Poll: Joe Biden Fading in South Carolina; Bernie Sanders Could Sweep Early Primary States
1:43
Former Vice President Joe Biden is only 5 points ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the latest poll of voters in South Carolina, the state where Biden had built a “firewall” of support among African-Americans.
The Charleston Post and Courier reported Sunday: “Biden, who once led by as much as 31 percentage points in South Carolina, holds a 5-point edge over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.” The margin of error is 4 points.
The new poll result raises the possibility that Sanders could sweep all four of the early primary states that vote in February. He leads in the latest polls in Iowa and New Hampshire; he is statistically tied with Biden in the most recent poll in Nevada; and now he is clinging to a slim lead over Sanders in South Carolina.
It is not clear why Biden is fading, but Sanders has surged over the past several weeks, especially after the entire field of candidates failed to impress during the last Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses.
The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump has kept Sanders, and other Senators running for the nomination, in Washington. However, it has also highlighted alleged conflicts of interest for Biden.
The Post and Courier poll also reported that billionaire left-wing donor Tom Steyer is now in third place in South Carolina, at 18 percent. CNN reported last month that Steyer had bought over 90% of the television advertising time in both South Carolina and Nevada, flooding the airwaves and possibly hurting Biden.
The critical element required is a pattern
of criminal or racketeering activity. This pattern is proved by showing
two predicate crimes were committed within ten years. The list of predicate crimes is extensive and
includes bribery, embezzlement, fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction
of justice.
The list of predicate crimes is extensive and includes bribery, embezzlement,
fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Deep State: A RICO Criminal
Conspiracy
It’s About Corruption –
Replacing a Failed and Corrupt Political Establishment
THIS NATION IS RULED BY AND
“The general tone was set by the New York Times in its lead editorial on Wednesday, which described the speech as a “simple, dramatic message about economic fairness, about the fact that the well-off—the top earners, the big banks, Silicon Valley—have done just great, while middle and working classes remain dead in the water.”
The critical element required is a pattern
of criminal or racketeering activity. This pattern is proved by showing
two predicate crimes were committed within ten years. The list of predicate crimes is extensive and
includes bribery, embezzlement, fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction
of justice.
The list of predicate crimes is extensive and includes bribery, embezzlement,
fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Deep State: A RICO Criminal
Conspiracy
We who elected President
Trump understood our elected officials and the Deep State were sandbagging Trump and self-dealing
public funds. It was no secret that President Trump is no angel,
unpresidential, blunt, and crude, and a disruptor. Trump was hired to drain the
swamp.
I watched this kabuki theater unfold over the
last several years. Through my eyes as a shopworn gumshoe, I will explain what
is happening. My investigative curiosity was first piqued by the ATF Fast and
Furious scandal and continues through the recent House impeachment show trial.
There is a common element running through all of these cons —
the actions of an organized crime conspiracy. A group of people
either acting alone or in concert with others committed crimes with a common
purpose - a criminal enterprise as described in
"CRIMINAL RICO: 18 USC. §§1961-1968 A
Manual For Federal Prosecutors."
The players acted
together – in the usurpation of power, the abuse of power by public officials,
bribery, thefts by fraud including federal funds, money laundering, perjury and
the obstruction of justice, the violations of fundamental of civil rights,
aided and abetted in the commission of these crimes and or to conceal these
crimes. Criminals will lie and can't keep their lies straight. Their methods
and behaviors are the same, whether engaging in street crimes or elaborate
white-collar financial schemes. The only difference is when more money is
involved, the perps are more adept in concealing, covering up their sins, and
hiding where the money went. Many of these scandals are well known to the American
Thinker readers. I will focus my comments on Hillary's home brew
sever and the Clinton Foundation as an example of how RICO can be used to
prosecute the players.
FBI Director James Comey
indicted Hillary Clinton for her home brew server at his press conference.
Comey then egregiously concluded that there was no evidence of criminal intent
purportedly “required” to prosecute. Comey bastardized the Federal Espionage Act in absolving
Hillary Clinton. FBI's investigation of Clinton's emails was low-balled. There
was never a real search for the truth. The outcome was preordained. My jaw
dropped wide open. I knew the fix was in. FBI Director Comey lied to the people
with a straight face. Why?
The chance meeting of
Bill Clinton and AG Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac was no mere
coincidence. This chat was not about the grandkids. Bill Clinton was there to
convey a specific message to Lynch that there would be no indictment of
Hillary. Hillary Clinton's email case must tank. This would have
constituted bribery, if AG Lynch was assured she would continue as AG in
Clinton Administration. This meeting took place only weeks before Comey's press
conference dumping Hillary Clinton's email case.
The Deep State needed
Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 presidential election, or the dike holding back
the truth would burst. Trump, the disruptor, was an immediate threat to both
the Republicans, Democrats, and the Deep State. If the truth were
laid bare, it would expose the Obama Administration, Hillary Clinton, the
Senate and House, and many executive departments for these abuses of power,
corruption, bribery, frauds, and thefts of public funds.
High-level government
officials and the Deep State committed many serious felonies either in
furtherance of or to conceal the crimes committed in the pay to play scam.
In exchange for favorable consideration by Secretary Clinton, those who
benefited would donate to the Clinton Foundation. The FBI
started and stopped investigations into the Clinton Foundation at least twice
as reported by the Washington Post. Peter Schweizer's book, Clinton Cash, is the most damning. Dinesh D'Souza slammed the
Foundation in the National Review, as did The Federalist.
The status of the investigation of the Foundation
by US Attorney John Huber's is unknown. Rudy Giuliani said there was enough to
pursue "Clinton Inc" as
racketeering under RICO. The Foundation and its affiliated nonprofits require a real
investigation with an in-depth forensic audit to determine where the money
went. In financial crimes investigation, the prime rule is "follow the
money, honey." Illicit nonprofits have many ways to divert funds by
inflating salaries, expenses, and money laundering.
Illegal nonprofit schemes
are difficult to prosecute without hard evidence and the testimony of insiders.
The motive of Hillary Clinton's use of the home brew server was to conceal
emails from FOIA requests that would provide the hard evidence. Hillary Clinton
destroyed the data on her server and cell phones with the knowledge of the FBI.
It took years for Judicial Watch and others to pry
and recover some of these damning emails from the foot-dragging executive
departments that were complicit and knew what was going on.
RICO initially was used to
target mob families. RICO is also a useful tool to fight white collar
conspiracies. They both have the same hierarchy of low-level crooks led by the
top players, linked together with a common purpose. RICO has tools to squeeze
the low-level operatives to gather evidence to prosecute, jail, and seize
assets of the conspirators. The critical element required is a pattern
of criminal or racketeering activity. This pattern is proved by showing
two predicate crimes were committed within ten years. The list of predicate crimes is extensive and
includes bribery, embezzlement, fraud, theft, money laundering, and obstruction
of justice. The typical five-year statute of limitations for most
federal felonies is extended to ten years from the last criminal act or acts
committed to conceal the conspiracy, i.e., lying under oath and similar actions
to obstruct justice. The prison sentences are steep. The effect is to cut off the
head of the organization and not just the low-level players.
The criminal activity
extends back to the ATF's Fast and Furious program through the House
impeachment show trial to cover up the illegal acts of the Obama
Administration, Hillary Clinton, the Department of State, the DOJ, the FBI, and
the CIA. A telltale sign that the DOJ under US Attorney General Barr is
willing to play hardball and may use RICO, came when he spoke to the Federalist
Society: "Barr accuses liberal 'resistance' of
trying to 'sabotage' Trump." AG Barr said this, "shows FBI launched Trump campaign
investigation on the 'thinnest of suspicions." AG Barr is the new sheriff in town,
he wears a badge, has guns and will travel, can impanel grand juries, indict
and arrest people, and is not limited in his jurisdiction, like DOJ IG
Horowitz.
The collective actions of
the Deep State are and were a silent coup to delegitimize a Presidential candidate.
Once elected to impede and resist the duly elected President. The President's
law enforcement and intel agencies were corrupted at the highest level and went
rogue.
Organized crime can't
exist without corrupt law enforcement. As I wrote in a letter to President
Trump earlier this year:
. . . I believe you
understand the gravity of the situation and of its importance to the very
survival of our Country as we know it. If the people involved are not held
accountable for their actions, we will be no different than some Third World
Banana Republic.
Failure to act will
destroy our founding principle of the Rule of Law as stated by President John
Adams, "We Are a Nation of Laws, Not of Men" and we cannot allow a
two-tiered justice system to prevail.
Ron Wright is a retired detective from Riverside PD, CA. BA in
political science CSUF, M. Adm. University of Cal, Riverside. Facebook at Ron
T. Cop.
“Our entire crony
capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy
approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way a great
country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN
THINKER.com
Peter Schweizer, author of “Secret Empires: How the American
Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,”
It’s About Corruption –
Replacing a Failed and Corrupt Political Establishment
American presidents have their famous
speeches, remembered long after they leave office. JFK said: “Ask not what
your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Ronald
Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and told Mikhail Gorbachev to: “Tear
down this wall.”
Some speeches are memorable in other ways.
George W. Bush, days after 9/11, ironically announced that: “Islam is
peace.” Barack Obama proclaimed himself the messiah: “This was the moment
when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal.”
President Trump has certainly given strong
speeches, such as at the recent March for Life. But he may be remembered more
for his raucous rallies and hilarious tweets. Yet one speech has flown under
the radar.
On Oct. 13, 2016, just weeks before
the election, Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Florida. Leading up to the election,
he was holding several rallies each day, giving numerous speeches, but this
seemingly random speech stands out.
The enigmatic Q group refers to it as the
speech that got Donald Trump elected. As it was one of many pre-election
speeches he gave and at a Florida rally, it may have only been heard by a
fraction of Trump voters before the election, but it certainly encapsulates his
philosophy, both before and after the election, toward government corruption.
The speech explains the resistance by the
Washington, D.C. ruling class to Trump’s candidacy, election, and presidency.
Trump attacked the foundation of deep state power, wealth, and corruption.
Trump was indeed an “existential threat” to the cabal.
Before even being elected, and years
before Joe Biden decided to run for president, Donald Trump was focused on
corruption. Not to influence his reelection, as House Democrats accuse, since
he wasn’t even president yet. But because rooting out corruption was part of
his plan to make America great again.
Everything that followed his election,
from the Russian collusion accusations, White House leaks, special counsel
investigation, and now impeachment, is a reaction to the ideas Trump explains
in this 6-minute speech. Watch it here or read the transcript.
The opening lines are prescient, becoming
painfully obvious now almost four years after he laid out the scale of
corruption.
Our movement is about replacing a failed
and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you,
the American People. There is nothing the political
establishment will not do, and no lie they will
not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense.
The Washington establishment, and the financial
and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and
enrich itself.
The establishment has trillions of dollars at
stake in this election. As an example, just one single trade deal they’d like
to pass, involves trillions of dollars controlled by many countries,
corporations and lobbyists.
For those who control the levers of power in
Washington, and for the global special interests they partner with, our
campaign represents an existential threat.
“Protect
and enrich.” This is a perfect encapsulation of the Clinton Foundation and
the Obama book and television deals. Then there is the Biden family corruption,
followed closely behind by similar abuses of power and office by the Warren and
Sanders families, as Peter Schweizer described in his recent book “Profiles in
Corruption.” These names just scratch the surface of government
corruption.
Candidate
Trump then went on to say:
It’s a global power structure that is responsible
for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our
country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of
large corporations and political entities.
This
is money given to corrupt foreign countries, disguised as aid, only to be
returned to the political elite by hiring their unqualified family members for
do-nothing jobs, as in Hunter Biden, or funneling these U.S. taxpayer dollars
back into political foundations, consultancies, or campaign contributions.
Once
upon a time, journalists investigated such corruption. Now they ignore it,
aiding and abetting the deception. As Trump said in his speech:
The corporate media in our country is no longer
involved in journalism. They are a political special interest, no different
than any lobbyist or other financial entity with an agenda.
Speak
up against the cabal and you will be destroyed, or even commit suicide. Trump
went on:
The establishment and their media enablers wield
control over this nation through means that are well known. Anyone who
challenges their control is deemed a sexist, a racist, a xenophobe and morally
deformed. They will attack you, they will slander you, they will seek to
destroy your career and reputation. And they will lie, lie and lie even more.
It’s
amazing that Trump predicted exactly what happened a few days ago when
“Republican political strategist” Rick Wilson called the group of “you”
mentioned above, “credulous boomer rubes” with CNN hack Don Lemon laughing so
hard he almost fell off his chair.
President
Trump has been impeached for drawing back the curtain on deep state
malfeasance. Before handing over millions of hard earned U.S. taxpayer dollars
to Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe,
he wanted to know the money was necessary and going where promised, rather than
into the pockets of oligarchs and U.S. politician grifters.
He
acted as he was required to under the “Treaty with
Ukraine on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters,” ratified in 2000,
15 years before Trump announced his run for president. He was doing his job,
fulfilling his Constitutional oath of office. His reward for pouring roach
killer in the nest of Democrat crooks and knaves was impeachment and a
concerted effort by Democrats, the media, and nasty NeverTrump Republicans, all
heads on the same toxic hydra, to overturn the last election and rig the next
one.
It’s
not about Trump enriching himself, despite what Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler
say, it’s for the country. Again, from the famous speech:
I didn’t need to do this. I built a great
company, and I had wonderful life. I could have enjoyed the benefits of years
of successful business for myself and my family, instead of going through this
absolute horror show of lies, deceptions and malicious attacks. I’m doing it
because this country has given me so much, and I feel strongly it was my turn
to give back.
It’s
all about corruption, exposing it, rooting it out, and destroying it. Those who
are the most threatened are those who scream the loudest. Given the Democrat
and media apoplexy, Trump must be getting closer to the truth.
He
ended his speech by throwing down the gauntlet:
We will vote to put this corrupt government
cartel out of business. We will remove from our politics the special interests
who have betrayed our workers, our borders, our freedoms, and our sovereign
rights as a nation. We will end the politics of profit, we will end the rule of
special interests, we will put a stop to the raiding of our country – and the
disenfranchisement of our people.
It’s
not about abuse of power or obstruction of Congress. It’s not about quid
pro quo or bribery. It’s simply a new sheriff in town, bringing law
and order to drain a swamp of greed and corruption. It’s President Trump doing
exactly what he said he would do if elected, making America great again.
He
is doing what past presidents have talked about and promised, but then either
looked the other way or became active participants in the graft. And those
milking the system are petrified over exposure and their long overdue
reckoning.
Brian
C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose
pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, and other publications.
Follow him on Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter,
and QuodVerum.
FOR BIG BANKS!
“The general tone was set by the New York Times in its lead editorial on Wednesday, which described the speech as a “simple, dramatic message about economic fairness, about the fact that the well-off—the top earners, the big banks, Silicon Valley—have done just great, while middle and working classes remain dead in the water.”
The Problem with Bernie
Supposedly in the new four-hour (yikes!) documentary Hillary the subject says of Bernie Sanders “Nobody likes him.” As with most of Hillary’s judgments, especially when it comes to gauging human desires, she is way off the mark. In fact, Sanders appears to be a reasonably likable guy, which accounts in part for his spike in the Democrat polls. There is a strong possibility he’ll end up the party’s nominee, a frightening prospect for the Democrat establishment and the country as a whole.
Current polling suggests Sanders might win the Iowa primary. He’s polling just below Biden (23-21%) within the margin of error. Nationally, he holds a slight lead among Democrat primary voters (27-26%) also well within the margin of error. The same poll has Warren at 15%.
This has reportedly alarmed top Democrats. Not only does Sanders present the type of truly radical socialist that wealthy Democratic elites really don’t want jiggling with the economy and their stock portfolios, they think a Sanders candidacy effectively will secure Trump’s reelection. Even worse, it might flip the House as well, mirroring the crushing defeat that befell Jeremy Corbin, the far-left British politician, who Sanders resembles in many respects.
President Sanders would attempt to radically remake the United States into a socialist state further to the left, further indebted, and further internationalized than even Western Europe’s most liberal polities. It would be a historical disaster of epic and perhaps irrevocable proportions.
Sanders ideas are so radical that his chances of beating Donald Trump in November appear marginal. It’s assumed he would not bring a heavy Democratic turnout, struggle with blacks, and alienate the critical independent voters who effectively will decide the election.
Relatedly, Sanders offers no “identity advantage” to the Democrats, which might also drive excitement within the party and push turnout. He’s an old white guy from New York (like Trump), plus he’s ethnically Jewish, not a plus with Democrats today.
Wealthy donors, for all their talk of “equality” and pandering to the myriad of “oppressed identities” that form the Party’s base, virtue signal as they do because they are confident that their own core wealth and privilege will either rise or remain unaffected in a Democrat administration. That would not be true under President Sanders. And sitting representatives and senators worry that they’ll be dragged down in a Sanders debacle.
For these reasons, it’s plausible that Donald Trump would love to run against Sanders. In Iowa, Republican operatives are moving hard against Joe Biden, not Sanders, evidently in bid to knock him out of the race early, giving Sanders the edge and momentum, which would be bolstered with a Sanders win in New Hampshire, where recent polls say he’s opened a 15-point lead.
One of Sanders strengths, but also a problem for the Democrat establishment, is that like Trump, Sanders has a solid and dedicated base. That base is made up largely of younger and also less wealthy people, who feel alienated. This includes so-called Bernie Bros, who think Bernie will give them a lifetime of handouts, even if they decide not to work -- God bless’em. But it’s not just the bros. Sanders is the candidate of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the effective national leader of the young left, who is at risk of losing her own congressional seat due to her ignorance and dismissal of retail politics.
The problem for the establishment is that attacking Sanders or brokering a convention would almost certainly alienate this base. They might put down their video games and cellphones to vote for Bernie, but they ain’t gonna do it for Joe Biden (or Michael Bloomberg if it came to that.)
Even worse, this sense of alienation that affects many of Sanders supporters actually makes them more open to Trump than most other Democrats. Ten percent of Sanders supporters actually ended up voting for Trump in 2016, a reflection of the fact that personality rather than policy drives a lot of people, especially younger folks. Were that to happen again, especially given the growth in Sanders’ popularity, it could prove disastrous for Democrat hopes in 2020.
So knocking Biden out of the race to open the way for Sanders seems like a reasonable strategy for Trump and Republicans. But it is also a high-risk venture.
On a personal level, Sanders matches up rather well with Trump. Like Trump, Sanders is his own man, relatively authentic for a politician. Trump benefitted substantially from the strong dislike many Americans have for Hillary Clinton, a phony if there ever was one. Sanders isn’t like Hillary, other than that they are both people of the left.
Philosophically, Sanders has been more consistent than Trump, who has migrated variously over the political and social map. Trump has solidly staked a claim as a tough conservative President in the past three years, particularly through his judicial picks, but Sanders can shake off attempts by Trump to paint him as a phony.
The bottom line is that for all his myriad philosophical problems as a candidate, Sanders does well on a personal basis. He’s unlikely to be intimidated or shouted down, and while Sanders not as funny as Trump by a long mile, he’s less unfunny than most of his Democrat competitors. Trump will have to beat him by scaring the bejabbers out of people with the prospect of being led by Comrade Bernie.
Trump can do that, and would likely beat Sanders, flip the House Republican to boot, and hand the Democrats an epic defeat. Clearly this is what the Democrat establishment fears, and Trump seems to be trying to engineer. For Trump and Republicans, going against Bernie is a good bet, but with incredibly high stakes.
BARACK OBAMA AND HIS CRONY BANKSTERS set themselves on America’s pensions next!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/04/obamanomics-assault-on-american-middle.html
The new aristocrats, like the lords of old, are not bound by the laws that apply to the lower orders. Voluminous reports have been issued by Congress and government panels documenting systematic fraud and law breaking carried out by the biggest banks both before and after the Wall Street crash of 2008.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and every other major US bank have been implicated in a web of scandals, including the sale of toxic mortgage securities on false pretenses, the rigging of international interest rates and global foreign exchange markets, the laundering of Mexican drug money, accounting fraud and lying to bank regulators, illegally foreclosing on the homes of delinquent borrowers, credit card fraud, illegal debt-collection practices, rigging of energy markets, and complicity in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
JPMorgan Chase records the biggest profit of any bank in US history
OBAMANOMICS: THE ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS CONTINUES - The insider trading fix and class justice in America
THE COURTS UPHOLD DICTATOR OBAMA'S POLICIES OF CRIMINAL BANKSTER CRONIES ABOVE THE LAW!
CRIMES AGAINST AMERICA: Barack Obama, His Criminal
Banksters and the Mexican drug cartels
“I’m not here to punish banks!” Barack Obama in the faces of the American People his bankster donors looted – State of the Union Message
“Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
OBAMA’S PROMISE TO CRONY
BANKSTERS: Not one day in prison!
“Nearly five years after the greatest financial crash since the
Great Depression, triggered by rampant illegality and fraud
on the part of the major banks, not a single major institution
or leading bank executive has been indicted, let alone tried,
convicted and jailed.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/01/barack-obama-and-jamie-dimon-americas.html
Hillary has declared bankster looting will see even greater rewards from her administration!
“In reality, the settlement falls far short of holding JPMorgan
accountable for its fraudulent sale of mortgage-backed assets,
which netted the bank tens of billions of dollars in profits
while exacerbating the sub-prime mortgage crash that led to
over ten million foreclosures in the US and a global economic
downturn that thrust many millions more into
unemployment and poverty.”
“Nearly five years after the greatest financial crash since the
Great Depression, triggered by rampant illegality and fraud
on the part of the major banks, not a single major institution
or leading bank executive has been indicted, let alone tried,
convicted and jailed.”
Hillary has declared bankster looting will see even greater rewards from her administration!
“In reality, the settlement falls far short of holding JPMorgan accountable for its fraudulent sale of mortgage-backed assets, which netted the bank tens of billions of dollars in profits while exacerbating the sub-prime mortgage crash that led to over ten million foreclosures in the US and a global economic downturn that thrust many millions more into unemployment and poverty.”
The insider trading fix and class justice in America
Every day in America, workers and young people are set upon by the police. On most days, at least one is killed.
Over the seven days between March 27 and April 3, 28 people were killed by police officers across the US. Christopher Prevatt, 38, of Winchester, Virginia became the 28th fatality of the week, and the 298th of 2015, when he was shot and killed in his home at about 5 PM on April 3 by a Frederick County Sheriff’s deputy.
The same week, 11 educators in Atlanta, Georgia, including four former teachers, were convicted on state racketeering charges for inflating the results on standardized tests. An investigation by the governor’s office had concluded that the educators were threatened with the loss of their jobs or demotion if they failed to meet student achievement targets. Nevertheless, they were led away to prison in handcuffs to face sentences of 20 years or more. The judge denied their requests for bail, vindictively declaring that they had made their beds and now had to lie in them.
Also that week, a judge in Indiana sentenced a 33-year-old woman to a 20-year prison term for feticide. The woman, who had a miscarriage in 2013, was arrested after her doctor informed police that she might have used medication to terminate her pregnancy.
In America, “justice” for the working class and poor is remorseless, brutal and final. Millions are caught up in the vast gulag known as the prison system—the largest in the world. They are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately black and Latino. According to the American Bar Association, 360 people are serving life sentences for shoplifting in California alone.
Occasionally, workers who have been imprisoned for years or decades on the basis of false evidence are released. Last November, Rickey Jackson, then 57, was exonerated of murder charges after spending more than 39 years in prison, several of them on death row. Such rare exceptions to the rule of permanent entombment for victims of police frame-ups provide a glimpse into the cesspool of injustice and cruelty for millions that is the American justice system.
It is entirely different for the rich and well connected, especially the denizens of Wall Street. On April 3, the last day of Christopher Prevatt’s life, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit turned down a motion by the US Attorney for the district covering Wall Street to reconsider the court’s December ruling overturning the conviction on insider trading charges of two hedge fund executives.
Legal experts were surprised that the appeals court refused to accept the prosecutor’s motion, which included a request that the entire court review the ruling handed down in December by a three-judge panel. They were surprised because the December ruling sharply broke with judicial precedent to impose a novel and highly restrictive standard for prosecuting and convicting financial criminals who use insider information not available to the public to rig the markets for their personal gain.
The court brushed aside the prosecutor’s argument that its ruling “will dramatically limit the government’s ability to prosecute some of the most common culpable and market-threatening forms of insider trading.” The judges knew that, which is precisely why they ruled in the way they did.
The December ruling overturned the convictions of Anthony Chiasson, founder of Level Global Investors, and Todd Newman, a former trader at Diamondback Capital Management. Newman and Chiasson had received prison sentences of four-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years, respectively, after allegedly taking in $72 million by soliciting insider information about technology firms Nvidia and Dell.
In the wake of the December ruling, the Obama Justice Department has already dropped charges against several defendants it had accused of trading on insider information, including some who had pleaded guilty. The department said prosecutors could not prove allegations under the new legal framework.
It is believed that the ruling has set the stage for a reversal of the 2013 jury trial conviction of former SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager Michael Steinberg. A longtime confidant of the multibillionaire manager of the SAC hedge fund, Steven A. Cohen, Steinberg was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison last May.
In 2013, the Justice Department arranged a settlement with SAC and Cohen under which the firm pleaded guilty and paid $1.2 billion in penalties for operating what prosecutors called insider trading “on a scale without known precedent.” No charges were brought against Cohen himself, who was allowed to keep the vast bulk of his $9 billion-plus fortune, obtained, according to the government, by criminal means.
These cases typify American class justice as applied to the financial aristocracy. The parasites who make their fortunes by speculating with other people’s money, playing fast and loose with securities and fraud laws, are shielded from any criminal accountability by the Obama administration, Congress and the courts. The media does its part by covering up or downplaying their crimes.
The new aristocrats, like the lords of old, are not bound by the laws that apply to the lower orders. Voluminous reports have been issued by Congress and government panels documenting systematic fraud and lawbreaking carried out by the biggest banks both before and after the Wall Street crash of 2008.
OBAMA CRONY DONORS Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and every other major US bank have been implicated in a web of scandals, including the sale of toxic mortgage securities on false pretenses, the rigging of international interest rates and global foreign exchange markets, the laundering of Mexican drug money, accounting fraud and lying to bank regulators, illegally foreclosing on the homes of delinquent borrowers, credit card fraud, illegal debt-collection practices, rigging of energy markets, and complicity in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
One government-organized settlement has followed another,
utilizing “deferred prosecution” deals and other gimmicks to allow
Wall Street CEOs to get off scot-free. All the banks have had to do
is pay largely fictitious fines, much of the nominal amount written
off as tax credits.
Not a single top bank executive has been criminally prosecuted, let alone convicted or jailed, for illegal practices that led to the collapse of the financial system and a global depression. On the contrary, they have been rewarded by their bribed flunkies in government. They have seen their profits and personal fortunes soar on the basis of government bailouts and an endless stream of cash from the Federal Reserve.
Their plundering of the economy has continued unabated, while the
working class has been made to pay the cost through layoffs, wage
cuts and a ruthless assault on social programs and services.
The same week as the appeals court’s refusal to reconsider its
December ruling on insider trading, Barron’s magazine
emblazoned its March 30 edition with a photo of JPMorgan CEO
Jamie Dimon (known as “Obama’s favorite banker”) and the
headline “Back on Top.” The caption read: “After five years of
regulatory tumult, JPMorgan has emerged as the No. 1 US bank in
assets, credit cards, and investment banking. But CEO Jamie
Dimon is not finished yet. Why shares could rise 30 percent in a
year.”
Describing the bank’s annual investor day event, held in February,
the article quoted a banking analyst as saying, “If there was a theme
to investor day, it was Taylor Swift’s song, ‘Shake it off.’”
BASIC COURSE IN OBAMANOMICS: WHILE
THE LOOTING FOR OBAMA'S CRONY BANKSTERS ONLY
GETS BETTER AND BIGGER, HERE'S WHAT'S LEFT FOR
THE VICTIMS- THE AMERICAN PEOPLE...
* Nine million workers are officially unemployed, another six
million have dropped out of the labor force, eight million work
part-time when they want full-time jobs and 12 million work for
temporary employment agencies.
* Real wages have fallen steadily for American workers since
2007, dropping another five cents an hour in December 2014. The
real income of the average working-class family is now back to the
level of 2000—15 years of stagnation in living standards.
* The US poverty rate has risen from 12.6 percent in 2007 to 14.5
percent in 2013. Nearly half of all Americans and more than half of
all US school children are poor or near poor.
* One fifth of American children do not get enough to eat, while
the overall rate of food insecurity has jumped from 11 percent in
2007 to 16 percent in 2013. One million Americans will be cut off
food stamp benefits this year.
The (real) state of American society as 2015 begins
6 January 2015
As the New Year begins, the social crisis gripping tens of millions of working people in the United States is worsening. Hunger, poverty and long-term joblessness remain at the highest levels in decades, while vital social services continue to be slashed.
The constant of domestic
policy—enthusiastically pursued by both big-
business parties—is an unrelenting assault on
the working class.
CRONY CAPITALISM: How Obama’s Crony Capitalism destroyed the American Middle-Class and made his virtual dictatorship possible.
"Upon coming to office, however, Obama pursued the most right-wing agenda in US history. It quickly emerged that whatever vague promises he made were insincere, and that his administration was committed to an acceleration of the policies of the Bush administration— overseeing a historic transfer of wealth to the rich, escalating military violence abroad, and deepening the attacks on democratic rights within the United States."
“That President Obama would lawlessly bring in more cheap labor at the request of corporate interests at a time when tens of millions of Americans are unemployed speaks volumes.”
THE OBAMA YEARS – THE GOLDEN AGE OF BANKSTER LOOTING AND BANKSTER WELFARE…
Obama and crony Jamie Dimon of JP
MORGAN… their looting continues!
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS PARTY UP AND STILL
GIVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE MIDDLE FINGER
'Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment crisis.'
SOARING INCREASE IN WEALTH FOR BILLIONAIRES….
soaring poverty, joblessness for LEGALS as billionaires push for
Obama’s AMNESTY to legalize Mexico’s looting and keep wages
depressed.
“The American political system is not a democracy; it is a plutocracy—a government of, by and for the rich. The financial aristocracy of bankers and financial parasites runs the country by means of the CIA, the military and a thoroughly bribed retinue of politicians from the White House and Congress down to City Hall.”
Income inequality grows FOUR TIMES
FASTER under Obama than Bush.
STAGGERING ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH BY THE WEALTHY UNDER BARACK OBAMA.
The American middle-class pays the cost!
OBAMANOMICS AT WORK: SOARING
POVERTY
POVERTY – HALF OF AMERICA HITS BOTTOM!
OBAMANOMICS: HALF or NEARLY HALF OF AMERICA TEETERS ON THE EDGE OF POVERTY… and yet the Democrat party is determined to legalize Mexico’s looting and hand millions more jobs to Mexicans… simply to keep wages depressed for their campaign contributing paymasters!
OBAMA’S BANKSTERS TO THE MEXICAN GET OFF –
BUT THEN UNDER OBAMA ALL BANKSTERS GET OFF!
BUILDING THE OBAMA DICTATORSHIP: BANKSTERS, LA RAZA FASCIST and the MEXICAN … business is good for them under the Obamanation!
“Not one banker was prosecuted for illegal involvement in the drugs trade.”
HSBC documents reveal criminal conspiracy of banks and governments
BANKSTERS TO THE MEXICAN DRUG CAhttp://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/04/right-wing-democrat-reelected-as.htmlRTELS: Obama’s crony banksters at work for
the 1%, crooked politicians and the 1% - CALL IT OBAMANOMICS!
BANKSTER RAHM’S VICTORY FOR HIS 1% CRONIES –
FIRST ON THE RAHM AGENDA: CUT PENSIONS, MORE “BAILOUTS” FOR CRONY BANKSTERS.
RAHM EMANUEL…. only one more of Obama’s dirty crony banksters implementing OBAMANOMICS: loot from the middle-class and hand it to the 1%!
OBAMA BANKSTER CRONY RAHM EMANUEL:
“Mayor Emanuel embodies the foulest
characteristics of American politics in general
and the Democratic Party in particular. An
operative in the Clinton administration,
Emanuel made millions as an investment
banker before returning to the White House
as Obama’s chief of staff.”
TO WORK IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, ONE NEEDS TO BE CONNECTED AND ACTIVELY SERVING OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS, or be a member of the MEXICAN FASCIST PARTY of LA RAZA, as both Obama’s Sec. of Labors, DHS Saldana, and Judge Sotomayor are!
Mayor Emanuel embodies the foulest characteristics of American politics in general and the Democratic Party in particular. An operative in the Clinton administration, Emanuel made millions as an investment banker before returning to the White House as Obama’s chief of staff.
As mayor, Emanuel has pursued the same policies in Chicago as Obama on the national level. He has presided over the closure of 50 schools, attacks on the jobs and pensions of teachers and public employees, and a wave of police violence against youth and working people. The money siphoned from essential services has funded tax cuts and other subsidies for corporations and wealthy investors.
The Democratic and Republican politicians endlessly proclaim that there is no money to meet pressing social needs. But the ranks of multi-millionaires and billionaires continue to grow, along with the obscene levels of wealth they control. These are the paymasters of both corporate-controlled parties.
HILLARY CLINTON VOWS THAT OBAMA’S CRONY CRIMINAL BANKSTERS WILL TAKE OUT ELIZABETH WARREN!
…. Hillary has filled her pockets with dirty Obama bankster money!!!!
CRONY CAPITALISM… predicated on keeping wages depressed to third world levels for his billionaire donors!
Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses…and Muslim Dictators
MEX DRUG ADDICTED AMERICA – BUILDING THE LA RAZA
OCCUPATION AND OBAMA DICTATORSHIP
THE OBAMA – LA RAZA CONSPIRACY: Will the Mexican Drug Cartels Help Obama finish off the American Middle-Class and advance his designs on being America’s first dictator?
From his first day in office, Barack Obama has sabotaged America’s borders and laws to facilitate Mexico’s invasion and wholesale looting of the American economy!
NOT ONE OF OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS THAT LAUDER MEX DRUG CARTEL MONEY WAS EVER PROSECUTED!!!
TAKING DOWN AMERICA:
Obama and the LA RAZA Mexican Drug Cartels Hit Chicago!
THE RISE OF BARACK OBAMA and the
FALL of AMERICA
HOW A SOCIOPATH CONNED A NATION CALLING IT “HOPE & CHANGE” AND THEN BECAME GEORGE BUSH’S THIRD & FORTH TERMS ON STEROIDS.
THE OBAMA SUPER DEPRESSION AT HAND: Crony
capitalism and the Obama administration at work for the 1%
Global financial markets are on the road to another crash, with consequences even more serious than the collapse of September 2008. There have been a series of dire warnings from within the ruling class itself that present monetary policies have created massive financial bubbles with devastating consequences.
OBAMANOMICS: Did Obama’s Crony Banksters Destroy the Global Economy after sucking up trillions in tax payer-paid welfare?
CRONY OBAMANOMICS – HOW OBAMA
SQUANDERED AMERICA FOR HIS
LOOTING WALL STREET BANKSTERS!
$3.39T Quantitative Explosion: Fed Owns More Treasuries and MBSs Than Publicly Held Debt Amassed From Washington Through Clinton.
OBAMA, HIS WALL STREET CRONIES, THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, BILLIONAIRES,
UNIONS and the U.S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE CONSPIRE TO END THE AMERICAN
MIDDLE-CLASS…. they call it amnesty!
WILL OBAMA CAUSE THE IMPENDING GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN?
"Notwithstanding these powerful trends, the stock markets continue to power on, providing a graphic demonstration of the degree to which the accumulation of wealth by global financial elites has become divorced from the actual process of production."
POVERTY... Obama destroys the American middle-class and builds his bankster-funded dictatorship.
STAGGERING EXPLOSION OF POVERTY IN AMERICA … as Obama eases millions of illegals into our jobs and hands them billions in welfare!
THE IMPENDING GLOBAL DEPRESSION –
OBAMANOMICS AT WORK… even as his crony banksters loot trillions.
HE SERVES HIS PAYMASTERS!
OBAMANOMICS: CLOSET REPUBLICAN BARACK OBAMA’S GIFT TO THE 1% and WALL STREET LOOTERS!
“As Obama and the Democrats know perfectly well, the supposedly “progressive”
elements of his budget will be rejected by the Republican Congress, while the pro-
corporate and militarist meat of the proposal will be enacted.”
Obama’s State of Delusion ... OR JUST ANOTHER "Hope & Change" HOAX?
22 January 2015
”The delusional character of Obama’s State of the Union
address on Tuesday—presenting an America of rising living
standards and a booming economy, capped by his declaration
that the “shadow of crisis has passed”—is perhaps matched
only in its presentation by the media and supporters of the
Democratic Party.”
“The general tone was set by the New York Times in its lead editorial on Wednesday, which described the speech as a “simple, dramatic message about economic fairness, about the fact that the well-off—the top earners, the big banks, Silicon Valley—have done just great, while middle and working classes remain dead in the water.”
OBAMANOMICS:
The report observes that while the wealth of the world’s 80 richest people doubled between 2009 and 2014, the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population (3.5 billion people) was lower in 2014 than it was in 2009.
In 2010, it took 388 billionaires to match the
wealth of the bottom half of the earth’s population;
by 2013, the figure had fallen to just 92
billionaires. It fell to 80 in 2014.
THE OBAMA ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS
“The goal of the Obama administration, working with the Republicans and local governments, is to roll back the living conditions of the vast majority of the population to levels not seen since the 19th century, prior to the advent of the eight-hour day, child labor laws, comprehensive public education, pensions, health benefits, workplace health and safety regulations, etc.”
“In response to the ruthless assault of the financial oligarchy, spearheaded by Obama, the working class must advance, no less ruthlessly, its own policy.”
HILLARY CLINTON: CONFESSED CLOSET REPUBLICAN
Hillary Clinton’s vow to protect the 1%, banksters and buy the illegals’ votes with Obama’s amnesty hoax to legalize Mexico’s looting.
Her record speaks for itself!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/hillary-clinton-and-1-billionaire-class.html
HILLARY – A DEDICATED SERVANT OF WALL STREET MONSTERS and a CLONE of BARACK OBAMA!
http://fortune.com/2014/06/13/hillary-clinton-dealmaker-business/
HOW WELL DID JP MORGAN DO WITH
THEIR INVESTMENTS IN BARACK OBAMA,
THE HUCKSTER FROM CHICAGO???
CRONY CAPITALISM: OBAMA PROTECTS JP MORGAN, THE BIGGEST BANKSTER CRIMINALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, AND ONE OF OBAMA’S BIGGEST BANKSTER DONORS!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/01/barack-obama-and-jamie-dimon-americas.html
Nearly five years after the greatest financial crash since the Great Depression, triggered by rampant illegality and fraud on the part of the major banks, not a single major institution or leading bank executive has been indicted, let alone tried, convicted and jailed.
Why aren’t the Wall Street criminals prosecuted?
By Barry Grey
7 January 2014
In May 2012, only days after JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon revealed that his bank had lost billions of dollars in speculative bets, President Barack Obama publicly defended the multi-millionaire CEO, calling him “one of the smartest bankers we’ve got.” What Obama did not mention is that Dimon is a criminal.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/01/why-arent-wall-street-criminals.html
JPMorgan is not the exception; it is the rule. Virtually every major bank that operates on Wall Street has settled charges of fraud and criminality on a staggering scale. In 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 630-page report on the financial crash of 2008 documenting what the committee chairman called “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing.”
These multiple crimes by serial lawbreakers have had very real and very destructive consequences. The entire world has been plunged into an economic slump that has already lasted more than five years and shows no signs of abating. Tens of millions of families have lost their homes as a result of predatory mortgages pushed by JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks.
OBAMANOMICS: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses…and Muslim Dictators
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2012/11/obamas-crony-capitalism-obama-was.html
OBAMA’S HAREM OF CORRUPT BANKSTERS… DO A
GOOGLE FOR HOW MANY ENDED UP WORKING IN HIS
ADMINISTRATION.
“Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
Obama now looting the American student
while he hands billions in DEM DREAM
ACTS of WELFARE to illegals… his bankster
cronies at JPMorgan cleaning up on students
also!
“But as the Federal Reserve attempts to lower borrowing costs for everyone from households and small businesses to large corporations and Wall Street banks, student borrowers have not been able to benefit.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/05/student-loan-profiteering-by-obama-on.html
OBAMA and his bankster J P MORGAN LOOT AMERICA
It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
In reality, the settlement falls far short of holding JPMorgan accountable for its fraudulent sale of mortgage-backed assets, which netted the bank tens of billions of dollars in profits while exacerbating the sub-prime mortgage crash that led to over ten million foreclosures in the US and a global economic downturn that thrust many millions more into unemployment and poverty.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/11/crony-capitalismd-obamas-looting.html
Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
“Records show that four out of Obama's top five
contributors are employees of financial industry
giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG
($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and
Citigroup ($358,054).”
JP MORGAN: Obama's fave criminal crony bankster donor!
BARACK OBAMA’S BANKSTER-BOUGHT REGIME of CORRUPTION SERVING CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS, BILLIONAIRES, the 1% and LA RAZA ILLEGALS! …..the rest of us get the tax bills for their crimes and looting!
more here:
Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is
delivering corporate socialism to America, all
while claiming he’s battling corporate
America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory
robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
BARACK OBAMA – JP MORGAN’S RENT BOY? OR SIMPLY
A SERVANT OF WALL STREET’S BIGGEST CRIMINAL
BANKSTERS, ALL OF WHICH END UP WORKING IN THE
CORRUPT OBAMA WHITE HOUSE!
THE OBAMA ASSAULT on AMERICANS for WALL STREET - Obama lays out program to slash higher education funding - WHILE HIS CRONY CRIMINAL BANKSTERS at JP MORGAN LOOT STUDENTS
PROBABLY THE ONLY TRUTH OBAMA EVER TOLD THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WAS THAT HE WAS “NOT HERE TO PUNISH BANKS!”… NOPE, AND HE NEVER HAS. THEIR CRIMES, LOOTING AND PROFITS HAVE SOARED UNDER OBAMA.
YOU WOULD NOT HAVE FOUND OBAMA’S DOJ GOING AFTER OBAMA’S PALS AT JP MORGAN. HOLDER IS TOO BUSY HISPANDERING FOR LA RAZA, SUING AMERICAN STATES AND SABOTAGING OUR LAWS AND BORDERS SO THE OBAMANATION CAN BUILD HIS LA RAZA PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS.
“Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
OBAMA’S OLD PALS J.P.MORGAN STILL mUCKING OVER CONSUMERS…
IT’S LIKE OLD TIMES FOR THE BANKSTERS!
Headline: California lawsuit alleges illegal collection practices by JPMorgan Chase
THE LONG HISTORY of BARACK OBAMA and HIS
CRIMINAL BANKSTER DONORS JP MORGAN…
STILL LOOTING AMERICA AND THE WORLD!
more at this link –
This is the unadulterated voice of finance capital speaking. It
should be recalled that JPMorgan is deeply implicated in the
speculative operations that have devastated the lives of
hundreds of millions of workers around the world. In March
of this year, a US Senate committee released a 300-page
report documenting the criminal practices and fraud carried
out by JPMorgan, the largest bank in the US and the world’s
biggest dealer in derivatives. Despite the detailed revelations
in the report, no action will be taken against the bank’s CEO,
Jamie who enjoys the personal confidence of the US
president.
… now expanded to pillaging of AMERICAN STUDENTS
more at this link
IMF PREDICTS THAT OBAMANOMICS and the GLOBAL LOOTING BY OBAMA’S CRIMINAL CRONY BANKSTERS WILL SOON DESTROY THE AMERICAN ECONOMY.
The International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday that the world economy would remain locked in a pattern of slow growth, high unemployment and high debt for a prolonged period. The forecast, contained in the organization’s updated World Economic Outlook (WEO), marks a shift from previous economic projections in acknowledging that there is little prospect of a return to the growth levels that prevailed prior to the 2008 Wall Street crash.
The document’s grim analysis amounts to a tacit acknowledgement that the crisis ushered in nearly seven years ago by the financial meltdown is of a historical and fundamental character, and that the underlying problems in the global capitalist system have not been resolved.
Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.
“Records show that four out of Obama's top five contributors are employees of financial industry giants - Goldman Sachs ($571,330), UBS AG ($364,806), JPMorgan Chase ($362,207) and Citigroup ($358,054).”
Why aren’t the Wall Street criminals prosecuted?
In May 2012, only days after JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon revealed that his bank had lost billions of dollars in speculative bets, President Barack Obama publicly defended the multi-millionaire CEO, calling him “one of the smartest bankers we’ve got.” What Obama did not mention is that Dimon is a criminal.
JPMorgan is not the exception; it is the rule. Virtually every major bank that operates on Wall Street has settled charges of fraud and criminality on a staggering scale. In 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 630-page report on the financial crash of 2008 documenting what the committee chairman called “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing.”
These multiple crimes by serial lawbreakers have had very real and very destructive consequences. The entire world has been plunged into an economic slump that has already lasted more than five years and shows no signs of abating. Tens of millions of families have lost their homes as a result of predatory mortgages pushed by JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks.
INCEST! The case of bankster-owned Barack
Obama and crony Jamie Dimon of JP
MORGAN… their looting continues!
Why aren’t the Wall Street criminals prosecuted?
In May 2012, only days after JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon revealed that his bank had lost billions of dollars in speculative bets, President Barack Obama publicly defended the multi-millionaire CEO, calling him “one of the smartest bankers we’ve got.” What Obama did not mention is that Dimon is a criminal.
JPMorgan is not the exception; it is the rule. Virtually every major bank that operates on Wall Street has settled charges of fraud and criminality on a staggering scale. In 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 630-page report on the financial crash of 2008 documenting what the committee chairman called “a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing.”
These multiple crimes by serial lawbreakers have had very real and very destructive consequences. The entire world has been plunged into an economic slump that has already lasted more than five years and shows no signs of abating. Tens of millions of families have lost their homes as a result of predatory mortgages pushed by JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks.
Amid poverty wages and tax cuts for the rich
"This decades-long ruling class offensive was accelerated in response to the 2008 financial crisis. President Barack Obama oversaw the channeling of trillions of dollars to the banks and financial markets in order to pay off the debts of the bankers and speculators, whose reckless and criminal activities had led to the crisis, and make them richer than ever. At the same time, he imposed a restructuring of the auto industry based on a 50 percent across-the-board pay cut for new-hires and an expansion of temporary and part-time labor,"
The devastating human cost of the plundering of society by the corporate-financial oligarchy is registered in declining life expectancy, rising mortality and record suicide and drug addiction rates.
BARACK OBAMA AND HIS CRONY BANKSTERS set themselves on America’s pensions next!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2015/04/obamanomics-assault-on-american-middle.html
The new aristocrats, like the lords of old, are not bound by the laws that apply to the lower orders. Voluminous reports have been issued by Congress and government panels documenting systematic fraud and law breaking carried out by the biggest banks both before and after the Wall Street crash of 2008.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and every other major US bank have been implicated in a web of scandals, including the sale of toxic mortgage securities on false pretenses, the rigging of international interest rates and global foreign exchange markets, the laundering of Mexican drug money, accounting fraud and lying to bank regulators, illegally foreclosing on the homes of delinquent borrowers, credit card fraud, illegal debt-collection practices, rigging of energy markets, and complicity in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
JPMorgan Chase records the biggest profit of any bank in US history
JPMorgan Chase, the most valuable private bank in the world, made $36.4 billion in 2019, the biggest annual profit of any bank in American history. The news, reported Tuesday, sent the company’s stock up by 2 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the company took in $8.5 billion, also a record, making it the tenth largest publicly traded company in the world, with a market cap of $437 billion.
JPMorgan Chase’s record profits were joined by Morgan Stanley, which also reported both record profits and record revenues for 2019, sending its stock price surging 6.6 percent on Thursday.
News of these record gains came as the six largest US banks revealed that they saved a combined $32 billion last year from President Donald Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cut. The tax windfall was up from 2018 for all but one of the banks. JPMorgan’s tax cut went from $3.7 billion in 2018 to $5 billion last year.
At Wednesday’s signing ceremony for the phase one trade deal with China, attended by an array of corporate executives, Trump turned to Mary Erdoes, a top executive at JPMorgan Chase. Calling the bank’s earnings report “incredible,” he joked, “Will you say, ‘Thank you, Mr. President,’ at least?”
The tax cuts for the corporations and the rich,
enacted with only token opposition from the
Democrats, are only one factor in the surge
in profits over the past year. When stocks
plunged at the end of 2018, Trump stepped
up his demand that the Federal Reserve
reverse its policy of gradually raising interest
rates to more normal levels, following years
of near-zero rates in the aftermath of the 2008
financial crisis. Acting as the mouthpiece of
Wall Street, he demanded that the Fed begin
cutting rates once again in order to pump
more cash into the financial markets.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell dutifully complied, cutting interest rates three times in 2018 and assuring the markets that he had no intention of raising them again any time soon. Then, beginning in the late fall, the Fed began pumping tens of billions of dollars a week into the so-called “repo” overnight loan market, resuming the money-printing operation known as “quantitative easing.”
This de facto guarantee of unlimited public funds to backstop stock prices has produced record highs on all of the major US indexes, sending billions more into the private coffers of the rich and the super-rich.
These measures are a continuation and intensification of policies carried out on a bipartisan basis for four decades to redistribute wealth from the working class to the corporations and the financial elite. They have effected a fundamental restructuring of class relations in America, drastically lowering the social position of the working class. Decent-paying, secure jobs have been wiped out and largely replaced by poverty-wage, part-time, temporary and contingent employment—the so-called “gig” economy exemplified by corporations such as Amazon and Uber.
This decades-long ruling class offensive was accelerated in response to the 2008 financial crisis. President Barack Obama oversaw the channeling of trillions of dollars to the banks and financial markets in order to pay off the debts of the bankers and speculators, whose reckless and criminal activities had led to the crisis, and make them richer than ever. At the same time, he imposed a restructuring of the auto industry based on a 50 percent across-the-board pay cut for new-hires and an expansion of temporary and part-time labor.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) has actively participated in this process, enshrining the new “flexible” labor system in sellout contracts in 2015 and 2019. This template of expendable, benefits-free labor has become the new norm for labor relations across the country and throughout the world.
Meanwhile, state, local and federal government programs have been dramatically slashed. Education, housing, Medicaid and food stamps have been particularly hard hit. This process has been accelerated under Trump, along with the removal of occupational safety and environmental regulations, with no opposition from the Democrats, who represent sections of the financial elite and wealthy upper-middle class.
The devastating human cost of the plundering
of society by the corporate-financial oligarchy
is registered in declining life expectancy,
rising mortality and record suicide and drug
Institution found that 53 million people in the US—44 percent of
all workers—“earn barely enough to live on.” The study found that
the median pay of this group was $10.22 per hour, around
$18,000 a year. Thirty seven percent of those making $10 an
hour have children. More than half are the primary earners or
“contribute substantially” to family income.
Similarly, a Reuters report from 2018 found that the average income of the bottom 40 percent of workers in the United States was $11,600.
A recent study by Trust for America’s Health found that in 2017 “more than 152,000 Americans died from alcohol- and drug-induced fatalities and suicide.” This was highest number ever recorded and more than double the figure for 1999. Among those in their 20s and early 30s, the prime working life age, drug deaths have increased more than 400 percent in the last 20 years.
At the other pole of society, the Dow Jones Industrial index is now double what it was at its peak in 2007, prior to the implosion of the financial system. Between March 2009 and today, the Dow has risen from 6,500 to over 29,000. The stock market, buttressed by central bank and government policy, has become the central instrument for funneling wealth from the bottom of society to the top. As a result, the top 10 percent of society now owns about 70 percent of all wealth, whereas the bottom 50 percent has, effectively, nothing.
In the midst of this orgy of wealth accumulation at the very top of society, every demand of workers for jobs, decent pay, education, housing, health care and pensions is met with the universal response: “There is no money.” Hundreds of thousands of teachers have struck over the past two years to demand the restoration of funds cut from the public schools and substantial increases in pay and benefits. None of their demands have been met. The same applies to auto workers who struck for 40 days last fall to demand an end to two-tier pay systems and the defense of jobs.
JPMorgan’s $36.4 billion profit in 2019 is more than half the education budget of the US federal government.
Meanwhile, Americans are deeper in debt to JPMorgan and the other banks than at any time in history. Collective consumer debt in the United States approached $14 trillion last year. Credit card debt has surpassed $1 trillion for the first time. Auto debt is at $1.3 trillion and mortgage debt is now $9.4 trillion. Student loan debt has increased the fastest, surging from $500 billion in 2006 to $1.6 trillion today.
These are the conditions, rooted in the historical bankruptcy and crisis of the capitalist system, that have sparked a global upsurge in the class struggle and the growth of anti-capitalist and pro-socialist sentiment. The past year has seen a dramatic expansion of working class struggle that is only a glimpse of what is to come. India, Hong Kong, Mexico, the United States, Puerto Rico, Lebanon, Iraq, France, Chile and Brazil are only some of the places where mass struggles have erupted.
What is becoming increasingly clear to hundreds of millions of people around the world is that the social problems confronting humanity in the 21st century—poverty, debt, disease, global warming, war, fascism, the assault on democratic rights—cannot be solved so long as this parasitic and oligarchical financial elite continues to rule. The turn is to the American and international working class—to unite, take power and seize control of the wealth which it produces to ensure peace, prosperity and equality for all people.