Bailout a good idea?

So, the snuggly insurance giant, American International Group (AIG) has paid back about $4 billion of their bailout debt, leaving them with an outstanding balance (including interest) of about $21 billion.
So, what the fucks with the heading of this post?
Well, some analysts are saying that because of the amount of interest already gained and to be gained from the payback of bailout funds, the government will come out way on top. So far, the Treasury Dept. has raked in $1.4 billion on its investment in Goldman Sachs, $1.3 billion on Morgan Stanley and $414 million on American Express. The five other banks that repaid the government: Northern Trust, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, U.S. Bancorp and BB&T, each brought in $100 million to $334 million in profit.
That sounds like a lot of money...until you look at the figure that was doled out for the bailout: $700 billion. Now I'm not a math major but the reclaimed funds, plus AIG's recent payment does not equal $700 billion. In fact, if you take into account the precipice we stand on with giants such as Citi Bank, Bank of America, American International Group, the mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the automakers General Motors and Chrysler, we're still closer to fucked than home free. Tack on toxic mortgages that the Treasury Dept has guaranteed for billions of dollars and that rosy $4 billion starts looking like a flea loogie in giant's bucket.
On the flip side however, having read and researched the possible unspeakable madness potential had the banks not been bailed out, I'm not necessarily saying the bailout was a complete failure. In the cluster fuck situation we were in, any decision would have yielded significant cons outweighing the pros. The question now is, what does the future hold?
For some, the idea of government getting the fuck out of the private sector is a much anticipated and pushed for scenario...
“The taxpayers want their money back and they want the government out of our banking system,” Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican and a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel examining the relief program, said in an interview.
Ummmm, representative Hensarling, fuck you.
Your precious little private sector banks wouldn't even be living and breathing if it weren't for the corporate pawns at the top handing out meal tickets. The private sector is the reason we're in this cluster fuck to begin with! The Federal Reserve remains a private corporation...oh, do you think that maybe they had something to do with the tumbling of Wall Street and our economy? No, they only handle our money! Privatization of the economy is synonomous with the top 1% greedily hoarding and dealing our money with little to no say from the other 99%. Sounds great, sign me up!
The bailout was not a good idea. It was a bad idea in a terrible situation. Letting all the banks and monster corporations fail...also a bad idea. The only way to stop this from happening again is to show corporate America that this handout wasn't a friendly donation. It was a disaster loan, needs to be repaid and will not be repeated. They need to be put in a choke hold, not given a longer leash. Put the lobbyists and corporate puppets where they belong, as far away from our government as possible. Of the people, for the people and by the people. Not of the corporations, for the corporations and by the corporations.

A silent tyrant

I heard a quote from Gandhi yesterday that inspires me while I simultaneously recognized a disturbing reality. Here's the quote: "There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."
I do think about them, quite often... and when I do, I think of the big, text book ones: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Mao, etc.
After hearing this quote, I stepped out of the box.
When the words tyrant and/or murderers are mentioned, very rarely do we say to ourselves: corporate America.
I think that's probably the biggest problem we have right now. We are under the firm grasp of a tyrant, or I should say, a group of tyrants and murderers. Unlike many of the constituents of the aforementioned tyrants, most of the American people feel that they live in a republic, a free country. They go to Wal-Mart and spend money kept in Bank of America, buy houses with AIG. They pay for their high-risk gambling, their jets, and their continuous raping of third world countries across the globe. Our beautiful capitalism has been built on the backs of the nations we invade. We force our way of thinking and our way of life on the people we encounter, using our corporate power to turn a country into one giant cash crop. Meanwhile, in the past two decades, we have brought that thinking home. We've integrated corporate governance slowly but surely, while the people continue with their American dreams, like the frog sitting in the pot, slowly boiling.
There was never a big coups, with guns blazing and cannons firing. There was never a shift in form of government so that we noticed. This all happened over time, slowly and very meticulously, planned perfectly.
Now, when the shit has hit the fan, most Americans still don't notice. We say we don't want the bailout and that we think it's crap what's going on, but for the most part, we still don't think it's happening to us. Like the stubborn man standing atop a sinking island, we do not act and think as though our country is on a fast track (if not already there) to corporate dictatorship.
Why is that?
Is it because it's less tangible than Hitlers speeches? Is it because it doesn't come with tanks and guns and blood in the streets? It comes instead with the silent stealing of rights, money, lives and our republic.
These facts make it no less scary and no less tyrannical. The sooner we can look at these tyrants for what they are, the sooner we can move towards a time when they will fall. But they will only fall when we can admit to ourselves that it is our job to protect ourselves from tyrants, text book or no.
Stop denying, start acting.