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(Mother Jones) Obvious How the one percenters have the legal system wrapped around their well manicured fingers   (motherjones.com) divider line 98
More: Obvious, legal system, rich get richer, economic security, Occupy Wall Street, inequality, wealth inequality, party favors  
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3071 clicks; posted to Politics » on 25 Oct 2011 at 6:46 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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2011-10-25 03:19:52 PM
Is the answer money? really, I haven't looked yet! Am I right????
 
2011-10-25 03:25:13 PM
www.glogster.com
 
2011-10-25 03:34:07 PM
Straight cash, homey.
 
2011-10-25 03:42:14 PM
It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.
 
2011-10-25 03:46:45 PM
images2.wikia.nocookie.net
Like this guy.
 
2011-10-25 04:22:48 PM
Giant financial institutions were caught red-handed engaging in massive, systematic fraud to foreclose on people's homes and the reaction of the political class, led by the Obama administration, was to shield them from meaningful consequences. Rather than submit on an equal basis to the rules, through an oligarchical, democracy-subverting control of the political process, they now control the process of writing those rules and how they are applied.

Remember when they talked about nationalizing some of the banks? Boy, that sure upset some people.

Link (new window)
 
2011-10-25 05:01:24 PM
I cannot refute anything in that article.

It sums up the present situation very concisely.

/pitchfork and torches time
 
2011-10-25 06:54:29 PM
Occupy everywhere.
 
2011-10-25 06:56:24 PM
One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!
 
2011-10-25 06:56:29 PM
It's almost as if the majority of politicians were Lawyers or something.

/including the POTUS
 
2011-10-25 06:57:03 PM
They use lobbyists to write the laws.
 
2011-10-25 07:11:10 PM
Occupy K Street
 
2011-10-25 07:16:17 PM
Is it because it costs nearly $500 to file a response to a simple notice in superior court?

[checks article]

Hm, not really. But that should really be the reason.
 
2011-10-25 07:17:21 PM
Hagbardr: Occupy K Street

Britney Spear's Speculum: They use lobbyists to write the laws.

These.
 
2011-10-25 07:20:09 PM
Making the bribery of a lgislator a crme with mandatory jail time would solve the problem. Oh and repeal of a the legislation making bribery in all it's "legal" forms unlawful.

But this will never happen until the pitchfork phase is complete
 
2011-10-25 07:22:29 PM
Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!


images.starcraftmazter.net
 
2011-10-25 07:25:42 PM
ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

My father, when being sued by a stupid beyotch lawyer (representing herself) looking for a quick payout, had this to say to her.

"I will give every dime I have to my lawyer before I give even one to you."

Case went to trial because she kept thinking my folks would fold. Jury deliberated 10 minutes and came back asking if my parents could be awarded damages. His shark charged him $500 and said he'd recover the rest from her.

/ "I want this in front of a jury of north Idaho rednecks."
// Miss that man.
 
2011-10-25 07:27:10 PM
Remove limits on political contributions so that not only the wealthy can run for office.

Make documentation of political contributions and contributors mandatory.
 
2011-10-25 07:33:02 PM
I'm thinking these liars LIARS who say they are ready to pay more taxes should be lined up against a wall and you know, that thing where they don't get to farking create hate with their words anymore. You farking say that shiat, knowing full well you will pay an accountant and a lawyer even more money to come up with even more creative ways to not pay taxes, and you wonder why we want a piece of you. You are trying to giving political cover to force the government to take more of my sub 100K earnings and for that you are my sworn enemy.

You farking LIAR to effect political pressure on me. That's what Obama and this bunch of fark heads do, they lie perfectly. They have no farking morals. They lie effortlessly, remorsely. They are the farking devil, politically. I'm just saying. Kanye West aint paying more taxes even when he says he wants to pay more tax. He's farking lying.
 
2011-10-25 07:38:12 PM
Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!


Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.
 
2011-10-25 07:38:58 PM
What do I care about law? Ain't I got the power? -Cornelius Vanderbilt

You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you. -Cornelius Vanderbilt



Any questions?
 
2011-10-25 07:40:23 PM
Therefore this becomes a purely political battle where one side lies to try and steal from the other. Russell Brand has a bunch of money. He has no business playing poor commie. None. He's pushing a group to go after another group, which he belongs to but which he would like to not be associated with. He's a duplicitous traitor to that which beget him. Unless he goes semetic and gives all his money away for a life of poverty, he is 100% full of shiat. Lying to try and take from others aint cool.

I think we all know where this is headed if the lying stealers actually get traction. Don't farking tell me the rich liberals who say tax them more aren't doing it simply to be on the right side politically. they don't farking believe what they say. they can't. it would be retarded. So since we know they aren't retarded then it must be political hardball, a well thought out Cloward Piven strategy at work. Damn the lying tax me more wealthy.
 
2011-10-25 07:43:38 PM
timujin: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.


There are jobs, There is mobility and there are jobs. I've seen help wanted for good paying oil field jobs driving through Loving New Mexico. Halliburton is hiring there. In Houston the oil companies will pay a $2,500 bonus for people who sign up to become trained CNC operators. These dirty little commies don't want to work. they want to be paid to be political firebrands. This country is so laid back but for how long?
 
2011-10-25 07:55:05 PM
So the "and justice for all" I was taught to recite as a kid was a lie?
 
2011-10-25 08:00:14 PM
Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: timujin: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.

There are jobs, There is mobility and there are jobs.These dirty little commies don't want to work. they want to be paid to be political firebrands. This country is so laid back but for how long?


Yes, that's the truth of it. The majority of the 14,000,000 or so unemployed Americans are lazy communist hippies just waiting for their chance to be paid "political firebrands."


I've seen help wanted for good paying oil field jobs driving through Loving New Mexico. Halliburton is hiring there. In Houston the oil companies will pay a $2,500 bonus for people who sign up to become trained CNC operators.


Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, citation please.
 
2011-10-25 08:02:45 PM
HellRaisingHoosier: It's almost as if the majority of politicians were Lawyers or something.

/including the POTUS


Isn't the law one of the few professions a politician can pursue without it constituting a conflict of interest as a lawmaker?
 
2011-10-25 08:03:46 PM
Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: timujin: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.

There are jobs, There is mobility and there are jobs. I've seen help wanted for good paying oil field jobs driving through Loving New Mexico. Halliburton is hiring there. In Houston the oil companies will pay a $2,500 bonus for people who sign up to become trained CNC operators. These dirty little commies don't want to work. they want to be paid to be political firebrands. This country is so laid back but for how long?


That's great if you're young, able-bodied and male. If you're anyone else, good luck with those jobs.
 
2011-10-25 08:05:17 PM
ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.
 
2011-10-25 08:16:41 PM
goatleggedfellow: Any questions?

I know I could Google it, but... are those real?
 
2011-10-25 08:19:35 PM
relcec: ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.


The high cost of legal services disproportionately hurts the poor.
 
2011-10-25 08:23:22 PM
bugontherug: relcec: ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.

The high cost of legal services disproportionately hurts the poor.



There's always the public defender. I mean, he probably carpools with the prosecutor but what can you do?
 
2011-10-25 08:26:51 PM
sheilanagig: Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: timujin: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.

There are jobs, There is mobility and there are jobs. I've seen help wanted for good paying oil field jobs driving through Loving New Mexico. Halliburton is hiring there. In Houston the oil companies will pay a $2,500 bonus for people who sign up to become trained CNC operators. These dirty little commies don't want to work. they want to be paid to be political firebrands. This country is so laid back but for how long?

That's great if you're young, able-bodied and male. If you're anyone else, good luck with those jobs.


Wherever there's young able bodied men with money there's room for cottage industries to spring up. You're not implying that working areas are devoid of anything but work? Do you people ever just stop and think, you know maybe, just maybe, the sociology, political science, history, literature part of your core curriculum let you down? I do.

Work creates wealth and wealth creates the ability to spend, thereby allowing others to work and create wealth. What do you dirty dummies want, everyone to share? You're going to have to go the red checkered keffiyah route (khmer rouge) and haul everyone out to the countryside so you can sort the workers out from the complainers and give the complainers a quick bullet to the brain. Because that's the only way you'll ever see your socialist utopia realized.
 
2011-10-25 08:30:13 PM
morrach: bugontherug: relcec: ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.

The high cost of legal services disproportionately hurts the poor.


There's always the public defender. I mean, he probably carpools with the prosecutor but what can you do?


The public defender only helps in criminal cases, and then only if you meet strict indigence criteria. Own a car worth more than $1,000? In Missouri, you're ineligible for a PD, even if that's your only asset, and you have no income whatsoever.

For civil cases, there isn't even that. Landlord arbitrarily evicting you? Got sold a lemon from the used car lot? Being sued by a credit card company? If you're poor, you're on your own.
 
2011-10-25 08:31:05 PM
morrach: There's always the public defender. I mean, he probably carpools with the prosecutor but what can you do?

I was referring to civil law. Very easy for a rich person to use the courts to harass and bankrupt a poor person that rubs them the wrong way.
 
2011-10-25 08:31:36 PM
impaler: Giant financial institutions were caught red-handed engaging in massive, systematic fraud to foreclose on people's homes and the reaction of the political class, led by the Obama administration, was to shield them from meaningful consequences.

Check out the reaction from the banking regulator who was put in charge of cleaning up after our last banking crisis (the Savings and Loan mess of the late 80's) to the Obama administration immediately going to bat for the banks after they were caught red handed foreclosing on homes all over the nation using fraudulent mortgage documents:

Note that the Justice Department is not investigating foreclosure fraud. HUD Secretary Donovan's statement shows why:
"We will not tolerate business as usual in the mortgage market," he said. "Where there have been mistakes made or errors, we will hold those entities, those institutions, accountable to stop those processes, review them and fix them as quickly as possible."
Note the language: "mistakes", "errors", "processes" (following the initial use of "paperwork"). No mention of "fraud", "felony", "criminal investigations", or "prosecutions" for the tens of thousands of felonies that representatives of the entities foreclosing on homes have admitted that they committed.


When the wealthy commit these sorts of crimes our government immediately leaps to the defense... of the criminals.
 
2011-10-25 08:33:54 PM
I always feel the need to invoke the spirit of Commisar Danilov and through words his embodiment of the folly of communism,

"I've been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be a man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there's always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love."

Enemy at the Gate
 
2011-10-25 08:35:00 PM
And then he stands up and takes a Ed Harris well placed bullet to the brain. Which I must say, is the honorable way out for a miserable communist.
 
2011-10-25 08:38:59 PM
bugontherug: The public defender only helps in criminal cases, and then only if you meet strict indigence criteria. Own a car worth more than $1,000? In Missouri, you're ineligible for a PD, even if that's your only asset, and you have no income whatsoever.

Also, public defenders will only stay for the first appeal, after that, you're expected to pay for your own lawyer out of your generous license plate salary. Hell, in three states (wikipedia doesn't say which), you can't get a public defender for any appeal at all.

New evidence comes up years later - better hope the ACLU gets interested or Bob Dylan is willing to write a song about you - not that either one of those is certain either.
 
2011-10-25 08:51:46 PM
Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!


You seem to think that there are two groups of people, the 1% and jobless hippies, ignoring the problems that cause.
 
2011-10-25 09:01:08 PM
Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: sheilanagig: Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: timujin: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.

There are jobs, There is mobility and there are jobs. I've seen help wanted for good paying oil field jobs driving through Loving New Mexico. Halliburton is hiring there. In Houston the oil companies will pay a $2,500 bonus for people who sign up to become trained CNC operators. These dirty little commies don't want to work. they want to be paid to be political firebrands. This country is so laid back but for how long?

That's great if you're young, able-bodied and male. If you're anyone else, good luck with those jobs.

Wherever there's young able bodied men with money there's room for cottage industries to spring up. You're not implying that working areas are devoid of anything but work? Do you people ever just stop and think, you know maybe, just maybe, the sociology, political science, history, literature part of your core curriculum let you down? I do.

Work creates wealth and wealth creates the ability to spend, thereby allowing others to work and create wealth. What do you dirty dummies want, everyone to share? You're going to have to go the red checkered keffiyah route (khmer rouge) and haul everyone out to the countryside so you can sort the workers out from the complainers and give the complainers a quick bullet to the brain. Because that's the only way you'll ever see your socialist utopia realized.


... where to begin?

Who is saying anything about "sharing"? My original statement was in response to Agneska's command to "Get a job, hippies!", that more people would be working if there was work to be had. You say that "Wherever there's young able bodied men with money there's room for cottage industries to spring up." but that is irrelevant when only a small percentage of the unemployed are "young, able-bodied men." What do we do for the rest? Are those the complainers we should take out in the field and shoot?

Also, "work creates wealth"? You might want to take a look at current statistics that show that the people who do have jobs are working longer, producing more and yet making less. Work creates wealth, sure, but not for the people doing the work.
 
2011-10-25 09:01:58 PM
Mugato: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

You seem to think that there are two groups of people, the 1% and jobless hippies, ignoring the problems that cause.


No, the 99%'ers seem to have an issue with math. They seem to think that a lot of us are supporting them solely based on their statistical nickname.
 
2011-10-25 09:16:22 PM
sheilanagig: Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: timujin: Agneska: One percenters are so mean. Wahhhh!
Get a job, hippies!

Meh, I'll bite.

The "hippies" would get jobs if there were jobs to be had.

There are jobs, There is mobility and there are jobs. I've seen help wanted for good paying oil field jobs driving through Loving New Mexico. Halliburton is hiring there. In Houston the oil companies will pay a $2,500 bonus for people who sign up to become trained CNC operators. These dirty little commies don't want to work. they want to be paid to be political firebrands. This country is so laid back but for how long?

That's great if you're young, able-bodied and male. If you're anyone else, good luck with those jobs.


You forgot "single," "no responsibilities," "no debt," and "already have a class A license."

Ultimately it all boils down to, "let them eat cake." The peasants COULD move around more, chasing jobs like migrant field-hands with no opportunity for rising above "living in your car" poverty. They COULD have opportunity to advance if they went to community college, but that keeps you from running around the country chasing migrant temp jobs. Education itself is a gamble because if the local McDonald's that is hiring will turn away college grads as "overqualified." If you get a degree in programming but programming jobs dry up, too bad. Not to mention moving is farking expensive, even if you got nothing but the clothes on your back most places only rent with long-term leases and I believe it has been mentioned "The rent is too damn high." If you find a place while chasing a job it will be in a crime hole.
 
2011-10-25 09:17:47 PM
ProdigalSigh: goatleggedfellow: Any questions?

I know I could Google it, but... are those real?


http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/cornelius_vanderbilt.html
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt

Apparently disputable, now that I look at it.
 
2011-10-25 09:29:58 PM
WellBelowAverage: Remove limits on political contributions so that not only the wealthy can run for office.

Make documentation of political contributions and contributors mandatory.


You should check out Stephen Colbert's Super PAC. It's an awesome and educational send-up of the lack of transparency and money laundering involved in election financing.
 
2011-10-25 09:36:07 PM
Softens_hands_while_you_do_the_dishes: I always feel the need to invoke the spirit of Commisar Danilov and through words his embodiment of the folly of communism,

"I've been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be a man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there's always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love."

Enemy at the Gate


Bless you. I just spent several days in self-imposed exile on the Yahoo boards, just to see if I could stand it.
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to read some real, respectable trolling.
 
2011-10-25 09:36:25 PM
bugontherug: morrach: bugontherug: relcec: ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.

The high cost of legal services disproportionately hurts the poor.


There's always the public defender. I mean, he probably carpools with the prosecutor but what can you do?

The public defender only helps in criminal cases, and then only if you meet strict indigence criteria. Own a car worth more than $1,000? In Missouri, you're ineligible for a PD, even if that's your only asset, and you have no income whatsoever.

For civil cases, there isn't even that. Landlord arbitrarily evicting you? Got sold a lemon from the used car lot? Being sued by a credit card company? If you're poor, you're on your own.



I was in one courthouse where the rule was, if you could afford to bail out of jail, you could afford an attorney. Therefore, anyone who was out on bail that asked for the public defender at their hearing was taken back into custody until their case was resolved or they got an attorney.
 
2011-10-25 09:46:19 PM
bugontherug: morrach: bugontherug: relcec: ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.

The high cost of legal services disproportionately hurts the poor.


There's always the public defender. I mean, he probably carpools with the prosecutor but what can you do?

The public defender only helps in criminal cases, and then only if you meet strict indigence criteria. Own a car worth more than $1,000? In Missouri, you're ineligible for a PD, even if that's your only asset, and you have no income whatsoever.

For civil cases, there isn't even that. Landlord arbitrarily evicting you? Got sold a lemon from the used car lot? Being sued by a credit card company? If you're poor, you're on your own.



LUCKY DUCKY!!! >8(
 
2011-10-25 09:53:38 PM
Fta:
is now clearly understood that, rather than apply the law equally to all, Wall Street tycoons have engaged in egregious criminality-acts which destroyed the economic security of millions of people around the world-without experiencing the slightest legal repercussions.

Yeah, sorry Glenn, this completely erroneous paragraph completely undermines the rest of your article. If they committed crimes, they'd be prosecuted. Getting caught up in the real estate bubble with tens of millions of othe Americans was stupid, but alas not criminal.

This "Obama is protecting the bankers" conspiracy theory is no less crazy than the birthers and truthers. That's what you have become - tinfoil hatted loons.
 
2011-10-25 09:56:59 PM
bugontherug: relcec: ShawnDoc: It costs about $10-15k to defend yourself from a frivolous lawsuit, one which will be thrown out the first time its up before a judge. That right there pretty much throws the legal system into the hands of the rich.

of all the inequities in the justice system you choose the one thing that doesn't disproportionately affect the poor or probably even affect them at all. I'm impressed.

The high cost of legal services disproportionately hurts the poor.


no kidding. but not being able to file frivolous lawsuits themselves or defend against them doesn't hurt them at all. no one files frivolous lawsuits against the poor.
 
2011-10-25 09:59:36 PM
Debeo Summa Credo: Fta:
is now clearly understood that, rather than apply the law equally to all, Wall Street tycoons have engaged in egregious criminality-acts which destroyed the economic security of millions of people around the world-without experiencing the slightest legal repercussions.

Yeah, sorry Glenn, this completely erroneous paragraph completely undermines the rest of your article. If they committed crimes, they'd be prosecuted. Getting caught up in the real estate bubble with tens of millions of othe Americans was stupid, but alas not criminal.

This "Obama is protecting the bankers" conspiracy theory is no less crazy than the birthers and truthers. That's what you have become - tinfoil hatted loons.


One thing I've learned in Business Associations (when I can stay awake), is that nothing the Wall Street Evildoers (pat pend, apparently) is illegal, or even unethical. They're mean and it sucks that they can pay themselves eleventy billion grupniks while their workers get a pittance, but it's not illegal. And on the flip side, Big Business has no duty to "keep jobs in America." They have NO duty to America. They have a duty to their shareholders to give them as big a return as possible; and if going overseas does that, then that's where their duty lies.

So being mad at the collapse of the housing bubble or the corporate fatcats who rake in the billion-dollar bonuses is totally understandable--but YOU need to understand that nothing they have done is actionable. Sorry.
 
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