Lunch with the Fockers

The lunch with the Fockers went amazingly well. Of course Troy was nervous at first but Mom broke the ice by inadvertently flipping a piece of her fish sandwich on the floor, which sent me into fits of laughter. He was his usual charming self while chomping down his grilled chicken sandwich, pulling out my chair, and telling adorable stories about appearing in stage productions of The Nutcracker. We discussed politics and home improvement projects seamlessly. Mom and Dad were all smiles as they got in their car, and we breathed a sigh of relief to have successfully won them over as a couple.

Meanwhile, troublesome news articles available after having mainstream news media live streams pulled from the internet, a fact that has Troy consistently irritated throughout the day….from Alternet.org

Concerning the Wall Street bailouts which totaled $7.77 trillion (That’s a lot of presents under someone’s tree!) “The secret funding, provided at below-market rates, gave Wall Street banks an additional $13 billion in profits. (That’s enough money to hire more than 325,000 entry level teachers.)” The bigger Wall Street becomes, the more government they can buy. Henry Paulson, Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury, met with his former colleagues at Goldman Sachs to alert them about pending nationalization of the giant mortgage companies, the ones that manipulated loans for all of those abandoned houses in our neighborhoods. A particularly irritating excerpt, quoted from Les Leopold’s critical article believed that we should be encouraged to admire the Wall Street folks, that they were infinitely smarter and more able to make wise financial decisions than we are. We are called an illiterate mass and in the next breath it is suggested that we should give them our support, and that there is nothing wrong with insider information or hiding the truth from government because congress cannot be trusted. Excuse me, according to Leopold, these assholes cost Americans 8 million jobs in a matter of months. Occupy’s message may be confusing to some, the days of the camps may be numbered, but this is at the heart of the problems we all are facing, in my humble opinion. Check out the article for yourself at Alternet.org

Also on our minds as we work on our small business adventure…..the Big Kill bill is being voted on today….Troy says S1867 is the most dangerous bill since the Patriot Act. Our contact at Occupy Augusta has been posting about this on Facebook for days now. Has anyone heard about this in between commercials for electronics and luxury goods we are compelled to buy to celebrate the birth of “The Savior”? Basically, this bill makes it legal for the government to imprison individuals indefinitely without charges or a trial. If we ever needed a savior, it is in these times.

Terrorist, it seems have easily disguised themselves as do gooders and those that feel that they can do our thinking for us. They are not holed up in a far off land, they walk the streets in suits and ties. Perhaps you smiled and wished one a “Happy Holiday” today. For what it is worth, we are heading to Augusta this evening to participate in a Ron Paul supporters meeting. His ratings in the polls are all over the place, depending on where you look. He has been called dangerous and ignored in debates. Personally, I feel that getting involved and making decisions for myself, based on a variety of sources is far better than sticking my head in the sand and pretending that none of this is happening.