by joy on January 2, 2012
From a Letter to a friend (who self identifies as a right winger):
It was really a wakeup call when you pointed that out, that despite our political differences, we were creeped out by the same things!!
We both agree that personhood for corporations is wrong and insane.
That’s one of the demands of the ‘occupy movement”, to end ‘personhood’ for corporations.
Off topic but an interesting fact: Though we left Iraq, Congress just actually raised the defense budget. Huh? Who are we attacking next? Who stands to gain? Only those corporate personages who make the drones and the rockets and the bombs whose main customer is the US Government…
Another interesting fact: Obama extended the terrorism biil..Where Bush suspended habeas corpus for foreign nationals in 2006, stating that they could be held indefinately without trial on suspicion of terrorism. Last month,Obama, instead of reinstating Habeas Corpus, actually expanded Bush’s bill. NOW… US citizens can be held indefinately, without a public trial, thus ending the rule of Habeas Corpus..which according to Wikipedia (my favorite) was an Anglo Saxon law whcih preceded the Magna Carta of 1215. It’s been part of our constitution for the last 200 years…revoked only by Lincoln during the Civil War, and the by Bush in 2006..and now by Obama in 2011. So, if one day we don’t hear from each other..we can assume that someone didn’t like the email we were sending..and one of us is vacationing near a sunny beach of Guantanamo..
The 99% movement (though pummeled by corporate press as shiftless hippies) says that maybe 4000 people control the same wealth as the bottom 180,000,000 Americans…they buy the ads for their candidates and give unlimited sums to get them elected, and to smear opponents..These are the 1% (really, 1/10 of 1%) who control the goverment to their advantage..tax shelters, corporate bailouts, free trade agreements (allowing them to manufacture overseas without paying import tax) and the like. I guess they also don’t like people criticizing them, and have swayed the Executive Branch to rein in the power of the middle class..by threatening them with ‘disappearance” if they don’t agree with gov’t/corporate policies…
From my friends at Wikipedia:
ENGLISH HISTORY OF HABEAS CORPUS: The history of Habeas Corpus is ancient. It appears to be predominately of Anglo-Saxon common law origin. Clearly, it precedes Magna Carta in 1215. Although the precise origin of Habeas Corpus is uncertain in light of it�s antiquity, its principle effect was achieved in the middle ages by various writs, the sum collection of which gave a similar effect as the modern writ. Although practice surrounding the writ has evolved over time, Habeas Corpus has since the earliest times been employed to compel the appearance of a person who is in custody to be brought before a court.
by joy on November 6, 2011
The Occupy Wall street movement has struck a nerve..it’s the 1 percent who owns 40 percent of the wealth, who buy the elections, and send factories overseas…Whirlpool took a 13 million dollar bailout, then cut and run and left 5000 workers jobless after they moved to Mexico..I say, great!. Let them pay import tax!! (oh, I forgot..we have a free (hah) trade agreement..)
Remember Cheney’s company, Halliburton? They got a multi billiondollar no bid contract under the Bush administration, and thanked the US taxpayer by moving their headquarters to Quatar, or Kuwait..where they don’t pay US taxes..
My son and his friends have been down at Occupy since day one..they don’t live there, they take turns spending the nite for a few days..patrol the premises, cause there are street people who have moved there cause of the free food and clothes..also it gets pretty brutal with the rain, etc.
There are some permanent fixtures, but the core group are new york students.. they’re mostly students at city university, like ccny, hunter, baruch, college of staten island, queens & brookyn..and the new school..they grew up in the shadow of 9/11 and want to straighten out the government..and they’re not stupid. they know that Bin Laden lived in Afghanistan, but have read enough and done enough research to understand that our government lied about our reasons for invading Iraq. These young intelligent people think our leaders were either so racist or so stupid or so hungry for world domination, that we invaded the wrong ‘towel heads’ in Iraq.. Either way, it’s an ugly farce..and 1/2 of our money goes to having the first and second biggest military in the world…why do we need to have bases in 150 countries..
They want to fix the economy..they’ve seen their parents lose jobs, have friends whose homes have been foreclosed …..personally, i’ve taken a 50 percent pay cut from five years ago and am FINALLY getting healthcare with a new employer..ugh..
they’re holding the feet of Wallstreet and their corporate greed to the fire.. Citibank sold 1 billion dollars worth of investments to their clients, and then sold their own stock…they were smacked with 285 million dollar fine…and still made 715 million for defrauding their clients…it’s like getting your friends to bet on your horse, then betting against him in the race..now the kids are sayaing put yer money in small banks and credit unions…away from the ‘too big to fail’ guys..with their 150 million dollar bonuses for crashing the economy..those guys, goldman sachs, lehman bros, etc..lost 20 percent of the GNP in the 2008 meltdown..and they still don’t pay for trades…..did I send you the link to ted becker’s website?
he teaches polisci at auburn in alabama…http://last-lost-empire.com/blog/
he’s concerned with direct democracy…now that the news is out that corporations can pay as much as they want into PACs to fund campaigns..and do it anonymously..there’s a lot of talk at Occupy Wall Street about election campaign reform. free air time for duly slated candidates
…while everyone was arguing over the jobs bill in congress..they passed ANOTHER free trade agreement with Korea, Columbia and one other place..so that we’ll be flooded with Hyundais and Cocaine…they’re letting Mexican truck drivers in with no inspection stickers, no driving schools..and undercut our independent drivers…the Congress is so corrupt..they really don’t care about us..
I imagine you’re surrounded by ‘for sale” signs everywhere..I”d like to move down, but would have to find a teaching job…I’m gonna work on getting a Florida teacher’s license..these winters are nuts…blizzards in October!!!
