Support Our War Profiteers

Here in San Diego--a military town--almost every vehicle is plastered with some variation of magnetic ribbon emblazoned with the slogan "Support Our Troops", or something similar. Sounds like a nice gesture of patriotic support, right?

Wrong.

First, and most obvious of all, slapping a magnet on the vehicle you use to cruise around the relative safety of American cities does absolutely nothing to "support" our men and women in uniform who are at this very moment doing their best to avoid getting killed, and who want more than anything else to return home to their friends and family.

Second, truly supporting our troops involves responsibile citizenship, which includes learning the truth about why our government has sent so many Americans overseas to risk or lose their lives. Watching FOX News does not qualify as responsible citizenship. Studying, researching, thinking about our government's actions, and making your voice personally known to your elected officials is responsible citizenship. If every American citizen did this, our troops would be much safer, and deployed only in areas where they are actually needed to defend the United States from attack, rather than invading other countries to serve corporate/political special interests. With fewer of our troops on special interest missions overseas, the North American continent would actually have an army present to defend the United States against attack or invasion.

Third, while browsing the seemingly infinite variety of "Support Our Troops" paraphenalia available at a store near you, I noticed something that should prevent every American from purchasing and displaying these ribbons, without any argument:



In other words, Americans are spending their hard-earned money on a product that economically benefits (communist) Chinese workers, while doing absolutely nothing whatsoever to support our troops. The ribbons might as well say "Support Our War Profiteers" (most of whom are clever enough to claim that they "donate" a tiny percentage of profits to some charitable organization).

So what does this have to do with the American Debtors Prison? Plenty. American companies outsourcing jobs overseas has rapidly become a leading factor in debtors imprisonment, as honest, hard-working blue- and white-collar American workers with credit cards, student loans, automobile loans, medical bills, and mortgages are unexpectedly losing their sources of income to cheap foreign labor. This is no fault of their own, yet the American Debtors Prison regards every debtor who defaults as a "deadbeat", regardless of the reason they defaulted. Even if their job was suddenly given to low-wage Asian or South American workers.

Every time you purchase one of these Chinese made "Support Our Troop" ribbons, you are supporting the same system that has cost so many Americans their jobs and threatened them with debtors imprisonment. You are also supporting a communist regime that has no regard for the freedom and human rights that our troops are ostensibly risking their lives to preserve. Perhaps a photo from the country that is taking so many American jobs will make this reality a little more clear:



Blogger will not allow me to show you the next photo in this series, because in that photo, the Chinese woman's head is mostly missing.

Living in a military town and interacting with military families on a regular basis, it is obvious that so many American "patriots" use these magnets to avoid the kind of active citizenship that truly supports our troops. They don't research world history and middle-east politics to learn why our troops are overseas. They don't read a variety of media to get the full picture. They don't even communicate with their elected officials and, in many cases I have seen, don't even know who their elected officials are. These magnetic ribbons serve a simple psychological purpose, and nothing more: $1.99 and 30 seconds of labor applying the magnet for public display makes them a "patriot", so learned research, political activism, and good citizenship are no longer necessary.

A perfect example of this is the bankruptcy "reform" bill just passed by Congress. One of the few debates in Congress over this corporate-written bill concerned what would happen to our troops serving overseas when they returned home to find their finances devastated, while bankruptcy protection had effectively been annihilated during their absence?

Few of the people I've spoken with in San Diego were even aware that Congress was passing a bankruptcy "reform" bill, that financial corporations had been purchasing this bill for the past eight years, or that their own loved ones could be at serious risk of debtors imprisonment because of it when they returned home from active duty. The few that had heard of it only repeated the slogans they'd heard in the national media, "Too many people abuse the bankruptcy system", and nothing more. They had no meaningful knowledge of this important subject at all.

But they all have MADE IN CHINA "Support Our Troop" magnets on their vehicles....

The American Debtors Prison came to exist because of unconscionable corporate and political powers that have no regard for human freedom or human rights (much like the Chinese communist regime). But the American Debtors Prison continues to exist because ordinary American citizens refuse to take an active role in their democracy to learn about debtors imprisonment, and to stop it.

All the best,
Paul

SPECIAL ENTRY: Congress Betrays The American People, President Bush "Eager" To Do Likewise

History was made today, when the United States Congress approved federal legislation that was written by (international) financial corporations, rather than by the officials whom The People elected to represent them in our federal government. As the U.S. Senate did recently, the House of representatives today earned their pay from the credit card companies, banks, and automakers who wrote the bankruptcy "reform" bill by passing this devastating bill without even pretending to meaningfully debate it first. Not that a debate would have affected the outcome anyway, because the payments had already been made, and no one can accuse our Senators and Representatives of failing to repay their debts to the financial institutions who fund their campaigns and keep them in power.

It's a shame the members of the U.S. House and Senate, and President Bush himself, don't feel a similar responsibility to fulfill the American People's trust. Just imagine what a strong nation we would have if they did--because it is only in your imagination that you will ever enjoy life under a government "of the People, by the People, and for the People". Congress's actions today spoke much louder than even those famous words that a poor, impoverished, self-educated man named Abraham Lincoln once spoke to a gathering at Gettysburg. And future generations will certainly regard the passage of this bill with as much contempt, disdain and shame as our own generation regards the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case that transformed corporations into legal "citizens", or the shady circumstances surrounding the Federal Reserve's creation (also legislation written by corporate executives and passed by Congress).

Today the U.S. Congress essentially annihilated the personal bankruptcy system, which is one of the few institutions that our Founding Fathers felt was important enough to specifically mention by name in a brief, four-page document called the Constitution of the United States of America. Perhaps that is because so many people who helped to found the United States were themselves fleeing from tyrannical landlords and creditors in the nations of their birth. They understood better than anyone that without bankruptcy protection from creditor harassment, there can be no such thing as liberty in a society that is predominantly financed by "credit" (debt).

Our elected officials betrayed the American People today. It doesn't matter that language can be manipulated, and rhetoric employed, to make it seem like something else happened. It doesn't matter that loud individuals have access to the mass media, and can therefore praise this legislation and curse its opponents before millions of viewers. None of that changes the fact that this bankruptcy "reform" legislation sold Americans' most important financial safety net to corporate America. And without financial freedom in a capitalist society--where net worth defines each citizen's real power, influence and opportunity--there can be no meaningful liberty at all. The American Debtors Prison just got larger, is preparing to accommodate tens of thousands more inmates, and is surrounded by stronger walls than ever before.

Incomprehensible acts of human stupidity, lack of foresight, and downright betrayal of the public trust for a bag of gold coins is nothing new in the United States Congress. Having run for public office myself, I have seen the way American politics works off-camera. I am intimately aware of how corrupt to the core our political system truly is, how ignorant The People are of how bad the situation really is, how rare it is that a person of true integrity makes it into public office, and how quickly the wealthy and powerful interests that actually control our government can render these persons of integrity impotent in office, or have them removed from office altogether. Yes, I'm painfully aware of how incompetent and corrupt many of our politicians are.

Yet, what the U.S. Senate did recently, the U.S. House did today, and President Bush says he is "eager" to do, goes far beyond a simple act of ignorance, stupidity, or even everyday corruption. Treason is a fashionable word in both liberal and conservative circles. When Clinton was president, conservatives accused him of "treason". When Bush became president, liberals accused him of "treason". That is unfortunate, because it has diluted the true meaning of the word treason to the point where it is almost altogether meaningless, and it has lost its power as a verbal cue that instantly identifies an abominable act of gross betrayal.

Websters defines treason as "the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family." In the United States of America--a democratic society--The People are sovereign. No member of Congress is sovereign. The President is not sovereign. The People are sovereign. This bankruptcy "reform" bill personally injures The People by effectively annihilating bankruptcy protection for those who need it most, and by forcing undue hardship and injustice upon them. Just as surely as a law prohibiting or limiting medical care to the sick would injure The People.

Treason means to betray your nation in a manner that assists powers in conquering your own country, or undermining it's sovereignty. Treason is an abomination because it ultimately leads to death, terror, human suffering, and/or the destruction of everything a society holds sacred as a group of People. Benedict Arnold was a traitor because he revealed secrets of the American armed forces to a foreign enemy, and even led that foreign army's troops against his own countrymen, killing them, terrorizing them, and threatening their liberties. Consequently, he is regarded with deserved contempt by posterity.

The financial institutions who wrote the bankruptcy "reform" bill are "American" companies with global reach. They are in fact international companies that are merely based in the United States. As such, they possess no allegiance toward the United States whatsoever. Indeed, it is illegal for an American corporation to put the national interest of the United States, or the interests of U.S. citizens, before it's own self-interest, and doing so may result in revocation of its corporate charter and sale of its assets. Yet it is the will of these international corporations that by law are precluded from possessing any allegiance to the United States, that the U.S. Congress has obeyed, at the terrible expense of the American People.

That is the very definition of treason.

Those who disagree have only one recourse--to create diversions by offering a variety of weak rhetorical arguments that this law will not come at the terrible expense of the American People. For example, the weak rhetorical argument that "too many people 'abuse' the bankruptcy system"--even if it were true--is completely irrelevant to the efficacy of this particular bill toward eliminating abuse. Similarly, Congress itself used the rhetorical technique of euphemism to name this bill the "Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act", when it neither prevents abuse nor protects consumers. In fact, it does precisely the opposite on both counts.

Language is a beautiful thing; it is one of our species' very greatest inventions. But like every other human invention, it is often used as a weapon. Using rhetoric to deflect attention away from the truth with logically, experientially and historically unsound arguments in favor of the bankruptcy "reform" bill is an effective weapon, because it creates the illusion that a rational argument in favor of this legislation actually exists. Despite so much rhetorical smoke and mirrors, the reality remains that there is no rational argument in favor of this legislation. Visit www.talkingpointsmemo.com/bankruptcy to explore just one long list of problems with this bill that legal scholars and informed members of Congress have identified.

It is worthwhile to note here that members of a debate team are required to defend whatever position they are given, whether they actually agree with it or not. So are trial attorneys, who are required by law to defend even guilty parties to the best of their ability. This requires skillful applications of rhetoric and unsound reasoning, posing as rational arguments, with the intended purpose of persuading third parties to believe as true that which the speakers themselves believe or know is false. Using rhetoric to create the illusion that a rational argument exists is nothing new. It has been a well-established art form since the Greek Empire ruled the Mediterranean. And it is a fearsome weapon in the hands of a master--especially when the rhetorician is broadcasting to the masses in a media forum where he or she cannot be challenged directly by the people they are addressing.

Despite the awesome power of rhetoric to manipulate attitudes, beliefs, and behavior, not one word of pro-"reform" rhetoric changes the fact that Congress's passage of this bill constitutes treason against the United States of America, because it aids a foreign power (i.e., financial corporations that are legally prohibited from swearing allegience to the United States of America) in an attempt to subjugate and restrict the liberty of the sovereign American People. Indeed, their corporate charters mandate that these financial corporations exploit The People, because that is what serves their own interest (profit). If the bill were written by U.S. Senators or Representatives, this would merely be a case of gross negligence at best, or corruption at worst. However, if the bill were written by Chinese banks or Chinese politicians, intended to subjugate American citizens to Chinese interests, no one would even argue that this wasn't treason. Why then, do supporters of "reform" argue this point simply because it was written by international corporations that just happen to be chartered in the United States?

The Pharisees of Jerusalem certainly didn't regard Judas Iscariot as a traitor to Jesus, because they did not regard Jesus as a legitimate leader to whom anyone could swear their allegiance in the first place. Likewise, those who support the bankruptcy "reform" bill do not see any treason at all in Congress's actions, because they do not regard the People's liberty and right to bankruptcy protection from creditor harassment as legitimate ideals which must be held sacred and protected at all costs. As such, their contempt for The People indicts them, and reduces their rhetorical arguments to dust.

Unfortunately, none of this changes the fact that the U.S. Congress has now obliterated meaningful bankruptcy protection from creditor harassment, and has in fact empowered creditors with a greater ability to harass and terrorize debtors than they have ever before enjoyed in American history. Nor does it change President Bush's "eagerness" to sign this bill into law.

So what can we do now? There are three things that We The People can do to reverse this abomination before financial institution tyranny is also written into common law as the new "reform" provisions are applied throughout the country. When considering these actions, remember that this "reform" will not take effect for 180 days (six months) after President Bush signs it into law.

1. We must blitz all news media with individual and coordinated calls, letters, and emails, informing them of what has really happened, and encouraging them to use their resources to mount potentially Pulitzer Prize winning investigations of Congressional malfeasance in passing legislation that was written by financial corporations.

2. We must challenge this law in the Supreme Court, on the basis that the "means test" forcing debtors into a mandatory payment plan under Chapter 13 bankruptcy violates the 13th Amendment to the Constitution's prohibition against involuntary servitude as punishment for non-criminal offenses. Forcing any citizen to work against their will for six years, without the freedom to choose their work, while the fruits of that labor go to creditors, constitutes involuntary servitude. And failure to repay debts or filing for bankruptcy are not criminal offenses. They are civil matters.

3. We must make a solemn commitment to vote against every member of the U.S. House and Senate who voted in favor of bankruptcy reform, regardless of our feelings on any other issue, and to inform them in writing that we have made this inviolable commitment. There is absolutely no room left for Americans to vote for any candidate who has exhibited an unwillingness to protect their financial stability first and foremost. For in a capitalist society, financial stability is prerequisite to freedom, liberty, justice, and opportunity. Without financial stability, and the freedom to protect your financial stability no matter how bad your financial situation might be, all liberties are at risk. Therefore, any candidate who voted for this bill should be removed from office by popular vote at the earliest opportunity, and replaced by a candidate who exhibits a demonstrated commitment to protecting citizens' financial stability above all corporate interests.

The list of Senators and Representatives who voted in favor of a bankruptcy reform bill written by financial institutions follows. These are the individuals we literally cannot afford to ever entrust our financial futures to again, even if they only voted Yea out of sheer ignorance (I assume you are already aware that by their own admission, many legislators never actually read the bills they vote on):

U.S. SENATORS WHO VOTED FOR THE BANKRUPTCY "REFORM" BILL

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)

U.S. SENATORS WHO DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO VOTE AT ALL, AND WHO THEREFORE DID NOT ATTEMPT TO EXERCISE THEIR DUTY TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:

Hillary Clinton (D-NY) [Note: Senator Clinton could note vote for this bill and expect to ever win the presidency, nor could she vote against it and lose the multi-million dollar campaign contributions from financial corporations that are necessary to run for president. Therefore, hers was perhaps the most unconscionable "vote" of all]

U.S. REPRESENTATIVES WHO VOTED FOR THE BANKRUPTCY "REFORM" BILL

Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Andrews
Baca
Bachus
Baird
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Bass
Bean
Beauprez
Berry
Biggert
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehlert
Boehner
Bonilla
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd
Bradley (NH)
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Cardoza
Carter
Case
Castle
Chabot
Chandler
Chocola
Cleaver
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Cox
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Culberson
Cunningham
Davis (AL)
Davis (FL)
Davis (KY)
Davis (TN)
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
DeLay
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Edwards
Ehlers
Emerson
English (PA)
Etheridge
Everett
Feeney
Ferguson
Fitzpatrick (PA)
Flake
Foley
Forbes
Ford
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gibbons
Gilchrest
Gingrey
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goode
Goodlatte
Gordon
Granger
Graves
Green (WI)
Green, Al
Gutknecht
Hall
Harman
Harris
Hart
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Hayworth
Hefley
Hensarling
Herger
Herseth
Higgins
Hinojosa
Hobson
Hoekstra
Holden
Hooley
Hostettler
Hoyer
Hulshof
Hunter
Hyde
Inglis (SC)
Israel
Issa
Istook
Jefferson
Jenkins
Jindal
Johnson (CT)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
KellerKelly
Kennedy (MN)
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
KirkKline
Knollenberg
Kolbe
Kuhl (NY)
Larsen (WA)
Latham
LaTourette
Leach
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Matheson
McCarthy
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McIntyre
McKeon
McMorris
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Menendez
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)
Murphy
Murtha
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Ney
Northup
Norwood
Nunes
Nussle
Ortiz
Osborne
Otter
Oxley
Pastor
Paul
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Pombo
Pomeroy
Porter
Portman
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothman
Royce
Ruppersberger
Ryan (WI)
Ryun (KS)
Salazar
Saxton
Schwartz (PA)
Schwarz (MI)
Scott (GA)
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shaw
Shays
Sherwood
Shimkus
Shuster
Simmons
Simpson
Skelton
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Sodrel
Souder
Spratt
Stearns
Strickland
Sullivan
Sweeney
Tancredo
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor (MS)
Taylor (NC)
Terry
Thomas
Thompson (CA)
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walden (OR)
Walsh
Wamp
Weldon (PA)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Wu
Wynn
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVES WHO DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO VOTE AT ALL, AND WHO THEREFORE DID NOT ATTEMPT TO EXERCISE THEIR DUTY TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:

Berkley
Gillmor
Gutierrez
LaHood
Lantos
Solis
Weldon(FL)


All the best,
Paul

Donald Trump Is A Deadbeat

Donald Trump has run his company into the ground, again. He has filed for bankruptcy "reorganization", again. And he got it, again.

Meanwhile, Congress is passing bankruptcy "reform" legislation that by all accounts was written by financial corporations themselves, and is intended to make it "more difficult" (i.e., impossible) for individuals to seek bankruptcy protection from creditor harassment. In fact, it will make such protection almost logically impossible, because the new law requires a "means test" that, by definition, costs too much for a poor person to take in order to obtain a Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. That leaves troubled debtors with no recourse except a Chapter 13 repayment bankruptcy, which violates the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, among other really, really bad things.

But none of that matters to Mr. Trump, who appears to be the only person in the United States who actually satisfies financial institutions' ludicrous claims that millions of citizens each year use bankrutpcy as a "financial planning tool". MSNBC's headline reads, "Court OKs Trump bankruptcy restructuring. N.Y. mogul's cash-strapped casiono empire gets new lease of life".

What's wrong with new lease on life, you might ask? After all, that is supposed to be the purpose of bankruptcy, isn't it?

Well, if an ordinary citizen files for bankruptcy, they are humiliated and immediately labeled a "deadbeat" and/or "failure", their credit-worthiness is destroyed, they are hit with higher interest rates (if they can obtain new credit at all), and a black mark is permanently smeared on their record (it is removed from the credit report after a number of years, but may remain in the databases indefinitely).

No such problems for Mr. Trump, however. His latest bankruptcy is the definition of smooth-sailing. Under the Chapter 11 reorganization plan, Trump's company will borrow $500 million to refurbish it's casinos, and expects to save some $98 million annually with lower interest payments.

If I was offered that sweet of a deal I'd file for bankruptcy even if I were a multi-millionaire with no debts at all.

The financial industries accuse anyone who attempts to profit from the bankruptcy system of being a "deabeat". Donald Trump is one of the few people in the United State who could conceivably benefit from a bankruptcy. And he has. Twice.

Therefore, Donald Trump is a deadbeat. I didn't say it--the financial industries did.

All the best,
Paul

Governments Royally Flush Taxpayers Money Down The Toilet

According to the New York Times, more than 10% of all state revenues in Rhode Island, South Dakota, Louisiana, Oregon and, of course, Nevada, come from taxes on "gaming" (the preferred euphemism for "gambling"). Rhode Island enjoys more revenue from gambling than it does from corporate taxes. Here in a nearly bankrupt California, I can assure you that casinos are no less popular, and the revenue generated for the state is certainly not trivial.

With all this media talk of states encouraging people to gamble, and therefore playing a part in the development of gambling "addictions", the most important issue of all seems to be completely lost on the mainstream media. The most important thing is that the very same politicians who have mismanaged their budgets, and who have engaged in criminal fraud by running up state and national debts that they have no intention of repaying, are both encouraging consumers to go into gambling debt to finance their own incompetence, and simultaneously punishing those same gamblers with debtors imprisonment. Indeed, the very individuals in Washington who are responsible for our shameful national debt--and for passing the consequences of that debt on to future generations--are currently passing a bankruptcy "reform" law that was written by financial institutions to effectively annihilate bankruptcy protection from creditor harassment (for individuals, not for corporations).

Through all my years of research on debtors imprisonment and activism on behalf of debtors rights, the one thing that astounds me the most is the way our incompetent and corrupt politicians and corporate leaders have themselves been the most fiscally irresponsible citizens in the United States, yet they are able to use their wealth and power to shift the consequences of their own irresponsibility onto all the honest, hard-working, law-abiding American citizens who had absolutely nothing to with so much government and corporate malfeasance.

Something is dreadfully wrong when the citizens of the Land Of Opportunity are reduced to throwing dice and buying state lottery tickets in desperate hopes of attaining financial freedom because they know from experience that hard work alone no longer guarantees prosperity--or even a place to live.

The question shouldn't be whether gambling is good or bad, right or wrong. The question is just how irresponsible and incompetent do elected officials have to be as financial planners, for "gaming" taxes to become one of their primary sources of revenue?

All the best,
Paul

VISA Leeches, Again

The Wall Street Journal reports that VISA USA will now charge a 1% fee on every charge a cardholder makes outside of his or her home country--even when paying with native currency. Previously, the charge was levied only when a currency exchange was involved.

There appears to be no particular reason for this new policy, except that 1% of several million or billion dollars charged overseas annually means a LOT of additional profit without actually doing any additional work or providing any additional service. Remember, profit equals revenue minus expenses, and there are zero expenses involved in arbitrarily assessing a 1% charge for what was previously free. This is pure profit for the banks, and pure loss for cardholders.

It is noteworthy that financial institutions refer to people who pay off their credit card bills each month, or who otherwise attempt to get something for nothing, as "leeches"....

Many who have studied the corporate entity have noted that corporations exhibit the same behaviors that define a psychopath in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Among the characteristics that define a psychopath:

1. Conning and manipulating behaviors
2. They are parasitic - they live off of others
3. No sense of remorse or guilt (i.e., no concept of hypocrisy or double-standards)
4. They are impulsive, and irresponsible

The problem is, a corporation is comprised of people (e.g., CEOs, executives, managers), who actually make the decisions that are attributed to "the company". This begs the question, if a corporation exhibits the characteristics of a psychopath, and a corporation is a non-human entity, and a non-human entity cannot be a psychopath, then where does the psychopathic behavior of a "corporation" originate?

They have names....

All the best,
Paul

Cendant Corporation's "Global Sourcing Initiative" Lacks Initiative

Cendant Corporation--a titan in the travel and real estate industries--recently announced that it has laid off 86 employees at its Galileo International division near Denver, Colorado.

But wait--don't despair! For Cendant has assured us that this is actually a good thing, and Cendant is an honorable company. You see, it's all just part of the company's "Global Sourcing Initiative". These jobs were not lost at all. No, sir! They're just being sent to India, where labor is cheap, and workers are desperate. So don't worry about Cendant Corporation. It will be just fine.

The 86 better-paid American workers that Cendant laid off, however, suddenly have no immediate income with which to pay their student loans, car loans, rent or home mortgage, medical bills, and any other debts or obligations they may have. Which means that they are now candidates to join the ever-growing ranks of the American Debtors Prison. Not because of anything they did wrong--they were just trying to work for a living. They are at risk because their employer cast them away like rusted old machinery, and justified the betrayal with nothing more than the ridiculous, windy, rhetorical phrase "Global Sourcing Initiative". (This almost sounds as impressive as the U.S. Government's "Operation Enduring Occupation", or whatever they called when it began so many years ago).

It's a shame that Cendant Corporation didn't show some initiative to protect and care for it's American employees, considering that Cendant is an American company, and it was American employees who built it into the Fortune 500 company it is today. Cendant CEO Henry R. Silverman and the other mega-salaried executives at Cendant managed to avoid horrific lives of slavery because they were fortunate enough to live in the United States of America rather than, say, an Indian subcontinent whose population was exploited by an occupying Empire. Does this simple irony escape these brilliant business persons, or do they recognize the irony, and simply don't possess the morality to care about the consequences of their own actions? Either way, they just got richer by making 86 of their fellow American citizens much, much poorer. Yes, sir.

According to the Denver Post, Cendant spokesperson Jill Brenner explains that the company's Global Sourcing Initiative "means expanding the use of current global vendors" (translation: swap American jobs for cheap third-world labor) and is necessary to remain competitive.

So, it appears that laying off 86 American employees and replacing them with cheap Indian workers was necessary to remain competitive.... "Necessary" means there is absolutely no alternative. No other way to remain competitive at all. Webster's dictionary gives two definitions of necessary: "logically unavoidable" and "absolutely needed". Well, that settles it then. Cendant did the right thing. There was simply no other way to save those 86 American jobs. Cendant did all it could.

On a completely unrelated note, you may view the details of Cendant CEO Henry Silverman's $23 million+ annual compensation package HERE.

Even if you yourself can't see the irony that the executives of Cendant have betrayed the very nation that allowed them as individuals to become wealthy and powerful, no one can deny that those 86 employees have had their lives turned upside-down through no fault of their own. Yet, those former Galileo employees who end up in debtor's prison because of Cendant's actions will automatically be regarded as "deadbeats" the moment they default on their first debt. THAT is logically unavoidable, because the American Debtors Prison does not distinguish between fraudulent criminals who borrow money with no intent to repay, and honest, hard-working people who have their livelihoods callously pulled out from under them by their own employers. No, sir. The American Debtors Prison makes no distinction at all.

All the best,
Paul