Fii pregatit (Be ready)

“Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”

Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770
French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

I strongly believe in the freedom of speech. I am ready to defend it to my last breath. I believe it is through dialogue, through discussions and arguments that we learn about ourselves as humans and are able to better understand our circumstances, abilities and opportunities. As Oscar Wilde wrote, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple”. It takes a wise, courageous and honest person to see both sides of an issue.

With that in mind though, I do not think everything is arguable. Nobody shall argue that we need potable water, or that we need forests on this planet so we can breath. Who can tell me that wars are fought with the blood and sweat of the wealthy aristocracy? Do I really have to back-up my argument that the rich are getting very rich nowadays, while the poor are getting very poor and that the government does not care about the state of the common man and woman, the worker in the United States?

“Since the onset of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, labor market conditions have deteriorated dramatically for U.S. workers in the aggregate … The incidence of underemployment problems in the fourth quarter of 2009 was 13 times higher among those workers in the bottom household income decile as opposed to those residing in the top decile of the income distribution (20.6% vs. 1.6%). These stark findings clearly reveal that the economic costs of underemployment in the current U.S. economy were disproportionately borne by workers at the lower end of the income distributions. Thus, underemployment contributes in an important way to the high and rising degree of income inequality in the United States and to growing poverty in the recession.” http://www.clms.neu.edu/publication/documents/Labor_Underutilization_Problems_of_U.pdf

What are we doing about poverty and our lack of opportunity? There is no more American Dream. Forget about it. I am most certainly growing tired of the people who consider themselves Republicans or Democrats and who are fighting over scraps. This is certainly not the time to be arguing over nonsense, especially since both parties are basically one and the same: “To maintain the illusion that working people make decisions, it is useful to have two parties that pretend to be different while representing the same folks at the top.” http://www.greens.org/s-r/33/33-16.html

The United States government has been taken over by bankers and while everyone was charmed by the Obama-spell in the last couple of years, they have master-minded the greatest heist ever! The common man is in gutter now but we should be happy because not everyone is doing so badly, right? We have reports that:

“With third-quarter figures from JP Morgan expected to begin a bumper profit reporting season today, a study of more than three dozen banks, hedge funds, money-management and securities firms estimates they will pay $144bn (£90bn) in salary and benefits this year, a 4% increase on 2009… The research, by the Wall Street Journal, found pay was rising faster than revenue, which gained 3% to $433bn, despite a slowdown in stock trading.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/oct/12/us-bankers-record-pay-bonuses

To me this entire recession or depression, or whatever you want to call it is honestly a bad joke. I am not sure how the banks have not gone up in flames and how bankers have not been found scalped on the streets. Democrats and Republicans should be outraged! Everyone got fooled.

It is critical to understand that Obama’s campaign as well as that of McCain had received considerable funding from Wall St. and bankers (as well as other sources). “Overall, bundlers in the finance, insurance and real estate sector have hauled in at least $30 million for the Republican candidate -- far more than any other sector …Bundlers in the larger finance, insurance and real estate sector have collected at least $13.4 million for Obama, making it his most generous sector.”

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/bundlers-for-mccain-obama-are.html

It did not matter who won the last presidential election. The bail-out would have still happened whether it was Obama or McCain in office. People would have been screwed-over by bankers who would have collected their billions in bonuses either way. How can people think their interests and their well-being is looked out by the government (or the parties hustling for office) when we see statements such as:

“Democrat Barack Obama has captured $9.6 million in donations from employees working for securities, mortgage and drug companies, compared with McCain's $6.6 million.” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aRCVqfSQ43Eo

“Obama’s campaign treasury has collected nearly $400,000 in campaign contributions from employees of Lehman Brothers, while McCain campaign has $145,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan research group.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26723715/

Within the last year alone there are reports that: “Six leading banks -- JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N), Citigroup (C.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) -- spent a combined $6.9 million on lobbying in the first quarter. That marked a 4 percent increase from late last year and a jump of about one-third from the first three months of 2009.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN212172942010042

Lobbying is the root of most of the problems in government. It is through lobbying that bankers got bailed-out while people got thrown-out on the streets. It is because of lobbying that the control of the monetary system was happily given-over to a bunch of crooked bakers in December, 1913 who called themselves the Federal Reserve Bank. It is because of them that the national debt is where it is. A country should be able to issue its own currency without going in debt. However, in the United States every dollar made is given to the people by the Federal Reserve Bank at interest! The people do not have control of their currency/money, the bankers do. Thank lobbyists for that.

This is the truth. Laws are only made to hold us down; our lives will only deteriorate more and more until the government is taken back from the hands of rotten politicians who only act in the interest of banks and corporations. There are no two sides to this! People have to wake-up and realize that it does not matter who they vote-in as long as lobbying remains legal and prospers. Be ready to act decisively!

“I may contradict myself but the truth I do not contradict.” – Michel de Montagne

Note: the title “Fii pregatit” was borrowed from a Romanian hip-hop group who made a song with that title. This piece was written with that song in mind and with Mrs. Lynda’s article http://hubpages.com/hub/There-are-two-side-to-every-question-the-closed-minded-attitude-in-modern-society