TENAC, The Election & Current Crisis
TENAC, THE ELECTION & CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS
SHAME, SHAME, John McCain!
Written by JMG Wednesday, 14 January 2009 15:32
Listening to the Republican Candidate for President, one wonders whether one is hearing John McCain or Joe McCarthy. When McCain accuses Democratic Nominee Barak Obama of being "willing to lose the war in Iraq to win an election," the senior senator from Arizona morphs into the junior senator from Wisconsin. McCain's attack on Obama resurrects old 1950's Nixon/McCarthy demagoguery like "Who Lost China," and other extremist smears hurled against the Democrats. All that is missing is the classic Nixonian post-smear disclaimer: "Now I do not impugn ............'s patriotism." (Right after he did just that, of course.)McCain's slanders against Obama signal the return of an especially vicious time in American political life. Senator Obama is obviously not "willing to lose a war to win an election," but is Senator McCain willing to resurrect Senator Joe McCarthy to win one? Is he willing also to have "McCainism" become synonymous with McCarthyism?
The McCainiacs have also coined the expression "Country First." What does that mean? That Obama puts country second? Third? Last? That is nothing but "McCarthy Lite." When the country has been put into an economic coma by George "Herbert Hoover" Bush, when our entire financial system seems headed for receivership, when Introduction to Economics 101 reads like rocket science to John McCain, what's the Republican Candidate to do? Why jump on the Republican "smearmobile" of course! Right-wing Republicans know that script well. The real question is whether the Republicans would rather exhume Joe McCarthy than lose an election.
BANKS' MEA CULPA? DON'T BET ON IT!
Written by JMG Tuesday, 24 February 2009 23:52
Wells Fargo Bank's full page piece in The Washington Post, "The Value of Team Member Recognition," leaves all of us misty-eyed. Its lamentations over postponement of bank bonuses are truly heart rending. One should keep a box of Kleenex handy while reading it.
No mention of dollar amounts of past or proposed bonuses is made, however, even though there was a full page ad to do so. That's a lot of newsprint, even using oversize type. It's also costs an oversize price -- the last time we looked, a full page ad in the Post cost $36,000 -- but probably one Wells Fargo can well afford. We think the Post should donate that fee to help home foreclosure victims, or better yet, set up a fund for that purpose. Many tenants, after all, have been hurt in the crossfire of foreclosures, renting housing unaware of owner liability and subsequently getting kicked out by the banks. Wells Fargo's solution to the Bush Depression? Bonuses for bankers, of course!
Wells Fargo poignantly describes hardships caused by postponed bonuses, but the postponement lasts only until the end of 2009, less than a year. What happens then? Reinstatement of bonuses? Bonuses indexed for inflation? Bonuses reverse-indexed for deflation? The full page ad ends with a cry of sadness: "We just hope the hardworking people of America understand, appreciate and support employers who try to do the right thing for their team members, customers, communities, and shareholders."
Our hope is a little different. We hope this country's hard-working people will remember the "platinum fleecing" of America by the banking industry, continue to wonder why virtually none of these pirates are behind bars, and demand that the Justice Department belatedly be ordered to investigate this outrageous situation.
BUSH DEPRESSION RIPS TENANTS
Written by Jim McGrath Tuesday, 03 March 2009 18:43
We don't know why politicians and pundits tiptoe around it--"Depression"--since it's plain we are in one. True there are "depressions" and "depressions." Maybe we should call this one "Depression Lite." With millions of jobs lost, many banks closed and tottering, bankruptcies and housing foreclosures everywhere, however, a person could be forgiven for seeing Grapes of Wrath II. Of course it's not Hoover 1929; it's Bush 2008.
Are we despairing? No! A toxic, stunted bush has been uprooted, and a tall, solid tree planted. It's "A Tree Grows in Washington." We believe its fruit will nourish all, not just the favored few. That will take time unfortunately. Meanwhile, poor people, homeless, the disabled, students, and struggling tenants, trying to survive, continue to bear serious burdens.
Tenants face grossly-inflated locked-in "market rate" rents from the disastrous housing bubble of recent years. Talk of "deflation" stalks the land, but we see no reduction in rents in this city. Landlords continue to cry "market rate," but the market has become a casino and the landlords are breaking the bank at Monte Carlo. The "condominium craze" continues to eliminate rent-controlled housing. Finally, we see outrageous threats against tenant associations, one coming up rapidly for a hearing, where tenants have been threatened with arrest for assembling in their own lobby. Enough already!
Long Live Tenants' Rights!
CRIME BUT NO PUNISHMENT!
Written by Jim McGrath Sunday, 15 March 2009 23:39
The Bible says there is a time for everything under the sun. Presumably that includes taking a look back in anger at the reasons for our economic and fiscal meltdowns, and bringing to justice some of the pirates responsible. The president shies away from taking that look back, seeing it as something of a deterrent to recovery. While we strongly support him in general, we strongly disagree with him on his "looking straight ahead" policy. We think a hard-headed, harsh-hearted look back is critical not only for recovery, but for defusing the toxic anger of the American people.
The great French novelist, Honore de Balzac, once said: "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime!" We believe that there are many great crimes behind the fortunes looted from the American people by the Wall Street and Big Bank buccaneers. We are reminded of the Holocaust, where all that killing went on and "nobody knew anything." We are in the midst of a financial holocaust, where untold numbers made a financial "killing" at the enormous expense of us all and "nobody is to blame." The big boys on Wall Street and in Big Bank USA know where the money went and how it got there, and they need to be held strictly accountable. A kid with an ounce of marijuana on him can easily end up in D.C. jail. A tenant one month behind in rent can be evicted out onto the street. Do we continue to keep two sets of books when it comes to justice in this country? Is this the latest version of "Equal Justice Under Law"?
The fleecing of America must not remain an unknown story where a new class of "robber barons" gets away scot free while the rest of us pay through the nose for grand larceny and greed on an epic scale. There are many big players trying to pick up the pieces in this economic catastrophe, including the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Missing in action in this fiscal crime wave, however, are the Attorney General and the Justice Department.
LET THE INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN!
Page 2 of 9
Recent Videos
Condolences Condoleezza
Latest Dispatches
Latest From United for Peace & Justice
©2008–2010 Wrath of McGrath All rights reserved.