If you want a lifetime guaranteed get out of jail free card, all you need to do is break the law while working for a giant transnational corporation.

Case in point: the Justice Department's latest "crackdown" on the big banks. Today, the DOJ announced that it was fining a group of the world's five biggest banks a total $5.7 billion after they all plead guilty to a series of rate-fixing scandals. JPMorgan Chase will have to pay $550 million, while Citigroup will have to pay $925 million.

Barclays, meanwhile, will pay $650 million, RBS will fork over $395 million, and UBS will pay around $545 million. The Federal Reserve is also fining these banks an additional $1.6 billion.

Speaking in Washington, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that the fines show that the Justice Department intends to "vigorously fight" those "who tilt the economic scales in their favor." Those are strong words, but ultimately they're just that -- words.

While $550 million sounds like a lot of money to someone like your or me, for a massive bank like JPMorgan Chase that rakes in as much as $22 billion a year in profits, it's chump change. It's just the cost of doing business. And that's precisely the problem.

At one point and time in this country corporations that committed a crime that harmed the public had to pay a big price for their actions. We actually used to have something called the "corporate death penalty." If a corporation did something blatantly against the public interest, like gambling away people's life savings or polluting local water supplies, the government would revoke its charter - the thing that gave it a right to exist as a private, for-profit business.

Banks were shut down in Ohio, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania for behaving in ways that were "financially sound." Oil corporations, match manufacturers, whiskey trusts, and sugar corporations were given the axe in Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska and New York. By the 1870s, nineteen states had amended their state constitutions to give lawmakers the power to "execute" corporations that violate the public's safety and trust.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Dangerous 'Trade Treachery' in the TPP? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

 

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

 

 

Need to Know: Dangerous 'Trade Treachery' in the TPP?
- Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL, 9th district)  

 

Big Picture Rumble Panel:
- Christy Setzer, New Heights Communications  
- Kris Ullman, Conservative Commentator/Activist  
- Gianno Caldwell, Caldwell Strategic Consulting/Project 21  

 

Best of the Rest: Debt Slavery...the New Normal for Students?
- Professor Andrew Ross PhD, New York University (NYU)/Strike Debt/Creditocracy and the Case for Debt Refusal  

 

  

Community Square  

 "Ross Perot said it all !!!"  

 

Wednesday's Daily Stack 

Article: "When women can't get one-on-one time with their bosses" by Catherine Rampell.

Article: "Why This Lawmaker Opposes Abortion For Everyone Except His Own Wife And Mistress" by Tara Culp-Ressler.

Article: "Iroquois Confederacy" by Encyclop�dia Britannica.

Article: "Hunter vs. farmer hypothesis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Paul Ryan and the $350 Bottles of Wine" by Jim Newell, 7/08/11.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: How To Be A Pro-Life Republican" by EarlG.

Article: "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk" by Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton, February 21, 2008.

Article: "Equal Rights Amendment" by Wikipedia.

Crazy Alert: "Meet Giggles The Pig: Flint, Michigan Mayor Candidate Seeking Write-In Votes" by Tim Marcin.

Hour Two: Is the TPP going to poison us all?
- Neil McCabe, Townhall.com/The Washington Mercury  

Article: "WTO Rejects U.S. Meat 'Origin' Labels" by Tennille Tracy.

Site: ObamaTrade.

Book: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson.

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 1, section 8. "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"

 

Article: "Lawyers With Lowest Pay Report More Happiness" by Douglas Quenqua.

Article: "McConnell Says TPA Will Counter Chinese Dominance" by Rob Garver. "This is a six-year trade promotion authority bill that will give the next president an opportunity to enter into trade agreements with other countries around the world"

Article: "Four Witnesses Dispute Word of Rehnquist" by Ronald J. Ostrow and James Gerstenzang, August 02, 1986.

Article: "6 big U.S., U.K. banks to pay $5.6B in fines in foreign currency probe" by CBC News.

Article: "Lindsay Lohan sentenced in theft case" by Alan Duke, May 11, 2011.

Article: "White-On-White Crime Strikes Again In Waco" by Julia Craven.

Article: "Congress plots to pay for a trade deal by raiding Medicare" (Rep. David Reichert) by Michael Hiltzik.

Article: "Gary Ridgway" (Green River Killer) by Wikipedia.

Book: "Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer--America's Deadliest Serial Murderer" by Ann Rule.

Book: Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer by Sheriff David Reichert.

Book: Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha.

Article: "The Thomas Jefferson Papers".

Article: "Gender Bias in Education" by Amanda Chapman.

 

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Luke Vargas 

Article: "Trove Of bin Laden Documents Released" by TRNS.

Article: "The Killing of Osama bin Laden" by Seymour M. Hersh.

Article: "Secrets of the bin Laden treasure-trove" by Peter Bergen.

Article: "Plan Bee: White House Unveils Strategy To Protect Pollinators" by Brian Naylor.

Article: "The White House is creating a butterfly highway between Mexico and Minnesota" by Kwame Opam.

Article: "Bees, Almonds And Drought" by Bill Mares.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 5/20" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes - 5/19" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Rand Paul Filibustering Patriot Act".

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: Jeb Bush Says Jesus Would Be The Perfect Republican Candidate" by EarlG.

Article: "Bush admin did not lie a thousand times about Iraq war - only 935 times" by DetlefK.

Article: "CEOs Call for Deficit Action" by David Wessel.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Exposes 18 CEOs who took Trillions in Bailouts, Evaded Taxes and Outsourced Jobs" by Jason Easley.

Article: "Corporate Tax Dodgers" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Sanders to CEOs: Look in the Mirror" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Video: Ted Kennedy on Republicans and Minimum wage, 25 January 2007. "When does the greed stop?"

Article: "2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article: "4th Amendment". "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.".

Article: "NSA's phone spying program ruled illegal by appeals court" by Jonathan Stempel.

Article: "Exclusive: Lee Atwater's Infamous 1981 Interview on the Southern Strategy" by Rick Perlstein.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "Fast track (trade)" (TPA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Seattle City Council Unanimously Opposes Fast Track" by CTC.

Article: "Kennedy: 'Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam'" by Brad Wright and Jennifer Yuille, April 6, 2004.

Facebook: "10% of water in California is used for almonds. Alfafa alone - a crop that is not consumed by humans but fed to livestock - consumes 15% of California's water. 15% is just to grow alfalfa. The 2012 Pacific Institute study states that the overall water footprint of meat and dairy in California is 47%." by Cowspiracy.

Article: "U.S. Congress starts repeal process for meat-labelling rule" by Paul Koring and Eric Atkins.

Article: "2nd International Urban Operations Conference".

Article: "Pataki: Send combat troops to fight ISIS" by Jeremy Diamond.

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET 

 

I'll be debating Liz Shield of PJ Media who says, "If They Can't Get Your Guns, They'll Get Your Ammo".

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

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One of my favorite wines is CHATEAU VERONIQUE 2011 - The wine that started the Organic Wine Company. Subtle and sophisticated, this wine will complement any table.

 

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Thom

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