I’m linking here to an Alternet published piece: “7 of the Nastiest Scams, Rip-Offs and Tricks From Wall Street Crooks“

Honestly, as a warning, it’s too depressing to read the whole thing… basically a summary of the Wall Street created financial crisis… I could have posted this to Facebook but I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news amongst my 500 or so Facebook friends on this 2nd day of the year. I’m always posting these kind of things, and frankly, I know people just want to get by and not be burdened. Life is already so hard. I get that. So, I’ll post it here for those voluntarily coming to my own site.

The depressing thing is not just that there are immoral, greedy people in Wall Street cooking up scams, it’s that it shows not only how bought off the Congresses and Presidents (as in all, no matter the party) but the very institutional, regulatory bodies like the SEC have been co-opted too.

Yes, I can vote for some no chance in hell of winning 3rd party as a protest, but won’t some mythical 3rd party that displaces the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of rotating Republican and Democratic politicians (excepting such true rarities with integrity like Dennis Kucinich) be like the line in the Who song… “meet the new boss, the same as the old boss”, as long as the Supreme Court blessed 100 year old dictum of money equaling speech remain in effect?

Really in the face of such hopelessness, it makes sense that the 50% percent or so of the people in the world who are mostly decent and honest would rather be distracted by the pretty floats of the Rose Parade or so other ritualized extravaganza. After all, I have it on in the background while I write this post.