Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Congratulations

Someone in DC finally stated the obvious.  "Washington is not working for hardworking Middle Class families."  ~ Senator Elizabeth Warren.  It's significant that Warren, a Democrat, did not say, "Republicans are not working for...".  Her statement was totally nonpartisan.  She also went on to say, "The system is rigged."...and, "The large banks are now 38% larger than they were before the Bailout."...and, "They have not been held to account."...and more.  Congratulations to us, the People...we finally have at least one honest, national politician.  I predict that she'll be smeared, or marginalized, or both.  I hope I'm wrong.

It should be glaringly apparent that "voting" (in the present corrupt system) is not going to save us.  Ever since I took a keen interest in American politics (in 1956, Mr. Benson's American Government Class, Highland Park High, Highland Park, Illinois), I've watched our Fed Gov't, our society, and our country proceed on a steady downhill slide.  During the time from then to now, there have been periods when the Republicans were in the majority in our Gov't, and times when the Democrats were in the majority, and even times when the power was more or less evenly split.  Throughout it all, the downhill slide remained fairly steady.  Corruption grew, the Fed Gov't threw off its Constitutional restraints, the rich became the super-rich, poverty grew, the Middle Class continued to shrink, the Fed Gov't expanded and became more intrusive, unconstitutional wars became the norm, and politics became more and more about money.  It didn't matter whether Republicans or Democrats held the majority power.

On average, only about 50% (sometimes as high as 60%) of eligible voters actually bother to vote in any USA national election.  Before I became a nonvoter, I thought such people were lazy, or didn't care, etc.  For some time now, I've believed that the paragraphs above describe the real reason for people not voting.  The Game is rigged.  James Madison once stated something to the effect that there will come a time when our Republic will be in grave danger because wealth will be concentrated in the pockets of the very few.  We're in that era now.  He went on to say that it will be up to the People to change our laws if we are to remain a free, prosperous country.  Glenn Greenwald (a former Constitutional attorney and now a dissident independent journalist), Noam Chomsky, and others have explained very clearly how The Law is used to rig the Game.  [See YouTube.]

Who writes our laws?  Many, if not most, Legislative Bills are written by lobbyists...and then hawked to Representatives and Senators.  [A cabal of Fat-Cat Bankers wrote the Bill that became the Fed Reserve Act.]  Who determines Fed Gov't policies?  Let's take Hank Paulson as an example...net worth in 2012, over $700 million.  He came from Goldman Sachs (the world's largest investment bank)...he was the Head Honcho, salary---$40 million per year.  Both Dubya Bush and Obama had him as Secretary of the Treasury.  [Apparently the concept of a conflict of interest no longer exists in DC.  Just because he liquidated his Goldman Sachs assets doesn't mean he had zero conflict of interest.  By the way, because of an obscure tax loophole for the rich, he was able to avoid $200 million in capital gains taxes on those assets by going to work for the Feds...in case you're wondering why he would go from a salary of $40 million to one of $183,000 & change.]  During the financial crisis of 2008, "Too Big to Fail", Paulson tells Congress that we have to give billions to the big banks, including of course, Goldman Sachs.  He said our entire economic system would collapse otherwise...a complete fairy tale.  Bernanke and Paulson also decided that about $13 TRILLION in loans must be made available to the Big Banks...at POINT 25 (.25) % interest.  That whole scenario was the greatest heist in American history.  The legislative "reforms" since then are nothing but window dressing.  "Voting" will not solve this problem...at least, not until the system is unrigged.

So, what's to be done?  There are many good, peaceful options...none of them include the present bought-and-paid-for Republicans and Democrats.  [There are very, very few exceptions to that statement.]  That means the very first step is to stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.  Until that happens, there's no point at all in even discussing the options.

Partly just my opinion.
Happy Trails

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