Will the Real Warren Buffett Stand Up?

I woke at 3:00 am and could not sleep so I skimmed over some articles, one about Wells Fargo's CEO and the circus produced by "lawmakers" to make it look like they were doing something about one of the largest frauds committed by a FDIC insured bank in US history, the largest bank in the world by market capitalization.

And I had this thought: Why was the largest shareholder, Warren Buffett, a virtual Demigod among his Rabid Republican Guard like shareholders and championed by the inbred, corrupt political establishment, not insisting the CEO, John Stumph, walk and those in charge of the divisions responsible for 5 YEARS of fraudulent activity be fired and criminally charged, and say all this publicly?  I will tell you why, because Buffett is nothing but a 21st Century Robber Barron with a very good PR team and, as I said, a rabid army of wealthy shareholders with big mouths, hence his Republican Guard, who will defend him as if he were deity.  I don't believe any Capitalist in history has ever been so revered.  This is the same guy who owns the largest legacy electric company in Nevada that managed to get the government in that state to decimate all laws that made solar power economical.  IN NEVADA!, one of the best states in the nation to use Solar Power.  Oh wait, but Buffett has a tremendous amount of his investments in industries that benefit from legacy power ruling as long as possible.  So this is natural behavior of an industrialist with deep pockets.  Be dammed those "citizens" in Nevada who remain slaves to fossil fuels and the wishes of industrialists who are determined to keep them there... But I digress.  You can look up the many other ways our Devine Buffett has acted exactly as he should being one of the largest pariahs of our extraordinarily dysfunctional, if not downright broken, "Capitalist" system.

Back to the point at hand here, Wells Fargo is a publicly traded bank that not only has a duty to make money for it's shareholders, but as a FDIC (Federally Insured) institution, responsible for maintaining the bank accounts ie; having a fiduciary duty, to protect the deposits of millions of CITIZENS of the United States and not act recklessly with their money. 

Anyone who has grown up here in the United States knows very well through direct experience or by watching the slow train wreck that has been orchestrated by the financial industry over the last 30+ years that all financial institutions in the US put the customer first for one reason, because you, the customer, is where they will steal as much money as possible, as many ways possible from you until you are down to a nickel, then they will take that to.  Financial institutions in the US are run by legal gangsters that not only get away with every kind of fraud their accountants and lawyers and bankers can dream up, but they are backstopped and insured by the American Public in so doing.  This is shown to be true over and over again, with huge losses and crashes and bailouts and fraud schemes dreamed up and orchestrated to the point of collapse about every 8 to 10 years. 

What Wells Fargo has done for a period of at least 5 years is reprehensible in any book.  Their actions from management down to the lowly sales / customer service employees on the front line who were under extreme pressure to "produce results" are criminal, no doubt.  It is criminal for an institution insured by the FDIC to commit fraud on it's customers accounts.  Period.  If you write a bad check or present a fraudulent bank statement in trying to get a loan, you can go to jail.  The flip side is no different.  If the any person, let alone the actual bank employees "creates" accounts without permission using the information of real people, this fraud is punishable by jail.  For the bank to have simply fired people over a 5 year period for actions that were criminal, and at the same time continued to act in a way that resulted in their employees, the people on the front line, and their supervisors, continuing this activity, those in charge at higher levels are just as guilty as those who committed the actual fraudulent acts.  They are more then an accessory, they are instigators of the crimes.

I don't know why lawmakers don't immediately call upon the Justice Department, the FBI and the SEC (knowing about this level of fraud, while painting a pristine image of your bank in your annual report is also fraud) and the Attorney General of the State of California, Wells Fargo's home state, to bring charges and prosecute this bank and those involved in these crimes... Immediately!

The squeamish, weak, corrupt legislators and leaders we have at nearly every level of our government are completely incapable of taking on large institutions when basically they all forget one thing:  If the services being provided by an institution are needed, then putting that institution out of business by prosecuting their leaders simply means other institutions will provide those services or new ones will rise up and assume the provision of services quite quickly in a dynamic capitalist system.  Look at what happened to Author Anderson back in 2002.  The fact that our government has become so corrupt and inbred they are incapable of doing anything to contain the abuse of the financial industry is an atrocity of magnanimous proportion in the US.  As I write this we, the United States, have lost nearly all credibility on the political front.  We have one of the most blatantly corrupt people to ever seek the highest office doing so with ease, a person who over two separate careers, a short 14 years, has managed to use her position to "raise" over $2 BILLION and fund a $250 million a year enterprise that produces nothing.  Irrespective of what her family does with this money, it is hard for a person of this level of corruption to turn around and have anything to say about the prime minister of Malaysia suddenly having $700 MILLION appear in his bank account or any other mass corruption / theft from public coffers that happens regularly around the world in nearly every deprived nation on the planet.

And so here we are.  No word from the largest shareholder, no surprise, we all know what Buffett really is.  No action by our government, no surprise, we know how corrupt and inbred they really are.  Nobody goes to jail, just some fines get paid, yea, the cost orchestrating another get rich scheme by the PIGS that run financial institutions in the US.  It's all good.

If I were you, I would write a letter to your legislator and senator and the Attorney General of California and the SEC and the FDIC and insist that action be taken now against this bank and prepare for a complete overthrow of it's leadership if not revoking it's banking charter and or breaking up the bank and offloading it to investors or just doing as was done with AT&T and making half a dozen smaller banks around the nation and an international division and letting the market work to do what it wishes with what's left.  Meanwhile the folks who oversaw the criminal activity should all be criminally charged.


Make them take a copy of "The Vision & Values of Wells Fargo" and read it daily until they are released.

If you have in excess of $250,000 in a Wells Fargo account, move the money to another bank so your money is insured.  I don't have money with Wells Fargo or I would just flat out close my accounts, I suggest you do the same.  Vote with your feet!

Buffett Chain Mail? What a Joke!

I received this message in a "chain mail" today:

Wind of Change
Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. At least 20 if you can. It has to stop somewhere.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have this message.

This is one idea that really should be passed around.
*Congressional Reform Act of 2013
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman/woman collects a
salary while in office, and receives no
pay when they're out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional Retirement Fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into
the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congressmen/women can purchase their own retirement plans, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise
by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same
health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.
Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message.
Don't you think it's time?
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!
If you agree with the above, pass it on.  If not, just delete.
You are one of my 20+ - Please keep it going, and thanks.

This message came from someone I know as an artist, curator, professional in the arts for his entire career.  Sad that we have gotten to a point that someone like this, like any American would buy into this kind of BS.

My response was this:

Hmmmm,
Perhaps this message creates a pause and a thought...  With the US economy, it's increasingly oligopolised industries and income disparity raging out of control, one should question taking advise from a 21st century raging industrialist who has amassed a company employing 300,000 people and makes billions of dollars on everything from insurance to railroads, power companies and candy bars.

Imagine if email existed in 1913 and this message came from JP Morgan.  Do you think the American People, who had not yet been indoctrinated into the "entrepreneur is a hero" myth that has been sold to us with increasing vigor since these "entrepreneurs" crashed the global financial system in 2008, leaving only mega industrialists and oligopolies that were immune from lowering prices, gouging the consumer with ever higher prices and ever lower quality goods produced by slave labor that is mostly off of our shores while over 35,000,000 Americans (about 1/4 of the work force) might as well also be called "slave labor" as their average hourly wage is about $7.50 an hour, would rally to spread the word of JP Morgan?

Yea, the Wall Street financed PR message and brainwashing by the corporate media actually leaves smart thoughtful people sending chain mails to pronounce the desires of one of the world's largest industrialists.

Think about this message.  What does every industrialist want? 
* Less government = yes
* Less efficient government = yes
* Less need to buy off politicians = yes
* Stronger industry financed "think tanks" that can create every more industry favorable legislation that a bunch of green legislators would "rubber stamp" even more so than now = yes
* Larger and more powerful military to give the industrialists more access to raw materials and energy = yes
* Larger and more powerful military to ensure the "citizens" are kept at bay while the real tax on society, oligopolistic profits, maintain their growth and enrich those who own the largest companies while completely undermining the rights of the workers = yes
* Access to cheap money to continue to amass every larger conglomerates = yes
* To sum up: A completely unhindered capitalist playground with no regulations or protections for the people (workers) = yes
* To take over all government protections for it's citizens like Social Security = yes

I could go on as you might well know.  What is wrong with our government is not it's pensions or pay raises.  What is wrong with our government is that it has been completely corrupted by the military industrial complex and corporate lobbying (35,000 people and $5,000,000,000 a year estimate in Washington alone). 

If Warren Buffet really cared about better government he would be sending out a "voter registration application" and a strong appeal that all Americans take the time to follow his newly created Newsletter (housed in one of his already existing 3 media properties) that informs Americans weekly of the ignorant and pro-industry legislation that is consistently passed / rubber stamped by our government with pretty citizen friendly names that in fact are anything but citizen friendly.  Maybe he would be encouraging Americans to get involved in their local governments, attend community meetings, attend election rallies, write their congressperson and ask them why the US Legislative Branch of Government has FAILED TO EVEN PASS AN ANNUAL BUDGET IN THREE YEARS, one of the most fundamental and basic responsibilities in government!!

No, Good old Warren would not dare to do that!!!  He is an industrialist operating in the largest capitalist playground in the world and he wants MORE!!  And you?  Well just like the famous words of David Lee Roth from the band Van Halen sang right about the start of the cycle (1978) that has created the economic environment we now live in, Warren can sing loud and clear:  "if you want it got to bleed for it baby !"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_-fmg23UXk

Life is a responsibility not a right.  Digest that for a minute!

I dare you to pass this note around!

P

Buffett Assets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshire_Hathaway
JP Morgan info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Berkshire_Hathaway