Thursday, December 11, 2014

Joe Firestone — The Lawless Society

The release of the Senate's torture report reminds us of the central fact of American society, today. Any semblance of equal justice under the law is now gone from what our leaders claim is the world's leading democracy.
Instead, of a constitutional democracy living under the law. We have a gangster government that fails to enforce the law, but instead prosecutes whistle blowers who make public, violations of it. Here is an off the top of the head list of our continuing and systematic failures to create justice.…
This is a crime wave composed of wholesale obstruction of justice. If we can't end it, then democracy will be gone for good.
Corrente
The Lawless Society
Joe Firestone

Then throw some Grade A hypocrisy in to the mix.

BBC
US Congress passes bill to impose Venezuela sanctions
The bill targets current and former Venezuelan officials who directed "significant acts of violence or serious human rights abuses against persons associated with the anti-government protests in Venezuela that began on 4 February".
Compare

The Guardian
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy
Naomi Wolf
It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
Corporate state, you say?

Mother Jones
Watch Elizabeth Warren Slam Republicans For Doing Citibank's Dirty Work
Erika Eichelberger and AJ Vicens
On Thursday afternoon, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to the Senate floor to rail against a Wall Street giveaway that corporate-friendly lawmakers snuck into the massive spending bill that Congress needs to pass this week in order to avert a government shutdown. The measure—which was written by Citigroup—would allow big banks like Citigroup to engage in a broader range of risky trades with taxpayer-backed money.
Add to to this impunity of the ruling elite, imposition of a state security apparatus state, a hegemonist foreign policy, and skyrocketing inequality. 

The United States is loosing all credibility as a liberal democracy under the rule of law.

International Business Times (Jan. 2, 2014)
In Gallup Poll, The Biggest Threat To World Peace Is ... America?
Eric Brown
Is the most dangerous country in the world the United States of America? According to a new poll from WIN and Gallup International, the U.S. represents the largest threat to world peace today. 
In their annual End of Year poll, researchers for WIN and Gallup International surveyed more than 66,000 people across 65 nations and found that 24 percent of all respondents answered that the United States “is the greatest threat to peace in the world today.” Pakistan and China fell significantly behind the United States on the poll, with 8 and 6 percent, respectively. Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea all tied for fourth place with 4 percent.
Nice work in bringing down the curtain on the Great Experiment, folks. Gives new meaning to "American exceptionalism."

Are we witnessing the end of the republic?

Oh, and then there is blowback.

Sputnik International
CIA Torture Report Could Strip Some Governments of Their Power: US Senator
The release of the US Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's enhanced interrogation practices will lead to some foreign governments, who took part in the CIA program, to lose their ability to govern, Senator Richard Burr has told Sputnik.

"There are going to be some governments that are going to be difficult to maintain their control without special elections, because their public will respond and say, "We never should have done this," Burr, who is set to chair the Intelligence Committee, said Thursday, referring to the consequences of the release of the so-called torture report.
Released by the committee Tuesday, the report contains information indicating certain foreign governments" participation in questionable US interrogation techniques. 
"We [the United States] had countries around the world that were our partners throughout this. They allowed us to interrogate prisoners in their countries without the knowledge of the public," Burr explained. 
The 500-page report does not contain the names of the countries, who aided the United States in the detention and interrogation program, but civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Open Society Justice Initiative have worked to decode the report and release the names of over fifty countries, who participated in the program.
Europe Must Answer for Participation in CIA's Abduction of Suspects: HRW
Human Rights Watch stated Thursday that European countries must expose their role in the CIA's abduction, illegal transfer and torture of terrorism suspects, following the recent report on CIA's interrogation techniques.

 

8 comments:

Letsgetitdone said...

Great comment on the post, Tom. It really adds richness to it.

Tom Hickey said...

Thanks, Joe. Keep up the good work.

Magpie said...

In the Spanish speaking world, people like Robert Menendez are often known as gusanos. Well, now you know why.

Matt Franko said...

"to engage in a broader range of risky trades with taxpayer-backed money."

NOT true....

Matt Franko said...

Tom,

How can citibank going to Wash DC to get a LAW changed be described as "lawlessness"?

Just because we may not agree with a law doenst make it "illegal"... or "lawless"... just the opposite...

We are giving too much cred to banks....

and E Warren is waaaaaaayyyy out of paradigm, NOT EVEN CLOSE...

Mosler: "deflation is bad for banks..."

So we have banks lending against oil at $100/bbl... then a supply shock happens and producers lower the price of their oil to $60 protect share, this creates liquidity crises in the banking system where the banks may need "lender of last resort" ie a GUARANTY from the Fed.... what is wrong with this on its own? NOTHING... this is the way the system is supposed to work...

The potheads at Mother Jones are morons with AT BEST a superficial knowledge of how the system is operating.... and are instead relying on the reactionary indignation expressed by E Warren here, herself only possessing AT BEST superficial knowledge of system operations, for their guidance on this issue... this is the blind leading the blind...

E Warren wants to limit policymakers/regulators ability to respond to a financial system crisis, ie eliminate options, ie NOT...GOOD.

The Fed lending against acceptable collateral during a crisis is not a "bailout"... its the way the system is designed to function...

"Fairness" is another issue completely... govt at the same time ignoring the rest of us because those morons think "we're out of money" is another issue...

So what is she saying? "If I dont get what I want out of it also, then I will blow the whole thing up!"

??????

This is simple IMMATURITY on her part...

This is the same woman who thinks what is wrong with the current way we yoke our young people with unbearable burdens of student loans in order to allow them the "privilege" to bust their assess studying for years to prepare them to provision the rest of us in our old age is that "the interest rates are a teensy weensy bit too high...."

She is a moron too I'm sorry..

Unknown said...

Since, once again, analysts have been warning the big banks *against* investing in energy junk bonds for shale plays which have been fingered as fraudulent from the very beginning--screw 'em. They should have known better. Again.

It's time they risked their *own* money on this idiocy, not ours. I'm with Warren.

Matt Franko said...

Unk,

They dont OWN the junk bonds they SELL them...

How are these institutions supposed to hedge and/or manage risk if they cannot own these securities IN their regulated entities??????

THEY CAN'T!

She is sowing the seeds of the next crisis because she and her staff are UNQUALIFED to be involved in these matters....

They DO NOT UNDERSTAND the operation of these systems...

rsp,

Dan Lynch said...

The United States is loosing all credibility as a liberal democracy under the rule of law.

Ya think? ;-)

Matt, the issue is that the government is protecting Wall Street banks -- which are basically casinos for the 1% -- not just Main Street banks.