“Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.”
German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine
Now you as the American consumer are used to having the banks ignore you, disregard your requests for information and generally shove it to you very directly. Forget about the fact that the American taxpayer provided BaJaillons of dollars to these banks, forget about the fact that we rescued them directly from the hell fire of destruction that they had created for themselves, they got what they needed from us (delivered on a very nice silver platter, sliced up and served on the finest China) so now they have no need to play nice…in fact the banks can afford to be quite aggressive.
Very aggressive indeed. The banks are facing a growing tide of resistance from all corners and they are pushing back very hard. They are directly attacking consumers and attorneys who dare to challenge them. They are aligning with lobbyists and political forces in order to silence critics and criticism and they are working feverishly to pound out quiet settlement deals that let them off the hook. The $20 billion settlement number was a joke, but they’ve whittled that down to $5 billion. And that’s not even their money….remember, the American taxpayer gave them money….and keep in mind their obscene profits already….
But here’s the thing that we all need to be very, very aware of. These powerful forces are operating in secret, meeting with our government officials, they are crafting deals that will cost every American taxpayer billions of dollars one way or the other, yet the American taxpayer, reporters and any other interested party are being left out of the discussion. Remember the 50 state AG investigation? Now it’s a tea party. Remember Iowa AG Tom Miller who was going to “Put People In Jail!” Well that was before he directly solicited campaign contributions from the banks….directly solicited campaign contributions from the PEOPLE HE WAS GOING TO PUT IN JAIL! And guess what, they paid WHOA DID THEY PAY and now guess what….Tom Miller is “Not going to put people in Jail!”
So now turning to the Night of the Burning of the Books , the rise of a genocidal regime and its relationship to America today. Hitler did not just pop onto the scene over night and put his machine into operation. It happened over a period of roughly 10 years before he and the Nazis really got fired up and rolling across Germany. I sort of stumbled back into all this World War II history and the more I started reading it, the more I find parallels to what is happening in America today. Perhaps the most dangerous condition that exists in all of our country is the profound economic distress we find ourselves in. This distress makes us all very vulnerable to social, government and economic powers and influences that would be verboten in good economic times. And this is precisely what was occurring in pre Nazi Germany and it is precisely what is happening all across this country.
One of our only protections against this raging power if our free press and the open and very public disclosure of all that is occurring…but these freedoms we enjoy and these protections provided are under attack like never before. The banks are not just suing, intimidating and harassing the whistleblowers, the heretics, the voices of the people….no, they’re not stopping there…..they are now going after their families…..as we find in the case of Lynn Syzmoniak’s son…terror does not even begin to describe what this development should mean for every one of you out there….they are already doing it to us so there is no turning back…our terror is replaced with knowledge that it has come and a grim determination to face the battle….but every single American should be considering just what such an unprecedented attack means to them…and to this country…..
The most staggering example of how wild and out of control this aggression and power has become was recently detailed in the New York Times. Now, we can all see how the banks would push back against the street fighters and the consumers activists who are out there fighting like unmatched revolutionary soldiers….but consider just how successful they are in beating back inquiries and examination of a force as powerful as THE UNITED STATES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT….
From the New York Times Article:
Evidence of extensive and abusive servicing practices does in fact exist. It is piling up at the offices of the United States Trustee Program, the arm of the Justice Department that monitors the bankruptcy system. Over the past six months, the trustee has drawn material from 95 field offices covering 88 judicial districts. The findings should dispel any notion that toxic servicing practices were atypical or have done no harm.
” We have faced consistent opposition by all of the major servicers,” Mr. White said. ” We are currently facing 200 motions to quash our discovery requests. We also are facing upwards of 20 appeals either in district courts or in circuit courts.”