Pay a visit to the ‘100-Acre Wood House’ and savor some more titbits of rural life on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s only a ‘click’ away.
The 100-Acre Wood House
I’d love to meet the Chinese gentleman whose only identity, to those of us in the West, is ‘L22’. I’d love to kick his sorry butt all around the Oriental workplace where he’s employed as a quality control inspector.
‘L22’ works in a Chinese generator factory. He must have been taking a nap when ours came along. Though, he woke up just long enough to slap his sticker, “Inspected by: ‘L22’,” on it as it passed him by…
The protesters who make up “Occupy Wall Street” are ‘scum’, a ‘mob’, ‘the great unwashed’ …and similar, according to many right-wing politicians and media companies.
The ‘Tea Party’ has called comparisons between itself and ‘Occupy Wall Street’, “…insulting”.
Perhaps, it’s just a question of perspective?
New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, was quoted recently in the Wall Street Journal, as saying:
The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to. If they break the laws, then, we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”
Note: “…as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to.”
How nobly arrogant of you, Mayor Bloomberg. So long as people are law abiding, you’ll allow them to go about their business.
Isn’t that their right?
The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law…prohibiting…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
It makes no mention of any time factor. It does not state that they should all go home within one hour, or after three days, or, whenever.
Therefore, Mayor Bloomberg, for you to state you will allow them to express themselves is to suggest you, personally, are above the US Bill of Rights, that you have the power – should you choose to exercise it – of negating the Bill of Rights.
The truth, of course, is that you are one of the ‘1%’.
You, Mayor Bloomberg, are as much a part of the ‘Wall Street’ these people seek to occupy, as any of these goons:
In case any readers are unfamiliar with these fine, upstanding, individuals, they are Brian Moynihan (CEO Bank Of America), Lloyd Blankfein (CEO Goldman Sachs), and Jamie Diman (CEO JPMorgan Chase).
Mayor Bloomberg’s fortune (now estimated at $18.1 billion dollars) was initially accrued when he was sacked from the Wall Street investment bank, Salomon Brothers (later, part of Citigroup) in 1981, with a $10 million dollar pay-off. He used the money to start a new company, Bloomberg L.P..
Merrill Lynch was his first customer.
So the ‘1%’ are graciously “allowing” the other 99% to continue their peaceful protests in New York, provided, of course, no law is broken in the process.
One is left wondering when Diana Taylor, Mayor Bloomberg’s domestic partner, and herself the former New York State Superintendent of Banks, will turn to him and suggest that, “they can all eat cake.”
I have to smile at the antics of some US politicians as they mutter the despised “S” word into their microphone. Only last week Rick Perry declared it was “a downward spiral to disaster”, and last night on the Daily Show Ron Paul casually linked Socialism and “Authoritarianism” like they were one and the same.
Americans have heard this crap repeated so often the majority are now firmly convinced it’s true. The Cold War and the Vietnam War, between them, cemented the idea that Socialism and Communism were synonymous. They fail to recognize that many of the major players on the world economic stage would be labeled ‘Socialist’ according to the criteria of US politicians; countries like the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan all have social welfare programs regulated by the government, and of course, universal healthcare.
A UK National Health Service Hospital – free to all!
While many Americans would argue that these countries (with the possible exception of Germany) are suffering economically right now, it really has nothing to do with government social welfare programs. A serious breakdown of capitalism and monetarism are the reasons for the economic crises afflicting both sides of the Atlantic, coupled with the incompetence of inept and often corrupt politicians lining their bank accounts by ass-licking the wealthy and powerful. Social welfare programs are about caring for those who are sick, or fall on hard times. They are paid for by taxation and have little or no effect on national economies.
Sadly, for many in America, the “Stuff everyone else, I’m all right,” syndrome is alive and well and living in Arizona, Texas, or South Carolina.
It’s truly amazing that, given the state this nation is in, there are still those who believe Ron Paul (substitute Perry, Palin, Bachman, or whosoever you personally believe holds the magic wand) has the answer to all this nation’s woes. Come 2012, provided they’re elected to high office, all will be made right. America will hold its head high once more, everyone who wants to work will have a job, kids will get a decent education, their parents will have tons of money to send them to college, every citizen will be able to afford that $150,000 heart by-pass, and only the criminally idle will die in the gutter from disease or starvation.
Yes, the American Dream has always been about looking after Number One, and to hell with the rest. If they make it, too, that’s fine. If they don’t, well – tough. It doesn’t take a mathematics professor to calculate the high percentage of the populace who have to not make it, just so one person can.
You came to America, worked hard, got the breaks, and founded a small company. You employed people. They worked hard for you, and the business grew until you had seven factories and a workforce of thousands. You became wealthy. Then the Chinese offered to make your product for half the cost, so you closed your seven factories and moved production to Zhejiang Province.
Your business boomed. You became a multimillionaire. You joined the Republican Party and ran for political office. For you, the American Dream finally became reality when you stood at the dais during a presidential debate, and declared, “Capitalism is the only way forward. Socialism leads to authoritarianism and is a downward spiral to disaster.”
Not for one moment did you pause to consider those thousands of workers in your American factories, without whom you would be living where many of them are now – in poverty, after you stole their jobs and cast them adrift without a second thought.
Well, perhaps, after all, you managed to spare them one thought………
Goontown Rats
I’m alright, Jack!