Obama Cannot Explain This: [Reader Post]

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Twenty four centuries ago Socrates argued that the greatest of evils and the only evil worse than doing wrong was getting away with it. Since we experienced the economic near-collapse four years ago, we have also witnessed complete and utter failure in the administration of justice. Senior levels of the Department of Justice, of the banking industry, of the political system, are all “getting away with it.”

Is there any chance that Covington and Burling, the firm which represents JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, B. Of A., Wells Fargo, etc., and spawned AG Eric Holder and AAG Lanny Breuer, might be receiving disdain and a wagging finger from Socrates looking down from wherever he now sits and observes? Where have ethics gone?

We were recently provided with results of research which claimed that of five hundred financial sector senior executives in the US and the UK, 24% said unethical or illegal conduct was necessary, 26% said they had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing, and 30% said their compensation pressured them to violate their ethical standards or violate laws. What a surprise, we thought. How could that be? Even the talking heads pretended to be flummoxed. Here’s another one to stupefy the public: 26% of the respondents in this survey said they had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing. I don’t believe it. Any of it. Actually, it’s not that it’s not believable, because this is not an opinion arrived at through analysis – it is that this is simply not true. Such low percentages would fly in the face of common sense and human nature, . . .  oh, and observation.

These percentages are likely off from reality by 100%. No one with any faint familiarity of the Street reading these fictional statistics would have difficulty, if applying objectivity and assessment that driven by motivations such as self preservation, a vast majority would throw ethics aside in favour of bonuses and prolonged career well-being.

Anyone who has hovered around the Wall Street crowds knows, for example, that insider trading is “de rigueur.” There are laws which traders heed, such as, “don’t you dare make a trade for the house without inside information or some knowledge.” But we will continue to hear otherwise, and occasionally be spectators to a very public destruction of a sacrificial lamb.

HSBC Holdings this past week made news when it became the subject of allegations that it conducted money-laundering for drug lords, dictators, and thieves, operating in places from Mexico to Saudi Arabia. It didn’t help that the bank provided terrorists with access to U.S. Dollars and the U.S. Financial system. Why does this bank still have anyone holding an account after news like this? Why isn’t the executive suite and the Board of Directors flushed? Oh, of course, a resignation or two, like David Bagley, the head of HSBC compliance, and all is forgiven. No harm done.

When we watch a Congressional committee pretend to question Jamie Dimon, the head of JP Morgan, we know the sparring will not be a public admonishment, or even a censure. JP Morgan turned $5 billion into noxious vapors, and Dimon faces Congressmen and eats their lunch, or as Daniel Day Lewis might say, “Drinks their milkshake.” He is evidently smarter than anyone who faced him from the bench, and his arrogance intimidated them. Congressmen will not get truth from Dimon or any of the guys controlling the money joystick. What they seem not to know, is that Arrogance is rooted in Insecurity. Don’t back off, go get him.

Are we not amazed when we observe Ben Bernanke in front of the Senate Banking Committee telling them nothing, and being asked nothing? It’s a thing of beauty. Deer-in-the-headlights would look more effective from behind the bench. When Bernanke makes profound statements like, “The most effective way that the Congress could help to support the economy right now would be to work to address the nation’s fiscal challenges in a way that takes into account both the need for long-run sustainability and the fragility of the recovery,” followed by the unequivocal, desk pounding, and seizure causing, “We will evaluate our options going forward,” . . . and the Senators sit numb and clueless, but struggle to appear plugged-in. We shake our heads in disbelief at the dearth of political leadership. We then cross our fingers and turn to Justice and the system that should be getting answers and marching fraudsters unceremoniously to a tiny room. We hear nothing. Silence.

Trillions have been created to bailout financial institutions, governments, and a few too many companies. We have become numbed to the term “bailout.” Who controlled the bailouts? The very individuals who control the printing presses which you most fear, or should fear. Those very same presses which have decimated the purchasing power of your money over the past fifty years while moving economic controls beyond power of governments. It did not help to frame our confidence when we learned at least 18 former and current directors sitting on Boards of Federal Reserve Banks handed their own banks and companies over $4 Trillion in low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve. GE received $16 billion from The Fed, but does anyone in position to do something about it care that GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt was a New York Fed Board Member?

Jamie Dimon trumps Immelt, however, with JP Morgan getting $391 billion of the $4 trillion in emergency Fed funds. The amounts are insane, and of course, so are the bonuses these guys paid themselves. Their own Boards would never argue with them. That isn’t how the system works. It is not surprising that a Dimon walks into Congress and treats it as an annoyance. A gnat on his arm would get more respect. He doesn’t even approach Congress with contempt, he regards it as a bad joke. Conflict of interest? Abuse of power? No one asks. Guys like Dimon make Putin look like a kleptocratic piker.

Forbes magazine digs into its humour drawer and comes up with, “If Jamie Dimon had been on the Titanic, he’d have jumped in a lifeboat … and then issued a press release describing his heroism.” What jokes will Forbes come up with when the full extent of the Libor scandal finds daylight? Manipulating interest rates sounds uninteresting, compared to oil price manipulations. Uninteresting, unappetizing and tedious, until you discover that up to $800 Trillion in financial products depend on the Libor rate. No one knows the extent of the fraud. While you toil at your job, or trudge through the want ads looking for one, think of what shaving a few points here and there off $800,000,000,000,000 might mean as it bounces at the speed of electrons around the world.

And yet, from the well connected and well-paid heads of the DOJ, not a squeak. Still silence. Ssshhhh. There are no consequences. There can be no repercussions. The pretence for this inaction revolves around the supposed “complexities” of the financial sector where many heads should be rolling. The books are too big to understand, too big to analyze, too big for a forensic audit, and, well, . . . just too darned complicated to find guilt. Who believes this insanity? If any of the senior politicians who led the social/economic experiment which brought us the financial implosion, and a few senior bankers who took advantage of the abuse possibilities were even charged, not even convicted but just charged, there might be a chance at clarity going forward.

We hear nothing but misrepresentations from our genius experts and the media on the state of the National and global economies. The top of the food-chain on these misrepresentations, and those in the MSM feeding us the distortions without intelligent analysis, are anesthetizing the majority of taxpayers into paralysis.

So back to Socrates and consequences. Where is the most senior cop in America in all this? Where is his boss? Nowhere. With induced condoning from the AG and his needy leader, a lazy and uninformed MSM, and an inept Congress, the “they” whom we are intimately familiar with, are all “getting away with it.” Narcissism must be a contagious disease. Ethics or integrity anyone? Anyone? As Socrates claimed, getting away with it is the worst of evils.

Therein lies the product of Leadership Missing in Action.

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Bravo! One would think that Wall St. would be more concerned about it’s public image, but I see no evidence of that at all.

Wall Street only cares about profits—-theirs. If some of the little guys make money “investing” that’s a bonus. Only difference between brokers and pony handicapers—$500+ suits.
At least in Vegas you get free drinks and Showgirls.
Betting sports you may get to watch a great game.

@John Cooper:

Why should Wall Street be concerned with their actions with Eric Holder’s own law firm (which was also reponsible for the release and relocation to a tony island of the Chinese terrorists, the Ouigers, all done pro bono, of course) is representing them? And a law firm that Holder will return to after his term of injustice at DoJ is finally ended?

And let’s not forget who wrote the TARP act. Patrick Kennedy and Timothy Geithner, who was prior to his current gig, was head of the New York Fed.

So don’t blame Wall Street for the most corrupt system of patronage we have seen since FDR.

Thank You JR, for one of the most illuminating articles I have read since I fired up my first computer.

It is becoming obvious, we the serfs of America argue over a thimble full of sand, while the gangsters of government and Wall Street enrich themselves with the coastal sand or money of all of America.

Our national politicians have lowered themselves to the relative position of two dollar whores working for the pimps of big business. Our government and its agencies have become nothing more than gangsters with the law in their pocket. America’s wealth potential is so vast, our politicians and big business can steal wealth that is impossible to comprehend; unfortunately, they are stealing the wealth from average Americans. Americans watch their wealth and their standard of living disintegrate, while our robber barons pocket unimaginable wealth. Even our Entitlement classes could live well if the wealth of America wasn’t being stolen by these whores of DC and Wall Street.

We even have patriots who are willing to be killed to maintain this system of theft and corruption. These same legal gangsters are only too willing to send in our boys to be ground up in the meat grinder of war so that they may maintain their whorehouse that was once the USA.

These people are among the most vile ugly people who have ever walked the face of the earth; yet they have the gall to stand in front of America and plead for four more years to completely destroy the wealth of America.

This was a great article JR, but you and I have missed the mark in describing the depravity of these criminals, let’s try harder next time.

Skooks Politicians, Dem or Repub. are small time crooks compared to the robber barons of Wall St. who pull their strings. I’ve seen these guys laugh at “investors” as they line their pockets. They actually praise and reward the Gordon Geckos among them. More recently mortgage bankers have hopped on the culture of greed that permeates our society.
What happened to making money the old fashioned way–earning it? It’s true, not enough of these big wig scandlers are in jail or at least out on the street looking for a job.

If a financial institution is ”too big to fail,” then it is also too big to manage.
And that’s a big problem.
Remember early in Obama’s term, all of the stress tests and bank failures?
Gosh!
He wiped out the little guys one and two at a time until hundreds of our local banks were gone.

Now, the financial news networks talk about all of this every day.
One pundit, an expert on banking noted that when Obama has a choice between helping banks, helping Main Street, helping home owners, even would-be auto buyers, Obama ALWAYS goes with helping the banks.
The BIG banks.
The too big to fail or manage banks.
IF you might get a benefit from his arrangement after jumping through all the requisite hoops, OK.
But you are not the target of Obama’s largess.
The banks are.

@Richard Wheeler:

It’s true, not enough of these big wig scandlers are in jail or at least out on the street looking for a job.

It’s because these are amongst some of the most ruthless people in the world, Rich, and must not only look out for outside threats, but also the threats of those inside their industry looking to move up the ladder, or shove the competition out of the way. As such, they have learned how to be completely, or nearly, untouchable.

@retire05: #3,

This pathetic AG and his buddy were earning millions a year from their firm, and will return to even bigger pay days when they finish destroying the Justice system and its reputation.

@johngalt:
And crony capitalism…..on both sides of the aisle. I know a lot of people slam Sarah Palin, but can you imagine her being in charge of the SEC? Republicans would oppose her and democrats would oppose her; because frankly, she would walk in to kick a$$ and chew bubble gum, and there would be no bubble gum. That’s the kind of person we need running the SEC. And I’m with Mata on putting Ron Paul in as SecTres. I would buy a lifetime supply of Orville Redenbacher.

@Skookum: #4,

Thanks Skook, . . . some compliment. America’s Administration seems to be in the hands of Obama’s puppetteers, since he’s quite obviously the “front-man” who is effective in the Gladhander role. Behind them are clowns like Soros, who could care less about the country he is messing with – power and influence are his objectives.

Doing the Right Thing Right seems an impossible capacity to find in the country’s leadership and the size of the thefts have become too staggering to comprehend.

Government regulation, in the guise of “fairness”, or “helping the little guy”, created this monster.

Regulation and involvement by the government became hard for the little main street banks to overcome, just to make it. In order for an institution to survive, they either sold out to a larger firm, or partnered with other small-timers, becoming, in effect, a larger firm themselves, in an effort to stave off the predatory advances of government.

Once a banking institution got big enough, they could influence politicians. Bigger still and they owned the politicians. Still bigger and the politicians became the tools needed to keep government from even looking at them, except, of course, when they needed that shot of cash to keep them afloat. Then all of the politicians “in their pocket” helped draft a legal means of theft from the American people, and we were told it was because if these institutions “failed” that we would all fail.

@James Raider:

Doing the Right Thing Right seems an impossible capacity to find in the country’s leadership and the size of the thefts have become too staggering to comprehend.

The worst thing is the inclusion of entrepreneurs and corporations in the anger the left has over this theft, to the point that these ignorant fools are helping the thieves to steal even more wealth from America.

And the liberal/progressives and crony capitalist RINO’s are complicit in this slanderous lie, Obama leading the charge with his “tax the rich” campaign.

@johngalt: #11,

. . . . And Harvard Law graduate BARNEY FRANK is allowed to slithers away, back to Massachusetts without repercussion.

@johngalt: #12,

“The worst thing is the inclusion of entrepreneurs and corporations in the anger the left has over this theft, to the point that these ignorant fools are helping the thieves to steal even more wealth from America.”

Right On. This is one of the most disconcerting results of what spews out of this disgraceful Administration.

The uninformed acolytes of the narcissistic Puppet-in-chief seem to not understand the difference between “Bankers/Wall Street” and Entrepreneurs.

@Nan G: #6,

Yup. First, there should be no such term as “too-big-to-fail”. I don’t care what it is, a bank or General Motors, if you’re going down, you should go down. The system will pick-up the pieces worth retaining.

Second, There IS such a thing a too big. When a bank or a corporation gets too big, the entity becomes a massive bureaucratic blob and turns into its own political nightmare. Only in extremely rare situations, and none that I’ve witnessed on Wall Street, does a huge, too-big-to-fail, company have visionary and talented leadership.

@James Raider:

No, they don’t, JR, as you stated. The one tangible connection between the two, but also the one that Obama, the liberal/progressives, and the uninformed, are hammering the most at, is that they are “rich”.

@James Raider:

Second, There IS such a thing a too big. When a bank or a corporation gets too big, the entity becomes a massive bureaucratic blob and turns into its own political nightmare.

One thing about those that are “too big”, JR. At that point they have accumulated numerous politicians that they “own”, who are their point people within our government, tipping them off to impending legislation, steering legislation away from them, and in some cases, writing up the legislation that gives them more advantages. In effect, they own the government.

I agree with all the comments so far but I used to work for Bank of America up till January of this year. When the government calls you into a meeting with all the other banking heads of the USA and tells you, you aren’t leaving till you take federal loans something is broke. This was all done to cover the fact that the Democrats had been playing with the housing market since the 90’s and now their mislaid plans were collapsing in front of them and they panicked. They did the only thing they knew how to do they threw money at it and then tried to black mail the Banks by saying that now they were complacent for taking the money.

But the banks are not fools, they now have Washington and the politicians technically in debt to them for covering their ass even though it cost over a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. As others have said NO institution is too big to fail and they will ride that as long as they can for as much money as they can.

The Brits have no word for trillion, but we have people who add it to their vocabulary and toss it around like it is an amount they understand. Most people can’t describe a billion; yet, they support government spending and corruption in these amounts. They are selling their children’s and their children down river until the end of time as our fat cats have designed the perfect kleptocracy and convince Americans that doubting the wisdom and omnipotence of our leaders is unpatriotic. Until we clear out the corruption, America is dead. America is not about a gangster or mob mentality of legalized theft, but that is what we have for America now. Get mad at me, but dispute the corruption first.

Would you support Al Capone if he was in charge? No, that’s a joke: these people are much more ruthless and cunning than Al Capone could be in his wildest imagination. They are stealing your wealth while Useful Idiots skip through the streets dropping roses and apologies for our corrupt government as they continue to run through our streets stealing America’s wealth. Most of these people need to be in prison and unless the next administration goes to the core of the boil, they will be as guilty as those who preceded them. Covering for these gangsters is what they are all doing and that is why it continues unabated and providing diversions is what the media and our establishment Republicans are most proficient doing. Of course, if you continue to provide diversions and refuse to prosecute, your opportunity to steal America blind will be just around the corner. Do you wonder why your businesses are suffering and your property values have collapsed, just relax, Soros and his little underlings are more than happy to spend and own America’s wealth. He is old, but the power and control helps in feel his god-like persona. He and his puppeteers are more than ready to make our politicians dance and look stupid, what’s it too them, they are laughing at people who struggled to realize the American dream and then to steal their money in unimaginable amounts and be so stealth in their actions they have half of America begging for more. Oh how stupid we must look to the most despicable people who ever walked the face of the earth.

Wealth doesn’t just disappear, it ends up in someone else’s pocket. Sometimes the loss is through legitimate business decisions that went bad, but the biggest transition in the history of the world has been facilitated by our most loyal servants that comprise our government in Washington.

@Skookum:

They are selling their children’s and their children down river until the end of time as our fat cats have designed the perfect kleptocracy and convince Americans that doubting the wisdom and omnipotence of our leaders is unpatriotic…

…They are stealing your wealth…

… Oh how stupid we must look to the most despicable people who ever walked the face of the earth.

I have always thought that when the government ran out of other people’s money, they would go after the largest pot of money in the world: The retirement savings of the boomer generation. I never could figure out how they would do that, though. They couldn’t just outright steal it.

But now I know. I had enough put away for a comfortable retirement, but now about half of that has disappeared somehow. The only interest I can get on my savings is way less than the rate of inflation, and the only other option is to invest in risky overpriced equities or other Wall St. schemes.

It sure looks like Obama has adopted the method of his mentor, Vladimir Lenin:

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.

For some reason I’m forbidden from editing my previous post to add this other Lenin quote:

“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. “

Aleric The big shots at BofA weren’t too bright when they acquired that crook Angelo Mozilo’s Countrywide Financial.(he’d taken 500 million in compensation for loans that blew up) Rather than going to jail Mozillo retired with hundreds of millions from BofA. He was slapped with a sizable fine by the S.E.C.
Your C.E.O. was fired or resigned—stock went from around 40 to 4 and is currently around 8. Billions lost by Bof A common stockholders Blame the pols all you want. I’ll call it corporate stupidity and greed run amuk.

@John Cooper: #21,

The only interest I can get on my savings is way less than the rate of inflation, and the only other option is to invest in risky overpriced equities or other Wall St. schemes.

The likes of Geithner and Bernanke, along with those which Skook calls the useful idiots, have devastated all those who thought that “Saving” was a good thing.

I’m in your camp John, resenting that our savings have been gutted, . . . that our pensions have been used and squandered, . . . that a mindless head of The Fed has no creativity but to keep interest rates at Zero and persists in pressing ‘Control P’, . . . that anyone with two nickels to rub together is told to “play the market”, . . . and that those we elect join the long line of puppets on the take.

I think people are missing the biggest thing from JR’s post. Namely, the number $800 TRILLION.

If you consider that the combined world’s GDP is only around $70 Trillion or so, that $800,000,000,000,000.00 amount is unimaginable. And the fact that it is all affected by the manipulation of LIBOR by a handful of persons around the world seems incredible. Indeed, it’s almost like it came straight out of a fiction novel. How many people can even imagine a theft on that kind of scale?

@Richard Wheeler:

I’ll call it corporate stupidity and greed run amuk.

Thank you, Rich, for being a live example of my #12 and JR’s #14.

@johngalt: #25,

The biggest joke has to be that the Libor affecting this monstrous number is established by a few guys answering a daily asked question on interest, . . . “how much?” and they then SAY what they will offer (not what they actually charged) on interbank deposit rates (money borrowed from each other) each day, then the rate is set at 11:30AM. It’s like a bunch of guys sitting around a table deciding what they’ll have for lunch, except it’s not their lunch – it’s the one we’re eating. And what a lunch it is.

OK . . . second biggest joke: This rate impacts 10 major currencies not just affecting things like derivatives, but mortgages as well – kind of affecting everything.

@James Raider:

And the masses don’t notice that extra few cents here, the dollar there, as they have their shiny new playthings to play with, distracting them from the theft occurring. A very cruel joke.

But not as cruel as the situation causing otherwise intelligent people, like Rich, to include the corporate, the business, and the entrepreneurial people into the same category, and calling this theft by a name disconnected from the perpetrators. Corporate greed.

In the end, the people who actually perpetrate the crimes go off to their Swiss chalets or Caribbean mansions and laugh their way through dinner and $1000 bottles of wine at the stupidity and the helplessness of the people they are robbing blind.

John See it as you will I worked with Mozillo and can guarantee he was a crook. Are you calling him a misunderstood and poorly treated entrepreneur? Are you saying the leaders of BofA did their due diligence before acquiring Countrywide. That they are not primarily accountable for the collapse of the stock and losses suffered by their shareholders?
Greed is an ugly sin and it ain’t pretty John even if Ayn Rand and Gordon Gecko disagree.

@Richard Wheeler:

Good to see that you also miss the point. Although, given that I stated you are a “live example” of my post, that isn’t surprising in the least.

Here, Rich, let me spell it out for you s-l-o-w-l-y. By calling the crime ‘corporate greed’ you perpetuate the idea that Obama and the rest of the liberal/progressives espouse. That is, that corporate America is the problem. That they are the thieves. In short, you have wrongly tarnished a generalized entity, corporate America, by lumping them into the same group as the real criminals.

What you have done is akin to seeing two men go into a convenience mart and rob it, and then labeling everyone who goes into that convenience mart of being criminals.

As such, you are part of the problem of identifying the true criminals, Rich. Your belief in the liberal/progressive dogma that all corporate America is occupied by greedy, power hungry bastards is what these criminals are counting on. You identified a criminal and then someone shouted “squirrel”, and off you go, chasing after the squirrel.

Don’t worry, Rich. You aren’t the only one who has swallowed and regurgitated the lie being perpetrated on the American people used to continue the theft of our wealth.

@Richard Wheeler:

Greed is an ugly sin and it ain’t pretty John even if Ayn Rand and Gordon Gecko disagree.

Despite how “smart” you think that sounded, what it really shows is that you misunderstand completely what Rand says about Greed, Rich.

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed. – Ayn Rand

To understand what she is saying there is to understand what she says about greed, Rich.

John Your continued mantra is that “liberal/progressives” and lets not forget the dreaded “mainstream media” are the causality of all our woes . It gets very,very boring. It’s your simplified view of the American condition. We’ll see how it plays in the coming elections. I think the Dems. will achieve a 50/50 split in the Senate,lose few if any House seats, and retain The Presidency if Romney wanders too far right.As i’ve said before it’s lucky you’re not running a Perry or Cain or Gingrich.

BTW Did you know that Alan Greenspan is a devoted follower oF Ayn Rand? He always reminded me of Chauncy Gardner.

@johngalt: #31,

Methinks many misunderstood, or didn’t read, Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum.

The halls of academe have been filled for half a century by Professors who despised her and her writing, tainting the perception of this original intellect who very effectively stimulated thinking. Out of those halls, grew the simple minds who, for the most part, today fill the ranks of the MSM.

Even a good idea can be taken to such an extreme that it turns into dangerous dogma.

Corruption is ‘not only’ in our DOJ, our Congress, our White House, Wall Street, Corporations [white collar], among average Americans [welfare fraud – entitlement fraud…etc], Medicaid fraud….

It’s also in Chicago, in the American Muslim community to the tune if 90 Million Dollars -I stumbled upon this story about “Sunrise Equities” a sharia compliant investment firm…. and Obama’s name came up in this entanglement….

I wasn’t aware of this story…quite Interesting I’d say….

http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/search?q=sunrise+equities#.UA8yxmHcMTZ

Bottom Line – It’s all despicable no matter who does it or who’s involved in it…..

@Richard Wheeler:

Your continued mantra is that “liberal/progressives” and lets not forget the dreaded “mainstream media” are the causality of all our woes .

Not exactly, Rich. I blame the ideology of the liberal/progressives for the state of the country. I blame the MSM for enabling them. That you find no fault whatsoever in what they have done is telling. Either you have your head in the sand willingly, or the fantasy you have concocted about them to yourself is so great you don’t want to see the truth.

It gets very,very boring.

You don’t have to read it, Rich. I do hope, however, that you continue to read my posts.

It’s your simplified view of the American condition.

Rich, sometimes things really are black and white.

As i’ve said before it’s lucky you’re not running a Perry or Cain or Gingrich.

I don’t know about Perry or Gingrich, but Obama is very lucky that Cain dropped out.

BTW, I hardly count anyone who believes in, or leans toward, the Fairtax as the system we should go to, as a liberal/progressive. Do you know why I label them as I do? Because the people that are referred to as liberals today are actually progressives. Progressives lean heavily towards socialism, or statism, Rich, if not adopting their ideas directly. The classical liberals of the past are no more, unless, of course, you look to conservatives.

Conservative has become a nasty name the left uses to demean and denounce those on the right. However, conservatism stands apart from the GOP. Pols like McCain, Romney, Boehner and others with the R by their name are no more conservative than Lenin was. In some ways they are worse, as they talk one way and move a completely different direction.

What is sad, though, is that long-time Democrats cannot seem to recognize that their party has been taken over by the statist individuals that run it. People like Obama, DWS, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, and especially Pelosi all lean heavily towards socialism. And the RINO’s of the right support them.

I keep at it, Rich, hoping that someday those who have been enthralled by the left will wake up and realize that conservatives aren’t their enemy in this country. That the real enemy is the pols who are selling them down the river, most often with their consent.

If I’d told you back before 2000 that our President after 2008 would bow to foreign leaders, enable an identified militant Islamic terrorist sympathetic group to take over Egypt and Libya, soon to be Syria, paid off the very people who were at the center of a financial scandal, spend over $1 Trillion on special interest paybacks, essentially nationalize a domestic car maker, start the government towards complete control of our healthcare system, tell our neighbors to the north, and those in flyover country, to essentially f*ckoff and not allow a joint venture that would take us closer to being entirely independent of ME oil, tell the citizens to conserve and save while he jets off everywhere spending our tax dollars like there is no tomorrow, lie about having an open and transparent admin while being the most secretive President in recent memory, be head of an admin embroiled in a scandal that caused the deaths of Americans, and incite class warfare by threatening one class and alienating small-business owners, I would imagine that you would have told me you wouldn’t vote for that guy.

Believe me when I say, too, that McCain wouldn’t have been much better. I admit to being snowed by the GOP, Rich. I woke up. I realized that my domestic enemy wasn’t just the Democrats, but the GOP establishment as well. Our country is being run by a group of professional politicians whose only interest is their own well-being. And to do so, they keep the citizens fighting amongst themselves by nudging the anger one way, and then the other, all the while laughing themselves silly as they sit at dinner pissing away what to any ordinary citizen would be a significant sum of money. Reid doesn’t care about you. Obama doesn’t care about you. Pelosi doesn’t care about you. McCain doesn’t care about me. Romney doesn’t care about me. I’ve realized it. You haven’t. Wake up, Rich. You may be late in life now, but your children aren’t. Many of your neighbors aren’t.

Conservatism isn’t the evil here, Rich. Neither is liberalism. The evil is the direction those two camps are being pulled by the overseers of the GOP and Democratic Party by the corrupt people in charge of them, who, by the way, just happen to be in charge of our country right now.

@Greg:

Even a good idea can be taken to such an extreme that it turns into dangerous dogma.

I agree with that, Greg, as I’m sure many others here do as well.

@johngalt: #36,

We should recall what Obama really did with this: “essentially nationalize a domestic car maker” as you note above.

About the GM Bailout:

– Obama used DEBT (TARP cash) borne by the TAXPAYERS to bailout a failed company which should have been left alone to declare bankruptcy or been financed through other means such as bonds, etc.

– Obama used DEBT (TARP cash) borne by the TAXPAYERS to Purchase the adoration of unions (UAW and friends) and Leo W. Gerard. Union leaders are now forever indebted to Obama for having handed them control over an auto manufacturer. Obama’s campaign will receive the largest amount of money from his union friends ever received from these guys by any party ever. History is being made. Their rank and file have nothing to say about it. You pay, and you’ll vote for Obama or else. Have ever witnesses a larger “laundering” of cash for a political candidate? AND IT’S TAXPAYER MONEY.

– Obama used DEBT (TARP cash) borne by the TAXPAYERS to bail GM which now, if we believe CEO Dan Akerson, makes 70% of its cars in Asia. Hear that Trolls? 70%. And Obama tells outright lies while whining about Romney and Bain. The unions are still strangling the auto maker. Where is Obama? Where is the guy who pretended to be Captain America when he handed the keys to Unions and his regular W.H. visitors?

– Obama used DEBT (TARP cash) borne by the TAXPAYERS to wipe out GM dealerships across North America which had been built through generations of hard toil and sweat.

– Obama used DEBT (TARP cash) borne by the TAXPAYERS to enable Akerson to brag that GM now has 2,700 dealerships in China.

– Obama used DEBT (TARP cash) borne by the TAXPAYERS to enable GM, Cadilac to be exact, to pay for ads in China promoting the “The Birth of a Party” – a Chinese Communist Party for the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where is “Captain-America-Obama” now?

Oh, and TARP was supposed to be used for the banking industry. Obama/Jarrett & co. redirected the cash to suit their purposes.

Do we need to bring up the GM bondholders who were robbed by Obama/Jarrett?

. . . the story goes on and on.

@Richard Wheeler:

A little about Rand and greed, Rich.

She emphasized that businessmen at their best will first and foremost love their work and the challenge of creating products and services that earn them profits. If that’s greed, it’s to be praised!

Rand also singled out for condemnation businessmen who seek money by any means, including fraud, or government handouts and special favors. If that’s greed, it’s to be damned!”

To understand the difference between those is important, Rich. Liberal/progressives(both GOP and Democrat) denounce all greed, while participating in that which Rand said should be damned.

@James Raider:

Yeah, but I couldn’t really say all that in the paragraph I was writing. The post was pretty long as it was, lol.

@johngalt:

Conservatism isn’t the evil here, Rich. Neither is liberalism. The evil is the direction those two camps are being pulled by the overseers of the GOP and Democratic Party by the corrupt people in charge of them, who, by the way, just happen to be in charge of our country right now.

One of the responses I have ever read sir. It should be a post unto itself.