The week in between Christmas and New Year’s Day is an interesting time. Most of us spend at least a part of this week remembering what we did as well as the important events of the current year. It’s almost a national pastime. There are lists of the biggest of this, the smallest of that, the most horrible disasters, the greatest heroic acts, etc. It is a week in which many memories of bittersweet losses and unexpected victories rise to the surface. It is a week when we review unfulfilled dreams and unrealized ambitions. We come to terms with some of them and lay them to rest forever. However, the seeds of our larger dreams and broader visions remain protected in our hearts from which they may be brought forth in the coming year and brought to fruition.
In November of this year I wrote two books: HOW DO YOU CREATE A DEMOCRACY? and THE BEST OF TIMES OR THE WORST OF TIMES–You Decide. The first book is a “how-to” book. The second book explains “why.” Both of them are the seeds of my hope for 2011. I hope that Americans will be inspired by these books to learn more about their local, state and federal government. I hope that many ordinary Americans–non-Tea Party anarchists–will decide to run for office. We are told by mainstream media and the millionaire elected officials in DC that it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a successful campaign. That is not true. If you disagree, then I must ask you: If money is what it takes, then why isn’t Peg Whitman governor of California? She spent $150 million of her personal fortune on her campaign. Why did Lisa Murkowski who have over $2 million in her campaign chest lose her primary to Joe Miller who had $20,000 in his campaign chest?
So one of my dreams is that more ordinary Americans will prepare themselves to run for elected office in 2012. Our nation needs them. Another of my dreams for 2011 is that all registered voters will register at least one other person in 2011. And yet another of my dreams is that more Americans will read the news on the Internet from various world sources and gain a more rounded view of what is really happening in our nation and the world.
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HERE IS PART OF MY YEAR IN REVIEW FROM “THE BEST OF TIMES OR THE WORST OF TIMES
THESE ARE THE “TAKES THE CAKE” AWARDS FOR OUTRAGEOUS AND WRONG
JANUARY
#1 Financial Times nomination of Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, as Person of the Year – This nomination is obscene. Many of the leaders on Wall Street should be in prison for their crimes against humanity. Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs being at the top of the list. What Goldman Sachs and Bear, AIG, Lehman, Deutsche, JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street “too big to fail” financial institutions were able to do in commodity markets, really which reached its peak from 2005 to 2008, in what is now known as the food bubble. Their speculation and their restructuring of these commodity markets pushed 250 million new people into food insecurity and starving, and brought the world total up to over a billion people. Literally, what some of the richest people in the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world, just so they could make a fatter profit. Wall Street is the bottom of the barrel of humanity. For someone like Lloyd Blankfein to receive an award as Person of the year is nothing short of obscene.
FEBRUARY
#1 Once again Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, gets the “takes the cake award”. Lloyd Blankfein pulls off the ultimate shell game: he used the taxpayer’s money to pay back the taxpayer’s money and then pocketed the almost $3 billion left over—calling it “successful business.” Mr. Blankfein was given taxpayers bailout money from A.I.G to pay off their loans to Goldman Sachs. Mr. Blankfein then took $10 billion of the $12.9 billion given to his firm by A.I.G. and “repaid” the American taxpayers. Clever, but hardly ethical. In fact there are those like me who call it robbing the taxpayers to the tune of $2.9 billion. Of course, with the “free” market, Mr. Blankfein is “free” to do what he pleases and call it business. I call it theft. Any ordinary citizen who attempted such shenanigans would be in prison.
MARCH
#1 Jobless Recovery - March of 2010 was my first recollection of hearing or reading that oxymoron. I wonder who dreamed it up. Jobless recovery—a perfect example of George Orwell’s Newspeak. One thing is certain; it was no one who actually lives on Main Street because if you are talking about economic recovery, there is no economic recovery without jobs in our minds. However, “recovery” implies that someone has recovered. Since people who live on Main Street cannot “recover” without a job, we can only assume that “recovery” refers to Wall Street and the rich. I guess from their point of view “jobless recovery” is not an oxymoron. They are raking in the dough again.
APRIL – [Income Tax Month for Ordinary Americans]
#1 GE, the largest war contractor in the world and the largest benefactor of USA government contracts from American taxpayers paid no income tax. Exxon Mobil with their record $45.2 billion profit paid no USA income tax. This, combined with our leaders saying that they don’t know what they are going to do about the deficit not only takes the cake for April of 2010, it takes the cake for the entire year!
MAY
#1 Rand Paul declared that it is “un-American” for Americans to criticize business. Well that must have endeared him to Wall Street and garnered a few thousand dollars in his campaign contribution bucket. Rand Paul is a cheap imitation of his father—not at all the same level of intelligence and deep thinking. He belongs more to the erratic shallow waters where bottom feeders like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Christine O’Donnell reside.
JUNE
#1 Tony Blair received a prestigious medal and $100,000 from the United States, presented by Bill Clinton, for his “steadfast” efforts in “the resolution of conflicts rooted in religion around the world.” Tony Blair has often been referred to as “Bush’s poodle.” Like Clinton, Blair has made tons of money since he retired as leader of a nation. Blair makes $250,000 for a 90 minute speech. His personal fortune is estimated at up to £60 million – the vast bulk of it earned over the three years since his retirement as Prime Minister and he owns nine properties in places as diverse as London, the Bahamas and New York.
AUGUST
#1 The Mosque Hoopla! Remember how outraged the Republicans, religious fanatics, and Tea Party candidates were about someone building a Muslim community center two blocks away from ground zero in Manhattan? Fox News with its Glenn Beck and Koch Enterprises with its sponsored Tea Party Movement did all they could to fan the flames of racial prejudice. Ironic that if they really wanted to stop the encroachment of the Muslims in the USA, their best strategy would be to not watch FOX NEWS. Saudi Prince Al Waleed, the second largest shareholder in FOX NEWS, funded the mosque.
OCTOBER
#1 2 Green Party Candidate, Laura Wells, is arrested upon trying to enter the 2010 Gubernatorial debate in California on October 12. All parties other than the Republicans and Democrats were barred from the debate. Ms. Wells had every right as a citizen voter to attend that debate. She was not attempting to participate. Her rights as a citizen were violated by both Democrats and Republicans. This incident was barely mentioned in mainstream corporate-sponsored media.
DECEMBER
#1 Newt Gingrich puts forth his 12 step plan to “crush liberals.” Speaking of “12 steps”, Mr. Gingrich needs to get his own fat ass into a 12-step program. Might I be the among the first to suggest Sex Addicts Anonymous for Mr. Gingrich. And may I remind Gingrich and people like him that a “one-party system” is not a Democracy. It is a totalitarian society–a dictatorship. If you want to see a real picture of what the USA would look like if Mr. Gingrich’s and the conservative neo-con’s wet dreams came true, then look no further than Russia. That is what capitalism without government looks like. People and journalists who disagree with Putin are murdered.
