Year: 2013

Dean Baker on Timothy Geithner, That’s Gonna Leave a Mark

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This is positively brutal:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s departure from the Obama administration invites comparisons with Klemens von Metternich. Metternich was the foreign minister of the Austrian empire who engineered the restoration of the old order and the suppression of democracy across Europe after the defeat of Napoleon.

This was an impressive diplomatic feat – given the widespread popular contempt for Europe’s monarchical regimes. In the same vein, protecting Wall Street from the financial and economic havoc they brought upon themselves and the country was an enormous accomplishment.

Just go read it.

What a Surprise, Another Cave

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Another Cave

Yes, as a final f%$# you to the average American, the White House has ruled out the platinum coin:

The Treasury Department will not mint a trillion-dollar platinum coin to get around the debt ceiling. If they did, the Federal Reserve would not accept it.

 That’s the bottom line of the statement that Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, gave me today. “Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit,” he said.

 The inclusion of the Federal Reserve is significant. For the platinum coin idea to work, the Federal Reserve would have to treat it as a legal way for the Treasury Department to create currency. If they don’t believe it’s legal and would not credit the Treasury Department’s deposit, the platinum coin would be worthless.

The idea of minting a platinum coin to invalidate the debt ceiling comes from a few key sentences tacked onto the 1997 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act. “Notwithstanding any other provision of law,” it reads, “the Secretary of the Treasury may mint and issue platinum coins in such quantity and of such variety as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.”

Even if you decide that you will not do this, you do not take this off the table without getting something in return.

At best, it’s a kind of mania with the Obama, he wants to be seen as the reasonable person in the room, even when in a situation where this does not work, at worst, he’s getting everything that he wants, which includes savaging Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

If You Want to Understand the Face of Modern Capitalism

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Just read Aviation Week‘s savaging of Angela Merkel. (Paid Subscription Required)

Seriously, this article makes me feel a modicum of respect for Angela F%$#ing Merkel.

It centers on the role of Merkel of killing the BAE/EADS merger, and Aviation Week, which is at its core a defense industry newsletter, and as suchit does not approve of government “meddling.”

The basic premise behind this is that after sucking up billions of government subsidies and contracts, they want to “unleash the free market” (Translation: move factories to China, overpay senior executives, and continue to get government money).

Nixing the terms demanded by BAE may have been the best thing that Merkel has ever done.

If there is any industry that rivals the banksters for socializing risk and privatizing profits, it is the defense industry, and to treat it as anything but a ward of the state is a profound mistake.

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

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So, some wags put out a petition to, “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016“.

Since this bit of comedic gold has gotten more then 25,000 signatures, the white house has issued a response:

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

  • The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

  • The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

  • Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

I am actually a bit surprised by their response.

I would have assumed that the White House would have insisted that “blowing up planets” was a necessary executive prerogative in line with his functions of Commander-in-Chief.

Belated 100th Birthday, Mr. President

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Richard Milhaus Nixon was born on January 9, 1913.

I’m not a deep student of history, but I do believe that he was the worst president from the period 1933 through 1973 1974, and that he was the best president from the period of 1969 through 2013. (Would you like that with extrajudicial drone killings, sir?)

We are led by increasingly small and petty men.

He is a F%$#ing Comedian

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Blah, blah, blah!

So until the pundits are subjected to some scrutiny for their fact free gaffes, leave Jon Stewart alone. </LeaveBritneyAlone>

You can see the video, and I don’t think it’s great. It shows off his not-infrequent forays into “a pox on both their houses” land, but there is a difference between saying, “Not up to his normal standards,” and:

I won’t say that Stewart has the same obligation to be accurate the journalists have—in fact, if he had brought up the coin only to make a lot of silly jokes about whose face would be on it, that would have been okay. (A missed opportunity, but nothing more.) But instead he grossly misled his audience.

At its best the Daily Show is about satirizing the actual reality of American governance in an honest way. Stewart has built up a lot of credibility over the years. A great many people trust him implicitly, believing that while his main objective is to be funny, he also won’t under any circumstances BS them. Yesterday, he betrayed that trust.

Shame on you, Jon Stewart. You’re better than this.

It’s one thing to say, “It’s not his best,” and it’s another to treat it as one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse.

Ryan Cooper, please get a life.

Ooh, Baby, You Are So Talented!

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And They Are So Dumb!

You remember how Dick “Army of Dicks” Armey spilled the beans on how he and the rest of FreedomWorks was basically grifting?

Well, it appears that he confused the conservative Media Research Center, and the liberal Media Matters when he spilled the beans:

There’s been a remarkable amount of drama surrounding Dick Armey’s departure from FreedomWorks, culminating Friday with a stunning report from Media Matters, who interviewed the former House Majority Leader directly. Armey had all kinds of interesting insights to share with the progressive group, including tidbits on pay-for-play agreements with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and the FreedomWorks’ practice of charging activists to attend free events.

 Though many of Armey’s revelations should probably be taken with a grain of salt — the former GOP leader seemed confused about some of the details he shared — there was a larger question that puzzled nearly everyone: why in the world was Dick Armey dishing dirt to Media Matters?

 The Daily Caller, a conservative outlet, tracked down the answer.

Dick Armey had no idea he was speaking to the left-wing Media Matters organization during an interview last week, he told The Daily Caller Tuesday. Instead, Armey thought he was chatting with the conservative Media Research Center. […]


 As for who he thought he was speaking to, Armey asked the Daily Caller, “Who’s the guy with the red beard that always does the show where he points out how biased the press is?” Told he seemed to be referring to the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell, who does a weekly “Media Mash” segment on Fox News, Armey said, “Yeah, I thought it was Brent Bozell.”

As the saying goes, “ない愚かさはない薬です”.*

If these guys had half a brain, we’d be in trouble.  Of course, if they had half a brain. they would not be movement conservatives.

H/t Crooks and Liars.

*Pronounced in Japanese, “baka ni tsukeru kusuri wanai”, which means, “There is no medicine for stupidity.” Apologies for any inaccuracies in the text, I do not know Japanese.

Quote of the Day

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The only problem is, the suit is being filed by maybe the biggest douchebag of all time, Hank Greenberg (and his company, Starr International), a man who has not only been proven to be corrupt and a fraud, but who perhaps more than anyone else was responsible for the galactic balance-sheet goat-f%$# that caused AIG’s implosion in the first place. If there is such a person as an innocent AIG shareholder who was harmed by the government’s conduct, it sure as hell isn’t Hank Greenberg.

—Matt Taibbi, on Greenberg’s suit against the US because he did not get well paid enough for running AIG into the ground.

(%$# mine)

FWIW, In an unexpected outbreak of sanity AIG has decided not to join Greenberg’s lawauit.

Still, “Galactic Balance Sheet goat f%$#,”  that is good, even by Matt’s high standards.

Go read.

Live in Obedient Fear, Citizen

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This is why privacy, and innocent until proved guilty are important.

If your entire life is available to the state security apparatus, they will find something, and so you had better not be inconvenient to said state security apparatus, because they already have the means to destroy you.

You do not want them to be inclined to actually do so.

It is depressing that the truth tellers in our society are cartoonists and comedians.


Link

I am adding cartoonist Zach Weiner to my list of, “People I Do Not Want to Piss Off.”

A Big F%$# You to Torture Opponents

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After the idea got shot down by opponents of torture in 2009, Obama is nominating highly vocal torture supporter John Brennan:

President Obama plans to nominate top counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan to lead the CIA, a senior administration official said today.

Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the agency, would take the helm of the CIA in the wake of the resignation of former Army Gen. David Petraeus.

I will be calling my Senators (both Democrats) and asking that both of them to filibuster him. (they won’t, but I am asking)

It is very likely, though it is not certain given the veil of secrecy surrounding this matter that Brennan was an active participant in torture.

The most depressing commentary on this is Glen Greenwald’s observation that there is Obama has succeeded in making opposition to torture a fringe political position:

It is a perfect illustration of the Obama legacy that a person who was untouchable as CIA chief in 2008 because of his support for Bush’s most radical policies is not only Obama’s choice for the same position now, but will encounter very little resistance. Within this change one finds one of the most significant aspects of the Obama presidency: his conversion of what were once highly contentious right-wing policies into harmonious dogma of the DC bipartisan consensus. Then again, given how the CIA operates, one could fairly argue that Brennan’s eagerness to deceive and his long record of supporting radical and unaccountable powers make him the perfect person to run that agency. It seems clear that this is Obama’s calculus.

I can only conclude that Barack Obama, aka the Worst Constitutional Law Professor Ever™, is objectively pro torture.

And the morons in Sweden gave him a Nobel Peace Prize.

Just Go Read Matt Taibbi

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He is on fire when writing about the nature of the bank bailouts:

………

Through behavior like this, the government has turned the entire financial system into a kind of vast confidence game – a Ponzi-like scam in which the value of just about everything in the system is inflated because of the widespread belief that the government will step in to prevent losses. Clearly, a government that’s already in debt over its eyes for the next million years does not have enough capital on hand to rescue every Citigroup or Regions Bank in the land should they all go bust tomorrow. But the market is behaving as if Daddy will step in to once again pay the rent the next time any or all of these kids sets the couch on fire and skips out on his security deposit. Just like an actual Ponzi scheme, it works only as long as they don’t have to make good on all the promises they’ve made. They’re building an economy based not on real accounting and real numbers, but on belief. And while the signs of growth and recovery in this new faith-based economy may be fake, one aspect of the bailout has been consistently concrete: the broken promises over executive pay.

………

The implications here go far beyond the question of whether Dimon and Co. committed insider trading by buying and selling stock while they had access to material nonpublic information about the bailouts. The broader and more pressing concern is the clear implication that by failing to act, federal regulators­ have tacitly approved the nondisclosure. Instead of trusting the markets to do the right thing when provided with accurate information, the government has instead channeled Jack Nicholson – and decided that the public just can’t handle the truth.

………

So what exactly did the bailout accomplish? It built a banking system that discriminates against community banks, makes Too Big to Fail banks even Too Bigger to Failier, increases risk, discourages sound business lending and punishes savings by making it even easier and more profitable to chase high-yield investments than to compete for small depositors. The bailout has also made lying on behalf of our biggest and most corrupt banks the official policy of the United States government. And if any one of those banks fails, it will cause another financial crisis, meaning we’re essentially wedded to that policy for the rest of eternity – or at least until the markets call our bluff, which could happen any minute now.

Other than that, the bailout was a smashing success.

Seriously, just go read, and then scream at your congresscritters.

Maybe Not Unto the 3rd Generation, but More than a Decade

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John Aravosis wondered how long the boycott of Domino’s Pizza should last beyond Tom Monaghan’s sale of the pizza delivery firm:

The thing is, a lot of people are still ticked at Domino’s for the Monaghan years. I know I am. I still avoid Domino’s when possible, even though I “know” Monaghan is gone. (And most of us didn’t even know about the Romney/Bain connection – they owned the company after Monaghan, though they’re now gone too.)

 Like Coors, years after it faced a gay backlash, Domino’s was run by a lot of right-wing jerks during much of its existence, and the company is now trying to figure out how to get rid of some serious baggage. And like Coors, Dominos, Cracker Barrel, Chick-fil-A all give me a bad taste in my mouth, even though the first two have gotten rid of their far-right heritage.

 Are liberals being unfair to Domino’s, or Coors or Cracker Barrel? Once bad people sell a company, is it time for us to let bygones be bygones? If Monaghan continues being a jerk, is it time to stop holding Domino’s response for his ongoing actions?

It’s a legitimate question.

I’m not sure how long a boycott for this sort of sh%$ should last, but it should be at least a decade, and probably at least 2.

This is not about being unwilling to let go, it’s about economics:  If a boycott goes away as soon as the right wing ratf%$# sells out, then he can sell out for more money.

Any protest must continue for a long enough time to ensure there is no easy/lucrative escape hatch.

Yes, I know that this is in response from a post made over 2 weeks ago, I came across this when I was doing some house cleaning.

Heh.

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At the start of a new Congress, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out teabagger membership cards to the Republican Representatives:

As new members of Congress are sworn in on Thursday, Democrats are looking to brand the incoming Republican class early on. The DCCC is sending out the above “Tea Party membership cards” to the offices of 35 freshman Republicans.

 Press releases in their individual districts identify each member as “the newest Tea Party House Republican who will put millionaires ahead of the middle class and dysfunction ahead of progress,” according to DCCC communications director Jesse Ferguson.

This is really what I call “immature College Republican agitprop,” but I still chuckled.

I guess that a lot depends on whose ox is gored.