Larry Flint on America

[dali_70]

I found this somewhere else and thought it kicked ass. Larry nailed it
squarely.

Larry Flynt Publisher of Hustler magazine and free speech advocate...

The American government -- which we once called our government -- has
been taken over by Wall Street, the mega-corporations and the super-
rich. They are the ones who decide our fate. It is this group of
powerful elites, the people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called
"economic royalists," who choose our elected officials -- indeed, our
very form of government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance to the
tune of their corporate masters. In America, corporations do not
control the government. In America, corporations are the government.
This was never more obvious than with the Wall Street bailout,
whereby
the very corporations that caused the collapse of our economy were
rewarded with taxpayer dollars. So arrogant, so smug were they that,
without a moment's hesitation, they took our money -- yours and mine
-- to pay their executives multimillion-dollar bonuses, something
they
continue doing to this very day. They have no shame. They don't care
what you and I think about them. Henry Kissinger refers to us as
"useless eaters."
But, you say, we have elected a candidate of change. To which I
respond: Do these words of President Obama sound like change?
"A culture of irresponsibility took root, from Wall Street to
Washington to Main Street."
There it is. Right there. We are Main Street. We must, according to
our president, share the blame. He went on to say: "And a regulatory
regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th-century economic
crisis
-- the Great Depression -- was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and
sophistication of a 21st-century global economy."
This is nonsense.
The reason Wall Street was able to game the system the way it did --
knowing that they would become rich at the expense of the American
people (oh, yes, they most certainly knew that) -- was because the
financial elite had bribed our legislators to roll back the
protections enacted after the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
Congress gutted the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial
lending banks from investment banks, and passed the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act, which allowed for self-regulation with no
oversight. The Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently
revised
its rules to allow for even less oversight -- and we've all seen how
well that worked out. To date, no serious legislation has been
offered
by the Obama administration to correct these problems.
Instead, Obama wants to increase the oversight power of the Federal
Reserve. Never mind that it already had significant oversight power
before our most recent economic meltdown, yet failed to take action.
Never mind that the Fed is not a government agency but a cartel of
private bankers that cannot be held accountable by Washington.
Whatever the Fed does with these supposed new oversight powers will
be
behind closed doors.
Obama's failure to act sends one message loud and clear: He cannot
stand up to the powerful Wall Street interests that supplied the bulk
of his campaign money for the 2008 election. Nor, for that matter,
can
Congress, for much the same reason.
Consider what multibillionaire banker David Rockefeller wrote in his
2002 memoirs:
"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the
best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me
as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world
to build a more integrated global political and economic structure --
one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I
am
proud of it."
Read Rockefeller's words again. He actually admits to working against
the "best interests of the United States."
Need more? Here's what Rockefeller said in 1994 at a U.N. dinner: "We
are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right
major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order."
They're gaming us. Our country has been stolen from us.
Journalist Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone, notes that esteemed
economist John Kenneth Galbraith laid the 1929 crash at the feet of
banking giant Goldman Sachs. Taibbi goes on to say that Goldman Sachs
has been behind every other economic downturn as well, including the
most recent one. As if that wasn't enough, Goldman Sachs even had a
hand in pushing gas prices up to $4 a gallon.
The problem with bankers is longstanding. Here's what one of our
Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, had to say about them:
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the
issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by
deflation,
the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will
deprive the people of all property until their children wake up
homeless on the continent their father's conquered."
We all know that the first American Revolution officially began in
1776, with the Declaration of Independence. Less well known is that
the single strongest motivating factor for revolution was the
colonists' attempt to free themselves from the Bank of England. But
how many of you know about the second revolution, referred to by
historians as Shays' Rebellion? It took place in 1786-87, and once
again the banks were the cause. This time they were putting the
screws
to America's farmers.
Daniel Shays was a farmer in western Massachusetts. Like many other
farmers of the day, he was being driven into bankruptcy by the banks'
predatory lending practices. (Sound familiar?) Rallying other farmers
to his side, Shays led his rebels in an attack on the courts and the
local armory. The rebellion itself failed, but a message had been
sent: The bankers (and the politicians who supported them) ultimately
backed off. As Thomas Jefferson famously quipped in regard to the
insurrection: "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. The
tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants."
Perhaps it's time to consider that option once again.
I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country
down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong
restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take
corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our
politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the
rich and powerful.
Let's set a date. No one goes to work. No one buys anything. And if
that isn't effective -- if the politicians ignore us -- we do it
again. And again. And again.
The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the
average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this
single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It's time we took
back our government from those who would make us their slaves.

[Dead Kennedy]

IMO if a pornographer says your fucked up, your fucked up.

[Rupert]

On Aug 27, 7:03 am, Dead Kennedy <dead.kenne...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> IMO if a pornographer says your fucked up, your fucked up.
>

I object to this stigmatization of pornographers. Pornographers
provide a large section of the population with a product which is a
source of harmless pleasure and is not known to cause cirrhosis of the
liver or lung cancer. They should be hailed for their valuable
contribution to society.

[Dead Kennedy]

i clap them all the time, i just use one hand.