Disturbing
May 15th 2009 18:41
Here's how Webster's Dictionary defines fascism:
Please note there have been fascist regimes that also became genocidal, but I'm not in any way asserting we are heading to that.
This post is titled "Disturbing" because our country has rapidly moved towards fascistic control over the last 7 months. It began with Paulson and Geithner in October 2008 when they forced banks to take TARP money whether they wanted it or not. Judicial Watch has forced the release of documents proving that Paulson and Geithner did this (Paulson brought Geithner in to handle the TARP process before he was named Treasury Secretary). The White House is still fighting Judicial Watch in their efforts to get the documents that show the extent of Geithner's involvement.
Many of these banks, like JP Morgan Chase, didn't need or want the TARP money, but they had no choice. The fact is that almost all of the TARP money is still sitting in the Federal Reserve, which is a good thing because it represents a 50% increase in the amount of money in circulation last summer. If banks actually lent that TARP money they would be heavily depressing the dollar.
That's why the government doesn't want them giving it back. They know massive deflation is coming and they are trying to cause a counter force of massive inflation by putting more money into the system. It's a dangerous game.
But I digress. Banks are trying to pay the money back to the taxpayers and keep us from having the debt and monetary issues it will cause, but the Treasury won't allow them to give it back. You say "Won't allow, how can they stop them?" The regulators are not taking it. It would be like going to your bank with a check to payoff your car loan, and everybody in the bank ignores you and won't acknowledge you are standing there asking to pay it off.
TCF, a bank in Minnesota, paid back their TARP money, but they are small fish. To do so, the Treasury FORCED THEM to reduce their dividend from 25 cents a share to 5 cents. Why hurt stock owners? The Treasury must have thought, based on their stonewalling against the larger TARP recipients, that setting that requirement would stop TCF from returning their money, but they called the bluff.
Since taking office, the Obama administration, usually through Geithner, has:
- Threatened to cap salaries at all TARP recipient companies
- Threatened to replace CEO's at TARP banks
- Used AIG to funnel TARP money to companies otherwise specifically denied TARP money (foreign banks)
- Used TARP to force banks to be in lockstep with the GM and Chrysler deals
There is ample evidence that is the weight of regulations and union obligations that made the US car companies less competitive in the US. Every GM car costs $2600 in pensions and health care benefits to employees that don't work there any more. Add in the government regulations and you can't compete with the Toyotas and Kias of this world.
Then you have the continued class warfare. At ASU for their graduation, President Obama listed multiple degrees and for each one urged the graduates to put aside their own ambitions and desires to go work for non-profits or volunteer. Does he realize the costs of college? Does he not realize that non-profits need for profit companies to give them money or use their services and if those for-profit companies are not running, there's no money?
Even the normally Obama-biased AP reports on how the business world is having "buyers regret" with the Obama administration.
We should have never got this meddling in the private sector to begin with. Companies failing IS the accountability. Yes, there's pain, but to continue to prop them up just delays and increases the eventual pain.
So why take control and decide winners and losers? Why not just let structured bankruptcies in the court systems, which is normal, take place?
Obama wants to reward his supporters. In both the GM and Chrysler deals the UAW gets a significant share in the companies. That's right, the union who's contracts got the companies in trouble to begin with (and management is partially to blame since they signed them) are getting over 30% stake in both companies, as a reward for the billions they spent to help Obama get elected.
Fascism is when the government picks winners and losers, forces companies to cede control to them, and then manipulates the activities of those companies to get an outcome they and their supporters have picked.
General Electric is a perfect example. Here's a company that owns the NBC lineup of channels, who without a doubt are the most over the top biased towards President Obama of any major media, that also makes . . . wind turbines and other "green energy" products. Which candidate do you think was better for GE's bottom line? Not McCain. So they used their media, and inpendent research by Pew proves this, to positively promote Obama's candidacy and destroy, many times personally, the McCain/Palin ticket.
You may say "But Fox was slanted towards McCain/Palin." That same study showed that negative reporting was 50/50 on Fox, 50% negative about Obama, 50% negative about McCain. Yes, they have conservative commentators, but O'Reilly goes so far out of the way to be fair it ticks me off
, and Hannity was Hannity and Colmes balancing each other out. They were the ONLY major news outlet that was not slanted either way.
And Fox isn't owned by a company that stands to lose or gain billions depending on who wins the election, unlike the NBC lineup. When Rick Santelli ranted against Obama on CNBC, NBC told him to be quiet and the White House attacked him, not on his points, but personally, with Gibbs saying "What kind of house does he live in?"
I know government has always meddled at some level. But to this extent they have never called private companies to Washington, forced them to give partial ownership of the companies to the government, then forced them to do things that don't make good financial sense for the companies or their stockholders.
The class warfare has to stop - these corporations that keep being demonized provide our nation's employment, and real people are being hurt.
The strong arm tactics have to stop - The government doesn't successfully run any of their own agencies, so they can only screw up in the private sector. The Obama administration is even forcing Chrysler to cut advertising spending, when they need people to buy their cars!
The lying has to stop - Remember the Caterpillar incident where Obama came out and said that the CEO told him stimulus would allow him to rehire people, but the CEO then said, "No, we will still have to lay people off"? Then, he did a similar thing with the insurance executives earlier this week, misstating what they had agreed to to make them look bad when it doesn't happen.
The economy has to go through recessions and the pain of them to reset and to hold those that had poor business practices accountable for them (they fail). But, as Rahm Immanuel said, "We can't let a crisis go to waste," so the administration is using it to, in Obama's words, "reMAKE America."
Very disturbing.
You can support my blogging even more by buying my book at Author House. Unlike liberals, this is the only fantasy world I live in
2. a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
Please note there have been fascist regimes that also became genocidal, but I'm not in any way asserting we are heading to that.
This post is titled "Disturbing" because our country has rapidly moved towards fascistic control over the last 7 months. It began with Paulson and Geithner in October 2008 when they forced banks to take TARP money whether they wanted it or not. Judicial Watch has forced the release of documents proving that Paulson and Geithner did this (Paulson brought Geithner in to handle the TARP process before he was named Treasury Secretary). The White House is still fighting Judicial Watch in their efforts to get the documents that show the extent of Geithner's involvement.
Many of these banks, like JP Morgan Chase, didn't need or want the TARP money, but they had no choice. The fact is that almost all of the TARP money is still sitting in the Federal Reserve, which is a good thing because it represents a 50% increase in the amount of money in circulation last summer. If banks actually lent that TARP money they would be heavily depressing the dollar.
That's why the government doesn't want them giving it back. They know massive deflation is coming and they are trying to cause a counter force of massive inflation by putting more money into the system. It's a dangerous game.
But I digress. Banks are trying to pay the money back to the taxpayers and keep us from having the debt and monetary issues it will cause, but the Treasury won't allow them to give it back. You say "Won't allow, how can they stop them?" The regulators are not taking it. It would be like going to your bank with a check to payoff your car loan, and everybody in the bank ignores you and won't acknowledge you are standing there asking to pay it off.
TCF, a bank in Minnesota, paid back their TARP money, but they are small fish. To do so, the Treasury FORCED THEM to reduce their dividend from 25 cents a share to 5 cents. Why hurt stock owners? The Treasury must have thought, based on their stonewalling against the larger TARP recipients, that setting that requirement would stop TCF from returning their money, but they called the bluff.
Since taking office, the Obama administration, usually through Geithner, has:
- Threatened to cap salaries at all TARP recipient companies
- Threatened to replace CEO's at TARP banks
- Used AIG to funnel TARP money to companies otherwise specifically denied TARP money (foreign banks)
- Used TARP to force banks to be in lockstep with the GM and Chrysler deals
There is ample evidence that is the weight of regulations and union obligations that made the US car companies less competitive in the US. Every GM car costs $2600 in pensions and health care benefits to employees that don't work there any more. Add in the government regulations and you can't compete with the Toyotas and Kias of this world.
Then you have the continued class warfare. At ASU for their graduation, President Obama listed multiple degrees and for each one urged the graduates to put aside their own ambitions and desires to go work for non-profits or volunteer. Does he realize the costs of college? Does he not realize that non-profits need for profit companies to give them money or use their services and if those for-profit companies are not running, there's no money?
Even the normally Obama-biased AP reports on how the business world is having "buyers regret" with the Obama administration.
We should have never got this meddling in the private sector to begin with. Companies failing IS the accountability. Yes, there's pain, but to continue to prop them up just delays and increases the eventual pain.
So why take control and decide winners and losers? Why not just let structured bankruptcies in the court systems, which is normal, take place?
Obama wants to reward his supporters. In both the GM and Chrysler deals the UAW gets a significant share in the companies. That's right, the union who's contracts got the companies in trouble to begin with (and management is partially to blame since they signed them) are getting over 30% stake in both companies, as a reward for the billions they spent to help Obama get elected.
Fascism is when the government picks winners and losers, forces companies to cede control to them, and then manipulates the activities of those companies to get an outcome they and their supporters have picked.
General Electric is a perfect example. Here's a company that owns the NBC lineup of channels, who without a doubt are the most over the top biased towards President Obama of any major media, that also makes . . . wind turbines and other "green energy" products. Which candidate do you think was better for GE's bottom line? Not McCain. So they used their media, and inpendent research by Pew proves this, to positively promote Obama's candidacy and destroy, many times personally, the McCain/Palin ticket.
You may say "But Fox was slanted towards McCain/Palin." That same study showed that negative reporting was 50/50 on Fox, 50% negative about Obama, 50% negative about McCain. Yes, they have conservative commentators, but O'Reilly goes so far out of the way to be fair it ticks me off
, and Hannity was Hannity and Colmes balancing each other out. They were the ONLY major news outlet that was not slanted either way.And Fox isn't owned by a company that stands to lose or gain billions depending on who wins the election, unlike the NBC lineup. When Rick Santelli ranted against Obama on CNBC, NBC told him to be quiet and the White House attacked him, not on his points, but personally, with Gibbs saying "What kind of house does he live in?"
I know government has always meddled at some level. But to this extent they have never called private companies to Washington, forced them to give partial ownership of the companies to the government, then forced them to do things that don't make good financial sense for the companies or their stockholders.
The class warfare has to stop - these corporations that keep being demonized provide our nation's employment, and real people are being hurt.
The strong arm tactics have to stop - The government doesn't successfully run any of their own agencies, so they can only screw up in the private sector. The Obama administration is even forcing Chrysler to cut advertising spending, when they need people to buy their cars!
The lying has to stop - Remember the Caterpillar incident where Obama came out and said that the CEO told him stimulus would allow him to rehire people, but the CEO then said, "No, we will still have to lay people off"? Then, he did a similar thing with the insurance executives earlier this week, misstating what they had agreed to to make them look bad when it doesn't happen.
The economy has to go through recessions and the pain of them to reset and to hold those that had poor business practices accountable for them (they fail). But, as Rahm Immanuel said, "We can't let a crisis go to waste," so the administration is using it to, in Obama's words, "reMAKE America."
Very disturbing.
You can support my blogging even more by buying my book at Author House. Unlike liberals, this is the only fantasy world I live in
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
If all the criminals in Washington DC were finally arrested, we'd have to build a new jail!
Comment by Andrew Biviano
The Middle Ground
I just don't see many fascist states in which the dictator stands for election every four years and is limited to two terms.
Also, be careful when you use words like "never." The government has taken actions way more assertive than this. Read about thesteel seizure case. Or Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts, or the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans, to name a few. Or maybe consider slavery. Virtually everything that Obama has done can be undone. Take a deep breath.
Comment by Jonathan Biviano
Politics Realm
Marriage Bits
Yeah, so far what he has done can be undone through elections. So far.
Those 25% of Chrysler dealerships that were forced to close by the WH auto task force, almost 100% GOP donors, can't have it undone for the hundreds of salespeople, who helped Chrysler sell product, now out of work.
Good link too. So, basically you wanted me to see that a previous DEMOCRATIC president also seized private industry and was rebuffed by the Supreme Court as it being unconstitutional. Plenty of precedent there once the lawsuits by private bondholders shafted to the benefit of the UAW get that far. Of course "Justice isn't blind, it's an empathetic latina" Sotomayor may just help trash that . . .
I guess a contitional lawyer should know the Supreme Court ruled that way . . . oh, wait, Obama is supposed to be one of those . . . But then, he has already said he wants to use the Supreme Court to carry out his wealth distribution!