UNITED STATES HUBRIS, ARROGANCE AND HYPOCRISY IN UKRAINE

         

The stand off in Ukraine brings back memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  That delicate situation was negotiated by two rational human beings: Kennedy and Khrushchev. Both men, intelligent and sensible, knew it was unthinkable to go to war. So they worked out an agreement where the Russian leader removed his missiles from Cuba and the American president dismantled ours from Turkey.

But that was then, and this is now. Today, the United States appears to be in constant search of a war. Having learned nothing from our past mistakes in Iraq, Libya and Syria, we now threaten Russia with sanctions if they don't do as we wish. After what we did to Iraq, how hypocritical can a nation be?

What are we even doing in their backyard? What does Ukraine have to do with the United States? Did we, as many suggest, engineer the coup there with a bunch of Neo Nazis in order for us to build more missiles near the Russian border? If so, that would take us ever closer to the world hegemony we so eagerly desire.

The Chinese, now ever closer to the Russians, think we have crossed Obama's various lines in the sand to utter insanity. They think we're crazy. I have to agree. Our arrogance and hubris absolutely borders on madness.

If we place sanctions on the Russians, they would retaliate by selling their stash of U.S. dollars so fast, we wouldn't know what hit us. The Chinese would then do the same, and in no time at all the world would be a different place. There are $16 trillion sitting in foreign hands that would no longer want them. The demand for dollars and U.S. Treasury bonds would vaporize.

It seems like everyone in the U.S. mainstream media is calling for war. A well known retired general offered this brilliant piece of wisdom: "We can whip the Russians easy.  They can’t shoot straight.  We should attack and send troops to Poland and send the U.S. Navy to take the Black Sea base from the Russians."

Let us hope that commonsense and reason prevail over our insane hubris and arrogance.

March 7, 2014

COMMERCIALS EVERYWHERE: HAVE MERCY

Have you been watching television lately? Am I the only one aware of commercials taking over every single program? It's getting to the point where the editorial portion of the program is just a matter of filling in space between the commercials. What all this accomplishes, of course, is to reduce the human soul to a mere consumer of stuff.

The most insane advertising is being paid for by the drug companies. For example, do you have an enlarged prostate?. If so, our drug will bring needed relief. Side effects include, heart attacks, strokes, all types of cancers and intense suffering which leads to certain death. Talk to your doctor about shrinking that little bugger of yours.

Is it possible that people actually go to their physicians and ask for prescriptions for these harmless medicines? They sure must. The commercials keep running. That means they must be working.

Please God, if there is an afterlife or spirit world, let it be free of all advertising. I pray to You, Lord, that You provide a resting place devoid of uncultivated, tasteless creeps constantly hawking products at me that I don't need or want. That's all I ask. Thanks in advance, God.

February 12, 2014

THE HUNTING LOOPHOLE

I've been thinking a lot lately about the white tailed deer mating season and how it coincides with that species' hunting season. Having been a fly fisherman all my life, and on those rare occasions when I manage to emerge intellectually victorious over a trout, I carefully remove the little hook, give the beautiful fish a kiss and release him to continue his life's journey.

I first encountered my deer hunting dilemma up in the state of Maine. First, I must tell you that I have nothing against the sport if the motivation is to put  food on the table through the winter. But getting back to the incident in Maine, a woman by the name of Karen Wood was hanging out the laundry in her backyard when a hunter, mistaking her for a deer, blew her head off. And he was found innocent of all charges by claiming the HUNTING LOOPHOLE. After all, he had been hunting. He had made a simple hunting mistake.  What if he was only 90 feet from her clothesline. It was surely understandable when you consider that he had been 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 could not claim the HUNTING LOOPHOLE?

Again, hypothetically, I have no problem with shooting a deer's head off for the culinary reason stated above. But it seems that hunters throughout the Northeast are complaining that they can no longer locate any "trophy" deer. You see, nature's way of balancing the deer herd is for coyotes and other predators to bring down the weakest animals, allowing the so called trophies to reproduce. So when I hear the trophy hunters bemoan the disappearance of the best and the brightest, I just ask them to look at their walls for an explanation.

Which brings me back to the coincidence of the mating season and hunting season of this proud animal. And I have a theory. Since there are estimated to be 330,000,000 guns out there (one for every man, woman and baby in the country), it would be a fair and just assumption that the majority are in the possession of Conservatives.  (Remember Cheney shooting his own companion). And it is equally obvious that hunting is the sport of choice for the right wing. So do you see what the dovetailing of the mating and the hunting season means? The Conservatives are committing abortion on a grand scale. Oh no, the hypocrisy is too much for my sensibilities.

Well, there is a rumor going around. I can't guarantee its validity. But the few remaining trophy deer are supposedly armed with AK47s and waiting in ambush for the two-legged trophies. And supposedly these deer have access to the very best taxidermists in the Northeast.

December 12, 2013

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DOLLAR

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DOLLAR

As the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination approaches, I think it is time to stop living in a fantasy world when it comes to why the United States goes to war, has someone killed or manipulates the gold market. They all have a common theme.

We did not go to war in Iraq because of the so-called weapons of mass destruction that our former pal, the right-wing dictator, Saddam Hussein, supposedly possessed. The real reason we went after Saddam was that he had threatened to use the Euro to sell his oil to the rest of the world. He was going to bypass the U.S. Petrodollar. To the United States government and the Federal Reserve, that constituted a capital crime. He was marked for assassination in order to protect our paper dollar counterfeit scheme.

Likewise in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, another long-time right-wing dictator buddy of the U.S., was killed because he planned to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars, demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” (a single African currency made from gold). The regime, sitting on massive amounts of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to follow suit. Gaddafi's strategy literally had the potential to bring down the dollar. So much for Gaddafi; he had to be disposed of, as well.

Which brings me back to the JFK killing. When John Kennedy became president, he took an adversarial approach to the Federal Reserve. Knowing full well that our Constitution made it clear that only the U.S. government could mint the money of our country, Kennedy had the U.S. Treasury issue U.S. Treasury notes as opposed to the Federal Reserve notes which are printed by a cartel of private bankers and is blatantly unconstitutional. What Kennedy did was considered sacrilegious by the Federal Reserve and its powerful banker friends. JFK was a marked man. It is my opinion----I can't prove it----that the Fed, its power under siege by a Liberal president, hired a Communist-leaning hit man to do the deed so as to disguise the real motivation.

As is obvious, the overall theme here is to protect the U.S. dollar. The current enemy of the dollar is, of course, gold, which our central bank and its agents, the too-big-to-fail banks, manipulate in an effort to buy time for the reserve currency of the world. It is a hopeless endeavor. The U.S. dollar is fast approaching the endgame.

November 6, 2013

GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN PURE RACISM

                                   
                             GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN PURE RACISM

The shut down of the U.S. government by the bigots on the far right has absolutely nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act. That act was voted on and became the law of the land which was further vetted and upheld by the Supreme Court. Whether they like it or not, they know full well there is nothing they can do about it.

No, the reason for holding the government hostage is all about plain old racism. These Fascists have made it clear that their entire agenda is to bring down Obama. Right wing Conservatives have dealt with numerous Democratic presidents throughout the years, and they somehow always managed to compromise and therefore get things done. But their hatred for Obama is based purely on the color of this President's skin.

Shutting down the government is one thing. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling and plunging the U.S. into default for the first time in history is quite another. The consequences would be catastrophic. So let's see if their blatant racism is great enough for them to ruin the credit of the United States along with the U.S. dollar.

Someone is going to have to blink. In the past it has always been Obama. This time it is the right wing extremists' turn. With the stakes beyond the comatose American people's comprehension, the bigots will blink or the Republican party will be toast.

October 4, 2013

NO BOMBA OBAMA

NO BOMBA OBAMA

There appears to have been no education gained from our experiences in Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. When the United States takes it upon itself to interfere militarily in places where it does not belong, unintended consequences are the inevitable result leading to the loss of life and treasure.

Our allies and our Congress do not seem to be very interested in backing the President's vow to strike Syria for having crossed his ill-advised red line when it comes to chemical weapons. In fact, it is not clear that all of these weapons of mass destruction came from the brutal Assad. The unsavory mix of rebels are certainly not the kind of people you would invite to dinner.

President Obama has gone out of his way to place himself between a rock and a hard place. Let us hope that he does not place ego and personal credibility above common sense. For those of us where education has taken place, we should make it known to the struggling commander-in-chief: NO BOMBA, OBAMA.

September 6, 2013



FINANCIAL CRISIS LOOMS AHEAD

The next financial crisis is a "when," not an "if." The previous meltdown in 2008 was caused by the too-big-to-fail banks. Those same banks are now bigger, and their ridiculously leveraged, opaque, over-the-counter derivative bets are also bigger. Nothing has been done to fix a single thing. In other words, everything that was wrong in 2008 is worse today. 50 million people are on food stamps, 24 million unemployed, 11 million on disability, 76% of Americans have no savings at all, 46% have less than $800 in savings And we are witnessing the conversion of America into a part-time working society.

At the start of the last crisis the Federal Reserve's balance sheet was $800 billion. Today it is $3.3 trillion and increasing at $1 trillion a year. What you have, therefore, is a banking system that is bigger and riskier than it was in 2008 and no funds to bail them out when the inevitable takes place because the Federal Reserved is tapped out.

 As long-term bonds, the largest bubble in financial history, is bursting before our eyes, interest rates will continue to rise which will make it more and more difficult for the U.S. Treasury to finance its existing debt with new debt. This Ponzi scheme will go on as long as people and rigged markets remain addicted to the heroin of paper money created out of thin air.

To maintain the confidence and delay the inescapable crisis that looms ahead, the government issues phony numbers on GDP, unemployment, inflation etc. But as the old saying goes: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

We are now seeing the beginning of the dreaded loss in confidence. Foreigners just sold a record number of U.S. Treasury bonds in a desperate effort to get out of harm's way. New housing starts just plunged 13% in a single month. This further traps the Fed, since  there is no way for them to taper their $85 billion purchase of bonds per month. Should they do so, the markets and the economy would collapse, and the Fed would have to return with even greater stimulus. Always remember, as another familiar adage makes clear: "The emperor has no clothes."

August 24, 2013

THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS TRAPPED

THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS TRAPPED

The Federal Reserve is now trapped. As you may know, this cartel of private bankers is buying up most of the U.S. Treasury debt. When they even just hinted that they might taper off their $85 billion per month buying of our U.S. Treasury bonds, the financial markets freaked out. Big Ben (Bernanke) was then forced to contradict himself and state that the economy was not really doing that well, and that the Federal Reserve may have to continue buying bonds and printing money perhaps to infinity. The markets did a 180 and headed for the moon..

Fundamentals no longer matter to market participants. Genuine price discovery is a thing of the past. The stock market is addicted to quantitative easing (the printing of more and more dollars) by its enabler, the Federal Reserve. Bad news for the economy becomes good news for the market because it means that the Fed will have to continue creating dollars which, of course, gives the addict (the stock market) what it must have. The benefit to the real economy is negligible. While the market may go up for a few more months, you know that it's going to end in tears as it always does when the fundamentals are dispensed with.

Yes, Ben is in a box. If he tapers off his bond purchases, the bond market will crash, taking the stock market with it. If he continues or even has to intensify his creation of paper dollars, then he risks a savage inflation which destroys the U.S. dollar and leads to the world losing confidence in our currency. It's all about the dollar after all. If Bernanke lets the dollar fall in order to pay back the remarkable Federal debt with cheaper greenbacks, then he risks the crucial advantages that the petrodollar and the reserve currency of the world give to the USA. What's a chairman to do? Probably retire and hand over the insoluble problem to someone else.

July 13, 2013



WE ARE SINKING INTO A POLICE STATE

WE ARE SINKING INTO A POLICE STATE

Those who are willing to give up some liberty for safety don't deserve either one.  Benjamin Franklin.

With this past week's revelations that the Executive Branch has an arrangement with the country's three largest phone companies to obtain the phone records of almost all Americans, only to have it further disclosed that the same Executive Branch has transformed the Bush - Cheney  warrantless intrusions  into the Prism program which allows the intelligence services to mine all of the country's major Internet providers by direct access to the companies'  servers in order to be able to obtain: email, videos, photos, voice-over-IP (Skype, for example) chats, file transfers, social networking details, and more, then is it possible that Americans can remain in denial that our country is plunging into a police state? Is it not curious that Homeland Security will be purchasing 1.6 billion blunt-nosed bullets and 2,750 light-armored tanks? It is undeniable that one definition of Fascism is the merger of state and corporate power.

When I voted for Candidate Obama is 2008, it was because he promised change from the embarrassments and encroachments of the Bush years. Even before Inauguration Day it was obvious to me that the upcoming President Obama would be just another puppet in a long string of puppet presidents who took their marching orders from the Federal Reserve and their cohorts on Wall Street.

Besides surrounding himself with a Wall Street Cabinet and advisors, his statements that he would not look back, only forward, was a tip off that he and his do-nothing attorney general would not go after the Bush-Cheney war crimes nor would they bring a single case against the banksters whose greed and outright fraud came as close as you can to bringing down the global financial system

Instead of change we got intensification. Obama signed a bill into law which allowed the U.S. military to arrest Americans and hold them without trial. Internments camps have been built that can currently hold 80,000 Americans without having to charge them with any crime.

And then there is the militarization of police forces throughout the country where on a recent occasion 100 square miles of Boston was placed under martial law while armored tanks roamed the streets......all in an effort to find a 19-year-old kid.

Wake up, America. Write articles, call your so-called representatives in Washington, utilize your social networks to organize a groundswell of opposition to what is happening in this country. Rediscover the words: civil disobedience.

June 16, 2013

GETTING OUT OF THE BANKING SYSTEM

GETTING OUT OF THE BANKING SYSTEM

The governments of the Western developed countries and that of Japan have become desperate. They are printing paper currency at the speed of light.  A financial catastrophe is being concealed from the public. My guess is it has to do with the one quadrillion plus dollars in over-the-counter derivatives. In any case, the central banks and the central planners are now out of control.

The public remains in its long term coma thanks to the propaganda machine of the mainstream press who assures everyone that everything is just fine. But it isn’t fine. The theft of depositors’ money in Cyprus is not a one-off phenomenon. Canada, New Zealand and other countries have passed laws that would enable them to do the same. Should a major bank fail, you could wake up one morning only to discover that the government has stolen money right out of your account and given it to the bank in order to save the institution. People vs. banks and governments is no contest. It is an adversarial relationship that inevitably will go from bad to worse.

But, you say, our bank accounts and our stock accounts are insured. Really?  The FDIC may have almost 1% of the total depositor funds with which to reimburse depositors. And unless you own your equity portfolio in your name with specific stock certificates, don’t even think that your stocks are safe. Most everyone’s portfolio of stocks is in street name. That means when the brokerage company goes bankrupt, your stocks go with them. The moral of this tale is: you don’t own what you can’t touch.

But none of that could happen here, you say? The Federal Reserve came on the scene in 1913. Had you placed your money in a checking account 100 years ago, each dollar would now be worth $0.04 cents. Now that’s what I call theft on a scale almost unimaginable. It’s done to Americans surreptitiously like the frog analogy. Place a frog in boiling water (Cyprus) and he’ll jump right out. But put him in warm water and gradually turn up the heat. He won’t notice it until it is too late.

With the endgame getting closer by the day, those few renegade individuals who actually think for themselves are getting out of the banking system while they can. As confidence is gradually lost in the authoritarians and their paper money Ponzi scheme, people with functioning brain cells will exit the system in astounding numbers. They will buy whatever you can’t print. What’s your plan?

April 9, 2011

GET USED TO FRACKING

                                                       GET USED TO FRACKING

About a month ago DR. Alan Chartok had a show about fracking on WAMC. For an hour people from all over the area called in to express their displeasure, their horror, on how this brutal method of extracting oil and gas from shale will destroy the ground water and in general poison the environment. I for one could not have agreed more with each of the callers. The toxic chemicals along with the unimaginable quantities of water necessary to carry out the horizontal drilling in order to get the fossil fuels trapped underneath the land will surely cause horrendous damage.

Since I was in the car driving up to Williamstown, I heard the entire show. And I could not believe that not one person seemed to understand the inevitability of widespread fracking. After all, the possibility of the United States becoming energy independent after years and years of sucking up to OPEC is so overwhelming, so game changing, that the issue is basically a done deal.President Obama is holding fifteen licenses to drill in the Bakken Shield of North Dakota, the Eagle Ford of Texas and the Monterey formation in California etc. All of the big bad oil companies are champing at the bit to get those licenses. But Obama is holding them close to his vest. They are, after all, worth a fortune each. And since the country is broke, Obama will indeed sell them, but not before he extracts his pound of flesh from the companies.

My guess is that the economic possibilities involved are so great in terms of not only energy independence, but the creation of thousands and thousands of jobs along with great wealth, that Obama will become a hero very much like FDR. And like Roosevelt, the American people may even want Obama to run for a third term. If he can't overthrow the 22nd amendment, there's always Michelle.

I know all that sounds crazy. And I will mourn with so many of you over the destruction that will surely be done to our land and water. But the economic potential is so great, it could literally lead to the re-emergence of this country. Lets face it, the economy and jobs versus the environment has never been a contest in America. Much to my chagrin, the writing is on the wall.

March 4, 2013

THE FEDERAL RESERVE: MODERN DAY ALCHEMISTS

                      THE FEDERAL RESERVE: MODERN DAY ALCHEMISTS

Back in the Middle Ages something called alchemy was attempted. It was a craft that took something ordinary, plentiful and of little value and tried to miraculously transform it into something rare,
precious and therefore valuable. Of course, we all know that the experiment failed.

But alchemy has returned to the world in the form of the Federal Reserve and its fellow central banks. Their goal is the same as the quacks of the Middle Ages. They are certain that they can create paper and turn it into something very special. Instead of calling it alchemy, since that would not sit well with even the comatose public, they call it quantitative easing, bond buying, inflation and employment targeting etc.. But the Federal Reserve’s alchemy is on steroids. It takes debt and magically turns it into something of value by declaring it an asset. As the governments of the Western developed world sink ever deeper into the debt abyss, these Central Banks "buy" this debt (government IOU's from technically insolvent nations) by the creation of electronic digits in a computer which they then credit to the too-big-to-fail banks. These banks then place this debt as an asset on their balance sheets which they use to make loans and therefore create more debt. Including the unfunded liabilities i.e. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the debt has been estimated to be near $220 trillion.

The insane number of dollars created have to find their way into something. This causes asset bubbles to blow up in stocks, commodities and bonds. (The U.S. Treasury bond bubble is the largest in financial history). Anyone with a functioning brain cell knows that all asset bubbles end badly. But the central banks only know one thing: keep increasing the quantity of paper money until inflation destroys the poor and the Middle Class. In the meantime, the bubbles may continue to expand thanks to the paper money creation and the main stream press which assures everyone not to worry because everything is OK. But it’s not OK. Nothing that caused the financial crisis in 2008 has been fixed or even addressed.

Modern-day alchemists are guaranteed to fail. All you have to do is to keep your eye on the Treasury
bond market and the U.S. dollar. When they start to plunge, head for your bunkers.

 February 9, 2013

THE LIE

When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.  –Frederic Bastiat

Our culture’s basic foundation is now built on the lie. It starts in schools where cheating has become a way of life. Resumés have become fictions that bear no relation to the facts. Corporations distort their quarterly reports in order to attract gullible investors. The government lies on every economic report it issues in order to keep the American people in the dark about the real economy. It falsifies the reasons for going to war and by doing so wastes both blood and treasure. Presidents of the United States promise the people what they know they cannot deliver upon in order to get re-elected. Congress lies when it claims to represent the people who elected them. The mainstream media lies to protect the liars who own them.

What is it in the American psyche that predisposes the people to believe the lies?

My guess is that Americans have come down with an epidemic of complacency. Their center of the universe consciousness does not allow the vast majority to care about things outside of themselves. Others feel that there is nothing they can do about it and just give up.

When it comes to lying, there has been no example more blatant than the too-big-to-fail banks whose greed, fraud and mendacity brought down the global economy. Yet, the Obama administration has not initiated a single case against anyone on Wall Street.  How is that possible, you ask? Because just like the outrageous Republicans, the Democratic party is bought and paid for by the financial criminals.

Obama, the brilliant candidate, who tells the Middle Class what it wants to hear when he’s running for office, chooses Jacob Lew, a former Wall Street derivatives dealer as his nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. Isn’t it remarkable that Obama has surrounded himself with former Wall Street tycoons throughout his four years as president. His upcoming inauguration will be filled with inspiring rhetoric. But it is imperative to watch what he does, not what he says. Words lend themselves to lies. Executing those words into action is missing in action in the current American culture.

January 12, 2013

THE FISCAL CLIFF IS ANOTHER DIVERSION

THE FISCAL CLIFF IS ANOTHER DIVERSION

                                  “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand

our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe

  there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”   
Henry Ford

In my opinion, the so-called “fiscal cliff” is just another diversionary tactic to shift the main stream media and the public’s attention (not that the latter has any) away from  the real problems facing the financial system.

The fiscal cliff, whether the idiots in Washington let it happen or come to some agreement, will have little effect on the nation’s remarkable debt. It will only make a recessionary economy worse.

In any case, the fiscal cliff is irrelevant when compared to the unbelievable number of over-the-counter derivatives held by the four largest American banks, or to the bond market and dollar market asset bubbles.

Of the $230 trillion in derivative exposure, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and Goldman Sachs hold 95%. These banks used to be commercial banks that took their depositors’ money and loaned it out to businesses and consumers. But the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the deregulation of derivatives by the Clinton administration in cahoots with the Republican party turned honest banks into gambling casinos who bet their own money and that of their depositors on any financial instrument they could leverage. You know what happened in 2008. Today the potential for disaster is many, many times larger.

This is what the Federal Reserve is really worried about. After announcing QE 3, the printing of money to buy U.S. Treasuries and the bad assets of the big banks, the Fed quickly doubled its QE purchases. The salient point to understand is that the Federal Reserve is not printing money to ignite the economy; they are merely continuing the bail outs of the too-big-to-fail banks and the U.S. Treasury.

Because a handful of fools and corrupt public officials deregulated the financial system, the Federal Reserve is forced to print paper currency on a scale never seen before in human history. How long will it be before the U.S. bond and dollar markets implode and inflation turns ugly? When a sovereign’s currency is destroyed, the country goes down with it. Anyone who possesses a brain cell of history knows that is what happened to the Roman Empire and all the other empires ever since.

Therefore, the entire economic policy of the USA is dedicated to saving four banks. By keeping interest rates at ridiculously low  levels, the rest of us in the real economy are deprived of interest income. We, especially our senior citizens, are forced into risky markets where possible disaster waits in ambush. Merry Christmas.

December 19, 2012



A NEW LOW FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

A NEW LOW FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

So ends the worst presidential campaign in my lifetime. Literally billions of dollars were spent on ads demonizing both candidates. Running for the most important job in the world, neither man even mentioned the essential issues facing this country: the upcoming fiscal cliff that can throw the United States right back into deep recession, the too-big-to- fail banks gambling with over-the-counter derivatives totaling 1.1 quadrillion dollars while valuing their worthless assets at one hundred cents on the dollar and a Federal Reserve that is engaged in counterfeiting zillions of confetti money to prevent the system from collapsing. And then there’s Europe always on the brink. Truth was missing in action.

 The Right Wing crazies plummeted to a new low as they used religion and racism in a desperate attempt to bring down the man they have hated for four years. Their contempt for women was an outright disgrace. I felt I was living in a Third World Country controlled by billionaires who financed the shameful obliteration of a once democratic nation.

Yes, the better man won. He is a remarkable campaigner who only slipped up once when a different Romney showed up at the first debate. In fact, it’s difficult to know which Romney lost the election. How does one go about choosing?

But now the candidate has to become the president again. After all the Progressive speech making on the stomp, I fear he will turn to the Right and push for oil and gas extraction on a scale unimaginable and at the expense of the environment. And in his obsession with bipartisanism, I see him dealing with the opposition with olive branches instead of fight.

Maybe he’ll surprise us and throw some punches when the moment is right. Anything is possible.

November 8, 2012

OBAMA, ROMNEY CLUELESS ON ECONOMY

After gamely sitting through the carefully rehearsed performances that went by the name of debates, it became absolutely clear to me that neither of these guys has the slightest idea what to do about the ongoing economic crisis. In fact, politicians have only one idea, and that’s how to get re-elected. The same is true in Europe where their Union continues to come apart at the seams.

Politicians depend on central banks to print money to keep the global financial system from collapsing. Their counterfeiting debases the various fiat currencies and hurts the Poor and the Middle Class whose purchasing power erodes month after month..

No matter who wins the U.S. presidential election on November 6^th, there is simply no way our country will ever make good on its gargantuan debts and pile of IOUs that now total as much as $212 trillion. The debts will never be repaid.

Flooding the planet with “Monopoly money” will only cause more asset bubbles to blow up and then burst. At some point, even “ Boobus Americanus" will “get it” and lose confidence in the U.S. dollar. When that happens, they will be the last to turn to hard assets in a desperate attempt to preserve what will still be left of their savings.

With the Fiscal Cliff and a new higher debt ceiling looming, and neither party talking to the other, the endgame may be just around the corner. In any case let’s face it, we’re circling the drain. Rich old men protecting their property by sending young men to die in wars of their making.. Elections have become a charade. They give Americans the illusion of choice. The real looting in this country is the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. The owners of the country are now out in the open. The rest of us are in the back of the bus.

October 25, 2012



OBAMA WILL NOT FIGHT

                                           In Dry Dock                        Charles Steinhacker

I’ve always stated that Obama was a great candidate and a mediocre president.

He’s good on the stump and can fire up a crowd. But after last night’s debate performance, I can not even consider him a good candidate.

 Romney looked directly at him when speaking, while Obama rarely looked

at Romney. Instead, Obama’s head was down, and he resembled a fighter who
had been repeatedly hit. Still on his feet, but losing each round on points.

 It does not appear that Obama has an ounce of adversarial genes in his DNA.

He let Romney completely off the hook when he knew that Romney was
vulnerable as few debating opponents ever are.

 This is the peacemaker who would not go after the public option on healthcare

and refused to bring a single case against the Wall Street banksters.

Unless he finds a way to become a warrior and bring the fight to Romney,
he will be a one-term president. And we’ll return to the Dark Ages.

Oct. 4, 2012

DAY OF RECKONING IS APPROACHING

 BOAT PULLED UP  CHARLES STEINHACKER

Here are some facts that will bounce off the public's complacency
like rubber balls off of concrete:

1. There has been no economic recovery.

2. All investment markets are now rigged.

3. All economic reports from the government are bogus.

4. 47 million people now have food to eat thanks to food stamps.

5. Five cities just went bankrupt in California alone.

6. 3,000 people went to jail during the Savings & Loan crisis of the 1980's.

7. In the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Obama administration has jailed exactly zero. Oh yes, Madoff went into the slammer because he ripped off the 1%.

8. The power elite of the too-big-to-fail banks continue to control the Administration, the Congress, the main stream media and the world. Their business plan is to transfer money from the people into their greedy pockets. But no one cares.

9. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are between a rock and a hard place. They will resolve their dilemma in the only way they know how: print trillions in confetti money. This is Webster's definition of counterfeiting. But nobody cares.

10. The can gets harder and harder to kick down the road. So each crisis will be worse until there is capitulation which means total financial collapse.

11. So, while the "sheeple" shop and attend to their own self interests, the day of reckoning draws nearer and nearer.

September 2, 2012

GREATEST FINANCIAL SCANDAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

                                                  

                                                    Afternoon Sail               Charles Steinhacker

The manipulation of the Libor interest rate by the too-big-to-fail banks is without doubt the greatest financial scandal in the history of the world.  It has been called the "tobacco moment" for the banking industry. Yet, no one is even talking about it here in the United States.

 Americans don't even know what the Libor rate is nor would they care if they did. And if they did want to find out, the compliant main stream media is guaranteed to keep them in the dark. Let's face it, The dumbing down of the citizens of this country guarantees that the people are far more interested in Tom Cruise's divorce and the prospect that Katie Holmes will again be able to wear high heels than anything related to economics or the financial system.

 The Libor rate is the interest rate that the big banks charge each other to lend to each other. That rate is announced once a day in London by averaging out the rates charged by 16 of the largest banks on the planet (Three are American). What makes this interest rate the center of the financial universe is that it affects every other interest rate on the planet. That includes literally hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of derivatives, mortgages, credit cards, municipalities, communities etc. each and every day. Everyone of us is profoundly scammed when those banks lie  about what they are charging each other in order to make obscene profits and/or to keep the public from knowing just how fragile the house of cards really is.

So far, Barclay's, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS have admitted guilt. But in England, unlike America where both parties are bought and paid for by the banking cartel, the Labor party is aggressively investigating this remarkable scandal. The likely outcome will be that all 16 banks were involved. Remember,every interest rate comes back to Libor. And as long as the banking mafia's business model, which is to do as they please to enrich themselves while producing nothing, is allowed to exist, the global financial system will rest on a bed of quicksand.

July 14, 2012

PRINT OR DIE

Sheltered as we are here in the Berkshire mountains from the realities faced by most of the world, can we at least agree that there has been no economic recovery. It didn't have to be this way, of course. Instead of bailing out the criminal banks with taxpayer money and currency created out of thin air, these funds could have put people back to work building and repairing highways, bridges, 21st century trains etc. Yes, the pain would have been even worse in the short term, but by now we would be well on our way to a sustainable recovery. "Too big to fail" is the opposite of Capitalism. Rather, it is the epitome of corporate welfare. At least by improving our superstructure while creating good jobs, we would have produced something in this country for a change. By now we would have something to show for it.

But no, the banks took the money, said thank you very much and have become bigger and more highly leveraged than ever while over six million people have given up and left the work force. (8.2% unemployment? Right. And I've got a bridge I can sell you in Brooklyn).

The banking cartel and their political cronies will do whatever it takes to hang on to power. As Europe races towards collapse, expect the mother of all bailouts. We've reached the point of "print or die."  And when Europe is temporarily saved by this unimaginable counterfeiting scheme, next in line stands the "Land of the Setting Sun" and the good old USA.

This is what is meant by "extend and pretend." Another way of expressing it is to "buy a little time and lie." The longer this new brand of Mafia elitism is allowed to stretch out the inevitable, the worse the eventual collapse will be. People everywhere, acting out of white-knuckle fear, are fleeing all of the risk markets and placing their hard-earned funds into the U.S. Treasury market for a 1.5% return. (A guaranteed losing bet). As things deteriorate, expect more repressive governments along with capital controls. So even here in the privileged Berkshires, do you have a plan?

June 28, 2012