HSBC’s Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card

Former Prosecutor Neil Barofsky explains that HSBC is too big to fail, just like several other Wall Street banks. The evidence is that prosecutors had the goods on HSBC--it was clear that HSBC knowingly laundered $800 Million in Columbian drug money, but used its political influence to cut a deal to write the whole thing off as a relatively small cost of doing business. As Barofsky explains on Cenk Uygur's show, we need to break up and "neuter" the big banks, but he's not optimistic that this can happen before yet another crash.

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Bradley Manning in a sentence

Found this cartoon on Facebook, but cannot determine how to link directly to it, even at the site mentioned in the cartoon. I'm reprinting it because it is one of the best statements I've seen regarding of America's massive denial regarding the significance of the actions of Bradley Manning: Glenn Greenwald , Greg Mitchell, Truthdig.com and Amy Goodman have been among the relatively few media sources giving serious coverage to Bradley Manning (and to Wikileaks). What kinds of scandals has Bradley Manning revealed? Here are more than a few.

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How much money do you need to raise to run for Congress?

If you want to be a Senator, you need to raise an average of $8,700 every day for the two years prior to the election. If you'd like to be in the House of Representatives, you only need to raise $1,700 per day, on average. These numbers are part of a stunning infographic published by RootStrikers. If you need to raise $8,700 per day, who are you more likely to meet with? People who have ideas or initiative, or people who can hand you money. And consider this too (another bit of information from the infographic): Only .26% of the people funded 68% of contributions to people running for Congress. Rootstrikers was founded by Lawrence Lessig, who has a knack for coming up with shocking irrefutable statistics relating to political corruption relating to money. The system is designed to discourage ordinary people from running for Congress. People with a distaste for asking for money are much less likely to run. People who are not functional pychopaths are less likely to run (and see this astute comment here). Or is there a huge overlap between those two types? Seems so.

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The revolving door and Obamacare

Glenn Greenwald notes another "revolving door" betrayal of the American Public:

Whatever one's views on Obamacare were and are: the bill's mandate that everyone purchase the products of the private health insurance industry, unaccompanied by any public alternative, was a huge gift to that industry; as Wheeler wrote at the time: "to the extent that Liz Fowler is the author of this document, we might as well consider WellPoint its author as well." Watch the five-minute Bill Moyers report from 2009, embedded below, on the key role played in all of this by Liz Fowler and the "revolving door" between the health insurance/lobbying industry and government officials at the time this bill was written and passed . . . Now, as Politico's "Influence" column briefly noted on Tuesday, Fowler is once again passing through the deeply corrupting revolving door as she leaves the Obama administration to return to the loving and lucrative arms of the private health care industry.

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United Republic introduces The American Anti-Corruption Act.

United Republic has just announced its 9-point plan to get much of the big money and undue influence out of politics. They are looking for one million people to sign their petition right now, and eventually 100 million, because Congress is paralyzed and won't act. Change absolutely must come from the grass roots. United Republic believes that almost all of America's clashing groups can and will come together on this project. United Republic will actively require all members of Congress to declare whether they are with the program--the pro-money representatives need to get the boot. Interesting collection of folks on the board, including Josh Silver, Lawrence Lessig and reformed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Take a close look at this effort, because this actually has a chance of getting traction. The name of the proposed act: "The American Anti-Corruption Act."

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