I think this might be the official start of the Bankers' Coup of '08.

Capitalism has been vying for control of the world since inception. Government (of any sort) has some strong advantages against capitalism, but if it grants too much power to the capitalists, it's doomed to "lose."

We may have slipped past that point. Not too surprising, I guess, but surely a disappointment.

It is difficult to imagine how the US government could effectively enforce "law" against these institutions while it owns a stake.

Now, even they cannot deny they have been in a trance for 20 years ......... unable to see the truth before their eyes.

Karma has come due.

You are worker ants to support the "Queen" elite .....

Congressman Brad Sherman Sherman says the Congress was threatened with Martial Law if they did not approve the bail-out of the lying, stealing, greedy, arrogant, evil demons who control your life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8

first, you would have to own your government. that's not gonna happen, they own you. the bankers will fund the pollies, the pollies will guard the bankers, and mussolini called it "fascism".

i don't know why so many americans are afraid of democracy, but i suspect a large number fear any change, as ignorant people do, and others imagine their neighbors are dangerous if they had power. for whatever reason, there is no shortage of americans who will submit to authority always and without question. soon it will be dangerous to do otherwise. nsa has america wired up like e. germany was in it's last days, courts are submissive, politicians willing to say rights are conditional. the next 'dubya', and there will be a next, and he might be a democrat, will build on the submission fostered by this dubya.

there will either be a revolution toward democracy, or a slide into fascism. fascism is the unbackable favorite.

I posted doubt yesterday about believing whether we would actually have true nationalization/equity because it wasn't written into the plan, and instead only interpreted in the Congressional record. Now, Paulson has already revoked our right to voting status as taxpayer shareholders.

http://tinyurl.com/4ulmny

Manifesto for a New World Order?! I don't know whether to laugh, throw up, or cry that you wrote that. Perhaps I'll do all three.

I suppose a lot of us think Hank Paulson and Goldman Sachs are pretty much interchangeable. The difference between Corporate America and the corporate mindset are quite different. Paulson and his friends simply want to be in charge, that's what they do, whether Goldman Sachs is owned by shareholders, or those shareholders are American taxpayers in the abstract. This is their role in life, they have spent all their lives getting here, and they don't agree with some like Jim Rogers, who said tonight, that we should let the system fail, throw out the incompetents, and replace them with competent leaders.

The corporate mentality rejects the notion that similarly trained professionals are in any material way different in their capablility, and their performance. Paulson will tell you this could happen to anyone, it just happened to him.

This is the Nuremburg defense. To criticize Paulson and his colleagues is to attack the corporate mindset, which at the first level allows cooperative ventures within communities.

Rogers then is attacking the system, Paulson is defending his own incompetence, to give them both the worst of the argument.

That the Paulson plan sounds like a great Communist cooperative, sounds like he is the one attacking the system. And Rogers wants to see heads roll, because it is all their personal responsibility, and he is judge jury and executioner. The second set of arguments has no real basis, but it sounds nice.

Paulson just wants to sit in the seat of power. Rogers is content to sit back and game the system, regardless of who is in power. Should the system fail it must be a human failing. That is the default explanation. Paulson would be just as happy running the Politiboro in Russia if he had the chance, not because he is a Communist, because he is a Central banker. Rogers is the guy you really want to pay attention to. He believes in the American system. Paulson will do whatever it takes to keep his job.

Get ready Comrades, you now own the government, but don't expect that power to in any way reflect in your own personal fortunes, they're going down hill in a hurry.

Amen, Andrew. Amen!

Congressman Brad Sherman Sherman says the Congress was threatened with Martial Law if they did not approve the bail-out

It's likely congress has been threatened by Bush for years. This explains why Democrats have given Bush everything he's wanted, including legislative actions which appear to make no sense and votes by otherwise responsible reps which are completely contrary to character.

Don't expect it to come out unless Obama is elected and takes control of the executive, and maybe not even then. But do expect that the machinations of fascism are a great deal more advanced than is known to the public.

Those who suspect the worst of politicians are rarely shown to be wrong.

Most all of the banks are insolvent which is why they won't loan to each other and won't open their books. Pumping them up the real capital and buying their worthless stock won't make them any less insolvent. They aren't even zombies.

The action of Paulson, and worse, the complicity of Congress is insane. We are living in a true nightmare now.

Feds buy stock in bank X but not bank Y. Next week, congress passes law favorable to X and unfavorable to Y. What's to prevent that? What is Y's recourse?

What makes anyone think the Federal government can make intelligent investment decisions?

If investing Social Security in the stock market was such a bad idea, then how is this plan a good idea?

i don't know why so many americans are afraid of democracy

May I explain it, then?

Democracy, which has grown up in the last three hundred years, represents, with its emphasis upon individual responsibility and individual actions, the most difficult societal system, requiring a definite human maturity.

Americans collectively lack the human maturity and individual responsibility necessary to maintain a democracy, preferring to indulge in debt and other wasteful activities. Some openly support a religious totalitarianism, but others still make little disguise that they advocate fascism outright. These are your fellow Americans, and there are more than just a few of them.

... there will either be a revolution toward democracy, or a slide into fascism.

Totalitarianism and especially fascism can in many ways be regarded as an escape from this difficulty into the irresponsibility of following a leader who deprives the people of their liberty and their maturity but promises them 'security' and 'economic progress'.

Remember that civilization is but a veneer over that innate barbarism which always lurks just beneath the surface of any society, and that sometimes it does not take much to remove that veneer. For decades I have studied fascism, and I assure you it did not go away with the demise of Hitler and Mussolini. It is still with us, and it has improved its tactics and its PR.