That Ain’t Enough
I want names, dammit.
Credit Suisse AG (CSGN) agreed to pay $2.6 billion in penalties and pleaded guilty to helping Americans cheat on their taxes, making it the first global bank in a decade to admit to a crime in a U.S. courtroom.
Okay, why can’t giving me the names of Americans who cheated on their taxes be part of this plea deal? And why the fool tarnation double damn hell isn’t somebody going to stinkin’ jail over this?
Worse yet, why is half of Congress still taking money from those crooks? Democrats and Republicans alike should be swatted for this. They knew Credit Suisse was being investigated and they knew a criminal enterprise was going on, but they took the damn money.
Cory Booker
Harry Reid
Jeb Hensarling – chairman of the House Financial Services Committee that oversees Credit Suisse
Steny Hoyer
Joe Crowley
John Boehner
Orrin Hatch
John Cornyn
Mitch McConnell
Mike Crapo – member of the Senate Banking Committee
Oh, and there’s plenty more.
Give the damn money back, prosecute Americans who used Credit Suisse to cheat on their taxes, and put somebody in jail. You know, like Jeb Hensarling.
Steny Hoyer– ouch. Our boy usually votes the right way, but he’s not perfect. I’ll have to write him about this.
1We need Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on an ethics committee.
“Stephen Colbert had some trouble understanding why banksters just trying to make money should be against the law. Senator Warren lent him a hand, literally, saying “You can put handcuffs on people who push the envelope. When they break the law, they deserve to have handcuffs.”
2WTH?
3What is wrong with these people?
Credit Suisse AG is cousin to all the banks in this country that should have been handcuffed instead of helped. This is a global thing. There has to be some way beyond a slap on the wrist. Maybe tying at least one “hand” behind their back. It would be harder to cheat that way and hell what banker wants to work any harder than he already does? Or doesn’t.
4Not to advocate deadly violence but I can’t help but think a drone strike on the next Davos meeting would go a long way toward starting the process of eliminating these things.
5Good grief. At least it confirms my theory that our political activities are between the super duper rich and all the rest of us.
6Add leg-irons to Senator Warren’s handcuffs.
7And to add insult to injury, the corporate media is reporting it as a HUGE fine and a fitting punishment. Democracy Now said it’s a whole three month’s profits.
8The key thing in this ruling is that “too big to jail” concept is no longer DOJ policy and a number of CS employees are going to be terminated or prosecuted due to this ruling. This is a step in the right direction but only a step.
9Unfortunately the “citizen” crooks who laundered money through this portal bought themselves an amnesty program and are therefore immune to prosecution. I have always suspected that this was one of the reasons the Mittster couldn’t pony up his tax returns.
10Folks, the underlying problem here is money in politics, made worse by the Supreme Court decisions in Citizen’s United and McCutcheon. Lawrence Lessig has started a campaign to fund a Superpac to end Superpacs, with a goal of electing a Congress committed to reform. They raised over a million on an initial kickstarter to see if people would help with this. Find out more here: https://mayone.us/
Not to say that I don’t want the tax cheats to go to jail, or at least pay a whole lot of money into the treasury. But in the current climate, politicians — even decent politicians — are going to take every dime they can get their hands on.
11The realty of political fundraising for national offices is that they start raising money again as soon as they are elected. Year after year. The big guns of the corporate gravy train contribute to both sides of the aisle. It is called “Hedging Your Bet”. They are very adept at their craft.
The rub comes when a good, decent, newly elected Congressperson/Senator narrowly wins an election, has done the Blood Sweat and Tears Shuffle for 6 months to raise the money to be competitive in their race….they win…. and LOW AND BEHOLD…. all those a**holes who contributed to the candidate they defeated start throwing money in their direction. It is called “want me power”. Quite a heady experience. The Congresspersons/Senators are no longer grovelling… instead they are being grovelled to. Grovellor/Grovellee
Now granted, some of the Congressvarmits turn their money down. And some take their money, and talk about being an independent thinker. But the reality is that the corporate money still gets a seat at the table…. an opportunity to present their side of an argument. Money = Access.
Which is why we have incumbents with 30 years of greed and ambition at their backs. Some system, huh?
Pay to Play.
12Money = access, yes, but we are the ones who cast the votes. Make sure everyone you know is registered, and come November, does his/her civic duty. No excuses. VOTE.
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