Bailout Bonuses for Executives, Lower Limits, Higher Interest, & Closed Accounts for Customers

The government bailed out these big financial companies with American taxpayer’s money, and now, instead of extending loans to customers, they are instead cutting people’s credit limits down to their balances, doubling and tripling their interest, and closing their accounts, even when they are in good standing and have never been late on a payment. They probably can’t afford to provide service to their customers in part due to massive executive bonuses. The bailout should have been more specific about how the money was to be spent. The reason it wasn’t, I’m sure, is that the right people got paid off. It’s not a problem caused by just Democrats or just Republicans; it’s symptomatic of corporate influence over our elected officials through lobbying and other means.

Happy Tax Day / Tea Party Day: An MSNBC Video Tribute to Fox News and the TeaBaggers

TEA BAGGERS are SWALLOWING WHOLE the Fox News STAFF's SCHTICK

MSNBC’s David Schuster: If You’re Planning Tea Bagging Across The Country, ‘You’re Going To Need A Dick Armey’

This is pretty damned funny! He uses most, if not all, of the innuendo I’ve already heard floating around…

I took the liberty of transcribing it:

“For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15th will be Tax Day, but in our fourth story tonight it’s going to be TEA-BAGGING day for the right wing and they are going NUTS for it! Thousands of the WHIPPED OUT the festivities early this weekend and though the parties are officially TOOTHLESS, the protesters are FULL-THROATED about their goals. They wanna give President Obama strong TONGUE-LASHING and LICK government spending. Spending they did not oppose when they were under Presidents Bush and Reagan. They oppose Mr. Obama’s tax rates which will be lower for most of them, and they oppose the tax increases Mr. Obama is imposing on the rich, whose taxes will skyrocket to a rate that’s about 10% less than it was under Reagan. That’s TEA-BAGGING, in a NUTSHELL. Taking it’s inspiration from the Boston Tea Party when colonists tossed British tea into the sea because the tax on it had not been voted on by their duly elected representatives. That’s exactly the opposite, of course, of todays’ taxes, which is known in some quarters as ‘Taxation With Representation’. But as New York Times coumnist Paul Crudeman points out today, this time the TEA-BAGGING is not a SPONTANEOUS UPRISING, the people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, and former house majority leader Dick Armey, both of whom have FIRM support from right wing financiers and lobbyists, as well as Washington prostitute patron, Senator David Vitter who has issued statements in support of TEA-BAGGING, but is publicly type-left. Then, there was the media, specifically the Fox ‘News’ Channel, including Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Both are looking forward to an UP CLOSE and PERSONAL TASTE of TEA-BAGGING, themselves at events this Wednesday. But most amusing of all is Neil Cavuto, a member of the network’s executive committee. Neil’s online bio says he joined the network in July 1996, three months before the Fox News channel went on the air. Cavuto, defending his network’s promotion of TEA-BAGGING, said, quote ‘We are going to be right in the middle of these [TEA-BAGGERS], because at Fox we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March.’ Can we roll that footage, the footage of Fox News at the Million Man March, back in October of ’95? Of course the Million Man March occurred, as NewsHounds.org points out, almost a year before Fox News was on the air. We can only speculate why widespread TEA-BAGGING made Cavuto think of the Million Man March… Unless, he got them confused with DICK ARM[E]Y. And in Cavuto’s defense, if you are planning SIMULTANEOUS TEA-BAGGING around the country, you’re going to need a DICK ARMY!”

What David Schuster failed to include in his brilliant report, and what makes me fear for my country, much as Glenn Beck does (or pretends to), is that many of the NUT-JOBS that host and attend these NUT-FESTS to express their opinions in a (hopefully) peaceful manner, and to have a BALL (or two) with some good friends or like-minded strangers are the same people that believe, as many TEA-PARTY websites and flyer’s propose, in a “revolution”, and the same people who are buying conservative t-shirts that say “vote from the rooftops” (with pictures of sniper rifles), inferring that they wish to assassinate President Obama. I saw one conservative t-shirt for sale online that said “R.I.P. The American Dream, 1776-2008″. I thought a black man becoming the president was a pretty clear indicator that the American dream is alive and well. Perhaps these revolutionary TEA-BAGGERS who believe in “voting from the rooftops” (with sniper rifles) are racially motivated? I guess their American dream doesn’t include people who aren’t white. Or maybe it’s just jealousy? They are openly into TEA-BAGGING, so perhaps they are jealous, as black men are popularly known for having larger TEA-SPOUTS than they do…

I’m afraid that many of the TEA-BAGGERS attending the TEA-PARTIES today are lost souls, searching for a new direction, possibly a violent one. As Anderson Cooper said on CNN when describing why it’ been HARD for the Republicans to find their voice after the election, “it’s hard to talk when you’re TEA-BAGGING“

I’ve got to say, whoever created and has promoted this movement really made quite a snafu by not researching the social connotations of their terminology, but, I guess there’s no such thing as bad press. I just hope for the Republicans sake that they don’t, as I saw one guy comment on Glenn Beck’s 9-12 Project website “make up places to protest flag burning and call the Old GLORY HOLES“.

Keith Olbermann also did a funny segment about TEA-BAGGING, including some more good innuendo, including:

“SPILLING into the streets, CHOKING off traffic … pushed their own vision of TEA-BAGGING DOWN THE THROATS of the TEA-BAGGERS … SEMINAL moment … ONE LUMP OR TWO?”

And, for the enjoyment of those who are just becoming familiar with the sexual slang used for decades, and for the enlightenment of those who still don’t get it, I’ve included the following links to some definitions on Urban Dictionary:

TEA-BAGGER TEA-BAG TEA-BAGGING TEA PARTY

I Think We Should Abolish The Stock Market

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial analyst, consultant, banker, stock trader, economist, or any other type of expert when it comes to money.

I don’t have much money, so I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of the American economy, but I think I know what one of our biggest problems is: the stock market.

I think we should abolish the stock market.

Speculating on, buying, selling, and trading stocks, commodities, futures, and whatever else is legalized gambling.

I have nothing against gambling, so long as it is done responsibly, meaning that the gambler bets only what they can afford to lose and doesn’t borrow or steal to place or pay their bets.

The problem is, Wall Street is like a Las Vegas that’s legitimized by our political system.

The Federal Reserve Bank is just a bullying casino boss that gets it’s way, pressuring the United States government and therefore it’s people, into doing whatever best profits them.

The average stock holding citizen, that perhaps does a little light trading on the side, is not so much the problem. I’m not blaming our economic crisis on working people who are making a few investments in the stock marker on the side, although I think it’s most prudent if someone is going to do so that they put most of their money into other investments that aren’t so much like a roulette wheel.

The problem is the big players, like financial analyst firms and lending firms and banks that play little games with the money that their investors have in their companies. I suppose this is the way it has always been done, as the return on investments made by the institutions allows them to pay the interest on their customers’ investments in them. What seems to be one of the roots of our present predicament is that, as always seems to happen, people who do know a lot about money and how to move it around, explain away discrepancies, try to get to fancy, and basically play games with money, dribbling it in and out between their legs and behinds their backs like the Harlem Globetrotters do with basketballs, all in an effort to maximize short term gains for those involved, at the expense of the stability of the economy, and it ends up affecting everybody, except maybe for those who are actually playing, since they are usually wise enough to know that the magical bubble they are blowing so big is eventually, inevitably going to pop, and therefore they hide away a few million or billion into foreign bank accounts for the rainy day they are helping to ensure in the future.

I think the stock market is the most obvious example of how wealthy people gamble not only with their own money, but with the money and jobs of the everyday worker, who is too busy toiling away in obscurity to realize that their life savings or their retirement or their home mortgage or their kids’ college tuitions is about to be lost at the craps table by some guy in a remote tower in a distant city.

Speculating and trading stocks, commodities, futures, and whatever other things they have on Wall Street nowadays is just a bunch of rich guys playing a giant card game trying to trick each other into giving up the good cards and whomever ends up with the best hand walks away the winner while the rest of us leave the table broke.

We don’t need stocks. Companies don’t need to be publicly held or traded. The only people who benefit from such nonsense in a major way is the people who usually end up screwing everything up with their greed and cheating and lies.

If everybody just kept working and making and buying things, we’d be alright without stocks.

Things would be worth as much tomorrow as they are today and as they were yesterday.

Maybe it’s not as glamorous or exciting, but it’d be a hell of a lot more stable.

my response to some Conservative Capitalist propaganda

According to an article on a site called “Moonbattery”, which is either a blog dedicated to lunar energy, lunar abuse, or liberals (called moonbats by conservatives), under President Obama, whom they are calling “Chairman Zero” (which I must admit is a little clever, given his socialist speeches and his big O logo), some people who make more money are being taxed more than poor people who can barely afford to survive. These social Darwinists would rather the poor people just die out, with their children starving to death or freezing on the streets.

I quote the site, and link to the graph that they reference:

<BEGIN QUOTE>:

“Nation of Vampires … According to this graph, the terminal cancer that is liberalism has passed the tipping point:”

 

wealthy people pay more taxes than poor, boo-hoo!

…< END QUOTE >

I think that people who argue that wealthier people shouldn’t have to subsidize poorer people seem to forget that a great many of the wealthier people get wealthier by charging the poor ever more for goods and services, while paying them ever less for their labor.

If wealthy people get that way at the expense of the poor, why be so surprised when poor people elect officials who help to bring some of the money back their way?

Also, since it is the cheap labor and the expensive purchases and bills paid by the poor that make the rich richer and the poor poorer, I should think that it is in poor taste for the rich to complain about

giving a little back so that the poor can survive and have some quality of life. 

I guess when you get comfortable, financially, you lose human compassion and understanding for anybody who isn’t; I wouldn’t know…

I’ve never made over $25,000 a year for any of the hard work that I have done for my various wealthy employers, but I would gladly give up a third of my money in taxes if someone would pay me $100,000 or more, instead of making $15,000 and getting back a $5000 tax refund.

If any of you six figure making, higher tax bracket types out there want to switch incomes and tax brackets with me, so you don’t have to pay anything and get a refund, I’d be more than willing to consider moving into your fancy house and driving your fancy car to your easy job, and you can live in my small apartment and work crappy jobs as you can find them, driving around in an aging crappy car.

I think you would quickly realize that paying some of your wealth in taxes beats not having any, and learn not to complain about being taxed for enjoying the luxuries that so many live without.

I am constantly amazed at the way that Conservatives, especially Republicans, either can’t see how hypocritical their thoughts and words and actions are, or just don’t care!

The best example of this is their support of “bailing out” the corrupt and inefficient titans of industry, so that banking and auto CEOs can give themselves bonuses for losing and embezzling money, which is not free market capitalism, which they supposedly promote, but rather SOCIALISM and WELFARE for the rich. But when it comes to the working poor and middle classes from whom they stole the money and exploited the cheap labor and overcharged for goods and services, suddenly SOCIALISM and WELFARE are evil things that are supposed to make people think of totalitarian dictatorships.

Also, as long as we are describing different forms of government, it’s amazing to me that Conservative Republicans can call Obama and other liberal Democrats Socialists, but can’t face reality and admit that Bush and his administration were Fascists. If we are going to call a Socialist a Socialist, lets also call a Fascist a Fascist, despite any negative connotations the word may have, like invoking thoughts of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. Euphemistic language never did anyone any good. If there is to be an honest and productive dialog between the political extremes, each needs to accept it’s own true nature if it expects the other to.

“The people who say that money can’t buy you happiness are just the rich people trying to keep the poor from striving to get their money.” - Me

23% "Fair Tax" national sales tax proposed in congress to replace income taxes

Interesting. I hadn’t heard of this until this morning when I saw a Democratic congressman’s ad stating that his Republican opponent supported this initiative. I can’t tell yet whether I think it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I read good arguments for and against, in terms of how it would benefit the poor and middle class in some ways but the wealthy in others. Get more info @ FairTax & Wikipedia.

23% “Fair Tax” national sales tax proposed in congress to replace income taxes

Interesting. I hadn’t heard of this until this morning when I saw a Democratic congressman’s ad stating that his Republican opponent supported this initiative. I can’t tell yet whether I think it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I read good arguments for and against, in terms of how it would benefit the poor and middle class in some ways but the wealthy in others. Get more info @ FairTax & Wikipedia.