but in one case we keep a solvent government and in the other we wind up like Greece.

A trimmed down jackbooted thug is still a thug. Ok, so what might arise could be worse. It could also be better. What I do know is that right now what we have is a criminal organization cognizable under the RiCO statutes.

Politicians never preempt a crisis, even if they see it coming. They merely respond once the crisis hits. Until the crisis hits, they continue to make promises to the people who in turn continue to elect them. This system does not allow politicians to take the pain now, instead of elevates people like Krugman who say that by spending MORE now, we can permanently avoid ANY pain. The reality is that we must hit a wall. The question is what follows. Do we get a Hitler or a George Washington, a tyrant/dictator or someone who takes us back to the principles upon which we were founded. Scared people who have suddenly lost everything will probably cry out for anyone who can promise a return to prosperity immediately, no matter how unrealistic or what freedoms they lose in the process...sadly.

"if we don't see one after the election, I would expect a downgrade."

Why wait until after the election, suck-ups? We should have been downgraded a long time ago.

Karl, do you really believe anybody will actually do what you have been saying needs to be done? I just dont see these idiots ever doing what needs to be done. Do you think there could be some catalyst that gets them off their asses? What might that be? Thanks in advance.

Spanky what you say is interesting but I don't think it goes down like that. I that our understandable lament at the state of the sheep like populace conceals and downplays the solution that is from the people. If anything our current system breeds mindlessness and even zombies, so when it ends won't things improve? I am not at all bound to the status quo as even the slightest bit helpful when netted out and we can't judge anything by today's standards. To assume to worst merely plays along with the memo propagated by the standard bearers of this wretched, zombie creating excuse for a system. It is only the surface this is disrupted not the essential core, but the current system ****s with the core so if it falters it's not predetermined the human spirit won't prove it's worth in the end. This is where I'm at, and see a lot of the ****ed up stuff as manifestation of the death of it and propaganda designed to keep us hopeless (fight back brother!)

Fitch needs to quick f*ing around and just downgrade the US. This corrupt Congress and administration have had nearly a year since the last downgrade to get their act together. Instead we've gotten:

1. Ryan pushing for a bill to repeal the "sequester", which was the only stick in the compromise reached last year;

2. Obama asking for spending levels above last year's Budget Control Act;

3. The Senate not even bothering to pass a single appropriations bill or even a budget authorization;

4. Business as usual inside the beltway, with monstrosities like the Export import bank and payroll tax cut boondoggles passing with bipartisan majorities.

Expecting this group of treacherous cretins to do anything useful in the next 6 months is like expecting some random cast member of "the real housewives of Atlanta" to have the table manners and etiquette of a Queen Elizabeth. Good luck with that.

And don't be surprised either when she steals the silverware.

A drone strike, or maybe just a little midnight op where folks just disappear, or one of those new camps just dying for tenants, or perhaps some waterboarding sessions 'till they see the light, or how about rendition? Dust off the heart attack gun? Send in a *****, and then try to make******charges stick?

There are just so many tools in the old .gov toolbox to deal with this so-called Fitch, it's really hard to choose just one.

I think I preferred Yves Smith's title: Fitch threatens downgrade waves wet noodle at US.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/f....

Yves poses yet another false choice (wrapped in the blanket of theory), as her MMTTrash-blog is falling off my radar these days:

Quote:

When the private sector is net saving, government needs to accommodate the saving by running a deficit.

Saving can also mean defaulting. The "private sector" is not one big happy family. That includes bankers and myself.

I think the working sector and government can both net save by defaulting on the other groups, the bankers and the leeches.

We're all Greeks.

Karl and other Kind Souls: May I please have some outreach in explaining what a bankster is. I understand that Blankfein, Dimon, et al are banksters but who are typically the others and where are found? How far up the ladder does need to be in a financial company to earn the bankster "title", etc. What does a bankster typically do? Maybe a Ticker on this topic would be enlightening. Thank you.

Bankster are the banking criminals. Someone correct me if that term is too simple.

Bankster: those who partake of fraudulent practices.

Bankster = a gangster whose weapons of choice are fraud, leverage and (when discovered) threats of dire consequences should they not be bailed out.

Quote:

Do we get a Hitler or a George Washington, a tyrant/dictator or someone who takes us back to the principles upon which we were founded. Scared people who have suddenly lost everything will probably cry out for anyone who can promise a return to prosperity immediately, no matter how unrealistic or what freedoms they lose in the process...sadly.

Member of the 'Golden Dawn' party in Greece unleashes punches to the face upon a woman on stage during a heated televised debate:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/how-greek-....

A saying that has stood the test of time:

'The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior' (and history)

Quote:

Politicians never preempt a crisis, even if they see it coming. They merely respond once the crisis hits.

Of course they do. That way, they can get more power from the ``do it for teh childrenz`` crowd.

Ironically, John Michael Greer, who is a Peak Oiler and is therefore coming at things from a different angle, just said basically the same thing.

Quote:

One of my presentations to that conference was a talk entitled "How Civilizations Fall;" ...I was talking about that afternoon was the theory of catabolic collapse, which outlines the way that human societies on the way down cannibalize their own infrastructure, maintaining themselves for the present by denying themselves a future. I finished talking ...and somewhere in the conversation that followed one of the other participants made a comment... something like, "So what you’re saying is that what we need to do, individually, is to go through collapse right away."

"Exactly," I said. "Collapse now, and avoid the rush."

So I think the left is also beginning to realize that things have to change. Naturally, it won't be in time.

(Hell's bells, I just had to give a civics lesson to a coworker who is in graduate school (Nurse Practitioner): "...there are two US senators from each state and a varied number of Congresscritters. No, those are State Senators... No, they're different. They work in the legislature in Topeka... Yes, that's different.")

Doomed, I tell you. It's time to embrace the horror.

Tyrt, I can't necessarily her for her ignorance. I can blame her parents for not teaching her, but I believe the removal of "Civics" from school curricula was intentional. The less people know abou how things work, the easier it is to have them go along with whatever you make up. It helps support the "living, breathing (CHANGING) document" bull**** libs and progressives love to spout. We ARE truly ****ed, I agree.


As for the Greek smackdown, after reading who the players were, I really just had to laugh. I imagined the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World" saying:

"I don't always hit women, but when I do I make sure they're communists."


YMMV.

(Oh, and NO, I don't condone violence against (most) women, jeez. But, if I'd ever think of smacking one, it'd probably be a far leftist like that guy did. He's s jackass too, though.)

Bankster: see above definitions = Oh, my my!!! That is almost everyone I know. So is the U.S. really a banksterocracy?

Um no Verre, it seemed much more narrow to me.

Guilty conscience?

Bankster: see above definitions
In addition

One Person/Board/CEO, OR a Company(s),Corperation(s), LLC's; thats Yields **Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction**
(EDIT: this not limited to nor excluding Members of CONgress, the Senate, House, or the Executive parts of .GOV or STATE .GOV, on down to LOCAL Levels of .GOV
(WFMD's)
In other words,, a person such as J. Corizine, (MFG)


Other Definition(s) for such follows...

Oxford
Pronunciation: /ˈbaNGkstər/
noun
derogatory
a member of the banking industry seen as profiteering or dishonest: nothing ever seems to happen to any of the banksters who caused all the problems in the first place
Origin: late 19th century (as nonderogatory nickname): blend of banker1 and gangster

From Wiki Entry

Etymology
Blend of banker and gangster
[edit] Pronunciation
(UK) IPA: /ˈb©¡©¯kstə/, X-SAMPA: /"b{Nkst@/
Noun
bankster (plural banksters)
1.(informal) A personification of bankers as criminally irresponsible

From Urban Dict.

Quote:

1.Bankster:
A portmanteau of "banker" and "gangster", popularized by (among others) the economist Murray N. Rothbard, used by him to attack what he held to be the inherently fraudulent nature of Fractional-Reserve banking (as opposed to 100% gold reserve banking, which he defended as the only honest form of banking). Frequently used in reference to The Fed.

In more recent popular usage, often refers in a vague way to the forces of "Wall Street", or to those persons in the financial services industry who grow rich despite the continued impoverishment of those who depend on their services, and despite their apparent inability to succeed in business without constant government assistance.

"The Fed is an organized cartel of banksters, who are creating inflation, ripping off the public, destroying the savings of the average American."

"The banksters crashed the economy, but thanks to generous federal bailouts, they won't have to sacrifice their fat bonuses."

2.Bankster:A portmanteau or blend word derived from combining "banker" and "gangster." Usually referred to in the plural form "banksters" to refer to a predatory element within the financial services industry, such as those offering "too good to be true" adjustable mortgage rates for home buyers

"The banksters just foreclosed on my mom's Mcmansion, and now she's living in her SUV."
3.Bankster:A portmanteau of the words "banker" and "gangster." These are intergral to the capitalist system. While the nightly news might have you believe that young black and latino men with 9mm's are the biggest threat to your life, banksters are far more dangerous. While a gangster might steal your posessions with a knife or a gun, a bankster will steal your possesiions with a pen, paper and "legal" (read "unjust") mumbo-jumbo snakeoil bull****.

Bankster: Any member of the financial services industry; primarilly interested with the welfare of the capitalist class and their lackeys.

Term "coined" by.....
I WANT to say it's from *members* of TF, Whom coined it, such as "Fed~up"

Quote:

The head of the commission, Ferdinand Pecora, is often credited with popularizing the word "bankster," which combines "banker" and "gangster.¢®¡¾

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/busine....
**The masters of the universe were forced down to earth on Tuesday.





Credits to the Painter/Artist of the picture, (Alex Schaefer )

Ver, i dont know anyone who is a bankster. Maybe you should get new friends?

Quote:

The correct choice is to:

•Shut down the derivative casino. Right here, right now. Force all contracts onto exchanges and force the posting of cash margin against every underwater position or the contract is canceled as fraudulent. This does not impugn contract rights as a contract you cannot perform on is no contract at all; it is an active fraud.


•Remove excess liquidity. If The Fed refuses, strip their power to avoid doing so. The active theft of purchasing power through deficit spending must be stopped; what is going on now is transfer of your wealth and income, using the jackboot of government, to banksters that would otherwise be exposed as insolvent.


•Balance the budget -- right now. That which the people will not pay for in current taxes they cannot have. Period.


•Remove all special protection for derivatives and other debt-holders. If you hold debt and the other side can't pay, you lose your money. Too bad, so sad.


•Accept that the promises made in pension and related programs cannot be kept -- they were lies at the outset and cannot be made truths. Half, a third or a quarter of a loaf is better than nothing, which is what we all get if the economy and government collapses

I'm not 100% positive but I think Ron Paul hacked Gens account.

just sayin.....

(wheres that Nomex suit?)