Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
According to Huffington Post, the following 2010 interview that Michael D. Higgins, the current president of Ireland, did with Boston conservative radio talk show host Michael Graham went viral recently.
SOURCE
Michael D. Higgins, Ireland President, Takes Down Tea Party Pundit Michael Graham (AUDIO ) [Huffington Post]
About help, well, that’s a big topic, but Idealist said:
“Help” is unfortunately in our society tainted with tinges of “I am inadequate and must be helped.”
Wow. Being inadequate is not the biggest problem. I’d have gladly admitted to being inadequate 25, 30 years ago if that would have gotten me some help. (Only men would probably put that really high on the list of reasons not to seek or accept help, I think, anyway.) The problem is that it is easier for people to DO harm than to UNDO it. They protect wrongdoers more easily than victims. After all, after the first round of wrongdoing, the wrongDOER is stronger than the wronged. So right there, if you want to WIN, you line up with the stronger party, and you climb on the wagon to bash the victim. Oldest (and probably most successful) game in the world.
Who looks for a way to align themselves with the weakest among us?
Well, I have to admit, I don’t know who…never found them, all these years searching.
Shano, thanks, but someone wrote the book already. Indiana University Press published it. It got great reviews and then nothing happened.
You cannot change the world with a book, unfortunately, because most people don’t give a damn about anything that can’t shoot them or make money for them. You’re the exception and if there were a few million more like you I’d write a book.
The title would be, “Putting her Down.”
Shano,
Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls
By Matt Taibbi
August 15, 2012
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/ag-eric-holder-has-no-balls-20120815
Excerpt:
I’ve been on deadline in the past week or so, so I haven’t had a chance to weigh in on Eric Holder’s predictable decision to not pursue criminal charges against Goldman, Sachs for any of the activities in the report prepared by Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn two years ago.
Last year I spent a lot of time and energy jabbering and gesticulating in public about what seemed to me the most obviously prosecutable offenses detailed in the report – the seemingly blatant perjury before congress of Lloyd Blankfein and other Goldman executives, and the almost comically long list of frauds committed by the company in its desperate effort to unload its crappy “cats and dogs” mortgage-backed inventory.
In the notorious Hudson transaction, for instance, Goldman claimed, in writing, that it was fully “aligned” with the interests of its client, Morgan Stanley, because it owned a $6 million slice of the deal. What Goldman left out is that it had a $2 billion short position against the same deal.
If that isn’t fraud, Mr. Holder, just what exactly is fraud?
Still, it wasn’t surprising that Holder didn’t pursue criminal charges against Goldman. And that’s not just because Holder has repeatedly proven himself to be a spineless bureaucrat and obsequious political creature masquerading as a cop, and not just because rumors continue to circulate that the Obama administration – supposedly in the interests of staving off market panic – made a conscious decision sometime in early 2009 to give all of Wall Street a pass on pre-crisis offenses.
No, the real reason this wasn’t surprising is that Holder’s decision followed a general pattern that has been coming into focus for years in American law enforcement. Our prosecutors and regulators have basically admitted now that they only go after the most obvious and easily prosecutable cases.
If the offense committed doesn’t fit the exact description in the relevant section of the criminal code, they pass. The only white-collar cases they will bring are absolute slam-dunk situations where some arrogant rogue commits a blatant crime for individual profit in a manner thoroughly familiar to even the non-expert portion of the jury pool/citizenry.
In other words, they’ll take on somebody like Raj Rajaratnam, who stacked his illegal insider trades so brazenly and carelessly that his case almost reads like a finance version of Jeff Dahmer tripping over bodies in his Milwaukee apartment. Or they’ll pursue Bernie Madoff on the tenth or eleventh time he crosses their desk, after years of nonaction, and after he breaks down weeping and confessing. Basically, if someone backs a dump truck up to the DOJ and unloads the entire case, gift-wrapped, a contrite and confessing criminal included, a guy like Eric Holder might, after much agonizing deliberation, decide to prosecute.
bettykath, yep, we should have followed Iceland. when people say how ‘liberal’ Obama is all I have to do is think that if he really was ‘liberal’ he would have hired Bill Black to jail all the fraudulent banksters. Instead we got warmed over Rubinites.
ID, Greed knows no sex, nationality, or class. There’s a reason it’s one of the seven deadly sins. No one is immune.
I like Iceland’s response to the banksters. The government too over the banks. and put many of the banksters in jail. All due to the expressed ire of the people.
Nick,
Greedy. Yes, our banks and pension insurance companies went to NYC to buy large sums of CDS. There ae suckers among the professional money managers too.
So much that they later had to, in the case of pension companies, rapidly reduce the payout to retirees.
Something never done in modern times.
shano, No one put a gun to the banker’s heads overseas. They, like our banks, just got greedy. Not all countries fell into the trap. Canada, for instance was prudent and did fine through the banking crisis. Greed is not indigenous to the US. Although we have many all-stars in the sport of greed.
Wisely Skeptical said:
“I hate to point out to that idealist 707 who thinks outside her fighting zone. Why isn’t ” I’m jealous of hearing about other cultural experiences , ergo, I’m proud to be punishing friend ” her mantra ?
. Informed consent a phrase comes to the mind of more thoughtful jurists. If a Christmas/Hannukah “project ” is coming from the overly – humble monied classes then why do you think it would be received without a soupcon of similar scorn and anger ? Projecting Humiliation So We Don’t Have to be Humiliated Club should be the name of your very inane bonding group.”
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You seem to be stuck in the days of Lady Bountiful.
Any proferred help must bu done with consideration of the receiver. “Help” is unfortunately in our society tainted with tinges of “I am inadequate and must be helped.” Taking it as a gift of love, is not easy for any of us in this sick society. Here was a resource. I thought to use it.
As for bonding, that is neither proposed nor relevant to the need addressed by my suggestion.
Here were exceptional resources. I, as a non lawyer not knowing how the legal game goes, tried to elicit support.
Not one large, but with the Professor’s name behind us, it could lead to legal changes.
Malisha’s answer was sufficient. I won’t characterize yours. And won’t even disparage your own words. They apeak for themselves.
Odd, after your first comment I was inclined to compliment you. After your second, I realize again that hasty judgement is always bad judgement.
Keep on and have a nice day too.
I hate to point out to that idealist 707 who thinks outside her fighting zone. Why isn’t ” I’m jealous of hearing about other cultural experiences , ergo, I’m proud to be punishing friend ” her mantra ?
. Informed consent a phrase comes to the mind of more thoughtful jurists. If a Christmas/Hannukah “project ” is coming from the overly – humble monied classes then why do you think it would be received without a soupcon of similar scorn and anger ? Projecting Humiliation So We Don’t Have to be Humiliated Club should be the name of your very inane bonding group
All that and with hat in hand… A lawyer would be welcomed to sort out these cases . However, I thought libertarians knew that dating is for individuals to weed out dating partners who would be incompatible with . A good sexual encounter does not necessarily make a good marriage if there’s no friendship behind it .
Group encounters should be not made of those who want to deify an unwanted relationship or to mythologize obsessive relationships . Children and adolescents can grow up happily in spite of their dysfunctional .DNA background . That some men can disrupt and protest the natural ending of dating relationships with powerful psychological grabs is as true for Pennsylvania or for any other state or country ,
Old time Christians Muslims and Jews and every religious group should learn that penance is temporary. In a hypothetical case book to solve spiritual debts , I remember a case of relatives who were traumatized by a friend’s cruel slip of the tongue . The relatives were apologized to and they made their not intrusive individual spiritual penance as they were comfortable with .
ws, Only a one point deduction.
Please note : Michael D. Higgins is the President of Ireland not the Prime Minister of Ireland which fact I misread from the article .
What a refreshing Irish voice of reason PM Michael Higgins has! He sounds like he learned from observation and study the best lessons from the USA culture and a moderately liberal education from both USA and the country of Ireland in the 1960’s .
before the ecumenical revolution that Pope John XX111 and Pope John Paul 11 brought to the world more clerics thought that people other faiths went to straight to eternal damnation . There are still variations of “poor heathens, too bad they’ll never know God’s eternal love ” which is insulting nonsense .
Well educated individuals should have overcome their adolescent disdain at the less wealthy . Their oddly uncharitable sneering (give to the widow and the injured and , as I read it , ” stupidly poor ” ) make their bank accounts less off shore as much they are off -putting.
I hope PM Higgins has a listener in PM Cameron, who apparently doesn’t understand that draconian disdain can bring some groups’ moral compass to an amoral direction . Two or three jobs without a livable wage was and is still a problem for people who had already overcome addictions (drugs, alcohol and/or gambling ) because It takes years to build good credit . These stupidly poor can’t go to a well paying job because they can’t afford automobile payments . Good quality schools are closed to them and their children because they live in an area that doesn’t pay teachers good salaries . They can’t buy a house for a reasonable mortgage in a good school area because they can’t get enough credit for a loan for a car so they can work for a livable wage .
Imagine how the extremely cruel poverty of the plantation South must seemed to the very disdainful thoughtless slave overseers . These cruel managers believed their insensitive talent for tramping on human rights was the right penance since God planned it that way . These men and women of monied theocracies could acknowledge that the elites swill is to be judged just the same as the poor swill’s, but I doubt they’re capable of such empathy Emotional poverty is the real villain for this class divide which is becoming forced and extreme .
Ireland is another nation our bankers managed to destroy. The export of our banking ‘innovations’ has caused misery all over the world.
Malisha, you should write a book of true stories of these awful cases. It is fascinating reading, even if it makes me want to bash my head against the wall at the injustices.
Maybe if you put them all in a book, people would start to demand change in family courts……it would shine a bright light on the abuse.
And yes, Obama should start drinking Guinness Stout. Everyday.
This gent seems like a sharp, witty, guy I would like to share a Bushmill or 2 w/ in a pub. However, his country is falling apart financially. Most of the banks in Ireland, except for the Bank of Ireland, have been taken over by the govt. I realize this was taped prior to Higgins becoming prez. If he is a good prez he should be focusing on his own country and their dire financial crisis.
Idealist, in Pennsylvania divorce and financial stuff from divorce is separate from custody. The guy waited until she accepted a negotiated settlement (she counted on child support and wanted to avoid litigating everything and just wanted a new life and didn’t oppose visitation) and then he came back and sued for custody as soon as the other stuff was over. So she had no way to start up a new fight. She does not WANT to go to court again so there will be no rematch. Even if there were a rematch she would lose again because the father has the son brain-washed against her and the two daughters are scared of him; he can be violent. This one can’t be changed (and neither can most of them) but I just offer it as an example of what goes on. I tell women never to have children, period. Even a child without a father can be taken away by the state, and handed over to a pedophile (remember Matt Sandusky case? No father — the state took him from his mother and gave him to Sandusky) or worse and totally messed up. Women need to stop providing cannon fodder and abuse fodder and etc. etc. etc.
Don’t get me started; I can rant until the cows come home and they are homeless cows to start with!
That is why I drink Guinness …
Malisha,
Assuming we at JT can take her on as a Christmas/Hanukkah project, what are the chances for a lawyer, that we pay for. to make a change in the situation:
Child custody? He pays child support and alimony to her per his income at the time of the filing for divorce, etc.
Any take on that?
Just on principles, I also suggest folks at JTs consider establishing in the honor of justice and our host such a fund with a stated general goal. Details later.
@Ben
I know you don’t see how a person could say those two things and mean it, so I will explain it to you 🙂 If corporations weren’t regulated so heavily and given a safety net, their bad practices would cause their business to crumble. So fear of losing everything would be all the regulation they need. It just makes people stupider when the government regulators do the thinking for the people. People should choose wisely which bank they put their money in. If a bank doesn’t keep open books and have a comfortable amount of capital in reserve, then why are you putting your money in their bank? Well, right now it’s because you think the SEC is watching your back. I think you’d wise up a little if you knew that they weren’t being watched so “carefully.”
Heavy regulation eventually becomes government ownership of an industry.
We do need some regulations, anti-monopoly laws, fraud laws. In other countries they hang people for what some of the US bankers did to us. I think if they had real consequences they would start behaving better. In America we give them bonuses and chalets in Vail.
As for us working more for less, that is because of the devaluation of the currency and constant crippling inflation. The devaluation of the currency is the bank’s fault, as well as the fault of the FED. The banks keeps screwing up and the FED keeps bailing out their buddies and printing money, and buying bonds when the government straight up can’t pay it’s bills. The FED facilitates all the bad practices including high levels of government spending by just printing more whenever needed. Every time they print (QE3 is on it’s way, my friend) the people lose and the banks win. More free, or nearly free, money for them to loan out at interest.