Game's Over Kids

It’s easier for us to blame this health bill for the ruination of our country, than it is to blame the economic meltdown and ruination on the bankers, who along with their political puppeteers have for decades been changing the rules to favor themselves with less transparency and bigger bonuses through shadier dealings.

Because our politicians enacted banking deregulation during the seventies, we had the Savings and Loan bailouts in the eighties. The rules were changed so depositor banks were allowed to invest in anything, and they did. Bankers used the savings and loans banks as their own personal piggy banks. This deregulated greed led to more banks failing, and when they failed, they were bought up by bigger banks leading to further bank consolidation.

The Glass Steagall Act kept Commercial (deposit accounts) and investment banks (risk takers) separate. In the nineties when it was repealed, Investment banks (now merged with commercial banks) bought all kinds of financial institutions; including insurance companies and non bank mortgage lending companies.

Then these mega-banks used our deposits as collateral to over borrow and risked it all on sub prime junk bonds. Then when no one wanted to buy these sub prime junk bonds, the bottom fell out, and in steps the tax payer with trillions.

Reinstating the Glass Steagal Act would keep banks on a smaller level and unable to negatively control our economy. It would prevent banks from engineering gargantuan profits for themselves while bringing financial ruin to so many Americans.

This should be a top priority of the Administration, but unfortunately the way things look, this is unlikely to happen. Frank Lutz, a Republican pollster advised Republicans to associate the health reform legislation with bail outs. With this sneaky twisting of issues and political adherence to his advice, how can citizens even begin to understand what’s at stake here?

As Mayer Rothschild founder House of Rothschild said “Let me issue and control a nation’s money, and I care not who writes the laws“. It doesn’t matter what new financial laws they write, the banks are in control of our money and our government.

Elizabeth Warren currently in charge of TARP oversight, said, “either we get this financial regulation right, or it’s game over.” The bankers along with their lobbyists will see to it that we get this financial regulation “wrong”, but it won’t be “game over” for them, only for us.

Talking Point Reform

Citizens repeat the TV talking points about the health reform bill, such as the threat that our premiums will go up. Health insurance premiums have risen for decades, and now, many Americans don’t work for a company able to absorb the rising premiums. The increase is always passed onto the employee, so workers take home less in their paychecks. This is a sneaky transference of wealth into the pockets of health insurance executives. The CEO of Coventry Health Care makes eleven million dollars per year with his financial planning, tax preparation and auto expenses reimbursed by the company. People are angry over this health bill but they‘re not angry over CEOs whose million dollar perks they support.

And how ‘bout that death panel’ taking point, now that gained a lot of traction. The NewsHour reported that an American soldier in Afghanistan said, the US Army is fighting with one hand tied behind its back! The report went on to say that if the Americans are taking fire from inside a house our soldiers cannot fire back. We’re not outraged over our soldiers’ ‘death panel‘, but we are over fabricated, spin-city death panels.

Speaking of war, where is the anger over a war that was “crammed” down our throats? That lie will cost us trillions, but that’s not a TV talking point so those trillions don’t count. Besides, that‘s other people‘s kids “over there” so we’re not up in arms over that.

The TV has convinced us that Health Care Reform will bankrupt the country and leave debt to future generations. How much anger is out there over the 13 trillion the US Treasury and Federal Reserve have given to the banks? How much debt will that leave to future generations? But because the media is controlled by the corporations, these trillions spent don’t have the country up in arms because it‘s not publicized. Thirteen trillion would pay for this health bill 13 times, but it won’t because the banks have all that money.

The real “health care crisis” that isn’t on TV, is that health insurance companies are monopolies, allowed to fix prices to the max and eliminate competition. Do any of these talking points address this outrageous corporate control? No!

Nothing will change until either the government breaks up these monopolies or more Americans are dying in the streets. 　

Deficit Deceit Part 2

Quoting William Greider in the Nation magazine, retired mogul Pete Peterson who accumulated his wealth at Blackstone Group, the notorious takeover firm, has now invented a “news service” to promote his advocacy about shrinking Social Security, the only retirement system available to working people. Social Security is actually a savings account where we all pay while we work, so we’ll have a pittance when we retire.

Now, “The retired mogul has created a digital news agency he dubs the Fiscal Times while hooking up with the Washington Post, who has agreed to “jointly produce content focusing on budget and fiscal issues“.

According to the article, Peterson believes Congress should create a commission of eighteen, empowered to make the “tough decisions” politicians are loathe to face; slashing benefits; raising payroll taxes or both.”

And presto look, there’s a presidential commission on the budget.The article goes on further to say that Peterson has two Senate advocates- Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg. Two Senators slated to be on the commission are lo and behold Conrad and Gregg. What a coincidence.

Money talks and when it does politicians listen. It’s billionaires like Pete Peterson doing the talking while the rest of us do the walking.

By the most galling point is; where do the people like Peterson amass these billions? From us, the same citizens whose Social Security benefits he wants to slash. Then they turn around and buy Congress with our money and call it democracy in action. Our democracy is bankrupt already, most just don’t know it.

But now it’s too late, the Pete Petersons of the nation own our government. We the people no longer have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. It’s now a government ‘of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.’

Just watch the Financial Times or read the Washington Post and you’ll see only the news the billionaires want us to hear, rather than informing us on how these same billionaires are bringing financial ruin and enslavement to the rest of us.

So when the findings of this commission are out, of course they will be Pete Peterson’s findings recommending the re-organization, (dismantling) of our Social Security system, which will be the final Death-throes of our Democracy.

Deficit Deceit

Thomas Jefferson said to question everything, which is why I question this new concerted effort by the administration to look into the federal deficit.

One area the task force will be looking at are reductions in “entitlement” programs or raising taxes or both. By calling Medicare and Social Security entitlement programs, it makes it sound like a government hand-out when in fact these programs funds are due to what tax payers have already paid into the system. Rather than entitlements they should call them obligations. The government is obligated to give the citizens the money they’ve paid into these insurance programs.

Another question is the deceit in looking at these programs in the first place. William Greider writes in the Nation magazine-”Does the government have money problems? Don’t restore the progressive income tax on the wealthy or capital: don’t cut away corporate boodle in the budget, too difficult politically. Instead, let’s whack Social Security while folks aren’t watching”.

Never mind the 13 trillion this administration has given to the banks and the trillions we’re spending on war, it‘s entitlement programs which are the problem.

Decreasing taxes on the wealthy while increasing our bills and we can see why the country has a soaring deficit.

Corporations create the issues and own the media. Precisely why we should question this quest to concentrate on the deficit.

Big Brother is certainly here now, and he's broadcasting with his bull horn.

Supreme Control

A Century of Law was over turned by the Supreme Court when they ruled that corporations have as much right to political free speech as an American citizen.

Now, elections will be tightly controlled by corporations representing the private interests of billionaire hedge fund and private equity firms.

No wonder the Supreme Court went all the way back to 1907, the same year Teddy Roosevelt signed the Tillman Act, which banned corporate donations to federal campaigns.

From an article in the Nation magazine; ”Teddy Roosevelt a Republican president who was so worried about the power of trusts that he called for public financing of elections and told Congress “All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law”.

Spring forward to today and quoting from the Washington Spectator; ”When corporations or unions finance attack ads directly, they must publicly disclose their contributions. Corporations and unions can dodge disclosure, however, if they fund a trade group or non profit to mount their political attack ads for them. In Orwellian fashion, an attack ad funded by ExxonMobil, for example, might be disclosed as being paid for by an entity called something like “Americans for Clean Air”.

Too many people allow themselves to be fooled by TV. Logic cannot combat the onslaught of Orwellian double speak and mind numbing advertisements the Supreme Court has just unleashed.

The Washington Spectator reports the lobbying group Patton Boggs released a memo on the day of the ruling stating; ”While the limits and prohibitions on contributions remain in place, much more spending by outside groups throughout the election cycle specifically praising or criticizing candidates should be expected.” It’s no holds barred now and the corporations know it.

And that’s how we loose our vote. Not that it mattered much before, but they had to throw us a few bones or we’d vote them out. As the Romans used to say “give them bread and circuses“. Now, we’re not getting any bread, nor will we get the few bones thrown our way; it’s more corporate circuses convincing us to vote against our own self interest. 　

Engine of Destruction

The Supreme Court’s decision to throw out all laws on campaign financing dating all the way back to 1907 should leave no doubt in our mind where this country is headed, with accelerating speed.

It’s not just that politicians will be advertising through puppets wearing Nascar jumpsuits, the problem is the concentration of power. As we all know, advertisers lie. Now these same misleading advertisers will have the power over commercials to elect manufactured politicians, just like any other product they’re trying to fool us on. Reality has become a commodity.

Along with free speech comes the responsibility of citizens to be well informed. In a consumerism culture, citizens don’t want to be challenged and the advertisers know this. Being well informed is time consuming and many people only have time to listen to the TV news, owned by the corporations, where thirty second news bites are substitutes for informative journalism. Subsequently, society is less able to differentiate between truth and fiction; shop for facts and take any one’s word for anything, regardless of credentials when it suits their opinion. Opinion is not fact, but when marketed correctly it wins elections.

Lastly, the finding by the Supreme Court that corporations are people implies that we are no longer human beings. We are not on par with corporations, people die, corporations don’t. Corporations have time on their side, we don’t.

Our country was founded on radical ideas, now it is being revoked by a court that as Justice Stevens said, “has it exactly backwards. It is this court decision that is the radical departure from what had been settled First Amendment law."

Thomas Jefferson said in 1821-”Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, as its necessary consequence. The engine of consolidation will be the Federal Judiciary; the other two branches the corrupting and corrupted instruments” This corrupted government is playing us like fiddles.

Open Letter to the President of the United States

Please feel free to copy this letter and send it to the President today!

February 2, 2010

Nancy T. Lindsay

Dear Mr. President,

The American people are in a war, only it’s a war against the middle class. This is the war you need to confront and win first Mr. President.

If you really want to help the middle class, the first thing you can do is to reduce the principle on loans that are upside down. Then you can reduce the principal on all other home owners who had value stolen by the banks. They inflated the prices of our homes, they can just as easily deflate the principal. But they’re too greedy and refuse to take the current value, they want every penny of their over inflated value. The sad part is, they’ll get it by holding our houses hostage for years, until the value rises if ever…unless you put your foot down NOW!

The second action is to put in a price freeze on food and utilities. These corporations have a choke hold on us and you must loosen their grip. If these companies don’t like the price freeze, then tell them to set up their monopolies that rake in billions for food in Baghdad, Haiti or Kabul.

FDR threatened to close down US banks during WW11, therefore I believe you can and must take these steps first.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Nancy Lindsay