GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE
66The Selling of America
The Final Sellout of America
I have thrown this together very hastily. The overwhelming sense of urgency I feel simply negates my usual concern for the time consuming process of extensive research and grammatical accuracy. Please forgive the lack of journalistic integrity.
Congress has just passed the largest and most disastrous bailout in history. Essentially the Amended Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Bill does nothing more than simply guarantee the increase of the national debt by another trillion or so.
Any of you who have read my Hubs regarding the nature of the fascist beast we call capitalism knows that I have seen this disaster coming for many years. The stage is being set for amerika to move from a covert, financial dictatorship to a blatant, unabashed political/military one.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10341
I was apparently wrong when I suggested in the past that cheneybush would use another false flag terrorist attack as an excuse for the declaration of martial law. The "Catastrophic Emergency" caused by the utter collapse of the capitalist system will provide ample cause.
(b) "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions; (emphasis mine)
(see the document here) http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html
TARP will allow the criminals who brought about this catastrophe to, once more, add to their already obscene wealth at the expense of everyone else. It will simply socialize the costs of their greed and avarice onto the public, and privatize the profits to the criminals who, intentionally, brought about the disaster in the first place.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10397
I would strongly suggest that everyone prepare for a cash economy in the very near future. That's assuming, of course, that there will be any economy at all.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10392
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10413
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/sher-o03.shtml
I assure you, most adamantly, I take no joy in my beliefs apparently being validated.
As I type, the DOW is dropping in spite of the passage of TARP. When I last checked, moments ago, it was down almost 160 points. Evidently the huge loss of jobs in the past month, 159,000, offsets the "good news" of the passage of the bailout.
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE49243A20081003?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
Whatever happens going forward, the thieves who have sold America will ride off into the sunset with all the wealth of the American taxpayers stuffed in their pockets.
The bulk of the population will, in all likelihood, be relegated to labor camps and placed in debt bondage to the very people who orchestrated the destruction of their country. This will be the final step in converting America back into what it revolted against over two hundred years ago.
The only thing left, to complete the mindless repetition of the cycle, will be a bloody uprising resulting in death for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. This will be followed by the rebel leaders or their successors, over a period of some years, mutating into the very thing they fought to destroy. If history can be used as any indicator, this is as certain as night following day.
The sense of despair I feel at this moment, especially for the young children of the world, is simply inexpressible.
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Officially on September 1st, 2008, I joined the swelling ranks of the unemployed. How many so far this year? 759,000 on the books?
How many have run out of benefits and are no longer counted? Some say several millions.
I don't know, but I have 6 months, 9 if I can get it extended, of benefits. the benefits are about 1/2 of what I made when employed.
It took my salary to pay our mortgage, food and my car, plus insurance, etc. My wife adds to the income, but only 1/3 of the total as it was before August 31st, 2008.
Now that I am also officially disabled, having to use a cane to walk, having PTSD, I find that employers hang out the "Closed" sign when I come near to apply for work.
But, hey! USA! USA!! USA!!! Chant that enough and all our problems will go away!
Yeah - right.
Great hub and I must say, you saw it coming, and if the politicians had half the sense you do, they might have as well!
Thank you Melissa. I know you must find it hard to read my thoughts since I am the perennial pessimist to your dauntless optimist. I appreciate your time and comments.
I share your hope as always but, as always, I’m not really counting on it.
Jeff, I’m very sorry that you’re facing such a dire situation.
I exhausted my benefits over a year ago. We’ve been scraping by on my wife’s disability check trying to hold out until I start getting my social security in March 09.
We’re very fortunate that my wife found this little house in New Mexico a few years ago. The price was really low and so was the fixed interest rate.
We turned off the heat last winter and kept the place tolerably warm using the fireplace. It’s a very small house. I’ve laid in enough wood for this winter so we’ve got a little breathing space in that regard.
With my wife and me and our grandson, now five, it’s been very difficult to keep things together.
We’ve been forced to resort to a number of food banks as well as assistance programs to keep the electricity and water turned on.
We live within walking distance of, gag, WalMart, so we do very little driving.
This isn’t what I had in mind when I thought about the American Dream.
I don’t mean to presume but have you considered applying for Social Security Disability? Wouldn’t your veteran status make it a bit easier to qualify?
What about the VA? Aren’t there any programs that you might be able to utilize?
It’s simply unconscionable that someone like you could simply be discarded with no resources or hope of succor.
Well, I'd like to say something positive here, but at this point, I think most of us are expecting the worst. Hope you're wrong about the debt camps because Bill and I both have marital debt from past marriages--he defaulted on his (I don't blame him) and I've been trying to pay mine back for seven years but they keep hiking the interest on it. I figure at this point I've paid it back about 10 times over. I think about bankruptcy all the time, but that costs about $2,000 itself. Now I have medical debt too from my ride to the hospital in May with chest pains--about $2800 worth. I'm doing what I can. At least our house payment is low and we have an acre of good earth so we grew a lot of food this summer. We put in a pellet stove that burns lots of different things, not just pellets, and we have a generator and kerosene lamps. Seriously, my eldest daughter called asking if I thought they should stockpile food. I didn't know what to tell her. I've been wondering the same thing myself.
Jeff, I'm so sorry for the loss of your job. We are both also waiting for that shoe to drop. The bank I work for is next on the list of "most likely to fail" by most accounts, but the ban on short-selling has temporarily saved its greedy butt. I make some money writing, which is helpful. I was in treatment for PTSD for about five years. I rarely have trouble with it anymore, but it's a very challenging problem to live with. I'm sorry that you are having to deal with all this at once.
CWB, I think we are all in for it big time. You sound like a resourceful person. I think being able to get by on hardly anything will be the skill most in demand very soon. Those of us who possess it will get to watch everyone else go stark raving mad. It won't be pretty.
ColdWarBaby ~ Your honest, in-your-face insight is refreshing to those of us bracing for the worst. Knowledge is power, right? I still have people around me that think the worst is over now, since the bill passed. Disillusioned, angry, scared, frustrated... you name it, emotions are on overload. We are officially in foreclosure and not from an adjustable loan, but a deceased small business. I'm sorry for your job loss Chef Jeff, and to the rest of us who struggle as if it was a normal part of every day life. Thank u for keeping things real.
Hi ColdWarBaby,
I was actually pro the bill, but then what do I know? It's easy for me to make judgements from this side of the Atlantic. I hope your prognosis turns out to be flawed, but then you must hope that yourself. I'm hoping that the bill will buy a litlle time for those millions of people who rely on what ever credit they can get just to scrape by. Letting the whole edifice crumble might be too strong a medicine even for what ails the USA.
Keep positive, and hopefully some good will come of it all.
CWB, I find myself thinking more often about you and your opinions. I guess maybe because I’m scared; I’ve realized that it makes absolutely no difference who wins this election. Washington has forsaken us all. I also have a disabled daughter, eighteen and a five year old son. My home is in foreclosure and my wife is battling her third war with cancer. Yea I’m scared; God I hope you are wrong about the final outcome; but the truth is (you know my beliefs) there is no mention of this country in the end time. Anyway, I appreciate the information in this hub and I am going to read and learn moving forward with a more open mind.
Hamilton
Hi pgrundy.
Halliburton got the no-bid contract for detention camps a couple of years ago. Those places aren’t being built just for the fun of it.
I empathize completely with you and Jeff and everyone that’s being crushed by this fascist regime. I’ve been talking, warning, bitching and screaming about it for a long time. It’s not just the last eight years. Those are just the culmination of the assault that’s been underway for more than two centuries.
I’d say that non-perishable food items would be a very good investment for whatever cash you can spare. I think we’re not too far from seeing food riots in many of our cities.
Being resourceful and prepared is going to help some people. What I’m concerned about is those who don’t prepare trying to take from those who do. It’s not going to help me much, having my own small, self-sustaining enclave set up, if mobs of people who have nothing decide to help themselves to the little I’ve got. As in stark raving mad.
Thanks summer10. I’m glad you see it that way. There are lots of folks who just want me to shut up and go away.
I’m truly sorry to hear that your business was a victim of this free market economy.
For those delusional souls who think everything is hunky dory, I hope your right but I don’t think so.
I don’t think people are willing to admit how radically bad things have gone. Living in denial might be comforting for a short time. Sooner or later, reality will refuse to be ignored.
Hi Amanda.
You’re certainly right about my hopes but I’ve been right so far and, looking at things pragmatically, the outcome seems fairly obvious.
TARP may create a brief period of calm, something like the eye of a hurricane, which will give the perpetrators time to make their escape or set up their next move. It’s designed to produce a false sense of security for the masses. One possible scenario is that TARP, combined with putting Obama in office will be like pouring oil on troubled waters and will lull the populace back into their normal state of consumer delirium. It could provide a window of as much as eight years before the other wall of the storm sweeps away the illusion once and for all.
It’s not a matter of letting it crumble, that can’t ultimately be prevented. It’s not about if, it’s about when.
I am positive of that. Some good may come regardless. When the dust clears, in a few thousand years, maybe there will be a new human society inhabiting Earth that will succeed where we have failed.
blangrehr.
I’m at a loss for words, which is most unusual as I’m sure you know.
I am more touched and moved by your words than by any one hundred comments from those who generally agree with my viewpoint.
talented_ink and I have developed a very rewarding understanding and mutual respect for each other, in spite of the fact that some of our beliefs are diametrically opposed. We know that agreeing to disagree need not make us enemies. It would seem that the same is, in all probability, possible for anyone.
Your closing words add to my conviction that the human race can rise above its own shortcomings and become a great source of light and love in the universe.
I feel great anguish for you and yours as I do for all the victims of the negative force that currently holds the world in its grip. Although I do not pray in the traditional sense I do offer up my being to the universe in the most positive way that I’m able. I send out those positive wishes for you and your family with all the strength I can muster. Please, if you can, consider this my prayer for you in this time of hardship.
CWB, as my eyes tear and my heart swells I feel your blessings, Thank You.
Time to get busy trying to figure out if there is anything I can do short of loading the guns.
Difficult to read? Not at all, especially with the outpouring of love, support, and a shared humanity that comes through all the comments.
Maybe there's hope for us after all? :)
blangrehr.
Cleave to those who love you, show kindness and understanding to those who do not. If there are friends and neighbors who share your concerns, join with them and help each other prepare. Do not let pride do you harm. When aid is offered, if it is sincere and unfettered of conditions, don’t be ashamed to accept it. I know beyond any doubt that, if you are able, you will offer succor to those in need.
Who really knows? Perhaps I, and others who share my concerns, am wrong. Maybe some unforeseeable event will create a new paradigm allowing us to stop all this insanity before it’s too late.
Above all, never give up hope.
Thank you Melissa. Hope springs eternal.
The future is indeed bleak. It's uphalling that the government bailed out the greedy and rich and left the middle to be pissed upon from above.
CWB - It is grim indeed. My feeling is that it (the financial edifice) will not so much crash as crumble. Bits will fall off. Bits will be shored up.There will still be a sign above the door and a few lights on, but precious little activity inside. The same will apply to the wider economy - deep stagnation. The bigger social question is - what will people do about it? People like you and Chef Jeff are not about to go on any kind of rampage, but others very well might. And, as often happens, the targets will be the wrong ones. I hope not, but it could get very ugly.
t.keeley. Have you checked the DOW this morning?
Thanks for reading and understanding.
I agree Paraglider. I'm very concerned that the few who do make some kind of preparations for what's coming will find themselves under attack, literal physical attack, by those who do not.
I've been following pgrundy's writing and other's like these. Will tell my married sons to get the food in.
Harper, here in Canada, tells us all is well. Man....where is his head?
For protection only my friends, I agree with my friend; peace is the only answer.
You know what, CWB, I don't even mind the stock market. I never have. It doesn't concern me. I spend my life working for the man anyway, it's hard enough admitting that he's getting rich off my sore back. This is why I've been pursuing music independently. What bothers me the most however is the fact that our entire economy is based on the quicksand foundation of the stocks.
I've been a blue collar laborer all my life t.keely. I only mentioned the DOW because this big bailout was supposed to "restore confidence". Doesn't seem to be working quite the way they planned. What a surprise!
Thanks for stopping back again. I appreciate your input.
Hey Web Market Guide! Nice to hear from you.
I think Harper's got his head in the same small, dark place as the rest of our illustrious "leaders".
I understand. I also knew the bailout was not going to work. It's essentially a way to allow people who lived off credit to.....live off credit and sink our eceonomy even more. Mortgages, credit cards, car leases...all a materialistic junkies dream. Get what you want, when you want it, an leave the bills for your children to pay off in feudalism when the nation crumbles under the weight of fattened capital.
We are in agreement t.keeley.
there are people all around me who are holding thier breath, half hoping, half expecting we're going to hell. I think we're all a bit stunned that life goes on, appointments have to be kept, laundry has to be done,etc. But don't you just feel the fear and pending panic in the air? Every morning I wonder is this the day of the week that history will call Black.
Some 14 years ago I lost everything I'd worked 20 years for, my business, my marriage and my home, all my assets. I've not begun to fully recover from those losses. Witnessing what is happening now with our collective trillions of dollars vaporizing daily......well it is not schadenfreude I feel, but I'm almost glad I never recouped, just to see it disappear before my eyes. I have friends that lost most of their 401k's with Enron's pillaging. So they kept working and started to build up that retirement fund again. They've just lost their shirts again.
Will someone tell Nancy Pelosi that apparently the party ain't over? Oh, wait, she's the one that just made the beer run, so Wall St. could party on.
And to pgrundy.....speaking of stockpiling food.....we made a run to Winco Foods yesterday at about 1:30pm. The place was packed like two days before "Christmas. I saw several people with two carts full of staples. the store was a mess, shelves of goods half stripped, the juice section was bare. Workers rushing to restock. When you see things like that you wonder should you have been shopping for more than just the few items you came in for. See how panic starts? I wonder what happened to all those Y2K horders and the goods thay stored?
Mary, I know exactly how you feel. We lost everything a few years back thanks to some corporate backstabbing and being forced to sell a new home at a loss just to avoid foreclosure. We also never fully recovered from that disaster and, in a perverse way it’s probably for the best. Now we basically have nothing left to loose.
I get the feeling that a lot of people are just running out autopilot. They just keep doing things because they’re the things they’ve always done.
There are also many who have finally been shocked into awareness. I’m sorry to say I think they slept too long. I don’t think this train wreck can be avoided. All the crooks will jump and leave the rest of us on board as the train sails off the cliff.
There have already been some riots elsewhere in the world because of the soaring costs of food.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/8/stuffed_and_s
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/12/184924
That’s one of the indicators I’m waiting for here. Once that starts I don’t think martial law can be too far behind. There a lot of possible scenarios I can imagine and none of them are good.
Thanks for your thoughts Mary. These are some very bizarre times we’re living in.
Gosh I want to cry, I am sorry all you guys have to suffer through this and it isn't even at it's worst yet. If it means anything at all, I pray for ya'll every single day. I don't have a house but I pay a huge amount for rent and am paying for debts incurred from a previous marriage that I can't afford so I stopped paying all together.
My car is gonna get taken away in about another two months maybe less, and I to can hardly afford to put food on the table nor do I know what I am going to do to "stockpile" since I can hardly afford tomorrow. It sucks. *crying*.
CWB, I knew you were an angle. Course I told you that a while back. thanks for everything you are doing and for consoling these people and helping when and where you can. God Bless from My God, he said hang in there all and he is sorry and he said don't be afraid of them.
Sometimes crying helps sandra, so go ahead. I've been known to do it myself from time to time.
I'm very sorry to hear that you also are caught up in this mess.
It seems that quite a few Hubbers are suffering for the greed and avarice of the worshippers of Mammon.
As far as being an angel is concerned, I think you're being very free with such high praise.
I lost my halo a long time ago and there aren't enough feathers left in my wings to get me a foot off the ground.
ColdWarBaby,
Europes catching up fast. All the Western nations are bailing and bailing, but that darn boat keeps getting lower in the water. This is what comes of having a global economy. It's a house of cards. I'm still hoping that the various governments will get enough caulks in place to stop the boat sinking, but meanwhile corporate investors have turned into lemmings, and they're jumping off the nearest cliff taking whatever they can grab up with them!
I haven't seen any panic buying here in the UK. So far so good. It's scary, but exciting in a weird kind of way, watching events unfold, knowing that our grandchildren will learn about these events at school some day.
Hi Amanda.
I'm beginning to think that if the whole system just crashed and burned it might be better in the long term. Why prolong the suffering?
Maybe we should all just vote for McCain, fire up a slew of nuclear and good, old fashioned coal burning power plants, drill for oil everywhere, build and drive millions more gas guzzling SUV's and just push this thing to the finish as quickly as possible.
There seem to be a growing number of posters who think that all we need is more of the same, at an even more insane level of intensity and everything will be OK.
America will own the world and everyone will be able to consume everything forever, with continued reckless abandon, without any problem.
It would seem that, no matter how obvious and in your face reality becomes, there will always be enough people who simply refuse to see it to make it impossible for any real progress to be made.
America is a divided nation and will fall as a result. It's most unfortunate that we'll take most of the rest of the world along with us.
When will it happen? I don't know. I'm beginning to wish it to be sooner rather than later.
Those who worship money and power would evidently prefer the possible extinction of the species over any change in the status quo.
Thanks for your comments Amanda.
CWB Food for thought. but scary nevertheless. Our currency has taken a major nosedive as American investors are being urged to move their investments out of "emerging economies"and repatriate the funds back to "safe havens" in the USA. The banks in Iceland have been Nationalised and various governments in the EU are guaranteeing funds for individual investors in their banks. IN RSA our banks have adopted a very conservative policy and we have high interest rates so our banks are safe for now. But our markets are taking a hammering because of the outflow of foreign investment and panic selling by investors. The other interesting factor is that the Chinese have the Yuan tied to the dollar and who knows what will happen in China if they let the Yuan float and who can predict what the effect of that can be.
The world economies are in a bit of a meltdown!
Very few people have experience in recession planning and scenarios. The US sub prime crisis has come home to roost and it is affecting the rest of the world too.
Hi sixtyorso.
Frankly I find myself welcoming the death throes of capitalism.
I've always believed it to be a vile system, which rewards corruption, avarice and greed while punishing the honest, productive and hard working laborer. It is a system that can not be sustained. It is based on completely negative concepts and motives and is guaranteed to self destruct.
Of course I'm sorry for the hardship this causes but it is the inevitable result from such a system. The more successful it is for the small number of predators that control it, the more suffering it brings to everyone else. Ultimately it creates a world in which there are only two classes, masters and slaves.
Humans are generally gregarious animals and require a socialized environment for survival of the species. Cooperation is far more effective than competition in assuring a successful society.
It is wise to store everything you might really need for yourself and family for at least 6 months and 2 years worth if you can; including seeds, a little fuel, fertilizer (or compost) soap, honey, sugar, flour, everything it takes to survive. It's mindboggling, but think survival. We are; it's not paranoia, it's wisdom.
If you don't need it, great; if you do and don't have it; terrifying.
We'll get thru this, but there will be sacrifice. We want to get back to our home state and get a garden ready; can't plant food on the concrete/sand of Fla and who cares about the scorching beaches? The hills of Oklahoma are calling...=)) good hub, CWB
Thanx again marisuewrites.
I'm trying to focus on making sure almost all the food we buy is nonperishable. Lots of rice and beans, canned and dry. Most canned foods will last a long time without refrigeration.
I'm considering trying to put together a homemade wind turbine. I'd like to be able to produce just enough electricity to run a refrigerator and a few lights and, maybe, a computer.
Florida? I lived there for over ten years in West Palm Beach. That's where I met my wife. I wonder how long it will be before those scorching beaches are under water.
The people have the power every two years to pick their poison.
The fact that there are so many long term congressional members has to be an indicator of where the core of the country's problem lies.
Do you think that the political system is broken, as it doesn't seem to help when one party or the other is in the majority.
The larger the government, the worse off that the country seems to be.
Congress and the President did nothing when we were paying $5 for a gallon of gas, they wouldn't even suspend gasoline tax for the summer.
Did you really have high expectations that the government was going to protect and take care of you?
veritas, it is most certainly the job of government to "protect" the nation it governs. What do you suppose our "defense" budget, which is nearly larger than that of all other nations combined, is for?
Oh! Wait. I almost forgot. Amerika is supposed to run the world! So we need all that military power for conquest, not defense. I don't know what I was thinking. Not to mention all that profit! Killing civilians by the millions is, after all, the most profitable business in the world.
I would never expect any government that is based on and controlled by capitalism to "take care of" or care at all about it's citizens beyond their ability to consume useless shit they don't need.
I would, however, expect a "government" that was actually of, by and for the people to absolutely be driven by the need to maintain the well being of its citizenry. That's actually what welfare means you know? The word has been intentionally stigmatized, redefined to imply something negative when in actuality it's meaning is a very positive one.
The care and maintenance of society are the primary reasons people choose to submit to governance in the first place. They don't create government with the desire or expectation of being subjugated, exploited, oppressed and enslaved.
Had you read any of my earlier hubs you would understand that I know the system doesn't work. It never did. It was created by the wealthy and designed to maintain their dominance. Said dominance was intended to be less blatant than that of the monarchy it replaced and therefore more palatable to those subjected to it.
Alas, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft agley."
Like all empires, this one has and will continue to follow the ageless traditions ending in utter failure and collapse, bringing death and suffering to millions of its subjects. The difference today is that the fall of the amerikan empire may crush a great deal of the world under its putrid rubble.
Melissa G says:
15 months ago
Well stated, ColdWarBaby. I share your disappointment over the way this bill has been handled and the irresponsibility our government has demonstrated by socializing the costs associated with the poor decisions of a wealthy few. As an optimist, I am trying to see the good in this, but all I can see is a staggering lack of good judgment and foresight, and another victory for the Bush administration and a wealthy few at the expense of everyone else.
Sadly, I can't imagine how this could possibly have a positive impact on our economy, and it makes me sick to think of all the good we could have accomplished by investing hundreds of billions of dollars into education, health care, and alternative energies. Instead, we're squandering it on a half-assed solution to a systemic problem that cannot possibly be fixed by addressing the symptoms instead of the cause.
Thanks for writing about this and hopefully things won't get as ugly as you predicted. Maybe we can find a better way. Somehow.