Financial Prosecutions Hit a 20-Year Low

Because no one in the financial industry uses criminal, illegal, or otherwise amoral tactics, and the industry is much less corrupt now than it was 20 years ago.

And I'm from Jupiter.

Chamber of Commerce CEO's Sweet Gig

Tom Donohue, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, big business' biggest lobby in DC, took in $4.7 million in compensation last year alone, as the economy continued to falter and job creation didn't keep up with the rate of unemployment.  So clearly he earned it.  This is the same guy who says public sector (i.e. government) employees' compensation is bloated and that their benefits are "out of control."  Fuck you Tom Donohue.

Goodbye Middle Class

Quick link to a story about a new study showing that the number of Americans living in economically diverse neighborhoods is actually shrinking.  Neighborhoods are becoming more segregated as wealthy people move into gated communities and such and poor people are hoarded together in slums.  This is exactly how capitalists want society to be structured, so they don't have to intermingle with us common folk.  This helps lead to further segregation of schools and social institutions, and further removes wealthy people from any semblance of real life and its struggles.

Stricter Punishments for the Poor

This is exactly the sort of garbage I'm talking about.  If there ever was a more perfect illustration of how our criminal justice system is designed to benefit those with money and screws over the poor (who happen to mostly be people of color), I haven't seen it.  Here's the lead sentence, which basically sums up the story: "A Rankin County mother will serve more time in federal prison for lying on her food stamp application than a group of people recently sentenced in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme."


In the US, you get the legal protection and treatment you pay for, not what you deserve.  This is about as bad as the fact that Jerry Sandusky was released on unsecured bail, meaning he was released to home confinement without having to pay, while millions of poor Americans charged with drug crimes are forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money that they often don't have to post bail.

Launch/Rant

I'm just fucking fed up.  I'm fed up with the bullshit we're spoonfed incessantly about the wonders of the free market, and how deregulation and lower taxes will lead to job creation and economic recovery.  I'm fed up with having only two political parties that both serve the same interests and insulate themselves from outside attacks.  I'm fed up with people buying the notion that corporations deserve the same rights as people without having any accountability or responsibility.  For that matter, I'm fed up with corporations wreaking havoc on the environment, society, and the economy, and our stupid fucking elected leaders helping them to do it.  I'm fed up with the fact that wages haven't increased AT ALL for anyone other than the top 10% of people in this country over the past four-five decades, while those at the very top live in luxury completely unimaginable to the majority of us.

I'm fed up with people believing that capitalism is a beneficial economic structure for anything other than those who already wield hugely disproportionate amounts of power, money, and influence.  I'm tired of our tragic joke of a media that does more to support this raping of American than to stop it.  I'm tired of all the bullshit.

Fuck Capitalism.  It doesn't work for me, it probably doesn't work for you, and it sure as hell doesn't work for the majority of us.