In Goldman We Trust?

The NY Times picks up the pom-poms for a PR decision that makes no sense:

Blankfein to Speak Out for Same-Sex Marriage

By Susanne Craig

Lloyd Blankfein, the chief of Goldman Sachs who has become a lightning rod for Wall Street critics, might seem an unlikely advocate for same-sex marriage. But his credentials — a public figure in a conservative industry — could make him a powerful voice for that cause.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that promotes equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, has persuaded Mr. Blankfein to be its first national corporate spokesman for same-sex marriage, an issue that will come up for a legislative vote in several states this year, including Washington and Maryland. Fred Sainz, an executive with the Human Rights Campaign, said the organization sought Mr. Blankfein, in part, because he is “an unexpected messenger.”

I guess Bernie Madoff was unavailable.  Well, although Goldman is making progress on that long and lonely comeback trail, I wouldn't expect the leader of the vampire squid that ate America to be a sought-after spokesperson.  I guess the logic of this recruitment (sorry, "logic") is that if progressives hate Goldman then conservatives must like it, or something. 

I'm doubtful - the fiscal conservatives who already don't care about gay marriage won't care that Blankfein is on board; the social conservatives who do care about gay marriage will see Blankfein as the perfect ambassador for an out-of-touch power elite and its latest Big Idea cram-down.

That said, this is a great idea for Goldman, which might pick up a bit of cred in the media and Hollywood.  Enough cred that the next Hollywood villains will come from BofA or Morgan Stanley?  Maybe!

Comments

[Gmax]

I knew there was a reason to distrust that SOB. Goldman Sachs is the singlest biggest supporter of Zero. You have got to be kidding that this will change any minds...

[NK]

Or maybe they think it's right for a disgrace to speak out in favor of a disgrace.

[Neo]

Alia: [using the voice] Not until you tell them both who I *really* am!

[Ranger]

Just what the Democratic party needs right now, something that shows the uniformed voter that Wall Street is a Democrat enclave.

Perhapse this is GS's way of trying to get an IOU to be cashed in for supportive protestors from the lefties in the future. GS to claim they are a target of Republicans in congress this fall because Republicans are "anti-Gay?"

[Captain Hate]

Is this Goldman turd trying out some standup routine?

[matt]

Happy belated birthday JiB!

The horsemeat thing was caused by a ban on its slaughter enacted several years ago. They round up wild hoirses in Nevada and elsewhere and then don't know what to do with them, because they usually can't be broken.

So what happened was that the horses were being bought and then taken to Mexico, where they would be slaughtered.

The theory behind the new law is that the horses will be more humanely slaughtered staying in this country.

I can't believe I know the answer to this one.

[Neo]

My Dinner with Bill Ayers

"Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn auctioned off an evening for dinner in their home in Chicago and Tucker Carlson of "The Daily Caller" took advantage of the opportunity. For $2,500 Tucker and a few of his friends secured an evening with the radical couple. Tucker invited along Andrew Breitbart who called into Stephen K. Bannon's "The Victory Sessions" and gave a play-by-play of the meal. Breitbart said that they had "no game plan" going in to the evening, and that strategy produced an unforgettable event that the Ayers won't soon forget."

[Danube of Thought]

Looking back, I can see that the irreversible decline began when we stopped making silver quarters.

[Thomas Collins]

The NY Times article overall is a fount of ignorance on the social attitudes of the folks working in the big investment houses. The following paragraph reflects utter ignorance of such attitudes.

"Still, the campaign is sure to turn heads on Wall Street, which despite having made progress on equality issues over the last decade, is still considered to be a male-dominated, testosterone-driven place."

Give me a break. The folks who work in these investment houses, whether they have male, female Z or other type of gender self-identification, and whether they are straight, gay, lesbian, bi, trans , or whatever, will continue to have the same aggressive view towards making finance deals go and becoming rich in the process. That's all fine. They are necessary components of a vigorous economy. What's not so fine is the perverse incentives provided to the financing community by governments (Fannie and Freddie's implicit and then explicit Federal Government guarantee being a case in point). Anyone who thinks that gay marriage or any other type of domestic arrangement will change the attitudes of the investment houses is beyond delusional. Furthermore, anyone who thinks that the center of gravity of such folks' social attitudes is conservative is steeped in the kind of ignorance refelective of those burdened by a modern elite education.

If Lloyd Blankbucks really wants to make a statement, he should urge Obama to renounce too big to fail. That would be a truly revolutionary statement by the leader of a modern big investment house.

[Melinda Romanoff]

TC-

Don't get me started.

[NK]

OT-- so today the USA ends diplomatic relations with Assad in Syria, and Freezes Iran Central Bank assets in the USA. Someone find that "reset" button. What's next? 'Bam dancing the Hora with Bibi Netanyahu? Some here argue that'Bam is a sinister genius. I've disagreed from the start, he is truly a clueless muppet. He really knows nothing about anything important ii like who's an enemy of the USA, what is the 'common good' of Americans. You know, things like that.

[MarkO]

It is evidence of how stupid Obama is that he considers his foreign policy to be "smart."

[Ranger]

Assad really is making Barry look like an impotent fool right now. All that brave talk about Responsibility to Protect when Libya was going down looks pretty empty. I am starting to think maybe the reason Hil looks like hell lately is that reality is finally dawning on her.

She probably really thought that all the troubles in the world were due to "stupid Republicans" and those evil "neo-cons." She probably thought that once she was in charge at State, with the "right people" helping her out, things would go so smoothly. Reality does bite eventually.

[Extraneus]

I disagree, NK. He knows exactly what's important: We're the enemy, and we should be taken down a few pegs for the common good. This foreign policy b.s. is just a distraction from that - something he has to be able to tell the rubes he's working on, but which is far less important except in terms of domestic politics.

[NK]

Ranger - I disagree a bit about Hil'. She's a lot smarter than 'Bam and far more competent, but she shares the same idiotic world view. remember, she was the one carrying out that moronic reset button to the Russian Foreign Minister in 2009. She believes that America is the source of the world's trouble, and Bush was a disaster worldview just like 'Bam. Though I agree, she at least realizes now what a disaster that was. 'Bam -- like Charlie -- 'Bam say we're "winning"!!

[NK]

- like Charlie Sheen-- 'Bam says we're "winning!!"

[rse]

LUN is a 2004 Bryan Caplan column called "The Idea Trap".

I think we are in an idea trap now. And what Caplan describes is all the incentive in the world for the Dems and BO to continue spending at ruinous rates.

[Clarice]

I find it hard to believe Hillary believes anything except her own inflated sense of herself.

Is everyone in Manhattan crazy?

[Janet]

Lloyd Blankfein

Why should anyone care what this guy's position is on social issues? I thought this election was all about fiscal issues & not social ones?
If social conservatives have to be quiet, then social libs need to shut up too.

I've been told - "It's about the economy stupid!"...& I don't want Lloyd Blankfein to be accused of being stupid.

[Ranger]

NK,

That's what I mean. I think Hil thought that if the US were humble and let other lead, the world would come together to solve its problems.

Bush was handed a pretty crappy hand in Foreign Policy by BJ (an 8 year war of attrition with Iraq that we were losing, and a passive, Law Enforcement policy towards AQ being the big two), and did the best he could with it. Hil surely thought BJ's policies were good, and that W was the one that messed them up, rather than the fact that the dangers of those policies didn't fully manifest until after BJ was out of office.

BTW, I am starting to get the feeling that Russia is working so hard to keep Assad in power because they were much more involved in the Syrian nuke program than they want the world to know.

[Ignatz]

--That's all fine. They are necessary components of a vigorous economy.--

Perhaps some fraction of it is, but it has largely become an unnecessary middle man conduit propped up by bad Wall Street, Federal Reserve and Federal government policies and programs that divert resources through it for the sole purpose of skimming a substantial portion of it for themselves en route to its destination.
The economy, left to its own free market devices, would have weened these little pigs some time ago.

[Captain Hate]

Muffer was doubtlessly ample hip deep in Slick's cowardly decision not to nab OBL when he was holed up in the Sudan. And El JEFe can hold it over her and prevent a White House run.

[matt]

If it's a Republican they support Republicans. If it's a Democrat, it's the dems.

Goldman are remorseless remoras. The fallacy is that they create real wealth. They created many of the financial instruments that got us into the position we are now in.

They have owned the Treasury Department for at least 2 administrations.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Obama/Holder murder trial in Mexico]

Hillary! is the one true hardcore f'ugly commie in the Zero administration. Zero is a useful idiot cocaine addled commie whose ideology was formed at the knee of daddy (FM Davis), then developed/refined through various crack houses near Columbia, Harvard, etc. Every morning he runs to the White House window looking for unicorns and rainbows, then frantically txt's "WTF" to Soros.

Hillary!, on the other hand, is the truly dangerous commie. Here is another SipseyStreet post where reading between the lines you just know that she is the central figure in GunWalker.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2012/02/sipsey-street-exclusive-deception-plan.html

Of all the f'ugly commies in this administration, she understands better than any others that rainbows and unicorns will not appear until guns and dumbass rednecks who blather about "The Constitution" are no longer. She has the frazzled look because this commie scheme has blown up big time, and she no longer controls the information flow to her liking. They are doing their best, with the occasional NYSlimes article blaming Bush when the noise gets too great, but us dumbass rednecks keep talking about it on the internet. Back in the day, Billy Ayers said 25 million of us would have to go. Breitbart should ask him what the number is now when he has dinner with him.

[Rick Ballard]

Perhaps Blankfein has filed for a quickie divorce to be followed by a marriage to Corzine so that they can both invoke the spousal privilege against testifying about the other?

[NK]

Ranger-- the Russians/Syria, why? It's much harder to figure Putin's Kremlin Puzzle Palace than the Old Soviet days. When the Commies ran the USSR, they did believe in worldwide socialism led from Moscow and acted in a way to serve those interests. Putin's gangster kleptocracy is much harder to figure. Russian Nukes in Syria? maybe. Or they are just screwin' with the US and the Euros for the sport of it and to keep oil prices high. Who know?

[Ranger]

I suspect it was all about the money for the Russians.

[Jane]

Is Lloyd Blankfein gay?

The worst thing to ever happen to gay people is the Human Rights Campaign. A good friend of mine was asked to run it a few years ago and they screwed her and it screwed her reputation. They are ridiculous people and give gays a bad name.

[Rick Ballard]

"Is Lloyd Blankfein gay?"

He's probably pretty cheerful when he checks his bank balance and he's always smiling in news photos. I think I'd go with 'happy'.

[Captain Hate]

LOL Rick; that comment has made me happy.

[Janey B. Smith]

Thanks for the info, I've been interested in this for quite some time, and it's great I found your blog. Looking back not to long ago, you gotta wonder, what the hell went wrong?

[Jane]

You've been interested in gays, Blankfein or Goldman Janey?

[Ralph L]

Is Lloyd Blankfein gay?

He knows there's gold in man sacks, so he's gay for pay, as they say in the pron business.

[sbw]

"My Dinner with Bill Ayers"

My brief with the pj crowd is that they believe anyone wants to listen to/watch 20 minutes of talk.

Words on a page can be scanned for substance, allowing one to drill down.

With audio and video, they keep you prisoner to their time schedule. My time is a precious commodity.

If you want to kick the current generation in the ass, laugh at them for giving up so much of their short lives.

[glasater]

Amen, sbw. My sentiments to a "T".

[Ralph L]

My brief with the pj crowd
You all wear underwear under your pajamas?
Or did you mean "beef"?

[sbw]

Brief as in legal case summarized.

Beef works, too.

[narciso]

Happy Birthday, JiB, yes it's more about power projection, than just money, also Syria
is a legacy interest,

[Clarice]

exactly, sbw--I have so much more time since I stopped watching any TV