Friday, October 28, 2011

Glenn Greenwald on Why Elitists Have Become Above the Law

Last night, I heard Glenn Greenwald speak at George Washington University Law School.

Greenwald is a very sharp guy. He is a former Constitutional lawyer and current blogger at Salon. He is out on the speaking circuit promoting his new book, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful.

As far as his views, he is very good about understanding government encroachment on our freedoms, but was absolutely terrible about understanding what is going on at Occupation Wall Street.

He contends that there is a two tier law system in the US, instead of equality before the law for all. He correctly points out that for non-elitists the court system and accompanying punishment can be very harsh, but that enforcement of the law against elitists is virtually non-existant.

He made the observation last night that the decline in enforcement of law against elitists really began to pick up speed with Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon.



Since then, Greenwald claims, that elites have hidden behind the curtain of "what's good for the country" as a shield against prosecution for crimes, be it war crimes or bankster crimes.

As for OWS, Greenwald is promoting the absurd position, first launched by Matt Taibbi, that many of the occupiers are not confused socialists, but are merely against crony banksterism and want a non-crony capitalist society.

Folks, I have been to two different occupy camps, there may be an occasional Ron Paul T-shirt wearer in the crowds, but for the most part these are anti-capitalists, some are even against even the use of money as exchange.

Pay attention to Greenwald when he is doing original thinking on the rule of law, ignore his views when he is simply channeling Taibbi.

5 comments:

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  2. Greenwald may not be perfect, but his articles on Salon are excellent and he truly is a powerful weapon in the fight for truth. I forward them to as many people as possible.

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  3. Greenwald is an excellent columnist.

    As far as OWS is concerned, this guy says the opinion polls show most Americans don't support either the Tea Party or OWS. And he makes some neat observations about corporatism, big government and santa claus.

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  4. (BTW - There is an interesting chart of presidents and the number of pardons they granted here. )

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  5. "channeling Taibbi"

    Haha! So very true.

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