ABT: Gary Cohn & the Mainstream Media Myth of the Adult in the Room

NinaIllingworth July 13, 2017November 17, 2022 2008 Financial Crisis, A Brief Thought, adult in the room, AHCA, American Health Care Act, Amerikan Musik, austerity, Ayn Rand, banker, billionaire government, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, CA4, Capitol Hill, center rich, center-left, centrist media, corporate media, corruption, Democrats, Deregulation, Econ, Economic Advisor, Economics, economy, elites, establishment media, Fantastic Lies, fascism, Fascism Ascendant in the USA, Gary Cohn, Gary Cohn can't save you, Goldman Sachs, GOP, government by the rich for the rich, gutting Dodd Frank, Hank Paulson, hyper capitalism, investment banker, Ivanka Trump, Jamie Dimon, Jared Kushner, Joash Barro is a weenie, Mad Dog Mattis, mainstream media, Meme, Mike Pence, moral center, MP6, National Economic Council, NEC, neofeudalism, neoliberalism, Never Trump, News, Nina Illingworth, Op-Ed, Opinion, Paul Ryan, plutocracy, Politics, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, rich people don't give a fuck about you, Six Things I Think, Steven Mnuchin, tax cuts, the Goldman Sachs Presidency, the one percent, the Vampire Squid, Trump, Trump Administration, Trump Budget, US politics, Wall Street, Wall Street Banks, wealthy elites

Editor’s note: once again I’ve been up all night researching a story about a generally less well-known member of Trump’s nightmare administration and as such, if you folks don’t mind I’m going to keep this introduction nice and short again here.

Today’s Brief Thought takes a look at an ongoing story I meant to touch on last week when I was interrupted by computer troubles – the mainstream media myth-making that surrounds Trump’s current director of the National Economic Council and prohibitive favorite to assume control of the Federal Reserve; multi-millionaire and former Goldman Sachs investment banker Gary Cohn:

Note: Please be reminded that if you’re having trouble reading this info graphic, you can right click on the picture and select “view this image” to pop out a larger version. Additionally, don’t forget to check out my comments after the sources section of this article.

Sources:

Sources: Cohn is Trump’s top candidate to replace Yellen at Fed

One of Trump’s Top Advisers May Already Have an Escape Plan

Is Gary Cohn the Only Thing Standing Between Us and Armageddon?

Inside the White House’s policymaking juggernaut

Wall Street banker Cohn moving Trump toward moderate policies

Gary Cohn Gets Another Grown-Up In The Room

Rubin: Finally, the adult supervision that Trump needs has arrived in Gary Cohn

How the Financial Collapse Steeled Gary Cohn for the White House

Mark Cuban on Gary Cohn (Twitter)

Gary Cohn Has Profited From Big Mistakes. So Why Not Go Work for Trump?

Trump’s chief economic advisor set to receive $284m payday from Goldman Sachs

The Death Knell for America’s Global Leadership

Chomsky predicts Trump’s administration will cause another financial crash

Is President Trump about to unleash another financial crisis?

Is Gary Cohn Now Trump’s New Favorite Aide?

Goldman Sachs Alums Insist Trump’s Tax Cut Is All About Helping Farmers

Trump advisor Cohn: We’re aiming for a revenue-neutral tax cut over 10 years

Cohn: ‘We can’t solve every issue in health care bill’

Key Trump adviser: I think we have the votes for healthcare

To paraphrase the late, celebrated comedian George Carlin; whenever both sides of the corrupt American political system start to parrot the same line of bullshit, it’s a pretty good goddamn bet that the powers that be are hiding something from the voting public – and in terms of polishing an odious turd like Gary Cohn, they really aren’t hiding it all that fucking well.

Corporate centrist media under the control of elite capital typically tries to sell the twin myths of Gary Cohn’s bipartisan suitability and his supposed powers of moderation over swine emperor Trump by pointing out that Cohn is a Democrat who strongly supports free trade and publicly disagreed with the president’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate agreement. Curiously enough, Cohn’s role as one of the key architects of the 2008 financial crisis, the almost 300 million reasons why it’s hard to believe Gary isn’t still working for Goldman Sachs and the fact that Herr Donald largely seems to ignore his supposedly “moderating” advice, rarely comes up.

Although it is indeed insulting to be so transparently lied to by wealthy elite media figures who clearly do not have the bests interests of the common American at heart, I feel that examining the bizare case of marketing Gary Cohn as a moderate champion is nevertheless instructional in two key ways:

First and foremost, the very idea that anyone in mainstream media could seriously think average Americans who’ve been victimized by Wall Street were ever going to buy a millionaire banker (from a firm colloquially know as “the Vampire Squid”) as the final line of defense between them and Trump’s billionaire butchers, demonstrates a significant fucking disconnect with the historical realities of the 2008 financial crisis and bank bailouts that still affect the lives of everyday people in the United States to this very day. When pundits laud Cohn for being a Democrat willing to work with Trump they are conveniently forgetting that we remember plenty of Democrats who conspired with wealthy Wall Street elites to screw over the American people in the past eight years; it’s at least part of why the Dem Party has done nothing but lose seats at every level of government since Obama became President. When even liberal media sycophants praise Cohn’s NEC for assembling a staff of roughly 30 people who’ve “worked in prior administrations or have experience on Capitol Hill” they’re politely ignoring the fact that these are the very same goddamn people who helped the rich ruin lives and profit from the recovery. In short Cohn is literally a shining avatar of government for the rich, by the rich and everyone who doesn’t have their head so far up their ass that they actually think that’s a good thing, knows it; if this guy is the only thing protecting the American people from Trump, then the next question is obviously “who the hell is protecting us from Gary Cohn?”

Additionally the fact that Cohn merely represents the latest in a long line of “wise” wealthy paragons of stability offered up by centrist pundits as an antidote to Trumpism clearly demonstrates that the American establishment either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care that the excesses of the creditor class are a very large part of how Trump actually became POTUS in the first place. There is little reason to believe that continuing to vest power in guys like Hank Paulson, Jamie Dimon and Gary Cohn won’t simply lead to more and “better” Trumps. This is of course objectively fucking terrifying but fortunately it is also a problem with a clear and obvious solution.

The simple truth is that like many Democrats, Gary Cohn can talk a good game but when you get down to brass tacks – he’s not a solution to the problem but an active and willing part of the hyper-capitalist disease that is turning America into a neo-feudalist nightmare straight out of a goddamn Ayn Rand novel; an untenable situation that seems only poised to get worse in the very near future. Anyone (from either side of the US political establishment) who tells you otherwise, is almost certainly being paid to sell you something.