As I type, a bank robbery is going on at a Chase Bank in Dallas, Texas. Why wouldn’t there be bank robberies? Why wouldn’t there be piracy on the high seas? One bad apple spoils the whole bunch, yes? Yes. And one bad banker spoils the whole deal.
I’ll say this for bad old-fashioned Pirates — they wore cool costumes while they raped and pillaged. Today’s pirates are so ragtag. Still, I am sick to death of The Suit. Emerging Market in makeovers of Antagonists!
Arizona police are asking for permission to buy, carry and use their own semi-automatic weapons on the job. A drunken mother of three died in a holding cell in the Phoenix airport. A young man was sodomized with a night stick by a band of rogue policemen in a Brooklyn subway station.
Nuthin’ says Economic Stimulus like U.S. troops deployed on U.S. soil, eh? You betcha, Smart Money is ALWAYS lookin’ to invest in areas with military roadblocks.
Come to think of it, maybe Halliburton can come up with some investment dollars. I can’t think of any recipient of government largesse that better deserves or can better afford to hold some of the toxic assets. It’d be the patriotic thing to do.
Again and again, I would draw the American taxpayers’ attention to the perversity. Henry Paulson demanded $700 billion. The House said NO. Paulson came back asking for $850 billion, featuring $150 billion of earmarks for reluctant legislators, and the bailout passed — on the preposterous theory that more spending will correct overspending.
Detroit came asking for $25 billion. The Senate said NO. Detroit came back asking for $34 billion. The Senate said NO. George Bush says they’ll get the money anyway, $40 billion . . . we’ll FIND it. One way or another, by hook or by crook.
All so we can make cars we can’t afford, fiscally or environmentally, to perpetuate a paradigm that is wasteful and inefficient. Also so all the people who clamored for Change will not have to feel the cost of Change, absence of a reality base being what got us into this mess.
The Royal We flat-out REFUSES to be bold and innovative — refuses even to ALLOW bold innovation — if it will erode the profits and market shares of heartless, soul-less Ruling Elite whose greed literally knows no bounds.
Who died and said that Record Profits are desirable? In my view, considering that life is short and you can’t take it with you, sustained record profits are to be viewed with greatest skepticism and the associated profiteer with greatest suspicion.
Until the profiteers and sociopaths are made to suffer consequences for their duplicity, underhandedness, graft et al, it is ridiculous to think they will alter their behavior. They are making money and enjoying privileged lifestyles doing things exactly the way they’re doing them. What is their motivation to change? So we will LIKE them better?
It would be so helpful to the cause of Reform — critical to restoration of worldwide confidence in the American marketplace — if American voters would disabuse themselves of the fanciful notion that Government Officials care about them. Believing in Santa Claus makes more sense.