The Blind Shepherdess
Rodrigo Rato, one of our home-grown political criminals, has just had his jail sentence of four and a half years confirmed, and he will have to start serving his time soon. He was found guilty of swindling over €90,000 from Bankia through the use of "black" credit cards. Those were credit cards issued to several high-ranking members of the bank's direction illegally. When those cards were used (for just about everything but official bank business), the funds tapped were the actual funds of the bank's deposits.
Rato is going to jail for that particular crime, but he was also involved in schemes to bilk people of their money by having them invest in "preferentes", funds that invested money in the actual bank, but could not be touched for more than a hundred years. But that was in the small print and in absolute legalese that most small investors (overwhelmingly retired people) could not read or understand. How the mighty are fallen; from ex-director of the World Monetary Fund, and ex-minister of Finances, to prison inmate.
In 2016, a 24 year old man began serving a five year prison sentence for helping to falsify credit cards, and buy €80 worth of alcoholic and other beverages with one, six years earlier. He claimed, that in his 18 year-old innocence, he didn't know that the credit card a friend handed to him, with his own name on it, was false. But the judge didn't believe him and gave him no reprieve.
This past week, Esperanza Aguirre, ex-president of the Comunidad de Madrid, and lifelong member of the conservative Partido Popular, went on local television. She was asked about the prison sentence Rato, also a member of the Partido Popular, must comply with. She replied that she feels very badly for him, and that surely prison isn't meant for someone who "only" stole €90,000, and which he has paid back.
This is the same person, asking for clemency for a political friend whom she believes has not committed a crime, that, back in 2014, herself committed a minor crime and still claimed she was in the right. In April of that year, she parked in the bus lane on the Gran Vía in Madrid, just moments from her apartment. Two local cops on motorcycles saw her car, stopped, and began writing the car a ticket. She then showed up, argued with them, got in the car, and left, knocking over one of their motorcycles. The cops called for back up, and seven of them showed up at her apartment house to deliver the fine, and to detain her for knocking over the motorcycle and leaving the previous scene without permission. The brouhaha mounted over that merely showed her up as the political and social diva she considered herself to be.
And now she sees that a crime of misappropriation is not a crime, yet, to her, the guy who stole €80 worth of beverages is worthy of prison time. Of course, Rodrigo Rato is her friend and political companion. The 24 year old man is a poor soul with no connections, and a dangerous fraudster accused of credit card fraud against a supermarket, unlike Rato, who "only" stole and misappropriated money from thousands of depositers. How can people be so blind as to vote the likes of her into power anywhere? So many of us are truly sheep who will follow any blind pastor just because he tells us he'll lead us to a greener meadow. We don't care if he can see or not, because he's the pastor, we're the sheep.
Rato is going to jail for that particular crime, but he was also involved in schemes to bilk people of their money by having them invest in "preferentes", funds that invested money in the actual bank, but could not be touched for more than a hundred years. But that was in the small print and in absolute legalese that most small investors (overwhelmingly retired people) could not read or understand. How the mighty are fallen; from ex-director of the World Monetary Fund, and ex-minister of Finances, to prison inmate.
In 2016, a 24 year old man began serving a five year prison sentence for helping to falsify credit cards, and buy €80 worth of alcoholic and other beverages with one, six years earlier. He claimed, that in his 18 year-old innocence, he didn't know that the credit card a friend handed to him, with his own name on it, was false. But the judge didn't believe him and gave him no reprieve.
This past week, Esperanza Aguirre, ex-president of the Comunidad de Madrid, and lifelong member of the conservative Partido Popular, went on local television. She was asked about the prison sentence Rato, also a member of the Partido Popular, must comply with. She replied that she feels very badly for him, and that surely prison isn't meant for someone who "only" stole €90,000, and which he has paid back.
This is the same person, asking for clemency for a political friend whom she believes has not committed a crime, that, back in 2014, herself committed a minor crime and still claimed she was in the right. In April of that year, she parked in the bus lane on the Gran Vía in Madrid, just moments from her apartment. Two local cops on motorcycles saw her car, stopped, and began writing the car a ticket. She then showed up, argued with them, got in the car, and left, knocking over one of their motorcycles. The cops called for back up, and seven of them showed up at her apartment house to deliver the fine, and to detain her for knocking over the motorcycle and leaving the previous scene without permission. The brouhaha mounted over that merely showed her up as the political and social diva she considered herself to be.
And now she sees that a crime of misappropriation is not a crime, yet, to her, the guy who stole €80 worth of beverages is worthy of prison time. Of course, Rodrigo Rato is her friend and political companion. The 24 year old man is a poor soul with no connections, and a dangerous fraudster accused of credit card fraud against a supermarket, unlike Rato, who "only" stole and misappropriated money from thousands of depositers. How can people be so blind as to vote the likes of her into power anywhere? So many of us are truly sheep who will follow any blind pastor just because he tells us he'll lead us to a greener meadow. We don't care if he can see or not, because he's the pastor, we're the sheep.
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