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CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE...
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From: Michelle Obama
To: editor@mindofdemus.com |
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MoD - Potluck Poetry |
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Future in Your Eyes |
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KNOCK WOOD |
| MoD - Potluck Poetry |
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Speed of Life
Though glory rings Careless and duty free |
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| MoD - Potluck Poetry |
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Runnig Deep |
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Epic trouble brew Among the restless Brooklyn crew Where the only remedy For street voo-doo Is a straight line Across the black, magic city. Searching for the crystal princess Rocking that hip hop Bounce in quick strides Burying what’s left of humanity Between the asphalt cracks Of subtle Queens Home is where she runs, to me. The grimy times The sinful sea The Cool J raps They tap her mind Stealing teenage years From a patient girl Sobbing crocodile tears Unto an old red Alligator’s skin Gently drying her eyes With what remains Of brawl-yard dirt And lifelong stains Nestled into a well traveled “I Love New York” T-shirt She refuses to surrender From her back For nothing There, On village streets Permeated with sultry air Carrying essences from the Cigar shop Transporting loud aromas From the garbage bin At the corner bus-stop Smells that smack her face Leaving traces on the back of her neck Her, turning the other cheek Still she ushers her pain inward Where she cannot escape the silhouettes Who finally stop to rest inside her mind Reminding her of those with Less home, more time And the caked-up hope that reek Amidst the streams of skyscrapers Trembled by the swollen roars Of mighty Iron Lions Racing on steely tracks Carrying better girls To bitter lives. Beyond their breast pocket |
Toss aside what I remember ~Pray I shall forget ~A year supposed to bring us hope ~Has brought us nothing yet ~So departs 2010~So we hope again.
Pocket full of lint & heart full of sorrow. Fret so hard you fear tomorrow. Just when you think there’s nothing left. Maybe there is where you find yourself.
If the true pleasures in life were low-hanging fruits, then we would never jump, or climb. We'd have no scars to remember the journey by.
Rest on occasion, but don't fall asleep in the hands of time, no matter how comfy they rock. Your life is a single production, with no encore.
When life offers you a doorway, go ahead, step over the threshold and place all your weight on the front foot
Some of us chase perfection, and in the midst, we achieve good enough. After-all, what is happiness, if not good enough?
I may have dragged my feet, cut them on jagged rocks, but my rocky past enables my sturdy future.
In a world of dollar & cent unto Jah I repent. In the midst of fire & brimstone, is i & Jah alone.
War is crap! Any group large enough to consider themselves a nation should always exhaust all other options or, as a group, depose of the despots among them who reach for war too early.
May the fingers of love tickle your soul until you smile yourself to sleep.
Let ME leave you something, to NOT remember ME by.
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SERIES STARTING - SEPTEMBER, 2008 (Part I) Insurance giant AIG!!...$85 Billion in a 1 year loan to AI federal reserve to temporarily save their you know what! What is going on on Wall Street. The line, if there ever was one, has been further blurred between Wall Street, NY and K Street, Washington DC. |
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(Part II)
America Bends. . “Even banks are refusing to loan other banks” |
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(Part III)
 Paulson Pushes Mega Bailouts.
What has been going on on Wall Street with these huge investment firms and insurance companies has simply been fraud! Instead of going to jail for deceptive business practices in new, innovative, unprecedented ways, they are getting bankrolled by the very people they have taken advantage of. Americans have been real boneheaded in acquiring things they cannot afford and believing that Wall Street was their friend. Still, there is greater evil in using tax payer’s money to rescue these firms while all along not knowing if any of it can be turned for a profit. I don’t know US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson personally. I will say though, from what I gather, listening to this guy speak, reminds me of all the ridiculous George Bush appointments to offices of importance throughout the Bush administration. As America's CFO, Henry Paulson comes across as an incompetent joke! Yeah, I said it. Another empty suit, "bs" artist! As a simple layperson, I ask: who pronounced this guy the financial genius who's going to rescue us, anyway? In January he said, and I quote: "The economy is fundamentally sound; long term, fundamentally sound" Last weekend he didn’t say or suggest anything profound, nothing my 13 year old couldn’t surmise himself. Paulson sounded far from an expert. He appeared to be performing in an arena that is out of his league. He may be an expert economist but he sucks at selling bridges.
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President George W. Bush nominated Henry M. Paulson, Jr. to be the 74th Secretary of the Treasury on June 19, 2006. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Paulson to the position on June 28, 2006 and he was sworn into office on July 10, 2006 by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. As Treasury Secretary, Paulson is the President's leading policy advisor on a broad range of domestic and international economic issues...Before coming to Treasury, Paulson was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs since the firm’s initial public offering in 1999. He joined Goldman Sachs Chicago Office in 1974 and rose through the ranks holding several positions including, Managing Partner of the firm’s Chicago office, Co-head of the firm's investment Banking Division, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Co-Senior partner...Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Paulson was a member of the White House Domestic Council, serving as Staff Assistant to the President from 1972 to 1973, and as Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon from 1970 to 1972... Paulson graduated from Dartmouth in 1968, where he majored in English, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an All Ivy, All East football player. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1970. He and his wife, Wendy, have two children, Amanda and Merritt..-from the United States Department of the Treasury - Biography of Henry M. Paulson, Jr
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We really miss the late Tim Russert
 on that Meet The Press program. We love Tom Brokaw, but he did not force Paulson to answer any of his good questions—why ask the good questions if you’re going to let the politician off the hook. And believe me, Paulson is nothing but a politician here, and another bad one at that. He avoided Brokaw’s question about exactly what it is that the US government bought these pass few weeks during the Wall Street garage sale. In less than fifteen minutes on NBC’s MTP, Paulson managed to spew his fair share of the same old doo-doo about how he believes in the American people, how they will get through this OK; trying to explain how the federal government must buy useless pieces of paper and worthless data from “con-firms” designed to make rich people richer by sucking the middle class and the less fortunate completely dry. Not only must we buy the phantom assests, but we must buy them now! right now! before the deal is off the table; before the sky caves in! Right now! No time to think, no rationalizing. Just buy the damn $700 billion used car right here, right now! Paulson, Bernanke, Cheney...a bunch of overpaid used car salesmen in expensive suits we bought and paid for. When Brokaw asked Paulson about the *RTC Paulson sounded like he was reciting the official project description. He provided no insight into how such an entity would help. (*An RTC is actually a Resolution Trust Corp.-style entity. The vehicle would be set up to stem the slide in the markets and halt the erosion of the financial sector).Paulson repeatedly uses a term he seems to like: “Iliquid Loans”. Paulson loves this phrase, despite the fact that it actually tells the truth that what the feds are buying up is, in fact, NOTHING! Iliquid loans—loans which are frozen with no guarantee that payments will ever be revived. Mortgages people have already walked away from. In short, moneys nobody, not even the federal government will ever be able to collect. Paulson, on the fact that we the people now own the outrageous uncollectible debts that billionaire firms are walking away from, to their private islands: “It pains me,it pains me tremendously …this is far less drastic than the alternative". Yeah Hank, but less drastic for who? . This jackass with his Goldman Sachs backround actually believes, along with the rest of these pirates, that America’s general public consists of potential rape victims put there for their sick convenience. When did insurance companies become the “poor-thing” worthy of pity—not to mention the biggest one in the world? These bailouts have nothing to do with the good of the American people. The American people are clearly the Pawns in this debacle. . This is about what the Bush administration leaves behind for the next administration. These clowns running the show (and I include Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the weak hearted Democrats who don’t seem to know when they’re getting hoodwinked and bamboozled) do not expect Joe and Jane Citizen to realize that they are opting to buy theses failed companies up because it makes them look busy and proactive while they squander our money. At the same time it sets the next administration up for catastrophic failure. The risk of these government bailouts failing is a good risk, for them.. Treasury Secretary Paulson’s weekend talk-show appearances were to serve a single political purpose—to sell the mega buyouts to Congress. The US Congress has yet to sign off on some of these recent bailouts and his job was to get on TV and try to coerce the Congress. If anything Paulson said over the weekend helps to persuade Congress (who we know are going to go along anyway), then they are as simple as we already know they were. I wonder how much funny money Paulson himself has at risk on Wall Street? .
 New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg was the next big guest on MTP Sunday. What can we say about Bloomberg….he talks a good talk, seems very well rounded and utilitarian in his approach to government but he thinks everybody is a billionaire. He was going on again about how citizens need to always understand and go along with tax hikes ‘cause government costs! If you’ve lived in New York City during the Bloomberg years as I have, then need not say more, right? Can you imagine president Bloomberg? Oh, small town, Middle America would love this socialite…., not!. When asked about his future (since his second and final term ends in less than 500 days), Bloomberg said, with a straight face, that he wants to be the host of meet The Press after leaving NYC’s Gracie Mansion. One could tell, Brokaw didn’t find that cute, at all. |
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(Part IV)
 Privitized Profits, Socialized Losses.
Our President Bush finally speaks on the mother of all financial crises. What has it been, ten days since the preverbal crap officially hit the fan? If this were a disaster with lives in immediate danger, you know, like a hurricane, our president would be right in keeping with his normal reaction time. GW secures a network block to dedicate all of 14 minutes to explaining the dire $700 billion problem. How many $per minute is that? Bush’s prime time speak served to satisfy this simple purpose: to persuade the public to somehow put pressure on politicians and more importantly, fan the imaginative blur that the people influence politics in America. Unfortunately, the politicians usually jump prematurely, before the citizens show up to push them over the edge. It’s all a part of the “old-game” politics that the Republican Party hope is still at play.
There has been an official halt on the “dumbing down of America.” People are paying attention! The Bush administration is using scare tactics and a message of extreme urgency and impending doom to convince Congress to hurry up and sign him a blank check so he can hand it to one of his chosen idiots who'll go and spend it all on something totally useless, destructive and destined to blow up in our faces. Sounds familiar? After Mr. Bush asks his appointed money men to explain the problem and propose a solution, they offer the one that best suits themselves and their super power broker friends. They all then proceed to try and scare it down Congress’ throat, but Congress remembers the blank check they gave GW which he cashed by invading Iraq. Some of them are still trying to justify that one (shout out to Hillary). This time there is great doubt from Republicans, even the media puts up resistance while waiting for the other shoe to drop. In our opinion, no possible good can come out of the proposed bailout. Think about it. It’s compounding the problem; throwing gasoline on a fire. They propose that we buy these defunct assets, knowing it is very unlikely that we will break even and there is a good chance the losses will be great. There is nothing to guarantee that anything else is going to change. The bailout alone does not solve the overall economic problem as they dishonestly suggest. It makes it worse. What guarantees that wages are going to rise, that unemployment will decrease, that people who are struggling will suddenly be able to pay their mortgage, car note, credit card, medical bill, tuition on time. So the banks will be relieved of the burden, but the burden doesn’t disappear. It becomes ours! They hope the banks will start lending money but the banks have been burnt. Banks will know the economy hasn’t changed; that they only feel relief because Uncle wrote a check. Banks know that Joe Shmo is still broke and hasn’t had a raise in three years. Banks aren’t automatically going to open the lending floodgates. Bankers will be busy trying to scoop up what they still can during the layover period so they may ride off into the sunset before the fan hits the crap! When Wall Street firms and their investors are making record profits like oil companies they are never interested in sharing the wealth and even lobby for adjustments to tax laws in an effort to keep more of the riches that they amass. However, when the investments go south the burden is shared with all tax payers, even those who have no direct stake and earn no immediate profits from the financial marketplace. The big players know the risks when they play. The insurance companies and mega lenders knew they were playing with fire with the sub-prime/back-loaded mortgages, the loans without collateral, no down payment, insuring entities which have not proven true, long term value and the ability to maintain. Their eyes were wide shut and their conscience shut tight. Our government now tells us that we have to rescue these firms from themselves; that the disaster, is due in large part to the housing market collapse. What about the fact that most, if not all of the houses sold during the “housing boom” were way overpriced anyway. How do we account for that during this market correction process? Will anyone address the fact that the mortgage loans had no business being as large as they were in the first place, since these properties weren’t worth the prices? Overpriced properties—bigger loans—more money owed—greater yield in the long run for the lender, unless, of course the consumer can’t actually make the payments on the loan. The greedy lender and the greedy borrower both close their eyes and jump in to an empty swimming pool, then wonder why they hit the bottom so hard and so fast. Is anybody even learning from the mistakes? Part of the Bush Administration’s thinking on this whole thing is that down the road a lot of these mortgages can wind up being profitable if/when the housing market levels out. “Over time we’re gonna get a lot of that money back,” President Bush claims. …Is he still President? |
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(Part V) |
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(Part VI)
CONSUMPTION GONE WILD!
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The last ten years of fiscal irresponsibility with the United States “credit card” economy has been astonishing. Raise your hand if you've been watching and waiting for this bubble to burst. Many people, even those deeply entrenched in the flawed process and those profiting mostly from it, knew it was a bubble all along. The leaches simply hoped that they would get so fat that when the bubble burst it would, at worst, sprinkle cool soapy water all over them and wash away any evidence of the rape. They would have so much money stashed that they would be buffered from the economic aftershock unless, of course, our lame duck political leadership siphoned off more money to them in the form of bailouts even as they escape to higher ground, leaving middle America stuck in the emergency room trying to figure out how to apply the rape kit to themselves.
The truth on Main Street is that people were just buying stuff. You know what I’m talking about. People sporting stuff they can’t actually afford unless they have some money earning scheme on the side, which most of them don’t. Unnecessarily big houses, pimped out yards with heated swimming pools, trying to create Beverly Hills in St. Albans, Queens and Dayton Ohio. Fat cars they can’t gas up. Blackberries with catchy ring-tones, high definition TVs, super digital cameras and thousand dollar lenses to take regular family photos and on and on and on. Now everybody from Main Street to Wall Street is being asked to spend wisely. Banks actually have to lend with discretion. Employers have to budget efficiently and stop over-borrowing to make payroll, bonuses and perks. Maybe they ought to pay attention to the idea that many American workers are paid far more than they earn, especially in certain sectors. Yes, many people are underpaid, yes minimum wage may have been too slow to rise. At the same time, the number of salaries with six figures and up has grown as exponentially as housing prices. With more people entering the work force with college degrees than ever before, employers may have felt obligated to reflect this change, in wages. Common sense and proper oversight has been lacking across the board. The feds send the initial message that borrowing and overspending is “cool”, Wall Street acts accordingly in passing down the false sense of security and Americans run with it. We are witnessing our current American culture in which the obesity reality serves as a symbol for where we are. We consume limitlessly until we’re busting at the seems with stuff we don’t need, in search of false happiness... then we end up more sad, trying to buy our way out whether it is weight-loss or anti-depression. Family medical costs are astronomical because we go to see “physicians” for all sorts for reasons we never did before. There are too many people paying for psychological counseling and sexual enhancement, for example. Parents pay for mind altering drugs and child psychologists because they either have to work too many hours and focus too much of their attention on maintaining their credit payments or because they have no idea what being a parent is all about, so they pawn the responsibility off to whoever or whatever provides the false sense of a solution. Why didn’t banks tell potential borrowers that they simply cannot afford what their big eyes yearn for? The same reason psychiatrists don’t tell potential patients that, not only can’t they afford the session ...it’s not what they need. Doctors abuse the billing system, insurance companies oblige and AIG goes belly-up. We now witness an international debacle. Other nations have been infected with the same socioeconomic viruses and have fallen economically ill. Now they too must swallow the reality medicine. The fat, greedy, cry-baby America we’ve become needs a dose of reality, not Ritalin. America needs a spanking, not a “time-out.” .
PS, How about the “G-7” meeting of the minds this week where financial leaders of the worlds most powerful industrial nations got together to address the breakdown. There was no comprehensive solution offered, as far as we know. Only that they agreed not to get in each others’ way or step on each others’ toes as they each deal with the situation in ways that help their individual nations. Thanks guys!
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(Part VII)
Why aren't oil moguls bailing out the auto makers? No! Really! Why aren't they? The brilliant words blurted out on Bill Maher's HBO show by one Mr.Ashton Kutcher |
Your Money, Our Money, Their Money.
No Gap Between K & Wall St 
"Without immediate action by Congress, American could slip into...panic and a distressing scenario would unfold,"
, the Escalade
, the Hummer
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(14 city mpg) Nissan…the Armada
(12 city miles per gallon).