UK corporate governance reform proposal being gamed even at its ideation ; small business, porn, and pot banking crackdown

When I reviewed due diligence for a large Wall Street Bank, I got good at spotting traps and black holes in customer documentation. But the Bank I worked for wouldn't press for due diligence if such requests would upset the customer or the trader, who was on boarding the customer. Ultimately, the Front Office controlled the due diligence collected by the Legal Department, just like big business interests control all legislative attempts to regulate reforms in corporate governance.

• RELATED : Is the UK Ending Corporate Secrecy ? More Spin Than Substance (HuffingtonPost.uk)

Meanwhile, Chase is closing all bank accounts held by porn stars, and HSBC has been on a scorched earth campaign to close down all small business banking accounts. Whereas banks are instructed by regulators to put classes of customers on "watch lists" if there is a potential for exposure to money laundering, organized crime connections, drug-running, arms sales to terroristic states (like Iran), other sanctions lists, etc., the truth is that many big banks are situational in how they comply with their watch lists. Recently, many large American banks (wrongly) initially refused to accept customers tied to the (now) legal marijuana business in the states that just legalized small quantity sales. Is the crackdown on legitimate small business, sex workers, and legal marijuana businesses just slimy PR stunts intended for banking compliance departments to show regulators that the banks are minding their watch lists ?

• RELATED : Chase Bank Slams the Door on More Porn Stars (XBIZ)
• RELATED : HSBC closes least-profitable small business accounts (HuffingtonPost)
• RELATED : Swiss Bank Apparently Unfreezes Iran Arms Sales Account (The Los Angeles Times)
• RELATED : U.S. Arrests 3 in Immigration Marriage Fraud (The New York Times)

How are small businesses supposed to transact business ? How are porn stars expected to deposit pay checks, pay bills, use their credit card, and pay their publicists and agents ? How can people buy space cakes, if legal marijuana businesses can't deposit sales receipts, pay suppliers, pay taxes, and otherwise maintain their enterprise as a going concern ? This is all cookoo !!

Morbid Internet Memes of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flt. MH370

PUBLISHED : MON, 17 MAR 2014, 05:23 PM
UPDATED : WED, 26 MAR 2014, 9:00 AM

• RELATED : Satellite locates debris field of 122 objects possibly of missing MH370 jet (The New York Post | March 26, 2014 | 12:22 AM)

Did Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Land On Gilligan's Island ?

"Are we desensitized to the point of not being able to truly empathize, or is this our way of coping with tragedies since we’ve had to endure them in different ways than have previous generations ?" asked the Web site Elite Daily in a post trying to make sense of the morbid Internet memes about the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Jokes about the missing airplane could be a way for people to cope with the outrageousness that the U.S. government can be so incompetent and impotent, given how much technology exists today, given how the limited computer power of a smartphone can now power record-breaking robots, but seemingly, by comparison, the U.S. government could still be blind-sided by the inadequate technology aboard jet airplanes over a decade after terrorists used airplanes as weapons of mass destruction during the attacks of 9/11.

These Internet memes are funny, when you think of the irony, but then they become tragic, when you think of the missing people and the pain and agony of their surviving friends and families. The government's continuing negligence in failing to update airline black box technology could be one of those concerns that Edward Snowden was warning us about : the danger that the U.S. government's dragnet surveillance program would inundate the government with so much useless information in such large quantities that the government would lose focus of more important issues, like finding missing airplanes, improving airplane black box technology, or being able to predict that Russia would pounce on Crimea, and, more importantly, when.

Internet Memes : When the implied butt of the joke is the impotent government

As the public's imagination has turned from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flt. 370 to morbid memes that the flight has accidentally landed on Gilligan's Island, or when the public imagines that Tattoo from Fantasy Island, who was famous for announcing the arrival of "The plane ! The plane !" would probably do a better job of locating the missing flight than the government, you know that the public's perception of government competence is in the gutter.

How soon before Republicans seize on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight as a flashpoint to demonstrate that President Barack Obama failed to improve world-wide aviation safety in the post-9/11 world ?

When is the U.S. government going to wise up, stop gutting the U.S. Constitution with its dragnet surveillance programs, and, instead, focus on the things the government should be addressing : like ensuring adequate safety technology being deployed and functional aboard every airplane ?

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• RELATED : Nobody is asking why Boeing, the manufacturer of the missing aircraft, cannot explain or is not being asked to explain why the tracking systems failed on a plane believed to have continued its flight for several hours after last contact. (FAA, clueless to help, grateful it was neither an American flight that disappeared, nor that the disappearance took place near America * NYC : News & Analysis)
• RELATED : If the transponders had not gone silent on 9/11, air traffic controllers would have quickly realized that two jetliners en route to Los Angeles had made dramatic course changes and were bound straight for Manhattan. (Out of Control : Why Does the FAA Allow Pilots To Turn Off Transponders ? * The New York Times)

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A lingering, yet compelling, question facing investigators is whether Malaysia Airlines offered its passengers Wi-Fi service. If so, did the Wi-Fi signal remain available, even though other communication services aboard the flight seem to have been deliberately disabled ? Because some airlines place Wi-Fi service behind a paywall, how many passengers on the flight had paid to access any available Wi-Fi service ? Since the Federal Aviation Administration and other airline agencies heavily regulate passenger use of cellphones, PDA's, digital tablets, and laptops aboard commercial aircraft, do airline regulators inadvertently cut-off communication technology that is undoubtedly "smarter" than black boxes and deactivation-prone transponders ?

US Ambassador to Libya Killed

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Is Killed in Attack consulate in Benghazi

The American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, left, was killed after militants stormed the consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday, The New York Times reported. At least three of Ambassador Stevens' staff were also killed after militants stormed the consulate, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

ABC News reported that the attack was launched in revenge for the distribution of a film called Innocence of Muslims, which is being promoted by Terry Jones, the controversial Florida preacher, who is organised a Koran-burning in March 2010.

The U.S. government is worried that retaliatory attacks against U.S. consulates may continue, ABC News reported.

The attack that killed the four State Department employees today was the first murder of a U.S. ambassador in over 20 years. "The last time an American ambassador was killed by terrorists was in 1979, when the envoy to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped and killed during an attempt to rescue him, according to State Department records," reported CNN."

Eric Holder, Obama Administration Shred U.S. Constitution ; Say Assassination Of American Citizens Is O.K. Without Due Process

Twisted Interpretation Of U.S. Law May Allow Killings of American Citizens, Attorney General Eric Holder Says

From The New York Times :

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. asserted on Monday that it is lawful for the government to kill American citizens if officials deem them to be operational leaders of Al Qaeda who are planning attacks on the United States and if capturing them alive is not feasible.

“Given the nature of how terrorists act and where they tend to hide, it may not always be feasible to capture a United States citizen terrorist who presents an imminent threat of violent attack,” Mr. Holder said in a speech at Northwestern University’s law school. “In that case, our government has the clear authority to defend the United States with lethal force.”

While Mr. Holder is not the first administration official to address the targeted killing of citizens — the Pentagon’s general counsel, Jeh Johnson, did so last month at Yale Law School, for example — it was notable for the nation’s top law enforcement official to declare that it is constitutional for the government to kill citizens without any judicial review under certain circumstances. Mr. Holder’s remarks about the targeted killing of United States citizens were a centerpiece of a speech describing legal principles behind the Obama administration’s counterterrorism policies. ...