Joe's Latest Dispatch

Because of these dissolute times in the land of the free, home of the brave, it is quite difficult to find a sensible and unbought social commentator. Not impossible, though. Mr. Joe Bageant has my vote as the last, best hope for awakening the sleepy American hobbits from their TV - induced stupor and rousing them to save themselves (and others) at the very last possible second. Go Joe! Click on over and be sure and read it all. The Devil and Mr. Obama

Oh, and, kill your TV, folks...It isn't entertainment, it's mind entrainment. To the benefit of the money monkey mafia, and no one else. Certainly not to our benefit.

Dylan Ratigan Is Right

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan is a rare cool voice of common sense in a corporate-owned media circus. Listen to him: he's right.

"This is the very essence of the banking industry........to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt."
The International 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Taki's Take on Things

Taki on Madoff, Dubya and more...I love the gregarious golden Greek mainly because he comes up with sentences like the following...

"There is more greed in Wall Street than there are Holocaust deniers in Riyadh, but Daphne sort of forgot to mention her burly slob of a brother. Almost, that is. In one sentence which I shall always treasure she wrote, “A sibling of mine had business dealings with Madoff.” Which, a reader replied, was the equivalent of Milton Eisenhower saying he had a brother who participated in the Second World War."

Grin.

Go read it all.

Throw the Bums Out by Taki Theodoracopulos

"George W Bush Lite With Sugar On Top"

Jim Kunstler warns that we may be flirting with a French-Revolution-type scenario, God forbid, if the banksters and fraudsters and CEOs aren't brought to justice soon. Like a train wreck, you can't look away. Monday doom to go along with the plummeting market. Mr. Obama is brilliant, well-spoken and seems genuinely good-hearted, quite a refreshing change in many ways, but you know what they say about good intentions...scroll down on Kunstler's blog til you arrive at the Clusterf*ck Nation on the left side.

QUOTE People of good intentions and progressive predilection are scratching their heads wondering just how President Barack Obama managed to turn himself into George W. Bush Lite with sugar-on-top just twelve weeks after that fateful walk down the US Capitol's east stairway to the waiting helicopter. I'm hardly the first observer to note that Mr. Obama's actions in the face of an epochal finance fiasco and economic collapse are a mere extension of the pre-January-20 policies, carried out by much the same cast of characters. UNQUOTE

~~~

Karma Knows, Baby

The Bush gang's parting gift: a final, frantic looting of the public wealth.
The US bail-out amounts to a strings-free, public-funded windfall for big business. Welcome to "no-risk capitalism". From Naomi Klein in The Guardian.

The strangest thing about the whole matter is that, unlike other shifty maneuvers by governments, this one is being done completely in the open...and not a peep from anyone.

Where are the protests? Where are the general strikes? Where are the sit-ins and boycotts?
Governments around the world have effectively robbed their citizens and I've yet to see one protest march in the streets.

Have we become so cowed? When they see that they have easily got away with this heist, imagine the encore? Its time to say enough. And remember, in the words of Whoopi Goldberg, karma KNOWS, baby. God sees all and karma knows what you did. Vengeance is mine: I will repay saith the Lord. Not man's or woman's or law's or politico's. God's. That should give pause but likely won't.

QUOTE This duplicity is a political opportunity. Whoever wins on November 4 will have enormous moral authority. It should be used to call for a freeze on the dispersal of bail-out funds, not after the inauguration but right away. All deals should be renegotiated, this time with the public getting the guarantees.
It is risky, of course, to interrupt the bail-out process. Nothing could be riskier, however, than allowing the Bush gang their parting gift to big business - the gift that will keep on taking. UNQUOTE

___

Talkin' To The Man From Galilee

As the old spiritual says, oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?

The actual soul of this nation is a good one, and will eventually prevail over the lying politicians, investment weasels and corrupted bankers. The bull caca just keeps getting piled higher and deeper.

Here's a straight shooter, telling it like it is...

"What they (G7 leaders) need to do is go down the bar and leave the rest of us alone," Rogers said.

~~~~~

QUOTE "This is a disgrace," Kucinich said, adding that some additional congressional action may be warranted. "The bailout continues to be perverted by those who led us into the problem to begin with and who stand not to just profit in a corporate sense but to profit personally through bonus packages."

Kucinich does not have confirmation of The Guardian's report but hopes to get some answers.

"No one is denying that this is happening," he said. "That AIG took action confirms that it's happening. We just have to see the extent of it." UNQUOTE
~~~

Johnny Cash sings "God's Gonna Cut You Down"

The Money Was There All Along

Downsize our military, keep our troops home, start making cool useful stuff locally, and redirect those trillions to schools, healthcare, and alternate energy and we wouldn't have to raise a dime of new taxes.

Please read and distribute this article The God That Failed widely.

From Counterpunch

QUOTE This was the cult that captured the governments of the United States and Britain (among others), as well as the Republican and Democratic parties, and the Conservative and Labour parties as well. And for almost thirty years, its ruthless doctrines have been put into practice. Regulation and oversight of financial markets were systematically stripped away or rendered toothless. Essential public services were sold off, for chump change, to corporate interests. Public spending on anything other than making war, threatening war and profiting from war was pared back or eliminated. Such public spending that did remain was forever under threat and derided, like the remnants of some pagan faith surviving in isolated backwaters.

Year after year, the ordinary citizens were told by their governments: we have no money to spend on your needs, on your communities, on your infrastructure, on your health, on your children, on your environment, on your quality of life. We can't do those kinds of things any more.

Of course, when talking amongst themselves, or with the believers in the think tanks, boardrooms -- and editorial offices -- the cultists would speak more plainly: we don't do those things anymore because we shouldn't do them, we don't want to do them, they are wrong, they are evil, they are outside the faith. But for the hoi polloi, the line was usually something like this: Budgets are tight, we must balance them (for a "balanced budget" is a core doctrine of the cult), we just can't afford all these luxuries.

But now, as the emptiness and falsity of the Chicago cargo cult stands nakedly revealed, even to some of its most faithful and fanatical adherents, we can see that this 30-year mantra by our governments has been a deliberate and outright lie. The money was there -- billions and billions and billions of dollars of it, trillions of dollars of it. We can see it before our very eyes today -- being whisked away from our public treasuries and showered upon the banks and the brokerages.

Let's say it again: The money was there all along.

Money to build and generously equip thousands and thousands of new schools, with well-paid, exquisitely trained teachers, small teacher-pupil ratios, a full range of enriching and inspiring programs.

Money to revitalize the nation's crumbling inner cities, making them safe and vibrant places for businesses and families and communities to grow.

Money to provide decent, affordable and accessible health care to every citizen, to provide dignity and comfort to the elderly, and protection and humane treatment for the mentally ill.

Money to provide affordable higher education to everyone who wanted it and could qualify for it. Money to help establish and sustain local businesses and family farms, centered in and on the local community, driven by the needs and knowledge of the people in the area, and not by the dictates of distant corporations.

Money to strengthen crumbling infrastructure, to repair bridges, shore up levies, maintain roads and electric grids and sewage systems.

Money for affordable, workable public transport systems, for the pursuit of alternative sources of energy, for sustainable, sensible development, for environmental restoration.

Money to support free inquiry in science, technology, health and other areas -- research unfettered from the war machine and the drive for corporate profit, and instead devoted to the betterment of human life.

Money to support culture, learning, continuing education, libraries, theater, music and the endless manifestations of the human quest to gain more meaning, more understanding, more enlightenment, a deeper, spiritually richer life.

The money for all of this -- and much, much more -- was there, all along. When they said we couldn't have these things, they were lying -- or else allowing themselves to be profitably duped by the high priests of the market cult. When they wanted a trillion dollars -- or three trillion dollars -- to wage a war of aggression in Iraq, they found it. Now, when they want trillions of dollars to save the speculators, fraudsters and profiteers of greed in the global market, they suddenly have it. UNQUOTE
~~~~

Seeing Red: $100 MIL in Executive Bonus 3 Days Before Filing Bankrupcy

The Lehman Brothers board signed off on more than $100m (£59m) in payouts to five top executives just three days before the bank went bankrupt leaving thousands of employees out of work in London.
From The Times (UK)

My husband and I have received, within the past few days, statements from a home equity loan which is paid in full and a credit card account, also PIF, with interest charged on a ZERO balance. We are closing both the accounts tomorrow, and seriously thinking about closing all lines of credit. What I want to know is this: where do these clowns get off? AIG and their $440,000 spa weekend after receiving untold wealth from the people's taxes...Lehman Brothers golden parachutes, it sickens me. Where do they get off? When the people take to the streets in a general strike? When are the perpetrators of this disaster behind bars where many of them belong?
~~~~

Crying in Your Beer? Click Here.

Whoa, Nelliebelle....

The Great Depression of 1929 was quick, taking just a few weeks for the stock market to lose half of its value. And over 25 years to gain it back. What road are we travelling?

DeFazio For The People Of the United States

My homeboy Congressman Peter DeFazio of Eugene, OR (my home town, where my brother still lives with his lovely family)hits it out of the park.

From 9/29 "Don't rush into this..."

The Voice of Reason

Jeff Fortenberry, Ron Paul and Mike Pence are providing voices of reason in this season of insanity.

If Pelosi has declared Congressional Martial Law, what does that mean? Can't be good.


Hat tip to Laura at RSE.

Ron Paul Takes Helicopter Ben to School

The Best Call You Can Make

From Spirit Daily

QUOTE And have no fear. God is your refuge. He will not fail you. Just do not fail Him. You can call Him any time you'd like.
The area code is "Jesus, I trust in You" -- and the number is "Mary, take over!" She has surprises in store for you. Fear not.
Jesus I trust in You. Mary take over.
It's the best "call" that you can make. UNQUOTE

&&&

We Need to Cast "Precious" Into the Cracks of Doom

Will Congress have any power to stop this terrible juggernaut? Will they even really try? I'm afraid the more I hear about the bailout, the worse it gets. Details of the Act were released by the NY Times over the weekend, and section 8 includes the following statement:
" Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Essentially, the Act will give the Secretary of the Treasury dictatorial power over our economy, and his decisions will not be subject to review or approval by the president, the courts, or the Congress (who have a Constitutional right and obligation to oversee Federal spending). This is a frightening development to say the least.

Senators and Representatives: The One Ring of the Tolkien mythology is emblematic of the human tendency to covet wholeness and power from an outside object, wealth, trophies. It is especially the aggressive characters who become most vulnerable to becoming possessed by the Ring. Jonathan Zap points out in his fine essay Casting Precious Into The Cracks Of Doom http://www.zaporacle.com/textpattern/article/43/castingprecious

that

"Boromir who is described as '…taking no wife and delighting chiefly in arms; fearless and strong, but caring little for lore, save the tales of old battles.' ” Not surprisingly, he is the member of the ring fellowship who most easily falls under the spell of Ring lust. In violation of everything he has agreed to at the ring council, he presses Frodo to give him the Ring. Frodo responds,
“ Were you not at the Council? … Because we cannot use it, and what is done with it turns to evil.”

Fast forward from the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's most excellent and apropos parable, to today. We must cast our wealth of this world aside, and focus on the humane and human. We must save our country.

From Counterpunch. Please read the whole thing.

Mushroom Clouds Over Wall Street
By MIKE WHITNEY
QUOTE

"One bank to rule them all; One bank to bind them..."

These are dark times. While you were sleeping the cockroaches were busy about their work, rummaging through the US Constitution, and putting the finishing touches on a scheme to assert absolute power over the nation's financial markets and the country's economic future. Industry representative Henry Paulson has submitted legislation to Congress that will finally end the pretense that Bush controls anything more than reading the lines from a 4' by 6' teleprompter situated just inches from his lifeless pupils. Paulson is in charge now, and the coronation is set for sometime early next week. He rose to power in a stealthily-executed Banksters’ Coup in which he, and his coterie of dodgy friends, declared martial law on the US economy while elevating himself to supreme leader. UNQUOTE

~~~~~~~~~

The View From RSE

Laura had this to say about the "bailout"over at Red State Eclectic:

QUOTE It appears that the federal government doesn't believe in austerity any more (if you don't have it, just print it and spend it, I guess), but perhaps a refusal by the government to bail out these banks would be a good way to force us all into a more austere mode. Maybe it will force us all to make better business decisions.
I wonder sometimes whether the presidential nomination process would have changed any had all of this been happening a year ago, before the primaries. Ron Paul is getting a lot of airtime lately, saying the same things he's been saying for the last 30 years--probably because he can actually speak with some authority and authenticity on the financial mess we're in. I suspect that things wouldn't have changed all that much in terms of political outcome--I'm not sure the American people really want to hear the hard answers. UNQUOTE
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Hagel:Crisis Has Power to Eclipse the Great Depression

We're screwed.

OMAHA, Neb. - QUOTE U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel says urgent governmental action is needed to resolve the nation’s financial crisis, which he warns has the potential to eclipse the Great Depression.
The Nebraska Republican says the United States’ woes affect the rest of the world, so other countries need to shore up their finances. If not, Hagel says, there could be a global economic downturn. UNQUOTE