Democrats! Pull yourselves together! Adopt the New Paradigm as your own!

[Octafish]

Trust secret government and unknown corporate lawyers to do the right thing in private.

Take their word on it: They always do. From 1907**:



Meanwhile, do your best to see your sons and daughters marry well*. And if you don't have any kids, keep fit and start saving up for Botox and a facelift. You're going to have a lot of competition from the young people for whatever jobs are left, once all the stuff we still don't know about TPP kicks in.

* euphemism for "a wealthy wealthy rich person."

** SOURCE: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/crisis-next/1907/images.html

PS: Note in the cartoon dialogue, Big Banker says: "Corporations can not legally pay money for 'political' purposes." Ha ha ha ha ha.

[Rex]

1. It is sad, but the ones that get a paycheck from the plutocracy don't care about us or America.

They've made it obvious over the decades.

[Octafish]

25. Plutocrats Get Paid.

Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government and It Doesn't Want Anyone to Know

by David Dayen
New Republic, Feb. 4, 2015

Citigroup is one of three Wall Street banks attempting to keep hidden their practice of paying executives multimillion-dollar awards for entering government service. In letters delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last month, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley seek exemption from a shareholder proposal, filed by the AFL-CIO labor coalition, which would force them to identify all executives eligible for these financial rewards, and the specific dollar amounts at stake. Critics argue these “golden parachutes” ensure more financial insiders in policy positions and favorable treatment toward Wall Street.

“As shareholders of these banks, we want to know how much money we have promised to give away to senior executives if they take government jobs,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement. “It’s a simple question, but the banks don’t want to answer it. What are they trying to hide?”

The handouts recently received attention when Antonio Weiss, the former investment banker at Lazard now serving as counselor to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, acknowledged in financial disclosures that he would be paid $21 million in unvested income and deferred compensation upon exiting the company for a job in government. Weiss withdrew from consideration to become the undersecretary for domestic finance under pressure from financial reformers, but the counselor position—which does not require congressional confirmation—probably still entitles him to the $21 million. The terms of the award are part of a Lazard employee agreement that nobody has seen.

These payments are routine at major banks, several of which have explicit policies, found in filings with the SEC, outlining automatic awards for executives who rotate into government. Goldman Sachs offers “a lump sum cash payment” for government service, for example.

CONTINUED...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120967/wall-street-pays-bankers-work-government-and-wants-it-secret

Peons Get Lumps.

Coal.

Lumps.

[GoneFishin]

49. I think we can safely assume that some reward system for the reverse transition also exists.

That is to say, an "understanding" that certain activities while in office will guarantee you a nice corner office with your own private gold flusher executive toilet.

[Octafish]

52. Does Vice Chairmanship of Swiss bank UBS count?

Since the repeal of Glass-Steagal, they've continued developing new, eh, vehicles for Wealth Management:

http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com/revitalizingamerica/SenatorPhilGramm.html

[raouldukelives]

44. Ayep. Doubly sad that most of them are even unaware of what they do.

Little investment in Walmart there, little lobbying in your name there, little donation to the Republicans here, little money to get Huckabee elected there, little help from him and the Council of Conservative Citizens to radicalize a loner.

Like a butterfly wing, small drops in corporate ponds can create large ripples.

[bunnies]

2. All it would take to update that cartoon...

is a few more zeros on the loot bag.

[Octafish]

27. ...a lot of zeroes.

Amazing miracles of accounting and control fraud these days.

The Size of the Bank Bailout: $29 Trillion

by John Carney
msnbc, 14 Dec. 2011

EXCERPT...

But something like this position was on display last week when the Federal Reserve criticized reports claiming that the total size of its emergency facilities was $7.77 trillion. The Fed argued that these reports overstated the size of the facilities because they added up all the loans extended despite the fact that many were short term loans that we simply rolled over. According to the Fed, the best thing to do is look at the total amount outstanding at one one time, which was just $1.7 trillion.

Just like the guy who only had one drink…at a time.

The counter to this is that the need to keep borrowing under what are supposed to be short term facilities shows just how badly financial institutions were faring during the financial crisis.

“The amount of overnight lending reflects how broken our financial system really is. A well capitalized, moderately leveraged system does not require this massive liquidity from a central bank — interbank lending should be sufficient. What the data reveals is that the financial sector remains dangerously under-capitalized and overleveraged,” Barry Ritholz writes at the Big Picture.

Recently, a pair of PhD students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City tried to assess the total size of the Fed’s commitments—not just loans made, but asset purchases as well. The bottom line: a Federal Reserve bailout commitment in excess of $29 trillion.

That figure has, in turn, been criticized by economist James Hamilton who argued, incredibly, that the Fed’s bailout commitment under one facility was zero because all the money was paid back.

CONTINUED...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45674390

Like Dr. Evil coming out of the cryogenic capsule...

[merrily]

28. That and eliminating the quaint notion that anything is forbidden to corporations,

aka big business. Corporations are people, only with benefits people don't have, like limited liability and huge incentives to "create jobs."

[hifiguy]

35. Not to mention theoretical immortality, the biggest perk of all.

[Kermitt Gribble]

3. "Nominate the most progressive candidate who will secretly bargain with us"

Sounds just like the "New Democrats", no?

[hobbit709]

4. Nothing changes

[Octafish]

29. And it's all legal.

Joining forces with the GOP.

Makes me want to varmint. I mean vomit. On the varmints.

[Electric Monk]

5. I think I like your cents of humor

[hootinholler]

8. Can't even make a phone call for a pair o dime n/t

[Octafish]

36. One day, I'll be rich, too.

LOL so much it hurts.

[hifiguy]

6. The Wobblies had it right more than a hundred years ago.

[erronis]

15. Excellent. Costumes have changed a bit but actions stay the same.

[merrily]

31. Copyright 1911, before WWI, before any of the Russian revolutions succeeded, before the

Titanic sank. The year of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Google images of that year and the above cartoon makes even more sense. Or google poverty 1911. You'll experience instant Thanksgving in June.

[Octafish]

38. The Dead Child says it ALL.

Reminds one of Tiny Tim before Ol' Scrooge saw the Light.

"An Injury to One is an Injury to All"

THE INDUSTRIAL Workers of the World (IWW) was one of the first labor organizations in the U.S. to fight for industrial unionism. While never embracing more than a small minority of workers, the IWW left a legacy of militancy, innovative tactics and a principled commitment to workers' solidarity that ensured an influence bar beyond its numbers. PAUL D'AMATO recounts the lessons--both positive and negative--of the struggles of the IWW.

SOURCE: http://socialistworker.org/2004-2/500Supp/500S_198909_IWW.shtml

I'm so Old School Democrat, I'm siding with Labor on this one.

[hifiguy]

39. My dad was a union man for years.

He wasn't a man it was easy to get close to, especially a nerdy, bookish kid like me, but he gave me two pieces of advice that shaped my life:

"Son, work with your head, not with your hands."

and, when 8-year-old me asked him who he was voting for in the election of 1964, "Lyndon Johnson. If you get your paycheck from another man you'd better vote for Democrats. The rich can take care of themselves without our help."

The only republican he ever said a good word about that I ever heard was Eisenhower, and he HATED Nixon. Something about being so crooked he needed help to screw his pants on every morning.

[Gregorian]

7. That Golden Rule is worth noting.

Nominate the most progressive candidate who will secretly bargain with us.

I see part of our problem. They're willing to compromise their politics in order to elect someone who won't bother progressives. But we aren't willing to do that, which is what the DLC and others would try to get us to do. So we have had a hard job of getting our politics. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how progressives have managed to not get elected. I guess there's a bit more to it than just what the banks want, but they seem to be at the head of the line. I don't know.

[Fearless]

12. I've had enough "compromise" when it comes to my well-being

[bvar22]

18. I don't mind "compromise"where both sides get something of equal value.

I am furious with the Democrats for capitulating to Republicans for the last 30 years.
Capitulation is where OUR side get nothing but token gestures.
Then they get to stand in front of the TV cameras and congratulate each other for their "bravery & courage".

[font size=3]Paulson with Co-Conspirators

Now THIS is Bi-Partisanship.

[Enthusiast]

22. Buy-Partisanship

[Fearless]

24. The problem is what they want is not for sale

In the words of George Carlin, "more for themselves and less for everybody else."

[arcane1]

26. "compromise" is like "bipartisanship", euphemisms for "what repubs want"

[merrily]

32. Giving our hard earned tax dollars to the banks was a hard job, but somebody

had to do it. Luckily, the people who are supposed to represent the 99% stepped up and fast.

And the Fed has been stepping up ever since.

[Fumesucker]

33. A Warm Purple Space is what Hillary calls it

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/hillary-clintons-warm-purple-space/386288/

[bvar22]

37. The last time I felt that "warm purple space", I was in college,

....and someone gave me a little orange pill to eat.

[hootinholler]

9. New Flies!

Same old pile.

[Octafish]

43. Still, it bothers me when Democrats side with Management.

Which is NOT how it's supposed to be.

For those interested in where all this Buy Partisanship originates:

"One of the things that is interesting about reading conspiracy theory is that much of what folks think is conspiracy is really many people acting in concert to make or protect their money." - Catherine Austin Fitts

A big shot in Poppy's crew, Fitts got fed up with the corruption at the highest levels of government, business and finance. She's doing all she can to document corruption on Wall Street and Washington and helping those who give a damn do something about it. Her Narcodollars for Beginners deserves a Pulitzer.

Ah...Integrity. Such an alien concept to the plutocrats and their satraps.

[Dont call me Shirley]

10. K & R x 1,000,000,000

[Fearless]

11. Fuck that!

[leftstreet]

13. DURec

[questionseverything]

14. 6 years later and the fed was established

that was really how corporate rule was established

[erronis]

16. There seems to be another party missing at the table - the active "government" employees

That are taking payments directly. Mainly our "representatives." We don't believe that all that graft goes via their paychecks, do we? After all, lobbyists wouldn't get an audience without a nice handshake.

[merrily]

34. One of our state representatives was arrested after a sting wherein she was photographed

taking a cash bribe and stuffing it into her bra. At a restaurant, IIRC.

Most of them are a bit slicker than that.

[AZ Progressive]

17. The more things change, the more they stay the same

Count your blessings you lucky ones that born during the times of greater economic equality and when the rich were suppressed...

[AZ Progressive]

19. The rich also have the best and brightest on their side

They work to get the smartest people on their side, knowing that they would be toast if the best and brightest joined the revolt.

Without the best and brightest, the people can't hope to fight off the super machiavellian schemes that the rich use to attempt to retain their power. The people will be continually outsmarted by the rich.

[AZ Progressive]

20. This would all be easy to understand if you believed in the bible

Gotta admit that...

[For Freddie]

30. Fantastic !

That illustration is fantastic. I love it!
I am in Tucson.
How do I get an invite for my ex-homeless New York VERY Progressive brother to the Tucson Bernie Group?
He just went through the Salvation Army dorm and to work program.
He got his own apt. and maybe a job.
He is very dedicated to Bernie.
He needs others for Bernie to talk to.

Our country was founded on this "capital" idea.
Watch John Adams and how the arguing went
to create the country at all. The series shows
how it all started. How slavery and the South
prevailed. Business and money first.
It has always been this way.

We are in an age where the thought form that unfettered capitalism maybe more destructive than any other system.
We have been here before. But now we have computers.

Why so many white males have held the Constitution as infallible is beyond me when it excluded everyone but them. Duh

Stating this prefaced by , "I don't give a rat's ass about the Constitution" almost started a riot at ISU, Pocatello in the summer
of 1977 when I tried grad school there. I DID NOT know how naive
white boys were from the West. I did not know Constitutional White Boy Fundamentalism ruled. After that Merle's Oakie From Muskogee made a lot more sense.

[Enthusiast]

21. If we can't trust the banks........

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Fred Sanders]

23. If only my political conversations with friends was in a room with that kind of cash....

All of our speech is just as free, why is it not just as listened to by the media?

Never mind..just remembered where all that cash is going to go home to.

[SusanCalvin]

40. Yep, this stuff ain't new.

Which is why it's so infuriating that it's happening again.

[robertpaulsen]

41. K & R! Thanks Octafish!

[turbinetree]

42. Upon reading and seeing this piece.......................

I thought of the magazines and the late S.S McClure and the investigative journalist he had on his team----------I hope that many on this thread look into what his team did---------it was amazing and it changed the country for the better---------------now there are only a very few The Nation, Mother Jones, Harpers, American Prospect come to mind---------the rest are sellouts:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-tradition-of-mcclure/

http://wheneditorsweregods.typepad.com/when_editors_were_gods/2008/09/s-s-mcclure.html

[sabrina 1]

46. Thanks for the links, I will read them later. Our media and our government are now totally owned

and they have been aided and abetted by Democrats in whom we placed our trust. Shameful, despicable and many are wondering now if what they just did was even legal.

[turbinetree]

56. Your Welcome

[Octafish]

55. Thank you for the heads-up on S.S. McClure.

What this Democracy needs are six like him.

[turbinetree]

57. Yes...............Your Welcome

he really wanted his investigative team to find the answers and then Teddy Roosevelt coupled what his team found and he changed, and the country changed-----------it was truly remarkable----------what this county now has is really lacking, look up

Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens , Ray Standard Baker, Upton Sinclair

"Samuel Sidney McClure was an American publisher who became known as a key figure in investigative, or muckraking, journalism. He co-founded and ran McClure's Magazine from 1893 to 1911. He was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and emigrated with his widowed mother to Indiana when he was nine years old. He grew up nearly impoverished on a farm and graduated from Valparaiso High School in 1875. He worked his way through Knox College, where he co-founded its student newspaper, and later moved to New York City. In 1884, he established the McClure Syndicate, the first U.S. newspaper syndicate, which serialized books."

[raouldukelives]

45. K&R nt

[mathematic]

47. Finally somebody on the internet with the courage to speak out against central banking.

Boy, those political cartoonists really nailed that one!

[Betty Karlson]

48. Meet the new paradigm: back from the grave.

Who has been necromancing?

[Warren Stupidity]

50. The long effort at reform from Teddy Roosevelt to LBJ has been largely undone

since 1980. It is a sad testament to the inane gullibility of the American people and the power of mass media to manipulate us to act against our own self interest.

[fredamae]

51. Boss Tweed and Tammany Ring

is my favorite: "Who Stole The Peoples Money? 'Twas Him"
http://www.losal.org/cms/lib7/CA01000497/Centricity/Domain/340/Politcal_cartoon_analysis.pdf

Was "it" ever about political affiliation?

[midnight]

53. ALEC seems to have the Wall Street option down pat...

[navarth]

54. Like my bumpersticker says:

"If you're not OUTRAGED, you're not paying attention"

...and I see continuous evidence that the sheeple are definitely not paying attention.

As long as the TV machine works, as long as a certain percentage of the populace is comfortable, nothing will change. Or so it seems to me.

Brother Octafish, keep that light shining.

[Uncle Joe]

58. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for thread, Octafish.

[riderinthestorm]

59. Wow! Well done. Some here on DU will hate you for this

exposing the machinations of the power brokers again.

Preparing for the inevitable cries of "conspiracy theory".

Please, please keep on keeping on.

[JEB]

60. K&R for the original post and subsequent informative posts and links.