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The Madoff Sentence: Swindle the Rich? Get 150 Years. Swindle the Poor? Who Cares?

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 12:55 PM on June 29, 2009.


Surely I'm not the only one who sees this as just the sort of ridiculously excessive sentence that's reserved for scapegoats.
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Let me be perfectly clear: I have no sympathy for Bernie Madoff, not a single, solitary, infinitesimal iota.
But surely I am not the only person who reads that he's been sentenced to 150 years in prison and sees the sort of ridiculously excessive sentence that's typically reserved for scapegoats.
Ah, the evil Madoff has been given 150 years -- finally someone is being held responsible for the horrendous economic clusterfucktastrophe which has befallen us all! Now we can go back to not paying attention! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!
It's just a little fucked up that the asshole who swindled rich people gets 150 years, but most of the assholes who swindled poor people haven't even lost their jobs. And that's to say nothing of the assholes staffed by the regulatory bodies whose enormous incompetence enabled Madoff's crimes, no less members of the administration under whose watch the economy collapsed.

I hope next time Former President Mondo Fucko is strolling around his yard, picking up dog shit, he thinks kindly on Mr. Madoff, strolling around the prison yard, serving a sentence on behalf of all the Great Swindlers.

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Tagged as: bernie madoff, madoff sentence

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.


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I'm reminded of an old Chinese proverb
Posted by: pelican beak on Jun 29, 2009 1:14 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Whichever chicken sticks its neck above the others gets its head cut off."

Madoff's sentence is indeed nothing but an example, as rip-off business in general goes on as usual. The only thing about Bernie was his head stood out above the others.

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Don't kid yourself
Posted by: weathered on Jun 29, 2009 3:16 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The $$ taken out of Treasury since 2000 is what should concern us.

Bernie's just a sad distraction, think of what good puropse that $$ could put to work?

That's the real crime.

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» RE: Don't kid yourself Posted by: Aquinas
Politicians should all get 150 years
Posted by: progressive-life on Jun 29, 2009 7:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Barney Frank and the rest of the congressional gang brought down our economy - maybe 200 years for each of them!

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when will Paulson, Rubin, Summers, Geithner, Lewis, Thain, et.al.
Posted by: thekidde on Jun 30, 2009 8:39 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
be horsewhipped, tarred, feathered and put in a cell for their thieving ways???

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Oh come on, people!
Posted by: Ian MacLeod on Jul 1, 2009 12:03 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
NOBODY'S so stupid they could destroy the WORLD economy so quickly and efficiently BY ACCIDENT! New World Order, remember? Requirements to include massive unemployment, religious wars that destroy the political and religious power of the largest nation-states (entities that are all to be done away with) which can then be absorbed, catastrophic shortages to help drive wars to reduce Third World and useless (i.e. old, disabled, sick, etc.> First World populations, massive pandemics, compulsory vaccines (to get rid more more useless population and implant others), implanted ID's compulsory...

Any of this sound at all familiar? And really, do you honestly believe that with the formula for economic collapse so clearly worked and marked out by the Great Depression and by the IMF these past several decades that all of this could have happened by accident? And look at ALL of the preparation for internal rebellion against draconian measures to "save America": multiple spy agencies almost all focused on the US population, new super crowd control weapons and urban warfare training in a totally unnecessary (save for the training, mind warping and the oil theft and ME bases) war, militarized thugs wearing badges and tasing and occasionally murdering people who don't grovel well or quickly enough, random midnight murderous attacks on citizens by Gestapo-like unmarked cops in black purportedly after a fucking WEED, a government that totally ignores the "voters" with impunity, Stolen elections, secret laws, a president who changes his mind about EVERY campaign promise and position without repercussions, a useless (for news) MSM - come on, how much more do you need?

Sheesh!

Ian

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THE FACE OF KHAZAR EVIL INCARNATE
Posted by: joeocho88 on Jul 1, 2009 11:55 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bernard Madoff can NOT fool a REAL JEW.

He is a KHAZAR, the people who made a nominal conversion to Judaism and have been giving real Jews a bad name every since...

WHAT IS A KHAZAR?

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus from the 7th to the 10th century CE. The name 'Khazar' seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering".
NOTHING JEWISH HERE.

During the eighth or ninth century the state religion became Judaism. At their height, the Khazar khaganate and its tributaries controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the Northern Caucasus ( Circassia, Dagestan, Chechnya), parts of Georgia and the Crimea.
At some point in the last decades of the 8th century or the early 9th century, the Khazar royalty and nobility converted to Judaism, and part of the general population followed. The extent of the conversion is debated. Ibn al-Faqih reported in the 10th century that "all the Khazars are Jews." Notwithstanding this statement, some scholars believe that only the upper classes converted to Judaism; there is some support for this in contemporary Muslim texts.

Some researchers have suggested part of the reason for conversion was political.. Recently discovered evidence suggests that Judaism was the state religion by c. 830.
The Khazars enjoyed close relations with the Jews of the Levant and Persia (IRAN). The Persian Jews, for example, hoped that the Khazars might succeed in conquering the Caliphate. In an Arabic commentary on Isaiah 48:14: "The Lord hath loved him." "This," says the commentary, "refers to the Khazars, who will go and destroy Babel" (i.e., Babylonia), a name used to designate the country of the Arabs. From the Khazar Correspondence it is apparent that two Spanish Jews, Judah ben Meir ben Nathan and Joseph Gagris, had succeeded in settling in the land of the Khazars.
Likewise, the Khazar rulers viewed themselves as the protectors of international Jewry.
DECEPTION IN TRADE AND IN FINANCIAL MATTERS. READ THIS! HOW MUCH HAS CHANGED SINCE THEN?

Trade
The Khazars occupied a prime trade nexus. Goods from western Europe travelled east to Central Asia and China and vice versa, and the Muslim world could only interact with northern Europe via Khazar intermediaries.
No Khazar paid taxes to the central government. Revenue came from a 10% levy on goods transiting through the region, and from tribute paid by subject nations. The Khazars exported honey, furs, wool, millet and other cereals, fish, and slaves.
THEY WERE SLAVE TRADERS!

D.M. Dunlop and Artamanov asserted that the Khazars produced no material goods themselves, living solely on trade.

Khazar coinage

The Khazars are known to have minted silver coins, called Yarmaqs. Many of these were imitations of Arab dirhems with corrupted Arabic letters. Coins of the Caliphate were in widespread use due to their reliable silver content. Merchants accepted them regardless of their inability to read the Arab writing. Thus issuing imitation dirhems was a way to ensure acceptance of Khazar coinage in foreign lands.( FRAUD. CURRENCY ISSUED WITH NOTHING TO BACK IT UP!)

BERNIE COMES BY HIS CORRUPTION NATURALLY.

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