General Motors

Predatory Capitalism: The Pharmaceutical, Petroleum, Automobile, Banking And Other Industries Create A New “Gilded Age”!

Ronald 7 Comments

Recent news about many industries make it clear that we are living through a new “Gilded Age”, following the original predatory capitalism of the “Robber Barons” of the late 19th century, followed by the abusive practices of the Ronald Reagan era, predated by the Richard Nixon administration.

Now we have the pharmaceutical industry holding hostages of the sick, disabled, and elderly, with the price of medication going sky high, as with the despicable young hedge fund billionaire who raised a price 5,000 percent until social media forced him, finally, to drop the price increase.

We have the petroleum industry, which does not give a damn about pollution damage, as in the British Petroleum oil spill in 2010, which will damage the long term environmental future in the Gulf of Mexico.  And now oil companies want to drill for oil in Alaska, the worst possible outcome, as we should learn from their mistakes, which have been many over the years.

And we also have Volkswagen having purposely avoided meeting the emission standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, which should lead to billions in assessment, but also put corporate leaders in prison.  And the General Motors scandal on faulty ignition switches, which caused many deaths and many injuries, should also  lead to prison time and major fines to punish that automobile company.

The banking industry continues exploiting homeowners and their mortgages, and has no conscience in their practices, and their leaders come to Capitol Hill and are worshiped by many members of Congress, when instead, they should be facing prison time for their illegal and unethical business practices.

It is long past time for a major increase in government regulation and intervention to make all corporations accountable, and force them to change their practices, which include horrible exploitation of their work force, as well as consumers.

A new Progressive Era, that promoted by Theodore Roosevelt, needs to develop, along with expansion of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, along with the reforms under Barack Obama.

But to do so, the right wing Republican party , which stands in the way of regulating capitalism appropriately, must be defeated for the Presidency, as well as Congress.  And only a future Democratic President can make judicial appointments to insure the long range future of regulation and intervention of the corporate world!

Mitt Romney And The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics 2002: Another Scandal And Boondoggle!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, has boasted about how he saved the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games of 2002.

What he has not told us is that those Olympics received $2.7 billion in federal funds, equivalent of a bailout, with most of it going to improve the public services of Salt Lake City, as Romney was unable to gain much private investment. So the taxpayers of the nation added to the national debt to present the Olympics, and Romney took credit for its “success”, without revealing that it was on taxpayer money.

But now Romney has the gall to say that taxpayer money was used to bail out General Motors and Chrysler, even though it saved the auto industry in the Midwest, and has been paid back handsomely by those auto companies!

Additionally, Romney had said that the records of the Salt Lake City Olympics would be fully available for journalists and others, and that he believed in “transparency”, but then he proceeded to make it impossible for the records to be accessed, and as it turns out, the records of Romney’s activities have strangely disappeared!

What is clear is that Mitt Romney is not only a liar and a deceiver, but he is also corrupt, and has spent his life covering his tracks, including his refusal to reveal his tax records, because it is clear that they would show manipulation and chicanery in his financial dealings!

This is a man who is secretive, distant, insincere, arrogant, and thinking he is “entitled” to the Presidency being handed to him on a silver platter!

We need to make sure that does not happen this November 6, exactly one hundred days from today! Barack Obama supporters must do whatever they can to guarantee that our 44th President has another term in the White House, which he richly deserves!

Mitt Romney: The “Gutless Wonder” With No Principles!

Ronald 3 Comments

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been described as colorless, dull, boring, plastic, stiff, and as a chameleon who changes his views to fit the audience or the pressure group. With a reputation as a “flip flopper”, Romney has managed to change his views on every subject imaginable, making one wonder who is the REAL Romney, as one book is entitled!

But now that he is the presumptive nominee, he is rewriting history, claiming he had been supportive of the idea of going into a foreign nation to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, as Barack Obama, and interestingly, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani, had endorsed as far back as 2007.

Now his aide tells us that Romney was the one to support saving General Motors and the auto industry, and that Obama picked up his idea, another total falsehood!

Mitt Romney also had the nerve to say yesterday that he wishes to help the poor and the middle class, when he said just the exact opposite a few months ago. But now he claims that Barack Obama wants to take from the poor to give to the wealthy! What in the world does he mean by that assertion, which makes absolutely no sense in reality? This is a man who exudes wealth and privilege, and total lack of concern about the poor and the middle class, and seems to think just by making a statement, that it wipes out his past statements and actions, what his own aide called an “etch a sketch”!

Mitt Romney has no scruples, ethics, or morals apparently, as for a man who claims to be a “good Mormon”, one would think he would not lie as regularly as Mitt Romney does!

And he has now also shown cowardice, that he is a “gutless wonder”, in forcing the resignation of a gay conservative foreign policy spokesman to please the religious right bigots. Does that mean he will have a test for all administration employees that no one who is gay will be part of his government? It is well known that many Republicans speak anti gay rhetoric but have gay employees or aides. Why cannot Romney promote diversity and tolerance, a crucial test of his character and principles, which obviously he lacks in massive amounts!

Mitt Romney proves more than ever by his actions and words that he is unfit to be our President, as his record now shows that he is all of the following, in no special order:

Anti Women
Anti Hispanic-Latinos
Anti Labor
Anti Gay
Anti Science
Anti Environment
Anti Poor
Anti Health Care Reform
Anti Social Safety Net
Anti Education Opportunity

Mitt Romney should be ashamed for demonstrating he is a man with no principles, a “gutless wonder”!

Joe Biden The “Attack Dog”: “Osama Bin Laden Is Dead, and General Motors Is Alive!”

Ronald 3 Comments

Vice President Joe Biden is clearly a very effective “attack dog” for Barack Obama!

Yesterday, Biden went after Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee, pointing out that he wants to take us back to the Bush era of foreign policy and economic policy.

His most effective lines were that due to Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive, and that had Mitt Romney been in the White House, the opposite result would have been likely!

Wow, that has to really hurt, and it shows how Joe Biden is one of the very best Vice Presidents we have seen in pure rhetoric and defense of the President they serve, and is exactly the right man to have a heartbeat away from the Presidency. It also shows his level of mental and physical strength, and why he should not be dismissed as the potential successor to Barack Obama in 2016!

And Biden reminds us that it is time to celebrate what are certainly two of the greatest accomplishments of Barack Obama as we come to the one year anniversary of the demise of Bin Laden, the terrorist’s death, and the great success of the auto industry.

And, although Biden did not mention another great accomplishment of the Prresident, Rush Limbaugh indirectly reminded us of it, when he referred derisively to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as “just a Secretary”, the biggest bull line of late from the overweight airbag, when everyone knows that Hillary has been an exceptional asset for the country as our chief foreign policy figure, a record which puts her in the line of possible successors to Barack Obama, as much as Joe Biden!

Joe Biden, Obama’s Greatest Asset And Emissary To Blue Collar Working Class, Comes Out Fighting In Toledo, Ohio

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Vice President Joe Biden, who has been a great asset to President Obama in so many ways, started the national campaign in Toledo, Ohio, today with a speech before a labor group extolling the record of President Obama in saving the auto industry, and attacking the Republican Presidential candidates by name for the first time, since it is still not certain who the GOP nominee against Obama will be in November.

Joe Biden represents the blue collar working class of Scranton, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware, where he grew up. And being a commuter on Amtrak to work for 36 years of service in the US Senate, Biden has come across as an average guy, who cares about his neighbors and his country, and as sincere and dedicated to help those in the struggling middle class that was the story of much of his childhood.

Biden knows how to deliver a fiery speech and how to excite a crowd, and he will take the fight for the Obama Presidency all over America in the next eight months.

His rhetoric will be very supportive, and he will use all of the energy he possesses to advance a second term for President Obama. The President is very lucky to have him there by his side! Biden will help carry Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and other states in a tough battle against those who would use religion and resentment (as for instance Rick Santorum) against Obama. And if Mitt Romney is the nominee, Biden will attack him mercilessly for his refusal to back the bailout of Chrysler and General Motors.

Super Tuesday: The Significance Of Ohio For Republicans, And Particularly For Mitt Romney!

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Next Tuesday, ten states will be voting in GOP primaries and caucuses, the most of any day in this Presidential campaign.

The state that will matter the most of those ten states is the Buckeye State, Ohio, a state with more delegates and more electoral votes than any of the other nine, and also a Midwestern state which has suffered a great deal from the Great Recession and its aftermath, and has benefited from the survival and success of General Motors and Chrysler promoted by President Barack Obama.

It is also a state which has given us more Presidents than any state except Virginia. And it is a state which EVERY Republican President has won, and every failed Republican nominee has lost.

To put it succinctly, Ohio is a MUST state for a Republican Presidential candidate, and yet it looks very possible that Mitt Romney, despite his narrow victory in his home state of Michigan, might lose this state to Rick Santorum.

If Mitt Romney, presumed to be the front runner and likely Republican choice for President, cannot win Ohio, then how can one expect that he can win it in November against Barack Obama?

So if he loses Ohio, and going by the history of the Republican Party, he loses Ohio in November, then Mitt Romney will lose the Presidential election, and is, therefore, a flawed candidate.

Of course, there is always the chance that for the first time ever for a Republican nominee, Mitt Romney could lose Ohio and win the Presidency, but again, this has NEVER happened from Abraham Lincoln through George W. Bush, and one cannot expect such a quirk would occur.

Can Mitt Romney Survive A Loss In Michigan Primary? His “Competition” With George Romney’s Image And History!

Ronald 2 Comments

The biggest crisis in Mitt Romney’s privileged life is coming in Michigan, the state of his birth, the state which elected his father George Romney Governor for three terms in the 1960s, the state which he fundamentally abandoned when he called for the ordered bankruptcy of the auto industry, the state in which there has been a major turn around and drop in unemployment due to the intervention of the federal government to help General Motors and Chrysler survive. General Motors has seen its best growth in 25 years, and Michigan and the Midwest, as bad as they are in economic terms, are far better off because of what Barack Obama did, as opposed to what Romney wished to do for the area–NOTHING!

Romney is about to be paid back in spades, as the odds are now heavy that he will lose his “home state” to Rick Santorum, who can relate to blue collar workers on a fundamental basis, as compared to the filthy rich Romney who has no clue as to the struggles of auto workers or anyone else, and lives off investments but can joke about being “unemployed”!

If Romney loses the Michigan Primary, he is doomed, and will not be able to survive and win the nomination. And even if, by some intervention by “establishment” forces on Wall Street, he gets the nomination, he will have a flaw that will be enough to cause his defeat in November. He is simply too plastic, to stiff, too elitist, for the average American, and by catering to the extreme right in his rhetoric, he is causing the loss of major groups of voters–women, Hispanics and Latinos, African Americans, labor, the struggling middle class, independents, conservative Democrats, gays, etc. Does anyone NOT get the point?

Mitt Romney is NOT electable; he may have the lifelong desire to be what his father failed to be–President of the United States! But in a way, he is competing with a ghost, as George Romney was a much more genuine candidate, a man who knew what it was like to be poor, a man who really built up the auto industry, rather than live off buying up companies and firing workers, and making money on the resale of those companies.

George Romney was genuine, compassionate, principled, and honest to a set of values! Mitt Romney is none of these attributes of his father!

In a way, this reminds us of the struggle between father and son of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, another case of son trying to overcome the achievements of the father, but never matching up in any way, shape or form.

The difference is THIS time, it is not going to work out that this country has to deal with the psychological effects of the father-son battle for supremacy, as Mitt Romney is NOT going to be President of the United States, and is highly unlikely, as things stand now, to be the GOP nominee chosen at the Tampa Republican National Convention in August.

It is actually humiliating and embarrassing to see Romney trying to pander to Michigan now, talking about his old high school, the height of the trees, loving the lakes of the state, loving cars and Detroit! Such phoniness and catering to voters who know better than to be suckered by a rich guy who does not care about the “very poor”, the middle class, but only the rich, despite his protestations to the contrary!

Bald Faced Lies Of Republican Presidential Candidates: Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney And All Others!

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Tim Pawlenty entered the race for the GOP Presidential nomination in Iowa, stating that we must face the truth about the future, and used the word “truth” 16 times in his declaration statement.

But then he was faced with the fact that he has not been telling the truth about his view of the role of government, as in 2006, while Governor of Minnesota, he said the era of small government was over and that the government needed to be aggressive in pursuit of the regulation of corporations and other special interests, while being interviewed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This made him sound “progressive” in his views then, but NOW he is competing for the conservative and Tea Party vote, and trying to make it out as if he was always of the view of limited government and deregulation. So the fact is that Tim Pawlenty is LYING, and has been caught in it!

But then, Mitt Romney has also been shown to be a liar, not only regarding his own Health Care Reform in Massachusetts, which he is actively backing away from, but also in his statement through a spokesman today that the fact that Chrysler and General Motors have become profitable and been able to repay their government loans, is due to the fact that he advocated government aid in 2009, taking credit for what President Obama authorized.

But actually, in 2009, in a newspaper article in the New York Times, he specifically said to let “Detroit fail”! So how can he now take credit for something he never supported, but now claims he endorsed?

Add to this even Jon Huntsman’s reversal on the Health Care law and climate change, and his endorsement of the Paul Ryan Medicare law, which after the disaster in NY 26 yesterday, don’t be surprised if he also reverses on that issue!

It could be argued that ALL politicians switch views and lie, but to have so many examples among the three leading candidates this early, is a sign of the problems the Republican party faces in 2012!

And don’t forget, this is not including the flawed candidacies of “also rans”, such as Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Sarah Palin.

And the hints are now emerging that Sarah Palin may actually decide to run, having, apparently, bought a home in Arizona with her millions in lecture fees and book royalties; the coming out this summer of a laudatory documentary about her, making her out to be a victim who has great virtues; and counterattack beginning with two new books which set out to destroy her reputation and competence, and show her to be a LIAR her whole political life, a total PHONY!

So instead of the old film entitled “Lies, Sex and Videotape”, for the Republican Party, the title should be “Lies, Republicans, and Videotape”!

Barack Obama And The Revival Of The Auto Industry!

Ronald 4 Comments

A year ago, Republicans and conservatives were criticizing the Obama Administration for intervention in the auto industry, which many considered nearly dead and not worth saving!

Now, a year later, there have been six months of improved conditions in the auto industry and profits are being made, and it is obvious that President Obama did the right thing in deciding to assist General Motors and Chrysler!

Many failed to realize that it was not just the auto industry itself that was at stake, but also many allied industries that would have suffered a complete collapse if the auto companies had not seen federal intervention to keep them alive and kicking!

While the Michigan and Midwest unemployment rates are still very high, the fact of signs of improvement is a testimonial to the fact that the Obama Administration did the right thing in deciding to help keep the auto industry alive! So congratulations, Mr. President! 🙂

Auto Industry Revival Proof That Obama Administration Was Correct In Giving Aid!

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It has now been proved that the Obama Administration was correct in deciding to assist the auto industry from complete collapse by giving financial aid.

General Motors is paying back already $8.2 billion in aid to the government, and Chrysler is also on the road to recovery.

This idea of aiding business through loan guarantees to keep a company afloat are nothing new, as Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush all did it before Barack Obama.

The naysayers who said that the government should allow the auto companies to fail were absolutely wrong in that view, as by assisting them toward their recovery, millions of workers in auto and related industries, and many Midwestern and Southern cities, were able to avoid even greater unemployment and what would have been a depression, rather than a severe recession!

This whole concept that it is improper for the government to intervene when the economy is in trouble has again been proved to be totally false! The Tea Party, Republican, and conservative attacks on Obama over this are totally wrong, but of course none of these critics will dare to give Obama any credit. But those cities and workers, who have benefited from his wise decision to follow what other Presidents have done in economic crisis, know that they can give thanks that we had a President who did the absolutely right thing!

And there are many signs that the economy is recovering, and that will further prove that the critics are just that, critics, who do not care about the truth, but rather simply wish to divide and stir up trouble for the sake of partisan gain! Hopefully, the American people will prove in November that the politics of deception and lies will not be rewarded!