-President Barack Obama's School Speech
Happy Day After Slave-Labor Day
And how was your (Slave) Labor Day weekend?
Are your college educated, twenty and thirty something kids living at home because for some reason, our corporations refuse to hire them? For that matter, how's that college degree thing working out for you?
President Obama gave an eloquent, moving and thought-provoking speech to the nation's students today, where he urged them to take “personal responsibility.” But what exactly is the president doing to take responsibility for the wholesale sell out of their parents' and family members' jobs to imported third world workers? It is a far cry from responsibility, or hypocritical at the very least, that this nation's president – despite his compelling, JFKesque tone – would inadvertently insult the intelligence of millions of kids across this country who, with eyes wide open, are watching the demise of their families under an administration that promotes policies that sell out American workers. Does this president honestly believe that these kids are so stupid to not see through his unwillingness to reverse this assault on America's workers? How does this anti-American worker policy bode for American students, for their own futures?
Participation vs. exploitation. When JFK delivered his graceful and infamous “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” address, this one heartfelt, monumental speech did more to unite the American people during a time of civil rights healing and economic growth than years of legislation ever would. This was a time when our Congress was not furiously cutting back-room deals with foreign nations to sell out U.S. jobs. His was a speech that moved even the hardest of cynics, for at its core, it was written to unequivocally include each and every American through participation in the work of building this country into the great nation it once was. Those were the days when Americans studied and then went on to participate in our workforce to contribute to our society.
Today, America is not governed by unifying leaders with the integrity and commitment to community as JFK once had and did. His one of a kind speech rang true of inclusiveness and participation as he chose to address everyone, all citizens young and old, where Obama's speech smoothly registered the all too familiar elitist aura of exclusivity that he has come to be known for. That he gave a speech to students is great. Nothing wrong with that...but on the heels of Labor Day, the sins of this president's omission today are glaring in his failure to stop corporate America from giving U.S. jobs to imported third world workers while he hypocritically preaches the gospel of responsibility and supports policies that loot the middle class America. This is in itself irresponsible. Where JFK did not prevent educated Americans from participating in the workforce, this president chooses to support outsourcing jobs to foreign nationals.
Surely, intelligent kids around the country especially worry that we are not being led by a person who cares about their livelihoods and is working on policies to support the middle class. Many of them must be wondering, “how will I survive if President Obama continues to not stand up for us, for Americans?” Sure, he can give a good speech to students about responsibility.
Speeches, like hope, are for free.
Where JFK fought for our citizenry and was the American people's president, Obama is King of the third world.
Let's look at how that jobs thing is going, Mr. President.
For elite members of our Congress and corpo-fascist elites, life couldn't get any better as this War on America's Middle Class is on a roll! With the exception of corporate welfare queens and mealy mouthed, civil servants of the mandarin variety, white collar Americans can look forward to more “change we can use” as Anna Turner at the Economic Policy Institute provide the numbers to explain the assault against U.S. workers here:
TOTAL JOBS LOST DURING THE RECESSION: 6.9 MILLION
• New jobs needed per month to keep up with population growth: 127,000
• Jobs lost in August 2009: 216,000
• Jobs needed to regain pre-recession unemployment levels: 9.4 million...
In addition, Harold Meyerson further charts the wholesale sell-out of our middle-class citizenry at WaPo :
“The first nation in human history to create a middle-class majority looks increasingly to be losing it. The economic security that was common, though by no means universal, in this country when the institutions created by the New Deal were strong, often provided by unionized corporations that felt compelled to offer insurance and pensions to their workers, is as dead as the dodo.”
While President Obama addressed the nation's pre-k through 12 students today about “personal responsibility”, labor – or the lack thereof – was on everybody's minds this weekend in record, unprecedented proportions. As American citizens across the country 'celebrated' their betrayal by our government's leaders who continue to sell out white collar jobs to imported workers -from tech to journalism to nursing to banking – if a mirror can be fogged, a cheap, dubiously “skilled” body can be imported by our nation's corporate “thought leaders” to kick your friends and families out of their jobs.
A series of pivotal changes we can't use have forced many to abandon all hope in the leadership of this country.
As this POTUS exhibits hypocrisy by caving to political whims over the resignation of Van Jones, works with the medical industrial complex to force millions of Americans without health care access to subsidize sleazy, private insurance and tech companies instead of enacting Single Payer OR ELSE BE FINED, continues to sell out American white collar jobs via outsourcing/insourcing, and addresses the nation's pre-K-12 students over the importance of “personal responsibility”, one can only ask where the personal responsibility lies in this Democratic administration with a Democratic majority whose reps continue to do everything contrary to the urgent needs of U.S. citizenry.
In order to rebuild the economy and security of this country, at least four converging points of domestic interest must be tackled which include:
Universal health care for all (Single Payer)...Matt Taibbi thinks we will need a revolution
“Obama wasn't the only big Democrat to mysteriously abandon his position on single-payer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman, the influential chair of the House commerce committee, have both backed away from their longtime support of single-payer. Hell, even Max-freaking-Baucus once conceded the logic of single-payer...”
-Matt Taibbi
Halting the bleeding of good paying U.S. jobs to imported third world workers and putting Americans back to work
Public school funding and support for U.S. students and institutions
Halting billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars funneled to Pakistan
“At a moment when the U.S. government is scrambling to ratchet down tensions and preparing to invest billions of dollars to strengthen Pakistan's capacity to deliver for its people -- climate change could work so powerfully in the opposite direction.”
-John Kerry
It's time we started cleaning up our own backyard by putting the welfare of our citizenry first. It's time for “progressive movement” and right wing ideologues to unite against the corpo-fascists who are waging this war on America's white collar middle class.
If the so-called “progressive movement” continues to lay back like lazy weasels as this administration continues to steal our jobs without protest, let us at least have access to universal health care and not some flim-flam, mandated insurance company “coverage” that we will be forced to buy (haha, without jobs) under this neo-fascist administration.
As Bill Moyers so wondrously scolded Obama about how “we need a fighter” below:
This health care thing is make or break for your leadership, but for us, it's life and death. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. President.
This means universal health care and not another corporate giveaway under the guise of “health care” that is in effect a multi-billion dollar U.S. taxpayer giveaway to insurance and tech cronies to develop unnecessary and wasteful electronic health records or “EHR” technology that does nothing to provide more doctors, nurses and health care professionals to help the sick and injured.
Today, Obama told the nation's students “I expect great things from you.” Well, I expect great things from my president as I did from JFK but so far, I'm looking at a guy shooting blanks. While I applaud Obama's otherwise worthy speech today, it unfortunately rings hollow under the reality that he does not represent the welfare and interests of the students and their parents, but instead those of corporate America.
It's too bad Obama can't seem to find the courage to fight for middle class Americans as did JFK, because it is ultimately the deeds, and not the words that matter. Unlike Obama, JFK was a very wealthy man - which might have explained why back-room deals to sell out American jobs to people from India didn't interest him. Obama and his cronies, however, would certainly have much to personally gain from such insider, human labor trading. And it is this that must stop if we expect to see civility and prosperity restored in our communities again.
It is ironic that the first black president in history will go down in the books as the man who presided over the death of our middle class through human trafficking in the form of this H-1B visa and green card visa scam. The first black president who firmly chose to defend it and not to stop it.
-2Truthy
2 comments:
Just like the Armageddon that would befall us in the year 2000, the speech that was suppose to indoctrinate our youth. Now who was spreading the baseless lies…..hmm…..oh ya, “Fake News”. Is anyone real surprised? Too funny.
The bloated and sicko Fake Newsers make it their job to discredit anything this administration does, just as Olbermann etc. took down Bush.
Nothing new, there.
This doesn't mean that the Smooth Talking One didn't have a 'global' agenda to parse to the kiddies.
You know - the same global agenda that is supposed to take the heat off of this administration for all those jobs our precious cargo's parents are losing to outsourcing.
Matter of fact, as of August 26th, Barry's speech was originally intended to do just that but the one today cut all the global this and that out for good reason.
Text of the letter:
"He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents, and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible, so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens."
Like I said, otherwise, no harm in motivating the young with smooth talk... only, given his outsourcing American jobs agenda, it would have been smarter for him to pick another holiday weekend to pitch it on than Labor Day, ya think?
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