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Keeping with the light blogging schedule, this is a repost from Alter.net about why the people of OWS are so ticked off and why they are protesting. Consider it a primer to help in understanding their positions.
1. Wall Street caused the crash: Unless you are suffering from financial amnesia, you should remember that it was Wall Street’s reckless gambling that did us in. It was Wall Street banks and hedge funds, not home buyers, who created the enormous demand for high-risk mortgages to pool, to securitize, and to turn into Ponzi-like gambling structures with names like CDOs, CDO squared and synthetic CDOs. It was the money-grubbing rating agencies that blessed these pieces of garbage with AAA ratings. As a result, trillions of dollars of worthless toxic assets polluted our financial system. When the bubble they induced burst, our system crashed, causing 8 million working people to lose their jobs in a matter of months due to no fault of their own. Anyone who still blames low-income home buyers, or regulations or Greece — or anyone other than Wall Street — should be checked for dementia.
2. The Wall Street crash directly caused the gravest unemployment crisis since the Great Depression: We’re three years into the worst jobs crisis since 1937. Upwards of 29 million people are out of work or have been forced into part-time jobs. The number of people who have been jobless for more than 26 weeks is at post-WWII record levels. And there’s no end in sight to this misery. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s representatives in Washington want us to focus on cutting public employment and public services to address the debt that Wall Street itself precipitated. WE wouldn’t have a debt crisis were it not for the bailouts, the crash, the lost jobs and the soaring cost of jobless benefits that can be laid at Wall Street’s door. (The debt was also caused by tax cuts for the rich, and the bankers certainly don’t want to talk about that.) For those diversionary debt tactics alone, Wall Street should be occupied until it pays to replace the jobs it destroyed.
3. Wall Street profited from the bailouts and remains unaccountable: Taxpayers provided trillions of dollars in cash and asset guarantees to the wealthiest bankers and hedge fund managers in the world. But nothing was extracted from them in return. Here’s one egregious example: Goldman Sachs paid $550 million in SEC fines for selling mortgage-related securities that were designed to fail so that a large hedge fund could bet against them. The securities failed as planned and the hedge fund pocketed $1 billion in profits. But after we bailed out AIG, Goldman Sachs picked up nearly $12 billion for similar bets that AIG had insured. Goldman Sachs collected 100 cents on the dollar and those dollars were ours.
4. The super-rich are getting richer: When the economy was crashing during 2008, high frequency traders in hedge funds and banks made upwards of $20 billion from the turmoil. This trading scam provided no redeeming value to our economy. Rather, it was a hidden tax on our sorrows — a transfer of funds from the many to the few. In 2010 the top hedge fund managers “earned” over $2 million an HOUR! The top 25 hedge fund managers took in as much as 650,000 teachers. Young people have the right to question these lopsided values. All of us have the duty to do something about it.
5. The super-rich are paying lower and lower taxes: While the government pleads poverty when asked to create a massive jobs program, our financial elites use every loophole available to avoid taxes. In 1995, the 400 wealthiest families paid about 30 percent of their income in taxes (after all deductions). Today their effective rate is less than 16 percent. And for what? What did society gain from their retained wealth? Not jobs, not debt reduction, only more Wall Street gambling.
Thanks to the Alter.net for the commentary on Alan Grayson smacking down conservatives on Real Time with Bill Mahr.
“Prior to O’Rouke’s entry, Grayson was relatively subdued, making occasional jokes. There was not that much need to challenge from Nicolle Wallace, the other conservative on, who weakly employed Tactic No. 4 in the right wing repertoire: “If any Democrat does something questionable, it’s irrelevant that all Republicans do the same thing.” Thus, because four Dem. Senators oppose the jobs bill based on oil subsidies, it’s irrelevant that all the Republicans oppose it for that and worse reasons. Or because Jimmy Carter supports some kind of voter ID, all of the onerous Voter ID laws are OK!
But O’Rourke is capable of sounding authoritative and knowledgeable when he lies. He also is a master of condescension and an expert in Right Wing Tactic No. 5: When you’re losing an argument, just make a joke — even a stupid joke works because the issue goes away. So O’Rourke was mocking the OWS protestors because they supposedly didn’t have specific goals, were just DFH’s playing bongo drums and had no leader:
Grayson said (I’m paraphrasing)
If you want someone who cares about millions of unemployed.
If you want someone who cares about 45 million people without health insurance
If you want someone who cares about millions in poverty. Then I’d be proud to call myself that leader.
The crowd went nuts and O’Rourke was reduced to even more of a blubbering fool. Grayson had cut right through Tactic No. 5 by citing devastating statistics and showing that while he can be funny like he was earlier, he can cut to the heart of problems that prigs like O’Rourke minimize and joke about.
Then the discussion turned to the amounts of cash businesses and banks are sitting on. His mocking tactic lying on the floor in a pool of piss, O’Rourke resorted to Right Wing Tactic No. 1: A simple lie that sounds authoritative. He said that the banks are sitting on cash and not lending because of the capital restrictions of Dodd-Frank.
I yelled at the screen — “Please Alan, call him on that!”
And Alan did not disappoint, saying directly to O’Rourke’s face: “Nonsense,” and explaining that the banks are getting huge interest on their cash and their failure to lend had nothing to do with Dodd.
Once again O’Rourke was reduced to blubbering, nearly falling off his seat onto Maher.
O’Rourke may be smarter than a lot of right wingers, but when challenged with facts and passion, he folds into a pitiful heap of goo.”
Haven’t heard much about the protests going on in the financial districts in the US? Are you surprised? When the interests of the elite are challenged getting the mainstream media to notice is like trying iceskate uphill (go see what al jazeera has to say on OWS). I repost this nugget about the OWS demonstration, find the full post on Whatever Works.
“POSTED BY ORHAN
The MSM continues to ridicule #OWS for not having a specific list of demands. The absence of demands, and consequent absence of a divide-and-conquer target, that’s driving the media into such a tizzy is not specifically a “tactic”, but, as far as I can tell, is a byproduct of the radical democratic process being practiced by the General Assemblies (nicely described by Matt Stoller).
Here is the closest thing I’ve found to an “official” statement on demands from The Occupied Wall Street Journal, a paper published and distributed by #OWS:
What are the demands of the protesters?
Ugh—the zillion-dollar question. Again, the original Adbusters call asked, “What is our one demand?” Technically, there isn’t one yet. In the weeks leading up to September 17, the NYC General Assembly seemed to be veering away from the language of “demands” in the first place, largely because government institutions are already so shot through with corporate money that making specific demands would be pointless until the movement grew stronger politically. Instead, to begin with, they opted to make their demand the occupation itself—and the direct democracy taking place there—which in turn may or may not come up with some specific demand. When you think about it, this act is actually a pretty powerful statement against the corruption that Wall Street has come to represent. But since thinking is often too much to ask of the American mass media, the question of demands has turned into a massive PR challenge.
The General Assembly is currently in the midst of determining how it will come to consensus about unifying demands. It’s a really messy and interesting discussion. But don’t hold your breath.
So it appears #OWS is specifically addressing the anger of the majority of Americans at the power, arrogance, and lack of accountability enjoyed by the coterie of the richest 1%, and the marginalization, disempowerment, and impoverishment of the remaining 99%–and doing it in a way that is “horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based”, which most people–let alone members of the political class–find it almost impossible to wrap their heads around.”
The message needs to be disseminated far and wide, and people need to see who is responsible for much of the financial ruin in their lives.
More than anything, this is just a post as to have another handy reference when it comes to arguing with MRA’s and other assorted people about ‘equality’ and ‘parity’ in the work environment. A big thanks to Sociological Images for compiling the information in the post titled “Explaining Gender Inequalities in Salary Expectations”.
The following chart featured at The Economist illustrates that women in Europe expect to earn significantly less than men after graduating from university. (Of course, women’s expectations are represented in pink, and men’s in blue.) According to the study, European women attending the most prestigious universities expect to earn an average of 21 per cent less than their male counterparts.
Given that women actually do earn an average of 17.5 per cent less than men in the European Union, this difference in salary expectations might not seem shocking. What’s interesting, though, is the accompanying text that attempts to explain these disparities:
Women and men seem to differ in workplace and career aspirations, which may explain why salary expectations differ. Men generally placed more importance on being a leader or manager than women (34% of men versus 22% of women), and want jobs with high levels of responsibility (25% v 17%). Women, however want to work for a company with high corporate social responsibility and ethical standards; men are more interested in prestige (31% v 24%).
By neglecting to address how our social environment can contribute to reported differences in career aspirations, statements like these risk reinforcing gender stereotypes and naturalizing salary inequalities. Can we really assume that gendered salary disparities are due to women’s innately lower inclination to pursue high-paying career paths?
Research says: no, we can’t. [Go to Sociological Images for the rest of the story].
Liberal Viewer, with the help of Bill Mahr and Steven Colbert poke at the fetid miasma aka the Republican Primary debates, and attempt to find coherence. Good luck with that.
Quick! Call the Mounties!
But we won’t.
Complicity in torture and violating international law is the business of other countries, certainly not the U.S.
“Human Rights Watch is urging the Canadian government to “be prepared” to bring criminal charges against former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney when he visits Vancouver on his book tour next week.
The New York-based rights group said Saturday that Canadian law provides for jurisdiction over an individual for torture and other crimes, even for offences committed outside of Canada.
Canada ratified the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture in 1987 and incorporated its provisions into the Canadian criminal code.”
We will of course selectively administer our justice and ethical considerations, because friends that torture are often just misunderstood.
“The right group says it has documented the role of senior officials in the administration of George W. Bush, including Cheney, in authorizing torture of detainees, including waterboarding — a form of simulated drowning involving water being poured into the mouth of a subdued person.
“The U.S. has utterly failed to meet its legal obligation to investigate torture by the Bush administration, but that shouldn’t let other countries off the hook,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, in the release.”
Could you imagine if we did actually arrest Cheney?
And then *poof* we’d all be dead since the US would nuke us. :)
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