Is Matt Taibbi the only real investigative journalist left in America? It isn’t like there isn’t plenty to investigate. In another of his brilliant but deeply disturbing articles, Taibbi shows how Wall Street bankers steal Billions of dollars, and even when caught red handed face essentially no penalties at all. At worse, they receive a joke of a fine — far less than the money they stole — which they then pay using shareholder money instead of their own.
How do they get away with this? How about because the SEC and Justice department lawyers are often former executives of the very companies they are supposed to be investigating. Or that when a government auditor tries to just investigate (not even prosecute) wrongdoing, they are summarily fired. Even when the bankers are openly bragging about their rip-offs.
This is not a partisan issue. Even Obama is deeply in bed with Wall Street — Goldman Sachs one his top private campaign contributor, his economic transition team was headed by a Citigroup executive, and an executive of JP Morgan Chase is his new chief of staff. How likely is someone to go after criminal activity at Chase when they own $7.7 million in Chase stock?
In his final paragraph, Taibbi sums up the issue that to me is of paramount importance. When the system is blatantly tilted in favor of the rich and powerful then “this whole American Dream thing recedes even further from reality”. When success is defined more by cronyism instead of good old ideas and hard work, then everyone suffers.
Unfortunately, I don’t expect the corporate-owned, profit-driven mainstream media — Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or even Keith Olbermann — to give much attention to this story.
UPDATE: Cenk Uygur has a summary of the whole mess, including an interview with Matt Taibbi:
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What I wonder is this: is there the slightest possibility of the system changing for the better? And if not… where can we go from here? The upper echelons of our government and economy are so apparently corrupt, it strains the imagination. What can we do?
The beauty of our country is that we CAN change the system for the better. But we have to act. One of my favorite quotes:
“Democracy is the form of government in which everybody gets what the majority deserves!”
Our politicians and our government rules are controlled by people with money, because to get elected you need to get votes, and to get votes everyone thinks they need money.
The reality is that it doesn’t have to work that way – grass roots efforts and person-to-person connections can deliver more votes than money if it’s organized enough. Let’s face it – the Tea Party would not have had such a big launch if it wasn’t for social media and instant communications.
The real quesition is, can we get enough people to connect and care to take back the process, or are we doomed to having the Marching Morons follow the Pied Pipers on the left and right to Hades? All we can do is do our part, organize, influence, join up with like minded souls, and try.
And have a Plan B – mine is New Zealand đŸ˜‰
I am not a republican or a democrat how ever i suport the Ocupy wall street movement and i have a plan to fix the economy and this country i call it the Mabus plan so here goes if you can look past my poor spelling and bad grammer i can work
1. legalize Marajahuna and tax it 50 cents to the doller for 18 and older 2. a natinal minamim wage of 11.00 dollers a hour 3. a 20%increse on taxes for the wealthyist 1% of Americans 4. a 1% dicrese on taxes for the poorest 99% of Americans 5. end all state laws regarding prostatioun legalize prostatution to creat Jobs. 6. legalize all conceld gun and wepon carrying Nation wide for all non felons no more permits needed 8. any one person that has a net worth of 3 million dollers or more to also pay a onetime 10 thousand doller tax for enverment clean up and creation of green jobs 9. stop all imagration to the united states the population is all ready to high and the jobs are to few no more green cards givin no more workers form other countrys that are not u.s. citizens protect our border with extreme force 11. end the war in iraq and afganistan send all troops home and pay each solder vet a check for 100 thousand dollers 13. new law new rule if we are ever atacked by another country or terorist organization that resides in a nother country on u.s. soil agian then atomatic no less than 3 nukular bombs will be sent to that country 14. lower the drinking age to 18 14. all u.s. collages to lower tuition 30%. 15. make abortion ilegal nation wide exep in case of rape. 16. legalize gay marage. 17. stop all censuring of tv radio news ext. freedom of speeach means freedom of speeach no more censureing on nudeity violence or sweareing if you dont want your kids to see it then cover there eyes or turn off the tv. 20. no more fees for hunting and fishing licences it is humans right by God to fish and hunt for food without paying high prices to do so . 21. legaslize gambaling nation wide in casinos 22. all us citizins with a valid socal secerity card or picture ID that earn less than 150. thousand dollers a year should be givin a natinal 300 doller a month food stamp card 23. all u.s. citazins that make a gross of 1 million dollers a year or more will pay 5000 dollers in taxis for every 1 million earned in adition to all other taxes these are my ideas would be nice to see if they would work or not anyway we have been screwed over by the politions and the greeding corparate rich for to long any of suport for one or all of my ideas speak out and come up with your own as well
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