Waking Up in Czarist America

The economy is shedding jobs rapidly.  Manufacturing jobs are becoming more and more scarce.  Retail businesses, national names, are closing stores, or closing for good.  The satellite jobs of those businesses; delivery, construction, security, warehousing...they will be drying up as well.  The next round of ARM adjustments are coming.  People are losing their shirts, their homes, their savings, their hope.  So what does Martin Luther Lincoln Jr. Jr. do?  He has himself a $170 million inauguration festivus just to make sure we remember...in case we forgot...that he's the first African American President (we can't say 1st Black President because that would remind everyone of Bill Clinton, the guy who has done, and continues to do more for Black Americans, and Africans for that matter, than Lincoln Jr. Jr. has ever done, or will ever do...being the first African American Resident doesn't count, especially when he is so scrupulously unethical). 

And what do the executives of the corporations who are getting billions in our tax dollars to "rescue" themselves from their own greed, shortsightedness, and poor management do?  Well, if you're John Thain of Merrill Lynch, you give your office a $1.2 million redux...because like Cybill Shepherd, who brought down the wrath of con on the Palin family with her judgement that Bristol was being forced to have her child and marry the husband against her will, he's worth it.

He also handed out a big fat round of bonuses a month before he was scheduled to, and did so just before Merrill, one of the companies we're supposed to feel sorry for but don't, was to be taken over by Bank of America.

Well, it looks like somebody took a few seconds to lift their little piggy head out of the money trough to notice, and Thain resigned (got shit canned) today.  Thank you Mr. Thain for playing.  There will be no parting gifts for you.  No Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat, and no case of Turtle Wax. 

This is what happens when your corrupt Congress, the chamber of assholes who are the real reason why this bullshit is happening in the first place, and the last people we should be allowing to affect a solution, takes our money against our will do be dispensed without any oversight, without any accountability.

And guess what?  The Financial Times reports that Bank of America KNEW about the bonuses being doled out, prior to the merger, all of this coming out as Bank of America went hat in hand for more bailout money.  So what's the thrust?  BoA knew about the bonuses, totaling between 3-4 billion bucks, and then begged for more of our money, when that bonus money should have stayed right the fuck where it was.  Now I'm sure that some Wall Street douchebags will say that 3-4 billion is no big deal.  Guess what fuckers?  When you're us, and actually have to work for a living, that's a lot of fucking money.

It was also announced that in the fourth quarter of 2008, already bleeding Merrill shat $1.79 billion in losses.  So yeah, December was the perfect time to hand out $4 billion in bonuses.  Whoops!

But don't worry, Bank of America was able to go through with this spectacular, financially sound deal with the help of $138 Billion in government "assistance," and another $45 billion in "Rescue" cash.

If you think this Thain thing is bad, think about the billions that are getting flushed away that YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO KNOW ABOUT.  

Good morning America we're fucked.

I know one thing: if this was Transylvania, we'd be debating the merits of a good old fashioned riot (and I think I can get confirmation on that).  Too bad this is America, where everyone's happy as long as they can watch American Idol.