telling a story

Today, hoping I would find something newsworthy that would not “piss” me off and maybe find some good news for the 99%, I found two stories. Both stories have the “piss” me off factor in common, each had a different purpose, but both had a common theme.

STORY ONE:

While the nation's largest banks were publicly reassuring nervous investors of their stability during the height of the financial crisis, they were also quietly approaching the Federal Reserve, hat in hand. The total price tag: $7.77 trillion, many times the amount of the better-known TARP bailout.

The magnitude of the government's assistance to struggling banks allowed them to grow even bigger and continue paying executives billions in compensation, a report in Bloomberg Markets January issue said Monday.

Fed defended its actions back then by contending that the biggest financial institutions in the country were too big to fail — a phrase that has become a bone of contention among lawmakers, some of whom argue that a "too big to fail" bank is one that's too big to exist. (msnbc.com)

STORY TWO:

Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development, said that store managers have seen an “enormous spike” in the number of consumers shopping at midnight on the first of the month. That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled each month.

Becca Reeder and her husband, T.J. Fowler, are one of the families shopping before the sun rises.

When NBC News visited their home six days before the first of the month, they had no milk in their refrigerator. Among the few things left were water, bacon grease for the dog’s food, a little bit of apple juice, cheese and tortillas.

The newlyweds are both certified nursing assistants but have been unable to find work in their field. Fowler is commuting an hour and a half round trip to a part-time job flipping burgers at a fast-food restaurant and Reeder is not working.

They never imagined they would need food stamps to get by. (msnbc.com)

Somehow, whether it be by secret vote, fabrication or out and out arrogance, the politicians of both parties have decided that if you are big you are better. They have decided if you are small you are both too minute to count or actually too invisible to be of importance.

Somehow too big too fail is a good thing and making you even bigger so your failure can really never take place is like American pie, motherhood and the bald eagle. Somehow corporate welfare is a good thing. Somehow too little to be noticed is the fault of the too small people hiding in the shadows. Somehow too small to count is unPatriotic, UnAmerican, socialism.Somehow welfare for the poor, the underemployed, the elderly, the unemployed is anti Capitalism. Somehow if you are not a Lobbyist, able to place dollars in a PAC, or a campaign, you have very little clout with our current crop of criminals calling themselves politicians. Somehow small is bad and big is good. Somehow once again as talk filters out of both sides of the mouths of Presidents, Legislators and Senators, and hypocrisy runs rampant, and truth is replaced with fiction and fabrication, the rich stay rich, powerful and greedy.

We hear the harangue from many Republican/ Tea Party and Blue Dog Democrats that the unemployed are lazy, the poor are selfish, and the elderly asking for more of their fair share then they deserve and any kind of welfare will be the ruination of this nation. We hear that corporations should be the rulers of their turf and any intervention by the government would tear down the pearly gates of democracy and be replaced by the fiery gates of socialism, communism and fascism. That is except when it comes to feeding the bottom line of those corporations with tax payer dollars, in that case welfare has its merits.

One story talks about greed and gluttony a cover up and government secrets. The other story talks about survival on a meager salary, fighting to feed your family and looking for the American dreams as tarnished as it currently seems. Both stories talk about an America that seems to be without morals, ethics and value.

All I want is a story with a happy ending for not just the 1% but the rest of the 99%. Isn’t it about time?