Skip to content

Perks of Office

Monday, December 28, 2015

This guy makes John Rowland look like a piker:

As storms once again battered the state of Alabama over Christmas, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley moved to divert funding from the 2010 BP oil spill recovery effort to finance the renovation of a second Governor’s mansion on the Gulf Coast.

Yet that beachside mansion, which Alabama governors beginning with famed segregationist George Wallace have enjoyed, was not damaged by the BP oil spill. It was damaged more than two decades earlier by Hurricane Danny, and has sat empty ever since.

While Alabama’s oyster industry and coastal communities continue to suffer from the effects of the massive Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout, the repairs to the governors’ mansion are estimated to cost between $1.5 million and $1.8 million. Though Bentley says he will stay there only “on occasion,” the administration said the property would be “primarily” used to wine and dine corporate executives considering the state for investment.

…

Yet Bentley argues that the mansion repairs are a priority for economic development, and says the move has no connection to the fact that he recently lost two beachfront properties in a messy divorce.

via Think Progress

And it’s perfectly legal, so far as I can see, as well as being perfectly sleazy.I like to think that had Rowland not ended up in jail, the voters in Connecticut would have denied him a fourth term, but there’s little chance that Bentley has anything to fear. The Southland has been a one-party state since the end of Reconstruction; the parties flipped in the 60s, when the Democratic Party, to its everlasting credit, put principles over politics and championed the civil rights acts that the Supreme Court, along with governors like Bentley, is now busy undermining. In any one party system, but particularly systems dominated by parties of the right, people like Bentley tend to float to the top.

Filed in Republican Corruption, Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Smart guy

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Where did this guy get all his brainpower?

Filed in History | | Comments (0)

Last blast of cynicism before Christmas

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

If I had to recommend five must read blogs, Wall Street on Parade would be one of them. Today, Pam Martens exposes a bit of skullduggery buried in the bill that kept the government funded. (As an aside, how low have we sunk when we can consider a Speaker of the House a success because he manages to keep the government running?) Anyway, back to Ms. Martens:

Corporate front groups got a big fat Christmas present in the recently passed Omnibus spending bill. Congress is hoping that voters are too distracted with holiday preparations to look at the fine print in its more than 2,000 pages.

We were winding our way through its copious contents when we stumbled upon its section on the IRS. Somehow this so-called “spending” bill has legislated into law a right-wing vendetta against the Internal Revenue Service. For example, the IRS is effectively stripped of its ability to writes new rules on 501©(4) organizations. Those organizations are increasingly being used as corporate-funded political front groups masquerading as social welfare organizations: The new Omnibus law reads as follows:

“During fiscal year 2016: (1) none of the funds made available in this or any other Act may be used by the Department of the Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Service, to issue, revise, or finalize any regulation, revenue ruling, or other guidance not limited to a particular taxpayer relating to the standard which is used to determine whether an organization is operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare for purposes of section 501©(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (including the proposed regulations published at 78 Fed. Reg. 71535 (November 29, 2013)); and (2) the standard and definitions as in effect on January 1, 2010, which are used to make such determinations shall apply after the date of the enactment of this Act for purposes of determining status under section 501©(4) of such Code of organizations created on, before, or after such date.”

via Wall Street on Parade

Being a big Monty Python fan, I always look at the bright side of life, except when I don’t, which we won’t talk about at the moment. The fact is, the IRS wouldn’t have done anything about the plutocrats even if Congress had passed something encouraging it to do so, so really Ms. Martens should cool her outrage. Other than illustrating once again that Congress is wholly owned by the Koch Brothers and their ilk, this statute accomplishes nothing. No harm, no foul.

Filed in Corporate Crime | | Comments (0)

History lesson

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Bernie, in Iowa:

In railing against billionaires and Wall Street, Sanders hurled a dig at Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. At Saturday’s Democratic debate, the former secretary of state said “everybody should” love her in response to a question about whether corporate America should love her. Sanders, who rarely calls her out by name, used that statement Monday to position himself as a friend of the common man and an enemy of Wall Street, billionaires and corporate America.

“I don’t need to be loved by everybody. … I don’t need Wall Street’s love,” Sanders said.

via The Des Moines Register

It’s getting to be ancient history, I suppose, and therefore safely forgotten, but perhaps the greatest Democratic president had this to say on the subject:

Not much has changed since then. More accurately, we have, in no small part thanks to Hillary’s husband, it’s sad to say, reverted to the type of society that FDR managed to turn around for a generation. 

Filed in Democrats | | Comments (0)

(One of the) world’s worst people takes a hit

Thursday, December 17, 2015

I am not a gifted enough writer to express how good this makes me feel:

Martin Shkreli, the boyish drug company entrepreneur, who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested by federal agents at his Manhattan home early Thursday morning on securities fraud related to a firm he founded.

Shkreli, 32, ignited a firestorm over drug prices in September and became a symbol of defiant greed. The federal case against him has nothing to do with pharmaceutical costs, however. Prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it to pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.

…

Authorities outlined years of investment losses and lies Shkreli allegedly told his investors almost from the moment he began managing money. By age 26, they said, he got nine investors to place $3 million with him, began losing their money and covering it up. Within a year, his fund’s account was down to $331.

Shkreli attracted another $2.35 million investment in 2010 and lost about half of that in two months, the authorities said. As the hole grew, he covered it up with scheme after scheme, telling investors that his returns were as high as 35.8 percent when he was down 18 percent. He used client money to pay for his clothing, food and medical expenses and lied to the broker handling his fund’s accounts, authorities said.

via Bloomberg News

I spend a lot of my time trying to get people with mental impairments on Social Security, but I’ve never had a sociopath. They make too much money.

Filed in Good News | | Comments (1)

Another corporate wizard wreaks destruction 

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

There is a myth, widely although not universally believed, that we don’t need politicians running this country, we need businessmen and business women. It matters not that successful businessmen (or women) rarely make good politicians, and have never made a great one. In fact, it appears to be universally true that if you have an organization whose mission is anything other than making money, a sure way to destroy it is to put a business person in charge. Consider what is happening to the American Red Cross. A few years ago they had to fire their chief executive because he did the hanky-panky. So, they brought in a businesswoman. How did that work out:

When Gail McGovern was picked to head the American Red Cross in 2008, the organization was reeling. Her predecessor had been fired after impregnating a subordinate. The charity was running an annual deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars.

A former AT&T executive who had taught marketing at Harvard Business School, McGovern pledged to make the tough choices that would revitalize the Red Cross, which was chartered by Congress to provide aid after disasters. In a speech five years ago, she imagined a bright future, a “revolution” in which there would be “a Red Cross location in every single community.’’

It hasn’t worked out that way.

McGovern and her handpicked team of former AT&T colleagues have presided over a string of previously unreported management blunders that have eroded the charity’s ability to fulfill its core mission of aiding Americans in times of need.

Under McGovern, the Red Cross has slashed its payroll by more than a third, eliminating thousands of jobs and closing hundreds of local chapters. Many veteran volunteers, who do the vital work of responding to local fires and floods have also left, alienated by what many perceive as an increasingly rigid, centralized management structure.

Far from opening offices in every city and town, the Red Cross is stumbling in response to even smaller scale disasters.

Via ProPublica

The linked article demonstrates pretty clearly that the Red Cross is failing in it’s core mission. Not only that, it’s also failing in it’s non-core mission: it’s losing money hand over fist. However, McGovern has made sure that those former AT&T colleagues of hers get their fat bonuses every year. The Red Cross has a great brand; it will take many years for McGovern to completely destroy it. In the meantime, unless someone (and she’s probably packed the board to make sure this can’t happen) steps in and stops her, she and her buddies can continue to grow rich off that brand, while the rest of us learn, disaster by disaster, that we can’t count on the Red Cross to ride to our rescue anymore.

As for McGovern, if her board ever does get around to firing her, she can always run for president. She could certainly fit into Carly Fiorina’s shoes.

Filed in Corporate Crime, Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

New London scores a court victory 

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

This will come as no surprise to many, but either I don’t read the New London Day closely enough, or the Day is falling down on the job. (Well, the Day is always falling down on the job) Anyway, today I read this:

A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.

via ABC News

What enlightened city turned Mr. Jordan down? The City of New London! The little city right across the river from the agglomeration of neighborhoods in which I reside. I have no personal responsibility for the doings in New London, as I don’t even get a vote. Still, I feel a sense of shame. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see such a story coming out of somewhere in Alabama, but it breaks my heart to know that nearby New London (and who knows, maybe Groton has a similar rule) wants to put a cap on the intelligence that cops can bring to bear on difficult situations. Isn’t it nice to know, too, that such a policy essentially insures that there won’t be any smarty pants types rising to be chiefs of police.

The court’s decision was undoubtedly correct, legally speaking. Intelligent people have not yet been identified as a suspect class. That may very well change if one of the clowns running for President happens to get elected, but for now smart people can’t claim a history of discrimination. New London is out to change all that. 

Filed in Lawyer stuff | | Comments (0)

Deja vu all over again

Monday, December 14, 2015

Last week we saw shades of 2007 with both a hedge fund and junk bond mutual fund halting the ability of investors to withdraw funds. An additional credit hedge fund announced it is shutting down. The problem this time around is a dearth of liquidity (read buyers’ strike) for junk bonds. In 2007 the problem was subprime mortgage backed securities and related derivatives.

…

Suddenly last week, complacent investors in mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and hedge funds invested in junk bonds awakened to the Will Rogers’ wisdom that: “I’m not as concerned about the return on my money as I am the return of my money.” There is now a stampede for the exits – and in some cases, no exit ramp.

The Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund, a mutual fund which is supposed to be able to meet daily redemption requests, announced late last week that it is freezing withdrawals of investor money until it is able to liquidate its $788.5 million in corporate debt and junk bonds (also known as “high yield” bonds). Reuters reports that “Third Avenue’s fund had nearly half its assets in below ‘B’ rated debt, compared to the peer average of just 12 percent, according to Morningstar Inc data.”

In addition, a hedge fund, Stone Lion Capital Partners, said last week that it is suspending withdrawals of investors’ money from its $400 million credit portfolio.

…

The question on everyone’s mind this week is if the junk bond market could trigger the kind of systemic contagion that unraveled the financial system in 2008. One major concern is just how large the perpetually blindfolded regulators have allowed this market to grow. Moody’s, the ratings agency, puts the high yield bond market at $1.8 trillion today, versus the $994 billion it represented at the end of 2008.

Via Wall Street on Parade

If it happens between now and the election, it will almost certainly put a Republican in the White House, a Republican sure to pursue policies that will not only make things worse, but will guarantee a repeat. The only bright side, and it’s fairly dim, is that the Democrats would likely be called back in 2020 to clean up the mess, which, if they are still controlled by Wall Street, they will promptly proceed to do as effectively as they did in 2009.

Filed in Corporate Crime, Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Bernie should count his blessings

Friday, December 11, 2015

An analysis of network television news coverage reveals what supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders have long suspected; the three broadcast television networks are intentionally ignoring the Sanders campaign.

Eric Boehlert of Media Matters has the revealing details:

So in terms of stand-alone campaign stories this year, it’s been 234 minutes for Trump, compared to 10 minutes for Sanders. And at ABC World News Tonight, it’s been 81 minutes for Trump and less than one minute for Sanders.

via Politicus USA

I wouldn’t complain if I were Bernie (I just found out that he did). His message is getting through to the people who are receptive to it, since there are a lot more channels for information now than there were, say, 16 years ago. If the corporate media choose to ignore Bernie, it means they are passing up the chance to smear him. That may come all in their good time, but there does come a time when the public perception is set in stone, and it becomes much harder to change opinions, particularly in a time when people have so many choices of news sources. No doubt the corporations will someday squeeze the independent voices off the internet, but that hasn’t happened yet. So Bernie is lucky that the Sunday morning shows or whatever are ignoring him. They are losing their chance to shape the narrative about him, and when they get around to doing that they may find it’s too late.

Filed in Media, Uncategorized | | Comments (0)

Why am I not jittery?

Monday, December 7, 2015

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself

Franklin Roosevelt

What a quaint notion.

I’m told by the New York Times that Obama recently addressed a “jittery” nation. I read elsewhere that more than half of us now want to get ourselves into a another quagmire in the Middle East, because doing so will apparently ease our jitters.

Apparently, we get jittery if Muslims use automatic weapons to kill us, but when white males do so we say a few prayers, bemoan the omnipresence of mental illness, and promptly forget about it. Not a single jitter, really, and yet the victims of the white male are just as dead as the victims of the Muslims, and they die so very much more often.

I’m not at a total loss to explain my own lack of jitters. At least I have a theory. My spouse shares my affliction. We speculated, (alas, I have no scientific basis for this), that our jitter level is directly proportional to our consumption of non-print media. That consumption being zero, we are not exposed to the constant barrage of media coverage of these events, the subtext of which is that we should all be very jittery indeed. Fear itself is now a very good thing. We are encouraged to be fearful by the media; law enforcement types; politicians (mostly Rs, but some Ds); and presidential candidates of only one stripe. We are an impressionable people. Who are we to question such a consensus? If they say we should be jittery, then we do as we are told, despite what math may tell us about the odds of being killed by a Muslim as opposed to, say, a white male. If that means taking precisely the actions most likely to increase killings by Muslims (the white male killings will go on of course, but that’s just background noise), then we must take that action now. After all, what could go wrong?

Filed in Crazies, War fever | | Comments (0)