Wall Street Goes “All In” for Hillary Clinton

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Hordes of industry executives will descend on the city to celebrate Hillary Clinton’s nomination for president and renew close associations that vexed the Democratic standard-bearer throughout her primary battle with Bernie Sanders. 

Blackstone, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms, will hold an official reception in Philadelphia on Thursday featuring its president, Tony James, sometimes mentioned as a possible Treasury Secretary in a Clinton administration. 

The financial contingent will be in an especially good mood following Clinton’s selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate. Kaine has shown a willingness to fight for regional bank relief from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. But more than that, he’s not Elizabeth Warren, the potential VP pick that long had Wall Street terrified.

Republicans with ties to the financial industry will also be there, a sharp contrast to Donald Trump’s convention in Cleveland, which Wall Street largely shunned over fears of the GOP nominee’s populist agenda on trade, immigration and Wall Street reform.

– From July’s post: Hillary Clinton is in Deep Trouble – “Hordes of Wall Street Executives” Descend Upon Philly

Wall Street, America’s most despised industry, is putting all of its eggs in the Hillary Clinton basket. I must say, I’m actually pretty shocked at the extent to which the industry’s heavyweights are backing her. There’s really only one explanation — they know she’s a sure thing.

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Hillary Consolidates Wall Street Support as Republican Financiers Shift to Clinton

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Some will say that you are simply parasitic on those who labor at menial physical production—these are people who still subscribe to 18 Century notions of value production–and that you skim off profit without doing anything meaningful or of value. Those people are misguided: we know that if money never sleeps, that’s because you keep it awake! You have—if I may use a metaphor–injected money with caffeine, Adderal, crack, meth, with LSD so that it can dance the crazy dance and grow a crazy thousand psychedelic feet tall in a rainbow minute!   Money was a lazy b*tch, until you put it to work! And look how it works! Look how it grows! Materializes out of nowhere!

As you know, my husband tried very hard to change the culture of this misbegotten underclass, by kicking them off the government teat, by poisoning their milk with harsh, bitter regulation, and by disciplining them with the most arbitrary, racist, punitive, devastating criminal laws in US history, laws which Richard Nixon, the Southern strategists, the slave catchers, could only have dreamed of. He also passed NAFTA, which told them in no uncertain terms that they needed to discipline themselves as workers, and learn to be competitive in the global sweatshop, or face certain extinction. But they have not learned their lesson.

– From the post: Hillary Clinton’s Full Speech to Goldman Sachs (Satire)

As I wrote about in detail in last week’s post, Why Trump Winning the Republican Nomination is Good for American Democracy, the best thing about Donald Trump beating all of his controlled Republican rivals is that a Trump vs. Clinton general election will prove once and for all that there’s essentially no difference between the Republican and Democratic parties when it comes to the really big issues of our time.

In a typical election, both corrupt political parties diligently work to ensure that the American public has no real choice, and they are almost always successful. With the clueless citizenry being forced to choose between one corporatist puppet, banker bailout supporting, war mongering, civil liberties destroying sociopath or another, people generally end up voting based on wedge issues such a abortion or guns, and the road to serfdom marches onward. That’s how pretty much all elections during my lifetime have operated.

2016 presents a bit of a dilemma in this regard. While Donald Trump may end up falling perfectly in line as a good status quo stooge, he might not. It’s this risk that is leading many “Republicans” to support the neocon, Wall Street puppet Hillary Clinton. She is the sure thing.

You don’t have to be politically astute to understand what this proves. That that two party system is a joke, a sham, a diversion to keep the public fighting over wedge issues while “elite” criminals from both parties rape and pillage the American public. If that’s the only lesson we draw from 2016, that’s good enough.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

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Is the Supreme Court About to Further Legalize Political Corruption?

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The Supreme Court, in its Citizens United decision, ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts in elections. Now politicians in Kentucky are claiming they have a Constitutional right to receive gifts from lobbyists.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Republican Kentucky state Sen. John Schickel, along with two Libertarian political candidates, are suing to overturn state ethics laws, claiming that the campaign contribution limit of $1,000 and a ban on gifts from lobbyists and their employers are a violation of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Kentucky’s ethics laws were passed in 1992 after an FBI investigation exposed a number of local politicians selling their votes.

Corporations have increasingly turned to new interpretations of the First Amendment as a legal strategy. Bond-rating agencies that gave high grades to toxic mortgage-backed securities claimed in court that doing so was their First Amendment right. Lobbyists have argued that food-labeling laws undermine the meat industry’s right to free speech. And similarly, AT&T recently argued that net neutrality violates the ISP industry’s First Amendment rights.

From last year’s post: Kentucky Politician Files Lawsuit Claiming a First Amendment Right to Accept Bribes

The above story related to Kentucky. Today’s story zeroes in on Virginia. The key theme here is obvious, that the U.S. court system seems intent on making it easier and easier for the already widespread corruption endemic to American politics to grow further.

Jeffrey Toobin noted the following yesterday in the New Yorker:

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Clinton PANIC – Madeleine Albright Says “There’s a Special Place in Hell for Women Who Don’t Help Each Other”

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In its endorsement of Hillary, the New York Times editorial board did such a sloppy job I can’t help but think it may have done permanent damage to its brand. Upon reading it, my initial conclusion was that the editorial board was either suffering from Stockholm syndrome or merely concerned about losing advertising revenues should they endorse Sanders. Then I thought some more and I realized my initial conclusions were wrong. Something else is going on here, something far more subtle, subconscious and illuminating. The New York Times is defending the establishment candidate simply because the New York Times is the establishment.

One of the biggest trends of the post financial crisis period has been a plunge in the American public’s perception of the country’s powerful institutions. The establishment often admits this reality with a mixture of bewilderment and erroneous conclusions, ultimately settling on the idea people are upset because “Washington can’t get anything done.” However, nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to corruption and serving big monied interests, both Congress and the President are very, very good at getting things done. Yes it’s true Congress doesn’t get anything done on behalf of the people, but this is no accident. The government doesn’t work for the people.

With its dishonest and shifty endorsement of Hillary Clinton, I believe the New York Times has finally come out of the closet as an unabashed gatekeeper of the status quo. I suppose this makes sense since the paper has become the ultimate status quo journalistic publication. The sad truth is the publication has been living on borrowed time and a borrowed reputation for a long time. Long on prestige, it remains very short on substance when it comes to fighting difficult battles in the public interest. Content with its position of power and influence within the current paradigm, the paper doesn’t want to rock the boat. What the New York Times is actually telling its readers with the Hillary Clinton endorsement is that it likes things just the way they are, and will fight hard to keep them that way. It is as much a part of the American establishment as any government institution.

– From the article: A Detailed Look at The New York Times’ Embarrassing, Deceitful and Illogical Endorsement of Hillary Clinton

This might be it. The moment that finally drives home the point regarding how incredibly low the Clintons, and the establishment that supports them, are willing to go to win the Presidency.

We’ve all seen Hillary’s shadiness on display time and time again throughout the campaign, but one thing that hasn’t been said enough is that with the Clintons, you don’t just get the Clintons. You end up electing a cadre of some of the most villainous and corrupt corporate criminals, manipulators and unethical political mercenaries America has to offer.

With Hillary in the White House, the American people are also signing up for an all-star roster of associated cronies who have spent much of the last few decades raping and pillaging both Americans at home, and innocents abroad.

As a prime example of how low some of these characters are willing to go, this is what former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, had to say today on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

According to NBC News:

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