Our Conure at 26 mos., "whats up", okay, thank you! :)
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http://www.answers.com/topic/james-madison
Whatever it was supposedly based on, it was founded on the blood of Native Americans, and genocide for the European expansion. The right to religious freedom didn't seem to include them, and they were some of the most spiritual people on earth. They didn't even know of the European, MiddleEastern or Asian religions, but they would in time, one way or the other even at the point of a gun.
Its hard to fathom a real Christian who professed to believe in the Commandments, both old and New Testaments would break the one that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself". Although the Constitution may have been formed based on the 10 Commandments how many really lived by them, or the 2 in the New Testament?. I believe in theory we would have been better off as a people if we had strived from the beginning to live by just these 2 laws.
The founding fathers nor the people before them led by example, and thats the sad part of it all. If they had you would think it would be a different country today?
Jeez they were burning women who they believed to be witches in Salem. Some of these very acts were carried out in England, and a person need not be a witch, just on the wrong side of the King.
Where is Berman in relation to all this?. Does he ever explain just how he plans to get the money to do all that he proposes?. Just read about the kind of money it takes to get something like this going, and this is just on 5 acres. Berman and friends only want to pad their pockets, thats his only real goal, his historical past and his lies to the investing public have proven it. He's nothing more than a thief!, no matter how he tries to slice and dice it, he and his buddies are all guilty of taking investors dollars to enrich themselves. He's always creating new business models after he's used up the last one to get all the money he could for himself. This is no different.
Give this a read:
http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/1d6-7d9-2-d
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/colorado-company-to-take-algae-based-fuel-to-the-next-level/
"We have staked the whole future of America's civilization...upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments".
James Madison
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/markets/dollar/index.htm
Robert MorleyColumnist
The End of the Dollar System
January 18, 2011 | From theTrumpet.com
The dollar reserve currency system is a “product of the past”—but what will emerge to replace it?
This week Chinese President Hu Jintao is being wined and dined with a lavish state banquet at the White House and other official ceremonies usually reserved for America’s closest friends and allies. Why all the pomp and circumstance? One must be very polite when entertaining your banker—even if you don’t like him and he doesn’t like you.
Yet there is another more ominous but closely related reason Washington is rolling out the red carpet for China.
For years, China has warned America that its support for the dollar was not unconditional. The warnings fell on deaf ears. Reassured by academics and New York Times columnists that China was virtually forced to lend money to America, Washington embraced a borrow-and-spend policy that would have destroyed any other currency.
Then last year, when it became clear that America could not borrow enough money to pay the bills—it stepped boldly across the Rubicon—declaring that the laws of paper money no longer applied to the mighty dollar. Supply and demand, and America’s creditors, be ignored: America would just print up whatever money it needed to pay the bills. $900 billion—75 percent of America’s borrowing needs—would be conjured out of thin air, declared Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke.
The world was shocked that America would so callously abuse the world’s reserve currency. France, Germany, Russia and China were outraged. But Americans were reassured that the world is caught in a dollar trap and can do nothing about it.
And so far, things have worked out pretty well for America. With several European countries falling apart, the dollar has firmed up, and safe-haven money has continued to flow into America.
But is it possible that Washington might just now be starting to experience nagging inklings of doubt?
As the Washington Post wrote on Sunday, “strange things are happening in Europe—none stranger than the emergence of China as the continent’s sugar daddy.”
But wait a minute! I thought China was America’s “sugar daddy.” Which is it?
Just follow the yen—or perhaps more accurately, look who’s getting the sugar and who isn’t. In July 2009, China held $939 billion worth of U.S. treasury debt. More than a year later China’s holdings have fallen to $895 billion. This is big news—and surely isn’t lost on Washington. For more than a year, America’s most important creditor has stopped lending new money to America. And the money that it has previously lent to America, it has been rolling over to short-term loans as opposed to long-term.
Instead, China is investing its money, and its confidence, in Europe.
Today, Europe matters more to China than any place in the world—including America. That might come as a shock to some, but it shouldn’t. With 400 million First World consumers and the world’s largest economy, the European Union is by far China’s biggest export market. As American politicians continue to lambaste China for unfair trade policies, China’s trade with and attachment to Europe grows daily.
It is a reciprocal relationship, too. China now directly holds over $900 billion worth of eurozone national debt. In Greece, China is investing billions more as it attempts to build the Mediterranean port city of Piraeus into the “Rotterdam of the south,” and create a modern-day silk road linking Chinese factories with consumers across Europe and North Africa.
Most importantly, China has thrown its weight behind the euro.
Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that Vice Premier Li Keqiang’s recent trip to Europe literally transformed “Europe’s economic picture to an extent that no other foreign figure” has done. Li, China’s third in command, has in short, “become Europe’s rescuer.”
At a time when some commentators were predicting the collapse of the eurozone, Li, who is a favorite to become the next prime minister of China, appeared to throw China’s $2.85 trillion worth of foreign exchange reserves into Europe’s breach, promising to be a committed and responsible long-term investor in Europe. icbc bank, China’s largest lender, quickly followed suit, announcing that it will move full force into the eurozone. It will open its first-ever branches in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. It has already opened offices in Frankfurt and Luxembourg.
Li’s support is already paying dividends in Europe. With interest rates coming down from recent highs and successful debt auctions, Spain and Portugal got a welcome taste of what several billion euros’ worth of Chinese “sugar” can do. The sugar rush is an experience America has become dependent upon but has been doing without lately.
But China’s support for Europe is also creating some toothaches. “We hope that the EU will relax restrictions on high-tech exports to China and develop trade relations that are balanced and sustainable,” wrote Li last week. China not only wants more trade, but wants access to Europe’s defense companies.
Europe seems all too willing to do business. The EU’s Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton has already called for abolishing Europe’s arms embargo with China. Reportedly, American officials, who have to deal with a rapidly growing Chinese military presence in the Pacific, are furious.
But it was what Hu Jintao told the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post just prior to his arrival in Washington that should have all Americans preparing for one massive sugar crash. He raised important questions over the future of the dollar saying that it should no longer be used as the world’s reserve currency. It is a “product of the past,” he said. It is time for a more fair and balanced system. In a reference to American “money printing” he specifically said America needed to watch very carefully what it does.
But what does China think should replace the dollar? Hu himself said it wouldn’t be the yuan. What does that leave?
Follow the sugar.
“The euro will overcome the region’s deficit crisis,” assured Song Zhe, China’s ambassador to Europe, back in December. The cementing of the euro’s status will “promote the building of a diversified global currency system.”
Remember: When anyone talks about “diversifying” the global currency system, by definition it means ditching the current system—which is the dollar.
And China isn’t alone in shifting support to the eurozone. Just last week, Japan announced that it too would be stepping up its efforts to back Europe by purchasing eurozone debt. According to Reuters, Japan will purchase 20 percent of soon-to-be-issued Eurobonds. The Eurobonds would be jointly issued and backed by all members of the eurozone—creating a new debt market that will directly compete with U.S. treasuries. In case you are wondering where Japan would get the money to purchase Eurobonds, as America’s second most important lender, it has a whole stack of treasuries it would probably love to “diversify” out of.
If the world wants out of the U.S. dollar, there is only one viable paper alternative: Europe.
According to Li Daokui, an academic member of the Chinese central bank’s monetary policy committee, Americans only have months to prepare—while Europe works to get its act together. “For now, market attention is still on Europe and for the coming 6 to 12 months, it will not shift to the United States,” said Li on December 8. “But we should be clear in our minds that the fiscal situation in the United States is much worse than in Europe. In one or two years, when the European debt situation stabilizes, attention of financial markets will definitely shift to the United States. At that time, U.S. treasury bonds and the dollar will experience considerable declines.”
Strange things are happening in Europe. Now you know why. The international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944 is on the verge of breaking down and the dollar will soon be fighting for its survival as the world’s reserve currency. •
I don't know what solutions need to be adopted, but I do know that its a security net Americans need, and it needs to be preserved for our elderly who are in need of it, and for our disabled who did or didn't serve in the armed forces. If we can't take care of our weakest, and most vulnerable we aren't much of country. The rich more than anything want to protect what got them their in the first place. Especially their money.
Spitzer thinks means testing may be the answer to getting it under control. This would eliminate the billionaires and the multi millionaires from receiving what they don't need. Its really disgraceful. For them its just pocket change. Imagine Bill Gates, and Ellison getting the largest amounts social security can pay out each month. Both use their companies as personal ATM's, the biggest racket going.
You may have some good ideas about how they can contribute or should. Ted Turner giving a billion to the UN, could have given it to a program like this or helped to build a Veterans hospital or clinics where none exist. Bob Barker is a good ole soul, he's done alot in helping out the vets, and for the saving of our Whales. Unlike most who want to be called Philanthropist to cover their greed.
The UN is a farce and full of corruption and does little anyway to solve world problems.
Even as a vet I have to do a means test each year to see what I qualify, and don't qualify for. Something I never thought I would have to do. A promise, and guarantee broken by the government, but thats the way it is. Nothing new for them, and something their known for. Whether its was their Treaties to the Native American, the American people, or the Vets.
Whether I'm a vet or not I think we owe our very freedoms to the men and women who put it all on the line for us 24/7 365 days a year. Our WW2 vets are the cream of the crop. The ones that made it back. I hope we can keep them around for many years to come so they can tell those stories about how they kicked the hell out of those Japanese and Germans. Not to take anything away from all those who serve, and served, they aren't the blame for the unjustified situations our government puts them in. Vietnam, and Iraq. Iran is at the core of most of the trouble in the Middle East. It goes largely ignored.
Glenn Beck is calling on the American people to support his cause for the elimination of social security except for the elderly who are receiving it today.
His message should go out first to the Billionaires, and millionaires, and all those in Congress present and past to give up theirs. Plus their perks, plus their health insurance, government credit cards, and a host of other things.
Glenn Beck can make these big bold statements because he's secure in his millions. But ask the guy who worked 30 years for the subsidiary Enron purchased, and his pension. The stock he owned coverted to Enron stock. It was an electric company on the West Coast. He had over $200k in it. When he was allowed to sell it, it was worth a little more than $200.
Just how handsomely does it pay to be one of the most controversial men in America? For Glenn Beck, $32 million.
Beck, who became a household name in 2009, pulled in the shocking sum through a revenue stream that includes books, radio, TV, digital media, and speaking fees.
Interestingly, Forbes reports that Beck's Fox News contract is the least lucrative of all his ventures.
According to the Forbes analysis, Beck earned $12 million from book sales thanks to his "profit participation co-venture with Simon & Schuster typically reserved for authors like Stephen King." He has a five-year, $50 million contract with Premiere Radio Networks that netted $10 million for the year. His website, supported by both ads and an "Insider" subscription service as well as retail merchandise sales, brought in another $4 million. Speaking fees and events like his "Bold Fresh Tour" with Bill O'Reilly earned him $3 million, and his Fox News contract brought in $2 million. Add in a final $1 million from his Fusion magazine, and Beck had a $32 million year.
Beck told Forbes that he is more interested in the business than the politics of what he does.
"I could give a flying crap about the political process," he said. "We're an entertainment company."
Yep!, and to think they are the media moguls of finance Cnbc, here and abroad 15+ hours a day. They're in the business of telling people how they can make money through investing, or so people might think?. Ever ask who needs all that information, and just how valid it is?. They cater to Wall Street. How many times have they had egg on their face?. They're kinda like the pitchmen for Wall Street. They've proven the can move the market, and in big ways. More often than not the small investor gets hammered.
GE doesn't pay a penny in taxes, hasn't and won't for the foreseeable future. All is good in la la land.
If this were us, and something doesn't pan out on our taxes for whatever reason, and audit for example, an the IRS determines we owe as little as $100 they will come after us, the only avenue is to dispute it in court if we believe we don't. The judge who hears the case will make the determination at a later date. If its determined in their favor, as in most cases, it will linger till its resolved. During this time they have any number of ways of collecting it, and they will, and during this time add penalties and interest. GE on the other hand gets a pass every year for whatever reasons??. Their accounting is always perfect. Just like Arthur Andersons. Who knows how many clients, how many corporations they cooked the books for?. They must have had a department in their firm working constantly to shred, bag, and burn. Being a multinational does have its many advantages, just like the offshore hedgefunds.
The Republican party wants to reduce the SEC's workforce by 600. The agency should be eliminated, and a new strong enforcement agency needs to be created something like the KGB. If the SEC did what it should, and working with Congress toward "Real" financial reform the kind of stuff we've witnessed on more than one occassion wouldn't happen again. But as it stands the likelyhood of something like it, or worse occurring again is very likely. Nothing has really changed, its business as usual with Wall Street, and publicly traded corporations making the rules. Other than Bernie Madoff whose been indicted, and whose going to jail for all the corruption in fraud?. Who within Goldman Sach's, Aig, Citi Bank, Lehman's, JP Morgan, Bank Of America, Bernie Madoff the one big scapegoat, like Saddam was responsible for 911. One caused the financial meltdown, and the other the terrorist of the world.
Take this slap on the hand for acting up, and being such bad boys!http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/njn/news.newsmain/article/0/13/1761896/Top.Stories/SEC.charges.ex-IndyMac.execs.with.fraud
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/corporate-governance/101107-sec-fines-diebold-25-million-for-using-fraudulent-tactics-to-inflate-earnings
http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200812272452445
For those who didn't see this documentary it aired recently. Its really worth watching. This author gives a little different perspective than David Faber's House Of Cards but every bit as interesting.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/12/60minutes/main6292458.shtml
One World Government?. A myth or a reality we're moving toward?
Glen Beck seem's to be projecting this. A book by Hal Lindsey, "The Late Great Planet Earth", published in 1970 covered such a scenario. He stated European countries would one day unite, and make up what once was the Holy Roman Empire. Having read it decades ago, and while in the military this stretched the imagination, but listen to this video. It doesn't seem to be such a stretch any longer.
Its not what Roosevelt envisioned or wanted for this country,
nor Truman, or Eisenhower. Not Bradley, nor Patton, who all loved this country, and were willing to die for it, two of them did. One prior to the war ending, and one in its conclusion. How would they have reacted to 911 or Fort Hood, or the Oklahoma bombing?. I bet not one mountain would have been left standing in Afghanistan, and pursuing those responsible into Pakistan would have been a forgone conclusion till they were killed or captured. It was more about Iraq, when the solution to both problems is really Iran. This goes largely ignored.
How about Waco> would either president then jeopordized the lives of so many children, and scaring them to death with tanks?. What a travesty this was, and enforced by Reno after Clinton gave into her request to pursue such actions.
This government, and so much of our society so out of kilter that its become lopsided. We just don't know what path we're are being led down. We do know where we've been over the last 50 years.
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu1wQBVRNghcAfj1XNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGFvAzAEZnIDdXNoMS1maW5hbmNlBGhvc3RwdmlkA0JkaUdnRW9HNzdtM0VWX3BUT3VwbndtZlFScjl4azFVQlJBQUFOVDMEbl9ncHMDMARuX3ZwcwMwBG9yaWdpbgNzcnAEcXVlcnkDVGhlIHJlYWxpdHkgb2YgYSBvbmUgd29ybGQgZ292ZXJubWVudD8Ec2FvAzEEdnRlc3RpZANBQ0JZMDM-?p=The+reality+of+a+one+world+government%3F&fr2=sb-top&fr=ush1-finance
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14712
For sure! :). If he could make a business selling human body parts without the bodies he'd give it ago if it were the "next big thing", and he could file a 504. Just to make it look good on the surface, he and his brother Igor Berman would be robbing graves so they could create a pilot program, and another symbol- like Dead!. His business model could read, you kill them, and we'll chill them!. If this didn't work he could always get into a wholesale/retail meat distributorship using another symbol- like Meat!. His business model could read, the cut you've always desired. :)
How many more symbols will he change into in trying to keep ahead of the game?. First it was water, then uranium, then it was oil that he wanted to merge with the uranium, then underwear that developed into 68 uranium mines. Now its algae.
He stipulated that there was no uranium, and the cost of any mining trying to find an ounce or two would cost more than his take in salary of $350k. Way more than that million he first hauled in on bogus promises. He knew it was all a bullshit scam from the beginning, just like all his other business models. Its unbelievable that well paid regulatory agents allow this kind of fraud to exist in our markets and choose not to attack this problem with Congress. This lack of intergrity illustrates what is wrong in government, and the distrust they create.
Its no different than someone selling fraudulent insurance policies, and using a publicly traded company to do it. Like AIG.
50 years ago.
Words of The Supreme Allied Commander,
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
Yes!. I can see him in his white lab coat working tirelessly in his $50m lab in the hidden far away uranium cave in Utah. His hair in a mus bloodshot eyes bulging out of his unusual shaped head, exchanging various mixtures in test tubes for his man made unoxygenated pond that grows green stuff. Delivered to him daily from a drop thru Fed Ex, in the hope of making that discovery. His wife back home on the phone with their broker asking for next wire transfer.
Lets hope!!. You would think that the SEC would get really acclimated to all the crooks like him. There's the war on terror, and there should have been a war in the making for financial fraudsters who use the internet, and their rules to accomplish their goals. If they would take away the incentives for what makes them want to go public in the first place would be a start.
There should never be the allowance for money to go to them from a 504, S-8, or anything that gives them ability to be able to sell certs or common stock unless they purchased these in the open market. Their preferred stock, or controlling shares should have to remain restricted permanently, or up to the time when they sell the company. In this case the controlling shares would go to the next owner, and again those shares would have to remain restricted. If the SEC would set the rules in place that these people would have to have a revenue source outside of them going public, it would keep the bums out, and from stealing all that they can get their hands on. If the agency would stipulate in the rules that only until such date, and only when the company begins to generate the kind of revenue, and profit to afford them a salary, only then can they expect to have income, and that salary would be determined by shareholders agreeing on the amount by proxy..
It has to be this way for a private business in many respects, but the only thing they the private enterprises don't have is the ability to be able to raise money in a public market like this. The ability to be able to raise a million + to help with a new enterprise is astounding to begin with. First an foremost there should be a real business to begin with, not bullshit bases on some model they've cooked up, and doomed to failure. These pinks don't do anything for the job market, nor do the BB's.
There should be alot more going on before anyone is allowed to take one of these public. Wouldn't ya think that some reforms would have taken place considering all thats happened within this market?. Its like a back alley where all the crooks come to see what kind of corruption they can get away with.
If there were at least some sensible things taking place here the SEC would at least look they're trying, but as of yet the kind of market reform we heard about must have got lost with all that bailout money.
I know many have posted on this, but the damage this has caused cannot be measured.
No such thing as classified anymore. The very things that would get people life, or death found guilty for
international espionage, is today news, via the internet or the evening news. This is about as crazy as it gets. This stuff really expresses just how weak America has become.
The Pentagon with all its resources, and this is what we get.
Wiki-leaks is just what it implies.
Berman is a racketeer, and this algae farm is just another means of duping people. He's first a liar, and thief. He's a lowlife scammer, and anyone asscociated with him are of the same makings. The only algae this guy has is growing on his trees. Any algae he distributes will behind the same trucks taking uranium to the market. Maybe this year he will be able to report another $500. of earnings and a $350,000 salary from investors for this achievement. We know where he gets his salary, but the earnings cannot be explained?. He must be use the accounting methods of Arthur Anderson.
a soldier's last letter
Nice!!. What a bunch of bums!. Its never ending huh?. Like DUI offenders, its an addiction that blinds them from the reality of getting caught, but they go head long anyway. Good work by the FBI.
I guess Cleveland today is like Detroit, Chicago, Philly, and a host of others which have decayed. When the Mayor "Sikes" was it?, when he was elected it appeared that Cleveland had a real chance for recovery, and the people were excited about it, but after hearing all this from you it sounds terrible. Its a real shame whats going on within our cities, and "suburbs" aren't immune either. Its the octopus effect, those tenacles reach into the smallest of towns.
To really clean up the inner city of Chicago it would take implosions on a massive scale, then bulldozed to the borders of the outlying counties, then they would have to be evaluated. Neighborhoods that were once healthy, clean, safe streets, and had good schools. Its now rotted. It only took a little more than 40 years for it all to go. I doubt if it will ever be as before, but rather worse, if thats possible?
Clinton did crooked things while in office as well as Hillary. He has to take as much the credit for deregulation as the republican presidents. Its hard to fathom that this countries senate banking committee would give a blank check to Henry Paulson to do with it what he saw fit, without accountability or reasons other than the taxpayers had to pony up for the so called financial crisis to cover wall streets bets, but they did.
Many of the people within Obama's cabinet are made up of the same people Bush had. Not but one Congressman read the 22,000 pages of the GATT proposal, but they passed it, they had their think tanks read through it. I don't agree with all that Obama represents, for that matter much of Washington represents, most are shitheads, and all of them after Eisenhower have pretty much sold this country down the river in one form or the other, and if your not in the club your ostracised. How many men and women have given their lives for political chess games?. In the name of democracy to fight back communism?. Look who we're in bed with today, and who really benefited from GATT, for that matter NAFTA?. Not us.
I think you realize that Bush was an embarrassment, how he got re-elected is beyond what I know to be sound judgement, but things like this occur when we're engaged in war, like changing horses in mid stream, and I wonder sometimes if this wasn't at least part of the motive?. Clinton embarrassed us to, but it was the republicans who kept things going for 8+ years trying to take him down. When 911 occurred they were all caught with their pants down due to them not doing the jobs they were elected to do. It was more a soap than anything else, and the worst of the republican accusers turned out not to be so respectable either, like Sen.Craig. Their mentalities rival that of any city gangs, and like the city gangs whose focuses are primarily doing the other in, and protecting their turf, the city goes under and with it alot of innocent lives, and bordering communities.
Ordinary Americans need to look back and go foward from Eisehower to see which of the parties have done the most damage?, many Congressman served in all those administrations, some most. One thing is for sure, they should have heeded Eisenhowers warnings. Today the lobbyist run the country, who work for so many of those that were bailed out, which includes the mega rich, and special interest groups that are made up of everything we can think of, even offshore Hedge Funds.
Personally I believe its just a matter of time before it all collapses. The S&L scandal is still costing this nation, still a part of the national debt, the interest alone probably surpasses the bailout that was required then. But its still with us. It appears that wall street is doing their fair share in destroying this country, and it all surrounds greed, there's never enough for their self consuming appetites, if capitalism built this country, it looks like its destroying it as well, brick by brick, road by road, bridge by bridge, and the very things that sustains life, our water and air.
The question for most of us, if our grandparents are still alive, mine aren't, or have elderly parents, or a disabled family member, are they better off than those who lived through a time when Hoover was president?. I remember when private hospitals would not even admit you if you were dying on their front steps or at the emergency room door if you couldn't produce an insurance card you would die there. I believe its the elderly we should honor, and take care of the weakest among us if we are Americans and a humane society founded of Christian beliefs. This doesn't mean everyone illegal or everyone on the planet unless we are that financially strong. This country can't even support the people who are legal citizens. Could we as individuals do this for another family if we couldn't even support our own?.
Without question we are eroding as a nation due to all these concessions our government has made. The other is not fighting the war here in our own backyard by giving up our cities to gangs and drugs. This problem is not gonna go away by itself. It may be to late?, 40 years to late. More manpower is gonna be needed to fight this war, money that would have been better spent than going into Iraq.
Just give a good look at the Bush family and the damage they did, and Reagan. Each one is guilty, so was Nixon, Carter, Johnson/Kennedy. I don't know what a good president looks like. One of the best mayors Cleveland ever had was black, but he served no special interest group, he served the people of Cleveland. If I remember his name was Sikes. We need a president with that kind of insight and fortitude to make this country better.
http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/09/surreal-life-starring-president-and.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4872310-503544.html
http://www.federalbudget.com/noble.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071125065415AATYt1I
Just how big was the bailout?. It was massive!
The Federal Reserve has just released a vast trove of documents that detail a massive $3.3 trillion dollar aid program offered to the financial industry during the height of the financial crisis.
Banks, financial institutions, Hedge funds, baseball, and whoever came knocking got a piece of the pie. Served up on paper plates with plastic spoons.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/federal-reserve-documents_1_n_790433.html
Lets not forget that all this occurred under the Bush presidency. Corruption like we've never seen. What will be the result of all this?. I don't know if any of us have any real idea, or what we may experience?.
:) Okay!
Something I'll have to research, sounds like a program from Nazi Germany. Thanks for the input.
Iran/Venezuela's nuclear partnership
http://technorati.com/politics/article/venezuela-to-develop-nuclear-program-with/
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=russia-agrees-to-build-nuclear-plant-in-venezuela-2010-10-15
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/November/Stakelbeck-on-Terror-The-Iran-Venezuela-Axis/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090902607.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/world/middleeast/26israel.html
Al Capone was sent up the river for not paying taxes, today corporations are selling this country down the river while doing the same thing. Al employeed lots of people, people who wouldn't have had a job if not for him, "he never got any credit for it":),
he was a bad boy even though he had many city officials and judges, and politicians in his back pocket he was pursued relentlessly by the IRS.
This isn't just the Federal level, for years its been on the State level nationally, corporations using the corporate Vegas loophole which has allowed them to avoid paying taxes in States where they operate. Minnesota, and now Wisconsin has closed this door, "supposedly".
We don't have to look far, maybe just down the street, or turn a corner on the way to work, or cross over a bridge and hit a major pothole or buckle in the road that sends the vehicle into the garage for a broken trans-axle, stabilizer, wheel balance/alignment or blowout for us to see our infrastructure is deteriorating. It encompasses the replacements of electrical grids, sewer, and water problems. Some have been in need of repairs for decades. The real money needed on a national scale reaches $5 trillion, and thats just an estimate.
When Eisenhower was president 12% of tax revenues went toward these very projects, after he left office it began to drop off,today its less than 2%, maybe closer to 1.5%. Like everything else "whose cared?". Where's the money suppose to come from if corporations are allowed to scate, but yet who do they come running to when they need a bailout??
All the while corporations, and banks are getting scandalous bailouts from tax payers for their corrupted roles which brought down world economies, but not one is held responsible, not one indictment, well other than the scapegoat Madoff. What about all the others that played crucial roles in all of this?. Not Ron Cox of the SEC, no one at the FED, not even Henry Paulson has later been made to answer. The Senate Banking Committee gave the Treasury Secretary former Ceo of Goldmans $850b even though he had one foot out the door. The convenience of timing for all of this to have happened was just to good to be true. All at the end of the Bush's 2nd term. It couldn't have been better.
No one at Goldmans, Lehmans, Citibank, Countrywide, not one from the largest to the smallest, no one from Fannie or Freddie. With all this underway we had Senators bartering to get their approval votes to sign on to Tarp. In other words they could be bribed if they could get their earmarks. In turn they would get campaign contributions from the many who would receive money or tax credits, or tax breaks
The House gave in to extortion. It was all about Wall Street, and Publicly traded corporations, which included investment banks, and Goldman being a Hedge Fund, and banks, insurance companies, etc etc.
Today hundreds of millions can be earmarked for bridges to no-where, or given to corporations like Msft at the cost of $11 million for a convenience bridge, or even better so beach goers can more easily get to the beach. Its even more likely the money that could get used for these projects find its way abroad to build the infrastructure in other countries.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1249465620080812
Corporate taxes paid for more than a quarter of federal outlays in the 1950s and a fifth in the 1960s. They began to decline during the Nixon administration, yet even by the second half of the 1990s, corporate taxes still covered 11 percent of the cost of federal programs. But in fiscal years 2002 and 2003, corporate taxes paid for a mere 6 percent of federal expenses.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_welfare/real_tax_rates_plummet.php
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/04/exxon-mobil-paid-zero-income-tax-offshore%20shelter-wal-mart-general-electric-forbes
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html
The company, which tells employees “don’t be evil”
in its code of conduct, has cut its effective tax rate abroad more than its peers in the technology sector: Apple Inc., the maker of the iPhone; Microsoft, the largest software company; International Business Machines Corp., the biggest computer-services provider; and Oracle Corp., the second-biggest software company. Those companies reported rates that ranged between 4.5 percent and 25.8 percent for 2007 through 2009.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/
http://www.billparish.com/20000418microsoftnotax.html
When governments impose income redistribution schemes to “spread the wealth,” workers and entrepreneurs loose their incentive to work as hard and have less to reinvest back into their communities. This is especially true in the case of charitable giving. Why should individuals make voluntary charitable contributions when the government has already invoked involuntary charity?
I wish I had more time to get into this, but there are a few tidbits that need to be looked at. It has nothing to do with which party gives a person more an opportunity to create wealth.
Both parties are corrupt, and became more an more corruptible over the last 4 decades. Individuals have become extremely wealthy, and poor under both. One party does do more to work with the American people, and the other works against the populace. Both have played major roles in selling this country down the river to both domestic, and foreign bodies. 17,500 lobbyist control more of what goes on in the government than all the voters combined. The politicians role is way outside what they are hired to do. One thing is certain, banks, hedgies, and corporations are pulling the reigns, and they have their bits in every congressmans mouth in DC.
The government now works against individuals of wealth whose real, and whose life work is charity by taking away the kind of tax incentives which further allows them to do this.
Its irrelevant what the broker shows, and probably inaccurate. Anytime a 504D is active, anytime non registered certs are being sold, and at anytime an MM can sell and manipulate these certs by stacking the trades for himself or his client its all meaningless. Its like gambling in the dark inside a casino with the roulette wheels, and slots, and black jack tables rigged to win. Berman has 30 billion of these little "scraps of paper" to play with, and his MM has every piece marked so can read the game. This is the way he makes money for himself, Berman and his underlings, in the process he gets to accumulate shares for himself. This fraud is a continuance for there not being market reform, "no oversight", no regulations, and the foxes are in the henhouse. Imagine this was the Market that was used to bring down not only the housing market, but world economies. The billions that have been ripped off the small investors within this market over decades would probably surpass Madoff. It all happened within this Market solely because these factors.
I think this may be the first?. We never know what we will hear when we turn on the news?. What was this guy thinking?. A law office on top of it.
The US Postal Service said Friday it lost $8.5 billion
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/11/12/usps-delivers-bad-news-b-loss/
Exactly one month later this mailman lost his brain! :)
Wis. mailman busted for nude mail delivery
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/bizarre/12003012228524/mailman-makes-nude-delivery/
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/14/milwaukee-woman-received-unwanted-delivery-naked-mailman/
http://www.piercecountyherald.com/event/article/id/31385/group/News/
$7.2B is recovered for Madoff's victims
Businessman's widow gives back $7.2 billion for Madoff's victims in biggest settlement yet
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EmailPrint..Tom Hays and David B. Caruso, Associated Press, On Saturday December 18, 2010, 3:44 am EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- Many of Bernard Madoff's victims who thought they lost everything could get at least half their money back after the widow of a Florida philanthropist agreed Friday to return a staggering $7.2 billion that her husband reaped from the giant Ponzi scheme.
Federal prosecutors reached the settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a businessman who drowned after suffering a heart attack in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion in October 2009. Picower was the single biggest beneficiary of Madoff's fraud.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the forfeiture the largest in Justice Department history and a "game changer" for those swindled by Madoff. He commended Picower's widow, Barbara, "for agreeing to turn over this truly staggering sum, which really was always other people's money."
"We will return every penny received from almost 35 years of investing with Bernard Madoff," Barbara Picower said in a statement. "I believe the Madoff Ponzi scheme was deplorable, and I am deeply saddened by the tragic impact it continues to have on the lives of its victims. It is my hope that this settlement will ease that suffering."
The settlement means roughly half of the $20 billion that investors entrusted to Madoff has now been recovered, authorities said.
The $7.2 billion eclipses by far the deals reached with other defendants sued by Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee who is recovering victims' money. The next largest -- $625 million -- was announced earlier this month in a settlement with Massachusetts businessman and philanthropist Carl Shapiro.
Madoff's burned clients greeted the news warily.
Willard Foxton, a British journalist whose father committed suicide after losing his life savings, said he was stunned that a major investor decided to return so much money.
"I don't think he would have killed himself if he thought a few years down the line that he was going to be getting a good amount of his money back," he said. He added: "I thought we had zero chance of getting any money back, and I still am very, very skeptical. If I see a penny before 2015 I'd be amazed."
Lawrence Velvel, a law school dean who lost money he had invested with Madoff for decades, said Picower's widow "did the right thing."
But he was wary about who, in the end, would benefit more -- the multitude of small and mid-sized investors who had been counting on their investments for their retirement, or the big hedge funds that did business with Madoff.
"It's going to go to the hedge funds," he said.
Madoff, 72, is serving a 150-year prison sentence.
Jeffry Picower, who was 67 when he died, was one of Madoff's oldest clients. Over the decades, he withdrew about $7 billion in bogus profits, or more than a third of the sum that disappeared in the scandal. The money paid out to Picower was supposedly made on stock trades, but authorities said it was simply stolen from other investors.
Picower's lawyers claimed he knew nothing about the scheme, but Picard had argued in court papers that the businessman must have known the returns were "implausibly high" and based on fraud.
Barbara Picower said she was "absolutely confident that my husband, Jeffry, was in no way complicit in Madoff's fraud and want to underscore the fact that neither the trustee, nor the U.S. attorney, has charged him with any illegal act."
Asked whether criminal investigators had any suspicions about Picower, Bharara would say only that the question became moot when he died. He gave the same response to questions about Mark Madoff, the son who committed suicide on Dec. 11.
Lawyers for Picower's estate have been in negotiations with the trustee for some time. In his will, Picower had earmarked most of his fortune for charity.
A huge charitable foundation that Picower had created closed in 2009 after its assets were wiped out in the Madoff fraud. It had donated hundreds of millions to colleges, libraries and other groups.
Thousands of people, banks and hedge funds that invested with Madoff saw their savings wiped out when the fraud was revealed two years ago. Many, though, like Picower, had been drawing bogus profits from their Madoff accounts for years and walked away from the scheme having taken out more money than they put in.
Madoff's clients had thought, based on his fraudulent account statements, that they had more than $60 billion invested in stocks with Madoff. Investigators found, though, that no investments were made, and that an estimated $20 billion in principal was simply being paid out bit by bit to other investors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-richest-country-in-the-world.htm
Liechtenstein has a population of 35,000. It is has more registered companies than citizens — more than 70,000 companies have registered offices in Liechtenstein.
http://www.lowtax.net/lowtax/html/jliobs.html
http://www.lowtax.net/lowtax/html/jlioltr.html
http://www.worldsrichestcountries.com/
Here are ten countries suffering 80-100% less than the United States:
http://www.businesspundit.com/10-countries-least-affected-by-the-us-financial-crisis/
Its called a reversal of fortune. The percentage gain to the broker would be what? A million per cent?............Berman has one of the biggest long running scams underlined with the word fraud we've seen. There's more but none quite like Berman. From the beginning he's screwed investors to satisfy his greed, he and his market maker is always on top of every sell. He cares less how many shares it takes as long as he can reach that million. You gotta know he's been selling in blocks. If he can sell 10b certs at .0001 he's got his $$$$million. There's zero value in this company, and even less in its cert.
Remember what goes around eventually comes around. We saw it with Johnny Cochran, Shapiro, Kardashian, who sold their souls for money, and Madoff. All arrogant, and all who were willing to defend their positions for ill gotten gains, and in more ways than one justify all of it. Life has a way of dealing out its own justice.
As long as those who now head the SEC continues to allow this kind of acitivity within any part of the market, it has no integrity. It knows of it, and does, and we should all know by now who they in fact serve.
Its called financial reform!. It means business as usual.
Fraud!!!!!!!!!!!!
How the SEC can claim that it has any integrity, or legitimacy as an agency thats sole purpose is to protect the public from parasites like this is beyond comprehension?. Wherever they allow fraud to exist within the marketplace will only spur more of it, and we've witnessed it on a massive scale. The OTC market is a spun web of deceit because of people like Berman, when behavior as his is allowed it speaks volumes of what takes place throughout the market.
The biggest of the publicly traded companies are familiar with what takes place here, and are all to familiar with pinks and BB's, and it gives them alot of insight for what they can get away with. The market with no overisight has more activity going on than the rest of the markets when we consider just how many CDS bets took place in this back alley. It was done without the capital to back it up. The taxpayer from AIG alone covered $178 billion of their bets, less than a quarter of what they are up to necks into.
When people were warning the SEC about Madoff, even by a security investigator in writing this to was shit canned and ignored. The only reasons anything like this could ever occur is to realize the corruption that exist within the agency itself. We don't have to look far to discover this well known fact. They are doing little to nothing today as well, just like before!. How many of us called for the neck of Ron Cox, and for years?. It all came to a head eventually, but what we knew long before he was made to resign, and the fact that investors knew he was worthless, and corrupt as well. Mary Shapiro isn't helping to shake things up either. The other thing we should be aware of, they are never on the side of the small investor, if they were there would be a cop on this beat. If anyone ever does benefit from any bust which is seldom heard, a discouraging word is the agency, not the investor.
That would be the ultimate detection device. :) reinforced chamber that would withstand an IED. The person that decides not to go thru gets to go into a non evasive reinforced private chamber, and, and would have to strip, if an explosive device is detected gets a 3 ton hydraulic ceiling punched thru his head.
The crooks initially arrived here with their tall sailing ships, today they arrive with yachts. Goldman Sachs was probably their underwriter, and AIG sold them a CDS policy for a tidy premium. The race was on.
Sounds like a group of natives were passing thru, and were stopped to see if they could cut a deal with them. Kinda like the crooks who obtain a quick claim deed and sell a property that doesn't belong to them. Millions have been made on these scams.
http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/why-did-the-indians-sell-manhattan-island-for-only-24
2 years ago
http://www.blurtit.com/q724353.html
Yesterday
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/11/22/general-health-care-providers-us-wall-street_8156696.html?boxes=techchannelAP
Yes, things really are that serious in Europe right now. In order for the euro and the European Union to hold together, two things have got to happen. Number one, Germany and the other European nations that are in good financial condition have got to agree to keep bailing out nations such as Ireland, Portugal and Greece that are complete economic basket cases. Number two, the European nations receiving these bailouts have got to convince their citizens to comply with the very harsh austerity measures being imposed upon them by the EU and the IMF.
Those two things should not be taken for granted. In Germany, many taxpayers are already sick and tired of pouring hundreds of billions of euros into a black hole. The truth is that the Germans are not going to accept carrying weak sisters like Greece and Portugal on their backs indefinitely.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/could-the-financial-crisis-erupting-in-ireland-portugal-greece-and-spain-lead-to-the-end-of-the-euro-and-the-break-up-of-the-european-union
Federal Employees And Members Of Congress Are Getting Rich While Those Of Us Who Pay Their Salaries Suffer
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/12-facts-that-will-blow-your-mind-federal-employees-and-members-of-congress-are-getting-rich-while-those-of-us-who-pay-their-salaries-suffer
:) Follow the yellow brick road.
Kinda like we need the billionaire to build his next yacht to create jobs.