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[Thad]

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

Oh, I like those bullet items quite a lot.  Either Wolf is exaggerating, or OWS really IS getting its shit together.

Let's hear some more talk about this stuff.

[Smiler]

Apparently there is new legislation in the works in the senate. edit: that passed through without so much as a congressional hearing.

Although I haven't seen the actual text and lack the ability to vouch for the validity of these claims. The ACLU is claiming that revisions to sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA for the 2012 fiscal year will allow the United States military to perform domestic combat operations and allow for the indefinite detention of 'combatants'... which considering the new operational jurisdiction may be American citizens.

Edit4: this piece of legislation will be on the floor for vote on MONDAY

[Royal☭]

Fox News gives thanks to the 1%

[Mongrel]

I love all the references to Billionaires who singlehandedly innovated/revolutionized/inverted product/process so-and-so.

They don't even say that the genius of their 1% was in the hiring, or the organization, or the vision, no, they straight-up imply that billionaires stride the earth ripping out mines with their bare hands, pumping out oil by siphoning it with drinking straws, like some modern-day Paul Bunyan. Or creating and marketing fully-developed products via some sort of magical process whereby the items fly out of their heads like some kind of assembly-line Zeus who cranks out perfect Athenas every 15.72887 seconds.

[McDohl]

Gee.  I didn't know it was possible to have your face buried so far in Ayn Rand's rotting vagina.

Well done, Fox News.  Well done.

[Norondor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb3p8IZ-ex8#

even the dozy, incompetent CNN takes shots at fox

[Defenestration]

I didn't know his name came out. But it leads to some fun history lessons.

Four years later, Pike subdued a UC Davis Medical Center patient who was threatening a fellow officer with scissors and a spray bottle filled with a caustic chemical.
The 245-pound Pike opted not to use pepper spray, because he didn't want to hurt his fellow officers, Pike said at the time.
"You've got all these tools on your belt, but sometimes they're not the best tools," Pike said.

[Thad]

Alleged NYPD Disorder Control Unit guidelines snagged by arrestee.

There are some legitimately good pointers in there, like not using unnecessary force and not chasing down people throwing bottles.  If we're to interpret this cynically, it's a CYA for the superiors to point to and say their subordinates are stepping out of line; if we're to interpret it less cynically, their subordinates really ARE stepping out of line and disregarding the rules they've been given.

I think a key problem is that the first bullet point works in direct contradiction to the ones that follow.

A strong military appearance, with sharp and precise movements, is a force multiplier and a psychological advantage to us.

Depends on what you mean by "psychological advantage".  Appearing to be a big, scary, unified group is going to scare people and make it clear that you're prepared for a fight -- but is that what you want?

A line of officers who look and act like they're just dudes may not be as scary, but maybe you don't WANT to be scary.  Maybe you WANT people to see you as just dudes.

[Thad]

Krugman hits a couple points Brent's been hammering for some time: one, that the super-rich are more like 0.1% than 1%, and two, that job creators aren't creating jobs.  He also gives this (unfortunately unsourced) breakdown:

One recent analysis found that 43 percent of the super-elite are executives at nonfinancial companies, 18 percent are in finance and another 12 percent are lawyers or in real estate.

From a propaganda standpoint, that is GOLD.  "Job creators" is one of the most limp-wristed pieces of double-speak ever to come out of a focus group; good luck stacking it up against people's gut reactions to words like "lawyer" and "real estate exec".

[Thad]

So, you thought TARP was bad?

Well, funny story: in addition to TARP, the banks also received $7.7T-yes-that-is-a-fucking-T in bailout money from the fed (including loans, guarantees, and lending limits).  As of March '09.

God dammit, Bernanke, you're making it REALLY hard to side with you over the crazy Randers saying that the Federal Reserve shouldn't exist.

[Mongrel]

Back in 1991, a silly action movie came out called The Last Boy Scout. It featured Bruce Willis, FUHBAWL, and a particularly hilarious scene featuring a helicopter.

Now, at one point in the movie, the villain, a fat southern man, is talking to the hero and describes A Billion Dollars, by saying "THAT'S NIIIIINNNE ZEEROS, BWOY!". That rather tautological line was forever burned into my rather young head as a description of what was once an amazing sum of money - more than even a rich man might make in a lifetime.

It's terrifying to think that not even 20 years later that sum is looking more and more insignificant every day. Or would have, if our paycheques had gone anywhere since then.

[Norondor]

Speaking of not having gone anywhere

(not exactly current events, but it's worth remembering this isn't a unique problem, and solutions have presented themselves throughout history!)

[Mongrel]

True, but the brainwashing marketing faced by the average modern person is without precedent.

[Brentai]

(not exactly current events, but it's worth remembering this isn't a unique problem, and solutions have presented themselves throughout history!)

Um, are you suggesting another world war, or were you getting at something else?

[Norondor]

Uh, i was suggesting another New Deal really. There are like, 40 guys who the forces of good would be waging war on, and they don't have armies or countries.

[Brentai]

In measurable terms Barack Obama's presidency so far has been almost exactly as successful at alleviating the economic downturn as the New Deal was.

People won't be happy until there's either a second coming of Jesus or a third World War, and a million dollars on the latter horse wouldn't pay out a cent.

[Kashan]

In measurable terms Barack Obama's presidency so far has been almost exactly as successful at alleviating the economic downturn as the New Deal was.

People won't be happy until there's either a second coming of Jesus or a third World War, and a million dollars on the latter horse wouldn't pay out a cent.

Either you've greatly overestimated the effects of the Obama presidency or you've greatly underestimated the effects of the new deal. From 1929 onward the economy was in free-fall. The bottom had fallen out of the economy, but roughly as soon as the first 100 days proposals were in place the economy began to make a dramatic recovery. Every metric you would care to use shows the economy recovering rapidly. Granted there was the 37 recession, but that occurred after Roosevelt cut jobs from the WPA because things were back to the level they were at in 1929. If Obama's presidency was as effective as the new deal we'd have recovered 75% of the jobs we'd lost by now.

[Burrito Al Pastor]

Seven trillion? That's, what, half the national debt?

[Büge]

The Iraq vet that got the tear gas canister in the head gets interviewed.

[Joxam]

Seriously, if you fuck a kids brain up you shouldn't be allowed to argue its justified.