I've got a jaded view of the IMF and the World Bank, after reading John Perkins' Economic Hitmen' and Steven Hiatt's 'Game as Old as Empire' as well as Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine' ... I can't grasp the "hope" people feel toward Obama, but I agree I'm glad to have Bush-Cheney gone.

And, damn, that's a nice painting!  ;-)

About the Artist Everett Raymond Kinstler’s painted his first Treasury secretary portrait, David M. Kennedy, in 1971.  Thirty years later he marked his eighth Treasury commission, Lawrence H. Summers.  He has painted more portraits in the Treasury collection than any other artist.  Mr. Kinstler was born in New York City in 1926, and is a well-known painter of official Washington, whose portraits hang in the halls of many government departments.  This portrait was completed in 2004 in Kinstler's New York studio.

here's Naomi Klein on Larry Summers, and O's Econ Nitemare Team on DemocracyNow!

NAOMI KLEIN: Just coming back to what we can expect from Summers Geithner. I think it is clear there’s going to be a major departure from the ideology of the idea the government cannot do anything. We’ll see major economic stimulus, major investments in infrastructure, as Michael was discussing, and one hopes that there will be a lot of investment in infrastructure.

But the key issue—we also want to be optimistic. Part of what causes it to the situation that seems to be very disappointed appointments is the fact we of not been honest about the legacy of the Clinton years. So much misinformation was spread during the election campaign, because it was a nice message to present the nineties as these wonder years in contrast to the Bush years. That is exactly what created the situation where you could have Summers been presented as the wise man instead of going down with Alan Greenspan. When Alan Greenspan reputation was raked over the coals, it should have Rubin and Summers along side him.

And I think we have nobody to blame but ourselves for that failure. So essentially, it was an electoral strategy and it was an electoral strategy that relied on intellectual dishonesty and now to continue to make excuses for Obama is a real mistake, because he is not running for election anymore. He has already won, so there is no reason to be pandering in this way. In terms of the real issue here, yes there will be stimulus. But how will it be paid for? Obama ran an election campaign promising to increase taxes on the wealthy, and Rahm Emanuel has already hinted that he might not do that right away. We are already seeing hesitation about the commitment to not renew the Bush tax cuts. Then there’s a huge fight over capital gains tax and the kinds of taxes paid by hedge funds.

Here I think its important to remember Larry Summers is coming straight from a hedge fund. He’s managing director of one of the most secretive hedge funds around. So the real question is not whether they will spend taxpayer money, they will on infrastructure, but the point is will they just just rack up huge debt and deficits or will they actually pay for this with taxes on the wealthy, which is what they promised to do and what we’re seeing Gordon Brown begin to do in Britain. Because if they do not pay for this an equitable way, in a progressive way, then what will happen is this huge investment in infrastructure will create huge economic crisis down the road. It will be blamed on Obama. And then, there will be a wave of privatizations, these new investments in public spending. There will be a whole new bubble.

When exactly is the Re-regulation going to happen? This is the moment of high leverage. It is not just about firing the boss and seats on the board, it is about we regulating exactly what Larry Summers and Tim Geithner de-regulated under the Clinton administration. The real question is do these people have the humility to fix their own mistakes? My question is his Larry Summers’ ego too big to fail? These guys should not be promoted at this point. Their reputations should really be destroyed by their own track records.

by Rady Ananda (182 articles, 374 quicklinks, 49 diaries, 1718 comments [201 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Monday, Nov 24, 2008 at 5:40:43 PM

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Yes, Ms. Sheehan once you've connected those dots one can't quit see things in the same way ever again. It's a looking-glass many don't have the courage, capacity, or will to walk through, but as stated once done the lies they tell don't have their desired effect.

Democrat, Republican, right, left, center, all just characters in one big demented play. We step outside looking back seeing clearly the folly of it all.

Albert Einstein said it clearly enough: "You cannot solve problems with the same body of conscience."

Yet that doesn't stop them from trying. And of course, the foolish will expect different results as the clever will get the results they desired.

You know the pain of discovering the magnitude of those lies. How pretty even those we hold some measure of esteem for can be whom have yet to connect those dots. It seems the more we understand the lonelier we become.

Will there ever be a day when we will see a majority, or has discovery of what the majority does not see always been this way? Is it that only a few ever suffer this knowledge and through our efforts drag others up, unaware and kicking and screaming, to a better place? These questions I fear in will never have an ability to answer, for they're beyond me. As it is beyond me to understand why others choice a path opposite our own.

I'm thankful you're here Ms. Sheehan, and you'll never be as alone as it may sometimes seem, I know this because you are here for us, helping to connect those dots, and we will not ever abandon you, for we are all connected.  

by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Monday, Nov 24, 2008 at 11:37:28 PM

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Is Citigroup Thankful for Corrupt Government and Robbed Taxpayers?

I'm thankful you're here Ms. Sheehan, and you'll never be as alone as it may sometimes seem, I know this because you are here for us, helping to connect those dots, and we will not ever abandon you, for we are all connected. 

by steve scheetz (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 829 comments [52 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 8:14:26 AM

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The corporate greed, public corruption and even insurance company misconduct, is alarming to me, and I hope things actually do change under the Obama administration.

Jan 20 can’t come fast enough.

Hopefully those coming into power will not be soft on White Collar Crime, Identity theft, and general disrespect for taxpayers.

Hopefully with work the US Constitution will be pulled out of Bush’s White House toilet paper rack.

I think Bush should be used as an example of what the absolute a President can try and get away with, and be the first US President behind bars for crimes committed.

by Steven G. Erickson (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 57 diaries, 218 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 9:24:03 AM

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I'm going to be presumptuous into what Ms. Sheehan meant by "connecting the dots", here.

Hoping for high-ranking members in either of these two major parties to do the right thing is more than fruitless. For once one does connect those dots they draw a picture of corruption throughout the highest levels of our government, business and media, working in concert to not only not help people, but if fact to lead us to ruin and ultimately our deaths.

These are not well meaning people that simply have got it wrong. These are well trained sociopaths with an agenda for world dominance that plans to eliminate a vast majority of people on this planet, and, I might add, are doing a damn good job of achieving their goals.

Obama isn't going to help anything but this agenda. He was not placed in office by us nor for us. He's there to placate us just long enough until the next phase of their plan is put into play. It's what Ms. Sheehan eluded to and the "left-intelligentsia" are falling for rhetoric-based "hope".

She also mentions that when people wake-up to this fact that we'll have to be there to pick-up the pieces.

The only hope I have is that we'll be there in pick-up anything. For if one were to look at the scope of the elites Eugenics plans, 2010 might well be too late. CODEX Alimentarius alone plans to eliminate 3 billion people before 2010, and I have heard zero effort coming from anyone in bringing this evil of all companies to heel. If we're to add in Monsanto, continued wars, Rumsfeld's planned pandemics, Chem-trials, and God knows what else these sick bastards have in store for us, by the time 2010 rolls around this planet could well be down to but a 5th of it's current population.

There are those that will call this extreme alarmist talk, and well it may be, but should not one be alarmed when we see a people continually get fooled as they're lead to their slaughter, in much the same way those poor people that believed they were going in for showers in Hitler's death camps, only to find out too late as the cyanide canisters that DeMeers, supplied as head of I. G. Farben, and founder CODEX, dropped into place?

For what we have here are people that make Hitler's efforts of mass extermination pale in comparison. And alarmed is what we should be. For these sinister cretins are playing upon our hopes rather than giving us a reality we can believe in.

"Audacity of Hope", my ass, all I see is audacity, with a vast majority of people being once again lead to their deaths. I for one do not hold hope that we'll have anymore chances for a peaceful resolution to what faces us. For once people start finding out that they've been taken for a ride by Obama's false promise of hope, these cretins aren't going to allow that rage to manifest itself in any meaningful way that will threaten their perch. I sincerely believe their plans include riots, Martial Law, mass starvation, false-flag attacks, unleashed pandemics and continuing wars to be brought forth during the next few years to keep any ground-swell of resistance from formulating that would thwart their conquest of this planet.

And hoping that Obama, one of the agents for the elites, will somehow reverse this course is if anything a false hope.

I would like to believe that like all the times in the past when these same sick sociopaths tried their world governance  that as before they would fail again. But never before have they had so many elements in place. So even if they were to once again fail, because we have not taken them out by now, and only bolstered their position by continually giving them the very power they crave to destroy us, I can't help but believe that before we emerge victorious that many more of us will die than we've ever witnessed in recorded history. And whether anything will be left living for, or if life will even be able to be sustained after this carnage might well be in doubt.

It's not a pretty picture, but it's not one I'm making up either. It comes from the very mouths and writings of those perpetrating this New World Order. For I didn't make-up the Illuminati, Bilderberg, Consul of 300, Free Masons, CFR, IMF, Skull & Bones or any of the other secret organizations where these elites dwell and hatch their evil plans. These things existed before me and exist today. And they don't "hope", they plan and execute.

by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:00:29 AM

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Citigroup Gets $306 Billion Rescue From Government
http://www.truthout.org/112508J
Reuters: "The US rescued Citigroup Inc, agreeing to shoulder most losses on about $306 billion of the bank's risky assets, and inject new capital, bolstering investor hopes that the government will support big banks as the economy sinks into recession. The bailout, announced late Sunday, gives the government the right to buy an equity stake, and marks its latest effort to contain a widening financial crisis that has already brought down Bear Stearns Cos, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Washington Mutual Inc."

by Rady Ananda (182 articles, 374 quicklinks, 49 diaries, 1718 comments [201 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 9:27:23 AM

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No, they are grateful to all those people who voted for the politicians who voted them into office.

Fool me once, shame on you

Fool me twice, shame on me.

Sheesh. 

by Michael Cavlan (15 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 538 comments [131 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:11:25 PM

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Given Barack's crystallization, accoutrements from his journey through life, it is indeed difficult to understand why he has chosen to immerse himself into this cauldron of opposing force which so obviously contradicts his inner being.

My only conclusion is that Barack is preparing to face off with the opposition which manufactured this chaos by utilizing their very own tools to throw it right back into its face. In other words, instead of allowing the dog to, naturally, return to lap up its own vomit, he will force the dog to do so.

Cindy........oh geeezzz, you betcha wall-street gamers & their holding companies  love crooked cops. They couldn't leave home without em!

Peace, Best Wishes and Hope

by Amunaor (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 29 comments) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:38:58 PM

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The #1 enemy facing this nation is the monopoly of media control. When EVERY major media outlet is controlled by the same group of people, you essentially have NO media at all. They can and do set the agenda for all elections and government actions. If they don't like a candidate, they are marginalized. Think Ron Paul. They want to create a crisis, no problem, just  report on the situation non-stop, and suddenly it becomes a crisis. Want to cover-up a false-flag event like 9/11, just downplay it and call anyone who questions it a conspiracy nut. The 9/11 cover-up is costing them dearly however because people have the internet to find out alternative info which conflicts with the official fairy tale. This reveals them for the lying, traitorous scum they are, which is why their market share is shrinking daily.

If freedom is to return, the media monopoly must end.

by Roger Thomas (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 131 comments [10 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008 at 4:19:05 PM

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