Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

[skidder]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics..._main_street/1

A good read on how JP Morgan bankrupted Jefferson County, AL. Nothing compared to the Andrew Maguire story now being ignored by the MSM, but it's a good recap of how these assholes operate.

[bpr]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

Hm. Interesting story, but I'd like to see a more solution-oriented approach than Taibbi's all-too poetic conclusion.

[Ghent12]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

Hm. Interesting story, but I'd like to see a more solution-oriented approach than Taibbi's all-too poetic conclusion.

There probably isn't a solution. One of the few I can see are having politicians with balls (aka statesmen). As a rule, politicians with balls are unelectable; a handful of exceptions prove this rule.

Other solutions usually involve genuine unity of popular action, which I see as similarly unlikely.

[bpr]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

There probably isn't a solution. One of the few I can see are having politicians with balls (aka statesmen). As a rule, politicians with balls are unelectable; a handful of exceptions prove this rule.

Other solutions usually involve genuine unity of popular action, which I see as similarly unlikely.

I can't disagree with you, but I do lament a seemingly collective lack of imagination on these points. Perhaps it's a collective weariness or sense of powerlessness.

I recall a Noam Chomsky interview on Democracy Now in which he noted that, when speaking on American campuses he invariably encounters the same question: "What can we do about it?" He claimed that only American audiences pose this question, that people in other countries just take to the streets.

In any case, I'm finding the process of discovery tiresome, and apparently endless. And, while informative and entertainingly written, Taibbi's piece (and many others like it) comes off as a hollow rant without offering a single call to action, even one as simple as, "Go to your city council meetings and let your local officials know that you are informed."

[ax]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

I would disagree with this. It seems that Taibbi and, as clear evidence that our MSM is garbage, Rolling Stone are among the few calling out the criminals and urging some outrage.

[Scot]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics..._main_street/1

A good read on how JP Morgan bankrupted Jefferson County, AL. Nothing compared to the Andrew Maguire story now being ignored by the MSM, but it's a good recap of how these assholes operate.

If any of you had to sit through the literal years of local news stories about the corruption and foolishness going on in that county, and if you had witnessed the insanity of the Mayoral elections in the city of Birmingham (the city essentially controls the county), you'd join me in praying that a great ball of fire would literally fall from the sky and obliterate Jefferson County and the city of Birmingham.

These are the people that elected Larry Langford to the county commission after he, as mayor of Fairfield in Jefferson county, led an effort to get the county and local municipalities to borrow $65 million to build VisionLand Theme Park which soon went into bankruptcy. Once on the commission he illegally took $156,000 in cash and benefits and by his actions as a commissioner directed that Jefferson county borrow huge sums of money for the sewer project. While Langford was under investigation by the SEC and during the crisis over the county debt, the people of the city of Birmingham decided to reward his wisdom and make him Mayor. The only thing to finally stop the madness was his conviction on 60 counts of corruption on Dec 1, 2008 which forced him from office.

Now you'd think after all this the people of Jefferson County and of the City of Birmingham might reflect a bit and start to focus on how they can get better and more honest people in positions of political power. But no. After Langford was tossed out of office, the most important issue in the campaign for Mayor was the fact that one of the two candidates that had made it to the runoff election had once been married to a white woman.

The election was between William Bell and Patrick Cooper. Bell and Cooper are both black. The Bell campaign ran ads declaring that Patrick Cooper had been divorced and that it was "the cowards way out", but with a picture that made damn sure everyone knew he had once been married to a white woman. In a city that is 75% black, a young, intelligent, energetic, well-educated and probably more honest Cooper had no chance and was labeled a sellout. After all the crap they'd been through, racial loyalty still trumped everything.

That's how politics works in Jefferson county.

[Shakespear]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

Thanks Scot for that overview of how hopelessly disconnected the political process is from Reality in some place (I want to generalize but I won't). Reality by my definition is what is best for the community, city, state and the nation.

[bpr]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

That's how politics works in Jefferson county.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is a local problem.

There is also no doubt in my mind that this is a Federal problem.

Finally, there is no doubt in my mind that this is a problem in almost every city, township, village, and borough between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The relationships I read about in this article are eerily similar to the relationships I read about in my local paper, here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

I've lived in eight different "cities" in the past ten years ranging in population from 2,000 to 2 million: they've all had the same irregularities in their finances that are mentioned in this article. The only difference from township to borough to metropolis has been my proximity (or lack thereof) to the folks getting the graft.

All were North of the Mason-Dixon line.

We don't have many Southerners here, but we've got idiots nonetheless.

I don't mean to discredit the ineptitude of Alabama leadership, but it is all over.

[Slimprofits]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

The question is, who is NOT taking payoffs in order to enrich themselves and others close to them?

just one of the latest in a long history here in the Bay State

Judge: Case against ex-Mass. speaker can proceed
(AP) – Mar 24, 2010
BOSTON — A federal judge has declined to dismiss corruption charges against former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and three co-defendants.
But Judge Mark Wolf also said Wednesday that he would consider holding a hearing on whether allegations included in an expanded indictment last fall should be included in the case. The defense has argued that some details are not related closely enough to the original case to be a part of it.
The initial indictment accuses the former speaker, a Boston Democrat, and his three co-defendants of a scheme to rig two lucrative state contracts for the software company Cognos in exchange for payments. The expanded indictment added an extortion count against DiMasi. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

In any case, I'm finding the process of discovery tiresome, and apparently endless. And, while informative and entertainingly written, Taibbi's piece (and many others like it) comes off as a hollow rant without offering a single call to action, even one as simple as, "Go to your city council meetings and let your local officials know that you are informed."

Couldn't disagree with you more. A free press is essential to stopping this kind of bullshit. And in some places a free press exists and works. A group tries to do an endrun around a county or city commision, gets called on it and it changes the whole landscape. The group is trying to build an asphalt plant along a river. A paper exposes a secret agenda for an upcoming meeting. A bunch of people show up. Everyone sitting on that commission is voted out in the next election. It happens.

[bpr]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

The question is, who is NOT taking payoffs in order to enrich themselves and others close to them?

That is, indeed, the question.

[bpr]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

Couldn't disagree with you more. A free press is essential to stopping this kind of bullshit. And in some places a free press exists and works. A group tries to do an endrun around a county or city commision, gets called on it and it changes the whole landscape. The group is trying to build an asphalt plant along a river. A paper exposes a secret agenda for an upcoming meeting. A bunch of people show up. Everyone sitting on that commission is voted out in the next election. It happens.

This is a great example of how this can work, Thai.

Where did this happen?

Do you have a link?

It's actually a great story, and I'd like to know more about it.

"free press" is the essential point. It's a little more difficult if there is only one paper in a geographic location, which is common in the U.S. The local paper decides what stories are printed, and thus determines what politicians are elected.

[Master Shake]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

I can't disagree with you, but I do lament a seemingly collective lack of imagination on these points. Perhaps it's a collective weariness or sense of powerlessness.

I recall a Noam Chomsky interview on Democracy Now in which he noted that, when speaking on American campuses he invariably encounters the same question: "What can we do about it?" He claimed that only American audiences pose this question, that people in other countries just take to the streets.

In any case, I'm finding the process of discovery tiresome, and apparently endless. And, while informative and entertainingly written, Taibbi's piece (and many others like it) comes off as a hollow rant without offering a single call to action, even one as simple as, "Go to your city council meetings and let your local officials know that you are informed."

And yet, when real people (not professional protesters) take to the streets, many of the same people who call for people to take to the streets then deride those taking action because, well they're mostly white and some can't spell all that well, and they are probably crypto-racists who just don't like a black man being president.

[metalman]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics..._main_street/1

A good read on how JP Morgan bankrupted Jefferson County, AL. Nothing compared to the Andrew Maguire story now being ignored by the MSM, but it's a good recap of how these assholes operate.

operative word here is 'recap'.

old news is old.

who will risk reputation & money & even personal liberty to fight these f&ckers?

no one.

nation of pussies.

no wonder we have no statesmen.

[marvenger]

Re: Looting Main Street-Matt Taibbi

its really hard to be profitable and not corrupt at the moment. So if the system relies on profit to reproduce itself i'd say corrution is going to flourish. positive feedback loop. there will be blood.