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Matt Taibbi spent a full hour with Dave and Di on their local talk radio show in Bozeman, Montana about subjects ranging from what is a naked short sell? What are "dark pools"? Should we draft Elizabeth Warren to be president? Having spent over 10 years in Russia, how would he answer the claims shouted from tea baggers that "We are looking like Russia!!"? Does he still carry around a Viking costume?
His hilarious and depressing 2005 book about the Democratic primaries and the fall presidential election "Spanking the Donkey: Dispatches from the Dumb Season" is still a great read. He talks a little bit about what that was like in the first few minutes then goes into why our system now resembles Russia. Gee, do you think it’s about corruption? That’s about 10 minutes into the podcast.
Discussion of "dark pools" is around 12 minutes in. He talks about the "Tarp on Steroids" that Congressman Sherman targeted around 14 minutes in.
In the 2nd half of the interview, Matt takes phone calls. The listeners came up with great questions. Matt originally said he could only stay for the first half hour, but we wangled a full hour thanks to the listeners.
We need many many more FBI agents who seem to be doing the work that the SEC and the Fed should have done.
We should all be glad that Matt is staying focused on the Wall Street corruption and the influence of Goldman Sachs on Washington. With more people slowly climbing on board the U.S.S. Anti-Corruption, we have a slim shot at salvaging this wreck of a country.
The podcast is at my website under "Democracy’s Edge Podcasts". We stopped calling our show "Democracy’s Edge" a few weeks ago. I’m not as optimistic as Francis Moore Lappe whose book of the same title inspired us to look for signs of life on the edges of democracy. There are a few examples of democracy like commenters here have mentioned such as Oregon’s public financing ideas, instant runoff voting in San Francisco and worker owned companies. But I also feel we are on a precarious edge and time is of the essence. Hence the change of name.
Incrementalism isn’t a good idea. Not having conflict is what the status quo wants. But it is time for conflict. And that doesn’t mean armed conflict. But, for god’s sake, it does mean challenging authority and standing up to power. Investigating the powerful is real audacity. And Matt is doing that. It’s time for the rest of us to stop enabling these wolves in Democratic clothing. As somebody on my last post said, it’s time to move past the "bargaining" stage in the stages of grief and get to acceptance. The time to act is NOW. The donkey is a donkey. It’s not responding to spanking. Now what? Taibbi is encouraged by more stories on this heist coming out in the main stream news. So let’s keep digging and keeping these stories front and center.
16 Comments
“Incrementalism isn’t a good idea” ; now if we could only convince the Obama Admin of this wisdom.
“The time to act is NOW.” ;YUP !!
Thanks for all you do,MM.
oo great, thanks for the update
The White House is focused on “winning” the next election. Taibbi expounds on that at the end of the hour. They are focused on keeping money out of the hands of Republicans. Short sighted IMHO. And, might I add, amoral. Well worse than that. Abandoning millions who are losing jobs, homes, and health care NOW for a win in 2010 is…well…criminal.
Thanks for the account and the link Diane.
It’s immoral, considering what they’re doing to get that money. Obama can’t keep their money out of Republican hands anyway, since they cant trust him to torpedo any reforms that come out of the present health care reform fiasco. They can trust the REpublcians to just not enforce the law, however, so they will give them plenty of money in 2012.
By their works, shall ye know them.
Any time political calculus trumps foundational principles of social justice, the good guys’ side looks more and more like yer standard jerk.
Not just “the message”, either.
As in, “We don’t really care enough ’bout what you guys down there think to even bother to work hard to try to fool you” kindofthing.
The Dems haven’t succeeeded in killing off that twinging nerve yet, I guess.
The tin ear of this particular victorious political class to the American citizenry must be a function of all that aspirational “distance” from the class base, don’tyouknow…NQOK, as the Brits say. (Not Quite Our Kind-trans)
Grayson/Warren 2012! If Huey Long could make FDR look over his own left shoulder…
Grayson’s not good enough. He aleady folded on Pelosi’s health care reform bill.
Glad you pointed this out, Lets. I like Grayson’s feistyness, but he never signed on to single payer or anything close. So he is not our savior. But his anti corruption zeal is good. It’s how John Edwards started out.
We must be careful. We are so needy that we will grasp at straws. But we can also push Grayson left.
I hope so. My critique of Grayson is in my new diary.
A little backstopping, eloquently, from Digby’s newest, tonight, EST:
“I think both (George)Will and (Al)Sharpton accurately read the public mood. But the problem is that only the Republicans are paying any attention to it.”
Digby link
Yes Sharpton said that the people want government to protect them and they are asking “Why isn’t government helping us and are helping the banks? Will said the the people want protection from government. Because government is coming to get their money.
The Democrats are now the old Republican Party. They like it that way. It’s not just the Blue Dogs who are corporatists. The whole party is. They assume the rank and file have nowhere to go. But like in 1994, most Americans will not show up to vote at all.
Wish I could have listened live, but look forward to the podcast. Any word on the longevity of your show?
We haven’t heard a peep since they let our engineer go. Dave is now doing the engineering. So we’re on for now. I am wearing out though and don’t think I can do the driving through snow for an hour to get to the station this winter.
Hey–there’s time yet for a guy to season, eh?
Seriously–nobody thought The Kingfish had a hope in hell of ever mounting a nationwide presidential campaign. But his state takeover of Louisiana’s oil business and his savvy populist rhetoric and smart use of radio sure was a hit with a lot of Americans who were wondering just exactly why the government seemed to function to protect and enhance the interests of the rich at the expense of everyone else. Many historians agree that Long did influence Roosevelt to go left-er than he would have otherwise.
I more like Grayson not as the next Obama so much as the prosecutor in the Costa-Gavras film “Z”.
Without upholding the rule of law explicit in the Constitution, whatever administration holds power here loses its citizens’ consent, absent the use of economic and/or nakedly brutal coercion–like incarcerating, say, a whole one per cent of the poulation.
And the rest of the world’s political enlightened self-interest, in light of our own dire economic situation, precludes any interest in propping up a kleptocracy masquerading as a democracy. Yeltsin’s Russia, past as prologue?
So, montanamaven, no needy–just some law, for the sake of our own survival. Grayson/Warren and Spitzer at Treasury. Or AG.
Warren/Grayson and I’m with you. About Spitzer I agree. On Grayson’s seasoning, sure it can happen. But seasoning these days in Washington, usually quiets people down and drives them to the right.
Taibbi said that we now are looking very much like Yeltsin’s Russia where ex KGB agents took over banking and a shadow government ruled.
Warren/Grayson. And Spitzer, agreed.
Would we agree that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), Rep. Mike Ross (D-Arkansas), and Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tennessee) need to be called out NOW and removed by primary challengers?