The Uninformed Elect The Uninformed

July 14, 2013July 13, 2013 fasab Current Events, Humour, Politics, Rants 'F' minus, 9/11 attack, administration, Afghanistan, Al Quaeda, ally, alternative, America, America's leaders, arch demon of the Middle East, best rulers, bigger potential threat for the future, brave souls, britain, bureaucrats, candidate, casting their votes, censor, charitable gifts, chronic stupidity, clueless, Col Gadaffi, couldn't do much worse, country, create enemies, cruise missile, culprit, Current Events, cut from the same cloth, deliberate covert policy, democracy, drip feeding, economy, Egypt, election times, exclamation marks, foreign 'crusades', foreign affairs. could do much better, foreign debacles, friend, gather secret dossiers, government, government that is in power, governments, grade marks, greatest ability, harm's way, honest, horrendous mess, horrific injuries, information, insult, interfere, interfering in foreign lands, invade Iraq, iran, iraq, Ireland, Israel, Keys to the City of Detroit, killed, land of the free, Lebanon, Libya, lying to their own people, Misc, Miscellaneous, needless deaths, nicest shirt, north korea, noses have been stuck, Opinion, People, philosophy, political idiots, political policy, politicians worldwide, politics, power and influence, power to elect, problem, publicity, radical groups, rant, Rants, Saddam, Saddam Hussein, sensationalize, Serbia, simplify, Somalia, spy on us, Stalinist Russia, Sunday Sermon, syria, terror, terrorism, terrorist attacks, Terrorists, the politicians, Thoughts, tools, trouble for the future, uninformed decisions, uninformed population, US Administration, Vietnam, vote party lines, voted, War, war against terror, wars, weapons of mass destruction, Western media, Western nations, what THEY think WE need to know, winning friends and influencing people

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Another rant cunningly disguised as a Sunday Sermon.

Some people say we should be grateful we get told anything at all nowadays. We certainly can’t rely on our governments being honest with their people. In fact, as we have discovered recently, they would rather spy on us and gather secret dossiers on our activities. Much more reminiscent of Stalinist Russia than the Land Of The Free.

A big part of the problem is that in what passes for ‘democracy’ in Western nations, the people are told they have the power to elect whoever they think will be the best rulers, but they are not allowed the tools to do so effectively.

People are encouraged to vote party lines, rather than think about which candidate has the greatest ability.

The Western media compounds the problem by drip feeding information to us on a “what THEY think WE need to know basis”. In doing so they censor and simplify, and more often than not sensationalize that information to the point of it being almost useless.

Naturally the politicians love it that way. An uninformed population makes uninformed decisions at election times, casting their votes for the candidate who has the nicest shirt or some other reason unrelated to political policy and philosophy.

That’s one of the reasons you got the government that is in power – so if you voted them in you did so without knowing all the facts – or maybe any of them!

Not that there was much of an alternative. And it doesn’t matter what country you happen to live in either. Politicians worldwide, like bureaucrats, seem to be cut from the same cloth.

But that’s only part of the problem.

Bad enough that uninformed people make uninformed decisions and elect the wrong people. But worse is the fact that the people they elect are equally badly informed, their lack of knowledge becoming very clear quite quickly after they are elected.

Take America for example. Not the only culprit by any means, but the biggest one because of its size and the power and influence it wields throughout the world.

We all know that the economy is in a horrendous mess, with the administration seemingly clueless as to how to get us out of it. We’ve talked about that before and no doubt will do so again.

But if we were giving out grade marks for America, the ‘F’ minus with at least two exclamation marks would have to go to its understanding of foreign affairs. It’s not a case of ‘could do much better’ but more of a case of ‘couldn’t do much worse’.

Recent history is littered with foreign debacles. Vietnam, Somalia, Lebanon, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now North Korea, Syria, and Iran are just some of the places where America, and sometimes its allies such as Britain, have tried to interfere only to make things far worse.

To the insult of causing the needless deaths and horrific injuries to the brave souls who put themselves in harm’s way because of these political idiots, they add the bigger insult of trying to excuse their foreign ‘crusades’ by lying to their own people.

Saddam Hussein used to be a ‘friend’, even being granted the Keys to the City of Detroit because of his charitable gifts. Then a few months later they made up blatant lies about his having developed weapons of mass destruction and he became the arch demon of the Middle East. Saddam was no saint that’s for sure, he was an evil man, but he had no weapons of mass destruction and he had nothing to do with Al Quaeda or the 9/11 attack, yet the US Administration went gung-ho to invade Iraq and take him out. Result – a bigger potential threat for the future.

All the years Col. Gadaffi was supporting terrorist attacks in Israel and Britain and Ireland he wasn’t touched, apart from the odd cruise missile sent his way more for publicity than any lasting affect it had on him or his country. Then when he became an ‘ally’ in the war against terror he was killed, leaving behind a country in a complete mess and opening the way for radical groups to take over. Result – a bigger potential threat for the future.

You could say exactly the same thing for Egypt or Syria or almost anywhere else where noses have been stuck in where they aren’t wanted.

Far from winning friends and influencing people, it’s almost as if America’s leaders want to create enemies and store up trouble for the future. Either this is a deliberate covert policy or it is the result of chronic stupidity.

Whatever the reason, it is costing the country far too much, both in terms of lives and money. Our politicians need to be told to get a grip on things in their own country before interfering in foreign lands where they clearly do not understand the damaging consequences of their ill-advised actions.

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Sunni or Shiite?

July 7, 2013 fasab Current Events, Factoids, Politics, Rants, War 1990-91, ABC, abroad, Abu Bakr, Alawaites, Ali, ali muhammad, America, Assad, at home, bitterness, centuries, Christian faith, Christians, CNN, common ground, conflict, Current Events, death, deceit, demented Islamic clerics, denominations, differences, economies in the West, education, establishing democracy, father-in-law, followers, fomented, fundamentalist factions, holiest cities of Islam, interference, intervention, Islam, islamic clerics, Jews, lies, lofty goal, Mecca, media outlets, Medina, Middle Eastern, middle-east, Misc, Miscellaneous, Muslim community, Muslim faith, Muslims, oil prices, oil supplies, Operation Desert Storm, Opinion, politicians, politics, power struggle, Prophet Muhammad, Random, rant, Rants, religion, religious crusade, rightful successor, Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia, sectarian conflict, sects, Sheiks, Shia Islam, Shias, Shiites, son-in-law, split, Sunday Sermon, Sunnis, syria, Syrian population, terrorist, US-led Gulf War, War, weather

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

You could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that the title indicated that today’s post is about the weather, but it isn’t. Instead I’m doing a Sunday Sermon (otherwise known as a rant) about things Middle Eastern.

It is a part of the world about which most of us know very little, but a place that has affected, and will affect, all our lives dramatically.

If you listen to CNN or ABC or any of the other media outlets you would be left with the impression that what has been happening in the Middle East and the terrorist offshoots that it has spawned is solely a religious crusade by Muslims against all other religions, particularly the Christians and the Jews.

Granted that type of hatred does exist and is being fomented by demented Islamic clerics within the Muslim community both at home and abroad, but it is by no means the whole picture.

Just as there are many different sects within, for example, the Christian faith, there are different denominations within the Muslim faith also.

The latter consists of two main factions, the Sunnis and the Shiites, and a lot of what has been, and is happening in the Middle East has its roots in a sectarian conflict and power struggle between these two factions of Islam.

It’s always difficult, and a little bit dangerous, to try to sum up a long standing conflict in a couple of paragraphs, but basically what happened was that after the death of the Prophet Muhammad his followers split into two factions, those who accepted Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, as the rightful successor (the Sunnis) and those who believed that Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, should be successor (the Shiites).

Rather than find common ground over the centuries the differences and bitterness remained and are still being played out throughout the Middle East today.

Syria, where the politicians seem hell bent on involving us next, is a prime example of this sectarian conflict. The Assads, who have been in power for over forty years, are Alawaites which is a branch of Shia Islam. Currently there is an attempt to overthrow the Assad regime by opposing forces that come from the Sunni faction.

The Sunnis comprise around three-quarters of the Syrian population, as opposed to about 12% to 15% for the Shias, and that will be used as justification for siding with the forces trying to overthrow Assad. The fact that Syria under Assad participated in the US-led Gulf War against Saddam Hussein in the 1990-91 Operation Desert Storm will be quietly forgotten, as will the fact that Hamas, regarded as a terrorist organization by most Western states including the US, Canada, and the EU, supports the Syrian Opposition.

However, the real reason that America and her allies will side with the Sunni faction has nothing to do with the lofty goal of establishing democracy in Syria. In fact it has very little to do with Syria at all, but everything to do with Saudi Arabia.

The ruling Sheiks and the vast majority of the population in Saudi Arabia are Sunni, but there is also a significant Shia population in the country and it contains Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam, which are a focal point for all Muslims.

Are you getting the picture?

If by chance Assad’s regime were to survive and perhaps emerge stronger than ever, some Western nations are afraid that it would give encouragement to those Shia and fundamentalist factions within Saudi Arabia to also create unrest there too, which in turn would have a devastating effect on oil supplies and oil prices and further damage the already weak economies in the West.

It won’t work out as planned though. These things never do. Eventually there will be some kind of disruption within Saudi Arabia and the economic consequences will be felt worldwide.

But in the meantime that’s what Syria is really all about, according to me anyway. And until someone can come up with a better explanation I for one will not believe the claptrap from the politicians and their tame media front men.

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There Comes A Time When Zero Tolerance Is The Only Option

May 26, 2013May 25, 2013 fasab Current Events, Politics, Rants a place in heaven, absurd, afraid, airports, America, better life, blood-thirsty killers, bogey men, bragging, britain, British soldier, citizens, cling on to power, cloud the issue, complain, corrupted, countries, criminals, Current Events, cut head off, decapitated, degrees, demented and evil clerics, distorted, distracting us, drinking alcohol is forbidden, Drummer Lee Rigby, easier, ethnic profiling, events, evil clerics, exams, excuse the inexcusable, families, fight terrorism, followers, fomenting fear, foreign lands, home, ignorant, immigrants, innocent people, intolerable, kill themselves, knocked down by a car, law-abiding, lay helpless on the street, line drawn in the sand, live by our rules not yours, London, lowest level, majority, manipulation, manufactured, meaning of the Koran, Misc, Miscellaneous, morons, Muslim, Muslim country, Muslim population, Muslims, nonsense, offended, offensive, only solution, Opinion, pander, Personal Writing, politicians, politics, potential terrorist, promise, qualified, racial, Random, rant, Rants, reciprocal respect, respect, rights being denied, scale, schools, securing commodities, selective targeting, self promotion, serious economic problems, seventy virgins, society, solution, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, Sunday Sermon, supposed to tolerate, suspects, Thoughts, tippy toe, treated with respect, treatment, trend, unacceptable, uneducated, universities, welcoming, western countries, Western society, words of Allah, work, worked hard, zero tolerance

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Time for another rant, now known as the Sunday Sermon.

For many years there has been an influx of Muslims into Western countries like, for example, America and Britain. And for years these people arrived and set to work to provide a better life for their families, which was reason they chose our countries in the first place.

Sometimes we treated them with respect. At other times their treatment was not so welcoming. But the vast majority accepted things as they were and worked hard, with the result that they did make a better life for themselves.

However, now all of a sudden, because of the rants of a few demented and evil clerics who have corrupted the words of Allah and the meaning of the Koran, some Muslims are now offended by everything, including the very presence of the citizens of the countries they have chosen to come and live among.

How absurd is that?

Worse, however, is that we are supposed to pander to this nonsense and tippy toe around them afraid to do or say anything in case it will be distorted and manufactured into something offensive.

And if we don’t?

Well then they will cut our head’s off in the middle of a street and stand bragging about it afterwards.

That is exactly what happened in London this week when Drummer Lee Rigby, a British soldier, was first knocked down by a car driven by two blood-thirsty killers and then decapitated as he lay helpless on the street.

On any scale of things that are offensive, it just doesn’t get any more offensive than that.

Yet we are supposed to tolerate the intolerable and excuse the inexcusable!

Let’s get real folks.

Some things are unacceptable in western society. And if you choose to live in western society then you live by our rules, not yours.

When I visit a Muslim country where, for example, drinking alcohol is forbidden, I don’t put on the pretense of being offended, I don’t whine about my rights being denied, in fact I don’t complain at all. I am in their country, those are their rules, and while I am there I am happy to respect them and abide by them.

Why is there no reciprocal respect any more?

And even more to the point, why is that reciprocal respect not demanded?

We have allowed our politicians to cloud the issue by blundering about in foreign lands. They say they are doing it to fight terrorism and protect us, but in reality it has much more to do with securing commodities and distracting us from much more serious economic problems they have created at home.

Politicians manipulate their people by creating ‘bogey men’ and fomenting fear where none should really exist. They do it, not for the benefit of their constituents, but for their own self promotion and their attempt to cling on to power. It happens in every country, east or west, north or south, and it has been happening for centuries.

And what is happening to elements of the Muslim population today is no different. In their case the manipulation is made slightly easier because the evil clerics are able to deceive their largely uneducated and ignorant followers with the promise of seventy virgins and a place in heaven if they either kill themselves or other innocent people – preferably both at the same time. Strange, if the reward is so great, that you never see the clerics themselves pushing to the front of the queue to participate!

There is a horrible trend nowadays that standards must be allowed to come down to the lowest level. Exams in schools and degrees at universities have to be made easier and easier to pass, lest some be deemed not to have qualified. Everyone has to be treated as a potential terrorist at airports in case selective targeting of possible suspects be labeled as racial or ethnic profiling. And every effort has to be made try to understand and excuse the criminals in our society who prey on the law-abiding.

We have completely lost our way. And the only solution is to take a stand on these important issues. Try to be nice, and understanding, and liked by everyone and you doom yourself and your society. There comes a time when the proverbial line has to be drawn in the sand. And there comes a time when zero tolerance is the only option.

That time is now!

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I Told You They Were Coming!

May 19, 2013May 18, 2013 fasab bankers, banking, Banks, Business, Crime, Current Events, Factoids, Investing, Politics, Rants America, Australia, bank accounts, bankrupt government, bankrupt Spain, Banks, bargain properties, bureaucrats, buy-to-let sector, cash rich investors, confiscated, Current Events, Cyprus, desperate, destroy, developers, education, Europe, events, fools, foreclosed, foreclosed homes, foreclosure mechanism, foreign investors, glut, greedy bureaucrats, home, home loans, Home sales, idiots, Misc, Miscellaneous, morons, mortgage market, mortgagee, on the market, Opinion, Personal Writing, policy, political morons, politicians, politics, Random, rant, Rants, real estate market, rent, rent-free, rental sector, renting out homes for free, residency, return, return on their capital, seize homes, spain, Spanish families, Spanish government, Spanish property, Spanish real estate, steal, steal homes, steal money, stupid, stupid people, stupid rules, stupidity, Sunday Sermon, tax pensions TWICE, theft, Venezuela, yields, Zimbabwe

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Time for another Sunday Sermon, otherwise known as a rant!

First it was Cyprus where the bankrupt government tried to steal money right out of people’s bank accounts. If you want to read that again click here and here.)

Then it was the turn of the greedy bureaucrats in Australia who decided to tax pensions TWICE, once when you put the money in and again when you tried to take it out! (For the original post click here.)

Now in bankrupt Spain the politicians are at it, however, this time they aren’t proposing to steal some of the money in your bank account – oh no, this time they want to steal your entire home!

Yes, you read it right, the Spanish government has announced this past week that they want to seize homes that have been foreclosed on by banks and developers.

Not that I have any sympathy with the banksters, not by a long chalk! But theft is theft, and theft by governments is perhaps the most evil of all simply because the victims have little or no remedies available – other than pack up and go somewhere else.

As usual the politicians and bureaucrats are trying to dress this theft up as something helpful. They say they will rent the confiscated foreclosed homes to Spanish families who will be allowed to live there rent-free for up to three years.

Sounds great, but as usual what these political morons have failed to do is think their policy through.

If they go ahead with this plan to steal homes the consequences will not be what they think.

First of all it will destroy what is left of the mortgage market in Spain because no one will want to make home loans on Spanish real estate if there is no viable foreclosure mechanism should things go wrong for the mortgagee.

Second, it will go a long way to killing off the buy-to-let sector, which is the thing that has been keeping the real estate market afloat in these financially strained times. Home sales, not just in Spain, but in many countries have been boosted considerably by cash rich investors picking up what they consider to be ‘bargain’ properties at a level that yields a decent return on their capital. Where will they get that return if the government kills the rental sector by renting out homes for free?

And third, it will also kill off the recent Spanish drive to attract foreign investors by offering residency to anyone who spends around $200,000 buying up the glut of Spanish property currently on its real estate market.

If these things were happening in Zimbabwe or even Venezuela everyone would be calling it a disgrace. But it is happening in Europe and Australia and America. And it will get worse the more desperate the politicians and the bureaucrats become as they make the mess they created worse, not better.

Who on earth put idiots like these in charge?

It wasn’t you was it?

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It Never Rains But It Pours – Chicken Maryland Anyone?

April 28, 2013April 28, 2013 fasab Business, Current Events, Factoids, Legal, Politics, Rants $3.1 billion annually, air, America, Anne Arundel County, bankrupt governments, benefit of the people, brain, bureaucratic nightmare, bureaucrats, business in america, businesses, competitive, Current Events, democratic, desperate trouble, desperate trouble economically, dumb, easier to do business, economic woes, education, elect, entrepreneurs, events, fact, fancy name, fools, free, government, help, idiot, idiots, Impervious Surfaces tax, imports, income, internet, irresponsible people, irresponsible politicians, Laura Neuman, local, local government, mantra, Martin O’Malley, Maryland, Maryland Governor, Misc, Miscellaneous, morons, Musings, national, new wealth, normal times, old laws, Opinion, pick pocket, politicians, politics, poorer, productive, property, prosperous, protect, public outcry, rainwater, Random, rant, Rants, Republicans, residents, socialist bureaucratic nightmare, statute books, stimulate economic growth, storm water management fee, stupid, stupid laws, stupid people, stupid politicians, stupid rules, stupidity, sunshine, tax, tax proposal, tax rain, tax the internet, theft, uninformed, US, US bureaucrats, vetoed, vote, western world

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”
.

I did a short series a few months back about some of the stupid laws stupid politicians had made. They were quite funny and most of them dated back many years, they just hadn’t been taken off the statute books.

That excused the old laws, maybe.

But they are still at it even today!

I know that you shouldn’t expect too much when a group of uninformed and irresponsible people go out and vote to elect a smaller group of uninformed and irresponsible politicians, while most people stay at home. But we call that democracy these days. And in what passes for normal times you can get away with it.

But these are not normal times we are living in. America, and most of the western world, is in desperate trouble economically. We need help from our politicians.

Help to stimulate economic growth; help to make it easier to do business in and from the US; help to protect us from cheap inferior crap being imported that has destroyed local jobs and industries; help for entrepreneurs to establish new wealth generating businesses; and help from the socialist bureaucratic nightmare that is completely out of hand.

As regard the stupid laws, these days most of them center around ways that bankrupt governments, whether national or local, can think up to extract more and more from the people who elected them.

Currently US bureaucrats are frantically trying to think up another way to tax the internet. Previous attempts failed because of public outcry, but sooner or later they will do it and who will it help? Everybody who isn’t in business in America and the EU probably, because it won’t apply anywhere else!

The mantra of these idiot bureaucrats is to make America more productive and prosperous by making America less competitive and poorer. It sits nicely with their other mantra of solving economic woes by extracting more and more tax from less and less income. Neither works and never will.

What prompted this rant?

Well only the unbelievable fact that the idiot politicians in Maryland have decided to tax rain.

What????

Tax what????

Yes, you read it right, the idiot politicians in Maryland have decided to tax rain.

They call it by a fancy name, of course, the “Impervious Surfaces tax”, or ”storm water management fee”, but what it in effect does is to charge Maryland residents for rainwater that falls on their property.

Naturally, the bureaucrats are dressing up this latest money grab with the lie that it is for the benefit of the people. It’s bit like a pick pocket excusing his theft by saying he was relieving you of the burden of carrying your wallet around in your coat pocket. And it makes just as much sense!

Thankfully, however, there seems to be a few with a working brain left in local government. Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman, for example, vetoed the tax proposal which unfortunately won’t kill it, but will give a little bit of breathing space.

But if the residents of Maryland are “chicken” enough to fall in line with this new tax – and so far it seems most of them have been dumb enough not to even notice it at all – then it won’t be the end of it.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who guided the passage of the storm water tax earlier this month, despite efforts from Republicans to dismantle the bill, has already been responsible for implementing 37 other taxes and fees since taking office — at a cost to residents estimated at somewhere in the region of $3.1 billion annually.

Does anyone really think an idiot like this is going to let the people have air and sunshine for free???

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Okay America, How long Are You Going To Take This BS?

March 13, 2013 fasab bankers, Banks, Crime, Legal, Rants, Uncategorized, Unusual America, attorney general, Attorney General Eric Holder, bank, bankers, Banks, banksters, biggest banks, bureaucracy, bureaucrats, Chuck Grassley, conspirators, cowardice, cowards, criminal, criminal charges, cronies, culprit, deterrent, economic storms, economy, Elizabeth Warren, employees, Eric Holder, financial regulators, Grassley, gutless government wonders, high government officials, Holder, home of the brave, institutions, Iowa, lawmakers, major criminal charges, major financial institutions, mass, meltdown, Ohio, politicians, politics, procrastination, rant, senate, Senate Judiciary Committee, senator, Senators, Sherrod Brown, small businesses, stupidity, the financial crisis, the financial system, too big to jail, trial, undiluted BS, Wall Street

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

A few days ago I had a bit of a rant against the banksters. You’d have thought that would have done me for a while but there’s more, prompted by yet more procrastination and what can only be called undiluted BS from high government officials.

This time the main culprit is Attorney General Eric Holder, who Wednesday last testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He told them that he is concerned that some institutions have become so massive and influential that bringing criminal charges against them could imperil the financial system and the broader economy.

Where have we heard that one before?

It’s just his version of the “too big to jail” bollocks that we have been hearing from these gutless government wonders for the past five years.

And unfortunately he isn’t alone in this cowardice. A growing number of lawmakers have effectively suggested the same thing.

Home of the brave? Not as far as these bureaucrats are concerned. They would much rather throw the weight of their bureaucracy against small businesses struggling to stay afloat in the economic storms created by the banksters than tackle the real problem, i.e. the banksters themselves.

On the brighter side, if there is one, Holder’s comments and those of his conspirators should bolster an increasingly vocal group of politicians who argue the nation’s biggest banks have become too large and need to be curbed.

Among this group are Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) who pressed Holder on the issue in a letter sent in February, airing their disappointment that no major criminal charges had been filed against banks or their employees in the wake of the financial crisis.

Also Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) blasted financial regulators during a separate hearing for failing to bring any major financial institutions to trial since the meltdown.

Of course when questioned by Sen. Grassley, Attorney General Holder tried to slither out of answering the issue by saying that, “The concern that you have raised is one that I, frankly, share.”

However, he then quickly added that ultimately the best deterrent would be if they could bring charges against individuals instead of companies, BUT that all of the bad behavior on Wall Street leading up to the crisis may not necessarily have been criminal and that his criminal team has been “as aggressive as they could be.”

In other words, too big to jail yet again. And the government, still afraid to act, continues to pretend to do something while actually doing nothing.

Pathetic!

So over to you America.

You elect these cronies and cowards, or the people who appoint them.

When are you going to demand they act in YOUR best interests and not in the best interests of the banksters?

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Can Heads That Have No Brains Handle A No-Brainer?

March 6, 2013 fasab bankers, banking, Banks, Business, Crime, Politics, Rants, Uncategorized active-duty members, American banksters, arrogance, bailed out, Bank of America, bankers' bonuses, Bankia, banking industry, bankruptcy, banksters, blog, bonus, bonuses, bribe, British Government, bureaucrats, business, cheated, Citigroup, clients, common law of decency, compensate, contributions, culture of stupidity, Current Events, debt, dumb-asses, early parole for good behavior, election campaigns, Europe, European parliament, events, federal law, federal settlement, fighting against stupidity and bureaucracy, financial catastrophe, financial crisis, fools, foreclosures, governments, greed, housing crisis, idiots, illegally foreclose, in harm's way, incompetence, insurance, interest-rate hedging products, JPMorgan Chase, lawmakers, losses, military, military personnel, Misc, Miscellaneous, money, morons, mortgage payments, mortgages, no brains, no-brainer, Opinion, politics, Random, rant, regulators, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, sales targets, seized homes, Service members Civil Relief Act, slime, slime of creation, spain, Spanish corporate history, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, taxpayers, to protect and defend, Wells Fargo, wrongfully foreclosed

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Time for another rant about the slime of creation, also known as the banksters.

This blog is about highlighting and fighting against stupidity and bureaucracy and there is no better example of this than the banking industry.

Their stupidity is only matched by their arrogance and their greed.

More than five years on from plunging the world into a financial catastrophe, and all of us into debt that will take generations to sort out, they are still at it!

And the governments are still faffing about, afraid to take on those who bribe them with “contributions” to their election campaigns.

For example, the European parliament only reached a “tentative deal” last Wednesday evening to limit bankers’ bonuses at twice the value of their fixed pay. They call it “imposing the toughest limits on pay since the financial crisis”. Gimme strength!!! Of course, the deal, still has to be endorsed formally by governments and lawmakers (i.e., the bureaucrats), and is the result of 18 months of farting around (they call it negotiating).

It’s a start, but a poor and a slow one.

It shows how long it takes for a no-brainer to happen in heads that have no brains!

In timely manner, latest results last week came from Europe, namely the grandly named basket-case Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Lloyds Group, and Spain’s lesser sounding Bankia.

Already more than 80% owned by the British Government (i.e., taxpayers) who stupidly bailed out these idiots to the tune of almost $70 billion, RBoS have announced further losses of around $9 billion!

To make matters worse, $1.6 billion of that was to compensate clients wrongly sold insurance and interest-rate hedging products – which is a nice way of saying they have been caught fleecing their customers and now have to pay back money they cheated their clients out of in the first place.

They called it a “chastening year”.

Meatime Lloyds chalked up further losses to the tune of more than $2 billion!

And the banksters aren’t any smarter in Spain either. Bankia also this week reported a net loss of €19.06 billion ($25.04 billion) for 2012, by far the largest in Spanish corporate history.

And you know what? Let’s add insult to injury.

These dumb-asses are looking for bonuses for their efforts.

Can you believe it?

If someone starts a business and it fails, no one gives them a bonus – they lose their business (usually because the banksters force them to close down).

Just how on earth have we allowed the banking industry to create a culture of stupidity to take hold and remain in place after such clear evidence that it is not working. It is completely absurd.

Hit your sales targets, make money for the company and yes sir you can have a bonus and well deserved. Cost the company $ billions and drive it to bankruptcy because of your incompetence and the only bonus you should get is early parole for good behavior.

That’s Europe taken care of, can’t go without a word about the American banksters too.

Latest news is that they “have discovered” that they wrongfully foreclosed on more than 700 members of the military during the housing crisis and seized homes from about two dozen other borrowers who were current on their mortgage payments,

The banks, namely Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, only found the foreclosures after regulators ordered them to examine mortgages as part of a multibillion-dollar federal settlement. Each bank “discovered” around 200 members of the military whose homes were wrongly foreclosed in 2009 and 2010.

So while military personnel are putting themselves in harm’s way to protect and defend the country, the slime in the banks are busy trying to illegally foreclose on their homes.

Incredible!

Not only do these foreclosures violate the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a federal law requiring banks to obtain court orders before foreclosing on active-duty members, but they violate every common law of decency.

The sooner governments come to their senses and put these banksters out of business the better and cleaner the country will be.

***end rant***

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Forget That The Criminals Are The Problem – Let’s Attack The Decent Law-Abiding People

January 20, 2013 fasab Politics, Rants, Uncategorized 2nd Amendment, all guns blazing, ammunition, armed criminals, armor-piercing bullets, assault weapons, band wagon, bow, bureaucracy, bureaucratic interference, can of gasoline, collector, Community, Connecticut, criminal background checks, criminal intent, criminals, Culture, Current Events, debate, debating skills, defenseless targets, detection rate, distraction, Dwight R Worley, events, flock of sheep, fools, gangland shootings, gun sales, gun shows, gun-banning, headline, home invaders, idiots, intellectual prowess, interactive map, knife, law abiding people, liberal/fascist agenda, loophole, magazines, malicious, mass shootings, massacre, mentally deranged, Misc, Miscellaneous, moron, morons, murder spree, Musings, names and addresses, New York Journal News, Newtown, Obama's proposals, Opinion, Personal Writing, petty crime, police, political agenda, politicians, politics, President Obama, private sales, problem, protection, publicize themselves, purchasing weapons, Random, rant, Rants, rapists, reasonable, refocusing the debate, reporter, schoolchildren, sheep, solution, sporting purposes, statistics, straw purchasers, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, symptom, teachers, thieves, Thoughts, thugs, to-ban-or-not-to-ban guns, unarmed civilians, unlicensed sellers, violent crime, Walmart, Westchester and Rockland Counties

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Time for a bit of a rant today.

First one this year, I don’t know how I held out for so long.

Since the horrible massacre of schoolchildren and their teachers by a mentally deranged moron in Connecticut the real debate has again been sidelined into the convenient ‘to-ban-or-not-to-ban’ guns.

I can’t make up my mind as to what proportion of the gun-banning side of this so-called debate are idiots repeating what other idiots have said, how many are malicious, or how many are people trying to grab a handy headline or two.

The first lot can be easily compared with a flock of sheep. Sheep aren’t noted for their intellectual prowess, nor their debating skills, but when one sheep goes “baaa” you can be sure a lot more will say the same thing.

The second lot, the malicious ones, are deliberately rather than unintentionally refocusing the debate on to their liberal/fascist agenda of increasing bureaucratic interference wherever they see an opening.

And the third group are people, usually politicians or those with a political agenda, using the misery of other people to publicize themselves and their cause, but primarily themselves. Never one to let a band wagon roll past him, President Obama has jumped on this one, all guns blazing as it were!

For all these groups the ‘to-ban-or-not-to-ban’ guns debate is a handy, and a welcome, distraction.

It gives the first group something to say without stopping to analyze the real problem in detail. It gives the second group more ammunition (no pun intended today) to curtail freedom. As for the later group, the politicians love this distraction because it gives the impression that they are compassionate and caring and trying to find a solution, even though they are addressing the wrong problem.

On the face of it, Obama’s proposals can be dressed up as reasonable. If you haven’t seen them on the media (how could you avoid it?) they include:

asking Congress to reinstate and strengthen a ban on the sale and production of assault weapons that passed in 1994 and expired in 2004;
a ban on the sale and production of magazines with more than 10 rounds, like those used in Newtown and other mass shootings;
criminal background checks for all gun sales, closing the longstanding loophole that allows buyers to avoid screening by purchasing weapons from unlicensed sellers at gun shows or in private sales;
banning the possession or transfer of armor-piercing bullets;
and cracking down on “straw purchasers,” i.e., those who pass background checks and then forward guns to criminals or others forbidden from purchasing them.

As I said, on the face of it reasonable, but I suspect this is just the first salvo of a much more comprehensive agenda.

However, the question of the moment is simply this – would a gun ban, whether partial or comprehensive, work?

And the answer is categorically, NO!

And the answer is ‘NO’, not because I am a champion of the 2nd Amendment – I’m not, it doesn’t even apply to me! The answer is ‘NO’ because taking guns away from law abiding people won’t stop the criminals or those with criminal intent.

It doesn’t take a genius to work that out, but no one in the gun-ban lobby is even asking that fundamental question. Nor do they want it to be asked!

You see this is how gun bans work. I’ve seen them in operation in numerous countries.

If gun ownership is banned, law-abiding Joe Public won’t be able to go to Walmart and buy a gun as before. And he won’t be able to buy his gun because all that gun-banning legislation does is to make sure that no law-abiding citizen can buy and hold a legal firearm.

Joe Public is buying his gun (99.99 percent of the time) because he uses it for sporting purposes, or because he is a collector, or because he feels he needs it for his protection and the protection of his family.

The criminals, on the other hand, who don’t shop at Walmart, but are more likely to deal out of the trunk of a car in some isolated spot well away from prying eyes, will still be able to buy their guns and use them how they please.

Why?

Because they buy illegal guns from illegal dealers. And illegal guns from illegal dealers are not part of these new proposals. As a matter of fact the illegal guns are already banned which in itself proves that banning does not work!

So what has to be the inevitable result of a ban on legally held weapons?

Simply this. When you ban law-abiding decent citizens from buying or owning guns all you can possibly end up with are armed criminals versus unarmed civilians, with the police (who would have been used by the politicians and bureaucrats to subjugate the law-abiding population and remove their protection) now being the only form of defense and they will be grossly inadequate in numbers to ever hope to do so effectively.

As another example of just how far up their own asses some people can stick their heads and still think they are getting a tan, an idiot reporter named Dwight R Worley of the New York Journal News recently published the names and addresses, complete with an interactive map, of people in Westchester and Rockland Counties who owned legally held firearms.

Like all such journalistic crap it was parceled up in ‘caring for the community’ and ‘public interest’ wrappers, but all this article did was to point an accusing finger at law abiding citizens who had done nothing wrong.

Well, when I say “all it achieved” that’s not quite accurate, because it also gave the thieves, the home invaders, the rapists, the thugs, etc., a map of the homes that were protected BUT equally the homes that were not.

Thanks to dickhead Dwight R Worley (who incidently owns a .357 Magnum himself adding the crime of hypocrisy to his stupidity), Mr. Thief and Mr. Mayhem now know which houses in Westchester and Rockland Counties they can attack with impunity and those that they should stay clear of.

As it turns out, the people who should be most upset by this article are the ones who don’t have a gun, not those who do!

Zip this forward to a gun-ban country where all the law abiding people are defenseless targets for the criminals and there can only be one result. Not just an increase in violent crime but also a vast increase in petty crime. The detection rate for the latter is already minuscule, so think for a moment what it will be like when the criminals have little fear of their victims and even less fear of being caught.

The truth is that legally held guns probably save many, many more lives than they harm, and in most cases they do so without ever being used. But there aren’t any statistics for that.

The truth is that banning legal weapons will not stop illegal gangland shootings, which constitute the vast majority of deaths by gunfire in the United States.

The truth is that banning legal weapons won’t decrease the number of illegal weapons in circulation.

And the truth is that banning legally held weapons won’t stop morons or mentally deranged individuals from going on a murder spree – a knife, a bow or a can of gasoline will get the same job done.

The saddest thing of all is that the people and politicians who are calling for these bans know it. It would be nice to see them show a bit of backbone and integrity for once and attack the criminals and leave the law-abiding people alone. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

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Gosh, It’s A Two Post Sunday!

December 9, 2012 fasab Investing, Politics, Rants, Uncategorized, Unusual adult Americans, American citizens, americans, banking, beyond reasonable doubt, bureaucracy-ridden, bureaucrats, buy and sell, China, clamping down, commodities, commodity options, commodity options contracts, condemn, congress, currency, Current Events, defend the nation, exchange, exemption, faceless, fools, freedom, gold, government, government with limited powers, hedge funds, high horses, home of the brave, idiots, illegal, in harm's way, individual choice, inefficient, internet, Intrade, investment banks, Ireland, land of the free, last century, learn nothing from their mistakes, legally exempt, liberals, make up my own mind, manipulating, markets, Megaupload, MF Global, Misc, Miscellaneous, money, morons, Musings, nanny state, New Zealand, north korea, offshore jurisdiction, oil, online gambling, Opinion, options contracts, Personal Writing, perversion, platinum, politically, politics, popular, pork bellies, power, price, public interest, rant, Rants, reading blogs, regulate, restrict, ridicule, scandal, sensitive, speculate, speculating, stupid people, stupid rules, stupidity, the great, thought police, tomorrow, upholding principles, US citizens, Volstead Act, Washington, wealthy, web site, well connected, young people, your own protection

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

I haven’t had a rant for a while, so one is long overdue. Here it is.

I’m sure hardly anybody noticed, but last week the bureaucrats in Washington effectively shut down the web site Intrade for US citizens. Intrade was the popular web site that any adult, including Americans, could use to wager on the future price of certain commodities, like gold or oil.

Effectively the bureaucrats have now made it illegal to solicit Americans to buy and sell commodity options contracts unless they are listed on an exchange registered with them or on one designated as legally exempt by them, and they have taken upon themselves the power to regulate nearly any commodity-related activity unless Congress provides a specific exemption.

Of course the politically well connected investment banks and hedge funds into which the great and the wealthy put their money can carry on as before speculating on the price of everything from pork bellies to platinum and manipulating gold, currency, oil and other markets. The recent MF Global scandal really puts that beyond reasonable doubt.

Intrade is just the latest move by the bureaucrats and the thought police to restrict the freedom of American citizens. Not so long ago it was the online gambling websites, then New Zealand based Megaupload was targeted, then banking in any offshore jurisdiction, now the Ireland based Intrade, and tomorrow, well, who knows.

Maybe the ever sensitive morons in the thought police will try to stop you reading blogs critical of their asinine bureaucracy? Oh, oh, gulp!

The way they are acting is nothing short of a complete perversion of the concept of a government with limited powers. But are the liberals, who should be in the forefront of upholding such principles, falling over themselves to defend the ordinary people?

Not likely.

If and when this type of interference happens in China or North Korea or somewhere similar, they are rushing to get on to their high horses to condemn and ridicule.

But back in Washington they are busy trying to create an inefficient and bureaucracy-ridden nanny state that they know will necessitate clamping down on individual choice and freedom, if it is to even stand a chance of making it look as if it is working.

To add insult to injury the bureaucrats make their usual claim that they are taking these steps for “your own protection”.

Why is it that the steps the bureaucrats take in the ”public interest” never seem to turn out to be in my interest or in the interest of anyone I know?

By the way, in case you are wondering, I have never used Intrade, it’s not my kind of thing and I don’t know enough about that field to speculate with any consistent degree of success.

But I would appreciate the freedom to make up my own mind on the subject, instead of having the faceless and less intelligent bureaucratic thought police dictate the decision for me.

We all know how successful the Volstead Act was at the beginning of the last century, but the bureaucrats learn nothing from their mistakes. And they never will, because their desire is not to do what is right or just or even sensible, their desire is to create an ever growing bureaucracy which they control.

Home of the brave? No doubt about that when you see the young people who are willingly putting themselves in harm’s way to help to defend the nation.

But land of the free? No siree, not no mo!

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