Lies Divide, Truth Unites (Guest Post From Dylan Ratigan)
The good news in America today is that many of the lies from our leaders and media no longer seem to be working. Four out of five people view the current proposed financial reform as ineffectual. Many in Congress who voted for socialism for the rich now look like they will be voted out for continuing those giveaways.
Now the only way those banksters can survive is to pretend that their corporate communism is working even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Most recently, they decided that instead of taxing complicit financial institutions the cost of their "Financial Reform-In-Name-Only," they will instead use what I call the Big Tarp Lie to pander for the vote of Senator Scott Brown and others.
The mainstream media rarely fights back against this lie, either due to an inability to understand, a desire to protect their access to these same politicians and bankers or an unwillingness to go up against the very same financial institutions that are often the only thing between them and the unemployment line.
However, we the people have to fight back against these lies -- and thankfully we own the truth.
This lie must be beaten back by all of us like whack-a-mole every time it rears its ugly head. Please help me by sending this information to any politician, media figure, banker, neighbor or robot that you find repeating it -- they can take our money, but they don't own the truth.
Let's break it down:
1. TARP itself hasn't even made money. AIG alone still owes us $75.6 billion. However, they always add the caveat "Other than AIG..." when they say that the bailouts were "profitable." But the AIG money was directly paid to many of these same banks that "paid back their TARP" at an outrageous 100 cents on the dollar! Mind you, this was done by government officials that were the former employees and current shareholders of the very banks they were helping. Let's make banks like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Societe Generale pay back the $105 billion of stolen taxpayer money before we let anyone say "TARP was paid back."
2. TARP is a tiny little part of a massive amount of taxpayer support. TARP is actually less than 10 percent of your tax dollars that have been handed to the banks. And now the banks "paid back" the tiny slice that is TARP with our money, and you are supposed cheer them for savvy. At this very moment, the taxpayer is still owed $2.02 trillion dollars for the bailout by our politicians and banksters, and that number is growing every day.
Never mind the money that these same banks make getting endless 0 percent interest loans from the Federal Reserve (aka you) while either they lend it back to you at 14 percent interest or just lend it right to back the government and pocket the yield. Never mind the multitude of benefits they get from being Too Big To Fail. But you're not supposed to pay attention to that; you're only supposed to notice how fast they paid back TARP!
So instead of these politicians looking for the only obvious place to find the money -- clawbacks from the people who continue to steal it -- we are now being subjected to outright lies as they once again pick the banksters over the people who voted them in. But don't let them, or anyone in the media, get away with it without hearing from you.
Follow Dylan Ratigan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DylanRatigan
Jul 15, 2010 at 11:29 AM
Reader Comments (43)
http://letthemfail.us/archives/4808
The TARP was money taken under false pretenses. It was money intended to purchase TROUBLED ASSET of which they purchased....wait for it....no troubled assets at all. They just turned Fannie and Freddie into a dumping ground for that, then Tim Geithner raised the loss limits on the former GSEs to....wait for it...infinity.
Of course, the purpose of TARP was a mechanism to make taxpayers borrow, Now that the debt has been issued, banks are willing to return it to keeptheir bonuses intact, because, hell they own the paper that paid for the bailout. So our children will be trying to finance the interest on the money that was paid back.
It's like a Saturday Morning cartoon.
THIS is precisely why America is doomed. Here you have a guy that's honest and willing to inform the sheeple about what's really going on, and instead of lining-up behind him, in return he's called a "dunce" (at best!) in appreciation for his efforts.
Even Jesus Fucking Crhist (if he existed) couldn't hope to put this humpty dumpty-nation back together again.
And you will pay ME interest for saving ME, to infinity, and beyond.
It's literally that twisted.
When you can't keep the basic facts straight, you are mis-informing people. It doesn't matter what your intentions are. When discussing TARP, the important thing to remember is that TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) never happened because congress can't remember what they signed into law a week ago. So when you hear that 80% don't believe "financial reform" means anything, that's why.
The taxpayer losses from the purchase of troubled assets will run into the TRILLIONS.
What TARP was morphed into is economic sleight of hand, a con game. We took out a second mortgage to rescue these people, but instead, they stuck us with their troubled assets and they are collecting the interest on that loan. It's that simple and that vile. Anyone who voted in favor of it is a traitor, and when they say "we made money" you should spit in their face.
I have held my tongue (or fingers) while Ratigan's narratives have become increasingly inaccurate, and his proposed solutions downright mush-minded. Sorry, but being "less misinforming" than Glen Beck doesn't make you a messiah. It makes you a well-intentioned dunce, at best.
And bro, we really are doomed.
Great post & good points MMc. But I don't believe THOSE are the core, underlying reasons for what you mention up above.
I think 80% of Americans don't believe 'financial reform' means anything for the simple reason that NO ONE HAS GONE TO JAIL. No army of federal prosecutors, 'their teeth bristling with subpoenas' has descended onto Wall St ..and probably never will.
We just came from a president who was confident enough wielding his executive power to hijack our constitutional freedoms AND lead us into an undeclared invasion of Iraq, yet now his replacement somehow seems POWERLESS to reign in massive corruption and fiscal abuse. Clearly, Obama is NOT the ultimate decision maker in almost ANY venue of national significance;
economy: NOPE / Oil Spill: NOPE / Guantanamo: NOPE / Accountability: NOPE / Rule of Law: NOPE/ Competent Regulation: NOPE/ Hope?: NOPE!
;-)
My problem with Dylan discussing TARP is that by discussing it, you are legitimizing it. TARP was a scam from day one. Congress peed their pants and handed Hank Paulson a blank check. Am I the only one who remembers all the razzle-dazzle reported by Liesman and Gasparino on how we were going to get warrants in exchange for taking bad assets?
The moment Paulson got the money, everything changed, that's what TARP really was. Evey bit as real as "forty acres and a mule." The difference here is we've actually got people stupid or crazy enough to call this program that never actually existed a victory. #$@^%#$%!!!!
We should remember TARP for what it was, a scam, nothing more.
550 Million. Listen to what it cost. It should have been 550 Billion.
And that is not enough. Lloyd Blankfein and Hank Paulson belong in Jail.
Worse than Tyco. Worse than Enron. Worse the World Com.
Where is the Justice. None. The Market is a Rigged Game by Goldman.
They are the world's biggest hedge fund. They have the FED as their Bank.
Bullshit. Oh, yeah, the FED told them they could be a bank.
Cohan Says Goldman Sachs Settled to `Get Beyond' Lawsuit: Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rONiQAHl9g
Nightline: Goldman and Greed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhmU9kuX4-A&feature=channel
http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2010/20100714040525.aspx
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?s=85362e8d7c96f606f030cf559dca8d24&p=2753337#post2753337
Good to see you Wil.
Talk about the good job Barry is doing to destroy our country. Able to talk about how we lost $2,000. last quarter and the market is still just over 10,000. What gives here ?
We cant change anything, but we can talk about. Like a big ol Fart, if ya dont vent it, yr gona Expload.
& Gomps, great find. I would buy 2 of them for us to carry around for good luck.
That Obama has refused have the Justice Dept. investigate this possibility makes him as much a part of said conspiracy as any of those listed above.
The voters need to vote against members of government who ignore the the will of the people and allow corruption and criminal acts to be rewarded with our taxes. That the rich pay most of the money into the U.S. Treasury is absolute B.S. The middle class is carrying financial burden and it's being buried under a deficit that is almost impossible to believe.
Use the internet. You can find out who votes for the people, who votes against the people, and where they're getting their money and how much they're getting.
Why do you think Government is trying to get control of the internet? Cyber attacks are secondary to making sure the sheeple don't get enough true information to stampede.
Can't have a bunch of pissed off sheeple running around they might wake up that 60% of Americans that don't vote.
Vote them all out.
In our leading article today we provide an overview of the nightmare future envisaged by a recent Rockefeller Foundation study which describes a global dictatorship tightly controlled by the world's elite and super rich.
http://infowars.net/articles/july2010/160710Rockefeller.htm
Some people just couldn't wait until 2011;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoller/2907411559/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYezSrzUUs
http://www.versobooks.com/FTP/Jump%20You%20Fuckers%202%203.pdf
http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/friday-jump-you-fuckers/
http://thethreattoreason.blogspot.com/2009/01/jump-you-fuckers.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4131981
Paulson was acting in Goldman's interest, not the country's when he was Treasury Secretary. There are several accounts by Congressmen that he was threatening that there would be martial law if they didn't pass TARP.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/paulson-was-behind-bailout-martial-law-threat.html
If billions in public money extorted under false pretenses from spineless lawmakers doesn't warrant an investigation, we're doomed. But apparently it doesn't.
And there are people out there stupid enough to listen because facts and reality bore them.
I've already turned on Barry. Only *I'M* doing so for MORE LEGITIMATE REASONS.
Dumbass.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/07/what-the-obamas-did-on-their-maine-vacation/1
- A boat ride around Frenchmen Bay, along with top aide Valerie Jarrett.
Ahhhhh, to be so far away from the oil spill and reality. Four!!!!!!!
Hmmmm...This is the same way Oprah vacations only Bo is Stedman and Reggie Love is Gayle.
David Cameron, don't follow Barack Obama
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/7893777/David-Cameron-dont-follow-Barack-Obama.html
Moreover, the President's decision to focus his entire first year on health care, when the voters were focused on the economy, on unemployment, on deficits, demonstrated, in the end unhappily for him and frustratingly for his fellow citizens...
Gibbs asked if he ever feels dirty defending this administration's lies and deception...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzYfJRbiVNQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJkI0idBAWw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zs28y1ECns
You mean like this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yibGjaIUE1I
No matter how many times you change your name, you still have shit for brains.
Is that why Obama isn't questioned about his citizenship, hmmmmm.
Cash-strapped California public university paid $75,000 for Palin speech
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0717/cashstrapped-california-public-university-paid-75000-palin-speech/
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0716/dcs-spooks-panic-mode-post-expose/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhomlITzTHo&feature=related
YOU'RE story would be MUCH more intereting.
For example, what is it exactly that inspires you to post under 75 different screennames? Also, is it true you're able to pick your nose clean using only your toes? Lastly, we'd like to see your birth certificate because rumour has it you weren't born on this planet.
My Laugh scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwnymqJUtwc&feature=related
The mainstream media rarely fight back against any lie, be it from Wall Street, other corporate special interests, or the sitting government. Unless it smacks them in the face like the gulf oil spill or George W's shredding of the U.S. Constitution and a few other equally obvious situations, they will push the agenda they are told to. They are part of the Corporatocracy controlling the government and truth in the American mainstream media is secondary to keeping the sheeple under control. Dazzle them with bull-shit, a Hollywood brats jail sentence, a movie actors domestic abuse, a professional golfers divorce. Then tell them why it's impossible to get 11 to 20 million illegals out of the country when real unemployment figures are somewhere between 11 and 17 percent and American citizens need those jobs. Of course then employers might have to pay a living wage and that sure as hell isn't going to happen.
("So the Dems approved going to Iraq and the TARP under false pretenses, the story is getting old.")
When things like this happen instead of digging out every lie told, as they should have and exposing it, the media ignored it for the most part. Burying it and hoping it would go away, as it did. The following is a basic list of guidelines for burying lies by one of the best with a shovel that ever lived. I think mainstream media has this list posted in every one of their boardrooms.
1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.
2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.
3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.
4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.
5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign
6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.
7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.
8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.
9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.
10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.
11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.
12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.
13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.
14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.
16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.
17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.
18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.
19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.