This past week had many events which in days (long) gone by would have
been shocking. By today’s standards almost nothing is shocking
anymore. It is as if in the words of Pink Floyd, we are now
“comfortably numb.”
On the international scene, “we” (the U.S. and several Arab states)
finally got their wish and bombed Syria. In fact, the first night of
bombings consisted of “tonnage” equal to ALL of the bombings in Iraq for the
last 30 days …I guess there was an urge to make up for lost time? The
French have been in and out of the coalition and now the British parliament
has voted to let bombs fly. The bombing of Syria has been an agenda
item since at least last November, we are effectively again at war while
Congress does not even want to vote on it for fear of the upcoming elections.
In response, Vladimir Putin finally came out and said what we all knew was
coming, restricting gas supplies to Europe and “no gas” for Ukraine.
Russia also announced potential “asset freezes” of foreign investments.
This may be of more interest than was previously thought as
Rosneft announced this past week they “struck significant oil” in the Arctic,
maybe even bigger than the Gulf of Mexico …with business partner Exxon
Mobil. Could this asset be “frozen out” and confiscated after the hard
work and capital expensed to make the discovery?
To top things off, Russia held an enormous practice of war games which
included 160,000 soldiers, 130 planes and 85 ships. In just the past
week alone there were several “incursions” of NATO airspace by the Russians
…presumably testing and probing response times. One must wonder how far
the “pushing” will go until a real punch is thrown?
Here in the U.S. we had our first “beheading” at the hands of a
disgruntled fired worker. Threats of terror in New York, Paris and
London have been issued by ISIS. I personally wonder what public
support will look like if an attack does take place. Will the reaction
be similar to that after 911 or will it be the opposite? Will the
public finally demand that we mind our own business? Before moving on,
as far as this beheading goes, I have many questions the press seems not to
be asking or reporting on. I know some of my questions may not be
politically correct but they are real questions. Was this a
religious action or just some guy enraged because he lost his job? The
way I see it, this is “spectacular news” yet the press seems very silent on
it, why? There is nothing anywhere describing the victim(s) other than
being “women,” was race a motive? The second victim was saved because
of a gun, what does this event do to gun control arguments? Without
getting too political, why has there been no statement whatsoever
from President Obama? He did praise a Muslim cleric
while speaking to the UN who had previously declared Fatwa on American troops
…but zero on this incident. Are “beheadings” going to become
a casual “ho hum” thing in the U.S.? I cannot even believe we are just
a couple of days past the news …and it’s gone already!
Another bombshell this past week came from a “disgruntled worker” at
the Fed. Carmen Segarra was hired by the NY Fed in 2011 to strengthen
their oversight division, she was fired in 2013. Tapes showing meek oversight of Goldman are about to rock
Wall Street. Ms. Segarra alleges inside pressure from the NY Fed to
be more lenient with Goldman Sachs. There is one fly in the ointment,
apparently she has 45 hours’ worth of tapes to substantiate her claims.
Ms. Segarra is bringing suit against the NY Fed and Goldman Sachs for
her firing. You must wonder how this one would go if it goes to
court? I can only imagine what was said and “how” they it
was said? Would anyone be “shocked” if Goldman Sachs was treated
by their overseer with favoritism or leniency? If I had to guess, both
The Fed and Goldman will offer “a deal” for her (and the tapes) to go
away. Who knows, maybe she will not accept ANY offer and prefer to go
to court, win or lose to have her tapes heard and made public? What a
breath of fresh air this would be.
We also saw Bill Gross leave PIMCO and Eric Holder resign as attorney
general. Why would Eric Holder resign now? Why not two or three
years ago? Fast and furious gun running, Benghazi, the IRS scandals,
you name it he gave it a pass. He coined the term “too big to jail”
regarding our financial system and even gave the slam dunk case of Jon
Corzine a pass. To answer the question of “why now?,” I can only guess
that as the wheels fall off the markets and financial system he is expecting
a “pardon” from President Obama. I can’t imagine there could be
anything big enough or public enough currently in hiding that could force him
to resign …otherwise he would have done this multiple times already.
No, I am convinced he has already cut a deal and a “pardon” is part of
it. My only question is which firm now bids the most to buy him?
I normally don’t often write about so many different topics at once,
rather I prefer to pick one or maybe two and dig deeply into them. My
effort with this piece is to show how nothing much today elevates to the
category of “shocking.” The American public is comfortably numb no
matter what the topic, how corrupt or grotesque …we simply sleep on. It
could be argued the population is “un” comfortably numb because they know
something is wrong but not exactly what it is. Digging for the truth
and actually thinking for oneself is now above and beyond the daily call of
duty. Unfortunately I can only envision our being awakened coming from
an external force so “in your face” it cannot be ignored. When all is
said and done and after so many events that once would have caused outrage
have done nothing… maybe the final causal event will be benign beyond belief?