Why should I believe anything the government tells me?
Why should I obey the law, other than because I'm scared of the guns the government can point at me?
Why should I build or expand a business when anyone who has government favor can come steal anything -- or everything -- I build, and there isn't jack and crap I can do about it as they won't be prosecuted or punished in any way? In fact, they'll be rewarded!
If you want to know how a nation dies without being conquered by war, pestilence or famine, this is how. The good, honest, industrious people simply say "screw you" and refuse to effort to move the economy and nation forward.
We are there folks, and these two stories explain why.
Government investigators have found that JPMorgan Chase devised “manipulative schemes” that transformed “money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers,” and that one of its most senior executives gave “false and misleading statements” under oath.
The findings appear in a confidential government document, reviewed by The New York Times, that was sent to the bank in March, warning of a potential crackdown by the regulator of the nation’s energy markets.
The possible action comes amid showdowns with other agencies. One of the bank’s chief regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is weighing new enforcement actions against JPMorgan over the way the bank collected credit card debt and its possible failure to alert authorities to suspicions about Bernard L. Madoff, according to people who were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.
A confidential government document? Why should any document of this sort be confidential when it bears on conduct that a regulated institution has taken toward the public?
There's part of your problem right there. This isn't a single incident or issue either; it claims a pattern of conduct as do the other "showdowns." Nor is this limited to JP Morgan -- there is a long litany of financial institutions coming under "scrutiny" for various illegal and unethical acts and yet what's missing is prosecutions.
President Obama's nominee for Commerce secretary was embroiled in a massive bank failure more than a decade ago, in a collapse that cost depositors and federal insurers millions of dollars.
The 2001 collapse of Superior Bank FSB now appears likely to re-emerge, more than a decade later, as Commerce nominee Penny Pritzker prepares for a confirmation hearing and Republicans already draw attention to the bank implosion.
Tangled? Like Hell.
This was an all-on scandal and cost the FDIC over $300 million. Those who were over deposit limits were screwed out of $10 million they have yet to recover, and probably never will recover. The bank had insufficient if not outright missing risk controls with subprime auto and home lending.
Being a bad businessperson though isn't an exercise of privilege -- that's just being stupid.
But being able to cut in line before depositors is another matter, and the Prizkers did.
The FDIC "defended" their decision, but again we're back to the same problem we had with GM and Chrysler, where the rule of law is changed ex-post-facto to benefit wealthy and powerful people and screw the ordinary citizen.
Until this crap stops my entrepreneurial efforts are going to remain on the shelf, and I suspect I'm not alone in this regard.
Tell me once again, other than the fact that I live with government guns in my face literally every day, why I bother listening to anything you clowns allegedly "legislate" any more?
Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.
The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said.
I bet they are sensitive. Too bad they're now public.
We need a 28th Amendment that reads:
It shall be unlawful for any member of Congress, or any branch of the Federal Government, to introduce, propose, pass, issue for comment or otherwise attempt to put into force or effect any legislation, rule, executive order or other edict, mandate or law that exempts or privileges any member of the government over ordinary citizens.
Any person violating this Amendment shall be deemed guilty of a capital offense with publication or issuance of said order or regulation or filing of such bill or amendment serving as conclusive proof of guilt.
Guilty member(s) of government shall be executed at high noon by the means of hanging by the neck until dead in front of the Washington Monument on the next business day after the offense has been confirmed, with their corpse to remain on display as hung for no fewer than 24 consecutive hours.
Well well, what do we have here.
America needs more judges like James Fensom. Yesterday, the Panama City (Florida) adjudicator threw out felony drug charges against alleged pot dealer Jeffery Gage after depositions revealed that the police officers who arrested Gage had broken the law in order to make their case.
In his ruling (which you can read in full below), Fensom called the actions of the Bay County Sheriffs Office "outrageous...shocking, [and] disturbing," and declared that they "simply cannot stand."
From the record the cops not only illegally attached a tracking device to the suspect's car without a warrant but then twice trespassed to change the batteries in it, and worse, lied about it under oath while giving depositions to the defense and intentionally withheld the information from the defense.
That's illegal. The premise of a public and fair trial requires that you be able to face your accuser, and that inherently includes having full access when defending yourself to the evidence against you. When law enforcement intentionally destroys data that would tend to incriminate their own behavior and then conceals that fact your rights have been violated.
Why did they withhold the evidence? That's easy -- it clearly demonstrated their illegal conduct and would have led to the exclusion of the evidence and search, without which the case collapses.
It's nice to see a judge that is willing to hold the cops to the letter of The Constitution.
The lesson? Do not cooperate with law enforcement -- they will and do lie whenever it suits them right up until a Judge tosses their case.
There's no reason to cooperate with or assist those who will intentionally violate your right to due process of law.
Don't worry, the government is good. It is wholesome. It does good things. It would never steal from you. And the people who work for it are all motherhood, baseball and apple pie.
First it was the families of dead people and state employees. Now, authorities say Internal Revenue Service employees in Tennessee were stealing unemployment and other benefits while fully employed.
On Thursday, 13 of those employees were indicted on federal charges that they lied to get unemployment, food stamps, welfare and housing vouchers. An additional 11 have been indicted on state charges of theft greater than $1,000.
Oh wait.... you mean that's not true?
So let me guess -- at the same time you believe that the cops are honest, the BATFE never plants evidence and makes up lies about people, and everyone in Congress is honest too.
Ok.
Weirich said cases like these can erode public trust in government workers.
That was destroyed a long time ago and confirmed countless times over the last few years as each new incident of government employees not only looking the other way while people rob the public occurs, but in many cases extends to active involvement, as occurred with IndyMac Bank's backdating of deposits and Eric (Place)Holder's "Fast 'n Furious" shoot-a-border-patrol-officer game.
The key point is that nobody in the government has gone to jail in either, nor in the myriad other instances. That there are arrests of people ripping off a few thousand dollars is good, but I'll actually begin to be impressed when those involved in stealing millions or even billions, or worse, those involved in murder within our government are brought to justice.
So now we find out that not only did The Fed "accidentally" leak the minutes a full day early but that the recipient list included banks and lobbying organizations.
I have two questions:
- Why are there special people who get emailed copies of these things while the rest of us look them up as PDF's on The Fed's web site? Regulation FD anyone? Yeah, I know, The Fed isn't a company but the principle is the same - giving someone special access in front of everyone is wrong. Period. It's also supposed to be illegal but it appears that some "exemptions" have shown up. Those need to go away. Now.
- Why did none of the people who received this transmission early tell anyone about it? An innocent error only remains one when the person who gets the early transmission notifies someone that it happened so the problem can be mitigated. That didn't occur.
Do I actually expect the SEC to bring charges and the DOJ to indict for insider trading? Here's my response to that question:
Yeah, right. That'll happen when Hell freezes over.
But this is just one more example out of hundreds over the last few years of blatant and outrageous behavior -- this may have begun as a mistake, but it didn't stay one for more than a few minutes. Over 100 recipients and none alerted The Fed or SEC to what had happened.
Riiiiiight.
