Herman Cain may run for President again.
Yes, on May 31, he told the annual Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans that he might once again take up the Presidential quest in 2016.
The kicker: if God calls upon him to do so.
“I do not know what the future holds,” said the onetime CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, “but I know who holds the future. And I trust in God.”
The last time Cain ran for President–in 2011–his campaign ended in scandal. Multiple women came forward to accuse him of making aggressive and unwanted sexual advances.
Cain’s longtime wife, Gloria, chose to stand by him. But millions of female voters chose other candidates to vote for.
Cain dropped out of the race in December, 2011, before any actual votes were cast.
Herman Cain
Aside from his apparent inability to keep his hands–and penis–confined to his marriage, there’s another reason why voters should think twice about voting for him.
At the Republican Presidential candidates’ debate in Las Vegas, on October 18, 2011, a telling exchange occurred between CNN journalist and moderator Anderson Cooper and GOP candidate Herman Cain.
COOPER: “How do you explain the Occupy Wall Street movement happening across the country? And how does it relate with your message?
“Herman Cain, I’ve got to ask you, you said–two weeks ago, you said, ‘Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks. If you don’t have a job, and you’re not rich, blame yourself.’”
“That was two weeks ago. The movement has grown. Do you still say that?”
CAIN: “I still stand by my statement, and here’s why. They might be frustrated with Wall Street and the bankers, but they’re directing their anger at the wrong place.
“Wall Street didn’t put in failed economic policies. Wall Street didn’t spend a trillion dollars that didn’t do any good. Wall Street isn’t going around the country trying to sell another $450 billion. They ought to be over in front of the White House taking out their frustration.”
* * * * *
So, there you have it. If you’re one of the estimated 14 to 25 million unemployed or under-employed Americans, don’t look to Herman Cain for help or even sympathy.
It’s all your fault.
It’s your fault that, today, more than 2 million Americans have been unemployed for at least 99 weeks—the cutoff point for unemployment insurance in the hardest-hit states.
It’s your fault that the longer a person is out of work, the less likely s/he is to find an employer willing to hire.
It’s your fault that corporations across the country are now sitting atop $2 trillion in profits.
It’s your fault that their CEOs are using those monies for enriching themselves, their bought-off politicians, their families—and occasionally their mistresses.
It’s your fault that CEOs are using those monies to buy up their corporate rivals, throw even more Americans into the streets, and pocket their wages.
It’s your fault that CEOs are using those profits to create or enlarge companies outside the United States—solely to pay substandard wages to their new employees.
It’s your fault that the one expense CEOs refuse to underwrite is hiring their fellow Americans.
It’s your fault that CEOs want to escape American employee-protection laws–such as those mandating worker’s compensation or forbidding sexual harassment.
It’s your fault that CEOs want to escape American consumer-protection laws–such as those banning the sale of lead-contaminated products (a hallmark of Chinese imports).
It’s your fault that CEOs want to escape American laws protecting the environment–such as those requiring safe storage of dangerous chemicals.
It’s your fault that mass firings of employees usually accompany corporate mergers or acquisitions.
It’s your fault that many employers victimize part-time employees, who are not legally protected against such threats as racial discrimination, sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions.
It’s your fault that many employers refuse to create better than menial, low-wage jobs.
It’s your fault that right-wing politicians encourage corporate employers to extort “economic incentives” from cities or states in return for moving to or remaining in those areas.
It’s your fault that such “incentives” usually absolve employers from complying with laws protecting the environment and/or workers’ rights.
It’s your fault that many employers refuse to provide medical and pension benefits—nearly always in the case of part-time employees, and, increasingly, for full-time, permanent ones as well.
It’s your fault that crime rates are now rising, due to rising unemployment.
It’s your fault that such employers want, in short, to enrich themselves at the direct expense of their country.
It’s your fault if you’ve forgotten that, in decades past, such conduct used to be called treason–and punished accordingly.
And it’s your fault if you vote for GOP politicians who support such corrupt and ruinous policies.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
REPUBLICANS, CEOS, WELFARE, UNEMPLOYMENT, ABC NEWS, CNN, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, NBC NEWS, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, TEA PARTY, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, WALL STREET, BUSINESS REGULATION, DRUG-TESTING, CORPORATE BAILOUTS, FINANCE, TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, GREED, T.A.R.P. PROGRAM, BAILOUT PROGRAM, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, CBSNEWS, AIG, COLLEGE GRADUATES, USA TODAY, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
GREED-TESTING FOR CEOs
In Politics, Bureaucracy, History, Social commentary, Business on May 15, 2015 at 12:01 amRobert Benmosche, the CEO of American International Group (AIG) had some blunt advice to college graduates searching for work in a tight job market.
Robert Benmosche
“You have to accept the hand that’s been dealt you in life,” Benmosche said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Don’t cry about it. Deal with it.”
Typical advice from a one-percenter whose company, AIG, suffered a liquidity crisis when its credit ratings were downgraded below “AA” levels in September, 2008.
And how did AIG “deal with” its own crisis? It went crying to its Uncle Sugar, the United States Government, for a bailout.
Which it promptly got.
The United States Federal Reserve Bank, on September 16, 2008, made an $85 billion loan to the company to meet increased collateral obligations resulting from its credit rating downgrade–and thus saving it from certain bankruptcy.
In return, the Government took an 80% stake in the firm.
(The bailout eventually ballooned to $182 billion in exchange for a 92% stake.)
College graduates, said Benmosche, needed to seize the opportunities that become available to them, even if their options are limited.
“They want me to talk to the students and give them a sense of encouragement, especially with the high unemployment,” said Benmosche.
“My advice will be, ‘Whatever opportunity comes your way, take it. Take it and treat it as if it’s the only one that’s coming your way, because that actually may be the truth.’”
Of course, willing-to-work college graduates who can’t find willing-to-hire employers won’t be able to count on a generous bailout from the Federal Government.
To which most of them will owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans.
It’s long past time to apply to “untouchable” CEOs like Robert Benmosche the same criteria that right-wing Republicans demand be applied to welfare recipients.
Throughout the past year Republican lawmakers have pursued welfare drug-testing in Congress and more than 30 states.
Some bills have even targeted people who claim unemployment insurance and food stamps, despite scanty evidence the poor and jobless are disproportionately on drugs.
The concept of background screening is actually sound. But Republicans are aiming it at the wrong end of the economic spectrum.
Since 2008, the government has handed out billions of dollars in bailouts to the wealthiest corporations in the country.
The reason: To rescue the economy from the calamity produced by the criminal greed and recklessness of those same corporations.
For example:
Total of federal monies invested: $3 trillion.
It’s important to note that these figures–supplied by the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Congressional Budget Ooffice and the White House–date from November 16, 2009.
And it’s equally important to remember that welfare recipients did not
The 2010 documentary Inside Job chronicles the events leading to the 2008 global financial crisis. One of its most insightful moments occurs at a party held by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“We can’t control our greed,” the CEO of a large bank admits to his fellow guests. “You should regulate us more.”
Greed is defined as an excessive desire for wealth or goods. At its worst, greed trumps rationality, judgment and concern about the damage it may cause.
Greed begins in the neurochemistry of the brain. A neurotransmitter called dopamine fuels our greed. The higher the dopamine levels in the brain, the greater the pleasure we experience.
Cocaine, for example, directly increases dopamine levels. So does money.
Harvard researcher Hans Breiter has found, via magnetic resonance imaging studies, that the craving for money activates the same regions of the brain as the lust for sex, cocaine or any other pleasure-inducer.
Dopamine is most reliably activated by an experience we haven’t had before. We crave recreating that experience.
But snorting the same amount of cocaine, or earning the same sum of money, does not cause dopamine levels to increase. So the pleasure-seeker must increase the amount of stimuli to keep enjoying the euphoria.
In time, this incessant craving for pleasure becomes an addiction. And feeding that addiction–-with ever more money–becomes the overriding goal.
Thus, the infamous line–”Greed is good”–in the 1987 film, Wall Street, turns out to be both false and deadly for all concerned.
Share this: