Death of a warrior in Singapore.

JB Jeyaretnam fondly known as JBJ died suddenly today of heart failure at the age of 82. A warrior has fallen in his fight for civil rights in a PAP run Singapore. The ruling party impoverished the man by using a law for slander which put a heavy financial burden on JBJ, ruined him, but never extinguished his flame nor his passion for justice. For those outside the Merlion City with longer memories, they many remember him as the 'man from Anson' who upset Lee Kwong Yew's tightly run election, who won a seat in the parliament. JBJ so frightened then prime minister LKY that knowing the measure of his 'enemy' had to shed his high tone of 'impartiality' by descending into the well of parliament to debate sharp tongued JBJ who could with a razor sharp phrase cut through the wooden language of the PAP younger guard who grew up in a city state run by one party. Not happy to parry and thrust with JBJ, LKY & his minions sought the courts to slander the man. They succeed, challenged, too, his credentials at the bar, and brought the mighty warrior to the point of ruin, but they never humbled nor defeated the man, only death could. The LKY's party the PAP were so frightened of JBJ's success at the polls, they re drew electoral circumscriptions and the rebellious Anson was incorporated, defanged, and turned into a PAP safe seat. JBJ represented, in spite of oft time fraction behaviour with smaller parties, a voice that spoke truth to power, and one man did make power fret, sweat, worry, and lose many a night's sleep. For those who saw the man at the exit of the MRT at City Hall, hawking a book of his speeches, can never forget this elder statesman, and who 'in petto' thanks the lucky stars, that he was there to defend civil society and civil rights in Singapore. The old warrior is now gone, but let's hope his spirit lives and has inspired younger and yes older Singaporeans to carry on the fight for truth and justice and a more open society. Fair thee well, oh warrior!

The Wall Street bailout, is it socialism? or national socialism?

Herr Bush in his usual state of irrational exuberence has hailed the dodgey Wall Street bailout plan a major success. He would, wouldn't he? He's hailed his Iraq war a success, too, and we all know that is a crock of night soil! Everyone is hoisting the old hoary petard that with the bailout the free marketeers are taking a leaf out of the socialist handbook. Well, old darlings, is it the Socialist handbook influenced by Marx or the Nationalist Socialist handbook written by Mussolini? If you look at the huge emergency spending bill the houses of Congress signed off the other day, what do we find? The largest share of the pie goes to defence, homeland security, and veterans affairs. So the road to socialism to drag US capitalism out a mess of its own making, tilts towards il Duce's national socialist model, and history buffs, remember that under il Signor Mussolini and Herr Hitler the banks made out like the bandits they are and the country was set on a permanent war footing. Ring a bell?

The more you scratch McCain's image the filty the dirt uncovered!

The Sunday edition of the 'New York Times' online has a revealing and long and well researched and documented article on John McCain's ties to the gambling mafia of the US, and the role his advisors beginning with the suspect Rick Davis of the Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac subsidies in his own personal bank account till the two semi private entities were on the verge of government takeover, and now we find his greedy fingers in the casino honey jar! [Remember the convicted felon Jack Abrams funded his fraud by using casino money till he was brought down by a jury of his peers! and sent to prison where he turned on his own mates. No honour among thieves there...!]. The laundry list of McCain handlers and bundlers grow more and more interesting since they are the scum on the pond of skimming off the government through tax favours and loopholes, and campaign on the fraudulent claims that no one else but them should feed off the public treasury. Throw the rascals in gaol where they really belong. Basta ya! Enough is enough. McCain as president is a laughing job, but seriously speaking should he become Mr. 44, the US is heading for a disaster which would make 9/11 seem like child's play!

Why did anal hair stylist & self styled Mussolini of finance Paulson let Lehman fail?

The answer to this question is in Gertrude Morgenstern's article in the Sunday 'New York Times' online. Morgenstern is the newspaper's financial senior reporter, and what she says should confirm what 18Brumaire has always contended that anal hair stylist & self styled Mussolini of finance & US secretary of the Treasury is part and parcel of the subprime meltdown, and not of its solution. Morgenstern's article details why Lehman got thrown overboard by il Signor Paulson & his gang of 4, and AIG got a government loan of us$80bn. It seems that Paulson's old outfit Goldman Sachs where he was CEO and had walked away with a cool us$500m in the pocket as he ascended to the post of Herr Bush's cabinet, had a us$20bn exposure with AIG's Financial Product London subsidiary, and that relatively small sum if we are to believe the thick India black ink of Goldman's balance sheet, would have sunk the mighty house of Goldman & Sachs as though it were a stealth torpedo. Morgenstern also says that Goldman Sachs was AIG's leading trading partner, and as such made much dinero from that suspect relationship. AID's downgrading by the equally complacent rating agencies of Moody's & S&P & Fitch, threatened Goldman's standing, and so with Paulson's successor Blankfein also at the secret confab which let Lehman go down the tub, these panicky big swollen heads of world finance snatched AIG from the jaws of failure, and as such brought some confidence back to the markets but not for long, and yet, it saved Goldman from rumour and loss of shareholders confidence. So, when it comes down to it, it looks as though il Signor Paulson acted out of very narrow, selfish motives, in order to save 85 Broad Street, Goldman's headquarters from ruin, and cushion his own class of pirating free wheeling, free dealing, free marketeers at rate or taxpayer expense. And what a bill, the poor slogs are going to chew and gulp down as a whole, whilst these arse holes of the rich and the mighty get off scot free! Anal hair stylist says that the pain is worth it, but not for him, he remains a solid billionaire; tell that the man who faces foreclosure, or the mother who has health assurance to pay for her child's sickness, or to the unemployed worker whose job is in China where Paulson made big bucks for Goldman Sachs! If anyone deserves to be in the dock, it's Paulson for his crime against the American working class, and for his big part in devising and fashioning the subprime Ponzi meltdown!

Jaime Dimon to the rescue of WaMu

Jaime Dimon is Herr Bush's fair haired boy. He served up cheaply Bear Stearns on a platter, and at a bargain basement price. Now Herr Bush's put the largest commercial banking failure in US history Washington Mutual, better known as WaMu, into JPMorgan Chase's basket, and at a greatly reduced price. Why? Well with the government snapping up failed Wall Street toxic bonds and rescuing Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, and throwing a life line to AIG, taking over WaMu would cause a larger rebellion among the moss back Republicans who are sabotaging il Signor Paulson's package to quiet jittery financial markets at home and abroad. JPM can well afford it, for he's paying less than us$2bn on the cheap, a sum which what Bear Stearns brought him almost pays for the deal. More, JPM has space to expand on the US west coast where it is under represented. So, like the cat that ate not one but two fat canaries, Jaime Dimon is sitting pretty. And, for WaMu's subprime mortgage debt, he does give a flying fig! Why? Well the government's rescue plan will take them over, and Dimon will simply dip his white bread into the gravy that's left. Ain't that a kick in the head!

Lame duck Herr Bush cannot whip his party into shape!

Herr Bush is showing the wear of time. He's incapable of cracking the whip to discipline his rebellious Republican troops in the house of Representatives, to back the Wall Street bailout. My have the mighty have fallen! Newt Gingrich tried shutting down the government he failed; now Herr Bush is failing as always has, to show his mettle. Oy vey!

Tug boat captain McCain dithers in a financial storm

Well if further proof there be as to tug boat captain McCain's ability to make decisions, to lead forwards on to battle to slay the economic crisis dragon...do not expect miracles. He dithers; he flip flops; he's the jerky movements of a puppet. But one thing is sure, he ain't got a single idea in his wooden head. He's a know nothing who tries slipping and sliding and shucking. He ain't a natural born leader; in fact, he ain't a leader at all. Let's call him a political summer soldier. He basks in the glory of media sunshine, but when the dark clouds gather, like now during the financial crisis, he's taken heels to his shoulders and run away. And he wants to be president of the US. If there is a sign of the decadence of the American empire, he's the perfect example. And what's more, 'I'm a leader; I've the experience; I've this or that', but he cannot shape his moss back Republicans in the house who are playing spoilt spot and offering reckless solutions, like doing away the capital gains and inheritance tax! to solve a capitalism in crisis. And what does this erstwhile hero do, smile, sit on the fence, and waffle. A sure fire formula for failure. With a man like tug boat captain McCain America doesn't need enemies!

Herr Bush fails to tame his party in the houses of Congress

Herr Bush's very short speech to his fellow Americans last evening [24 Sep 08] fell flatter than a pancake. It looks as though the Democrats would sign on to a stiff bailout but not members of Herr Bush's Republicans in the houses of Congress. Herr Bush is not only a failure but a has been.

Tub boat captain John McCain runs around like a chicken with his head cut off!

Tub boat captain and Republican presidental hopeful John McCain is running around like a chicken with its head cut off! Hither & thither & yon he strikes out. Now, for the sake of the nation, he's 'suspending' his campaign. Why? The subprime meltdown crisis is sinking his ratings, and to stop, Obama from gaining footage, he's asking him to stop campaigning too. What a transparent fraud! He's proving what common wisdom said about Gerry Ford: 'He cannot walk and chew gum at the same time!' Now this man who poses himself as leader looks as though he cannot look at one crisis but at one time, and this man wants to leader of the 'free world'. Give us a break, old cock! And then passing up a chance to chitchat on David Letterman's late night programme, he backs out to have a dalliance with Katie Couric who as it turns out made Sarah Palin look as raw and inexperienced and ill knowledgeable that she is to be a heart beat away from the Oval Office. Why the switcheroo? Well, the financial crisis, old darlings. What a transparent fraud to get publicity. And if his spinning like a top out of control, he won't debate Obama at Oxford, Mississippi until the bailout package is resolved and decided upon in Congress. Now speaking of cowards who run in the heat of battle, well, old dear, what do you have to say for yourself? Yep, here's a man who headed the Senate commerce committee and understood less then about economics and still less today about economics on his own admission. And this tub boat captain wants to be president of the US? Heavens preserve the American people and the world. Headless McCain has made his footprint of indecisiveness, flip flopping, and taking bad advice from his handlers.

Herr Bush meets Wall Street expectations...and as usual is late for the prom!

Herr Bush is never on time for a crisis which he hasn't committed. Last evening he interrupted prime time television viewing to deliver a do or die 7 minute speech of utter eyewash! Even his own Republicans aren't buying his baloney! The subprime meltdown and the infection it's spread in the corpus economicus has around deep seated anger among the electorate, for him or his anal hair stylist & treasury secretary & of late il signor Paulson who thinks of himself as an heir to Mussolini, and lest we forget a prime mover when at Goldman Sachs of the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme, to ask the electorate to swallow whole the us$700bn on their word alone! Neither Congress nor the electorate are going to be snookered in another warlike debacle that is Iraq! The electorate is looking for blood, and it will get some before a package is hammered out. Herr Bush has proven once again, he ain't a leader but the tail his class of plutocrats wag in the face of a storm!

Bush at the UN

Herr Bush has made his swan song speech at the UN general assembly yesterday. [23 September 2008]. Herr Bush was up to his old tricks, peddling his rancid brand of snake oil, but everyone's is now on to this major disaster as 43 present of the US. Again, he hectored the assembly, and dismissed as irrelevant the UN. But when there's a problem for him or any of his allies, he's the first to seize the Security Council. Herr Bush has shifted the US into a second shift of world power. He knows it, but cannot say so. So as he moves off the world stage, no one but the choir of supporters of his will miss this grand guignol!

Il Signor Paulson sheds tears that would drown a school of crocodiles

Il signor Paulson aka anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury is affliged. He 'suffers' the pain of the slogs on main street. He never is going to admit he's part of the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme meltdown which he as CEO of Goldman Sachs helped set. No, not he...he's blameless as Pontius Pilot...he's washing his hands of the blame but at the same time shedding cocodile tears at the state of the US' and world's financial markets, and is yes wanting to do something about it to the tune of us$700bn rate or taxpayer dollars. But he and his unindicted co conspirator the bathroom attendant & US Fed chief Ben Bernanke, are clever by half. Il signor Paulson has donned the Roman toga and fancied himself as a Cipolla the magician in Thomas Mann's 'Mario & the magician'...he's cast himself in a 3 page memo to Congress as Mussolini re incarnated...as the new Tsar of finance to lead us poor children out of the land of debt to the land of milk and honey of prosperity. Yep, the foxes are in the hen house still! He wants a blank cheque which he ain't going to get. People know how to read 3 pages and see il Signor's plan for the Ponzi scheme it is. Imagine, letting Paulson hire outside consultants from failed Wall Street houses to handle the us$700bn bailout! You've gotta be kidding, old weaver of corporate anal hairs! Cry as much as you want, but your days are over, and lucky you you won't be thrown in the slammer where you rightfully below.

Look at Sweden for a way out of the financial mess il signor Paulson & co. got us into!

America's is so in love with its image that it looks at itself in the mirror of exceptionalism. Well, old darling, you ain't. The likes of the anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson & his co unindicted conspirator at the US Fed Ben Bernanke simply mirror the vacuity of their capo Herr Bush when it comes to history. And in splendid exuberance and sheer incompetency they bungled the job of dealing with the subprime meltdown, a meltdown il signor Paulson who has donned a toga like Mussolini which he helped create and now wants a blank cheque to bail not only his own Goldman Sachs but the whole group of thieves on Wall Street. Well, it doesn't look as though he's not going to get what this will gutter snipe desperately wants. Incapable of thinking outside the box of free markets, he didn't even look at the way Sweden took care of a similar meltdown but not from subprimes which is Paulson & co's monster, in 1992. Sweden 'nationalised' the banks, put in tight controls, and honest supervision, spanked the banks out of tough love; in the end, the banks went back to the private sector, chastened and in better financial condition, and without a strain on the rate or taxpayers. But why would an anal hair stylist or a university professor of economics like Bernanke who studied the Great Depression look at another country's experience in a similar crisis? The simple answer. It ain't American; it didn't do what orthodox free trade economics demanded. And so Sweden emerged a better economy, whilst under Herr Bush's stupidly held beliefs in an unfettered free market almost bankrupted not only the US but the world economy. Now the US congress, Democrats & Republicans alike want blood, and punishment for the fat cats of the plutocratcy who still live high on the hog as the standing of living of the ordinary slog has become worse and worse. Time for a Mme Defarge to demand her pound of flesh!

Oil jumps us$16 to a high of us$120

Oil spiked up sharply on 22 September 2008, to us$120, after falling to us$92 last week. Why? The answer is not difficult to find. Financial markets are jittery and the us$700bn that Signor Paulson our anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury thought he would get and control with impunity is slow in coming. Bless the US congress for demanding terms which won't favour Paulson & his motley crew who created the subprime mess and waxed rich from it. Already Morgan Stanley has sold a goodly share to a Japanese bank; from Japan, it can tap into liquidity, but surrenders control; the Japanese are no fools; they know a good bargain when they see it for after all they've had 20 years after the Japanese miracle bubble burst and they know how to deal with the US bubble in a way which will bring benefit to Morgan Stanely, something a hookup with Wachovia wouldn't. Instability in the market place tilts towards finding a haven in a hurricane in commodities...hence the precipitous rise in oil. Gold is up again, and so the merry go ride continues with more headaches for the US & its 'rentier' class of sponges, blood suckers, and rich. If congress had the power to dump Signor Paulson, it should have. He's an incompetent and a loyal soldier for his class of plutocrats, most of whom deserve to be behind the thick bars of a prison cell! So as long as there's no agreement on a bailout oil will bounce higher and higher and higher.

Livni & Netanyahu join hands?

Tzni Livni is aching to become Israel's prime minister, the first woman to rise to this high office since the no nonsense bulldozer Gold Meir a quarter century ago. She's now inviting her old party head Benjamin Nethanyahu to hold hands with her in forming a coalition government which wouldn't buckle under the splinter religious parties' perennial threats to bring down the government. Such a 'union sacree' augurs bad for Palestinians, to state the obvious. Nethanyahu would like them to disappear; Livni has a more nuanced approached although the object is more or less the same. The new coalition government if Nethanyahu agrees to join spells the end of any Palestinian state other than disparate small Bantustans on the west bank; of the Zionist goal of a Jewish state since Israel will have more Arabs than Jews; and the endless political instability. Let's not forget Livni's suckled the teat of Ze'ev Jabotinsky's extreme right wing ideology from the cradle; she's the daughter of a rabid, ultra Zionist, and although she paints a pretty face she's still her father's daughter. She won't nor cannot bring stability and peace to Israel until the Palestinian question is solved, which it looks more as though it is going to be liquidated! Stormy days ahead, me hearties!

The death of Reagonics, the banishing of Friedmanism, and the demise of Wall Street!

The economic crisis which is shaking the pillars of world capitalism is burying Reagonics, banishing for a while Milton Friedman economics to the island of Laputa, and ending Wall Street as we know it. But with Signor anal hair stylist Hank Paulson at the Treasury donning a Roman toga a la Mussolini, the capitalists who set up the subprime Ponzi meltdown are now queuing up for taxpayers' largess. Government should punish these folks severely so that they will learn that if like children they put wandering hands on the financial stove they will get burnt severely! Let's hope the Democrats in the houses of Congress will put severe restrictions on what the bailout will do...in brief, they should dollop out large servings of hard love on this rascals most of whom deserve to be in gaol and not free to plunder the public anymore. Yet, the like of Signor Paulson like the fabulous roc are like reborn Christians who piously mouth platitudes but go on doing business as usual. Let them suffer as the small people are and make them pay back the public from their own private wealth accounts for the fraud that they've perpetrated!

McCain's Phil Gramm's puppet

John McCain is like a weather vane. He spins in any direction and will spin out lies and hokum and sell snake oil at the drop of the hat. Look who's advising him on the economy, the old swindler Phil Gramm who did much to loosen regulation of markets. After his run in the US Senate, he is now an employee of UBS, the Swiss bank who's up to its eyeballs in subprime debt and under the scrutiny of the US government for breaking tax laws to let the superrich not pay a dime of what they owe the US Treasury. And now he wants the widen the us$700bn bailout to a larger sum so that his bank UBS can suck up US taxpayers' largesse! Ain't that a kick in the head? It is! He's the man who let Enron get off with paying more...in fact his wife Wendy Gramm sat on Enron's board...and she's now heading a foundation for government deregulation. Does this all sound all too familiar? It should since the keywords of Gramm's snake oil economics keep popping up in McCain's sound bytes. And Gamm's has the balls to say the US rate or taxpayer whimpers at paying geometrically more than his fair share of taxes whilst vermin like Gramm & the McCains & the Bushes & the Cheneys & the scum of their class don't! They all deserve to be in gaol!

Anal hair stylist supremo Hank Paulson now fancies himself as Il Duce of Finance!

Anal hair sytlist supremo Hank Paulson & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson is itching to don a Roman toga and have himself proclaimed Il Duce of Finance! US$700bn bailout for his band of Wall Street theives who like anal hair stylist Hank Paulson created the subprime mortgages, swaps, and like sophisticated financial instruments, now wants a 'blank cheque' to bail them out of the mess that they created. And puppet McCain advised by UBS' Phil Gramm now even wants foreign banks like UBS, Credit Suisse, et al., to drink from the oasis of the US bailout. Imagine! Well, it's true. The very filth and vermin who have lived high on the hog during the horrible mismanagement of Herr Bush, are looking to do what they want without any transparency, without any hard love, and continue to pulldown multiple million dollar salaries and bonuses and dispose of the debt on the books--the true amount we really haven't the slightest klew as to how much and us$700bn is a ballpark figure hidding an even more astronomical cesspool of debt!. And of course the middle classes will have to drink the bitter bowl of tea whilst these petty tyrants fiddle while the middle classes standard of living burns to ashes and are even more impoverished. Herr Bush's thugs are taking a page out of Signore Mussolini, for those with short memories, coined the term fascism, and under whom the banks did very well, as they did under militarist Japan, and Herr Hitler's Germany. A crisis of capitalism, yes, but with reactionary models and more suffering for the ordinary slogs! And Signor Paulson thinks he's the reincarnation of Mussolini...

Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor, and the death of Reaganomics

World markets regains the fleet of foot of new found youth yesterday. Herr Bush's minions 'saved' free wheeling, free dealing, free market capitalism from itself, by buying up the toxic wastes of the financial markets. The rate or taxpayer will foot the bill, and the crooks on Wall Street will get away with fraud. Everyone will breathe more easily, but life for the slogs will become more onerous owing to the large burden of debt, they are and will be shouldering. And let's not forget the Iraq war debt and other follies of Herr Bush. Reaganomics is dead but not buried, and won't be if the subprime meltdown had not like the AID's virus hadn't spread to every corner of the body economica! Milton Friedman has died an inglorious debt, too, for his smash him in the face, brass knuckles, Hobbesian school of eocnomics. Herr Bush & his arse lickers and his awful class of thieves and blood suckers owe a great debt to FDR whose new deal they failed to undo completely. Had the New Deal not set up mechanisms to drag the country out of a depression almost 80 years ago, the US and the world would have tilted towards another Great Depression. So Herr Bush & co won't hated regulation will have to rebuild the wall of China separating commercial from investment or private banking, reform the mortgage markets, so on and on and on. They viscerally cringe in doing this, but do it they shall and will, for their class' very survival depends on it. May Herr Bush & co rot in hell for the deliberate harm they are causing us!

Fried Rice has a good old time lambasting Russia for all good that will do!

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is back in her cold war element. She never tires throwing mud pies at Russia for stealing her thunder in the South Causus and up tilting NATO membership plans. As a student of Soviet Russia, the big brouhaha over Georgia's dumb invasion of South Ossetia which brought the Russian fist back into the region with a might to smash the US's plan to encircle Russia, she is pointing her spinterish finger that the naughty Russians...how dare they upset Herr Bush's applecart! Too bad, old darling...you helped train and arm Georgia for its adverturism and its complete defeat! Sour grapes. That won't do you any good...you cannot move the Israeli's to sign a peace treaty and recognise a viable Palestian state, nor get the North Koreans to dance to your tune, nor the Iranians, nor the Pakistani, nor the Iraqi...and the 'chaier of doleances' lengthens as the US is consumed in its own fire and stupidity under Herr Bush's failed government.

Anal hair stylist Paulson prays at FDR's grave!

Anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury & radical privatiser Hank Paulson & his henchman the toilet room attendant & US Fed chief Ben Bernanke, realising capitalism worldwide is in extremis, now have gone to the grave site of FDR, to thank him for his brain trust's policies to save capitalism from itself in 1931 onwards. Herr Bush & co have pushed Reagan's programme to dismantle the gains of the New Deal so that the rich old boys can rule again in a free market, now have to derail this push, and take a leaf out of the New Deal's bag of tricks to right markets, absorb Wall Street's toxic waste, and dump the burden on the rate or taxpayer and let the guilty go free and smiling with money still in the bank. Why you ask couldn't these fools figure it out beforehand and reset the course of ship of economic health? They're so blindsighted by ideology that for them they took the fungus rooted tree of free market capitalism for the forest of economic health. Now to save their class and everyone else from the grave of a not lamented casino capitalism, they have to bring the government back to its rightful role as arbitor and regulator of the markets. As the learned rabbis pray, let the tripes of this bank of fools rot fast and asphysiate the robber barons in their own corruption!

Morgan Stanley scrambles for a buyer

My how a week can change Wall Street. Gone are Bear Stearns, Lehman, and Merrill Lynch...and soon Morgan Stanley who's trying to get the shaky bed of Wachovia. Morgan Stanley like all the other private, investment banks have up the wazoo in bad loans. And no one knows what's on the books of theirs and won't know since there is no law which hold their soft feet to the fire. By hooking up with Wachovia, like Thyphoid Mary, it will infect Wachovia with its unfettered debt which in a sleight of hand will find protection under federal guidelines. Which means that the ordinary man and woman on the street will be saddled with even more debt...no thanks to Herr Bush's mad radical mania to extreme privatisation of the US economy, for his rich friends and thugs. The anal hair stylist & US secretary of the Treasury & his co conspirator in ripping off the taxpayer are out of their league but will do everything to snatch from complete disaster the so called free markets. Which brings to mind church goer Karl Marx who spoke of freedom of the press...yes the press is free for those that own the wherewithal and means. So, in short, the crisis continues and what for more shoes to drop in the US and world markets.

If the government can nationalise AIG, why cannot it put a break on private assurers, reduce health costs premiums, and oversea universal healthcare

A good question. Herr Bush believes in free markets. Now his version of casion capitalism has failed utterly. With the nationalisation of AIG, it is time to ask why cannot the federal government put a tight leash on assurance companies who charge high premiums for medical assurance but are horribly dishonest in denying policy holders payment on medical expenses, and keep them inline, thereby putting controls on a group of liars and thieves bulking the public of billions us$ a year, for profit. If a Republican administration can nationalise AIG why cannot it rein in the dishonest assurance industry, institute a German style universal healthcare system for US citizens? A good question. But the answer, ain't forthcoming. Think about it!

AIG nationalised!

Things have to be very bad for a Republican administration like Herr Bush's to nationalise AIG, the failed assurance company with worldwide tentacles. No bank would belly up to the bar to bail it out, so public authorities had to. New York state's gouvenor David Patterson stepped in quickly with a us$20bn loan. AIG assures the state. And then the anal hair stylist & US secretary of the Treasury Paulson and his co conspirator bathroom attendant & US Fed head Ben Bernanke put AIG into receivership with a 2 year loan amounting in all to almost us$90bn of the tax payers monies, translation social security cushions, pension funds, to save irresponsible private industry from themselves! So the government may gain on the deal since AIG is really in chapter 7, liquidation, and so bits and pieces of it will be sold off during the next two years. Saying this, the markets are momentarily stablised, but the crisis is hardly over. Why? Well the fools like Paulson & Bernanke and surely the dumbnut Herr Bush are not demanding the highly leveraged banks and AIG which had become a hedgefund of sorts, open their public to public scrutiny. These leaders of finance and government haven't the foggiest klew as to the high degree of debt that is out there, the solidity of assets, so on and on. They're in the catbird's seat but don't demand openness. Why? you ask again. They're prisoners of their own ideological blindness. Loathe as they are to government intervention, they are intervening to save their class but hardly the rate or taxpayer whose monies are bailing out these crooks and incompetents. No regulation, they say. And of course, their very actions show the bankruptcy of free wheeling, free dealing, free market capitalism. As such, the US and yes the world's markets are on the edge of a depression. By shotgun marrying a failed bank with commerical banks like JPMorgan & Bear Stearns & Bank of America & Merrill Lynch, the government ruled by these bloodsuckers are compounding the crisis. No transparency demanded by them, no open books, no laws for showing true value of assets, well, we simply are like the monkey chasing its tail in a circle of gloom and doom. So who's next? one has to ask...will it be credit cards? student loans?
on and on and on...Do breathe too easy investors. You may wonder why there's little public outcry. Well one, in hard times, everyone's scrambling to survive, but two, more importantly, owing to 401[k]'s, everyone has been encouraged to take a stake in casino capitalism, so everyone wisely or unwisely has a portfolio, and his pension fund is heavy leveraged, so the crisis hits every and unevenly since the hungry sharks make sure the little man bleeds and gets eaten by the crisis but the big bloodsuckers get out with few scratches. And that's the meaning of AIG's nationalisation and eventual demise.

The seemingly never ending blood letting in the marketplace!

The blood letting continues. Anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson is slipping and sliding on all the blood on the world's exchanges. He's taken a gamble by letting Lehman fail and saving Merrill Lynch, but it ain't holding. Suddenly, he's twisting arms of JPM say to lend up to us$70bn to the ailing AIG which it too will belly up soon enough. And then there's Washington Mutual which is tottering over its own grave site. And the bank failures continue, and with each failure, the yaw opens wider, for where will it end? No one knows. Then there's the credit card crisis, the student loan crisis, the auto loans crisis, the huge and growing ogre of personal debt, and the US government's ballooning debt which will put the squeeze on the US rate or taxpayer whose standing of living is sinkiing as fast as the sun does in the west.
And the anal hair stylist supremo waxes confidant that the fundamentals are good. They ain't, old cock. A bold reform is needed but you won't find that chez Paulson or among Herr Bush's flunkies. And then there's old Wall Street as Paulson knows it, which is on its way out. He should remember Shelley's 'ode to the west wind'...if Bear, Lehman, & Merrill are gone, is not the fate of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs not far behind? And the answer is yes...
If you listen or read the US media you get not only on the whole a distorted and ahistorical view of the crisis but sharp criticism that firewalls didn't work to prevent the crisis. Why should they?They have been torn down under Reaganomics and Milton Friedman baloney economics...The New Deal put in place the Glass Steagal [sic] Act which erected a high Chinese wall between commerical and investment or private banking, and that held till a Republic congress with some Democratic support, bulldozed it in the 1990's, and then lax or hardly any regulation let the banking houses play havoc with the turmoil and carnage we see today. Paulson is against regulation; McCain, too. So here we are under Herr Bush not only has the US failed up and down the line in foreign policy but domestic policy, too, but not for the thugs with a life style of nabobs who are the ones Paulson & McCain & Herr Bush really consider worth saving.

Nouriel Roubini talks horse sense about the death of Wall Street investment houses!

Nouriel Roubini talks hrose sense about the death of Wall Street investment houses! Main street economists take comfort in the fact that Herr Bush & co. are owning up to the fact that all ain't well in the economic house Herr Bush built! Now even John McCain is chiming in on change although he thinks that the US economy is fundamentally sound. Well, old darling, talk to Nouriel Roubini at NYU's Stern School of Business to wake up and start drinking the strong coffee of economic reality! Many of his peers and most pols and surely Herr Bush & co. will want to pooh pooh Dr. Roubini's bleak prognosis of the US and global economy, but they won't be able to in the medium term. Roubini rattles off with a hangdog look the wide extent of the crisis which touches every base in the domestic economy. He's not sour on the ability to overcome the crisis unless measures, more than bandaids which Herr Bush & co. are applying to the gaping economic wound, are taken with a seriousness which no one has seen yet. Obama is heading in the right direction, but he sould keep saying, 'it's the economy, stupid!' to the fatuous McCain line of economic soundness and fundamentals, since he and his party are the obvious culprits in the meltdown. If Roubini is right, even the mighty Goldman Sachs is teetering on the edge of extinction, but that remains to be seen. What we do sense from Roubini's quick study of the current crisis is seeing the decline of the US has top financial dog, this in spite of the global contraction of first world nations economies, and seepage into emerging markets which will feel the pain just as acutely as the US is at the time of this posting. Roubini deserves our thanks for the Scottish ice cold shower which should wake up Herr Bush & co. It won't, they simply are stalling for time so that they can pass on the mess that they created to
draft

Anal hair stylist Paulson takes a hardline. It won't work?

Markets are down. Anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson won't bail out Lehman Brothers who are hiding behind a chapter 11 defence to delay payments on its debts as he begins the sorry business either of paring itself down to a small player or simply going the way of all flesh to extinction. Paulson drawing the line in the sand at a Lehman bailout comes a week after he 'renationalised' Fannie Mae & brought Freddie Mac under government's wing. He couldn't do anything but that since they were and are public entities alas run on inefficient private lines. However Paulson did his old mate John Thain from Goldman and of late NYSE Exocet, now CEO of Merrill Lynch, a good turn, he married Merrill's future to that of Bank of America's though a us$50bn buyout. So 'une pierre, deux coups'. Well that won't solve the crisis which will run into the us$trillions. Paulson didn't invite the cash rich hedge funds and venture capitalists to the weekend meeting of old Wall Street houses to save Lehman. He could have, and Lehman might have found a white knight. Why not? you ask. Well, for one thing, inviting the young wolves to the bargaining table would bring the wolf into the Wall Street chicken house; the new boys with money would push Paulson & co who are responsible along with Reagonics thanks to Milton Friedman Ponzi economics, out...and that is something the anal hair stylist isn't inclined to do. He wants the big boys who got us into the mess to rescue. Heroes? Nay fools. Blinded by ideology of the free market they are still taking the tree for the forest, and so the US and the world are facing a 1931 depression look alike. Paulson has proved himself a weak reed, and an incompetent...he and the bathroom attendant Ben Bernanke at the US Fed are scrambling for any straw in the wind. But the crisis continues...now AIG might go belly up and so the dominoes in the assurance industry will totter and may fall in a row. What's Paulson going to do about that. And the rising unemployment? the rising cost of living? Apparently little or nothing. Paulson is playing with low cards, and he won't beat the dealer of economic fortunes. And this puts Herr Bush in more bad light since he's nothing only an incompetent but a braying Texas jackass, and where does this leave the cadaverous Jim McCain out on a limb praying for a miracle. The tragedy continues....

Hank Paulson has sleep night!

The anal hair sytlist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson says that he can sleep at night. Now, ain't that a kick in the head. The man who when he was CEO of Goldman Sachs ruled an empire which help cook up the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme, now see his world crumbling faster than the proverbial cookie. He and the other members of the Wall Street gang of four -- Geithner at the New York Fed, Cox at the Security & Exchange Commission -- have summoned the Wall Street bankers to a meeting this weekend to foist on them the sale of Lehman Brothers. Hardly a week after the 're nationalisation' of Fannie Mae and bring deeply troubled Freddie Mac under Herr Bush's we're against big government wing, the anal hair stylist supremo is faced with more dire news...how to get Lehman off the front pages and restore some confidence in the markets at home and abroad. Will he be able to do another Bear Stearns? We're watching men who may make money, oodles, tonnes of money for themselves and their clients, are stymied and found wanting and incapable of turning around a crisis which is threating the pillars of capitalism for the first time in almost 80 years. [Of course, the economists will say, it's not the same today as it was yesterday. Nonetheless the repercussions are just as disturbing and profound!]Little wonder the anal hair stylist supremo spends sleepless nights. His world is dying in front of his eyes. We're witnessing the 'krash' of Milton Friedmanis which that arse hole Ronald Reagan embaced, and which with the Republicans and some Democrats took government regulation off our backs but loaded us with debt under the incompetent Herr Bush years with debt, rising taxes for all but the very rich, and is sending the US quickly turning the US into a has been as a superpower. We're living in too exciting times when free wheeling, free dealing, free market capitalism is heaving its last breath, and for sure, that means that business as Wall Street wants it done, is passing off the stage. And the subprime mortgage Ponzi meltdown which Paulson & co concoted is at the root of it all. And Bear Stearns and Lehman are the tip of the financial debacle's iceberg. If anything, it shows that this wizards of high finance are incapable, incompetent in handling the crisis. They're flagging their wings wildly, flying from one solution to another, but nothing is working because they're blinded and blind sighted by a decrepite ideology which never allows them to see further than the tip of their high straight noses, and even then hazily. And what makes matters worse, should John McCain become president, this horror story will continue. So Lehman will fail, with or without a buyer, the outstanding subprime bad books are showing sums of trillions in arrears, and these thugs who hold the reins of financial and political power are skating on the edge of disaster which will drown us all. May Paulson have sleepless nights even in death!

Beginning of a crackdown in Malaysia?

The United Malay National Organisation [UNMO]has ruled Malaysia for the past half century. Until March 2008, it has withstood against winds and high tides, challenges to its monopoly of power. Now the wind is blowing in another direction for the policy of positive discrimination, in other words, Malays get the cream and the Chinese and Indians and EurAsians get the crumbs, has been opening challenged and with a coalition of parties capped by the UMNO pariah Anwar Ibrahim, who after years in prison on trumped up charges by the old prime minister Mahatir Mohammed, and suffering a ban from engaging in politics till this year, has won a safe seat in Penang. Anwar has [un]wisely threatened to bring the corrupt rule of UMNO down in September when parliament meets. The Indian minority who occupy the lowest rung on the economic totem pole has grown restive, and the Chinese who run the economy are no longer satisfied with things they way they are, have in the last general elections managed with Anwar and Malays who want a modern, civil society, to put UMNO into a minority in parliament and to rip out of the rapacious claws of UMNO the economic heartland of Malaysia, among which Penang is a good example. The younger generation is chomping at the bit in reaction of the heavy hand of a backwards Islam which has gone to the extent of bringing a suit against a Catholic newspaper published in Bhasa Malayiu, which 'dared' use Allah for God. Only Muslims have the right to use it, they say. But what do these ignorant fools know? Allah is invoked by Arabs be they Muslim, Christian, or Jew in daily speech! Blogging has reached a level to challenge UMNO who retaliate by arresting bloggers. And since the loss of Penang a leading dim light of UMNO by the name of Ahmad Ismail has played the race card against the Chinese, calling them the Jews of Asia. Although UMNO have banned this light of racialism for 3 years, he does represent an ill wind blowing through Malaysia at the moment. UMNO which have held power for a half century will not give it up easily, and since the current prime minister is considered a weak reed, the old prime minister Mahatir is mounting the charge to capture the discontent and with the army take power! And should that happen the crack down will be severe, and the Indians and Chinese will be reminded they are like the 'dimmi' of the Koran, minorities to be suffered and who suffer under discriminatory measures. In a way, Malaysia is apartheid light, but with the dregs like Mahatir and his motley crew, it will become heavier. And what's more they will encourage the benighted form of Islam which hold sway among a swarth of Malays. As to Anwar whom they fear, assassination or a guarded gaol cell with the key thrown away is certainly in the cards, if the forces of reaction hold sway in Malaysia.

Rally around the flag, boys, and more lies

Good guys don't win ballgame, the old saw twangs! And who says McCain is a good guy? Other than rallying around the flag and invoking a god which until now he was if anything didn't coodle up to, McCain and his handlers see Alaskan gold in playing dirty and kicking his opponent Obama in the balls. Yet how crudely they do it. As Paul Krugman pointed out, anyone who can finger a computer keyboard will find McCain & co. engage in lies and fling shit with the worst of them. Not surprising! For a man who says, he knows nothing about computers, what can you expect? His perky running mate the truth stretching god driven Sarah Palin ain't far behind in slinging mud when her beliefs tell her to turn the other cheek. She's wont, and doesn't for she's a warrior in christ and will slay anyone by hook or crook who stand in her way. Which brings us the latest campaign ad about dignity...well it was McCain from whose lips many times fell 'the pig with lipstick shtick' and against women...oh what a gentle man he is! Palin has the hide of a rhino, so she's not worried about what she hears, since she's her sword of god to slay the infidels. McCain forget what's good for the goose is good for the gander. And Obama & Biden give as good as they get, and they ain't no Kerry who rolled over and played dead till it was too late in 2004.

Nanny state comes to the rescue of Lehman?

The mighty bastion of free market capitalism the US, has always sniffed at coming hat in hand to drink from the public trough. For others, not for them. Well, 18Brumaire thought Lehman would fold by 1q 2009, wrong! Its books are soggy with subprime mortgage debt; its shares have fallen in price; and its lost the confidence of the financial community. And to the rescue comes the US government as White Knight to bail them out a la Bear Stearns. It is good to recall the immortal words of a banker who during the severe debt whip lash the big boys on Wall Street had from foisting unsollicited loans on Latin American governments in the 1980's, when we're making it money, get the government off our backs! but when we're in trouble we come with a cup in our hand for the dole! It's no different 30 years later! The whole system is rotten to the core and Herr Bush's minions haven't the slightest klew as to what to do other than load on the taxpayers' back trillions more in debt. Which tub boat captain McCain thinks is simply divine and Palin the work of her gods.

Duddy & Goldberg pack your bags & vamoose!

You don't need further proof that Herr Bush's policy below the Rio Grande is a big bust! Look at the explusion of US Ambassadors Goldberg & Duddy from Bolivia and Venezuela. Times have changed when the CIA's money and expertise could overthrow fairly elected governments like that of Salvador Allende's in Cuba 35 years ago. And what's more joint Russo Venezuelan military exercises will break Washington's long hold on the US fiefs in Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine is now a toothless tiger. Herr Bush's false war in Iraq has diverted his attention from traditional US hegemony below the US border. For a man who struts like the cock of the walk, he's really a hen in disguise! Foggy Bottom has cried foul, a grave mistake, but the egg is all on Herr Bush's face. Of course when a new president sits in the Oval Office good neighbourly relations may be re established, but one cannot be sure!

John McCain's Lipstick smear

Let's get serious John McCain! You faux indignation at Obama's use of the old saw lipstick on a pig makes for finger pointing at you, you hypocrite! You used it not once but many times...and you used it against Hillary Clinton, you old sexist you!
Have you no shame? Absolutely not, it seems. Happily some of the media knows what a fraud you are, so they didn't blush from showing you spouting the same metaphor that Obama used. If there's lipstick on anyone's collar, it's on yours. Play Connie Francis' 1960's hit 'Lipstick on your collars'...silly boy!

The Dear Leader's health

Tongues are a wagging. South Korea says, Kim Jong il had a stroke on 14 August, the day before the anniversary of the Korean peninsula liberation from Japan's colonial rule. Intelligence agencies the world over think that he's very ill, but have no klew other than speculation. Of course Pyongyang dismisses all rumours. The usual right wing fringe are calling for suspending negotiations in Beijing and Pyongyang on the nuclear issue which seemed so close to resolution but Herr Bush reneged on the deal by not lifting North Korea's name from the terrorist nations' list. As a result, Pyongyang has begun reactivating Yangban, its nuclear testing site which it was dismantling. Now it seems that North Korea has a well protected second missle launching base capable of propelling ICBM's. Lee Myung bak, South Korea's president is threading cotton because his intransigeant policy towards the North and his scrapping of the Sunshine policy, leaves him holding the helm of a shaky ship of state if change occurs in North Korea. And Herr Bush has no plans but to get the hell out of Washington as fast as his term is in office, thus leaving his successor with big problems to take care of, problems which this know nothing president dished out to his fellow citizens and to the world with an insouciance that should be listed in the Guiness book of records for the biggest pair of heuvos secos. The west may be irresponsible but anyone who has an inkling about North Korea should know that nothing is left to hazard, and should Kim Jong il be ill, there is a solid core of cadre to step in and keep Pyongyang running smoothly.

Angry feminists

A lot of women who wanted a woman in the White House, backed Hillary Clinton's run for the nomination for the presidency of the Democratic party. She didn't get it, we know. Now with Palin on the Republican ticket, many are switching to her camp. Why? Out of pique and mindless anger. These 'feminists' want a woman in the Oval Office and although they've not looked at actuarial charts, they morbidly figure that McCain will die in office and voila Palin becomes president! Well, old darlings, many of you believe in a woman's right to choose on the matter of abortion, Palin doesn't. With her pro life, creationist, and God ordained beliefs, you will be liable to prison. And not only that you may be forced to sing hymns and lead a home bound existence in Palin's version of what makes a woman a woman even though she's in public office. So cut off your nose to spite your face, fair ladies, the last laugh will be with you, as we will surely get an American bowdlerised version of Christian Talibanism.

Herr Bush as commander in chief...a spectacular failure

Herr Bush is meekly pulling out 8000 troops from Iraq. Which means the surge has failed. A bigger troop withdrawal would show not only how fragile it is but that the situation on the ground would reverse itself dramatically. On the Afghan war front, he refuses to give his generals the men they need. Here we go again, mama mia! War on the cheap; conflated hot air, but not follow up. He ain't from Missouri. He keeps his money in his pocket and not on the barrel head. A tin horn sheriff he...He doesn't care a whit. And as the learned rabbis say, let the vultures eat his liver and his innards and let him have one dark year after another. He deserves more than our contempt. He deserves to go to prison and locked in a cell the key of which is thrown away.

Lehman going down the drink!

Six months after the failure of Bear Stearns, things look bad for Lehman Brothers. If they go belly up there is no guarantee that the anal hair stylist Hank Paulson and his evil twin at the Fed bathroom attendant Ben Bernanke want to bail this investment banking house out, the more especially since they put Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac into receivership! Well, they're going to have to any which way you look at it. Lehman's days are numbered. The Korean Development Bank has pulled out of negotiations to help float the bank or even buy a majority share. Simply put, no one wants this loser who is drowning in subprime mortgage debt. We're in the midst of an extremely severe financial crisis, and neither Paulson nor Bernanke know what they're doing. The old bromides of free wheeling, free dealing market capitalism have failed as they usually do. Hold on to your seats boy, the markets are tumbling and the little man in the street will have to sweat blood to bail out the system.

Sarah Palin's amniotic fluid

La Palin is basking in the spotlight of high celebrity. Yet as the days pass the public is learning more about her warts. A long story in the 'New York Times' on line yesterday [8 September 2008] jumps out at the reader's eye. During her pregnancy, hidden from the citizens of Alaska, Palin knowing that she was leaking amniotic fluid went to make a speech in Texas rather than look after her own health and that of her unborn child. The boy Trig was born a month early and is as we are never told not to forget, a boy with downs syndrome. Were la Palin as concerned with life and the health of a fetoeus which she believes has life and a soul at the moment of conception, she showed little concern at this new life. Obviously it may not have been an easy pregnancy for a 44 year old woman, but her insouciance is manifest and we dare say reprehensible. Her 5 child may have had downs syndrome but if he didn't the leaking amniotic fluid from her placenta and the rigours of travel and the pursuit of her faith based politic agenda, put her boy Trig in harm's way and has condemned him to a dim life should he survive into adulthood, and what's more at the public's expense which la Palin castigates for being too generous for the likes of her mentally handicapped child.

Europe laughs at anal hair stylist Paulson desparate move to nationalise Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac; foreign holders of US mortgage happy as pigs shit!

Toilet bowl cleaner & from Fed chief Alan Greenspan perorated that there was no housing bubble! La de dah, he was wrong as he was most of the time. Today as a desperate act to rescue the US economy anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the Treasury, along with toilet room attendant Ben Bernanke at the US Fed 'nationalised' Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae. Boy, did that raise loud rolls of laughter across the Atlantic. The free marketeers took a page out of Europe's book! Herr Bush has put into the grave his failed economic programme if you can call it that; other would say, it was the anarchy of the market that prevailed, and what's even more ironic, it is anal hair stylist Paulson who as CEO at Goldman Sachs helped set up the subprime mortgage Ponzi scheme which now threatens the world economy! The bathroom attendant Bernanke thought that damage control would settle unstable market with a us$100bn bailout and water level. Wrong. If he can count the figure is over us$500bn and rising fast. Although today's 'glad tidings' buoy world stock markets---China, Japan, southeast Asia, Korea, the petro dollar states sigh with relief that now the US rate or taxpayer will bail them out, it is far from certain that the subprime virus has been stopped and the cure is on hand. At best, no one knows what will happen, but we know the worst: we see not only a bailout for investment banks, but a rescue operation of Fannie & Freddie a la S&L scandal of the early Bush pere administration of 20 years ago. In brief, these high rollers of free market capitalism have learnt nothing! It means that mortgage values are plummeting, foreclosures rising, and at the same time, food, fuel, and the overall standard of US working and middle classes are sinking as they shoulder more trillions of US$ in debt thrown on their backs! Now, the impoverishment of US rate or taxpayers will make them the cheap labour of the world markets for to survive they will work at any price in order to survive. Herr Bush belongs in gaol for ruining the US economy by his stupidty; there in another cell belongs Paulson & his band of greedy thieves in the investment banking community; and more it should be a wake up call for America to throw the rascals who have ruled the US for most of the last 30 years, the Republicans that is with their failed right wing revolution to be put on the dust heap...If the US ever needs change, it is certainly now. But the moment, Herr Bush & co will go from one desperate measure to another like a blind man having lost his sense of where he is!

Maverick John McCain

18 Brumaire muses this question. If John McCain says that he's a maverick in the Republican party of his, how come he never marshalled force to create a reformist wing within his own party? Now, throwing powder into the American voters eyes, he's sold his sold to the extreme right of his party, and in this he's not a maverick but a camp follower of everything that Herr Bush's 8 years in offer has offered the American people, and what's worse is that supine McCain is now showing his true colours as an arch reactionary wrapped in the red, white, and blue. It is becoming more like were McCain the
next occupant of the Oval office, the prediction of Huey Long will find its Duce.

Herr Bush an incompetent and failed president

Herr Bush has many fans still, but one thing is certain: Bob Woodward of the exposure of Watergate which brought down the crook Richard Milhous Nixodealinglan, has the seal of arse kissing wiped from his eyes, and now in his fourth and final running account of Herr Bush's presidency, he cites chapter and verses of the internal workings of the White House, serving an indictment of a president who is more like or not the worst of America 43 presidents! And that ain't a mean feat, believe us. Newspaper man Mike Chinoy offers us the same profile in his book 'Meltdown' which documents the Herr Bush's utterly mindless dealings with North Korea. If anyone doubts Herr Bush's incompetency, look at the needless war in Iraq; the failing war in Afghanistan; the provocation of Russia by egging on the mad Saakashivili of Georgia to attack with his American trained and American armed troops South Ossetia, which has ended with the complete destruction of Georgia's armed forces, Russia occupation of some parts of its territory. Herr Bush has an cast iron mind which is incapable of leadership. If he's remembers for anything, it will be that under his watch, the US is declining towards the niche of a second rate power.

Anal hair stylist Hank Paulson & Bathroom attendant Ben Bernanke finally decide to act

18 Brumaire has neglected anal hair stylist supremo & US secretary of the treasury Henry 'Hank' Paulson and bathroom attendent & US Fed chief Ben Bernanke for too long. Finally these blockheads are acting to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from mismanagement and possible malfeasance as the subprime mortgage failed Ponzi scheme deepens and saps the very foundations of Milton Friedman economics which have put free wheeling market capitalism at grave risk at home and abroad. Like the rescue of Bear Stearns in March, these thieves work at night, and so today a Sunday, they're going to nationalise again two semi private entities which have fed largely at the public's tax trough. Why has it taken so long? 18Brumaire won't go into a long discussion on the matter, suffice it to say that these two flunkies of a failed Herr Bush first had to open the public coffers to prop up the very greedy investment banking community which thought of the 'sophisticated' financial instruments which made that big bucks, and at the same time deflect any criticism of the lax oversight of the Fed especially during the long reign of toilet bowl cleaner and camp follower of unbridled, unchecked free markets capitalism Alan Greenspan [who instead of basking in his reputation and failure should be behind bars!].
Now, once the big boys can milk more recklessly the public's monies, these two dim lights need to take care of free wheeling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So the shareholders of these two mortgage entities will get us$0,10 on the Yankee dollar if at that, and the heavily tax burdened middle and working classes will have to should a debt that only an Atlas can shoulder! Oh the big boys, well, they've feathered their own nest thanks to Herr Bush's tax cuts which favour this foul smelling rotten corpse of failed free market capitalism and which also benefit the bloodsucking rich who deserve the cart to the guillotine than a house in the Hamptons or Palm Beach or Palm Springs! Of course the people with foreclosed houses and unable to make mortgage payments are going to be blamed for imprudence, not the unindicted criminals at the big banks and among Herr Bush's entourage who conned them into buying without a pot to piss in and sold them pie in the sky dreams.

Charlie Rangel has pissed someone off. Who?

A high ranking Harlem Democratic member of Congress Charlie Rangel is on the hot seat. All of a sudden this octogenarian with clout in the houses of Washington and in New York politics is being hounded by the New York Times for tax evasion, special treatment on his rent, uncleared property in the Dominican Republic and in Harlem. Why? Who? That is the big question. Rangel who unseated the popular but venal Adam Clayton Powell, jr. is now treading water. How long will it take to sink him? He will win another term at the 2008 general elections, but will he finish his two years in office before he's indicted? That remains to be seen. Poor Charlie...?

US unemployment tops 6 per cent and Herr Bush says good bye suckers

Rising unemployment in Bushland has gone over 6 per cent, even though workers' productivity is higher than ever. Yet, Herr Bush & his gang of rich theives are not going to lift a finger to relieve the workingman or woman. So much for a re energised Republican party which praises god and country and apple pie and says you to hell to the toil and struggle of everyman!

Wine & cheese & fighting the Republican party's image

John McCain did his strut, his walk, and his talk at the RNC convention in Minneapolis whilst outside the St Paul police took prisoners among the protesters. McCain is fighting his own party's record of the last, miserable 8 years under the most failed Herr Bush presidency. As the corporation lobbies threw lavish parties the 'small town' , 'small minded' Republicans hip hopped away sipping champagne and filling large pauches with cheese and other cocktail fare. As the reinvented big bag of wind put it, a military hero doesn't make for a good president nor bestow on him the halo of God's choice from on high. True, but McCain is striving to put a sorry party past behind him and woo the majority of American voters who are on the borderline of poverty, have little or no healthcare coverage, have a foreclosure sign on their property, whose children are being left behind in quantities unimmaginable since the reign of Harding, Coolidge, & Hoover...all 3 Republican presidents. McCain will play on his war record and his image as a maverick, which are wearing thin as rice paper. On Iraq, the surge is failing, the more especially since now Petraeus that man with the gift of blarney which would make a Madison Avenue man proud, is saying that Herr Bush has to put a hold on troop withdrawl [sic] and shift the grunts to the failing and much neglected war in Afghanistan. Thank you very much Herr Bush for another botched job. And there's the rub in McCain attempt to revamp the party. Disowing the legacy of Herr Bush, having the alleged crook Tom Delay at the convention as a lobbyist and milking big bucks from eager cows for himself and McCain...and then there's the crossdresser Giuliani who clawed himself into the elite he so affectedly dispised, and the mad Mitt Romney who castigates the rich although he grew up in wealth and as a Bain man cannibalised American corporations he bought and sent workers out to years of unemployment and poverty. That's the image McCain is trying to hide and for that he needs the pit bull he found in Palin who will gnarl, gnaw, and go for the jugular. But the economic conditions are such only the most committed to small values will support the wine & cheese closeted elite who are saying they're of the working class. A big Bronx cheer to that!

Electrifying the Republican choir

If anyone had a doubt as to the Republican party's attack plan on the Obama Biden ticket, well, last night speeches by the Rudy Giuliani and then vice presidental candidate Sarah Palin should put uneasy minds to rest. Executive experience, elitism, celebrity, and a man who really has no public record to stand on, and so it went. Well, lackaday, you'd have thought the Democratic party was responsible for Herr Bush's sorry 8 years in office and the economic misery it has wrought on the American people, were layed on the Obama Biden party's doorstep. Wrong. The campaign to come will be dirty and vicious and from the likes of Palin who fancies herself as a pitbull with lipstick, the beating of the drums of the extreme right wing, be it book burning, guns, imposition of fundamentalist Christian 'shaar'ia' law on everything she touches. McCain chose her, and as 18Brumaire remarked he has delivered his soul utterly to the looney tones right wing, which he endorses. In fact, you may say, he's even to the right of Herr Bush, were that imaginable. Yep, the ultra right wing of Republicans are enthused, smell victory within its reach, and will fight dirty...but they forget one thing Obama Biden are not like supine, courtly John Kerry. It will get as good as it gives and we foresee many bloody noses. An obvious observation, the likes of Giuliani and his thugs are part of the country's elite, no doubt about it; the leading Republican strategists and neocons have ivy league degrees. For them, the world's their oyster, but for the base they do encourage and cultivate guns and religion and the fear of tomorrow.

A failed dawn raid in Pakistan

US stealth forces from Afghanistan stole early morning into south Wazirstan to find Osama bin Laden & co. They shot up a fair amount of people, some say including women and children, took others away for questioning across the border. Sorry, Charlie, no Osama & co. A failed mission; a desperate mission with a single steel purpose in mind. A surge to get McCain elected president. This raid will cause high indignation in the basket case that is Pakistan where the prime minister was the object of an assassination. It may be the holy month of Ramadam but the byzantine internal warfare in Pakistan continues and very little is done to check mate the growing fundamentalism assault on civil society and an expanding breeding group for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. How could it not be since a large swarth of the military and for sure the intellegience services are hand in glove with the goal of restoring a mythical califate under Shaar'ia law.

The genie's out of the bottle in Thailand

A quick observation. Things are heating up to the boiling point in Bangkok. General Samak has threatened to disperse protesters but the army won't stage a coup d'etat like it did two years ago. This time, the army preaches caution and a parliamentary solution to the growing unrest. What is left unsaid is that today's crisis has its origins in the military coup. The army with the backing of the king unleashed a force which they find that they cannot easily control and which they fear for its consequence. The monarchy may not be in danger but it foundations are suddenly shaky. What's more, the current unrest has detracted the government's attention from the Muslim insurgency in the southern provinces near and around the Malaysian border. Now that the Ramadan the month of fasting has come, fighting might abate, and thus, buy Samak time to settle matters pacifically in Bangkok.

Cinday McCain's face says it all! The lady ain't pleased with the 'model' Pulin family!

Anyone fortunate enough to find Jim Wilson's picture of Sarah Palin's hubby and 4 children and Cindy McCain sitting right next to the very knocked up Bristol Palin with her bulging tummy covered up with a blanket holding her younger brother [son?] Trig in Ohio on Friday 29 August 2009, would immediately catch the drift and know that La McCain ain't pleased at all, at all. She looked wooden; some might say cast in wax as though she a wax mannequin in Mme. Tussard's museum. McCain stares out into the middle distance with eyes as cold as ice, with a dead pan expression and more likely than not would've preferred sitting next to anyone else but the saucy Bristol Palin an unwed mother to be! What's coming out in the wash is further questioning of John McCain's judgment, since all indications point to the fact that he didn't vet Palin's candidacy at all, at all. In fact, he made himself hostage to the looney tunes radical right of his party in the name of party unity. The nutters own him. 18Brumaire would like to be a fly on the wall in the McCain's bedroom as Cindy threatens her dolt of a husband for being so stupid as he grasped for straws to sit in the White House! It's now turning out that Sarah Palin has lots to hide; in fact, she once advocated seccesion of Alaska from the US. Oh dear another lost confederate in the Klondike. The editor of 'The Hill', a moderate Republican voice, thought the choice of lady or the tiger...that McCain was either insane or brilliant. Soon we shall know, won't we?

McCain, Palin, & party unity

John McCain has made peace with the ultra right wing of the Republican party by choosing Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate. The news make everyone sit, as it was intended to. Palin is the conduit to the neocons and the extreme right in American politics. Saying that, however, spills over into alliances with anti democratic, anti Semitic, and proto fascist groups in the US. More than that, it means that McCain will continue the regressive social and political policies of Herr Bush but with a more radical turn. Palin's announcement that her daughter Bristol is knocked up and is in her 5 month of pregnancy raises questions of McCain's leadership, but not to the rabid right wing he has capitulated to, to unite it to support him in his run for the presidency. Palin is a savvy infighter, so no one show take her as a pretty soccer mom turned politico. A pro lifer, you wonder if she taught her daughter about the virtues of going to the marriage bed pure. Apparently there she failed but in the world of evangelicals, if you confess your sins or wrong doings, and witness in the blood of the lamb, all is forgiven. Look at that swine Jimmy Swaggat who would drool at the bedside of a man and a women having sex. He owned up to his pururience and voyeurism, and became reborn in his faith and he was forgiven. Ordinary believing Americans ignore this side of right wing Christianity and the regressive standpoint they hold. But there's more on Palin's plate...and that may come out in her ties to the alleged crook Senator Stevens from Alaska who is scheduled to go on trial. And then there's troopergate and more to come. Yet for the true believers who represent the folks who are making billions on Herr Bush's war contracts and benefitting from his tax cuts for the rich, they're revving up to do their damnest to win, yet McCain is twisting in the wind like the straw man, der Luftmensch that he is. The US is in for a bumpy ride!