ZERO to SIXTY

uester Fester for others to deal with. Privately, I was biting my tongue and withholding judgment, all the while silently repeating, “Relax, they’ll never do that.” Surely, there must be a long-term strategic plan I didn’t understand, some diabolic political poker-playing to magically transform the unmentionable into something positive. Eliot’s sentiment that “April is the cruelest month”, but it seems May offers more betrayals by both parties. I expect it from the GOP, no surprise there at all, but when it comes from the other side, it stings. A week ago, the President announced Penny Pritzker as his Secretary of Commerce. For those who aren’t familiar with Penny Pritzker, let’s just say she’s Mitt Romney in a women’s power suit. She’s an heir to the Hyatt fortune, but more pejorative is that she was the Subprime Mortgage Queen of Illinois Superior Bank who according to government investigators, “engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices." You should read Sarah Jaffe’s more detailed piece on Pritzker here: http://tinyurl.com/blpa2bf . I’m guessing that Obama nominated her because of the money. She bankrolled Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign and a cool $745 million for his 2008 presidential run, and was financially influential in 2012 as well. As Robert Scheer of the Nation remarked, “Penny Pritzker's nomination shows how financiers keep being rewarded even as the country suffers the financial crisis they wrought.”

I was taught by my parents that if you do something wrong; you can expect to be punished. Obviously that does not apply to the rich in America. There’s been no jail time for any of the individuals who collectively created the worldwide crash. Incredulously, they’ve been rewarded for it and Americans have suffered for the acts they committed. Martyrdom is highly overrated. It’s not only the cabinet selections undermining Wall Street reform; it’s the recent activity by the House Financial Services Committee. Of the group of twenty-one House lawmakers, eight are Democrats (two from the Progressive Caucus), they pushed seven separate bills, all of which undermine the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-reform law before it actually takes effect. Their actions are mindboggling until you see the big money that’s underwritten their political careers. I feel betrayed by these Democrats who joined in on this love fest for the bankers. Representative Gwen Moore received about $120,000 from the banking and finance industries during the 2012 election cycle. Marcia Fudge took in about $31,000. Jim Himes of Connecticut took in almost $750,000 from the banking and finance sector in 2011-12, including $35,000 from Goldman Sachs. Sean Patrick Maloney received $170,000 from the banking and investment sector in the last election cycle. According to an analysis by MapLight, a government transparency nonprofit, members of Congress, regardless of party, who voted to expand taxpayer support for the big banks received nearly eight times as much money from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup as the members who voted AGAINST the legislation. Don’t you just love how the corporations can buy their own custom tailored legislation? Worst of all, West Texans have been betrayed by our own Congressman Randy Neugebauer. He was the top recipient of big bank money at $52,000. He serves on the Agriculture Committee which oversees many derivative related issues that were originally designed as insurance products to help farmers manage risks. Shame on you twice, Congressman; how can you come back to District 19 and hold your head up? How much more blatant does the connection between the corporateurs and our government have to become before we act? Even the highest court in the land is a mouthpiece for Corporatocracy. According to the latest paper by the Minnesota Law Review, our present SCOTUS is the most business-friendly court since World War II. All three branches of the Federal Government are facilitating the complete takeover by the corporations, the banks and Wall Street. Checks and balances no longer exist. There are no hurdles between our government and the richest Americans; it’s a single seamless-backslapping-lining-pockets network. Wealth inequality has never been higher and the richest individuals clamor for more riches; squeezing the middle class out of existence. At the first of this month, the CDC reported that the suicide rate for middle-aged Americans has increased almost thirty percent. The CDC and many other professional publications are certain this is tied to the results of the financial crisis in our country. Americans aged 34-64 are more likely to have no financial safety nets, making the threat of unemployment more likely to create debilitating anxiety, and the consequences of unemployment more likely to result in depression and suicide. The incestual relationships in America’s political bed seems like bribery to us, but unfortunately it’s perfectly legal. Our Representatives get elected, take luxury trips to other countries under the guise of research and policy, their family members obtain great jobs because of their relative’s financial network and all the while, they rake in more money from the Corporations, the Banks, and Wall Street for the next round of elections. Some do it for a lifetime. Of course when Mephistopheles comes for payment, our lawmakers dutifully meet their Faustian obligation with lower taxes, less business restrictions, new laws shielding them from competition, no-bid defense contracts, and the power to lay off employees, dump their healthcare and pensions at any time they please. It’s corporate welfare for big money via our tax dollars and a Darwinian survival of the fittest for the rest of us. Somehow, through all of this, I can hear the voice of Mayer Amschel Rothschild reminding us, “Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws.”

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Carol Morgan is a career counselor, writer, speaker, former Democratic candidate for the Texas House and the award-winning author of Of Tapestry, Time and Tears, a historical fiction about the 1947 Partition of India. Follow her on Twitter @CounselorCarol1, on Facebook: CarolMorgan1 and her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org

TAGS: LubbockOnline BlogCarol MorganCorporate Takeover of AmericaFudgeHimesHouse Financial Services CommitteeMoorePenny PritzkerPresident ObamaRandy NeugebauerScottSCOTUS is the most business friendly court since WW2