Occupy Wall Street

[DarthNinja]

While granted it's probably an over-correction to being to conservative with their lending practices it should be noted that the primary reason for this mess we're in was being over leveraged (aka no reserves) and lending to just about anyone.

[JonnyDraft]

Our economy requires a reserve army of labour so as to maintain capital leverage over workers. With low unemployment, labour gains power and the system collapses in a whole other manner.

Capital cannot "abide" by an obstacle, it must bypass or circumvent it. If we look at the history of capital this has shown to be the case. Following WW2, labour was given immense benefits to slow unrest between the contentious symbiotic relationship inherent to Capitalism. When this collapsed, capital pushed itself outward to reach new labour markets. This, in part, allowed for increased use of credit to fix crises of effective demand. Alas, a credit crisis has emerged, billions (and trillions) were printed off to correct this in the short term, and many are trying to figure out where to go from here. The point is, the labour "crisis" of the 1970s was never resolved, nor could it be. It was merely resolved via geography. The article neglects to recognize this, thereby failing to realize the importance of reserve armies of labour. If unemployment is pushed below 5 per cent, we will witness a whole "new" set of crises (and by new I mean old and repeating).

[aGENT]

"Getting the banks and corporations to move their hoards into productive investments and job creation requires carrots and sticks -- policies such as a new round of government spending stimulus as well as taxes on the banks' excess reserves -- that can both strengthen overall market demand and unlock credit markets for small businesses," Pollin said.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

Dear Editor- LAPD Arrests the Truth at Occupy LA

My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.

I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”

As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.

When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.

It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.

My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.

I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.

At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.

With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.

I spent most of my day and night crammed into an eight-man jail cell, along with sixteen other Occupy LA protesters. My sleeping spot was on the floor next to the toilet.

Finally, at 2:30 the next morning, after twenty-five hours in custody, I was released on bail. But there were at least 200 Occupy LA protestors who couldn’t afford the bail. The LAPD chose to keep those peaceful, non-violent protesters in prison for two full days… the absolute legal maximum that the LAPD is allowed to detain someone on misdemeanor charges.

As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.”

So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.

Citigroup spent years intentionally buying up every bad mortgage loan it could find, creating bad securities out of those bad loans and then selling shares in those bad securities to duped investors. And then they sometimes secretly bet *against* their *own* bad securities to make even more money. For one such bad Citigroup security, Citigroup executives were internally calling it, quote, “a collection of dogcrap”. To investors, however, they called it, quote, “an attractive investment rigorously selected by an independent investment adviser”.

This is fraud, and it’s a felony, and the Charles Princes of the world spent several years doing it again and again: knowingly writing bad mortgages, and then packaging them into fraudulent securities which they then sold to suckers and then repeating the process. This is a big part of why your property values went up so fast. But then the bubble burst, and that’s why our economy is now shattered for a generation, and it’s also why your home is now underwater. Or at least mine is.

Anyway, if your retirement fund lost a decade’s-worth of gains overnight, this is why.

If your son’s middle school has added furlough days because the school district can’t afford to keep its doors open for a full school year, this is why.

If your daughter has come out of college with a degree only to discover that there are no jobs for her, this is why.

But back to Charles Prince. For his four years of in charge of massive, repeated fraud at Citigroup, he received fifty-three million dollars in salary and also received another ninety-four million dollars in stock holdings. What Charles Prince has *not* received is a pair of zipcuffs. The nerves in his thumb are fine. No cop has thrown Charles Prince into the pavement, face-first. Each and every peaceful, nonviolent Occupy LA protester arrested last week has has spent more time sleeping on a jail floor than every single Charles Prince on Wall Street, combined.

The more I think about that, the madder I get. What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?

In any event, believe it or not, I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested. And I’m not even angry that the mayor and the LAPD decided to give non-violent protestors like me a little extra shiv in jail (although I’m not especially grateful for it either).

I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.

Thank you for letting me share that anger with you today.

Patrick Meighan

http://culvercitycrossroads.com/2011/12/05/dear-editor-lapd-arrests-the-truth-at-occupy-la/?reddit

If you still don't think the pigs are paid off, explain why across the nation they're abusing the people they violently arrest. Why they tighten zip straps so tight there have been many reports of nerve damage. Why they're being so spiteful toward the protesters while protecting the very bastards who should be arrested, and arresting the ones pointing it all out.

Goddammit so much.

How long can peaceful protest continue? Can't win by the rules when you're the only one following them, after all.

[DarthNinja]

[Sharpshooter]

Let me guess...they're going to want even more loopholes and "incentives" to dole out this money they're hoarding, right?

[Navyblue]

I was talking to an older person that I know through work today.

He seemed to take pleasure in the way the police are treating them.

We as humans are polarized individuals and for every person out there who feels remorse and anger at the images, there is the possibility that there is some one who likes seeing the abuse. "Just a bunch of losers" "Things aren't as bad as they were in the thirties!" etc.

I suppose the belief is that this is the way things are and he's a "realist".

I'm not sure what I think about that, but thought I'd share the other side of the fence.

[DarthNinja]

I was talking to an older person that I know through work today.

He seemed to take pleasure in the way the police are treating them.

We as humans are polarized individuals and for every person out there who feels remorse and anger at the images, there is the possibility that there is some one who likes seeing the abuse. "Just a bunch of losers" "Things aren't as bad as they were in the thirties!" etc.

I suppose the belief is that this is the way things are and he's a "realist".

I'm not sure what I think about that, but thought I'd share the other side of the fence.

[Sharpshooter]

If you still don't think the pigs are paid off, explain why across the nation they're abusing the people they violently arrest. Why they tighten zip straps so tight there have been many reports of nerve damage. Why they're being so spiteful toward the protesters while protecting the very bastards who should be arrested, and arresting the ones pointing it all out.

Goddammit so much.

How long can peaceful protest continue? Can't win by the rules when you're the only one following them, after all.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

I was talking to an older person that I know through work today.

He seemed to take pleasure in the way the police are treating them.

We as humans are polarized individuals and for every person out there who feels remorse and anger at the images, there is the possibility that there is some one who likes seeing the abuse. "Just a bunch of losers" "Things aren't as bad as they were in the thirties!" etc.

I suppose the belief is that this is the way things are and he's a "realist".

I'm not sure what I think about that, but thought I'd share the other side of the fence.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

Unreal.

I'm not sure this ghandi-esque protest can continue very long before Americans are reminded about the balls they had back in the days of the Civil Rights movement and start to fight back.

If ever there was a time to start using the word tyranny....now would be it in my estimation.

[Sharpshooter]

I both anticipate and dread the day a squad of pigs show up to beat on some more harmless hippies only to be actually surrounded by a very angry crowd who decided to match the police in firepower.

While I don't wish death on anyone, I would love for the pigs to get what's really coming to them. When they twist the wrong foot, pepper spray the wrong kid, break the skull of the wrong vet, it will be game over for status quo.

[DarthNinja]

[Sharpshooter]

[FeStealth]

I both anticipate and dread the day a squad of pigs show up to beat on some more harmless hippies only to be actually surrounded by a very angry crowd who decided to match the police in firepower.

While I don't wish death on anyone, I would love for the pigs to get what's really coming to them. When they twist the wrong foot, pepper spray the wrong kid, break the skull of the wrong vet, it will be game over for status quo.

[DarthNinja]

Oddly enough, this is what the 2nd amendment in the US constitution is for. Allow civilians to be armed, so if the government starts pushing the people around without justification, the people can push back.

[canuckster19]

Ironically; there are rumblings that the Fast and Furious Operation was designed to restrict the 2nd amendment...

Even the NRA website makes reference to the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg's recent comments:

http://home.nra.org/classic.aspx

Now why is that not in the mainstream media? I wonder if Mayor Bloomy has any corporate connections...

[unbridled_id]

Jon Corzine to give first public testimony on MF Global collapse

December 8, 2011 | 7:01 am

Former U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine is returning to Congress on Thursday, but not by choice.

Corzine will be testifying before a House committee in his first public appearance since the bankruptcy of the company he led, MF Global.

Corzine was subpoenaed by the agriculture committee, which is investigating the circumstances surrounding MF Global's sudden downfall in late October.

In prepared remarks, Corzine is set to apologize for his role in the bankruptcy:

I appear at today’s hearing with great sadness. My sadness, of course, pales in comparison to the losses and hardships that customers, employees and investors have suffered as a result of MF Global’s bankruptcy. Their plight weighs on my mind every day –- every hour. And, as the chief executive officer of MF Global at the time of its bankruptcy, I apologize to all those affected.

The former New Jersey governor has been widely blamed for MF Global's troubles. He joined the firm in 2010 after losing a bid for reelection to the New Jersey governorship and quickly proceeded to lead the company in a drive for more profit. His main strategy was to make riskier trades with MF Global's own money, similar to the approach followed by Goldman Sachs, which he led during the 1990s.

In its last months, MF Global made big bets on European sovereign debt, which eventually helped bring the company down. Earlier this week it was reported that Corzine overruled objections to the risky strategy.

How many of the "wall street" misfits are out in front of Corzines house clutching their i-products demanding an answer. ? This is the progressive movement on display or the blind leading the deaf.

[aGENT]

[Satan's Evil Twin]