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The "Ownership Society" By Mike Malloy

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Demeter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-16-08 06:30 AM
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The "Ownership Society" By Mike Malloy
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The--Ownership-Society--by-Mike-Malloy-080714-710.html


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Are you enjoying the show?
What are you thinking as you watch the destruction of what once was the greatest economic engine on earth? The Bush Crime Family's rapacious efficiency in devouring everything it touches has been truly amazing. The military; energy policy; the regulatory agencies necessary for consumer safety; our education system; the availability of decent health care. The examples of theft, fraud, lies and deceit are endless. And now, in the final days of this completely corrupt Bush/Republican enterprise, one after another, financial institution after financial institution, all are collapsing, sucked dry, utterly hollowed out, every single asset stolen, and all of it engineered by the most outlaw organization in history.

Investors - not all of them greedy manipulators - watch as their financial stocks plunge 70 percent in less than a year. Chaos and panic are so close to enveloping the entire U.S. financial structure that one of the key bandits - Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson - was compelled this weekend to offer yet another "snatch and grab" taxpayer-funded handout to yet another pair of financial organizations by opening the doors to yet another corrupt cesspool of capitalist thieves, the Federal Reserve. The proposed "loan" would go to two more (now essentially) unregulated financial rip-off experts, the oh-so-cutely nick-named Fannie Mae (correctly: The Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) mortgage companies.

It's not going to work. All this shifting hither-and-yon-back-and-forth-over-here-over-there-now-you-see-it-now-you-don't-bullshit of the nation's remaining financial liquidity will ultimately do nothing to replace the trillions of dollars wasted, misappropriated, and stolen. Which was the Bush Crime Family's intent to begin with. Break everything. From the military to the banks. Smash it all. Fill it with corruption and watch it rot. Steal these dumb-ass taxpayers blind. Bankrupt them. Drive them into so much debt and poverty that eventually they'll accept any job at any wage they're offered. Rip them to pieces. Burn their dreams. They are nothing. Zero. Less than zero. The Crime Family members get the profits, we get the losses. They make hundreds of millions, we file for bankruptcy. It has all been about privatized profits and "socialized" losses - as Paul Krugman points out in his column today. Krugman zeroes in on the latest scam, the "bag-holding" the tax-paying suckers once again will be forced to perform in order to rescue the nation's two largest mortgage holders.

"The case against Fannie and Freddie begins with their peculiar status: although they're private companies with stockholders and profits, they're 'government-sponsored enterprises' established by federal law, which means that they receive special privileges. The most important of these privileges is implicit: it's the belief of investors that if Fannie and Freddie are threatened with failure, the federal government will come to their rescue.

"This implicit guarantee means that profits are privatized but losses are socialized. If Fannie and Freddie do well, their stockholders reap the benefits, but if things go badly, Washington picks up the tab. Heads they win, tails we lose."

Heads they win; tails we lose. Again. Remember the S&L corruption of the 1980s? (John McCain would remember that clearly.) S&L owners (like Bush Crime Family brother Neil Bush) offered impossibly high interest rates to attract lots of federally insured deposits, then gambled with or simply stole the money. When many of the criminals' bets went bad, the public ended up covering the enormous "losses." The cleanup cost taxpayers more than $100 billion. Or was it 200 billion? 300? We - you and I - will never know the truth. Remember a few years ago when Bush (or was it Cheney?) touted the term "ownership society"? Uh-huh. Go buy a home. No money down. No money needed. Ever. Smoke and mirrors. Pretend it's all real. Pretend you have something. Watch how they snatch it away. Listen to the tearing sound. Smell the fear that is flooding the country.

So, here we are again. Ripped, raped, laughed at, bankrupted so the connected, the rich, can continue to play. And steal. And laugh at the unimaginable damage they leave in their polluted wake. Again, then, the questions: How much more of this will we continue to absorb? How much longer before we finally resist? When does the revolution begin? And, where?






Authors Website: http://www.mikemalloy.com/live/

Authors Bio: Mike Malloy is a former writer and producer for CNN (1984-87) and CNN-International (2000). His professional experience includes newspaper columnist and editor, writer, rock concert producer and actor. He is the only radio talk show host in America to have received the A.I.R (Achievement in Radio) Award in both Chicago and New York City, the number three and number one radio markets in the country. His radio experience includes the 50,000 watt blow-torches in both the South and the Midwest, respectively WSB-AM in Atlanta and WLS-AM in Chicago, and as one of the original hosts on Air America - a two-year-long association that ended in a massive train wreck. Mike's nationally-syndicated program can now be heard weeknights on affiliates of the Nova M Network and on XM Satellite and Sirius Satellite Radio as well as on live Internet streaming. It is not difficult to pigeon-hole Malloy politically. Generally speaking, he is a traditional Liberal Democrat doing his part to return the Democratic Party to its Liberal roots.
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corkhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-16-08 09:59 AM
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1. laser sharp and spot on. K&R
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Hydra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-16-08 10:22 AM
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2. I always laugh when the term "Ownership Society" comes up
How many people really own their homes? Mortgages don't count- you are renting to own in that case. Your car? Loaned or leased?

And don't forget that they wrecked our ability to declare bankruptcy...while they freely socialize their losses to us.
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1776Forever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-16-08 11:41 AM
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3. One of Mike's best comments - I really like "privatized profits and "socialized" losses" comment
Don't we all really get tired of those on the Right who say - "If you give our citizens health care it is socialism." But our government bails out banks and pays off our debts to Japan, and China but cannot help our own citizens. I know I do! We are leaving Florida because there are no jobs here for us except $8.00 an hour part-time jobs and we are moving back to a mobile home up North so we can afford to live out our retirement with a roof over our heads!

My family came here in the 1770's and my husbands did too from Europe as indentured servants. My husband is a retired military Vietnam Vet, and I am the mother of 5 sons, 3 of whom served in the Military and 2 of those went to War for the Bush's. One son is chronically ill and didn't have insurance and we lost our little savings to help him until he got his SSI through. This country must wake up and realize we are loosing our middle class! It is such a sin and a shame I cannot tell you how depressed I am, and I know many others feel the same way!

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