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Tag Archives: corruption

Corruption of President’s Actions Affects US and the International Community -Ukraine Transcript IS Proof

29 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by CricketDiane in Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips, United States of America, US Constitution, US Government

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anti-corruption, anti-corruption laws, anti-corruption practices, corruption, cricketdiane, impeachment, international anti-corruption, OECD anti-corruption, presidential wrongdoing, trump, trump impeachment, Ukraine transcript, UNCAC, US president extortion of Ukraine, USAID anti-corruption, whistleblower complaint

In plain terms:

It is illegal to solicit a bribe from a foreign leader. (even if you are the president of the United States.)

This is based on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, UNCAC (The United States is a state party to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption), The IACAC (The Inter-American Convention Against Corruption), and the OECD AntiBribery Convention.

The United States ratified the UNCAC on October 30, 2006. The UNCAC requires parties to criminalize a wide range of corrupt acts, including domestic and foreign bribery and related offenses such as money laundering and obstruction of justice. The UNCAC also establishes guidelines for the creation of anti-corruption bodies, codes of conduct for public officials, transparent and objective systems of procurement, and enhanced accounting and auditing standards for the private sector.

Bribery versus Extortion

Article 15 of the Convention against Corruption defines bribery as both the promise, offering or giving of an undue advantage to a national, international or foreign public official and the solicitation or acceptance of an undue advantage by a national public official.

https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/organized-crime/module-4/key-issues/bribery-versus-extortion.html

**


Under federal law, individuals or companies that aid or abet a crime, including an FCPA violation, are as guilty as if they had directly committed the offense themselves.

The aiding and abetting statute provides that whoever “commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission,” or “willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States,” is punishable as a principal.


No problem does more to alienate citizens from their political leaders and institutions, and to undermine political stability and economic development, than endemic corruption among the government, political party leaders, judges, and bureaucrats. — USAID Anti-Corruption Strategy

Pg. 3

https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/fcpa-resource-guide.pdf

**

20 See International Anti-Bribery and Fair Competition Act of 1998, Pub.
L. 105-366, 112 Stat. 3302 (1998); see also S. Rep. No. 105-277, at 2-3
(describing amendments to “the FCPA to conform it to the requirements
of and to implement the OECD Convention”).

2 Id.; H.R. Rep. No. 95-640, at 4-5 (1977) [hereinafter H. R. Rep. No.
95-640], available at http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa/
history/1977/houseprt-95-640.pdf.

The House Report made clear Congress’s concerns:

The payment of bribes to influence the acts or decisions of foreign officials, foreign political parties or candidates for foreign political office is unethical.
It is counter to the moral expectations and values of the American public. But not only is it unethical, it is bad business as well. It erodes public confidence in the integrity of the free market system. It short-circuits the marketplace by directing business to those companies too inefficient to compete in terms of price, quality or service, or too lazy to engage in honest salesmanship, or too intent upon unloading marginal products. In short, it rewards corruption instead of efficiency and puts pressure on ethical
enterprises to lower their standards or risk losing business.

3 See, e.g., U.S. Agency for Int’l Dev., USAID Anticorruption
Strategy 5-6 (2005), available at http://transition.usaid.gov/policy/
ads/200/200mbo.pdf.

The growing recognition that corruption poses a severe threat to domestic and international security has galvanized efforts to combat it in the United States and abroad.

See, e.g., Int’l AntiCorruption and Good Governance Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-309,
§ 202, 114 Stat. 1090 (codified as amended at 22 U.S.C. §§ 2151-2152 (2000))


(noting that “widespread corruption endangers the stability and security of societies, undermines democracy, and jeopardizes the social, political, and economic development of a society. . . . [and that] corruption facilitates criminal activities, such as money laundering, hinders economic development, inflates the costs of doing business, and undermines the legitimacy of the government and public trust”).


My Note –

This speaks of international corruption but since Trump decided to use Ukraine to harass his political opponents family as a favor he asked of Ukrainian President Zelensky in the recently published phone call with him, it now applies to our president as well.

Since Trump was singly deciding to withhold military aid from Ukraine that Congress had already obligated to them and knew that fact during the phone call (of which we have no word-for-word transcript) – but Ukraine knew that money was not in their hands yet and had to be given to them within the next few weeks.

Phone call from Trump July 25 – US military funding Money had to be made available to Ukraine and spent by September 30. They knew it hadn’t come yet despite the inspection certification hoops they had been made to jump through – of anti-corruption efforts by Ukraine was completed, filed and official by US inspectors since May, according to the Pentagon letter to that effect.

So, now this text below from this document refers to the president as well:


 

International corruption also undercuts good governance and impedes U.S. efforts to promote freedom and democracy, end poverty, and combat crime and terrorism across the globe.5 Corruption is also bad for business. Corruption is anti-competitive, leading to distorted prices and disadvantaging honest businesses that do not pay bribes. It increases the cost of doing business globally and inflates the cost of government contracts in developing countries.6 Corruption also introduces significant uncertainty into business transactions: Contracts secured through bribery may be legally unenforceable, and paying bribes on one contract often results in corrupt officials making ever-increasing demands.

https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/fcpa-resource-guide.pdf (pg.


**

Under federal law, individuals or companies that aid
or abet a crime, including an FCPA violation, are as guilty as
if they had directly committed the offense themselves. The
aiding and abetting statute provides that whoever “commits
an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels,
commands, induces or procures its commission,” or “willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed
by him or another would be an offense against the United
States,” is punishable as a principal.199 Aiding and abetting is
not an independent crime, and the government must prove
that an underlying FCPA violation was committed.200

(pg. 34)

 

What Does “Willfully” Mean and When

Does It Apply?

In order for an individual defendant to be criminally liable under the FCPA, he or she must act “willfully.”81  Proof of willfulness is not required to establish corporate criminal or civil liability,82 though proof of corrupt intent is.

 

The term “willfully” is not defined in the FCPA, but it has generally been construed by courts to connote an act committed voluntarily and purposefully, and with a bad purpose, i.e., with “knowledge that [a defendant] was doing a ‘bad’ act under the general rules of law.”83  

 

As the Supreme Court explained in Bryan v. United States, “[a]s a general matter, when used in the criminal context, a ‘willful’ act is one undertaken with a ‘bad purpose.’  In other words, in order to establish a ‘willful’ violation of a statute, ‘the Government must prove that the defendant acted with knowledge that his conduct was unlawful.’”84

 

Notably, as both the Second Circuit and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals have found, the FCPA does not require the government to prove that a defendant was specifically aware of the FCPA or knew that his conduct violated the FCPA.85  To be guilty, a defendant must act with a bad purpose, i.e., know generally that his conduct is unlawful.

 

U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

 

https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/fcpa-resource-guide.pdf

 

**

[All references in this document and quoted materials are from this document unless otherwise noted  –

https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/fcpa-resource-guide.pdf ]

In fiscal year 2009, the U.S. government provided more than $1 billion for anti-corruption and related good governance assistance abroad.  {Maybe some of it should have been spent to teach Mr. Trump about anti-corruption and good governance as well.}

Note – This blog post was researched and written by CricketDiane, Diane C Phillips,

09-29-2019

**

 

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DNI Maguire Broke The Law For His Own Fealty To The President – Arrest Him Like Any Of The Rest Of Us Would Be

26 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by CricketDiane in Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips, US Constitution

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Tags

corruption, cricketdiane, dni, Intelligence Committee, maguire, trump, whistleblower, whistleblower complaint, whistleblower law

Towards the beginning of the hearings with the DNI today , Maguire admitted that the whistleblower’s complaint was both credible and urgent.

The DNI is not above the law and he should be taken out of the Halls of our Congress in handcuffs and prosecution begin immediately of him for breaking the very clear whistleblower law for his own political interests in fealty to the White House and Trump.

He had no legal right to withhold the whistleblower complaint from Congress for this extended time to serve the desires of the executive branch. It broke the law to do so.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/politics/whistleblower-complaint-released/index.html

**

 

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Afghan bank crisis clouds future European aid-EU | Reuters

17 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by CricketDiane in Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips

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Afghanistan, anti-corruption, banks, Central Banks, corruption, credit default swaps, cricketdiane, EU, foreign international aid, IMF, US foreign aid, World Bank

Afghan bank crisis clouds future European aid-EU | Reuters.

Corruption, bad loans and mismanagement have cost Kabulbank hundreds of millions of dollars and the government’s inability to come up with a serious solution has caused growing concern among Afghanistan’s international partners.

In many cases and to varying degrees, aid from donor countries and agencies is mandated on an IMF programme being in place. Donors (including the United States) contribute about 70 percent of the Afghan state operating budget, itself dwarfed by billions more in direct aid.

(etc.)

***

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Obama: World witnessing history in Egypt – UPI.com

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by CricketDiane in America - USA, ancient sea, Civil Rights, Creating Solutions That Work, Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips, cricketdiane, Democracy, Freedom, Human Rights, International Concerns, Sovereignty of the People, Twenty-first Century, US Government

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anti-corruption, corruption, cricketdiane, Egypt, Human Rights, MidEast, Mubarak, UN, US foreign aid, US foreign military aid, US foreign policy

Obama: World witnessing history in Egypt – UPI.com.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) — The world has a front row seat to watch history being made in Egypt, U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday.

“What is absolutely clear is that we are witnessing history unfold,” Obama said of the anti-government protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak’s departure. “People are calling for change.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/02/10/Obama-World-witnessing-history-in-Egypt/UPI-83481297339365/#ixzz1DauPym1z
**
That is exactly right. This is the history of our time unfolding before our eyes. Even if it ends in great horror, that too will be history. Let us hope the world leaders can do a better job than that.
– cricketdiane
***

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Egypt and Iraq – interesting decision-makers in Washington

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by CricketDiane in Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips

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Tags

anti-corruption, corruption, cricketdiane, Egypt, Human Rights, MidEast, Mubarak, UN, US foreign aid, US foreign military aid, US foreign policy

Andrew W. Marshall (born 1921) is the director of the United States Department of Defense‘s Office of Net Assessment. Appointed to the position in 1973 by United States President Richard Nixon, Marshall has been re-appointed by every president that followed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Marshall_%28foreign_policy_strategist%29

**

Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad (Nastaliq: زلمی خلیلزاد – Zalmay Khalīlzād) (born: 22 March 1951) is an American counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and president of Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He has been involved with U.S. policy makers at the White House, State Department and Pentagon since the mid-1980s, and was the highest-ranking Muslim American in the Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.[2] Khalilzad’s previous assignments in the Administration include U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.

From 1985 to 1989, Khalilzad served in President Ronald Reagan‘s Administration as a senior State Department official advising on the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the Iran–Iraq War. During this time he was a member of the policy planning staff and the State Department’s Special Advisor on Afghanistan to Undersecretary of State Michael H. Armacost. In this role he developed and guided the international program to promote the merits of a Mujahideen-led Afghanistan to oust the Soviet occupation. From 1990-1992, Khalilzad served under President George H. W. Bush in the Defense Department as Deputy Undersecretary for Policy Planning.

Between 1993 and 2000, Khalilzad was the Director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Force Structure at the RAND Corporation. During this time, he helped found RAND’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies as well as “Strategic Appraisal,” a periodic RAND publication. He also authored several influential monographs, including “The United States and a Rising China” and “From Containment to Global Leadership? America and the World After the Cold War.” While at RAND, Khalilzad also had a brief stint consulting for Cambridge Energy Research Associates, which at the time was conducting a risk analysis for Unocal, now part of Chevron, for a proposed 1,400 km (890 mile), $2-billion, 622 m³/s (22,000 ft³/s) Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline project which would have extended from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and further proceeding to Pakistan. As one of the original members of Project for the New American Century, Khalilzad was a signatory of the letter to President Bill Clinton sent on January 26, 1998, which called for him to accept the aim of “removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power” using “a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts.”[10]

In 2001, President George W. Bush asked Khalilzad to head the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Department of Defense and Khalilzad briefly served as Counselor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In May 2001, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced Khalilzad’s appointment as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Southwest Asia, Near East, and North African Affairs at the National Security Council. In December 2002 the President appointed Khalilzad to the position of Ambassador at Large for Free Iraqis with the task of coordinating “preparations for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.”[11]

(etc.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalmay_Khalilzad

**

IRAQ – CIA – STATE DEPARTMENT FILES

2440 pages of CIA, State Department, and Congressional documents covering Iraq.
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/iraq.html

**

(from a wikipedia entry about US economics – )

Subsidies considered excessive, unwarranted, wasteful, unfair, inefficient, or bought by lobbying are often called corporate welfare. The label of corporate welfare is often used to decry projects advertised as benefiting the general welfare that spend a disproportionate amount of funds on large corporations, and often in uncompetitive, or anti-competitive ways. For instance, in the United States, agricultural subsidies are usually portrayed as helping honest, hardworking independent farmers stay afloat. However, the majority of income gained from commodity support programs actually goes to large agribusiness corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland, as they own a considerably larger percentage of production.[5]

According to the Cato Institute, the U.S. federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006. Recipients included Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, and General Electric.[6]

Alan Peters and Peter Fisher have estimated that state and local governments provide $40-50 billion annually in economic development incentives,[7] which many critics characterize as corporate welfare.

Some economists consider the recent bank bailouts in the United States to be corporate welfare.[8] U.S. politicians have contended that zero-interest loans from the Federal Reserve to financial institions during the global financial crisis were a hidden, backdoor form of corporate welfare.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_welfare

**

The Republicans bailed out the banks and established the most grandiose, crony-based government funded set of industries, security contractor industries, huge agri-businesses that put small farms out of business, horse farms and horse breeder farms, military industry contractors and sub-contractors such that no one could compete with any of them with a level playing field or enter the field at all, in many cases – since those same subsidies, grants and incentives were not available to them.

– my note

**

The term corporate welfare is widely used to describe the bestowal of favorable treatment to particular corporations by the government. One of the most commonly raised forms of criticism are statements that the capitalist political economy toward large corporations allows them to “privatize profits and socialize losses.”[1] The argument has been raised and cited on many occasions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capitalism_for_the_poor

**

The military-industrial complex in the United States is often described as an example of crony capitalism in an industry. Connections with The Pentagon and lobbyists in Washington are described by critics as more important than actual competition, due to the political and secretive nature of defense contracts. In the Airbus-Boeing WTO dispute, Airbus (which receives outright subsidies from European governments) has stated Boeing receives similar subsidies, which are hidden as inefficient defense contracts.[8] In another example, Bechtel, claiming that it should have had a chance to bid for certain contracts, said Halliburton had received no-bid contracts due to having cronies in the Bush administration.

(also from the same entry on wikipedia – )

More direct government involvement can lead to specific areas of crony capitalism, even if the economy as a whole may be healthy. Governments will, often in good faith, establish government agencies to regulate an industry. However, the members of an industry have a very strong interest in the actions of a regulatory body, while the rest of the citizenry are only lightly affected. As a result, it is not uncommon for current industry players to gain control of the “watchdog” and use it against competitors. This phenomenon is known as regulatory capture.

A famous early example in the United States would be the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was established in 1887 to regulate the railroad “robber barons“; instead, it quickly became controlled by the railroads, which set up a permit system that was used to deny access to new entrants and functionally legalized price fixing.[5]

(from)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism

**

(further from another wikipedia entry – )

Economist Dean Baker expressed similar views in his book The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer, in which he pointed out several different policy areas in which government intervention is essential to preserving and enhancing wealth in the hands of a few.[13]

Also Noam Chomsky has criticized the way in which free market principles have been applied. He has argued that the wealthy use free-market rhetoric to justify imposing greater economic risk upon the lower classes, while being insulated from the rigours of the market by the political and economic advantages that such wealth affords.[14] He remarked, “the free market is socialism for the rich—[free] markets for the poor and state protection for the rich.”[15]

Arguments along a similar line were raised in connection with the financial turmoil in 2008. With regard to the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ron Blackwell, chief economist of AFL-CIO, used the expression “Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor” to characterize the system.[16] In September 2008, the US Senator from Vermont, Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders said regarding the bailout of the U.S. financial system: “This is the most extreme example that I can recall of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor”.[17] The same month, economist Nouriel Roubini stated: “It is pathetic that Congress did not consult any of the many professional economists that have presented […] alternative plans that were more fair and efficient and less costly ways to resolve this crisis. This is again a case of privatizing the gains and socializing the losses; a bailout and socialism for the rich, the well-connected and Wall Street”.[18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capitalism_for_the_poor

**

Crony capitalism in practice

In its lightest form, crony capitalism consists of collusion among market players. While perhaps lightly competing against each other, they will present a unified front to the government in requesting subsidies or aid (sometimes called a trade association or industry trade group). Newcomers to a market may find it difficult to find loans or acquire shelf space to sell their product; in technological fields, they may be accused of infringing on patents that the established competitors never invoke against each other. Distribution networks will refuse to aid the entrant. That said, there will still be competitors who “crack” the system when the legal barriers are light, especially where the old guard has become inefficient and is failing to meet the needs of the market. Of course, some of these upstarts may then join with the established networks to help deter any other new competitors.

(etc.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism

**

Franklin D. Roosevelt in an April 29, 1938 message to Congress warned that the growth of private power could lead to fascism:

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.[60][61][62]

From the same message:

The Growing Concentration of Economic Power. Statistics of the Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal the following amazing figures for 1935: “Ownership of corporate assets: Of all corporations reporting from every part of the Nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them.”[60][62]

Critics of the notion of the confluence of corporate power and de facto fascism included President Dwight D. Eisenhower,[63] who nevertheless brought attention to the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry”[64] in his 1961 Farewell Address to the Nation, and stressed “the need to maintain balance in and among national programs — balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage.”[64]

Some authors also discuss modern American corporatism.[65][66]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism

**

Just a thought –

Sometime, when you’ve nothing better to do –

In 1727, Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of “like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community.” The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia.

Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library, initially assembled from their own books. This did not suffice, however. Franklin then conceived the idea of a subscription library, which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the Library Company of Philadelphia: its charter was composed by Franklin in 1731. In 1732, Franklin hired the first American librarian, Louis Timothee. Originally, the books were kept in the homes of the first librarians, but in 1739 the collection was moved to the second floor of the State House of Pennsylvania, now known as Independence Hall. In 1791, a new building was built specifically for the library. The Library Company is now a great scholarly and research library with 500,000 rare books, pamphlets, and broadsides, more than 160,000 manuscripts, and 75,000 graphic items.

 

Benjamin Franklin (center) at work on a printing press. Reproduction of a Charles Mills painting by the Detroit Publishing Company.

Upon Denham’s death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, Franklin had set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith and the following year became the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after Franklin had achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious ‘B. Franklin, Printer.’[11]

 

Franklin’s birthplace site directly across from Old South Meeting House on Milk Street is commemorated by a bust above the second floor facade of this building

Declaration of Independence

About 50 men, most of them seated, are in a large meeting room. Most are focused on the five men standing in the center of the room. The tallest of the five is laying a document on a table. 

John Trumbull depicts the Committee of Five presenting their work to the Congress.[62]

By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, the American Revolution had begun with fighting at Lexington and Concord. The New England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several small changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson.[54]

At the signing, he is quoted as having replied to a comment by Hancock that they must all hang together: “Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”[63]

(from)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

**

The Bill of Rights is the name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.[1] They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of legislative articles and came into effect as Constitutional Amendments on December 15, 1791, through the process of ratification by three-fourths of the States.

The Bill of Rights is a series of limitations on the power of the United States federal government, protecting the natural rights of liberty and property including freedom of speech, a free press, free assembly, and free association, as well as the right to keep and bear arms. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital or “infamous crime”, guarantees a speedy, public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. In addition, the Bill of Rights reserves for the people any rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution[2] and reserves all powers not specifically granted to the federal government to the people or the States. Most of these restrictions on the federal government were later applied to the states by a series of legal decisions applying the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868. The Bill was influenced by George Mason‘s 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, works of the Age of Enlightenment pertaining to natural rights, and earlier English political documents such as Magna Carta (1215).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

The Bill of Rights plays a key role in American law and government, and remains a vital symbol of the freedoms and culture of the nation. One of the first fourteen copies of the Bill of Rights is on public display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

**

My Note –

Because if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

Maybe it is time to take a look at what America stands for and make good on it – across the board, both with our own people and those of other nations around the world.

– cricketdiane

Just a thought.

***

It is rather hard to imagine doing anything of value in the United States when the game is rigged.

Our nation has agreed to the principles of our Constitution and Bill of Rights for all of this time, including now. I don’t recall any of us having a vote to change those principles and doctrines to something else – not thirty years ago, not five years ago and not yesterday nor today. So, therefore these things have been our law the whole time – and these aren’t matters that are buried fifty elements down on some back page of our Constitution. They are placed at its first page as the most important thing from which all the rest is derived and secondary. These are in effect, our national principles upon which we have all agreed – not something else.

And, when those funds were taken from our Treasury and sent to places as diverse and brutal to people from Egypt to even states and systems in the United States that have brutalized our people – it was illegal. It was against the very Constitution which places any power in the hands of anyone in our state or federal government or its agencies.

That was a “no-no” to say the least. And, now the price of this foolishness, is that we have put sophisticated weapons of destruction in the hands of whatever horrific regime has been in power for thirty years and whatever comes next. Brilliant is not the word I would use to describe that. And, at the same time it has thieved money from every single American alive today in opportunities, resources and moneys from their paychecks which could have been spent more effectively for their own needs.

It is wrong.

And, the people who participated in it – knew it was wrong and in violation of our Constitution when they were doing it.

***

$3.5 million dollars a day being given to Egypt every single day for over thirty years – what did they think they were doing?

(sometimes more and that doesn’t include a vast array of other financial resources being given from our tax dollars to the Egyptian government for an infinite variety of excuses.)

Times how many other governments and nations and programs and militaries and police states and police secret brutality guards and how many other things that not one American citizen would have agreed to take money from their paychecks and sponsor?

– cricketdiane

***

I noticed this just now on one of my documents – how is it that these folks knew this and yet, bankers, Wall Street groups and our government have said there was no way they could’ve known what was coming?

**

Financial crisis of early 21st Century

According to their Report to Policyholders 2007, in early 2007 the company’s managers became concerned about the state of credit markets, so in February 2007 “based on our belief that the markets were acting irrationally” New York Life decided to move much of its cash flow into safer investments such as US Treasury bonds. “By August 2007, the credit market problems we had feared were front page news,” the Report notes.

(from)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Life_Insurance_Company

***

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Notes about – Egypt Foreign Minister Warns of Military Intervention – NYTimes.com

10 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by CricketDiane in Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips

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anti-corruption, corruption, cricketdiane, Egypt, Human Rights, MidEast, Mubarak, UN, US foreign aid, US foreign military aid, US foreign policy

Egypt Foreign Minister Warns of Military Intervention – NYTimes.com.

For anyone interested – this entire article is well worth reading. The second page has a list of the labour strikes and where those have happened during the day there (over the course of the night here.)

It says Sharm al-Sheikh is closed. And, notes that there are vast scores of people by the thousands now participating across Egypt.

This part is actually pretty amazing –

There were signs that the police, under the jurisdiction of the hated Interior Ministry, were trying to remake their image. The authorities have announced in recent days that prosecutors are weighing charges against Habib el-Adly, recently removed as interior minister. The charges, including murder, are related to the killing of protesters by security officers during the unrest.

On Wednesday, some cellphone customers in Egypt received the equivalent of marketing messages from the new minister, Mahmoud Wagdy. One read, “From the Ministry of Interior: The police will do nothing but serve and protect the people.” Another said, “Starting today, we will only deal through truthfulness, honesty and rule of law.”

Beyond all else, it shows that the Egyptian government leaders are embracing the fact that something is amiss. But, there is every indication that the staunchly entrenched and enriched Mubarak / Suleiman government members are unpredictable and unstable in what they might do next.

On CNN last night, a couple segments really caught my attention. Once on Parker Spitzer when there was Ron Suskind speaking about what things are in context. And later as a lady from a pro-women’s group who had grown up under Islamic Sharia law (in Algiers, maybe) was describing on AC360 that the Muslim Brotherhood is the only political group with a head start and political resources in place.

All of her points were accurate – that is a very good interview to see. She appeared with intel guy adding pertinent info – but her points were valid. It will take sustained efforts efficiently made for Egypt’s protesters to quickly develop the organized political parties that could participate in an election and forward their own candidates, or there would be only one party doing so – the Muslim Brotherhood who already having backing and resources in place.

It still so floors me that the State Department and others in European governments would state publicly that Suleiman is a good answer, when he is responsible for much of the violence and oppressive tactics that have been used against Egypt’s people for decades. I don’t get that part. It doesn’t make sense. Why would they have nothing better to say at this point? They would have to know the kind of man his strong-arm style of dictatorship would indicate, just as much as Mubarak – if not more so. I don’t get it.

I’ll look up those video clips and see if they are available by a link here or find the portions of the transcripts that include them. They are really an amazing look at the in-depth picture and the US role in it over many, many years (and five presidents.)

– cricketdiane

***

And, I do want to note – that Egyptian government leaders telling our national security team, our vice president, our state department, our president, the UK government leaders, the UN and the entire 27 nations of the EU’s leaders that it is none of their business is unacceptable.

Not only have they used our resources and depend on them even now to stay in power, but the Egyptian government has called on our specialists in the region that we (and all of the above named leadership resources) are supporting every time they wanted to do a business deal or had some concern that they wanted fixed within the region. At their beckon call over thirty years – and now they say its no one’s business what they do?

 

No. And, it is probably going to take what the entire world can do from the Arab world to the European and US / Canadian world, Russia, China, Japan and half of South America to help Egypt’s people have the freedom and democracy they want with fair and open elections and a substantial number of political parties available from which to choose while maintaining some transitional period to do it.

***

 

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Hedge fund managers arrested in insider case | Reuters

08 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by CricketDiane in Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips

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collusion in Wall Street insider trading cases, corruption, cricketdiane, financial industry, financial reform, hedge fund managers, hedge funds, investment firms bailouts, SEC, Wall Street, Wall Street insider trading

Hedge fund managers arrested in insider case | Reuters.

CNNI Quest Means Business just had an announcement by the prosecuting group responsible for the arrests who mentioned that 30 arrests had been made and more were to be made . . . (my note).

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-08/ex-sac-employees-are-charged-in-u-s-insider-probe.html

The arrests in what prosecutors called a four-year scheme signal an expansion of a 16-month attack on insider trading on Wall Street that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said is “rampant.” The criminal complaint refers to six hedge funds, which it doesn’t name, that employed the defendants or executed trades.

The charges are connected to earlier arrests of eight employees or consultants at Primary Global LLC, a Mountain View, California-based firm that links investors with employees of public companies who work as consultants. Barai got inside tips from Primary Global consultants Anthony Longoria and Winifred Jiau, both of whom were previously charged, today’s complaint says.

My Note –

These articles simply name three that were arrested. Hmmm…… And a few others, and well, maybe I should find some more info about it. But the most interesting part is the idea that insider trading is “rampant” among these companies, hedge funds, consultants and analysts. Yes, I’d say that isn’t news because everybody knows that, but it is news that the government regulatory agencies are finally doing something about stopping it.

That is amazing.

***

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Mubarak and Suleiman declare war on anti-Mubarak protesters, international journalists and human rights groups in Egypt

04 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by CricketDiane in Civil Rights, Cricket Diane C Sparky Phillips, cricketdiane, Democracy, Freedom, Human Rights, International Concerns, Real Time Crises, US Government

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America, brutality against Egypt's citizens, Cairo, corruption, cricketdiane, Democracy, Egypt, Freedom, Human Rights, Mubarak, Suleiman, US foreign aid, US foreign military aid

Cairo braces for possible new protests as Mubarak holds on – CNN.comVice President Omar Suleiman laid some of the unrest’s blame on the media.”I actually blame certain friendly nations who have television channels, they are not friendly at all, who have intensified the youth against the nation and the state,” Suleiman told Nile TV. “They are actually continuing. They have filled in the minds of the youth with wrongdoings, with allegations, and this is unacceptable.”

via Cairo braces for possible new protests as Mubarak holds on – CNN.com.

Journalists covering the crisis also became targets — beaten, bloodied, harassed and detained by men, most all in some way aligned with Mubarak.

Numerous news outlets — including the BBC, ABC News, Fox News, the Washington Post and CNN — reported members of their staffs had either been attacked or arrested. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also reported that staffers were detained.

In several cases, news personnel were accused of being “foreign spies,” seized, whisked away, and often assaulted.

Graeme Wood, a correspondent for The Atlantic, told CNN he was dragged from a car at a checkpoint Thursday and accused of spying for Iran.

Cairo braces for possible new protests as Mubarak holds on – CNN.com

(from another article)

Sources have told TIME Magazine that Lara Logan, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, has been detained along with her crew by Egyptian police outside Cairo’s Israeli embassy.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/03/time-exclusive-cbss-lara-logan-and-crew-detained-in-cairo-as-violence-escalates/#ixzz1CxfyvLIA

My Note –

Even after Mubarak and his thugs clear out the protesters from Cairo and every city in Egypt through whatever means – likely whatever violent means . . .

And after declaring war on journalists around the world, and instigating violence and bloodshed on the peaceful unarmed protesters that had been asking for democratic reform . . .

Egypt’s Mubarak government insists on unbridled violence as the way to handle everything and demands that the world look the other way while they murder, maim and torture.

You know how many businesses in Atlanta could’ve been built for the $150 Billion Dollars plus that the US has given to Mubarak’s regime over the last thirty years?

That is my money they gave him. Those were opportunities that my country gave away from our resources to him rather than to use them for our lives. And, now Mubarak and Suleiman would declare war on everyone calling for democratic changes to occur there?

What the hell do they think that will do? I, for one – want our money back and for the money that they have denied to everyone of our citizens and theirs to be taken away from their hands.

And, I am so thoroughly disgusted that our nation in the hands of conservative Republicans over the last thirty years has given power and our money, my family’s money, my neighbor’s money, and my money to these corrupt, vile and completely psychotic leaders.

There are 84 million Egyptians. Not one of them agreed for these leaders to hold Egypt for thirty years and to get away with the things they have been using their power to do to their own people.

The administration in charge of Egypt has taken, and taken and taken, including to have Egypt leveraged to the hilt even right now. And, they think it is none of our business – but they want us to come fly on their airlines, stay in their hotels, spend money in their restaurants and stores, build businesses in their country and send our companies to establish their? Are they nuts?

How dare they declare war on us and on our journalists and on the principles of our nation? How dare they flaunt their power and abuse it when they have used America’s name and backing? How dare they say that our President and the world’s leaders have nothing to do with it? Who the hell do they think they are?

There is no place on this planet that does not affect us all. And, Egypt is using our resources, our backing, our name, our nation, and our goodwill to do corrupt and brutal things to their own people and now to our journalists and citizens there? NO.

They dare to tell our President to stay out of it while snubbing everything said by the international community and our nation? NO. Not while standing with equipment paid for by us with our name on it and education offered by us, training paid for by us and while using our name for what they are doing. NO.

Suleiman invited the Muslim Brotherhood to speak with him – but they are not the representatives of the protesters that we have all watched during the last ten days as those families and young people demanded to have democratic elections and representation in their government for all of Egypt.

***

From an article on bloomberg – about Egypt’s debt –

Egyptian government officials sought to blame part of the turmoil on foreigners, having earlier pointed to domestic Islamic groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Meantime, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said yesterday the U.S. has evidence that “elements close to” Egypt’s government or ruling party, and not foreigners, played a role in violent counter-demonstrations in Cairo.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-03/egypt-s-friday-prayers-threaten-violence-as-mubarak-won-t-go.htmlMubarak supporters stormed hotels in the capital searching for journalists, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya television channels reported yesterday. Many members of the foreign press have been staying in hotels near Tahrir Square, a focal point for nine consecutive days of protests aimed at forcing Mubarak to resign.

Reporters at Risk

Employees of Time Warner Inc.’s CNN and Canada’s state- owned Radio Canada are among those who reported being assaulted. Amnesty International said one of its members was detained in Cairo in a raid on the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.

“These attacks seem to have been acts of revenge against the international media for relaying” the message of the protesters, Jean-François Julliard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, a rights group, said in a statement.

(it also says – )

Reopening the financial system won’t create problems because the country’s lenders are “very liquid,” Deputy Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez said in a telephone interview from Cairo yesterday. He said government debt auctions will resume next week and the Finance Ministry will announce a schedule. Two planned sales were canceled this week.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-03/egypt-s-friday-prayers-threaten-violence-as-mubarak-won-t-go.html

Well, that is the important thing. There’s where all our money is sitting along with the military hardware and training that Mubarak and Suleiman and their ministers are using against their own people. I resent that – and American businesses and leaders have been supporting this and giving our money and resources to them for it to be used this way – in horrific brutality, assaults against people for years across Egypt and torture of them in jails and corrupt government systems – all this time. No wonder everybody hates us.

And, when I think of all the things that money could’ve done for America – here where I have lived for thirty years and in my city and in my state and in my life and for the lives of my family – I am absolutely sickened by the choices that have been made by America’s thirty years of leaders who have done these things in our name, using our resources to do it and by doing so, denying those resources to every one of us. And, for what?

The Egyptian people will never even know what happened. They will never have seen the hundreds of thousands of families and young people peacefully protesting in the Cairo square and other cities. They will never have seen the brutality brought upon them as the Egyptian government sent armed mobs to support themselves by brutal slaughter of those protesters. And, they will never know that those protesters never were a part of the Muslim Brotherhood or any other extremist group, but rather their own daughters and sons and neighbors who simply wanted the opportunity for an open democratic society, real elections, freedom to pursue their own economic well-being and to participate as honorable citizens of their nation. They will never even know.

– cricketdiane

***

But, I do know that our business leaders know about it. Our politicians of our parties know. Our nation’s people know. The international community does know. And, I do know. And, I will always remember the brightness and sparkle of the eyes and hopes and dreams of those families in Egypt that stood in those streets protesting en masse peacefully in all desire to either be free or die. As it turns out – at least they tasted and cherished freedom when Mubarak and Suleiman slammed them to their deaths.

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Strange Conspiracy – a continuing saga of human rights abuses in America – Chicago police and school children / special needs students / crimes against women, crimes against children / Do the state and city governments know what civil and human rights are – does anybody in our government honor any of our laws, rights and basic human rights of US citizens?

12 Monday Oct 2009

Posted by CricketDiane in America - USA, Life In The USA - Rotterdam Club, Twenty-first Century, United States of America, US At Home - Domestic Policy, US Bill of Rights, US Constitution, US Declaration of Independence, US Government, walking dead men club

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Chicago, Chicago schools, Civil Rights, conspiracy, corruption, cricketdiane, Human Rights, injustice, life in the United States, police brutality, US government policy, US history

Caught on tape: Cop assaults 15-year-old special needs student

By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 — 8:18 pm

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UPDATE (at bottom): Cop who assaulted teen now in jail on rape charge; shot ex-wife’s new husband 24 times in ‘self defense’

For the offense of not having his shirt tucked in, 15-year-old special needs student Marshawn Pitts was slammed into a wall of lockers and pounded repeatedly in the face by a police officer who broke the boy’s nose and bloodied his mouth.

The Dolton, Illinois teen told a local CBS affiliate that the officer was cursing at him as he complied with the order to tuck in his shirt. Then, “it was just like, boom!” he said.

The assault, which took place in May, was recorded on a security camera at the Chicago suburb’s Academy for Learning.

“The academy is a high school for special-needs students who are emotionally disturbed or struggle with behavioral disorders,” noted Chicago Breaking News. “Marshawn was a student there because he suffered brain injuries when he was hit by a car years ago, [family attorney Edward] Manzke said.”

During the recording, the officer stoops down and places a cup of coffee on the floor, then threw the teen into the lockers before pummeling him and pinning him to the floor in a maneuver known as the “face-down take-down.”

“Zena Naiditch of Equip for Equality, a legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of people with disabilities, looked at the video and said the type of physical restraint used by the officer has killed students,” CBS News reported.

Naiditch added that the hold can be lethal because those trapped by it are left unable to breathe. CBS noted that seven states currently prohibit officers from using the “face-down take-down.”

The officer has not been identified, but due to the filmed evidence of the assault he has been terminated from the force.

Manzke told WBBM News Radio 780 that Marshawn has since transferred to a new school and the family is planning to file a lawsuit.

This video is from CBS 2 in Chicago, broadcast Oct. 7, 2009.

UPDATE: Cop who assaulted teen now in jail on rape charge; shot ex-wife’s new husband 24 times in ‘self defense’

The officer who brutally beat special needs student Marshawn Pitts has been identified as 38-year-old Christopher Lloyd, according to Chicago Breaking News, which spoke to Lloyd’s father.

The news agency reported that Lloyd is currently in jail after being charged with the rape of a woman he knew and is facing a 20-year sentence should he be convicted.

The Chicago Tribune-backed service adds: “A lawsuit filed by his ex-wife, Nicole McKinney, last summer alleges he gunned down her new husband Cornel McKinney in front of their children outside their home on the 6100 block of South Langley Avenue on Feb. 17, 2008.”

An autopsy revealed Lloyd shot the man 24 times, the agency found. He was not jailed at the time as Chicago police accepted his explanation that the killing was in self-defense.

Lloyd also reportedly told his father that the boy he was filmed assaulting had a history of behavioral problems and had cursed at him when told to tuck in his shirt.

Image sample credit: CBS News.

[from – ]

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/camera-catches-cop-assault-of-15-year-old-special-needs-student/

***

My Note –

If the Chicago authorities had not let this police officer get away with shooting somebody 24 times which was violent brutality and MURDER – the rest of the damage he has done, wouldn’t have been done.

And, since when does anything someone might say, excuse brutality, violence, physical assault or murder by police or anybody else. What kind of model of behavior is that? It is against the law by anyone’s standards and is nothing but sadistic and criminal behavior and the law should apply to police officers when they engage in criminal brutality against us.

When the police officers act no differently than the most evil and sadistic of criminals, they are no longer serving the public good.

– cricketdiane

***

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Life in the United States of America – I really see a whole lot of excuses for letting the place go in the crapper

19 Sunday Apr 2009

Posted by CricketDiane in America - USA, US Government

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abuse of power, conflicts of interest, corruption, President Bush, Republican policies, US Congress, US Torture, Wall Street

Note – The United States has been instrumental in pursuing and bringing to prosecution those that acted in the Gestapo and in war crimes all over the world, in bringing down demagogues that operated tyrannies and engaged in police brutality all over the world — so why is there no accountability for the same crimes in America against human rights, against civil rights and against our Constitution and Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention agreements?

***

Since the conservatives put Reagan into office and took over our country’s governance, there has not been a woman or child in America that has been safe in their own beds, in their own homes, or under the roof with the person they came to love and trust. Domestic violence rarely holds the perpetrator responsible and yet if a man is assaulted in a bar fight or out on the street somewhere, the full extent of the law comes to his aid.

Crime has been rampant in every city, town, county and outlying district despite a third of the population being put in jail and forced to live in prisons across the country. There isn’t one place in the country where a child can safely play out in the yard at dusk and in many cases, even in the middle of the day anywhere. Children are taken from their beds, women are beaten to death in their own homes, our daughters and sons are raped in cities and countryside alike, drugs and drug industry warlords run more of our country’s choices than we do and there isn’t one safe place to call home in America.

So, why don’t we all pack up and leave, you say? No, why don’t those vile enough to have destroyed this country while at the helm have some consequence for running it into the ground and then we’ll all just stay and enjoy living in a free country again.

I will always remember – I will never forget.

There isn’t a day that has gone by during these years that it has been the America we want it to be, except for the rich, the Wall Street bankers and the politicians. They’ve got it fine. Everyone else is living in America, the land of poverty and injustice at the hands of profit-driven greed, malice and intolerance, police brutality, eminent domain and sovereign immunity.

In America, if we were willing to confront reality, our expectations would include being viciously assaulted, or even killed, in our own homes by our husbands or boyfriends or fathers, being further victimized by state social systems that make money by herding us through their facilities, being subjected to a hellish existence as our children are taken away to be raised by and often abused by strangers, and enduring never-ending poverty, destitution and despair.

And then, as if that isn’t enough, if we accepted reality as it really is and has been in America for the last thirty years, we would know that the only thing we would get out of it all would be the cruelties and sniping of our fellow human beings, not love, not compassion, not consideration, not justice, not kindness, not a hand of hope, help and healing. The only thing America’s leaders and political conservatives have for us is desolation and a waste of every talent, intelligence, skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, innovation and invention that we could have offered.

I will always remember – I will never forget.

There was a little man on the tv that ran around the New York stock exchange screaming like a crazed heathen that said, “we don’t want to pay for people keep their homes – they shouldn’t have gotten those homes in the first place.” The news stations carried it over and over and over, having been so proud to have found a newsworthy moment of such impact and passion.

That little man has made money off every one of those homeowners who are now losing their houses. That is how he and his friends make money – that is why they work in Wall Street instead of making a living at something honorable and productive. But, his opinion is newsworthy. He is the one that Washington wants to hear and that news station owners want to see, if we are to believe the news producers who chose to play it over and over.

If I ran around screaming like that saying what he did, in Atlanta, Georgia or in Marietta where I live, there wouldn’t be two hours before the police here would’ve picked me up, locked me up without a phone call and within a short period of time thereafter our “health authorities” would have been forcing a high dose of Halidol or Thorazine into me while having six people hold me down. That is what I and any other woman in America gets for expressing an opinion like that.

In fact, I would say that any poor person of any color, race, nationality or sexual orientation gets treated much as I do – and we certainly don’t get news coverage for it. Our voices aren’t heard. Our opinions don’t count. We aren’t given rights. There is no access to an attorney or an advocate for days, weeks and sometimes longer. Our friends and family members aren’t generally alerted, although they can have any of us put away with no more than a word and police will come into our homes without a warrant to lock us up without even a crime being committed whether we are any danger to ourselves or to anyone else.

Now, see if we accepted reality for what it is in America, I would’ve known that I would never make a living ever. I’m 50 years old now, I can say that. I would have known that having a small business or starting a business was never going to be available to me or to my daughters or to my little family. No wonder people are offing themselves. They are living in reality and everyone around them is telling them it is something other than what it is. Why would anyone say to a woman that she is safe in her own home when every last shred of evidence proves that women are being beaten to death every day in America in their own homes with the person they trusted enough to love.

I will always remember – I will never forget.

There will never be a day that passes that I don’t think about the tens of thousands of people who have died from food poisoning simply because our business leaders didn’t want to be bothered with all those nasty little regulations that made it so difficult for them to do business and make hoards of profits without consequence. That is true as well for the pharmaceutical companies who have profited by making people live in an intolerable hell as a result of their profit desires at the expense of everyone.

It isn’t possible for that many drugs of varying kinds to have the same set of side effects which make it impossible to function, to do simple things like taking a shit and to eat a meal without throwing it up. There isn’t a likelihood that by coincidence a great variety of pharmaceuticals have a common side effect of pneumonia, organ failure, coma and death. Then what is the point of taking it? If it doesn’t make life better, what are they selling?

General Motors wants the American people to bail them out but their cars are commonly being recalled because people die in them as a result of that company’s manufacturing and business choices. They don’t need to be in business if that is how they do business. We don’t keep places in business that cause harm to people. What would be the good in that? Let people work at a company that takes its place which treats the consumer and the working members of its business in honorable and conscientious ways. No one else in America would get away with that – why should they?

It isn’t that there are double standards in America, because that wouldn’t begin to describe it. In the last five years, news story after news story have described “the system” in America as broken and it didn’t start there by a long shot. It started when the fundamentalists and religious right-wing conservatives decided we should all do it their way. But, “their way” doesn’t work for everybody else in America or anywhere, in fact. And, it isn’t supposed to either. God did not give them my life to live, nor anybody else’s. Why our government decided to let their choices run everybody’s life is beyond my understanding. What could they know of what other people need to do, or need to have, or need to say, or need to live? As it is, the only thing they have created besides chaos, confusion and destitution is homelessness, despair and let’s not forget, criminal behavior at the highest levels of our country where there used to be honor.

I will always remember – I will never forget.

When I watched the Olympics in Beijing, China and saw the journalist that was arrested for taking pictures of a protest about the Tibetan issue, it was obvious that it wasn’t happening in America because the Chinese police didn’t beat the crap out of the reporter before holding him on the ground and Tazing him two or three times, or shooting him “accidently” while on top of him. That is how its done in the United States from New Orleans to Oakland, New York to Atlanta and everywhere in between on every single day across America.

And, that reporter would probably still be in jail today, if it had happened here because there is no good sense to any of it. The laws are only used when the government decides to use them against regular people, working people, and poor people. That is why someone with a marijuana cigarette on them can spend two years in jail, lose everything their home, their children and everything they own, and the “professionals” that tortured people with inhumane, cruel and obscene acts are living happily ever after with a pension and benefits and a bonus and a salary over $100,000 a year in a nice house in a safe pretty neighborhood where their children are safe with two cars in the driveway and a yacht in the harbor.

Nobody accuses these perpetrators who have committed inhumane violent actions against women, against the poor and against both prisoners of war and the regular people of America, as insane. No, their given fine opportunities and will go on to work somewhere else putting forth their distorted and malicious views of the world. In fact, if history serves anything it is to tell us that every one of these perpetrators in America will be treated like kings while the rest of us are treated like slaves and otherwise useless aggravations.

No one is going to hold the bankers accountable that have driven our country’s economy into the ground and no one is going to hold those that tortured or killed prisoners accountable. There is something to be said for the fact that laws which don’t apply to the rich or to the well-connected is no law at all. And, that is what we have. It has been a monarchy – an aristocratic monarchy, much of which is still in operation and still determining how the rest of us live and what our opportunities will be or won’t be.

I have already been the victim and I’ve been the rescuer. I’ve been the hapless fool and the wizened idiot shriveled beyond repair, but I’m still here. That makes me either one of the lucky ones or unfortunate enough to have to live through more of it, depending on how I look at it. But, I’m still here for right now. And, I did not drive this thing into the ground.

It was not my choices that made America cruel and her heart wicked in deceit and greed and power-mongering by the hands and minds of the Republican Party and the conservatives who’ve been running it. I am not the one who did that. I did not create her injustice, nor did I cause her police brutality, cronyism, victimization of those least likely to be able to protect themselves from authorities and abuse of authority by those in power. Those are neither my sins nor my crimes against humanity.

But, I might have one or two I can claim. It is about to be my sin against humanity that I never lift a hand to help. That I might indeed have to answer for, because I am within a hair’s breadth of doing just that. The more I hear and the more I see of those who have been in power claiming to have had no hand in it being driven into hell – the more I think that it is not about what I do, but about what I do not do at this point. And, I can choose to let it go and to do nothing to help fix it, because there is not one thing worth saving among them. And there is no use trying to catch a falling knife – might as well back up and get out of the way.

I will always remember. I do remember and I will never forget.

I’ve never lived in an America where I will get to buy a house, where freedom exists and I have rights to my country’s Constitution or where my children and I have the opportunities that exist only for the rich and politically connected in America. It doesn’t matter what talents and knowledge we have, access and opportunities only exist for a few in the country where I live no matter what I’ve been told in books and what people want to believe about it. Real life is the way I’ve experienced it – not what I want to believe it so.

– cricketdiane

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Top Posts

  • How I learn - (cont.)
  • Brutal Sadist Ariel Castro may have been in a photo with a woman missing in the same area -
  • So the Crimean Peninsula is sitting on an oil & natural gas pocket unharvested
  • How To Paint Ocean Waves - Night Sea - Painting of the Ocean Waves at Night - Deep Blue Black Sea - How To Paint the Ocean Waves of the Night Sea painting in watercolors
  • Gallant Heroic Stuff for Girls and Women to Wear
  • When did they change the look of the bad guys to get a job as elected officials, bankers, Wall Street hedge fund managers and Bernie Madoff style ponzie schemers? And these are the people who have decided to take the rights away from people with mental illness and disabilities - why does anybody have to endure this stuff?
  • Raw Data - nuclear terrorism and stuff - unseparated
  • Strange Conspiracy in a Land of Freedom, Honor and Integrity 3 - Does Washington even know what human rights and civil rights are? Have our leaders ever had integrity, decency and honor?
  • Toxic Fumes across America - and the Health "Care" Summit in Washington - obviously it isn't about health care - its just another way to charge a required fee to every American for being alive and line the pockets of insurance companies that are as evil as any inbred psychotic dictator or king that ever lived
  • EPA says their tests on the shoreline of the Gulf Coast show as of yesterday - water quality does not currently pose a threat to aquatic life - despite handsfull of thick grueling crude oil and lethally toxic chemical dispersants in the pictures we've seen on the news of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill catastrophe

New Cricket House Studios – cricketdiane stuff

  • Corruption of President’s Actions Affects US and the International Community -Ukraine Transcript IS Proof
  • DNI Maguire Broke The Law For His Own Fealty To The President – Arrest Him Like Any Of The Rest Of Us Would Be
  • “Moscow Mitch” Soybeans and Aluminum
  • US Congress Party Control 1965 – 2019
  • Nifty New Products and an Amazing Rainbow Tie I Forgot That I Created – Cool
  • And another thing
  • Hurricane Florence in Real Time Live Streaming Cams Plus Helpful Info
  • Hurricane Update Sites – Hurricane Florence
  • Customizing Rainbow Pop Art Wall Decal Design Makes Amazing New Choices
  • Interesting Independent Designer Products You Can Buy Online
  • Elsewhere
  • Ocean Beach Posters for Beach Decor by CricketDiane and Cricket House Studios
  • Little Donnie Dare Trump limericks for the Resistance – SecondCivilWarLetters 4th of July 2018
  • Why the rights of citizens are in jeopardy in the United States right now
  • Introducing the Little Shop Out Back Preview for Studios of CricketDiane Art and New Ocean Paintings

Cricket Diane

  • 5 Nerdy Goodies that are Geeky Gifts I’ve Designed on Zazzle
  • About Cricket Diane
  • Archives Cricket House Studios
  • CricketDiane in the Studio Working
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  • Got No Money Guides by Cricketdiane
  • International concerns – Mideast
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  • Private Equity Purchase of Toys R Us Required Toys R Us to Pay the Full Price of Being Bought – Is that Right?

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