Op-Ed: Will SWAT teams arrest bankers who owe $3 trillion for bailouts?

[yota691]

Op-Ed: Will SWAT teams arrest bankers who owe $3 trillion for bailouts?

 

 

BY RALPH LOPEZ

YESTERDAY IN WORLD

 

 

 

 

As the passions around the Cliven Bundy situation in Nevada swirl and kick into warp drive, the battle to define the real issues rages on.

 

The sides seem to have broken down into two main camps: those who say Bundy is a mere scofflaw who owes the government money, and those who say Bundy is a folk hero standing up to unjust laws.

 

However, there is yet a third side to the debate, which perhaps is most the relevant one to Americans, most of whom neither follow rancher issues nor care to.

 

What is rousing emotions to a fever pitch when the subject of Bundy comes up, who lives in the heart of what has become unflatteringly known as "fly-over" country? The affair has ignited old blue state versus red state rivalries, as some "Coastapedia" city slickers now are inclined to have scant sympathy for what they perceive as "Tea Party-types" in God and Guns Land.

 

 

 

Coastapedia can be seen on a political map as heavily populated California and the Eastern Seaboard which hold fully one third of the population, whose Electoral College votes are considered reliably Democrat.

 

Bundy has served as a lesson in political fracking. Pump hot air and rhetoric into a seemingly solid bedrock, raise the pressure to millions of pounds per square inch, and watch the fractures in the rock emerge and and the rock break apart, releasing millions of square feet of highly combustible gases into the atmosphere. As a divide and conquer strategy, putting a "Tea Party type" on the federal government hot-seat couldn't be more brilliant. These are the people who called Occupy Wall Street "socialists" and didn't care when they were getting billy-clubbed and pepper-sprayed, and now it's their turn. So the thinking goes.

 

But is that all that is happening? What else should we be watching for as Cliven Bundy takes on the revenuers?

 

Let's rewind for a moment, and recall the timeline of events. Without going into the details of the grazing fee dispute which Bundy has been fighting in court for years, let us grant the simplifying assumption that Bundy owes the $1 million in grazing fees, as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claims. Bundy has never pulled a gun on a federal agent, has never attacked a police officer. He is 70 years old.

 

What he has done is refuse to pay his grazing fees for the use of public lands, for whatever reason. A judge gave an order for him to stop grazing his cows, which he defied.

 

Then one day this month an army of feds, about 200 of them, descended upon Bundy's ranch and herd, armed with fully automatic weapons of war, long-range sniper rifles with government snipers behind them, helicopters, spy drones, and low-flying planes. BLM police and FBI were outfitted in the kind of combat gear you see in Iraq, Kevlar helmets, combat fatigues, body armor. All for a guy who is personally unarmed.

 

The feds proceed to round up and take away Bundy's doggies. Bundy informs his court case supporters and anyone else who'll listen of what is going on. Some are ranchers who do pay their grazing fees, but they still support Bundy.

 

Bundy's supporters show up and, this being rural Nevada, many of them are armed. Your sidearm, varmint rifle, or shotgun in the trunk of your car or saddle scabbard is just part of life. According to reports, the government snipers were outflanked, disarmed, and given a ride to town where they couldn't hurt anyone.

 

Now contrast this with the treatment given to folks who owe US taxpayers — that's still you and me — $2 trillion to $3 trillion, which is two to three million times more than Bundy's million. That would be the bankers bailed out in 2008, after losing at incredibly irresponsible speculation in financial markets. Both Democrat and Republican administrations and congressmen enabled it.

 

Nowtheendbegins.com

BLM snipers on ridge overlooking site of stand-off.

 

Contrary to popular belief and the words of President Barack Obama himself, most of the bank bailout money has not been paid back. In 2012 Obama told an audience "We got back every dime used to rescue the banks, we made that happen."

 

Brisk, confident, hip, like Obama always sounds. The only problem is, there was not a bit of truth in it, and there is no way Obama could not have known that.

 

True, much of the money lent under the program known as TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, did get paid back, but that constituted only 7 percent of the $4.7 trillion disbursed to the financial services industry, in total bailouts. When one looks at all the bailout programs passed in 2008, not just TARP, an entirely different picture emerges.

 

At $700 billion, about the size of the yearly Pentagon budget, TARP was already an enormous drain on public resources. But it was nothing compared to the other 50 or so programs which took money directly from taxpayers, which might have gone toward repairing bridges or lowering taxes, which went toward bailing out bankers instead. The bailouts put that money into the pockets of banks which lost at the craps tables of the subprime market.

 

Center for Media and Democracy

 

 

You needn't really know anything about mortgages. If you've been to Vegas and heard all the hooting and hollering where all the big rollers are, you'll get the right picture. All the real estate talk is just window dressing.

 

In business, large and small, there is a thing called "due diligence." It's sort of like saying you will do what any normal person would do given a certain level of responsibility, like a parent not letting his or her kids play in the highway. Whatever that level of responsibility entails for people running big banks, and taking care of old ladies' life savings, they didn't do it. Not even close.

 

Even more astounding, in a country where it's getting to the point where you can almost automatically assume that the opposite of what the media is telling you is true, not only did the vast majority of unfathomable sums of taxpayer money not get paid back. Of the part that did, the TARP part, most of that came from the other bailout programs. It was exactly like paying off a credit card with another credit card. No difference. None whatsoever.

 

Former Special Inspector General for TARP Neil Barofsky, whom journalist Glenn Greenwald once called "easily one of the most impressive and courageous political officials in Washington," wrote in a 2009 report before he was forced out of his job:

 

"By itself, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) is a huge program at $700 billion. As discussed in SIGTARP’s April Quarterly Report, the total financial exposure of TARP and TARP-related programs may reach approximately $3 trillion. Although large in its own right, TARP is only a part of the combined efforts of the Federal Government to address the financial crisis. Approximately 50 initiatives or programs have been created by various Federal agencies since 2007 to provide potential support totaling more than $23.7 trillion."

 

 

These bank bailout folks never defied a court order to pay the money back, because no US court nor US agency has touched them nor asked them to pay it back. You see, the rules are a little different for them than for Cliven Bundy. Where is the seizing of mansions, private jets, executive yachts, and luxury bunkers, the sales of which have shot through the roof, in order to get some of that money back? It's owed, just the same as we are saying Cliven Bundy owes his grazing fees.

 

And that is the other side of the debate, that is not getting talked about: that those "Tea Party types" are also part of the 99 percent, and SWAT teams and dogs and pepper spray are for them too, not just Occupy Wall Street types. And it will remain so as long as we view each other through the prism of where one stands on *** marriage or teaching evolution.

 

In a remarkable three minutes of lies back-to-back last week, Reid claimed that Bundy didn't pay his income taxes (Bundy denies, says he has always paid them,) that he does not "acknowledge" the federal government (why would he pay his income taxes if he didn't acknowledge the government) and that he deployed snipers against BLM agents (neglecting the BLM snipers who came first.) For having their legal guns with them legally and not backing down when the feds pointed their guns at them, Nevada Senator Harry Reid recently called Bundy and his supporters "domestic terrorists."

 

http://youtu.be/KPECjlMpliU

 

Americans are very good at seeing things in black and white. What we are not so good at is discerning perspective and proportion, and adjusting our outrage accordingly. Because our hollowed-out economy, which is built on debt, seems to be functioning more or less normally on the surface, no one is getting bent out of shape over a rank injustice.

 

But that could all change very quickly, if the Ponzi scheme of Chinese debt and Federal Reserve funny money comes crashing down. Much of that debt and funny money has gone toward paying for nothing more than the banker bailouts.

 

If that crash happens, it sure won't be Cliven Bundy's fault.

 

[429]

Good post, yota. Thanks.

[divemaster5734]

Excellent post Yota.

 

The parallel is staggering, the hypocrisy astounding.

 

Were it not for the revolving door policy between Wall Street and DC, and the unlimited funds available from the "fed" reserve, these banksters would have been treated like the dirt bag scum they really are.

[dontlop]

Ya sure

Isn't that nice

How about out oil they keep selling us for a hundred dollars a barrel

And taxing us on

First they use out tax dollars to buy the Louisiana purchase and Alaska then they sell us it back

The govt doesn't own the land or the resources

Did they nationalize the country and its natural resources ?

If we bought Alaska with tax dollars why are we buying the oil ?

Or letting corporate America sell it abroad ?

It's our oil

We bought it

Now they sell it to us and tax us to live on what is ours

If these oil company's can go all the way to Iraq and produce oil for 2 dollars a barrel for the Iraqi govt and the rest of them

And make billions of dollars

Why can't they produce our oil for us at two dollars a barrel?

Maybe it costs a little more 5 bucks a barrel or 10

But a hundred

It's our oil

I think they should be fired

All the natural gas belongs to the citizens not the govt and corporations

But we are enslaved to the dollar thru our labor so we can survive

It's either that or go live in a gutter till they kick you out

Where's the American dream

Why can't one just go build a cabin and farm some land for survival with out the govt controlling you

The American dream was to come to America , claim some land build a house plant a garden and be free of taxes and the mother country England

Now we pay more taxes than ever to buy land and pay them to guard it so they can sell its natural resources back to us after we already bought it

I say get the army corp of engineers to pump our oil out for us and give the youngsters an education on how to do these things

How to make the equipment , how to transport it

How to distribute it

I guess the govt has nationalized our country and its natural resources

[R2D2]

Great post. Packed with wisdom.     Thank You Sir!

[divemaster5734]

How about out oil they keep selling us for a hundred dollars a barrel

 

When I contemplate the stranglehold the oil and gas lobby has on our politicians the resulting high blood pressure is enough to cause nose bleeds.

 

When you consider 4 car manufacturers are building diesel cars IN AMERICA that get up to 60 MPG, but are shipped to South America because the FHWA, DOT, and EPA have all declared them "not safe enough", when in fact there are millions of them in use all over the world, then the crap they are pulling with oil prices becomes just another form of oppression.

 

The last time oil was $100 a barrel gas cost $2.50 a gallon.

 

Now, it's $4.

 

That's inflation and taxes, all due to our wonderful governments meddling with matters they should not be touching....

[AmericaInc]

will they arrest the banksters?

Not unless they arrest the Senators they own first...

Ya sure

Isn't that nice

How about out oil they keep selling us for a hundred dollars a barrel

And taxing us on

First they use out tax dollars to buy the Louisiana purchase and Alaska then they sell us it back

The govt doesn't own the land or the resources

Did they nationalize the country and its natural resources ?

If we bought Alaska with tax dollars why are we buying the oil ?

Or letting corporate America sell it abroad ?

It's our oil

We bought it

Now they sell it to us and tax us to live on what is ours

If these oil company's can go all the way to Iraq and produce oil for 2 dollars a barrel for the Iraqi govt and the rest of them

And make billions of dollars

Why can't they produce our oil for us at two dollars a barrel?

Maybe it costs a little more 5 bucks a barrel or 10

But a hundred

It's our oil

I think they should be fired

All the natural gas belongs to the citizens not the govt and corporations

But we are enslaved to the dollar thru our labor so we can survive

It's either that or go live in a gutter till they kick you out

Where's the American dream

Why can't one just go build a cabin and farm some land for survival with out the govt controlling you

The American dream was to come to America , claim some land build a house plant a garden and be free of taxes and the mother country England

Now we pay more taxes than ever to buy land and pay them to guard it so they can sell its natural resources back to us after we already bought it

I say get the army corp of engineers to pump our oil out for us and give the youngsters an education on how to do these things

How to make the equipment , how to transport it

How to distribute it

I guess the govt has nationalized our country and its natural resources

no it's not our oil

it's corporate America's oil

 

you don't even own your house - the bank does (for most people)

And they can take it if they want - claim imminent domain, or tax you out of it...

 

So no the people are not OWNERS

The owners are corporate America and, like billionaire Koch bros. - they also own the White House

Even with its present occupant.

 

So until all that changes, don't look for CHANGE

unless you like chump change...

When I contemplate the stranglehold the oil and gas lobby has on our politicians the resulting high blood pressure is enough to cause nose bleeds.

 

When you consider 4 car manufacturers are building diesel cars IN AMERICA that get up to 60 MPG, but are shipped to South America because the FHWA, DOT, and EPA have all declared them "not safe enough", when in fact there are millions of them in use all over the world, then the crap they are pulling with oil prices becomes just another form of oppression.

 

The last time oil was $100 a barrel gas cost $2.50 a gallon.

 

Now, it's $4.

 

That's inflation and taxes, all due to our wonderful governments meddling with matters they should not be touching....

Well said!!!!!

 

When I went to Europe, they have diesels everywhere, and pretty clean ones at that...

But they tax the hell out of gas at $7 a gallon 

that tax is supposed to help pay costs of pollution,etc - BS if you ask me.

 

Why don't we all have stainless steel cars with electric engines that run off solar panels on our roofs?

 

1. They want us to pay for electricity every month

2. they want steel and plastic cars because they will break

3. they don't want electric motors - they rather send your son to Iraq for oil

4. it ALL BIG BUSINESS

Edited April 25, 2014 by AmericaInc

[Pablo404]

If the taxpayers put up the $$$ to purchase Alaska through their representatives (The government) then how did the representatives (the government) get to be the owners? If I give $$ to ''Fred"  to buy a car or some groceries for me - How does he get to keep the car or the groceries? If "Fred" sells the car or groceries to someone else and profits, why does "Fred" get to keep my money and the profits?  OH! I forgot, the government the 'taxpayers' created by choice is now their boss and owns all they used to own. HUH??!

[dontlop]

You got to split atoms to explain that

Some don't get it the entire way through the conversation

The truth is the government took what we bought with tax payers money and claimed it as their own to sell oil leases and let the oil company's sell us what is already owned by us and then comes the government to tax us on it on top of it all

They say its for funding the highway system

Well I say then list it in the highway bill

Don't charge us taxes for a highway bill then charge us other taxes too

One tax is enough

They raise taxes all the time to do things and when they are done the taxes don't go back down

They spend those extra taxes on other things that were originally taxes for something else

Then they come along and want to raise taxes again since those other taxes are being used for something they were not intended for

But hey they got new politions every so often so they can just claim ignorance

They didn't do it that was before they were elected

But then they do the same thing and the next politition says hey I didn't do it and he does the same thing

None of them cancel out the taxes after things are completed

Just move them to other things

It would take a life time to explain what they are doing and prove it

The govt stalls for your entire life then if you get close they charactor assinate you

Then bring in the hit squads like they did in the story above

The citizens should just go to Washington and sit down

Just keep coming and sitting

Don't move

Fire them all

All the way through those who would enforce the stupid regulations and file a real bankruptcy for our country and start over

Now that would be entertaining

[stealthwarrior]

DONTLOP,Great post.I couldn't have said it any better myself.sooo many things are wrong with what they are doing that I can't even think of all of them.If these things are allowed to continue,then it is our fault.we can sit around and ***** about it until the sun burns out but if we don't put a stop to it then it is our fault for not doing anything about it.we are more interested in the next IPHONE coming out or the biggest TV to watch more mindless crap.the American people are too preoccupied by these kind of things to pay attention to the real deal.

[flatdawg]

The OWS people had it right all along.

[AmericaInc]

The OWS people had it right all along.

EXACTLY

 

But I don't mean to sound self-righteous, truly. Not a liberal/conservative thing here...

We all need to follow their lead - we have the same interests!

The citizens should just go to Washington and sit down 

Just keep coming and sitting 

Don't move 

Fire them all 

All the way through those who would enforce the stupid regulations and file a real bankruptcy for our country and start over 

Now that would be entertaining 

 

 

GREAT POST DONTLOP  --- WATCH IT MAN!  YA GOT A LIBERAL AGREEING WITH YA!

 

WE ALL NEED TO GET TOGETHER.....GO TO DC AND SIT!

[bigwave]

"GREAT POST DONTLOP  --- WATCH IT MAN!  YA GOT A LIBERAL AGREEING WITH YA!

 

WE ALL NEED TO GET TOGETHER.....GO TO DC AND SIT!"

I agree, (however you got a constitutionalist / conservative agreeing with you here.) I hope you noticed that I did not say Republican.

 

I feel it has to be We The People. 

 

The Genie is out of the bottle and they know it. They did not anticipate the internet.

 

The American Spring is coming and I pray people show up and stay.

 

My hope is that O and gang gets a taste of their own medicine.

[R2D2]

Big Wave. I applaud your position. Thanks for the wisdom. I am all about trying to heal the divide. I would much rather stand shoulder to shoulder with a brother. Than I would stand nose to nose.  We the people need to realize the cesspool is playing the divide game they are winning and will continue to do so. Until we the people unit as one.   "WE THE PEOPLE".   

[bigwave]

Big Wave. I applaud your position. Thanks for the wisdom. I am all about trying to heal the divide. I would much rather stand shoulder to shoulder with a brother. Than I would stand nose to nose.  We the people need to realize the cesspool is playing the divide game they are winning and will continue to do so. Until we the people unit as one.   "WE THE PEOPLE".   

Hear, hear....