How Do We End the Looting?

Thom plus logoLooting is the word of the day, on the lips of every newscaster, the president, and elected officials across the country. And, indeed, looting is a major problem in America.

In 1981, when Ronald Reagan ended the New Deal era, crushed labor unions, and massively cut the top personal and corporate tax rates, he kicked off the most massive and widespread looting of America since the 1920s.

Working people all across the nation have seen over $7 trillion of their wealth looted by the top 1 percent just in the past two decades, reducing them from the middle class to the working poor.

Small and medium-sized businesses, since Reagan stopped enforcing the Sherman AntiTrust Act in 1983, have seen their companies looted by giant monopolies and predatory banksters like Mitt Romney.

Millions of homeowners across the nation had their homes looted by thugs like Steven Mnuchin, California's "Foreclosure King," and Wall Street banksters like Jamie Dimon, a practice that's again exploding.

Hungry people across America have had their food supplies looted by defense contractors whose ever-increasing chunk of federal spending has come at the expense of food stamps and other agricultural supports.

Billionaires and the Trump Crime Family looted out nation's treasury to the tune of $1.5 trillion in 2017, and have looted over $2 trillion out of monies appropriated recently to help COVID19 victims.

Betsy DeVos has looted billions from our public schools to give to her buddies in the for-profit and religious education industries.

George W. Bush looted trillions out of Medicare when he partially privatized the program in 2005 with so-called "Medicare Advantage," throwing the system into crisis.

Bush and his fellow thugs also looted the Post Office, taking $5 billion a year from them for a decade to stop them from converting their fleet of vehicles to electric and hydrogen power, and set the USPS up for sale to FedEx or USP.

Students across the country have lost $1.7 trillion to banking looters empowered by Bush's 2005 bankruptcy "reform" legislation that will force them into debt, in some cases, until the day they die.

Sick people have been looted - to the tune of over a trillion dollars a year - by giant insurance companies that pay their executives millions and sometimes even billions.

African Americans and Hispanics have been looted of trillions in reduced pay by racist employers and giant corporations, while their safety, lives and peace of mind have been looted by racist police.

Asylum seekers and immigrants have had their lives and children looted from them by brutal thugs like Steven Miller and Donald Trump.

Our air and water - and the survival of our planet - have been looted by giant fossil fuel companies and the billionaires who own them, leading to mass migrations and millions of deaths every year.

Local media, cable systems, and small internet service providers have been looted by giant corporate thugs, to the point where news has become infotainment, Americans are dumbed down, and the average American family pays more than twice - sometimes ten times - as much for internet and cable TV service as people in other developed countries.

Our food supply has been looted by giant corporations that have destroyed family farms, poisoned rural communities with factory farms, and provoked an epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

It's time for looting to stop in America.

-Thom

Comments

Zman's picture
Zman 2 years 51 weeks ago
#1

Today's piece on "How do we end the looting?" is probably the most cogent, comprehensive, and concise bits of writing on the subject that I have ever read. So, we work on to get out the vote, go Robin Hood legislatively, and redistribute wealth and power to create a just Nation and world.

DaveV.'s picture
DaveV. 2 years 51 weeks ago
#2

It appears the guy in grayish short pants collected a device from individual that was grabbed by the crowd and handed to police for vandalism. It's from twitter. Tweet from Nick Flor-ProfessorF

https://t.co/MDJq3zvZdZ https://t.co/kTUHX2xd4L https://twitter.com/ProfessorF/status/1267489756662820864?s=20

Take Back America!'s picture
Take Back America! 2 years 51 weeks ago
#4

Thom:

It's being more evident every day that there are 2 groups here, being conveniently conflated as one.

There are peaceful - though sometimes passionate, protestors. There is also an organized group through social media causing the disruotion, violence and looting, in the name of the protestors. It's frustrating that the media calls these people "protestors", because they are not. I'm seeing the same faces locally, and nationally on the news - they are not there during the day - they come out around 9 PM each night. They are neally all white, and likely organized by Right Wing organizors - no different than the disinformation during 2016 - and have no stake in protecting African American rights. We just know more about this strategy now.

It's time we wake up and understand this before it destroys not just the movement supporting police violence, but the destruction of our demacracy.

This is the same symptom that we saw in the 2016 election - just in different clothes.

pixel8's picture
pixel8 2 years 51 weeks ago
#5

Heartily agree with Zman about Thom’s 6/1 “End the Looting” post being "the most cogent, comprehensive, and concise bits of writing on the subject..." I’d just add, "maybe ever written." Many thanks, Thom. Maybe it's too real and too true for most people to absorb all at once, even though many of us have lived through it all. Many of us have come to believe in the Bizarro way it continues to be presented to us, as "trickle-down," for example, or we’ve just gotten numb. But the richest looters in the history of the world may have finally pushed too far, if the fires burning in the streets can inspire massive peaceful protests that stand in as the harbinger of a pitchfork mob, maybe the only way the looters will admit defeat and stop their crimes against humanity and the planet. And stating their crimes elegantly and succinctly as Thom did is a great step forward, to help us wrap our brains around the insanity of recent history and the urgency to change.

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