International crime syndicate

[cilla4progress]

Reading interesting tweets asserting that capitalism did not arise out of the fall of the Berlin Wall - gangsterism did.

You would think the Rs and D's could unite around fighting this. But they are too far in. They are dumbshit hucksters - is there an intelligent conscientious R left?

[Wounded Bear]

1. Repubs have been weeding out all of the consciencious and intelligent ones...

for years upon years. What's left are rich hucksters fooling undereducated hicks.

[karynnj]

2. The roots of this were spoken of in John Kerry's "The New War", published in 1998

The book speaks of the kleptocracy in the former Soviet empire - as well as in several Latin American states and elsewhere. Looking at Amazon to get the year published, one review opted to include this quote from the book:

One of the most important points of the book is in the preface, pp14. Kerry raises the combination of new technology plus the global changes that were started by the end of the Cold War, creating "extraordinary and complex forces" that raised new threats to international stability and should have changed foreign policy far more than it did.

"The prime challenges lie in five areas, all of which threaten our national security and all of which are vitally affected by the forces of the new global economy:

1) nuclear **and** conventional [weapons] proliferation.

2) environmental degradation and crisis, with the attendant issues of resource allocation and depletion.

3) fundamentalism **and nationalism** asserting themselves in combination through conventional conflict and terrorism.

4) the struggles of the human condition exacerbated by refugee, food and population concerns with transboundary dislocations unprecedented in history.

5) exploitation of all of these phenomena by powerful new international criminal enterprises that threaten the stability of whole nations and challenge our standards of civilization.

In this reviewer's summary, it is clear how prescient Kerry's book, based on his years of hearings was:

The primary point of the book is to explain how groups of violent people, who recognize no law and have no national affiliation, are the most difficult to catch. In reality, the organized crime groups are many times bigger and more advanced than the terrorists could hope to be in 20 years. In the FIRST HALF of the '90s: "Today's transnational criminal cartels use high-speed modems and encrypted faxes. They buy jet airplanes three or four at a time and even have stealth-like submersibles... They hire the finest minds to devise encryption systems and provide complex accounting procedures... They engage the ablest lawyers.... the craftiest spin doctors [aka: public relations firms]... the most persistent and generous lobbyists...retain retired intelligence officers....[and] highly educated and well-trained scientists...in the production of narcotics [and the development of designer drugs].

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R15QDQME5ARKRU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0684846144#R15QDQME5ARKRU

[cilla4progress]

3. Ow wow...

Thanks karyn, had not heard of this writing of Kerry's. Another stab in the heart for his loss - and the horrible tarnishing of his stellar record - in the `04 pres elect.

[karynnj]

4. Some time after 2004, a MA politician (I think Deval Patrick) in his book criticized the 2004

campaign, by saying most Americans never got to know John Kerry. (praise for Kerry, the man, blame for the campaign - which he led.)

His work that ended up with helping provide the information to DA Morgenthau to close OBL's bank, BCCI and the recommendations from this book to help provide the tools needed to help "follow the money". Part of this was that many advisers thought it was too complicated. I suspect another part was that Kerry fought for these changes in banking laws through the entire 1990s - and had relatively little support from either party. Much of the legislation he attempted in the 1990s was included in the Patriot Act and it has provided tools used since then. However, the Patriot Act included other pieces that he and most liberal Democrats were against - so, he opted not to co-sponsor the bill that his work contributed to.

I suspect that the real reason that NONE of this was raised in 2004 was that the Republicans likely would have blamed the Clinton administration for not supporting this type of legislation - even though most Republicans were against it until 911. In addition, it would have been tough in the primary to claim credit for anything in the (hated) Patriot Act.

These investigations, his Contra investigations, and his work on the POW/MIA issue in Vietnam are among the best things he did. Both of these refute any idea that he was unwilling to take on important, but unpopular work that was unlikely to make him a political star. (Any political stardom/charisma was due to his innate eloquence and brilliance. He really was the real deal)

[malaise]

6. Many of the biggest kleptocrats are from the US and Western Europe

The pro-democracy kleptocrats who install themselves in our institutions are no different from the authoritarians.
I lived through this shit with Consultants earning gazillions more than locals while fucking up all programs related to the social good. Some of the multi-laterals are the worst.

Some of these scumbags are also pedophiles who come into our countries to prey on our children.

This entire planet needs cleaning up big time.

[karynnj]

9. I agree completely with your last sentence - the entire planet needs cleaning up big time nt

[moondust]

5. Predatory capitalism

took off in the 80s when Reagan "unbridled the greed" and globalization went wild thanks to global transportation and communications advances. Some other countries tended to follow the U.S. lead into predatory capitalism since the U.S. economy was the "western" model.

Cutting taxes on the wealthy probably incentivizes doing whatever it takes including criminal activity to amass an absurd fortune if more of it is yours to keep since you won't have to give as much of it to the tax man. Another incentive is the option to move vast sums abroad as necessary to shield it from taxes. Governments used to try to monitor "cross-border money flows" but I don't hear much about that anymore.

Today there are maybe 10 countries where people are in the streets protesting corrupt governments and inequality--and sometimes getting killed for it. More than 300 dead in Iraq since the protests began in October, for example.

Reagan obviously didn't invent greed; he just openly promoted it as a positive role model for the world economy.

[malaise]

7. Great post

[moondust]

8. Hey!