Opinion: The ones running rackets will not save you…

One thing is for certain. If you elect gangsters, they will make their office into racket. It is just a matter of time. Their leadership, their model and their ways will exposes by a crisis like COVID-19. The Coronavirus will show the weakness and expose the realities.

The Administration, the government will show its true face. If it is sincere, if they have policies or even if they damn care about you, the citizens. However, if you elected a gangster or accepted that they rigged themselves into office. Than, expect the worse.

Because, normally, they will issue some tenders and take some kickbacks, juice up the prices, make fake shell-companies and secure the patronage money from the state coffers. Usually, that hurts the institutions, the government and the budgets. But it doesn’t change much on the ground. As some of the services, some of the procurements are good, but that are drip drops on a faulty system anyway. There are some roads built, some maintained, but a lot to give. That is why development projects, infrastructure projects sky-rocket in price and costs, also prolonged by the gangsters who need their cut.

However, in a COVID-19 crisis, a pandemic this doesn’t work. Their years of neglect and phony contracts cannot sustain the damage, the hurt and the pain. It is occurrent and they cannot forge the paperwork. They rewrite deaths and positive tests of people, but somewhere along the line, there will be mysterious deaths. Secondly, the Hospitals, the ICU beds and ventilators cannot be faked.

Their racket, the racketeering cannot save you. Not that they sheltered the public. Not like the previous rackets or tricks of trade made a big change, but it was a make belief and rouse. It tricked the paper-tigers and surely sold a lot donors. However, the dire poverty is still as rampant. The lack of social security net and welfare state is evident. The heads of state who used their position as a racket is exposed. Their years of neglect and lack of care is now official news.

These folks, these gangster will not save you now. They will only postpone and try to salvage their hurt. They want to secure their vaults and their wealth. If they do things, its only to secure their empires and their vast resources. They will dispose those on the public, neither will they dole the public with massive gifts nor invests properly in the failing Ministry of Health. No, they will await the donors, the Multi-National Organizations, United Nations and whoever who is seeing the tragedy and hope their dime can change the equation. Even if they have dollars upon dollars stored away in unnamed bank-account in Switzerland. Because, that is what they do.

Don’t expect Gangster to save you. They are in it for the nickels and dime. By the hook or by the crook. Anything can become a racket, they just need to find the loophole and the ability to trick the situation. Don’t expect them to save you and yours. They will only patch the hurt if it benefit them in the long-run and you will repay their loyalty. If not, you will be forgotten or not mentioned. You toils, you pain, your suffering doesn’t count, because there is nothing you can repay the favour with.

That is how this is. The game is rigged, you were not expected to play, but you will still loose. It’s just like Casinos. The House cannot loose. The Gangster cannot loose either. The mobster will win. It is just a matter of time. The public will cry, the pain will be real and the death will be on the street. Don’t expect the gangster to mourn, except when the men of honour dies. Than, he will salute and shed a tear for the public. That is only a facade, as long as he reigns supreme. Peace.

Opinion: Politics and Policies of our day is like poisons wells, as the politicians cannot even provide the basic services to the citizens!

“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road” – Dag Hammarskjöld

Someone has to say it and seems like it has to be me. But there are something wrong with out time and day. When it is made easier to get funds to analyze the waters on Mars and the moon. Than, actually making sure the citizens of so many nations is struggling to provide proper water sources to their citizens. It isn’t like it is the people of Miami’s fault, neither the people of Tokyo, that there is no water in regions of Sudan or in Somalia. That isn’t the fault directly of these people. Neither of mine. But we have to ask. Why is it so? When did this become acceptable?

Not that we made this over day, not that the society was built in a day. It moved to this, we let certain people run our nations, we let certain companies take advantage and also multi-national organization serve certain beneficiaries every single day. We let that happen and it is continuing. We are letting the marginalized being hurt on the daily without any consideration. This is continuing without anyone stopping, while the leaders are driving in expensive SUVs and having palaces for homes. While the ones they represent struggles to pay for enough rice on their plate. We are letting this happen. We are letting them get away with murder, daylight robbery and we are letting them take away the wealth of the nations.

This is not how it is supposed to be. The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Multi-National Companies, State Institutions and State Owned Companies are supposed to all work together to provide and secure delivery of services and products that we all need. If it work in perfect harmony, than the public and companies should prosper together. If it is correct, the NGOs should overlook society and the state, to make sure they follow the rights of every individual and make sure the politicians doesn’t take advantage of their powers. However, sometimes and to often the security and the state of affairs isn’t made this way.

The companies has secret deals with the politicians, the NGOs are afraid of doing their questioning and reporting, out of fear of addressing the matters and the wrong-doings. The nature, the people and the society are hurt for short-term profits. The companies are more directly involved in the elite politicians and sometimes founded by them. They are making sure the state are covering the debts created in these companies and making sure the family members are hired too. All in a circle of vicious eating of the state funds, without concern on how it affect the economy or the unemployed community. This is happening, while the Wall Street Companies and the big corporations let them. Since they are affiliated and getting fortunes on the funds getting through this process.

We should worry about this, we should pound about it. Not accept it, the acknowledgment that something is wrong, that something isn’t right. That we are taken for granted, other people are eating of our resources and taken everything. Not supporting or adjusting to make sure they actually serve the public. They are not hiring or making sure to respect the provisions of the state even. As they are making deals inside the State House or with family members of the Executive. This is happening on daily basis. The ignorance and indifference. The malicious takings and unacceptable use of public resources. This is just insane and we let it happen again and again. When they know they can, they don’t have to deliver water in the taps, make sure the school is decent and has books, police officers being paid, the soldiers being fed on operations and the roads well-kept. They don’t have to, because they walk in the National Bank, empty the accounts and flee the scene without no Oceans 11. Just walk in suits and tie, smile and grin and go out like they ordered a pizza at the Hut. No issue, no nothing.

That is why there is no water, why there is well, why there are no services. Because we have accepted to be taken for granted, we have accepted to fooled and stolen from, that the powers can silence us and take it all, without any question or any honor. While speaking to us and belittling us. They are using all measures and all the provisions to hold us down. But should we let them? Is that right?

I don’t think so, neither should you. It isn’t just about water, but when you cannot provide what is needed and everything needs to live. You know that society is out of whack. You know that the government doesn’t give a rats ass about you or your kin. Then its time to question them and show them you matter. Not just compliance, but defiance. Not silence, neither violence, but demonstrations that hurt the system and give them a mental beating. Hurt their pockets and their will. That is the only way to stop this, neither companies, NGOs or ruling elite, will give a damn until the people start to stop their bread and circus. When they don’t have fancy bread and has the circus. They will run away and stop being loyal to the paradigm. Until, that happen, they will be ignorance and not care, until their nearest surroundings are breaking and in for the taking.

Just think about that…. Just think about that… Not let that go, the society who cannot even deliver the basics has to be shaken, has to stirred, not with violence, but as long as it silence its weakest and poorest. They are the ones who has to be on the barricades and break the kingpins on top. No-one else will give way. It will cost to do this peacefully. But it has to stop. That there is no water in the tap, there is no well for miles, there is no jobs for 80% of the youth and educated get to emigrate to get a job. Then you know the state of affairs is wrong.

You shouldn’t accept it and neither should I. Not because I do something magnificent, but I don’t. I will just not let my writing and my thoughts be altered into ignorance, when I know to many people on this earth. Get taken for granted, get used as pawns and used tools, when they need aid funds and when they need development funds. However, some of that always get taken. That is why they stay poor and act poor, easy funds to tap into. They can just eat of the IMF, World Bank and Development Banks as long as they write fine plans and proceedings. Someone will take it and buy into it.

That is why the well isn’t built, the water isn’t in the tap. There is no deep concern. There is no concern that yields are dwindling, the sources are not there, the storage of rain-water isn’t there either. Nothing is taken care off. That while the politicians ride by in expensive cars, nice watches, big entourages with security guards and affiliates, give away few pieces of bread and a grand speech. But when the ordinary day passes by, nothing is done, the pothole still there and the liquidated funds are non-existent, the plans was just on paper and things remain the same.

Still, the people and elites expect silence. They don’t expect an uprising, they don’t expect people to say enough, to say, we deserve water, we deserve a state who cares and secure the future of our kids. We deserve to make a society where all people can get a livelihood. Not just the ones closets to the elite. There should be more possibilities. There should be, but there isn’t.

It got to stop, we got to drill and build. We got too, but first we got destroy, to be able to rebuild. We have to dismantle, piece by piece. Because if we continue, the elites and the powers to be will not let go. It is easy money and your not eating. Its a simple trade and one is the loser. While the other party takes it all. Peace.

USA: Durbin Calls On Illinois to Refuse Request to Release Illinois Voter Files To Trump Commisson on Voter Fraud (03.07.2017)

USA: Attorney General Frosh Statement on Request for Personal Information of Maryland Voters (03.07.2017)

Opinion: Too many Gangsters and too few Statesmen!

“The truth is that every intelligent man, as you know, dreams of being a gangster and of ruling over society by force alone. As it is not so easy as the detective novels might lead one to believe, one generally relies on politics and joins the cruelest party. What does it matter, after all, if by humiliating one’s mind one succeeds in dominating every one? I discovered in myself sweet dreams of oppression.” – Albert Camus

In the time of abundance of information, of knowledge and of history, we still reap of a world not of Statesmen, but of gangsters. These sort of people who collect themselves in dens at night to scheme and to plan their next theft. Instead of building nations, building republics and building the foundation needed for the future generations.

We have a leadership and a bunch of leaders, who are more around their wealth and their image, than their achievements, as the protocol is to standout, but not deliver polices that actually matter.

That the politician of our day, many of them and the ones who rule, wants to have power, they seek power and they grab power by any means. While the citizens in fear of answering the theft and the perfect crime, let it go for their safety and their families sake. The thieving from the highest offices, the might of these men. The vicious theft of state reserves done in broad day light, on the main-streets of the capitals of the world. As if the state coffers was personal reserves for Gucci or Fendi. Instead of serving the public with welfare and decent infrastructure.

The biggest thieves are the actual criminals, because they do in the dark and steal, they sell illegal dozes of drugs and violates justice with impunity. That is their role in society. They are supposed to be the ones who force ill and creates havoc if caught. The leadership of the nations are supposed to be the example of men, the one the citizens looks up to and want to become. They want to emulate and know that these men makes the future.

Instead, they are vicious, playing in codes and use all sort of tricks to get the public funds, to misuse and allocate the funds, so that the welfare dies and the state suffers. So that they can ride in the most expensive vehicles known to men, so they can afford the best cuts of meat, one prime real estate and wear the fancies imported suits. Still, the ones they are take care off; they suffer and can nearly scrap funds for the schooling for their daughters and sons.

Therefore, the biggest thief is not the ones who actually does direct crime, but the gangsters in Parliament, in local government and the Presidents. Who eats of the government plate, take the funds without any hesitation and spends their time sponging fortunes, which was supposed to benefit the public. These sort of acts of looting that skates by and leave nothing, but dust behind.

That the sweet dreams of oppression, the sanity of society and the knowledge of the culprit, the knowledge of the capacity of the leadership and regimes to misuse their power and their connections, the altercation of the norms to benefit the elite and the businesses surrounding the state. Instead of having a state that actually works of the citizens. There are certain signs of misbehavior that never should happen. So that the citizens are sure their representatives are men of honor and men of pride, not just who eats of the plate of the citizens. That doesn’t misuse the capacity as representative to get wealth, but to build their nations. As a functioning branch that support the citizens and listens to the will of the citizens. Since if, they get wealth by being connecting to corporations, to international community, more than the citizens. Then there is something wrong with the system between citizens and their representatives.

The leadership should not focus on the power they have, but the power that is bestowed them. They would not have it, if it were not for the people. They would just be citizens without any special function or be deserves anything else. The representatives are there as an acknowledgement from their constituency. If they forget that, then it is time to change them. Then the public should elect someone else, since the citizens deserves better representation.

Therefore, as we see today and look beyond for tomorrow, we should think of the reasons why we have so many gangsters in charge, why we let them and why we cannot get rid of them. They are there with force, but not with our will. We should act upon it and deservedly not let us, be taken for granted or being used by some gangsters. We should give time and effort to dismantle the leadership and finds way to forge a new future. With leaders who represent not only themselves, but also their constituent and their will.

That the people who are having nations run by gangsters should feel betrayed, they should find ways to get rid of them. Not just let it be status quo, let them run the shop and take the spoils. Leave nothing behind, but stolen promises and leaflets of pledges. The empty hope and the theft of nations, as the resources, the future generations and the present struggles become harder, as the crime of the gangster are determined in dens without knowledge of the commons.

These sort of acts should not have the time or the day, in our age, but they do and with a grander acts than before, and we let it happen. We let them take, we let them do and we let them justify their rule. As we are just citizens, they can walkover and does not need to serve. As long as we let the gangsters, we are at our own fault, as we let the crime go-on… and go-on… with no plan of change for the better. We just let our government sink as a ship, with no exit plan and no Plan B.

The Gangsters are eating, we are drowning, is this the supposed enlightenment we as society was supposed to have? Peace.

Cry havoc: Kanye creates more fuzz than actual news!

This are one of these days where I see more articles about the meeting between President-Elect Donald J. Trump at the Trump Tower with the rapper Kanye West. What should be news that more and more people connected with either Big-Oil like the Standard Oil babies ExxonMobile, grand wizards of the economy, hedge fund infused billionaires and others are packing their offices to find ways of ravaging the faucets and gooses, while the workers are tripping and wonder what they voted in.

The American People been duped by a sales-man with such vigour and bravado that he claimed Hillary Clinton’s connection to the big business and Wall Street; while him two seconds and near the swearing-in are handpicking more Goldman Sachs officials than fish in a barrel.

With this in mind the visit of Kanye West at the Trump Tower is just a suggestion, from the man in 2011 on ‘Watch the Throne’ LP on the song ‘New Day’ wrote:

“And I’ll never let my son have an ego

He’ll be nice to everyone, wherever we go

I mean I might even make him be Republican

So everybody know he love white people”

Therefore, the truth of the matter is that this is not really a thing. If so, this is made-up to undermine the key aspects in the wind. The Goldman, the swamp swirling around the nest and dropping loads of golden eggs for the big business to use.

That the cabinet either filled with the ones that was to be cleared out of Washington D.C. or the populist agenda with men like Jeff Sessions and Stephen Bannon whose despicable worldview can destroy any kind of men has belief in decency left in the American Experience. Therefore, the scenery of this Alt-Right, White Supremacist in power should not overshadow the greedy-guts that are nominees for seriously grand opportunities.

Where bankers, where big industrialist and self-loathing interests combined with the infused tolerance for business over policy can conquer the republic’s works. As the lax-tax and corporate loopholes will be covered into a level where it isn’t a few bigger whole like a Swiss-Cheese, instead more like common water leaks like from pipes connected to the faucets.

The faucet is the sales-man on the top, the President-Elect Trump that gives all the donors of the Republican Party a feast, also the men and woman who can offer something in return; so the nomination is a future-buy in for a coming return on investment. The portfolio is more of government funds and taxes together with the estimated earnings on foreign affairs as the kickbacks through the political funded monies can return to the bankers and the industries that offered their nominees.

So we shouldn’t worry about Kanye is hanging out with the President-Elect, when the view of the man and woman handpicked to secure the coffers, misuse the immigrants as scarecrows for their economic policies to enrich themselves and their top 1 %, while leaving leaves and empty promises behind.

Therefore, American people be proud of you and yours have created! This is what you will become and what that is ahead, the President-Elect is surely going to have a blast and you as the citizen of the grand Republic going to left behind with the bill. Pay it either directly or to the rich-men is coffers or as a benefit for what you already had.

Certainly these noblemen who is handpicked by the Trump isn’t going to let you off the hook easily, they are in to cash-in or they are nominated to departments they back-in the day didn’t believe in like Ben Carson or Rick Perry. However, when they get a government position it’s all smiles and glory, even if they got no clue about the organization or its mission. Because that is not needed, because the President-Elect does not know what he is entitled to do either.

We can grin and wonder why Trump meet with Kanye, other than a publicity stunt of some kind, as the Republican blasted Obama for meeting Common at the White House, but no one is screaming vicious when Trump met with Kanye, since that is just so COOL!

Well, the reality is that the Republican party can stick it, for the pain and suffering they will give their own in the will of little government, little tax and massive army, the taxation policies as well as the prospects of Alt-Right policies to make enemies out of neighbours who are citizens as much the next one. Certainly, the Trump administration got work ahead, not only with themselves, but also with the Republic it will run. Peace.

On Trump: How did we get here?

I got to ask! How did we get here? What happen for the worldwide of events to lead to the man of that stature to be elected as the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, the leader of the so-called free-world! That the man most enlightened and most visionary happen to be the Donald, Donald J. Trump of New York and Manhattan.

We got to ask, now that it’s a month since he won the Electoral College and days apart from when they are throwing their inherent ballot to suffocate the world for 4 years. The Electoral College that has been basis for speculations for months for all broadcaster’s from inner Montana to Hot 97 in New York. Seriously, the Democracy of world is based on few noble men and woman from the states electing a president on confidence of the rules in each state. Because the people cannot be trusted to already elect a person on the ballot. Not that the United States population is caring enough about civic education to consider a fellow caring human being, still they should reconsider their political system when a fellow like Trump can eat cake and vomit daily from the White House. Just as written here: “The Constitution does not specifically require electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote in their states, but the laws of 29 states and the District of Columbia bind electors to do so. Some require pledges or threaten fines or criminal action, according to a summary of state laws by the National Assn. of Secretaries of State. No elector has ever been prosecuted for not voting as pledged. Since 1900, there have been only nine faithless electors who defected for individual reasons, including one who abstained from voting altogether” (Los Angeles Times – ‘All the times in U.S. history that members of the electoral college voted their own way’ (08.12.2016) link: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-faithless-electors-2016-story.html).

But, still with that in mind, how did we get there? It can be so many reasons, the lacking knowledge of how government works or the need for understanding of intricate policy building to succeed in Washington D.C. or that some daft small-town ignorant citizens would drop a metaphorical bomb on the lobbyists and elite in the capital. That is what they thought they did with electing a “billionaire” Trump who after becoming President-Elect started plotting together the riches, the most connected to big-business cabinet that has been in the White House. As well as taking in men who despise the ideas of certain departments and chambers they will run; so that the American government can become smaller and take in less tax of the wealthy that they all in power represent. They are walking away from the all the needed men and woman in the grass-root that ushered in the Trump Administration. So now they can do what they want without question, because the votes secured this chair’s and possibilities that is now in for the taking.

We got there with fear, with a dishonest media, a dishonest internet, little spread of information and quick browsing through the contested campaigns as we still doesn’t know what “Making America Great Again!” means or to what extent making it better. If that is making KKK and Alt-Right accepted as a means of less-subtle racism in politics and the American communities, that has surely happen. That the Trump Campaign has surged on the fear of immigration and job-loss is clear factors, while they haven’t had a coherent plan to fix it. This has been seen as a factor while the Obama Administration took the nation from 7.9% unemployed into 4.9 % in 8 years that has happen while the Republican Party and Trump has claimed the destruction of nation as they know it. Which cannot be seen in statistics, tax-base or in sort of inflation level since the start of Recession of 2008; but that doesn’t matter because the myth of problems is what Trump needs! Just said like this: “The term Alt-Right, reputedly coined in 2008 by Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute, a bogus think-tank, encompasses views from libertarianism to paleoconservatism and onwards to the edges of pseudo-intellectual claptrap and the English language. Many Alt-Righters demonise Jews, but a few do not. Some, such as Brad Griffin of Occidental Dissent, another website, think “democracy can become a tool of oppression”, and that monarchy or dictatorship might be better; others, such as Mr Taylor, disagree. Some are techno-futurists; others espouse a kind of agrarian nostalgia. Many mourn the Confederacy. Mr Griffin thinks that, even today, North and South should separate” (…) “Yet from the quack ideologues to the out-and-proud neo-Nazis, some Alt-Right tenets are clear and constant. It repudiates feminism with misogynistic gusto. It embraces isolationism and protectionism. Above all, it champions white nationalism, or a neo-segregationist “race realism”, giving apocalyptic warning of an impending “white genocide”. Which, of course, is really just old-fashioned white supremacism in skimpy camouflage” (…) “The association precedes Mr Trump’s hiring as his campaign manager of Stephen Bannon, former boss of Breitbart News, a reactionary news website that Mr Bannon reportedly described as “the platform for the Alt-Right”, and which has covered the movement favourably” (Economist – ‘Trump and the Alt-Right Pepe and the stormtroopers’ 17.09.2016 link: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21707201-how-donald-trump-ushered-hateful-fringe-movement-mainstream-pepe-and).

Why I ask myself this now is because of we’re soon in 2017, there will be important questions ahead. Many that we cannot foresee as much as the environment and climate change might mean for us, as kid of the 90s I remember the sun-damage danger and the Ozone, now it’s the CO2 emissions and heated polluted air, that Donald Trump doesn’t believe him because he is not a penguin who’s struggling to in dwindling ice on Greenland. As he assemble people who cares for business over environment, that cares more about production than the reasons for the earthquakes in Oklahoma state: “The state has seen a sever spike in earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher since 2008, when energy companies ramped up their hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas in the state, Choy said. The number of 3.0 magnitude quakes rose from 2 in 2008 to 889 last year, according to USGS statistics. So far this year, there have been 572” (USA Today,’ Oklahoma earthquake reignites concerns that fracking wells may be the cause’ 07.11.2016 link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/07/oklahoma-earthquake-fracking-well/93447830/).

We can wonder how this might be, as the Alt-Right, Republican Cabinet is assembled by men and woman who will honour Trump, be his advisors and take orders as he doesn’t have trouble with connections with his own businesses that his kids will control while he is in command. This is still an issue a month after as he will be Executive Producer for ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ on NBC while being in the White House, which is a hobby for the old-man who just used two years becoming President. So the Trump Organization will surely be controlled from the White House as he cannot shelf his control from anything he touches, even if that breaches with the constitution. That foreign dignitaries are now renting rooms in the Trump Hotels close to the White House, as it just happen to done during the Presidential Campaign was just coincidence: “Wednesday’s grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the culmination of a $200 million project. The Trump Organization renovated the 1899 Romanesque Revival-style Old Post Office building, on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House. With 263 guest rooms and suites, and a ballroom that Trump has said is the biggest in the nation’s capital, the hotel is among the priciest in town. Donald Trump, speaking at the event, said the hotel came in “under budget and ahead of schedule.” He cut the ribbon in the lobby alongside wife Melania and children Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany” (Bloomberg – ‘Trump Executives Tout Brand Resilience at D.C. Hotel Opening’ 26.10.2016 link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-26/trump-executives-use-d-c-hotel-opening-to-tout-brand-resilience).

So as he was a Presidential-Candidate he could consider his time to his own business, how could we get there and how could the citizens who voted for him think he will act differently a month after? Certainly the proof now is clear that he thinks of his business and opportunities as much as he can consider America first. The public might grab glimpses of his thoughts on Twitter, but not a reality of how that will be configured in actions as President.

What the world can expect and how he will acts is unsure, more unsure than the policies of the Tories coming to the “leaving Europe and European Union in the Red-White-Blue Brexit” of Theresa May. Donald Trump might bomb somewhere for oil, he might kill kids and families to stop the civil war in Syria. What we can foresee of his actions is unknown and the US Society accepted that sort opinions and as a Commander-in-Chief is exceptional.

The bravery and the reality, the stuttering silence of hope and only despair. Industrialization together with Multi-National Companies who gotten all freedom and liberty, while the citizens has to apply and be lucky to get jobs. The reality of Multi-National Companies steering lobbying in Washington D.C. and together with giant supported Super-PACs has picked out the “good” candidates for the Trump Administration as the roots of too big to fail is evident in the matter of businesses of the day. That is where the US dream is happening and dying. It is dying because of the Multi-National gets full control of the Senate and Congress, the President and if the Supreme Court Justices dies, than they can get their selected people to run for them there too. Not for the public good or will, but for the companies’ profits. That will be on overdrive with the men that has been picked as Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of Commerce.

How did we get to a place where the Presidential Candidate who was supposed to be there for the workers, the American workers was in shambles, that he nominees a man who has done this: “Puzder observes, “They’re not talking about $15 or $12 an hour, the kind of dramatic increases that are being bandied about in the political process right now.”  CKE’s average wage, he says, is a bit over $10 an hour, “so we’re not talking about everybody in the restaurant working for $7.25.” (In California, the minimum wage is now $10.) “But we’re talking about entry-level jobs. Are people going to want to hire entry-level employees for these very high minimums, which come with Obamacare, which come with mandatory sick leave, or other benefits which the government imposes on business for these individuals? Are you going to be able to keep minimum wage entry-level job positions open for individuals?” (L.A. Times – ‘   Does Andy Puzder really want to replace his Carl’s Jr. workers with robots? No, but…’ 30.03.2016 link: http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-puzder-20160322-snap-htmlstory.html).

So with this all in mind, we should ask how we got here? Michael Moore said it so nicely back in the day: “Midwest Math, or Welcome to Our Rust Belt Brexit.  I believe Trump is going to focus much of his attention on the four blue states in the rustbelt of the upper Great Lakes – Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Four traditionally Democratic states – but each of them have elected a Republican governor since 2010 (only Pennsylvania has now finally elected a Democrat). In the Michigan primary in March, more Michiganders came out to vote for the Republicans (1.32 million) that the Democrats (1.19 million). Trump is ahead of Hillary in the latest polls in Pennsylvania and tied with her in Ohio. Tied? How can the race be this close after everything Trump has said and done? Well maybe it’s because he’s said (correctly) that the Clintons’ support of NAFTA helped to destroy the industrial states of the Upper Midwest. Trump is going to hammer Clinton on this and her support of TPP and other trade policies that have royally screwed the people of these four states” (…) “That’s a small peek into the mind of the Endangered White Male. There is a sense that the power has slipped out of their hands, that their way of doing things is no longer how things are done. This monster, the “Feminazi,”the thing that as Trump says, “bleeds through her eyes or wherever she bleeds,” has conquered us — and now, after having had to endure eight years of a black man telling us what to do, we’re supposed to just sit back and take eight years of a woman bossing us around?” (…) “The Depressed Sanders Vote. Stop fretting about Bernie’s supporters not voting for Clinton – we’re voting for Clinton! The polls already show that more Sanders voters will vote for Hillary this year than the number of Hillary primary voters in ’08 who then voted for Obama. This is not the problem. The fire alarm that should be going off is that while the average Bernie backer will drag him/herself to the polls that day to somewhat reluctantly vote for Hillary, it will be what’s called a “depressed vote” – meaning the voter doesn’t bring five people to vote with her. He doesn’t volunteer 10 hours in the month leading up to the election” (Michael More – ‘5 Reasons Why Trump Will Win’ link: http://michaelmoore.com/trumpwillwin/).

That Michael Moore saw it coming and asked for society to think about the reasons for protest Trump vote out there and the plans for shaking certain swing-states to the Republican Party. Something that happen… and it wasn’t beautiful the ones who had hope for another experience. We can just wonder how they got duped to follow this man and made the system ready for his as commander in chief!

I just wonder how the American Experience became Donald J. Trump, how we went from hope and change, into fear and depression, where the army and military will get more power, where the multi-national companies will be more connected with the Trump Administration and the fracking, big-oil, giant banks and finance industry get more power in the White House. The Republican Party and their loyal cronies will have both houses and the Presidency under Trump. So the possibilities are endless. We can wonder how we got here.

How did we get here? And we should ask ourselves that? The answers are many and reasons for the US election turning to Trump should be asked more times as the answers will be different with times, as the layers will peeled off and we will find the core reasons for why a Reality Star, a Real Estate Investor and a Limited Label salesman, sometimes a snake-oil of that, became the next President of the United States. Peace.

The nominations of Mnuschin and Ross proves that Donald Trump is not ‘draining the swamp’!

The Economic Policies of any United States administration are usually bound by the people that are running two key positions; these are Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of Commerce. The Economy is bound by the decisions these ones do. This here will prove what kind of administration that Trump will run and what kind of regulations of trade, business and economy in general. Therefore the picking of personnel is central to how the state of affairs at the top of the food-chain in Washington.

Donald Trump the Presidential-Elect that has been all and mighty on draining the swamp. So he proves that it was just words during the campaign to sell to his supporters, he even pledged this earlier in the year:

“We have to give new voices a chance … so we can have a government that works again and can function properly …” Trump said” (Hughes, 2016).

Draining the Swamp:

“There is another major announcement I am going to make today as part of our pledge to drain the swamp in Washington. If I am elected President, I will push for a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress” (…) “Decades of failure in Washington, and decades of special interest dealing, must come to an end. We have to break the cycle of corruption, and we have to give new voices a chance to go into government service. The time for Congressional term limits has arrived” (…) “Not only will we end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation” (Trump, 2016).

We will first see what the Treasury are supposed to do and what the department will do:

“Treasury’s mission highlights its role as the steward of U.S. economic and financial systems, and as an influential participant in the world economy” (Treasury.gov – ‘About – Role of Treasury’). So the Secretary of Treasury is important for the financial system, therefore it’s important to look at the nominee. So we have to look into the nominee who has influence of the financial systems.

Also, we have to see what is special about the Department of Commerce: “The Department works with businesses, universities, communities, and the Nation’s workers to promote job creation, economic growth, sustainable development, and improved standards of living for Americans. Through its 12 bureaus and nearly 47,000 employees located in all 50 states and five U.S. territories and more than 86 countries worldwide, the Department administers critical programs that touch the lives of every American” (Commerce.gov – ‘About Commerce’). So we can see the importance of the person leading these 12 bureaus that should make it possible to create jobs and commercial business in the United States, therefore the person leading here has to know how to improve the economic growth.

With this knowledge the persons acts before and their economic framework together with the economic platform; that means their faith in the markets or the regulations. That he will give way to free regulations for the financial markets instead of regulating them.

Steve Mnuchin is the nominee for Secretary of Treasury:

“Mnuchin worked at Goldman Sachs for seventeen years, where he eventually became an executive vice president. According to the Wall Street Journal, he left in 2002 “at the age of 39 with a reported $46 million stake in the bank.” He was recruited by his Yale roommate, Eddie Lampert, to join ESL, a hedge fund, as vice chairman. A few months later, he jumped to SFM Capital Management as its CEO. But within a few months he changed jobs again, leaving SFM to co-found Dune Capital with his former Goldman colleagues Daniel Neidich and Chip Seelig” (…) “In 2009, Mnuchin helped assemble a group of investors (including computer capitalist Michael Dell, financier George Soros, private equity investor Christopher Flowers, and hedge fund titan John Paulson) to buy IndyMac Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as part of a sweetheart deal. They renamed it OneWest Bank and kept its headquarters in Pasadena” (Dreier, 2016).

Relativity bankrupt:

“Relativity explicitly blames the bank, founded by Steve Mnuchin, who until recently was one of studio founder Ryan Kavanaugh’s best friends and a company director, for violating bankruptcy procedures and for delaying the release of a movie recently considered to be the studio’s savior, a letter and an email from the company obtained by The Post reveal” (…) “ OneWest’s hoovering up of the $50 million, revealed in court papers, included $32 million drained from the studio’s library and $17.9 million from two other accounts” (…) “The bank’s actions placed Relativity in a precarious financial state, forcing it to largely “stop paying many vendor bills, to postpone production of certain film projects and to postpone the release of certain completed films,” Blackstone’s Tim Coleman, Relativity’s financial adviser, said in court papers” (McCaulay, 2016)

Foreclosure from OneWest:  

“According to Gudiel, when she tried to make the $2,500-a-month mortgage payment two weeks late in November 2009, OneWest refused the payment and instructed her to pursue a loan modification, a long process that ultimately ended in rejection in January” (…) “OneWest referred questions to the public relations firm Sard Verbinnen & Co., which said that Fannie Mae, which holds about one-third of the mortgages in the country, had not authorized them to modify the loan” (… ) “OneWest is pleased that it has been able to work with Fannie Mae, the owner of the loan, to authorize it to offer the Gudiels a loan modification that would allow the family to stay in their home,” the firm said in a statement” (Huus, 2011).

Fraud from his bank:

“While the Rigalis were negotiating on the mortgage modifications, IndyMac Federal Bank failed in what would be the fourth-largest bank failure in U.S. history. What was left of IndyMac was acquired in March 2009 by a Mnuchin-led group of private investors for $1.55 billion” (…) “The Rigalis’ court filings “alleged they were led to believe, by representatives of several banks over a period of years, that their $560,000 loan would be modified. They believed they had entered into several forbearance agreements with several but related banks.” (…) “Crandall wrote in his denial of the motion that “the facts before the court are sufficient to defeat summary judgment” of most of OneWest Bank’s assertions, and he concluded that the Rigalis produced enough proven evidence to show that they could prevail in a jury trial. OneWest quickly offered a settlement, sources said” (…) “Recent legislative measures “provide an important lens” for the court to look through, wrote Crandall in denying OneWest’s motion” (…) “The judge was referring to the banking practice of dual tracking, in which a borrower in default seeks a modification while the institution continues at the same time to pursue foreclosure. By the time the borrower learns what is happening, it is usually too late to prevent the foreclosure” (Blackburn, 2013).

Just as he has become the nominee certain board positions he had to give up:

“NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT), cit.com, a leading provider of commercial lending and leasing services, today announced that Steven T. Mnuchin has resigned from its Board of Directors, effective immediately. His resignation follows President-elect Donald J. Trump’s announced intention to nominate Mnuchin as the next Secretary of the Treasury” (…) “On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Steven for his contributions to CIT,” said Ellen R. Alemany, Chairwoman and CEO. “Steven has been a valued member of our Board, and we wish him well in this monumental role.” (CIT.com, 2016). He also stepped down from being a board-member at Sears.

So the OneWest CEO Steve Mnuchin is becoming the Secretary of Treasury in the Trump Administration. He been a board-member in CIT and Sears, as well as been speculative in foreclosures in people’s homes as well as Relativity studio or Film Company became bankrupt because of the loans and structure of funding through OneWest. So this speculative actions can be assured of will happen, but not with just one hedge-fund Wall-Street banker bravado, but now with the economic policies as underlining from the newly nominated Munuchin.

Than we have the other nominee that will lead 12 important bureaus that is now being delegated through the financial heavy weight Ross; which also have long history on Wall Street.

Wilbur Ross is the nominee for Secretary of Commerce:  

Wilbur is another fellow with a spreadsheet that is impressive, but also sees the cynical side of the economy, where the importance of business is profits; not actually creating work. Therefore his nomination is more about securing equity is the reality than the person who actually earns those fortunes. Therefore the way he salvaged the businesses and made profits on them, as well as the reality of the man behind those transactions and how many settlements for fraudulent acts from his companies and subsidiaries. Here is a little look!

“Wilbur Ross is best known for his ability to find distressed companies and turn them around for a large profit – it is a talent that has given him an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion. And in recent years Ross’s sights have been firmly set on financial companies. Since 2008 he has invested a reported $1.8 billion into banks.  But now he has had enough. NBNK Investments, the investment company in which Ross took a 30% stake in 2013 and that tried and failed to buy TSB from Lloyds, is closing. In 2010 NBNK had raised £50 million in an IPO with the aim of financing European banks. Six years later, it didn’t have a single investment to show for it” (Avery, 2016).

“WL Ross & Co. LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, is a private equity firm that was founded in 2000. WL Ross registered as an investment adviser with the Commission in April 2007. WL Ross is headquartered in New York, New York. Since 2006, WL Ross has been wholly owned by Invesco Private Capital, Inc., a subsidiary of Invesco Ltd., a publicly traded company (collectively, “Invesco”). WL Ross provides investment advisory services to the WLR Funds and other private equity funds, as well as to separately managed accounts and co-investment vehicles. According to its most recent Form ADV filing as of April 21, 2016, WL Ross has approximately $4.6 billion in assets under management” (Service Exchange Commission, 2016).

“Between 2001 and 2011, WL Ross adopted a Transaction Fee allocation methodology that resulted in WLR retaining a significant amount of those fees for itself rather than allocating them to the WLR Funds for the purpose of offsetting the management fee. Specifically, WL Ross allocated Transaction Fees that it earned from portfolio investments to the WLR Funds based upon their relative ownership percentages of the portfolio company without disclosing this practice. As a result, WL Ross retained for itself that portion of the Transaction Fees that was based upon co-investors’ relative ownership of the portfolio company, without subjecting such fees to any management fee offsets. WLR did not disclose to the WLR Funds and to the Funds’ limited partners that it would allocate Transaction Fees according to the above allocation methodology, and that WLR construed the ambiguous provisions in the relevant LPAs in its own favor rather than the WLR Funds’ favor. If WL Ross had instead adopted a methodology requiring the allocation of all Transaction Fees pro rata among the investing WLR Funds (and other WLR funds that also had offset provisions) and offset the WLR Funds’ management fees accordingly, the WLR Funds (and other WLR funds that also had offset provisions) would have received the benefit of all Transaction Fees received by WL Ross. WL Ross received approximately $10.4 million more in management fees using the selected methodology than if it had allocated Transaction Fees pro rata among the WLR Funds for management fee offset purposes during the relevant time period” (Security Exchange Commission, 2016).

Earning money on failing business:

“In May the board of NBNK, made up of private equity firm WL Ross & Co’s senior vice president Stephen Johnson, and Labour life peer and barrister Lord Brennan, voted in May to make the payment to WL Ross & Co for the “recovery of legal fees and other due diligence costs.” (…) “The vehicle’s most recent accounts revealed a loss for the year of £271,000, from a loss of £182,000 the previous year” (Bambrough, 2016).

“Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross has reached a deal to buy Nexeo Solutions Holdings LLC, a distributor of plastic resins and chemicals, for roughly $1.6 billion, including debt” (…) “Nexeo is currently owned by private-equity firm TPG, which purchased the company for nearly $1 billion from U.S. specialty-chemicals producer Ashland Inc (NYSE: ASH) in 2011. The deal is expected to be announced on Monday morning” (…) “WL Ross Holding will pay $500 million in cash and fund the rest of the purchase with debt, the sources told the newspaper. TPG will roll over some of its equity into the new public company, one of the people told the Journal” (DiSavino, 2016).

“The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday that the group failed to disclose its fee allocation practices, resulting in investors overpaying by $10.4m between 2001 and 2011. WL Ross was not allocating transaction fees to the funds to offset management fees, the SEC said” (…) “WL Ross also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2.3m, but neither admitted to nor denied the SEC’s findings” (…) “We are pleased to have arrived at a resolution around historical management fee disclosure in a subset of our funds,” said Jeaneen Terrio, a spokesperson for Invesco, which bought WL Ross in 2006. “This resolution reflects a proactive approach to handling the matter and our commitment to exceeding the expectations of today’s private equity market.” (Sampson, 2016).

Fixing Irish Economy:

“As an investor in Bank of Ireland, it would be a surprise if Ross thought otherwise – after all he needs to recoup his investment and more. But he is one of the world’s most successful turnaround financiers – his involvement in the turnaround of over $200bn of distressed assets worldwide has earned him the nickname ‘king of bankruptcy’. So his words will be a boost to Ireland’s international standing” (…) “In the past few weeks of financial turmoil, Ireland has seen some faith in the international money markets restored, with 10-year bond yields down from 14% in mid-July to around 9%.” (O’Carroll, 2011).

So Donald Trump’s way of cleaning up the swamp is giving the idiom or a myth, because Wall Street connections with Washington D.C. cartels were not supposed to happen under the presidency. With the knowledge of the men he has picked in charge of the Economy, this proves that it was never a part of plan. If so Trump has a rare way of sending of the message with hiring and nominating Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross.

These men have worked up fortunes and earned monies on the destruction of the American Dream. They have taken people’s hard-earned monies and created profits overnight. These men have used sophisticated limited liabilities companies, hedge-funds and transactions to earn monies on failed houses and companies. With ease the men and woman could be stifled even the government banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the foreclosed homes has even been a bargain. These men are supposed to create industry and the regulations for the finance industry. Together with the creations of consolidation funds and the roll-over money from the government; so that the debt could be staying longer as Mnuchin believes even can be put into 100 year bonds. That could create an unknown inflation of funds and also of the regulations of the combined currency in the market. Something that Wall Street people sees it as an opportunity.

Donald Trump has seeking to revamp the economy with men who are connected with the biggest investors of our time, with the families and using all kind of tricks to earn coins for themselves. Even the SEC has fined the companies of Mr. Ross for misbehaving with funds and with commissions, these men that has used ways of loop-holing the finance industry; the finance industry they now will steer. This can only be for the freedom of the giant companies and the wealth they have created in the market place on other people’s misery.

Trump has picked and nominated men who’s greed extend nearly no boundaries, these men will not drain a swamp or even follow up the promises on the campaign. They will continue and less regulates the economy. That might bring back the recession or even depression as the richer get wealthier and the poor will not become the middle-class.

These men has surely will secure the class there are set in and want to be part of. The one that they have been parts of and will secure the future of. These are not working-class friendly men who connect with the Indiana, Minnesota and Mississippi. So Trump clearly only a one-man show for the façade and not the real deal, sort of like a government acting on the Trump University philosophy: “You’re selling a feeling, not a product” and the same does the Trump Organization and now the Trump Administration.

The lie this time is the draining the swamp, the corporate parts of Washington D.C. politics and elites, as Trump chooses the same or even more wealthier businessmen who has more connections inside Wall Street and has more conflict of interest than before. The Trump Administration in the White House will be filled with men who have their business at heart and not the citizens who voted for him. Peace.

Reference:

Avery, Helen – ‘Banking: Wilbur Ross chases shadows’ (May 2016) Link: http://www.euromoney.com/Article/3551137/Banking-Wilbur-Ross-chases-shadows.html?copyrightInfo=true

Bambrough, Billy – ‘US billionaire investor Wilbur Ross picks up £280,000 from the ashes of NBNK’ (04.07. 2016) link: http://www.cityam.com/244546/us-billionaire-investor-wilbur-ross-picks-up–ashes

Blackburn, Daniel – ‘OneWest Bank pays 7 figures in mortgage fraud case’ (11.09.2013) link: https://calcoastnews.com/2013/09/onewest-bank-pays-7-figures-mortgage-fraud-case/

CIT.com – ‘CIT Announces Resignation of Steven T. Mnuchin from Board of Directors’ (02.12.2016) link: http://news.cit.com/press-release/corporate-news/cit-announces-resignation-steven-t-mnuchin-board-directors

Dreier, Peter – ‘The Worst of Wall Street: Meet Donald Trump’s Finance Chairman’ (10.05.2016) link: https://www.thenation.com/article/the-worst-of-wall-street-meet-donald-trumps-finance-chairman/

DiSavino, Scott – ‘Wilbur Ross to buy Nexeo from TPG for $1.6 billion: source’ (20.03.2016) link: http://www.streetinsider.com/Mergers+and+Acquisitions/Wilbur+Ross+to+buy+Nexeo+from+TPG+for+$1.6+billion%3A+source/11434492.html

McCaulay, Scott – ‘Controversial Film Financier Steven Mnuchin Joins Trump Campaign as National Finance Chairman’ (05.05.2016) link: https://filmmakermagazine.com/98428-controversial-film-financier-steven-mnuchin-joins-trump-campaign-as-national-finance-chairman/

Hughes, Trevor – ‘Trump calls to ‘drain the swamp’ of Washington’ (18.10.2016) link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/10/18/donald-trump-rally-colorado-springs-ethics-lobbying-limitations/92377656/

Huus, Kari – ‘Homeowner taps ‘Occupy’ protest to avoid foreclosure’ (17.10.2011) link: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44908122/ns/us_news-life/t/homeowner-taps-occupy-protest-avoid-foreclosure/#.WEHO5fnhDIU

O’Carroll, Lisa – ‘Ireland will be ‘Celtic Tiger’ again – Wilbur Ross’ (31.08.2011) link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2011/aug/31/ireland

Samson, Adam – ‘WL Ross in $14.1m settlement with US over fee disclosures’ (24.08.2016) link: https://www.ft.com/content/e8424f8f-5031-3d50-941b-a51ccaa07980

Security Exchange Commission – ‘Release No. 4494 / August 24, 2016 ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING File No. 3-17491’ (24.08.2016)

Trump, Donald J. – ‘TRUMP PLEDGES TO DRAIN THE SWAMP AND IMPOSE CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS’ (18.10.2016) link: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/trump-pledges-to-drain-the-swamp