Corrente’s Chicago Dyke and I will be talking about this week’s OWS news on Virtually Speaking Susie. Tune in here at 9pm EST and call 646-200-3440 with comments or questions!
Category: Media
On lies and the lying liars quoted in the NYT
I was going to post a rant regarding an insipid New York Times story in which Wall Street types were asked to comment on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Thankfully, NYT columnist Paul Krugman beat me to it:
On Saturday The Times reported what people in the financial industry are saying privately about the protests. My favorite quote came from an unnamed money manager who declared, “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it.”
Chris Hedges at Times Square
Elected Dems to protesters — we’re with you, sort of
Chris Hedges, plainly stating why “liberal” has become a dirty word not only to right-wingers but to many thinkers and activists on the left:
Tinkering with the corporate state will not work. We will either be plunged into neo-feudalism and environmental catastrophe or we will wrest power from corporate hands. This radical message, one that demands a reversal of the corporate coup, is one the power elite, including the liberal class, is desperately trying to thwart.
If only they would do what they were told
Why Charlie Pierce continues to be my hero:
To call Rep. Eric Cantor a stooge at this point is to insult all three Howard brothers, and the late Mr. Fine, as well.
Ever since the spittle-drenched results of the 2010 midterms swept him into being the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Cantor has demonstrated a remarkable ability to combine complete ignorance of practically every major issue with the unctuous personality of a third-string maitre d’ at a fourth-string steakhouse. A couple of weeks ago, confronting the various Scribes and Sadducees that make up the “Values” wing of his party, Cantor was calling the Occupy Wall Street protesters a “mob,” and warning the timorous and pharisaical suckers that the tumbrels would be arriving on their streets any day now. Lo and behold, the country seems now to disagree with him, and, on Fox News Sunday, Cantor announced his earthshaking discovery that the United States has a problem with income inequality, and that his Republican party is poised to do something about that. Of course, every single proposal to emerge from his caucus would work to use the tax code to cement that inequality from now until Eric Cantor VIII is flunking economics somewhere.
True, Cantor’s argument is that the Republican plan would allow all the poor people in America to rise to become the owners of their own hedge funds, and is utterly insincere, where it is not complete bullshit. But the fact that the words “income disparity” were spoken by a member of the congressional Republican leadership, in public and without his tongue turning to fire, is proof that the elite pundits are right. The OWS crowd never will affect the country’s politics until it develops a “coherent public message.” Pity.
‘The hippies are coming to kill you’
Right time, right place
“The message is coming out. It’s pretty simple. We are at Wall Street, and Wall Street controls our government, and we would like the people to control it. Simple.” More here.
Deja vu all over again
Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents: MyFoxBOSTON.com
Fox news perpetuating the “news” that someone hassled and spit on a woman in a Coast Guard uniform “near” the OccupyBoston site. Because, you know, hippies are famous for that kind of imaginary thing.
Remember all of the stories about Vietnam vets being spat on — that people just made up? I’ll take this one with a large grain of salt.
It’s an occupation, not a picnic
Mayor Bloomberg’s ploy to end Occupy Wall Street tomorrow morning isn’t fooling anyone. It looks like the occupiers have no intention of voluntarily surrendering their First Amendment rights.
Even Tucson is occupied
It’s coming to your town, even in the reddest state, if you make it happen:
In an interview with Current TV’s liberal news host Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night, “Occupy Tucson” organizer Craig Barber gave viewers a few tips on how they can start new chapters of the protest movement in their own towns and cities.
Namely, he hit on a political meme that runs like a constant thread through U.S. history: all politics is local.
“Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you’re a small city,” he said. “You have local issues that you can raise up in addition to the national issues. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing what we’re doing, to highlight local issues that directly affect our community.”