29.99% is the limit of interest they can charge “before” it becomes usuary in other words where they slaughter you at the door! banks still have to make money no doubt, but they do not need to rip the shirt of your back or house from your family because of lending debt that is uncomprehensable in paying back.

if usuary was lowered to 5% it would be unlawfull to lend money with a higher interest rate, making it much more feasable that debts get paid off! and people don’t get put into bankruptcy or foreclosure. 

it’s not nuts, just inevitable, you can’t lend money if money cannot make money, otherwise you would be waiting on your neibor to payback his/her loans before you were lent any money…

re: crystaldemons

Bullshit! Today’s credit system is fiat money / virtual money, not real money. It’s a scam ... just like the Mafia.

Only real money today is coin minted by Government.

Which school you drop out of?

you cannot say you haven’t seen people do stupid things with the credit they’ve been given, it’s an example… collectively everyone is accountable to their own use/misuse of credit and consumerism, breaking their own piggy banks for less than what they are preaching for !

re: crystaldemons

Are you mad, off your rocker, nutz, an idiot?
Why should anyone, any individual, pay ANY amount of “usury” as it’s the root of all evil?

Wake up! They, bankers, should be paying everyone for stealing their hard earned money.

the thing that gets me most upset is that there does not need to be protests when there are a ton of issues that people can do collectively if they disagree ! do we still not have a majority vote! YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT TELL ME IF ON THE NEXT BALLOT YOU VOTED ON HAD THE QUESTIONS:

USUARY INTEREST RATE TO BE LOWERED FROM 29.99% TO 5%
YES OR NO

A RIGHT TO REPEAL FEDERAL REGULATION BY STATE VOTE
YES OR NO

10% TAX INCREASE TO INCOMES OVER 10 MILLION
YES OR NO

APPROVE DEBIT CARD FEES FOR BANKING AND LENDING INSTITUTIONS
YES OR NO

Where are these issues on our ballots? where the hell is our vote ! do we think that banks can make the rules as they go along? and we just have to along for the ride? HELL NO! THINK PEOPLE THINK!

@ Crystaldemons

Well over 100 million foreclosures….

What a bunch of cheeseburger creditcard swipeing ATM using fools huh???

5 bucks for a paper statement!!!

Dude!!!

The first thing Govt’ should do is lower the “Usuary Rate” from 29.99 (I think) to 5% , if these companies can extend credit over 25% of your income at an interest rates that is rediculous, when a person defaults, more interest is compounded, making payoffs absolutely shocking, and there are many people who get sucked into these credit demons’nightmare, you have got to think of how desparate you must be to borrow money with a 1/3 interest ? 30 cents to every dollar? and then put up with a “FEE SCHEDULE” which is dumb and dumber ! but people whosoever are tempted do these completely asenine things and sell their soul!  what for a quick fix at a cheese burger hut or something ? swipe a card for a candybar for late night convienence, even though you have the buck in change in your pocket ? I’ve seen people do some pretty stupid things to try and make themselves feel proud or look the part! It is easy to look dumb and dumber! I am poor and 33 and proud to say i’ve never been duped by credit card agencies, I was 26 and got screwed by a voluntary car repo after financing a car! never again will I ever trust creditors! I had to payoff $7600 out of $15,000 for a car I had less than 10 months with less than 10,000 miles on it! I had to pay for half the value of a brand new car that I used 10 months, not ten years !

People are being taken advantage and treated so badly !  You should be able to take a car back and so long it is upkept leave with no debt! you should be able to have credit with a reasonable interest rate and “no fees”! you should not be able to have excess billing charges, like 5 buck because you recieved a paper statement, people are being nickled and dimed to death! I’t nice to know the lady in billing just took your next childs luch away from him or her because you had to pay for a billing fee!
or now that your forced to pay more money now for smart meters through the electric companies!

Notice how the banking industry, namely creditors want those fees for debit card purchases! 5 bucks to swipe a card, can we get 5 bucks every time we need customer service? C’mon! nickle and dimed to DEATH!

This new debit charge is one more way for you to misjudge and overdraft your account ! oops! didn’t account for that 5 bucks on your purchase! Now you’ll pay $27.00 or more (what ever your banks fees are) for forgetting! Forgetting about adding that last % bucks to your transaction ! That is what they are preying on is your own stupidity !c’mon, wake up! they will tell you it is for one thing, NO, they want you to slip up and pay the overdraft! so that’s neary 32 bucks more or less everytime you mess up a transaction! They’ve GOTCHA!

For once I agree with you Lafayette. Americans have become a bunch of PUSSIES.

Even in Canada, when a cop shows up at the door he/she better present their Badge & number, Wallet ID and Business Card. Failure to do so and they are told to get on their way. A cop is considered to be Trespassing if they don’t.

Those Canadians who don’t practice this and know their Rights are usually called fools, idiots, dumb and stupid. In the last 30 yrs we have seen an increase in those people since establishment is doing everything it can to dumb down the population.

Yet we still have demonstrations, challenges and descent at every turn, even though Canada’s population is a spread out.

Canadians use the tools they are given:
You don’t like a developer? They will find their engines and equipment full of sand the next day.
You have a problem with some corporate shill? A brick through a window or a few well placed shots will do the trick .. never hitting them, just to send a message.
You been ripped off by a business and court doesn’t do the right thing? Rip-off better watch out as they will be ripped off. It may take time but it will happen.
Dirty cop? One way or another they are gone off the force. Accidents do happen, it’s not hard to find out where a cop lives, it’s not hard to tell their neighbors what’s up.
Most of this you won’t hear on 6 o’clock news but it happens every day.

Demonstrations and rebellions? Again, you may not see them on the news but they are continually happening in many parts of the country, and have been all along.
Check out http://rabble.ca/ and http://www.mediacoop.ca/ for starters.

Now Canadians try to do things Lawfully but for those bad apples that just don’t get it anonymous action is required.

Result: US citizens have been duped by politics, lies, patriotism, bad education system, bad business, industry, big money and rest of a British corrupt banking and industrial system. Complicity and not helping your neighbor has become the norm.

Shame on you!

60 to 70% of US citizens living in dire straights or very close to it and you do nothing.

The only country on this planet that has The Right to Bear Arms against a corrupt government Lawfully and you sit on your asses like a bunch of pussies.

HAVE WE “GOT IT”?

Gerard: Naomi Klein goes on Democracy Now and reports that “young protesters in the rest of the world are asking:  ‘What took you so long?’”

Writing from France I can report the consummate glee with which French TV-reporters in the US are covering the demonstrations.

Why the enthusiasm? Because the French will descend into the streets at the drop-of-a-hat to demonstrate. It is second nature to them ... rather than bitching-in-a-blog. They figure Americans have finally “got it”.

Besides, it goes directly into the nightly news coverage - which strengthens their numbers when the demonstrators come out again and again and again.

[When this happened over a referendum that General DeGaulle (the nations post-war Founding Father and then president), he got so scared he helicoptered off to the Alsace to an Army Encampment.]

Such a movement is hard to sweep under the covers and if it gets large enough, as it did during the Vietnam War, it can move Political Mountains.

INDIGNATION (LOS INDIGNADOS!)

You don’t have to speak French to show your disgust with our political class and indignation. (You do, however, have to get your ass out from behind the boob-tube.) Nobody is demonstrating for “you”, they are demonstrating for themselves.

Go do the same.

One more thing:

As the fraudsters are arrested all they own should be ceased and paid back to people who lost it.

Cont’d from my last…
Using the distraction of spin propaganda to mask truth, everything has
morphed to the basics of Empire where leaders are enriched off the backs of
the peasant class, there is no real difference to the old methods of control!  It’s
only been since the advent of early Industrial-age Capitalism that society has
been structured into a 3 class system through creation of Worker’s Unions as a
buffer between the Pitchforks and the Silver Forks. The middle has now been
decimated through elite protectionist greed and society has been remixed. It’s
all finally come to an historical head in the struggle for power and wealth!
The 99%  collective’s rush to “rebalance” wealth has not changed throughout
written history. It’s the matter of how Wealth is protected and withheld now,
and the the now yawning gap between rich and poor that has been redefined
showing Capitalism’s clear failure to work in the interest of all contributing
members. The middle is now gone, the unions who protected the working class
middle have been dismantled!
It appears that society is being reborn today. Or is it?  are we united in our
under-class effort to rebalance wealth, or have we been permanently divided
by individualism and destined to just fade into the annals of history from our
own selfish greed in pursuing the American Dream? Have we lost the fight to
apathy? Or can we re-unite under a common cause to balance the scale of
Justice?

Fine opinions here on “who done it” and the perceived motives of those who
“have done it to us”!  Has the American Dream really died or is it alive and well?
Have we then lost the most basically important principal in the Constitution of
“Government by and for the People”?
In day’s past, Ruler’s and their wealthy pals sent the peasants out to plant the
fields, produce food, build Houses and Castles, invent new means for greater
comforts, and to fight the Empire’s wars of neighborly conquest to enrich the
Empire. The spilling of the Peasant blood protected, and further enriched the
blue blood’s, who then usurped the wealth of the Peasantry forced to fight
these wars by taxation, taking the spoils and all else for themselves.
If you look at what’s happening right now on Wall Street and around the
financial elitist world, is what’s going on any different?
To put mankind’s history into a better, more modern, “American” perspective,
there’s a huge disparity in the message of “The American Dream” and
“Government by and for the People”!  Our Founding Father’s message,
“Government by and for the People” has been rewritten with a new incentive,
“The American Dream”.
We as American’s have been told from birth that we could accomplish anything
in America!  Are we now being driven away from a collective societal effort to
one of individualism with the message of this newer “American Dream”?
The American Dream directly contradicts Government by and for the people
doesn’t it?  By and for the people encourages the individual Society and places
the individuals role to that of contribution to the collective.The Dream
encourages the individual,  relieving the individual their responsibility to work
toward the betterment of the collective!
In my mind our evolved society is being used by old-guard elite amongst us to
enrich themselves by using our collective class based society to fight wars in
order to capture wealth for the themselves.  Are they intent on selling us the
idea of unity under Nationalism, or to use us as merely human fodder in
exchange for personal enrichment? 
With the refinements in propaganda spinning truth to define “who” our
enemies are and “what” their intentions are toward relieving us of our freedoms
and way of life, are we really being used to kill off those that threaten freedom,
or Quo Bono?  Who profits in this killing thing?
So now some of us have gotten wise to the guys that blind our eyes from the
scams and lies to stock their sty’s off the backs of the little guys below their
“leader class” disguise!

re: marblex, tony and those that say Federal Reserve must go are right. It’s a private company that answers to Inner City of London and Bank of England, another privately owned bank that answers to Rothschild banks. All are owned and run by secret numbered investors.

Yet, it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Same ruling families, merchants and money traders have been at this control game for over 2,000 yrs. Ever since the crucifiction of a rightful king. Actually since the start of modern man. That’s 240,000 + yrs ago.

They had lots of time to practice how to control the populace and they don’t give a shit even if they wipe out 90% of men/women and most of this planet.

Their merchant money system of Usury comes from BAAL / Babylon. The most corrupt state recorded in history. No wonder Usury [charging interest] was punishable by death. Keep in mind Babylon was destroyed for it’s evil/corruption and trying to reach heaven / expand to rest of Galaxy.

Yet they are afraid, very afraid / deathly afraid, of what may be in store for them if they don’t provide “Remedy” to their fraudulent system. In this case the Remedy [rightful choice and lawful options] is hidden in their words/laws. It’s called discharging of debt:
http://projectarise.com/debtelimprocesses.php
and related ...

Besides this Laws already on the books can easily put away every last one of them for life. How?

Everyone has the option of hiring Peace Officers. These Peace Officers can investigate and put away any fraudster out there. Given the powers by The People, Peace Officers can and should walk into any financial institution and see their books. Anything out of sorts and off to jail the fraudsters go.

This would not only get rid of the FED but also any and all businesses that are dirty. Well that’s 99.99% of them. It would enforce The rule of Law to the point that all corrupt or abusive to men and environment would cease to operate.

Then we can use known tech, natural processes and permaculture to replenish this planet to anew.

Now you know what Occupy Wall St and rest of Occupy gatherings are really all about. So don’t be fooled.

Any questions?

This is the most important thing to happen in this country in the last 50 years. You
can be part of it.

re: pacific SW

- 70+ Milion ppl in USA lost their homes, jobs and property
- 120+ Million are working 1 to 6 low wage jobs without being able to meet basic living standards due to debt

Plus, those that are making $28 to $80 per hr are barely hanging on to what they have now. If they have any kind of debt at all or if they ever get into an accident or become ill they are screwed.

Do the math.

gerard,

Thanks for your reply.

I have occasionally read the articles on Truthdig and the comments, and have occassionally contributed over the last year or so.

If my memory serves me right, I think you said you were 83 years old, but I may have got that wrong.

You post your words as if you are a still an innocent child.

I don’t mean to offend, I am trying to pay you the best compliment I can.

I am still a child, and want to stay that way until I die.

Children look around and are constantly learning and having fun.

I’m 58.

I love my wife. We have been together for 30 years and have two children.

It is a bit more than that

I am in love with her, just like I have been since the day we met.

It is hard to explain such things, but I reckon you will understand.

Tony

So interesting (and encouraging) that while people here are debating processes and worrying about where Occupy Wall Street is going (as usual, as if we are entirely separated from the rest of the world), in stark contrast, Naomi Klein goes on Democracy Now and reports that “young protesters in the rest of the world are asking:  ‘What took you so long?’”

Tony, I am certainly aware of what you say.  Amy Goodman’s program of Oct. 6 made that more than crystal clear, and that is what I valued most about her show.  The contrast between the older union members and the younger protesters was obvious, But the unity of both old and young was encouraging, too.

Anarcissie said:

already doing it, as hard as they can.  Van Jones seems to be the point man at present.  If he fails others will be sent.  Capturing, turning and later killing the movement is crucial to getting Mr. O reelected so he can continue to serve his Wall Street masters.

Thats a little better, Anarcissie, butyou forgot one thing, namely that the Days of Rage were planned and organized by operatives in contact with Obama and some others as well. So the Occupation was set in motion by forces beyond your ken, and they will reap the harvest of whatever fruit the Occupation might bear.

There was proof before it began. It was obvious. You were manipulated.

You will also be manipulated into blaming conservatives for anything that goes wrong for the Occupiers. Obama will fix it though.

If you didnt see through the organization of the protest at the beginning when it was easy, you certainly wont see through whatever happens next.

You have become a willing Pawn and a True believer.

gerard,

Do not underestimate the current 15-25 generation. They have something that hasn’t been seen for over 40 years - since the kids born after WWII.

In fact, this generation has never been seen before. They have no prejudice. They talk to each other all over the World. They are not interested in race, colour or religion. They are interested in each other.

They support each other. They talk to each other. They make friends with each other. They share the little they have with each other.

And they will fight together with each other - for their future.

They have the determination to make it work, because there is no other option.

They have to work together to save their world.

It is not ours it is Theirs

We are old

They are Young

Tony

I agree and disagree. Rather than justice (though there has been precious little of that) I believe we are seeking FAIRNESS in government, corporations and society in general.

Thanks again to Democracy Now for the absolutely best information on Occupy Wall Street in the October 6 hour!  She and her staff should again be “Truthdiggers of the Week”—speaking of justice.

And the vitality, smarts and ability to articulate shown by these young people belies all the pessimism
of months of bloggers on Truthdig!  Unions are possibly a helpful addition to the movement, but they speak like really old old-timers who don’t have a clue to what is really going on here and why.
They are pontificating in yesterday’s idiom, and to that extent they are not helpful.  Can they catch on and learn?

Personally, I gave up voting a couple of years ago, after a long discussion with my two Children. It was the first time that they were both eligible to vote. I have believed in Democracy all my life, and came up with every argument I could think of in an attempt to get them to vote.

They defeated all my arguments. I lost. They convinced me that to vote was to participate in a system that was completly corrupt, which only served to artificially legitimise and prolong it. They came up with the analogy of running a computer on an ancient virus ridden piece of archaic rubbish. You can try and clean it up, but it will still be rubbish.

We need a much better economic and political system, where things are built to last. Currently things are built to fail, in order to maintain profit via replacement. This is incredibly wasteful and destructive of both the planet and human lives.

Anyway politics is a bit different in the UK, than in the USA.

I found this on a blog of someone who has completely different views to me.

Its Alex. I can’t stand Alex - his voice just grates on my nerves.

And I do not know who to blame for the mess we are in.

But this is a Completely Brilliant Rant.

http://the-tap.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-st-is-funded-by-bankers.html

Tony

The first mention of the wall street occupation here in oz was last nights news 6th oct.on sbs.the channel not many watch anyway.
The head of these banks and corporations are only the puppets of this incredible evil, trying and up until now achieving their goals with impunity.
Not saying the WSOccupation will change things dramatically but it will reassure like minded people that all hope is not lost and maybe wake a few more up.

This was an absolutely storming article on Alternet, a site I was banned from a few days ago after posting there for about 5 years. I am the first to admit, that I thoroughly deserved to be banned for numerous reasons, and was amazed that the moderators had been so tolerant of me for so long.

However, although I too live in England, I did not write this. It is about the Student riots several months ago. It is not about the more recent events when some parts of London were Burnt to the Ground. That was a completely different riot.

“The Real Reason Why Police Cage Peaceful Protestors”

http://www.alternet.org/vision/152606/the_real_reason_why_police_cage_peaceful_protestors/

Tony

Error,1970 above comment.Not 1971

Robert Scheer,    10/06/2011
    The dismissive and rancor remarks made by the
CEO of a major bank and Sorkin,are reminders to
everyone:keep your place(s) in the “pecking order.”
“Is this going to turn into a personal safety
problem?” For whom? Certainly not the
protesters,right? Like the protesters at Kent
State,Ohio,in 1971. 
    “The protesters have a myriad of grievances
with no particular agenda.” Give Sorkin some credit,
for at least recognizing there are many grievances on
the table,if you will.However,this is exactly the
protesters point,and their agenda in establishing a
record of all their grievances - and try to
ameliorate these indigent conditions that befall us
today.
    A Peaceful protest is another form of
communication.To dismiss this communique with such
rhetoric as,“What me Worry?” undermines any and all
efforts to eliminate real hatred and discrimination
in this Country.
    KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK -
    Thanking you for this opportunity to comment
    James M. de Laurier

that should be Filch instead of Fitch  

I have very occasionally volunteered to collect money from people for a mutually benefitting cause. The one thing I immediately noticed, is that the poorest people were the most generous.

Trying to get anything more than a token contribution out of most wealthy people is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Sometimes I felt like picking them up and turning them upside down, so that the change would fall out of their pockets. Instead I tried every other technique I could think of mostly to no avail.

I now read this

“The US establishment lacks the flexibility to address the escalating protest properly, believes international affairs commentator Gregory Clark.”

“We have a paralysis of government in America, as evidenced by the debate on debt ceiling and economic policies. It’s clear they don’t know what to do about these demonstrations,” he told RT, adding “One of the factors to it is that the mayor of New York is a millionaire, a multimillionaire, a billionaire. So obviously he isn’t going to be very co-operative on this, I guess.”

I rest my case.

Turn them upside down and shake.

Tony

Sorry, typo, that should be Fitch not Flitch.

To begin with, I would encourage indicting the leadership of Moody’s, Standard & Poors and Flitch Ratings.  These bond rating agencies bestowed AAA ratings on virtually all the Collateralized debt obligations issued by Wall Street banks and securities firms from 2000-2008.  These CDO’s of mortgage-backed securities were made up of tranches of sub-prime mortgages that should never had been rated as a AAA security. This type of securities fraud was at the heart of the credit crisis and it would be a wonderful place for federal prosecutors to begin their campaign to clean up Wall Street.  I would recommend reading “All The Devils Are Here” by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera to learn more about this subject.

“I see nothing wrong with pointing out a serious problem—
that the community is divided into classes and controlled
politically and economically by and for the benefit of a
tiny elite—and proclaiming a principle, ‘Another world is
possible.’  It’s up to the rest of us to figure out what
to do about it.”

- Anarcissie

Yes!  Nicely said.  ‘The rest of us’ have responsibilities
here.

I think this is the time for statistics, facts, naming names and calling for indictments. 

Mr. Scheer writes what many left and progressive writers have written, a general discussion of the causes of the protesters, but not specific, legal charges.  As long as that is the case, Faux News will continue it’s assault on the protesters and CNN(Erin Bennett particularly) and all the other MSM will run titular segments entitled “What do they want?”

Could be that constantly emphasizing “99%” will do the job, eventually. It’s so incontrovertible.:

When there’s a food shortage, it’s the 99% who go hungry.  When there’s a “natural” disaster, it’s the 99% who drown lose their house. Ditto for epidemics. When injustice rules the economic system, it’s the 99% who suffer.  When the A-bomb explodes or the climate falls apart, it’s the 99% who die. 

99% versus 1% is completely out of balance, unstable, fragile, cannot survive. Something’s gotta give, and since the 99% have already been more or less robbed of what they had, the 1%‘s gotta give.

Grade 3 elementary school arithmetic.  Everybody understands the logic of it so it’s difficult to suppress the simple factual truth.  Fact trumps propaganda.  Fact trumps fear.  Fact trumps violence. Fact supports justice, peace and the reconciliation of all these struggling two-legged enigmas, including the greed-crazed 1%.

MORGAN BANK DONATED RECENTLY FOUR MILLION PLUS TO THE NY
POLICE FUND…SO SOME ON WALL STREET ARE SWEATING THEIR
PERSONAL SAFETY…..AND THAT IS A PLUS….BAIL OUTS ONLY STOKED
THEIR ARROGANCE…THEY NEED TO SUFFER A HAIR CUT…THE ONES
PROVIDED IN PRISON…

Actually, a lot of the people present at Liberty Plaza do recognize that the overall, fundamental problem is capitalism.  However, the consensus seems to be that taking on the whole system at once is impossible.  So we have the odd configuration of mostly mild, social-democratic ends being advanced by radical means.

I see nothing wrong with pointing out a serious problem—that the community is divided into classes and controlled politically and economically by and for the benefit of a tiny elite—and proclaiming a principle, ‘Another world is possible.’  It’s up to the rest of us to figure out what to do about it.

It’s a rousing piece, Mr. Scheer, but here’s a nit we ought to pick.

Who are the “obvious perps” you cite in paragraph four?  Are there ten names you
can cite that would give readers some guidance here?  Are there five? 

Perhaps you’d answer that the job of investigation and indictment belongs to
prosecutors rather than journalists. But I think a column that cannot “name names”
leaves us all in the lurch. You can’t prosecute greed, after all. 

If the demonstrations on Wall street are about justice (not just venting discontent),
then there needs to be an actionable plan.  That’s not nitpicking in my view, just
plain old pragmatism.

The left needs to end all this talk about CEOs being the central problem. The fact that the MSM finds this an acceptable argument is proof that it is a red herring. Yes, CEOs make obscene amounts of money, but that is just their commission for their services for plundering the people for the real enemy of the people, the finance capitalist class. THAT is where the fruits of the doubling of productivity, the declining wages, the tax cuts, the scuttling of environment an labor standards have gone over the past 3 decades. Any serious analysis of this period proves this.

So why do we have such a problem recognizing this and clearly stating it? Because those who find the sins of the CEOs responsible for the crisis are operating under the rules of the system, i.e., individuals abusing and therefore corrupting an otherwise healthy system. Therefore, cutting CEO pay will go a long way towards ending the crisis, they think.

On the other hand, those who indict the financial capitalist class are condemning the system itself. Needless to say, from the perspective of the finance capitalist class, this is intolerable, since it logically leads to the abolition of that class. This is a qualitatively different critique of the system which has its roots in Marx and more specifically in Lenin. Lenin’s Imperialism, written a century ago, is an exhaustive analysis of the growing power of finance capital in the world economy . Change a few names around, and it could have been written yesterday.

Needless to say, this is a very dangerous road for anyone to embark on. Redbaiting is the least of it. A mass movement which indicts the finance capitalists as a class will not find itself dealing with friendly cops, but with the massive repression of the state. This movement will probably not go there, but will probably lead to certain reforms which may or may not have much effect on the lives of the people, but will leave the present structure intact to create another crisis down the road; a crisis which will come as surely as the sun rises in the east.

The lesson here is that during periods of upheaval, the people will tighten the rules, but if the finance capitalists are left in charge of the chicken coop, they will surely find ways over time to subvert the rules and eat the chickens.

Look to the government who enables Wall Street - the government alone makes the laws and regulations (or lack thereof) allocates money to pet projects, gives tax breaks to corporations, bails out companies, etc. Wall Street is the secondary enemy - Washington and the administration and Republicans are the real culprits and enablers here. March on Washington otherwise you are playing into Obama’s hands.

Outstanding as always!

Bob, you’re my #1 favorite journalist in America!

Thanks for your great work.

One should not depend on the capitalist mass media.  There are alternatives.

The fact that the MSM is not at all interested in giving these rallies any attention is a clear indication that relatively few Americans are paying attention to them. Here in Seattle there was a rally and it was reported that people who live and work in the city had NO IDEA that these sorts of protests were taking place…none, nada. Of course if 40 Tea Baggers were in a park in Seattle, every major outlet would be there covering the “event.”

But I have another point to make: I honestly don’t think Americans will EVER really revolt against their corporate owners. After all, the corporate interests are already declaring any protest against the sacred “capitalism” as hypocritical…...after all, if you wear clothes, or eat food, aren’t you benefiting from “capitalism” and therefore you cannot bite the hand that feeds you? Yes, my friends, that’s the sort of conversation taking place on the media around here (in Liberal Seattle!). And I have more evidence that this “movement” may never gain traction. Please listen to the interview with Bill Frezza on NPR yesterday:

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/141033128/venture-capitalist-cautions-against-job-creation-myths

I’d be willing to bet there are more Americans who “believe” what he says than don’t. And I believe Americans are too afraid to challenge the corporations. After all, what “choices” do most Americans have. Most families live lives of economic desperation these days. Whilst the corporate leaders whine about “uncertainty,” families all over America live with the uncertainty that their masters will simply give them the pink slip tomorrow…..since we’re all nothing but “inputs.”

madisolation—They’re already doing it, as hard as they can.  Van Jones seems to be the point man at present.  If he fails others will be sent.  Capturing, turning and later killing the movement is crucial to getting Mr. O reelected so he can continue to serve his Wall Street masters.

QUOTE, Robert Scheer:

“How can anyone possessed of the faintest sense of social justice not thrill to the Occupy Wall Street movement?”
__________________

Well, yes, the Occupy movement does provide a great thrill amidst a sea of disappointments.

However, it’s important to understand that the Occupy movement is not direct-action, but rather a direct-reaction. It’s a reaction to the consequences of the American people having for a generation refused to act in a politically proactive way.

The corporate party obedient Democrats and Republicans have for decade upon decade voted together in solidarity for the corporate person’s unsustainable extraction economy neoliberal policies of ruthless economic exploitation of other people and other people’s resources throughout the world — (R)s and (D)s together regularly voting to do unto other people elsewhere what they wouldn’t want done to themselves here at home.

The Arab Spring was people rising up against the oppression and repression that America’s Republicans and Democrats have life-long so callously and carelessly voted together for.

The Occupy movement is the reaction of Americans now angered that the neoliberalism they (or their parents) regularly voted to do unto others was also done unto them and to their children.

If the Occupy movement does not move Americans to stop voting for the corporate (R) & (D) party’s neoliberalism that they’ve been voting for, and to henceforth become politically proactive people, then the thrill will soon be gone.

http://www.chenangogreens.org

“We bailed out the banks with an understanding that there would be a restoration of lending. All there was was a restoration of bonuses” is the way Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz described it in speaking to the
protesters on Wall Street.” Joseph Stiglitz

Understanding? Who may I ask understood? Certainly not the Banks/Wall Street. Nancy Pelosi was complicit in literally throwing billions of taxpayer dollars without conditions or transparency at criminals who had already emptied the till.

A quote from FRTothus October 6 5:02 a.m. excellent post: “The principal power in Washington is no longer the government or the people it represents. It is the Money Power.” Richard N. Goodwin.

That was sometime back. More appropriate now: “The only power in Washington is the Money Power.”

Don’t let the Democratic politicians or Big Labor leaders like Obama-lapdog Trumka anywhere near this movement. Don’t let them speak or try to organize. Their purpose is to infiltrate and maintain the status quo.

>>“The gap between what workers and top executives
make helps explain why income inequality in the
United States is reaching levels unseen since the
Great Depression.”<<

Translated:  The gap explains the gap.

Sorry, but the gap doesn’t explain the gap.  The fact
that wages have remained where they were 30 years ago
(or fallen) despite worker productivity having
increased dramatically goes a long way toward
explaining the gap, a fact which the WaPo, Scheer,
and other equally clueless pundits and corporate
media outlets seem obstinately oblivious to.

Corporate America is intent on eliminating taxes on
all capital incomes. They do not care if record
budget deficits are the result. Many of their more
right-wing friends, including those in Congress,
actually want larger deficits. They see chronic,
record deficits as producing the budget crisis
necessary to use as an excuse to privatize Social
Security and dismantle what remains of the Roosevelt
New Deal programs of the 1930s.”
(Jack Rasmus)

“The principal power in Washington is no longer the
government or the people it represents. It is the
Money Power. Under the deceptive cloak of campaign
contributions, access and influence, votes and
amendments are bought and sold. Money establishes
priorities of action, holds down federal revenues,
revises federal legislation, shifts income from the
middle class to the very rich. Money restrains the
enforcement of laws written to protect the country
from abuses of wealth-laws that mandate environmental
protection, antitrust laws, laws to protect the
consumer against fraud, laws that safeguard the
securities markets, and many more.”
(Richard N. Goodwin, former speechwriter for John F.
Kennedy)

“The boys of capital, they ... chortle in their
martinis about the death of socialism. The word has
been banned from polite conversation. And they hope
that no one will notice that every socialist
experiment of any significance in the twentieth
century-without exception-has either been crushed,
overthrown, or invaded, or corrupted, perverted,
subverted, or destabilized, or otherwise had life
made impossible for it, by the United States. Not one
socialist government or movement-from the Russian
Revolution to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, from
Communist China to the EMLN in [El] Salvador-not one
was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own
merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its
guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and
freely and fully relax control at home.”
(William Blum)

“Political will is the ultimate determinant of
spending priorities. There’s always money available
for war and corporate bailouts; there’s rarely money
available for social programs.”
(Adolph L. Reed, Jr.)

“[The ruling elites] know who their enemies are, and
their enemies are the people, the people at home and
the people abroad. Their enemies are anybody who
wants more social justice, anybody who wants to use
the surplus value of society for social needs rather
than for individual class greed, that’s their enemy.”
(Micahel Parenti)

“Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice….”

- Barack Obama, April 4, 2008

Consider this my hand on the arc, Mr. President.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/the-ghost-in-the-machines-the-mystery-of-the-wtc-hard-drive-recoveries/

Ah, well, Robert, better late than never. I don’t suppose you would be willing to call for Obama’s impeachment for not enforcing the law.

Or, better yet, for ordering the extra judicial killing (should I say murder?) of hundreds of people labeled terrorists- brown people of course, but still, the latest two were brown American citizens. Perhaps you’re afraid of being targeted, eventually? Just a thought.

All the best with your wisely tempered work.