Democrats Cozy Up to Wall Street While Shunning Corporate Cash

Obama took Goldman cash

The Sanders campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Republican generosity—but that doesn’t mean it is complicit.

Asked why Republicans are putting out supportive statements about him, Sanders said: "I don’t know that they are putting out supportive statements about me, but I think at the end of the day, we stand a much better chance of defeating Republicans.”

In addition to American Crossroads, much of the spending against Clinton has come from Future45, a new group mainly funded by GOP mega-donors Paul Singer and Ken Griffin, who are both billionaire hedge fund managers.

While Sanders frequently declares he has no super PAC of his own, he has not publicly called on the nurses to refrain from their efforts on his behalf. He has welcomed their help, thanking the nurses by name in campaign speeches and referring to the union in one recent appearance as “one of the sponsors” of his campaign.

American Crossroads—founded by former Bush adviser Karl Rove—and several other conservative-backed super PACs have spent the last month intentionally fueling the Bern, but their zeal has more to do with an effort to weaken Hillary Clinton, whom they still see as the likely Democratic nominee and harder to defeat in the general election.

In the wake of Clinton’s close Nevada win, Crossroads claimed credit for driving her numbers down in favor of Sanders.

“American Crossroads and Bernie Sanders helped Nevada caucus-goers see right through Hillary Clinton’s manufactured zeal on immigration reform after spewing virulent Trump-like rhetoric—and that one-two punch shaved Clinton’s 50-point lead a year ago to a slim, single digit win,” Steven Law, Crossroads CEO and president, said in a statement.

Crossroads is one of several groups that has released ads that have been aimed at branding Sanders as the only true progressive in the race—a strategy the Vermont senator’s campaign also embraces.

“If it helps push the needle so that she loses a state, and she comes out a weakened candidate, then fantastic,” said Ian Prior, communications director for Crossroads.

On Monday, Future 45, a super PAC reportedly backed by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, launched the latest in its own series of ads that seem to defend Sanders. The new spot, titled “Living History”—no doubt a play on the title of Clinton’s 2003 autobiography—accuses the former secretary of state of using similar tactics to tear down Sanders as were used in 2008 against then-Sen. Barack Obama.

The Eames Lounge Chair first appeared on the Arlene Francis Home show broadcast on the NBC television network in the USA in 1956.[1] Immediately following the debut, Herman Miller launched an advertising campaign that highlighted the versatility of the chair. Print ads depicted the 670 in a Victorian parlor, occupied by a grandmother shelling peas on the front porch of an American Gothic style house, and in the middle of a sunny field of hay. It has been frequently featured in Frasier as a piece of furniture in the title character's apartment. In the final episode of the series, Martin Crane remarks that he finds it comfortable and hints that he may not have needed his recliner after all. A knockoff of the Eames Lounge Chair has been frequently featured in the show House, in the protagonist's office. Malory Archer's office chair in Archer is also an animation of the Eames Lounge Chair.[2]

Since its introduction, the chair has been in continuous production by Herman Miller in America. Later, Vitra (in cooperation with the German furniture company Fritz Becker KG) began producing the chair for the European market. It was licensed in the UK for 10 years to Hille International LTD from 1957. Immediately following its release, other furniture companies began to copy the chair's design. Some made direct copies, others were merely influenced by the design. The former Plycraft Company issued dozens of chairs that were direct copies of or in-the-style-of the Eames 670. Later Chinese and European companies began making direct copies. However, Herman Miller and Vitra remain the only two companies to produce these chairs with the Eames name attached.

In 2006, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the chair, Herman Miller released models using a sustainable Palisander rosewood veneer.

“In the past, there was no candidate who didn’t come to New York, Chicago, L.A. for money,” says Lasry. “Today, there are two candidates who aren’t doing that—Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.” Few bankers would want to promote those senators anyhow. This month, Vermont’s Sanders proposed capping credit card interest rates, calling banks “modern-day loan Warren, from Massachusetts, has pitched a tax on family assets above $50 million to wipe out student debt. She wants to jail executives whose companies’ negligence causes harm, citing bank bosses and the financial crisis.

One salesman close to Haidri was a Gleacher alum named Jim Gorman. His conservative views clashed with Stowell’s liberal politics. “He had his opinions about gay people, and he had his opinions about black people, and he had his opinions about women,” Stowell says. “And he made them very, very, very, very well-known.” She suspects Gorman was involved in the fouling of her mug, which he denies, according to filings.

When Stowell complained about Gorman to Haidri, their boss, she says he told her to be respectful. His reaction surprised her, since he seemed indifferent to the disrespect she was facing. Steps away from Haidri’s desk was a dry-erase board with messages about Stowell. These started going up, she says, after she told a colleague in New York that her boss and others were watching porn: “What happens in Summit stays in Summit,” the first one warned. Soon the whiteboard tracked “Lee Haters” and “Lee-Free Days.” Below those tallies, for three years, it was filled with her off-color retorts. Among them, a photo shows: “Maybe your head needs to come out of your a-- before you start choking on it,” and “I forgot to wipe my a--, can you take care of it?” Stowell sees her profanity as a tool she’d honed to survive for decades in the junk market, and her co-workers seemed to be mocking it—while getting a pass for their own bad behavior. “When you spend 25 years on a trading desk, and you predominantly work with men, you find a way to defend yourself,” she says. “You don’t defend yourself by screeching or yelling at them or blushing when they say something. You try to put them in their place.”


But she was speechless in 2015 when a visitor to the office grabbed her buttocks, setting off laughter from her boss and other colleagues. “Did you like that?” Haidri said to her, according to her complaint. A week later he asked about it again: “Would you rather he grabbed your boobs?”

She finally sued in April 2018. Eve Klein, a lawyer for Haidri and Gorman, says, “The statements being attributed to them and the claims made against them by Ms. Stowell are harmful to them professionally and hurtful to them and their families personally.” A spokesman for Cantor says the firm can’t comment on the case beyond court filings, where the firm and the two men deny her account.