Today is a big day for Occupy Wall Street

Update: Live video here.

Meanwhile, in the news this morning:

Some of the nation’s largest banks are being accused of defrauding military veterans and taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. In a new lawsuit, companies including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, CitiMortgage, Countrywide Home Loans, Washington Mutual Bank and GMAC Mortgage are accused of illegally raking in hundreds of millions of dollars through hidden fees in the refinancing of veterans’ homes. The loans have been available under a government provision for retired or active-duty veterans. The case was brought by two whistleblowers who work as mortgage brokers in Georgia. They allege over one million veterans may have been subjected to fraud, and that the fees may have pushed tens of thousands of loans into default or foreclosure, at massive cost to taxpayers.

Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail.

Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall St.) from Alex Mallis on Vimeo.

#OccupyWallStreet

Very Much Alive and Growing: Day 14 of Occupy Wall Street

• The testimonials on http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/ keep coming, and they are downright heart-breaking.

• There is a new central hub for all the protests springing up in each state, here: http://www.occupytogether.org/

• From a great article in The Guardian:

But the ultimate failure here is of imagination. What we are witnessing can also be seen as a demand to finally have a conversation we were all supposed to have back in 2008. There was a moment, after the near-collapse of the world's financial architecture, when anything seemed possible.

Everything we'd been told for the last decade turned out to be a lie. Markets did not run themselves; creators of financial instruments were not infallible geniuses; and debts did not really need to be repaid – in fact, money itself was revealed to be a political instrument, trillions of dollars of which could be whisked in or out of existence overnight if governments or central banks required it. Even the Economist was running headlines like "Capitalism: Was it a Good Idea?"

It seemed the time had come to rethink everything: the very nature of markets, money, debt; to ask what an "economy" is actually for. This lasted perhaps two weeks. Then, in one of the most colossal failures of nerve in history, we all collectively clapped our hands over our ears and tried to put things back as close as possible to the way they'd been before.

Perhaps, it's not surprising. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the real priority of those running the world for the last few decades has not been creating a viable form of capitalism, but rather, convincing us all that the current form of capitalism is the only conceivable economic system, so its flaws are irrelevant. As a result, we're all sitting around dumbfounded as the whole apparatus falls apart.

What we've learned now is that the economic crisis of the 1970s never really went away. It was fobbed off by cheap credit at home and massive plunder abroad – the latter, in the name of the "third world debt crisis". But the global south fought back. The "alter-globalisation movement", was in the end, successful: the IMF has been driven out of East Asia and Latin America, just as it is now being driven from the Middle East. As a result, the debt crisis has come home to Europe and North America, replete with the exact same approach: declare a financial crisis, appoint supposedly neutral technocrats to manage it, and then engage in an orgy of plunder in the name of "austerity".

The form of resistance that has emerged looks remarkably similar to the old global justice movement, too: we see the rejection of old-fashioned party politics, the same embrace of radical diversity, the same emphasis on inventing new forms of democracy from below. What's different is largely the target: where in 2000, it was directed at the power of unprecedented new planetary bureaucracies (the WTO, IMF, World Bank, Nafta), institutions with no democratic accountability, which existed only to serve the interests of transnational capital; now, it is at the entire political classes of countries like Greece, Spain and, now, the US – for exactly the same reason. This is why protesters are often hesitant even to issue formal demands, since that might imply recognising the legitimacy of the politicians against whom they are ranged....

• Last but not least, check out the dedicated You-Tube channel

Solidarity.

5 Scott Walker Republicans Down, Only 2 to Go

Hell fucking yes:

Yesterday, local activists in Wisconsin submitted over 100% of the signatures needed to recall Republican Senator Alberta Darling.

That's 3 Republicans recalled in one week, 5 in total! (What a week!)

After local officials certify the signatures, these Republicans will face do-over elections against Democratic candidates. PCCC supporters in Wisconsin and across the nation have been vital to this accomplishment -- thanks for all you've done. And congrats!

We'll keep our powerful TV ads up through Election Day so long as folks keep chipping in. We've raised $580,000 -- can you help us reach $600,000 by Monday? Click here to chip in $3.

Help keep our ad on TV!

This ad is jointly done with our friends at Democracy for America.

Republicans declared war on the middle class. And with your help, we're going to win. Thanks for being a bold progressive.

-- Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Matt Burgess, Jason Rosenbaum, Amanda Johnson, and the PCCC team

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

One Down, Seven Scott Walker Republicans To Go

This movement is still growing. Keep the pressure on.

Recall the Wisonsin Republicans–Make Them Pay

The movement grows against these greedy, lying, worthless scumbags.

We just contributed what we can, every month for the next five months. So should you.

The hell is Obama thinking. Coward.

General Strike!

Think you're immune? This is not just about Wisconsin.


(image via)

It's time.

Rethuglicans aren't even pretending that it's about the budget anymore. They think they can just screw working families with impunity. Democracy and "The People" aren't even in their vocabulary.

Fast forward to the 6:45 mark...



Somebody, perhaps PCCC or DFA, needs to produce a recall ad campaign, not just one tv ad in one state, right now. And someone with deep pockets needs to drop a couple million dollars into it. Just consider it back-taxes. Moveon, I suppose, can still run their tweets, and raise money from the yuppies.

Meanwhile, Robert Greenwald has launched a new battle in the war against the Koch brothers' pollution (to the tune of $324 million in dirty money) of the democratic process, here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

America is not broke

Keep fighting the anti-democratic Koch brothers, right here. Update: and now here!

After spending over $324 million on an extremist political agenda that is devastating to the lives of 98% of Americans, despoiling what was once a potentially good planet for everyone while they personally prosper to the tune of $43 billion, David Koch and Charles Koch are finally getting the sort of embarrassing attention they deserve, as every freedom-loving, hard-working American should be glad to see.

And remember, even though a self-employed woodworker in North Carolina pays over three times as much in property taxes as Tom Cruise, and on a (far less desirable) fraction of the acreage, has no health insurance, and still owes tens of thousands in college loans well over a decade after graduating even though he went tuition free, "class war" is still a dangerous fiction invented by elitist poor people to subvert Jesus (link, or something).



• The hell is Obama thinking.

• This is the reality.

• Also, to hell with polite progressive groups like Moveon.org (especially the absolutely boring local Asheville chapter). Those folks lost their critical exigency years ago, and have resigned themselves to knocking on doors in the projects, once every four years. A good summary of the Wisconsin fight is here (via Jodi Dean).

Scott Walker has lost the war

So sayeth Forbes magazine.

Also:

The Wall Street Journal reports -- "Conservatives in Wisconsin are getting nervous that three Republican state senators may defect on the collective-bargaining reform vote."

NBC news in Wisconsin reports -- "four moderate Republicans are wavering and could break with the GOP and vote against Walker's budget repair bill."

The New York Times reports -- "Billionaire Brothers' Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute."

And Talking Points Memo reports on a brand new poll by a Republican leaning pollster -- "Rasmussen Poll: Almost Six In Ten Wisconsin Voters Disapprove Of Gov. Walker."

Do your part. Fight the greedy bastards, here.



Update:

Anybody seen a Democratic President?

I get it, Obama is on thin ice politically (for which he has largely himself to blame, it might be added). But this milquetoast political cowardice at this stage just isn't going to cut it. Who votes for a weak leader out on the ice in slippers, flopping around getting nowhere, much less helping anyone who's drowning?

Scott Walker must resign

Walker incriminates himself, admits to having considered bringing in thugs to taint protests with violence. This is priceless:

http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045

via The Other 98%, Mother Jones, FDL, etc. etc.

What's most amusing is Walker's utter lack of surprise at the shit "David Koch" is saying. The conversation is at once less overtly offensive than you might expect and more offensive than ever in the mundanity of the cozy relationships of power it reveals. Also, Walker is unbelievably stupid.

But then that sort of goes without saying for anyone who's been hand-picked for the job of neo-Stalinist Reaganbot.

What's happening in Wisconsin

• In NYTimes-speak.

• In you-tube:

(and more)

• In Kossack

• In teh facebook

• In blog

• Meanwhile...