• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

This really is a full service blog.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Second rate reporter says what?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

This fight is for everything.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Time For a Sternly Worded Letter

Time For a Sternly Worded Letter

by John Cole|  December 14, 20097:19 pm| 43 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

FacebookTweetEmail

These guys are just quaking in their boots:

President Obama’s meeting with prominent members of the financial services industry will be missing three key members: Goldman Sachs Chairman Lloyd Blankfein (left), Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack and Citigroup Chairman Dick Parsons.

All three had been expected to attend the meeting but will miss it “due to inclement weather,” according to the White House.

The three planned to participate instead via conference call.

Apparently there were no flights on Sunday or any available five star hotels in DC for them to stay last night. I’m sure if we call them fat cats a couple more time while Ben Nelson and company water down the House’s regulation bill, they will really get the message.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « …And out come the wolves
Next Post: Defining Glibertarianism »

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    Demo Woman

    December 14, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    Well just fuck!… Last fall we should have just let the shit hit the fan.. I would like to rephrase it to make it more politically correct but not sure how. If someone can help me, I’d appreciate it.

  2. 2.

    Will

    December 14, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    Obama comes to them. They don’t come to Obama.

  3. 3.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    December 14, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    *cough* typo in title (unless it is an internet tradition of which I am not aware)

  4. 4.

    kid bitzer

    December 14, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    sternly worderd?

    typo? or joke i ain’t getting?

  5. 5.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    Goldman Sachs Chairman Lloyd Blankfein (left), Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack and Citigroup Chairman Dick Parsons

    Isn’t that like hosting a conference for Pittsburgh sports teams and everyone except the Steelers, the Penguins, and the Pirates shows up?

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    December 14, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    @kid bitzer:

    ditto

  7. 7.

    freelancer

    December 14, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    I’m sure if we call them fat cats a couple more time while Ben Nelson

    times.

    That is all.

  8. 8.

    Xanthippas

    December 14, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    And this is the President we’re counting on to subversively institute sweeping socialism in this country?? Jeez.

  9. 9.

    Leelee for Obama

    December 14, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    I’d love to see the Obama WH hand the repaid TARP money over to an enlarged and empowered SBA. Let that alphabet hand out money at vewwwy low interest rates to small businesses and tell the big banks there’s an executive order in the works to claw back every penny of profit that can be proven to have been facilitated by TARP funds. Then, we’ll tax everything they pay themselves for this year and next at Eisenhower Tax rates, roughly, 70%, right?

    And, since the right-wing are already kinda having hard-ons about Obama’s newly discovered, by them, muscular attitude-perhaps a few Merry Fitzmas subpoenas before a Grand Jury or two for a Christmas present for us peasants. I think NY Southern District would be just the place.

    Fuck them–i need that rusty pitchfork again, asiangrrl.

  10. 10.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    maybe we should put Sternly Worded Letter in the Lexicon?

  11. 11.

    freelancer

    December 14, 2009 at 7:41 pm

    @Notorious P.A.T.:

    maybe we should put Sternly Worded Letter in the Lexicon?

    Immediately followed by an entry for “Sternly Worderd Letter”.

    EDIT: “More than half of you are all the same typo.”

  12. 12.

    smiley

    December 14, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    This kind of “fuck you” to the president of the United States will not go unnoticed. Right? Never mind…

  13. 13.

    Keith G

    December 14, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    @Leelee for Obama: Would a Predator strike be out of line?

  14. 14.

    jeffreyw

    December 14, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    Word is out the dems caved.

  15. 15.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    Wow, so much Change we can believe in!

  16. 16.

    jl

    December 14, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    Our overlords have the moral fragrance of bloated summer road kill blowing up on a fine windless sultry day. Mmmm-yummm. Drink it in.

    “Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials approved last week”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/14/politics/main5976673.shtml

    They just throw up intellectual trash, hoping that gullible or bought media blowhards will believe whatever they say (“they are rich, so they must be right”) about destroying the American way (which apparently is now the 100% smash-and-grab business plan and nothing else).

    If it is a tax levied on the whole industry, how will such a measure put any one bank at a competitive disadvantage? If the British and the French are adopting similar set of policies (which they are) how will it hurt them internationally?

    The little back and forth on Klein, particularly Chuck Lane’s nauseating contribution illustrate the putrescence. Wild and bizarre charges are thrown about that a clearly thinking HS student should be able to see are nonsense. The key is that they contain buzzwords that will incite the corrupt and ignorant media idiots and are designed to catch the attention of the supposed cranky independents.

    Klein is partisan, for attacking an independent, nominally associated with the Democratic Party? And the partisanship is because Klein merely pointed out some obvious facts that show Lieberman makes no sense at all when he talks? And then Lane goes on to say that it is probably true, but so what? And then rationalizes Lieberman’s increasingly bizarre behavior and suggests it is somehow out of bounds or partisan or rude to point it out.

    That noxious and depraved cynicism is Lane’s contribution?

    The thing is the public is so used to the smell of bloated belly carcass rot, and have been so indoctrinated with noxious lies designed to smooth the way for the crooks who run our lives, that they probably do not even recognize it for what it is anymore.

    My fixation on animal decay is morbid. But I can’t think of anything else that captures my disgust at what the political and media opinion leadership of this country has become.

  17. 17.

    Leelee for Obama

    December 14, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    @Keith G: Possibly not. If we could be assured that there would be no collateral damage to innocent bystanders- and then salt the earth and put in a giant parking lot, with lower fees. The city would probably make out better, financially.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    December 14, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    @Notorious P.A.T.:
    It’s not already there? Serious oversight.

    The whole TARP thing was poorly done. Just give away money with no strings attached. Where can I sign up for that?

  19. 19.

    geg6

    December 14, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    jeffreyw @14: If this is true, that’s it. I’m done. That Lieberman wins is the last straw.

  20. 20.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Time for a new entry in the Balloon Juice Lexicon:

    Eleven-Dimensional Chess — (noun) Game that his supporters claim Barack Obama is playing in an attempt to cast aany setback as just part of a large, incomprehensible master plan to achieve his goal.
    “Barack Obama was impeached and removed from office? He’s just playing Eleven-Dimensional Chess. He’s got ’em right where he wants ’em!”

  21. 21.

    jl

    December 14, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    @jeffreyw:

    “Word is out the dems caved.”

    To prevent it from being a total loss, I think we have to call our Congressional and WH overlords and masters, and politely request universal coverage is an absolute must.

    That will be a high stakes gamble. It will be universal coverage at rates so high that few will feel much relief and many will be pissed. The weak regulatory reforms (eg, no rescission, no preexisting conditions) will be phased in so slowly, and with so many loopholes that it will also piss off people.

    We will be gambling that people will value the security of some kind of shitty coverage enough that they will insist on keeping their coverage and press Congress for more reform.

    If our corrupt and cowardly Congresspersons and the impotent (but trash talking Rhambo) drones in the WH know that any proposals to reduce coverage will be a political death sentence, then there will be continuous pressure for reform.

    The risk is that pissed off voters will give the GOP enough power to blow the whole process up, and we will move to their plans, which is gangster and crony corporate capitalism, tearing itself apart; and then even what is good in the current US healthcare system will slowy destry itself.

    Without universal coverage, such seriously flawed health reform may only entrench high rates and poor sloppy care for those who are not rich, or lucky enough to have good group plans.

    But, what a disgusting demonstration of the failing, dysfunctional, sociopathic, irrational, corrupt political system the US has developed.

  22. 22.

    Montysano

    December 14, 2009 at 8:10 pm

    @Xanthippas:

    And this is the President we’re counting on to subversively institute sweeping socialism in this country?? Jeez.

    Just soshulizm? Not at all, according to the Letters to the Editor this morning:

    We are in the middle of a Marxist revolution and few in the US can actually see it for what it truly is.

    Here’s a Soviet-style idea that I could get behind: forced education, with free history books for all.

  23. 23.

    jl

    December 14, 2009 at 8:12 pm

    Put ‘one-dimensional checkers’ in the lexicon. Under the entry ‘n-dimensional chess’.

    One dimensional checkers consists of

    “Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”

    “Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”

    “Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”

    “Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”

    etc.

    Why not blow up the filibuster? The GOP has already shown that it will destroy it as soon as they regain leadership and do not get their way. The sheer cowardice, incompetence and gutlessness of the Democratic leadership is breathtaking.

    “Ouch, don’t hit me again. OK OK, you win”

  24. 24.

    Violet

    December 14, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    I don’t understand why we can’t have a health care system like the Netherlands. It sounds like it works really well. It’s a mix of public and private and everyone is covered. The insurers and hospitals are private but regulated so they aren’t taking people to the cleaners or dumping them when they get ill. And people have the option to purchase extra coverage should they so desire, so all those rich people can still have all the insurance they can possibly want. But they don’t get to screw the little guy in the process.

    Whatever our lawmakers are going to come up with is going to suck. Of that I have little doubt.

  25. 25.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    Biggest laugh I’ve had all day: the last line of this Ezra Klein piece on budget reconciliation.

    http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fifty_vote_senate

  26. 26.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 8:19 pm

    I don’t understand why we can’t have a health care system like the Netherlands.

    Apparently, because Joe Lieberman’s widdle feewings were hurt.

  27. 27.

    Leelee for Obama

    December 14, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    I think I speak for all of us when I say, “Green Balloons!” Hell, no dinner, no flowers, no candy, no wine. Nothing but this?

  28. 28.

    danimal

    December 14, 2009 at 8:31 pm

    You never know when the camel’s back will break. Perhaps this is the beginning of the populist backlash from the left. Most liberals and left of center types have tried to play within the rules and worked within the system, and the entrenched powers that be such as Holy Joe and Big Ben have sincerely raised their middle fingers in response.

    Rusty pitchforks aren’t good enough for the Beltway elite and their financiers in the banking/insurance lobby. They’ve been pushing their luck, but they really don’t understand the undercurrent of suppressed rage that appears close to being unleashed. We don’t need centrist Dems if they can’t vote for cloture on the most important issues of the day. The centrist Dems need to work with the base if they want to survive. I don’t think they “get it” yet.

  29. 29.

    Tsulagi

    December 14, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    @Notorious P.A.T.:
    That’s pretty good. I bet in those other dimensions the chess boards are rainbow colored floating on magical clouds.

  30. 30.

    Violet

    December 14, 2009 at 8:46 pm

    @danimal:
    One can hope.

  31. 31.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    Remember: Obama deserves no blame for stuff like this. It’s all Congress’s fault! ! !

    Rahm To Reid: Give Lieberman What He Wants

    An aide briefed on discussions with the White House says that there would be no story if Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel hadn’t interceded. The aide confirmed an account, reported by Huffington Post, that Emanuel visited Reid personally, telling him to cut a deal with Lieberman.

    Change! Hope!

  32. 32.

    Tsulagi

    December 14, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    @Notorious P.A.T.:

    Rahm To Reid: Give Lieberman What He Wants

    You don’t see the big picture. CHESSCOM in this dimension ordered Rahm to do so. It’s already been played out in Dimension #9.

  33. 33.

    mk3872

    December 14, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    Let’s be fair … if the Congress hadn’t blown a gasket over the executives flying in private jets, they would have been there.

    Those that flew commercial airlines got stuck.

    That’s real life. It happens to me some times, too.

    And then if they HAD flown in earlier and stayed in a hotel, Congress’s indignation would have rain down on them then too.

  34. 34.

    Comrade Darkness

    December 14, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    @Notorious P.A.T.: I’ve actually sampled the health care in the Netherlands as a tourist. This was about 4 years ago. Called up a local clinic, got an appointment for 3 hours later, walked over to it, got in right on time, got a consultation from a very nice young man (I’ll call him 6’5″ inch Doogie Howser, shall I? He didn’t look old enough to drive.), got the test results, then . . . oh and here I ran into a problem. I had grabbed a 50 euro note to pay with. The woman at the desk just stared at it. “I don’t have change for that,” she said.

    I paid with coins. The visit, including a lab test, for a foreigner (obviously outside the system), was 7 euros.

  35. 35.

    Montysano

    December 14, 2009 at 9:24 pm

    @danimal:

    Rusty pitchforks aren’t good enough for the Beltway elite and their financiers in the banking/insurance lobby. They’ve been pushing their luck, but they really don’t understand the undercurrent of suppressed rage that appears close to being unleashed.

    From your lips to the FSM’s …. ummm… ears. I’d like to think that a non-partisan “vote the bums out” movement could gain some steam, but we may be too far gone as a culture. Because, ya know, Brawndo has electrolytes.

  36. 36.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    December 14, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    @Comrade Darkness:

    What a sad story–no insurance company executive was able to make a small fortune by inserting himself into the process and doing. . . whatever it is they do.

  37. 37.

    Montysano

    December 14, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    @mk3872:

    Let’s be fair … if the Congress hadn’t blown a gasket over the executives flying in private jets, they would have been there.

    Bullshit. It’s 3 hours via the Acela train. I know…. the horror, the horror. But when the POTUS summons you to the White House, you ought to at least give the appearance of an effort, not just shrug and blow it off.

  38. 38.

    kay

    December 14, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    I can’t imagine not bothering to show up when the President calls.

    But that’s what they did. That’s just mind-boggling to me.

    The Titans of Finance have spent so much time being carted around in the back seat like 1st graders going to a soccer game they’ve forgotten how to move independently from Point A to Point B.

    I hope they had sufficient staff to assist with that phone call.

  39. 39.

    Corner Stone

    December 14, 2009 at 11:18 pm

    Yeah. This was too damn easy to call.
    Call my shot

  40. 40.

    NYT

    December 14, 2009 at 11:19 pm

    From WSJ
    “”The cost to Citigroup could have been far higher if not for a little-noticed ruling late Friday by the Internal Revenue Service. The ruling, following months of negotiations with Citigroup executives, concluded that Citigroup wouldn’t have to sacrifice a multibillion-dollar tax benefit if the Treasury sold significant amounts of its share holdings, according to Robert Willens, an independent tax analyst.

    “This amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to Citi shareholders,” said Michael Mayo, a banking analyst with Calyon Securities.””

    That was Friday. On Monday Parsons couldn’t be bothered to even show up to meet with Obama.

  41. 41.

    bob h

    December 15, 2009 at 8:09 am

    Blankfein obviously too busy doing “God’s Work”.

  42. 42.

    lou

    December 15, 2009 at 10:44 am

    They could have done what the American Express guy did and taken the Acela. Penn Station’s closer to Wall St than LaGuardia or Newark and Union Station is a lot closer to the White House than National.

  43. 43.

    gopher2b

    December 15, 2009 at 11:33 am

    Because its not like there is a bullet train from NYC to DC that can cut through a snow storm like Rudolph. Dicks.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • oatler on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 12:58pm)
  • Matt McIrvin on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 12:58pm)
  • Manyakitty on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 12:57pm)
  • Ken on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 12:57pm)
  • Dangerman on Squishable Open Thread (Mar 22, 2023 @ 12:56pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!