GOP Continues to Block Wall Street Reform

Really?

This still astounds me. What are these guys thinking?

So their entire approach to health care reform, (and can anyone truly argue that they LIKE paying twice as much as the rest of the western world, and recieving worst care?), was to stand like a stubborn spoiled child and just keep saying "no, no, no". Then they whine because they didn't have enough input into the process?

Folks, you have to actually engage your brain and engage in honest dialogue.

Now, can anyone really argue that we don't need to reform Wall Street? This den of thieves brought the world to the brink of economic collapse before Bush and the Republican Congress bailed them out with a trillion dollars of taxpayer bailouts in 2008. This is a big deal - should be the biggest deal on the radar for any true patriot.

And the Democrats are really vulnerable here - this is one of the few places where they appear to be as guilty as the Republicans when it comes to being in bed and beholding to corporate interests. So what on earth is wrong with the Republicans - they should be aggressively trying to push reform, not playing their whine and cry spoiled child routine again.

Corporate Personality - Chapter 2

I've ranted before about the absurdity of the Citizen's United case, and the absolutely insane ruling by this activist right-wing Supreme Court defining a corporation as a person, and defining money as equal to speech, thus applying the constitutional protection of free speech to the money that the wealthy can use to further currupt our political system.

I know that many will argue that I am missing some nuance here, and that I am oversimplifying. But really, regardless of how much "person-hood" a corporation might have enjoyed before this ruling, this ruling makes it very plain to the American people that this Supreme Court believes that a corporation is equal to a person under the constitution.

OK, regardless of how insane and absurd I think this is, it is clear that we have become so pro big-business in our judicial system, and so beholding to the fat-cats of our oligarchy, that this ruling seems to be sitting OK with most Americans. All the shouts of "WAKE UP AMERICA" are not going to reverse this ruling.

So, I think that the laws of the nation should be applied to corporations in the same way that they are applied to citizens. So, if a corporation steals from people - as in the case of Enron, or in the latest case of the big banks, then the CEO goes to jail, and the corporation has a criminal record. If the corporation is convicted of a crime, then it loses the same rights that a citizen loses. If it is convicted of 3 crimes, then the 3 strikes law applies, and it gets life in prison - in the case of a corporation, that means that it must be disbanded - it cannot exist any longer - the death penalty. Stockholders lose big value. We no longer have to find individuals guilty - if the corporation does badly - the corporation "goes to jail".

Right now, BP has a big debt to society to pay. What if an individual committed that degree of environmental terrorism? That penalty should apply to BP - right now!

Why not?

Socialism as the Cause of Economic Problems?

I'm a little confused about the right wing machine talking about Greece as the example of why anything except unfettered capitalism is a failure.

If I get the argument correctly, they are saying that Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are examples of socialist economies that are bleeding red ink and must be rescued by other countries in Europe. They say that it is the socialist tendencies of these countries that is bringing them down.

But wait, if I read the whole story, aren't Germany and Denmark two of the big "rescuers"? Isn't Germany the most socialist economy in Europe, where every corporation in the country is required by law to have half of their board of directors appointed by the union representing the workers of the company?

And is it true that the countries that are in trouble are really there primarily because they bought into the whole "absolute free trade" myth?

I don't know the whole set of facts on any of this, but it does seem clear to me that the reasons for countries like Greece hitting the crisis that they are hitting can't be boiled down to something as simple as "socialist practices". There are many economies that are very socialist and are quite robust over the long haul.

And here at home, aren't we headed down some of those same dangerous paths, even though we are probably one of the least socialist economies in the world? Did we forget that just 18 months ago, we were on the brink of leading the world into an economic disaster akin to the Great Depression?

I have to believe that a really big part of this relates to the fact that we quit "producing". I read recently that when Reagan took office in 1980, fully 20% of our economy was manufacturing - building things. And that now, after 3 decades of Reaganomics, only half that amount - about 10% of our GDP - is a result of manufacturing.

This all comes together in the notion of the Walmart economy - exporting our manufacturing to countries where we can employ slave labor, and importing cheap labor into this country to cover the service economy that we have become.

Bye bye middle class. Hello economic problems.

Not that I am advocating socialism as the answer to the economic problems that we face. My point is that whether an economy leans toward socialism or away from socialism is not really the thing that makes it strong or weak.

So those who promote socialism - promote it for a different reason. For those who demonize socialism - you need to face the truth that economic health or problems have little to do with socialism. Keep looking, and by the way, don't be surprised to find that many of the root causes might be some of your little pets...