Economy
Related: About this forumCatherine Austin Fitts: The software targeted her for her "busy bodiness"
I don't know how many here (if any others here), know of Catherin Austin Fitts, but she is a hero of mine.
Fitts was one of the directors of HUD under George Bush the Elder. She happened upon the fact that two trillion bucks was missing in the government. Naturally, she was not able to retain her position in the government once she uncovered how corrupt the system is.
Anyway this video contains so much information. I can't explain fully how important this video is:
Fitts quote: "you have a government that has no informational sovereignity and no financial sovereignity"
tech3149
(4,452 posts)I've listened to many interviews with her over the years. Her story is amazing and frightening. She could have turned HUD in to a truly great and beneficial operation. Instead she was persecuted and driven out.
I wonder if the NSA,CIA or both are using the software they stole from her company?
One interviewer refers to her as Catherine "Awsome" Fitts, I agree.
Hotler
(11,412 posts)They stole her software. A big part of the HUD scandal happened here in Denver, same place the Silverado Savings and Loan scandal happened. The Bush family is a crime family.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
bananas
(27,509 posts)Celebration
(15,812 posts)She is ultra conservative, tea partyish sort of, in her political persuasion. But, in a way she is an enigma--she is no friend of the big banks, that is for sure. And she has some sound ideas on how to restructure the economy (local control), etc.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Mostly related to things like abolishing the Federal Reserve, or auditing it. (Which we went on to do, under Bernie Sanders-sponsored legislation, that allowed for the audit.)
My neighbor was fond of the early Tea Party, and he voted for Obama, as he did not think that Obama held many ties to the big Banking crowd.
Now the Tea Party is made up of whack jobs, and to add insult to injury, Ron Paul ditched his followers, as well as his ideals, and sided with the Mainstream Republicans, as he wants his son Rand to be President someday. more than he wants to hold fast to his ideals.
Anyway, I first found out about Austin Fitts, through KPFA radio star Carolyn Casey, and Casey is well known for her support for the Democratic party. But Fitts has a lot of information that everyone in the USA should know. (Truth often comes into your life in surprising ways.)
Celebration
(15,812 posts)Look I am a fan of hers (of sorts) but she loves our crazy whack job Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, her Representative, and I heard her say she supported the government shutdown. She hates Obamacare, etc. etc. Basically she dislikes anything big government, maybe based on her experience in the Bush administration.
I do love her ideas of creating software for locals to be able to easily check for fraudulent activity in FHA loans, etc.
By the way, I share a lot of her distrust of big government, because I see an FDA in bed with big pharma, an Agriculture department in bed with Monsanto, an EPA in bed with the chemical companies, the stupid war on drugs, drug running by black ops, etc. I do think she is against the way that we finance elections due to her dislike of the banking system and that is the number one issue for me in promoting the people taking back our government. Then we can all have normal disagreements rather special interests controlling everything.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)The governmental shutdown was pure evil. It is a shame to hear that she supported that travesty, which did a lot of injury to the Republicans holding office in Congress. I don't know why she couldn't see that.
On the other hand, as an activist, I am usually more interested at any given moment in what I can get from various republicans in my state and county. For instance back in the 1990's, it was due to the Republicans that a grassroot movement against MTBE, the gas additive, came about. As the movement grew, Democrats joined in.
And eventually, Gov Davis (D) was so incensed about the MTBE issue that he appointed a "beyond bribing" group of scientists to a Blue Ribbon panel and that panel insisted that the legislature ban the substance, as it was so damn toxic. (I don't know if we will ever see a panel of scientists that is so independent and free of Big Industry persuasion again, as Big Industry now controls science from the time a person enters the chem lab in freshman year of college.)
The MTBE ban proceeded. And with politics being what it is, Davis was ridden out of office and all but tar and feathered by the (you guessed it) Republicans. And his name was totally besmirched, with every other comment about him leading a person to believe that he had eaten babies for dinner or something, when all he had done was remove a toxic from gasoline so that it didn't go on to contaminate half of our drinking water wells and reservoirs. And what helped republican leadership do this to Davis? Big Oil money and its total control over the press, including the Associated Press.
There was also clear Democratic Party collusion, on the high end levels, with this happening, as Sen Diane Feinstein hand picked a guy who would easily lose to Schwartzennegger, and what she got for selling us real Dems out, I can't tell you. But she lives in a $ 16 million dollar mansion, while I pay my monthly rent.
Celebration
(15,812 posts)Some of the most active and effective people in the movement to disassociate student test scores from teacher pay are very right wing Republicans. And guess what? Listen to them talk and it is for the same reasons that I hate it. They don't like NCLB, and think the foundations and federal government should get out of the business of dictating to communities how to run their schools. And I agree with them 100 per cent!