Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions.Tucker Carlson was not amused.
You may recall that, when legislation was enacted to criminalize legislators using nonpublic information to trade on stocks, Burr was one of the few to vote against it.
He was not the only one using his privileged position to make money.
The Senate’s newest member sold off seven figures’ worth of stock holdings in the days and weeks after a private, all-senators meeting on the novel coronavirus that subsequently hammered U.S. equities.Other senators to sell off a lot of stock before it became apparent to the general public what we faced were James Inhofe and Dianne Feinstein.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) reported the first sale of stock jointly owned by her and her husband on Jan. 24, the very day that her committee, the Senate Health Committee, hosted a private, all-senators briefing from administration officials, including the CDC director and Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on the coronavirus.
...
“Concerned about #coronavirus?” she tweeted on March 10. “Remember this: The consumer is strong, the economy is strong, & jobs are growing, which puts us in the best economic position to tackle #COVID19 & keep Americans safe.”
They're pretty much all claiming that either their spouse did it or their "blind trust" did it. Funny how their spouses and trust managers all seem to figure out that bad shit is going to happen before everyone else.
They all need to go and, if the evidence supports it, Lock Them Up!
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Changing gears:
On Thursday, police in Purcellville, Virginia posted a bulletin which said “juveniles” had been observed coughing on produce at a grocery store while filming the stunt — presumably for social media.Long prison terms and/or beatings are called for.
Nah, locking them us isn’t a good disincentive with minimum security and short terms. New law: A public official owning stock sells and someone believes they used inside information, they may file a complaint. A filed complaint will be heard by a three arbitrator board, one selected by the complainant, one by the official and the third by those two arbitrators together. If insider trading is the decision of these three (by majority vote), the fine is the dollar value between the sold price and the lowest price since then until the decision date, plus an additional 20% of total money received from the sale of the stock. That’s a disincentive!
ReplyDeleteWell, we know Funstein will do time for this, she's a democrat. I wonder if the rethugs involved will even be more than "mentioned".
ReplyDeleteWe all know "It's OK if you're a Rethug".
w3ski
I'm thinking more along the lines of what happened to Mussolini and Greta..... enough is enough.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Senator Ron Johnson. OTH, he is getting a pass because his sale was "planned" and it is just coincidental that the sale went through now.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in the alternate world of Borowitz where idiocy gleefully triumphs and is celebrated:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Amid speculation that United States senators might soon be working remotely, Senator Richard Burr on Friday demanded guarantees that senators working from home will still have access to insider-trading tips.
Speaking from the well of the Senate, an impassioned Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, said that a “system needs to be put in place—not tomorrow, not next week, but today—to insure that senators receive the insider-trading information that is both our lifeblood and our birthright.”
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/richard-burr-demands-assurance-that-senators-working-from-home-will-still-get-stock-tips
Gentlemen, I give you our hard-working Congresscritturs (two R, one D) sparing no effort to enrich themselves and make a new life out of the American citizen. Damn, but do we have representative kleptocracy or what? I am PROUD to be a 'Murican.
Well, it took two tries, and he won reelection in between, but Chris Collins got 26 months for his insider trading shenanigans, so perhaps we can rid ourselves of these corrupt congresscritters. And yes, I mean Feinstein too, if she's guilty. California can and will do better than her if she's gone.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Sugar Pine
I find it really frightening that CP and I are in agreement as to the penalties. Never thought it would happen that he and I would be on the same page...
ReplyDeleteScary.
Good call, CP!
B, you’re coming around to the common sense side. We welcome you. C’mon in. We’ve got cookies!
ReplyDeleteDale
What kind of cookies?
ReplyDeleteDepends, over on the left side they’re gluten-free and made with free range eggs...the ones on the far left are vegan...in the middle it’s just plain ol’chocolate chip. I assume you’ve already figured the cookies with nuts are on the right...
ReplyDeleteCP: Well done there.
ReplyDeleteI LOL'd
Here in California, the cookies may have pot in them. Don't eat more than one at a time, and don't drive afterward.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Sugar Pine