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50th Anniversary of the March on Washington – Clinton’s Speech

50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. President Clinton’s speech

Although I liked Obama’s speech, he really didn’t bring the fire. He gave his scholarly speech. It was Bill Clinton who consistently can bring it. The take home line from the March in my opinion was “But a great democracy does not make it harder to vote than to buy an assault weapon.” As matter of fact he had several lines which are worth repeating –

Dr. King’s dream of interdependence, his prescription of wholehearted cooperation across racial lines — they ring as true today as they did 50 years ago. Oh, yes, we face terrible political gridlock now. Read a little history; it’s nothing new. Yes, there remain racial inequalities in employment, income, health, wealth, incarceration, and in the victims and perpetrators of violent crime. But we don’t face beatings, lynchings and shootings for our political beliefs anymore. And I would respectfully suggest that Martin Luther King did not live and die to hear his heirs whine about political gridlock. It is time to stop complaining and put our shoulders against the stubborn gates holding the American people back.

And he went on to say –

We cannot relax in our efforts to implement health care reform in a way that ends discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions — one of which is inadequate income to pay for rising health care — (applause) — a health care reform that will lower costs and lengthen lives; nor can we stop investing in science and technology to train our young people of all races for the jobs of tomorrow; and to act on what we learn about our bodies, our businesses and our climate. We must push open those stubborn gates.

By ecthompsonmd|2013-08-29T14:55:50-04:00August 29th, 2013|Civil Rights, Economy, Healthcare|Comments Off

Bain Capital and making moolah

I kind of enjoy the way the Republicans are starting to beat up on each other. Two weeks ago, Newt Gingrich was the recipient of most the beatings. Now, it is Mitt Romney. He is getting hammered (here and here) over his time as chairman at Bain Capital. I suspect that in the coming weeks the American people will have an opportunity to look at venture capitalists up close and personal. Venture capitalists, more than bankers, are the personification of modern day supercapitalism. Bankers have regulations. Venture capitalists are free to do whatever they want to do with their money. Their only goal is to make money for their investors.

Venture capitalists make money in lots of different ways. Traditionally, venture capitalists invested in start-up businesses. They will take a business that is not much more than an idea and turn it into reality. Many businesses will fail. A few will be successful but not make tons of money. Then there are a couple that are hugely successful. They’re the ones that make the venture capitalists truckloads of money.

Another way for them to make their truckloads of money is one that we haven’t talked about much until recently and is less popular with the American people. Venture capitalists can spot a company that is terrifically undervalued. They buy the company, then they carve out what they believe is extremely valuable and cast off the rest of the company. The valuable portion of the company can be bought or sold for profit. This is the ugly side of venture capitalism. The venture capitalists make money, yes, but lots of people lose their jobs because they were working for the “nonprofitable” portions of the company.

Finally, the video (above) points out that Bain Capital took government money in order to make a profit on a couple of deals. This should be no surprise to anyone. The purpose of venture capitalists is to make money any way legally possible, including taking government money.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-01-12T23:28:31-04:00January 12th, 2012|Elections|Comments Off