The First National Bank of (Your Name Here)

The First National Bank of (Your Name Here)
By David Glenn Cox


There is an unsettling feeling, dark and oppressive, it's the feeling one has when we put our hand on the funeral home door. A feeling of wishing to be anyplace other than here, but we understand and accept that we must do what is right despite our personal preferences. That is the price of maturity, to accept our duty to do the things that we would rather not do.

I was reading about the volcano in Iceland and there is a lesson in that mountain for us, that this technology-driven society may appear to be very rugged when it is in fact very frail. Ash defeats aircraft, no decrees or UN resolutions can alter it. There aren’t enough police to arrest the ash nor jail cells to hold it all. In a larger sense it reminds us that change comes suddenly. Lenin prognosticated that revolution would come to Russia within a year or two and it came within weeks.

When Nicolae Ceauşescu was the leader of the Communist Party in Romania he watched as other Soviet-backed nations began to topple. He felt safe enough; he had a large police force and an army to protect him, but one morning he woke up in his palace and they were all gone. Change had come in the middle of the night and the guns which once protected him were now pointed at him. His supporters had abandoned him; they no longer wanted to be affiliated with his regime. Likewise, in seven days the President of Kyrgyzstan went from political strong man to political fugitive.

After John McCain’s defeat Republicans abandoned him just as they had abandoned George W. Bush. Recent Republican straw polls have shown a preference for Ron Paul. Paul is the least Republican and yet most Republican of candidates. He operates outside the mainstream corporate sphere and unnerves mainstream Republicans with his talk of auditing the Federal Reserve. Then he returns to mainstream Republican loopiness with talk of doing away with the Department of Education.

On the Democratic side who is the leader of the loyal opposition? Roosevelt was one of the most popular Presidents of all time but he had Huey Long in the loyal opposition spurring FDR further to the left. Lyndon Johnson had Robert Kennedy calling for the end of the Vietnam war and Harry Truman had Adlai Stevenson. Discordant voices are a sign of health in a party. Their absence is a sign of weakness.

There was Dennis Kucinich who in one week destroyed a reputation built up over two decades. The old Japanese proverb says the nail which sticks up gets hammered down. Kucinich spoke up and told the truth about healthcare reform and as punishment was forced to swallow the lie whole. As a leader it destroyed his credibility, reducing him to being just one more worm in the bait bucket.

So, on the Democratic side you have a single opinion monolith; on the Republican side you have followers moving away from the corporate model. Congressional Republicans are merely corporate snipers taking pot shots in the name of their corporate masters. This is smoke rising from the mountaintop as the question is asked, “How will Democrats do in the upcoming by-year elections?” Here is a better question: “Why is Obama’s deficit-cutting committee going to withhold its results and recommendations until after November elections?”

The Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Be neither for the blue nor the green,” meaning don’t just blindly align yourself with one team or party because it is results that count. Or as Aurelius wrote, “That which is not good for the bee hive cannot be good for the bees.”

What is going on in America is not good for the beehive and it is supported by both the blue and green. It cannot continue not just because it is bad Democratic policy, though it is. It cannot continue not just because it’s bad Republican policy, though it is. It can’t continue because it is just bad policy and it is killing the beehive and injuring the bees.

I want you to pretend that you are the CEO of the First National Bank of (Your Name Here). As president of the bank you face losses from the downturn in the economy, and when you go to the Federal Reserve to borrow money they say, “We will give you one million dollars but you have to pay us back one million and twenty five hundred dollars. If you can’t pay us back you can borrow another million and pay us back two million and five thousand dollars.”

Now, as the CEO of the First National Bank of (Your Name Here) you could make small business loans, but the economy is not that good and interest rates are low so you pass. You could help homeowners in mortgage trouble to refinance their homes, but the economy is bad and it’s a lot of paper work and the government only pays us fifteen hundred dollars to do one of those. So, as a responsible CEO of the First National Bank of (Your Name Here), you want that big fat bonus check. There is no second prize for Ms. Congeniality.

You could invest in China where the economy is growing by eleven and a half percent! Or you could invest in Wall Street where stocks are going up, up, up. Then you ask yourself, why are stocks going up, up, up? Could it be that everyone with a First National Bank of (Your Name Here) is doing the same thing?

“April 15 (Bloomberg) -- The latest surge in U.S. stocks may have more to do with historically low interest rates than any rebound in the economy and corporate earnings, according to Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.

“The central bank’s target rate for overnight loans between banks, or federal funds, currently stands at minus 2 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis. This figure is based on the upper end of the Fed’s range, zero to 0.25 percent, and the year-to-year change in consumer prices.

"Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed above 1,200 for the first time since September 2008. The milestone followed a two-month rally that accounts for most of the index’s advance since the real rate fell below zero.”

This would be just fine and dandy except everyone who doesn’t own a First National Bank of (Your Name Here) must pay the difference. The Republicans who scream about deficits in the cost of unemployment insurance have no problem at all with subsidizing the banks. Democrats who lament that there is so little money available to help struggling homeowners or the unemployed have no problem with subsidizing the banks to invest in the stock market or in Chinese growth.

Each million dollars that we give to the bankers of First National Bank of (Your Name Here) for $2,500 costs the US treasury $35,000! The banks get this money with no strings attached; they can use it or spend it any way that they like. What kind of beehive will that bring us? The emphasis is on pumping the banks full of free money in the ultimate, wishful, trickle-down thinking that it will eventually float all boats.

Why should the banking industry want to fix this hive when they can find another one with so much more honey in it? A hive with no rules for the banks, just rules for the struggling homeowner. No cost for the banks, just cost for the taxpayer. No assistance for the struggling, just free money for the banks. Lethal policies for the hive that have bipartisan support, just as free trade has bipartisan support and wars across the world have bipartisan support.

What are the answers? What does the future hold? As Churchill said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” How long can we keep feeding the crocodile? There are no rosy scenarios here. What do you call a criminal in a policeman’s uniform? What do you call a Congressman that holds the door open while the Treasury is robbed? It is corporate fascism with the jackboots optional. A government that assists only banks and corporations with billions, while the Bhagwan smiles and throws kisses to the workers in the field from the back seat of his Rolls Royce.

“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.” Marcus Aurelius

“A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.” Winston Churchill

"He got the peace prize, we got the problem.... If I'm following a general, and he's leading me into a battle, and the enemy tends to give him rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him. Especially if he gets a peace award before the war is over." Malcolm X

“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” Benito Mussolini

Any politician who promises to you better times ahead is only promising you a wait.

Pretty smart dude Ol Marcus was. We could learn a lot from him as he was a leader of an empire. An empire that fell. Smart Romans knew that "The Mob" WAS ROME. Smart Republicans realize that "The Mob" is America. That's why we have Tea Partiers, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, etc adorning our TeeVees 24/7. Get the mob riled up and turn them on your detractors. MAYBE the oldest trick in the book. Keep the mob happy and distracted and they will leave YOU alone. Everyone that really cares about this country should study Roman history as we're on the same course they were years ago.

Rome had chariot races. We have NASCAR
Rome had the arenas, We have WFC WTF WWF etc (those aren't wildlife foundations either)

If they had TeeVees, they wouldn't have lasted as long as they did.

BTW Notice how stadiums used to be named after famous sport dudes? Now, you have Fed Ex Field, BBT stadium, etc. Sure, it makes it easier for people like John Kerry to keep the names straight, but it also makes a point.

Rome also had TWO classes. One VERY SMALL ruling class and everyone else. Kind of like where we're heading now. Toward the end, the ruling class, realizing people were getting madder by the day created "The Praetorian Guard" who were highly paid, top notch, well equipped security guards (theirs, not the mobs). We now have Black Water or XE or whatever the hell it's called now.

The Romans had to raise taxes to maintain their conquests and lavish life styles and this pissed people off. So, instead of having monthly distractions in a province, the distractions (Games) were stepped up to weekly, daily, or whatever was required to keep the MOB from focusing on their real problems. Blood and guts will do that every time. The MOB didn't care if their armies were out pillaging other countries as long as they had their scraps tossed to them and were kept entertained.

Back to the banks. The banks are destroying our country. Try getting a loan now. You won't get one. This will continue until everyone wakes up and says F^%* them. GWBs final Fuck You to us was his bank bail out. Paulson wanted 800 billion and don't dare ask what it's for. Just give it up.

If anyone has a DIME in B of A, Citi Bank, Chase, etc, get it out now. Starve the Beast! Got credit cards with them? Don't pay! If one person does this, it has no affect but if millions do, they will change the game. It is after all, "Our Money".

Like the author of this thread, I have that sick feeling as well. I'm all for making an honest living, but the greed that exists today is beyond anything I've seen in my 56 years on this rock. What makes me even sicker is these stupid bastages believing the daily lies fed to them. The socialist are giving MY MONEY to poor people. ROFLMFAO!

Corporate welfare state