On Tuesday, January 20th, I think the most appropriate send-off that the American people can give to the disgraceful and embarrassing George Bush would be for the one to two million people standing in front of the Obama inaugeration to offer the departing figurehead a resounding BOO!
01/16/2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?
I'm simply stunned at the apathy. I just can't get over the ongoing complacency. Is America still at least on the outer fringes of a democracy? The banks, brokerage houses and insurance companies screw everybody over in order to enrich themselves, and, then, when the scam blows up in their faces, the victims, that's us, are told, not asked, to bail the bastards out, there is a deafening silence from the populace. Then, instead of lending out the funds in an effort to get things unclogged in the credit markets, these corporate terrorists hoard our money in order to recapitalize their balance sheets, buy other banks, give themselves bonuses for all their successful enterprise and hold parties for top executives at spas and fancy hotels. All done with our money.
The $700 billion TARP program is just the tip of the iceberg. The feds have given their friends in the banking system access to over $8 trillion from at least 12 different programs. Where do you think that money is coming from? It is borrowed from us and from foreigners, many of whom do not particularly like us, or it is printed. The Federal reserve, that unconstitutional paper company, refuses to tell us who got the money and through what channels. And the banks simply will not discuss the matter. Such "transparency" rivals only Cheney's stiffing the American people about his secret meetings with oil company execs back in 2001. Who do these people think they are?
In France, when the people see political misdeeds or injustice, they take to the streets until the problem is resolved in their favor. In Greece, the shooting of a single policeman causes the masses to demonstrate throughout the country for almost a month. But in America, when our rulers — and believe me, the bankers, the regulators, and the politicians on the take run this country — fleece the masses while lining their own pockets, there is not a peep or a squeak out of the American people.
Failure and mediocrity are being rewarded before our very eyes, and not a thing is being done for the victims. Our money is being used along with some Scotch tape to prop up these institutions, who otherwise, without exception, would be insolvent. What I want to know is where is the outrage?
12/23/2008
The $700 billion TARP program is just the tip of the iceberg. The feds have given their friends in the banking system access to over $8 trillion from at least 12 different programs. Where do you think that money is coming from? It is borrowed from us and from foreigners, many of whom do not particularly like us, or it is printed. The Federal reserve, that unconstitutional paper company, refuses to tell us who got the money and through what channels. And the banks simply will not discuss the matter. Such "transparency" rivals only Cheney's stiffing the American people about his secret meetings with oil company execs back in 2001. Who do these people think they are?
In France, when the people see political misdeeds or injustice, they take to the streets until the problem is resolved in their favor. In Greece, the shooting of a single policeman causes the masses to demonstrate throughout the country for almost a month. But in America, when our rulers — and believe me, the bankers, the regulators, and the politicians on the take run this country — fleece the masses while lining their own pockets, there is not a peep or a squeak out of the American people.
Failure and mediocrity are being rewarded before our very eyes, and not a thing is being done for the victims. Our money is being used along with some Scotch tape to prop up these institutions, who otherwise, without exception, would be insolvent. What I want to know is where is the outrage?
12/23/2008
THE CRIMINALS MUST BE PUNISHED
In my letter to the editor on August 28th I wrote: “The facts are irrefutable. There is no practical strategy in place nor is there a viable solution to prevent a systemic meltdown of our financial system. Protect your assets while you still can.”
And on September 21st, in another letter to the editor, I said: “The financial system is now broken. The meltdown is underway……..We are living in the midst of an event that will go down in history right alongside the Great Depression and the Civil War.”
I have been writing about the inevitability of this catastrophe for over two years because the mainstream financial press wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. They had strict instructions from their “masters” not to discuss it.
So are you mad yet? I would certainly hope everyone is. The blatant conspiracy that exists between the most powerful banking and corporate institutions, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury and most of our elected representatives have “killed” infinitely more people than the planes that crashed into the buildings on September 11, 2001. The loan originators, the appraisers, the investment banks, the rating agencies, the mortgage insurers, the government regulators, the Congressional oversight committees and the 28-year-old MBA’s, who created those esoteric weapons of mass destruction called over-the-counter derivatives, were all in on it. That many were enriched, some by hundreds of millions of dollars, while the American people saw their pension and retirement plans go broke as trillions of dollars of their life savings got vaporized, is a crime, plain and simple. To ask those who got raped to bail out the perpetrators just rubs salt into the wound.
In case the citizenry should take to the streets to demonstrate their anger, the government, cognizant of this prospect, has deployed thousands of troops in our own country to put down any possible uprisings. A large demonstration was held near Wall Street a couple of weeks ago and purposely not covered by the press.
Understand, that brief rallies to the contrary, there are no good solutions to the credit freeze or the downward spiral in our markets. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is about to explode as it tries to prevent a 1930’s deflationary depression. No longer of any use, the printing presses have been replaced by key strokes on computers in an attempt to reflate the system. If they are “successful,” then we’re looking at a Weimar Republic experience of hyperinflation. If they can’t create money out of thin air fast enough to keep the major banks i.e. Citi Group, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs etc. capitalized (they are all technically insolvent), then can “bank holidays” be avoided?
We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth from the many to the few in the history of the planet. All trust in the financial system and our elected officials is gone. Only when the criminals are punished will any semblance of confidence return.
10/15/2008
And on September 21st, in another letter to the editor, I said: “The financial system is now broken. The meltdown is underway……..We are living in the midst of an event that will go down in history right alongside the Great Depression and the Civil War.”
I have been writing about the inevitability of this catastrophe for over two years because the mainstream financial press wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. They had strict instructions from their “masters” not to discuss it.
So are you mad yet? I would certainly hope everyone is. The blatant conspiracy that exists between the most powerful banking and corporate institutions, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury and most of our elected representatives have “killed” infinitely more people than the planes that crashed into the buildings on September 11, 2001. The loan originators, the appraisers, the investment banks, the rating agencies, the mortgage insurers, the government regulators, the Congressional oversight committees and the 28-year-old MBA’s, who created those esoteric weapons of mass destruction called over-the-counter derivatives, were all in on it. That many were enriched, some by hundreds of millions of dollars, while the American people saw their pension and retirement plans go broke as trillions of dollars of their life savings got vaporized, is a crime, plain and simple. To ask those who got raped to bail out the perpetrators just rubs salt into the wound.
In case the citizenry should take to the streets to demonstrate their anger, the government, cognizant of this prospect, has deployed thousands of troops in our own country to put down any possible uprisings. A large demonstration was held near Wall Street a couple of weeks ago and purposely not covered by the press.
Understand, that brief rallies to the contrary, there are no good solutions to the credit freeze or the downward spiral in our markets. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is about to explode as it tries to prevent a 1930’s deflationary depression. No longer of any use, the printing presses have been replaced by key strokes on computers in an attempt to reflate the system. If they are “successful,” then we’re looking at a Weimar Republic experience of hyperinflation. If they can’t create money out of thin air fast enough to keep the major banks i.e. Citi Group, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs etc. capitalized (they are all technically insolvent), then can “bank holidays” be avoided?
We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth from the many to the few in the history of the planet. All trust in the financial system and our elected officials is gone. Only when the criminals are punished will any semblance of confidence return.
10/15/2008
THE HUNTING LOOPHOLE
In thinking further about the tragic killing of Karen Wood virtually in her own back yard by a man who thought she was a deer, I am struck by one point which has not to my knowledge been discussed in the press.
Donald Rogerson, who shot Mrs. Wood to death, had been hunting. "HUNTING" is the key word here. When asked how he had managed to end the life of a fellow human being, Mr. Rogerson could look the questioner right in the eye and say he had been HUNTING. He had made an honest HUNTING MISTAKE. It was terrible for sure but also understandable because he had been HUNTING. By all means drop the charges; after all, the man was only HUNTING.
Can you imagine what the authorities would have done to you and me if we had been slinking around a neighborhood with a high-powered rifle and in the process shot a human being to death---if we couldn't claim the HUNTING LOOPHOLE?
P.S. I never thought I'd consider buying a hunting license, but as it turns out for only $16 you can get yourself a license to kill. It kind of gives a fella ideas. After all, I haven't been getting along with Harry or Joe down at the office.....
12/19/1988
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS MUST HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO DO WITH THEIR TIME
When I picked up the two Jackson Hole newspapers last Thursday and saw the picture of the man being handcuffed behind his back, I assumed the law had caught up with someone guilty of a capital crime. Was he a killer? a rapist? an armed robber? Had he murdered, maimed or tortured a fellow human being?
Whatever heinous act he had committed, his picture plastered all over the front page conveyed guilt. He was guilty until proven otherwise. He would have to live with that picture for the rest of his life regardless of the eventual outcome of his case.
But then I saw the headlines and read the story. What a disappointment. It was the usual: another drug bust. The obssession with marijuana had brought together 55 federal, state and local law enrocement officers in a brilliant piece of under-cover work.
What is it about this substance that so motivates and inspires the long arm of the law here in Teton County?
After all, certain establishment heroes of the local variety are into cocaine, and they don't seemed to get picked up or harassed in any way. It must be the knee-jerk association: marijuana! Hippie! Pinko! Commie! Liberal! Undesirable! etc.
Yet, alcohol is the drug of choice in Jackson Hole. It kills and maims people all the time. And when it doesn't do that, it more subtly destroys human beings, their families and their careers. But what is the knee-jerk association to alcohol? Macho! Great! What a guy! OK!
If you've ever been a paramedic and seen first hand what alcohol can do on the open road, you wouldn't give drinking such rave reviews. Yet the same paramedic rarely, if ever, comes across slaughter and heartbreak associated with the use of marijuana.
No one is condoning or applauding the use of illegal substances of any kind. But it does seem to this writer that 55 federal, state and local law enforcement officials could have found something more pressing to do with their time.
05/04/1984
NO ONE HAS THE ANSWERS
Living and dying is a difficult business. It is just not easy getting from the cradle to the grave. All any of us knows for sure is "dust to dust." And since that is not very comforting or reassuring, we turn to those who profess to have the answers. Whether they be religious leaders or so-called gurus, we accept their answers as "the answers" and are intolerant of others who have arrived at a different set of conclusions.
The fact is, no one has any answers. There has never been a human being in the history of the world who has been in possession of any hard and fast information on matters relating to life after death, salvation, heaven and hell etc. Theories, beliefs, yes; answers, no. We are all of us in the same boat, dealing in faith, not facts. And that fact should make us all a little more humble and a whole lot more tolerant of others.
Since our pastors, priests, rabbis and gurus don't know anything more about the hereafter etc. than the rest of us, we would probably do well to confine our expectations of them to matters of moral and spiritual leadership in this life.
When a spiritual leader breaks one of the Ten Commandments, then he has failed us in his only legitimate role here on earth. And when that happens, it is irrelevant to state whether the Lord will forgive him or not, since none of us knows whether He will or He won't. Instead, it would be more appropriate to express profound disappointmnet at being a witness to still another chapter in the long history of the blind leading the blind.
11/12/2008
KEEP YOUR RELIGION TO YOURSELF
Is it possible that here in the 21st century people are still invoking religion into political discourse? Is this candidate a person of "faith?" If so, then he is good. If not, he is a lower form of life and is the definition of evil.
This country was founded because of religious persecution in England. One of the most basic foundations of our Constitution (which Bush was quoted as saying: "It's only a piece of paper"), is the separation of church and state. Aside from the inescapable fact that more wars have been caused by religion than all other motivators of bloodshed in the history of this planet, the essential truth of this issue is that religion is a private matter between each individual and his own conception of a higher power.
Try to understand that no one cares what you think about the subject. And since it is so intensely personal, would you all please just keep it to yourselves.
10/17/2008
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