A Bankers Paradise In Obama’s America

Via Mother Jones, Life is Grand on Wall Street:

The largest banks are larger today than when Obama took office and are returning to the level of profits they were making before the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to government data. Wall Street firms — either independent companies or the high-flying trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They’ve made more profit in the first 2½ years of the Obama administration than they did during the entire Bush administration, industry data show.

You Are A Quota

Cops planting evidence and falsely arresting innocent people to make a quota. Preposterous! Unless….

A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.

The bombshell testimony from Stephen Anderson is the first public account of the twisted culture behind the false arrests in the Brooklyn South and Queens narc squads, which led to the arrests of eight cops and a massive shakeup.

Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as “flaking,” on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez, whose buy-and-bust activity had been low…

Welcome To George Bush’s America

Courtesy of GlobalPost:

Nearly 1 in 6 Americans were living in poverty last year — 46.2 million, the highest number since poverty levels were first published 52 years ago, the U.S. government reported Tuesday.

That’s 15.1 percent of the population living in poverty, up from 14.3 percent in 2009, and 11.7 percent at the beginning of the decade in 2001, according to Census Bureau figures cited by the New York Times.

And 2010 was the third consecutive year the poverty rate for all Americans had risen.

Economy? We don’t need no stinking economy….

Subsidizing Israel’s Prosperity Through American Foreign Aid

Well, I knew ethnic cleansing wasn’t cheap, but come on….

In the past 10 years alone, Americans have given Israel the equivalent of approximately $200,000 per Israeli family of five. In addition, there have been weapons subsidies, loan forgiveness programs, special trade preferences, and other generous gifts from American taxpayers to Israel. In fact, despite being one of the world’ smallest nations, Israel receives more U.S. tax money than any other country.

On top of this, a multitude of organizations contributing money and assistance to Israel have been given tax-deductible status in the U.S., removing still more money from the American economy. For example, donations to the “Birthright Israel” program that takes Jewish American students on fun-filled holidays to Israel, convincing many to then “ascend” to Israeli citizenship, are deducted from taxes owed to the U.S.

via AntiWar: American Taxpayers Subsidize Israel’s Prosperity

The Descent Into All Relations Turning Monetary

“If your house was destroyed, and you have looked around the neighborhood for our cable box and cannot find it, you owe us $212 and you need to either pay us or make an insurance claim on our behalf.”

Charter Cable’s policy towards disaster victims in Alabama and Mississippi that were struck by last months tornadoes.