Month: October 2011

Two Billionaires: Steve Jobs And Donald Trump–One Constructive, One An Embarrassment!

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With the death of Steve Jobs, one of the most significant business tycoons of all time, on the level of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Alexander Graham Bell, we have lost one of the great business leaders of all time, not just for his innovations in technology, but also as a model for keeping out of the public spotlight!

Jobs, a perfectionist often difficult to relate to in private, was a person who avoided publicity like the plague, but whenever he uttered his thoughts or introduced new technology, he always came across as a person with a good heart and instincts. His commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, in which he said one should follow his dreams as we all eventually will die, was a brilliant example of the decency and vision of this man!

At the same time, we have Donald Trump, best described as a publicity hound, a person who wants constant attention, has had three wives, gone bankrupt a couple of times, loves to fire people on his TV show, enjoys being courted by Republican Presidential candidates, and makes a habit of saying and doing things that divide us in a difficult time. He is, without question, a real “character” with a tremendous ego that he loves to display!

This is not saying that Steve Jobs has not done anything in his private life that is questionable, since anyone is capable of having a so called “skeleton in his closet”, but Jobs avoided publicity, while Trump savors it to the extreme, showing he has a problem with his own self esteem! Nothing embarrasses him, but he is, without question, a real embarrassment!

And ultimately, Jobs changed America! When Trump passes from the scene, will anyone be able to say he made a difference in the same manner? The answer is clearly NO!

Rick Perry’s Assault On FDR’s New Deal: Unconscionable!

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The last time that a major party Presidential candidate went after the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt with such zeal as Texas Governor Rick Parry has done in his recent book and during his presidential campaign was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential campaign, and anyone who knows political history knows that Goldwater suffered the worst percentage defeat ever to Lyndon B. Johnson, who went on to expand and improve on the New Deal with his Great Society.

Hopefully, the same scenario will happen if Rick Perry is Barack Obama’s opponent, and we will see Obama improve on Lyndon B Johnson, which he certainly has more than anyone since then, certainly more than Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton!

Perry not only has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme”, even though it has always paid out for 75 years, and is well funded to 2037, and only needs a little tinkering to sustain itself into the long range future, similar to what it received in the famous Ronald Reagan-Tip O’Neill deal of 1983.

Perry also criticizes in his book “Fed Up”, published last year, all of the government agencies created during the New Deal, including three public works agencies that created worthwhile jobs during the New Deal (the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration); the nation’s agency to watch over the stock market and Wall Street (the Securities and Exchange Commission); an agency which took the American South out of dire poverty and provided electricity, which private enterprise had not done (the Tennessee Valley Authority); an agency started by President Herbert Hoover to help keep business afloat during the Great Depression and continued by FDR (the Reconstruction Finance Corporation); an agency which helped keep farmers going during the worst times in agricultural history (the Agricultural Adjustment Administration); and also a denial by Perry that the New Deal lowered the unemployment rate, which in actual fact went from 12-13 million at the beginning of 1933 to a little over 6 million in 1939!

Perry has utilized misrepresentation and misconceptions, and pure lies and demagoguery, while forgetting his own poverty stricken past! Is there anything worse than pure hypocrisy and deception in the name of his corporate masters, who support his campaign for President?

The Arrogance And Gall Of Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, And Herman Cain Toward The “Occupy Wall Street” Movement!

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When the Tea Party Movement, a right wing reactionary group with fascist tendencies, formed in 2009, the Republican Party, conservative talk radio, Fox News Channel, and wealthy people on Wall Street embraced it, and they set out to further harm the middle class and the poor, and are still in the process of doing so on Capitol Hill and in the state governments!

Now that the outraged “99 percent” have decided to march and demonstrate and occupy Wall Street, but also march and demonstrate in dozens of cities all across America, demanding action to make our government deal with the corruption on Wall Street, the mortgage debacle, the unemployment crisis, the health denials to millions of citizens, the pension disaster, the long term student loan mess, and the homelessness and poverty of millions of children, we are being told by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump, and Herman Cain that these people are “losers”, or as Cain says, if one is unemployed or not rich, don’t blame anyone, blame yourself!

For an African American candidate to ignore totally the reality of his own race being in worse condition than ever due to the Great Recession and its supposed aftermath, is a total disgrace, and shows how becoming wealthy can totally corrupt a person’s judgment and make him look down on those who are less fortunate, not only of his race, but across the board, despite the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, and caused by Wall Street and the corporations!

These right wing fascists should be warned that if nothing is done to deal with the economic crisis in this country, there is the terrifying danger of real bloodshed and violence breaking out, and that would be a total tragedy!

Just as in the Middle East with the “Arab Spring”, we are now seeing the extension of what began in the state of Wisconsin and elsewhere earlier this year, and the government cannot ignore this, as that is a danger to the future of the nation!

The Death Of A Technology Genius At 56: Steve Jobs Of Apple, Inc.

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Tonight, it was announced that one of the technology geniuses of modern times, Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple, Inc, has passed away at age 56 of pancreatic cancer.

The man who introduced Macintosh Computers in 1984, and later the IPod, the IPhone, and the IPad, left active work a couple of months ago, after battling cancer since 2004,

For a brief period, Apple, Inc. became the number one company in total value, this year surpassing Exxon Mobil.

The world is much enriched by his contributions, and will mourn his death and its impact for a very long time! May he rest in peace!

The Phony Manipulator Opts Out: Sarah Palin NOT Running For President! Is Anyone Surprised?

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Well, finally, at the last possible moment before the window to enter the Republican Presidential race closes, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin declared today that she is NOT running for the GOP Presidential nomination!

Is anyone really surprised? Supposedly, her loyal supporters, (who have to be considered mentally deranged), are disappointed!

But one can be sure that the Republican Party is NOT disappointed, as it was clear that they considered her a major headache and problem, a mistake made by John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election bringing constant troubles to the party!

Just imagine if McCain had won, and we would have had Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency! If John McCain survives to January 20, 2017, it will mean that horrible nightmares about a President Palin will have been unnecessary! But If McCain leaves the scene, it will be a fresh reminder of how close we came to being faced with a total moron, a deceptive person, a phony, a manipulator, who was only out to enrich herself by exploiting stupid people who saw her as a savior, and was indeed very successful in enriching herself with her books (probably ghost written), her reality show, and her numerous highly paid speeches, all designed to DIVIDE the American people, rather than help unify the nation!

The thought of this woman in power and making economic and foreign policy and defense decisions is enough to cause one to wretch and vomit! Never has the country been so threatened by a totally unqualified candidate for national office as Sarah Palin!

Since she quit the Governorship in mid stream, and now has decided not to take on the challenge of debating fellow Republicans, an event which would prove just how empty headed she really is, we will, hopefully, never see her gain the kind of publicity she has been seeking for the past three years! She has proved just how LAZY she is, turning down the challenge of doing a REAL JOB for the first time in her life, without copping out!

Goodbye, Sarah, and GOOD RIDDANCE! Don’t come back!

A Great Campaign Line For Barack Obama In 2012: The “Romney Rule”!

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A great idea that is developing as a likely campaign slogan for President Obama and the Democrats in 2012 is to use the “Buffett Rule”, also known as the “Reagan Rule”, against Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, if he ends up as the Republican nominee for President!

Romney is by far the wealthiest candidate, worth at least $250 million, and he has made it clear that he is opposed to the “Buffett Rule”, which would make millionaires and billionaires pay more than their staff members, and would be based on capital gains, not just income!

Romney, who laid off many employees as the head of Bain Capital, and has joked about being unemployed, having many Cadillacs, and boasted about increasing the size of his mansion, is against any more taxation of his wealth. despite the fact the he has paid a very low level of taxation and has seen his wealth multiply due to the Bush tax cuts.

He has also come out against the “Occupy Wall Street” movement as something dangerous, refusing to understand the purpose of the growing movement against corporate greed, which has decimated the middle class, exploiting home owners, pensioners, college students, and millions of people unemployed by the crooked, corrupt actions of Wall Street bankers and corporations!

Romney is really the exemplar of the GILDED AGE mentality, and Barack Obama is the PROGRESSIVE ERA, NEW DEAL and GREAT SOCIETY representative, and despite many who think that the Tea Party Movement, which wishes to take us back to the 19th century, is growing, in actual fact, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement could very well be the challenger to that reactionary group!

It could be the beginning of a new reform movement determined to take back the nation for the middle and lower classes, and out of the hands of the rich and powerful who have been exploiting us since the 1980s!

So utilizing what could be called the “Romney Rule” against Romney or any other Republican in the Presidential race of 2012, could be very effective as a political weapon!

Very Revealing Poll After Ten Years Of War: Many Vets Doubt Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan Were Worth It!

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A new poll shows that one out of three veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan doubt that the wars were worth it, and many feel it is time to cut back on foreign involvement and focus instead on our domestic problems.

This past ten years of war, marked two days from now when we first sent military forces into Afghanistan, caused the loss of 4,500 soldiers in Iraq and 1,700 in Afghanistan, $1 trillion and more in costs, and approximately 35-40 thousand wounded, many seriously!

It also allowed the corporations which engaged in the wars to make hundreds of billions of dollars on the backs of American taxpayers, and to create the budgetary crisis which helped to lead to the Great Recession, and now is being blamed by many solely on the inheritor of the problems, Barack Obama, rather than placing it where it belongs, on the backs of Republicans who controlled the government, and President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was personally enriched by his connections to Halliburton!

The future lives of the severely wounded veterans will be a tax burden on us for the next 50-75 years, and there will be many, who while not physically injured, are emotionally and mentally harmed, and that will be a great burden on them and us as well for the long term! Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is common, and veterans feel the average American has no real understanding of what they went through and the problems they face when they come home.

With only one half of one percent of the population serving in the military, as compared to 9 percent in World War II, there is a gap in how Americans see war when they are comfortably at home, compared to those who serve.

Interestingly, half the veterans in the Pew Research Center survey express doubt that fighting terrorism with military force works, as many think it promotes hate and more terrorism!

So the longest war in US history (Afghanistan) continues, and the final withdrawal of troops from Iraq, our second longest war ever, awaits final developments!

Republican State Governments Attempting To Create Hurdles For Voting In 2012

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One of the manifestations of the election in 2010 of Republican Governors and state legislatures around the nation is that they have been busy passing restrictions and hurdles on the basic right to vote, in order to discourage or prevent likely Democratic voters from being able to participate in the Presidential and Congressional races of 2012.

More than a dozen states, including Florida, have passed laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, cutting down early voting periods, and putting new restrictions on voter registration drives.

About five million voters could be affected, mostly poor, young, college students, and African American, but also disabled, rural, elderly and homeless, all of whom tend to vote Democratic.

The claims of voter fraud, of people voting who are not who they say they are, has been shown to be almost totally untrue, and to have had no effect on elections, but making it more difficult to vote WILL have the effect of deciding close elections!

The Department of Justice is investigating these laws, in order to determine if they violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and it seems likely some will be overturned by such investigation, as well as by some referendums being conducted in this fall’s election.

It is not a good sign when governments try to cut back on the right to vote, particularly when it is promoted by one party against likely voters of the other party!

The Long List Of Republican Presidential Dropouts: Why If 2012 Is Such A Great Year For The GOP?

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Common belief is that 2012 will see the defeat of President Barack Obama, and recent polls seem to indicate such, except, of course, for the fact that polls in the summer and fall of the year BEFORE the national elections are notoriously misleading!

But with such predictions and prognostications, why is it that a long list of Republicans, some of them very attractive possibilities, have decided NOT to seek the Presidency?

First the list of candidates in no special order:

Jeb Bush
Haley Barbour
John Bolton
Mitch Daniels
Jim DeMint
Mike Huckabee
Bobby Jindal
Mike Pence
David Petraeus
Paul Ryan
John Thune
Donald Trump
Rudy Guiliani
Sarah Palin
Chris Christie

That is a list of FIFTEEN people, some of them very appealing in different ways, who have decided NOT to run!

But why?

1. It is an arduous chore, costly, dominating, stressful to run for President, and becomes all encompassing to the candidate and his or her family.
2. It requires tremendous financial and organizational support to make a serious run for President, not easily achieved.
3. It requires a “thick skin” with the strong criticisms and investigations of one’s record, of everything ever said or done, that is automatic when one runs for President.
4. It requires a candidate to be knowledgeable, informed, and to have good debate skills against potential opponents.
5. It is required that a candidate have the “fire in the belly” that he or she is meant to run, and willingness to sacrifice his or her life for a year or more.

With all of the above, one other point should be made in conclusion: The candidate has to believe that Barack Obama can be defeated in 2012, or else it is better to wait to 2016!

The author would contend that many on this list, maybe all of them, see the chore of dislodging Barack Obama from the Presidency to be a very difficult job, no matter what is uttered publicly!

The President will have a billion dollar campaign fund; a record of major accomplishments rivaling the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson domestically, certainly the most since the first term of Richard Nixon, the most in FORTY YEARS, that he can be proud of; PLUS exceptional achievements in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and general respect around the world! His record on defense and foreign policy is outstanding, with his ONLY major failure being the economy, one that he inherited and has been unable to overcome due to the total intransigence of the opposition party, which now controls the House of Representatives, and is doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to create jobs, build infrastructure, promote education and innovation, and will go down as the worst Congress in decades!

Barack Obama will be able to call them the “do nothing” Congress as Harry Truman did when he ran for election in 1948. The difference is that even the GOP Congress of 1947-1948, the 80th Congress, DID support the President on foreign policy initiatives, while the Republicans today ignore or dismiss accomplishments of the President in that area! So this is actually a far worse Congress, the 112th Congress, than the 80th Congress was!

So the ultimate conclusion is that the Republicans who decided not to run assume that Obama will win, and are holding their future to 2016, when it is likely MANY of the above will be running for President in a year they project as a year when the incumbent President will NOT be able to run, an open year which maximizes their opportunities for the White House!

Finally, the reception that those candidates for President who are running are receiving is NOT a good sign for any of them, that they will somehow unite the Republican Party and defeat Barack Obama in 2012! There is great discontent over the choices, and that is the reason why there has been a clamor, unsuccessful, to get others in the race. And of course, the Tea Party Movement is also destroying any chance for GOP unity, so if the Republicans want a future, they must divorce the Tea Party Movement after what will be a likely debacle in 2012, if they wish to succeed Barack Obama in the White House in the Presidential Election Of 2016!

54th Anniversary Of Sputnik: The Need For National Purpose As We Had In 1957!

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Today is the 54th Anniversary of the Space Age, as the Soviet Union shocked the United States and the world by orbiting a space satellite, Sputnik I, in space, taking everyone by surprise!

It was the most shocking moment in America since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which brought us into World War II.

And in both cases, the United States reacted with a massive effort to overcome the disadvantages they faced!

Much like they did in fighting Al Qaeda after the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001!

This nation MUST look at the economic disaster we are in now as a result of the Great Recession, and stop the politics, and do what is right for America: the creation of jobs, the promotion of fairness in taxation, and the need to invest in education and infrastructure, as well as promote innovation in technology!

The nation cries for the end of the divisiveness which has developed, particularly since the Clinton years, and to stop having the government interfere in our personal lives due to the crusades of religious zealots, and instead call for government intervention economically to stop the stratification of society, which has made us the nation with the most inequities of any democratic society on earth!