The fact is, any time and EVERY time there is a monetary exchange, multiple other people have their hands in your pie. The fees are hidden at POS. Every time you use a debit card or credit card, part of your price includes the card fees to - the bank you use, the clearing house used, the card issuer and probably, the monkey in the basement.

The price of every thing we buy includes the marketing costs for the company, the lobbying costs, the "charitable" contributions to political entities, as well as profit. I wonder how cheap things would be if only actual business costs were passed on to us.

Yes it now belongs to Russia and "rent" on Russias part is not needed. I read the other day also that China had loaned Ukraine 3 billion for something to do with the port city and is now saying they want the loan paid in full to add insult to injury. When will these countries learn that getting involved with the US puppet NATO IMF army is never a good idea for the country.
Putin also doubled the pensions of the people in Crimea and cut energy costs through tax breaks while Kiev has cut pensions in half and IMF demands that energy costs increase by 200% for the terms in the austerity loan. The rest of the Ukrainians will be begging to go back to Russia before the snow flies next year. What a tangled web Washington has woven.

My point was that to understand a people, you must get to know them, and if a Moslem were to consider all Americans to be cretins, based on reading posts such as yours, I'd tell him the same thing...

I worked in a Moslem country for 6 years and was always treated with courtesy and kindness, because I treated them the same way...you could learn how Moslems really are by simply getting to know some, rather than being afraid of the many because of the few and the lies of those who you allow to manipulate you.

Playing both sides of the fence isn't secret anymore.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/tax-lobby-works-to-defeat-overhaul-it-once-cheered.html?emc=edit_th_20140402&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=68247748&_r=0

Things that used to be done in secret, for fear of public outcry, are now out of the closet. They need not fear the public anymore, because it has become numb to these kinds of things. Wall Street went right back to it's shady dealings and money laundering, after it caused the financial collapse in 2008, and few bothered to protest.

Scandal after scandal, both real and imagined, has simply overwhelmed peoples ability to give a shit anymore. No one raises an outcry, there are no protests, at least, nothing significant. Here we have the largest industry in the world, right in our own capital, running our own government, while lining their pockets with our own money, and the best people can come up with is - "that's not right".

Where is the outrage? Where is the thirst for the blood of our rapists? People can get all bent out of shape about gun control or abortion or some other minor thing, while the biggest, single, organized crime ring, does business right under our noses. Privately urging the presentation of a bill, while warning certain parties of the " dangers" of the bill, in order to get hired to defeat the bill they promoted. That's called racketeering, but I see no indictments, no grand jury proceedings and certainly no Congressional efforts to stop it. No one will either, there's too much money to be made, so we'll continue to be sold out, time after time, because we're not in a position to even bid for our own interests.

Probably all of them. I understand the " if I don't look, it's not really there " syndrome, we learned it as kids to cope with our fears. As adults we are supposed to FACE our fears, not resort to childhood coping mechanisms.

I expect, soon, that our politicians will be forced to deal with climate change, not because they've grown wiser or that the people demand it, but because their corporate sponsors will demand it, and we KNOW they do as they're told to by them. The delay is because there are too many colloquial/back woods sponsors, who have lots of money, no sense and probably can't read. You know, folks who hire people to dress them and explain the difference between sparkling wine and mountain dew.

The international tychoons, those with real educations, have come to realize the dangers of climate change and are including remedial strategies INTO their corporate plans. There are 1000's of American rich who cannot see their own noses, and are consistently removing them to spite their faces. Why? because they're rich and have been told that being rich is all you need, because they think they can buy their way out of anything, or INTO anything, especially politics. Their " betters" will put them in their places before long, because the uber rich get it and they're not going to let some hick " merely" rich doofuses screw them up.

And yet, it could, as has been said, of every President. Some Presidents have become remarkably better - the longer they are out of office. I think that's because the Presidential detractors have moved on, to the next victim. Do I think Obama has made mistakes? You betcha, but his are not historically different from any other Presidents. What IS different are the non stop attacks starting from day one. Even before taking office, it was stated, by certain Repub leadership, that their ONLY mission - was to bring down this President. That was not only a childish response to losing - it bordered on treason, but we have gotten so used to politicians acting this way, that we let it slide - and have been letting it slide for 6 years. That is NOT politics, it's called corporate sabotage.