MannyGoldstein
MannyGoldstein's JournalAny Third Wayers in the house tonight? I need that fairy tale again.
It is a dark day for the rule of law. Federal and state authorities have chosen not to indict HSBC, the London-based bank, on charges of vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the financial system. They also have not charged any top HSBC banker in the case, though it boggles the mind that a bank could launder money as HSBC did without anyone in a position of authority making culpable decisions.
Clearly, the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail. When prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is weakened, if not lost.
I'm having trouble falling asleep tonight, and it would be really comforting if a Third Wayer could read me that fairy tale again? You know, the one where the Liberal is ridiculous, quite possibly a Republican shill working for Karl Rove, for claiming that Dodd-Frank was little but cover for the bankers? I particularly love the part where Dodd-Frank eliminates too big to fail, that there's now an orderly way to unwind and shut down banks when they don't behave.
I'll be here in bed with my iPad, waiting for another performance of the fairy tale.
Hopefully that fairy tale will do the trick, but if not, maybe we could do the one where the NDAA doesn't authorize the President to throw any American in jail, forever, with zero judicial oversight. Or the one where the President never said he wanted to cut - not slash -... ah, never mind.
Regards,
First-Way Manny
Craziest thing: Anyone here with Psoriasis?
Wonderful and weird thing happened in my family, wanted to share it:
For years, my nephew had pretty bad psoriasis on his entire scalp. Even with nightly topical treatment of a cortisone (in oil, under a shower-cap), it wasn't well controlled.
Parents started giving him a tablespoon of lecithin each day, and the psoriasis vanished pretty quickly. Gone. Zero treatments needed anymore, and not a hint of psoriasis. For a couple of months now, and it hadn't ever gone into remission in the years he had it prior.
So why lecithin?
Lecithin is a common food supplement derived from soybeans that has a lot of choline. It turns out that:
1. 50% of psoriasis sufferers have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (hepatic steatosis)
2. fatty liver can be reliably induced by a choline-deficient diet.
3. most Americans get less, often far less, choline than the Adequate Intake level set by the Institute of Medicine.
Putting these together, it hints that psoriasis sufferers may not be getting enough choline, and the choline in lecithin might have fixed the boy's problem. Could be coincidence that the psoriasis disappeared when they started trying the lecithin, but it's a heck of a coincidence. And these are not crazy people.
Anyway, I wanted to share the info. If anyone's tried lecithin and had good or bad experiences, I'd be very interested to hear about it.
Vote to cut entitlements? Then I pledge $100 to primary you in the next election.
That's the message I'm sending to my elected representatives.
If they vote to touch entitlements, then I'll contribute to replace them with another Democratic candidate who actually embraces Democratic principles. They're entitlements because we paid for them in full, and we're entitled to them, the way we're entitled to the money in our bank accounts.
Shared sacrifice, my ass. The wealthiest 5% of Americans got a $1 trillion tax gift break over the last ten years - let them pay it back, with interest, before we go after the old, the poor, and the sick.
"serious entitlement reform... It's not that tough."
Guess who said that today?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=327619
All of the nice thoughts I was thinking... blown to hell. At least I have a shot again at winning that steak dinner.
Craziest @#$%ing thing. Suddenly, America agrees with Bernie.
Here's what Bernie said today:
We have got to stand tall and say that, in the middle of this recession, we’ve got 50 million people who have no health insurance at all. We ain’t gonna cut Medicare. We’re not gonna throw children off of Medicaid...
And yes, despite all of the power that our friends on Wall Street have, and the fact that they own many of the politicians here in Washington, some of us are gonna stand with working families, low-income families, disabled veterans and senior citizens.”
And it suddenly struck me: Hey! Fuck! America agrees! With gusto! Damn, you bet! Bernie's gone from Socialist nut to truth-teller, even though he hasn't changed a word!
Remember a couple of years ago, when all of Washington from the President down to the Chief Lobbyst for AARP agreed that the only sensible thing to do would be to
Things seem to have changed since the Republicans got pureed in an election that was theirs to lose, given that we're in the fourth year of a depression. They ran on a platform of turning the 99%'s pain up to 11. For the first time in decades, that was not a winning strategy. Seeing this, first weather-vanes like Chuck Schumer and Deval Patrick suddenly turned into Liberals, followed by a bunch of other senators, and seemingly, now the President.
God bless Harry Reid. He's been on the right side the whole time, and proud of it. Nancy Pelosi's been good as well.
Social Security and Medicare are far from secure - Social Security is a huge pot of money that the Predator Class continues to circle with eyes like saucers, saliva pouring from their pie-holes, and their sacks of cold cash are a mighty tempting treat to our elected officials. And Medicare does have an actual problem in that we choose to have health care costs that are twice what others pay.
But American voters have spoken: we're sick of being on the receiving end of forced economic sodomy. We're with Bernie now.
Excelsior!
I might be totally wrong. It feels pretty good.
Most DUers are surprised to hear that I was an early and ardent supporter of Obama's original run for President.
Don't believe it? Go check DU2, it's all there.
Obama said the right things, that he'd fight for working Americans, end the unconstitutional powers that Bush had grabbed, and so forth. I figured that the other two Democrats with a serious shot already had pretty nasty records (voting for wars, economic assault on the 99%, etc.), that they were certainly not Liberal/Progressive by any stretch of the imagination. At least Obama *might* hold fast to Democratic principles if he got into office. And if he did... his power to explain and convince are unmatched by any President since FDR. We could have someone to lead us out of the swamp.
Then he got into office.
Ouch.
As far as I'm concerned, Obama's first term started with a heroic save of the bankers, an anemic trickle-down "stimulus", and giving a pass to admitted torturers. Then he laid down on the couch and watched TV, getting up occasionally to pass some reasonable legislation on social issues, to make clever statements about needing to cut - but not slash - earned benefits (a.k.a. entitlements) and to get rolled by the Republicans on economic issues. (Actually, he'd roll himself - craziest thing to watch.) Yeah, I'm simplifying - but we're still in a depression, aren't we? But the Predator Class is doing fantastically, aren't they?
After the election, I assumed that Campaign Obama would turn back into On The Couch Obama. A few weeks ago, I predicted that that we'd have a Grand Bargain by early January that would include the same cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that Obama proposed last year, that Elizabeth Warren would never be allowed on the banking committee, that the filibuster would remain unchanged, and so forth.
Now it seems that things may have changed. I might be wrong on Obama's post-election plans. We're not out of the woods yet, but the momentum seems to be in the right direction. If so, I'll be pretty damned happy. Other than having to pay for a fancy steak dinner for the DU member who'll win a bet we made. Ah, that'll make me happy too.
Maybe we can turn this flaming pile of manure around. Let us pray. And let's keep the pressure up! Tell your elected representatives that the Third Way is going away, and now they have to play like good Democrats.
Regards,
First-Way Manny
K&R if you think we need HEALING now, not HATE
Now's not the time to take advantage of our electoral success; rather it's time to reach out to Republicans and meet them at least half way. They've been through a lot, they need reassurance that we can be trusted partners.
Who's with me!?
Regards,
Third-Way Manny
Please... Help Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, and others to turn this mess around
From an email I received this morning:
"But here's the honest truth: it will be incredibly difficult to do any of that if we can't get up-or-down votes in the Senate.
On the first day of the new session in January, the Senate will have a unique opportunity to change the filibuster rule with a simple majority vote, rather than the normal two-thirds vote. The change can be modest: If someone objects to a bill or a nomination in the United States Senate, they should have to stand on the floor of the chamber and defend their opposition. No more ducking responsibility for bringing the work of this country to a dead stop.
I've joined Senator Jeff Merkley and four other senators to fight for this reform on Day One. Will you join us? Sign Senator Merkley's petition now.
Senate Republicans have used the filibuster 380 times since the Democrats took over the majority in 2006. We've seen filibusters to block judicial nominations, jobs bills, campaign finance transparency, ending Big Oil subsidies -- you name it, there's been a filibuster."
Please sign the petition, thanks! If we don't do this, we have little chance of reforming our country.
I get the feeling that things may be starting to turn around (after 32 years!)
We have a long, long way to go before we're back to having a modern, functional country; we're currently up to our necks in manure much shoveling is needed. And there are certainly folks who'll be shoveling it back at us, and some who'll be swinging at our heads with their shovels.
But for the first time in a long time, Democrats are actually making noises after an election about doing the right thing. Sure it's pathetic that Social Security (which is in superb fiscal health, fake projections aside) is "off the table" only for now. And sad that our opening offer to the Republicans is $2.50 in spending cuts for $1.00 in new revenue (spending cuts in a depression have always been very damaging). And sick that we're hearing talk again of raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67.
But at least our Democrats finally seem to be holding the line on something!
And Grover Norquist is spinning through the air in flames, trailing smoke as he plummets groundward.
And there's also significant discussion on reforming the filibuster,
I'm still skeptical, but I finally sense a little blue sky. At least the conversation is turning. And for this, I thank the good folks in Wisconsin, and Occupy, and the Chicago teachers, and all of the others who finally screamed BULLSHIT at the tops of their lungs and woke a bunch of Americans up to the war we've been losing for all this time.
Sorry for the rambling rant. Please return to your regular programming.
Profile Information
Name: Manny GoldsteinGender: Male
Hometown: Greater Boston
Home country: USA
Current location: Remulak, as far as I can tell
Member since: Tue Aug 30, 2005, 09:44 AM
Number of posts: 34,589