The Bailout-A Parable

 I don’t know the origin of this parable, it came to me in an email message, but it captures the basic essence of the bailout scheme.-t.h.g.

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad News, the donkey died.’  Chuck replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’   The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’   Chuck said, ‘Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’  The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with him? Chuck said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’  The farmer said You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’  Chuck said, ‘Sure I can Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’   Chuck said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $998.’  The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’  Chuck said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’   Chuck now works for Goldman Sachs.

A Better Bailout Plan

Stimulate This!

Here is an article said to be from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday (I presume March 29). The Business Section asked readers for ideas on “How Would You Fix the Economy?” This response seems to hit the bull’s eye.

Dear Mr. President,

Patriotic retirement: There’s about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.

2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.

3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

what a great idea and I would add to this…..if you do this you can have my social security back –another problem solved.  [Item from the Rumor Mill News]

Of course, from the standpoint of the oligarchs, that plan benefits the “wrong” people and solves the “wrong” problems. – t.h.g.

Report on the US Secessionist Movement

Kirpatrick Sale provides the following Declaration in his report on the Third Secessionist Convention that was held in Manchester, New Hampshire on November 18, 2008. It’s hard to argue with the Declaration’s contents, but the big question remains: What might be an effective strategy for achieving the “restoration of democracy” and independence from the imperial megalith? Is political secession a feasible approach? It is my view that economic secession is much safer, easier, and more likely to achieve the necessary re-empowerment of the people and their communities. What that might involve is outlined in my Bioregional Economic Development Plan, which forms the basis for the ACCESS (Auroville’s Conscious Community Exchange System for Sustainability) proposal in India. That Plan, which will be elaborated in my upcoming book, can be applied to virtually any bioregion. – t.h.g.

The Manchester Declaration follows:

We, the delegates to the Third North American Secessionist Convention, meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, do declare the following:

• The recent election in the United States, far from signaling a change in the imperial system or a restructuring of the essential political order, unfortunately perpetuates the two-party system and its old familiar politicians that for decades have promoted the interests of the corporate/financial elite whose willing servants they remain.
• The recent financial flailing and machinations in the U.S., including the trillion-dollar bailout of the institutions that created the economic meltdown in the first place, provide ample and blatant evidence of Wall Street’s control over U.S. politics in the interest of trying to see that the rich get richer and the rest get nowhere.
• Together these two processes, along with a long string of abuses and usurpations over the past decades, unmistakably indicate that the U.S. is bankrupt in every way-financially, economically, politically, socially, academically, militarily, spiritually, and morally.
• This fact should demonstrate to the North American public, and the world, that it is the very scale and complexity of the various interlocking political and economic systems that is the fundamental cause of their failure-as well as the reason that no one on the scene has any idea whatsoever of how to fix it.
• That being the case, it is necessary, for the restoration of democracy-not to mention sanity, prosperity, sustainability, governance, and peace-that the imperial system be dismantled, and various states, regions, and elements of North America exert their right to secede into independent regimes laying their foundations on such principles and organizing their powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

It is to this end that the secessionist movement will dedicate its energy, time, talents, moneys, and sacred honor, and we invite, indeed implore, the participation of our fellow citizens.

Passed this day, the fifteenth of November, 2008.

Notes From the Field – Thailand

My October 29 report from Thailand with some thoughts on the financial bailout, climate change, the sick US sickness care system, and other things that we can have some fun with. Read it here.