ON BEING ROBBED

One of my favorite sayings is this: "A poor man robs you with a gun. A rich man robs you with a lawyer." Broadly speaking, this means that it is easy to understand what is happening to you when a robber sticks a gun in your ribs and says "give me your money." But it is not so easy to understand the process when men in expensive suits, using arcane words (and often mathematical formulas), are the criminals.

Let's apply the above to the current economic/financial scandal. We are being robbed by the equivalent of lawyers, guarded by men with guns. It is, as it were, a double whammy on us. If the American people understood the extent to which they were being robbed, there would be a revolution tomorrow (at least I'd like to think there would be). But the robbers have obscured their game in such a fog of technical jargon and impenetrable financial shenanigans that the average man on the street has no idea of what's going on. And that's the way the Establishment elite likes it.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm no financial or economic guru. I did teach some classes in American economic history on the college level, and I do understand some of the fundamental issues involved. But I do know where to go to find men who do understand what the Gangsters are doing to us. These men can talk all the jargon (and that's why they understand the con game that's going on) but they also can cut through the bullshit and explain things in laymen's terms.

Two of the best sites are Tyler Durden's "Zero Hedge" (http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/) and Karl Denninger's "The Market Ticker" (http://market-ticker.denninger.net/). Both Durden and Denninger are great at exposing the con game in such a way that you and I can understand it. Morever, they research and report on issues that the Mainstream Media will not touch. I don't know much about either man's politics, but I do know that they are against the corruption that is going down in DC and on Wall Street. That's enough for me.

I have been following both men (and others) since last fall, and they have helped me connect the dots. The picture that has emerged is not a pretty one (but one I suspected all along was there). It is this--the bankers (including, of course, Bernanke and Geithner), the banks (especially Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan), and the US government (including the regulatory agencies who should be monitoring this con game and the enforcement agencies who should be prosecuting the criminals) are all in cahoots. They are robbing us blind with impunity. And the Chosen One--Obama--surveys it all.

Oh, and back to the man with the gun in my opening quote. He may not be doing the actual robbery but he is there to protect those who are. A pertinent question--who is going to march into the halls of power in DC or New York and bring these criminals to justice? What do we, the concerned taxpayers (many of whom have been tarred as potential "domestic terrorists"), do when the criminals have the armed forces and law enforcement in their back pockets? They also have the courts. Hell, they control all the institutions that might be used to stop the con game. How does one begin to reform such a monster when the monster itself controls all the avenues of reform? States Rights and secession, anyone . . . ?

Just a little something to ponder on this day after Independence Day. Live well. . .