I've been riveted by the House Financial Services Subcommittee hearings on the SEC, including the testimony of one-of-a-kind whistleblower Harry Markopolos. I stayed up late into the night watching the reruns of the entire proceeding on C-Span. It was immensely entertaining and informative and I urge like-minded progressives to do the same.
Markopolos' testimony was of course the highlight of the session, given in short, pithy military bites that wasted not one syllable. You can hit the mute button during the short periods of politspeak idiocy several Representatives favored us with.
But at a time when we are all so angry, it is good for the soul to hear the strutting Congresspeople lashing away at the nitwit bureaucrats who ran the SEC during the period and completely ignored a decade of extremely detailed and highly credible warnings from an ever more exasperated experienced investigator. Scuttling behind crumbling claims of "privilege" (presumably the "executive" kind), claiming they didn't have to testify before Congress, issuing long streams of unintelligible Orwellian blokquotes, and cowering before the wrath of a pipsqueak little Representative from Bayside, Queens. It was a jolly couple of hours.
It brought back fond youthful memories of the Watergate hearings, I foolishly admit. And Markopolos, who looks like Ralph Nader and talks like a Fenwayized version of Alexander Haig really does deserve his very own Hallmark Hall of Fame episode.