Do I Have To Show The George Carlin Video AGAIN???

Source: Decline of the Empire

Bank fraud and official appeasement has been much in the news lately. Yves Smith has been all over it (here and here). I have combined both of her stories in this quote.

It is high time to describe the Obama Administration by its proper name: corrupt.

Gretchen Morgenson [of the New York Times] reported yesterday that the Obama Administration was pressuring the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to drop his opposition to the so-called 50 state attorney general mortgage settlement. The short form is the banks want a “get out of liability for almost free” card, which is patently absurd. Not only have they caused a colossal economic train wreck, but sadly, they remain such central actors that they need to be involved in remediation. Letting them off cheaply would be tantamount to putting a band-aid on gangrene.

The editorial in today’s New York Times may be a sign that the tide is turning. The elites are starting to break ranks with the mortgage industrial complex.

There was a remarkable quote in Morgenson’s original article on the pressuring,  a quote so remarkable that it is red font-worthy.

The lawsuit angered Bank of New York Mellon, and as Mr. Schneiderman was leaving the memorial service last week for Hugh Carey, the former New York governor who died Aug. 7, an attendee said Mr. Schneiderman became embroiled in a contentious conversation with Kathryn S. Wylde, a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who represents the public [left].

Ms. Wylde, who has criticized Mr. Schneiderman for bringing the lawsuit, is also chief executive of the Partnership for New York City. The New York Fed has supported the proposed $8.5 billion settlement…

Characterizing her conversation with Mr. Schneiderman that day as “not unpleasant,” Ms. Wylde said in an interview on Thursday that she had told the attorney general “it is of concern to the industry that instead of trying to facilitate resolving these issues, you seem to be throwing a wrench into it. Wall Street is our Main Street — love ’em or hate ’em. They are important and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them unless they are doing something indefensible.”

Mr. Schneiderman declined to comment on the encounter.

Well, the banks are always doing something indefensible, so that’s kind of a moot point

Who could argue that the Obama Administation is not corrupt? That the mortgage-industrial complex is not a danger to the public? That Ms. Wylde, who represents the public at the New York Fed, has not been completely co-opted by the banks? Only those with a vested interest in the financial system, or the figuratively blind, might argue for the legitimacy of the mortgage-industrial complex and Team Obama.

 Yves Smith is feeling considerable righteous indignation about all this. She urges us to take an activist stand.

As much as this [Times editorial] is a very positive step, I hope readers will not take this for granted. In comments, not only did quite a few call or write Schneiderman to show support, but some of you also took it upon yourselves to express your disapproval to the two parties that Morgenson had identified as putting the screws on the attorney general: Donovan and a member of the New York Fed’s board, Kathryn Wylde.

I hope those of you who haven’t yet taken action will either give an “atta boy” to Schneiderman, or better yet, call or e-mail Donovan and/or Wylde and voice your disapproval.

Schneiderman: 800 771-7755 or 212 416-8050 or http://www.ag.ny.gov/online_forms/email_ag.jsp (the form is much more user friendly than most of this sort)

Shaun Donovan: [email protected]

Kathryn Wylde: no direct number, the “media outreach” (which shows what their priorities are) is (212) 493-7511. The main number for the Partnership for New York City (guess only the top 1% are “partners”) is 212-493-7400.

Barry Ritholtz has called for her resignation from the New York Fed (as a class C director, she purports to represent the public, when it’s clear she represents only the corporate funders of her not for profit). Call her office and say the New York Times editorial proves she is not standing up for what is best for the city and the country. Demand that she resign from the New York Fed.

In so far as the current Administration has been subservient to the mortgage-industrial complex every day in every way since the Obama’s first day in office, as an outraged “masaccio” details at firedoglake, righteous indignation (or calls for resignations) is pretty much a full-time job. In fact, it was time to stoke up that righteous indignation before President Hopey-Changey took office when he appointed Tim Geithner, the head of the New York Fed and Kathryn Wylde’s current employer, to be his Treasury secretary.

Was it not a mere three years ago that Obama was out on the campaign trail establishing his remarkably effective Hopey-Changey Brand? And then we all voted for him. I voted for him, and I’ll bet Yves and Barry did, too. We were suckers!

Wall Street gave Obama lots of money in 2008. The only question now is whether Big Finance will support him again in 2012. And why wouldn’t they? He has served them well. According to the Washington Post, things are looking up for President Hopey-Changey on the Wall Street front.

About a third of the money his top fundraisers have brought in this year has come from the financial sector, suggesting that strained relations with Wall Street have not hurt the president’s ability to attract donations there for his reelection campaign, according to data released Friday by the Center for Responsive Politics.

I want to call a time-out. Is this what honest people were put on God’s Green Earth to do? To play the opposition role in a rigged, corrupt farce where politicians serve those who bribe them? And then protest to no avail? Is that all there is? When does this game stop? It doesn’t, it never stops, certainly not in the final decades of Declining Empire.

It is one thing to observe and comment on the rigged game, but it is quite another to get all worked up about it. Righteous indignation indicates a naive, dangerous level of emotional commitment to a game that can’t be won. All this Hope and Pretending—it’s just crazy! Doesn’t true opposition consist of trying to put a stop to the game by refusing to play? And urging others to refuse to play? And urging them to save themselves outside the game by whatever means possible?

What if they held an election and nobody showed up? That would be a glorious day. Do I have to show the George Carlin video AGAIN???  

It’s a Big Club and you’re not in it!

Read more at Decline of the Empire