The Selling of America:Donald and Friends Make A Killing

The ride with the shortest lines at disneyworld...
The ride with the shortest lines at disneyworld…

Trump plans to sell America. I don’t mean in the traditional manner by telling of our freedoms and values but literally. He is planning to do what the Russians did under Putin which is to turn over public assets to private individuals. You saw how well that plan worked for Putin; both he and his close buddies became billionaires. No wonder Trump admires him so much.

One thing we can be thankful for is that unlike in Russia where almost all things of value were owned by the state many of the assets in the United States cannot be sold by Trump because they are already owned privately and most operated in a fairly proper manner. The reason that the operate like that is because over time rules and regulations governing their behavior (like child labor laws, workplace safety laws, food safety and protection from harmful drugs) have been developed and the companies forced to follow them. Trump’s plan to remove many might be goof for the industrialists but not the public. Keep in mind our history has been a battle to restrain corporations from fleecing the public by taking shortcuts.

Since much is already in private hands as it should be what therefore is Trump going to sell?  As best one can tell he wants to turn over the infrastructure and some federally owned buildings and part of the lands owned by the government. These will all go to individuals whose bids are acceptable.

This has all the appearance of the Russian dealings where insiders got special deals on public assets. These American buyers like the Russian insiders will be turned into billionaires over night. It will be good to be on the inside in.a Trump White House and plenty of benefits will accrue. They we’ll be told that these were all self-made people and many of the rubes will spout that line.

You know how the game will be played. Trump will have his people in charge of agencies. They will be told to identify their assets that could be run by the private sector. They will be put out to bid in such a way that the Trump boys will get the winning bid at the right price.

Expect him to have federal owned buildings sold and the agencies in them lease back space from the new private owners at “market rates.”  We get a glimpse of that now with the Secret Service telling us it will have to lease two floors in a Trump owned building in N Y City that will cost millions of dollars a year.  The Secret Service has not problem spending our tax dollars especially if it ingratiates itself with the president-to-be.

I assume those two floors are vacant now. Trump immediately gets a multi/million dollar windfall. But that is just a taste of what is coming.

Those who voted for him liked the idea he was a business man. Now they’ll see how he will give everybody the business. Trump looks at everything in his life wondering how he can make money from it.  He is too old to change. He is America’s Jacob Marley who will go to his death counting his money; not Ebenezer Scrooge who will suddenly change.

We will under Trump sell our roads and bridges. They will be bought by private companies. We will pay dearly for using them.

Signs of the way things will be done are those new electronic toll collectors on the MA Pike. Expect them soon on highways you now travel over for free. Then with a flick of Trump’s hand they’ll be owned by his friends.

One thing I’ll never get over is how a wealth rich guy who never did one thing other than sate his greed fooled the poor folk into thinking he cared for them. He was going to change things. First off, reduce the taxes on the rich.

He is the closest thing in the world to Leona Helmsley  who like Trump was a rich New York City resident who took the words out of Trump’s mouth when she said: “We don’t pay taxes. Only little people pay taxes.” 

You ain’t seen nothing yet.

28 Comments

  1. Matt:
    If you are like me and the rest of the MTC irregulars
    you probably spend an inordinate amount of time
    on YouTube.

    About a year ago I discovered Las Vegas hypnotist
    Marc Savard and went on a viewing binge of Savard
    and others.

    If you had followed up on my post above
    you would have gone to http://www.thesullenbell.com/tag/going-commando/ and read a detailed analysis on how the CIA/FBI
    was able to create a Manchurian Candidate in Sirhan Sirhan.
    using hypnosis. piece of cake they have been doing it since 1955

    ugh!

  2. Matt:

    Let me count the ways FBI agents whack people and elect Presidents

    Kennedy whacked Johnson elected President
    Martin Luther King ready to run for President whacked
    and Johnson re-elected
    Robert Kennedy commissions book Farewell America written by
    French Intelligence exposing FBI wacking his brother JFK
    Robert Kennedy decides to run for President, is whacked by FBI
    and Nixon wins.
    FBI agent known as Deep Throat exposes Watergate because Nixon
    did not promote him to head FBI Gerald Ford replaces Nixon.
    FBI teams up with CIA to create October Surprise for Jimmy Carter
    Ronald Reagan elected President.

    Part 2 installment coming soon

    ugh!

    CIA MKULTRA: drugs to ruin the nation

    by Jon Rappoport

    November 29, 2016

    Drugs to transform individuals…and even, by implication, society.

    Drug research going far beyond the usual brief descriptions of MKULTRA.

    The intention is there, in the record:

    A CIA document was included in the transcript of the 1977 US Senate Hearings on MKULTRA, the CIA’s mind-control program.

    The document is found in Appendix C, starting on page 166. It’s simply labeled “Draft,” dated 5 May 1955 (note: scroll down to #123-125 in the document).

    It states: “A portion of the Research and Development Program of [CIA’s] TSS/Chemical Division is devoted to the discovery of the following materials and methods:”

    What followed was a list of hoped-for drugs and their uses.

    First, a bit of background: MKULTRA did not end in 1962, as advertised. It was shifted over to the Agency’s Office of Research and Development.

    John Marks is the author of the groundbreaking book, Search for the Manchurian Candidate, which exposed MKULTRA. Marks told me a CIA representative informed him that the continuation of MKULTRA, after 1962, was carried out with a greater degree of secrecy, and he, Marks, would never see a scrap of paper about it.

    see the sullenbell

    • MS:

      There can be an argument for some of those FBI executions but how did they get Sirhan Sirhan on board

      MS:

      I’m not so sure of the Bobby Kennedy involvement by the FBI. How would they ever have gotten Sirhan Sirhan on board?

  3. Keep in mind that all enterprises that fail to generate a profit or break even become bankrupt and are dissolved, except government bodies like the Federal government that are allowed to operate in deficit for decades. Incorporation limits liability for the owner(s) of the corporation in exchange for more overhead costs:
    http://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/incorporation-and-legal-structures/benefits-and-drawbacks-of-different-types-of-business-entities.html

  4. So, what happens when governments take shortcuts?
    The Obama Administration’s BATFE Operation Fast and Furious:
    http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/world/americas/operation-fast-and-furious-fast-facts/

  5. So, what happens when governments take shortcuts?
    The Obama Administration’s EPA in the West:
    http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/16/politics/navajo-lawsuit-epa-animas-river/

  6. “Keep in mind our history has been a battle to restrain corporations from fleecing the public by taking shortcuts.”
    Uhhh. No. It does not matter whether a “fleecer” is a for-profit enterprise (incorporated or not), a non-profit enterprise (incorporated or not), or a government body.
    So, what happens when governments take shortcuts?
    A city in the East:
    http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/romano-sewage-spill-exposes-problems-of-oversight-in-st-pete/2295085

  7. Your screed speaks more of envy, class resentment and imagination than it does evidence based findings. As the President-In-Waiting intends to spend much time in New York City the rental is sound. If the premises are vacant he could probably get more money from corporate suck ups than from the government. That discounts greed as a motive.

    Nor is the rental unusual. Al Gore as Vice President profited greatly by buying a shack and having it expensively renovated for a rental to the Secret Service. He was his thieving father’s well tutored son.

    The Clinton’s home in New York was given pricey enhancements upon Bill’s ascension to the presidency. If you think Hillary’s second adjacent home purchased during the campaign was intended for a doting Grandmother to be able to deliver freshly baked cookies to grandchildren you are naive. It was an opportunistic real estate grab.

    Never in the history of the Republic has a man come to the Office of President with such vast wealth. Trump is operating in terra incognita. He will do fine.

    Note, too, that legislation mandating blind trusts in the opinion of many is unconstitutional. The three branches of government are independent of the others. It can be held that Congress has no authority to alter the qualifications for office in derogation to those in the text of the document.

    From this the fantasy develops a massive privatization scheme. Have not seen any of it. In any case, a President can propose but Congress must dispose. It would not go through.

    That being said reports in the media about an impending designation of Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury are disturbing. America needs no more high financial appointees with years of service at the Sacks ‘O Gold bankster enterprise. But the lügenpresse has been wrong on a lot lately. Let us pray.

    Cut down on the negativity. The rest of America is getting frisky after a Rip Van Winkle torpor. The sun is coming up. It is not dusk. Try a little Happy Talk.

  8. LBJ and the Clintons came to DC penniless and left as multimillionaires. This was done through bribes, kickbacks, swindles and insider trading. The swamp has existed for decades. Trump didn’t invent the corrupt tax code the connected and lobbyist did. If Trump leaves office with a net worth of a trillion bucks then he was as big a thief as the Democrats,Hillary and LBJ. We will have to wait and see. In the mean time don’t worry be happy. The sky is not falling

    • I bet the Thanksgiving conversation was quite lively at the Connolly’s this year (probably every year.)

  9. I keep thinking of that enlightened brilliant economist, Obamatollah, who gave us Cash for Clunkers – the government simply buys up cars and turns them into junk.

    Now that’s brilliant government business, liberal/progressive/Alinsky style!

    Already, this is part of the ganging up on Trump – who has not even taken office yet.

    This is fantasy on your part, Matt.

    If you want to see how Putler and his gangsters did it, you can look to Karen Dawisha and others for the exact blueprint, but we still have checks and balances in the US, especially thanks to the defeat of the Klinton Krime family, which makes what you are saying sheer fantasy:

    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/12/18/how-he-and-his-cronies-stole-russia/

    You left out the “war on” phrase, which has already been used by Chuck U Schumer for the coming torrent of attacks on Trump: war on the elderly, war on children, war on women, and so forth.

    Same old leftie script, totally divorced from reality.

    • Elmer:

      Cash for Clunkers which I missed out on — my car was either too old or too new, I forget which, was of course absurd. But it did accomplish one thing although accomplishing it was very expensive for us taxpayers which was to keep the auto industry alive for a bit until things got better.
      Yes, I’m ganging up on Trump because his past is a prologue to his future and the man is very greedy and I expect he will not change as president. Putin’s plan was simple – he was the boss and everyone did what the boss wanted. As Anne Applebaum said in her piece: “Instead, those who succeeded did so thanks to favors granted by—or stolen from—the state. And when the dust settled, Vladimir Putin emerged as king of the thieves.” (by the way thanks for the reference to that article)
      As far as the checks and balances are concerned, look at what Obama did with them and think of how much more he could have done if Congress was in his pocket as it is with Trump.
      Yes, I agree with you that there is a leftie script out there and that the leftie media will be hysterical over just about everything that Trump does. I’m trying to form my own opinions recognizing where they are coming from.

      • Matt, huge, huge difference between Putlerstan and the USA

        Putler had a sovok mafia both in government posts and in the Duma, plus no free press

        The sovok mafia had no shame, and they did not and do not hesitate to beat or kill any opposition, whether journalists, politicians or anyone else

        All opposition was and is squished in one way or another

        We are not even close to that, and there is noone who would allow Trump to get away with what you are proposing

        If the Killery Krime family had gotten elected, then indeed we would have been giant steps closer to Putlerstan

        Luckily that didn’t happen

      • I disagree with you about Cash for Clunkers

        It simply destroyed a bunch of good cars, which eventually could have been used for parts

        Cash for Clunkers was not meant to keep the auto industry going – it was meant for Obummer to kow-tow to the greens, to get “inefficient” cars off the road

        Ah, yes, one of the legitimate functions of the presidency and guvmint – spend cash to turn things into junk, all led by the High Priest of the Religion of Climate Change

  10. Matt: Already Trump has benefited the working man: 1,000 jobs saved at Carrier’s plant in Indiana. A lot of happy families!
    Also, speaking of the selling of American assets, remember that Obama and Hillary effectuated the sale of 20% of America’s uranium to Russia, and nary a peep from the press.

    • Bill:

      You have no idea what deal Trump made to keep those jobs. Hold your praise until that comes out. You talk about Hillary but two wrongs don’t make a right.

      • Matt: you have no idea any deal was made. Since Trump’s election, all your speculations, prognosis and analysis have been negative. Look on the bright side. 1,000 people in Indiana will be getting a pay check instead of an unemployment check next year. Be happy for them!

  11. Matt, “wealthy rich guys” sometimes do wonderful things: like Carnegie who gave millions to 3,000 libraries; like Rockefellers and Kennedys and Roosevelts who served in government and in the military and one, Teddy, Jr., the only general officer who heroically landed on D-Day.
    Howard Hughes may have withdrawn into an opium haze in his latter days, but the Waltons, Bloombergs, Gates, Buffet, Zuckerberg, Feeney, Moore, and Vladimir Potanin families, etc., gave and pledged billions to charities.
    So, maybe Trump will follow their lead. Let’s hope so!
    Most of the $300 billion-plus given annually to charities (Hospital, schools, libraries, museums, etc.) is given by the wealthy. Studies show the people who give the least are liberals. (Liberal states, like Massachusetts, are the least charitable.)
    2. Trump refused his presidential salary. That’s a good sign. How many government workers in Massachusetts decline their salaries? I’d guess very few.

    • Mitt did it as Governor of this Commonwealth.

      Do you suppose that was the main topic of his meeting with Trump? 😉

    • Some people say that Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Castro, and their ilk did good things. Have you ever heard of the Homestead Strike? How many workers lost their lives there because of Carnegie who said after the workers were crushed it was the happiest day of his life. How many workers do you think starved or barely scraped by in his mines, railroads and steel mills. How many workers who tried to organize were fired and then banned from getting employment throughout his empire. The same thing applied to Rockefeller. How do you think these people made their living at the turn of the 20th Century other than exploiting the working man, the Irish, Italian, Eastern Europeans, blacks, fighting among themselves for jobs to barely survive while many sent off to perish and starve while Carnegie and Rockefeller lived lives of leisure on their yachts. Carnegie may have set up some libraries but he killed more people through his lack of safety measures than he made libraries. Plus a guy who sold Carnegie Steel to J. Pierpont Morgan and became the richest man in the world – in today’s dollars he made fourteen billion – tried to redeem his tawdry life by doing something good at the end hardly makes him into a good man.
      By the way Teddy Roosevelt was not a wealth man although his cousin FDR was. I’m not sure how many wonderful things the Kennedy’s accomplished – great propaganda but few results.
      The you start with other people the Waltons etc. who were charitable. They made their money legitimately. I’m talking about the Trump type people who will make it like they did in Russia with a give away of the state assets at bargain prices. Sure some rich can be charitable but others are greedy and hurt other people.
      You keep hoping Trump is going to change. He is 70 and he has not done anything other than fill his pockets. All the other people you mentioned gave money away prior to that age. Trump has given nothing to charity. Doesn’t it bother you that he won’t disclose his tax returns like every other candidate for president has done?
      2. You are joking that Trump’s refusal of his salary is a good sign. On the other hand he just got many millions from the Secret Service for rent in his building of space that was unoccupied and on which he will probably pay no taxes. Is $400,000 more than those millions. How many government workers in Massachusetts would decline their salaries if they could get ten times their salaries in rental income which by the way is probably deductible? Even with that I’ll bet in the end he will take the salary.

      • How many workers fed, housed and educated their families because millionaires created businesses which employed them? People were happy to get jobs in mines, factories and on the railroads, even when working conditions were harsh. People didn’t know about black-lung disease and a myriad other occupational diseases/hazards, back then, and working 10-12 hour days, six days a week was commonplace. We too often look at past decades and centuries through the luxuries of today. How wise we would have been if we were in business in the 19th century!
        Thank God for the businessmen who built this country and employed millions.
        Thank God, too, for improvements in occupational safety and health.

    • Bill,
      As Khalid would say…”True dat.”

      One more for your list:

      One-man government bailout by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1895.

      • Rather:

        Surely you joke pointing to J. P Morgan. Did you ever see how he treated his workers?

        • Matt,
          I don’t dispute what you say, but it is somewhat unquantifiable. I would venture to say that all workers were treated badly back then, relative to today’s standards. One point at a time, though.
          What I stated was just a stubborn fact to buttress Bill’s argument.

          What is your opinion on Tammany and William Tweed? Would you say he helped or exploited the Irish?

  12. Matt,
    Here’s respecting your opinion, but hoping you are wrong.