It's hard to understand why Mr. Scheer still refuses to see the big picture. The
banksters/corporate fascists control our government, NATO countries, and most others. Obama is their most evolved vector, as Bush, Clinton were before him. Tragically, just within the last few years, humanity and the planet are now threatened with capitalists parasites that have mutated into becoming not just local debilitating infections, but pandemic lethal (to all life, the entire biosphere) ideological parasitoid organisms now in control of the most powerful governing bodies on the planet, possessing the most effectively lethal weapons and using them without any hindrance whatsoever.

By the time Scheer and the rest of these "outraged", intellectually impotent liberals realize the imminent destruction of all life is at hand, they will have served their purpose as crucial distractions to the ongoing, suicidal ideological parasitoid infection, that is currently called "corporate fascism". Even this term is forbidden them by their timid, dilettante minds.

Matt Taiibi's article in this week's Rolling Stone makes clear that our government is being run by criminals. If you haven't read it you should. It's clear that decent people in this country have got to figure out some way to take our nation's government back from the criminals who dominate it today.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817

Some crooks are more equal than other crooks? That's right isn't it?

Mr Scheer has written a good column about the criminality and sovereign impunity of the banks. He is writing as a mainstream journalist and he is about as good as that gets. I get a little tired of all the those commenting on CD who need to show that they are so much more aware than the writers. What are they doing about any of it? Scheer has consistently called out the banks and the Obama administration. A little solidarity would go a long way to solving this crisis. Unfortunately as I've always said the ruling class has all the solidarity.

Constantly writing about an all powerful empire is doing the job of empire. They want everyone to feel powerless and as if nothing can be done. It works to suppress resistance. Try something more constructive and truly radical.

Everyone show have understood who US Gov works for when they bailed out the criminals with $ 16 trillion of tax payer money.

Mr. O and all the politicians weren't mentioning free markets, austerity, equal protection under the law, or balanced approach, when they were passing trillions in entitlements and welfare for Wall Street and the Bankster crinimals.

"Wall Street is our Main Street"

a quote from

Kathryn S. Wylde, a member of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

When the president has economic advisors thrust upon him the likes of Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers and Alan Greenspan, three of the blackest criminals on earth themselves, could one even imagine an honest investigation in the banking system corrupted by these self same creatures?

Nowhere do Citizen Kane's words "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" apply as they do to the Stock Market Casinos and their oligarch owners.

Direct democracy

This "settlement" is with the holders of bad securities of the fraudulent foreclosures, who just happen to have execellent legal representation. There is nothing in this to give legal representation to the foreclosed homeowners who are the victims of the fraud. The Obama "Justice" Department has told the poor victims to screw themselves.

the old "get out of jail free" card.

don't expect to ever see a "bank error in your favor".

If history survives this era of greed, malfeasance, and an utter lack of concern for sustainable environmental practices, it will be known as that season of corruption that makes the Carpetbagger era look tame and quaint in comparison.

There ought to be NO question that those in our government, those wearing thousand dollar suits ARE the criminal class; and that they will punish any who seek to not only stand in their way, but expose the injustices that they (and their minions) have carried out.

Clinton is part of it, as is Obama; and that's why those who STILL argue for Democrats need to get off the meds and look honestly at what's happened to this nation. For big money, the same apparatus necessary for buying favor with one party, can be extended to "the other." With both in the same pocket, policies reflect what satisfies big money. And nothing else.

It's the "karma of disregard," with what's happened in Haiti the "poster child" for how these elites operate. They collect the money, but then don't use it for what's needed by everyday people.

It's beyond disgusting.

The HUD website boasts in its bio of Donovan that “under Secretary Donovan’s leadership, HUD has helped stabilize the housing market and worked to keep responsible families in their homes.” If that is so, we have to assume that the tens of millions savaged by an out-of-control banking industry were not “responsible.”

I realize that the last sentence above was meant in a different context, but it is also true that there were tens of millions savaged by an out of control banking industry and that those people were not responsible for the fate that befell them.

Therefore isn't it time that the Federal government went after the banking system for savaging these people instead of trying to get them immunity from prosecution? The very fact that the government is trying to get them immunity suggests that they are in fact guilty and should be prosecuted.

"Yet the administration has rushed to the aid of the banks once again and is attempting to intimidate the few state attorneys general who have the gumption to protect the public interest they are sworn to serve."

How can one resolve not to negotiate with terrorists when terrorists occupy the highest seats at our negotiations?

We can't wait for 2012. Socialism in 2011.

The closing quote from Kathryn Wylde of the Federal Reserve says it all: "It is of concern to the industry that instead of trying to facilitate resolving these [toxic AAA-rated securities] issues, you [New York attorney general] seem to be throwing a monkey wrench into it. Wall Street is our Main Street - love 'em or hate 'em. They are important and we have to make sure we are doing everything we can to support them unless they are doing something indefensible."

Obviously, Kathyrn Wylde of the Reserve Bank of New York "who represents the public" has a very bizarre concept of who "we.... the public" are. Wall Street is not Main Street. Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, and too-big-to-fail entities like Citibank are in the "industry" of simply shuffling rich folks investment assets back and forth, like the house staff of your nearest local gambling casino. This so-called "financial industry" produces no tangible product or service whatsoever that satisfies the human needs of real world ordinary, middle class or working class Main Street Americans.

Actually, these high rolling Masters of the Universe are important only to each other, and important to the rest of us only because of the immense economic and social damage they can do if allowed to run amok. Neither the public generally, nor the federal government, is obligated to do "everything we can to support them."

The great market crash and banking credit meltdown of 2008 was caused by the bundling up of exotic, toxic mortgaged backed securities branded AAA. It was fraud embraced as a supposedly sophisticated business model - nothing but snake oil bottled up, brand named as certified liquid gold, then marketed globally and prominently, proudly labeled Made in USA.

The whole point is, the scam was indefensible.

Bill from Saginaw

I always enjoy sheer's Clinton connection^ in each of his essays. This time he's right!
Showing results for robert scheer blame Clinton- Google Search
http://www.google.com/search?q=robert+sheer+blame+Clinton&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

In Bill's own words:
Clinton: I Was Wrong to Listen to Wrong Advice Against Regulating Derivatives* - Political Punch

“On derivatives, yeah I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take [their advice] because the argument on derivatives was that these things are expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of investors will buy them and they don’t need any extra protection, and any extra transparency. The money they’re putting up guarantees them transparency,” Clinton told me.

“And the flaw in that argument,” Clinton added, “was that first of all sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency.”

The former President also said he was also wrong about understanding the consequences if the derivatives market tanked.  “The most important flaw was even if less than 1 percent of the total investment community is involved in derivative exchanges, so much money was involved that if they went bad, they could affect a 100 percent of the investments, and indeed a 100 percent of the citizens in countries, not investors, and I was wrong about that.”

President Clinton "still wishes, as he has said several times, that he had pursued legislation to provide additional regulatory authority in this area, even though the Republican majority in Congress would have blocked such an effort*

The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLB), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, (Pub.L. 106-102, 113 Stat. 1338, enacted November 12, 1999) is an act of the 106th United States Congress (1999–2001). It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and it repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Act#Legislative_history
*Sen. Phil Gramm (R, Texas), Rep. Jim Leach (R, Iowa), and Rep.Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R, Virginia), the co-sponsors of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.
. 
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/04/clinton-rubin-and-summers-gave-me-wrong-advice-on-derivatives-and-i-was-wrong-to-take-it.html

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Barry received nearly $25 million from the financial and banking industries and another $11.5 million from business services, according to opensecrets.org. So it should be of little surprise to anyone that Barry's administration is trying to coax state attorneys general, who have the temerity to go after the Wall Street criminal enterprise, to sweep the dirt under the rug.

The Amerikan government is corrupted from the top down. Scheer's article is another example of the criminal nature of the those, who occupy the highest elected offices in Amerika. We the People have waited too long to remedy the failed democracy experiment formerly known as The United States of America.

Hmmm

Just to restate the obvious here. Amnesty is being sought by the by the Banks for one reason and one reason only-they are guilty of a multitude of crimes and know full well that they would lose in court. If the banks were in fact not guilty they would not need blanket immunity now would they. And by the way blanket immunity here would be just one more example of the government protecting the profits of a few rich bankers (who do you think owns most of the shares in the major banks effected in question here) while literally screwing millions of American home owners. The granting of amnesty is in itself a criminal act.

It reminds me of the blanket immunity the Bush administration/Congress granted the Israeli company in charge of security at all 3 airports involved in 9-11. This was done immediately after 9-11. The result was that NO investigation of that Israeli security company was ever conducted. Blanket immunity to the banks will effectively prevent the public or the injured parties from ever finding out the depth of the crimes committed by the Banks. It is all about money people; The banks stole it, they got caught and now they don't want to give it back.

Whats that old saw about the American Judical system. The more money you have the more equal the justice........

The wide-eyed “who’d’a thunk it” approach to life in capitalist societies that I see from ‘liberal’ journalists, especially USans, always amuses me — especially when those journalists look like the proverbial wise grandfather, who, one would think, should know better.

It’s a simple syllogism, Mr Scheer:
• The US is a society where individuals called capitalists (or limited groups of individuals called shareholders) own the productive resources of that society, including its monetary and banking systems;
• These capitalists and shareholders have created an apparatus called a State (with laws, police, courts, armies and institutions of propaganda such as schools and media), and the purpose of the State that they have created is to protect their ownership;
• This State does not promote to office (e.g., as president) anyone who drastically threatens that ownership.

Ergo, while Mr Obama could tinker about the edges, sacrificing a few crumbs here and there to make sure that the ‘citizens’ don’t get too greedy and take the whole cake, he cannot do anything that will be seen by his employers (the aforementioned capitalists and shareholders) as “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” In other words, he cannot be expected to act in any fashion other than as he is doing.

Shaun Donovan and Kathryn Wylde are a different type of fish — no better, just different. These meretricious glove-puppets know their employers’ interests so well and serve them so faithfully that they can be trusted to glide eel-like between their employers’ world and that of the State that protects it — and be rewarded by both.

And “[s]hifting the blame from the swindlers to the victims” is easy in the US, where the wealthy ‘deserve’ their wealth because they have obeyed their invisible friend who exhorts them to work hard and save, while the poor are poor because they are indolent spendthrifts.