Occupy Wall Street

AL Senator Richard Shelby Stands With the 1% - the Bankers Who Bankroll Him

October 11, 2011 by Left in Alabama

With the media finally paying attention to the Occupy Wall Street protests, last week's travesty in the Senate flew under the radar a bit.  Senator Richard Shelby voted with every Republican on the Banking Committee to block a vote on the nomination of Richard Corday to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Fortunately, Big Dick & his allies were in the minority.  That doesn't mean they won't keep fighting the very idea of consumer protection:

Occupy Wall Street Explained In One Graph

October 10, 2011 by Left in Alabama

Is it any wonder the 99% are mad as hell?  I look at this graph from Benjamin Landy's An "Occupy Wall Street" Primer and am astounded it took so long.

In the graph on the left, it is difficult to discern any appreciable increase in real income for all but the top 15 percent of taxpayers since 1979. But while middle class wages have remained stagnant for the last 40 years, top incomes have skyrocketed, more than tripling in the same period.

 

Occupy Wall Street: "Panic of the Plutocrats" Shows Just How Rigged the System Is - Against the 99%

October 10, 2011 by Left in Alabama

Paul Krugman's column in today's New York Times is a must-read. The Panic of the Plutocrats is growing. Perhaps they sense that their gravy train may soon be derailed.

The G.O.P. presidential candidates have weighed in, with Mitt Romney accusing the protesters of waging “class warfare,” while Herman Cain calls them “anti-American.” My favorite, however, is Senator Rand Paul, who for some reason worries that the protesters will start seizing iPads, because they believe rich people don’t deserve to have them. 
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The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

The One Percenters: Game, set, and class warfare

October 9, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," really tagged the wealthiest one percent of America the other day in a speech at the Occupy Wall Street rally.

Her speech was shortened because there were no amplified microphones, but here's what Klein said in the full, written version. You can't get much more succinct about what's happening in the US right now regarding "class warfare," and her words surely will remind many of the Scott Walker school of public policy. Here she is:

If there is one thing I know, it is that the one percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.

And there is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99 percent. And that 99 percent is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say “No. We will not pay for your crisis.”