I Should Do Something --- but What?

I find myself, for the first time, thinking about protesting.  With each day's headlines, I wonder if I should make some sort of grand gesture, even if it's futile.The evidence that we're heading down a bad road continues to pile up and I am seeing no signs of an imminent change of course.

1.  During Republican debates, the audience cheers at the prospect of letting people die.  And executing people.

2.  The US supports the Arab Spring everywhere but in Palestine.

3.  General Electric paid no taxes in  2010.  In fact, we paid THEM to keep making profits.

4.  During the recession, the largest banks have made a massive profit; but Moody's is now downgrading them because of the possibility that if their speculative investments begin to crash, it's possible the US government won't bail them out.  And that could create the very bank crisis scenario the pundits are dreading.

5.  The London riots got front page, first block coverage for days on every news station.  Protesters occupying Wall Street are being ignored by most press outlets.  But not by the NYPD.

6.  Our president will not sacrifice his ambition to the greater good. He made it clear from day one he wanted two terms.  Now, when nothing has made much of an impact on the recession, he will continue to play it safe to ensure his campaign coffers are full for his re-election campaign.

7.   There is no press but the Internet.  Rick Perry didn't win the Florida primary.  Neither did Mitt Romney.  Or anyone else I'd ever heard of.  But I still can tell you nothing about the man who won because the nightly news (NBC, in this instance) simply mentioned what a stunning upset it was, then did another story on the two candidates they already had stories on:  Mitt and Rick.
  Nice, Lester Holt.  Are you executive producer when you're at that fancy desk?

8.  College students can't find jobs.  So they're racking up more students loans to stay in school, hoping things will improve in a year or two.

9.  8.8 million people worked part time in August because it's the only work they could find.  16.1 percent of American workers are underemployed.  31% of the workforce was underemployed at some point in 2009.

10.  Desperation for cash is a major part of the conversation as states consider hydraulic fracturing, the effects of which were illustrated so pointedly in "Gasland".

There is fast money to be made.  The long term environmental impacts may be far more expensive to deal with.  How much does it cost to import enough drinking water for an entire state?  Several states?

That's just ten items off the top of my head.  The actual list is far longer.  I haven't even mentioned our multiple wars, the fortunes being made by hired mercenaries, our unhealthy mass produced food, our continued discrimination against people who don't look like us.

It's feeling like last days of the Roman Empire to me.  And the thought that keeps crossing my mind is that I should just start walking.  Walk from New York to California and back to Washington.  Criss cross the country, bring a recorder and document what I find along the way.  I know I'm a speck in the ocean, but if I did it long enough, maybe it might get some notice.  Maybe it'll force a conversation.  Or maybe I'm mixing up political activism with Forrest Gump.


 

Maybe a hunger strike?  I suspect I would starve to death before any real change occurred.

And so I feel helpless.  For now.  But if there were enough people like me, who are tired of emotional toddlers running the world, maybe there is something we could accomplish together.

Rioting to Work In Japan

Don't believe this is a global recession? The riots in Iceland aren't enough evidence? How about Japan, where hotel workers tried desperately to keep their employer open even after the place was shut down?

After Lehman Brothers went belly up, the Keihin Hotel was shut down in Tokyo and all 130 employees were told they were fired. The firm that owned the hotel owed 6 billion yen to a Japanese subsidiary of Lehman's. The workers resumed the hotel's operations the day after they were fired...and have been running it since October 21st.

A court order supported the owner's decision to sell and ordered police to seize the building. Want to see what desperation looks like? JapanProbe posted the video.

Japan Probe Blog

Suing the SEC

Here's a story that may just be the first of many -

Phyllis Molchatsky lost two million dollars she invested with Bernie Madoff. She plans to sue the SEC to get it back.

Molchatsky, who lives in the suburbs of New York City, says she invested everything she had in Madoff's fund through her broker because it seemed steady and safe. It didn't show wild swings either up or down...and her investment seemed a good one. Between 2001 and last year, it nearly doubled. Then she lost everything.

She says the money was supposed to cover her retirement, her adopted son's education, and her own medical bills if her recently diagnosed Parkinson's disease grew worse.

The suit is believed to be the first filed by an investor against the Securities and Exchanges Commission. The argument is that the SEC didn't do its job, didn't oversee what Madoff was doing, even ignored warnings that something was very, very wrong.

Molchatsky's attorney has filed an administrative claim for 1.7 million dollars. The SEC hasn't commented. If they refuse, a lawsuit will be next.

Experts expect the SEC to claim sovereign immunity. That's a holdover from a monarchy that basically claims The sovereign can do no wrong.

That's clearly an outdated notion.


http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=1109949

They're Not Jumping Out of Windows, But They're Trying to Die

The stories I'd read on the failed attempts of a midwestern financial manager to fake his own death weren't terribly detailed. On the surface, they were downright funny. But there's more to the story and I'm not laughing now.

Marcus Schrenker apparently did try to fake his own death, did call in a false mayday from his single engine plane; did parachute out. But his journey nearly ended in a small tent as he tried to make his death a reality.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01152009/news/nationalnews/butchered_lam_150254.htm

There will be more of these pitiful stories - I know of two confirmed recession-motivated suicides in downstate New York so far. These are people who had it all - and now they're losing it.

Part of me sneers - they can't handle living like the rest of us? But the better part of me hurts for them - it's not just money. It's their reputation, their self-esteem, the lives they knew that they feel they're losing through their own mistakes. Money is more than currency - it's who they once were.

President Obama wants to jump start a dead economy. There may be more riding on him than we realized.

Madoff: The Last Straw For Wall Street?

It seems the days of equating "Wall Street job" with prestige and money are as extinct as the dodo bird. Tell someone you work on Wall Street and if they don't sneer or throw vegetables at you, they're at least going to shake their heads. Thank Bernie Madoff. His 50 billion dollar shell game may be the weight that sinks Wall Street's floundering reputation. Even hardened Wall Streeters are professing shock at the size, scope and audacity of Madoff's scheme. He's taking people down with him, and the Dow is expected to be dragged down as well. It's massive.

There's an angle here no one is talking about for fear of being offensive, but I'm wondering.
Did Madoff have a Jewish connection? Did he take advantage of a cultural sense of loyalty to line his own pockets?

One NY Times article quotes Palm Beach investors with names that seem to indicate Jewish backgrounds. A charity in the Boston area dedicated to preserving Jewish cultural identity has lost everything with the collapse of Madoff's fund. Did Madoff, whose fund was built on exclusivity and reputation, take advantage of connections that leaned heavily toward Jews to build his massive scheme?

And if he did, is this the latest kick in the teeth for people who are just a generation removed from the Holocaust?

What the fall of Bernard Madoff proves is that just because someone knows what they're doing, because they appear successful and even show steady growth, it doesn't mean that you can trust them.

The Jews have a word for people like Bernard Madoff: shyster.

You Must Be Joking

They did it. They passed the bailout plan. But not before tacking on 150 BILLION dollars more in garbage to get the House Republicans to approve it.
I am outraged.
THIS is democracy?
Shame on them. Shame on them all.

Disaster Averted

I tried to watch the vice presidential debate. I started to, saw that Biden was taking the approving uncle tactic in dealing with Palin and concentrating on her running mate and breathed. It was going to be alright. He was tiptoeing through a minefield there and not many people appreciate how hard it must have been.

If he attacked her, he'd be 'mean'. If he pointed out instances where she's lied or bent the truth about her own record, he'd be attacking her because she was a woman. Biden played it smart. He didn't let her get away with charges that weren't true, but he watched her with what appeared to be genuine approval as she fielded questions we all know she was totally unprepared for just a week or two ago.

As for Palin, she didn't humiliate herself. She dodged questions she didn't want to answer and sometimes she got away with it. She painted herself as an expert on energy. But she was coherent and if there wasn't much substance there, at least she didn't sound stupid.
I saw that much before I crashed. Two days at a hospital with your son make these debates a lot less compelling.

So the pundits today say it's back in the laps of the presidential candidates. As it should be.
And as I'm writing this perhaps the House has voted on the latest version of the bailout.
But I wonder if anyone's paying attention to Ralph Nader. He may not be a viable presidential candidate, but there's no arguing he does his homework. He's got an idea that would help the current Wall Street mess without charging us, the people who can't afford to bail them out.

You can read it here.

Dandelion Salad

or more analysis here:

Now Public

Just because an idea comes from someone outside the system doesn't make it a bad one. In fact, it might make it a very good one indeed. I wonder if anyone will listen.

The Day of Reckoning

It's here - but is it for Wall Street or for us? That tongue in cheek Trends Institute suggestion isn't an isolated idea... here's a similar one that just arrived in my inbox:

DREAM ON:
I'm against the $85,000 000 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
We Deserve It Dividend.
Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500..00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – it'll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent's medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out
a puny $1000.00 "vote buy" economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
As for AIG – liquidate it.

Sell off its parts. Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.
Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
How do you spell Economic Boom?
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned
instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Birk
T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

And what about this woman? Why isn't she being chased down by the media and given a soapbox? Marcy Kaptur is my hero of the moment.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S27yitK32ds&eurl=http://dotconnectoruk.blogspot.com/2008/09/lets-play-wallstreet-bailout-rules-are.html

Have you heard the reports that troops are being recalled from Iraq to train in "crowd control"?

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

The Craziest Good Idea I've Ever Heard

TRENDS RESEARCH INSTITUTE SUPPORTS MODIFIED BAILOUT PLAN RHINEBECK NY 24 September 2008 -- The $700 billion bailout plan now before Congress could re-invigorate the economy, asserts Gerald Celente, Director of TheTrends Research Institute. But he warned that success will require certain revisions. The Trends Research Institute has thoroughly analyzed the exhaustive 3 1/2 page document presented to Congress for approval. "We read every word of it!" said Celente. "While we don't agree with bailouts in general, if Congress decides to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money, it must be done efficiently. The revisions we are suggesting, though minor, are crucial to implementing the plan successfully," Celente said. "The bailout plan being debated before Congress, 'The Troubled Asset Relief Program' (TARP) is fraught with uncertainties and unanswerable questions," said Celente. "On the other hand, The Trends Research Institute's revised plan is guaranteed to stimulate economic growth, reduce unemployment, lower taxes, eliminate consumer debt and balance the budget," Celente predicts. Under TARP, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is granted sole authority to dispense $700 billion as he sees fit. Paulson said the money would be used to mainly cover losses incurred by failing financial firms, brokerages, investment banks, leveraged buyout firms, insurance agencies, and any other financial entity deemed "too big to fail." Under the alternative Trends Research Institute Program (TRIP), $700 billion would not be dispensed at the sole discretion of the Economic Czar. Rather, under TRIP the $700 billion would be distributed equally among the 200,000,000 taxpayers who put the money up. "TRIP is not a bailout plan, it's a stimulus package," said Celente. "Unlike TARP, which is doomed to fail, our plan provides immediate relief. With TARP all the money goes to a handful of failing institutions with the hope that some trickles down to the working public. "With TRIP, each taxpayer will directly receive a $3.5 million stimulus check. This will instantly generate economic growth, end the housing crisis, reduce unemployment, eliminate consumer debt and balance the budget. "There is no time to debate TRIP," warned Celente. "Immediate action must be taken. Inaction or delay risks an economic Armageddon. While Congress is wrangling over how much to pay overpaid CEO's under TARP, TRIP could be instantly written into law, solving the economic woes of our nation." Trendpost: Once you receive your TRIP check, try to refrain from buying more than one Ferrari. Invest wisely. Consider putting your money in a Trends Research Investment Plan (TRIP 2). While not yet government sanctioned, we expect swift approval once TRIP becomes law. "If Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley can become banks overnight by government decree, why not us?" asked Celente. Call to Action: If you want your fair share of the $700 billion, call your Congressman and Senators. Tell them you want TRIP not TARP. Now that you're excited (I sure was!) I must add the post script. This notice was followed by a disclaimer. Apparently it was meant to be satirical...and worse yet, the actual number each taxpayer would get if the 700 billion was divvied up was 35 hundred...not 3.5 million. I don't think 3500 will do much to help most people faced with no job or the loss of their homes.

I'm With You, Chicken Little

You've probably heard that old proverb...or is it a curse..."May you live in interesting times."

This is it, kids. It doesn't get much more interesting than this.

Lehmann is kaputski. The USA is now in charge of the alphabet gang...AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. It's propping up Bear Stearns. And Bank of America is taking over the planet, since it's one of the few institutions left that can afford to.

I wonder where the federal government's getting all this bailout money. We're already trillions in debt. We're spending billions every month on a war that doesn't show any signs of concluding. Common sense tells you you can't keep spending what you don't have.

Gerald Celente is an economic forecaster who works out of a quaint old building that used to be my dad's favorite grocery store. He's been called a hack, a quack and a doom and gloomer...and now he's being called a genius. How come? He predicted this. I spoke with him months ago and he assured me we were in for the worst economic time this country's seen since the so-called Great Depression. (What was great about it I couldn't say.) He was vilified by some in the press for his extreme views. The acid dripping off the newsprint sounded suspiciously like it was written by someone who was very afraid of hearing something they didn't want to hear. Now Oprah wants to hear what he has to say. Celente's website is a bit over the top, but what he has to say has the uncomfortable ring of unwelcome fact. Read for yourself.

http://www.trendsresearch.com/

In case you want to paint Celente as some kind of alarmist renegade, meet Nouriel Roubini. He's a professor at NYU who, until this week, was known as Dr. Doom. Now he's known as a pundit.

http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/2008/08/how-reality-v-1.html

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/

United Socialist State Republic of America. Oh my.

I mentioned Roubini to Celente. Celente's not one to give compliments lightly.

"Oh, him," he said. "I like him."

So two economic forecasters who were considered sensationalist Chicken Littles are now being hailed as economic Edgar Cayce's. Funny place, funny race, as HSO often says.

But if we're now going to credit these guys with some smarts, what do they say is next?

Celente pulls no punches.

"This is no recession. It's a depression. And it's going to get a lot worse."

What does he suggest? Cut back. Economize. Stay close to home. Buy local. Work close to home.

"Support your community. The only way we're going to get through this is by building our communities and supporting each other."