Oh yeah, most of them are in Wall Street's pockets, along with virtually all the Republicans.

It's really easy to forget. Of course (D) could indicate Deceiver.

Yep

Want to know what would make a "controversial" nominee? An outsider dedicated to working in the public interest.

It should be the other way around.

"We need the Fed to stand up to Wall Street and their powerful lobbyists and fight for policies that protect the working families in our country. I do not believe that any of these nominees fit that bill."


Thank You Bernie Sanders.
I wish we had 99 more like you in the Senate.

If we actually wanted to do some good.

would likely become electric given today's political climate and overall mood of the country. I'm not sure how the establishment would choose to fight back, but I seriously doubt it would be pretty.

The establishment has no real way of fighting back against a true progressive populist.

I mean besides assassination, and that would be just too obvious. I don't think they'd try it.

establishment and win against an entrenched and wealthy incumbent. I think Brat is a fake populist, of course, since his writings and speeches indicate that he is both a religious nut and a Libertarian.

The Dem establishment has no way to fight back against a Dem populist, either. Most of us have been praying for a populist for, oh, about 6 years now. We've seen what centrist Pub-lite Dems do for us and we aren't impressed. We ARE impressed with the panic that some obscure teabagging professor has caused the Pub establishment; I'd like to see us pull something that would scare the sedentary Dem leadership into actual action rather than just lots of pretty words.

These far right nut jobs have no understanding of what drives economics and they have little interest
leraning.. Unless it proves further that Obama is a Muslim Fascist..who is destroying our country.. That they understand..

plenty. He was, however, thought to be totally dedicated to his own rise in the Republican hierarchy and so uninterested in his constituency that he felt he didn't even need to throw them red meat once in a while. He didn't hold town meetings, he was snotty in letters to his constituents, etc. He paid no attention to the fact that at his last election, a Dem from nowhere with a couple hundred thousand to spend got 40% of the vote with no effort. He was arrogant enough to think he was invulnerable.

Also, Brat actually got out there and said he thought a bunch of bankers needed to go to jail. Lots of voters on the left and right think exactly that, but few in the hierarchy of either party will come out and say it because they are bought and paid for. The fact that Brat said it galvanized his campaign like nothing else would. It would galvanize a Dem campaign, too, if we only had the guts (and an unbought candidate) to do it.

Finally, there's this misconception that VA is a purple state. It is not. Cantor's district is deep red, and there are thousands of real teabaggers and religious fundies waiting to vote for someone just like Brat (that is, the Brat who has most recently presented himself as a populist who'll throw bankers in jail). Brat is an idiot, but he's their idiot and that's all that matters.

Unfortunately, now that Cantor is gone and an exciting new populist Pub is running, the Dem has no chance IMHO because those Pubs who hated Cantor and might have stayed home will come out to vote for this guy (barring any macaca moments). Unless the Dem has funding and is willing to run clips of Brat being stupid or frightening, Brat will win. We will see if Trammell gets funding from the Dem leadership; if he doesn't, we all need to ask ourselves WTF is going on.

Wall Street and MSM would make mincemeat of them in no time. And you're right, it wouldn't be pretty. And that's sad. Electing Sanders/Warren or Warren/Sanders ticket would be a giant step forward in cleaning up the God-forsaken corporate-congressional mess this country is in.

I couldn't find the roll call votes quickly - anyone know?

I patiently await their thoughts.

They're going to avoid this one.

However, in some other thread, there will be some quote or graphic showing how Sanders endorsed Obama for some reason at some time in the past, therefore you leftists and liberals should shut up and do as he did.

Since they avoid these threads, when others criticize these actions in general discussions, BOGers see it as some kind of hater's ambush. They don't know the actual facts behind the criticisms so chalk it up to made up reasons such as ODS, racism and Paul Love. If all you do is look at nice pictures and read the list, it seems completely irrational to criticize The Most Liberal President Since FDR™.

He exemplifies honesty, integrity, and a sense of justice. Wish we had many more just like him.

K&R

eom

Also the link led me to many more good ones by Sanders and others and I've been gone a few hours checking them out and didn't reply. If I'd been willing to skip viewing and saving all of them, I'd have been the first reply on this reply with a hearty hurray.

I'm not sure when this hearing happened, but Sanders looks more than able despite his years to the task at hand. We need to get back to basics.

Bernie has been one of heroes for many years. I'm glad he's been getting more coverage than in the past. If the lousy MSM (oh, yeah, what am I thinking?) gave him air time this country would wake up and shake off the Koch brothers and the rest of the wealthy parasites.

I can only that hope Americans are not too cynical and brainwashed that they will ignore the words of Sanders. Sadly, there is little sign his words are getting traction, but he still holds firm.

Keep telling the world, Senator! Go Bernie!

a competitive socialist party.

Ding, ding, ding!

Look at what the Tea Party and libertarians have done to the GOP. Sure they have had more than their fair share of Koch money, but they have legitimately turned the party far to the right. This "at least they aren't Republicans" attitude is letting the Third Way oligarchs keep control with nothing to fear. WE need to turn the Democratic Party to the left.

Good luck.

mainstream politics is moving to the right in general. the tea party is just the advance guard in that move.

any leftward movement would be totally contrary to the general trend and therefore it would would be harder to establish a lefter wing of the dems than it would to establish a righter wing of the repubs. i mean, for example, where is the far left equivalent of the kochs and the media?

K and R

The Fed is run for the benefit of the corporate banking cartel and has been a chief enabler of the stock market and real estate Ponzi schemes which have crippled the U.S. economy as well as transfer middle class assets to the 1 percent.

The Fed's keeping the interest rates artificially low was a key element in boosting the stock market and housing prices. Greenspan's claim that it was "flawed ideology" on his part is horse manure. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Artificially low interest rates were designed to "encourage" depositors to take their savings out of bank deposits, which earned them practically nothing due to the artificially low interest rates, and buy stock. Throwing all this money at the stock market (increased demand) drove the stock prices up. Fraudulent bookkeeping to inflate profits a la Enron was the other part of the scheme.

The Fed's keeping interest rates artificially low also fueled the real estate markets. Low interest rates kept mortgage payments low, and with banks offering Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM's), people were encouraged to spend more to buy a house than they could ever really afford. The house buying frenzy convinced people they could easily sell their overpriced houses before the ARM kicked in, and then repeat the process.

Another reason for keeping interest rates artificially low was to keep the spread of what banks paid depositors compared to what the banks charged for "loans" (such as mortgages and credit card charges) as wide as possible. A bank paying 0.1 percent on a depositor's account while charging 7 percent for a loan is getting 70 times back for its "cost" for using depositors' funds (.07 / 0.001 = 70).

Paying 0.1 percent to depositors while charging 14 percent (or more) on credit card balances gains the banks 140 times (or more) the cost of the use of depositors' funds.

With the repeal of financial regulations such as the Glass-Steagall Act and with the connivance of the Federal Reserve, we have seen the bankers pull the biggest bank heist in the history of the planet. Then, with the assistance of a bunch of clueless (if not duplicitous) politicians, they got the U.S. tax payers (and biggest victims of the scams) to bail out the bankers who did the heist (in the biggest inside job in history).

Keeping interest rates low these days enables Wall Street so-called "investment banks" to use customer deposits of allied "commercial bamks" at effectively zero cost to use this effectively "free" money to manipulate the stock market by buying large blocks of favored stocks to boost their prices.

Bank customers are losing their assets to the 1 percent as the return on bank deposits is not even keeping up with inflation.

Moreover, the Fed bankers who keep interest rates artificially low (since they claim inflation is low) are enablers of the Wall Street Ponzi schemes.

The verbal exchange between Sanders and Yellen (in the video) shows that she and the Fed are part of the problem.

I love this man.

...like Frank Zappa mentioned. This Oligarchy thing is what it was all along. This is just what it looks like when the furniture is removed.

- All those little niceties we used have, the ''Due Process Ottoman'' that sat over in the corner untouched for years. The ''Freedom from Rendition Chaise Lounge'' that was so comfortable you could fall asleep in it like you were dead, now death can really happen there. And the old ''Right to a Fair Trial by One's Peers instead of Being Assassinated Sofa'' -- all now just a memory.

But hey, we knew it would end this way. With Parker House Rolls and mint jelly.

Like the man said:

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." ~Edward R. Murrow





K&R

(In case it's necessary )

wealth distribution. I really do think we need some higher taxes for the stinking rich. We do expect more from those who have more--it's just how human nature rolls.