TODAY'S TOPICS:  CA Legislative Review, Occupy Wall Street, Reasons and Solutions, Chris Hedges, Joshua Holland, SNL, Party Differences

“You are right to be indignant. The fact is the system is not working right. It is not right when we have so many people without jobs... It is not right that we are throwing people out of their houses when we have so many homeless... [Our financial markets are] supposed to allocate capital, manage risks. But they misallocated capital, and they created risk. We are bearing the cost of their misdeeds. There's a system where we've socialized losses and privatized gains. That's not capitalism; that's not a market economy. That's a distorted economy, and if we continue with that... we won't succeed in creating a just economy.”

- Joseph Stiglitz, Economist and Nobel Laureate, speaking to Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park.

"I'll believe corporations are people when one is executed in Texas." - Protester sign

Quick California Legislative Review

As Democrats continually disappoint, and offer piecemeal solutions to entrenched structural crises it can become easy to fall into the “they’re all the same” “why vote” trap. Of course, the reality is more nuanced. Yes, the Democratic Party has been significantly corrupted by a whole host of factors, and our system itself (the Matrix) is set up to prevent real change that benefits people.

So while I TOTALLY agree with the concepts of aggressively confronting the Democratic Party, challenging Democratic incumbents in primaries at every level and at every chance we get with progressives, and voting Green when possible and strategic...I don’t quite go as far as Chris Hedges for instance, who seems to advocate the total and complete disassociation with the Party…as I still believe taking it over is the most logical, and achievable goal in the LONGTERM effort to really change this country. Starting from scratch, and trying to build a third party, or, totally withdraw from voting and the democratic process altogether seems, while understandable, a less productive route to take (so I'm more in the Norman Solomon camp).

Let's remember, the differences are REAL (just watch the GOP debate if you don’t believe me)…and do impact your life. Let me go to what I directly work on for proof…economic justice issues in California. For instance, this year, Governor Jerry Brown (WHO I'M NO FAN OF) signed approximately 33 of the 37 pro-consumer bills that made it to his desk…including NUMEROUS laws that Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed. In contrast, Schwarzenegger only signed about 10 of 30, on average, in previous years (and he’s the most left Republican in the country practically). Similarly, here in California, on average, Democrats score in the high 80’s on bills we support, while Republicans score in the teens…many Zero. 

Now, it should be noted, that the bills they are disagreeing on are nowhere near what’s needed to truly and significantly impact peoples lives…and therein lies the nuance. The question is how do we create a system that ACTUALLY addresses the structural reforms necessary…currently we are way far from that happening...and the Democratic Party is a pathetic shell of its former self (see the Hedges article I post for his perspective). Again, I want to reiterate that massive, structural change is what's needed...and in no way would I EVER suggest that politics as usual, or the Democratic Party is the solution. I only point out differences WITHIN the Matrix as it is, right now....differences certainly worthy of voting.

For example, here are a few laws that Brown signed and a Republican would not have (and that Republicans voted nearly unanimously against in the legislature):

AB 22 (Mendoza) will prohibit a prospective employer from using consumer credit reports in the hiring process.

AB 1319 (Butler) will remove the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant formula cans - specifically those designed for children three years or younger.

SB 602 (Yee) will ensure that government and third parties cannot access private DIGITAL reading records without proper justification.

And of course, there was our (CFC) bill that bans the sale of expired baby food and over the counter medication...which Schwarzenegger vetoed...Brown signed.

Of course, to my dismay, the Governor vetoed SB 914 (Leno) – the Police Search of Smart Phones.

Currently police can seize and search an individual’s smart phone or android without a warrant, just like a traditional cell phone. SB 914 would have clarified that an arrestee’s cell phone can only be accessed with a warrant, except in circumstances where there is an immediate threat to public safety or the arresting officer. It acknowledges that accessing information on a cell phone is fundamentally different than searching an arrested person’s wallet, cigarette pack or jeans pockets. The problem began with a State Supreme Court ruling to this effect...and this bill would have overturned it...

Dissenting Justice Kathryn Werdegar raised similar concerns I have in her opinion: "The majority’s holding ... (grants) police carte blanche, with no showing of exigency, to rummage at leisure through the wealth of personal and business information that can be carried on a mobile phone or handheld computer merely because the device was taken from an arrestee’s person...The majority thus sanctions a highly intrusive and unjustified type of search, one meeting neither the warrant requirement nor the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution."
 
In response to the ruling, Jonathan Turley, a Constitutional law expert at George Washington University, seconded Justice’s fourth amendment related concerns, "The Court has left the Fourth Amendment in tatters and this ruling is the natural extension of that trend. While the Framers wanted to require warrants for searches and seizures, the Court now allows the vast majority of searches and seizures to occur without warrants. As a result, the California Supreme Court would allow police to open cell phone files — the modern equivalent of letter and personal messages.”

In light of increasing economic injustice and income inequality, and the likewise growth in number and size in protests across the country, granting authorities such powers should be viewed with great skepticism and caution. As State Senator Mark Leno noted, "If you like to attend political rallies, parades, protests or sit-ins, you might consider leaving your cell phone at home in the unlikely event arrests are made. A recent California Supreme Court decision allows police to rummage through all of the private information on your smart phone as part of an arrest, including your text messages and e-mails. This warrantless search is now legal in California, regardless of whether the information on the phone is relevant to the arrest or if criminal charges are ever filed.”

I write all this because as protests spread we will need to constantly weigh how to make our votes and actions count, what to demand, and how to understand the political dynamics in this country. As such, I want to give you all the WHOLE story…so none of us get trapped in ideological extremes, or black and white understandings of what’s happening and what to do. We will need a clarity to successfully move forward…and that leads me to the REAL EXCITING NEWS:

Occupy Wall Street Review

I can honestly say this is the most important social movement in this country in my lifetime. Anyone reading this blog over the years knows this is what I’ve been clamoring for all along…DEMONSTRATIONS, mass protests, civil disobedience...with the focus being on economic justice, wealth disparity, and Wall Street.

Now, just a month after it began we saw large crowds marching in London, Frankfurt, and Rome, as well as approximately 900 protests in cities around the world and nearly 2,000 towns and cities in America alone.

Two primary critiques being leveled of the protests by the Matrix and right wing bobbleheads primarily focus on a lack of specific demands (which I think is a good thing still…and there are ALL KINDS of agreed on solutions in the movement anyway) and some kind of confusion as to why they’re protesting (totally false).

Obvious Solutions…

I’ll start by addressing question two…what are the “solutions”…that’s easy (in the long run we probably will need to scrap the ENTIRE monetary system...which is what structurally leads to the inevitable crises we are facing...but for now we need to make the best of what we have). The fact is we KNOW what needs to be done, and you hear these themes/ideas repeated and agreed upon across the movement. These include taxing the rich and corporations, reducing the power and influence of the financial industry by breaking up the banks, reinstituting Glass Steagall (which would separate commercial banks that are supposed to hold on to OUR money from investment banks which gamble it on risky derivatives), and applying a financial transaction tax so the industry can pay for their own bailouts.

Other OBVIOUS solutions are getting money OUT OF OUR ELECTORAL SYSTEM,  changing executive pay structures, investing in a Green New Deal to rebuild America and make us energy independent (with GREEN energy…not nukes), reign in the Fed, esp. through greater transparency, and shift from corporate Un-free trade to fair trade that benefits PEOPLE…and American workers.

Also widely agreed upon “solutions” are ending the wars, bringing the troops home, cutting military spending, protecting the social safety net, strengthening Social Security and institute enhanced Medicare for All, ending corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests, and protecting worker rights including collective bargaining and raising wages (particularly the minimum wage).

There are many more worthwhile ideas of course…but these are the clear, low lying fruit that are needed…and agreed upon…not just among protesters, but among majorities of Americans.

Economic Justice…And Why We’re Protesting

As for “why?”…anyone that asks that question exposes themselves as the imbecile they are…or, just another defender of the Matrix or paid spokesperson for our current dying paradigm. My god…just look at the god damn signs for one…they’re VERY specific about why they’re there and what they want.

What’s amazing is this movement didn’t start sooner…if only it had back after the last crash perhaps we could have gotten REAL financial reform. The bottom line is the masses are starting to understand that the game is rigged….and the only winners are corporations, Wall Street, and the very top of the income ladder. Meanwhile, the middle class is nearly gone and the lower class and poverty is exploding. 

What's particularly amazing about the overwhelming support from the public for this movement (polls show support ranges from 2 to 1 to 3 to 1), and the increasing numbers of protesters joining it, is America in general is still deeply ignorant of just how unjust our economy is. Due to decades of brilliant and focused brainwashing, Americans understanding of class distinctions, and ACTUAL wealth disparity has been totally warped.

For instance, did you know that 40% of Americans believe they are in the top 1% of wage earners and 65% believe they will be millionaires someday? In fact, when Americans are given options as to what wealth disparity they're prefer in a country, they choose, unknowingly, Sweden...so we have only JUST BEGUN to tap the kind of resistance that's out there...obviously its a long term education process...one hindered by our corporate media and right wing echo chamber.


Let’s remember where the term 99 percent came from (remember Michael Moore’s last film about capitalism…it exposed this memo). The term was contained in a 2006 Citigroup “dead peasant” memo, wherein Citigroup and the others members of the billionaires’ one-percentile, allude to the 99 percent as a potential threat source.

So people understand that the same banks and interests that gouge us everyday, and brought the entire global economy to its knees due to their greed and criminality received TRILLIONS of public dollars in bailouts and no interest loans while those screwed by these very interests received nothing…except for the honor of BAILING those criminals out as they're being foreclosed, laid off, and going into debt.

But don’t take my word for it…as per usual, let me give you my Banana Republic hit list of factoids illustrating WHY people are in the streets.

Banana Republic Facts

• The top 1 percent of U.S. households owns more than half the nation’s stocks and the same 1 percent also controls more than $16 trillion in wealth — more than the bottom 90 percent.The Institute for Policy Studies illustrates this massive disparity in financial investment ownership, noting that the bottom 50 percent of Americans own only .5 percent of these investments:
• As the nation’s gross domestic product tripled from 1970 to 2003, the “top 13,000 tax-paying households … saw its wages and salaries increase fifteen-fold, meanwhile, for the bottom 99 percent of American taxpaying units, average income remained basically unchanged between 1970 ($36,008) and 2004 ($37,295).
• Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study by two former Census Bureau officials. During the recession — from December 2007 to June 2009 — household income fell 3.2 percent.
• The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Owns 40 Percent Of The Nation’s Wealth. The bottom 80 percent owns 7 percent. 
• The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Take Home 24 Percent Of National Income:While the richest 1 percent of Americans take home almost a quarter of national income today, in 1976 they took home just 9 percent — meaning their share of the national income pool has nearly tripled in roughly three decades.
• Using 2007 figures, sociologist William Domhoff points out that the top 1 percent have 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt while the bottom 90 percent have 73 percent of total debt. 
• Not only are the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans taking home a tremendous portion of the national income, but their share of this income is greater than at any other time since the Great Depression, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities illustrates in this chart using 2007 data.
• The 400 richest taxpayers in 2008 counted 60 percent of their income in the form of capital gains and 8 percent from salary and wages. The rest of the country reported 5 percent in capital gains and 72 percent in salary.
• Over the past 20 years, more than 80 percent of the capital gains income realized in the United States has gone to 5 percent of the people; about half of all the capital gains have gone to the wealthiest 0.1 percent.
• The ratio of top CEO’s pay to regular workers was 43 times in 1980 and 340 times in 2010. In many cases these CEOs were paid more than the company paid in federal taxes. In 2009 the top 12% collectively take just short of all national income. The top .4% get 14%. The top .2% are taking 10%. In 2011 departing CEOs are getting on average 724 weeks of severance pay fo reach year of service. Regular workers are lucky if they get a week or two. 
• People used to have a pension, health care, a family wage covered by a single worker. What’s different between 1964 and today is private-sector union density -- the proportion of the private workforce that has the right to bargain collectively with its employer. In 1964 it was about 35% of American workers now it is about 7%. 
• The minimum wage is $7.25. It would be close to $10.50 if it kept up with inflation, and 26% of the workforce makes less than %10.50. But all wages are anchored by this minimum – called a “spill up effect.” So move it up, and index it to inflation.

And finally…in the face of all that…and all those bailouts…we see Wells Fargo's profits increased 24 percent this last quarter, Halliburton's profits increased 26 percent, Citigroup's profits increased by a whopping 74 percent…and Bank of America start charging customers $5 a month to use THEIR OWN money!

Any questions regarding WHY? 

Austerity CLEARLY Not The Answer

As you can see, thanks in large part to the protests, and also in part due to the President's change of tone and tactics, we are no longer talking about the need for austerity and to cut Medicare and Social Security (why he was ever advocating that I'll never know), but instead, we're back to talking about the real crises and real solutions. But, again, we KNOW what austerity does to countries...and here's more evidence today of its effects in Great Britain:

• The unemployment rate for the three months to August 2011 was 8.1 per cent of the economically active population, up 0.4 on the quarter. The last time the unemployment rate was higher was in the three months to July 1996.
• The total number of unemployed people increased by 114,000 over the quarter (the largest quarterly increase since the three months to July 2009) to reach 2.57 million. The number of unemployed people has not been higher since the three months to October 1994.

Britain, then, is in the midst of a jobs crisis. They responded to a global recession by electing a conservative government that immediately set about cutting spending. As a result, unemployment is at its highest level in 17 years.

VIDEO SECTION

Some decent SNL mocking of the FRIGHTENING AND HYSTERICAL GOP Fascist Clown Car debates:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/snls-marriot-tv-gop-debate

SNL (perhaps they’re finding their political footing a little again?) on Bloomberg’s response to the Wall Street protests:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/snl-takes-shot-mayor-bloomberg-his-respons

Chris Hayes on the banks attempts to ARREST people that attempt to close their accounts:

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/chris-hayes-you-cant-be-protester-and

Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher talk politics last week (because I’m so behind on these):

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/bill-maher-ows-we-need-something-make-us-t

This is pretty funny stuff from Barney Frank as he lambasts crook and liar Newt Gingrich:

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/barney-frank-torches-newt-gingrichs-nas

Naomi Klein, who’s book The Shock Doctrine has become the economic manifesto of our time, talks with Amy Goodman (also last week…sorry):

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/6/naomi_klein_protesters_are_seeking_change

Jon Stewart on the hypocrisy and double standards being used to portray Occupy Wall Street versus the teabaggers:

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/jon-stewart-how-occupy-wallstreet-not-tea-p

ARTICLE SECTION

A Movement Too Big to Fail, by Chris Hedges

A FEW CLIPS:

The Occupy Wall Street movement, like all radical movements, has obliterated the narrow political parameters. It proposes something new. It will not make concessions with corrupt systems of corporate power. It holds fast to moral imperatives regardless of the cost. It confronts authority out of a sense of responsibility. It is not interested in formal positions of power. It is not seeking office. It is not trying to get people to vote. It has no resources. It can’t carry suitcases of money to congressional offices or run millions of dollars of advertisements. All it can do is ask us to use our bodies and voices, often at personal risk, to fight back. It has no other way of defying the corporate state. This rebellion creates a real community instead of a managed or virtual one. It affirms our dignity. It permits us to become free and independent human beings.

SNIP

What kind of nation is it that spends far more to kill enemy combatants and Afghan and Iraqi civilians than it does to help its own citizens who live below the poverty line? What kind of nation is it that permits corporations to hold sick children hostage while their parents frantically bankrupt themselves to save their sons and daughters? What kind of nation is it that tosses its mentally ill onto urban heating grates? What kind of nation is it that abandons its unemployed while it loots its treasury on behalf of speculators? What kind of nation is it that ignores due process to torture and assassinate its own citizens? What kind of nation is it that refuses to halt the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, dooming our children and our children’s children?

SNIP

Hope in this age of bankrupt capitalism comes with the return of the language of class conflict and rebellion, language that has been purged from the lexicon of the liberal class, language that defines this new movement. This does not mean we have to agree with Karl Marx, who advocated violence and whose worship of the state as a utopian mechanism led to another form of enslavement of the working class, but we have to learn again to speak in the vocabulary Marx employed. We have to grasp, as Marx and Adam Smith did, that corporations are not concerned with the common good. 

They exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill and lie to make money. They throw poor families out of homes, let the uninsured die, wage useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, plunder the U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working men and women. They worship money and power. And, as Marx knew, unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force that consumes greater and greater numbers of human lives until it finally consumes itself. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the perfect metaphor for the corporate state. It is part of the same nightmare experienced in postindustrial mill towns of New England and the abandoned steel mills of Ohio. It is a nightmare that Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans, living in terror and mourning their dead, endure daily.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/17

How the Right's Lame Attack on Occupy Wall St. Shows the Poverty of Conservative Ideology, Joshua Holland

A FEW CLIPS:

The right, in keeping with its habitual knee-jerk defense of the privileged, has tried, with little success so far, to push back on that message. And its response offers us a microcosmic view of everything that's wrong with conservative discourse these days. Their answer – or one of them – is a Tumblr account called We Are the 53%, an unimaginitive take-off of Occupy Wall Street's We Are the 99%. And here's what makes it such a perfect representation of modern conservatism: it's based on an egregious lie spun by the movement's leaders, and it puts those who are sufficiently gullible – or ignorant – to believe that lie in a position of fighting hard against their own economic interests.

SNIP

That's based on the fact that after 3 decades of stagnant wages -- and a series of changes to the tax code that were quite popular with Republicans -- about half of the population doesn't pay federal income taxes (it's actually 49 percent, so it should be called We Are the 51%, but when you're as wrong as Erickson, you might as well go all-in). But federal income taxes represent just 22.7 percent of the government's revenues – it's a small piece of the pie. Payroll taxes also provide about a fifth of government revenues, so it would be like saying that hedge fund managers pay zero taxes because they don't pay that one type of tax (they do, however, get a sweet deal compared to the rest of us).

SNIP 

Many hard-working Americans pay no federal income taxes. According to an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CPBB), 70 percent of those who fall beneath the income cut-off have jobs. A “traditional” family of four can earn up to $51,000 per year and not pay federal income taxes. 

CPBB also notes that many of these families have long paid federal income taxes. The low current figure “is an anomaly that reflects the unique circumstances” of this dismal economy, a time “when the recession greatly swelled the number of Americans with low incomes and when temporary tax cuts created by the 2009 Recovery Act — including the 'Making Work Pay' tax credit and an exclusion from tax of the first $2,400 in unemployment benefits — were in effect.” 

Another 17 percent are seniors who busted their tails during their working year, paid their taxes and are now collecting Social Security. The remaining 13 percent are students, disabled people and the unemployed. To suggest that all of these Americans are “leeches” being “subsidized” by the 51 percent who are doing well enough to pay federal income taxes right now is simply loathesome.

http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/152747/how_the_right%27s_lame_attack_on_occupy_wall_st._shows_the_poverty_of_conservative_ideology/