Tag: Elizabeth Warren

Biden’s Binders: We Select A Veep

Posted on by Michael Liss

by Michael Liss

That Fifties-looking gent to your right is John J. Sparkman (D-Alabama) who was Adlai Stevenson’s running mate in 1952. Sparkman served in Congress for more than 40 years, the last 32 of them in the Senate. While not a star, he was associated with several pieces of important legislation and became Chair of the Senate Banking Committee and, late in his career, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was also a committed segregationist and, in 1956, signed the Southern Manifesto, in emphatic opposition to Brown vs. Board of Education.

Not the best look in what was then an evolving Democratic Party, and the party bosses who made the decisions in those days knew it. When it became time for Ike to crush Stevenson again, Sparkman was replaced by Tennessee’s more liberal Estes Kefauver, who did not sign the Southern Manifesto. Sparkman remained in the Senate, where he served for 23 more years.

This scary-looking guy to your left is John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who, during a truly extraordinary career that included being a Congressman, Senator, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War, also managed to sneak in two terms as Vice President under two very different Presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. You are going to hear a lot over the next few weeks about “chemistry” between Joe Biden and his running mate. Suffice it to say that John C. Calhoun never had chemistry with anyone, except perhaps of the combustible kind. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun disagreed constantly, particularly on the enforcement of federal laws that South Carolina found not to its liking (including the juicily named “Tariff of Abominations”), which led Mr. Calhoun to resign the Vice Presidency during the Nullification Crisis in 1832.

I bring you these little worm-eaten chestnuts as an appetizer before today’s entrée, the coming vetting of either the next Vice President of the United States, or the next footnote to history. Sparkman’s and Calhoun’s experiences came to mind when it was announced that this is the week when Joe Biden’s team starts seriously thumbing through his binders of women. Since I have written kindly about Joe in the past, I thought he’d appreciate the input. Mr. Vice President, give me a call. Read more »

Weep Not, Divided Land: Here’s How A Beautiful America Will Arise From The Ugliness Of Trump’s Triumph

Posted on by Evert Cilliers

by Evert Cilliers aka Adam Ash

Statue-of-liberty-weeping-cryingAfter eight years of an honorable, decent human being as our president, here comes the execrable Donald Trump. A veritable saint will be followed in our highest office by the worst mater fornicator imaginable.

So: now that Trump has exposed the darkness at the heart of America, what are we to do?

For a start, don't despair, folks. Lift your grieving eyes to the stars, and let me show you how an American phoenix will take flight from the ashes of triumphant Trumpism.

First, let us examine how this f-upped f-up of f-ups came to pass. How is it that a political neophyte, a rank outsider, a billionaire who lives a life of luxury totally unrelated to the experience of average Americans, a New Yorker far from the Rust Belt, a man many satellite-orbits above the station of blue-collar drones … how is it that this man read the mood of our working class better than anyone else in the world?

How did he know to tap into the innermost zeitgeist of the contemporary American soul? How did he come to forge a direct connection to the core beliefs of most American voters? How did he know who his peeps were? Who are his peeps? Who are the folks who voted for Trump?

They are Americans just like you and me. But they have not been as blessed or as blind as you and me. They are Americans mired in Nietschean ressentiment. A resentment that won Trump the presidency. A resentment he must have felt himself. A resentment that is totally justified. Which is why America deserves Trump.

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Obama vs Romney Is Not The Real Fight For America’s Soul

Posted on by Evert Cilliers

by Evert Cilliers aka Adam Ash

Obama-romney-debateThe second Obama-Romney debate — when Obama plucked Romney's lying tongue out of his face and liquified it on national TV — was a highly satisfying spectacle. But this satisfaction may make one forget from where Obama's strongest opposition ought to come.

Not from the right. But from the left.

Now that Romney has decided he's not so severely conservative as before, how much difference is there between him and Obama? About as much difference as between Jerry Sandusky and an errant Catholic priest. Obama is in essence a moderate Republican, willing to put Medicare and Social Security on the block as negotiating chips in a loony effort to reach a Grand Bargain with the GOP about our debt. That makes him an un-Democrat. True Democrats know, down in the depths of their gonads and ovaries, that Medicare and Social Security are inviolate items not to be bargained over.

But Obama is prepared to compromise. Give me a teeny tax raise on the rich and I'll raise the age for Social Security. Let me wet my green energy dick a tad more and I'll take it up the ass on Medicare. Let's face it: what with kill lists, illegal detentions, taking care of Wall Street instead of Main Street, and so on and on, Obama is no different from what a country-club Rockefeller Republican would be like today. No wonder he admires Reagan so much — he's not that different from him, either.

Nor from Bill Clinton, perhaps the biggest wrecker of our economy ever. As a useful idiot of Robert Rubin, Clinton did two highly irresponsible Wall Street-enabling things during his presidency, and set the stage for the 2008 financial meltdown and our continuing Great Recession. Clinton signed the bill that repealed the Glass-Steagal Act that had kept investment banking and regular banking separate, and had given us financial stability for 50 years. And then he signed another bill that freed derivatives from any oversight or regulation; within a decade, mortgage-based derivatives blew up our economy. Today Obama follows Clinton's path as another useful idiot of Wall Street, relying on their stoolie Tim Geithner for his hands-off policies towards the big banks.

So where is the real progressive alternative to Obama's GOP-lite policies?

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Obama Is Corrupt, Hillary Isn’t

Posted on by Evert Cilliers

by Evert Cilliers aka Adam Ash

Barack-Obama-Hillary-Clinton_0I heard an amazing story about Hillary Clinton from someone who worked for her. When she was a Senator, and some corporation gave her big campaign money, she wouldn't take the money if she knew she was going to vote against that corporation's interests on a bill that corporation wanted passed. She would tell them straight that she was going to vote against them, and then ask them if they still wanted her to cash their check, because she'd rather not have their money (this guy told me that weirdly enough, 90% of the corporations would tell her, heck, keep the money).

So this is a story about something very unique: an American politician who refuses to be bought.

One wonders if, under a Hillary presidency, with a Hillary Department of Justice … if Wall Street, Jon Corzine, and all the other financial crooks would be walking around free today.

Obama has been totally bought by Wall Street. Not a single CEO from any of the big banks has been in trouble with the law, after the biggest financial meltdown and scandal of our times. Wall Street sold stuff they knew was crap to pension funds and other customers, and even bet against the stuff they sold. This is big-time fraud, to sell stuff you know will blow up, but you don't care, because the stuff will blow up after you've collected your bonus. Too big to fail turns out to be too big to jail. Not a single hand of justice has been laid on them. And no laws have been made to force them to be honest and transparent. Tim Geithner and the SEC are giving Wall Street crooks a free pass. Jon Corzine openly stole a billion bucks from his customer accounts to cover his bad margins, and he is walking free.

Would Hillary have let Wall Street off scot-free? Who knows. But at least now I know she was willing to refuse money from corporations whom she was going to vote against. She was not for sale when she was a Senator. But Obama as president was and is for sale. He sold out to Wall Street when he became president, because his candidacy was backed big-time by Wall Street money.

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I Have A Dream: Obama’s Second Term

Posted on by Evert Cilliers

by Evert Cilliers aka Adam Ash

Obama_cool_ap_imgFirst thing, a raft of Guantanamo cases are brought in civil courts. The prisoners who aren't in court, are in a plane on their way to Iraq or Afghanistan. Guantanamo prison turns into a tourist attraction, with luxury hotels, gambling, and highly-educated Marxist prostitutes from Cuba.

Next thing, Bradley Manning is pardoned. He leaves his cell, becomes a hero on the progressive circuit, and breaks up Barney Frank's marriage.

The Glass-Stegall Act is brought back and reinstated. The big banks all break in two, between commercial and investment banks. Their lamentations fall on deaf ears.

After a few Wall Street big wigs are prosecuted for fraud, finance capitalism finds itself hogtied by a weird wave of ethical behavior.

Following the example of North Dakota, all the states start their own banks. They withdraw all the money they have in Wall Street and pour it into their state banks.

Wall Street shrinks. There is a tax on all financial transactions. Many firms go bankrupt or close up for business. They just don't have as much money to play with as before. High-end prostitutes flee Wall Street for Qatar.

All companies registered in America have to declare their profits and losses as single entities. They are not allowed to have branches for tax purposes in other places, like the Cayman Islands. Therapists do a thriving business in tax lawyers when all tax loopholes are closed. For the first time in years, General Electric and Goldman Sachs pay actual taxes — at an actual rate of 30% plus. Their lamentations fall on deaf ears.

The Bush tax cuts are gone. All of us pay more taxes. But millionaires pay the most: a 50% rate. There is a one-time wealth tax of 15% on all holdings of the superrich, which wipes out our deficit in one mighty swoop.

The country has a surplus again, like it did under Clinton. The GOP goes into a megasulk.

Marijuana is legalized, and the economy of California makes a startling recovery.

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