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I stand with the protesters.
Lee Adler explains WHY he is standing with the OWS protesters. I concur with his reasoning, and am glad to see that people in our country can get together to make a public and long overdue statement about the corruption that occupies the top. ~ Ilene
Courtesy of Lee Adler of the Wall Street Examiner
I stand with the protesters.
My mother and millions of other senior citizens are among the victims of the game that policy makers and those who empower them are playing. Their life savings are gone because Bernankecide, the financial genocide of the elderly, forced them to spend their principal. Now the government is indirectly confiscating 8% of my income because I must support my mother. That percentage is likely to grow as her health deteriorates.
Millions of other boomers are in the same boat. They are forced to pay this immoral hidden tax because Ben Bernanke decided that the innocent must pay for the sins of the guilty. While Bernanke’s ZIRP goes on allowing the banksters to continue to collect their fat bonuses, it steals the savings of millions of Americans, eliminates their disposable income, and cuts the spending power of millions of others who must now support those rendered destitute. The guilty benefit, and the innocent are punished.
Bernanke knows that, yet he continues to side with the criminal bankers in support of the financial genocide of the super elderly, and their children, the baby boomers who must increasingly support them.
Among the OWS protesters are those calling for forgiveness of student loans. They may be acting in their own self interest, but it is a just cause, and must be a part of the cleansing of the system. The student loan thing is a long running racket that preys on the inexperience of children and young people just starting out in life. When I was 20 years old I trusted the system (wrongly). What did you know at age 18 or 20?
The fact is that the people’s “savings” that funded those loans, including the fake savings backed by phony assets that have yet to be written down, are already gone. These loans cannot be repaid. Bond holders must get wiped out. Then we’re all going to have to take a haircut. The student loans can’t be repaid because these kids either can’t get jobs at all or can’t get jobs with pay high enough to pay the loans. These loans never had any backing. They were fake from the moment they were issued. But the issuers didn’t care. They got their fees up front.
The student loans are the tip of the iceberg. Bankers have made and sold trillions of dollars worth of loans that they knew, or should have known, could not be repaid. That’s fraud. It must be prosecuted. Today, central bankers and governments are refunding those loans, knowing that a substantial portion of them cannot be repaid. Worse, they are buying them above par because of today’s fake low interest rates. Then they guarantee them by obligating us and future generations to repay them. This is criminal.
I figure that at least a third of our deposits are worthless because they have no assets behind them. Those running the scam know that. Those investing in the scam know it. But they don’t care because they get to collect their fees off the top. That is a system that institutionalizes theft. It must be changed to a performance based model. If you don’t earn a positive return, you don’t get paid. Instead, governments have taken over the scam while transferring wealth to and protecting the criminals who built the system.
If you are blaming the protesters, or are mystified by them, then you just don’t get it. Denial is part of the problem. Too many people have yet to wake up to the fact that they have already been victimized. They are playing along with the dishonest shell game of extend and pretend that the Fed and other central banks and governments are running. It’s time to get real, wake up, and face the music. The longer the game goes on, the worse the consequences for the 99%, and ultimately for the 1%, whose ranks will be decimated at some point, and probably not peacefully if this scam is allowed to continue for much longer.
As long as we continue to avoid cleansing the system of the fraud, as long as we refuse to put the fraudsters in jail, they will continue to bleed us dry. If those in charge of administering justice, like President See No Evil Obama and his worthless AG Eric Holder, refuse to do their jobs and seek to punish the guilty, our society and our culture could spiral into chaos and mob rule. Those in the top 1% who are responsible for this fraud, either directly by running it, or indirectly by supporting it financially, must ultimately be brought to justice or society will perish. There’s no way out other than reform, or revolution, or societal collapse. Those are the choices I see. We had better take the first one, and take it now.
So stop worrying about yourself, and start worrying about the future of your children and grandchildren. The government practice of constantly doubling down in support of the fraud is only digging a deeper and deeper hole. Demand reform of the system now. End the fraud now. Make the guilty pay. Instead of rewarding the bankers, prosecute them. They knew, or should have known, that the loans they were making and selling to others could never be repaid. But they did not care. They only cared that they got their fees up front, and their bonuses in the end.
It’s time to reset and start over. We will all pay a price in the short run, but the longer we wait, the steeper the price will become. Reform and reset now is the only way to begin a real recovery. Stop the fraud, return to the rule of law, prosecute the bankers, punish the guilty, figure out what our assets are really worth and pay us a fair return, and most importantly, return basic standards of fairness and ethical behavior, something that many in society must relearn. It must be done. There is no other way, no other reasonable choice. Failure to act now will consign us to a future in hell.
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Pic via Jr. Deputy Accountant
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Said to my wife today, " let's watch and wait. There's either going to be a shooting of a protester or a burning of a building or something. The reaction to THAT will give us a peek a little behind the curtain. We do have to make a stand one day, and it will be a Whats my life mean stand. " It will become personal one day.
All of these OWS fuckers are going to make everything worse because their intentions are misguided.
The bankers are in bed with the government, but these shit heads are only focused on corporations.
How can meaningfull dialouge get started, if "fear"/"worse" is a sound reasoning?
Bet your bottom dollar, those whom are in Banks, and the Government do not have jobs without Corporations. Hoping- will not get things better. In the Great Depression, had not the private.. or Individual complained to high hell, Gass Stegal nor the corrupt would have been installed or indited.
Worse is going to happen no matter what proceeds, no matter who's to blame, no matter what is on any Placard blaming which part of the scheme. We're closing in on 50% living in poverty in America(U.S. Census). 10% more than 2002, and the middle class lost 10% in income breakdown levels.
"Make things worse", lol.
Dupe post, but I mean it both times.
Silent weapons for silent wars.
America was murdered, and the fucks at top of every social, business, and professional structure aided and abetted the murderous psychopaths who Betrayed and Defrauded their Nation and every other country in the world developed enough to plunder.
It was long before Bernanke that the non-Federal Reserve began the middle-class plunder. They began to loan funds direct to even mom & pop banks, so there was no more market competition for capital. In 1997 rates began their decline to below 2% and inflation was rampant as it has been all our lifetimes. Anyone who had money was forced into the equities markets, where they were 100x more likely to lose it altogether.
No money is ever "lost" in the markets, it just changes hands.
Sleight of hand.
America has been snookered and fucked-out of all that we owned and could use for production. Now we have no industrial base, no capital, few with experience, and no control over the corporations that plunder US for every last nickel that will fall from our pockets...
The fucking realty touts and mortgage industry KNEW the collateralized marketeers were failing to observe the fiduciary duty OWED to property holders. Didn't matter if you bought on-time or not, you were fucked by the consequences of their fraud and its affect upon realty prices and properties throughout America and much of the world. Wouldn't have cost a helluva lot to preserve the title integrity, but These Fucks killed US for nickels, and not even silver nickels at that...
The FUCKS will bring it all down, right pronto. Otherwise they will risk becoming the fuckees rather than fuckors.
At every level, those entrusted to shepherd our Nation have Betrayed US effectively on a level that constitutes TREASON. There ain't no way to buy their way out of this one. They meant for our National Demise to be the outcome and unless they are stopped by virtue of some National Miracle, it will happen. All so they can getaway with their thieving and betrayal.
I pity these poor-in-spirit motherfuckers. They sold US out for shit that ain't even real money...
This all goes back to revenge against Andrew Jackson for routing out the vipers in the 1840s. The people who think they own US believe their control conveys the right to ordain our destruction. They have agent provocateurs in place to make sure our demise happens.
Be ready to defend all that is yours and realize that the guy who promotes destruction is most likely working for your enemy.
If you're With Them, understand what you're signing -on to. Otherwise you are just another useful idiot. Ultimately, as dialectics would have it, the "anti-banker" "anti-FED", "anti-Capitalism" organism that planned and orchestrated the October Activism is a tool of the very system that they claim to oppose. It is the system that buys and keeps in power petty dictators in underdeveloped, resource-rich nations and territories, and snuffs them if they try to go their own way. The system bought and paid for the Obama candidacy in 2008, as Noam Chomsky recently bewailed. The Occupocalypse wants change, AND they demand the re-election of the wannabee autocrat Obama.
They only want to "End the FED" in order to seize control of the engine of Fiat Money themselves, to fund themselves into a New Socialist Oligarchy, by their own admission in league and Solidarity with the Egyptian rebels and other "Arab Spring" uprising factions [funded by the western bankster cabal who will put their natural resources on their balance sheets in due time]
don't believe it? Educate yourself on the collective that planned, organized, and is sustaining the Occupocalypse. http://youtu.be/1CLfP5u3_JA
http://youtu.be/9jOxERtkwN4
http://october2011.org/solidaritywithegypt
http://october2011.org/
Real freedom takes effort, work, intelligence, and bravery.
Absolutely, the Fed is just funding all this non-productive govt. job spill back into consumption planet America...It truly is a spiral into a debt blackhole...It's ridiculous...There! If you want to Cherry-coat it
Not all the suggestions are bad from these nuts 'occupying wall street.' Glass-Steagall/ ending the fed/ etc... The problem is all the socialist/marxist (more powefrul state) crap they tack onto the decent reforms.
Are they really for ending the fed considering the fed is the primary funder of most of the overspending by our government (which they probably favor.)?
End the Federal Reserve, End the wars and bailouts and then end the state. Those are my demands, the Wall Street protesters are mostly clueless. They simply want to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
"They simply want to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic."
But don't we have you and the rest of the Freedom Express to rearrange 'em right back?
Everyone wants something for nothing. But, the criminals of the Wall Street want everthing for nothing.
I have an idea that would stop the fraud and deciept.
Doctors, lawyers, and CPA's like myself, cannot hide behind a corporation or LLC to avoid responsibility for our personal acts. If you are a shareholder all professional shareholders (CPA's) are liable for the acts of their partners. If you work for a large accounting or law firm, you are personal liable for the work you do. Showing neglegence is much easier than criminal intent. If neglegence is proved, it becomes a claim on our personal wealth, (including the wealth of our partners) and not the form of a fine paid to the government Damages are paid to those injured. Leads to more considered decisions.
If CEO's and other responsible officers can have their personal wealth confiscated to compensate damaged parties it would stop the BS. That's all the thieves care about. To see Goldman pay $550M penalty is not satisfying when the perpetrators walk away with their personal fortunes intact.
You can go one step farther and adopt a concept similar to strict liability in tort. Under strict liability, it is not necessary to prove intent or negelgence, only that the act caused a harm. There are cases of manufacturers who sold a machine 50 years ago, the original buyer sold it to a junk yard, someone bought it from the junkyard, and disabled the saftey features. When the second buyers lost his hand in the press, the manufacturer was liable. In California, a telephone company was liable to pay a man who was making a phone call and was injured when a drunk driver jumped the curb and ran into the booth. Why? The telephone company made a decision to place the booth on that corner.
If corporate officers were under some modified form of strict liability, and put their personal fortunes at risk when wheeling and dealing, there would be far less game-playing. Drastic? Not really. Small businessmen can lose their presonal wealth at any time as a consequence for a poor decision.
Oh, and it wouldn't mean spit if a corrupt attorney general or administration looked the other way. This is civil, not criminal, law. Don't need the AG to bring charges.
BTW, I don't want their heads. A lousy head is probably worth less than $2.00. I have my eye on that ocean front home in the Riviera, and the Lear to get there in time for dinner.
Yes to responsibility. No to strict liability
Strict liability seems like its a favor to trial lawyers, frivolous lawsuits and ridiculous warning tags. The lady who spills hot coffee on herself from a drive thru gets millions because the hot coffee caused her harm. The guy who crashes his car drunk sues both the car manufacture, the Bar and the bottling company that made the booze. Remember in your example you said " Under strict liability, it is not necessary to prove intent or negelgence, only that the act caused a harm."
Wow, personal responsibility, now there's a concept (sarcasm). Great post by the way.
It is not "socialist" to ask that seniors get a few percent return on their savings if they are going to be subjected to unreported inflation and especially severe health care inflation. Put that on the long list of demands that OWS should be about.
I agree with this part- end the fraud; starting with those position limits we were supposed to get this year. I'd like to see HFT outlawed as of yesterday.
Ending the fraud, sure, why not? We'll just have to throw a net over NYC, Chicago, London, and D.C. Nothing like a little idealism on a Sunday afternoon.
Hang the bank officers and gov't traitors, jail the inside traders, clawback the loot. Sounds good.
Don't hold your breath waiting for the action to start.
edit: the little blonde reminds me of Jodie Foster before she went grim.
That frigging mob is the ultimate Rohrschach Test. People see any damn thing they want to see.
All I hear is a tower of babble, but for the sheeple, that's a step forward.
I've been splitting my time between my job, my garden and animals, and Occupy Austin. I slept out in the rain last night and will do it again and again.
Just so you know, I don't want your money. None of us want your money. What we do want does vary from person to person, but I think it is safe to say that most of us want to abandon the toxic system that only understands value as it relates to capital. The ponzi is corrupt to the core. The government is corrupt to the core. Every day the web of life on Earth suffers and suffers to accommodate the irrational and insane demands of the capital system, which has placed a bounty on the head of every living thing.
The time I have spent at Occupy Austin has been extremely fulfilling, and I hope you all consider attending your nearest Occupy event. You can't tell me you have nothing to add. Your voice is welcomed and desired. Join us!
"Every day the web of life on Earth suffers and suffers to accommodate the irrational and insane demands of the capital system, which has placed a bounty on the head of every living thing."
Can you please explain the "web of life"? Is this like the eco-system?
If that's the case, it seems to me that if you want to abandon the toxic system, you simply cut up your credit cards and buy everything with cash. Borrow nothing, and educate others on how to do the same. Teach people that the student loan is part of the problem, so don't ask for more money to fix it. Getting a home through a GSE is part of the problem, so don't demand more government action to preserve the GSE's. Getting shit from government bought with borrowed money is part of the problem, so demand DC spend within her means as you spend within yours.
Go without and let Congress now it's your choice to do so, not a plea for help. Tell them that things that used to be affordable by the middle class - homes, education, health care - could be again without the trillions of dollars of government spending injected into discreet sectors of the economy, bringing about inflation, which then is "corrected" with more government spending and with credit expansion.
End consumerism at the roots, so the need to get something right now won't drive us into debt. Be OK with the next iPad debuting in five years instead of five months. Be OK with the car you buy this year being the same as that available in five years, rather than being obsolete in three. Be OK with getting packages one day later because they're shipped by rail instead of by plane. Be OK with work as a farmer or a factory worker so long as your wages are for feeding your family instead of the wages of a debt slave.
If you're in Austin, you're damn happy to have rain to sleep out in. I was thinking of sleeping out in the rain last night myself, just out in the back yard here.
As for downtown Austin, I'd quote Yogi Berra: Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded.
thats the problem TDos. you're the first Occupier I've heard not asking for something. the message I've been hearing is the exact opposite.
This whole "occupy" movement is a fraud. The word itself is borrowed from "Occupied Palestine", is antisemitic to the core, and run by the same goons who backed the Flotillas.
Gotta love ZH, one rabid right winger says that OWS is a Jewish/Homosexual conspiracy (wow that one was a doozy) another says it's run by Iranians or Turks or whoever you think were behind the "Flotilla Goons" that were carrying medication and food for the Gaza Strip Palestinians.
What's most funny of all is when I see pics of OWS people I see Airline Pilots, Transit workers, Octogenerians, Underground Hip hop artists, Blonde 20 somethings wanting Birth control, Single Mothers, Communists, libertarians, liberals, socialists, anarchists, the recently unemployed, the serially unemployed, former military folks and damn near everything in between.
What you never see are the asshats on Zerohedge who want just their personal agenda to be realized and would likely deviate even from that if some 20 something wearing a Che-Guevara shirt shouted their EXACT philosophy from an OWS site.
Seriously people, you do NOT hold the sole valid critique of the system. Instead of looking for every possible minor - a mouse would starve on the difference - deviation from your STRICT ideology, try looking instead for common ground and try and build a dialogue from there.
The whole reason we are in this cluster fuck is because of a combination of ruthless propaganda, campaign finance, fiat fractional reserve banking, ignorance and most of all divisive politics that use wedge issues and dogmatic ideology as a way of dividing the masses against one another.
Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled, ideologically consistent, yet divorced from reality, ZH rant.
well put
and that's so because palestine is NOT occupied? that's some strong medication you got there. must be cnn, or something...
and as for the definition of genocide since the 70's here's what happens in palestine on a daily basis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre
the guy who ran this massacre was the israeli ex prime minister ariel sharon
but of course, that's very very anti-semitic and not polite dinner conversation.. oh my, these goons!...
Bullshit punk!
Brainwashing 3 year olds to hate is a problem.
Treating Women like a possesion is a problem.
Killing individuals because they are homosexual is a problem.
YOU ARE A PROBLEM.
Fuck off.
yes killing in mass by f-16s is actually kosher, i totally overlooked that.
and speaking of
"Brainwashing 3 year olds to hate is a problem."
look what your daily dose of walt-disney cnn medication just brought to you:
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2006/07/17/photo-of-the-day-israeli-kids-s...
Suicide vest on public transportation however is all good.
So brave! Bet the virgins really get hot over that move eh?
If my neighbor was hell bent on killing my children you can bet your ass I would be hostile.
Do you support Israels right to exist? Should the nation of Israel exist?
I am truly perplexed by the apparent fact that the political left so adores the concept of a ''Palestine' and the same operatives despise Israel.
What is the reality that individual human beings experience within the boundaries of Palestinian territory VS the realities of individual human beings within the boundaries of what is presently recognized as Israel?
In which location would you personally choose to live?
And what about your children? Specifically your daughters?
Or what if you had a gay son?
the self-righteous and not so implicit implication in your assertions that because the present day practice of islam usually sucks, muslims can be killed en masse is actually what is really scary.
i wonder what you would do if the chinese came to your redneck town in missouri and bought part of your land, expelled your population, massacred the remaining resistance, founded a state there and made refugees out of you and your family for many generations to come in camps with no water, electricity, healthcare, jobs, etc. and put a wall around you so that you could rot there with minimal trouble... of course if at any time you managed to retaliate, the retribution would be magnified in scale by a thousand times through f 16s sulphur bombing complete neighborhoods.
you probably would not fight them with any means you had, since only shithead muslim terrorists do that. that's what lord george w. bush das junior taught you on cnn. so it must be true.
Israel can exist like the whites exist in post Mandela South Africa. That's the correct political analogy. A mixed state, no apartheid. Lets the advanced Israelis pull their fellow Palestinians up the economic ladder.
The Palestinians were the smartest Arabs since donkey years, and the least fundamentalist; they were all secular. Funny how 65 five years of getting your butt kicked changes people...
"This whole "occupy" movement is a fraud. The word itself is borrowed from "Occupied Palestine", is antisemitic to the core, and run by the same goons who backed the Flotillas." - Zer0henge
occupy wall st. is as real as it gets. and speaking of fraud, the actions of unscrupulous jewish leaders is the most antisemetic of all, for they are perpetuating blood libels. first, let's count the number of jewish frauds sitting in congress, in the supreme court and in obama's administration, in the finance sector and its regulatory bodies; from political contributions to financial mass destruction, feel the impact of their treachery. jewish overrepresentation is undemocratic and it's antisemitic, 3% of the overall population should not rule over the majority. moreover jewish minority group in the US, is being over-represented by liars and crooks, the most devious and underhanded jewish americans, it's like they are all from a cesspool of hypocrites. jewish over-representativeness is exacerbated by the lack of principled leaders, where are the hans litten types? there's one russ feingold but he cannot undone the damages of madoff, blankfein, fuld, greenberg, robert edward rubin, sanford sandy weill and the likes. recently a lot of rabbis are getting charged and convicted on fraud charges, and rabbi is citing their Jewish Omerta, their Mesirah! what does it say about jewish community at large as a minority group? if i were a jew i'd be real ashamed and do some self reflection on it. 65 years since the world established a jewish state, israel is engulfing the region, suppressing other native populations, its people have created the highest economic gap between the rich n poor, and then there are all these crooks over-representing the jewish minority in the US. WHAT THE FCUK ARE WE THINKING? THE ACTIONS OF THESE JEWISH LEADERS ARE DENIGRATING TO JESUS, AND THEY MAKE ADOLF LOOK GOOD?! WE NEED TO PURGE THESE BLOODY HYPOCRITES ASAP!!! WE NEED DAMAGE CONTROL RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THESE CORNHOLE FCUKS DO MORE HARM TO JEWS THAN POOR PALESTINIANS EVER WILL!
I don't stand with them at all.
Good, then go lay down and go BACK TO SLEEP! Leave the serious discussions for the adults.
You are the perfect example of what is wrong with our society....You think people/govt./corporations/family/ whatever owe you something...Nobody owes you F$%kin' shit MoFo
No, I'm afraid you have missed the point.
My first new car was a 1981 Ford Escort Wagon. At that point in my life I had been a union tradesman for 4 years(good wages, benefits, steady work.) In 1981 I was 27 years old and I always had a healthy fear for the future, but I needed a dependable car to get myself back and forth to work, so I cut back on everything else in order to pay the loan off early. I am sick and tired of listening to all the complainers that are underwater in mortgages for homes they couldn't afford in the first place and the stupid college kids who attain degrees for careers of which there is no work available, and doesn't pay enough to cover the loan payments and living expenses(the necessities.). I recently had a conversation with a local bartender. She told me that she owed 70,000 for a degree from DePaul University in social work. Any questions?
Why are your loans my problem? You are the corrupt ones, not the government. If it were not for the FED you would not even have the opportunity to get a loan for anything. You would be renting in Potter's Field, and be owned by Potter himself. Be thankful you have a future...cause you don't have one if the protestors revert us back to a gold standard.
Your statement is incoherent.
Cheap credit is the most observable malignant economic aberration of the Federal Reserve and other central banks. It is perhaps the chief culprit in the misallocation of scarce resources. Stable commodity-backed currency makes loans for common goods and services unnecessary.
Here is a good place to begin.
I woulden't go that far Zer0henge: If it's in the Constitution, it's better than what we have at present...I listen to Tarpley sometimes and he (and all of his 5-minute interviewee's) look at the gold standard pretty harshly...No monetary system is perfect by a long shot...But the Gold Standard would have certainly prevented the messed up situation we have today where bankster types could put a gun to the Americans head and demand whatever they please...Face it, the banksters have the whole damn country by the nuts and those revolutionaries and protesters would be served well if they modified their views on the Gold Standard...No single act would change the whole goddam' chess board more than that event...Do you agree Ilene?
Hello Ilene: Is there anybody out there? it's your F%^kin' article! respond>>>>Come back>>>What flatline yourself-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In fact, W. Tarpley's views on gold are pretty pro-establishment if you ask me...Did I step on some sensative toes out there?
There, someone said it and it won't be edited by me atleast
A return to a Gold Standard mantra and repeated shout outs would clarify and strengthen the whole f#$kin' protest...Something solid, true, proven and honest are just what those simpletons need...IMO, all of the other supposed issues don't get to the point and allow Michael Moore types to hijack this...They get what they deserve...
What is this 'get what they deserve...' business? Most people just want to live a happy life with their family.
Go back to Seeking Alpha Ilene...
Lee Adler doesnt want to spend his money to take care of his own mother-sounds like the Wall Street protestors demanding free education, free healthcare and free housing.
Lee is standing on the same side as the freeloaders as his comments on bearschat slam anyone who is not for national health care. Its a little sad to see a middle aged man demanding free candy from his fellow citizens.
What kind of meaningless crap is this? He said quite succinctly that the reason he's having to take care of his mom is because Bastard bernanke's ZIRP denied her any income on her life's savings. You're a stupid asshole.
Yet these fucking sociopaths can -- with a straight face -- blame the woman for saving too much instead of speculating, and counting on a positive interest rate from her cash savings. And they argue that the son is a marxist for expecting that his mother can earn interest from the cash she saved through hard work over a lifetime. Kind of says it all about their ideology, doesn't it.