Friday, December 02, 2016

Yeah, They Really Were "Gullibillies"



Krugman on Trump, "Millions of Americans have just been sucker punched. They just don't know it yet."

"The white working class is about to be betrayed," Krugman declares in no uncertain terms. "The evidence of that coming betrayal is obvious in the choice of an array of pro-corporate, anti-labor figures for key positions. In particular, the most important story of the week — seriously, people, stop focusing on Trump Twitter — was the selection of Tom Price, an ardent opponent of Obamacare and advocate of Medicare privatization, as secretary of health and human services. This choice probably means that the Affordable Care Act is doomed — and Mr. Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters will be among the biggest losers."

Trump famously promised to "drain the swamp," a phrase the Gullibillies took to mean whatever they wanted. To some it was jailing Hillary for imagined crimes. Others thought he would reform Congress or break up the incestuous relationship between Wall Street and Washington. Guess what? They were had.

So, you don't know my brother John? He lives in San Francisco, he's as smart as a whippet and when I called this week he had a question – "what do George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have in common?"

"Goldman Sachs," he answered his own question, with an implied baboom!

John's right. It seems that no recent aspiring or elected US president dares to broach the White House without their hand being held by someone who has done time at this obscenely rich, multinational corporate behemoth. Still building out his cabinet team, Donald Trump already has recruited three of them and there's speculation more are in the pipeline.


But far from yanking a plug to empty [the Swamp], Trump is happily doing bombshells in the murk, gathering in playmates whose corporate and political credentials, not to mention their multibillion- and multimillion-dollar fortunes, suggest little empathy with the "forgotten men and women" that Candidate Trump promised to protect from rich guys looking after rich guys and, as they go, demolishing the financial regulations that might have prevented the Great Recession – or which were reinstated in its aftermath, in the hope of preventing a repeat of the 2008 financial collapse from which the US is still recovering.

...Not only were they too pally with "crooked" Hillary Clinton, who he claimed was "under their total control", but according to one of Trump's TV ads, Goldman Sachs and its ilk comprised a "global power structure" that was "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.

"Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people," Trump declared.


...Paul Waldman writes in The American Prospect: "So in order to take on that global power structure, Trump is hiring a bunch of billionaires and Wall Street tycoons, cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, scaling back regulatory oversight of Wall Street, and offering an infrastructure plan that consists mostly of tax breaks to corporations to encourage them to build projects that they'll then charge the public tolls in order to use."

...America's estimated 500 billionaires might be unlikely candidates for a White House team that working-class Americans were promised would look out for them – at his last campaign rally in Michigan, Trump told supporters: "We're fighting for every citizen that believes that government should serve the people, not the donors and not the special interests."

But already Trump, the first billionaire President-elect, has appointed three more billionaires to a team that, even incomplete, is the richest administration in modern American history – prompting Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank to dub it "Trump's Team of Oligarchs".
Trump got elected on the "stupid" vote and they were warned that he believed he could do anything, even grab them by the p##sy. They didn't have long to wait for their turn.

18 comments:

  1. If Trump's a liar: good. Helps New Deal Democrats in 2020. And thanks to Trump, they can now rise to prominence in the party. The bribe-taking insiders are finished for handing a complete fool the White House and a super-majority.

    But Trump did kill the TPP. Saved Canada from it too. I know liberals hate their political opponents too much to ever acknowledge they accomplished anything. But from Canada: thank you Donald J. Trump! You saved hundreds of thousands of jobs up here alone! Something no liberal ever gave a crap about. Especially that two-faced weasel Krugman.

    P.S. Love the POTUS Show! Never watched reality-TV before. Now I just can't get enough! (Paul Krugman: you're fired! No Larry Summers mega-millions for you! Must hurt to be stuck at the bottom of the top 1%. I feel for ya! I really do!)

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  2. Speaking of billionaires in charge, did you see the article yesterday about Trump's $365 million conflict of interest in the prosecution of Deutsche Bank for fraudulent mortgage-backed securities?

    Trump's financial disclosure reports, viewed by NPR, show he currently owes Deutsche Bank roughly $365 million in loans....

    Deutsche Bank is in deep trouble with the Justice Department over a number of allegations.

    "The tip of the iceberg is a particular fine by the Department of Justice, a large fine with the opening numbers around $14 billion, with regard to how they created and sold mortgage-backed securities before 2008," he says.

    There are private negotiations underway over the amount of that fine, Johnson says, with the bank and the German government pushing back.

    He says this sets up a huge conflict of interest for the president-elect: Once Trump takes office, he will be overseeing the Justice Department, which in turn is negotiating a fine with his biggest lender.


    Of course, the conflict could be avoided by prosecuting Deutsche Bank in court and letting a judge sort things out. But then there would likely be a judicial finding of guilt with all the mess that entails - execs in jail, class-action lawsuits from disgruntled investors, that sort of thing. Can't have that now can we?

    Cap

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  3. Lots of speculation on what may happen. Or not.
    Not draining the swamp means that the cabal in charge of Washington would stay in power = no change.
    So why the fuss?
    A..non

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  4. Pity is that the "new Democrats" don't exist and with Pelosi and Schumer still in charge don't expect any opposition to G&S

    Unfortunately the only way to beat Trump and the Cons is to highlight the slimeballs in charge of Trumps Cabinet and keep at it. In 2018 when the bastards should be replaced, but won't because no realistic exposure of the problems will have taken place, the stupid will not have realised just what damage will have been done to them. After all I'm allright the other has a problem - tough shit!

    Nope the Dems fail to realise that it should be all-out war exposing the GOP for what it is - Schumer and Pelosi are still part of the problem so we are all fucked

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  5. I did read a post the other day ...
    imagine 2020 and the rw backlash after 4 years of Hillary

    After 4 years of Trump & his minions we might just get a lw backlash & even a revolution.

    "Runaway global warming" (sure looks like its underway) could be a mainstream buzzword by then too.

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  6. "If" Trump's a liar? Well that's certainly rich. As for the TPP being "dead" you might want to look at every other solemn campaign promise on which Trump has already reneged before believing that. Think of it as "The Apprentice" in reverse. Trump is way out of his league and so he's surrounding himself with powerful, uber-establishment types who'll tell him what to do. He doesn't understand the basic workings of the presidency. That was clear when he thought he could run his businesses and the United States at the same time. When he met with Obama in the White House, Trump showed up assuming the presidential staff went with the building. It hadn't dawned on him that people loyal to Obama might not be the best picks for staffers for a president they might not like. That is the mentality of a true dipshit.

    As for the rest of your remarks, Anonymouse, do you really need to impress us with your boundless stupidity?

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  7. Hi, CAP. Thanks for the information. I had only the vaguest understanding of the Deutsche Bank scandal. That sounds like an enormous problem for this president-elect. He won't be appreciating the shackles that come with his new job.

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  8. The only "fuss" A..non is that Trump is still several weeks away from his inauguration and he's already breaking his solemn promises about as rapidly as they can be stacked like so much cordwood. He defrauded the Gullibillies just as he defrauded those who enrolled in his Potemkin "university."

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  9. Bernie Sanders is leading the New Deal Democrats. He almost won in 2016. If he had, America would have Sanders president-elect instead of Trump (in all likelihood.)

    It's not a matter of anyone being in charge. It's all optics. It's whoever takes charge. And that's what Bernie is doing. Trump made some kind of deal to protect 1000 jobs at Carrier. Bernie put together a comprehensive bill that would make outsourcing more trouble than it's worth. If Trump rejects it, workers who elected Trump will look to New Deal Democrats as the better option.

    Looks like Bernie is Ok with Pelosi and Schumer. He's focused on the chair of the DNC to prevent the corruption that happened last time around. His guy is Keith Ellison.

    What's positive about Pelosi and Schumer taking minority leadership positions in the House and Senate? They are not leadership contenders. So neither the bribe-takers or New Deal reformers can use these positions for self-promotion. They are effectively neutralized. (Like how Obama neutralized Warren to keep her from raising her profile and running against Hillary.)

    The Democratic party is shell-shocked because of the Trump win. New Deal reformers are proceeding cautiously. But the time is coming when they will bring accusations against the bribe-taking insiders: "Look at what you've done! You have handed the country over to Donald Trump! A dangerous ignorant buffoon! You betrayed your base to target suburban neocons! Just look at what you've done!!"

    They will be taken out the woodshed when the time is right. Then suddenly all Democrats are considering themselves New Deal reformers. A lot is going to happen over the next 4 years with 1960s kind of political activism. People taking it to the streets. The times they are a changing. (All bad things come to an end: i.e., the Friedmanian neoliberal era that began with Reagan.)

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  10. Ben, I'm not sure that America or the world has four years to squander on a Trump administration that may block any realistic action on climate change. That said I find it a bit difficult to be too critical of Trump when our own Harper reincarnation is doing his level best to worsen the problem and break every now inconvenient solemn promise he made on the campaign trail in 2015.

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  11. The problem I have, NPoV, is that both Canada and the United States have disastrous leadership at this critical moment. Admittedly Trudeau has better hair and a friendlier smile than his counterpart in Washington but, as petro-pimps, they're brothers in arms. If we're not already in the process of runaway global warming, we're at the cusp, and yet both these characters act as though that's no problem.

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  12. Millions of Americans have been sucker punched!!!
    A proportionate number of Canadians are in the same boat.


    TB

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  13. Here's an interesting take on what's going down in the Democratic party from a Millennial news analyst who supported Hillary Clinton on the 'lesser evil' premise:

    Secular Talk: Democratic Hacks Still Attacking Bernie: He 'Harmed' The Party!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEqWVGWMZ7o

    The writing is on the wall.

    -Anonymouse

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  15. Mound, I am no trudeau lover but the comparison between him and trump only goes so far as both are lying promise breaking bastards. The difference is that JT does it with weasel words and trump with blows right between the eyes.

    Nope what scares me to death are the fanatics, determmined to destroy the remits and departments they have been placed in. His cabinet members are nasty wreckers determined to enrich the 1% at the expense of the other. However I do not blame then I blame the great unwashed desperate people who voted for change. It harks back to to the time that welfare recipients in Ontario voted for Mike Harris because he promised 'workfare' and they thought they would all get back in the workforce with a real job.

    By the time the trumpers realise they have ben conned the State will be militarised to be able to counter 'internal terror' which in four years will include 'lawful dissent'. But as the desperate will tell you 'let the police do their job, i have nothing to hide and it will not bother me!'

    bit grim but I believe every bloody word i have written.

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  16. Anyong: I know this is off your topic. But relevant to Trump's stupidity....
    Go to the "Ideas" program with Paul Kennedy broadcast of December 2, 2016 on CBC. Very lively discussion about how history is tied to the present. Especially enlightening about half way through the hour is reference to Trump's comment that "the worse thing the United States ever did was to give Canada Independence". How mindless is that?

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  17. Ben, it's impossible to know how much damage Trump will wreak on the American nation state. The US is at a particularly vulnerable moment. Republican establishment insider, Kevin Phillips, explores this in his 2006 book, "American Theocracy."

    The United States, for all its military prowess and endless bluster is more fragile than most Americans can imagine. This befalls dominant nations that abandon manufacturing for the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) economy. A small sector reaps short term rewards but at the cost of hollowing out the nation. While using their money to build their successor's industrial economy they grease the skids on their own decline.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Phillips_(political_commentator)#American_Theocracy_.282006.29

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