Kill Bill: "Bankster" Brown Throws Weight Around

No one could have predicted that Wall Street darling Scott "Bankster" Brown would singlehandedly kill a $19 billion bank tax. Except maybe Goldman-Sachs-slayer Martha Coakley, who, incidentally, is not in the Senate representing the people of Massachusetts.

Brown’s threat gets bank tax removed
Finance bill’s funding reworked

WASHINGTON — Senator Scott Brown yesterday forced Democrats to remove a $19 billion tax on big banks and hedge funds from the proposed Wall Street regulatory overhaul, the second time the Massachusetts Republican has used his pivotal role in the Senate to influence the legislation in favor of major financial institutions.

After Brown threatened in writing yesterday to oppose the package unless the $19 billion tax was eliminated, House and Senate lawmakers reconvened late yesterday and agreed on a new way to pay for the additional regulatory oversight in the sweeping legislation, which is intended to help prevent another economic crisis like the 2008 market meltdown.

Scott Brown, Wall Street Darling

Special interests?

You betcha!

Why would Wall Street throw money at Goldman-Sachs-slayer Martha Coakley, when they could throw their ill-gotten gains at Scotty Brown?

From Media Matters on Scott "Heckuva Job, Brownie!" Brown.

In the final days of Scott Brown's tough campaign against Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, every cent counted. With polls so close, it was clear that the election would likely come down to which campaign was able to spend the most money and run the most ads during the last stretch.

Thanks to Wall Street, Scott Brown won.

As the Boston Globe reported: "In a six-day span just before the US Senate election, Republican Scott Brown collected nearly $450,000 from donors who work at financial companies, a sign the industry is prepared to spend heavily in the upcoming midterm elections to beat back new controls and taxes President Obama wants to impose."

The Globe interviewed Richard Hillman, an analyst for First Wilshire Securities, who decided to give $2,400 to Brown at the last minute because, "I thought making him the 41st Republican vote in the Senate would prevent some really terrible legislation from getting through."

Hillman (along with hundreds of other Wall Street donors) seems to be getting his money's worth. After receiving more than $390,000 from Wall Street, Brown is now doing the industry's bidding in the Senate by threatening to kill Wall Street Reform.

Help Wanted

Please help Libby, of The Impolitic.

Please help Arthur Silber, of Power of Narrative.

Coup-coup ka Joob

Aussie aussie aussie, oy oy oy.

Another way to overturn an election.

Who needs the Supremes when you gotta little deuce coup?

Serfin' U-S-A: Voluntary Culinary Peasant Edition

You can wrap it up in a big red earth-consciousness locavore bow, but corporatocracy's triumph via our demise is creating voluntary premature peasants; those people who are adjusting to the fall of the Empire well in advance, becoming unplugged by eating cheap food, same food, jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, never jam today, because it's always cabbage soup.

For breakfast, it's cold porridge. For lunch, it's cabbage soup. Every day. For dinner, its lentils and rice. Why it's just like a third world country! I've been saying that for years. Really, I have. Lentils and rice? It's dhal-bat. The national dish of Nepal. A very poor country.

Coming your way.

So pass the daily borscht. I mean, the cabbage soup. Every day. Every day. Every day. Pass the dhal-bat. Pass the fish-heads and rice. Please pass the yuca.


Try to make a virtue out of less is more.

But, hey.

Less is less.

Really.


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Primary source:
The 10 in 10 Diet is a total system that makes it easy to transition off meat and cook healthy food conveniently while keeping your grocery bill under $150 a month per person, and reducing our contribution to climate change – with a goal in mind of 10% reduction of CO2 in 2010. It's a way to fast track to a simpler, more peaceful life. It's totally possible to really enjoy food while eating more like the majority of people in the world.


THE CLIMATE CHANGE DIET
Eating a diet for climate change doesn't mean you have to become a stick-in-the-mud vegetarian who won't take a little piece of turkey at Christmas dinner at your mother's. In order to make a difference in global warming, we need a wave of change in eating patterns across populations, enough to affect agribusiness and shipping traffic. So, here I am, jumping in with both feet to help people stop hemming and hawing in the grocery aisles and get set up to be clear and consistent with lowering the environmental impact of what they eat by eating no meat on a day-to-day basis and very little dairy. The climate change diet begins with a classic breakfast.


Breakfast
Daily:
Oatmeal Porridge with raisins, honey and apples [THINK: PLEASE PASS THE GRUEL]

Occasionally:
Buttermilk pancakes with a fried egg on top

Lunch

Daily:
Cabbage soup
Peanut butter sandwich
Hot drink
1/2 cup fruit
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Occasionally:
Miso soup with kale and carrots
Egg salad sandwich
Hot drink
1/2 cup fruit
1/2 cup plain yogurt


Supper

Big batches to freeze in single servings:
1. Black bean soup with either polenta or quick baking powder biscuits
2. Pinto beans
a) refried (mashed) served with salsa in corn tortillas
b) served over rice with salsa
Both ways can be garnished with a little grated cheddar cheese, or not.
3. Beet & Bean Stew - a kind of hearty beet borscht
4. Squash soup with hummus on bread or biscuits
5. Chili served with a dollop of kasha

Cook tonight in 45 minutes (2 or 3 servings) and have some leftovers

6. Black & Orange – black lentil stew and mashed rutabaga and sweet potatoes
7. Curried red lentils and veggies served on rice
8. Ratatouille, rice and lentils

Cook quickly tonight with one hour's notice

9. Falafel served either in pita with sprouts & yogurt or with quinoa or millet, gravy, and veggies

Make ahead to share for summer picnics, pot lucks or to pack a cold supper.

9. Quinoa salad Everyone likes this moist, yummy salad made with a fluffy ancient grain instead of rice. You can vary the cold veggies and nuts. Great to take to pot lucks

A New Understanding of the Nature of Emptiness.

Stirling Newberry at Corrente: Sorry, People, the Government Can Run Out of Money, and In Fact it Already Has.

Things that make you go "Hmm . . ."

So an idea popped into my head. What would it be like if BP is, technically, unable to stop its well from gushing oil?

What if they're not just lying because they want to find a way to save their oil and save their well?

What if the whole thing is totally, technically, out of control?

What is to be done if there is nothing that can be done?





Lambert Strether at Corrente: Are oil leaks really down hole?

Geologist Chris Landau. Wearing tin hat abiotic oil theory, but the other stuff seems ok.

What He Said

Stirling Newberry: Chelsea Dagger Drops Point First

Counterpunch, Arthur Silber on Helen Thomas

What he said.

What he said.

What he said

Stirling Newberry via Corrente.





(NBFH seems like it's morphing into minimalism. I'm busier. I have less to say that hasn't already been said. So. We'll see what happens.)