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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJustice needs to work MUCH faster or we are doomed
Last edited Thu May 4, 2023, 10:23 AM - Edit history (1)
We are drowning in tidal waves of corruption, financial crimes, and injustices, and Justice is coming in the form of one-gallon buckets on back order. What proportion of financial crimes committed by politicians are investigated or prosecuted?
The Hershel Walker story should be huge news and prosecutions should ensue. IT ALSO SHOULDN'T HAVE TAKEN THE-DAILY BEAST TO FIND IT. And once found, a reasonable, diligent investigation process and indictment ought to be possible in something like two months.
We don’t have enough media left to find 1/10 of the corruption occurring, yet what is uncovered can’t be processed fast enough to deter others. And more complicated tactics used by smarter-than-Hershel people are surely not pursued. And untaxed churches routinely engage in political lobbying, and conservative groups pretend to be nonpartisan nonprofits…$1.6 billion changes hands for nothing… No crime committed, nothing to see.just SNAFU.
Corruption isn’t just ignored, it’s being legalized. In Texas, a PAC secured in court the right for. Republican donors to buy votes in an internal speaker’s race — not of the public but of fellow Republican legislators.
Punishment takes seconds if you are a black kid in the wrong place, possibly delivered by multiple cops in a hail of bullets. A week if a camera catches you speeding. Years if you’re the rare person caught screwing rich shareholders. Decades for crimes to catch up with them for money-launderers, billionaire extortionist/traffickers, gymnastics coaches. It will take forever if you’re a Supreme Court Justice on the take from billionaires.
Where are the traffic cameras for financial crimes? Where’s Elliott Ness? Can we get somebody to call in the Guard to protect the libraries from the Governor fascists? Is there a plan to tackle the stripping of democracy from blue cities by the red state legislators? An injustice that has no name, since the courts are now owned by the anti-democracy faction.
The corruption is part of what empowers them however.
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TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)Due process is legitimate. What really is due? And what is avoidable? If you can delay repeatedly on frivolous grounds and buy yourself not 20 minutes or a day but eight months because it takes that long to get back on a court calendar (“b” and “c”)? When investigators and prosecutors have too many cases assigned? Is it due, if a lot of cases are never seriously pursued because power structures would be too disrupted (“d”)?
There’s a lot more than due process delaying Justice.
I am not talking about J6 or not only about J6. I’m talking about American governance and Justice dying on the vine because 1) we aren’t dealing effectively or efficiently with the corruption and crime cases we know about, 2) we aren’t creating sensor systems to identify and flag suspicious white collar or political corruption cases, and 3) we haven’t passed laws to make some of the activities most dangerous to US democracy illegal.
Over decades, I’ve seen corporations up close with whole divisions full of educated people armed with plenty of resources figuring out how to make more money for the owners as the core organizing principle. When there is money to be made, resources are always available. Justice is valuable, too.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)This is the first lucid look into the justice ecosystem as a whole that I have seen in a long time. While many, myself included, have concentrated on faulting or praising separate elements of this ecosystem, the big picture involves seeing the forest from the trees: how these elements interact with each other. No changes in the justice system can be expected by examining or reforming just one part of it. The interaction of the elements within the entirety of the system needs to be addressed.
And, frankly, I don't even know where to begin with this process.
Mike Niendorff
(3,650 posts)"Where are the traffic cameras for financial crimes? Where’s Elliott Ness? Can we get somebody to call in the Guard to protect the libraries from the Governor fascists? "
This is an exceptional post.
Highly K&R'd.
MDN
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)
praxEs
(84 posts)will understand how rapidly, deeply, and broadly they ARE working to build the case from the ground up. Over 1000 cases against J6 marauders have been prosecuted so far and a decent number have been turned.
The second case against top militia leaders has gone to a jury. The echelon just below trump, including Pence and McCarthy, have just now testified before a grand jury. Any of them could have been awarded immunity and compelled to testify against Trump.
Come on, man.
we can do it
(13,024 posts)
Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)EmptyWheel do not read EmptyWheel very carefully.
It sometimes summarizes some activity (leaving much out, by the way), but it is hardly a blockbuster source of stories about this imaginary "rapid, deep and broad" work of the DOE people tout it to be.
I'll link to a summary of the last article that was being posted here as blockbuster news. Was there something in that article that you had not known of before and that showed you "rapid, deep and broad" work by the DOE?
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=17873451
And PS, that militia just below the top guys? Their trials did nothing to directly implicate Trump. There was no reason to wait till those trials were over before going after Trump.
boston bean
(36,931 posts)I don’t pay attention to anything she says.
msfiddlestix
(8,178 posts)Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)There's never any new factual information, and her speculation is not particularly compelling.
jaxexpat
(7,794 posts)The DOJ is conducting a perpetual tease of an actual judicial result, providing an illusion of progress just credible enough to prevent the lethally naive waking from their sleepwalk of groundless condescension. Obviously, the DOJ is playing out the clock, waiting for a Republican electoral resurgence, a red wave, for an excuse to forget the whole thing.
That is all it's doing and nothing more because it literally can't apprehend the big fish and remain within its own arbitrary legal construct and the constitution is just a vague old document on parchment in a display case under glass. We have a justice system wherein if one has enough power over the right people, one can delay-thus-deny responsibility for ANYTHING until the laws are changed, even if only temporarily or for a singular instance, to meet one's need.
Yes, the DOJ is a blindfolded and compromised club for overpaid, pretentious, bootlickers playing around with fire like psychotic children. How could they be else when club standards of acceptance require proof of essential unsuitability for actual accomplishment.
BTW: There is no E. Ness because J.E. Hoover's legacy outlived his, establishing the template.
3Hotdogs
(15,369 posts)He was not a forensic accountant or Jack Anderson or Drew Pearson.
msfiddlestix
(8,178 posts)msfiddlestix
(8,178 posts)to anything of substance, or did he answer with "I don't know" or plead the 5th on the most pertinent questions?
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)
AllyCat
(18,846 posts)Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)law enforcement cannot be expected to handle the problem.
Once a crime is legalized, it is no longer a crime. An army of Elliot Nesses and Merrick Garlands will all be prevented from prosecuting what is no longer a crime. The size, the pace and the integrity of the justice system plays no role in it. The issue is the laws that made corruption legal.
It is the legislative branch of the government that passes laws. Only the Congress can change the situation, just as it was the Congress that created it in the first place. Voting is the only remedy we can expect to change things.
Response to Beastly Boy (Reply #20)
Scrivener7 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)What specifically can he do to pursue conduct that was not previously prohibited by law in Congress and not declared unconstitutional by federal courts or SCOTUS? Look for precedents in pre-Constitutional English Common Law?
Of course, Garland as a mythical superhero who can veto any legislation passed by Congress at his discretion, pass his own laws, publicly declare himself the sole arbiter of all matters concerning justice and remain unaccountable to anyone for his conduct, can do a lot. In this case, justice not moving at light speed would constitute indisputable proof that he is sitting on his hands and doing nothing.
Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)Whatever. Enough. I'm not getting into another bizarre and meaningless conversation with you.
Have a nice night.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)I am underwhelmed. Don't know how i will recover from this.
Ray Bruns
(6,362 posts)No it shouldn’t. But corruption can’t beat out the latest blood bath or the story about some kid’s bunny who looks like Tom Cruise.
It’s the corporate media feeding us bread and circuses
KPN
(17,377 posts)small time compared to big time MSM news sources for that matter.
“feeding us bread and circuses” — you are absolutely right. It’s disgusting.
Javaman
(65,714 posts)it's been a slow (sometimes rapid) race toward fascism as the right wing has been allowed to control the narrative.
KPN
(17,377 posts)who lack thoughtfulness and the ability to think for themselves.
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)Some of the best are starved or gone now. The journalistic resources available to do investigative work in the 70s, 80s and 90s aren’t there any more.
if no one was eating it they wouldn't be feeding it. So there's that.
Response to lostnfound (Original post)
KPN This message was self-deleted by its author.
KPN
(17,377 posts)While the radical right-wing evangelicals bellow about the Bible, they are at the same partaking in or condoning by ignoring the massive corruption that is destroying what used to be a civilized nation.
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)Corruption isn’t kind. It steals what legitimately belonging to someone else. Money or political voice.
But a general sense of social kindness or compassion has also diminished. Numbed by daily reports of mass shootings, blasted with anti-refugee language, accustomed to victim-blaming for the poor and victim-shaming for the abused…
KPN
(17,377 posts)and, therefore, "fair enough". Like if you are not doing it, you are the fool on the hill.
Johnny2X2X
(24,210 posts)Clarence Thomas takes bribes from litigants that appear before the SCOTUS. Trump is a walking felony. Herschel Walker should end up in prison. People forget about Matt Gaetz trafficking minors across state lines because there's so much else going on.
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)msfiddlestix
(8,178 posts)Here we are as many of us predicted..
facing the return of that clown show has been underway, and now going full steam ahead.
Some postings and video clips of media dealing with tfg's current campaign as though it was a legitimate, normal thing indicates to me this bizarre shit show we lived through when that psychopath was in office previously is about to bring us the 2nd Edition.
Duppers
(28,469 posts)Appreciate this post!
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)
Kaleva
(40,365 posts)lostnfound
(17,520 posts)Dystopian unjust future with waves of climate refugees denied refuge and left to drown in water or suffocate in extreme heat..
While roving armed gangs look to raid food stores..
I’m glad I’m old, I guess?
Kaleva
(40,365 posts)Regardless of what happens judicially or politically, the future is bleak
Enjoy today because tomorrow promises to be a wild ride
KPN
(17,377 posts)one's mind off the ubiquitous corruption; for example:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/04/bernie-sanders-elon-musk-and-white-house-seeking-my-help-says-godfather-of-ai
The man often touted as the godfather of artificial intelligence will be responding to requests for help from Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk and the White House, he says, just days after quitting Google to warn the world about the risk of digital intelligence.
Hinton has been fielding a new request to talk every two minutes since he spoke out on Monday about his fears that AI progress could lead to the end of civilisation within 20 years.
But when it comes to offering concrete advice, he is lost for words. “I’m not a policy guy,” he says. “I’m just someone who’s suddenly become aware that there’s a danger of something really bad happening. I wish I had a nice solution, like: ‘Just stop burning carbon, and you’ll be OK.’ But I can’t see a simple solution like that.”
Marius25
(3,213 posts)We get constant updates that Supreme Court justices engaged in bribery. That's a crime, but won't be investigated. Not a single Republican involved in January 6th has faced any consequences. Kevin McCarthy was actively conspiring with Tucker Carlson to get the Speakership, which won't be investigated.
There is no real justice in America. It's all just going to collapse soon and I don't know what we do with the broken pieces. Split into different countries most likely.
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)What’s it from, the ‘Marius’?
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)101 will help with your understanding of how it all works.
Orrex
(67,112 posts)Whenever a DUer expresses entirely reasonable frustration or anxiety that Trump might once again dodge accountability for his lifetime of ongoing criminal behavior, the cheerleaders leap in to scold, belittle, and deride the DUer.
Because the most important thing is to attack anyone who demonstrates insufficient faith in the almighty DoJ.
tritsofme
(19,900 posts)Orrex
(67,112 posts)
Skittles
(171,717 posts)we are, you know, WHINING
Orrex
(67,112 posts)Or so I'm told.
you get it
lostnfound
(17,520 posts)We each have our own observations.
JudyM
(29,785 posts)Here’s Sen. Whitehouse’s compelling opening statement for this week’s hearings, which also brings up Scalia. He’s on it, just a question of what can be done… this hearing is a first step, at least.