Further considerations on The FED

ere, in the link below is a passageway to one of the most lucid and well researched essays on the fraudulence perpetrated by the Federal Reserve I have yet seen.  If the public knew of how they were being scammed by both government and major banks there would be outrage such as has never been seen.  But the propaganda machine keeps on hypnotizing those already deep in slumber from womb to tomb.  You certainly won't read of it in any mainstream media.  After all, media, all of it, is owned by the banks; hereafter referred to as banksters. The banksters are far worse than the Capone gang in Chicago.  You always knew where you stood, or didn't stand, with the mob.  Banksters are more like the Wizard of Oz, who stands behind the curtain, pulling the levers of power.  They do their best to keep their identity hidden.  Who for example, would ever suspect that the Federal Reserve, the bank which likes to give the impression that it is a part of the government, and which prints our very dollars, is not only private, but is owned not by the so-called Board of Directors, but by the Queen of England and the Rothschilds. And they have one and only one mission in mind and that is to turn you and your children and their children into debt slaves. Serfs.  Do yourself a big favor and learn something about The Fed:

http://www.webofdebt.com/excerpts/introduction.php

My own recent experience with the banksters has to do with my Sears card debt.  Some background:  After ten years of retirement my supplemental income has dwindled to the point where Social Security is my sole means of support.  And the same is true for my wife.  And despite the fact that I worked from the age of fourteen to 62, I never really made a lot of money.  I devoted my life to art; and then to helping other people raise funds for hospitals and other worthy community charities.

So I am eligible for the minimum amount that Social Security pays.  That combined with the fact that my debt ceiling has continued to rise even as my income has steadily dwindled has led to a crisis:  I cannot any longer pay my credit card and Paypal bills.

This circumstance has led to a lot of telephone activity from my bank creditors.  They call with astonishing regularity every other morning starting at eight AM.  And continue into the evenings and even on 4 or 5 times on Sundays.

When Citibank realized that I was living solely on SSI, they passed me on to a guy who was eager to "help."  His plan was to get me to agree to automate my payments on a certain day of the month, of my choosing and then they would sit back and collect oh, a hundred and fifty or so each month.  In return for this open handed reach into my bank account they would collect not only the original amount but also a percentage of interest, at 28% , that would be, in addition to their original outlay of $3,750.  As I said to one of the Collections people:  "Oh, for the good old days when the Mafia only charged 25%."  But she probably hears that sort of moaning and groaning 6 times every hour.

Compounded monthly about $14,000 over a period of five years. And of course, it goes without saying, that my credit card account would be closed.  And of course, considering my situation and my age, it would be very difficult for them to lower the interest rate.  After all, what guarantee could they have that I might not die before they had bled me dry?  So all of the money goes one way.

To Citibank.

Also, they would need access to my bank in case I decided that enough was enough and simply walked away from the debt.  With my consent to automate the payments they could keep on collecting ad infinitem.  With or without my permission.  And I would never again, in this lifetime, be able to scrape together enough money to buy a movie ticket.  Citibank is just one of my creditors. Paypal is another.  Wells Fargo is another.

Add to this information that I have only recently recovered from a double by-pass open heart surgery, along with advanced diabetes and obesity, which I seem unable to do anything about, the specter of my demise is immanent.

My good days are gone; even the bad ones of my old age are numbered.  I doubt that I have more than five years left on the planet.  Does any of this resonate with anybody out there?

None of this solves the problem of my debt.  These are just factoids.  But reading the article helps me to understand that I am not alone. That everyone is, as is said, in the same boat.  And further, that there is a reason why we are all in debt. Including the Federal Government.  And the banks, themselves.  Of course, the banks have only to claim that they are too big to fail, and run with their hands out to the Federal Government who gives them everything they want or ever could want.  And the Federal Reserve Bank simply prints some more money.That is their primary function.

The Fed prints all the money they want.

And with the principle of Fractionated Money, the banks can lend ten times the amount of money which they actually have.  Thus, all the major banks in America are leveraged out to the breaking point. ■  

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BP and big oil are let off the hook

ny deal which allows big oil to continue with business-as- usual is execrable for us, the citizens of the world, but excellent for big oil and its handmaiden corporations like Halliburton, KBR and the like.

The latest update on the BP trial is that we are now told that BP has agreed to a settlement for damages for the lawyers and the families, (if the families can pry the money loose from the lawyers dead fingers.) And that the figure agreed to is somewhere around $7.81billion.

 There those who think this is a very generous figure.

 And then, there are those, like ME, who find this pathetic; bordering on insulting. Myself, I would like to see the big banksters in a place, dark and austere, where they will be getting fucked regularly from both ends and nobody has to buy them dinner and roses the next day.  And even though that may not happen during my lifetime, I know that it will eventually happen.  The big banks have been running the show for much too long.  They will, at some point in the near future, step over the line and public opinion will force the government, however reluctantly, to bring them all to actual trial and find them guilty of crimes against humanity.  It is something I have no control over, and neither do they. It is just the way the cookie crumbles.  The big cosmic Pendulum has begun moving in the other direction now.  After nearly 35 years of calling the shots, Republicanism is sliding rather quickly down the tubes.  Even at the zenith of their Power, the crooked corporations are already beginning to fail.

 Public Enemy Number One is Big Oil; and Public Enemy Number Two is the Big Banks.

People who ingest marijuana are sent up the river for ten, twenty, thirty years by an inflexible and fraudulent ethical code of justice.  Well, then simply change the laws.  Prod Congress to legalize it.  Well, guess what?  We tried that.  But then the Big Banks started buying up the prisons, privatizing them.  Offering the poor states some much needed cash in exchange for their prison systems.

Why did the Big Banks suddenly find the privatization of prisons so attractive? Well it turns out that manufacturing corporations are frustrated with the price of labor in China.  It's just so darned expensive to pay a buck a garment, then bringing it to market for about--- oh, take Liz Claiborne's ratio of price of factory manufacture to point of purchase, is from $1.75 including materials and labor; throw in another 25 cents for shipping, brings the final price to about $150.00.

Whew! You can hardly make a dishonest buck anymore.

So the banks through their privatized prison labor are able to make that more profitable by paying the workers less than the slave labor wages paid in China and it cuts out the whole  cost of shipping.

Why am I mentioning all of this and what does it have to do with legalizing marijuana?

Marijuana an invaluable and highly effective palliative, which does its job quickly and delightfully; and very importantly, it has no side effects at all, unlike the poisonous pills of Big Pharma; along with guaranteed pain relief, marijuana is an excellent mood altering plant, which tends to add spiritual insight into the user's mind stream.

Well, since more laborers are needed to work as slaves in the privatized prisons owned really by the Banksters, the Banks send their lobbyists to meet with members of Congress to push for harsher laws so that more people will go to jail and serve much longer sentences as a part of the slave work force.

Sounds diabolical doesn't it?

But if you steal the natural resources of the earth which belong to all people, destroy the earth's treasures, its oceans, and manage to kill, nay, murder, from 11 to 25  people in the process, you are treated like Mister Big Shot and governments vie for your favor.  Admiring crowds elbow each other in their haste to touch their foreheads or their tongues to your jackboots.

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So now, regarding this deal where Big Oil gets to literally ruin a huge part of the world, and kill all the workers, for which they will agree to pay less money in fines than they make in a single quarter in profit,  do I think this might be a bad deal?

Hmm. Um, yeah, sorta. ■

Banksters Killing Europe, We're Next

how hands, please! Who did not know that the International Banksters are the most criminal class on the planet?  Those who did not know this need to watch this video.  Thom Hartmann is always a pleasure anyways.  But here is one of his very most important and insightful reports.  Since John Perkins spilled the beans and blew the whistle on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund the banksters have come out of the closet to show themselves as the criminals they truly are.

If you want to know why marijuana is still criminalized; yes, even medical marijuana, look no further.  The banks!  Why the banks?  They make a lot of money buying up prisons around the country and privatizing them. Then they lobby state and federal legislators to increase the penalties for marijuana busts. The legislators for their part, are always happy to oblige the banks, since it means more under the table money in their pockets.  

Thus, the prisons are kept full of otherwise innocent people.  Then the corporations walk in and say Hey, paying a dollar a day to Chinese workers and then shipping costs --- that's too expensive, I want slave labor.  Well, as close as you can get to slave labor without actually setting foot on the ground.  Prison laborers are paid 20 cents an hour for hard labor, thus giving corporations even cheaper labor costs than China. And no shipping cost.      

So the banks are imposing austerity measures on the Greek citizens.  And as Thom H points out it isn't working.  It has never worked.  Ever.  Austerity is the preferred method for destroying a sovereign nation.  Literally.  But watch the seven and a half minute video for a quick lesson in bankster crime.  And the USA is on the short list.■

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Alan Grayson Steals The Show!

fter all the torture we libs have been through at the dishonest hands of the Repukes, we deserve a ticket of Elizabeth Warren and Alan Grayson.  Grayson is the real spokesman for the disenfranchised.  He is the only voice in Congress who spoke out against the Repukes and their views on Health Care Reform. We must see to it that he gets re-elected to congress.  Here, he demolishes right winger journalist, PJ O'Rourke.  He gets him so good with the truth, that O'Rourke finally shuts up.  As a result, Grayson also gets the first standing ovation the show has seen in its 10 years on the airwaves. 

Grayson is a real scrapper!

That, of course, is why the Repukes hate him so bad.  He is the only Dem who is not even slightly phased by the opposition.  So the Koch Brothers threw huge amounts of money at the race in Florida and lavishly funded 5 other truly mediocre candidates to oppose Grayson.  The most mealy mouthed old boy who obviously goes along to get along --- got the election.

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Let Your life be a Friction To Stop the Machine

"If injustice is of such a nature that it causes you to become the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law.  Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine."  Henry David Thoreau:  On Civil Disobedience

eing an independent spirit, and ever loyal in his commitment to America's highest stated ideals, not to mention that he lived a mere two houses down the street from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the other Transcendentalists, Thoreau found the United States invasion of Mexico and ensuing war with Mexico, so profoundly disgraceful a policy that he could see no option but to protest.

Loudly.

He was imprisoned for his views; the federal authorities did not care to have some loudmouth misfit, as they saw him, criticizing their policies.  They were business men after all, and brooked not the least word against their economic machinations.  This was before it was socially and morally acceptable to go to jail for expressing dissent.  But what most Americans have long ago forgotten and historians have consistently glossed over, is that the war was fought over slavery.  Slaves were worth money.  Slaves were wealth itself.  Black slaves actually built this country and established with their lives and labor, what we now enjoy as an economy.

Mexico forbade slavery.

And the gawd-almighty Texan invaders wanted to bring their slaves into Mexico.

Hence, the solution was war. And the war was the first real expression of Manifest Destiny.  It was a scarcely a glorious victory.   Many American historians tend to want to celebrate the war.  One of the few good things to come out of the war was that slavery had become an issue.  In the same way that many far right wingers agree with the neo-con view as stated in the mission of the PNAC, Policy for the New American Century.
As we all know Manifest Destiny, so similar in its view that the United States corporate interests saw it as their God given right to expand not only across the continent but across the world as well.

The mission statement of Project for the New American Century or PNAC, so like Manifest Destiny, is an expression of the desire, nay, design, for the god-given right to establish Empire throughout the world. And along with that --- and as a guiding spirit --- to despoil and exploit all of the natural resources of the smaller nations.

Now, like then, America is the villain.  Then it was expansion and slavery; now it is expansion and serfdom.  And Congress merely lines up with their hands out to big oil, the Koch brothers, and other corporate sponsors.

As we have seen with the Occupy Movement, any protest whatsoever, will bring down the entire military force, since the Federal government has begun training and arming local police forces as if they were the military.  This is to be expected.  Small protests will do nothing, ignored or swatted away like flies.  Organized dissent, however peaceful, will be silenced with maximum brutality, since the National Corporate State will not be interfered with, nor even exposed.  Most Americans are still hypnotized by the corporate state; and the corporate state does not wish their placid and submissive minds to even suspect that they are being manipulated. Brutal response of the newly militarized local police will be all the more swift and nasty in direct proportion to the rightness and accuracy of the protest.                    

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Koch brother Criminality

he Koch brothers are actually criminals.  They have been caught stealing oil from Native American reservations.  When congress wanted to investigate this wrongdoing, the Koch's simply called up old Bob Dole, one of their dearest friends, and said "Hey, Bobby, take care of this, will ya?"  And suddenly there was no more Congressional Investigation.  But as a tacit admission of their guilt, they paid the tribe $25M in reparations.  Not much but it is a start.

Those boys have such good and dear friends in Congress.

But then too, they have been caught redhanded lying to Henry Waxman about the Pipe Line bringing crude oil from Alberta Canada to the Gulf.

One would think that conservatism would make men more honor bound, more ethical.  How disappointing to find that great wealth makes for conservatives who are so corrupt and worse, corrupting, that they can't be stopped.

The Koch brother filth is everywhere.

Thanks to their manipulations America is no longer one of the good guys in the world.  Quite the contrary, we are feared as much as, and in the same way that America feared the Soviet Union, whether or not that fear was justified, even back then.  We are slipping into Fascism.  The new bills which passing through congress are toxic bills designed to shred the US Constitution and strip each and every citizen of his inalienable rights.

You may have heard it a thousand times, but here it is again, Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely.  The Koch brothers are among the very richest men in America.  And they want to own it completely.  And they cannot own it all if you own even a tiny share.  So their strategy is to move you off the planet.  And they don't really care how that gets done.

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