Pay to...*

Image not related.

U.S. prosecutors accused a former portfolio manager at New York state's retirement fund of steering $2 billion in trades in exchange for bribes from brokerage employees, in the latest pay-to-play case to rock the fund.

Navnoor Kang, the ex-director of fixed income at the New York State Common Retirement Fund, was charged in Manhattan federal court along with Deborah Kelley, a former Sterne Agee Group managing director.

Prosecutors alleged some bribes came in the form of weekend trips to Montreal, which would include prostitutes, nightclub bottle service and narcotics, as well as luxury gifts and cash payments. 

A broker-dealer named Gregg Schonhorn spent thousands of dollars on the defendant at strip clubs, upscale restaurants, Broadway shows, tickets to the U.S. Open tennis, cocaine and crack cocaine. The defendant was also handed thousands of dollars in cash to pay for prostitutes and strippers.

Schonhorn bought him a $17,420 Panerai wristwatch from a Madison Avenue store, as well as an $8,000 Rolex. Both parties used the messaging app WhatsApp to keep their communications from being monitored.   Schonhorn secretly pleaded guilty to related charges.

A Trip to Montreal with a visit to a night club and prostitute cost that much...?

Myself...*

NY City

Police arrested Christian Morales who, with a group of young men, made anti-Muslim statements and then began punching Mr. Singh, a Columbia University Professor, in the face.” The attackers dispersed after a call to the police.

"I think it’s critical to see that this is not the community we expect, and certainly not the country we expect,” Singh said.

Kansas City...

Frazier Cross [73 years old] was a member of the KKK movement and someone who has repeatedly expressed hatred for Jewish people.

Cross a suspect in the killing of three people at two Jewish facilities near Kansas City could face the death penalty. None of the people he is accused of killing were Jewish.

“Holding anger is a poison...It eats you from inside...We think that by hating someone we hurt them...But hatred is a curved blade...and the harm we do to others...we also do to ourselves.”

Just a thought. 

Faulty...

 


Many advocates of Iraq war saw the toppling of Saddam as only the first step in the process of building a new regional order that would replace Arab dictatorship with US-friendly democratic governments.

The unintended boost to Iran and Al Qaeda clearly showed the limits of US ability to reshape the Middle Eastern political map through military intervention.

When the push for democratization came in the shape of the Arab Spring in 2011, it happened on the back of homegrown, popular uprisings. Washington could do little to protect its allies in Egypt and Tunisia, and the outcome of this process on US regional influence remains wildly uncertain.

The trust in the US policies has diminished greatly as a result of the disoriented, misguided policies that started with the take down of Iraq, US  action in Libya and then action in Syria.

With Millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands civilians killed, and the continue destruction of the region, where are those who got paid to give such an advise?

You Win...?!

The fall of the Saddam Iraqi's regime marked a critical point in Iran’s ascendancy to a regional superpower. Saddam Hussein was Iran’s greatest regional enemy, and the two sides fought a bitter 8-year war in the 1980s.

But Saddam’s Sunni-dominated regime was now replaced with Shiite Islamists who enjoyed close links with the regime in the Shiite Iran.

United States paid dearly for the take down of Saddam, $2 Trillions, more than 4000 Military died, injured, hundred of thousands loss of lives on the Iraqis civilians and the creation of other insurgency groups.

Today's Iran is the most powerful foreign actor in Iraq, with an extensive trade and intelligence network in the country thanks to US efforts.

The fall of Iraq to Iran was a geopolitical disaster for the US-backed Sunni monarchies in the Persian Gulf. A new cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran came to life, as the two powers began to vie for power and influence in the region, in process exacerbating further the Sunni-Shiite tension.

Did we plan it this way?

Who are...

Rotten...

 
Fox News Channel said Monday that co-president Bill Shine is out, the latest high-level departure at a network beset with charges of harassment and discrimination that have already claimed founding CEO Roger Ailes, leading personality Bill O'Reilly and a top financial executive.

Shine was not accused of any direct wrongdoing. But the longtime Ailes lieutenant was considered vulnerable because of claims that he looked the other way as charges of toxic workplace behavior piled up, with some believing that the network would never truly be able to move on without him and other Ailes loyalists.

Is this rotten to the bottom?    Just a thought.

Work...

Globalization may have benefited some countries and some people. But it also hurt others and redistributed the welfare unevenly. The outcome became in-welcomed around the globe.
Happy Labor day.

Odd...

Exactly...

Traffick...

It cannot be denied that there are sex workers who get physically abused or become victims of violence from their pimps and even clients. Some even were killed in the process. he scams associated with sex is huge as well. They can't report to the authorities when they get hurt.

Legalizing can allow the state to impose the use of protection when engaging in commercial sex and for the workers to get regularly tested.

Brothels, workers and other related business will be obliged to pay taxes and are protected against illegal activities.

Human trafficking, especially of children, is rampant in some parts of the world and even within a country itself.  Sexual predators are alarming, more women are coerced to be sex workers.

Keep this industry illegal is the wrong thing to have.   Just a thought.