Matt Taibbi on Former Attorney General Eric Holder and the Revolving Door between Washington and Wall Street

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Eric Holder Former Attorney Journal of the United States

Eric Holder
Former Attorney General of the United States

By Elaine Magliaro

Earlier today, award-winning journalist Matt Taibbi was interviewed on Democracy Now! Taibbi talked about Eric Holder, the former Attorney General of the United States, and the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. Holder is reportedly “returning home — to the corporate law firm Covington & Burling, where he worked for eight years before becoming head of the Justice Department.” Democracy Now! noted that during Holder’s time at Covington, his “clients included UBS and the fruit giant Chiquita.” According to Democracy Now!, the “law firm’s client list has included many of the big banks Holder failed to criminally prosecute as attorney general for their role in the financial crisis, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.” Tabby said he thought this was “probably the single biggest example of the revolving door that we’ve ever had.”

Excerpt from the Democracy Now! interview:

AMY GOODMAN: So you were tweeting up a storm yesterday as this news came of the former attorney general, Eric Holder, going back to Covington & Burling. Talk about the significance of this.

MATT TAIBBI: Yeah, I mean, I think this is probably the single biggest example of the revolving door that we’ve ever had. And we’ve had some whoppers in our past. I think previously the worst one was probably Louisiana Congressman Billy Tauzin leaving Congress and taking a $2-million-a-year job with PhRMA, right after he helped pass the prescription drug benefit bill. But what Holder just did just blows Tauzin away. I mean, he spent six years essentially guiding all of these Wall Street firms, which many of them are clients of this company that he’s now working for—he guided them all back to profitability. He allowed bankers to escape prosecution. And now he’s going right back to that firm, where he’s going to enjoy a very lucrative partnership, whether he ever works again, you know, for the rest of his life.

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Posted in Barack Obama, Corruption, Courts, Crime, DOJ, Financial, Government, Investing, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, SEC, Short Video, Stock Market, United States, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

NOTICE: Test Drives

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Gene Howington

Over the next few weeks, the staff at FFS is going to be experimenting with new themes and layouts for the site. Please bear with our changes and feel free to comment below on whether you like or dislike a particular theme. I will post a new notice with each new theme tested for comments. This is the theme Tonal.

Thank you for your input.  Tonal has been ruled a non-starter.

Gene Howington

Editor-in-Chief, Flowers for Socrates

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Technology is taking the informal economy for a ride

Posted on July 8, 2015 by ann li-summers

By Ann Summers

“Why has informal employment expanded so much in the context of neoliberal globalisation?”

An informal economy could be the transfer of commodities ranging from adults buying alcohol for teenagers hanging about convenience stores to the proliferation of straw-purchase firearms, to the ridesharing during transit strikes where hitch-hikers will wait at an affected transit station to accompany an unknown passing driver through the HOV or carpool reduced toll lanes (often, the two parties will not speak during the ride). Rideshare (sic) alternatives to taxi services such as such as Uber, Sidecar, and Lyft fulfills this kind of disintegrating and commodified public transit in the space of the neoliberal urban economy.

But on the other hand, there are critics such as New York magazine, which argued that these apps (and others) create an alternative private transportation system that only benefits the wealthy or the tech crowd. And that they undercut mass transit, causing less political pressure for improving public transit. This relationship with public transit is a key issue as these apps (and other sharing economy services) seek to grow nationwide, and regulators figure out how to address them. (Los Angeles recently issued cease-and-desist orders against Uber, Sidecar and Lyft.)

Let’s look at this in two parts.

First, do ride sharing apps (and private transit options generally) encourage people not to use public transit or are they complementary?

And secondly, are these apps generally helpful more to higher income people, leaving lower income people stuck with a worsening public transportation system?

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Posted in Economic Policy | Tagged | 5 Comments

New Texas Social Studies Textbooks Whitewash and Rewrite American History

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

TeaxsFixingHistoryBy Elaine Magliaro

On Sunday, Emma Brown (Washington Post) reported that millions of public school students in Texas “will begin using new social studies textbooks this fall based on state academic standards that barely address racial segregation.” In addition, she said that the state’s guidelines for teaching American history “do not mention the Ku Klux Klan or Jim Crow laws.”

Brown:

And when it comes to the Civil War, children are supposed to learn that the conflict was caused by “sectionalism, states’ rights and slavery” — written deliberately in that order to TexasMaptelegraph slavery’s secondary role in driving the conflict, according to some members of the state board of education.

Slavery was a “side issue to the Civil War,” said Pat Hardy, a Republican board member, when the board adopted the standards in 2010. “There would be those who would say the reason for the Civil War was over slavery. No. It was over states’ rights.”

Hardy was also quoted as saying, “There would be those who would say the reason for the Civil War was over slavery. No. It was over states’ rights.”

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Posted in American History, Civil War, Conservatives, Education, Government, Government Propaganda, Political Science, Politics, Propaganda, Racism, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Picture of the Day for July 7, 2015: “White Culture’s Thug Youth”

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

From Matt Bors: “White Culture’s Thug Youth”

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Posted in Equal Rights, Humor, Political Science, Politics, Propaganda, Racism, Society, United States | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Picture of the Day for July 7, 2015: “White Culture’s Thug Youth”

Seattle Public Schools Ban Soda But Supply 11 Year Old Girls With IUD’s

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Bob Stone

Presently in Washington State, minors may obtain or refuse birth control services at any age without the consent of a parent or guardian  but they are prohibited from purchasing soda pop in public schools. 

Apparently relying on a few studies done by American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 13 public schools in Seattle are now offering long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) — IUDs and hormonal implants — to students as young as 11 years old.

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Posted in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Education, Health Care, Legal Analysis, Legal Theory | Tagged | 163 Comments

The Confederacy and the Union: “How the South Lost the War but Won the Narrative”

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro
Jefferson Davis Monument in Richmond, VA

Jefferson Davis Monument in Richmond, VA

By Elaine Magliaro

The Boston Globe has been running a “Divided Nation” series. The series has already touched upon a number of issues—including the wealth gap in Colorado, religious and gay rights in Arkansas, and Marco Rubio’s silence on immigration. Today’s series topic is the split in Richmond, Virginia, over Confederate history. Evidently, there have been calls in the capital of the Confederacy to “properly memorialize the slave trade.”

Michael Kranish, the author of the article, opened his piece talking about Ana Edwards, an African-American and longtime community activist. He told of how Edwards “stood on Monument Avenue, one of America’s most elegant boulevards, and stared with disbelief at the inscription on the 67-foot-tall memorial to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate government that was based here during the Civil War.” The inscription read, “Exponent of Constitutional Principles. Defender of the Rights of States.”

Kranish said, “There were no words explaining Davis’s role in the enslavement of hundreds of thousands, no hint that much of the nation’s slave trade was conducted here in Richmond, at a time when black lives plainly didn’t matter to many, except as human chattel to be exploited or sold.” Kranish added, “Instead, emblazoned in stone, was Davis’s assertion that he acted ‘not in hostility to others.’”

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Posted in Abraham Lincoln, American History, Civil War, Government, History, Maryland, Mythology, Political Science, Propaganda, Racism, Society, Treason, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 64 Comments

Minister No More!

Posted on July 6, 2015 by ann li-summers

yanisv's avatarYanis Varoufakis

The referendum of 5th July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage.

View original post 219 more words

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Picture of the Day for July 5, 2015: Regarding the Separation of Church and State

Posted on July 5, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

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Posted in American History, Constitutional Law, Democracy, Government, John Adams, Politics, Religion, Thomas Jefferson, United States | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

NASCAR Asks Fans to Stop Flying Confederate Battle Flag at Its Events

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

images-1By Elaine Magliaro

Viv Bernstein has an article in the New York Times that explains why NASCAR has requested that its fans put away their Confederate battle flags.

Bernstein:

Although Nascar has stopped short of an outright ban on the flag, officials at every racetrack that hosts an event in the top three national series, including the Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, issued a joint statement on Thursday asking fans to no longer display them at their tracks.1000px-Conf_Navy_Jack_(light_blue).svg

The NASCAR statement read, “As members of the Nascar industry, we join Nascar in the desire to make our events among the most fan-friendly, welcoming environments in all of sports and entertainment. To do that, we are asking our fans and partners to join us in a renewed effort to create an all-inclusive, even more welcoming atmosphere for all who attend our events. This will include the request to refrain from displaying the Confederate flag at our facilities and Nascar events.

“We are committed to providing a welcoming atmosphere free of offensive symbols. This is an opportunity for Nascar Nation to demonstrate its sense of mutual respect and acceptance for all who attend our events while collectively sharing the tremendous experience of Nascar racing.”

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Posted in Civil War, Racism, Society, South Carolina | Tagged , | 14 Comments