America’s Debt Ceiling – A Look Inside the Numbers

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the debt ceiling. I think it is about time that we take a practical look at the numbers so that we can educate others about the real crises that faces this Nation and each and every one of us. It is so crucial that we dismiss what we’re being fed by the Mainstream media and arrive at our own factual conclusions.

This is not to say that everything the Mainstream Media spews is bogus, on the contrary, there are nuggets of truth from time to time. You just need to teach yourself how to spot them.

It is important that I make this disclaimer before we get into the real numbers: I believe that all of this Nations woes begins and ends with it’s economy. With that said, let’s start breaking down some numbers so that we can see what is really going on. I’m going to refer to the site usdebtclock.org for basic numbers.

The total US population is 311,153,500. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to breakdown the numbers based on each man, woman and child. I will also show numbers based on each taxpayer so that we have a contrast to look at.

Now I’m no expert at economics and I do not have a piece of paper on the wall, but you must understand, the Constitution and Bill of Rights were written in such a way that an ordinary citizen can read and understand the basic laws that are supposed to govern our Nation.

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It is in this spirit that I encourage all ordinary citizens to eschew the notion that a college degree is necessary in order to understand what is being done to us. In fact, we pay for most of everything that is spent in this country, so, if we’re paying the freight then we should be able to understand the economy.

As of this writing, National debt is $14,290,337,900,000.00 dollars. So, for every citizen, the debt is $45,927. Now let’s look at personal debt per citizen which is above and beyond the national debt: $51,904. So far, the nut for every citizen is $97,831.00 approx. Let’s add in the interest on the debt per citizen; $11,492.00 which brings us to $109,323.00 per citizen. We’ll now head over to unfunded liabilities which consists of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Prescription Drugs.

The amount of total unfunded liabilities per citizen is $364,317.00. If you back out the assets per citizen which is $249,607 that would leave a deficit of $114,710.00 per citizen. If I were 67 and collected $2,000/month, then that should actually cost me about $10,000/month to make $2,000.

The total hit for every man, woman and child in the United States is approx. $212,545.00. Let’s assume that there are 15 to 20 million illegal aliens drawing off of the taxpaying base. According to usdebtclock the number for each taxpayer is approx. $1,148,122.00. In about a month, Congress is going to vote on raising the debt ceiling by an additional 1.3 trillion. It is my belief that it will pass because Congress still has a majority of big gov’t Dems and Republicans and something had to be offered in order to get the recent, paltry budget cuts.

We now have to look at what the numbers will look like, post debt ceiling increase: $11,693.00 increase in debt per taxpayer plus interest.

Let’s just look at the average salary for every american: $48,000.00 approx. Now here is where it gets quite scary… If we were all taxed at the maximum rate of 100% of our income we would still come up short by $1,100,000.00 per taxpayer. The real scenario is this: All safety net programs would have to be ended.

All taxpayers would have to pay their full salary to Federal Income Tax and we would still owe interest on national debt and all of us would still have our personal debts and no money for a year. Not only that, but we would forfeit all that we payed in to Social Sec. Medicare and Medicaid over our entire working lives. There is no way out.

Tax day Tea Party won’t work because most of us are on W4. I’m afraid that the only course of action that remains is for millions of taxpayers to descend on Washington on one day and fire all members of Congress, the Administration and the Federal courts.

Housing Rebound May Never Happen, Foreclosure Wastelands, Ron Paul 2012, Wrist Slap For Banks, And The 6 Most Ridiculous Things Ever Taxed (Links)

• Report: Big profits drove faulty ratings at Moody's, S&P
• SEC Warns Former JPMorgan Exec It Plans to Sue Over Magnetar Deal
• BofA CEO: Housing Rebound May Never Happen
• Chinese Real Estate Falling Fast
• Simon Johnson Says U.S. Banks Need More Equity Financing
• Charges against former Iceland PM expected soon
• Satellite Tour Of America's Foreclosure Wastelands
• OCC Wrist Slap Of Eight Banks for Unsound Foreclosure Practices
• The 6 Most Ridiculous Things Ever Taxed
• Kaptur introduces Glass-Steagall Lite
• Ron Paul edges toward 2012 presidential bid
• CBO cuts budget cuts down to real size - NPR
• Geithner Flashback: Goldman Would Have Failed
• MIT - Billion Prices Project
• Calculator - How Much Did You Pay For War This Year?
• Taxpayer Calculator: U.S. Costs in Libya
• America Is a Failed State with a Dual Justice System - Washington's Blog

E-Trade Baby Loses Everything

Only way to stop the Insanity Is Cut Of the Funds

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=14608

The Real Housewives Of Wall Street: How Morgan Stanley Wives Christy Mack & Susan Karches Ripped Off Taxpayers In Geithner-Bernanke Bailout Scheme

Illustration by Victor Juhasz

In another era, we would see Congressional hearings on this matter within days.

Darrell Issa and Spencer Bachus are now on the clock.

We have but one comment - Audit the Fed - Sign the Petition Immediately!

--

By Matt Taibbi

For Rolling Stone

Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?

Most Americans know about that budget. What they don't know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the "official" budget in size — a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology.

Now, following an act of Congress that has forced the Fed to open its books from the bailout era, this unofficial budget is for the first time becoming at least partially a matter of public record. Staffers in the Senate and the House, whose queries about Fed spending have been rebuffed for nearly a century, are now poring over 21,000 transactions and discovering a host of outrages and lunacies in the "other" budget. It is as though someone sat down and made a list of every individual on earth who actually did not need emergency financial assistance from the United States government, and then handed them the keys to the public treasure. The Fed sent billions in bailout aid to banks in places like Mexico, Bahrain and Bavaria, billions more to a spate of Japanese car companies, more than $2 trillion in loanseach to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, and billions more to a string of lesser millionaires and billionaires with Cayman Islands addresses. "Our jaws are literally dropping as we're reading this," says Warren Gunnels, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. "Every one of these transactions is outrageous."

But if you want to get a true sense of what the "shadow budget" is all about, all you have to do is look closely at the taxpayer money handed over to a single company that goes by a seemingly innocuous name: Waterfall TALF Opportunity. At first glance, Waterfall's haul doesn't seem all that huge — just nine loans totaling some $220 million, made through a Fed bailout program. That doesn't seem like a whole lot, considering that Goldman Sachs alone received roughly $800 billion in loans from the Fed. But upon closer inspection, Waterfall TALF Opportunity boasts a couple of interesting names among its chief investors: Christy Mack and Susan Karches.

Christy is the wife of John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley. Susan is the widow of Peter Karches, a close friend of the Macks who served as president of Morgan Stanley's investment-banking division. Neither woman appears to have any serious history in business, apart from a few philanthropic experiences. Yet the Federal Reserve handed them both low-interest loans of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars through a complicated bailout program that virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income.

The technical name of the program that Mack and Karches took advantage of is TALF, short for Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. But the federal aid they received actually falls under a broader category of bailout initiatives, designed and perfected by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, called "giving already stinking rich people gobs of money for no fucking reason at all." If you want to learn how the shadow budget works, follow along. This is what welfare for the rich looks like.

Continue reading at Rolling Stone...

John and Christy Mack pictured below.

Background...

How banks and hedge funds will scam the TALF

Why You Should Always Make Laura Blankfein Wait In Line

'War lobby won $700 billion budget boost, wants MORE as collapse looms'

The Truth About Silver and Inflation

Silver futures surged today to a new 31-year high of $42.80 per ounce. Silver is up 146% since NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade on December 11th, 2009, at $17.40 per ounce. All we need is for silver to rise by another 15.5% and silver will reach its all time high set in 1980 of $49.45 per ounce.

Keep in mind, silver's high of $49.45 per ounce in 1980 would equal about $140 per ounce in today's dollars adjusted to the consumer price index and about $400 per ounce in today's dollars adjusted to the real rate of price inflation. Despite silver's huge gains in recent months, we have yet to see silver rise by $2 or more in a single day. When we start to see a true "silver mania" with investors around the world rushing out of their U.S. dollars and panic buying silver, we expect to see silver gain by $5 to $10 in a single day on more than one occasion.

Back in February of last year when silver dipped to below $15 per ounce, we sent out an alert saying, "NIA believes this is a once in a lifetime entry point for those wishing to go long silver at a bargain basement price". NIA suggested silver call options in February of last year that ended up gaining over 1,000%. NIA's latest silver stock suggestion is currently up 175% from our profile price.

In NIA's top 10 predictions for 2010, we predicted a major decline in the gold/silver ratio, which was 64 at the time. The gold/silver ratio declined in 2010 down to 46, and in our top 10 predictions for 2011, we predicted another major decline in the gold/silver ratio and projected for it to decline this year to 38. NIA has been the most bullish organization in the world on silver, yet recent gains in the price of silver have surpassed even our short-term expectations. The gold/silver ratio is now down to 35 and we believe it will decline to at least 16 this decade, and possibly as low as 10.

The artificially high gold/silver ratio of the past century will be looked back at as an anomaly caused by the silver price suppression scheme of the Federal Reserve, which was in cahoots with Bear Stearns and now JP Morgan. NIA's President Gerard Adams exposed this scheme in NIA's critically acclaimed documentary 'Meltup', which has now been viewed by over 1 million people with an overwhelming 96% of its viewers giving it a thumbs up, a world record for an economic documentary. According to Mr. Adams, the Federal Reserve chose to bail out Bear Stearns and not Lehman Brothers, because Bear Stearns was the holder of a massive naked short position in silver that they were on the verge of being forced to cover.

It is not a coincidence that Bear Stearns failed on the very day silver reached its then multi-decade high of $21 per ounce. Bear Stearns was on the verge of being forced to cover their naked short position, which could have sent silver from $21 per ounce to $50 per ounce overnight. By bailing out Bear Stearns and allowing JP Morgan to acquire Bear Stearns' assets with the promise to cover any losses derived from them, JP Morgan was able to continue managing the silver short position and orchestrate a manipulative take down in 2008 from $21 per ounce down to $8 per ounce.

Only ten times more silver has been produced in world history than gold and from the years 1000 to 1873, a period of 873 years, the gold/silver ratio remained between 10 and 16. In fact, the Coinage Act of 1834 defined a gold/silver ratio of 16. The gold/silver ratio started to rise after silver was demonetized in 1873. Despite silver being demonetized, we saw the gold/silver ratio return to 16 on three occasions during the past century: in 1919, 1968, and 1980.

It was only ten months ago in June of 2010 that the gold/silver ratio was 70. With the gold/silver ratio now at 35, it means that silver investors have seen their purchasing power double over the past ten months, while those with their savings in U.S. dollars have seen their purchasing power decline by 20%. That's right, forget about NIA's silver call option that gained over 1,000% and forget about NIA's most recent silver stock suggestion that is currently up 175%; the simple act of following NIA's most basic suggestion of getting rid of your U.S. dollars and buying physical silver means that over the past ten months, your purchasing power has doubled while non-NIA members with U.S. dollars lost 1/5 of their real wealth.

The Federal Reserve can claim all they want that there is no inflation, but as we write this article we are eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream that we just bought at Quick Chek for $5 a pint. Three years ago, the same pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream at Quick Chek cost us $3. Three years ago, one ounce of gold would have bought 295 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and it still buys 295 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream today. Three years ago, one ounce of silver would have bought 5.7 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and today it buys 8.5 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Americans with their savings in U.S. dollars can today only afford 3/5ths of the ice cream that they could have bought three years ago, but those with their savings in gold have maintained their purchasing power, and those with their savings in silver have greatly increased their purchasing power. NIA is 100% sure that the gold/silver ratio will decline to at least 16 within the next few years, and that will mean those with silver will once again more than double their purchasing power. Considering that the gold/silver ratio overshot to the upside and was as high as 100 in 1991, we fully expect it to overcorrect to the downside and possibly reach a low of 10 this decade. That would mean a more than tripling of ones purchasing power from the current ratio of 35.

When silver rose to $49.45 per ounce in 1980, the government said that the rise was due to the Hunt brothers "cornering" the silver market. The truth is, silver reached $49.45 in 1980 due to the massive inflation that was created by the U.S. government during the 1970s, and the Hunt brothers were used as a scapegoat. The Hunt brothers were accumulating silver in order to protect themselves from a collapsing U.S. dollar, just like NIA has been encouraging its members to do in a countless number of articles and videos over the past two years.

When the Hunt brothers were accused by the U.S. government of "cornering" the silver market and trying to manipulate silver prices higher, they only owned a concentrated long position of approximately 100 million ounces of silver. JP Morgan today has a concentrated naked short position in silver of approximately 122.5 million ounces, but the U.S. government doesn't seem to have any problem with it.

The problem with the Hunt brothers' strategy of accumulating such a large concentrated long position in silver is that after silver prices rose, their position was simply too large for them to ever sell without causing silver prices to crash. With silver reaching $49.45 per ounce in early 1980, the world was about to lose confidence in the U.S. dollar, which would have caused an outbreak of hyperinflation. In a desperate attempt to save the U.S. dollar and prevent hyperinflation, the CBOT raised margin requirements and limited traders' positions to only 3 million ounces of silver futures. The COMEX also limited traders' positions to 10 million ounces of silver futures. Not only that, but the COMEX and CBOT only had a total of 120 million ounces of silver in inventory, and the COMEX was likely going to default from futures contract holders requesting physical delivery. The COMEX was forced to go into "liquidation only" mode, ending al l silver futures contract buying.

Combined with the Federal Reserve rapidly rising interest rates, silver prices began to plunge and the Hunt brothers were hit with massive margin calls. On one single day in March of 1980 when the Hunt brothers were forced to liquidate a large part of their position, silver lost 1/3 of its value, declining by over $5 to $10.80 per ounce. That represented a total decline of 78% from its high two months earlier.

NIA has been receiving a countless number of emails asking if now is the time to sell silver, and if silver could crash by 78% once again like it did in 1980. The fact is, while the Hunt brothers' 100 million ounce concentrated silver position was on the long side, JP Morgan's 122.5 million ounce concentrated silver position is on the short side.

While the Hunt brothers' long position was impossible to sell without causing silver prices to crash, JP Morgan's naked short position is impossible to cover without causing silver prices to explode to the upside. Being that the CFTC was so quick in 1980 to support the position limits that were then imposed by the CBOT and COMEX, NIA believes it would only be fair for the CFTC to mandate similar position limits today. This is unlikely to occur because the U.S. government believes JP Morgan's silver manipulation to be a good thing, since it is giving the phony appearance that the U.S. dollar still has purchasing power. The free market will ultimately win in the end and silver prices will soar through the roof to where they belong based on supply and demand fundamentals.

US spending problem

IMF: Disease or Cure?

The War on the US Economy

Dees Illustration

John Boering
PPJ Gazette

The federal government claims the debt is $14.3 trillion dollars, but other economists say the US debt is closer to $200 trillion (based on projected revenue and projected spending). Either way, a $38 billion budget reduction makes no difference. Especially when the federal government’s actual spending will decrease by a mere $352 million compared to last year- as reported by the National Journal:

“The astonishing result, according to CBO, is due to several factors: increases in spending included in the deal, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from rescissions, which are funds previously authorized but not spent; cuts to reserve funds; and to mandatory-spending programs, such as certain farm subsidies.”

Here is a sample of some of the so-called budget cuts:

1. Department of Defense budget-
The DoD’s budget for 2010 was $685 billion, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Wikipedia. Obama called for a reduction in the DoD budget by $400 billion….over 12 years, which averages out to $33 billion a year. This cut is still pending a Pentagon review which leaves Obama with some wiggle room. Compare the money that the US spends on military industrial corporate welfare and illegal wars to China, with the second largest military expenditure, in the amount of $150 billion.

Who is the DoD’s real enemy? It appears to be the American taxpayer and the US economy.

2. US Department of Agriculture-
The USDA’s budget authority for 2010 was $135 billion ($108 billion mandatory and and $27 billion in discretionary finances). It was reported that the USDA will undergo a $2.6 billion cut from its 2011 budget of $108 billion; it appears the anticipated $149 billion in funding was reduced to $108 billion- but this figure seems to exclude billions in “discretionary” spending.

Approximately 80% of this money goes toward nutrition assistance programs (food stamps), farm commodity programs, crop insurance, export programs and conservation programs.

The USDA’s top strategic goal is to “help America promote production and biotechnology exports as America works to increase food security”. Biotechnology is an umbrella term that includes genetically engineered (GE) plants. The USDA and Monsanto co-own the dangerous Terminator Seed patent together. Therefore, we can expect a continuation of ‘business as usual’ with the USDA pushing GE food down our throats on behalf of their business partners in the biotech industry.

3. Foreign Aid-
The Department of State and US Agency for International Development (USAID) is budgeted at $48.3 billion. While there was a $377 million cut made to the UN and international organizations, this is a pittance; the US is the primary UN financier. The UN is a tool for centralization and depopulation. For example, the budget for the Global Fund that promotes vaccines was left untouched, despite the record that vaccines can cause illness, sterility and death. The UN has been instrumental in implementing GE mosquitoes- while the effects on engineered insects in the environment is untested and unknown.

It’s time to wake up, America to the reality of the true purpose of the United Nations.

4. Department of Homeland Security-
DHS will take a very small 2% cut; in 2009, their budget was $40 billion and in 2010 their budget was almost $43 billion. The following agencies are consolidated under Homeland Security: FEMA, US Citizenship & Immigration Service, Customs & Border Protection, TSA, US Secret Service, US Coast Guard, etc. The DHS engages in extremely invasive spying activities and data collection on US citizens.

5. Environmental Protection Agency-
The $1.6 billion decrease from its 2010 budget of $10.5 billion is deceptive because the EPA received only $7.1 billion in 2009. The EPA got an additional $3.3 billion from stimulus funds in 2010 and pursued implementing job-killing global warming regulations that include a cap-and-trade scheme. Man-made global warming is a myth. It is doubtful that the 10% decrease will stop the EPA from its power grab.

6. The SEC and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) received budget increases. This is outrageous because these agencies have been complicit with the Wall Street criminals who plunged our country into a financial chaos. The SEC and CTFC have failed to hold any of the criminal bankers accountable in this scheme by way of planned incompetence in their “investigations” into banking and derivatives trading. The SEC’s budget has increased by $74 million for a total of $1.19 billion. The CTFC budget was increased by $34 million to $202.7 million.

If the federal government had been shut down last week, it would have been a blessing. The threat was that up to 800,000 non-essential government employees would have been furloughed. Soldiers paychecks would have been delayed- most Americans would love to see an end to the costly and destructive wars.

In closing, the US is headed for an astronomical financial downfall and the puppets in Washington are traitors. Just something to think about as you file your tax return.

A Frightening Satellite Tour Of America's Foreclosure Wastelands

20) Boise, Idaho -- 1 in 21 homes in foreclosure (The red dots show foreclosures)

Image: Courtesy of Google Maps

Note: The red dots shows homes currently in foreclosure. The slide title describes the fraction of homes that received foreclosure filings in 2010.

Tags: Foreclosure, Foreclosure-Gate, Florida, California, Real Estate, Housing, Features | Get Alerts for these topics »

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-tour-foreclosure-cities-2011-1#20-boise-idaho-1-in-21-homes-in-foreclosure-the-red-dots-show-foreclosures-1#ixzz1JoPNNjbV

'US economy in deplorable condition' - Press TV News

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=14601

Charges against former Iceland PM expected soon

The Althingi prosecutor says charges against former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde are nearly ready and will be put to the court trying him for negligence in the banking crisis “very soon”.

Prosecutor Sigridur Fridjonsdottir told the parliamentary prosecutor’s committee on Wednesday that her case against Haarde is going well and will be presented soon, Visir.is reported.

Fridjonsdottir said that if the charges are not brought to the High Court before Easter, then it will be immediately afterwards. Fridjonsdottir was recently appointed a state prosecutor, which has raised questions about her future as Althingi prosecutor. She says, however, that she can comfortably manage both roles together — especially as the case against Haarde has already come so far.

“And we make no remark on that,” committee chair Margret Tryggvadottir said for the meeting’s minutes.

Iceland has gathered its High Court for the first time in the history of the Icelandic Republic. The High Court is a group of appointed legal and political experts who are always on standby to bring cases against current or former elected officials. Geir Haarde is being prosecuted for alleged incompetence and mismanagement before, during and in the aftermath of Iceland’s banking collapse. If found guilty, he could go to prison.

Love in Disguise in a World of Lies.

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

‘May your noses always be cold and wet’.

I’m not inclined to sell anyone on the idea of Astrology. The science is a pristine and marvelous thing but then you add an astrologer to the mix and you can get problems. This isn’t a knock on the practitioner; it’s just that human limitation and error are a constant in all mediums. We’re a trial and error experiment, where failure is the rule and success is the exception. Once again, that’s mostly due to the age we are in. There’s more deception and dishonesty and that creates an atmosphere of uncertainty about yourself and your fellows. After all, once you’ve made the decision to lie, the first person you lie to is yourself. It has to begin there. That’s also where it ends so... the cure is more immediate and available than people might initially anticipate.

The thing about lying is that it’s habitual. The problem with lying is that it alters your existence to fit the lies and eventually you are surrounded by them. This is what happens in insulated realities like Wall Street; the military, religion, entertainment. In both Wall Street and the military, the end justifies the means. This is how you get a certain kind of amoral psychopath, a flesh pressing gladhander; much like a politician. The stock market is a lie to begin with and relies upon a mysterious sort of trust. You see that when the trust is challenged or fails at its purpose that the system has a crash. Politicians are the indirect liars. They’re all about money too but they’re feathering the nests of their future; a nest they foul upon arrival.

Religion and entertainment are very similar. In the one there’s a convenient god whose will dovetails with the needs of the people running the show. In entertainment, the actor is god playing a role that goes contrary to every tenet that supports the tent of the mysterious traveler, which is why they never see him. People think you can look somewhere that what you seek can’t be found and have it appear by demanding it. What you get is a construct that fits the needs of self interest. God’s the pit boss in life’s casino. Luck and Love are similar in a certain regard. Luck is fickle. She’ll walk into the room on one man’s arm and walk out on someone else’s. Love will do that too because... you are fickle.

Due to what I said earlier, it’s easy for military personnel to start killing civilians; anyone who happens to be around. Because the whole thing is based on a lie, you’re in a rage builder mode. Lies make us angry because we refuse to admit their presence and so the truth, whose job is to liberate, becomes a tormenter. You can’t get away from your conscience, even if you don’t know what it’s trying to tell you. This is why the world enrages us, why manners have disappeared and why confrontation on so many levels is simmering beneath the surface. It’s all a lie and some part of us knows that. Lies are the origin of bondage and freedom is our natural state so... that’s why everyone is angry or indifferent. Of course, indifference is just another mask that gets worn to hide the anger.

One thing about lies is that they increase your vulnerability in undesirable ways. The fruit of this is fear. Knowing that you are vulnerable makes the boogeyman real. A part of you knows that you are in trouble because you’ve sacrificed your protections for something that has little or no value. Now you’ve got fear, anger and contempt. As I’ve said many times, alcohol is the perfect fuel for these emotional states and that’s why it’s a state sanctioned remedy. It certainly doesn’t work. It certainly makes things worse and that is the source of a multitude of economies from the Medical Industrial Complex to the private prison industry.

One of the things that depart (and there are several of them) when you inevitably give in to the gravitational pull of self interest is gratitude, after that compassion is by the side of the road with its thumb out. We cease to care about our fellows because we are in survival mode and the conditions worsen or temporarily improve according to the actions of those pulling the strings. You had a lot of people with 401K’s and pension plans that were connected to the economy and what happened was... Aloha. Some of these people worked their whole life; only to see the predators that had already made their life so fearful and uncertain, walk away with their future.

About fifteen years ago I was doing dinner theatre. It was an upscale operation in the Kaanapali area of Maui, where the money goes to vacation. We had our own restaurant. I worked for a real operator named Wolfgang. He was a German and a unique character; a P.T. Barnum sort. I still hear from him occasionally. He’s back in Germany, near Hamburg, with his first wife. When I met Wolfgang he told me he’d been a mortgage broker in San Francisco. He hired me as an extra/understudy and flew in professional actors from LA and SF to play the two leads. That got a little expensive and it wasn’t very long before I was playing the detective, to the chagrin of everyone else who wanted the job. That’s because there are only two stars and they get paid ten times what the other players got. So I was making a good living and so was the host but the rest of the crew was at subsistence level. I didn’t realize the under current of jealousy and backstabbing that was going on. Back in the day I seldom saw these things. They were there though, as I found out, but... that’s another story.

As I said, it was an upscale operation and we would get congress members and all sorts of high flyers. About ten percent of the show was scripted and the rest was improv because the audience became part of the show. I used to annoy Wolfgang no end by interjecting political commentary and whatever I felt like. I’m talking loose canon territory in suit and tie land. Still, it was entertainment and I must have been worth it because I kept that job until I quit.

At one point, Wolfgang came to me and said, “Look, Visible, you’re not getting any younger. You need to think about how you’re going to take care of yourself later on”. I told Wolfgang that I was always taken care of and it wasn’t something I had to worry about. He couldn’t get his head around that but he didn’t register or believe in what I do, so it didn’t make any practical sense. The fact is though, that was fifteen years ago and things have only improved since. Whatever happens, I’m covered on basic subsistence for as far as I can see and that’s fine with me. I don’t actually need more and when you can get your head clear on that you are in much better shape than those being hounded by anger, fear and contempt; not to mention the absence of gratitude and compassion.

I believe I understand the real value of these qualities; compassion, gratitude, integrity etc. They are a kind of protective armor which is much more effective than Dragon-Skin. Most people do not see how incredibly valuable these things are. They might have some idea that these are components of good character but the magical efficacy of it escapes them. These are powerful forces. As Lao Tzu once said, “Compassion is a weapon from the sky against being dead.

This is the worst thing about the disposable culture in which we live. Meaning has been lost. Nothing means anything and why go through so much trouble to obtain these qualities, when you can just pretend to possess them? There is trouble and sacrifice involved in getting these items, make no mistake about that. It will cost you but... not having them will cost you a great deal more.

If you are going in a certain direction; the opposite of the people swimming in the other direction around you, you encounter these qualities as a matter of course. They present themselves along the highway and its challenges. In the one direction you earn money, position, power, fame etc. In the other direction you earn the qualities and then get the rest of that stuff gratis AND you understand their dangers and uses because ‘the qualities’ give you the ability to see into another world. They’re like magic glasses, the cape of invisibility, wings. You get the Sword of Truth. It’s an actual sword and it cuts through lies like a sharp knife through hot butter. You may think this is all allegorical and to some degree it is but, not entirely. That’s what all those myths are about and the gods are polymorphous expressions of these qualities. Their character and job description, as indicated in the myths and legends, are expressions of the different qualities. If you’ve read about Theseus, Jason and Odysseus, you know what I’m talking about. A great deal of truth is hidden in those myths and the fables and nursery rhymes, which conceal any number of profound verities.

What happens, if you follow the highway I’m talking about; “walking in all things contrary to the world” is that you wind up in a magical landscape, where all sorts of things are possible. If this world has its sad magics then every world has corresponding forces and conditions, which are unique to the zone you are in. Simple lines from ancient books often contain much more than the surface or intellectual meaning, “in the world but not of it”. You’re here but you’re not here. The world looks a lot different to you and sign posts talk. Trees can speak out loud. Everything is alive. In the other world everything is either hiding or sleeping because it’s a dangerous place for everyone, not just us.

Danger is relative to the degree of your fear. Fear is magnetic. It attracts. So does Love. One displaces the other. Lose those shortcomings and gain those qualities and see what kind of an investment that is, as opposed to the usual bank account. Remember, you can’t miss them on this highway I’m talking about. They’re the point of the highway and the origin of the powers of increased vision that make it possible to see through what is not there to what actually happens to be.


End Transmission.......

Max Keiser bravely fends off the financial trolls - Ten O'clock live