[Peace-discuss] Dems attempt to co-opt OWS

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Here's an attempt by the Democratic party to co-opt the OWS movement  
as Obama co-opted the antiwar movement. It should be resisted. The  
Center for American Progress is a Democratic party front group. "Its  
President and Chief Executive Officer is John Podesta, who served as  
chief of staff to then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Located in  
Washington, D.C., the Center for American Progress has a campus  
outreach group, Campus Progress, and a sister advocacy organization,  
the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Citing Podesta's  
influence in the formation of the Obama Administration, a November  
2008 article in Time stated that 'not since the Heritage Foundation  
helped guide Ronald Reagan's transition in 1981 has a single outside  
group held so much sway.' ... Formerly known simply as the American  
Progress Action Fund, the Center for American Progress Action Fund is  
a 'sister advocacy organization' and is organizationally and  
financially separate from the Center for American Progress, although  
they share many staff and a physical address. Whereas the Center for  
American Progress is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the fund is a 501(c)(4),  
allowing it to devote more funds to lobbying.[14] In 2003, George  
Soros promised to financially support the organization by donating up  
to three million dollars. Some open government groups, such as the  
Sunlight Foundation and the Campaign Legal Center, criticize the  
Center's failure to disclose its contributors, particularly since it  
is so influential in appointments to the Obama administration." From  
Wikipedia. --CGE]
>


Begin forwarded message:
>
>
>
> Republicans Attack The 99 Percent Movement
>
> Oct 7, 2011 | By ThinkProgress War Room
>
> Protecting the 1 Percent While Attacking the Other 99 Percent
> It’s not news that Republicans will do nearly anything to protect  
> the wealthy and special interests like Wall Street banks and Big  
> Oil. Now they’re taking their own brand of class warfare even  
> further by outright attacking the other 99 percent.
>
> Here’s the rundown.
>
> Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) Calls the 99 Percent Movement  
> ‘Mobs’
>
>
>
> The White House today responded by calling out Cantor’s previous  
> support for Tea Party protests, some of which behaved like actual  
> mobs:
>
> After Cantor’s remarks Friday, White House press spokesman Jay  
> Carney said the Republican leader’s criticism of the Wall Street  
> protests was “hypocrisy unbound,” when compared to his support of  
> Tea Party protests. He said both were examples of American  
> democratic traditions.
>
> “I don’t understand why one man’s mob is another man’s democracy,”  
> Carney said.
>
> Mitt Romney Calls 99 Percent Movement ‘Dangerous…Class Warfare’
>
> Mitt Romney, who reportedly pays an effective tax rate of just 14  
> percent despite being worth nearly $200 Million, wasted no time in  
> attacking the other 99 percent earlier this week:
>
> I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare.
>
> Herman Cain Calls 99 Percent Movement ‘Un-American,’ Says ‘If You  
> Don’t Have a Job and You’re Not Rich, Blame Yourself!’
>
>
>
> After attacking the other 99 percent, later in the week Herman Cain  
> stepped up his attacks and called demonstrators “un-American.”
>
> Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed
> A breakdown of trust
>
> The strange phenomenon of Affordable Care Act denialism
>
> Key foreign policy advisers to Mitt Romney advocate war with Iran.
>
> Eleven facts you need to know about the nation’s biggest banks.
>
> House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) jokes that women have abortions  
> out of convenience.
>
> “House Republicans from blue places have greens seeing red,” writes  
> Ron Brownstein on how GOP congressmen in swing districts are voting  
> against the EPA.
>
> Occupy Wall Street: Right Here All Over.
>
> Ben & Jerry’s supports Occupy Wall Street.
>
> 11 Facts You Need to Know About the Nation’s Biggest Banks
> Here’s the goods, via ThinkProgress’ Pat Garofalo:
>
> The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City more  
> than three weeks ago have now spread across the country. The choice  
> of Wall Street as the focal point for the protests — as even Federal  
> Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said — makes sense due to the big bank  
> malfeasance that led to the Great Recession.
>
> While the Dodd-Frank financial reform law did a lot to ensure that a  
> repeat of the 2008 financial crisis won’t occur — through regulation  
> of derivatives, a new consumer protection agency, and new powers for  
> the government to dismantle failing banks — the biggest banks still  
> have a firm grip on the financial system, even more so than before  
> the 2008 financial crisis. Here are eleven facts that you need to  
> know about the nation’s biggest banks:
>
> – Bank profits are highest since before the recession…: According to  
> the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., bank profits in the first  
> quarter of this year were “the best for the industry since the $36.8  
> billion earned in the second quarter of 2007.” JP Morgan Chase is  
> currently pulling in record profits.
>
> – …even as the banks plan thousands of layoffs: Banks, including  
> Bank of America, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse, are  
> planning to lay off tens of thousands of workers.
>
> – Banks make nearly one-third of total corporate profits: The  
> financial sector accounts for about 30 percent of total corporate  
> profits, which is actually downfrom before the financial crisis,  
> when they made closer to 40 percent.
>
> – Since 2008, the biggest banks have gotten bigger: Due to the  
> failure of small competitors and mergers facilitated during the 2008  
> crisis, the nation’s biggest banks — including Bank of America, JP  
> Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo — are now bigger than they were pre- 
> recession. Pre-crisis, the four biggest banks held 32 percent of  
> total deposits; now they hold nearly 40 percent.
>
> – The four biggest banks issue 50 percent of mortgages and 66  
> percent of credit cards: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells  
> Fargo and Citigroup issue one out of every two mortgages and nearly  
> two out of every three credit cards in America.
>
> – The 10 biggest banks hold 60 percent of bank assets: In the 1980s,  
> the 10 biggest banks controlled 22 percent of total bank assets.  
> Today, they control 60 percent.
>
> – The six biggest banks hold assets equal to 63 percent of the  
> country’s GDP: In 1995, the six biggest banks in the country held  
> assets equal to about 17 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic  
> Product. Now their assets equal 63 percent of GDP.
>
> – The five biggest banks hold 95 percent of derivatives: Nearly the  
> entire market in derivatives — the credit instruments that helped  
> blow up some of the nation’s biggest banks as well as mega-insurer  
> AIG — is dominated by just five firms: JP Morgan Chase, Goldman  
> Sachs, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.
>
> – Banks cost households nearly $20 trillion in wealth: Almost $20  
> trillion in wealth was destroyed by the Great Recession, and total  
> family wealth is still down “$12.8 trillion (in 2011 dollars) from  
> June 2007 — its last peak.”
>
> – Big banks don’t lend to small businesses: The New Rules Project  
> notes that the country’s 20 biggest banks “devote only 18 percent of  
> their commercial loan portfolios to small business.”
>
> – Big banks paid 5,000 bonuses of at least $1 million in 2008:  
> According to the New York Attorney General’s office, “nine of the  
> financial firms that were among the largest recipients of federal  
> bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses  
> of more than $1 million apiece for 2008.”
>
> In the last few decades, regulations on the biggest banks have been  
> systematically eliminated, while those banks engineered more and  
> more ways to both rip off customers and turn ever-more complex  
> trading instruments into ever-higher profits. It makes perfect  
> sense, then, that a movement calling for an economy that works for  
> everyone would center its efforts on an industry that exemplifies  
> the opposite.
>
>
>
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