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What Does It Take?
It was par for the course
in the recent election in Iran. Rig it. The whole show was, to make a bad pun, a Farsee. It was done here in the US in 2000, so why should anyone be surprised by these results in Iran? We can look back at our own elections in 2000 and 2004 and now pinpoint the exact states and precincts where the shenanigans flipped the switch and moved mountains. But don’t expect any “investigation” of the Iranian election results to count for much. What did all the investigations and allegations count for here—an article lamenting the tampering in the Rolling stone, and then we go merrily on our way to the next news item.
What happens in Iran next will largely be decided by the Iranian people. Either they will take the issue to the streets and express their will, or these protests will slowly burn themselves out as they bow to the inevitable fact that governments, power centers, will simply do what they will, in spite of the wishes of the people to the contrary. Again, this is what happens here. Do you think it was in our interest to give $13.8 trillion to bail out the big banks?
It was interesting that the first thing the powers that be tried to do in Iran was to shut down the Internet and cell phones to quell opposition. Here the media, already owned by big corporations, consistently serves the moneyed interest, and our “free press” now exists exclusively on the Internet, in the bloggosphere. Yet news and information are almost impossible to suppress in this world. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and others carried news, web links photos of what was happening, and there were blogs and good old email testimonials as well. You simply can’t stop this dissemination of information short of cutting off all electricity in a nation, which would clearly just cause more problems than it could possibly solve from a central government viewpoint.
So is the next revolution on in Iran, or will this burn out in a week or ten days. Recall the many protests that swept through France, with upwards of 50 cities aflame with protests? Where is that dissident energy now? And for that matter, Karl Denninger had this to say about Americans:
“We have seen the largest looting operation in history perpetrated against the American people. Over $5 trillion dollars in junk securities
were marketed and sold….The banks created and sold these throughout the world, with the full knowledge and support of Congress, The Fed, and the banks themselves. It was pure fraud. Americans have sat on
their butts through all of this, allowed their 401ks and IRAs to be trashed, their supposed "home values" to be pumped and then destroyed, and their hopes, dreams, employment and house have all
vanished into the ether of fraud. When this came to light the banks went to Congress, and supported by The Fed's intentional draining of liquidity to create an immediate "crisis", they got a $700
billion bailout bill passed - one that you, your children and grandchildren, will have to pay for. The government then passed another near-trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill claimed to hold unemployment
to 8%. It did not, because it was yet another "papering over" of the fraud, but that bill your children and grandchildren, along with you, will also pay. Your savings accounts and CDs now yield
an effective zero. Your credit card interest rates have gone from 11% to 29%, all so that the banks can keep granting ill-advised credit to people who can't pay. Those who can pay - the rest of you -
are being jacked for 30% a year in interest.”
Yes, that’s a fairly good summation of what has happened in this country, and Denninger’s question is this: “Where are you America?” We watch two million
Iranians take to the streets in massive protests over their rigged election, yet we endured 8 years of Bush and Cheney, and Rush and Hannity and Coulter and all the rest after our “hanging chad” in 2000,
with the supreme court refusing to order a recount so Bush would win. Now we have watched nearly $14 trillion funneled to backstop the wealthy elite while our homes, jobs, retirement, credit status, have been
literally stolen from us, (and our children), with everything that remains now at 30% interest. And there is not a peep of protest beyond an anemic “tea party” scattered here and there. Have we become a
nation of complacent, distracted, frightened wimps?
You can add up all the money the government spent in the last 200 years on major wars, programs and purchases, right back to the Louisiana Purchase, Civil War, Korea, ten years in
Vietnam, seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan, the entire cost of NASAs moon race and all of FDRs “New Deal.” Then throw in six years of massive spending for WWII when we built thousands of ships, planes
and tanks an liberated all of Europe, and after that throw in the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe as well. All of that combined comes to about $7.5 trillion in inflation adjusted dollars. We just gave a handful of
elite “too big to fail” bankers twice that amount in the last 12 months!
And still we wait for national health care for all Americans, and people go hungry and homeless in the United States of America, by the millions. After that staggering bailout, try
getting a loan today from one of these big banks. Credit remains frozen and consumer buying power is the lowest in decades now. This tells you just how much more toxic waste still remains on the hidden bank books.
The trillions committed thus far was just like counter-flooding to correct a badly listing ship. The banks remain flooded with their bad debt, and simply delude themselves with phony “internal models” to
value these toxic assets higher. Try that with your house value today.
Why aren’t there tens of millions of Americans on the streets in this country demanding an end to the trainloads of money being delivered to the banks, and end to the secrecy at the
Fed, the closed and double bookkeeping system at the banks, “level three assets,” the rigging of accounting rules to create fantasy valuations for dead securities, the insider trading scams, market
manipulation, the fraud, corruption, and crime on Wall Street?
The people? Too bad. The spending game is over for the rank and file. The wealthy at the top will carry on as always, but the 80% that make up
the bulk of the nation will watch the 7% of wealth we are allowed to play with slowly diminish. We’ll endure 20% unemployment, lost homes, lost equity, neighborhoods gutted, marriages lost, a more or
less permanent lowering of our standard of living, our future mortgaged and sold off to foreign “sovereign wealth funds.” The Boomers, for example, have seen total net worth shrink between 38% and 45%
since 2004. It will shrink even further. Look at the mess we are leaving to our children! And so far it looks like we’ll take all this without a murmur of protest while remaining glued to our X-boxes and
digital TV sets. This is the way the world ends…Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Why is this? One answer could be that we think Obama and the new Democratic majority will eventually solve all of this,
and the rule of law will prevail. Yet the long awaited reform proposals from Obama actually give even more power to the bloated “Fed” to oversee the financial markets. Talk about the fox guarding the hen
house!
Ilargi of the popular blog “Automatic Earth” commented on this recently, saying: “We don't know what the Federal Reserve does, other than what they like us to think they
do. An organization that would, under Obama's scheme, have nigh dictatorial control over all financial institutions in the country, ostensibly all with the best interest of the people at heart, but that cannot
be held to account, cannot be audited, and is at least in part owned (the people are not allowed to know that either), by private enterprises whose interests may potentially be 180 degrees different from those of
the people. How did we ever get here, what happened along the way? Are the people not supposed to rule themselves?”
The Federal Reserve Act was pushed through congress during the Wilson
administration in an after hours quick vote that was heavily supported by the banking industry. In effect, it gave a consortium of private banks the power to create dollars and manage the flow of money in our
economy. It has little, if any oversight, as its powers are so vast already that it routinely brushes off congress, and does whatever it chooses, whether existing laws allow it to or not. The Fed currently flouts
existing laws, and how there is no body that seems to have either the will or the power to regulate the Fed and enforce the law.
President Wilson signed the Fed into being, but almost immediately
regretted that act. His now famous quote on the subject is worth repeating again: “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of
credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a
small group of dominant men.”
Dominant indeed. When you have to power to create money and credit, you can do just about anything. And we have already seen that the interests of the Fed lie almost
exclusively in taking care of the big banks, at any cost. So don’t hold your breath for any real reform that hinders bank profit games. The banks have repealed Glass-Steagall, delayed the credit card reform
bill, defeated the mortgage modification bill, thrown off the mark-to market accounting rules, and are now massing legions of lobbyists to stop securities trading reforms. They’ll succeed, because we have
deemed them “too big to fail,” and also because our government policy is being drafted now by ex-bankers from the Fed and Wall Street Gurus who will finish out their brief stint in public office and then
quietly return to the real game, working for the very firms and banks their policies so generously supported.
In December of 2007 I published an article called “Fed-Up?” That was the month the “recession” officially started, though it
would be another 9 months before anyone in the mainstream media would admit that. Here’s what I wrote back then:
“This is the inevitable bust the Fed created with its boom time lax interest rate policies. I don’t know about you, but I’m
simply “Fed-up” with all this nonsense. Mike Shedlock (aka “Mish”) had it perfectly right when he called for an abolishment of the Fed: “The Fed claims to seek "price
stability" but idly stands by and lets bubbles expand to amazing proportions. Then after the bubble pops, all of a sudden the Fed claims to be concerned about "innocent bystanders." Let's be
honest here. The Fed does really not care about those who were hurt. If it did, it would not have let the conditions that fostered this bubble brew as long as it did. The Fed is only concerned about a credit
crunch that is affecting bank profits and bank's ability to lend. That unfortunately is the harsh reality…The only way to stop this cycle of bubble blowing is to abolish the Fed.”
Abolish the Fed? Return authority to issue money to the congress where the constitution says it must reside? Back our money with something like
gold? These statements are deemed to be heretical in this world of slick finance and centralized control of money.
"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who writes its laws" said Maier Amschel Rothschild. The Rothchilds,
along with Morgan, Lehman, Goldman, Sachs, and a few others were the founders of the great private banking conglomerate we now call the “Fed.” Yes, having complete control over money creation,
distribution and interest rates is certainly a desirable thing—botching the job is quite another. –JS
The Silent Majority
Why are Americans so silent and complacent about all this? Is it that they just
don’t understand what is going on? No, I think in their gut they realize what is happening, for they live with the consequences of it each day. Is it just the charisma and promise of a man like Barak Obama and
the faith so many of us placed in him? We circumvented election fraud in 2008 by sheer mass and weight of numbers. There weren’t enough Diebold back doors to compromise the wave of change our election
produced, flipping 10 red Bush-Cheney states blue in a veritable landslide victory. There must be something more…could it be our silent inner guilt that we were complicit in the “something for
nothing” looting game that the engineered housing boom created? Whatever it is, I think most people feel powerless to affect the decisions being made now about this financial mess, and we seem to have lost the
will to organize in opposition with any kind of effective democratic dissent. Only in the blogosphere will you find voices raised in opposition to the massive transfer of wealth and power to the banking industry.
What has happened to civil protest in this nation? What happened to the generation of young college students that fought against the war in Vietnam on campuses and in the streets of this nation? The boomers
have all gone bust. They are huddling in their over-priced suburban homes, underwater, waiting for that Option ARM payment reset like a prisoner waiting out a death sentence. They are squinting at their diminishing
401k portfolios and wondering how in the world they can ever retire. And with nearly 20% real unemployment, how can they compete with younger folks for jobs that are now so scarce? Beyond the fundamental fear these
circumstances bring to one’s soul, the years of Bush & Cheney, with their mania for seeing terrorists beneath every rock and stone, have seen the act of civil protest reclassified as a kind of criminal
activity.
Cal Poly Sociology Professor and blogger Dennis Loo revealed that the DoD training manual now defines civil protests as “Low Level Terrorism,” and they even had a multiple choice
refresher question to be sure the trainees correctly defined it that way. This nation was founded by a handful of dissident thinkers, dreamers, and courageous men who elevated the will and aspirations of the
people above that of kings, banks, and dictators. But today, quoting the likes of Jefferson, Franklin and John Adams is given a suspicious glance, and raising your voice in protest in this country is viewed as low
grade terrorism. All protest during the Bush-Cheney years was herded into “free speech zones” that were isolated from media cameras and then closely scrutinized by the Feds. Suspicious keywords in your
phone calls and e-mails might also get you some unwanted attention. What have we become? Professor Woo points out the policies of preemptive arrest and detainment in our last election, (particularly at the flag
waving Republican convention), the government electronic surveillance of our e-mail and phone traffic, and a host of other violations perpetrated during the Bush-Cheney “administration” and asks:
“Just how brave are we now? How free are we still? Are we brave enough to be "winter soldiers" and stand up against these fascist moves? Or will we go down in history in infamy, the way the
"Good Germans" of the 1930s and 1940s did?”
I suppose all this remains to be seen, but in my mind complacency and the loss of outrage at all the obvious crime going on at the very highest
levels of our society is very telling. Could it be that most people are truly angry at what they have seen in the financial sectors, but can see no way their protest would matter? In email correspondence over the
years of Bush-Cheney shenanigans a close friend of mine would often comment on the latest outrage saying: “what does it take?” Indeed, what will it take before Americans realize just what their
constitution tells them they have the power to do when their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are infringed upon. They have the right to abolish any government or entity and just start again! The
American people could, in fact of law, put a measure to the vote that would completely dismantle the existing federal government, and build something entirely new—a completely legal act under our
constitution.
One day we may wake up to the fact that the government was established to ensure our rights and liberties under the constitution, and not those of banks and corporations. It exists to serve the
people, and not the inverse. When we pledge our allegiance to the republic, it is to the people of this nation that constitute that republic, and they are the sole reservoir of power and true authority—not to
the bloated, graft infected systems that govern us now, where Senators must be millionaires to get elected, and wealthy interests keep them installed for life as long as they “play ball” and insure
continued corporate profitability. Let’s face it: this government supposedly “of the people, by the people, and for the people” was long ago seized by powerful banking and corporate interests. One
has only to look at how our “bailout” money is spent to see where our priorities are.
$13.8 trillion dollars is a lot of money.
(Some make the bailout total higher yet.) As I write this there are some 900 million people hungry in this world, many starving. The cost to feed them all? A measly $30 billion, 40% less than each of the big banks were given in TARP money chump change. The recent $50 billion TARP check written to Citigroup would provide clean, sanitary water systems for ever person on earth. It could also pay for free college educations for generations of Americans to come. Why would we tolerate any single person going without food, clean water, shelter, health care and education in this country when we think nothing of cutting $50 billion dollar checks to Citigroup, Bof A, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and a host of others?
People are losing jobs at a rate that exceeds that in the Great Depression. Small business struggle for funding and close day by day. Families lose homes at a record pace, and the foreclosure stats are just getting warm. Yet a small fraction of the money we gave to the banks could have put every American to work in this country on much needed projects for our future, such as alternative energy and transportation systems. We could revitalize and upgrade our existing rail system to reduce the reliance on long distance diesel fueled trucks. Rail is much more efficient and much cheaper. We could have linked all our major cities, revitalized our transportation model away from complete reliance on a dying auto industry. There isn’t any reason that any person willing to work would not have a job in this country when you have $13.8 trillion at your disposal—but that is where the financial lords chose to put it, down the garbage disposal of the bank balance sheets in a desperate attempt to offset their toxic securities schemes. In spite of the promise and hope Obama campaigned on, the prevailing policy remains billions for banks, and bullshit for Average Joe.
$13.8 trillion pays off every underwater mortgage and auto loan in this country, giving every American citizen a fresh start. Would you rather do that with the money or bail out super wealthy financial counterparties to bad securities bets, many of whom are not even US citizens? It’s amazing how much was so readily made available to the wealthy elite when they got themselves into this financial mess. When the people needed money for food, social programs, education, health care, we were told there simply was nothing available for that. Health care is a big election football, but it has never been provided as promised. We’ll hear all about “affordable health care for every American” in the 2012 election. What is left for the people of this nation then but unemployment, foreclosure, lost retirement, busted pensions, and a permanently lowered standard of living? We have literally mortgaged our future to the bankers, and the interest rate just keeps getting higher.
I closed my December 2007 article with this comment, and it has come home to roost for most Americans these days: “And the saddest thing of all is that Americans, the average Janes and Joes out there, are just not prepared for what is about to befall them. They can’t hide their debts in a column labeled “Level Three.” They can’t take a “charge off” or “writedown” when the bad times come, and go merrily about their business. The Fed won’t “inject” funds into their meager accounts, and nobody from Dubai will be sending them a check. Soon they will find that their last refuge, the credit card, will not be available. Then what?”
All across Iran tonight people are quite literally “mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore.” Instead of yelling that out their window, thousands of people are simply shouting “Allahu Akbar,” (God is Great) as their protest, and the shouts are heard throughout the long night in Tehran. When will Americans get “mad as hell” and stop allowing the corporate crime, corruption, paid off senators, bank lobbyists, graft, fraud, and wholesale looting of the public trust?
Article By: John Schettler
June,
2009
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