o hear the number $13 billion dollars as a fine in the much-leaked-but-finally-announced Department of Justice (DOJ) settlement with JPMorgan Chase is meant to imply that the DOJ is getting tough on Wall Street. After all, $13 billion dollars is a jaw-dropping pile of money.

In reality, it is, according to The New York Times only "half the bank’s annual profit." As BuzzFlash at Truthout has pointed out in the past, that still means roughly $6.5 billion dollars in profit for the behemoth financial institution, no apparent cut in the oligarchical compensation of the likes of JPMorgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, and no major changes in the salaries or composition of Dimon's executive team.

Furthermore, the NYT reports that "Marianne Lake, JPMorgan’s chief financial officer, emphasized that $7 billion of the settlement was tax-deductible." In addition, as BuzzFlash reported in an earlier commentary, JPMorgan may -- if you can believe this -- may receive several billions of dollars in FDIC coverage that would offset as much as a third of the $13 billion fine.

But then we get down to the basic fact that the DOJ still cannot answer. How can a bank-too-bit-to-fail commit $13 billion worth of fraud and yet no one committed a crime? Yes, the agreement allows for a Sacramento US prosecutor to pursue some relatively minor criminal charges in California, but that looks like about it.

If you’re drinking something right now you’d better swallow before you read this or you’ll have it shooting out your nostrils. Sean Duffy is hosting a ” Hunger and Homelessness Summit ” in Wausau on December 18th! Can you say ” brazen hypocrite?“ I knew you could!

Duffy voted to cut food stamp benefits by 40 billion dollars over the next ten years, has repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act without offering an alternative which leaves working families vulnerable to medical bankruptcy and crushing debt, and when over 100 constituents gathered in front of his Wausau office in the summer of 2012 demanding that he support legislation that would increase the minimum wage one of his staffers called them “a bunch of professional protesters “. What a guy.

Here’s an idea, Sean. Instead of posing for a campaign photo op at a summit of professional organizations that are actually trying to do something about these problems, why don’t YOU do something too? Grow a spine and issue a public statement in support of the ” Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013. ”

Fair wages puts a roof over the heads of, and food on the tables of, working families all across Wisconsin. That’s the Real World, Sean. Photo opportunities and cheap publicity stunts are mighty short on both shelter and nutritional value.

Despite having only 9.9% of the state's population, the Madison metropolitan statistical area (MSA) has accounted for 36.9% of the state's total private job growth since Scott Walker took office, according to an analysis of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Salaries (QCES).

From January 2011 to January 2013, Madison created 21,548 of Wisconsin 58,322 private sector jobs, a speedy annual job growth rate that clocks-in at 4.4%. The Milwaukee MSA -- which accounts for 27.4% of Wisconsin's population and includes Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties -- was a distant second at 14,730 private jobs created, which is an annual job growth rate of only 1.1%.

Overall the state's overall annual job growth of 1.3% has been well below the national annual job growth average of 2.2%, but without Madison, the annual rate of growth in Wisconsin has been a barely-moving .83%. In fact, if the rest of Wisconsin had experienced the same private job growth as Madison, the state would be on pace to have 388,183 new jobs by the end of Walker's first term-- far eclipsing his stated goal of 250,000.

Given these statistics, one would expect that the governor of Wisconsin to be spreading what's working in Madison to the rest of state, right? Nope. In fact, Governor Scott Walker takes every opportunity to belittle Wisconsin's capital city. Recently Walker said, "I think it’s pretty clear that you have two very different worlds in this state. You have a world driven by Madison and a world driven by everybody else in the state of Wisconsin."

STARING at busty women can lengthen your life, scientists have proved. A German study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concludes that staring at women's breasts for a few minutes daily is better for your health than going to the gym.

"Just 10 minutes of looking at the charms of well-endowed females is equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out," said author Dr Karen Weatherby, an expert on ageing. The research team, led by Dr Weatherby, spent five years monitoring the effects of this unique discovery.

The men who were told to stare at bosoms daily had lower blood pressure and slower resting pulse rates and also decreased their risk of coronary artery disease.

Dr Weatherby explained: "Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation.