Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Nothing worth doing is easy.

When we show up, we win.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Grand Theft Banker Open Thread: The GOP Gives Its Donors Another Gift

Grand Theft Banker Open Thread: The GOP Gives Its Donors Another Gift

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No, seriously:


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Brave, bold, independent, public-spirited Republicans…


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PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT…

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Repeating my comment, since it’s on topic:

    Why Americans are ignorant of current events, example 3577:

    LA Times headline: Senate votes to kill new rule allowing class-action lawsuits against banks after Pence casts deciding vote

    The Senate voted Tuesday night to kill a controversial rule that would have allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks instead of being forced in many cases into private arbitration.

    The move by the Senate followed a similar action by the House in July to rescind the rule. President Trump is expected to sign the repeal legislation, providing a major victory for the financial industry.

    Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding vote after the Senate tied 50-50. All but two Republicans — John Kennedy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — voted to repeal the rule. No Democrats or independents supported the move.

    It’s REPUBLICANS in the Senate, fuckers.

    I am calling the LA Times on the phone about this one.

    “Congress” and “Senate” often comes down to Republicans, and media headlines don’t inform citizens appropriately. Makes it look like GOP legislation has a lot more support than it does. It’s the whole institution that voted that way.

    No, it was not.

  3. 3.

    SFAW

    They are merely following the Laws set forth by Saint ZEGS on his easel during the Obamacare fight:

    * More Money For Us
    * Fuck You

    Were I a person who makes wagers, I’d wager that those Laws will never be broken by the Party of Traitors as it is currently formed.

  4. 4.

    Ohio Mom

    All the Republicans/rightwingers I know always tell me that we don’t need regulations because you can always sue whatever entity screws you over.

    They will conveniently overlook that their party wants to prevent you from being able to sue.

  5. 5.

    Kay

    I love how they took a break from speechifying on their “values” long enough to jam this piece of crap thru.

    It’s getting a lot of attention though- they must be furious.

  6. 6.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    These bold truth tellers vote with their party 97% of the time or something, but that isn’t good enough. They call out the president, so that makes them RINOs. Flake votes for whatever Dear Leader tells him to vote for 97 out of every 100 votes, and he was going to lose his primary next year to a “loyal” Republican who would vote for whatever Dear Leader tells her to vote for 97 out of every 100 votes. But she’ll kiss Trump’s ass, so she’s a real Republican. This isn’t a political party any longer, it’s a personality cult.

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    How far are Republicans going to take this assault on consumer rights? And when do consumers aka voters wake up and figure out that Republicans are not on our side? Huge sigh.

  9. 9.

    Aleta

    Working hard to deregulate, change laws and to change the judiciary — Senate Republicans aren’t stupid.

  10. 10.

    Tim C.

    One of the difficulties of this era is distinguishing between “normal GOP fuck-you-I-got-mine” and Trumpian behaviors. (Treason, open white nationalism) . A handful of Republicans are unhappy with the Trumpian stuff, but they really want the first.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I don’t know. Wells Fargo is literally stealing from them- taking their money out of their accounts- and they don’t seem to care.

    They should have been prosecuted locally for each theft under applicable state law.

    The additional fake accounts were discovered by a previously announced analysis that went back to January 2009 and that further reviewed the original May 2011 to mid-2015 period.
    About 190,000 accounts were slapped with unnecessary fees for these accounts, Wells Fargo said. That’s up from 130,000 previously.
    Wells Fargo also discovered a new problem: thousands of customers were also enrolled in online bill pay without their authorization. The review found 528,000 potentially unauthorized online bill pay enrollments.

    They don’t even have to break in. They hold the keys. There should be a security service to protect your bank account from your banker.

  13. 13.

    FlipYrWhig

    To go along with our discussions from yesterday, Kay, it seems like a no-brainer for Democrats to crusade against credit card companies. Everyone hates them and they’re sneaky and scandal-pocked.

  15. 15.

    tobie

    I’m assuming the always-celebrated-super-moderate-model-of-non-partisanship Susan Collins voted for this bill, stiffing consumers, as she did for the GOP budget that stiffs Medicare and Medicaid recipients. She’s carved out this little niche for herself, where she wears the mantel of non-partisanship, while her voting record is with few exceptions highly partisan. This bugs me to no end.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @Elizabelle:

    Here’s a headline the LATimes could have used. It’s a word or two shorter, less characters, and fucking accurate:

    GOP Senators overturn Obama era rule; they oppose consumer class-action lawsuits against banks

    GOP Senate overturns Obama consumer protection against banks; no Democrats supported; Pence breaks tie

  18. 18.

    efgoldman

    OT
    I’ll try to post this another time or two
    I am going to be admitted to the hospital later today.
    I have lost all the considerable gains I made, and then some.
    I know the best jackals in jackalhood will worry

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @efgoldman: Best to you, efgoldman.

    Hope you can get the medical care you need, and get those gains back. And be out as soon as possible.

    Plz keep us posted. Hugs.

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: Thanks and great point: I’ll be sure to write the paper/website/other’s editor whenever, wherever they fail to note that it was Senate Republicans that did this.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    @efgoldman: Maybe Mrs. efg or daughter Jeopardy contestant efg could update us on how you are doing. It’s been done before, and they are seriously talented women. (If they have the desire to post for jackals … )

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    @efgoldman:

    OH DAMN! I was really hoping you were on the mend. I’m rooting for you and hope that some good care in the hospital will have you feeling much better. {{{{{{ef to the g}}}}}

  27. 27.

    MJS

    I’m having a hard time getting worked up over this. This is standard, boiler plate Republicanism. They fuck people over. It’s what they do. It’s what they’ve always done. Their voters won’t care. Even if those same voters get screwed by a bank or credit card company, they still won’t care, as long as minorities and women are getting fucked over to an equal or greater degree. In my view, it’s far more important to do something about how we got to the place where these things can happen, i.e., Russian interference in a presidential election, gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc.

  28. 28.

    But her emails!!!

    @Kay:

    How exactly would a criminal prosecution work in these cases when the suspect is a multinational corporation?

    This type of stuff is one of my personal irritations. The type of arbitration clause that this bill will continue to enable strips victims of the right to goo the courts and obligates the to go through sole arbitration. Filing for arbitration generally costs a couple hundred dollars, so the financial institutions are essentially free to pocket $20 here and there from all their customers because nobody is going to pay $200 dollars to get back $20.

  29. 29.

    MomSense

    @tobie:

    She’s carved out this little niche for herself, where she wears the mantel of non-partisanship, while her voting record is with few exceptions highly partisan. This bugs me to no end.

    Tell me about it.

  35. 35.

    rp

    @MJS: Agreed. I get the impulse to connect this to Flake and Corker’s anti-Trump comments, but I think it’s a mistake. The best way to prevent stuff like this from happening is to destroy the GOP, and Flake denouncing Trump is a helpful step in that direction.

  37. 37.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Sorry to hear about the backslide, I’m hoping you’ll be back a full strength PDQ. Best wishes, and we’ll try to keep this place going during your (hopefully brief) absence.

  38. 38.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Balconesfault: But but but Killary would have had us in 3500 intergalactic wars by now as Susan Sarandon and Jill Stein loudly and repeatedly warned us during the election cycle.

  39. 39.

    Aleta

    @efgoldman: Thanks for posting again. I’ve been wondering (ok, sort of worrying) how you are, but I missed your other posts and about going in today. Hope the hospital stay brings a course of treatment that works better, feels better.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    DA PHUQ?

    (CNN) — The National Park Service proposes more than doubling the entrance fees at 17 popular national parks, including Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone, to help pay for infrastructure improvements.
    Under the agency’s proposal, the entrance fee for a private vehicle would jump to $70 during peak season, from its current rate of $25 to $30.

  42. 42.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Didn’t even know that Wells Fargo was engaged in such conduct. I guess banks will go even more hog wild now thanks to Republicans’ open hostility towards consumers.

  44. 44.

    SatanicPanic

    “Don’t make heroes out of them” is a strawman. No one is saying we should forgive every last thing they do or even assume they’re generally on our side when a Republican criticizes Trump. On the contrary, they’re useful because if some mainstream Republican is saying “that’s out of bounds” it must be really fucking out of bounds.

  51. 51.

    different-church-lady

    Folks who attacked Hillary for being “in the pocket of the globalist banks” for giving a talk at Goldman Sachs…

    …are dumb fuckin’ parrots, and the “left” has just as many of them as the right.

  55. 55.

    Aleta

    Because what could go wrong?

    (Amazon is) taking the obvious next step and introducing a service that will allow Amazon couriers to open your front door and put your package safely inside your home.

    The service is called Amazon Key, and it relies on a Amazon’s new Cloud Cam and compatible smart lock. The camera is the hub, connected to the internet via your home Wi-Fi. The camera talks to the lock over Zigbee, a wireless protocol utilized by many smart home devices.

    When a courier arrives with a package for in-home delivery, they scan the barcode, sending a request to Amazon’s cloud. If everything checks out, the cloud grants permission by sending a message back to the camera, which starts recording. The courier then gets a prompt on their app, swipes the screen, and voilà, your door unlocks. They drop off the package, relock the door with another swipe, and are on their way. The customer will get a notification that their delivery has arrived, along with a short video showing the drop-off to confirm everything was done properly.

  57. 57.

    hueyplong

    The bottom line is that it really matters whether any GOPer criticizes Trump when you need some GOPers on board– for whatever reason– to break 50 for votes.

  58. 58.

    japa21

    @rikyrah: Caught between a rock and a hard place. The system is way behind in terms of infrastructure work, mainly because Congress wouldn’t provide them with funds. Lack of infrastructure improvement was hurting in terms of lower attendance. Of course, knowing the Republicans in Congress, they will use this rate hike to justify cutting even more funding for the system.

    One of the advantages of growing old is seniors get a life time pass to all the parks for, IIRC, $10. They could triple that and it would still be a steal and it probably wouldn’t reduce the number of people getting those passes. I would have been more than happy to pay the extra $20 when I got mine.

  59. 59.

    The Moar You Know

    So awesome. All the usual suspects here mewling about how brave Flake was “speaking truth to power” while he was literally at that same moment jamming it in our collective ass.

    Lesson, of course, still not learned.

    Lucy’s waiting with the football at the fifty yard line, suckers.

  60. 60.

    Felonius Monk

    @efgoldman: Keeping you in my thoughts and wishing you a speedy recovery. Your curmudgeonous is important to maintaining my curmudgeonous. Get well, my friend, we all need you.

  62. 62.

    Belafon

    @rikyrah: Which will result in fewer people attending, which will result in rising fees, etc., until the parks are too hard to maintain and must be sold off to the most connected corporation.

  64. 64.

    Chyron HR

    @The Moar You Know:

    A bloo bloo bloo you love getting anally raped by Jeff Flake.

    He doesn’t wear any kind of helmet and sniper rifles are legal. What’s your excuse, tough guy?

  67. 67.

    randy khan

    @japa21:

    The price for the senior pass was increased earlier this year, but it’s still a great deal.

    As noted by someone else, the Park Service has been having budget problems, and the current occupants aren’t that interested in helping.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    Benjy Sarlin‏Verified account @BenjySarlin 44m44 minutes ago
    More
    Trump tweets “NO change” to 401ks, but top House negotiator Kevin Brady says retirement savings are on the table

    But Donald Trump is a liar so it doesn’t matter what he tweets.

  70. 70.

    Amir Khalid

    @Aleta:
    It’s hard to imagine anyone being comfortable with giving strangers at Amazon a key to their home. I’d want to read the fine print on the agreement. If the bad thing happened, how much responsibility would Amazon take? Would it cap compensation for stolen stuff? Would it just say, “You fucked up, you trusted us”?

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Aleta: isn’t there a comic future dystopia movie where a giant conglomerate controls every aspect of life, and everyone’s okay with it? I could be taking that from what I’ve read about Idiocracy, which I’ve never seen.

  77. 77.

    Anotherlurker

    First off: I wish EFG a full recovery. EFG, I enjoy your insights and hope to be enjoying them for a long time.
    2nd & O.T., I am done with the “Madow Blog.” They are infested with Russian Bots and the Blog is now un-readable, as far as I’m concerned.

  79. 79.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Having seen Flake’s speech, were do people get off calling Flake brave and principled? Flake came off more like some wuss who was appalled his re-electron wasn’t a sure thing and blaming Trump for it.

  80. 80.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @The Moar You Know: actually I think most people here said “That’s nice, pretty words, now whatcha gonna do about it, son?”.

    But whatever makes you feel special.

    and that Lucy and the football metaphor…? Devastating. Bravo.

  81. 81.

    Citizen Alan

    @Patricia Kayden:

    The people most likely to be up in arms over consumer rights are also the same assholes who hate the Democratic Party because it doesn’t go far enough to protect consumer rights. Eventually, when things become miserable enough for consumers, everyone will wake up and vote green and it will be consumer protections and lollipops for everyone.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @Ohio Mom:

    All the Republicans/rightwingers I know always tell me that we don’t need regulations because you can always sue whatever entity screws you over.

    They will conveniently overlook that their party wants to prevent you from being able to sue.

    Very well stated. I will use this when people talk about how the GOP is against “excessive” regulations that hurt consumers.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    Great, now banks share distinction with gun makers as being protected by Republicans from being sued. Nice work guys, be proud.

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Aw. Fats Domino is dead (89)..

    Ain’t that a shame.

    We need a thread for Antoine Domino Jr., one of the founders of all things rock, roll, rhythm and blues.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    @But her emails!!!: Plus on the radio this morning, they were saying the consumer is bound to silence in one of these arbitrations. You can’t talk about it afterwards.

    Kinda like a Weinstein/O’Reilly NDA.

    These crooks don’t care, they don’t care at all.

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack

    @japa21:

    The lifetime senior pass went up to $80 a month or two ago. I missed the window and just got mine last week. Still a bargain.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    @Brachiator: Reporters are looking very closely at those NDAs. No doubt they’re circling the Trump NDAs too.

    Financial Times had a great article on Zelda Perkins, a 1990s HWeinstein employee who settled and has broken her silence.

    Harvey Weinstein: how lawyers kept a lid on sexual harassment claims

    Zelda Perkins says she was harassed by the powerful Hollywood producer. Now she wants to expose the legal process that kept her claims a secret for 19 years

    First British solicitor’s advice: ask for a year’s salary. (For Zelda, that was 20, 000 British pounds.) Uh, no. They had to explain idea was to deter future bad actions.

  100. 100.

    Jack the Second

    Messaging suggestion: just say “Republicans just voted/passed a law to not allow Equifax and Wall Street to be sued”. Make the other side get into the nitty-gritty of blocking regulations in defense of Wall Street and rulemaking and the CFPB. People will understand “the only laws Republicans have passed protect Wall Street”.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    @efgoldman: Of course we will worry That’s our job. Your job is to be as stubborn and fierce as humanly possible as you fight this. Just don’t forget to be nice to Mrs. EF and the nurses. Love you, EF. Hang in there!

  105. 105.

    joel hanes

    @japa21:

    One of the advantages of growing old is seniors get a life time pass to all the parks for, IIRC, $10.

    The Golden Eagle Pass / America The Beautiful Pass
    I was at the Mendenhall Glacier Park outside Juneau Alaska in August, and bought one because the NPS lady said that the $10 price was about to be raised drastically.

    And sure enough: the lifetime pass is now $80
    https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm#CP_JUMP_5088578

    Thanks, Republicans!

  106. 106.

    Ohio Mom

    @Tenar Arha: Many thanks! I see a link in the article to the actual guidance statements and am excited to see what they look like.

    I take some heart in the fact that even though they have been officially rescinded, these documents will continue to exist — this isn’t the library in Alexandria burning down. One day we will be able to retrace our footsteps. May that day come speedily!

  107. 107.

    Ohio Mom

    @japa21: They are raising the senior pass. There is a deadline, if you meet it, you can get one at the cheaper rate. I forgot the details but I am sure it is easily googable.
    ETA: Randy at 67 says the deadline has passed. Oh well.

  109. 109.

    Ohio Mom

    @efgoldman: We’re all pulling for you.

    I wondered what was up because I hadn’t seen much of your smiling face here on the threads lately. Go make those doctors earn their fancy salaries!

  110. 110.

    eemom

    the Senate, including brave truth-tellers Corker, Sasse, and Flake just gave banks a free pass to screw people again.

    Aw c’mon people, yer getting all worked up over nothing. The important thing is, this is NOTHING like Weimar Germany.

  112. 112.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    If you are interested in leaving a comment for the Park Service about the increase in admission fees, click this link.

    Comment

    Maybe if enough people comment about how the parks are for ALL Americans, not just the rich and if we spent more tax money on supporting them instead of endless wars, more people might be able to enjoy them and they could be maintained as they were meant to be.

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    @But her emails!!!:
    Take your business elsewhere. There are far better banks than the big assholes. I’ve been at 3 different ones since I left Bunch of Assholes 10 yrs ago. All 3 have been far better than any of the big guys. There are also plenty of credit unions around.
    Never forget that the only thing they want from you is money. Anyone selling anything wants money first and foremost. Take yours some place better for you.

  116. 116.

    NorthLeft12

    Of course the Republicans are against this. Class action is so socialist! There will be no class war while the Repubs are in power. There will be a slaughter of the working class and middle classes, but it hardly seems fair to call it a war, right?

  117. 117.

    SgrAstar

    @SatanicPanic: As a lifelong National Park visitor and supporter, I have to weigh in on this. The Parks being discussed her are being Killed by the millions of visitors they get each year. Park infrastructure is being destroyed and our lovely congress won’t allocate the funds to repair it. This situation is *exactly* analogous to the defunding of our public universities by incompetent, inimical state governments, which has led to skyrocketing tuition increases. If we believe in the commons, love the commons, support the commons that our predecessors built, we have to step up much more aggressively. Each of these developments- raising tuition, increasing park fees, etc is part of the enormous project to strip us, the public, of all our assets and create a permanent underclass of debt slaves who will have no power to contest their exploitation. As LMM says, we gotta rise up. 2018: the turning point, one way or another. I think we can do it.

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    EFG:

    Best wishes, hope you regain your strength and health. You educate us with every remark on every topic. Thanks for your company on this B J journey!

  119. 119.

    But her emails!!!

    @Ruckus:

    I’m a member of a credit union and keep my savings, checking, etc. accounts with them. I’m not really thinking so much about myself, but of others who might be less financially savvy, or have fewer options and flexibility.

  120. 120.

    это курам на смех

    @rikyrah:The shortfall in National Park Service funding is not for new facilities but for its huge backlog in maintaining existing facilities. Much of this work has been deferred for years and now is up to about $12 billion in needed outlays. For a generation or more Congress has failed to give the agency sufficient funding.

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