There's something wrong with the planet...

I don't mind admitting that there were tears yesterday when I made this short film...

Rory

Deficit, What Deficit?

So Senator Boehner thinks he's come up with the answer to the problem which threatens to cripple America - He can find ways to trim $1.4 trillion from annual budget expenditure. President Obama on the other hand can not only wade in with cuts to the budget but can raise revenue by taxing the rich. All because of course, the American Government is borrowing more money than it can raise. Regardless of who wins out, the folks who lose out are the little people, particularly those on the bottom rung of the ladder - but generally speaking, it's the lowest income earners who get hit hardest. I'd like to bring something to your attention, it's something every American citizen should be aware of and I first became aware of it by accident on a particularly infamous date.

On the 10th of September 2001 Donald Rumsfeld admitted before Congress and live television that the Defence Department could not account for $2.3 TRILLION Dollars it had been allocated - it had 'vanished'. This was news which of course was 'buried' beneath the rubble of the following day's tragedy - coincidence? Maybe. Just in case anyone doubts the accuracy of what I say; here is Mr Rumsfeld making that statement...

Now forgive me for possibly coming across as a simpleton - but when you hear the above admission and then add to this the Federal Reserve admission that they shelled out $9 TRILLION in bail outs to banks (some foreign) - then precisely where is the crisis? It seems to me the meagre sums (by American budgetary standards) can actually be found by good auditing (especially in the DOD) and by pushing the banks for better collateral and some return on the $9 trillion which was thrown their way (What the Fed Reserve got back in return was $9 Trillion worth of junk bonds which are about as safe as a cop in Ciudad Juarez). (See video below)

 

As a group, the poorest in society and the lower middle class are responsible for paying the largest amount of money in tax revenues to the US Treasury. So let's recap - The Banks and other ailing financial institutions were bailed out with $9 Trillion dollars of Tax revenue, thereby ensuring business as usual for the fat cats who made such a demonstrable mess of our economy. Effectively then, the poor came riding to the rescue of the rich. In this next week if Obama gets his way the poor lose - If the Republicans get their way the poor lose - banks collapsed and and the poor lost. Yet one group of individuals walk away from all of this unscathed - The rich.

It seems accounting is not the only thing the American Government has a problem with, logic and justice are evidently work in progress.

Rory

A Good Day for Burying Bad News

Tuesday 19th July was a special day - Rupert Murdoch and his son James were being called to account before a Parliamentary committee - The eyes of the world were fixed upon them. I should've known the Government would seize the moment to do 'something' while our gaze was averted - I should've, but I didn't - and yes they did.

While we were all watching the shaving foam farce - the death certificate of one of Britain's finest institutions was signed - The National Health Service and all that it represents was done to death and one of the biggest lies this current Government has ever perpetrated went unnoticed.  Health Minister Andrew Lansley, announced that large chunks of the NHS would be farmed out to private companies. The services which represent £1 Billion worth of NHS expenditure include Adult Psychological Community Services and wheelchair services for children. This flies in the face of EVERYTHING promised in the ruling parties manifesto pre-election. Be sure that it represents the first steps in the complete privatisation (aka corporate profit) of the NHS.

The British have few institutions left which they can rightly feel proud of - the NHS is one, it ambles along, it gets starved of cash by successive governments but it is always there, ready and willing to assist those in need at no cost.

Is it too late to reverse this idiocy?

The answer lies with the British People themselves, but how many of them know what took place while they watched one fat-cat get hauled over the coals?

For a more in depth look at this issue please see the Daily Telegraph and THE DAY THEY SIGNED THE DEATH WARRANT FOR THE NHS

Rory

Obama - the only sane man in the asylum?

I listened intently to Obama's speech and the riposte from Boehner - Obama wins hands down. But do the Republicans really care about the legitimacy of Obama's pleas? Ultimately this is the question which has to be answered. I used to credit Republicans (though I have never supported them) with at least the ability to see sense, acknowledge reason when confronted with it - not any more. They may know that he's right, they may know that what he's asking for is 'just and fair' under the circumstances, but greed is a terrible thing. I think some wag who posted the image below on the internet today just about summed it up...

Rory

If Truth Be Told...

There's something happening here,

What it is aint exactly clear.

There's a man with a gun over there,

Telling me I got to beware.

I think it's time we stop children, what's that sound?

Everybody look what's going down.

By way of brief explanation - I now have two Blogs, one for humour, one for giving full vent to my anti-Murdoch Marxist mania (and other things which piss me off in an ever increasingly insane world). I'll strive to write faithfully, truthfully, honestly - I won't always get it right but you won't be left questioning the hidden meaning or who the propaganda served - because there will be none. What you read is what I think. It's all just my honest to goodness perspective on what's going on around us...

The world is in a pretty bad way - it needs everyone to pay attention to what's going down.

With that said - watch this space. :)

Rory