Matt Taibbi gives an update on the predatory activities of Bank of America

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi is not shy when it comes to hitting back at Bank of America:

They're in deep trouble, but they won't die, because our current president, like the last one, apparently believes it's better to project a false image of financial soundness than to allow one of our oligarchic banks to collapse under the weight of its own corruption. Last year, the Federal Reserve allowed Bank of America to move a huge portfolio of dangerous bets into a side of the company that happens to be FDIC-insured, putting all of us on the hook for as much as $55 trillion in irresponsible gambles. Then, in February, the Justice Department's so-called foreclosure settlement, which will supposedly provide $26 billion in relief for ripped-off homeowners, actually rewarded the bank with a legal waiver that will allow it to escape untold billions in lawsuits. And this month the Fed will release the results of its annual stress test, in which the bank will once again be permitted to perpetuate its fiction of solvency by grossly overrating the mountains of toxic loans on its books. At this point, the rescue effort is so sweeping and elaborate that it goes far beyond simply gouging the tax dollars of millions of struggling families, many of whom have already been ripped off by the bank – it's making the government, and by extension all of us, full-blown accomplices to the fraud.

Continue ReadingMatt Taibbi gives an update on the predatory activities of Bank of America

New batch of quotes

I really enjoy a good quote; it's like getting a novel in a sentence or two. Here's are some quotes that I've collected over the past couple of months. No particular topic. I hope you enjoy them: “The initial mystery that attends any journey is how did the traveler reach his starting point in the first place.” Louise Bogan, Journey Around my Room "The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy." Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947) “Things are going to get unimaginably worse, and they are never, ever going to get better again!” Kurt Vonnegut (at a graduation speech) (mentioned by Lawrence Krauss at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo ) To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. Voltaire (1694 - 1778) “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” Clarence Darrow "It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up." W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940), "The Crack-Up" (1936) "My point in Sexual Personae is that one cannot make any kind of firm line between high art and pornography. In fact, porn permeates the high art tradition." Camille Paglia Vamps and Tramps, p. 123 "Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all stardust. You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded. Because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution weren't created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. And the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode. So forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be here today." Lawrence Krauss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo “A Universe from Nothing” (min 16:40) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Krauss [More . . . ]

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Pure political speech outlawed, for some.

Check out Glenn Greenwald's discussion of a SCOTUS decision that blesses a "terrorism" law that clearly infringes on the First Amendment, in conjunction with blatant violations of that law by Washington insiders. Incredibly, the law allows the prosecution of people involved in pure political speech.

In June, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 6-3 ruling in the case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law. In that case, the Court upheld the Obama DOJ’s very broad interpretation of the statute that criminalizes the providing of “material support” to groups formally designated by the State Department as Terrorist organizations. The five-judge conservative bloc (along with Justice Stevens) held that pure political speech could be permissibly criminalized as “material support for Terrorism” consistent with the First Amendment if the “advocacy [is] performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization” (emphasis added). In other words, pure political advocacy in support of a designated Terrorist group could be prosecuted as a felony — punishable with 15 years in prison — if the advocacy is coordinated with that group.

Until recently, only Muslims have been prosecuted for engaging in this activity, not Washington Insiders. That might be about to change, leading various Washington insiders to invoke the First Amendment.

Continue ReadingPure political speech outlawed, for some.