Tag: Crime & Punishment

Corporate Death Penalty

Think back to the 2008 collapse of the economic structure….it was the banks that lead the way and yet they were not punished for killing so many pensions….at best there was a slap on wrist and they promise not to do it again…..and if you will notice they are doing it again,

It is time for the government to bring the pain to these lousy players in our economy.

Bring back a corporate death penalty……

Let’s begin with a SCOTUS dissenting opinion from 1935…..

“The prevalence of the corporation in America has led men of this generation to act, at times, as if the privilege of doing business in corporate form were inherent in the citizen, and has led them to accept the evils attendant upon the free and unrestricted use of the corporate mechanism as if these evils were the inescapable price of civilized life, and, hence to be borne with resignation.

“Throughout the greater part of our history, a different view prevailed.

“Although the value of this instrumentality in commerce and industry was fully recognized, incorporation for business was commonly denied long after it had been freely granted for religious, educational, and charitable purposes.

“It was denied because of fear. Fear of encroachment upon the liberties and opportunities of the individual. Fear of the subjection of labor to capital. Fear of monopoly. Fear that the absorption of capital by corporations, and their perpetual life, might bring evils similar to those which attended mortmain [immortality]. There was a sense of some insidious menace inherent in large aggregations of capital, particularly when held by corporations.”

—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1933 dissent in Liggett v. Lee

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/08/its-time-bring-back-corporate-death-penalty

The limp wrist attempt to make corporations, especially the banks, was quickly pushed aside as soon as another corporate titan comes to power….time to make any penalties permanent…..time for the government to work for the people and not just the corporations.

This may be wishful thinking but I do feel the country is starting to realize just how bad corporations are acting and want accountability for their CRIMES.

2020 could be the beginning of the revolution to get the greed and corruption out of our society, especially from the corporations.

But first we must VOTE!

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Closing Thought–13Mar19

Poor go to work

The Rich go to college

A whole new story on how the rich get their larvae into college….they buy their way into academia…..

It’s the biggest college admissions bribery case the DOJ has ever prosecuted, and it has snared some pretty big names: Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among those indicted for mail fraud Tuesday in an alleged bribery scam. The latest:

  • A name fit for Hollywood: The investigation is called “Operation Varsity Blues,” and CNN cites US Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling’s description of most of those indicted: 33 parents; 9 coaches (from schools including Yale, Stanford, USC, Wake Forest, and Georgetown) in sports like soccer, water polo, tennis, and volleyball; one college administrator; two SAT/ACT administrators; and an exam proctor. The AP reports a former soccer coach at Yale pleaded guilty and helped prosecutors make their case.
  • At the center of it all: … is allegedly a man named William Singer. He ran a college-prep company called the Key and allegedly facilitated the scheme. Prosecutors claim he bribed college coaches to put individual students on a recruited athletes list, though CNN notes the coaches were aware the students weren’t recruitable players. NPR reports that in the case of a Yale women’s soccer recruit, the student didn’t even play soccer. Per the indictment, parents in one case allegedly had fake photos taken of their child participating in sports. Charges against Singer include racketeering conspiracy.
  • The timeline: Prosecutors say payments were made to Singer between 2011 and February 2019. Per NPR, parents typically allegedly paid $250,000 to $450,000, but one is said to have forked over $6.5 million. Singer’s alleged total take: about $25 million.
  • Words come back to haunt him: In a January interview with Parade magazine, Huffman’s husband, William H. Macy, had this to say of their 18-year-old daughter: “She’s going to go to college … We’re right now in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful. I am voting that once she gets accepted, she maybe takes a year off. God doesn’t let you be 18 twice… But it’s just my opinion, and we’ll see what she wants to do, what Felicity thinks and how the chips fall.”
    The allegations against Huffman: People reports the feds say they taped calls between the 56-year-old actress and a cooperating witness about an alleged SAT scam. A chosen proctor was reportedly sent to West Hollywood and allegedly allowed the teen to have extra time and changed her incorrect answers.
    The allegations against Loughlin: She allegedly paid $500,000 to get her daughter “recruited” for a rowing team. Her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, was also charged.
  • Other parents: The AP lists executives among those indicted: Law firm co-chair Gordon Caplan of Greenwich, Connecticut; marketing company CEO Jane Buckingham of LA; packaging company founder Gregory Abbott of New York; and finance CEO Manuel Henriquez of Palo Alto.
    Who hasn’t been charged: Authorities say the schools aren’t targets, and no students were charged, with many unaware of what was even going on. Macy was not charged; prosecutors did not say why.
    Initial fallout: The AP reports Wake Forest University has suspended head volleyball coach Bill Ferguson, who is “accused of accepting $100,000 to recruit a student who had been on Wake Forest’s wait list

I do believe that we have an answer on how an idiot got through a prestigious business school….

Need we say more?

Closing Thought–12Feb19

Everyone knows the tale of the escape artist and drug king pin El Chapo…..but did you know that he was on trial here in the US?

After a Hollywood-esque trial and a week of jury deliberations, Mexicaconfiscatedn drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been found guilty of all 10 counts and will get a mandatory life sentence, reports the New York Times. The first count essentially accused Guzman of being the mastermind of the Sinaloa cartel, and the others dealt with specifics such as drug trafficking. The first count alone came with a mandatory life sentence for the 61-year-old. Jurors heard testimony from nearly 60 witnesses during the three-month trial, which offered a rare glimpse into the brutal world of the cartels. One of the witnesses described how El Chapo personally tortured and murdered three men from rival cartels. (Read more El Chapo stories.)

Personally don’t care….but the story is that he will now have his assets confiscated….to the tune of $14 billion that is billion with a “B”……

My question is who gets those assets?

Mexico?  US?  Some other country?

Just who gets to blow through that $14 billion?

Just wondering.

Closing Thought–11Jan19

We all make resolutions for the new year….some make predictions of the coming year…..and with this president there are many predictions…..but one caught my attention….

The possibility of a resignation……

Alan J. Steinberg—who served as an adviser to former President George W. Bush—wrote in an opinion piece published this week that he didn’t believe President Donald Trump would be removed from office through impeachment.

Steinberg, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, said that he believed Trump would resign in 2019 in exchange for immunity.

“Trump will not be removed from office by the constitutional impeachment and removal process,” Steinberg wrote in The Star-Ledger. “Instead, the self-professed supreme dealmaker will use his presidency as a bargaining chip with federal and state authorities in 2019, agreeing to leave office in exchange for the relevant authorities not pursuing criminal charges against him, his children or the Trump Organization.”

Steinberg noted in the piece that should the House of Representatives impeach Trump, 20 Republican senators would have to break with the president to remove him from office—and that seems very unlikely. Steinberg wrote that the many legal challenges facing Trump—the investigation from special counsel Robert Mueller, the probe from the Southern District of New York as well as inquiries from the attorney general of New York and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office—could lead him to leave the White House, especially as authorities close in on his family.

Continue reading “Closing Thought–11Jan19” →

Does The FBI Have Their Man?

Final Thought–26Oct18

Clapper, both Clintons, Obama, Biden, DiNero, Booker, Holder, Waters, CNN, Soros and Wasserman-Shultz….(a who’s who of the Democrats)….all these people were targeted by some unknown bomber…..and every one of these people, these public figures have been singled out by Pres. Trump for an angry insulting Tweet…..so he, Trump and his idiot gang around him wants the country to believe that these are just coincidences.

That is Bullsh*t!

And if you are waiting for the GOP to step forward then you have a long wait…..these gutless wonders will allow the Bullshit to continue…..

But not to worry…..the FBI has their man (we hope)…..

But after bitching about the bombs were putting the GOP off the headlines…..yep our president is worried about his election….then he praises the FBI for the arrest now that his election stuff can return to the forefront…..

President Trump on Friday praised the quick arrest of a suspect in the mail bomb case and promised that “swift and certain justice” would follow. “These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country,” Trump said. Speaking soon after authorities announced the arrest of Florida man accused of mailing explosive devices to prominent Democrats, Trump declared that “we must never allow political violence to take root in America,” reports NBC News. “We cannot let it happen. I am committed to do everything in my power as president to stop it and stop it now.” Americans, he said, “must unify.”

As the AP notes, the president’s remarks came after he tweeted a complaint about how the media’s focus on the incidents were distracting from what he sees as a Republican upswing ahead of the midterms. “Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows — news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!”

What a petty pathetic little man.

Limp Dick Penalties

I need to apologize for my internet is spotty at best today….I am posting in between brown outs and such…..hopefully these toads will get it right some time today.

Now for the news of the day (well yesterday)……

We have been waiting for all the information to trickle into the White House so that Our Dear Supreme Leader can flex American muscle and make the Saudis pay for the gruesome murder of a WaPo journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

After all the semi-tough talk from Trumpy Boy (I could not use “Trumpy Bear for it is a registered trademark) Trump has decided and Pompeo stepped forward and as usual gave his limp dick verdict.

The Trump administration revoked the visas Tuesday of some Saudi officials implicated in the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi in its first punitive measure against its longtime Middle East partner, as President Donald Trump denounced the kingdom for one of the “worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups.” Shortly after Trump made the comment, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the administration was moving to revoke the visas of Saudi government and intelligence agents suspected of involvement in the death of Khashoggi. Visa records are confidential and Pompeo was not more specific about who the revocations would affect, but the State Department later said 21 “Saudi suspects” would have visas revoked or would be declared ineligible to enter the US, the AP reports.

Revoking thew visas of minor Saudi players that were working under orders….cannot get more Limp Dick than that.

To be honest Pompeo did say that there is the possibility of further consequences…….

“These penalties will not be the last word on this matter,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. The administration “will continue to hold those responsible accountable. We’re making very clear that the United States does not tolerate this kind of ruthless action to silence Mr. Khashoggi, a journalist, with violence. Neither the president or I am happy with this situation.” Members of Congress have demanded that sanctions be imposed on Saudi Arabia. Trump has resisted calls thus far to cut off arms sales to the kingdom and Pompeo stressed the strategic importance of the US-Saudi relationship. But in his remarks to reporters at the White House, Trump derided the initial Saudi denial of any wrongdoing and efforts to conceal what happened to Khashoggi. “They had a very bad original concept,” he said. “It was carried out poorly and the cover-up was one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups. Somebody really messed up and they had the worst cover-up ever.”

It should be very telling when further penalties are announced ….if ever.

How about putting some teeth in this decision…..first, an international investigation for the Saudis will do nothing and Turkey is probably up to something….second, NATO should expel Saudi ambassadors….third suspend arms sales (do not believe the hype they will continue to buy our weapons they have a war in Yemen that needs the armament)…these would be the bare minimum of penalties for now.

But as was predicted the Saudis will get a free ride for their actions.

A closing statement…..Khashoggi’s bodily remains may have been located….

Three weeks after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and never emerged, Turkish officials are reporting that journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s body and personal effects have finally been found. The circumstances once again support the idea that a Saudi kill-team that arrived at the consulate at the same time indeed killed and attempted to dispose of him.

Though Turkish investigators are so far not confirming or denying it, top Turkish official Dogu Perincek is reporting that Khashoggi’s body was found cut-up and disfigured, and dumped in the well in the garden belonging to the Saudi consul general.

This all supports the audio recording of Khashoggi’s murder, in which the then-consule general objected to the kill-team killing and cutting up Khashoggi in the consulate, saying he’d “get in trouble.” He’s been fired, and recalled to Saudi Arabia for an investigation.

(antiwar.com)

Now ask yourself why are we not more strict on the Saudis?  It is not the oil for we have more than they do and we could make up any short fall if they, Saudis, want to retaliate……arms deals?  They need us more than we need them they will continue to buy our implements of destruction….so just what is the reason that we feel we must continuously give them oral sex?

Make Those Villains Pay

The US and its allies have made the villains of our wars pay for their treachery.  First it was the Nazis at Nuremberg and later it was Saddam  of Iraq.  The Allies thought that someone would have to pay for the atrocities that was committed by the Nazis and since Hitler had avoided trial by eating a bullet….someone had to be the example.

After the Allies got the Nazis to surrender they set about rounding up and arresting Nazis so they could be put on trial (except for the Nazis that got a free rode with Operation Paper Clip).

For the Germans it was the Nuremberg trials (1945-1949)…….

No trial provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than do the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949.  Those who come to the trials expecting to find sadistic monsters are generally disappointed.  What is shocking about Nuremberg is  the ordinariness of the defendants: men who may be good fathers, kind to animals, even unassuming–yet who committed unspeakable crimes.  Years later, reporting on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt wrote of “the banality of evil.”  Like Eichmann, most Nuremberg defendants never aspired to be villains.  Rather, they over-identified with an ideological cause and suffered from a lack of imagination or empathy: they couldn’t fully appreciate the human consequences of their career-motivated decisions.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nurembergACCOUNT.html

If that is too much to read…then watch this……

These were show trials and to  pretend they were anything other than that is disingenuous….why do I say such a thing?

Easy the judges were from the Allied countries so to say that it was a “fair” trial is laughable.  (do not get me wrong….these d/bags deserve to be punished for their crimes against humanity)

All I am saying is if the Allies truly wanted this to have an air of legitimacy then the judges should have come from the neutral countries during WW2…Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland.