Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Follow the money!!!

Once again, Bush/Cheney and their cronies are using fear to take the country for, literally, all it is worth. This entire Wall Street bailout plan is nothing more than yet another ploy to divert as much money as possible from the middle and working classes to the rich friends of the Bush administration. Bush and Cheney will be leaving office soon (if we're lucky) and they want to clean out the treasury on their way out. Look at absolutely everything that Bush has done during his reign. In every single instance, every single instance, the end result has been to take tax payers' money and put it into the pockets of a) a Bush or Cheney family member, b) a Bush or Cheney family friend, c) a Bush or Cheney business associate or d) a contributor to the Bush/Cheney campaigns. Now they want to take everything that's left. If it destroys the middle and working classes in the process, that only leaves them with more power. What could be the harm in that?

Before you call me a conspiracy theorist, take a look at the facts, (yes, facts - those liberal-leaning pieces of information that cannot be disputed) and remember, any time two or more people meet in secret in order to further their own aims at the expense of others while ignoring laws, rules or plain old right and wrong, it is a conspiracy, plain and simple. It happens all the time in the workplace, business, politics, families, you name it. The right has tried, quite successfully, to equate the phrase "conspiracy theorist" with "wacko," just as they are now trying to equate "community organizer" with, I don't know - terrorist or communist or something along those lines. Even so-called progressives have bought into it; they are scared to suggest that anything could be a conspiracy for fear of being labeled "wackos."

Let's play Follow the Money™!

Fact: Look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush/Cheney regime lied about the reasons for going to war. Haliburton (Cheney's former employer) and the Carlyle Group (Papa Bush is a bigwig in this one) have made billions on the wars. Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the money!

Fact: The "No Child Left Behind" Act. Millions of dollars spent in school districts across the country on mandatory testing, yet little or no federal support to finance it. Who pays? Taxpayers. Who profits? The McGraw family of McGraw Hill fame, who sell the tests, which are required by law, to the schools for multiple millions of dollars each year, and just happen to be close friends with the Bush family. Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the money!

Fact: Remember the whole terrorist scare with the duct tape? At the time, I joked to friends and family "Who makes duct tape and is friends with the Bushes?" It turns out that what I said as a joke ended up not being funny at all. The largest seller of duct tape in the country turned out to be a mega-contributor to the Bush/Cheney campaign coffers. Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the money!

Fact: The recent crackdown on illegal immigrants is putting more and more people in prisons built with the specific purpose of incarcerating "illegals." Millions of dollars are paid by the, you guessed it, taxpayers. Who's on the receiving end? Dick Cheney's son-in-law just happens to be a mover and shaker in the business of imprisoning "illegals." Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the Money!

With the proposed bailout, CEOs of "failed" banks and corporations will continue to draw huge salaries while the US Treasury pays for their greed and their criminal behavior. Mel, Floyd and Mr. Smartypants called it "privatized profit with socialized risk." Where will all the money come from? Ultimately, you and me. Who will benefit? Rich friends of the Bush/Cheney administration. These are people who, in a just society, would be tried and imprisoned (and, as Ralph Nader said in a recent speech, if you put all these rich people in prison, an added bonus would be an improvement in prison conditions), not rewarded with more of our money. Bush wants us to throw money at them. Why? Because if we don't "bad things will happen. Be scared and do what I say!" Is it any surprise that this financial crisis should occur so close to when they leave office? Coincidence? No I don't think so.

Follow the Money! Unfortunately, this could go on and on.

Read what Michael Moore has to say on the matter. He sums it up pretty well. "Oh, no! He's a conspiracy theorist!" But, remember, just because it's a conspiracy doesn't mean it can't be true. When that kind of money is involved, it would be naïve to assume that people with that kind of power and influence aren't conspiring. If you were George Bush or Dick "Dick" Cheney and thought you could get away with legally making off with $700,000,000,000 for you and your buddies, what would you do? Give me .0001% (one ten thousandth of one percent) of that and I'd feel rich beyond my wildest dreams. Not rich enough to forget how many houses I owned, but I could easily pay off my house and buy two or three more. Remember, you have to be a power-hungry, greedy bastard with no shame to think like Bush or Cheney. They don't think like normal people. In fact, they aren't normal people and they don't care at all about normal people. They think of themselves as royalty. They believe they are who and where they are because they deserve it and the purpose of the middle and working classes is to make money for them, god's chosen. As they see it, if the masses suffer as a result, even if they die as a result, that's only what the masses deserve and just as god wills it.

8 comments:

Fran said...

Holy crap Ed...

That is all that I can say right now.

gomonkeygo said...

I've been thinking much along the same lines, wondering where the money trail goes with this bailout and who will profit that is close to Bush/Cheney. Technically, that's lots of people. They know many greedy bastards.

I'm assuming that they hope the bailout will fail after they give their rich bastard friends more money. That way Obama will have a Depression-scale crisis on his hands and probably be a one-termer, is their assumption. It's their final fuck-you to the American people.

But I believe Obama will surprise them and handle the crisis. Because they are incapable of handling crisis without turning it into calamity, they assume everyone else is. I think he'll do the job and screw Newt Gingrich out of his chance at the Oval Office in 2012.

Suzy said...

They are worse than royalty. Some members of royalty actually show some human traits.

EXCELLENT (and disheartening) post. Jesus I am SO sick of these people that they make me feel ... well, sick.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Ed.

And in their wake, they've made damn sure that the rule of law has been massacred and so it's easy to commit future crimes.

Anonymous said...

'Just because you're paranoid don't mean that they're not after you'

I'm with you, Ed. It's all true, I'm certain. There are definitely a lot of British 'establsihment' interests tied up in all this too.

Anonymous said...

nukular or nuclear? Who are you going to vote for?

Ed said...

Franiam: That's kind of how I feel, too.

Gomonkeygo: I'm sure you're right that if Obama wins, they'll try and blame it all on him. If McCain wins, who will they blame it on? You can only blame Clinton for so long...

Suzy: Worse than some royalty, anyway.

Dcup: Thanks. I fear you are right. It's getting easier and easier for government to commit bigger and bigger crimes.

Sorghum Crow: Hello and welcome. That would be poetic justice; using a Haliburton-built jail to hold Wall Street criminals.

Singing Bear: We don't hear too much about what's happening in Britain over here in the US. A local radio station broadcasts a 30 minute BBC News show, and that's about it unless one does some poking around on the intertubes. Pretty pathetic.

Anonymous: Who wants to know? Just to satisfy my curiosity, where does Nader fall on the nukyular/nuclear spectrum?

Jess Wundrun said...

Ed, have you read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine"? Let me know if you haven't, I'll send it your way.

You are spot on!