It is not about OWS, it is about Financial Tyranny Part 3-The violent dishonorable defense of a Vampire Squid!

A Vampire Squid sucking on the face of humanity is not worth protecting. A justice system that ignores such evil while committing acts of violence upon those engaged in Constitutionally protected Free Assembly makes a joke out of itself!
The term “Vampire Squid” is taken from a very insightful article by Matt Tiabbi, that accurately shows in detail the practice Goldman Sachs has of manipulating markets to the detriment of the rest of humanity.

But so what? Don’t Paulson, Geithner, Rubin, Summers, Thein, Steele, Cramer, Bolten and Blankfein all have the Freedom to be as rich as they want to be? Who cares that it is an oligopoly backed up with taxpayer dollars to such a degree that Smith’s Perfect Free market competition does not apply. Who cares about the rest of us are getting hosed by their various pump and dump schemes (tech bubble, housing bubble, gas price bubble) and then paying for their bailout with tax money. They have a right to be rich! And if those dirty hippies protesting don’t see that…why then they can just go…go…go…get a job at McDonalds’s! And don’t cry when the police come and bust your heads you…you…you commies!

Clearly the rights of Blankfein and company to as much wealth as they can cheat out of the system are more important than a protester’s rights of Freedom of Assembly. That’s what the Constitution says! And if it’s not what the Constitution says then that’s what it means! You…you…you commie, fascist, socialist Obamanazis!!

I’m going to stop the ventriloquist act I was doing out of my own asshole for the past few sentences to get serious. (Coming up with such asinine rhetoric is exactly that easy) Violence in defense of these oligarchs is a serious matter. To recap recent events-
On October 28, Oakland police assaulted protesters with tears gas, flash-bang bombs, rubber bullets and bean bag projectiles. In this assault they critically injured Scott Olsen, a two-tour Iraq War veteran, giving him a concussion.
On November 5, Oakland Police injured two-tour Iraq War veteran and local businessman Kayvan Sabeghi with repeated blows from police batons.

There have been many arrests of people who have been obeying the terms of their particular permit. The fact that the First Amendment rights of these protesters have been so grievously abridged is highlighted by the other fact that many in the media who decry them have used the Constitution as a mere buzzword in their past rhetoric.

But I think that the hypocrisy of the media that defends the Vampire Squid is well established. But what of those who have sworn an oath to serve and protect and wind up committing these atrocities in defense of the Vampire Squid?

If you are sympathetic to those who committed these acts of violence and are reading these words please consider that wonderful things have happened when soldiers have stood down and refused to act against their own populations.

For example, during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, Major General and hero of the Soviet Union, Viktor Karpukin was ordered to enter the Russian White House and assassinate Boris Yeltsin. He refused to do so when he saw the civilian casualties that would entail. The direct result of this was the fall of tyrants who had attempted a coup on Mikhail Gorachev.

Consider also how far this corporate dominance had gone already. Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in this country, has recently been implicated in financing drug gangs in Mexico. Those same drug gangs doubtlessly have allies and members in Oakland and other cities. Police have to deal with those allies on those days when they are not attacking Americans in parks for using their Freedom of Assembly.

That is correct, the institution the police are defending is bankrolling their most organized enemies.

And on the other hand of the War on Drugs is the privatized prison complex. These are companies who have one customer-the taxpayer. Adam Smith’s Perfect Competition does not apply for that reason alone. Like Defense contractors, they can and do take a small amount of the tax money they get and lobby for more tax money and against any serious reform of the current situation. Although not formally a part of the Vampire Squid that police are defending right now, they profit from the burden of police departments of drug offenses and immigration.

By the way, were we to legalize marijuana, we would take away the market from these violent thugs, decrease the police workload, open up a new tax base, and have less tax money given to privatized prisons. Sounds like a great idea to me. So, of course, it has no elite political support. The only thing that historically changes public pressure like that has been exactly what the protesters are doing now-activist organizing!

On each of a policeman’s uniforms is an American flag, The Constitution that flag represents clearly allows for Freedom of Assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Allowing the Vampire Squid more freedom than a citizen/taxpayer/protester is an abomination. Enforcing the “rights” of the Vampire Squid at the expense of those protesters is telling the world and posterity that the cop in question does so do not take the flag on his uniform seriously.
Not only that, but if these tyrants remain unchallenged, humanity is in serious danger. Leaving aside Nuclear War, Ozone Depletion, Permafrost melting, feeding and watering 7 Billion people and the other long term dangers of human survival-let’s concentrate on one Soil Erosion. If we keep up blind subservience to short term traders and do not adjust for reality, we will not be able to feed the human race. (Pages 8-15)Will it be easier or harder to change things in a future where we ignore the actions of these tyrants?

Various Occupy Wall Street groups have advocated similar demands. Among those are measures to protect humanity from this Vampire Squid that will eventually kill us all. If you are part of the human race, you should be on their side.

If we can’t break free now, when will we?

It is not about OWS, it is about Financial Tyranny! Part 2-Shermer's Penalty Flag

It breaks my heart when someone I admire goes along with conventional wisdom. Michael Shermers career has been one of knowing the truth and having it set his readers free. When he jumps on the dishonest Bash OWS bandwagon I must call foul.
The best treatise I’ve ever read on Libertarianism is Mind of the Market by Michael Shermer, the creator of Skeptic magazine. It is a brilliant tour-de-force of behavioral economics, business comparisons and evolutional psychology. In it he makes the best case I’ve heard for the proper relationship between markets and governments. Property rights are important, but a just and fair legislative and legal system is also needed to uphold them (I am paraphrasing!). I couldn’t agree more. It’s a lot like a Football field. We cheer and love athletic accomplishment, but the referees are a needed part of what goes on. It is an absurd suggestion to allow this kind of fast violent sport without the oversight of referees to insure that everything is conducted in a just and fair manner.

That is the proper role of government. And it has become corrupted, unfair in the application of its rules, to our detriment, very recently. The Occupy Wall Street Movement is bravely addressing this issue as I write. And it is being met by some of the snidest, unfair, and dishonest commentary that I’ve ever read coming from by the elite punditry. If this were football, I’d have to call foul and throw a flag.

And a good referee has to throw the flags not only on players he dislikes, but on players he likes. He must throw a flag on a player he likes and respects. I’ve read Mr. Sheremer’s recent column, “Occupy This” and…
Whistle blows!

Intentional Straw Man! 10 yard penalty, repeat 2nd Down!

Discussing this foul let’s examine one by one, his “points of political and economic significance”, -

1.” no one went to jail because they didn’t break any laws…If you want someone punished for the meltdown you have to first change the law.”

Oh, but people did break the law. The poorly trained “robosigners” processing mortgages were not acting on their own volition! Someone set up a systemic breaking of the law in fraudulently processing foreclosures. If you attacked it as a real criminal operation…y’know bust the lower level thugs to get their cooperation, find the mid management types who systemically hired the robosigners to break the law, and work your way up the food chain we would find a lot of villains in this crisis who deserve prison time at all levels. The DOJ has yet to do this!

2. "The only reason to work on Wall Street is to make a boatload of money. That’s the whole point of playing the market.”

The outrage is NOT directed at people playing the market and winning a boatload of money! Michael you are so much a better player than this. Hacking away at the same man of straw that pundit like Will Cain hacks away at is beneath you. It’s like Peyton Manning intentionally grounding a football. You are a better player than that and you know it.

The problem the protesters have is with the huge amounts of theft, fraud, and market manipulation that has been committed by white collar criminals over the past 15 years and they have been very clear about this point.

3.“crony capitalism, which is nothing like the libertarian vision of real capitalism”.

Here you make an important difference, but do not go far enough. You admit some sympathy to the Wall Street protesters. You are very quick to term what has been going on as crony capitalism. And you are correct!

In the mid 1990’s there were 4 banks that now have become Citigroup, there were 11 banks that have merged into what I now JP Morgan Chase, there were 13 banks that merged into what is now B of A, and there were 9 banks that merged into what is now Wells Fargo. That did not happen in a vacuum, it happened because of political corruption, gaming the legislature, and well entrenched crony capitalism. HR 1489 (reinstating Glass-Stegal –justly separating commercial and investment banks) is on the list of Occupy Wall Street demands. If you really are against crony capitalism (aka oligopolies and monopolies) why not help Occupy Wall Street instead of jump on the dishonest pundit bandwagon?

4. “Wall Street CEOs and their resident COOs, CFOs, traders, and the like, make too damn much money, hundreds of times more than the gap used to be between the highest paid and lowest paid members of corporations.”

Once again, you express some sympathy for the OWS protesters, but then ignore the fraud, theft and market manipulation behind many of these fortunes.

And there is a fundamental mistake in your challenge to “How much should the top earner earn?” It exempts the inhuman creation we call corporations. The way they game the system by using offshore tax loopholes is not insignificant. Especially seeing as how that tax burden is shifted to the rest of us.

B of A, that same B of A that wanted to charge a $5 a month Debit fee, was the recipient of a $1 Billion dollar tax rebate last year. I would want time to research a proper answer to the question of where the line of excess should be drawn. But allowing a $1 Billion dollar gift of tax money to company with the history of B of A is excessively evil, much so, than any pot smoker you ran into in New York.

5. “I agree that all competitions must be regulated by a well-defined set of rules that are consistently enforced with penalties assessed without prejudice or bias, from sporting contests to stock market trading.”

I agree too, Mr.Shermer. That’s why I had to throw the Straw Man flag on this piece. Here you do admit that you see corruption. And you admit that allowing Barry Bonds to police a steroid enhancing program while he is still playing (continuing the sports metaphors)is stupid. That is precisely what people are shouting in the streets about!

Right now we have a situation of mega trading houses that can trade worldwide 24/6. They can have multiple trading desks. They can hype one security at one desk while shorting a derivative based on that security at another desk. Which is exactly what Goldman Sachs got away with regarding mortgage securities.

When I read Mind of the Market I was very impressed. I was seeking a good example of Libertarian thought. The examples of Libertarianism to which I had been exposed were extremely poor. Well funded, think tank tested sophistry that cherry picked evidence, denied global warming, ignored the externalities in economic equations, and rationalized the pollution of our world, the potential death of our species, the return to robber baron days of economic serfdom. I knew that there had to a Libertarian out there somewhere who actually lived in the real world! And you did not disappoint with that book.

I was so impressed that I bought a Vote Libertarian bumper sticker and had in on my car during the 2008 campaign.

I saw the way Libertarianism was going shortly after the election with the ascent of Glenn Beck and what could have been a movement that ended the War On Drugs (I still maintain that the most eloquent argument against the War on Drugs I’ve ever heard was by conservative economist Milton Friedman) and reversed the Patriot Act provisions was changed into a rebranding of the policies that almost destroyed our economy.

I wound up tearing that sticker off my car and spitting on it. But I still loved that book! And I love (and quote ) Skeptic magazine. That’s why I can say that this column was not worthy of you Michael. I know that you are better player than that.!

If only you would be willing to turn your skepticism on crony capitalism instead of defending it!

It’s not about OWS, it’s about Financial Tyranny! Part One-The Decentralized Demands

The coverage and commentary of the Occupy Wall Street protests has been exactly what could be expected from people who alarmed us with Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and placated us with a housing market that is only going up.
The Decentralized Demands

The common denominator running through the “journalism” covering this entire Occupy movement is the snide derision and outright lies that seems a prerequisite for covering the story, all the while missing the point about the very real outrages that have motivated the protesters. The country can survive some Civil Disobedience en masse and it can survive the occasional pot-smoking protester stereotype that actually does something harmful. The country as we know it is in serious trouble if we let the outrages which provoked these protesters to begin with stand.

A man who goes by the initials J.G. has said-“Capitalism, despite its magnificent virtues in the short term – above all, its ability to adjust to changing conditions has several weaknesses… The finiteness of natural resources is simply ignored, and pricing is based entirely on short-term supply and demand. More generally, because of the use of very high discount rates, modern capitalism attributes no material cost to damage that occurs far into the future.” (Call this Quote 1).

There will be more on J.G. later. But before we talk about J.G. and “class warfare” and sharpen our pitchforks while yelling “commie”, let’s take a look at Occupy Wall Street (or at least Occupy Chicago’s) list of demands. Is there really anything that’s out of line in these requests?

1. Pass H.R.1489 and reinstate Glass Steagal!

Eliminating Glass Steagal-the Depression era safeguard that separated investor banks and commercial banks is directly to blame for this crisis and the misery it caused. It was repealed as a final act of a lame duck Congress in 1999 and led us over a cliff very fast. This is not an unreasonable demand!

2.Repeal Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy.

The 1% had quite a party for a decade thanks to an illegitimate Presidency. Deficit concerns are lessened when we increase the tax base. Warren Buffet feels they should pay their fair share. This is not an unreasonable demand!

3. FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS!

This one might be problematic. When you make fraud (like Goldman Sachs hyping the very Securities that it was shorting) legal, prosecuting someone for a crime is problematic. But the fact that it is problematic is inexcusable. When former CFTC head Brooksley Born first met Alan Greenspan (the villain at fault for this mess) whether or not fraud should be illegal, Alan Greenspan replied that he did not feel Fraud was a priority (at about 16:00). When massive scale Fraud is legal, that needs to be changed. That’s not the fault of the pot smoking hippie the news media has singled out as representative of this movement, it is the fault of paid off Congressmen who allows it and the lobbyists who bribed them!

4.OVERTURN CITIZENS UNITED v. US.

This horrible piece of Judicial Activism has already proven cancerous to our democratic electoral process. In a state of the Union Address, President Obama cited the negative effect of having foreign corporations able to influence our elections and “Justice” Scalia famously shook his head and said “Not True”. If it is not true, then why did the exact thing warned against come into existence, give money to Mitt Romney and then evaporate? This decision was a horrendous injury to the American People by the Supreme Court and needs to be overturned fast!
5. PASS THE BUFFET RULE ON FAIR TAXATION, CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOPHOLES, PROHIBIT HIDING FUNDS OFFSHORE.

I have no problem with that. Neither does Mr. Buffet. And I am still waiting credible Point A to Point B evidence that inconveniencing corporations costs jobs. Where there is demand, there is hiring to meet the demand. Demand is what needs to be nourished and the Buffet Rule can help.

Let’s return to J.G. at this point. J.G. says that "If we want to dig out of our current morass,
don’t we have to change this equation and isn’t the most direct way of doing this to divide the pie more evenly?
That would mean lower income and sales taxes for the bottom 75% of earners and higher taxes for the top 10%!
We have allowed the vagaries of globalization and the plentiful supply of cheap Chinese labor to determine our
income distribution, which has become steadily steeper, to the point where we have become one of the least
egalitarian developed societies. Wouldn’t it be better for us to decide deliberately and by ourselves that income
distribution which creates the best balance of social justice and incentive to work? " (Call this Quote 2)

He adds that“The wasteful status quo has powerful allies in the present corporate and political system. We do not easily accept bad news, nor do we easily deal with long horizon problems. …we are not particularly good with numbers, especially when it comes to probabilities, compound growth, and discount rates. We have a capitalist system that reflects our weaknesses; one that is fine-tuned only for the present and immediate future” (Call this Quote 3) I agree with J.G. which is why I quoted him.

And, kind reader I will reveal more of J.G. as we go on. Even though you may have an image of J.G. at this point with a knit rasta cap carrying an OCCUPY sign in one hand a Guy Fawkes mask in the other, please hear him out. Maybe you can envision the tents set up around the park and a hint of marijuana smoke in the air as I quote him. But do bear with me. J.G is worth quoting.

6. GIVE THE SEC STRICTER REGULATORY POWER, STRENGTHEN THE CONSUMER PROTECTION BUREAU, AND PROVIDE ASSISTANCE FOR OWNERS OF FORECLOSED MORTGAGES WHO WERE VICTIMS OF PREDATORY LENDING.

The new Consumer Protection Bureau has had an uphill battle since it was proposed, despite the fact that one of the key factors in the Real Estate Bubble was the way in which sub prime mortgages were sold to people. A predatory sell of an ARM to someone who cannot afford it is a devastating event in his or her life. Shrugging and saying “caveat empor” to someone who is suckered into dumping a lot of money into one of these crooked deals is callous, drains the tax base, and leaves parasites in high places.

7.TAKE STEPS TO LIMIT THE INFLUENCE OF LOBBYISTS AND ELIMINATE THE PRACTICE OF LOBBYISTS WRITING LEGISLATION-

This mess was started by the repeal of Glass Stegal. Which was dropped in at the last minute by a lame duck Congress. The creation of “Too Big to Fail” Banks was directly related to this repeal. This didn’t just magically happen. Banks had been working to repeal Glass Stegal since the 1980’s. We need to not only correct the mistake, but remove the mechanism by which it happened. There is no reason something too big to fail (and exist) should be able to influence Congress to this malevolent degree! The protesters are not out of line with this demand.

8. ELIMINATE RIGHT OF FORMER GOVERNMENT REGULATORS TO WORK FOR CORPORATIONS OR INDUSTRIES THEY ONCE REGULATED.

J.G says that “Capitalism does not address these very long-term issues easily or well. It seems to me that capitalism’s effectiveness moves along the spectrum of time horizons, brilliant at the short end but lost, irrelevant, and even plain dangerous at the very long end.” (call this Quote 4)Well said J.G. If Timber executive write the forest regulations, if Oil executives write the oil safety guidelines, if military contractors write their own checks and if private prisons influence immigration and drug laws, we don not have a democratic republic-we have a legal looting of the wealth of the United States of America.

9. ELIMINATE CORPORATE PERSONHOOD

We are coming up upon an event Science is terming “the Singularity”. It is referencing hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. It is absolutely vital that we recognize our first attempt at creating a “person” although merely a legal one has resulted in creating a monster. I’ve addressed this issue in my piece- “We should implement Asimov's 3 laws to protect us from our inhuman creations-not robots but corporations.”
10. INSIST THE FEC STAND UP FOR THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN REGULATING PRIVATE USE OF PUBLIC AIRWAVES to help ensure that political candidates ARE GIVEN EQUAL TIME for free at reasonable intervals during campaign season.-

We are witnessing the need for this in the unfair and dishonest coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. And if you wish to comment on OWS, it seems to be a prerequisite that you adopt a snide, derisive and condescending tone. We need the Fairness Doctrine back! I addressed that in “We’re feeling the effect of treating mass Libel and Slander as protected Free Speech right at this moment."

11. REFORM CAMPAIGN FINANCE WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE FAIR ELECTIONS NOW ACT (S.750, H.R. 1404)

Bought and paid for prostitutes to K Street are unfit to lead us through the daunting challenges ahead of us. The current campaign finance system requires that our elected representatives become these prostitutes. So I’m all in favor of reforming it.

12. FORGIVE STUDENT DEBT-

Want stimulate the economy, y’know increase demand so there is more hiring and more jobs? This is a great way to do it. The burden of debt for a college education is a major drain on many people throughout there adult lives. (Particularly if the degree was worthless in the job market.) What’s more the interest and structure on many of these loans means that they wind up being paid back in a very unfair and lopsided manner where the amount paid over decades is greater that the tuition. I say, after 2 decades, you’ve got your return on investment for this loan and what remains can either be forgiven or restructured to reasonable payments. What’s more, after we do that, that frees up the money that would have been servicing a loan to purchase goods and services!

There is nothing in these demands that I disagree with!
And as to J.G., I have a bit of a surprise. He’s not part of the 99%. He is very firmly a part of the 1%! Jeremy Grantham(Quote 2 is on page 5) is the Co Founder and Chief investment Strategist of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo-a Boston Based Asset management firm that directs investors on a “return to mean” basis. That means he steers investment money way from bubbles and still makes money for them. The piece I quoted from him also has an excellent bit on how these short term bubble machines justly protested by Occupy Wall Street will kill our species eventually through soil erosion!(Quote1 was on page 2-Quote 3 was on page 3-Quote 4 is on Page 1)

Now is the time to admit they don’t work and fix our mistake!

We are at a turning point in our species. A minority of traders with a history of destruction in the name of short term profits has control of our media, our fortunes, our resources and our world (One of them recently boasted as much on the BBC-at about 2:38) and if left unchecked will kill humanity in the name of short term profits. That is the relevant issue not the caricature of protesters and victims of the system drawn by elitist pundits!