Shadow Banks Clinton Flags as Risky Put Millions Into Her Run Bloomberg Politics

I would never argue that Wall Street has no influence over politicians. But as this excellent article from Bloomberg Politics points out, the relationship between Hillary Clinton and Wall Street is far more complex than Bernie Sanders would have us believe.

Even though Hillary Clinton has vowed to be very tough on Wall Street -- and her very public, detailed position papers back up that claim -- her campaign is receiving very substantial contributions from the very sectors that she plans to regulate.

Hillary Clinton argues that Bernie Sanders' plan to break-up the big banks is too narrow and should only be executed where the bank doesn't meet criteria for financial stability. Sanders says nothing about shadow banking, even though the Financial Stability Board estimates that the US has the largest shadow banking sector with $14.2 trillion in assets, or about one-third of the total shadow banking assets in the world.

In highlighting the risks posed by shadow banks, Clinton frequently notes the example of American International Group Inc. The insurer had agreed to back securities that were tied to home loans before the 2008 financial crisis. When the mortgage market tanked, the company was on the hook for billions of dollars of payments and ended up needing a bailout from the federal government. As banks face more and more rules, Clinton says she’s concerned that more financing arrangements will move to less-regulated companies.

To regulate shadow banking, Clinton calls for "higher margin and collateral requirements for short-term borrowing like repurchase agreements, new rules for brokers on leverage, and more disclosure for hedge funds and private equity firms."

Rebirth of the Boys Club

Make Yourself Great Again! Politico

Does the Trump movement give hope to especially white men that they can be their best alpha male selves again? Screw feminism!

The most common thread in the world of MYGA is a feral obsession with Trump’s domineering maleness, writes Politico. MYGA writers embrace varying degrees of the idea that the Trump campaign is helping them become real men, inspired by Trump’s testosterone-driven unapologetic, aggressive vision for the country.

“He’s this alpha kind of guy, and I do think that resonates with young men,” a 21-year-old professional athlete from Idaho and a MYGA poster who uses the name HighlyVenomous, told me. MYGA men say that Trump "comes across as an alpha male. He’s sure of himself, and whatever flaws he does have, like his hair, he doesn’t care, and he runs with it." The Trump men reject the so-called feminizaiton of politics -- a joke given America's rank of 90 on the world in electing women to office.

“The Apprentice really showed me what a world class alpha male looks like and operates,” writes one poster in the Reddit thread LifeProTrumpTips. “As a group of dominant alphas you can achieve impossible things.”

As the MYGA crowd’s open obsession with dominance, manliness, and alpha-status suggests, the gospel can quickly turn down a dark corridor. The deeper one ventures into the strange world of MYGA, the more the country’s problems become laced with an array of white-male-themed anxieties—men are apologizing for their maleness, the users say; policies are lifting up the weak and punishing the strong; and culture at large is becoming more feminized. Go deep enough, and you’ll hit the so-called alt-right movement, an online waystation where MYGA has thrived most principally as an ideation of male virility. (The world of the alt-right is best known for creating the “‪#‎Cuckservative‬” hashtag—a racially tinged portmanteau of cuckold and conservative, created to call out those who are insufficiently far-right.)

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton speeches to highlight divisions on guns CBS News

Hillary Clinton policy adviser Maya Harris answered Donald Trump's assertion that she wants to overturn the 2nd amendment.

Clinton believes that the 2008 5-4 SC decision in D.C v. Heller, striking down a longstanding handgun ban in the District of Columbia was made in error.

{Quote}: "Along with the vast majority of Americans, Hillary Clinton believes there are common sense steps we can take at the federal level to keep guns out of the hands of criminals while respecting the 2nd Amendment. As both PolitiFact and Factcheck.org recently reported, Donald Trump is peddling falsehoods," Harris said. "Donald Trump's conspiracy theories are simply his latest attempt to divide the American people and distract from his radical and dangerous ideas, like his promise to mandate that every school in America allow guns in their classrooms."

[ . . . ]

California, already among America's toughest states on gun control, will vote in November on a ballot initiative that would require buyers of ammunition to pass background checks and outlaw high-capacity magazines. This move to tougher gun control comes as other states are moving to allow people to carry concealed weapons more openly, including on college campuses, with no permit required."

Hillary Clinton Headlines March 23, 2016

Podesta attacks Trump's commander-in-chief credentials Politico

Born to Run The Atlantic

Family Feud US News

Who's voting in the Democratic primaries? CBS News

Trump's campaign dwarfed by Clinton's Politico

What Happens When Female Politicians Try to Stand Up to Sports Fans The Atlantic

Sanders Slams Closed Process, Rift With Top Democras Widens Bloomberg Politics

This Is What the Future of American Politics Looks Like Politico

Bernie Sanders Just Declared War on the Democratic Party Washington Post

Sanders had big ideas but litte impact on Capitol Hill Politico

Top Democrats suggest that when it comes to getting things done, there is no comparison between Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Tammy Baldwin, both with many fewer years in Washington.

As for taking on Wall Street, one of the issues Sanders is most identified with on the campaign trail, former Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said Warren’s done much more to protect the landmark Dodd-Frank financial regulation law in the years since its passage.

“She has been more effective at blocking efforts to weaken the bill. [Sanders’]mind-set is that there’ll be a revolution,” said Frank, adding that he doesn’t remember Sanders being involved in any of the affordable housing work he did in the House. “He plants his flag and expects that someday everyone will see he was right.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin from Wisc,, a supporter of Hillary Clinton who describes herself as a big Sanders fan, fumbled last month when asked to point to a piece of Sanders legislation that was high-impact, other than the "much praised bipartisan Veterans Affairs reform he led as chairman of that committee in the Senate."

“Um,” she said, pausing for a full eight seconds while thinking, “I’m sure I could. In terms of the things that he talks the most about, is when he was chair of the Veterans Affairs committee. But he actually compromised on a whole heck of a lot. Back in … it’s not coming to my mind right now.”

How Toxic Masculinity Poised the 2016 Election Esquire

Parents used to worry about what their kids might say in public, but in today's presidential election, the debate stage turns to dick size, writes Stephen Marche. If you're a Hillary supporter, you have a real clear understanding of the term 'toxic masculinity' -- and we're not only focused on Republicans. The Bernie Bros have sunk to every level of misogyny against Hillary Clinton, and writer Stephen Marche agrees.

Toxic masculinity is not a phenomenon limited to American politicians, of course, but they have come to represent its consequences all too perfectly. Men and women are in a state of unprecedented flux—economic, sexual, and political—which amounts to a more or less complete reevaluation of gender. The process of that reevaluation has left many men scared and stranded. You can call it a hollow patriarchy and you can call the hypermasculinity that has risen in its wake straight camp. Whatever you want to call it, the ancient iconographies of men are collapsing, and many men are lost and suffering in the wake of that collapse. These primaries we're witnessing are living proof.

At the end of the day, there is one grown up in the school yard, writes Marche, and she is the only female left in the presidential race.

When all is said and done, when the soap operatics are over, there's only one candidate who has a reasonable, calm, mature, plan of action that doesn't convert her own identity into that of a Messiah or a minister of death. Strictly in terms of policy, in terms of a realistic appraisal of the political system and basic math, it doesn't really matter whether you're a straight white man from the South, or a black Northeastern teenager, or a mid-transition, Mexican-American from the Pacific Northwest. The only grown-up in this contest isn't talking about dick size because the only grown-up in this contest doesn't have one.