The deregulation spree started even before George W. Bush became president and go back to Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton Bush II and was dumped in Obama's lap. But Obama appears to have himself been convinced that the system was not broken but it in fact was.
The rich and powerful who developed this elaborate Ponzi Scheme.
Junk bonds and securities and other investment instruments were passed off as reliable as dependable safe investments which in fact they were not.
In the final anaysis these investors and others on Wall Street stole money from millions of citizens and yet even now we are told that these thieves these Pirates are the best of the best and are involved in a highly complex financial system which the rest of us cannot judge because we are not financial experts.
These so-called experts just managed to find more ways to steal money without the use of violence. They are the bullies which give the market-place a bad rap.
The problem is that the system was taken over by greedy amoral if not immoral types like the JR Ewing of the 1980s tv series Dallas who believe they are answerable to no one.
The end result is that these thieves walked away with billions and no one is going to try to retrieve what they stole .
As Obama says we all must move on and forget about the past misdeeds of the Bush Regime and of the swindlers on Wall Street . So if someone robs a bank and they are not captured within a year then we then do not have a right to prosecute them .
So the banks and investment companies who stole money from the public and the government in 2000 or previously should be forgiven???
The 9/11 attacks were the acts of fanatics killing 3,000 people and meanwhile the Wall Street gangster were also by stealth as it were were in fact undermining America's economy leading to massive personal debts and unemployment .
Are not both acts the actions of those hostile to America and American values.
It's strikes one as odd that the very people who claim to adhere to Biblical values or Christian Values defend this sort of looting, plundering and robbery.
They tell us honesty, integrity, truthfulness and being a responsible citizen and when it matters putting one's country before one's own personal agenda.
And yet these members of the elite can lie and cheat and rob and yet we are told they are our "betters".
At the moment many Americans are unhappy with Wall Street and want substantive reform of the financial system but this concern and anger may all disappear once Obama begins a new war with Iran and Syria .
There's nothing like a jumbo sized war to distract the masses.
So if all Hell breaks loose in the Middle East and maybe even a nuke or two are dropped by Israel or by the USA then that will end the calls of the citizens throughout the West for a fairer more equitable financial system . Once accomplished the Rich and powerful can continue their plundering and their war profiteering as they did once Baghdad in 2003 was taken .
This was for instance the rationalization of Pope Urban II for calling for a Crusade against the Muslim nations in 1097. There was no real need for such a Crusade though Christian Apologist have been defending that unnecessary war for some 800 years.
And now let's take a look at what's happening in Syria or at least what the Propaganda War Machine is telling us since it is difficult to know what's what when faced with the massive on-going Media /Propaganda machine.
There has been especially since the assassination of Osama Bin Laden an ongoing media blitz to ressurect the abilities and the bravery of the US Military including Special Ops and the Marines . The latest story last week was that the brave and honorable Marines rescued two humanitarian workers from their Somali kidnappers even Rachel Maddow got on board with that story.
From a propaganda point of view this was too good of a story in the US government and Military's not to report in detail to the media.
So the saving of these two American civilians is supposed to make us feel all fuzzy and warm towards the Marine Corp OOH-Rah!!! whatever-
So we are supposed to forget about the massacres that took place in Iraq in which US troops knowingly murdered civilians in order to appease their Commanders who demanded daily results in the form of a "Body Count" ala Vietnam.
We are also still not permitted to question the official Body Count of the Iraq War .
The number even Maddow cites is 75,000-100,000 dead Iraqis when the Pew Poll was done a few years back they put the death toll at 650,000 and now it is estimated that approximately 1,000,000 that one million Iraqis were killed. Nor are we permitted to argue over the numbers of Iraqis, Afghans and other people taken prisoner by the Americans who then brutalized and tortured these so-called "Detainees". Again it is not a few dozen or a few hundred but rather in the thousands if not tens of thousands because as those on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan report this was all standard procedure (SOP)and probably still is.
These massacres include the ones we happen to know about not because the military was doing its duty by investigating such incidents to find the truth .
No we know about these incidents because of Whistleblowers in the US military .
The ones we have on video are especially difficult for the US military Brass or the White House to sweep under the rug ,. These include the Hadditha Massacre, the Baghdad Helicopter Massacre (Reuters reporter & Children), the Fallujah Massacre and the Blackwater Nisour Square Massacre and others.
Fallujah is one of the worst cases in which the US military, the Pentagon and the White House decided to teach these Iraqis /("Hajis" the troops and officers call all Iraqis Afghans Haji) a lesson for killing four US personnel and so the military sealed off the city killed thousands as they indiscriminately shot and bombed the city till it looked like Dresden after the Allies had fire-bombed that city.
Robert Fisk argues that the Western media and governments are falling into line behind the USA exaggerating the violence taking place in Syria so they will have an excuse to attack and possibly invade Syria supposedly for humanitarian reasons to bring about a regime change and to isolate and rendere Syria impotent as an ally of Iran.
Removing Iran as a threat and taking control of the Gulf region is the real aim. Iran and Syrai are not imminent threats to the US or Canada or Europe but the Western media which is just an arm of the governments propaganda machine is enthusiastically taking up the cause . War as fiought by America costs a lot in dollars but a lot less in lives than it used to at least fro America and its allies. As for murdering tens of thousands of Syrians or Iranians Americans and Westerners in general don't give a damn.
So now we get a rerun of the lead up to the Iraqi invasion and 8 year long occupation which has left the country in ruins. But Wall Street and the Militery contractors made billions and that's what really matters. Pity those innocents who stand in the way of a desperate Empire gone astray
As Robert Fisk points out that the people who took power in libya are no better than the Qaddafi crew.
No one in the Media even seems to remember how Qaddafi met his end by being sodomized with a knife by a bunch of thugs . Which was fine for Washington since they didn't want to go through a messy trial for Qaddafi or even conduct a show trial like the one put on for the prosecution of Saddam . So Qaddafi was taken out with little fanfare as was unarmed Osama Bin Laden in a typicla American wild west rough justice. But such acts are the ones which a civilized society is judged by like it or not.
When justice is tossed out again and again for purposes of expediency then justice begins to lose its meaning.
From Washington this looks like Syria's 'Benghazi moment'. But not from here
Look east and what does Bashar see? Iran standing with him and Iraq refusing to impose sanctions By Robert Fisk via Information Clearing House
February 07, 2012 "The Independent' -- President Bashar al-Assad is not about to go. Not yet. Not, maybe, for quite a long time. Newspapers in the Middle East are filled with stories about whether or not this is Assad's "Benghazi moment" – these reports are almost invariably written from Washington or London or Paris – but few in the region understand how we Westerners can get it so wrong. The old saw has to be repeated and repeated: Egypt was not Tunisia; Bahrain was not Egypt; Yemen was not Bahrain; Libya was not Yemen. And Syria is very definitely not Libya.
It's not difficult to see how the opposite plays in the West. The barrage of horrifying Facebook images from Homs, and statements from the "Free Syrian Army", and the huffing of La Clinton and the amazement that Russia can be so blind to the suffering of Syrians – as if America was anything but blind to the suffering of Palestinians when, say, more than 1,300 were killed in Israel's onslaught on Gaza – doesn't gel with reality on the ground. Why should the Russians care about Homs? Did they care about the dead of Chechnya?
Look at it the other way round. Yes, we all know that Syria's intelligence service has committed human rights abuses. They did that in Lebanon. Yes, we all know this is a regime in Damascus, not an elected government. Yes, we all know about corruption. Yes, we watched the UN's humiliation at the weekend – although why La Clinton should expect the Russians to click their heels after the "no-fly zone" in Libya turned into "regime change" is a bit of a mystery.
The destruction of the Alawite-led government in Syria – which means in effect, a Shia regime – will be a sword in the soul of Shia Iran. And look at the Middle East now from the windows of the massive presidential palace that overlooks the old city of Damascus. True, the Gulf has turned against Syria. True, Turkey has turned against Syria (while generously offering Bashar exile in the old Ottoman empire).
So Washington under the Obama administration has its own agenda that is characterizing Syria as being ruled by a madman who is killing thousands of unarmed civilians but the characterization may in fact be false. But Obama like the Bush Regime is not going to be detered by the facts on the ground so facts which contradict the official views of the White House are to be denied and shown to be the inventions of Jihadists and their supporters in the Middle East or in Europe and the USA .
And so the USA is misreporting what the findings of the Arab League investigative Team in Syria has rported because it does not fit with Washington and the MSM' narrative.
The problem is that after the attack and occupation of Iraq we discover that the Bush Regime had lied and fabricated evidence to get the public on board with taking of military action against Iraq. There were no WMDs, there was no link to Al Qaeda or to 9/11 so Saddam was not much of a threat to anyone after a decade of draconian sanctions and weekly bombings by the US and its allies. Now those in power think the public should believe them this time.
. It reminds me of the infamous fabricated story of the babies in incubators being killed during the first Gulf War. So we were entertained by the sobbing Kuwaiti woman telling how the Iraqi soldiers after invading Kuwait went into the hospitals killing everyone including the babies in incubators which was sold to the public as prrof at how evil Saddam was. But it was a lie . The woman was in fact a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family who didn't witness any such thing. But it didn't matter because even today millions of people still believe what the sobbing woman said she witnessed.
So here we go again.
The Mainstream Media and even otherwise level headed somewhat liberal Media pundits are it appears easily taken in . Propaganda we know works if the facts presented are not challenged or investigated thoroughly. The average citizen does not have the time or resources to do such investigations so they rely on the opinions of the Media Pundit Superstars to tell them what's what.
Arab League Report Shows that Syria Has Been Mischaracterized by Washington Blog via Information Clearing House ,Washington Blog, feb. 7, 2012
-- While the Western media act like the Syrian government is wantonly and indiscriminately killing its own people without provocation, an independent investigation has found a different reality on the ground.
Specifically, over 160 monitors from the Arab League – comprised of both allies and mortal enemies of Syria – toured Syria and published a report on January 27th showing that the situation has been mischaracterized.
Initially, the report noted general cooperation by the Syrian government:
The Mission [i.e. the Arab League investigative team] noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it.
The report noted that the media has greatly exaggerated the amount of violence in Syria:
The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded.
The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.
***
Since it began its work, the Mission has been the target of a vicious media campaign. Some media outlets have published unfounded statements, which they attributed to the Head of the Mission. They have also grossly exaggerated events, thereby distorting the truth.
Such contrived reports have helped to increase tensions among the Syrian people and undermined the observers’ work.
Indeed, some of the observers themselves violated their oath of neutrality and exaggerated the violence:
Some observers reneged on their duties and broke the oath they had taken. They made contact with officials from their countries and gave them exaggerated accounts of events. Those officials consequently developed a bleak and unfounded picture of the situation.
...Perhaps most importantly, the report notes that the Syrian people do not want foreign intervention:
However, the citizens believe the crisis should be resolved peacefully through Arab
mediation alone, without international intervention. Doing so would allow them to live in peace and complete the reform process and bring about the change they desire.
The report condemns violence by both sides, but stresses that much of the violence has been perpetrated by the rebels against government forces:
In Homs and Dera‘a, the Mission observed armed groups committing acts of violence against Government forces, resulting in death and injury among their ranks. In certain situations, Government forces responded to attacks against their personnel with force. The observers noted that some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.
In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the Observer Mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against Government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries. Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children, and the bombing of a train carrying diesel oil. In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers. A fuel pipeline and some small bridges were also bombed.
***
Recently, there have been incidents that could widen the gap and increase bitterness between the parties. These incidents can have grave consequences and lead to the loss of life and property. Such incidents include the bombing of buildings, trains carrying fuel, vehicles carrying diesel oil and explosions targeting the police, members of the media and fuel pipelines. Some of those attacks have been carried out by the Free
Syrian Army [the main opposition group] and some by other armed opposition groups.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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