Wall Street

Is “Birther” Conspiracy Theory Resolved By Release By White House Of Certificate Of Live Birth? Don’t Bet On It!

Ronald 2 Comments

Anyone who expects that the White House release of Barack Obama’s Certificate of Live Birth this morning will shut up the “Birthers” conspiracy theory is probably going to be disappointed!

It is absolutely insulting that no other President has ever been so mistreated regarding his birth certificate as Barack Obama!

Face the facts: It is because Barack Obama is black, born of a mixed race parentage, and has a Muslim sounding name that he has been put through this hell by loonies and by Donald Trump and others, with all of them knowing full well that it is a false issue, but doing everything they can to perpetuate it as a political issue, rather than focus on the real problems facing the nation, none of which were caused by Barack Obama, but rather by the Wall Street and corporate world and their Republican allies!

In reality, Obama should not have given in to this bull, but it was an honest attempt to move on and focus on the major issues, even though the opposition does not want to focus on the major issues, but want simply for Obama to fail so they can gain power and take us back to the 19th century Gilded Age!

If half of the registered Republicans in a poll still feel they doubt Obama’s birth in the United States, the answer should be simply to say “Enough of your moronic behavior and sick minds, we are moving ahead and exposing that you all have evil intent, and we will fight you tooth and nail and give you hell as we unite the American people in planning a future, not to be controlled by morons and idiots who only have selfishness and greed in your makeup, and do not give a damn for the future of the nation, unless you control all of the economic and social power! We are not going to allow you monsters to make this a fascist nation, and we will fight to our last breath to make sure you do not accomplish your evil goals!”

How does that sound for a fighting spirit to promote the expansion of progressivism, which has brought about ALL of the political, social, and economic progress of the past century, as the author so enunciates in his introductory statement, under “About the Progressive Professor”?

The Emergence Of A People’s Party Movement To Fight The Tea Party Movement And The Republican Party!

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The events in Wisconsin these past three weeks, leading to the end of collective bargaining of public service workers there, plus similar action in Ohio and elsewhere yet to be seen, has awakened the middle class, and those less fortunate, to the reality that they cannot sit back and allow the national Democratic Party to plan alone for 2012, as President Obama seems unwilling at this point to challenge the opposition openly, as part of his centrist strategy for re-election.

So the average American who is disgusted with the power and influence of the super rich and the corporations must organize for the future and pressure the Democratic Party in 2011-2012, as much as the right wing Tea Party did the same with the Republican Party in 2009-2010, and is still at work on its evil intentions!

So there is already the emergence of what many might call the People’s Party, with set goals of what they wish to accomplish between now and the Presidential Election of 2012, and Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, is one of those promoting such a development, and discussing it on the Talking Points Memo website two days ago. Of course, reality is that not all of the below ideas can be accomplished quickly, but they are a series of goals for the future.

What are the goals of the People’s Party?

1. Increase the pay and bargaining power of ordinary workers, by promoting collective bargaining and union rights of all workers.

2. Require the super rich to pay their fair share of taxes–which includes capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, taking away citizenship of those sheltering income overseas, and increasing top marginal tax rates and number of top tax brackets.

3. Protect and expand government programs that advance the middle class and the poor, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Public Education, Pell Grants for college students, Public Transportation, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

4. End corporate welfare, including wasteful defense spending, agricultural subsidies, and tax subsidies for industries and specific corporations at the state and national level.

5. Save Social Security by raising the income level that is taxed to all income that is earned, just as it is for Medicare.

6. End Wall Street dominance of the economy, requiring smaller banks, having a financial transactions tax, and preventing future bailouts.

7. Enforce regulations that benefit workers, consumers, investors, and the environment, and raise penalties on corporations that violate these regulations.

8. Provide affordable health care for all Americans through adoption of single payer Medicare for all.

9. Slow and reverse climate change through carbon emissions taxes on polluters, and returning these taxes and penalties as tax cuts for the working middle class that has been victimized by these corporations.

10. Take big money out of politics, by fighting the Citizens United Supreme Court case, requiring public financing of all campaigns at all levels, and full disclosure of all campaign contributions to all candidates for any public office at any level.

Wisconsin is a clarion call to all progressives and liberals that they cannot simply lie down and take what they are getting, but must FIGHT for change and reform, because no one is going to give it to them simply because they ask! The fight to overcome the right wing extremism that has taken hold in the House of Representatives and many state governments has just begun!

Organized Labor: The Promoter And Protector Of The Middle Class!

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In the midst of the attack on organized labor going on in Republican governed state governments, many fail to understand how significant a role labor unions have played historically in promoting and protecting the middle class.

When unions flourished in the years after 1945 to 1980, the middle class grew dramatically in size and in prosperity. Labor supported civil rights, social security, medicare, and promotion of organizing rights for workers. They became the counterweight to corporations and Wall Street in the political battles that made America a nation in which gaps in income and wealth narrowed.

Since Ronald Reagan’s Presidency, union membership has declined from one third to about 7 percent, and with it, the working conditions of non union workers has worsened dramatically. What many people did not and do not understand is that when unions prosper, non union workers benefit as well, and when unions decline, all middle class workers lose out.

So we are seeing the middle class slipping in poverty, and with the decline of organized labor, the American Dream of a middle class life is fast disappearing!

This is why the labor battles in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey and elsewhere are not just over state public service workers in those states. It is also the future of American workers who never have and never will be members of labor unions, but do not appreciate how much labor power did for them as they moved up the economic ladder, and now do not fully realize yet the growing power of the elite rich and corporations which care not a whit about their workers’ long term future decline, in their mad dash for maximum profits, minimal regulation, and insane passion for never ending concentration of wealth in their own hands!

Barack Obama, A President Always Seeking Dialogue: Business Executives And The Tribal Nations Conference

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No matter what one may think about the performance and accomplishments of President Obama, no one can deny his constant involvement in multiple activities, and his desire to seek dialogue with all kinds of groups across the spectrum of America.

Evidence of this is his four hour meeting yesterday with 20 business executives, and his attendance and speech at a White House Tribal Nations Conference today.

Is there any combination of such activities more different than these two? The answer is highly doubtful! 🙂

Obama made an appeal to Wall Street and corporate executives yesterday to hire and invest, and discussed trade, taxes, and education with a wide variety of different company executives. He made it clear that he understood the importance of private enterprise in the expansion and success of the American economy. This was a good, and necessary, move by the President after a difficult year in the relations between the business community and the White House.

At the same time, Obama has clearly become the major advocate of a different and more involved approach toward the tribal nations, that are after all, the original Americans, but have never been treated well by states and the national government. Obama is on the path to become the most sympathetic and active President on Indian affairs in American history, a step long overdue and justifiable because of past wrongs.

So Barack Obama is always on the road to solving problems and keeping the lines of communication open, and for this, we should all be appreciative!

The Dangers Of Extreme Income Inequality! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, and millions are facing the loss of their homes, all of this caused by Wall Street, the banks, and the powerful corporations, we get news that the corporate world has seen its best quarter of economic growth and profits in the sixty years since such records have been kept! 🙁

While the elite flaunt their wealth and arrogance in the face of the “little people”, who they have helped to exploit and put into dire poverty and desperation, the country faces a social crisis of massive proportions, and yet it is the corporate wealthy who spent extreme amounts of money to put their Republican allies back into power on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives! 🙁

Against any regulation or reform of the Obama Administration, the intent of the super rich is to continue the exploitation of the masses that they have been engaged in during the past decade! 🙁

No amount of arrogance seems to be enough, as no matter how much profit these corporations make, and no matter how much personal materialism the super rich gain, it is never enough! 🙁

The level of selfishness and greed is unlimited, but there are signs that the social tensions that are rising as people become cornered and desperate might reverberate on all of us in increased bloodshed and violence by victims who see nothing to lose! 🙁

The situation we face is extremely scary, as constant exploitation could lead to violent revolution and destruction of the entire society, all because of the small percentage of the population who possess no ethics, no conscience, no morals in their pursuit of personal gain! 🙁

What a sad commentary it is that the American capitalistic system could be sowing the seeds of its own destruction through unwillingness to realize limits in the public interest! 🙁

The Wall Street Rally: Will It Affect The Midterm Election?

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The standard viewpoint of late has been that since the economy has not recovered adequately from The Great Recession, the Democrats will suffer massive losses in the midterm elections coming up in November.

But the recent Wall Street rally in September, the best September since 1939, and the improvement in the market in the early days of October, have to make one wonder if that is a sign of economic expansion!

If it is seen as such, then it might just affect the attitude of many Americans who have soured on the Obama Administration!

Psychology is a very important part of politics, and it is well known that people’s memories are short, so the increased economic activity might just turn the tide for the Democrats, and they may lose fewer seats than often expected!

It just makes the waiting for the election results four weeks from tonight even more interesting and significant!

Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren Should Be Head Of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau!

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Now that the Financial Reform legislation has passed both houses of Congress and will be going into effect soon, the President has to find someone to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the right person is Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard University!

Warren has been the head of the Congressional bailout oversight panel, and has been tough on the Treasury Department on how they spent their money, and been a critic of a housing program that has not protected homeowners!

Warren has been a consumer advocate and watchdog, and a long term critic of Wall Street, which, along with Republicans, is fighting her nomination! The fact that she wants to hold Wall Street accountable is more than enough reason to appoint her to head this new consumer agency, which has been sorely needed for a long time!

This is a woman of courage and conviction, who will really be there for the American people, and hold the banking industry responsible for their reprehensible behavior which led to the Great Recession we are suffering through now for two and a half years!

If President Obama gives in to the pressure to deny her the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, then one will have to have doubts about his sincerity in pushing for this legislation, and progressives and liberals will have to reconsider their support of a President who caves in to pressure from the right wing! 🙁

Obama, Wall Street Regulations, And History: Republicans And Wall Street Support

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Barack Obama has been criticized by many people, ill informed, for offering aid to Wall Street to keep the country from a complete financial collapse in 2008-2009! Of course, many forget that the move to protect Wall Street was begun by George W. Bush and his Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson!

But there are critics of Obama who fault him also for working to promote financial regulation reform, and ironically, they are the people on Wall Street, who have no appreciation of how much Obama has been attacked for saving Wall Street!

The evidence is that Wall Street is giving much more political campaign support to Republicans than Democrats! Wall Street is apparently punishing the Democrats for pushing financial reforms!

But actually, if one examines history, what does one discover? The reality is that Wall Street almost always has favored Republicans in campaign donations, and in wishing Republicans to hold public office!

Any why is that? Because the reality is that the Republican Party does not believe in financial regulation reform, and has always favored big business interests overwhelmingly as compared to Democrats!

This is not only true now, but throughout the history of the Republican party–during the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, the 1920s, the New Deal, World War II and after, the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and the Clinton and Bush years!

Anyone who studies the history of the United States would understand that the GOP is the favored party by big business interests! And the Republicans in Congress now have been making regular trips to Wall Street, and been making clear to the bigwigs there that they will do everything to prevent strong legislation that the American people want to prevent a similar financial meltdown in the future!

So why is it that the average American seems oblivious to the truth about Wall Street and the Republicans? Part of it is bad communication by the Democratic Party, and part of it is pure propaganda, and ignorance of ordinary Americans, who if they understood the truth and the history of the GOP, would not ever vote Republican!

But of course, the answer is that the Republicans are very good at promoting emotional “social” issues, such as gay rights, abortion, and illegal immigration, as methods to stir up the average Americans to vote with their prejudices, rather than their brains!

In the past, the Republicans used the Civil War (waving the “bloody shirt”) and fear of Communism (McCarthyism and the Red Scare) to gain support! Now they use different issues as they continue to promote the interests of big business and Wall Street, and they may succeed in again “scaring” Americans into voting against their own interests! 🙁

Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, And Cooper Union

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When Barack Obama delivered his speech on financial reform at Cooper Union College, just a short distance from Wall Street, last week, it brought back memories of another event that took place at Cooper Union 150 years ago, and transformed American history!

The Cooper Union speech of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 transformed the one term Congressman, from a dozen years earlier, into a prominent candidate for the Republican nomination for President.

Historian Harold Holzer, a leading Lincoln scholar, wrote a very significant book on this precise topic in 2004. Lincoln came across at Cooper Union as very reasonable and rational as a candidate.

In the same way, Obama came across at Cooper Union as reasonable and rational in his call on Wall Street to stop fighting necessary financial reform, so that never again will the stock market and banking crisis of 2008 ever happen again!

This week, the Senate considers a financial reform package which is essential, and if it is opposed by the Republican party, it will be obvious who is to be held responsible in the future for a repeat of the disaster of two years ago! Fortunately, as we get closer to that moment, it seems as if many Republicans realize that they cannot afford to appear as if they are in bed with Wall Street.

The Cooper Union speech of Barack Obama is calling on Wall Street to cooperate in appropriate regulation, and we shall see this week whether it worked. But Obama at Cooper Union certainly evoked thoughts of Lincoln, and not for the first time! 🙂

Obama, Wall Street Regulations, And Mitch McConnell

Ronald 1 Comment

One would think the collapse of the economy in the Fall of 2008 would motivate everyone in Congress to promote strict regulations of Wall Street, so that what happened can never occur again!

It was lack of regulation that allowed the Wall Street abuses to happen, but apparently that does not affect the Republican opposition, most of whom seem dedicated to prevention of any real regulatory reform!

Well known as friends of Wall Street, they now are trying to play a shell game, and claim that all bailouts must be prevented in the future, when many of them backed the original bailout that took place under President Bush!

Despite Tea Party protests, it is a fact that the so called “bailout” saved the country from a worse economic downturn, and much of the bailout money has been paid back by the banks, insurance companies, and auto companies, and the rest will be paid back.

Would it have been better to do nothing, and let the economy slip into a total depression? Why is it that now when it is urgent that reform be accomplished, suddenly the GOP is acting like an innocent child, as if they had nothing to do with the lack of regulation during the Bush era?

It is good to see President Obama declare that, just like with the Health Care legislation, he will not allow GOP intransigence to stand in the way of essential reform! It is time for action, no matter what Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, or anyone else does to block reform! It has been the height of hypocrisy for McConnell to attack the legislation, when he is well known for being close to Wall Street financiers! What a disgrace! 🙁