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January 20th, 2010 Archives

I'm as mad as hell

By Todd Seabrook

As a matter of fact, I am livid. I am livid about your journalistic incompetence and inability to provide any actual insight into the...
1 Comments + Add Yours

HOW CAN ANYONE NOT BE ABSOLUTELY LIVID?

That is my question to you, readers, students, futures of America, inheritors of humanity's breathless stupidity and soul-shocking genius.

How can anyone live in this country and not be outraged every second at the insane incompetence of our elected leaders, our prescribed agencies, our patronized corporations - outraged that we are still hopelessly dependent on fossil fuels, that our government is still subsidizing corn, that Congress can't pass a health bill ...

G--DAMNIT!

When I saw on the news that A.I.G. and JPMorgan Chase, the people who put a gun behind the ear of America and pulled the trigger, are going to be taking multimillion-dollar bonuses, I literally yelled into empty space, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE F---ING KIDDING ME!" I could almost see my words being absorbed into the collective, What the hell? that swept over the entire country, a cloud of anger that even penetrated the White House and forced Obama to stand at a podium and give those bankers a stern talking to. That is about all Obama can do, because Congress decided to waive all regulations, stipulations, provisos - anything that was legally binding - on the bailout bill. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT? That is like giving a compulsive gambler a c-note after he promises he will "invest" it wisely. "Good enough for us," Congress said. "We trust you."

F---heads.

Congress failed, and the real problem is that they don't seem angry about it. Or at least not to the point of efficacy. Which is really all that matters.

But they aren't the only ones who are incompetent. Nay, we must remember the geniuses at the Securities and Exchange Commission who failed to see this coming. And not only the sub-prime mortgage crisis. They dropped the $50 billion-ball of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the largest Ponzi scheme ever perpetrated, ever.

In case you didn't know, the SEC has been around since 1934 and their job is to watch the electronic marketplace for anything that looks fishy. They are obviously very, very good at what they do. A thin spike of furious rage over the SEC's incompetence came from Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, who went bat-sh-t ballistic at the SEC congressional hearing, screaming at the SEC board members, "You have totally and thoroughly failed in your mission! Don't you get it?!"

Yes! That's what I like to see: Anger with a capital "A." There is no more time to be passive in our approach to life - people have to get mad! Incompetent people will survive in our system, as they have for so long, unless people get up and scream at those who are failing them, at those who have, up to now, just waived us off.

Don't you want to grab those bankers by their Armani lapels and shake them with the fury of hell and yell, "WHERE IS YOUR SHAME? WHERE IS YOUR CONSCIENCE?"

Why has no one done this yet? What is the media doing? Isn't this their job, to hold people accountable? Where is the grilling? Where is the action? Of course, the media was as exposed as a neutered puppy after it came out that we went to war in Iraq with no just cause, and the news networks never caught the error. Good work, guys, really good journalism. When incompetent people are put in charge of policing incompetent people, not much will get resolved.

F---heads.

I have no solutions for how to fix the incompetence that infects America, from the highest rungs to the lowest, but I do know that before we can fix anything, we have to get mad. As Howard Beale says in "Network," "I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation ... and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you have to get mad!"

I'm livid. Aren't you?

Originally Published: January 20, 2010

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Comments

  1. As a matter of fact, I am livid. I am livid about your journalistic incompetence and inability to provide any actual insight into the situation.

    I mean, come on! Did you actually bother to understand this situation beyond the pathetic blurb your own rag sheet of a paper decided to run on this story? Did you bother to fact check any relevant information related to why JPMorgan Chase is making money? Apparently, you’d rather drone on about your own salient b.s. about fossil fuels and Bernie Madoff. So, since a respectable journalist such as yourself obviously can’t be expected come up with a good opinion, let me help you.

    You seem to think that JP Morgan Chase are "the people who put a gun behind the ear of America and pulled the trigger." I’m really not sure what you were on when you came up with this, but let me enlighten you. The financial crisis was not created by banks per se, but by subprime mortgage lenders (remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?) This was so bad that many banks, which were indeed run by incompetent fools, went under. Guess what? Banks are where people like you and me have almost all our money! When banks go under, WE go under. JPMorgan Chase put up billions of dollars to buy up banks that were going under (Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, etc.) How awful of them. In order to do this and insure their own clients’ money, Jamie Dimon, CEO for Chase, accepted bailout money from the Federal government. But guess what? The money has already been paid back... with interest. Oh, these guys are evil. And now, because of pumping all that money into a struggling system, you want to punish them for making a profit?

    Alright, look. The capitalist system has huge flaws. You’ll get no argument from me on that one. But when we are coming out of a financial meltdown, why the hell would you beat down the people that just saved our collective ass? For crying out loud, THINK before you throw out such mind-numbing dribble. Before you start criticizing other journalists for their lack of Anger, fury, or puppy balls, you should look at your own journalistic integrity and ask yourself why you do what you do. Maybe after some soul searching, you’ll realize a better profession might be mob violence or politics.

    Jon Anderegg | 2010-01-22 - 03:32:44 PM (CDT)
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