Wall Street 101 - You Will Love This One

I came across the most interesting information today, and frankly I found it shocking.  Sometimes if you take the time to sit back and connect the dots .... it downright scares the hell out of you.  Connecting the dots is what a lot of people don't want you to be able to do.  Thankfully, there are people out there who do it anyway, and the truth is, more of us should do it more often.

You know that old saying about pointing your finger at someone else means you still have three pointing back at you?  Sometimes its true.  Take for instance the recent ads being run that say how President Obama is owned by Wall Street, using outdated figures and downright untruths.  I could sit here and explain it all but its much easier to have you watch the "ad" and his is the truth from an independent (non-partisan) fact checking site.  This is just the end result of "how things got to be the way they are".  That is the pointing of the un-truthful finger. Now we can move on to the three fingers pointing back.

Finger #1:  For this one we have to go back to the Reagan administration and Reagan's appointment of Wendy Gramm (yep, the wife of Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas)) to the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commision).  Before leaving her position at the CFTC, Wendy Gramm created an exemption for Enron.  That exemption removed the governmental oversight of energy contracts.  She left the CFTC six days later, and five weeks later she went to work for ..... here it comes, people ..... Enron.  At a later date her husband, Phil Gramm introduced a bill called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which made that exemption law. Now, Mr. Gramm says he didn't write that part of the bill himself, but it is a really big coincidence to try and ignore.  After Wendy left the CFTC, Enron created approx. 2000 subsidiaries (692 in the Cayman Islands alone), many became offshore tax havens.  What does this have to do with the banks?  When Enron collapsed it was the banks that made out like fiends, Goldman Sachs being the bank that made the most money off of their demise.

Finger #2:  Yes, Obama has taken money from Wall Street, just like the GOP candidates, though not on the grand scale that they have.  Mitt Romney's top 6 contributors are Wall Street executives, and he has taken 12 times more money from them than Obama.  Rick Santorum's sugar daddy, Foster Friess ..... Wall Street.  At this point, Gingrich doesn't stand a chance.  Adelson says he has written his last check for Gingrich and he doesn't seem to have people clamoring to fund his "Hate Romney" campaign.  If you don't think the GOP is bought and paid for by Wall Street, ask yourselves why on March 7th House Republicans voted against funding the Wall Street watchdog agency in favor of giving more money to ..... the banks.  The banks who are giving out millions in bonuses.  For a bunch of people who complain about government spending, they really don't mind doing it themselves.

Finger #3:  When no one was looking, the banks decided to take it upon themselves to decide they no longer need to pay fees and file deeds with the clerks offices.  They took it upon themselves to say, "No, we aren't doing that anymore because it takes too much time".  They created their own system of filing the information under which they only paid nominal fees. They didn't bother to ask anyone if they could do this.  It was illegal.  If you want to know how the banks have been able to foreclose on people's homes when no one can locate the paperwork .... this is why.   In case you don't know why the banks paying these fees to the clerk's offices is important, they fund education in the majority of states with this money.  Due to their illegal behavior they have shorted one county in Texas $100M in education funding.  How much education do you think that $100M paid for in one small county?  Do we really need to wonder why education funding is such a problem?

It doesn't surprise many that this was going on, though they didn't know about it.  They take it in stride, and THAT is a problem.  If we as Americans are not going to pay attention, stuff like this will continue to go on with few knowing about it.  It is our inattention that has allowed it to happen and creates an atmosphere where it persists.  If you think that this costs you on a daily basis, then you will be due for a rude awakening someday when you least expect it.  If you think democracy reigns in the United States, you would be wrong. All parties are responsible for this.  If we don't wake up as a society, and hold people accountable, how long do you think it will take for them to finally grind this country into the ground?  They are well on their way.

The Truth About the XL Pipeline

Wouldn't it be great if the XL Pipeline could be a magical cure all?  One that would put thousands of people back to work?  One that would return gas prices to $2.50 per gallon?  One that would magically return our economy back to its former prosperous state?  Yeah, well, snap out of that little fantasy people, this is no fairy tale.

Yes, the construction of the pipeline will employ thousands of people .... short term. Once the pipeline is built, which won't take long, all those people will go back to being unemployed.  A few will be retained for maintenance of the pipeline.  Yes, those people employed for awhile helps, but not like the politicians and oil companies would like you to believe.  That pipeline would basically be built in order for the oil companies to move the oil down to the Gulf of Mexico, where it can be exported to other countries for a tax free profit.  Don't kid yourself into thinking that the money from those profits will be fed back into our economy.  bp (British Petroleum) is based in Great Britain and the Royal Dutch Shell is based in Holland.  The majority of that money will not be staying in the US.


Contrary to what the GOP's presidential candidates would like you to believe, President Obama cannot just lower gas prices. They know that, but they count on you NOT knowing it.  The oil companies and speculators are the ones who are manipulating the gas prices.  How do we know that?  They are doing exactly what they did in 2008.  There's just a little more to it this time.  At this point in time, we are pumping more gas out of the ground than ever before.  We are also consuming less gas than we were in 2008.  That means there should be plenty of gas laying around, right? Wrong. The oil companies export the majority of what they drill in the states to other countries.  The reason our gas prices are going up so much right now, isn't because of the dozens of reasons the politicians and oil companies are handing you.  It is because the oil companies ere thumbing their nose at President because he wouldn't sign on for the pipeline.  They are currently exporting more oil than usual in order to drive up the gas prices.  It makes for more record profits and they get you to be mad at President Obama, for something they are causing.


We already have pipelines bringing the oil into the States from Canada. That oil gets piped to Indiana and a few other states where it is refined before exporting.  All this oil coming into this country is NOT for US to use, it is for exporting by the oil companies.  That makes the oil companies richer and doesn't do much of anything for our economy.  So, the next time someone tries to tell you that President Obama is hurting our country by not signing up for the pipeline, tell them to quit blowing smoke up your ass, and educate them. 

Why Hoosiers Should Be Glad The XL Pipelline Has Not Been Approved

All the talk about the XL Pipeline got me to wondering, was the BP refinery in Whiting, IN still going to process the oil sands?  All the talk seemed to center around the pipeline sending the crude to the Texas refineries, but I saw no mention of Whiting.  Since our buddy Mitch Daniels, gave BP permission to increase emissions beyond the standards a few years back, I wanted to know.  Remember when we had all the environmentalist around on that one?  Well, guess what?  They will still be refining that crap here in Indiana.


Why should you be concerned?  Two reasons, the bp refinery sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, and with refining those tar sands come 'tailing ponds'.  'Tailing ponds' are the ponds of toxic slurry that are left behind when the use steam underground to liquefy the bitumen, which is what they are going to process.  Bitumen is full of impurities like sulfur and heavy metals.  Do you see where I am headed here?  Toxic ponds .... in close proximity to Lake Michigan.  If you don't remember what you learned in school as a kid, the Great Lakes are the largest area of fresh water, in the world.  Not just the United States, the WORLD.  Lake Michigan, where ten communities in four states get their drinking water.  Those ten communities then sell rights to other communities to pump that same water.  Oh, and don't forget the salmon fisheries in Lake Michigan, and its where local restaurants get their perch.  


Funny thing is, bp could build a small waste processing plant on site to deal with this toxic mess, but our buddy Mitch told them they didn't have to since they claimed to be short on funds and space for it.  Instead they only have to build a diffuser that churns the waste into Lake Michigan water.  Doesn't that make you want to go to the beach?  If you go to Google maps and look at a satellite image of the bp plant, out in the water you can see where waste is released into the water.  I think its about a mile out into the water.  You can't miss it, it changes the color of the water.  If all of that wasn't bad enough, you might want to know that processing the tar sands increases mercury emissions into the air, by 400%.  If it happens to rain, then that, too, will fall into Lake Michigan.


You might find it reassuring to know that if bp violates the EPA standards (and they will), they will fight the fines in court for awhile, but they will eventually pay them.   For some reason, they have a consistently nasty habit of doing that, thinking they won't get caught. When they get the crude to the refineries in the Gulf where most of the refineries are in a Foreign Trade Zone, they won't have to pay taxes when they export it internationally, so they should have plenty of money. Over a three year period they paid more in fines, death related payouts and judge ordered upgrades than it would have cost them to follow the law and upgrade their plants on their own when they knew they had a nasty habit of exploding.  Fifteen more of their employees would be alive today if they had.


If I know a lot of geeky stuff about this, its because I spent a month doing research on EPA records for a group of environmental activists in California when this first became an issue a few years ago.  Another thing I researched while I was at it, was bp's record of violations, fines, worker deaths and accidents.  As you can tell, bp holds a special place in my heart.


Tony Hayward, if you are out there somewhere, I would say that I'm sorry if all those people showed up on your front lawn, except I would be lying.  It took me two weeks to track down your address.

Christmas 2011 Is GONE

I spent today taking down Christmas and packing it in boxes.  Normally that would mean wrapping each ornament in its own piece of tissue paper.  I simply could not do that again.  I know some of that tissue paper is as old as I am.  That's some forty-seven year old tissue paper whose time has come, to go to tissue paper heaven.  It had to be done.

I could see my mom cringing at the way i was sorting and putting things in new packages, and wishing I had just done things as they have always been done.  There are a lot of things worth being traditional about, tissue paper is not one of them.  I know if she could have gotten up out of that chair, she would have and chased me as I ran around the house with her forty-seven year old tissue paper.  For the record, the Christmas memories you have accumulated over the years are not in the tissue paper.

You ever done the job of taking down all the decorations with your parent watching and they sit there and try to direct you?    "You missed one", "No I didn't, I am taking down all of one size at a time".  "There is a hook on the floor", "No, there are several hooks on the floor, I am accumulating them there.  Maybe we should get your eyes checked."  After a while I just gave her the look when she tried to direct, and she gave me the look back.  The same look her mother used to give.  I was just waiting for the, "Oh, horrors" (when I was a kid I thought it was, "Oh, whores".) that went along with it.  In the end, she saw and appreciated the logic of it all.  

Politics in 2012

It's 12:08 am here in Indiana.  You would think this would be a pretty quiet place considering there are only 30K people in our town, but there are guns and fireworks going on all over the place and the new dog is climbing the walls.  Literally.

I'm hoping this year is better than last year, for everyone's sake.  Here in the States, I think we all should be able to line Congress up against a wall, walk down the line and smack them all in the head and ask them, "What the hell were you thinking?."  

Note to Democrats:  If you don't stop sitting on your hands like scared little boys and girls, and back your President like you are supposed to, there are a whole lot of people out here who are fed up with it and we will make damn sure you don't get re-elected.  

Note to Republicans:  We are not nearly as stupid as you think we are, and if you paid attention BEFORE you started going after Occupy Wall Street people, you would have noticed that plenty of your own people are out there.  People with jobs standing up for those who don't, people with college degrees who can't get jobs, and people who are fed up with the greed and criminal behavior of Wall Street and the big banks.  You are right to be scared of them, you should be very scared, because we are all coming after your asses.  Not just for all the stupid stunts you have pulled this year, but because you have made the whole country look bad.  A lot of us don't have much tolerance for stupid people.

NOTE TO REPUBLICAN SUPPORTERS:  Unless you are part of the 1% or damn near close to it,  your leaders are leading you astray.  They have convinced you that it is a good idea to vote against your own economic best interest.  They won't tell you that, but that's what they are doing and they are laughing behind your back because you don't see it.  They are telling you the same things they have always have to keep you in their pocket.  They will tell you that the 2nd Amendment is in jeopardy, but its not.  I'm as much for that one as you are, we might want to raise up against our government if one of your guys makes it into office and you see what they are really about.  They are scaring you by telling you that Obama is trying to take away your religion, but he's not.  Think about it people!  You are the one who decides what your religion is to you, no one can take that from you.  The Republicans tell that to you, because they know that is one of the most important things to you.  Is calling Christmas a holiday REALLY going to change how or what you celebrate?  No.  It does however make people of other religions feel included in that time of year, because most religions have a holiday around the same time.  Does that really threaten you?  If it does, then where is your faith?  Is it really as strong as you say it is if you let something that includes people instead of dividing them, make you feel threatened?  I understand your views on gays and abortion, I don't agree with them, but does it make it right for you to force your beliefs on other people?  God gave us all free will to choose as we wanted, you may not like what some people choose, but that is for them to answer for if and when the time comes, not you.  Jesus didn't force his beliefs on anyone, and neither should you.  Quit letting the hypocrites dictate to you how you should vote.  Until the lot of them can get their own lives and depravities under control, they really shouldn't be advising anyone.  Keeping yourselves from forcing your beliefs on people is as much a test of your faith as referring to Christmas as Holiday.  When you hear all these politicians using God to help further their cause, just remember what happened to the moneymakers in the temple.  Another thing you might want to consider when your leaders start talking about the EPA and reducing the number of regulations.  Just how happy do you think God is at seeing the Earth and all he created, destroyed for the sake of money.

To all the big corporations out there:  As Peter Gabriel so fondly said, "The eyes of the world are watching now", and you would do well to pay attention to that.  You would have done well to have the Republicans leave the EPA regulations alone, because now everyone realizes that there weren't enough people to enforce them, so you weren't adhering to them anyway.  Brilliant move on your part.  And, especially to bp, its pretty bad when your own country won't allow you to operate plants there anymore.  You can run all the commercials in the world to promote tourism and pat yourself on the back in the Gulf, you are still making messes all over the damn place, and we all know it.  If we put money into hiring a bunch of EPA enforcers (omg, that creates jobs) and had them enforce the regulations we have on the companies who have not been adhering to them, we could probably afford to let that 1% keep their tax break.  They would need it because we would be taking the money from their companies, which hurts most of them more anyway.

Note to Wall Street:  I really don't know how so many arrogant stupid people have have managed to be so lucky up to this point.  Sorry to tell you, but that luck will start running out.  The mess you have made playing with derivatives is catching up to you.  People who put money into their pensions and thought they were safe, but lost them due to your arrogant stupidity, are kind of pissed off.  You see, they EARNED their money, they didn't steal it like you did, and they want it back.  So, hold your, "WE ARE THE 1%" signs up while you can.  I think your chances of being there in the next few years are going to be pretty slim.  Maybe then it will hit home what you have done to the 99%, because you will be one of them.

Note to the big banks:  You are the dumbest people I have ever seen.  You took the bailout money, which you could have used properly to make yourselves come out looking like heroes, and instead used it to expose you arrogance, greed and criminal behavior.  Fannie and Freddie did not make the housing mess, you did.  No one forced you to give loans to people who could not afford them, all they said was that you could not refuse to give people loans based on their location alone.  YOU chose to give out loans to people you knew could not afford them, because you could just foreclose on them if they couldn't keep up with the payments.  Most of those people were first time home owners wanting a piece of the American dream and you told them they could afford it, when you knew they couldn't.  You say they knew what they were doing, but we all know they didn't.  You can say it was all there in writing  and they could have read it before they signed, but a whole lot of people sign those papers without really understanding them.  When you got the bailout money, instead of using it to give out loans to small businesses who could afford them, as you were intended to do, you just bought up the smaller banks and cried that you had to follow the rules and keep a certain amount of money in the banks.  How gracious of you to finally follow a rule.  You think you have made it through it all free and easy, but just remember, once Obama is elected to a 2nd term, he doesn't really have to care what people like.  He can't get a third term, so he can start prosecuting the hell out of each and every one of you, as he should.  Hope that works out well for you.  And, especially for Goldman Sachs, I hope every country whose economy you have screwed up makes sure you don't do business in their country again, and prosecute you wherever they can.  It couldn't happen to a nicer group of people and I would like the rest of the world to get some justice where you are concerned.

Note to President Obama:  Dude, you know I love you, but you have made some mistakes.  You kept people on your staff who wouldn't listen to you, much longer than you should have.  I know you have started cleaning house, but I think you probably have a few more to weed out.  I know this first term has really sucked for you.  Who would have thought that the Republicans would rather take the country down into a deep, dark hole and embarrass us in front of the world, rather than let you accomplish what you set out to do.  And they call themselves patriots.  They don't know the meaning of the word.  You have given into them a few times too many, but I understand you had to do certain things that went against the grain in order to have an easier time getting re-elected this next time.  Just promise me that when you get the second term, you'll take the gloves off and give as good as you get.  With OWS scaring the hell out of the Republicans, they are making stupid mistakes and will make more and bigger mistakes once OWS can come back full force in the spring, when the weather warms up.  Let OWS do what they do best, let the AG do his job with the voter suppression that is running rampant, let your volunteers do what they did last time, and you just focus on sticking to your guns on policy.  It might get to be a little tough out there, but we will get you through.