which the CEOs destroyed the institutions they were managing, only to turn to taxpayers and, during the Bush Administration (we have to remember this little detail), extorted a bail out to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars. Remember, the Lenders got this bail out with the "promise" they would then loosen up credit and have it to make available to borrowers and business once again. They did not do this, in spite of being GIVEN the money and having made that solemn promise.
So, here we are waiting for the benefit, the loan availability accommodated by the tax payers' cash through the banks...and we are still waiting. It simply looks like the predators, having given themselves additional commissions and billion-dollar bonuses AGAIN as a result of taking tax payer bail-out money, are once AGAIN looting the country.
The good news is that at some point, the middle class, or you or I, or even some civic authority that has not already handed all of its collection to a predator, will set up a new, fresh and actual, "bank". This new bank will loan money to the middle class. The producers will get back to work producing value. And rapidly, and surely -- nothing miraculous or remarkable about it -- the whole country and the world will start to enjoy prosperity and good business.
Of course, bear in mind that the Lending Industry is still huge, and they own everything and they do not want this to happen -- because we have elections coming up, and they badly want to put another tranche of empty suits into Congress and the Executive Branch. The same people who stole our infrastructure also own our media, including the blogosphere and the twittering venues. They overwhelm us with their naysayings and attacks, without offering solutions or even mentioning implementation.
Kotlikoff is simply one of these Voices of Dooooooom. Where was he when the bankers were earning billion-dollar bonuses to perform non-productive conversions of wealth into air? Where was he when banks became bingo parlors, gambling our pension funds into toxic dumps? What possible insight does this obviously blinded and blinkered man have for us now when we need ... real insight?
For that matter, where did Kotlikoff just now get this expertise on "bankruptcy"? Where was he when the Lending Industry fought against bankruptcy reform and left consumers trapped in nondischargeable credit card schemes that treble the cost of purchases? Where was he when the bankers systemmatically went after municipalities and States and drew the entire country down into a spiral of debt? A million towns are now "bankrupt"!
If we stopped paying bankers enormous amounts of money to steal from the public weal, or stopped rewarding CEO's who destroy their own companies -- these are extraordinary times -- the engine of recovery can rapidly turn on.
Within a few months, think "over-nite", people could be hired to rebuild the infrastructure which has been completely ignored for the previous 8 years. We need engineers and designers. We need scientists to engage the stem cell, solar, and toxic clean up industries which are so promising. These would not be the low-wage jobs offered by the lame "tourist" hotels and patronizing "service" industries so eagerly touted by well, Las Vegas style cities.
The solution, in sum: Loans should be made available -- obviously not from the bailed out predator banks -- they simply refuse and will continue to withhold money in order to kill the recovery which they do not want. Go to credit unions and small banks. Start a bank on your own. Loan to small businesses, using traditional collateral. Multiply. Ignore the fact that the headlines continue to scream "Greece" and "distress". In the history of economics, business profits have never been bigger. There is plenty of money. Vast treasures were not actually destroyed. Just...stop giving it to predators. Stop.
And stop electing empty suits into positions of authority. We will prosper. Good health will break out like a pandemic. Intelligent people are much more fun than the hate-mongering little bashers who are confused and baffled by this utterly natural world.
Remember the "Peace Premium" and the budget surpluses set up after the Carter and Clinton Administrations?
In eight years, Reagan managed to convert the world's largest creditor nation into the world's largest debtor nation, with virtually nothing to show for it. We bought B1 bombers and Space War systems which do not work and cannot be built, and Polaris submarines with nuclear weapons which cannot be used.
In eight years, Bush Jr managed to appoint people who despise "government" and had no experience with large organizations (public or private) into positions of authority, doing nothing. The people in charge of the SEC (under Orange County's politician, Cox!) devoted their entire working days in the entire year of 2008 to collecting pornography. Apparently they believed it was not necessary to glance occasionally at the nonproductive re-tranching of low-risk mortgages into high-risk securities which could be used by predators to bet against in forms of credit default swaps which had been illegal since the Great Depression, but which were made available once again by a Congress owned by the Lending Industry.
Now, the people who own this country--having seized most of its real estate in foreclosure and shipped most of the industrial capacity off-shore--have frozen credit and refuse to make loans. This leaves any possible "recovery" at a stand-still, and they know it. They want to find another empty suit to run as President so they can take back that branch of government which they lost. The surest and really at this point only viable way to pull this off in 2012 is simply continue to refuse to make sensible old-fashioned secured loans to small business, which has always been the fastest, surest, most reliable engine of recovery. The Lenders can put anyone they want up for President, and the voters will vote against all incumbents because "it's the economy".
Is the Lending Industry making loans to the middle class? No. Why not? This is the same group of people who created the financial crisis by making highly leveraged high risk investments in which they lost their shirts, in which the CEOs destroyed the institutions they were managing, only to turn to taxpayers and, during the Bush Administration (we have to remember this little detail), extorted a bail out to the tune of TRILLIONS of dollars. Remember, the Lenders got this bail out with the "promise" they would then loosen up credit and have it to make available to borrowers and business once again. They did not do this, in spite of being GIVEN the money and having made that solemn promise.
So, here we are waiting for the benefit, the loan availability accommodated by the tax payers' cash through the banks...and we are still waiting. It simply looks like the predators, having given themselves additional commissions and billion-dollar bonuses AGAIN as a result of taking tax payer bail-out money, are once AGAIN looting the country.
The good news is that at some point, the middle class, or you or I, or even some civic authority that has not already handed all of its collection to a predator, will set up a new, fresh and actual, "bank". This new bank will loan money to the middle class. The producers will get back to work producing value. And rapidly, and surely -- nothing miraculous or remarkable about it -- the whole country and the world will start to enjoy prosperity and good business.
Of course, bear in mind that the Lending Industry is still huge, and they own everything and they do not want this to happen -- because we have elections coming up, and they badly want to put another tranche of empty suits into Congress and the Executive Branch. The same people who stole our infrastructure also own our media, including the blogosphere and the twittering venues. They overwhelm us with their naysayings and attacks, without offering solutions or even mentioning implementation.
Kotlikoff is simply one of these Voices of Dooooooom. Where was he when the bankers were earning billion-dollar bonuses to perform non-productive conversions of wealth into air? Where was he when banks became bingo parlors, gambling our pension funds into toxic dumps? What possible insight does this obviously blinded and blinkered man have for us now when we need ... real insight?
For that matter, where did Kotlikoff just now get this expertise on "bankruptcy"? Where was he when the Lending Industry fought against bankruptcy reform and left consumers trapped in nondischargeable credit card schemes that treble the cost of purchases? Where was he when the bankers systemmatically went after municipalities and States and drew the entire country down into a spiral of debt? A million towns are now "bankrupt"!
If we stopped paying bankers enormous amounts of money to steal from the public weal, or stopped rewarding CEO's who destroy their own companies -- these are extraordinary times -- the engine of recovery can rapidly turn on.
Within a few months, think "over-nite", people could be hired to rebuild the infrastructure which has been completely ignored for the previous 8 years. We need engineers and designers. We need scientists to engage the stem cell, solar, and toxic clean up industries which are so promising. These would not be the low-wage jobs offered by the lame "tourist" hotels and patronizing "service" industries so eagerly touted by well, Las Vegas style cities.
The solution, in sum: Loans should be made available -- obviously not from the bailed out predator banks -- they simply refuse and will continue to withhold money in order to kill the recovery which they do not want. Go to credit unions and small banks. Start a bank on your own. Loan to small businesses, using traditional collateral. Multiply. Ignore the fact that the headlines continue to scream "Greece" and "distress". In the history of economics, business profits have never been bigger. There is plenty of money. Vast treasures were not actually destroyed. Just...stop giving it to predators. Stop.
And stop electing empty suits into positions of authority. We will prosper. Good health will break out like a pandemic. Intelligent people are much more fun than the hate-mongering little bashers who are confused and baffled by this utterly natural world.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sadly, the Bush Legacy lives on...BP, Pentagon-gate, overpaid corrupt officials
Just from a few items reported in the LA Times today...it appears that the Bush Legacy just keeps on giving:
1. PENTAGON ACCOUNTING. The Defense Department has never accounted for billions of dollars given to and entrusted to it. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction was created in 2004 to oversee $53 billion appropriated by Congress for reconstruction. For the most part, there are no records, and billions have not been accounted for at all.
2. CITY OF BELL. The Mayor, Manager, and Council of a charter city were exposed for giving themselves high salaries and benefits, while cutting back services and depleting municipal resources to do it: $787,637 to Robert Rizzo as City Manager, $457,000 to Randy Adams as Police Chief, etc. Documents show that the employment records go back to 2003 when the wholesale looting began.
3. BLAGOJEVICH. The trial of this former Governor of Illinois is concluding. Among other evidence was the $12,000/month income for his wife who performed no services and had no qualifications for a real estate firm, Rezko.
4. WIKILEAKS re Afghanistan War. New documents have been outed from the secrecy under which they had been wrapped which "offer insight primarily into the war-fighting of the recently departed George W. Bush administration". [A10] The document reveal the deliberate killing of two Reuters journalists in July 2007 , and the absence of any leadership from the Bush administration. Any. Basically the documents reveal the fact that what administrative officials were telling us was pure fabrication. The troops on the ground were not trained for what conditions they found, and the mission was compromised from the beginning.
5. LEVERAGED BUYOUT OF TRIBUNE. The court-appointed examiner in the Chicago Tribune's bankruptcy determined that the 2007 leveraged buy-out was marred by the "dishonesty" of its senior management--to the extent that the $8.2 billion transaction was a fraudulent conveyance [AA2].
UPDATES:
6. ARLINGTON CEMETERY. During the 8 years of Bush appointees "taking charge" of the government which they openly despised, the displacement of remains and records at Arlington occurred. Over 6000 are in disarray. No one is being held accountable, but even worse, it is astonishing to see that the appointees who were paid to be responsible have such little honor that they do not step forward, take responsibility, and devote themselves to correction of this sad state.
7. SPILLED OIL. Not just the spill in the Gulf, but simultaneously, there have been spills in Alaska, and even in the Great Lakes region. The scale of this depredation is significant, but it pales in significance to the scale of the ignorance, incompetence, and mindless denials of the Bush-Cheney-Rowe appointees and the Limbaugh-Breitbart-Fox network of idiologues who continue to rant with such indifference to science, honor, responsibility, and recovery.
Once the Government is dismantled and its positions filled with blind idiots, the predators come out of the bushes and actively destroy what is left. The destruction is far worse than mere entropic neglect -- it is pillage driven by the open invitation for spoil. After 8 years of irresponsible authorities, society now pays the price.
1. PENTAGON ACCOUNTING. The Defense Department has never accounted for billions of dollars given to and entrusted to it. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction was created in 2004 to oversee $53 billion appropriated by Congress for reconstruction. For the most part, there are no records, and billions have not been accounted for at all.
2. CITY OF BELL. The Mayor, Manager, and Council of a charter city were exposed for giving themselves high salaries and benefits, while cutting back services and depleting municipal resources to do it: $787,637 to Robert Rizzo as City Manager, $457,000 to Randy Adams as Police Chief, etc. Documents show that the employment records go back to 2003 when the wholesale looting began.
3. BLAGOJEVICH. The trial of this former Governor of Illinois is concluding. Among other evidence was the $12,000/month income for his wife who performed no services and had no qualifications for a real estate firm, Rezko.
4. WIKILEAKS re Afghanistan War. New documents have been outed from the secrecy under which they had been wrapped which "offer insight primarily into the war-fighting of the recently departed George W. Bush administration". [A10] The document reveal the deliberate killing of two Reuters journalists in July 2007 , and the absence of any leadership from the Bush administration. Any. Basically the documents reveal the fact that what administrative officials were telling us was pure fabrication. The troops on the ground were not trained for what conditions they found, and the mission was compromised from the beginning.
5. LEVERAGED BUYOUT OF TRIBUNE. The court-appointed examiner in the Chicago Tribune's bankruptcy determined that the 2007 leveraged buy-out was marred by the "dishonesty" of its senior management--to the extent that the $8.2 billion transaction was a fraudulent conveyance [AA2].
UPDATES:
6. ARLINGTON CEMETERY. During the 8 years of Bush appointees "taking charge" of the government which they openly despised, the displacement of remains and records at Arlington occurred. Over 6000 are in disarray. No one is being held accountable, but even worse, it is astonishing to see that the appointees who were paid to be responsible have such little honor that they do not step forward, take responsibility, and devote themselves to correction of this sad state.
7. SPILLED OIL. Not just the spill in the Gulf, but simultaneously, there have been spills in Alaska, and even in the Great Lakes region. The scale of this depredation is significant, but it pales in significance to the scale of the ignorance, incompetence, and mindless denials of the Bush-Cheney-Rowe appointees and the Limbaugh-Breitbart-Fox network of idiologues who continue to rant with such indifference to science, honor, responsibility, and recovery.
Once the Government is dismantled and its positions filled with blind idiots, the predators come out of the bushes and actively destroy what is left. The destruction is far worse than mere entropic neglect -- it is pillage driven by the open invitation for spoil. After 8 years of irresponsible authorities, society now pays the price.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Financial Crisis - Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. and the Cause
Former Secretary of Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr. has written a book entitled ON THE BRINK; Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System. His account is revealing. He clearly had no concept of any oversight function, although he had a background and employment exposure to investment banking opportunities and risks.
Of particular note is that he dealt with the crisis -- as it came to a head in the 48 hours (48 hours!) preceding the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 13, 2008 -- by seeking to find another lender to cover the obligations which were due. In other words, he was trying to solve a situation created by bad loans (securities tied to defaulting mortgages) by finding a bank willing to chase good money after bad. Knowing the nature of the toxic assets, he looked for a sucker.
When Barclays (President Bob Diamond) was unwilling to make the deal because the British Financial Services Authority (Finance Minister Alistair Darling) did not support it, "we were beside ourselves". To the group of CEO's he had assembled in his lobby, he blurted, "The British screwed us!" I'll bet he used other words. He was "stunned" that Mr. Darling was unwilling to permit him to unload the problem "on the British tax payer".
In the book, Mr. Paulson falls upon his faith (Christian Science). He asks his wife "to pray for me". She immediately quotes Timothy II, 1:7 : "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind".
The problem is that he admits he kept bottles of pills -- sleeping pills -- which is medication prohibited by his invoked religion and contrary to the Scientist belief that he cannot sleep. In addition, exactly WHAT is he fearing? For his failure to find a sucker to be the last one holding the bag of increasingly toxic assets? Does he understand that the only "risks", the only thing at stake, is the collapse of Lehman, and of course, with that, the spiraling problems that would hit the insurer, AIG.
However, the real danger was that the failure of large financial institutions would cause all of his chums to lose their shirts. All of his associations were with investment bankers. (He had been Chairman of Goldman Sachs).
Of particular note is that he dealt with the crisis -- as it came to a head in the 48 hours (48 hours!) preceding the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 13, 2008 -- by seeking to find another lender to cover the obligations which were due. In other words, he was trying to solve a situation created by bad loans (securities tied to defaulting mortgages) by finding a bank willing to chase good money after bad. Knowing the nature of the toxic assets, he looked for a sucker.
When Barclays (President Bob Diamond) was unwilling to make the deal because the British Financial Services Authority (Finance Minister Alistair Darling) did not support it, "we were beside ourselves". To the group of CEO's he had assembled in his lobby, he blurted, "The British screwed us!" I'll bet he used other words. He was "stunned" that Mr. Darling was unwilling to permit him to unload the problem "on the British tax payer".
In the book, Mr. Paulson falls upon his faith (Christian Science). He asks his wife "to pray for me". She immediately quotes Timothy II, 1:7 : "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind".
The problem is that he admits he kept bottles of pills -- sleeping pills -- which is medication prohibited by his invoked religion and contrary to the Scientist belief that he cannot sleep. In addition, exactly WHAT is he fearing? For his failure to find a sucker to be the last one holding the bag of increasingly toxic assets? Does he understand that the only "risks", the only thing at stake, is the collapse of Lehman, and of course, with that, the spiraling problems that would hit the insurer, AIG.
However, the real danger was that the failure of large financial institutions would cause all of his chums to lose their shirts. All of his associations were with investment bankers. (He had been Chairman of Goldman Sachs).
In Spring 2007, Secretary Paulson told an audience at the Shanghai Futures Exchange that "An open, competitive, and liberalized financial market can effectively allocate scarce resources in a manner that promotes stability and prosperity far better than governmental intervention."[19] He actively lobbied to remove all regulatory oversight from the financial industry while at the same time subjecting consumer rights organizations (lawyers, loan modification consultants, etc) to increased and burdensome regulation).Quoted from Wikipedia.
In August 2007, Secretary Paulson explained that U.S. subprime mortgage fallout remained largely contained due to the strongest global economy in decades.[20] The economy was already tanking and was way down from the levels reached during Clinton.
On July 20, 2008, after the failure of Indymac Bank, Paulson reassured the public by saying, “it's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation.”[21] He had to know that the people pretending to be "our regulators" were in fact the predators who had already scammed homeowner-borrowers by placing them into inappropriate loans and OptionARMS.
On August 10, 2008, Secretary Paulson told NBC’s Meet the Press that he had no plans to inject any capital into Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.[22] On September 7, 2008, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went into conservatorship.[23]
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Consumer Protection replaced by Consumerism
In AlterNet:
How Our Gutless Media Helped Trigger the Credit Crisis
By Trudy Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review. Posted November 20, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/102963
"As Dean Starkman, who runs The Audit on cjr.org, pointed out in this magazine in March ("Red Ink Rising"), American credit-card debt now stands at more than $900 billion, up 9,000 percent from 1968, having risen by a third between 2001 and 2006. Worse, he noted that more than three quarters of the credit industry's profits now come from people who make minimum monthly payments. As he further reported, these industry-wide changes followed a regulatory rollback and were by and large missed by the nation's press."
During the Bush-Cheney-Rove regime, Americans preserved an appearance of prosperity even as they lost it, by dramatically deepening their dependence on rolling credit. The "investment bank" packaging of CDS/Credit Default Swaps with sub-prime mortgages was just the beginning of the financial collapse. The Trillion Dollar credit card debts which underemployed people will never be able to pay back has not yet begun to blight the rapidly eroding "fundamentals".
How Our Gutless Media Helped Trigger the Credit Crisis
By Trudy Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review. Posted November 20, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/102963
"As Dean Starkman, who runs The Audit on cjr.org, pointed out in this magazine in March ("Red Ink Rising"), American credit-card debt now stands at more than $900 billion, up 9,000 percent from 1968, having risen by a third between 2001 and 2006. Worse, he noted that more than three quarters of the credit industry's profits now come from people who make minimum monthly payments. As he further reported, these industry-wide changes followed a regulatory rollback and were by and large missed by the nation's press."
During the Bush-Cheney-Rove regime, Americans preserved an appearance of prosperity even as they lost it, by dramatically deepening their dependence on rolling credit. The "investment bank" packaging of CDS/Credit Default Swaps with sub-prime mortgages was just the beginning of the financial collapse. The Trillion Dollar credit card debts which underemployed people will never be able to pay back has not yet begun to blight the rapidly eroding "fundamentals".
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Remarkable - John Cusack has expressed the Reality
The actor, John Cusack, provides a wonderful description of predator economics and the Bush Legacy. He provides a wonderful description of both history and present reality, both of which are necessary for understanding the Set Stage which we must now take as Opportunity. What is remarkable is that he does not hold back the recrimination, but does not permit the outrage to impediment a sense of great opportunity: The economics of grace, true Grace.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-cusack/no-currency-left-to-buy-t_b_140250.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-cusack/no-currency-left-to-buy-t_b_140250.html
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Instead of bailing out AIG with $85 billion....let's do the math
I received this wonderful email that got a surprising and rapid circulation.
Of course, the math is wrong. By three zero places. It's $425 for each citizen.
But notice that Bush and Paulson are now proposing a $700 billion bail out. Hmmm, the added zero...and the right principle, so it could work....?
___________________________________________________
Hi Pals,
I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve
It Dividend.
To make the math simple, lets assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S.
Citiz ens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We De serve It
Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
R epay college loans - what a great boost to new grads Put away money for
college - it'll be there Save in a bank - create money to loan to Entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth Pay for your parent's
medical insurance - health care improves - Enable Deadbeat Dads to
come clean - or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that
is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult
U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG - liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.
Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We
Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington
DC.
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic
PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for a
Laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!
Of course, the math is wrong. By three zero places. It's $425 for each citizen.
But notice that Bush and Paulson are now proposing a $700 billion bail out. Hmmm, the added zero...and the right principle, so it could work....?
___________________________________________________
Hi Pals,
I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve
It Dividend.
To make the math simple, lets assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S.
Citiz ens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We De serve It
Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
R epay college loans - what a great boost to new grads Put away money for
college - it'll be there Save in a bank - create money to loan to Entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth Pay for your parent's
medical insurance - health care improves - Enable Deadbeat Dads to
come clean - or else
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that
is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult
U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG - liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.
Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We
Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington
DC.
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic
PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it's either good for a
Laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!
Monday, September 08, 2008
The Surge, The Army, & the Sons of Iraq
"The influx of 21,500 surge troops, combined with the cooperation of 90,000 Sons of Iraq, reduced the violence [sectarian war]significantly. But the tactics that have been employed have contributed little toward building a stable, unified Iraqi nation, according to Simon [author of "The Price of the Surge", published in Foreign Affairs May 2008]. Instead, the surge has inadvertently strengthened the three modern horsemen of Middle Eastern apocalypse: tribalism, warlordism, and sectarianism." Wilson Quarterly, "Unmasking the Surge" (Summer 2008].
The fourth horse, is galloping corruption. The bent refusal to accept facts and the thinking that every dollar is an open invitation to deception, distorts the media, the text of the Quoran, and the effort to implement any solution short of genocide. Killing everyone is now possible, and it is "final", but it has NEVER been a "solution", and is not now.
The fourth horse, is galloping corruption. The bent refusal to accept facts and the thinking that every dollar is an open invitation to deception, distorts the media, the text of the Quoran, and the effort to implement any solution short of genocide. Killing everyone is now possible, and it is "final", but it has NEVER been a "solution", and is not now.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Bush Legacy - it's time to Account
The key to responsibility is accountability: Tell us what you did. Any Public Authority which refuses to disclose the actions it took in the name of the public, should be prosecuted; the act of withholding evidence or failing to disclose is a breach of the Public Office.
Will the Bush-Cheney-Rove cadre give a full account?
According to the economic reports coming in from the "Executive Departments" of the US government, ALL of which are headed by Bush Appointees, here is a partial report:
DEBT. From the record-breaking income and retention surpluses at the end of the Clinton Administration, we now have an unprecedented National Debt; it is so large, the Government economists have not been able to project it even within 100 billion dollars. Once the actual expenditures and contracts are included, the debt will be in the Trillions.
JOBS. At the end of the Clinton era, over 22 million jobs had been created. At the end of this Bush era, we find fewer than 5 million.
INCOMES. At the end of the Clinton era, family incomes increased by more than $7,500. At this point, the family incomes of families with an employed spouse (not including the newly-de-jobbed) have declined by more than $2500.
POVERTY. At the end of the Clinton era, almost 8 million Americans moved out of subsistence poverty. Today, more than 5.6 million Americans have moved INTO poverty. In an apparent effort to disguise this wholesale drop, the "poverty" standard was lowered and re-defined by the ideological appointees.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS. At the end of the Clinton era, Americans were personally admired and America was revered as an example. At the end of the Bush era, we find Americans are derided, and the Nation is not even feared as a world power.
I have taken the statistics cited above from this administration's numbers. The "account" remains incomplete, and unreliable, but is already DAMNING. Fellow citizens and Believers, this picture will only get worse as more numbers and more efforts to distort the numbers, are revealed.
Will the Bush-Cheney-Rove cadre give a full account?
According to the economic reports coming in from the "Executive Departments" of the US government, ALL of which are headed by Bush Appointees, here is a partial report:
DEBT. From the record-breaking income and retention surpluses at the end of the Clinton Administration, we now have an unprecedented National Debt; it is so large, the Government economists have not been able to project it even within 100 billion dollars. Once the actual expenditures and contracts are included, the debt will be in the Trillions.
JOBS. At the end of the Clinton era, over 22 million jobs had been created. At the end of this Bush era, we find fewer than 5 million.
INCOMES. At the end of the Clinton era, family incomes increased by more than $7,500. At this point, the family incomes of families with an employed spouse (not including the newly-de-jobbed) have declined by more than $2500.
POVERTY. At the end of the Clinton era, almost 8 million Americans moved out of subsistence poverty. Today, more than 5.6 million Americans have moved INTO poverty. In an apparent effort to disguise this wholesale drop, the "poverty" standard was lowered and re-defined by the ideological appointees.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS. At the end of the Clinton era, Americans were personally admired and America was revered as an example. At the end of the Bush era, we find Americans are derided, and the Nation is not even feared as a world power.
I have taken the statistics cited above from this administration's numbers. The "account" remains incomplete, and unreliable, but is already DAMNING. Fellow citizens and Believers, this picture will only get worse as more numbers and more efforts to distort the numbers, are revealed.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Seamless science of religion; the Sin-Grace bridge
The deeper your search for truth, the more seamless it seems. As the light and the heat of the flame composes the fire, the transfixing truth is one thing for all its attributes.
The farther back in time we trace the human awakening, the more our religion and our science appear to be the same fire. Our notion of sin in pre-Galileo vessels was not confined to social condemnation, it was not in a thought-box entered one day out of the week, it was not neutered, or considered impractical for business. Private faith was tied to social duty. It still is.
Of course, there have always been false prophets, hypocritical preachers, and careless scientists. The Cheney of graft and war profiteering is paleolithic. The Bush of hypocrisy and fraud is burned into many of our texts -- it is actually the plot line of most of our stories and warning Gospels. The Rovian pretentions to statistics and authenticity are nothing new. Evil always acts under color of law and authority when possible. And this is where the idea of "sin" operates as the dragon at the margins, policing even a wrathful, wasteful, proud and envious god.
Pope Gregory (the Great) catalogued the Seven Deadly sins, which were put into theoretical and literary paces by Thomas Aquinas and Dante. One draws a bracing excitement from reciting the list: Pride, gluttony, sloth, lust, greed, envy and anger. For 15 centuries the Church decreed these to be sufficient to explain the misfortunes of mankind. For example, violence is derivative of anger, waste from gluttony, theft from greed, and all manner of tragedy from pride. None of these "sins" separate Man from God, as all of them are carefully attributed to the Gods -- in the Bible, the Popovul, the Olympiad, the Book of the Dead, the Book of Mormon. What is useful, of course, is the fact that "sin", unlike folly or crime, contains the spiritual hint of redemption.
Mohandas Gandhi was one of our first leaders to re-visit the list. His version of the seven deadliest sins: "Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, politics without principle, commerce without morality, worship without sacrifice, selfishness without responsibility."
Ghandi clearly addressed the falling gap between "spiritual" and practical morality, once again placing sin into the scientifically valid tool kit. We have always needed a practical measure not only of acts but of attitudes. The mens rea is not just problemmatic for Believers (after-life gamblers). It is also a concern for specialists in all human realms -- legal, social sciences, corporate enterprises, individual responsibility. The sin which begins in the heart, and the hope of salvation, is universal.
What is keeping us from grace? Clearly stealing, coveting. But also polluting, withholding evidence, and becoming rich at the expense of the gullible. There is authenticity and scientific method behind the usages of Sin. The world can be "saved", in every sense, if we understood that the condemnation is not just "spiritually" appropriate. It is apparent that survival requires us to recognize the acts and attitudes which are separating us from grace.
The farther back in time we trace the human awakening, the more our religion and our science appear to be the same fire. Our notion of sin in pre-Galileo vessels was not confined to social condemnation, it was not in a thought-box entered one day out of the week, it was not neutered, or considered impractical for business. Private faith was tied to social duty. It still is.
Of course, there have always been false prophets, hypocritical preachers, and careless scientists. The Cheney of graft and war profiteering is paleolithic. The Bush of hypocrisy and fraud is burned into many of our texts -- it is actually the plot line of most of our stories and warning Gospels. The Rovian pretentions to statistics and authenticity are nothing new. Evil always acts under color of law and authority when possible. And this is where the idea of "sin" operates as the dragon at the margins, policing even a wrathful, wasteful, proud and envious god.
Pope Gregory (the Great) catalogued the Seven Deadly sins, which were put into theoretical and literary paces by Thomas Aquinas and Dante. One draws a bracing excitement from reciting the list: Pride, gluttony, sloth, lust, greed, envy and anger. For 15 centuries the Church decreed these to be sufficient to explain the misfortunes of mankind. For example, violence is derivative of anger, waste from gluttony, theft from greed, and all manner of tragedy from pride. None of these "sins" separate Man from God, as all of them are carefully attributed to the Gods -- in the Bible, the Popovul, the Olympiad, the Book of the Dead, the Book of Mormon. What is useful, of course, is the fact that "sin", unlike folly or crime, contains the spiritual hint of redemption.
Mohandas Gandhi was one of our first leaders to re-visit the list. His version of the seven deadliest sins: "Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, politics without principle, commerce without morality, worship without sacrifice, selfishness without responsibility."
Ghandi clearly addressed the falling gap between "spiritual" and practical morality, once again placing sin into the scientifically valid tool kit. We have always needed a practical measure not only of acts but of attitudes. The mens rea is not just problemmatic for Believers (after-life gamblers). It is also a concern for specialists in all human realms -- legal, social sciences, corporate enterprises, individual responsibility. The sin which begins in the heart, and the hope of salvation, is universal.
What is keeping us from grace? Clearly stealing, coveting. But also polluting, withholding evidence, and becoming rich at the expense of the gullible. There is authenticity and scientific method behind the usages of Sin. The world can be "saved", in every sense, if we understood that the condemnation is not just "spiritually" appropriate. It is apparent that survival requires us to recognize the acts and attitudes which are separating us from grace.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Competence vs Ideological Purity - the FBI Anthrax Investigation
THE ANTHRAX INVESTIGATION. The real mystery of this investigation is not so much WHO attacked America using Anthrax immediately after the 9/11/01 attack on New York City, but why the investigation was conducted with such misdirection from the top.
1. The Global Search. The FBI was tasked with the investigation. A competent detective, and there are many in the FBI, would at least consider a perpetrator from an American laboratory. It was widely reported in the press at the time that the quality of the material (armament grade) as well as the technology of its delivery system (a fine powder) could only have been produced in a few places and most of those places are here in the USA. And yet, the FBI launched itself into a global search. Global. Looking everywhere but here.
2. President Bush appointed the FBI Director and the Attorney General. The Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal appointed personnel based on ideology rather than competence or even common sense. They searched abroad, not because that is where the evidence pointed, but because of what it would "look like" politically to fix blame on an American. Our leadership spent millions on an investigation all over the world, getting nowhere. The perpetrator turns out to have been Bruce Ivins -- a life-long Republican, a donor to Bush-Cheney-Rove campaigns, and a "religious patriot". A Believer. As the long-delayed seven year investigation finally, finally turned in his direction, he committed suicide. After seven years, no charges have ever been brought against any person responsible for one of the most savage attacks on America.
3. How long will our society be paying for the consequences, and robust salaries, of the Bush-Cheney-Rove appointees? People have been appointed to public service positions of great importance, who once again have shown themselves to be incapable of performing service for anyone other than themselves. Folks, this is not what we need to expect. We need leaders who are competent, who surround themselves with competent advisors, and who make appointments of competent people.
4. Save us from the ideologues. The sooner we restore public offices to people of ability, the better. And simple Justice requires that those who are responsible for damage and harm, should pay compensation. The Justice Department now stands up trying to take credit for accumulating a vast amount of evidence against Mr. Ivins, now that he is deceased. Yet, they also announced that they are closing the investigation! Are the victims compensated? Are the people responsible for the Post Office deaths, and for the bungled investigation, accountable to the tax payers who paid their salaries? This is a clueless Justice Department. Where is the Justice? Going on seven years.
1. The Global Search. The FBI was tasked with the investigation. A competent detective, and there are many in the FBI, would at least consider a perpetrator from an American laboratory. It was widely reported in the press at the time that the quality of the material (armament grade) as well as the technology of its delivery system (a fine powder) could only have been produced in a few places and most of those places are here in the USA. And yet, the FBI launched itself into a global search. Global. Looking everywhere but here.
2. President Bush appointed the FBI Director and the Attorney General. The Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal appointed personnel based on ideology rather than competence or even common sense. They searched abroad, not because that is where the evidence pointed, but because of what it would "look like" politically to fix blame on an American. Our leadership spent millions on an investigation all over the world, getting nowhere. The perpetrator turns out to have been Bruce Ivins -- a life-long Republican, a donor to Bush-Cheney-Rove campaigns, and a "religious patriot". A Believer. As the long-delayed seven year investigation finally, finally turned in his direction, he committed suicide. After seven years, no charges have ever been brought against any person responsible for one of the most savage attacks on America.
3. How long will our society be paying for the consequences, and robust salaries, of the Bush-Cheney-Rove appointees? People have been appointed to public service positions of great importance, who once again have shown themselves to be incapable of performing service for anyone other than themselves. Folks, this is not what we need to expect. We need leaders who are competent, who surround themselves with competent advisors, and who make appointments of competent people.
4. Save us from the ideologues. The sooner we restore public offices to people of ability, the better. And simple Justice requires that those who are responsible for damage and harm, should pay compensation. The Justice Department now stands up trying to take credit for accumulating a vast amount of evidence against Mr. Ivins, now that he is deceased. Yet, they also announced that they are closing the investigation! Are the victims compensated? Are the people responsible for the Post Office deaths, and for the bungled investigation, accountable to the tax payers who paid their salaries? This is a clueless Justice Department. Where is the Justice? Going on seven years.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Faith and Justice
What is the relationship between Faith and Justice? Both are universal ideals. Both require and result in belief. Both explore and demand examination of intention. Cicero wrote that "The foundation of justice is good faith".
When the judges ignore good faith, justice is uprooted. When an Attorney General disobeys the law, justice is denied.
Bruce Einhorn served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department, and later as a federal judge appointed by President H.W. Bush. In an editorial printed 6/28/2008 in Opinion, LAT, he summarizes a report issued this week by the Department's inspector general. He notes that while serving as Attorneys General, JOHN ASHCROFT, and ALBERTO GONZALES, set up screening committees for career positions in the Department based on ideological rather than merit-based factors. They politicized the hiring and promotion, in violation of the law. Reference: title 28, Section 42.1(a), US Code of Regulations. Compare also, the Civil Service Reform Act specifically prohibits discrimination based on political affiliation.
This injection of illegal bad faith has poisoned the Justice Department.
When the judges ignore good faith, justice is uprooted. When an Attorney General disobeys the law, justice is denied.
Bruce Einhorn served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department, and later as a federal judge appointed by President H.W. Bush. In an editorial printed 6/28/2008 in Opinion, LAT, he summarizes a report issued this week by the Department's inspector general. He notes that while serving as Attorneys General, JOHN ASHCROFT, and ALBERTO GONZALES, set up screening committees for career positions in the Department based on ideological rather than merit-based factors. They politicized the hiring and promotion, in violation of the law. Reference: title 28, Section 42.1(a), US Code of Regulations. Compare also, the Civil Service Reform Act specifically prohibits discrimination based on political affiliation.
This injection of illegal bad faith has poisoned the Justice Department.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Selected for Prosecution: Spitzer, Scruggs, Lerach - Conspiracy and Coincidence
After the shock of Dickie Scruggs' guilty plea for bribery, Eliot Spitzer's call-girl denoument, and the sentencing of Bill Lerach to prison for what was essentially capping, it is necessary to evaluate the implications. Is it coincidence that all three of these lawyers were "consumer advocates"? All three have caused real pain to the Fortune 500 billionaire CEO oligarchs. Now, they have been rendered harmless. Coincidence?
Half-way through the year 2008, as the Bush-Cheney-Rove term is expiring, we see the results of 7 years of prosecutorial efforts by the Executive Department coming to surface. They are now celebrating a trifecta in their twist on "tort reform".
You recall the Bush-Cheney-Rove appointment of foxes to guard the henhouse gates, the latitude given to the Lays and their Enrons (and other stratospherically-salaried CEOs), the purging of the Federal Attorneys General, the refusal to protect consumers, the failure to enforce environmental standards. Now add the selected prosecutions of Eliot Spitzer, Dickie Scruggs, and Bill Lerach which have all come to flower in the last year. Of course, all three of these successful advocates for public interests really did commit wrongdoing. But there is a quality of bogus-ness to the raft of "charges" they faced.
My instincts are to give little weight to Conspiracy theories, and to chalk up many events, without condemnation, to the arbitrary eruption of Coincidence. Is it just coincidence that three of our most powerful consumer attorneys are now neutralized?
There are three reasons to re-visit this question.
THE TOBACCO CASES. I am one who studied the "conspiracy" of Tobacco. I documented the "sweet heart" suits in 9 States in which Tobacco Companies paid a drunk incompetent lawyer (nine of them!) to sue themselves and obtain victories appealed to the Supreme Court of each State so that they would have "precedence" against any plaintiff.
THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY. I also documented 20 years of publications by the John Birch Society accurately reporting the misfeasance of selected Negro men and Jews, while failing to report any of their achievements. This is racism hiding behind a veil of "truth", and it shows the invidiousness of this form of hatred.
STATE BAR PROSECUTIONS. I am also reminded of the prosecutions against me. While the State Bar has yet to disbar any attorney who counseled the pirates of Enron in pillaging the consumers of billions of dollars, the State Bar has yet to prosecute any attorney representing a criminal CEO whose depradations were enabled by hordes of lawyers who set up the off-shore shell corporations. The State Bar has gone after dozens of naive and impoverished Sole Practitioners, while ignoring the stench of the dead horse of corporate malfeasance in the profession. When I was a hungry and poor attorney just starting out, the State Bar came after me. Their "complaining witness" actually stated in Deposition that "the attorney did nothing wrong" and "I have no complaint with him". I gave the State Bar transcripts which showed that a rich attorney, Wolf Stern, had perjured himself in court. I gave the State Bar records which showed rich attorneys had joined their clients and enabled criminal CEO's to pillage the public and shareholders. The State Bar elected not to prosecute.
The point is that the Prosecutor (State Bar, or Attorney General of any State or Federal Agency) has DISCRETION for who they go after and which laws they enforce.
When Bush-Cheney-Rove hijacked the Republican Party and stole the Presidency, one of their goals was to remove the exposure of the rich to law suits brought by the victims of their Big Business concept of "opportunity". They called this effort to close the court house door, "tort reform". Not content with merely appointing unqualified judges who shared their ideology, the cabal went after the leaders of the plaintiff's bar.
I realize Spitzer, Scruggs and Lerach were all culpable. When the State Bar prosecutor went after me, after 21 hearings, financially exhausted, I gave up and compromised with them. By contrast, when Big Business went after Ralph Nader -- with prostitutes, hush-money, offers to persuade the jury with bribes -- Ralph Nader spurned their efforts. He passed that test of being a righteous man and did not compromise with the nastiness and insinuations. Many others, they really DO take the low road, they fall and deserve their fall. And I fell, because I was naive and weak.
Still, there is some significance here. It is not coincidence that the corrupted Big Business targeted the top, the most successful, the billionaire attorneys of the plaintiffs' Bar. The robber barons at the US Chamber of Commerce who were in bed with Enron, WorldCom, and Philip Morris, must be thrilled. But it is more than that. They must be seeing the return on their investment in "tort reform" -- the program of Bush in going after the people who were fighting for the rights of the oppressed.
Half-way through the year 2008, as the Bush-Cheney-Rove term is expiring, we see the results of 7 years of prosecutorial efforts by the Executive Department coming to surface. They are now celebrating a trifecta in their twist on "tort reform".
You recall the Bush-Cheney-Rove appointment of foxes to guard the henhouse gates, the latitude given to the Lays and their Enrons (and other stratospherically-salaried CEOs), the purging of the Federal Attorneys General, the refusal to protect consumers, the failure to enforce environmental standards. Now add the selected prosecutions of Eliot Spitzer, Dickie Scruggs, and Bill Lerach which have all come to flower in the last year. Of course, all three of these successful advocates for public interests really did commit wrongdoing. But there is a quality of bogus-ness to the raft of "charges" they faced.
My instincts are to give little weight to Conspiracy theories, and to chalk up many events, without condemnation, to the arbitrary eruption of Coincidence. Is it just coincidence that three of our most powerful consumer attorneys are now neutralized?
There are three reasons to re-visit this question.
THE TOBACCO CASES. I am one who studied the "conspiracy" of Tobacco. I documented the "sweet heart" suits in 9 States in which Tobacco Companies paid a drunk incompetent lawyer (nine of them!) to sue themselves and obtain victories appealed to the Supreme Court of each State so that they would have "precedence" against any plaintiff.
THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY. I also documented 20 years of publications by the John Birch Society accurately reporting the misfeasance of selected Negro men and Jews, while failing to report any of their achievements. This is racism hiding behind a veil of "truth", and it shows the invidiousness of this form of hatred.
STATE BAR PROSECUTIONS. I am also reminded of the prosecutions against me. While the State Bar has yet to disbar any attorney who counseled the pirates of Enron in pillaging the consumers of billions of dollars, the State Bar has yet to prosecute any attorney representing a criminal CEO whose depradations were enabled by hordes of lawyers who set up the off-shore shell corporations. The State Bar has gone after dozens of naive and impoverished Sole Practitioners, while ignoring the stench of the dead horse of corporate malfeasance in the profession. When I was a hungry and poor attorney just starting out, the State Bar came after me. Their "complaining witness" actually stated in Deposition that "the attorney did nothing wrong" and "I have no complaint with him". I gave the State Bar transcripts which showed that a rich attorney, Wolf Stern, had perjured himself in court. I gave the State Bar records which showed rich attorneys had joined their clients and enabled criminal CEO's to pillage the public and shareholders. The State Bar elected not to prosecute.
The point is that the Prosecutor (State Bar, or Attorney General of any State or Federal Agency) has DISCRETION for who they go after and which laws they enforce.
When Bush-Cheney-Rove hijacked the Republican Party and stole the Presidency, one of their goals was to remove the exposure of the rich to law suits brought by the victims of their Big Business concept of "opportunity". They called this effort to close the court house door, "tort reform". Not content with merely appointing unqualified judges who shared their ideology, the cabal went after the leaders of the plaintiff's bar.
I realize Spitzer, Scruggs and Lerach were all culpable. When the State Bar prosecutor went after me, after 21 hearings, financially exhausted, I gave up and compromised with them. By contrast, when Big Business went after Ralph Nader -- with prostitutes, hush-money, offers to persuade the jury with bribes -- Ralph Nader spurned their efforts. He passed that test of being a righteous man and did not compromise with the nastiness and insinuations. Many others, they really DO take the low road, they fall and deserve their fall. And I fell, because I was naive and weak.
Still, there is some significance here. It is not coincidence that the corrupted Big Business targeted the top, the most successful, the billionaire attorneys of the plaintiffs' Bar. The robber barons at the US Chamber of Commerce who were in bed with Enron, WorldCom, and Philip Morris, must be thrilled. But it is more than that. They must be seeing the return on their investment in "tort reform" -- the program of Bush in going after the people who were fighting for the rights of the oppressed.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Love...Harmony...Peace...Gratitude -- these are the Taught Values
The CORE of what we call Christianity today was summarized in a variety of letters composed by the Roman Paul of Tarsus during his efforts to build a community of believers. In his letter to the Colossians [chapter 3], a large community of Christians who lived in what is now Turkey, he wrote:
"Above all, clothe yourselves with Love which binds everything together
in perfect harmony...and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...
and be thankful."
The Church Fathers ever since have recognized this letter as a true and inspired grasp of the message of Jesus Christ, who is referred to by name. It spells out what Christ taught people to DO, and BE, and How.
It is only left to us to recognize that the authentic "Religious Fundamentalist" must be one who acts to achieve harmony out of Love and gratitude. Nowhere, did Christ teach us to deceive, defraud, cheat and steal. Nowhere, did Paul construe any teaching point or rule of Christ, so as to justify misleading anyone, or in any way burdening others to the benefit of yourself.
Those who benefit themselves at the expense of others IN THE NAME OF CHRIST are NOT "Fundamentalists" in any sense of the word. They are the Hypocrites, the false leaders, the miscreants who who been consistently excoriated in detail since the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jesus Christ. One simply cannot injure, disenfranchise or insult others AS A CHRISTIAN.
Just as we must recognize "liberal" for what it is and always has been, we must also recognize what "fundamentalist" is and always has been. And do not forgive or forget the crimes committed by those who have distorted the meanings of these words for their own mean-spirited ends. The days of spin-politics are numbered, simply by the reckoning brought on by the collapse of the Bush-Cheney-Rove take-over of the Republican Party.
"Above all, clothe yourselves with Love which binds everything together
in perfect harmony...and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...
and be thankful."
The Church Fathers ever since have recognized this letter as a true and inspired grasp of the message of Jesus Christ, who is referred to by name. It spells out what Christ taught people to DO, and BE, and How.
It is only left to us to recognize that the authentic "Religious Fundamentalist" must be one who acts to achieve harmony out of Love and gratitude. Nowhere, did Christ teach us to deceive, defraud, cheat and steal. Nowhere, did Paul construe any teaching point or rule of Christ, so as to justify misleading anyone, or in any way burdening others to the benefit of yourself.
Those who benefit themselves at the expense of others IN THE NAME OF CHRIST are NOT "Fundamentalists" in any sense of the word. They are the Hypocrites, the false leaders, the miscreants who who been consistently excoriated in detail since the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jesus Christ. One simply cannot injure, disenfranchise or insult others AS A CHRISTIAN.
Just as we must recognize "liberal" for what it is and always has been, we must also recognize what "fundamentalist" is and always has been. And do not forgive or forget the crimes committed by those who have distorted the meanings of these words for their own mean-spirited ends. The days of spin-politics are numbered, simply by the reckoning brought on by the collapse of the Bush-Cheney-Rove take-over of the Republican Party.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Blaming Bush-Cheney-Rove
Make a note to just "get over" seeing the guilty hand of Bush-Cheney-Rove in every disaster civilization now faces. Just because they usurped the office in which we otherwise would have had someone helping us, rather than weakening us....is no reason to step into that BOX, the enclosure, in which blame resides.
Even the most ignorant and vicious cabal must be forgiven. Not because they deserve forgiveness. Few do. But because we who must live with consequences must see clearly, must move to action in the face of real disasters, foreign and entropic. The impulse to blame is almost never helpful.
For example, we huddle in the bilge of a ridiculously small boat, most of the oarlocks broke and the paddles lost. Huge waves rock the world, and sheets of wind-fisted rain conspire with the sea itself to drown out our last hoarse voices. Perhaps the remorseless hunger of a Leviathan has keened its predatory eye upon us. Our fellow oarsmen are in shock, or clinging to themselves, or foolishly falling upon the weak to drink their fatal blood. Now, now, does it do ANY good to rail against the pirates who captained away the ship and set us adrift?
No.
Look to the remaining oars! Shelter the weak, and let everyone bail who can cup disaster in his hand, or sluice it away! Secure the remaining stores. And above all, turn to the last young men and women of vision, speak to them of science and hope, and put all your love and confidence into their shoulders.
Of course, if we survive the Troubles, we do not rest until Justice is done.
Even the most ignorant and vicious cabal must be forgiven. Not because they deserve forgiveness. Few do. But because we who must live with consequences must see clearly, must move to action in the face of real disasters, foreign and entropic. The impulse to blame is almost never helpful.
For example, we huddle in the bilge of a ridiculously small boat, most of the oarlocks broke and the paddles lost. Huge waves rock the world, and sheets of wind-fisted rain conspire with the sea itself to drown out our last hoarse voices. Perhaps the remorseless hunger of a Leviathan has keened its predatory eye upon us. Our fellow oarsmen are in shock, or clinging to themselves, or foolishly falling upon the weak to drink their fatal blood. Now, now, does it do ANY good to rail against the pirates who captained away the ship and set us adrift?
No.
Look to the remaining oars! Shelter the weak, and let everyone bail who can cup disaster in his hand, or sluice it away! Secure the remaining stores. And above all, turn to the last young men and women of vision, speak to them of science and hope, and put all your love and confidence into their shoulders.
Of course, if we survive the Troubles, we do not rest until Justice is done.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Another Bush Defector: Scott McClellan
...These are the same people who were screaming 10 years ago that we should impeach a President if he is A LIAR....
On the occasion of the publication of a book by Bush's former Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, the Times Staff Writer, Tim Rutten, introduces his review: "The evidence seems to suggest that you'd have to go back to the Borgia court to find anything close to the miasma of feral self-interest that must hang in the air during one of this administration's staff or cabinet meetings. If you worked for this crew, you'd want to wear a Kevlar undershirt to the office."
McClellan did not publish this monument lightly. His book, WHAT HAPPENED; Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception (2008), clearly and repeatedly documents examples of LIES and deceit as a practiced lifestyle of this Administration.
McClellan has worked with Bush since Texas. In his confessional, he notes that Bush spent almost no time investigating actual crises, and was devoted to a kind of "permanent political campaign" of distortion. The following points appear undisputable -- fully and long-ventilated, with uncontested public domain documentation:
* The War. The President KNEW that each reason given for going to war against Saddam Hussein was pure fabrication -- there was no evidence of links to international terrorism or weapons of mass destruction (except for the poison gas that Cheney/Halliburton cynically sold to Saddam 20 years earlier).
* Karl Rove and Cheney's Chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, lied to McClellan about their roles in leaking false information in the Valerie Plame affair. In turn, McClellan ADMITS that he lied to the public and the media.
* Karl Rove's influence led Bush to play power politics even in the face of and in spite of other priorities such as national security, natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina), or moral imperatives.
* Vice President Dick Cheney raised the VP office to unprecedented levels of secrecy, expense, and arrogance, either with delusion, lies, or both. He seized unprecedented power, demanded unprecedented secrecy, and ran rough-shod over the concept of balancing power with separation of Powers ("checks and balances").
* The two campaigns in the national elections were filled with fraud. The slogans were designed to deceive. For example, "no child left behind" while stealing from education budget, betrayal of the "Christian coalition", lies ("Swift Boating"), distortion (Reaganomics, tort reform), criminal influence (Secretary of State of Florida announcing result before counting ballots). At bottom, Bush was not actually elected on either occasion. The office was stolen.
Perhaps history would have wanted to be kind to a President who will claim to have been elected, twice, by the American People. This book should put that possibility to rest. These are the same gentlemen who were screaming, screaming, "IMPEACH!!!" when Clinton denied "having sex" with Monica Lewinsky and the accuser's attorneys defined "having sex" as penile-vaginal intercourse. Semen stains in the breast area of the infamous blue dress is actually PROOF that Clinton did NOT lie.
On the occasion of the publication of a book by Bush's former Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, the Times Staff Writer, Tim Rutten, introduces his review: "The evidence seems to suggest that you'd have to go back to the Borgia court to find anything close to the miasma of feral self-interest that must hang in the air during one of this administration's staff or cabinet meetings. If you worked for this crew, you'd want to wear a Kevlar undershirt to the office."
McClellan did not publish this monument lightly. His book, WHAT HAPPENED; Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception (2008), clearly and repeatedly documents examples of LIES and deceit as a practiced lifestyle of this Administration.
McClellan has worked with Bush since Texas. In his confessional, he notes that Bush spent almost no time investigating actual crises, and was devoted to a kind of "permanent political campaign" of distortion. The following points appear undisputable -- fully and long-ventilated, with uncontested public domain documentation:
* The War. The President KNEW that each reason given for going to war against Saddam Hussein was pure fabrication -- there was no evidence of links to international terrorism or weapons of mass destruction (except for the poison gas that Cheney/Halliburton cynically sold to Saddam 20 years earlier).
* Karl Rove and Cheney's Chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, lied to McClellan about their roles in leaking false information in the Valerie Plame affair. In turn, McClellan ADMITS that he lied to the public and the media.
* Karl Rove's influence led Bush to play power politics even in the face of and in spite of other priorities such as national security, natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina), or moral imperatives.
* Vice President Dick Cheney raised the VP office to unprecedented levels of secrecy, expense, and arrogance, either with delusion, lies, or both. He seized unprecedented power, demanded unprecedented secrecy, and ran rough-shod over the concept of balancing power with separation of Powers ("checks and balances").
* The two campaigns in the national elections were filled with fraud. The slogans were designed to deceive. For example, "no child left behind" while stealing from education budget, betrayal of the "Christian coalition", lies ("Swift Boating"), distortion (Reaganomics, tort reform), criminal influence (Secretary of State of Florida announcing result before counting ballots). At bottom, Bush was not actually elected on either occasion. The office was stolen.
Perhaps history would have wanted to be kind to a President who will claim to have been elected, twice, by the American People. This book should put that possibility to rest. These are the same gentlemen who were screaming, screaming, "IMPEACH!!!" when Clinton denied "having sex" with Monica Lewinsky and the accuser's attorneys defined "having sex" as penile-vaginal intercourse. Semen stains in the breast area of the infamous blue dress is actually PROOF that Clinton did NOT lie.
Pollution, the heavy price to pay for Business
Is there a lobby for victims of pollution?
Once again, we find another price that we (and future generations) will be paying for the irresponsibility of the Bush Administration. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was one of the first Federal agencies to be eviscerated by Bush-Cheney-Rowe. The EPA has yet to complete studies on lead paint, mercury, or even Dioxin, which were ordered by Congress many years ago.
After control was captured by pirates, the Republican Party has beaten a drum, constantly, about how environmental regulations drive jobs and industry out of business. Do we ever hear about the cost -- in jobs and money -- of pollution?
POISONING. Regardless of socioeconomic factors, children exposed to lead dust or particles, develop smaller brains, and are more likely to suffer ADD, and learning disabilities. The higher the concentration of lead in the blood, the more likely a child will commit crime as an adult. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 310,000 preschool-age children in Los Angeles have levels of lead that exceed the minimal Federal guidelines. 80% of the homes they live in were built while lead paint was still in use.
The public does not want to hear about what it will end up paying for having polluted the brains of the children.
Once again, we find another price that we (and future generations) will be paying for the irresponsibility of the Bush Administration. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was one of the first Federal agencies to be eviscerated by Bush-Cheney-Rowe. The EPA has yet to complete studies on lead paint, mercury, or even Dioxin, which were ordered by Congress many years ago.
After control was captured by pirates, the Republican Party has beaten a drum, constantly, about how environmental regulations drive jobs and industry out of business. Do we ever hear about the cost -- in jobs and money -- of pollution?
POISONING. Regardless of socioeconomic factors, children exposed to lead dust or particles, develop smaller brains, and are more likely to suffer ADD, and learning disabilities. The higher the concentration of lead in the blood, the more likely a child will commit crime as an adult. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 310,000 preschool-age children in Los Angeles have levels of lead that exceed the minimal Federal guidelines. 80% of the homes they live in were built while lead paint was still in use.
The public does not want to hear about what it will end up paying for having polluted the brains of the children.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Compare the Branch Davidians and the Yearning for Zion Ranch in ElDorado Texas
In early April 2008, prosecutors for the State of Texas announced a raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch. The State took "legal custody" of 401 children who had been raised in the 1,700 acre double-gated locked "19th century prairie" compound. By the second week a third person was arrested, Leroy Steed joining Levi Jeffs, and Warren Jeffs the founder, in jail.
It is interesting to recall the action taken by one of the finest Federal Attorneys General in the history of the United States, Janet Reno, in attempting to liberate a few dozen children in Waco, Texas, from a heavily-armed cult of Branch Davidians. The right-wing was screaming invectives at Ms Reno for each step taken in a slow transparent attempt to disarm the Davidian leaders. Now, after a wholesale raid and the taking of custody of 400 children from their community, not a peep of complaint from the right-wing.
The Federal Government, of course, is not involved. The Government has been deaf and witless in the face of the known and accumulating dangers with which civilization is faced. The Bush administration is not interested in the welfare of 400 children. Well, it is NOW time to scream. Who is taking care of these children? The children have been taken from the 19th century (weaving their own clothes), and from their homes.
It is not possible to forgive those who savaged the administration of Janet Reno, a prosecutor who at least addressed the dangers. Her critics are now hypocritically silent. They show no concern for an even worse and much much larger "cult" endangering the lives of even more children. Why is our Right Wing taken over by ideological hypocrites? Since extreme idiologues took over, we can no longer count on the wisdom of the Right Wing.
Finally, the news coming out seems to share the same tone and perspective which the FLDS Founders espouse: Males are important and females are reproductive drudges. Behind those "important" males are very significant females. We have not heard from any of them in any capacity. Apparently the State of Texas -- violating its tradition of having had five female governors and equal and independent citizens -- has been too much infected with the Bush legacy.
It is interesting to recall the action taken by one of the finest Federal Attorneys General in the history of the United States, Janet Reno, in attempting to liberate a few dozen children in Waco, Texas, from a heavily-armed cult of Branch Davidians. The right-wing was screaming invectives at Ms Reno for each step taken in a slow transparent attempt to disarm the Davidian leaders. Now, after a wholesale raid and the taking of custody of 400 children from their community, not a peep of complaint from the right-wing.
The Federal Government, of course, is not involved. The Government has been deaf and witless in the face of the known and accumulating dangers with which civilization is faced. The Bush administration is not interested in the welfare of 400 children. Well, it is NOW time to scream. Who is taking care of these children? The children have been taken from the 19th century (weaving their own clothes), and from their homes.
It is not possible to forgive those who savaged the administration of Janet Reno, a prosecutor who at least addressed the dangers. Her critics are now hypocritically silent. They show no concern for an even worse and much much larger "cult" endangering the lives of even more children. Why is our Right Wing taken over by ideological hypocrites? Since extreme idiologues took over, we can no longer count on the wisdom of the Right Wing.
Finally, the news coming out seems to share the same tone and perspective which the FLDS Founders espouse: Males are important and females are reproductive drudges. Behind those "important" males are very significant females. We have not heard from any of them in any capacity. Apparently the State of Texas -- violating its tradition of having had five female governors and equal and independent citizens -- has been too much infected with the Bush legacy.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Renewal of the Mind - Romans 12:2
"And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind...".
Paul of Tarsus, Letters to the Romans 12:2
What will it take for Christians to understand that their hopes and fears have been betrayed? The Cheney-Bush-Rowe crowd, crowing over the billions of dollars they have appropriated to themselves, are not merely traitors to the United States whose coffers they emptied.
They are not merely hypocrites, claiming to act in the name of the Christ while violating virtually every precept of Christ ever uttered.
There are not merely criminals, acting under color of the Law and the Constitution which they have sought to re-write and ignore, in order to engage in public plunder.
I ask every day, what MORE could the triumvirate do to destroy the Dream of America and the hope of prosperity and peace in this vale of tears? Surely the landscape is exhausted. There is not an institution, a cultural or political power left which they have not corrupted and destroyed. They took the legislature, the Courts, and the Presidency. They destroyed corporate America. They took the schools, converting them to content-free test-taking factories. The Churches, a moral wasteland after their pilfering and immorality.
Still, it seems that every day, they find a new icon to compromise, to steal from. Today it was announced that Bush is going to "restructure" the financial institutions, which, just last month, he had declared to be "structurally sound".
No longer content with stealing all the money, now he is going after the Credit. He is stealing from tomorrow. When the Nazis realized they were losing Berlin and the War, they ordered their generals to destroy everything. Just so, Cheney-Bush-Rowe are resigned to losing Power, and not content with destroying the Republican Party, they want to make the next Presidency impossible. An irrelevancy.
I am only hoping for a small renewal of mind.
Paul of Tarsus, Letters to the Romans 12:2
What will it take for Christians to understand that their hopes and fears have been betrayed? The Cheney-Bush-Rowe crowd, crowing over the billions of dollars they have appropriated to themselves, are not merely traitors to the United States whose coffers they emptied.
They are not merely hypocrites, claiming to act in the name of the Christ while violating virtually every precept of Christ ever uttered.
There are not merely criminals, acting under color of the Law and the Constitution which they have sought to re-write and ignore, in order to engage in public plunder.
I ask every day, what MORE could the triumvirate do to destroy the Dream of America and the hope of prosperity and peace in this vale of tears? Surely the landscape is exhausted. There is not an institution, a cultural or political power left which they have not corrupted and destroyed. They took the legislature, the Courts, and the Presidency. They destroyed corporate America. They took the schools, converting them to content-free test-taking factories. The Churches, a moral wasteland after their pilfering and immorality.
Still, it seems that every day, they find a new icon to compromise, to steal from. Today it was announced that Bush is going to "restructure" the financial institutions, which, just last month, he had declared to be "structurally sound".
No longer content with stealing all the money, now he is going after the Credit. He is stealing from tomorrow. When the Nazis realized they were losing Berlin and the War, they ordered their generals to destroy everything. Just so, Cheney-Bush-Rowe are resigned to losing Power, and not content with destroying the Republican Party, they want to make the next Presidency impossible. An irrelevancy.
I am only hoping for a small renewal of mind.
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