April 8, 2012, Happy Easter
It's a nice day; let the President play golf, says I (after we lay out our preconditions to talks with Iran presumably to assure that there won't be any.)
Sadly, long-time CBS news staple Mike Wallace passed way, though at 93, he certainly had a nice run.
Of course, given the reports of the potential for the spent-fuel rods at Fukushima , Japan to discharge perhaps 85 times the radiation released from Chernobyl, and likely take out much of Earth's life... he may be among the luckier ones. Also, the fact that their home might soon be uninhabitable should give some solace to the people of Catalina Island, California, for whom gasoline prices have passed $7/gallon.
That sort of "destruction of civilization" thing kind of takes the thunder away from everything else, really. We can pay less attention to the fact that the United States Government is training an Iranian group that the U.S. State Dept. classifies as terrorists (and naturally has ties to the killing of Americans). [Hey, I hear the Knicks took one from the Bulls today...]
Happy Easter, everyone (and a Zissen Pesach to my lantsmen.)
April 6, 2012, You know it's an election year when...
It's time to crank up the GTMO Show Trial Machine [TM], in this case to reopen the long-lost military commission cases against KSM and four of his friends [for the record, besides Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the listed defendants include: Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi] down at Guantanamo Bay.
Well, y'all know my feelings on the subject, and you're welcome to check out those of former commissions prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld and former commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis, as expressed in my linked-to interviews with them. Let me highlight some of Col. Davis's comments:
The Talking Dog: You have stated that the commissions were neither "military" nor "justice." Do you believe that the Obama Administration's later tweaks with the commissions process, applying to those commissions going forward, and to the extent contained in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (recently signed into law remedy) this -- in a non-superficial way?Morris Davis: [T]he answer is "no": I don't think the "reformed" military commission process is significantly different from the military commissions as I left them in October 2007.
Candidate Obama was adamant about the gross injustice of the military commissions, until, of course, he flip-flopped and embraced military commissions. He needed something face-saving, so enough "changes" were made to give him some political cover to claim things were different.
The Military Commissions Act of 2009 was just a politically motivated veneer slapped onto the old process to give the administration an excuse for embracing what it had condemned. If you look beneath the veneer you see that the most significant change to what had been the last “reformed” incarnation of the commissions is a slight change to the hearsay rule. Under the old rules, hearsay was presumed reliable and the burden was on the opponent of a hearsay statement -- most often the accused -- to show by a preponderance of evidence that the statement was unreliable. The "big change" made in 2009 was that the burden shifted to the proponent of hearsay evidence to show, by a preponderance of evidence, that the hearsay evidence is reliable. This change is, basically, a burden shift from the accused to the prosecution, in most instances, of about 1/100th of one percent. A preponderance of evidence is a 50.001 percent versus 49.999 percent standard. If swapping the hearsay burdens around represents a significant change, then there has been a significant change. I don't think it’s anything more than a little coat of whitewash to give President Obama some political cover.
After a while, given the simultaneous convergence of environmental catastrophe, peak oil, financial implosion/depression, broader issues of overpopulation and possible planetary overshoot (read "mass starvation"), and so much other bad sh*t already on their way for us this 2012, coupled with the fact that we are well on the way to domestic dictatorship as it is, the seemingly minor injustices of Guantanamo... just don't seem quite as central as all that anymore. I should note that, for those who still, against all evidence, actually think "elections matter"... we can note that Mitt Romney once suggested that the problem with Guantanamo was that it wasn't big enough (by half).
And obviously, the alleged perps of 9-11 seem a perfect coda for a citizenry always willing to sacrifice the rights of "the other," never quite figuring out that unless everyone gets benefit of law, then no one really does... heck, even a kangaroo court seems better than the summary execution that al-Awlaki (and his teenage kid) got, right?
The heady days of Shiny New President Obama signing executive orders to close the place and other good stuff once hinted at in his inaugural address on that cold January day (in my case, I saw my college classmate-- we both graduated a year before 1984-- take the oath of office on a large screen set up near Wall Street, just a few feet from where George Washington took the first Presidential oath of office)... are all long behind us.
We have since learned that perfect's the enemy of the good and all... and, of course, that freedom's slavery, war's peace, ignorance's strength, etc.
And I guess that's it. It's an election year again.
April 1, 2012, April First Greetings
Obviously, since this is my April 1st edition, everything I write here is some kind of April Fool's joke. That's how it's been pretty much through the run of this blog. But I'm not going to go give you, say, a blockbuster April Fool's Day interview, like I have in the past with, say, Rumsfeld, Cheney or Palin. Just, you know... interviewed out. So this year... I'm going to "keep it real," and just give you April Fool's Day... straight up.
So, for example, the [hilarious!] idea that it would be House Republicans trying to curb the terms of the NDAA statute to, say, limit the power of the executive to arbitrarily detain whomever the President wishes, say, citizens if nothing else, has got to be some kind of a joke. I suppose they're the ones who will stand up to that mean old Mr. Holder, who couldn't possibly be wrong in suggesting that it is perfectly legal for the President to execute anyone he wants, Bill of Rights be damned. I mean, these are the same House Republicans who liken America's immigration detention facilities to campus holidays. Those House Republicans, man. Kind of makes me all warm and fuzzy-- like I want to go out and build my own Museum of Creationism, or something.
No, that can be real.
Neither can, say, the Obama Administration be doing its utmost to make the Bush Administration look like a model of transparency when compared to it.
Or that "the Walmart of Weed" will be opening in Washington, D.C. Or of course, the government needn't trouble itself with monitoring the patrons of such a cornucopia of cannibis... it can just spy on you through your major appliances.
Nope. I'd better stop this here. Sorry this has gotten to be rather tasteless on my part. So... please forgive me. This has been... April First Greetings.
And don't get me started on "Health Care Reform."
March 23, 2012, Expressway to perdition
Just as the Constitution-shredding NDAA, rushed through Congress and signed just hours before midnight on New Year's Eve formally codified the de jure dismemberment of the Bill of Rights (essentially using unilaterally declared "military emergency" as a justification to kill or en-dungeon anyone, anywhere at the President's sole whim), we now get an executive order (the "National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order") that, in any circumstance in the mere "interest of national defense" authorizes the President to enslave anyone and commandeer all property, including food and water.
I'm more sanguine about all of this than others because, well, I've been paying attention for the last ten years. None of this is anything new. Thing is, we go back almost exactly ten years to the Curious Case of Jose Padilla, and the fact that, despite nominal rules like Ex Parte Milligan supposedly preventing the Government's arbitrary imprisonment of anyone and suspending of habeas corpus while courts are open, somehow "exceptions" were found for the "extraordinary" situation we find ourselves in (to wit, Big Finance has captured everything and doesn't want any questions asked), and citizens (not merely swarthy Muz-lum furriners) could be thrown in the brig and tortured, due-process free. Say what you will... it's now all perfectly "legal." So while the ante is being upped... it's only being upped quite marginally, really.
The delicious ironies abound, of course. The nominal Goldman Sachs's God's instrument on Earth is none other than President Barack Obama, alleged "Constitutional Law Scholar" and, of course, my own college classmate, who signed the latest Soviet edict shortly before heading to The Dubliner Irish pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, said pub amusingly being my own favorite watering hole (and site of my "leaving Washington party") at the time of my erstwhile service in the U.S. Justice Dept. back when St. Ron of Santa Barbara was the President.
Deep sigh. Our friends at the Occupy! movement should take some pride in this: the Central Powers (the respective management and lobbyists of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Bank of America, HSBC, Wells Fargo, et als.) feel some pressure, and they especially feel the need to "legalize" what would otherwise be a really bad public relations move of having to have their agents and subsidiaries in the cabinet level agencies formally seize everything, so they needed a "legal" fig-leaf (a large fig-leaf to be sure, but any plant-part in a storm!).
And so... the Empire Strikes Back: sometimes you just have to break some legs eggs to make a credit default swap.
March 17, 2012, Don't mess with the Man
Happy St. Patrick's Day. Alrightie then.
Those who don matador outfits and take out red capes to go bull-fighting against sacred bovines would do well to recognize the risky nature of the business. When doing so under the seemingly protective cloak of "big media" legitimacy, sacred-cow-fighters must realize the possibility that Money will fight back-- and let's face it: Money fights dirty.
Remember that Money liked George W. Bush, a lot. Bush repaid them with tax cuts, 99% of which pretty much went to the 1%, the deficit went to the moon, and the rest takes us to where we are now. Anyway...
I suspect that fewer Americans than you would think can even remember who Dan Rather is, let alone how his daring to take on a sacred cow (in this case, the fundamentally true story of George W. Bush's use of political influence to evade service in the Vietnam War by joining the Texas Air National Guard, and then, largely evading service even in that), resulted in a kerfuffle over collateral details in the story that were never proven untrue either. This in turn resulted in Rather's abruptly stepping down from his CBS news anchor position just before the '04 election (and to Money, we say "your horse naturally won").
Similarly, we recall a situation where a rather perverse view of "process" also seemed to benefit Bush, via another media rollover-- to wit, the fundamental truth of the actual story was sound (unquestionably true, actually)-- but the "personal views" of the journalist-- caused a walk-back. In that case, it was a somewhat unusual incident involving our friend Andy Worthington, whereby a front-page story run in the New York Times concerned an Afghan national who, without doubt, died in U.S. custody at Guantanamo had to be "clarified" because of Andy's "personal views" (i.e., his "controversial" views that GTMO is an ongoing abomination... and of course, he has a well-documented book and web-site on the subject.)
The latest event involving taking on one of Money's sacred cows comes from what had been, until perhaps this weekend, one of the few bright spots on National Pandering Radio (NPR), the "This American Life" program, which, in one fell swoop, threw all of its credibility away in a facile attempt to preserve its credibility. A bit more on the story here, which, in brief, involved monologue-ist [and fellow Brooklynite] Mike Daisey doing one of his signature bits, "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," which dared OBSERVE that the most profitable and valuable corporation in the history of the world, Apple Computer (which has essentially blessed us with cool toys and little else)... relies on Chinese factories that employ highly inhumane and exploitative working conditions. This proposition, of course, as are the other propositions set forth above, is "true"... in the way the war-mongering work of The New York Times reporter Judith Miller... is not.
And yet "fundamental truth" isn't the point-- what matters (that, is, when it needs to matter) is "the weaselly defense lawyer" truth-- the ability to invoke "reasonable doubt" (or unreasonable doubt) not by challenging the story, but some collateral details in the story. In Daisey's case, the issue was not whether or not Foxconn workers under contract to American corporations (including and especially Apple) were as young as 12 or 13, worked long hours and did horribly repetitive tasks and occasionally suffered chemical poisonings (this is admitted fact)... Daisey's "mistakes" involved purporting to insert personal observation of these well-documented facts, based on essentially a drive by visit to Chinese factories, where he supposedly met workers telling him of these conditions. Except he kind of didn't (or in one case, based it on observing a worker who looked 13 to him, rather than asking the worker.) Alright-- so Mike is exaggerating: he should have been clearer that he was "imagining" the workers telling him this [as a matter of artistic license, one supposes] rather than pretending (even if rhetorically) that he was "a journalist". But... honestly... so what? Why isn't it the story's fundamental accuracy what matters? Heh.
The difference, boys and girls, is not some "meta-discussion" of the dichotomy between journalism and art (Mike Daisey's own response). It's much more troubling (and hint: "it's not about process.") It's really a simple lesson observed by media critic Eric Boehlert during my interview with him:
There are unspoken rules out there: do a story critical of Bush, if things get tough and blow up, you may lose your job, and your show may be canceled.
Or, quite frankly, do any story critical of any of Money's Most Sacred Cows. And so it is crystal clear what happened here: a story ran on a major Establishment media arm, National Pandering Radio, which is utterly dependent on corporate money to exist, and Money didn't like a story and simply threatened to pull the plug (whether, as I suspect, quite overtly, or perhaps with some degree of subtlety... but the result is the same... I don't really care that the cover story will be some "discovery" by "another journalist"... "plllllllease.")... Journalistic integrity mon derriere.
Anyway, "voila!"... Americans can go, now all cleansed and guiltless, back to their Apple toys, knowing that the story of their manufacture by ostensible slave labor in Dickensian working conditions has been duly "discredited" via some hand-wringing and "journalistic integrity." After all, Apple is one of the most widely held companies in the portfolios of the powerful, not to mention, a company that is sitting on more cash than the United States Treasury.
In short, Mike Daisey, "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature. YOU WILL ATONE."
As for the rest of us... well, those who doubted that NPR was part and parcel of the same Establishment press as, say, Fox News (only in a more sober tone)... have less reason to doubt it. The Business of America is BIG Business. And there is no OTHER business of America. In fact, if it's NOT about dollars, it's UN-AMERICAN. Honestly, Mike, Apple MAKES MONEY AND COOL STUFF. Who cares how they do it?
This has been... "Don't mess with the Man." We mean it, man.
March 15, 2012, Beware the ides of March
Here's the thing: I'm having a hard time determining which is the parody-- this, a resignation statement from a former senior manager for an economy-destroying empire... or this, a resignation statement from a former senior manager for an economy-destroying empire.
Honestly-- honor and integrity from someone who spent twelve years at Goldman Sachs? Please, Greg. At least Lord Vader presents the genuine possibility of burnout... that sentiment, at least, has a shred of credibility to it.
March 14, 2012, All politix is local
Oh, let's all hail Rick (the P is silent) Santorum for his primary wins in Alabama and Mississippi, proving I suppose, that really hateful and reactionary rhetoric sincerely expressed is still appreciated in some circles of hell parts of the US of A.
Hateful and reactionary policy, however, whether directed at reporters or whistle-blowers of any kind, or of course, the usual suspects (those poor bastards at GTMO) ... well, those ill-feelings are wonderfully bi-partisan.
I realize I'm a broken record. No one is listening-- or wants to. The country's attentions will now turn to "March Madness," as even what passes for "the political process" is attracting no one's interest. And the Government/Finance stranglehold will just continue to consolidate-- an addled, overworked (when they have jobs), stressed-out, and let's face it, not very bright American public simply refuses to "connect the dots"-- that the threat isn't mythical terrorists-- the threat is a now fully militarized internal police-state apparatus, that now awaits only its moment for domestic deployment: the "legal authority"-- complete with statutory fiat and courts that won't stop it (because of course, it was first applied to Muz-lems, Latino gang-bangers and dirty hippies, and not, of course, to God-fearing overweight White exurbanites)-- it's all there, on the shelf, just waiting for its moment.
And the thing is-- even when it is unleashed broadly on the entire "99%"-- I'm still not convinced that most Americans would be particularly upset (assuming their crappy food, meds and electronic toys were still readily available.)
Alrightie then.
March 9, 2012, "Trust us"
Haven't had too much chance to blog... but how 'bout that Eric Holder and the new "Liquidate enemies of the state? Trust us."
Honestly-- it's the logical next step after being able to throw anyone we want into a dungeon without any semblance of legal or constitutional rights (and btw, this is "citizens or anyone else")... why NOT target assassinations?
Greenwald rightly decries Democrats for their ominous partisan silence on this-- even as Republicans have the intellectual honesty to laud Obama for embracing policies they like.
Yes... that's where we are. Another third world dictatorship, only with better drones (and nuclear weapons!) Oh... our "leaders" won't abuse any of it... "Trust us."
February 29, 2012, Time marches on
And so we come to a once-quadrennial event, February 29th. I spent the early part of it convalescing in a big city emergency room, following up on an ailment that has plagued me much of this month; to my immense relief (and that of TD-Mom, who stayed with me, Mrs. TD and the Pup, and the rest of TD Famiglia... and hopefully, but not necessarily, TD World), I'm told that things are improving, and neither a multi-day hospital stay (as happened a fortnight or so ago) nor surgery is required. At least for now. And so, as I approach my 50th in about 8 months time... I guess this is the sort of thing I should get used to-- periodic strange medical maladies. But I digress.
Or do I? Because as sick as I feel (and although I'm pleased to be recovering, I do have some pain), I still seem to be healthier than our macro, be it issues environmental, economic, war and peace, civil liberties or you name it. As I quipped to a hospital technician (who suggested that Romney won Michigan...) I counter-suggested that perhaps in a few days, Santorum will have actually won it by 32 votes... but in any event, the whole thing is merely An Entertainment. It certainly matters not ultimately which Vassal-of-Goldman-Sachs occupies the Presidency, or which of "the two parties" controls the Congressional branch of our Strumpetocracy (a brilliant term I recently heard somewhere). So... I'm just not going to play that. As I suggest to you all... go about your own business. Don't get worked up about thinking there is any difference at all (and I mean AT ALL) about "who wins elections" in this country [or much of the world].
Just take care of yourself... and maybe you won't have to spend the evening in the ER... just saying.
And so... there we are.
February 26, 2012, Good times
Thousands braved the Russian winter to protest the inevitable election of Vladimir Putin back to the presidency of Russia in Moscow, forming a near human chain along that city's Garden Ring road.
Where was the pepper spray, the sonic weaponry or the tear gas and flash grenades?
It's about confidence, in some sense... the Russian people are confident that their government won't open fire on them, and Mr. Putin is reasonably confident, he'll win his election even without [the inevitable] fraud. In the US of A, by contrast, the status quo senses its grip beginning to slip, and hence, it desperately tries to hold on to power by any means necessary.
I wonder what this means?
February 16, 2012, The national ethos
As fortune would have it, I was kind of looking for some way to demonstrate that our national discourse-- to go along with our culture, and indeed our national ethos-- was operating at the level of "infantile"... and although I don't really mean to pick on Victoria Jackson in particular... she makes such a nice example of what I'm looking for to demonstrate my point.
And no, it's not a "left/right" thing... infantile is generously "bipartisan" in this country. It's worse than that, actually, because the deeper you dig into our culture, the less you find there... it's all just a big Disney Company production with really nice stage-sets of painted plywood propped up by 2 X 4's.. with nothing... NOTHING... behind it. And hence...
For God's sake... how can you even have a conversation with someone who says things like:
"The people of California voted that they did not believe that gay marriage -- no gay marriage," she explained to HuffPost Gay Voices. "They voted that. A judge, probably gay, activist judge, overturned that. That’s what I’m talking about -- communism."She explained further that it could lead to living in pods. "Do you know what the housing is going to be like when we all live in a pod?" she asked. "And we all take public transit? It's going to be Russia. It's going to be Cuba."
and
"We should vote on everything -- of course we should vote on everything," she said. But then she changed her mind: "Oh no, I believe in a republic where we should have elected officials. Democracy turns into mob-ocracy."But in California the people voted on civil marriage, she is told, so what happened in California was mob rule, right?
"No, um, it was a judge. It was judge," she answers, hesitating. "I don't know. You're confusing me. I'm a beginner political activist."
So why shouldn’t gays be able to get married?
"That’s not marriage," Jackson explains, as still more CPAC attendees wave to her and thank her. "It's in the Bible. God created it. He did not create gay marriage. He created man and woman marriage -- duh!"
Yes. DUH.
February 9, 2012, Sadomonetarism
That's pretty much the only thing you can say about insistence by the Germans European financial authorities that already depression-ridden Greece lower its minimum wage some more and other pointlessly draconian austerity measures in order to secure yet another bailout (of mega-banks, of course).
Of course, there are those who contend that this is about actual sado-masochism-- German popular insistence that other (swarthier) people suffer as a price of German taxpayer bailout while Greece itself (its elites, anyway) enjoy the pain of still being in the euro, when pulling out and just defaulting would, in the end, result in far less pain than the current course.
Others note that if a 70% "haircut" isn't a default... just what the hell is? Of course, one of the most obscure, yet all powerful trade associations in the world... keeps insisting that defaults aren't defaults... and so, the system doesn't unravel... for another few days... until the haircut hits 100%, and the extend and pretend will inevitably fail once and for all.
Meanwhile, ignore the facts... like approval of TWO NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS... all is rosier than rosy here... election year, you know. The economy... the environment... the fact that posse comatatus and the entire bill of rights have been jettisoned... nowhere near as important as candidates' stance on gay marriage (and which billionaire is funding their Super-Pac, of course).
Well, as David Sedaris once said, Greece invented democracy, built the Parthenon, and called it a day. And now... they've sold out their sovereignty for a few accounting gimmicks to be part of the euro and so that their own rich people (like ours) can avoid taxation and mega-banks can make obscene profits in order to pay obscene bonuses.
Never saw that trick before. This has been... sadomonetarism.
February 6, 2012, Souper Bowl, Bread, Circuses, etc.
Sorry to be my usual downer self... Hey, I'm as pleased as any New Yawker to see the scrappy N.Y. Giants triumph over the more arrogant (though still brilliant) N.E. Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI (the last place we still use Roman #'S!) as anyone... but I do note that the route of the inevitable ticker-tape (sort of) parade scheduled for tomorrow goes, as usual, right by my office building, which means it also goes right past the Occupy!-free Zuccotti Park (which I assume will be extra clean for the occasion!) The D.C. Occupy! is under some extra "tent cleaning" lately...
Along with the Republican primaries/caucuses (btw, congrats to Mitt for winning the Mormon-heavy Nevada caucus), sports are presented as one of the distractions from things like, oh... the fact that election year "improvements" in unemployment stats... simply mask reality. Or that the ongoing banking crises... are still ongoing. Or that the fundamentals of the economy... aren't so good. Or that we are now a de jure dictatorship.
Well then. Congrats, Giants! Yay New York! Rah Rah!
January 31, 2012, If Iran the Circus
Alrightie then: this from WaPo's Judy Greg Miller, in which the Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. suggested in prepared testimony that Iran is planning on terrrrrrrrorist strikes within our precious bodily fluids the Amurkan homeland, in retaliation for proposed unilateral American aggression in service of the Likud party possible military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Well, our uniformed personnel are out of Iraq now (though, of course, an American taxpayer funded mercenary force will remain)... we can only bog down so many of them in Afghanistan... so... time for another war... somewhere!
Of course, the only real hope for the future of the American economy is to can the war bullsh*t, and not get bogged down in an insanely expensive and pointless conflagration whose only beneficiaries will be Erik Prince and Bibi Netanyahu Halliburton, Northrup Grumman, Erik Prince and Bibi Netanyahu. That would be too much to hope for.
In the meantime, it seems, Iran seems to be smoothly figuring out how to evade European/American sanctions by simply selling its oil for gold (which will also help further undermine the U.S. dollar's status as world reserve currency-- way to go geniuses!) Of course, is that a response to the ramped up rhetoric and sanctions... or... is that why, perhaps, Iran is slated to be "next" on our priority list for "regime change"?
Well then. Maybe Mitt Romney will get to inherit the next U.S. military sh*tstorm, as we move from our "Mess O'Potamia" over to our "Mess O'Persia," kind of the way Barack Obama inherited everything else. Either way: Goldman Sachs is fully hedged on this one (with minimum counter-party risk-- for itself; the rest of us are kind of screwed... but what else is new...)
This has been... If Iran the Circus.
January 28, 2012, YOU... make the call
Honestly, the Grey Lady, in juxtaposing two articles, one in which it evidently decries former Republican National Committee Chairman and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's remarkably generous granting of pardons on his way out the door, and Republican Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his longstanding financial ties to Goldman Sachs, invites the immediate comparison of "which one is more troubling?", It is necessary to observe that , at least in the 2008 election cycle, three of Barack Obama's ten largest contributors were Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, and that since Barack Obama took office, virtually no one has been held to account for their role in the 2007-8 financial crisis (even though over 1,000 went to jail for the smaller S&L; crisis in the '80's).
Alrightie then.... I put it to you: which is worse: (1) Convicted criminals suddenly find their debts to society abruptly reduced and canceled as a result of seeming political influence, or (2) A financial sector that has bought itself exemption from even investigation and prosecution, let alone "accountability"? It might be helpful to observe that Romney is Wall Street's man this cycle in terms of fundraising... unless, of course, he isn't and Obama is.
Either way, say what you will, but those that Barbour pardoned, even if they played their political influence cards, at least had some level of public accountability for their crimes (even if their sentences were abruptly shortened).
In the area of Wall Street's infinitely larger scale crimes, which have brought our entire financial system (and, I'm not being too hyperbolic when I suggest, quite possibly, civilization, at least in the United States) to threat of ruination through commission of massive fraud and other crimes... remains as beyond accountability as Bush-era torturers (except for whistleblowers, of course), and indeed, have been given free license to play with their "credit default swaps" and other financial weapons of mass destruction on even larger scales than those that nearly destroyed Western civilization in 2008.
I think you'll know where I'm coming down... but I leave it to you... YOU... make the call.
