From The Ramparts

Robbing The Poor To Give To the Rich

The NeoCons Rob From The Poor Give To The Rich

“Cheap financing advanced to consumers in the middle and working classes, who have had declining real income since the ’70s, has been purposeful public policy that forces consumers to borrow more and more to maintain their lifestyle. Incomes have not kept up with inflation, off shored manufacturing jobs have been replaced with service jobs that pay an average of 20% less, federal and state governments have shifted more cost to local entities, increasing property taxes, and the costs to participate in the legal economy for everything from daycare, to college, to medical insurance have been shifted to the worker. The result is a massive transfer of wealth over time from the general population to a very small percentage of super wealthy.
This process began during the Reagan administration and has continued, except during the Clinton years, until the present. It is nearing its inevitable end. As we learned in 1929, great disparity of wealth (which this process has increased tremendously) leads to a disproportionate investment in speculation, driving up prices to unsustainable amounts that then crash back to their real worth. Eventually the transfer of wealth from the working and middle class through increased debt deprives them of both purchasing power and the ability to borrow more, triggering deflation. Of course the devastation occurs mostly to the middle and working class who were already deprived of sharing the wealth of the speculative bubble, but now pay the consequences with layoffs and pension losses.” Hold On to Your Seat: America and Its Debt Based Economy by John Kelley / July 31st, 2007 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/

The conmen, crooks and shysters of the Bu$h Crime cabal under the guise of Compassionate Conservatism have succeeded in fleecing the flock known as the AmeriKKKan public yet one more time. Using their cronies who operate the corporate mind control apparatus these rogues and sociopaths have surpassed even the predatory bloodsucking antics of their robber baron forefathers by using a cunning campaign of disinformation, fear-mongering and intimidation to distract, dummy down and coerce the populous into believing evil is good, wrong is right, war is peace, larceny is charity and privation is prosperity.
But alas even the most elaborate and finely constructed con game can go on only so long before the inevitable consequences of greed, arrogance and psychopathy reveal themselves to all but the most, brain dead, blind or somnolent. This is what is happening slowly but surely now in AmeriKKKa. After George W. Bu$h was given the 2000 election by his father’s cronies on the US Supreme Court, the hard core fascists among them began to implement their plan to execute an aggressive imperial agenda overseas and escalate their fascist program at home. (You can read the Project For A New American Century’s various manifestos and plans for global domination at http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqmiddleeast.htm ) Their plans included: reinstating the massive transfer and redistribution of wealth from the working and middle classes to the ruling elites started under the Reagan administration, escalating the Nazification of AmeriKKKa, facilitating the creation of a one world government with themselves at the helm and the total destruction of the social welfare safety nets of the New Deal and Great Society.
Internationally we can see just how far they have come with their plans for global imperial domination with their illegal interventions in Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq and their failed attempts to depose Chavez in Venezuela. Unfortunately for them the resistance in those countries has been fierce and the NeoCons have proven to be inept emperors. Nevertheless they have moved their agenda along by bringing in the UN to help pacify Haiti and by employing NATO to help colonize Afghanistan as they pursue their plans to balkanize the “Middle East” starting with Iraq.
Things are not always what they seem or as they are depicted by the corporate mind control apparatus. Bu$h and Co may not be the brightest bulbs in the chandelier but they are supremely arrogant to the point of hubris. In addition they are working from a master plan that has been modified and revised over the years so the ruling elites fully expect their plans to bear fruit. (Keep in mind one component of their plan is massive global depopulation which they are accomplishing through perpetual wars, invasions, occupations and predatory and stifling Neo-Colonial globalist economic policies.) On the home front their program for a fascist police state and massive wealth redistribution is moving along quite nicely. “In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2001, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 33.4% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 51%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 84%, leaving only 16% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers)... In terms of types of financial wealth, the top one percent of households have 44.1% of all privately held stock, 58.0% of financial securities, and 57.3% of business equity. The top 10% have 85% to 90% of stock, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America... The most recent findings on income inequality come from the New York Times' analysis of a November, 2006, Internal Revenue Service report on income in 2004. Although overall income has grown by 27% since 1979, 33% of the gains went to the top 1%. Meanwhile, the bottom 60% were making less: about 95 cents for each dollar they made in 1979. The next 20% - those between the 60th and 80th rungs of the income ladder -- made $1.02 for each dollar they earned in 1979. Furthermore, the Times author concludes that only the top 5% made significant gains ($1.53 for each 1979 dollar). Most amazing of all, the top 0.1% -- that's one-tenth of one percent -- had more combined pre-tax income than the poorest 120 million people (Johnston, 2006).” Wealth, Income, and Power by G. William Domhoff http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
The policies of the US Central Bank (the privately owned Federal Reserve Banking system, not to be confused with having anything to do with the federal government.) have AmeriKKKa on the brink of fiscal collapse as governmental and consumer debt, stagnant wages and Fed created inflation create an undertow that are dragging working class and “Middle class” AmeriKKKans into insolvency, debt peonage and wage slavery. Things are so bad even the spin masters at the Fed are saying their policies are unsustainable and cannot continue.
Politically 9-11 was the “catastrophic event” the NeoCons needed to pursue their domestic fascist police state agenda and war related fraud/criminal enterprises. Using 9-11 which by now most thinking people realize was totally an inside job or at the very least was deliberately allowed to happen Bu$h and Co have gutted the US Bill of Rights and are fast moving to instill a gulag police state under the guise of national security and an imperial presidency the rich white men who founded this country feared above all else. In addition, their fat cat cronies are making out like bandits as the Iraq war/occupation and scurrilous “Global War on Terrorism” spurs additional expenditures for weapons, “reconstruction” and “national security” at the expense of much needed domestic priorities and programs, “Congress has already approved four spending bills for Iraq with funds totaling $204.4 billion and is in the process of approving a ‘bridge fund’ for $45.3 billion to cover operations until another supplemental spending package can be passed, most likely slated for Spring 2006. Broken down per person in the United States, the cost so far is $727, making the Iraq War the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years.
Long-term Impact on U.S. Economy: In August 2005, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at current levels would nearly double the projected federal budget deficit over the next ten years. According to current estimates, during that time the cost of the Iraq War could exceed $700 billion.
Economic Impact on Military Families: Since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 210,000 of the National Guard’s 330,000 soldiers have been called up, with an average mobilization of 460 days. Government studies show that about half of all reservists and Guard members report a loss of income when they go on active duty—typically more than $4,000 a year. About 30,000 small business owners alone have been called to service and are especially likely to fall victim to the adverse economic effects of military deployment.
U.S. Budget and Social Programs: The Administration’s FY 2006 budget, which does not include any funding for the Iraq War, takes a hard line with domestic spending— slashing or eliminating more than 150 federal programs. The $204.4 billion appropriated thus far for the war in Iraq could have purchased any of the following desperately needed services in our country: 46,458,805 uninsured people receiving health care or 3,545,016 elementary school teachers or 27,093,473 Head Start places for children or 1,841,833 affordable housing units or 24,072 new elementary schools or 39,665,748 scholarships for university students or 3,204,265 port container inspectors.” The Iraq Quagmire: The Mounting Costs of War and the Case for Bringing Home the Troops A Study by the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy In Focus
All in all the Bu$h administration has been good to corporate AmeriKKKa as the unprecedented shift of wealth continues unabated and the corporatist elites move to solidify even more power and control. We have seen how they’ve profited from the mishandling of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions, Katrina and now the housing lending fiasco! These are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to criminality and fraud. Percolating beneath the surface of the sub-prime mortgage debacle (which was created by Federal Reserve Bank interest and credit policies) are fissures in the hedge funds, derivatives and stock market. Like the Savings and Loan scandals where the Bu$h family profited handsomely, these debacles will probably require taxpayer bailouts also. The corporate media will not beat the drums about these issues, but they will divert our attention and keep us distracted with stories about Michael Vick, Paris Hilton and other nonsense. “Cheap financing advanced to consumers in the middle and working classes, who have had declining real income since the ’70s, has been purposeful public policy that forces consumers to borrow more and more to maintain their lifestyle. Incomes have not kept up with inflation, off shored manufacturing jobs have been replaced with service jobs that pay an average of 20% less, federal and state governments have shifted more cost to local entities, increasing property taxes, and the costs to participate in the legal economy for everything from daycare, to college, to medical insurance have been shifted to the worker. The result is a massive transfer of wealth over time from the general population to a very small percentage of super wealthy.” Hold On to Your Seat: America and Its Debt Based Economy http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/
Things will only get worse unless there is a massive awakening coupled with a proactive, concerted cohesive effort by the people to regain control of their lives, the economy and the political system. Wage slavery, debt peonage and tax bondage will be our sorry lot unless we act. Even the founders of this nation themselves said, “ ... whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness... But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” US Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
Food for thought.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 11:26 AM