Friday, December 6, 2019

After Failing to Prosecute Bankers, Obama Cashes In With Wall Street Speeches

This absolutely needs to be shared again. We need to follow the money! And as I’ve learned over many years now of learning how to actively follow the money and how to choose my resources of information wisely, I’ve joined millions of us who have come to an inescapable recognition — Wall Street knows no party. Or as Noam Chomsky accurately states, there is actually no two party system in America; instead what we have is the “business party.”
So many have written and spoken the truth about our poisonous predatory neoliberal capitalist system and about how the American government has long — actually from the very beginning — been acting in the interests of the most wealthy and not we the people or the planet. There have always been vast numbers of people marginalized and intentionally left out of the “American Dream.”
It’s a fact that the horrors of today — Trump, endless wars, drill baby drill, a healthcare system rooted in greed and profit rather than care, more people imprisoned than anywhere in the world, crushing poverty of millions in the United States and billions worldwide, the obscene redistribution of wealth upwards, epidemics of addictions and despair and violence, all the people I wept for last night as I saw them sleeping on the sidewalks of Portland amidst freezing temperatures, millions of people displaced worldwide, the catastrophic national and global impacts of climate disruption, the sixth major extinction, and on and on — none of this would be possible if not for the relentless greed, ignorance, and collusion with heartlessness and evil of those in positions of power and of all of us who’ve knowingly (certainly true of the corporate mainstream media) and unknowingly (those of us who’ve been propagandized) enabled.
This tragically includes Obama, who I had worked to get elected. His betrayal broke my heart and, gratefully, woke me up to yet a deeper level of consciousness and understanding of the roots of injustice, suffering, and violence in our world and what we must do to stop it. This begins with speaking the truth and exposing the lies again and again and again.
Today millions of people are rising up all over our country and the world demanding an end to the power of the powerful who’ve long been destroying our nation, other nations, and the Earth.
Today there is an insurgency occurring within the Democratic Party that is fiercely working to dismantle the stranglehold that the powerful have had over the party, and especially over the past 40 years. Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate who is committed to this political revolution and to the comprehensive radical changes that are so urgently needed.
Today there are movements absolutely committed to taking down the domination culture that is embedded in the patriarchal, neoliberal, predatory capitalist system of greed, destruction, and death. We are committed to the struggle of birthing a New World and a New Story to live by.
May we all be part of this Caring Revolution! We are all needed in this greatest fight of our lives. Everything we love and cherish is at stake. — Molly
 

The former president is reportedly raking in $400,000 per speech to massive financial firms
Less than a year has passed since he departed from the White House, and former President Barack Obama has already joined the "well trod and well paid" Wall Street speaking circuit, a decision many argued will negatively impact the Democratic Party's credibility as it attempts to fashion a message around taking on corporate monopolies, tackling income inequality, and loosening the insurance industry's control over the American healthcare system.
According to a Bloomberg report published Monday, Obama has in the last month delivered two speeches to massive financial firms—Northern Trust Corp and the Carlyle Group—for around $400,000 a pop, and he is slated to attend a three-day conference hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald next week, for which he will make another $400,000.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced a wave of intense criticism following her paid speeches to Wall Street during the 2016 presidential campaign, and later conceded that they weren't politically wise.
Obama, however, doesn't appear to harbor any concerns about the political impact his speeches may have—a fact that could be problematic for the Democratic Party, Bloomberg's Max Abelson notes.
"While he can't run for president, he continues to be an influential voice in a party torn between celebrating and vilifying corporate power," Abelson writes. "His new work with banks might suggest which side of the debate he'll be on."
News of Obama's decision to "cash in" following his eight-year presidency drew significant ire, particularly given his administration's failure to enact sufficient structural changes to the financial system following the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.
As Abelson observes, Obama's "Justice Department prosecuted no major bankers for their roles in the financial crisis, and he resisted calls to break up the biggest banks, signing a regulatory overhaul that annoyed them with new rules but didn't stop them from pulling in record profits."
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