OT - 'BAMA wins US presidential election - Page 23

Con't

Although in 2001 Obama said he was not “optimistic about bringing major redistributive change through the courts,” as president, he would likely have the opportunity to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices.

“The real tragedy of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused that I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change,” Obama said.

Karen McMahan is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.

Mickey, I read the entire article and unless I am mistaken what we have here is a witness in a hearing advocating a specific proposal. As you know in these hearings various proposals are floated as part of contemplated legislation or fact-finding.

I also noticed this specific passage:

After repeated questions asked by Neil Cavuto of Fox News, Miller said he would not be in favor of “killing the 401(k)” or of “killing the tax advantages for 401(k)s.”

The biggest mistake Obama and the Democrats can make is to overplay their hand.  Hubris is what brought about the downfall of the Republicans - and, IMO, Obama is smart enough to realize this and will stop Democrats in Congress from going overboard.

So simple, Bob: Live within your means. Applies equally to individuals, governments and corporations – universal truth. Who can fault it? Trumpeted now anew by every financial media guru. Well, what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander - and what’s no good for the gander cannot be good for the goose!

The US economy (to ever increasing extent since the fifties?) is largely predicated on two main factors: domestic consumption (we just reached the end of a fourteen-year shopping spree) and, continuously increasing debt levels (both private and governmental), easy abundant money, with average consumer now hocked-up to the eye-balls! The whole economy as we know it – employment, manufacturing capacity, financial structures etc – is verily geared to these two pillars; a high-wire balancing act, one substantially built on a house of cards!

But consider, what’s the probable outcome if consumers suddenly decide to live within their means by cutting their spending/consumption, as accompanied by a simultaneous withdrawal of all that easy money? Well, in the first instance, manufacturers cut production, reject additional credit also, put expansion/investment plans on hold and start putting off workers (as seen already for ten straight months). But wait … those unneeded employees also happen to be consumers and debt holders. Consumption and confidence drops even further … business lays off even more workers, and … a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle is created.

I can’t say I’ve seen such a scenario portrayed anywhere of late but to me it seems a very real possibility, particularly since Feds have already exhausted the normal fiscal options. I personally also think that coming recession will be a lot worse than generally acknowledged (in fact, Wall Street is behaving pretty well as it did during the early days of the Great Depression) - with lower oil prices the only thing standing between us and another depression. The other alternative amounts to some long and drawn-out deflationary period.   

Interesting post, Kerschberger. I agree with almost all of it – particularly on the overpopulation issue.

“Why don't we put some rules to that so that only those who can proof they are worthy humans are allowed to breed?” you ask. The very nature of modern democracy prevents it from ever coming to pass (as for so many other things), but still, what a fine idea!

“The quality of the people is going to determine the direction of a country”, you say. True, of course, but how utterly depressing in that the population is getting ever dumber! Tyranny of the dumbed-down majority over the thinking few! It already applies overwhelmingly now – what hope for the future? 
 

************“Why don't we put some rules to that so that only those who can proof they are worthy humans are allowed to breed?” you ask. The very nature of modern democracy prevents it from ever coming to pass (as for so many other things), but still, what a fine idea!*********

The very essence of the Nazi belief structure turning up on a German Shepherd dog board...horrific.

OTOH---"you need a license to drive a car or own a dog, hell, you even need a license to catch a fish! But any dumb f*ck can have a kid." from the Disney movie Parenthood. Hmmmmmm...........jh

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Identify Bank Loans
 

By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is Refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.''

Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.

The Fed made the loans under terms of 11 programs, eight of them created in the past 15 months, in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Kalibeck said: "The very essence of the Nazi belief structure turning up on a German Shepherd dog board...horrific."

The very same thought passed my mind when I read the comment about the equivalent of "selective breeding" of humans! And this from someone who railed about socialistic policies and big government in Europe suffocating progress!!

Chisum...Compulsory service, me?  I'd be Fragging my C/Os, as they did in Nam.  Not widely reported,  but one of the reasons that war ended.

Grunts started Killing off  or 'Fragging' their commanding officers, Ive got a nice article on it.    In the words of Congressional Medal of Honor winner & Marine General Smedley Butler..'I belive in Protecting the borders & coastline and nothing else. War is a Racket'

The Hidden Story of the Americans that Finished the Vietnam War

Excerpts and adaptation:
The Soldier's Revolt
by Joel Geier

'Our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and noncommissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near-mutinous Conditions exist among American forces in Vietnam that have only been exceeded in this century by...the collapse of the Tsarist armies in 1916 and 1917.'

Fragging

The Murder of American officers by their troops was an openly proclaimed goal in Vietnam. As one GI newspaper demanded, "Don't desert. Go to Vietnam, and kill your commanding officer." And they did. A new slang term arose to celebrate the execution of officers: fragging. The word came from the fragmentation grenade, which was the weapon of choice because the evidence was destroyed in the act.

In every war, troops kill officers whose incompetence or recklessness threatens the lives of their men. But only in Vietnam did this become pervasive in combat situations and widespread in rear base camps. It was the most well-known aspect of the class struggle inside the army, directed not just at intolerable officers, but at "lifers" as a class. In the soldiers' revolt, it became accepted practice to paint political slogans on helmets. A popular helmet slogan summed up this mood: "Kill a non-com for Christ." Fragging was the ransom the ground troops extracted for being used as live bait.

No one knows how many officers were fragged, but after Tet it became epidemic. At least 800 to 1,000 fragging attempts using explosive devices were made. The army reported 126 fraggings in 1969, 271 in 1970 and 333 in 1971, when they stopped keeping count. But in that year, just in the American Division (of My Lai fame), one fragging per week took place. Some military estimates are that fraggings occurred at five times the official rate, while officers of the Judge Advocate General Corps believed that only 10 percent of fraggings were reported. These figures do not include officers who were shot in the back by their men and listed as wounded or killed in action.

Most fraggings resulted in injuries, although "word of the deaths of officers will bring cheers at troop movies or in bivouacs of certain units." The army admitted that it could not account for how 1,400 officers and noncommissioned officers died. This number, plus the official list of fragging deaths, has been accepted as the unacknowledged army estimate for officers killed by their men. It suggests that 20 to 25 percent--if not more--of all officers killed during the war were killed by enlisted men, not the "enemy." This figure has no precedent in the history of war.

Soldiers put Bounties on officers Targeted for Fragging. The money, usually between $100 and $1,000, was collected by subscription from among the enlisted men. It was a reward for the soldier who executed the collective decision. The highest bounty for an officer was $10,000, publicly offered by GI Says, a mimeographed bulletin put out in the 101st Airborne Division, for Col. W. Honeycutt, who had ordered the May 1969 attack on Hill 937.
 

 Wow, first time in the USA since King George, 111:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Nlq80DVpo&eurl=http://media.newsbusters.org/stories/obama-spokesman-says-obama-ready-rule-day-1.html?q=blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/11/1

I know I'm glad George Bush will soon be gone :-/

Current Government's liabilities

National Debt ($10.5 trillion)
Money borrowed and spent from Social Security ($12 trillion)
Toxic assets in the Fed's balance sheets ($2.2 trillion)
Underfunded federal pensions ($1 trillion)

Total = $26.5 Trillion in debt

Assets guaranteed by the Government's "full faith and credit " :

Bank deposits (6.5 trillion)
Freddie/Fannie debt (5 trillion)
Money market funds (3 trillion, 1 year)
Interbank lending (? trillion)
senior debt of all FDIC-insured institutions (1.5 trillion, 3 years)
pensions backstopped by PBGC (3+ trillion)

Total: = $19 trillion guaranteed (so far...)

Fed's balance sheet

The best example of the US government's complete loss of fiscal sanity is the financial horror story which is the fed's balance sheet. The chart below from Cumberland Advisors offers a visual depiction of the madness:


(Source: Federal Reserve Board of Governors Statistical Release H.4.1 Data through 11/5/08.)

Thanks for that, Ugly. Seems to leave out a fair bit liability-wise, but together with running a trillion-dollar deficit simultaneous with two wars, some nightmarish quicksand scenario! Bring back Bush or Republicans, Micky?

Micky (and Ugly), you mean: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Two things are infinite, Micky: ‘the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.’ (A.E.)  YouTube merely proves it? But where will you go next …

Vietnam grunts tossing grenades into officers’ tents under cover of night isn’t exactly a new revelation, Ugly.

Kalibeck said: "The very essence of the Nazi belief structure turning up on a German Shepherd dog board...horrific."

I can’t know what Kerschberger has in mind, but my thoughts centered on something pretty mild, Kalibeck and KTF – nothing remotely to do with any horrifying ‘racial purity’ or ‘perfect specimen’ Nazi nonsense! Only on the likelihood of some kind of stable background fit for raising kids - all too far-fetched anyhow! In the real work it couldn’t and wouldn’t work, and only end up being completely abused – George Orwell’s Big Brother gone mad!