"They were one of the most woke banks" -- James Comer on SVB Bank, I am surprised Comer did not blame Silicon Valley Bank's collapse on Hunter Biden's Cock and Laptop.
One of the persistent myths surrounding the Republican Party is they are the party of Law & Order. Nothing is more ridiculous. Republicans work tirelessly to undo laws and sow disorder into every system possible. Republicans believe their lies about the Constitution only existing to restrain government and do everything they can to unshackle Business to engage in criminality and gross negligence. Back the Blue and Thin Blue Line regalia are just rhetorical cudgels the right spouts to bash the left. Just as they did with railroad safety, the Trump Maladministration specifically rolled back bank regulation and rules to constrain risky bank behavior.
After the W(orst POTUS Ever) Administration exploded the US Economy with the 2007 Republican Great Recession, conservatives took every opportunity to blame President Carter and fair housing laws enacted in the 1970's. Republicans and Rightwing strategists know in this era of Rightwing drones being spoon-feed non-stop propaganda, it is easy for the Daily Caller, Breitbart, Faux News and Republicans to push the clever soundbite headline "GO WOKE, GO BROKE" and then rely on the relentless repetition and the ever churning news cycle to derail any detailed reporting of the true causes of collapse.
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund withdrew millions from Silicon Valley Bankas of Thursday morning as the bank descended into chaos, according to a person familiar with the matter.
So, as we keep seeing over and over again, lax regulation coupled with unscrupulous Republican criminals leads to Billions of dollars being swindled. With Silicon Valley Bank, Republican's sleazy criminal behavior merged with Crypto Currency Scammers. SVB was heavily invested in Bitcoin, and as we know 2022 was the year of the Vulture Capitalists pumping-and-dumping Cyprotcurrency. BitCON another cryptos are also giant energy sucks but, such facts don't matter to the rightwing crowd which has received from multiple sources the Truth that SVB was the most WOKE, most LEFTIST Bank, in the history of Banking.
Companies love the 401(k) System because it amounts to Private Enterprises being able to Tax American Workers.
Americans hold $4.2 trillion in 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute. An additional $6.5 trillion is in Individual Retirement Accounts.
A Defined Benefit pension plan is superior to 401(k) which is why Corporations don't like them. Corporations don't want workers who have assured retirement benefits, they want workers who are slightly desperate and willing to agree to whatever Ownership wants for fear of losing everything.
But, in keeping with the Neoliberal Economic Assault on 99% of Americans the 401(k) plan was sold to America as a superior way for you to manage your retirement! But, all 401(k) turned out to be was another mechanism for Corporations to steal your money.
If you happen to be planning on retiring during one of Capitalism regular crisises say 2001 or 2007 for instance, well then you are truly screwed because the 401(k) you've been contributing too and the market in general, probably lost 50% or more of its' value.
But, it's the day-to-day, year after year nickel-and-diming fees which eventually allow Hedge Funds to steal thousands of dollars from your retirement account.
The CAP study showed how raising the annual fee from 0.25% to 1% or 1.25% would take $70,000 to $100,000 from the employees 401(k) account.
Putting aside the current American Job Market where no employee is going to last 30 years at a company offering up to 5% matching funds for your 401(k) account, the bigger picture is the continuing Legerdemain and accounting gimmicks Hedge Funds use.
One of the ways, Vultures like Wealth Mismanagement Pro Bruce Rauner caused the Illinois Pension Crisis was by charging fees. Rauner's firm GTCR and other Hedge Funds gained access to Public Pensions in the 1990's and now we find they are underfunded.
By Rauner's own admission 2/3rds of GTCR funds were supplied by Public Pensions. In Illinois GTCR has "managed" money for the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) and the Illinois State Board of Investment, the state's largest and third-largest, respectively. Additionally, GTCR had access to state and municipal pension plans from the San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System to the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board.
For this "work" GTCR, takes consultation and management fees. Bruce Rauner got paid no matter what the funds he "managed" did.
So, it's not surprising that Illinois and other Public Pensions began to go into insolvency once Vandal Capitalists got their hands on the funds. In fiscal year 2009, TRS lost $4.4 Billion (22% of its' value) in 2008 TRS lost 5% of it's value because of the Management of their Portfolios by Rauner-types.
Hedge Funds aren't growing wealth, they are parasitic Rentiers clinging to productive workers, like Teachers, sucking money from the Working Class like leeches and Vultures.
Capitalism is impoverishing and despoiling America.
The increasing unemployment. The transformation of the United States from a manufacturing powerhouse to a service-based industry. The creation of a economy built on the hedge-fund gambling, legerdemain and chicanery of Banking Institutions. The destruction of the Appalachian mountains for strip mining, the wholesale dumping of thousands of tons of petcoke in poor Chicago and Detroit neighborhoods are the end product of Capitalism.
For years Americans enjoyed the "benefits" of Capitalism as wage slaves in third world nations made products and corrupt banana republics gleefully exported their natural resources for Corporate exploitation.
But, while Labor Unions were shedding their blood and generations of Americans fought for better working conditions benefits and pay here at home, Capitalists were fighting back.
Prior to the modern age, Capitalists employed two basic weapons, illegal immigration and off-shoring of jobs. The Rich are fully in support of illegal immigration because it imports workers who are willing to do jobs here in the United States for lower pay, no benefits and if something happens to them those workers have little recourse or legal options.
But, Capitalists have also fought for years to break down barriers across Nation-States to make capital liquid, because once capital can flow freely then labor can be completely undercut.
NAFTA, CAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership are efforts by the 1% to be able to move their capital quickly and without restraint and to "create jobs" where costs are the cheapest. The 'Job Creators' touted by Republicans have no connection to the United States and see no difference between a Mexican worker, an Indonesian worker or an American. To the Job Creators whomever they can pay the lowest pay up to and including outright slavery is the "best".
Those manufacturing jobs currently in China and various third-world wage slave dictatorships are not coming back to the US. Until the day when US labor costs less than that overseas, worker protections are eliminated and anti-pollution regulations are stricken from law by Republican operatives.
What Libertarians and free-marketers don't understand and can't believe is one day they will be treated by Capitalism, the way Capitalism has treated the rest of the world.
And that is Capitalism; it's the impoverishment and enslaving of 99% of the world to enrich 1%.
Most thieves fail because of the small scope of their operation and a failure to understand cost-benefit analysis. The 70 year cancer victim who steals $100 dollars worth of cosmetics from a high end shopping store gets arrested the City Treasurer who steals $54,000,000 million well she lives a life of leisure for 25 years.
But, how does the Big Thief get away with it? The best Thieves have accountants.
Rita Crundwell, who stole over $54,000,000 over 20+ years from the People of Illinois, Village of Dixon was able to accomplish her theft with the aid of Fifth/Third Bank, the auditing firm of Clifton Larson Allen and the accounting firm Janis Card Associates.
Her lavish lifestyle was funded by falisfied secret bank accounts at the local Fifth Third Bank branch to which she funnelled the most thinly disguised checks and a two decade long papertrail of fake invoices. The auditors never took steps to verify the invoices or doing basic accounting work for over 20 years.
Additionally, for the past two decades, the same auditors reviewing Dixon's City finances were also preparing Crundwell's personal tax returns.
Worst of all, the Vultures who steal billions from the American people get to live rich, full, healthy, decadent lives, attend parties, enjoy vacationing in exotic lands and demand to be lauded as the Princes of Finance and Titans of American Success.
The City of Dixon has agreed to a $40 million dollar settlement with the Banks and Auditing firms.
Samuel Card (owner of Janis Card) will pay a court settlement of $1,000,000. Fifth Third will pay $3,850,000 and Clifton Larson Allen is responsible for the bulk of the settlement at $35,150,000.
Fifth Third was able to get away without "any admission of liability".
"All parties agree that it was in the best interest of the parties, as well as the citizens of Dixon, to bring this matter to an end," said Tom Falkenberg, attorney for Samuel Card and his firm, who also denied any wrongdoing.
Additionally, the City of Dixon was also able to get back $10,000,000 from the sale of Rita Crundwell's purloined belongings, though that was negated by the legal fees the City incurred.
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires – John Steinbeck.
"The federal government was never intended to be everything for everyone." - Chicken Hammer commented on my blog and oft repeated by conservatives everywhere.
This is correct, the Federal Government was created to Protect and Serve the Rich and Powerful.
Government was envisioned as a Tool of the Plutocracy in quelling Domestic problems and expanding Foreign Markets for exploitation.
All of Sudden Republicans in Congress are concerned about NSA cyber-snooping? Where was Jim Sensenbrenner's concern when he crafted the Patriot Act in 2001? Where was John Boehner's concern about wiretaps when he voted time after time to reapprove them? This level of out-right surveillance of the American People goes back further than the NSA whistleblower stating in 2006 the NSA has a Massive database of Americans' phone calls or in 2004 when President Bush declared, "a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way."
But, let's leave aside the Surveillance State for today. The Government is not the Problem; they are but the Hitmen and Trigger Pullers for the True Evil in our Society the Class of Moochers known as the Rich.
The last 30 years has been the Reactionary Attempt by the Mooching Rich to reclaim the Power of Government for their sole use. Everyday brings further evidence that Austerity is but another name for Trickle Down Economics and is little more than the abject destruction of the Middle Class in order to create a Wage Slavery State in America.
But, even amongst the Founding Fathers they knew that the Massive Income Inequality and the Ownership of the Federal Government by Corporations and the Rich would lead to Civil Strife.
The Richest 1% of this Nation doesn't make Anything or Do Anything, all they do is occupy the Rentiers position extracting a little financial gain from the toil of the 99% and the Billions of Economic Transactions that occur daily.
Yet, despite their complete and total destruction of the US Economy in 2007 Wall Street Banksters have regained their footing and are exerting their domination of the Economy again.
Between 2005 to 2007, Banksters issued $1.5 Trillion in Collateralized Debt Obligations. Synthetic CDOs, instead of the bonds themselves, are insurance-like derivative contracts on the bonds. "CDOs give investors a chance to bet on the creditworthiness of a basket of companies." (from Katy Burne of the Wall Street Journal) Those monies aren't anything other than gambling. Synthetic CDOs are back as Wall Street fights to defeat all controls on their recklessness.
Banksters, Hedge Fund Managers and Vulture Capitalists aren't creating anything. They aren't investing in anything. They are placing Bets on-top-of Wagers on-top-of Gambles... They are the computer virus and bad code from the moviesOffice SpaceandSuperman III, siphoning off money they have no right to.
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Abraham Lincoln
Mitt Romney wants to replace Presdient Obama as well as Abraham Lincoln, whose bust he wishes to remove from the Oval Office as a nod & a wink to his "Special Relationship" to the "Anglo-Saxon Heritage". What Mitt has been doing his entire life, through off-shoring and out-sourcing American Jobs and dismantling American Companies is to make Capital superior to Labor.
Caterpillar Inc. announced record-smashing quarterly earnings Wednesday, trouncing 2011 figures and previous projections by market analysts, even as a strike at its Joliet plant is nearing the three-month mark.
The industrial manufacturing giant posted sales and revenues of $17.37 billion – a 22 percent increase over the previous year – including a quarterly profit of nearly $1.7 billion. The company also raised its profit outlook to $9.60 per share.
That sure is great but while Caterpillar is posting back-to-back-to-back-to-back record quarterly profits they are working to lower the wages and pensions of their workers. Why isn't Caterpillar's CEO compensation and worker's salaries tied together?
Why would Caterpillar Inc. be focused on freezing workers pay and pensions? Because Capitalists see high labor prices as an unnecessary evil. Why pay American workers high salaries when with the help of Republican Party and Pro-Business Democrats you can off-shore jobs to slave wage nations and (via Mitt Romney's proposed plan) repatriate overseas profits as tax breaks.
In 2004, the Swiss Banking Giant UBS began approaching affluent Americans (in Banking terms affluent means net worth of $50 Million plus) with the idea of setting up dummy off-shore Corporations. By early 2009 at least 52,000 Americans had hid at least $20 Billion in those off-shore tax havens. UBS paid the IRS a $780 million fine for aiding these Rich Criminals in defrauding tax payments.
But, as Senator Jon Kyl pointed out those Rich Criminals are just better than you,
"President Barack Obama should stop talking about the middle class because it turns people against rich Americans, who should be embraced as the Michael Jordans of the U.S. economy," Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
"Here's Jordan for three... Yes!!! Did you see that look? Michael, he can't believe it." - Marv Albert recalls Michael Jordan's retroactive shrug following his invocation by Senator Not Intended to be a Factual Statement Kyl.
As the right-wing universe spearheaded by Faux News tries to rebrand Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital we see the old ploy of relabelling of concepts which Humanity correctly considers odious into fresh new terms. Hence the word Imperalism is no longer used by Imperalists, what they talk about today is Free Market Capitalism.
Free Market Capitalism and what Mitt Romney did at Bain Capital is nothing more than the new name for an old idea. Which is too steal labor, resources and lives of 99% of the world to enrich a very small cadre of Plutocrats, or Class Warfare.
Mitt Romney did the same thing as a "Venture" Capitalist. Buying up companies, loading them with debt to inflate their worth and selling them off to make a profit. Mitt did not invent the practice nor is he the worst example of it. But, his legacy of sending American Jobs overseas is alive and well at Bain Capital.
Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, the private equity investment firm that the Republican presidential candidate once led and that has been the subject of a campaign debate about jobs and outsourcing. Romney had long since left his leadership position at Bain when Sensata bought the plant in 2010, but the Freeport City Council recently passed a unanimous 8-0 resolution calling on him to come visit and help keep the jobs in town. The workers have written him directly.
And this doesn't even go into the giant LIBOR manipulation scandal of Barclay's and dozens of British and American banks. Or the evil, corrupt Bankers at HSBC who while gouging every decent hard-working person who might be late on a payment was busy laundering millions of dollars from Mexican Drug Cartels, FARC guerrillas and Al Qaida Terrorists. Barclay's LIBOR rate rigging is nothing new.
Imperialists have always sought new methods and tools to extract the wealth from the poor and transfer it to themselves. It's all legerdemain. A shell game designed to Steal.
But, when dealing with Theft of this magnitude. Theft of Generations. Theft of Lives. Theft of the Wealth of Nations. You can't call it what it is.
"And that trading book was the first of it's kind, certainly, anywhere on - with any of the banks." - JP Morgan Chase Derivatives trader Terri Duhon 1994-2002.
"You're either in possession of a very new human ability -- or a very old one." Terri seems to think she and her conscienceless banker buddies invented gambling.
JPMorgan Chase announced a surprise $2 billion loss by one of its trading groups. James Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., told reporters “There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment.” See no need to worry. It's just the result of honest mistakes and poor management of a well-intentioned strategy, not at all the result of an inherently evil, flawed, rigged system designed to swindle hundreds of millions of people out of Billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Faux News jumps in and blames... President Obama.
"If He's The President, He's The President Of The Banks, Too." - Steve Doocy.
Everything bad is Obama's Fault! It's unbelievable the amount of cognitive dissonance the Right-Wingers allow themselves. But, Steve Doocy is just performing his role as obsequious yipping lap dog for the Rich.
Mitt Romney and the Republican economic policies of the last 30 years, of deregulation, privatization, the Repeal of Glass-Stegall empowered Wall Street and the Banking Industry to engage in profligate gambling and directly resulted in these situations where Billions of dollars vanish. Of course, Romney himself profited mightily from these gambling schemes and betting, when he "worked" at Bain Capital, which provided no jobs, products or services to people but were nothing more than legerdemain.
Because Republicans serve as dutiful Guard Dogs for their Plutocratic Masters, they receive kickback scraps from the Rich.
Meanwhile, the Piss Down your Back and Tell You It's Raining Economic Model and The Beast created by servile Republican Dogs has allowed Wall Street and hundreds of Corporations to become the biggest moochers in history.
From 2008-2010, 78 corporations had at least one year where they paid no federal income tax at all, while 30 corporations paid ZERO over the entire three years. Even though those 30 Corporations made $160 billion in profits over that period.
The Rich have succeeded brilliantly in returning the US Government into their private plaything. A massive Beast which protects and succors them while transferring debt and risk onto 99% of the American People, while it transfers Trillions of Dollars into the coffers of the falsely entitled and privileged Plutocratic Bastards.
And just so there is no confusion, the disgusting Mitt Romney, Dauphin of the Chicken Hawks, Scion of the 1%, wants to further relax regulations on Wall Street Thieves and Banking Casinos, “The extent of regulation in the banking industry has become extraordinarily burdensome following Dodd-Frank. I’d like to repeal Dodd Frank.” - Mitt Romney in 2011.
"Guess what? I've made a lot of money." - Mitt Romney
You can't be a Rich Person in America without a False Sense of Entitlement and a conscience unladen by blame.
The Wall Street Hedge Fund Managers and Bank Executives knew they were "pulling a fast one" but, instead of stopping their negligent gambling all involved thought, 'Just let me pull off one more rigged hand, let me swindle one more million before the bottom falls out. Let the other guy get stuck with the bill. Let the little people clean up the mess.'
And that's what happened.
Remember the size of the mess the Deregulating Republicans and their Wall Street Masters left us with,
Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year. It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
After crashing the economy, the one thing no Wall Street Executive would do was take blame.
Today is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.
To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money…It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail….These days, the most common question I get from junior analysts about derivatives is, “How much money did we make off the client?”
Wall Street is already figuring out how to smear Smith for pulling back the curtain. Conservatives are rapidly ignoring any news of this revelation because it's coming from the Lame Stream Media and doesn't fit the bullshit narrative they absorbed from Republican propagandists.
Wall Street and their Republican dogs tried the Reagan tactic of "Blame the Government". Too bad fuckers, it didn't work this time. People know the Right-Wing push to deregulate Wall Street and the Republican hands-off approach to financial crime was what allowed Wall Street to accomplish the biggest theft from Hundreds of Millions of Americans. There's a club. You're aren't in it.
I'll never understand how Reagan got away with his whole government sucks rhetoric when he was president of that government.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. took procedural shortcuts and used faulty account records in suing tens of thousands of delinquent credit card borrowers for at least two years, current and former employees say.
The process flaws sparked a regulatory probe by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and forced the bank to stop suing delinquent borrowers altogether last year.
The bank's errors could call into question the legitimacy of billions of dollars in outstanding claims against debtors and of legal judgments Chase has already won, current and former Chase employees say.
It's disgusting the malfeasance, chicanery and outright fraud Banks got away with during the Republican Deregulating Era.
Bankers are to blame? Who us??? But, you can bet conservatives are still swallowing the Big Lie that Poor people, Fannie & Freddie and Barney Frank are responsible for the Republican Wall Street Recession. Even though private sector loans were responsible,
During those same explosive three years [2004-2006], private investment banks — not Fannie and Freddie — dominated the mortgage loans that were packaged and sold into the secondary mortgage market. In 2005 and 2006, the private sector securitized almost two thirds of all U.S. mortgages, supplanting Fannie and Freddie, according to a number of specialty publications that track this data.
But, being a Rich Plutocratic Job creator means never blaming yourself.
"Louis, Louis...still whining after all these years! Have you heard enough of that...I have! I've been listening to it for centuries." - Lestat
The unceasing whine from the 1% has surpassed the angst ridden moping of Anne Rice's titular character from Interview with the Vampire.
“Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it,” JP Morgan Chase and Co CEO Jamie Dimon recently complained to an investor's conference.
Dimon and all the Banking CEOs have not succeeded because of superior skill, work habits or ingenuity. They have succeeded by lying, cheating, swindling, obfuscating, and setting up a giant rigged system in which they knew they could be assured of riding the bubble all the way until it burst and then the bill would be picked up by the American Taxpayer with the help of their chosen defenders the Republicon Party and the Federal Reserve.
But you didn't think they were done did you? At that same "Investor's" Conference Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus was asked if he was worried about the impact of OWS. "Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus replied. Be sure to read all the quotes from those assembled at this conference; Rich Myopic Assholes are going to be Rich Myopic Assholes.
But, the 1% are never satisfied. Sears and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) successfully took hostage the State of Illinois and demanded a $350,000,000 ransom. The Illinois Legislature passed a measure giving the two Corporations the ransom they demanded. Now, do you think these two are going to invest that money into the State? Do you think they are going to hire thousands of new workers? Do you think they are going to lower prices to aid consumers? No. Sears and CME, the world’s largest owner and operator” of private exchanges for derivatives products, are going to take that money and give their CEOs and Boards millions of dollars in "bonuses".
But, don't worry aid is coming from the US Congress. Of course, it won't be in the form of a payroll tax break which would overwhelmingly aid middle class and struggling working class Americans. No, if there is anyone the Republicons love to be overburdened by taxes and debt it is the 99%.
The Republicons are going to make sure that Millionaires don't receive food stamps and uninsurance coverage. But, don't be fooled by this Republicon move. It isn't designed to curb fraud, waste or abuse, it is designed to get Americans thinking that food stamps and unemployment are wrong and no one should have them.
Yeah, you suckers thought the $700 Billion TARP was bad. Turns out the Federal Reserve decided to funnel11 times that amount to the Wall Street Criminals!
It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.
Plus, over the last few years, the Fed and the Big Banks have been fighting to keep it hidden from the Public. In fact 3 years ago today Decemeber 5th 2008, the Federal Reserve allocated $1.2 Trillion to the Too-Big-To-Fail Banks.
Bankers didn’t disclose the extent of their borrowing.
$7.77 Trillion USC. This ridiculous sham is the Free Market? They call this massive amounts of Taxpayer Welfare Capitalism? The Banks then had the temerity to foreclose on injured veterans? The Bankers continued to claim that poor borrowers were the problem? And as the best and brightest these 'Job Creators' deserved the millions they've gotten as bonuses? Of course, the shameless Banks and their Criminal CEOs turned around and fought any and every effort to place any regulations upon them. American Capitalism is Feudalism.
A fresh narrative of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions. While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.
The US Government has been transformed into the private slush fund of the Plutocracy. The 1% are not bought off anymore with the mere raiding of foreign lands, they want it all. And thanks to the tireless efforts of the Republicon Party and Corporate-Friendly Democrats they are going to steal the entire wealth of the United States.
No, Joe, you do not get to play the I'm the better American than you Game. No, Joe, you do not get to call the Occupiers "spoiled, pampered, unfocused, clueless young people". Not you Joe. Not an unfocused man, like you who hides from his responsibilities as a father. Not you Joe, a spoiled Congressman who has proposed nothing to help your constituents. No, Joe, not you.
We Veterans ARE the 99%. A pampered Representative like you Joe can not call Veterans who are protesting crimes you refuse to acknowledge "Anti-American".
Joe Walsh why don't you swallow my thrice awarded sea service deployment ribbon, you gutless, never-served-day-in-uniform, cowardly, square-headed, loudmouth buffoon. As a sitting Republican Congressman you really highlight your Party's false claim to Support the Troops.
I know you're "tired of hearing that crap" about how the Banking and Wall Street Criminals aided by Republicans in the Congress and White House brought the economy into a Recession but, for you who's done nothing for the people in your district to slam the Veterans of the #OccupyMovement is an act of unmitigated gall.
But, it's just more evidence of the truth Veterans realize that Republicans don't give a shit about them and only use the military and service members as props for their political gain.
This current attack on #Occupy doesn't beat Walsh's previous low point, the aforementioned "tired of hearing that crap" when Walsh screamed at and berated a USPS worker and declared he didn't care if Veterans working for the Post Office lost their jobs.
Well, Joe's part of the Republican Party, a fetid putrid stinking bog of thieves, hypocrites, criminals, bigots, brutes, charlatans, frauds and elitists. Because to the Republicans the Rightwing push to privatize the Post Office trumps all associated concerns. For Republicans it is always Party over Country and Politics over People.
So, Joe Walsh next time you want to run your suck about spoiled and pampered you tell it to the Marines.
Guess who Joe Walsh blames for the Housing Crash? Why he blames Fannie and Freddie and the poor for the housing bubble.
Joe Walsh took time out of his busy schedule of not doing anything for his constituents to yell at them. Walsh is not "passionate". Joe Walsh is an uncouth lout, a muling brat, who when faced with facts which tear down his beloved Blame the Poor rhetoric resorts to the Argument of the Red Face and Loud Voice.
In just one year Representative Joe Walsh has shown the ugly face of modern conservative thought. Joe Walsh has no facts to back up his position but if you yell loud enough and swear you win the argument. Thus we have Joe Walsh screaming about how the 99% know the Republican Big Zombie Lie is false:
However, here is the truth, Deregulation and Private Sector Banks not Fannie and Freddie caused the Housing Bubble:
During those same explosive three years [2004-2006], private investment banks — not Fannie and Freddie — dominated the mortgage loans that were packaged and sold into the secondary mortgage market. In 2005 and 2006, the private sector securitized almost two thirds of all U.S. mortgages, supplanting Fannie and Freddie, according to a number of specialty publications that track this data.
Barry Ritholtz has an excellent dissection of the Big Zombie Lie. But, the Republicans and Wall Street Thieves will never let go of the Big Zombie Lie and will never let the truth about the effects of their negligent deregulation schemes be spoken.
Conservative think tanks spend days crafting thousands of essays blaming Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Fannie and Freddie who forced Banks and Private Lending Firms to loan to those shiftless lazy Poor Deadbeats. Not Deadbeats like Joe Walsh mind you, but *cough* minorities *cough* deadbeats...
That's what the disgraceful Joe Walsh was screaming. Walsh is a disgrace to the office he represents, the male gender and humanity. But, the Rightwing slaves and bigots love him. Too bad the people of his district won't get a chance to vote him out, which they'd do in landslide numbers, but nonetheless in one more year Joe will be looking for work.
And that!!! is the reason Walsh is acting like this; Walsh is busy positioning himself for his lucrative career as a shill for the Corporate Hegemony which controls the US Government. But, regardless Walsh is also an uncouth lout unfit to even be a Congressman and contemptuous of the hardworking Illinois people he supposedly represents.
Update: Postal Worker Melissa Rakestraw who handled the screaming Joe Walsh with aplomb and grace just handed the ignorant block-headed Walsh his ass on the Ed Show. Besides the truncated video everyone has seen from Walsh, in the extended version Joe showed his utter disregard for America and his complete devotion to conservative evil because he's also pushing the bullshit rightwing mantra that by destroying the Post Office via selling off the lucrative postal routes to Corporate control and eliminating thousands of jobs he'll help the Nation. Think Progress has more on the graceful Rakestraw and the ridiculous and disgraceful screaming Congressman Walsh.
So, my quarterly financial investment portfolios came the other day. My modest 401k, 457 and Roth IRA all lost 20% of their value. Hurrah, the Free Market does everything better.
But, do you know who did not lose 20% of "their" money? Why the casinos we refer to as Banking Firms. These racketeers, gamblers, cheats, swindlers and criminals all reported Record Profits for the 3rd Quarter of 2011:
Bank of America: $6.2 Billion
JP Morgan Chase: $4.3 Billion
Wells Fargo: $4.1 Billion
Citigroup: $3.8 Billion
Where is all this money coming from? The Giant Banking Casinos are not investing in technology, they are not investing in small start-ups, they are not moving funds into the depressed areas of the United States.
What they are doing playing games shuffling electronic figures from one column to another and calling it business, conducting millions of stock-trades a second in High-Frequency Stock Trading, they're gouging people with transaction fees, they're placing "bets" and taking out hedged insurance claims on derivatives and commodities. If they guess right about a drop in the price of corn, they make money! But, no tangible good is produced. Additionally, BofA provides no benefit to the average American with his small savings account because BofA is currently providing an interest rate of 0.05%. As of the 11Q3, BofA has $53 Trillion in Total Derviatives and $1.5 Trillion in total assets.
But, wait a moment! Wow! It's appears, Bank of America has moved it's derivatives from Merril Lynch to a FDIC insured subsidiary Now why would they do that? Perhaps, because when the scope of their criminal toxic asset peddling and credit default swaps becomes known and the reckless gambling they've engaged in bottoms out, the Banksters will be bailed out once more by the American Taxpayer. Reagan Be Praised, for Government Bailouts of the criminal financial sector.
Just remember whom BofA has pledged, "to help out", with it's considerable profits : Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom, errr... I mean Citigroup has agreed to pay a $285 Million dollar fine to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle a Fraud Complaint for their toxic housing market rebuilding scheme. Please scroll back up the page to refresh your memory that Citigroup posted a $3.8 Billion dollar profit in the 3rd Quarter alone.
It seems, part of the problem is the Banksters are still treated with respect because they wear sharp suits and cutting edge business fashion, we would all be better off, if Banksters had to wear the traditional garb of the people they are behaving like; The Yakuza. Wouldn't you be more wary of the corrupt gambling banking institutions if they were sitting around in the elaborate ceremonial diapers.
But, listen! A few Republicans say Homeowners should get some help. What a crock of shit! After transferring Trillions of tax payer dollars upwards to the off-shore bank accounts of Warmongers, Thieves and Murderers. The Republican Party and the Business Friendly Democrats are trying to avoid the backlash of the 99%, by throwing the Middle Class a gnarly, cracked, meat-stripped bone, in the hopes the people will continue to support the Wall Street Swindlers and the Yakuza-Banksters who have nearly sucked all the marrow out of the bones of the USA.
It's because the 1% desire that last little bit, the last morsel, Social Security and the Post Office. If the Republicans succeed in taking control of the White House and the Senate the push to privatize the money-making aspects of the Post Office will be un-stoppable, and the Trillions of Social Security will be neatly rolled into Wall Street where the natural flucuations of Free Market will ensure a few thousand people can steal those funds and funnel them into a secret UBS account in Switzerland.
No more Bank bailouts. Bring back the SEC transaction tax, you make Hedge Bets, you conduct High-Frequency trades you pay a fee per each stock moved, each commodity leveraged. Move Your Money to Your Local Credit Union or Small Town Bank!
Related - Here's what I had to say about Wall Street, the Republicans and the 99% in April 2010: Capitalism is... Socialism for the Rich.
Now the American people want Banking Reform and who stands with the Wall Street Thieves and against Main Street Americans? The Republicans. The Republicans will not let Congress and President Obama endanger the institutional Thievery which the Republican Party was created to cement into law and protect at all costs.
This is fortunate because since the Reign of Chickenhawk Reagan the Republicans have gotten away with their anti-human plans of financial deregulation to destroy and Impoverish the American Middle Class. Because the Klepotcrats in America who control the Republicans want all American workers ground down to the level of the powerless in Indonesia or Guatemala. Republicans want Americans to work and die once their "productive" years are done.
Ask yourself: Who wanted to roll Social Security into Wall Street? The Republicans. Why? So Wall Street could steal those funds as well. Who during the midst of the Bush/Cheney Depression wanted to destroy Social Security and Medicare? Michele Bachmann and the Republicans. Why? Because Michele Bachmann wants Americans to die when they get old.
Republicans act as the attack dogs for the Wealthy and their conservative slime merchants gleefully absorb the message and willfully propagate it to delude themselves and others.
How do the Republicans get away with their anti-human plans? They've done an excellent job of dividing Americans by religion and race and by non-stop lying.
For years the demographics allowed Republican victories but now more and more Americans are aware there is a club and 99% of the American People aren't in it. The American People have seen that the Republicans serve a gaggle of Kleptocrats who view their supporters as nothing more than paving stones for their luxuries.
James Mahoney, Director of Public Policy for Bank of America Executive was the Criminal who told Rick Perry "We're going to help you out."
Wells Fargo creates a $3 fee everytime you have a Debit card transactions. Is this worse than screwing minorities during the Housing Scam, Credit Fault Defaults, and Sub-Prime Mortgage banking fraud?
Speaking of the Republican crafted Sub-Prime Loan Fraud Crime, 100 million dollar man Sean Hannity just found out, in 2011, that there is this thing called a "housing bubble" and people are losing their homes! Of course, Hannity doesn't have to worry because the 100 person staff he employs to maintain his multi-million dollar mansion reside in shacks on the grounds of his Upper New York palatial estate.
Quarter Billionaire Mitt Romney bemoans the poor economy decides to blames Jimmy Carter (so much for the conservative demands of a time limit on blaming past Presidents, that the only demand when it's a REpublican) and Barack Obama. As for Reagan and the Bushes, Romney knows nothing of the 20 Trillion dollars the Republicans added to the debt. Romney then decides to bulldoze his puny mansion and have a one 3 times larger built in it's place.
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is still mad at Obama. In a Salon article she propounds her status as an ardent "lifelong Democrat", who supported McCain/Palin in 2008 and Jon Huntsman in 2012. She then explains Politics belongs to the Upper classes not to losers.
But, the gist of her comments haven't changed in 3 years: From July 2008: "Frankly I don't like him,” so says Lynn Forester de Rothschild of Obama in a July 2008 interview with CNN’s Joe Johns.
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild went on to state, “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”
Oh Irony! Elitist and trust issues from a member of the Bilderberg?
"[N]ot all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again." ~ Jeb Hensarling (REPUBLICAN) Ahem, are you poor or middle class? Well, the Republican Party has a message for you go to work in the salt mines and die you fucking peasant.
And here is the final measure of the working man, the ENTIRE Deficit comes from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. So, when Republicans bring up the necessity of slashing Pell Grants, the EPA, Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid, Liberals and Democrats should consistently state the Republicans not only want to kill your children but, your grandparents and eventually you.
No One represents the American People. We've been sold into Wage Slavery and Serfdom to the Banking interests, by their wholly owned bureaucrats and thugs in the Republican Party and the deluded and corrupted portions of the Democratic Party.
"In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks,” Congressman Spencer Bachus, Republican Alabama.
What are you doing Alabama? You got the rest of the union to help you along What's going wrong?~ Neil Young, Alabama
At a time of 10% unemployment, pay freezes for middle class federal workers, the planned for destruction of social security and unemployment coverage, every breaking news story is of unprecedented record profits for Wall Street; Wall Street Sees Record Revenue in Recovery From Bailout.
What benefit does Wall Street provide to the American people? They no longer loan money to emerging small businesses, they do not seek to find rivals to established corporate behemoths, they no longer regulate themselves, they increasing create more and more byzantine "products" which are divorced from an actual commodity or crafted item. Or as the NewYorker asked; What Good is Wall Street?
Since 1980, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people employed in finance, broadly defined, has shot up from roughly five million to more than seven and a half million. During the same period, the profitability of the financial sector has increased greatly relative to other industries. Think of all the profits produced by businesses operating in the U.S. as a cake. Twenty-five years ago, the slice taken by financial firms was about a seventh of the whole. Last year, it was more than a quarter. (In 2006, at the peak of the boom, it was about a third.) In other words, during a period in which American companies have created iPhones, Home Depot, and Lipitor, the best place to work has been in an industry that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing.
And when trouble came and the economy was faced with a meltdown caused by the rampant malfeasance of Wall Street? Those selfsame people who create nothing, those who do nothing but play fancy computer games of transferring little 1s and 0s from one ledger to another, were saved on the backs of the workers. And since then? Why they've created no new jobs, they've tightened loans, they've foreclosed homes, they've sought to destroy healthcare, GM and the UAW and anything which represents a protection to the Middle Class and Poor in America.
And why do they get away with it? Apparently because of the Grand Scale of their Theft. I've tracked down and caught any number of thieves in my capacity as a police officer. The latest was a man who attempted to pass off false coupons he created himself for a pack of Marlboro's. It's a Deceptive Practice. He's poor and will undoubtedly get a conviction for a Class A Misdemeanor for trying to pass off the worthless paper.
But, what does Wall Street get for passing off Trillions in worthless paper again and again and again? They get the full faith and force of the Federal Government every time. Welcome to Serfdom.
Related: A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives [The New York Times]
“Well,” Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre sent to his girlfriend, “what if we created a ‘thing’, which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price?”
Perhaps Fab once read the Karl Marx who wrote: “The more abstract money is, the less natural its relationship to other commodities.”
On the day America suffered the worst attack in our History, except for when Republican Heroes were killing Americans during the Civil War, what was the focus for the Republican led Congress and President George W. Bush?
Well, Phil Gramm, along with Republicans Jim Leach and Thomas Bliley had successfully repealed the Glass-Steagall Act removing a check on the rapacious Banking Industry and Republicans were figuring out how to shift even more of the Federal Tax burden to the Middle Class and Poor.
And while George Bush would sign any Legislation that would shelter his Base and Moneyed Masters from supporting the Nation, W was busy trying to figure out a way to invade Iraq. On January 30, 2001 George W. Bush directs Rumsfeld and JCS chairman Hugh Shelton to examine military options for Iraq.
"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill.
But Republicans of that Time were using the attacks of 9/11 to call anyone who questioned Bush and Cheney Terrorist Supporters and Traitors.
The Bush administration was well along the path to war before the 9/11 attacks. September 11 was not the motivation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq – it was a distraction from it.
9/11 and the Iraq War are enough to make The Bush/Cheney Regime the Worst in American History. But when you add on Torture, the Republican Recession, the blind eye to millions of EPA violations, the never explained nearly $5-a-gallon gas during Bush's Presidency and the Bush Regime pushed through TARP, a Bankers dream, wherein another Trillion in American taxpayer debt was grotesquely funneled directly to aid the Rich as a last Bushian Fuck You to the people... Well, what you have in George Bush and Dick Cheney are, perhaps, the two people who have done the most damage to America with the exception of Conservative Heroes Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden.
And overwhelmingly what political party do Bankers vote for and identify with; The Republicans. Therefore it is safe to infer jesus hates Republicans. And it's irrefutable because it's in the bible.
How trusty is this world ~ Strange and ironic, Voivod
The damned Socialist President is at it again. To wit: "The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of government and the buying power of consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing of money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government's greatest creative opportunity. Government, possessing the power to create and issue currency and credit as money and enjoying the right to withdraw both currency and credit from circulation by taxation and otherwise, need not and should not borrow capital at interest [from the private banking system or their affiliates] as a means of financing government work and public enterprise.*"
The government should create all the currency and credit! Duh! Duh! Duh! Government doesn't create! Government doesn't create jobs! Government funding never works! And that's why Bankers hate Obama! He doesn't realize that Capital by axiom belongs to the Capitalists! C=C!
This is why Bankers predicted Doom unless Bush's regime pushed through the TARP, a Bankers dream, wherein another Trillion in American taxpayer debt was grotesquely funneled directly to aid the Rich as a last Bushian Fuck You to the people.
But Obama's the President now and The Hyper Toxic Talkers would have you believe the entire mess the country is in, stems from electing Obama and his two months in office.
Yeah, right.
The last 8 criminal years of Bush never occurred, Phil Graham never worked on deregulation, Reagan's Piss Down Your Back Economics didn't create a national deficit.
As late as 2006, the Republican attack machine was blaming Clinton for 9/11 (recall the "Fictionalized History" of The Path to 9/11) an event which occurred 8 months after Clinton was out of power. Of course, using that reasoning Obama has a free pass for at least another 6 months. And every single scandal plaguing Washington today is the fault of George W. Bush.
Except now the Screw Americans First-ers (Republicans) are out of Power and so the rules change. Everything is the fault of Obama! It's brilliant. The goal of course, is to blame a Democrat for the obscene destruction of the futures of Americans by Republicans, who ruin the economy and leave the cleanup to the Democrats. Then an empty-headed Republican can step in and ensure the poor and middle class are further indentured to the Plutocratic Class. This worked for them with the Mythical Reagan. And right now the Republicans grooming Reagan 2 (Mitt Romney) and/or W2 (Sarah Hot and Palin) to challenge in 2012.
