You can probably trace this back to the Nixon pardon, the post-2008 "Too big to jail" decline in white collar prosecutions, and of course more recently the half hearted Trump prosecution. These are fundamentally political, not legal problems - ThreadSky

internethippo.bsky.social • 90 days ago

You can probably trace this back to the Nixon pardon, the post-2008 "Too big to jail" decline in white collar prosecutions, and of course more recently the half hearted Trump prosecution. These are fundamentally political, not legal problems

Reposted from David_j_roth

One of the defining feelings in American life, for decades now, is elites doing plainly criminal shit and nothing at all happening as a result. It is deranging in a way that virtually nothing else is. Media fixates on perceived street lawlessness but shit like this matters much more in my opinion.

Comments

partyglouberman.bsky.social•89 days ago

Entire podcasts and blogs dedicated to scolding people who thought coup leaders should be arrested certainly wasn't helpful in the present age.

overunderclover.bsky.social•90 days ago

Im not sure there should bw that kind of distinction that alone forms a corrupt system.

matatoeslasagna.bsky.social•90 days ago

Democrats have spent 4+ decades trying to rehabilitate Republicans rather than eradicating them so here we are

pumpkinpal.bsky.social•90 days ago

at some point, in a common law system, you simply have to admit that *other blatant offenders not being prosecuted* is itself evidence that the law no longer exists. You can't just put the toothpaste back in the tube, you have to do the hard work of creating a new normal.

I'm not holding my breath.

stuartp.bsky.social•89 days ago

american justice is undermined at a fundamental level by having a head of state who is in real terms a monarch, who if you are on the right side of you're ok https://bsky.app/profile/stuartp.bsky.social/post/3lkqpg2jghc26

fembotsunite.bsky.social•89 days ago

I have been thinking about the too big too jail shit recently. Imagine if any wealthy person ever got held accountable for the shit they do. This is why his base loves him - they like that he is an ‘honest’ POS. His nastiness resonates bc it speaks to their rage. He says it like it is, they say.

mrbob9000.bsky.social•90 days ago

Or the IRS surrendering investigating anyone who can afford legal defense of tax fraud

unkthemonk.bsky.social•89 days ago

Based on all the responses with examples of past failings, it seems the injustice of the wealthy is a foundational part of America since jump.

calamitouscorvid.bsky.social•89 days ago

You'd be hard pressed to find even a single 10 year span of American for the last 100 years that wasn't full of glaring evidence that the country was founded on absolutely bullshit principles and has been designed to concentrate power upwards. The core is rotten. And now the flesh is falling off.

philosophiejane.bsky.social•90 days ago

Because law and order was only ever about upholding the propety rights of landowners. It's built into the founding with the institution of slavery (and later convict leasing). The first police force in the US (shoutout to Boston) was created to stop people from rioting and destroying businesses.

philosophiejane.bsky.social•90 days ago

I could give you a laundry list of evidence but I shouldn't have to. Everyone can see it plainly every time a healthcare or banking exec should get jail time but instead gets a raise and a bonus.

tenteisai.bsky.social•90 days ago

Won't matter, it's a cult and they will just keep praising and cheering until it actually costs them something they can't live without and by then it's too late.

notquietmodemd.bsky.social•89 days ago

This decision by Eric Holder really came back to bite us in the ass. The other was the massive shift in resources away from its bread and butter white collar crime focus to counterterrorism by the FBI after 9/11

reluctantranger.bsky.social•89 days ago

100%

pissedofftrekkie.bsky.social•89 days ago

sl33peragent.bsky.social•90 days ago

hell we could take it back to Reconstruction. Or the original "compromises" at the heart of our Constitution. The idea that "unity" is more important than principles, or holding anyone responsible for getting half a million people killed, is baked deep into our national ethos

newsenjoyer.bsky.social•90 days ago

I remember when Gerald Ford died and all the obituaries and commentaries said how the pardon healed the country. NO IT DIDN'T! It pissed people off, and it made them trust government less. Watergate was bad but the pardon in some ways was worse.

gregeggs.bsky.social•90 days ago

It goes back to reconstruction actually. Let the Confederates keep their fort names, etc

martingiannini.bsky.social•90 days ago

I don't disagree with the theory of erosion but the lack of post-2008 prosecutions was due to the fact that everything those bank CEOs did was technically legal. The failure was in not demanding firings in exchange for taxpayer largesse. Not in failing to prosecute non-crimes.

martingiannini.bsky.social•90 days ago

Nixon and Trump were both accused (and should have been convicted) of clear legal violations.

jovial-jovian.bsky.social•90 days ago

We've learned that the Presidential Veto is ripe for gross abuse, and there needs to be a check on that power.

martingiannini.bsky.social•90 days ago

The Veto? I don't think any recent president, including Trump, has overused veto power. Hard to use veto power at all when the congress voluntarily cedes all its article II authority to the president.

jovial-jovian.bsky.social•90 days ago

I mistyped, I meant to say the Pardon.

martingiannini.bsky.social•90 days ago

That's so far down the list of my concerns as to not matter, but sure I agree

exgnome.bsky.social•89 days ago

There was massive fraud by the rating agencies calling things triple-A that had no business being so. There was rampant fraud in the sourcing and foreclosure of the mortgages themselves. The banks did shady stuff too but it was the architecture around them that should have been burnt down.

martingiannini.bsky.social•89 days ago

Again none of that was against the law. Shady? Absolutely. Unethical? No question. Surely there was some actual fraud or tolerance of fraud that took place but not enough to bring down heads of ratings agencies, let alone private banking executives. Agree the system needed more reform than it got.

mcraewrites.bsky.social•89 days ago

I don't know why they haven't just been gunned down in the streets by now by vigilantes. Such a crooked country.

orangejuliusesq.bsky.social•89 days ago

Pretty good book about some of that stuff: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Chickenshit-Club/Jesse-Eisinger/9781501121388

sedot.bsky.social•90 days ago

there was also about 20 years where congressional hearings were just displays of the diversity of ways to say "I do not recall," it was a meme before we even had computers

jrh18966.bsky.social•90 days ago

And let's not forget iran contra https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/24/bush-pardons-iran-contra-felons-dec-24-1992-1072042

shell4747.bsky.social•89 days ago

Savings & Loan scandal! Enron! Iraq pallets of $$! and so forth. There's been a lot of criming & very little in the way of consequences, again & again & again. 2008 shenanigans def the final straw tho

norcalman.bsky.social•89 days ago

You are exactly right. In authoritarian led countries, the rich can get away with pretty much anything by bribing the Govt. That is where we are headed with the Justice Dept, ICE etc being weaponized ..

pumpkinhoundpdx.bsky.social•90 days ago

A huge factor that I remember @michaelhobbes.bsky.social discussing is that post-9/11, the FBI shifted a LOT of resources away from white collar crime in order to focus more on Islamic terrorism

dlnhlgsn.bsky.social•90 days ago

Obama not doing anything about the torture memos got us right here imo

exgnome.bsky.social•89 days ago

Too big to jail and look forward not back. I remember when I was naive enough to think that electing a constitutional law professor might lead to a restoration of the rule of law!

danielrlevy88.bsky.social•90 days ago

Like sixteenth hearted

gretafied.bsky.social•89 days ago

Millionaires became billionaires since Nixon was pardoned.

lhuggs.bsky.social•89 days ago

I MATTERS more, I think, because the damage they do always has a much longer effect. The concentric waves of upset and disarray are so much more confusing and impossible to straighten out when white collar crimes are allowed to disappear into history. It's like destroying stairways that we all used.

bhaydon5.bsky.social•89 days ago

📌

shellyfauble-64.bsky.social•90 days ago

It totally goes back to Nixon!! Ford wanted so badly to be President he failed our entire country and allowed for all of this to happen!! Had Nixon went to prison we would NOT be going through this nightmare!!

itty53.bsky.social•90 days ago

"media fixates on street lawlessness .."

Gee I wonder why and who owns the media

skeetertjones.bsky.social•90 days ago

I think you can trace it back to the US Civil War, where none of the Confederate leaders were ever tried for treason.

zenzinnia.bsky.social•89 days ago

A long row of heads on pikes would have done wonders for our country. Still could.

saltzman.bsky.social•90 days ago

This is the one

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•90 days ago

Yep

viledrak.bsky.social•90 days ago

Further than that.

America was founded by people who believed wealth and power were proof of divine favor.

acindc.bsky.social•89 days ago

Yeah, that’s what I draw it back to as well.

rocketboy1313.bsky.social•90 days ago

Anyone over the rank of second lieutenant should have hanged.
And all conscripted people are banned from owning guns for the remainder of their lives.
Hey, look, I thwarted the rise of the KKK and completely destroyed the old "southern gentlemen" class of violent racists.

historyofpersia.bsky.social•90 days ago

At least within politics, you can pinpoint the fear of actually passing impeachment directly on Andrew Johnson

mad-catter-chatter.bsky.social•90 days ago

Yeah I don't remember that one. Well if you really want to start way back - where men were not seriously punished for murdering an indigenous person or their wife - when they needed to "correct" them. Precedence? Psychopathic tendencies.

mst3katie.bsky.social•90 days ago

Yup, plus the lack of consequences for Iran-Contra

exgnome.bsky.social•89 days ago

There is a very direct line from Iran-Contra to DOGE. If the executive can fund its own spending in contravention of Congress the entire centuries old legislative system breaks down.

rareearthvitamins.bsky.social•89 days ago

The Nixon pardon was definitely the thing. I would also include failing to prosecute Yoo and Bush authorizing torture.

dhawkty.bsky.social•89 days ago

Fox News fear, while white collar crime thrives

vengefulmeme.bsky.social•90 days ago

Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

thevoidcalls.bsky.social•90 days ago

💜

garyandover.bsky.social•90 days ago

For some reason law enforcement just can't seem to bring themselves to arrest and charge wealthy white men. It goes against their worldview that only lowly criminals and minorities commit crimes.

wattasecond.bsky.social•90 days ago

I feel like Arthur Anderson / Enron was big turning point.

Like people went to jail for the S&L crisis and Iran Contra. But in the ZIRP era we could never hold people accountable for fear of making the market sad.

everyone looked through their fingers for musk because they wanted EVs to exist.

wattasecond.bsky.social•90 days ago

*Arthur Andersen

yestar.tv•90 days ago

We should've hanged the Confederates.

lydzrose.bsky.social•89 days ago

I hope we don’t make that mistake again.

unkthemonk.bsky.social•89 days ago

We already did.

mad-catter-chatter.bsky.social•90 days ago

💯 as a kid -who before cable only had Watergate to watch that summer - watching Nixon get off with NO repercussions - I was devastated. My
Poltical corruption cherry was popped. I lost my political naivete too young. Blissful ignorance & believing in a just world was based to hell.

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