As America Sinks, The Rich Owns All The Lifeboats

Okay I'm going with the metaphor above:

Imagine that the good ole USA is the good ship "America" and heading for a gigantic iceberg. The course is an analogy for the direction history is taking us and the iceberg the problems we can see ahead. The Board of Directors of the cruise line (the .001%ers) are aboard for the great cruise. They're informed that an iceberg has been spotted. Do they change course? Nope. These men see a great opportunity for great wealth. Instead everyone aboard watches as orders are given for the ships safe to be emptied and all the wealth put in lifeboats and transferred to other ships. With all that done, they order that all the gold fixtures be stripped and loaded into lifeboats! Soon they're stealing anything of value they can get off the doomed ship...And the "America" is doomed. Not because the liner is heading for the iceberg, but because the ship's masters decided the situation offered them an opportunity to get immensely rich. They'd rather hit the iceberg, get rich, get away in the lifeboats. and let all the poor suckers drown than change course. Their calculations show they will be wealthier in doing so...Meanwhile the rest of the passengers are being fed increasingly wild rumors, excuses, and outright lies to explain the situation. Some passengers and crew are stupid enough to help yank all the valuables and pile them in the lifeboats - certain that the powers that be know best how to run the ship, certain that they will be given a seat on the lifeboat...Meanwhile the conspirators are all forming a salvage company to get rich on what's left after the collison.

The little story above isn't perfect but it does offer a way to see what's happening today. About 1980 we started to head for an iceberg. The post WWII boom was certainly over. Where once the victorious USA owned 60% of the manufacturing capacity in the world, a dollar that reigned supreme, enough oil to fuel mammoth growth, and a workforce that continually provided prodigious growth in productivity (profits to be divied up for all); suddenly America had to face a new reality. OIL was no longer domestically produced in large enough quantities and America lived and died on sucking down massive quantities of the liquid gold. Immense wealth had to be transfered to nations that were essentially still living in the Middle Ages in exchange for the black gold they floated on. Formerly huge investment banks had been concerned with organizing capital to finance new industries, build bridges, invest a nation's wealth for the future. with the rise of the petro dollar, a new system was born, bankers who took the $$$ from the Arab shieks & kings and then found a safe place to invest these $$$ for their new masters.

Well, these type of bankers weren't totally new. Since the flood of Aztec & Inca gold into Europe international banking had existed on a certain scale, and during great wars these bankers transfered huge sums from nation to nation. After the rise of the petrodollar though the scale jumped an order of magnitude. Before these exchanges though tended to be tied to national interests and reined in by the nations that harbored them. Oil money though jump started a new brand of banking where nation building, real investment in factories - bridges - railroads was replaced by a new style of banking. Where once investment & commodities banking were seen as seperate, now EVERYTHING became a commodity to be traded and any national interests were completely dismissed (even ridiculed). Profit at any cost became holy.

In America this new breed of speculative banker saw only the lure of the gold within easy reach. Once great industrialists and robber baron bankers at least took great pride in building nations. Rockefellers and Carnegie worked with a J P Morgan to build a new nation, the Royal Bank and Royal Stock Exchange worked to build across 2/5ths of the world, and the Kaiser watched as German banks industrialized that nation in a mere twenty years! These new bankers though had a vision where nothing and no one could control them, and they had the power to make this come true. By threatening to move capitalout of a nation they essentially became the owners of that nation. No national government could dare try to rein in their excesses under threat of seeing all moveable wealth disappear and go to another country. Soon these bankers were no longer subject to nation states, but instead became the masters! Here in the USA these financiers OWN our government because they alone are allowed to control our capital and that of others who have chosen to invest here (like the Arab oil monarchs and the communist Chinese).

Over the last 30 years these few men have decided that America is NOT the best place to invest. Even though the American workers are still the most productive in the world and offer the certainty of immense profits, these men use their power to transfer wealth to bully and bribe the rest of the world. Americans insist that the wealth created be shared equitably, that the pursuit of profit does not destroy our air and water, that in return for our labors we have a small guarantee of an old age pension, we are insuranced against injury while working, and have earned a share in the profits our hard work has created. For the very few who control the capital though this will not do! It decreases the their share of the profits and thereby decreases exponentially the $$$ available to them to use as they desire. When faced with a clamor for the equitable distribution of wealth among ALL those who help create it, these few men decide they will move the capital WE HAVE CREATED overseas.

So these men choose NOT to invest in America, but instead look for better "investment opportunities" abroad. They take their briefcases and travel across the world. They stop in Mexico, or China, or Indonesia and say "the Americans want us to pay them for their hard work , the Americans want a share of the wealth they create, the Americans tell us that we cannot defile their air and water. What do YOU tell us?" On cue the answer comes, the inevitable answer. "We promise you a government that will give you anything you ask! We promise you a work force that is desperate to work and willing to accept any work conditions in return for starvation wages! You can dump anything into our air and our water! We will give you ANYTHING if you take the wealth that was created in America and invest it here!" With those promises the wealth of America has been drained by the few to increase their wealth at the expense of those who worked to create it. Factories, down to the last paperclip and lathe, have been shipped abroad even though they created monstrous wealth HERE. Because of this the wealth of those who can transfer their capital - or the capital they CONTROL - overseas have made vast fortunes while the rest of us have watched as our ship slowly sinks...

And just as the men in steering my metaphorical ship must keep the passengers and crew hoodwinked, these few men must come up with a narrative to explain their looting of America. For thirty years we have been fed every lie and excuse, fallen for every scandalous rumor, and allowed ourselves to be turned against one another as they fill the lifeboats with our wealth and row way! Many of us have hitched ourselves to those men, make excuses for them, delude ourselves into thinking we are still on the best cruise ship in the world, and scurry around to do their bidding.

(Next: Part Two, or "How To keep the Imbeciles in Steerage Happy!")

The Tea Party Anti-Regulation Lie

    First let me state that the scope of this argument is limited to the types of regulations discussed in this piece. Using off the wall examples such as a single bad reg isn't proof that ALL regs are bad. Stating your BELIEF that regulation is tyranny doesn't count either, because I really don't give a shit what your BELIEF is when everyone else is trying to deal with facts and issues honestly. The fact that you may be a spoiled rotten child who believes himself above all social standards should be discussed in your circle-jerk forums, not here. Now, we can get down to it.

Regulations are often extremely GOOD for business. The lack of regulations, and the unwillingness to punish those who refuse to follow those regulations is often very BAD for business. So far I've provided no proof for my assertion. Some may be already saying "Hell, that's just yer thinkun." Well here's the rational that human societies have abided by at least since the begining of the written word:

    Some people will do anything to get rich. They don't care who gets killed, gets sick, or loses wealth in their scam just so they can get rich. In a normal society those people are a minority. (I BELIEVE that in our current economy those people are actually rewarded vs those who act in a resposible manner.) Communities usually wait until some such bastard gets caught killing, maiming, or stealing before they enact regulations defining decent behavior. Moses' Ten Commandments didn't mention adultery except that Absalom had gotten caught in Esther's tent while daddy was away building a pyramid, and Obadiah was caught with his winkie somewhere near the proximity of Miriam's tickle spot while her husband was out fighting the Moabites or something. Otherwise we would have only nine commandments. My point is that in the begining society as a whole feels some regulation is necessary due to misbehavior before it occurs to someone to write it.

    Even in ancient days people needed regulation. The Code of Hammurabi has some pretty damned harsh penalties for people caught adulterating beer, food, and wine! Why? Because some dishonest bastard realized he could mix a little chalk with the flour and produce a standard weight loaf of bread for less than his competitor. Booze has always been watered down or adulterated to enhance profit, as any person who watches old Western movies can tell you. All this though happened in an age where you knew the person who baked your bread, brewed up the beer, or smushed the grapes to make the wine. Today though your taquitos might as well come from Alpha Centauri as far as you know, making regulations even more important. In the "good ole days" if you caught the local butcher, baker, or candlestick maker cheating you got a few buddies together and stomped the living crap out of him, adding a hint of threat to most people's belief that we'll usually do the correct thing when offered a choice.

Most of today's regulations, of the type I am refering to that assure the wholesomeness of our food-air-water, are the same as the regulations we have always practiced. In every known society before the industrial age tanners had to work outside of town because they used animal piss and other smelly stuff to do their jobs. Communities actually went to war with one another if the upstream people befouled the water beyond a commonly accepted level, unless regulations/common sense prevailed over greed or stupidity. Today though people are powerless to act in our own direct interests against those who would circumvent common decency to gain an advantage squarely at the expense of others. We can't drive 500 miles to smack the Corporate exec/ "enterpeneur" who ignored the most basic cleanliness standards last year and killed dozens plus hospitalized thousands just to gain an advantage over his competitors. And here we get to the heart of the matter:

Such an egg monstrosity occurred last year when a very prominent Teabagger refused to follow INDUSTRY WRITTEN standards for cleanliness (Forgive me for not having his name handy, but at the moment I am a bit indispossed by semi-blindness.Hours of research is currently out of the question.) This lunatic is one of many screeching that the loosey-goosey government regulations are tyrannizinating him and are unconstitutionalizing his private property rights. His real agenda is much different.

All the egg producers were asked by the government to come up with a common sense set of standards to make sure that the eggs they sold were all clean and disease free as reasonably possible, AND THEY GOT TO DECIDE WHAT WAS REASONABLE! Since most eggs are produced by monstrous agribusinesses these rules were set up for the benefit of ALL concerned. First the millions of laying hens at an egg factory had to be segregated into smaller units so that any disease did not spread throughout the whole herd of cacklers. Businesses would benefit in case of an outreak by merely needing to destroy a small % of the hens instead of the entire inventory. Next, employees were not to move from one unit to another to avoid spreading any diseases that had yet to be discovered, unless they scrubbed down. Finally, the food that fell out of the troughs into the below and the chickenshit such mega factories produced had to be washed away to keep down the number of unavoidable flies and rodents who would certainly appear. Fewer flies and rats=fewer chances of disease. Industry liked these standards because all would know that ALL the eggs on the market - theirs and their competitors - would be much less likely to be killer eggs. Consumers benefited because eggs could be produced with a degree of safety acceptable to business, and generally conforming to the expectations of those who wanna eat eggs without dying. Also the in between customers who bought ALL the eggs before they reached the consumer could have some faith they would not be sued because their frozen juevos rancheros jubilee pot pies wouldn't sicken people and cause all that messy litigation. We might quibble over the level of regulation, but most would agree it worked decently if everyone followed the simple and self-policing rules.

Along comes a typical Teabagger "entrepeneur" who worships at the alter of profit. This Prophet of Profit howls constantly about gumment regoolashuns. He funds lots of self-appointed Uh-mur-uh-kun majoritizingators to go out and screech and cry about tyranny and Don't Tread on Me and mass propaganda e-mails and such because he HATES anyone having the power to tell him what to do. You see he is a SUPERIOR person, 'cause Ayn Rand tells him so, and he's the heir of the Foundin' Fathers cause he sez so, and he's purteckting yer libuteeze cause God told him to. Well, that's what the SOB sez. Wanna know what he really is?

Maybe it costs the typical egg megaranch 35 cents to sell a dozen eggs to Krogers, or Winn-Dixie, or Piggly-Wiggly. 2 cents of that might be the cost of following the voluntary standards that INDUSTRY came up with (oh, I forgot refrigerator trucks, etc). Just like damned near every rotten teabagger I've ever met, this bastard masked his true motives with what he sees as altruistic and grand behavior. He allowed people to pass uncleaned from one hen house to another because he was protecting his property rights. He allowed an insane buildup of flies, maggots, and mice to live in his facilities because that's what the Founding Fathers intended! He shipped out eggs he KNEW were contaminated with Salmonella because the defense of liberty demanded it! The disease was allowed to incubate and grow during shipping because to properly refrigerate his product was certainly unconstitutional. OR! Just maybe someone was looking for a 2 cent a dozen advantage on his competitors. Just maybe his hatred of anyone telling him what to do, including his fellow egg producers, overrode any sense of humanity that might have existed in him. And now, instead of a mob of us outside his mansion with a noose handy and a nearby tree picked out, this miscreant should thank his lucky stars for what today passes for "regulation." The public never learned his name because the system is set up to protect HIM and not us. Instead of swinging from a sturdy limb for murder, the bastard is revelling in his anonymnity, holding a few small citations for violating regulations, gets a few nasty stares at competitors who lost business when everyone became afraid of ALL eggs for awhile, and is still making tons of $$$ to spend on campaign contributions, blitz ads vilifying "socialist" candidates, funding a few dozen propagandists to spread viral e-mails against sharia law and them damned Mescuns crossings the borders illegally (hundreds of which he is happy to employ and then intimidate with "Immie" if they get to damned uppity),  and living it it up as a "superior" person should!

But back to my theme. Regulations, when properly written and enforced, benefit us all. We've seen egg, spinach, beef, tomato, and plenty of other industry wide scares precisely because minimum standards were not enforced. I believe one scare halved the market for spinach and it took two years to recover. The demand to end even the most loose standards written for the benefit of industry and by industry is certainly the call of the scoundrel. Caveat Emptor...

Morgan County, Kentucky Draftee List From Oct 1863

In the Summer of 1863 officers of the Provost Marshall's Office of the US Army spread out across the country to enumerate the men for a draft list. I've made a database of Colonel William C Grier's listing from the 9th Congressional District, 16th subdistrict. I believe this is the equivalent of Morgan County in 1862.

The men registered for the draft are in two classes. Class 1 is of all men age 20-35. Class 2 is composed of all unmarried men age 36-45. The names are generally as written in the record, although I have changeds a few obvious errors. The headings and abbreviations are pretty self explanatory. (u=unmarried).

Please remember that Col Grier had to be accompanied in his travels throughout Eastern Kentucky because of rebel partisan activity. These marauders and extra-military outlaws ( that included some Union deserters) would have murdered Grier at once. Also remember that many of the men listed were actually some of the very pretend Confederate soldiers who were engaging in murder, arson, and torture in Morgan County. Others were hiding out from the draft and not listed. Quite a few are men who were refugees from other areas.
   
    Lots of local men listed in the 1860 census were either away fighting with USA or rebel units, or refugees in other counties. I have found hundreds who fled the violence, especially from the bands of rebel marauders who used every form of violence & intimidation to try to keep control over Morgan County. I disparage most of these marauders because most never fought in a real military unit, never fought a real battle, and always fled at the approach of any Union Army unit. They merely engaged in thuggery, war crimes against civilians, and murdered prisoners of war. Please keep this in mind when using this flawed & incomplete list originally drawn up (in 1863) under extremely threatening circumstances.

    The War of the Rebellion was a murderous and regretable time for Morgan County. The antipathy continued long after the rebellion was squashe

Surname,Given Name, Age, Occupation, Marital Status, Birthplace, Class
Adkins Eli 27 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Elijah 28 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins Gilbert 28 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Green G 25 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Hank 23 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Harrison 20 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Hawkins 25 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Hezekiah 22 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins James 33 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Joseph 22 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Joseph 36 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins S D 37 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins Samuel S 24 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins W S 22 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins Wilburn 21 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins Wiley 33 farmer u Ky 1
Adkins William 25 farmer m Ky 1
Adkins Owen 40 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Frederick 38 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Howard 36 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins William C 43 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Archibald 38 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Elisha 36 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins M B 37 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins John W 43 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins H J 40 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Isaac 37 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Wyatt 37 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Joel 36 farmer u Ky 2
Adkins Wyatt 40 farmer u Ky 2
Amyx John 24 farmer u Ky 1 listed as "Enix"
Back Alexander 25 farmer m Ky 1
Back Alfred 23 farmer u Ky 1
Back Ben 20 farmer u Ky 1
Back John 27 farmer m Ky 1
Back Joseph 25 farmer m Ky 1
Banks David 25 farmer m Ky 1
Barker Henry 24 farmer m Ky 1
Barker Jeremiah 23 farmer m Ky 1
Barker Jerry 25 farmer m Ky 1
Barker John 20 farmer u Ky 1
Barker John M 23 farmer m Ky 1
Barker Pleasant 35 farmer m Ky 1
Barker William 30 farmer m Ky 1
Bishop Elihu 40 farmer u Va 2
Bishop Johnson 35 farmer m Ky 1
Bishop Stephen 34 farmer m Ky 1
Bishop Stephen 36 farmer u Va 2
Blackburn Moses 20 farmer u Ky 1
Blair David 25 farmer m Ky 1
Blankenship Benjamin 38 farmer u Ky 2
Blankenship Henry 23 farmer u Ky 1
Blevin Solomon 32 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling Axley 31 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling Harvey 23 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling Harvey 24 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling James M 24 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling Preston 23 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling R M 27 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling Thomas 20 farmer m Ky 1
Bowling William 26 farmer m Ky 1
Brown A J 25 farmer m Ky 1
Brown David 21 farmer u Ky 1
Brown Isaac 26 farmer m Ky 1
Brown Isaac 46 farmer u Ky 2
Brown Jackson 24 farmer u Ky 1
Brown John 24 farmer u Ky 1
Brown Joseph 40 preacher u Ky 2
Brown Owen 30 farmer m Ky 1
Brown Samuel 23 farmer u Ky 1
Brown Thomas 22 farmer m Ky 1
Brown Wick 22 farmer m Ky 1
Bryant Isaac 25 farmer m Ky 1
Bumgarner William 23 farmer u Ky 1 Baumgardner
Burchette Jesse 25 farmer u Ky 1
Burns Oliver 25 merchant m Ky 1
Burns W W 28 farmer m Ky 1
Burton David 30 farmer m Ky 1
Burton Israel 28 farmer m Ky 1
Burton Jesse 31 farmer m Ky 1
Burton John Jr 23 farmer m Ky 1
Burton William 30 farmer m Ky 1
Burton William 32 farmer m Ky 1
Canterel Henry 38 farmer u Ky 2
Cantrell Henry 40 farmer u Ky 2
Carpenter Joshua 42 farmer u Ky 2
Carpenter Levi 44 farmer u Ky 2
Carter Benjamin F 22 farmer m Ky 1
Carter Greenville P 25 farmer u Va 1
Carter James 27 farmer m Ky 1
Carter Marion 25 farmer m Ky 1
Carter Morgan G 38 farmer u Ky 2
Carter Ramey 42 farmer u Ky 2
Carter S M 30 physician m Ky 1
Carter Thomas 23 farmer u Va 1
Carter Wesley 23 farmer u Va 1
Carter William 23 farmer u Va 1
Carter Willis G 41 doctor u Ky 2
Cash Levi 44 farmer u Va 2
Cash Miles 42 farmer u Va 2
Caskey Alvin 38 farmer u Ky 2
Caskey Caskey 25 farmer m Ky 1
Caskey Castle 30 farmer m Ky 1
Caskey Dyer 27 farmer u Ky 1
Caskey Jesse 31 farmer m Ky 1
Caskey Miles 35 farmer m Ky 1
Caskey R F 30 farmer u Ky 1
Caskey Richard 20 farmer m Ky 1
Cassity Leander 32 miller m Ky 1
Cassity Newton 24 farmer m Ky 1
Cassity William 23 blacksmith u Ky 1
Castle Goodman G 40 farmer u Va 2
Cateron John 23 farmer m Ky 1
Caudle Benjamin 32 farmer m Ky 1
Caudle Elexius 40 farmer u Va 2
Caudle Isaac 30 farmer m Va 1
Clevinger Nelson 22 farmer m Ky 1
Clevinger Pleasant 40 farmer u Ky 2
Click John 23 farmer m Ky 1
Click W H 40 farmer u Ky 2
Cock Hiram 36 farmer u Ky 2
Cock James 38 farmer u Ky 2
Cockerham Humphrey 30 farmer m Ky 1
Cockerham William 27 farmer m Ky 1
Coffee Jesse 26 farmer m Ky 1
Coffee  Richard M 25 farmer m Ky 1
Cohn Harrison 40 farmer u Va 2
Cole Harrison  farmer m Ky 1
Conley John 40 farmer u Ky 2
Conly Ezekial 32 farmer m Ky 1
Conly Henry 24 farmer m Ky 1
Conly Isaac 28 farmer m Ky 1
Conly Jack 34 farmer m Ky 1
Conly Moses 30 farmer m Ky 1
Conn Jesse W 40 farmer u Va 2
Corel Samuel 40 farmer u Va 2
Cottle Ambrose 25 farmer m Ky 1
Cottle Henry B 32 farmer m Ky 1
Cottle J M 26 farmer m Ky 1
Cottle James 38 farmer u Ky 2
Cottle Joseph 37 farmer u Ky 1
Cottle Uriah 22 farmer u Ky 1
Courtney Joshua 40 farmer u Ky 2
Cox Andrew J 25 farmer u Va 1
Cox Gordon 22 farmer u Va 1
Cox Harrison 42 farmer u Va 2
Cox John 34 farmer m Va 1
Cox Joshua 42 farmer u Va 2
Crisp Andrew J 33 farmer m Ky 1
Crisp George 22 farmer u Ky 1
Crisp Marion 26 farmer m Ky 1
Crisp Sylvester D 30 farmer m Ky 1
Daily Alfred 44 farmer u Ky 2
Daily John 44 farmer u Ky 2
Daily John E 31 farmer m Ky 1
Davis Alfred 32 farmer m Ky 1
Davis Hardin 40 farmer u Ky 1
Davis Henry 22 farmer m Ky 1
Davis Livy 39 farmer u Va 2
Davis Reuben 33 farmer m Ky 1
Davis Travis 32 farmer m Ky 1
Davis William 28 farmer m Ky 1
Day Alfred 35 farmer m Ky 1
Day Allen 26 farmer m Ky 1
Day Allen T 24 farmer m Ky 1
Day Ambrose 33 farmer m Va 1
Day Daniel 34 farmer m Ky 1
Day George 24 farmer m Ky 1
Day Henry 24 farmer m Ky 1
Day James 24 farmer m Ky 1
Day James 25 farmer m Ky 1
Day Jesse 30 farmer m Va 1
Day John 28 farmer m Ky 1
Day John 20 farmer u Ky 1
Day John 41 farmer u Ky 2
Day John 36 farmer u Ky 2
Day William 24 farmer m Ky 1
Day William 30 farmer m Ky 1
Day William 25 farmer m Va 1
Dehart James 22 farmer u Ky 1
Dehaven Madison 32 farmer m Va 1
Dennis George 20 farmer u Ky 1
Dennis James P 42 farmer u Ky 1
Dennis John 21 farmer u Ky 1
Dyer Preston H 33 farmer m Ky 1
Dyer Thomas 23 farmer m Ky 1
Dyer William 25 farmer m Ky 1
Easterling James 28 farmer m Ky 1
Easterling Thomas 28 farmer u Ky 1
Easterling Thomas 37 farmer u Ky 2
Easterling William 35 farmer m Ky 1
Elam Benjamin 21 farmer u Ky 1
Elam Caleb 20 farmer m Ky 1
Elam Daniel 35 farmer m Va 1
Elam David 20 farmer u Ky 1
Elam George 21 farmer u Ky 1
Elam J C 24 farmer u Ky 1
Elam James 30 farmer m Va 1
Elam James H 32 farmer m Ky 1
Elam John 26 farmer m Ky 1
Elam Joseph 42 farmer u Va 2
Elam Joshua 30 farmer m Va 1
Elam Joshua 33 farmer m Va 1
Elam Menifee 24 farmer m Ky 1
Elam Samuel 30 farmer m Va 1
Elam Walter 40 farmer u Ky 2
Elam William 34 farmer m Ky 1
Elam William 44 farmer u Va 2
Elam Wilson 36 farmer u Ky 2
Eldrige Isaac 24 farmer u Ky 1
Eldrige Samuel 23 farmer u Ky 1
Ellington Benjamin 34 farmer m Ky 1
Ellington Thomas 20 farmer u Ky 1
Elliott Benjamin 22 farmer m Ky 1
Elliott G M 36 farmer u Ky 2
Elliott James 24 farmer m Ky 1
Elliott M George 23 farmer m Ky 1
Elliott Perry 30 farmer m Ky 1
Elliott Richard 38 farmer u Ky 2
Evans William 22 farmer u Ky 1
Fannin Peter M 30 farmer m Ky 1
Fannin Thomas H 26 farmer m Va 1
Feran Jefferson 34 farmer m Ky 1
Ferguson Haden 22 farmer m Va 1
Ferguson Isaac 35 farmer m Va 1
Ferguson James 40 farmer u Ky 2
Ferguson James M 24 farmer m Va 1
Ferguson Richard 33 farmer m Va 1
Ferguson Thomas 21 farmer m Va 1
Ferguson  30 farmer m Va 1
Fields Jonah Jr 20 farmer u Va 1
Fields Jonas Sr 42 farmer u Va 2
Flannery Albert 25 farmer m Va 1
Flannery Morgan 21 farmer u Ky 1
Flannery Tandy 27 farmer m Va 1
Flannery William 23 farmer u Ky 1
Forman Charles 20 farmer m Va 1
Forman John 33 farmer m Va 1
Forman Joseph 32 farmer u Va 1
Foster A J 30 farmer m Va 1
Foster John 23 farmer u Ky 1
Foster W C 25 farmer u Ky 1
Fraley Adam C 25 farmer u Ky 1
Fraley Alexander 38 farmer u Ky 2
Fraley James 32 farmer m Ky 1
Fraley Phillip 48 farmer u Ky 2
Frisby William 35 farmer m Ky 1
Fugate Ellington 34 farmer m Va 1
Fugate Ira E 25 farmer m Va 1
Fugate James B 40 farmer u Ky 2
Fugate Joseph 29 farmer m Va 1
Fugate William W 34 farmer m Ky 1
Galliher Levi 20 farmer u Ky 1
Garrell Amos D 28 farmer m Ky 1 Garrell's possibly Coopers?
Garrell George W 28 farmer m Ky 1
Garrell Lewis 20 farmer m Ky 1
Garrell W R 32 farmer m Ky 1 Garrell a fake name to avoid draft?
George Silas 20 farmer m Ky 1
Gibbs Harrison 20 farmer u Ky 1
Gibbs John 30 farmer m Va 1
Gil,more William 44 farmer u Ky 2
Gilbert Speed 24 farmer m Ky 1
Gillum Chesley 30 farmer m Ky 1
Gillum Richard 30 farmer m Ky 1
Gillum  Isaac 40 farmer u Ky 2
Gilmore Daniel 32 farmer m Ky 1
Gilmore Daniel 43 farmer u Ky 2
Gilmore William 38 farmer u Ky 2
Goad Ranson 24 farmer u Ky 1
Goad Tyree 20 farmer m Va 1
Goodman Bud 20 farmer u Ky 1
Goodman James 24 farmer u Ky 1
Goodpaster Reuben 21 farmer u Ky 1
Goodpaster Thomas J 24 farmer u Ky 1
Goodpaster William 26 farmer u Ky 1
Goodwin Samuel 22 farmer u ky 1
Gordon A M 27 farmer m Ky 1
Gose Anderson 24 farmer u Ky 1
Gose Henry 22 farmer m Ky 1
Gose John 36 farmer u Ky 2
Gose Stephen 25 farmer m Ky 1
Gose Thomas 23 farmer u Ky 1
Gray D C A 40 farmer u Ky 2
Gray James M 48 farmer u Ky 2
Gray Samuel F 38 farmer u Ky 2
Gray Stephen H 32 farmer m Ky 1
Gray William 25 farmer m Ky 1
Griffith Hiram 28 farmer m Va 1
Griffith Wilkerson 22 farmer m Va 1
Gullett Francis 24 farmer u Ky 1
Gullett Green 22 farmer u Ky 1
Gullett Greene 22 farmer u Ky 1
Gullett Preston 26 farmer m Ky 1
Gullett Wesley 40 farmer u Ky 2
Hall David 35 farmer m Ky 1
Hall Isaac 24 farmer u Ky 1
Hall John 20 farmer u Ky 1
Halsey William B 32 farmer m Va 1
Hamilton Benjamin 36 farmer u Va 2
Hamilton David 35 farmer m Ky 1
Hamilton David 25 farmer m Ky 1
Hamilton Major 44 farmer u Ky 2
Hamilton May 38 farmer u Va 2
Hammond John 44 Collier u Va 2
Haney Granville 25 farmer m Va 1
Haney James 44 farmer u Ky 2
Haney John 30 farmer m Ky 1
Haney Newton 21 farmer m Ky 1
Haney William 24 farmer m Ky 1
Haney William E 43 farmer u Ky 2
Hannah David 25 farmer m Ky 1
Hannah Lock 30 farmer m Ky 1
Hardin John 30 farmer m Ky 1
Hargis Jacob 25 farmer m Ky 1
Hargis James 23 farmer u Ky 1
Havens Joseph 40 farmer u Ky 2
Havens Josiah 44 farmer u Ky 2
Havens Samuel 30 farmer m Ky 1
Hay Henry 40 farmer u Va 2
Hay Thomas 37 farmer u Va 2
Hazelrigg John T 30 lawyer m Ky 1
Henry Jacob 37 farmer u Ky 2
Henry Michael 40 farmer u Ky 2
Henry Thomas J 20 farmer u Ky 1
Henry  Lewis 42 farmer u Ky 2
Hensley John 30 farmer u Ky 1
Hensley William 35 farmer m Ky 1
Hill Burton 44 farmer u Va 2
Hill Edward 34 farmer m Ky 1
Hill Edward 22 farmer u Ky 1
Holbrook Lewis 20 farmer u Ky 1
Holbrook William 30 farmer m Ky 1
Horton James 23 farmer u Ky 1
Horton Richard 25 farmer m Va 1
Howard John 24 farmer u Ky 1
Howard Rufus 24 farmer m Ky 1
Howerton Preston 42 farmer u Ky 2
Hurt Madison 21 farmer m Va 1
Igo John 20 farmer u Ky 1
Ingram George W 28 farmer m Ky 1
Ingram Isaac 41 farmer u Ky 2
Ingram Jackson 26 farmer m Ky 1
Ingram Jasper 24 farmer u Ky 1
Ingram John 28 farmer m Ky 1
Ingram Johnson 28 farmer m Ky 1
Isom Argalus 42 farmer u Ky 2
Isom Bird 43 farmer u Ky 2
Isom Dock 23 farmer u Ky 1
Isom Doctor 44 farmer u Ky 2
Isom Doctor Jr 21 farmer u Ky 1
Isom Ison 34 farmer m Ky 1
Jenkins Samuel 42 farmer u Ky 2
Jennings David 20 farmer u Ky 1
Jones Alvin 27 farmer m Ky 1
Jones Alvin S 32 farmer m Ky 1
Jones F M 25 farmer u Ky 1
Jones Marion 23 farmer u Ky 1
Jones Riley 21 farmer m Ky 1
Kendall John 23 farmer u Ky 1
Kidd Harrison 20 farmer m Ky 1
Kincaid Samuel 25 farmer m Ky 1
Kincaid Samuel 28 farmer m Ky 1
Lacey Moses B 33 farmer m Ky 1
Lacey Newton 24 farmer m Ky 1
Lacey Stewart 22 farmer m Ky 1
Lamaster Richard 27 farmer m Ky 1 listed as "Demaster"
Law Law 28 farmer m Ky 1
Lawson Sanders 28 farmer m Ky 1
Lemaster William R 35 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis Enoch 25 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis Franklin 22 farmer u Ky 1
Lewis Harrison 23 farmer u Ky 1
Lewis Henry 20 farmer u Ky 1
Lewis James 24 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis James 32 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis John 25 farmer u Ky 1
Lewis John 40 farmer u Ky 2
Lewis Marion 26 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis Marion 20 farmer u Ky 1
Lewis Solomon 40 farmer u Ky 2
Lewis Thomas 34 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis Thomas 20 farmer u Ky 1
Lewis Tillman 32 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis William 20 farmer m Ky 1
Lewis William 20 farmer u Ky 1
Linden Andrew 22 farmer u Ky 1
Lockhart Elijah 34 farmer m Va 1
Long Noah 20 farmer u NC 1
Loveless Amos 26 farmer u Ky 1
Loveless William 21 farmer u Ky 1
Lucas Allen 23 farmer u Va 1
Lucas Harrison 21 farmer m Va 1
Lucas William 25 farmer m Va 1
Lykins Aaron 22 farmer u Ky 1
Lykins Caleb 44 farmer u Ky 2
Lykins Eli 24 farmer m Ky 1
Lykins Isaac 27 farmer m Ky 1
Lykins Joshua 21 farmer u Ky 1
Lykins Levi 21 farmer m Ky 1
Lykins Lilburn 24 farmer m Ky 1
Lykins William 22 farmer u Ky 1
Mahone Jiner 30 farmer m Ky 1
Mannin Aurelius 30 farmer m Ky 1
Mannin Commodore 28 farmer m Ky 1
Mannin Cornelius 27 farmer u Ky 1
Mannin Cyrus 24 farmer m Ky 1
Mannin Josiah 24 farmer m Ky 1
Mannin Richard 20 farmer u Ky 1
Mannin Sylvester 24 farmer m Ky 1
Mannin William 30 farmer m Ky 1
Martin John 44 farmer u Ky 2
Mason William 23 farmer u Ky 1
Maxey Jacob C 32 farmer m Ky 1
May Allen 25 farmer m Ky 1
May Caleb 37 farmer u Ky 2
May Caleb D 40 farmer u Ky 2
May S F 21 farmer u Ky 1
May Samuel 20 farmer u Ky 1
Mays Davidson 22 farmer u Ky 1
Mays George W 24 farmer m Ky 1
Mays James 27 farmer u Ky 1
Mays James Riley 23 farmer u Ky 1
Mays Moses 20 farmer u Ky 1
Mays W R 28 farmer u Ky 1
Mays William 24 farmer u Ky 1
Mays William 21 farmer u Ky 1
McClanahan Cornelius 31 farmer m Ky 1
McClanahan John 31 farmer m Ky 1
McClure Matthew 44 farmer u Ky 2
McDaniel W H 38 farmer u Ky 2
McGuire Harrison 31 farmer m Ky 1
McGuire J H 30 farmer m Va 1
McGuire James 42 farmer u Ky 2
McGuire James M 37 farmer u Ky 2
McGuire Samuel 29 farmer m Ky 1
McGuire Thomas 26 farmer m Ky 1
McKinney Shelton 44 farmer u Ky 2
McKinzie Oscar 23 farmer m Ky 1
McMillen George W 30 farmer m Ky 1
McMillen Robert 27 farmer m Ky 1
McMullen Robert 22 farmer m Ky 1
McMullen Wesley 25 farmer m Ky 1
Medwan Elisha 35 farmer m Va 1
Miller Stephen 23 farmer m Ky 1
Milton James 22 farmer u Ky 1
Mitter M L 40 farmer u Ky 2
Montgomery Crockett 25 farmer u Va 1
Montgomery Matthew 38 farmer u Ky 2
Mullins Reverand 42 preacher u Ky 2
Murphy Frank 24 farmer m Ky 1
Murphy Jeremiah V 25 farmer m Ky 1
Murphy Lewis 43 farmer u Ky 2
Murphy Logan 22 farmer u Ky 1
Murray Adison W 33 farmer m Va 1
Murray Augustus W 25 farmer u Va 1
Musie Lafayette 36 farmer u Ky 2
Neal Colvin 23 farmer m Va 1 at Mt Carmel, Fleming Co, Ky"
Neal John 23 farmer m Va 1
Neff James 33 farmer m Va 1
Nickell Alexander C 30 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell Alfred 24 farmer u Ky 1
Nickell Andrew 36 farmer u Ky 2
Nickell Asa 25 farmer u Ky 1
Nickell Caleb 36 farmer u Ky 2
Nickell French 23 farmer u Ky 1
Nickell George 33 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell George 28 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell Holley 22 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell James 32 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell James 32 farmer u Ky 1
Nickell Joseph 24 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell Marion 20 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell Miles 30 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell Morris 28 farmer m Ky 1
Nickell Robert 23 farmer m Ky 1
Oakley Green 22 farmer u Ky 1
Oakley Jeff 28 farmer m Ky 1
Oakley John 30 farmer m Ky 1
Oakley Johnson V 28 farmer m Ky 1
Oakley Joseph 24 farmer m Ky 1
Oakley William 36 farmer u Ky 2
Oldfield George 43 farmer u Ky 2
Oldfield John A 23 farmer u Ky 1
Oldfield Joseph 33 farmer m Ky 1
Oldfield Reason 35 farmer m Ky 1
Oldfield Wash 44 farmer u Ky 2
Osburn Joseph 40 farmer u Ky 2
Osburn Samuel 41 farmer u Va 2
Parker A J 35 saddler m Va 1
Parsons William 23 farmer u Ky 1
Passely Moses 30 farmer m Ky 1
Patrick Archibald 35 farmer m Ky 1
Patrick John 32 farmer u Ky 1
Patrick Meredith 35 farmer m Ky 1
Patton James 23 farmer u Ky 1
Payton Benjamin F 25 farmer m Ky 1
Payton Daniel 34 farmer u Ky 1
Payton John P 42 farmer u Ky 2
Penix James 35 farmer m Ky 1
Pennington Allen 21 farmer u Ky 1
Pennington Eli 28 farmer m Ky 1
Pennington James 24 farmer u Ky 1
Perry Allen 23 farmer m Ky 1
Perry Edward 22 farmer u Ky 1
Perry Franklin 34 farmer u Ky 1
Perry George M 30 farmer m Ky 1
Perry J W 20 farmer m Ky 1
Perry James 25 farmer u Ky 1
Perry James 23 farmer m Ky 1
Perry Jasper 20 farmer u Va  1
Perry William 22 farmer u Va 1
Pettit Jackson 20 farmer u Ky 1
Phillips George 30 farmer m Ky 1
Pieratt James 26 farmer m Ky 1
Pieratt James T 24 farmer u Ky 1
Pieratt John F 23 farmer m Ky 1
Pieratt Silas 25 farmer m Ky 1
Pieratt Thomas 42 farmer u Ky 2
Pieratt Valentine 40 farmer u Ky 2
Pierce George 35 farmer u Ky 1
Pierce Samuel 35 farmer m Ky 1
Porter Henry D 31 farmer m Ky 1
Power Jilson 35 farmer m Ky 1
Power Sanford 22 farmer m Ky 1
Powers Lewis 40 farmer u Ky 1
Prater James 37 farmer u Va 2
Prater Preston 36 farmer u Va 2
Prewitt John W 30 shoemaker m Va 1
Prewitt Mack 27 farmer m Ky 1
Prewitt Wesley 30 farmer m Ky 1
Proctor William 22 farmer u Ky 1
Puckett Jacob 20 farmer m Va 1
Quicksell Jonathan 35 farmer m Ky 1
Ramy William 24 farmer m Ky 1
Ratliff Ezekial 20 farmer u Ky 1
Ratliff John 23 farmer m Ky 1
Ratliff Samuel 36 farmer u Ky 2
Ratliff Silas 25 farmer m Ky 1
Reed Benjamin 30 farmer m Ky 1
Reed George 20 farmer u Ky 1
Reed James 21 farmer u Ky 1
Richardson Melvin 30 farmer m Va 1
Robertson Fletcher 24 farmer m Ky 1
Robertson John 32 farmer m Ky 1
Robinson Milton 34 farmer m Ky 1
Robison John 23 farmer m Va 1
Roe Henry 32 farmer m Va 1
Roe Joshua 30 farmer m Va 1
Rose James 40 farmer u Ky 2
Ross Job 23 farmer m Ky 1 Rose?
Ross John 25 farmer m Ky 1
Ross Joseph 35 farmer m Ky 1
Ross Thomas 30 farmer m Ky 1
Rowe Elisha 37 farmer u Ky 2
Rowe Lorenzo 22 farmer m Ky 1
Rush John 30 farmer m Va 1
Sampler Stephen 35 farmer m Va 1
Samples James 38 millwright u Va 2
Sargent William 40 farmer u Va 2
Seech John 35 farmer m Va 1
Sexton Preston 28 farmer m Ky 1
Slimp Joseph 25 farmer m Va 1
Slimp Joseph 40 farmer u Ky 2
Smith David 43 farmer u Ky 2
Smith Edward 24 farmer u Ky 1
Smith Elisha 42 farmer u Ky 2
Smith Lewis 40 farmer u Ky 2
Smith Thomas 23 farmer u Ky 1
Smoot Walker 21 farmer u Ky 1
Stacey Asberry 22 farmer u Ky 1
Stacey Riley 21 farmer m Ky 1
Stacey Wilburn 26 farmer m Ky 1
Stacey William 27 farmer m Ky 1
Stacy Henderson 22 farmer m Va 1
Stacy Henderson 40 farmer u Ky 2
Stacy Samuel 26 farmer m Va 1
Stafford James 43 farmer u Ky 2
Stafford Jesse 25 farmer u Ky 1
Stamper Calvin 35 farmer m Ky 1
Stamper Calvin 30 farmer m NC 1
Stamper James M 27 farmer m Ky 1
Stamper Jeff 40 farmer u Ky 2
Stamper Samuel 20 farmer u Ky 1
Steele Wilkerson 40 farmer u Va 2
Stephens Jesse K 40 farmer u Ky 2
Stevens Andrew 27 farmer m Ky 1
Stevens Gilbert 25 farmer m Ky 1
Stevens James 26 farmer m Ky 1
Stevens John 22 farmer u Ky 1
Stevens Kelly 25 farmer u Ky 1
Stigall Gabriel 30 farmer m Ky 1
Stigall Jesse 36 farmer u Ky 2
Stigall Lewis 36 farmer u Ky 2
Strickland Brittan 40 farmer u Ky 2
Strickland John 22 farmer m Ky 1
Strong George 28 farmer m Va 1
Sturgeon Isaac 25 farmer m Ky 1
Sublett James 34 farmer m Ky 1
Taulbee William 36 farmer u Ky 2
Terry Isaac 23 farmer m Ky 1
Terry Leonard 25 farmer u Ky 1
Terry Miles 30 farmer u Ky 1
Thompson Samuel W 25 farmer u Ky 1
Toleson James 30 farmer m Ky 1
Utterback Richard 20 farmer m Ky 1
Utterback William 44 farmer u Ky 2
Vandyke Israel 20 farmer u Ky 1
Vest Frank 30 farmer m Ky 1
Vest Thomas 26 farmer m Ky 1
Vest Wells 43 farmer u Ky 2
Vest Woodson 20 farmer u Ky 1
Wagoner Daniel 40 farmer u Ky 2
Wagoner David 22 farmer m Ky 1
Wagoner Henry 24 farmer m Ky 1
Walsh Norman 21 farmer u Ky 1
Walsh William 20 farmer u Ky 1
Walsh William 27 farmer m Ky 1
Walters Andrew 36 farmer u Ky 2
Walters Felix 26 farmer m Ky 1
Walters Franklin 34 farmer m Ky 1
Walters Jefferson 23 farmer m Ky 1
Ward Albert 40 farmer u Ky 2
Ward William 35 farmer m Ky 1
Watson Michael 30 farmer m Va 1
Well Daniel 23 farmer u Ky 1
Wells Daniel 24 farmer u Ky 1
Wells Edward 30 farmer m Ky 1
Wells Edward 26 farmer m Ky 1
Wells George 28 farmer m Ky 1
Wells James 33 farmer m Ky 1
Wells John 30 farmer m Ky 1
Wells Melvin 33 farmer u Ky 1
Wells R F 37 farmer u Ky 2
Wells Richard 30 farmer m Ky 1
Wells Thomas 30 farmer m Ky 1
Wells Thomas 21 farmer m Ky 1
Wells William 20 farmer m Ky 1
Wells William 37 farmer u Ky 2
Wheeler James E 30 farmer m Ky 1
Wheeler William B 32 farmer m Ky 1
Whitt Alfred 23 farmer m Ky 1
Whitt James 26 farmer m Ky 1
Whitt Miles 35 farmer m Ky 1
Whitt Moses 44 farmer u Ky 2
Whitt Richard 42 farmer u Ky 2
Whitt Washington 36 farmer u Ky 2
Williams Alvin 25 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Ambrose 35 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Armstrong 37 farmer u Ky 2
Williams Daniel 29 farmer m Ky 1
Williams David L 25 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Dial D 33 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Edward 30 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Harvey 32 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Isaac 23 farmer m Ky 1
Williams John 35 farmer m Ky 1
Williams Mason H P 43 farmer u Ky 2
Williams Richard 43 farmer u Ky 2
Williams William 30 farmer m Ky 1
Wilson David 24 farmer u Ky 1
Wilson Elvin 26 farmer m Ky 1
Wilson Jackson K 38 farmer u Ky 2
Wilson Richard 25 farmer m Ky 1
Wilson Samuel K 36 farmer u Ky 2

A Modest Proposal Or Two

(With Apologies To Jonathan Swift)

Our nation is in CRISIS and the old way of doing bizness got us here! Gumment, more than anything else, is the bad guys because gumment steals the money from people who earned it and give it to lazy, shiftless, useless people who should be put to work. Unless we go back to what our Old Testament Founding Fathers siad we'll become the nation of Babylon and fall from grace. So here are a few modest proposals to make Uh-Mur-Uh-Kuh great again.

1) Get rid of the minimum wage. Why do we gotta go though all the expense of shipping companies overseas for cheap labor when we can have 'em work cheap here?

B) Repeal the 14th amendment that says ALL public debt must be repaid. Sure we gotta pay them Chinese and the Saudi princes the money we owe them, but screw the losers who need Social Security. We could get the $3 Trillion Trust Fund and immediately get RICH AS HELL. The elderly don't need $$$ 'cause they don't create jobs spending $$$ on food and shelter and health care. The rich people need it for a tax cut to invest in China or gamble with on Wall Street.

next) Since only rich people create jobs we should eliminate taxes on the rich. We can fool the stoopid regular people by telling 'em how "unfair" it is for gumment to steal rich peoples' money just 'cause they're rich. Then we can make the stoopid people pay the difference in higher fees, state taxes, and local taxes.

D) Lots of jobs are lost here because rashunal and reasonable corporations would rather do bizness where they can dump everything in the water and air. Why go thru the cost of sendin' them jobs over there when we can just get rid of the Clean Water Act, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the EPA. They all cost us good paying jobs (see #1 above)

5) Get rid of the 17th amendment where people elect senators for each state. Stoopid people keep electing senators that promise people stuff. Instead we could have smoke filled rooms in each state where just the good people get to choose senators that'll tell stoopid people what to do. While we are at it, let's get rid of the 11th amendment that has the electoral college try to be democratic. We need to go back to the first coupla presidential elections where state assemblies choose a few rich and powerful men to sit behind closed doors and pick who our fuhrer - oops, I mean president is.

6) Get rid of all them stoopid programs that teach kids socialist values like food stamps, AFDC, and health care for children. Instead we should be teaching them the value of WORK! Get rid of the minimum wage and put them to work to learn family values! Their little hands can do all that miniturizing work that them Japs and Oriental like little hands do over there.

7) Let's scream about the Interstate Commerce Clause of the constitution for awhile. Let's scream 'bout how they destroy bizness by regalatingizing the biznesses and driving up costs. Tell everbody that we need to put power back to them 48 states. Then when some panzy-assed queer state like California tries to regalationize bizness we can say that's unconstitutional 'cause it violates the constitutions Interstate Commerce Clause. KILL federal regalations and then change the word that 50 different sets of regalshuns would be stoopid. They won't remember what we told 'em before.

8) Bring back them rules to keep all those useless people from voting. Property requirements, religious requirements, poll taxes, and literacy tests are all good ideas. Hell, why should people be allowed to vote if all they're good for is to provide cheap labor and pay taxes? (Besides, it's funny when good white people get to vote after spelling K-A-T and them darkies gotta recite the Bible from creation to Armageddon to vote.)

9) Unions, consumer groups, and especially civil lawsuits by stoopid poor people are all anti-business. We want a free market unless it involves negotiating fur labor, or paying the REAL cost of doing bidness. Havin' them people shoot their lazy, soculist mouths off just makes it harder to do bidness and we can't have that!

next to last) All them death camps that FEMA has ready to put good people in who believe in the constitushun ( except the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th and them others, the Interstate commurce klause, the writ of habeas corpse ass, the rights to do process and such) should be turned around to put all them anti-Americans people in. Hell ALL of Massachusetts, New York City, and San Francisca orta be rounded up immediately. That'll create a lot of jobs fer good ole Americans like me.

10 or 14 or something) The nation orta change its name to the Confederate States of America since we shoulda won that war but them yankees brought in illegal immigrants to fight their battles and gave guns to them darkies who under the constitution weren't even people! Beside, the flag is purtier.

finaly) I wanna be made Gauliter of Mudgump County and get to wear a fancy uniform and be a big shot and important and stuff...(I already got my night uniform of pure white and a hood)

Henry Himmler,
Tea Party Success & American Action Committee
East Beaver Lick, Mudgump County, Alabama, The righteous Confederate States of America

Republicans STEAL $3 Trillion of your hard earned $$$

    Right now we are watching the outright THEFT of $3 Trillion  from the Social Security Trust Fund by the fanatic Republican elitists and their tea bagger allies. For years hard working Americans of ALL political stripes, from every state and territory, and ranging from the working poor to the well to do have created a massive trust fund to protect our Social Security benefits. The Trust Fund was meant to be available in times like these, when a recession causes receipts to fall short for a couple of years. It's money in the bank for a rainy day. Well, now it's a rainy day.


    Last year the Old Age and Survivors programs, plus the Disability program ran a $46 billion deficit. For this year those programs are expected to run a $46 billion deficit. Next year the  deficit will fall to about $20 billion. The $2,940 BILLION  Trust Fund easily handles the shortfall! The temporary shortfall of $115 billion would not even dent our paid up trust fund. The interest paid into the fund alone covers the shortfall. So why is everyone in Washington screeching that Social Security is in crisis, in deficit, and in need of reform? Because the plan is to STEAL your Social Security Trust Fund to pay for more tax cuts for the very richest of Americans, the top 1/100th of 1%!
Right now our economy is in trouble (as we are all aware of). Tax revenues are dwarfed by expenditures. The Republicans, and especially the fanatical pawns of the ultra right calling themselves the "Tea Party" understand a very basic principle: we cannot afford to take the IOUs put into the Trust Fund and pay for benefits already earned without either cutting somewhere else or RAISING MORE REVENUE! To do so would merely be replacing the IOUs in the trust fund with more IOUs. The masters who created and paid for the "tea Party" realize we cannot afford to pay out those benefits to ordinary Americans who've already paid for them AND give a massive tax cut to the rich elite that runs/owns this country and its government. (Notice I did not say OUR government? Because this PROVES who has ALL our representatives in their pocket!)


    If the pawns of the "Wall Street" billionaires can lie and convince us that Social Security is damaged, is welfare, and needs "reform", then they never need to pay back that deposit we have all accrued in the Social Security Trust Fund. In essence they will have stolen it, the same as if a landlord never pays back a $3 trillion security deposit through dishonesty! Instead of paying regular Americans the benefits they have EARNED AND ALREADY PAID FOR they can instead extend Bush's insane tax cut for the elite! Already the Republicans are slobbering over the prospect of stealing our money and offering it up to their masters in the form of even GREATER tax cuts for billionaires! This makes no sense economically as well as being completely unfair and corrupt!


    The lie is that if we transfer the wealth from ordinary Americans to the rich elite they will create jobs with it. This is not just a demonstrable lie, but the exact OPPOSITE of the truth. The truth is that we are in a fix for two reasons. 1) The rich SPECULATED/GAMBLED with the Bush tax cuts by handing it over to hedge fund managers and their ilk on Wall Street, who if they invested it did so in CHINA and elsewhere. The Bush years, when we gave these massive tax cuts to the ultra-elitists- actually saw a LOSS of 10,000,000 jobs. 2) The problem in our economy is that the salaries and wages of ordinary Americans has SHRUNK under this corrupt government that screws over ordinary Americans and gets on their knees for the elite. This has meant purchasing power of the vast majority of decent Americans has actually gone DOWN tremendously. (We all realize this every time we go to the grocery or fill up at the pump!) By cutting Social Security and giving a massive tax giveaway to billionaire speculators we will further diminish the purchasing power of consumers while fueling the very speculative/corrupt practices that caused this "Free Market" Depression.


    I say, call your representatives and tell them that you will NOT allow the theft of our social security trust fund to pay for the taxgiveaways to the billionaire elitist speculators who bribe them with "campaign contributions"! Tell them that ALL AMericans come before their paymasters, that PEOPLE are more important than their megacorporation overlords. Tell them that we will not stand by while they screw over our parents and grandparents by order of the corrupt elitists who own them lock, stock, and barrel!

Civil War Letter fr Samuel to William Hurst

Letter from Samuel Hurst to his son William

Mt. Sterling, Kentucky February 11, 1864

Dear William,

I once more seat myself at Capt. Adams' quarters, to inform you of my present condition. I am in a bad condition at this time by reason of a fall I got from a horse about 12 days ago, when on a scout, in Morgan County. My mare fell across a log heap, on fire, and broke two of my ribs and bruised my body badly. Although I stuck to the Company till I arrived at home on Stillwater, then I stopped two days with ten bodyguards and they then fetched me around by way of Irvine to Mt. Sterling. I am somewhat on the mend now; but very sore. My body is badly hurt; bit I hope not serious.
We killed old James Stamper and a ring leader of the Guerrillas by the name of Hamilton and took 19 prisoners besides; but one of them got away. I suppose the boys have given you the particulars in their letters heretofore.
You wish to know if Jackson is burnt. I say it is, in part. Your houses are in ashes and several more. You want to know if I am going to move my family from the mountains. I am sir, I am this day going to rent a farm near this place. I have the offer of two. I don't know which I will take; but I will have my family here shortly. I can't but recollect how my family and myself met and also how we parted and the respect the neighbors showed to me. Old Bill Trimble solicited me strong, to come back and live at home and he said he would get from 50 to 100 signers and send it to the Southern Headquarters and have it confirmed so that I should be protected for he said he also wanted me back to protect him. I told him that did not suit me, the hardest might fence off. I was going to take my family off and he might shift for himself. I made no compromises. Then he and Berry Trimble's wife asked me to spare Berry and let him come in and talk with me a little while. Berry was then laying out. I told them to fetch Berry in and I would not hurt him. Then they asked Daniel if he would, Daniel said he wouldn't; but Henry would not promise favorably, so Berry did not appear. Then Lieutenant Hendrickson told the Trimbles, that he was going back to Salyersville and he was going to send me home with 10 bodyguards with me and he wanted them to understand that if any on interrupted me or hurt me in any way whatever, on his return that he would kill 50 cecesses and if he could not find men enough he would make his number out in women and children and he would begin in Old Bill Trimble's house first. Old Trimble said good God Sam, stay with me till the Company returns for if any thing happens to you he will kill us every one. I went home and stayed two days and nights unhurt.
You wanted to know where Jim (a slave) was. I hired him the 1st of January to the Government to drive the wagon, at on dollar per day. At the end of the first month the wagons were given to the soldiers and they became teamsters and Jim was taken to wait upon the Colonel. When I get a little better I will fetch him home and keep him with me. As to Jack Frazier, he was not killed. The rest were killed as I stated to you; but Hiram Miller was the man killed in the place of Jack Frazier. As I am in so much misery I will come to a close. Write soon and I will do the same.

Your father,

Samuel H. Hurst

Note: The "Berry" Trimble referred to in the above letter was Asberry Trimble. He was killed at Hazel Green, October 15, 1864, by Ed Hensley. He was the father of South Trimble who was a member of Congress from the Ashland District of Kentucky and who served for many years as Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

Civil War letter from Henry C Hurst, Rebel Massacre of Morgan County boys.

Mt. Sterling, Kentucky
October 7, 1863

Dear Brother:

I received your letter yesterday and it gave me great pleasure to hear that you were well. I have not heard from father since Daniel wrote you; but I suppose he is on the mend.
There has been a terrible crime committed here and I will tell you about it. The Rebels ran into Camargo and caught Pleasant Martin, Asbury Nickell, a son of Spaniard Nickell, Charles Little, a son of Phillip Little, Reason Grayson and Robert Nickell. They took them to Sycamore bridge near Ticktown and lined them up and told them they were going to parole them. They had them cross their hands on their breasts, telling them they were about to administer the oath; but instead they placed their guns against them and fired. All were killed dead except Robert Nickell who was shot near the right nipple, the bullet came out about five inches lower in the back. He fell off into the creek and they fired three more shots at him, one bullet struck his arm. He played off dead and they left him. As soon as they left he managed to get to a man's house who came and let us know. We took him to Mt. Sterling and then chased the Rebels to James Gibbs' on the dry ridge, there they scattered and we lost them. I think Nickells will get well, the Dr. says he is now out of danger.
This same crowd after the killing at the bridge reached the home of Jacob Stephens, they took his pocket book with about $30.00 and shot him dead in his own home. They then went on and caught that man, Jenkins, who was shot so often. The treatment they gave him was much worse than death. They took all privileges from him that was allowed a man by nature and told him that if that did not kill him they would come back and finish the job.
You wanted to know if Salyers and I had completed our job of enrolling. We have done all we can do without an armed force to assist us. We finished all except some of the Sandy territory when the Rebels got after us and captured our papers that we had finished and we had to do all the work over. We started in again and have about the same amount done as before; but they ran us out. We have made application three times for men to aid us; but they have not arrived. We are ready any time we can get protection. I want to complete this work as soon as possible for my time will soon be out, then I intend to go to some other country. I have of my present enlistment one month and five days yet to serve. Cockerell has offered me a 1st Lieutenants place in his Company which might be better than working with the Home Guards.

Your Brother,

H.C. Hurst

Atlanta Falcons Guilty Of Cruelty To Animals & Imprisoned

Well, when Michael Vick pleaded guilty to federal charges & served 21 months in prison, did we all allow ourselves to be befuddled by a lying headline like the one I posted above? The Atlanta Falcons Corporation was not guilty in the least of dogfighting. Still we let the corporate controlled media lie to us constantly about the nature of crime in America. It's even called "corporate crime" as if no real people are involved!

When eleven workers were murdered by oil company executives looking to maximize profits and earn monster bonuses we didn't hear a single name of one of the murderers. Instead all we got was "BP oil spill". When Wall Street, the real estate market, and the credit card industry nearly collapsed the world economy through fraudulent deals meant only to enhance short term profits that justified insane remuneration for criminals did we hear the name of a single person charged with the crimes they committed? Nope, instead the very teabagger real estate moghuls, mortgage brokers, CEOs, Wall Street gangsters, and political gamesters who nuked our economy get a monster trillion $$$ bailout, higher profits than ever, and absolute immunity from prosecution because "AIG" did it, or "IndyMac" did it, or "Lehman Brothers" did it. Well, if that's true then the Michael Vick case was an injustice to him. The Atlanta Falcons organization should have been fined a few thousand dollars and Mr Vick's name should never have been mentioned! Or just maybe we should name names and charge REAL criminals!

Propaganda and Seperation of Church & State

Once again I am COMPLETELY astounded by the right wing nutjobs who stupidly blither on about how our nation was founded by Christians & how our nation is falling apart because god is not in our schools. As always these wingnutz argue exactly AGAINST their own interests. Mostly this happens because this very vocal and moronic bunch of people do not have even the slightest understanding of the issue they rail on about. (but is this a surprise since they consistently blither without the slightest honest knowledge of any subject?)

Look, I would take up arms to protect the right of believers to believe. For me that is a fundamental right - freedom of thought - as important as freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly. What the nutjob right does not understand is that the kind of theocracy they advocate once existed in the USA and THEY WERE AGAINST IT!!!

many of the 13 original colonies were founded as RELIGIOUS colonies. Puritan Congregationalists ran Massachusetts and Connecticut, Episcopalians ruled Virginia & the Carolinas, Catholicism was supreme in Maryland, and the Quakers literally owned Pennsylvania. In most of these colonies & even after they became states in the United States people were FORCED to pay tithes to the established church whether they believed or not. In Virginia many of my forebearers fled NOT the tyranny of the government, but the tyranny of the CHURCH! These Baptists hated the established church, fought against the forced tithing to the aristocratic Episcopla/Anglican Church, and constantly moved out to the frontier to avoid the moneygrubbing church authorities who resorted even to condemning land to get their demanded religious taxes. But even my family - who have no memory of the past - babble on about putting "god" back in the government and our schools.

My question for my family & for everyone is this: Whose God? Do you want an America like the long gone America where a Baptist must move because he refuses to pay for a church he does not believe in? Do they want to be Pentecostal in a state where the Baptists look down on and oppress them? Do they want to live in a state where they cannot hold public office or even vote because they do not go to church, or because they belong to the wrong denomination? More importantly, do they want a state church to mandate that their children pray in school & write prayers that may well be offensive to them? This would all exist again in an America they insist upon.

Maybe now my family and others can understand that I am for freedom of religion and they are not. Maybe if they read this they can understand that I am the true "conservative" on this issue and that they are the ones who want more government invading what we believe & telling us what to think. For me, keep religion and government seperated. I do not trust ministers to run my government or my government to dictate my religion!

Tea Bagger Entrepeneurs

    Well, once a couple morehard working Americans have discovered the phenomenon I now call "the Tea Bagger Entrepeneur." This creature of the current generation constantly preens itself as a model of American economic values, the paragon of the American Dream, and the creator of wonderful jobs that make America strong. Somehow this new breed of "entrepeneur" has become a mutant of the real thing though. The new boss somehow believes he/she is entitled to success, deserving of every penny that can be squeezed out of a business, and is inherently superior to the drones they hire as employees. For them being the boss means sitting in an air-conditioned office while the workers are out flexing muscle and sweating, vacationing at every opportunity and passing on the rigors of running the business onto the very people they despise as drones, and acting miserly towards the very employees whose hard work and loyalty have made their business even sustainable. Let me give two examples of the new and foolhardy "entrepeneur' class of whiny, self-absorbed, do-nothing, entitlement grabbing dumbasses who pass as business owners today...

    A young man I know works for a contractor doing installations. The contractor in turn contracts with the BIG COMPANY for his work. In many ways the contractor is a bright and motivated boss, but he just can't get over the folly of bossism. He really believes that because he pays people to work that he has the right to treat them as drones, make them work for free to make his life into what he feels he is entitled to, and steal back the hard earned wages of the employees through deceit just because he is the boss.

    Specifics? Well, the BIG COMPANY pays bonuses if certain installation goals are met. The Big Company pays extra if the equipment is connected to phone lines.By having their equipment connected to a land line they can sell more services. It's been done this way for years. The problem is that in the last few years fewer households have land lines and the contractors have a hard time meeting the percentages they met just five years ago. Thus they do not earn the bonuses they feel entitled to. SO they screw the employees.

   Instead of giving employees bonuses for attaching the equipment to land lines the boss nukes employees who don't hit the percentages. For him it is an extra bonus, but for his crews the goal is a big knock to their pay checks. (It gets worse.) The boss pays installers 40 dollars a point for the installs, but if they don't get the bonus numbers he charges them $60 back, which is the amount he loses in bonuses. The man cannot seem to understand that it is unfair to pay someone $40 for hitting the gaol, but charge back $60 if the impossible goal is not met.

   The boss also told the young man that he showed management potential, as a field supervisor for the bosses crews. (It's the old dodge of giving someone hope for a bullshit title instead of paying them for the work they do.) On a Saturday the boss expected the young man to spend four hours - unpaid - to help a fellow employee whose vehicle had broken down. The young man agreed, believing thatb the boss was going on vacation out of town and was not available. So the young man - who faced a ten hour day - spent his time helping out. When he returned to the shop he discovered the boss had b.s.ed him about going out of town. He'd pulled in the shop to grab something so he could then go boating with the familyfor the day!

    All this might seem triffling if it weren't a pattern. He spent four hours taking care of an emergency - unpaid - and found he was taking on the responsibility of the owner who instead chose to screw off with the family. Then the  young man got his pay check amounting to HALF what he deserved due to a process of greedy and well thought out chargebacks. All of this might have been bearable, until the snarky business of displayed disrespect reared its ugly head.

   The young man had always done a good job. He had no problem helping out a fellow employee before setting out on his own ten to twelve hour work day. A previous customer called in and requested an install at a new residence and asked for the young man because he'd done such a fine job previuously. The young man tried to get someone else to do one of his installs because he then faced a sixteen hour day. Even worse he would get charged back if he took the new install because he would not be able to meet the "on time" demands of the BIG COMPANY and his boss. He would be penalized for doing a good job, Bringing back repeat business, and MAKING THE BIG COMPANY and his BOSS MORE MONEY after what would be a twenty hour day!

   The last straw was that the trolls at the BIG COMPANY were laughing at his predicament and insulting him and the youing man could not reach his boss who was outing thundering the big boat he was entitled to on a day when he demanded every other employee MUST WORK OR GET FIRED!

    If you can't see the problem with the above then you must also be a Tea Bagger. If you cannot see how screwed up the business model is then you would probably agree with the Tea Bagger boss who is constantly droning on that Americans are lazy and don't want to work for a living; that is all except he who boated while everyone was expected to work, who casually fobbed off his responsibility to a good employee who he tempted with trite promises, who he expected to spend a half work day FOR FREE toiling while he partied, and who he would eagerly screw over with chargebacks instead of giving him a bonus for doing a good job!

   I'm the boss. I desrve to sit in an air conditioned office and watch you work. If I don't pay you as promised then YOU are lazy! If I treat you with disrespect then YOU have a problem. I have my boat and my family to worry about, but you are not entitled to such concerns! Only I am entitled, because I am the boss and you are less than me.... And damned those lazy employees. I gotta spend so much money training new people because no one wants to work for a living!

    Case two: Another friend works for a "contractor". The woman's husband - who started the business - died a few years ago. He was a hard worker and made a good living at it. She then married a fat and lazy drooler who relishes the idea of being the boss. My friend discovered he was hired because the company needed a "supervisor" with certifications necessary to do the jobs legally. Well, our weather has been really damp lately. My friend found himself working as much as eighty hour weeks for very low wages. The business though made lots off of each contract because they could bid high due to the scarcity of available contractors. Only because my friend had the necessary certification though could the business operate.

    Well wifey and her slob spouse turned out to be perfect tea bagger entrepeneurs. When my friend worked an eighty hour week and finally went home at 1am on a Sunday night they pissed and moaned when he asked for a late morning on Monday to get some much needed sleep. When he felt he had proven himself and asked for a raise they literally sneered at him. Not once did they visit a job site or directed the crews on what needed done. Instead they had my friend show up - unpaid - to make sure the jobs got done correctly. Besides they needed a CERTIFIED person to visit each work site! What did the tea bagger entrepeneurs do? They sat in their air-conditioned office, too good to deal with the filth and rot they were hired to fix. The slob wasn't capable of getting off his ass and working, much less earning a certification his business needed. Finally, after constantly being screwed on his pay checks, sneering attitudes of husband and wife who constantly complained about "gumment regalashuns" and how the country is going to hell because of lazy people, and an inability of self-absorbed people who felt superior and entitled to making money while others worked he had enough.

   Now the company is without their only certified tech and can't seem to find another. BUT it's every one else's fault: The tyrannical gumment that insists on certification, lazy employees who don't want to work for a living, yadda yadda yadda...

   Both men - both good employees - moved on. Both would have made their employers MUCHO DINERO. Both though were unlucky enough to find themselves working for tea bagger employers, employers who believed they were ENTITLED just because they were the bosses. When will these tea bagger entrepeneurs realize some basic business principles? Is it impossible in this new age where propaganda has glorified the so-called "entrepeneur" who now expects instant success and tons of money without effort? Is it impossible that they realize that being the boss means that they are more responsible than those they employ for their own success, that employees cannot be treated like shit and still be expected to work HARDER than the person who employs them? Is America doomed to the mediocrity of wannabe entrepeneurs who are the own greatest liability? Where has the old spirit of American Capitalism gone?

    Well, it seems par for the course now. Everyone knows that Americans are lazy and don't wanna work.

Angelo Mozilo: The Biggest Criminal In America

About five million Americans have lost their homes, or are facing imminent foreclosure since the huge housing/credit/banking bubble began popping in 2007. Ten million Americans have lost their jobs because of the fake prosperity that made trillions of dollars for a relatively small group of people. Fraud, corruption, immoral business practices, and buying off of politicians were the order of the day as pretend "free-markets" and fake "capitalism" allowed America to be looted. The absolute worst criminal, who more than any other person caused the near total collapse of our economy, walks free simply because he still has the political protection of the paid for henchmen we call our elected government. His name is Angelo Mozilo.

Angelo Mozilo founded the two companies that caused the most damage to our economy and our people; Countrywide Mortgage and IndyMac bank. From 1999 to 2007 Countrywide sold HALF of all the fraudulent NINJA loans sold in America. Mozilo knew that his people were selling bogus mortgages because he openly encouraged - even demanded - that his salespeople (posing as mortgage lenders and brokers) openly falsify applications for mortgages, misrepresent those mortgages to consumers, and then knowingly sell those bad loans to investers as good investments called "mortgage backed securities". He did this in collusion with Wall Street bankers who KNEW they were packaging garbage, KNEW the fake loans would blow up in the face of the borrowers, and KNEW that sooner or later the trillions of $$$ of bogus loans would cause irrepairable damage to our economy! Why did he do it? How did he get away with it? And why isn't he in jail right now?

The necessary element for Mozilo's crimes was supplied by politicians. A wave of euphoria swept across the political right after the fall of communism. According to the mythology "capitalism" defeated "communism" and thereby proved that ALL government oversight and regulation was detrimental to prosperity. The idealogues took their euphoric misinterpretation of reality even further. Government wasn't just an impediment to prosperity, it was downright EVIL. These new economic philosophers soon joined hands with a tiny - but extremely powerful - group of extremely wealthy and well connected patrician families ( like the Bushes) that believed that America had become a "socialist" state way back in the 1930s under FDR. These elitists desired more than anything else to return America to the Gilded Era where they and theirs ruled our nation without having to deal with other, competing power centers ( like unions, citizens advocacy groups, or even voters allowed real participation in our political process).

Mozilo recognized that new rules applied. He understood, without being born to the elite or believing in the ideology of the NeoCon men, that the pendulum had jumped back to the far right. He knew that the government would have NO interest in interfering in business no matter how criminal their behavior. He understood that the new politics of the elitists would keep the EVIL gumment from overseeing or regulating his business even when his crimes became obvious. Mozilo devised an amazing scheme to become one of the richest men in America!

In 1969 Mozilo had created Countrywide Mortgage. For years the business remained relatively small, until Mozilo recognized that the foxes were now guarding the henhouse. Good government, common sense, and valuing anything except profit had been tossed aside in favor of a new economic model molded by the greed shysters and ideologues and elitists who believed anything they did not be measured as the little people are measured. Mozilo's scheme was brilliant.

This man recognized several very important facts about the new economic model. First, Alan Greenspan was creating vast amounts of money through the Federal Reserve and lending it out to the elitists under extremely generous terms. Money would not be the limiting factor in his con! Next - as I stated above - the government regulators and the criminal justice system had been hobbled. Mozilo would need not fear any punishment if his crimes became public because the new philosophy tagged all gumment as evil and Mr Mazilo as a GIANT who created jobs, enriched investors, and magnified the wealth of our nation. As part of the second realization, Mozilo knew it would be important to use some of his profits to buy protection from politicians from BOTH political parties. Politicians had - with the connivance of the elitists - recreated American politics into a system of graft whereby they got so-called campaign contributions in return for political protection and the furthering of their fraudulent business schemes.

Mozilo also realized that the loosey-goosey monetary policies of Greenspan's Federal Reserve, America's trade imbalance, and the massive tax cuts given the wealthiest of Americans would create a glut of money chasing after the most profitable "investments". The rich and powerful, Chinese banks flush with $$$, and the few men who control the nation's investment funds would flock to whoever promised them the greatest returns. The big investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns would line up potential investors no matter how shady the deal, as long as they were given a piece of the action. Their participation would legitimize the schems and provide extra political protection through the politicians those firms owned as lackeys. Finally, everyone knew the ratings firms like Moody's and S&P would give any investments sold through the big investment banks a fantastic rating, no matter how risky, out of greed and fear of losing business.

Mozilo had all the pieces he needed to perpetuate the greatest fraud in history! All except one...

Countrywide specialized in non-standard mortgages. After the Savings & Loan fiasco that cost taxpayers $200 billion during the Reagan and Bush Sr years, banks were encouraged to sell variable rate mortgages and other non-standard loans. The belief was that banks were vulnerable during times of inflation if their investment portfolio was full of low interest, fixed mortgages. The sensible practice of offering some vaariable rate loans to hedge against inflation was soon mutated into a wide variety of very risky mortgages that could pay huge commisions to the originating firm up front, then get sold off to investors who would get left holding the bag when the economy dipped. Mozilo and Company were the masters and architects of the newest massive con. Here's how it works:

Countrywide advertizes for people who cannot get a traditional mortgage. Either their credit/income makes them a risky customer or they live in a state where housing prices puts them over of the maximum that Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac would insure. Countrywide would sell a mortgage to such people and toss all the mortgages into one huge pool. The firm would then chop hundreds of thousands of these mortgages into tiny bits where no one investor would own any complete mortgage (just a tiny bit of thousands) and sell off $5,000,000 blocs of this mortgage jello to investors through the big investment banks. Originally deemed a good business practice spreading risk among many investors, this had a wonderful side benefit for con men like Mozilo. Investors didn't own mortgages that they could check up on, but slices of unverifiable loans that investors had to trust were good loans.

The final piece of the scam was buying what was called an "insurance policy" for investors who bought the $5,000,000 shady deals! Countrywide would go to a firm like AIG who would pretend to calculate the extra risk of non-standard loans and provide insurance against default. Countrywide would also charge a small fee to administer these mortgage backed securities and dole out the huge profits when they started rolling in! Here also Countrywide could scam their investors by shifting money from performing mortgages to cover when some of their instruments went bad, and the investors would never know.

Everyone would make lots and lots of money it was promised. Certain people really would, especially those who knew they were engaging in fraud. Countrywide got to make money from customers buying their mortgages and the investors to administer them. Employees of Countrywide made great salaries with huge bonuses to sell them. The investment banks like Goldman Sachs got to skim a percentage off of every "mortgage backed security" they sold off to unwitting investors. The rating agencies got paid to falsely rate the investments much higher than they deserved. AIG and others got to sell worthless insurance policies/derivatives they knew they would never be able to cover if the whole scheme exploded. AND hundreds of thousands of real estate firms/agents could make great commissions steering customers to Countrywide and sell homes they could never sell without a swindle going on. Employees of thousands of companies - most suspecting or even knowing of the swindle - all got a piece of the action in the form of quick commissions and huge salaries/bonuses!

Politicians too got a big reward. The massive swindle pumped lots of fake money into the economy and made it look as if times were good. Builders got to build homes, appliances and furnishings were sold to new homeowners. The real estate industry saw lots of people making lots of money by sending people to Countrywide and other copycat shysters  for loans they knew were fraudulent. The economy APPEARED to be booming and the whole philosophy of the NeoCon men and their ultra-conservative elitists seemed to be prophecy! Politicians could boast of the good times, take lots of corrupt campaign money from the con men for protection, and get reelected as geniuses!

Another HUGE disaster occurred when Countrywide decided that originating and tending bad loans wasn't enough. Mozilo decided to circumvent Freddie Mac because (back then) that agency refused to insure loans beyond $450,000 and threatened to actually do their job in assuring the loans were good. So Mozilo created IndyMac to be able to replace Freddie Mac as a clearing house for his loans AND make MORE money. During the Bush administration Mozilo (and many others) pushed to loosen Freddie Mac's standards so they could push fraudulent loans and securities through an agency that had worked wonderfully for four decades. Mozilo and others bribed dozens of public employees and elected officials to make Freddie Mac more "business friendly." The entire Republican Party sold out as well as half the Democratic Party in a wave of "deregulation" that allowed Mozilo and a thousand other titanic thieves to steal trillions.

Countrywide did more damage than just the trillions of dollars of garbage securities sold across the world. Hundreds of copycats saw them openly getting away with criminality and decided to emulate them. Even honest brokers were pushed towards shady practices when investors demanded profits that only corruption could provide (or else lose their job/business). Competition without government providing a level playing field turned into the chaos of greed turned into the sour reality of economic bust. A healthy economy growing at a decent rate was replaced by a decade of lost opportunity, followed by another of recovery. A generation of America's efforts to build a better nation were lost to the greediest and most smug few.

Homeowners weren't lacking in greed and corruption either.  Many people willing signed forms they knew contained false information. Half of the sub prime loans were written for speculators, either neer-do-wells looking to cash in on the boom or dilletantes who watched too many episodes of "Flip This House'. Others wanted to buy a home far beyond what they could truly afford, believing they could somehow profit or deserved the best. Many more went to those who foolishly sucked every penny of equity out of their homes to finance lifestyles falling wages would not cover. Lots of people though were forced into these loans when speculation and fraud drove the price of housing far beyond what an honest market would have seen. Others were tricked by liars looking for the quick commisions. Many later lost out when jobs disappeared after the bubble burst.

All of this was needless. Mozilo, his henchmen, and the copycats could have made lots of money staying within the bounds of morality and the law. They got greedy. Nearly everyone associated with them got greedy as well. An indispensible element though was the loss of our governmet to ideologues and elitists who believed they were entitled to destroy a system that had worked for generations, where government PROPERLY regulated the marketplace, insisted on transparency, and punished those who strayed beyond the wide grey line dividing good business practices from outright theft. Instead Mozilo DEMANDED that his employees engage in fraud to push sails. The only limiting factor for Mozilo and his gang of thieves was that more money was available to loan out than credit worthy people could borrow. The only answer was to drag in anyone willing to sign a deceptive bottom line!

Now we have MILLIONS of people who know they were thieves and conmen, like Mozilo and his employees. None want to admit the part they played in destroying our prosperity, destroying the economic well being of millions in the US and the world. Instead they prefer to find scapegoats, claiming bad gumment was to blame and therefore no government is the answer. Others falsely charge that poor,poor bankers were FORCED to write bad loans by the Community Reinvestment Act. Politicians refuse to admit their culpability out of fear of the truth being discovered; that they knowingly and willingly were co-conspirators in a monumental series of frauds perpetuated on the little guys of the world ( and even some BIG players like Chinese Banks). The very thieves were protected and bailed out by the politicians they paid so handsomely. Instead of hundreds or thousands of thieves languishing in prisons and their ill gotten gains confiscated, they were rewarded with bailouts.

These same thieves and conmen today still operate the same way, own the same political system, lie through media owned by their co-conspirators, and are free to keep and spend the trillions of dollars they stole from us all. Mozilo, the very worst of the conmen ( with the possible exception of the Directors of Goldman Sachs) has and never will face one day in prison despite PROOF of his crimes. The SEC did fine him $67 million for his fraud(out of over a half trillion he looted), but most of that was paid for by Bank of America that bought his company! He flits in rich retirement while MILLIONS of people suffer due to his theft. He owns numerous estates while taxpayers foot the bill. Bernie Madoff sits in prison, yet Mozilo is a thousand times the thief Madoff is. By my reckoning Mozilo should be in a deep and dark cell, with his ill gotten gains confiscated to cover a small part of what he has cost this nation. After Mozilo, many more should be charged as well, but that will never ever happen. He owns too many politicians from both parties. Under our corrupt system, if a man steals a thousand dollars from a bank with a gun he is a criminal. If he steals half a trillion through fraud, corruption, and coercion then it is merely a civil matter deserving only a slap on the wrist.