''TOO BIG TO FAIL - A ROLE REVERSAL?"

As proof of my recent apparent fascination with the world of gloom and doom I share the following:

When GM was accused of several mechanical problems with their vehicles that led to considerable injuries and deaths, CEO Mary Barra appeared to be willing to gather America into her bosom and assured us that all will be well - as GM would "do the right thing"

That was one Mary Barra.

What impressed me at that time was her sworn promise to uphold civic responsibilities - not just legal ones - and that the GM we all have known and loved for years would be "fully transparent."

It was apparently another Mary Barra who met with Congress last week, and her testimony suggested she had an epiphany - something that, according to the Oxford Dictionary has more than one meaning.

One definition is "A manifestation of a divine or supernatural being."

Unfortunately, this is not the one we have embraced in the  corporate decisions made by "big business."

The one with which we have more familiarity - found further down in the definition list is: "A moment of sudden revelation or insight".

Apparently, this is the one experienced by Ms Barra - and also the one that will be celebrated by GM's executives and most of their stockholders.

You got to assume that Mary - similar to another well known lady referenced in our last blog -  had apparently "mis-spoke" in her previous promise of full disclosure. I can think of no other plausible explanation

Our Mary said in response to questions by Congress last week:

GM will not unseal confidential settlements reached with the families of      victims who died in cars with faulty switches. As one Congressman stated, "this could have saved lives" had they become public earlier (or at all?).

GM will not release documents and interviews that were part of an internal investigation by a handpicked former prosecutor.

GM will not waive a shield against lawsuits won in it's 2009 bankruptcy reorganization when our glorious appointed/and or elected leaders bailed out GM and gave them immunity for pre-2009 sales of millions of defective cars.

GM will not support making executives criminally culpable when they hide a defect that kills or injures.

GM will not dismiss the lawyer who ran the legal department that "secretly" settled claims for the misfunction of the Chevy Cobalt and says "he was unaware of the car's deadly problem until this year."

Last week, The New York Times also reported that GM "repeatedly" dodged safety regulators' inquiries about fatal crashes in which GM airbags failed - raising a red flag in the face of  most sane individuals as well as questions about what executives knew and when they knew it.

Oh, you sinners, - a category in which I ingratiatingly include myself - when you arrive at the Gates of St. Peter - fret not.

Just tell him you're "Too Big To Fail".

NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT- -

I can't seem to determine who my bff really is, but if it is based on frequency of communication - a real plus normally in a healthy relationship - then it obviously is a toss-up between local Attorney John Morgan and Publisher's Clearing House.
__________________________________

I recently read that campaign ads do not have to state the truth - one more cog or bullet in the argument that the truth has become realitively unimportant in our lives these days. My friend Harry at http//harry2335.blogspot.com/ has written in his blog often about the lies that politicians tell - largely based on the extensive research he has done to prove his point.

When caught, I love the  response politicians give, such as Nancy Pelosi's reply recently, "I mis-spoke."

There appears to be one heck of a lot of "mis-speaking" going on these days.
------------------------------------------------------
After six months or more of watching so many repetitive ads in which each candidate blasts his opponent in the race for Florida Governor - and the obvious contradictions observed in those ads - do you think you may have a handle on why fewer eligible voters seem to want to go to the polls?
____________________

Finally. As mentioned previously, one of my favorite weekly columns is written by two guys who are longtime friends - Cal Thomas, a conservative and Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic strategist.

What makes the column appealing to me is that, unlike today's politics, each individual - while holding different political views - discuss current events and their personal  reaction to them- and perhaps most importantly,do so with class, intelligence, and insight.

I was very interested in their latest discussion entitled "Today - what's wrong with America?"Like me, you may have pondered the answer many times as well.

I was surprised to see that one of the writers, Cal, who was apparently having what some might describe as "a bad day" - held views that were rather pessimistic. However, you may disagree.

Here's just one example:"The world no longer respects us, terrorists don't fear us, the border with Mexico has been erased, major cities resemble combat zones, (there is)a failure of Middle East policy, a $17 trillion debt, fewer fathers in the home, overflowing prisons, a sense of entitlement rather than personal responsibility, loss of privacy, threats to the Constitution and a drop in approval of our political institutions. Need I go on?"

Bob replied in a much more positive spin: "The problems you outlined are not new. The civil war in Iraq was predictable. The centuries-old conflict among the Shitites, Sunnis and Kurds was exacerbated by America going to war against a country whose borders were drawn by the British."

They followed the above by discussing with the topic of "empires" and whether or not The United States, qualified as such.

Bob's opinion was the empires that collapse from within (as suggested by Cal of our country) are those who tried to dominate the world, mostly by military agression and that the United States has never sought to be an empire.

It was Cal who then dug into historical/sociological references and quoted Sir John Bagot Glubb, (1897 to1986) a British General and historian, and Glubbs'  book "The Fates of Empires and Search For Survival".

What struck me most was when Cal recalled Sir John noted that during the age of intellect, academia produces skeptical intellectuals who oppose the values and religious beliefs of it's founders.

Cal said, "Add to this what he (Glubb) called the corrosive effects of material success. The modern media glorify promiscous sex and everything else that would have shocked our grandparents, another cause of our decline."

Bob replied:"Generations move on. Each generation develops it's own values and cultural icons. I agree the media are obsessed with the worst parts of cultural landscape. We may see that as a sign of decline, but the majority of Americans embrace it, as do billions worldwide. Where you and I see our materialistic culture as a sign of decline, we are in the minority."

Cal then responded with scholar/preacher J. edwin Orr's "a concert of prayer" concept. He referenced previous revivals in our country (ex. post Civil war) with which this phenonema he associated and in which massive numbers of Americans were converted and decided to live differently. He added: "Revivals break out when an authority higher than government decides to rescue people from their wrong choices and a fear that 'without such a revival' we might be doomed."

Bob's opinions differed. He spoke of polarization - alleged it was a few that were the culprits and finished with: "Until the majority demands common ground, this silly notion of 'America in decline' will continue."

Interesting article: " USA Today - Common Ground -Thursday 7/17/14, p.8A"

Lots to think about.

I guess we all have to decide for ourselves if we are indeed an "America in decline" and what the remedy  might be  - (assuming that is the case).

"THE SILVER BULLET LIVES ON"

It was a chilly Arizona night as The Lone Ranger and Tonto were sitting with their back to the fire  - ponchos covering their shoulders - discussing their respective potty habits .

(This part intrigued me because, as a kid listening to their show while lying on the floor in front of our huge Philco radio, I was puzzled and convinced they must never have had to go to the bathroom. Like, you never heard the Lone Ranger say to Tonto before they rode off to chase bad guys, "Hold it Tonto, I've got to take a whiz".)

Apparently, I had "B.R". problems of my own back then, which many claim have still not abated. I digress. Lets get back to our story:

Suddenly, our heroes heard a rustling sound in the woods behind them.

The guy with the white hat went into a panic. His first thought was that the notorious Butch Cavendish gang had snuck up on the two of them and was now seeking to fulfill their vow to wipe out both he and Tonto - without whose help he wouldn't have been around anyway.

In his panic, the Ranger rushed to pull down the black mask protecting his true identity. Tonto was caught off guard as well, and hurriedly reached into the back of his poncho in a vain attempt to reach an arrow from his quiver.

The revered "mask of identity protection" ended up under one ear and over the Ranger's nose but still offered some discreet protection.

Tonto, on the other hand, just stood there looking puzzled as he forgot he had no arrows in his quiver - partially due to the fact he had no quiver and used a rusted gun instead. Old habits die hard.

It mattered not. The noise they heard actually came from someone seeking their help - not their demise.

Hands held high, an Irish guy by the name of Denny Kelleher from the nearby town of "Rim Shot" appeared and began to explain how he and his fellow  residents were seeking relief from the dastardly behavior of the sole town bankers, Sydney and Grope (known simply as Sydney/Grope) and sought the help of the two "good guys"  .

He related to them how the bankers had combined both their assets and their name in order to build the largest and most luxurious bank existing that side of the Mississippi - wiping out all the decent smaller bankers in the process.

He then explained that recently the towns people discovered how Sydney/Grope s had been stealing them blind.

It seemed the two "supposedly" accomplished this by lying to the town folk about the safety of their investments, failing to disclose termite infestation in the store fronts they offered for sale or lease, were salting gold mines, alleging to the citizens that their "premier" mines were loaded with gold (which turned out to be iron pyrites), and had hired bad guys to over-water their sick cattle to inflate both their weight and sale price, and which also appeared to have had the banks brand superimposed on a previous brand.

In short, it was a typical plot for most of the Lone Ranger story lines with which we first became familiar as kids who were fans of both the Lone Ranger and Fran Stryker, his creator.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto acted quickly. But first, fearing the exaggeration of the town folk's allegations, the Ranger wanted to see for himself.

Disdaining his usual choice of "town" disguise as "the old prospecter", the Lone Ranger instead went into "Rim Shot" seeking information while appropriately dressed as an itinerant drummer, a purveyor of womens unmentionables.

Immediately after confirming the suspicions of Kelleher and his neighbors, the two crime fighters confronted the bankers who, not unexpectedly, denied all of their accusations.

Our heroes then engaged the bankers Sydney and Grope in a ferocious gunfight outside the bank that lasted nearly all weekend (without the need to reload their guns). It ended successfully only when Tonto's gun misfired and struck a container of coal oil inside the bank where the bankers had fled from the hail of bullets.

The huge bank burned to the ground - leaving the citizens no place to pursue their banking needs . Miraculously the bankers had survived, as the Lone Ranger never killed anybody, choosing to wound them instead.

The already outraged town citizens demanded that the bankers be hanged immediately and their bodies left on the scaffold "for all the world to see".

The Lone Ranger refused their demands stating, "I think these heartless villains have suffered enough", and he sent them packing out of town.

Unbeknownst to the citizens, after the bankers gratuitously turned over all of their holdings to "Rim Shot" allegedly to make amends, the two secretly wired their insurance company in New York and had the huge insurance proceeds from the fire forwarded to them at a secretly established branch office there.

Then the two whooped it up and celebrated their freedom and ill gained profits during their train ride East as they began their plans to form what turned out to be a very successful investment business in New York City.

However, even after receiving all of the worthless bank assets, the real "kick in the head" for the Rim Shot citizens, was never disclosed to them.

After making his usual pronouncement after a successful mission , "Tonto, it looks like our work is done here!", the soft hearted (and apparently soft headed) Lone Ranger surreptitiously reached into his poke and, unseen by the townies, privately gave the bankers (not the citizens) several of his priceless silver bullets - presumably for train fare .

He and Tonto then "Hi-Ho'd" it off into the sunset followed by several members of the Rim Shot symphony who were struggling to reproduce the William Tell overture on their dust covered instruments.

Weird story, right? I mean, if you've read this far, you can't be blamed for wondering what the moral to this sad tale could possibly be.

Ah so! You're in luck. We're about to tell you.

It's two centuries later now, and in keeping with the repeated Department Of Justice (DOJ) promise to us citizens to turn around the corruption in our financial system via the use of more stringent punishment of the miscreants, Attorney General Eric Holder, in his infinite wisdom, recently made an announcement:

He slammed the banking and investment firm Citigroup (not to be confused with Sydney/Grope) about a week ago. He accused them of hiding information about toxic mortgages after Citi, the worlds largest bank, agreed to pay $7 billion to settle charges tied to the global financial crisis that rocked the world six years ago."

Perhaps, most of us now dutifully shaking our collective heads in the affirmative, like the poor folks of "Rim Shot" - last seen in the town square muttering  about bankers Sydney/Grope, "that'll learn em!" -  the irony of the DOJ's actions hadn't really settled in for us yet.

Perhaps that's just as well.

You see, unlike our old time Westerns story above, there really is a guy named Dennis Kelleher today, and he has made some more relevent comments about Citigroup, the D.O.J. and the now infamous settlement. Denny is the CEO of an interest advocacy group, entitled "Better Markets" and, who loudly "bashed" the deal.
 
Kelleher did this despite the widely and presumably grateful publicized reaction to the words of our "A.G" Holder, and his revelatory statements regarding Citigroup's knowledge of the serious and widespread defects of the risky loans that the lender and it's employees concealed.

In his speech Holder also acknowledged: "Citigroup increased it's profits at the expense of millions of ordinary Americans and investors of all types. Then he confided to us, "Ultimately these investors suffered billions of dollars in losses when Citi's false and fraudulent claims came crashing down!"

He must have been right because, in reaction to the gigundous penalty handed down from the D.O.J, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbe said, "The settlement allows us to move forward and focus on the future - NOT the past"

Okay, enough already. But, what did Dennis Kelleher, the only guy who seems to have a grasp on what really just went down, have to say?

"DOJ brags about and wants everyone to focus on the $7 billion settlement dollar amount, but that amount is meaningless without disclosure of the key information about:

How many hundreds of billions of dollars Citigroup made.
How many tens of billions investors lost.
How many billions in bonuses were pocketed.
Which investors were involved, and,
What positions they now have with the bank."

It is truly interesting to note A.G Holder also didn't relate which Citigroup folks ended up in the "hoosegow" - or what they were planning to do with their "silver bullets", either!



.