Scapegoats

Personal Opinion:  I would think all Politicians and all people (male/female) who are in positions of power are a little “oily” at times.  We live in an imperfect world and we are “flawed” because of our egos, biases or pre-conceived ideas, and jealousies.   And, very few of us do any kind of introspection outside of being pragmatic and believing the ends justify the means.  If you are honest with yourself which very few of us are, you will reluctantly admit this is true…

The ex-governor and his wife were accused of trading official government favors to businessman Jonnie Williams for more than $165,000 in loans and gifts, including a Rolex watch, luxurious vacations, a Ferrari ride and a $20,000 New York City shopping spree. Jurors convicted Bob McDonnell on all 11 corruption counts; Maureen McDonnell was found guilty of eight corruption counts as well as an obstruction of justice charge. They were both acquitted on charges of lying on loan documents.

The McDonnells could face lengthy prison terms and hefty fines; the sentencing is set to take place on Jan. 6, according to news reports. McDonnell defense attorney Hank Asbill told reporters that the couple will appeal the verdicts. The former governor himself made a brief comment outside the court, telling reporters: “All I can say is my trust belongs in the Lord.”

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department said the conviction should be considered a strong warning against public corruption.

“In pursuit of a lifestyle that they could ill afford, McDonnell and his wife eagerly accepted luxury items, designer clothes, free vacations and the businessman’s offer to pay the costs of their daughter’s wedding,” 

Caldwell said in a statement. “In return, McDonnell put the weight of the governor’s mansion behind the businessman’s corporate interests. The former governor was elected to serve the people of Virginia, but his corrupt actions instead betrayed them.”  Read more:

Skins Fight Back

The Washington Redskins recently filed its appeal of the Patent and Trademark Office decision to cancel the team’s six federal trademarks, with the team’s attorney calling the ruling a “flawed decision.”

“We believe that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ignored both federal case law and the weight of the evidence, and we look forward to having a federal court review this obviously flawed decision,” Bob Raskopf, the team’s trademark attorney, said in a statement.

The was filed in the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia and pushes back against the 2-1 decision by the Patent Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which stated the Redskins name is “disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered.”

The complaint said the board’s decision was “replete with errors of fact and law” and said its evidence was insufficient.

In its statement Thursday, the team said its complaint asked the court to consider “the serious Constitutional issues that the Board lacked the authority to address” adding that the NFL team was “improperly penalized.” The judge assigned to the appeal is U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.

“Specifically, by cancelling valuable, decades-old registrations, the Board improperly penalized the Washington Redskins based on the content of the team’s speech in violation of the First Amendment,” the statement said, which added the team “has been unfairly deprived of its valuable and long-held intellectual property rights in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”

The lead plaintiff the the Patent Office case responded to the team’s appeal, saying the Redskins efforts are “doomed.”

“This effort is doomed to fail, but if they want to prolong this litigation which has already gone on for 22 years, I guess they have that prerogative,” Amanda Blackhorse said in a statement released Thursday.  Read more:

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Recently,  an article was published  that hopefully will permanently ruin any connection that  the Silicon Valley tech billionaires have with their supposedly  libertarian worldviews. 

This article reports on a court case that alleges that Apple, Google, and other Silicon Valley companies actively conspired to keep their workers' wages down. 

According to documents filed in the case, these companies agreed not to compete for each others' workers dating at least as far back as 2005. Workers in the industry have filed a class action suit that could lead to the payment of billions of dollars in lost wages.

This case is interesting in that there is theft of large amounts of money by some of the richest people on the planet from their employees; but, bosses steal from their all the time and there is no surprise that rich people were willing to break the law to get even richer.

The real news here is how the Silicon Valley barons allegedly broke the law. The charge is that they actively colluded to stifle market forces. They collectively acted to prevent their workers from receiving the market-clearing wage. 

This means not only that they broke the law, and that they acted to undermine the market, but that they really don't think about the market the way libertarians claim to think about the market.

The classic libertarian view of the market is that we have a huge number of people in the market actively competing to buy and sell goods and services. This point is central to their argument that the government should not interfere with corporate practices.

For example, if we think our local cable company is charging too much for cable access, our libertarian friends will insist that the phone company, satellite television or other competitors will step in to keep prices in line. 

They would tell the same story if the issue were regulating the airlines, banks, health insurance, or any other sector where there is reason to believe that there is limited competition.

If we think that workers are getting low wages, then the answer is to improve their skills through education and training, rather than raise the minimum wage. If workers were worth more than the minimum wage, then the market would already be paying them more than the minimum wage.

If we think about family leave, sick days, or other benefits. Libertarians would say that if workers value these benefits, they would negotiate for them and be willing to trade off wages. There is no reason for the government to get involved.

However, the Silicon Valley non-compete agreements show that this is not how the tech billionaires believe the market really works.

Of course, the “invisible hand” as mentioned by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, presupposed that the marketplace would be self-correctly and that no one entity or person would ever do anything to hard themselves or their entity.  

Obviously, Adam Smith did not predict that greedy billionaires would do just about anything to protect their billions.

How Illegals Can Still Be Successful

The supreme court of California has granted a law licence to an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has lived for years in the US.

Sergio Garcia (above), 36, arrived in the US nearly two decades ago without papers.

He attended law school and passed the California bar exam, but has not yet been granted a visa.

Mr Garcia challenged a 1996 law barring illegal immigrants from receiving professional licences, a rule later changed by Governor Jerry Brown.

The new lawyer was born in Mexico in 1977 and brought to California less than two years later, according to a statement from the California supreme court.

He returned to Mexico with his family at age nine, but illegally re-entered the US when he was 17.

But because of a long backlog of applicants, Mr Garcia has not yet been granted a visa.

He picked almonds and worked in a grocery store to pay his way through university and Cal Northern School of Law, later passing the California bar examination on his first attempt.

Mr Garcia subsequently challenged a 1996 federal law barring people living in the US illegally from receiving professional licences from government agencies or with the use of public funds.

The federal government argued the California courts were funded by public money, thus precluding him from being granted a license.

Meanwhile, Mr Brown signed a series of immigrant rights bills in October, including one allowing undocumented people to obtain law license. That law took effect on 1 January.

On Thursday, the state's supreme court unanimously ruled in favor of Mr Garcia, determining he "possesses the requisite good moral character to qualify for a law license".

Speaking to the BBC's Newsday program, Mr Garcia called the ruling a "landmark historic decision".

"I feel incredible, this is the best gift 2014 could bring for me," he said.

Not For Sale

Marita Veron (left) disappeared when she was 23,
leaving behind her daughter Micaela (middle) and
her mother Susana (right)

A court in Argentina has convicted 10 people for the kidnapping and sexual exploitation of Marita Veron, who has been missing since 2002.

The court in north-western Tucuman province overturned a 2012 ruling which had acquitted all 13 defendants in the case of human trafficking.

Ms. Veron's mother, Susana Trimarco, had appealed against the ruling, which had triggered protests in Argentina.

The court upheld the acquittal of two defendants. Another died in February.

The tribunal in Tucuman said that four of the defendants had conspired to "hold and conceal [Ms. Veron] for the exercise of prostitution".

Six more had "participated" in her abduction and forced prostitution, the judges said.

Marita Veron disappeared from the city of San Miguel de Tucuman in 2002, when she was 23 years old.

Sex workers reported spotting her in several locations in the country, where they said she was forced to prostitute herself.

Her mother launched a campaign to find her and the case soon became a symbol of the fight against human trafficking in Argentina.

During her search, Ms. Trimarco infiltrated herself into human-trafficking gangs pretending to be interested in "buying" women.

The information she gathered led to police raids in which dozens of sexually exploited women were rescued.

However she has not been able to find her daughter and it is not clear whether Ms Veron is still alive.

Ms. Trimarco's campaign also led to the passage of legislation making human trafficking a crime in Argentina.

The acquittal of the 13 defendants in the case in December 2012 caused outrage in Argentina, with thousands taking to the streets of San Miguel and the capital, Buenos Aires, in protest.

The judges ruled at the time that there was not enough evidence to connect the defendants to Ms. Veron.

Caveat:  

The Court System has never been about truth, justice, right, or wrong, but only about what can be proved/disproved…

Nude Therapy

A Lake Worth, Fla., doctor (right) who treated a depressed patient by disrobing, binding, whipping and beating her is now in hot water for his twisted "punishment therapy."

Dr. David Simon apologized profusely to the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine,which is considering revoking his license, WPFB reports. Simon wasn't arrested or charged with any crime, but he admitted to having an unusual and sexual relationship with a then 38-year-old patient.

The patient told detectives that Simon said "punishment therapy" -- using blindfolds, whips and phallic objects on her for hours on end -- would help remedy her depression. She reportedly said she "didn't like" the therapy, which took place after normal work hours, but consented to the acts with Simon monthly for a year.

She reported the acts to deputies in December 2011.

During the sessions, Simon would regularly choke and tie up the naked woman, the Sun-Sentinel reports. She told detectives that she performed sexual acts on Simon as a "thank you" for the therapy.

The allegations came to light Friday when the board turned down Simon's settlement, which would bar him from practice for two years and slap him with a $10,000 fine. The board said the charges were too serious to settle.

"He's deeply embarrassed," Simon's attorney, David Spencer, told WPBF. "This was a consensual relationship with an adult woman. However, the Board of Health is clear that doctors can't have a sexual relationship with a patient. That's why we worked out the settlement."

WPBF also reported that Simon was flagged for sexual harassment in 2010, when he allegedly rubbed a 24-year-old woman's back and buttocks after a gynecological exam. 

He allegedly said at the time, "I think you need to be punished for being a bad girl. It seems you really need to be punished."

Simon has practiced in the area for 28 years and is married, Health News Florida reports.