Mollycoddling A Nation(Silencing Needed Dissent with Bribes)

                            Crude Rises on 'Cliff' Deal Hopes

 Do you see that headline from CNBC stock market and business web site..

Crude oil rises on cliff deal hopes, there it is in a nut shell, capitalism at its finest, crony capitalism that is, I have seen this pattern in spades over the last 6 years, remember oil rising to $150.00 per barrel at the same time the Wall Street meltdown/securities fraud/derivative ponzi/mortgage pump and dump scandal...

Oil quickly tumbled back down to $70 dollars per barrel as the world teetered on economic collapse and as stimulus packages were implemented, bail outs for the thieves and as the Federal reserve printed $trillions of imaginary dollars oil prices crept back up...and as the European union banking system and ECB played the same game, printing money and bailing out criminals oil continued its rise, then fall, then rise, then fall, every-time a "new solution" was proposed, ideas like a "Bazooka bank"..."Hair cuts for bond owners" or other imaginary schemes oil again rose in price..Big oil is waiting with baited(fishy)breath for any signs of economic life as an excuse to raise prices..

I am so sick of this fiscal cliff bullshit, sick of Republicans and spineless Democrats, back when Bill Clinton was president tax rates were higher, unemployment numbers were lower and the USA wasn`t running deficits, and certainly not running $trillion dollar yearly deficits..

Who is to blame?...Crony capitalism(Facism) and rightwing ideology worthy of the trash can...The housing bubble our American neighbors went through, news flash, people making $20 dollars per hour can`t afford $400k homes and full-sized Dodge ram trucks, they can`t afford expensive daily Starbucks coffee and yearly trips abroad, a comic book path forward, a comic book life that was doomed to fail from the very git-go..

George W Bush and Dick Cheney, by far the most inept, unqualified and corrupt American administration in modern times.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_tax_cuts

Oil was priced at $25 dollars per barrel as Bush prepared for his false flag war against Iraq, oil companies were making big money at that price and believe it or not Alberta was running budget surpluses at that time too, Alberta has run 5 deficits in a row despite oil`s rise, despite its dramatic rise in price, flash forward to today, Alberta is poised to run another $3 billion dollar deficit this year, all that development, all that employment and Alberta is shuttering hospital beds and slashing services,......What is wrong with that picture?

When George W Bush went to war in Afghanistan taxes should have been raised, taxes for the rich, for corporations, for the middle-class, taxes should have been raised for everyone except for the dirt poor, when George W Bush and the Republican war mongers started beating more war drums in the lead up to illegally invading Iraq talk of taxation should have been front and center but it wasn`t, instead George W Bush and Cheney not only went headlong into a false war they lowered taxes again, more Bush tax cuts!

$25 dollar a barrel oil spiked upward in price, where was the pain, what country enters into war and lowers taxes at the same time, how was the USA to pay for these wars, an unfunded false flag war costing $trillions of dollars and Americans at home had their taxes cut and went shopping, buying houses they couldn`t afford, and while shopping malls and shows like American idol distracted the rabble rating agencies assisted Wall Street thieves in selling fraudulent doomed to fail mortgage backed securities around the world, mortgage brokers and bankers colluded with rating agencies, they ALL participated in this ponzi scheme....

Oil keeps rising in price, $80 dollars, $90 dollars, $120 dollars per barrel, ah, the people can afford expensive oil because George W Bush gave all tax cuts(disproportionately skewed towards the wealthy)...Are you all still following the Bush/Cheney technique?...

Nobody but the families of the dead soldiers felt any real pain, Americans went shopping, at a time when the USA was embroiled in 2 wars they couldn`t possibly win their domestic population was rewarded with tax cuts, taxes should have been raised twice, first for Afghanistan and then again for the Iraq war, only if they raised taxes and made all Americans pay a heavy price for Bush`s warring ways, including corporations, that would have brought a quicker end to George Bush`s aimless folly, and at a least it would have paid for the sin of starting wars..

It didn`t happen, the American public, the corporations, the wealthy saw the their country engaged in wars while simultaneously being handed more spending money, could you imagine if George W Bush raised taxes for each war he entered, the screams from corporations and the wealthy would have shattered Congress`s ear drums, meanwhile oil continued to increase in price, $130..$140..$150 dollars per barrel.....Big oil loves conflict and war, middle east tensions and threats abroad and pump prices rise, and rise, and rise some more.

POP...The bubble bursts, financial instruments and failed mortgaged backed securities trigger massive payouts in the shadowy and secretive $600 trillion dollar derivative market..The markets crash, the people are laid off, banks and bankers trust nobody and stop lending, money markets threaten to bring down the world unless the Federal Reserves and countries around the world print $trillions of dollars and bail out the criminals and their criminal derivative bets...Despite the howls from the public corporate controlled Governments buckle under and spend $trillions of imaginary dollars, $trillions the next generations will have to pay..

Oil falls fast, $140...$120...$100....$80...$60 dollars per barrel....

$20 trillion dollars of pixels and screen dots are turned into paper money and handed to the "too big to fail" banking institutions, 2 separate stimulus packages worth a combined $1.8 trillion dollars are also "created" and cheques are mailed out to all Americans in the hopes of "stimulating" a stagnant economy...

The stimulus did nothing but drive the price of oil back up,  for without jobs, without domestic manufacturing, with the average American no longer able to borrow monies against equities no amount of stimulus will work, but that didn`t stop corporate controlled Governments from continuing the "game"..The doling out continued..payroll tax cuts were the next stimulus gambit....Still nothing, food stamp programs were expanded, now an estimated 47 million Americans are surviving on food stamps...Unemployment benefits extended for 2 and 3 year terms, and Americans have always been able to write off mortgage interest payments.

The "fiscal cliff" was designed 2 years ago, why?, ask yourself why, ...It was designed as a way to stop the yearly $trillion dollar deficits, designed to bring tax levels back to a more sustainable level, a level that will actually pay for Government.

The fiscal cliff just didn`t sneak up on on the American Government....And it was created for a reason...

The fiscal cliff raised taxes on everyone, cut spending on military, healthcare, medicare and many many other programs, I personally think military spending needs to be cut by larger amounts and healthcare to be reformed, reformed of the perpetual fraud, fraud by HMOs, fraud by doctors, private insurers, there is an estimated 20% fraud throughout the USA medicare monstrosity..We can argue what should and shouldn`t be cut another day..This post isn`t about that, this story is about the Mollycoddling of the American people..About the democrats surrendering Democracy.

"The Fecal Cliff "...The name is apt
 
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/37010.html

The public has become used to the dole, if American presidents want to go to war taxes must be raised, 2 wars then taxes must be raised twice, if the Federal Reserve wants to bail out the Wall Street thieves taxes must be raised to pay for it..

Look what happened, George Bush`s wars brought tax cuts, Wall Street fraud brought more tax cuts...If the public, all the public including the wealthy and corporations had taxes raised for every war and every bailed out Wall Street fraud the screams of anger would have resonated through the halls of Congress, of the Senate, of the elected and wanting to stay elected politicians, something would be done, reforms, punishment and wars started only as a last resort.

It didn`t happen, George W Bush and his boss Dick Cheney gave more and more money to the public each time a war was started, after Wall Street fraud strangled the economy more money was given to the public, more stimulus, more deductions, more payroll tax relief and now the average American citizen has become reliant on food stamps, deductions, write offs and unemployment benefit extensions..

The American Republican Corporate Government went to war while simultaneously giving a duped public borrowed money to go shopping...

And if some sort of fiscal cliff deal is made, a continuation of selling future generations out, sacrificing your Grand children`s future, as taxes are put off for the rich, for everybody, Big Oil is rubbing their grubby little hands together in anticipation of increasing their corporate profits and taking all the tax relief!

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Crude Settles Higher on 'Cliff' Deal Hopes

 

Brent crude rose on Monday, closing 2012 up for the fourth straight year after geopolitical threats to production offset worries about flagging oil demand.

As oil prices edged higher on optimism about a positive outcome to the U.S. budget negotiations, Brent closed the year averaging over $111 a barrel, the highest annual average on record. The international benchmark gained 3.5 percent for the year, after rising 13.3 percent in 2011. 

Prices found support throughout the year from unrest in the Middle East that threatened supplies, including Western efforts to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions through sanctions against the OPEC nation. 

But the euro zone crisis and the U.S. fiscal cliff standoff have added to ongoing concerns about fuel demand and helped balance out production worries throughout 2012. Market players expect these factors will continue to influence prices next year. 

"Oil is going to be attached to the Middle East issues, I don't think Iran is going away, they have been quiet of late," said Richard Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist and founder of iitrader.com LLC in Chicago.

"We're finding a base in that $76 to $80 a barrel area (for U.S. crude). I don't know if we're going to go much lower than that for a while, even with all the potential oil coming on line in the United States, I think it's going to be geopolitical risk." 

While Brent headed toward annual gains, U.S. crude was on tap to end the year more than 7 percent lower from its 2011 finish, after three straight yearly gains, pressured by surging production in the United States — which hit a 19-year high this year — and Canada.

 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100345718

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 And as a final note on this story, corporations have never been richer, hoarding cash, Canadian banks have new record profits every quarter, and the big corporations continue to pay no tax at all!

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Wonder Why States Are Broke? One Reason is Companies Play Them Off Against Each Other

By David Segal, executive director of the online organizing group Demand Progress and former member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
The New York Times published an expose this week on Texas’s regime of business incentives, but for anybody who pays passing attention to so-called municipal and state economic development schemes, there wasn’t much news: Our states and localities are cannibalizing one another as they concoct targeted tax breaks which they use to lure corporations from their neighbors.
 Meanwhile, a bevy of middlemen wet their beaks by helping corporations pit sucker states off of one another and brokering deals to sell the tax credits that comprise much of the ensuing largess. Here’s the rub

Read more at

 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/12/wonder-why-states-are-broke-one-reason-is-companies-play-them-off-against-each-other.html#U7maRxOXX0zGCUYd.99

 

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States, countries, provinces all racing to the bottom, even here in BC the movie industry is threatening to leave BC for rosier deals in Ontario, it appears they are furious about losing the HST and of course, Ontario has trumped our labour tax credits to do exactly that, poach business from our province, maybe Tom Cruz could lower his rate to $20 million a flick instead of his usual $50 million,.....Yea right.

And as many have noted, the biggest most profitable corporations in the USA pay no income tax, paid none for decades...
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 "Multinationals have always been able to slither through tax codes around the world—the ability of GE and Boeing, for example, to not pay income taxes in the US despite their immense profits has become legendary (CTJ report).

 So corporate giants, such as Google and eBay, have perfected their methods for France. Among other strategies, they rely on subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands, and then offshore tax havens to shift revenues and income away from France. 

 Amazon’s subsidiary in France, for example, receives only a small commission off each sale. The rest of the revenue is routed overseas. Not illegal, per se. And proving that French law has been violated appears to be tricky. Companies are not expected to roll over. The fight in the French judicial system might be long and ineffectual. Meanwhile, France remains, contradictory as this may seem, a low-tax jurisdiction for foreign multinationals.

The crackdown has taken on hues of a populist and administrative revolt against these corporate welfare programs that multinational companies—but not local ones—have access to. Tempers are flaring as belts are being tightened around retirees, workers, and the unemployed until they’re gasping for air. Flamboyant threats of nationalizations and demands for protectionism were seen as a cure. But suddenly, they have run into a buzz saw.
Read more

 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/12/wolf-richter-a-revolt-against-corporate-welfare-programs-for-multinationals-in-france.html#5H2WLm7LZCRkQzzA.99

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 Until the people are pushed to the brink, told the real truth, until the suffering is laid bare for all to see, not until all the security blankets are taken away...Not until the politicians are living in fear and cast out on the streets will change happen, and that day can`t come soon enough..

And in case you missed this insult to every American..

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Obama Orders Pay Raise For Congress, Federal Workers, Joe Biden
 President Barack Obama gave a New Year's gift to returning members of Congress, federal workers and Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, signing an executive order calling for an end to a years-long pay freeze.


 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/obama-pay-raise-congress_n_2377714.html

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And what did Congress do to deserve a pay raise?

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 Editorial: Ineffective Congress puts our future at risk

 "But wait. Six-week break? Lame-duck session?

 It is normally called that, following a presidential election; however, now it is more fitting than ever. Members of the 112th Congress are doing what they do best - nothing.

Prior to this recess they were on track to break a record of sorts. In the 1940s, former President Harry Truman dubbed his Congress the "do-nothing Congress," noting that it advanced only 906 bills. Our current Congress, as The New York Times reported last week, will go down "as the least productive body in a generation," passing fewer than 200 bills into law.

Thus, as usual, they are waiting for voters' Nov. 6 marching orders, but leave little doubt that their record of inactivity will continue."

 http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=73&ArticleID=111167

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And on that happy note....

Happy New Year from your friendly neighborhood Powell River Persuader.

 The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open