Capitalism - How it is presented. Capitalist Propaganda. Memories of Tommy Cooper.

Wall Street. Capitalist center of criminality and corruption.

When I was young I sold socialist papers in the pubs in Ireland. On Saturday nights there was one hour when I had to take a break. This was because there was a comedian at the time called Tommy Cooper. He would be on TV in every pub. And he was so funny that when he was performing nobody would look at me or the paper. I would just stop and hang out in whatever pub I was in and laugh with everybody else. Looking back on it now this probably helped me sell papers as people saw I was a real person. Not a mad inhuman ultra left.

This comedian had a stock phrase after every punch line to every joke. He would say: "It's the way I tell 'em." Well capitalism is not funny but there is the one similarity to Tommy. It is the "way it tells 'em." Look at the recent deal made in New York City between Cuomo the state attorney general and and Rattner one of the state's and Wall Street's biggest crooks. It revolves around the state pension plan. Now capitalist Hollywood tells us that union pension plans are always being preyed on by mafia types. And there is truth in this. But these are only small fry, the bottom feeders. The real deal is what the big capitalists get up to stealing and misusing the workers pension funds. That is another catastrophe waiting to happen but that is a story for another day. To get the real picture of what has happened in New York between Rattner and Cuomo we need to look at the way the capitalist press tell their stories, the way, as Tommy would say: "they tell 'em."

New York's pension fund has $134 billion in its coffers. Yes the incredible amount of $134 billion. The Rattners and the other capitalists are driven mad seeing all this money sitting there. They are continually trying to figure out ways to loot it. This is where this Rattner comes in. Rattner, a big shot in the Democratic Party, has been at this for years. His investment fund, do not be confused by the fancy name, if you or I have ten thousand of so dollars we do not need to live on day to day, we can call this an investment fund, well Rattner's investment fund, named Quadrangle, paid insiders to get money from the New York workers pension fund. In this case the state pension plan gave $150 million to Rattner's fund.

So let us see. Rattner, because he already had a lot of money and he was well connected in the corrupt world of Wall Street and the banks and the Democratic Party was able to get $150 million from the New York Workers' pension plan to invest in his various schemes. Not bad. How come a union local could not get this, after all its is the workers money, and invest it in building affordable decent housing for working people. The union leaders are asleep at the wheel.

Then the capitalists around the pension fund had a falling out. One faction resented Rattner having too much inside influence and there was the Cuomo/Rattner male egos to live with too. So Cuomo went after Rattner. But after a long spat they have now made a deal. Here is where it becomes important to keep your eye on the ball. The New York state attorney general made a deal with Rattner ending the case. Rattner admitted no wrong doing. He served no time in jail. He bought his way out of the case by paying $10 million. This brings the total of fines paid to New York state by different individuals and so called investment funds to $170 million. Yes $170 million. So all is well that ends well. But wait a minute. It is as my old friend Tommy Cooper said, the way "they tell 'em."

There is another way to tell this story. And it happens to be the reality not the capitalist fantasy and propaganda. The New York workers have a pension plan of $134 billion dollars. This is for their old age and has been earned by them and set aside over their working lives. A bunch of crooks and insiders, some from the Democratic Party and some not got around and hired other insiders and bribed politicians and managed to get this fund to make them big loans which they then used to invest in whatever project they wished and make money for themselves. Rattner, to grease the wheels, used some of this money to secure a DVD distribution deal for a low budget movie, that is a junk movie, called "Chooch" that was produced by a pension fund official's brother. Another bribe. The Godfather had nothing on these looters of the workers pension funds. This is not the way it is told in the capitalist media. But it is the reality. It is what really happened.

To continue with the story in the proper way, the way we "tell 'em." Rattner and his partners in crime buy their way out of the mess they got themselves into. Rattner pays New York state and the Securities and Exchanges commission combined around $28 million dollars. But admits no wrong doing. He is let off with this!!! If he did nothing wrong why is he paying $28 million. Capitalism does not want the whole ship to be holed.

Let us continue to tell the story in the proper way. To do this let us use a comparison. A young man who has nothing cannot take it anymore and goes out on the street and mugs somebody. He stashes the money. But a few days later he is caught. He negotiates with the cops. All the time he is allowed to be free. Well Rattner was. He and the cops come to a deal. He will give them a portion of what he has stolen, he will not admit any wrong doing and that will be that. This is the equivalent of the situation with Cuomo, Rattner and the way the capitalist press "tell it."

Rattner and his friends, by the way the total $170 million fine to New York for the looting of the workers pension fund went to some of the world's biggest so called private equity funds. Private equity funds are just where capitalists stash away capital they do not need to live on day to day and look around for places to use this stash to exploit people and situations. The companies involved included such outfits as the infamous Carlyle Group. These equity funds should be made illegal and their funds taken over and if they are caught in illegal activity like these were and like Rattner was then there should be no deal making and no letting them off with buying their way out of their crime. The young man or woman on the street who steals are not allowed to buy their way out.

Old Tommy was a character. I am thinking more about countering the ideas of capitalism these days. Countering the capitalist propaganda. I am going to think more about how Tommy put it. It is the way he told 'em. For us too it has to be "the way we tell 'em." We have an advantage. The reality is powerful. we just have to learn how to tell it.

Sean.