Archive for the ‘Financial’ Category
17
On a recent trip to Japan, President Obama bowed to his counterpart, Emperor Akihito. This act of RESPECT is being met with hoots and howls from conservatives who feel that was the wrong thing to do. They are saying that by bowing, Obama is making America “look bad.” Where have these people been the last 8 years?
The reason America looks bad ALL OVER THE WORLD is because for DECADES we have gone around the world treating people however the FUCK we wanted to. Then when and if anyone complained, they were met with “yeah and” attitudes. We force people who come over to this country to speak English and then when we go to their country, we expect them to understand English. We have bombed, financially raped, bullied, cajoled, and threatened, countries into attacking Iraq and Afghanistan with a lie about “weapons of mass destruction” and found NOTHING! The world is not safer and instead of making friends, or at least have working relationships with countries different from ours, we have created millions of enemies. According to conservative pundit, William Kristol, a bow is making us look “weak and overly deferential?” A Bow!
Most people feel sorry for bullies. Because they already know that the reason bullies act the way they do is because they have low self esteem. And they need to push other people around to feel superior. Sounds EXACTLY how America is viewed by most of the world. Yet this act of KINDNESS and RESPECT is bad “for America?”
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12
Somewhat lost among the Wallstreet meltdown is the fact that one man, Bernard Madoff, created and ran one of the biggest Ponzi schemes EVER! His victims are not only everyday people who worked their whole lives to save money for children’s college fund and for their own retirements, but they also include people like movie director Steven Spielberg, Hall of Fame Baseball player, Sandy Koufax, talkshow host Larry King, and actor Kevin Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick. Zsa Zsa Gabor is also included on this “victim’s list” and is said to have lost between 7-10 million dollars! Also included on the list of victims is his wife, his sons, brother and other relatives! Talk about an equal opportunity criminal. Stealing from your own family. His actions have cost hundreds, if not thousands, of people their live savings and at least two fellow billionaires took their lives in response to becoming insolvent. Translation? They killed themselves because they lost all of their money! One would think that a man that ran a 50 BILLION dollar pyramid scheme would be up under the jail. But that is not the case. Mr. Madoff is under “house arrest” in his penthouse apartment in Manhattan, New York! He went from the penthouse to the penthouse!
I guess this could almost be called the chicken watching the hen house because Madoff was at one time the chairman if the NASDAQ stock exchange. Wouldn’t you know exactly how to find the loopholes if you were once the person who was supposed to close them?
The most galling part of this whole mess is that this man is not sitting in a jail cell. We jail poor people who steal $20.00 video games for months on end before they even get to court. Yet this man who has caused people to committ suicide, is free. And before anyone says he isn’t really “free”, his penthouse is said to be 2 stories high and is worth 7 million dollars. The average jail cell is 8 feet wide, 8 feet high, and 12 feet long. Compared to other criminals who have allegedly committed crimes, Madoff is free. Make no mistake about it!
The failout from the Madoff affair is far reaching. People who recommended Madoff to their friends and family are now being made to feel unwelcome. The people who promoted Madoff and probably lost money also, are being held accountable for what has occurred. For a scheme to have gone on that long, it had to have been well hidden. While it might be unfair to hold the people who gave “street cred” to Madoff, that comes with the territory when you “have someone’s back!”