Annie Leonard tells the story of Citizen’s United in 9 minutes

Annie Leonard does a great job of summarizing the problem with Citizen's United in this eight minute video. If you agree, please do consider it sharing it with others. You'll find more of Annie's well-crafted stories at her main website, named after her first project, "The Story of Stuff." Consider, for instance, her no nonsense examination of the false-solution of "Cap and Trade." I had joined a loud chorus critical of Citizen's United with this post.

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Who is providing high powered weapons to Mexican drug cartels? The U.S. ATF

Here's yet another incredible story. I listened carefully, but I still don't get the motive. I'd like to see a few dozen subpoenas issued so that the American People and the Mexican People can get to the bottom of this idiocy.

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Happy Ponzi Day!

Charles Ponzi was born 129 years ago today, so I guess that makes it Ponzi Day today. The man for whom the pyramid scheme was named though, was a chump. Today's schemers have been many times more successful. By the time Ponzi's scheme peaked in 1920, Wikipedia notes that "he had made $420,000 ($4.59 million in 2008 terms)." See what I mean? $4 and half million isn't even enough for today's ponzi artists to get out of bed. For example, let's look at the currently best-known ponzi artist, Bernie Madoff. The amount missing from Madoff clients' accounts was nearly $65 billion, although that includes fabricated money-- actual losses total about $18 billion. Even at $18 billion though, that's still almost 4,000 times the ponzi scheme than Ponzi himself. Madoff made headlines again this week, saying that “It’s unbelievable, Goldman … no one has any criminal convictions. The whole new regulatory reform is a joke. The whole government is a Ponzi scheme.” And who better to know Ponzi schemes than the man who bested Ponzi?

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Matt Taibbi asks: “Why isn’t Wall Street in jail?”

At DemocracyNow, Matt Taibbi discusses why, on Wall Street, Nobody goes to jail."

Every single former investigator or current investigator that I talked to said the same thing: Madoff went to jail because the wrong people suffered. You know, it was famous actors. It was, you know, the glitterati in New York. If these were teachers and firemen and all the usual suspects—you know, look at the—we have a million people in foreclosure in this country right now, and a lot of them are there because of predatory lending and because of this fraud scheme, but there are no criminal prosecutions. I think that’s the reality now, is that we don’t see anybody being criminally targeted unless their victims were powerful people themselves. We have two-and-a-half million people in jail this country, you know, more than a million who are in jail for nonviolent crimes. And yet, we couldn’t find a single person on Wall Street to do even a day in jail for losing 40 percent of the world’s wealth in a criminal fraud scheme? And that tells you that we have—this goes beyond the cliché that rich people have better lawyers and they have an advantage. This is a step beyond that. This is a situation where the system is completely corrupted, and it’s true regulatory capture. The SEC and the Justice Department are essentially subsidiaries of Wall Street.

Continue ReadingMatt Taibbi asks: “Why isn’t Wall Street in jail?”