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UPDATE: Liked this (April 23, 2010) Bill Moyers Journal (Bill Black speaks about financial reform) segment. His talk is followed by a talk on "Net Neutrality". -
Even though the Bill Moyers Journal segment (below) aired back in January (2010), we felt it was relevant for today's debates/discussions about financial reform.
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Note: Senator Richard Shelby gets a mention in the video ... not good to say the least.
I've been really trying to keep my distance and my mouth shut as we wind-up health insurance reform or whatever the hell it is. The president is really selling it. He even came here … to Strongsville … and oh my God, he even had our (say no, unless it’s single payer) Congressman Dennis Kucinich with him. -
Well, I’m confused … and I need answers. Congress, will you or will you not cover every American? Are you really going to force Americans to pay into a “for profit” health care system? … and, Is there strong competition to keep health insurance companies honest? The first answer should be yes, the second answer should be no, and the third answer should be yes.
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Unfortunately, that’s not what this health insurance legislation is about. As it stands right now, [regarding that last question] even though we need strong competition [to keep health insurance companies honest], … even though a majority of Americans want that competition … want a strong public health insurance option… looks like we’re not going to get it … Or am I mistaken?
- See, these political parties rely on campaign contributions [money] from the financial services industry [and yes, that means the financial services industry helps finance (by running ads for, and giving "lobbying" money to) Democratic candidates, as well as Republican candidates].
- Health insurance companies fall within the financial services industry. So we absolutely, without a doubt, know why Republicans are against health care reform or health insurance reform [Republicans are in the pockets of the health insurance industry]; however, with the Democrats it’s tricky business; they are, after all, the party of the poor, the working class and the middle class.
- If health care is a right and not a privilege [as Democrats believe, and we believe], then every American has a right to quality, affordable, comprehensive health care. Right? -
So how do Democrats appease their benefactors ["for profit" health insurance companies], while berating their bad behavior at the same time? How do Democrats convince average Americans that they are on their side? How do they "have their cake and eat it too"?
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Well, you have to look like you’re beating up on the health insurance industry. Listen to the rhetoric … you get the feeling … hey, these Dems are really giving it to the health insurance companies. Wait, wait … but aren’t the “for profit” costly health insurance companies getting more customers? Yeah, … but a Dem will say, “We’re not allowing them to deny enrollment based on pre-existing conditions. Wait, wait … but with the exception of children, this regulation won’t kick-in for adults until around 2014; and, by the way, … if these health insurance companies do deny, who’s policing them and what exactly are the penalties? Wait, wait, ... and can't the health insurance companies continue to charge older adults and women more in premium? *****
- Let’s listen to Michael Moore being interviewed by Lawrence O’Donnell sitting in for Keith Olbermann (Keith’s father just passed … Keith we love ya and you are in our prayers).
*****PLEASE READ THISand call, email, write your representative to stop gender based rating, etc (the bill that passed 3/21/2010 does not ... does not address this adequately): For gender-equal health care, enact Medicare for all/By Plain Dealer guest columnist, March 21, 2010, 6:00AM By Sheila Leavitt -
I’m sure you know a whole lot of folks who would love to sit around the office or water-cooler all day and complain and lie about those who are actually working … doing very little work, … and collecting their paycheck at the end of the week. - Well folks, Republican members of Congress have been doing just that for over 395 days, and the American tax-payer is paying their salary (to sit around and lie and complain) to the tune of roughly $170,000 to $190,000 a year. - If that doesn’t infuriate you, I don’t know what else will. - WATCH Rachel Maddow: -
Keith and his father are in my prayers. You cannot watch the video below without it breaking your heart. My comment to Republicans is to just stop it! Stop lying about health care reform. Just stop it! .... and to Democrats and Republicans who may be "in bed" with health insurance companies and Big Pharma, ... get "out of bed" with them! Just stop it!
Members of Congress and the president:
Stop putting health insurance companies first.
You can view the above video at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/35572842#35572842
Watch Bipartisan Health care summit live at Sunlight Foundation:
Are you going to mandate Americans to buy into a "for profit" system?
Will everyone pay the same premium for basic health insurance?
If the answer is yes/no, then you cannot compare yourself to the Swiss system. Health insurance companies cannot make a profit in the Swiss system; and everyone pays the same premium.
I'm against anyone buying health insurance in a "for profit" system. That is not true health insurance reform; it is however, backroom dealing and playing politics if required to pay into a "for profit" system.
This is it people! If you want the Public Health Insurance Option in health insurance reform, sign the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with our brave Senators (included in the signers is our wonderful Ohio Senator, Sherrod Brown).
Then sign the petition (it will take one minute of your time): http://democracyforamerica.com/activities/284 - After you sign the petition, you will be given a chance to donate to the DFA. If you don't want to donate, just don't; but please sign the petition as a citizen, along with our brave Senators.
Let's just get one thing straight from jump street. Politics is not about truth, but about winning points and elections. Knowing this fact, is there any hope for America?
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Luckily most of the hard work of solving America's problems is not done by politicians, though politicians definitely make solving America's problems considerably harder.
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Yesterday we watched a master intellect at work ... dealing with hard questions and political talking points. Yesterday Republican hypocrisy and politics was exposed for everyone to see. (See President Obama's 82 minute speech and sparing with Republican politicians by clicking the CSPAN link at bottom of this page - also, below that is the full question and answer video segment from YouTube - [2 minutes and 13 seconds into the Q&A, the YouTube video will pause, to resume viewing, just move the time slider forward a little])
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Here's a number of video and comments [Keith Olbermann's Countdown] from President Obama's meeting with Republican House members at their Republican retreat in Baltimore - remember the full video Q&A is at the bottom of this post:
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After viewing the video, do not click on "next" or "return to video", just go to the video below it.
I heard some ignoramus on CNN say that no one should have interfered with the “goings on” of Citigroup, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, etc. because these companies would have recovered on their own (normal business cycle).
I love to tell stories so here goes …
A Real or Fictional Story of Corporate Deceit and Fraud; and the United States Governments involvement to cover it up.
Here’s the story (fiction or non-fiction, you choose):
There were a bunch of parent companies that owned retail banks, commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies (compliments of Congress by repealing the Glass Steagall Act and passing the Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act - cooked up by Republicans who got a bunch of Democrats [and a Democratic White House] to go along with it). ***
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The investment banks engaged in questionable trades and bought shares of stock (for themselves and other investors) in certain assets and companies that they either knew didn’t exist, or at best, were extremely risky . They got investors (individual and institutional) to buy into their questionable dealings. They also bundled a bunch of risky mortgages from the parent companies retail banks and mortgage companies, and sold them to people all over the world, thereby engaging in a worldwide ponzi scheme.
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In addition to that scheme, they also used deposits from their retail banks and bought insurance from their own insurance companies or other insurance companies to hedge their bets. Many of these insurance companies they knew didn’t have enough reserves set aside if things went bad.
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In the meantime, executives were siphoning off profits through insanely outrageous salaries and bonuses. Some of the large shareholders (who consisted of company executives, board members, and the “Wall Street connected” extremely wealthy) consistently voted for and wooed certain board members who agreed with these outrageous executive compensation packages, and they recommended to the smaller shareholders that they go along with their choices.
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All these companies knew what the other was doing; and they were well aware that their schemes were built on a “house of cards” that could topple world economies; however, they didn’t really worry too much because they knew someone (a sheikh or two, the government, their retail bank depositors, corrupt insurance companies, the FED, etc) would bail them out. -
[In addition, these companies and the military contracting companies they bought shares in, encouraged (lobbied) members of Congress, who engaged in the politics of fear [of real and imagined enemies], to use these military contracting companies.]****
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Anyway, when some of these companies “shit hit the fan”, and the stock market kept falling, and people started defaulting on their mortgages because they couldn’t increase their credit card limits anymore or refinance their homes any more (property values that were over-valued had declined; many had lost their jobs because companies couldn’t compete with foreign imports and closed shop [compliments of NAFTA and other government trade policies]; or companies continued offshore outsourcing jobs to cut labor costs starting not at the top, but with middle and bottom wage earners ).
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The small business owner lost business because various members of Congress (especially conservative members who championed deregulation), consistently engaged in policies and/or wrote laws that allowed large companies to get bigger (whereby small companies couldn’t compete).
People began realizing that they were living in a fantasy world and they never made enough money to pay for their kids college, or invest for retirement, or buy furniture, or dress for success, or buy a house, etc. They were living on borrowed money, and their bank executives and investment brokers, and other people’s bank executives and investment brokers were living high on the hog with their money [that was eventually mostly gambled away].
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The government, to cover up their duplicity in the schemes, yelled the “sky is falling” and feigned gross ignorance. They allowed investment banks to become bank holding companies, and got other countries (debt), the FDIC and tax-payers to loan and bail out all their asses.
Finally (to put the icing on the cake), the (majority conservative) Supreme Court, used a case before it (under the guise of free speech), to allow corporations to further influence politics, thereby giving their blessing to the continuance of these schemes and cover-ups.**
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If “Capitalism 201 Gone Wild” hasn’t infected your (especially European) country yet … the story above may become a reality for you.
***John McCain Lies- only 1 Senate Democrat (Hollings) voted for Gramm, Leach, Bliley: All Republicans voted yea, except for 1 who voted present (Fitzgerald) and 1 who did not vote (Inhofe). See also Roll Call Vote
Our capitalistic system is heading your way threatening to destroy your middle class as they’ve done to ours. [Top down economics creeping in to your country like a snake on a mission.]
How would you like to live in a country owned by large corporations?
How would you like a fractured, broken, costly healthcare system where universal healthcare is a thing of the past?
How’s 1% of the population controlling 90-95% of your country's wealth sound to you?
How does the outsourcing of your jobs appeal to you?
I heard some ignoramus on CNN say that the government should not have rushed in to save Citigroup, Bank of America, etc. because most of their problems would have been corrected within the course of a normal business cycle.
I love to tell stories so here goes …
A Real or Fictional Story of Corporate Deceit and Fraud; and the United States Governments involvement to cover it up.
Here’s the story (fiction or non-fiction, you choose):
There were a bunch of parent companies that owned retail banks, commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies (compliments of Congress by repealing the Glass Steagall Act and passing the Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act - cooked up by Republicans who got a bunch of Democrats [and a Democratic White House] to go along with it).
-
The investment banks engaged in questionable trades and bought shares of stock (for themselves and other investors) in certain assets and companies that they either knew didn’t exist, or at best, were extremely risky . They got investors (individual and institutional) to buy into their questionable dealings. They also bundled a bunch of risky mortgages from the parent companies retail banks and mortgage companies, and sold them to people all over the world, thereby engaging in a worldwide ponzi scheme.
-
In addition to that scheme, they also used deposits from their retail banks and bought insurance from their own insurance companies or other insurance companies to hedge their bets. Many of these insurance companies they knew didn’t have enough reserves set aside if things went bad.
-
In the meantime, executives were siphoning off profits through insanely outrageous salaries and bonuses. Some of the large shareholders (who consisted of company executives, board members, and the “Wall Street connected” extremely wealthy) consistently voted for and wooed certain board members who agreed with these outrageous executive compensation packages, and they recommended to the smaller shareholders that they go along with their choices.
-
All these companies knew what the other was doing; and they were well aware that their schemes were built on a “house of cards” that could topple world economies; however, they didn’t really worry too much because they knew someone (a sheikh or two, the government, their retail bank depositors, corrupt insurance companies, the FED, etc) would bail them out.
-
[In addition, these companies and the military contracting companies they bought shares in, encouraged (lobbied) members of Congress, who engaged in the politics of fear [of real and imagined enemies], to use these military contracting companies.]*****
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Anyway, when some of these companies “shit hit the fan”, and the stock market kept falling, and people started defaulting on their mortgages because they couldn’t increase their credit card limits anymore or refinance their homes any more (property values that were over-valued had declined; many had lost their jobs because companies couldn’t compete with foreign imports and closed shop [compliments of NAFTA and other government trade policies]; or companies continued offshore outsourcing jobs to cut labor costs starting not at the top, but with middle and bottom wage earners ).
-
The small business owner lost business because various members of Congress (especially conservative members who championed deregulation), consistently engaged in policies and/or wrote laws that allowed large companies to get bigger (whereby small companies couldn’t compete).
-
People began realizing that they were living in a fantasy world and they never made enough money to pay for their kids college, or invest for retirement, or buy furniture, or dress for success, or buy a house, etc. They were living on borrowed money, and their bank executives and investment brokers, and other people’s bank executives and investment brokers were living high on the hog with their money [that was eventually mostly gambled away].
-
The government, to cover up their duplicity in the schemes, yelled the “sky is falling” and feigned gross ignorance. They allowed investment banks to become bank holding companies, and got other countries (debt), the FDIC and tax-payers to loan and bail out all their asses.
Finally (to put the icing on the cake), the (majority conservative) Supreme Court, used a case before it (under the guise of free speech), to allow corporations to further influence politics, thereby giving their blessing to the continuance of these schemes and cover-ups.
-
If “Capitalism 201 Gone Wild” hasn’t infected your (especially European) country yet … the story above may become a reality for you.
To be perfectly understood, we do not condone acts of violence against U.S., and we do not condone breaking laws, or agree with people who break the law.
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TED NUGENT EXPOSED! DID EVERYTHING HE COULD NOT TO SERVE IN THE MILITARY
An SIT was sent to the FirstEnergy plant after the March 12, 2010 discovery of cracks in the nozzle on the control drive mechanism, some of which were leaking as workers failed to account for peak temperatures inside the reactor vessel.
WE DON'T ENDORSE ANY INVESTMENT ADVICE, OR ANY THIRD PARTIES. CSC IS ALSO NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY COMPANY/ORGANIZATION MENTIONED ON THIS BLOG (UNLESS SPECIFIED).
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