Obama's Now a Millionaire

Most of this is from a CBS News piece by Mark Knoller.

According to his latest Financial Disclosure Report, President Obama now has assets worth between one million and five million dollars.  Comparatively speaking, his liabilities are a pittance.  Since first running for office, his net worth has increased by 438%.  [No wonder he thinks the economy is doing okay:]  This is all before what is likely to be a lucrative book deal after his Presidency.

I'm certainly not against anyone becoming a millionaire...unless that happens while they are in high political office.  Hello.

This is why politicians run for high office in the USA...unless they're already rich, in which case it's anybody's guess as to why they run.  Perhaps their motives are noble, or perhaps they have a shadow agenda.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Trump, the Judge, La Raza, and the Presidency

Again, I emphasize that I'm not a supporter of Clinton, Sanders, or Trump.

Below is a copy of my response to an email from a dear friend; embedded in her email was an article about Trump, Judge Curiel, and the militant protest group, La Raza.  Apparently the Judge has some tenuous association with La Raza...although, that's not quite clear at all.
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Here's what I think:  Trump's comment about the Judge was NOT racist.  Given the Don's stupid remarks about Mexicans, that comment about the Judge was common sense...something Trump rarely ever displays.  Although, he should have said,  "The Judge MIGHT be biased..."; he did say that about a hypothetical Muslim Judge, but I'm pretty sure he made it definite with the other guy.

RE:  La Raza wants "U.S. land ceded to Mexico".  True, but that's because IT WAS MEXICAN LAND decades before the U.S. Gov't stole it from Mexico in the mid-1800's.  Before it was Mexico's, it belonged to Spain.  [Of course, none of this considers the original holders of the land, the American Indians.]  The U.S. Gov't is a latecomer in this line of theft.  So your attached article would be more accurate if it read, "La Raza wants U.S. land ceded BACK to Mexico."  I'm not saying that should be done, but that's why La Raza is "racist" (according to the article) & wants the entire SW back in the hands of Mexico.  We took HALF their country in 1848...half.  So, why would anyone be puzzled over the fact that some Mexican militants want it back?!

The whole Judge thing demonstrates one reason why Trump should never be President.  Almost no one gives a damn about the Trump University issue, or the Judge, or anything about the case.  But Trump keeps harping on it.  The Media didn't bring it up first...he did.  He has little sense of what's important & what's not.

What's even worse, you rarely ever know if he's telling the truth (or what he really believes) or not.  For example, one day he said,  "Wages here are too high; we need to lower wages in this country."...the next day (probably after his campaign manager told him that was a stupid thing to say), he said, "No, we don't need to lower wages in this country."...so, who knows what he believes.

It's sad to me to see so-called "Conservatives" flocking to someone like Trump.  They should have flocked to Rand Paul, but you see, Paul believes in national defense... not national aggression overseas.  Many "Conservatives" are so propagandized nowadays they actually believe that we have to attack everyone FIRST.  That's called naked aggression.  Every dictatorship in history that has done it had the same excuse:  "We're defending our Homeland.".

Donald Trump appears to be purposely saying everything he can think of to guarantee his defeat in November.  His fans think that will get him elected...that's because they believe their numbers are much greater than what they really are:  about 20% of eligible voters.  The Don fans also believe that Independents will join their ranks in massive numbers.  Given Trump's stupid/naive/ridiculous comments on many different topics, they won't.  If they don't like Clinton (& they shouldn't), they simply won't vote...or they'll vote for a 3rd Party.

It truly would be a miracle if Trump were to win in November.  He has about one chance in a trillion.  His supporters don't appear to get it:  who gets elected at the national level is not determined anymore by voting... not really.  [Most on the Left don't get that, either.]  There are about a dozen ways that the State-Corporate-Financial Complex can derail the will of the People nowadays...at least a dozen.  Barring unforeseen circumstances, the multi-millionaire Corporatist Clinton will win the November election.  That's pretty much guaranteed.  [The Democratic Party now consists of people (at the highest levels) who in the past would have been called Moderate (or even "Neoliberal") Republicans.  Despite Propaganda to the contrary from some quarters, the political hierarchy in the USA---ever since the early 1990's---has moved way over to the Right on the old, now essentially meaningless political spectrum.]

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well 

Addendum to: "Corporatism Wins Again..."

According to the Wall Street Journal, Wall Street as a whole has raised $23 million for Hillary Clinton's campaign thus far.  I ask you, why would the Financial Sector do that for a supposed Populist?  [Likely answer:  because she's not any kind of Populist.]

Corporatism Wins Again: The Primaries, Trump, Clinton, Sanders, and Voters

Preface
I'm not a supporter of Trump, Sanders, or Clinton.  Even if any of their supposed Populism is genuine (& with two of them, I'm sure it isn't...with Sanders, I don't know), I don't believe it's possible anymore for a President to significantly change the rotten, corrupt State-Corporate System.  I think all national elections should be boycotted.  I mention all this only so you will know that I'm not biased in favor of any of the candidates.
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Here's one way that Corporatists have hornswoggled much of the American populace in this Primary election.  The night before the largest Primary election in the country (CA), the Associated Press and NBC both announce that Clinton IS the presumptive nominee of the Democrats.  That's a message to the unelected Superdelegates:  get on board with Hillary.  It's also a message to Sanders supporters:  you're wasting your time...stop being "spoilers".  The fact is:  even after the CA election, Clinton still doesn't have enough firmly pledged, elected delegates to be the Democratic nominee.  I imagine she will get the nomination, but that will be due to the unelected Superdelegates.  She has been courting them since her loss to Obama back when.

Here's another way that Corporatists have hornswoggled much of the American populace.  Trump is a candidate who normally would be shunned by the Corporate Media...because of his narrow views, because he apparently has no depth regarding proposed policies, because he appears to have little understanding of anything governmental, social, or economic, because he trumps Dubya Bush when it comes to putting his foot in his mouth, in short--- because he isn't a serious candidate.  The Corporate Media have embraced him (so to speak) because he's a money-maker for them.  The President of CBS (or CEO, or something) smilingly stated that.  That's why the Corporate Media have given him probably three times the coverage of any other candidate---Repub or Dem---in this whole Primary season.

People in the Shadow Government (a well-established concept by both the Right and the Left) must be tickled to death.  Those Corporatists want Clinton as President.  That's because she's a strong Wall Street, Mega Bank supporter and a fierce War Hawk & Perpetual War supporter.  That means more money & Power for them.  They know that Trump will be slaughtered in the November election.  But even if he isn't, even if by some miracle he wins, the Corporatists won't care...he's one of them.  They prefer Clinton only because Trump appears to be unstable, somewhat of a wild card.  Most of the time, it's difficult to determine exactly what he really believes.  The only thing they know for sure is that he's not any kind of Populist.  That's good enough for them.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Old Paradigm Doesn't Matter Anymore

Here's a Comment I just now posted on YouTube.  It was regarding a documentary about Castro, and in response to another comment which said the USA may be heading for socialism.  [I enlarged the type below on the Edit page, but the change didn't take...blame Tech Whiz Kids:]
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Let's not get caught up in Edward Bernays style Propaganda. In the USA, we've had a Mixed Economy for decades & decades...part capitalism & part socialism. For example, The VA Health Care System is 100% socialist--- the Gov't supplies med staff, buildings, equipment, meds, etc., and pays for 99.9% of it with tax money. As a Vet, I pay a small co-pay amount. [That is to say, I did when I was close enough to a VA Clinic to get care there; that's no longer true.] Furthermore, the "Capitalist" part of our economy is (for the most part) NOT Free Market Capitalism; instead, it's CRONY Capitalism. For example, take the Money Market--- when the Fed essentially sets the interest rate rather than the Market doing so, that's NOT Free Market Capitalism (FMC). When the Gov't bails out Mega Banks & other Corporations, that's NOT FMC. The fact is: the old, anachronistic political and economic labels don't matter anymore. The new paradigm is the Oligarchy v. the rest of us. At the highest levels, elected politicians and Mega Business rulers don't give a damn if their colleagues are Repubs, Dems, Socialists, Capitalists, or Druids. The old labels are Propaganda for controlling what the Oligarchs call, "the Little People". All the Rulers care about is Power and Riches...for them, not the rest of us. As far as they're concerned, the old Right v. Left paradigm is nothing but a joke...and it works to their advantage. Divide & conquer...and man, have they ever done that. ................................................

Not only my opinion. Be Well

Message to President Obama

https://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/stop-the-nuclear-weapons-hypocrisy

[This campaign may not be approved by CREDO; they tend to think that Obama is a Populist, not what he really is, a Corporatist.]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Why So Many People Are Pissed Off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYoaV6f78wM

This is why many people all over are pissed off--- they've been forced into the Precariat by Globalization (at least, the CRONY Capitalists' view of that), Financialization, and the Plutocracy. Now, almost 5 years after this talk (which is condensed at the link), things are much worse. We all need to stop drinking the Edward Bernays style Propaganda Kool Aid coming from the Politicians, Plutocrats and Oligarchs.  

Not only my opinion. Be Well

p.s. This brief, condensed talk really does explain a lot...& not just in the case of Europe.