From The Ramparts

The Infamous List

2011-07-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

                                                           From The Ramparts
                      Junious Ricardo Stanton
                The Infamous List

    If you want to see just how corrupt the US system really is, go to the blog http://governmentgonewild.org/thelist and check out the US Congress critters in both parties who have increased their wealth during the years 2004-2008. This list also shows their net worth in 2009. Looking at the names you will probably see your own so called representative. I say so called because over the last few years its been clear the people in Washington have not I repeat have not represented our wishes and interests, or the interests of ordinary working folks. If you doubt what I’m saying just check the voting record of your Congressman and Senator and the voting records of their peers. For example most Americans opposed the invasion of Iraq, the Wall Street bail outs, the TARP program and even the so called health care reform legislation that was passed and is scheduled to go into effect in 2014. None of that benefited us and even the health care legislation is not what it was cracked up to be. Yet they voted for them anyway.

Check out http://governmentgonewild.org/thelist and look for your Congress person’s name on the list. What you will see is a disturbing trend, so called public servants who are supposed to be doing the will and work of the people are getting fabulously rich as their bank accounts and net worth increase exponentially far beyond what you and I are making by not doing the will of the people. Now I do not begrudge anyone earning a living or accumulating great wealth if he or she does it honestly and honorably. But what we are seeing today in this country and around the world and this list bares this out, is the people entrusted with running the country, supposedly doing what is right and making the decisions that impact the lives of not only people in America but around the world are feathering their own nests rather than doing what is best for us. These vampires are getting rich at the expense of we the people !

We hear so much about corrupt despots, and ruthless dictators in Latin America, Africa and Asia who have squirreled away millions in European or Carribean bank accounts but see for yourself what is going on under our noses right here in the US by our own elected officials. That’s why I call the US a banana republic. Last year I wrote a piece entitled Blood Sucking Congress Critters, in it I said, “This is no conspiracy theory or wild speculative accusation. It is fact. The Opensecrets Website and Project Censored have documented the fact US Congressmen and Senators are heavily invested in the companies that make the body scanners being used in all the major airports in the country. If you doubt what I’m saying on this topic go to http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/11/several-federal-lawmakers-invested.html and read the facts for yourself. They name names and where possible tell how much each one has invested in the companies based upon the lawmakers own financial statements.

That’s not all, Project Censored which monitors the corporate media and routinely exposes the major stories they suppress is on the case. One story tells how the Congress critters invested in stock of the defense contractors making billions on the bogus War on Global Terrorism that is wrecking havoc around the world. In their book Censored 2010 The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09, censored story number 14 was Congress invested in Defense contracts. ‘The nonpartisan Center for Responsible Politics has calculated that more than 151 members of Congress have up to$195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the US military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan... ’ So our elected representatives are making huge profits off of the laws they pass. This is a clear conflict of interest if not outright unethical. It shows just how morally bankrupt this country has become and how deeply the rot is spreading throughout this society. Remember, these two stories are just about the military industrial complex and Homeland Security industries. When you factor in big Pharma, oil and energy, agribusiness, insurance (Healthcare for example) and Wall Street (bailouts, protection from fraud prosecution by the SEC and Justice Department etc) we can understand why when our Congress critters vote, they vote the interests of their benefactors and for money making opportunities for themselves not the interests of we the people. This means Congress is getting rich off the deaths and maiming of US soldiers and the innocent people all around the world our drones, missiles and bombs are killing .”

This is one list the congress critters definitely don’t want us to see, but all the information I’ve quoted is available to the public; check it out for yourself. Once you do you will understand why things are going the way they are. However the good news is we don’t have to go out like this as a people. If we want a different world and we aught to, all we have to do is visualize a different reality by thinking beyond existing parameters, believe in it, work towards it and it will manifest because I genuinely believe there are more of us around the world who want peace, harmony and justice than those working for and getting rich off of conflict, war and oppression.

    -30-

Common Threads

2011-07-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

                                                                 From the Ramparts
                     Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                                                 Common Threads

   “While the media has gone to arms length to obfuscate the matter, there is mounting evidence that Dominique Strauss Kahn was framed. According to media reports, the 32-year-old Guinean Sofitel housemaid received the modest sum of 100,000 dollars paid into her bank account. The New York Times acknowledges the payment but fails to analyze the source of these payments. In an utterly confused statement, the NYT suggests that the money was deposited in the housemaid's account by her Guinean boy friend who is serving time in a high security prison” Mounting Evidence that Dominique Strauss Kahn was Framed by Michel Chossudovsky www.globalresearch.ca

   Question, what do Dominique Strauss Kahn, Col. Muammor Gaddafi, Elliott Spitzer, Rod Blagojevich and Saddam Hussein all have in common? Answer, they ran afoul of the international banksters, money changers and their friends in high places. Each one of these men was attacked and demonized literally and figuratively by the corporate media, tried in the court of public opinion and adjudged guilty by the corporate media in a vicious attempt to ruin them and set them up as examples of what happens when you go against the agenda and hegemony of the psychopathic banking cartel attempting to run the world.

Each one of these men in his own way was targeted by the banksters and their cohorts because he posed a serious threat or obstacle to the plans and program of the blood sucking cabal who have mastered usury, corruption and fraud to the point they can take down the global economic system and reduce us all to debt peons, wage serfs and tax slaves. Each one was butted and hounded because he either stood in the way or actively opposed the evil plans of the banksters on the local, national or international levels.

Saddam Hussein’s mythical WMDs were the false pretext the US used to take him out. Saddam was no threat to the US militarily. The real reason he was offed was because of the US sanctions against Iraqi, Saddam Hussein decided to sell Iraqi oil in Euros rather than US dollars. This was a huge no-no. Although when he first started few paid much attention. However as the Euro eventually surpassed the dollar in value other OPEC nations started contemplating selling their oil in Euros too. This would have posed a colossal threat to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. So from that perspective Saddam Hussein had to go. They added a bonus to the military-industrial complex by making it a major invasion/occupation to gain a toehold in the region rather than just assassinating Saddam Hussein like they do on so many other occasions. The first things the US did once they deposed Saddam Hussein and took control of the country was to resume selling oil in US dollars.

How does Elliott Spitzer fit into this? When he was the New York State Attorney General he gave the Wall Street shysters a lot of grief by hounding them, exposing their Ponzi schemes and fraudulent dealings and taking them to court. Most times the Wall Street firms settled out of court but the fines and media exposure hit them hard where it hurt the most, their pockets. As New York’s governor Spitzer pushed his AG to go after them aggressively and to get the other states’ AGs to do likewise. So to get back at him the big Wall Street investment firms exposed Spitzer’s high priced hooker hook up and used the mind control apparatus to make us think it was a major crime of moral turpitude that somehow disqualified him to serve as governor. They won, Spitzer stepped down as governor. They didn’t kill him, he didn’t go to jail and now he makes bigger bucks as a TV commentator for CNN

Rod Blagojevich was the governor of Illinois. Republic Window and Doors a small Chicago window and door manufacturing company closed their plant and the workers asked the governor’s office for help. Bank of America had shut off Republic’s credit and without a line of credit they would go bankrupt leaving their two hundred employees without jobs.. The situation even made the national news. Governor Blagojevich intervened on behalf of his constituents but BOA wouldn’t budge. So Blagojevich ordered all Illinois state agencies to stop doing business with Bank of America ! That was his real sin, not the stuff they charged him with. Soon afterwards the FBI knocked on Blagojevich’s door in the middle of the night, raided his house and took him out in hand cuffs under the glare of the TV lights for all the world to see. When the first trial ended in a deadlocked, the banksters ordered their boys in the Justice (sic) Department to try him again. That sent a clear message not to dare mess with the real organized crime syndicates (the banksters) who run his country.

Muammor Gaddafi’s crime was not that he attacked the so called Libyan “rebels” he had a legal right to do so, they were in open rebellion against his government. His real crime for years was that he was lending money to African nations from the huge profits from Libya’s lucrative oil and natural gas industries at reasonable rates. Naturally the IMF, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements loan sharks took umbrage at this. The shysters resented Gaddafi’s generous terms to his fellow Africans. Gaddafi was also heavily investing in African infrastructure paying for modern roads, state of the art utilities and telecommunications systems all across the continent. The West didn’t like that either, he was making black Africa competitive and undermining the Neo-Colonial powers of Europe and the US. Gaddafi was also partnering with China, allowing China to access Libya’s oil and gas, which pissed the US off. Worse he hinted he was going to raise the price of Libyan oil and gas in direct opposition to OPEC policies or even nationalize them altogether. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was that Gaddafi was spearheading an effort to create a new currency based on Africa’s gold which would have broken forever the US, France and the EU stranglehold on Africa. For that Gaddafi had to go!! Not only is the West trying to kill Gaddafi (they’ve already murdered his son and grand child) they froze (stole) the billions of dollars Libya had in foreign banks and they’ve run the Chinese technicians and workers out of Libya!!!

The last dot to connect is Dominique Strauss Kahn the former head of the IMF. How does he fit into this and how could a fellow vampire be the target of the good ol’ boy network of banksters you ask? Simple, they considered him a renegade. Strauss was rumored to be the leading candidate to run against the president of France Nicholas Sarkozy; and under Khan’s watch the IMF wasn’t as ruthless as normal so he had to go. Why? First because Sarkozy is the lapdog for the international bankster gangsters and warmongers and the global elites want to keep Sarkozy in there. Sarkozy in France and Angela Merkel of Germany were put into office with help from the multi-national corporations, the US CIA and other entities to stop France and Germany from thwarting the gangsters plans for the “Middle East” and to be more engaged in the US NATO global war program.

The rape story was designed to besmirch Khan’s character and get him ousted as head of the IMF. When was the last time an international big wig was treated like a regular street criminal, handcuffed, taken to a real jail and his mug shot flashed all over the world ? Come on. When have the safety or rights of a black woman ever been protected against a rich and powerful white dude?   Now that he’s stepped down from the IMF position, and the IMF has a new head; the case against him is unraveling as we speak. It was all a set up and the banksters win again.

Don’t believe the hype and don’t fall for the okey-doke. Look beyond the smoke and mirrors. Always ask yourself who benefits, then follow the money. In each of these cases the bankers benefit and the money trail leads to the oil companies, the international bankers and the military industrial complex. The only place it doesn’t lead to is we the people.

                       -30-

More reasons Why The West Is Attacking Libya

2011-05-01T17:59:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton explains additional reasons (besides oil and natural gas) the West is attacking Libya. The European Neo-Colonial powers are out to plunder Libya's sovereign wealth, its gold reserves and topple a committed Pan African freedom fighter so Africa will be under the total sway of the IMF, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements

More reasons Why The West Is Attacking Libya

2011-05-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton explains additional reasons (besides the oil and natural gas) the West is attacking Libya. The goal of the Neo-Colonial powers is to replace a thorn in the side of the IMF, World Bank and Band of International Settlements so they can then plunder and rape Libya of its sovereign wealth and gold while also toppling a committed Pan-African freedom fighter.

The Plot To Destroy Social Security

2011-04-02T09:42:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton details the ongoing plot by the oligopoly and the Kleptocrats to destroy Social Security

G.O.D. Is The Real reason The west Is Bombing Libya

2011-03-30T20:16:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton provides a hint behind the US attacks on Libya. "Always follow the money, look for G.O.D., gold (or natural gas) oil and or drugs whenever the West goes to war."

The Global Gangstas Are Waging This War

2011-03-27T14:51:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton offers an alternative perspective on the US, UK and French attacks on Libya.

How To Slay Goliath

2011-03-23T13:33:00.001-07:00

The latest US war in Libya is a continuation of the global elites' agenda to steal Libyan resources and keep China from getting more African oil. Junious Ricardo Stanton offers ways to peacefully resist the war mongers and bring the fascists to their knees.

US Class Warfare Heats Up

2011-03-05T16:44:00.001-08:00

The right has stepped up its attacks on unions and collective bargaining in an effort to destroy the labor movement in the US.

Ideological Warfare

2011-03-05T16:19:00.001-08:00

The fascists use ideological gobbledygook to confuse and obfuscate their real goals which is to reduce us all to debt peons, tax serfs and media ossified zombies.

ideological Warfare

2011-03-05T16:12:00.001-08:00

The fascists use ideological gobbledygook to confuse and obfuscate their real goals which is to reduce us all to debt peons, tax serfs and media ossified zombies.

Bipartisan Fascism

2011-02-17T19:10:00.001-08:00

The jackals are out beating the drums for fiscal reform but they are only focusing on "reforming" the New Deal and Great Society programs not scaling back the empire, ending the imperialist wars, corporate welfare or class warfare.

Black History 2011

2011-02-06T14:06:00.001-08:00

The importance of celebrating Black History Month within the philosophy and context of which Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson originally created it.

From The Ramparts- The World Is Watching

2011-02-01T17:56:00.001-08:00

Commentary on the upheavals in North Africa and the "Middle East". Is this a global phenomena, will the international fascist cabal attempt to co-opt and subvert righteous socio-economic movements in order to maintain the status quo and further the NWO agenda?

From The Ramparts- The World Is Watching

2011-02-01T15:58:00.001-08:00

A Commentary by Junious Ricardo Stanton on the current socio-political upheavals in North Africa and the "Middle East" connecting the dots with earlier protests and discontent in Europe over the "austerity" policies imposed upon the people by the international banksters and their government henchmen.

Resistance and Demonstrations Spread Across The Globe

2011-01-28T22:18:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton comments on the resistance and unrest spreading around the world and asks if it comes to the US what form will it take?

Hypocrisy Bordering On Insanity

2011-01-20T21:43:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton takes the US to task for its hypocritical China bashing when AmeriKKKa's record of warmongering and human rights violations is far worse.

Have They No Shame

2011-01-17T17:49:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton comments on the speech given by Jeh C. Johnson a black man and General Counsel to the US Department of Defense at the Pentagon's 2011 Martin Luther King Jr Day Ceremony which implied Martin Luther King Jr would support the US wars/occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Implications of Arizona Shootings

2011-01-16T08:33:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton offers insights into how the ruling elites will use the Tucson shootings to further their fascist agenda.

Massachusetts Court Ruling Deals Blow To Banks

2011-01-09T19:23:00.001-08:00

The recent Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in US Bank National Association vs Antonio Ibanez deals the banks a major blow. The court said the banks did not have standing to foreclose on homes when they did not have custody of lien or title to the liens. This ruling has major implications nationally.

Lies Lies and More Lies

2011-01-04T21:16:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton debunks the Republicans' claim they are for fiscal responsibility. It a sham. it's all part of the ongoing class warfare in the US.

2011

2010-12-31T16:44:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton offers some interesting predictions for 2011.

Drama in Cote d'Ivoire

2010-12-29T17:45:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton exposes the international intrigue behind the turmoil in the West African nation of Cote d'Ivoire.

The Crisis Deepens

2010-12-27T14:07:00.001-08:00

The massive US debt crisis is rippling throughout the country impacting all fifty states, counties and municipalities abilities to pay their pension obligations both in the short and long terms. How will the pension crisis affect the quality of your life?

Twenty-First Century Paddyrollers

2010-12-21T19:33:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton shares how blacks in AmeriKKKa have always been under scrutiny and surveillance and how now all US citizens and residents are targets of government spying and invasion of privacy under the bogus rationale of "national security".

President's House Slavery Exhibit Opens

2010-12-17T21:35:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton reports on the 12-15-10 ribbon cutting ceremony of the President's House Slavery exhibit on Independence Mall at 6th and Market Streets in Philadelphia. Now there is a reason for all Americans to visit Independence Mall

More Mind Boggling Criminality

2010-12-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

                                                                 From The Ramparts
                                                                Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                                          More Mind Boggling Criminality

   “The US Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday released documents on emergency measures it took between 2007 and 2010, using taxpayer funds, to bail out major financial firms in the US and around the world. The sums involved are staggering. Fed bailout loans outstanding reached a high of $3.3 trillion, but the cumulative amount of cash funneled by the US central bank to banks, hedge funds and major industrial corporations reached the tens of trillions of dollars.” www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/pers-d04.shtm

I’ve been telling you about the economic collapse and the massive fraud and criminality involved in the global financial implosion for years now. It’s not over, it’s all part of an ongoing diabolical plan to devastate humanity. Every day I see additional evidence the Kleptocrats are stone cold psychopaths hellbent on wrecking social, political and economic havoc on the entire planet. Some people believe this is being done to justify the ruling oligopoly’s global fascist agenda. Their agenda calls for global depopulation on a massive scale to be accomplished using bio-chemical warfare, the introduction of frankenfoods into the food and retail chains ,incessant wars, famine, mind control, wide scale ecological manipulation and disruption of the natural order. If you doubt the upper crust blue blood eugenics crowd is seriously plotting the demise of humanity read the National Security Study Memorandum NSSM 2000 also called the Kissinger Report. I have provided a link where you can download and read it. http://www.population-security.org/28-APP2.html

Another part of their fiendish plan is to reduce us to impoverished serfs, debt peons and groveling wage slaves inextricably chained to their debt based economic system. If you have trouble wrapping your mind around what I am saying, think of the slavery system endured by our ancestors than combine that with the post slavery and reconstruction era with its system of repressive day to day existence, corrupt courts and corporate interests running the convict leasing program, onerous debt and designed poverty via venal sharecropping and mining systems and the vicious and ruthless police state designed to keep us in fear and degradation in this system simultaneously in real time. Then multiply that by a trillion. This is what we in the US have to look forward to as the psychopathic elites roll out their program, a program designed now for black and white folks alike.

On the economic front, the banksters turned Wall Street into a giant casino. Only in this case the odds are rigged even higher to favor the house (elites) given their massive insider trading and crass manipulation of the system. Recent revelations about the inner working of the Federal Reserve Bank have shocking implications for ordinary people like us. The wildly unregulated, unrestrained and highly leveraged (under collateralized) insurance betting schemes (credit default swaps) by the Hedge Funds and investment banking giants using overpriced commercial real estate and doggy home mortgages has totally bankrupted the global financial system and the governments that supported them.

Only they’re not telling us the extent of their losses and insolvency. Needless to say we are in a major crisis. However the culprits are not being left to their own KARMA; instead we the people were set up as the marks and suckers to bail them out. “Every major Wall Street bank was on the Fed dole, as were giant companies including General Electric and Verizon Communications. The Fed ran nearly a dozen separate bailout programs which together eclipsed by far the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program―the program that handed over billions in public funds to the banks in 2008 and 2009. In comparison to the amounts funneled by the Fed to US financial institutions, the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package was a drop in the bucket. These vast sums were loaned out at rock-bottom interest without any strings attached. The banks and corporations that benefitted were not even obliged to provide an account of what they did with the money. The entire purpose of the operation was to use public funds to cover the gambling losses of the American financial aristocracy, and create the conditions for the financiers and speculators to make even more money. All of the 21,000 transactions cited in the Fed documents―released under a provision included, over the Fed's objections, in this year's financial regulatory overhaul bill―were carried out in secret. The unelected central bank operated without any congressional mandate or oversight” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/pers-d04.shtml

The collusion between the financial oligopoly and their bought and paid for puppets in Congress and the White House is beyond fraudulent it is treasonous, a crime against humanity. “The very people most responsible for crashing the system, were then rewarded with trillions of our dollars. This gave that select group of insiders unlimited power to seize control of assets and have unprecedented leverage over almost everything within their economies - crony capitalism on steroids. This was a hostile world takeover orchestrated through economic attacks by a very small group of unelected global bankers. They paralyzed the system, then were given the power to recreate it according to their own desires. No free market, no democracy of any kind. All done in secrecy. In the process, they gave themselves all-time record-breaking bonuses and impoverished tens of millions of people - they have put into motion a system that will inevitably collapse again and utterly destroy the very existence of what is left of an economic middle class. That is not hyperbole. That is what happened. We are talking about trillions of dollars secretly pumped into global banks, handpicked by a small select group of bankers themselves. All for the benefit of those bankers, and at the expense of everyone else. People can’t even comprehend what that means and the severe consequences that it entails, which we have only just begun to experience.” Wall Street’s Pentagon Papers: Biggest Financial Scam in World dub $12.3 Trillion in Taxpayer Money David DeGraw http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22291

This scam makes all others pale in comparison. It is the greatest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen, bigger than what the Russian “oligarches” did to the Russian people, bigger than the US Savings and Loan fiasco and bigger than Enron, bigger than what the banksters did to Argentina a few year ago. It is bigger than what the IMF and World Bank routinely do to third world nations. We’re talking about humongous; trillions and trillions of dollars that will impact each one of us in a myriad of ways. For some of us it was with the subprime mortgage scam, for other it was the refi scam , some lost their home others lost their life savings in the stock market but for most of the world it is the fact that over leveraged hedge funds, insurance companies and banks have colluded to dupe us into shoring up their losses and making them obscenely rich in the process!

Under the lamp of truth the Fed documents reveal a level of callousness, reckless cunning and manipulation unseen at any time before. These guys dubbed themselves “the smartest guys in the room.” On one level such a narcissistic self-image would be funny given how disastrously this has played out. But on another level, it is quite telling and revealing about the moral rot and corruption endemic within the US system. Those who fashioned themselves the smartest guys in the room put the Western financial system on the brink of collapse and social and political catastrophe but they were astute enough to rig the game so we paid for their golden parachutes. Amazing! What’s even more amazing is, it appears they are going to get away with it.
                                   -30-

What's Wrong With Americans?

2010-12-06T11:40:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton asks the question, what's wrong with Americans? Why are we so passive and docile in the face of blatant corporate favoritism, fraud and government complicity?

Wars and Rumors of War

2010-12-04T20:19:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton comments on the potential powder keg on the Korean Peninsula and why the US psychopathic oligopoly may actually want a war with China

More FBI Entrapment

2010-11-30T13:12:00.001-08:00

A closer look at the recent arrest of Mohamed Osman Mohamud appears to be another example of deliberate FBI entrapment to justify expanding the security/police state

Obama Calls For Sacrifice

2010-11-29T14:30:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton points out the hypocrisy of Barack the mad bomber and Congressman Steny Hoyer (D Maryland) calling for a two year wage freeze by federal works and the rank and file military.

Vive la Resistance

2010-11-26T13:30:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton comments on the growing disconnect between US citizens and the corporate Kleptocrats and their stooges in the government. The recent Opt Out No Fly campaign are signs of a growing resistance to the Nazification of the US

WHy the USA Is A Banana Republic

2010-11-16T21:10:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton discusses the characteristics that prove the USA is a banana republic.

Try The Banksters Under RICO Statutes

2010-11-12T09:58:00.001-08:00

What if we lived an a society where equal protection under the law was universally enforced? What if we tried the Wall Street crooks and fraudsters under existing RICO laws?

US Class Warfare

2010-11-11T11:44:00.001-08:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton talks about the ongoing class warfare in the US. The ruling oligopoly's agenda is to reduce us to debt peons, wage serfs and tax slaves. Armed conflict is not the answer. The obvious solution is to eschew consumerism and avoid needless debt...

Class Warfare in The US

2010-11-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

                                                                      From the Ramparts
                   Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                                                   Class Warfare in the US

    “For the first time since the 1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of the business cycle of the 2000s than they were at the beginning. Despite the fact that the American workforce is working harder and smarter than ever, they are sharing less and less in the benefits they are creating. This is true for white families but even truer for African American families whose gains in the 1990s have mostly been eliminated since then. Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America ” Socialism? The Rich Are Winning The Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer Everyone Else Poorer Bill Quigley 10-25-10

    AmeriKKKans have been conditioned and brainwashed to believe we live in a free and open society, that there are no rigid or hereditary class divisions in this country. Yes we begrudgingly admit that racism still exists but for the most part AmeriKKKans delude themselves into thinking upward mobility is a given and socio-economic class has no baring on how high and far you go here. That may have been true in earlier times for large numbers of people thanks to hard fought gains in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the organized labor, civil rights and feminist movements, but no more. Keep in mind even during those times, the reactionary oligarchs and kleptomaniacs who own and run the country put up fierce resistance in order to maintain the status quo and their control of it. Over the years they’ve made some concessions in order to co-opt any radical movements that emerged such as organized labor, the communists and civil rights but for the most part they kept control of the reins of power and wealth. Thiey just did it with the so called "Tea Party" movement. The billionaire Koch brothers secretly funded parts of the movement and steered it to the Republicans so they count win an the rigged two party (one agenda) system. The elites win either way and will continue their onslaught on the masses.

I have been saying on my Internet radio program and my From The Ramparts podcasts the US has devolved into a fascist banana republic. What make us a banana republic? Deeply rooted conditions such as humongous wealth and income inequities and disparities, a government totally controlled by corporations, special interests and a criminal financial elite, rigged political elections either by out and out voter fraud like we witnessed in 2000, 2002 and 2004 or where the candidates are bought and paid for by special interests as in every election in US history. Of course a banana republic also is a ruthless police state where the police both open and secret (FBI, CIA, NSA etc) work in collusion with a putrid judicial system to spy on, intimidate and abuse the public at will. We just saw another blatant example of that with the Johannes Mehserle sentencing last week. I could go on but by now you get my drift.

Today in the US we are experiencing an egregious system of economic apartheid where the wealth and income gaps are wider now than at any time since the 1920's. “The official US poverty numbers show we now have the highest number of poor people in 51 years. The official US poverty rate is 14.3 percent or 43.6 million people in poverty. One in five children in the US is poor; one in ten senior citizens is poor. Source: US Census Bureau. One of every six workers, 26.8 million people, is unemployed or underemployed. This ‘real’ unemployment rate is over 17%. There are 14.8 million people designated as 'officially' unemployed by the government, a rate of 9.6 percent. Unemployment is worse for African American workers of whom 16.1 percent are unemployed. Another 9.5 million people who are working only part-time while they are seeking full-time work but have had their hours cut back or are so far only able to find work part-time are not counted in the official unemployment numbers. Also, an additional 2.5 million are reported unemployed but not counted because they are classified as discouraged workers in part because they have been out of work for more than 12 months. Source: US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics October 2010 report. The median household income for whites in the US is $51,861; for Asians it is $65,469; for African Americans it is $32,584; for Latinos it is $38,039. Source: US Census Bureau.” Socialism? The Rich Are Winning the US Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer Everyone Else Poorer by Bill Quigley October 25, 2010 www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/

Wealth and income are definitely not equal in the US, in fact the rich are getting richer daily while the poor are getting the shaft at every turn. “In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%. ... In terms of types of financial wealth, the top one percent of households have 38.3% of all privately held stock, 60.6% of financial securities, and 62.4% of business equity. The top 10% have 80% to 90% of stocks, 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.
    “In 2007, the average white household had 15 times as much total wealth as the average African-American or Latino household. If we exclude home equity from the calculations and consider only financial wealth, the ratios are in the neighborhood of 100:1. Extrapolating from these figures, we see that 70% of white families' wealth is in the form of their principal residence; for Blacks and Hispanics, the figures are 95% and 96%, respectively. And for all Americans, things are getting worse: as the projections to July 2009 by Wolff (2010) make clear, the last few years have seen a huge loss in housing wealth for most families, making the gap between the rich and the rest of America even greater, and increasing the number of households with no marketable assets from 18.6% to 24.1%.” Who Rules America Wealth Income and Power G. William Domhoff September 2005 updated September 2010 http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

These horrendous disparities in wealth and income are not by accident, they are by design. The oligopoly, the rich folks who own and run this country have influenced and bribed the politicians to the point the politicians knowingly facilitate the greatest wealth transfer in the history of the world. Now that the mid-term elections are over, it will be business as usual as the money grubbers and cowards in Congress plot and plan to revamp Social Security in the name of fiscal responsibility. “President Obama announced the new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on February 18 to address astronomical federal budget deficits. There has been considerable speculation that this commission will target current and future benefits for Social Security recipients to achieve its goals. Why would this be the case? We need look no further than the treatment of major retirement funds over the past 20 years to get the answer. When the mob needed cash, it looted the Teamsters retirement fund. When large corporations or government entities get in trouble, they effectively borrow from their employee retirement funds by delaying required payments or otherwise gaming the programs. This provides a source of ready cash, a quick vehicle to cover management errors, or jack up their bonuses.
    “Think of the Social Security Trust Fund (trust fund) as the most lucrative retirement fund in the country, the ultimate pot of gold, and you'll immediately understand why it is that for decades, big business has plundered the trust fund. How does this happen?” The Money Party Deficit Reduction Scam and Social Security at www.opednews.com/articles/The-Money-Party-Deficit-Re-by-Michael-Collins-101109-476.html

The Kleptocrats want to cut Social Security and ultimately privatize it so their Wall Street cohorts can get their hands on the money in the “Trust Fund”. Just imagine how bad off we’d be now if George W Bu$h has succeed in privatizing Social Security after he “won” in 2004. The elites plan to plunder and pillage the lower classes would make their robber baron ancestors proud. The elites bribe the politicians to cut their own taxes while imposing draconian austerity conditions on the rest of us. It amounts to white collar crime, robbing and stealing in the name of fiscal responsibility, balancing the budget while bailing out the banksters and increasing their won aggravate wealth. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll share more of their class warfare schemes in future articles.

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Mehserle Sentencing Is merely The Tip of The Iceberg

2010-11-08T10:25:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles County Judge Robert Perry's slap on the wrist of Johannes Mehserle is merely the tip of the iceberg, another in a long pattern of judicial defense of police misconduct...

Mehserle Sentencing Is merely The Tip of The Iceberg

2010-11-08T10:23:00.001-08:00

Friday's slap on the wrist of former BART officer Johannes Mehserle by Judge Robert Perry and the jury's verdict is merely the tip of the iceberg. It reflects a long standing pattern of police misconduct supported by the courts...

US Austerity aka Structural Adjustments Part 2

2010-11-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

                                               From The Ramparts
                                              Junious Ricardo Stanton
                              Structural Adjustments Are Here Now

   “The rich, aided and abetted by the two wings of the Money Party, have bankrupted the government. The economic crisis is pulling back the curtain of democratic pretense to expose the brick wall of a callous system that ignores social needs to satisfy the whims of a parasitic ‘opulent minority.’ And while ‘...Wall Street has extracted $13 trillion in bailouts just since October 2008, the thought of raising taxes on wealth to pay just $1 trillion over an entire decade for Social Security or health insurance is deemed a crisis that would lead Wall Street to shut down the economy.’ Wall Street is demanding that governments around the world makeup for the profligacy of the financial sector by taking what little they left to their victims through higher taxes and slashing or eliminating social programs. This is the basis of the global financial "crisis." It's the mechanism of corporate colonization coming home to roost. This time the US is the economic colony du jour. The middle class in America is being crushed and brushed off the economic banquet table like crumbs, while wealth continues to shift to the ‘opulent minority’ waiting at the top of the wealth pyramid, calmly sipping mint juleps as they arrange all the repression they'll need to put down potential unrest. Deja vu. We're right back where we were when King George III and the British East India Company were in charge.” Social Inequality in America: Widening Income Disparities. Workhouse Nation
Vi Rensal http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18281

   Last week we pointed out the US economic crisis is part of a criminal global banking scheme whereby bribed politicians, financial thugs and phoney “economic scholars” who shill for the banksters induce governments to get themselves into massive debt, while they surreptitiously collapse the financial system, then force the taxpayers to ante up to pay for it. The goal is to rob us of all our assets, leave us economically anemic, in debt up the wazo then steal the infrastructure for pennies on the dollar to complete the heist. Unlike during the 1930's when FDR came to the rescue of the farmers, factory owners and home owners, today there is no hero coming to our aid. Obama has been exposed as a hoax and dud and he is done nothing to help the little guy. The populous movement is impotent. The country is too dumbed down, distracted, disunited and discombobulated to realize what’s going on. All Joe and Jane Sixpack, Pookie and Shananay know is they are barely keeping their heads above water or they are drowning in a sea of debt. They are not alone. So are most states, county and local municipalities.

And the federal government is the worst offender of all. “Falling property values result in lower property taxes to cities. As a result, cities are beginning to declare bankruptcy as they find themselves unable to pay fixed costs such as pensions promised to retired police, fire fighters and other municipal employees. States are slashing their budgets and asking the federal government for help as tax revenues decline. However, tax revenues are declining for the federal government as well, with a big hit coming with the 2008 tax year when capital gains are replaced by capital losses, plus declining income taxes due to business losses and rising unemployment.
   U.S. corporations are being manipulated into bankruptcy so they can dump their pension plan obligations onto the taxpayer. Upon emerging from bankruptcy, these companies are better able to compete with other companies around the world that do not carry these burdens. However, it is unlikely that the coming generation of taxpayers will be able to pay all the obligations that it will inherit. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) has had a deficit each year since 2002. Revenues to all levels of government are declining, and the costs of the unfunded social safety nets are just beginning to soar.” Is The US Economy Teetering On The Brink of Collapse http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ldebtclock.htm

The economic crisis is forcing many local governments to sell off their assets: public property, toll roads, bridges and buildings just to keep their lights on. This is exactly what the IMF World Bank and other international vampires demand of third world countries when they set them up for economic ruin. Read the book Confessions of An Economic Hitman by John Perkins to learn how it works. What we are experiencing in the US is the international money changers doing the same thing to Europe and the US. This is getting closer to home. Last year New jersey governor Jon Corzine actually proposed selling a toll road and Pennsylvania contemplated selling its turnpike. “As it turns out, the Pennsylvania Turnpike deal almost went through, only to be killed by the state legislature, but there were others just like it that did go through, most notably the sale of all the parking meters in Chicago to a consortium that included the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, from the United Arab Emirates. There were others: A toll highway in Indiana. The Chicago Skyway. A stretch of highway in Florida. Parking meters in Nashville, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and other cities. A port in Virginia. And a whole bevy of Californian public infrastructure projects, all either already leased or set to be leased for fifty or seventy-five years or more in exchange for one-off lump sum payments of a few billion bucks at best, usually just to help patch a hole or two in a single budget year.” Our cash-strapped country is auctioning off its highways, ports and even parking meters, finding eager buyers in the Middle East By Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone Magazine
   “What are financial markets? And why must every country be at their mercy? A financial market is anyplace the super-rich invest their money. It can be done through a bank, hedge fund, or a private equity firm, etc. The rich demand that their investments are safe and therefore are especially “skittish” at the slightest hint of inflation or other economic distress. The rich who dominate financial markets advocate only one solution to balancing budgets: reducing or eliminating social programs. They ignore the other solution— a massive public works project— because it directly affects them in a negative way: raising taxes on the wealthy. This raises another issue. The investors who control financial markets know that a day of reckoning is coming: the massive debt that was pushing forward the world economy for years needs to be paid back, and those who own the banks don’t want the responsibility. Better for millions of workers to sacrifice social services, pensions, wages, etc., than for thousands of rich investors to be taxed.” Stimulus or Austerity The People vs The Banks http://novakeo.com/?p=7361

Of course the money changers don’t want to pay any more taxes than they have to so we will foot the bills and bite the bullet as they scale back our safety nets, steal our savings and reduce us to peons. “There will be no option but to find ways to increase revenues and decrease payments for Social Security, Medicare and the PBGC. In the years ahead Social Security and Medicare are projected to be underfunded by many trillions of dollars. These numbers assume the economy continues growing at the same rate as it did in the debt-stimulated past. How likely is this? Insurance companies and private pension plans expect a certain return on their equity, bonds and real estate investments in order to fund annuities and pensions. If expected investment returns do not materialize, these companies will be unable to meet their obligations. Defined benefit pension plans may soon be unavailable. In their place will be defined contribution pension plans. You put your money in, but there is no way of knowing what you will receive. With this type of pension plan there is a great incentive to supplement your pension with additional savings... The $2 trillion social security trust funds were ‘invested’ in U.S. government treasury bonds and spent by the government. When we say that the social security program is unfunded, this is another way of saying it is likely the coming generation will be unable pay the many trillions of dollars of debt and other liabilities that are presently being accumulated by the U.S. government. A great danger of massive borrowing by the U.S. government in order to bail out the economy is that the credit worthiness of the government itself is declining. The end result of continuing on this path could be a massive default of government debt. Before this happens, however, you can expect the government to confiscate any assets it can get its hands on (Roosevelt confiscated all gold held by Americans, Argentina recently confiscated the assets of private pension funds), plus hyperinflation and restrictions on the movement of money out of the country.” http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ldebtclock.htm
       “Our economy is designed to ‘increase injustice, inequality and exploitation,’ in order to perpetuate the dominion of the ‘opulent minority’ over us. And the deregulation of every sector of the US market was a deliberate policy decision by these stunningly insane, sociopathic, genocidal maniacs, who kept our economy alive by consumers more debt/credit in order to enrich themselves with the interest payments. Now the economy is getting intravenous bailouts of taxpayer money while it languishes on life support. And how low can they go? Check this out. ‘The United States is one of the few countries that allow the sale of human blood plasma for profits. Across the country, countless workers are selling the yellowy substance found in their blood to the pharmaceutical giants of Wall Street.’”

This gives a whole new meaning to the words vampire and leech. The recent elections will make matters worse. “In a comment that is particularly significant coming on the eve of a long trip to Asia, including a G20 economic summit in South Korea, Obama said, ‘The most important contest we face is not the contest between Democrats and Republicans. In this century, the most important competition we face is between America and our economic competitors around the world.’ This suggests an appeal to the Republicans to join forces for an aggressive program of economic nationalism to promote the interests of American corporations against their international rivals. A key element in the Obama administration’s campaign for ‘export-led’ growth is to lower the wage levels of American workers so that American corporations can become more competitive in the world market.” http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=    In other words don’t look for any change or help from Obomba or the government. Their plan is to lower our wages even further! Their agenda is to help the corporations make us poorer and more destitute.    Is this our destiny, is this what we have to look forward to? Not necessarily. We can best improve our personal and collective lot by getting out of personal debt no matter who long it takes. The best way to do that is by creating a realistic budget, save as much as you can and change your lifestyle from debt based consumer peonage to one of economic freedom. We’ll discuss other options in future articles.

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The Johannes Mesherle Sentencing

2010-11-05T18:14:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton commentary on today's sentencing of Johannes Mesherle the former Oakland BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New Year's day 2009. The sentencing demonstrates once again the notion that blacks have no rights a white man is bound to respect, even the right to life.

Commentary on the Johannes Mesherle Sentencing

2010-11-05T18:11:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton comments on the recent sentencing of Johannes Mesherle the former Oakland BART officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant on New year's day 2009. Once again the system demonstrates blacks have no rights a white man is bound to respect even the right to life.

Will Justice Prevail

2010-11-05T09:09:00.001-07:00

Commentary on the upcoming sentencing of Johannes Mehserle the former Oakland California BART officer who killed Oscar Grant on New Year's Day 2009.

The Republicans Agenda does Not Bode Well For The People

2010-11-04T07:40:00.001-07:00

Commentary on the recent Republican victory and the negative implications for the country. If you think they plan to do anything beneficial for the masses, I have some swampland I can sell you for a lot of money.

The Sheeple Have Spoken

2010-11-03T09:21:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton comments on the 2010 Mid-term election results. The ruling elites and politicians continue the musical chairs game. The names and faces change but that's all.

The USA Is A Banana Republic

2010-11-02T07:47:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton's commentary on election 2010, the US is a banana republic.

From The Ramparts Review Inside Job

2010-11-01T14:13:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton reviews the new Sony documentary film Inside Job.

The Coming US Austerity aka Structural Adjustments Part 1

2010-11-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

                                                                     From the Ramparts
                   Junious Ricardo Stanton
                                               The Coming Austerity AKA US Structural Adjustments Part 1

        “Since 1980, the richest Americans have seen their incomes quadruple, while for the ‘lowest’ 90% of us, incomes fell. The average wage is lower today than it was in the 1970s, while productivity has risen almost 50%. In 1983 middle class debt held at 67% of income. In 2007, middle class debt had gone over the falls to 157% of income. (3) In 1950 the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's was about 30 to 1. Since 2000 that average has ranged from 300 to 500 to one. ‘As of late 2009, the number of billionaires soared from 793 to 1,011, and their total fortunes from $2.4 trillion to $3.6 trillion. ... Despite the crisis, the list of billionaires has grown by 200 people and their aggregate capital has expanded by 50%. This may seem paradoxical but only at first glance. This result was predictable, if we recall how governments all over the world have dealt with the economic crisis.’ This is the result of a deliberate strategy, one Washington has executed many, many times, though usually in ‘Third World’ nations, by using ‘Free’ Trade Agreements (FTAs) and its front groups, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. Purchased politicians plunge their countries into unsustainable debt. Under Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), national industries are sold to transnational corporations and privatized. Social programs are cut to the bone or eliminated altogether. Interest rates are ratcheted up and the economy collapses on itself like the World Trade Center while banks and corporate buzzards fight each other to pick the carcass clean.” Social Inequality in America: Widening Income Disparities.Workhouse Nation:Part One by Vi Ransel http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=1828

    The kleptocratic oligarchy that runs this country have decided they want it all; in their psychopathy what’s theirs is theirs and what’s ours is theirs. Their goal is to literally own the whole planet and reduce us to peons in bondage to them and their debt based system of servitude for the rest of our lives. Today in the US the wealth and income gaps between the super rich and the rest of us have never been higher, and the gap widens every day. “Wealth is equivalent to ‘net worth,’ which is equal to your assets minus your liabilities. Examples of assets include checking and savings accounts, vehicles, a home that you own, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, real estate, and retirement accounts. Examples of liabilities include a car loan, credit card balance, student loan, personal loan, mortgage, and other bills you still need to pay. Median net worth in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, was $120,300. Half of American households had net worth greater than this figure, half had less. Net worth is even more unequal than income in the United States. In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available from the Federal Reserve Board, the richest 1% of U.S. households owned 33.8% of the nation’s private wealth. That’s more than the combined wealth of the bottom 90 percent. The top 1% also own 50.9% of all stocks, bonds, and mutual fund assets. Retirement accounts like 401(k)s are more equally distributed. The top 1% owns only 14.5% of all retirement account assets, while the bottom 90% owns 40.5%.” http://extremeinequality.org/?page_id=8

           When you factor in race the numbers are even more glaring. “Since 1968, the year Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the income gap between blacks and whites narrowed by just 3 cents on the dollar. In 2005 the median per capita income in the United States stood at $16,629 for blacks and $28,946 for whites. At this slow rate of progress, income equality will not be achieved for 537 years. These disparities remain shockingly wide, and especially evident when we examine the polarization of assets and wealth. The black home ownership rate, for instance, sits at 47 percent and the Latino at 49.7 percent, compared with 75 percent for whites. African-American families in the United States have a median net worth of $20,600, only 14.6 percent of the $140,700 median white net worth. The median net worth for Latino families is $18,600, only 13.2 percent of median white net worth. Between 1983 and 2004, the most recent year with official federal data available, median black and Latino wealth inched up from 7 percent to 10 percent of median white wealth. At this rate, wealth equality will not be attained for 634 years.” Racial Dimensions of Inequality http://extremeinequality.org/?page_id=23

      This is why the housing crisis is so devastating for people of color, it is wiping out the little equity and wealth we’ve accumulated. “The foreclosure crisis is exacerbating these wealth disparities by stripping away homes, one of the most important assets in communities of color, at unprecedented rates. In 2009, 3.4 million homes were in foreclosure. A disproportionate share of the families impacted were people of color who were systematically targeted by the financial industry for predatory, subprime loans. In fact, over half of the mortgages to African-Americans in recent years were high-cost subprime loans, mostly to people who would have qualified for regular loans. While some legislation to address the foreclosure crisis has been passed, much of it has already been stripped of its teeth by powerful finance industry lobbyists, and hamstrung by lack of cooperation from big banks. As a result, these policies lack elements that are essential to
stemming the crisis, such as a moratorium on foreclosures, modification of bankruptcy rules,
and strong financial regulation” State of the Dream 2010 Drained Jobless and Foreclosed In Communities of Color http://www.faireconomy.org/files/SoD_2010_Drained_Report.pdf
    The banksters and fraudsters plan to gobble up our homes, businesses, savings, all the wealth of working and “middle class” folks thus executing the greatest heist and transfer of wealth the world has ever seen. It is all part of their grand scheme to turn the US into a third world banana republic by co-opting the government , shipping factories and jobs overseas, siphoning of the people’s wealth and leaving us with nothing but debt and lowered living standards. It sounds far fetched but its true. The US has always been ruled by a select cabal. The elites run the country for their benefit, they always have.

      The banksters attempted to gobble up everything once before in the 1930's. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped and stopped them. In turn the banksters attempted to overthrow his administration via a coup. See Wall Street’s Plot to Seize The White House: Facing the Corporate Roots of American Facism http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/53-index.html It was one of the few coups that failed. The attempt on Andrew Jackson’s life being the other.

None of the plotters including George W. Bush’ grandfather, Prescott Bush, were indicted or went to jail. The blue bloods always get off. They and their heirs just waited and bided their time. They are accomplishing their plan now! But their plan doesn’t stop with the US, no it’s global, that’s why they call it globalization. We are seeing its’ affects not only in Africa, Asia and Latin America but in Europe too. That’s what the rioting in France, Greece and Eastern Europe is all about. The people are up in arms as the international banksters force them to bail out the insolvent banks, steal the people’s wealth by siphoning off their savings, gutting their social safety nets and gobbling up their resources for pennies on the dollar. They have the audacity to call it austerity when it’s really grand theft. We’ll talk more about this in future articles.

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From the Ramparts Congressional Debate Observations

2010-10-28T13:21:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton offers his observations and comments on the 1st Congressional district debate held on October 27, 2010 at the Rutgers University Camden Campus

2010-10-27T11:25:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton shares data on how the current economic crisis is negatively impacting African Americans both in terms of employment and wealth.

Reverse Robin Hood Syndrome

2010-10-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

From The Ramparts

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Reverse Robin Hood Syndrome

“At the peak of the housing bubble in 2006 Americans had $13 trillion in equity in their residential real estate. At the peak, total residential mortgage debt stood at $9.8 trillion. Today, American households have $6.2 trillion in equity while mortgage debt has grown to $10.3 trillion. In other words American households have faced a real financial loss of $6.8 trillion. At the same time you’ll notice that the amount of mortgage debt has remained steady. The toxic mortgage waste just sits idly by while banks use the taxpayer wallet as an ATM. You can’t have a double-dip without bouncing first. Americans hold most of their net worth in housing. That has not recovered because employment is weak. Stocks, which are heavily tilted as a primary source of income for the top income earners has only made people feel better temporarily. The mainstream media for the most part represents this tiny group and that is why it has taken so long to even realize that there really is no recovery outside of the stock market.” http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/cost-of-bailout-9-trillion-dollars-and-counting-banking-stockholm-syndrome-let-home-prices-fall/

When I was a youngster I used to watch a television series about Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest. He and his merry band of men bedeviled the Sheriff of Nottingham as they robbed from the rich and decadent nobles and gave to the humble and mistreated poor of England. The premise had a nice ring to it and the series was popular. Today in the US we are experiencing a reverse Robin Hood. This time the robbers are another merry band of thieves, con men and shysters on Wall Street, in the corporate suites and Hedge Fund offices. They are looting the little people like us and sending the money up the chain. It’s not as if they need the money, recent news articles have documented the fact the rich are getting richer, thanks to the inherent greed and endemic criminality within the US political and economic systems. “The gap in income between the wealthiest Americans and all others has grown strikingly in recent decades, the CBO data show. In 1979, when the data begin, the average after-tax incomes of the top 1 percent of households were 7.9 times higher than those of the middle fifth of households. By 2007, top incomes were 23.9 times higher than those of the middle fifth — a more than tripling of the income gap. The gap between the top 1 percent and the poorest fifth of Americans widened even more sharply. In 1979, the incomes of the top 1 percent were 22.7 times higher than those of the bottom fifth. By 2007, top incomes were 74.6 times higher than those at the bottom — more than tripling the rich-poor gap in 28 years”. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3220 “The difference in the pay and income of the average factory worker and CEO pay had jumped to 419 times by 1998 compared to 42 times in 1980.” Economic Apartheid in America A Primer On Economic Inequality and Insecurity by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel page 50-51

Imagine the wealth and income gap jumping that fast in such a short amount of time?! The same goes for our Congress critters. In the midst of an economic catastrophe members of Congress’ bank accounts and bottom lines increased dramatically while millions of Americans now face unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy and homelessness. “The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession. The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million more than 12 months earlier, according to The Hill’s annual review of lawmakers’ financial disclosure forms.” http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/116489-wealthy-lawmakers-increased-their-riches-as-economy-sputtered-in-2009-

Our Congress critters like their Wall Street counterparts use insider knowledge and their positions on various committees to buy stock and interest in companies that often turn out to be harmful to us; conpanies like British Petroleum. “Members of the congressional committees that oversee the oil and gas industry held more than $11 million in personal financial assets in that sector late last year, including at least $400,000 in the two companies at the heart of the Gulf of Mexico oil-drilling disaster. From the nearly $100,000 in BP stock held by Rep. Frederick Upton (R-Mich.) to the nearly $650,000 in ConocoPhillips shares held by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), lawmakers on five key panels with oversight of the oil industry held more than 110 assets in firms from that sector. All told, the members of the five House and Senate committees had a minimum of $11.4 million in stock holdings in the oil and gas industry, with a maximum value that could have exceed $16.8 million, according to an analysis of financial disclosure forms released Wednesday.” Lawmakers sold off BP shares Washington Post http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/06/

I’m all for people getting rich, just not a my expense. The Washington Post article goes on to say that some of them are dumping their BP stocks now that the company is in the news. But the cruelest cut of all is these same Congress Critters and your boy Obama will cite the budget deficits they created as the reason to cut social programs like Social Security and Medicaid. “President Obama and the leadership in Congress have delegated enormous, unaccountable authority to 18 unrepresentative, inordinately wealthy individuals. The 18 individuals are meeting regularly, in secret, behind closed doors, until safely beyond this year’s mid-term election. If they reach agreement, their proposal will be voted on in December by a lame duck Congress, without the benefit of open hearings and deliberations in the pertinent committees and without the opportunity for open debate and amendment on the floors of the House and Senate. Despite the speed and lack of accountability, the legislation will affect, in substantial ways, every man, woman, and child in this nation. Who are these powerful people and what are their views? They are the members of President Obama’s newly-formed National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. They lack racial and gender diversity, and more importantly, they lack diversity of opinion. Their mantra is that ‘everything is on the table,’ but their one member who has any expertise with respect to defense spending, for instance, is the CEO of a major defense contractor that devotes millions of dollars each year to lobby Congress for more defense spending.” Obama's Crazy Plan To Cut Social Security www.alternet.org/economy/146970/

The interesting thing is that none of these psychopaths are talking about cutting one dime from the defense budget or decreasing the war funding! So the Military Industrial Complex and Congress members who buy stock in them will get rich while they cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. For you who still love Obama and think he is the bomb, that’s not all; there are plans in the works to continue his reverse Robin Hood campaign by getting their slimy hands on our retirement accounts, similar to what Bu$h wanted to do with Social Security in 2004. “On August 26, the US Department of Labor issued a news release (http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/2010/ebsa082610.html). It lists the agenda for the joint hearings being held with the Department of Treasury September 14-15, 2010 on what is euphemistically called ‘lifetime income options for retirement plans.’ The hearings are being conducted by the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. I don’t like speaking in tabloid-style terms, but the unstated agenda of these hearings, as I understand it, is to push for the US government to eventually nationalize (confiscate) all assets in private Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401K plans! The US government is desperate to get its hands on private assets to help cover soaring budget deficits and debts, and this is simply the largest and easiest piggy bank that could be seized. The Investment Company Institute estimates that at the end of 2008 that there were $3.613 trillion of assets in IRAs and $2.350 trillion of assets in 401K plans.” US Departments of Labor and Treasury Schedule Hearing on Confiscation of Private Retirement Accounts - Coin Update News By Patrick A. Heller September 1st, 2010

I am not making this up. We are being set up for another fleecing. Obama and his cohorts are plotting to rob us blind. But unlike the fabled Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest, Obama is not giving the money to the poor. The government will take your IRAs and retirement accounts, mismanage and loot them just like they’ve looted the Social Security Trust Fund for the past several decades. “Since the Johnson administration, the cabal that came into power through the coup d'etat of the Kennedy assassination has been looting Social Security funds and using them to pay for their illegal imperialistic operations. Cabal puppet politicians never mention that the Social Security system has been compiling a huge surplus since it was created. Why? Because they've been illegally looting that surplus for years to hide the real size of the current federal budget deficit, allowing them to spend more and justify tax cuts for the wealthy. US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) data show that while government’s reported deficit averaged about $300 billion a year from 2002 to 2006, the real current deficit was actually more than 50 per cent larger. The government just ‘steals’ about $160-$200 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund every year--under the table. In 2007, the real deficit was $449 billion according to the OMB. However, the ‘official’ deficit widely reported was only $257 billion, because it's government policy to add the borrowed Social Security Trust Fund surplus ($192 billion in 2007) to revenues before calculating the ‘official’ deficit.” http://www.hermes-press.com/sss1.htm

The US government at the top is really a criminal enterprise designed to benefit the already rich. It has always been this way. Remember Washington and Jefferson were rich because they owned our ancestors and held them in brutal bondage. So this is nothing new. What is new is that they have now gone hog wild robbing from the poor to give to the rich, the reverse Robin Hood syndrome.

Synopsis of Current US Economic Corruption

2010-10-27T07:19:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton provides a brief overview of the current foreclosure scandals and offers cogent advice to anyone facing default and foreclosure.

Introduction To Foreclosuregate

2010-10-25T11:52:00.001-07:00

Junious Ricardo Stanton discusses the ever expanding crimes and fraud in the mortgage foreclosure/bond scandals rocking the nation and causing the US economy to implode.

The Truth About The Tea Party Movement

2010-10-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
The Truth About The Tea Party Movement

"Koch Industries has denied specifically funding Freedomworks or tea parties directly, however. The company's director of communications wrote ‘Koch companies value free speech and believe it is good to have more Americans engaged in key policy issues. That said, Koch companies, the Koch foundations, Charles Koch and David Koch have no ties to and have never given money to FreedomWorks. In addition, no funding has been provided by Koch companies, the Koch foundations, Charles Koch or David Koch specifically to support the tea parties.’ Koch's director of communications did affirm, however, that the company funds Americans for Prosperity (AFP). TPM's Lee Fang reports that ‘AFP was founded in part by the company's Executive Vice President, David Koch. He is currently the chairman of the board of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.’ Media Matters also lists the Sarah Scaife Foundation as having given a total of $2.96 million in funding to FreedomWorks.[7] The Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil, and banking fortune. The Claude R. Lambe Foundation, also controlled by the Koch family, has donated more than $3 million to Americans for Prosperity" Tea Party Funding
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_movement_funding

A little over a year or so ago I started getting E-mail messages from Dick Armey who was calling for rallies and demonstrations against the policies of Barack Obama. How he got my E-mail address I’ll never know. However I noticed the masthead on his literature was called Freedomworks and after receiving more announcements about upcoming marches and demonstrations I did a little Internet research on Armey and Freedomworks. For those of you not familiar with him, Dick Armey was a former US Congressman who rose to the rank of Majority Leader when the Republicans took control of the House during the 90's. He eventually left Congress and took on the role as Chairman of Freedomworks an organization dedicated according to it Website to: lower taxes, less government and more freedom. Looking at their Website www.freedomworks.org/issues you see they profess to be against government regulation and for tax and tort reform, school choice, privatization of Social Security and reform of Medicare. So while their Website appears benign and ideologically non- threatening, the tip off that they are not libertarians is the fact that nowhere on their Website do they take a stand against the ongoing wars that are draining this country dry; nor do they mention the bailouts of the insurance, banking and Hedge Fund industries by the same government they want to shrink. So it was not surprising to me when it came to light that Freedomwokrs is a front for the Koch Brothers, two energy industry billionaires who have their own aggressive right wing agenda. According to SourceWatch a group that, "profiles the activities of front groups, PR spinners, industry-friendly experts, industry-funded organizations, and think tanks trying to manipulate public opinion on behalf of \fs23ulcorporations or government.", the Tea Party is being funded by super wealthy right wingers to promote their own conservative agenda.
"Reports indicate that the Tea Party Movement benefits from millions of dollars from conservative foundations that are derived from wealthy U.S. families and their business interests. Is appears that money to organize and implement the Movement flows primarily through two conservative groups: Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks. In an April 9, 2009 article on ThinkProgress.org, Lee Fang reports that the principal organizers of Tea Party events are Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works, two ‘lobbyist-run think tanks’ that are ‘well funded’ and that provide the logistics and organizing for the Tea Party movement from coast to coast. Media Matters reported that David Koch of Koch Industries was a co-founder of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), the predecessor of FreedomWorks. David Koch was chairman of the board of directors of CSE.[2] CSE received substantial funding from David Koch of Koch Industries, which is the largest privately-held energy company in the country, and the conservative Koch Family Foundations, which make substantial annual donations to conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, etc. Media Matters reported that the Koch family has given more than $12 million to CSE (predecessor of FreedomWorks) between 1985 and 2002" http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.p

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, the Tea Party movement isn’t a spontaneous grass roots movement after all. Disaffected whites are being manipulated by some very cunning Republican right wingers who are exploiting the fears, frustrations and angst of white folks who see their net worth and standard of living deteriorating at a rapid pace. These white folks are looking for someone to blame because they mindlessly drank the Kool-Aid about their house always appreciating in value, believing they could keep using it like an ATM machine ad infinitum. Now they are facing default, unemployment and homelessness; they are angry and frightened. While their frustrations are real and justified, the so called spontaneity of the Tea Party movement is not. Yes people are upset but like me many of them received E-mails and letters from Dick Armey and Freedomworks urging them to attend town meetings, rallies and demonstrations against Obama’s Healthcare Bill and other domestic policy issues. Armey and the Republican Party recruited Glen Beck and Sarah Palin to be their celebrity spokespersons and Fox News a bastion of fascist propaganda anyway, readily jumped on board to support the movement. Don’t be mad at the Tea Baggers, they are being duped and used by the right wingers for their agenda.

The left-right divide is used by the ruling elites to cunningly keep the masses duped, distracted, disorganized and discombobulated. This way the people won’t come together to figure out how the banksters, military industrial complex war mongers, the multi-national corporations their political puppets and stooges are ripping us off. Both sides of the political aisle are bought and paid for. It’s not just the Tea Party, it’s the left too. Don’t you ever wonder who funds the NAACP or how Al Shaprton flies all over the country to attend "grass roots" rallies? If you want to see who is funding most of the organizations on both the left and right go to www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=338 which is a right wing Website by the way; and peruse their Funding The Left and Right page. Click on the various spreadsheets they provide and look at the names of the foundations putting out money to fund supposedly grass roots movements.

I have nothing against philanthropy but when money is used as a means for clandestine political manipulation that’s a different story. The ruling elites have mastered funding both sides in a dispute, that way no matter who wins, they come out on top and the "winners" owe them. They do it in political campaigns and war. Don’t fall for the okey-doke and flim-flam. The Tea Party is being used by right wingers to further their own agenda, just like some so called progressive organizations are funded by the left to promote their agenda.

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Are We There yet?

2008-09-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Are We There Yet?

“Fed and Treasury officials have identified the disease. It's called deleveraging, or the unwinding of debt. During the credit boom, financial institutions and American households took on too much debt. Between 2002 and 2006, household borrowing grew at an average annual rate of 11%, far outpacing overall economic growth. Borrowing by financial institutions grew by a 10% annualized rate. Now many of those borrowers can't pay back the loans, a problem that is exacerbated by the collapse in housing prices. They need to reduce their dependence on borrowed money, a painful and drawn-out process that can choke off credit and economic growth.
At least three things need to happen to bring the deleveraging process to an end, and they're hard to do at once. Financial institutions and others need to fess up to their mistakes by selling or writing down the value of distressed assets they bought with borrowed money. They need to pay off debt. Finally, they need to rebuild their capital cushions, which have been eroded by losses on those distressed assets.” Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight http://online.wsj.com/article_email

The current financial predicament we are experiencing is like taking a lengthy trip with the whole family packed into the good ol’ family ride and the small children keep asking, “are we there yet?” The US economy is on the road to wreck and ruin, and the question is, are we there yet? Not yet. There is still a ways to go before we hit a brick wall or drive off the cliff into the abyss of fiscal disintegration. Recent events like the bailout of AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the fact that long standing investment banks like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch have gone belly up are major indicators things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Last week we saw Merrill Lynch “rescued” by Bank of America. Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers are merely two of the large Wall Street giants that are facing collapse. For the rest, the question is not if, but when?

Are we there yet? One reason we are in this situation is because of fraud, plain and simple. The banking and mortgage industries lied to their customers, their shareholders, each other and the public. On a more criminal tip, they rigged the game promoting and selling predatory loans at high rates and they cooked their books Enron style. Once things started to unravel the banksters thinking they could get over, kept their losses off to the side for as long as they could. But now the chickens are coming home to roost. “What this means is that there is a panic run on the banks, by other banks. They don't know who will be next to fail, but they won't take chances. As citizens figure this out, there will be runs on consumer banks as well. Expect the government to declare a moratorium on withdrawals - like $200-$300 per day. The FDIC, which insures bank depositors up to $100,000, is basically out of cash. They normally are funded by premiums charged to healthy banks. They are turning to the Fed/Treasury for additional funding. Expect the FDIC to collapse after the next bank failure or two. In desperation, the FDIC is recalling retired employees to come out of retirement to help with the crisis; there isn't time to train new employees, which can take years to complete. Pension and retirement funds are taking unprecedented losses, far beyond the mere percentage drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Why? Favored investments have been securitized equities and banks. Many of these losses will be unrecoverable.” Let the bank runs begin! By Patrick Wood, Editor September 15, 2008 http://www.augustreview.com/news_commentary/global_banking

Not only are Wall Street investment banks facing tougher times every passing day, the commercial banks and the components of the “Shadow Banking system” are also on the verge of collapse. “The latest trouble spot is an area called credit-default swaps, which are private contracts that let firms trade bets on whether a borrower is going to default. When a default occurs, one party pays off the other. The value of the swaps rise and fall as the market reassesses the risk that a company won't be able to honor its obligations. Firms use these instruments both as insurance -- to hedge their exposures to risk -- and to wager on the health of other companies. There are now credit-default swaps on more than $62 trillion in debt, up from about $144 billion a decade ago. One of the big new players in the swaps game was AIG, the world's largest insurer and a major seller of credit-default swaps to financial institutions and companies. When the credit markets were booming, many firms bought these instruments from AIG, believing the insurance giant's strong credit ratings and large balance sheet could provide a shield against bond and loan defaults. AIG believed the risk of default was low on many securities it insured. As of June 30, an AIG unit had written credit-default swaps on more than $446 billion in credit assets, including mortgage securities, corporate loans and complex structured products. Last year, when rising subprime-mortgage delinquencies damaged the value of many securities AIG had insured, the firm was forced to book large write-downs on its derivative positions. That spooked investors, who reacted by dumping its shares, making it harder for AIG to raise the capital it increasingly needed.” Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight By JON HILSENRATH, SERENA NG and DAMIAN PALETTA http://online.wsj.com/article_email

The whole system is falling apart at the seams and unraveling so fast the corporate mind control apparatus can’t keep up or spin events in a more favorable light. I’m certainly not trying to alarm or frighten you but things are going to get a lot worse in the coming days, weeks and months. This is not a phase, it is the beginning of a long term pattern. Things are getting so bad the FDIC is worried. “As financial institutions continue to fail, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is under pressure to decide how to replenish the fund that insures consumer deposits. The fund is stocked mostly by fees levied on U.S. banks. If the FDIC raises the fees, that would siphon more money from already cash-strapped financial institutions. It could also deplete funds that banks would otherwise use to make loans. But if the FDIC moves too cautiously, the fund could run dry at a crucial time. That could hurt public confidence in the banking system and force the government to use taxpayer dollars to restock the fund. The agency could split the difference by raising premiums faster than most banks would like but slow enough so that the rebuilding of the fund takes years, not months. The fund's $52.8 billion at the end of the first quarter was considered low by historical standards, covering 1.19% of all insured deposits. Two bank failures in the second quarter are estimated to have cost the fund $216 million, and the four bank failures so far in the third quarter could have cost another $9 billion. The failure of IndyMac Bank in July may have wiped out more than 10% of the fund. Such losses could easily push the fund below a 1.15% level, triggering a requirement that the FDIC come up with an action plan within 90 days to bolster the fund.” FDIC Faces Balancing Act in Replenishing Its Coffers - WSJ FDIC Faces Balancing Act in Replenishing Its Coffers - WSJ. As more and more banks fail the FDIC fund will get smaller and smaller. We are averaging one bank failure a week the last month. I predict this will continue as more and more banks are forced to face up to the fact and admit they are insolvent. Even massive infusions of Fed money will not save them. If they can’t find any one to buy their assets they will go under. Soon there may be runs on banks due to panic. As the system unravels before our eyes many will be tempted to ask, “are we there yet?”

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Why SHould We Care About What Goes On In Central Asia?

2008-08-14T10:39:00.000-07:00

Why Should We Care About What is Going On In Central Asia?

On one of the Websites that carries my blog/column From The Ramparts , in the post a comment section, a Sistah inquired what the significance of my posting about the situation in South Ossetia was; and what did that situation have to do with the “black cause”? First of all, the essence of my article was, we (people of African ascent) were sleeping while a potential flashpoint for WWIII was being ignited in South Ossetia. For numerous reasons we should be aware of and concerned about what is going on not only in South Ossetia, the Caucasus region but the whole world. Why? Because the same forces that are aggressively at work fomenting strife, carnage, war and deprivation all over Africa (Sudan, Somalia, Congo and Chad just to name a few) and in our communities here in AmeriKKKa are at work in South Ossetia. The “powers that be”, the international bankers and multinational corporations, their front men in government, their bag men in the think tanks and media, their goons in the intelligence agencies, police and military are using the exact same tactics throughout Africa they are using now in the Caucasus: tribal and ethnic loyalties, personal ambition, corruption and political strife to get what they want: access to and control of mineral and natural resources, or the control of the overland routes to transport them to their markets.

Just as the West is exploiting and manipulating Arab and African differences to balkanize Sudan to get at the rich oil deposits in the Darfur region (that the US mass media never mentions) , they are using ethic loyalties to instigate dangerous and deadly games of geopolitcal intrigue and disastrous resource wars in the Caucasus. We must take a much broader view of current events and not rely on the corporate mind control apparatus for all of our information. The lying hypocrites who run the US corporate media have the audacity to paint Russia as the aggressor in Georgia while they continuously shill for US war criminals and the atrocities they are committing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The corporate mind control apparatus is doing the bidding of its’ ownership and hypocritically denouncing Russia despite the fact the US is guilty of much more heinous crimes around the world, specifically in places like Haiti, Iraq, Somalia (by proxy, using Ethiopia) and Afghanistan. The US media would have us believe Russia acted in a heavy handed fashion, hoping we’ll forget how the US military bombed Baghdad indiscriminately and pretty much wiped out the town of Fallujah, all based on lies the media helped propagate!

We must keep in mind that most Africans in AmeriKKKa opposed the invasion of Iraq and we were deeply appalled at the “shock and awe” overkill the US military used on innocent Iraqi civilians despite the US media’s and military’s lies and disinformation about “smart bombs” and the “precision and pin point accuracy” of US weapons of mass destruction. We must not allow ourselves to become desensitized to the moral implications and human suffering the warmongers are planning and executing as we speak. So what if the South Ossetians are white, all the more reason to consider how psychopathic the people behind Georgian puppet President Mikheil Saakashvili are, people like Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and the corporations they work for like Chevron, Exxon-Mobil or BP, Bechtel, General Electric and Lockheed Martin.
Most black folks are not familiar with the agenda and program of David Rockefeller or George H.W Bu$h’s “New World Order”. For more information about one of the platforms of their nefarious program which is global depopulation, go to the library or use your browser to look up Global 2000 or type in words like: world depopulation, global depopulation, Henry Kissinger/depopulation or eugenics and see how much comes up. Of course you have to sift through and seriously examine the information but enough is there to convince a reasonable person there is a definite plan to kill off billions of humans. Not only that, once you take current world events into account you will see it for what it is, a massive genocidal conspiracy.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. We are in a war for our very survival against forces so sick and evil we can’t imagine. The fact their shill and bag men and women cloak their plan in noble sounding words like freedom, liberation, democracy reveal just how deviously psychotic they really are. We must stop falling for the okey-doke. Do not watch the news uncritically or passively. Think for yourself. Ask questions like “who benefits from this”, what are the connections to big banking, big oil, the military-industrial complex or big pharmaceutical and genetically modified foods if any in this? Think like the character Lester freeman in the HBO TV series The Wire, always follow the money. Lastly expand your horizons, like I told the Sistah, “the black cause” is global because black people are global and we are the true custodians of this planet. We have to regain our rightful place otherwise the crazies and warmongers will unleash deathly hell on the planet. Think Katrina without the flooding or imagine a twenty-first century “Middle Ages” and you can glean what the New World Order crowd intends for all of us. That’s why we should be concerned about what’s going on not only in South Ossetia but around the world.

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We're Asleep While WWIII Is In The Making

2008-08-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

We Slumber While WWIII Is In The Making

“Last year, the Georgian president commissioned from private Israeli security firms several hundred military advisers, estimated at up to 1,000, to train the Georgian armed forces in commando, air, sea, armored and artillery combat tactics. They also offer instruction on military intelligence and security for the central regime. Tbilisi also purchased weapons, intelligence and electronic warfare systems from Israel. These advisers were undoubtedly deeply involved in the Georgian army’s preparations to conquer the South Ossetian capital Friday. In recent weeks, Moscow has repeatedly demanded that Jerusalem halt its military assistance to Georgia, finally threatening a crisis in bilateral relations. Israel responded by saying that the only assistance rendered Tbilisi was “defensive.” This has not gone down well in the Kremlin. Therefore, as the military crisis intensifies in South Ossetia, Moscow may be expected to punish Israel for its intervention.” Pipelines and More War For Israel http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/7697

As we are bombarded with all the nuances and minutia of John Edwards’ extramarital affair by the corporate mind control apparatus, the outbreak of hostilities in the Central Asian nation of Georgia goes unreported. While Edwards’ affair of two years ago dominates the news cycle, the US economy’s unraveling worsens, and the major presidential candidates display their ineptness and unwillingness to address the central issues of the day, world peace and economic stability. Wake up people, the hour is late. We cannot afford to allow the mass media to set the tone of our awareness. We cannot passively allow them to induce a slumber and comatose state whereby we are totally ignorant and bamboozled about what is going on in our world and in our communities. In the overall scheme of things, what does a two year old extramarital affair by a former politician have to do with our declining standard of living, the impending economic collapse of the US economy or the very real possibility of regional wars erupting any day that could lead to WWIII? Why is this so important that this is all that is discussed in the mainstream media?

Have AmeriKKKans become a nation of gossip mongers, media induced Pavlovian reactionaries easily distracted by titillating news of sexual infidelity or voyeuristic couch potatoes too engrossed in media diversions to act in our own best interests? AmeriKKKa is sinking deeper and deeper into moral bankruptcy and fiscal ruin preyed upon by corrupt politicians, clergy, predatory business people and manipulated by a mass media that promotes degenerate values and models the vilest humanity possible. Their goal is to keep pushing the envelop to the point we are totally desensitized to human suffering, graft and debauchery. They have created an Orwellian Bizzaro World where up is down, wickedness is good, bankruptcy is wealth and decadence is progress.

The ruling plutocracy has fashioned a culture where predatory relationships are the norm, where deceit, covetousness, fear and ignorance are the driving forces and values that dominate our society. This is reflected in media and pop culture from mainstream TV, to video games to commercial Hip Hop. This was a deliberate agenda so that they could move us to the point where we are now, totally invested in war, living in an illegal police/spy state that incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation on the planet where most of the people are so in debt we have been reduced to wage serf and debt peons with no relief or escape in sight.

We need to wake up and face this situation as the ruling oligarches are also planning to execute another platform of their nefarious agenda; global depopulation. We see it in the spread of new diseases, regional conflicts driven by covetousness for resources like oil, natural gas and the pipelines that carry them, diamonds, water and food. We see these resource and geo-strategic wars taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America in Columbia, in Africa in the Congo, in Darfur and in the Horn and the percolating powder keg in Central Asia and surrounding areas. We are being lied to by the media. The Iraq invasion and occupation was about oil and Israel, not 9-11,WMDs, freedom or “democracy”.

The John Edwards distraction is the corporate media’s way of covering up the sagging US economy, the problems in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as suppressing the current machinations and resource war in Georgia. The conflict is Georgia is a another classic example of US and Israeli intrigue. The current president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili was educated (brainwashed) in AmeriKKKa, has a Western outlook and has ties with the US. The US has supplied Georgia (via Israel just like they did in the ‘80's with the Iran-Contra deal) with weapons and military “advisors” . Georgia in turn, has committed troops to the coalition that occupies Iraq. The fighting in South Ossetia is not about sovereignty but rather land for oil and natural gas pipelines, rights of way and markets. “DEBKAfile’s geopolitical experts note that on the surface level, the Russians are backing the separatists of S. Ossetia and neighboring Abkhazia as payback for the strengthening of American influence in tiny Georgia and its 4.5 million inhabitants. However, more immediately, the conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region. The Russians may just bear with the pro-US Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambition to bring his country into NATO. But they draw a heavy line against his plans and those of Western oil companies, including Israeli firms, to route the oil routes from Azerbaijan and the gas lines from Turkmenistan, which transit Georgia, through Turkey instead of hooking them up to Russian pipelines. Saakashvili need only back away from this plan for Moscow to ditch the two provinces’ revolt against Tbilisi. As long as he sticks to his guns, South Ossetia and Abkhazia will wage separatist wars.” Pipelines and More War For Israel http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/7697

Israel is in the thick of this South Ossetia situation just like they and their NeoCon agents were behind the invasion of Iraq and the push to attack Iran. Unless cooler and saner heads prevail or one or more parties back down, we could be witnessing the incident that launches WWIII! “ ‘We are interested in a strategic partnership with Israel at the same level as our strategic partnership with the United States,’ Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili of Georgia told Haaretz yesterday. Bezhuashvili, who in the past served as his country's defense minister, would not elaborate on what he means by "strategic cooperation." However the phrase is understood as a code for arms and other security-related purchases, such as upgrading of planes, tanks, artillery, and border monitoring equipment. Such cooperation existed without fanfare until the beginning of 2005, and included a deal with Elbit defense electronics to upgrade 25 of Georgia's MIG fighter jets, communications equipment, and brief military advisors. But under pressure from Russia, Israel has since limited itself to selling Georgia only defensive weapons.” http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/915881.html

The real axis of evil operating it the world today are: England, Israel and the United States. Their fingerprints are on or in close proximity to almost every major flashpoint in the world today; through covert ops, by supplying arms, funds or propaganda support. We need to wake up and realize our government is as Martin Luther King Jr pointed out over forty years ago, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.
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Another One Bites The Dust

2008-08-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

Another One Bites The Dust

“As doubts arise about the government/media narrative, it is becoming all too clear that Ivins' suicide – likely brought about by the unrelenting pressure brought to bear on him over many months of constant harassment by the FBI, rather than actual guilt – is the occasion for the institutional whitewashing of the FBI's almost unbelievable incompetence, which seems more like a cover-up as events unfold. We are being treated to media reports burbling about how the suicide of Ivins means that the victims of the anthrax attack and their families will finally have "closure" – but what's all too clear is that it's the FBI seeking closure of a case that exposes its shameful (and, perhaps, criminal) conduct.” The Patsy, Was Bruce Ivins the anthrax killer? Justine Raimando http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13251

The corporate mind control apparatus is abuzz over the recent “suicide” of suspected anthrax researcher Bruce E. Ivins the man the FBI was investigating in connection with the anthrax shipped to journalists and US Senators seven years ago. The anthrax killed several postal workers during the hectic days following 9-11. Ivins worked at the infamous Ft Detrick biological warfare research laboratory in Maryland. When the anthrax was sent to select media and US senators (no one at Fox Cable News and no Republicans received letters laced with the particular strain of anthrax that was manufactured at Ft Detrick.) it sent the fear and anxiety levels through the roof. The Bu$hites and the corporate media used the incident to ratchet up the hysteria following 9-11. They used it to scare Congress into rushing to pass the PATRIOT ACT. Most lawmakers will admit they never took the time to even read the bill. They just went along and voted for it like mindless automatons. They were victims of psychological warfare and a government coercive psy-op. The Bu$hites took full advantage of the situation and used it as psychological hammer to bludgeon simple minded AmeriKKKans into believing we were under an ongoing attack from fanatical Islamic terrorists. This allowed them to escalate their agenda for a total domestic police/spy state and prepare to launch a series of imperialistic invasions wars and occupations that will drag on into the foreseeable future.

It was subsequently revealed in the corporate media Bu$h administration White House staffers were taking Cipro an antibiotic that just happens to be the anecdote for the specific strain of anthrax that was sent in the mail to Brokaw and Dashel a full month before it was discovered or received by Tom Brokaw of NBC , and US Senator Tom Dashel !? The FBI supposedly was investigating Ivins as the primary suspect when he committed suicide. Something is fishy about that. I was always skeptical about the legitimacy of the anthrax story once I found out about the Cipro. Why was it only sent to Democrats? Why was it sent to NBC and not all the rest? The FBI originally was investigating another scientist who proclaimed his innocents, suspected he was being set up and framed and subsequently sued them and won a multi-million dollar settlement. So the FBI’s hands are not clean in this at all.

The anthrax scare was part and parcel of a fear mongering campaign to make AmeriKKKans panic and turn to the government for protection; the same government that had totally failed to protect us on 9-11. Keep in mind, not one general, Joint Chief of Staff member, FAA, FBI or CIA honcho was fired or disciplined in the greatest “intelligence and military failure” since Pearl Harbor! In fact they all received promotions, medals and media induced adoration!? The scare was also cunningly used by the Bu$hites to prime the pumps for their campaign of never ending wars we are experiencing now.
When I try to explain to folks 9-11 was an inside job and certain members of the Bu$h administration were directly involved in it; they ask how could all the people involved in such a complex and elaborate operation keep the secret? My answer, easy, they were amply rewarded and the few who didn’t go along were punished by being threatened, discredited and ruined. They also made sure anyone who dared question or challenge the government’s official lie was pounced on and devoured by the corporate media. For example former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was vilified and demonized for merely questioning whether Bu$h had been forewarned about 9-11? We all know how that turned out. We learned later, after the media jumped on her with all four feet and painted her as some kind of nut, that George W Bu$h was indeed forewarned about 9-11. To make matters worse we learned he was warned in enough time to do something to prevent it, but didn’t!! Not only was Bu$h warned personally, the US CIA and US intelligence communities were warned repeatedly. Read They Tried to Warn Us: Foreign Intelligence Warnings Before 9/11 By Paul Thompson at http://www.historycommons.org/essay.jsp?article=essaytheytriedtowarnus to see just how we’ve been lied to about 9-11.

Just like with the John F. Kennedy assassination and the trail of dead bodies former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison uncovered during his investigation into the cover up of that murder, we are seeing the bodies that have direct and indirect connections to 9-11 start to pile up. The Ivins suicide is just one of several. Last May Deborah Jeane Palfrey better known as the DC Madame supposedly killed herself while at her mothers home in Florida. Many of Palfrey’s clients were top politicians from both sides of the aisle, prominent lobbyists, corporatist reps, defense contractors, bagmen and wanna bees. Remember she had threatened to reveal her clients and indeed several names were posted on the Internet. Palfrey was such a key player in the Washington sin and extortion culture the court put a gag order on her!!!

Two years ago CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned to avoid being named in a scandal which would have implicated him directly in the Hookergate prostitute ring at the Watergate in Washington DC that would have linked the former Florida Congressman and CIA operative to an airplane hanger near where one of the 9-11 “highjackers” supposedly trained to learn how to fly. Read the post at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7e7_1184706262 to connect the dots for yourself.

Maybe Ivins and Palfrey actually did commit suicide, but then again maybe they didn’t? At any rate with Ivins gone, the FBI can now claim closure on an complex and ugly incident that serves as another glaring example of their ineptitude around 9-11. ( A former FBI agent is claiming the Bu$h administration put pressure on the FBI to say Al Qaeda did it). With Ivins and Palfrey dead a lot of potentially career wrecking secrets will be interred with them. A lot of crooked politicians, lobbyists, bagmen and conspirators will breathe a little easier and live to play another day. But, it’s only a mater of time before another clue needed to solve the 9-11 conspiracy/cover up is revealed.

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How Safe Is Your Bank?

2008-07-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

How Safe Is Your Bank?

“In a panic set of moves, the Fed slashed interest rates from 5.25% to 2%. This was the fastest, steepest drop on record. Ironically, the Fed chairman spoke of inflation concerns the entire drop down. Bernanke clearly cannot tell the truth. He does not have to. Actions speak louder than words. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the FDIC is looking for ways to shore up its depleted deposit fund, including charging higher premiums on riskier brokered deposits. There is roughly $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. $2.60 Trillion of that is uninsured. There is only $53 billion in FDIC insurance to cover $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. Indymac will eat up roughly $8 billion of that. Of the $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits, the total cash on hand at banks is a mere $273.7 Billion. Where is the rest of the loot? The answer is in off balance sheet SIVs, imploding commercial real estate deals, Alt-A liar loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds, toggle bonds where debt is amazingly paid back with more debt, and all sorts of other silly (and arguably fraudulent) financial wizardry schemes that have bank and brokerage firms leveraged at 30-1 or more. Those loans cannot be paid back. What cannot be paid back will be defaulted on. If you did not know it before, you do now.” The entire US banking system is insolvent. By Mike "Mish" Shedlock Evidence of the US Banking System Teetering on the Brink of Collapse http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article5594.html

The corporate mind control apparatus has deliberately downplayed the state of the economy at the behest of the financial oligarchy that owns it. As recently as a few days ago the corporate media served as stenographers and cheerleaders as US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson a former CEO of Goldman Sachs investment banking firm, Ben Bernanke the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank (a consortium of privately owned banks the Congress allows to set monetary, credit and interest rate policies and we the taxpayers pay for) and the pathological prevaricator George W Bu$h all stated the US banking system was in good shape. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ruling plutocrats and their flunkies are desperately trying to suppress a panic. They cannot afford the type of hysteria that could cause people to go their local bank and withdraw all their money. The last thing they want to confront is a massive run on US banks that would cause the whole house of cards Ponzi scheme to come crashing down. The truth is the whole US banking system is on the verge of a major default. To get a better grasp of what is really happening, go to http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article5594.html and read the article entitled Evidence of the US Banking System Teetering on the Brink of Collapse. This easy to read and understand listing of recent events and statements will enable you to comprehend just how egregiously we are being lied to by the “powers that be” and the media.

How safe is your bank? This is a timely and appropriate question given the news about bank failures that we have been hearing about around the world recently. Bu$h says every thing is cool, so you know things are actually in crisis/chaos. Have you ever heard the term “fractional reserve”? If not it is the key to just how precarious the whole banking situation in AmeriKKKa really is. The US banking system has an inherent aspect of it that potentially puts all banks at risk. All that keeps it from all falling apart is the trust of the people who think or who have been brainwashed to believe the system is foolproof and solvent.

Fractional Reserve means that a commercial bank can keep as little as ten per cent (10%) of the total sum of all the money its depositors have entrusted to it on hand at any given time. This means that if you deposit $1,000 in a savings account at your local bank, that bank only has to keep $100 on hand. It lends out the other $9000 at a higher interest rate than it pays you to “hold” your money. Keep in mind your money is not there physically. The bank only has to keep $100 of it on “reserve”. If four of your friends also deposit $1000 which totals $4000 the bank is only required to keep $400 of it on hand. Now after the bank lends the money out say to a couple that want to buy a house or to a business man or corporation, those deposited funds are in circulation, not in the bank’s vault. If for example you and your friends come in and demand all your money, the bank would be hard pressed to give it to you then and there because they only have $500 of your money on hand! If for some reason, every depositor at that bank came in to demand their money,( this is called a run on the bank) the bank would be in deep dodo. “For instance, you could ask to withdraw all the money in your checking account at any time. If all the depositors of a bank did that at the same time (a bank run), the bank could be in trouble, though this rarely happens. However, the Northern Rock crisis of 2007 in the United Kingdom is an example of such an event.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking

Under normal circumstances your bank would have to borrow money from the Fed or other banks to meet the demand of its depositors. Alas these are not normal times. Even without the normal risks of fractional reserve, most US Banks are overextended. In the recent “greed is good” financial wheeling and dealing and deregulation frenzy, banks made bad loans and they invested in get rich quick deals that are not panning out. Now its time to pay the piper. Things are so bad the lines of credit between banks have dried up and banks won’t lend to each other because they cannot trust the other bank to be “solvent” due to all the fallout from the subprime and Alt A mortgage defaults and other exotic schemes (unregulated Hedge Funds, derivatives and Shadow Banking System deals) that are imploding as we speak.

Well you say, “my deposits are insured”. If you have $100,000 or less in a commercial bank, this is true, they are. But what happens if you have more than $100,000 in one bank? Or what happens if the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that insures your deposits is underfunded in these volatile times?! If either of those situations occurs, you are, as we used to say “SOL” stone out of luck. All of this, by the way, is a real possibility. The FDIC only has about fifty-eight billion in its account. Eight billion of that will be gobbled up by the collapse of IndyMac. Keep in mind, IndyMac was not on the FDIC’s watch list before it went belly up. Two more banks were added to the failed list. “US BANKING regulators closed two lenders in California and Nevada two weeks after the collapse of IndyMac Bancorp, as loan defaults and foreclosures soar. First National Bank of Nevada, with $US3.4 billion ($35.6 billion) in assets, and the Californian First Heritage Bank, with $US254 million, lacked sufficient capital, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said last week in a statement. Their deposits and some assets would be acquired by Mutual of Omaha Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said.” http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/business/two-more-us-lenders-bite-the-dust-as-loan-defaults-soar/2008/07/28/1217097094722.html

There are about ninety or so other banks that are on the FDIC watch list. (The FDIC has recalled several retired employees in anticipation of more bank failures). But the truth is, every bank is at risk just by virtue of the fractional reserve system!!! That’s why Bu$h, Paulson and Bernanke are lying about the real state of the US banking system. They are afraid more banks will fail, putting a severe drain on the limited funds the FDIC has which will cause a panic and lead to more runs on banks which will spell doom for the whole banking system. How safe is your bank?

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US Taxpayers Get Shfted Again

2008-07-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

US Taxpayers Get Shafted Again

“The US Treasury’s rescue plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost taxpayers $25bn, congressional researchers said on Tuesday as evidence mounted that turmoil at the two companies is helping push up interest rates for homebuyers. US mortgage rates have hit their highest levels in about a year amid rising Treasury yields and growing fears among investors that Fannie and Freddie will cut back their purchases of home loans and mortgage securities. Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, on Tuesday said he was “confident” Congress would complete work on approving his plan to give the Treasury authority to increase its credit line to Fannie and Freddie and invest in their equity, if necessary. The plan has faced criticism on Capitol Hill for exposing taxpayers to potentially huge losses, but is seen by most lawmakers and administration officials as necessary to prevent mortgage rates from climbing even higher.” US housing rescue ‘could cost $25bn’ By James Politi in Washington and Nicole Bullock and Michael Mackenzie in New York Published: July 22 2008 17:58 | Last updated: July 23 2008 00:32 http://www.ft.com/cms

The corporate mind control apparatus is predicting George W. Bu$h will sign the recently proposed Housing Bill which the Congressional Budget Office says may cost US taxpayers upwards of twenty-five billion dollars. As with most government statistics/figures we taxpayers ought to be extremely cynical about this figure. With the rampant mismanagement, corruption and fraud going on in Washington, the final payout will probably be much higher. I warned you some time ago dear reader, the Wall Street crooks, con men and hustlers would call in the chits and bribes they pay to the crooks in Congress to finagle a way to make Joe and Jane Sixpack pay for Wall Street’s avarice, larceny and criminality. Of course this latest corporate welfare, socialism for the rich rip off is being spun in the corporate media as a necessity. The media is saying this has to been done to “save” the housing industry. Save? In case no one has noticed the US housing industry is toast! What they really mean is they are doing this to save Wall Street, the big investment banks and put the onus for paying for this humongous bailout on the hapless taxpayers. This is a redo of the 1980's Savings and Loan rip off.

“The housing bill is expected to be approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, before moving to the Senate and the White House for the signature of President George W. Bush possibly later this week. As well as the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provisions, the legislation also includes language allowing the government to guarantee up to $300bn in mortgages refinanced at more affordable rates through the Federal Housing Administration, the federal housing insurer for low-income Americans.” Bush drops opposition to housing bill By James Politi in Washington http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ The so called Housing Bailout is not designed to help struggling homeowners stave off default and remain in their homes. It is a straight up example of corporate welfare, socialism for the rich, a total scam where the taxpayers foot the bills and make it easier for the banks to eventually foreclose on homes in the future. “So when it comes to workers' pain, we are told that there really is nothing that can be done. What about the pain of incompetent bankers? Well, we can't let incompetent bankers suffer. Congress, the president and the Fed will move heaven and earth to make sure that the bankers are not allowed to sink just because of their bad business decisions. That was why Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was so quick to tell the creditors of the major investment banks not to worry that that Lehman Brothers or Citigroup might be following Bear Stearns in going belly up. He promised that the Fed would throw out as much money as was necessary to make them whole. There was little concern for moral hazard or the incredible waste of taxpayer money to bail out the extremely rich. (Guarantees are real money – if anyone ever tells you otherwise, ask them to sign a guarantee note for your mortgage or student loan.) The guarantees, plus the below market loans from the Fed's discount window, was just round one. Round two is the bailout package that is about to pass Congress. This bill is being sold as a bailout of homeowners. The big problem with that story is that the government guaranteed checks go to banks, not homeowners. Furthermore, the banks get to decide which loans get placed in the programme. This is simple Econ 101. Banks are sitting on several hundred billions of dollars of really bad loans. They can go through with the foreclosure process, but this is costly. In addition, house prices have fallen so much, and the market is so glutted in many areas, that they will get be able to recover relatively little of the original value of their mortgage through foreclosure. So, along comes Congress with a big bag of taxpayer money and offers to guarantee new mortgages that will allow the banks to recover a much larger share of the original value of their mortgage. Who knows, with an exaggerated appraisal (ever hear of exaggerated appraisals?), they may even be able to recover most of their money. Of course Congress sells this as a bailout of homeowners. And we all know homeownership is the American Dream, so anyone who raises questions must be some sort of al-Qaida loving communist.” Help workers, not Wall Street Loan guarantees will help the bankers responsible for the housing crisis, not the homeowners suffering from it www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/30/

What the article doesn’t say is that because many of these mortgages were chopped up, bundled with other loans (auto, student, commercial etc) and repackaged as bonds (what they call securitized debt), the bank that issued the original loan doesn’t hold the lien and cannot foreclose on the properties anyway. So not only are the banks out of the money for the loans, they cannot legally foreclose because they don’t hold the liens or title to the property. All this scrambling by the Fed, the Treasury, Wall Street and Congress to get Fannie Ma and Freddie Mac solvent and get FHA involved in the refinancing of these loans is the bankers’ scheme to either get the government to pay the loans or get the liens loans back so they can foreclose on them later. They know the economy is going to get worse and many of the borrowers won’t be able to afford the refinanced/restructured loans. The fix is in, the legislation is written so that in a worse case scenario, the government will step in and guarantee the newly refinanced FHA loans and the Wall Street bankers will get off Scott free. It is not about helping the people!

To glean a better idea of how all this happened and who was behind this colossal rip off read: Status Report on the Collapse of the U.S. Economy by Richard C. Cook at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9596 Suffice it to say the creators of this crisis could care less about the harm and massive damage they are causing to millions of ordinary US citizens. All they care about is recouping their money. And as usual, they will call on their stooges and puppets in Congress to make sure they recoup their losses while passing the costs on to the befuddled and bamboozled taxpayers who are being lied to and taken to the cleaners one more time.

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AmeriKKKa Is Sinking Deeper Into Fascist Quicksand

2008-06-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

AmeriKKKa Is Sinking Deeper in Fascist Quicksand

“The mainstream media is dominated by a handful of mega corporations who control what many of us hear, read, and believe. The propaganda masters are censoring and suppressing the truth from the American people. There are many reporters who know the truth but dare not talk or write about it, and what some report they don't even believe themselves. Those who are courageous enough to stand up to the establishment are often ridiculed, intimidated, and blocked by editors and producers who are acting as gatekeepers to the truth. There have been calls for the arrests and even death of those who criticize the government. You know you have slipped into a fascist dictatorship when those who dissent are treated like traitors, terrorists, and enemies of the state. We are being brainwashed with all the propaganda that we are subjected to in our everyday lives in an effort to control our minds and shift us into massive groupthink. We are being told that we are spreading democracy around the world while our own freedoms are being systematically taken away.” Fake News and Propaganda: Shaping Our Reality by Dana Gabriel http://stoplying.ca/articles/07/nov/112707_dana_fake_news_propaganda.php

Tim Russert’s sudden death witnessed the rallying and coalescing of the of the media prostitutes and elites to defend and praise one of their top reality shaping sycophants and disinformation gatekeepers. Russert was hailed and canonized as a valiant journalist and a tough interviewer by the very people he allowed to lie and set the nation on a course for wreck and ruin without as much as a whimper of protest or criticism. It was an exercise in collective self-aggrandizement and Orwellian revisionism. The media gatekeepers had to deify Russert because he was one of the top sycophants and megaphones for the New World Oder. He was given ample air time and used it to promote the ruling elites' nefarious agenda to a gullible and unsuspecting audience. For this Russert was given accolades and was richly rewarded. They called him a “nice guy”, they said he was kind and compassionate. He may have been in his personal life; but professionally he was an agent who uncritically promoted war, fascism and global imperialism.

Possibly Russert was a nice guy. Such descriptions and accolades are relative, depending upon one’s frame of reference, values and experiences. Maybe Russert was a genuinely likable guy. Maybe they just said it because compared to so many other’s he seemed like a decent person or because white people don’t like to say anything bad about a dead person. The media gatekeepers weld enormous power and influence and often it goes to their heads. Some don’t need a microphone or camera to pump them up or entice them to say or do something outrageous, they are already wacky. In the era of shock jocks and Jerry Springer type “reality show” incivility and whack behavior are promoted and handsomely rewarded. The media talking heads are no exception. For example, recently Michael Reagan the son of former president Ronald Reagan who makes his living as a nationally syndicated “conservative” talk show host actually called for the death of Mark Dice and activist who disagreed with or dissented against the party line of the ruling elites. He called for Dice’s murder because he questioned the veracity of the government’s story about 9-11. He said, “We ought to find the people who are doing this, take them out and shoot them. Really. You take them out, they are traitors to this country, and shoot them. You have a problem with that? Deal with it. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that's what they are, and you shoot them dead. I'll pay for the bullets. How about you take Mark Dice out and put him in the middle of a firing range. Tie him to a post, don't blindfold him, let it rip and have some fun with Mark Dice,” Reagan then had the video of this rant pulled from You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdJO-kUINMs . As you can see it is no longer available. Reagan subsequently apologized but he is still on the air. Imagine what would have happened to a conscious black talk show host who said something like that on the air? The FCC would be all over him and the station would have been censored or worse. But because Michael Reagan is a white boy related to the phony fascist hero of the NeoCons, nothing was done.

Joseph Goebbels , Hitler’s cunning Minister of Propaganda would have been tickled pink. Reagan isn’t the only NeoCon who has uttered vitriolic verbiage at a guest or caller. Bill O’Reilly the king NeoCon shill at Fox is noted for his abuse of guests who disagree with him, he tries to intimidate anyone who doesn’t toe the fascist warmongering line on his program. But this is nothing new. AmeriKKKa has always been intolerant and hard on those who dissented against their policies of group think and wickedness. Whites ran Ida B Wells out of Memphis for daring to run an anti-lynching newspaper campaign when lynching was sport and a community past time for whites. Southern Democrats hauled Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes before the House Un-American Activities Committee because they disapproved of their essays, poetry, singing, acting and political activities. Now they are trying to browbeat Michelle Obama because of her comments about AmeriKKKa. The notions about freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly are a bunch of bs!

AmeriKKKa is sinking deeper into moral quicksand as the mind control apparatus defines and shapes the psyches of the masses who uncritically consume ever more pervasive media. The mass media shapes our reality and values. The programmers are masters of psychological manipulation. None of us are immune to the devastating impact of the ruling elites’ ongoing campaign of psychological warfare and menticide directed towards us. “It is through propaganda that our minds are being shaped and molded. A mass conditioning is taking place through the media, television shows, commercials, and video games. It is being used as a tool to control, program, and manipulate our minds through the power of suggestion and repetition. Our values are constantly being shaped and re-shaped, and at times our subconscious minds are unable to distinguish between fact and fiction. Ideas and premises are stored in our memory banks, and when they do become reality, we will have already accepted or at least warmed up to such scenarios. Television, radio and print media dictate to us what is important, what is in fashion, what are the latest trends, what to eat, read, and watch. To many, what they see on TV becomes their reality. There is definitely a correlation between the dumbing down of the population, the moral meltdown, and the amount of television being watched. One need not look any further than reality TV, where we are being desensitized to endless degrading acts on shows like Big Brother. These shows are inundated with sexual content, vulgarity, and humiliating, conniving, and backstabbing acts. Today’s television is destroying our very moral fiber and what is left of our values. When we are subjected to the true reality TV like the Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, where is the outrage? We have become a decadent society and are on the decline, being made to accept things like torture. Many television shows, such as 24, openly advocate torture and it seems as if art is imitating reality. America is the new Rome, and we aren’t that far away from so-called terrorist and other enemies of the state being abused and even killed for our viewing pleasure.” Fake News and Propaganda: Shaping Our Reality by Dana Gabriel

Unlike a totalitarian government where the dictators’ minions control the media, AmeriKKKa is a fascist oligarchy where the corporate elites own and control the media and the corporate directors and their flunkies dictate the content tone and tenor of the programming. AmeriKKKa is a fascist state and is becoming more repressive daily. The ruling elites have mastered the technique of making people think we live in a “democracy”, that we have some say over our lives when in fact every day they are scheming and conspiring to take away more and more of our “liberties”. We are kept distracted and the distractions are so pervasive we don’t realize what is going on. Even when some of us do wake up we tend to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the system oppressing us and awed by the apathy of our peers.

“What are its mechanisms of control? The use of telecommunications technologies for surveillance is obvious. So are willful alteration of computer data for public reportage, manipulation of television news for opinion-shaping, and use of microwave-emitting weapons for crowd control. Less obvious are what could be called ‘inverted mechanization’ whereby citizens blindly accept the march of technological development as an expression of a very inexact, some would say erroneous, concept of ‘progress.’ One mechanism propagating such blindness is the U.S. government’s invisible role as regulatory handmaiden to industry, offering little-to-no means for citizen determination of what technologies are disseminated; instead we get whatever GMOs and nuclear plants corporations dish out. A glaring example is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that, seeking to not repeat the ‘errors’ of the nuclear industry, offers zero public input as to health or environmental impacts of its antennae, towers, and satellites – the result being that the public has not a clue about the very real biological effects of electromagnetic radiation. Inverted mechanization is thrust forward as well by unequal access to resources: corporations lavishly crafting public opinion and mounting limitless legal defenses versus citizen groups who may be dying from exposure to a dangerous technology but whose funds trickle in from bake sales.” Techno-Fascism Every Move You Make By CHELLIS GLENDENNING www.counterpunch.com/glendenning06192008.html

We live in challenging times. The CREATOR and ancestors are urging us on to rise to the occasion, shake off the lethargy and cowardice, tap into our innate genius and potential, reconnect with our African mind and SPIRIT, actualize our greatness, redeem and transform ourselves and restore Ma’at to planet earth. Now is the time. The word is depending upon us.

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Rusert's death Gives US Media Some Breathing Room

2008-06-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

Russert’s Death Gives US Media Breathing Room

“The notion that Russert asked the 'tough questions' of those he interviewed, advanced by a host of former colleagues on a tribute broadcast this Sunday in place of “Meet the Press,” is absurd. During the run-up to the war, Russert, along with the rest of the media, provided a platform for Vice President Dick Cheney and others to present their lying claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction without seriously calling any of them into question. On March 16, 2003, only days before the US-led invasion of Iraq, Russert virtually handed his program over to Cheney, providing the latter with a propaganda opportunity in front of a large national audience, much of it skeptical about the administration’s claims. Russert’s particular role here was to politely raise certain doubts and allow Cheney to allay them.” www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/russ-j16.shtml

The sudden transition of corporate shill Tim Russert of NBC has given the US mind control apparatus some much needed breathing room. The corporate media has come under fire in recent months for its handling of the presidential primaries, the pass they give the Bu$h administration and the decline of open minded analysis and hard hitting investigative reporting. The media is supposed to have a liberal bias but in truth it is fascist and right wing in nature. Scott McClellan’s recent book took the corporate media to task for being sock puppets for George W Bu$h’s preemptive invasion of Iraq. McClellan’s book put the big time media talking heads in an extremely awkward position. There were no WMDs, Saddam Hussein was not involved in 9-11 and the invasion and occupation has not been a “cakewalk” as the Bu$h-Cheney administration and the corporate media repeatedly told us. Most AmeriKKKans have by now deduced we were snookered by the Bu$hites with the blessings and cooperation of the mainstream media. Folks are taking their revenge out on the corporate media; both newspaper readership, network and cable news viewing has declined precipitously. More people now get their news from the Internet ,short wave radio and the foreign press now than ever before. Disingenuous sycophants and shills like Tim Russert were the catalyst for these changes.
Russert died last Friday of a heart attack while at work in the NBC Washington Bureau office. His death provides a respite from the scrutiny and scorn McClellan’s book and recent events have refocused on the US media. The news and cable channels took a hit during the contrived controversies they created during the recent presidential primaries. McClellan’s book provided additional fuel for the fire. The media talking heads were all back peddling denouncing McClellan as a crass opportunist sell out who betrayed his former long time friend and associate George W Bu$h rather than owning up to their role in selling an illegal war.
But most AmeriKKKan’s knew the Bu$h administration conducted a prolonged propaganda campaign to dupe us into going along with his plans for imperialist wars beginning with the US invasion of Haiti, Afghanistan and then Iraq. Some of us have even pointed out the corporate media has given Bu$h a free pass on every major issue since he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2000. It was the corporate media who refused to grill Bu$h on his AWOL status during the Vietnam war, his inexperience on foreign affairs, his shady business history, the economy or the inconsistencies about the official government accounts of 9-11 or the obvious white wash and cover up of the 9-11 Commission!
Russert was a flunky, a functionary of the corporate elites doing the bidding of his fascist masters. The ruling elites use the Sunday morning “public affairs programs” like Meet The Press to promote their fascist agenda and Russert was a willing shill albeit one who occasionally exposed his guest’s inconsistencies and contradictions. But Russert was no threat to the status quo. If he were, he would never have been given the position at NBC on Meet The Press nor the wide latitude and free hand he was at MSNBC and CNBC. Russert was the quintessential company man and he was well paid for it.
But at his death, Russert’s contemporaries in the mainstream media went out their way to portray him as a sainted news hound. On MSNBC they were touting his devotion to Catholicism, how he contemplated going into the priesthood. On PBS he was canonized. It was sickening to see the talking heads sitting on stage reconstructing and making up history to make Russert a hero. In essence they were using Russert’s death to take the pressure off of themselves. By heaping praise on him they were using him to vicariously absolve themselves of their crimes of warmongering and deceit. His death gave them an opportune break from having to rationalize being sycophants and cheerleaders for Bu$h’s fascist agenda that time has shown to be one of the colossal, costly and bone headed misadventures of this nation’s history.
While he portrayed himself as a blue collar guy from Buffalo New York, Russert was actually a political insider having worked as the Chief of Staff for New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s senatorial campaign as well as press secretary for Mario Cuomo’s campaign for New York governor. His experiences and political connections helped him land a job at NBC. From there he parlayed his connections, skills and willingness to shill for the power elites to become host of NBC’s Meet The Press. Make no mistake Russert was no blue collar working class radical. He was one of the good ol’ boys as far as toeing the line for the corporate oligarchy. “Russert became a household name during the period of the severe decline of the American media, when ignorance, superficiality and cynicism became the hallmarks of all that passed for news and analysis. It is worth noting that in its original format ‘Meet the Press’ had a single guest and a panel of questioners. It went through various permutations, until ‘Under Russert,’ as one commentator notes, ‘the show was expanded to one hour, and became less of a televised press conference and more focused on Russert, with longer interviews and Russert hosting panels of experts.’” Tim Russert and the decay of the American media By David North and David Walsh 16 June 2008 www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/russ-j16.shtml
In the Orwellian New World Order a shill and propagandist like Russert is painted by his colleagues as a tough minded interviewer and reporter. “CBS News ‘Early Show’ Co-Anchor Harry Smith: ‘Man did Tim Russert love politics. He ate it, lived it and breathed it. His knowledge of it was organic, internal and genetic. It showed in his every broadcast, in his every debate appearance. He was not afraid, nor was he intimidated. And because he was so good at what he did, we were the beneficiaries. He was in that chair for us, and we were damned lucky he was.’” www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/13/politics/main4180701.shtml
The media is using Russert’s demise to take the pressure off of themselves, restore order and regain the initiative in the ongoing psychological war they are waging against the AmeriKKKan people. Russert himself admitted he wasn’t forceful in probing the administrations claims about the war on Terror and WMDs. Perhaps that’s why so many Washington insiders and media talking heads are singing Russert’s praises at a time when the corporate media has lost all credibility. They are cheering him on just like he cheered them and their polices that now have AmeriKKKa on the brink of fiscal collapse and moral ruin.
In fact the media’s coverage of Russert’s passing also allows the corporate media to keep the news of Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduction of thirty five articles of impeachment against George W Bu$h and the failure of the Democratic Congress to take serious action on it off the front pages or the TV news! The massive coverage of Russert’s death also allows all the news media to ignore the US Senate’s recently released report documenting Bu$h and Cheney lied about the threat of Saddam Hussein and Weapons of Mass Destruction, thus validating McClellan’s charges and Kucinich’s articles of impeachment . We certainly can’t have that can we? S now we see how the game is played; even in death Tim Russert is still performing useful service for his fascist masters.

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Major Corporate Media Cover Up

2008-06-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

Another Major Corporate Media Cover Up

“ 10/06/08 Belfast Telegraph - Former Democratic presidential contender, Dennis Kucinich, has called for the impeachment of George W Bush claiming that the president set out to deceive the nation, and violated his oath of office with the Iraq war. The Ohio representative yesterday introduced 35 articles of impeachment against Bush on the floor of the US House of Representatives. Kucinich unveiled a list of alleged illegal and improper acts by Bush, including war crimes. He accused Bush executing a "calculated and wide-ranging strategy" to deceive citizens and Congress into believing that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States. He went on to say that Bush and Cheney lied to Congress and the American public about the reasons for invading Iraq in 2003 and abused their offices in order to conduct the ‘War on Terror’ following the 9/11 attacks.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20061.htm

While the corporate mind control apparatus vainly attempts to make a case for Hillary Rodham Clinton being Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate, the biggest story since Scott McClellan’s new book revealed the Bu$h administration engaged in an ongoing and systematic propaganda campaign to deceive and dupe the AmeriKKKan public into going along with an illegal preemptive invasion of Iraq, the corporate media is deliberately ignoring an equally important story; the introduction of a thirty-five count articles of Impeachment against George W Bu$h. The so called “liberal media” (which is actually controlled by right wingers) either buried the story on the back pages or totally ignored it altogether. Dennis Kucinich considered by many of the cowards and crooks in Congress as a wild eyed idealist, has done what his colleagues should have done at least two years ago when the Democrats took control of the US House of Representatives. Back then Nancy Pelosi who became the first woman to be elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives arbitrarily took impeachment off the table even before she was sworn into her new position. ( I wonder what all the white feminists who supported Hillary Rodham Clinton a shout about female leadership have to say about that?)
While for me Kucinich’s actions are too little too late, and this is compounded by the fact he hasn’t received any backing or support from his spineless, morally deficient Congressional colleagues, at least one Congress person went on record saying enough is enough, its time Bu$h be held accountable for his crimes by the AmeriKKKan people. Even though Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the puppets, sell outs and cowards in Congress will not uphold their oaths, at least the Congressional record and history will reflect that one lone Congressman threw caution to the wind, obeyed his conscience and his sworn duty to defend and protect the US Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
It is quite telling that his colleagues are missing in action on this issue, even John Conyers who made such a big deal prior to the 2006 election about making impeachment proceedings one of his top priorities. The NeoCons and fascists within the Democratic Party got to Conyers early on threatening to withhold the Chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee from him if he didn’t stand down on the impeachment issue. Conyers acquiesced, shut up, took the position and rationalized his inaction by saying the votes weren’t there. So what if the votes weren’t there? At least let the people know you stand for something, let the citizenry know you know right from wrong that there are some members of Congress who have integrity and have put honor and doing the right thing above going along to get along!
I find it ironic the corporate media is now on their heels, awkwardly back peddling in a defensive posture because of Scott McClellan’s revelations about the media’s complicity in promoting the Iraq War. They spend their time gigglin’ and jivin’ trying to spin the story McClellan is the one who should be ashamed, that he is the money grubbing mercenary who sold Bu$h out for a lucrative book deal. Yet here is an important follow up story with all kinds of political implications staring them in the face and the corporate media is giving the Kucinich impeachment story no play or traction whatsoever. But anyone who says the media is part and parcel of an ongoing campaign of class warfare, disinformation, distraction and deceit is mocked and derided as a “conspiracy theorist”. Despite the fact the Pentagon recently admitted it employed retired military personnel to act as resource persons and talking heads to regurgitate their talking points to help sell the war and occupation of Iraq, anyone who points out this obvious collusion is dismissed as a nut.
If you bring up Operation Mockingbird a post WW II program whereby the newly created CIA schemed to infiltrate the media and have prominent journalists on their payroll, you are dismissed as a kook despite the fact Operation Mockingbird is now in full effect! There are some people who actually cannot connect the dots, who think the media doesn’t have a socio-political agenda, that “we the people” own the airwaves?! I beg to differ. The corporate media does the bidding of its owners and their shareholders. Their goal in this predatory capitalistic society is to make a profit, however; like their counterparts in totalitarian regimes, their job is to brainwash us, dummy us down and keep us bamboozled and discombobulated.
We are witnessing the results of a major conspiracy, to deceive, defraud and rob the AmeriKKKan people of our sons and daughters and our wealth via perpetual war. FYI, the legal definition of the word conspiracy is: “a combination of two or more persons to commit a criminal or unlawful act, or to commit a lawful act by criminal or unlawful means; or a combination of two or more person by concerted action to accomplish an unlawful purpose, or some purpose not in itself unlawful by unlawful means.” Barron’s Law Dictionary Fourth Edition. The mass media in concert with the Bu$h administration conspired either through verbal agreement or concerted action to dupe the AmeriKKKan people into supporting illegal invasions of Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now the corporate media is engaged in a massive cover up of their culpability. To accomplish this they must trivialize, ignore or suppress the news, analysis and follow up of Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s introduction of articles of impeachment against their co-conspirator George W Bu$h. The question is what are we going to do about it? I’ve done my part by bringing this to your attention. You can do you part by writing calling, faxing of E-mailing your Congressional representative and asking him or her to support Kucinich in this effort!

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George W Bu$h Be Tried As A War Criminal?

2008-06-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Will George W. Bu$h Be Prosecuted As A War Criminal?

“Under the Nuremberg standard, Bush is definitely a war criminal. The US Supreme Court also exposed Bush to war crime charges under both the US War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Geneva Conventions when the Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld against the Bush administration’s military tribunals and inhumane treatment of detainees. President Bush and his Attorney General agree that under existing laws and treaties Bush is a war criminal together with many members of his government. To make his war crimes legal after the fact, Bush has instructed the Justice (sic) Department to draft changes to the War Crimes Act and to US treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions. One of Bush’s changes would deny protection of the Geneva Conventions to anyone in any American court.” Bush Seeks Retroactive Laws To Protect Himself From War Crimes Prosecution by Paul Craig Roberts http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts169.html

As imbecilic as some in the alternative media portray him and as out of it as most of his inner circle depict him in their memoirs, George W. Bu$h is really sly like a fox. He knowingly launched an illegal invasion and occupation of three nations (if you count Haiti) that posed no threat to the US, he ordered torture and sanctioned all kinds of inhumane treatment of civilians and supposed “enemy combatants” and he has deliberately violated the US Constitution at will. After invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq, in the second half of 2006 Bu$h ordered his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to find ways to circumvent Geneva Convention rules and absolve him of any culpability as a war criminal. Bu$h even went to great lengths to seek out members of Congress to ask them to pass retroactive legislation that would protect him and members of his cabinet from being tried as war criminals under existing US codes and protocols of the Geneva Convention. Does that sound like Bu$h is an idiot, oblivious to the consequences of his actions?
Despite his media contrived image as a “man of God”, Bu$h knows he is a war criminal but he also knows as a sitting president the US Constitution protects him from indictment or arrest. He knows once he leaves office things will change and he is fair game. As his popularity and approval rating sank precipitously and remained at the lowest level of any sitting president, Bu$h is keenly aware many are chomping at the bit to bring charges against him and his cronies in an international tribunal, or the International Criminal Court once he leaves office.
As Bu$h’s imperialist occupations drag on with no end in sight, as revelations about atrocities mount, even the gullible and comatose US public is beginning to sense something is amiss; that AmeriKKKa is heading in the wrong direction. Despite the incessant jingoism and militarist propaganda that is the bedrock of Bu$h’s bogus War on Terrorism, after five grueling years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, AmeriKKKans are becoming extremely war weary. As we see the debilitating consequences of these wars on our daily lives, staggering inflation, gas prices souring, record military spending, corruption and waste trumping domestic needs, government effectiveness and credibility evaporating as a compliant Congress rubber stamps Bu$h’s military misadventures over the wishes of the people, people are now considering the need for justice. Sensing this, in 2006 Bu$h moved to protect himself and his administration from prosecution for war crimes. “The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments. Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean. The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking. Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as ‘outrages upon [the] personal dignity’ of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women's underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- that fall short of torture. ‘People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope,’ said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.’” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080801276_pf.html
In 2006 the Democrats sold “we the people out” by taking impeachment off the table; so now the only recourse for justice is trying the Bu$h cabal as war criminals. Scott McClellan’s new book as well as statements by Paul Wolfowitz and numerous former Bu$h administration members and NeoCons provide ample evidence Bu$h should indeed be hauled into court and tried as a war criminal as soon as he leaves the White House. “The United States already has a statute on the books relevant to US criminal acts in repeated abuse of Iraqi prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions; the question is, how can that statute be made to work, particularly in light of inhuman treatment of so many Iraqi prisoners in US custody - in some cases resulting in death. Legal scholars and experts in International Criminal Law are presently researching the idea of a legal brief that sets forth the potential for criminal/legal liability on the part of top Bush Administration officials including President Bush himself. Such a brief will define the need for an independent, non-Justice Department-led investigation which will educate the press, the public, and Congress to the point where enough pressure builds for serious investigations to begin. Members of Congress, for example, could call on disclosure of information about the President’s knowledge and authorization of illegal Iraqi interrogations. For example, when was Bush informed about the Iraqi prisoner abuses, and what did he do to stop the abuse, and did he ever authorize the torture of prisoners. Congress could also call upon the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the President. Under such auspices key members of the Bush administration will be questioned about non-disclosure on Bush’s authorization of illegal Iraqi interrogations; likewise the Attorney Generally will be formally questioned about the appointment of a Special Prosecutor and the official's own statements concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq in tandem with questions concerning prisoner abuse in Iraq and other outstanding questions relating to International Criminal law.” Bush Administration War Crimes in Iraq http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_Administration_War_Crimes_in_Iraq
The article quoted above is about international war crimes, not the domestic crimes Bu$h has committed such as illegally spying on all AmeriKKans without warrant or reason or his clear violations of the US Constitution and US Bill of Rights. These crimes need to also be addressed! The question is, will justice prevail? Is it possible to get true justice and if so when will Bu$h and his fellow sociopaths be held accountable for their mendacity, genocide and other high crimes and misdemeanors?

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Rating Services Cover Their Asses

2008-06-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Ratings Services Cover Their Asses

“NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's in a sweeping move on Monday that rocked markets cut ratings on a number of major U.S. securities firms including Lehman Brothers Inc and said outlooks on the large U.S. financial institutions are now mostly negative. Other major firms downgraded were Merrill Lynch & Co Inc and Morgan Stanley.” http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0246031620080602

In a long overdo and shocking move this past Monday, Standard and Poor’s rating service lowered the ratings on several of Wall Street’s heaviest hitters. I suspect they are doing so to prevent further damage and trauma to investors but more so to protect themselves from future lawsuits and litigation. In a major economic crisis such as we are experiencing now, there are numerous culprits responsible for the massive mortgage and credit collapse that are rocking the US domestic markets and global economy. The Federal Reserve Bank a collection of privately owned banks that Congress gave permission to set US monetary, interest and credit policies is the prime perpetrator. But the collapse wouldn’t be this pervasive without the active participation and collusion of players such as Wall Street, the mortgage companies and brokers, insurance companies, the bond rating agencies, the media and the US government.
One of the most crucial players in the massive fraud that has propped Wall Street in recent years has been the bond and financial rating services such as Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch who colluded with Wall Street investment and brokerage houses and the shadow banking system (which is made up of unregulated hedge funds, derivatives and other exotic sounding schemes) to trick individuals and institutional entities such as mutual, pension and hedge funds into pouring their money in extremely risky investment vehicles. The rating companies have helped defraud millions of individual and institutional investors (mutual, pension and hedge funds) out of their hard earned money by giving companies and investment banks like Enron or Bear Sterns, for example, favorable ratings when they knew full the accountants, bean counters and CEOs were using what even an idiot like George W Bu$h called “fuzzy math”. They knew the books were cooked and the loans were high risk yet they turned a blind eye and deaf ear and gave them favorable ratings so they could get their commissions and fees.
It is the job of the rating companies to analyze the ability of companies to meet their financial obligations, earn a profit and insure their investors get a good return on their investment. This means doing due diligence, researching and investigating the company’s, industry’s or government’s past history, its current financial status and projecting how well it can fulfill its responsibilities to its shareholders and investors. “Some financial analysts, called ratings analysts, evaluate the ability of companies or governments that issue bonds to repay their debts. On the basis of their evaluation, a management team assigns a rating to a company’s or government’s bonds, which helps them to decide whether to include them in a portfolio. Other financial analysts perform budget, cost, and credit analysis as part of their responsibilities. Financial analysts use spreadsheet and statistical software packages to analyze financial data, spot trends, and develop forecasts. Analysts also use the data they find to measure the financial risks associated with making a particular investment decision. On the basis of their results, they write reports and make presentations, usually with recommendations to buy or sell particular investments.” http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos259.htm
These reports are the life blood of the ratings service, and an important tool for investors. If the rating services say a company, industry, government or a country is a good risk, a sure thing, it sends a signal that it is ok for investors to invest in that company, industry or government. The current mortgage crisis could never have been as widespread as it is, without the active collusion of the major bond rating companies. These companies knowingly abdicated their professional responsibilities and gave dubious bond offerings such as the shaky subprime mortgages and other loans (auto, student and speculative ventures the Wall Street investment firms subsequently repackaged, bundled and sold around the world) the highest ratings which prompted investors to buy them. The Triple A ratings these services gave and their potential for high returns are what induced many individuals and institutional investors such as pension, mutual and hedge funds and commercial banks to buy them. The bonds and loans were shaky from the jump but the ratings services didn’t care. The name of the game was to get the suckers to buy, buy, buy.
The Fed started it all by lowering interest rates to record levels to stimulate massive borrowing and consumption to keep the US economy afloat following the dot.com bubble’s collapse and the recession of 2000. The Bu$h administration promoted home ownership and “the AmericKKKan Dream” especially to lower class folks and the media pumped it up via advertising and the talking heads on the financial programs. The rating companies got into the act by giving high risk debt packages triple A ratings, for which they got paid handsomely. The mortgage companies, insurance companies and bankers sold people loans they couldn’t afford, bundled them together and sold them as bonds and securitized debt. Duped and unsuspecting suckers bought them to the tune of trillions of dollars.
Now the whole system is coming unraveled. The culprits are scurrying like rats on a sinking ship. Everyone is trying to cover their ass. The Fed and the US government are desperately trying to put together a bail out package that will save Wall Street but under the guise of helping homeowners facing default and foreclosure. Don’t believe the hype, it is a scam to put the onus on taxpayers instead of the banks and speculators! It will be a redo of the Saving and Loan scandal. Now the rating agencies and Bond insurers who faced a crisis of their own this summer, are scrambling to avoid wholesale litigation from institutional investors and the blue bloods who lost billions in the mortgage scams because they believed the ratings were legit and valid.
Keep your eyes and ears open, 2009 will be a year of massive litigation as more and more institutional investors (governments, pension funds, mutual funds etc) lose money because the housing, bond and credit markets continue to contract. It will be a big mess, which will exacerbate the recession. Federal, state and local courts will get involved due to an avalanche of litigation. I predict the courts will side with the bankers and rating companies because money talks and judges like politicians are being bought off yearly. The courts will side with Wall Street, the insurance companies and rating services because if they don’t, the resulting losses in restitution, pay outs and punitive damages will be in the trillions. Joe and Jane Sixpack will get no relief from the courts. Wall Street, the banks and rating services are in deep trouble already and can’t afford that kind of public spanking. So they will collude with the US Congress to bail them out, or the courts will look out for the class interests of the financial elites. As usual the little guy will get shafted.

-30-.

Bu$h Lied

2008-05-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Bu$h Lied and The Corporate Media Went Along

“WASHINGTON — Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated ‘political propaganda campaign’ led by President Bush and aimed at ‘manipulating sources of public opinion’ and ‘downplaying the major reason for going to war.’ McClellan, 40, includes the charges in his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, that delivers a harsh look at the White House and the man he served for close to a decade. He describes Bush as demonstrating a ‘lack of inquisitiveness,’ says the White House operated in ‘permanent campaign’ mode and says he was deceived by some in the president's inner circle about the leak of a CIA operative's name.” http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/05/scott-mcclellan-bush-misled-americans.html

The corporate mind control apparatus is making a big deal over former White House Press Secretary and long time George W Bu$h supporter Scott McClellan’s revelations in his new book the Bu$h administration lied about Iraq and used a “sophisticated political propaganda campaign’ to dupe and deceive the AmeriKKKan public into supporting an imperialist war. Tell me something I don’t already know! Most thinking people knew this all along. After the Downing Street Memos revealed the truth about the Bu$h administration cooking intelligence and twisting the “facts” to support its hubris and warmongering, it should come as no surprise an insider like McCellan is spilling the beans about the inner workings of the Bu$h regime. Now all we need is some brave soul to come forth and tell us the real deal about 9-11 and how the Bu$hites having been warned by as many as eleven foreign governments and intelligence agencies either allowed it to happen or, as I believe, actually facilitated the attack and blamed it on some patsies to further their domestic and imperialist agendas.
The interesting thing about the corporate media’s response to McClellan’s book is, they are reluctant to look in the mirror and accept responsibility and culpability for helping Bu$h dupe the masses. The New York Times was the main majorette for the invasion of Iraq. Judith Miller was just one of the Times employees who served as a trumpeter for the Bu$h war agenda. If you get a chance look at the PBS special Selling The War. Bill Moyers the intrepid PBS producer and host chronicles exactly what McClellan revealed only he focuses on the corporate media’s abysmal failure to question, challenge or debunk the administration's claims Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction and that he posed a threat to the US.
The truth of the matter is without the corporate media lap dogs and sycophants validating and repeating Bu$h’s okey-doke and then embedding their employees with the invading US military to juice support for the invasion, the AmeriKKKan people would not have had to endure the colossal losses of life and treasure this misadventure is wracking up daily. The corporate media’s role in marketing Bu$h’s imperialist overreach would have made Joseph Gobbles the Nazi propaganda chief proud. Gobbles and his Nazi minions were masters of the Big Lie, the belief that if you repeated a lie often and vociferously enough people would accept it as truth. For its part the corporate media followed the fascist dictates and class interests of its owners and shareholders dutifully promoting war and imperialism under the guise of Bu$h’s bogus War on Terrorism. The right wing corporate media ( which is mis-characterized as being “liberal”) relentlessly pushed for war. “Unfortunately instead of asking hard questions, the corporate-owned mass media has everything it could to provide a broad audience for the Bush Administration’s propaganda and lies. Paul Krugman was right in pointing out that the American public opinion support for war was largely a consequence of the biased US media. 71% of the American public believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a majority did not know that none of the hijackers were from Iraq.” http://paxhumana.info/article.php3?id_article=160
So now the talking heads are making McClellan the story when the real story is their lack of due diligence and independence. With rare exceptions the prostituted press served as the three monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil for Bu$h’s warmongering. Of course they are covering their behinds now by helping the Bu$h administration spin McClellan’s revelation as “disloyalty” to Bu$h rather than doing any introspection, soul searching or admitting their complicity in the deliberate deception of the AmeriKKKan people.
For some of us McClellan’s revelations are nothing new, in fact they are too little too late. I’ve been saying this for eight years, trying to wake people up to the massive hypocrisy and lies the corporate elites and their flunkies in the government have been running on us. It would be easy for me to say “I told you so.” or “See, I was right.’ But being right is no consolation. It is a hollow vindication because it’s not about me; too many innocent people have died, too much money has been wasted and AmeriKKKa has descended deeper and deeper into a moral abyss. AmeriKKKa has become a pariah and major threat to the peace and stability of the world. We now have ample proof Bu$h and Co. are war criminals: they initiated a preemptive war, torture, privation and genocide. McClellans’ book merely provides another piece of evidence. They all should be arrested and tried for their crimes!
What are we going to do about it? How will justice be served? Will we be like the Germans who stood passively by and allowed Hitler to run roughshod over Germany and Europe? Or will we find the courage and moral fortitude to resist, to take our place as righteous leaders, assert ourselves and thwart the criminal cabal’s agenda? Thoreau, Ghandi and King proved civil disobedience, economic boycotts and passive resistance work against overwhelming odds and repressive regimes. In fact they are the most practical tools short of all out revolution available to us. The question is will we use them to alter the course of human history for the better?

-30-

Thank You Mrs Rosalie Pazant

2008-05-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Thank You Mrs. Rosalie Pazant

This past weekend I traveled with the Cheyney University National Alumni Association to the annual Gullah Festival in Beaufort South Carolina. This was my first trip to South Carolina. I had heard about the Gullah People years ago and the festival. Last Fall one of my fraternity brothers mentioned he was thinking about sponsoring a tour to the Gullah festival. To make a long story short, I didn’t hear anything more from him and when my alumni association announced it was sponsoring a tour I jumped on the chance.
The Gullah people are the direct descendants of West Africans who were kidnapped, captured and stolen from their native soil and brought to this hemisphere to work the cotton, sugarcane and rice plantations, clear the land, till the soil, to make it bloom and profitable for whites, most of whom were absentee owners. The most interesting aspect about the Gullah people is because of their location and isolation on the islands off the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, their extremely limited contact with Europeans, they retained much of the culture, folkways and traditions of their immediate African ancestors. You probably have heard the term Geechee. That was the name given to Gullah people, which when I was growing up was an extremely pejorative word. To call someone a Geechee was an insult, on the order of calling you black before black became positive, or calling you trifling or a nigger.
Geechees are the Gullah people who spoke a blended language comprised of African and European words but with a distinctly African syntax and flow. While the Gullah people used European words, the sounds, phrasing and order were entirely different from the way Europeans, their imitators and surrogates sounded. As with all things African in this country, Gullah culture and language was viewed as “less than” backward and inferior by whites. It was also denigrated, derided and made fun of by black people who had no idea what Gullah culture was. To their credit however, the Gullah people steadfastly refused to acquiesce to white notions of what proper language was or what it meant to be human. The Gullah people are fiercely proud of their heritage and background. Over the centuries, even though they too were enslaved they developed a different approach to bondage, they were more self-sufficient and they were the first to be liberated when the Union troops invaded the area. It was in South Carolina where General Sherman, in attempting to deal with the “contraband” which is what they called our ancestors took it upon himself to order the Gullah people be given up to forty acres of land vacated by the whites who had fled the area. (This is where the term “forty acres and a mule” originated.) The Gullah people of South Carolina were the first large group of Africans to be land owners and to be given the opportunity to purchase land for themselves.
During the brief period following the US Civil War called Reconstruction, Africans in South Carolina as well as other parts of the South played a monumental role in shaping the reorganization of America with regard to how it treated all its citizens. Alas the democratic idealism and zeal of Reconstruction was short lived. The ruling elites in both the North and South reverted to their oppressive ways. Ironically they devised even more pernicious forms of peonage. But folks on the islands, because they were still isolated from whites and close knit, experienced more autonomy and self reliance then their mainland brethren. Because of this, the Gullah people tend to have more pride in who they are, their past and their potential albeit still living in a virulently racist country. It wasn’t until they ventured off the islands or as more and more whites infiltrated the coastal regions that the Gullah people experienced overt contacts with racism and a blatant denigration of their culture. In recent decades as more and more whites came to the coastal islands, as usual they brought their psychosis and greed with them. Over the years many Geechee families have lost their lands due to a myriad of reasons and whites have eagerly gobbled up thousands of acres.
In the ‘80's a few descendants of the Geechees decided to do something to celebrate themselves, venerate who they were and honor their unique heritage. Mrs Rosalie Pazant who worked at Savannah State College at the time was retiring soon but she wanted to get involved in something positive to remain active. Some friends encouraged her to rekindle the spirit of a local tradition called “Decoration Day” but with an emphasis on education and preservation. So she and several others set out to plan what has evolved into what has become the Gullah Festival. The festival is a unabashed celebration of Gullah history, its’ African roots, its’ unique culture and legacy. This year the festival was held from Friday May 23 through Sunday May 25. The 2008 festival featured plays, panel discussions, artistic creativity, and assorted edutainment. But more importantly the Gullah Festival serves as a homecoming celebration ,it is also an initiation and baptism into Gullah culture. 2008 was the twenty-second year of the festival. Most of the festival’s activities are held on the newly renovated waterfront area of the Beaufort River in downtown Beaufort. This is prime land. Naturally there are elements in Beaufort that don’t want a festival that unashamedly celebrates being African held at that location even though the festival brings in major tourist revenue for the hotels and restaurants in the region.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Pazant and her supporters remain steadfast and undeterred. They plan to keep having the festival far into the future. If you want to experience what it genuinely means to be proud to be an African on a daily basis, attend the Beaufort Gullah Festival. In November the historic Penn Center in St Helena Island, across the bridge from Beaufort, also sponsors a Heritage Festival. This celebration is another opportunity to discover the richness and revitalizing power of the Gullah people. It is an opportunity to see first hand the Geechee people’s uncompromising pride in their African heritage. I was just as energized attending the Gullah Festival this weekend as I was in 2000 when I went to Kemet and saw for myself the wonders created by our ancient African ancestors. For facilitating this experience for me, I thank the Cheyney National Alumni Association but I especially appreciate Mrs. Rosalie Pazant who is now 91 years old. Mrs Pazant is still the president of the festival. I thank Mrs Pazant, her daughters who support her and their board for holding fast to the vision despite the myriad obstacles they’ve faced over the years. Thank you Mrs. Rosalie Pazant!

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Remembering Malcolm X

2008-05-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

Remembering Malcolm X

“You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. ” Malcolm X

It is right and proper to pause and remember the life, legacy and works of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz also known as Malcolm X on his natal day. His dedication and sacrifice for the upliftment and liberation of our people are exemplary. Malcolm Little aka “Red” aka Malcolm X aka El Hajj Malik El Shabazz is a shining example of transformation, personal redemption, true manhood, integrity and courage in an age of wholesale emasculation, cowardice, mindlessly treacherous self-negation. Many of us are familiar with his story, how he was born into a family who were supporters of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. His father Earl Little was a fiery and courageous preacher who was an organizer for the UNIA. His father died under mysterious circumstances which left a gaping hole in the family structure. Malcolm’s mother who was suddenly forced to raise her family without the support of her murdered husband suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. The family was scattered, forced to live in foster homes and with relatives. Young Malcolm was naturally bright but his intellect was not nurtured in the white schools he attended in Michigan. Like many black boys, then and now, his white teachers discouraged him and deliberately attempted to crush his spirit and frustrate his dreams of becoming a lawyer.
Eventually Malcolm left the Mid-West and went to stay with a half sister in the Boston area where he fell into the thug life which landed him in jail. While incarcerated, Malcolm was introduced to the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm was accepted into the organization and began training in its doctrines and philosophy. His mental agility and love of earning helped him grow and demonstrate his natural leadership skills which were soon recognized within the NOI . Malcolm went on to become one of the NOI’s top organizers and recruiters and eventually became the national spokesman for Mr Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. A subsequent rift with the Nation lead to his suspension and eventual departure from the NOI. Nevertheless, Malcolm used that situation to expand his horizons and offer a broader message of liberation, political engagement and global awareness. Once out from under the constraints of the Nation of Islam and their parochial message, Malcolm attempted to link up with world leaders in an effort to bring the United States before the World Court for its crimes against Africans in America and its imperialist and genocidal policies around the world. His activities caused the US government much concern and so he was “neutralized” to use their language in a futile effort to halt the rise of African consciousness and liberation.
Malcolm X was the catalyst for a much more militant and global response to European colonialism and AmeriKKKan oppression. His speeches and his fearlessness were a beacon showing the way to manhood to a new generation of Blacks. Hence the plutocrats exploited ideological differences between Malcolm and the NOI and used it as a cover for his assassination. They killed Malcolm but not the movement he ignited. Malcolm was the direct progenitor of the Black Power, Black Arts, Black Consciousness and Pan-African movements still alive today. Despite his assassination and the vicious counter insurgency activities of the US government like COINTELPRO, Operation CHAOS, the militarization of local police and the corporate media these movements still percolate within our consciousness. Malcolm’s words are just as relevant and powerful today as they were in the mid ‘60's mainly because our enemies are just as psychopathic and lethal , some might say even more so than they were then.
Regarding US imperialism and oppression which is just as rampant today in Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and threatens to erupt in Iran, Syria and Lebanon as it was in Southeast Asia in the ‘60's Malcolm said, “The same rebellion, the same impatience, the same anger that exists in the hearts of the dark people in Africa and Asia is existing in the hearts and minds of 20 million black people in this country who have been just as thoroughly colonized as the people in Africa and Asia.” Malcolm put our struggle in global context and this unnerved the ruling oligarchy. We have to familiarize ourselves with his message today because it; just like Martin Luther King’s latter speeches makes the link between domestic violence and oppression here and the dastardly deeds the US government is doing overseas on behalf of their corporate masters. The system has neither repented nor reformed in the thirty three years since Malcolm’s murder. It has gotten worse.
Speaking of the system, just as Malcolm astutely revealed the weaknesses of the Civil Rights movement versus a genuine human rights struggle; I’m sure if he were alive today he would point out the blatant contradictions of Barack Obama’s candidacy. Malcolm was an uncompromising champion of truth and freedom. He knew the US system was throughly corrupt which is why he talked about revolution. In his “The Ballot or The Bullet” speech he outlined the options: true reform or revolution. Given the stranglehold the corporate elites have on the government today, humane reform appears unlikely.
What are our options? Do we have any viable choices? Our options appear to be limited to: continuing the insanity, the delusion of inclusion or going into serious survival mode based upon race first, ethnocentric organization, mobilization and actualization of our innate genius, resources and energies. Once we do this we can begin providing for our own protection, security, food, commerce and necessities. This was the same message of Booker T Washington, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Noble Drew Ali, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. It is fitting on his natal day we revisit Malcolm’s message and rededicate ourselves to bringing it into fruition.

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Curretn Thought About Current Events

2008-05-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Current Thoughts About Current Events

“Israel's lobby in the U.S. has been calling for confrontation with Iran ever since "Mission Accomplished." AIPAC, the powerhouse lobby for the Jewish state, has made the Iranian "threat" the centerpiece of its legislative and "educational" agenda. The Lobby's neoconservative allies have been clamoring for a fresh conflict, using their key positions as columnists, publicists, think-tank gurus, and television talking heads to beat the drums for war. And those neocons still in positions of power in the government, centered in the office of the vice president, have been making the case inside the administration, with some success.” The Silenced Majority No one wants another war – so why does it seem inevitable? by Justin Raimondo http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12812

I watched CNN last night as they kept replaying Barack Obama’s interview with Wolf Blitzer. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “here we go again, Obama is being set up by media again.” Keep in mind it was CNN that broadcast Rev. Jeremiah Wrights whole speech at the Detroit NAACP which was later augmented by C-Span’s broadcast (and CNN’s replay) of Wright’s National Press Club speech the following day which allowed the corporate mind control apparatus to keep the Wright “controversy” alive and in the forefront of our consciousness. Last night CNN was focusing on Obama’s response to a comment John McCain made about Obama’s supposed support from Hamas the militant Palestinian organization. McCain’s camp was ‘upset” to hear CNN tell it, about a veiled dig at McCain’s age by Obama in his response to McCain’s comments . This is another contrived controversy created by the corporate media. It’s goal is to keep Obama on the defensive using the backdrop of events in Lebanon, Palestine, Iran and Iraq to trap him, trip him up and ultimately force him bow down to the Zionist elites and embrace their agenda in the region. Events unfolding in the region will set the stage for another fiery crucible to challenge Obama’s mettle and his integrity. But first they must make Obama prostrate himself publicly, pledge his fealty to Israel and pander to the Israeli lobby. In the unlikely event Obama fails to do so, the corporate media will viciously turn on him, unleash its propaganda hounds to paint him as totally unprepared and “unelectable” like they did Michael Dukakis in 1988.
It’s no secret Israel is still smarting from the thumping they took from Hizbollah when they invaded Lebanon in 2006. The myth of Israeli invincibility was thoroughly shattered as the disciplined grass roots militia flummoxed the professional Israeli military and made them look like the amateurs. So now the US backed puppet government in Lebanon is making waves threatening Hizbollah. Of course Hizbollah is not going to back down nor give up their telecommunications network which for them is the lifeline that helps prevent another Israeli invasion. This way Israel doesn’t have to risk another confrontation and loss in Lebanon. If Hizbollah is targeted by the Lebanese government, attacked and criminalized so much the better. It severely weakens of eliminates one more enemy of Israel.
McCain challenged Obama on Hamas but what the Zionist controlled corporate media in the US fails to point out is, Hamas is the legally elected government entity in Palestine! The Palestinians chose Hams, a self-styled militant Pro-Palestinian organization to represent them. The Palestinians want respect and to be treated fairly, something the imperialist Israelis are loath to do. So the Palestinians turned to the people they thought would stand up to Israeli aggression. Hamas is a force to be reckoned with in the region. Why not talk to Hamas? Why must the US always take the side of Israelis who are the aggressors in the region?
Ever notice how the media demonises anyone who dares to speak out about the lopsidedness of US foreign policy in the region or who takes the side of the Palestinians? Look at what the media did to Jimmy Carter recently or how they tried to trivialize Bishop Desmond Tutu’s observations and comments that the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians is very similar to how the European invader/settlers treated the indigenous Africans under apartheid.
In the midst of all this CNN and ultimately the corporate media will keep pressuring and hammering Obama until he capitulates on Hamas, Hizbollah, Iraq and Iran just like they made him do in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright set up. The pro-black Wright issue was the media litmus test for Obama. The next one will be Israel. Obama will be forced to come out strong in support of Israel in order to circumvent establishment pawns like Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain’s claims he is “unknown, unpredictable and untested”. What they mean by that is, Obama hasn’t completely sold out to toe the Zionist line like they have. But if he is to get the nomination and ultimately the presidency he will!
In the meantime the Israeli lobby is pressing their case for a strike against Iran even as they beat the drums for conflict in Syria and prepare for another assault (this time by proxy) on Lebanon. This is all part of their overarching plan to subdue the region with the help of their AmeriKKKan lackeys. “It is impossible that Israeli governments remained unaware that their efforts in the West Bank and Gaza would impoverish the Palestinian people. It is inexcusable that once noting the obvious results of these efforts that a government would not amend its direction in order to prevent a total breakdown of a people’s life. It is inconceivable that a government would defy world institution laws and the appeal for a change in course in order to remedy the disastrous consequences inflicted upon the Palestinians. It is obvious that Israel’s polices have prepared the complete destruction of the Palestinian people. Is this agenda part of a larger agenda that intends to reshape the Middle East regardless of the destruction committed against Arab people? The last sixty years have witnessed several wars in which Israel has expanded from the original partition plan to control of all Mandatory Palestine. The Golan has been seized from Syria and its territory cleared of almost all Syrian inhabitants and their previous villages. Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt during wars in 1956 and 1967 and was forced to relinquish its occupation. In several wars, Israel occupied Lebanon until the Litani River and was responsible for mass displacement of Lebanese civilians, almost 1 million in the 2006 war.” The Harsh Reality of the Middle East Conflict by Dan Lieberman / May 3rd, 2008 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/the-harsh-reality-of-the-middle-east-conflict/
Of course the corporate media invariably sides with Israel and touts the Israeli line making the criminals the victims and the victims the criminals. Look for the corporate media to hammer Obama about his loyalty to Israel and its’ right to “exist” despite the fact Israel is the only country aggressively capturing land in the region! This will be a key element in the media’s treatment of Obama; not the economy, not taxes but the Zionist agenda. Wall Street is already in his camp and he’s in theirs’ so the economy is really not an issue. The media scrutiny of Obama about Israel will get more intense as the situations in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Iran play out in the very near future. This may be the “October surprise” the Clintons, McCain and their warmongering supporters need to pull this thing out.

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Deja Vu All over Again?

2008-05-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Deja Vu All Over Again?

“Iran has switched from dollar to euro and yen in oil trading, says international affairs director of the National Iranian Oil Company. Hojjatollah Ghanimifard in an interview with Fars news agency said since last year Iran's oil transactions have been conducted in euro and yen, and dollar has been completely replaced by these two major currencies. ‘Iran has reached agreements with all its crude oil buyers to pay in foreign currencies other than the US dollar,’ he added. Ghanimifard also noted that Iran's crude oil transactions in Europe are conducted in euro, while both euro and yen are used for its oil sales in Asia.” Iran using euro, yen in oil deals
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:33:23 http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=53742&sectionid=3510213

The US corporate media serves as a megaphone for the Bu$h administrations continuous saber rattling and threats against Iran, charging that country is a nuclear threat to the region, the world. The Bu$h administration, and the Zionists are saying Iranian “special elements” are the ones supplying the Iraqi anti-AmeriKKKan occupation with moral support, weaponry and training. Of course just like the run up to the invasion of Iraq, there is not one iota of real proof any of these claims are true. They are repeated incessantly by the corporate media, key Bu$h administration officials and the Zionist lobby. As the master of the malapropism Yogi Berra once said, “this looks like deja vu all over again.”
It sure does, in more ways than one. Remember the lies and the deluge of anti-Iraq propaganda we were subjected to prior to the US invasion of Iraq? Remember when Colin Powell, the only person in the Bu$h administration who had one scintilla of credibility destroyed it all by going to the United Nations and putting on a dog and pony show to demonstrate to the world body Iraq had stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons? Remember how none of that turned out to be true? Remember Donald Rumsfeld saying at a press conference the US intelligence and military knew exactly where Saddam Hussein was keeping his store of WMD, then when they turned out not to be there he claimed he never said it? If you are not familiar with Rumsfeld’s lies about WMD watch yourself at http://youtube.com/watch?v=EYI7JXGqd0o&feature=related.
Rumsfeld wasn’t the only one; they all lied Bu$h, Cheney, Rice, Powell, especially the NeoCons and the Zionist lobby. I remind you of this because, “this looks like deja vu all over again.” Not only is the Bu$h-Cheney cabal doing the same thing over again, lying to start an aggressive imperialist invasion of a nation that poses no threat to the US, its’ neighbors or US allies in the region, they are planning to attack Iran for the same reasons they attacked Iraq: US dollar hegemony, oil and Israel.
In 2000 Saddam Hussein instituted a change in policy and began exchanging Iraqi oil not for US dollars but with European Union Euros. Following WWII the US dollar was the world medium of exchange even during recessions and slumps. At first Hussein’s move didn’t make much of a splash because the US dollar was valued higher than the Euro. But by 2003 when Bu$h fabricated his lies about WMD, the US dollar was in decline and the Euro was on the rise, threatening US dollar preeminence. Hussein’s move posed a major dilemma for the keepers of the dollar. As his move benefitted Iraq’s economy (the Euro was beginning to overtake the dollar in value) and other OPEC members started to think about doing the same thing, Uncle Sam said, “oh, hell no!” Since the US was pummeling Iraq via sanctions and thirteen years of bombing they couldn’t change course so they escalated the assault into a full scale invasion. They deposed Hussein to teach the rest of the world a lesson.
Of course the US corporate media will never tell the truth but this is the real deal, “It is now obvious the invasion of Iraq had less to do with any threat from Saddam’s long-gone WMD program and certainly less to do to do with fighting International terrorism than it has to do with gaining strategic control over Iraq’s hydrocarbon reserves and in doing so maintain the U.S. dollar as the monopoly currency for the critical international oil market. Throughout 2004 information provided by former administration insiders revealed the Bush/Cheney administration entered into office with the intention of toppling Saddam Hussein. Candidly stated, ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ was a war designed to install a pro-U.S. government in Iraq, establish multiple U.S military bases before the onset of global Peak Oil, and to reconvert Iraq back to petrodollars while hoping to thwart further OPEC momentum towards the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency (i.e. “petroeuro”). However, subsequent geopolitical events have exposed neoconservative strategy as fundamentally flawed, with Iran moving towards a petroeuro system for international oil trades, while Russia evaluates this option with the European Union.” Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse by William Clark http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html
Looks like deja vu all over again, because Iran recently announced the opening of its oil exchange and they are only selling their oil in exchange for Euros and Japanese Yen! This of course does not sit well with Wall Street and the big oil consortium. Since the Bu$h administration is their lackey willingly doing their bidding as all previous administrations have, they are now poised to try to intimidate and coerce Iran back into the US dollar fold. Keep in mind neither Saddam Hussein nor the Iranian leaders want war with the US. They want to be sovereign nations, left alone to do what is best for them and their people.
The US is a bully. The US government is like the bullies we may have dealt with in junior high school who tried to take your lunch money. If you gave in, they took your money any and every time they felt like it. If you fought maybe you lost, but often if you fought at least you got respect and quite often they left you alone. If you won, their reputation as a tough guy and bully was obliterated and you, the under dog, became a hero.
Saddam Hussein stood up to the bullies. He refused to back down. He had no air force or missile defense to counter the US vicious “Shock and Awe” bombardment of Baghdad that killed thousands of innocent men women and children. Nevertheless he stood his ground refusing to flee or abandon his people. The rest, is history. Now the bully is bogged down in a convoluted and winless occupation in Mesopotamia. Keep in mind this is the ancient land of “an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth” philosophy. The Bu$hites failed to grasp this culturallegacy. The NeoCons planned to make the Iraq occupation, colonization, permanent (the US has been in the Philippines for over a hundred years, Japan and German for over sixty years) but now they have Iran in their cross-hairs. Iran like many other countries, is looking outside the US dollar as their medium of exchange, especially since the Federal reserve is devaluing the US dollar almost weekly. So holding or trading in a devalued currency is not in Iran’s best interests. Naturally in a situation like this, there is tension. But for the US empire to survive, they cannot allow another country especially a major oil producing country to abandon the US dollar for another currency.
The saber rattling and sending the US carriers into the Persian Gulf are meant to intimidate Iran. It has nothing to do with Iran’s supposed nuclear weaponry (remember what they said about Iraq), it is about their dropping the US dollar and selling their oil in Euros and Yen. The Iranians originally scheduled to open their oil exchange in 2006 but they set the time frame back. Now it is open. The US is frantic getting ready to go into panic mode. As the threats and bellicose posturing escalate, the US is faced with major decisions: attack Iran and risk a larger regional (and possibly global) war, do nothing and watch the empire collapse faster or negotiate and try to work something out.
The bully is in a precarious predicament. But Iran is not Iraq. Iran has allies and business relationships with Russia and China. Iraq had relationships with France and Germany. Which countries do you think are more likely to give the bully are rougher time? Plus, Iran is a greater threat militarily because it has powerful allies in Russia and China. “Beijing's increasingly close ties with Moscow and Tehran will thwart Washington's foreign policy goal of expanding US security footholds in the Middle East, Central Asia and Asia. However, the primacy of economic stability will most likely prevent a proxy-style military confrontation, in Iran or North Korea, between China and the US. Initially, Moscow supported Washington's 'war on terrorism'. However, the US invasion of Iraq changed this support into resistance, and later into active efforts to counterbalance the US. In the past two years both Washington and Moscow have sought to strengthen their influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... More significantly, Moscow is working diligently to strengthen its ties with Iran, Syria and China - countries that Washington considers to be adversaries,’ Gundzik wrote in March 2005. Additionally, since the ‘beginning of the war in Iraq,’ he said, ‘Beijing has worked feverishly ... in an apparent effort to prevent US military action against the remaining 'axis of evil' members, Iran and North Korea. In addition to recent massive energy deals with Teheran, which place Iran in China's security web, both Beijing and Moscow have accelerated the transfer of missile technology to Teheran, while selling the Islamic republic increasingly sophisticated military equipment. ‘Armed with a vast array of anti-ship and long-range missiles, Iran can target US troop positions throughout the Middle East and strike US Navy ships. Iran can also use its weapons to blockade the Straits of Hormuz through which one-third of the world's traded oil is shipped. With the help of Beijing and Moscow, Teheran is becoming an increasingly unappealing military target for the US.’” China-Iran-Russia axis http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=China-Iran-Russia_axis
The question is, can the US, NATO and Israel afford to get into a real war with Russia, China, Iran and a host of stateless adversaries? Iran is not Iraq! The US is broke. What if Japan, China or the international bankers decide to stop lending the US money to operate every day? This is the one thing that will make the psychopaths pause before they do something insane. Is this deja vu all over again or will sanity be the order of the day?

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Flipping The Script

2008-04-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Flipping The Script

“If we look at the history of the European imperialists we see their psychology. As I have said on numerous occasions, the psychology of the rulers of this world, the psychology of eurocentrically oriented people is not in the psychology books but in the history books; and one merely needs to read their history to get at their psychology. And that history of course is not written be me, not written by Black scholars,. It is not written by us ‘prejudiced nationalists’. It is written of course by the imperialists themselves, and therefore is a form of self-indictment, and it is there for all to see. It is an admission in and of itself of the insane nature of the people who are in the control of the world today.” Amos N Wilson The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness Eurocentric History, Psychiatry and the Politics of White Supremacy page 72.

El Hajj Malik El Shabaaz (Malcolm X) warned us many years ago about the cunning deviousness of the Europeans who in order to maintain their oppressive death grip on our lives will make those of us who languish under the weight of their oppression the criminals, and portray themselves as the righteous victims. The flap about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Obama candidacy is a classic example of this ploy. In order to castrate Obama who the ruling oligarchy isn’t completely certain will mindlessly toe their imperialist New World Order line, they employed the media to tar and feather Obama vicariously by linking him to Jeremiah Wright a “pro Black, Afrocentric” clergyman. They wanted to play the race card, keep the controversy brewing and they knew Wright would jump at a chance to “vindicate” himself on a supposedly objective forum program. They shrewdly set him up to be interviewed by Bill Moyers. The program was aired Friday evening. Moyers’ job was to get Wright to say something provocative so they could use it to hang him and by extension Obama. But Moyers was too fair and too intellectual. He did try to get Wright by bringing up the term “liberation theology”. Wright explained its origin in its’ Latin American context and he also explained the term “black liberation theology” as it applied to the US. But the jackals in the media let that slide opting for something more controversial and more graphic. CNN pretending they wanted to give him a fair and complete look aired Wright’s NAACP speech in Detroit on Sunday in its entirety. But he didn’t provide much ammunition on that occasion. It wasn’t until he went to the National Press Club and his speech was aired live on C-Span Monday and subsequently played over and over during the day that the ambush was complete. They caught Wright in full stride in a venue where he had black support (call and response) as he reacted to questions posed by an adversarial white press. Wright probably thought this was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate he was not a punk and was not going to back down from his detractors. He couched is remarks as a defense of the Black Church not himself. But his antics were aired for all to see and the media as they always do, flipped the script. They cunningly made Wright the villain and to add insult to injury played additional sound bytes that made him look like a buffoon. Mission accomplished!

This put the onus on Obama. Obama was forced to react and distance himself from Wright lest the media spin masters paint him as an anti-AmeriKKKan kook too. Meanwhile the Clintons laid in the cut and watched as the media chipped further away at Obama’s non-threatening Negro image. Now Obama is forced to really cheese, shuffle and buck dance to keep his candidacy alive. This was all preplanned and orchestrated. This is just the tip of the iceberg. If he manages to survive this, they will do it again. Only next time they will really put Obama on the defensive about his stance concerning Israel. That will be the death blow, unless he totally compromises himself, bows down, prostrates and prostitutes himself to the Zionist cabal. The questions now are: how badly does Obama want this, what is he willing to do to stay in the race, how low will he debase himself, how much more will he sell of his soul to accomplish his goals?

This is not about Jeremiah Wright, it is about Barack Obama. Rev. Jeremiah Wright is no serious threat to the Empire. His so called Afrocentric theology is suspect because Trinity United Church of Christ is in an all white denomination! Plus we must remember, historically the ancient Hebrews may have had some melanin but they were a mixed brood whose phenotype and culture had been infected by the Caucasoid invaders into Mesopotamia (Chaldea) thousands of years before “Abram” allegedly left there to wander into Africa. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were nomads, not the sedentary, highly cultured people of Africa (Kmt, Cush, Nubia, Ethiopia or Canaan). If Wright is so Afrocentric why aren’t his liturgy and rituals like the Coptic Church or a new wave African style of ceremony? If Wright is preaching a liberation theology, it is certainly not like the theology of Nobel Drew Ali, Elijah Muhammad or Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman (Rev. Albert Cleage) all of whom borrowed heavily from Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Wright was not preaching Black self-sufficiency, acquiring land, skills and building a coherent common interdependent social network like they did. Nor does he suggest Europeans as a whole are devils or mutants. Nevertheless Wright is being demonized and vilified in the corporate media who are doing the dirty work of their masters who happen to be the most bloodthirsty warmongers on the planet.

Don’t go for the okey-doke. This is not about Jeremiah Wright. It is a vicious media psy-op on Barack Obama and Black people. Remember during slavery whites said we had a disease they called Dysaethesia Aethiopia because the field folks actively resisted and refused to work ourselves to death like beasts of burden for the white man. The ruling elites know Black folks opposed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. They know most older Black folks don’t trust the government and rightly so. They know a lot of us suspect 9-11 was an inside job or at the very least the US government allowed it to happen. They must castrate us and turn us into gutless, go along Negroes for their New World Order agenda. Just like Obama must do if he is to become the Democratic nominee. They don’t have that problem with Hillary Rodham Clinton or John McCain. Both of them are totally down with the NWO program. To accomplish our castration and surrender, they are doing what they’ve always done, making the victim (us) criminals and the criminals (themselves) the victim.

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Obama, the Sean Bell Verdict: White Supremacist Overkill

2008-04-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Obama, the Sean Bell Verdict: White Supremacist Overkill

“Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens. Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who delivered the verdict, said many of the prosecution’s witnesses, including Mr. Bell’s friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. “At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn’t make sense,” he said. His verdict prompted several supporters of Mr. Bell to storm out of the courtroom, and screams could be heard in the hallway moments later. The three detectives — Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were escorted out of a side doorway. Outside, a crowd gathered behind police barricades, occasionally shouting, amid a veritable sea of police officers.” 3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting By MICHAEL WILSON Published: April 26, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/

This has been a rough week for us psychologically. On Tuesday the Clinton’s pulled off their mugging of Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary in broad daylight using obviously racist overtones and Orwellian illogic to paint Obama as an unpatriotic, un-AmeriKKKan elitist. Today a New York Judge named Arthur J Cooperman ruled the three New York City detectives who shot and killed Sean Bell, an unarmed innocent Black man, were not guilty of all charges saying the prosecution failed to prove their case. Once again police walk after shooting an unarmed Blackman, this time fifty times!
Why are we surprised at this? Black life has always been deemed “less than” in AmeriKKKa, which is exactly the message the Clintons have been openly saying and implying about Barack Obama as a candidate. While I have no delusions Barack Obama will effectuate any meaningful changes in AmeriKKKa core values or policies if he’s elected president, nevertheless is has been quite educational watching the Clinton faction (with help from Karl Rove and his pals) of the plutocratic puppets work their white magic on the masses. The Clinton campaign successfully demonized Obama and in the words of one of their supporters “punked him” with the willing assistance of the mainstream media. The race for the Democratic nomination has gotten progressively uglier as the Clintons fell behind in delegates and popular vote count. In utter desperation the Clintons and the corporate media resorted to playing the tried and true “race card”. They first attempted to link Obama to Minister Farrakhan, but that failed. Next they dragged out videos of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, took snippets of his speeches out of context, played them over and over and tied them to Obama. Their strategy was to paint Obama as un-AmeriKKKan, suggesting both Wright and by extension Obama were at least conspiracy believing kooks and at worst unpatriotic terrorist sympathizers. Working in collusion with the corporate media (the last “debate” between Obama and Clinton is a classic example) they bum rushed Obama, effectively tarred and feathered him in the media undermining his carefully crafted nonthreatening “Good Negro” image.
Usually a news cycle around a controversial issue lasts about two weeks at most unless the corporate media wants to do a psychological-operation (mind game) on the masses. If it is part of a psy- op propaganda campaign, it is prolonged and becomes a protracted melodramatic circus played out in the mass media. The Clintons and the media have been dragging the Wright thing out for months using a “Chinese water torture method” the steady media drip about Wright’s bigotry and Obama’s unpreparedness. This is not just a Clinton thing, the Republicans are in on it too. Karl Rove and other Republican strategists, have joined the fray ganging up on Obama in a tag team approach. Rove the Doctor of spin and master of deceit for the Bu$h propaganda machine wrote an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal’s this Thursday’s edition where he implied Obama wasn’t tough enough and questioned if Obama was ready for what Rove called “Prime Time”. What these folks are saying not so subtlety is Obama, a half-Black man, is not “good enough”, not strong enough not one of them enough to lead white folks or be in charge of the Euro-AmeriKKKan financial neo-colonial empire.
What Judge Cooperman said by his decision today is, Black life isn’t worth spittle even when it is snuffed out by non-white police officers. In 2008 are we still surprised and shocked by a verdict like this? We would not be if we fully comprehended the reality human beings are creatures of habit. Our individual behavioral patterns and proclivities are called habits, the long term repetitive patterns of our family members and neighbors are called folkways, the habits of the larger society are called mores, customs, traditions and culture. The history and culture of AmeriKKKa is one of unrepentant violence towards people of color, virulent racism and state sanctioned oppression. This state sanctioned oppression was succinctly articulated in 1856 by Roger Taney the US Supreme Court Justice who in his infamous opinion in the Dred Scott case wrote “a black man has no rights (obviously not even the right to life) a white person is bound to respect.” This long held belief and value is the obvious thrust behind the Clinton’s campaign strategy against Barack Obama and the underlying attitude behind Judge Cooperman’s verdict today.
Our esteemed ancestor Dr Bobby Wright the brilliant psychiatrist who helped us fathom the depths of white pathology in his classic work The Psychopathic Racial Personality said, “This presentation is based upon a very simple premise; namely, that in their relationship with the Black race, Europeans (Whites) are psychopaths and their behavior reflects an underlying biologically transmitted proclivity with roots deep in their evolutionary history. The psychopath is an individual who is constantly in conflict with other persons and groups. He is unable to experience guilt, is completely selfish and callous and has a total disregard for the rights of others. This premise is supported by overwhelming scientific evidence ... One of he best methods tha can be used to measure the psychopathic traits of the White race is by observing and analyzing their universal overt behaviors and attitudes toward Blacks.” The Psychopathic Racial Personality and Other Essays Third World Press page 2.
We are witnessing first hand, in real time the very examples Dr Wright articulated in his essay. We’re observing the painful dynamics in the relationship between whites and Blacks in AmeriKKKa as exemplified by the treatment of Barack Obama and adding insult to injury the verdict in the Sean Bell killing. I could add: the Bu$h administration’s callous treatment of the Blacks in New Orleans, the rising prison industrial complex, deliberate high unemployment and other relevant socio-economic indicators but by now you get my drift. The question is, given this clear indication how the white power structure really feels about us, what are we going to do to strengthen, protect and save ourselves?

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The Ultimate Bailout

2008-04-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Bailout

“Who will bail out the Fed? In reality, we already know the answer to this. It lies in the record high gasoline prices, record high food prices, and either record or near-record prices in almost everything else. You and I will bail out the Fed. Not with money, but by a loss in our standard of living caused by the debasement of our money which is necessary to perpetuate the status quo and bail out a woefully ill financial sector. Many months ago, I forecasted that we would see a brief period where deflationary forces would tug at our economy, and the powers that be would respond with massive infusions of liquidity. In my opinion, we have reached that inflection point. For a year we have seen credit destruction as loans have gone bad, resulting in massive losses. The response, while slow at first has been decisive as of late. M3 growth statistics collected by various interested parties support this thesis. The monetary base is growing at a record pace: over 17% y/y as of last week. That growth in turn will fuel consumer price inflation moving forward at an ever-accelerating rate regardless of what the irrelevant CPI states. Despite many perceptions to the contrary, the events in the financial and banking system affect each and every one of us, regardless of whether or not we own stock, have a mortgage or carry a credit card balance. We all have one thing in common: we use the Dollar as our unit of exchange, and that alone means that we have been, are, and will continue to be affected by the ultimate bailout.” Andy Sutton, My2CentsOnline.com | April 18, 2008 http://www.my2centsonline.com/
The powers that be have instituted another in a long series of fraudulent con games and Ponzi scams on the people. This time they are telling us everything is under control as they futilely attempt to stem the massive hemorrhaging of the US economy while ignoring the cancers of greed corruption that are spreading throughout financial system, taking a deadly toll on the whole system. The Federal Reserve Bank, which is not a part of the US government but is really a consortium of privately owned banks the US Congress gave permission to set US monetary, credit and interest policies; is feverishly trying to save the Wall Street banks and shadow banking system (hedge funds, derivatives and other exotic debt leveraging programs). Unfortunately they are doing it at the expense of the US dollar, our lifestyles and our rapidly sinking standard of living. What the Fed is robbing Peter to pay Paul. The Fed in collusion with the White House, Wall Street, the mortgage companies, bond rating services, mortgage brokers, insurance companies and the media duped AmeriKKKa into going for the lamest okey-doke imaginable; a “greed is good” philosophy infused into the quest for the ever elusive “AmeriKKKan dream”. This incessant propaganda prompted all types of ordinary folks to go into debt as countless predatory lenders gleefully issued the unsuspecting “marks” loans because of the higher commission they received as an incentive inflated the housing and credit bubbles beyond their capacity for repayment. Now in order to save their partners in crime, the Fed is dumping even more money into circulation while manipulating the monetary supply and interest rates to facilitate the bail out the Wall Street banking houses that helped the Fed create the financial collapse in the first place.
While Wall Street, at the urging of the Fed, was touting the benefits of greed and promoting going into debt as a way to boost the US economy, the inevitable day of reckoning kept getting closer and closer. But the plutocracy kept the con game going by keeping us oblivious to the inevitable Karma their behaviors created. What goes around comes around. Now the Fed is desperately trying to cover its’ tracks and bail out their co-conspirators on Wall Street. But since the Fed is injecting “liquidity” (digitally created money out of thin air) into both the economy and into the traditional and shadow banking systems, our costs of living are skyrocketing due to the devaluation of the US dollar. This is monetary inflation, the rise in the cost of living due to massive infusion of dollars into the economy, devaluing the dollar, causing everything, and I mean everything to cost more.
This means folks struggling to make ends meet are finding the ends moving farther and farther apart. What the bail outs mean is the bankers who caused this problem are being given a free pass, a do not go to jail card from the Fed and the US Congress. The Fed and Congress are helpless to prevent the bottom from falling out of the economy. This is their goal. At the same time, they surely don’t want the somnambulant AmeriKKKan people to wake up and get hip to the game being run on them. They use the corporate media to keep the people distracted and our attention diverted from the tidal wave of wealth redistribution that is about to engulf us. There are a few media outlets providing analysis of the situation. “JIM: ... The bailouts would be paid for by tax increases coming next year and we’ll get into that, the tax increases that are coming, probably the largest tax increase in US history because you can’t bailout 3- or 400 people, create tax credits for the builders, tax credits for investors, that money has to be paid by somebody. And what’s going to happen is they’re going to have to raise taxes. In other words, you and I as American taxpayers are going to pay for this. But you’re right, John, because the Barney Frank program, which is very similar to Senator Dodd’s the government would guarantee 3 to 400 billion and what would happen is the government would come in and underwrite a new mortgage based on the new value of the home. Let’s say that the house was formerly selling at 130,000; now the house has fallen by 30% - the new value of the house is 100,000. So what would happen is the lender would have to write the mortgage down, the government would come in and give a loan for almost 90% of the value of the home, and the lender would get 85% of the mortgage and then the government would get to pocket 5% of the mortgage. So you’re absolutely right. Now you have the government getting into the housing industry where the government has a stake in these mortgages so they own part of your home. So in effect, now in addition to paying income taxes you would also be paying interest payments to the government in many ways. So the government has a 5% equity interest in your home, so we’re definitely moving into new territory regarding property rights because what the government is trying to do through the bully pulpit is to convince lenders, “look, property prices are falling, wouldn’t it be better to renegotiate than for you to put this into foreclosure.” But we’re moving into major property rights territory here in that we’re making property rights in this country less secure because if we set this precedent in this bubble, what do we do in the next bubble? What if it’s – who knows? – let’s bail out big investors in the stock market, hedge funds and things like that. So let’s see what happens there.
JOHN: But more noticeably, if you see this transfer process going on, it takes money from one group of people to now ownership on the part of the Fed government supporting another group of people. And so what we’re doing is they’re actually taking somebody else’s money to buy property for themselves – the government is. That’s what is effectively happening here.
JIM: Yeah, so we’re getting into a very, very risky situation here regarding property rights. And as many have pointed out, this is also going to impact future lending practices because if you are a lender loaning on a piece of property, remember, there was also a proposal here – now, so far they’ve booted it out in terms of the negotiations between both sides of the aisle, but they wanted to allow judges to determine what your new mortgage and interest rate is. So imagine what a lender would do if you get to a situation where a lender may not be secure on the loan. In other words, I make a loan today at x dollars and I’m charging a 6% interest rate, but arbitrarily some time in the future I could have this interest rate reneged on and I might be forced to take all these losses on properties. So like I said, we’re entering into brave new territory when it comes to property rights.” Transcript from, Bailouts, Stimulus II & Other Interventions http://www.financialsense.com/fsn/BP/2008/0412.html#bailouts
The real crime is the bankers and con men who created this mess get off Scott free while you and I get engulfed by a tidal wave of money and credit infused by the Fed into the economy making conditions worse for us. To add insult to injury the “bailout” plans being bantered around actually are scams whereby either the government or the lenders will end up owning the people’s homes and assets. This is the ultimate plan of the ruling elites, to reduce the people to poverty, debt serfdom and wage and tax servitude. Their goal is to rob us all through predatory lending, increased taxation and outright fraud. Their goal is to transfer the wealth to the elites, a reverse Robin Hood, rob the poor and give it to the rich. “It is crucial to understand that the current economic meltdown is a transfer of wealth from the middle and lower classes to the ruling elite. Wealth transfers do not just happen, nor are they the products of incompetency. They are intentional and well-planned. Central to wealth transfer is corruption at the highest levels of the economic and political systems. In hindsight, we look back upon the Savings and Loan debacle of the 1980s, at that time, the largest theft in the history of the world, yet today, our minds cannot begin to wrap around the wealth that has been stolen from the American people, making the S&L scam look like piggy bank pilfering--and to my knowledge, Catherine Austin Fitts at her Solari and Dunwalke sites, is the only person to have documented this so impeccably.” The Joyride That Was The American Empire By Carolyn Baker www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18169.htm
Wake up and smell the stench of the decaying carcass of the AmeriKKKan economic system. What goes around comes around. The inevitable consequences of widespread fraud, systemic corruption, wanton callousness, ignorance and apathy are now staring us in the face.

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Bankruptcies Are On the Rise

2008-04-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

Bankruptcies Are On The Rise

“In the past, many Chapter 13 debtors have been able to keep their homes through the use of repayment plans that stopped foreclosures or repossessions. However, the 2005 bankruptcy law changes imposed so many additional requirements and restrictions that Chapter 13 no longer is a practical way for many wage earners to save their houses from foreclosure, Mullin said. Also, the extra work required by the new law has caused the typical attorney's fee to double, putting it beyond the reach of most people. ‘The passage of the bankruptcy amendments in 2005 will without a doubt lead to many more foreclosures, distressed sales of real estate, neighborhoods going into decay and families shattered,’ Mullin said. ‘We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg at this time unless some changes in the bankruptcy law are passed to allow this valuable remedy to one again be efficiently offered.” http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/

Despite the recent passage of a revised bankruptcy law The Bankruptcy Abuse and Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 which was virtually written for our Congress critters by the banks and credit card companies, bankruptcies are on the rise as the US economy unravels. Reflecting the tenuous financial predicament many AmeriKKKans find themselves, the law has not stopped people from filing for bankruptcy. The 2005 law was intended to discourage the rash of filings to get out from onerous debt. For a while it was working. Recent figures from the American Bankruptcy Institute reveal the number of bankruptcy filings both personal and business are skyrocketing. “An increase in March bankruptcy filings is another indication that the U.S. economy is in recession, led by states where the housing boom turned to bust. More than 90,000 bankruptcy filings were made in March, the highest since insolvency laws became more restrictive in October 2005, according to statistics compiled from court records by Jupiter ESources. Filings in March were 30% above the pace in 2007. California led the nation with a 42% increase in bankruptcy filings at an annual pace in the first quarter, according to Jupiter Esources. Rising bankruptcies, together with mounting foreclosures and fewer jobs, are further signs the biggest housing slump in a generation is hurting consumers and businesses. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke this week for the first time acknowledged that the economy might be facing a recession and vowed to act to cushion the slowdown.” Bankruptcy filings jump 30% From Bloomberg News April 5, 2008 http://www.latimes.com/business
These figures, as alarming as they are, do not bode will for the rest of 2008 because economists and bankruptcy experts say there is a lag between six to nine months before a trend can be detected. One this is certain for 2008 and beyond, bankruptcies will continue to balloon. Things are predicted to be so bad, bankruptcy is now being touted as a growth industry! “The full impact of the nation's sliding economy is not reflected in the most-recent figures — that may take a few more months — and many lawyers believe there will be a lot of bankruptcy-related business up for grabs this year. ‘Nationally, people think that the No. 1 area of growth this year will be bankruptcy,’ said Carrie Titus, division director of Robert Half Legal, which provides legal staffing to law firms and corporate legal departments. The reason the increase is expected later this year is because the impact of bad economic developments doesn't translate immediately into a sharp hike in bankruptcy filings, said Jack Williams, scholar-in-residence for the Alexandria, Va.-based Bankruptcy Institute. He's also a bankruptcy professor at Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta. ‘That spike generally lags about six to nine months behind the economy,’ Williams said. ‘Bankruptcy is a lagging economic indicator.’ Because of this, Williams predicted that the number of filings across the country, including business and individual cases, will rise to between 1.2 million and 1.4 million by the end of 2008. Most cases are filed by individuals.” From Bankruptcies The Number 1 Growth Area for 2008 http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/04/
This is just the beginning, the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In 2008 over 2 million adjustable rate mortgages are scheduled to reset to a higher rate forcing the borrowers to come up with additional cash at a time when the US dollar is being devalued almost daily and wages are actually in decline when you take monetary inflation into account. Theses borrowers are going to be hard pressed to meet the higher interest rates. Many will be forced to default on their loans. As more and more businesses downsize, go bankrupt or merge the US unemployment rate will increase forcing people to make very painful choices. As a result, bankruptcy rates are also going to shoot up because the US economy is down. “The unemployment rate rose from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March, and non-farm payroll employment continued to trend down (-80,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Over the past 3 months, payroll employment has declined by 232,000. In March, employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and employment services, while health care, food services, and mining added jobs.” April report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
To understand just how ominous conditions are, the US economy needs to generate 150,000 new jobs every month to keep pace with the population. Over the last three months the Us economy has lost 232,000 jobs! The unemployment figures are actually higher because the US Bureau of Labor Statistics routinely undercounts the jobless because they do not include people they call “discouraged workers”, those who have been out of work so long, they have given up looking for work.
The US economy is imploding but it need not be the end of the world. We can survive and thrive even in the midst of economic uncertainty. It will require making changes in our lifestyles being more savvy and discerning how we spend our money. If you have a job(s) be thankful. Remember the best way to make it through these difficult financial times is curb your spending, get out of debt and reorient your priorities.

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Don't Exoect Any Real Help From Bu$h

2008-04-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

Don’t Expect Any Real Help From Bu$h

“April 5 (Bloomberg) -- The jump in March bankruptcy filings is another indication the U.S. economy is in recession, led by states where the housing boom turned to bust. The more than 90,000 bankruptcy filings in March were the highest since insolvency laws became more restrictive in October 2005, according to statistics compiled from court records by Jupiter eSources LLC. At a daily rate, filings in March were 30 percent above the pace in 2007.
Rising bankruptcies, together with mounting foreclosures and fewer jobs, are further signs the biggest housing slump in a generation is hurting consumers and businesses. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke this week for the first time acknowledged the economy may be facing a recession and vowed to act to cushion the slowdown.” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw8ifLmYMFlI&refer=worldwide

If you take a tabletop look at what’s going on in AmeriKKKa even the most comatose and delusional among us have to admit something is amiss, things are not going well economically. The latest unemployment figures, personal bankruptcy data, rising home foreclosures and loan defaults, large bank failures and skyrocketing prices are signs the US economy is imploding. Bu$h’s imperialist follies in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia are not going well. George W Bu$h in another clear indication of his detachment from reality about six weeks ago claimed the US economy was “robust” and “growing” and his bogus War on Terrorism was a success. Most of us recognize Bu$h and Cheney live in a parallel universe where in their minds: up is down, evil is good, failure is progress, war is peace and oppression freedom; which is why most AmeriKKKans loath them and want them brought to swift justice. I say most, because the US Congress, the most compromised assembly money can buy, continuously abdicates its responsibility to reign in an administration made up of crooks, war criminals and sociopaths who have driven this country to the precipice of wreck and ruin. Congress’ cowardice is especially egregious when you consider the 2006 mid-term elections gave them a clear mandate to end the war and bring the troops home. It is clear the US Congress has an alternative agenda from the people.
AmeriKKKa is in deep trouble politically, morally and financially. Bu$h’s resurrection and implementation of the voodoo economics of the Ronald Reagan era have bankrupted the nation. His tax cuts for the rich and connected, the rampant corruption, plutocratic favoritism and cronyism which are the hallmarks of his administration have made it plain this administration if not the government itself, are components in a major criminal enterprise. 9-11 happened on Bu$h’s watch yet not one member of the Joint Chiefs of the military, nor the heads of the FAA, the CIA and FBI were reprimanded, fired or punished. In fact they were either promoted or given medals! Bu$h even resisted forming a commission to investigate what happened on 9-11 and how. He was subsequently forced due to relentless pressure from family members of the victims who died in the plane crashes into the World Trade Centers and Pentagon to give in and initiate an investigation into what happened that fateful day. Much like previous government investigations such as the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and Robert Kennedy the “official government inquiry” into 9-11 turned out to be a complete white wash. The 9-11 Commission was a sham. Their job was essentially to cover up the Bu$h and Clinton administrations’ failures to respond to the numerous, clear and direct warnings from foreign governments about the pending attacks and how the government itself facilitated what happened. Log onto http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/essay.jsp?article=essaytheytriedtowarnus and read about the myriad early warnings given directly to the US government about pending attacks.
Think about Bu$h’s impotent response to warning about the onrushing Hurricane Katrina from FEMA, satellite imagery that was available to him from the military and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, remember he ignored all that. This imagery and information, had Bu$h chosen to heed and use it, would have prompted a far different government response and outcome to the disaster if he were really a servant of the people. It is clear to me, Bu$h’s inaction during Katrina demonstrated at the very least criminal callousness and unconcern; and at worst, a malfeasance that should be prosecuted. It was the same unconcern Bu$h demonstrated, the same deer in the headlights look he showed when first informed about the plane crashing into the World Trade Center while he was at a Florida elementary school.
I point out these circumstances just as I pointed out Bu$h’s diminishing grasp of reality as demonstrated by his statements about the economy as a warning. If his pattern remains true to his responses to 9-11, the invasion of Iraq and Katrina, Bu$h’s response to the economic crisis will be just as beneficial and rewarding to his buddies on Wall Street as it was for his crew in the military industrial complex following 9-11 and Iraq and the crooks and fraudsters who’re making out like bandits following Hurricane Katrina. His recently enacted “stimulus package” is a total sham. The calls for reform by Henry Paulson the Secretary of the Treasury who is a former CEO of Goldman Sachs a major investment bank, whose personal fortune is estimated to be over $700 million dollars is really a scam, a con game to give the same bankers who created the problems in the first place even more power. It’s like deputizing wolves to guard the hen house!! Paulson is trying to get the onus off of Wall Street and get the taxpayers, us, to bail out banks like Goldman Sachs. His scheme calls for pushing more loans onto the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and increasing capitalization to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae entities that are backed by the US Treasury and taxpayers, which are currently in financial difficulty themselves so they can make more loans! This is a two-for, the banks get out from under onerous debt, plus the vampires now have an entity (FHA) that holds the liens on the loans. When it comes time to foreclose on the hapless borrowers, they can snatch the properties up for pennies on the dollar; something they can’t do now because the existing mortgages have been packaged and sold in bundles of debt all around the world. Please be advised, Paulson’s “plan” is not going to alleviate the stress, strain or trauma of folks currently facing default or foreclosure. This is a way to get the big banks off the hook, similar to the way they stiffed the taxpayers for the Savings and Loan fraud in the ‘80's. Just like the stimulus package a measly a few hundred dollars from a bankrupt US treasury, isn’t going to really revive a slumping economy. It’s all a PR show.
Don’t go for the okey-doke. This is not the Twilight Zone. Up is still up and down is still down.The US economy is in big trouble. Bu$h’s imperialism and his insane fiscal policies have ensured this country’s financial demise. Keep your eyes open for more bank failures, the Fed keeps forestalling it by propping them up with more “liquidity” which is banker speak for money printed out of thin air. Keep an eye on the real value of your stocks and investments, if you have any. The Fed’s policies are trashing the US dollar. Inflation will continue to skyrocket as the Fed prints more and more money out of thin air. Even if you get a raise which you probably won’t any time soon, (be thankful if you have a job) your salary is not going to keep pace with the rising costs of living. The skyrocketing costs of living is due to the devaluation oft the US dollar which is caused by a significant increase in the money in circulation. This is what inflation really is. Couple that with stagnant wages and we’re experiencing what is called stagflation. If credit, interest rates and monetary fluctuations (bubbles and bursts) cause a slowdown in production, hiring or output, then you have a recession. If the recession is protracted, lasting over a long time, you have a depression!
This is what is going on now. Don’t expect the Bu$h administration to do anything to genuinely help you since they exacerbated it with their policies. The only ones who will get relief or rewards are Bu$h’s cronies on Wall Street. Instead of going to jail for causing this mess, they will be living large on an island somewhere. The bankers and executives left standing will make out like the bandits they are. They always have and they will again.

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beware Wall Streeters Baring Solutions

2008-03-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

Beware Wall Streeters Baring Solutions

“WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Monday proposed the most far-ranging overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. The plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the nation's biggest banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled the 218-page plan in a speech in Treasury's ornate Cash Room. He declared that a strong financial system was important not just for Wall Street but also for working Americans. The administration's plan was already drawing criticism from Democrats that it does not go far enough to deal with abuses in mortgage lending and securities trading that were exposed by the current credit crisis.” By MARTIN CRUTSINGER | AP Economics Writer 9:07 AM CDT, March 31, 2008

US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson is calling for massive government reform of the financial regulatory system and the corporate media megaphones are touting it as a major initiative. On one level you could say this is a good thing, the government is acting aggressively and responsibly to stem the financial implosion. On the surface it is. However given the Bu$h administration’s abysmal track record for truth, honesty and accountability there is more to this than meets the eye. We must recognize the nexus between people like Henry Paulson a former managing partner and CEO of Goldman Sachs one of the largest and successful investment banks in the country and the present crisis facing the US economy and financial system. Paulson has a reported worth of over $700 million dollars. Goldman Sachs is an elite company and they have sent representatives to the government to serve as key economic advisers and policy makers. Prior to taking the position of Secretary of Treasury, Paulson served as the managing partner of the firm’s Chicago office, then he became the COO and eventually the CEO. While to some these credentials are quite impressive, to me they serve as a cautionary warning, a red flag that something shady and unscrupulous is going on. Keep in mind a hallmark of George W. Bu$h’s administration is no one ever gets reprimanded, punished or goes to jail even when there is clear evidence of malfeasance like in 9-11, the Iraq invasion or Hurricane Katrina. Here we go again. Even though the FBI is investigating the Subprime fiasco I doubt any big time Wall Street firms or executives will get indicted or go to jail. Maybe if Elliot Spitzer the disgraced former governor of New York and former New York Attorney general was on the case, but Bu$h’s Justice Department, no way.
Now comes Henry Paulson the consummate Wall Street insider offering a plan supposedly to rectify a gargantuan unregulated financial system as it teeters on the brink of imploding upon itself. It’s like closing the barn door after all the animals have escaped. This is supremely ironic because it was the repeal of 1930's era legislation like the Glass-Steagall Act in the ‘90's under Bill Clinton that helped Wall Street and the financial insiders put us in the mess we are all in now. The Glass Steagall Act was repealed on November 12 1999, just four months after a former Goldman Sachs honcho named Robert E. Rubin stepped down as Secretary of Treasury. Coincidence? Goldman Sachs is one of the top investment banks in the country and an important player in the global scheme. Although rarely in the news about the subprime debacle, Goldman Sachs is just as culpable for the current crisis as was Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Bank of America and the various hedge funds, derivatives and other components of the shadow banking system. This crisis is of their making, they created it and now they are assiduously working to avoid paying the piper.
“The doubts burst into the open on August 9th when central banks were forced to inject liquidity into the overnight money markets because banks were charging punitive rates to lend to each other. At first, the problems appeared more serious among European banks, especially in Germany, where low profitability among state banks led them to take risky bets in subprime markets. The pain in America was concentrated in the largest hedge funds, including those run by Wall Street's biggest name, Goldman Sachs. Increasingly, however, analysts worry about the exposure of American, Canadian and Asian banks to mortgage-backed securities and especially those funded by short-term commercial paper that is becoming increasingly hard to roll over. On August 15th shares in Countrywide Financial, a large American mortgage lender, fell 13% after a Merrill Lynch analyst abruptly changed his buy rating on the stock to a sell, warning of possible funding difficulties. Despite a large liquidity injection by the Federal Reserve on August 15th, the S&P 500 index fell 1.4%. The heavy selling spread to Asian stocks on August 16th.” Banks in trouble The game is up Aug 16th 2007 http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory
The whole system is in deep trouble including Goldman Sachs. Things are getting worse daily, they need a miracle to stave off another 1929 type crash. Thus far the Federal Reserve Bank’s strategy of pumping money and credit into the banking system and bailing out a major player like Bear Sterns is proving to be a band-aid on a metastasized cancer. So who comes to the rescue? Their boy Henry Paulson, Secretary of the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank a collection of private banks who set US monetary and credit policies. The last thing a man like Paulson who is worth a reported $700 million wants is to see his own wealth and the wealth of his peers crumple to nothing. So he is coming with a “reform plan”. This plan is not designed to help us; meaning working class folks. It is designed to create the illusion something is being done. Paulson’s reforms amount to reshuffling the deck chairs and life boats on the Titanic. It is a total sham. “In response, despite its obsession with surges and bombing Iraq back to its idea of ‘normalcy,’ the White House says it now feels our pain and has decided to act. Well, at least, to let former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, now our Treasury Secretary, (in the tradition of former Goldman Sachs exec Robert Rubin who followed the same career path) impose yet another new pacification plan. Paulson has studied the crisis, studied it deeply, and realized the culpability of the brokers and the banks in engineering the disaster. His solution: kick the ball over to The Federal Reserve Bank. He's enlisting the Fed foxes to guard a Wall Street chicken coop at risk from a dangerous form of bird flu. (The technical term is 'greeditis’ enabled by regulatory arthritis.) He knows that most Americans--and most of the media -- think the Fed is a neutral government agency with a public interest mandate. They think it has the expertise and the power to swoop down and save us from our misery despite the fact that eights months of rate cuts and capital ‘injections’ have failed to stem the contagion of collapse. The New York Times pictures the exercise clinically in positive terms as a police raid, sort of like a SWAT team... Sorry to disabuse the newspaper of record and anyone who believes this formulation but the Fed is a private agency with no Constitutional authority run by bankers for bankers. It is a privately owned central banking system. Bankers sit on its many boards. The banks in turn get to borrow money at rates the Fed sets, and tack on interest and fees for loans. The Bank is there to do their bidding, and save them from themselves. When they run into trouble, they are often bailed out.” Danny Schechter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danny-schechter/fed-up-why-the-bushpaul
I agree with Schechter. This is total BS. Most people who have reviewed the plan know it will take months if not years to accomplish; long after George W Bu$h leaves office, and it will not resolve the current crisis on bit. But the real kicker is, the essence of Paulson’s plan calls for bankers to regulate themselves!? That’s like the lions guarding sheep. When all is said and done, what’s done counts more than what’s said. Beware Wall Streeters baring solutions.

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The Beat Goes On

2008-03-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Beat Goes On

“As hindsight is always 20/20, we should take the time to highlight what we can learn from these past tragedies. First off, we should point out that most market volatility is all our fault. In reality, people create most of the risk in the market place by inflating stock prices beyond the value of the underlying company. When stocks are flying through the stratosphere like rockets, it is usually a sign of a bubble. That's not to say that stocks cannot legitimately enjoy a huge leap in value, but this leap should be justified by the prospects of the underlying companies, not just by a mass of investors following each other. The unreasonable belief in the possibility of getting rich quick is the primary reason people get burned by market crashes. Remember that if you put your money into investments that have a high potential for returns, you must also be willing to bear a high chance of losing it all. Another observation we should make is that regardless of our measures to correct the problems, the time between crashes has decreased. We had centuries between fiascoes, then decades, then years. We cannot say whether this foretells anything dire for the future, but the best thing you can do is keep yourself educated, informed, and well-practiced in doing research.” Crashes http://www.investopedia.com/features/crashes/crashes9.asp

The US economy is faltering. It is teetering on the brink of a major implosion. The US dollar has been sacrificed by the Federal Reserve Bank in order to save the big Wall Street investment banks who created the fiasco in the first place. Even the most conservative and cautious economists are predicting a protracted recession in the US. Other economists around the world who are more grounded in reality are forecasting an outright global depression that will rival the 1930's. Booms and busts are part of the US economic landscape. There were major Stock Market crashes in 1987, 1998 and 2000 and we survived all of them. Most of us weren’t even aware there was an economic downturn other then possibly a change in our employment status. I was keenly aware of the Dot.com crash because in 2000 and 2001 I was working part time for an Internet radio station and it went belly up. Despite our much vaunted disposable income in the billions (trillions within the next few years) most black people are only marginally involved in the US economy. What happens on Wall Street, in London or the global financial markets rarely impacts us directly. We’re just not in the mix like that. Sure a nationwide economic downturn impacts us, but its not like we have huge stock portfolios that are going to collapse or our generations old myriad investments will vanish overnight. We’re just not that into “investing’ or getting sucked into Wall Street Ponzi schemes.
I say this because even though there is an economic tsunami coming, just as sure as the sun will rise in the East, the US economy, the stock market and shadow banking systems are unraveling, we will be ok. We will not go under nor will we be destroyed. Most Black people have experienced hard times at one time or another so when the collapse comes, we will be in a better position psychologically to survive. Why, because even though many of us bought into the crass materialism and the foolish chase for the bling, we will be resourceful enough to make it as the coming economic crash plays itself out. We did it in 2000 when the recession came and went and AmeriKKKa experienced a “jobless recovery”. The term jobless recovery meant we didn’t get new jobs or higher pay as the recession supposedly abated. We survived the 1998 and 1987 stock market crashes. Most of us didn’t even know what was going on. We were clueless conditions on Wall Street were that bad. What is different now from then is today there are more immigrants who are willing to work for much less money which will impact an economy that is laying off more and more people. There will be more competition for fewer jobs and the competition will be more vigorous as more and more white folks get laid off. This will force us to become more resourceful and resilient as conditions worsen.
Boom and busts cycles are a part of the capitalist system. Many are deliberately caused by the big Wall Street investment banks, the Federal Reserve Bank (a privately owned cartel of private banks who set US monetary and credit policies) insider financiers and politicians. “A bubble is a type of investing phenomenon that demonstrates the frailty of some facets of human emotion. A bubble occurs when investors put so much demand on a stock that they drive the price beyond any accurate or rational reflection of its actual worth, which should be determined by the performance of the underlying company. Like the soap bubbles a child likes to blow, investing bubbles often appear as though they will rise forever, but since they are not formed from anything substantial, they eventually pop. And when they do, the money that was invested into them dissipates into the wind. A crash is a significant drop in the total value of a market, almost undoubtedly attributable to the popping of a bubble, creating a situation wherein the majority of investors are trying to flee the market at the same time and consequently incurring massive losses. Attempting to avoid more losses, investors during a crash are panic selling, hoping to unload their declining stocks onto other investors. This panic selling contributes to the declining market, which eventually crashes and affects everyone. Typically crashes in the stock market have been followed by a depression.” Crashes: What are Crashes and Bubbles? http://www.investopedia.com/features/crashes/crashes1.asp
Crashes and busts have been more frequent in recent years as increasing manipulation of markets has occurred as more and more suckers fall for the get rich quick schemes of the Wall Street con men. Wall Street insiders call this “pump and dump”. The brokers and Wall Street con men drive up stock prices by buying the stock themselves or promoting the stock or company to make it attractive to suckers. And when it gets to a certain high level, the con men start selling it. Next they dump the stock altogether so it inevitably collapses. The drop in the stock’s prices creates a panic and people start selling. Then the Banksters either buy the stock at a much reduced rate and then turn around and pump it again making huge profits. Or, they let the stock continue to crash like a lead balloon. Either way, the Wall Street con men make huge profits and move onto their next scam. In the event Wall Street gets caught short in their own con game, they put pressure on their politician friends and puppets who devise a taxpayer bail out. They did this for the Savings and Loan scandal (in which the Bu$h family: Daddy George, Jeb and Neil made out like the bandits they are) and they are toying with a bail out now to save Wall Street from itself.
Don’t get bent out of shape over the current and coming economic fiasco. The beat goes on. We’ve been through this before, we’ll survive. Make the necessary personal and collective adjustments. Try to get out of debt as best you can. If you default on your loans, don’t become discouraged, keep your head up, find or form a collective of good folks you can depend upon. Work within a social support network to bolster your spirits and help you navigate your financial affairs during these trying times. Wall Street is Wall Street, Washington is Washington and until the masses wake up and agitate for change; don’t allow the crooks and con men dampen your spirits or get you down. As bad as things are, we will survive. The beat goes on. There is a law in physics that says, a body (system) in motion remains in motion unless (until) it is acted upon by another countervailing force. This law has a corresponding application in the metaphysical realm. In order for things to be different (change), we will have to change our thinking, and do things very differently.
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A Hi Tech Lynching

2008-03-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

A Hi Tech Lynching

The Clinton’s fiendishly cunning plan to destroy Barack Obama’s non-threatening public image by directly linking him to an outspoken unabashedly pro-black minister is succeeding beyond their widest expectations. This was a calculated and choreographed campaign to undermine Obama in the minds of white folks. The groundwork was laid by Clinton supporters like Geraldine Ferraro and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell. Ferraro played the “bad cop” charging Obama was only where he was because he was Black. She was adamant, she refused to back down from her statement so she willingly took the hit. Her resignation helped bolster Clinton’s position with whites because it played out older whites worst nightmare, a white person losing their job because of a black person. That incident forced white people to acknowledge the elephant in the room, race. Ed Rendell played the good cop making the rounds on the cable networks when Hillary Rodham Clinton was at her nadir. Obama was beating Clinton like she stole something making her look bad as he garnered delegates left and right winning eleven straight primaries. Rendell went on the air whining that Obama was getting a free pass from the media. Rendell even had the audacity to say the media was not scrutinizing Obama’s speeches or his campaign. Yet no one in the mainstream media challenged Clinton or her supporters on their cockamamy assertion she had more experience to be Commander in Chief than Obama; as if being married to Bill Clinton gave her presidential experience!?
Both Ferraro and Rendell were setting us up for what was to come, a vicious yet subtle attack on Obama by playing the race card. The attack was aimed primarily at Obama’s core, the young white people. That’s why they first used You Tube to get the snippets of Rev. Wright out to the people who use that particular medium, young folks. As many of us who are familiar with You Tube know, something can be hot there but not make any impression outside that medium or have any impact or influence beyond the circle of folks who frequent You Tube. To penetrate the consciousness of older whites who don’t know anything about that technology and to get more folks to log onto You Tube to see it, the corporate media colluded with the Clinton’s to manufacture a controversy. Images of a Black preacher railing against the hypocrisy, mendacity and rapine of AmeriKKKa, daring to make moral judgments about AmeriKKKa’s crimes against humanity triggered deeply rooted psychological angst. The images and words of Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr. shocked and unsettled most white people. Wright’s words immediately put them on the defensive, a position that makes them extremely uncomfortable. Wright exposed their evil. The righteous indignation of his sermon was genuine, rightly so because he was chastising AmeriKKKa for her wickedness and wanton inhumanity. But for whites who have been snookered and brainwashed into believing they have exemption from moral accountability and their perceived “white skinned privilege” gives them the right to do whatever they want, anywhere they want, Wright’s message cut to the quick. Wright challenged their “we’re the good guys” delusions.
The Clinton’s knew this strategy would work. They knew showing an angry Rev. Wright denouncing AmeriKKKa’s ruthlessness and the imperial blood lust that has guided AmeriKKKa since before its founding as a nation, would generate animosity against Wright and by extension Barack Obama. “How dare he say such things.” is the thought of many whites. To them Wright is unpatriotic even though he served honorably in the US military. By linking Obama to Wrights’s words, Obama was put on the defensive just like the Clinton’s knew they would. When they tried to tie him the Louis Farrakhan that didn’t work. When they tried to say he was a Muslim to exploit the Islamophobia the US mainstream media has created, that didn’t work either. But they knew about Rev. Jeremiah Wright from the git go. They knew he was pro-black, an anathema to most whites, because their fragile self-images are threatened by people who are not mindlessly Eurocentric. The media tried to make an issue about Wright’s theology early on, but Obama cut them off at the pass by disassociating himself from Wright and not inviting him to participate in his campaign launch. The Clinton’s, simply filed the information away for use another day.
While Obama has faced the firestorm and controversy head on, major damage has been done. He was sailing smoothly along as the “Good Negro”, articulate, enthusiastic and intelligent a Black (the one drop rule is still in effect) candidate who never mentioned race. Obama eschewed the topic because to do so made whites uncomfortable, and to make white people uncomfortable is to court disaster. Race and color are the festering sins of AmeriKKKa, sins white folks avoid ‘fessing up to at all costs. Like the sin of genocide against the Native Americans, which also undercuts their “we are moral and civilized” image, the race issue also forces them to see themselves outside the bogus parameters they have constructed about themselves. They are forced to confront behaviors that undermine their delusional notions of being civilized. Their collective behaviors are so egregious and pervasive, to maintain their sense of comfort and domination whites and their victims, the Native Americans and Blacks expend inordinate amounts of energy deluding ourselves things are getting better, but they are not.
Racism and violence have metastasized deep into the marrow of AmeriKKKa. Obama’s message offered hope, he exhorted the need for change generating a false sense of healing. He seems to actually believe AmeriKKKa can be better. Alas even if that is true, people like the Clintons really don’t want change. They want the status quo because they benefit from things not changing. So to prove how committed they are to the status quo they offered up Rev Jeremiah Wright Jr to the racism gods as their sacrifice. Just like Bill Clinton offered up Sistah Souljah when he was running. Now Rev. Wright is being demonized, vilified and castigated by the white media. They have to, because he poses a serious threat to their self-image and their policies. If this were sixty years ago an uppity Negro like Buddy Wright would have been found hanging from a tree or his church would have been bombed. But today they lynch you electronically, for the whole world to see. The difference between the old time lynchin’ and today’s version is, back in the day when they lynched you, you were dead for good. Today if you aren’t strong enough to withstand the vilification, and character assassination, you become a living example of a broken man or woman, which is what they really want. They want a symbolically castrated, emasculated man, psychologically wounded and hobbling for all the world to see. Buddy Wright can take it and he will bounce back stronger than ever.
The Clintons and the media mind control apparatus are playing the tried and true slave massa role/game: beat down or lynch an “uppity” black leader and the rest of us will fall in line. By fall in line whites mean: go along with their okey-doke, swallow your manhood and humanity, think like they tell us to think and don’t get out of our “place”. It remains to be seen how successful that part of their strategy will be.

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Miss Ann Strikes Again

2008-03-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

Miss Ann Strikes Again

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tactic of undermining Barack Obama’s squeaky clean, non-threatening Negro image by linking him to Minister Farrakhan and his pastor Jeremiah (Buddy) Wright was an act of desperation, nevertheless it worked. Miss Ann strikes again. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a white woman of privilege with tons of negative baggage, who has turned off many white voters. So in order to win, she is running her trump suits in this political game. She is using the race and gender cards in her quest to win the Democratic nomination. The most tragic aspect of her mendacity is Black folks still fall for her okey-doke. It’s so typical of white people and it is an ongoing historic pattern. One way the ruling elites undermine threatening populous coalitions that challenge the status quo is by injecting the specter of race. Check it out. What happened to the Southern populous farm movements, or the more progressive labor movements when they attempted to galvanize a coalition of blacks and whites for socio-economic change? When you do your research, you will discover these movements were easily derailed when the ruling elites played the race issue to drive a wedge between poor whites who had been duped and exploited by the ruling class and the black and brown people the poor whites had more in common with then ruling elites. They used wanton violence to discourage the movements’ leaders and intimidate the membership. It worked every time. So Clinton and her handlers keep plopping the race card on the table like a pinnocle player runs his or her trump cards to win the hand. The violence, in this case, is psychological. The demonization and vilification of Rev. Wright is similar to what the red necks did years ago. Only this time they used the media to lynch him instead of a rope! These tactics also serve as warnings to other “uppity Negroes” to stay in their places.
Of course this non issue would never have had such a rippling impact if the corporate media had not picked it up and made it the prime topic on every electronic newscast and newspaper headline. The fix is in, the Clinton’s and the media are using the race issue to destroy Obama’s candidacy as well as his person hood. Is any one surprised? Despite Obama’s smooth and well thought out speech in response to the firestorm raging around him caused by the constant replaying of out of context sound bytes and snippets of Rev Jeremiah Wright’s sermons; the damage has been done. Serious doubt has been cast upon Obama in the mind of white folks. “Is he one of them?” That’s the question in the back of many white folks’ minds. The proverbial “them” is us. The “them” are people they consider the rabble, the “other” the ones they deem “less than” or subhuman. Clinton knew exactly what she was doing. She triggered the hot button issue of race and it is working on a deep psychic level. She has set in motion deeply rooted psychological patterns that impact all of us, black and white.
The Black Muslims warned us about the white man’s tricknology. Malcolm X taught us how whites always flip the script to make the criminal the victim and the victim the criminal. Clinton and the white media have made Rev. Jeremiah Wright an unpatriotic miscreant because he dared speak the truth about AmeriKKKa and Clinton cunningly tarred Obama by association. Whites have always resented black people who saw them for who and what they were and spoke up. They hate Rev. Wright for telling the truth and Clinton is no different. Miss Ann strikes again. Think about all the black men who were beaten and lynched over the years simply because Miss Ann was having a bad hair day or if Black men rebuffed her advances; she took out her frustrations out on them.
If you read slave narratives or you talk to older black folks who lived through the Jim Crow era, they will tell you white women were just as mean spirited, just as ruthless and violent as their fathers, husbands, brothers, nephews and sons when it came to lording it over black people. Miss Ann was no joke. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a modern day Miss Ann. She is a white woman of privilege, an influential member of the establishment who has shown her true colors and her true sentiments. She will do any and everything to win. Her strategy is short term, slash and burn, win at all costs. She thinks once she’s won the nomination, she can say and do enough to fool folks into voting for her. She doesn’t care what type of damage her campaign is causing. Why should she, she’s got the typical Miss Ann arrogance working for her. Hillary Rodham Clinton has pulled out all the stops to win. Look at her body language and the look in her eyes. Is that the image of someone you would want to lead you? How is she any different than a white man? If she is this unscrupulous during a campaign, how will she act under the stress of the Oval Office at 3 o’clock in the morning?

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the Storm Is Coming

2008-03-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Storm Is Coming

“IMF chief says contagion risk ‘very high’ By Reuters, March 17 -The global economic outlook is worsening and the risk of contagion from a financial markets crisis that began in the United States is now very high, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Monday. At a news conference in Paris, he welcomed the overnight steps taken by the US central bank and said the International Monetary Fund would be cutting its growth forecasts again soon. He also said the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve were managing the market liquidity troubles very well, and that the situation in currency markets, while tricky, did not in his view call for central bank intervention. “Obviously the financial markets crisis which started in the United States is now more serious and even more global than it was a few weeks ago. The risks of contagion are very high,” he said.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/86e11670-f41b-11dc-aaad-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

The economic climate is worsening daily. It is getting so bad the IMF is now predicting the failures and defaults will spread globally. Of course the US corporate mind control apparatus suppressed the story. The ruling oligarchy doesn’t want the sheep to know we are about to be sheared big time. Because when the smoke clears nothing will be the same. There will be a humongous transfer of wealth from the working and middle class to the rich. The standard of living will plunge dramatically and a police state will be instituted to keep the masses from striking out against those who sold them into debt serfdom and wage peonage.
If you really want to know what is going on you have to seek out alternative sources like the foreign media, the Internet or shortwave radio. I do not relish being a harbinger of ill tidings but the Anglo-AmeriKKKan economic system and its appendages around the world are imploding like a supernova. We can see the initial collapse in the housing, credit, credit card and auto industries, it is spreading as unemployment rockets and consumption slows. Now some are saying we are heading for a depression. At the very least given the Federal Reserve Bank’s ( a privately owned banking cartel that sets Us monetary and credit policies) response to the crisis; printing more money and lowering interest rates to save Wall Street at the expense of the US dollar, we will experience hyper inflation as the Fed prints more and more money making it less and less valuable. We will see economic paralysis as credit continues to tighten, economic expansion freezes, unemployment skyrockets and the housing and debt implosion worsens.
The failure of one of the biggest and oldest investment houses on Wall Street, Bear Sterns has caused a sense of foreboding and fear. JP Morgan Chase rushed in to gobble Bear Sterns up while the Fed is using worthless bonds and defaulted mortgages as collateral to lend to cash strapped commercial banks so they don’t slip into insolvency due to the crescendo of bad loans and mortgages they have been forced to eat. To add to the crisis on Wall Street and the commercial banks, the Shadow Banking System (made up of unregulated hedge funds, speculative futures trades and bets, derivatives and other exotic financing schemes) is experiencing meltdown tremors. It all started with the collapse of a Bear Sterns hedge fund last summer. Then last week assets from the Carlyle Capital Fund were ceased as they defaulted on over sixteen billion dollars worth of loans and counting. Keep in mind Carlyle Capital is an affiliate of the Carlyle Group, the very well connected and successful private equity firm where George W Bu$h’s father and many other global “leaders” are major players. Carlyle Capital’s failure raised eyebrows and questions about the health of hedge funds in general. The prognosis is not good. Fear about “contagion” is spreading globally. Several other major hedge funds are on the bubble and bubble is about to pop. “Justin Urquhart Stewart, co-founder of Seven Investment Management, said he expects to see more funds blow up as credit lines disappear and lenders become more cautious. ‘Lending that might have been available three months ago just isn't there any more,’ Urquhart Stewart said. Edmund Shing, a strategist at BNP Paribas, said a ‘raft of hedge funds’ with similar investments are also shutting up shop. The forced sale of Carlyle Capital's assets is a concern because there aren't many buyers around, he added.’” ttp://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/carlyle-capital-verge-collapse-talks
The Fed’s policies have impaled the US dollar and now other currencies are threatened. The IMF is worried the toxic loans and defaults will spread. Evidence seems to validate their fears. The only things keeping the US stock market afloat now are the massive amounts of money being injected into it by the Plunge Protection Team and Fed in addition to the usual inflow of global drug money and money laundering from the various crime syndicates and covert government agencies. Things do not look good and the sooner we brace ourselves and prepare for a worst case scenario the better. If ,like the Y2K scare, it doesn’t come to pass, so much the better. But I think this is a real crisis and to be unprepared is to court disaster. We need to call a symposium or working/study group to come up with solutions that help our people survive the coming economic tsunami. If we don’t, we could be looking at nation wide Hurricane Katrina type devastation, only without the, rain, wind and water.

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Major Systemic Collapse Eminent

2008-03-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Major Systemic Collapse Eminent

“Several hedge funds with assets of more than $4 billion (£2 billion) were on the brink of collapse last night or had halted withdrawals, despite moves by the US Federal Reserve this week to ease America’s deteriorating credit crisis with a $200 billion collateral lending facility. The potential closure of six funds came as a leading private equity executive, who declined to be named, said that such funds were “snapping like twigs,” with one failing every day. Yesterday Patti Cook, Freddie Mac’s chief business officer, predicted that the Federal Reserve’s $200 billion bond lending facility this week would fail to solve the long-term problem of Wall Street’s deepening credit crisis.” Hedge funds on the brink as US Federal Reserve cash fails to ease crisis Suzy Jagger Times Online http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article3542723.ece

Things are getting worse daily. I don’t want to seem like an alarmist but every day we get more and more evidence the US economy, especially the financial and banking systems are facing their greatest challenges’ since the Great Depression. Not only are the largest Wall Street investment banks, commercial banks, national mortgage companies, the bond rating and insuring agencies in deep fiscal trouble, the so called shadow banking system is now on the brink of collapse. What is the Shadow Banking System, you ask? It is a complex mix of private equity funds, investment groups, future’s speculators, and risk funds that have literally amassed trillions, that’s trillions with a T, of dollars they have used as leverage for buy outs to acquire major companies the Chrysler Corporation, banks, bonds and other assets. The shadow banking system also includes big stakes Ponzi schemes that are now unraveling like a cheap sweater.
Most Black people have no idea what a Hedge Fund is, what derivatives or Credit Default Swaps are. I don’t understand them either. But I do know they are innovative variations on the theme of banking. Only they are not regulated by any oversight agencies. It’s like having the foxes guard the hen house. During an era where “greed is good” was the mantra of Wall Street, naturally these entities overdid it, taking it to the max. They succumbed to the same Enron type fraud, bookkeeping and accounting practices that resulted in Enron’s collapse. As a result they are creating havoc in the traditional banking and financial systems. “What has happened over the last decade is that a variety of new institutions have evolved that play a similar role to that of traditional banks, but that are outside the existing regulatory structure. Rather than acquire funds from depositors, these new financial intermediaries may get their funds by issuing commercial paper. And instead of lending directly, these institutions may be buying assets such as mortgage-backed securities, which pay the holder a certain subset of the receipts on a larger collection of mortgages that are held by the issuer. Although the names and the players have changed, it is still the same old business of financial intermediation, namely, borrowing short and lending long. There are a variety of new players involved. The principals could be hedge funds or foreign or domestic investment banks. Others could be conduits or structured investment vehicles, artificial entities created by banks, perhaps on behalf of clients. The conduit issues commercial paper and uses the proceeds to purchase other securities. The conduit generates some profits for the bank but is technically not owned by the bank itself and therefore is off of the bank's regular balance sheet. This system has seen an explosion in recent years, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that conduits have issued nearly $1.5 trillion in commercial paper. Their thirst for investment assets may have been a big factor driving the recklessness in mortgage lending standards, as a result of which much of the assets backing that commercial paper have experienced significant losses.” - James D. Hamilton Professor of Economics University of California San Diego
Imagine huge investment funds where just to get in you have to put up at least a million dollars in cash? Imagine investment groups and speculators that have trillions of dollars tied up in shaky loans, risky commercial deals, fraudulent worthiness claims and all of a sudden the bottom falls out. This is what is happening now. Even with insider trading, and the good ol’ boys network, the whole system is imploding. Even the big boys, the ones they said were too big or too well connected to fail are failing. Think in terms of giants like Citigroup, Bank of America and Bear Sterns going belly up. Think in international terms with banks in England, Spain, Germany, France and Asia having to be bailed out to prevent a wide scale panic. Things are so bad Ben Bernanke the Fed Chairman testified before Congress recently predicting smaller US banks would soon start to fail! Wonder how well that news went over with the Senate Banking Committee?
The Fed is creating/printing money like crazy, opening loan opportunities for commercial banks so they don’t become insolvent. The Fed is literally eating these banks' losses. It is using the bad loans on the commercial banks’ books as collateral for loans just to keep the banks afloat. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. Despite Bernanke’s efforts, the impending catastrophic economic tsunami is still gaining intensity and momentum During his Senate testimony, Bernanke admitted the economy is slowing and unemployment is escalating. Tell us something we don’t already know Benny boy.
Inflation is on the rise, which is devaluing the US dollar which results in higher living costs and lower living standards. There is little or nothing the big boys can do to avoid or minimize the coming train wreck. If the insiders are taking devastating hits (Drake Management, a New York money manager, wrote yesterday to investors in its $3 billion Global Opportunities Fund, warning them that it was considering closing the fund. The fund, which lost 25 per cent last year, has already blocked investors from withdrawing their cash. In its letter Drake, which manages $13 billion of assets, said that it may have to wind down the fund ‘in an attempt to maintain and maximise value for investors during this period of severe market downturn and contraction of liquidity’. Drake is also understood to be considering whether to close two other hedge funds, the Drake Low Volatility fund and the Drake Absolute Return, both of which lost almost a sixth of their value last year. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/ ) what do you think our chances of getting out unscathed are?
But, if we trust our HIGHER SELVES we can prosper, even in this situation. We can begin working together collectively, pulling and pooling our resources as family and friends. We can form buying clubs and food co-ops, to purchase in bulk and keep costs down. We can form community gardens to grow our own organic vegetables and fruits. We can learn to barter individual or collective services and share our skills. Don’t despair, become despondent or discouraged. The world is not coming to an end. This too shall pass, in due season Do not allow conditions or alarming news to sap your resiliency, resolve or short circuit your resourcefulness. We can transcend the coming malaise. We can thrive, grow and prosper but only if we do it collectively. We’ve done it before, many times in AmeriKKKa despite horrific conditions. We can remain strong and healthy in the midst of the coming meltdown. We can thrive if we have a consciousness that sees possibilities and potential beyond this system, one that recognizes the real SOURCE of prosperity and fulfillment. Our greatest and most potent “resource” is not our money, houses or things, it is the SOURCE within.

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Global Pipeline Wars

2008-03-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Global Pipeline Wars

“Asia Times columnist Pepe Escobar said to look at Camp Bondsteel and the Albanian Macedonian Bulgarian Oil Corp. (AMBO) for answers as to why the United States is interested in Kosovo’s independence. The $1.1 billion AMBO pipeline will take oil from the Caspian Sea, bypassing the heavily trafficked Aegean and Mediterranean seas and routing it through Macedonia to the U.S.-friendly Albanian port of Vlora, ultimately taking the oil to refineries in the United States for significantly less cost than it now incurs. Camp Bondsteel will serve to provide ‘security’ in the region, defending critical pipeline areas while also serving as ‘a sort of smaller — and friendlier — five-star Guantanamo, with perks like Thai massage and loads of junk food,’ Escobar said.” Kosovo’s Independence A matter of Western oil interests, not democracy By Aditya Ganapathiraju http:/www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19504.htm

The corporate mind control apparatus is painting the Kosovo push for independence from Albania as a good thing, a quest for “freedom and democracy” something the US rightfully should support. Of course the corporate media is spinning the events in that region from the perspective of their owners, the ruling oligarchs who also own and control the major trans-national oil companies. The truth of the matter is the unfolding tensions in Kosovo are part and parcel of a global agenda to expropriate and control natural resources, in this case oil and natural gas. Kosovo is directly connected to what I call a series of global pipeline wars. To fully overstand the implications of all this all you have to do is look at a map to grasp the geo-strategic importance of Kosovo. Go to the US government’s Energy Information Administration’s Website http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/SE_Europe/Background.html, peruse the whole site then click on Southeastern Europe and read the material on the that particular page. Keep in mind they are not going to tell you developments in Kosovo are the result of US intrigue and mischief. But you can read between the lines or get an aha! moment as you read the maps. Click on the Maps link at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Caspian/Maps.html and you will get clearer insight into what is going on in that region.
The US ruling elites covet oil, particularly the mother load in the resource rich but landlocked Caspian Sea region. The Caspian Sea lies in close proximity to Russia. It also borders many of the former Soviet Union Stans and is close to Warsaw pact nations to the West as well as China to the East. But to gain access to the oil and gas, Euro-AmeriKKKans must do what they and their cousins have been doing for hundreds of years, foment discord, war and strife to set the stage for their divide and rule tactics. Looking at these maps you can clearly see what is going on and why in that region. For example look at how close Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan are to each other and the existing and proposed pipelines on these maps. Now you can see why Bu$h wants more wars. It’s all for oil, natural gas and geo-strategic positioning for pipelines that will carry it to market. Israel is also in the equation for imperialistic reasons.
Take a broader view of a map of Central Asia, Southeast Europe and the so called Middle East. Now think about all the strife that is going on across that region. Keep in mind the invasion of Afghanistan was planned months before 9-11. 9-11 was a false flag operation, an inside job probably coordinated directly by Dick Cheney. It was used as a pretext for Bu$h’s bogus war on terrorism which is really a global war for resources. Afghanistan will serve as a conduit using a trans-Afghanistan pipeline to carry the oil and natural gas from Central Asia to the India Ocean. On the other side, in Southeast Europe, one of several proposed pipelines cuts through Albania to take gas and oil to a port where the Adriatic Sea meets the Ionian Sea. We know the Taliban refused to deal with the multi-national consortium headed by the California company Unocal who wanted their pipeline to cut through Afghanistan. The white boys told the Taliban “either accept a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs.” Hence the invasion of Afghanistan under the pretext of going after Osama bin-Laden. The Taliban asked the US to provide them proof bin-Laden was the one responsible for 9-11. Since bin-Laden didn’t do it (See FBI Website for verification) and the US was preparing for war anyway they launched the invasion of Afghanistan.
In the 1990's Bill Clinton bombed Yugoslavia (Belgrade) and unleashed and air war on Bosnia under the pretext of preventing ethnic cleansing and genocide. Imagine the hypocrisy of using humanitarianism as an excuse to indiscriminately bomb and kill people. But I digress. Take a look at the maps at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Caspian/bosporus%20bypass%20map.pdf. Examine the existing and proposed by-pass pipelines in Bosnia. Think that’s coincidental? If so I have an imaginary bridge I’m willing to sell you real cheap. The mainstream press kept that Balkan war under the radar because the US was killing white people in Europe. The US is not beyond killing and slaughtering innocent white people to get what they want. They want the right of way for these pipelines!
US oil imperialism is not just limited to Central Asia or Iraq. Much of the US involvement in Columbia is to protect pipelines frequently targeted by rebels. The US military has sent troops and Special Forces to Columbia to protect the 500 mile pipeline. “Sometime in the next month, in a significant shift in American policy, United States Special Forces will arrive in Colombia to begin laying the groundwork for the training of Lieutenant Zúñiga and his 35-man squad in the finer arts of counterinsurgency. Over the next two years, 10 American helicopters will bolster the Colombian counterinsurgency efforts, and some 4,000 more troops will receive American training, which will begin in earnest in January, Bush administration and American military officials said in interviews in recent days. The policy shift dovetails with the Bush administration's new, global emphasis on expanding and diversifying the sources of America's oil imports, with an eye to reducing dependence on Middle Eastern oil. That new approach, outlined in the administration's energy report issued last year, is gaining ever more importance with the threat to Persian Gulf oil supplies from the looming war with Iraq. The $94 million counterinsurgency program is also an important element in the offensive by Colombia's new government against two rebel groups and a paramilitary force that dominate much of the country. Pipeline bombings by the guerrillas cost the government nearly $500 million last year -- a blow in a country where oil accounts for 25 percent of revenues. The two main rebel groups, which view Occidental as a symbol of American imperialism, have bombed the pipeline 948 times since the 1980's, while extorting oil royalty payments from local government officials... Bush administration officials have said the reliable production of oil is imperative if Colombia is to have the resources to combat the guerrillas and paramilitaries. But oil is also critical to the national security planning of the United States, which by 2020 will count on imported oil for 62 percent of its oil needs, up from half today. Much of that new oil will come from the Americas, which already supply the United States with nearly 50 percent of its imported oil. Along with Venezuela and Ecuador, the Andes now provides the United States with more than two million barrels a day, about 20 percent of its imports. ” New Role for U.S. in Colombia: Protecting a Vital Oil Pipeline By JUAN FORERO http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E3D8163BF937A35753C1A9649C8B63
The US is in Africa creating mischief and mayhem. Most people don’t know that there are major oil reserves in places like Darfur and Somalia. “In the western region of Sudan known as Darfur, the preferred tactics are burning and pillaging, castration and rape -- carried out by Arab militias riding on camels and horses. The most sophisticated technologies deployed are, on the one hand, the helicopters used by the Sudanese government to support the militias when they attack black African villages, and on the other hand, quite a different weapon: the seismographs used by foreign oil companies to map oil deposits hundreds of feet below the surface. This is what makes it a war of the future: not the slick PowerPoint presentations you can imagine in boardrooms in Dallas and Beijing showing proven reserves in one color, estimated reserves in another, vast subterranean puddles that stretch west into Chad, and south to Nigeria and Uganda; not the technology; just the simple fact of the oil. This is a resource war, fought by surrogates, involving great powers whose economies are predicated on growth, contending for a finite pool of resources. It is a war straight out of the pages of Michael Klare's book, Blood and Oil; and it would be a glaring example of the consequences of our addiction to oil, if it were not also an invisible war.” War of the Future: Oil Drives the Genocide in Darfur by David Morse http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0819-26.htm
As far as Somalia is concerned, this is the real deal, “Bush Senior went into Somalia with 20 thousand US troops in December, 1992 when he had been defeated in his re-election bid by Bill Clinton and was a lame-duck President. Why such a major overseas undertaking by an outgoing president was a question that perplexed many. His excuse was that US was in Somalia on a humanitarian mission to beef up the UN effort to stave off a bloodbath from civil war and anarchy. The real mission for Bush Senior was something else. He went in there to save the interest of US oil giants from his native Texas. After all, he had made his fortunes in the oil industry before making a mark in politics. The powerful and influence-peddling oil cartel had bankrolled him into politics, and he was anxious to pay back in kind. He might have lost his own bid for re-election but he had sons waiting in the wings to inherit his mantle. He had to lubricate their passage into high-stakes politics by obliging his powerful friends. Bush’s interest in the countries around the Horn of Africa, marking the nexus of the Red Sea with the Arabian Sea, began in the mid-80s when he was Vice-President to Reagan. Hunt Oil Company, a Texas-based oil giant, had explored for oil successfully in Yemen and discovered oil deposits there of up to one billion barrels. Geologists believed that there was a natural trough of oil that extended across the Red Sea into Somalia from Yemen. The World Bank had an intensive technical study on oil prospects in the region around Yemen done by its principal petroleum engineer, an Irishman by the name of Thomas E. O’Connor, in the mid-80s. O’Connor was dead certain that ‘it’s there. There’s no doubt there’s oil there.’ Somalia beckoned, just as Yemen had lured them earlier.
Their doubts, if any, put to rest by this independent WB study, Bush’s friends in the oil cartel of America saw a bonanza for themselves and swooped down on Somalia in hordes. Bush used his office and influence to egg them on.” The Name of the Game in Somalia is Oil
By Karamatullah K. Ghori http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15032002/1503200246.htm.
Study the maps, read between the lines; the real deal about Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Darfur, Columbia and many other places is oil, AmeriKKKan economic hegemony and military imperialism. Now that Admiral Fallon the head of US CentCom the man who resisted Bu$h’s insane plan to attack Iran has resigned, the door is open for Bu$h to reward his NeoCon and Zionist friends by attacking Iran. The Cold War is heating up. Russia is flexing its military muscles due to Bu$h provocations in Central Asia and Southeast Europe. China will not back down either. We could be on the verge of global Armageddon given the mind set of the psychopaths that run this country. Perpetual resource wars will continue to sap the nation’s wealth and lead to further moral, economic bankruptcy as well as a total military collapse.

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The More Things Change

2008-03-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

The More Things Change ...

“The Commission believes there is a grave danger that some communities may resort to the indiscriminate and excessive use of force. The harmful effects of overreaction are
incalculable. The Commission condemns moves to equip police departments with mass
destruction weapons, such as automatic rifles, machine guns and tanks. Weapons which are designed to destroy, not to control, have no place in densely populated urban communities.” REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS page 16

I was reading the local black newspaper when an Op-Ed article by syndicated columnist Clarence Page caught my eye. In it he reminded the readers it has been forty years since the landmark 1968 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders report was released. The report known more commonly as the Kerner Commission Report after Illinois Governor Otto Kerner who chaired the commission, created a lot of controversy. The report made the term white racism popular. Prior to that AmeriKKKan whites were in major denial about the thoroughness of their oppression. In fact the term caused so much media attention and heated reaction, most of the contents of the report went unheeded and un-addressed, which may have been deliberate. The Commission's conclusions were quite candid, but the report's focus was slightly out of touch with reality. It said, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal.” Moving? Where were they prior to 1967? Weren't they aware of the reasons the Civil Rights struggle was waged? Were they ignorant of AmeriKKKa's legacy of violence, government sanctioned apartheid and color caste? Just because Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1964 didn't alter the legacy of deplorable social conditions and an oppressive white-Black power dynamic.
Those were turbulent times in AmeriKKKa: the Vietnam War was extremely unpopular and it was ripping the country apart. The Black Power movement was gaining momentum, the anti-war and grass roots counter-culture movements were attracting adherents. To counter this, the US government engaged in a domestic war against its own people using illegal and surreptitious counterinsurgency tactics such as COINTELPRO by the FBI and Operation Chaos by the CIA. Economic conditions for blacks were stifling, police brutality was the norm. Within this milieu the summer of '67 saw a series of riots and outbreaks in several large inner city communities which caused additional discomfort for an already beleaguered President Johnson.
Once the disturbances were quelled and things cooled down, Johnson appointed a blue ribbon commission to study the hows and whys of the riots. Clarance Page pointed out in his Op-Ed piece much has improved since 1968. More people like him are “middle class” and no longer confined to impoverished segregated ghettos. But as Page also pointed out “Forty years later it has become a timeworn cliché to say that we have come a long way, yet have a long way to go. In fact it is more accurate to say that most of us African-Americans have come a long way from 'the ghetto' as Kerner referred to overcrowded low income Black neighborhoods, while too many of our former neighbors have been left behind.” Page, a keenly astute man, underscored the reality of many of our brethren when he remarked in the same piece, “We don't have waves of riots as we did in the 1960s, partly because we have locked up so many people who might cause one.”
He's right AmeriKKKa is the incarceration capital of the world, and has been for quite a while. We lock up more citizens than any other nation on earth; even supposedly less free or more repressive countries! Page also pointed out another fact, “More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, Pew found. That includes one in every nine Black men ages 20 to 34 and one in 100 Black women ages 35- 39 compared with one in 355 white women in the same age group.” Did Uncle Sam learn a lesson from the '60's? The US government executed some of the systemic recommendations of the Kerner Commission on a short term basis but only half-heartedly. AmeriKKKa was tested again in April of 1968 when over one hundred US cities lit up like Christmas trees following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the wake of the riots Johnson, fearing future trouble, scrambled to do something. In addition to social programs which were used to chill out and co-opt many in the Black community, AmeiKKKa became more repressive. In fact under Richard Nixon who won the presidency in 1968 on a “Law and Order” platform, AmeriKKKa did exactly what the Kerner Commission advised them not to do, he militarized the nation's police departments. Under a paranoid and besieged Nixon, the government's Law Enforcement Assistance Programs (LEAP) equipped large and small police departments throughout the country with tanks, advanced weaponry, training with a mindset that perceived citizens, particularly Black and brown people as potential enemy combatants. This has continued to varying degrees under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
To make things seem more just and progressive, more Blacks were allowed to enter into the “mainstream” and promoted. In some cases Blacks actually ran police departments. Virulent police brutality slowed a little. But the ruling elites set out to eliminate potential dissidents another way, by locking them up. Keep in mind the unemployment rate in the black community never went down, pay inequities and discrimination have not disappeared and the educational system is still failing us. In fact some say things are worse now than then. Factory jobs left the core areas in the cities and moved to the suburbs. Most suburbs lacked mass transit accessibility which made it difficult for blacks to follow the jobs. Since then, the government has increasingly taken on a policy of benign neglect with regard to social programs for the inner cities. Now they use the Wars on Crime and Drugs to shuttle Black men to prison to keep the black male population under control via lock down and disenfranchisement.
Forty years after King called for a Poor People's Campaign to push for a righteous redistribution of wealth, honest work and livable wages, which was the cause for his murder, we are seeing wealth redistribution. Only it is being taken from the poor and working class and funneled to the rich. We are seeing evidence gains made by upwardly mobile Blacks in recent years are being wiped out due the fraud and predatory lending practices which are at the root of the subprime lending fiasco. “Subprime borrowers of color will lose between $164 billion and $213 billion for mortgage loans that were taken during the past eight years, according to United for a Fair Economy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. For the past five years, the group has examined the racial wealth divide in this country. UFE is the latest organization to try to put a dollar figure on the loss of wealth as a result of the proliferation of subprime loans. And while some might want to dismiss the findings in the group's report as alarmist, one fact is clearly troubling: Minorities have been hit hardest. Black borrowers will lose between $72 billion and $93 billion, while Latino borrowers will lose between $76 billion and $98 billion, UFE reports.” Black, Latino homeowners hit hard by subprime crisis Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008 - 12:08 AM http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/business.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-02-12-0037.html
So not only are our poor brothers and sistahs catching it, being used as cannon fodder for the prison industrial complex, the strivers who worked hard did the right things and wanted to partake in the “American Dream” were deliberately set up to go down with the sinking economic ship. Try as we might we still keep catching the raw deal. “Of late, much has been made of the buying power of blacks. A study by the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth put black spending at about $845 billion last year. And that spending is projected to top $1.1 trillion by 2012. The center describes this buying power, or disposable income, as the total personal income available for spending on goods and services after taxes. But it's not enough to consider what people will spend. Wealth is created by what you keep and invest or save. It's also created when people own appreciable assets, such as a home.” ibid.
Now those who attempted to gain real wealth are seeing it evaporate before their very eyes. Forty years ago the Kerner Commission said we were, “moving to two societies one black, one white- separate and unequal.” Well they got part of it right, there are definitely two societies, separate and unequal only it's not just about color; now it's also about class, rich and poor- separate and very unequal. The more things change, the more they remains the same.

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The Next Phase of The Mortgage Rip Off/Scam

2008-02-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

The Next Phase of the Mortgage Rip Off Scam

“As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s investment portfolios have grown, so too has
the amount of interest-rate risk that these companies retain. The implicit guarantee causes investors to continue to loan to Fannie and Freddie despite these risks because of the expectation that the Treasury would come to their aid in a crisis. This encourages the management at Fannie and Freddie to take on more risk and more debt than they otherwise would. As a result, Fannie and Freddie have a combined outstanding debt that is equal to 39 percent of the total outstanding U.S. public debt, and their combined financial assets are worth 44 percent more than those of Citigroup, the largest bank in the United States.” Problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Too Big to Fail? http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/

When the media rails about welfare fraud and taxpayer rip offs they focus on one small time individual or a “round the way” type group in order to hide and obfuscate the scope and pervasiveness of elitist white collar crime and the preferential corporate welfare that permeates this society. The current global economic meltdown is a classic example of massive white collar crime, fraud and class warfare on the part of the ruling plutocrats, their surrogates in government, media and the financial systems. The causes of the current financial crash were conceived in the boardrooms of the Federal Reserve Bank, Wall Street investment houses, insurance companies, mortgage companies, bond rating agencies, the White House, government and quasi government agencies and the corporate media. While most AmeriKKKans won’t admit it, the fact is the federal government has devolved into a criminal syndicate. The administration along with its partners on Wall Street, the media and the police state apparatus make the Mafia, Crips and Bloods look like angelic choir boys.
The current financial unraveling we are experiencing is the result of the deliberate planning and policies of the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve Bank despite having the word federal in its title is a privately held banking cartel set up by the ruling elites that sets monetary and credit policies for the US. The Fed has as its number one customer, the US government and by extension US citizens who foot the bill (the humongous interest and principle on the loans they give to the government) with our taxes.
Like the Federal Reserve Bank, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are privately owned publicly traded companies that enjoy an extremely cozy and beneficial relationship with the US government. “Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae indirectly assist home buyers by purchasing mortgages from lenders, such as commercial banks, savings and loans and mortgage banks. Freddie and Fannie, in turn, generally get those loans off their books by creating securities that are eventually paid off as the underlying mortgages are paid off. Homeowners are happy because they are aided in borrowing money for a home. Lenders are happy because they don't have to hold mortgages for several years. Investors in the securities are happy because they have a reliable investment, and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are happy because they make a handsome profit. Sound like capitalism at its finest? Not exactly. Although Freddie and Fannie are privately owned, they are what is known as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). GSEs don't have to follow all the rules that true privately owned companies do: they don't have to register their securities with the government, their securities receive special treatment for investment purposes, they don't have to pay state and local income taxes and--most important--their government sponsorship gives them the aura of a fully guaranteed government entity. That final benefit means they save billions in borrowing costs, just as lenders are willing to offer low-interest student loans that are guaranteed by the government. That savings alone allows the GSEs to pocket about $2 billion per year, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and the Treasury Department.” Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Corporate Welfare King & Queen by Vern McKinley http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?
These two GSE’s profit handsomely from their special relationship with the federal government. Recently they’ve had their problems and their fraudulent activities were revealed for the world to see. They were audited and found to have engaged in deceptive bookkeeping practices very similar to what the heads of Enron did. Of course being big time white collar criminals none of the CEOs went to jail. They merely paid a fine and the beat went on. “Fannie Mae engaged in ‘extensive financial fraud’ over six years by doctoring earnings so executives could collect hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, federal officials said yesterday in a report that portrayed a company determined to play by its own rules. Regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, in announcing a settlement with Fannie Mae that includes $400 million in penalties, provided the most detailed picture yet of what went wrong at the congressionally chartered firm.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23
Not satisfied to live of the billions of US subsidized guarantees, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lied about their earnings to boost the compensation of their top executives. But that’s not all. As taxpayers we should be aware of what is going on at these two Congressionally Chartered businesses. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set the tone and tenor for the current financial collapse by pioneering in the bundling and sale of collateralized debt packages (mortgages and housing loans). Their success led to others Wall Street investment banks to duplicate their efforts and begin bundling massive amounts of high risk loans and bonds. But unlike regular investors and banks, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have what amounts to unlimited lines of credit from the US Treasury due to their status as Congressionally Charted quasi governmental agencies.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae used these governmental guarantees and backing to engage in risky transactions, buying mortgages and selling them as securities all over the world. As the Federal Reserve Bank opened the credit and insurance spigots the housing bubble inflated. The lower the interest rates went and the higher housing prices went the bigger the bubble grew. But sooner or later all bubbles burst. That popping sound you hear are the mortgage and credit bubbles bursting. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are right in the thick of things, up to their necks in debt over their limited capital reserves. “The recent media attention on the management and accounting scandal at Freddie Mac has exposed a more pressing concern: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have grown so large and are counter-parties to so many transactions that if unforeseen interest rate volatility caused either or both companies to fail, the potential cost to U.S. taxpayers could range into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) are Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), whose federal charters confer certain benefits – most notably an implicit guarantee that the Treasury stands behind their securities. The basic problem at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – from the taxpayers’ perspective – is their aggressive investment strategy that attempts to leverage their implicit guarantee to accumulate vastly increasing amounts of mortgage investments with a huge amount of debt. As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s investment portfolios have grown, so too has the amount of interest-rate risk that these companies retain. The implicit guarantee causes investors to continue to loan to Fannie and Freddie despite these risks because of the expectation that the Treasury would come to their aid in a crisis. This encourages the management at Fannie and Freddie to take on more risk and more debt than they otherwise would. As a result, Fannie and Freddie have a combined outstanding debt that is equal to 39 percent of the total outstanding U.S. public debt, and their combined financial assets are worth 44 percent more than those of Citigroup, the largest bank in the United States.” Problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Too Big to Fail? http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/bk090903.pdf (My emphasis)
What this means is Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have incurred more debt than thirty-nine per cent of all private debt in the US! Remember unlike their competitors, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae enjoy government backing and guarantees. This means if anything goes wrong and the loans default or the industry collapses, the US taxpayers will pick up the tab. Connect the dots, the US is in the midst of a mortgage (credit) and liquidity crisis that is about to send AmeriKKKa into a major recession (depression?). Will mortgage and lending giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae suffer? No, because you and I will be the ones who bail them out with guaranteed tax dollars. “Although – as the management of both Fannie and Freddie is quick to note – the charters of both GSEs explicitly disavow any federal (i.e., taxpayer) responsibility for their securities, the reality is that investors do not believe the government would abandon their financial obligations. This was made obvious in 1981 when a dramatic rise in interest rates left Fannie Mae insolvent on a mark-to- market basis.5 Were it not for Fannie Mae’s special relationship with the federal government – between 1978 and 1985, the federal government provided Fannie with implied annual credit support estimated to range between $600 million and $11 billion – the firm likely would have failed that year or the next. Thankfully, interest rates subsided the following years, and no direct bailout was necessary; but it is clear that the markets continued to loan to Fannie Mae with the expectation that the government would have come to its assistance if necessary.” Problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: Too Big to Fail? Executive Summary http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/bk090903.pdf
Corporate media lapdogs, think tankers and industry taking heads have called for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to take on even more of the toxic loans and mortgages. The new bipartisan “economic stimulous package” recently passed by Congress provides for a larger role for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But there is a hidden agenda here. The white collar criminals are setting the stage for an even bigger taxpayer rip off. Of course the investment bankers, commercial banks and corporate media would call for this type of program. It would get all the bad loans and toxic investment vehicles the Wall Street investment firms and banks, hedge funds and derivatives have on their off balance sheet books (the ones losing money as we speak) off their hands via a taxpayer bailout! It would mean Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will take the hit on all the defaulting loans they purchased and pass them off on us instead of their stockholders. In other words you and I will be left holding the bag due to the implicit governmental guarantees to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to back their securities.
“Unfortunately, in the world of leveraged finance there can be no rewards without risk. And the financial rewards Fannie and Freddie have been generating for their shareholders in recent years are a direct consequence of both firms’ increased tolerance for risk, which is largely borne by taxpayers. Not only does every mortgage investment in their portfolio come with the interest-rate risk discussed above, but purchasing MBS with debt also exposes the purchaser to other significant interest-rate and liquidity risks that could result in collapse.” Problems at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:Too Big to Fail? Executive Summary http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/bk090903.pdf
Unfortunately the above warning issued by the US Senate Republican Policy Committee in 2003 went unheeded.(Go to the Website and read the whole document.) Today we stand on the precipice of major financial collapse. If and when it happens (more when than if), the beleaguered taxpayers will be the ones bailing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae out. The criminal cabal that controls the banking system is manipulating things for a taxpayer bailout like they did with the Savings and Loan fiasco. Scrutinize the wording in the new stimulous package or any future mortgage relief “bail out” legislation; because more than likely we will be the ones footing the bills.

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The Escalating Class Warfare In AmeriKKKa

2008-02-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

The Escalating AmeriKKKan Class Warfare Part II

“During the past five years (January 01—January 06), the information sector of the U.S. economy lost 644,000 jobs or 17.4% of its work force. Computer systems design and related lost 105,000 jobs or 8.5% of its work force. Clearly, jobs offshoring is not creating jobs in computers and information technology. Indeed, jobs offshoring is not even creating jobs in related fields.
U.S. manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs, almost 17% of the manufacturing work force. The wipeout is across the board. Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job. The declines in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a super-economy that is "the envy of the world." In five years, communications equipment lost 42% of its workforce. Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37% of its workforce. The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30%. Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25% of its employees. The workforce in motor vehicles and parts declined 12%. Furniture and related products lost 17% of its jobs. Apparel manufacturers lost almost half of the work force. Employment in textile mills declined 43%. Paper and paper products lost one-fifth of its jobs. The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15%. For the five year period, U.S. job growth was limited to four areas: education and health services, state and local government, leisure and hospitality, and financial services. There was no U.S. job growth outside these four areas of domestic nontradable services.” The New Face of Class Warfare By Paul Craig Roberts http://vdare.com/roberts/061009_newface.htm

In the previous article I mentioned the ruling elites were engaged in class warfare against working folks, that one way they did it was through disinformation and lies about the state of the economy, employment, the budget etc. This not wild speculation on my part or hatin’ on AmeriKKKa, honest economists are also saying this. “As a result of the systemic manipulations, if the CPI and GDP methodologies of 1980 were applied to today's data, you would get the 8%-plus inflation and flat economic growth discussed in the opening paragraph. Using unemployment methodology of 1960 generates an estimate of current 12% unemployment.
When Main Street, U.S.A., does not believe the government's reporting, the reality of common experience usually is the better estimate of what is happening in the economy. The damage from the fraudulent statistics, however, is much more serious than just politics as usual, the misguidance of overly trusting investors, or the massive cheating of Social Security recipients (payments would 70% higher using the CPI methodology of 1980). The masking of the actual annual $3.5 trillion deficit is setting up the nation for an eventual national bankruptcy/U.S. dollar collapse. Putting that $3.5 trillion in perspective, consider this: If the government seized 100% of everyone's salary and wages, the government still would show a deficit. But that is a story in itself.” MANIPULATING THE MASSES by John Williams http://www.conservababes.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php
The elites, their government and media puppets don’t want us to know they are cooking their books, cheating us out of rightful benefits as they rob the Social Security Trust Fund in a vain attempt to keep AmeriKKKa afloat. This type of statistical manipulation is merely the tip of the iceberg. As they simultaneously rig the book keeping they are pulling the rug out from under Joe and Jane Sixpack leaving them in a financial lurch. They don’t give a hoot about us all they are worried about is us not rising up in revolutionary protest. And they have pretty much eliminated that via an ongoing COINTELPRO campaign that makes sure righteous leaders are maginalized and discouraged. “Be clear about this: COINTELPRO and COINTELPRO-type programs are alive, well, and functioning in 21st century America by a government (of both Democrats and Republicans) who fear most especially its population of color, and fear losing control if enough white Americans were actually to have a momentary lapse of INSANITY and realize that their precious whiteness is being used against them by their own brethren as a manipulating control mechanism, as in the well publicized 20th century laboratory of Pavlov’s salivating dogs. COINTELPRO and similar such government/police programs have no boundaries, no limitations, no conscience. COINTELPRO is utterly amoral and existed in the recent past, and continues to exist presently, in order to STIFLE AND NEUTRALIZE political consciousness and any effective resistance to economic and social control in this sham democracy. Moreover, without the active collaboration on the part of some of the US populace, COINTELPRO would, itself, be neutralized, and it is precisely this that politically conscious and justice-loving people must recognize and comprehend. COINTELPRO and COINTELPRO-type programs must be exposed as the internal terrorist activities they are and be neutralized [i.e. made defunct] by a politically conscious populace.” Capitalism, COINTELPRO and the Torture of Justice Larry Pinkney http://www.blackcommentator.com/257/257
The plutocrats have already put the repressive infrastructure in place: the police, mercenaries, the Army Labor Camps, detention camps etc to spy on, arrest and detain dissidents and they are now pushing legislation through Congress to make it all legal to designate any protest or dissent as terrorism. For the masses they plan to reduce the standard of living of working folks and make us cower in fear, live in destitution or keep us bamboozled, foolishly chasing a mythical AmeriKKKan dream. The truth of the matter is for most of us the Horatio Alger story of rags to riches will never be ours. “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 financial wealth, the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 39.7%. Table 1 and Figure 1 present further details drawn from the careful work of economist Edward N. Wolff at New York University (2004).” Wealth, Income, and Power by G. William Domhoff http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
The income gap is widening daily and the prospects of many folks in the lower socio-economic brackets jumping into a more affluent “class” are becoming more and more unlikely. “The gap between the rich and everybody else in this country is fast becoming an unbridgeable chasm. David Cay Johnston, in the latest installment of the New York Times series ‘Class Matters,’ wrote, ‘It's no secret that the gap between the rich and the poor has been growing, but the extent to which the richest are leaving everybody else behind is not widely known.’ Consider, for example, two separate eras in the lifetime of the baby-boom generation. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent of the population between 1950 and 1970, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162. That gap has since skyrocketed. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent between 1990 and 2002, Mr. Johnston wrote, each taxpayer in that top bracket brought in an extra $18,000. It's like chasing a speedboat with a rowboat.
Put the myth of the American Dream aside. The bottom line is that it's becoming increasingly difficult for working Americans to move up in class. The rich are freezing nearly everybody else in place, and sprinting off with the nation's bounty. Economic mobility in the United States - the extent to which individuals and families move from one social class to another - is no higher than in Britain or France, and lower than in some Scandinavian countries. Maybe we should be studying the Scandinavian dream. As far as the Bush administration is concerned, the gap between the rich and the rest of us is not growing fast enough.” The Mobility Myth By BOB HERBERT http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/opinion/06herbert.html.
The number one newspaper of the ruling elites The New York Times did a series on the widening income gaps and revealed, “Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows. The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression. While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent. The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent. The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.” Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.html
While things look bleak we should not become discouraged or overly pessimistic. The coming economic downturn will impact us but it doesn’t have to devastate or destroy us. One of the most revolutionary things we can do to reverse the negative impact is stop spending beyond our means. A really seditious strategy would be to make a concerted effort to get out of debt!!! Years ago, The Temptations had a hit song “Don’t Let the Jones Get You Down” . In it they encouraged folks to stop trying to keep up with the Jones. It’s great advice, don’t allow the Madison Avenue psychologists and ad makers trick you into buying things you really don’t need, or dupe you into following the fads they create .
Sit down, take the time to create a realistic household budget and includes long term specific ways to pay off your credit card debt as quickly and practically as you can. If the ruling elites’ goal is to make us debt slaves and wage peons, the best way to outwit them is to get out of debt and stop overextending ourselves financially. This is easier said than done but nevertheless it can be done. The last thing the criminal oligarchy wants is a knowledgeable and organized populous resisting their fascist agenda. The elites’ goal is to create a fearful, uncritical and obedient herd of sheeple who passively go along with their program.
In the past “race” and color have been the wedge that prevented a united front by poor whites and people of color against the plutocrats who were exploiting and oppressing all of us. Racism is so entrenched, trying to build multi-ethnic coalitions probably won’t succeed. For us, the best way to defeat the fascists is through ethnocentric unified coordinated action, strategic boycotts and patronage, massive strikes and civil disobedience. The plutocrats will be forced to alter their exploitative and reactionary strategies. They can’t put all of us in jail just because we choose not to support corporations that exploit the masses, despoil the environment, corrupt government and devalue life.
We can come together with like minded black folks and plan to start a buying club or food co-ops to help cut expenses while having access to nutritious vegetables and fruits. We can organize and start community gardening programs to cultivate and develop vacant lots in the neighborhood and grow our own food. We can use these activities to teach our children about gardening and food. The possibilities are unlimited. Class warfare is real. We have to face this reality and begin to organize our personal and collective lives to minimize the damage, carnage and ensure our survival. We must simultaneously begin our counterattacks using the primary weapon at our disposal, our economic power.

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