"classic Kremlin bailout technique"

[solarbird]

Glenn Greenwald collects a whole series of stories from last fall's massive bank bailout - that I protested on the streets, along with a tiny number of other people - and how it takes us to tomorrow's expected blowout profits by Goldman Sachs in the face of job losses expected to climb through 2010. I've written a few times about regulatory capture in the US government and economy - where those interests or subsets of those interests supposedly being regulated take control over the regulatory bodies and rewrite the regulations for their own benefit - and how the US government is, in fact, in a state of regulatory capture. Mr. Greenwald's series articles and excerpts illustrates this situation pretty clearly. He even links to an article in The Atlantic that I've linked earlier.

Oh, and I might as well include this, since it's the same site; the reports of Eric Holder "leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices" appear to involve another pseudo-investigation of the lower rank and file - another round of scapegoating to protect the policymakers. The effect would be another round of protection and precedent for the fundamental idea that if the Executive branch decides something is legal, it is legal, law and treaty be damned. All you have to do is come up with somebody who will write a legal memo saying any damned thing and you're off to the races. More here, from Sullivan, and here, from John Cole. Cole asks:

Given the inevitability of epic mayhem from the GOP, I fail to see what Holder gains by enacting his probe in the least useful manner imaginable... Hard to believe as it may seem, Holder’s probe will take John Yoo’s work, the famous memos that would make your ass dumber if you wiped with them, and treat them as the settled law of the time. Already clear and public evidence that DOJ lawyers drafted those memos entirely in bad faith, on orders from Bush officials who literally dictated what they wanted the memos to say, will be similarly ignored... To put it bluntly, this strategy is a goddamn disgrace. We called it whitewashing when the Bush administration made a few grunts pay for the orders they followed at Abu Ghraib. We called it a disgrace because that’s what it was. What do you think we should call it now? ...to stop there and call it justice makes me physically ill.

I know the feeling.

Comments

[mikec1157.livejournal.com]

You're much more in tune with what's going on with the evil bankers and finance thugs than I am...but my sister suggested I read an article in a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine (Issue 1082/1083 July 9-23,2009). (it's the issue with the Jonas Brothers on it). The title of the article is "The Great American Bubble Machine", and it talks about the evil doings of Goldman Sachs since before the Great Depression. it's not a long article, but after a page, I have put it down because I am so mad I can't go on....but the more I read the more I think we need to get a hold of all these people who have manipulated the banks, stocks, oil, etc....and put them in jail forever. I strongly suggest we all read this article.

[solarbird]

Yeah, I've mentioned this article, but couldn't link to it because it's not online.