Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

**dahjah** · 10-02-2008, 09:52 PM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

Bailout Lesson: Capital Crisis Will Wreck Both Parties PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, 01 October 2008

by BAR executive editor Glen FordBailoutGraphic

The crisis of finance capital has thrown both big business parties into extreme disarray and split the Congressional Black Caucus right down the middle. "In the aftermath of Monday's bloody siege, it was difficult to tell who Wall Street guns-for-hire John McCain and Barack Obama hated most: each other, or the citizens who despite their outraged confusion had the presence of mind to bar the doors to the national treasury." As the Obama-McCain-Bush-Pelosi Axis struggles to serve a common master, "the rest of us must fashion new institutions to perform the societal tasks that were purportedly the domain of the now-extinct investment bankers."
Bailout Lesson: Capital Crisis Will Wreck Both PartiesBailoutGraphic

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

"The Democratic and Republican Parties, creatures of capital, are decomposing in full view."

In their role as mercenaries in service of finance capital, three-fifths of Democrats joined one-third of Republicans in a (temporarily) failed heist of $700 billion of the people's funds - a nest-egg the public needs to hold onto to weather the unfolding collapse of the Lords of Capital. In the aftermath of Monday's bloody siege, it was difficult to tell who Wall Street guns-for-hire John McCain and Barack Obama hated most: each other, or the citizens who despite their outraged confusion had the presence of mind to bar the doors to the national treasury.

Understandably disoriented from having had to charge backwards - pretending to lead the people while simultaneously assaulting them - Obama peered across the field at the hastily-erected barricades that had broken Hank Paulson's Charge. "I'm confident we're going to get there," said the frustrated thief-enabler, "but it's going to be rocky."

To paraphrase Oscar Brown, Jr., "What you mean WE, Obama-man?" The Illinois senator and his pretend-opponents in the other business party just had their colluding asses kicked by the most motley, disorganized crew imaginable: the American public, who bombarded their legislators with threats of retaliation in November if they bowed to Wall Street's extortionist demands.

Never has Republican-Democratic co-subservience to finance capital been on such naked display. But then, "We the People" have never before been witness to the terminal unraveling of late-stage global finance capital. (See BAR, "Death Rattles of a Criminal Class," September 24.) When the New York Times features no less than three articles declaring the nation's investment bankers ready for burial, as did last Sunday's paper, it is time for the Democrats, especially, to find another paymaster.

Black Caucus Split

Obama's party is wedded to Wall Street. At the local level the Democrats have long been the party of "developers" - the money bags who shape urban policy to fit the needs of corporations. These gentrifiers are the "Renaissance Men" that insist Black politicians earn their campaign and graft payments by helping to expel their own constituents from the cities, so as to make them more congenial to business. Betrayal starts at home. So it's not surprising to find Rep. Charles Rangel (NY), the corporate-loving Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, among the 18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to vote with the Bush-McCain-Obama Wall Street Axis. Edolphus Towns (NY), Gregory Meeks (NY), and Artur Davis (AL) are also in their element, reeking as they do of corporate excretions. However, it is strange - and sad - to see Maxine Waters (CA), Gwen Moore (WI) and other relatively progressive members aligned with the rump end of the Black Caucus.

Among the slim, 21-member majority of the CBC that defied Speaker Nancy Pelosi's edicts, one finds more curious company. Voting alongside usually reliable progressives such as Barbara Lee (CA), John Conyers (MI), Donna Edwards (MD) and Bobby Scott (VA), are some of the Caucus's most rightwing members: William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (LA) and David Scott (GA), once described as the "Worst Black Congressman" in the House. Panic makes strange bedfellows.

Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott summed up the "No" position: "There's no point in spending all this money on worthless assets" such as toxic mortgages. Detroit's Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick said of the Obama-McCain-Bush-Paulson plan, "This helps the banks in their book of mortgages. It doesn't help the little person who needs it."

"It is strange - and sad - to see Maxine Waters (CA), Gwen Moore (WI) and other relatively progressive members aligned with the rump end of the Black Caucus."

These are eminently good reasons to resist the bipartisan, flag-waving, hyper-ventilating and increasingly ill-looking Wall Street mob, now regrouping for another bum-rush of the Congress. However, the anxious thieves are only a 12-vote switch away from consummating the Greatest Theft Ever. Pelosi's wing of the Business Party is confident they can assemble the blandishments and threats to do the trick.

The Last Hold-up

The criminal-minded and mortally wounded Lords of Capital believed, as Pam Martens has written, that they could "loot and collapse a 200-year old financial system and...be rewarded with a fresh $700 billion of public money to disperse among your cronies who aided and abetted in the collapse."

Or, as Mike Whitney puts it:

"...the $700 billion is just part of a massive ‘pump and dump' scheme engineered with the tacit approval of the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Once the banksters have offloaded their fraudulent securities and crappy paper on Uncle Sam, they will do whatever they need to do to pad the bottom line and drive their stocks up. That means they will shovel capital into hard assets, foreign currencies, gold, interest rate swaps, carry trade swindles, and Swiss bank accounts. The notion that they will recapitalize so they can provide loans to US consumers and businesses in a slumping economy is a pipedream."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his designated wrecking crew have but one objective: theft. Their own world is doomed - "The system is de-leveraging and nothing can stop it," says Whitney - so they are pulling off one last, mega-heist before it sinks beneath the waves.

The rest of us must fashion new institutions to perform the societal tasks that were purportedly the domain of the now-extinct investment bankers: to gather large amounts of capital for projects of social value - for example, a Marshall-type Plan for the cities, a nationwide infrastructure makeover, and fulfillment of the 70-year old federal commitment to provide truly affordable housing for everyone. And of course, jobs, jobs, jobs.

"We must fashion new institutions to perform the societal tasks that were purportedly the domain of the now-extinct investment bankers."

We have many other uses for that $700 billion - what Barack Obama called "our last bullet," although intending to make it a gift to mega-thieves - for instance, to provide relief to current and future homeowner (and rental) victims of the housing bubble that will take years to fully deflate, as prices (and rents) decrease to levels consistent with wages and other social factors.

In a perverse way, Henry Paulson and his co-conspirators have done the public a great favor. He has told us that, Yes, the federal government can come up with $700-plus billion, in an instant, if the health of the nation demands it. He has expanded the fiscal scope of the domestic political conversation, so that it may encompass projects of transformational size. Never again can the corporate class speak of socially valuable projects being so large as to "break the bank" or the budget. Popular forces are now free to think large, too, without being ridiculed from the corporate Right.

The demise of finance capital's premiere institutions, and the brutal arrogance with which their servants moved to strip the commonweal of every squeezable drop of cash, has alerted vast sectors of the citizenry to the reality of capitalism-in-crisis in ways that no amount of Left agitation could have accomplished.

Technical public "ownership" of previously "private" institutions has been thrust upon us by the capitalists, themselves. But this is merely an opening for the great debates and struggles that must follow. Power does not devolve to "the people" by simple virtue of majority shares in failing institutions or even outright nationalization. And "the people" have no need of institutions that serve no purpose but as creatures of capital.

The second casualty of the current crisis, after the collapse of the financial sector, is surely the twin-party game of musical chairs that served to legitimize the rule of capital. The obscenity of a Democrat-Republican syndicate arrayed against the roaring, raging sentiments of citizens of all self-described political persuasions, cannot be erased from the collective national memory - even if congressional party leaders succeed in whipping their members into line, later this week.

"The second casualty of the current crisis is the twin-party game of musical chairs."

When catastrophe hits, radicals must be ready. Recent events have proven Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente to be amazingly prescient in their belief that the Green Party can be - I emphasize can be - a vehicle for presenting and popularizing a truly transformational program for social change. (See McKinney "The Financial Crisis: Seize the Time!" BAR September 24.) McKinney and Clemente always intended that the Green Party become a nexus for the roiling social currents set in motion by the inexorable decomposition of ruling class institutions. The Democratic and Republican Parties, creatures of capital, are decomposing in full view, as witnessed by the events of this week. Too fragile to weather real political storms, they will not survive the larger, unfolding crisis of capital as twin hegemons. As the crisis deepens, the parties will crack - at a pace dictated by the increasing frequency of convulsions.

When we are confronted with the surreal spectacle of John McCain and Barack Obama attempting to destroy each other even as they rush to deliver nearly a trillion dollars to the same master, while the people scream at both of them to "Stop!" - we know that "change" is coming. But not the kind the Democrats or Republicans anticipate.

blackagendareport

**kia027** · 10-02-2008, 09:58 PM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

if that is the case then why are the top 3 states with the highest foreclosure rates

California
Nevada
Arizona - home of John McCain

What is the percentage of minority population in these states-- particularly black?

**dahjah** · 10-03-2008, 06:16 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

mi even hear one a dem republican come pan cnn an seh de sameting.
wi already kno seh dem nuh bleev in facts, just dat dem ha de powah fi put dese tings inna ppl head an mek it stick.

It deh pan tv, radio, and now in print.

Blackstar* · 10-03-2008, 08:11 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

Funny how when topics like these are posted the same people who say they don't see color have nothing to say. Nobody is racist, but racism still persists. Very odd indeed.

**Dr.Dudd** · 10-03-2008, 08:31 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BlackStar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Funny how when topics like these are posted the same people who say they don't see color have nothing to say. Nobody is racist, but racism still persists. Very odd indeed. </div></div>
That is logical.,since it confirms that they really don't see colour.

I will wager that if you substitute the word black for white they would be present an all accounted for.

Remember that black is colour as in coloured and white is.... well white.
But on the point of blaming blacks,that is how this country functions. the policy requires a scapegoat for every intendee near destruction,and that scapegoat is usually those reserved for that position. They use to say that blacks are genetically inclined to hypertension. But since 9/11 the rate of hypertension and during periods like these the rates are equal between races. i wonder why the rate of hypertension of blacks does not vary with periods of anxiety as with other races in this country?
...or any country I know of for that mwtter.

**dahjah** · 10-03-2008, 08:39 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BlackStar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Funny how when topics like these are posted the same people who say they don't see color have nothing to say. Nobody is racist, but racism still persists. Very odd indeed. </div></div>

ppl really fraid fi deal wid dem tingya ee?

head inna de sand again

<span style="font-style: italic">I see nothing, I hear nothing </span> /0\

**dahjah** · 10-03-2008, 08:40 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

we are ALWAYS de scapegoat. How come blk ppl nuh tiyad a dis game yet.

We fi pit it out an call dem racist behind pan it, mek dem kno we kno wah dem is an who dem is.

**Fyah** · 10-03-2008, 09:06 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">we are ALWAYS de scapegoat. How come blk ppl nuh tiyad a dis game yet.

We fi pit it out an call dem racist behind pan it, mek dem kno we kno wah dem is an who dem is. </div></div>

You must be kidding. How do you expect black people to raise issues when it will affect their ongoing relationships with the people they're busy grinning with and convincing them that they are different from those trouble-makers and radical blacks?

**dahjah** · 10-03-2008, 09:51 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sprintah</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">we are ALWAYS de scapegoat. How come blk ppl nuh tiyad a dis game yet.

We fi pit it out an call dem racist behind pan it, mek dem kno we kno wah dem is an who dem is. </div></div>

You must be kidding. How do you expect black people to raise issues when it will affect their ongoing relationships with the people they're busy grinning with and convincing them that they are different from those trouble-makers and radical blacks? </div></div>

So you'd raddah wi fi keep lickin de boots a dese ppl like some of us have been doing for over 400 years?
yuh naah no pride?
And what is a "trouble-maker" and who says they are, wah dem duh fi cause trouble?

**Fyah** · 10-03-2008, 10:01 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sprintah</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">we are ALWAYS de scapegoat. How come blk ppl nuh tiyad a dis game yet.

We fi pit it out an call dem racist behind pan it, mek dem kno we kno wah dem is an who dem is. </div></div>

You must be kidding. How do you expect black people to raise issues when it will affect their ongoing relationships with the people they're busy grinning with and convincing them that they are different from those trouble-makers and radical blacks? </div></div>

So you'd raddah wi fi keep lickin de boots a dese ppl like some of us have been doing for over 400 years?
yuh naah no pride?
And what is a "trouble-maker" and who says they are, wah dem duh fi cause trouble?
</div></div>

Its not even worth a response because That went RIGHT over your "head". You are notorious for speaking before thinking here, so I won't be offended. Its OK though. Some people will get it.

**dahjah** · 10-03-2008, 10:10 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

what has gone over your head is your own liberation, seem like you'd raddah bow dung.

maybe wah mi seh is too difficult fi yuh fi deal wid, nuh worry yuhself, mi ovastan.

**Kurlie** · 10-03-2008, 10:12 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sprintah</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">we are ALWAYS de scapegoat. How come blk ppl nuh tiyad a dis game yet.

We fi pit it out an call dem racist behind pan it, mek dem kno we kno wah dem is an who dem is. </div></div>

You must be kidding. How do you expect black people to raise issues when it will affect their ongoing relationships with the people they're busy grinning with and convincing them that they are different from those trouble-makers and radical blacks? </div></div>

so so true

**Fyah** · 10-03-2008, 10:12 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">what has gone over your head is your own liberation, seem like you'd raddah bow dung.

maybe wah mi seh is too difficult fi yuh fi deal wid, nuh worry yuhself, mi ovastan. </div></div>

This war is not between us brother. Go thy way. Thy faith will make thee whole.

<span style="font-style: italic"> <span style="color: #3333FF">Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King
</span> </span>

**Fyah** · 10-03-2008, 10:13 AM

Re: Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MrsKurlie</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sprintah</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Maakheru_dahJah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">we are ALWAYS de scapegoat. How come blk ppl nuh tiyad a dis game yet.

We fi pit it out an call dem racist behind pan it, mek dem kno we kno wah dem is an who dem is. </div></div>

You must be kidding. How do you expect black people to raise issues when it will affect their ongoing relationships with the people they're busy grinning with and convincing them that they are different from those trouble-makers and radical blacks? </div></div>

so so true </div></div>

Thank you sister. Thank you!

Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

Once again Black ppl blamed fe de crisis

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