Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

As a lawyer, I am a professional paranoid. But I'm not this paranoid. Who do you think "bought" her vote on Iraq? If you're going to start fantasizing about a vote someone might pay for, go looking at votes that matter, not ones where she was the 97th vote in a foregone conclusion.

It is a total defense to a charge of being bought.

I am pretty confident she has more rudder than all but two, perhaps three of the Presidents who have been in office while I've been alive (and I was born during JFK's tenure). I know this is not a high bar, but it's the only bar we've got.

Re: Arise, ye workers from your slumber.
 

2. That Q&A reminds me of when Carson was asked about the debt-ceiling limit on NPR, and clearly did not understand what it is.

And we've moved well past the point where Bernie's magic wand will just break up the banks, without having to bother with silly questions like "how?" or "under what authority?" or "have you considered the negative consequences?" Now he's going to usher in a Democratic House and Senate, and transform the US economy so it looks half-like the 1950s -- with union jobs, pensions, and health care, but without excluding non-whites and women. Are there barriers to doing this in the form of technology, globalization, the existence of innumerable industrial economies today that could not hope to compete in the 1950s, the US need and desire for imports, the importance of exports that would be at risk in a trade war....? Nope. Bernie-magic makes them go away.

I mean, after all -- a bird landed on the podium during his speech. It's A SIGN.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

This creeped me out a little, especially because I know that the sentence you left out was "But I couldn't, so I just rubbed one out instead."

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Why? Which bank wanted her to vote for war?

I don't think her principles are as lacking as you claim, but I agree with you that she's going to go with the flow at times, as she did with Iraq, and that sucks, but it still sucks way less than all of the other alternatives.

Re: As the choppers hover outside my window
 

You are the most confusing person to talk to. I was specifically discussing the 2008 crisis with Taxwonk and the role removing Glass-Steagall protections did or didn't play. You jumped in and said:

"It contributed a bit, but you're right. The culprit was thirty years of wage stagnation and debt accumulation. The Internet boom of the '90s papered us around a reckoning we'd otherwise have had. Then the engineered housing bubble of the '00s papered us around the reckoning once more."

I of course responded that you were incorrect as it related to what we were actually discussing and now, somehow, I'm responding to a post about what caused the "years of globalization and our current reckoning."

I would go into detail about why globalization isn't the only issue, but I think we've exhausted my desire to discuss anything related to this issue. And we've probably covered it all by now anyway.

TM

Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

I went back and looked at the facts. UBS started their tax-evasion assistance program in 2000 and wrapped it in 2007. The whole piece of shit was investigated and largely wrapped by GWB's administration before Hilary would have been in a position to have any major role in the decision to let the bastards skate.

So, Greedy, you are correct in saying that Hilary didn't get bought off by UBS to bury their dog shit on the White House Lawn.

But, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman were allowed to settle their fraud cases with the SEC over CDOs in such a way that (1) nobody went to jail; (2) they did't pay a fraction of what they cost the system, and (3) they were allowed to deduct the settlement payments, thus getting yet another government subsidy for their fraud during a time period when Hilary was exercising influence in a big way. You can say that the speaking fees, campaign contributions, etc. she got were wholly unrelated to her influence in keeping them in business as usual mode. But you'd be wrong. And we all know it.

Vote for her. Say she's the only viable alternative to the new American Nazis. But she still has the stink of a gonef on her. And It's still going to take some real effort on my part to find a reason to vote for her.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

Exerting her influence as Secretary of State over who goes to jail for financial fraud? What are you talking about?

Okay. She's the only viable alternative to the new American Nazis.

The stink you're smelling is coming from all around you, my friend. You just refuse to shift your view from her for whatever reason.

TM

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

Thanks.

Now mind you, I know next to nothing about the JP Morgan and Goldman cases. Certainly way less than I should. And I understand how that assessment would get you ticked at Obama. Or at the Justice Department and the AG. Or at the Secretary of Treasury. I understand how all of them would have a role.

What role did Hill have as Secretary of State? Or in what other capacity?

Every time in the past I have looked closely at a purported Hillary Clinton abuse I have ended up going down a right wing rabbit hole full of baseless allegations made with ill intent by people who either don't understand or don't care about the way government actually works. Like the UBS analysis you just gave us. Now I see Bernie down in the rabbit holes digging and that disturbs me.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

She's had more influence than just at State. Obama has used a team approach to Congress, the agencies, and business all along. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you.

And I realize the stink is all around me. That's why at this point, I'm not convinced I want to vote for Hilary, but I have no intention of voting for anyone else, except possibly Bernie.

In Illinois, the circuit court judges didn't run against other candidates. They were up for retention every few years. There is a history of some judges being so bad that the voters said "no" to retention, forcing the Governor to go back to the well, so to speak. While I'm planning on looking at her in more depth, at the moment, I'm inclined to vote no to Hilary. I haven't made up my mind yet, other than that I am through voting for mediocrity.

Call it a protest vote. Call it whatever the fuck you want. I'm just not voting anymore for "the best we can do." I believe we can do better.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

Hilary had (has) influence in the White House beyond her portfolio, as did other people in Obama's administration. He was not one to draw strict lines between portfolios. Of course, he was also known on occasion to eschew any advice and go it alone on certain decisions. She also exercised influence during her Senate tenure.

Beyond the banking crisis and its fallout, she also had a role as Secretary of State in the failure of the Obama administration to close Gitmo and to expand the Predator program.

I don't think she's evil incarnate. I don't necessarily think she's any worse than any other career politician. I just don't think she has the integrity to be President. I don't see her standing up and saying "I know this decision will be unpopular but it's the right thing to do, and I'm going to do it." And I'm not going to vote for anyone for President who I don't think has that level of integrity. I thought Obama had it and I got burned. I won't get burned again.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

You have no evidence that Obama or the Justice Department consulted Hillary on any of this shit. You are full of it on this and you're acting like you're not. If your basis for saying she supports banks is that she accepted money from them for speaking engagements, say so. But your ever-changing Hillary-was-complicit-with-letting-bankers-get-away-with-fraud argument is making you look silly.

I'm not going to call it anything, but ridiculous. Because that's what the grown man-equivalent of being upset you didn't get your way and then going off to pout about it is. I said you should hold whoever gets the nomination to the standard you expect by being involved in whatever way you think is best. Clearly you've decided you'd rather not put in any effort. That's disappointing since the "I'm no longer voting for mediocrity in the hopes that that magically creates a different political system" approach is the political equivalent of:

http://www.helford2000.co.uk/wp-cont...he-ostrich.jpg

TM

Re: Arise, ye workers from your slumber.
 

You don't need a magic wand to rein in the banks. The Fed has authority to establish reserve requirements. If a bank is too big to fail, the Fed can require it to have large enough reserves to ensure that it won't, up to say, 60% (a number I pulled right out of my ass). The President can appoint Fed Commissioners who will impose high enough reserves to make it impossible for banks to hold the global economy hostage and remain profitable. Treasury has the ability to prohibit a bank from writing a credit default swap on any asset it doesn't have a need to hedge.

Bernie Sanders doesn't have a magic wand. He's just the only one running who says that the status quo is no longer acceptable, and abdication of government is not the right answer either.

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

How exactly does one "Hold whoever gets the nomination to the standard I expect?" And what basis do you have or saying I'm not going to put in any effort? You're leaping to awfully big conclusions. Would you like a mat?

I intend to do the same things I'm doing now. I intend to write my elected officials. I intend to seek out good candidates. That's exactly what I'm doing now. Where does it say I can't be involved unless I vote for a candidate I believe is unsuitable?

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

What possible role does the Secretary of State play in the enforcement of U.S. law against U.S. corporations?

And have you spoken to anyone who works at the SEC and/or DOJ? Why do you think they need the SoS to tell them not to go harder on Goldman and JP Morgan? Given that settlements of this type are very much SOP, why would she need to intervene?

Re: Hilary had nothing to do with UBS
 

I'm not sure how much say she has over DOD operations at Gitmo, but sure, she's part of the failure to do the thing the Congress expressly forbade them to use any federal funds to do.

I have no defense of drones.