I started writing on this site after my frustration with America’s government boiled over with the (to me) unbelievable invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent FIASCO that found America’s finest (our troops) being ordered to essentially dismantle a nation which was ABSOLUTELY no threat to America’s national security.  In fact, during the years of Ronald Reagan, many of the perpetrators of our Iraq “strategy” were supplying Saddam Hussein with weapons and support as Iraq and Iran tried to destroy each other.  Since the day I started reading books as a way of informing myself about the ACTUAL actions of my government, I’ve been progressively more disenchanted with the “truth” as I’ve been able to discover it.  Most of my “rants” have focused on the, in my view, un-American actions of the republican party – and, more specifically, they were generated from the illegal and immoral actions of the Bush/Cheney regime.  There are books upon books which point out, in disgusting detail, the mismanagement and unethical actions that led to the FIASCO’S in Iraq and Afghanistan.  For example, over the years I’ve been convinced that Bush/Cheney had no intention of EVER capturing Osama bin Laden – the 9/11 attack simply gave them the “green light” to invade Iraq as they had been “planning” for several years in their “Project for a New American Century” meetings.  (see “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein)

This all being said, somehow I’ve forced myself to attempt a “bipartisan” approach to my disappointment with my own government.  While, as I’ve stated many times, I feel I have no choice but to rely on democrats to undo the misdeeds of Bush/Cheney (and the “Reagan Revolution” before them), I’m sadly coming to the conclusion that America’s government – both parties – is so “infested” with corruption that it’s almost depressing thinking about it.  The democrats seem to be satisfied with the “status quo” no matter what that might be.  I’ll try to explain.

In 2006 the American people voted out the republican control of Congress in a CLEAR vote against a continued occupation of Iraq (and seemingly endless occupation of Afghanistan).  What we got for our efforts was the so-called “surge” and at least another 1500 American troops (and untold numbers of Iraqi’s) perished as a result of this “face saving” strategy (for those of you who are my age – Viet Nam era – do you see the parallels here?).  One thing that has become crystal clear in my adult lifetime – America is incapable of admitting mistakes.

In 2008 “we the people” voted in a Democratic Congress (by large majorities) and President Barrack Obama.  During that election cycle the American economy was undermined by the “money changers” who are feeding the American politicians by the BILLIONS of dollars.  The campaign slogan of “Change you can believe in” implied to me a reversal of the disastrous (and, in some instances, illegal)  policies of the Bush/Cheney regime.  As the Bush/Cheney group was leaving their “free market” “conservative” “capitalism” philosophy behind, they were bequeathing TRILLIONS of precious American taxpayer dollars on America’s financial/gambling sector known as Wall Street.  The most Socialist transfer of wealth I’ve seen in my lifetime – only with the wealth going from us at the bottom to those at the “top.”  With two illegal and poorly managed wars and a disastrous financial meltdown leading to the so-called “Great Recession” you would think it would have been quite easy to implement the “change we can believe in.”  For heaven’s sake, “Main Street” was losing close to a MILLION jobs per month in the last 8 or so months of the Bush/Cheney years.  (and I’ll add some additional thoughts later about the trillions going to Wall Street)

What we got was almost three more years in Iraq – in essence, the Obama administration carried out the withdrawal from Iraq which was negotiated by the Bush administration prior to their taking office.  While we eventually got most of our troops out of Iraq, there was no courageous leadership shown by President Obama in the process.  And, as far as Afghanistan is concerned, it’s almost 2014 – as I’m writing this (we’ve been there for almost 13 YEARS) – and, we are still entrenched in the country known throughout history as the “graveyard of empires.”  (with some reports suggesting there’s a plan for another 10 years of occupation – yikes!) I guess we didn’t learn much as we (and Osama bin Laden) ushered the Soviet Union into their demise largely due to a failed “mission” in Afghanistan.  (Honestly, it seems to me that not many of our “leaders” have learned much from HISTORY – as the saying goes, those who ignore history are destined to REPEAT it)

And, regarding the bailouts of Wall Street – we, basically, got the same response from President Obama as he took control of the nation’s “reins” regarding the economy.  Instead of allowing the “too big to fail banks” to FAIL – and go through the normal process corporations which are bankrupt go through – our government continued with the TARP bailouts and funneled the rest of Hank Paulson’s $700 BILLION plan (which was just the “up front” portion) to stabilize the banks – with assurances of TRILLIONS more to cover their future liabilities.  Additionally, these banks got even BIGGER and the Federal Reserve bank has been pumping them full of cash at the rate of nearly ZERO percent interest for the 5 years since the “meltdown.”  Now, it’s pretty hard for me to blame that on Bush/Cheney.

When President Obama decided that he had the “power” to block ALL investigations of the wrongdoing (which we all knew about) of the Bush/Cheney crew I couldn’t believe my ears.  I believe the words he used were “we’re going to look forward instead of back.”  I’ve written before many times what a TERRIBLE decision that was – practically, legally, and morally.  From the practical viewpoint Obama has seen five years of unfettered attacks from republicans determined to assure that he FAILS.  Now, really, do you think that would have been happening if ALL the misdeeds of Bush/Cheney had been put on display for the entire nation to “digest?” (that would include the lying us into war, authorizing torture, outing a CIA agent, undermining the Justice Department, purposely eliminating regulations (which led to mining disasters and the deep water oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexic0), and the aforementioned TARP bailout to list a few of the misdeeds)  Really, the republican congress is STILL “investigating” Ben Gazi – what was Obama thinking?  From a legal point of view – how can a president justify “looking forward instead of back?”  That would be the end of all crime.  Here’s how it really works – you MUST look back to determine if crimes have been committed.  If I get a traffic ticket and plead “not guilty” – how can I be prosecuted if someone doesn’t “look back?”  The message Obama sent was exactly what so many of us tried to make sure never happened again during the Watergate fiasco – and that was when Richard Nixon said, “If the President does it, it MUST be LEGAL.”  It took a lot of “bipartisan” work to prove the statement FALSE – yet, President Obama, in my view, undermined that entire process with his “pardoning” of Bush/Cheney. (along with “pardoning” Wall Street)

Then there’s the moral aspect to this.  I’ll let you connect the dots regarding the moral aspect of “looking forward” regarding the wars (and the torture), lets focus on the TARP bailouts for that one.  I knew almost immediately that I was going to have some issues with President Obama when he chose Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary and Larry Summers as his chief financial adviser.  Geithner was instrumental in creating the atmosphere that caused the “crash” of 2008 in the first place as head of the New York Fed – it was like hiring the FOX to fix the HEN HOUSE!  And, Summers was instrumental (along with Robert Rubin) in very republican like deregulating during the Clinton administration – including the disastrous repeal of Glass Steagall (a depression era regulation designed to prevent the “too big to fail banks”) and preventing regulations on derivatives.  Plus, I’ve heard no one speculating on Paulson’s motives for devising the HARP bailout in the first place.  Let’s take a closer look at that aspect of this disaster.

Paulson was Bush’s Treasury Secretary and a former head of Goldman Sachs.  He waited until Lehman Brothers (investment bank) collapsed to act in attempting to prevent a total collapse of the financial system via the TARP bailouts.  To this day I believe Paulson is claiming he did this for “Main Street.”  And, I have to add that I’m not educated at all (other than a few books – including Joseph Stiglitz’ “Freefall”) on economics, but I’m pretty sure Paulson had a personal “stake” in saving Goldman Sachs.  According to Stiglitz, had the government allowed Goldman Sachs and the other banks who were “over leveraged” – I hope I’ve got that summation correct – to go into “receivership,” the executives would have been purged and the stockholders would have been the big losers.  The bondholders would have become the stockholders.  Again, hoping I’m explaining this correctly (“Freefall” is a hard book for someone like myself to read because it presupposes a higher knowledge of economics).  What I’ve wondered since that time is what level of stockholder in Goldman Sachs was Paulson?  How much did he personally stand to lose had they failed?  Was he really that concerned with “Main Street” as he egregiously VIOLATED his “Free Market” principles?  (Ironically, it’s the people who supported Paulson and the republicans who are so willing to throw the term “socialist” at President Obama – go figure)

If you read “Freefall” and then listen to (or read Paulson’s point of view today) you can see where the problem lies.  In a recent article I read on the internet (you can read it yourself by clicking here) Paulson is claiming there’s another “crisis” on the horizon.  As I read his article he’s placing the blame (still) for the “bubble” that “burst” in 2008 on the government and now government agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Stiglitz also sees another “bubble” disaster on the horizon, but he sees the problem (more as I do) as the government excusing Wall Street’s reckless behavior and encouraging them to believe (companies like Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, etc.) they are too big to fail and that “we the people” will bail them out again the next time.  It didn’t take them long to be right back doing the same “creative” money making (laundering) schemes that created the problem in 2008.  The arrogance of taking the BILLIONS in up front bailout money and issue HUGE bonuses in the face of HUGE failures seems to have made more of a negative impression on Stiglitz than it did on Paulson.  According to Stiglitz (and other authors I’ve read) the “cost” of the bailouts is considerably larger than the initial $700 BILLION.

Paulson says that the money’s been repaid and then some, Stiglitz contended there’s a liability in the TRILLIONS that isn’t apparent as we look at the TARP bailouts from the “front page” perspective.  Again, I don’t understand anything more than it’s obvious to me the Wall Street “elite” are squeezing as much wealth out of this nation as they can before the rest of us “wake up.”  They’re “investing” BILLIONS in our politicians – to the point (as I stated above) the level of corruption in Washington DC is almost suffocating – it’s depressing!  This is the aspect of all of this that disappoints me the most.  Allowing the top (less than 1%) tier of Americans to continue to control the agenda is NOT the “change I can believe in.”  Obviously, this is NOT Obama’s fault – it’s just that I believed he understood the gravity of the situation and that he was committed to stopping it (I’m beginning to feel, as of this date, he’s getting there – although it may be too late).  When Hank Paulson suggests there’s another crisis on the horizon – well, there’s a republican who says something I can agree with – just for completely different reasons.  I’ve stated many times on this site, I believe there’s a “war” for the heart and soul of America being waged and it’s almost as if one side (middle class America) still doesn’t realize it.

We (America) have become a nation that is almost unrecognizable to people like me. (and, I guarantee you, the rest of the world is looking at us like WHAT IS GOING ON?)  We’ve got a major party that’s blocking food stamps, unemployment benefits, trying to eliminate overtime pay for workers, cutting back on early childhood education, opposing “welfare,” and FOCUSING their efforts on making sure 50 MILLION Americans don’t have access to health care.  At the same time, they’re in favor of tax havens for the wealthy in places like the Cayman Islands (their last presidential nominee has something like 137 “tax shelters” there), they support enormous subsidies to corporations making HUGE profits (corporate welfare – I’m sure you can see the irony on this one), and while they’re calling our Democratic president a “socialist” they’re propping up large banks with BILLIONS of taxpayer money (isn’t that the epitome of socialism?).   And, maybe worse for me, we have the opposition party that’s willing to go along with much of this (the democrats have put Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid “on the table” in budget negotiations – unthinkable from my perspective).  When you read “Freefall” you see that America’s hypocrisy goes much deeper than our internal issues.  Just one reason why we’re losing our standing world wide (and the price for these actions is going to be greater as time goes by) is how we dealt with America’s banks creating a WORLD WIDE crisis.  In the aftermath our banks have been “fed” by the Fed (OK, it’s a pun) at nearly ZERO per cent with a flood of capital – while in “third world” countries where the crisis spread (our banks were selling their garbage securities to unsuspecting buyers world wide) capital necessary to reverse the damage of the “bubble’s bursting” has been as high as 50%.  We throw money at the problem (almost free money) while telling them to “tighten their belts.”  Again, this part of the problem seems “bipartisan” to me.  Our “leaders” seem to have a superiority complex that those in other nations are very much tiring of!

So, what do we do?  Is there a solution?  Well, eventually there will be a solution – it just seems to me the question is how much trauma do “we the people” want to endure before getting there?  I continue to believe “step one” is voting out ALL (practically speaking – as many as possible) republicans from national legislatures and state legislatures (I’m OK with a different party to replace them – remember, they replaced the Whigs back in the days of Abraham Lincoln – somehow, I don’t think he’d recognize today’s “republicans”).  I’m sure you can see the same issue with this solution.  That leaves us with Democrats.  Honestly, they would need to be on notice that “feeding from the same trough” ie – surviving off of donations from large corporations – isn’t in the interest of their job security.  Somehow, “we the people” need to get a level of reporting in our media so that we KNOW who’s taking money from whom and what issues are they voting for.  I’d love to see a “channel” dedicated to just that.  Exposing the corporate “sponsors” of our politicians.

Stiglitz makes a compelling argument to work toward a “balance” between government regulation of business (mainly Wall Street) and the need for “free markets.”  We all need for corporations to be financially profitable.  It just doesn’t help our nation to have a shrinking few controlling the vast majority of America’s wealth.  CEO’s are not the backbone of America.  This country was turned into the greatest nation on earth with a thriving middle class of productive WORKERS.  Yes, we are evolving and our economy is evolving, but anyone who’s thinking (and I’ve written extensively that many are) that America (and the world) is best governed by the wealthy elite is fooling his/herself.  The gates on their gated communities tells us they believe they are “above” the rest of us.  I believe they are wrong.  To me, if we in America, don’t soon remember what elevated our nation to a leadership position in the world, and soon, those gates will come tumbling down.  Supporting the opportunity for success and wealth is good, supporting greed is NOT!  Somehow, “we the people” in America need to come together to support a “bottom up” approach to government.  Until we do that, I feel we will continue our descent towards second rate status.  Presently, we are a classic example of an “empire” in decline.  This all seems so surreal to me, I will continue my attempt at understanding the root cause of why this is happening to my country.