Obama Is Losing It.

Mr. O has been saying some really stupid things lately. Instead of trying to find ways to put thieving banksters in prison he praises them as savvy businessmen and says he doesn’t begrudge their obscene compensation. He went on to make a totally spurious comparison to fabulously paid sports stars.

While it’s true that most major teams in America are subsidized by local and state governments in the form of taxpayer built stadiums the amounts involved are minuscule compared to the bank bailouts. Moreover sports stars aren’t rewarded for failure and aren’t responsible for high unemployment and foreclosures that have made life hell for millions of Americans and brought hardship to people all over the world.

In fact, it does take savvy (not to mention arrogant, greedy and shameless) businessmen to demand that government - the same one they otherwise love to hate - rescue their institutions from their own malfeasance and then use the free money they receive to reward themselves with fabulous compensation. Goldman Sachs earned about 13 billion dollars last year, just about the same amount they received from the AIG bailout, so their profits are totally the result of government welfare.

They’ve also used their generous gifts from the people to lobby against legislation that would protect Americans from a similar meltdown happening again. Regulation? That’s a dirty word, the market will take care of everything; and if it doesn’t there’s always another bailout from Uncle Sam.

Meanwhile they are creating the conditions for a new bubble by engaging in the same risky behavior that brought them to the brink of bankruptcy in the first place. Why not? Obama will be there for them in their hour of need. If anyone is interested in the details, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine wrote an excellent article describing their current scams. It was also published a couple days ago on commondreams.org.

After hurting the banksters’ feelings by calling them fat cats, he seems to be wanting to get all chummy, to show them he’s really on their side… and keep those campaign dollars rolling in. Moreover, now that the Extreme Court has opened the door for unlimited corporate expenditures on political campaigns he maybe figures they will spend billions if need be to defeat anyone who tries to restrain them and their profits. The too-big-to-fail banks have made so many billions they could give every candidate they like millions of dollars with out even feeling the pinch. Result: a government bought and sold, as if it wasn’t mostly already.

They may be savvy businessmen but their work adds nothing of value to society: they are leaches, parasites, predators. That’s not even considering their deceit or thievery. That refers strictly to their function in the economic world, the malfeasance is merely the frosting on the cake.

Big time banks skim the cream off the top of the economy, while serving no social purpose. They drain the lifeblood of society by grabbing much too big a share for themselves. If they have the rights of people, they should also have the responsibilities and face the same penalties for breaking the law. At this point, many deserve the death penalty.

The vast majority of Americans, both left and right, socialists and teabaggers, feel only anger and vitriol against the banksters, so how can Obama defend them? What can he gain by siding with those sleazebags?

The other ludicrous garbage, not to mention deceit, that’s come out of his mouth was in reference to a bipartisan meeting he’s arranged on health care legislation. He said to the Repugs, If you can show me a better plan that can increase coverage, lower costs and rein in insurance company abuses, you tell me, I want to see it.

Did he somehow forget that he was an advocate for single-payer health care and campaigned on that basis for many years prior to becoming president? Has he been hit with a stroke of amnesia?

He’s spent a whole year emasculating every important legislative program in order to placate the Repugs and a handful of conservative Dems with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Wake up Mr. President, time to represent the people interests instead of your savvy fat cat businessmen friends. Time to can the empty rhetoric and get real.

Maybe he’s expecting to use the health care summit to try to shame the Repugs, make them look bad, but, Mr. O, why bother? Why don’t you just pass your little-bit-is-better-than-nothing health care plan with whatever legislative maneuvering you have at your disposal and then talk about what a great advance it is in spite of the fact that it doesn’t control costs, doesn’t cover everyone and doesn’t even begin to increase coverage until 2013. Don’t mention how it sets up tiers of coverage leaving many people with low quality care and pays for increased coverage (at least the Senate version) by taxing the only people who do have quality insurance.

The only improvement I can see over the presidency of Bushman is the appointment of a decent Extreme Court justice. Otherwise the whole mess stinks to high heaven.