D’Abrosca: $40 Billion Later, Citigroup and Bank of America Want Your Gun Rights
Peter D'Abrosca
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It’s time for a new deal between the American people and America’s largest banks.
Over the past two weeks, Bank of America has vowed to stop lending and underwriting to its gun manufacturing clientele who deal in semi-automatic rifles, and Citigroup has told its retail firearm clients that they are no longer allowed to sell weapons to anyone under age 21 and no longer allowed to sell high capacity magazines if they want to do business with the bank.
These stories have garnered little attention in comparison to the rest of the news headlines, which is understandable in a time when the news cycle shifts in the blink of an eye. With the rapidity of the news, we haven’t had the time to properly admonish the banking cartels for vowing to curtail the rights of American citizens in this unprecedented act of corporate fascism. But not to worry, I’m here to make sure the banksters don’t get off scot-free.
Does anybody remember what happened in 2008?
After the fattest of cats and slimiest of swamp-dwellers on Wall Street conspired with the federal government to engage in predatory lending practices, resulting in an artificially inflated American housing bubble and the near collapse of the world economy, the banks engaged in said practices managed to survive the storm while the American taxpayer was stuck with the bill.
How? You may recall that the banks raped and pillaged the hardworking people of this country with their master scheme, which they knew was unsustainable, only for your bought-and-paid-for representatives in Congress to vote on your behalf to use your taxpayer dollars for the largest private-sector bailout in history.
Did you get a “Thank You” note from Bank of America or Citigroup? I didn’t think so. Instead, you received higher interest rates to make up for their irresponsibility.
Nobody in the banking industry who became rich off the scheme went to jail. The banks have not repaid the federal government, which of course is funded by you through your backbreaking work – your blood, sweat, and tears. Life went on as usual for the bankers, and for you, the everyman. They kept getting rich, and the federal government kept taxing you, even after many of you lost every penny of your savings
How much of your money did the banks require to restore their coffers after taking advantage of you in every way possible to fund their lavish lifestyles? A mere $204,808,576,320 – that’s about $205 billion.
How much more of this manhandling will you accept?
Now, only a decade later, these same too-big-to-fail banks are counting on the short memory of the American people while they pull their next heist, this time taking your rights instead of your money. They want you to forget what they did to you in 2008. They want you to forget that they owe you, and that rightly, you own them.
Don’t.
Citigroup and Bank of America combined received $40 billion in bailout money from you. Now they want to hamper firearms industry, and even dictate when or what type of weapon you can purchase? Never has the bank had so much power. Never have they attempted to control you in this manner.
Earlier generations would have been outraged, but ours is docile. We moan and complain about the institution of banking. We do the same about the politicians who are financed by the banks.
The only way to change the course and right this ship, absent legislative intervention to break up the banking monopolies, is to close your accounts with the corporate giants. Believe it or not, there are still local and regional banks and credit unions that would appreciate your business and would not infringe upon your rights.
But first you have to get mad. Then you have to take action. Show Wall Street that the power is yours. Show them that now, they deal on your terms.
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