Everything

After poisoning the land, losing half a billion dollars, who you gonna call to bail you out? The politicians you bough and paid for, that’s who.

“United States Sugar was, as one official put it during an interview, ‘pretty much in the driver’s seat.’ ”

“On Nov. 15, 2007, two United States Sugar lobbyists met in the governor’s office”
…
“The lobbyists, J. M. Stipanovich and Brian Ballard, had supported Mr. Crist’s campaign for governor”.”

“Mr. Crist said in an interview that he could not remember ‘the particulars’ of when or how the idea had originated. ”

Gee, that’s a whole lotta campaign contributions you forgot there Charlie.

“This is a death warrant for the Everglades”

“while the water district agreed to pay United States Sugar nearly $7,000 an acre for citrus land, it is now selling for $4,000 an acre”

“Thomas Van Lent, a hydrologist for the Everglades Foundation, said he had “no idea” why the state had agreed to purchase it as part of the deal.”

“An environmental assessment presented to the district revealed that 49,000 acres of the United States Sugar land was contaminated with high levels of copper, DDT, selenium and other chemicals. Arsenic was detected at levels above human health standards in more than 6,000 acres of land, the documents showed.”

Sugar companies have been poisoning the Everglades since they began. Let’s not even talk about the politically motivated tariffs on imported sugar, that make them millions. Now that the land is trashed, unload it on the government, aided by corrupt politicians, lawyers and lobbyists. After all, it worked for the banks didn’t it ?

Excuse me, I have to take a shower now.

Sweet, sweet money

And act like you like it.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may force lenders including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. to buy back $21 billion of home loans this year as part of a crackdown on faulty mortgages.”

Heeheehee, sob. I dunno whether to laugh or to cry.

“JPMorgan said in a presentation last month that it loses about 50 cents on the dollar for every loan it has to buy back.”

So,: US Govt owns 79.9% of Fannie and Freddie and is paying tens of billions every quarter to keep em afloat. So its a good thing right, that F&F gets some money back from the crooked banks ?
Not so fast, look again. The Federal Reserve is monetizing the banks, and get this, this is the good part: any loss the Fed takes is an obligation of the US Treasury

so.. we are moving money from one pocket to another…and i think there is a hole in both. Because falling real estate is worth far less than the notes already, and because the banks are getting slammed by rising default and rising loss severity on all asset classes. US taxpayers unto the third generation hence will pay. Like I said, eat your share.

Read all about it
Circles of Debt

You can’t make this up.

“Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools. ”

‘a bill recently introduced in the Legislature would encourage teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,” including “evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.” ‘

Read all about it:

The stupid, it burns

Want cops ? Pay up.

“That bill is for their share of the operating costs of the Unified Police Department.”

$186 for homeowners. $81,912 for Wal-Mart.

“Hospitals, churches and non-profit organizations will also be assessed the fee.”

Gotta pay to pray.

The mob might be cheaper.

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you

Calling 911 will cost you money in this town.

“they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help. ”

How many people will not call 911 now ? Let’s say you were going down the road and see a wreck. Or a burglary ? Or an assault ? Will you pay to report it ?

What are we becoming ?

Going down the road, feeling bad

We have known for some time that the best way to rob a bank is to own the bank. The extension that we are seeing now, is that the best way to rob a country is to own the country.

From William Black:

“They were able to get Congress to extort FASB, which is the Accounting Standards Board, to change the rules,”

“They said, you will change the rules, and you will change the rules such that banks no longer have to recognize their losses, or we will remove your authority over the accounting rules, which is the whole reason for existence for FASB, right? So, that’s extortion in anybody’s language.”

Regulatory Capture

and from Matt Taibbi:

“selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars.”

“They made money selling the crap mortgages, and they made money by collecting on the bogus insurance from AIG when the crap mortgages flopped.”

“Any bankruptcy court that saw those collateral payments would have declined that transaction as a fraudulent conveyance,”

“You’re borrowing at zero, putting it out there at two or three percent, with hundreds of billions of dollars — man, you can make a lot of money that way,”

“You can lower interest rates all you want, but we’re still not fucking lending the bailout money to anyone in this economy.”

Ripoff Artists

Seems like Goldman Sachs is too big to ignore any thieving. Their motto went from “Any scam, anywhere, anytime” to “Every scam, everywhere, every time.” They are involved in every financial crisis, and they profit from all of them. From participation in only the largest robberies to control of the whole system.

In this latest, Greece and Goldman conspired to evade Greece’s obligations under the Maastricht treaty to disguise the true volume of debt. Goldman laughed all the way to the bank, wait, scratch that, they are the bank. Greece, not so much.

“For Greeks a blush — for Greece a tear.”