2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBill Clinton’s Blood Libel of the American People
Last edited Mon Apr 18, 2016, 07:32 PM - Edit history (1)
By William K. Black
April 17, 2016 Bloomington, MN
Hillary Clinton uses a rhetorical device that is too clever by half. Whenever Bernie Sanders points out that she continues to take millions of dollars for her campaign and over $650,000 personally from the infamous Vampire Squid whose frauds caused the financial crisis she responds that this means that Bernie is attacking President Obama too, for in 2008 his campaigns largest donor was those same Wall Street felons. She then says that the Dodd-Frank Act proves that campaign contributions do not affect elected officials. Her devotion to Wall Street funding and her statement that campaign funds have no effect help explain why she does so poorly in the polls on credibility. As I explained in a prior column, academic research confirms what we all know from life campaign contributions play a substantial role in the decisions of elected officials. Indeed, even Paul Krugmans lecture notes show that he agrees with this point. (Disclosure: I am an adviser to Bernie on economics, regulation, and criminology.)
President Obama began his term of office by slandering the American people who wanted him to restore the rule of law and bring the banksters to justice. Simon Johnson and James Kwak, the authors of Thirteen Bankers, cite Obamas claim to the 13 bankers at the infamous March 31, 2009 meeting so close to the start of his term of office that he was all that was protecting them from the publics pitchforks as the defining event of the administration on financial issues.
We chose this meeting because it aptly symbolizes the solidarity between the new Obama administration and the major banks at the depths of the financial crisis and recession. Speaking with reporters after the meeting, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, Were all in this together, a phrase repeated by multiple bank CEOs. This contrasted with the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration of 1933, which largely froze out the bankers, much to their chagrin.
This is also the meeting at which Obama said, My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks. This was the point at which the government had to decide if it would defend the financial oligarchy from populist outrage, or whether it would reform the financial system that brought us the financial crisis and severe recession. We do not think it was an easy choice. But ultimately Obama and his advisers chose to bet on the bankers they knew. The result has been even larger banks and an even more concentrated financial sector.
The White House, hilariously, tried to spin this meeting as the President being tough on the bankers, but Johnson and Kwak easily saw through this early veil of PR. The administrations own legal pleadings now admit that Obama was meeting with the leaders of many of the most destructive criminal organizations in the world, but he treated the CEOs as if they and the banks they dominated were the administrations key allies Were all in this together was Obamas catchphrase. Obamas characterization of the American people was a blood libel. The American people do not want mob rule, we want justice. We want the criminals prosecuted who led the fraud epidemics that caused the financial crisis prosecuted.
Did Obamas record receipt of Wall Street funds matter? Actions speak far louder than President Obama or Secretary Clintons words. How many prosecutions has the Obama administration brought of the Wall Street elites that led the three most destructive epidemics of financial fraud in history? Those are the epidemics of appraisal fraud, liars loans, and the subsequent resale of these fraudulently originated mortgages through fraudulent representations (reps) and warranties. The answer is zero. How many of the systemically dangerous banks have been ordered by the Obama administration to shrink a level that they no longer endanger the global economy? The answer is zero. How many times has President Obama said that the crisis was driven by elite Wall Street frauds? The answer is zero. How many times has President Obama fired his Attorney General for failure to prosecute the elite Wall Street felons? The answer is zero.
Krugman claims that the crisis was brought on only by the predatory loans of small, unregulated lenders in the shadow sector. That is false, as I will document in detail in a subsequent article, but even if it were true it would pose an obvious question how many C suite leaders of the shadow lenders has the Obama administration prosecuted? The answer is zero. Shadow lenders also made very large political contributions.
Hillary cannot even bring herself to use the words fraud and predation to charge Wall Street and shadow elites with their crimes. Instead, she says that no one is too big to prosecute even though the last decade has proven the opposite. The most Hillary is able to bring herself to charge Wall Streets felons with is shenanigans which means youthful pranks. Yep, Hillary thinks that Wall Streets elite banksters were just a bunch of 14-year old males out on the equivalent of a joy ride in dads car. Her refusal to denounce the elite fraudsters and their crimes demonstrates that she is unwilling to use even the most tepid words against them lest she and Bill lose their millions of dollars from their Wall Street patrons. How is she going to actually prosecute the elite Wall Street criminals and break up the systemically dangerous Wall Street banks if she cannot even bring herself to condemn their fraud epidemics?
Fortunately, Bill Clinton is the gift that keeps on giving. He has just given a speech denouncing the Democratic Partys base, the progressives who are the most loyal and strongest supporters of the Democratic Party. He denounced them because a majority of progressives support Bernie. His fiasco when he tried to claim that Black Lives Matter protesters were defending the murderers of black children because they objected to Hillarys adopting and using the great slander about black super predators being sub human was an unscripted departure from his talk. Bills slander of progressive Democrats, however, was clearly a joke he had rehearsed and was eager to deliver.
One of the few things I really havent enjoyed about this primary, I think its fine that these young students have been so enthusiastic for her opponent and
sounds so good: Just shoot every third person on Wall Street and everything will be fine, Clinton said at an event in New York.
Note that Bill hid behind the joke label to spread the innuendo that the base of the Democratic Party was a murderous mob suffused with hate for anyone who worked on Wall Street. The truth is the opposite. The base of the Democratic Party wants justice, which requires that no one is above the rule of law. The Wall Street and shadow banksters have both been allowed to commit the most destructive financial frauds in history with total personal impunity. That isnt the fault of the American people, but of the leaders who have destroyed the rule of law when it comes to finance. Bill Clinton was one of those leaders.
Please review, and if you agree, support the detailed plan of the Bank Whistleblowers United to restore the rule of law to finance. BWU is a non-partisan group that asks the supporters of every candidate to ask him or her to pledge to implement the BWU plan and campaign pledge.
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2016/04/bill-clintons-blood-libel-american-people.html
snot
(10,530 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,719 posts)On Mon Apr 18, 2016, 05:35 PM an alert was sent on the following post:
Bill Clintons Blood Libel of the American People
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511771452
REASON FOR ALERT
This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.
ALERTER'S COMMENTS
The term "blood libel" is racist and anti-semitic and has no place used here as a descriptor of anything.
The blood libel refers to a centuries-old false allegation that Jews murder Christians especially Christian children to use their blood for ritual purposes, such as an ingredient in the baking of Passover matzah (unleavened bread). It is also sometimes called the ritual murder charge.
Also, this is a blatant abuse of the copyright limitations from a blog of questionable utility.
Any one who uses a "Jew Baiting" term to criticize BANKERS is treading on dangerous ground.
I hear a dog whistle.
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Apr 18, 2016, 06:12 PM, and the Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.
Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Did some research before voting. Thus: "The term 'blood libel' can also refer to any unpleasant and damaging false accusation, and has taken on a broader metaphorical meaning." I'm not Jewish, so I wouldn't have even noticed the term as offensive, but since the alert was so specific, I decided to look it up. I frankly wouldn't have known about it, so thanks to the alerter for being specific. Hopefully if others have objections, they can voice it further.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: This is a direct C
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: More copy and paste bullshit. I'll be glad when the Primaries are over and clowns like this can slither back under their rock. Any post I receive from the GD-P Kindergarten sand box usually gets a pass from me by default. I figure one side is just as bad as the other and anyone who is persistently bad enough in their posting or chronic alerting will eventually be evicted from the sand box. That particular decision is up to the hosts, not me. Alertist get over your old self. In the meantime I'll clutch my pearls on your behalf.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)A blog of questionable utility? You have to be fucking kidding me...thankfully jury got it right.
Bill K Black:William Black
Veteran bank regulator
William K. Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One, was formerly the litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), senior vice president and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel of the Office of Thrift Supervision. Black was also deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.
He developed the concept of control fraudfrauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a weapon, and which cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined.
He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight in its enforcement action against Fannie Maes former senior management. He also testified before the Senate Agricultural Committee on the regulation of financial derivatives and the House Governance Committee on the regulation of executive compensation.
Currently a professor of law and economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, he was the executive director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
http://billmoyers.com/guest/william-k-black/
LiberalArkie
(15,719 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)The banks are NOT owned by Jews!
Aerows
(39,961 posts)of what the OP was trying to make, but lobbing "blood libel" along with a conversation where there is a Jewish man is pretty fucking sick.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)The content of the OP points to the slander CLINTON has utilized..demonstrably
in the examples he set forth in motion through policies and his words.
beedle
(1,235 posts)Skwmom
(12,685 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)This money is IN ADDITION to Campaign donations, and donations to the Clinton Foundation, which are even more staggeringly high.
And Hillary deceitfully tried to smear President Obama recently, repeatedly, by saying that Obama had received the most campaign donations from Wall Street of any candidate.
BUT---we're not talking about CAMPAIGN donations. We're talking about personal profiteering from paid speeches from Wall Street, Big Pharma, Etc.
In total, the two gave 729 speeches from February 2001 until May, receiving an average payday of $210,795 for each address.
The two also reported at least $7.7 million for at least 39 speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, collecting at least $1.8 million for at least eight speeches to big banks.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/politics/hillary-clinton-bill-clinton-paid-speeches/
Here's where she deceitfully smears Obama (and she has done this repeatedly):
Hillary Keeps Maligning Obama as She Tries to Confuse Voters About Her Paid Wall Street Speeches
:
This morning, Hillary continued her attempts to confuse voters regarding her paid Wall Street speeches; she keeps trying to pretend that the issue is campaign donations. Well that is NOT the issue. And she knows that.
Well, Barack Obama took more money from Wall Street than any candidate who's ever run for president.
Clinton On Not Releasing Wall Street Speeches: 'I'm On The Public Record'
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-wall-street-transcirpts-question
But, Hillary, we're not talking about campaign donations; we're talking about personal checks from Wall Street that go straight to YOUR BANK ACCOUNT!
NY Times Also Pointed This Out:
" she keeps) comparing herself to President Obama, who took millions of dollars in campaign contributions from Wall Street but went on to enact some of the furthest-reaching financial regulations in decades.
But the new attacks strike at what even some allies believe may be one of Mrs. Clintons biggest vulnerabilities: not her positions on financial regulation, but her personal relationships with Wall Street executives, along with the millions of dollars Mrs. Clinton, her husband, and their family foundation have accepted in speaking fees or charitable contributions from banks, hedge funds and asset managers.
Unlike Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama has never earned speaking fees from Wall Street.
The reason that Bernie is focusing on the speaking fees is that Hillary cant use the Obama defense, said Ed Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor,
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Thank you very much for adding it here.
amborin
(16,631 posts)Response to Jefferson23 (Original post)
Aerows This message was self-deleted by its author.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)< --- this person is not Jewish, but recognizing ranting about blood libel is pretty ... oh wait, I heard a whistle.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)is where you're headed.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Is it you or the OP? You made the OP.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)derail a thread that is written by a bank regulator WHO is part of Bernie's team.
He has no history nor any interest in blowing any anti-Semitic dog whistles nor do I.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)is not a phrase to use when discussing Jewish people.
Nobody needs to GO there.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)It is anti-Semitic on the face of it.
I'm not Jewish and I heard the damn dog whistle.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)where you "Bust my chops".
My chops rival a deep south alligator, cooked by my hand, and turned into a delicacy.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)your lack of understanding of the OP's use of blood libel re: Clinton.