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| Capitalism can't solve this, it's the cause of it |
by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
During the presidency of the imbecile that was in the White House before Barack Obama I remember a picture in the mass media of Bush down on his ranch. It was a good photo op. There he was, sleeves rolled up, a cowboy hat on his head and a chain saw in his hands. The intent of the photo op was to show that Bush was just a regular working class guy. Put a cowboy hat on a billionaire’s head and a chain saw in his hands and he’s one of us. Some workers fall for this unfortunately.
During the presidency of the imbecile that was in the White House before Barack Obama I remember a picture in the mass media of Bush down on his ranch. It was a good photo op. There he was, sleeves rolled up, a cowboy hat on his head and a chain saw in his hands. The intent of the photo op was to show that Bush was just a regular working class guy. Put a cowboy hat on a billionaire’s head and a chain saw in his hands and he’s one of us. Some workers fall for this unfortunately.
Barack Obama, a much slicker character than Bush and a more
preferred representative of the 1% as a whole was also doing his bit this week
to con working class people in to believing he has our interests at heart as he rolled out his new program to help young men of color, My Brother's Keeper is its title. We know who Obama's real brother's are of course, they're the execs and CEO's of the giant corporations and players on Wall Street, pretty much the same folks as Bush with a few exceptions. The other element with Obama of course is the
race/color question. He can appeal to
the black population, especially the black middle class in a way that Bush
couldn’t.
The president was on TV last night as he launched the program. I
watched him as he shook the hands of young black men giving them a delicate
bump from shoulder to shoulder just to confirm his credentials; he knows what
to do, “I’m just like you” is his
message. Most importantly, he wants to help young men of color become successful entrepreneurs which is only to be expected as he is a representative of this class.
It’s as sickening to watch as Bush with his chain saw.
Obama’s program to alleviate the crisis young men of color
face in a racist system that throws unprecedented numbers of them in prisons is
a sham. It will offer some opportunity,
like the privatization of the nation’s highways does, for his business pals to
make some money through public/private partnerships. And it is popular with conservatives, some of
Obama’s most ardent foes, because these partnerships cost the 1% nothing while
it gives the impression something is being done.
Obama has gotten support from a lot of business people who
are committed to hire the “long-term” unemployed. He’s even got more than 100 college
presidents in on the game; they will devise new ways to make college
affordable. Isn’t life grand!
Obama says philanthropists he has spoken to have committed
$200 million for the project. Wow! That will solve a crisis formed through a few
centuries of racial exclusion and the lack of opportunity to accumulate capital.
Who might these philanthropists be I wonder? Well, there’s Michael Bloomberg,
the owner of Business Week Magazine and former mayor of New York City. Bloomberg
is only worth $31 billion according to Forbes, all “self made”. WTF does that mean, “Self Made”? He’s a coupon clipper, the type Jesus was
supposed to have thrown out of the temple. Must have worked a lot of OT I
guess. Then there’s Magic Johnson, he’s
relatively poor, worth about $500 million.
George Soros is there for the young men of color too, he’s worth about
$4 billion.
Also supportive is Thomas Donahue the CEO of the US Chamber
of Commerce and president
of Center for International Private Enterprise.
He’ll do a lot for the young men of color I’m sure, but public money for
private ventures has the right ring for all these guys. Colin Powell, Bill O’reilly, the moron on Fox
and, get this, Rahm Emanuel, the former Israeli Defense Force member and mayor
of Chicago is supportive. I suppose we
are to forget about Rahm closing 150 or so of Chicago’s public schools, most of
these schools are home to young people of color.
The
Wall Street Journal points out that conservatives are drawn to a program like
this because it relies on, “resources
outside the federal government.” It
will offer, as football stadiums, public housing and other public/private
ventures do, a nice little business venture for the business community, almost guaranteed
profits with very little if any risk.
Talk
about the sheep in wolves clothing.
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