Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiTop Senate Democrat: Bankers 'Own' the US Congress
Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: "And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place." The blunt acknowledgment that the same banks that caused the financial crisis "own" the U.S. Congress -- according to one of that institution's most powerful members -- demonstrates just how extreme this institutional corruption is.
The ownership of the federal government by banks and other large corporations is effectuated in literally countless ways, none more effective than the endless and increasingly sleazy overlap between government and corporate officials. Here is just one random item this week announcing a couple of standard personnel moves:
Former Barney Frank staffer now top Goldman Sachs lobbyist
Goldman Sachs' new top lobbyist was recently the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank. Michael Paese, a registered lobbyist for the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association since he left Frank's committee in September, will join Goldman as director of government affairs, a role held last year by former Tom Daschle intimate, Mark Patterson, now the chief of staff at the Treasury Department. This is not Paese's first swing through the Wall Street-Congress revolving door: he previously worked at JP Morgan and Mercantile Bankshares, and in between served as senior minority counsel at the Financial Services Committee.
So: Paese went from Chairman Frank's office to be the top lobbyist at Goldman, and shortly before that, Goldman dispatched Paese's predecessor, close Tom Daschle associate Mark Patterson, to be Chief of Staff to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, himself a protege of former Goldman CEO Robert Rubin and a virtually wholly owned subsidiary of the banking industry. That's all part of what Desmond Lachman -- American Enterprise Institute fellow, former chief emerging market strategist at Salomon Smith Barney and top IMF official (no socialist he) -- recently described as "Goldman Sachs's seeming lock on high-level U.S. Treasury jobs."
Meanwhile, the above-linked Huffington Post article which reported on Durbin's comments also notes Sen. Evan Bayh's previously-reported central role on behalf of the bankers in blocking legislation, hated by the banking industry, to allow bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of mortgages so that families can stay in their homes. Bayh is up for re-election in 2010, and here -- according to the indispensable Open Secrets site -- is Bayh's top donor:
Goldman is also the top donor to Bayh over the course of his Congressional career, during which Bayh has received more than $4 million from the finance, insurance and real estate sectors:
In a totally unrelated coincidence -- after the Government, as Matt Taibbi put it, enacted "a bailout program that has now figured three ways to funnel money to Goldman, Sachs"-- this is what happened earlier this month:
Goldman reports $1.8 billion profit
Goldman Sachs reported a much stronger-than-expected first-quarter profit Monday, bouncing back from its worst quarter as a public company. . . .
In reporting its results a day earlier than expected, New York-based Goldman said it earned $1.81 billion, or $3.39 a share, for the quarter ended March 31. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for a profit of $1.64 a share.
Goldman shares, which have surged more than 70% during the past month, continued rising late Monday, gaining about 4.7% for the day.
Nobody even tries to hide this any longer. The only way they could make it more blatant is if they hung a huge Goldman Sachs logo on the Capitol dome and then branded it onto the foreheads of leading members of Congress and executive branch officials.
Of course, ownership of the government is not confined to Goldman or even to bankers generally; legislation in virtually every area is written by the lobbyists dispatched by the corporations that demand it, and its passage then ensured by "representatives" whose pockets are stuffed with money from those same corporations. Just as one example, as Jane Hamsher reported about Bayh:
Bayh's little "lobbyist problem" is considered by many to be what tanked his Vice Presidential aspirations. His wife Susan earns about $837,000 a year serving on seven corporate boards, among them Wellpoint, a health insurance company for which Bayh helped secure a $24.7 million dollar grant. She's on the board of ETrade, even as Bayh is on the Senate Finance Committee.
Bayh wants people to believe he's a "moderate" who sits in the "center."
Center of K Street, maybe.
Meanwhile, the only citizen protests relating to this mass robbery are driven by anger at the government for treating bankers too harshly and unfairly -- one of the most classic manifestations of what Taibbi, in a separate piece, so aptly calls the "peasant mentality":
After all, the reason the winger crowd can't find a way to be coherently angry right now is because this country has no healthy avenues for genuine populist outrage. It never has. The setup always goes the other way: when the excesses of business interests and their political proteges in Washington leave the regular guy broke and screwed, the response is always for the lower and middle classes to split down the middle and find reasons to get pissed off not at their greedy bosses but at each other. That's why even people like [Glenn] Beck's audience, who I'd wager are mostly lower-income people, can't imagine themselves protesting against the Wall Street barons who in actuality are the ones who fucked them over. . . .
Actual rich people can't ever be the target. It's a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master's carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you're a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit. Whatever the master does, you're on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. And that's what we've got now, a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish . . . can't be mad at AIG, can't be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs. The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it's struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires. It's really weird stuff.
One might think it would be a big news story for the second most-powerful member of the U.S. Senate to baldly state that the Congress is "owned" by the bankers who spawned the financial crisis and continue to dictate the government's actions. But it won't be. The leading members of the media work for the very corporations that benefit most from this process. Establishment journalists are integral and well-rewarded members of the same system and thus cannot and will not see it as inherently corrupt (instead, as Newsweek's Evan Thomas said, their role, as "members of the ruling class," is to "prop up the existing order," "protect traditional institutions" and "safeguard the status quo").
That Congress is fully owned and controlled by a tiny sliver of narrow, oligarchical, deeply corrupted interests is simultaneously so obvious yet so demonized (only Unserious Shrill Fringe radicals, such as the IMF's former chief economist, use that sort of language) that even Durbin's explicit admission will be largely ignored. Even that extreme of a confession (Durbin elaborated on it with Ed Schultz last night) hardly causes a ripple.
* * * * * *
Here's Jane Hamsher, with Rachel Maddow, in February, assessing the motives of people like Evan Bayh and analyzing who owns and controls them (begins at the 3:00 minute mark):
116 Comments so far
Show AllOur Government Puts Free Market Ideology Uber The Lives & Welfare Of Us All
"For example?"
"Wall Street gets bailed out while Main Street (auto workers) gets shafted."
"Anything else?"
"Conditions for most of us can only get worse."
"No economic recovery?"
"Bubbles, that's what."
"And then?"
"Pop!"
"After which?"
"More bubbles."
"Followed by?"
"Pop, pop, pop."
"The answer being?"
"We rise up en masse."
"Otherwise?"
"Doomsday."
"Based on?"
"Perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse."
These banks use the money we give them or lend them to purchase politicians.
We all should look for opportunities to refinance our loans with credit unions or similar local organizations. We should all move any investment we might have away from the large predators. They will use any profit we leave them to arm.
This is why I've been repeating over and over: Senators and Congressmen/women need to have their terms in office limited in order to cut down - perhaps eliminate??? - CORRUPTION!
Many ordinary people intuit what GG writes about. He adds the hard details that develop impressionistic suspicion into realism and understanding.
What can we do to get Glenn Greenwald's articles published in more places including popular magazines? Can he appear on TV shows? Does he have an agent? Can he put the articles together in a book?
Joe
¿ _____ H O W _ D O _ W E _ C L E A N _ U P _ T H I S _ M E S S _____ ?
"Those that do not know history are doomed to repeat it."
12th Century Justice - How to deal with Fraudulent Bankers
"THE next time you estimate your super fund losses, just think of the good old days. In 1125 AD Henry V issued this edict:
''In this year before Christmas, King Henry sent from Normandy to England and gave instructions that all moneyers be deprived of their members.
Bishop Roger of Salisbury commanded them all to assemble at Winchester by Christmas. When they came they were taken one by one, and each deprived of the right hand and testicles below. All this was done in 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany, and was entirely justified because they had ruined the whole country by the magnitude of their fraud, which they paid for in full.''
(Quoted from the Laud Chronicle, one of the last of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and translated from Middle English.)
Comment: Well, that very effectively wiped out financial fraud for a generation or so. Maybe if we had similar legislation in place today, the psychopathic bankers would be somewhat more considered in their financial raping and pillaging. "
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/183230-12th-Century-Justice〓snip〓
Paste below, at the end of truncated URL above:
-How-to-deal-with-Fraudulent-Bankers
I have to admit, that this type of "uncivilized" treatment of sentencing for treasonous fraud, might concern some ( as myself ) that condone absolutely no justification for torture.
Is this torture ? Yes, but having them running continue to run the banks is also torture, and a great crime against humanity.
Perhaps extraordinary crimes require extraordinary examples be made of avariciously extreme thievery and treason ?
Is this punishment any more favorable to the guilty than outright execution, for treason ?
Namaste
The banksters own Obama too.
-TIA
It is as it should be called, "The Nafta Flu", after Bubba Clinton.
Ross Perot warned us..
_____________ E V E N _____________
Jack Bauer can't stop 'The Goldman Conspiracy'
"Two mind-numbing fast-paced dramas. Two parallel worlds. One real, one fiction, both deadly. Jack Bauer, mythic hero of "24." Dying from a deadly bio-pathogen leaked from weapons developed by Starkwood, a rogue mercenary army attacking the presidency, hell-bent on taking over America.
The other drama in play: "Hank the Hammer" Paulson, iconic Wall Street hero, a Trojan Horse placed inside Washington by Goldman Sachs as Treasury Secretary in control of America's $15 trillion economy. Goldman, a modern dynasty with vast financial powers much like those once used by the de' Medici, Rothschilds and Morgans to control nations.
Both dramas play high-stakes games with financial WMDs that have lethal consequences. Jack compresses thrills, kills and chills into 24 hours. Hank, Goldman and their army of Wall Street mercenaries move with equally blinding speed, heart-pounding action.
…
Scene 1. American government is now run by the 'Goldman Conspiracy'
Scene 2. Huge conflicts motivating Wall Street's 'Trojan Horse'
Scene 3. Wall Street's 'quiet coup' also runs world's banking system
Scene 4. Wall Street used the meltdown to take over America's government
Scene 5. How Obama is keeping alive Bush's 'disaster capitalism'
Scene 6. Wall Street's CEOs rule like dictators in a banana republic
Scene 7. Wall Street makes an un-American bet on 'disaster capitalism'
Scene 8. Banks recycle TARP money, pump earnings, cheat America
Scene 9. Wall Street's already set the stage for new disaster
Scene 10. Obama turned 'The Goldman Conspiracy' into a superpower
Obama's victory and Geithner's appointment are the completion of Goldman's meticulously crafted plan to become a superpower. The firm now has the clout to impose its will on the financial markets, and the world."
GOP or Dems? Conservatives or liberals? It doesn't matter. We'll all controlled by "The Conspiracy." So why not surrender, let them have the power? The truth is, through their lobbyists and surrogates in Washington, they already rule America. Surrender is a mere formality.
Accept reality. Hold them accountable later. After the next crisis. After the next meltdown of disaster capitalism - if there's anything left after the "Great Depression II" sweeps like a pandemic across the planet, consuming all economies, for a long time. But for now, Goldman and other banks may well be short-term buys. Just be ready to dump them in the near future ... a scenario that will be here sooner than you think. "
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/182789-Jack-Bauer〓snip〓
Paste below, at the end of truncated URL above:
-can-t-stop-The-Goldman-Conspiracy-
Namaste
Since Senator Durbin has only confirmed what we already know, why the big hullabaloo? So that one can say "I told you so?" Except that won't change the way it is. What will? Our rising up en masse. Not our looking for new leadership in Congress & the White House? Politicians are the problem, not the solution. But why right now? It's now or never. Based on? Perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse = doomsday.
I just don't think the banksters are strong enough to withstand a popular revolt.
In case you haven't noticed, they own the White House too. That's why Emanuel, Summers and Geithner are there shoveling the cash to them. Their campaign contributions to Obama are paying off handsomely. Great investment, guys--probably the best you've made in quite a while.
Thiis just came in from the Guthrie foundation.
Here you can go to hear the original recording of Woody singin "Jolly Banker" in the related block and also a group, Wilco's recording of it.
Enjoy
PS
I checked and this CD formate does not allow the whole address to be copied for some reason so you might not find it here.
Better luck here in the top right collum
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/
China, wary of the troubled US economy, has 'canceled America's credit card' by cutting down purchases of debt, US congressman Mark Kirk says.
Chrysler isn't the only thing going bankrupt.
Freddie,
It is up to the people to tell the people so you must go on.
If not you, who?
Obama is DLC
he won't touch NAFTA.
Obama keeps the same bank people.
going the way of Argentina, UK, Japan....
Globalization keeps on ruling.
president obama is the best
at selling the company brand.
gilded age is not going away.
Ulysses Grant is laughing....
All the most serious problems that has caused the Depression that we are in,
and not being mentioned in the Main St press, is because of the damage that
Bubba Clinton forced upon us.
1-He gave us Nafta that send our industrial base to China etc
2-Nafta is today giving us the Hog infested Flu from dirty conditions in Mexico.
3-Clinton joined in with Phil Gramm, Chris Dodd, and gave us the deregulation
of the banking industry.
4-Clinton promoted The New World Order, and Globalization
I could go on all night, however it's is up to the press and more learned people
to step up to the plate and expose the Clintons for their treasonist behaviour.
Who will tell the people? Not Obama..
"This is old news, REALLY old news."
Mercy me m'Lord, isn't that peasant-speak? If anything, that quote is just another sign or reminder of how far along we are in the process of normalizing the loss of our sovereignty as well as the normalization of elite corruption.
I think a significant part or the crowning jewel of this normalization process will be the legislation of corporate healthcare. I mean, how can you expect any kind of legislative rationality or justice after that?
In due fashion, editorial writers at The Nation are already leading the way for "acceptance" mode:
"We believe that program would work best if it expanded and improved on Medicare to cover everyone. Unfortunately, the political establishment--susceptible as it is to the influence of health insurers--has shown scant inclination to embrace the best cure for what ails our system."
In other words--thems the breaks, kid. No use fighting it. Modern civilization was nice while it lasted.
I would argue the normalization of everything that's happening now has been ongoing for the last 50 years or so. Culminating in the marginalization of the "90s pariah, the linear, logical, fact-burdened, classically trained human who through some wiring flaw was predestined to be more oriented toward justice than mercy."
Leaving us with the survival of the fittest: the peasant mindset.
Superstition and opportunism here we come.
The Tea Baggers are the ones with the guts to march in the streets these days.
The revolutionaries on the left could be marching with them. They could find you are not demons and you could find that their idea of Socialism is simply because of mass media and CIA conditioning of US Citizens.
The revolution will not be handed to you, but when it comes it will be confusing and chaotic with many trying to be peaceful and many on both sides being provocateurs.
It has come to the forefront in the media, the big difference is this now very big debate about the understanding of what socialism is.
They think Obama is the real thing... a Socialist. That is the big issue now...so these are the folks who need your input and maybe it could be the start of something new and Big.
By joining them you could share what your idea is and maybe get somewhere too.
They are worried about Deficits, and the coming hyper-inflation..maybe they weren't when Bush was in but now they are correct. The Dems say "Where were you when Bush was throwing money away?" and now the Repubs will say the same and now is everywhere.
The working conservative and follower of Fox News and Rush has more in common with the left radical than either has to the Bankers Club of bought politicians.
Think about the political and social opportunities... they want truth, justice and peace also, but blaming each other will get nowhere.
It takes all kinds to make a mass movement and today there is none, just obedience to opposing frozen ideology.
The Big Bankers have spent their lives gettin rich on dividing the common folks right and left and what has the Left done about this?
Love the Revolution
Well, that is a confusing proposal. If the teabaggers think Obama is a socialist, instead of a bankster-funded Friedmanite, how do you think any progress will be made?
Let them march, and be ignored. They need a little alone time. It's their turn.
I suspect we'll all come together in the growing poverty to come, but not right away. The right wingers have the capacity to rationalize the status quo. That's the sort of thing that makes devoted fascists. There's nothing admirable about that, and I don't think it should be romanticized as having "the guts" to stand up.
It looks more like we're entering a time of sharpened social divisions. But to get unity of purpose, you need to have the basic understandings in place first. I'm sad to say that the right wing just hasn't arrived there quite yet. Rage only leads to effective change when it's motivated by a desire for justice and fairness. And justice and fairness is a social concept. That's the part they don't get. So, they need a few decades to figure that out; then, we talk.
-TIA
An excellent commentary!
People, Left or Right, has to work together to accomplish any meaningful changes. We have more in common with each other than we do with the Elite class.
Thank you.
It really is time for the working left to reach out to the working right. The socialist utopia should be described in terms of the small town general store of 50 or 100 years past, the small time farmers, craftsmen and merchants all working together to build a healthy local community with a unique culture. All of this still exists to some extent. It just needs to be expanded and defended. The defense of this type of community from far-flung power centers is the extent of the socialist element, and the working right will readily accept it. The defense involves shutting out the power centers from the business loop. The working left has to wean itself from dependence on the power centers, and establish direct trade ties with the working right. Start with farming product from rural to urban, and specialized craftworks from urban to rural, small to small. Deny the power centers any piece of the action.
Re rtdrury April 30th, 2009 11:17 pm
Well reasoned and well said. I've tried over the years to frame the issue in terms of old-time barn-raisings, where people came to the aid of their neighbors when there was a job to be done that was beyond the ability of one person or a single family.
Conservatives (honest ones, anyway) like to say that government exisits only to do for people what they can't do for themselves, like create roads, schools and hospitals, or defend against external threats. This line of thought can sometimes be extended to "promoting the general welfare" without triggering all the usual reflexive objections implanted by corporate media.
I think---I hope---we're at such a "teachable moment."
We had better be.
Very well put, Jim! At least someone is demonstrating against the Wall Street bailouts.
Powerful article.
How do we get out of this mess?
Banning lobbying is a start.
Getting rid of the privately owned Federal Reserve and having government print and manage the money supply would help.
Geithner, Summers and Rubin are hurting Obama.
I don't know why he keeps them there, unless he wants to keep public enemies closer.
Or like all politicians, lacking publicly funded elections he needs Big Money bribes to be elected.
Or he is afraid that the oligarchy will destroy him.
President Obama wouldn't have to operate the banks and car companies if he nationalized them, unlike what he said in yesterday's press conference.
If from the banks and corporations we buy with our tax dollars, he gave each grown up American, equal, non-tansferable shares of this stock, we could hire our own bank and corporate management as shareholders of any stock do.
Or he could give equivalent shares of stock to people according to how much they pay in taxes.
The more taxes they pay, the more shares of stock they get.
This would stimulate more people and businesses to pay their fair share without avoiding taxes.
Once profitable, the income from these businesses now belonging to the public could easily end poverty in America, give us all free healthcare, free education, lots more leisure time and more tax revenue for necessary government functions.
Mr ezeflyer says, "Banning lobbying is a start...Getting rid of the privately owned Federal Reserve...would help..."
- This is a silly waste of breath. Who do you suppose is going to "ban lobbying"? As the article plainly says, the bankers own the Congress. (You do understand that concept, don't you?) And one consequence of the bankers owning Congress is that they won't let Congress ban lobbying, or monkey around with the Fed. They like it just the way it is. In fact, the REASON those things are the way they are, is because bankers (& other powerful industries) like them that way.
So there's no such thing as "banning lobbying" until you solve the problem of our government being owned by big business.
Similarly, you write, "Geithner, Summers and Rubin are hurting Obama...I don't know why he keeps them there..."
- It's because he's a bought whore, just like Congress. He serves the banks' interests because they made him president; & they backed him because they saw he'd serve them well. If he ever turned against them (an unlikely possibility, to be sure), they'd quickly find a way to get rid of him. He has already helped the banksters bring off the greatest heist in history -- & the rest of the country will be paying for it, for generations to come.
"- This is a silly waste of breath. Who do you suppose is going to "ban lobbying"? As the article plainly says, the bankers own the Congress. (You do understand that concept, don't you?) And one consequence of the bankers owning Congress is that they won't let Congress ban lobbying, or monkey around with the Fed. They like it just the way it is. In fact, the REASON those things are the way they are, is because bankers (& other powerful industries) like them that way."
I think We the People own the Congress Mr. Einstein. The bankers are usurpers. I don't know how far you will get with whining, bitching, moaning and calling Obama nasty names, but you may as well hold your breath until you turn blue.
Rude, arrogant, condescending and insulting comments are neurotic antisocial behavior. It could make you feel better, but it won't bring anyone around to your point of view.
Conservatives enjoy abusing others as you likely were and you are very obviously in that warped vicious circle. I am sorry you were abused, but one can only take so much.
I didn't think Dave's comment was rude, arrogant, condescending and insulting. In fact, I think his comments are some of the most brilliant and truthfully spoken comments in this forum.
He is not "abusing" you. He is simply destroying you in an intellectual debate!!! Maybe you should try to step back and see it as that - which may also help you learn something.
Making "dumb comments" and calling Obama a "whore" doesn't seem to be an intellectual debate to me, though it may be to a left wing conservative ditto-head.
First -- if I am going to learn something from your post -- What's a left wing conservative ditto-head?
It's interesting that you only seem to focus on the "harsh" name calling, INSTEAD of addressing the points Dave brings up. Are you only focusing on the name calling because you are not able to address the message? For ex: Why do you not address Dave's rebuttal to your less-than-brilliant comment of 'We the People own Congress Einstein?' (BTW- nice name calling on your part) There is no name calling in his rebuttal and he brings up very valid points.
- First of all, it's not personal. If you stop saying dumb things, I'll be glad to stop picking on you.
- In terms of substance, no, you're dead wrong again, as usual. We the People do not own Congress. The bankers own Congress, because they have all the money, & all the power that goes with it. The only way "We the People" (WTP ™) can take control of Congress is through a massive focused & very determined popular movement. And Obama-apologists like you, who are always making excuses for him, are acting as impediments to the growth of such a movement -- because if people continue to believe that the Democrats "mean well" & will eventually save us, they will never see the need to rise up. People will only rise up when they finally realize that there is no other way. In your small way, you are helping to prevent that realization from dawning.
Tell the truth Dave. You hate me because I get down on conservatives. I'm tired of right and left wing conservatives causing all the evil in the world and blaming liberals for it.
Glenn Greenwald wrote:
"Top Senate Democrat: Bankers 'Own' the US Congress"
________________________________________________________________________________
Duh. Of course they do. What else is new.
What the bankers don't own; Honesty, truth, love.
Hmmmmmm. They get the spoils!!! Hate, deceit, sloth, sin, greed, etc, etc, etc.
I'm soooooo angry er wait.......angry about that....no I'm sad about that, wait no I'm relieved that I am not a banker, corporate head, congressperson.....though I do have a mortgage with one of them.....I think that I need to address that ASAP.
Thank God for the RN's of government, so glad I voted for you, so grateful you were on the ticket!!!
"What the bankers don't own; Honesty, truth, love."
Ah thanks Leea. Just the words that would convince more people to switch to credit unions. At least in credit unions, people take the time to know one another and even assess the situations on a case by case basis.
By the way, I take it you live out on the farmlands in a rural setting, correct? You remind me of my life in the countryside before I had to move.
Yes I'm a bit of a country girl. City life ain't all bad though. ;)
I think that it depends on what individuals want in their life, some people choose the materialistic life of consumption that the big banks foster and it suits them. I don't want it, I am working to change my habits though.
Don't be so sure about them not owning truth. If the media is not legally required to tell the truth when reporting, then they do in effect own the truth.
I can see where the bankers and the media can in effect twist the truth to their liking but the second sentence kind of puzzles me.
Sorry, it's in reference to a court decision that found Fox News not legally required to tell the truth in its reporting, since the FCC guideline stating it "did not rise to the level of a regulation" or some bullshit.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/
2007/7/30/201231/262
[ _____ RENTING Congress is MUCH cheaper._____ ]
¿ Why buy the cow, when all banksters want is the milk ( and honey ) ?
Namaste
If we really want this type of representation to stop, we MUST vote in the National Initiative. www.vote.org. Please check this out and vote for it. It will allow us to amend the constitution to make the PEOPLE the fourth branch of government allowing us to participate in creating federal legislation.
Of course the fact of this is old news, but the willingness of Washington politicians to plainly speak to this truth is rare, and to act for changing it even more so.
Of course Obama is playing ball with this institution. Only a deluded person could possibly expect otherwise, or to believe any presidential candidate would have a choice not to in today's world, when this financial/money machine is so pervasively woven throughout the fabric of the global economy, which is all together a different thing without the US.
It is easy to cast dispersions here but this is the beast that reigneth over the multitudes and hath deceived them.
If one truly understands the nature of a society's money and wealth, one must seek to assure that the full power and capacity of those become well-forged into a resource and asset of the public domain. The money mechanism must be utilized for the common good before that of private interests. Money in itself is meaningless. Money is used for trade, and trade is based on what you know, what you can do, and what you have. For a society, that equals the sum total of those capabilities of all persons in that society. Money's value correlates directly to the productive capacity of the whole of that society, and thus money should absolutely be perceived and managed as a shared community commodity.
None of this changes until we take ownership of our money. Period. If there was ever just cause for use of eminent domain, this would be it. But it is unproductive to blame or expect Washington politicians to do that for us. If Nader or someone like Nader would take up this cause, and survive assassination, then maybe we could look to Washington for a fix, otherwise it's got to be us collectively.
I would advise Senator Durbin to avoid trips on small aircraft.
q
The uprising must have as its goal the creation of a new Constitution embodying the proportional representation parliamentary system.
Of course this goes against the entire history of the US since the Constitution we currently have was drafted in secret by a committee under the Articles which was not officially appointed to that task. Opposed by 90% of the public when the document was finally made public, the Constitution was ratified on its own terms by two-thirds majority, not the unanimous approval required by the Articles. Supporters of the Constitution engaged in terror and intimidation of state assemblys to force ratification where the outcome was delayed or in doubt.
The US has ever stood for the democracy of plantation owners, merchants, bankers, professionals, and their lawyers. All others have been stifled and obstructed from participation since the war for independence.
What's Holding Us Back From Storming Wall Street?
"Too many of us have bought into the one about ours being a classless society."
"Anything else?"
"The lotto mentality?"
"Which is?"
"Better not bring down those wheeler-dealers on Wall Street, because, if I do, should I win this month's lotto, there goes my chances for fame & fortune."
"Instead of?"
"Joining the mass uprising."
Congress is a toxic asset .... Maybe Geithner can purchase Congress with bailout money and let them vote for higher salaries and termination bonuses.
What a wonderful country ....
"Maybe Geithner can purchase Congress with bailout money and let them vote for higher salaries and termination bonuses."
Hasn't he already done so?
q
The corporations have owned our elected officials for over a hundred years now. See "Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Co 118 US 394 (1886)." Nothing will change until this atrocity is reversed.
Bingo!
Here's the really, really pathetic part - what a bunch of cheap f@#king whores "our" representatives truly are.
Seriously - GSachs "earns" $1.8 billion in "profits" in a f@#king quarter and buys Bayh for a paltry $125K?
Screwing the American people should cost the finance mafia at least $1 million per Senator per company, plus free use of the corporate jet and a lifetime supply of KY jelly... at least then we could be like, well, okay, sure, I'd even screw myself for $10-15 million in pocket change per year...
Don't be fooled, banksters are experts with off-balance-sheet trading, I'm sure there can be arrangements for a "little something" off shore too.
Gotta love the 10,000 to 1 leverage ratio that lobbying represents, huh? Makes the big banks look like charities.
It irritates me too. "Our" congresscritters are not only whores, they are cheap whores. But that's the way of it when the bribe goes to them but the payout comes from us. Can't we get some kick backs or something?
Don't despair fellow Lefties, Wu has figured it out:
First off, someone should collar the white collar pirates--
"Why are you a pirate?" "That's where the money is," said the young Somali native.
"Why do you turn toxic sub-prime mortgages into AAA rated securities?" That's where the money is, answered the young Wall Streeter.
--From Dr Wu's latest book: "Your Pirates and Mine
Prison time probably won't happen anytime soon given how BushCO got off the hook.
But, here's the good part, the ship of Anglo-Capitalism, free market Double-Bubble lunacy is Sinking! ("hear what I'm saying")
The Wall Street-Geithner-Obama nexus:
When Finances replaced Manufacturing as the largest part of GDP (21% vs. 12%)and our biggest sector for corporate profits (50%), our best and brightest minds made more money flipping papers on Wall Street than they do making planes in Seattle or cars in Detroit. Most of Harvard and Yale headed to Wall Street!
And the downward spiral continues--you cannot maintain a world class empire on computer clicks and paper flipping. Once you have finances dominating the economy, the country becomes slack with the easy ways of easy money. In this we're following the path of other empires that went down the tubes with finances--Spain, the Dutch and the Brits. They all survived the fall as second-tier powers. That's probably in the cards for us. Summers and Geithner may know people in powerful places but they can never bring back what made this country supreme: manufacturing.
Crazy as America is, is there a way out before we reach 2nd tierdom? Possibly. Energy wars have been and will be our undoing. That and our continuing policy of salvaging banks that are too corrupt to exist. Three simple ideas: cut our energy use in half, cut our military in half (we already have a nuclear submarine fleet that is armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over AND these subs are impervious to a first strike)and let the BIG BANKS go down the tubes.
Great comment, Dr. Wu. In the April edition of Harper's, Thomas Geoghegan makes the same argument about the destruction of the US economy beginning with its takeover by the financial sector and dismemberment of manufacturing. It's an important essay right now: "Infinite Debt: How unlimited interest rates destroyed the economy." Even if I don't agree with Geoghegan's simplistic dismissal of socialism as a sane and positive alternative to the current self-immolation of capitalism. He wants Social Democracy, European style, which would be a welcome shift from our present Obama course, only intended to preserve the system that clearly cannot save itself.
I like your analysis, Dr Wu. And I agree with your 3 suggestions. But (as you'd probably agree) the people who own this country would fight to the death (even if it means blowing up much of the world), rather than allow those 3 things to happen.
So before we're in any position to take sane & responsible actions like the ones you suggest, we have to deal with our own ruling class. Some sort of confrontation seems inevitable. I doubt it can be done simply by advancing "reasonable arguments," because the only solutions for the rest of us entail them losing most of their privileges.
I turned on the radio last night and heard two sentences of Obama's address. He said, testily, "I don't want to run banks. I've already got two wars to run." I wish I had been there in person so I could yell, "Precisely! Stop bombing hapless foreign civilian populations and clean up the mess here at home!" Of course, it is just as well that I wasn't there, since my contribution would have earned me handcuffs and a jail cell.
On the bright side, as my young daughter points out, the collapse of the American Empire will be the best news for the planet and its people in a long long time.
Your daughter is very wise.
Tell me again why we are required to obey the laws they pass or the taxes they levy? What gives them any legitimacy? Why is overthrowing this government not an option?
FEAR!
From the article:
"It's a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master's carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields."
"Those who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them."
---Eric Hoffer
OK, Mr. Greenwald, I'm convinced that the corruption is systemic. Do you have a suggestion for moving forward, or are you just going to complain?
I don't expect an answer because the only logical answer is a call for international communism, including the expropriation of capital, and nobody gets published who has the bravery to say that.
The answer would be the reinstatement of the restrictions on banks and other financial institutions which Roosevelt implemented during the Great Depression. They worked.
q
Maybe so if you call the end of the depression - World War II - a solution that 'worked'. I don't!
Capitalism will never be able to overcome war and economic calamity. Fritzing with the regulatory mechanisms is the solution they would love to have you believe in, but it is a big, ugly lie. Only global communist revolution offers the hope of simple justice, but that won't get much air in the mainstream press, or even on CD, which is uniformly reformist (or 'neutral')in the articles presented.
Build the party of global proletarian socialism, or prepare for imperialist WW3.
The notion that WWII is the only thing that pulled us out of the Depression has been debunked. Roosevelt'r reforms resulted in improving economies for every year after they were implemented save one.
The experience of the Soviet Union and the current example of China clearly demonstrate that the political system which you advocate is just as fraught with problems as unregulated capitalism.
I have many socialist sympathies myself and I honestly believe that there is a feasible middle ground between laissez-faire and total command economies.
q
I strongly urge the identification and discussion of specific policies and principles rather than the use of general terms such as 'communism', or 'capitalism', etc. These general terms are essentially meaningless because there are endless interpretations and variations on the central theme, resulting in most discussions diminishing into non-productive stalemates, usually to the effect of, "you have your opinion and I have mine."
It is inevitable that viable solutions for the future of our nation and globe will be found through assimilating and reconstructing the best practices and principles of a myriad of social and political strategies, that have come before. The future does not belong to any current single ideology, and what the human race should have learned by now is that the adherence to a single ideology is always self-limiting. We must be bigger than that now.
The most productive course for the future is to identify, discuss and prioritize specific components of social policy, and leave the generalizations, labels and pigeon-holing to historians.
Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: "And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place."
No! Really? All my civics teachers told me that the people own it.
The big banks will quit owning Congress as soon as more customers switch from the bigger banks doing the crimes to local banks or better yet credit unions. We the people have the power when it comes to gunning down banks who behave badly and screw us to the point of pushing us off the cliff. Let's force these big banks to collapse and then see which members of Congress will remain lame and bail them out. Those who still bail them out by then deserve to be booted out of Congress and replaced.
I totally agree. I really don't understand why anyone is still using a bank for their primary banking needs anymore. Credit unions are a whole lot better.
Here's my plan of attack, if I can get up the guts to do it...
1) Move ALL money, loans, mortgages from banks to credit unions.
2) Move any money in stocks to money markets.
2) Stop purchasing health care insurance.
Let's just start voting with our wallets since this is the only thing these people understand. When they are no longer making any revenue will be the only time we can take away their power. No more money for those lobbyists.
"Stop purchasing health care insurance."
On that one, until we can get single payer, I'm afraid that we're either at the mercy of our employers or purchasing it ourselves.
I switched to a local credit union from a big bank last year and it has been great so far. I believe credit unions are widely available regardless of where one lives. From what I understand, it's rare for one not to be able to qualify for being a member of a credit union. In that worst case scenario, another option would be a small local bank although they're vulnerable to getting bought out by the big ones.
As to why people still stick to banks, I tried to find a single reason why but very few people could convince me. I did come across a rightwing jerk who said that his credit union was somehow mean to him and tried to tell me that banks provide better customer service but he would also be the same one bashing labor unions. My guess is he simply misbehaved.
In my local areas and even on the state level, most pols wouldn't even dare allow any legislation that empowers banks over credit unions to pass. Usually that was the case in Washington too. If so, I think that we the people can make a silent getaway from the banks before the pols go pro-bank and annihilate the credit unions like they did the small family farms.
I know what you mean about the health care insurance... I have mine through my employer. But they just switched us this year to a high-deductible plan and I keep wondering why we bother. Insurance doesn't kick in (other than for annual physicals) until I've paid over $6K out of pocket!!! I might as well not have insurance. Unfortunately, they've got us over a barrel with "pre-existing conditions" and most people are scared to death of being without their death insurance. If you let it lapse then they hit you with that. We really need universal single payer. There's just no excuse not to anymore. The insurance companies are nothing more than thieves and they offer no added value by us purchasing their insurance. Just more overhead, headaches and the chance of not having our treatments covered at all.
You can just not have health insurance, and be careful not to get severely injured and you'll save a lot of money if you never become hospitalized...reportedly many primary care physicians are increasingly willing to just take cash payments for routine checkups and other preventive measures...just ignore the insurance industry. If you are hospitalized, well, they have to treat you until you're stabilized, correct? Then you can negotiate payment later...and with luck it won't approach your former deductible limit.
A lot of doctors get cheated by the insurance industry more than the trial lawyers. Yet, when it comes to telling who's to blame for the rising costs, half the doctors will blame the trial lawyers.
I still feel rather skittish about the idea of not having health insurance. It's like not having auto insurance for one's car. Maybe it is our fear of living without health/auto insurance which gives these insurance companies the power to press our buttons and toy with us.
"I still feel rather skittish about the idea of not having health insurance."
I have to agree. When I was 16, I dislocated my elbow playing street hockey. I took the typical teenage male attitude that I was indestructible and went on playing even though I couldn't straighten out my arm. When my father took me to the hospital that night, I will never forget him telling me "This is why we have insurance."
I haven't had health insurance for a while now, I sure as hell can't afford it on an intern's salary or while I was at college. But similarly I barely make enough to may my current bills so I can't go visit a doctor...but that will change once I get a better (paying) job.
The bankrupcy laws have changed during Clinton reign. No bailouts! Obama voted for this change. At 21-29% interest, everyone should stop making credit card payments.
Dick Durbin runs on high fructose corn syrup. it's the only thing his sponsor will let him eat.
But, what's this I see, Barney Frank's name?
But, wait! Barney Frank is in the "Congressional Progressive Caucus"!
nooooo! Not a 'progressive'....
What falls before me if not the sky, perhaps then it is my idle mind? For without the scent of roses in the air, I am left to tend a garden made of only compost and worms.
Where is Obama? I need an uplifting speech. Paint me a harmonious picture of rose pedals and youthful expressions; A1 Front Company, that's all I ask. Tell me "I get it" and am part of the solution, unlike those "others". You know, the cynics, the detractors, the FOX TV ilk he so readily smacks around for effect. I want to be lifted up and placed in a soft bed of platitudes and cliches too....
.
.
.
.
in the meantime, revolving credit lenders dine on a populace's sweat and blood. Nothing is done. More homeowner bankruptcies, artificial markets, more debt, buttressed by platitudes of hope. Yet, is this a sign Congress begins to feed on itself? That would be a change I could believe in. And I'm not talking about more examples of switch hitting, slight of hand playing like Arlen Specter. 2010 could end with the ousting all the pols who hustle the voters. Imagine, a Congress stripped of the corn fed, auto-fed, coal-fed, timber-fed, bank-fed, mil-fed, fatheads. talk about dreaming of a rosy future.
The extent to which the banks hold the USA hostage is akin to when Teddy Roosevelt had to cajole J.P. Morgan himself in 1907 to preserve the banking system after a failed attempt by another corporation at economic sabotage. At the heart of this is the necessity for American politicians to raise money to run for office. As long as that exists, this problem will never go away.
So what are you going to do? Keep banging your head against the wall and bitching about it or drop out. I recommend dropping out. Enough.
If drop out includes turn on and tune in, count me in.
Are you going to be there(at the love-in)?
A simple first step.
Companies: corporations, LLC, partnerships, etc. are not people and do not have rights.
It should be illegal for companies to contribute money or favors to politicians or political campaigns.
People, on the other hand, should be able to contribute as much as they please.
So how does a progressive reach the militia men and others with misdirected anger and get them to recognize the Washington-Wall Street Axis of Evil that is swindling them? Through the Internet? Through YouTube, with humor? Sounds like a possibility.
Depending on who you talk to, we are living in a second Gilded Age, with the bankster class representing the robberbaron class.
Today's financial industry (which includes insurance companies)have politicians bribed and voters hoodwinked at a level the robber barons of a century ago could only dream of.
The only two presidents who achieved any control over the robber barons were trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt and new dealer Franklin Roosevelt. Obama's economic actions and policies to date have set a trajectory that is further enriching Wall Street at the expense of US taxpayers.
I am not sure that today's situation is that much bigger than that of the robberbaron era. The robberbarons also had politicians in their pockets too, i.e. the ineffectiveness of the ICC. Also William Howard Taft (to a lesser extent) and Woodrow Wilson fought the robberbarons.
In a broader context, I agree with you.
Woodrow Wilson fought the robberbarons? Maybe some of them, but not the biggest robbers of them all - the Rothschilds and the rest of the pig bankers. Woodrow Wilson was the bankers little puppet.... the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 has his signature on it.
After his complete sell-out of America to the bankers he later stated his regret:
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." -Woodrow Wilson
Early in his Presidency he fought some of them, but eventually caved, and made that tacit admission you quote.
Woodrow Wilson was the only president, before George Wanker Bush, who truly deserved to be called a punk. I detect some Woodrow Wilsonism in Obysmal.
This is old news, REALLY old news. The only people unaware of the banks owning Congress and the White House are the ones who have been like Rip Van Winkle-sleeping for the past 20 years.
Old news may be well done. Would you argue that all who vote for these purchasable manikins understand this?
The "Old News" canard. Used by people who want to distract us from solving the problem.