New Day at the Department of Justice Needed Now

Dear Friends,

In the last couple of days I have read several articles about the Justice Department, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch (President Obama's nominee to succeed Eric Holder).  We need a clean start at the Justice Department. While Eric Holder has done many good things, he has also been misleading and an advocate for covering up the wrongdoings of the banks and blocking true accountability for causing the great recession through a combination of greed and illegal activities.

Matt Taibbi published a new article in Rolling Stone a couple of days ago entitled "The Nine Billion Dollar Witness; Meet JP Morgan Chase's Worst Nightmare" (here).  It is an incredible indictment of Eric Holder and the political wing of the Department of Justice.  It also lays out in clear and logical detail the crimes of JP Morgan Chase and the coverup that they have been engineering with the help of Eric Holder.  You really should take the time to read the full article or you could listen to the detailed interview on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now show (here) with Matt Taibbi and Alayne Fleischmann (the witness).

Ms. Fleischmann was an attorney at Chase who blew the whistle on the inappropriate and illegal activities at Chase with respect to securitizing bad mortgages.  She first went through appropriate internal channels and then was a key witness for the DOJ.  The career attorneys at the DOJ were very interested in truly pursuing the banks and holding them accountable, but they were blocked by Eric Holder and the political appointees.  Ms. Fleischmann is the kind of person that we should hold up as a hero.  She is risking everything by speaking out against the big banks and the political elite.

The settlement with Chase (and similar ones with other banks) are simply the banks paying lots of money to keep their illegal activities secret.  The amounts that they are paying are large but have no negative impact on the banks.  Most of the Chase settlement is tax deductible.  That means that we are paying part of the settlement.  By the way do not try to deduct that fine you got for speeding or you will go to jail.  Another big chunk is debtor relief which is really nothing when you read the small print.  To prove that the settlement did not hurt Chase, the stock price rose by far more than the settlement (although a bunch of lower paid workers were laid off) and Jamie Dimon (Chase CEO) got a 74% increase in pay.  How can it be that the CEO of a company that has recorded about $20 billion in fines in the last few years rewards the CEO that oversaw all that with a 74% raise?  The truth is the illegal activities make far more money for Chase than the cost to Chase of those illegal activities.

Not one person has been charged with illegal activity in connection with the Chase mortgage settlement.  How can that be?  Eric Holder holds some interesting beliefs that make it impossible for him to seek true justice and accountability in these cases.  In a speech this fall, Eric Holder said,

Responsibility remains so diffuse, and top executives so insulated, that any misconduct could again be considered more a symptom of the institution's culture than a result of the willful actions of any single individual.

As Matt Taibbi writes, "In other words, people don't commit crimes, corporate culture commits crimes!"

In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the spring of 2013, Eric Holder said,

I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large.

Mr. Holder recently walked that statement back,

There is no such thing as too big to jail. No individual or company, no matter how large or how profitable, is above the law.

This statement made in connection with some current negotiations leaves open the hope that there may be some admission of criminal activity.  For more information I suggest an article by Josh Gerstein at Politico (here).

Fortunately, there is hope that Chase, the other big banks and the individuals responsible will still be held criminally accountable.  The criticism of Eric Holder's handling of the past settlements seems to be having an impact on him, hence his change on too big to jail.  Also the settlements do not block further criminal actions in connection with the same activities, even though there apparently is a tacit understanding that such actions will not be brought.  There is pressure from well regarded editorial pages such as The New York Times. The last sentence of one of the editorials today (here) reads,

In short, there is, as yet, no indication that the real goals of law enforcement — reform and justice — will be met.

And last but not least, President Obama's nominee to succeed Eric Holder at first glance looks much more like a very competent career prosecutor who wants to see justice done than a political appointee close to President Obama.  For more about Loretta Lynch, I recommend an article in Time by Charlotte Alter entitled "Who is Loretta Lynch?" (here).

If Eric Holder fails to hold the banks and their leaders accountable for their crimes, we can only hope that Ms. Lynch will.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Keystone XL Pipeline

Dear Friends,

Speaker Boehner has indicated that one of the first items on his agenda is to pass a bill authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.  Several media outlets, such as Politico (here) are indicating that it is possible that with the new Congress, there will be a veto proof majority to overturn a veto of such legislation by President Obama.  President Obama has said that he would only permit the Keystone pipeline if it "does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution".

If you need some background on the science of the pollution to be caused by the Keystone pipeline, I would suggest an article in the Scientific American entitled "How Much Will Tar Sands Oil Add to Global Warming" (here) and an article in The Guardian entitled "What tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline mean for climate change" (here).  A quick summary of the scientific facts is that the Keystone pipeline by encouraging and increasing the development of the tar sands will significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.  Consequently, President Obama should immediately prevent the Keystone pipeline from being approved.

One of the arguments in favor of the Keystone pipeline is an increase in jobs.  Of course, as  the rate of global warming increases the need to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and to overcome the negative impact of global warming will produce lots of jobs but none of them will be permanent.  The other argument is that this oil will be produced, processed and sold whether there is a pipeline or not so why stop it.  That argument is only true if we continue to use fossil fuels when there are viable alternative energy sources that would be much less expensive for the society to develop and utilize.  The last argument is that China and other developing nations are continuing to pollute at an astounding rate so we should just give up and doom our children, grandchildren and the world to a terrible future.

There is no valid economic or moral argument to support the Keystone pipeline, please join me in telling President Obama (here) and your Senators to stop the Keystone pipeline.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Immigration

Dear Friends,

One thing that President Obama could do that would greatly improve his legacy is to take fast, bold executive action on immigration.  He put off taking executive action until after the elections which was a great disappointment to many of us.  Now the elections are over.  The only impediment to Congressional action on immigration reform is Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans.  The Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill, but Speaker Boehner has refused to bring it to a vote in the House.  He has the votes to pass it, and it would quickly become law and then President Obama would not have to take executive action.  Unfortunately, immigration is not on the immediate agenda set forth by Speaker Boehner.  Indeed all that Speaker Boehner has to say about immigration reform is that President Obama will "poison the well" and burn himself if he takes action.  Not even a brief mention that immigration reform is anywhere on his agenda.

As the editorial board of The New York Times said in an editorial published yesterday about immigration reform (here), "Now the election is over, and the only thing to say to the president is: Do it. Take executive action. Make it big."  The editorial gives three major reasons for its position:  It honors the law, it helps the country and it cuts to the heart of the debate.

Those are all very good reasons but in my view the most important reason for stopping the unnecessary deportations is that it is the morally right thing to do.  Most of the people being deported are people who work hard and contribute to the society.  Deporting them and breaking up their families is immoral.  

Please join me in writing to President Obama (here) and urging him to act quickly and boldly.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

It is a new day!!

Dear Friends,

Since I cannot make any sense out of the actions of President Obama, all the Democrats that ran from him or the American electorate, I have decided to start with a clean slate for everybody and just discuss their actions as we move forward with the Republicans clearly in charge of the country through their control of most of the states as well as the Congress.  It is now time to see if the Republicans will make their policies clear to the people and if the Democrats will honor their progressive liberal roots.

All the "leaders" are talking about finding common ground, but what they seem to mean is to get their way.  Speaker Boehner says that it will "poison the well" and that President Obama will "burn himself" if he acts on immigration.  Apparently Speaker Boehner forgets that he has refused to bring up for a vote in the House a bipartisan immigration bill passed by the Senate in 2013.  Speaker Boehner could foreclose any action by President Obama if he would just get the House to pass the Senate immigration bill.  He has the votes.  He just refuses to let the House vote.  The rest of Speaker Boehner's agenda is authorizing the Keystone pipeline, addressing the broken tax code and repealing Obamacare.  There is nothing in that agenda that sounds like working together to me.

So the next several posts will be directed to President Obama to outline how he can leave the Presidency with his head held high.  In addition to getting credit for all the good things he has done, he can use the next two years to make those of us that worked so hard to get him elected proud of his overall record.

One last look backward to be fair to President Obama.  Here is a list of some of the many great things that President Obama accomplished that must be remembered when judging his Presidency.

Obamacare, economic stimulus to avoid another recession, Dodd-Frank, ending Iraq war, saving US auto industry, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, ending most of Bush's torture policies, removing banks from student loans, increasing auto efficiency standards, Lilly Ledbetter equal pay act, appointing two great Supreme Court justices, encouraging renewable energy, expanding CHIP and killing the F-22.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal