what i'd intend to spend my taxpayer bailout bonus on

now if i could just get a job as an AIG exec, plunk down from my undeserved bonus about $600,000 in taxpayers' hard earned dollars for this ocean worthy "Africat" luxury catamaran and then sail off into the sunset...AIG not hiring right now? guess i'll just have to get one the old fashioned way --and earn it!

some contracts more 'sacred' than others: auto workers' contract wages cut, yet AIG execs get bonuses

The Sanctity of AIG's Contracts
By Glenn Greenwald

March 16, 2009 "Salon" --- Larry Summers, Sunday, on AIG's payment of executive bonuses:

We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts. Every legal step possible to limit those bonuses is being taken by Secretary Geithner and by the Federal Reserve system.

Associated Press, February 18, 2009:

The United Auto Workers' deal with Detroit's three automakers limits overtime, changes work rules, cuts lump-sum cash bonuses and gets rid of cost-of-living pay raises to help reduce the companies' labor costs, people briefed on the agreement said today.

The UAW announced Tuesday that it reached the tentative agreement with General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. over contract concessions, as GM and Chrysler sent plans to the Treasury Department asking for a total of $39 billion in government financing to help them survive.

Concessions with the union are a condition of the $17.4 billion in government loans that the automakers have received so far.

Apparently, the supreme sanctity of employment contracts applies only to some types of employees but not others. Either way, the Obama administration's claim that nothing could be done about the AIG bonuses because AIG has solid, sacred contractual commitments to pay them is, for so many reasons, absurd on its face.

As any lawyer knows, there are few things more common - or easier -- than finding legal arguments that call into question the meaning and validity of contracts. Every day, commercial courts are filled with litigations between parties to seemingly clear-cut agreements. Particularly in circumstances as extreme as these, there are a litany of arguments and legal strategies that any lawyer would immediately recognize to bestow AIG with leverage either to be able to avoid these sleazy payments or force substantial concessions.

Since the contracts are secret and we're apparently just supposed to rely on the claims of AIG and Treasury Department lawyers, it's impossible to identify these arguments specifically. But there are almost certainly viable claims to be asserted that the contracts were induced via fraud or that the bonus-demanding executives themselves violated their contracts. Independently, it's inconceivable that there aren't substantial counterclaims that AIG could assert against any executives suing to obtain these bonuses, a threat which, by itself, provides substantial leverage to compel meaningful concessions. Many of these executives were, after all, the very ones responsible for the cataclysmic losses.

The only way a company like AIG throws up its hands from the start and announces that there is simply nothing to be done is if they are eager to make these payments. One might expect AIG to do so -- they haven't exactly proven themselves to be paragons of business ethics -- but the fact that Obama officials are also insisting that nothing can be done (even while symbolically and pointlessly pretending to join in the populist outrage over these publicly-funded "retention payments") is what is most notable here.

Legal strategies aside, just as a business matter, one of the first things which every compnay in severe distress does is go to its creditors, explain that it cannot make the required payments, and force re-negotiations of the terms. That's as basic as it gets. To see how that works, just look at what GM and other automakers did with their union contracts - what they were forced by the Government to do as a condition for their bailout. Obviously, if a company goes into bankruptcy, then contracts to pay executive bonuses are immediately nullified, but the threat of bankruptcy or serious financial distress is, for obvious reasons, very compelling leverage to force substantial concessions. And the idea that, in this economy, AIG executives (of all people) will be able simply to leave and go seek employment elsewhere unless they receive their "retention bonuses" (even assuming that's an undesirable outcome) is nothing short of ludicrous.

There may be other reasons why the Treasury Department decided it wanted AIG to pay these bonuses (Marcy Wheeler considers some of those reasons here), but this claim from Larry Summers that the sanctity of contracts precludes any alternatives is not just false, but insultingly so. It's difficult to recall anything quite so vile as watching hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money flow to AIG executives. One would expect the Obama administration to do everything possible to prevent that from happening. Instead, they seem to be doing the opposite

1000 year war revisited

i found this pic of a painting on an old etruscan piece of pottery . circa end of the 4th century bc and beginning of the 3rd. it is a depiction of the greek hero achilles killing a trojan prisoner. the funny looking guy with the hammer is supposed to be charun the etruscan death demon. note the afro and wide nose of the trojan being executed by achilles. (click for hopefully larger image)

who were the etruscans?

they were the people who civilized the romans .

much of what is roman is actually etruscan. according to their own legends they arrived in ships to the italian pennisula from asia minor ( now turkey) fleeing an invasion of barbaric greek tribes who destroyed the etruscan cities in turkey.

being a civilized, seafaring, commercial people they fled the wild, death-crazy, highly warlike greeks (see the movie '300' about the spartans for a view of the warlike character of these people )

after settling in italy, the etruscans taught agriculture, architecture--in particular the "roman" arch, aqueducts, road building, and the building of WALLED CITIES ,as well as "greek" writing, government ship building , military organization etc etc--the arts of civilization to the latin-speaking peasants of the italian peninsula.

the latins would one day violently turn on their benefactors and the etruscans , like the trojans, phonecians and lastly the cartheginians--failing to present a united front in the face of genocide--would disappear from history.

when athens went to war against carthage over the commercially strategic island of sicily--a carthiginian commercial outpost, the etruscans allied themselves with the cartheginians against the athenian greeks.

in their artwork the etruscans depict themselves as a mixed black people --similar to minoans of crete-- believed to be "europe's" oldest civilization.

why would the etruscans ally themselves with the north african civilization and commercial empire of carthage against the european greeks of athens? probably because they were relatives of the africans.

was one of the etruscan cities destroyed by the warlike greeks in turkey --the ancient city of troy?

the european oral tradition says that after troy was destroyed, a contingent of trojan refugees led by prince aeneas fled in ships landing eventually in carthage. carthage was a phonecian city ruled at the time by queen dido who supposedly fell in love with aeneas and asked him to stay and rule the city with her.

according to the legends, when his destiny was reveald that he would leave dido and build civilization in italy, prince aeneas was "supervising" infrastructure projects in carthage--also a walled seaport, commercial city.

so if he is supervising infrastructure projects then carthage and troy--both walled ,commercial, seaport cities--must have been on similar technological footing?

all this is to say what?

the minoans,trojans, cartheginians and etruscans have too much in common not to be related. they are part of the mixed african extended family of the mediterranean. the first civilization built in what is now europe.the northern side of what was once an african dominated mediterranean basin.

they appear to be branchs of the phonecians--the cousins of the egyptians who maintained ties and loyalties to egypt and serving as eypt's seafarers mixed their blood with the caucasians they came in contact with as they civilized and set up commercial outpost cities throughout the mediterranean.

the nile flows south to north and empties into the mediterranean serving in ancient times as the commercial highway for egypt--as the gulf of mexico and the mississippi river serves the Us today .

the oral and later written traditions of both the greeks and romans attribute being taught the arts of civilization by the phonecians- in the case of the greeks, and later the etruscans-- in the case of the romans.

both greeks and romans would violently turn upon their benefactors and in long wars of annihilation defeat and eventually erase the civilizations of their benefactors and take control of the mediterranean basin and its enormously lucrative commerce.

it was a bloody and determined long range struggle beginning with the trojan war in 1200 bc and ending with the roman destruction of carthage about 200 bc --the 1000 year war.

the alphabet used to type this post is called the "phonetic" alphabet. the europeans themselves say that the alphabet we use today came from the romans who borrowed it from the greeks.

but, cadmus the phonecian prince is credited by greek oral tradition with teaching the greeks writing --the phonecian alphabet--borrowed and adapted from the phonecian's egyptian cousins' writing systems.

the roman oral tradition, confirmed by modern historians, says the etruscans taught the romans writing --and the modern historians hide the origins of this writing by saying the etruscans taught the romans "greek" writing. but we know the greeks did not invent "their" alphabet --it is the "phonetic"--as in "phonecian" alphabet.

and if the etruscans arrived in italy after fleeing an invasion of greek barbarians who destroyed their cities and civilization in turkey (the location of the ancient city of troy) does it make any sense that a higher civilization like the etruscans would learn writing from a much less civilized people --the greeks --who are sacking and burning every city in sight?

the etruscans taught the romans the phonecian writing because likely they themselves were a branch of the phonecian civilization-- a commercial empire of walled city-state seaport outposts that dominated the commerce of the mediterranean basin --acting as seafarers for their cousins, the egyptians --of north eastern africa.

as a result of the 1000 year struggle of the greeks and then romans to gain control over the mediterranean basin and the commerce of northern africa and access to trade with the once black civilizations of the "middle east" , europe and the europeans would be vastly changed.

they would be lifted from relative poverty and technological backwardness and worldly ignorance into great wealth, education and eventual world dominance.

possibly the greatest change was in the mindset and character of the europeans who sought by the most ruthless of means to eliminate ,erase and replace the very people who were the source of europe's civilization. "and we want no more kings of troy" said neoptolemus the son of achilles as he threw the infant heir to the throne, from the walls of troy to his death.


in 300 bc the europeans through alexander the great--who memorized the illiad--the story of the trojan war and believed himself a direct descendant of achilles and neoptolemus, made war against and conquered the old phonecian cities , as well as the empires of persia and egypt --- and later around 200bc through the roman empire--that would totally destroy carthage and later through conquest, end 3000 years of egyptian dynasties--the europeans gain the wealth and technology they would need to build european civilization and the blueprint and disposition and desire for global conquest that would reemerge after the renaissance and finally succeed as a resut of the discovery of the americas in 1492.

this new phase of "modern european civilization" would begin 1000 years after the fall of rome , fueled by the violent destruction of west african civilization--the songhai empire and the violent destruction of native american civilizations--the aztec , incan and choctaw empires.

it would result in the death and enslavement of millions of africans and native americans whose blood and bones would be used as the water and fertilizer to grow the world we live in today.

"profits from the atlantic slave trade financed the industrial revolution."