Sunday, October 31, 2010

Don't Forget -- VOTE Tuesday -- for the Democrats, of course!

Vote! You must VOTE. Do not vote for hate. Do not vote to restrict the rights of others. Do not vote to impose YOUR religion on those who do not believe ---------- VOTE TO KEEP THE USA ALIVE!!!

VOTE DEMOCRATIC!!!

Rich Mans War by Steve Earle

Steve Earle - City Of Immigrants

Townes Van Zandt - Pancho & Lefty 1993 TV Performance

Screw you, We're from Texas

The Jim Kweskin Jug Band (a song with Maria Muldaur)

Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit-

Lets Work Together-Canned Heat

Canned Heat live at Woodstock 1969.

Crosby Stills Nash A Long Time Gone Woodstock 1969

Crosby Stills & Nash - Suite - Judy Blue Eyes

ALABAMA SONG

The Pusher

Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride

Stuck in the Middle with you- Steelers Wheel

weekend

I'm taking the weekend off. Actually, there's too much to report --- the "political scene" in the USA is totally insane. Right now there is no "left" in the good old USA -- it's all "right", "righter", "really right", and "even more insane".

What most of the people want doesn't matter. What a small vocal extreme right wing group wants, well, that matters.

Doesn't this remind you of something? Can you say GERMANY? Can you say Adolf and his crony's?

Our peerless leader, President Obama can't seem to either get, or take, credit for good stuff he's done. It's almost as if he has been asked to become a martyr -- just to "prove" "liberals" can't govern.

Next we'll have "The Clown Car Congress" -- just to "prove" representative democracy can't work.

Then the corporate state will be triumphant -- followed by TOTAL FAIL.

Insanity rules.

Say, mI have an idea -- lets hire Andrew Breitbart, the liar to provide election day "punditry", then we'll advocate War With Iran to get us out of our depress....., er, I mean recession -- because spending the exact same amount on things that are not guns doesn't help ---- TOTAL INSANITY!!!!!!!!!

I'm taking the weekend off.

Friday, October 29, 2010

David Brooks Tells Us the Unemployed Are Really Concerned About Value

This from CEPR - Center for Economic and Policy Research - please follow link to original

Any faith I had left in The New York Times is fast eroding. Its main saving grace is that The Washington Post is FAR worse.

What has happened to my country?


David Brooks Tells Us the Unemployed Are Really Concerned About Values
Print
Friday, 29 October 2010 03:03


Hell no, I'm not kidding. Here it is:

"the public's real anxiety is about values, not economics: the gnawing sense that Americans have become debt-addicted and self-indulgent."

This is really priceless. There are more than 25 million people unemployed, underemployed or who have given up looking for work altogether, but they are not concerned about economics. They are worried about values.

Okay, I will stop with the ridiculing of David Brooks, I know it's cheap fun. But, I do have to point out one other real winner in this column:

" Obama came to be defined by his emergency responses to the fiscal crisis."

Yes, the column says "fiscal." Is this the mother of all Freudian slips or what? Brooks somehow wrote "fiscal," when he obviously meant "financial." Neither he nor his editor caught it on a second reading. You couldn't ask for a better example of the elite's fixation with making this into a fiscal crisis. The Wall Street boys wrecked the economy with their greed and ineptitude and now they intend to make ordinary workers pay for it with cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Talk about a crisis of values.

139

FDIC Approves the Payout of the Insured Deposits of First Arizona Savings, A FSB, Scottsdale, Arizona

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) approved the payout of the insured deposits of First Arizona Savings, A FSB, Scottsdale, Arizona. The bank was closed today by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the FDIC as receiver.

The FDIC was unable to find another financial institution to take over the banking operations of First Arizona Savings, A FSB. As a result, checks to depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday, October 25. Customers who have questions about their deposits should contact the FDIC at the toll-free phone number below.

As of June 30, 2010, First Arizona Savings, A FSB had approximately $272.2 million in total assets and $198.8 million in total deposits. At the time of closing, the bank had an estimated $5.8 million in uninsured funds. This amount is an estimate that is likely to change once the FDIC obtains additional information from the bank's customers.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-830-4698. Customers with accounts in excess of $250,000 also should contact the toll-free number to set up a telephone appointment to discuss their deposits. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Mountain Standard Time (MST); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., MST; and on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., MST; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., MST. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/firstazfsb.html

Beginning on Monday, customers of First Arizona Savings, A FSB with deposits exceeding $250,000 at the bank may visit the FDIC's Web page "Is My Account Fully Insured?" at https://www2.fdic.gov/drrip/afi/index.asp.

The FDIC estimates the cost of the failure to its Deposit Insurance Fund to be approximately $32.8 million. First Arizona Savings, A FSB is the 139th FDIC-insured institution to fail this year, and the third in Arizona. The last institution closed in the state was Towne Bank of Arizona, Mesa, on May 7, 2010.

Study: Global warming is driving increased frequency of extreme wet or dry summer weather in southeast, so droughts and deluges are likely to get wors

This from Climate Progress -- please follow link to read the rest of the article.


Study: Global warming is driving increased frequency of extreme wet or dry summer weather in southeast, so droughts and deluges are likely to get worse
October 28, 2010

A new study by a Duke University-led team of climate scientists suggests that global warming is the main cause of a significant intensification in the North Atlantic Subtropical High (NASH) that in recent decades has more than doubled the frequency of abnormally wet or dry summer weather in the southeastern United States.

Increasingly Variable Summer Rainfall in Southeast Linked to Climate Change The NASH, commonly referred to as the Bermuda High, is an area of high pressure that forms each summer near Bermuda, where its powerful surface center helps steer Atlantic hurricanes and plays a major role in shaping weather in the eastern United States, Western Europe and northwestern Africa.

That’s from the Duke University news release for a new study in the Journal of Climate.

In a September 2009 post, “Hell and High Water hits Georgia,” I noted that, “as climate scientists have predicted for a long time, wild climate swings are becoming the norm, in this case with once-in-a-century drought followed by once-in-a-century flooding.” And in fact, the flooding was more like a once in 500 year event.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Madmen???????

Please explain how any young woman can watch "Madmen". I do not understand it. As far as I can remember the 1950's were a terrible time for women. No thought of equality, no credit in your own name, no careers to speak of. Men did not take women seriously, did not EVER accept us as equals.

So many talented young women were stuck in a "secretarial pool" -- some became secretaries to executives -- often having to make crucial decisions while their "boss" was still out getting wasted on his 4 martini lunch. These women never got the credit -- even though some were more competent (and far more sober) than their "boss".

The 1950's were not a good time for women. Why do so many young women seem to celebrate those days?

Round About Midnight ..... 1981

Stan Getz (ts)
/ Milt Jackson (p)
/ Art Blakey (ds)
/ Ray Brown (b) on Sept. 3, 1981 at Nippon Budokan


MODERN JAZZ QUARTET ; The Sheriff '64 (5/6)

All The Things You Are - The Modern Jazz Quartet

The Modern Jazz Quartet - Milt Jackson Quintet

Milt Jackson (vib) John Lewis (pf) Percy Heath (b) Kenny Clarke (ds)

Recorded at NYC, December 22, 1952 -- early MJQ, before Connie Kay


NBC station: Will acceptance of gays bring downfall of America?

Read this. Now you know why I suggest every "different" person, who is stable enough, own a means of self defense. In other words -- buy a LEGAL gun. Learn how to use it SAFELY. Practice, practice, practice.

Always remember the old saying: "God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal.".

I suggest a good 9mm hand gun, about 10 magazines, and at least 1000 rounds of ammunition (115 or 124 grain hollow points for self defense, 115 or 124 grain FMJ (full metal jacket) for practice. If you are unsure, or have never handles a gun before -- TAKE LESSONS.

"NEVER AGAIN" works for us too!

(follow link to original)


NBC station: Will acceptance of gays bring downfall of America?

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 -- 10:51 pm



NBC station: Will acceptance of gays bring downfall of America?

An east Texas NBC affiliate devoted a segment on its morning show Wednesday to ask viewers and listeners if acceptance of gays will bring the downfall of the country.

"The acceptance of homosexuality, pushed hard by the gay rights activists, will it be the fall of this country?" asked Garth Maier, host of KETK's morning radio program. The segment was broadcast on KETK's TV channel as well.

The channel's TV hosts introduced the segment with a reference to an Associated Press report Tuesday that President Obama has appointed a record number of openly gay individuals to posts in the administration -- more than 150 so far.

"And he's only been in office for two years," one of the morning hosts said, adding that the news has "not really gotten any coverage ... but that's what we're talking about."

The reporters are "clearly taking their cue from the Westboro Baptist Church," quips the Joe.My.God blog.

"When ... KETK says their slogan is 'News You Won’t See Anywhere Else,' they mean it," says Mediaite's Ray Rahman.

Many of the listeners and viewers who called in objected to Maier's premise.

"Gays should have the same rights as anybody else," said one caller. "Homophobnia is the new racism," said another.

"I think the true downfall of this country will be because of the religious right," another caller asserted.

But plenty took the opportunity to vent their dislike of the gay rights movement.

“Yes, the gay issue definitely will be a downfall of America," a caller said. "Obama has to go.”

"Pretty soon we're going to have a gay president, and that would be the worst," another caller said.

Within hours of word of the discussion spreading online, a Facebook group appeared to "stop this station (KETK-NBC) from spreading and legitimizing homophobic hate."

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

When vital drugs run out, patients pay the price

Once again, our hard core free market folks -- the ones who say the markets never make a mistake -- will, somehow blame some government action or other. they might even blame health insurance -- even though those companies deny the use of some drugs because they are too expensive.

As they say, the market is always right. The markets will self correct -- just take away all regulation.

What they neglect to say is HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE FIRST!

Of course, that's not important UNTIL YOU are one the the folks who are going to die!

(follow link to original)


When vital drugs run out, patients pay the price
150 medications in short supply so far this year; deaths, injuries have followed

Cancer patient Bob Dierker had just finished eight of 12 chemotherapy sessions when technicians broke the news.

Next time, they said, he'd get no leucovorin, the generic medication long used to battle his type of aggressive Stage 3 colorectal cancer. The drug was in short supply across the nation and he'd have to go without.

“It was like getting shot in the stomach,” said Dierker, 64, a lawyer from Fairfax, Va. “My odds just dropped dramatically because I can’t get this drug.”

..Exactly how Dierker’s chances of beating the cancer will be affected is unclear, said his oncologist, Dr. Alexander Spira. Leucovorin has been used to boost the effectiveness of cancer drugs for decades, so no one knows how badly patients will fare without it. But Dierker is not alone.

Across the United States, life-saving or medically necessary drugs are running low — or running out — endangering care and increasing the odds of medication mistakes for a broad swath of patients.

Health officials say drug shortages pose a growing public health crisis, fueled in large part by financial motives of drugmakers who’ve watched low-cost generics erode their profits.

Numerous drugmakers contacted by msnbc.com either refused to comment on the shortages or confirmed only that they exist. None would discuss financial considerations.

Unprecedented numbers
“It’s disaster management, daily,” said Erin Fox, manager of the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah Health Care, who has tracked drug shortages for a decade. “The numbers are unprecedented.”

In 2005, Fox recorded 74 drug shortages in the U.S. By 2009, the number had jumped to 166. As of Sept. 10 this year, Fox had logged 150 new shortages — in addition to 30 drug shortages still unresolved and more being reported every week.

Worse, the drugs that are in short supply are often the ones needed most. This year has seen shortages of common drugs used for basic treatments: morphine for pain relief, propofol for sedation, Bactrim injections for infections.

Sterile injectables, including the pre-filled epinephrine syringes used in emergencies for heart attacks and allergic reactions, have been particularly hard to get.

“Our usual, everyday workhorse drugs are no longer available,” said Fox. “It’s just the unavailability of everything that we need every day.”

About 40 percent of the shortages are caused by manufacturing problems, including safety issues, said Valerie Jensen, associate director of the Food and Drug Administration's drug shortage program. Nearly 20 percent are caused when firms simply stop making drugs and another 20 percent are due to production delays. The rest are chalked up to raw material shortages, increased demand, site issues and problems with parts such as syringes or vials.

But underlying them all is the profitability problem, said Jensen.

“Normally, it’s a business decision. That does lead to shortages,” said Jensen. "These are just not usually money-makers."

FDA can't require drug production
Despite the concerns of doctors and pharmacists — and the distress of patients — no one can force the drugmakers to address the problem.

The FDA has no authority to compel drugmakers to continue producing a certain drug, or to require them to make a drug that’s in short supply, Jensen confirmed. And companies aren’t required to inform the agency about impending shortages unless the drugs don't have an alternative. Even then, there are no sanctions if they don’t.

When firms do tell FDA about a problem, the agency can’t publicly divulge proprietary information, Jensen said. Shortages on the FDA’s website are often chalked up to mysterious “manufacturing delays,” or frequently, no reason at all.

That has created a system in which pharmacists, doctors and patients may not know that a shortage exists until a drug is needed — and even then they don’t know how long it will last.

“There has been a lot of 11th hour scrambling,” said Dr. Richard L. Schilsky, a professor of medicine and chief of hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago. “We literally don’t know from week to week who’s going to be able to be treated.”

The problem has reached such a peak that four leading groups representing cancer doctors, anesthesiologists, pharmacists and safety advocates have convened an invitation-only meeting in Bethesda, Md., on Nov. 5. They’re asking drugmakers and supply chain representatives to join health experts and observers from the FDA to hammer out solutions.

“I’m going to give these folks the benefit of the doubt and assume they don’t know the impact at the patient care level,” said Bona Benjamin, director of medication-use quality improvement at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists.

But a nationwide survey of 1,800 health care workers conducted this summer by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices left little doubt about the impact on patients.

Two deaths blamed on morphine shortage
“It’s really a mess out there,” said Michael Cohen, director of ISMP, a nonprofit group that aims to reduce medical errors. “It is making us compromise the way we do things normally.”

More than half of the respondents to ISMP said that in the past year they had “always” or “frequently” encountered shortages of a list of common drugs.

One in three reported that the shortages caused medication errors that could have harmed patients and one in four said the mistakes reached patients. One in five said patients were actually harmed.

“We had two deaths where there was a morphine shortage,” Cohen said, explaining that a much more potent replacement drug, hydromorphone, was given at the level of the original, overdosing the patients.

Another patient woke up mid-way through surgery because medical crews trying to conserve the sedative propofol had given too little medication for the patient’s weight.

Such critical mistakes are bound to happen when shortages of so many drugs start to add up, said Thomas Burnakis, clinical coordinator of pharmacy services at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla.

“If I am the best centerfielder in the world, you can hit me a pop fly and I’ll catch it. You can hit me two or even three and I’ll catch them,” he said. “If you start hitting me 15, I’m going to start dropping them.”

It’s not just the mainstream drugs that are the problem. Shortages of niche drugs or those used for rare conditions have occurred, too.

In January, sufferers of a potentially blinding condition called birdshot retinochoroidopathy uveitis learned that Zenapax, the best drug for keeping symptoms at bay, had been discontinued by drugmaker Roche.

“I cannot tell you the panic I felt,” said Lynn Shaw, a 60-year-old nurse from Franklin, Mass., who was diagnosed with the disease 2 ½ years ago. “I was positive I was going to lose my vision. I thought, ‘Oh, my god, I’m going to go blind because of these jerks.'”

Chris Vancheri, a spokesman for Roche, said the company decided to stop making the drug, which is normally used in kidney transplant patients, because there were alternative treatments available. The problem, Shaw and other patients said, is that alternative drugs are either less effective or pose unacceptable side effects such as life-threatening high blood pressure and liver damage.

Drug companies won't talk
Shaw believes that Roche, like many manufacturers, stopped production when generics undercut the brand name price. Vancheri would not comment on the profitability of Zenapax.

Nor would representatives for Teva Pharmaceuticals and Bedford Laboratories, the makers of leucovorin, discuss the reasons for the shortage of the generic drug that has left Bob Dierker, the Virginia lawyer, with depleted cancer treatments.

Bedford representatives did not return repeated calls and e-mails from msnbc.com. Teva representative Denise Bradley would only confirm what patients have known for months, that the drugmaker halted production at its Irvine, Calif., plant in April.

"I do not have an estimated date of when we will resume manufacturing at this time," Bradley wrote in an e-mail.

Representatives for the drug manufacturers’ trade group, PhRMA, declined to discuss the largest-ever drug shortage in the nation, referring questions to individual manufacturers.

But Dierker thinks he knows what’s behind the recent shortage of generic leucovorin, the second since 2008. In some regions, a 50-milligram dose of generic leucovorin costs 98 cents; a newer brand-name alternative called Fusilev costs $184.08. But many insurance companies, including Dierker's, won't pay for it.

“It’s money, pure and simple,” said Dierker, a new grandfather who fears he won’t see 6-month-old Rhett grow up.

He’d like to do something about the shortage: organize a class action lawsuit, get a colleague to pursue a criminal case. But for now, he’s just angry.

“To have some faceless, nameless coward running a pharmaceutical lab decide he wants a bigger BMW and isn’t going to make your drug — I feel helpless,” Dierker said. “That’s the really frustrating thing, not to be able to do anything about it.”

The World Liberal Opportunists Made

Please read this. It's very important. If we want to return to the America we all saw, and hoped for, it will take work, It will take struggle. I'm just an old lady, and have to admit I was one of those who sat by and let things happen -- after all, "they" know best -- and I was comfortable at the time. Those days are over. Good luck in the future all you young folk. (please follow link to original)


Posted on Oct 25, 2010

By Chris Hedges

The lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, which looks set to make sweeping gains in the midterm elections, is the direct result of a collapse of liberalism. It is the product of bankrupt liberal institutions, including the press, the church, universities, labor unions, the arts and the Democratic Party. The legitimate rage being expressed by disenfranchised workers toward the college-educated liberal elite, who abetted or did nothing to halt the corporate assault on the poor and the working class of the last 30 years, is not misplaced. The liberal class is guilty. The liberal class, which continues to speak in the prim and obsolete language of policies and issues, refused to act. It failed to defend traditional liberal values during the long night of corporate assault in exchange for its position of privilege and comfort in the corporate state. The virulent right-wing backlash we now experience is an expression of the liberal class’ flagrant betrayal of the citizenry.

The liberal class, which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible, functioned traditionally as a safety valve. During the Great Depression, with the collapse of capitalism, it made possible the New Deal. During the turmoil of the 1960s, it provided legitimate channels within the system to express the discontent of African-Americans and the anti-war movement. But the liberal class, in our age of neo-feudalism, is now powerless. It offers nothing but empty rhetoric. It refuses to concede that power has been wrested so efficiently from the hands of citizens by corporations that the Constitution and its guarantees of personal liberty are irrelevant. It does not act to mitigate the suffering of tens of millions of Americans who now make up a growing and desperate permanent underclass. And the disparity between the rhetoric of liberal values and the rapacious system of inverted totalitarianism the liberal class serves makes liberal elites, including Barack Obama, a legitimate source of public ridicule. The liberal class, whether in universities, the press or the Democratic Party, insists on clinging to its privileges and comforts even if this forces it to serve as an apologist for the expanding cruelty and exploitation carried out by the corporate state.

Populations will endure repression from tyrants as long as these rulers continue to effectively manage and wield power. But human history has amply demonstrated that once those in positions of power become redundant and impotent, yet retain the trappings and privileges of power, they are swiftly and brutally discarded. Tocqueville observed that the French, on the eve of their revolution, hated the aristocrats about to lose their power far more than they had ever hated them before. The increased hatred directed at the aristocratic class occurred because as the aristocracy lost real power there was no decline in their fortunes. As long as the liberal class had even limited influence, whether through the press or the legislative process, liberals were tolerated and even respected. But once the liberal class lost all influence it became a class of parasites. The liberal class, like the déclassé French aristocracy, has no real function within the power elite. And the rising right-wing populists, correctly, ask why liberals should be tolerated when their rhetoric bears no relation to reality and their presence has no influence on power.

The death of the liberal class, however, is catastrophic for our democracy. It means there is no longer any check to a corporate apparatus designed to further enrich the power elite. It means we cannot halt the plundering of the nation by Wall Street speculators and corporations. An ineffectual liberal class, in short, means there is no hope, however remote, of a correction or a reversal through the political system and electoral politics. The liberals’ disintegration ensures that the frustration and anger among the working and the middle class will find expression in a rejection of traditional liberal institutions and the civilities of a liberal democracy. The very forces that co-opted the liberal class and are responsible for the impoverishment of the state will, ironically, reap benefits from the collapse. These corporate manipulators are busy channeling rage away from the corporate and military forces hollowing out the nation from the inside and are turning that anger toward the weak remnants of liberalism. It does not help our cause that liberals indeed turned their backs on the working and middle class.

The corporate state has failed to grasp the vital role the liberal class traditionally plays in sustaining a stable power system. The corporate state, by emasculating the liberal class, has opted for a closed system of polarization, gridlock and political theater in the name of governance. It has ensured a further destruction of state institutions so that government becomes even more ineffectual and despised. The collapse of the constitutional state, presaged by the death of the liberal class, has created a power vacuum that a new class of speculators, war profiteers, gangsters and killers, historically led by charismatic demagogues, will enthusiastically fill. It opens the door to overtly authoritarian and fascist movements. These movements rise to prominence by ridiculing and taunting the liberal class for its weakness, hypocrisy and uselessness. The promises of these proto-fascist movements are fantastic and unrealistic, but their critiques of the liberal class are grounded in truth.

The liberal class, despite becoming an object of public scorn, still prefers the choreographed charade. Liberals decry, for example, the refusal of the Democratic Party to restore habeas corpus or halt the looting of the U.S. Treasury on behalf of Wall Street speculators, but continue to support a president who cravenly serves the interests of the corporate state. As long as the charade of democratic participation is played, the liberal class does not have to act. It can maintain its privileged status. It can continue to live in a fictional world where democratic reform and responsible government exist. It can pretend it has a voice and influence in the corridors of power. But the uselessness of the liberal class is not lost on the tens of millions of Americans who suffer the awful indignities of the corporate state.

The death of the liberal class cuts citizens off from the mechanisms of power. Liberal institutions such as the church, the press, the university, the Democratic Party, the arts and labor unions once set the parameters for limited self-criticism and small, incremental reforms and offered hope for piecemeal justice and change. The liberal class could decry the excesses of the state, work to mitigate them and champion basic human rights. It posited itself as the conscience of the nation. It permitted the nation, through its appeal to public virtues and the public good, to define itself as being composed of a virtuous and even noble people. The liberal class was permitted a place within a capitalist democracy because it also vigorously discredited radicals within American society who openly defied the excesses of corporate capitalism and who denounced a political system run by and on behalf of corporations. The real enemy of the liberal class has never been Glenn Beck, but Noam Chomsky.

The purging and silencing of independent and radical thinkers as well as iconoclasts have robbed the liberal class of vitality. The liberal class has cut itself off from the roots of creative and bold thought, from those forces and thinkers who could have prevented the liberal class from merging completely with the power elite. Liberals exude a tepid idealism utterly divorced from daily life. And this is why every television clip of Barack Obama is so palpably pathetic.

Unions, organizations formerly steeped in the doctrine of class warfare and filled with those who sought broad social and political rights for the working class, have been transformed into domesticated junior partners of the capitalist class. Cars rolling out of the Ford and GM plants in Michigan were said to have been made by Ford-UAW. And where unions still exist, they have been reduced to simple bartering tools, if that. The social demands of unions early in the 20th century that gave the working class weekends off, the right to strike, the eight-hour workday and Social Security have been abandoned. Universities, especially in political science and economics departments, parrot the discredited ideology of unregulated capitalism and globalization. They have no new ideas. Artistic expression, along with most religious worship, is largely self-absorbed narcissism meant to entertain without offense. The Democratic Party and the press have become courtiers to the power elite and corporate servants.

Once the liberal class can no longer moderate the savage and greedy inclinations of the capitalist class, once, for example, labor unions are reduced to the role of bartering away wage increases and benefits, once public education is gutted and the press no longer gives a voice to the poor and the working class, liberals become as despised as the power elite they serve. The collapse of liberal institutions means those outside the circles of power are trapped, with no recourse, and this is why many Americans are turning in desperation toward idiotic right-wing populists who at least understand the power of hatred as a mobilizing force.

The liberal class no longer holds within its ranks those who have the moral autonomy or physical courage to defy the power elite. The rebels, from Chomsky to Sheldon Wolin to Ralph Nader, have been marginalized, shut out of the national debate and expelled from liberal institutions. The liberal class lacks members with the vision and fortitude to challenge dominant free market ideologies. It offers no ideological alternatives. It remains bound to a Democratic Party that has betrayed every basic liberal principle including universal healthcare, an end to our permanent war economy, a robust system of public education, a vigorous defense of civil liberties, job creation, the right to unionize and welfare for the poor.

“The left once dismissed the market as exploitative,” Russell Jacoby writes. “It now honors the market as rational and humane. The left once disdained mass culture as exploitative; now it celebrates it as rebellious. The left once honored independent intellectuals as courageous; now it sneers at them as elitist. The left once rejected pluralism as superficial; now it worships it as profound. We are witnessing not simply a defeat of the left, but its conversion and perhaps inversion.”

Capitalism, and especially corporate capitalism, was once viewed as a system to be fought. But capitalism is no longer challenged in public discourse. Capitalist bosses, men such as Warren Buffett, George Soros and Donald Trump, are treated bizarrely as sages and celebrities, as if greed and manipulation had become the highest moral good. As Wall Street steals billions of taxpayer dollars, as it perpetrates massive fraud to throw people out of their homes, as the ecosystem that sustains the planet is polluted and destroyed, we do not know what to do or say. We have been robbed of a vocabulary to describe reality. We decry the excesses of capitalism without demanding a dismantling of the corporate state. Our pathetic response is to be herded to political rallies by skillful publicists to shout inanities like “Yes we can!”

The liberal class is finished. Neither it nor its representatives will provide the leadership or resistance to halt our slide toward despotism. The liberal class prefers comfort and privilege to confrontation. It will not halt the corporate assault or thwart the ascendancy of the corporate state. It will remain intolerant within its ranks of those who do. The liberal class now honors an unwritten quid pro quo, one set in place by Bill Clinton, to cravenly serve corporate interests in exchange for money, access and admittance into the halls of power. The press, the universities, the labor movement, the arts, the church and the Democratic Party, fearful of irrelevance and desperate to retain their positions within the corporate state, will accelerate their purges of those who speak the unspeakable, those who name what cannot be named. It is the gutless and bankrupt liberal class, even more than the bizarre collection of moral and intellectual trolls now running for office, who are our most perfidious opponents.

"Down Memory Lane 2"

Hampton Hawes, Leroy Vinnegar, Frank Butler, Sonny Criss, Harry "Sweets" Edison & Teddy Edwards


Jessica Williams, jazz pianist, plays "My one and only love"

Jessica Williams - Toshiko

Jessica Williams, jazz pianist, plays Body and Soul

Hank Jones: Willow Weep For Me

Gerry Mulligan - Satin Doll

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Visual Representation of the Wall Street-Main Street Disconnect


This time IS different!

This from Financial Armageddon -- please follow link to original.

ARKANSAS: School Board Member Celebrates Gay Suicides And AIDS

Please go to Joe.My.God and read this post: ARKANSAS: School Board Member Celebrates Gay Suicides And AIDS -- follow link

Isn't it just peachy? Such good "christians" -- spreading "god's love" hither and yon.

The veritable "lambs of god".

If you don't think folks like that are dangerous -- you live a VERY sheltered life.

Mantid of the week

You MUST go to "I blame the patriarchy" (follow link please) and read the most recent post (and others).

This might be advice for you.

If you are any flavor of LGBT, any kind of "queer", any person who is (in any way) "different" -- it is time to look at your local gun laws. If it's legal -- get a weapon for self defense. Learn how to shoot. Learn how to use a gun SAFELY. Buy same, practice. If you are stable, calm, and not prone to drama -- get a carry permit.

Now, if you're a drinker, a drama queen, a hothead, depressed, or someone who just "happens" to find trouble wherever you go -- I'd think long and hard before even thinking of having any sort of gun. Deadly force is a serious thing -- using a gun -- even if for self defense -- is said (by those who have done it) to change your life forever.

It's just that so many anti-different-from-me crimes are being reported, so many folks are being attacked, that something has to be done to PREVENT these crimes. It does the victim no good if the perpetrators are arrested and convicted -- especially if you're DEAD or maimed for life.

As long as there are folks out there calling for punishment of, and violence toward, "different" people, as long as various different priests, pastors, imans, rabbis, etc., rail against all the various LGBT "perverts", "sodomists" -- calling down "god's wrath", hell-fire, damnation -- we will continue to have people acting out against what their FAITH sees as legitimate targets.

When they claim a CIVIL RIGHT to abuse us -- we HAVE to protect ourselves. we have to dissuade them, however we can. Our lives might well depend on it.

School Shocker: 14 Year Old Raped After Being Used by Teacher to Lure Rapist

This by way of Alternet -- please follow link to original.

The level of misogyny in our country today is beyond amazing, beyond sickening, beyond absurd. Young women are now seen as less than human by too many of our "upstanding citizens". Violence prone, desensitized, young men -- brought up on violent video games, violent movies (with no "real" female characters), and violent porn are barely safe for us old folks to be around -- perhaps sending them off to war (as we have done) will postpone our day of reckoning. Either that, or legalize pot -- keep them at least slightly mellow -- until their hormones quiet down a bit.

School Shocker: 14 Year Old Raped After Being Used by Teacher to Lure Rapist
Posted by Sarah Seltzer on @ 8:34 am

Change.org has found a horrifying story out of a school in Alabama, based on lawsuits filed by students. Apparently teachers, concerned that certain students were sexually harassing their peers, asked a female student to wait in the bathroom as “bait” for one of the offenders. Her teacher then abandoned her there while she was raped, leaving her utterly traumatized. Here’s the report:

The teacher coerced 14-year-old B.H.J., an African-American student who had reported being repeatedly sexually harassed, into meeting her tormentor in a bathroom, assuring her that they would “catch him.” But nobody followed B.H.J. into the bathroom, and nobody stopped her from being raped; the teacher simply went back to her classroom and waited. B.H.J. is reported as being severely traumatized and in an almost completely non-communicative state.

And this was the second case of female students being used as bait the group has uncovered. According to Change.org writer Alex DiBranco, at another school two girls were used as “bait” during a crackdown on consensual sexual encounters occuring on school premises. This first incident also led to a lawsuit.

These kinds of shocking, egregious violations of the rights of young women come from a society that devalues teenage girls or views them as alluring objects of male sexual interest.

But even more so, this kind of abusive mistreatment comes from a misinterpretation of rape and sexual assault. These teachers and administrators make a grave mistake if they’re seeing the problem as being about desire and teenage sexual dynamics rather than about power, control, and pathology on the part of the aggressor. Any school efforts to address sexual aggression or harassment on campus should begin with a focus on the perpetrators, not the victims.

New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy

A little more to chew on: (this from Huffington Post -- please follow link to original). How does this jibe with the myth of "America"? How does anyone rationalize this level of inequality and naked greed? $10,000,000.00 PER WEEK?? -- and they don't want to pay taxes? This is far worse than Marie Antoinette with her "let them eat cake" crap --- and we all know what happened to her. Time for our political "leaders" (if by "leaders" you mean ego-maniacal scum-bags who lick the balls of every Wall Street fat cat they can, while claiming to be "of the people") to realize it won't mean anything to get re-elected to a Congress or Legislature that has no power, and is ignored by the bulk of the people. Soon it wont matter who is elected -- they will do the bidding of their masters --- until WE ALL make it change.


New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy


One out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 2008 earned absolutely nothing -- not one cent -- in 2009.

The stunning figure was released earlier this month by the Social Security Administration, but apparently went unreported until it appeared today on Tax.com in a column by Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston.

It's not just every 34th earner whose financial situation has been upended by the financial crisis. Average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined -- except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.

Johnston writes that while the number of Americans earning more than $50 million fell from 131 in 2008 to 74 in 2009, those that remained at the top increased their income from an average of $91.2 million in 2008 to almost $519 million.

The wealth is astounding, says Johnston. "That's nearly $10 million in weekly pay!... These 74 people made as much as the 19 million lowest-paid people in America, who constitute one in every eight workers."

Johston sees the depressing figures as a result of government tax policies maintained by politicians with an eye on re-election, not good government:

It is the latest, and in this case quite dramatic, evidence that our economic policies in Washington are undermining the nation as a whole.We have created a tax system that changes continually as politicians manipulate it to extract campaign donations. We have enabled ''free trade'' that is nothing of the sort, but rather tax-subsidized mechanisms that encourage American manufacturers to close their domestic factories, fire workers, and then use cheap labor in China for products they send right back to the United States. This has created enormous downward pressure on wages, and not just for factory workers.


Combined with government policies that have reduced the share of private-sector workers in unions by more than two-thirds -- while our competitors in Canada, Europe, and Japan continue to have highly unionized workforces -- the net effect has been disastrous for the vast majority of American workers. And of course, less money earned from labor translates into less money to finance the United States of America.

Johnston's assertions appear to be supported by a recent Senate vote.

In September, Senate Republicans along with a handful of Democrats, partnered to defeat the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, a bill that would have raised taxes on companies that send jobs abroad and benefited companies that bring jobs back to American soil.

The notion that it's good business for American corporations to send jobs overseas has been championed by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's biggest and most powerful business lobby.

The tabulations, staggering as they may be, are only half of the picture.

Behind the official 9.6 percent unemployment rate (which is probably somewhere closer to 22 percent), are the stories of millions of individuals who are struggling to get by or are coming to terms with a future of lower wages and a life with less.

"60 Minutes" profiled the underemployed and unemployed on Sunday in a piece titled "The 99ers."

Among the most troubling stories are those of a financial analyst who has been unemployed for two years and is now living in a stranger's attic and a former office manager who now collects bottles and cans to get by.

Donation to Rove-tied group sparks Gold's Gym revolt

Four Bay Area gyms will leave the brand in response to big donations by the chain's owner to anti-gay candidates -- This from Salon.com --- please follow link to read the entire story.

Boycotts, and the threat of boycott WORK if they are credible.

Now, don't forget -- boycott Jamaica, boycott Coors, boycott Domino's, boycott Wendy's, boycott Gold's Gym, boycott Carl's Jr., boycott Utah (and anything associated with Mormons), the Roman Catholic Church, and most Evangelical Churches.

That may well seem to be a difficult task -- but it's really not so hard. Don't forget, shop at The Home Depot, shop at Crate and Barrel, The Pottery Barn, Ikea, and all other LGBT friendly businesses.

Whoa: GOP State Senate candidate calls Hitler ‘strong leader’

This from Raw Story (please follow link to original). Just another statement by another person totally removed from reality -- always remember, if he said "Stalin was a strong leader", all the folks now defending him would be attacking with a vengeance.

In this case, using the word NAZI might be called for.


Whoa: GOP State Senate candidate calls Hitler ‘strong leader’

By Raw Story
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 -- 11:45 am


s DANE DEUTSCH HITLER TWEET CONTROVERSY large Whoa: GOP State Senate candidate calls Hitler strong leader. A Republican state Senate candidate in Wisconsin called Adolf Hitler a "strong leader" in a tweet, and the action is garnering criticism from Democrats. Reports AP:

Dane Deutsch of Rice Lake posted a message on his campaign Twitter account in March that read, "Hitler and Lincoln were both strong leaders. Lincoln's character made him the greater leader whose legacy and leadership still lives on!"

Deutsch says he meant that while both men influenced many people, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had a "righteous character" while Hitler did not.

The State Senate Democratic Committee put out a statement Monday questioning whether Deutsch understood the devastation Hitler and thinks voters really need to discuss it in the election.

Remarked the Minneapolis City Pages:

All this sounds eerily similar to that teabaggin' crazy running for Congress in Ohio, Rich Iott, who copped to playing dress-up as a Nazi SS officer because he was so impressed with the notorious military division.

In a classic moment of tone-deafness, Iott's tried to dig himself out of that hole by claiming he's just looking for a little father-son bonding time. He might dress like an SS officer, but that doesn't mean he admires what they did.

Deutsch, too, says he's just misunderstood. But his gaffe, made in March but recently uncovered, has produced some heavy duty damage control in his effort to unseat incumbent Sen. Bob Jauch.

Deutsch is one of those people who really ought to think twice before he clicks "Tweet."

Monday, October 25, 2010

Ronnies "legacy"

Well, we are finally reaping our reward for all those years of "Ronnie Rayguns" rule. For the destruction of the unions, the destruction of our commons, our community, our leisure, our manufacturing -- our life.

Good work "conservatives"!

You've done your jobs well. Even better, you blame it all on "liberals" -- and get away with it.

WOW! I've really got to hand it to you -- some of you have even fooled yourselves.

Republican Congress?

Has anyone else noticed that our "fearless leader", Pres. Obama, seems to be looking forward to working with a hostile Republican Congress?

He couldn't get stuff people WANTED done with a huge majority -- think how much better his excuses will be when he can get NOTHING done === except, perhaps, the total dismantling of any safety net that's left.

He appears more and more to be a creature of Wall Street. A good speaker who is totally disconnected from the real life of main street. It doesn't matter if you're black or white --- he soars above you. Saying nice things -- doing much less.

In al-anon they have a saying: "Don't listen to what the drunk says -- look at what the drunk does". Using that rule -- Obama is a failure on many levels. When it was time for a huge influx of cash, for a real stimulus -- he failed us. When it was time to pass a REAL health care bill -- he failed us (now we see even something as tepid as the current bill lead to calls of "socialism", and armed revolution). DADT is still law. The Employee Free Choice Act never got off the ground, etc., etc., etc.

By the way -- the two wars are still raging. It's as if we are afraid to end them for fear the unemployment rates will skyrocket.

Also, sending volatile youth to fight useless wars seems to mean greater "domestic tranquility". You can't have angry youth asking where their F'ing jobs are, can you? Especially those we have desensitized, those who accept extreme violence -- or its video game version -- the one we've sold for years (anyone else remember that Air Force commercial -- the one that made war look like a huge video game, with no connection to the fact you are KILLING people?).

About 1 in 7 American adults are functionally illiterate. More if you count many immigrants. We no longer seem to WANT to educate our people. What we want to do is FIGHT over how to educate people who do not want to learn, and have parents who don't care.

Our infrastructure is CRUMBLING -- but we do not want to pay for repairs. We have unsafe bridges, failing water systems, an antiquated electric grid --- but no one DARES raise taxes to pay for improvements that pay for themselves in a fairly short time. The productivity of our workers is not rewarded -- and our "leaders" actually IGNORE it ---- opting instead to make stuff ANYWHERE else.

Short term profit rules. "I'll make mine and F YOU".

Maybe Obama has a reason to smoke those cigarettes.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Unsealed Calif. church docs show abuse allegations

Truly the gift that keeps on giving -- The Roman Catholic Church.

WOW!! Will it EVER stop?? (please follow link to original)


Unsealed Calif. church docs show abuse allegations

Associated Press Writer Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago

SAN DIEGO – Attorneys for nearly 150 people who claim sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests made nearly 10,000 pages of previously sealed internal church documents public Sunday, revealing at least one previously unknown decades-old case in which a priest under police investigation was allowed to leave the U.S. after the Diocese of San Diego intervened.

After a three-year legal battle over the Diocese of San Diego's internal records, a retired San Diego Superior Court judge ruled late Friday that they could be made public. The records are from the personnel files of 48 priests who were either credibly accused or convicted of sexual abuse or were named in a civil lawsuit.

The 144 plaintiffs settled with the diocese in 2007 for nearly $200 million, but the agreement stipulated that an independent judge would review the priests' sealed personnel records and determine what could be made public.

The files show what the diocese knew about abusive priests, starting decades before any allegations became public, and that some church leaders shuffled priests from parish to parish or overseas despite credible complaints against them.

"We encourage all Catholics, all members of the community, to look for these documents," attorney Anthony DeMarco said at a news conference. "These documents demonstrate years and years and decades of concerted action that has allowed this community's children to be victimized, and it is not until the community looks at these documents that this cycle is ever going to be ended."

At least one of the priests, Gustavo Benson, is still in active ministry in the Diocese of Ensenada in Mexico, DeMarco said. In a 2002 interview with The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Benson said he ministered to children there but had not done anything inappropriate. It wasn't immediately known what Benson's position at the diocese is now.

A phone message left Sunday night at the office of the Archbishop of Tijuana who oversees the Ensenada diocese was not immediately returned.

In at least one instance, the files included documented abuse by a priest whose name had not before surfaced in any lawsuit or criminal case, the Rev. Luis Eugene de Francisco, who was originally from Colombia. Police investigated de Francisco for allegedly abusing children, but the diocese convinced authorities to drop the case if the priest would return immediately to his Colombian diocese and never return to the U.S.

"In early August 1963, Father was placed under arrest by the civil police of the City of San Diego for violation of the State Penal Code," then-Bishop Charles F. Buddy wrote the Colombian bishop in the Diocese of Cali. "At that time, arrangements were made between this Chancery and the civil authorities of San Diego in which, if Father left the United States with the promise never to return, the charges against Father would be set aside by Civil Law."

Buddy wrote that de Francisco had crossed the border at Tijuana, Mexico, and was "directed to return directly to the Diocese of Cali."

DeMarco said the papers in the files were the first time attorneys became aware of de Francisco. No one filed a lawsuit, the church never revealed the complaints and it's unclear what happened to the priest or if he is still alive, he said.

Church files indicate he also served in Florida and Texas before arriving in the San Diego diocese, where he worked with migrant workers in the Coachella Valley about 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

"You have won a reputation as a zealous worker and devoted to the poor," Bishop Buddy wrote the priest in a December 1962 letter.

"On the other hand, the 'incidents' at Indio were more serious than first presented to me, especially inasmuch as the police have made a record of them. You know how word gets around, so that you be certain that the police here will be on your trail. ... It will be more prudent and more secure for you to return to your own diocese."

Donna Daly, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of San Diego, did not immediately return a call on Sunday and no one answered at the main diocese number. Maria Roberts, an attorney for the diocese, did not immediately respond to a message left with her office on Sunday.

Another case outlined in the files involves the Rev. Robert Nikliborc, who was sent to a psychiatric treatment facility in the 1950s after the diocese received complaints, then became director of a Roman Catholic residential facility for troubled boys called Boystown of the Desert in Banning, Calif.

Boys who lived there filed lawsuits against Nikliborc and were part of the 2007 settlement, DeMarco said. The priest died while litigation was under way.

In a 1956 letter written to Nikliborc while he was at a "special retreat," Buddy referred to two incidents involving the priest without describing them, and said Nikliborc must decide whether to stand with God or against him.

"The fact is that your defects on both occasions were reported by lay people, who gave absolute proof which you could not gloss over or deny," Buddy wrote. Still, he held out the possibility that Nikliborc could again celebrate Mass.

The papers also contain documents from the files of Rev. Anthony Rodrigue. In 1976, a group of parents at Rodrigue's parish in Heber, Calif., complained he had molested their children, according to court documents.

The priest was sent to a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts for treatment but was put back in ministry despite the recommendations of those who treated him.

Rodrigue later admitted he had molested between four to five children a year over a span of 22 years, said Irwin Zalkin, an attorney for the plaintiffs. About 30 people filed lawsuits against the diocese alleging sexual abuse against the priest, who died within the last year, he said.

"He was probably one of the most prolific abusers in this diocese. ... And they knew about this guy from his days in the seminary but kept him in ministry," Zalkin said.

Attorneys are still trying for the release of an additional 2,000 pages of documents.

The release of records is biggest so far in a U.S. church case, said Terry McKiernan, founder of the website Bishop Accountability.org. The website collects and publishes internal church papers that have been released as the result of litigation on clergy abuse nationwide.

"I think as we absorb this, it will shed a lot of light on these issues. It's amazingly rich," McKiernan said. "These documents are providing a window into the California experience that we haven't had before."

Lawyers for plaintiffs have been trying to get similar internal church documents from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for years, but have not had success. That diocese settled with more than 500 plaintiffs in 2007 for a record-breaking $660 million in a settlement agreement that also called for the disclosure of priests' files.

The only other release of church files in California came after a 2005 settlement between plaintiffs and the Diocese of Orange. About 4,000 pages were made public.

Withering on the Vine

This from "Financial Armageddon" -- once again, please follow link to original.

It's a far cry from "Blue Skies". Sometimes I think I'd be better off just playing music.

Isn't that what a lot of folks did during the last depression? Music and Movies --- or, "Don't think, and go to movies"


Withering on the Vine

The so-called Wall Street experts maintain that there's lots of small investor cash on the sidelines just waiting to come into the stocks. They also claim that the bull market won't end until these greater -- greatest? -- fools have thrown in the towel and joined the rally party. Are they right? Well, based on what Charles Hugh Smith, publisher of the Of Two Minds blog, had to say on the subject in a post entitled "U.S. Financial Markets: The Well Has Been Poisoned (Anger of the Honest Part II)," I suggest they don't hold their breaths waiting for it to happen:

When financial markets have become riddled with fraud, embezzlement and corruption that goes unpunished, then institutional players will avoid that market as crooked: the well has been poisoned.

The full consequences of what I termed The Rot Within: Our Culture of Financial Fraud and the Anger of the Honest (October 15, 2010) are now unfolding: the well has been poisoned. One of my most astute correspondents made a critical observation that I've seen nowhere else: once a market has been poisoned by fraud which goes unpunished, then institutional players will avoid that market as untrustworthy.

Without institutional trust and participation, the market then withers on the vine-- exactly what has happened to the U.S. mortgage securities market. The market for mortgage-backed securities has vanished, except for one player: the Federal Reserve, which has bought a staggering $1.2 trillion in the past 18 months to create the facsimile of an active market.

The well has been poisoned. The only mortgages being traded are those 100% guaranteed by the U.S. government: in effect, the risks intrinsic to a corrupted market have been shifted to the taxpayers, while the criminals who profited from the fraud and embezzlement got away scot-free.

...

The same distrust has poisoned U.S. stock markets. The high keening cry to "get into the market while stocks are cheap" which has been spewed daily for months on end on network TV and other channels of raw propaganda has been ignored by the "retail investor," a.k.a. the top 20% of Americans who have financial wealth to preserve and invest.

For 24 straight weeks, retail investors have been pulling tens of billions of dollars out of U.S. mutual funds and plowing hundreds of billions into low-yield Treasury bonds.

Why? Because they sense the stock market is hopelessly, deeply corrupt and by comparison Treasuries are trustworthy. You won't make a lot of yield in Treasuries, thanks to the Fed's zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) which is designed to drive money into risky assets, but then you won't lose 40% like you did in 2008-09 or 2000-2002 in the stock market.

We can also see how insiders are responding to the knowledge that the well has been poisoned: they're selling 500 shares for every share they buy. This unprecedented cascade of insider selling has been noted elsewhere many times, as has the declining expectations for the "recovery" of U.S. CEOs.

Those who know the most are selling their shares as fast as they legally can, and are publicly expressing their lack of faith in the tricked-up "recovery."

The U.S. financial markets have been poisoned, with long-term negative consequences. Only crooks, fraudsters and "marks" (those who still believe the propaganda about the "recovery" and "stocks are cheap" poison) will be left in a stock market propped up by the same socialization of risk which keeps the flimsy facade of a mortgage market from crumbling. High-frequency trading machines create the illusion of a market, and State intervention via proxies and other corrupt games provides the liquidity needed to fund the facsimile of a "rising market" and a "recovery" in the U.S. economy. But the public isn't buying the fraud any longer; they finally "get it": The well has been poisoned and only a fool drinks from a poisoned well.

This is why we can safely anticipate a hollowed-out stock market which trades at a steep discount to its present propped-up levels in the years ahead--until the crooked players are indicted and the financial markets thoroughly cleaned. That will take political will which is completely lacking in the Demopublican-Republicrat status quo

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Ella Fitzgerald - Blue Skies

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Summertime

Words of Truth

This is from "Financial Armageddon" -- please follow link to original


Words of Truth

People communicate with others for a great many reasons, including trying to influence their attitudes and behavior. In this case, employing terms and expression that are known to trigger an emotional response is a useful tactic that can help make audiences more receptive to what is being said.

That said, it seems that there are way too many partisan hacks, spin doctors, and pathological polemicists who absolutely depend on highly-charged language to get their message across. Worse, they regularly use words that are disenguous, at best, or dead wrong, at worst.

One problem for those who care about the truth is that messages that provoke a strong and immediate response have a natural appeal at a time when attention-spans are low and media outlets are desperate to attract advertising spending based on eyeballs or pageviews or whatever metric is being used these days.

In a 24/7 news cycle where competition is intense, that means a distorted version of reality can easily morph into conventional wisdom. Indeed, this evolutionary process forms the basis of one well known propaganda technique: "If you repeat something over and over, no matter how outrageous it may be, people will come to believe there's some truth in it."

With that in mind, a post at The Reformed Broker by Joshua Brown, "Overuse of the Term 'Deadbeat' is Offensive to Me," makes a good case in point.

How many more blogs and newspaper op-eds must I read casually refe:ring to homeowners who are behind on their mortgages as "deadbeats"? As if they all took loans that they couldn't afford. As if every single homeowner in arrears was reckless at the time of signing for their mortgage.

Let me help you out with this, bank apologists:

Mr. Smith is earning $150,000 in 2005 and he's been with the same mid-sized business for 15 years.

He buys a home putting down 20%, borrowing the rest with a responsible and respectable 30-year mortgage.

The Credit Crisis hits 2 years later, through no fault of Mr. Smith's. His investment portfolio is halved, the value of his house is crushed as well.

His boss at said mid-sized company calls Mr. Smith in to his office to tell him that, due to cutbacks, he would have to be let go.

Mr. Smith spends the next 9 months job hunting. He finds nothing. This is because the same banks that hold the note for his mortgage also won't supply credit to his community's businesses, so there are no jobs to be had.

Mr. Smith sells off what he can to keep his kids clothed and fed, maxes out his bank-supplied usurious credit cards and sells off his investment portfolio (at its lows) just to make ends meet while looking for work. He eventually falls behind on his mortgage.

Now, is Mr. Smith reckless or a Deadbeat or are you just a blackhearted lowlife animal for calling him one?

Think the case above is the exception? Think most people behind on their mortgages are lazy or profligate? Well you need to get out more and talk to people who reside outside of your fantasy bubble.

There are deadbeats and then there are erstwhile victims of the environment that the ultimate deadbeats in the financial sector brought about. And bigshots take note - it could happen to you. Reversals of fortune are as natural and frequent in this world as grains of sand in the desert. I'd be careful running that mouth of yours as if you're guaranteed your station in life in perpetuity.

I find your lumping in of all struggling borrowers as "deadbeats" to be offensive and I'm going to start shouting you out when you use that term improperly.

Show some respect

Some Assembly Required Everything here is someone's opinion

Once again, it's time to read "Some Assembly Required" -- follow link. Here are just a couple of "teasers"

"Boogeyman Watch: A University of Michigan study found the major underlying factor driving the foreclosure crisis was loan originators' aggressive marketing of refinancing using adjustable rate mortgages. 'Aggressive marketing' sounds so much better than screwing the buyers, doesn't it?"

and

"E Pluribus Unum: In 2009 there were hundreds (well, 294 plus 124 by Irish nuts) of terrorist attacks in Europe, most the work of ethnic separatists. About 40 were credited to extreme leftist movements and a few from the far right. One was by a Muslim."

and:

"Bad News Leads: Only 37% of Americans feel the GOP vendetta to repeal the Affordable Care Act makes sense, and another 36% want an even more ambitious modern health care system, not less. If those who buy the GOP line understood what they will lose if the Republicans get their way that 36% would soon be over 50%, pleading for more, not less. And why do the 37% conned by the GOP get all the press while the 36% who want even more government sponsored health care reform never get mentioned?"


Click on his links -- and read the original original

Friday, October 22, 2010

138

Hillcrest Bank, National Association, Overland Park, Kansas, Assumes All of the Deposits of Hillcrest Bank, Overland Park, Kansas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

Hillcrest Bank, Overland Park, Kansas, was closed today by the Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Hillcrest Bank, National Association, Overland Park, Kansas, a newly-chartered bank subsidiary of NBH Holdings Corp., Boston, Massachusetts, to assume all of the deposits of Hillcrest Bank.

The 41 branches of Hillcrest Bank will reopen during normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Hillcrest Bank, N.A. Depositors of Hillcrest Bank will automatically become depositors of Hillcrest Bank, N.A. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits. Customers of Hillcrest Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Hillcrest Bank, N.A. that it has completed systems changes to allow other Hillcrest Bank, N.A. branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Hillcrest Bank can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of June 30, 2010, Hillcrest Bank had approximately $1.65 billion in total assets and $1.54 billion in total deposits. Hillcrest Bank, N.A. did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of Hillcrest Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Hillcrest Bank, N.A. agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Hillcrest Bank, N.A. entered into a loss-share transaction on $1.15 billion of Hillcrest Bank's assets. Hillcrest Bank, N.A. will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. For more information on loss share, please visit: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/lossshare/index.html.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-591-2767. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Central Daylight Time (CDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., CDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., CDT; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., CDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/hillcrest_ks.html.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $329.7 million. Compared to other alternatives, Hillcrest Bank, N.A.'s acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Hillcrest Bank is the 138th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the third in Kansas. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Security Savings Bank, F.S.B, on October 15, 2010

137

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Seaway Bank and Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois, Assumes All of the Deposits of First Suburban National Bank, Maywood, Illinois

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

First Suburban National Bank, Maywood, Illinois, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Seaway Bank and Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois, to assume all of the deposits of First Suburban National Bank.

The four branches of First Suburban National Bank will reopen on Saturday as branches of Seaway Bank and Trust Company. Depositors of First Suburban National Bank will automatically become depositors of Seaway Bank and Trust Company. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits. Customers of First Suburban National Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Seaway Bank and Trust Company that it has completed systems changes to allow other Seaway Bank and Trust Company branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of First Suburban National Bank can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of June 30, 2010, First Suburban National Bank had approximately $148.7 million in total assets and $140.0 million in total deposits. Seaway Bank and Trust Company did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of First Suburban National Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, Seaway Bank and Trust Company agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

The FDIC and Seaway Bank and Trust Company entered into a loss-share transaction on $116.6 million of First Suburban National Bank's assets. Seaway Bank and Trust Company will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. For more information on loss share, please visit: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/lossshare/index.html.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-830-4731. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Central Daylight Time (CDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., CDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., CDT; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., CDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/firstsuburban.html.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $31.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, Seaway Bank and Trust Company's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. First Suburban National Bank is the 137th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the 16th in Illinois. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was ShoreBank, Chicago, on August, 20, 2010.

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United Bank, Zebulon, Georgia, Assumes All of the Deposits of The First National Bank of Barnesville, Barnesville, Georgia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

The First National Bank of Barnesville, Barnesville, Georgia, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with United Bank, Zebulon, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of The First National Bank of Barnesville.

The two branches of The First National Bank of Barnesville will reopen on Saturday as branches of United Bank. Depositors of The First National Bank of Barnesville will automatically become depositors of United Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits. Customers of The First National Bank of Barnesville should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from United Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow other United Bank branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of The First National Bank of Barnesville can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of June 30, 2010, The First National Bank of Barnesville had approximately $131.4 million in total assets and $127.1 million in total deposits. United Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of The First National Bank of Barnesville. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, United Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

The FDIC and United Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $107.3 million of The First National Bank of Barnesville's assets. United Bank will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. For more information on loss share, please visit: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/lossshare/index.html.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-830-4706. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time (EDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EDT; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/fnbbarnesville.html.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $33.9 million. Compared to other alternatives, United Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. The First National Bank of Barnesville is the 136th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the 16th in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was The Gordon Bank, Gordon, earlier today

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Morris Bank, Dublin, Georgia, Assumes All of the Deposits of The Gordon Bank, Gordon, Georgia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

The Gordon Bank, Gordon, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Morris Bank, Dublin, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of The Gordon Bank.

The sole branch of The Gordon Bank will reopen on Monday as a branch of Morris Bank. Depositors of The Gordon Bank will automatically become depositors of Morris Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits. Customers of The Gordon Bank should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Morris Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow other Morris Bank branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of The Gordon Bank can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of June 30, 2010, The Gordon Bank had approximately $29.4 million in total assets and $26.7 million in total deposits. Morris Bank paid the FDIC a premium of 0.05 percent for the deposits of The Gordon Bank. In addition, Morris Bank will purchase approximately $11.5 million of The Gordon Bank's assets, consisting of cash and cash equivalents. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-830-4725. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time (EDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EDT; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/gordon.html.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $9.0 million. Compared to other alternatives, Morris Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. The Gordon Bank is the 135th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the 15th in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was The Peoples Bank, Winder, on September 17, 2010

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Bay Cities Bank, Tampa, Florida, Assumes All of the Deposits of Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, Florida

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, Florida, was closed today by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bay Cities Bank, Tampa, Florida, to assume all of the deposits of Progress Bank of Florida.

The two branches of Progress Bank of Florida will reopen on Monday as branches of Bay Cities Bank. Depositors of Progress Bank of Florida will automatically become depositors of Bay Cities Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits. Customers of Progress Bank of Florida should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Bay Cities Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow other Bay Cities Bank branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Progress Bank of Florida can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of June 30, 2010, Progress Bank of Florida had approximately $110.7 million in total assets and $101.3 million in total deposits. Bay Cities Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of Progress Bank of Florida. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, Bay Cities Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

The FDIC and Bay Cities Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $82.6 million of Progress Bank of Florida's assets. Bay Cities Bank will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. For more information on loss share, please visit: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/lossshare/index.html.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-800-830-4705. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time (EDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EDT; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/progress_fl.html.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $25.0 million. Compared to other alternatives, Bay Cities Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Progress Bank of Florida is the 134th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the 27th in Florida. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, earlier today.

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Ameris Bank, Moultrie, Georgia, Assumes All of the Deposits of First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2010
Media Contact:
LaJuan Williams-Young
Office: 202-898-3876
Email: lwilliams-young@fdic.gov

First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida, was closed today by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Ameris Bank, Moultrie, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of First Bank of Jacksonville.

The two branches of First Bank of Jacksonville will reopen on Monday as branches of Ameris Bank. Depositors of First Bank of Jacksonville will automatically become depositors of Ameris Bank. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage up to the applicable limits. Customers of First Bank of Jacksonville should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Ameris Bank that it has completed systems changes to allow other Ameris Bank branches to process their accounts as well.

This evening and over the weekend, depositors of First Bank of Jacksonville can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual.

As of June 30, 2010, First Bank of Jacksonville had approximately $81.0 million in total assets and $77.3 million in total deposits. Ameris Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of First Bank of Jacksonville. In addition to assuming all of the deposits, Ameris Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

The FDIC and Ameris Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $60.0 million of First Bank of Jacksonville's assets. Ameris Bank will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers. For more information on loss share, please visit: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/lossshare/index.html.

Customers who have questions about today's transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-866-954-9532. The phone number will be operational this evening until 9:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time (EDT); on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., EDT; on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., EDT; and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., EDT. Interested parties also can visit the FDIC's Web site at http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/firstbankjacksonville.html.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $16.2 million. Compared to other alternatives, Ameris Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. First Bank of Jacksonville is the 133rd FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the 26th in Florida. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Wakulla Bank, Crawfordville, on October 1, 2010.

Burning Down the House: A Crime Beyond Denunciation

This from "Mike And Friends Blog" - Michael Moore -- please follow link to original


October 21st, 2010 3:24 PM
Burning Down the House: A Crime Beyond Denunciation



By Michael Moore

So how do the Wall Street boys feel after destroying the world economy while pocketing billions, and then getting bailed out by everyone else in America? I'm sure they're filled with remorse and desperately trying to make it up to us. Right?

"The first thing that needs to happen, I think, is to get these people out of their homes," a man wearing a bespoke blue-striped shirt, a Hermés tie patterned with elephants and Ferragamo loafers said recently. "Correct! I'll explain," the veteran member of a bank restructuring and advisory team said...

"The question to me is not do you foreclose or do you not foreclose. The question is when and with what philosophy you foreclose," the man on the bank restructuring team said. "If you want to reduce the amount of leveraged homeowners you have, you need to ultimately kick them out of their homes." A colleague walked up: His recommendation was to burn houses. "It would lower the supply."

That's from a new article about Wall Street in the New York Observer, the newspaper for Manhattan's richest people. It's the only paper I've ever seen that's printed on pink newsprint -- except for the Financial Times, the paper for the world's richest people. (I don't know whether rich people are naturally attracted to pink paper, or whether it's really expensive and only they can afford it. Whatever the reason, it's meant to say fuck you to everyone else.)

Anyway, here's what I'm wondering: Millions of people are getting kicked out of their homes who need a place to live, millions of homes are sitting empty and their value decaying along with their neighborhoods, and all this banker can say -- with a straight face, I presume -- is to burn down the houses? Isn't that insane?

It is -- because capitalism is insane. It doesn't matter that we have a giant oversupply of something, and a giant number of people who desperately need that specific thing. The only thing that matters is: can this something be sold at a profit? If not, the obvious solution is to reduce supply by setting it on fire. And maybe this will create a business opportunity for the Koch brothers to sell tissues to America's newly-homeless as they watch the empty houses burn down.

And here's the punchline: though I'm sure that Wall Street banker had no idea, there's nothing new about this. We've been here before. Here's a famous passage from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck about the insanity of a system that required California farms to burn food during the Great Depression, even as people starved:

Behind the fruitfulness are men of understanding and knowledge and skill, men who experiment with seed, endlessly developing the techniques for greater crops of plants...These are great men...They have transformed the world with their knowledge...

The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit -- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must dill in the certificates -- died of malnutrition -- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot...

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

The Democrats, led by Franklin D. Roosevelt and pushed by unions, harvested the Depression's grapes of wrath and created with them the foundations of middle class America. And someone's going to harvest 2010's grapes of wrath. But it doesn't have to be us. In fact, if you're like me, you're getting very worried about who it might be.