Iran: Back In The News Again

Iran was back in the news for the pass few weeks, courtesy of Fox News who would like to see the U.S. go to war with that country and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who's memo to the White House was leaked by the news media as being a wake up call to the White House. The White House denied it was a wake up call and National Security advisor James Jones said the administrations policy toward Iran was ongoing and that Gates memo was nothing new. There was also the usual provocative rhetoric from conservatives and the Israel lobby who want another war in the middle east.

All the while there were no new developments on any so called threats that Iran is supposed to pose to the U.S. or any one else. Iran answered this latest round of war threats by showing off their military might with war games and reminding everyone they will not be a patsy. All of this is unnecessary because Iran does not have a history of attacking its neighbors or any one else and has never threatened to do so. On the other hand, other nations in the area have attacked other nations including Israel who uses their military power with impunity to threaten and attack others.

If Iran is indeed in the process of becoming able to produce nuclear weapons, they will join Israel, Pakistan and India who already have them and who are not a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Those three nations have developed a nuclear capability not to protect their own security but to threaten other countries. If it was to protect their own security they would have joined the Treaty like the U.S. and other world powers who possess nuclear weapons. Those 3 nations want their nuclear arsenal and capabilities to remain secret.

Israel just announced they have a fleet of unmanned drones, some larger than a 747 that can fly higher than a regular jet aircraft. No one yet knows what these drones will be equipped with and their real purpose except Israel. Will Israel use them to enter their neighbors air space which would be a provocative act. Everyone knows Israel has had leaders who have talked and acted provocatively toward their neighbors and have engaged in surprise attacks against them. Israel likes the street to be one way in their favor. They want to do what they please when ever they please and then make a big deal when they are threatened. If one would listen to Israel's leaders you would think the holocaust was committed by some one other than Hitler's Germany and surrogates.

The U.S. need not go to war in Iran if that country is really trying to become the 4th nuclear power in that part of the world. The U.S. can protect its national security with out going to war with Iran. The Cold War proved that. If the threat is nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, then the most serious threats would come from India, Pakistan and North Korea and the reasons are so obvious they do not have to be addressed here. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and as such, more is known about their program even though they do have some secrets. The U.S. and other world powers should be working to bring all of those nuclear power governments under inspection and transparency who are not now party to the treaty. No one nation can be picked on as being a threat while others are left to do as they please. That only invites more trouble.

Arianna And The Huffington Post: Looks Like A Copy Cat Job

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post on April 19 posted a comment titled: Shorting the Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime. She speaks about the financial elite and what they have been doing to America for the last 30 years, shorting the middle class. She also wrote how Wall Street was overseeing a "massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the richest Americans.

If that statement of transferring wealth from the middle class to the richest Americans sound familiar, it is because you read it first here on "politidose" many times over and as early as July 9, 2008 in my post titled, "The Roadblock To Job Creation And A Sustained Economy--Conservatives." Also see Note 1 for other past posts on the subject. Any journalist or person who follows the news should have seen what was going on with the "transfer of wealth" long ago. Most of it happened under Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 and that was also pointed out in past post on "politidose."

It is good to see Arianna and the Huffington Post finally understand what has been taken place in our country. But what Arianna does not understand is that the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy has already taken place. That is why we are going through the worst economic down turn since the great depression. Arianna also does not seem to understand the massive transfer of wealth from the taxpayers that was used by Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 to finance their 20 years of record federal deficit spending and debt. My three part series on "politidose" titled: "The U. S. Economy: Which Party Performs Best" started running January 27, 2008 explained what happened. (Maybe that will be the next commentary by Arianna)

Glad to see Arianna and the Huffington Post catching up on what has been going on with the "transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy."

Note l: Innovation: Lost In America posted 7/23/08

The Absence of Competition posted 10/20/09

The NFL, Corporate Welfare, Tax Incentives and The Transfer of Wealth posted
2/13/10

Congress And The Regulation Of Wall Street And Financial Institutions

President Obama and the democrats in congress are working on legislation to bring the free wheeling dealings of Wall Street and its bankers under control to prevent another meltdown that was experienced in 2008. That also includes their shady dealings. The President and democratic leaders in congress have asked the republicans to join them, but once again the ditto heads say they will oppose the democratic proposal and vote no.

It was reported Mitch McConnell, the republican minority leader in the senate met with the banking lobby and affirmed to that lobby they would oppose the democratic plan. The republican conservatives have once again said no in keeping with their unAmerican ideology of opposing anything coming out of the Obama administration or the democratic congress. Their do nothing attitude is in line with their record of failure to accomplish any thing meaningful for the country and its people.

The party that gave America 90% of its deficit spending and debt, a ruined economy, the worst job creating record since the great depression and the loss of a record number of jobs in the economy is alive and still sick. This sad bunch is still led by the likes of Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey and the conservative right wing who want to see America fail. They are all a pitiful lot.

The President and the democratic congress need to push on with legislation to bring Wall Street and its bankers under control and truly regulate their activity that sent the economy on its downward course. Let the republicans continue to be the unAmerican party since that is their own choice. When the vote is taken in the senate lets see if the republican party will have at least 4 or 5 republican senators who believe in America and vote with the democrats. The President and the democratic congress should continue to lead by action.

Too Big To Fail

The Bush administration urged Congress in 2008 to bail out the Wall Street Financial Industry to the tune of $700 billion. Congress did so with legislation. The Financial Industry was the major cause of the economic collapse which has been described as the worst since the great depression. Subprime mortgage loans has been described as the main reason and cause. Many Wall Street Financial giants participated in the subprime mortgage market.

The words, "Too Big To Fail" were used to justify the bail outs but little attention has been paid to accurately indentify what those words truly indicate and how they relate to what took place and why. If indeed a business is "Too Big To Fail" it indicates that business is a monopoly and a threat to the free market system, to competition, to the economic well being of the country and a threat to other business establishments. The U.S. has anti trust laws to prevent business monopolies and are supposed to prevent and break up such threats to America's well being.

Now after the fact and the damage has already been done some Democrats are calling for the break up of those large Financial Institutions. That action should be expedited by Congress, monopolies should be broken up and from this day forward the regulatory authorities should scrutinize all future company mergers and take overs to make sure another monopoly is not created.

Monopolies are anti American and anti business in nature because they represent power and wealth. Those two combinations in the hands of ruthless people are deadly for the people and country. Power and wealth gives monopolies the feeling of being invincible and above the law and thereby do as they please. All the while their CEO's continue to acquire more power and wealth and are continuing to do so as of this writing, while the people and the country are still paying the price for their monopolistic failures.

Just yesterday the Security and Exchange Commission accused Goldman Sachs and Co., of defrauding investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage investments it sold as the housing market was collapsing. This concerns subprime mortgage securities sold to other investors. (Taken from report in Times Picayune of 4/17/10) Power and wealth was at the center of what Goldman Sachs were involved in. Don't any one be surprised if the SEC implicates other Wall Street financial firms.

Corporate America has proven over and over, again and again they can not and will not regulate themselves or their behavior. It really falls to the federal regulators to do the job and be vigilant. The same Corporate America rails against regulation and big government but they are the reason why we have both. For over two years, politidose has been commenting how power and wealth in the wrong hands has been a deadly combination for the country and its people. It has now come full circle.

Monopoly is the correct word to describe, "Too Big To Fail" and the Obama administration and Congress should pass legislation to not only break them up but also make sure there are regulations in place where it will prevent monopolies to take hold again.

Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling

By now the American people know President Obama recently opened up and expanded offshore area's for drilling along the southern Atlantic Coastline, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska. The news had a more positive response than negative, especially among state's that have had offshore drilling and share in that federal revenue. The news prompted the usual false information from those who are always saying "drill baby drill" and those who want to see wide open drilling with no regulations.

Those pro drilling anywhere people said the action would help America achieve energy independence and not have to rely on foreign oil. That is a blatant untruth and they know it. The oil and gas industry has had over 50 years to make the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil and they have failed despite the billions of dollars of government incentives during those years. The most recent by the Bush administration only a few years ago to the tune of billions of dollars.

The price of oil hit $150/barrel and gasoline $3.50/gallon during the Bush term in office. That was incentive enough to drill baby drill, however Gulf of Mexico drilling activity decreased 76% between 2000 and 2009. See note l. Eight of those years were under Bush and the activity decreased every year on his watch with the exception of 2008 where 3 more rigs were active than the previous year.

During the above period the oil and gas companies had much gulf acreage that was idle. For the U.S. to become independent from foreign oil the industry would have to start drilling and producing from all their lease acreage that has been idle and stockpile the oil and gas. They are not about to do that because large inventories reduces the price and they like to manipulate their inventory and reduce production for their own self interest. The oil and gas industry is also in bed with foreign producers and they are not going to change that no matter what.

The only way for the U.S. to become independent of foreign oil is alternate energy and fuel with a drastic decrease of oil and gas usage. Is it any real wonder why at the end of 2008 the U.S. was importing 70% of its oil needs. Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens cried about that in his T.V. ads every day back then when he was pushing the use of natural gas for automobiles. He has since abandoned those ads when the price of natural gas started to fall in line with demand.

I wrote a post titled, "Innovation: Lost in America dated July 23, 2008 and published in politidose. The oil companies like to talk about their technology gains of drilling deeper, finding more oil and gas and etc. But they have lost the hunger to innovate any plan to really make the U.S. self reliant when it comes to oil and gas. Creating power and wealth uses up all their energy. That says it all.

Note 1: Source: Baker Hughes report as published in Times Picayune of 1/17/10.

Cal Thomas: Another Confused Conservative Journalist

In an editorial that appeared in the Times Picayune of April 7, Thomas once again proved conservative ditto head ideology and the fact that they stand for nothing. His editorial about having the new health care legislation overturned on constitutional grounds and then asked, what then? He then answers his own question by saying opponents have to have a plan ready to take its place. The last paragraph of his editorial end in these words.

This is the republican challenge. If Obamacare is struck down, republicans should have a substitute proposal ready that embodies their principles, gets passed by a republican congress and signed by a republican President in 2013. In other words after a year of debate on health care, its passage and signed into law the republicans still don't have a plan they can present to the people. What Thomas last paragraph also says is he thinks a republican health care plan should be republican all the way. Thomas still thinks conservatives are the elite, above anyone else.

The sour grapes by conservative journalists and those inside and outside of congress who oppose health care see a President who delivered on a campaign promise, see a President whose economic policy is taking hold and sees an economy that is starting to create jobs, they are scared as hell. They dare not talk about the Bush administration because they have nothing positive to say about that administration. They will continue to oppose everything coming out of the Obama administration because they have no record of accomplishment themselves so its personal attacks against democrats.

The problem with the conservatives who lead the republican party today and those journalists like Cal Thomas, Bill O'Rielly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh is that they preach a conservative ideology that is unAmerican and out side the norm of civility. They prefer the method of personal attacks because they can not compete on the issues. They are a pathetic lot and what really bothers them is that most of the democrats they always attack wore the uniform of their country while they themselves stayed home.

The democrats is congress don't always think alike but they are not the phony party who sits across the aisle. Cal Thomas should have told his party to have a health care plan available when the debate started over a year ago instead of putting a plan together now. Its safe to say, once a phony, always a phony.

A Good Jobs Report For March

The latest numbers from the U.S. Labor Department for March showed the business community added 162,000 jobs to payroll. That included approximately 40,000 part time workers hired for the ongoing census that is taking place. Both are positive numbers for the country and its people. Unemployment remained at 9.7%. The massive job losses under the previous administration has been reversed on a steady basis during Obama's administration and now the job picture is in positive territory. The 162,000 added jobs is only a bump in the jobless picture but will get better.

The people are spending money again and manufacturing has been up and steady, a great improvement from the past. Average workers salary is still stagnant and the better the economic picture becomes the sooner average workers take home pay will increase. Another positive sign is that job openings rose in several sectors of the economy in February, including retail, manufacturing, transportation, restaurants and hotels the Labor Department reported also. The Obama's economic policies are starting to produce a turnaround and a demanding economy is on the horizon.

The 9.7% unemployment rate is unacceptable to the President and also by the people. Most economist are predicting high unemployment thru 2011 but I do not buy into that. The kicker will be state governors who's states are running in red ink also and who are laying off workers in an effort to cut the budget. So far governors have shown they have little smarts when it comes to innovation.

The NYSE has gained almost 5000 points since Obama took office. That is mainly because 1% of the people own 50% of stocks. Those are the ones who had the money to buy stocks when they were beaten down the last two years and then ran up the prices. Lets look at the latest report from Absolute Return + Alpha magazine as reported by AP Business writer Daniel Wagner on April 4. The 25 highest paid hedge fund managers earned a total of more than
$25 billion in 2009. That is over $1 billion each. They earned $22.3 billion in 2007 before the economy went south and $11.6 billion in 2008. It is obvious those billions of dollars did not trickle down and create jobs or boost the economy. It was part of the problem of transferring wealth from the average American to the wealthy.

President Obama's policies are on the right course for America, the people and the economy. There will be better days ahead and also some set backs but the positives will prevail for America and its people. The President will be engaged and active in the pursuit of economic prosperity for America.