October 31, 2014

Here's a little history lesson for those who think voting Republican is a good idea

When ever I enter a discussion about President Obama, I like to have a starting point. The facts are tremendous allies of ours in this debate, yet everyone discounts them.

Gas prices were $4.09 a gallon in June of 2008, before the start of the Great Bush Recession. It's less than $3.00 a gallon now. For the first time in over 40 years, America is energy independent. The stock market, which was in free fall and into which much of the middle class pension funds and 401k investments are in has risen about 250% under Obama and over 9,000 points. We have had 54 consecutive months of positive job growth for the first time in modern memory. The unemployment rate is under 6% from a Bush high of nearly 10%. Our country is safe, even as Republicans continue to play the "fear card" on every issue they can think of (except guns).

Here's what I tell my friends who disdain Obama, "go back and Google Sept. 15th and 16th, 2008, and then come back and talk to me about the President."


This Day in Crisis History: Sept. 15-16, 2008
By
Paul Vigna


—Wall Street Journal
This September, MoneyBeat will take a daily look back at the developments surrounding the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis that followed. Each day, we will recap the events of the corresponding day in 2008, as the worst crisis in 80 years built to its terrible climax.

Sept. 15, 2008

After one of the most momentous and tumultuous weekends in Wall Street history, investors awoke to a rapidly intensifying financial crisis.

Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy protection Monday morning and Merrill Lynch had sold itself to Bank of America BAC +0.23%. By the end of the day, investors had turned their focus to insurance giant AIG, which was tottering, needing to raise billions in capital or face collapse.

The Dow fell 504.48 points on Monday, Sept. 15, its biggest percentage drop in more than six years. Prices on Treasurys rose as investors fled to safety; and the cost of insuring the debt of investment grade companies against default jumped.

The weekend had begun with U.S. government convening a meeting of Wall Street CEOs Friday night. Their task for the weekend, the government said: Find a solution to Lehman, but there would be no government bailout.

By the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 14, Lehman CEO Dick Fuld was essentially out of options.

Without government aid, a deal in principle for Barclays to buy Lehman had fallen apart. Bank of America, considered the most likely buyer earlier in the week, had informed Lehman it could not do a deal after concluding that firm’s real-estate portfolio was worse than expected.

Desperate to avoid steering his 25,000-person company into bankruptcy proceedings, Mr. Fuld kept calling Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis. His call wasn’t returned. Unbeknownst to Mr. Fuld, Bank of America was in secret talks with Merrill Lynch. By Sunday night, the two firms had struck a deal, and there was only one option left for Lehman.

As a meeting of Lehman directors wrapped up around 10 p.m. Sunday night, Mr. Fuld leaned back in his chair. “I guess this is goodbye.”

Stocks headed south from the opening bell Monday. For much of the day, however, they held up better than many had expected and traders marveled at the market’s resilience. Then in the final hour, a wave of selling swept through the market, driven by concerns about the stability of AIG, whose stock had dropped 60%.

Sept. 16, 2008

Uncle Sam didn’t take long to change his mind.

One day after watching the market fallout from its decision to let Lehman fail, the government did a complete roundabout, and saved AIG, which, it deemed, was truly too big to fail. The government lent the company’s $85 billion in exchange for a 79.9% stake, capping off 10 days of frantic maneuvering that would reshape the world of finance.

The decision was arrived at after a series of what by now were becoming regular affairs: the emergency meeting. Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke met with Congressional leaders. What had them truly worried was that a failure at AIG could spiral into seemingly safe investments like, into stocks and bonds and derivatives, and send the credit crisis spiraling out of control.

It wasn’t just the travails at AIG. Earlier on Tuesday, a money-market fund, the $62 billion Reserve Primary Fund, did something that wasn’t supposed to happen in money-market funds: It “broke the buck,” meaning its net asset value fell below $1 a share. A number of money-market funds had investments in both Lehman and AIG, and AIG was also a big insurer of the funds.

AIG was downgraded on the 15th, forcing it to post $14.5 billion in collateral – more than it had in liquid assets. Not being able to post the collateral would spell a collapse for the firm, and the domino effect of that collapse would be “catastrophic,” the government determined, with staffers from the Fed and Treasury working through the night of the 15th to come up with a plan for the 16th. The president was briefed, and AIG’s board agreed to the deal on the evening of the 16th.

July 31, 2014

Help DU this poll and send Steve Wynn a message

Steve Wynn, of Macao, Communist China is seeking a casino license in Everett against Mohegan Sun in Revere.

I represent the unionized workforce at the racetrack in Revere that will get the casino. Both cities have approved separate proposals, and a commission will decide the winner in September.

I have posted a 2012 video of Steve Wynn wading into national politics. We don't need his contaminated politics in
Massachusetts and you know once he gets his foot in the door and starts pouring in money, things could change in our dark blue state.

Wynn in 2012

If you can help us DU this poll in favor of my unionized workforce in my hometown of Revere and send Steve Wynn a message that we don't want him in Massachusetts, I will be grateful.

Link to Poll:
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/poll/results/15085981

June 16, 2014

Iraq, Simply Put......

"The problems in Iraq today are not the result of our Troops leaving too soon. Today's problems are the result of sending them in there in the first place"

May 26, 2014

Obama's Record

You know, some people talk as though President Obama has failed us. I know he's not perfect and I wish he had done some things differently, but let's look at the facts:

Unemployment is sown since he took office. We have created more jobs every month since his fifth month in office, every single month until today. We have had GDP growth in every quarter, beginning in his third quarter of 2009. The stock market has more than doubled. The budget deficit has been reduced every year since 2011. We are energy independent. Gas prices, far from being the predicted $5.00 a gallon from the "Doom Sayers", are at $3.69 a gallon today. He has ended one war and is winding down a second. Both wars he inherited. He has kept us safe at home. I'm sure there's more. But when people ask "what's he done?", these are some of my answers.

When you see Obama's approval numbers you can count me in the "approve" column. I know what the other side looks like.

April 26, 2014

What is a Secular Humanist?

What's a Secular Humanist? I get that question all the time when I answer the question of "What religion are you?"

The closest I can come in describing what a Secular Humanist is this:

March 7, 2014

Help me send Steve Wynn a message in Massachusetts---DU this Poll

Hello, my DU friends. I have posted here on DU since 2004 and I need your help.

In March, you gave us a great boost in a similar on line post. I am editing my March post and asking for your help once again. The link is updated to July 31, 2014, but the issue remains the same.

Thanks

There is a very hot battle in the Greater Boston area between two potential casino sites. One is in Everett, Mass. and the other is in the adjoining City of Revere (my home town).

I represent the unionized work-force at the Suffolk Downs racetrack in Revere, which has partnered up with Mohegan Sun to build a resort casino in the Beach City of Revere. The result will be to save 800 jobs connected to the racetrack and create 4,000 more at the potential casino here. Our competition is Steve Wynn in Everett. That's the same Steve Wynn that spent millions trying to defeat President Obama in 2012 and has played footsies with the Chinese in Macao.

Link to Wynn interview in 2012

There is an on line poll between the two sites. I am asking you to vote for Revere in this poll in order to send a message to the Gaming Commission to save my job and the hundreds of unionized workers that I represent. In the mean time, you can stick it to a real Neanderthal, Steve Wynn, in the process.

Please vote for Mohegan Sun in Revere
Link to Poll:
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/poll/results/15085981

February 7, 2014

Could being a Protestant lead to poverty?

I know, this is a real stretch and I'm about to get flamed, but this may be an example of how facts can bring you to an incorrect conclusion.

Look at the list of most Protestant states in the country.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/167120/mississippi-alabama-protestant-states.aspx

Now look at the states with the highest level of poverty. Is there a correlation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate

January 25, 2014

You know you're getting old.....

when you try to pick up women your own age and you try to use an old 1970's line.

After about an hour of conversation you ask her "Hey, do you do drugs?" and her reply is "Does Lipitor count?"

January 15, 2014

Medicare for All---A Real Heathcare Solution

It's all here, 11 months ago.

Let's try to get this done when we finally get control of the executive and legislature. This is the opportunity we missed.

Posted on: Thursday, February 14, 2013
Doctors group hails reintroduction of Medicare-for-all bill


Single-payer health program would cover all 50 million uninsured, upgrade everyone’s benefits and save $400 billion annually on bureaucracy, physicians say

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Feb. 14, 2013
Contact: Mark Almberg, communications director, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org

A national physicians group today hailed the reintroduction of a federal bill that would upgrade the Medicare program and swiftly expand it to cover the entire population.

The “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” H.R. 676, introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and 37 other House members, would replace today’s welter of private health insurance companies with a single, streamlined public agency that would pay all medical claims, much like Medicare works for seniors today.

Proponents say the publicly financed plan would vastly simplify how the nation pays for care, improve patient health, restore free choice of physician, and yield substantial savings for individuals, families and businesses.

“The evidence is clear: an improved-Medicare-for-all program is the most equitable and cost-effective way to assure that everyone, without exception, gets high-quality care,” said Dr. Andrew Coates, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit research and advocacy group of 18,000 doctors nationwide. “Nothing less will do the job.”

“A single-payer program would assure truly universal coverage, cover all necessary services, and knock down the growing financial barriers to care – high premiums, co-pays, deductibles and coinsurance – that my patients are running up against, often with calamitous results,” he said.

Coates, an Albany, N.Y.-based internist, continued: “Such a plan would save over $400 billion a year currently wasted on private-insurance-related bureaucracy, paperwork and marketing – money that should be used to care for patients. Such a program would also have the financial muscle to negotiate with drug and medical suppliers for lower prices, and would further save money through lump-sum budgeting for hospitals.

“In short,” he said, “the enactment of Rep. Conyers’ bill would take us much further than the 2010 health law, which despite its modest benefits will not be able to control costs and which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will still leave 30 million people uninsured in 2023.

“Surveys have repeatedly shown that about two-thirds of the public supports a Medicare-for-all approach,” Coates said. “And a recent survey of physicians shows that a solid majority now favor government legislation to create national health insurance.”

“As a doctor who sees hard-pressed patients every day, I can tell you that the need for fundamental health care reform has never been greater,” he said. “It’s time to stop putting the interests of private insurance companies and Big Pharma over patient needs. It’s time to adopt a single-payer, improved-Medicare-for-all program in the United States.”

*****

Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is a nonprofit research and educational organization of 18,000 physicians who advocate for single-payer national health insurance, an improved Medicare for all. To speak with a physician/spokesperson in your area, visit www.pnhp.org/stateactions or call (312) 782-6006.