A Farce Is Being Played Out In Washington. I Pity The American People

September 30, 2008

What a show they are putting on in Washington! It’s got everything in it: the drama, the suspence, the tension, the deadlines, the tired worn out faces of the key actors, the calls to protect the American people. Yes, my dear readers, what is now happening in the American capital is nothing more than a farce. The White House knows it, the memebers of congress know it, the lobbyists know it and the money men on Wall Street know it and only the American people are kept unaware of what is actually happening.

They, the people, seem to be under the impression that their elected representatives on Capitol Hill are fighting for their interests. Yeah, sure they do: think of nothing else but people’s interests. Don’t sleep at night, thinking about ordinary Americans. That would be the day. Or night.

Now, let’s analyse the situation calmly: the White House proposes a $700 billion bail out package for the banks which have caused the biggest financila crisis in the history of mankind. Congress pretends that it does not agree with this proposal becasue it basically amounts to robbery of the American taxpayers. The leaders of congress get together and come up with a slightly polished version of the bail out package for the banks, which still basically amounts to the same old swindle but with ‘we love the people’ gloss added. The bill is put before congress and… is regected by it.

Emotions run high. Members of congress beat their collective breast: we are not prepared to sell out the American people! (Especially as elections are approaching.) They want more assurances that the interests of the taxpayers would be protected.

The American people are stunned: it turns out that their elected representatives do really care about them! Who said American democracy was dead?

But gues what will happen in the end? Come on, make a wild guess! Yeap, the bail out package will be approved and the banks will get the money which they want so much. Money, money, lovely taxpayers’ money. Hundreds of billions of it. And the politicians would look good: they did their best to protect the people they love so much. They did not sell out to the money men. They stood firm.

I pity the American people. They are being taken for a ride by a bunch of politicians and their buddies in Wall Street and they will end up as losers.

And now I want to change the subject slightly and take a look at President Bush a bit more closely. When I first saw him at the time when he was the Republican candidate for the American presidency all those years ago my initial impression of him was that of a man – not very bright – who had been selected by powerful groups of interests as a front man for their operation called Running The US From Behind The Scenes And Loving Every Moment Of It. You know, Bush gets elected US President but doesn’t really decide anything.

There’s nothing unusual in this, by the way. Most leaders are actually front men for some powerful people. This is what politics are all about: you can’t get to the top if you don’t have some serious backing, and to get this sort of backing you have to take on certain obligations. Otherwise, how else can you afford to go through an election process that costs hundreds of millions? Even Vladimir Putin in Russia and the Chinese leader Hu Jintao have had the backing of powerful groups – be they political or business interests – who pushed them all the way to the very top. And even Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe continues to stay on because there are powerful groups supporting him. All dictators have the backing of some serious people who benefit from them being in power. Even in North Korea.

Anyway, I thought at the time that Bush, while being in effect controlled by others, was still a decent man deep down inside. And even when the war in Iraq broke out I still somehow thought that the real culprits were the people behind him – like Vice President Dick Cheney, for example – who pushed through the war and profited from it.

But now I know that I was wrong all along. Bush was and is a cunning man. The way he is pushing this disgraceful multibillion bail out deal for the American banks proves that he is prepared to ruin his own country for the sake of saving the money men. There can be no mistake here – he knows perfectly well what he is doing.

And let me tell you what is even worse: Bush knows that there is absolutely no chance that the $700 billion of American taxpayers’ money would save the US banks. Actually it is more than $700 billion because around $300 billion have already been spent on bailing out the banking system. So we are talking about $1 trillion dollars. One trillion dollars, ladies and gentlemen, that would be wasted on supposedly bailing out American banks.

The money men and their friends in Washington have apparently lost all sense of proportion. They are actually ready to risk bringing down the whole American nation – if not the whole world – just to save their banks and their private fortunes. It is madness, absolute madness. The one remaining superpower in the world is being destroyed from within by its own rulers and their buddies on Wall Street. Who needs a Third World War when we have people like that running things in Washington? And loving every moment of it, as the plan says.

So why am I so sure that that the bail out package proposed by the White House and amended by congress would fail? I’ll give you two reasons only and hopefully it would be enough to understand where I’m coming from.

First of all, the world banking system, and the banking system in the US especially, is rotten to the core. It is corrupt, it is incompetent, it is badly managed and it is run by opportunists and risk takers. You can pump as much money as you want into it but it won’t improve and it won’t become consumer friendly. It will only feed itself and it will create another crisis, and another, and another one. Greed is the driving force of this system. It has to be allowed to die in agony and a new one has to be created in its place.

Secondly, the overall debts of American banks have already overshot $2 trillion and are probably close to $2.5 trillion. So how exactly is it possible that $700 billion would save the situation? Especially as no one is planning to introduce any strict regulation in the banking sector. Yes, sure, there is talk of cutting down bonuses on Wall Street, but that’s no big deal, is it? So in effect what would happen is this: the people who are responsible for the current meltdown are going to be rewarded by the taxpayers for all the harm they have done to these very same taxpayers.

But back to President Bush. You might say that he is just responding to the wishes of the people who run the country from behind the scenes. What can he do, you may ask. He is just doing what all American presidents did – carry out the orders of their masters.

But Bush had a choice, you see. He is leaving office soon. He is a wealthy man and he does not need the money. He could have said to his backers: look guys, I’m on my way out. You do what you have to do but I’m not going to take part in this disgraceful charade. I’m too old for this shit. You’ll have to wait till the next president comes in.

Because here is one important point, readers, that you must all understand: the rescue plan can be easily put on hold. Don’t let the bankers and the politicians and the financial markets fool you that it has to be implemented straight away. Tomorrow, if possible, they are saying. Or better, yesterday. Give us your money, they say. Give it now. Don’t delay. Or everything will collapse. Everything. And we will all die. Die!

And Bush, if he had had any decency in him, would have walked away from it all. He already has been made the fall guy for the war in Iraq. So he did not need to burden himself with the biggest fraud in the history of mankind. But he chose to get involved in this swindle and demonstrated that he is an evil man.

And another thing: where is that wonderful system of checks and balances that supposedly exists in America to protect the people from unscrupulous politicians? Where is the Supreme Court, for example, that should have ruled by now that the White House can’t use public money as if it owns it?

Well, the checks and balances stop once the interests of the money men are concerned. Because the whole system is created for the money men. It is there to protect them. And to hell with everyone else.

As I have said already, I pity the American people.

– End –

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