As the Occupy movement has continued to grow, expanding to Denver and Des Moines - and even Idaho Falls - along with hundreds of other places, both inside and outside the United States, the topic has also begun to take a growing share of breath from the media.
For all the arrogance, bluster, and fake surprise being thrown at the Occupy movement from the corporate right, we can honestly say what's happening on Main Street everywhere shouldn't really be a surprise to us or anyone in the legitimate media.
The factors that have caused this movement to finally spark have been building for many years. Take the problem with lobbyists.
Anyone who hasn't been blinded by the right-wing propagandists (that even THEY don't trust anymore) has known for more than thirty years that lobbying and lobbyists have become a real problem in our American form of government - especially over the last decade. Companies that have bought and paid for the best lobbyists apparently seem to have done SIGNIFICANTLY better than their competition or the market over the last decade. The data, released by Thomson Reuters, merely proves what we already knew: that the richest corporations are willing to pay off everyone - including and especially politicians - because in the end, it helps their bottom line.
It was also highly predictable that the money the government gave to bail out the Wall Street banks and investment firms near the end of the Bush Administration could have been used more wisely. As a Reuters chart created by Nobel-prize winning economic journalist David Cay Johnston shows, if the money used to bail out the Wall Street banks and their wealthy corporate friends had been used differently, we could have funded Social Security for another 21 years. We could have funded Pell Grants, at current levels, for over 400 more years, or unemployment benefits for the entire country for another 92.6 years.
Again, we're not surprised. Members of both our media profession and the general American public have seen this kind of fiscal waste building towards events like the Occupy protests for many years now.
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post noted over the weekend that there may have been different things the Obama Administration could have tried over the last couple years to mitigate the circumstances our economy is in now. As Klein discovered on further inspection, the chances are good that no matter what the President had tried, our country would still be suffering from a hangover caused by thirty-plus years of mostly irresponsible governing.
The reasons behind the economic disasters we're all living through range from the relaxation of all kinds of banking regulations, to the near elimination of campaign finance reforms. The end result is a series of events that many Americans have predicted for years, our staff among them.
For far too long, the greedheads on Wall Street, already the cathedral of avarice in America, have been willing to burn their pages of the social contract - the contract that gives every one of us a shot at the American dream - in exchange for raking in a few more dollars.
What the folks on Wall Street - "the haves" and the "have mores" as former President George W. Bush once called them - never thought would happen would be that the bulk of the American people would finally stand up for themselves, and that the idea of protests would once again catch fire, like they did in the 1960s. That the people might change their own politics directly has been an idea the Wall Street pigs have only had passing nightmares about for some time.
To us, their shock and surprise is just further proof of how disconnected the Wall Street types really are from the reality the rest of us face daily.
There are a great many things this movement can be called - but unexpected isn't one of them.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Hanging By a Thread
As we've been pointing out for several weeks now, and as we addressed pointedly last week, the Occupy movement - which is beginning its fourth week today - doesn't appear to be a temporary event. It continues to grow, with Occupy movements even popping up outside the U.S., in places sympathetic to the American worker.
Unlike the Tea Party movement of the last couple years, this movement has NOT been paid for by wealthy, secretive corporate backers. In fact, the Occupy movement is - in some ways - an answering call of reality to the ginned-up outrage of the Tea Party. Tea Partiers were mad - but they either weren't really sure of why they were angry, or they were angry for reasons many of them still refuse to honestly admit, like their own disgusting racism and classism.
What the Occupy protestors are angry about is the social contract they were sold - and on which most Americans have now been shorted by their own country.
There are those who expect the protestors to deliver some kind of list of demands, as though disgruntled Americans were simply another specialty group to be placated and then ignored. As another editorial over the weekend put it, "It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself."
Politically, it's easier for politicians today, especially members of Congress, to focus on evil-sounding boogeyman ideas, like voter fraud - which really doesn't exist in America today - than the real issues that are dragging our economy down, and keeping the middle class hanging on by a thread.
One of the biggest single economic problems facing us is the irresponsible conduct of the banks, that was allowed after we got rid of the laws like Glass-Stegall, which were put in place after the banksters screwed the country the last time and plunged America into the Great Depression.
The disastrous real estate crisis for which the banks are responsible has yet to be dealt with in any serious way. Until the banks are forced to eat, swallow - and quite possibly choke to death on - the lies and the unheard of pile of debt they sold to unsuspecting Americans to feed their own greed, they can't honestly clear their balance sheets. Until the banks can get a grip on their situation, they truthfully shouldn't be lending - which means borrowers can't really get a grip on their much smaller portion of responsibility in this mess either.
The sociological problem we face is also a massive one. Even more than the massive economic issues, this is what the Occupy protestors are really railing against.
As George Carlin said in his legendary rant about the American dream: the super-wealthy in America don't give a damn about the working people in America, or really anyone else. They've bought off the system, and they think they can do what they want. "It's a big club - and you ain't in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.
"By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head... with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy... Good, honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest hard-working people continue... to elect these rich... suckers who don’t give a [damn] about you..."
Far too many of the 99% of Americans have been conned into thinking our politics is a football game, and they must root for the team that might someday help them - if they can somehow, magically become wealthy. The fact is, there is no magical way to become wealthy - and as we've said before MANY times, politics is NOT a game.
As Carlin reminded us, "It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." These protests are Americans finally waking up. That they are rightfully angry terrifies those who stole their opportunities away from them while they were asleep.
One of the scariest things about this whole situation is that many of those currently in power don't yet seem to realize - it is they, and not the middle class, who is hanging onto their status by a thread.
Unlike the Tea Party movement of the last couple years, this movement has NOT been paid for by wealthy, secretive corporate backers. In fact, the Occupy movement is - in some ways - an answering call of reality to the ginned-up outrage of the Tea Party. Tea Partiers were mad - but they either weren't really sure of why they were angry, or they were angry for reasons many of them still refuse to honestly admit, like their own disgusting racism and classism.
What the Occupy protestors are angry about is the social contract they were sold - and on which most Americans have now been shorted by their own country.
There are those who expect the protestors to deliver some kind of list of demands, as though disgruntled Americans were simply another specialty group to be placated and then ignored. As another editorial over the weekend put it, "It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself."
Politically, it's easier for politicians today, especially members of Congress, to focus on evil-sounding boogeyman ideas, like voter fraud - which really doesn't exist in America today - than the real issues that are dragging our economy down, and keeping the middle class hanging on by a thread.
One of the biggest single economic problems facing us is the irresponsible conduct of the banks, that was allowed after we got rid of the laws like Glass-Stegall, which were put in place after the banksters screwed the country the last time and plunged America into the Great Depression.
The disastrous real estate crisis for which the banks are responsible has yet to be dealt with in any serious way. Until the banks are forced to eat, swallow - and quite possibly choke to death on - the lies and the unheard of pile of debt they sold to unsuspecting Americans to feed their own greed, they can't honestly clear their balance sheets. Until the banks can get a grip on their situation, they truthfully shouldn't be lending - which means borrowers can't really get a grip on their much smaller portion of responsibility in this mess either.
The sociological problem we face is also a massive one. Even more than the massive economic issues, this is what the Occupy protestors are really railing against.
As George Carlin said in his legendary rant about the American dream: the super-wealthy in America don't give a damn about the working people in America, or really anyone else. They've bought off the system, and they think they can do what they want. "It's a big club - and you ain't in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.
"By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head... with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy... Good, honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest hard-working people continue... to elect these rich... suckers who don’t give a [damn] about you..."
Far too many of the 99% of Americans have been conned into thinking our politics is a football game, and they must root for the team that might someday help them - if they can somehow, magically become wealthy. The fact is, there is no magical way to become wealthy - and as we've said before MANY times, politics is NOT a game.
As Carlin reminded us, "It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." These protests are Americans finally waking up. That they are rightfully angry terrifies those who stole their opportunities away from them while they were asleep.
One of the scariest things about this whole situation is that many of those currently in power don't yet seem to realize - it is they, and not the middle class, who is hanging onto their status by a thread.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Friday Funday: Just Figure Out What's Next
As we're certain you've heard by now, Apple co-founder and innovator Steve Jobs died this week, after an incredible eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
There have been so many stories shared about Mr. Jobs; how he and Steve Wozniak began Apple; how Jobs got fired from the company he created, which spurred Jobs to create NeXt computers; and how he built Pixar into the company we've all come to love.
Of course, Mr. Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford has also made the rounds on the internet, and in conversation, quite a bit these last two days. If you haven't yet read or watched Mr. Jobs' Stanford address from 2005, we highly recommend you do so now.
For all you may have seen, read, and heard though, there's just... one more thing... at least one more story about Mr. Jobs that we're fairly sure that most of you haven't heard yet.
There's a story told among some of Apple's most veteran fans, those who remember Apple before the Mac, who know that Lisa isn't just a girl's name, and who were once called 'Apple evangelists - like our web guru, Shawn. The story goes that, shortly after Steve Jobs had dropped out of college, he went to India and got lost looking for a wise man. After some searching and stumbling through somewhat rural towns in India, Jobs had yet to find the guru - but, in a strange twist of fate, the wise man found him instead.
When the wise man 'discovered' Jobs, he ran up to the young American and screamed, "You!" !" - not in a hateful way, or the way you'd call out a thief, but in the way someone would exclaim if they had just found the one person they'd been looking for all their life.
This wise Indian yogi put his hands on Jobs' head - which Steve thought odd, but went along with anyway. After a few moments, the wise man stepped back and told Jobs, "Someday, you will change the world."
And he did.
As Jobs himself once said, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
As we head into a weekend filled with travel, P.O. Pears burgers at the UNL Dairy Store, and maybe even checking out a few Occupy rallies, we hope you'll remember something else Mr. Jobs once said, in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams.
When Williams asked Jobs to think of where he would fit, in the great pantheon of American inventors, Jobs tried to beg off, not wanting to truly answer the question. Williams pushed the legacy query though - and Jobs' answer is one we hope sticks with you as much as it has with us.
Steve said, "When we [humans] finish doing something that we're really proud of, we want to get onto the next thing. So, you know, I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful and not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next."
We hope that whatever is next for you turns out pretty good too.
There have been so many stories shared about Mr. Jobs; how he and Steve Wozniak began Apple; how Jobs got fired from the company he created, which spurred Jobs to create NeXt computers; and how he built Pixar into the company we've all come to love.
Of course, Mr. Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford has also made the rounds on the internet, and in conversation, quite a bit these last two days. If you haven't yet read or watched Mr. Jobs' Stanford address from 2005, we highly recommend you do so now.
For all you may have seen, read, and heard though, there's just... one more thing... at least one more story about Mr. Jobs that we're fairly sure that most of you haven't heard yet.
There's a story told among some of Apple's most veteran fans, those who remember Apple before the Mac, who know that Lisa isn't just a girl's name, and who were once called 'Apple evangelists - like our web guru, Shawn. The story goes that, shortly after Steve Jobs had dropped out of college, he went to India and got lost looking for a wise man. After some searching and stumbling through somewhat rural towns in India, Jobs had yet to find the guru - but, in a strange twist of fate, the wise man found him instead.
When the wise man 'discovered' Jobs, he ran up to the young American and screamed, "You!" !" - not in a hateful way, or the way you'd call out a thief, but in the way someone would exclaim if they had just found the one person they'd been looking for all their life.
This wise Indian yogi put his hands on Jobs' head - which Steve thought odd, but went along with anyway. After a few moments, the wise man stepped back and told Jobs, "Someday, you will change the world."
And he did.
As Jobs himself once said, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
As we head into a weekend filled with travel, P.O. Pears burgers at the UNL Dairy Store, and maybe even checking out a few Occupy rallies, we hope you'll remember something else Mr. Jobs once said, in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams.
When Williams asked Jobs to think of where he would fit, in the great pantheon of American inventors, Jobs tried to beg off, not wanting to truly answer the question. Williams pushed the legacy query though - and Jobs' answer is one we hope sticks with you as much as it has with us.
Steve said, "When we [humans] finish doing something that we're really proud of, we want to get onto the next thing. So, you know, I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful and not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next."
We hope that whatever is next for you turns out pretty good too.
"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs
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