Election

“‘Defend Wall Street’ is not likely to be a winning campaign slogan in 2012 for Republicans.”

America’s ‘Primal Scream’ | NewMexiKen [hat tip]

Three factoids underscore that inequality:

¶The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

¶The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent.

¶In the Bush expansion from 2002 to 2007, 65 percent of economic gains went to the richest 1 percent. [mjh: “level playing field”? bullshit!]

As my Times colleague Catherine Rampell noted a few days ago, in 1981, the average salary in the securities industry in New York City was twice the average in other private sector jobs. At last count, in 2010, it was 5.5 times as much. (In case you want to gnash your teeth, the average is now $361,330.)

Nicholas D. Kristof

America’s ‘Primal Scream’ | NewMexiKen

How Democrats can use Occupy protests to their advantage – The Washington Post

By Eugene Robinson, Published: October 17

“Defend Wall Street” is not likely to be a winning campaign slogan in 2012. For Republicans, this is an obvious problem. For President Obama and the Democrats, it’s a golden — if largely undeserved — opportunity. …

Enter the Occupy Wall Street protesters with their simple demand for “economic justice” — the right cause at the right moment.

Republicans initially overreacted, as if Karl Marx had risen from the grave. Mitt Romney was so flustered that he almost mussed his hair. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, surveying the small protest encampments in New York and other cities, called them “growing mobs” that threatened public order.

Within a week, however, Cantor was backing away from that “mobs” characterization and acknowledging “a growing frustration out there across this country” about unemployment. I’m guessing he must have seen the Time magazine poll indicating that 54 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Occupy New York protest — versus just 27 percent who have a favorable view of the Tea Party.

This week’s New Yorker has a laugh-out-loud cover illustration: Top-hatted bankers march down Wall Street, carrying protest signs that say “Keep Things Precisely As They Are,” “Leave Well Enough Alone” and “I’m Good, Thanks.” That’s the danger for Republican candidates. That’s what they risk sounding like.

How Democrats can use Occupy protests to their advantage – The Washington Post

NADA - New American Dark Ages, WTF?!

Enough! Save the Middle Class.

ABQJournal Online » How Dare These Rich People Be, Well, Rich?

…We didn’t need to “level the playing field.” It was already level for everyone.

Some people got rich, some didn’t. Fair and square.

But now, in this new age of entitlement, the rich are being blamed for everything. How dare they be rich when we’re not? Well, go out and invent Windows if you’re so unhappy.

Of course that would mean actually doing something instead of complaining about it. But why not give the protesters what they want? Let’s have all the rich people take their riches and close up shop.

Yes, the head of General Motors should take his millions, Standard Oil should cash in, the owner of the Journal should close its doors ,as should all their evil rich cronies and retire on their millions to live the life of Riley.

Then Corporate America would dissolve. Unemployment would flourish. And when the protesters sit back smugly saying they’ve “won,” we can all ask the protesters for a job.

Until the liberal left-wingers get it into their thick skulls that it’s the rich people, not the poor people, that sign our paychecks, we are destined for doom.

SHERRY WENZ
Albuquerque

ABQJournal Online » How Dare These Rich People Be, Well, Rich?

Sigh. Such ignorance and anger. Let’s pretend the playing field once was level. It hasn’t been for a long time. Since the Bush Error, only the Rich have prospered and that was directly due to massive tax cuts plus tax-subsidized bailouts: Welfare for the Rich. Hardly “fair and square.”

Now, many people are fed up and have had enough and they are, in fact, doing something: yelling “Enough!” Our society may survive the deep divisions in political viewpoints, but it cannot survive the economic disparity between the Rich and everyone else, especially as the vital Middle Class gets crushed.

In response to Warren Buffett’s suggestion to raise taxes on the Rich, people like Wenz sneer that the Rich can donate whatever money they choose. I’ll borrow that sneer to say the Rich are free to “close up shop and live the life of Riley.” Like the Rich in other nations without a Middle Class and with outrageous disparity between the few Rich and the many poor, they will hire better security and stick to enclaves that exclude “those people.” I wonder which side of that fence Wenz ends up on.

The protestors do not want wreck the economy further. To say otherwise is either very stupid or self-serving. Apparently, Sherry Wenz belongs to whoever signs her paycheck.

NADA - New American Dark Ages

Bank Transfer Day is November 5, 2011

Hit Wall Street where it hurts: in the wallet. Let’s make 11/5 “No Shopping or Spending Day,” too.

In light of “Occupy,” many New Mexicans switching to credit unions | New Mexico Independent

By Devon Jackson | 10.14.11 | 11:59 am

In three weeks, the Wall Street protest movement hopes to implement a November 5th walkout, the effects of which could have a far greater impact than months of sit-ins and protests. Being billed as Bank Transfer Day, and as of two weeks ago having attracted 14,000 RSVPs via Facebook to the national event, the campaign is urging Americans to close their accounts at large banks and move their money to credit unions.

In light of “Occupy,” many New Mexicans switching to credit unions | New Mexico Independent

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams