Articles to read together — see “The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia” by Matt Taibbi (and also recent posts on Taibbi’s blog at Rolling Stone) and also “Rigged Rates, Rigged Markets” at the New York Times. The behemoth global financial houses are rigging the system in a way that is “virtually indistinguishable from the kind of thuggery practiced for decades by the Mafia, which has long made manipulation of public bids for things like garbage collection and construction contracts a cornerstone of its business,” Taibbi writes.
When you’re done with that, see Poor Land in Jail as Companies Add Huge Fees for Probation.
“Poor Land in Jail as Companies Add Huge Fees for Probation”
I read something about that earlier. Great scam, impossible to meet probation terms, implemented by private profiteers, then they send the offenders to their buddies private prison operation, everybody’s happy!
OT, this will cheer you up: Conservative Wonderboy Grows Up, Embraces Obamacare and Philosophy. The comments are good too:
I’ve posted this before but it bears repeating. Rothschild ‘introducing’ banking methods into America in the late 1800’s – “The few who can understand the system will be either so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors, that there will be no opposition from that class, while, on the other hand, that great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that Capital derives from the system, will bear its burden without complaint, and, perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.”
So, as long as the system remains virtually unchanged, we can expect that “great body of people” (us) to be systematically screwed.
uncledad – privatizing the prison system defies understanding, unless of course, the corporation running the prison can be assured that every bed in every cell will be occupied all the time. Rehabilitation? Hardly profitable so definitely discouraged.
Felicity: if Congress had a tenth of your wisdom, the US would be a far better place then it is today. Privatization simply “incentivizes” the wrong behaviors.
I wish the world would wake up to what’s going on.Fractional reserve banking is the biggest fraud in history.
If only the Bonnanos and the Gambinos were so smart, the Goldmans and the Sachs are.
I’m all for nationalizing the banks until they can be fumigated.
I’ve read that the Rothschild cartel is out to enslave the world through fees and usury; I’m begining to believe that’s true. 2% of every transaction is a but load of money, and wars for profit along with jailing people for profit is about as EVIL as things can get.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_EXqJ8f-0
http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/07/03/10-things-we-learned-andy-griffith
OT, but what the hay…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt4Z3rm4r-4
The bit about “probation companies” putting poor folks in debt and in jail should surprise me and should “shock (my) conscience” – but it doesn’t. We don’t value freedom any more. Oh, we all want to be free, but we don’t value the idea that freedom is a big deal.
I remember Inhofe talking about how prisoners in Guantanemo had a great sounding menu. Hey, maybe the food was even *good*. And I was like, this is one of our national leaders, and he’s saying “see, *freedom* ain’t shit! Do you hear how nice their *dinner* sounds?”
Oh, I suppose, technically, he didn’t say “freedom ain’t shit” but when you say that it’s okay to remove people’s freedom, if you feed them food with good names (and, hey, again, maybe the food *is* good), then you are saying that three hots and a cot is all that *really* matters.
We don’t value freedom… we think it’s no big deal. Lock people up, for stupid reasons, or even no reason at all, as long as we can find a legal technicality to make their lives hell.
Sigh.
I’m not a good enough writer to end with a good, biting closing statement, and I’m too depressed to try.
I read a couple pages of Taibbi’s article; I’ll have to get back to it. I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind as to why the media completely ignores the crime that passes for business as usual on Wall Street. But Taibbi has it right, not only do they use the shady business practices of the mafia they must be using their intimidation tactics with the media as well. This all started with the Bush crime family, once they let old Neil get away with the savings and loan tom-foolery it was game on and has not let up. One would think that after the bailouts of 2008 the American public would wake the fuck up.
“uncledad – privatizing the prison system defies understanding, unless of course, the corporation running the prison can be assured that every bed in every cell will be occupied all the time”
Well that’s why they take over the probation process, it’s almost a guarantee. The only thing better would be private police and judges! Just remember if it’s in the interest of the shareholders then it’s just fine, don’t worry.
Whenever I think of private jails I’m reminded of that judge in Pennsylvania who was stocking a private conservative incarceration center for juveniles by slaming innocent kids with serious criminal records for so much per head. Typical consevative. What a travesty.
OK, someone please remind me what we’re supposed to celebrating today?
Oh sure, 236 years ago we declared our independence from Britain.
But somewhere after 1968 we sold our nation’s people back into dependence – on the richest among among us, and their “good graces.”
And now, we barely exist at THEIR pleasure.
We are rapidly becoming a nation of wage slaves devolving into serf’s, to serve our master and their companies.
And let’s not mince words – this probation thing is nothing less than creating a system of Debtors Prisons:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/13/388303/the-return-of-debtors-prisons-thousands-of-americans-jailed-for-not-paying-their-bills/?mobile=nc
The movement to privatize everything has completely eroded this countries governance, it economic underpinnings, its freedoms and liberties, and the pursuit of happiness.
Day-to-day “Government” is not supposed to be a profit center for cronies and hacks of bought and paid for politicians – and “governance” should not mean enforcing the maximum profits for those cronies and hack’s companies.
Ah, but there’s a reason behind all of this – the politicians personal gain!
Where are bought and paid for politicians going to go if they actually lose an election, or get tired of making a living selling their souls and selling out their constituents for the pennies on the dollar compared to what they could be making lobbying – or, on some off-chance, get indicted for what they’re doing?
Ah, no worries – they can go to the the warm and welcoming arms of the very companies that corrupted their minds and souls in the first place. And from their now far wealthier and loftier perch, they can lobby their former political companions, and the next generation of willing Judas’s and Benedict Arnolds, who’ve already sold their souls to rich individuals and companies just to GET elected to a position on this gravy train.
So, on this 4th of July, I’ll celebrate the nations independence, and the America I was born in, in 1958 – and at the same time, I’ll mourn what this nation has become:
A country where, “when in the course of human events, “we the people,”
are in the process of being sold to the highest bidder, for their own fun and profit.
Maybe soon more people will wake up, sense their growing dependence on, and their very enslavement to, the richest among us, and want to do something to change that.
Maybe we should call tomorrow, “America’s Dependence Day” – to let people know what’s happening?
But I’m afraid it’s too late.
We’ve long been in the process of selling our souls to the companies stores.
CUND Gulag,
Right now I’m celebrating a cold Samual Adams Boston lager and a hot dog on a toasted bun. I’ve been grooming a big clump of Oldhami bamboo in the back yard.
Shortly, I’ll be digging some fresh bamboo shoots for cooking and harvesting some bananas. YUM!!
erinyes,
Sounds great!
I wanted to grill a nice ribeye for me and Mom (ok – mostly for me!), but we can’t afford it.
So, it’s franks and beans and rice! I call that Am-Tex-Mex.
LongHairedWeirdo – and I remember what Barbara Bush said while viewing a sea of bodies, victims of Katrina, strewn across the cold, hard floor of a gym, “They’ve probably never had it so good.”
Barbara Bush, Inhofe… are truly out of step with reality – by definition, nuts.