Thursday, May 13, 2010

Pensions and failure to be outraged

I read this great article. The person who wrote it asked a simple question. If people running the state government pensions system, CalPers, are being charged with fraud (as is Mr. Villalobos), why aren't the politicians outraged. Good question. I think it deserves a little extra investigation.

Firstly, Elliot Broidy, here is a map showing some of his connections. Mr. Broidy plead guilty to bribing pension officials in New York and immediately resigned from the Los Angeles Police and Fire Pension Board. His company, Markstone, said it didn't expect his plea to impact their investments. LOL. Now Markstone has an ongoing relationship with CalPers. Hmmm

Broidy, pensions and unions

Here is where it gets interesting kids. Mr. Broidy was questioned in New York regarding all his connections to, Mr. Villalobos. Mr. Broidy was appointed to the Police and Fire Pension by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. At the end of the article it mentions the CIM Group. Broidy voted to allow the pension to invest $30 million in the CIM group. Hmmm. Wait and CIM was an investor in his company, Markstone.

Don't worry about getting all the detail, watch the connections. Now CIM was working with a man named Ari Swiller. Mr. Swiller is good friends with Villaraigosa. CIM and Swiller bought land in Kern with the intent of selling it to the City of Los Angeles DWP to make a wind farm and get the water rights.

At the time, Villaraigosa had a Deputy Mayor named David Freedman. Mr. Freedman had helped Mr. Swiller start a green energy company from 2004 to 2005. Mr. Freedman became the head of DWP. Oh, on an aside. During the energy rate hike controversy, Mr. Freedman was vacationing in Israel. He was replaced. Word in the City is that he was instructed not to return. How interesting.

Do you notice anything screwy about any of this? Unions, politicians, pensions, green energy and water. Oh year, and lots of money. Now CIM received over $200 million in investments from CalPers. How do you figure Villalobos voted on that investment? LOL.

Let me expand upon the question put forth by the author of the first article I mentioned. Why aren't the unions up in arms and screaming about the pension fraud and misdoings, why aren't the Governor and the Mayor of Los Angeles making this an issue, why isn't the City Council holding hearings? Why isn't this front page news every day when both the governor and mayor are saying that the pension system is too generous and is in jeopardy of failing?

By the way. Whatever happened to Andrew Adelman, perhaps he is visiting his brother and some Israelis. ROFL. He should not be too hard to find if anyone cares. I forgot, CIM also invested in loft conversions in Los Angeles. Even gave some units to people who had been on pension boards. Mr. Adelman was in charge of Building and Safety and it has been alleged he allowed asbestos removals without the proper protections. Alleged.

The Governor, the Mayor and President Obama attended the Copenhagen Climate Conference together. Heck, the Mayor is in D.C. right now. The Copenhagen Climate Conference was all about green technology and restricting your carbon emissions. All three are big supporters.

In my travels throughout the City I like to bring up CIM Group and see the reactions I get, they are quite fascinating. Most know nothing of the company, others cringe and say nothing. Some get very uncomfortable when I bring up CIM. Piss on them all.

Lets go back to Broidy for a second. Mr. Broidy invested $300,000 in a movie called, "Chooch". That was part of the bribe money he admitted to. The movie was made to benefit the girlfriend of Jack Chartier, an official in New York implicated in the scandal. The movie was distributed by a company founded by Steve Ratner. Who is Mr. Ratner you may ask, why he is the former head of the Obama administrations auto task force. And Markstone is now run by the former UN Ambassador from Israel.

It should begin to make sense to even the slowest person. I should also mention that Broidy was a big contributor to the Republican party in California and a major fundraiser for George W. Bush, the traitor. Well, they all are, I shouldn't single him out.

I grow bored with this. How the heck much can I post before people realize how bad it is and how obvious. Why isn't anyone screaming about these things, there are enough know facts out there as evidenced by the articles I have been linking to for the past year. Pensions are being used as the scapegoat for the failure of the criminals that benefited from their investments, not the pensioners, not the retirees, nope the politicians and insiders who skimmed hundreds of millions from the pensions by paying off and making promises to union officials. That is reality and we all get screwed because of it.

I beg the readers to at least let me know that you read this. I want to know that someone knows. Be well.

Some words from the great Hunter S. Thompson, lighten up kids.