Banks
What to do with the banks? Turn them into credit unions!!
Jo Forman
Via e-mail
Pension theft
A recent article from Raw Story on how our pension money was shifted into stocks just before the crash is a “smoking gun” showing the outright theft of workers’ retirement monies by the Bush regime.
Along with over 3,000 Republic steelworkers, I had the majority of my pension and my health care stolen by these thieves. Instead of taking over the pension plan and then paying the pensions out to the workers affected, the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation), under Bush, refused to correctly pay the workers their pensions, as the ERISA law calls for them to do in the event of a bankruptcy or shutdown. Unfortunately, this type of theft of worker’s pensions was repeated in numerous areas after that. They were “saving PBGC funds” according to them. However, we now find out that these outright thieves have taken hundreds of billions of PBGC funds, without public authorization or approval, and gambled it on Wall Street, losing massive sums.
The article states that 23 percent of PBGC funds were lost as of September 2008. That was when the stock market had a cold. Since then, it’s become a cancer, suffering massive losses. We need to demand that these Bush appointee thieves be prosecuted, and the workers’ retirement monies be replaced and guaranteed!
Please check out this important piece and let others know about it!
[The full story is at rawstory.com/blog/2009/03/pension-fund-shifted-billions-into-stocks-just-before-crash/]
Bruce Bostick
Columbus OH
G20 protests
All week, I have been reading about the protests in London and around the world about the G20 summit. I have seen very little media coverage, except those on YouTube who post videos from Fox News, showing how the right skews facts. I read about it first … on AP!
I read about the protests that were held ahead of the G20 summit. Wednesday, riots broke out against the banks and thousands were screaming for an end to capitalism!
You Tube has videos of it. CNN has a video of some of the rioting. From the looks of it, the police let some of it happen.
So why didn’t PWW have anything about it?
Brandon Ivey
Lewisville TX
Editor’s note: Check out pww.org and search for G20.
Guns and butter again
Here’s President Obama on his “new” Afghanistan policy:
“At stake in taking on our adversary is nothing less than the safety of people around the world. We are increasing U.S. forces and training so the Afghan military can defeat the Taliban and take control. This is how we will ultimately be able to bring our troops home.”
Afghan President Karzai embraced the additional U.S. help.
Sound familiar? Why not? It’s not so new.
Substitute South Vietnam for Afghanistan and you will hear the ghostly voices of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the original “guns and gutter” exponent, 44 years ago, and his war-hawk spokesmen Dean Rusk, secretary of state, and Robert McNamara, secretary of defense. And, of course, the South Vietnamese government “embraced the additional U.S. help.”
Well as we all know, we were forced to bring our troops home after defeat by the National Liberation Front at a cost of 53,000 U.S. and 3 million Vietnamese dead.
The current president promised that the U.S. would hold itself and others accountable by using “benchmarks.” How about the “benchmark” of previous invasions by the British and Soviets who were eventually forced to leave Afghanistan?
Lawrence Geller
Via e-mail
Looking for a Tom Foley article
People’s Weekly World people, I love you! You keep me alive and with my fighting spirit.
It occurred to me that among your readers might be one who could help me find a Tom Foley article because I remember neither title nor date of its appearance.
Its content was a historically founded description of the developments that led different religions to celebrate their holidays at about the same time. Dating this development to “heathen” observances of the seasonal changes, he fascinated me with his simple clarity and his insight on a subject little discussed.
When my daughter asked me if I could find something for her daughter just starting school that explained the development of religions, I immediately thought of Tom Foley’s wonderful article that had impressed me so deeply.
Miriam Pandor
Berlin, Germany
Editor’s note: Thank you! Try the Tamiment Library at New York University, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, 10th Floor, 70 Washington Square South, New York City. Visit their web site .
Story on drug cartels
Great story on the Mexican narco wars (see pww.org).
The United States still fails to admit that it is the money from the U.S. and the laundering of that money //in// the U.S. by American banks that is the root of the problem. America’s “war on drugs” pushed up the price, made greater risk seem feasible and shifted much of the importation from the East Coast to the Mexican border. So long as rich CEOs and celebs can snort the price of a Mercedes each night and only have to go to “rehab” when caught, the money will flow and brown people will continue to die, all for the illicit pleasure of the elitist rich.
Juan Miguel Herrera
Scottsdale AZ
Guadalajara, Mexico
It’s a struggle
It’s 8:09 a.m. here at the Dixie Lodge and breakfast has been served. There are 75 other people living here so I’ll have to cut it short to make room for the rest of us. This is the dining room of the Assisted Living Facility (ALF) where I live.
It’s been hard for me to get a job in the last six years. I haven’t been able to find one job in that time and believe me, I’ve been looking. Just try to get a job when you have to go to dialysis three times a week.
Since it has been impossible for me to get a job, I have to resort to growing food here. I’ve been growing citrus, mainly at the ALF and at another location also.
I’m very fortunate to have money to subscribe to the People’s Weekly World, while very few of the other disabled people here can afford a subscription to the paper.
Daniel J. Bromberg
Deland FL
We want to hear from you!
e-mail:
Letters should be limited to 200 words. We reserve the right to edit stories and letters. Only signed letters with the return address of the sender will be considered for publication, but the name of the sender will be withheld on request.
Follow us on twitter
Comments