Jim Hightower's News and Commentaries: Recent Episodes
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CorporateSpeak is an inane language that conveys seriousness without any sincerity.
Consider this example from Goldman Sachs: "We are pleased to put these legacy matters behind us. Since the financial crisis, we have taken significant steps to strengthen our culture, reinforce our commitment to our clients and ensure our governance processes are robust." This is Goldman's rhetorical attempt to cleanse itself of the massive fraud it committed in selling tens of billions of dollars in worthless mortgage investments to its clients, contributing to the crash of our economy in 2008.
For its criminality, the Justice Department has now spanked Goldman Sachs with a stinging $5 billion penalty. But what lesson have the haughty banksters learned? Well, let's parse that two-sentence Orwellian comment they issued. First, they term their crimes "legacy matters," which means something from the past, implying that the bad was done by some previous regime. But – hello – the top executives who oversaw and profited from that criminal enterprise are still there, still in charge.
Then, the PR statement refers vaguely to a "crisis," as though it was not one the bankers caused. Next, they refer to strengthening "our culture," rather than calling it what it was: A corporate-wide mindset of anything-goes avarice. That culture needs to be eliminated, not strengthened, replacing it with common kindergarten ethics of fair play. Finally, they assert that we should believe that their self-governance processes are now "robust."
Ha! "Self-governance" is Wall Street's word for freedom to steal. And if you believe a $5 billion penalty will deter them, note that Goldman and the rest are robustly lobbying Congress to kill regulations that restrain their future criminality. Watch what they do, not what they say.
Fifty years ago the publication of Unsafe at Any Speed sparked a serious awakening in our society that launched initiatives and organizations that have dramatically improved our personal health and safety, in the home, workplace, marketplace and the environment..
To celebrate this milestone, and to reflect and renew our civic spirit and resolve we are convening an unprecedented gathering of public interest organizers, advocates, experts, and concerned citizens for four days at historic Constitution Hall in Washington DC.
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The "Panama Papers" reveal a global web of the superrich hiding their wealth and nefarious deals in shell corporations set up by Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm.
Interestingly, though, very few of our country's moneyed elite have surfaced as players in Mossack Fonseca's Panamanian shell game. Perhaps US billionaires and corporations are just more honest than those elsewhere.
Ha-ha-ha, just kidding! Not more honest, just luckier. You see, America's conniving richies don't have to go to Panama to set up an offshore flim flam – they have the convenience of hiding their money and wrongdoings in secret accounts created right here in states like Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming.
The New York Times, notes that it's easier in some states to form a dummy money corporation than it is to get a fishing license. Indeed, the ease of doing it and the state laws that provide strict secrecy for those hiding money have made the USA a global magnet for international elites wanting to conceal billions of dollars from their own tax collectors, prosecutors… and general public.
State officials in Delaware even travel to Brazil, Israel, Spain, and other nations "to tell the Delaware story," inviting rich foreign interests to stash their cash in corporate hideaways that the state sets up, no questions asked. Likewise, Nevada flashes a dazzling neon sign inviting the global rich to incorporate their very own shell corporations there, promising – shhhh – "minimal reporting and disclosing requirements." The money-hiding industry is so hot in Nevada that it has attracted none other than Mossack Fonseca to get in on the action by opening a branch office there!
The law firm is being branded as a criminal enterprise for the superrich. Okay, but it shares that shameful brand with our own state governments.
Surprisingly, this week's prize for Stupidest Political Comment in the presidential race doesn't go to Donnie Trump or Ted Cruz.
Rather, that honor goes to the clueless cognoscenti of conventional political wisdom. They've made a unilateral decision that Bernie Sanders must now quit the race for the Democratic nomination. Why? Because, they say: "He Can't Win."
Actually, he already has. Sanders' vivid populist vision, unabashed idealism, and big ideas for restoring America to its own people have (1) jerked the presidential debate out of the hands of status quo corporatists, (2) revitalized the class consciousness and relevance of the Democratic Party, (3) energized millions of young people to get involved, and (4) proven that Democrats don't have to sell out to big corporate donors to run for office.
Bernie has substantively – even profoundly – changed American politics for the better, which is why he's gaining more and more support and keeps winning delegates. From the start, he said: "This campaign is not about me" – it's a chance for voters who've been disregarded and discarded to forge a new political revolution that will continue to grow beyond this election and create a true people's government.
The keepers of the Established Order fear that, and they know that this year's nomination is still very much up for grabs, so they're stupidly trying to shove Sanders out before other states vote. But Bernie and the mass movement he's fostering aren't about to quit – they'll organize in every primary still to come, be a major force at the Democratic convention, and keep pushing their ideals and policies in the general election… and beyond.
That's what real politics should be – not merely a vacuous campaign to elect a personality, but a momentous democratic movement fighting for the common good.
Wow, $5 billion! That's the stunning amount that Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay to settle federal criminal charges over its shameful financial scams that helped wreck America's economy in 2008. That's a lot of gold, even for Goldman.
Yet, the Wall Street powerhouse says it's "pleased" to swallow this sour slug of medicine. Is that because its executives are contrite? Oh, come on – banksters don't do contrite. Rather, they are pleased with the settlement because, thanks to backroom dealing with friendly prosecutors, it's riddled with special loopholes that could eliminate nearly $2 billion from the publicized "punishment."
For example, the deal calls for the felonious bank to put a quarter-billion dollars into a affordable housing program, but generous federal negotiators put incentives and credits in the fine print that will let Goldman escape with paying out less than a third of that. Also, about $2.5 billion of the settlement is to be paid to consumers hurt by the financial crisis. But the deal lets the bank deduct almost a billion of this payout from its corporate tax – meaning you and I will subsidize Goldman's payment. As a bank reform advocate puts it, the problem with these settlements "is that they are carefully crafted more to conceal than to reveal to the American public what really happened here."
One more reason Wall Street bankers privately wink and grin at these seemingly huge punishments is that even paying the full $5 billion would only be relatively painful. To you and me, that sounds like a crushing number – but Goldman Sachs raked in $33 billion in revenue last year alone, so it's a reasonable cost of doing business. After all, Goldman sold tens of billions of dollars in the fraudulent investment packages leading to the settlement, so the bottom line is that crime can actually pay – if it's big enough.
So long, Don, it's been God-awful to know you.
Don Blankenship, who was the King of King Coal, is headed toward a place he never imagined he'd end up: Federal prison. The ruthless CEO of Massey Energy corporation arrogantly assumed he was above the law, so for years he openly disdained the safety rules of his dangerous industry, willfully violating them in order to increase corporate profits and his exorbitant executive pay package. Even when the law caught up with Blankenship, forcing him to resign as Massey's CEO in 2010, he awarded himself a $12-million "golden parachute" to cushion his fall.
All of his enrichment, however, was blood money. Literally. The unpleasant fact of corporate profiteering is that greed kills. In 2010, Massey Energy's despicable lack of concern for its mine workers caused a furious explosion to rip through its Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. Twenty-nine miners were instantly blown to bits – the worst US mine disaster in 40 years.
This was the inevitable result of Blankenship's deliberate disregard of deadly buildups of methane gas and coal dust, and of his refusal to maintain detectors and sprays to prevent explosions. "This game is about money," he preached relentlessly to his mine managers, demanding safety shortcuts to enhance profits. He racked up thousands of safety citations, viewing the puny fines as the cheap cost of rich profits – workers be damned.
But now, Donnie has been damned. Convicted last year of conspiring to violate mine safety standards, Blankenship was sentenced in April to a year in prison. Yes, that's not much to pay for 29 deaths, but no murderous Appalachian coal executive has ever been put behind bars for even a day. So this is at least a step toward justice. To help take more steps, go to the United Mine Workers website: www.umwa.org.
It's said that there's nothing more vicious than a wild animal that's cornered, but I'd add that there's nothing more devious than a top corporate or political official caught in a scandalous hypocrisy.
Witness the huge menagerie of political critters who've recently been backed into a corner by the "Panama Papers." This is a trove of thousands of internet documents leaked to global media outlets, revealing that assorted billionaires, rich celebrities, corporate chieftains, and – yes – pious public officials have been hiding their wealth and dodging the taxes they owe by stashing their cash in foreign tax havens. Of course, we've known for a while that tax dodging is a common plutocratic scam, but the details from the leaked files of an obscure Panamanian law firm named Mossack Fonseca now gives us names to shame.
One is David Cameron, the ardently conservative prime minister of Britain, who has loudly declaimed tax sneaks in public. But –oops! – now we learn that his own super-wealthy father was a Mossack Fonseca client, and that David himself has profited from the stealth wealth he inherited from the elder Cameron's secret stash.
Trapped by the facts, the snarling, privileged prime minister used middle-class commoners as his shield, asserting that critics of his secluded wealth are trying to "tax anyone who [wants] to pass on their home… to their children." Uh-uh, David – we merely want to tax those who try to pass-off tax frauds on the public.
One of Cameron's partisans even claimed that critics "hate anybody who has a hint of wealth in them." No, it's the gross, self-serving hypocrisy of the elites that people hate. Yet now, doubling down on their hypocrisy, Cameron & Company have announced that they'll host an anticorruption summit meeting to address the problem of offshore tax evaders! As Lily Tomlin says: "No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up."
Okay people, we need to discuss billboards. Yes, we really must.
At best, these giant corporate placards are problematic – they garishly loom over us, clutter our landscapes, and intrude into our communities with no respect for local aesthetics or preferences. Now, however, billboards are getting a high-tech re-boot, allowing advertisers to invade not only our places, but also our privacy. Having to see billboards everywhere is bad enough; far worse, though, is that the modernized, digitalized, computerized structures can see you! And track you.
Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, having already splattered the country with tens of thousands of billboards, has revealed that it is partnering with AT&T and other data snoops to erect "smart" billboards that will know and record when you drive or walk past one. Using your own mobile phone, they can then follow your travel patterns and consumer behavior. Aggregating that information with other available data, Clear Channel can then know the average age and gender of passersby who see an ad on a particular billboard and know whether they later make purchases.
It's "a bit creepy," says Andy Stevens. And he works for Clear Channel! He's the corporation's vice president for "research and insights." Stevens rationalizes the zippy new Ever-watching Orwellian Billboard as just another step into the digital future: "We're just tapping into an existing data system," he shrugs, noting that the millions of profiles collected by Clear Channel is "Obviously… very valuable to an advertiser."
And even more valuable to us persons who treasure our privacy and have given no permission to be targeted and tracked by a billboard huckster. And we thought government spying was out of control! For information on corporate snooping, go to www.epic.org.
Why are we Americans stuck with an out-of-date railroad system, while nations with a small fraction of our resources are cruising on High Speed Rail (HSR) networks?
Because our leaders sold us out to corporate hucksters who destroyed our once-great passenger train system by telling us that we Americans deserve the "independence" that comes from a glorious new doctrine of one-person/one-car. Yeah – the independence of being stuck in traffic jams! As early as the 1930s, giant corporate consortiums formed to buy out more than 100 of America's networks of streetcars and interurban train systems. Not to run them, but to rip out the tracks and pave over the rail right-of-ways to make roads.
The biggest of these consortiums combined the enormous political and PR power of General Motors, Standard Oil, Firestone, and Mack Trucks. Likewise, corporate profiteers mounted a new offensive in the 1990s to undermine the higher-speed potential of Amtrak's Acela trains, funding such Koch-headed front groups as Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation to push hokey "analyses" branding Amtrak as a slow train to collectivist hell.
They also bought trainloads of politicians, who're still promoting the fabricated studies and talking points of the petro-cabal to wreck as much of Amtrak as they can and derail fast-train proposals. Railroad executives themselves, preferring the oligopolistic and very profitable freight business to passenger travel, play along.
There is no economic, technological, geographic, budgetary, or conceptual barrier to our country having the best, most effective, state-of-the-art HSR service in the world. The reality is the US is in the caboose of transportation innovation only because special-interest politics continue to thwart our national will, leaving us with a rail system that is a national embarrassment.
Exciting news, people! The Republican Party's establishment has a secret plan to stop its blue-collar voters from supporting Donnie Trump. Their plan is code-named: "Operation Paul Ryan."
Good grief – the GOP's old line clique of congressional bulls, corporate funders, lobbyists, and right-wing think tanks is as confused as goats on astroturf when it comes to grasping a core part of Trump's appeal. He's reaching out to longtime Republican voters who've finally realized that it's the party's own Wall Street elites who knocked them down economically and the party's insider cadre of K-Street influence peddlers who've shut them out politically.
The party powers are insisting that The Donald is winning only because he's drawing voters who're ignorant, racist, xenophobic, and misogynist. In fact, he's drawing huge numbers of disaffected Republicans who're mainly anti the party's own power players. Far from being Koch-headed, laissez-faire ideologues – these voters like Trump's opposition to job-busting trade scams, his mocking of big-money campaign donations, his call to hike taxes on Wall Street's pampered hedge-funders, his support for Social Security, etc.
For these voters, "Operation Paul Ryan" is a dud, a farce... and an insult. Rep. Ryan has long been the kept-darling of the Wall Street/K Street crowd. The obtuse establishment snootily calls him "serious" presidential material – only because he champions such plutocratic policies as privatizing Social Security, cutting taxes on the superrich, deregulating Wall Street, and turning Medicare into a voucher system. The only thing serious about Ryan's agenda is that it's a dead-serious loser with the great majority of Americans.
Trying to knock-off Trump for Ryan is a sign of the GOP's irreversible decline into cluelessness and political irrelevance.