Politics in an Age of Chaos

(This week, Rick’s Picks will be featuring commentary from some forum regulars who for the most part are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Today’s commentary is from Tom Waldenfels, a former broker and semi-retired management consultant who goes by the handle “fallingman” in the forum. Tom is skeptical, to put it mildly, that the recent election is going to change things. If the voters want real change, he says, it can only begin  with changes in the way they conduct their own lives. RA)

I’m writing this essay a few days prior to the election, but I already know how the vote’s gonna turn out.  The new Congress will be composed of … pause for dramatic effect … Republicans and Democrats. Doh! “Meet the new boss … same as the old boss.”  We just got fooled again. Yeah, the balance will have shifted some and many of the newcomers are unquestionably more honorable human beings than the people they’ll be replacing.  How could they not be?  But, as Doug Casey says, “Political power tends to attract the worst people … the four percent of the population that’s sociopathic.”  It ain’t like the Congress is goin’ all Jimmy Stewart on us.  We’ll be stuck with essentially the same crew and pretty much the same “leadership” in both parties that we’ve had, rump movements notwithstanding.  And how’s that arrangement been workin’ for us?  As we say in the south … “Not too good.”  Rome will continue to burn.

No chance Congress will be goin' all Jimmy Stewart on us...

Corporatism will continue to rule the day.  Promises will continue to be made that can’t be kept.  The Constitution will restrain no one.  Borrowed and newly conjured money will continue to be wasted on everything ranging from the merely idiotic and counterproductive to the truly criminal and completely insane.  That’s until the whole system collapses, which will happen in an instant when it happens.

The Powers That Be

In the meantime, the Fed will continue to pour the whiskey, trash the clownbuck, and lie about everything from its true mission, to how much gold the U.S. holds.  The Military Industrial – Wall Street – Big Bank – Big Oil – Big Pharma – Big Medicine – Big Ag complex, with their wholly-owned media mouthpieces, faux-education establishment, and corrupt two-party front men, will continue to parasitize us.  The insider “elite” will be able to do damn near anything they want, continuing to concentrate their power and expand their influence, with no one being held to account or brought to justice.

If you missed the recent Dylan Ratigan clip on the crimes in progress in the financial world and the lack of any real response from the government, you owe it to yourself to take five minutes, if for no other reason than to watch him skewer that cretin, Chris Dodd.  Why GE and Microsoft allow Ratigan to speak the truth on their network is beyond me.

Regulating Toilets

Now, some of my “progressive” friends might contend that what I’m saying just proves we need to reform the system — promote campaign finance laws, get some good people in there, and pass some tough measures that prevent the abuses.  Hey, I don’t disparage their motives, but it’s not as if we live in some kind of regulation-free, anarcho-capitalist world and regulation is a sparkly new idea.  We literally have tens of thousands of laws and hundreds of agencies regulating everything from who can legally arrange flowers for a living to how much water a toilet can flush.

And yet, the Congress won’t even authorize a real audit of the Fed.  Bernie Madoff and the Social Security Administration run Ponzi schemes with impunity.  (It took a private citizen, Harry Markopolos, to expose the crime in Madoff’s case.)  JP Morgan is able to annex Bear Stearns, rape Jefferson County, Alabama, and suppress silver prices at the Crimex.  Not one peep.  Goldman managed to screw a whole country, Greece, not to mention its own customers, and they’re busy working on the U.S. from the inside.  Countrywide. Lehman, and the rest of the mortgage lenders and securitizers engaged in wholesale fraud, and the regulators and regulations failed to rein them in.  Why?  Because the whole regulatory apparatus is just for show.  The government just pretends to protect us.  Sarbanes-Oxley … Dodd-Frank … the SEC … FDIC … CFTC … PBGC.  Ha, what a joke!  And don’t even get me going on the FDA.  The fox has free run of the henhouse and is eating the chickens as we speak.

Collapse, and Soon

Look, the only real progress ever made in the political realm over the centuries has been toward greater individual freedom and smaller, more decentralized government, not toward bigger, more intrusive government.  And yet, the clamor to add more parasites to the Federal payroll and exercise more and more control continues.  The result?  Every day, it gets harder for honest people to do business.  Big government ain’t workin’.  At least, it isn’t working for me and you.  If you’re one of the fascisti, it’s working just fine.

I have a theory.  People will be willing to participate in the electoral charade as a way to express their anger and frustration only as long as their lives are passably normal.  The game will change once our daily lives are turned upside down.  I take this descent into chaos as a given, by the way.  To me, the fall of 2008 was merely a prelude.  I expect a full-out collapse, and soon.  For what’s it’s worth, I give it a couple more election cycles, and then the fury comes out sideways and gets expressed in more hands-on, up-close-and-personal ways.

That will likely take us in one of two eventual directions.  We either embrace a “strong leader” — a creation of the combine — who can restore order and “make America work again”… at the expense of all our remaining civil liberties.  Odds … maybe 90-95%.  Or, we simply abandon the effete and bankrupt central government and concentrate on making things work closer to home — and to hell with the empire.  Don’t ask me for details.  I don’t have any.  But doesn’t the Republic of Texas have a nice ring to it?  Devolution.  Bring it on.

Not that the Feds are all that keen on losing their sovereignty.  Remember how hissy Lincoln got over the whole opt-out thing.  But if we’re going to get free of the poisonous influence of the “money power,” it won’t be by taming them from the inside or battling it out with them in the streets.  This revolution will have to be peaceful and principled.  We’ll have to withdraw our consent … our support … our cooperation … our business … and do it en masse.

What Can We Do?

Fat chance, right?  Mao famously said political power comes from the barrel of a gun, and maybe he was right.  He sure looks right on the surface.  Hence, the 95% odds.  But what about Gandhi?  What about MLK.?  Something as simple as non-participation in the form of a boycott can be pretty powerful.  What can we do?  Just this: reject the bankers’ credit; tune out the pharmaceutical peddlers and avoid the absurd disease care system whenever possible; eat real food and tell the likes of Monsanto to take a hike; shun the polluted Mainstream Media; lay down arms in the endless “war” on nouns … cancer, drugs, terror.  Politely refuse to play.

If we have a chance of reviving the American ideal, it’ll be by turning our backs and walking away from the sham political process and the corporatist noose, allowing a thoroughly rotten system to collapse of its own weight,  It’s going to disintegrate sooner or later whether we like it or not.  It isn’t worth saving and it can’t be reformed.  The die has been cast.

That’s a tall order to fill, given the dumbed-down population and the nanny-state free lunch we’ve gotten used to, not to mention our need for political saviors, but I’m grasping at straws.  From here, it looks like some sort of principled refusal to participate in the game any longer and a new self-reliance is the only hope we have.

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  • dennis November 13, 2010, 10:57 pm

    Finally an article right on the money that does not accuse Obama as being a Marxist -socialist with a Satanic desire to ruin the country. He is naive, weak, ambitious and, like the rest of us, clueless about how to deal with our current circumstances. If he has chosen sides it is by default, and the side he has chosen is evidenced by who he has surrounded himself with –Geit, Summers, Ben, etc, etc.— you know, all of those self-admitted, card -carrying commies. The real indication of who is in control was never more clearly revealed when the banksters held the gun to their heads and said we will blow ourselves up and your economy with us unless you give us 8oo bilion dollars in cash and 6 or so trillion more to play with, and don’t ask any questions. BOTH the demos and the republicans wet their pants; and it will happen all over again unless and until their rest of us are no longer afraid of wetting ours. Thank you Tom for a great piece, and to others who have contributed such important comments

  • Rich November 8, 2010, 10:27 pm

    Thanks Rick and Tom.
    Re 11-11 Meme
    http://www.manticoregroup.com/radio/latest.htm
    (3 hour-long last interview of Clif High)

  • John Wilson November 8, 2010, 8:20 pm

    Welcome to the club of walk aways. Drop out, do not participate.
    I am writing this comment from Guatemala. I walked away. You can have the charade that is being played. 2 more election cycles? Why not do it now?
    Oh, right – you do not want to loose what you have. Yupper, stuff is much more important then principles.
    If you are principled, walk away – do not participate any longer. Close up shop, quit your job, and get to some place that you can live.
    Let the Democrats and Republicans rule a group of bloodsuckers. If no one participates, no taxes can be had.
    Don’t wait – drop out now, or this week. Get a plan, and get out of Dodge – leave the country, and let the bloodsuckers feed off themselves.
    Of course, this is just my humble opinion, and life is pretty good down here in Guatemala – $7.00 for a room, hot water, stove.
    Only once have I been afraid – and that was in the second largest city. Small towns are friendly and cheap. Free enterprise can be done down here.
    Stay in America – and you will be fodder for the people in power. You will get the life sucked out of you.
    Cheers from Guatemala

    • mario cavolo November 9, 2010, 12:24 pm

      interesting John….even though China is rising, coming here can also easily be considered a dropping out if one wishes. To “go local” here in China and other parts of Asia is easy and still very cheap…I’ve heard similar on Ecuador….Cheers, Mario

  • Dennis November 8, 2010, 6:11 pm

    Fallingman:
    What a great read. You managed to perfectly convey your frustrations while leaving the hate and politics at home. Unfortunately, I agree with most of your possible outcomes. Doubt if your solution of ‘refusing to play’ will work in this country. The vast majority has been molded into what we are and for many, playing along is the only game they know. However, it’s late in the 4th quarter and the substitutes simply don’t have a winning game plan anymore than the players they replaced. It’s time to leave the stadium!
    Thanks Rick for posting this exceptional article!

    • Robert November 9, 2010, 4:26 am

      “Doubt if your solution of ‘refusing to play’ will work in this country”

      – Well, over 40% already pay no taxes., so they have left the field. The remaining 60% are either:

      1) wealthy enough to ex-patriate themselves and are living in one country, and carrying a passport from another, while keeping their money in a third.

      -or-

      2) on track to join either the 40% that don’t pay, or the small minority mentioned in number 1 above….

      Either way- the productive turnip has been squeezed, and the blood is still not flowing. The refusal to play is nothing but a matter of time.

      The people’s faith in Washington was lost 30 years ago, so the quest in Washington became to maintain some sort of status quo, which was lost 10 years ago, so the quest became for ambivalence, which was lost in 2008. We are now in the final stage- outright antipathy.

      Fantastic commentary Tom!

  • Steve November 8, 2010, 6:07 pm

    Just say NO, and disenfranchise. The Framers paid dearly, and so will WE. Peacefully we can move. Forcefully will they come. Either way WE will Pay!

  • Fallingman November 8, 2010, 5:28 pm

    Thanks for the nice comments guys. I have a great deal of respect for the readers on this site and I appreciate your feedback.

    And, of course, my thanks to Rick for providing us with this excellent forum and for letting me sound off. I am honored to inhabit this bit of cyberspace with you sir.

    END THE FED!

    • j November 8, 2010, 7:00 pm

      Fallingman, I appreciate your article.

      What can we do? Just this: reject the bankers’ credit;

      I formulated a small plan and am putting it in action. I am going to USPS a letter to Rick, with the hope he will forward it to you for your consideration.

      Thank you.

  • Bradley November 8, 2010, 5:21 pm

    Dan, your comment got me thinking:
    “I am sure that the founders could not have imagined a world with professional politicians in it.”

    If you are unfamiliar with a couple of 17th and 18th Century French finance ministers, Nicholas Fouquet and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, both of whom held enormous power for long periods before the French Revolution, you might look them up. I find their stories fascinating, and I am quite sure that the Founders of our country knew quite a bit about these men, and I would bet that some of the checks and balances our Founders put in place were due to the abuses these men and others like them perpetrated on their fellow countrymen.

    In my view, they are the model which current professional politicians strive to emulate!

  • andequip November 8, 2010, 4:44 pm

    fallingman,

    Thanks for a great read. I think you pretty much nailed it!

    I watched Mickey Cantor on Fox News Sunday morning, and was asked, by Chris Wallace, “what are your priorities?” He replied….”We’re going to get to work and put together legislation to cut $100 billion from the budget”. When Chris Wallace juxtaposed the $600 billion “stimulus”, against the $100 billion in proposed cuts, Cantor seemed okay with that, indicating they have to “start somewhere”.

    Same game, different players!

  • JohnJay November 8, 2010, 4:39 pm

    Grenwich Avenue update for Charlotte.
    Well, since I have not been on Greenwich Avenue since 1973 delivering Schaefer beer, (brewed in Brooklyn NY, I think) I googled it all.
    Yes Greenwich Avenue is still there.
    Only now it seems to be a quaint, boutique shopping district.
    Seems there has been a lot of development since I was last there almost 40 years ago.
    One image was of an ocean going yacht moored in front of a hedge fund headquarters I think.
    I’ll have to pay Greenwich a visit on my Thanksgiving trip to Connecticut this year.

  • dan seaman November 8, 2010, 4:06 pm

    I think that the only way out with the politicians is to only vote for people that promise to vote for term limits and hold them to it no matter what. Once we have term limits their power is reduced to the point that they should then only go to Washington to help the country and not help themselves. I am sure that the founders could not have imagined a world with professional politicians in it.

    • Steve November 8, 2010, 6:04 pm

      Term limits are not going to happen. You VOTE TO CREATE TERM LIMITS. This is a democracy, not a Republic because persons cannot get the issue straight understanding mobocracy, and/or progressivism. If one will not read Marxx, and compair the 10 planks, one will continue down the same path.

    • Jill November 8, 2010, 9:53 pm

      I think a vote to create campaign finance reform would be more useful, although term limits may be okay too. With term limits, the person still has to finance their election campaign, and would likely do so with donations from corporate Special Interest Groups, thus aquiring the obligation to “dance with them that brought you”, i.e. to give the Special Interest Groups the legislation that they are buying when they make campaign donations.

      There is already a revolving door between Congress, lobbyists, industry jobs with the industries that the Congress person was supposed to be regulating etc. Term limits might only make the revolving door move faster. I. e. the one term Congress person, after their term is over, immediately gets a good job as a lobbyist, or as a higly paid worker in an industry where he/she had accepted campaign donations and voted for the laws desired by the industry.

  • mikeck November 8, 2010, 3:49 pm

    Very well said Tom,

    Those of us who are paying attention to the destruction of our country know that you are speaking the truth…others need to do some homework.

    I caution all to not make the mistakes I made…I paid many penalties and much interest to the IRS and had thousands of ounces of metal stolen in the unlawful raid on Liberty dollar. The mistakes I made were at least two fold, I thought the law was still of some importance in this country and I challenged the system when few others were willing to do so…numbers are important.

    The CS-BBs will run all over a few who challenge their criminality…until the masses awaken, it might be a good idea to reread Harry Browne’s book, How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World, and find your own freedom with as low a profile as possible.

    Mike

    • Jill November 8, 2010, 9:47 pm

      Thanks, Mike, for your cautionary tale of your experience. Great to have information from someone who has traveled this path before, about what happened.

  • margaret grose November 8, 2010, 3:28 pm

    all of us who are on-line need to continually send messages of disdain and possible ways to correct the system, to our govts. until they will listen and make changes. This has to be done en masse, so that those in
    Govt. know we are unanimous in our support to bring
    Govt. to their senses, and prevent this inevitable implosion.

    • Steve November 8, 2010, 6:27 pm

      How does one get the masses to reject democracy, and return to the Republic when most don’t even know the difference?

    • Jill November 8, 2010, 9:44 pm

      This assumes they care what the citizens want and think– quite a stretch. I used to send such letter myself, until I realized that government officials file them in the “cirucular file”, i.e. the waste basket. If government officials don’t care if folks starve to death due to runaway food inflation, they certainly don’t care if they write disdainful letters.

    • Larry D November 10, 2010, 2:16 am

      You need to hire a lobbyist, Jill.

      Observe how the Sierra Club and NEA work.

  • margaret grose November 8, 2010, 3:24 pm

    Everyone, especially those older folks who are on the computer, can influence Govt. policy just by using your computers en-masse, and show your disdain of the present policies in govt. and until Govt. will listen, just keep the messages pouring in! The way I see it. We have the best
    means of tying up Govts.` until they LISTEN to reason!!

  • JohnJay November 8, 2010, 3:17 pm

    Chatlotte,
    Greenwich Avenue is the main downtown street in Greenwich, Connecticut where many of the big hedge funds are based, or where those guys live. Full of huge estates. Just go to realtor.com and set the price menu at highest to lowest at marvel at the pictures of those properties. It is right on the border of New York state and a short limo or helicopter ride to Manhattan.

  • Dave November 8, 2010, 3:14 pm

    As someone who has worked outside the US for over 30 years I’ve become fairly familiar with the way the world operates. Most Americans don’t yet have a clue that there exists an underground economy. It thrives in spite of government’s hand. Always has, always will. As my lawyer once told me, “what you got to do amigo is stay low, go fast”.

    • Steve November 8, 2010, 6:00 pm

      Are you saying crime pays ? And that to win we must become THEM?

    • Other Paul November 8, 2010, 6:06 pm

      Dave hits the bulls-eye with his comments about the growth of the underground economy.

      Although avoiding and evading taxes certainly has a long tradition in the pre-US (Tea Party–the original) and in the early US (Whiskey Rebellion), the trends for under-reporting taxable income or inflating expenses will accelerate.

      The US Gov’t and Federal Reserve’s monetizing of debt will continue until the erosion in the value of the dollar makes lives not “passably normal” (using Tom’s phrase). That’s went the real changes will occur.

    • Steve November 8, 2010, 6:24 pm

      I agree with you.

      Except, didn’t President George Washington commit the first federal abuses with the Whiskey Tax? Main point here. The Whiskey Rebellion failed, and here we are today. The Northern Senate Rebellion was successful in A.D. 1867, and here we are today corporate subjects under the voluntary political act 14th amendment in Fee, with British styled feudal titles the opposite of Allodial [Fee versus Free]. The Boston Tea Party started something that was over ruled by the failure of the Whiskey Rebellion. Whiskey is still TAXED.

      I would rather say that the Real Economy awaits those who will TRADE in fair weights and measures by disenfranchisement from the corporate corruption that is U.S. 28 U.S.C. 3002(15) A.D. 1872.

  • Phil C November 8, 2010, 1:56 pm

    Very good article.

  • mario cavolo November 8, 2010, 10:52 am

    That we all powerlessly agree is a big piece of the new reality that is harder and harder to swallow. Familiar with China as I am, it is reasonable for me to state that much in the same way Chinese citizens can’t really do a damn thing about the choices made by Chinese gov’t leadership, in fact, Americans also can’t do a damn thing about the choices being made by American gov’t leadership. Don’t misunderstand me please, I know there are citizen “freedoms” that can be acted upon in America , but I have resolved to accept as many of us that while those freedoms to act rightfully exist, they are impotent. The system is broken and corrupt no matter the fabulous democratic principles of individual rights, freedom, life, liberty, happiness, etc which are still the law of the land in writing, but not in reality. Read up Naomi Wolf’s Give Me Liberty, where amongst other gruesome political realities, she well explains how the political system has made the rules which have finally made itself a system impossible to penetrate for the average concerned or angry person who wishes to contribute, make a difference, be heard. A sad state of affairs, its easier to push a wet noodle up hill. The political system, financial system, health care/pharmaceutical industry, Wall street and a few other known sectors have self-servingly married and separated themselves from the reality of the daily life of the citizens of the country they are supposed to be SERVING. Those days, those ideals are gone with no hope for returns without a painful, radical catalyst (s) for change.

    I’ll make a final point based on recent speech events I’ve attended here in Shanghai. The global economic views of people like Ken Lieberthal of the Brookings Institute and Bob Broadcroft of PERC, political and economic risk analysis firm, are worth noting. Note this as a summary of both their recent comments: In ALL decision/policy-making considerations of social and economic developments for China, a TOP of the list priority of the Chinese government leadership is to keep “a stable, harmonious society”. Recent Chinese gov’t arrogance across global relations is unnerving leaders around the world. Yet understand that their value system sends the message of national self-interest clearly; taking care of the people in our own backyard first is our #1 priority and interest, so in that light, one can understand them, like it or not. In contrast, this value, this ideal in American politics, in the minds and hearts of American leadership, that their top priority is “a harmonious society”, seems far down the list. American policy decisions clearly indicate their priorities and interests and it is too easy to see how they are now feared with disdain rather than embraced with faith and hope by today’s American citizenry.

    Cheers, Mario

    • Steve November 8, 2010, 6:13 pm

      When the people fear the government we have tyranny. When the government official fears the Citizen, we have good government. I believe in China the people fear the policy of peace and harmony. Within the U.S. the people are all afraid of losing some physical possession, but; have no fear of being subjects and servants.

    • mario cavolo November 9, 2010, 12:32 pm

      Hi Steve, at this point the citizens of China are benefiting more greatly than ever from choices that their gov’t has made, and so more than eve willing to tolerate some of the gov’t choices which they don’t like.

      Differently, I am not a citizen of China, yet live here long term. I accept the idea that if I want to make a statement publicly against the current gov’t’s plans and policies, I am in fact not “free” as in America to do so. However, I have other benefits here which do not exist in America, so from a pragmatic view, I accept the overall balance, I tolerate the things I don’t like because the benefits tilt the balance in favor of staying. Lately, I’m getting quite tired of the issues associated with living on mainland China, keep thinking a move to Hong Kong would be a very good move, but that’s another story.

      Cheers, Mario

  • CharlotteP November 8, 2010, 8:39 am

    JohnJay writes: “greenwich avenue”
    where is greenwich avenue? residing in the big apple greenwich avenue is a sleepy street in the west village of no economic consequence. there is no ‘greenwich avenue’ in greenwich,ct.

    While I can believe in the comments of the author of the article, my trust in the comments gets diluted when facts are just absent or inaccurate. If you want to rant be sure to do so on the ‘accurate’ side.

  • Jill November 8, 2010, 5:57 am

    Oh, I see, this is Tom’s article, not Rick’s. Very thought provoking. I suppose, on the subject of taxes, under this plan, we would all do like Geithner and “Just Say No.”

  • Paul November 8, 2010, 5:36 am

    Tom,

    Beautiful job describing the what-is of what is. I especially like the tone and cadence of your writing. Now we just need to organize, not in some kind of “movement,” but in a critical mass of concerted effort, which is the tough part. In my sphere, I try to gently persuade people to (1) stop consuming plastic bottles mindlessly; (2) stop consuming fast-food of all kinds; (3) stop drinking soda and anything with high-fructose corn syrup; (4) close checking, savings, and CC accounts at TBTF banks.

    Where this needs to go next is a nationwide W2 strike. Imagine what could be accomplished if many millions of taxpaying Americans simply refuse to go to work for days, weeks, or months if that’s what it takes? The only way, it seems, to stop the institutional, government-sponsored crime wave is to stop paying for it. Let’s see Benny B. monetize *that*.
    P

  • JohnJay November 8, 2010, 4:53 am

    I am sure we all agree with Tom’s synopsis.
    However, regardless of my strong emotional attachment to the good old USofA, my intellect tells me collapse is now inevitable.
    Too much debt, too many Fed “marks” calling Bernanke’s bluff on the big con, too many troops in too many countries, too many illegals, too many people on the dole, too many jobs and factories offshored, too many criminals in DC and on Greenwich Avenue and Wall Street.
    You all can add your own “too many” to my list.
    Everyone that visits this website will very likely recognize the signs of an impending implosion, but I don’t think anything can be done to prevent it.
    If we’re lucky, the T bond will go to 60 or so, and we’ll be forced to shrink the military and government workers just like GB is doing right now.
    If we’re unlucky, pick a scenario.

  • ricecake November 8, 2010, 3:39 am

    “What can we do?  Just this: reject the bankers’ credit; tune out the pharmaceutical peddlers and avoid the absurd disease care system whenever possible; eat real food and tell the likes of Monsanto to take a hike; shun the polluted Mainstream Media; lay down arms in the endless “war” on nouns … cancer, drugs, terror.  Politely refuse to play.”

    Mr. Rick you can’t be more right!

    The banking cartel turn people into debt slaves.

    The Medial Healthcare Cartel turn people into longevity debt paying slaves. (believe they’ll taken care of and won’t die of natural causes.)

    The Insurance cartel turn people into pathetic fearful debt paying slaves. (fear they sure get sick without it.)

    The Food cartel turn people into Fat and sick debt paying slaves.

    The Mainstream Media cartel turn people into dumb debt paying slaves.

    The Warmonger cartel turn people into “America #1” debt paying salves.

    But there are few smart Americans always know how to game the and beat the system. And you can win too if you know how cash on and pamper the public’s absurdity, greedy, laziness, and stupidity. May these smart people are highly educated respected. They know how and where to suck in their pet projects’ multimillion billion funding + gaining personal fame.

    Best example: bit news from the Mainstream Media: “Science research/study find Obesity is caused by the lack of exercise and overeating!” Wow!

    Gee, American people “really really” don’t know about this?

    I wonder how many years how much money they have poured into such no brainer “scientific” research studies?” Even worse. After the above great discovery, now they are developing some drugs so Americans can eat like a bear and sit like a Buddha to remain skinny. In case if the pills don’t work, Americans can have the Bariatric surgery. If unfortunately complications developed after the Bariatric surgery, don’t worry too much about that because there’s a comprehensive medical care plan to take good care you too.

    And finally best of all, you are covered with a good healthcare insurance.

  • Mark0 November 8, 2010, 2:59 am

    Right on Rick! A truly inspired article summarizing so nicely the important pieces we all dreadfully know.

  • Marc November 8, 2010, 1:08 am

    Tom, I never have left a comment on this forum, even though I read it daily and agree with 90% of it. But I must say: Well Said!

  • Jill November 8, 2010, 12:39 am

    “some sort of principled refusal to participate in the game any longer and a new self-reliance is the only hope we have.”

    Fascinating, Rick. And I appreciate the ideas you give on some of what that might look like. I’ll bet your readers have additional ideas on the subject.

    Regarding regulation, a government totally controlled by mega-corporations regulates only that which mega-corporations want to regulate e.g. small businesses that the mega-corporations would just as soon went out of business. Thus the ridiculous 1099 requirements in the Health Care bill– a bill which itself is a giant give-away to the health insurance industry, more than it is a help to sick people. The 1099 requirement will cost money for mega-corporations too. However, that cost will be more than compensated for, by the fact that this same 1099 requirement will break the backs of their small business competitors and put them out of business.

    If we the people could get together and vote only for candidates who accept NO Special Interest Group donations, and who pledge to enact campaign finance reform, we could get ourselves a government with 95% fewer regulations but one that would regulate where it counts & actually protect the citizens from Madoffs, from TBTF banks that demand to be bailed out repeatedly “or else the whole financial system will be destroyed” etc. Right now, 99% of the monstrous regulations we have, are there only to protect mega-corporations from getting their just deserts.

    • Steve November 8, 2010, 5:54 pm

      Get over it. You are registered to a voluntary military voter scheme under the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. Your vote is advisory to a fused system under the executive called UNITED STATES, a corporation domiciled in the district in A.D. 1872. If one does not know where the problem is, how can they fix it. Study the Separation of Powers Doctrine, and how money is only under the control of the People via the legislative branch; which under F.D.R. commited high treason in placing money under the executive branch. Go ahead and vote as a slave,