brainiac conspiracy

Today's Worst Persons

The Toyota Motor Salespersons.

I was wrong: capitalism is, by definition, evil. Remind me again why I should ever want to work in service of such a system, or live in a country that gives it free rein. Uruguay looks better with each passing day.

---Baron V

Another Round of Fines Should Take Care of it

Repeating a point made earlier today, it's great to be emptying the jails and releasing many thousands of prisoners who pose no serious threat to society since there are still many thousands of people in this country who are a serious threat to society, and who are still running free:

Joseph and Mary Romero of Chimayo, N.M., found that their mortgage note was assigned to the Bank of New York three months after the same bank filed a foreclosure complaint against them; in other words, Bank of New York didn’t own the loan when they tried to foreclose on it.

Glenn and Ann Holden of Akron, Ohio, faced foreclosure from Deutsche Bank, but the company filed two different versions of the note at court, each bearing a stamp affirming it as the “true and accurate copy.”

Mary McCulley of Bozeman, Mont., had her loan changed by U.S. Bank without her knowledge, from a $300,000 30-year loan to a $200,000 loan due in 18 months, and in documents submitted to the court, U.S. Bank included four separate loan applications with different terms.

Slave Drivers

I know some people might take offense to drawing a comparison between the plantation masters of the 19th Century and the energy barons of the 21st, but I can sorta see a parallel. The plantation masters earned their obscene fortunes by brutalizing an ethnic subset of humanity, while the energy barons are making their obscene fortunes today by brutalizing the entire planet---and with it, all humankind. I'm not sure how we ever stop this violence short of some global accord requiring every country to nationalize all of its energy assets, and it's frankly hard to ever see that happening. So those of us who reside in coastal cities had better get fitted for swim fins and complete our SCUBA certifications.

---Baron V

It's Not All Bad News

But of course, you have to go overseas to find some. And it is good news!

As an aside, it probably needs to be noted that the commercial fishing industry is one of the most difficult to regulate because, well, the ocean is a big place to patrol. You can even lose a 747 out there! But the fact that they are at least attempting a conservation-enforcement regime is a positive first step. Might we consider implementing something like it here, or is that no longer possible because Stalin?

---Baron V

Some Days You Just Want to Stay In Bed

It's difficult at times to be terribly sanguine about our future on this planet when we stop to consider that the neoliberal Thought Leaders who govern us, by and large, believe in policies that are insane. I mean, we're running out of water here out West, so let's sell off a bunch to some energy company so they can use it to contaminate groundwater---that farmers rely on---and start a few earthquakes. I dunno, maybe we'll "innovate" our way out of impending mass extinction events, but as long as enormous profits can be extracted from the despoliation of our environment, it's hard to see where this ever stops until its just too damned late to prevent the extinction of everything. Cheery thought!

---Baron V

Tinkering at the Margins

Sure, it's great that people with pre-existing conditions can now get health insurance. And poor people can now obtain quality coverage for reasonable sums of money. But the bigger, most overarching problem afflicting our system of health-care delivery is the fact that we are all paying way too much money for health care in America. The Goldberg Act doesn't remedy that. It just shifts the costs around.

---Baron V

Hump Night Music Blogging

Because who knows, maybe we are living in the Last Days. Sure seems like it sometimes.

---Baron V

Anything But Prison

Doesn't it seem like you've read this same story at least once a month for the last five years?

Bank of America Corp. is said to be in talks for a multi-billion dollar settlement with the Justice Department over questionable mortgage securities sold to investors, according to media reports on Wednesday. The potential settlement could end a civil probe into several legacy issues that have plagued the bank since the financial crisis.

A policy failing, a moral failing, and an abdication of responsibility to enforce the law and to ensure public safety. And since they know they can do anything they want and face no penalty beyond comparatively small fines, we know that the looting will continue until they've burned down the house again. Might as well start stashing my money under the mattress . . .

---Baron V

Quote of The Day

Ouch!

Amy Goodman: Who was tougher on corporate America, President Obama or President Bush?

Matt Taibbi: Oh, Bush, hands down. And this is an important point to make, because if you go back to the early 2000s, think about all these high-profile cases: Adelphia, Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen. All of these companies were swept up by the Bush Justice Department. And what’s interesting about this is that you can see a progression. If you go back to the savings and loan crisis in the late '80s, which was an enormous fraud problem, but it paled in comparison to the subprime mortgage crisis, we put about 800 people in jail during—in the aftermath of that crisis. You fast-forward 10 or 15 years to the accounting scandals, like Enron and Adelphia and Tyco, we went after the heads of some of those companies. It wasn't as vigorous as the S&L prosecutions, but we at least did it.

Hate to say is, but . . . the shoe fits!

(Via.)

---Baron V

Might Be Wrong About This

Regular readers of this lame blog know that raising taxes on America's job creators is a pet peeve of mine, but lately I've come to another realization: If these thieving assholes just paid the taxes they actually owe, we might be able to have nice things and not have to raise taxes on anyone. Just a thought!

---Baron V

Can Sort-Of Understand Why They Did What They Did

I mean, it's a potentially explosive situation out there, and they can't afford to keep an Interstate highway shut down forever, but I still think it's problematic to appease a bunch of right-wing bullies, even if they are packing firepower . If the last five years have taught us anything, it's that giving them what they want is only going to encourage more bullying!

Put another way: these people have been spilling for a fight with Washington since Barack Obama was sworn into office. They want a fight? Give it to them, then, because they will never stop agitating for armed revolt until they have been ground into dust and their lands sown with salt.

---Baron V

Rooting for a Financial Disaster

It wouldn't be pleasant, but it might buy us a few more years.

What I mean is, if we had a Second Great Depression with 25-percent unemployment, aggregate economic demand would plummet, as would the production of goods and services---and with it, we'd see a steep decline in the demand for fossil fuels. No purpose in drilling for oil if people aren't driving their cars, and there's point in fracking if people can't pay their utility bills. Like I said, not a cheery scenario, but that very well might be what it will take to save the planet, if it can still be saved at all.

---Baron V

Bad Policy

Also too, bad politics:

Democratic Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Warner of Virginia, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska, who all face tight races this November, signed the letter, which urges Mr. Obama to put in place an explicit timeline to decide on the project and to make a final decision by May 31 [...]

The letter, organized by Ms. Landrieu, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, also included Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Montana’s Jon Tester and John Walsh.

Your humble blogger is willing to bet dollars to donuts here that every one of these awful people who is up for reelection this year will lose. Run as a Democrat, at least Democrats will vote for you. Run away from Team Democrat, why should anyone vote for you? It's not like we haven't seen this before . . . but thanks for reminding me again why I left the party.

---Baron V

We Should Give Them More of Our Money

Because they did such a good job of managing it in the last decade.

This is what's so maddening about our politics: that both of our major political parties have been commandeered, at all levels of leadership, by a bunch of privatizing grifters. Kinda goes back to my last post about our culture of kleptocracy, which obviously was bad enough in the Aughts but which has now spiraled out of control because nobody who destroyed the fortunes of millions has ever been held to account for their actions. Yes, the Third Label No Way grifters will still devise new and novel ways to grift, and it's up to us to call them for scorn and derision when they do. We sure as hell can't expect Team Democrat to do it anymore---they're a big part of the problem.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Person

Sam Zell.

But only a deranged Marxist would dare to imagine that our peculiar version of capitalism extracts enormous profits off the forced misery and suffering of other people. Even when, you know, it does.

---Baron V

American Medici

Following up from an earlier post, now that we are to be ruled for the foreseeable future by our billionaire overlords, which one(s) do you think should govern us? Personally, I'd probably throw in my lot with Buffett since he genuinely seems to be among the least avaricious of them, and maybe even amenable to having his taxes raised! A bit, at least. For those of us who came of age when only one person on the planet (J.P. Getty) was a billionaire---and barely worth a single billion---we almost can't conceive the amounts of money these assholes have. So why the hell didn't we repatriate a lot of it when we had the votes in Congress?

I suppose the honest answer is: we never had the votes. At least, not in the last 30 years. Team Democrat is no longer the farmer-labor party but the Interweb-telecom party.

---Baron V

Koch Zero

I'm frankly not terribly convinced that Team Democrat's decision to portray a couple of billionaire oilmen as the embodiment of all perfidy is a smart use of party resources. Sure, it'll fire up the base, and that's important, but I don't think your typical swing/independent voter is going to care much unless Charles Koch decides to run for office. That's because what most people really care about---and have cared about all along---is jobs, and money, and mortgage relief. Specifically, they want, and need, a lot more of each. Promise them that, and maybe they'll vote for you.

---Baron V

Not Rocket Surgery

Sure, the Kochs and Adelson are all venal scumbags, but there were venal scumbags back in Franklin Roosevelt's time with names like DuPont and Milliken. They even had their own Astroturf operations like the Liberty League! Those venal scumbags weren't able to buy anywhere near as much influence in government as today's venal scumbags because, well, we relieved them of most of their play money before they could use it to buy legislators. Heaven forbid Team Democrat should have ever considered this option when they had the votes to neuter the scumbags. Oh well!

---Baron V

Not Coming Back

I blogged about this a long time ago (you'll have to go fishing for it, sorry), but I've always suspected the employer mandate provision of the Goldberg Act that's been postponed until next year would end being postponed again and postponed again, and finally postponed forever. In and of itself, it's not necessarily a bad thing, because (1) some employers will still continue to offer coverage to enjoy the tax benefits, and (2) once people see for themselves how much their health care costs when they pay full freight on the individual exchange, it just might lead them to start demanding federal price controls---a necessary precursor to, yep, single payer. We can at least hope!

---Baron V

Everything is Rigged

And it has been that way for years.

More to the point, after Bear Sterns and Lehman and Wachovia and Merrill, you'd think that regulators would have moved to ban certain types of financial instruments, or certain types of trades, in the interest of market integrity. But of course that hasn't happened, and that's why we can be certain that our corporate overlords will run the ship of state aground again. The only question is when.

---Baron V