We noted that all the talk of pitchforks and heads on pikes, the folks at Goldman have taken to arming themselves. But until recently, the talk was aggressive, but bodily harm was non-existent, save for an isolated (but very nasty) beating over phony mortgage mod advice.
But that may be changing, per this update from Raw Story (hat tip reader John D). The story reports on a rise in violent crimes overall since the downturn, including domestic violence, so it is too early to say whether these incidents are merely in line with general trends, or signal than banksters are starting to become targets:
A Los Angeles lawyer who had represented a failed subprime mortgage lender is found dead outside his home, having been shot in the head.
Three men allegedly invade the home of a former subprime lender, and are arrested after reportedly injuring three people inside.
Vandals target the home of the former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, smashing windows in the banker’s home and car.
(Turn down the music which is frankly pretty horrid, but this does give a good juxtaposition of scenes from Bertolucci’s 1900. I’m no fan of violence, but you’d be on the side of the peasants after seeing what Donald Sutherland visited on them)
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Since the powers that be have been shown to be the desecrators of most everything I was raised to believe in, why the hell not?
The violence will be, and is, a natural consequence of a crooked government that has been totally captured by the wealthy ruling elite.
Violence is a last resort effort to re-balance the playing field. It is used by those who realize that they have a crooked, non responsive to the will of the people, government.
‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.’ —John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
So the police in NYC shot a street vendor who was trying to scam $10 out of unsuspecting tourists. Reports indicate that the pursued vendor was armed, and so the shooting seems justifed, but the police asked for this fellow’s tax stamp, which he did not have, and he fled prompint the pursuit and shooting.
So here we have police cracking down on a fellow who commits fraud on the order of $10 per transaction, while in the very same city, they let scammers get away free who scam millions from the citizenry. Maybe the NYPD should shoot a few Wall Street banksters instead. Way to go, fellas.
In ‘1900,’ Sutherland was a bag man for the local oligarchy, who used his position aiding corporate fascists to become the local Facist [big fat F] executer. That sounds more like US 2020 to me, with today’s banksters, realizing their utter impunity and the rotten dead hand of illegitimate government, as did Sutherland’s character Attila [yes, the character’s name—and the director’s father’s also!] going into the ruling business on their own ticket. Set in a failed state, riven by factions incapable of governance many of them craven and selfish, burnishing its own lie to itself about itself in widely acclaimed preference to any there acting like responsible adults or anything other than horrid little monsters. Coming soon to a Panopticon near you??????
When the government becomes as corrupt as it is, ALL cops become bag men for the despots. Cops in scamerica are now an individual profit center for the ruling elite, they no longer serve and provide justice for the common people.
Well said. American cops are perhaps the most brutal and most trigger-happy policemen in the world. Total brutish, brainless animals.
Vinny
I’m just surprised there hasn’t been more vigilante attacks.
If they stop extending unemployment insurance though, then watch out….
Probably true.
But it is important to point out that most violence by the poor is petty violence against the only group of people they have ready access to — being also the poor.
From their lofty retreats, the wealthy will only laugh.
The level of violence that will topple the wealthy does not redistribute their wealth, but only evaporates it. That level of violence destroys everything including the innocent.
cougar
Sir Fred Goodwins, the former CEO of RBS, home was vandalised in March 2009 after it was announced that he would receive a ridiculously generous pension.
The Raw Story piece refers to an article of March 25 2009.
It seems to be not related to the two other incidents, and as a consequence there is no trend at all.
I think this is a case where a little more checking should have been done. Raw Story might just be a sensationalist website, and its “news” might be incompatible with the usuals standards of Naked Capitalism.
I’m too lazy to even Google it up, but there was that famous line by a Japanese General or Admiral after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, telling his fellow military leaders something like “we’ve awakened a dragon and filled him with a terrible resolve.”
It may be that the data points are sketchy now and there’s no reality to it as of yet, but there will be a breaking point if things keep going the way they are.
I don’t think there’s been this much general anger and discontent directed at a specific issue since probably the Vietnam War or Civil Rights movement — nearly 50 years ago.
The dyke now is paper thin and there’s an angry ocean on the other side, and one more big wave could break it.
I forget to add that the Bloomberg story about Goldman people taking to arms was unfounded and sensationalist too. There’s a link for that, but I can’t dig it up now. Maybe some other reader can.
Some advice: You can’t attack others for allegedly shoddy research and then say you can’t find your own links.
By your own logic we should reject everything you say. Which I do.
Point taken. Here is the link.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/12/10/88256/goldman-bankers-and-their-alleged-guns-the-sequel/
Make up your own judgment, but I felt that what is in the above link about the Goldman bankers, and the fact that the attack on Goodwin was nine months ago, shows that this blog entry could have been considered a bit more before it was sent out.
Errr … you neglect to consider the violently suppressed massive amount of submerged anger that is currently in the pipeline … consider this as a small example of that powder keg of discontent, and if you want more google; Oakland protests, Miami protests, Anti war protests, etc …
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&rls=ig&newwindow=1&q=seattle%20protests%201999&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
“I’m no fan of violence, but you’d be on the side of the peasants after seeing what Donald Sutherland visited on them”
Heh, I certainly was, notwithstanding similarly. Anyon who ever gets a chance to see the whole 5-plus hour epic in a theater should take it, it’s definitely worth a day. Very much identifying fascism or what permits it with the failure to act toward others as responsible and honorable adults.
YES! Tax those rich folks… :)
==========
Americans Want Government to Spend for Jobs, Send Bill to Rich
By Mike Dorning and Catherine Dodge
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless.
They also want the deficit to come down. And most are ready to hand the bill to the wealthy.
A Bloomberg National Poll conducted Dec. 3-7 shows two- thirds of Americans favor taxing the rich to reduce the deficit.
Even though almost 9 of 10 respondents also say they believe the middle class will have to make financial sacrifices to achieve that goal, only a little more than one-fourth support an increase in taxes on the middle class. Fewer still back cuts in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare or a new national consumption tax.
…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awkrRPMONDW8#
Jojo,
Thanks for the link.
From the article:
“People are hurting,” Selzer says. “They want anything that can help and not hurt them more.”
Someone above mentioned unemployment. But the middle-class is getting murdered in at least three other ways:
1) The interest rates banks pay are at near 0%, and persons like my 93 year-old mother, who have their money in savings, are earning almost nothing. This was income she relied on to live.
2) The interest rates banks charge are soaring into the ozone, and banks generally are making credit more difficult to small- and medium-sized borrowers. This puts the squeeze on a number of small businesses and households.
3) The value of the assets of the middle-class, the largest being their home, have imploded. The wealth of the average household has plummeted.
Banking is a utility.
Banks should not be *allowed* to act in this manner.
Not *even* for self-preservation.
Utilities preserve us all. A nation not preserved for the middle-class and small business will not endure long for the banksters, either. It falls to rational leadership to sense this and take the important and difficult measures needed to restore the utility function of banking and so protect the viability of the entire republic.
Yeah I know, crazy talk. I just say’n.
cougar
She’s 93? Time to start eating the principle.
Yves:
Having attended the “Showdown in Chicago,” I didn’t see people so much prone to violence as much as angry, angry at what has been allowed to occur at their expense with the loss of homes, jobs, and savings. This was not a group of office workers and seemed to be moreso cognizant blue collar. The 900 there the first night were certainly vocal; but not so vocal as to keep Illinois Senator Durbin from speaking to them. The organizers did have them under control and did teach them the rules of peaceful protest and how to conduct themselves.
Each day the group did grow and by Tuesday, there were 8000+ at the last march. I consider this to be a considerable number of people out and about on an issue most people wouldn’t normally give a damn about and would simply shrug their shoulders and walk away. On Sunday night, the ~900 walked over to the site of American Bankers Association kickoff theme party . . . “Roaring Twenties.” Given the economic conditions, this comes across as a display of arrogance and “who cares, we got ours attitude” on their part. The ABA also donated one rehabbed home which seemed rather paltry given the number of foreclosures going on then and now. A piece of “cake” anyone?
For now, I believe the acts of violence will be individuals acting out of frustration and personal loss. If the administration can put the “middle income brackets” back to work, they too will have theirs and any rising up of the masses will fizzle as again it will be the lower income bracket” suffering. And everyone knows they are all prone to violence . . .
The middle-class is the only thing holding the center together.
And the middle-class is being looted and destroyed by the banksters with the collusion of governance. This is transparently obvious and no longer subject to much debate. Any debate reverts to questions about when the looting started, who has orchestrated the looting, who currently aids and abets the looting, and where the continued looting will take us.
Well. Wherever it is taking us, that’s where we are headed, for I see no means by which to stop the looting or avert that crisis so created.
It was once predicted that democracies fail this way, as the elites “vote” themselves excesses until the republic is destroyed. So I guess we are not to blame, though it still sucks big wind.
cougar
Couger says; “Deception works best against the stupid, the gullible and the weak of spirit. In fact, I will state that is works *only* against those profiles. And yes, there are stupid clods in the population, and it is not even difficult to find them, and you don’t even have to deceive them all to tear the fabric of society into ruins.”
Deception works against all organisms regardless of human profile or species profile. No organism is immune to the power of deception or its aggregate effects. You must consider overlapping spheres of influence.
“More so, times of stress and anxiety can turn all but the most charitable toward stupid and self-destructive mob behaviors. Throw in the prospect of a handy bit of looting for the fearful but greedy hanging in the wings … and you can now take your army of the disaffected and blaze your bloody way across history.”
Times of stress and anxiety that culminate in self destructive mob behaviors are examples of deception and perception seeking equilibrium.
By enlightening those you characterize as “stupid clods” of their miss-perception you can lessen the impact of the deceptions that they have bought into and avoid the conflict.
“Deception is a tool, is it not? And against what hot iron does that hammer strike, except that it be base emotions? And what is the hard, cold unmoved anvil under all, unless that be stupidity?”
Deception is a tool, yes. It is the base tool of dominance and strikes against the second base tool of dominance, perception. Language is also a tool of dominance, an externalization of organisms, and words like stupid, idiot, etc. are deceptions, when used or misused, to describe others so as to get needs met.
“You cannot save the stupid from themselves. Perhaps we can save the country from the stupid. I’m not even sure of that.”
You can save those who have been deceived from the propaganda and deceptions of others (and have thereby turned their viewpoints to self and socially destructive beliefs and behaviors), by revealing to them that they have been deceived by that propaganda. You will have difficulty getting their attention and their needed alliance if you refer to them as “stupid clods”.
The country is a deceptive construct of the wealthy ruling elite.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
Sorry! Posted in wrong spot … my bad … moderator feel to delete this duplicate post … re-posted below …
What this mess brings to mind for me is the scene in “Little Big Man” where the snake oil salesmen were tarred and feathered. Allardyce T. Merriwhether: Licked? I’m not licked. I’m tarred and feathered, that’s all. If we could get at least a good public T&F of some of these people it would be well worth it.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch. Hopefully politicians are next.
The problem is that the anger that is fomenting is this mutated garbage between the people that just hate Obama and those that actually understand what’s going on with the financial and healthcare interests. This blog and others like Dean Baker’s I don’t think would ever advocate violence and don’t feel we are headed to a New World Order, etc but those that are wanting to “rise up” are the Beck freaks.
the people that are expecting FEMA camps, the ones that get more fired up about abortion and immigration than real issues, the people that aer too stupid to get out of their own way, hate Obama and have a ton of anger so the right wing directs and targets that anger. Talking about heads on a pitch fork is fine here because the readership is smart, can get allegorical themes. Some miscreant from Faux News would take it all too literally.
This echoes what Matt Taibbi wrote in his new article in Rolling Stone, “Obama’s big sellout”:
Morning, the National Mall, November 5th. A year to the day after Obama named Michael Froman to his transition team, his political “opposition” has descended upon the city. Republican teabaggers from all 50 states have showed up, a vast horde of frowning, pissed-off middle-aged white people with their idiot placards in hand, ready to do cultural battle. They are here to protest Obama’s “socialist” health care bill — you know, the one that even a bloodsucking capitalist interest group like Big Pharma spent $150 million to get passed.
These teabaggers don’t know that, however. All they know is that a big government program might end up using tax dollars to pay the medical bills of rapidly breeding Dominican immigrants. So they hate it. They’re also in a groove, knowing that at the polls a few days earlier, people like themselves had a big hand in ousting several Obama-allied Democrats, including a governor of New Jersey who just happened to be the former CEO of Goldman Sachs. A sign held up by New Jersey protesters bears the warning, “If You Vote For Obamacare, We Will Corzine You.”
I approach a woman named Pat Defillipis from Toms River, New Jersey, and ask her why she’s here. “To protest health care,” she answers. “And then amnesty. You know, immigration amnesty.”
I ask her if she’s aware that there’s a big hearing going on in the House today, where Barney Frank’s committee is marking up a bill to reform the financial regulatory system. She recognizes Frank’s name, wincing, but the rest of my question leaves her staring at me like I’m an alien.
“Do you care at all about economic regulation?” I ask. “There was sort of a big economic collapse last year. Do you have any ideas about how that whole deal should be fixed?”
“We got to slow down on spending,” she says. “We can’t afford it.”
“But what do we do about the rules governing Wall Street . . .”
She walks away. She doesn’t give a fuck. People like Pat aren’t aware of it, but they’re the best friends Obama has. They hate him, sure, but they don’t hate him for any reasons that make sense. When it comes down to it, most of them hate the president for all the usual reasons they hate “liberals” — because he uses big words, doesn’t believe in hell and doesn’t flip out at the sight of gay people holding hands. Additionally, of course, he’s black, and wasn’t born in America, and is married to a woman who secretly hates our country.
These are the kinds of voters whom Obama’s gang of Wall Street advisers is counting on: idiots. People whose votes depend not on whether the party in power delivers them jobs or protects them from economic villains, but on what cultural markers the candidate flashes on TV. Finance reform has become to Obama what Iraq War coffins were to Bush: something to be tucked safely out of sight.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/print
I might also point out that there is nothing novel or innovative about any of this. An incompetent and corrupt ruling class always wants to project its own failures and shortcomings onto the weakest and most helpless element of society. And the fact that there is a significant segment of society stupid enough to buy into these ruses? Nothing new about that either:
Urgent problems, like the fiscal question in Castile, or the spread of banditry in Catalonia, were quietly shelved in the vain hope that they might in the course of time satisfactorily solve themselves; and the one positive action of the regime of real merit was the signing in 1609 of the Twelve Years’ Truce with the Dutch—a settlement which Lerma steered through with some skill in the face of considerable opposition, but which was ultimately forced on him by the bankruptcy of the treasury. Otherwise the actions of his Government were ill advised and unfortunate, like the removal of the capital to Valladolid in 1601, which proved so unsatisfactory that it had to return again to Madrid in 1606.
One action, however, the Government was to push through with a most uncharacteristic resolution: the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain. There was a deliberate significance in the choice of the date on which the decree of expulsion was formally approved by the King—9 April 1609, the day which also saw the signing of the Twelve Years’ Truce. By the use of skilful timing, the humiliation of peace with the Dutch would be overshadowed by the glory of removing the last trace of Moorish dominance from Spain, and 1609 would be ever memorable as a year not of defeat but of victory.
–J.H. Elliott, Imperial Spain: 1469-1716
Taibbi is a sellout, or himself ignorant, and I am being kind here in refraining from using his hyperbole of labeling others (the tea baggers specifically, who are equally as ignorant as he is, or, a few conscious sell outs I am sure), as “idiots”.
You come across the same as Taibbi when you label them as, “a significant segment of society stupid enough to buy into these ruses”.
I personally believe that people like Taibbi and yourself, who waste time in addressing the false illusionary decoy theater of two party scamerican politics, are ignorant. How long will you bang your heads against that fucking illusionary wall? Do I believe you are “stupid” and “idiots”? No. I believe you are at a different point on the trail of unraveling the deceptions involved here. Ignorance has no boundaries.
When you center your discourse on the purposefully contrived and deflective, ‘create and control the debate illusion’, you validate the illusion and empower it and give up your own power in the process. When you label others who are equally enmeshed in the deceptions as “stupid”, and “idiots”, you serve the wealthy ruling elite who purchase the shills and puppets that create the deception in the first place to intentionally create divisive conflict. You have been conned and used!
The person, or persons, that will unify all of those who have been deceived will be one who will focus anger solely on the wealthy ruling elite and their sell out puppets, not on labeling each other as “stupid” or “idiots”. The common enemy is deception, and, those who wield it disproportionately for excessive control.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
“The common enemy is deception, and, those who wield it disproportionately for excessive control.”
You state your points brilliantly. Hear hear.
However …
Deception works best against the stupid, the gullible and the weak of spirit. In fact, I will state that is works *only* against those profiles. And yes, there are stupid clods in the population, and it is not even difficult to find them, and you don’t even have to deceive them all to tear the fabric of society into ruins.
More so, times of stress and anxiety can turn all but the most charitable toward stupid and self-destructive mob behaviors. Throw in the prospect of a handy bit of looting for the fearful but greedy hanging in the wings … and you can now take your army of the disaffected and blaze your bloody way across history.
Deception is a tool, is it not? And against what hot iron does that hammer strike, except that it be base emotions? And what is the hard, cold unmoved anvil under all, unless that be stupidity?
You cannot save the stupid from themselves. Perhaps we can save the country from the stupid. I’m not even sure of that.
cougar
Couger says; “Deception works best against the stupid, the gullible and the weak of spirit. In fact, I will state that is works *only* against those profiles. And yes, there are stupid clods in the population, and it is not even difficult to find them, and you don’t even have to deceive them all to tear the fabric of society into ruins.”
Deception works against all organisms regardless of human profile or species profile. No organism is immune to the power of deception or its aggregate effects. You must consider overlapping spheres of influence.
“More so, times of stress and anxiety can turn all but the most charitable toward stupid and self-destructive mob behaviors. Throw in the prospect of a handy bit of looting for the fearful but greedy hanging in the wings … and you can now take your army of the disaffected and blaze your bloody way across history.”
Times of stress and anxiety that culminate in self destructive mob behaviors are examples of deception and perception seeking equilibrium.
By enlightening those you characterize as “stupid clods” of their miss-perception you can lessen the impact of the deceptions that they have bought into and avoid the conflict.
“Deception is a tool, is it not? And against what hot iron does that hammer strike, except that it be base emotions? And what is the hard, cold unmoved anvil under all, unless that be stupidity?”
Deception is a tool, yes. It is the base tool of dominance and strikes against the second base tool of dominance, perception. Language is also a tool of dominance, an externalization of organisms, and words like stupid, idiot, etc. are deceptions, when used or misused, to describe others so as to get needs met.
“You cannot save the stupid from themselves. Perhaps we can save the country from the stupid. I’m not even sure of that.”
You can save those who have been deceived from the propaganda and deceptions of others (and have thereby turned their viewpoints to self and socially destructive beliefs and behaviors), by revealing to them that they have been deceived by that propaganda. You will have difficulty getting their attention and their needed alliance if you refer to them as “stupid clods”.
The country is a deceptive construct of the wealthy ruling elite.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
“The country is a deceptive construct of the wealthy ruling elite.”
You give the elites far too much credit.
The country is a construct indeed, but not of any single group or any vast conspiracy of groups.
A country is an agreement and nothing more. And can be formed or dissolved at will and quite easily. Countries are formed all the time, broken apart, merged and split. Sometimes after wars, sometimes to avoid wars, sometimes just to recognize cultural and ethnic realities.
As such, a country cannot be used to obstruct anyone, just as a business contract cannot bind anyone against their natural rights, or their individual will. Laws, on the other hand, are more of an issue. As are standing armies. These can become troublesome but only to the extent that most of the people will back them in a pinch. Many is a time when an army refuses to run down its own people, and there are lots of laws that exist only in the letter and not in enforcement.
I still hold that stupidity and fear are the root of all mischief. I will allow that the elites will manipulate the weaknesses of stupid or frightened people, but just as often those people are themselves elites; who will deny that the US Congress is chock-a-block with frightened people trying to keep their jobs right now?
The risk in establishing the elites as the sole and only source of all mischief is to miss the possibility that we all bring mischief to the table when we rise from bed in the morning. Without the players, there is no play.
You give the elites far too much credit AND too much blame. We have indeed met the enemy, but he is us.
Thank you for playing. Do play again.
cougar
Couger, I agree with your comment above that banking is, or should be, a utility.
I disagree with your thoughts on the formation of nation states and the ease at which they can be dissolved. Poor people do not form new nation states, and nation states, once created are not easily dissolved. And nation states are used to obstruct people every day — try going to Canada from scamerica with out first now obtaining a passport, and when you go, consider that drones patrolling the Canadian scamerican border now have an eye on you.
Regarding this;
“The risk in establishing the elites as the sole and only source of all mischief is to miss the possibility that we all bring mischief to the table when we rise from bed in the morning. Without the players, there is no play.
You give the elites far too much credit AND too much blame. We have indeed met the enemy, but he is us.”
I don’t establish the elite as the sole source of deception. Deception and perception are the prime movers in all organisms. But … some pigs are more equal than others, and the elite have gained through their aggregate generational deceptions a greater sphere of influence and control of the spread of the distribution of the resource pie. They therefore deserve a proportionally greater amount of attention.
Well if we’re all deceivers except certain saintly individuals who mean Yes for Yes and No for No, then maybe the question is, how can we deceive the bankers? How can we put some force behind our deception.
I agree with you, deception is the human condition. And I’m just trying to be practical. Can we beat them at their game? After all if they have more assets at risk, they should be the more vulnerable.
David said; “Well if we’re all deceivers except certain saintly individuals who mean Yes for Yes and No for No, then maybe the question is, how can we deceive the bankers? How can we put some force behind our deception.
First, there are no “saintly individuals” any where on the planet. All organisms must cannibalize other organisms in order to survive and sustain life. Organisms enter into either; voluntary alliances of deception with other organisms, or; involuntary alliances of deception with other organisms. ‘Saintly’ is a tool of dominance word, an expression of language, it can be used to form voluntary alliances or involuntary alliances. Deception always leads perception. It is a dog eat dog world. The best one can hope for is to lessen the peaks of the range of deception and perception and balance the spread throughout the range. It is not a matter of putting force behind our deceptions, rather it is a matter of putting force behind (heightening) our perceptions so as to regulate the spread. Evolution is the ultimate arbiter.
“I agree with you, deception is the human condition. And I’m just trying to be practical. Can we beat them at their game? After all if they have more assets at risk, they should be the more vulnerable.”
Yes, the bankers have more assets at risk gained through their greater deception. That is a plus for change as their greed and greater share of the pie awakens more of those that have been deceived and now find themselves with a lesser share of the pie. The way then to beat them at their game is to expose — through perception — the deceptions in their game. The degree of force that you then use ‘to beat them’ will be dependent upon your individual powers of perception, your sphere of influence, and your assessment of whether or not you are getting your present and future needs met (real or imagined) sufficient to sustain your life in the fashion you desire.
My perceptions tell me that, first, the wealthy ruling elite are engaged in a far greater sphere of influence deception than most realize, and second, that they have a far greater understanding and command of the use of deception than the masses that they deceive, and third, all of our abilities to get needs met are threatened. They have used the ploy of divisiveness in the masses well and it functions for them as a firewall or buffer that dissipates energy that might otherwise go to revealing their primary deceptions. Hurdle one is to expose that intentional divisiveness and form alliances of common interest. That is why I chastise Taibbi and DownSouth for ragging on the Tea Baggers as “idiots” and “stupid”. This is class warfare. Have against have not.
Being practical requires that the depth of the deceptions are fully understood and met with creative force in kind. For instance, take civility and respect as an example. Just as the government has been hijacked by the wealthy ruling elite, civility and respect, by extension, has been similarly hijacked by the wealthy ruling elite. They have uncivilly and disrespectfully hijacked the government, yet they maintain the civil and respectful illusion of decorum of that government so that those who have been deceived will be civil and respectful towards them.
Well, fuck them all! They are scum bags undeserving of that civility and respect.
Being uncivil in kind towards them is an incremental and peaceful remedial measure that can be used to seek equilibrium. Shunning, shaming, and boycotting, the wealthy elite, and their government and law enforcement pawns that exist as a product of deception, is a legitimate incremental turning of the screw of remedial balance. It will serve to turn the tables and divide them and force them to take a position.
Similarly by perceiving the battle of ‘vanilla greed’ against ‘pernicious greed’ at the top of the chain, and constantly drawing attention to it will serve to divide those at the top. It will also serve to draw attention to the aggregate generational corruption that has brought us to this stage. Looking at the past five hundred years of history and how well the concept of enslaving usury has blossomed and become entrenched through the same repetitive deceptive process of hijacking government and media shills.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
“The problem is that the anger that is fomenting is this mutated garbage between the people that just hate Obama and those that actually understand what’s going on with the financial and healthcare interests.”
—-
Very true. The banking elite have stolen trillions from the taxpayers and brought the economy to the edge of the abyss. Yet the popular anger that it has provoked, via the teabagger movement and elsewhere, has been focused on opposing healthcare reform, fiscal stimulus, and other government programs that would actually help the middle class. Simply amazing.
Great post! And one which signifies that perception in the populace is rising! Kudos to NC for the necessary ‘rabble’ rousing part it has played in revealing the deceptions!
This is one post that I would set aside my aversion to contacting scum bag crooked scamerican politicians (because we have such a non responsive to the will of the people government and I therefore believe it is useless to do so), and urge everyone to send a link or copy of this post to their ‘appointed’ weasel sell out crooked scum bag politicians. It just might help a few of them mend their devious ways and save them from the mounting wrath of the public now being unleashed. Those pitch forks can hurt. Ouch!
In addition it should be sent to all FIRE offices in scamerica, and, in a reverse twist of fear inducing delivery, send a link to all of those overpaid corporate butt sucking media shills that have been inducing fear and anxiety in us all for the past thirty plus years. Begin forwarding now. Send it simply FYI, as an expression of concern, or, embellish it as you will. This a great opportunity to tell your local greedy bankster what a parasitic piece of shit he is!
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
In Charlse Dicken’s novel set in the French Revolution, “A Tale of Two Cities”, he points out that such social chaos is a natural consequence of robbing the populace into impoverishment. I also find the similarities between the French and the Russian revolutions , and subsequent reigns of terror, fascinating. In both cases, the people where in the process of throwing off aristocracies while, at the same time, their countries were being attacked from all sides. Things had to get bad enough first so that the peasants in both countries could not afford basics, like bread, however. The French people were also tipped into revolution by the financial burden of paying for the American Revolution. Two Revolutions for the price of one !
“A Los Angeles lawyer who had represented a failed subprime mortgage lender is found dead outside his home, having been shot in the head.”
That sounds more like an insider hit job than a lone gunman vigilante. Reminds me of the Enron guy who ate a bullet. He can’t tell any of the facts anymore, now.
Yves, did you see this gem: Woman serving shoplifting sentence dies at Framingham prison
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/05/woman_serving_shoplifting_sentence_dies_at_framingham_prison/
“Donovan was sentenced to a year in prison last December after pleading guilty to charges of larceny and shoplifting, according to Wiffin.
She had been arrested six months earlier in the theft of four pairs of shorts from Filene’s Basement at South Shore Plaza in Braintree and several body sprays from a Victoria’s Secret store. She had been arrested on charges of shoplifting previously, according to records at Quincy District Court.”
And the banksters? They are running the White House and Capitol Hill.
Great Bob Dylan line comes to mind (from ‘Infidels’ – ‘Sweetheart Like You’)
They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you a king.
Theres only one more step from here baby,
Its called the land of permanent bliss.
Whats a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?
This all sounds so familiar to me…
Nor did you fair well that last time around. Or perhaps I am mistaken.
What might be your advice from the grave as we run-up to the next great social convulsion? Has anything of consequence changed in the human condition? Are we different in any substantial way that merits consideration?
Do you think you really had a choice in events, at the end of things?
Was it worth it? Could it be.
cougar
Real life happens in such slow motion that it is driving me crazy. I wish time was compressed like in the movies.
I saw the heist take place in 2008 and was ridiculed by the peasants when I told them. Well, they seem to believe it in 2009. When will they revolt? 2010? 2011?…
They don’t know what they believe even now, and they still don’t understand what happened in ’08 and never shall.
And that’s why they will turn on you. All they know is that you *knew* something before they did, and your *knowledge* places you on the wrong side of the fence, when it comes down to it.
It has ALWAYS been this way. Do NOT trust to your good intension. They will take your good intension and gut you with it and never know what they have done.
cougar
On the side of the peasants? How lost in fantasy do you need to be in order to compare the voting populace of western democracies to peasants?
These are people who receive subsidies for healthcare, retirement, unemployment, food, lodging, family; who in many cases bought houses and lived a lifestyle they could not afford; and who, through a combination of greed and ignorance, provide the grist for every scam foisted upon them. For God’s sake, this is neither fascism nor oppression, it is simply democracy at work.
This “virtuous peasant” routine is extremely tired. Using it to excuse, justify or even relish in violence – as some here seem to do – is reprehensible. It’s this kind of faux-compassionate, self-interested tripe that empowered the nazis, the leninists, the pol pots and every other repressive regime in recent memory. Shame.
“This “virtuous peasant” routine is extremely tired. Using it to excuse, justify or even relish in violence – as some here seem to do – is reprehensible.”
Well, reprehensible, is a strong word. Maybe misguided is better. Or just wrong or mistaken.
And also there is no need to drag the nazis and/or Pol Pot into it. It’s on the same level as the big words people use here.
For the rest I agree fully with what you say about violence.
Luckily there is no trend in that.
So “the voting populace of western demcoracies” are people “who receive subsidies for healthcare, retirement, unemployment, food, lodging, family…”
Who, pray tell, pays for these subsidies?
Also, you scorn this as being “simply democracy at work.” So in lieu of democracy, just what is it that you propose?
See the story of an Improvised Bankster Takedown Device.
As far “former subprime highflyer Daniel Sadek”, there’s no evidence this is populist anger, right? The guy was, after all, a bankster. For all we know, it was done on contract.
Interesting post, fascinating comments. I linked to it on my blog. This is like a view of the whole debate in microcosm.
Great post.
But I’m not convinced the American people have what it takes to rebel against their oppressors. This people has become so divided, so selfish, so individualistic, and brainwashed to blame problems on their fellow citizen, they just don’t have it in them to look one level higher. What can I say, a nation of chumps.
And, by the way, these bankers have covered their back legally. Any kind of disturbance caused in a bank is basically a federal felony that usually caries over 5 years at Club Fed, but usually a lot more, in the range of 15 to 20 years. Anybody that yells or waves a pen at his branch manager risks being picked up by the FBI and sent to the Big House for a very long time. I worked at the DOJ, so trust me, I have seen injustice beyond your wildest imagination. Sickening.
Vinny
I agree with the comment before this. The people of the United States haven’t been referred to as citizens since they were converted into consumers. Given enough bread and circuses there’s no chance they’re going to move off the sofa into action. They like their confrontation done in proxy lands. I agree they’re losing more and more but it’s just whining. They haven’t got the grapes to do anything about it.
And in some ways its none of my business although I’m pleased to see Gordon Brown taking a moral lead in the UK.