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Who Is Obama Playing Ball With?
It looked like it was business as usual for President Barack Obama on the first day of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation, as he spent five hours golfing with Robert Wolf, president of UBS Investment Bank and chairman and CEO of UBS Group Americas. Wolf, an early financial backer of Obama’s presidential campaign, raised $250,000 for him back in 2006, and in February was appointed by the president to the White House’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Economic recovery for whom?
Interestingly, Wolf’s appointment came in the same month that UBS agreed to pay the U.S. $780 million to settle civil and criminal charges related to helping people in the U.S. avoid taxes. Not to worry. UBS, an ailing bank with a pre-existing condition, had great insurance coverage. It was actually receiving $2.5 billion in a backdoor bailout from bailed-out insurance giant AIG. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said, “It looks like we’re simply laundering this money through AIG.” UBS, this bank that shelters wealthy tax dodgers, was actually being bailed out by hardworking U.S. taxpayers.
UBS, which once stood for Union Bank of Switzerland, was founded more than a century ago. Its success hinges on Switzerland’s famous banking secrecy laws, allowing people to squirrel money away in untraceable “numbered accounts.” Secret Swiss bank accounts have become a favorite way for wealthy people in the U.S. to dodge taxes. According to the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in a July 2008 report, “From at least 2000 to 2007, UBS made a concerted effort to open accounts in Switzerland for wealthy U.S. clients, employing practices that could facilitate, and have resulted in, tax evasion by U.S. clients.”
As part of the settlement, UBS agreed to share client account information with the U.S. government. While there may be as many as 52,000 such accounts, UBS is releasing only about 4,450 client names. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a press release, “We will be receiving an unprecedented amount of information on taxpayers who have evaded their tax obligation by hiding money offshore at UBS.” UBS will be sending account holders notification that their names may be among those delivered to the IRS, and the IRS, in turn, is granting leniency to tax dodgers who turn themselves in before Sept. 23. Account holders won’t know if their names are included, though, so gamblers among them may keep quiet and hope their accounts stay secret.
Last Friday, as Wolf was preparing for his golf game with Obama, UBS whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in prison for facilitating offshore tax evasion through UBS banking schemes, despite assisting federal investigators in exposing the secretive bank.
Above the entrance to UBS’ headquarters in Zurich is a bust of the Greek god Hermes—not only the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, but also the god of thieves and merchants. The symbolism is striking. Whether or not Wolf won his golf game against Obama, UBS has clearly scored a hole in one.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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Show AllI'm a big Obama supporter, and I've given myself one year to see where he lands. But this kind of thing (playing golf with Wolf), even though it seems trivial, doesn't pass my WWKD test: What Would Kucinich Do? I can't imagine Kucinich even being seen with guys like Wolf as president. I guess just one more nail in the Obama-support coffin.
Obama is applying supply-side strategy to finance, health-care, environment..you name it.
Historically supply-side strategy has benefitted the top 2% of the wealth scale at the expense of the other 98%.
According to the patriotic founders of Amway, the definition of insanity is: applying the same strategy over and over again and expecting different results.
I'm a big Obama supporter, and I've given myself one year to see where he lands.
He will land on top of your head, as he has already done to the rest of us. Get yourself a Kevlar helmet and keep your money inside your shirt.
Well said.
Also, it's ridiculously obvious that the Wolf golf game is a signal to the big boys that the "names" released by UBS of bank accounts won't put anybody in jail.
Listen, they knew that Obama's golf partners' names would be published. They are telegraphing their corruption to put the elite crooks at ease.
Why?
Because Holder was forced to announce an investigation of the torture stuff.
HOW IT WORKS:
1) Lie and promise the moon until you are elected.
2) After you are elected, quickly push through as much corruption as possible while calling it something populist sounding.
3) Your polls tank when the public realizes you punked them.
4) Throw a few crumbs at them with a noisy food fight protest from the right to woo the suckers back (torture investigation and UBS tax dodger names).
5) Send loud signals that even more grand larceny with impunity is on the way for the elite crooks (town hall meeting on health care IN MONTANA, vacation golf with elite crooks).
I know that no decent person would function this way. Our President and those around him are not in that category and never were.
For those learning about political PR techniques, your assignment is to watch them use Kenedy's death to convince liberals to "go that extra mile" for the Democratic party. Don't be suckers, folks. They'll use your own mother to sucker you if it suites them.
"the Wolf golf game is a signal to the big boys that the "names" released by UBS of bank accounts won't put anybody in jail."
Interesting. I didn't think of that.
Obama want's to show he's a "team player" in the power elite. Perhaps he decided long ago that the world's run by these crooks and financial elites and he wanted to be at the center.
A big Obama supporter? Give him a year?
How can a corrupt, big-money, democracy for the highest bidder, produce a non-corrupt outcome?
Obama is a corrupted politician, that is the only way to get elected. Until the rigged system is changed, we cannot expect otherwise. Mark my word. For those of us old enough to remember, we on the left went through the same exact discussions when Bubba was elected in 92. The more things change, the more they stay the same. This time the similarities are striking.
Let's see Obama has: advocated and seen through increasing Pentagon budgets; Single-Payer off the table; prosecuting Bush/Cheney, off the table; re-appointed Bush's "uncle Bobby" Gates as Secretary of Imperial Aggression; escalated the conflict in Afghanistan; expanded the conflict to Pakistan; appointed Summers and Geithner and now Bernanke to the top financial spots, which has resulted in the largest theft of public funds in history; repeated the Bush lies about Afghanistan; etc. etc. etc.
So please tell me, what is exactly about Obama and his policies do you support?
"I'm a big Obama supporter, and I've given myself one year to see where he lands."
Yeah, people tried that with Bush, and they woke up with 911, a war, and the Patriot Act.
Kane, why the arbitrary "time horizon"? Are you incapable of judging what is happening right in front of yours eyes?
If you will slip out of your self-induced coma and check your WWKD test, you'll see that Obama hasn't scored even once.
Whoa, wait a minute here! How about that organic garden on the white house lawn??
Remember what Voltaire said in the end of "Candide" .... "Gentlemen cultivate your gardens."
If Obama stays or course he may (hopefully) have a prison farm job in his future with Chaney as his straw boss.
Your WWK test puts Obummer in the toilet without even having to wait a year. The big "O" has proven himself a liar and shill for corporate America over and over again.
Do yourself a favor and cut out from that year NOW and start working a grassroots-building mentality for KUCINICH 2012. He truly has no peer in the government when it comes to representing "We The People". Had the corporate media and the big bucks behind them not muzzled D.K. and people were "allowed" to hear his stances, well, I can believe....
Take the pledge:
I, your name here, pledge to not be fooled again.
I pledge to begin now to find, work for, vote for and support to the end of the election in question candidates and a party who truly believe as I do.
I pledge to support candidates at every level who have and will continue to speak for, vote for, and work for what I believe. I pledge to look at voting records, all statements, positions and party and individual platforms and ignore vague and contradictory promises. I pledge that no matter what promises or threats the Democrats make, no matter what radical right wing loony Neanderthal Republican may win, I will hold firm to my belief in and support for the candidate who will support me and believes in what I believe in, rather than choose the evil of 2 lessers. I recognize that only by holding firm against comfortable mediocrity will our slow death by climate catastrophe, impoverization, war and disease and shortage, abetted by authoritarian and corporate rule, be avoided.
(Fill in your nom de net and repost this here; feel free to change the wording however you want.)
It looked like it was business as usual for President Barack Obama on the first day of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation, as he spent five hours golfing with Robert Wolf, president of UBS Investment Bank and chairman and CEO of UBS Group Americas.
I don't need any more convincing never never never never never again to vote for a Democrat, any Democrat.
Obama is now the latest god of thieves and merchants.
Just suppose that both Clinton and O'bama were plants by the GOP--they tricked us, pure and simple.
Come on, wake up from the dream that a corrupt system can produce non-corrupt results; it aint just Obama and Clinton, most of the Democratic party have been bought and paid for as well.
The winner takes all electoral system is not democratic to begin with; money is treated as free speech, corporations enjoy individual legal rights etc. It is perfectly legal to bribe politicians - but we call it "lobbying".
In short, the entire system is rigged in favor of the corporate ruling classes with the banksters at the top of the heap. We have very little choice and only a superficial vote for Candidate R or Candidate D, both of which have to have 100s of millions of dollars to win and have been pre-selected by the Duopoly elites. It is simply the best democracy money can buy, s/he with the most money always wins. We might as well just sell Senate seats and the presidency to the highest bidder
Has the system always been rigged? Mark Twain said, "We've got the best Congress money can buy."
Yes of course, in those days try voting while black, or a woman, for example.
Madison's elitist (wealthy white men) vision rigged the system from the get go: the Electoral College for example is highly un-democratic;, and the electoral process for the US Senate, for example, is also highly un-democratic and elitist. For that matter, the US Senate should be abolished and we ought to have only one legislative house, elected on proportional representation principles. What we have now is a sham. Chomsky, Nader, Zinn Hedges and many others have commented about this.
For a good handbook I recommend "Ten steps to repair American Democracy" by Stephen Hill I believe is the author.
The following are polls from progressive groups, rating Hillary Clinton on how often she votes for progressive issues:
Overall Progressive Score: 92%
Aid to Less Advantaged People at Home and Abroad: 98%
Corporate Subsidies 100%
Education, Humanities and the Arts 88%
Environment 92%
Fair Taxation 97%
Family Planning 88%
Government Checks on Corporate Power 95%
Healthcare 98%
Housing 100%
Human Rights & Civil Liberties 82%
Justice for All: Civil and Criminal 94%
Labor Rights 91%
Making Government Work for Everyone, Not Just the Rich or Powerful 94%
War and Peace 80%
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/011142.php
There you go. If Hillary had been a GOP plant, these groups would know about it.
Just suppose that both Clinton and O'bama were plants by the GOP--they tricked us, pure and simple.It's done all the time in other systems--they no they can't win so they get an unknown to punk us.
The US has a non-functioning 'democracy'. Voting is the opium of the masses - it is a public relations ploy to convince people that they have a voice. But there is no institutional way to counteract the monied control over this country. Our hands are tied. The institution of US democracy must be changed.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Obama himself has one of the secret Numerical USB Swiss Bank Accounts, because he needs a safe place to put his cut of the TRILLIONS of Dollars of Banker Bailouts.
And don't you just love this, the guy who exposed this crime, he gets locked up:
"Last Friday, as Wolf was preparing for his golf game with Obama, UBS whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in prison for facilitating offshore tax evasion through UBS banking schemes, despite assisting federal investigators in exposing the secretive bank."
Gee, I wonder why? Could it because this guy ruined their Money Laundering Party?
If he was locked up its to keep the others safe, I am sure of that.
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America
enemyartist: Thanks for bringing out the irony in this contrast between the whistle-blower Birkenfeld getting a far longer sentence than any whistle-blower could expect to get---and the royal treatment of his golf-playing boss.
I gave up on Obama shortly after he announced his candidacy for president. Even though I had voted for him in the race for the senate in 2004, at the democrat's convention of that year, when everyone seemed fascinated by him, I began suspecting we were being sold on a shiny new model of Reagonistic subterfuge. He is such a clever talker that people still don't believe he has picked their pockets.
Now, he doesn't even try to hide his corrupt dealings, and yet, so many seemingly intelligent people I know personally, still refuse to see him for what he BLATANTLY is - a secretive, deceptive, warmongering, tool of the most corrupt corporations bent on sucking the life out of the rest of us.
Granted, he is hardly alone in this ruse, but he is probably the most effective front man yet.
Dr. Obama's elixir of success has the same ingredients as Dr. Bush's, but the label is SO much prettier!
What is the big surprise? Obama is bought and paid for just like Bush.
Such is the nature of the presidential marketing schema: pay lip-service to populist issues out one side of your mouth, while crushing them behind closed doors with your corpoate handlers out the other side.
Case in point: circa 2008, Obama was repudiating corporations (as Amy asserts) who were "avoiding taxes" by establishing accounts in off shore shelters like the Cayman Islands - a playground for lavish life styles and corrupt pond scum.
Circa 2009, Obama is on the golf course, chuming around with a Cat who did just that.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Fast forward to the 2012 election; the progessive wannabes will crawl back into Obama's lap for fear of the lesser evil association; a trepid anomoly that freezes the brain before pulling the lever for a Third Party.
More change we can believe in.
No, No, NO! This time I promise I WILL vote for Nader if he runs. I'm so damn sorry I voted for Obama.....what a shmuck I was.
No kidding. Schmuck doesn't begin to describe those of you who got sucked into Obama's b.s. His record was there for anyone to see, and you voted for him anyway? Unbelievable.
Actively supporting a candidate who wants to escalate war crimes is mind-boggling. And these people say they are "progressive!"
Talk about cognitive dissonance.
Take the pledge:
I, your name here, pledge to not be fooled again.
I pledge to begin now and never stop, to find, work for, vote for and support to the end of the election in question candidates and a party who truly believe as I do.
I pledge to support candidates at every level who have and will continue to speak for, vote for, and work for what I believe. I pledge to look at voting records, all statements, positions and party and individual platforms and ignore vague and contradictory promises. I pledge that no matter what promises or threats the Democrats make, no matter what radical right wing loony Neanderthal Republican may win, I will hold firm to my belief in and support for the candidate who will support me and believes in what I believe in, rather than choose the evil of 2 lessers. I recognize that only by holding firm against comfortable mediocrity will our slow death by climate catastrophe, impoverization, war and disease and shortage, abetted by authoritarian and corporate rule, be avoided.
(Fill in your nom de net and repost this here; feel free to change the wording however you want.)
A man (or woman) is known by the company that they keep, especially those in decision and policy making positions with great power over the well being of others. We all know the gang of criminal thugs that made up the Bush administration. Now we see ever more clearly that Mr. Obama who can find no time or place to meet with even one advocate of a single payer health plan, or a vigorous critic of the financial debacle like William Black, who was centrally involved in resolving the Reaganite S & L mess of the 1980s, or those deeply concerned about climate change, or mountain top removal or any of a dozen other central issues pressing in on us all in these troubled times. But he does find time to be whoring with the likes of Billy Tauzin from PHARMA and cut deals to give a multi-billion $$$ bonanza to the drug companies, and he puts the likes of Tim Geithner and Larry Summers in central finance/economic positions to help solve the very mess they were central to inflicting on us all, and now golfing with Robert Wolf of UBS. What deals were cut there? Guess we will all find out when the next financial mess emerges from the darkness. Can't help noticing that when Obama makes one of his public appearance speeches he makes no real committment except to grand generalities and never follows up with vigorous policy advocacy. His less visible corporate whore activity is where the real action of his administration is and will remain. Oh yes, where is all that transparency, hope and change you can believe in?? Spun out by the same professional liars who tell us "Coke is it" and "Wonder Bread builds strong bodies 8 ways". The country's getting a Coke and Wonder bread policy diet from the fraudulent Obama, while he serves up what's left of the nation's wealth as a banquet to his war machine and corporate buddies.
See a very insightful talk given by William K Black at the Hammer Forum in LA on 6/09. Black was director? of litigation during the S+L crisis...
"1000 felony convictions for bankers and other insiders brought by Black during the S+L debacle of the 80s. Zero indictments so far by Obama.."
(The S+L crisis also a result of republican deregulation)
http://hammer.ucla.edu/watchlisten/watchlisten/show_id/129363
Sorry. The S&L debacle was a bipartisan venture. Congress, controlled by Dems, increased FDIC insurance from $40K to $100K, decreased depreciation time from (I think) 27 yrs to 15 yrs, and changed the rules on how S&Ls could invest their money. Reagan signed the legislation. It was a massive wealth transfer to the top 10% from the rest of us.
I suggest O'Bummer more closely resembles the Roman god Janus---you remember, the one with two faces.
I further suggest that any pol who's suspected of golf be tried, and, if found guilty, summarily executed.
Death by sand wedge, anyone?
Did Phil Gramm and Larry Summers round out the foursome?
"I call upon every American to give their money to Corporations. Now watch this drive." - Obama
Drum roll, cymbal splash, Good One!!!
This only intensifies my hatred of golf.
Cindy Sheehan is heroically protesting Obama's escalation of the Afghanistan war at Martha's Vineyard.
The readers and commentors here are Cindy's core constituency.
Why is CD censoring coverage of Cindy's efforts?
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/45387
Ask not "Who is Obama playing ball with?" rather ask, "Whose balls is he playing with?"
"Who is Obama balling?" would be more grammatically correct.
Is it really true that the Federal Reserve is a private corporation with a deceptive name? Is it true that the US government borrows from the Federal Reserve and pays high interest on these loans? And is it true that the income taxes paid by the wage earners goes towards the interest of the money borrowed from the Federal Reserve?
And.....is it true that there is no law that says taxes have to be paid from one's salary or wage?
Just asking....
Government sleeping with corporations = FASCISM.
Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes.
Infamous Mayer Amschel Rothschild Quote:
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws."
Another something to think on, the revolutionary war was fought on the rejection of england trying to be the 'central bank' of the colonies.
And the federal reserve act of 1913 was snuck through congress just as more members had left to spend christmas as home and woodrow wilson agreed to sign it into law as a condition of becoming president.
Don't you just love reality history?
Everybody is overlooking another golfer who played in the foursome with Obama on Monday: Dr. Eric Whitaker, executive with University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) who seems to be to the Chicago medical scene what Arne Duncan was to the education and, to boot, a jock like Duncan. Whitaker achieved his biggest notoriety by defending the decision of UCMC to close its ghetto hospital emergency room, on grounds that the poor folks patronizing it were costing the hospital in its "bottom line," as it could be using those facilities for treating the people who were paying for treatment. Other than that, he had a long time association with Barack and Michelle Obama through their mutual acquaintance with criminal Tony Rezko (Obama's momma apparently never taught him not to play with sleaze), and with being part of the arrangement (along with Valerie Jarrett, now Obama's nursemaid and adviser and then chair of the UCMC,) in getting a plum job for Michelle at the hospital. The whole Chicago gang of Barack, Obama, Eric and Valerie reportedly had dinner together than night in Martha's Vineyard. It was said that during the campaign Obama developed a "no new friends" policy of hanging out only with prior associates: anyway those like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers that he didn't throw under the bus.
Who is Obama playing ball with? Do you really have to ask!
What makes you ask such a stupid question? OBAMA THE COWARD works for the same people that Bush worked for and of course Cheney etc. Nothing has changed OBAMA THE COWARD answers to the same Fascist power group that has run the United States for the last FIFTY years.
Nothing has changed other than they now do not care if you know it because they know that your to stupid to do anything about, except perhaps cry a bunch!
Amy knows the answer. She is using a journalistic device to highlight the corruption of Obama wit the "innocent" sounding question. The purpose is to wake up those among us who still trust this con artist. You obviously know what we are dealing with and feel frustrated and angry that Amy doesn't shout "OBAMA IS A CROOK" from the rafters.
She wants us to do that. And we are doing it here. Amy knows what she is doing.
What a metaphor rich in vile and even bawdy symbolism. The prez hobnobing with the top dog of the bank reknown for being a friend to the ultra-rich, Nazis, and corrupt dictators the world over. Now that's change we can believe in--not!
Poet
The irony is thick with this one." -- Yoda
HOW IT WORKS:
1) Lie and promise the moon until you are elected.
2) After you are elected, quickly push through as much corruption as possible while calling it something populist sounding.
3) Your polls tank when the public realizes you punked them.
4) Throw a few crumbs at them with a noisy food fight protest from the right to woo the suckers back (torture investigation and UBS tax dodger names).
5) Send loud signals that even more grand larceny with impunity is on the way for the elite crooks (town hall meeting on health care IN MONTANA, vacation golf with elite crooks).
I know that no decent person would function this way. Our President and those around him are not in that category and never were.
For those learning about political PR techniques, your assignment is to watch them use Kenedy's death to convince liberals to "go that extra mile" for the Democratic party. Don't be suckers, folks. They'll use your own mother to sucker you if it suites them. They have plan A, B, C, D, E, etc.
They aren't invincible. That's why they work the PR game so hard. That is their achilles heel. We need to be like those markets that ad agencies hate to advertise in because the people ignore the commercials. This causes them untold heartburn because the money they spend is wasted. It hurts them because they spend more and more money trying to PR us into stupidity.
You know what they want to hear. Game them! When a polster calls, pretend to be right wing nut. It will destroy the validity of their polls. Confuse them. Don't let them confuse you.
I still haven't gotten much response from my idea that, in addition to suspicious "playing ball" with Robert Wolf of UBS, Obama "plays" regularly and has played a golf round including not just Wolf but a key figure from his questionable associates from Chicago and Illinois politics, Dr. Eric Whitaker. With Tony Rezko now "put away," perhaps it was thought that these associates would be off the radar of public interest, but just looking again at the atmosphere of corruption around the Illinois health care system in general and the UCMC specifically raises a host of still-unanswered questions about the character of the people with whom Obama is "playing ball." I understand the reluctance of "progressives" to pursue this line of investigation, given that right wing "nuts" like Michele Malkin and Sean Hannity have been "on the case" about Rezko and others. But their "facts" either are for real or they are not, and it would be totally "unscientific" to reject out of hand an idea by "considering its source." I have said as much about taking seriously enough to actually investigate the allegations about the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. If Obama has played or is playing "with sleaze" as I have suggested, that is something about which the American people are entitled to know. If these allegations are wrong, they equally are entitled to know that.
He's just playing with himself.
Didn't believe his ople granny when she told him he was gonna go blind.
"While there may be as many as 52,000 such accounts, UBS is releasing only about 4,450 client names.
...Account holders won’t know if their names are included, though, so gamblers among them may keep quiet and hope their accounts stay secret."
--------
That's a less than 1 in 10 chance of getting caught. Anyone could make an easy fortune in Vegas with those odds.
Anyone taking bets on how many of those 4450 clients will be turning themselves in on Sept. 23? I'll give you triple odds if one of them are people of any notoriety or connected at all to the Obama admin.
I'm somewhat surprised to see Amy Goodman writing this. I wonder...is she finally getting the gist of just what Obama's about? Or will she continue to gatekeep for him and the likes of other big 'D' fraudsters such as Howard Dean when it's convenient?
My eternal gratitude to Cynthia McKinney for being the candidate for change I could believe in! I went so far as to mark Obama's dot on my absentee ballot and then, my intuition screaming, I couldn't mail it and had to go, in person, to my local Board of Elections to get another. That was really close!