J. Paul Ghetto Esq.'s Blog

I watch the news a lot. It’s an easy way to get information about current events. I watched the last part of Ron Gettlelfinger news conference. I thought he was a little too polite for someone that is getting screwed so thoroughly by “The System”.

Dwight Eisenhower, the last undercover brother in the Whitehouse warned the citizenry to be aware of “the militaryindustrial complex” which he knew to be the real threat to American’s freedoms.

Fast forward 47 years to today when United State Senators that represent the interest of foreign based industrialist and free markets are attempting to destroy the American Labor Movement by asking for concessions that will force auto workers to accept sub par wages for their work.

The events in the markets and industry in the past year or so should open the eyes of everyone in this country to realize that there are only two kinds of people in America: the rich and the poor. And those of you like me that are a few checks away from poverty should realize by now that we aint part of that minority group that still possess the money their corrupt granddaddy’s made in the so called free market.

Eisenhower knew because he was not part of old money. He worked for a living and rose to greatness by his own volition. And he was man enough to warn us of the danger we faced before he left office.

All these years later however the average smo still don’t get it. We are two busy fighting with each other to realize how thoroughly we are getting played. It started the day we came to these shores. The founders first attempted to enslave the people that were living here when they arrived. When that didn’t work they indentured many of the people who wanted to come here to live. When that venture played out they stole Afrikans with the help of other Afrikans and brought them here.

After the country was sufficiently built up they finally figured that the smartest thing to do was to rent us at a very low wage and then they would no longer have to house and feed their workers. That only worked so long.

The workers organized and refused to work without benefits. The MIC reluctantly agreed but as time has moved forward their greed has gotten so blatant that they no longer feel they have to front anymore.

The MIC has become international and commingled their money with foreign money to achieve their goals. What they kinda forgot though is 50-100 years ago The MIC had their foot on the necks of those people-like the Japanese and the Chinese-that they now look to for support.

I think those foreign interest want revenge on us for all the horrible stuff we did to them in the past in the name of manifest destiny and I know that culturally they have learned to be patient.

Americans have the attention span of gnats. We forgot what Eisenhower said. I’m gonna quote him here and hope someone understands that it’s time to stop the infighting and stand together. If you don‘t get it now though you never will. And it may already be too late.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."                  

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

There is an article circulating on the internet proposing that Bill Cosby softened up the  American electorate by creating the Cosby Show back in the eighties.  I would like to believe that voters are a little more sophisticated than that.  I draw my reference directly from my parents, both of whom worked at Ford Motor and grew up at a time when they were openly discriminated against.  The blatant discrimination they encountered never stopped them from voting for Eisenhower (a closet brotha), Kennedy or Johnson because they understood that those men represented more than just white interest.

Voters today understand that Barack Obama represents more than middle class blacks.  I doubt that TV could influence how voters feel about black men in general because there is NO direct correlation between Barack Obama becoming the 44th President and the Cosby Show.  If there was correlation between how voters feel about brothas in general and how they vote, Flava Flav-who had the top rated shows in VH1 history- would have caused a situation where a brotha could not become Dog Catcher in most communities.

The voters were faced with one of two options:  A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS or CHAOS.  The people have spoken. 

This is the New Age.  I hope that we can put aside our differences and move forward.  Most Americans are more astute than many would like to give us credit for, although that's hard to discern by some of the bloggers that stretch the limits of free speech or fools that would attempt to harm someone else because of what the other person  believes.

We survived the past 8 years.  It's time to exhale. 

I'm a child of the sixties.  When I was a teenager I read a book called THE RICH AND THE SUPER-RICH that explained that most wealth was held by 1/10 of one percent of the American population.  I realized that that 1/10 did not see themselves as part of the common American experience or think much of us commoners.  They in fact believed themselves to be the American Aristocracy.  Everybody who wanted to be super-rich read that book and vowed to be a cut throat as necessary to achieve that end.   The seed of predatory investing was planted in the minds of financiers.   

Understanding at an early age that I was fodder for the elite, I knew that my best bet was to earn as much as I possibly could and to put some of  those pennies into something tangible.  I started buying precious metals in the early eighties, after the Bunker-Hunt brothers got played but storing gold and silver got to be cumbersome, so I moved to the stock market.  Back then you HAD to deal with a broker and most brokers did not want to talk to you unless you had 5 or 10 grand to hand to them. 

A few big companies decided to let us po folks buy stock by mail, so I put my pennies together and bought a little stock by mail for a few years. 

In the early nineties, that company decided that it was too expensive to allow po folk to buy by mail, so I had them send me the certificates.  When they mailed the certificates to me they were worth about $22.  When the stock rose to $47, I went to see a broker because I wanted to sell them and there was no other way to do so.

To make a long story short, after I opened the account with my broker, all I got was bad advice but my broker got hefty commissions (about $75 per transaction!!!).  Being a homeboy through and through I have always invested in local companies.  There was one local company that I initially bought at $6 a share.  A few years later, the company had some internal difficulties and the stock dropped to 25 cents a share.   I called my broker and asked her if she thought it was prudent to buy some more of the stock.  She told me absolutely NOT and fool that I was, I listened.

Today, that stock is $16 a share and the company is doing phenomenally well.  If my broker had said "yes", I would have refinanced my house and bought 100,000 shares.  You do that math.

The company my broker worked for has changed hands 4 times, since I opened the account.  About 4 years ago, she left the company unnannounced.  I found out that she had left because she failed to send me a check I had asked her to send, in order to pay my taxes.  I had a little denero with her firm because I had bought about 1000 shares of that stock before it tanked and held onto it until it got over $6 but can NEVER make up for the fact that I could have earned 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS on that stock had I not listened to my broker!

Because of my personal experience with brokers back in the early nineties, the current financial crisis does not really surprise me.  Financial institutions have been mackin the consumer,  since stocks became publically traded.  And as time has moved forward, there has been less and less regulation which is the opposite of what should be happening in the electronic age.

The new code word for srcutiny is TRANSPARENCY but the only real transparency is how naked the greed of traders has become.  All those lawyers in congress know that and are afraid that we will merely be lining the pockets of Wall Streeters if we throw 700 BILLION DOLLARS at those blood suckers.

HIDE YOUR MONEY IN YOUR MATTRESS AND HOLD ONTO ALL YOUR GOLD AND SILVER COINS.  THIS CURRENT CRISIS IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.

I’ve been at home the past week on vacation. I’ve been sitting on the edge of my chair watching the financial collapse of the country live on CNBC. I am not an economist nor am I well versed in finance so I look to televised news and the internet to try and better understand what’s going on.

At a glance, it looks like the country is in BIG financial trouble. I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m scared for the first time in my adult life. I’m divorced, so I’m use to being broke but now the United States is headed for financial collapse and nobody seems to be too concerned. I base this in part on my visit to this blog today where people are discussing Kwame and Obama ad nauseum instead of questioning why gasoline is still $4 a gallon even though the price of a barrel of oil has decreased by 35%!!!

Is anybody out there familiar with the concept of getting knocked out because of looking the wrong way?

I sat in my car on Saturday listening to a discussion about “naked short selling”. Basically, brokers and investors make money by lying about borrowing stock from other investors. The liars trade stocks that they don’t own or have not borrowed from others!!!  Naked short selling has caused many companies to loose much of their value. Some companies have crashed and burned.

Part of the recent “volatility” in the stock market is due to an effort by regulators to stop the practice of naked short selling.  The majority of the problem is due to institutional pimping. 

On Monday, one of the largest financial institutions on Wall Street went belly up.  It confirmed my belief that all of Wall Street is a big house of cards that might fall if the builders stop holding their breath.

The fall of Lehman Brothers was followed by American International Group, the nation’s largest private insurer. AIG stock is selling for about $2 a share today. One year ago, a share of AIG was worth $70. The US Government decided yesterday to give AIG a welfare grant for $85,000,000,000. So much for the belief that fiscal conservatives don’t believe in handouts to the needy.

I’ve watched the opening of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the past few days. The value of blue chip stocks are declining each day. Essentially the foundation of the great financial house is crumbling.

America is preoccupied by terrorist, weapons of mass destruction and the love child of white woman and a Kenyan, as the country is quietly being pimped out of financial existence.

There is a commercial on television that talks about the “largest transference of wealth” in the history of our country. In plain American that means that our money is moving off shore and going into the pockets of all those black, brown, white and yellow infidels that we love to loath, yet we buy their oil, food and clothing with money we should keep here. Those western educated infidels now own us. And NONE of our Wall Street Pimps seem to be concerned. In fact, the WSP seem to be conspiring to bring about that transference of wealth for a fist full of dollars. We used to say the WSP did it for a handful of gold but "Big Willie" Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971.  Now we float paper that someone smarter than me said is worth more than gold.  I have as much faith in that concept as I do naked short selling.

As I write this I wonder who out there is concerned about this?  I’m an old fart.  I don’t have kids.  I’m divorced and broke but I fear for my country, for our children, for our future. Y’all should too.

In a few weeks we get to decide if we are tired of the same old same old.

I just watched a clip that Bernie Smilovitz played showing ESPN's Stephen A. Smith ranting about Matt Millen.  Smith called the Lion's football organization "headless".  I had to wonder what Millen has on the Fords to be able to remain in their employ.

The Lions haven't drafted well,  haven't traded well or hired managers or coaches who can lead the team to victory.

When Mike Martz left I HOPED that he would be replaced by an offensive wizard.  Instead it's just been offensive.  I've been a fan of Lion's football, since the Joe Schmidt era but I am just disgusted these days. 

Thank Zeus the Spartan's are playing well!

This needs to be Millen's last year regardless of the outcome of the season.

My neighbor, The Professor, asked me if I voted today.  I told him that I had and informed him that I voted for Viola Liuzzo.  The Professor is old enough to understand who I was talking about.

Viola Liuzzo left her comfortable home in Detroit and her husband and five children to travel to Selma, Alabama to support civil and voter rights, in March 1965.  She never made it back to Detroit. She was murdered by the savages that oppose all American's rights to freedom of choice and purpose.

I was about 11 when she died.  I knew back then that a lot of people were dying "down south" for civil rights but she was the first person that brought the struggle home to me.  It touched me in a personal way that this woman, this wife, this mother made the ultimate sacrifice so that others might have the same rights that she had.

Since I reached the age of consent, I may have missed 2-3 primary elections.  Viola Liuzzo is the reason I vote at every election.  Many people died for my right to vote but I know my homegirl's name.   

Remember her in November.

When I got home today, I had a letter from the IRS. The last time I got a letter from them in the middle of the year, it cost me money. Before I turned on my beloved television or had my Monday night Martini, I sat down and opened that letter.

Some call this economic stimulus.  I call it lap dances until the top of my thighs are calloused.

For the first time in my life, I received news from the government that made me smile.  Most people get happy when they get a refund after tax time - fools that they are for failing to realize that they've loaned the government their money interest free for 16-18 months.  This letter today hit the twizzard!

For the first time in 7.5 years, I am a momentary fan of GW.  He made me happier than                     Bill nevermetafemaleIdidnotlike Clinton, George IrantheworldCOVERTLYbeforeIbecamethepresident Bush and whomever was big pimpin before them for a fist full of dollars!

I know a local politician that should consider passing out checks.  The IRS made Martini Monday memorable.  Please forgive the alliteration.  Blame it on my buddy Nikolai.

I can never forget this man's wife.  She was pregnant with her second child when I used to patronize the comic book store that she was forced to run by her husband..  She was alone everyday and afraid to be there.  Her instincts were right. 

The whole community was in an uproar because everyone desperately wanted to believe that someone from Mt. Clemens had commited this crime.  It took 18 years to bring her killer to justice. 

He robbed his daughters of their mother because he could not simply walk away.  I hope that she can finally rest in peace.

http://community.myfoxdetroit.com/blogs/JPaulGhett
oEsq/2008/1

When I was a kid it seems like every Sunday there was a Knickerbocker's, 76er's or Celtic's game on television, so when Boston spanked our Pistons and moved onto the Lakers, I could not help but root for them. 

This morning I heard a lot of criticism about Kobe Bryant.  He was blamed solely for the outcome of the series.  I don't blame him.  I blame his early advisors that convinced him to go to professional basketball directly form high school.

Had Kobe gone to college for 2-4 years, he would have learned about comradery becaue he would have been enrolled at a major University with hundreds of  other gifted athletes.  He would have developed team spirit at pep rallies.   He would have learned compassion and humility for those around him.  One cannot live in a dormitory without meeting people that are far more amazing than YOU. 

As a student athelete, he would have been mentored by the upperclassmen and advised to never purchase the services of the hotel staff during road trips. He would have met his fair share of eager coeds and townies, everywhere he went.  

Kobe would have learned the value of discretion and learned to never snitch on his friends because most college jocks just don't talk about each other like that.  And if they do and are discovered, they sometimes catch a beat down in the locker room.

College would have given him a few extra years to grow up before he was thrown into the predatory real world.

But alas, he did not have that experience.  I feel sorry for Kobe today or as much as I can feel sorry for a young multi-millionaire for I know that he was cheated.  Had he learned to be the consumate team player, he might have been able to Shaqattack the Celtics until they were bloody.  The wounded Celts probably would not have been able to re-emergre from the locker room and play better than they had before had their tired bodies been battered by an 8 foot 400 pound giant that desperately would have wanted to retire in peace at the end of the season.    

Michael Jordan knew the value of college and look where it got him.

I finally caught the new TV Land series “She’s Got The Look”.  It’s a disappointment because like most reality shows they cast one of the most neurotic black folks they could find to be on television. Paula, the dark choklit handsome thirtysomething woman who was whining the most probably stands the best chance of them all of winning the competition.

In the episode I watched, Paula has a hissie fit after having her Mohawk cut down-as opposed to receiving hair extensions.  The baby is mad because she looks like Robert Parrish in a dress. She later attacked the “Pink Group” that won the first photo competition, during their victory celebration, by accusing them of being too blonde and too green and blue eyed!  They were just more photogenic than her Blue Group.

The Pink Group was comprised of a blonde, 3 brunettes, and a redhead.  One of the brunettes and the redhead are unmistakably black, so I think that Paula’s rage was a tad misdirected.  She should be mad at her parents, not those other fine women who were sipping on wine and feeling good about themselves before her tantrum.

I’m tall and fat with a southeast Asian “package” and man boobs but I love myself.  GOD don’t make mistakes.  It irks the crap out of me when I hear grown folks complaining about their looks or getting surgery to unslant their eyes or narrow their nose, lighten their skin or add some fake lips or booty.  I do think that everybody can use a little tan but that’s where I draw the line.

I wonder if people are really paying attention to their inner selves.  It appears that “we” are paying more attention to the media - that has prurient interest at best and financial incentives at all times - than to what‘s going on around us..

The reality on the street is that geeks and toads with money date stunners and fat girls have more boyfriends because they are far more adventurous than women that count calories. But you won’t see that on Reality TV.

The Euros are typically ahead of the curve.  This picture comes from a parade in  Germany last month.

Forbes Magazine has declared that Detroit is “America's Most Miserable City“!!?? Here's the link:

http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Article_forbe
s.aspx?cp-documentid=6171960>1=35000

My favorite Monday night show (Medium) had it's happy ending season finale last week, so I got a chance to watch Miami CSI last night.  I am surely depressed today.  CSI ended the season by bustin a cap in Horatio and it looks like he was set up by one of his own people!

I understand why Vic Mackey shoots his partners and I'm sure him and his crew are gonna get payback x10, by the end of the new season but why bust a cap in Horatio?  He only executes bad guys or screws around with bad girls who like criminals but he's otherwise the most honest cop on television.

Did David Caruso just want out of the series like when bailed on NYPD Blue?  He looked pretty dead lying on the tarmac.  When the camera panned away there was a hole in his sunglasses but no blood oozing from his face.  And nobody got out of the plane to assist him!  Somebody help me with this. 

Wednesday night I received a call from a friend of mine inviting me to a “reception” at the St. Regis.  He told me that his wife was out of town and he wanted me to meet his “friends”, for whom the reception was being held, then we would go out and have a drink afterwards.

It was about 5:30 when he called.  I was all set to lounge on the couch and watch the CBS News, Emeril and the finale of America’s Next Top Model but the lure of rubbing elbows with bourgeoise professional women with $100 hair dos stuffed in business suits was too great to pass up.

I got there about 7:30. When I came around the corner there were signs requesting $10.00 to be admitted.  I knew immediately that something was wrong.  I informed the woman at the table that I was the guest of my friend who I am beginning to realize NEVER calls me to invite me out. I signed in and filled out a name tag. Name tag at a social reception?

I walked past several people with glazed eyes and frozen toothy smiles as I entered the room.  There was NO BAR, NO FOOD and no tables.  There were rows and rows of chairs facing a blank white screen.

It took me almost a minute to locate my friend sitting in the first seat of the front row chatting it up with some women.

As I was walking down the middle isle, I was trying to stay calm. I had been duped into attending a multi level marketing seminar and I was pissed.

I have been a small biz consultant for about 20 years. The first thing that I warn my customers about is getting involved in MLMs. To date, I don’t know ANYONE personally that has made any money from these schemes.

MLMs are predatory by nature. They depend on everyone you can convince to pay you for some sort of service. The last time I was approached by a former acquaintance I was asked to buy all of my consumables on line. I was told back in 2002 that EVERYONE would be buying groceries, clothing, furniture ad infinitum on line and I should get on the ground floor. Needless to say, 6 years later, no one buys everything they need from this particular company. In fact I think the company is defunct.

I walked up to my friend and tapped him on the shoulder and invited him out on West Grand Boulevard so I could plant my expensive Italian boot up his derrière. The women sitting around him laughed nervously. He got up and silently followed me to my chair.

I told him that he was very close to destroying a relationship that we’ve had for over thirty years by lying to me to get me there.  He told me he was sharing a “blessing” with me through that frozen smile on his face.  I grabbed the sides of my chair tightly so that I would not reach up and put my hands around his neck.

To date, I have fallen all the way out with two casual acquaintances that tried to get me involved with Amway and the buyeverythingfromhomeonyourcomputer scheme. Me and my boy have too many years between us to kick him to the curb. And I forgave another close friend for a similar sin about 20 years ago.

This time however, I’ve gone public. The seminar I attended Wednesday has a very aggressive radio campaign. that I have been hearing every morning on my favorite R&B station. Don’t be fooled. It is more likely that an inner city resident will win the Mega Millions Lottery before anyone that reads this will make 25-30k a month as a multi level marketer.

I sat and listened to about 25 minutes of the seminar. It was like watching a bad bad movie all over again. Personal testimony from the warm up people about how they were at first skeptical then were forced to quit their jobs, 6 months into this particular venture screamed bad acting. Then the main mack er man came up and started the slide show.  When he showed an actual pyramid on the screen with he and his wife at the top, I got up and walked out.

MLMs used to be called “pyramid schemes” back in the day.  After pyramid schemes were declared illegal they were cleaned up and called multi level marketing.

I’m from the hood. I call multi level marketing pimpin and I hate the pimp game in all it's manifestations.

I got home just in time to watch the first ever “big girl” become America’s Next Top Model. It should have been Toccara back in Cycle 3 but better late than never.

The public access portion of the WORLD WIDE WEB turned 15 years old last week.  That would make the web a Taurus!!!   I don't know about most of you but I don't remember what my life was like before I was able to surf the net.  And judging by some of the blogs on this site, the WWW has taken over the lives of many.  I try real hard to believe that that does not apply to me but not a day goes by when I am not surfing. 

The greatest aspect of the web is: you can be all you want to be in cyberspace.  The down side is: some people develop web personas that are better left in the closet.  Thank God for Chris Hansen.

The web for me has become a place where I can be as schizoid as I want to be.  In this venue I can wear my thinking cap and engage in good clean fun.  In other places I can be bourgeois and discuss art and literature; I can order food and drink and have it delivered to my door AND I can appease my freak fascination in the safety of my living room.  And thank GOD I can Googgle! 

Important Lessons I Have Learned On The Web: 1) Never challenge or argue with women on a blog.  2) Avoid political and racial discussions AT ALL TIMES.  3) Never expect the person you are dealing person ( I'm the exception) to look like their picture when you meet them in person.   4) Never become a web pal with ANYONE under 25.  5) Never give out your credit card or social security number.  6) You WILL NOT win the lottery in the UK because you did not buy a ticket and your name did not get pulled out of someone's arse.  You WERE contacted like thousands of others because they believe that all Americans are greedy and stupid and many prove them right.  7) Sending someone in some politcally oppressed African or Asian country a few grand will not allow you to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars held in some off shore bank.  8) Having sex with someone you meet on the web will end you up broke, in a clinic or worse!  9) Always use Spell Check and read it 3 times before to you post.

Remember: you may love the web but the web does not love you.