our dismay at how much is going ‘wrong’ lately that  has affected our otherwise ‘good attitude’ even tho that is not how we are always seen by others…

we went to a Hammer Museum forum coordinated by Ian Masters, also of KPFK,  and 2 experts and authors on our current economy… both of who  m spoke of how we have been robbed by both the fake economists, like the Fed’s hovering & covering his past errors Bernake, and the “Billionaire Bailout Society’s” ploys and bailouts. We also attended another UCLA panel with Michael Lind and Harold Myerson,  both of whom also spoke  about how corporations have taken over what before 1970’s government accomplished itself in  direct actions …instead of farming & outsourcing so much of what is ‘government’s work and duties’.

so privatized corporation-psuedo-government hand-outs  are given ‘incentive’  bribes  &  their subsidies to do the work that our govt ‘cannot or will not’ do any more,  now putting  our employees to work under for-profit corporate businesses … instead of giving  those shareholder taken  profits [called dividends ‘earned’] and the management  receiving bonuses and high “earnings” in compensation….in other words, those corps profits  are not given to employees of the US or state or local governments, which is ours, the people’s business. It is outside of even our govt’s supervision  or oversight, and not always with the required lawful bidding processes either.

Thus the privatized businesses  are not made known to “the people’ so that most of this outsourcing  just  looks like it is being done by us with-taxpayer-paid-for-money, for work by what we think is  our-government, for us as a nation state. However what happens is much  is done instead by others’ outside hired as contractors, as privatized work  – and with paid subsidies to assist their costs & accomplishments,  on top of their other gains.

While these private sources, corporations, start to claim more efficiency,  later results prove when studied  that often the run-over, do not meet the same standards as ‘govt work’, or did not plan fully or well.

Then the costs that  are also included but not counted in the totals are the “incentives” they receive as extras, the reimbursement to lobbyists to get that work that is paid for sure, the special subsidies and allowances that help them when they get into trouble or are not timely, the studies they are using to prove their worth,  and the  facilities they use and charge back to OUR govt,… all of which is US, taxpayer subsidized as “part of our govt”… all. But it is not. It is Private Corporations. Contractors. Subsidized Businesses.

The debt that we abhor is used to help pay these outsourced privatized corporations to do ‘our business’.

and thus it costs more in their  take over of everything we think is “ours” as in Our-government belongs-to-us … The prevailing  policy is one that hollows out what could have been OURS before .

before the 1970’s we had a govt that did something more than pass on everything, our taxes, jobs, and benefits…as these also are ‘contractors’ who  then go global elsewhere with their gains or are owned by other nations posing as-if they were American and keeping their gains in this country too. They don’t always. And forget to tell us this also.
very disheartening info, but real , believable,

and the illusion of power and effectiveness that any voting “people” have has been seriously diminished and dented    by realizing all this good info is not only true but knowing it does not mean  we have any more ability to make changes on those who act like they own the store… our representatives who also hide from us the information that was is given ‘outside’ their purview is represented as if it were “our government” working for “the people”, of course…

and the taxpayers do not know what is going on..still…even now…

see also a recent book” The Gamble ‘: Tomas Ricks talks about the military not revealing what is occurring with our tax dollars and the costs of what those ‘wars’ are ruining us there too,  while we are worrying about our daily lives here  ’at home’.

not that we are  giving up

but that the realization of how-bad-it-actually-is…

on top of so many who have already lost  significant value in their savings thru no actions of their own,

thru banks that bailouts helped and they that have received monies owed to the people to help them thru unemployment and reduced wages and loss of middle class income levels…

so it not ok… not just down here on the beach…

with increased  the fear of homelessness, and diminished ability to be self-sufficient by those who have been so far most of their lives.

Also reported to us again, is that the current  president was campaign financed by Wall St and not as much by the individual small donations, which was the advertised version of his financial success…and it was noted how much higher than before  that campaign cost ..cost whom ? where does that Wall Street Money come from initially ? which is also why he then  hired as staff the same people who benefited  from the bailouts they  also encouraged and controlled… bailouts that were not agreed to by 70% of the American People, who don’t count for  anything  anyhow apparently. Opinions and polls are easily ignored when inconvenient to the greedy power-holders wealthy ones.
That the banks are gambling  with people’s money they are to hold and securely balance….and are withholding their loan money for the top tiers of the wealthy that  include the derivative and hedge funders – who are still now unregulated in any way – and who are betting against those they lent their same money to, i.e. the also-greedy-gambling prior  mortgage holders assuming they would get richer by owning a house than not.
That the financial instruments that  the clever people “invented” which our govt claims are ‘confusing’ and cant be understood by our economists [huh???]  are not only not regulated – but if not ‘understood’ or so they say, by those who are suppose to protect US, THE USA Population, ALL OF US DOWN HERE AT THE 80% LIVING IN USA LEVEL, how is that possible ?  Are these also profiteer privatized psuedo-governmental [like maybe the “Federal Bank” that is not federal government but has privileges that are equivalent like printing money, setting interest rates, etc. ]  that these do not do more than enrich themselves on our stupidity and helplessness.

and we think as voters we are part of this government, that is outsourced with more powers than our own voted representatives ? huh ?

sound bad ?
yes,
and we believe all this. having heard it more than once from well educated experts who tell us what we ‘want to know’ and yet then her they nor we don’t know what else to do about it…

can we have “our government” back or is it already so sold that is not ours at all to claim or demand, even if we do vote ? Have we been sold out?

Then we saw  a woman at Hammer Museum who believed in repeating her activism  from the 60’s  as was ranting about going back to do what the SDS did then…wanting to do with the lists used for 13 million Obama supporters used to put him up there and get those people to now act differently than just voting him in office….

She wanted the same old tricks that did not work so perfectly before and don’t work especially now.  A solution is to repeat the past ? Vietnam and 1960’s is no longer here now.

We disagreed with her and she stomped off with our  challenging her  way to solution.  The prior way of walking in large numbers to protest and be seen on TV for 30 seconds?  This is now futile, as proven by the repeated parades and walks we all have taken against Iraq war for last 8 years. To no avail. Afghanistan war now replacing the prior version, with the same PR.

so what now?

We are telling you all this because we are knowing and admitting how bad things are and how little “hope” we  have in telling the truth as we can  know it. We don’t even WANT to know how we have been deceived and are still stolen from, lied to, treated as peon fools that will accept whatever sales games ‘our govt’ plays with our lands and monies.

This is Not to be  reassured. Not to pull you down. Not to say you are not working for change and trying your best. But because when the realization hit  us  harder at the UCLA talk, we voiced a question that we did not understand, that emerged vehemently urgently loudly out ….the utter dismay and disappointment at how the “American people’ are treated as if  we are just stupid, ignorant, following every paid commercial political move, and manipulated by every banker/ mortgage scheme/ credit card seller/ and political candidate. “the american people” as complicit and allowing by passive agreement to be lied to, stolen from, outsourced and still called “the american people’s land” as Americans.

if we are all ineffective people, is America doomed to become just another feudal state ?

Is the ‘freedom’ only a pretense, just the illusion that we can buy our way into any equality that is not actual  in real-life –  but looks good on flyers, in commercial ads,  in political speeches and a way to say  that “other nations are not as good as we are”….just because other nation govts  have  more repression with violence ?

yes, we are Superior in many  better living standard ways … and we have less overt violence and authoritarian rulers too…. but what does our freedom do for us besides provide the illusion we can change what  and who is running our own country ? And owning our resources ? And getting way ahead of ‘the people” in almost all ways and more so all the time.

who do we trust now ?

(c) 2010 wowisvenice