*When President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Cornel West was rigid on his position about war during his administration.
Since war has raged on and the president has authorized more troops and even mobilized attacks on Libya, West is not letting up on the heavy hand of criticism.
On the radio show Tavis Smiley hosts, Cornell called Obama a “war criminal” and accused him of being one.
“I think, my dear brother, the chickens are coming home to roost,” West told Smiley. “We’ve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It’s been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.”
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 216 children have died in three countries due to the U.S. involvement in unofficial war and drone strikes.
“I think we have to be very honest, let us not be deceived: Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals,” West said. “They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they’re suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us. You and I, brother Tavis, if we kill an innocent person we go to jail, and we’re going to be in there forever.”
Check out the full audio of the show:
Once again Dr. Cornel West has gone out of his way to inflame headlines and relegate a complex issue to the waste bin of simplistic zealotry by calling President Obama a war criminal.
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In his typical pseudo intellectual fashion, West continues to shout the obvious – that innocent people are being killed in war – in the most inflammatory tones as though he’s relating something new.
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While most Americans are against the killing of innocent noncombatants, we also recognize that it invariably happens in every war. That’s one of many things that makes engaging in war such a horrible thing. But Cornel West is shouting from the rafters and going into public convulsions as though the first time it’s ever happened is under Barack Obama. Thus, I’d like to challenge Dr. West to name one war in the history of mankind where innocent noncombatants weren’t killed.
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The problem with people like Tavis and West is they invariably shoot from the hip with inflammatory comments, and disseminate disinformation in order to garner headlines to promote their own selfish agendas. As a result, instead of enhancing public education and engagement, they distract from any serious discussion of the issues.
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West is not privy to even one sentence of the intelligence that President Obama has at his disposal. Yet, he’s shooting off his mouth as though the CIA is putting a condition report on his desk every morning for his review. We must never forget that Pakistan, right next door to Afghanistan – and where Osama Bin Laden was found and killed – is armed with nuclear weapons, and the president has a responsibility to see to it that those weapons never fall into the hands of Al Qaeda. If they do, America, and YOUR family, will fall under the dire threat of nuclear annihilation.
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So while people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are jumping up and down in ignorance, and engaging in a recklessly selfish attempt to gain headlines and get the president’s acknowledgment, the President is engaged in serious business – America’s business. So they have to understand, just like irate children seeking attention, that the president doesn’t have time to come out and play, and regardless to how many tantrums they engage in, or how inflammatory they become, the president simply doesn’t have time to come sit in the sandbox with them.
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Adults understand that the issues aren’t as cut-n-dried as people like Tavis and West would have us believe. Yes, on the surface it seems like simple common sense that it’s wrong to kill an American citizen without due process – even if that citizen is collaborating with the enemy. But place yourself in the position of the president for a moment. Let’s say you have credible information that Al Qaeda is going to launch an attack on an American position on Tuesday morning, but you can prevent the attack by launching a preemptive drone attack on Al Qaeda’s position on Monday night. You have one problem, however. You also have intelligence that indicates there’s a collaborator on the enemy site who is an American citizen. Are you going to hold off your preemptive attack because the collaborator hasn’t been afforded due process? I don’t think so, any more than a police officer is going to wait on a court order to defend himself on the street.
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And let us not forget that once a precedent has been set of holding off attacks in order to protect the lives of American collaborators, from that point on Al Qaeda can use that against us. All they have to do is surround themselves with American sympathizers as human shields to insure themselves against attack. So these issues aren’t as simple as they might seem at first blush. While, of course, we must be careful to protect the rights and security of innocent American citizens, jumping up and down screaming and pointing fingers is not the kind of approach that is appropriate for considering such weighty concerns.
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But a Cornel West supporter recently called me to task for constantly challenging Dr. West’s intelligence. He asked, “Eric, who made you judge and jury to attribute intelligence or lack thereof, to any individual?”
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That’s a reasonable question, so I’ll try to give a reasonable response. My assessment of a person’s intelligence is not based on their credentials, but on their behavior. And who am I to make such a judgment? I’m human, and human beings are called upon to make such judgments hundreds of times a day just to survive. It’s called assessing your environment. In this case, it’s extremely important for the Black community to assess West’s competence, because, considering his flagging, but still substantial influence, failing to understand his character, motivations, and shortcomings could have a devastating impact on our community.
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The results of the 2000 election stands as a perfect example of my contention. George W. Bush won the 2000 election by winning Florida by 537 votes. In that same state, the Nader/West coalition peeled away 97,488 votes. So one could argue that West is more than a little responsible for the suffering that’s currently going on among Black people today. And you know what? West didn’t learn a thing. He tried to team up with Nader again in the last election. So either he lacks intelligence, or he’s engaged in collusion with the Republican Party. It’s very important, therefore, that the Black community make a valid assessment of who this man is.
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As Min. Louis Farrakhan so adroitly pointed out to Tavis Smiley, President Obama is not turning grey-headed for nothing. He’s dealing with serious issues, and he’s privy to information in which we can only speculate. So it’s one thing to question policy, but when Cornel West goes around making incendiary comments, and calling the President of the United States a war criminal, it’s not only childish, irresponsible, unprofessional, and ignorant, but it lends support to the enemies of both the Black community, and the American people as a whole.
Eric, I thought people were throwing away the koolaid now. You must have the last little bit left. Shame on you for your SLANDER against Smiley and West. “Tavis and West…disseminate disinformation.” REALLY? When did they do this? Can you name an instance in which they lied? That is SLANDER. You might not LIKE what they say, but that does not mean it is a lie.
Here is my take. George W. Bush is unequivocably a war criminal with many accomplices. Barack Obama would now be considered an accomplice to the crimes because he refused to address them when given the opportunity and in fact CONTINUED Bush’s dishonest war policies. Our country continues to suffer because of both Bush’s crimes and Obama’s (and others’) silence about said crimes. Save your ire Eric Wattree for those in power who abuse and misuse it. Stop SLANDERING citizens who dare speak truth, just because you don’t like the truth.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
TGen. Actually, I disagree. Obama is more than just an accomplice to Bush as a war criminal.
Obama decided that he’s going to be his his own man in his quest to kiss up to the right. That’s why he went even beyond Bush. Look specifically at what Cornell is referring to.
216 children have died in three countries due to the U.S. involvement in unofficial war and drone strikes.
As of September, 2012, Barack Obama had authorized six times as many drone strikes as George W. Bush did in his eight years in office.
According to CNN, as a result, “the number of estimated deaths from the Obama administration’s drone strikes is more than four times what it was during the Bush administration — somewhere between 1,494 and 2,618.”
Republicans and Democrats sent letters asking the Obama administration to explain the legal justification for targeted killing of American citizens, after radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan, and Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, were killed by drone strikes in Yemen in September and October of last year.
“We got a license to kill Americans, and we don’t know the legal basis for the license to kill Americans…because our letters haven’t been answered,” Grassley complained during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
It’s so bad, that even the usually water carriers over at MSNBC are now speaking out. Ed Shultz went all out a few weeks ago on calling out the Obama admin on its justification for assassinating American citizens without due process when a memo was leaked citing legal basis for this.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are insisting that their panel should see the memos as well. They note that the Office of Legal Counsel, which drafted the memos, is part of the Justice Department—which is overseen by the Judiciary Committee.
“The deliberate killing of a United States citizen pursuant to a targeted operation authorized or aided by our Government raises significant constitutional and legal concerns that fall squarely within the jurisdiction of the Committee. Indeed, the analysis in the Department’s White Paper centers on core constitutional questions about the scope and application of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, as well as the possible violation of federal criminal statutes.
Who would think it would come to this. Not only the Republicans whose ass he is trying to kiss with these actions, but even the Democrats have serious issues with Obama’s killing spree.
There’s no denying the innocent blood on Obama’s hand. He is a war criminal onto his own right. As Cornell once said, “now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.”
But at the end of the day, will it really matter? We don’t prosecute war criminals anymore, unless it’s some dictator from some African country.
TGen. Actually, I disagree. Obama is more than just an accomplice to Bush as a war criminal.
Obama decided that he’s going to be his own man in his quest to kiss up to the right. That’s why he went even beyond Bush. Look specifically at what Cornell was referring to.
216 children have died in three countries due to the U.S. involvement in unofficial war and drone strikes.
As of September, 2012, Barack Obama had authorized six times as many drone strikes as George W. Bush did in his eight years in office.
According to CNN, as a result, “the number of estimated deaths from the Obama administration’s drone strikes is more than four times what it was during the Bush administration — somewhere between 1,494 and 2,618.”
Republicans and Democrats sent letters asking the Obama administration to explain the legal justification for targeted killing of American citizens, after radical American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan, and Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, were killed by drone strikes in Yemen in September and October of last year.
“We got a license to kill Americans, and we don’t know the legal basis for the license to kill Americans…because our letters haven’t been answered,” Grassley complained during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
It’s so bad, that even the usually water carriers over at MSNBC are now speaking out. Ed Shultz went all out a few weeks ago on calling out the Obama admin on its justification for assassinating American citizens without due process when a memo was leaked citing legal basis for this.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are insisting that their panel should see the memos as well. They note that the Office of Legal Counsel, which drafted the memos, is part of the Justice Department—which is overseen by the Judiciary Committee.
“The deliberate killing of a United States citizen pursuant to a targeted operation authorized or aided by our Government raises significant constitutional and legal concerns that fall squarely within the jurisdiction of the Committee. Indeed, the analysis in the Department’s White Paper centers on core constitutional questions about the scope and application of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, as well as the possible violation of federal criminal statutes.
Who would think it would come to this. Not only the Republicans whose ass he is trying to kiss with these actions, but even the Democrats have serious issues with Obama’s killing spree.
There’s no denying the innocent blood on Obama’s hand. He is a war criminal onto his own right. As Cornell once said, “now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.”
But at the end of the day, will it really matter? We don’t prosecute war criminals anymore, unless it’s some dictator from some African country.
Tgen,
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Koolaid, you said? You also said,
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“Save your ire Eric Wattree for those in power who abuse and misuse it. Stop SLANDERING citizens who dare speak truth, just because you don’t like the truth.”
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Comment on this:
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A QUESTION FOR BOTH TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST
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Mr. Smiley, do you intend to return the Millions of dollars that you reportedly made from herding poor Black people and Hispanics into the Wells Fargo “Ghetto Loan” scam to the people who lost their money and homes? And Dr. West, in your learned opinion, what is the appropriate course of action for your friend and associate to take, in accordance with the “prophetic tradition?”
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A discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice, and several articles, including one seeded on Newsvine entitle, “Tavis Smiley – “Ghetto Loan” Peddler for Wells Fargo,” closely associates PBS talk show host, Tavis Smiley, with the Wells Fargo Bank scam targeting poor and middle-class Black and Hispanic borrowers. The article quotes Kelvin Boston, host of “Moneywise, and Keith Corbett, of the Center for Responsible Lending, as calling Tavis Smiley “the big draw” of the Wells Fargo scam. Specifically, the article states the following:.
“Smiley was the keynote speaker, and the big draw, according to Boston [host of “Moneywise”] and Keith Corbett, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, who attended two of the seminars. Smiley would charge up the audience — and rattle the Wells Fargo executives in attendance — by launching into a story about how he hated banks, and how they used to refuse to lend him money for his real estate projects in Compton, Calif., and elsewhere… But what appeared on the surface as a way to help black borrowers build wealth was actually just the opposite, according to a little-noticed explanation of the “Wealth Building” seminar strategy, contained in a lawsuit recently filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
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“Wells’ plan for the seminars all along was to target black borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages, not for wealth-building, the suit charged. And the seminars were a part of the bank’s overall illegal and discriminatory practice of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into riskier and more expensive loans, the suit said.”
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Subsequent to the law suit, Richard Prince reported in The Washington Independent that Smiley issued a statement indicating that he would sever all ties with Wells Fargo until charges that the company steered minorities into higher-rate loans are resolved. The article went on to say,
.“Wells Fargo sponsored Smiley’s radio show on Public Radio International, and underwrote the annual C-Span-televised “State of the Black Union” conference that Smiley organizes. Smiley’s foundation also distributed Wells Fargo materials to young people at foundation events, he told Journal-isms.
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‘“I cut everything off with Wells Fargo,’ Smiley declared. He said the move cost ‘a lot of money’; he said he did not know how much.”
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On July 12, 2012 Charlie Savage reported in the New York Times that Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay $175 million to settle the discrimination suit which, according to the Department of Justice, targeted over 30,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers for subprime loans with a higher interest rate than for similarly situated White borrowers between 2004 and 2009.
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What makes it particularly ironic that Tavis Smiley would be associated with this scheme to target poor and middle-class minorities is that Smiley is the primary promoter of what he calls “The Poverty Tour,” along with his friend and associate, former Princeton professor, Cornel West. During the tour, on their joint radio talk show, and on numerous media appearances, Smiley and West have gained a reputation for being President Obama’s harshest critics, indicating that the president is not sufficiently focused, and “accountable,” to the nation’s poor and minority community.
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In a statement by Wells Fargo put out after the bank agreed to a settlement of $175 Million, they said that while not admitting to any wrong doing, Wells Fargo agreed to a settlement of the law suit because the bank felt that it was the right thing to do.
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CNNMONEY quoted Mike Held, president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, as saying, “Wells Fargo is settling this matter because we believe it is in the best interest of our team members, customers, communities and investors to avoid a long and costly legal fight, and to instead devote our resources to continuing to contribute to the country’s housing recovery.”
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The settlement includes Wells Fargo paying the Black and Hispanic victims of discrimination $125 million in compensation, and an additional $50 million in down-payment assistance to borrowers in the affected communities.
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So the question that remains is, if Wells Fargo Bank feels that paying compensating to the poor and middle-class victims of this scam is the right thing to do, shouldn’t Tavis Smiley, the most strident advocate of “accountability” and fervent crusader for the interest of the poor, feel obliged to do the same? Certainly, benefiting from the misery of the poor and minority community would run counter to Mr. Smiley’s zeal for the need of the powerful to maintain accountability.
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We’d also like to put that question to Smiley’s friend and associate, Dr. Cornel West. What do you think your good friend and associate should do, Dr. West? What does the “prophetic tradition” dictate is the proper course of action?
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We’ll be anxiously awaiting your response.
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SO FAR WE HAVEN’T HEARD A WORD FROM “MR ACCOUNTABILITY.”
When is someone g’on get this GD baby, his bottle!? And when yuh do?, put some licka in it so his wining ass goes to…sleep!! Tommin ass needs a fkn “barber” too! WTF….does this senile sambo also think he’s…”Fredrick Douglas”!!?? SMGDHATTN!
Oh my.
What does this have to do with Obama being a war criminal. He is a war criminal. He targets, even American citizens, and he does double taps, where he targets rescuers and he also targets people attending funerals of those he targeted. If this was George Bush, there would be a huge outcry. Do not be deceived. He has the power to declare a citizen an enemy of the state and have him or her assassinated… He has carried on Bush’s work. If you do research, then you will realize that the Democrats and Republicans are on the same team. Rev. Wright even said that Obama was selected before he was elected…
lol So (nevermind that your post has NOTHING to do with the article topic), you’re saying it’s Smiley’s fault that some folks signed up for loans they could not afford? Wow
I often wonder why Obama-haters tend to hate Obama so much more than they do the Republicans, who have a much more malevolent agenda towards the American people. The GOP is engaged in an ongoing campaign to abolish Medicare, Social Security, organized labor, the minority’s right to vote, and they repeatedly hold the American people, including the unemployed, hostage to promote the interest of the rich. In addition, they’ve staged a bitter war against women, gays, and the immigrant community – and this GOP assault on the rights of the poor, middle class, and minorities is not just being staged by a radical few. It’s clearly a concerted effort by the entire Republican Party.
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Thousands of Republicans have come together in a solid block of solidarity to embarked upon the exact same agenda. It involves corporations, congressmen, U.S. senators, state senators, state legislatures, city council members, judges, etc., all across this country who seem to be hell-bent on cutting the throats of poor and middle-class America. Yet, Black, Obama-haters seem to be completely oblivious to this fact and are totally fixated on this one Black man who was elected twice, by a large majority of the American people to be President of the United States. One would think that, that fact alone would, at the very least, would cause these haters to reflect on what’s REALLY going on inside of their heads.
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But these people are so fixated on hating Obama that they’re completely blind to everything else. One can prove to them without a doubt that one of their leading and most high profile Obama-haters is connected to several members of ALEC – an organization that’s spending HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to obstruct the minority right to vote and was also instrumental in herding poor and middle class minorities into Wells Fargo’s “Ghetto Loan” scam that caused the bank to have to pay a $175 MILLION SETTLEMENT to Black and Hispanic borrowers – and they’ll simply say something like “Yeah, but Obama played golf with a man who works for the oil company.” Thereafter, they won’t say ONE WORD about anything else.
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These people hate Obama so passionately that they’re allowing the GOP – the most insidious domestic threat to the American people in the nation’s history – to pursue it’s malevolent agenda with complete impunity. In fact, their behavior is enhancing the GOP effort.
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I mean, one would think that their tunnel vision alone would send up a red flag signaling them to review their thinking. It’s absolutely amazing how it doesn’t, but it does clearly show why Black people are in such bad shape. The thoughtless behavior of these haters is undeniable confirmation that there are a handful of Black people in this country who hate other Black people – and especially this Black president – as much, or more, than any Klan member. But their hatred is even more insidious than that of a White, White supremacist – at least a White bigot recognizes his bigotry – but the bigotry of these Black “bligots” seem to be cloaked even from their own recognition in a camouflaging labyrinth of pretextural justifications.
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If Malcolm, Martin, and the other Black icons of the past could see what’s currently going on among us, I’m sure they’d hang their heads in shame. But even if they can’t see what’s going on, there are many others who surely will.
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Due to the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first Black president, scholars and historians are going to be scrutinizing this period in history with a fine toothed comb – and they won’t be alone. Due to the flawless memory of the internet, Black people who are yet unborn are going to be looking back and reading our posts, articles, and comments during this period, and I guarantee you that many of us are going to be a huge embarrassment to them.
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Remember, they’ll be reading our remarks with an objective eye. They’ll be able to examine this period in history absent the passions and fog of current politics and with a perspective of 20/20 hindsight. So it will be absolutely clear to them who was engaged in promoting malevolent and selfish agendas, and who were merely “bligoted” (Black bigoted) fools. As a result, many of us are going to be, at best, horrible embarrassments to our families, and at worst, in the case of some high profile people, even smears on their family names.
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You see, what the Obama-haters are engaged in has been going on for centuries – in fact, we were undoubtedly sold into slavery initially by such people in Africa. But back in the day, people were anonymous, so we don’t know whose family members helped to promote the interest of the slave masters. But during this information age, it’s all going to be a part of the public record, and I don’t think many of these people recognize that fact. So what many of us do today, may someday cause our great grandchildren to hang their heads in shame and public ridicule.
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Consider the following. Let’s say that President Obama ends up having a hugely successful presidency and history records him as being one of the nation’s greatest presidents. Many of these Obama-haters’ conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios will live on as part of the public record. As a result, our great grandchildren and future historians are going to look back upon these people as un-American – and considering the fact that Obama was our first Black president – Black people of the future may even view them, and quite possibly their families, as race traitors.
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I can hear it now: “Hey Willie, I was just reading some of the stuff that your great grandfather wrote. He was a world-class fool and an ‘Uncle Tavis.’ Now I see where you get it from.”
If this is true….
“Smiley was the keynote speaker, and the big draw, according to Boston [host of “Moneywise”] and Keith Corbett, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, who attended two of the seminars. Smiley would charge up the audience — and rattle the Wells Fargo executives in attendance — by launching into a story about how he hated banks, and how they used to refuse to lend him money for his real estate projects in Compton, Calif., and elsewhere… But what appeared on the surface as a way to help black borrowers build wealth was actually just the opposite”
Tavis Smiley is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!
To present yourself as someone that will help the poor… get long $$$ to draw in consumers and the consumers get screwed… seems like someone in cahoots with the bankers of Wells Fargo…
Crying ignorance to what the bank planned to do is NOT a defense.
I totally agree, Ladyelle.
The very least he can do is give the people back the money that he made. After all, he is “Mr. Accountability,” isn’t he?
Obama is a war criminal. On the one hand, this administration is supplying AL-Queda with money, weapons, and intelligence; and at the same time informing the American people we must send in troops to fight them. Supporting both sides in a fight only kills everyone and does not support peace or the rule of law. This is criminal. Passing draconian laws in the USA to control media and suspend the US constitution is just another criminal act. Whatever happened to the oath of office “… to defend the constitution against all enemies; both foreign and domestic..” All military personnel take this oath.