4/15/21: In Conservative Fantasyland, government regulations are always a curb on honest businessfolk trying to make capitalism function efficiently. And if we leave the business types alone?
We all gain!
This fantasy gets punctured daily, when we read about various forms of crookery by the Captains of Industry. The latest example comes from Denmark, where the CEO of Danske Bank has had to step down after being named in an investigation into money laundering at ABM Amro, the lender where he used to work.
Chris Vogelzang left Amro in 2017, and took over Danske in 2019, after they had been accused of laundering $239 billion through a branch operation in Estonia. As for Amro, they have agreed to pay a penalty of $574 million for their own money-laundering escapades.
Thinking
of George Floyd, on whose neck a police officer felt compelled to kneel because
he passed a counterfeit $20, you wonder how these bankers don’t end up
behind bars, or face down in the street with cops on their backs. (See also:
4/7/21.)
*
A felon cheating on his taxes?
ALSO, we have another Roger Stone sighting. The Department of Justice has filed civil suit against him and his wife, Nydia, accusing them of failure to pay almost $2 million in income taxes.
As Axios explains, Mr. and Mrs. Stone used Drake Ventures, a commercial entity, to “shield personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties.” In addition, “They used Drake Ventures to receive payments that are payable to Roger Stone personally, pay their personal expenses, shield their assets, and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS,” DOJ officials allege.
Again, a liberal blogger is quick to say, “Innocent until
proven a tax chiseler,” but is there any wonder that Stone and Rejected-President
Trump liked to pal around? Since these charges are new, Mr. Stone’s pardon for other
felonies, granted last Christmas Eve, will not provide legal cover.
*
A HANDFUL of right-wing members of Congress are working to set up an “America First Caucus,” which will devote itself to protecting and fostering “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”
As an American with Irish ancestors, I wonder: Will someone come and take my land away and leave me and my family to starve on potatoes? That’s what the Anglo-Saxons did to my ancestors. Also worried: Italian Americans, Slavic Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese-Americans, African Americans, Cuban Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, etc.
Best of all, if you’re a humorist, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene will be involved. (So add Jewish Americans to the list of worried.)
Louis Gohmert is also going to join forces!
Reportedly, Rep. Paul Gosar is involved. You could call it the “Clown Car Caucus” just as easily. As NBC explains:
A seven-page organizing document that includes the group's
name and a logo, first reported by Punchbowl News, says: “America is a nation with a border,
and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon
political traditions.”
It adds that “societal trust and political unity are
threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country,
particularly without institutional support for assimilation and an expansive
welfare state to bail them out should they fail to contribute positively to the
country.”
The document also backs infrastructure projects — a topic
currently being debated in Congress — as long as they befit “the progeny of
European architecture, whereby public infrastructure must be utilitarian as
well as stunningly, classically beautiful, befitting a world power and source
of freedom.”
Not everyone was happy that news of this caucus aborning leaked. Nick Dyer, Rep. Greene’s spokesman, confirmed that a platform was being written but complained about “dirty backstabbing swamp creatures” who leaked the document. Dyer would not confirm or deny its authenticity.
BLOGGER’S NOTE: This sounds a lot like the platform of the Ku
Klux Klan in the 1920s, when the Klan decided immigrants, African Americans,
Jews, and Catholics were threats to the purity of the…Anglo-Saxon race…and the
Anglo-Saxon way.
In fact, this blogger is not the only one who thinks this
caucus might end up as a blot on our nation’s history.
Even Republicans are alarmed. “America is built on the idea
that we are all created equal and success is earned through honest, hard work,”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded late Friday. “It isn’t built on
identity, race, or religion. The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln &
the party of more opportunity for all Americans – not nativist dog whistles.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republicans
who still has a soul, and tries not to forget it, tweets: “Racism, nativism,
and anti-Semitism are evil. History teaches we all have an obligation to
confront & reject such malicious hate.”
Rep.
Tony Gonzales, a member of the party, but with Hispanic genes, tweets a “what
the f---” meme.
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