Written by James and Jean Anton   

A few days ago I didn't realize what a puff article was.
Then I read the New York Times.

On the front page of the Business section, Oct 31, 2011, is a flattering photo of Ruth Madoff. Ruth Madoff, in case you do not know, is the wife of Bernard L. Madoff, who admitted to stealing 81.8 billion dollars, and may (who knows??) spend the rest of his life in a cushy low-security, comfortable sort-of prison built exclusively for the 1%, and their 1% friends and their 1% associates.

81.8 billion dollars is a lot of money to steal.
If you stole all the money from ALL the wage earners in England for a year, it would not be even close to 81.8 billion dollars.

They want us to feel sorry for her.

They want us to support her by buying her crocodile tears. They want us to feel sorry for her because she no longer owns her yachts, her town house in the South of France, her penthouse on Park Avenue, her designer wardrobe, her 10.5-carat diamond, and the family private jet. They want us to feel sorry for her because, "She now has just a thin slice of the life she once had.”

Because she has a "thin slice" of 81.8 billion dollars.

They explain that many exclusive Manhattan landlords have turned her down her application to reside in their buildings.
She can still afford a Manhattan townhouse or penthouse, but these landlords are afraid of the bad publicity. The Times wants us to feel sorry for her because she is “reduced’ to living in a gated community in Florida, like the 99%. Because townhouses in Florida are not for people of her stature - the 1%.
The Times (which is owned by the 1%) is begging for the understanding of the 99%.

“I think about the victims – it’s hard to face, because there’s nothing I can do about any of it,” she tells the author of the puff piece.

NOTHING SHE CAN DO ABOUT IT?

Maybe she could give the proceeds from the authorized (euphemism for puff) family biography to the victims of the Madoff crimes. Maybe she could stop paying lawyers who are protecting her from litigation from the victims of the crime of the century.

NOTHING SHE CAN DO ABOUT IT???

If she wanted to do the right thing, she’d stop pretending she is now a changed person (by occasionally volunteering to hand out sandwiches for Meals on Wheels). She'd work harder at finding the victims who now have absolutely nothing, and giving them something. Giving back to the victims is what she might devote her life to.

The filthy puff article in the Times shouldn’t be depicting Ruth Madoff as heroic in the face of misfortune. They should be demanding that people like her, and the other 1% who ruined this country, give it all back.

It ain’t about to happen, unless the 99% make them give it back.

James and Jean Anton have just launched www.Muse-press.org. They are in the process of gathering material on the 1% (from essayists, poets and artists who are equally outraged) which they plan to publish in an anthology in March, 2012.