Politics June 14, 2017
Life's better when you're informed.
Bank of America and Delta really ruffled feathers when they pulled funding from Shakespeare in the Park this weekend.
The companies lost it over the theatrical program’s Trumpian take on “Julius Caesar.” There are people calling for boycotts on both sides of the fence.
And though people are livid with Bank of America for pulling funding from Shakespeare in the park, it’s a little late. Guys – Bank of America has been awful since, well, forever.
Here are five reasons Bank of America is awful:
When Shakespeare in the Park was called out for presenting a Trump-like Caesar, Bank of America got caught up in the hullabaloo. However, a lot of people on Twitter are pointing out that businesses pulling funding simply don’t understand “Julius Caesar.”
“We should all just totally kill Caesar,” does not turn out well for the conspirators. All of them die. Brutus dies by running into his own sword. Art is art. It’s up to you if you refuse to understand it. “Et tu, Brute?”
Yep, BoA funds DAPL. That innocuous, little pipeline that everyone’s mad about for some reason. Why is everyone so mad?
The little guy just wants to run through the Standing Rock Sioux’s land, and pipelines just may or may not have a track record of breaking and contaminating water. You know, DAPL’s just picking up some fossil fuels. Those never hurt anyone.
Unfortunately, DAPL is now functional. In North Dakota, it runs right underneath a large number of people’s only water supply, carrying crude oil.
The headquarters of Bank of America is located in North Carolina. And we all know they’ve got some problems. While a lot of businesses pulled out of NC because of their ridiculous, LGBT-insensitive policies, Bank of America stuck around. They changed their logo to a rainbow for pride though!
In 2014, Bank of America settled on a $17 billion arrangement with the US Justice Department. This settlement came about because of BoA’s culpability in the 2008 housing crisis. They have to pay for affordable housing, make loans more affordable, etc.
Unfortunately, BoA gets to say who receives a large portion of those funds. And they ripped everyone off in the first place.
Another component of Bank of America’s settlement with the US Justice Department was a $35,369,756 payment to service members. The payment was ordered due to unlawful foreclosure on the home of service members. These were unlawful due to the bank either failing to file an affidavit with the courts stating a person’s military status, or charging beyond the six percent interest rate cap for qualifying service members. BoA owed 286 service members.
So if you were shocked by Bank of America’s actions, well, this is nothing new.
