Occupy Together - Began at 55 Wall Street & Expanded Globally

[Kulindahr]

^ If the movement keeps getting stronger, it won't matter. And if enough groups have knowledgeable, vocal spokespeople Republicans will get reamed for this.

 

[hungprep]

From yesterday’s The New York Times (in the grandiloquent, reflective, commemorative mode it always adopts at the end of the year) – ‘Camps Are Cleared, but “99 Percent” Still Occupies the Lexicon’

An op-ed piece by Nicholas D. Kristof in yesterday’s The New York Times – ‘A Banker Speaks, With Regret’

And this piece in the business section: ‘On Wall Street, Some Insiders Express Quiet Outrage’
.

 

[hungprep]

Who does Wall Street have to police itself?

From The New York Times ‘Business Day,’ online blog DealB%k: ‘For Wall Street Watchdog, All Grunt Work, Little Glory’ with a video, featuring Cameron Funkhouser, the head of the insider trading group at FINRA – the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency – ‘The Quiet Regulators.’

They’re a ‘fraud squad’ of 130, keeping an eye on not only 600,000+ stockbrokers, but also an untold number of other traders, who mostly deal in ‘tips’ and ‘hunches’ and other kinds of ‘insider’ knowledge…

How well do you think they’re doing?
.

 

[Kulindahr]

Who does Wall Street have to police itself?

From The New York Times ‘Business Day,’ online blog DealB%k: ‘For Wall Street Watchdog, All Grunt Work, Little Glory’ with a video, featuring Cameron Funkhouser, the head of the insider trading group at FINRA – the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency – ‘The Quiet Regulators.’

They’re a ‘fraud squad’ of 130, keeping an eye on not only 600,000+ stockbrokers, but also an untold number of other traders, who mostly deal in ‘tips’ and ‘hunches’ and other kinds of ‘insider’ knowledge…

How well do you think they’re doing?
.

I like the way they use Facebook to establish degrees of connection for looking for insider knowledge.

For a group that isn't very old, they're impressive. I suggest they should get 10% of the fines from all cases they refer to the government -- a sort of "finder's fee".

What they need next is authority like university accreditation groups have: to audit and inspect everyone they 'police', and grant or deny certification for trading. Part of that would be certifying new investment "instruments" for use -- something that might just have prevented the whole mortgage fiasco.

 

[metta]

K Street, Wall Street line up behind Sen. Scott Brown in his race against Elizabeth Warren



http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/0...scott-brown-his-race-against-elizabeth-warren

 

[Kulindahr]

note to Occupy movement:

get corporations out of politics by amendment

 

[metta]

Occupy Springfield, MO - "Mic Check! The police seem to have locked themselves out of their van!"

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm1hm3jl_Hs[/ame]

 

[Kulindahr]

^
Stuff ya can't make up.

 

[hungprep]

From The New York Times – yesterday’s, natch! – ‘Rooftop Films Gives Occupy Wall Street Its Own Film Series’

Now, let’s reminisce a little, shall we? From The New York Times of November 9: ‘At Zuccotti Park, a Sound of the ’60s’
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[hungprep]

The New York Times’ ‘“#OccupyWallSt Roundup,” Day 82’ – the ‘Action’ evolves and continues on many fronts (including Moscow), proving once more, ‘You can’t arrest (or evict) an idea,’ especially one whose time, so manifestly, has come…
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[Kulindahr]

The New York Times’ ‘“#OccupyWallSt Roundup,” Day 82’ – the ‘Action’ evolves and continues on many fronts (including Moscow), proving once more, ‘You can’t arrest (or evict) an idea,’ especially one whose time, so manifestly, has come…
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I find this fascinating about the movement: libertarians and socialists have common cause, because disparity of wealth distribution is a barrier to both societies.

 

[hungprep]

I find this fascinating about the movement: libertarians and socialists have common cause, because disparity of wealth distribution is a barrier to both societies.
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^ I keep seeing stories about people ‘finding’ copies of The Fountainhead, that absurd doorstop of a book (even in paperback) by the unintellectual Ayn Rand, on the ‘Book Swap’ table at various ‘Occupy’ locations.

Frankly, I don’t believe it. If the books really were there, I think they – like the stories about them – are just plants, either put there (or dreamed up that they were there) by the same type of phony, RNC ops who plague CE&P here.

If there is such a table in Moscow – if the movement gets that far there – I wouldn’t be surprised to see reports of people finding copies of The Communist Manifesto or, more analogously perhaps, in terms of sheer bulk, Das Kapital (three large volumes in English).

All could be lethal if thrown.

I’m actually surprised the RNC flacks haven’t yet planted the story that the ‘Occupy Movement’ has Marx and Engels on its free book tables. Perhaps, it’s because they get such a large discount on Ayn Rand that they can’t get for the others…
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[hungprep]

I forgot to post this when I was home for Thanksgiving – ‘Otherwise Occupied’ by columnist Brian Morton, from the Baltimore City Paper, November 23, 2011…

Also, be sure to check out the astute, succinct, and very well-written ‘Comment’ by ‘Barnadine the Pirate,’ immediately following Brian Morton’s column (the second of only two at the moment)
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[Kulindahr]

^ Good reminder that the PTBs respect nothing, not even former state Supreme Court justices.

 

[hungprep]

From The New York Times, December 8, 2011 – ‘Taxing the Rich, New York Style’

According to James Parrott, Deputy Director and Chief Economist, Fiscal Policy Institute – ‘Not Enough to Meet Social Needs,’ as follows in part:

‘The troubling thing is that a $2 billion budget gap remains. Funding for schools, public higher education, mass transit, child care and homeless assistance already have been slashed at a time when needs have multiplied in the wake of the Great Recession. New York has lost 500,000 job opportunities and $31 billion in annual earnings that go with those lost opportunities.

‘The two-thirds increase in food stamp recipiency — 1.2 million more New Yorkers — since the recession began shows that needs have skyrocketed, yet $20 billion in services and state support has been reduced over the past three years. A half million new jobs would go a long way, restoring self-esteem in the process. More budget cuts will only make it worse.

‘The second step on the road back needs to be corporate tax reform. As a new report this week showed, scores of highly profitable Fortune 500 companies use loopholes and favors to avoid paying state income taxes. It’s no wonder many big corporations are sitting on mountains of cash. Business income taxes have fallen sharply relative to the size of New York’s economy — if the share were back to where it was 25 years ago, state revenues would be $3 billion higher.’
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[Kulindahr]

I don't agree with higher taxes on businesses, just cutting loopholes for ones that get away paying nothing (or worse). Small businesses especially just have to pass those costs on.

But not raising taxes off the plunderers at the top makes no sense at all. The approach the Republicans are using is like breaking up the furniture to fuel the fireplace.

 

[hungprep]

‘No Money for a Living Wage? But Fat Abounds’ by columnist Jim Dwyer in ‘About New York’ – The New York Times, November 29, 2011

More of Jim Dwyer’s ‘About New York’ column – ‘In a Wrestling Match Over Space, a Sudden Shove’ from November 15, 2011
.

 

[Kulindahr]

‘No Money for a Living Wage? But Fat Abounds’ by columnist Jim Dwyer in ‘About New York’ – The New York Times, November 29, 2011

More of Jim Dwyer’s ‘About New York’ column – ‘In a Wrestling Match Over Space, a Sudden Shove’ from November 15, 2011
.

The money that should be paying those people has been slowly and steadily shifted to the wealthy. Politicians love to talk about unearned wealth, but the wealthy are getting the ultimate in unearned wealth: a few dollars per hour siphoned off every worker's contribution to value, filling up the reservoirs of the rich.

 

[hungprep]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKfCroli8hY&fmt=22"]Breaking News (from this morning)[/ame]


^ ‘West Coast port shutdown announcement 12-12-11 (Occupy Oakland, LA, Portland, Wall Street)’


From The Oregonian, December 12, 2011 (updated) – ‘Occupy Portland: Port of Portland targeted by demonstrators this morning’
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[hungprep]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvx68oXeS1U&fmt=22"]Tom Morello announces his support[/ame]
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