Thrills
OccupyWallStreet. What will eating, sleeping, defecating/urinating, sex in sleeping bags and trashing a public park accomplish? Catching a glimpse of Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon?
Do folks wonder which Wall Street stocks Moore and Sarandon are invested in? All their money in tax-free municipal bonds? They have no investments in Big Banks?
Remember in 2005 when author Peter Schweizer published the tax return for Michael "I don't own a single share of stock" Moore's foundation, which held stock in Halliburton, Pfizer, Merck, Genzyme, Elan PLC, Eli Lilly, Ford, General Electric, Sunoco, Noble Energy, Schlumberger, Williams Companies, and numerous other evil capitalist corporations. Why do you think I harp so often on the wealthy and their "foundations"? Places to hide their money and hypocrisy.
Where OWS should be protesting is in D.C. Even the Tea Party folks had enough sense to protest against bailouts and the health care bill in D.C. The WS protests don't seem to be cutting into the flow of Wall Street and Big Bank money to Obama's next campaign (Goldman Sachs investment bank top donor to BHO last time around). Wall Street knows their man in the big house is jiving the Occupiers.
Just heard OWS protested the Chamber of Commerce in D.C. Should I put on my Vee mask and help kill business?
I saw Harry Belafonte a few days ago, giving his 84-year-old opinions. I wonder sometimes why so many folks seem to be stuck in the 1960s. Belafonte said he is heartened by the Occupy Wall Street movement, which he sees as "connected to the Arab Spring uprisings." What? Connected to bloody confrontations as in Libya and Syria, or Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen? That Arab spring uprising?
Do Americans want to drag a president from a spider hole and hang him or beat him to death? Then shoot their weapons into the sky and cheer about freedom and democracy, and hand power I suppose to men and woman they admire, like Moore and Sarandon?
On OWS page they say "We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent."
That is pure b.s.
I've been around too long and know that most everyone losing their homes were living beyond their means or living large because they could, and have done so for years, and it catches up doesn't it. The only folks I know who are forced to choose between rent or food are the hoochies here in the hood who sell their food benefits to buy a new outfit or use the rent money to get their hair and nails done. Or, as one family member of mine, used part of her rent money to buy Paula Deen cookware. She also complains she can't run to the doctor every week because the $20 copay is too much. There's uncle Buck who claims his emphysema is from air pollution (not his 40-year 4 pack a day Marlboro habit). And cousin Linda's bad teeth are due to dental care being too expensive (not her crack habit).
Doesn't most everyone think they work long hours for too little pay? Except maybe Michael Moore and Susan, etc.
Some of the "stories" on the OWS site say things such as "I'm a single mom of 3 making $800 a month, helping support my sister and her 3 kids, thankful for Ramen noodles, and haven't bought a pair of shoes in 2 years."
Well, join a big human club hon. The hard-luck stories we could tell you ....
We have worked some real godawful jobs for low pay - because we had to at the time. So what. For a long time I swallowed the sob stories, even had my own, but doesn't work for me anymore. What's that old phrase, can't shit a bullshitter, or something like that.
Six kids between the lady above and her sister, and where's daddy's contribution? Guess what, many folks live on Ramen to put themselves through college or save seed money to do something. I haven't bought a pair of shoes in years either, I like old shoes. My dad used to say - I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.
Your shoes, your income, your sister, your pack of kids, your noodles - are not my responsibility or the government, although I'm sure celebrities and Big Daddy helped you get to where you're at.
My youngest daughter is 31, had her first baby this year. She waited. She waited until she had a college degree, waited until she married, waited until she had a good job, waited until she could buy a home. Have you folks ever waited for anything other than someone to take care of your past and present mess, and give you a future?
I've heard all my life that the US is going to fall in the same manner as the Roman empire, but gave that little attention until this week. I watched a program about the fall of the Roman empire and was surprised at how the factors contributing to Rome's downfall parallels many of our own. The political corruption, greedy elite, pandering to the lower classes (Nero was hero of lower classes), then overtaxing the wealthy and powerful until they were no longer wealthy or powerful and the poor had to pay the bills, debasing their currency, losing their revenue base, depleting the treasury, and a super power limped into the dark ages.
Sometimes I wonder today if folks are so bored, so careless, so lost, not satisfied with the chaos they make of their own lives, they want a country in chaos and mayhem, perhaps for that thrill they believe they're missing in life.
Michael Moore would be a good Nero-ish hero. Fat and fiddling.
2 comments:
One of the things I noticed over the past few years is that the alternative news criers rarely (the few exceptions don't even come to mind) ask their warriors/rangers/followers to contact their congressional reps. Granted, those email contact forms on congressional websites are a pain in the neck to fill out but it is still the most direct target. Wall Street got the bailouts and the sweet regulatory deals from D.C.
The protestors refer to the 99% but from where I stand, that number is way off in terms of OWS support. Those who still have a decent job (or a trust fund still flowing) are not involved in the protests. The way I figure it, the government will not, for as long as possible, allow the percentage of disenfranchised to go above the 50% mark. Your reference to the fall of the Roman Empire is relevant. I think it will happen suddenly and before the masses have the notion to descend on the beltway bandits - the fat cats who will scatter like rats when the going gets grueling.
OWS has no plan and no clear demands and this is being touted as a good thing. I keep a bookmark file on 'solutions' and sad to say, it is very bare. The desire for change is apparently one that brings with it no responsibilities for presenting alternative solutions. I grow more discouraged by the day with all this revolution nonsense.
Which brings me to Ron Paul LOL! He's sooo ignored, he's such a winner - Hear Ye! Hear Ye! We'll get him alright and with him, a fresh coat of cheap paint on a dilapidated construct.
Ron Paul. Hokey con man. I was reading his site this morning, Honest Money, Healthcare, etc. and on the surface agree with him. But, as you point out regarding pols and OWS, etc., no real "solutions." For every seeming "solution" from Paul the solution raises a dozen questions which of course are not addressed b/c the answers ain't pretty.
Even contacting the pols does little to nothing. They have a room full of aides who handle correspondence, paper or electronic, and give the pol what feeds his ego. Brief him on what will best serve his reelection. The world is a stage and we're all actors and too many are Oscar winning performers. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone say something genuine, everyone is rehearsed. But, add the proper music, a guy with fire in the belly and it even gives me hope and crescendos, for about a minute.
I think until we the "99%" clean our own houses there's nothing good we can do politically. How many of OWS have or are ripping off the system and justify it, just as the fat cats are doing. Whether it's a few dollars, a few hundred, a few thousand, or millions, a rose is a rose ...
The fall may seem sudden to those who experience it, but it's been crumbling for years. Might be near the end as the nation is seriously being plundered and sacked. Some of the fat cats will scatter, but most will be protected by troops. The Age of Austerity. But on the bright side, necessity is the mother of invention.
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