Matt Taibbi labeled Goldman Sachs “the Vampire Squid” because of its financial power and its ability to manipulate and control whatever it wants.
In this article, he points out that Trump ridiculed his opponents for their connections to Goldman Sachs, but is now turning the nation’s economy over to…veterans of Goldman Sachs. The Vampire Squid is now a key player in Trump’s swamp.
“In his final pitch to voters in the days before the election, Trump used the image of [Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd] Blankfein in a TV ad to argue that insiders had ruined the lives of ordinary Americans to enrich themselves. Here is the narration you heard when Blankfein’s face came on screen:
“It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”
“One surprise election result and a mountain of jubilant #draintheswamp hashtags later, Donald Trump has filled his White House with, you guessed it, Goldman veterans.
“His chief strategist, the unabashed white-supremacist loon Steve Bannon, is a former Goldman banker, as is adviser Anthony Scaramucci. Steve Mnuchin marks the fourth Goldman-pedigreed treasury secretary in the last four presidencies, after Bob Rubin, Lawrence Summers and Hank Paulson.
“But the real shocker is the recent appointment of Goldman Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn to the post of director of the National Economic Council. Bannon and Mnuchin were former, past Goldmanites. Cohn, meanwhile, is undoubtedly at least the number-two figure at the world’s most despised bank, if not the outright co-head with Blankfein. He has been at the center of many of its most infamous episodes, including the Greek affair.
“So much for draining the swamp.
“The new party line, emanating both from Washington and from Alt-Right yahoos on the Internet, is that people like Gary Cohn are no longer the swindling scum-lords Trump said they were a few months ago, but simply smart businessmen.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Forget any notions of draining swamps. Trump and his band of blaggards will be draining all the public assets they can, and stuffing those public assets into private pockets.
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And on the strength of the Tillerson appointment, OPEC raised oil prices this morning despite the glut. The oil traders who make the market are rejoicing that their manipulation will be so easy without any regulation…so they can once again gleefully rake in the huge profits. I predict that US gasoline will again cost $5 a gallon by next Feb.
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I also recommend that everyone subscribe to
Economic Policy Center, a free source that I find accurate and is supported by one of my fave Dem legislators, Al Franken.
I would love to see Franken run for Prez.
Franken is a Harvard grad, but I do not hold that against him. Maybe a double whammy team would be Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren…though two Harvard grads makes my head swim even if Harvard turns out endless US presidents and members of SCOTUS.
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From yesterday to today in my community, oil prices per gallon went from $2.74 to $2.86. Bet by the end of the week it will be over $3.00 and keep edging up. The traders are dancing in the Board rooms.
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Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese recently compared Trump becoming president to Bill the Butcher — Daniel Day Lewis’ gang leader in GANGS OF NEW YORK — taking over the country:
(14:32 – )
(14:32 – )
SCORSESE: “(Trump’s election) is almost like GANGS OF NEW YORK, where you have Bill the Butcher becoming president, in a sense, who was a ‘nativist’ … he’s a nativisit, a member of the White-Awakes, they call themselves, or the Know-Nothings, and unfortunately, maybe the establishment itself is like Tammany Hall.”
To get an idea of what Scorsese means, go here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJNFnYPJHWA
Bill the Butcher fulminates to the equally corrupt Boss Tweed and others, as they take in the sight of a boat full of Irish immigrants walking onto U.S. soil for the first time. (This is during the Civil War, before Ellis Island was built.)
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“Cyber hate jumped from small groups or niche communities into the mainstream in ways that are really troubling,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told CNNMoney.
Greenblatt says it’s the first year that an internet meme made its way into the ADL’s database of hate symbols. Pepe the Frog transformed from a benign cartoon frog into a canvas for peddling anti-Semitic and racist beliefs online. Echo or triple symbols ((( ))), a means of “tagging” Jewish people online, were also added to ADL’s list this year, a symbol that spread with incredible “speed and velocity,” said Greenblatt.
Trump himself can be credited, at least in part, for inciting online harassers.
“When Donald Trump turns on private citizens … he knows there’s a dog whistle effect,” Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark told CNNMoney.” if you don’t know Katherine Clark, she was standing with John Lewis (and so did Seth Moulton etc and others)…….
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In Trump’s case it’s more a matter of Grabbing the Octo—hush yo’ mouth❢
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A great read, Taibbi is skilled at cutting to the heart of issues with colorful and entertaining language, and Goldman Sachs is one of his particular areas of expertise. Sad times that we live in.
Off-topic, but here is an interview regarding gun deaths of children in the US that may be of interest to the readers of this blog:
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But please let us not forget that Bill Clinton and Barak Obama were also in bed with Goldman Sachs.
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Goldman Sachs had more than just a “winning strategy.” They were part of the cause our our meltdown in 2008. They will now be using their “winning strategy” against the American public for their own gain.
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Here is an article by a well known Right Wing blog/writer who is also afraid we are losing all our civil liberties and fears Pompeo collecting megadate on each of us. Very important to read the Right Wing publications as well as Truthout, Common Dreams, Truthdig so as to know what both sides are doing. Ellen
“Rare Politics December 19, 2016 8:14 am
Trump’s pick to head the CIA wants the government to spy on virtually everything we do”
“I want Donald Trump to be a successful president. I’m not eager to criticize him.
But watching his cabinet picks through my libertarian conservative lens, the president-elect is currently batting 500.
I have praised, to varying degrees, his choices of Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, Gen. James Mattis as Defense Secretary, Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, and Rep. Mick Mulvaney as Budget Director. Fiscal hawk Mulvaney in particular is a real home run.”
Related: Trump’s choice for budget director is a fiscal hawk with the guts to take on Pentagon waste
“But Trump’s choice of Sen. Jeff Sessions for Attorney General should greatly concern anyone who cares about the Constitution and civil liberties. His reported choice of John Bolton for Deputy Secretary of State is worrisome for those who want to avoid another Iraq-style war. Trump’s pick for Homeland Security, Gen. John Kelly, is a retrograde drug warrior whose appointment coincides with a time in American culture when marijuana is being legalized in many states and becoming more socially acceptable.”
Then there’s Trump’s reported CIA pick, Rep. Mike Pompeo”.
“When Edward Snowden first alerted us in 2013 that the U.S. government was collecting citizens’ metadata en masse, the public was outraged. When government officials were asked point blank by Congress if they were spying on Americans in this way prior to Snowden’s revelation, they lied.
Why would they lie to begin with? Because they knew it was wrong and illegal.
That’s why Snowden came forward with the information he had. He did us all a favor. Polls showed the majority of Americans reject mass blanket surveillance.
Mike Pompeo wants to execute Edward Snowden and firmly re-establish mass surveillance as the law of the land in a way that goes even further.
In an op-ed at the Wall Street Journal in January, Pompeo wrote (emphasis added), “Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database.”
“Combining” of all one’s metadata could be even more dangerous than what the government has already done (if it’s not doing this secretly already). Coordinating individuals’ metadata into government databases means virtually anything we do—what we read, where we shop, who our doctor is, who we chat with online, who we call on the phone, who we date—becomes government info.
Pompeo added in his Wall Street Journal op-ed that, all “Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed.”
We can assume the U.S. Constitution, which contains the Bill of Rights, which contains the Fourth Amendment that forbids unreasonable “search and seizure” of private property and information is a “legal and bureaucratic impediment” to Pompeo’s surveillance wishes.
Pompeo wrote later at the National Review, “To share Edward Snowden’s vision of America as the problem is to come down on the side of President Obama’s diminishing willingness to collect intelligence on jihadis.”
Like many Republican security hawks, Pompeo doesn’t understand that the purpose of the Constitution and our Bill of Rights isn’t to protect terrorists, but innocent citizens from rogue, unlimited government power.
Mike Pompeo ain’t got time for that.
Worse, Trump and some of cabinet picks might not either. The Atlantic’s Kaveh Waddell observes, “Pompeo’s push for more surveillance aligns with Trump’s stated positions. As the journalist Marcy Wheeler pointed out, Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, proposed an amendment to a bill that would reform electronic privacy law, which would have required technology companies to turn over communications if the government says it’s an emergency. The amendment did not pass.”
Related: Rand Paul says Mike Pompeo will have to answer for his views on torture and mass surveillance
Sen. Rand Paul, who has already promised to attempt to block John Bolton from any post at the State Department has also vowed to hold Pompeo accountable for his positions on mass surveillance and also the use of torture, the latter of which, not surprisingly, Pompeo is a fan.
No one, including me, expected President Trump to be a civil libertarian. But our most basic rights to privacy and liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution should withstand any administration.
As a member of Congress, we know Mike Pompeo took an oath to uphold our nation’s founding charter. If he is chosen to head Central Intelligence, we already know ahead of time that he will be another member of President Trump’s cabinet who has no intention of obeying it.
Disclosure: I co-authored Senator Rand Paul’s 2011 book “The Tea Party Goes to Washington.”
Module Voice Image
Jack Hunter, Rare Editor
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As you many recall, “Pompous” Pompeo was one of the inquisitors who Hillary Clinton eviscerated during the eleven hour Benghazi! hearing. His performance at that hearing–during his whole political career, for that matter–must give anti-American spies around the world great aid and comfort. If he were a knife, I doubt he would be able to cut through soft butter.
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Yes…good description, Greg.
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Former NJ governor, Jon Corzine was a Goldman Sachs guy. He was a decent senator and a so so governor. He abolished the death penalty as governor. He turned into a vampire squid when he returned to civilian life after losing to CC. Phil Murphy (D) is running for governor and is another filthy rich G-S alumnus. A couple of the unions have already endorsed him because he’s making progressive sounds. It’s way too early to endorse anyone.
Krugman has a very scary op ed up today. A snippet: The erosion of democratic foundations has been underway for decades, and there’s no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover.
But if there is any hope of redemption, it will have to begin with a clear recognition of how bad things are. American democracy is very much on the edge. end quote
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An astute writer of a letter to the NYT today made what I believe to be the most apt Trump comparison I have yet seen: the “apt historical parallel is to be found in Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany before World War I.” We may not see the death and carnage the Wilhelm was most complicate in creating, but we surely have the prospect that our public institutions, morals and character may suffer at a similar, staggering level. The collateral damage may fundamentally shape the coming century.
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He’s not going to lock up HRC… or build a wall… or drain the swamp… Maybe he’ll break his promise to rip up the Paris treaty on climate change and his promise to replace “government schools” with charters… and maybe a unicorn will come to my bird feeder…
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Trump is flooding the swamp.
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THETrumpster is the swamp!
Sorry all you Gator fans.
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Big business has become American government. The ultimate sendup of our society is an actuality. We are, for now, a reality show. There will definitely be a reaction to this when it fails. Our parties will have to rethink their identities and modes of doing business/playing politics.
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In the mean time, Democrats are licking their wounds and rethinking nothing.
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That’s what’s so disconcerting to me, at this point: the blatant backtracking on the part of the Republicans who distanced themselves from Trump in the primaries and final election. And the silence of the Democrats. It’s all about business. How can I get what I want?
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We need to review our notes on feudalism.
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Governor Baker never “distanced” himself. He said “wait ‘n see” because he wants federal money pouring out of Washington DC ….. I just downloaded this site https://www.indivisibleguide.com to read their guide for being more active and resist Trump (I have to resist Baker as well; he just put through budget cuts)
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Tina Packer (expert on Shakespeare plays): “when rome fell we had the roman church; when US. falls we will be left with the u.s. church — the corporation”….
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“How can I get what I want?”
Easy, just go Alice’s Restaurant, “walk right in, it’s around the back, just a half mile from the railroad tracks. You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. . . ‘ceptin Alice.”
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on Bill Phillis E&A today: ”
The dismal reputation of Ohio’s charter industry may be the reason funders have withdrawn their support of OAPCS. It is ironic the federal government has awarded a $71 million grant to expand the failed charter industry in Ohio.
The newly anticipated federal emphasis on expanding the failed charter industry will no doubt generate another charter advocacy organization. The president-elect announced a $20 billion charter expansion program during a campaign stop in Cleveland.
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Diane any reason my comments seem to be blocked on my regular Facebook log in
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this democrat is not going to be silent. my department chair (retired) was on the cover of Life during the 1960s anti-war activism. We had women in the active movement who were burning bras — I was older and didn’t participate but I was very proud of the young women and didn’t criticize them….
Yesterday, reading a book at the library on the “F” word , the top words on the cross-cultural “slur” list were : “nigger” “Cunt” “Slut” “retard” “cripple”…. those are political words and they are being used like bullets and hammers to keep people quiet, to silence us, to make us feel badly about ourselves and in the case of women to turn women against each other because we don’t have the spirit …. don’t let this political assault with “slur” words be normalized. The men like Governor Baker in MA who stand at the podium and cry to get elected are the same ones cheering when Don and his gang beat us up in pubic (Governor Bully Christie did it also)…. Currently, in the League of Women Voters there is a discussion of how the position needs to change to gather some of the younger women… this is an important conversation to have….
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The worst four letter “F” word used in public schools these day isn’t fuck but FAIL. Adminimals go apoplectic if the “f-bomb” is used, even when writing up a student for using it inappropriately. I only wrote up a student for using fuck once in my twenty one years of public school teaching even though I heard it uttered many times, “What the FUCK do you want me to do. . .?” It was the tone and attitude with which the student said it that forced me to write him up. I made sure I put the exact phrase in the write up. Ooooo!, so bad on my part.
“. . . don’t let this political assault with “slur” words be normalized.”
It already is as far as FAIL is concerned. How damning it is to tell a student that their best effort is a “failure”? Happens all the time with the standards and testing regime, even though failure is usually not one of the acceptable terms used in the category descriptors. How insane is it that we have normalized that thinking?
And fuck is not a slur word per se. It’s a cuss word but not all curse words are slurs. Attitude and intention are what makes the difference between the two.
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I was referring to the fact that the standards have “academic language” a requirement for school classrooms (and I support that) and yet we have the politicians beating up on the teachers and teacher unions (as I have written before American Governor tells about Governor Bully from NJ and we have Trump now who uses the foulest language …… I do not find it acceptable…. and it disenfranchises women — so it is POLITICAL…. when they say those words ….. I wasn’t referring to test and punish which is a whole different political arena but specifically to how the oldest war in the world is the war against women.
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Thanks for your clarification, Jean.
While you see it (using foul language) as an assault on women many young, ages 25-35, women (some who self identify as feminists) have taken it upon themselves to throw that language right back into the face of society in an “up yours” fashion. They down play the “feminine” side of their gender or perhaps better said they down play society’s perceived “feminine side” and stand up strong for themselves in their very being.
At the same time I interact/communicate with other young women that celebrate that feminine side. And then others who reside in both sides. To each her own, eh!
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they are mistaken…. and, I told you that YOU were mistaken telling people they should vote for Jill Stein and i will stand on that and don’t wish to discuss your views any more …. we have different definitions of the world and my perspective is firm that I stand on the principles that I developed over my lifetime no matter now many “young” women don’t see it ; they are sadly mistaken. There really is such a thing in this world as ethics and morals; and I believe in right and wrong and you can’t be neutral when people are using slurs in a political fight that is disastrous calling C* N* to disenfranchise and make others turn against you for whatever reason (gender, ethnicity) and as we see in the world today it ends in genocide just as it has in the past. Don’t bother to enlighten me any more , Duane, because we had this discussion on FB during the election and I don’t care how many reality TV shows you want to play out and have everybody constantly auditioning for SNL — some things are just wrong (immoral and unethical).
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Excuse effin me for voting my conscience and what I believe in. Your self righteous nonsense of telling me this or that and how you approve or disapprove of my take on the election is a crock of feces (to not use a slur word). You’ve gotten to this point in your life and you still don’t understand that not everyone sees the world as you do??? Wow!!
Your attitude in this points to why so many voters did not vote for Hillary, because that is the exact attitude that she took into the election-she knew better than everyone else, and this was supposed to be her coronation and blah blah blah. . . .
Now, really, Jean, who is the one moralizing here??? I’ve never said it that it was okay to slur anyone. But there is a huge difference between slurring someone and cussing at them. Big, big difference and I’m sorry you don’t understand the difference. Seems many younger women do know that distinction.
And what’s with the reality show crap. I’ve never said anything about “reality shows”. I don’t watch TV except for an occasional baseball or hockey game.
Now I agree with your last thought that “some things are just wrong (immoral and unethical [do you know the difference?])” And your attacks and diatribes against me over the last few months, putting words in my mouth and distorting what is say is just that WRONG!
Basta contigo.
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