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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPierce: Here's What Happened Among Republicans a Few Hours After Jeff Flake's Speech
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13089764/republicans-consumer-protection-banks/Here's What Happened Among Republicans a Few Hours After Jeff Flake's Speech
Specifically, among those seeking reelection.
By Charles P. Pierce
Oct 25, 2017
You would have thought that Senator Jeff Flake would have basked a little longer in the applause he got for scarpering out of the Senate before he got around to the business of emptying his words of any significant meaning they ever had. Instead, Flakealong with fellow brave truth-tellers Bob Corker, Ben Sasse and, significantly, John McCainjoined with every other Republican (including Mike Pence, The Great Tiebreaker) to arrange for the screwing of countless Americans and their families.
In the dead of Tuesday night, with the applause still ringing in his ears, Flake voted to strip the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau of a rule that allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks rather than being forced into an arbitration process that generally is as rigged as a North Korean election. From The Los Angeles Times:
You have to love their timing, too. This move comes hard on the heels of the Equifax calamity, and just as the Congress is shilling for a massive upward shift in the countrys wealth that is disguised as a middle-class tax cut. Further, it proves that our political system learned absolutely nothing from what happened in 2008, when the masters of the universe nearly blew up the entire world economy.
You know whos going to get hosed now, Senator McCain? All those veterans and military families that youre always so tender about. You know whos going to take it in the ear, Senators Corker, Flake, and Sasse? All those middle-class people in all those little towns that you spend most of your time praising as the reservoir of Real American Values. None of those people mattered a damn to you Tuesday night, and it wasnt the president* that forced you to make this vote. You did it with cold deliberation and calculated forethought.
And its not as though we dont already know how stacked a deck the mandatory arbitration process is.
Just gaze in awe. Wells Fargo opened three-and-a-half million unauthorized accounts in the names of actual customers. To hell with a class action suit, these people should have been keelhauled under the Staten Island Ferry for a year. Now, though, Wells Fargo and the other banks, and their armies of lobbyists, have choked off the most effective way through which the people so swindled could get some form of justice.
Three-and-a-half million phony accounts. More than twice as many phony accounts as there are actual people living in the borough of Manhattan, wherein Wall Street lies. A little more than three times as many actual people as live in Boston, where Wells Fargo has its headquarters. And the U.S. Senate, an otherwise torpid beast unable to get anything done, bestirs itself to make sure that these swindlers never are called to a proper account. The vice president stays up past his usual bedtime just to make sure. Tell me again who the real owners of the country are.
pbmus
(12,422 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)There are people, who if they get mad enough, will bomb the bank they aren't allowed to sue. Don't these Republicans ever consider the worse-case long range consequences of their unbridled greed and callousness? All they seem bent on is pissing off as many people as possible, and then they will act surprised when it all blows up in their faces. "Nobody could have see that coming."
Podkayne K
(145 posts)why didn't our elitists succubi who voted for Slime Stein or just didn't bother voting at all not see the destruction of the country and planet under p-Resident Evil?
Or maybe the did, and they just are so arrogant they don't give a rat's fart.
not fooled
(5,801 posts)the ramping up of the police including blatant militarization. All to keep the peasantry in check while the overlords dance.
This country has become a joke. Who wants to live in an oligarchy? They don't want us to have health care or a fair chance in life.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and went with credit unions/community banks?
Thousands of people who stayed with big banks, esp. Well Fargo, just got their 2nd lesson.
erronis
(15,219 posts)I have a few CU accounts and they are generally more transparent and offer pretty good services, at least compared to the Big Banks.
However I know that they (and their officers/executives) are also subject to enticements from the Big Banks to cozy up and share info. Since the banking regulation in the US is now a shambles, what's to stop another Keating or other disaster?
Who to trust?
Overseas microfinance?
Your brother-in-law? (kidding!)
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I used bankrate.com a lot back in 2006
http://www.bankrate.com/rates/safe-sound/bank-ratings-search.aspx
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)I'd move my money but I'm on the road constantly and Wells Fargo is wherever I go. It is convenient for me. When I was 3000 miles away last year, they helped me.
I used to work for a locally owned bank and they were just as corrupt (if not more) than the big ones.
peggysue2
(10,828 posts)dedicated conservative who believes is less government, fewer regulations and a free, open market, among other things. He would have voted like this with or without Trump.
I would never vote for Jeff Flake or his political/policy beliefs. Because I'm a Dem and I think he's dead wrong.
It still does not diminish what the man said yesterday on the floor of the Senate. Limited kudos for that speech, but kudos nonetheless.
rurallib
(62,406 posts)As I believe Corker is.
The one I can't understand is McCain, who has a very short future.
But McCain has always been extreme right in my observation, so I guess he really never changed his spots.
Welcome to DU.
I am really pissed about the positive pub Flake is getting when (IMHO) he really turned and ran from the fight. Not a profile in courage.
peggysue2
(10,828 posts)that Flake is attempting to burnish his credentials. I read he may try to run for the WH in 2020.
I absolutely agree--none of these men get a 'profile in courage' because they've basically left the long-term responsibilities behind: won't seek reelection or in McCain's case, his health will limit his stay.
Still, I was glad to hear the words finally uttered. They need to be repeated, again and again.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)they would become Independents and caucus with the Dems, thus giving Dems a majority in Senate.
But instead, they both voted against consumers on that horrible banking bill.
not fooled
(5,801 posts)are desperate to get the presidency. Maybe he and pence can fight a duel to find out whose religion is best.
GeorgeGist
(25,318 posts)because Trump makes their treachery appear unseemly.
fleabiscuit
(4,542 posts)babylonsister
(171,050 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)fucker.
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Judge them by their actions, not their hollow words.
bdamomma
(63,828 posts)a tv celebrity holding the most important office either.