Todd Gitlin over at TPM Cafe has an interesting post up about Bernie Madoff’s smile.
Take a look at the NYT photo of Bernard Madoff arriving at court to hear a Federal judge uphold a lower-court decision that he may stay in his splendid apartment while out on $10 million bail.
…It’s his triumphant smile that interests me. Most Madoff photos display that same smile of controlled geniality. He knows all the angles. He knows how the game is played, that is, rigged. This is the smile of a man who knows. He knows the game. He knows you and he knows me. When he was ahead of the game, he basked in the glow of esteem. He relished the chance to grant favors. He prided himself in making his friends richer. When the house of cards collapsed, he was left standing. He believes that he will remain standing. He knows his good fortune has been to live in the right place at the right time to get his name engraved in cornerstones. He has probably worked out a way to feel like a martyr. Losers are schmucks. What he knows is what George W. Bush knows: God bless America, a country where he’s going to land on his feet.
Sure, he’ll land on his feet. The rest of us will cushion his fall.
This isn’t the same picture in the Times article, but the smile is pretty much the same. In fact, it’s better.
It’s understandable that people wonder, “What’s this guy got to smile about?” But this is a guy who effectively stole (at least) $50 billion. And he lived quite well while he carried out this theft.
There was the Upper East Side apartment, in a building where they go for upwards of $5 million.
In fact, there still is the Upper East Side apartment, since thats where he’s been under house arrest.
There’s a 55-foot yacht parked somewhere.
There’s two private planes: a Cessna Citation X…
And an Embraer business jet.
There’s the Palm Beach Mansion.
Plus beachfront property, country club memberships, etc.
This is a guy who took $250 ten days before his arrest, another $10 million six days before his arrest, which — again — he effectively stole. And he’s still out on bail?
Yes. That’s part of the reason for that smile. He’s still out on bail, even though he had about $173 million in checks ready to send out to friends and relatives, to stash till the heat was off of him, and violated bail by mailing off another $1 million in jewelry and watches for safe keeping. Plus he may have transferred up to $300 million worth of assets to keep them from being seized.
And the rest of his estimated $850 million in assets? Nobody can find it. Nobody knows how much there really is. Nobody except Bernie, that is.
Thus, the smile. He knows all of this is a mere formality, and when it’s all over he’ll be just fine.
I know that smile. I went to college with it. I saw it plastered across the face of every entitled frat boy who already knew his way was paved. These were the guys who drove BMW’s in college. (I got my folks’ old station wagon and was glad to get it.) They could stagger through most of of their education, graduate with a “gentleman’s C” — or even fail — and still be guaranteed a job in daddy’s firm or with one of their well-connected family’s friends. In fact, they knew, as Gitlin said above, that no matter how bad they mucked it up, they would land on their feet, and someone else would clean it up and pay the bill. They knew they couldn’t fail because they wouldn’t be allowed to fail.
And even when they muck it up on purpose, they can still smile, because they know they’re going to get away with it.
We’ve all lived with that smile for the last eight years. I call it The “I Got It Made” Smile. And it comes in many forms.
Sometimes it’s a smirk.
And nothing, not even numbers like these, can wipe it off.
Sometimes it’s a sneer.
Sometimes it’s a sly grin.
And not even the possibility of prosecution for war crimes can wipe it off.
Not even the reality of all they’ve done can wipe it off.
Whether it’s a smile, a smirk, a sneer, or a sly grin, it only and always has one thing to say.
“Yeah, I did it. And I’ll get away with it, too.”
What have these guys got to smile about? A lot.
That is, if they really do get away with it.
Pictures tell a lot. Evil seems to cause a gradual dehumanization of the face. The inner ghoul comes out.
Actually I think Madoff is a stupid criminal. I think even W has an “out”..his ranch in Paraguay. Madoff’s own arrogance, while imprisoned living in 5 mil condo. He could be digging for worms in Paraguay waiting to see who in the Bush Administration will be joining him.
President Hugo of Paraguay was a former bishop in the Roman Catholic church who subscribed to liberation theology. He has promised to honor Paraguayan treaties on extradition.
It would not surprise me to see him get Jack Ruby’d one of these days.
Google <Madoff + CIA>, <Madoff + AIG> and/or <Madoff + Kronard> for explanations regarding this smile.
The fix is in, and it has been in for well over 60 years. An intelligence system that has extensive connections in the financial sector, inside information at the highest levels of international business and governmental affairs and absolute unaccountability in terms of its investments, its control of various levels of the media and its actions? The words “congressional oversight” must bring this sort of smile to the faces of literally thousands of spook-related faces.
They are home free once they reach a level where they are too publicly visible to easily eliminate and have proven their absolute loyalty to the fix. The vast reach of this PermaGov becomes more and more clear to me with each passing day, as does its almost total secrecy and how deeply it is entrenched in the medi-hypnotized (un)consciousness of this culture. I am beginning to wonder if the only way to truly cure the country of this disease is going to be to kill the patient. These people pictured above know this as well.
Thus the smile.
Madoff?
He knows things. Things that would bring this system to its knees. And he has proof hidden away somewhere, I will guarantee. Proof that would appear if he was honestly prosecuted and justly punished for his crimes.
His justification? The one that allows his smile to be in some respects genuine?
Bet on it.
If we continue to successfully do business on this level…and I would not bet against it…in a decade or two you will see a Hollywood movie where Madoff is cast as some sort of hero.
Watch.
It’s how things work here.
Watch.
Meanwhile…trust no one.
Especially if they have been given the corporate stamp of approval.
Sorry, but there it is.
Deal with it.
He’s gonna have to prove otherwise to me.
BIG time.
Yes, Terrance, there is a Satan Clause.
And they are going to get away with it.
In the short term, at least.
So it goes.
Watch.
Later…
AG