ha ha ha, what a masterly piece of cynicism – i was all ready to be outraged when i saw the headline

Cynics, Step Aside: There is Genuine Excitement Over a Hillary Clinton Candidacy
Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, Nov 14 2014

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It’s easy to strike a pose of cynicism when contemplating Hillary Clinton’s inevitable (and terribly imminent) presidential campaign. As a drearily soulless, principle-free, power-hungry veteran of DC’s game of thrones, she’s about as banal of a Pindosi politician as it gets. One of the few unique aspects to her, perhaps the only one, is how the genuinely inspiring gender milestone of her election will (following the Obama model) be exploited to obscure her primary role as guardian of the status quo. That she’s the beneficiary of dynastic succession, who may very well be pitted against the next heir in line from the regal Bush dynasty (this one, not yet this one) makes it all the more tempting to regard #HillaryTime with an evenly distributed mix of boredom and contempt. The tens of millions of dollars the Clintons have jointly “earned” off their political celebrity, much of it speaking to the very globalists, industry groups, hedge funds, and other Wall Street appendages who would have among the largest stake in her presidency, make the spectacle that much more depressing (the likely candidate is pictured above with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein at an event in September). But one shouldn’t be so jaded. There is genuine and intense excitement over the prospect of (another) Clinton presidency. Many significant Pindosi factions regard her elevation to the Oval Office as an opportunity for rejuvenation, as a stirring symbol of hope and change, as the vehicle for vital policy advances. Those increasingly inspired factions include:

Wall Street

Why Wall Street Loves Hillary
William Cohan, Politico, Nov 11 2014

Down on Wall Street they don’t believe (Clinton’s populist rhetoric) for a minute. While the finance industry does genuinely hate Warren, the big bankers love Clinton, and by and large they badly want her to be president. Many of the rich and powerful in the financial industry, among them Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, Tom Nides, a powerful vice chairman at Morgan Stanley, and the heads of JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, consider Clinton a pragmatic problem-solver not prone to populist rhetoric. To them, she’s someone who gets the idea that we all benefit if Wall Street and Pindosi business thrive. What about her forays into fiery rhetoric? They dismiss it quickly as political maneuvers. None of them think she really means her populism. Although Hillary Clinton has made no formal announcement of her candidacy, the consensus on Wall Street is that she is running and running hard, and that her national organization is quickly falling into place behind the scenes. That all makes her attractive. Wall Street, above all, loves a winner, especially one who is not likely to tamper too radically with its vast money pot. According to a wide assortment of bankers and hedge-fund managers I spoke to for this article, Clinton’s rock-solid support on Wall Street is not anything that can be dislodged based on a few seemingly off-the-cuff comments in Boston calculated to protect her left flank. (For the record, she quickly walked them back, saying she had “short-handed” her comments about the failures of trickle-down economics by suggesting absurdly that corporations don’t create jobs.) “I think people are very excited about Hillary,” says one Wall Street investment professional with close ties to Washington. “Most people in New York on the finance side view her as being very pragmatic. I think they have confidence that she understands how things work and that she’s not a populist.”

The Israel Lobby

Would Hillary Be Good For the Holy Land?
Aaron David Miller, ForeignPolicy.com, Nov 7 2014:

Should she become president, on one level, better ties with Israel are virtually guaranteed. Let’s not forget that the Clintons dealt with Bibi too as prime minister. It was never easy. But clearly it was a lot more productive than what we see now. To put it simply, as a more conventional politician, Hillary is good on Israel and relates to the country in a way this president doesn’t. Hillary is from a different generation and functioned in a political world in which being good on Israel was both mandatory and smart. Let’s be clear. When it comes to Israel, there is no Bill Clinton 2.0. The former president is probably unique among presidents for the depth of his feeling for Israel and his willingness to put aside his own frustrations with certain aspects of Israel’s behavior, such as settlements. But this accommodation applies to Hillary too. Both Bill and Hillary are so enamored with the idea of Israel and its unique history that they are prone to make certain allowances for the reality of Israel’s behavior, such as the continuing construction of settlements.

Interventionists (ie war zealots)

Events in Iraq Open Door for Interventionist Revival, Historian Says
Jason Horowitz, NYT, Jun 15 2014:

But Exhibit A for what Robert Kagan describes as his “mainstream” view of Pindosi force is his relationship with former Sec State Hillary Clinton, who remains the vessel into which many interventionists are pouring their hopes. Kagan pointed out that he had recently attended a dinner of foreign-policy experts at which Clinton was the guest of honor, and that he had served on her bipartisan group of foreign-policy heavy hitters at the State Dept, where his wife worked as her spokeswoman. “I feel comfortable with her on foreign policy,” Kagan said, adding that the next step after Obama’s more realist approach “could theoretically be whatever Hillary brings to the table” if elected president. “If she pursues a policy which we think she will pursue,” he added, “it’s something that might have been called neocon, but clearly her supporters are not going to call it that; they are going to call it something else.”

Old school neocons

The Next Act for Neocons: Getting Ready to Ally With Hillary Clinton
Jacob Heilbrunn, NYT, Jul 5 2014:

After nearly a decade in the political wilderness, the neoconservative movement is back. Even as they castigate Obama, the neocons may be preparing a more brazen feat: aligning themselves with Hillary Clinton and her nascent presidential campaign, in a bid to return to the driver’s seat of Pindosi foreign policy. Other neocons have followed Kagan’s careful centrism and respect for Clinton. Max Boot, a senior fellow at the CFR, noted in The New Republic this year that “it is clear that in administration councils she was a principled voice for a strong stand on controversial issues, whether supporting the Afghan surge or the intervention in Libya.” And the thing is, these neocons have a point. Clinton voted for the Iraq war; supported sending arms to Syrian rebels; likened Russia’s Pres Putin to Adolf Hitler; wholeheartedly backs Israel; and stresses the importance of promoting democracy. It’s easy to imagine Clinton’s making room for the neocons in her administration. No one could charge her with being weak on national security with the likes of Robert Kagan on board. Far from ending, then, the neocon odyssey is about to continue. In 1972, Robert Bartley, the editorial page editor of the WSJ and a man who championed the early neocon stalwarts, shrewdly diagnosed the movement as representing “something of a swing group between the two major parties.” Despite the partisan battles of the early 2000s, it is remarkable how very little has changed.

So take that, cynics. There are pockets of vibrant political excitement stirring in the land over a Hillary Clinton presidency. There are posters being made, buttons being appended, checks being prepared, appointments being coveted. The joint, allied, synergistic constituencies of plutocracy and endless war have their beloved candidate. And it’s really quite difficult to argue that their excitement and affection are unwarranted.

3 Comments

  1. lobro
    Posted November 15, 2014 at 4:05 pm | Permalink

    inspired factions include:

    Wall Street (by william cohan)
    The Israel Lobby (by aaron david miller)
    Interventionists (ie war zealots) (by jason horowitz)
    Old school neocons (by jacob heilbrunn)

    the various competing factions are comprised of jews, jews, jews and jews,
    as explained by jew, jew, jew and jew.

    i love how jews promote diversity.

  2. lafayettesennacherib
    Posted November 15, 2014 at 11:04 pm | Permalink

    Yes, that was my reaction too. That was really quite good. But never fear – here’s something from Greenwald to get outraged about ( from 2005 admittedly, maybe he’s alright now…). I just came across this a few days ago. In this piece he says a lot of things about the ‘European Left’ which apply just as well to the US left (self-described anyway). But this is MUCH worse:

    The true character of the European Left

    ” blah blah …it only illustrates just how perverse it is to believe that those on the European Left are now the moral proprieters of the Holocaust and other European atrocities, entitled to wield those events as proof of their experience-based superior moral wisdom. The Holocaust did not happen to the European Left. At best, they are neutral observers of it, and in reality, are by-products of the societies and historical roots which produced it. Listening to the European Left try to use the 20th Century European atrocities to bolster their self-anointed status as human rights guardians is as nonsensical as it is offensive.”

    I know I don’t need to spell it out, but what the hell…

    ” The Holocaust did not happen to the European Left” No, we’re not concerned about the communists and trade-unionists who went to the concentration camps, because the Holocaust by definition only happened to the…

    ” in reality, [the ‘left’] are by-products of the societies and historical roots which produced it [Holocosm]””!!!!!

    Did he really SAY that? Blood guilt? Brownie points with guess who? I wouldn’t trust that guy as far as I could…

  3. lobro
    Posted November 16, 2014 at 1:22 pm | Permalink

    yeah, looked at it and agree that greenwald is the rightful inheritor of chomsky’s snake-in-the-grass mantle.

    he uses “america” as a stalking horse for “judaica”, so that he avoids the use of asinine “anti-semitism” charge which would package him into the unfashionable box with abe foxman and the outgoing, worn out jew champions that the world is so sick of.

    obvious from the word go: My recent reference to Rep. Cynthia McKinney as a genuine “hater of America” … then goes on right after to say
    If “anti-American” means anything, I’d say it means an inclination to blame America for every world problem, and to vigilantly search for America’s guilt while downplaying, ignoring, or excusing the guilt of its enemies.

    just swap “america” with “jews and it comes into focus.

    and for this reason, it’s a vain hope to expect any meaningful revelations to come out of either snowden’s or assange’s files, just picking the old scabs.

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