God, it makes me proud to be an American. In no other country on earth are there so many ways the rich can screw the poor. Breathtaking, it is. Awe-inspiring.
You are no doubt familiar with the mass rape of the middle class recently carried out by the banking industry, with the help of its friends at the Fed and Treasury and the complicity of both national political parties, and perhaps your attention has also been drawn to the curious case of the cessation in foreclosures around the nation for “clerical errors” which, given the investigations sprouting all over the place by state attorneys general, indicates that it wasn’t exactly a matter of “errors”.
Perhaps you, like me, are entertaining glorious fantasies of pitchforks and bonfires and mobs converging on the estates of corporate executives. If not, perhaps the latest disclosures of bank practices will sufficiently motivate you.
It seems that in California, for the past three years, Bank (Robbers) of America and its fellow crooks have extracted $38 million in ‘fees’ charged to the poor for cashing welfare checks. Thanks to a decision by the state’s Department of Social Services, there are no paper checks. Payments are in the form of electronic delivery, and recipients have no alternative but to make withdrawals.
Imagine the thrill inside the board rooms: a captive class of the poorest, least powerful, paying the banks for the privilege of receiving their own money. Imagine the Christmas bonus for the person who dreamed this one up. Chase, which has used the multi-billion-dollar federal heist to take over other banks, increase its profits, and consolidate its preeminence in the industry, had offered free withdrawals prior to September, 2007. They now charge $3.00. Citibank, which used some of its bailout cash to buy ‘naming rights’ to the New York Mets baseball stadium, bumped its fees to $3.00 as well.
Meanwhile, news via RSN and other internet sources: the biggest banks have located yet another method for leveraging people into poverty. They’ve created new ‘collection agency’ operations which tack ‘penalties’ and other ‘fees’ onto delinquent mortgages. So, while actual foreclosures are in many cases on hold, the business of nailing ordinary people to the wall continues unabated. Citi, as the slogan goes, never sleeps –– it is fucking you over twenty-four hours a day.
The situation appears to be this:
In the United States, the political system has been usurped by the wealthy, by the banks and other corporate enterprises. Both major parties are in complete capitulation to these owners. When such a situation develops in a nation, the economy is promptly looted and the military is used where needed to control dissent. That is the model for every country in history which otherwise claimed democratic ideals.
Oligarchy is impossible in a democracy, and democracy is impossible in an oligarchy. Yet in America, we’ve been brainwashed to accept it as an article of faith that ‘democracy’ is not only consistent with but requires a ‘free enterprise system.’ But a ‘free enterprise system’ is, of course, economic anarchy, where money collects in the coffers of those prepared to do anything for it.
The banking system is a system of monetary control, and every other aspect of domestic life depends on it for survival. Thus, the bankers were able to extort the largest payoff in world history from a Congress which did not even require that they disclose what they used it for.
Several representatives complained that they’d been told, in closed-door ‘briefings’, that failure to pass the bailout would lead to martial law. Most did not need reminding that they had themselves been the eager recipients of millions in campaign funds from these same banks, including President Barack Obama, who was heavily-financed by the largest banks.
One member, Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) described what took place as a ‘coup d’etat.’
Hard to say what’s going to happen next. The results in two weeks will no doubt be completely misinterpreted in the mainstream media and among politicians of both parties. Crazies are going to be elected all over the place, including, probably, to the United States Senate.
Menawhile, the country’s middle class is being driven further into debt and the poor are being driven to desperation. See, a three dollar ‘assessment’ for cashing a welfare check doesn’t mean much to a banker, but it’s a lot to someone who has little. I don’t want to hear any politician quoting or otherwise invoking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., anymore, nor the Kennedys. This government, including the leaders of both parties and the President, has acquiesced to practices and policies that King and the Kennedys spent their lives trying to prevent.
And as for the President, it was Barack Obama, not George Bush, who joked with a roomful of $30,000.00-a-piece donors several weeks ago that his critics on the left want him to fix everything faster.
No, don’t worry, Mr. President, you just take your time. It’s still autumn; the heavy rains and winter cold won’t start killing poor people for at least a couple of months.
