JP Morgan Chase
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By Larry Keane

Big banks are showing they love two things: Communist cash and discriminating against Constitutionally-protected industries.

Multinational corporate banks including JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup told the Biden administration to back off sanctioning Russia, according to a Bloomberg report. The crippling measure would have booted Russia from the SWIFT financial messaging system, a global payments system used by 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries.

The White House announced that certain Russian banks would be expelled from SWIFT, but spared energy export transactions. These are the same banks that refused to do business with U.S. oil and gas companies in a policy described as “redlining.” It’s the same financial discrimination these banks use against firearm-related businesses.

SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a system that financial institutions use to transfer funds quickly. Instead of denying the easy movement of Russian petro dollars, corporate banks that want to deny American gun rights by choking off access to financial services to gun companies want to keep the spigot wide open for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as he indiscriminately attacks civilian population centers in Ukraine.

Bank of America won't lend to AR makers

The duplicitous policies are as much mind-blowing as they are revealing. Corporate banks want to finance a brutal and wildly-unpopular attack on a sovereign nation that is prompting even historically neutral countries like Switzerland to sanction Russia while at the same time use American-taxpayer-funded protections to discriminate and decimate the American firearm manufacturers – the arsenal of freedom.

Bankrolling Russia

Dumping Russia from the system would have helped isolate Russia financially from financing their unprovoked attack on their neighbor Ukraine. Big banks, though, wanted to shield their investments and keep the money flowing to Russia. These are the same banks that openly discriminate against U.S. firearm-related businesses through policies denying banking services because they disagree with lawful firearm ownership.

That’s a right protected by the Constitution. In other words, that’s freedom. These corporate banks that roll in Communist cash want to use their financial leverage to force antigun policies in the United States, including enacting age-based gun bans that would deny lawful firearm ownership to adults under 21 and enact a ban on Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs), the most-popular selling centerfire rifle in America.

Citibank corporate gun control
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It’s time Congress acts on the Fair Access to Banking Act, introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) as S. 563 and by Congressman Andy Barr (R-Ky.) as H.R. 1729.  This legislation would ensure that banking and credit decisions by financial institutions are based on individualized creditworthiness and impartial risk-based standards. Additionally, they would prevent financial institutions with over $10 billion in assets from accessing taxpayer-subsidized government programs, including access to the Federal Reserve Discount Window Lending Programs, Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) and Automated Clearing House Network, when they are at the same time denying banking services to legal businesses under federal law.

Taking American Tax Dollars

In short, banks that choose to discriminate against firearm businesses would lose their taxpayer-funded resources. These corporate behemoths gladly took not billions, but trillions of dollars – subsidized by U.S. tax dollars – to stabilize U.S. and international banks. The Federal Reserve made $7.7 trillion in loans to financial institutions, a figure that “dwarf[s] the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP],” according to one report.

Wells Fargo
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JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs Group, and Morgan Stanley all took loans totaling more than $13 billion with no strings attached. These are the same corporate banking institutions that are telling President Joe Biden not to interfere with the cash flow to and from Russia as its forces murder Ukrainian civilians while at the same time would disarm Americans by refusing firearm companies banking services.

Banks are showing their true colors and it’s nothing less than green. They’ll back demagogues over democracy, politics over people, and most of all, Communist cash flow over freedom, no matter which freedoms they crush.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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40 COMMENTS

  2. > Communist cash

    > Communist cash flow

    Russia is a lot of (very bad) things, but it hasn’t been “communist” for, what, 30 years?

    The fuck is wrong with you, you don’t understand basic facts about the world?

    All support to Ukraine; the fascist dictator Putin should hang.

    • jsled…Being as your rank in the socialist, marxist, communist democRat Party is “useful idiot” you wouldn’t know the difference communism and pancakes.

      If you think communism vanished from Russia you are now more ignorant than ever. What part of Lenin, Stalin, Putin et al don’t you understand? Where do you think putin got his wacky destructive, tyrannical ideas? It’s quite similar to where you, minor49iq, darcydodo get wacky ideas: From the marxist media and the socialist, marxist, communist democRat Party. The party that over the past year has reduced America to a level that held the door open for putin to be putin…You cheered for joe and the socialist, marxist, communist democRat Party and now you own putin lock, stock and barrel.

      • Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with your brain?

        These things you say are just basically incoherent.

        You abject moron.

        • You millenials couldn’t pick Karl Marx from Groucho.

          Putin was a KGB Colonel who spent much of the 1980s as a liaison to the East German Stasi (their equivalent of the KGB). He still has the cold war mentality and wants to restore the Soviet Empire, err Union, to its former glory.

          Aside from rusting rockets with nuclear weapons, the country doesn’t have much. At it’s height the USSR had the GDP of Canada. Now it has less GDP than Spain.

        • Real tough guy language, I am certainly intimidated by you, tough guy! Is Russia literally communist? No, but no one, except maybe No Korea is anymore. Communism failed that hard. Point is the same asshole, and you know it so stop spouting off and go away

        • AMAZING is the explosion, in last 10days, of millennial prog chickenhawks. All butch and out to make war on the russian COMMUNISTS. Their prog demtard forefathers have been in orgasmic lust for the CCCP for a CENTURY. Their newage honey arrived from the Orient and purchased their affection. Whores.

    • Here’s an article about the firearm.industy getting denied services by sleazy banks and my mild mannered reply to jsled who dropped the f bomb gets denied by moderation.
      Now it may list shortly like others that were moderated recently for no reason. But by the time that happens jsled has probably left the building.

  3. Who has been watching the news in Europe? Germany was just as reluctant to impose SWIFT sanctions as anyone. “Oh, we really gotta hurt Russia, but SWIFT sanctions will HURT US!!” I point out Germany, but there were other countries with the same attitude.

        • BS. He quit sending them their payola of the last century. You think all the antinuc, envirowacko BS was about something other than KGI astroturf agitating? That’s cute.

        • A fascist is someone who wants to control the means of production. And as far as I know Putin is not a fascist. Yes there are oligarch’s in Russia. But as far as I know the state does not control them.

          However in the United States we do have people, fascists, who want to control the means of production here. They are currently called Democrats.

      • But Putin is. He said as much the other day with his “this is communism!” the other day.

    • Doesn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things. China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) is still very much in play for Russia. China wants to see this play out so they can plan their own moves to solve the ‘Taiwan Problem.’

  4. Let me get this straight: huge U.S. based banks are not interested in halting transactions with Russia? This is my surprised face.

    People would be wise to realize something: you have a ginormous advantage in the business world if you are a sociopath and have ZERO morals (but I repeat myself). Such an advantage greatly improves your odds of “rising” to the top of huge corporations. It should not surprise you then when the upper echelon of the corporate world act like sociopaths with zero morals.

    • And for anyone who would poo-poo my comment above:

      I belonged to a social organization and a fellow member shared one of his past experiences with me. He was the manager of a Radio Shack store back in the 1990s. One day out of the blue (and with no advanced notice), two “gentlemen” in nice suits walked into his store and explained that he was going to switch over to their trash service. (Hint: these two men were “muscle”, NOT salesmen, for the new trash company.) Given that the new trash service was only a bit more expensive than the current trash service, plus the fact that his job was unimportant in the overall scheme of his life, he was not going to make a stink about it. Of course that was the entire strategy of the two “nice gentlemen” who “represented” the trash company.

      Anyone who thinks that sort of thing is not commonplace is in denial or isn’t paying attention.

      • Yeah, it’s disturbing how it went down party lines.

        Also, it seems that so many who write about it focus on how evil the perp was; few consider the legal concepts regarding juries more abstractly.

  6. Pelosi is agreeing to shut down imports of Russian oil, against King Dribblecups wishes. Almost as if she isn’t worrying what gas prices will do to affect the midterms… it’s WHO counts the votes that matters – she might know a guy at Dominion.

    • Maybe they’re aware that they can’t have it both ways; can’t have Russian oil without funding Putin.

      As for votes, act locally. Be an election observer.

    • Anything that, including high prices, that reduces use of oil is approved by the Demtard party progs.

  7. A famous Russian once said that capitalists would sell him the rope he’d use to hang them.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Well, maybe there’s one difference. Would anyone be upset if the bankers were hung?

  8. The pattern is the wealthy and elite are always eager to screw the ordinary people for.
    Russia bad! Here’s billions of dollars for oil, Russia.
    Ukraine good! Lets just ignore the nazis and the UN’s own reports of them killing 13,000 ethnic Russian civilians.
    Totally nothing at all fishy about silencing one side of a two sided issue. It’s not like out own government would ever propagandize info for the population.
    Can’t drill here because muh climate change but it’s totally cool if other nations ramp up their production and we trade money for their oil as the price quadruples for those pesky ordinary people. I guess climate change stays within borders now or something.

    You and I are getting fucked so they can make bank and ever more control.

  11. Well according to the Libertarians Liberals and the Left who complain about the “military-industrial complex”. They have already previously said that they are quite comfortable with the banks terminating their business relationships with the Firearms business.

    So I will assume that these people are intellectually honest. And support the bank’s financing the “military-industrial complex”. That they complained about so much.

    But exclude companies like Ruger or Gunsite Academy or Pipe Hitters or any of the gun related businesses harmed by Banks and tech companies, who refuse to process their business paperwork. And also work to prevent these privately owned businesses from communicating with their customers.

  12. Stay away from the big banks, screw them. Check out guncredit.com I’m able to take credit card payments from my customers, as well as offer them financing of 90 days same as cash zero interest, or 6, 9, or 12-month financing. I’m also able to get financing for my business. The big banks made their bed, now let them burn in it. Oh ya, and don’t use screwpal, I mean Paypal, they canceled my account and kept my money for 90 days. Then when 90 days was up they just kept my money altogether. I can’t even appeal it.

    • This is new. Paypal went to hell when purchased by ebay in 2002. Has been doing such shit for TWENTY YEARS.

  13. TRATIORS ; LIKE tttRUMPISM lie ism fakie ism ,
    PUTINISM bend over ism put it where no sun shine ism ,
    K JUNKIE UMISM watch himism launchism nuke up your bundhole ism .
    O YAY CHINA ISM RIGHT TO DO AS TOLD ISM .
    HANG ISM THEM ALL ISM . K

  14. No SWIFT for you Rooska
    renembir how MCGA works.
    LOL
    the Illuminati loosing power.
    Must have War, worked in the past, probably backfire this time, America importing made Chin to strong.
    Wheres my damned avocado’s ? Get them Canadian truckers rolling.

  15. The Blumberg article here is from Feb 26 … I think things have moved from then.

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