"Pay to play" sounds reasonable to me, said Guido "The Snake" Gambino

Back on June 9th I wrote here about why I won't vote for Hillary Clinton.  It isn't because she isn't smart, or isn't qualified...she is on both counts.  She's been in and around government almost her entire adult life.  After all these years she no doubt has a star-studded black book of important contacts.  She's likely shaken down many of them, too.  (Something not exclusive to Hillary.)

Politics is a sleazy business...big shock, I know!  Politicians (of both parties) know how to write laws that make themselves look pure as the driven snow, but not too many layers deep into the regulations they write, if you know what to look for, you'll find all the necessary loopholes that give them a free hand to do pretty much whatever they want.  The very people who decide by the laws they write what is legal or illegal will quite naturally declare whatever they do to be legal.  It's the proverbial "license to steal".

With Hillary's "pay to play" relationship with the Clinton Foundation now front page news, let me share again what I wrote more than two months ago:

"So why won't I vote for her [Hillary]?  It's all about trust, or lack there of.  For starts, it's hard for me to separate the activities of the Clinton Foundation run by her husband and daughter and her duties as a Senator or Secretary of State.  There is no clear demarcation."

"Under federal law, foreign governments seeking to buy American-made arms [among many other things] are barred from making campaign contributions, a prohibition aimed at preventing foreign interests from using cash to influence national security policy.  But nothing prevents them from contributing to a "philanthropic foundation" controlled by policymakers.  (A tidy little loophole, wouldn't you say?)"

"Consider this:  In 2011 while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, the State Department approved a $29 billion dollar sale of American-built fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, despite the pleas of many that a deal that large would upset the delicate balance of power in the region.  The deal was even considered a "top priority" for Ms. Clinton personally.  Is it just a coincidence that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed $10 million dollars to the Clinton Foundation, and Boeing contributed $900,000 just months before the sale was given official approval?"
 
"In fact, in just three years (2011-2013) under Hillary Clinton's leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion dollars worth of arms sales to 20 nations who had given contributions to the Clinton Foundation.  This number is over twice as much as was approved by the State Department in the same time frame during the last term of George W. Bush."

"And....Hillary Clinton switched from opposing an American free trade agreement with Colombia to supporting it after a Canadian energy and mining magnate with interests in that South American country contributed to the Clinton Foundation." 

"In fact, 13 companies lobbying the State Department paid Bill Clinton $2.5 million in speaking fees while Hillary Clinton headed the agency." 

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I know some will say, "But the Clinton Foundation does many good things with the billions of dollars they control."   That's true, but the legitimate companies set up by organized crime to launder the money from their illegal activities no doubt provide some welcome community services, too.  Just because they sponsor the neighborhood Little League baseball team doesn't make their drug operations any less illegal.  I wouldn't vote for Guido Gambino for President just because he supported the local SPCA, even though I'm an ardent supporter of the SPCA.

I'm not a venomous partisan political person.  I'm not pro- or anti- either party.  I just call 'em as I see 'em.  And not only does Hillary's relationship with the Clinton Foundation look bad, it smells bad, too.  I just can't trust that whatever decisions she makes will always be in the country's best interest vs the best interest of the family business.

S 

 

Jail the bankers!

What's a guy to do?  With your eye on a new truck and needing a fast buck, you decide to turn to crime.  You walk into a business, demand money, then walk out with $1000. You get caught and the judge fines you $200 and sends you on your way.  That's it.  

Hmm....at that rate you can net $800 every time you visit your local liquor store, 7-11, or Walmart.  If you need $1600, just be sure to steal $2000.  Need $3200 for your Black Friday midnight run?  Steal $4000.  The fine is just a cost of doing business.  

It's not your money....what do you care how much the fine is?  What's the downside, except for that pesky little part about eventually going straight to hell?  Sure beats working 40+ hours a week at the sawmill.

That's essentially the way our large, prestigious (?) banks do business these days.  Today's paper reported that a number of big banks have once again been fined, this time $3.3B for manipulating the foreign exchange (currency) markets while enjoying a windfall of untold billions of dollars in "profits" in the process.

In the last few years the "Too Big To Fail" banks, the ones you and I (the taxpayers) bailed out after their greed f__ked up the world's economy back in '08, have collectively paid $251B in fines for....let's just call it what it is....THEFT.  And they're still reporting record profits!  That's just a portion of what they made off their crime spree.  The rest they've already spent, some of it going to themselves as a thank-you bonus for their "hard work".

And to rub our noses in it, just know that it's the SAME banks that keep committing these crimes over and over again.  They've learned that crime DOES pay!

Wanna stop 'em in their tracks?  JAIL THE BANKERS!  Put them behind bars.  Put them on a bread and water diet.  Put them to work busting rocks in the hot sun.  Turn 'em over to that Hang 'Em High Sheriff fella in Arizona for a year or two. 

But as long as we keep electing politicians who are also profiting from this behavior (via political campaign contributions from the bankers) nothing will change.  We the sheep will still be led to slaughter. 

*this is insane*

S

The mafia is watching and learning from the Tea Party

The mafia could learn much from the Tea Party extortionists in the House of Representatives.  

First the Tea Party campaigned explicitly on the promise they would shut down the government.  For two weeks they f__ked around making demands they KNEW would NEVER be acceptable to the opposition. 

Then they say it isn't them "....no siree, it's those damn Democrats....they won't negotiate in good faith".  Yuck yuck.  

They finally throw up their hands and say they're out, it's up to the Senate to put together some sort of compromise.  OK, fine.  Harry "Life of the Party" Reid and Mitch "Pull My Finger" McConnell, with the help of some bipartisan MODERATES, are on the verge of putting something together, and the Tea Party "Gang of Ninety" pull their heads out of their asses....

John "Boner" Boehner's "Glamour Shot"

....and announce that, no, they would put together a plan after all, scuttling everything the Senate was working on.  BASTARDS!

On second thought, the mafia is smarter than that.  (And their approval rating is higher, too.)

You want to know how to absolutely destroy a perfectly good political party?  Elect a small bunch of Tea Party bully's and let them goose-step their way into power.  In 6 months your party will be a flaming wreck.  Keep it up Tea Party, and you'll learn the meaning of "unintended consequences".

S

An offer they can't refuse....

Good morning world!

I heard on the Happy News this morning that men are helping out around the house more these days.  Not much more, but more than the 0% from days past.  The report said that women spend 52 minutes a day doing housework while men do 16 minutes a day, and women do 70% of the laundry, too.

Another advantage to downsizing to a much smaller place....there's less to clean.  I make up the bed 'cause I'm the last one up.  K does 90% of the cooking, while I do 90% of the clean up.  The laundry is pretty much 50-50.  A housekeeper every other week for a few hours does the heavy lifting.  We could do it ourselves, but after all these years Geneva is like family.  She stays.  

How about at your casa?

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Let's see....first there were the Castelano's, the Gambino's, and the Bonanno's, and now we have the USB's, the RBS's, the Citi's, the JPMorganChase's and a bunch more, too.  The list of mafia outfits grows every day.  HSBC just paid a $1.9B fine for money laundering.  (They helped Iran and the Mexican drug cartels.)  A dozen other banks are ratting on each other over their interest-rate-rigging scandal in the UK.  (Their defense....the others were more guilty than they were.)  

Now there are a combined TRILLION dollars in claims pending against BofA, JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and others over their fraudulent mortgage securities businesses.  The banks will probably settle for something like $400B.  (Does this mean they'll get away with the other $600B?  How is that fair?)  

The only thing missing from this organized crime drama is some executive "whacking" in broad daylight while they're eating their spaghetti dinners.  (Personally I'd classify that as "justifiable homicide".)

First we had "too big to fail".  Now we have "too big to indict".  It seems the Feds are offering plea bargains to the banks rather than indicting their ivory tower Dons because they're afraid a guilty verdict in court would scare away investors and the banks would go belly-up.  Then us taxpayers would get stuck with the clean up.

The message here....if you're gonna commit a crime, make it a BIG ONE!

Now, unless you're a banker....have a nice day.  :)

S