"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime." - Balzac
Capitalism hasn't failed. What has failed is the economic system in place today.
No amount of government taxes, trade barriers, or regulation caused it to fail.
No investigative reporter, or congressional oversight committee, or regulatory watchdog, exposed the massive fraud and corruption in the financial system today. All of the safeguards put in place to protect the public, and the current system from itself, failed.
The global financial crisis came to light because what amounts to a falling out amongst thieves. They simply stopped trusting the ability of each other to pay their debts. Once lending stopped, credit creation froze, and the Ponzi-scheme that parallels our financial system broke down.
This so-called "Great Recession" isn't cyclical, it's secular and the problems are systemic. We didn't get here by accident. Choices were made by very wealthy and powerful people, thus those choices can be reversed.
It's important to understand that we aren't fighting Adam Smith's Invisible Hand. We are fighting against the Money Trust.
At least half a dozen leaders of the Republican Party have joined forces to create a new political group with the goal of organizing grass-roots support and raising funds ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to people familiar with the effort.
The organizational details of the group, expected to be called the American Action Network, are still being worked out, but it is expected to contain both a 501(c)3 and a 501(c)4 component. In simpler terms, a 501(c)3 can advocate on policy matters while a 501(c)4 is an election arm.
Republican leaders expected to be affiliated with the group include former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie, and Republican donor Fred Malek.
Pre- existing conditions? They are still in there, only now, instead of getting denied they get to jack the price up 3X and you'll be FORCED to buy something, and without competition who are you gonna choose? THEY WILL ALL CHARGE THE SAME CLIMBING PRICE!
Yearly caps? They are STILL IN THERE!
Death Panels? For Profit death panels, you betcha.
And loopholes, loopholes, loopholes!
I'm sorry, but Obama is NOT FDR. This is NOT the same political climate as when Social Security was passed or when Medicare was passed. Hell, this isn't even the same century!
So get over the fact that you have been TOTALLY SCREWED at this point and do something about it. This bill, as it stands, is so poisoned it should be killed and began again from the start, no matter how long and painful it might be. This CAN be dealt with in a year or two when the Conservative Wing of the Democratic part loses in droves, because that is coming one way or another.
I am PISSED, and you should be pissed too, cause we're getting SCREWED on this deal. The ONLY winners are the political class and the special interests. Consumers are getting sold down the river.
As stated in other recent diaries, perhaps this nation's demographics are such that the white, male Christian ruling class is destined to suffer the ravages of diminishing power and influence. Although this writer shares that fervent hope and allows that present conditions may portend such a monumental, seismic shift, this process will likely take far longer than we might want to imagine.
Despite the best efforts of the Reich Wingnut talking heads to encourage their minions to "get busy" and create hoards of newborn teabaggers, their relative numbers are likely to continue shrinking.
No doubt the so-called elite (aka GWB's base) are assiduously studying the tactics applied by the Spanish conquistadors who, during their invasion and swift, easy conquest of the native populations in the Americas, demonstrated that it is possible for the few to control the many.
More recent examples of minority dominion would be exemplified by the lengthy rule of the whites in South Africa, who, at their peak in 1911, accounted for only 19-21% of the population (13.6% when apartheid was abolished in 1994) and by the extended reign of the Sunnis in Iraq, who comprised only 15 to 20 percent of the country's entire population, yet dominated that country's government and economy throughout the 20th century.
And, closer to home, given their considerable power, one might reasonably conclude that large numbers are represented by the National Rifle Association, even though they comprise only about 1.3% of the U. S. population.
As Aldous Huxley so presciently observed in his 1931 novel, Brave New World, in order to maintain control over the oppressed, one need only convince those at each rung of the socioeconomic ladder that theirs is by far the best lot of all.
Got that Tiny Tim? Mr. Scrooge isn't the problem, the problem is that overpaid bum, Cratchett.
American Wages Out of Balance
By EDWARD HADAS, MARTIN HUTCHINSON and ANTONY CURRIE
Published: November 10, 2009
American workers are overpaid, relative to equally productive employees elsewhere doing the same work. If the global economy is to get into balance, that gap must close.
So how much more do the Masters Of the Universe at Goldman Sachs and elsewhere think that Americans should be paid comapred to the outright slaves and other indentured servants throughout the world? Join me below the fold to find out, and do't forget your torches and pitchforks.
Very rarely does Rachel Maddow lose her temper. Rather, she usually engages even the worst issues with a snarky, cheerful grin, but if you see the look on her face at the end of this segment you will see the burning rage that I have a LOT of trouble surpressing, especially on topics such as these.
Behold the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of America's Pro-SLAVERY capitalist status quo, courtesy of the wit and brilliance of Rachel Maddow.
If you missed the last two nights of Countdown with Keith Olbermann you missed a lot of new details in the Health care Reform debate, and I don't want to sound bleak, but things do not look good. The main points are these.
Wendel Potter: "If there's not a public option, the plan that is passed, if it's passed and signed by the President, will not be sustainable. And it ultimately will be a disaster for the middle class and ultimately be a disaster for the Democratic party . . .
~snip~
"We'll be paying a lot more out of our own pockets. We'll have the appearance of being able to afford premiums but we won't be able to afford health care. That can not be sustained."
And then there is the news that Rahm Emanuel will be representing the White House in the presumably upcoming Houuse-Senate Conference committee. Thus the title "If you wanna kill the (Public Option) you gotta do it yourself.
More below the fold, and it ain't pretty, with a call for action that puts it all on the line.
Recently a good friend here on teh toobz was banned from public discourse in a private setting, a limitation of his personal freedom of speech in a private place. Though he was offered reinstatement, he refused it on principle. He stood by his perinciple. He defended his freedom.
Personally, I think the whole situation sucks.
But MUCH BIGGER than that was the Police State RIOT SQUADS brutal response to PROPERTY DAMAGE in Pittsburgh, PA this weekend, when protestors without Government permission to exercisize.
This is my point.
If you have to ASK PERMISSION to use your rights, you never really had that right in the first place.
2008 Should live on in infamy as the year the class war became OBVIOUS.
No permit was obtained for the grassroots protests of the G20 in Pittsburgh. You have to ask your government permission to protest it. This is what Democracy looks like?
Beck's new book "Arguing on behalf of with Idiots" is a real gem, which includes this piece where Beck explains why SLAVERY is good and Uhmerican, just like the Founding Fathers wanted it.
Provision Beck praised actually "barred Congress from ending the international slave trade before 1808."
Beck praises "Migration or Importation" tax provision in taking cheap shot at "immigrants." In the chapter, Beck reprints and then praises Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 of the Constitution. Beck specifically highlights in yellow the phrase "ten dollars for each person":
Overlooked in the coverage of the passing of the great Senator Ted Kennedy is this ground shaking news out of France.
France's leading banks agreed Tuesday to curbs on the way they award bonuses, including penalties for traders who lose money for their companies, as part of a push by President Nicolas Sarkozy for worldwide limits on bonus payouts.
~snip~
He stressed, though, that international rules are needed to keep French banks competitive, and Sarkozy promised to push the G20 meeting next month in the United States to adopt such measures.
"While the first signs of stabilization of the economy are here, we are seeing bad habits coming back. I can't accept that," Sarkozy told the bankers.
"No one has forgotten that the financial sector is at the origin of this crisis."
Last month I wrote a diary at GOS, Criminalization of the Poor regarding an increasing trend in many urban areas in arresting homeless people for minor infractions in order to get them off the streets and into the penal system. Barbara Ehrenreich has addressed the same issue in an op-ed in today's NYT with Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?
Ehrenreich raises the point that, "I'd be content with a consensus that, if we can't afford to truly help the poor, neither can we afford to go on tormenting them." It seems very clear now that even if the nation's economy is reaching a plateau in certain sectors, it will be a long and painful road for many in finding their own equilibrium or comfort zone with the basics of employment, shelter and life's other necessities. We as a nation must make sure that we do not become increasingly authoritarian with those who have the least among us. We should avoid turning our safety nets into dragnets.
Though Keith Olberman's performance here on the matter of Corporate greed and sold out politicians has already been covered here at DD by our own talented author Edger, I thought it was imporatant enough to repeat with video and my own take on the matter.
In comparing the current state of Corporate America to that of the early 1910's-20's Keith is dead on. Not since then has the class war been so obvious, never have the Have's had so much, never have the Have Nots had so little.
Exemption for Eating the Rich will be allowed for those who earn abovve $250,000k on proof of empathy.
Fact 1 - Rudy 9/11,9/11,9/11 Guiliani says a massive wealth transfer from "rich to poor" is taking place and that people who earn $250,000 + are "really struggling". He also hopes health care reform fails.
GIULIANI: We already have major distribution of wealth going on in this country. ... Redistribution of wealth, from rich to poor. The rich pay - the so-called rich. We're talking about $250,000 or more in New York City. I know this is hard for people to understand. These people sometimes are two-earner families. They're really struggling
The fact is, the Wealthy Corporatists hate spending because it leads to taxes, which they can easily afford, but never mind that. I got mine, you can go fuck yourself. That seems to be the GOP plan, and it has been for the last 90 years.
They don't want health care reform, or anything at all, since they can afford it, so why can't you.
They have NO IDEA what real Struggling is.
Go cry me a fucking river banker boy. You want to see struggling? It ain't paying more for first class, it ain't having your taxes go up 3%, it ain't having the taxpayers pay for your bailout bonus. It is living in a tent under a bridge.
I don't need to tell you that unemployment is through the roof. U6 is at 20+% nationwide, and in NYC it is as bad as anywhere else. At some point, we as a nation need to figure out that the private sector will not save us, rather they are strangling us, but, that is not why I write today, although it is an issue that must be addressed if we are to recover from the Bush/Cheney depression anytime soon.
In New York City you can see the class warfare at it's prime. A few bonus baby Wall St types who tanked the whole economy on us yuk it up over drinks while a ton of busboys sweat it out for that extra buck.
Well, I have hit my breaking point. I have no job, no money, and no more patience. As much as I love the Big Rotten Apple, I have to say Good Bye, New York City.
This town is too rich for my blue collared blood. I have tried bootstraps. I have tried denying things like health care and dentist appointments, eating out and other non-necessities.
This map represents the connections and relationships of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Goldman Sachs International, Goldman Sachs Japan, Goldman Sachs Europe Limited, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Strategies LLC, Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC
Below I will post a link to the interactive version where you can click on each of the boxes with a + sign and get more information and see even further connections. I will also post a list of all these many connections. I posted a smaller version of this wheel last night in Badabing's diary, Matt Taibbi Pulls the Rug Out on Goldman Sachs - AGAIN... and am flushing it out for you all by request. Consider this a reference. I hope others will add to it.
I have been feeling lately that the entire country has been hit by a storm, that people are drowning or are standing on their roofs waving their arms, but that the most other people are ignoring them, their eyes set on some different horizon, looking for golden pots beneath rainbows.
The President and his family this week have been sampling the fine wines of Northern Italy with the worthless G-8, visiting an earthquake stricken town there. He has pontificated with the evil Santa that is the Pope and now having a delightful visit, no doubt, in Ghana.
The mainstream media has been preoccupied with sex, politics and celebrity death. Huge numbers of television watching Americans have been fueling those Networks' ad revenue, distracted by these baubles of the macabre. The blogosphere seems more fragmented than ever, either being enraptured with its own meta, or having its sights set on foreign revolutions and wargames. Quite a number too have been focused on the macroeconomy, noting the incredible hypocrisy and corruption of the big houses on Wall Street. There are those too who are completely focused on healthcare legislation, which does get closer to the core issue. That issue is that people are hurting badly in this country and are slipping through its cracks.
What do Hillary Clinton, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, Bill Nelson, and Tom Coburn have in common?
They are either members or friends of the Elitist Christian Right group The Family. The family holds weekly prayer meetings or "advisory" meetings where members discuss their problems, both personal and political, and give each other veto power over each others lives.
The Family has operated under various names since its formation in 1935. They have gone under the names:
National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation
They hold their prayer meetings at the Defense Department, the Pentagon and have their own little cul de sac of houses called Ivanwald where they groom future leaders. They also have a house in Washington where senators and congressmen live called C street. Residents of the C street house include Brownback, Coburn and Ensgin, including both Democrats and Republicans. The Family has connections to the CIA as well as to governments around the world including the former Suharto dictatorship, the current dictator in Uganda,Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the former president of Honduras, Ricardo Marudo and The Family has been involved with coups in Fiji, of all places.
If Reform Costs X and Fighting it costs Y - choose the lesser of the two everytime.
Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.
The line between taking a profit and making a killing is where ethics ends and Super Profits begin. There are thousands of examples we can find in our economy today where taking a profit is not good enough, and thus making a killing is what we do.
It seems as though once the line between making a profit ethically is crossed there is no going back. Once the people who profit by stepping over the line and making a killing have gone there, the damage is already done and it is too late. What good is it to us if we fine a polluter some millions they can afford after they have made the Super Profit and ripped the resources out of the bare earth, or by denying someone Health Care they paid the Insurance for, or by ginning up a war fro their contractor buddies. The war still happens, people die of preventable disease and no one can put the environment back together again.
This is how our economy works. Whoever can fuck over the most people the best win. You can be too big to fail but if there is any competition to worry about, don't worry, the Government will take care of it for you, but if average Joe Sixpacks demand the same thing that is socialism, and that is bad.
So what is a person to do?
The first step to fighting the Class War is to know your enemy.
An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.
It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.
You see, if they actually provided the health care insurance policy holders are paying for, they would not make such a big profit. It is as simple as that. $300,000,000 over 5 years is hard for a Board of Directors to turn down.
The Murder By Spreadsheet Industry is not alone here. Many industries and big businesses claim they can not survive without there special little exceptions around basic decency and common sense.
Some examples are
Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining
You can call this Environmental Disaster Capitalism
First off, these companies will NEVER invest in Green Technology and Green energy, because that costs money and any initial investment towards progress will hurt their profits, and that makes Executives cry.
Never mind the fact that there are other, less destructive ways to mine for coal, but that costs money, and is less profitable than the Super - Profits that can be made by wrecking the place. Never mind the fact that coal is toxic, toxic to the air, the rivers, everything around it. That is not important, making money, now that is what is important.
Labor Unions
If companies do not have the ability to bust unions, how will they make their Super Profits? Can large employers like WalMart get by when their employees can demand better wages and benefits? Of course.
Will they admit that? Hell no!
What costs more, making TV ads or actually paying employees more? Do the long term benefits to society and our economy outweigh the initial costs? Of course not, that would get in the way of making a killing. What are you, some kind of socialist?
Well, yes, if by socialist you mean something other than an unfettered free market capitalist. If that is what you mean by socialist I am guilty as charged.
Wall St
This one is so big I will not get into it too much, suffice it too say that they are certainly making a killing on Wall St. I have yet to hear when the Wall St Bailout will be paid back
No matter how bad the risk, the people who take those risks never feel the pain of their failure. They are Too Big To Fail. You are not.
Socialism for the rich is fine, just don't go getting socialist on the rest of the proletariat. If you feed them once you will never get rid of them.
War and The Military Industrial Complex
This is true Disaster Capitalism at work, and the heart of all class warfare. War is class warfare.
If we do not have wars to fight how will we ever justify spending a quarter of our federal budget on our military, plus supplemental spending and all the other goodies we hand out to the MIC year to year?
And if there are no actual wars to fight, we can just invent them with a little help from the Corporate controlled media
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
