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 Take for instance the recent ads being run that say how President Obama is owned by Wall Street, using outdated figures and downright untruths.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.
