(WP) In a rare reversal, Bank of America announced today that it will drop a highly criticized fee for customers who swipe their debit cards. The bank had intended to begin charging the $5 fee next year, citing new federal regulations that it says have hurt its bottom line. But the debit charge drew a torrent of fury from customers, lawmakers, and even Pres. Obama. Faced with consumer backlash, Wells Fargo recently abandoned its own testing of a fee. Regions Bank and SunTrust have also dropped their charges. More
Wisdom Quarterly, Democracy Now!, Michael Moore, Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine once hired Michael Moore to produce their video for the song "Sleep Now in the Fire" eleven years ago. They chose Wall Street, shutting the stock exchange in the process as police overreacted to a music video.
Moore was arrested while everyone else ran away. But the story lives on because just today, he was banned from filming a news piece for a cable news agency. Apparently, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) now owns the street outside the exchange and determines who can be interviewed on the street.
Moore was interviewed on Democracy Now! this morning recounting the story to Amy Goodman. While he could have gone down to Occupy Wall Street a block or two away, Moore said he was going to Wall St. whether or not the news crew was coming. More than a decade later, one sign in this video says it all: "I CAN'T BELIEVE WE STILL HAVE TO PROTEST THIS CR*P."
The CONSERVATIVE "Carnival of Crazy" on TV and Tea Party phoniness on the ground are called normal. But diverse, grassroots organizations occupying the US are a plot.
Wall Street occupiers agree the rich (1%) are getting richer on the backs of average citizen (99%) who are being impoverished feed Wall Street (stock exchange) greed.
Did protesters benefit indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men? There has been speculation over who is financing the disparate protests (the "American Fall"?) now spreading across the country and the world in just four weeks.
Jesus Christ (Saint Issa) demonstrator takes part in the Occupy London Stock Exchange demonstration in England, on Oct. 15, 2011 (AP/Elizabeth Dalziel).
One name that has come up is investor "leftist" strawman [phony target] George Soros, 81, who in September debuted on the Top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a sinister Soros agenda.
This "99% is too big to fail!" Occupy LA protesters march in the Protest Against Corporate Greed on the Int'l Day of Action, Oct. 15, 2011 (Reuters/David McNew).
Soros and protesters deny any connection. But Reuters found indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada that started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring-type uprising against Wall Street.
And Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground. [They both love FOX TV but loathe FOX News.] "I can understand their sentiment," Soros told reporters last week at the United Nations about the peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. They are expected to spur solidarity marches globally.
People sign banner at "Occupy DC" anti-corporate Stop the Machine co-protest, Freedom Plaza, Oct. 10, 2011, reclaiming American politics for the people (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images).
Pressed further for his views on the movement and the protesters, Soros refused to be drawn in. But rabid conservative radio host [and super-duper journalist] Rush Limbaugh summed up the speculation when he told his listeners last week, "George Soros money is behind this."
Soros is No. 7 on the Forbes 400 list with a fortune of $22 billion, which has ballooned in recent years as he deftly responded to financial market turmoil. He has pledged to give away all his wealth -- half of it while he earns it and the rest when he dies.
Don't think of it as a Police State; think of it as a "Secure Homeland" or "Tax dollar Torture."
Like the protesters, Soros is no fan of the 2008 bank bailouts and subsequent government purchase of the toxic sub-prime mortgage assets they amassed in the property bubble as people were foreclosed.
George W. Bush and B.S. Obama's cousin Dick Cheney rest on their laurels.
The protesters say the Wall Street bank bailouts in 2008 left bankers enjoying huge profits while laborers Americans suffered under high unemployment and job insecurity with little help from Washington.
Brown Univ. Socialists host US economist Prof. Wolff*
They contend that the richest 1 percent of Americans have amassed vast fortunes while being taxed at a lower rate than most people.
MSNBC is a corporate outlet. It purports to represent the "liberal" side as a ridiculous counterpart to Fox News' "conservative" extremes. It is part and parcel of the mainstream media.
This piece is important only because it is mainstream coverage of the protests. It is surprising that the powers that be allow MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnel to go this far in getting at the truth.
This may seem an insignificant report compared to all the video out there and all the injustice (most police crimes are not videotaped). But this is where reform starts.
The protests are filled with individuals who will no longer condone how corrupt our government, banks, military-industrial complex, and other corporate bodies have become. The Fed (The Federal Reserve Bank, Inc.), which is a private bank serving its own interests not the government's, is the lynchpin.
It is not the only corrupt body on Wall Street. The other private banks use it to rob the country blind with political help and blessings.
Many protesters have additional messages to be heard. There are many injustices, many causes, many routes to freedom. Most American only know that they are unhappy and in danger. Most of us want to create a better world, better society, better states.
In the beginning there was a mainstream media blackout on the Occupy Movement. Long before that the corruption of the Fed was avoided. The bailouts, the political maneuvering by Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I is what we want to bring to light.
The Fed has handed out over $16 trillion ($2 trillion more than the national debt that took over two centuries to rack up) to private banks and corporations in the past four years. As suffering people not given a voice have increasingly "acted out," the military-industrial complex has funded a police state. We are spied on, and the constitutional protects and civil rights have been disregarded, rewritten, or simply violated.
A "trillion" is a thousand billion, a billion is thousand million.
A million seconds is about 12 days, but...
A trillion seconds is 32 thousand years.
But none of this was addressed by the mainstream media because that media is owned by the very corporations it fails to report on. The people did not elect the news staffs or editors, the oil ("energy") corporations or executives, the PR firms, nor were they approved of by the people.
These are red flags! Even "reputable" links prove what is being said. No special interpretation is necessary. Let us all make sure the current protests make these secrets known.
Bank (economic) crimes lead to unthinkable war (military) crimes. Because of poverty, brought on by corporate greed, members of society turn on themselves then turn on others in the greater world. We, the USA, are the empire to fear. Before long another empire will ascend. Just as we make others suffer, so we will suffer. Of course, only some of us are doing it. Therefore, it is the job of the rest of us to stop it. People (whistle blowers) defect from being part of the problem to contributing to the solution. Meanwhile, others (the media) deny there is any problem at all.
Who? The Thrive Movement. What? The movie "Thrive" lifts the veil on what is really going on in our world. When? Nov. 11, 2011. Where? Online at Thrivemovement.com.Why? To uncover the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives (economic, educational, political, etc.) How? By following the money upstream, "Thrive" weaves together breakthroughs in science, consciousness, and activism. It offers real solutions, empowering us with bold and unprecedented strategies for reclaiming our lives and future.
Let's our country back from bankers and police state officials by occupying it from coast to coast, from Wall Street and downtown Los Angeles. We are the 99% being destroyed by 1%.
[Kloncke] began gathering some friends into a group we call Bay Area Radical Sangha (BARS). BARS is a space for meditators with "radical" politics. How is that defined? Structural critiques of our racist, hetero-patriarchal, war-reliant, capitalist system.
Instead, we support one another in contemplative practice and development. Having met and talked with many of you, I know for a fact that everyone has something wonderful to contribute.
If you are established in some sort of contemplative practice (it does not have to be Buddhist, although this is the foundation of the group) and would like to join in building a committed, holistic center of radical struggle, you are warmly welcomed and appreciated. The first BARS meets in the San Francisco Bay Area. New groups are forming in New York at Occupy Wall Street and Los Angeles at this weekend's launch.
All are welcome to stand up in a peaceful demonstration (occupyla.org)
(TheOther99Percent) Consider donating $9.17 to a Media Fund to continue reports from the front line. OccupyWallStreet.org Police State Brutality on Wall Street (USLAWdotcom) This is a slow motion video analysis of the NYPD's mace/pepper spray deployment near Wall Street on Sept. 24, 2011. Alternate angle analyses indicate that this crime was retaliation for an immediately preceding interaction between an officer and some individuals on the sidewalk. More information and updates.
(RTAmerica) Crowds gathered in New York's financial district to protest Wall Street greed, corruption, and lack of accountability. RT's Anastasia Churkina dove into the rally to find out whether this could be the beginning of America's own Arab Spring.
"Occupy Wall Street" protests make an impact RT calls it America's own "Arab Spring" -- when ordinary people rise up against unbearable oppression. The impact being made by "Occupy Wall Street" protesters is calling attention to un-prosecuted multinational banking crimes and high finance shenanigans.
The national debt, credit crisis, and high unemployment rates are all tied in to what goes on in the guarded halls and smoky rooms along Wall Street. More than any other institution -- military, social, or religious -- banking is the seat of power.
Motivated by greed, pulling political strings, calling the shots at the Pentagon, CIA, and the White House, it has been about the money since early temples began issuing notes for the treasures stored in their vaults.
How American Banking Works If citizens knew that this was how banking worked, they would occupy Wall Street. It's a good thing they're kept numb in the dark, amused to death.
It was raining money at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium! Club-level server Heather Allison was taking orders in the stands at a Chargers football game when she tripped and showered unsuspecting fans a level below with about $1,000 in cash. You can guess what happened.
A man threw his baby over the railing telling him to grab as much cash as he could before hitting the bleachers?
Fans began to fight each other resulting in two deaths in a mad scramble during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression?
Gunshots were fired by security personnel in an attempt to clear the crowd who looked up to see money raining down before the shots did injuring many in the confusion and stampede?
Sports hooligans, susceptible to groupthink, give all fans a bad name (AP)
“All my customers began screaming over the railing to the people below: ‘That’s the servers’ money,’” explains Allison, who has sold refreshments in Sections 36 and 37 for five years.
Fans helped collect the stray bills as did the crowd below. Within minutes, a security officer returned with a stack of cash for the grateful waitress. “It was all there,” says the mother of four and full-time student who, after paying the concession, still pocketed $170 in tips. “Chargers fans are amazing,” she says. “We’re like a family.”
Jealous woman sets boyfriend on fire This is the horrific moment a couple became human fireballs as they were engulfed in flames in a New York street. The first victim, 32, is pictured with his clothes burning as he desperately tried to put out the fire. He died four days later in hospital from 50 percent burns. On the floor, his 50-year-old lover, mass murderer Agnes Bermudez lies screaming in pain as flames roar along her body, as she was accidentally ignited in the attack. The terrifying images were captured on CCTV. But the blaze caught hold of their apartment block in Queens and three people died in the fire. Horribly disfigured in the attack, Burmudez was charged with four counts of murder -- because that's how things are done in America. More
There is no petition. There is no need to call our Congress person. The fix is in. In a cynical ploy, B.S. Obama got what he wanted, what he was told to do, adopting a position to the right of Republicans.
It's cynical because most of us still believe our president is a liberal, someone interested in the welfare of the majority of Americans.
China owns most of our national debt, which ensures a .war of biblical proportions between the U.S. and the Red Army. (Revelation, which outlines the behavior of Judeo-Christian movers and shakers like a game plan, "a strategy worked out in advance," needs a standing army of a million soldiers, and only China qualifies).
Will it be financial "Armageddon," a war over water, or a war with the only force that could challenge the world's most violent imperial power, the US?
He is on office (and was selected to be in office by more business contributions than any other candidate in history) to protect the powers that be -- the rich, politically influential military-industrial complex.
That body is not a single unit but arms of a self-serving group of unelected decision makers and multinational oil executives and others. (Car companies are vested in oil and make profits not from their car sales but from the fuel that powers them, like phone companies that make money from calling plans not phone devices themselves).
Which others? The powers behind mainstream media outlets that spin and repeat stories about what is going on and what it means. Economy tanking? No, it's just that peak oil is valuable, and we need to pay a hidden tax by paying not only more for gas but an added fuel cost to everything, which also means losing our jobs and the social support programs that prevent breadlines and Wall Street suicides infamous during the Great Depression.
Cheney-Bush passed the Patriot Act to curtail our civil rights, and B.S. Obama pitched our enslavement to banking interests.
(SMH) Democrats turned their fire on Pres. Barack Obama after he reached a deal with Republicans on raising the US debt level, accusing him of a capitulation...
(mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blog)
(WP) In a rare reversal, Bank of America announced today that it will drop a highly criticized fee for customers who swipe their debit cards. The bank had intended to begin charging the $5 fee next year, citing new federal regulations that it says have hurt its bottom line. But the debit charge drew a torrent of fury from customers, lawmakers, and even Pres. Obama. Faced with consumer backlash, Wells Fargo recently abandoned its own testing of a fee. Regions Bank and SunTrust have also dropped their charges. More
Sports hooligans, susceptible to 
