Mutiny: Wall Street Vultures Swoop In to Install Biden and Ryan as Duopoly Candidates

Democratic and Republican Elites Reject Voters’ Choice and Conspire to Deny Clinton and Trump Nominations

What do Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have in common?  Both are front runners in their respective parties and both are despised by the banking vultures who intend to overturn the will of the voters.

Veep Joe Biden and Speaker Paul Ryan have served their Wall Street masters well and their masters will not allow Clinton or Trump to take control of the parties they have bought through campaign contributions. 

Contributions that have awarded the vultures dream legislation like Biden’s 2005 Bankruptcy Protection Bill and Ryan’s budgets that cut government to breathtaking levels and created the derivatives cash cow charter school system.

Paul Ryan made clear on CNN that he does not support Donald Trump as the GOP candidate for President unless Trump embraces the “conservative agenda” that Ryan espouses.

Ryan is meeting with Trump this week to persuade Trump to abandon the Trump agenda and continue the punitive Wall Street endorsed “conservative agenda.”  Some of the points of contention are:

·        Trump wants to raise taxes on the wealthy but Ryan wants more tax cuts for the rich

·        Trump rejects the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement that Ryan supports

·        Trump is for opening relations with Cuba which Ryan says “legitimizes a tyrannical dictatorship”

·        Trump agrees that federal funding for Planned Parenthood be cut, but Trump feels the agency delivers important women’s health care screenings and services. Ryan supports complete denial of funds and backs a panel to investigate the discredited “fetal tissue sales” allegations.

·        Trump opposes Illegal Immigration and wants to build a wall whereas Ryan backs granting legal status for some illegal immigrants.

·        On minimum wage Trump has expressed his belief people need “something you can live on” and Ryan opposes any raise in minimum wage

·        On Social Security Ryan favors raising the eligibility age, lowering benefits and privatization while Trump outright rejects any cuts to entitlement benefits or privatization.

·        Trump says the government could save billions allowing Medicare to purchase medications in bulk while Ryan demands keeping the ban on Medicare negotiating drug prices

Ryan is already lining up dark money to fund a Ryan candidacy.  PR Watch is reporting that Ryan not only has released videos that look like campaign ads but he is running his own "parallel platform," and fundraising with major GOP donors.  

An unnamed source "close to" the Koch brothers told the Huffington Post that Charles Koch believes Ryan is a "shoo-in" for the nomination at a brokered GOP convention. Koch Industries has long been one of Representative Ryan's top contributors, and now is one of Speaker Ryan's biggest boosters.

This quarter, the Koch's are helping to fuel his staggering $17 million war chest, reports Politico. Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries, and his wife gave his "Team Ryan" fundraising vehicle $488,400 in March alone; Koch Industries gave $71,000.

At the same time Ryan as is sabotaging Donald Trump’s candidacy, Vice President Joe Biden is working behind the scenes to prepare to “step in” should Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton be indicted by Obama and Biden’s FBI. 

It was reported in the New York Post March of 2015 that the White House was behind the leaks of the investigations of Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The duopoly is fomenting rumors of an inevitable indictment against Clinton coming from the FBI whose Director, James Comey is a holdover from the George W. Bush Administration.

In February of this year Newsbusters reported that Bill Bartmann, a Democratic insider "emailed dozens of fans of Vice President Joe Biden on Friday, urging them to remain prepared to donate if Biden jumps into the (presidential) race."

So who is Bill Bartmann and who are these “fans” of Joe Biden that are greasing the skids for a Biden presidential bid, skipping the primary race?

In 2011 Forbes wrote an article called “Return of the Billionaire Huckster”, that huckster being Bill Bartmann.  Bartmann built one of America’s biggest fortunes turning credit card debt into creative Wall Street securities.  Forbes put it this way:

Bartmann owned and ran the nation’s biggest debt collection company, Commercial Financial Services, raking in huge profits courtesy of people with overdue credit card bills and then turning that debt into a Wall Street chit. But after his partner confessed to inflating collection rates at his agency, Bartmann lost his fortune, his company and his reputation. He barely avoided the slammer.

Hmmm, so who are these fans that are ready to plow money into a Biden campaign?

One of the donors Bartmann reached out to was vulture hedge fund manager, Gary Hindes.  It was reported by Philly.com that Hindes’ Fallen Angels Fund buys deflated securities at discounted prices then fought against government bailouts of the securities so he could make a killing on the debt he bought for pennies on the dollar.

Hindes is currently suing the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the U.S. Treasury, alleging that the government stripped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of more than $100 billion to repay taxpayers for the government bailout.

Hindes filed a complaint along with investor David Jacobs, in U.S. District Court in Delaware and have retained lawyer Myron T. Steele, who from 2004 to 2013 was chief justice of Delaware, the nation's preeminent jurisdiction for ownership and securities disputes.

Other shareholders have actions seeking billions in compensation and if the courts take the investors' side and award fat damages, Congress may decide it's time to cut the government's ties to Fannie and Freddie.

Another donor, Patrick Baskette was former special assistant to Senator Biden.  Biden, whose entire career was funded by the banking industry more specifically credit card giant MBNA is responsible for some of the worst financial legislation in history.

A couple of the most egregious of the bills that Joe Biden sponsored were the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill that is responsible for the $1.2 trillion in unforgiveable student loan debt and the 1990’s crime bill that has resulted in the massive for profit industrial prison complex.  The International BusinessTimes reported extensively on Biden’s tawdry Senate career.

Biden began his career at age 29 winning his senate seat with the backing credit card giant MBNA and quickly rose to gain a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees bankruptcy legislation. Over the span of Biden’s career he received $1.9 million in campaign funding from the financial industry.

In 1977 Biden began arguing that students were filing bankruptcy right after graduation to avoid repayment of student loans.  Although a GAO report repudiated those claims and found that less than 1% of student loans were erased in bankruptcy, Biden was able to get the bankruptcy legislation through. 

The bill prohibited students from seeking bankruptcy protection for government-sponsored loans until 5 years after graduation.

By 1984 Biden had seniority on the Judiciary Committee passed a bill that extended the student loan bankruptcy exemptions to include loans for vocational schools and the bill was signed into law by President Reagan.

In 1990 Biden was the chief sponsor of the 1990 Crime Control Act that toughened criminal sentences.  Included in Biden’s bill were provisions that lengthened the amount of time debtors would have to wait before they could access traditional bankruptcy protections for their federal and non-profit student loans.

By 1997 President Clinton could see the damage done to students by Biden and his Judiciary Committee and appointed a federal panel that recommended Congress reverse the changes and make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy court.  But Biden and Congress defied Clinton and made it even harder for students to get bankruptcy protection.

In 1998 Biden and his ilk passed a law that would LIMIT bankruptcy protections for students experiencing “undue hardship” caused by their student loan debt burden.

In 2000 Biden became the prominent Democrat in support of a bankruptcy bill that would even further restrict bankruptcy protections.  While Biden was pushing through the 2000 bankruptcy bill, Biden’s son Hunter fresh out of law school was hired as a consultant by MBNA.  But that wasn’t all MBNA bought Biden’s Delaware home in a sweetheart deal. 

Biden’s 2000 bill contained a provision prohibiting bankruptcy protection for educational loans from PRIVATE FINANCIAL FIRMS. President Clinton ultimately vetoed the bill after First Lady Hillary Clinton pressured him to reject the legislation.

After George W. Bush, whose major financial backer in his 2000 Presidential bid was MBNA, was installed in office after the Supreme Court overturned the will of the voters. Biden quickly revived his bankruptcy bill, now as a co-sponsor.  As reported in The Daily Kos:

After numerous amendments and 20 roll calls, Clinton said she would vote for the bill.

Senator Clinton: I rise today in support of final passage of S. 420, the Bankruptcy Reform Act.  Many of my colleagues may remember that I was a strong critic of the bill that passed out of the 106th Congress…

While we have yet to achieve the kind of bankruptcy reform I believe is possible, I have worked with a number of people to make improvements that bring us closer to our goals, particularly when it comes to child support.

Women can now be assured that they can continue to collect child support payments after the child’s father has declared bankruptcy. The legislation makes child support the first priority during bankruptcy proceedings…

Earlier today, this body agreed to include a cap on the homestead exemption to ensure that wealthy debtors could not shield their wealth by purchasing a mansion in a state with no cap on homestead exemption.

In addition, I was concerned about competing nondischargeable debt so I worked hard with Senator Boxer to ensure that more credit card debt can be erased so that women who use their credit cards for food, clothing and medical expenses in the 90 days before bankruptcy do not have to litigate each and every one of these expenses for the first $750.

Let me be very clear—I will not vote for final passage of this bill if it comes back from conference if these kind of reforms are missing. I am voting for this legislation because it is a work in progress, and it is making progress towards reform.

After Senator Jim Jeffords switched parties the Democrats took over the majority and the bill languished until the Republicans regained control in 2004.  After the Republicans regained control of the Senate, the Biden bankruptcy bill became a priority.  This time the provisions and protections gained by Hillary Clinton were excised by Biden and the Republicans.

Biden led the fight against the Democrats efforts to soften the bill’s impact on some of the most vulnerable debtors. Biden voted against protection for divorced mothers who failed to receive child support being able to get bankruptcy protection for a portion of their debts.

He opposed barring firms from exceeding 30 percent interest on loans, and he voted against special bankruptcy protection for soldiers, victims of identity theft and people with extremely high medical debt.

My, my, my.  Is it any wonder that there’s a mutiny against the frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton?  No wonder Wall Street Vultures are swooping in to install their handmaidens Joe Biden and Paul Ryan as the Duopoly candidates.  The vultures have too much to lose if Biden and Ryan leave them this way.

 By Patricia Baeten 

Bernie and Ted’s Excellent Adventure in Koch Brothers’ Dismal Dairyland

Before the Wisconsin primary the Koch Brothers, owners of the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Green Bay, sent an e-mail to their employees telling them to vote for Bernie Sanders in the Wisconsin primary.  Odd you say?  No, not at all, it seems the Koch Brothers and Bernie have a lot of the same interests. 

The Koch Brothers and their legislative arm, ALEC control every branch of government in the Badger State, and with the ALEC written voter ID law, one of the most restrictive in the nation, they were able to pull off a major coup for their two favorite candidates Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz.

With complete control of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, the Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office as well as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives the Koch’s have made Wisconsin the home base of the GOP so stealing the election was easy. 

But Ted and Bernie should not let their excellent adventure in the Koch’s Dismal Dairyland go to their heads for they are nothing more than tools to stop the frontrunners, Hillary and Donald.  As Big Pink put it Ted Cruz was just a one night stand, a ten cent whore and I would posit so was Bernie.

Excerpt:

But it was the cheese! The wonderful voters of the wonderful state of Wisconsin could not overcome their cheesy love! Cheese! The voters of Wisconsin voted for the rat who shares their love of cheese.

Rat Ted Cruz with his cheese grater teeth, ready to make Parmesan powder out of a whole wheel of cheese, was a natural fit for the GOP establishment in Wisconsin. But now that the whoremonger GOP establishment has used Cruz, like a Kleenex, for their pleasures, they came and went.

Cruz is still in bed hugging the dime he got for letting his orifices be used by the GOP establishment.  On the bed side table stands a radio playing “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”

The answer is “no”. If the National Enquirer is correct and Ted Cruz himself has employed the “lollypop” whore, then Ted Cruz should know that after the money is paid, the whore is left hugging the dime and not much else.

Ted Cruz is about to learn the lesson that all whores, sex workers, prostitutes, hookers, eventually have to learn: the client is not in love with you.  Ted Cruz is about to learn the lesson that all rats in the city learn: that cheese is in a trap…

The GOP establishment having come and gone will not rescue Ted Cruz in New York. John Kasich will be the whore of the hour now.

The GOP establishment will pay any whore to get their pleasure. The GOP establishment pleasure is to block the voters, disenfranchise the franchise, and stop Donald J. Trump.

Ahh, the wise sage Big Pink is right, Cruz was just the whore of the hour and Bernie, well his purpose is to stop Hillary.  Once that is accomplished Bernie will be discarded by the DNC just like lyin’ Canadian Ted Cruz and that “Bern” you are feeling might just be an STD.

So why you ask would the Koch Brothers send an e-mail to their employees telling them to vote for Bernie? Because he shares their vision for America.  From the Daily Caller:

Excerpt:

Koch Group Releases Ad Agreeing With Bernie Sanders On Ex-Im Bank

Freedom Partners, a group funded by Charles and David Koch, released an advertisement Wednesday applauding Sen. Bernie Sanders for his opposition to the Export-Import Bank.

During Sunday’s Democratic debate, 

Sanders and Hillary Clinton spared over the Ex-Im Bank, the government agency gives loans to businesses wishing to export goods. Clinton praised it for bringing manufacturing jobs to the Michigan area, however the Vermont senator criticized it for being “corporate welfare.”

“I don’t think it’s a great idea for the American taxpayer to have to subsidize through corporate welfare profitable corporations who downsize in the United States of America,” said Sanders.

So are the Koch Brothers and Bernie Sanders right about the EX IM Bank?  From PBS.org:

Excerpt:

In short, the Export-Import Bank lends to foreign buyers like Transnet to make U.S. exports competitive. Without an ECA of its own, the fear of the Bank’s defenders is that U.S. exports would lose out to goods produced overseas.

Established in the wake of World War II, when crippled foreign markets weren’t strong enough to purchase American products, the Export-Import Act of 1945 has been renewed by Congress 16 times without a political fight as intense as this year’s…

And without an Export-Import Bank at all, Hufbauer cautioned, there’d be little incentive for American manufacturers to actually make their goods in the United States. They could move to other countries with export credit agencies that would support their exports. The implicit threat in this narrative: the loss of American jobs….

Since 2009, the Bank touts that they’ve supported 1.2 million private sector jobs, and 205,000 in 2013. Even Paul Krugman, not the most enthusiastic supporter of the Bank, has argued that “this is exactly the moment when ending an export-support program really would cost jobs.”

But the bank also supports exports produced by foreign companies in the United States, as long as enough material comes from U.S. suppliers and assembly occurs in the states…

Besides support for American jobs, the Bank champions its commitment to America’s small businesses. In fiscal year 2013, nearly 90 percent of the Bank’s volume of transactions was for short-term deals on behalf of American small businesses selling their goods overseas…

Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth have slammed the government-backed bank for meddling in the free market, taking from the American taxpayer to enrich big business.

“The Bank doesn’t cost the taxpayer. In fact, it returns a profit to the Treasury — more than $1 billion in fiscal year 2013.”

Yes, Bernie Sanders is a useful tool for the Koch Brothers and their non-profit think tanks Heritage and Club for Growth.  And don’t forget that the Koch Brothers’ Club for Growth was the subject of a John Doe inquiry in Wisconsin.  It seems that they illegally funded and coordinated with the Scott Walker campaign in the recall fight. 

But the Koch Brothers’ bought and paid for Wisconsin State Supreme Court shut down the John Doe probe.  From Journal Sentinel Online:

Excerpt:

Wisconsin Supreme Court ends John Doe probe into Scott Walker's campaign

4-2 ruling halts inquiry focusing on campaign finance laws

Madison— Dealing Gov. Scott Walker a victory just as his presidential campaign gets underway, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a sweeping decision Thursday ruled the governor's campaign and conservative groups had not violated campaign finance laws…

It could also reshape how campaigns are run in Wisconsin because it makes clear campaigns can work closely with outside groups, allowing more political money to flow without the names of donors being disclosed.

Well Bernie is starting to look like lyin’ Ted Cruz, selling a bill of goods to the same gullible voters who voted for Ralph Nader.  The same gullible voters who voted for the Golden Calf turned Tin Cow, Obama. 

Like clockwork, every four years media whores like Susan Sarandon, Bill Mahr and Michael Moore pedal the illusion of a new “revolutionary” outsider that’s going to bring them to the Promised Land. 

Bernie’s latest lie is that Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be President due to the Panama trade deal she negotiated as Secretary of State.  From Joe Conason at NationalMemo:

Excerpt:

Sanders Was Wrong: Panama Trade Deal Shut Down Tax Shelters

Ever since the ‪#‎PanamaPapers exploded into public consciousness, many observers have waited with excitement (or trepidation) for the names of Bill and Hillary Clinton to appear somewhere in those millions of pages. So far they haven’t, and frankly I don’t expect they ever will.

Yet Bernie Sanders and his campaign nevertheless labored to tar Hillary Clinton with the offshore shelters anyway, going so far as to call her “unqualified” to be president for supporting the Panama free trade agreement (which she did as President Obama’s Secretary of State, of course)….

Specifically, the number of offshore incorporations fell from 4,741 in 2005 to 835 in 2015. Most important, as of last year Mossack Fonseca appeared to have nearly completely ceased incorporating the least transparent form of company — known as “bearer shares” — which often don’t need to register an owner’s name.

Incidentally, last year — like every year since the trade agreement was signed — the United States marked a big trade surplus with Panama, about $7.5 billion.

  

Bernie Sanders supporters I talk to say they support Saint Bernard because he voted against the Iraq War authorization.  But like everything Bernie says his history as a pacifist is just another fairytale.  From Alternet:

Excerpt:

Bernie Sanders' Troubling History of Supporting US Military Violence Abroad

Why aren't we talking about Sanders' foreign policy more?

The presidential candidacy of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has excited many liberals throughout the country, but there's been very little analysis of his foreign policy positions.

This past Sunday Sanders criticized Hillary Clinton for her support of the Iraq war, declaring, “On foreign policy, Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq…Not only I voted against, I helped lead the effort against what I knew would be a disaster…."

… but the difference between the two candidates on war is hardly substantial and his political closet is filled with as many skeletons…

While it's true he voted against the Iraq War, he also voted in favor of authorizing funds for that war and the one in Afghanistan. More recently, he voted in favor of a $1 billion aid package for the coup government Ukraine and supported Israel's assault on Gaza.

At a town hall meeting he admitted that Israel may have "overreacted", but blamed Hamas for the entire conflict. After a woman asked why he refused to condemn Israel's actions, he told critics: "Excuse me! Shut up! You don’t have the microphone.”

How low will lyin’ Bernie go when it comes to smearing Hillary Clinton?  According to Juan Cole at Truthdig:  Is Hillary Clinton Responsible for Rise of Islamic State, as Bernie’s Campaign Manager Alleged?

Excerpt:

Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, alleged on Thursday that Hillary Clinton’s policies are responsible for the ‘rise and expansion of ISIS throughout the Middle East…’ 

Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) arose in Iraq as a reaction against the Bush occupation of that country and its punitive policies toward Sunni Arabs, as part of a Shiite-led “debaathification.”  (The ruling party 1968-2003 had bee(sic) the Baath Party, which was secular, socialist and disproportionately dominated in the upper echelons by Sunni Arabs).

It spread to Syria as a result of that country’s 2011 revolution, which turned into a civil war when the Bashar al-Assad regime used military weaponry on civilian protesters.

Although Clinton did vote to authorize the Iraq War, it wasn’t the war per se that created Daesh there but rather the US backing for Shiite policies of political reprisals against the Sunnis.  Clinton did not have anything to do with policy-making in Iraq.

On campaign financing, Bernie is bleating out his fabrications that he doesn’t take money from special interests and that he stands on the picket lines with workers against union busters.  Guess what, it’s not so.  From National Review:

Excerpt:

The Anti-Labor Skeleton in Bernie Sanders’s Closet

On September 4, brandishing a megaphone and wearing the trademark scowl he reserves for talk of “millionaires and billionaires,” Senator Bernie Sanders stood before around 100 picketing employees outside the Penford Products corn-processing plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and denounced “the war against working families.”

“I want you to know being out on a picket line and standing with workers is something I have been doing for my entire life,” he told the union workers. “I did it when I was mayor of the city of Burlington, did it in Congress, did it in the Senate. This is what I do.”

Campaign contributions from Sanders’s recent past, however, paint a slightly different picture. During his 2012 reelection race, Sanders accepted $10,000 from a Midwestern sugar conglomerate that was at the time locked in a long, bitter battle with its labor force — a fight that ultimately left more than 1,000 union workers out of a job…

At the time Sanders took their money, American Crystal was already deep into one of the most contentious labor disputes of the decade. In September 2011, the company locked out 1,300 Iowan, Minnesotan, and North Dakotan workers from the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers Union for their refusal to ratify a labor contract…

Even after the union members’ children wrote to American Crystal executives in September 2012, begging the sugar-processing giant to let their parents return to work before they lost their homes, the company refused to budge…

Sounds like the confectionary’s union felt the Bern.  And Bernie’s populist message is just another rouse, it’s as fake as his “peace” credentials.  Today he stood before his fawning followers bleating out his plan to give all Americans a three month maternity leave. 

How will Bernie accomplish that if he’s unwilling to reign in military spending as is pointed out by Margaret Kimberly at Black Agenda Report?

Freedom Rider: America’s Endless Wars

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

There is no “peace” wing in either the Democratic or Republican parties. “Not only has Obama declared unending war against the rest of the world, but so has the rest of the two party duopoly…”

 “How can Bernie Sanders bring social democracy to the United States if he won’t cut the military budget or foreswear interventions?”

America’s grand fantasy of a Project for a New American Century has experienced a serious setback. Yet this country still isn’t dissuaded from pursuing the imperial effort…

For nearly five years the Syrian people have suffered as a direct result of American aggression. More than 250,000 people are dead and 9 million are refugees in their country and abroad….

While Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, including “socialist” Bernie Sanders, express unending support for imperialism and brutality in Syria, the project is falling apart…

The Democratic and Republican candidates sound alike as they eagerly proclaim their loathing for Putin and their determination to continue war by other means….   Even liberal darling Bernie Sanders spouts nonsense about “Saudi skin in the game” in Syria when the Saudis have been an integral part of the regime change effort…

If candidates like Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders are slick enough they can market themselves as peacemakers when in fact they will create as much chaos and suffering as any of the Republicans.

So as Bernie and Ted are basking in the afterglow after their Koch Brother corporate coup in Wisconsin and their “caucus” win in Wyoming.  They are now headed into what Glen Ford at Black Agenda Report calls “Sports Bar Politics and Corporate Duopolies.”

Excerpt:

From the perspective of a sports bar, Bernie Sanders’ 57% - 43% victory over Hillary Clinton’s Corporate Demo Crusaders, in Wisconsin, keeps his Leftish Upstarts in the playoffs, although their chances of grabbing the brass ring in Philadelphia this summer are slim to none.

Donald Trump’s White Knights stumbled, but may still rally to shut out the Corporate GOP Avengers, in Cleveland, in July…

The corporate duopoly electoral system is the equivalent of the sports league cabal: whatever the score, the owners win. The best possible outcome of their quadrennial games would be a breakup of the duopoly, through a split in one or both of the corporate parties.

For the first time in at least a century, such an earth-shaking fracture is possible, and even likely. Therefore, those who seek fundamental change in U.S. political alignments and structures should root for whatever primary election results that contribute to the dissolution of the Democratic-Republican duopoly system.

Amen brother Glen.  It’s just a matter of time until Bernie and Ted find themselves lying in bed hugging the dimes they got for letting their orifices be used by the GOP and DNC establishment. 

And just like clockwork the Nader/Obama/Sanders supporters will wake up in a cheap hotel, the whores gone and their wallets gone.  As they hear “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” playing on the bedside radio, they realize they’ve been rolled again.

By Patricia Baeten