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Copyright © 2010
ofthisandthat.org. All rights
reserved.
ofthisandthat.org. All rights
reserved.
| Questions and Comments backfire@ofthisandthat.org |
INAUGURATION, January 20, 2009
Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape
To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.
Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape
To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.
The tears flow free today
Washing the stains of blood
And sweat in brotherhood.
Raise the curtain then an'
Let the world look in
On this promised land --
We breathe free today.... almost.
--- Arshad M. Khan
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
--- Native American proverb
--- Native American proverb
November 4, 2011
Mr. President: The whole world revolves around banks and bankers these
days. The G-20 meeting was ample demonstration. Mr. Papandreou, the
Greek Prime Minister, tried to hold a referendum on the deal struck with the
French and Germans but he was quickly brought back in line -- summoned
and reminded of the facts of life.
Greece is insolvent. Under normal circumstances the bankers should get
nothing; instead they get back 50% aided by the tax payers of Germany and
France, who will set up a loan guarantee fund of 1 trillion euros to facilitate
new loans to Greece. How will the banks recover the new loans plus half of
the old? By squeezing the Greek economy dry and thrusting austerity down
the throats of ordinary Greek citizens. The call for a referendum was the
death rattle of happiness and prosperity.
This Weekly Letter owes its origins in 2009 to the dashed hopes of liberals
and others who thought they had elected a champion of their interests, only
to discover little had changed -- the bankers and the elite ruled the roost
through their hirelings. Below is a partial list of those entering the revolving
door for your administration.
Tim Geithner -- the banker's banker and protege of Robert Rubin, formerly
of Goldman Sachs (Chairman) and Citigroup.
Bill Daley -- newly hired White House Chief of Staff comes from J. P. Morgan
Chase.
Broderick Johnson -- newly hired Senior Campaign Advisor -- lawyer and
lobbyist for Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Chase, among others.
Larry Summers -- Consultant to banks and protege of Robert Rubin.
Gary Gensler -- Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission --
former Goldman Sachs (GS) partner.
Mark Patterson, Geithner's Chief of Staff, former GS lobbyist and
Vice-President for Governmental Relations.
Diana Farrell -- former Deputy Director, National Economic Council and
advocate for off-shoring jobs, former GS Analyst, headed McKinsey's Global
Institute.
Stephen Friedman -- former Chairman President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board -- GS Board Member and former Chairman 1990-1994.
Robert Hormats -- Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and
Agricultural Affairs -- former GS Vice Chairman (International).
Phillip Murphy -- Ambassador to Germany, former Head of GS, Frankfurt
Office covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland and emerging Central
European countries.
Rahm Emmanuel -- former White House Chief of Staff, now Mayor of
Chicago, formerly with Wasserstein Parella, also GS connections.
To cover all the associations and interconnecting webs is too tortuous for a
brief letter.
Mr. President, look around you, the lights, the rugs, the telephones, the TV,
the synthetic materials in the clothes, the furnishings, your method of
transport, roads, rails, bridges, communications -- even the transmission of
this letter -- almost everything around us requires science, technology and
engineering. To look to the future, we need visionaries of the kind who
made our daily lives easier, rewarding us with spare time our previous
generations could only have dreamed about. Yet, there is not one engineer
or scientist or technologist at the core of this administration.
Mr. President: The whole world revolves around banks and bankers these
days. The G-20 meeting was ample demonstration. Mr. Papandreou, the
Greek Prime Minister, tried to hold a referendum on the deal struck with the
French and Germans but he was quickly brought back in line -- summoned
and reminded of the facts of life.
Greece is insolvent. Under normal circumstances the bankers should get
nothing; instead they get back 50% aided by the tax payers of Germany and
France, who will set up a loan guarantee fund of 1 trillion euros to facilitate
new loans to Greece. How will the banks recover the new loans plus half of
the old? By squeezing the Greek economy dry and thrusting austerity down
the throats of ordinary Greek citizens. The call for a referendum was the
death rattle of happiness and prosperity.
This Weekly Letter owes its origins in 2009 to the dashed hopes of liberals
and others who thought they had elected a champion of their interests, only
to discover little had changed -- the bankers and the elite ruled the roost
through their hirelings. Below is a partial list of those entering the revolving
door for your administration.
Tim Geithner -- the banker's banker and protege of Robert Rubin, formerly
of Goldman Sachs (Chairman) and Citigroup.
Bill Daley -- newly hired White House Chief of Staff comes from J. P. Morgan
Chase.
Broderick Johnson -- newly hired Senior Campaign Advisor -- lawyer and
lobbyist for Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Chase, among others.
Larry Summers -- Consultant to banks and protege of Robert Rubin.
Gary Gensler -- Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission --
former Goldman Sachs (GS) partner.
Mark Patterson, Geithner's Chief of Staff, former GS lobbyist and
Vice-President for Governmental Relations.
Diana Farrell -- former Deputy Director, National Economic Council and
advocate for off-shoring jobs, former GS Analyst, headed McKinsey's Global
Institute.
Stephen Friedman -- former Chairman President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board -- GS Board Member and former Chairman 1990-1994.
Robert Hormats -- Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and
Agricultural Affairs -- former GS Vice Chairman (International).
Phillip Murphy -- Ambassador to Germany, former Head of GS, Frankfurt
Office covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland and emerging Central
European countries.
Rahm Emmanuel -- former White House Chief of Staff, now Mayor of
Chicago, formerly with Wasserstein Parella, also GS connections.
To cover all the associations and interconnecting webs is too tortuous for a
brief letter.
Mr. President, look around you, the lights, the rugs, the telephones, the TV,
the synthetic materials in the clothes, the furnishings, your method of
transport, roads, rails, bridges, communications -- even the transmission of
this letter -- almost everything around us requires science, technology and
engineering. To look to the future, we need visionaries of the kind who
made our daily lives easier, rewarding us with spare time our previous
generations could only have dreamed about. Yet, there is not one engineer
or scientist or technologist at the core of this administration.