The one picture that tells you everything you need to know about America in 2011
Cops on overtime guarding the Merrill Lynch bull in lower Manhattan -- what a metaphor for everything that's wrong in this country!
The one picture that tells you everything you need to know about America in 2011
You've heard of a sacred cow, right? Only in America do we have a sacred bull -- a bronze idol to the false gods of Merrill Lynch and assorted other bankster racketeers. It's arguably outrageous enough that there's an official monument to these rodeo clowns on one of the most famous streets in America (Broadway, just off of Wall Street), a place that was once known as "The Canyon of Heroes" where people who actually contributed to the betterment of America were honored with ticker-tape parades. But it's more outrageous that the taxpayers of New York City are being charged God knows how much in police overtime to "defend" this graven image of Wall Street avarice
Kind of like how two straight administrations -- one Republican and one Democratic -- have worked overtime to protect the banksters from any criminal penalties for their crimes.
Right now, a small band of protestors -- it was several hundred to as many as 1,000 people on Saturday, probably less than that now -- are camped out near the center of American finance, part of a fairly spontaneous, social-media organized protest ( #occupywallstreet , among other Twitter hashtags ) aimed at going all Tahrir Square on Lower Manhattan. I don't think I'm going out on a huge limb to predict that they won't succeed -- not this time, not yet. I know we're all in love with the power of Twitter and all that, but the truth is that the Tea Party was able to get big (big, but not huge) crowds for its earlier protests because it had a national TV network, Fox News, mainstream conservative pols like Rick Perry and billionaires like the Koch Brothers promoting it. A left-wing protest isn't going to have that, especially not with the cowardly scared chickens of the Democratic Party clucking their way to the 2012 slaughterhouse.
The good news/bad news is that there's a pool of about 25 million unemployed and under-employed Americans from which to draw potential Wall Street occupiers, and the worse things get (just wait until the Boehner-Obama austerity program kicks in), the more likely that you'll see an American Winter take the ball from the Arab Spring.
I'll be pulling for 'em.
- Sarah, you are a young girl and have spent too much time listening to your radio, the Liberal media died long ago, if there was it would of been complaining about the thievery of the middle class long ago but it does not exist but the right wing propaganda machine does exist and it has been feeding your paranoia for some time now.
— DavidAG - sarah89, you're delusional. "Attacks on Wall Street, a place that actually makes money for many people including the middle class" -- lol -- you clearly have little sense of any of the detail. "Wall Street" (read: banks) have pillaged the middle class. Lets just take a broad based index: S&P 500. How have those CAGR been over, say, the last 10 years. You're right, though -- the real issue isn't the destruction of ~ 50T in wealth globally its the 500m loan to a failed company. I wonder, sarah89, does the return on the other TARP, auto bailout loans that have been successfully paid back more than make up for the two examples you cite here (I know the answer here of course)? Please go ahead and tell us the CAGR of the preffered shares given to the US govt -- we'll wait. "Petty attacks on Wall Street" - these banks get away with whatever they want, work outside of any US law, pay almost nothing in fines (compared to revenue), never admit to wrongdoing, and its just a petty little attack. Take Cassano, for instance. This guy is an arch criminal, and hes rolling around London with a coupla hundred million. Oh well, the free market must be the ultimate arbiter, though.— Murrayman
Comment removed.- "I'm actually a 'neitherist' - and that keeps me informed to the extent to which YOU are a shill partisan." --- Another insult. You are looking more like a Dem with each post. I vote the issues, not based on any political party. And the current crop of Dems along with Obama are an issue that needs to be dealt with. But after reading a few of your posts its easy enough to see which side you come out on. Obama proves himself to be a failure. He doesn't need the GOP for that. Obama didn't "roll over" when he shoved Obamacare down our throats. Or did you forget about that? God help us if the Dems ever gain full control once again. They are no better than the Republicans when they had full control. If you want to stop being called a leftist you need to stop posting like one.— psyrus
- Comment removed.
- Billy, Class warfare is currently going on against the middle class.
Yet class warfare is not something new, it has been going on since the Greeks and in it has always ending with heads on a stake yet in your Homoerotic mind you cannot think pass your the last time you pleasured yourself.— DavidAG 
//It's arguably outrageous enough that there's an official monument to these rodeo clowns on one of the most famous streets in America //
It's arguable because it was never meant as a monument to wall street bankers and investors but, according to the artist's own words, it represents "strength and power of the American people." Do your homework before engaging in the hyperbole Will.- psyrus (the thought virus) you can call me whatever you want, I don't care in the least bit. My point will remain - this high brow "Obama is a failure" crud doesn't stand up when you get past the partisan nonsense you yourself continue to post. I can countless examples - including this nonsense, straight from the right wing chatter heads, that the HR bill was 'shoved down our throats'. Another is pinning the '4 Trillion' increase in debt on Obama. Another is the 'utter failure' of the stimulus bill.— Murrayman
- "the Liberal media died long ago" --- Really? What about the Huffington Post, Media Matters, Mother Jones and The Progressive to name a few. How about the blog you are current posting to? Will Bunch's bias comes through in nearly every article he writes. The liberal media bias is alive and well.— psyrus
- Get figging real you bias moron, comparing Faux News, the Wall Street Journal and how the media bows to the Wicked Witch from the North to Huffington Post, which is middle of the road since merging with AOL, Mother Jones and the Progressive, which are speciality blogs is a joke.
The Main Stream Media is further right than it is left, stop your lying.— DavidAG - Get figging real you bias moron, comparing Faux News, the Wall Street Journal and how the media bows to the Wicked Witch from the North to Huffington Post, which is middle of the road since merging with AOL, Mother Jones and the Progressive, which are speciality blogs is a joke. The Main Stream Media is further right than it is left, stop your lying. (HTML deleted) — DavidAG
- "that the HR bill was 'shoved down our throats'." --- Um, it was. What did Pelosi say? Pass it so you can read it in full? No one who voted 'yes' on that bill had the time to read it in full. I was reading the news closely at that time from multiple sources. I even took the time to actually read a lot of the contents of the bill before it became law. I made my mind up based on everything that I read. I read about Obama's back-door deals to push it through. It didn't have enough votes to pass until he did that. Hope? Change? Transparency? Hardly.— psyrus
- So elected legislators make deals? That's how legislation gets passed - long before this bill. Who named them 'back door, shady"? What outlet was what? So legislators make deals to get legislation passed. So its Obamas fault if a Congressperson votes on something and hasn't read it? He fails? "No one who voted 'yes' on that bill had the time to read it in full" -- no, you're wrong (again) psyrus. Say it aloug: "I am wrong". It takes merely a cursory search to find that nonsense debunked. But you're right -- it wasn't 'transparent' because it wasn't on C-SPAN. Oh wait it was - except for the deals -- done in offices and such -- therefore it wasn't transparent. What a joke. The rhetoric you've convinced yourself is correct is a joke. And I have little doubt your boast that you read 'most of' the bill is nonsense. — Murrayman
- The Health Care Reform bill was read and critique before the vote, there were 240 people who were given roughly 100 pages each and ask to critique. — DavidAG
- The final Obamacare bill was 2,309 pages. If 240 people were given 100 pages each, that would equal about 24,000 pages of reading.
Something tells me your math is a little off.
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