I've been lurking lately since the endless BP Oil spill continues to perpetuate ecological and financial terrorism at the rate of 2.5 million gallons of oil a day, ruining lives, an entire ecological system that may never survive, and sending Americans into such despair that there are growing numbers of people on the Gulf committing suicide, having lost everything; their way of life, the land and sea they loved, a way to make a living as fishermen/women on seas they revered, with no hope in sight for a future that no longer exists for themselves or their families.
I thought, that after the Great Heist of 2008, by Wall Street and the Banks, that perhaps that would be our nation's 'tipping point' as many call it here on DailyKos. But it was not.
I'm now believing at this point in time, there is no such thing as a 'Tipping Point' in our nation, because regardless of how monumental the event or catastrophe, Americans (unlike our own ancestors) are not willing to March by the Millions into Washington DC, and make that 'Tipping Point' happen, by suiting up, and showing up.
Consider this simple fact about the Great Heist of 2008 by Wall Street and the Banks:
Casey Research, of Vermont, has analyzed the costs of the government bailouts of the housing crisis, the credit crisis and others and has concluded that the total is $8.5 trillion, which is more than the cost of all US wars, the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan and the NASA Space Program combined. According to CRS, the Congressional Research Service, all major US wars (including such events as the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the invasion of Panama, the Kosovo War and numerous other small conflicts), cost a total of $7.5 trillion in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars.
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.co...
That is $ 8.5 trillion dollars of our hard earned tax dollars, paid off to a bunch of crooks, liars and thieves, who knowingly were 'cooking the books' with risky untried and unproven 'market theories.' And when it all came crashing down around our necks, these were the same crooks, liars and thieves that got paid off, for destroying our economy and our nation.
Yet, at least we still have a few great American truth tellers and hero's that have the guts to tell the entire world what really happened to our nation, which of course, should have been 'a Tipping Point.'
And as Jim Jubak, (a very conservative Stock Broker) pointed out to anyone with half a brain:
Fluke? Credit crisis was a heist
Thanks to a complicit Congress, the reins were systematically loosened on the looters of the financial industry. And they're still at it, looking for new plunder.
It was no accident.
The folks in power in Washington and on Wall Street want to pretend that the current global financial crisis -- you know, the one that reduced household net worth in the United States by $11.2 trillion in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve -- was an accident caused by some unfortunate confluence of greed and asleep-at-the-switch regulators.
What we're now living through, though, is the result of a conscious, planned looting of the world economy. Its roots stretch back decades. And it wouldn't have been possible without the contrivances of the bought-and-paid-for folks who sit in Congress.
Of course, just because the plan blew up on the looters, taking off a financial finger here and a portfolio hand there, you shouldn't have any illusion that they've retired. In fact, in the "solutions" now being proposed -- by Congress -- to fix the global and U.S. financial systems, you can see the looters at work as hard as ever.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...
$ 8.5 trillion dollars right into the pockets of Wall Street/The Banks while the household net worth in the United States was reduced by $ 11.2 trillion in 2008.
Please, spare me the 'But Bernanke and Geithner Saved the Country' bullshit...I know better. I've done my own research thank you very much.
But you see, it is never enough with these same crooks, liars and thieves, and it will never be enough.
Now that Wall Street/The Banks have picked our pockets down to the 'lint' it is all of a sudden time to become 'fiscally responsible' and the 'Cat Food Commission' is coming after our Social Security and Medicare to - I dare say - keep funding the 'endless Military Industrial Complex' for our endless wars.
Cut Social Security to Fund the War?
By DEAN BAKER
In a remarkable interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, House Republican Leader John Boehner explicitly called for cutting Social Security in order to pay for the war in Afghanistan. The article reports:
"Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them."
In principle Boehner gave the Democrats as much ammunition as a serious political party could want. After all raising the retirement age and cutting Social Security benefits to pay for the war in Afghanistan is an idea that consistently polls in the high single decimals. We should expect every Democratic politician in the country to be jumping up and down demanding to know whether the Republican leader speaks for all Republicans. That would be the case, unless of course the Democrats actually hold similar views. After all, several prominent Democrats have been saying in public recently that we will have to cut Social Security benefits (benefits workers have already paid for). These prominent Democrats also support the war in Afghanistan. So, they may not use the same words as Mr. Boehner, but it seems that many Democrats may effectively agree that we have to cut Social Security to pay for the war in Afghanistan. It would be nice if they would insist that this is not true.
http://www.counterpunch.org/...
Gee, has anyone heard of any Democrats 'jumping up and down' demanding that 'Orange Tan Man with the Cry Baby Drinking Problem' John Boehner 'take back those words: to reform 'entitlements' such as Social Security?'
I mean now that Wall Street/the Banks have illegally run off laughing their asses off with their trillions of tax payer dollars, and the economy has been crashed, with absolutely no jobs on the horizon (since we no longer have a decent manufacturing base and most of our jobs have been sold overseas and outsourced) then I guess, our 'Government' is going to have to figure out some ways to keep 'propping' up the most extensive and wasteful and useless Military Industrial War Machine, and it would appear that the final safety net (which we as Americans all paid into, which is why it should NEVER BE CALLED ENTITLEMENTS,) is the 'final frontier' to completely dismantle what is left of the so called 'working class.'
No folks, 'it is never enough,' until 'we have had enough,' and apparently we have 'not had enough,' because we as a society have indeed morally failed ourselves. Stop blaming it on the politicians. For gosh sakes, their are a bunch of Corporate Whores on all sides of the isles...Yes, the ideology may be different, and boy, don't the two party systems know how to 'keep the class wars right on the front burner' to divide us, and to use as their little 'decoys' as they 'throw us a bone' without any meat on it to fight over every few months.
This is what they are doing in France to protest the retirement age from 60 years of age to 62 (while the Cat Food Commission wants to raise the American retirement age to 70).
PARIS — Trains stood still and children played instead of studied as workers around France went on strike Thursday to protest President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 62. Neighboring countries suffered along with Paris commuters, as walkouts by drivers delayed or canceled trains from Italy and Switzerland. Some flights were dropped or delayed.
Boisterous crowds of protesters filled Marseille's port and wide Paris avenues, as unions staged nearly 200 marches in several cities over a broad reform to the money-losing pension system, part of efforts around Europe to cut back on growing public debts.
The ranks of demonstrators swelled in comparison to a similar protest May 27. The Interior Ministry put the number of protesters around France at 797,000 – double the number of people in the streets in May.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Approximately 65,447,374 people live in France, and I find it rather impressive that 797,000 of these people suited up and showed up to actively protest in their own nation concerning their own pension/and or social security retirement funds being 'gutted' by their own country, because the truth is, all of the nations throughout Europe were indulging in the same Banking and Wall street sub-prime liar loans, and other sleazy cooking of the books, and now these same governments, just like ours are going after the 'middle and lowers classes' to pay Peter who robbed Paul.
The population of the United States of America is approximately 309,643,000, yet I find it rather shameful, that we can't even muster the moral courage to find the 797,000 people in our own nation (like France did) to March on Washington DC and demand change.
Stop the endless wars, stop the Wall Street/Banking looting, stop the Oil Companies from being subsidized with our tax dollars:
When the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform set off the worst oil spill at sea in American history, it was flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. Registering there allowed the rig’s owner to significantly reduce its American taxes.
The owner, Transocean, moved its corporate headquarters from Houston to the Cayman Islands in 1999 and then to Switzerland in 2008, maneuvers that also helped it avoid taxes.
At the same time, BP was reaping sizable tax benefits from leasing the rig. According to a letter sent in June to the Senate Finance Committee, the company used a tax break for the oil industry to write off 70 percent of the rent for Deepwater Horizon — a deduction of more than $225,000 a day since the lease began.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Why are these criminally incompetent Robber Barons from BP being let off the hook? Hasn't anyone in our government read what has happened in the past to clean up workers on an oil spill that was much less significant than the one in the Gulf?
Majority of Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Cleanup Workers now Dead
BP said that Methane makes up about 40 percent of the leaking crude by mass in late May. Large amounts of toxic hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride -- in addition to the Methane -- are also leaking into the Gulf. Throw in the toxic dispersant being used by BP and you've got a deadly chemical cocktail that could easily be absorbed and spread by hurricanes, killing virtually everything it comes into contact with, including humans. Plans are reportedly being put in place for the mandatory evacuation of cities and towns within a 200-mile radius of the gusher.
Rachel Maddow recently pointed out that BP netted $58.5 billion over the past three years. They reportedly spent $29 million researching safer ways to drill over those same three years and spent nothing -- zero dollars -- researching how to respond to an oil spill. BP falsified their clean up response plan, which the U.S. government quickly approved, using dead experts. A recently uncovered BP document bragged of Gulf of Mexico growth and cheap production costs.
A recent CNN report claims that the vast majority of those who worked on the clean up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 are now dead, and one expert told CNN that the life expectancy for those who worked on it is about 51 years. The Gulf of Mexico spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez many times over and will continue doing so. A video released by John L. Wathen reveals some of the damage done by the oil spill that paints a damning picture of oil saturated water that is killing schools of dolphins and more.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/...
Of course our government knows exactly what is going on, just like they knew exactly what was going on during the Great Heist of 2008 by Wall Street and the Banks.
None of these 'Oligarchs' are ever going to be held accountable, because we as a people, keep 'waiting for the Tipping Point'...what a load of crap.
How many 'Tipping Points' do we need folks? Wall Street/The Banks ruin our entire national economy, and then 'get paid off' for doing so, while millions and millions of jobs and homes are lost, now BP, is getting away with murder and ecological terrorism, while the company used a tax break for the oil industry to write off 70 percent of the rent for Deepwater Horizon — a deduction of more than $225,000 a day since the lease began, even now, this very day, $225,000 a day for gawdsake....and still what?
We're waiting for the Tipping Point?
Will the 'Tipping Point' come when your sons and daughters are being drafted into the new endless wars, that our Social Security will be cut and funding?
Will that be the final straw for you? Will we then finally do what our ancestors did, and March by the Millions on Washington DC, and scream as loud as we can until every single window in the Capital Building shakes and cracks until they hear us?
When is the 'Tipping Point' folks? Will someone tell me? Or are we just a bunch of lazy blogging ranters, who care more about our 'gadgets' than what our own grandfather, grandmothers and families cared about?
At least they showed up, in the streets, when they had finally had enough.
I guess we just haven't had enough, have we? There's no such thing as a 'tipping point' people. The tipping point happened a long time ago, and now we have only ourselves to blame. It is a moral failure of our own citizens, of our own nation, of our own cowardice not to take direct physical action by actively forming Million People Marches on Washington DC or National Strikes.
We just don't have the guts to do it, and you can blame the media all your want to, but I know exactly how the War in Vietnam ended. I know exactly how Civil Rights were finally enacted. I know what it means to organize and to stop blaming everyone else but ourselves.
If nothing changes, then nothing changes.
Thanks as always.