Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?

Here's Cenk Uygur with guest Matt Taibbi acknowledging that Wall Street is now above the law.



Taibbi, who is one of America's last remaining old-school journalists, the kind that actually investigate the issues that matter and the perps behind the issues, reports on what should be on the front page of every newspaper, but isn't: The Security and Exchange Commission has been routinely destroying data, including sensitive and potentially incriminating data, for years. And it isn't data on you and me, but the bankers, brokers, and hedgies, the ones who have been defrauding us.

So not only are no charges being brought against criminals on Wall Street, much of the primary evidence against them, thanks to an accommodating SEC, has been trashed, quite literally. As Taibbi writes:

Imagine a world in which a man who is repeatedly investigated for a string of serious crimes, but never prosecuted, has his slate wiped clean every time the cops fail to make a case. No more Lifetime channel specials where the murderer is unveiled after police stumble upon past intrigues in some old file – "Hey, chief, didja know this guy had two wives die falling down the stairs?" No more burglary sprees cracked when some sharp cop sees the same name pop up in one too many witness statements. This is a different world, one far friendlier to lawbreakers, where even the suspicion of wrongdoing gets wiped from the record.

That story was in the August 17th edition of Rolling Stone, Taibbi's main haunt. There is, or should be, much more to this story. And, of course, much remains to be actually proven. But that is precisely what the media should be jumping on. Uncover the story one way or another. But we have a deadly combination of feckless media and embarrassing lack of citizen interest and knowledge. Considering all the Ritalin this country takes, you would think people could pay attention.

What do you want to bet this story goes nowhere? Republicans won't touch it because they don't care; they are ones that have largely emasculated the SEC anyway. and Obama is having enough trouble with moneyed interests as it is. He has decided he needs Wall Street's approval, so that quaint shit about equal application of the law is out the door.

The US Could Really Use a Third Party

Here is Cenk Uygur laying into a Representative Earl Blumenauer, who, as a member of the Progressive Caucus, is supposed to fight for the middle class against the Republican efforts to turn over even more of the economy to Wall Street.

But even Blumenauer acts like he gets his talking points from Paul Ryan. What the hell is wrong with Democrats when they say that raising the retirement age for social security is negotiable?

This is not specifically about the retirement age; that issue alone is not a cure-all, and it isn't the end of the world either. The huge problem in all of this is that Republicans have set the parameters and they have got at least some feckless Dems, including Blumenauer, to negotiate within those parameters. The result is that every piece of budget-related legislation that has come from the House has involved funding cuts for America's poor, its children, its elderly, the dispossesed, and the working class, or it involves tax cuts, and deregulation for the investor class.

What Blumenauer needs to say is that it is ridiculous to even be discussing a raise in the retirement age for social security in the first place. Instead of shit about people living longer, he should be hammering home the fact that even in this slow economy, SS is once again running a surplus, a fact that completely undermines scare talk about "fixing" it.

Social security was able to run up a $2.6 trillion surplus thanks to tweaks made in the early 1980s (under Reagan!). The problem is not with social security, which has worked extremely well; the problem is that politcians "borrowed" that surplus and blew it on other programs, wars, and tax cuts for the wealthy. And now they do not want to pay it back. Republicans want you to think that SS is a huge drain on the federal budget. They are lying through their goddamn teeth.

So why can't guys like Blumenauer make these points? Dems are not fighting back on issues like social security, which should be easy to defend. It's a freakin slam dunk as far as the facts are concerned. 

Cenk hammered him for it, and Cenk was absolutely right.



hat tip to moxnews.com

Theology as Personality

In the video below Cenk Uygur hits on an essential truth; the shameless habit of christians, especially the religious right, to cherry pick their theology to suit their personality, their ideology, and their pocketbook. Did not your christian god repeatedly talk of caring for the poor and needy? Did he not repeatedly denounce those who sought earthly possessions?

Apparently not if you're a Republican. America's right wing must be using a different Bible, the one called Atlas Shrugged.

They Want Your Social Security

This is excellent. In the video below, Cenk Uygur again states the facts about social security and comes to the unavoidable conclusion that Republicans, and a few blue dogs as well, are absolutely lying about social security.

Republicans say we must cut back benefits because they are hurting the deficit, but social security does not add to the deficit or debt. It continues to pay for itself and then some; roughly $2.5 trillion in surplus. Cenk notes that the surplus has been "borrowed," which points more to Congressional thievery, and not to any shortcomings with SS.

Cenk lays all of this out very well. It is a fantastic spectacle to see conservative politicians insist the working class must work even harder, and sacrifice even more, after extending tax cuts to the wealthiest two percent. It is all incredibly blatant, almost like a clumsy parody. I never thought I would see such a brazen and concerted effort to turn over ever more wealth and power to the financial elite.

I agree with Cenk that Republicans want to privatize social security for the benefit of Wall Street. And they are indeed lying when they say we must cut back now so as to ensure social security's future. Their long-term goal is undoubtedly to gut social security and privatize retirement. But their short-term goal is reduce benefits so that SS will begin running up an even greater surplus, one they can continue to borrow from, just as they, Republicans and Democrats alike, have been doing for years. They will take whatever surplus is created and spend it on war and tax cuts. They don't give a shit about fixing social security, and they don't want to pay back the trillions they have already borrowed. But if they want SS to be the perpetual golden goose, they have to convince you that it is a failure and that we cannot afford it. Republicans won't raise taxes, but they can get the same result by slashing benefits to middle class retirees. They have no problem doing that.

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Whitewater, Part II

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks is spot-on in this clip. He makes almost all the points I myself try to make about the recent Republican accusations of corruption in the White House (no wonder I like him!). Note especially the almost comical position of Congressman Issa, who acknowledges that Bush signed TARP into law, but all that money must surely be corrupting the Obama Administration, so naturally one starts off with well-publicized accusations. The lack of evidence is apparently beside the point. Cenk also speaks of the $ billions that went unaccounted for in Iraq; a fact, not an accusation, of which Issa has nothing to say. 

Readers should note the real reason for Issa's aggressiveness. Republicans are going to do the same thing to Obama that they did to Clinton; endless investigations along with the accusations, the circus atmosphere, and the ample opportunities to implant in the minds of voters that Obama must be stopped. Republicans were able to drag out Whitewater for almost the entire eight years and never found anything. Their objective was to destroy Clinton. Failing that, to embarrass him, undermine his administration, and suggest to voters that the man was tainted, as if mere accusations meant scandals. 

Far more officials in the administrations of Bush the Elder and Reagan went to prison than those under Clinton, a fact almost completely forgotten by voters and our feckless media. But a generation of Americans will forever link Clinton to Whitewater. That, of course, was an objective. To be sure, Clinton created his own mess with Monica Lewinsky, but that was after almost everything else had run its course.

Republicans have shown a determination to set the narrative on Obama through every means possible, and that now includes subpoena and investigatory power. They spent years trying to destroy Bill Clinton, with limited success. They are set to do it again with Obama. They sense weakness, and the political and social climate has become dysfunctional, so the outcome may be different this time.  As Cenk says, "they're coming after you."

Two Years and It Has Come to This

Given a choice between voting and staying home, my argument continues to be that skipping the vote was a hugely counterproductive decision. A no vote for a Dem last Tuesday was a vote for Republicans. Even if you did not care for your particular pol, voting could have helped keep Dems in control of the House. That control is now gone. So for the 72% of registered Democrats that did not vote, thanks for nothing.

Mark Morford hits the non-voters hard in this piece. He shows particular irritation for the youngest voters, the 18-24 crowd, who made such a difference in '08. I share that view because on Tuesday we had stark and simple choices. Our preferred choices may not have been there, but we all still had a simple decision to make: Do you really want the Republicans back in power?

Having said that, I understand and share the concerns of the panel on the clip below. I especially enjoy Cenk Uygur. In the last 12-18 months Cenk has blasted Obama repeatedly over his failure to be more responsive to those who voted him into power as well as the agenda he, Obama, declared so often on the campaign trail. Progressives would likely have been far more patient with Obama if he had made it clear that he was truly working for them. Yet it is not at all clear that is the case. Watch the clip; it has some serious discussion on the hole into which Obama has helped dig himself.





If you are not familar with Cenk Uygar, by all means visit the young turks. You can easily find him on You-tube as well.