The Democrats are right about Trump!
Donald Trump is indeed under the influence of a corrupt and dangerous foreign entity that threatens the people of eastern Europe:
Russia Goldman Sachs.
How did a candidate who repeatedly demonized Goldman Sachs as the poster child for a corrupt establishment that owned Washington end up with Goldman Sachs’ progeny filling every post that even tangentially has the odor of money or global finance? One answer is family ties; another may be something darker.
Trump’s non-stop nominations and appointments of Goldman Sachs alumni have left his supporters stunned. Trump nominated Steven Mnuchin, a 17-year veteran of Goldman Sachs to be his Treasury Secretary. Stephen Bannon, another former Goldman Sachs banker, was named by Trump as his Chief Strategist in the White House. The sitting President of Goldman Sachs, Gary Cohn, has been named by Trump as Director of the National Economic Council, which, according to its website, coordinates “policy-making for domestic and international economic issues.” Last week, in a move that stunned even Wall Street, Trump nominated a Goldman Sachs outside lawyer, Jay Clayton of Sullivan & Cromwell, to serve as Wall Street’s top cop as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Adding to the slap in the face to Trump’s working class supporters, Clayton’s wife currently works as a Vice President at Goldman Sachs.
“Is Cruz honest? He is in bed w/ Wall St. & is funded by Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs owns [Cruz], he will do anything they demand. Not much of a reformer!”
- Donald Trump
The ties between Goldman Sachs and Trump don't stop there.
Ivanka Trump’s “top adviser on policy and staffing: Dina Powell, president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation.Member Trump transition team for Department of State: Erin Walsh, who had worked at Goldman Sachs since 2010 as an Executive Director and head of its Office of Corporate Engagement for Asia Pacific.
Trump transition team member: Anthony Scaramucci held positions in Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking, Equities and Private Wealth Management divisions before getting into politics and supporting Barack Obama in 2008 and joining the Mitt Romney team in 2012.
Other ties involve Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s relationships. Kushner will serve as senior advisor to Trump. Kushner is a close friend of Gary Cohn (mentioned above) and set up the initial meeting between Trump and Cohn.
Jared’s brother, Joshua, was a roommate of Alexander Blankfein, the son of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Joshua Kushner began his career in the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. He later went on to found a private equity and venture capital fund firm called Thrive Capital in 2009. A top advisor to Thrive Capital is former Goldman Sachs president Jon Winkelried.
Inexplicably, Goldman Sachs stocks are up 72%.
What could have possibly have caused that?
In my opinion, all this Democratic hysteria about Trump's phony Russian CT is a useful distraction from the real scandal involving the takeover by Goldman Sachs.
As usual, the Democrats are filling their role as "good cop" to the Republicans "bad cop", both of which serve the same masters.
Comments
Amusing aint it, the Executive a fully owned subsidiary
Goldman Sachs.
Talk about a smooth transition
https://prof77.wordpress.com/politics/an-updated-list-of-goldman-sachs-t...
Breaking Fake News : We had an election
The question
link
Despair and anger, about all I've got left that I can call my
own.
So why didn't GS donate to Trump?
And Donald's being so nice to them that he lavishes Federal appointments on their members. Where's the catch? There must be one but I don't see it. Dark money? Very, very dark money?
Goldman Sach opensecrets
I just picked the one quote because why not. Target rich environment as hunters say.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000085
continuity
Shoot that's a strong propaganda film, no wonder.
thanks
How can we , as a people, not admit to what has happened.
America is under corporate rule, thru and thru.
The destruction of unions in this country will begin, including fire and police unions.
The biggest union of all has just fallen.
The Union of American States.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
The destruction of the unions
has been going on at least since the '80s.
dfarrah
Private-sector vs Public-sector Unions
The private-sector unions have been on the decline for decades, but it is now public-sector unions that are being targeted by the Republicans (see Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Gov. Bruce Rauner in Illinois). This attack on public employees has gained steam in many states. Also, right-to-work laws are being passed in states such as Kentucky, and Missouri will probably be the next in line.
Federal unions are under attack by both
parties, as evidenced by a section of the bipartisan (Veterans) Choice Act of 2014 which began to dismantle U.S. MSPB protections for federal employees.
As Georgia Republican Senator Johnnie Isakson boasted in 2016 on the C-Span program, Newsmakers--'it broke the glass ceiling'--regarding dismantling Civil Service protections in regards to terminations, suspensions, demotions, and similar adverse personnel actions.
The other day, I landed on a piece that I'll be posting soon, that made the connection between the dismantling of these protections in the Choice Act of 2014, and the recent revival of the Holman Act, which I understand was for one year.
I am very grateful that I was able to retire before this Administration, or the Trump Administration, came to power. Remember, Murray and Ryan negotiated a cut to the the current federal retirement system (FERS) for 'new' employees, by enacting larger employee contributions, without a raise in retirement benefits. And, this retirement system is not as generous as the original CSRS, which I'm grandfathered into. Also, per Bowles-Simpson, PBO signed into law a three-year salary freeze for civilian employees--almost on his way in the door.
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Looking forward to your posting
At the federal level, I wasn't aware the Democrats were in cahoots with the Republicans. Thanks for the information.
Thanks, Karl--sort of self-defense, since in May of 2016,
TVA--a hybrid federal agency--enacted cuts which were scheduled to effect 'current' retirees, as well as future ones. To my knowledge, this was a first, on the federal level.
(I believe that the final cuts weren't quite as deep as first projected, but, it's another example of 'the Camel's nose, under the tent'--or, incrementalism. Later, I'll dig up a piece on these cuts, too.)
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
See "Goldman Sachs:The Bank that Rules the World"
It's a German documentary available on Netflix.
It backs up every word of your essay. Thanks for posting it!
To thine own self be true.
It is French and thanks for the tip
Watched it last night, recognized "beaucoup" right from the start.
It's from 2012 and GS are more entrenched then ever today. The untouchables. Calls for more visibility, people should know their new philosophy. They've shifted the entire industry toward theft being not only legal, but ethical, so now every banker aspires to those depths.
How does one resist or fight when they own practically every politician, and have captured every economy in the world?
But there really does seem to be Trump/Russian ties, which
at the very least will violate the emoluments clause of the constitution and would seem to explain both his desire to increase ties with russia while causing trouble with china:
https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a
I don't like the russia hysteria and don't like our troops in poland.
then again, trump is, in fact, dangerous and his most radical followers are as well.
goldman sachs is bad enough, but then there are all the radical, dominionist, science denying folks around him as well.
while we're only facing an immediate dire emergency regarding rapid ecological collapse. but trump has met with crazy scientist who thinks more Co2 is good for us, so while global warming is true, it's a really good thing, and we should burn as much fossil fuel as we possibly can.
I'm not going to get excited
about Trump's business ties to Russia, when no one cares that Ukraine openly interfered in our elections for Hillary.
And then Israel has been openly interfering in our elections for decades and no one cares.
It's hypocritical.
OTOH, you do have a very good point:
There are lots of good reasons to oppose Trump.
Thanks, gj. Heard Vogel's interview on XM earlier
this week. However, I haven't heard a 'single word' about this report in our crack MSM--on Cable News Channels, that is.
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Gee, I wonder how much the Ukraine story is
going to be posted in "liberal" media outlets.
(That's rhetorical.)
More hypocrisy example
link
except for the massive voter suppression
The GOP voter suppression was huge in 2016. I'm surprised the Dems are not talking about it. I suspect the outcome would have been different if the voter suppression by the GOP had not been so profound.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-gops-attack-on-voting-rights-was-t...
Democrats can't talk about it because their hands are dirty too
Both "sides" were cheating seven ways from Sunday - the Democrats started in the primary and continued, while the Republicans just rolled out their standard dirty tricks.
The outcome would have been very, very different if the DNC and their cronies had played even remotely fair. They didn't, so we got what we got (a stinking mess).
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Contrary to Established Belief
if there is any intelligence in Trump's strategy: we simply can't afford hostility with the Russians. The consensus aim of US foreign policy has been, firstly, to make Russia subservient and exploitable (like in the good old Yeltsin days), and then destroying Iran and keeping China locked in, to one day be like the tamed Russia.
THE WORLD WILL BE OURS!!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHS!
Trump, I'm guessing, sees the overthrow of Russia isn't going to happen. At the same time the targets of our policy so far are in fact banding together.
Back in 2010 Putin made a proposal that the former Soviet States become part of the EUs trade customs. Not join the EU, or the Euro, but open borders and whatever that would entail. If that had gone through Europe as a whole could one day become the most powerful force on earth. Since Anglo policy has been to keep any such dominance from being even possible since at least Peter the Great, imagine there horror of DC!
So better to cut expenses by making Europe either take on the military costs, or have rapprochement with Russia. At the same time you disappear Russia's need to ally closely with China and Iran and you can go to work on them with a free hand.
Plus, there's money to be made, friends in your debt etc
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Now will people realize it's the MIFC - the military/industrial/
financial/complex - and it controls our government and commands our military and state department and intelligence agencies. I think Jefferson, among others, warned about banks and here both parties are at the beck and call of the financial sector.
As to the climate change deniers, and they are certainly real and there are a lot of them, I would ask: What difference does it make if you recognize climate change is real but you behave as though there's no existential threat to the planet? I don't care what those who control Citi and G-S think, I care about what they do and what they do is enable those who physically exploit our environment and leave their waste so that a few can profit.
Thanks for printing the real story.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Well, think your concluding statement:
"There are lots of good reasons to oppose Trump" is, at this point, the most important of your comment.
If Ukraine interfered, that was yesterday, today is today - by which I do NOT mean to imply nothing should be done about it, but that it does not in any way address who and what Trump is.
I imagine someday, perhaps soon, GS
will securitize and then sell derivatives to institutional and wealthy investors that contain some small portion of the debt funding the Trillion dollar upgrade of our nuclear weapons arsenal. Then when that derivatives market collapses they will foreclose their interests in said weaponry and take possession of them (after having bought back all those bad debts from their investors for pennies on the dollar using money provided by the Federal Reserve) It seems the next logical step in their ongoing march toward total world domination and/or destruction.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Good one. You only forgot to add that Standard&Poor's
would give the derivatives a AAA rating.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Damn
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPwrodxghrw]
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
The Demorat's should
be happy as they too are just a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. When I put on my tin foil hat these days I believe that once again the duopoly puppets R's and D's have it covered. would you like a vagina probe with your bloody endless wars and austerity? If so we have Pence to frighten you if you try to get rid of the insane Hairball that we used to scare the crap out of everybody. Seems people didn't take the fear mongering seriously enough and crown the evil queen of Goldman Sachs.
After that what could they use to put the frightener's on us all? The Evil Empire of Russia. Now there's a handy dandy villain of this surreal piece. It works well on several levels, domestically they can heat up the cold war and reinstate witch hunting for traitorous Putin lovers, globally they can continue implementing their mad Great Game for dominion, profit, power and blood lust. Thing is why is this working?
All Putin is is just another global petrol 'oligarchical collectivist'. Like we had a democratic electoral system to destroy. Man, they got rid of the last tattered vestiges of democratic representation and the rule of law after 9/11 so why panic now people? Instead of fearing The Bear of the east take a good look at what rules our country. This is a duopoly and partisanship is delusional. But hey, have at your lesser evil bs. and Chicken Little all over the place because the Hairball is an agent of the Evil Empire that Raygun slew.
Get out the nukes cause the Russian's are coming again. FDR, that cappie pol, had a good point that people should consider with his infamous 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself'. Actually my tin foil hat might be getting better reception then the irrational people who believe what they read in the 'fake news'. It's not news it's your daily dose of fear and loathing. Did you all not read Orwell's book?
Be sure to remind every single democrat
who comes knocking at your door or clogging up your email begging for your vote and money. They will get neither until they give up their arrangement with Goldman Sachs.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
I've told them since 2010 the same
thing I tell religious fundamentalist nuts who come to my door. 'Get off my porch your wrecking the country and the world. ' They scurry off but fast. Funny thing is when I see them coming down my street knocking on doors the Democrat's and the Mormon hustlers look alike. Slightly too squeaky clean and scary and with the gleam of the converted/recruited in their eyes. Come to think of it they could even be the FBI come to call. As for e-mails i put them in my spam folder. They are however not easily driven off and have resorted to snail mail which is usually some fake poll they want me to take.
But Trump is the one in control, unlike Obama.
He can't be told what to do. He's knowledgeable enough in all things federal government to where he'll be able to enforce his will on those he's selected. We need to give him a chance because he's the only chance we've got.
I've been hearing a lot of that lately, from the left even but particularly from libertarians, indies and moderate republicans. I believe I saw thru Trump's game early on and let people know about it. The contradictions tell the story. Non-interventionist yet wants history's biggest military? Non-imperialist yet he's a capitalist of the highest order? CNN is fake news but not Fox news? It never made sense. I remember quite a few here who were caught up in his rhetoric, thinking he actually was an anti-establishment, anti-status quo politician. That he actually would take on the neocons and the neolibs.
The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, sometimes they're the enemy too.
Absolutely Trump and his regime must be opposed at every turn, just like every criminal administration we get. But so must the democrats. People need to quit being deceived. The democrats are right, but they're also wrong because they're just as bad. This cannot become democrats vs republicans, we can't let them do that.
Hey, you've forgotten more than I ever knew,
Al, regarding foreign policy, and I readily acknowledge that.
But, from what I've heard and read, I do tend to disagree slightly regarding DT's desire to engage in a lot of foreign intervention, like the corporatist Dem and neocons.
He has bitterly complained about the fiasco that Iraq has been, and the amount of money squandered. He did that to Jeb's face during a Debate. The heads of the Elites almost exploded--for days. Recently, I heard one of his minion's on his transition team say that he wants to build up the military, but it's because he wants to be able to 'speak softly, and carry a big stick,' as TR said.
If any of this is true, I'm 'guessing' that it's mostly for one reason--unlike most of our political/business elites, DT's fortune is in real estate assets--not paper, or Finance.
IOW, all of these wars that have destabilized the safety of folks in dozens of countries, have affected his ability to expand his real estate empire; at least, compared to what he could do, if so many countries weren't in turmoil/civil war.
So, he may truly want to limit our foreign intervention for purely selfish reasons.
No doubt, I could be completed off-base on this.
And, obviously, I could have a lot of crow to eat, if I'm wrong.
Have a good one.
[Edited: "in, not on; expand, replaced grow"]
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
And there's the thing with Russia and Putin.
Ya, understand U.L. I've seen a whole lot of people with better foreign policy chops than mine say the same thing. All I can say is every one of the items people mention as possible positives, I could provide contradictions to them from Trump and his team. Like the time one of his top aides said, "why have the world's biggest military if we don't use it?" Like "Make America great again", i.e., thru the capitalist system ("Imperialism is the highest form of capitalism"). Like what's happening now with his and his nominations acknowledging the threat from Russia. Either Trump and his regime play along, or they risk relinquishing the U.S. standing as the supreme superpower on earth. I think in the end, Trump won't want that on his resume, neither does his team. He wants more bang for the buck, but it's still bang.
But like you say, we won't really know until we know. Then some will eat crow, some won't. I guess it's always like that.
Foreign Policy
This is going to be one of the trickier things going on with Trump.
With Clinton, we would continue to see more destabilization and destruction of the Middle East, along with more saber rattling and priming the powder keg with Russia. A truly dangerous situation.
Trump himself goes back and forth on ending regime change (costs too much) to stopping ISIS and taking the oil. However, no mention of saber rattling with Russia, so one less to worry about. The only issues with China deal with currency concerns, not too much from my memory about getting pissy with them on a war front. Iran... mixed bag... I don't know, he is like that hole movie trope. The main character is in some ancient ruin and there is a hole that you can't see inside. You have to put your hand in it to activate the door to open. Will it chop off your hand or are you good to go? No one knows.
We would have seen Russians
shot down in Syria with Clinton. And there's no way Putin would stand down because we declared a no fly zone; nor would he not retaliate.
They want a war with Russia. Hillary listens to lunatic 'thinkers' who posit we can take out 99% of R's 3,500 nukes. And because they'd suffer damages 10 to 50 times greater than our own if we do a first strike -- why that would be winning; therefore worth it.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Good points, Strife Delivery. My opinions are
clearly speculation; like everyone else, I'm simply trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
I 'suspect' that DT is intentionally trying to keep everyone off-balance, including heads of nations. Which I figure is one reason for some of the contradictions between his stated remarks, and his Cabinet appointments [in some instances].
Frankly, I don't read that much into his Cabinet, or other appointments, because I tend to believe that they will be mostly 'figureheads.'
(As opposed to his most inner circle of aides, and, of course, his family--especially Ivanka and Jared.)
Bottom line, I think that he'll fairly often take the consensus and advice of his inner and outer circles--but, in the end, as typical of most CEOs, the buck will stop with 'the Donald.'
Meaning, once he's made a decision, any of his staff will be expected to publicly go along with his agenda, or they'll hear, 'You're fired!'
Seriously, I can't begin to get my head around what the next weeks and months may bring.
Yikes!
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
The SOSD Fantastic Four
Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD
Taro
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Oh definitely
I mean with the Don, it seems all we can do is speculate. Hillary seemed basic and easy to figure out.
The Don...idk. You do bring up a point with his cabinet. I am wondering if he is just trying to put bodies into positions and then control them, or if he actually agrees with them.
The Bushes
In the primary, hearing Trump attack W. Bush for failing to protect us on 9/11...during a debate...with JEB on stage. That one did catch me surprise.
Party politicians protect their own, no matter what has happened. Iraq war, Syria, ACA, Torture, War Crimes, whatever. Whatever your party does, sacrosanct. But not Trump ha. Hearing Trump bash against the Iraq War was definitely surprising considering he is part of the Republican team.
You've made an excellent point, that
I hope to start doing my part to debunk 'fake news.' Just heard about a new propaganda medium that three dudes (two, former 'O' and FSC speechwriters, the third, a general Dem Party shill) are getting up as we speak. It will consist of a website, podcasts, etc. More on it later--the website is totally skeletal, at this point. BTW, it was created on January 4, yet, one of the founders has already managed to land an interview on satellite radio. Whew!
I think we all need to brace for a propaganda war like we've never witnessed.
It will be the corporatist media, lawmakers, and Elites, versus 'populism' from both the left and the right.
Remember, both 'O' and Biden are staying in D.C.--apparently, a situation that is unheard of, in the past.
I also think that anyone who believes that corporatist Dems 'are dead,' are kidding themselves.
They are solidly in charge, IMO.
Oh, and thanks, Al, for taking disagreement with such good humor-- you set a very good example.
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
The SOSD Fantastic Four
Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD
Taro
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Well, at least both Parties
can be happy about the Goldman situation. So there's that to build upon.
Seriously we've got attacks from two different enemies in Trump and the Intelligence Racket. A case where 'enemy of my enemy...' doesn't hold.
Try and point that out at the Dem "controlled opposition" sites and good luck to you. Orange State is more like a Rockefeller Republican place these days.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Appointments don't surprise me. But dang, Goldman ...
Except on a few issues like trade, his solutions were pure gop--except he covered it up using libertarian anti-government anti-authority rhetoric that sounded alot like "populism". He preached against the fat cats, but the fat cats elites were not the rich republican elites, but the rich democratic party/liberal elites.
Trump likes to keep everybody guessing.
I'm waiting until he actually does something, before making any definitive analysis of his intentions. His cabinet choices definitely point in a troubling direction. But misdirection has been one of Trump's primary tactics. I don't think a clear picture of him will emerge until the rubber meets the road of actual policy being implemented.
native