Too big to jail.
The banks are JP Morgan Chase, Citi, RBS, UBS and Barclays. They pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Yet NOTHING is going to happen to them apart from paying some token fine, which amounts to "cost of doing business."
More importantly, their CEOs get off scott free. In fact, Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase, CEO) is getting a pay raise to over $20 million per year.
Why the fuck do we have Sarbanes-Oxley? For what? To put two-bit reality TV stars in a jail? The law was supposed to make fraudulent or illegal activity by an enterprise ALSO a criminal and punishable offense to the CEO or executive who signed off on the company's documents.
Instead, Jamie Dimon and probably all of the other guys, got a raise, which is disgusting because it shows you that they really suck at what they do. They make money only when they cheat. They can't make it legitimately.
Worst of all, though, is the fact that this just highlights--IN YOUR FACE--how justice is a travesty. The system is corrupt beyond belief.
***P.S. Notice how our new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, picks up right where Eric Holder left off: by letting these criminal enterprises and their leaders off with a slap on the wrist.
"It shows you that they really suck at what they do. They make money only when they cheat. They can't make it legitimately."
ReplyDeleteMike, it may be worse than that! It looks like investment banks actually lose money and the only reason they stay profitable is the implicit (even explicit) state bailout that allows them to borrow at lower interest rates than they otherwise would.
The US taxpayer subsidises an otherwise incompetent banking system to stay in business because these alleged financial geniuses lose money when given carte blanche to run a criminal racket!
What do they teach Harvard MBAs? Stupidity? The masters of the universe can't make a cent when they're given free rein to rig markets? Give the kids in the ghetto the same deal and they'll make a fu**ing fortune!
In NYC: an 80+ year-old man gets beat up by the police for jaywalking, a man is killed by police for selling cigarettes, but those responsible for $ Trillions in fraud and illegal practices barely get a slap on the wrist. HSBC can knowingly and willfully launder $ Billions for drug cartels and get a slap on the wrist while black kids get sent straight to jail for joints.
ReplyDeleteI just wonder how long this charade of a law-based society can continue under such blatant injustice?
Should put "law-based" in quotation marks. It's really a double-standard society, which is not really law-based. It is based on privilige rather than equality before the law as a hallmark of liberal society.
ReplyDelete"I just wonder how long this charade of a law-based society can continue under such blatant injustice?"
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it's gone as long as it has without a violent reaction. I suspect that when the US finally erupts, it's gonna be bad. Whether it's inner cities, discrimination against minorities, the unemployed and poor white community, the employed and poor white community, gangs, militias, it's a lethal cocktail, dynamite just waiting for a match.
It's not going to be pleasant, especially with the "police" armed to the teeth. I saw armoured personnel carriers on the streets of Baltimore? Or were they tanks? A "police" decked out like anti-terrorist commandos, and do their job like commandos, not police.
I don't know when this commando-like policing started. Was it with the Patriot Act or Homeland Security. Whatever it is, we may be looking at the last vestiges of the republic. Holy sh*t, it's gonna be bad.
"I saw armoured personnel carriers on the streets of Baltimore? Or were they tanks? A "police" decked out like anti-terrorist commandos,"
ReplyDeleteWhere???????
Can you include photo/video links?
"commandos"????????
they were dressed like Hockey Goalies and Baseball Catchers....
c'mon here John....
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI remember being taken aback when I saw it on the BBC, but now can't find it. In any case, the reports, pictures and footage are linked below.
The Guardian reported the armoured personnel carriers here: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/28/baltimore-riots-fires-reaction-looting-protesters-hurt-community-unrest-just-beginning
Pictures and video footage here: http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-liberal/2015/04/baltimore-protests-this-is-what-they-wanted-n-guard-rolls-in-with-military-vehicles-2504924.html
Yes, John...you are so right!!!
ReplyDeleteLawence Milford...disgusting, disgraceful. I agree. What can be done? Nothing. They OWN us.
ReplyDeleteConfused by the sightings of these second-rate Navy Seal wannabes, I was about to bring up the Posse Comitatus Act.
ReplyDeleteBut I see on wikipedia that the National Guard is exempt. Further, the Act does not reply in an emergency (which could mean anything), nor does it apply in the case of terrorism (which also has a wide definition), nor in the case of "insurrection" (that really could mean anything), not that it matters. Bush's Defense Authorization Bill makes the Posse Comitatus Act irrelevant.
Like the idea of a republic with a constitution and a bill of rights, it's as great an idea as anything dreamt by man: the military should never be seen on the streets of a democratic republic.
After all America is not Rome. Perhaps i should rephrase that...
This stuff just gets weirder and weirder. You can order a free armoured personnel carrier from the Pentagon!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/14/want-an-armored-personnel-carrier-for-your-police-force-just-fill-out-this-one-page-form/
The story that just keeps on giving. The Pentagon is making Grenade launchers available to the police!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/14/the-pentagon-gave-nearly-half-a-billion-dollars-of-military-gear-to-local-law-enforcement-last-year/
John that IS the military it is the Maryland National Guard. .. that is not the police...
ReplyDeleteThey were called in when the incompetent Mayor raised the white flag..
Is there much of a public backlash against this in the US? Or was the public just pleased to see an end to the disorder?
ReplyDeleteOnce you start deploying an arm of the military that has fought, and continues to fight, in many US wars, you're asking for trouble! The National Guard must be nervous wrecks by now.
But my concern for the people of Baltimore, Ferguson and the like is that these people aren't law enforcement officers, i.e. police. These guys are trained to kill, not to enforce the law or control situations. And given the way they're armed, things could quickly spin out of control.
The irony may well be that the law enforcement officers are probably more trigger happy than the military when called out on to the streets of US cities.
I heard a statistic that between 600 and 1000 young black men are shot dead by police in very suspicious circumstances.
If nothing else, a police that can access grenade launchers and armoured personnel carriers is at the very least a change in normal policing practice.
I regularly see British "police" armed with machine guns, pistols, body armour in airports, some major train stations, etc. It's sinister as hell. Once you're armed like the military you cease to be law enforcement. Every democracy needs a very strict Posse Comitatus Act. Not that we in the UK are much of a democracy, with our House of Lords, Monarchy and our description as subjects not citizens.
The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#.VV3eDVU4nTY
and
Surveillance planes spotted in the sky for days after West Baltimore rioting
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/surveillance-planes-spotted-in-the-sky-for-days-after-west-baltimore-rioting/2015/05/05/c57c53b6-f352-11e4-84a6-6d7c67c50db0_story.html
Lawlessness now breaking out there, police have basically withdrawn:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wbal.com/article/115164/3/7-separate-shootings-in-one-day-in-baltimore
Looks like its now devolving into a libertarian paradise....
"Libertarian paradise."
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! You should copyright that.
Once you start deploying an arm of the military that has fought, and continues to fight, in many US wars, you're asking for trouble!
ReplyDelete"On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University [anti-war] demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine…."
Nothing ever came of it, but it radicalized a lot of people then and it continues to do so. Massacres are historical events that carry forward for a long time. Those students were martyrs..
The British media is world renowned for its sensationalism, so maybe I'm getting a distorted view of policing in the US. Maybe on the whole the police are decent, caring officers of the law.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you guys live. I guess Mike lives in New York. But I'd be interested to hear if policing is as violent as it is reported.
I know policing in the UK is vastly different to that of the past. The British police, especially in major cities, has always been extremely violent, incompetent and corrupt. But their violence was tempered by their lack of lethal force available, armed as they were with small wooden truncheons. With many of them now armed like special forces, scared as hell by terrorist warnings, it's only a matter of time before they open up and blow people away.
Perhaps I'm in a minority on this, but seeing police with machine guns does not fill me with much confidence.
John, you are absolutely in the right in your assessment of the US police. The police have been militarized for some time, really starting with the war on drugs decades ago. When you declare something a war and provide war zone equipment, it is no wonder that policing becomes more violent and adversarial - look no further than Ferguson where the police had MRAPs and snipers for peaceful protesters. It has gotten much worse since 9/11. There is no reason that hundreds of people should die at the hands of police every year!
ReplyDeleteDon't let that take away from the fact that the majority of police are most likely good people, it just not take away from the horrible abuses that continue across the country.