What's the name of that guy, this grotesque bankster who looks like he spends ten hours a day at a tanning salon? Anyways, my fantasy is that something dramatic happened, and somehow (for some unexplainable reason) someone from the government calls me and tells me that I'm deputized and authorized to arrest the top executives from the Wall Street criminal racketeering cartel, and I'm provided with a posse of 100 agents.
I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming, and then I download all the files about these criminals, and proceed to schedule their arrests. But since I've been given carte blanche on the manner in which to conduct the arrests, on this one occasion in my life, I want to go super-sadist on these criminals. I want it to be as terrifying and humiliating as possible. I'll be thinking, "How can I combine all the pain, suffering, tears, ruined lives, and utter destruction these monsters caused, and made them feel all of it at once, in a terrifying moment when they realize their entire world has crumbled before their very eyes?"
I find out that the weirdly bronzed guy with white hair is having a meeting at a luxurious location with lots of important people... And I arrange for me and 50 agents to be there just when the meeting is taking place.
I walk in with my 50 guys, walk up to where this piece of shit guy is sitting, kick his chair, and when he falls, I grab him by the the lapel of his $5,000-dollar suit and tell him, "you're under arrest motherfucker!" I handcuff him, and walk him off the front door of the venue, where a sea of reporters are waiting with their cameras ready, as the rapid-fire flashes of their cameras go off, one after the other... In the meantime, the piece-of-trash bankster looks bewildered, like a deer in headlights.
I think I am pursuing justice. And I think the whole entire responsibility of the department is to pursue justice. But in any given case, I think I and prosecutors around the country, being responsible, should speak to regulators, should speak to experts, because if I bring a case against institution A, and as a result of bringing that case there’s some huge economic effect, it affects the economy so that employees who had nothing to do with the wrongdoing of the company –
-- Lanny Breuer, Former Head of Justice Department’s Criminal Division / FRONTLINE
As this is happening, the rest of the posse is arresting hundreds of members of the Wall Street racketeering criminal cartel, starting with their top executives.
None of them will be allowed to post bail, and will be thrown in jail with common criminals, awaiting trial...
There! That's my fantasy; I nurse it, embrace it, and think about it often. But something tells me that in that fantasy I may be doing a couple of things wrong when it comes to arrests, due process, bail, the treatment of detainees, etc. But you know what? That's the problem with a mob of really, really pissed off citizens, witnessing the rich and powerful engaging in massive, devastating, and consequential crimes with total impunity, protected by government functionaries that go to work for them after leaving office.
I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult 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 world economy, that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large. It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate.
-- Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States
And that's why the rule of law is so important, and that's why the concept of moral hazard must be taken seriously. But I digress...
The other day I went to an event in Berkeley featuring John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, authors of Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America.
I was pleasantly surprised at how impressive these two gentlemen were, both in the knowledge of the topic at hand, and in the delivery of their speeches.
One thing that really perked me up was hearing Nichols recount a conversation he had with an activist regarding the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, years ago. If I remember correctly, he said that at one point things looked so bleak, so unchangeable, so permanent, that many people had lost all hope that things could change.
And then shortly after (that time period he was talking about), a truly dramatic turn of events happened, ending apartheid and eventually bringing about the presidency of a revolutionary named Nelson Mandela.
Another thing that stuck with me is that Nichols said that, of course, nobody can accurately predict when a tipping point will happen. That there are so many variables, so many social dynamics happening, many of them seemingly undetected, that it is impossible for the average person to know when the dam will break, when destiny ushers in very sudden and consequential changes.
Of course the reason he mentioned that is to point out that even though many among us feel that the corruption in the system is too entrenched, that the grip the wealthy and corporatist cartels have on the levers of government power is permanent, too strong, things could change in a flash!
There is something happening here... People have been talking about corporatist cartels and wealthy individuals having captured the levers of power for many years now. They've been talking about a rising police state, about government surveillance, about erosion of constitutional protection, about propaganda used to manipulate the population, and not until very recently have these warnings been taken seriously by a large-enough segment of the population (usually that would over one or two percent to start making a difference).
But now all of the sudden, there seems to be a growing understanding that these issues are real. People are talking about the for profit corporate controlled surveillance state, and about the privatization of prisons, about secretive trade deals, about dark-money propaganda outfits, both on the right (in the form of the hideous national shame named the Koch brothers), and Third-Way DINOs on the faux-left. And more and more people are talking about the international Neoliberal agenda, and about the scam called "austerity measures," realizing we're dealing with "planned poverty."
Activists are organizing nationwide, they are connecting the dots, forming coalitions, taking action, honing in on the root causes of corruption.
I'm not going to venture into predicting anything. However, I will not be surprised in the least if we reach a momentous tipping point at any time. If it happens, it will also be a surprise to the ravenous and predatory ruling class, since for generations they've been used to getting away with fooling the people (for what appears to be) all the time. Yes, they know they're up to no good and that's one of the reasons they have dutifully put into place a total information awareness police state, but if we do reach a tipping point (of dissatisfaction and awareness), no amount of repression will be able to stop it; it will be like a dam breaking. And it could happen at any time.
The old tricks are not working anymore. People aren't buying the lies. People have also realized that the corporate media conglomerate is peddling bullshit, false narratives, propaganda.
I've written about this before, about some sort of collective awakening happening, and spreading fast because of information technology.
My point? Nothing is inevitable; there is no invincibility for anything or anybody. Things could change in a flash. The changes, when they happen, will be predicated on the level of corruption, exploitation, and oppression heaped on the citizenry by the criminally-minded ruling elite.
I will not give up hope that one day I will see these POS banksters arrested and paraded in front of the cameras for the whole world to see. When the tipping point happens, they will be first in line, once the rule of law is restored.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.
- Frederick Douglass
The emphasis is mine
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