THE FINANCIAL COLLAPSE OF 2008 WAS NO ACCIDENT

(Updated)

By Alex Ferguson

www.conservativecannonade.org

A few evenings back I decided to treat myself to a recently released movie. The Big Short looked promising so I rented a copy and settled back with a bag of Cracker Jacks. The film turned out to be very well done and completely honest as far as it went, but it didn’t go nearly far enough. It was all about how subprime mortgages had been bundled into subprime bonds and how subprime bonds had been bundled into subprime CDOs and how subprime CDOs had been bundled into synthetic CDOs and so on and so forth, but it completely ignored how all those subprime mortgages came into being in the first place. 

As it happens, I have been reviewing Stanley Kurtz’ Radical-in-Chief for my weekend radio show. The book and the movie taken together prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the collapse of the housing market in 2008 was entirely the result of a diabolical conspiracy carried out by a coterie of socialist revolutionaries based primarily in Chicago, Illinois. The roots and branches of this conspiracy are so extensive and so complex that considerably more than the usual amount of patient diligence will be required of the reader. (I have printed out a list of more than fifty of these radical groups, shells, and front groups.)

Criminal conspiracies have always been characteristic of the “Windy City.” For instance, as any crime buff will tell you, gangsters have more or less ruled Chicago’s City Hall for a hundred years. In fact, decades ago a young grad student named Saul Alinsky studied under the tutelage of organized crime bosses Al Capone and Frank ”The Enforcer” Nitti. The various criminal gangs that Alinsky consorted with in those days validated his ruthlessness and provided models for successful counter-cultural community organizing. 

Before we delve any farther into the theological/political/racial swamp that was and is the Chicago reality, let me say that, when I was growing up, we were working hard for racial reconciliation, racial cooperation and racial integration. At the time, we didn’t realize that a strong contingent in the black community was working just as hard in the opposite direction. They didn’t want cooperation much less reconciliation. They wanted vengeance. They wanted retribution. The irony is that, as the decades rolled by, white racism has clearly receded to next-to-nothing as a component of American culture. The last of the actual slave holders died off a hundred years ago, and the once fiery practitioners of Jim Crow are on walkers, oxygen bottles and life support.

In short, the civil rights movement was wildly successful, but out of it grew a virulent and furious black power movement bent on revenge and closely allied in that effort with a Chicago-born Marxist revolutionary movement. Booker T. Washington put it this way:

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays.  Some of these people do not want the negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

It was shortly thereafter that Chicagoan Elijah Muhammad founded the Black Muslim religion. His book, Message to the Black Man in America hints vaguely at collective economics but is quite definite about black supremacy. According to this mythology, a mad scientist named Yakub created the white man 6,000 ago in his laboratory. Because they are hybrids, whites are inherently evil and collectively embody the devil. Blacks, on the other hand, are the physical incarnation of god. At some future date, he assures us, god will kill the devil.

Which we would gladly ignore if it were not for this paragraph on page 313 in Radical-in-Chief: 

The “Perspectives” compendium, assigned annually for week-long study by all members of Trinity United Church of Christ, contains a good deal of disturbing material. Iva Carruthers , one of Wright’s theological colleagues devotes her essay to advocating the development of “melanic deficiency theories.” This refers to the Afro-centrist belief that the lack of chemical melanin in white skin accounts for the superiority of black culture. If you object that such theories are pseudo-scientific, Carruthers replies that Western science is itself a method of oppressive control.

And then there is this from Obama’s Midwest Academy crony Heather Booth: ”Truly reaching socialism or feminism will likely take a revolution that is in fact violent, a rupture with the old way in which the current ruling class and elites are wiped out.”

James Cone, Jeremiah Wright’s mentor and author of Black Theology and Black Power, would seem to agree: “Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man the devil.”(pg.302) And further, “I do not think racism can be eliminated as long as capitalism remains intact.”(pg. 305) “’The black intellectual’s goal,’ Cone con- tinues, ‘is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it.’”(pg. 301) “Together black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us the way to build a completely new society.” (Kurtz Pg. 305) In the end, “white men will ‘tremble, curse, and go mad because they will be drenched with the filth of their evil.’” 

“Not God bless America, but God damn America,” hollered Jeremiah Wright in gleeful agreement. Or, as Obama quotes his hate-filled men- tor in Dreams from My Father, “White folks’ greed runs a world in need.”(pg. 306)

“During the 2008 campaign, the Obama camp acknowledged that Cone’s writings were regularly included in packets of material handed out to new members of Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama, however, refused to answer oral or written inquiries in 2008 about his knowledge of Cone’s work.”(pg. 303)

We should have known about all this long before the presidential election in ’08, but the left-wing, media whores who control America’s newsrooms were far too busy digging up dirt on conservative Repub- licans to take notice of the radio-active filth being heaped up by the left. Of course, our republic can only function with a well-informed electorate. Ignoring or even burying any story that favors conservatives serves only to deny the American people their constitutional right to objectively evaluate the issue at hand.

They don’t call the media the “Fourth Estate” for trivial reasons. Removing its function to provide unbiased information is akin to removing one wheel from an automobile. Sooner or later, you’re bound to crash and burn.

According to Stanley Kurtz’ Radical-in-Chief, in the 2008 presidential election, we crashed and burned. The evidence that Chicago had been taken over by a Marxist revolutionary conspiracy was available to any reporter with a real nose for news. Turning over just one more stone would have revealed that this racist political cartel was grooming a ringer who, according to Joe Biden, was “the first mainstream African American who is articulate, bright and clean and a nice looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” 

“Storybook” is a fortuitous term in this context as Van Jones, a self-declared Communist and one-time Green Jobs Czar in the Obama administration, explains: 

I am willing to forego the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends. 

Both he and Obama shaved their Afros and shed their dashikis, not because they had become less militant, but rather more. Saul Alinsky had taught them to say “pragmatism” and “communalism” rather than “socialism” and Marxism.” Instead of calling for the “overthrow of the bourgeoisie,” Alinsky told them to talk about “confronting power,” and rather than “advocating socialist revolution,” they should demand “radical social change.”

Archives of their internal documents portray a lively debate over the issue. Mostly they hid their real agenda in deference to Saul Alinsky. Sailing under a false flag (as it were) they could expand their operations to include trade unions, charitable foundations, churches, schools, and sympathetic political figures like Chicago mayor Harold Washington, Representative Carol Mosely Braun, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros.

Barack Obama had already been thoroughly indoctrinated in Marx- ism by the time he attended that 1983 Cooper Union Socialist Scholars Conference. There he heard talks by major socialist revolutionaries like Michael Harringon, Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven.

Let’s take Harrington first. If any one individual can be blamed for this whole mess, it is he. In 1962, he published The Other America , on the basis of which JFK launched the “War on Poverty.” This was only three days before a Communist zealot blew Kennedy’s head off in Dallas, so we never will know what he thought of the results. However, we do know that Sargent Shriver, LBJ’s pick to head the new program, was horrified at having (at that point) spent a billion dollars without any measurable improvement in the poverty rate.

Since then (not including Social Security and Medicare), we have spent another 22 trillion dollars on this “war,” with exactly the same results; absolutely no improvement in the poverty rate. However, the next two names on our short list of Cooper Union Socialist Scholars can give us some insight on why we continue to pour money down this rat hole.

Cloward and Pivens founded the “National Welfare Rights Organiz- ation” (ACORN’s predecessor) way back in the sixties in order to create an “orchestrated crisis” in the capitalist system. They spelled out this diabolical strategy in a May 2, 1966 edition of the Nation magazine and in their 1977 book, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. 

The genius of the plan lay in its simplicity: “Flood state and local welfare systems with more applicants than they could possibly afford to carry. Cloward and Piven believed that this break-the-bank strategy would force President Johnson and a liberal Democratic congress to bail out overburdened state welfare systems with a federally guaranteed annual income.” (Kurtz pg. 179)

Alternatively, “rather than placate the poor with government hand-outs, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and economic crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would ‘the rest of society’ accept their demands.” (Discover The Network.org)

As a direct result of this “Trojan Horse” strategy, New York City declared bankruptcy in 1975. As a direct result of Obama’s policies, more and more American cities have declared or will declare bankruptcy as well.

The 2008 collapse of our housing market was clearly orchestrated by these very same Marxist-Leninist lice. It was Cloward and Pivens writ large, and (as usual) the man behind the curtain was Saul Alinsky. Alinsky’s front group, “Citizens Action Program (CAP) launched one of the first campaigns against bank ‘red-lining,’ paving the way for ACORN’s fateful attack on the mortgage industry decades later.” (Kurtz pg. 138)

Red-lining, of course, refers to the alleged practice of denying home loans to residents of black neighborhoods due to racial prejudice. This is a completely bogus accusation. Bankers do not evaluate loans on the basis of race. Bankers are “number-crunchers” trying to maximize their profit margin. The only information that factors into their decision vis-à-vis the granting of a mortgage is whether the borrower is likely to repay the loan in a timely manner. 

Marxists, on the other hand, (although often as greedy as a Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, or George Soros) cannot get past the subject of race – most especially when it can be wielded as an effective weapon against conservatives. Using that weapon to induce financial institutions to destroy themselves would require a multi-faceted, highly coordinated, mercilessly brutal conspiracy, and that is exactly what these ravenous culture killers came up with. 

First on their agenda was the slow-motion takeover of charitable foundations like the Woods Fund and the Annenberg Challenge. Having appointed each other as directors of these charities, Barack Obama and unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers started funneling foundation money into ACORN and other leftist front groups. 

(The hundred million dollars that they injected into Chicago’s schools was not considered wasted, even though it produced zero improvement in student performance, since performance improvement was not the goal. Leftist indoctrination was the goal, and at that they succeed- ed beautifully.)

“Recall that a 1992 congressional staff report sponsored by Darrel Issa found ‘there was no real separation between ACORN and its affiliates. ACORN is a single corrupt corporate enterprise composed of a series of holding companies and subsidiaries that are financially and operationally dependent upon the main corporation.’ The report cited Chicago-based SEIU Local 880 as an example of the substantial intertwining of ACORN and its affiliates, entailing both financial and political ‘codependence.’” (Pg. 224) 

“The two groups shared the same office, and staffers were instructed to answer the phone as ‘ACORN’ or ‘Union’ depending on which lines were called. More important, both groups reported to ACORN’s chief organizer, Wade Rathke.” (Ibid.) ”Acorn’s real goal going into the Clinton administration was to spread the lending provisions of the Community Reinvestment Act [which requires banks to grant subprime loans to people who cannot repay them] throughout the financial system as a whole.” (Pg. 232)

To that end, “Congresswoman Maxine Waters invited a top ACORN lobbyist to write a piece of legislation designed to grant ACORN every- thing it wanted from federal housing policy. (Ibid. Pg. 231)

Then, at a two-hour meeting, HUD secretary Cisneros “promised ACORN help with what were soon to become the Clinton adminis- tration’s signature changes in low-income lending policy – at Fanny and Freddie.” Moreover, “without being asked Cisneros also requested ideas on ways HUD could channel money to ACORN.” (Ibid. Pg. 233)

Needless to say, the banking community was not thrilled. Most knuckled under, but some, like Citibank, refused to join ACORN’s loan program. “Within days, five hundred singing and chanting ACORN members ‘stormed’ Citibank’s New York headquarters, in what one ACORN official called ‘an old-fashioned takeover.’” (Ibid. Pg. 229)

Another classic example of ACORN/SEIU thuggery took place when 500 screaming, placard-waving goons surrounded the home of Bank of America deputy general counsel Greg Baer. The only one home at the time was his thirteen year old son who, terrified, hid in the bathroom while “hordes of invaders poured out of school buses, up Baer’s steps, and on to his front porch.”

“Intimidation was the whole point of the exercise, and it worked. A trio of officers who belatedly answered our calls confessed a fear that arrests might ‘incite’ these trespassers. (Hot Air 5-21-10) 

Given the character of the thugs and goons who ran ACORN, venal- ity became the name of the game. For instance, in 1999 and 2000, Wade Rathke’s brother Dale embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN’s coffers. Despite the fact that ACORN comingled extorted funds with federal monies, “a small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not alert law enforcement.” (Michelle Malkin 7-10-08) Dale Rathke remained on the payroll at what was essentially a “no show” job until June of 2008.

Worse yet, during this same period, dozens of ACORN workers all over America were indicted and convicted on charges of voter fraud and identity theft. 1,492 fraudulent voter registration forms were identified in St. Louis, Missouri alone.

Ironically enough, ACORN’s biggest legal problems stem from the abuse of its own workers’ rights.  For instance, “in 1995, ACORN sued the State of California seeking an exemption from the law that requires that it pay its own employees a minimum wage.” (The American Spectator)  “The same report also found that ‘ACORN plundered employee benefits and violated the fiduciary responsibilities under the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act of 1974.’” (Ibid.)

“The network owes millions of dollars in back taxes, even though almost all ACORN affiliates are exempted from paying various taxes. The tax liens pending against it at the federal, state, and local level have been issued for non-payment of employee’s payroll taxes.” (Ibid.)  “The Industrial Workers of the World complained that Rathke’s SEIU Local 100 sabotaged a union drive by employing union-busting techniques used by corporate America.  In 2003, the National Labor Relations Board determined ACORN had unlawfully blocked the workers from organizing.” (Ibid.)

“Obama’s ties to SEIU Local 880, the New Party, a group called ‘Progressive Chicago,’ and Project Vote all ultimately lead back to ACORN.” (Kurtz Pg. 203)  Here we have “a long-term political alliance in which ACORN/SEIU provided political troops to Obama while receiving foundation funding and legislative help from the future president.” (Kurtz Pg. 206)

Naturally, during his third presidential debate with John McCain, Obama tried to minimize his involvement:

“The only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the US Justice Department in making Illinois implement a Motor Voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.”  (Kurtz Pg. 220)

Which is the polar opposite of Obama’s endorsement appeal to ACORN’s leadership a year later:

“I definitely welcome ACORN’s input.  You don’t have to ask me about that.  I’m going to call you even if you don’t ask me.  When I ran Project Vote, the voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it.  Once I was elected, there wasn’t a campaign that ACORN worked on down in Springfield that I wasn’t right there with you.  Since I have been in the United States Senate, I have been always a partner with ACORN as well. I’ve been fighting with ACORN, alongside ACORN, on the issues you care about my entire career.  (Kurtz Pg. 201)

Were that not enough, we have the testimony of Keith Kelleher, the head of Chicago’s ACORN-controlled SEIU Local 880:

“Local 880 and Illinois ACORN joined forces with a newly-invigorated voter registration group, Project Vote, run by former community organizer (and current Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator) Barack Obama, to bring other community groups under the Project Vote umbrella and move a large-scale voter registration program for U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun.” [This last, clearly impermissible by law] (Kurtz Pg. 223)

So Acorn, having succeeded in passing the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act under Jimmy Carter, managed to upgrade this financial suicide pact in 1995 under Bill Clinton:

“If a regulatory agency finds that a lending institution is not serving these neighborhoods, it can delay or deny that institution’s request to merge with another lender or to open a branch or expand any of its other services.” (NCRC)

Worst of all:

“ACORN also seems to have played a significant behind-the-scenes role in Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing Robert Achtenberg’s efforts to push subprime lending through the broader financial system….In particular Achtenberg ruled that, regardless of any intention to discriminate, policies that ended up granting proportionally more loans to some groups than others would be considered discriminatory….Banks would be  punished even for applying exactly the same lending standards to blacks and whites.  Achtenberg’s new definition of discrimination helped push even institutions not covered by CRA into the business of shaky subprime lending. (Kurtz Pg.234)

As for Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, “Thanks in great part to ACORN’s lobbying, congress imposed low-income lending quotas on Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac in 1992, while Chicago ACORN’s threat to invade Fanny Mae’s bank fair helped force the agency to cooperate with ACORN’s loan-counseling corporations nationally.” (Ibid. 231)

In conclusion, we have only had an opportunity to scratch the surface of this massive, economy-killing, criminal conspiracy.  For instance, it would be fascinating to examine Jesse Jackson’s Operation Push and the extortion racket that it grew to be, but our present purpose requires that we stick to the more central investigation at hand.

With that in mind, we turn to Obama’s colorful description of the financial collapse that, more than any other factor, secured his victory in the 2008 presidential election:

“Republicans drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back.  No!  You can’t drive.  We don’t want to have to go back into the ditch.  We just got the car out.” (A. Coulter, Demonic Pg. 10)

Of course, this would be analogous of an insurance scammer wrecking his car and then blaming the insurance adjuster for the damage.  Republicans held hearings trying to unravel this Gordian Knot long before it grew into a disaster, but Democrats like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank stymied their every effort.

The fact is that the financial catastrophe that is still oppressing working Americans was the result of a vast left-wing conspiracy led by an anti-American, Communist thug named Barack Obama.  His minions are, even now, resurrecting subprime loans under the name, “Bespoke Tranches Opportunity.”  There should be no mystery regarding his doubling our national debt.  There should be no mystery as to why we are losing the War on Terror.  All the mysteries have been solved.  The only question now is, what are we going to do about it?

The answer is that America has a long tradition of “ballots, not bullets.”  The Obama conspiracy would like nothing more than a resort to violence.  Don’t let’s do anything stupid!

Winston Smith

7-7-16

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary