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An Improbable Fireside Chat
By Mark Grant, an American Citizen
A Fireside Chat
Picture a fireside, stone around the hearth, Christmas logs of sometime past, a blazing fire and embers glowing beneath them. Imagine a simple room, wood panels and the glow that is reflected from the light that danced upon their lacquered finish. There sat a man next to the fire who was not the Pastor of some church nor some litigator stirring the listeners for re-election but a man speaking to the country and for the betterment of the nation. This man was neither a saint nor a person enshrined with excessive humility and while an American, he stood for those higher principles upon which the foundation of this country rested. He had been elected and while it can honestly be said that he inherited the problems and was not their creator; he knew that the task at hand would be his greatest accomplishment or his worst failure. Yet he was not afraid; he hearkened to the task because he would give his hallowed spirit to overcome what must be defeated. He knew he would persevere because he must and that the demands of this nation’s forefathers had called him to the task at hand.
There were TV cameras, there were always TV cameras, and there were carefully placed microphones and yet he ignored them all as the time had come to have an honest word with the American people. We had come so far, lost so many lives and now it was a different kind of battle that must be undertaken to hold the nation intact. The President, not this President, but one that is needed, was filled with purpose and the stern look of a man with a mission defined as he began his words in the evening of that fateful day.
“I come to you tonight not as your President but as a member of your extended family. The time has come for a serious chat and I fear the lateness of the hour and I apologize for not arriving sooner as the need is great but I am here now and so we must sit down and take stock of the nation. The United States did not get so far, did not become what it is, just because of our armies or the might of its sword. The country is rooted in principles and the Rule of Law that we have rested upon since 1776 and it is because of our foundation that we have been able to flourish. We are a country of people that have chosen to live here and while we cannot be proud of each and every act; we can certainly be proud of most of them and of the inhabitants from across the world that have chosen to reside in America.
Tonight we face a difficult task because, just as in any household in our country that has lived beyond its means; the country has lived beyond its means. The reality is that the nation, just like any family, only has so many resources and only has so much income and that the debts of the country must be constrained by what we can afford. I am here to tell you this evening that we have overspent, over indulged our desires and that we must walk back from the brink before we step into some abyss that overwhelms us. Our debt has passed more than one hundred percent of the yearly income of the country and we have headed down a path strewn with thorns that can no longer be ignored as it is tearing our clothing as we move forward in time. Further we have lost some of the purpose of the United States as while we must help those citizens in need, we cannot afford, any longer, to subsidize those people that do not want to work or wish to live upon the earnings of others. This may be the way of some countries but it is not the spirit of this country and so we must backtrack from social policies that encourage it.
We have $14.3 Trillion in income and we now have a debt that is more than $15 Trillion and this is not sustainable. Because the numbers are so large and because I wish no confusion for anyone; allow me to present this in another way. If the income of your family is $40,000.00 and you have debts of $50,000.00 then you know that some changes must be made and quickly and that is exactly the circumstances we find ourselves in tonight. We have over spent, over promised and we cannot deliver without quite real consequences for the nation that would eventually shatter the American dream and lead to the destabilization of the country and that I will not allow. We must cut back and while it may be painful and while not everyone will agree on the measures that I propose I am sure that we can find enough common ground to proceed with the task at hand not as Republicans and not as Democrats but as members of a common family that has made some mistakes in judgment. I propose a twenty percent minimum tax rate for all corporations in America and then the deductions in place can be utilized for the difference between the twenty percent rate and the highest rate of thirty-five percent. I propose that Social Security, for people under forty, be trimmed back but with appropriate tax incentives for those that invest soundly and their savings will be rewarded by these new tax breaks. I also propose a cut-back in in Medicare that does not affect our older citizens but is also applied to those under forty with tax breaks for their buying and maintaining private health insurance. It is a major change in the social structure of America no doubt but one that must be made to bring the country back to financial health because the country cannot survive without sound fiscal policies legislated for the nation.
Next I want to address with you the issue of oil and of the country’s energy needs. We should all be conscious of the environment and of being responsible when drilling for oil or natural gas and America needs to do her best to preserve her resources and use them with careful thought for this generation and for the next generation. I begin with these points so it is clear that we have obligations but I also state with absolute certainty and regardless of any mistakes made that we can no longer afford to reward those nations with our energy dollars that wish to overthrow the fundamental principles of the United States. We can no longer allow for the capital of this country to be invested where terrorists and others who seek to bring us harm reside. We have the resources, we have the technology and I intend to propose to Congress a new set of laws that will end our contribution to any nation that seeks America’s demise, is involved with terrorism or is not a member in good standing of the world’s community.
I also address the social crumbling of this country’s foundation tonight which is to ask when being successful became a pariah in the nation’s thinking. The United States was founded upon the principles of success, upon hard work, upon striving to accomplish our goals and when did we lose this most basic of premises is unknown to me but it is one we must re-establish for the good of our country and of our children. I applaud the man or woman who takes the initiative, makes the hard choices and works diligently to provide a better life for himself and his family and I am in the stands cheering as he passes by and marches upon his own two strong legs. I am in the crowd of admirers and I will not allow for him to be degraded by anyone whether he works on Wall Street or Main Street or whether the invention of some new idea has granted him riches that others have not attained. What is great about this country is that success can be achieved, can be attained and this is one of the cornerstones upon which America rests. Here are the real heroes of this country and deriding these people, so much lately a part of our national fiber, is a disease that has infected this nation and one that I intend to move both Heaven and Earth to try and cure. Horatio Alger and the like were always the rock of the United States and the current spirit in the land to look down upon those that have achieved some success will no longer be tolerated in my presence and I envision the day when not in yours either.
The times in the short run will no doubt be difficult and the choices facing us will not be easy. Many alternatives will be presented and many programs offered and not everyone will agree with what the Congress ultimately decides but choose we must and so we will as I ask for your endurance and support during these difficult moments in our history. What I can assure you, what I can promise you, is that we shall come through this and emerge as a better and stronger country where each man and woman can rest calmly at night knowing that his and her future and the futures of their children will be safer given the difficult choices that we will make in the next few months and then implement to help insure the success of the nation.”
I ask that you join me in my own personal hopes and prayers that someday soon, from someone, we are all able to hear the essence of this speech.
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Can someone explain OIS ? EX; I lend you some of my money, for some of your money/ and the exchange rate doesn't count, excluding the preset borrowing costs? REDEUX with Absolutly no holds barred. Lopez Motors at it's best!
SCARFACE 2012
Chainsaws and 928's
It is sustainable if we stopped there, but we won't
I agree with your point, and I thought the same thing: many families service mortgages far in excess of these ratios. The real trouble that I have with the writer's point is that his numbers are wrong: US GDP may be $14.5T, but that is not government income; real tax revenue barely tops two trillion, when it does. A more accurate analogy would be something like a family with an income of $20K trying to service a debt load of $150K.
Perhaps your 50,000 of debt service is in addition to your fucking mortgage loan that you wisely leveraged in a heloc to pay for a new car or a family vacation, just like the losers I used to work with that told me I was a fool for paying off my mortgage because I now have no deductions. If I am wrong, I apologize.
no bankers were harmed in the writing of this drivel.
Will Wall Street Ever Face Justice NYT
LAST week, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. proclaimed in a speech that when it comes to fighting financial fraud, the Obama administration’s “record of success has been nothing less than historic.” Such self-congratulation is not only premature, but it also reveals a troubling lack of understanding about what is required to win the war against financial wrongdoing.
Four years after the disintegration of the financial system, Americans have, rightfully, a gnawing feeling that justice has not been served. Claims of financial fraud against companies like Citigroup and Bank of America have been settled for pennies on the dollar, with no admission of wrongdoing. Executives who ran companies that made, packaged and sold trillions of dollars in toxic mortgages and mortgage-backed securities remain largely unscathed.
Meager resources have been applied to investigate the financial assault on our country, which wiped away trillions of dollars in household wealth and has resulted in 24 million people jobless or underemployed. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which Congress created to examine the full scope of the crisis, was given a budget of $9.8 million — roughly one-seventh of the budget of Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations did its work on the financial crisis with only a dozen or so Congressional staff members.
Despite their limited budgets, both inquiries turned over rocks and exposed disturbing financial practices, and both entities referred potential violations of law to the Justice Department. The final reports from the two investigations were completed last year, but the resources that were needed to dig deep beneath those rocks — or the rocks turned over by private litigants or other investigatory efforts — weren’t mobilized. One example: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s report contains evidence about Clayton Holdings, a company hired by more than 20 major financial institutions to perform “due diligence” on mortgage loans those companies were buying, bundling and selling. Clayton sampled 2 to 3 percent of those mortgages and found a significant number of defective loans. Yet the other 97 percent were not sampled, and that fact and the information about loan defects were never disclosed to investors — “raising the question,” the report noted, “of whether the disclosures were materially misleading, in violation of securities laws.”
In numerous court cases, plaintiffs, including the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have cited this evidence to support their claims of fraud and misrepresentation. But, inexplicably, there is no indication that the Justice Department promptly convened a high-level investigation to thoroughly examine who knew what when at these banks. In contrast, after the savings-and-loan debacle of the late 1980s, more than 1,000 bank and thrift executives were convicted of felonies. But today the rate of federal prosecutions for financial fraud is less than half of what it was then.
The belated creation of a Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, led by federal officials along with New York State’s aggressive attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, offers hope that the needed surge of investigation and enforcement may finally be initiated. But for it to succeed, the Obama administration must give the group the wherewithal to do so.
First, the working group must have a strong and independent staff with the budget, expertise and training to do the job. This is vital given the bureaucratic inertia so far. Mr. Holder’s commitment of 55 lawyers, investigators and other staff members is a start, but far short of what is needed. Keep in mind that the Dallas Bank Fraud Task Force from the savings-and-loan era, cited as a model at the time, had more than 100 law enforcement professionals on the job. And the new working group also needs to be free from political meddling, including from the House Republicans who have regularly run interference for their big-bank allies.
click link to cont.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/opinion/will-wall-street-ever-face-jus...
R u Kidding> The Bansters run from ZH every day. Pull your cranium out and grow a set of BALLS!
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I have one name for you: MF Global- no prosecutions and a 140,000 dollar fine. All the bankers are made whole and all the investors are hosed.
Investigation? Bwahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahah!
Second name: ISDA Run by bankers who would lose if a credit event is called. Wow, no credit default.
Bwhahahahahahahahahaha!
If you've got your head all in the N.Y. Times, well then.
PULL IT OUT.
It's called a 'limited hangout' darlin'.
The N.Y. Times is likely a C.I.A. sponsored propaganda journal.
The N.Y. Times is definitely NOT an independent press organization working as a party within a system of checks and balances.
Just ask John Corzine.
I just wish that some HFT machine could mate with HAL and use the combined inductive and deductive powers to pop a red flag during politicians' speeches that obscure the real data by taking things out of context and outright misrepresention.he red flags would pop up during speeches with additional data that clarifies statements about unemployment, GDP, CPI, etc.. However, people want to believe the bullshit because "they can't handle the truth".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY
A "chat" such as this would result in immediate riots in the streets. There was no mention of any "claw-backs" for the TRILLIONS stolen from U.S. Citizens by the Banksters & Wall St. There also wasn't mention of pull-back of our military from the neo-con agenda. Finally, if the people took back control there is no reason the quality of life in the U.S. can't be comparable with Sweden or Switzerland. So long as 3/4ths of the wealth is controlled by 2% of the population it can't happen.
You may have missed it but the Tarp money has been repaid, except for those three Democrat bastions of plunder, Obama Motors, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
As to "clawing back" money stolen on mortgage loans, it is the group of dead beat US Citizens who would rather squat in the houses rather than pay their debts as promised.
I suspect that if the Taliban or Al Qaeda had attacked Sweden they would now have a larger foreign military presence. I have no interest in the lifestyle of Sweden, the country of suicide.
I think you should visit Sweden and commit suicide there.
Its as easy as Aig, Bac, Cit...etc.
if you beleieve the pay back numbers you are officially brainwashed. Books cooked, off sheet balance crooks, mark to marketless accounting, pay back tarping with quantitave easing.
My fellow Amerxicans,
You have the right to bear arms
You have the right to internal combustion engines
The more internal combustion engines you have the happier you'll be
You have the right to giant food portions weighing in the pounds
You have th right to said internal combustion engines to lug your carcass out of the house up to 9 times per day to Wal-Mart and back
You have the right to complain about prices and yet you have no idea how cheap things are in the USA compared to the rest of the world
You have the right to a Disneyland/Hawaiian vacation
Anyone who tries to seperate you from these rights is a socialist or communist
Any system that taxes a corporation is a communist systerm
When in doubt of your over consumptive lifestyle fight back by calling anything other than your lifestyle socialist
Thank you and good night
No Walmart is a compound designed to keep the masses fed while they don't work.
Ask not what fiat ponzi sceme ur country can suck u into, ask what gullible sheepie u can suck in to keep it going, Now please go scam someone!
RIOT's R needed! Order is the byproduct of DisOrder. The art of WAR!
Under Pressure!
acdc-big balls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-fIn2QZgg (2:38)
Repudiate. How dare thouest accuse anyone of owing money to bankers.
Leave It to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, Mr. Rogers and the Muppets (think Ms. Piggy) got us into this crap. Focus on what's going on.
They're gonna kill us now. And, unless some very powerful elite entities that are threatened by this system, enough to do what is necessary, ain't not a one of us gonna to survive.
Even if some do survive there won't be enough of them left to stop the AG5 apocalyptic comet.
It's over dude. Between the GMO the DHS, FEMA, TSA, Israel, Iran, Greece, neclear meltdowns, nuclear war, genetist manufactured pandemics, and the negative comments on this site it is KYAGB time, which is for those of you still reading, Kiss Your Ass Good Bye time. And there you are saying, "Oh, its nothing that a good fucking politician and some hard work can't fix." Suprised you didn't throw a few good fuckin bankers into your speech.
Other than that pretty good speech. A job well done.
All of that seem to be a recounting of the proposals of President George W. Bush.
Interesting to find that so many admire them now.
It is
An Improbable Fireside ChatMark, you first had me go rogue on you when you began your tax monkey business.
Flat tax or better yet, FairTax.
Then, your oil/energy diatribe went off the celluloid a la Droopy, and the Tex Avery wolf going off the screen, scrambling to get back into frame.
Lastly, your ending could have been taken from any political speech today - a sad summation designed to wrap up their own truncated attempt to be heard.
Nice try. Try again - and this time, bring a howitzer.
Buahahaha. A romantic "waxing" about a country founded on debt who hasn't seen fit to honor the "rule of law" since at least Shay's Rebellion and shallow analysis that's "not worth a Continental".
How drole.
At least some of the DEBT that won our freedom were repaid where possible with worthless Continentals. People who provided horses, war material and other provisions etc DIED while waiting to be reimbursed by the grateful Government.
If memory serves, the Old Line Division fought and held off the superior British forces long enough to save the entire Army from GW all the way down. The price was lives...
Many lives...
There is one good thing though... we built Frigates that were faster than anything out there and strong enough to stand uo to a bruising fight from time to time.
Now they run Sinkex these days. It does not take much to execute the life fire from those who have spent countless Bells waiting to light off the big one.
Good sentiments which cut through all the fear and loathing out there. Those are the kind of thoughts that need to be kept alive for the rebuilding that will happen. Principles and values are the things that endure. You can't kill an idea.
Tell that rule of law shit to the banksters!
Taxes are theft - plain and simple.
What gibberish. The typing above exemplifies the problem. The president of the United Hates Empire is neither a god nor god's representative on earth. He's just one of the capos of a brutal gang of thieves.
You are the Gibberish with that post.
Mr Pres-
You completely left out the insanely large defense/war spending... (which did bancrupt us)
Yet u went on about people not collecting $ for not working...
Irony? Making shit that blows up for way more than is necc via no bid contracts? Ala not collecting $ for not working,,,,
Defense spending does not productively impact the economy like other efficient capital alocations do.
Omitting any discussion on the single Largest budget -yet taking on other so called 'entitlements' -item makes u a statis shill.
Try again when u can look at it all with a more pragmatic non pablum fed status quo welfare vs. defense bullshit.
What do you expect when the speech is written by a bunch of douchbag faux Jooze? The Gentiles must work until the drop to serve God's Chosen People and GCP needs lots of defence spending because they tend to piss a lot of people off.
"Non-Jews were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world-only to serve the People of Israel," ........"This is his servant...That's why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew."......"why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap; and we will sit? like an effendi (master) and eat."........ "That is why gentiles were created."
Israeli (former chief) Rabbi Ovadia Yosef 10/18/2010 (radio speech in Israel)
Jewish Talmudic Quotes — Facts Are Facts
that's some self righteous shit right there. looking in the mirror with some rose-colored glasses on bitchez.....
Here's how broke-dick things are in this world(not that they're different from any past time): we're supposed to be holding out for a hero from amongst the same self-serving dipshits that have run up those selfsame debts to fund promises they couldn't keep using money they knew they wouldn't have to pay back, so they could hang on to their cushy no-work, no-show government mafia jobs.
This sounds like one of those great Presidential speeches you hear in the movies.
Say, did you hear about the douchebag member of the Australian parliament who tactically lifted whole paragraphs from Michael Douglas' speech to the Press Corps at the end of "The American President" ? Sometimes these sorts of speeches find their way to real life, though we shouldn't hold our breath hoping that they will.
Most people don't understand what all of the commotion is about, because they are in debt for far more than a year's earnings, and that seems perfectly normal to them.
"We can no longer allow for the capital of this country to be invested where terrorists and others who seek to bring us harm reside. We have the resources, we have the technology and I intend to propose to Congress a new set of laws that will end our contribution to any CORPORATION that seeks America’s demise, is involved with terrorism or is not a member in good standing of the world’s community."
THAT might be an uncomfortably long list ...
Word cloud, bitchez!
I'm not sure what this article is saying. But first and foremost, I didn't live beyond my means. I didn't do anythingh wrong at all.
So, well, end of discussion.
So I'd like it if people stop centrally planning what "we" should do because "we" have committed som sin.
"We" is some cabal of oligarchs, "they" need to be stopped. If past is prologue, they won't be going away anytime soon by way of elections (rigged) or asking politely.
WOW. I'm amazed ! The author totally forgot to mention the fraud ! the fraud, the scam, the theft, the trillions of dollars in fraudulent bond sales above issuance by JPMORGAN, the missing billions from the IRAQ war, the transferance of wealth from the Treasury into the coffers of HALIBURTON, etc. can anyone say, "clawback" ?
It should be obvious to anyone that's paying attention that the author is an ADL volunteer and/or an AIPAC shill.
The guy that wrote that is as stupid as Paul Krugman. What an idiot.
The idiot keeps thinking the solution to the problems inherent in monetarism, is to use more of 'monetary metrics' to find a 'solution'.
He's as wrong as Paul fucking Krugman.
The answer to the problem of monetarism, is to ditch monetarism. Not change to a different, but equally bullshit form of monetarism.
The founding fathers were not monetarists, which the author of the article seems to have forgotten.
What he describes is as anti-american as what Paul Krugman does. He basically wants to keep monetarism, and work within the broken down, bullshit, fake system. Just switch it to his version, because his version of bullshit is better. Sorry, all bullshit is bad.
These are facts, and they are not negotiable.
The funny and sad thing is that much of what he proposes are exactly what the banksters want. People need to quit being sheep. If you are a monetarist, and believe in it's dogma, then you are in ideology, anti-american.
The author hits all the patriotic notes, except for the fact, that he is the anti-patriot. It's the fraud that got us here. Not welfare or social security. But wishing it so doesn't make it so. Idiot moentarists of a bullshit persuasion keep trying to use the problem of monetarism to invoke their version of monetarism, not knowing they are part of the same very wrong ideology as Paul Krugman. Sorry, doesn't matter if you're a keynesian or an austrian, you are a MONETARIST. Which means, you are full of shit.
Impeach Obama
Glass-Steagall
American Credit System
Not more bullshit monetarism.
not much hope here.
http://expose2.wordpress.com
Solutions from the state? Government is the problem. It must be kept on a short leash.
*blinks his eyes as the fog clears* WTF was that? Some creative writing exercise, or someone's fantasy?