Bankers have a pout over Liz Warren saying mean things

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

#IIF #IIFDC #skyhighart #stepanek #pstepanek #Jaime Dimon JPMorgan CEO great read: http://www.businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-speaks-at-iif-meeting-2014-10

So these bankers (and the media, apparently) really don’t understand how much ordinary people hate them and think they should be in jail. Nor do they get that being a candidate the banks hate is a badge of honor these days. Well then! Let them take their $15,000 (which Elizabeth Warren can raise in about ten minutes) and have a pity party. Via Reuters:

(Reuters) – Big Wall Street banks are so upset with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren’s call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said.

Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party’s tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week.

Bank officials said the idea of withholding donations was not discussed at a meeting of the four banks in Washington but it has been raised in one-on-one conversations between representatives of some of them. However, there was no agreement on coordinating any action, and each bank is making its own decision, they said.

The amount of money at stake, a maximum of $15,000 per bank, means the gesture is symbolic rather than material

Moreover, banks’ hostility toward Warren, who is not a presidential candidate, will not have a direct impact on the presumed Democratic front runner in the White House race, Hillary Clinton. That’s because their fund-raising groups focus on congressional races rather than the presidential election

Still, political strategists say Clinton could struggle to raise money among Wall Street financiers who worry that Democrats are becoming less business friendly.

The tensions are a sign that the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis – the bank bailouts and the fights over financial reforms to rein in Wall Street – are still a factor in the 2016 elections.

Harry Reid not running

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

wp_2014_01_02, Thinking of Harry!

So the angling to replace Reid will begin, with Dick Durbin as a possibility but the most likely candidate being Chuck Schumer:

WASHINGTON — Senator Harry Reid, the tough tactician who has led Senate Democrats since 2005, will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a three-decade congressional career that culminated with his push of President Obama’s ambitious agenda against fierce Republican resistance.

Mr. Reid, 75, who suffered serious eye and facial injuries in a Jan. 1 exercise accident at his Las Vegas home, said he had been contemplating retiring from the Senate for months. He said his decision was not attributable either to the accident or to his demotion to minority leader after Democrats lost the majority in November’s midterm elections.

“I understand this place,” Mr. Reid said. “I have quite a bit of power as minority leader.”

He has already confounded the new Republican majority this year by holding Democrats united against a proposal to gut the Obama administration’s immigration policies as well as a human-trafficking measure Democrats objected to over an anti-abortion provision.

“I want to be able to go out at the top of my game,” said Mr. Reid, who used a sports metaphor about athletes who try to hang on too long. “I don’t want to be a 42-year-old trying to become a designated hitter.”

Mr. Reid’s tenure has become increasingly combative in recent years and included a procedural change on nominations that infuriated Republicans. He also came under fire for blocking floor debate, and even some of his Democratic colleagues suggested that he was stifling the Senate. Just this week, he alienated House Democrats who thought he was sabotaging a compromise on Medicare.

His departure at the end of 2016 will create an opening both at the top of the Senate Democratic hierarchy and in a Senate contest that would have been a megaspending slugfest in the presidential battleground of Nevada. Conservatives such as Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers who were a favorite target of Reid criticism in 2014, would have spared no expense in trying to oust him.

I wonder how long before Scott Brown moves there?

College-educated Republicans even less likely to believe in global warming

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Envoroment target

This doesn’t surprise me. Education gives you the tools to selectively use data that reinforces what you already believe:

PRINCETON, N.J. — Republicans with higher levels of education are more likely than those in their parties with less education to say that the seriousness of global warming is “generally exaggerated.” By contrast, Democrats with some college or more are less likely than those with less education to believe the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated.

Seventy-four percent of Republicans with a college degree say it is exaggerated, compared with 57% of those with high school education or less saying the same. Democrats are much less likely in general to say that the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated, but those a college degree (15%) are significantly less likely to say this than those with a high school education or less (27%). The relationship between education and views of global warming among independents is generally similar to that shown among Republicans.

These opposing trends by party suggest that higher levels of education reinforce core partisan positions; in this case, Republicans’ strong tendency to question or deny global warming and Democrats’ inclination to affirm it. The trends also suggest that partisanship rather than education is a main lens through which Americans view global warming and its effects, particularly for those who claim allegiance to one of the two major political parties.

Massive fire in East Village after gas explosion

~ susie

We’ve had six building collapse in Philly in the past month, some with gas explosions, some without. They say it’s from the freeze-thaw-freeze cycle we have with the imaginary global warming. Why be afraid of terrorists when our failing infrastructure is a more immediate danger? Here’s hoping no one was killed:

As many as 30 people were hurt when an explosion caused a partial building collapse and ignited a massive fire in the East Village on Thursday afternoon, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Flames were engulfing two buildings at the scene and firefighters were spraying water on the blaze, as thick smoke billowed over the neighborhood.

The destruction near the corner of Second Avenue and East Seventh Street was reported shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Cops in the Ninth Precinct stationhouse, about a quarter-mile away, heard a loud bang and raced over, sources said.

A diner who was eating at the Sushi Park restaurant at 121 Second Avenue told cops he heard an explosion inside the kitchen there, a source said.

Day laborers also told cops they had been working on a gas line inside the kitchen, and there were 911 reports of possible gas leak just before the blast, a source said.

In addition to 121 Second Ave., the building next door at 123, which houses the Pommes Frites restaurant, was also on fire.