Fundamental Issues

What the Tea Party & Media don’t get about Occupy Wall Street

Answer: Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are actually “sister” populist movements that grew out of the same core problem; extensions of one another, and no matter how manipulated they may be by the GOP & the top 1% (e.g., Koch Brothers), Tea Partiers legitimately feel overtaxed for a reason. That reason is, as continuously pointed out by John Edwards from 2003 to 2008, the tax burden in this country has been shifted from wealth to work.

It’s not a coincidence that as taxes on the wealthiest have decreased from a high of around 91% under Eisenhower to where they are now (in the 30%s), that the feeling of “burden” has increased for everyone else, including the Tea Party and Occupy crowds. Despite this, the media has been trying to stir something up based on the stupidity of some Tea Partiers who are “going after” Occupy Wall Street. Those in the Tea Party that do this are “Tea-tards”.

If you see them at your rallies, educate them. Let them AND THE MEDIA know that you agree that they are overtaxed…and the reason they are is because the wealthiest are UNDERTAXED. And that money in politics allows the wealthiest to game the political system in a way that has shifted the tax burden in this country from wealth (e.g., speculators and capital gainers) onto men and women who work a real job every day.

Occupy Wall Street sign ideas

Here are a few:

• Replace “WAR” with Works Progress Administration
• Tea Party rallies had guns & No Cops
• If the State is “broke” how come NC has sent $30 BILLION to Iraq & Afghanistan? costofwar.com
• Greed is not in the Constitution.
• Promote the General Welfare, not GREED.
  
• No one makes it on his own.
• The top 1% are the real FREELOADERS. 
• The wealthy use up more of society, so tax them more.

Why Occupy Wall Street is Important

One of the most important things “Occupy Wall Street” could do is point a finger at the true, often hidden cause of many of the problems regular people are facing these days: the wealthiest who buy influence in DC & write legislation for the benefit of a few at the expense of the many.

For years, right-wing radio has convinced many that those “illegal immigrants”, or those alleged “affirmative action” hires, or those who “support the gay agenda”, or those “ungodly liberals” are to blame for the cause of the growing problems in their lives, and they believe it because it’s easier to believe in that than fat-cats in gated communities and condominiums who they never see. If they can keep the people divided and fighting with each other (remember the screaming crowds during the health care town halls 2 years ago), then they have cover to keep robbing you blind. Vice-President Henry Wallace described their game plan years ago.

I think (at least hope) that many people out on Main Street are finally beginning to realize what Warren Buffett said, and hopefully Occupy Wall Street will contribute to this awakening, that there is class warfare going on, and his class is waging it, and they’re winning it. The corporate-owned, consolidated media have effectively drowned out the truth over the last 30 years, particularly television news where most have traditionally gone for information. Classism, not sexism, or racism, or xenophobia, or any of that stuff, is the biggest problem facing the United States today. It dictates both domestic and foreign policy, and the “fascists” as Wallace referred to them, play up those other “-isms” and “phobias” in order to divide the people so they can keep winning.

These young people are doing a public service. They should be supported. At the very least, they should be applauded because they have more at stake. They have longer to live with the mess that’s being created, and they clearly realize it.

(Source: Yahoo!)

What you see is not always what you get

Everyone saw in Obama what they wanted to see in 2008. Liberals saw their greatest hopes, Conservatives saw their greatest fears, blacks saw a dream come true, racists saw their worst nightmare, etc. The Obama campaign’s strategy was always to remain as philosophical as possible, never saying too much, and letting people assume as they pleased. What Obama really was, was the #1 recipient of Wall Street money and a top recipient of corporate cash ever, for example, and debts had to be repaid. Obama didn’t change after the election. He is what he always was; the candidate who rose to national prominence by claiming he was against the Iraq War, who then (unlike Dennis Kucinich) voted for every Iraq War funding bill brought to the Senate floor while he was there. The 2008 choice of corporate crooks was a Democrat. Hillary was 2nd in Wall Street money while she was running (don’t know if she ended up there). Both parties are bought and should be rejected. If Obama was serious about “change”, or as smart as people claim, the first order of business would have been real campaign finance reform, however long it took, since “the love of money [in politics]” is the root of all our political problems. The United States needs a political revolution, or at least a renaissance, starting there.

Cool images

Got this in an email.

These are pretty neat.

 
YOU
GOTTA LOVE THIS ONE.

THIS
IS A CEILING MURAL IN A SMOKER’S LOUNGE.



There’s
another
below


BATHROOM
PAINTED FLOOR!!!

IMAGINE
YOU ARE AT A PARTY …..

Tenth
floor of a hi-rise building…..

AND
THEN YOU HAVE TO VISIT THE BATHROOM…

You open the door…
NOW,
REMEMBER THE FLOOR IS JUST A
PAINTED
FLOOR
!

KINDA TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY…..
DOESN’T IT?

Scroll sloooooooowly.
…..


Would
this mess up your mind??? Would you
be able to walk in
To this
bathroom???
Awesome
Toilet
THE
LADY IS GETTING READY TO
ENTER!!
This
is a picture of a public toilet in Houston

Now
that you’ve seen the outside
view,
take
a look at the inside
view…




It’s
made entirely of one-way glass!
No
one can see you from the outside, but when
you are inside it’s like sitting in a clear
glass box!

Now
would you… COULD
YOU….???

U.S. Workers a Casualty of Obama Promoting GOP Policies

Since Day One, Obama has willingly consented to the Republican’s anti-American, anti-family, anti-worker positions in order to appear “bipartisan” so that he could look like “the only adult in the room”. The Republicans were a dead party after the 2008 elections, then Obama rushes in, like Ezekiel, and intentionally breathes life into their dry bones, making them relevant again. Democrats supposedly controlled the Senate, the House, and the White House in 2009, yet Obama was begging Republicans for their support on the Stimulus package in his first so-called “big DEAL” (VIDEO: Krugman: http://bit.ly/pShu1k). Then there was the healthcare “DEAL” with big PhRMA, followed by the two years of tax cuts for the rich in exchange for one year of unemployment benefits “DEAL”, and now it’s the debt ceiling/deficit reduction “DEAL” that was the inevitable result of each of the previous “Deals” that didn’t solve anything they were supposed to, and only dug a deeper hole for us. Each “crisis” so far, like the current one, has been a FAKE, media-generated circus, that’s never actually been a “crisis” at all; just an opportunity to screw over the public even more. Obama even put down Democrats (calling them “purists,” as if the Republicans aren’t) to seem willing to “reach across the aisle.”

Well, embrace GOP policies, expect GOP outcomes, as this map clearly illustrates: Click the Play button.

How much is going to be DEALT AWAY before Obama learns, or is he, just too “smart”? Based on his Wall Street/corporate money in 2008, I’m not surprised by any of this, though.

Did John Edwards Break the Law?

The obvious answer in this witch hunt is “no, he did not break the law”, according to legal scholars all over the place, even Republicans. Even if he “KNEW”, the payments are still personal gifts because they likely would have been paid even if he wasn’t running for President.

Instead of bringing contrived charges against Edwards and making up violations as they go along, maybe the Obama administration should stop fighting with all they have here an abroad to keep Bush & Cheney out of court for the many violations of domestic & international law that they committed (for example), and do something to stop money from deciding US elections. But then again, this “Democratic” administration has doubled down and beefed up many of those Bush programs, so that’s not going to happen.

Bush, Rove, and Alberto Gonzales fired US attorneys if they wouldn’t target Democrats (e.g., David Iglesias). Even this “protector-of-Bush/Cheney” administration has called Bush’s behavior “inappropriate”, but not criminal. George Holding wasn’t fired, for obvious reason. What he was, was a law clerk for Terrence Boyle, a racist right-wing judge that Edwards placed a hold on, who never got appointed to the US Court of Appeals because of it, also limiting Holding’s prospects at the time. Personal vendetta, anyone?

Being a “scumbag” is not against the law, and whether or not someone “deserves what [they] get” only matters if we live in a country of men instead of laws, which we obviously do. Wouldn’t be surprised either way.

Great article from TheNation breaking down the specifics of the “laws” that Edwards “allegedly” broke: http://www.thenation.com/blog/161158/did-john-edwards-break-law