America, Hillary and the Banks, and the Conning of the American People

I hope I have made it clear that I loathe Hillary Clinton and I remain amazed that, despite the fact that poll after poll shows that the American people neither like nor trust her, she continues to look like our next President. To those still supporting her, I refer you to the Politics page of the April 13th Huffington Post.

She is till fighting release of her emails, and while they would no doubt show an embarrassing lack of judgment, the real reason likely has more to do with her Wall Street speeches. You know, the ones she got paid $225000 a piece for; the ones she gave to such fine businesses as Goldman Sachs, the businesses who gave us the housing collapse and the disastrous recession we are still trying to get over. If the emails are released, it would almost force the release of those transcripts, as she could not possibly justify hiding speeches to corporations when National Security matters had been made public. Well, she could, but I do not think even her most ardent supporters would put up with that, although, who knows at this point.

Contrary to what she might have led people to believe. those companies make it clear that they have no say over her release of those transcripts. She owns exclusive rights to them. Now, Hillary keeps braying that she 'stood up to the banks.' She was in the Senate when the economy began its collapse and she introduced one, just one, bill on the issue, a bill that was so inadequate it never got any sort of consideration. Then, when out of the Senate, she started raking in a sizable amount of money by giving her little talks.

People who were in attendance when she spoke, and there are a good number coming forth, say that not only did she not stand up to them, she spoke in glowing terms of the importance of those banks, making it clear that they deserved the full support of the US Government. She went on to say that not only could they not be allowed to fail, it was not totally their fault, that all Americans  were to blame for the economic collapse.

I do not know about you, but I really do not recall giving my permission for the banks to act like common con men. I may be aging, but I still have a pretty fair memory and I remember Ronald Reagan pushing through the deregulation of the banks, with great support from his cohorts in Congress, thus giving the big banks a license to swindle, and they went right at it. I have seen hogs at a feeding trough show more subtlety and restraint. Yet, these are the folks Ms. Clinton gushed over.

I rest my case. 

America and Fear - Part 4

Finally, we arrive at the era of Bush 2, George W., henceforth known in my blog as the Shrub. How this man became President is a mystery. Heck, how he graduated from Yale Law School is beyond me. The man can barely string two words together and coherent thoughts are foreign to him. I guess when your daddy is rich, ex Congress, exCIA, ex Vice President, ex President, you can get away with a lot. In my Is Paris Burning Series? on terrorism, I wrote of his disasterous Mid East policy, so for information on that I refer you there. All I need say here is that it has left us with a bunch of half decided battles, wars that will seemingly last forever, and a smear of deep red blood spread over the Mid East that is rapidly spreading to Europe. We have earned the enmity of most of the Moslem world.                                  

 

At home, he did no better. To be fair, the bank scandals that ultimately crippled the economy were not his doing. No,the Old Gipper convinced Congress that we didn't need any silly regulations hampering industries and they said a collective, "yes Sir." and dutifully repealed a lot of them. When the Shrub took office, the chickens came home to roost and we learned that some of the Nation's largest and most trusted Investment Banks were running scams that would make a common grifter blush, all the while giving themselves huge bonuses and raises.                                                 

Had it just been the wealthy who were hit when the crap hit the fan, I wouldn't care. After all, when you lie down with pigs, you ahould expect to get a might dirty, but many of the funds that failed were held by people who were just trying to get ahead in life, young couples thinking to the future of their kids and older couples hoping for a nice retirement. Gone, swindled. Again, not strictly the Shrubs fault, but when the truth became obvious, I don't recall him calling for criminal charges and prison terms. No, of course not, these were his buddies, his financial bakckers. In other words, these were the guys calling the shots and he knew not to mess with them.                                                                                 

To say I did not like him is an understatement, but, in retrospect, he almost looks good next to Obama. Almost. Our current President has less business holding that job than Elmo. He is arrogant and has come to believe that his word is law. I remember when the Government was in one of its perpetual budget crises. He threatened to block Social Security checks from being issued. When it was pointed out to him that such a move would cause great hardship for many, he made it clear tha he was unmoved by that and that he would follow that course of action if Congress did not bow to his wishes. Blessedly, they did.                                                                            

He has no comprehensive foreign policy. We are told, by him, that we have a plan, it will work, and he is sticking to it, despite great evidence to the contrary. The whole thing is a miserable failure. He is however pushing Climate control, something Americans are not as concerned about. Terrorism and the Economy, those are our basic issues right now, but Barry will have his way, and I guarantee that he will push through an agreement that will be a disaster, just like the horrible deal he made with Iran over their nuclear program.                                                                                           

Are Americans afraid? Damn right they are. They have come to see the government as the enemy and with good reason, since they have made a mess out of a great Nation.We have had years of constant, extreme change and on top of that, we have no idea where we are headed and no sign of a real, competent leader (sorry Trump, you do not inspire trust, no matter how much you try to sound like one of us). Pile stress upon stress and anyone will break. We haven't broken yet, but how much more we can take is questionable. In the next, and last part of this series, I will, attempt to throw out a few ideas. Nothing will be easy.