Winning Back IL-13-- Meet George Gollin, Particle Physicist

Last year Republican career hack Rodney Davis edged Democrat Dave Gill 137,034 (47%) to 136,032 (36%) in one of the country's penultimate swing districts, IL-13 which stretches from Bloomington and Champaign in central Illinois to Decatur and Litchfield and down to the northern suburbs of St Louis. The PVI is exactly even and President Obama won the district in 2008 55-44% and was edged by a few hundred votes (49-49%) by Romney in 2012. Davis hasn't made much of an impression on anyone and recent polling shows that a good Democratic candidate would beat him-- if he can even survive a primary challenge from Tea Party candidate Erika Harold, Miss America 2003, who was endorsed last week by Herman Cain and raised $65,154 in Q4 to Davis' $285,581.

So that brings us to… a good Democratic candidate. Steve Israel ran out and recruited a garden variety, middle-of-the-road, mushy mystery meat Democrat, Ann Callis. She doesn't stand for much outside of crude identity politics. "She's a Democrat," which means next to nothing. "She's a problem solver"; again… means nothing. She's a woman. Yeah, so is Michele Bachmann. Fortunately though, there's another Democrat in the race, an actual progressive who does stand for something-- and who isn't following Steve Israel's advice to keep quiet about putting his cards on the table. George Gollin is the newest Blue America-endorsed candidate. We asked him to introduce himself in a guest post. After you read it, please consider giving him a hand so that voters in IL-13 have a reasonable choice between Rodney Davis and someone who isn't Rodney Davis-lite.

Why I Am Running for Office
by George Gollin

Our governance is badly broken, and it is only by challenging the injustices that flex and coil beneath civil society that we can address this. We are obliged to drive our country towards greater fairness and justice; if an opportunity arises, we must act.

I teach at the University of Illinois, do research in particle physics, and disrupt (as best as I can) the global trade in fraudulent academic degrees. I have spent all of my professional life attacking complicated problems-- in the classroom, in the laboratory, and in the darker regions of higher education-- but now believe that there is more I should be doing than just this. It was spam, and then dirty money, and then a phone call from a friend that brought this home to me. I am running, as a progressive Democrat, for the United States House of Representatives in the Illinois 13th Congressional District.

A dozen years ago spamming engines began pelting the University of Illinois with messages about “diplomas delivered within days.” After months of this I called the number in one of the ads, hoping to muster enough irritation to be rude to whoever answered.

I learned that I could buy a degree in anything I wanted-- including medicine-- and then discovered that the customers of degree mills held appointments at real universities, at engineering firms, and even at my own school’s College of Medicine. So I published a report about what I had found.

The owners of “St. Regis University,” who sold degrees out of Spokane but pretended to operate from Liberia, saw my report and threatened a lawsuit. Their supporters began threatening to kill my family and bombarding my daughter with obscene messages. Within a year I had convinced the authorities to investigate the St. Regis gang, and was assisting as an evidence analyst. A year after that, armed agents hit seven sites in three states, confiscating computers, documents, and the paraphernalia used to manufacture diplomas.

We learned that the St. Regis hoods were also dabbling in visa fraud; there was child pornography and rumors in the State Department concerning a human trafficking ring. There were indictments and prison terms, and I was elected to the board of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). CNN interviewed me twice.

Betty McCollum, a U.S. Congresswoman from Minnesota, saw one of the CNN stories and began developing legislation with Representatives Tim Bishop (NY-01) and Raul Grijalva (AZ-04). McCollum’s staff asked an Oregon official and me to help with the bill, which they filed towards the end of the 109th Congress. During the next Congress the bill was inserted into the House version of the massive Higher Education Act of 2008.

Congressional hearings in 1984 and 1985 had revealed that “upward of 10,000 or one in every 50 doctors now in hospitals and private practice have obtained fraudulent or highly questionable medical credentials” and that “there may be upwards of 500,000 or one in 200 working Americans who have sought, obtained and in many instances are employed on the basis of some form of fraudulent credential.” Bipartisan hearings in 2004 had returned to the problem, focusing on “Kennedy-Western University,” one of the largest degree mills in the United States. K-W had an office in Wyoming and was even selling to federal employees who were reimbursed-- at taxpayer expense-- for their purchased credentials. So there was congressional awareness of the problem.

Each time I’d go to Washington for a CHEA meeting, I’d spend time on Capitol Hill pitching the diploma mill legislation. It was a matter of good governance, not a left-right issue, and would cost almost nothing to enforce. I hoped it would badly disrupt the $100 million U.S. diploma mill industry. What’s not to like?

The Higher Education Act sailed through the House 354 – 58, with the diploma mill language largely intact. I began visiting Senate offices, particularly those of senators on the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. But I was surprised when a gaggle of right-wing staffers told me, in effect, that they saw no proper federal role in suppressing the interstate sale of fake medical degrees.

Here’s the part with the dirty money. Between 1998 and 2006 the owner of Kennedy-Western had contributed $12,500 to the Republican Party of Wyoming and the National Republican Congressional Committee. In most of his donations he identified himself as a Kennedy-Western employee.

By the time the Higher Education Act’s joint resolution came out of conference, all that was left of the degree mill language was a scrambled definition of the term “diploma mill.” And a technical loophole in the text allowed a mill to inoculate itself against tripping the definition.

I was furious. We’re talking fake medical degrees, folks. Perhaps the staffers who took a fish knife to the bill had not understood that the term “free enterprise” does not admit criminal fraud into the universe of sanctioned economic activity. Perhaps they wanted to preserve the flow of campaign contributions from the diploma mill industry.

It is abundantly clear that we cannot trust a political system awash in special interest cash to act in the public interest. My colleagues and I tried to move a mildly drawn piece of law, which would not interfere with the activities of legally operating for-profit degree providers. We were trying to put criminals out of business! I learned from this that a professor advocating for policy in the public interest does not have the reach to protect good legislation after it is dropped into the Congressional sausage machine.

There is more. I’ve seen good scientific initiatives, with names like “International Linear Collider” and “accelerator-driven subcritical fission” killed by incompetence and a lack of imagination in the Executive Branch. And, of course, there are the perils that fill the pages of our daily newspapers: chronic unemployment, poverty, the pre-ACA difficulties in obtaining affordable medical care.

It is clear that we have a mess on our hands.

A long time ago, when I was an assistant professor, I tried to hire a fellow who was just finishing his PhD. He got a better offer someplace else, but we’ve been friends ever since. Last year he called and explained why he thought I should run for office. There aren’t enough scientists in Congress (there are three), technology and education are central to economic growth, and other things like that. I said I’d think about it.

Because of my diploma mill work, my family has come under frequent attack for years. Politics is said to have an ugly side, and the 2012 election in my district bore that out. After two restless weeks, I summoned the courage to ask my wife what she thought. Melanie is my best friend, the love of my life, and a woman of enormous accomplishment, and she said “well, I’m not making cookies for anyone, but you should do what you want.” I took that as permission.

There is an Arthurian slant to this. In a dream, the king came upon a land in which terrible serpents had burned and slain all the inhabitants. He drew Excalibur and engaged the monsters, and though grievously wounded, slew the dragons. Arthur awoke, greatly troubled.

So here it is: when circumstance puts a sword into your hands, you are obliged to slay the beast before you.

Before I had a campaign manager, or a politics director, or a finance director, or a graphics designer, or a strategy firm, or a web designer, or field directors, or volunteers-- in short, before I had surrounded myself with people who knew what they were doing-- I was invited to speak at a Champaign County Democrats fund raising dinner.

I had never given a political speech before, and thought that I should say it all straight, and lay out the issues that mattered to me, and what I planned to do about them. I was excited about the changes that were possible, and felt that the catastrophic refusal of Congress to govern opened tremendous opportunities for transformation. I was on fire with the possibilities for change.

I explained about the diploma mill mess and dirty money, then attacked Citizens United. I spoke about education, the cost of college, and declining public support for our universities. I talked about college completion, minority enrollments, and the need to deploy breakthroughs in pedagogy. I described advances in solar cell and battery technology, and how we should generate power by transmuting radioactive waste. In the very center of the speech, at the heart of the speech, at the place where I put the things that mattered the most, I talked about jobs, social justice, poverty, and the insistence of the Right that poor people were irresponsible. I discussed income inequality, and the Progressive Democratic Caucus budget. I talked about data driven public policy, healthcare, voting rights, women’s rights, and climate change. I told the audience I wanted to talk about a breakthrough in mass transit, but would save that for another venue. From time to time people applauded.

In April 2013 there was only one other potential candidate for the Democratic nomination, an attorney who owned four houses and did not actually live in IL-13. I ended my speech by saying that she “and I come from opposite ends of the district. If we run, I expect that next year we will have a friendly discussion about who would like to be the rock, and who would like to be the hard place. Then we will come at [the incumbent] Mr. Davis from the east, and from the west, and return him to private life.” And then I told my audience that “It is our birthright to dream boldly. Together, we can change everything.”

People cheered, and told me afterwards that I am a Progressive.

In an ideal world a political campaign would be about ideas, and policy, and strategies for accomplishing the things that need to be done. Candidates would stand before engaged audiences which asked tough questions, and never shy from a conversation with someone who was not a supporter. We would go to minority churches and union halls, speak to environmental groups and Chambers of Commerce.

We would learn as much as we could about economics and labor law, and about science, and technology, and education. We would learn about corn and beans, and the tremendous social value resident in our small towns and rural areas. We would learn about our district, and about the demographics of poverty and disadvantage. We would learn about (and how to side step) the legislative process, so we could make progress in times of gridlock. We would be engaged, and we would be fearless. And we would not hide our ignorance by refusing debates and fleeing from audiences asking questions. We would not glide through the countryside in the regal and distancing embrace of an armored bubble.

The nature of the job we are seeking is to represent the interests of the people-- all the people, not just those who are wealthy, or those with whom we are at ease-- to the federal government. And we can only do this by spending time in the presence of anyone who will have us, and wants to tell us their concerns. I know that we do not live in an ideal world. The past year has taught me something about politics, and about how important it is to do the politics well in order to have an opportunity to do policy. And we have all learned from the 2012 cycle that IL-13 isn’t your typical rural/small city district: it responds strongly to a clear progressive message that is carried forth by a candidate who travels widely and actually knows what he is talking about.

We all want that which is broken to be fixed, and that is why I am running for Congress.

2013 in Review -- A Prayer to the Janitor of Lunacy,* Part 6 (and last!): In the words of Dan Quayle, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind"

Exploiting tragedy for a buck; plus Miss America's not American?, "Quote of the Year" winner

[*TO MEET THE JANITOR OF LUNACY, SEE PART 1]

Miss America, Missouri-born Nina Davuluri -- zowie!

by Noah

THE MINDS OF CORPORATISTS:
EXPLOITING TRAGEDY FOR A BUCK

What is it about the corporate mind? How do the idiots who make decisions in our corporations continually get it so wrong, so tasteless and obnoxious? Is it a mediocrity-rising- to-the-corner-office thing? Does the seduction of the perks that come with position make one oblivious? Is that why the Detroit car companies of the early 1970s decided to keep building gas-guzzling cars the size of aircraft carriers even when it was clear that it wasn't what the public wanted? Is it, like with politicians, something that happens when you put on a suit and tie and only talk to people like yourself everyday? Does that tie cut off blood circulation to the brain?

Case in point: AT&T's über-tacky advertising use of the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. What did these goons do? What were they thinking? Are they even capable of normal thought processes?

AT&T decided to use the 9/11 tragedy to sell their phones! Classy! AT&T used social media (Twitter, Instagram and even their Facebook page) to show a photo of a hand using a smart phone to take a picture of the twin lights that rise where the towers once stood and illuminate New York City's skyline on every 9/11 anniversary. It's a tasteless moment of "Let us remember, and hey, have you thought about buying one of our spiffy new phones? Bring tragedy into sharper relief! More pixels!"

What will AT&T assault us with next? Pictures of their phones taking pictures of plane crashes? Pictures of subway suicide jumpers? Hey, I know! Starvation victims in Africa! Shooting victims in schools! "It's Almost Like Being There!"

The possibilities for AT&T to use tragic events to attempt to sell phones are endless in this sad world. How about one with that terrified naked nine-year-old Vietnamese girl running toward the camera after being napalmed? That would be advertising genius, no? Smart phone; dumb-ass execs.

The whole thing reminded me of how the entire Republican Party assaulted New York City for their 2004 convention, practically chanting "9/11, 9/11, 9/11" over and over, exploiting 9/11 to scare as many voters into reelecting Dubya as possible. That time it worked.

After the massive insta-backlash from the public, AT&T issued this perfunctory statement:

"We apologize to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste. The image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy."

Well, weren't we all affected by the tragedy? Don't we all respect those who died? Are there those who weren't affected? Note to AT&T execs: Pease tie that tie quite a bit tighter. Maybe you can then go operate some factory machinery. I'll have my phone ready.


WHEN IS MISS AMERICA NOT AMERICAN?

Well, if you are a Republican, apparently when she's the newly crowned Miss America, Nina Davuluri, who not only has an Indian surname but is dark-skinned. That, in the Republican mind, is enough to disqualify one from being an American, even if, like Nina, you were born in Missouri and your parents moved here over 30 years ago. Jeez, I hope she never decides to run for president. It'll be Birth Certificate-palooza all over again.

It seems that Republicans preferred that the runner-up contestant, blonde and blue-eyed Theresa Vail, from neighboring Kansas and an Army sergeant, win. I'm sure she was qualified, just as Nina was. So what's the big deal? Frankly, I'm surprised that anyone even pays attention to this yearly glorification of corporately sponsored bulimia, anorexia, and pointless baton-twirling.

Proving that right-wing lunacy doesn't just come from Republican politicians, here's a sample of the reaction from the reactionaries who obviously vote Republican. As usual we can start with the kooks at Fox "News." Here's Fox's Todd Starnes:

"The liberal Miss America judges won't say this, but Miss Kansas lost because she actually represented American values."

After that, the rest of Republikook World felt free to crawl out of their abandoned missile silos, doomsday castles, and mansions long enough to tweet:


Hmmm. Indian Arab. Born in Missouri. Indians are Arabs? Who knew? Damn that diversity! Next they'll allow women! Real women, not the Miss McConnell or J. Edgar Hoover-in-a-black-dress kind.

Other comments from the Repug twittersphere:

"If you're Miss America, you should have to be American."

"So Miss America is a terrorist!"

"9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets Miss America?"

The last of these likened the newly crowned Miss America's photo to a photo of a Middle Eastern man wielding a firearm.

Confusing and conflating the names of two entirely different countries also entered into the twitsphere when one woman, displaying a Palinesque knowledge of the globe, wrote:

"I'm not a racist. She is representing America doing an Indonesian dance. If it was a Miss Universe pageant it would have been cool."

India, Indonesia. What's the dif, eh?

BuzzFeed offers a whole catalog of tweets from Repug World, including a mini-photo essay of what one Republican mind considers a proper Miss America.

Ironically, Miss Davuluri is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan who got her degree in brain behavior and cognitive science.

Real Americans want a real American Miss America
(You'd like to think Theresa would be embarrassed)



TODAY'S "QUOTE OF THE YEAR" NOMINEES

1. American neo-Nazi (U.S. National Socialist Movement) leader Jeff Schoep:

"We have to start somewhere. So if we start in small towns and spread out from there, it's sort of a test ground in that sense, where if we're able to get off the ground here, then we're able to get off the ground in other places."

Commander Schoep, as he is known to his fellow Nazis, was talking about his group's plan to buy up cheap property in North Dakota and build whites-only communities not only there but throughout America, starting in the small town of Leith, ND, which happens to be in one of the whitest counties in all of the United States. Can't you just see Sean Hannity or Pat Buchanan running for mayor of Leith?

If the Nazi group's plan is successful, can we expect such small towns to become popular campaign stops for teabaggers and other Republican types in the near future> $en. Lindsay Graham has already bemoaned the fact that his party is running out of angry old white men, as they all die off, although I suppose maybe he's just concerned about who he'll hang out with once McCain is gone.

Perhaps old Repugs can just go retire to these model Nazi communities, where they can feel comfortable being among their own kind. They can wave their Confederate freak flags high and stop fussing about "brown people" and "strange food."

Whites-only retirement communities, maybe even funded by the Koch Brothers! They can even go around firing off six-shooters at one another to their hearts' content, hastening the inevitable. Sorry, Eric Cantor,you can't come. I know, I know, you want to belong. You've tried. But it just isn't permitted. It's not just the golf courses anymore.

2. Phyllis Schlafly -- conservative activist, lawyer, anti-feminist, and staunch opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment

"The Statue of Liberty memorializes the unique liberty we enjoy in America. It has nothing whatever to do with immigration."

Dear Phyllis: First of all, you "memorialize" something when it's gone, just as you memorialize people when they're gone. As for the Statue of Liberty having nothing to do with immigration, I guess that "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses . . " translates, in Republicanese, to "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and we will grind them into the ground." Yeeesh, tell that to all those people in all those boats approaching Ellis Island in all those films we've seen all our lives. Go directly to hell, Phyllis. You outlived your "sell by" date decades ago. They're expecting you. You won't even have to fill out any forms. You're in the "elite entry" category.

3. Former (finally!) N.Y. Mayor Michael "Extra Term" Bloomberg

"If I were a woman, I think I would wear high heels."

Well, all righty then, Tootsie. Shoes make the man! I guess you've given it a bit of thought there. So, OK, whatever floats your boat, zeppelin, or -- Still, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has you beat. Can we interest you in some nice kinky boots? Let the whispers begin!

Comedian Andy Borowitz offers this more serious perspective on the "Man of the .1%":

December 31, 2013
PEOPLE WHO CAN STILL AFFORD TO LIVE IN NEW YORK PRAISE BLOOMBERG
Posted by ANDY BOROWITZ


NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) -- As the curtain comes down on the Michael Bloomberg era, the three-term mayor of New York received fulsome praise last night from his most appreciative constituency: the people who can still afford to live there.

Harland Dorrinson, principal owner of the hedge fund Garrote Capital, hosted a black-tie dinner in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pay tribute to a mayor who, in Mr. Dorrinson's words, "put living in New York out of the reach of everyone except the deserving few."

"To a lot of people, Mike Bloomberg will be remembered for reducing smoking and improving people's diets," said Mr. Dorrinson. "But that shouldn't overshadow his greatest accomplishment, creating unaffordable housing throughout New York."

"When Mike took office, this city was teeming with regular working people," Mr. Dorrinson said, shuddering at the memory. "Today, it's a magnificent tapestry of investment bankers, real-estate developers, and Russian oligarchs."

The hedge-fund owner is such a fan of Mr. Bloomberg's, in fact, that he has only one bone to pick with him: that he left office too soon "to finish the job."

"There are still a few pockets in the city where, regrettably, the middle class seems to be hanging on," he said. "The rent is too damn low."

As for Mr. Bloomberg's critics, Mr. Dorrinson was philosophical: "I know there are some people who think Mike was terrible for New York, that he took a city rich with diversity and ruined it. But fortunately, they all live somewhere else now."

"QUOTE OF THE YEAR" 2013 --
AND THE WINNER IS:

When it came to the nominees this year, I deliberately made an attempt to avoid the usual list of miscreants such as Bachmann, Newtie, Palin, Bortz, Cavuto, Savage, et al. At the very least, I wanted to introduce some of the lesser-known personalities that Republicans proudly point to. Known and unknown, all were worthy.

Not a day goes by when some Republican somewhere in our country doesn't unfurl their lunacy freak flag and let it fly with a verbal barrage of hypocrisy, bigotry, homophobia, stories about their ancestors (and ours) riding to work on dinosaurs, phony Obama scandals, and of course the always-imminent return of their white, white, white Jesus -- a Jesus who would never pal around with the likes of them.

I selected many quotes, including ones that were embedded in the stories I included in the "Janitor of Lunacy" posts. Bill-O's gay paranoia quote from Part 5, Judge Edith James's blatant racism in Part 4, Coultergeist's shutdown quote in Part 3, and so many others reflected the core thoughts and qualifications for being a Republican.

But in choosing this year's winner, I found one quote that summed up the essence of being a Republican: a sociopathic willful disregard for other human beings. From Part 5, it's Fox's John Stossel!


"Think about the Depression. That was before there was any welfare state at all. How many people starved? No one."

NOAH'S 2013 IN REVIEW --
A PRAYER TO THE JANITOR OF LUNACY*

Part 1: Take a bow, Repugs! (*including Nico's "Janitor of Lunacy") [Monday]

Part 2: Remember when Reagan cut funds for insane asylums? (Storms, guns, bombs, free stuff, and the secret gay life of Obma: Some top Republican lies of 2013) [Tuesday]

Part 3: No Cruz control (Rafael "Ted" Cruz in his own words) [Wednesday]

Part 4: A great anniversary approaches! (plus more "Quote of the Year" nominees) [Thursday]

Part 5: Everyone's a critic, including me -- Some people really try my patience (Bill-O, Howie Kurtz, E. W. Jackson, et al.) [Friday]

Part 6 (and last): In the words of Dan Quayle, "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" (Exploiting tragedy for a buck; Miss America's not American?; "Quote of the Year" winner) [Saturday]

And don't forget Noah's recent --
"Need a last-minute Christmas gift suggestion?" [12/22]
"50 Years Ago Today: The Beatles" [12/26]
"A Tale of Two Popes -- the one in the Vatican and the one in North Carolina" [12/27]

#

What's The Greater Threat To Our Country-- "Espionage" Or Our Own Willful Stupidity? Offshore Banking or Offshoring Jobs?

Clearly, the new Miss America, Nebraska's Teresa Scanlan, had a beautifully successful operation to have whatever vestiges of a pesky ole brain she ever had, removed before the contest... either that or she watches CNN or Fox all day. You wonder how someone like Ben Nelson, Adrian Smith or Mike Johanns keeps getting elected? Just remember who votes. And where they chose to get their information.

I I shouldn't pick on Nebraska. Voters in Ohio are demonstrably as retarded. In a state plagued by unemployment caused by offshoring, they just elected two of the most degenerate architects of American trade policy, Rob Portman and John Kasich, as Senator and Governor, Portman (57-39%) and Kasich (49-47%), while electing 5 new Members of Congress-- Steve Chabot, Steve Stivers, Bill Johnson, Jim Renacci and Bob Gibbs, 100% dedicated to sending their jobs overseas as quickly as possible. Go Ohio!

Last week one of Ohio's top blogs, Plunderbund, looked into how Kasich is balancing his vitriolic attack on public service workers and their unions with unconscionable pay raises for bureaucratic patronage jobs in his administration. One thing all these newly-elected Ohioans have in common is an uncanny dedication to lending a hand to their wealthy campaign donors so that the state's-- and, worse, the nation's-- wealth is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer rich families while the middle class sinks into a morass that threatens the very existence of democracy in our country. And that brings us back to... wikileaks, so badly comprehended by the new idiot Miss America. I wonder if this will even matter to people like Teresa Scanlan, Ben Nelson, Adrian Smith, Mike Johanns, Rob Portman, John Kasich, Steve Chabot, Steve Stivers, Bill Johnson, Jim Renacci and Bob Gibbs. Nah... I don't really wonder.

Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks.

...The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations-- detailing massive potential tax evasion-- will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians."

Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information.

He is also – at a time when the activities of banks are a matter of public concern-- one of a small band of employees and executives seeking to blow the whistle on what they see as unprofessional, immoral and even potentially criminal activity by powerful international financial institutions.

Along with the City of London and Wall Street, Switzerland is a fortress of banking and financial services, but famously secretive and expert in the concealment of wealth from all over the world for tax evasion and other extra-legal purposes.

Elmer says he is releasing the information "in order to educate society." The list includes "high net worth individuals," multinational conglomerates and financial institutions-- hedge funds." They are said to be "using secrecy as a screen to hide behind in order to avoid paying tax." They come from the US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia-- "from all over."

Clients include "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates-- from both sides of the Atlantic." Elmer says: "Well-known pillars of society will hold investment portfolios and may include houses, trading companies, artwork, yachts, jewellery, horses, and so on."

"What I am objecting to is not one particular bank, but a system of structures," he told the Observer. "I have worked for major banks other than Julius Baer, and the one thing on which I am absolutely clear is that the banks know, and the big boys know, that money is being secreted away for tax-evasion purposes, and other things such as money-laundering-- although these cases involve tax evasion."

...[P]rivacy is being abused so that big people can get big banking organisations to service them. The normal, hard-working taxpayer is being abused also.

"Once you become part of senior management," he says, "and gain international experience, as I did, then you are part of the inner circle-- and things become much clearer. You are part of the plot. You know what the real products and service are, and why they are so expensive. It should be no surprise that the main product is secrecy … Crimes are committed and lies spread in order to protect this secrecy."

...That first crop of documents was scrutinised by the Guardian newspaper in 2009, which found "details of numerous trusts in which wealthy people have placed capital. This allows them lawfully to avoid paying tax on profits, because legally it belongs to the trust … The trust itself pays no tax, as a Cayman resident," although "the trustees can distribute money to the trust's beneficiaries."

Now, Blum says, "Elmer is being tried for violating Swiss banking secrecy law even though the data is from the Cayman Islands. This is bold extraterritorial nonsense. Swiss secrecy law should apply to Swiss banks in Switzerland, not a Swiss subsidiary in the Cayman Islands."

Espionage!

And in preparation for the release of more espionage, Bank of America has bought up Internet domain names BankofAmericaSucks.com and, in honor of BofA's CEO, BrianMoynihanblows.com/ Mary Bottari took a look at what Wikileaks actually has on America's biggest bank that's making them so nervous. Here are some of the likeliest scenarios we'll see playing out:

Legal Liability for Toxic Mortgages

BofA is already under the gun, defending itself from multiple lawsuits from private investors as well as Fannie and Freddie demanding that the bank buy back billions worth of toxic mortgages-backed securities. The firm stopped issuing subprime mortgages in 2001, but it kept underwriting subprime mortgage-backed securities for many years. In September 2009, for example, BofA underwrote $239 million worth of securities backed by subprime loans. BofA has reserved $4.4 billion for these "put back" lawsuits. If Assange has emails showing that top executives at BofA knew they were peddling toxic dreck to investors, it would rock the firm and give tremendous ammunition to the army of lawyers already knocking on BofA's door.

Reckless and Illegal Foreclosures

BofA is at the heart of the robo-signing scandal and has wrongfully foreclosed on countless American families. One poor woman returned to a vacation home to find it locked, all her possessions gone -- including the ashes of her late husband. How could such a mistake be made? A BofA employee deposed in February 2010 said that she signed as many as 8,000 foreclosure documents a month without reviewing them, in violation of the law. Mounting questions about the fraudulent and illegal foreclosure practices at the big banks and mortgage service companies prompted BofA to temporarily halt foreclosures nationwide in October 2010. If Wikileaks can document that top BofA officials have a callous disregard for legal processes and constitutionally protected property rights, BofA's mounting legal liability may not be sustainable.

Countrywide Headaches

In 2008, BofA acquired Countrywide, one of the most aggressive and fraudulent lenders during the housing bubble. The result has been a trainwreck of liability and lawsuits for the megabank that now has over 1.3 million customers in foreclosure. To settle the lawsuits with Illinois, California and eight other states over predatory lending, BofA came up with an $8.4 billion loan relief plan for those holding Countrywide mortgages. In June, 2010 BofA paid $108 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission case that charged Countrywide with having extracted excessive fees out of borrowers facing foreclosure. BofA paid $600 million in August 2010 to settle shareholder claims that Countrywide had concealed the riskiness of its lending standards. There is no end in sight for these suits. In June 2010 the State of Illinois sued Countrywide again, this time over racial discrimination in its lending practices. Wikileaks could have further documentation of Countrywide's illegal and reckless underwriting practices or ongoing fraud at BofA.

Taxpayer Paid Bonuses

BofA acquired the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch for $50 billion in January 2009. The U.S. government blessed the merger with a $20 billion bailout loan to aid BofA. After the acquisition went through, it was revealed that Merrill Lynch had lost $15.8 billion in the last quarter of 2008 and that $3.6 billion in bonuses were paid ahead of schedule to top executives at Merrill. Among beneficiaries of the bonus bonanza was Merrill's CEO John Thain, who famously spent a million redecorating his office at the height of the crisis. About the deal New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said: "One disturbing question that must be answered is whether Merrill Lynch and Bank of America timed the bonuses in such a way as to force taxpayers to pay for them through the deal funding." If Wikileaks has emails showing top executives knowingly used bailout bucks for bonuses, this ugly chapter in history could be reopened, prompting Congressional investigations and further bailout backlash.

Imagine If Someone As Ignorant And Bigoted As Carrie Prejean Were Running Around The World Representing Our Country

Pretty on the outside

You may have thought DWT would be the one blog where you would be absolutely safe from having to hear about Carrie Prejean and her quest for Miss Americadom. Miss Dumb America, for sure, but thank goodness this ignorant, empty-headed bigot won't be representing our country in anyway that could embarrass us and remind people overseas about the past 8 years of clueless Americans. So why is that video looming below? Well if you haven't seen this bimbo making a fool of herself on national TV, you should take a look before I share my little story:



Forget for as moment that Fox and the Republican Party are struggling to turn this poor dimwit's loss into a cause célèbre for the Neanderthal base-- and even a law suit. She's a victim now. Always on the right the bigots are the victims. And the rest of society's put upon victims will claim her as their own.

This morning I was hiking around Los Feliz with one of my neighbors. She had paid more attention to the Miss America kerfuffle than I had. She said it reminded her of something that happened at her sorority. A very attractive and popular girl, a cheerleader, pledged and everyone was enthusiastic about having her join. Except one person. That person blackballed her. She told her sorority sisters that if they accepted the pledge, who is Japanese-American, none of the fraternity boys would come to their house parties. My friend was thunderstruck and she and several other sisters argued with the racist. But she was unmovable and they had to reject the pledge. That happened here-- in Los Angeles, California, USA. It's what Republicans are all about; it's part of the essence that makes someone think of themselves as a member of that rapidly shrinking political party.

Now wash that ugliness away with something beautiful:




UPDATE: Alabama Speaks

It probably won't surprise you to know that the state of Alabama has, once again, endorsed bigotry and prejudice in it's hundreds of years of unblemished endorsement of bigotry and prejudice. Go 'Bama! Jay Love was the wingnut who lost last year's congressional election to what is now the worst right-wing Democratic slug in Congress, Bobby Bright. But Love proved today that his name doesn't go further than his nose. The Alabama House approved a resolution he proposed to "support" Carrie Prejean's ignorant bigotry.