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Archive for the Politics Category

Standing Up In America (December 5, 2011)

Posted in "Fiat ______", Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Courts, Credit Unions, Crime/Punishment, Housing, Kleptocracy, Law, Locke Gary, Perjury/Dishonesty, Politics on December 5, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L “We now learn that while he was Secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson tipped off some of his hedge fund buddies of the Fannie Mae bailout. Everyone in power is quick to proclaim that his statements and actions are not illegal and declare that nothing can be done. His statements and actions are illegal, but those in power refuse to enforce Title 18, the criminal provisions of the United States Code, because they do not want to bring charges against their compatriots in power even their competitors in the other party.”

O “They cop out and refuse to send the cops out. Because otherwise someone could bring charges against them some day. The Great Ruling Class Truce. And no one asks any follow-up questions or demands answers.”

L “However, a federal judge in New York, Jed S. Rakoff, took a stand from his seat on the bench and rejected a settlement between the Big Banks and the SEC that would have let the Big Banks substantially off the hook.”

O “I read a blurb that the state attorney general in Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, took a stand and demanded that the Big Banks follow standards. The lawsuit may put the Big Banks on the hook.”

L “And in developments overseas, America’s standard-bearer in China, Gary Locke, is America’s stand-up guy in China.”

. . .

[Henry Paulson: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-29/how-henry-paulson-gave-hedge-funds-advance-word-of-2008-fannie-mae-rescue.html]

[Jed S. Rakoff: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/28/142856070/judge-blocks-citigroup-sec-settlement]

[Martha Coakley: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/massachusetts-attorney-general-sues-big-banks-over-foreclosure-practices/2011/12/01/gIQAgwnUIO_story.html. See the “e-ssay” titled Fire Your Attorney General (November 7, 2011)]

[Gary Locke: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/gary-locke-is-star-in-china-as-first-us-ambassador-of-chinese-ancestry/2011/11/28/gIQA703DEO_story.html?hpid=z2. See the “Category” denoted “Locke, Gary”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

America Is Exceptional / When America’s Exceptional

Take a stand

Take a few fiat dollars out of your credit union and put them in your pocket for safe keeping.

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Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Boycott Series, Economics, First Amendment, Journalism, Kleptocracy, Newspapers, Occupy Movement, Politics, Society on October 17, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

a “They will only tolerate it as long as they regard it as harmless. When they regard it as a threat to their domination, they will do harm.”

A “Another inevitable repeat of history. But when the Chicago police rioted in ’68 outside the Democratic National Convention and beat and tear gassed the populace, at least they only used night sticks and tear gas as weapons.”

a “There are videos you can download to your tube with a few clicks. You can see that the police even beat the press. Back then, the press got it and got in the way and got it from the police.”

A “Today, the authorities are armed with far more dangerous armaments and arsenals. Even toll booth operators and beach patrols sport their own SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) Teams equipped with grenade launchers and flame throwers. In an old black and white tv show, Barney Fife, a deputy sheriff in a small North Carolina town, carried one bullet, probably a .38, in his shirt pocket and was required to ask Andy, the sheriff, before he could even chamber it. Different times.”

a “Not many police officers realize that the kids are trying to protect the police union while the governor is trying to kill it. When the federal government begins providing Homeland Security grants to allow local libraries to acquire armed drones, will anyone care or comment.”

A “Not to worry, they are closing the libraries. It might be Oak Park, it might be Oakland, it might occur on some other park or land that will become part of our national lore.”

a “Even if the kids keep their heads, the authorities are going to bust them. The problem is that one person may make a threatening comment that will provide the police with a pretext. An undercover police officer could make a threatening comment to one of his colleagues and provide the pretext for a police riot.”

A “A few young Boomers got their heads busted and then when older busted a booming economy. Now the Boomers will bust some concerned youngsters’ heads – the youngsters who must endure the long bust but will never experience a lingering boom.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Ohio – Not Forgettin’ Ohio; The Battleground State Battles On (May 2, 2005)” and the “e-ssay” titled “The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do you want the kids to be activists or pacifists?

Occupy Mayberry, R.F.D.

Kids (and older kids) who know and care are doing something

The kids are alright

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” – John F. Kennedy

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Occupy America (October 10, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Boycott Series, Economics, First Amendment, Journalism, Kleptocracy, Newspapers, Occupy Movement, Politics, Society on October 10, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A “Commentators are having a hard time because there isn’t one spokesperson to interview nor one manifesto to mine.”

a “Most commentators don’t understand what has happened in America over the last decade, so I don’t expect them to understand what is going on today. I am aware enough to know that something’s clearly wrong, yet it is hard to describe. What I do know is that I don’t have a future.”

A “It’s simple and obvious. The ruling class is strip mining the middle class. And then accusing those who dare to point out the obvious truth that the astute observer is instigating class warfare.”

a “They are clearcutting the kids. They are not allowing a college grad let alone the ordinary Joe to immanentize the eschaton, although they are immanentizing the eschaton in a big way at my expense. I really don’t have much hope of improvement or advancement.”

A “Listen carefully. That may be the big difference this time – an underlying absence of hope and a more pronounced sense of desperation.”

a “Hope died a few years ago. Hope is so 2008. Yet what do you have if you don’t have hope.”

A “When hope totally disappears, an individual who can’t take it often takes one of three paths. At the extreme, he takes his life, takes someone else’s life, or takes someone else’s life and then takes his life.”

a “Someone sure took the life of the American Dream.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Boycott Big Banks (February 1, 2010).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Occupy Wall Street; Occupy Our America

You don’t need a sportscaster to know which way the ball bounces.

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(M)End The Fed (July 11, 2011)

Posted in Antitrust, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Crime/Punishment, Federal Reserve, Language, Law, Monopoly, O'Bama, Politics on July 11, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “The vocal critics of the Fed are missing the point. Stated simply, every nation needs a central bank, but the Big Banks own and operate the Federal Reserve. Stated another way, the country tolerates a misunderstood institution – the Federal Reserve – that is an unrestrained cancer and at the same time lacks an institution it desperately needs – a central bank independent of excessive political and any private interference.”

L “A transparent central bank?”

K “Call it whatever you want.”

L “A responsive central bank?”

K “Responsive to something other than Big Banks. Bernanke* should have the intellect to understand the problem and the integrity to compel change, yet even he may take his marching orders from others.”

L “He, Geithner and the others either assisted in creating the problem or allowed it to fester and permutate. Now O’Bama is serving the interests of the financial industry at a time when his Department of Justice should be serving members of the financial industry with sub poenas and criminal indictments. What incentive it there for him to reform the financial industry or the Fed. Simply look at who he is soliciting for campaign contributions.”

K “He was caught. He simply could not get elected and cannot get reelected without the money. No one is able to identify one industry in America that is not completely monopolized today. Banks are among the biggest offenders. Without a market, there is not a market and are not market forces. Change likely will not come until there is a complete economic collapse. That situation may generate enough sustained interest and desperation among those who can change affairs to reform the system.”

L “Or the catastrophe may not leave any choice.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Antitrust Chief Flees; Monopolies Reign Freely

Because you don’t have to do the time, do the crime

Big sticker; small font sans serifs; big bumper:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BEFORE THE

BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

WASHINGTON, D.C.

___________________________________

Written Agreement by and between

BIG BANK,

New York, New York

And

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK,

New York, New York

___________________________________

. WHEREAS, in recognition of their common goal to maintain the financial soundness of Big Bank (the “Big Bank”), a nationally chartered bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System, the Big Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the “Reserve Bank”) have mutually agreed to enter into this Written Agreement (the “Agreement”).

. NOW, THEREFORE, the Bank and the Reserve Bank agree as follows:

Within ninety (90) days of this Agreement, the board of directors of the Big Bank shall submit to the Reserve Bank a written plan to divest itself of any and all deposits and assets in excess of one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000.00) . . . .

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The Great National Dissolution: Resolving The Great Civil War (April 18, 2011)

Posted in Immanentizing The Eschaton, Political Parties, Politics, Race on April 18, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A “Last Tuesday marked one hundred and fifty years since the outbreak of the Civil War.”

E “And it started with a terrorist assault by a state on Ft. Sumter, an outlying Union outpost. 4/12 was 9/11.”

A “The Great National Dissolution springs from the realization that divorce and dissolution are among the most important and necessary institutions developed by humankind.”

E “The fundamental issue today really is exactly the same as the fundamental issue in 1860. Slavery disguised and marketed as States Rights. America still is divided into the Slave States and the Free States. It’s that fundamental.”

A “The division reflects tension between the human desire to be free oneself and the human urge to enslave others. The first stage of the Civil War was followed by the Great Hundred Year War of Terror. From the signing of the terms of surrender in 1865 to the signing of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, there was a sustained campaign of terrorism against Blacks. Blacks rode the Underground Railroad from the Slave States to the Non-Slave States as political and economic refuges fleeing from domestic terrorists. When the CRA and VRA were signed, most of the overt terrorism against Blacks in America went underground, yet many Blacks are still railroaded.”

E “Dissolution may be an option, but you confront the proposition that the right of a state to leave the Union was settled at Appomattox in 1865. There are some guys who proclaim: ‘Lee surrendered, I didn’t’.”

A “Act on that sentiment and the Feds will issue ‘three hots and a cot.’ However, the proposal avoids the problem of unilateral and illegal state action. Congress itself must enact the Great National Dissolution.”

E “When the Civil War broke out, some guys who had studied Jomini, drank Jack Walker and went on panty raids together at West Point went South while the others went North particularly many of the small cadre that were deployed at the time out West. Robert Lee, who graduated a few years earlier and higher in the class than most of his home boys, took sides with Virginia and the insurgents. Others stayed with their then-current employer, Tio Sam. So you say that everyone should be afforded an opportunity to make that decision today?”

A “Exactly. The Great National Migration. Very clean, very elegant.”

E “I suspect that the District of Columbia would elect to go with the Free States.”

A “Probably. DC could also attain statehood immediately. Again, very clean, very elegant.”

E “The battle lines in America are clear, although the specific boundary lines are cloudy. The resource extraction states would go with the Slave States; the states with exploitable natural resources do not need human resources. The entire state of Oklahoma would, of course, go with the Slave States. A state like Minnesota would be torn, like the Virginia of old, possibly in twain. M. Bachman and her ilk would go with the Slave States, K. Ellison and his followers would go with the Free States.”

A “And then there is Wisconsin.”

E “By the way, you’re hosed.”

A “Not to worry. A friend and I agree that each of us will be forced to leave or will be driven from our respective states. We agreed to swap houses. A Section 1031 exchange is possible. The possibilities are endless. There is no downside. Neither side would need to compromise its principles. The Great National Dissolution is one of the most, if not the most, clean, elegant, practical, and principled resolutions of an intractable problem in the history of humankind.”

E “I’ll concede that the solution is Pareto Optimal.”

A “And allows all of us everywhere to . . . immanentize the eschaton.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” dated January 3, 2005 titled “Boycott Red America (January 3, 2005).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Lee Surrendered, I Didn’t

Better Dead Than Red

Better Red Than Read

The Great National Dissolution: Coming To A State Near You

Only those who have already immanenetized the eschaton warn against immanentizing the eschaton.

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The First Look At The “Second Political Party” (January 3, 2011)

Posted in Abortion, Capital Punishment, Death Penalty, Drugs, Economics, Elections, Gay Politics, Government Regulation, Kleptocracy, Political Parties, Politics, Society on January 3, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

R “I’ve been shut out by the venal and feral nut cases in my party.”

D “I’ve been sold out by the effete and craven fruits in my party.”

R “My team is fraudulent; yours is feckless.”

D “Your team markets fear; mine peddles hope. No one addresses problems or provides answers.”

. . .

D “Your team caters to the very rich; you’re not very rich.”

R “But I can be.”

D “Not any longer. They let you nourish that delusion to string you along.”

R “But I could have been.”

. . .

R “We need a third party.”

D “We already have a third party, but it is a rabid and toxic mix of nuts and fruits. We need a fourth party.”

R “At core, both parties are owned hook, line and over the barrel by the same corporate and financial interests. The Repubocrats and the Demolicans. Maybe we need a second party.”

D “Our country has transformed from a democracy to a kleptocracy. Each party protects and serves the kleptocrats and banksters who keep the public diverted and entertained with frivolous diversions and entertainments.”

R “The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United was designed to promote the interests of my party and also has doomed the prospect of any other party emerging in America.”

. . .

D “We need less government involvement in our personal lives. No government definition of marriage. No government regulation of abortion. No government criminalization of marijuana.”

R “We need government to dictate the definition of marriage. It is what I say it is, between a man and a woman. We need government to invade each bedroom and demand delivery of every conceivable baby. If the little tyke steps out of line, we need capital punishment. Remember that life begins at conception and ends at birth. We need government to imprison people for smoking marijuana when it is still legal to drink all the alcohol they want.”

. . .

D “So now once again what are the essential bedrock policies of the ‘Second Political Party’?”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

TPTB America has abandoned the Middle Class; what is interesting to watch is how the Middle Class abandons TPTB America.

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Immanentize The Eschaton: Move To Sunny Somalia (December 20, 2010)

Posted in Antitrust, Immanentizing The Eschaton, O'Bama, Political Parties, Politics, Tea Party on December 20, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

I “You can indeed immanentize the eschaton.”

T “The what?”

I “Immanentize the eschaton. Achieve utopia. Create heaven on Earth. Promote your own Maslowian self-realization by immanentizing the eschaton.”

T “What?”

I “You don’t want any government regulation, right.”

T “None.”

I “The market cures all, you say.”

T “Right. The market rules.”

I “You vote with your dollars and decide which businesses survive and which don’t. Unless there is only one monopoly player in each industry. In that situation, there is absolutely and unambiguously no market solution.”

T “Don’t tread on me.”

I “You cannot have free markets unless you have free markets. Every business is in business to put its competitors and the free market out of business. Only one countervailing force is available. That is us working through and with another institution that we love to castigate.”

T “I want my freedom.”

I “A beast with ‘Inc.’ as its surname is as dangerous as one with ‘Bureau’ as its first name. Big business can take away your freedom as easily as big government. The Constitution constrains the government and protects you. However, the Constitution only constrains big business and only protects you if the government is there to uphold and enforce the law.”

T “I want my country back.”

I “Then go back. If you are so hot to trot, why not trot on over to where it is hot. Trot on over to your utopia, your heaven on Earth, your eschaton. Jump a Pan Am or TWA flight to sunny Somalia.”

T “Somalia! The utopia cannot be in Asia. By definition. It has to be here. In ‘Merica.”

I “By definition.”

T “We are exceptional.”

I “We certainly are. What about Somali exceptionalism?”

T “They aren’t exceptional, whoever they are.”

I “I take exception. They may not be the exception, the way we are heading.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

I’d rather not entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory or to the faculty of Harvard University.

Why don’t those who have already immanetized the eschaton want others to immanentize the eschaton?

My grandparents went to Somalia and all I got was this lousy t-shirt that says: “Don’t immanentize the eschaton.”

If O’Bama gets re-elected, I’m moving to Somalia

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In The Land Of Fury And The Home Of The Fearful (November 1, 2010)

Posted in Elections, Politics, Race, Society, Tea Party on November 1, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J “So much unfocused rage and undigested anger is raging across the countryside.”

K “And Anger Mongering (AM) radio and Fox tv are the primary mouthpieces for the furor. Follow the money. A staggering amount of money is being amassed marketing hate and fear to the masses, one of the last growth industries in America. Those inciting the masses are doing so for their own very narrow self-interest. The cunning and the cynical are playing some voters for chumps and stooges. Stun and cripple a person with fear and take his vote and his money. Yet there is a perception that something is wrong grounded in the fact that something is wrong. The frustration is magnified because it cannot be articulated.”

J “And an articulate, informed and serene Black President who displays upper class sensibilities and syntax reminds Americans of the two underlying schisms and fissures in America – race and class. Race is not an acknowledged issue, but race is an issue in most of the political races this year.”

K “Confidence even devoid of arrogance and pretense threatens the insecure. Look at the numbers. Forty-five percent of the electorate responds to fear. Market and exploit fear and appeal to another five percent and then get just one more vote. Political victory. That arithmetic really explains politics in America. The real kicker is that the problems are far worse than all but the most informed realize and are far less likely to be resolved by current thinking.”

J “It is all about jobs. Ironic that some in France are rioting because they are to be given the opportunity to work an additional two years, albeit delaying their retirement, and Americans may riot to be given the opportunity to work. When there are job openings, Americans are there hustling to get them.”

K “True, yet Americans have not experienced any real hardship in recent decades and simply do not have the emotional software to deal with adversity with any perspective or dignity.”

J “When the present and the future are so bleak, the past is strained through a filter to make it look far more idyllic than it ever was.”

K “It is so much easier to hate and fear without reflection.”

. . .

Bumper stickers (signs) of the week:

45% + 5% + 1 = Victory

“The trouble with the world is the stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent are full of doubt.” Bertrand Russell

At the Stewart/Colbert Rally on October 30 on the National Mall:

I don’t want my country back, I want my country forward.

Those who work for the government should want the government to work.

God hates hate.

God fears fear.

God fears hate.

God hates fear.

Use your indoor voice

Although I don’t agree with you, I don’t think you’re Hitler

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On Entitlements (July 19, 2010)

Posted in Congress, Entitlements, Politics, Society on July 19, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

G “There was a time when a citizen possessed a few cherished inalienable rights and a variety of revocable privileges. Along came this hybrid thing called an ‘entitlement’ that soon morphed into a quasi-right. Now too many entitlements are regarded as inalienable birthrights.”

H “There isn’t anyone in America who does not feel entitled to an easy life without effort or sacrifice.”

G “Except some individuals in the Middle West of America. They do not believe they are entitled to everything. However, they do not show up on the radar because they live in an area known as the ‘flyover states.’ They are not counted and thus don’t count, although they can and do count.”

H “The entitlement mentality infects each and every class, race, region, religion and age group in the country. Except some individuals in the Middle West, you contend.”

G “Americans believe that they are entitled not to die. Repudiating one’s mortality, now that is an entitlement. The future will be rude for most Americans. Except some individuals in the Middle West who are better prepared to weather the coming economic tornado. The courts first created due process rights and then the Democratic and Republican Parties embraced and expanded them with as much zeal as their constituents.”

H “Registered Republicans pitch a hissy fit about the guv-mint, yet they demand the same or more entitlements as others. No one is immune.”

G “Except some individuals you know where. Entitlements are now at the core and heart of the American DNA.”

H “The future will be a taxing emotional transition for an unprepared people.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

The guv-mint should keep its hands off my Social Security.

Je suis entitled.

I am owed.

I am entitled.

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Corporations United (Feb. 15, 2010)

Posted in Conflicts of Interest, First Amendment, Perjury/Dishonesty, Politics, Supreme Court on February 15, 2010 by e-commentary.org

“In Citizens United, five of our good friends at the Supreme Court decreed that a corporation is a legal person entitled to the First Amendment safeguards amended to the Constitution. A legal ‘person’ is defined differently in different situations. The typical ‘person’ is a living, breathing and sentient citizen not a corporation.”

“As I recall, a nautical vessel is also a legal ‘person,’ yet it cannot bring or maintain a lawsuit for instance.”

“Exactly. A corporation is also a legal person, yet not one that is entitled to the full panoply of constitutional safeguards. The decision in effect subordinates the First Amendment rights of living, breathing and sentient citizens to the financial interests of corporations. The case reveals all the sins and crimes of the Court. Alito recused himself in an earlier case involving a claim for punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez case because of his ownership of substantial Exxon stock. All of the justices also have substantial stock in the very corporations they now have vested with extraordinary power.”

“There is no way to avoid the conclusion that they sought to influence the political debate and protect their corporate benefactors. And those who decry ‘judicial activism’ are not decrying this blatantly activist and tendentious decision.”

“Roberts testified before the Senate that he would be an umpire. He is changing the scores before reporting them and making decisions to benefit his bank account. He rejected the very precedents he promised to uphold. As I recall, his testimony was under oath. You can check on that.”

“I think it is perjury to lie under oath to the Senate. Or it was in the past.”

“The House could bring articles of impeachment for misconduct. At a minimum, the Senate could require him to testify and explain his earlier testimony. The proper separation of powers is jeopardized when an individual is allowed to lie to the Senate about what he will do after he is confirmed by the Senate.”

“There was a Senator Exon decades ago and there will be a dozen Senator Exxons in coming days.”

“Law in America today is a groundless and amoral ideological game.”

(Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. ___ (2010).)

[See the “e-ssay” dated October 20, 2008 titled “Contemporary American Political Parties 101“ noting that the Republicans “10. Win” and the Democrats “10. Lose.” See also the “e-ssay” dated February 20, 2006 titled “Perjury, The American Way.”]

(“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Howard Zinn 1922 – 2010)

Bumper stickers of the week:

The best democracy money can buy.

We the corporations . . .

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