I'd still take him over Chris Christie.
It's unfortunate that we have to choose our elected officials from among the 1%, but it's nice that a few of them have a stray liberal impulse now and then.
If he's convicted, putting Christie over him might be a fitting punishment.
I'm not yet convinced that this story has legs. Corzine is richer than God and has incurred the resentment of the most litigious bunch of people in the world. Of course he lawyers up. But he hasn't actually been charged with anything yet, and it's quite possible he won't be, unless investing unwisely is now a criminal offense in the State of New York.
Corzine is rich, a former head of Goldman Sachs, and has held two major political offices. If his company went bankrupt and couldn't even find a buyer, there is a great big smoldering pile of bodies somewhere. The only issue is how high the problem went.
Felix Salmon and Yves Smith are all over this. Brad DeLong said his head exploded trying to understand MF Global's business model. This is not a small company.
The missing $633 million might get interesting. Apparently the money was stored (? ones and zeros of course) at Goldman-Sachs, mixing MFG money and customer accounts, and G-S might have gotten too grabby as MFG was going down. I should link something here because I doubt I have it completely right.
A commenter at Smith's went "liable for civil penalties? WTF". Yes, somebody, manybodys might have stolen a billion dollars and is liable for a fine.
Here's Today's Story one of them, Corzine lobbying and winning, this year.
A guest at Rittholz is slightly worried about "systemic risk" There ain't no systemic risk when finance completely owns gov't. Just temporary losses and costs of doing business. Those with billions will always net profit in the middle term.
unless investing unwisely is now a criminal offense in the State of New York.
Traditionally, the penalty involves being forced to take free money from the federal government.
I going back to my Marxist economic books. Books because there isn't much online.
My question is not whether these "corrupt" financial shenanigans are inevitable, but whether they are necessary, whether they are needed to keep the circulation and accumulation going at all.
For example the Greek deb't was loaned by Germans to buy the German Mercedes and Porsches. The wages of Germans were lowered to create a surplus that was available to loan to the Greeks. The banksters demand a very high payoff to play the risky game.
IOW, we must tolerate the crooks to sustain employment and consumption. "We" having some value including those who don't want the whole fucking edifice to crash and burn.
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And of course, watch Bibi. The weather window, and Obama's political window, is very short. Weeks. Farley I think posted on this.
I ban myself.
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3: I haven't got the hang of the story yet in any kind of detail, but from what I've read, I believe there's unambiguously a lot of money missing (it's early enough in the story that this could be wrong, but it's what seems to be going on). The fairness to Corzine question is what he knew, should have know, or did or didn't personally benefit from. And you know, for an insanely rich guy who's the chairman and CEO of a company that appears to be looting from its investors, I'm going to think ill of him for allowing himself to be used as a figurehead for a fraudulent operation he didn't know enough about, even if he didn't have the kind of firsthand contact with the crime necessary to create criminal liability.
I liked Corzine. I kind of wished that he had stayed in the Senate. I don't think he would have lost that seat, and then my illusions about him wouldn't have to have been shattered.
Changing the subject to Herman Cain, TPM has a bit up where some radio host says Cain said "Darling, do you mind doctoring my tea for me?" to a female employee who was getting him a drink. Does anyone get what's wrong with that beyond the obvious "Don't call women you don't know 'darling'"?
The reporting sounds like the rest of it is a problem, and I don't get as anything other than a slightly odd way of leading into a request for milk and two sugars, or whatever. Is there an implication that I'm missing, or is it just the "Darling"?
When my family said "doctoring" they meant that they made canned tomato soup good by adding extra tomatoes or something. Was he asking her to add something special to the tea?
Is the problem that he's telling her to guess how he likes his tea? You'd think he'd specify, unless she was his employee and knew already.
Here's the TPM bit -- the radio host thinks he was asking her to put honey and lemon in the tea. I'm just not understanding why the bit's on TPM at all -- it looks like they're reporting "Herman Cain once asked a woman to get him a cup of tea," without any explanation of the connection to sexual harassment.
I guess maybe it is just the "Darling"?
Yeah, "he believes Cain was talking about adding honey and lemon, but that it was an awkward moment" implies there's something sexually/patriarchally awkward about the word "doctoring" on top of the use of the word "darling", which I don't get. It might be more generically awkward if everyone thought he meant liquor or something. And the woman wasn't a factotum, but a reporter
Maybe it was a you-had-to-be-there thing; nothing in the quoted language, but his demeanor made it uncomfortable. Who can tell.
Maybe sexist, maybe not, definitely dickish. 16.last looks relevant. We seem to be talking about a reporter, not a secretary (not that that's necessarily part of the job of every secretary either, of course) or producer or waiter or whatever. If an interviewee had asked me to put sugar in their tea back when I was a reporter a few years ago, I'd probably go along out of habit but seethe with indignation about it. If I was a better reporter, and/or a more confident person than I was at the time, I'd probably pass him the condiments (because passing someone something is a reasonable request on the face of it) and go on with my question and leave it to him to put his own stuff in the tea.
It's a not-too-subtle power game. Do me this favor because I'm in charge of you, and don't you forget it. Realistically, yes, politicians are indeed in charge of journalists these days more often than not, but it's dickish to rub it in, and that's a particularly blatant way to do it.
That all makes sense, but I'm annoyed by it coming up in a sexual harassment context. If the offense is that he was asking a reporter to fetch him a drink made to his taste, that can certainly mean that he's a dick (although it would depend on context) and can certainly mean that he's a sexist dick if he wouldn't have asked a male reporter to do the same. But it's not really on a spectrum with harassment, and I think it's weird of TPM to be passing it along in that context.
As for whether or not it's sexist, on second thought I'd say the odds are much higher than 50/50. Like you say, would he say it to a male reporter? It sounds much more weird and less likely.
But that's impossible to determine via hearsay this many years later, and complaining about sexism over such a relatively minor topic might sound petty to some people, so arguing about that seems much less interesting to me than the potentially-gender-neutral dickishness.
He probably winked and wiggled his eyebrows and added "IYKWIMAITYD" right after saying it.
This is an illustration that Cain Didn't Get the Memo. (When he was in a position where he was supposed to write The Memo.) Only significant to people who were not going to vote for him anyway.
I wish 'liberal' cites would lay off Cain, and let the conservatives eat their own.
The reporting sounds like the rest of it is a problem, and I don't get as anything other than a slightly odd way of leading into a request for milk and two sugars, or whatever.
To my ear "doctoring" tea means adding booze to it, but I don't have a problem with that.
|| You know what I dislike right now? Learning that my dad, who went to the doctor last week for a persistent sore throat, has (a CAT scan an and endoscopy later) a lesion on his esophagus and a growth in his stomach that may or may not be related to each other, pending biopsy results. I'd been doing a pretty good job convincing myself that it was just a sore throat, probably picked up at my house since I had one of those when he last visited, but I can't really hold onto that view any more. |>
Ouch. Sorry to hear the news, OY.
On the Cain front, the reporter should have replied "Sure thing, pumpkin."
But this is the place to go when you think it's stomach cancer, right? Then it turns out to be something else and you live happily ever after?
28: I'm sure he's just angling for a French Laundry gift certificate.
In all seriousness, though, that sucks. Here's hoping for biopsy results that show it's benign.
28: Then it turns out to be something else and you live happily ever after?
Hopefully, hopefully. I think where you go now is: one step at a time. Deep breaths, stay calm and attentive.
Fingers crossed, indeed.
Yikes. Best of luck to your dad.
Wishing your Dad good health and good news.
22.last: Yep. On the merits, I really can't choose between the Republicans. On the politics, better they should be fighting with each other than with us. And on the entertainment value, I want the weird ads to keep coming.
25: Oh, I'm so sorry. Here's hoping it's nothing, and remember that even if it is something, Ogged had all sorts of expectations for treatment working.
On the Cain front,
15: I'm just not understanding why the bit's on TPM at all
TPM is getting more sensationalistic all the time, I think. There's room to think that they're just relaying news bits, that is all, and the Livewire reports are pretty much soundbites anyway, but my sense is that they've been doing this more and more frequently.
Yeah, I don't mind sensationalism in itself, but I hate seeing issues I care about get blurred.
Thanks, guys. I mean, there's not even a diagnosis yet, so I'm almost certainly jumping the gun in terms of getting all worked up. It's easier to do that here among imaginary people than in front of my mom and my sister, though, and all your sympathy and well-wishes help a lot.
As for Cain, I just don't believe that he's really running for president. He's got to be on a sophisticated Palin-style book tour, right? He hasn't yet worn out his welcome as comprehensively as she did, though, so I'm not as irritated by the media coverage of it.
I don't mind effort expended on publicizing seamy stuff about primary candidates... it's not actively harmful, at least. What I really hate is the effort some left bloggers expend on publicizing the positions or histories of candidates that conflict with the Republican base's views (like how enthusiastic Romney really was about Mass. health reform). That puts the crazy base's views perpetually into the foreground and anyway is something they should be deciding for themselves. They might think of it as divide-and-conquer, but I think if it does anything at all (who in the base reads them?), it goes to prevent any positive motion whatsoever within the GOP.
I have no idea about positive motion within the GOP, but the polls I've been reading make it look like Romney could win the general if he can win the primary.
And the chickens I've been consulting tell me that I should be concerned about Greek debt.
I should be concerned about Greek debt
Well, not unless you currently own any. After all, one fundamental rule is that a terrible market for owners and sellers means a great market for buyers. It's basic supply and demand. There's never been a better time to buy.
Romney could win the general if he can win the primary
And if the general was held today. And there is no independent right-wing candidacy.
They might think of it as divide-and-conquer, but I think if it does anything at all (who in the base reads them?), it goes to prevent any positive motion whatsoever within the GOP.
Huh. I don't know -- the divide and conquer approach makes some sense to me. The longer the Republican primary goes on, the less firmly behind the eventual candidate the base will be. Is the idea that some Republicans will be so lukewarm about the eventual candidate that they'll sit out voting altogether? The idea would be to cleave off the moderate, non-crazy Republican from the Tea Party wing, by making the primary candidates go farther and farther right. The less time the actual nominee has to tack back to the center after winning the nomination, the better.
Of course this all views the 2012 election as a hard-core battle for the win, no matter how fucked up it may or may not make the Republican party.
43: You have smarter chickens than I have.
All good thoughts for OY and his dad.
The longer the Republican primary goes on, the less firmly behind the eventual candidate the base will be.
It's like people don't even remember as far back as three years ago.
Yeah, OY, I'm very much hoping for the best for your dad.
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I know this sort of rhetoric is frowned upon, but past a certain level of assholery, some people flat-out deserve to be beaten into comas by angry mobs.
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OY, wishing you all the best.
44: Right. But it's still got to be a bit alarming if you are trying to run the Obama 2012 campaign. He certainly looks in worse shape than Bush in 2003 or Clinton in 1995.
Yes, it could have short-term tactical benefits, I guess. I think in the medium term it poisons discourse for everyone other than Republicans, and is just plain undignified.
I'm getting sick of the art of the possible anyway. Nice line from one Max Berger:
The greatest contribution the occupy movement has made thus far has been to inspire us to imagine solutions at the scale of our problems. This is a revolutionary concept. Instead of working towards what we believe is possible, it has called upon us to work backwards from what is necessary.
48: Different scenario altogether, I'm afraid.
50: At the very least, somebody should key the traders' beemers.
50: That's pretty dicktastic. On the other hand, the Occupiers* ought to be able to laugh off a little bro-style dicketry.
* Not to be confused with the middle-aged and old people trying to latch on to the movement like remoras cough Salon.com's David Talbot suggesting that subscribing to Salon ought to be part of the movement cough.
Sorry, OY. Best of luck. A cousin of mine is going through something like that right now too.
56: Remoras: Basically a lamprey with better press. One of my top 5 overrated animals.
I think in the medium term it poisons discourse for everyone other than Republicans, and is just plain undignified.
Agreed that it's undignified, but it's really hard not to notice that remaining dignified will be a recipe for loss, with extraordinary repercussions for all USians, and that Republicans at this point are passing state laws restricting voting rights. As well as generally hauling out every bullshit rhetorical device they can plaster over the airwaves.
I had initially thought that they might be willing to cede this Presidential election in favor of retaining control of the House and possibly gaining control of the Senate. Now I'm not so sure. They seem to be in it to win. It feels to me like the time for niceties is over.
But lampreys are awesome. What's wrong with something like a lamprey getting better press?
1. Prezewalski's Horse (sp.?) [dude it's a horse]
2. Wombat [just seems like it should be cooler]
3. Remora [lamprey with better press]
4. Red panda [lameass cousin of a real panda]
5. Koalas [controversial, I know, but strangely not that cute in real life]
I mean, I just made up 62, but it looks pretty good to me.
Cripe, Halford. I bet you don't like tree sloths either.
You just don't get me, Parsi. I love a tree sloth.
54: I'm not sure I understand. I thought your point, or perhaps the point you were transmitting from other sources, was, "The longer the Republican primary goes on, the less firmly behind the eventual candidate the base will be."
Assuming that what you meant, it seems to me that the Democratic primaries in 2008 demonstrated, yet again, that parties are very good at coming together after a long and bitter fight for the nomination. And further, that such long and bitter fights actually generate a huge amount of enthusiasm among members of the party's base, as people who aren't usually likely to pay much attention/give much money will engage with the process if the theatrics are sufficiently theatrical. Again, though, maybe you meant something else.
And yes, if a third-party candidate chooses to enter the race, all bets are off.
You like a mammal with a slow hand.
Proving once again that Halford and I disagree about everything. Red Pandas are the cutest of all animals.
I think California condors are great and all, but I don't see why all the effort to save them when there are all kinds of other birds that eat dead animals. Could have just moved those into California for far less money.
They are certainly the hardest to find in a small zoo enclosure. I've actually seen a Red Panda about one in five times I've looked at a cage purportedly enclosing one.
I'll add it to my list of data about you, which I have yet to fully compute.
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I thought you all were joking about Kim Kardashian's divorce, but apparently it's true. It has something to do with gay people, also?
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63: why tell us this? It was so much cooler when I thought you kept this list, constantly updating every time you realized something like, "no, whale sharks are actually pretty awesome, but those fucking kinkajous I'm seeing everywhere are bullshit." I hate it when you let me down.
69 -- consider my buttons officially pressed. Check out this bad boy. The largest land bird in North America. The largest!!!
70: I wonder whether your red pandas are glitchy or our local ones are. Ours are almost always sitting around on branches looking like adorable little teddy bears-raccoon hybrids watching us while Mara goes berserk with delight because she has bamboodar and there are like 12 different kinds in the red panda area.
The numbers under its wings are targets, Moby, in case you were wondering.
73: The Andean Condor is bigger (longer wingspan, heavier) and apparently less likely to go extinct.
VW, you have a point in 66.2. I'll have to think about it.
My initial thought had just been that the groups behind Obama vs. Clinton in 2008 were more energetically behind each of them than anybody's behind the current Republican primary field, because Obama and Clinton were both viable candidates. Also that Obama and Clinton were much more similar to one another than the current Republican field is within itself. But that may be my own lens rewriting things, since on reflection, the Republican field is increasingly alike (flat tax! repeal health care reform! no new taxes!). I'll have to think about it.
I guess the Andean Condor has a head with a bit too much floppy skin.
Look, Hammer, you can keep your floppy-headed Mexican condor, and I'll keep fighting for my homeland's birthright.
Halford, you don't find a posterior made almost entirely of cartilage cool?
I agree with you on koalas, though. 50-85% chlamydia rate and adults have a "strong smell of urine."
They don't judge your social life.
This sad fellow spent one too many nights in the bathhouses.
Also, why are you so upset about the STD rates among kaolas? I mean, I'm sure that one told you she was clean, but it's still your responsibility to use protection.
Good wishes to you & your dad, OY.
Also, reading this thread is funnier if you imagine everyone suddenly yelling "oy" in the middle of their comments.
To be clear, it's wombats whose posterior is cartilaginous.
Both Wombats and Koalas are "vombatiforms," I learned recently.
85: A sentiment appropriate in almost any conversation. I'm going to be looking for ways to work that one in.
86: Everybody else has known this for years.
85/87: shouldn't it be "whose posteriors are"?
I had initially thought that they might be willing to cede this Presidential election in favor of retaining control of the House and possibly gaining control of the Senate. Now I'm not so sure. They seem to be in it to win. It feels to me like the time for niceties is over.
The 2004 and 2008 elections were absolutely critical too. So will 2016, and 2020, and...
All wombats share a single posterior. Little-known fact.
All koala share a single penis, apparently.
Vombatiform! My day is made.
OY, for what little it's worth, the one person I know who's had stomach cancer is absolutely fine fifteen years on and doesn't seem to be looked on as a prodigy of cancer-beating. So that can happen. But I do hope this is all just a scare and you won't even have to worry about surivival stats.
Shouldn't you pronounce it "wombatiform" given that it's supposedly Latin?
95: I think a drawn out Republican primary will boil down to Romney vs. Not Romney. Drawing it out can only serve to emitter the tea party further to Romney, and that's a good thing, because otherwise Romney would probably win. Alternately, Not Romney could win it, and that's good because Not Romney will probably loose.
OY, I hope things go well for your dad and whole family regardless of what the actual diagnosis is. I should have said that earlier rather than just trash talking LB's local red pandas.
95: But what if Romney gets the nomination and chooses Not Romney as his running mate?
I can see the bumper stickers now: "Romney / Not Romney 2012", with the slogan "Heads I Win / Tails You Lose"
97: That means Romney wins. But he would probably win anyway.
Back to the OP, sort of, man, Bloomberg's really a tool:
[Speaking with respect to OWS] "My personal view is, why don't you get out there and try to do something about the things that you don't like, create the jobs that we are lacking, rather than just yell and scream," Mr. Bloomberg said Thursday.
Yes, why not just get out there and create the jobs we are lacking? Slackers.
I don't really understand 90's point.
100:Well, it could mean they weren't really critical, a) because everything is so fucked elections can't help, or b) everything is as good as it can get, and sssllooww incremental progress is always being made etc etc
Or it could mean that, see b) above, they really were really really really critical, because the sssip boring of hard boards mustn't be impeded for even a second or we will all dieeeeee. And it's all Ralph's fault.
Red pandas are great. It's the giant pandas that are hopelessly overrated.
Miniature pandas are the best. I have eight in a fish bowl.
It means I'm tired of boiling all activism down to the next election, no matter how much it objectively accomplishes. Even when we win, things keep going to hell. I'm setting my sights farther out.
Ah. Well, yeah. I just don't know how we can do a fucking thing with a Romney in office.
I agree with 72. And declaring remora to be in the top 5 and then creating a list with them in the top 5 but not at the top position was a nice touch too.
Red panda is a bit too gamey for my taste. Giant Panda meat is a lot more tender, on account of the higher fat content.
And I hope everything turns out ok with your dad, OY.
You are all very wrong: the best animals are snow leopards. Am I the only one who watched the PBS documentary last spring that had the first video footage ever of snow leopard cubs in the wild?
62: Halford: Objectively Western Hemispherist.
68 Red Pandas are the cutest of all animals.
This.
I've actually seen a Red Panda about one in five times I've looked at a cage purportedly enclosing one
I once saw a red panda flying tackle another red panda.
Prospect Park Zoo is the best for maximizing your Red Panda sighting odds. Every time I've been there I've seen two pandas, though one of them has a broken tail. Central Park's Red Panda enclosure is a bit tricky, we've only had one really good Red Panda sighting there. Bronx is somewhere in between, maybe a 50/50 chance of seeing a Red Panda.
Wellington Zoo is also great for Red Pandas (in particular great for seeing them curled up in trees and possibly monorailing), but a little less convenient to LB.
I assume that all the red panda fans have viewed the Japanese television clip in which the woman spends a while living in a tiny apartment with two red pandas.
Only Nixon could have offered recognition to red pandas. Before then, the National Zoo could not offer a space to them.
115 makes me feel like I've wasted my time in NYC.
It's not too late to waste an hour watching red panda videos on Youtube. 117 led me to way too many others.
119: did you have lots of sex? because that trumps the bronx zoo's red panda enclosure. IME there's just so many people around in NYC you're bound to have sex with some of them.
Also, people are usually not as annoying about concealing themselves in thickets of bamboo.
If I had a thicket of bamboo I would conceal myself in it all the time. Unless bugs were in the thicket. Or mice. Or bamboo smells funny. Or the thicket didn't have wifi.
In conclusion, it's inevitable in our current democratic system: politicians will be the standard pander bearers, and the much of the electorate will be bamboozled.
For most of the time I've been in NYC, I was married, so not as much as I would have liked to.
I did have lots of sex this morning.
I have lots of gender in New York City.
