PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalFun poem by Rene Sonsmann from the Smirking Chimp.
I love poetry. Always have. So here goes.
THE C.E.O.
The company’s share price had failed to perform
And anxious fund managers demanded reform.
The Board decided the M.D. should be the fall guy
So he left with an eight figure ‘golden goodbye’.
They then set about finding, amongst corporate aces,
The man to put smiles back on shareholders’ faces.
The new Chief Executive drove into town,
The black-tinted windows of his limo wound down,
He toured all the factories and the high office tower,
Before taking control at his new seat of power.
He was a Captain Of Industry, Lord Of All He Surveyed,
Worth every mill of the king’s ransom they paid.
Now, it’s interesting that employers expect me and you,
In return for our wage, to do the best we can do.
But for Senior Executives such rules don’t apply,
And for ten mill a year you can’t expect them to try.
So the Board, as an incentive, agreed to offer the man
A staggeringly generous stock option plan.
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame the guy,
For securing an income so obscenely high.
But as this story unfolds, I hope that you’ll see,
How that stock option plan does affect you and me,
And why the way that executives get their remuneration,
Should be a cause of extreme consternation.
His brief from the Board was to stop the decline
In the share price, which had gone only south for some time.
His first act was, of course, ‘A wide ranging review
Of all operations’, so he’d know what to do.
And with the eyes of the market upon the new man,
A month or so later he announced his ‘Grand Plan’.
While the company’s business, he said, was basically sound,
There were problems but nothing he could not turn around.
There’d be pain, there’d be cutbacks and, it grieved him to say,
There’d be substantial job losses – starting today!
His ‘Vision for the Future’, his ‘Strategy for Success’,
Were wildly acclaimed by the Financial Press.
Now a company’s share price, in case it’s not clear,
Depends, largely, on the profit it makes year to year.
And profit, for those not in commerce instructed,
Is the sum left from sales once costs are deducted.
And from this, you can see, that lifting profit entails
One of two choices – cut costs or raise sales.
To raise sales isn’t easy, certain or quick,
So which, do you think, did our C.E.O. pick?
Yes! He cut thousands of jobs and threatened that more,
Without much lower wages, would be transferred offshore.
The market approved, the share pundits said “Buy”,
This man clearly meant business, he was their kind of guy.
He cut back on maintenance, the preventative sort,
He cut capital spending, no new machines would be bought,
He cut Research & Development, existing products would do,
He cut advertising, admin and sales support too.
He cut workers’ pensions (though not the management team’s)
And all but abandoned the Employees’ Health Scheme.
Well, after all this cost-cutting, profitability soared
The Press lionized him, he was adored by the Board.
Investors were convinced and shares started to buy,
And when, two years later, they hit a new high,
He was on the cover of ‘Newsweek’, Time’s ‘Man of the Year’,
He rang the stock exchange bell, got a back-slapping cheer.
But those cuts, which gave profits a temporary boost,
Gave rise also to chickens that must come home to roost.
Machines broke down more often and caused production delays,
Annoying loyal customers, who had heard anyways,
That competitors’ products were now better and cheaper,
Sales fell, slowly at first, but then progressively steeper.
‘Creative Accounting’ now came to the fore
As honest-to-god profits weren’t made any more.
There were dubious transactions, asset revaluations,
Sale and lease-back arrangements, financial manipulations.
For a couple more years he maintained the façade,
But concealing the truth became increasingly hard.
So the executive decided he’d not stick around
The company he’d managed right into the ground
From here on, he knew, things would only get worse,
So he sold the stock mentioned in an earlier verse,
And left with a profit of over one hundred mill,
Now, who do you think will get stuck with the bill?
It was a year or so later that the shit hit the fan,
So a new C.E.O. had to carry the can
For the worst corporate crash of the past two decades,
While the former chief executive escaped largely unscathed,
The media being loathe to condemn or accuse,
Lest their own blind support become front page news.
The factories are silent now, the jobs gone offshore,
The city’s a ‘ghost town’, where few work anymore.
The company collapsed, though their brand name’s still known
But, though they don’t advertise it, it’s now foreign-owned.
The small investors and workers, for whom life was once good,
Paid the price with their pensions and lost livelihoods.
And the former C.E.O., what of him, you might wonder?
How fares the main culprit of this corporate blunder?
Well, he winters in Aspen and summers in Maine,
He bought a place in The Hamptons, flies his own Lear jet plane.
He’s much in demand and firms pay richly to hear,
Words of wisdom from the former ‘Time’s Man-of-the-Year”
Bernie may be more of a Democrat than the Democrats.
He is talking about issues that at one time formed the core of the Democratic ideal. If you read some old speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt and other New Deal Democrats, you'll see that Bernie has come back to that core message; it is a message that saved America from going Communist in 1933, and created a powerful middle class that helped this nation become great. It created a 'great prosperity' from about 1950 to 1980 when the deterioration began.
So, you see, if you take a little longer view of history, you will see that beginning in the 1980s, the Democratic Party began its evolution toward the right as the Republicans 'evolved' even further right.
In the context of history, Obama and Clinton are what used to be called 'Eisenhower Republicans.' In fact, if you read Ike's brilliant 1963 essay, "Why I'm a Republican," and compare what he says in it, you'll see that Obama and Clinton are a little to the right of the ideas espoused therein, particularly on so-called 'free trade.'
So, what I'd say to you is that in Bernie, we have a reversal of the destructive neoliberal/neoconservative 'evolution' of Dems throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s. Bernie is taking us back to the New Deal, which is basically a set of policies to strengthen the American middle class. Bernie does one better, though. He's got a good platform on racism and reform of the correctional system.
This is why so many of us are responding to Bernie. The American people are angry at how the game has been rigged against us, at how hard it is to get ahead now, at how dim the futures of our children are compared to ours. We are ripe for another New Deal - a Real Deal where our interests are once again put front and center.
After watching the Republican debate, I'm floored the Democrats aren't starting their debates.
So, I have an idea:
Why don't we all begin calling Debbie Wasserman Schultz's office AT LEAST ONCE EVERY DAY until debate dates are moved forward. October 13th is too late.
Her number is 202-225-7931, and I bet if 50 or 60 thousand people called every day, the debates would get scheduled.
What do you think?
An open letter to CO Sen. Michael Bennet on his support of TPP
Last week, you sent me an impassioned plea for a donation because you are anticipating lots of money coming in from out of state organizations to support your Republican opponent in 2016, whomever that might be.
While this may be true, I cannot in good conscience give you a dime, since you voted to fast track the Trans Pacific Partnership. This odious ‘free trade’ agreement has been kept secret from the American people, and Senators have not even been allowed copies of it or even to take notes. Here in Colorado, we call that a pig in a poke and know that only suckers buy something they haven’t seen and examined.
So, here’s the deal Michael: unless you reverse your position on the TPP, actively and publicly oppose it, what you can count on is that I will be working with other Democrats in Colorado to find a candidate that will represent my interests in the U.S. Senate better than you have, and ‘primary’ you from the left. Because honestly, Michael, I’m TIRED of having the people I elect to supposedly represent my interests get to Washington and instead uphold the interests of big corporations. Make no mistake, Michael, what is good for these corporations is not necessarily good for the people you represent, and TPP is most assuredly NOT good for the people of Colorado.
So, Michael, no matter how much money you think you’ll lose from corporate donors if you don’t support TPP, you stand to lose much more if you continue to ignore the interests of those who elected you.
Lastly, Udall lost in 2014 because he ran such a lame campaign that no one really knew what he stood for. He didn’t really take any positions at all, and the result was that Democrats didn’t turn out, and Colorado’s large independent electorate voted for Gardner instead. Make no mistake, it wasn’t the Koch brothers and their insidious super PACs that led to Udall’s defeat, it was Udall’s seeming refusal to take any definitive positions on anything. Don’t count on having people turn out for you, Michael, just because you’re a Democrat, because it doesn’t work that way. You have to ACT like a Democrat.
Sincerely...
Bernie Sanders and minorities
I've been thinking about this meme that is going out there about how Bernie Sanders really doesn't have a lot of 'name recognition' minorities. According to this meme, this means that he's somehow 'not going to get' the minority vote.
There are two points here I'd like to make:
1. I know and work with quite a few people who happen to be racial or ethnic minorities. What I'm noticing, just in my own little neck of the woods (Denver metro area in Colorado) is that many of these folks like and are talking about Bernie. Seems like they haven't heard this meme about Bernie not 'reaching' minorities...
Which brings us to my second point:
2. It seems to me to do a disservice to people who happen to be racial and/or ethnic minorities to imply that somehow they aren't going to 'hear' Bernie Sanders' message. I very much don't think this is true because we cannot treat the voting populace as consisting of somehow monolithic segments. People like Bernie's message and when they look at his record they see he's been about social and economic justice for half a century...consistently!
Just my opinion, but the bottom line here is that we'll have a hotly contested Democratic primary and Americans are going to listen to the candidates and then make their decision. I'm thinking Bernie will surprise a lot of pundits and will (happily for us) HORRIFY Wall Street and the big capitalists. AND, in the general I think he will capture a lot of independent votes.
People are fed up with the status quo, and Bernie's got a really compelling message. Call me Don Quixote and accuse me of 'tilting at windmills' but I think the guy can win! In fact, I'm so sure of it I'm donating to him regularly and when the time comes will help his campaign here in Colorado.
TIRED of being nickel and dimed.
My wife and I have Comcast. We pay for the full subscription to all the premium and network channels as well as internet and land line. When I think about how much we pay, it makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, because it is over $2,500/yr. We also have Netflix streaming so my wife can have immediate access to anything she wants to watch, ever.
Now, imagine my dismay when she called up an NBC show, Hannibal, and NBC was trying to charge us $2.99 per episode ON TOP of the usurious amount I already pay Comcast.
I called up Comcast to complain, and was told that yes, NBC, CBS and Fox all have decided to charge fees for shows after the week or so they put it out for 'free' on Comcast. Comcast, in spite of the fact that I have a SUBSCRIPTION to their premium package chooses to pass on any extra cost from these networks, who already insert roughly 25 minutes of commercials in one hour of programming.
So, I went on the NBC site and complained, but I have only just begun. I will be writing the corporate offices of each of these firms and voicing my discontent with the idea that I will just quit Comcast if the issue isn't resolved. In addition, I will pay for ONE episode of Hannibal and then write the corporate offices of every company that has advertised during the show and tell THEM of my discontent. Because I think it's time I quit being an obedient consumer and began pushing back.
Yes, I am aware that in this neoliberal capitalist utopia, the shareholder has primacy over both the customers and the workers, but I'm TIRED of it. So I'm pushing back using the strategy of hitting them in the pocketbook. Yeah, I'm one guy, but if 500 or 5,000 people start doing this maybe we can fight this price creep.
Aren't you SICK of always having to pay MORE for LESS?
Headline from the New Jersey Star Ledger: Like it or not, Sanders' socialism is mainstream
Apparently socialism isn't such a bad word anymore. Here's a couple of paragraphs from this June 15 editorial:
On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said that "in virtually every instance, what I'm saying is supported by a significant majority of the American people," which is a bold claim for someone who has been broadly labeled a "socialist" candidate in Democratic camouflage.
But it makes this a good time to consider whether that term is being applied accurately in the early innings of this 2016 campaign, rather than as a pejorative to dismiss Sanders' ideas.
Because so far, the Senator is showing the electorate that a rejection of this "socialism" – the concept, not the brainless epithet – is something that most voters would probably find unthinkable.
<snip>
There! Isn't that fun? You can read more at http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/like_it_or_not_sanders_socialism_is_mainstream_edi.html
I've always been amused at how we are supposed to gasp and shudder when someone gets accused of being a socialist. Now we're watching the mainstream media struggle unsuccessfully to ignore Bernie because, well (gasp) he is a socialist (shudder!) but people are flocking to his events because his views are MAIN STREAM.
Homeless man, pinned down by LAPD officers, shot and killed
Source: Daily Kos
From the LA Times:
...a dramatic confrontation caught on video, Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man in the heart of downtown's bustling skid row Sunday...
Witnesses at the scene identified the victim by his street name, “Africa”, and gave conflicting accounts of what they saw...
An area resident, who identified himself as Booker T. Washington, said police had come by repeatedly to ask Africa to take down his tent. People are allowed to sleep on the streets from 9 p.m to 6 a.m., but they are supposed to remove their tents in the daytime, under a court agreement.
“This man got shot over a tent,” Washington said.
Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/02/1367900/-Homeless-Man-Pinned-Down-by-LAPD-Officers-Shot-and-Killed#comments
When I had some financial problems a few years ago, I discovered first hand that America is a 'kick 'em while they're down' kind of place. Now, it seems to have become a 'shoot 'em while they're down' place. This video blew me away because they had the homeless guy pinned down and immobile, and all of a sudden, one of the cops, who still was pointing his gun at the prone guy, let off at least two shots point blank.
Geez.
Does this sound familiar?
"To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering, but of this be sure, to do aught good never will be our task; but ever to do ill our sole delight: and being the contrary to his high will whom we resist. If then his providence out of evil seek to bring forth good, our labor must be to pervert that end, and out of good still to find means of evil, which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb his inmost councils from their destined aim."
This is a quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost, one of my all time favorite books, but it could as well have come from Karl Rove or Dick Cheney.
Basically, Milton's point is that Satan traded the essence of being, the reality, for the illusion of idols of his own creation. So he traded heaven for hell but felt it was better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Seems like the Republicans, conservatives in general, have made this mistake, and that this mistake has been hastened by the profit-myopia of capitalism.
So now we have Gov. Pence signing that hateful discrimination law, and the guy in Kansas who wants to forbid people getting food stamps (SNAP) to purchase steak or seafood. I mean, think about it. These people seem to create their own reality based on hate, mistrust, anger and envy. The great Jimmy Carter said it all though, when he said, ""If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying that you want a country based on Christian values. Because you don't!"
Why the constant, unrelenting hatred? Why do these people have to oppose ANYTHING that can help everyday people? Because they've been doing it for centuries. Think about how adamantly opposed to the New Deal conservatives are. Why? The best times this nation ever had were when the New Deal and labor unions were strong. Now what do we have to show for 35 years of Neocon and Neolib policies? Not much, eh?
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHometown: Not disclosed
Home country: USA
Current location: Not disclosed
Member since: Mon Apr 28, 2014, 07:28 PM
Number of posts: 14,592