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So what happened to President Obama?

I knew we weren’t going to get much out of him re: the environment, it wasn’t high on his agenda.  I didn’t like his plan to expand oil drilling but I liked him getting our troops out of Iraq and providing health care.  I didn’t think he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, but, I do like that the rest of the world seems to have a better view of us, because of him.  I guess when you get placed too high on a pedestal you fall hard and fast.  What has he done, or not done to make you so angry?

People who support our cool, private and formal President are up against a loud unified “tea-party”  Conservatives vs Liberals — one accusing the other of not staying on top of the facts. I’m glad our Liberal forefathers fought for our National Parks System, Medicare, Federal Highways, banning nuclear testing,  clean air and water, public schools, religious freedom, and being able to sit anywhere on the bus we want regardless of our skin color.  I am very grateful they stood up and fought the hard fight to provide these wonderful American ways of life for us.

Who were they fighting?  Who didn’t want these things?  Most people simply hate and fear the unknown.  There is no evil motivation. If you show them a plan for a better way they fight it, dealing with what they know is easier then figuring out a better way.   That thinking was manipulated by the powerful money handlers who were profiting from the unregulated timber industry or cheap child labor in factories.  Factory owners lobbied against mandatory education and the timber industry didn’t want National Parks.

Just like now, Corporate interests don’t want public healthcare available to all Americans and have convinced many Americans that the government is going to kill grandma and infiltrate their personal lives with this crazy healthcare for all scheme.  If healthcare was to become available to all Americans then  some  innovative Americans would go out and open a small business not needing corporate insurance benefits anymore. They don’t want that.

What did out conservative forefathers achieve for us?

Ronald Reagan played a big part in the USSR breaking apart and losing it’s power.  George HW Bush had a short successful war.  Nixon brought our troops home from Vietnam and re-opened trade with China — some may say China trade wasn’t such a good thing, because before that we made our own toasters and jeans.   Conservatives are pro-life and Christian.  They don’t like government intervention, they prefer corporate rule.  They refer to Liberals as elitists, I’m not sure where that came from.

As for me, I was raised in a Republican, military, Methodist, household.  My father hated “All in the Family” and he loved Nixon.  I remember sadness and tears in my household when Nixon resigned.  He said the presidency always involves covert happenings that the public has no business knowing.  In my mind, that, is big government and from that time on I silently went my own direction to find truths.  Nixon was big government and I think we should be much more afraid of his kind than of Obama.

Conservatives don’t like “Obamanomics” stimulus and infrastructure and all Americans having health insurance;  too costly. I say we need to work together to get jobs back in America.  Small business needs to prosper.  Corporate growth needs to stop being the impetus.  “Improving stockholder profits” needs to stop being our battle cry.  Americans need to move back into main street and open their hardware stores and butcher shops and make glassware in their small factories on the edge of town.  Stop hating and start coming up with solutions.  Yelling, table pounding, hate-filled accusations are  just counter productive exchanges of air

Stuff made in China is cheaper than American made stuff (for the most part) because the Chinese have little kids making it.  They don’t have rules.  No 40 hour work week with overtime.  No  clean air and water rules,  their factories pollute at will.  They don’t have a strong liberal front fighting for them.

We need to change our buying habits away from Target and Wal-Mart (unless they start stocking the shelves with American made products) and go back to main street.  Obama didn’t create this mess, I’m not sure he is doing everything right to fix it, but, I am sure it can’t be fixed without our participation.

I asked many of my co-workers and friends what they know about the Federal Reserve. Some never heard of it and others just “stay out of politics”.  Congress either understands the Federal Reserve about as well as me and the people I work with or they understand it very well and use it for their own purposes.  My guess is there is a little of both.

Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law in 1913 with hopes of  keeping the American economy stable.  The great depression happened after the stock market crashed in 1929 so apparently it didn’t work.  Conspiracy theories portray that It worked out nicely for the guys funding the Federal Reserve.

By the way did you know Woodrow Wilson’s second wife Edith was a descendant of Pocahontas and he was instrumental in women gaining the right to vote as well as creating the IRS and involving us in WWI.

It seems that Wilson’s purpose, which was passed by congress, was to establish a system of banking that would remain independent but overseen by congress to protect the American economy.   My smart friend Fred says… ‘ There is evidence that no one in government or banking has been properly taught recently. At least they don’t seem to be interested in financial stability as much as in how to flip securities and create new “products” to flim-flam investors, other banks and foreign governments. ”

Oversight of the Federal Reserve is quite obviously an important issue that we need to understand and pay attention to.  As Fred stated “Money is a debt of the government with no interest rate. When you have a hundred dollar bill it means the government owes you a hundred dollars. You can take it to any bank and exchange it for another or a combination of smaller  currency or coin equal to $100.  You used to be able to get gold or silver but that was eliminated in 1933. Can you imagine trying to keep track of a $5 gold fleck?”

So, we can’t run around with little gold flecks in our pockets or chickens or buckets of oil or items of value so money is printed.  A loan from the government covered by the value of the US treasury which is manipulated by the individuals at the Federal Reserve.  We vote for congressmen to keep an eye on the Fed, AKA oversight.

In 1895, the Federal Treasury was nearly out of gold. President Grover Cleveland arranged for J.P. Morgan to create a private syndicate on Wall Street to supply the U.S. Treasury with $65 million in gold. JP Morgan pretty much owned the US treasury, as a consequence Cleveland, a democrat, angered his democratic constituents, and lost the presidency to Republican William McKinley.  Mckinley established gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money with the Gold Standard Act in 1900.  He was assassinated in 1901.

Another panic in 1907 was a financial crisis that almost crippled the American economy, yet again. Major New York banks were on the verge of bankruptcy and there was no mechanism to rescue them until Morgan stepped in, yet again and personally took charge, resolving the crisis.

Morgan organized a team of bank and trust executives which redirected money between banks.  A delicate political issue arose regarding the brokerage firm of Moore and Schley, which was deeply involved in a speculative pool in the stock of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. Moore and Schley had pledged over six million of the Tennessee Coal and Iron (TCI) stock for loans among the Wall Street banks. The banks had called the loans, and the firm could not pay.  If Moore and Schley should fail, a hundred more failures would follow and then all Wall Street might go to pieces.  Too big to fail was going on back in 1907. Morgan decided they had to save Moore and Schley.

Vowing to never let it happen again, and realizing that in a future crisis there was not likely to be another Morgan, banking and political leaders, led by Senator Nelson Aldrich devised a plan that became the Federal Reserve System in 1913. The crisis underscored the need for a powerful mechanism, and Morgan supported the move to create the Federal Reserve System.  Yay!! it’ll never happen again and we don’t have to pay attention.  Then you may ask “Why did the great depression happen if the Federal Reserve System was established to protect the American economy”?  Well, either something evil was going on or just plain stupidity (on our part) and greed.

President Lincoln didn’t like the idea of a Central Bank and stated…

“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed.”

Shortly after he said this, he was assassinated.

Banks store our money for us so we don’t have to walk around with our wad in our boots.  It isn’t sitting in a vault waiting for us to come and get it.  The bank has devised ways to turn our little wad into a bigger wad for themselves through speculation and manipulation of fractional reserves (watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZM58dulPE to understand it better). They also extend credit to us based on our wad and make money off the interest.

We all need to treat our credit cards like a 30 day note, you borrow to get things you want in the immediate sense rather than having to wait for your next paycheck.  If you pay it back before the 30 days is up, you don’t have to pay interest, you just pay back what you borrowed. So we can live happily ever after surrounded by the ones we love.  Isn’t that the ultimate goal? for our money to buy our happiness? Like a patient said to me once “you never see a hearse pulling a U-haul”.

I ran across a website that visually represented how much money BP lost due to the oil spill.   I was incredulous.  That much money exists?  It is a loss they plan to recoup.  How do you suppose they will make up the loss?

They have convinced us to drive bigger cars, drink our water from a bottle, use more plastic and carry on with war, any war.  Oil men love war.  War is what truly feeds Seymour.  You remember the insatiable plant from “Little Shop of Horrors”.  I liken the oil (and coal) industry to Seymour’s need to keep his plant alive.  In the beginning it was a nice fun little plant.  Harmless, at least relatively.  The plant like the oil industry has gotten so big it is devouring the planet through wars and plastic and large ships and cruise liners that carry us and our crap across oceans.

We are convinced that if we all pile on a giant boat together life will be more fun.  We are convinced that the stuff we have is not good enough.  It all needs to be replaced by better stuff.  Most of the stuff is plastic and plastic is made from oil and the plastic is brought to us on giant boats that require massive amounts of oil.  This insatiable need has been brought to you by the oil industry.

We can’t blame oil entirely.  Coal is what fuels this nations heat and air and lights.  The current grid was set up by the coal industry and subsidized by the US government.  It was harmless and useful in its beginnings.  What a blessing to have heat and air and light due to the fabulous grid work that traverses the nation.  Except, now it too is like Seymour’s plant.  Dividing and devouring and convincing us that nothing else will do.

So let me share the website that prompted this blog…

http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-with-all-the-money-they-lost/

I wrote to my smart friend Fred who gave me this reply…

So you see in the world of business BP’s loss isn’t so much. Don’t feel sorry for them. Don’t think how much good this money could have done because it pales in comparison to the money we waste on wars. Iraq I believe was $1,000 billion. That’s 112 times what BP wasted.

When you look at it this way — it isn’t oil and coal that feeds Seymour’s plant.  Economics feeds the plant.  How often does economic advantage take precedence over doing good?  Goodness faces doom when it gets in the way of the economy.

What truly amazed me is that 3.4 billion dollars would buy an ice cream sandwich for everyone in the world and yahoo is worth 20 billion.  Wouldn’t it be cool if yahoo bought an ice cream sandwich for everyone in the world?  There is probably a soy version for the lactose intolerant.

The Top 10 Things You May Not Know About the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Here are 10 aspects of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act you may not know about — the online attention-deficit version.

1. Stronger protections for consumers against unfair credit card practices like rate hikes for existing credit card balances.  When my son had a traffic accident I didn’t work for a month to be at his bedside,  I had a credit card with a 9% rate that I never used, but kept for emergencies.  As soon as I used it the rate went to 18%.  When I called to complain, they dropped the rate to 16% and told me that was “standard practice“.   I told them this was “standard bullshit” paid it off and canceled the card forever.
2. Mortgage brokers will be prohibited from making higher commissions by selling mortgages they know consumers can’t afford. But –  We love the stuff we can’t afford. We need to go back to –> we can only have what we can afford.  Then the cost of living will drop and the pay scales will rise and we’ll need less stuff.  Like “Happy Days”.
3. Free annual credit scores so people can stay on top of their finances. [Clarification: free credit scores are available if you receive worse terms on a loan because of something on your credit report, or if you are rejected. You think this will make folks stay on top of their finances?
   
4. No more taxpayer-funded bailouts. yay!! If a company can’t make it, it will have to liquidate.  If what they sell is junk, they need to go down. Like the company building junky jets for the air force — they went down.
5. Greater input by company shareholders over how much a CEO gets paid.  Companies’ compensation boards are now required to be truly independent.  you mean they weren’t in charge of a CEO’s pay or compensation?
6. Brokers who offer investment advice will have to act in the best interests of their customers, not their own financial interests.  Oh, yeah, like some federal law is gonna make that happen.
7. Financial firms won’t be allowed to grow so large that if one fails, it will affect the entire financial system.   Isn’t that why we don’t allow monopolies? When did that change?
8. There will be one agency whose sole job is to make sure that consumers get the protections they deserve and to set clear rules to hold banks, mortgage companies, payday lenders, and credit card lenders accountable.  It will be interesting to see how this works out. I’m sure you anti-government types are focusing on this one.
9. Businesses can’t be charged extra fees for debit card “swipe fees” that exceed the cost of processing transactions.
10. You can learn plenty more here at WhiteHouse,gov or at financialstability.gov
11. Updated: To tack on #11, here’s a new animated video we’ve released to further explain Wall Street Reform.

RE:  My son’s accident–> I didn’t borrow from mother, father, sister, brother or friend, I had money sitting around doing nothing waiting for the inevitable shit that happens in life.  Something governments, companies and individuals all need to do.

The Swiss bankers and the Roman Catholic Church were complicit in the Nazi regime. These were not terrible people. They were normal people. They closed their eyes to evil or justified it, for the sake of peace or gain or national loyalty. I sometimes wonder (and fear) whether I would have done the same if I had been in that society at that time. It is so easy not to see, not to hear, not to understand, when one’s own peace or prosperity is involved. There have been times, after all, when I have allowed blatantly racist statements to pass unchallenged in the name of good manners, or of just keeping the peace. For so little of one’s soul, or at least a little piece of it, is on the auction block.”

The Reverend Kathleen Damewood Korb

Certain persons in the media have made mephistophelian bargains for power and fame using fear and greed as their catalyst.  A few of them have marketed themselves as chosen.  Chosen to teach us what God wants us to do.  People blindly believe their utterances and it is becoming impossible to sit idly by or “close my eyes for the sake of peace”.

“Never talk politics or religion at the dinner table.”  Adhering to that rule makes for a peaceful dinner especially among friends and family with differing political values.  Once the plates are cleared and the wine and chocolates or coffee and cheesecake starts a few fists have pounded the table. There are times when we need to discuss and debate, to provide the other side of a point. Informing ourselves, sharing what we’ve learned removes animosity and hatred and misunderstanding.  Not talking at all, not sharing likes and dislikes is only useful for augmenting paranoia. 

It is always important to challenge hate; challenge it’s source and find it’s solution. When you don’t like the way things are, there is always a chance for a different outcome.  Our conversations need to look at all sides and possible outcomes. Are we better off doing nothing vs doing things differently?

When fists are pounding or all capital letters are being typed, chances are a point is being made.  Hopefully the point is to liberate us from hate

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While drinking my hot beverage made from the beans of a tree and paying my water bill I started thinking more about water.  Coffee bean trees grow because of water and my coffee is brewed in water.

Water keeps our exquisite Earth alive.  It saves us and our earth from being lifeless mineral globs.  Of course, we nor the earth would be alive long if all the earths water was contaminated.  I wonder why we care more about oil,  than clean water?

The critter above seems to be savoring that little orb of clean water the way I am savoring my coffee right now.  I am a lifeless mineral glob without my Java.

Water plus carbon and a few other minerals makes us.  To give anything life, to keep anything alive it must have water. Someone came up with a way for cars to run on water.  Who would interfere with that technology and why, someone devilish?

Water is so life giving that I think maybe God is water and we are drilling for –> well,  you get my point?

I hate self check out lanes with every thing I’m made of.  That is a job that someone doesn’t have because you are checking your own stuff out.  The automated cashier is telling me to have a nice day?  That is bullshit –> which is a phrase I have used while walking out the door without buying my cart full of stuff.

A large home supplies store recently had four self checking lanes open and one cocky employee announcing to all of us customers floundering at the self checkouts. “I got it all under control baby”  I asked miss “control baby” if someone was sent home early, and wages were lost because of those self checking lanes.  She pretended to be too busy to answer my question.

While touring Oregon, I noticed that every gas station had an attendant to pump your gas for you and the gas didn’t cost more.  It was to keep people working.  Did you know that at one time it was unheard of to pump your own gas?  How long will it be before people find out that at one time it was unheard of to check out your own stuff.  Maybe we’ll think about it while sitting in unemployment lines.  We’ll have automated nurses, police and loan officers.

I was trying to understand why Goldman Sachs is in so much trouble with the government.  I found an article in the New York Times at…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/business/25goldman.html?emc=na

Mr. Levin said, referring to testimony given by Mr. Blankfein in January. “They were self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that were a major part of the 2008 crisis. They bundled toxic and dubious mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit-rating agencies to label them as AAA safe securities, sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the financial instruments that they sold, and profiting at the expense of their clients.” 

They bet against what they sold!?  That is legal?! Is this what we are trying to stop in this financial regulations bill?  If America is a giant casino and we are the players, does Goldman Sachs (et al) own the casino?  Are you investor types out there OK with that?

The more I read about this the more confused I get.  I think, well they must not have understood the huge impact this betting would cause us out here in the trenches.  Then I think, no, they are amazingly intelligent people, they knew, they just didn’t care; and they never will.  We can’t ever expect the casino to do what is right for us, they will always do what makes them money.   We can’t even shake our pointy fingers at them because we have admired them this whole time for their wealth and power while they plotted our demise. Half of us still admire them,  and those are the ones arranging a filibuster right now in the senate.

So we need to pay attention to what our senators are paying attention to.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfmP

Please don’t let Dupont, ExxonMobile, and Monsanto buy our next President.

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post wrote…

In opening the floodgates for corporate money in election campaigns, the Supreme Court did not simply engage in a brazen power grab. It did so in an opinion stunning in its intellectual dishonesty.

It was unnecessary for the court to go so far when there were several less-radical grounds available. It was audacious to seize the opportunity to overrule precedents when the parties had not pressed this issue and the lower courts had not considered it. It was the height of activism to usurp the judgments of Congress and state legislatures about how best to prevent corruption of the political process.

Nina Totenberg of NPR wrote…

“It will undoubtedly help Republican candidates since corporations have generally supported Republican candidates more.”

Freedom of Speech