2009 - “I had been warned,” Ms. Warren concluded.

[kpete]

Larry Summers leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice. ... He teed it up this way: I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule. They don’t criticize other insiders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/business/from-outside-or-inside-the-deck-looks-stacked.html

[RiverLover]

1. This is what our govt has become...

Thanks for posting this kpete.

After dinner, “Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice,” Ms. Warren writes. “I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.

“I had been warned,” Ms. Warren concluded.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Summers did not respond to a request for comment.

A second revealing story recounts an autumn 2009 meeting that the oversight panel members had with Timothy F. Geithner, then the Treasury secretary. Ms. Warren recalls asking why the government’s response to the foreclosure crisis had been so lackluster — the equivalent of trying to put out a forest fire with an eyedropper.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

In her telling, Mr. Geithner responded this way: “The banks could manage only so many foreclosures at a time, and Treasury wanted to slow down the pace so the banks wouldn’t be overwhelmed. And this was where the new foreclosure program came in: It was just big enough to ‘foam the runway’ for them.”

To Ms. Warren, Mr. Geithner’s message was clear, if startling. “Millions of people were getting tossed out on the street, but the government’s most important job was to provide a soft landing for the tender fannies of the banks,” she writes.

This really provides an interesting context to the total grilling of Geithner by E Warren in 2009~

[onethatcares]

43. how do you tell someone is lying?

all you have to do is watch their eyes.

[RiverLover]

46. Ha! So true. And they might look a little desperate as you see them searching their brain for

the most plausible lie.

[appalachiablue]

69. But not if they're a sociopath. Cuz they're expert, natural born liars. No conscience.

Danger- Warning: Avoid if you see any signs or symptoms. Run for your life!

[RiverLover]

71. That's my ex-husband!

And that is no lie.

[appalachiablue]

73. You too? Dang! That's the affinity. How many years, or decades you been in therapy, it's been

gosh a decade or so for recovery here. Ha, ha, we will have to chat! Send me a pm sometime, fun to share!

[dragonlady]

76. That's Scott Walker

You've summed him up perfectly in just a few words.

[appalachiablue]

77. I heard that about Walker. What he's done in Wisc. is heartbreaking.

New studies show there are a lot of sociopaths out there unfortunately.
And the older association with only severe crimes is being discarded.
A large number work in high risk finance and corp positions, a natural fit.
I supported the recall and was crushed that it didn't succeed.

[defacto7]

78. This is the fact...

and for a real non-borderline sociopath, the way they successfully produce the lie is in speaking it... they are able to really believe it themselves. But then they can brush it away when it's no longer needed and switch to another made up world of their choice. There are borderline sociopaths which are most of the crazies we hear about who can lie without conscience, then there are the true sociopaths who can be your favorite neighbor you talk to over the fence but who can kill you without the slightest flinch. Smile and shoot as they say.

[appalachiablue]

80. A few years ago I read something about a teacher saying that the best liars were smart.

Of course, the best liars I ever met had very high intelligence and great powers of deception like socios.
That's why they are successful. S's also tend to be very secretive, hide things well. Dumb liars and liars with a shred of conscience are easily detected. Yes I've read some about the borderline and the true. The latter can be very personal and charming, but also highly dangerous. The damage they cause can be lethal and they're oblivious. Another occupation they excel in is sales. But not all sales people are monsters. Troubling-

[pocoloco]

79. 1 out of 22!

...and they make great politicians!!

On edit, great may not have been the correct word.

[appalachiablue]

81. You can say that again! Sell, lie, rinse and repeat. Politics and PR are a great fit for them.

[Octafish]

2. What would Goldman think of that?

Larry Summers: Goldman Sacked

By Greg Palast
Reader Supported News, September 16, 2013

Joseph Stiglitz couldn't believe his ears. Here they were in the White House, with President Bill Clinton asking the chiefs of the US Treasury for guidance on the life and death of America's economy, when the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers turns to his boss, Secretary Robert Rubin, and says, "What would Goldman think of that?"

Huh?

Then, at another meeting, Summers said it again: What would Goldman think?

A shocked Stiglitz, then Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, told me he'd turned to Summers, and asked if Summers thought it appropriate to decide US economic policy based on "what Goldman thought." As opposed to say, the facts, or say, the needs of the American public, you know, all that stuff that we heard in Cabinet meetings on The West Wing.

Summers looked at Stiglitz like Stiglitz was some kind of naive fool who'd read too many civics books.

CONTINUED...

http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-goldman-sacked/

[JDPriestly]

5. Please note that Summers, Rubin, et al. are Friends of Bill.

And if we nominate Hillary, we are nominating the Friends of Bill, the whole bunch of those worthless scoundrels.

No. No to Hillary. She comes with a lot of useless baggage like Larry Summers and Robert Rubin and their friends. We really don't need that.

Instead, we need to clean up some of the corruption in Washington. It's really sick what goes on. It's time to clean it up.

We need to return to a civil service system that really works and end many of the political appointments. We need to return jobs to civil service that are now performed in some cases on private contracts.

We need to de-privatize, not everything, but a lot of our government.

In particular, we need to de-privatize our intelligence sector -- at least to the extent possible.

[cantbeserious]

9. + 1,000

eom

[antigop]

11. be sure to see this thread and watch the Bill Moyers video

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=232004

[JDPriestly]

14. Thanks. I watched it earlier today. It is so true.

But how do we get this information out to the general public.

I read the comments on Yahoo News and I am disheartened at the ignorance of the general public.

[appalachiablue]

84. The Bill Moyers video is very, very important for people to see. It was on the Home Page over the

weekend then moved to GD. Now it's included inside another thread on GD, 'RIP, Fostoria, Ohio..' on a town wiped out by NAFTA. I really think it should be featured more prominently but don't know how that happens.
When I watched it I was almost ill, and didn't notice until later that it was published much earlier in 2011 in the French Le Monde publication. Bill Moyers and writer John MacArthur are terrific, deserve a lot of credit for this interview, expose. Just wonder how many will see it.

[antigop]

85. how many will see it? That's why I post the link where I can....nt

[L0oniX]

28. Please don't leave out Jamie Dimon, he'll get pissed and be calling ...someone.

[JDPriestly]

30. Thanks. Oversight I assure you. The list is incredibly long -- all rich and powerful.

Honest????? Decide for yourself.

[Dont call me Shirley]

38. Alan Greedspan does not get the credit for the Randian economy he oversaw. He was the worst

of the worst!

[rosesaylavee]

48. +1000

[BeanMusical]

61. +1 n/t

[malokvale77]

72. Good post.

This part in particular.

"We need to return to a civil service system that really works and end many of the political appointments. We need to return jobs to civil service that are now performed in some cases on private contracts."

[AikidoSoul]

7. OCTAFISH ---- This item deserves its own thread

Palast makes the scene real and it is very shocking to see once again, betrayal of the people and homage to the big banks.

"Homage" in the above sentence takes the dictionary definition that states:

"The formal public acknowledgment by which a feudal tenant or vassal declared himself to be the man or vassal of his lord, owing him fealty and service."

[Odin2005]

90. Or the Ancient Roman clientage system

[malokvale77]

70. Seems I'm always thanking you Octafish.

PS: I love Palast. I'm thinking of willing him a piece of my huge $100,000 estate. Hah.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Oh, my, my, my. Why am I so not surprised?

I.T.Y.S.

[deutsey]

4. George Carlin was right

"It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

[nolabels]

60. Really, it's just a small shrinking club headed for a big blow up (history is quite replete with it)

Value is only made by the eyes of the beholder. Trust can't be purchased, it can only be earned

The question is, will you live long enough to see next episode in the saga?

[Odin2005]

91. Under Capitalism the Big Club always shrinks.

Small Capitalists get eaten by Big Capitalists until one has a monopoly or a tiny oligarchy, that is an iron law of Capitalism, it is irrefutable.

[tclambert]

64. It's a profoundly powerful club, but not big in terms of membership.

There's only about 500 billionaires in America. There are over 5,000,000 millionaires, but really, mere millionaires aren't part of the "big club" either anymore. You have to have $100 million to get noticed by the members.

[Lifelong Protester]

6. Be an outsider and let the chips

fall where they may.

[L0oniX]

8. They have their own "blue code".

[99th_Monkey]

23. Exactly!! Thank you for saying that.

We have to start connecting the dots that we've got to work with.

We have torturers exposed and coming forth with their vile lame-ass "justifications",

Then we have killer-cops brazenly emptying their firearms to kill unarmed young balck males,
and their apologists start telling us "you'd better not criticize cops, cuz they are "the ones you
rely on to keep you safe in bed at night".

And here we have Larry Economy-Crasher Summers basically confirming what Geo. Carlin
said about this secret club who's running the show, and we are decidedly not in it.

[L0oniX]

25. These days ...George Carlin would get kicked off of DU.

[treestar]

10. Wait a minute, now she's playing the victim?

I thought she was a powerful fighter.

Why would such a powerful fighter want such a job?

[JDPriestly]

12. She is telling us how the "leaders" in our government become corrupt.

They want to be in on the action. They want good appointments and meaningful, high-profile positions. But the established politicians and appointees exact a price for being part of the in-crowd, and that price is silence.

If you want to be in the in-crowd, if you want to keep your job or get a better one, you do not point out the corruption, you do not point out the mistakes, you do not criticize the moral lapses, you do not even suggest better ways of doing things. To get in with the in-crowd, you remain silent in the face of injustice and rule-breaking.

That is what Elizabeth Warren is saying. And she is right.

[treestar]

13. Baloney

That's going to be her excuse? That the whole government is corrupt? Well guess what, we have enough transparency to deal with people who have jobs to enforce the law and don't enforce the law. This is Eddie Snowden level. Yeah, they are all so corrupt, then what does it matter if we change the law to be as Elizabeth Warren wants it to be? The enforcers will still be corrupt. Then it doesn't matter what the law is.

If only we could get the "right", not corrupt people into these jobs! How are we going to do that then? That appears to be the top problem then .

[JDPriestly]

17. Yeah! They are so corrupt.

Look at what happens to people who rock the boat:

John Edwards
Eliot Spitzer
Anthony Wiener
Don Siegelman

And there is a long, long list of more good people who are embarrassed and ostracized if they criticize the in-crowd too much.

Every one who has an important public persona has some embarrassing fact in their lives (as do we all), some weakness, some extravagance -- like Howard Dean's "scream" that the in-crowd can use to destroy their public image.

The Obama-haters use his race against him. Some on DU use Elizabeth Warren's very sincere and genuine defense of the middle class against her. Never mind that the economic problems of the middle-class have been Warren's life work, her mission. Read her book and you will find out why. It lies in the traumatic experiences of her childhood and youth. Experiences that made her a noble and knowledgeable defender of the middle class, of working people.

You can get a person who is not part of the corrupt system by electing Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. One or both of them will run. They are not sold out.

I dare the powers that be to try to find a sex scandal about Elizabeth Warren. I just can't wait to see what they come up with. So far I have seen a lot of references to her voting for Republicans for some years. I'm sure the public is going to react with disgust to that considering that Republicans win majorities in many states to this day. That Warren voted Republican is likely to be a way to draw fringe Republicans to the Democratic Party. She is not just another Democrat who was just born and raised in the party. She is a Democrat by choice because she rejected the Republican Party for good reasons. But anyway. Why not try to make a strength look like it is a weakness.

I guess the mud slung at Elizabeth Warren is going to be that she is shrill and "baloney."

That mud is going to dry up and fall off very quickly. It just isn't sticky enough.

I'm sure the baloney cuss-word will be very effective against Warren's strong sense of right and wrong and her astute and correct analysis that D.C. is corrupt. Even Obama ran on a "D.C. is corrupt and I am going to change it" promise. He made a little progress, but couldn't get very far with it. He has been too willing to compromise.

The problem that the corrupt who dread Warren's inevitable victories face is that the American people agree with Warren. Americans hate the corruption of the D.C. in-crowd. When Warren tells the story about Larry Summers, the truth of it joins the knowledge of every American that, yes, Dorothy, D.C. regardless who is in charge is a mire of dirty deals and corruption.

[treestar]

20. How can we get EW exempt from the usual mud slinging at anyone who runs for the Presidency?

That is clearly the only right thing to do. Maybe some limits on Freedom of the press? I don't know how to insulate her. Clearly she deserves a pass for everything she's done since she has not "sold out." And managed to get elected Senator, too! Without "selling out!" That's one powerful leader there. Surely no one will care about whatever the "scandal" is. Look what Hillary survived.

She should get these amazing bills passed in the Senate in the next two years, so that all can observe this amazing and non sold out leadership. Then maybe she can win without big money backing. It's our only hope.

[JDPriestly]

29. Don't worry about mudslinging at Elizabeth Warren. She will take care of the mudslingers herself.

[certainot]

86. warren supporters will get caught by surprise

the mudslinging starts with republican radio, which warren supporters don't listen to

but many warrren supporters are students, and 38% of limbaugh's 600 stations, many of the loudest in the country, depend heavily on university sports. if warrren supporters want to "get her back" they probably couldn't do better than pushing their schools to find apolitical alternatives for their sports broadcasting. many of those stations would fold or have to find alternative programming.

the same would apply to any progrrssive/liberal reform issue or candidate.

[Odin2005]

93. Now you are just hurling nonsensical strawmen and insulting people.

You are essentially telling the American people to accept that the Oligarchy is the way things are and we have to lie back and enjoy it while they rape us.

[99th_Monkey]

26. +100 nt

[cascadiance]

83. Yep, watch the movie "Client 9" which documents how these bums went after Elliot Spitzer!

... for trying to prosecute some of their wrongdoers when he was NY Attorney General.



http://www.client9themovie.com/

[JDPriestly]

88. Yes!

As an off-the-topic note so that everyone remembers who Eliot Spitzer is:

Have bankers already forgotten Eliot Spitzer? Citigroup is to pay $15 million to settle allegations that its research analysts shared information selectively with clients, helped companies prepare documents for initial public offerings and even collaborated with the bank's traders. This may have been a gray area before the former New York attorney general forced a $1.4-billion settlement out of 10 banks in 2003, but such rules have been crystal clear ever since.

It's also drummed into every banker that client business is strictly confidential. Yet the US Justice Department is investigating allegations that an HSBC trader leaked secret information about an impending foreign exchange transaction to a big hedge fund. If that happened, it was pure and simple rule-breaking.

Misdeeds of this kind highlight the cultural problem identified by Bill Dudley, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, in a speech last month: people asking themselves the question "could we" instead of "should we." This isn't to cast all bankers as dishonest. On the other hand, Dudley doesn't accept that it's just a few bad apples - he believes there's a cultural problem that starts at the top of some financial firms.

An experiment reported last week in the journal Nature seems to bear this out. In tests in which subjects won more money if they cheated, researchers found bankers were more dishonest than control groups. That only became clear, though, after they were primed to think about their professional roles.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/no-we-shouldn-t-114112701296_1.html

Think of the good to our society that Spitzer could have done. Same for Edwards and Wiener.

[cascadiance]

100. And some wonder if Dominique Strauss-Kahn, even if he wasn't a great guy might have been railroaded.

... in the same fashion as others, for his potential contention for power as president against Sarkozy at the time in France, and as the head of the IMF, he was speaking out against austerity in Greece in December not long before his sexual "incident" that later was forced upon Greece by the IMF and other EU financial forces. If you watch the Academy Award winning Inside Job that was an exposure of the banksters that was made about that time, it featured a LOT of interviews with him too. Here's an article that speculated if there was a conspiracy or not then.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066493/Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-scandal-Was-raped-maid-missing-BlackBerry-set-help-Sarkozy.html

Against Greek austerity...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11rgbj_dominique-strauss-kahn-on-austerity_news

Greek reaction to arrest...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/15/dominique-strauss-kahn-imf-greece-bailout

With Spitzer, Strauss-Kahn, Edwards and others, we all see that many of these people, though on the one hand might be trying to speak more for the masses than others aligned with the elites, are human beings and in some cases deeply flawed ones too. One wonders how many of those in Washington now have similar stories they don't want aired to the public, that has them succumb to the wishes of the elites like the Kochs, or retire earlier than people might want them to. We're in a day and age that Snowden warns us so many of our private life secrets and details are scrutinized and hoarded by hidden powers in Washington, and I think we might not even know a fraction of what is causing so much of the corruption now, if stories like Spitzer's and Kahn's are common there.

[LiberalLovinLug]

37. What excuses is she using and for what?

That is more in line with the Obama doctrine. That is choosing to remain silent and noncritical and do nothing about say, prosecuting Wall Street criminals, or war crime criminals, or fighting harder for the Public Option and then afterwards throwing up his hands and using the EXCUSE that this is all the Republicans would give him.

She is doing the opposite. She is digging in her heels and refusing to play the old game. She is like a smart nerdy but brave kid in a school that refuses to go along with a bully and their posse. That she is told "If you join our gang, and pledge your loyalty and silence, you'll be an insider, but if you try and tattle tell on our bad behaviour you will be shunned and have no power and we will pick on you until you are a sobbing puddle". So she decides, fuck it, I'm going to the school paper anyways and tell the whole school what they've been up to regardless and I'll let the whole school decide. Maybe the bullys will win eventually, but maybe, just maybe, enough of the other students will be enlightened enough through my revelations to demand that rules be put in place to curb the bullys activity in the schoolyard.

[RiverLover]

44. I don't think you read the article. And you don't know much about EW. She's been fighting them non

stop. She HAS NOTHING to make excuses for.

[LiberalLovinLug]

97. That was my point.

I don't think you read my post right.

[RiverLover]

99. Oh good. I wanted the LiberalLovinLug to know EW! Thanks for clarifying. nt

[Major Hogwash]

56. Good point. They can pass all the laws they want to, but if no one enforces them, it doesn't matter.

Which is why Greenspan played out his little "experiment" in the early part of Dubya's 2nd term.
Greenspan belongs to a group of economists -- I can't remember what they call their group or their philosophy concerning money -- yet, they believe in a "no hands" government approach to controlling the Federal reserve, which controls the amount of money that is printed in this country.

I read somewhere that Greenspan believed that the banks would not lend out so much money that they would go to the brink of disaster.
Instead, he thought that they would be smart enough to regulate themselves, and pull back when they saw that the conditions were changing.

Greenspan was wrong.
That theory was flawed.

Yet, in any case, Warren isn't running to become the president.

[appalachiablue]

75. Financial elites like Lloyd Blankfein think what they are doing is 'God's work'.

[progressoid]

15. Victim?

I just finished reading the whole article and didn't see anything about her being a victim.

[treestar]

16. She couldn't take the job because she would have to kowtow to somebody corrupt

She was helpless in that job to enforce the laws, according to her, and she was bullying told she'd have to do as she was told and not be able to say as much as she could from outside.

She would be unable to use her amazing leadership skills.

Now she's outside, how come she hasn't used them to get the Senator to pass bills breaking up the banks? She's had a couple of years to do this. I know Obama is too weak and compromising to do that, but he's not even in the Senate anymore and is part of a different branch and all he has to do is sign the bills. It is the legislators' jobs to create and pass the bills. So I don't get why the powerful and strong leader EW has not had this bill pass - she could work on other Senators from inside the Senate. Seems a snap for such a strong and powerful leader.

[JDPriestly]

18. Treestar, have you read Warren's book?

Because you really need to.

When we talk about things we don't know anything about, we do come across as ignorant.

If you want to talk about Elizabeth Warren, please read her book.

You may find that you really respect and like her after you have read the book. Cover to cover, not just a few pages. Please.

[treestar]

21. This is to keep me busy for several hours

I already accept that she is a powerful leader who can get anyone to do the right thing. She is for the little guy and against the banks. She is a fighter. She is already a Senator where she can fight to get a bill passed to break up the banks. With this kind of dedication, passion and personal power, it will surely pass the upcoming Senate. Why did she even bother with the idea of being a part of the executive branch that merely carries out the law as it is today, which is inadequate anyway? She is much better in the Senate, where she can get them to pass a bill.

She does not even have to be President to do that. In fact, she can use that to prove she should be President. In fact, from the Oval Office, she will not have as great a power to persuade other Senators. But now, she's right in that branch with them. I don't get why she hasn't already gotten this bill through, especially with bernie to help..

[JDPriestly]

27. The president's voice, if he or she is willing and capable of using it properly, can be heard

across the nation. The president has the power of communication far beyond that of any member of Congress.

Unlike Hillary or Obama, Elizabeth Warren is a master debater. She has the ability to speak to people so that they understand her point of view, and she is not hesitant to take a stand.

I like Obama very much. He is a great guy with a wonderful, warm personality. I worked very hard to help get him elected. His heart is in the right place.

He is a good speaker. But he is not a forceful, direct speaker. Elizabeth Warren is. That is her gift. She needs to be standing in the bully pulpit. She is one voice, one vote in Congress. As president, she could reach far more people.

Congress is extremely corrupt, conservative and backward. It's a bunch of paid-off bums to a great extent. Elizabeth Warren is honest. She would execute the laws faithfully and scream loudly about those laws that should not be the law. She would point to the many laws written to fulfill the desires of those in our society who consider themselves to be very "special" just as she is pointing now to what has been called the Citibank law.

We really need Elizabeth Warren. She speaks truth to power. We do not need another servant of the 1%. We need someone for once in the White House who speaks for the people.

[treestar]

36. A new Messiah!

EW is going to do it all.

But if Congress is corrupt, all she can do is enforce the current laws as President. Surely that's going to sour DU on her, when she can't get the corrupt Congress to pass the bill breaking up the banks?

And you're putting so much on mere speaking. If only EW could be POTUS, her direct style of speaking will cause the corrupt Congress to go along?

So the excuse for this direct speaking and powerful leadership not getting bills through the Senate is the corruption in the Senate? That means only the POTUS can save us but the POTUS has to be not only pure, but a direct speaker. The bully pulpit can make the Presidency into a type of benign dictatorship, if only we can get the right person in there. Obama disappointed but EW is the one.

It's still putting it all into the Presidency as if the other branches and the states don't exist. It's simple, wishful thinking. And when things don't change, I guess EW is going to get the brunt of the blame. No wonder she doesn't want to run.

[BeanMusical]

62. A new Messiah?

Lol, ironic coming from you.

[joshcryer]

32. I read it.

The context of that quote is her work on the Congressional Oversight Panel. She ends the report that if the insiders don't like it, then the public will listen and make change.

My time as a COP changed me. I still didn’t have a badge or a set of handcuffs, and I was still nervous about going on television (although I never threw up again), but I learned a couple of important lessons. I learned that insiders don’t appreciate questions from outsiders, including pesky professors who don’t know the unwritten rules of Washington. I also learned an essential truth: When you have no real power, go public—really public. The public is where the real power is.

Except, demagoguery aside, COP was always going to be made public, and COP actually defended TARP (despite Warren's own lamentations that it paid off the bankers; yeah, it kept them from defaulting and it has largely been paid back, so it wasn't a magical giveaway). What COP didn't do was accurately predict the payback of TARP, and it's clear the language throughout the paper was trying to sell a pretty glum narrative about TARP, and in its own final assessment it fails to actually explain why TARP "may have been insufficient to make much of a difference to the broader economy."

[progressoid]

19. OK

I'm gonna go make some Christmas cookies now.

[treestar]

22. A US Senator? Entry level?

She can't get this bill passed in the Senate without a President? Not true. See article I. It doesn't say the President has to approve a bill before it can pass the Senate. It is the opposite. The Senate can pass a bill with no Presidential involvement whatsoever.

[Eleanors38]

50. You want Warren to have what we don't: Power.

I hope we All are on the outside. My only substantive criticism of Warren is she needs to move soon. Only then will she be able to gather enough of a movement to recruit many progressives to run and win; she'll need them.

I am struck by how FDR came to the presidency. He was well-wired to the "inside," but that didn't count as much as his ability to articulate a strong message which brought like-minded people in with him. If we have another economic blow-out, this would help her cause, but she can't wait for that dubious luxury.

[Odin2005]

94. FDR camer to power when the PTB were terrified of a Communist revolution...

...or a complete collapse and disintegration of society. In early 1933 before he was inaugurated all the high and mighty were actually begging him to seize power and rule as a dictator. In 2008 the folks in charge stopped the economic collapse before it got to 1932 levels, and so now the PTB have no incentive to make concessions to the working class.

[Eleanors38]

98. It is true, the PTB now have no incentive...

But FDR came with allies in Congress. I don't think the big boys were so uniformly successful with a greatly-altertered Party, nor were they so homogeneous in their view of FDR: There was no love or him among many sectors.

IMO, there will be an essential party component to meaningful, institutional change.

[joshcryer]

34. It's taken completely out of context.

It has nothing to do with riffing on other Senators who voted for a bill. Senators riff on other Senators. It's just a completely silly taken out of context quote applied to a completely unrelated scenario.

[Hissyspit]

53. It's taken out of context?

The first thing we read is "2009."

That's pretty important context.

Second question: What's silly about it?

[joshcryer]

74. This quote is being drummed up in response to her floor speech.

Where she riffed on Citigroup and on other Senators for "slipping" in reductions to Dodd-Frank. As if she took Summer's suggestion and ignored it because she made a rousing speech on the Senate floor.

If she really wanted to break up Citigroup she could've co-sponsered Sander's legislation to do it, she could've rallied for votes. It failed by 2 votes in Committee. Such a rabble rouser surely could've got two more votes?

It's, frankly, demagoguery.

[Doctor_J]

41. can you pinpoint what started your intense irrational hatred of Sen Warren?

It is of the magnitude you usually have for members of the men's group

[Hissyspit]

52. No.

She's not.

[Odin2005]

92. Ah, here comes the "we must silence Liz" brigade".

[Tatiana]

24. She's basically telling us they're all corrupt. Which most of us knew.

But no actual member actually voices the truth. The last Senator I can think of that actually told the truth was my Senator, Dick Durbin. And then they got to him. Haven't seen him step one toe out of line since then. But, back in the day, Dick also was a sincere politician who wanted to make lives better for everyday people:

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.

http://www.salon.com/2009/04/30/ownership/

[marym625]

31. Funny

Was talking about good old Lar and the end game memo on another thread yesterday.

That's a guy that should be in prison. Since so many were unfamiliar with the end game memo that Greg Palast investigated, here's a link


http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo/

[world wide wally]

33. Money makes the world go around.

Every Corp and conglomerate in the world keeps their money in banks.
Therefore, banks do rule the world.
What we need is some semblance of power for the rest of us and someone to voice that power and act on it.
EW seems to be our best hope at the moment. I also want to bring up Sherrod Brown who is always pushed to the sidelines behind EW and Berbie. We just need to get behind these three if we're ever going to get anywhere.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. You wanna be an insider or an outsider?

[demigoddess]

39. that is not a democracy,

that is plutocracy.

[spooky3]

40. Voters could change that, if only they would mobilize to do so.

Insiders have power only as long as outsiders--or members of the other party-/aren't doing well in the polls or otherwise gaining traction. If no one holds them accountable, insiders can make the rules. I wish voters would exercise the power they have.

[polichick]

42. Carefully planned propaganda networks have kept the people divided - so far.

[Major Hogwash]

51. There was a cartoon drawn in the 1930s about the creation of the Federal Reserve as an octopus.

With one arm of the octopus wrapped around the White House, another arm wrapped around Capitol Hill, with several arms wrapped around banks in this country, and it was a very ominous cartoon.
Very scary looking.

Now I know why.

[polichick]

55. This one?

Creepy!

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/chart-graph/vintage-federal-reserve-octopus-cartoon

[Major Hogwash]

57. That's it!!

I thought it had been drawn in the 1930s.

When the Federal Reserve was manipulated to allow all 5 of the major banks in this country to go to the brink of bankruptcy, which is what Greenspan did, that is when that cartoon came to mind.

We are in serious need of banking reform in this country, but that will be put off until 2017 now that the Republicans were able to buy their way in to controlling both Houses of Congress.

[Eleanors38]

47. "if only they would mobilize" implies...

...what are we doing about it? We're the politicos, policy geeks, activists; this is our business. We shouldn't be wondering "if." (This includes me as well,)

[Major Hogwash]

58. It's about educating the public about the reckless policies the GOP believes in.

I don't blame people for voting for Republicans when the Democrats won't bother to educate them in the first place.

[Eleanors38]

66. I agree. Best place to start? Ground-up takeover

of the Democratic Party. And soon.

[Major Hogwash]

68. We have no other choice, in my opinion.

My state's Democratic party hardly even advertised that we had a candidate for the U.S. Senate running for office this year.
The tv ads were almost non-existent.
This year we had the lowest turnout for an election, at 29%, in the state's history.

[Odin2005]

95. Power, what power?

Power to vote for one of two capitalist tools every 2, 4, or 6 years? Remember the "Dean Scream"? Any politician who poses a threat to the ruling class will have their candidacy destroyed.

[blkmusclmachine]

45. DC is a racket.

If voting could change anything, DC would have already outlawed it.

[hrmjustin]

49. Good for her for making the right decision.

I admire her integrity.

[amandabeech]

54. And Obama picked Larry Summers. So did Bill Clinton. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

59. Sombitch had been watching too many episodes of "The Sopranos".

[WillyT]

63. K & R !!!

[sulphurdunn]

65. Regardless of which party,

the President is a tool of Wall Street, which is why Hillary Clinton will be the presidential nominee and Elizabeth Warren will not. That is why people like Warren and Sanders are useful in the Senate, where they can shine some light on the real owners of what we thought was our government and not in the White House, which is where the owner's newest butler resides every 4 to 8 years.

[spanone]

67. where is Elliot Ness?...these guys are crime bosses...

[INdemo]

82. I read this and have listened to some of her speeches

and realize that there are still some level headed Republican voters out there. The ones that haven't been bitten by the radical T bagger bug, the Reagan Democrats I guess would be a better way to describe them. I believe that if Elizabeth Warren ran for President her campaign would be about the working class families and she would attract millions of those Reagan Democrats and she could very well win.
So Liberals are becoming the popular side of politics

This is line that got me
"“People will put up with a lot, but there comes a time when taking away the opportunities for their children — it stirs something deep in people,” she said."

This affects real Republicans too. Now I'm not referring to the millionaire Republicans. I'm referring to the working class Republicans that grew listening to all the Republican hoop la

[wordpix]

87. Larry Summers---one of the architects of Too Big to Fail bailouts

Good for Eliz. to expose this a-hole

[Odin2005]

89. I wonder how the Clintonistas are gonna spin this.

[yurbud]

96. Larry Summers makes Karl Rove look like Mother Theresa

He is the naked face of the soul the financial elite.