Saturday, January 19, 2008

Economic Tsunami: A Perfect Storm Threatens US Economy

Highly leveraged US expansion, growth and empire are about to be swept away like a bamboo hut. As China leads the world in dumping dollars, the US appears to have exhausted the means by which it can continue to leverage or finance expansion and imperialism.

Bush could not have picked a worse time to ratchet up his anti-Iran rhetoric. China's disenchantment with US dollars is a reaction to Bush's bellicose rhetoric. Iran's strategic position was recognized by Alexander the Great, significantly the last "conqueror" to have successfully invaded from the west.

As this blog reported recently, Bush promised that the US would join an Israeli nuclear strike on Iran. It is impossible to tell if the US rhetoric is in response to Iranian threats to dump dollars or Iran's response to Bush's promise to join an Israeli nuclear strike on Iran. The GOP seems unconcerned as Bush's big mouth continues to make the rest of world jittery.

Bush believes that a nuclear war can be won! A nuclear war of any size will most certainly trigger a wave of cascading chaos that respects no borders. Already, Russia has warned that an attack on Iran will be considered an attack on Russia and a Chinese sub recently popped up undetected in the midst of the US Fifth Fleet. As this blog reported several months ago, China has the ability to put a nuclear sub off the US east coast undetected!

We were warned. In 2005, Treasury Secretary John Snow acknowledged economic growth was limited to a small percentage of Americans. Bush's base? Some things never change. Only a tiny elite experienced what they alone have dubbed the Reagan prosperity. A "prosperity" so limited is not prosperity; it is merely a redistribution of dwindling wealth. If poorer folk lost ground, to whom did wealth trickle? The GOP knows that what it says about economics is wrong. They will say whatever they think they can get you to believe.

A statutory debt limit of $8.184 trillion was reached in mid-February of 2005. The total collapse of the US economy was averted but only because no other country wished to be sucked into the US black hole. The dollar actually retained some value amid fears of a worldwide economic catastrophe.

China had been propping up the dollar so that US consumers could continue buying cheap Chinese crap, primarily via WalMart and other monstrous legacies of Globalization. At the time, US debt was some $8.162 trillion dollars and has only gotten bigger. US credit abroad is strained to breaking or broke. The US credit crisis trickles down to bond markets world wide. No country is too small to remain unaffected. Investors in New Zealand, for example, have this month complained that their interest payments have been suspended, the result of fall-out from the US credit crisis. It would appear that there is no where to run, no where to hide.

Moody's reports that "spending" threatens US ratings. Nevermind --Bush will simply balance the books upon the backs of those who can least afford it. Social Security recipients! The issue points up the endemic, perhaps genetic inability of GOP-types to think clearly. GOP profligacy will most certainly break Social Security but the GOP, as are their wont, will blame Social Security. The real culprit is, of course, the Pentagon, a fatted cow regularly milked by the sycophantic defense contractors who fight to suckle the Pentagon teat!

There is nothing wrong with Social Security, but the GOP can be depended upon to break it. Social Security is, in fact, government's only success. It turns a profit, called by critics a "liability". Of course it's a liability by definition because it is money owed to those who paid into it! Elementary accounting! Leave it to a gopper to turn a plus into a negative. Leave it to a gopper to demonize the government's only success story.

As evidence of an imminent collapse, FEMA can be counted on to activate a vast web of concentration camps complete with armed military personnel to keep the "vast unwashed" non-GOP throng in line. These concentration camps look quite a lot like Gitmo or the corporate prisons in Bush's Texas. They are intended to "manage" the population of US citizens in the event of a "terrorist" attack which the GOP can be counted on to manufacture and exploit. That such plans exist is a verifiable fact. Check out: Operation Northwoods , the Pentagon's seditious, treasonous plan to blow up a ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame a civilian uprising, large-scale dissent, or an insurrection against the government.

Meanwhile, The Patriot Act has made a terrorist of anyone who dares to disagree with Bush's imperious and illogical definitions of everything. The US Senate has conspired with the criminal Bush to ban habeas corpus, a move necessary to populate a gulag of Bushco concentration camps. The congress gave Bush sole authority to declare martial law and suspend habeas corpus. This heinous, venal and illegitimate administration will simply ignore the Posse Comitatus Act to enforce its decrees with military force.
In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States.

The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

-- Bush Moves Toward Martial Law, Frank Morales, Information Liberation

The US economy is broken and faces imminent and total collapse. The US is bankrupt --morally and financially. Given the eventual and horrible outcomes, it is hard not to conclude that Bush and his co-conspirators deliberately embarked upon a program of profligate spending and wars of naked aggression in order to bring about this result.
Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, ampaign-finance reform, the environment and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident. The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups.

--GOP Evil Bastards

Well, perhaps I was not the first to call the GOP what it is. For years, I have warned that the GOP is not a political party; it is a criminal conspiracy, a crime syndicate, for which there is probable cause to imprison its entire leadership.

I am reminded of New Orleans. Normal people looked at New Orleans and saw a humanitarian disaster about which this government did not give a shit! Bush and the GOP, however, looked at the flood waters covering venerable old neighborhoods and saw a new Disneyland which would rise up above the waves! God Bless the Child that's got his own, but may God damn the gopper who exploits a tragedy for personal and party gain! How many, I wonder, have felt betrayed by the country they loved?


26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ol' Bushie the Deserter believes that a nuclear war can be fought and won eh?
Perhaps we shall soon find out the answer to the question.

Unknown said...

Anonymous, thanks for your comment. Respectfully, we don't really want to know. See my article at Bush Think: A Nuclear War Can be Fought and Won!

Anonymous said...

As you slam the GOP, and as you should, you overlook one current candidate in the GOP who consistently votes against his party, voting against preemptive wars, against the Patriot Act, and who has been warning about the coming economic collapse for years: RON PAUL. Meanwhile, just what have the democrats done for us the past couple of years? NOTHING. One can't slip a penny between the two parties anymore.

Anonymous said...

I expect this year to be the most exciting year of my life. Unfortunately, I don't expect that to be in a good way.

Is no one noticing that China and Russia are gradually ratchetting up the rhetoric? So, while the "serious people" in America are telling all the "alarmists" to shut up, and while leading "progressive" candidate is a big fan of warmonger Reagan, of all things, the "serious people" in China and Russia seem to be getting pretty serious about war.

Maybe we should worry a little?

Unknown said...

Lois, thanks for your comment but we will have to respectfully disagree on this one. Ron Paul's economic policies are regressive and will result in even greater income inequalities than those experienced by the back=to=back Reagan/Bush/Bush debacles.

Check the Census Bureau. There was during Clinton's second term, a brief reversal of that pernicious trend. In other words, for a brief period, the poor were actually making gains. The GOP would not have it. We know that the GOP tried to impeach Clinton for allegedly lying about something that was not even a crime!

The GOP hated Clinton because he had actually reversed the economic harm that had been done by 12 years of Reagan/Bush incompetence and sell outs to special interests etc.

Clinton is lucky not to have been assassinated --the usual fate of liberals, minority leaders, and key Senate opposition.

Ron Paul is a one trick pony. Economics is NOT his trick. It's his weakest point.

Mere opposition to the war and the Patriot Act is not enough to recommend him. Those acts are so pernicious that we, the people, should have expected EVERYONE to oppose them. We were betrayed!

In normal times, when statesmen actually walked the earth, neither act would have gotten out of committee. Alas! We live in an age when criminals and idiots have power. Paul only looks good by comparison.

Unknown said...

Put another way: support of the Patriot Act, the war resolution, the Patriot Act, is sufficient to command our opposition. But opposition to those acts is not, in itself, sufficient to command our support. Sorry, Paul. But John Edwards is more nearly correct on these issues.

Unknown said...

workshop said...

I expect this year to be the most exciting year of my life. Unfortunately, I don't expect that to be in a good way.

The Chinese saying "May you live in interesting times" is not a blessing! It's a curse! We have been cursed. Like you, I worry a lot. I am not so fatalistic that I will not try to make my opposition heard. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother to blog. There is always the chance that a spontaneous groundswell of opposition will sweep this illegitimate insurgency out of power and into the sewers where it belongs. Power to the people!

Anonymous said...

A nuclear war can be won, if you're a cockroach, or a sea cucumber.

The mixed metphor of an Economic Tsunami is wrong.

It's going to be very much more like an aggressive and persistent Philipino Mud Volcano.

And I've read endless columns about how many dollars China has, which if anyone could count, is far less than a thousand per capita, little more than a rainy day fund for the Chinese, most of whom would topple their own impossibly corrupt government for less than $20.

The only currency worth anything, even in its massively debased valuation, is the dollar.

All of Europe was bombed back into the Stone Age a little more than sixty years ago and China has been busy since convulsing in another one of their recurrent violent revolutions.

If these beacons of stability are somewhere to hoard your wealth, it's news to me.

The Bush-hole we're experiencing right now has given the country a new measure of vileness.

But rest assured, this is nothing new.

My advice here come from five decades of watching this country burn like an unregulated dump.

There is simply NO doubt in my mind. Given the current field of up-and-runners, as with EVERY president, the next one will be worse than the current one.

This should be something to write home about.

There is no such thing as progress, unless you see Caligula as a progressive politician of the Roman era.

I am a moral philosopher.

And as such, it is a duty of mine to report, morality has made a big comeback in recent years, if it hasn't filtered into the main stream of the media.

But, you can have it here:

The moral imperative of life is to live a life that detracts not at all from the lives available to those who will follow us into this world.

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher

kelley b. said...

Chaos is the plan, Len. It's like Bu$hie's plan for an economic stimulus. $145 Billion of investment tax cuts for his ba$e.

He seriously thinks if he can keep his base satisfied, he can ride out this, as he rode out the recession of 2001. His base were not touched then. There was no recovery for anyone making less than $100,000 a year, but with the War on Terror, the War on Iraq, and a complicit mass media, who noticed? That counted?

More than this, as with any other disaster during this administration, the Company views the economic ruin presently building around us as a chance to profit.

World War will be the capstone.

The people who know what a nuclear war can do are not part of the ba$e.

The base, those who really run the Company, think if they're not at ground zero, it's only the grunts and the serfs who'll suffer.

The rules of the game are about to seriously change, as they seldom have in history.

The Ba$e is about to find they really do live in the same world we all do.

Unknown said...

Don, your comments are well-taken but I have to pick a nit: any currency is only worth what people are willing to exchange for it. That the dollar is going down, down is proof enough that the dollar is worth less if not worthless. At last --this is more than a mere monetary problem. It's political. This is pay back. Iran's problem with Iran is NOT nukes. That's a cover story. The problem is Iran has dared to trade oil for Euros in its own bourse. This is a threat to the economic hegemony of Bush's oil robber barons. As the US no longer produces oil, the US can be left completely out of the loop. Who needs us? Who needs the dollar? America has just joined the third world.

Kelly, most of the people who truly knew what nuclear war was like knew it for less than a second and then they were dead!

Anonymous said...

Love the chatter amidst the chaos,.. Are you fellow US A-holes going to do anything about your leaders before they continue in their best efforts to de-rail our planet,.. Blah Blah Blah,. i love blogging you say,.. oooh the eternal optimist,.. While the world pines around you for better days where security was a dream,.. You's are the ones allowing this to happen,.. As for a "Spontaneous Groundswell of opposition",.. ha ha,.. You Yankees are a funny lot,.. Barbie is a consumer whore, get it!? And now you're expecting her to change her tune,... Go back to sleep America,. Your's is a country that was born to ail us all so,.. Why don't you f...king Nuke yourselves,.. In fact instead of blogging today, why don't you actually Groundswell or something,.. Like something.. actually something,.. We've been watching you bloggg since 2000,.. oooh,. aaaahh,... Yabba Yabba,... Shut up and do something you forking Morons,.!!!

Unknown said...

anonymous, we would take you seriously if you learned how to write complete sentences in any language.

Anonymous said...

Len
You say that Pauls economic views are regressive, but in listening to his reasoning he appears (to me anyway) to have an intimate understanding of the all the history that has brought us to the brink of the cliff we hang over today. His proposed changes strike at key points in the structure of this house of cards that has been built on the good natured backs of the American people.
He want to abolish the IRS. Ok by me.... there was no income tax before WW2... my understanding is that it was passed through the legislature under the cover of being a "temporary tax" to help war recovery efforts. Blinded by national patriotism they were quick to accept this "temporary" burden for the national good. Fools they were to think that the bureaucracy would ever allow the repeal of such an income stream.

He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and reestablish a money system not backed up by hot air and green ink on fancy paper. Is there a downside to that? It seems to me that the turning over of our money system to a private banking cartel was a pivotal turning point in the system that has now developed.

He wants to take the good advice of the wise men that framed our Constitution and not meddle in foreign affairs, but do business with all countries equally. My opinion from numerous years of observations is that our military has been used as a corporate tool for resource control and collection since its inception. It was specifically stated in the original constitution that there would be no standing army, they knew it was an enormous expense to the public. Can we disband the military? Of course not, but we can use it for its original purpose of the defense of the USA and not the defense of corporations operating in unstable regions. I might be old fashioned here but it's my belief that if you do fair and honest business with other people you make a lot less enemies than through exploitation and abuse of power. In economic terms we have kept the price of resources and goods artificially depressed on a local level and artificially inflated on wall street for the profit of stock holders for decades now. The system feeds itself until it can no longer sustain growth then it must either collapse or find a way to exploit more resources (or labor) to make a profit gain.

But I digress in my coffee fueled tirade...

Any one of these proposed changes would be extremely upsetting to the current system and large numbers of (gasp) tax funded government jobs would be eliminated in the shakeup,and down-sizing, but I think a shakeup is what this country needs. We have seen the outcome of the previous changes to our economic system made by those who profited most from them.

Perhaps some regressive policy is what we need.

Blog on friend

Unknown said...

Kilroy said...

I've met Ron Paul and, with the exception of his economics, he seems to be a reasonable, articulate person. Unlike most Republicans I've met and/or interviewed, I didn't have to avoid stepping on molted scales. Unlike almost every other Republican with whom I've had any one to one experience, Paul seemed to be a decent human being. Most Republicans know that their policy is bullshit but espouse it anyway because they know that they and their constituencies will benefit. They also know that they have to lie about their policies in order to get them put into effect.

You say that Pauls economic views are regressive, but in listening to his reasoning he appears (to me anyway) to have an intimate understanding of the all the history that has brought us to the brink of the cliff we hang over today.

Paul himself probably doesn't realize that his policies are regressive but they are. He proposes to abolish the income tax and replace it with a flat sales tax. Any flat tax --if only one percent --is regressive in that working folk will always be paying a higher percentage of their incomes than those with higher incomes. For example, if my income is 100,000 and I wish to buy a modest car priced at 20,000 dollars I will pay that plus the national sales of --say --10 percent for a total of 22,000 --Almost a full quarter of my total annual income. Just assume that someone earning a cool million per year might want to buy the same 20,000 dollar clunker. That purchase represents but about .022 of his total income. Bush's multi-billionaires will buy their own airline, they will, presumably, pay the same national sales tax, by that time so small that it approaches an infinitesimal. Like the Bush/Reagan billionaires now, Paul's new breed of multi-billionaires will simply live free! They will practically share no responsibility for the maintenance of the state.

He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and reestablish a money system not backed up by hot air and green ink on fancy paper. Is there a downside to that? I

Indeed, there is! It's a fantasy. Already, there appears to be a run on the dollar. But if Paul tried to put the US back on the gold standard --hold on to your butt! The US economy would simply disappear into an economic black hole. As for the Fed --clearly an alternative must be considered. But Paul's ham fisted approach would create more problem and hasten the end of the US economy, which is, in fact, highly leverage. Even banks are reluctant to foreclose on homes. That's not how they make money. They would rather get that check every month.

My opinion from numerous years of observations is that our military has been used as a corporate tool for resource control and collection since its inception.

Indeed! My position on that point is even stronger than Paul's. I believe US imperialism represents a complete sell out to the MIC, comparable to the Praetorian Guard auctioning off the Roman Empire to Didius Julianus for the sum of some 6,200 Drachmas. That, by the way, is GREEK currency. That leads me to believe that the Roman system had already collapsed; the smart money had already dumped the ass and the sestercius, like smart money nows seems to be dumping the dollar.

Thanks for the post, kilroy and you can rest assured that I will keep on keepin' on.

Anonymous said...

Hello again Len,
You said, "He proposes to abolish the income tax and replace it with a flat sales tax." In the video clip at the top of this page
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/debt-and-taxes/

Paul says he wants to repeal the income tax completely and is not very interested in replacing it.

I mistakenly quoted the date for the beginning of income tax as after WW2 it was 1913... so just in time to finance WW1.

If memory serves me any better on my understanding of early American history, I believe the original taxing scheme was to tax only businesses. There's a certain logic and wisdom in that. Its the original trickle-down economic theory, except turned upside down. This way when the people are prosperous they spend money, making the businesses money, who then pay taxes to the govt for the privilege of doing business with the American people. Rather than 80's style trickle-down with the people at the bottom, hoping some scraps are left over after the government props up businesses.
Government always was and always will be a protection racket, but ours was originally set up to protect the people first and the businesses second.

I find it disturbing that the original wording in the constitution was completely reversed on this important matter.

Original being, "
No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken."

Ammended to, "
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. "

All those names next to John Hancock's were men that lived with a financially oppressive government and thought long and hard about what had brought them to that point, and what they could do to make sure it didn't happen here again. Its unfortunate that we have allowed their wisdom and efforts to be dismissed by those who seek to profit from the people once again.

Best regards,
Kilroy

Unknown said...

Kilroy said...

Paul says he wants to repeal the income tax completely and is not very interested in replacing it.

If Paul abolishes the income tax, he will have to replace it with something. Paul has long favored a national sales tax. But, as I've said, it is regressive in nature.

I believe the original taxing scheme was to tax only businesses.

That may be the case and is all well and good. But --as far as I know, Paul has not advocated anything resembling that. With GOP control of the government since 1980, business seems to be the only thing NOT taxed by government.

Down with the GOP. UP with people!

Government always was and always will be a protection racket, but ours was originally set up to protect the people first and the businesses second.

I agree --the government as it has become under GOP "leadership" is nothing less than a shake-down scheme. Business gets special treatment and, in many cases, pays no tax at all.

Article 1, Sections 8,9,10 have to do with taxes. There is no prohibition in there against a tax on income. However, the Sixteenth Amendment authorizes an income tax:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

No one likes paying income tax but, I can assure you, no one will like a flat sales tax when it becomes clear to them that --once again --the rich will pay less and less as a percentage of income as they earn more and more because of it. THAT is MY definition of financial oppression. Paul's proposals will only make it worse than it already is.

Historically, the rich have never paid their fair share. The extravagances of Louis 14th et al were financed upon the backs of the poor. Later, in the reign of Louis 16th Marie Antoinette was credited with having said of the poor: "Let them eat cake!" Ronald Reagan said something similar when he implied (or stated outright) that the millions made homeless by his stupid policies were crazy.

Kilroy, you seem like an intelligent and nice guy and your comments are well-taken. So --don't be offended when I say: Paul is just wrong on this issue. And, respectfully, I think he needs to get outside his own district and find out for himself how GOP (regressive) policies have literally destroyed the financial and moral fiber of this nation.

Anonymous said...

With high oil, a low USD (In an import nation like we are now), worsening economy, dropping stock market and a government that spends out of control, we are in big trouble.

Ron Paul has some excellent views and this article goes over some of them on the economy (Money as Debt is a great video at the end of this article.):

Ron Paul & Economics - Saving the Economy

Anonymous said...

To whoever that guy was who wrote some rant about blaming America for all the world's and his problems: Go fuck yourself, and while your at it, give us back your cellphone, tv, internet, and just about any other modern invention you use. It's true we have a lot of very insane people with entirely too much money and sway in this country, but don't demonize the entire country. You come off as just insane when you do.

Unknown said...

Respectfully, Jake, TV is technically a German invention. In 1884, German engineering student, Paul Nipkow, patented the world's first method by which an image could be scanned electronically and broadcast.

Even Edison cannot truly claim to have invented movies. The French were already making movies, using photographic methods that Edison would later appropriate.

Cell phones are just radios --and that was invented by Marconi, an Italian. The principles of electro-magnetic wave propagation were known by Faraday, Maxwell, and other European physicists.

Although the US nuked two cities in Japan, it cannot claim to have "invented" nuclear weapons. Those principles were all known and researched primarily in Europe. Einstein wrote a famous letter to FDR about the possibility of such a device. The key scientists at Alamogordo were primarily European, many refugees from the Third Reich.

In fact, Hitler used to make fun of Americans. He said that the only thing we knew how to make was "Ice Boxes" and washing machines.

Did Henry Ford invent the car? No, Ford merely inventing a method by which they could be mass produced. There are descriptions of a horseless "carriage" that might have been used by none other than Anne Boleyn.

Airplane? Nope! There is compelling evidence that the French had taken to the air in "heavier-than-air" flight before the Wright Brothers.

Photography? The first bona fide photograph is of a Paris street. And the ability to "fix" images is a French invention. But the principle of image making is very old. The ancient Greeks had fashioned "camera obscuras" which projected an image of the external landscape, inverted, upon a wall in a room. Muslims may have used such devices even earlier.

Later, the principles of optics would be refined in the Netherlands. Antony van Leeuwenhoek would use it to make drawings of Spirogyra and other "little animals". Galileo would exploit that new technology to make a series of very accurate drawings of the lunar surface.

The internet is primarily an application of "older" technologies --transistors, 'packet switching', and assorted computer technology. Although many believe that the US built the first main-frame, programmable computer, that honor actually belongs to the English. Their "Colossus" appeared during World War II and was used to break the Nazi enigma machine. The American ENIAC would not be unveiled until over a year after war's end. Computing devices in general are ancient. Consider the Abacus. And Englishman --Charles Babbage --designed and built a "computing engine" to tabulate polynomial functions in the early 19th Century. Nor can Americans claim to have invented computer programming. The first computer program was written by Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter. In her honor, a programming language is named "Ada".

At last, Americans can claim a precious few "firsts" Although no one person can claim to have invented the internet, Dr. Leonard Kleinrock is most certainly credited with having created the principles of "packet switching". He was a graduate student at MIT at the time. Other American contributions to this field include the "transistor", the work of three American physicists at Bell Labs.

Vierotchka said...

Jake, we'll gladly give you back your internet, your cell-phones etc., on condition you give Arab and Persian Muslims back their coffee, shampoo, soap, cameras, chessboards and pieces, airplanes, alcohol and distilleries (the word alcohol is Arabic in origin, btw), perfumes, craft-shanks, valves, pistons, combination locks, surgical instruments (scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many others), anaesthetics, hollow needles to suck out cataracts from eyes, vaccines, fountain pens, algebra, mathematics, trigonometry, frequency analysis, check-books, torpedoes, etc., all of which were invented by Arab or Persian Muslims over the past thousand years.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, I suspect your either
euro-trash, Canadian or maybe Aussie, and I'll bet you think your Government and those pulling its strings are as pure as the driven snow huh??? WAKE UP ASSHOLE ALL US RIF RAF ARE IN THIS TOGETHER LIKE IT OR NOT

Unknown said...

sconan, "euro-trash" is a myopic epithet that I tend to associate with the liars of the GOP. The term was favored by the idiots who rode around Houston with big over-sized SUVs with at least two or three American flags, burning CDs by the Dixie Chicks and, in other ways, proving to the world what total assholes they were and remain. If you wish to be credible, drop the ad hominem: euro-trash. It stinks. I happen to like Europe --the food, the people, the scenery, the lifestyle, the music, the art. The US had all that before Ronald Reagan fucked everything up!

I also recall warning those same idiots that GOP policies would lead at least to recession if not the collapse of the dollar when China got tired of playing American Wal-Mart shoppers for suckers. Gess what --China got tired of playing Wal-Mart shoppers for suckers. I hope you bought gold before it was too late.

Anonymous said...

Don't believe one word from any public figure about the economy. They are all part of the problem. Its like a game of Monopoly. The richest 1% now, own more than 1/2 of ALL UNITED STATES WEALTH. That is more than the upper, middle, and lower classes combined. Now, a recession is inevitable. The middle class can no longer afford to sustain their share of the economy. But the rich won't stop. They will do whatever it takes to get even richer. This is going to end just like a game of Monopoly. A total collapse of the US economy. Probably within a decade. The richest 1% will live like royalty, while the rest of us fight over jobs, food, and gasoline. Don't fall for this 'good will' BS from celebrities and executives. Remember. They are filthy rich EVEN AFTER their tax deductible contributions. Greedy pigs. Now, we are headed for the worst US depression of all time. Crime, poverty, and suicide will skyrocket. SEND A 'THANK YOU' NOTE TO YOUR FAVORITE MILLIONAIRE. Please copy and help spread the word.

Anonymous said...

Great depressions are caused by the HUGE transfer of wealth to a 'tiny minority' at the top of the pyramid. Which as Einstein put it, causes 'instability in the utilization of capital' which then results in increasingly severe depressions correlated directly with the degree of income inequality that has developed in a society. In other words, greedy millionaires and billionaires are going to cause the worst economic and cultural crisis of all time. As their paychecks get bigger and bigger, our economy becomes more unstable. IT WILL COLLAPSE. I'm not discounting other factors like China, sub-prime, or gas prices. But all those factors combined, still pale in comparison to that HUGE transfer of wealth to the richest 1%. LOOK IT UP. Bottom line. The middle class will soon live in poverty because of people like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and EVERY CELEBRITY. Don't fall for their 'good will' 'humanitarian' BS. Its nothing but a sad excuse for their incredible greed.

Anonymous said...

Not many celebrities share a penny of their wealth? Are you kidding me? THEY ALL DO. Thats right. They all STEP IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA AND WRITE A CHECK. They also run their mouths about poverty, starvation, human rights, ect. Its just business. If you're a public figure, your people arrange for you to be involved with some type of 'humanitarian' effort. Its just that simple. Michael Vicks (dog fighting). Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom scam). Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling (Enron). Martha Stewart (Insider trading). Marc Anthony (tax evasion). Michael Jackson (pedophile). Damn near every politician. Paris, Britney, Lindsey, ect. IT IS A SHAM. These people have no desire to make the world a better place. Their only goal is to APPEAR as if they do. IT MAKES THEM RICHER. Think sponsors, endorsements, free air time, publicity, and IMAGE. Its just business. So don't fall for the 'good will' BS. CHARITY IS NO EXCUSE FOR GREED. EXTREME WEALTH MAKES WORLD PROSPERITY ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE. GREED KILLS. IT WILL BE OUR DOWNFALL.

Anonymous said...

About the 1% club 'tax revenue' defense. ITS A SHAM. If the middle and lower classes had a greater share of the pie, they could easily cover a greater share of the federal tax revenue. They are held down in many ways because of greed. Wages remain stagnant for millions because the executives, celebrities, athletes, attorneys, and entrepreneurs, are paid millions. They over-sell, over-charge, under-pay, outsource, cut jobs, and benefits to increase their bottom line. As their profits rise, so do the stock values. Which means more money for the upper class who own a giant share of the market. My problem really isn't with the upper class in general. But as more United States wealth rises to the top, the middle and lower classes inevitably suffer. This reduces the potential tax reveue drawn from those brackets. At the same time, it wreaks havok on middle and lower class communities and increases the need for financial aid. Not to mention the spike in crime because of it. There is a dominoe effect to consider. So when people forgive the rich for all of the above and then praise them for paying a greater share of the FEDERAL income taxes, its like nails on a chalk board. If these filthy pigs want to be over-paid, then they should be over-taxed as well. Remember: They STILL own 1/2 of all United States wealth EVEN AFTER taxes, charity, and PR CRAP. A similar rule applies worldwide. There is nothing anyone can say to justify that. Anyway, there is usually a higher state and local burden on the middle class. They get little or nothing without a local tax increase. Otherwise, the red inks flows like a waterfall. Service cuts and lay-offs follow. Again, because of the OBSCENE distribution of bottom line wealth in this country. I can not accept any theory that our economy would suffer in any way with a more reasonable distribution of wealth. Afterall, it was more reasonable 30 years ago. Before Reaganomics came along. Before GREED became such an epidemic. Before we had an army of over-paid executives, celebrities, athletes, attorneys, investors, entrepreneurs, developers, and sold-out politicians to kiss their asses. As a nation, we were in much better shape. Lower crime rate, more widespread prosperity, stable job market, free and clear assets, lower deficit, ect. Bottom line: Top heavy economies always destabilize and eventually collapse. Middle heavy economies remain stable and propsperous indefinately. WITHOUT LOANS FROM CHINA.