America's new aristocracy lives in an accountability-free zone

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 6, 2018 at 9:11:38 PM GMT+9
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] America's new aristocracy lives in an accountability-free zone
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> America's new aristocracy lives in an accountability-free zone
> Accountability is for the little people, immunity is for the ruling class. If this ethos seems familiar, that is 
> because it has preceded some of the darkest moments in human history
> By David Sirota
> Oct 5 2018
> <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/05/americas-new-aristocracy-live-accountability-free-zone-david-sirota>
>
> When the former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was released from prison a few weeks ago, the news conjured memories of a 
> corporate scandal that now seems almost quaint – and it was also a reminder that Enron executives were among the last 
> politically connected criminals to face any serious consequences for institutionalized fraud.
>
> Since Skilling’s conviction 12 years ago, our society has been fundamentally altered by a powerful political movement 
> whose goal is not merely another court seat, tax cut or election victory. This movement’s objective is far more 
> revolutionary: the creation of an accountability-free zone for an ennobled aristocracy, even as the rest of the 
> population is treated to law-and-order rhetoric and painfully punitive policy.
>
> Let’s remember that in less than two decades, America has experienced the Iraq war, the financial crisis, 
> intensifying economic stratification, an opioid plague, persistent gender and racial inequality and now seemingly 
> unending climate change-intensified disasters. While the victims have been ravaged by these crime sprees, crises and 
> calamities, the perpetrators have largely avoided arrest, inquisition, incarceration, resignation, public shaming and 
> ruined careers.
>
> That is because the United States has been turned into a safe space for a permanent ruling class. Inside the rarefied 
> refuge, the key players who created this era’s catastrophes and who embody the most pernicious pathologies have not 
> just eschewed punishment – many of them have actually maintained or even increased their social, financial and 
> political status.
>
> The effort to construct this elite haven has tied together so many seemingly disparate news events, suggesting that 
> there is a method in the madness. Consider this past month that culminated with the dramatic battle over the judicial 
> nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
>
> September began with John McCain’s funeral – a memorial billed as an apolitical celebration of the Arizona lawmaker, 
> but which served as a made-for-TV spectacle letting America know that everyone who engineered the Iraq war is doing 
> just fine.
>
> The event was attended by Iraq war proponents of both parties, from Dick Cheney to Lindsey Graham to Hillary Clinton. 
> The funeral featured a saccharine eulogy from the key Democratic proponent of the invasion, Joe Lieberman, as well 
> the resurrection of George W Bush. The codpiece-flaunting war president who piloted America into the cataclysm with 
> “bring ’em on” bravado, “shock and awe” bloodlust and “uranium from Africa” dishonesty was suddenly portrayed as an 
> icon of warmth and civility when he passed a lozenge to Michelle Obama. The scene was depicted not as the gathering 
> of a rogues gallery fit for a war crimes tribunal, but as a venerable bipartisan reunion evoking nostalgia for the 
> supposed halcyon days – and Bush promptly used his newly revived image to campaign for Republican congressional 
> candidates and lobby for Kavanaugh’s appointment.
>
> The underlying message was clear: nobody other than the dead, the injured and the taxpayer will face any real penalty 
> for the Iraq debacle.
>
> Next up came the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis – a meltdown that laid waste to the global economy, while 
> providing lucrative taxpayer-funded bailouts to Wall Street firms.
>
> To mark the occasion, the three men on whose watch it occurred – Fed chair Ben Bernanke, Bush treasury secretary Hank 
> Paulson and Obama treasury secretary Tim Geithner – did not offer an apology, but instead promised that another 
> financial crisis will eventually occur, and they demanded lawmakers give public officials more power to bail out big 
> banks in the future.
>
> In a similar bipartisan show of unity, former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohngave an interview in which he asked 
> “Who broke the law?” – the implication being that no Wall Street executives were prosecuted for their role in the 
> meltdown because no statutes had been violated. That suggestion, of course, is undermined by banks’ own admissions 
> that they defrauded investors (that includes admissions of fraud from Goldman Sachs – the very bank that Cohn himself 
> ran during the crisis). Nonetheless, Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder – who has now rejoined his old corporate 
> defense law firm – subsequently backed Cohn up by arguing that nobody on Wall Street committed an offense that could 
> have been successfully prosecuted in a court of law.
>
> Meanwhile, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon garnered non-Onion headlines by floating the idea of running for president – a 
> reminder that a decade after his firm played a central role in destroying countless Americans’ economic lives, he 
> remains not only unincarcerated and gainfully employed, but so reputationally unscathed that he is seen as a serious 
> White House candidate.
>
> Again, the message came through: nobody who engineered the financial crisis will pay any real price for wreaking so 
> much havoc.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



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