It Ain't Untold Its Retold

English Union Songs from the 1700's

"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose"

What is that about the more things change the more they stay the same? If it is not nailed down someone who has more hunger than power is likely to take it. If it is nailed down or otherwise fixed in place, such as real property, someone who has more power than compassion is likely to take it. In spite of what the Republican's would have you believe, crime is not an equal opportunity employer -- at least not as it is applied to the most profitable white collar crimes. Pay a nickel, pay a dime, if you pay enough you can buy a crime! How many of the principals engaged in the Wall Street frauds and bank frauds that caused the great recession are in jail? The answer is none, and the acts they committed were not just unethical they were criminal. Yet those miscreants were let off the hook. Instead of holding those powerful men accountable for the foul deeds they committed the responsibility was shifted to the institutions they control, and those institutions were subjected to civil penalties only, meaning they paid fines or awards. So what does this mean for you and me?

In regard to the fraudulent activities of Wall Street and the mega-banks it means that little has changed since Bush's great recession. As Richard Eskow said in “Bernie's Right. Wall Street's Business Model Really Is A Fraud” published this month by ourfuture.org:

“After Congress moved to restrain some of the banks’ cheating and overcharging, a JPMorgan Chase executive said that customers with less than $100,000 in investments and assets would no longer be “profitable” for the megabank.

That’s tantamount to confessing that they need to bilk ordinary customers – by doing things like hiding overdraft charges, making checks bounce by manipulating the order in which they’re cashed, and charging excessive ATM fees – in order to make money as a consumer bank.

But that’s not the only line of business where banks commit fraud. The major offenses committed by our largest banks include “price fixing, bid rigging, market manipulation, money laundering, document forgery, lying to investors, sanctions-evading, and tax dodging.”

The economists and spokespeople hired by Wall Street and mega-banks tell us it is not that simple. You can't just start throwing people in jail, they say. This is really complicated stuff, far too complicated for you to understand!

All right so lets have a look at that contention. While some of the fraudulent activities of Wall Street and the mega banks seem too abstract for the average voter to grasp, the people who are being cheated and overcharged by mega banks have no problem telling you they are getting screwed, and the people who lost their homes because of bank frauds have no trouble telling you they are still suffering from getting screwed. These things are personal, as are jobs lost to bad trade agreements and contaminated drinking water caused by neglect and far too often by fracking. Believe me, most of the victims are in no mood to be patient. People are angry and the anger will get even uglier as it increases. No longer content with merely railing at the great gods of free enterprise and social darwinism the victims of this rigged economy are now lighting torches. And you do not want to see where they intend to put those torches if their circumstances and opportunities do not change! Let me just say it is not where you want to feel the burn.

This brings me Susan Sarandon and the interview that has caused such a flap. Although she obviously thought she should clarify the statements so many people misinterpreted to mean that she would not vote for Hillary Clinton, Ms. Sarandon's comments about Bernie Sanders need no explanation because they already accurately state the hopes and desires of many very disgruntled people. As Ms Sarandon told MSNBC's Chris Hayes, she supports Bernie Sanders because:

“I really want to be on the right side of history and this is a shot we're not going to have in my lifetime to have a candidate that's so morally consistent, makes decisions, whose judgment proves to be true but does it at a time when it's not popular, when it’s not comfortable. A candidate who’s not taking any money from fracking or Monsanto or, you know Super PACs or Wall Street or big farm which all the other candidates have.”

The excitement and hope embodied in this statement of support for Bernie Sanders are not to be taken lightly. The expectations of the people demanding reform are high. Hillary beware, these are the people you must win over if you are nominated!