Posted by thepete on Friday, October 14th at 3:26 PM. [link]

motherjones:

Best #OccupyWallStreet photo ever of the day.

The rich folks are only making it harder for themselves. If they keep on pissing off the 99% like this, there’s going to reach a tipping point… let’s hope the economy catastrophically fails for the 1% before that happens, though.  Because then it’s likely to be like that Daniel Day-Lewis movie (I’m talking about the title, not the milkshake—the rich have already been drinking our milkshakes for quite sometime).

motherjones:

Best #OccupyWallStreet photo ever of the day.

The rich folks are only making it harder for themselves. If they keep on pissing off the 99% like this, there’s going to reach a tipping point… let’s hope the economy catastrophically fails for the 1% before that happens, though.  Because then it’s likely to be like that Daniel Day-Lewis movie (I’m talking about the title, not the milkshake—the rich have already been drinking our milkshakes for quite sometime).


Posted by thepete on Wednesday, October 12th at 1:28 PM. [link]

friendlyatheist:

robertreich:

THE SEVEN BIGGEST ECONOMIC LIES

The President’s Jobs Bill doesn’t have a chance in Congress — and the Occupiers on Wall Street and elsewhere can’t become a national movement for a more equitable society – unless more Americans know the truth about the economy.  

Here’s a short (2 minute 30 second) effort to rebut the seven biggest whoppers now being told by those who want to take America backwards. The major points:

 

1. Tax cuts for the rich trickle down to everyone else. Baloney. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both sliced taxes on the rich and what happened? Most Americans’ wages (measured by the real median wage) began flattening under Reagan and have dropped since George W. Bush. Trickle-down economics is a cruel joke. 

 2. Higher taxes on the rich would hurt the economy and slow job growth. False. From the end of World War II until 1981, the richest Americans faced a top marginal tax rate of 70 percent or above. Under Dwight Eisenhower it was 91 percent. Even after all deductions and credits, the top taxes on the very rich were far higher than they’ve been since. Yet the economy grew faster during those years than it has since. (Don’t believe small businesses would be hurt by a higher marginal tax; fewer than 2 percent of small business owners are in the highest tax bracket.)  

 3. Shrinking government generates more jobs. Wrong again. It means fewer government workers – everyone from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and social workers at the state and local levels to safety inspectors and military personnel at the federal. And fewer government contractors, who would employ fewer private-sector workers. According to Moody’s economist Mark Zandi (a campaign advisor to John McCain), the $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP will cost the economy 700,000 jobs this year and next.

 4. Cutting the budget deficit now is more important than boosting the economy. Untrue. With so many Americans out of work, budget cuts now will shrink the economy. They’ll increase unemployment and reduce tax revenues. That will worsen the ratio of the debt to the total economy. The first priority must be getting jobs and growth back by boosting the economy. Only then, when jobs and growth are returning vigorously, should we turn to cutting the deficit.

 5. Medicare and Medicaid are the major drivers of budget deficits. Wrong. Medicare and Medicaid spending is rising quickly, to be sure. But that’s because the nation’s health-care costs are rising so fast. One of the best ways of slowing these costs is to use Medicare and Medicaid’s bargaining power over drug companies and hospitals to reduce costs, and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy outcomes system. And since Medicare has far lower administrative costs than private health insurers, we should make Medicare available to everyone.

 6. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Don’t believe it. Social Security is solvent for the next 26 years. It could be solvent for the next century if we raised the ceiling on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. That ceiling is now $106,800.  

 7. It’s unfair that lower-income Americans don’t pay income tax. Wrong. There’s nothing unfair about it. Lower-income Americans pay out a larger share of their paychecks in payroll taxes, sales taxes, user fees, and tolls than everyone else.

 

Demagogues through history have known that big lies, repeated often enough,  start being believed — unless they’re rebutted. These seven economic whoppers are just plain wrong. Make sure you know the truth – and spread it on.

 

Although it is not religious in content this was too good to not reblog.
-FA

GOOD STUFF.

So frustrating that this kind of thing even needs to be presented in this way.  Truth is so obfuscated by agenda-ized politics that people need to be handed the truth on a silver platter, with it all pre-cut-up into bite-sized pieces for easy consumption and digestion.  It’s like we’re all fucking 2 year-olds* not yet eating solid foods.

*I don’t know how old children are when they stop eating baby food. Please don’t send nasty emails, thanks.


Posted by thepete on Sunday, October 9th at 7:51 PM. [link]

It’s hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell ‘em they’re irresponsible and lazy. And who’s gonna wanna do that? Because that’s what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country, you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period. Period.

Bill “Poverty is a lack of hard work” O’Reilly, for Fox News

(via reallyfoxnews)

When are people going to realize how ignorant this statement is? Social mobility is becoming more and more limited each day, and poverty has nothing to do with hard work. It is blatantly obvious that,

1. Bill O’Reilly has never had a service job in his life

2. inherited wealth, and 

3. has never studied sociological theory or any sociology related topic in his life, or else he might actually understand the concepts of social mobility and oppression/greed.

(via killtvmakestuff)

I wonder how many of his fans he just called “irresponsible and lazy” in this?

(via feministslut)

A guy who gets paid millions for working an hour a day gets to call full-time minimum-wage workers irresponsible and lazy?

[animated image: Judge Judy sits in her courtroom in front of an American flag and New York state flag. She glances to towards the right side of the image and gives an incredulous smirk.]

(via afunnyfeminist)

The 99% posters I see MOSTLY complain about this lie.  This piece of shit we all get fed that “getting educated” will put us on the path to success.  Now we all took out student loans to pay hyper-inflated tuition prices for bullshit degrees that don’t matter when there are NO JOBS you can put that degree to work with.

of course he’s insulting his fans and dissenters alike, but the difference is his fans will agree with him.  They’re the 53%-ers, the ones who think it’s okay to work 100 hours a week to make ends meet.  Because they believe this bullshit myth of “hard work.” 

Newsflash: The people telling us we just have to “work hard” have no fucking idea what that really even means.  It’s just like being told you didn’t pray hard enough for something to come.  If you’re provided for, you’re working hard enough, whether that means broadcasting one hour a day on television or working 100 hours a week with no benefits.  If you’re not provided for, then you’re not working hard enough.  Even if you’re working 110 hours a week.  

Just like God can’t lose, Capitalism can’t lose either.  Corporations can’t lose.  It’s not their fault when the economy collapses, it’s not their fault when they don’t create any jobs for people to “work hard” at.  It IS their doing when things are going well, though.

(via sonic-hip-attack)

Fuck this fucktard. Poverty is not a lack of hard work. It’s a lack of luck. Fuck you rich people and fuck you Bill O’Reilly.

(via simplyopinions)

It’s opinions and attitudes like O’Reilly’s that will raise the collective temperature of the lower class to a boiling point.  History shows us that poor people, if pushed, will turn to violence to quench their thirst for “justice” or “fairness” when, really it will be about jealousy and revenge.  But what you call it won’t matter.  Back during the late 1800s and early 1900s, rich people’s homes were sacked in cities like New York.  Rich people hired guards to make sure no one would burn their homes down.  See—they weren’t common thieves—they wanted revenge and it’ll happen again, just like back then (read Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” for more on this—it’s a brilliant history book as it is told from the loser’s point-of-view).

But the thing is, the attitude of the rich isn’t entirely inaccurate—if you work hard you are more likely to do well.  After all, success is when preparation meets opportunity.  So the rich are right in this way.  Of course, they don’t talk about the lack of opportunities. Also, just because the rich are partially right doesn’t give them license to be douchebags about it.  And the bigger the douchebag they are, the more anxious the “unprivileged” will be to pop that bag and shower in that vinegar and water goodness (sorry, metaphor went off the rails there).

Now, when the rich get all uppity about “class warfare” they’re just Orwellian-style doublespeaking.  In other words, when rich people talk of “class warfare” they’re doing it to distract us from noticing that they, themselves are committing acts of class war.

When a rich person says to a jobless, homeless or penniless person (JHP), “work hard and you will succeed!” that is class warfare.  The rich person is withholding all aid and resources from this “JHP” person.  Now consider what you do to your enemy in a time of war: you cut off their resources.

Therefore cutting funding to social programs, health programs, libraries and education is literally class warfare.  It’s wonderful since they get mad when they’re accused of class warfare, but they don’t have a problem accusing everyone else.

And capitalism is JUST like God, as one of the rebloggers above said.  And it’s just as impossible to have a rational conversation with someone who has an irrational belief in something.  

The system is failing us—and it will continue to fail us because of this absurd faith in the magical properties of capitalism.  So, until something dramatically changes, the system will continue to fall apart because the people in charge are just ignoring the problems, even denying they exist—as though belief is enough.  They’re like economic Christian Scientists.

Idiots.

(Source: brainyquote.com)


Posted by thepete on Wednesday, October 5th at 5:59 PM. [link]

motherjones:

cognitivedissonance:

Michelle Malkin makes the claim that Occupy Wall Street is 99% white. It hurts my irony bone for someone on Fox News to criticize a social movement for being “99% white.” It hurts real bad.
According to Malkin:

“The protesters have taken to calling themselves the ‘99 percent’ in the country, labeling the capitalists they wish to remove from power the other ‘1 percent.’ When Occupy Wall Street activists call themselves the ‘99 percent,’ it turns out they mean 99 percent non-diverse (by their own politically correct measurements). It’s as pale out there at Camp Alinsky as MSNBC’s prime-time lineup or the New York Times editorial board. Not counting the cameos by Jesse Jackson and Cornel West, that is.”

Uh-huh… love the photo choice showing a rather diverse crowd, Fox Nation. I don’t need to debunk your claim since you, um, did it yourselves.
Bravo.

h/t to Media Matters

 Oh, Malkin, you race-baiting fact-mangler, you.

Just turn OFF the GOD DAMN TV, ALREADY.

motherjones:

cognitivedissonance:

Michelle Malkin makes the claim that Occupy Wall Street is 99% white. It hurts my irony bone for someone on Fox News to criticize a social movement for being “99% white.” It hurts real bad.

According to Malkin:

“The protesters have taken to calling themselves the ‘99 percent’ in the country, labeling the capitalists they wish to remove from power the other ‘1 percent.’ When Occupy Wall Street activists call themselves the ‘99 percent,’ it turns out they mean 99 percent non-diverse (by their own politically correct measurements). It’s as pale out there at Camp Alinsky as MSNBC’s prime-time lineup or the New York Times editorial board. Not counting the cameos by Jesse Jackson and Cornel West, that is.”

Uh-huh… love the photo choice showing a rather diverse crowd, Fox Nation. I don’t need to debunk your claim since you, um, did it yourselves.

Bravo.

h/t to Media Matters

 Oh, Malkin, you race-baiting fact-mangler, you.

Just turn OFF the GOD DAMN TV, ALREADY.


Posted by thepete on Wednesday, October 5th at 12:28 PM. [link]

Herman Cain on #OccupyWallStreet: "If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!"

motherjones:

It’s like they’re not even pretending anymore.

Rich folks need to keep talking like this.  Seriously.  

They need to keep talking like this so when they finally get punched in the face or their home burned to the ground, they’ll be able to blame themselves.

Aw, who am I kidding? They’ll still blame us for everything.  Even though they’ve got our money (who do you think bought all those pizzas, Herman?) they still think that they don’t owe us anything, yet they still expect us to keep buying their shit (we can’t afford pizzas, anymore, Herman!).  

I still think rich folks need to keep talking like this though.  It’ll just speed things up more.


Posted by thepete on Monday, October 3rd at 4:33 PM. [link]

More proof that nothing you see in the media is real.. or at least it is questionable.. the White House tipped off the AP of Michelle Obama's Target trip before she went

So, whether it’s a story on protesters getting entrapped only to be rewritten 20 minutes later to be a story on protesters getting arrested, or even  the little, unimportant things like the above, the media isn’t representing reality.  This whole “paying attention” thing is getting pretty tedious.

Then again, I suppose the idea is to get us to stop caring. >_<


Posted by thepete on Sunday, October 2nd at 10:31 AM. [link]

leftish:

The Revolution will not be Televised.
JOIN OCCUPYTOGETHER.ORG

Yeah, this is a pretty sad state, where it takes hours for the MSM to catch up to events that were being reported on by Twitter as they happened.  There&#8217;s no excuse for this, but there is an explanation&#8212;that all of our concerns, that the government is only out to protect and serve the rich and the corporations and that our rights as citizens trying to voice our own opinions, are true.
They arrested 700 people. 700!  That&#8217;s just here in NYC&#8212;yesterday on the Brooklyn Bridge.  I have no idea what&#8217;s happening in other cities that are doing &#8220;Occupy&#8221; style protests.  If that&#8217;s not enough, the rumor as of last night was that the cops ushered protesters onto the bridge so that they could arrest them.  Essentially, they were entrapped.  That&#8217;s illegal.  But these days, it&#8217;s no surprise when cops can get away with things that are illegal.
This is why I won&#8217;t join them.  I&#8217;m simply not brave enough to risk an arrest record or the chance I might get pepper sprayed or beaten up.  I don&#8217;t have health insurance, thanks to our lovely every-man-for-himself system we have.  However, I&#8217;ll do whatever I can to get their word out.  I hope you will too.

leftish:

The Revolution will not be Televised.

JOIN OCCUPYTOGETHER.ORG

Yeah, this is a pretty sad state, where it takes hours for the MSM to catch up to events that were being reported on by Twitter as they happened.  There’s no excuse for this, but there is an explanation—that all of our concerns, that the government is only out to protect and serve the rich and the corporations and that our rights as citizens trying to voice our own opinions, are true.

They arrested 700 people. 700!  That’s just here in NYC—yesterday on the Brooklyn Bridge.  I have no idea what’s happening in other cities that are doing “Occupy” style protests.  If that’s not enough, the rumor as of last night was that the cops ushered protesters onto the bridge so that they could arrest them.  Essentially, they were entrapped.  That’s illegal.  But these days, it’s no surprise when cops can get away with things that are illegal.

This is why I won’t join them.  I’m simply not brave enough to risk an arrest record or the chance I might get pepper sprayed or beaten up.  I don’t have health insurance, thanks to our lovely every-man-for-himself system we have.  However, I’ll do whatever I can to get their word out.  I hope you will too.


Posted by thepete on Saturday, October 1st at 11:31 AM. [link]

Mark of the Cain..

coalspeaker has stumbled upon Herman Cain’s upside-down devil’s work:

I’m very surprised that no one from the Christian right has yet tied in the Herman Cain ‘999’ plan with ‘666’.. 

Maybe, as of now, no one has been upside down while reading his plan..

ARG! I can’t believe I didn’t notice this!!  Good call, Coalspeaker!  Damn.

I think it’s also odd that no one has tied Cain to the Bible story with his name in it—Cain and Abel.  I can’t recall the exact details but didn’t one kill the other only to have God put the mark on him, thus cursing his entire lineage-to-come?   For some reason, I feel like this was the explanation the Bible has for black people.  

I haven’t picked up a Bible in so long, though.  I suppose I should since it’s important to “know the enemy”. ;)


Posted by thepete on Friday, September 30th at 1:07 PM. [link]

Ron Paul: US-born al-Qaida cleric 'assassinated'

thestealthblogger:

Memo to Jon Stewart: Shit like this is why the media doesn’t take Ron Paul seriously.

Because the media thinks executing Americans without trial is a good thing?

OH, duh—of course they do. The media loves death and destruction. #StupidMe

For the record I don’t like Ron Paul. I agree with him on a vast number of issues but disagree with him on quite a few, as well. The whole “assassinating American citizens because we don’t like them” is one of the things I agree with Ron Paul as it goes to the whole “protecting human rights” thing—you know, that’s the stuff the US Constitution guarantees all humans.  Cuz like, we’re all supposed to be created equal and stuff.

Or does that not apply to some folks?


Posted by thepete on Friday, September 30th at 12:29 PM. [link]

motherjones:

A Terror Plot Wile E. Coyote Might Love
Seriously, MSM? You all freaked out about a dude with a BS in physics, a model airplane, and big dreams? Yeah, here’s why that wouldn’t have worked.

NEWS FLASH: even Mother Jones doesn&#8217;t get that nearly every &#8220;terrorist&#8221; arrest on American soil involved suspects that had the want to harm America but no means to actually do it. The vast majority of the people the USG is keeping us safe from inside the US are just pissed at the government and these days who can blame them.
Funny thing is, I was going to blog about this (and probably still will at thepete.com) but it&#8217;s so much easier to just reblog someone else&#8217;s setup :)
My main point is that we really need to step back and get a sense of scale here. I&#8217;ve said it before and I&#8217;m saying it again: during the Cold War we didn&#8217;t have a Patriot Act. We weren&#8217;t searched before we got on an airplane, we didn&#8217;t have cameras on every corner, we didn&#8217;t torture anyone and we didn&#8217;t arrest people without trial.  And all that was when we were up against &#8220;The Evil Empire&#8221;.  Al Qaeda is a handful of guys (thousands&#8212;maybe) and the Soviet Union was millions.  Why are we so fucking scared of a few people who don&#8217;t like us?  
OH NO, A MODEL AIRPLANE MIGHT GET ME! QUICK! FEEL MY BALLS, THAT WILL KEEP ME SAFE!
OH WOW, SOMEONE FORGOT A ROLLER BAG IN TIMES SQUARE FUCKING SAVE ME GOD!! (Oh, it&#8217;s just a bag of clothes forgotten by some tourist? Oh.)
OH MY GOD, THAT MAN HAS DARKER SKIN THAN ME! AND HE&#8217;S SPEAKING IN TONGUES!! (Ah, that&#8217;s President Obama and he&#8217;s talking about the economy, ah&#8230;)
HOLY SHIT! THERE&#8217;S A SCARY, FEARFUL PERSON STARING AT ME FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF A STRANGE GLASS PORTAL IN MY BATHROOM WALL!!
(Oh, that&#8217;s me, in  the mirror&#8230; oh&#8230;)
GROW UP, AMERICA.  YOU FUCKING PUSSIES.

motherjones:

A Terror Plot Wile E. Coyote Might Love

Seriously, MSM? You all freaked out about a dude with a BS in physics, a model airplane, and big dreams? Yeah, here’s why that wouldn’t have worked.

NEWS FLASH: even Mother Jones doesn’t get that nearly every “terrorist” arrest on American soil involved suspects that had the want to harm America but no means to actually do it. The vast majority of the people the USG is keeping us safe from inside the US are just pissed at the government and these days who can blame them.

Funny thing is, I was going to blog about this (and probably still will at thepete.com) but it’s so much easier to just reblog someone else’s setup :)

My main point is that we really need to step back and get a sense of scale here. I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: during the Cold War we didn’t have a Patriot Act. We weren’t searched before we got on an airplane, we didn’t have cameras on every corner, we didn’t torture anyone and we didn’t arrest people without trial.  And all that was when we were up against “The Evil Empire”.  Al Qaeda is a handful of guys (thousands—maybe) and the Soviet Union was millions.  Why are we so fucking scared of a few people who don’t like us?  

OH NO, A MODEL AIRPLANE MIGHT GET ME! QUICK! FEEL MY BALLS, THAT WILL KEEP ME SAFE!

OH WOW, SOMEONE FORGOT A ROLLER BAG IN TIMES SQUARE FUCKING SAVE ME GOD!! (Oh, it’s just a bag of clothes forgotten by some tourist? Oh.)

OH MY GOD, THAT MAN HAS DARKER SKIN THAN ME! AND HE’S SPEAKING IN TONGUES!! (Ah, that’s President Obama and he’s talking about the economy, ah…)

HOLY SHIT! THERE’S A SCARY, FEARFUL PERSON STARING AT ME FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF A STRANGE GLASS PORTAL IN MY BATHROOM WALL!!

(Oh, that’s me, in  the mirror… oh…)

GROW UP, AMERICA.  YOU FUCKING PUSSIES.


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