SUBHEAD: There has been corporate takeover of America with the help from our government. The Bank Bailout and Heath Reform fiasco are only symptoms, not the problems.
By Juan Wilson on 23 January 2010 for Island Breath - ()
Image above: The family owned two story Main Street Bank of Lewellen in Nebraska. From (https://onlinebanking.bankoflewellen.com/Pages/Default.html)
By now it is pretty obvious to everyone that global corporations have taken over running the world. President Eisenhower was right to warn us of the Military-Industrial Complex back in 1960. In a final farewell speech in 1961 se said: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." He had seen the rise of corporate fascism in Germany in the 1930-40s and had to fight it to its death. What was "corporate fascism"? The partnership of government, the military and industry. It is even a bigger and wider problem now. It is not just the military that has been included in the partnership. The team includes our food producers (GMO seed, corn-syrup, bottled water, fast food); and communication systems (mobilephones, social networking, telcoms); and culture (cable TV, CD's, iTunes, DVD's) and energy providers (powergrids, oil companies, natural gas distribution); etc. There is little we can do but to abandon our use of the corporations. My advice is to reduce participation with the corporations as much as possible.That means either giving up the services and products that they provide and transferring to some other means of production and distribution. Find other sources. In my mind this will require a mix of de-industrialization, regionalism and socialism. The alternative is the subjugation of humans (and the living Earth) to the non-living technology we have spawned. Refer to Terminator 2, The Matrix, Avatar... paradoxically all corporate blockbusters. Where possible try not buy things that are advertised, packaged, branded or widely distributed. I know that is pretty impossible today, but think about it as a target. In 1886 this country made a critical decision that set the stage. Back then railroad companies pretty much got whatever they wanted. The Pacific Railroad Company was in a dispute with Santa Clara County, California. The ensuing case was taken up by the United States Supreme Court. The Court decided then that a private corporation (railroad company) was a person and entitled to the legal rights and protections the Constitutions afforded to any person. Because the Constitution made no mention of corporations, it is a fairly clear case of the Court's taking it upon itself to rewrite the Constitution. Far more remarkable, however, is that the doctrine of corporate personhood, which subsequently became a cornerstone of corporate law, was introduced into this 1886 decision without argument. According to the official case record, Supreme Court Justice Morrison Remick Waite simply pronounced before the beginning of the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company that: "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does". As an aside, another decision of equal import was the granting of a patent for a living organism. Back in 1981, the U.S. government issued a patent to Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty for a genetically modified Pseudomonas bacterium that would eat up oil spills, the first patent of its kind. This opened the door for Monsanto, Syngenta et al to own the genetic information of living entities. Corpoations are not only human, but they can own the rights to living organisms. What insanity! If you have doubts about the direction things are heading right now, here are a few ecomonic headlines from overnight (1/22/10) that demonstrate who runs the world. The fix is in.
Goldman Sachs Investigated regards Subprime Mortgage Meltdown
Goldman Sachs sold bad debt to customers and bet against them. They fixed it so AIG backed up the hole they dug $billions deep. Jan. 22 (McClatchy Newspapers) --
One of Congress' premier watchdog panels is investigating Goldman Sachs' role in the subprime mortgage meltdown, including how the firm sold securities backed by risky home loans while it simultaneously bet that those bonds would lose value, people familiar with the inquiry said Friday.
The investigation is part of a broader examination by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the roots of the economic crisis and whether financial institutions behaved improperly, said the individuals, who insisted upon anonymity because the matter is sensitive...
Geithner Spoke to Buffett, Blankfein on AIG Aid Day
Geithner, a tool of Wall Street, arranged for bad bets by Goldman Sachs to be backed up by AIG at 1oo cents on the dollar. Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner spoke with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein on the day of the bailout of American International Group Inc., phone logs show...
Geithner also spoke that day with Citigroup Inc. CEO Vikram Pandit, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Henry Paulson, who was then Treasury secretary. Another call was with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet... Geithner ran the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which helped organize AIG’s rescue, on Sept. 16, 2008, when the calls took place.
UBS Client Wins Case on Transfer of Tax Data to U.S.
The rich who made a killing on speculation put their loot in Swiss banks to hide it from US Treasury and now can thumb their noses at Uncle Sam. Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A UBS AG account holder won a Swiss court case preventing data from being disclosed in a ruling that may impede a U.S. crackdown on overseas tax evasion. The failure by U.S. citizens to complete certain tax forms or declare income doesn’t constitute “tax fraud” that would require Switzerland to disclose account data, the country’s Federal Administrative Court ruled in a judgment released today...
“Provided the taxpayer did nothing more than not declare income, an account or return the form W-9, consequently committing tax evasion under Swiss law, he hasn’t acted fraudulently,” the five judges wrote. U.S. taxpayers use the W- 9 form to declare foreign bank accounts... This gloomy news is not all that is out there. There is a populist surge that could have positive results.
Some people are moving against the tide. For example, another headline from yesterday was in the Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington has mounted a campaign to have people draw their money from the big banks (Citi, Bank of America, etc.) and open accounts with local regional banks and credit unions. Below is one of the effects of that frame of mind.
New Mexico Bill To Move State's Money
By Staff on 22 January 2010 in the Huffington Post - (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/new-mexico-state-legislat_n_433325.html)
New Mexico state representative Brian Egolf has introduced a bill to move the state's money out of Bank of America and into banks and credit unions chartered in New Mexico.
"I saw the Move Your Money video the day it came out and thought it made a lot of sense," Egolf told HuffPost.
So the Santa Fe Democrat wants to move as much money as he possibly can -- that would be $1.4 billion.
Egolf's bill would direct the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration to "give a preference to a community bank to act as the fiscal agent of the general fund operating cash depository account."
Egolf said the account, which is essentially the state's checking account, holds $1.4 billion and is managed by Bank of America. Egolf's bill directs state officials to study the feasibility of dividing up the account and distributing it between community banks and credit unions throughout the state. He said he discussed the measure with Gov. Bill Richardson (D) for an hour on Thursday, and that the governor supported the measure.
Egolf said moving state funds into local banks or credit unions would benefit the New Mexico economy by freeing up local credit. "The potential size and impact of moving this money is monumental. The biggest bank in the state right now has $2 billion in assets."
He added that he hasn't heard any opposition to his proposal from any of his colleagues in either party in the New Mexico legislature and expects the measure to be taken up in the next three weeks. His goal is to move the money by the end of the year.
"The only concern I've heard really is, 'How soon can we do it?'" he said. "I'm not getting any defense of the big banks. There's a huge appeal to keeping our money local. The income Bank of America earns from managing this money goes straight to New York."
Bank of America doesn't seem very intimidated by the bill.
"We are pleased to have the State of New Mexico as a client and look forward to continuing that relationship," said a bank spokesman in an email.
Egolf said he was in the process of moving his own money to the Los Alamos National Bank.
Click here to see the bill.
By Juan Wilson on 23 January 2010 for Island Breath - ()
Image above: The family owned two story Main Street Bank of Lewellen in Nebraska. From (https://onlinebanking.bankoflewellen.com/Pages/Default.html)
By now it is pretty obvious to everyone that global corporations have taken over running the world. President Eisenhower was right to warn us of the Military-Industrial Complex back in 1960. In a final farewell speech in 1961 se said: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." He had seen the rise of corporate fascism in Germany in the 1930-40s and had to fight it to its death. What was "corporate fascism"? The partnership of government, the military and industry. It is even a bigger and wider problem now. It is not just the military that has been included in the partnership. The team includes our food producers (GMO seed, corn-syrup, bottled water, fast food); and communication systems (mobilephones, social networking, telcoms); and culture (cable TV, CD's, iTunes, DVD's) and energy providers (powergrids, oil companies, natural gas distribution); etc. There is little we can do but to abandon our use of the corporations. My advice is to reduce participation with the corporations as much as possible.That means either giving up the services and products that they provide and transferring to some other means of production and distribution. Find other sources. In my mind this will require a mix of de-industrialization, regionalism and socialism. The alternative is the subjugation of humans (and the living Earth) to the non-living technology we have spawned. Refer to Terminator 2, The Matrix, Avatar... paradoxically all corporate blockbusters. Where possible try not buy things that are advertised, packaged, branded or widely distributed. I know that is pretty impossible today, but think about it as a target. In 1886 this country made a critical decision that set the stage. Back then railroad companies pretty much got whatever they wanted. The Pacific Railroad Company was in a dispute with Santa Clara County, California. The ensuing case was taken up by the United States Supreme Court. The Court decided then that a private corporation (railroad company) was a person and entitled to the legal rights and protections the Constitutions afforded to any person. Because the Constitution made no mention of corporations, it is a fairly clear case of the Court's taking it upon itself to rewrite the Constitution. Far more remarkable, however, is that the doctrine of corporate personhood, which subsequently became a cornerstone of corporate law, was introduced into this 1886 decision without argument. According to the official case record, Supreme Court Justice Morrison Remick Waite simply pronounced before the beginning of the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company that: "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does". As an aside, another decision of equal import was the granting of a patent for a living organism. Back in 1981, the U.S. government issued a patent to Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty for a genetically modified Pseudomonas bacterium that would eat up oil spills, the first patent of its kind. This opened the door for Monsanto, Syngenta et al to own the genetic information of living entities. Corpoations are not only human, but they can own the rights to living organisms. What insanity! If you have doubts about the direction things are heading right now, here are a few ecomonic headlines from overnight (1/22/10) that demonstrate who runs the world. The fix is in.
Goldman Sachs Investigated regards Subprime Mortgage Meltdown
Goldman Sachs sold bad debt to customers and bet against them. They fixed it so AIG backed up the hole they dug $billions deep. Jan. 22 (McClatchy Newspapers) --
One of Congress' premier watchdog panels is investigating Goldman Sachs' role in the subprime mortgage meltdown, including how the firm sold securities backed by risky home loans while it simultaneously bet that those bonds would lose value, people familiar with the inquiry said Friday.
The investigation is part of a broader examination by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the roots of the economic crisis and whether financial institutions behaved improperly, said the individuals, who insisted upon anonymity because the matter is sensitive...
Geithner Spoke to Buffett, Blankfein on AIG Aid Day
Geithner, a tool of Wall Street, arranged for bad bets by Goldman Sachs to be backed up by AIG at 1oo cents on the dollar. Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner spoke with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein on the day of the bailout of American International Group Inc., phone logs show...
Geithner also spoke that day with Citigroup Inc. CEO Vikram Pandit, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Henry Paulson, who was then Treasury secretary. Another call was with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet... Geithner ran the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which helped organize AIG’s rescue, on Sept. 16, 2008, when the calls took place.
UBS Client Wins Case on Transfer of Tax Data to U.S.
The rich who made a killing on speculation put their loot in Swiss banks to hide it from US Treasury and now can thumb their noses at Uncle Sam. Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A UBS AG account holder won a Swiss court case preventing data from being disclosed in a ruling that may impede a U.S. crackdown on overseas tax evasion. The failure by U.S. citizens to complete certain tax forms or declare income doesn’t constitute “tax fraud” that would require Switzerland to disclose account data, the country’s Federal Administrative Court ruled in a judgment released today...
“Provided the taxpayer did nothing more than not declare income, an account or return the form W-9, consequently committing tax evasion under Swiss law, he hasn’t acted fraudulently,” the five judges wrote. U.S. taxpayers use the W- 9 form to declare foreign bank accounts... This gloomy news is not all that is out there. There is a populist surge that could have positive results.
Some people are moving against the tide. For example, another headline from yesterday was in the Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington has mounted a campaign to have people draw their money from the big banks (Citi, Bank of America, etc.) and open accounts with local regional banks and credit unions. Below is one of the effects of that frame of mind.
New Mexico Bill To Move State's Money
By Staff on 22 January 2010 in the Huffington Post - (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/new-mexico-state-legislat_n_433325.html)
New Mexico state representative Brian Egolf has introduced a bill to move the state's money out of Bank of America and into banks and credit unions chartered in New Mexico.
"I saw the Move Your Money video the day it came out and thought it made a lot of sense," Egolf told HuffPost.
So the Santa Fe Democrat wants to move as much money as he possibly can -- that would be $1.4 billion.
Egolf's bill would direct the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration to "give a preference to a community bank to act as the fiscal agent of the general fund operating cash depository account."
Egolf said the account, which is essentially the state's checking account, holds $1.4 billion and is managed by Bank of America. Egolf's bill directs state officials to study the feasibility of dividing up the account and distributing it between community banks and credit unions throughout the state. He said he discussed the measure with Gov. Bill Richardson (D) for an hour on Thursday, and that the governor supported the measure.
Egolf said moving state funds into local banks or credit unions would benefit the New Mexico economy by freeing up local credit. "The potential size and impact of moving this money is monumental. The biggest bank in the state right now has $2 billion in assets."
He added that he hasn't heard any opposition to his proposal from any of his colleagues in either party in the New Mexico legislature and expects the measure to be taken up in the next three weeks. His goal is to move the money by the end of the year.
"The only concern I've heard really is, 'How soon can we do it?'" he said. "I'm not getting any defense of the big banks. There's a huge appeal to keeping our money local. The income Bank of America earns from managing this money goes straight to New York."
Bank of America doesn't seem very intimidated by the bill.
"We are pleased to have the State of New Mexico as a client and look forward to continuing that relationship," said a bank spokesman in an email.
Egolf said he was in the process of moving his own money to the Los Alamos National Bank.
Click here to see the bill.
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