Liberals Uncritical Of Left-Wing “Bank Terrorist”
Last week, a mob of screeching
protesters
invaded the Bear Stearns headquarters in Manhattan
demanding more aid for homeowners.
As you know, I oppose federal
bailouts of every make and model—and that includes both
the
Bear Stearns deal and the bipartisan
stimulus-palooza in Washington. But the bank-bashers
who held their demonstration in New York City against
Bear Stearns and JPMorgan are totally unhinged. And out
of control.
Here is the face of the entitlement
culture gone mad: "We will go to their
neighborhood, we will educate their children on what
their parents do. They should be ashamed," said
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA)
founder Bruce Marks in a nasty warning issued to
employees of both banks.
This is not an idle threat. Bruce
Marks is
no harmless lone nut. He has a proven record of
showing up at children`s schools and bullying them
because of their parents` employment. All in the name of
"social justice," of course, and securing loans
for every last bad risk on the face of the planet. He`s
so proud of his behavior, he calls himself a "bank
terrorist."
Has he earned scorn and
condemnation? Of course not. As a reward for his
tactics, The Boston Globe named him "Bostonian
of the Year" in 2007. The paper praised his
"sensible innovation." They fawned over his
"curious blend of in-your-face activism,
customer-focused service, Machiavellian angling, and
social-justice passion." And, as The Globe
reported in its cover feature on Marks, there is no
line of decency this housing shakedown artist won`t
cross. Welcome to the subprime politics of personal
destruction:
"Marks and his yellow-T-shirted followers have swarmed
shareholders` meetings with enough force to shut them
down. They have picketed outside the schools attended by
the children of bank CEOs, pressing the youngsters in
signs and chants to answer for the actions of their
daddies. And they even once distributed scandal sheets
to every house in one CEO`s neighborhood, detailing the
affair he was allegedly having with a subordinate. In
time, that CEO, like most of the others that NACA
targeted, sat down with Marks and signed a deal.
"To those who found his tactics an outrageous invasion
of bank executives` personal lives, Marks refused to
acknowledge any line between home and work. `What you do
is who you are,` he says. `It`s all personal.`"
My leftist opponents have labeled me
a "stalker" for
publicizing the public contact information of
anti-war activists who ran military recruiters off their
college campus—and for researching,
documenting and challenging the assets of a
two-property, three-car-owning Democratic poster family
held up as
unassailable arguments for massive government health
insurance expansions.
Meanwhile, housing entitlement bully
Bruce Marks gets citizen-of-the-year accolades while
rolling in housing hustle dough.
You see, it`s all about the money
for Marks` group, which browbeats banks and lenders into
billion-dollar deals to allow its left-wing activists to
arrange mortgages for their
high-risk constituents. NACA—with dozens of offices
across the country—has a no-down payment, no-closing
costs, low-interest rate policy for low-income minority
borrowers and takes a hefty fee for each transaction.
NACA loan applicants are then
required to attend workshops glorifying the group`s
protest thuggery. Those whose loans are approved must
then pledge to assist the group in five "actions"
(like the one at Bear Stearns` headquarters) per year.
When they`re not clamoring for more homeowner funds and
federal
Community Reinvestment Act money, they`re bombarding
the
feds with regulatory complaints to halt any planned
bank mergers or expansions.
Those radical actions have yielded a
windfall as fearful corporations fork over money to
preempt Marks` extortionist mau-mau-ing. In 2003,
Citigroup coughed up $3 billion in mortgage loans to
NACA through 2013. Bank of America, which first
partnered with (succumbed to) NACA in 1995, handed over
$6 billion through 2015.
Let me repeat the threat he issued
at the Bear Stearns protest last week: "We will go to
their neighborhood, we will educate their children on
what their parents do. They should be ashamed."
If any prominent liberals have
criticized Marks` tactics, I haven`t heard them. Have
you?
Lesson learned: Screaming
"racist" pays.
COPYRIGHT
CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Michelle Malkin [email
her] is author of
Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists,
Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.
Click
here for Peter Brimelow`s review. Click
here for Michelle Malkin`s website.
Michelle Malkin`s latest book is "Unhinged:
Exposing Liberals Gone Wild."


