COMMENTS: 104
Bill Moyers: Was the Financial Bailout Just a Slick, Friendly Takeover of the Federal Government?
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The following is excerpted from the transcript of Bill Moyers' interview with Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Simon Johnson, former head of the International Monetary Fund, from PBS's Bill Moyers Journal.
Bill Moyers: I sat in a theater packed with passionate moviegoers, every one of them seemingly aghast at the Wall Street skullduggery exposed by Michael Moore in his latest film. It's called Capitalism: A Love Story. Here's an excerpt:
Michael Moore: We're here to get the money back for the American people. Do you think it's too harsh to call what has happened here a coup d'etat? A financial coup d'etat?
Marcy Kaptur: That's, no. Because I think that's what's happened. Um, a financial coup d'etat?
MM: Yeah.
MK: I could agree with that. I could agree with that. Because the people here really aren't in charge. Wall Street is in charge.
Bill Moyers: That's the progressive representative from Ohio, Marcy Kaptur, she's with me now. She has a master’s from the University of Michigan, did graduate study at M.I.T. and still lives in the same house in the Toledo working-class neighborhood where she grew up.
She's in her 14th term in Congress, the longest-serving Democratic woman in the history of the House, and she's an outspoken financial watchdog on three important committees: appropriations, budget and oversight and government reform.
Also with me is a familiar face to viewers of this broadcast. Simon Johnson is the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. He now teaches global economics and management at M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management. He's one of the founders of the Web site Baselinescenario.com. I check it out daily for Simon's take on the economic and financial crisis.
It's been a year since the great collapse, and both my guests are well equipped to assess what's happened since then. Welcome to you both.
MK: Thank you.
BM: Let's look at this story that I just read from the Associated Press this week about how Treasury Secretary [Timothy] Geithner is on the phone several times a day with a select group of very powerful Wall Street bankers, especially Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs.
He will talk to them when members of Congress have to leave a message on the answering machine. And these are the bankers who helped bring on this calamity and who are now benefiting from it. What does that say to you?
MK: That says to me that Wall Street and Washington is a circuit. And because Mr. Geithner headed the New York Fed that that historic relationship, unfortunately, continues. And it gives them special access and special power to influence policy.
Simon Johnson: Well, I think it really tells you how the system works. The system is based on access and is based on what on Wall Street shaping Washington's view of what's important.
It's the people who are very close to Mr. Geithner before when he was the head of the New York Fed. Before he became treasury secretary. These people have unparalleled access.
And in a crisis, when everything is up for grabs, you don't know what's going on, the people who will take your phone calls, right, in government and people who are going to be standing in the oval office, making the key decisions. That's the heart of the system. That's the heart of how you get your agenda through, by changing their worldview.
MK: And they also move people. In other words, Mr. Geithner came from the New York Fed, he came from Wall Street, and he becomes Secretary of the Treasury. His predecessor, Mr. [Henry] Paulson, came from Goldman Sachs, and he becomes Secretary of Treasury.
You can go back decades, and you will see that there's this revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. And I recently asked Chairman [Ben] Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, "Let me ask you a question. Would you be willing to consider a reform where the Cleveland Fed would have equal power to the New York Fed, in terms of how the Fed is run?" And his answer was, "No."
BM: And why did you ask that question?
MK: Because I think we need to democratize the Fed. I think that my region of the country, which is suffering so heavily from these decisions that were made by Wall Street and Washington, we need to have voice.
And our bankers, who didn't do the bad things, our community bankers, who are having to pay higher fees, shouldn't be treated this way. Why should the people who did it right be penalized for those that did it wrong?
SJ: Remember, Wall Street convinced us that trading derivatives without any regulation, that all these kind of crazy housing loans, which are very dangerous for consumers, that all of this was sensible. All of this was a good way to sustain growth.
That was wrong. That wasn't it. That's not the end of the story.
In the crisis, when things got bad, they also convinced the key people in Washington that they, the bankers, the big bankers, the Wall Street bankers -- who are really responsible for all of these problems -- they should be saved. Not just their banks, but they individually and should be saved. Their jobs, their pensions, all their perks. It's an extraordinary moment.
BM: You asked on your blog, just this week, a question I want to put to you now, and to both of you. You asked: "Does this crisis reflect something about the disproportionate influence of a few incompetent investment bankers, or a deeper breakdown of capitalism?" What's your answer to your own question?
SJ: Well, definitely, there's disproportionate influence of some fairly incompetent bankers, that's for sure. That's what we're seeing today. That's what we've seen over the past few months.
I think on the issue of capitalism, we have to take this very seriously. To me, at least, the financial part of our capitalism is very seriously broken.
They persuaded us to allow them to take incredible risks. And then they pushed all the downside, all those losses onto us, the taxpayer, at the same time as really hammering hard all the people who were duped, essentially, into taking out loans. People lost their houses. It's an absolute tragedy. This combination cannot go on.
And yet, the opportunity for real reform has already passed. And there is not going to … not only is there not going to be change, but I'll go further. I'll say it's going to be worse, what comes out of this, in terms of the financial system, its power, and what it can get away with.
BM: Why is it going to how is it going to be worse?
SJ: Well, we used to have a dozen or so substantial big banks, now we're down to four. Now we're down to four big banks that have a lot more market power and a lot more political power. They make the campaign contributions. They shape agendas in ways that are that are really quite scary.
If you look, for example, at derivatives and the debate on whether or not derivatives should be regulated in a sensible manner. And at this point, actually, the Obama administration is leaning in a better direction. But the big financial players are absolutely against any kind of sensible regulation. And I think they're going to win.
MK: Let me give you a reality from ground zero in Toledo, Ohio. Our foreclosures have gone up 94 percent. A few months ago, I met with our realtors. And I said, "What should I know?" They said, "Well, first of all, you should know the worst companies that are doing this to us." I said, "Well, give me the top one." They said, "J.P. Morgan Chase."
I went back to Washington that night. And one of my colleagues said, "You want to come to dinner?" I said, "Well, what is it?" He said, "Well, it's a meeting with Jamie Dimon, the head of J.P. Morgan Chase." I said, "Wow, yes. I really do."
So, I go to this meeting in a fancy hotel, fancy dinner, and everyone is complimenting him. I mean, it was just like a love fest. They finally got to me, and my point to ask a question.
I said, "Well, I don't want to speak out of turn here, Mr. Dimon." I said, "But your company is the largest forecloser in my district. And our Realtors just said to me this morning that your people don't return phone calls."
I said, "We can't do work-outs." And he looked at me, he said, "Do you know that I talk to your governor all the time?" He said, "Our company employs 10,000 people in Ohio. "
And I'm thinking, What is that? A threat? And he said, "I speak to the mayor of Columbus." I said, "Why don't you come further north?" I said, "Toledo, Cleveland -- where the foreclosures are just skyrocketing." He said, "Well, we'll have someone call you." And he gave me a card. And they never did.
For two weeks, we tried to reach them. And finally, I was on a national news show. And I told this story. They called within 10 minutes. And they said, "Oh, we'll work with you. We'll try to do some work-outs in your area."
We planned the first one after working with them for weeks and weeks and weeks. Their people never showed up. And it was a Friday. Our people had taken off work. They'd driven from all these locations to come.
We kept calling J.P. Morgan Chase saying, "'Where's your person? Where's your person?" And they finally sent somebody down from Detroit by 3 in the afternoon. But our people had been waiting all morning, and a lot of people … that's how they treat our people.
BM: You did a remarkable thing on the floor of the House recently. And I want to show my audience a clip of a speech in which you urge people to break the law:
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Posted by: mmckinl on Oct 12, 2009 12:11 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Oct 12, 2009 12:51 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» What we just heard from them about "Jamie Diamond" of JP Morgan was the psychopathy....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: What we just heard from them about "Jamie Diamond" of JP Morgan was the psychopathy....
Posted by: badkitty
» RE: What we just heard from them about "Jamie Diamond" of JP Morgan was the psychopathy....
Posted by: photon's feather
» "CynicI/prophit/prophit0", so which account are you using today, fraud?
Posted by: GuitarBill
» [SPAM WARNING] GuitarBill cyberstalks and spams us with copy-and-paste irrelevant
Posted by: MaxBridges
» WARNING, more fact-free conspiranoid apologetics for the right-wing troll "prophit(0)".
Posted by: GuitarBill
» Examples of Max the compulsive liars hypocrisy as regards my exposé of CynicI/"prophit(0)"/prophit
Posted by: GuitarBill
» [CompulsiveLiar] Mr. Bill's legerdemain at it again
Posted by: MaxBridges
» Right Max! Don't address your well-documented hypocrisy and lying, change the subject.
Posted by: GuitarBill
» RE: This is a great summary of a lot that has gone wrong but I have one problem.
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» RE: This is a great summary of a lot that has gone wrong but I have one problem.
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield
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Posted by: Jay Randal on Oct 12, 2009 12:53 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As for President Obama: When he filled his cabinet with Wall Street shills it became obvious he sold out himself. Doubtful he can do anything decent for Americans now.
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» RE: Kaptur for president
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Kaptur knows the truth, but most of Congress are stupid!
Posted by: vssmith
» RE: they are not stupid, they knew what they were doing and they were well-paid to do it.
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» most of Congress are stupid! Stupid ??
Posted by: KAvatar
» RE: I have spent the last six years breaking down Congress' defensive wall against the public
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» KAPTUR WIMPED OUT, KUCINICH IS THE ONLY TRUTH-TELLER
Posted by: smf1403
» While I agree with you, I can understand the limitations she has to work with...
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: While I agree with you, I can understand the limitations she has to work with...
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: While I agree with you, I can understand the limitations she has to work with...
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» Excellent posts by both you and Lauren......
Posted by: Prophit0
» You again?
Posted by: LightningJoe
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Posted by: gazooks on Oct 12, 2009 1:39 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Enough will never be enough until a line is drawn by the people of this country. Time for some street justice, imo.
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Posted by: Perry Logan on Oct 12, 2009 3:22 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
These people--let us call them O-holes--are still hanging out at Democratic Underground, Buzzflash, DailyKos, and Huffington Post.
They're acting like it never happened now, but these little pr*cks spent the primary fighting dirty for Obama. They called anyone who dared to criticize their crappy candidate a racist. Since no real Democrat would act that way, we know the Democrats are screwed.
There was also the rank misogyny--among people who fancy themselves progressives. They called Hillary and her female supporters the C word--over and over again.
Now do you see why things have gone so flamingly bad? It comes back to the rank and file of the Democratic Party. The people now running the Democratic Party are foul-mouthed Philistines who actively hate Democrats!
It's like this: Once you call me a racist, you have made an enemy for life. Once you start repeating Republican smears against your own candidate, you have stopped being a Democrat.
We have an internal fight on our hands. This isn't over till we have driven the Obama Democrats out of our party.
PS: To give credit where it's due, the PUMAs were the ones who spotted Obama as a fraud right away. But most of the PUMAs went on to do exactly what the O-holes did--i.e., start repeating right-wing smears against a Democrat they didn't like. So the PUMAs are as bad as the O-holes.
A Pig of a Bill
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» Uh, the repeal of Glass-Steagall took place on B. Clinton's...
Posted by: brunowe
» RE: Uh, the repeal of Glass-Steagall took place on B. Clinton's...
Posted by: MFrog
» RE: Uh, the repeal of Glass-Steagall took place on B. Clinton's...
Posted by: brunowe
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: DavidMac
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: Basenjis
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: MT512
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: lenioui
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Karlh on Oct 12, 2009 5:20 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Bush I actually started it with transferring our capital producing wealth overseas.....
Posted by: Prophit0
» Parroting Alex Jones again, "prophit(0)"?
Posted by: GuitarBill
» RE:That was Clinton.
Posted by: oregoncharles
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Posted by: wbradleyjr1 on Oct 12, 2009 6:17 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Politicians and General Officers float freely between holding executive positions in large corporations to cabinet appointments, political office, the Pentagon and back again. Often winding up on committees that are supposed to regulate the very industries that they came from. Thus assuring that the agenda of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex is carried out.
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» RE: It wasn't THE takeover, It was Absolute Confirmation!
Posted by: madregal
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Posted by: smf1403 on Oct 12, 2009 6:19 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH KAPTUR HERE ALTHOUGH I DO RESPECT HER SPEAKING UP FOR THE PEOPLE.
SHE LETS HERSELF AND CONGRESS OFF THE HOOK.
"THE PEOPLE" ARE IN CHARGE. CONGRESS REPRESENTS THE PEOPLE. OBVIOUSLY, THEY ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB.
"WALL STREET IS IN CHARGE" BECAUSE CONGRESS AND OBAMA HAVE GIVEN THEM THE POWER. PERIOD.
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» RE: KAPTUR IS NOT WRONG -- "CONGRESS" ARE NO LONGER THE PEOPLE
Posted by: Basenjis
» RE: KAPTUR IS WRONG -- "CONGRESS" ARE THE PEOPLE
Posted by: VZEQICVA
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Posted by: Douglas_Wilson on Oct 12, 2009 6:28 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our nations Hydra is the international banker(s). They got here around 1910. They took over the nations currency. People forgot about the Hydra, but the heads would show up from time to time and threaten the nation. The way of dealing with the head in question was either (1) identify it's cause (2) or go with a recommended solution. Always, one solution would be offered by the Hydra. Often the Hydra's solution was the accepted solution and so written into the laws, regulations or rules.
Over the years the Hydra has absorbed the nations government in this way. There is only one way to kill the Hydra: Starvation. The only weapon we possess is our money and property. Each year we give a portion of that to the Hydra. The year we don't, is the year we start on the self determined path.
Blog
Forum
Piercing The Illusion
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» Excellent, its a form of civil disobedience. Add to that work locally to replace them in our ......
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: The Hydra
Posted by: yellow
» Yes I do, but my suggestion would be illegal, so I won't make it.....
Posted by: Prophit0
» Yes I do, but my suggestion would be illegal, so I won't make it.....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: Yes I do, but my suggestion would be illegal, so I won't make it.....
Posted by: madregal
» RE: Both, I'm afraid.
Posted by: oregoncharles
» RE: Iceland...
Posted by: oregoncharles
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Posted by: CLARENCE SWINNEY on Oct 12, 2009 6:41 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
“God Bless The Rich”
Please raise your glass of champagne to honor Reagan and Bush II
WEALTH-----
From 1980 to 2007
Top 1% got 35.4% of Total Wealth Increase
Bottom 60% got 11.2%
Nonhome Wealth
Top 1% got 42.5%of total increase
Bottom 60% got 5.6%
INCOME------
From 1980 to 2007
Top 1% got 44.1% of Total Income Increase
Bottom 60% got 12.4%
2001-2008—1% got 491 B in Tax Breaks—annual income exceeded 1.5 million
and put 1% Income at highest percent of Total Income since 1928
Bottom 99% got $3.74 in debt for each $1 in tax cuts 2001-2006
In that time, equal protection and housing for the elderly was slashed 20% adjusted for inflation. Community Development Block Grant cut 32% and lack of health insurance was epidemic.
400 taxpayers with highest income doubled income 2002-2006. Hear Wall Street roar as it crashed in 2007. Party time was over.
The richest 400 reported an average $214 million each in 2005 on federal income tax returns in 2005—up from $104 million in 2002. Doubled.
The 400 richest taxpayers paid only 18% of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2005—down from 30% in 1995—a 66% Tax Cut. Thanks Ron. Thanks George.
Many of the provisions of the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.
IF OBAMA AND DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS MAKE PERMANENT --THEY ARE GONE GONE GONE-FIRED
If made permanent, the top 1% of Households would receive nearly $1200 Billion in Tax Cuts from 2009 through 2018 per cbpp.org
Obama campaigned on eliminating them. Please note this promise.
The poorest 20% would get a magnanimous tax cut of $45 per year. Whoopee!
NET WORTH----
2007-top 20% had 85%--bottom 80% had 15%
2007-nonhome worth—20% had 93% and 80% had 7%
2007-Income-20% got 60% and 80% got 40%
Oh! Such a Fair and Balanced Nation! So Christ-Like. Makes me so proud.
cswinney2@triad.rr.com
political historian since 1991 on Reagan-Clinton-Bush II administrations
Above from Holly Sklar co-author of “Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us” hsklar@aol.com --Part from writings of Edward.Wolff@nyu.edu
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» The foundation was laid by Bush I and Bush II/CHENEY, who then did the gutting of .....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: rich rich rich rich...Charles Swinney has nailed the issue down correctly...
Posted by: yellow
» Actually, FDR cut to the heart of it rather than all this ....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: Actually, FDR cut to the heart of it rather than all this ....
Posted by: madregal
» As usual Prophit you miss the point...
Posted by: yellow
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Posted by: weathered on Oct 12, 2009 7:27 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We were set-up like a bowling pin.
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» Enforcing our ownership of the airwaves could help do that.
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: nforcing our ownership of the airwaves could help do that.
Posted by: Basenjis
» No, but encarcerating them in their artic heritage seed bank in the arctic sounds....
Posted by: Prophit0
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Posted by: reval on Oct 12, 2009 7:34 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10092009/watch.html
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Posted by: ssbeeno on Oct 12, 2009 7:51 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
RT
Ultimate Anonymity
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» WANKER ALERT--Don't click on that link (IDENTITY THEFT!)
Posted by: GuitarBill
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Posted by: travelertoo on Oct 12, 2009 8:09 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Bush should be known as the magical president.
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» Let us know when you are done saying goodbye and are ready to discuss something...
Posted by: leafsong1
» RE: The Magical President
Posted by: VZEQICVA
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Posted by: franklyspanking on Oct 12, 2009 8:33 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Instead of letting the sick and ailing lenders fail (with a small number of exceptions) the federal government stepped in and made us all partners...with none of the benefits and very little of the oversight that should have accompanied.
If you loaned money to someone on the street with the promise that they would pay you back despite the fact that they had no job, no income, and assets...well, you'd be a fool who was out whatever you leant that consumer. If you're a crony bank with Wall Stree/Chicago ties to the Whitehouse and Congress, they just raid your neighbor's billfold to keep you going about business as usual.
So, rather than be about "take overs" it's more a situation where, between the pres, his complicit congress, and the monied interests, the lunatics are running the asylum for their mutual benefit...just like in the good old days of Bush et al.
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Posted by: ctuck622 on Oct 12, 2009 8:39 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In Florida, two moron Rethuglican Reps., Ambler and Robaina, at the behest of their corporate attorney and condo association lobbyist buddies, have introduced a bill in direct contradiction to the Federal legislation just passed to help prevent homelessness, allowing renters in properties in the foreclosure process to stay up to 90 days. These two dipsticks are trying to circumvent the judicial process and pass legislation allowing condo associations the right to evict owners' tenants, turn off utilities, and prohibit use of common areas, rather than dealing with the owner, which is what they're supposed to do, but they want to make it legal to harass the poor tenant instead. This is SO typical for Florida. I am in such a situation, and I am disabled, and I DARE these nitwits to try a stunt like that, so please support this petition:
linked text = Linked text
Carol Tucker, MA
Court Reform-NOW
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Posted by: willymack on Oct 12, 2009 8:38 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Since his day, they've plotted and contrived to re-occupy the place they'd vacated.
They took full advantage of presidential pretender Ronnie Raygun, that senile bufoon and movie star wannabe. He was what they'd been waiting for all those years.
They stepped adroitly around Clinton, biding their time for another clown like ronnie-baby to emerge, and with the help of crooked election officials, a crooked governor, a crooked secretary of state, and a crooked "supreme" court, rammed the Texas Turd down our throats. All that crap about the USA being "the land of the brave and the home of the brave" turned out to be so much bullshit, as our people and Congress stood meekly by and LET IT HAPPEN.
It hardly matters if President Obama's heart is in the right place or not; the fix is in, and appears to be PERMANENT.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out how to reverse what's happened, but that would entail seizure of many monopolies, and the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of a whole lot of corporate thugs, crooked politicians, and crooked not-so-supreme court justices, as well as most of the former bush crime cartel.
Our people simply don't have the guts for that; they'd rather do their usual NOTHING, while watching "reality" shows and Monday Night Football.
Welcome to "1984", folks. It simply took longer than Orwell predicted, to happen.
War is Peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is Strength
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» They didn't step around Clinton, remember, based on recommendations of Rubin...
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: They didn't step around Clinton, remember, based on recommendations of Rubin...
Posted by: yellow
» Well, I stand corrected...... I said above I "think" cause I couldn't remember,
Posted by: Prophit0
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Posted by: citizenjoe on Oct 12, 2009 9:08 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
From Wikipidea
Franklin D. Roosevelt in an April 29, 1938 message to Congress warned that the growth of private power could lead to fascism:
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.[64][65][66]
From the same message:
The Growing Concentration of Economic Power. Statistics of the Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal the following amazing figures for 1935: "Ownership of corporate assets: Of all corporations reporting from every part of the Nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them."[64][66]
Critics of the notion of the confluence of corporate power and de facto fascism included President Dwight D. Eisenhower[67], who nevertheless brought attention to the "conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry"[68] in his 1961 Farewell Address to the Nation, and stressed "the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage."[69]
[edit]
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» A very important quote
Posted by: leafsong1
» We have someone like that, who if matched with McKinney could easily assume the FDR mantle....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: We have someone like that, who if matched with McKinney could easily assume the FDR mantle....
Posted by: madregal
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Posted by: djnoll on Oct 12, 2009 9:22 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Last January 21st we saw a million plus people flood into DC to see the inauguration of a new President. He asked us to create change in our communities, but he went further and he asked us to hold him to his promises and to hold him on course to a better America. I AM TAKING HIM AT HIS WORD THAT DAY
It is time for us to take action and to show the banks and the Congress and the Clinton cronies that they are not America - WE ARE!
It is time for us to show our fellow citizens and radical pundits that they do not speak for America - WE DO!
It is time that we showed the world that we will change, and we will change in a way that will protect this world from predatory banks, corrupt politicians, religious zealots, and manipulative corporations because they are not who we are - WE ARE AMERICA WHERE HONOR, TRUTH, COMPASSION, AND JUSTICE STILL HOLD US ON THE COURSE OUR FOREFATHERS SET FOR US!
Join Me. Go to Let Freedom Ring.Community and find out what you can do to make the American People seen across this land and to once again remind our politicians WE VOTED YOU IN TO DO OUR WORK, NOT THE BANKS OR THE CORPORATIONS, AND WE WILL VOTE YOU OUT IN ONE YEAR IF YOU DO NOT DO YOUR JOBS! WE ARE YOUR EMPLOYERS, AND WE WILL FIRE YOU AND LET YOU SEE HOW REAL CAPITALISM WORKS IN A DEMOCRACY!
Join Me! Let America Roar! Let Freedom Ring!
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» I am ready to do it, but first i want to see who funds this organization....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: I am ready to do it, but first i want to see who funds this organization....
Posted by: madregal
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Posted by: Lese Majeste on Oct 12, 2009 12:19 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Her 'subjects' finally got tired of getting ripped off, tossed in jail, having their civil rights stripped away and got togther and gave Marie and her husband a VERY close shave.
America, are you tired of getting ripped off by DC and Wall Street elites, having your civil rights stripped away and getting either clubbed on the streets during a peaceful protest or getting tossed in jail?
.... and seeing your sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, wives and husbands being used for cannon fodder fighting a war that only benefits Wall Street and Israel?
Or do you want to wait a bit longer, until you have no food to eat and no place to live?
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» RE: "Let them eat cake"
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
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Posted by: Cherenkovrad on Oct 12, 2009 12:44 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Listen to the knowledge.
This circle jerk of me-tooism is disgusting. Quit jawboning and start the revolution. I see here day after day the same people yakking it up dissipating energy without accomplishing dick. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
This time, it requires real sacrifice. It requires union people in the streets, students taking over the corrupt institutions where the status quo is pumped into the little managers, the non-brainwashed oldsters calling their reps because the reps fear the old who definitely vote, and it requires the taking over of local government.
We need to see riots, violence, people dying for a cause. We need an alternative media with reach into the poor neighborhoods, which, this site does not begin to do because poor people do not have the education, the technology, or the money to log onto the net and follow a bunch of BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. That means feet on the ground, grassroots organizers, people on the school boards, community health, community gardens, community assistance, and the guts to call it what it is: Socialism. That's right, socialism. It is a GOOD thing.
Every one of you posting on this thread need to get your lazy asses up from in front of the computer screen and go to a community meeting and volunteer. You can recruit your friends, your family, your co-workers, but don't make it secret. Be LOUD! You can make ten flyers telling it like it is and noting that the library may have free Internet access. Provide an address for the library and a web address for them to get started. We need people from the communities which have been marginalized to take up the banner of information dissemination. Stand on a street corner with a sign protesting the fascism. Make it known! Say it LOUD!
Don't cower when people tell you that you are being rude and that only nice, quiet conversation will win the day. Look at the civil rights movement, they got in the streets, they got in the whites only establishments and they died for a righteous cause. They got LOUD. Look at the labor movement. Again, lockouts and corporate goons and bravery and we now have a forty hour week, but for how long? GET LOUD!!!
The establishment wants you be pleasant. They want you to smile and nod and let every little fascist have their say. They learned they could defuse the argument, muddy the water, inject uncertainty, co-opt the revolution, commercialize the culture of dissent, and rig the vote, and keep it all, all the power and the wealth and the health, while we sit here and add our two cents worth of BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
Yeah, keep on blogging. How's that working out for you?
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» How's it working out for YOU?
Posted by: photon's feather
» Now that is the truth. I know some on here that do something within their communities on these ...
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: Now that is the truth. I know some on here that do something within their communities on these ...
Posted by: madregal
» RE: evolution is in the Air...YOU 100% correct
Posted by: antonius116
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Posted by: cori on Oct 12, 2009 3:18 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» After what I saw at G-20, marching won't work, THEY DON'T CARE...
Posted by: Prophit0
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Posted by: eosrk on Oct 12, 2009 7:30 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: barefeet on Oct 12, 2009 8:48 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That is a vote of congress not the committee. Congress represents the American people the committee doesn't.
What we need is for CONGRESS to vote on the PUBLIC OPTION so that we can identify the bastards that do not represent us and dump them!
The committee is simply defeating democracy by protecting those same bastards.
If we don't get that we need to dump ALL THOSE ON THE COMMITTEE that are working to defeat democracy.
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» RE: That "60 votes"
Posted by: madregal
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Posted by: Mister_PsyOps on Oct 13, 2009 2:46 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I admire Simon Johnson, something I can’t say of most public figures AlterNOT covers. That said, when he claims our system is “socialism for the big banks” he is way, way off.
Socialism
a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©
(socialism has never existed)
Fascism
any movement, tendency, or ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©
(free markets with free market democracy and self-determinism absent)
Do we see Wall Street (let alone Washington) controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles? Don’t think so.
ITEM: “socialism” and “communism” never existed. Fascism RULES and crushes democracy along with so-called “capitalism” wherever they are.
Fascism is the merger of corporate over state power at the command of oligarchs.
The “coup” talked about above came in 1913 when the private monopoly fraud “Federal Reserve” Corp (not federal, zero reserves) hijacked the American economy with its IRS. The cartel robber baron power that pulled the “Federal Reserve” Corp con is still quite alive and in charge of Wall Street with its Washington-MSM freak show.
JD Rockefeller, Lord Rothschild and their handpicked capos put the “Federal Reserve” Corp together by secret summit on Jekyll Island 1910 and had their KKK racist puppet Woodrow Wilson rubberstamp it in the dead of winter 3 years later.
By the way, ex-“FED” hack Tim Geithner was a protégé of Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates. And who was Henry Kissinger a protégé of? None other than David Rockefeller who funded his career. That’s David Rockefeller who created the World Bank, IMF and whose great grandfather J.D. Rockefeller co-founded the privately rigged “Federal Reserve” Corp extortion Mafia.
As President FDR said Fascism has been so “ever since the days of Andrew Jackson” .
“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government of the U.S. ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
President FDR (on de facto Fascist rule in a letter to corporate monopoly charlatan “Colonel” Edward M. House, co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations and political fixer for the ruling class. House also handled KKK racist President Woodrow Wilson for the foisting of the privately rigged “Federal Reserve” Bank and American commitment into World War 1. 11/21/ l933 from the book "F.D.R.: His Personal Letters" - New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1950)
In 1913, the money power of the country was taken away from the people. By constitutional privilege it belongs with the Congress, but it was given up in the Federal Reserve Act. The Federal Reserve is no more Federal than Federal Express. But yet it has the power to determine the direction and use of money in our economy. If we could take that power back and put the Federal Reserve under Treasury, we start to be in a position of being able to control monetary policy on behalf of the United States people.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (former Presidential candidate at Congress C-Span January 9th, 2009)
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» RE: FASCISM is NOT “socialism for the big banks”
Posted by: daw13
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Posted by: nfamous23 on Oct 13, 2009 7:41 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Moyers was a flack for corrupt President LBJ as part of the network that killed JFK
Posted by: PointMan
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Posted by: wormfarmer on Oct 13, 2009 4:18 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
impression of Barak Obama was one of hope, change, hopefully a little independence of thought and deed. I was ready to extend time and patience for the transition of President. This is not working, as I concluded with the team of economic advisors, Summers, Giethner, Volker,
keeping,but shuffling, the same military advisors, Gates, Patraeous, etc......., maintaining the same aggressive stance in the middle east, giving the future of succeeding generations to thieves and con men, letting corporations have their way with our society. I have not seen any hope or change from this administration, just the same corporate controlled domination of the populace,
keeping control of the masses.
Now we are moving our military presence into Afghanistan, soon Pakistan, I was hoping to see something other than an embracing of the status quo, but then I remembered that our country elected a corporate candidate. I would hope that by this time the population would
have awakened to the corporate shenanigans that have been so redundant throughout this country's history, but then I thought about the collective attention span of America.
The time is ripe for us to stop the political complicit behavior, to adopt the Ralph Nader suggestion of a 1/10 of one percent tax on all stock transactions, to stop the sacrificing of this country's future to the perpetraitors of economic collapse.
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Posted by: cori on Oct 17, 2009 3:10 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
of affordable health care, decent
wages, jobs, and after all this we
have to pay and keep on paying.
They don't care if you or your
family starve and die! So wake up and we better
rattle the cage. Our govt is broken
and we better have a clean sweep
in congress. We need more Kaptur's,
Graysons and Sanders. Be a pest at the
very least and tell your rep if things
don't change they will be out. 202-224-3121.
HOW DARE THEY!!!!!
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Posted by: Priam1 on Oct 18, 2009 11:08 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: mmckinl on Oct 12, 2009 12:11 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Oct 12, 2009 12:51 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» What we just heard from them about "Jamie Diamond" of JP Morgan was the psychopathy....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: What we just heard from them about "Jamie Diamond" of JP Morgan was the psychopathy....
Posted by: badkitty
» RE: What we just heard from them about "Jamie Diamond" of JP Morgan was the psychopathy....
Posted by: photon's feather
» "CynicI/prophit/prophit0", so which account are you using today, fraud?
Posted by: GuitarBill
» [SPAM WARNING] GuitarBill cyberstalks and spams us with copy-and-paste irrelevant
Posted by: MaxBridges
» WARNING, more fact-free conspiranoid apologetics for the right-wing troll "prophit(0)".
Posted by: GuitarBill
» Examples of Max the compulsive liars hypocrisy as regards my exposé of CynicI/"prophit(0)"/prophit
Posted by: GuitarBill
» [CompulsiveLiar] Mr. Bill's legerdemain at it again
Posted by: MaxBridges
» Right Max! Don't address your well-documented hypocrisy and lying, change the subject.
Posted by: GuitarBill
» RE: This is a great summary of a lot that has gone wrong but I have one problem.
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» RE: This is a great summary of a lot that has gone wrong but I have one problem.
Posted by: JenniferBedingfield
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Posted by: Jay Randal on Oct 12, 2009 12:53 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As for President Obama: When he filled his cabinet with Wall Street shills it became obvious he sold out himself. Doubtful he can do anything decent for Americans now.
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» RE: Kaptur for president
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: Kaptur knows the truth, but most of Congress are stupid!
Posted by: vssmith
» RE: they are not stupid, they knew what they were doing and they were well-paid to do it.
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» most of Congress are stupid! Stupid ??
Posted by: KAvatar
» RE: I have spent the last six years breaking down Congress' defensive wall against the public
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» KAPTUR WIMPED OUT, KUCINICH IS THE ONLY TRUTH-TELLER
Posted by: smf1403
» While I agree with you, I can understand the limitations she has to work with...
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: While I agree with you, I can understand the limitations she has to work with...
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» RE: While I agree with you, I can understand the limitations she has to work with...
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» Excellent posts by both you and Lauren......
Posted by: Prophit0
» You again?
Posted by: LightningJoe
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Posted by: gazooks on Oct 12, 2009 1:39 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Enough will never be enough until a line is drawn by the people of this country. Time for some street justice, imo.
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Posted by: Perry Logan on Oct 12, 2009 3:22 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
These people--let us call them O-holes--are still hanging out at Democratic Underground, Buzzflash, DailyKos, and Huffington Post.
They're acting like it never happened now, but these little pr*cks spent the primary fighting dirty for Obama. They called anyone who dared to criticize their crappy candidate a racist. Since no real Democrat would act that way, we know the Democrats are screwed.
There was also the rank misogyny--among people who fancy themselves progressives. They called Hillary and her female supporters the C word--over and over again.
Now do you see why things have gone so flamingly bad? It comes back to the rank and file of the Democratic Party. The people now running the Democratic Party are foul-mouthed Philistines who actively hate Democrats!
It's like this: Once you call me a racist, you have made an enemy for life. Once you start repeating Republican smears against your own candidate, you have stopped being a Democrat.
We have an internal fight on our hands. This isn't over till we have driven the Obama Democrats out of our party.
PS: To give credit where it's due, the PUMAs were the ones who spotted Obama as a fraud right away. But most of the PUMAs went on to do exactly what the O-holes did--i.e., start repeating right-wing smears against a Democrat they didn't like. So the PUMAs are as bad as the O-holes.
A Pig of a Bill
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» Uh, the repeal of Glass-Steagall took place on B. Clinton's...
Posted by: brunowe
» RE: Uh, the repeal of Glass-Steagall took place on B. Clinton's...
Posted by: MFrog
» RE: Uh, the repeal of Glass-Steagall took place on B. Clinton's...
Posted by: brunowe
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: DavidMac
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: Basenjis
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: MT512
» RE: Don't forget--the O-holes got us into this fix
Posted by: lenioui
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Posted by: Karlh on Oct 12, 2009 5:20 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Bush I actually started it with transferring our capital producing wealth overseas.....
Posted by: Prophit0
» Parroting Alex Jones again, "prophit(0)"?
Posted by: GuitarBill
» RE:That was Clinton.
Posted by: oregoncharles
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Posted by: wbradleyjr1 on Oct 12, 2009 6:17 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Politicians and General Officers float freely between holding executive positions in large corporations to cabinet appointments, political office, the Pentagon and back again. Often winding up on committees that are supposed to regulate the very industries that they came from. Thus assuring that the agenda of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex is carried out.
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» RE: It wasn't THE takeover, It was Absolute Confirmation!
Posted by: madregal
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Posted by: smf1403 on Oct 12, 2009 6:19 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I HAVE TO DISAGREE WITH KAPTUR HERE ALTHOUGH I DO RESPECT HER SPEAKING UP FOR THE PEOPLE.
SHE LETS HERSELF AND CONGRESS OFF THE HOOK.
"THE PEOPLE" ARE IN CHARGE. CONGRESS REPRESENTS THE PEOPLE. OBVIOUSLY, THEY ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB.
"WALL STREET IS IN CHARGE" BECAUSE CONGRESS AND OBAMA HAVE GIVEN THEM THE POWER. PERIOD.
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» RE: KAPTUR IS NOT WRONG -- "CONGRESS" ARE NO LONGER THE PEOPLE
Posted by: Basenjis
» RE: KAPTUR IS WRONG -- "CONGRESS" ARE THE PEOPLE
Posted by: VZEQICVA
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Posted by: Douglas_Wilson on Oct 12, 2009 6:28 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our nations Hydra is the international banker(s). They got here around 1910. They took over the nations currency. People forgot about the Hydra, but the heads would show up from time to time and threaten the nation. The way of dealing with the head in question was either (1) identify it's cause (2) or go with a recommended solution. Always, one solution would be offered by the Hydra. Often the Hydra's solution was the accepted solution and so written into the laws, regulations or rules.
Over the years the Hydra has absorbed the nations government in this way. There is only one way to kill the Hydra: Starvation. The only weapon we possess is our money and property. Each year we give a portion of that to the Hydra. The year we don't, is the year we start on the self determined path.
Blog
Forum
Piercing The Illusion
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» Excellent, its a form of civil disobedience. Add to that work locally to replace them in our ......
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: The Hydra
Posted by: yellow
» Yes I do, but my suggestion would be illegal, so I won't make it.....
Posted by: Prophit0
» Yes I do, but my suggestion would be illegal, so I won't make it.....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: Yes I do, but my suggestion would be illegal, so I won't make it.....
Posted by: madregal
» RE: Both, I'm afraid.
Posted by: oregoncharles
» RE: Iceland...
Posted by: oregoncharles
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Posted by: CLARENCE SWINNEY on Oct 12, 2009 6:41 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
“God Bless The Rich”
Please raise your glass of champagne to honor Reagan and Bush II
WEALTH-----
From 1980 to 2007
Top 1% got 35.4% of Total Wealth Increase
Bottom 60% got 11.2%
Nonhome Wealth
Top 1% got 42.5%of total increase
Bottom 60% got 5.6%
INCOME------
From 1980 to 2007
Top 1% got 44.1% of Total Income Increase
Bottom 60% got 12.4%
2001-2008—1% got 491 B in Tax Breaks—annual income exceeded 1.5 million
and put 1% Income at highest percent of Total Income since 1928
Bottom 99% got $3.74 in debt for each $1 in tax cuts 2001-2006
In that time, equal protection and housing for the elderly was slashed 20% adjusted for inflation. Community Development Block Grant cut 32% and lack of health insurance was epidemic.
400 taxpayers with highest income doubled income 2002-2006. Hear Wall Street roar as it crashed in 2007. Party time was over.
The richest 400 reported an average $214 million each in 2005 on federal income tax returns in 2005—up from $104 million in 2002. Doubled.
The 400 richest taxpayers paid only 18% of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2005—down from 30% in 1995—a 66% Tax Cut. Thanks Ron. Thanks George.
Many of the provisions of the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.
IF OBAMA AND DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS MAKE PERMANENT --THEY ARE GONE GONE GONE-FIRED
If made permanent, the top 1% of Households would receive nearly $1200 Billion in Tax Cuts from 2009 through 2018 per cbpp.org
Obama campaigned on eliminating them. Please note this promise.
The poorest 20% would get a magnanimous tax cut of $45 per year. Whoopee!
NET WORTH----
2007-top 20% had 85%--bottom 80% had 15%
2007-nonhome worth—20% had 93% and 80% had 7%
2007-Income-20% got 60% and 80% got 40%
Oh! Such a Fair and Balanced Nation! So Christ-Like. Makes me so proud.
cswinney2@triad.rr.com
political historian since 1991 on Reagan-Clinton-Bush II administrations
Above from Holly Sklar co-author of “Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us” hsklar@aol.com --Part from writings of Edward.Wolff@nyu.edu
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» The foundation was laid by Bush I and Bush II/CHENEY, who then did the gutting of .....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: rich rich rich rich...Charles Swinney has nailed the issue down correctly...
Posted by: yellow
» Actually, FDR cut to the heart of it rather than all this ....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: Actually, FDR cut to the heart of it rather than all this ....
Posted by: madregal
» As usual Prophit you miss the point...
Posted by: yellow
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Posted by: weathered on Oct 12, 2009 7:27 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We were set-up like a bowling pin.
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» Enforcing our ownership of the airwaves could help do that.
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: nforcing our ownership of the airwaves could help do that.
Posted by: Basenjis
» No, but encarcerating them in their artic heritage seed bank in the arctic sounds....
Posted by: Prophit0
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Posted by: reval on Oct 12, 2009 7:34 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10092009/watch.html
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Posted by: ssbeeno on Oct 12, 2009 7:51 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
RT
Ultimate Anonymity
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» WANKER ALERT--Don't click on that link (IDENTITY THEFT!)
Posted by: GuitarBill
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Posted by: travelertoo on Oct 12, 2009 8:09 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Bush should be known as the magical president.
Posted by: Sister_Lauren
» Let us know when you are done saying goodbye and are ready to discuss something...
Posted by: leafsong1
» RE: The Magical President
Posted by: VZEQICVA
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Posted by: franklyspanking on Oct 12, 2009 8:33 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Instead of letting the sick and ailing lenders fail (with a small number of exceptions) the federal government stepped in and made us all partners...with none of the benefits and very little of the oversight that should have accompanied.
If you loaned money to someone on the street with the promise that they would pay you back despite the fact that they had no job, no income, and assets...well, you'd be a fool who was out whatever you leant that consumer. If you're a crony bank with Wall Stree/Chicago ties to the Whitehouse and Congress, they just raid your neighbor's billfold to keep you going about business as usual.
So, rather than be about "take overs" it's more a situation where, between the pres, his complicit congress, and the monied interests, the lunatics are running the asylum for their mutual benefit...just like in the good old days of Bush et al.
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Posted by: ctuck622 on Oct 12, 2009 8:39 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In Florida, two moron Rethuglican Reps., Ambler and Robaina, at the behest of their corporate attorney and condo association lobbyist buddies, have introduced a bill in direct contradiction to the Federal legislation just passed to help prevent homelessness, allowing renters in properties in the foreclosure process to stay up to 90 days. These two dipsticks are trying to circumvent the judicial process and pass legislation allowing condo associations the right to evict owners' tenants, turn off utilities, and prohibit use of common areas, rather than dealing with the owner, which is what they're supposed to do, but they want to make it legal to harass the poor tenant instead. This is SO typical for Florida. I am in such a situation, and I am disabled, and I DARE these nitwits to try a stunt like that, so please support this petition:
linked text = Linked text
Carol Tucker, MA
Court Reform-NOW
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Posted by: willymack on Oct 12, 2009 8:38 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Since his day, they've plotted and contrived to re-occupy the place they'd vacated.
They took full advantage of presidential pretender Ronnie Raygun, that senile bufoon and movie star wannabe. He was what they'd been waiting for all those years.
They stepped adroitly around Clinton, biding their time for another clown like ronnie-baby to emerge, and with the help of crooked election officials, a crooked governor, a crooked secretary of state, and a crooked "supreme" court, rammed the Texas Turd down our throats. All that crap about the USA being "the land of the brave and the home of the brave" turned out to be so much bullshit, as our people and Congress stood meekly by and LET IT HAPPEN.
It hardly matters if President Obama's heart is in the right place or not; the fix is in, and appears to be PERMANENT.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out how to reverse what's happened, but that would entail seizure of many monopolies, and the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of a whole lot of corporate thugs, crooked politicians, and crooked not-so-supreme court justices, as well as most of the former bush crime cartel.
Our people simply don't have the guts for that; they'd rather do their usual NOTHING, while watching "reality" shows and Monday Night Football.
Welcome to "1984", folks. It simply took longer than Orwell predicted, to happen.
War is Peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is Strength
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» They didn't step around Clinton, remember, based on recommendations of Rubin...
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: They didn't step around Clinton, remember, based on recommendations of Rubin...
Posted by: yellow
» Well, I stand corrected...... I said above I "think" cause I couldn't remember,
Posted by: Prophit0
Comments are closed-
Posted by: citizenjoe on Oct 12, 2009 9:08 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
From Wikipidea
Franklin D. Roosevelt in an April 29, 1938 message to Congress warned that the growth of private power could lead to fascism:
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.[64][65][66]
From the same message:
The Growing Concentration of Economic Power. Statistics of the Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal the following amazing figures for 1935: "Ownership of corporate assets: Of all corporations reporting from every part of the Nation, one-tenth of 1 percent of them owned 52 percent of the assets of all of them."[64][66]
Critics of the notion of the confluence of corporate power and de facto fascism included President Dwight D. Eisenhower[67], who nevertheless brought attention to the "conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry"[68] in his 1961 Farewell Address to the Nation, and stressed "the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage."[69]
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» A very important quote
Posted by: leafsong1
» We have someone like that, who if matched with McKinney could easily assume the FDR mantle....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: We have someone like that, who if matched with McKinney could easily assume the FDR mantle....
Posted by: madregal
Comments are closed-
Posted by: djnoll on Oct 12, 2009 9:22 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Last January 21st we saw a million plus people flood into DC to see the inauguration of a new President. He asked us to create change in our communities, but he went further and he asked us to hold him to his promises and to hold him on course to a better America. I AM TAKING HIM AT HIS WORD THAT DAY
It is time for us to take action and to show the banks and the Congress and the Clinton cronies that they are not America - WE ARE!
It is time for us to show our fellow citizens and radical pundits that they do not speak for America - WE DO!
It is time that we showed the world that we will change, and we will change in a way that will protect this world from predatory banks, corrupt politicians, religious zealots, and manipulative corporations because they are not who we are - WE ARE AMERICA WHERE HONOR, TRUTH, COMPASSION, AND JUSTICE STILL HOLD US ON THE COURSE OUR FOREFATHERS SET FOR US!
Join Me. Go to Let Freedom Ring.Community and find out what you can do to make the American People seen across this land and to once again remind our politicians WE VOTED YOU IN TO DO OUR WORK, NOT THE BANKS OR THE CORPORATIONS, AND WE WILL VOTE YOU OUT IN ONE YEAR IF YOU DO NOT DO YOUR JOBS! WE ARE YOUR EMPLOYERS, AND WE WILL FIRE YOU AND LET YOU SEE HOW REAL CAPITALISM WORKS IN A DEMOCRACY!
Join Me! Let America Roar! Let Freedom Ring!
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» I am ready to do it, but first i want to see who funds this organization....
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: I am ready to do it, but first i want to see who funds this organization....
Posted by: madregal
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Lese Majeste on Oct 12, 2009 12:19 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Her 'subjects' finally got tired of getting ripped off, tossed in jail, having their civil rights stripped away and got togther and gave Marie and her husband a VERY close shave.
America, are you tired of getting ripped off by DC and Wall Street elites, having your civil rights stripped away and getting either clubbed on the streets during a peaceful protest or getting tossed in jail?
.... and seeing your sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, wives and husbands being used for cannon fodder fighting a war that only benefits Wall Street and Israel?
Or do you want to wait a bit longer, until you have no food to eat and no place to live?
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» RE: "Let them eat cake"
Posted by: Ian MacLeod
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Cherenkovrad on Oct 12, 2009 12:44 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Listen to the knowledge.
This circle jerk of me-tooism is disgusting. Quit jawboning and start the revolution. I see here day after day the same people yakking it up dissipating energy without accomplishing dick. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
This time, it requires real sacrifice. It requires union people in the streets, students taking over the corrupt institutions where the status quo is pumped into the little managers, the non-brainwashed oldsters calling their reps because the reps fear the old who definitely vote, and it requires the taking over of local government.
We need to see riots, violence, people dying for a cause. We need an alternative media with reach into the poor neighborhoods, which, this site does not begin to do because poor people do not have the education, the technology, or the money to log onto the net and follow a bunch of BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. That means feet on the ground, grassroots organizers, people on the school boards, community health, community gardens, community assistance, and the guts to call it what it is: Socialism. That's right, socialism. It is a GOOD thing.
Every one of you posting on this thread need to get your lazy asses up from in front of the computer screen and go to a community meeting and volunteer. You can recruit your friends, your family, your co-workers, but don't make it secret. Be LOUD! You can make ten flyers telling it like it is and noting that the library may have free Internet access. Provide an address for the library and a web address for them to get started. We need people from the communities which have been marginalized to take up the banner of information dissemination. Stand on a street corner with a sign protesting the fascism. Make it known! Say it LOUD!
Don't cower when people tell you that you are being rude and that only nice, quiet conversation will win the day. Look at the civil rights movement, they got in the streets, they got in the whites only establishments and they died for a righteous cause. They got LOUD. Look at the labor movement. Again, lockouts and corporate goons and bravery and we now have a forty hour week, but for how long? GET LOUD!!!
The establishment wants you be pleasant. They want you to smile and nod and let every little fascist have their say. They learned they could defuse the argument, muddy the water, inject uncertainty, co-opt the revolution, commercialize the culture of dissent, and rig the vote, and keep it all, all the power and the wealth and the health, while we sit here and add our two cents worth of BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
Yeah, keep on blogging. How's that working out for you?
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» How's it working out for YOU?
Posted by: photon's feather
» Now that is the truth. I know some on here that do something within their communities on these ...
Posted by: Prophit0
» RE: Now that is the truth. I know some on here that do something within their communities on these ...
Posted by: madregal
» RE: evolution is in the Air...YOU 100% correct
Posted by: antonius116
Comments are closed-
Posted by: cori on Oct 12, 2009 3:18 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» After what I saw at G-20, marching won't work, THEY DON'T CARE...
Posted by: Prophit0
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Posted by: eosrk on Oct 12, 2009 7:30 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: barefeet on Oct 12, 2009 8:48 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That is a vote of congress not the committee. Congress represents the American people the committee doesn't.
What we need is for CONGRESS to vote on the PUBLIC OPTION so that we can identify the bastards that do not represent us and dump them!
The committee is simply defeating democracy by protecting those same bastards.
If we don't get that we need to dump ALL THOSE ON THE COMMITTEE that are working to defeat democracy.
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» RE: That "60 votes"
Posted by: madregal
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Mister_PsyOps on Oct 13, 2009 2:46 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I admire Simon Johnson, something I can’t say of most public figures AlterNOT covers. That said, when he claims our system is “socialism for the big banks” he is way, way off.
Socialism
a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©
(socialism has never existed)
Fascism
any movement, tendency, or ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©
(free markets with free market democracy and self-determinism absent)
Do we see Wall Street (let alone Washington) controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles? Don’t think so.
ITEM: “socialism” and “communism” never existed. Fascism RULES and crushes democracy along with so-called “capitalism” wherever they are.
Fascism is the merger of corporate over state power at the command of oligarchs.
The “coup” talked about above came in 1913 when the private monopoly fraud “Federal Reserve” Corp (not federal, zero reserves) hijacked the American economy with its IRS. The cartel robber baron power that pulled the “Federal Reserve” Corp con is still quite alive and in charge of Wall Street with its Washington-MSM freak show.
JD Rockefeller, Lord Rothschild and their handpicked capos put the “Federal Reserve” Corp together by secret summit on Jekyll Island 1910 and had their KKK racist puppet Woodrow Wilson rubberstamp it in the dead of winter 3 years later.
By the way, ex-“FED” hack Tim Geithner was a protégé of Henry Kissinger at Kissinger Associates. And who was Henry Kissinger a protégé of? None other than David Rockefeller who funded his career. That’s David Rockefeller who created the World Bank, IMF and whose great grandfather J.D. Rockefeller co-founded the privately rigged “Federal Reserve” Corp extortion Mafia.
As President FDR said Fascism has been so “ever since the days of Andrew Jackson” .
“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government of the U.S. ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
President FDR (on de facto Fascist rule in a letter to corporate monopoly charlatan “Colonel” Edward M. House, co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations and political fixer for the ruling class. House also handled KKK racist President Woodrow Wilson for the foisting of the privately rigged “Federal Reserve” Bank and American commitment into World War 1. 11/21/ l933 from the book "F.D.R.: His Personal Letters" - New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce 1950)
In 1913, the money power of the country was taken away from the people. By constitutional privilege it belongs with the Congress, but it was given up in the Federal Reserve Act. The Federal Reserve is no more Federal than Federal Express. But yet it has the power to determine the direction and use of money in our economy. If we could take that power back and put the Federal Reserve under Treasury, we start to be in a position of being able to control monetary policy on behalf of the United States people.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (former Presidential candidate at Congress C-Span January 9th, 2009)
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» RE: FASCISM is NOT “socialism for the big banks”
Posted by: daw13
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Posted by: nfamous23 on Oct 13, 2009 7:41 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Moyers was a flack for corrupt President LBJ as part of the network that killed JFK
Posted by: PointMan
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Posted by: wormfarmer on Oct 13, 2009 4:18 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
impression of Barak Obama was one of hope, change, hopefully a little independence of thought and deed. I was ready to extend time and patience for the transition of President. This is not working, as I concluded with the team of economic advisors, Summers, Giethner, Volker,
keeping,but shuffling, the same military advisors, Gates, Patraeous, etc......., maintaining the same aggressive stance in the middle east, giving the future of succeeding generations to thieves and con men, letting corporations have their way with our society. I have not seen any hope or change from this administration, just the same corporate controlled domination of the populace,
keeping control of the masses.
Now we are moving our military presence into Afghanistan, soon Pakistan, I was hoping to see something other than an embracing of the status quo, but then I remembered that our country elected a corporate candidate. I would hope that by this time the population would
have awakened to the corporate shenanigans that have been so redundant throughout this country's history, but then I thought about the collective attention span of America.
The time is ripe for us to stop the political complicit behavior, to adopt the Ralph Nader suggestion of a 1/10 of one percent tax on all stock transactions, to stop the sacrificing of this country's future to the perpetraitors of economic collapse.
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Posted by: cori on Oct 17, 2009 3:10 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
of affordable health care, decent
wages, jobs, and after all this we
have to pay and keep on paying.
They don't care if you or your
family starve and die! So wake up and we better
rattle the cage. Our govt is broken
and we better have a clean sweep
in congress. We need more Kaptur's,
Graysons and Sanders. Be a pest at the
very least and tell your rep if things
don't change they will be out. 202-224-3121.
HOW DARE THEY!!!!!
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Posted by: Priam1 on Oct 18, 2009 11:08 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Tax the Corporations and the Rich or Take Draconian Cuts -- the Decision Is Ours
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Fury at Wall St. Banks Fuels Public Action for Move Your Money Campaign




