Banker Jekyll Will Hyde Your Money - 7

In this series we have been dealing with the things the public does not know about the way the banksters have conducted themselves in closed, smoky back rooms where "the real deals are made".

The previous episode is here, the basic subject is how the banks, especially the Fed, do not want us to know what they do in the back rooms, and how Bloomberg sued the Fed to get the information under the Freedom of Information Act.

But the inquiry also goes into MERS, foreclosure madness, toxic assets, and a few other issues.

We now find that the Fed was shipping hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country to foreign nations:

... we now know the Fed also acted in a secondary bail out capacity, providing over $350 billion in short term funding exclusively to 35 foreign banks, of which the biggest beneficiaries were UBS, Dexia and BNP. Since the funding provided was in the form of ultra-short maturity commercial paper it was essentially equivalent to cash funding. In other words, between October 27, 2008 and August 6, 2009, the Fed spent $350 billion in taxpayer funds to save 35 foreign banks.

(Meet The 35 Foreign Banks, emphasis added). The Federal Reserve website indicates there are a few lawsuits over all of this:

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, Inc., v. Board of Governors, No. 09-2436 (D. District of Columbia, filed December 30, 2009), is a Freedom of Information Act case.

Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Board of Governors, No. 09-2138 (D. District of Columbia, filed November 13, 2009), is a Freedom of Information Act case.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Board of Governors, No. 09-2113 (D. District of Columbia, filed November 10, 2009), is a Freedom of Information Act case.

McKinley v. Board of Governors, No. 09-1263 (D. District of Columbia, filed July 8, 2009), is a Freedom of Information Act case.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Board of Governors, No. 09-663 (D. District of Columbia, filed April 16, 2009), was a Freedom of Information Act case. On November 19, 2009, the district court granted the Board's motion for summary judgment.

The New York Times Company v. Board of Governors, No. 09-2645 (S.D. New York, filed March 23, 2009), was a Freedom of Information Act case. The court dismissed the case on the parties' motion on November 30, 2009.

Freedom Watch, Inc., v. Board of Governors, No. 09-331 (D. District of Columbia, filed February 19, 2009), was a Freedom of Information Act case. The district court granted the Board's motion to dismiss the action on August 12, 2009.

Fox News Network v. Board of Governors, No. 09-272 (S.D. New York, filed January 13, 2009), is a Freedom of Information Act case. On July 30, 2009, the district court granted the Board's motion for summary judgment (639 F. Supp. 2d 84). The plaintiff's appeal to the Second Circuit (09-3795, filed September 11, 2009) is pending.

Murray v. Board of Governors, No. 08-cv-15147 (E.D. Michigan, filed December 15, 2008), is a challenge to the constitutionality of federal expenditures relating to American International Group (AIG).

Bumgarner v. Paulson, Bernanke, et al., No. 08-cv-5245 (D. New Jersey, amended complaint filed November 21, 2008), was a challenge to the implementation of the Economic Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008. On August 10, 2009, the district court dismissed the action.

Bloomberg, L.P. v. Board of Governors, No. 08-cv-9595 (S.D. New York, filed November 7, 2008), is a Freedom of Information Act case. On August 4, 2009, the district court granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment (649 F. Supp. 2d 262). The Board's appeal to the Second Circuit (09-4083, filed October 1, 2009) is pending. [Bloomberg won]

Schulz v. United States Federal Reserve System, No. 1:08-cv-991 (N.D. New York, filed September 18, 2008), is an action relating to the Federal Reserve's loan to American International Group. On September 25, 2008, the district court denied plaintiff's request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. On September 30, 2008, the plaintiff appealed the district court's order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (No. 08-4810).

(Federal Reserve). So it isn't just Dredd Blog who has been a bit suspicious about some of these practices.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

On The Origin of MOMCOM

This post is a new type of literature, science friction, which is akin to science fiction.

Science fiction is usually based on a healthy amount of truth, mixed in with an abundant supply of imagination, extrapolation, humor, and the like, so science friction will follow suit.

The Dredd Blog System has mused about some solidly incredible mysteries being discovered in the cosmos around us, such as The Great Hexagon, the virgin mother lizard which does not copulate but instead replicates, and The Cosmic Bubble.

Discussing the latter, the story of The Origin of MOMCOM (focusing on the economist sub-class of the MOMCOM realm) began:

My theory is that the bubble is a very ancient runaway economic system developed by the ancestors of our current bankster species, before some of them migrated to our planet.

They are constantly talking about bubbles, constantly making them, constantly trying to keep them from popping by putting more and more "bubble stuff" into them.

(Economists - Aliens From Cygnus?). When the ancestors of MOMCOM first arrived in our solar system, they settled on the planet Mulantis, which once existed between Mars and Jupiter, but they destroyed it, then had to move on.

Once most of the debris from the explosive destruction of Mulantis had bombarded the planets in our solar system, abundantly cratering them and their moons, then had settled down, the ancestors of MOMCOM returned to this solar system and settled in on the Earth.

Once in awhile debris (for example: asteroids, comets, the renegrade groups orbiting Jupiter and Saturn), that had been thrown far and wide into our solar system when Mulantis exploded, would cause great destruction on the Earth, but eventually it settled down to the current phase of relatively few dangerous chunks of Mulantis still flying around out there.

Some of the microbes from Cygnus and Mulantis survived through all of that destruction (as did the ancestors of MOMCOM who were once human-like, by morphing into beings that do not have corporeal bodies) but who are now only able to influence species that still have corporeal bodies.

Some of that ancestor influence is seen by reading some of the scientific literature which teaches that humans must morph into machines, or religious literature which teaches that humans must morph into beings without corporeal bodies.

Religionists have a theory for the origin of the toxins of power that talk about evil beings without corporeal bodies, while scientists look for quantum elements in the mind somewhere.

We have wondered about the extent of the toxins of power, and how they replicate.

Think about it, why is our civilization headed for destruction by its very way of life, why is a portion of our civilization criminally insane in that sense?

MOMCOM seems so alien to this planet.

The ancestors of MOMCOM must have created the toxins of power long ago when malfunctions occurred during their morph, and those toxins still animate MOMCOM today.

That's the "troof of troofiness" nation.

The Keystone Complex To The Rescue - 6

Dredd Blog has been saying that officials of the Obama Admin. are members in good standing of "The Circle W Cowboys".

The propaganda media outlets, like Morning Joe on MSNBC, a brand of the toothpaste empire, robber baron corporation GE, nevertheless portray Obama as a far left socialist (out in the open anyway).

Meanwhile, hard right congressmen begin to grow goatees and call Obama their "close friend".

This is the realm of Jabber The Whut without a doubt.

Somebody is right, because now we find out that there was a deal not to prosecute any Bush II regime criminals because, well just because:

In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies the that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. A "confidential" April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid to the State Department—one of the 251,287 cables obtained by WikiLeaks — details how the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution.

The previous month, a Spanish human rights group called the Association for the Dignity of Spanish Prisoners had requested that Spain's National Court indict six former Bush officials for, as the cable describes it, "creating a legal framework that allegedly permitted torture." The six were former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; David Addington, former chief of staff and legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney; William Haynes, the Pentagon's former general counsel; Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy; Jay Bybee, former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel; and John Yoo, a former official in the Office of Legal Counsel. The human rights group contended that Spain had a duty to open an investigation under the nation's "universal jurisdiction" law, which permits its legal system to prosecute overseas human rights crimes involving Spanish citizens and residents. Five Guantanamo detainees, the group maintained, fit that criteria.

(Too Big To Jail). The Circle W Cowboys always get to the same place, because they all use The W Compass to do their police work:

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Paterson that’s just the way things go
If you’re [Barak] you might as well not show up on the street
’Less you wanna draw the heat

(Hurricane, Bob Dylan). We have a new police force in town folks who have had a talk with Mr. Obama, and the force is out to plunder "purtek your money".

The next post in this series is here, the previous post is here.

Due Process Of Law Is A State Secret - 2

In the previous post in this series, and in other posts, we have noticed that the graphs are astoundingly clear.

The increase of the obsession the government has for "secrecy" parallels: a) the increase in government wrongs here at home and around the world, b) the increase in war, c) the increase in cold heartedness, d) the increase in income for the wealthy 1% who have most of the wealth, e) the increase in poverty, f) the decline of the middle class, and g) the decline in sanity.

The solution the politicians have is to blame "it" on other politicians, try to make it worse so as to win elections, and then lie about all of that.

The paranoia the government spouts infects the rest of us, so there are indications that our empire has passed the peak of sanity.

As it turns out now, Country Joe & The Fish had a lyric that probably sums this attitude up:

"Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die."

(Variations On A Theme). Now we head into the winter with a chill on the congress, a chill on those whose unemployment benefits are going away, and a chill on the wealthy who want a big fat tax cut for xmas.

The previous post in this series is here.

The Obama Moratorium On Federal Pay

At first blush in a time of discontent concerning government in general, it may seem like a win win to stop raising the salaries of federal government civil servants, who earn more than their counter parts in the private sector.

But it becomes clear that more is needed than angry bias when it comes to messing with anyone's livelihood, including federal employees, when we consider that the average of $61,051 and $123,049 is $92,050.

So if we spout off about $92,050 it makes folks getting $61,051 look a bit more well oiled than they are, and it makes those getting $123,049 less well off than they actually are.

So, why not just do a pro rata freeze on the pay increases of those taking home more than the national median income, and leave those below the national median alone?

They are members of the middle class after all:

At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.

Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available.

(USA Today). Those collecting Social Security Insurance, who are primarily those below the median income level, have already had their benefits frozen.

The corporations and the banksters are raking it in like the bandits they are.

Meanwhile, today unemployment benefits for a couple of million Americans out of work stop, yes they lose all unemployment benefits just before the holidays.

This as the republicans cry out for tax cuts for the 2% million-dollar-a-year income folks who Bush II called "my base".

The Circle W Cowboys - 2

In the first episode of this series "The Circle W Cowboys" we expanded upon the theme set forth in "A 'W' On Every Compass Point" to show how a myopic meme complex is born and raised.

The basic idea is that "business as usual" (BAU) status quo ideology permeates the BAU meme complex in Washington D.C.

When a president elect, senator elect, or newly elected House member gets to Washington D.C., following a November election, they are given the compass of the BAU meme complex and told "this is how we do it here".

They actually attend classes and lectures put on by the "leaders", who are actually followers of BAU, to learn how to do MOMCOM politics as usual.

The administration and congress is dutifully following the memes bouncing around the complex, which were also dutifully followed by the previous administration:

1) deficit military spending continues into the stratosphere, 2) big oil is worshipped, 3) the elite wealthy want more tax cuts, 4) the perverted state secrets doctrine rages out against WikiLeaks journalism, 5) the propaganda machine is rebuilt nastier than before, 6) they are increasing and perpetuating the extinction of accountability, and 7) thus the nation continues down the demented side of the slope on the sanity bell-curve.

Today on Morning Joe (MSNBC), Mr. Scarborough mentioned that it is wrong to prosecute those who are exposing government wrongs, who have not taken any oath not to expose such wrongs (in contrast, government folks take an oath not to do wrongs while in office).

Consistent with that, yesterday Mr. Scarborough also disagreed with Rep. King (R-Bullshitistan) that WikiLeaks should be named as a terrorist organization just because the WiggyLeaks journalism is showing the ugly mega-warts on this and several previous administration's derrières.

I certainly agree with Mr. Scarborough because this is nothing more than The Pentagon Papers 2.0, the enhanced version.

The administration in the persona of Secretary Clinton, said one of her counterparts intimated "you should hear what we say about you", as if two dorky ambassadorial failures add up to good ambassador relations.

Do they envision the diplomatic corps of our State Department as the organ for destroying the notion of a kinder, gentler nation, a nation that gets along with its neighbours far and wide, a nation that drags the relationships between nations down into the sewer?

And Attorney General Holder, in true Department of Just Us fashion, gets all veklempt over a binary download, but lets the plunder barons, robber barons, torture freaks, and war criminals give themselves the greatest corporate pay checks and bonuses ever ... from the Treasury even, as the unemployed lose their benefits?

Egads, the BAU meme complex up there in Washington Town has gone all Lady GaGa on Steroids doncha know, with glow in the dark, neon flashing, mickey mouse W compasses aplenty.

On The Origin of Leeks - 2

In the first episode of this series we talked about the ancient origin of leeks.

Oh those leeks, we discovered, are such good food for the people, but they are a poison for the elites, they are a risk to the warmonger, but above all they are for sure a perplexing problem to those vexed with the fog of nationalism that is founded on the exceptionalism of foolishness.

Those on the right, who feign "pragmatic constitutional understanding" when confronted with the Fourth Amendment, tend to say: "I have nothing to hide, so why should I care if 'they' search me or mine without a warrant ... I mean c'mon ... only criminals fear to be searched, besides it makes us safe and secure to give up the Fourth Amendment."

But those who officially preach that doctrine to the sleepy minions (e.g. T-Baggers) become hostile and vain when they are searched without a "warrant" by the CIA (Cosmic Intelligent Agents) of the people, and then have to "feast on leeks" when the rank lies and propaganda are exposed.

All of a sudden, they have no use for WiggyLeeks, the food of the common folk.

They become national security wonks all of a sudden when the tides turn upon them, failing to realize that a rogue government is not something that is safe and secure in the first place.

Why doesn't it occur to them that if those sworn not to do what they don't want out in the open didn't do those bad things they would have nothing to worry about?

Those who indoctrinated those lizard brain controlled minions tend to wilt like a leek in the desert without water when they have to endure violations of the principles of that "quaint writ" (Gonzales) because of the emergence of the truth about them.

Well, it is so close to thanksgiving time that we need to talk about that constitutional food of the people, the leeks of the people, from now until Pentagonia, Capitol of Bullshitistan is a democracy again.

After that we will celebrate the new era with some champagne and rejoicing while we sing "long live the leeks and long live the people".

As it turns out, a couple of media newspapers are leek eaters:

US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomatic crisis

• More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies
• Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies
• Saudi king urged Washington to bomb Iran

"... cables date from 2007 or later — show American officials struggling with events whose outcomes are far from sure. To read through them is to become a global voyeur, immersed in the jawboning, inducements and penalties the United States wields in trying to have its way with a recalcitrant world."

(Guardian, see also NY Times). Now go out into the garden, pick some leeks, and "boil them cabbage down" (the Guardian has a download mechanism).

We must not DeLay the rights of the people, we must resist the robber barons and the criminally insane, so that we preserve at least a chance that we or our children can dwell in the next civilization.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post is here.

Open Thread

Weekend open thread ...

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Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
’Bout a funny ol’ world that’s a-comin’ along
Seems sick an’ it’s hungry, it’s tired an’ it’s torn
It looks like it’s a-dyin’ an’ it’s hardly been born

Song To Woody

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A Tale or A Tale of one or two bombers or ...
Is The Keystone Complex Hard Up To Cop A Feel?

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Penrose pops Big Bangers with Cosmic Condom Consciousness (CCC)

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When it Leaks it pours

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The King, "who can do no wrong",
Arrests 15 year old girl for burning Koran

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Willie Nelson does not know how to spin,
unqualified to be a propagandist
unlike fellow Texan Tom DeLay

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