Subject: Occupy Wall Street Has Some Bad News For The Rich Residents Of The Upper East Side
There's a lot here today, and I hope it's not too much. A few short videos and some musings, that's all.
Look at Occupy Wall Street's 33-sec TV commercial on YouTube. Quite frankly, I don't find anything objectionable about it, and I agree with a lot of it.
I want to make a couple of points here Tim, first let me say that I can make a 33 second commercial that makes dog poo look appetizing. Please look a little beyond the rhetoric. Here are my direct points in reference to the video:
1.) These are the least vomit inducing members of the protests but still they clearly lack some fundamental knowledge about what’s caused the problems we see today. I will explain in detail what I mean as we go.
2 “ "I want to see more serious political conversations starting to happen.” – Right, because discussing whether we want to be a debtor nation or a nation who lives within her means isn’t serious? I think that the TEA Party has exposed the “serious conversations” in this country but this is a slogan that the “Occupiers” have been using and it means something specific. What they want is to have a “conversation” in which they intend to ignore the conservative position and focus on not IF we should redistribute wealth but HOW MUCH wealth we should redistribute.
3.) “I want corporations out of the government and I want people back in.” – Well I don’t necessarily disagree with this in principle except…corporations are governed by laws as much as people are and so I’m not against them having A SAY…what we have now is them BUYING POLITICIANS…now, the problem is that the politicians are corrupt…because if they didn’t take the money and didn’t act on behalf of their cronies…there wouldn’t be any problem…we elect our representatives, no matter what the corporations do, they CANNOT vote…WE THE PEOPLE can and so the people ARE in the process. WE should be electing people with the spine, integrity and ability to do the right thing.
4.) “I want peace rather than militarization.” – So do I…BUT I recognize that there are people out there who don’t like us very much. There’s some debate on what caused that dislike but for me, the overall theme is just our success and our way of life. More than anything else that we do, living free, having equal rights and tolerance and creating a prosperous nation that exposes the evils of leftist countries is the source of most of the hate directed at America. Knowing this, I would prefer to be over prepared for an attack rather than under prepared. There are some strategic withdrawals and moves that our military leaders have suggested that we can do. Further, focusing on missile shields and other hi-tech responses as opposed to ground troops is more cost effective and less invasive and potentially more beneficiary.
5.) “I want the top wealthiest Americans to be taxed higher and that money to go to education.” – The top 1% of Americans pay 38% of the taxes in America and the top 10% pay 70% of the taxes. I’m sorry Tim but for me THIS IS MORE THAN ENOUGH! In fact, they should have spoken up for themselves a LONG time ago and asked the bottom 50% of earners in this country to pay THEIR fair share. And by the way, we don’t have a spending problem on education in America. We SPEND more than enough but we get crappy results. Our problem isn’t a lack of money, it’s a lack of results. I contend it’s because we no longer teach out kids HOW to think but rather WHAT to think.
6.) “I want economic justice.” – Oh let me count the ways that this is wrong. Anytime you hear anything with “justice” in it you should be concerned, economic justice, environmental justice, social justice, etc. In this case, economic justice means that those who HAVE succeeded and made more money, should have that money taken and given to those who “need it”. It’s redistribution of wealth plain and simple.
7.) “I want to be able to speak my voice without jeopardizing my job.” – When this kid stands up for Hank Williams, I’ll buy his crap. There’s nothing stopping anyone from speaking their mind outside of work. Now, you can’t wear lip rings and mohawks at every job and I think employers have a right to determine if that is acceptable or not.
8.) “I want a greater regulation of the banks and the markets.” – Ok, I get it that the CDO’s were a big cause of the meltdown BUT this was NOT due to “deregulation” as these leftists want you to believe. Banks and other major corporations were/are regulated by the Sarbanes/Oxley bill which requires compliance and testing for NUMEROUS things from finance (assets, receivables, etc.) to IT (including number of user accounts, disaster plans, backups and power supplies, etc.), facilities maintenance and even more. These companies are probably OVER REGULATED and not under regulated. The problem is that the regulation is in the wrong place. It’s not on the financial products that the bankers are selling but rather on the minutiae of corporate governance.
9.) “I want my kids to have a job and healthcare.” – So do I BUT it’s not the government’s job to provide it. It’s THEIR job to provide it for themselves. Government should get as far out of the way is it can and allow my kids to follow their dreams and realize success. Government should make sure that IT is not the cause of job losses (which it currently is).
10 “I want true Democracy for the 99% of us who don’t have it anymore.” – Well I disagree with this on fundamental levels. 1.) America has NEVER been a true Democracy…we’ve been a Republic. There is a difference. A true democracy is majority rule, the 51% get what they want and the 49% can go pound sand…bupkis! We have a representative republic where we elect people to represent us in a Congress where each of them get a vote. By that consensus we get our say in the laws. 2.) We’ve never LOST our representative democracy, we’ve just failed to follow through on OUR PART which is the voting out of those who don’t represent us.
And that’s all I have to say…about that.
The notion that the Occupy Wall Street protest was somehow organized by obama and the democrats is misguided. The dumbocrats and the unions joined just recently. The protest was announced several months ago by the "AdBusters" group from Canada, that was soon joined by the "We Are Anonymous" group of worldwide "hacktivists", a group who initially began as a support group for WikiLeaks. Here's the AdBusters Campaign page from their website:
Ok so AdBusters is an “anti-consumerist” (Anti-consumerism refers to the socio-political movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions.) from Canada who is leading a political movement in America and you’re ok with this? Anti-Consumerism itself is an anarchist movement here is a list of some of the folks associated with anti-consumerism: Adbusters · Freecycle · Ralph Nader · Green party · John Zerzan · Noam Chomsky · Ron English · Naomi Klein · CrimethInc. · Thorstein Veblen · Hugo Chavez · Abbie Hoffman · Guy Debord · Michael Moore · José Bové · Michel Foucault · RTMark · Rage Against the Machine · Jello Biafra · The Yes Men · Fidel Castro · Democracy Now · Reverend Billy · Vandana Shiva · Bill Hicks. Not exactly a list of people or groups that I would want to be associated with. AdBusters is also pro-environmentalist which is fine I guess except that the whole point of environmentalism is to use government to fight things like global warming which have no basis in fact. Like most liberal ideas, there’s not clear cut plan for HOW to go about striking an “ecological balance”. Besides, it’s short on real evidence anyway (hockey stick graph?) Anywho, this group you promote, AdBusters, is HEAVILY entrenched in the Obama Administration AND The DNC and any number of leftist causes. As for the assertion that the Unions and others joined late...how do you explain this? http://www.theblaze.com/stories/seius-stephen-lerner-invokes-bill-ayers-days-of-rage-to-take-down-wall-street-this-september/ or this http://www.theblaze.com/stories/we-are-heroes-who-need-to-create-a-crisis-seiu-stephen-lerner-at-progressive-summit-tells-unions-community-organizers-and-students-they-need-to-escalate-protests-break-laws-occupy-abandon-houses/
"We Are Anonymous" has expanded from its original beginning into financial and government malfeasance. They have released many videos on YouTube. Here is a 1-min, 41-sec video aimed at obama that was released on Feb 6th, 2011. As you can see, they do not support obama.
And now we sing the praises of Anonymous, a worldwide collection of hax0rs and 1337’s who spend their time breaking down the Pentagon’s Internet security, hacking municipal and state governments, stealing customer data from Fortune 500 companies and generally causing Internet havoc all over the world. They’re technological terrorists and Internet anarchists. They’re dangerously brilliant on the one hand and complete morons on the other. They engage in theft, identity theft, treason and even in some cases murder (they’ve been rumored to have disrupted communication networks that led to the deaths of American troops in combat) and you really think they are someone we ought to be championing? (Your mention of Wikileaks is likewise concerning to me…I do NOT believe that our Classified military documents ought to be leaked to outside groups and then released to the public en masse in such a way as to endanger our men and women (and it has in many ways)…that’s TREASON and an act of espionage).
Also, today "the Occupy Wall Street protesters will leave Zuccotti Park at 11 AM and head to the Upper East Side to see how "the 1%" live. They're calling it, "NYC Billionaires Walking Tour" and they'll start marching at 59th and 5th Avenue around 12:30 PM."
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Wanna "see how the 1% lives"? Then join us on a walking tour of the homes of some of the bank and corporate executives who don't pay taxes, cut jobs, engaged in mortgage fraud, tanked our economy.....all while giving themselves record setting bonuses!
Occupy wall street will join community groups fighting for economic justice.
#1 The 1% DO pay taxes, they pay more than the bottom 50%, I’ve addressed this above
#2 Government regulations cut jobs, profits create them
#3 They engaged in mortgage fraud and indeed it tanked our economy BUT they did it with the willing partnership of Fannie and Freddie, ACORN and SEIU who all FORCED these banks to make risky loans to people without verifying employment or even collecting IDENTIFICATION in many cases. How about you recognize THAT?
You can meet at Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park at 11:00 am and we will take the subway together or you can meet at 59th and 5th ave at 12:30pm. (please indicate if you will travel with us from the square)
We'll be meeting at 59th Street and 5th Avenue at 12:30 pm, and then march from house to house, demanding accountability for Wall Street crimes, and an extension of the Millionaire's tax
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Hmm...59th & 5th. I think that's where Tiffany's flagship store is located, right on the SE corner, if I'm not mistaken. A great place for them to begin. They can spread-out in a northeasterly direction. Just like a plague on the Upper East Side. Perfect.
These protesters are walking to the HOMES of the bank executives and you think this is OK. This is an acceptable means of protest? At their HOMES? Where they can frighten their wives and children who’ve done NOTHING? Not only is this tasteless, I find it rather disgusting that you would support such a strong arm tactic. And who are these protesters to judge who is guilty of these crimes? None of these folks were convicted, who did what? What about the guy who DIDN’T participate in the bundling of mortgage backed securities trading? Does he get a pass or is he guilty because he’s a banker? (Reminds of that old movie “Nothing but Trouble” with Dan Akyroid and Chevy Chase except a lot less funny when you consider the terrified wives and children)
Read the below article from "Business Insider", a site that I stumbled upon 3-1/2 years ago when I was researching the collapse of Bear Stearns. It's run by former Wall-Streeters who now post news and who write blogs about business in general, and about Wall-Street corruption in particular. I like it, and I'm on their mailing list. Look at all the anti-Wall-Street comments. Financial people visit this site; it's not very well known outside that community.
I particularly like this comment: "Now that is awesome... bring it right to where they live... I love it."
Business Insider is a lefty version of the Wall Street Journal and a weak one at that. It was started with the intent to compete directly and “expose Wall Street” but really it’s just a place for the radical left to refine and regurgitate their talking points in the hopes that Libertarians and moderate-Liberals will pick up the lexicon. Henry Blodget is the CEO and Editor-In-Chief, a Yale graduate who previously worked on Wall Street before being barred from the securities industry after a conviction for securities fraud. Hmmmm securities fraud…yea that’s the guy I’m gonna trust. Especially when he owes the exchange $4 million for his crimes.
BTW, I am in solidarity with the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd in three respects:
1) The need to punish Wall-Street criminals by taking-away their freewheeling, gambling casino that consists of Naked Credit Default Swaps and Unrestrained, Commodities-Futures Speculation. Neither of these so-called investments is readily available to the retail investor. Call your investment advisor and see if you can buy some Credit Default Swaps. They're the things that killed Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and that are also what the $787 Billion, Too-Big-To-Fail, TARP bailout was used to pay for, back in Sept 2008. Currently, the European debt crisis has the hoof prints of Credit Default Swaps all over it. I challenge anyone to tell me I'm wrong about this.
I agree with the idea of killing off the CDO’s (Credit default swaps) and extreme futures speculation. Now, speculation is and always will be PART of the market. Anyone who invests in anything from Orange Juice to Gold to a start-up company speculates. The problem is that while it was definitely immoral, it wasn’t ILLEGAL to do some of these things. Those things that ARE fraud, should be prosecuted as such but that is up to the Federal Justice department NOT the banks. So tell you what Occupiers…take your protest to 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 then I’ll join with you.
2) The need to induce Corporate America to stop closing factories in America and to stop sending jobs overseas, and then to encourage Corporate America to bring those Jobs and Factories back.
Want to induce corporate America? Protesting for them to have MORE of their profits taken isn’t going to do that. How about you lower the corporate tax rate from 35% (which the HIGHEST IN THE WORLD) to say 10% and see how many jobs and factories come back to America. How about you repeal Obamacare and reduce the gazillion regulations foisted on American businesses that NO OTHER NATION saddles their businesses with? How about you simply back down government so that business tomorrow can transact the way it does today without variation and provide CONSISTENCY? THAT will bring jobs FLOODING back to America.
3) The corrupt, tone-deaf politicians in Washington DC, who have been enabling the greed and amorality of Wall Street and of Corporate America all along, must stop enabling the scum.
100% agree but you don’t do THIS on a street corner. The TEA Party found this out in 2009-2010. You do THIS at the ballot box. These people are uninformed and radically WRONG in their thinking which is why they continue to support Obama, Reid, Schumer, Pelosi and the rest of those GOONS in Congress that keep in turn ramming the ever growing arm of government into the American gut. In 2010, we got rid of bank supporter Mike Castle who over the years actively helped these banks and financial institutions gouge the American people and along the way we replaced a good chunk of lefty Democrats AND Republicans who did the same. 2012 will be no different DESPITE the efforts of these Wall Street goons to diminish the power of the TEA Party movement.
When you add in anger at the clowns in Washington DC, who have enabled the greed and the amorality of Wall-Street criminals and big-business opportunists, and who have allowed them to flourish and to thrive unchecked, you have a potent mix of intense anger on Main Street. The expression,"Crony Capitalism" just about sums that up.
In summary, I’m not sure if any of these insights are going to matter to you or make sense but when I strip out your name and publish it on the web. I HOPE and I PRAY that it does matter to someone who is looking at these protests as if they are really helpful or encouraging. I hope it wakes someone up.
Sincerely,
Evan Queitsch
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