It's incredibly disconcerting to raise a forkful of food to one's mouth, only to have most of it fall off due to the shaking brought on by essential tremors. Not actually complaining. After all, I've had a pretty damn good life, and this is really more like a speed bump.



Still, I'm really beginning to understand - viscerally - the phrase "Growing old is not for the faint-of-heart". Neither am I asking for sympathy. I'm merely sharing something that comes to mind almost every time I eat, shave, or hold a glass of liquid. I recall it happening to my mother; now it's happening to me.



As I round the last turn and head into the home stretch, the changes are fascinating and, as a Baby Boomer (born in 1947), soon many of you will be following along. So get your whip ready. The race is getting interesting and it's going to take all you can muster to finish respectably. Thanks for listening to me bitch and moan. http://amplify.com/u/a1j8xd

Marx Knew More Than You Think

Marx suggested the last stage of Capitalism was what he called "State-Monopoly" Capitalism. He also said consolidation was an inexorable law of Capitalism. Do you think maybe he knew something?



Regardless of what you may think about Karl Marx and the history of Socialism & Communism, current events seem to be vindicating his economic and historical prescience. Read on!

Amplify’d from www.alternet.org

6 Shocking Revelations About Wall Street's "Secret Government"

Top officials willfully concealed the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts from Congress and the public.

We now have concrete evidence that Wall Street and Washington are running a secret government far removed from the democratic process. Through a freedom of information request by Bloomberg News, the public now has access to over 29,000 pages of Fed documents and 21,000 additional Fed transactions that were deliberately hidden, and for good reason. (See here and here.) These documents show how top government officials willfully concealed from Congress and the public the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts that enriched the few and enhanced the interests of giant Wall Street

These documents show how top government officials willfully concealed from Congress and the public the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts that enriched the few and enhanced the interests of giant Wall Streets firms. Here’s what we now know:

The secret Wall Street bailouts totaled $7.77 trillion, 10 times more than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) passed by Congress in 2008.

Knowledge of the secret bailout funds was not shared with Congress even while it was drafting and debating legislation to break up the big banks.

The secret funding, provided at below-market rates, gave Wall Street banks an additional $13 billion in profits. (That’s enough money to hire more than 325,000 entry level teachers.)

The secret loans financed bank mergers so that the largest banks could grow even larger. The money also allowed banks to step up their lobbying efforts.  Read more at www.alternet.org

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1j8o0