Welcome to nationalized Citibank

hcovitz

#36 MELLON
Good observation. This post might turn out to be more notable than it seemed at first.

hcovitz

#36 MELLON
“Who paid to produce this video? Why?”

My bet is on TARP money.

morcheeba

I stopped using citibank after they were absolutely useless while travelling to japan. I found out that my US citibank mastercard meant absolutely nothing at the headquarters of citibank in japan (I traveled to nagoya, their financial capital!). It turns out that citibank japan is independent and not related to citi usa… they couldn’t help me get a cash advance from my credit card, or do anything else. In fact, they charged me the non-member rate as I exchanged my last emergency USD for Yen. Blah, bad memories.

dougrogers

Paranoid idiocy.

GregLondon

The only reason it is “funny” is because people calmly say “fuck” with a smile. Take that out, and all you’ve got left is bullshit.

Next up, BoingBoing will post a humorous video by an anti-abortion group who show one of the commenters building a bomb in their basement. But he says “fuck” so it’s hilarioius.

Ahoj

I think it is coming down to: haha thats funny… wait… the premise is BS and it is reinforcing that in people. people believing that may end up screwing my career (presently a paid lab tech in an NSF funded lab whose position ends in 3 months and has no prospects because grad schools are filling up and the job market sucks.) People don’t know whats going on so they are listening to idealogues and that is the last thing we should be doing right now. I stopped laughing after that bit sunk in for me.

But I did post this on my blog about 3 hours before it came up here. We decided that zombie Andre the Giant should deck Glenn Beck (don’t ask)

Anonymous

Uhhh-huh-huh, Uhhh-huh-huh

They said fuckin’

Ahoj

Nationalization doesn’t mean what the makers of the video think it means.

just like the socialism talk going on right now. people need to open a dictionary, or even a wikipedia page.

ArkansasProgressive

Â Â As someone whose political views have never in the last decade extended beyond social democracy at my rightmost and democratic socialism at my leftmost (am a member of the Democratic Socialists of America) — count me unsurprisingly among those finding the video generally unfunny.

Â Â Will also agree that this image of a nationalized CitiBank doesn’t look much different than the CitiBank of recent years.
Â Â Considering that IndyMac was essentially nationalized when it failed last summer, and it has already been “cleaned-up” and re-privatized — CitiBank seems to be a good candidate for nationalization, instead of throwing more good money after bad at a bank with relatively little government oversight in respect to how much money has been given it.
Â Â When a bank fails, it is basically nationalized anyway (placed into FDIC conservatorship). Might as well do it now before CitiBank manages to mismanage even more funds.

Â Â I personally would have more faith in a nationalized bank under an Obama administration (especially if he could get somebody like Paul Krugman to help out), as opposed to corrupt large corporations.
Â Â If CitiBank were headquartered in any other country, the U.S. and global monetary groups (IMF, etc.) would have already insisted on said country nationalizing the bank, cleaning it up, and then trying to re-privatize it.

Teller

It’s not funny as a parody commercial. The writing is lame. But it was nicely produced with the pans to the next scene. That’s about its only redeeming quality.

It’s more fun to read the comments. There are a boatload of Pacifica listeners on this site. It’s great.

clothingoptional

This reminds me soooo much of the AFSCME parody video. Wow, I love that thing. Awesome and totally not NSFW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0

dross1260

no one had to fill a form to cut my g’mpa off fro reitirement @ 64. Just dropped the bitch. And? where is that shoveling game again?

Stephen

Yeah. Good point. Who paid for it?

hardwarejunkie9

I agree that a vast centralization of power is dangerous, be it private or governmental. However, I think there is a legitimate fear of what happens with the national control of banking.

I’m saying it’s not completely necessary, but it’s a situation that gives me pause.

Just remember, there’s always a tricky balance in giving the government power, and this does open up Citibank to the shifts in governmental opinion more so than before.

I’m just saying, noone creates a money hole like the government because it takes too many double checks to fix mistakes after they’ve happened.

Mark Frauenfelder

You know what’s not funny? People whose politics get in the way of their sense of humor. Sheesh.

adamnvillani

Have any of these people ever dealt with a cable company? The last time I had to call up mine, I was directed to a guy in India who was the wrong guy to talk to, so he directed me to a phone number that didn’t work. So I called back up, and this time they sent me to a *different* phone number that didn’t work.

Remember, this was a privately-run company. Not the government.

Anonymous

It’s funny, here in Australia I’d much prefer to deal with government run Medicare (takes about 30 seconds to get your refund), Australia Post (55 cents for anywhere in the country, friendly and efficient service) , Centrelink (usually one phone call, one meeting to get the dole) or ATO (usually one form and you get your tax return in a few weeks – BAS and GST are pricks if you have a small business – but guess what stripe of gov introduced that…) than with any equivalent scale non-gov company. Telstra and the major banks are straight out thieves and deceivers who make it as difficult as possible for you to get what you actually need from them…
The dichotomy is not public v. private. It’s well-run v. badly-run.

hcovitz

This is as funny as dumb blonde jokes.

monopole

Actually I’d love to have my bank (which is quite solvent) run with a tenth of the efficiency the DMV and the post office run at.

My last two visits to the CA DMV were incredibly fast, you get an appointment, wait a few (less than 10) minutes till the monitor shows your number and they square you right away. Same thing with the post office, they have express lines for single transactions and parcel pickup and 24/7 automatic parcel centers. As for postal delivery, I specifically ask for Priority Mail over Fedex or UPS, they generally operate quicker and cheaper and F**k up a lot less than FedEx. In fact I once ended up with FedEx returning a parcel to the sender due to their Byzantine home delivery policy, and having the sender re-send it priority mail in 2 days.

And don’t get me started on the FDIC. The FDIC is the financial equivalent of special forces. They are ruthlessly efficient in catching insolvency and fraud in banks (despite having their hands tied by W).

MichaelRN

Huh. I went to the DMV yesterday to renew my license. 20 minutes and $15 later I was out the door with a shiny new driver’s license. Of the 20 minutes I spent there, about 5 minutes were spent interacting with clerks who were for the most part, knowledgable and courteous, and about 5 minutes were spent waiting for he “machine” to print the license. Government can’t do anything right.

Buckethead

Just to clarify the objections people like me have to this video:

‘Nationalization’ is not actually what will happen to these banks, the government will not end up running the banks. The banks will go into receivership, the banks assets and liabilities will be sorted out (by the gov), and the assets will be re-sold to investors. The government is already ‘nationalizing’ failed banks in this way to the tune of roughly 2 banks a week. Republicans have basically hijacked the word ‘nationalization’ to describe this process because it sounds scary, like it’s socialism or something. It’s not.

The whole problem is basically that the banks (and AIG and lots of other financial institutions) have made a bunch of shitty bets on shitty mortgages and financial ‘products’ derived from mortgages. We are currently paying them hundreds of billions of dollars so they can put off the day of reckoning when they will actually have to find out how much those shitty mortgages are worth. ‘Nationalization’ (receivership) is a way to find that out. Of course, no one in the banking sector wants this to happen, because the likelihood is that these bets are even shittier than we think and they (and taxpayers, now that we have given them all this money) would have been better off just lighting the money on fire.

Bumlooker

You know this was written by pros.
Written by: Seth Morris
Directed by: Eric Appel

I wonder if they got paid and by who.

“bumlooker puts on aluminum foil hat”

Frank W

Die.

Adam H

Wait, I know, it’s funny because they say “fuck”.

Gratuitous obscenity = comedy gold right? Carlos Mencia told me so.

This wasn’t even close to funny. I agree with the commenter who declared this “a warmed-over “what’s the deal with airplane food.”
Like the pre-nationalization Citibank was so magical.

I can’t sanction including this video in a directory of “wonderful things”.

Andrea N

@26: I would pay $$$ to take bikram classes without men who are there to pick up women.

I mean no offense to you personally, but this is very annoying and really detracts from my enjoyment of the class.

Takuan

I’m curious; of all those that really hated it, how many of you are government workers? (or are closely connected?)

Neon Tooth

Is that supposed to be Libertarian humor or something?

CosmicMonkey

That was fucking funny. So fucking hilarious.

No, fucking seriously, that was funny. It’s just so fucking true, how private banks are so much less “shitty” then the federal government. Why, I would love it if a corporation ran my water service, so I could have shiny fucking logos all over my pipes in the basement! Fuck yeah. And also if only Disney ran all of our federal bridge building programs, then we could all have Mickey’s attractive mug plasterd all over our overpass signs and such!

Give me a fucking break.

Takuan

hah! it’s hilarious!

lasermike026

What right wing garbage. What we need is an actual national bank that citizens can put deposits in and make loans. We could reduces risk by having a mixed banking system.

Anonymous

I believe the folks who made this are Upright Citizens Brigade people. Those crazy right-wing UCB at it again, first Spaghetti Jesus, now this!

mdh

There’s nothing particularly right-wing about making fun of government inefficiency.

Cadfael

It’s so funny how this is turned into a left or right issue. Who the hell cares about left or right anymore? I’m holding these fuckers accountable regardless. And in before “bipartisanship bipartisanship bipartisanship”, how about nopartisanship?

When did America get so fucked up that we could argue with each other because we think one is left or right or black and white or gay or straight?

How about just fixing this shit by making it so these jackasses can’t leech off us, left or right, black or white, gay or straight, anymore? Why don’t we try that for once.

Our leaders, whether they be in the banking industry, prison industry, or government, need to be held accountable. The only way they continue to rule us as they do, and they do, is that they are able to get us to argue on such trivial things as left or right. The minor issues.

As long as we focus on how much we hate our neighbor cause we think he’s a left or right-winger, we’ve lost as a society.

Patrick Dodds

Right wing garbage but also quite funny.

radio_commercials

This is freaking classic! I wish there was a radio version of it.

Cicada

@3- Or increase volatility. If the private banking system offers better rewards, people pull money out of the public one (potentially requiring public financing for those loans?). If the risks in the public system hit a failing patch, people pull money out of it to put in the public system, causing the government to step in and cover deposits for failing banks.

nosehat

I don’t care if it’s right-wing garbage or not.

What I do know is that it’s f—— hilarious.

The Most Handsome Man in The World

It’s sad that American’s get so little for their taxes (which is visible and non-military) that the only government bodies which are commonly recognized are the Post Office and the DMV.

As other have pointed out, neither organization does something particularly easy but why don’t people recognize the cops, firefighters and schools as branches of government?

The knee-jerk, government = bad, reasoning is fundamentally faulty and it’s sad to see it here (though liberating to see it commented on).

halkun

To answer the question on everyone’s mind…

Her name is Kulap Vilaysack.

eclectro

Frankly, I did not find this funny, just like I don’t think horrible bank fees are funny. Which most likely would disappear if citi *was* nationalized. These days I am thinking that instead of nationalizing, maybe it would be better to simply bulldoze them into the ground. But then that would not fit in with the agenda of whoever made this video.

cryptical

If mocking the government makes me right-wing, just put me on the wingnut list!

Jack

Actually expected this to be better, but the criticisms were so broad it was like I was watching some MAD TV sketch on nationalization.

Thumbs down. Extra disappointing since most of the folks in the video are in the UCB in LA and they do good work.

help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/business/economy/13yen.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1236737843-ZdVvQyt2JgU6b3P8Zg+X6Q

“TOKYO â€” The Obama administration is committing huge sums of money to rescuing banks, but the veterans of Japanâ€™s banking crisis have three words for the Americans: more money, faster.

[...]

Only in 2003 did the government finally take the actions that helped lead to a recovery: [...] spending two trillion yen to effectively nationalize a major bank, wiping out its shareholders; and allowing weaker banks to fail.”

bp

See, they kind of fucked up when they set up the dichotomy as funny or die, because death is a pretty serious penalty. Although, in the case of this little video, I’m not sure death is quite severe enough for this level of unfunny.

Neon Tooth

do guys all secretly work for the DMV or is the concept of making fun of government inefficiencies that foreign to you. good lord.

Making fun of government inefficiencies is fine and funny sure, trying to make comedy out of disingenuous and outright ridiculous free market/libertarian cliches….not so much. Do they even comprehend the FDIC? Why we’re in this economic crisis? It doesn’t look that way, which makes this pretty groan-worthy.

As people have mentioned, they did say fuck a lot.

As for the DMV, I’ve spent better and shorter time there taking care of my business then I have in purgatory talking to phone bots and customer service with my private phone company, credit card company, etc…

Lonin

This thread just highlights the fact that most progressives/liberals have as big of a stick up their asses as conservatives.

Anonymous

Wait in line to get in a line to wait in line and super arrogant bank tellers? Isn’t that how most big banks operate already?

Mark Frauenfelder

Aw, Cosmic Monkey. You have such a cute name, but you’re such a sourpuss. :(

mellon

There are lots of things governments do well, but customer service is not one of them. So, laugh.

You can’t legislate laughter. The thing that bothers me about this video is not that it’s pro-corporate and anti-government. It’s that it’s propaganda that leads you to a false conclusion, and it’s very slick and clearly paid for by someone who has an interest in getting you to believe, instead of to think.

I’m just as down on pro-government propaganda as pro-corporate propaganda, and so, it would seem, are a lot of the people who criticized this hit piece. If you have a valid point to make, make it. If you want to tell a joke, and your joke falls flat, deal with it.

eander315

I don’t think non-nationalized Citibank differs much from the joke.

Anonymous

What a load of bull. What happened to the free deregulated market that can’t be left on its own to sort its mess? Oh wait, they fudged it up totally and now they need a handout from the taxpayers to put it back up again (and guess who will buy it back when it’s up on its feet).

I say let them stay as they are, give no bail out to anyone and see what happens. What a beautiful sight having bankers and CEOs asking to be jailed in order to be protected from lynching.

maturin

yes…..that bank the government owns part of sure does suck….it was AWESOME before those darn bureaucrats got involved.

Takuan

as I watch people looking for whom to blame, I can’t help but wonder why they aren’t all looking at whoever voted for Bush? Twice.

Jazza

Boing Boing this is reactionary crap… what’s more its 3rd rate reactionary crap and itâ€™s not even funny. You usually have such interesting and thought provoking stuff but this just lets the whole site down. Use some editorial discretion please!

tartar

Aaaah! Libertarians!

KanedaJones

@#73 Takuan

I think people who say ‘can’t you take a joke’ and who are also against the underlying impression this commercial gives, are few and far between.

for a joke to be funny it has to be based on something.. anything. God forbid someone around here have an opinion on the underlying idea this humor uses as its premise.

we are not talking absurdist humor and even that has a grounding in real world.

I used to know I guy in high school who would swear and cuss you out but immediately said ‘jus jokin’ thinking that negated the general premise.
It negated about 10% of the hostility but its not like it put the joke in a protected force field immune to opinion.

So Takuan, Fuck you, you Fuckin idiot.

kidding!

its a joke.. I don’t know how anyone can take offense to it!

haileris

LAAAME. The government would sell it off as soon as possible if there was any receivership. That’s what the FDIC normally does when any bank goes under.

Anyway, I’d love it if my bank was run like the post office. (42 cents anywhere in the country makes the bank fees look shameful in comparison)

Antinous / Moderator

When did despising the government become the property of the Right? As a leftist, I hereby reclaim my right to scorn the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches for the stupid, malicious bloodsuckers that they have become. These people run the War on Drugs, the prison system, the Wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, the soon to be War on Iran and you’re grousing because some people don’t trust them with the keys to the cash register. The War on Terror may not have succeeded in getting people to enjoy increased security theater, but the War on Income has apparently done a great job on getting the chickens to invite the fox into the henhouse for tea.

Teller

#89 Andrea N:
Well, now the conversation shifts to the concept of subsidizing farmers not to grow anything.

RobertSeattle

False choice.

the_boy

I was going to post all indignant about “grrr nationalization not the devil”, but I’m really just with #9 and #26. Wow.

HDN

I choose “Die,” when does that video go live?

presterjohn

I wouldn’t call this right wing reactionary, as it is pretty much on mark that government bureaucracy does suck, and probably would run the bank like that.

However, what IS wrong with this bit of humor is that it seeks to transfer the blame for a crappy situation to the government, and away from the private corporation.

It’s time to reframe the perspective on socialist / communist vs capitalist dichotomies.

It’s not just large government bureaucracies that suck, but any large concentration of power.

Large Corporations == Big Government == Communist Dictatorship.

Divide and Conquer THEM for a change, rather than letting them do it to us.

TroofSeeker

I went to the DMV last Wednesday- 7:30, ’cause they open @ 8, and I wanted to get it over with.
8:07, we’re wondering WTF? Some guy comes along and says they open @ 9 on Wednesdays. Great- another hour on the concrete.
9:am a woman comes out ane talks to people in line. She tells me they can’t do what I need. I gotta call some number.
The one state owned business that makes money as fast as they can process people, and they cut their hours. Once again, WTF?

KanedaJones

@#79 Jack Author

“Thumbs down. Extra disappointing since most of the folks in the video are in the UCB in LA and they do good work.”

ya well I just went there and aside from being an agragate with more than one writing team (so quality may vary, like on youtube), They also had a skit called ‘restless penis syndrome’

this joke about the bank sounds par for the course

I thank whoever or whatever made the yoga scene the one that was used for the thumbnail too.

mandeville

If “funny or die” is a question, I vote die. This is terrible.

fnc

Is this supposed to be funny because the non-nationalized version was so well run? I guess people’s pensions disappearing because the invisible hand thinks that’s what is best just isn’t particularly funny.

Still, signing a “Pledge of Righteousness” to get a loan made me chuckle.

Brettspiel

Yep, that was teh suck. They failed to even hit The Onion levels of humor.

mdh

Wow.

This video does not say ‘nationalization’ is a bad idea. It does say letting the gov’t run consumer banks in the long term would be absurd.

and that *is* absurd.

Almost as absurd as thinking someone with an ideological hair across their ass MIGHT have a sense of humor.

Also – greglondon – your idea could be funny, but to get through the skulls of the ideologically challenged the bomber would have to be played by Sandra Bernhardt so certain people could “get” who the ACTUAL joke is about.

Mark Jaquith

Have any of these people ever dealt with a cable company?

Until recently, they haven’t had a lot of competition. They’d get exclusive government contracts, giving them a local monopoly over local TV service.

The basic premise here is that options are good. Choices are good. With government-sponsored monopolies and government initiatives, there generally is no competition, and thus no reason to get better. That’s not really a political statement, that’s just human nature.

Brettspiel

greglondon – did you actually call them to disconnect the service? I don’t think the cable cos have the same interconnection agreements that telcos have, and converting from one to another doesn’t mean they handle the disconnect behind the scenes.

spocko

I’m with Jazza on this.

The Right has spent 30 years and billions of dollars to ensure that people “know” that everything the government does is bad at the same time making sure they are first in line to get money from the government to provide over priced and crummy services to the people. Did you read about KBR electrocuting Marines in showers in Iraq? Maybe they could do a video about the HILARITY of highly paid defense contractors killing Marines because of their lousy work with no oversight. I’m sure KBR customer service with the Congress is EXCELLENT!

Also, isn’t the DMV a STATE thing?

No contract when comparing a Nationalized bank to something like Social Security? SS works and is efficient. Didn’t the same wizards of Wall Street say that they could get better returns if only they could get their hands on Social Security? And what do you think would happen then?

My biggest problem with this video is that it is a lazy “You know what I hate about airline food?” riff. This is open mike stuff with a budget for video and graphics.

Jazza said it better.

snorkybluefog

i’m pretty sure FoD is about as far as you can get from “right wing garbage.”

do guys all secretly work for the DMV or is the concept of making fun of government inefficiencies that foreign to you. good lord.

mdh

Still, signing a “Pledge of Righteousness” to get a loan made me chuckle.

Indeed! and in a very ‘with us or with the enemy’ sort of way.

I think several of the people who have left comments here should wonder if using these captains of capital as the butt of our jokes is about as close to “holding them responsible” as we will get.

I mean, we’re not taking their cars, their houses, or their kids college funds… the least we can get is a laugh. They’re fully liable for that.

CosmicMonkey

Okay, I think the work “fuck” is way over used…I am a permaculture Transition Town gardener leftist, and I even just bought a Volvo, so it’s not like I love the federal government! I just felt the need to be a supersourpuss.

Anonymous

As corporate propaganda, it’s both funny and effective. But given how private enterprise has run the economy into the ground,ripping off the middle and working class, they can hardly make the claim that they can run things more efficiently than government. At least with a democratic form of government, we can have some say in how things are run.

jacobian

@19

Pretty much dead on. However,

“Large Corporations == Big Government == Communist Dictatorship.”

Isn’t quite right.

Mega corporations == oligopoly
State Communist == monopoly

We need to get rid of the false dilemma of state versus corporate. What we really need is accountability and community empowerment to ensure that these institutions are run for *us*, and not for a cadre. I like to call that option anarchism.

five

@9:

thank you. thank you very f*cking much.

Anonymous

I’m glad some places have good DMV sites. I went to renew my driver’s license, and had to wait in line to get into the parking lot. Then inside the building, it was a 10 minute wait to learn which line I had to wait in next. And I didn’t even leave with my license, that came in the mail 3 weeks later.

However, to renew my car’s plates, I went to the office of a small town 20 miles away, and was in and out, done, in 5 minutes.

Capitalism’s no better. Banks at least have learned that a single line with multiple windows goes faster than trying to guess the fastest of 6 windows, though grocery stores still don’t get it. And it was less than 20 years ago that they discovered that they could charge you extra to talk to a real person, because ATMs are cheaper. The DMV still makes you pay extra to deal with them by mail or internet.

chris

@19… you hit the nail on the head.

Also, some people here need to lighten up… poking fun of the government is a important American pastime.

pirateschool

Everyone I’ve ever talked to from Citibank already was an arrogant asshole. Well, except the Janitor’s, they were alright.

bp

I don’t think it takes a particularly agile imagination to see the possibility that this video intends to highlight the absurdity of the wild and baseless assertions made by the anti-socialization crowd. But really, it isn’t the political bent that is important, rather the fact that it just isn’t very funny. I think it might just be one of those skits that verges on brilliance, but demonstrates, through its failure, that it was an all or nothing gambit.

If #57 is right, and this was created by one of the troupes from the UCB Theatre, then it makes sense that it might have been made as a video to play between sketches at a live performance. In that context, presented to a bunch of youngsters drinking tallboys, this video would have probably gotten just exactly the right amount of laughs to prevent the audience from getting bored, but not so many as to overshadow the live show. Outside of that context, it’s not funny enough to justify its own existence.

mpgordon

@9: You caught me. I found it only mildly amusing, but I would pay $$$ to take bikram classes with that chick.

Brainspore

I don’t agree with the premise, but it’s still funnier than most right-wing attempts at satire.

Rindan

No contract when comparing a Nationalized bank to something like Social Security? SS works and is efficient.

Spoken as someone who as CLEARLY never in their entire life been to a social security office. They make the DMV look fast and efficient. My ex-girlfriend used to work for a non-prof that helped homeless people get various government entitlements. Her greatest dread was when she had to go to the social security office. She could wait half a day to get to an official only to be turned back with nothing because the office closed.

I ran into the same problem with I foolishly thought that it would be easier to get a replacement social security card by waking to the social security office next door than it would be to sift through their website. Ha ha ha… no.

Making fun of government bureaucracy is fun. That isn’t to say that there are not lots of crappy bureaucratic corporations in the world. I would pick a year long stay in Gitmo over having to deal with RCN. That said, given the choice between having to wait in line at an evil corporation like Bank of America or the Social Security office, and I would take BoA without a second thought.

There are lots of things governments do well, but customer service is not one of them. So, laugh.

Burz

Underneath every nice, suburban white-guy toking Libertarian exterior is a big motherlode of corporate love.

Or so Mark would seem to have us think.

Personally, I’ve seen signs that some of them are actually capable of learning from current events and recognizing the tired inanity in this video.

hcovitz

#1 NEON TOOTH nailed it.

This is Libertarian Tripe. Used to be funny once upon a time, like maybe in the ’70′s. Sorry, but history has passed them by.

Auto Parts for Brains

The funny thing is this ad is acted quite well. The actors know how to act like not so good ad actors. Get it? Lol.

Anyway, I don’t think the government will scrap everything (the systems) that exists on Citibank already. I enjoyed the parody but clearly, everyone should just look at this as nothing more than humorous fun. I agree with those people who mentioned that Citibank is not that good at present anyway, when it comes to their service. Also, the ad clearly dishes out a lot of hate against the government not the acquisition.

Antinous / Moderator

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a communist and I still thought that it was hilarious. Particularly the ATM deposit form.

Purly

What’s really funny is that nationalization is the only thing that could possibly make citibank’s service worse than it is.

allenbukoff

Whether funny or not or intended to be right wing or not, this commercial reinforces the crazy right wing crap about Government ALWAYS being THE WORST ALTERNATIVE. A better, more sophisticated set of rules to live by: 1. Government necessary for some things and sometimes more than others. 2. Government needs to be watched and prodded because it handles a lot of money and like any organization that handles money is subject to great corruption. 3. In U.S. Republicans running the government is ALWAYS THE WORST and most corrupt form of government.

freethis

Citibank could only hope to hold a candle to the customer service of the Columbus, Ohio BMV. Five minutes to renew my plates, in and out, yes please.

Cicada

@21- In Iraq, KBR made crappy dangerous showers. Please compare that to what the US government was doing in Iraq. Which was worse?

The Lizardman

So nationalization changes nothing and citi still sucks. Incidentally, my last trip to a DMV took minutes and was pretty pleasant – proves nothing I know but I felt like mentioning it.

GregLondon

we switched cable companies a couple months ago. The old comopany? They’re still sending us bills and saying we’re late on our payments. I don’t know how many times we’ve called them to try to get them to understand that they already have our old cable boxes, their cable has been disconnected from the outside of our house, and we’re with the other guys.

Slicklines

Meh. Not really all that good.

The real irony is that when banks in foreign lands fail (see, for example, Indonesia) the first thing the United States does, through the strong arm of the IMF, is demand that the banks in question be nationalized. This is so the idiots who got the banks in trouble can be fired. Odd that when our own banks fail, the idiots who messed up got to keep their jobs. This is because (of course) Citibank and others are not nationalized. We lack the courage to fire the wealthy here in the States.

Before the right wingers flame on, remember that the Savings and Loans down in Oklahoma and Texas were nationalized during that scandal. And who nationalized them? That would be Ronald Wilson Reagan.

HeruRaHa

I gotta agree with Anonymous @24 here… while it’s kinda funny, I would’ve laughed harder a few years ago when I still sided more with the Libertarian viewpoint…

I’m still a registered Libertarian, albeit one who voted for Obama in the last election (first vote for a Democratic candidate in my life), but it’s about time we admit that a totally laissez-faire marketplace simply doesn’t work.

This video conveniently left out the bit where it talks about *why* Citibank is nearly nationalized. It’s not like the big bad government just decided it wanted some banks… we (the People) are picking up the slack and the bills, after they totally fucked things up for their company, and the world economy in the process.

Mark Jaquith

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m a communist and I still thought that it was hilarious.

In Soviet Russia, sense of humor has you.

mellon

Have these morons actually *been* to a DMV recently? I have – a friend of mine needed her registration reactivated after storing her car for a couple of months. I went down there because her husband had forgotten a piece of paper, or so we thought, but then it turned out that he hadn’t gotten there yet, so I figured I’d wait in line for him until he showed up. Ten minutes later I was out the door, the registration was reactivated, and he hadn’t gotten there yet.

I have certainly experienced poorly-run DMVs in my life, but this was the main DMV in Tucson, and despite there being a fairly substantial crowd there, the experience was quite convenient – take a number, have a seat, and we’ll get to you soon.

I’m pretty sure I’ve spent longer waiting in line at the (currently still privately-held) Bank of America, particularly if I was doing something more complicated than just depositing a check.

mellon

You know, now that I think about it, what’s *really* interesting about this video is how good the production qualities are. Those were professional actors. The camerawork was professional. The editing was professional. The settings were solid.

Who paid to produce this video? Why?

Stephen

This video is NOT shining a spotlight on government inefficiency or misuse of power. It is not the noble sort of making fun of the government. This is blindingly promoting a stupid misconception commonly used by demagogs to cover up and protect misuse of power.

nnguyen

The credit union I belong to is part of the government branch I work for. I never wait for longer than 5 minutes in line, I never deal with the tellers for longer than 2 minutes, and they always get exactly what I need done. And my savings account with them has a much higher interest rate than any private banks in the area.

I have a credit card with Citi Bank. They keep me on hold forever when I call, the banks tell me they can’t help me with credit card problems because I don’t have a bank account with them, and they won’t tell me what I need to do to qualify for a credit increase, all the while my rating is 700+.

So yeah, a nationalized Citi Bank might just be what they fucking need.

Stephen

Fucking idiots.

This video was kinda funny. But it is promoting a stupid hypocritical meme the Republicans use in their shameless greed and lust for power.

—-

By the way, KBR didn’t just make crappy showers, they knowingly fed tainted water to tens of thousands of US soldiers, stole billions of US tax dollars, and helped turn the Sunni populous toward the terrorist insurgency and against the Iraqi nationalists.

Takuan

sweet misbegotten jaysus onna pogostick!
Look: it’s a JOKE! Funny ha ha. The people have the RIGHT to mock the king. It is an article of faith in any free society that the government is STUPID because that makes us poor, tax-cow, powerless schmucks smarter then them! It doesn’t have to be TRUE! Cripes, what a bunch of humourless, literalist zombies! Whaddya all do when people ask “How are you?” Tell them?!!

Welcome to nationalized Citibank

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