Quinn Witch Hunt
8/16/2012
Irish people have this view of themselves as “rebels”. It doesn’t stack up to any analysis. In reality, we’re a sheep-like and gullible lot, ready, nay desperate, to believe in and look up to any shiny authority figure. Whether it’s the priests in the 1950s, or the police, or the British royal family, or big business, or Fianna Fáil, or Fine Gael, or bankers, there’ll always be an Irish person ready to tug the forelock and collude in their own shaftings.
Decent people are parroting what they read in the papers. We're being conned, and not for the first time in the history of the Irish state. The media is firmly on the side of the govt and the bank on this issue. Just as we sincerely believed in the honour and veracity of the church in the 1950s; just as the English genuinely believed their police’s version of events in various miscarriage cases; so do we now – despite all we know about them – believe our govt and our media and the bankers’ versions of events in the Quinn saga. It’s why we voted in a tweedle-dum FG party after being let down by the FF tweedle-dee party. “More of the same please, we want to believe you.”
Similarly, in the media (and by extension the 'Section 31'-trained poodle-public who suck up everything our right-wing millionaire-owned media throw at them), it’s taken as an article of faith that Anglo is telling the truth – and behaving honourably.
When will we wise up? My experience has been that “PR”-led govts and bankers lie almost by default; and if they tell the simple truth about anything, it's through a mistake. Step back from the derivative Quinn-bashing folks, and ask yourself three simple questions: 1. What is the benefit to the Irish people in Anglo's continued existence? Answers on a brown envelope to the Reichstag aka Leinster House ;) 2. Since the loans at the centre of the Anglo action are deemed fraudulent by the police, why are the Courts being used to enforce their repayment? 3. Who benefits in all of this? You? The Quinns? Hardly …
Aldous Huxley wrote that, in a democracy, "propaganda ... avoids logical argument and seeks to influence its victims ... by the furious denunciation of ... scapegoats ...".
The Southern media and politicians have spent the last few months frantically presenting the Quinns as the reason for Ireland's financial troubles. Recently, a popular trashy Dublin evening paper, in an hysterical article entitled "the Quinns stink", stated that: "... we in the Republic have to pick up the tab of over €2bn for Quinn's reckless speculation ... it's exactly because of people like Sean Quinn that our youth in the Republic now have to move overseas in search of employment."
How illogical can you get? Irish taxpayers have to "pick up the tab" for a fraudulent bank only because, late one night, the Irish government, meekly (or eagerly, depending on how cynical you are) and in secret, did what the banks told them to and took a spineless late night ‘decision’ to have the taxpayers bail them out, one that legally they were not required to do.
Mr Quinn would not have expected that our so-called right of centre government would have socialised private bank debt. He could not have foreseen that that a private business matter between him and Anglo the matter would one day end up being a burden on taxpayers. But this half-baked rationale is the basis for all the media attacks on the Quinns. It’s a propaganda campaign colluded in by politically-lobotomised shock jocks and gopher politicians on behalf of the bondholders in Anglo.
As part of this relentless selective reporting, we’re continually reminded that Anglo and the Quinn assets "belong to the Irish people". Bunkum. One of the tests of ownership of an asset is voting control. That is, the majority stakeholder can pool its votes and decide to, for instance, wind up the company. This is a key test of “ownership”- the ability to do stuff with the asset you “own”. Now, let’s test this. As “owners” of Anglo – as we’re being daily reminded as a way of focussing attention on Quinn – do we have any of these normal privileges and rights of ownership? Of course not. The “ownership by the Irish people” baloney is cynical, disingenuous, demagoguery - emotive cod-patriotism designed to get you on side with what is in reality an outrageous scam on the taxpayer. In relation to the future of Anglo, a pointless company this particular part-“owner” wants to see wound up and shut down immediately as being a needless drain on taxpayer’s money; you, me, every taxpayer, despite our so-called “ownership”, in fact have no normal ownership rights whatsoever. Some “ownership”. You’re paying for it alright, under duress and without being consulted, but saying that you “own” it in any recognisable legal sense is arrant nonsense.
You may have smiled when you hear of occasional chancers selling the Ritz or the Eiffel tower or Blarney Castle or the moon to gullible tourists, but the nonsense re “ownership” being spouted by the Irish govt (eager to cover up its own role in the Anglo scam) and its cynical shock-jock cheerleaders in the media is every bit as farcical, only this time’s the joke’s on you, “owner”.
Anglo and by extension the Quinn assets would not have become a burden on taxpayers in any other decently-ran country. In a normal country, Anglo would have went under (no loss there, they never were a high street bank anyway), Quinn would have lost his shirt (too bad, but that's capitalism, no sympathy there either), and it'd have in the main been little to do with plebs like you and me. Everybody knows that the bank guarantees coughed up by the govt under cover of darkness and without scrutiny was because they had their arms twisted by the banks and that this craven action was not in the best interest of the country but in the interest of the banks and their shady investors (who we cannot even name, never mind criticise).
I don’t give a damn about Quinn losing a heap of money in Anglo, but it is hilarious that the Irish populace are so easily brainwashed that they have bought the establishment line that Quinn is the main villain in the story of Ireland’s economic collapse. Had Anglo been let fail like any other sham business, no-one would be picking up any tabs. Sean Quinn was not party to the legally-needless decision to bail out Anglo; and Anglo had lied to Quinn like they lied to everyone else. The key point here is that this act of brazen plutarchic treachery is "old news". Any criticism of it is off the public agenda. Move on, nothing to see here, etc.
Instead of attacking this causal factor and keeping the spotlight on that, we are brainwashed into turning our collective ire on the effects / fallout of that decision. Old news or not, we're still paying for it, and it's still daylight robbery. Even Paul Singer, one of the US Republican party's most influential billionaire donors, is railing against what he correctly describes as "private reward and public risk". He wants better regulations imposed on banks to stop this nonsense: "Conservatives who believe in free markets should also believe in sound, fair markets. Private reward and public risk is not what conservatives should want." But let's not talk about our government's sordid little debt socialisation scheme; let's attack the Quinns instead. Let's throw the media and the public a boil-in-the-bag "opinion" to chew on. By the time they've calmed down and figured out what really happened, it'll be years into the future and will be old news. That's how it works.
It gets worse. Recently, Anglo put out a public tender to shred documents. The Irish taxpayer pays for this shredding. Meantime, the Guards have started arresting Anglo banksters for fraudulent lending. Amazingly, at the same time, Irish courts are enforcing the terms of these fraudulent loans against the Quinns. The Courts have little choice, as no fraud charges have yet been brought against the bankers. The Courts can only deal with the facts put in front of it. Our courts are honest players, staffed by people of unimpeachable integrity, but the wider game has been rigged. We do not have meaningful white collar crime resources. There is no political will to tread on banker toes. The net effect is that the decent people in our court service are helpless participants in a wider farce that is the antithesis of fair play. The chronology of events is cynically arse-about-face. In any fair or rational society, we’d work out to what extent Anglo’s loan book was a criminal ponzi scheme before rowing in behind the bank to enforce said loans. And by the time that ever happens, Anglo will have finished its shredding and gotten away with using the Courts to enforce their scam against one of its principal fall-guys, namely Mr Quinn. The Courts can only be rescued from being used in this issue through political intervention; but you can always rely on the Blueshirts to stand idly by when taxpayers are being shafted by bankers.
Anglo and its poodle govt in Leinster House is treating Irish taxpayers like idiots. The "blame the victim" red herring is an effective PR strategy by Anglo, and they're getting away with it because the Dublin media have taken the bait, hook, line and sinker. Whether this is down to the millionaire-owned Irish media's culture of sucking up to vested interests or to latent anti-Northern / anti-culchie prejudice is a moot point. (You’ll often find that the most virulent Quinn-bashing comes from a city dweller.)
It's a simple enough question – if the loans are deemed fraudulent by the police, how come the Courts can be used to enforce their repayment? How come nobody comments on this?
Something stinks alright, right at the centre of the State.
Decent people are parroting what they read in the papers. We're being conned, and not for the first time in the history of the Irish state. The media is firmly on the side of the govt and the bank on this issue. Just as we sincerely believed in the honour and veracity of the church in the 1950s; just as the English genuinely believed their police’s version of events in various miscarriage cases; so do we now – despite all we know about them – believe our govt and our media and the bankers’ versions of events in the Quinn saga. It’s why we voted in a tweedle-dum FG party after being let down by the FF tweedle-dee party. “More of the same please, we want to believe you.”
Similarly, in the media (and by extension the 'Section 31'-trained poodle-public who suck up everything our right-wing millionaire-owned media throw at them), it’s taken as an article of faith that Anglo is telling the truth – and behaving honourably.
When will we wise up? My experience has been that “PR”-led govts and bankers lie almost by default; and if they tell the simple truth about anything, it's through a mistake. Step back from the derivative Quinn-bashing folks, and ask yourself three simple questions: 1. What is the benefit to the Irish people in Anglo's continued existence? Answers on a brown envelope to the Reichstag aka Leinster House ;) 2. Since the loans at the centre of the Anglo action are deemed fraudulent by the police, why are the Courts being used to enforce their repayment? 3. Who benefits in all of this? You? The Quinns? Hardly …
Aldous Huxley wrote that, in a democracy, "propaganda ... avoids logical argument and seeks to influence its victims ... by the furious denunciation of ... scapegoats ...".
The Southern media and politicians have spent the last few months frantically presenting the Quinns as the reason for Ireland's financial troubles. Recently, a popular trashy Dublin evening paper, in an hysterical article entitled "the Quinns stink", stated that: "... we in the Republic have to pick up the tab of over €2bn for Quinn's reckless speculation ... it's exactly because of people like Sean Quinn that our youth in the Republic now have to move overseas in search of employment."
How illogical can you get? Irish taxpayers have to "pick up the tab" for a fraudulent bank only because, late one night, the Irish government, meekly (or eagerly, depending on how cynical you are) and in secret, did what the banks told them to and took a spineless late night ‘decision’ to have the taxpayers bail them out, one that legally they were not required to do.
Mr Quinn would not have expected that our so-called right of centre government would have socialised private bank debt. He could not have foreseen that that a private business matter between him and Anglo the matter would one day end up being a burden on taxpayers. But this half-baked rationale is the basis for all the media attacks on the Quinns. It’s a propaganda campaign colluded in by politically-lobotomised shock jocks and gopher politicians on behalf of the bondholders in Anglo.
As part of this relentless selective reporting, we’re continually reminded that Anglo and the Quinn assets "belong to the Irish people". Bunkum. One of the tests of ownership of an asset is voting control. That is, the majority stakeholder can pool its votes and decide to, for instance, wind up the company. This is a key test of “ownership”- the ability to do stuff with the asset you “own”. Now, let’s test this. As “owners” of Anglo – as we’re being daily reminded as a way of focussing attention on Quinn – do we have any of these normal privileges and rights of ownership? Of course not. The “ownership by the Irish people” baloney is cynical, disingenuous, demagoguery - emotive cod-patriotism designed to get you on side with what is in reality an outrageous scam on the taxpayer. In relation to the future of Anglo, a pointless company this particular part-“owner” wants to see wound up and shut down immediately as being a needless drain on taxpayer’s money; you, me, every taxpayer, despite our so-called “ownership”, in fact have no normal ownership rights whatsoever. Some “ownership”. You’re paying for it alright, under duress and without being consulted, but saying that you “own” it in any recognisable legal sense is arrant nonsense.
You may have smiled when you hear of occasional chancers selling the Ritz or the Eiffel tower or Blarney Castle or the moon to gullible tourists, but the nonsense re “ownership” being spouted by the Irish govt (eager to cover up its own role in the Anglo scam) and its cynical shock-jock cheerleaders in the media is every bit as farcical, only this time’s the joke’s on you, “owner”.
Anglo and by extension the Quinn assets would not have become a burden on taxpayers in any other decently-ran country. In a normal country, Anglo would have went under (no loss there, they never were a high street bank anyway), Quinn would have lost his shirt (too bad, but that's capitalism, no sympathy there either), and it'd have in the main been little to do with plebs like you and me. Everybody knows that the bank guarantees coughed up by the govt under cover of darkness and without scrutiny was because they had their arms twisted by the banks and that this craven action was not in the best interest of the country but in the interest of the banks and their shady investors (who we cannot even name, never mind criticise).
I don’t give a damn about Quinn losing a heap of money in Anglo, but it is hilarious that the Irish populace are so easily brainwashed that they have bought the establishment line that Quinn is the main villain in the story of Ireland’s economic collapse. Had Anglo been let fail like any other sham business, no-one would be picking up any tabs. Sean Quinn was not party to the legally-needless decision to bail out Anglo; and Anglo had lied to Quinn like they lied to everyone else. The key point here is that this act of brazen plutarchic treachery is "old news". Any criticism of it is off the public agenda. Move on, nothing to see here, etc.
Instead of attacking this causal factor and keeping the spotlight on that, we are brainwashed into turning our collective ire on the effects / fallout of that decision. Old news or not, we're still paying for it, and it's still daylight robbery. Even Paul Singer, one of the US Republican party's most influential billionaire donors, is railing against what he correctly describes as "private reward and public risk". He wants better regulations imposed on banks to stop this nonsense: "Conservatives who believe in free markets should also believe in sound, fair markets. Private reward and public risk is not what conservatives should want." But let's not talk about our government's sordid little debt socialisation scheme; let's attack the Quinns instead. Let's throw the media and the public a boil-in-the-bag "opinion" to chew on. By the time they've calmed down and figured out what really happened, it'll be years into the future and will be old news. That's how it works.
It gets worse. Recently, Anglo put out a public tender to shred documents. The Irish taxpayer pays for this shredding. Meantime, the Guards have started arresting Anglo banksters for fraudulent lending. Amazingly, at the same time, Irish courts are enforcing the terms of these fraudulent loans against the Quinns. The Courts have little choice, as no fraud charges have yet been brought against the bankers. The Courts can only deal with the facts put in front of it. Our courts are honest players, staffed by people of unimpeachable integrity, but the wider game has been rigged. We do not have meaningful white collar crime resources. There is no political will to tread on banker toes. The net effect is that the decent people in our court service are helpless participants in a wider farce that is the antithesis of fair play. The chronology of events is cynically arse-about-face. In any fair or rational society, we’d work out to what extent Anglo’s loan book was a criminal ponzi scheme before rowing in behind the bank to enforce said loans. And by the time that ever happens, Anglo will have finished its shredding and gotten away with using the Courts to enforce their scam against one of its principal fall-guys, namely Mr Quinn. The Courts can only be rescued from being used in this issue through political intervention; but you can always rely on the Blueshirts to stand idly by when taxpayers are being shafted by bankers.
Anglo and its poodle govt in Leinster House is treating Irish taxpayers like idiots. The "blame the victim" red herring is an effective PR strategy by Anglo, and they're getting away with it because the Dublin media have taken the bait, hook, line and sinker. Whether this is down to the millionaire-owned Irish media's culture of sucking up to vested interests or to latent anti-Northern / anti-culchie prejudice is a moot point. (You’ll often find that the most virulent Quinn-bashing comes from a city dweller.)
It's a simple enough question – if the loans are deemed fraudulent by the police, how come the Courts can be used to enforce their repayment? How come nobody comments on this?
Something stinks alright, right at the centre of the State.
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