Minor Conspiracies: Little Termites Chomping at the Structure

[Pythagorean]

Instead of a conspiracy of grandiose proportions, shouldn't we be more worried about all the little groups of conspirators nickle and diming us? Businesses taking advantage of customers, insider trading, small groups of corrupt government officials, organized criminals, criminal cop cliques. They're not all out to get us, they're just out for themselves. Little termites, greedily chomping at the wood fibers of our structure; but not working together as a whole.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We do worry about these things and have laws to address them. The problem is, how do we protect people's right while still catching the crooks? We have competing goals.

I am rather enjoying the post Rodney King world. With video cams everywhere, including their own dash cams, it is much harder for dirty cops to hide behind the brotherhood... though I still can't figure out how the one off-duty cop that assaulted the waitress got off. It seemed like a clear case of assault caught on camera.

 

[drankin]

We do worry about these things and have laws to address them. The problem is, how do we protect people's right while still catching the crooks? We have competing goals.

I am rather enjoying the post Rodney King world. With video cams everywhere, including their own dash cams, it is much harder for dirty cops to hide behind the brotherhood... though I still can't figure out how the one off-duty cop that assaulted the waitress got off. It seemed like a clear case of assault caught on camera.

Just saw an article showing how cops are starting to wear cameras. The cameras fit over an ear like an ear bud. The article showed some footage of a shooting the cop was involved in. What really bugged me is that the camera is on the LEFT ear. Most people are right handed and shoot with the right hand. In the video the cop was shooting single handed while he took cover behind a door frame. the camera pointed at a door frame while the shooting took place. This doesn't make sense to me. The camera should be worn on the dominant shooting hand side. Anyway... the person the cop was shooting was killed and you only had the cops word that he was pointing a gun back at the cop and video footage that didn't prove anything.

 

[russ_watters]

Instead of a conspiracy of grandiose proportions, shouldn't we be more worried about all the little groups of conspirators nickle and diming us? Businesses taking advantage of customers, insider trading, small groups of corrupt government officials, organized criminals, criminal cop cliques. They're not all out to get us, they're just out for themselves. Little termites, greedily chomping at the wood fibers of our structure; but not working together as a whole.

We are of course worried about both. And many of those "little termites" aren't so little - ENRON, Madoff, Barack. Big problems.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So now Rush... I mean Russ, is officially promoting conspiracy theories about Obama. That was hard to see coming!

 

[Newai]

We are of course worried about both. And many of those "little termites" aren't so little - ENRON, Madoff, Barack. Big problems.

You're putting the president in a group with criminals?

 

[MATLABdude]

You want a 'conspiracy' (in the sense of semi-secret agreement, if not the unlawful part)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation

A secretive cabal of national governments, imaging and printing producers, and graphics software companies come together to ensure that all carry the mark of the beast. Opposing them stand only the brave North Koreans or possibly the Iranians, and maybe the Triad or Russian Mob.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar

Speaking of Dan Brown, don't wait for his next release, generate your own sequel today!
http://www.slate.com/id/2228327/

 

[Pythagorean]

So now Rush... I mean Russ, is officially promoting conspiracy theories about Obama. That was hard to see coming!

Yes, I'm interested in hearing what conspiracy Obama is involved in.

 

[Philosoraptor]

Adam Smith certainly believed in such conspiracies:

"We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of the workman. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. "
Wealth of Nations, Bk I Ch 8

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."
Wealth of Nations, Bk. 1 Ch. 10

 

[WhoWee]

Yes, I'm interested in hearing what conspiracy Obama is involved in.

Are we using the wiki definition?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(political )

"In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination.

A conspiracy is to be contrasted with a cabal. The two are similar but have quite different connotations; in contrast to a cabal, a conspiracy usually looks to overthrow a fixed power instead of usurping it from within."

 

[russ_watters]

So now Rush... I mean Russ, is officially promoting conspiracy theories about Obama. That was hard to see coming!

I didn't say anything about a conspiracy theory: I just said they are problems. The title of the thread may have been "little conspiracies", but things he listed didn't really qualify as conspiracies. Nor is the pejorative "conspiracy theory" applicable, as I didn't list any and a real conspiracy isn't a conspiracy theory.

I mean seriously, Ivan - are you calling the Enron and Madoff cases "conspiracy theory", implying you don't think they actually happened?

 

[russ_watters]

You're putting the president in a group with criminals?

Sure, why not? He sold the healthcare vote to the unions (and Nebraska). That's corruption.

Of course my post was half tongue-in-cheeck, but I am very concerned about the way Obama does business. Heck, it doesn't even have to be illegal to be wrong.

Democrats seem impervious to embarrassment as they buy votes for ObamaCare, but their latest move makes even Nebraska's Ben Nelson look cheap: The 87% of Americans who don't belong to a union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to those who do.

The Senate bill was financed in part by a 40% excise tax on high-cost insurance coverage. The White House backs this "Cadillac tax" as one of the few remaining cost-control tokens. But Big Labor abhors the tax because union benefits tend to be far more generous than average, and labor leaders and House Democrats have been throwing a political tantrum for weeks.

So emerging from their backrooms, Democrats have agreed to extend a special exemption from the Cadillac tax to any health plan that is part of a collective-bargaining agreement, plus state and local workers, many of whom are unionized. Everyone else with a higher-end plan will start to be taxed in 2013, but union members will get a free pass until 2018.

Ponder that one for a moment. Two workers who are identical in every respect—wages, job, health plan—will be treated differently by the tax system, based solely on union membership. [emphasis added]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703657604575004992410621692.html

If there was one cause for "hope" in Obama's election for a moderate conservative such as myself, it was that maybe he'd follow through on his promise to end such naked corruption in washington. Instead, he dove head-first into it.

 

[Vanadium 50]

If there was one cause for "hope" in Obama's election for a moderate conservative such as myself, it was that maybe he'd follow through on his promise to end such naked corruption in washington. Instead, he dove head-first into it.

Of course, all political leaders do things that I like and things that I don't. What I find indicative of the most disappointing aspects of this was the broken health care on CSPAN promise on openness (""all of this will be done on C-SPAN in front of the public.") Here was a case where the opposition was not the insurance industry or the Republican party, but the party that the President himself leads.

In elections, politicians promise things they can't deliver all the time. Here is a case where he promised something he can deliver - but chooses not to.

 

[WhoWee]

Of course, all political leaders do things that I like and things that I don't. What I find indicative of the most disappointing aspects of this was the broken health care on CSPAN promise on openness (""all of this will be done on C-SPAN in front of the public.") Here was a case where the opposition was not the insurance industry or the Republican party, but the party that the President himself leads.

In elections, politicians promise things they can't deliver all the time. Here is a case where he promised something he can deliver - but chooses not to.

Actions do speak louder than words. Obama came to office with no executive experience whatsoever. It's much easier to talk about a strategy than to implement same.

 

[Burnsys]

Two Words, Interlocking directorates

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2002-11-24-interlock_x.htm

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2870

 

[MotoH]

Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a Kenyan muslim Hamas supporter!

Hows that for a conspiracy theory!

 

[Pythagorean]

By conspiracy, I meant two or more people plotting criminal activity in private. But I also meant in a way that impacts a large chunk of populations (whether they be consumers or state residents).

From what's been said here about Obama, it doesn't sound very secret. That would be for a different thread, I guess. Enron and Madoff are good examples of past conspiracies.