Looting Main Street

Rolling Stone

Another great article by Matt Taibbi. This guy has been all over some deep inside knowledge of the screwing the international banking cartel has put us through over the last couple of years.

Once you follow that trail and understand what took place in Jefferson County, there's really no room left for illusions. We live in a gangster state, and our days of laughing at other countries are over. It's our turn to get laughed at. In Birmingham, lots of people have gone to jail for the crime: More than 20 local officials and businessmen have been convicted of corruption in federal court.

You would think a story like this would have made national headlines. Bless our MSM for telling us about this one. Oh, they probably did in some lame fashion but I doubt they gave this story the legs it needed to stand on. With a quick search I did find this so it's nice to see Taibbi isn't just making all this up. I don't remember hearing of this so maybe I just missed it or maybe it was kept low key. Something that wouldn't surprise me.

Birmingham News

But those who greenlighted the bribes and profited most from the scam remain largely untouched. "It never gets back to JP Morgan," says Pack.

The original cost estimates for the new sewer system were as low as $250 million. But in a wondrous demonstration of the possibilities of small-town graft and contract-padding, the price tag quickly swelled to more than $3 billion. County commissioners were literally pocketing wads of cash from builders and engineers and other contractors eager to get in on the project, while the county was forced to borrow obscene sums to pay for the rapidly spiraling costs.

Totally and completely unsurprising. As they say in the crime dramas, and in real life it makes sense also, to "follow the money". This time, follow it right into the bankers hands. And don't forget the middleman who makes tons by, well, doing nothing basically. Wish I could get that job.

EDIT: Like many others, I get confused a bit about exactly which forum a thread should go in. This looked the most likely to me but I could have put it in a few others. Mods, I know you already will, but move it if necessary. Makes no difference to me where it's at.



[edit on 4/4/2010 by TheLoony]

This sort of thing will eventually come back to bite them all, when all of that money they've stolen becomes worthless. The us poor folks who have always scraped by with next to nothing will be the ones laughing.

Wonder if this is happening to the olympic stadium thats being built in london. The price tag for that changes and increases constantly, and alot, im talking increase by the £billion

reply to post by Trolloks


I haven't head anything about this but I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe I'm just getting old and losing it a bit but this seems to be something I have heard before regarding Olympic stadiums. I'd have to go searching for articles but that doesn't sound like a new story to me.

Also consider that the IOC has been known to be quite the corrupt organization and you have all the ingredients for this to happen.

reply to post by TheLoony


Never tend to hear much about it, but here is two articles, with 2 years apart, and a HUGE increase in cost, with little explanation to cover the cost completly.

BBC news, 2006

times online, 2008

An increase of £7b in 2yrs??

Originally posted by warpcrafter
This sort of thing will eventually come back to bite them all, when all of that money they've stolen becomes worthless. The us poor folks who have always scraped by with next to nothing will be the ones laughing.

No it won't.. It will only hurt the average joe, because the average joe wasn't smart enough to pocket his own protection..

Let's see what the future holds.

reply to post by Trolloks


Well, it's only a "slight" discrepancy. You should know better to be noticing things like this.

They must really not care anymore as the proof is everywhere. Crikey, they brought down, what, Greece and Iceland, with their games. It's not enough, let's go fleece all the money out of, as the article is titled, Main Street.

Yet they get away with it. Some system we have nowadays. It's never enough for the bankers as we keep seeing them play all kinds of dirty games that they choose not to tell us about because they deem us too stupid to understand how things work.

I get things fine, thank you. I'm no expert but I can figure things out, especially when it's so blatant and ridiculous as it is these days.

Sitting in the geographic center of jefferson county as I type. Read this article yesterday, but it's old and grim news to we locals.

IMO, this place is history, no way out of this mess, realistically, without dissolving the local government and starting from scratch. Its that bad.

This was a travesty and a crime against humanity and those responsible, while getting, finally, hefty stays at a country club 'prison', should have been hanged on the court house steps..

reply to post by Clark Savage Jr.


I agree. So did Thomas Paine:

The laws of a country ought to be the standard of equity, and calculated to impress on the minds of the people the moral as well as the legal obligations of reciprocal justice. But tender laws, of any kind, operate to destroy morality, and to dissolve, by the pretense of law, what ought to be the principle of law to support, reciprocal justice between man and man — and the punishment of a member who should move for such a law ought to be death.

Those dead guys from way back when knew a thing or two about what they were fighting for. This quote is actually from a letter regarding paper money, which should be illegal but we are now in a the days beyond that with paperless money. Even worse.

The quote still works, IMO. Hangings should be happening and I can see no reason why not. SAd to say that, it makes me cringe a bit but it needs to be done. How long can this go on before it all falls apart, I do wonder?