A LOCKED DOWN MERRY TRUMP CHRISTMAS IN NYC

We had a quick two day jaunt to NYC to see a concert this week. NYC at Christmas time is usually entertaining, with all the over the top decorations and throngs of shoppers in this mecca of materialism. We drove to the Hamilton Train Station, but by 10:00 am the parking garage was full. We had to go back to lovely Trenton and catch a NJT train there into Penn Station. Nothing like immediately being swarmed upon by a grifter selling a sob story about just being released from the hospital, blah, blah, blah. His well rehearsed show didn’t work on me. I told him to beat it and proceeded to position himself for the next sucker.

The train ride was uneventful and on time. We departed Penn Station and got a cab. The 15 block ride resulted in at least 5 near accidents, dozens of honked horns, and a feeling of relief when we arrived in one piece. After dropping our bags off at the hotel – no room ready, we proceeded to find a place for lunch and then see the usual Christmas sites. NYC survives strictly on tourism and Wall Street criminal banks. Every block has at least six restaurants or bars. How they survive, with what must be huge rents, is beyond me. The truth is, most don’t survive and are replaced every year or so.

Continue reading “A LOCKED DOWN MERRY TRUMP CHRISTMAS IN NYC”

Gen. Petraeus: Too Big To Jail, Too Hypocritical To Shame

Guest Post by Ray McGovern at Consortium News

The leniency shown former CIA Director (and retired General) David Petraeus by the Justice Department in sparing him prison time for the serious crimes that he has committed puts him in the same preferential, immune-from-incarceration category as those running the financial institutions of Wall Street, where, incidentally, Petraeus now makes millions. By contrast, “lesser” folks – and particularly the brave men and women who disclose government crimes – get to serve time, even decades, in jail.

Petraeus is now a partner at KKR, a firm specializing in large leveraged buyouts, and his hand-slap guilty plea to a misdemeanor for mishandling government secrets should not interfere with his continued service at the firm. KKR’s founders originally worked at Bear Stearns, the institution that failed in early 2008 at the beginning of the meltdown of the investment banking industry later that year.

Gen. David Petraeus in a photo with his biographer/mistress Paula Broadwell. (U.S. government photo)

Despite manifestly corrupt practices like those of subprime mortgage lenders, none of those responsible went to jail after the 2008-09 financial collapse which cost millions of Americans their jobs and homes. The bailed-out banks were judged “too big to fail” and the bankers “too big to jail.”

Two years ago, in a highly revealing slip of the tongue, Attorney General Eric Holder explained to Congress that it can “become difficult” to prosecute major financial institutions because they are so large that a criminal charge could pose a threat to the economy – or perhaps what he meant was an even bigger threat to the economy.

Holder tried to walk back his unintended slip into honesty a year later, claiming, “There is no such thing as ‘too big to jail.’” And this bromide was dutifully echoed by Holder’s successor, Loretta Lynch, at her confirmation hearing in late January.

Words, though, are cheap. The proof is in the pudding. It remains true that not one of the crooked bankers or investment advisers who inflicted untold misery on ordinary people, gambling away much of their life savings, has been jailed. Not one.

Continue reading “Gen. Petraeus: Too Big To Jail, Too Hypocritical To Shame”