SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, creator of the Doug Jones Average, and perennially witty guy Jim Hightower writes via The Union Democrat of Sonora, California:
If tiny groups of Wall Street bankers, billionaires, and their political puppets are allowed to write the rules that govern our economy and elections, guess what? Only bankers, billionaires, and puppets will profit from those rules.
[...] They've rigged the rules to let them feast freely on our jobs, devour our country's wealth, and impoverish the middle class.
"Take On Wall Street" is both the name and the feisty attitude of a nationwide campaign that a coalition of grassroots groups has launched to do just that: Take on Wall Street. The coalition, spearheaded by the Communication Workers of America, points out that there is nothing natural or sacred about today's money-grabbing financial complex. Far from sacrosanct, the system of finance that now rules over us has been designed by and for Wall Street speculators, money managers, and big bank flim flammers. So--big surprise--rather than serving our common good, the system is corrupt, routinely serving their uncommon greed at everyone else's expense.
[...] A growing grassroots coalition of churches, unions, civil rights groups, citizen activists, and many others are organizing and mobilizing us to crash through those closed doors, write our own rules, and reverse America's plunge into plutocracy. The "Take On" campaign has the guts and gumption to say enough!
[...] The campaign has laid out a five-point [sic] people's reform agenda and are now taking it to the countryside to rally the voices, anger, and grassroots power of workers, consumers, communities of color, Main Street, the poor, people of faith... and just plain folks.
- Getting the corrupting cash of corporations and the superrich out of our politics by repealing Citizens United and providing a public system for financing America's elections.
- Stopping "too big to fail" banks from subsidizing their high-risk speculative gambling with the deposits of us ordinary customers--make them choose to be a consumer bank or a casino, but not both.
- Institute a tiny "Robin Hood Tax" on Wall Street speculators to discourage their computerized gaming of the system, while also generating hundreds of billions of tax dollars to invest in America's real economy.
- Restore low-cost, convenient "postal banking" in our Post Offices to serve millions of Americans who're now at the mercy of predatory payday lenders and check-cashing chains.
There's an old truism about negotiating that says: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu". The "Take On Wall Street" campaign intends to put you and me--the People--at the table for a change.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2016, @03:54PM
And yet he provoked an entirely in-character, smugly superior, egotistic response from you. So looks like he hooked the exact fish he was trolling for. He even named you as first on the list of trophies and you took the bait anyway.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 01 2016, @04:53PM
I'm a woman, but yes, you nailed it otherwise :)
Actually, I wasn't trolling, or not intentionally, but it occurred to me a little while later that "the usual suspects" probably WOULD see that as bait and bite the line. I wasn't disapp--well, I *am* disappointed, but in them, not in the response :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 01 2016, @09:57PM
Wistfully superior, not smugly. I genuinely wish she would up her game and rise at least to the level of Ethanol Fueled.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 01 2016, @10:12PM
Wistful or smug, neither are actually superior.
But you sure can't resist the bait.
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 02 2016, @02:22AM
Are you actually trying to troll me, silly little person? My grandmother craps better trolls than that. Bring your A game or go back to your safe space.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @05:43AM
You sure do waste a lot of virtual ink letting me, and everyone else, know how much you don't care and how ineffective you find me. You're not foolin' anyone but you, sweetie, and *everyone* can see it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 02 2016, @10:24AM
And a big ole sloppy tongue kiss back at ya, sweety.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @05:05PM
Sorry, I'm not done with your mother, your wife, and your daughter yet. Wait your turn.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:51AM
Nevermind. On further reflection I've decided I do not in fact care to have herpes.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:20AM
You already do, Uzzard. You've got herpes of the mind. I call 'em herp-de-derpes.
Wow, look at you. You are fucking PISSED. Down to sexual insults now, even! You're regressing to the schoolyard! ...or maybe progressing, I dunno.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 04 2016, @01:09PM
Dude, mouth herpes are not sexual, just disgusting. I don't expect you to know the difference though. You're quite lacking in the brain department.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 05 2016, @12:09AM
You are mad as hell, Uzzard :) Keep crying; your tears are bitter and delicious, and I've karma to burn, Mr. Self-Admitted Staff Troll. Like all your kind, you can dish it out but you sure can't take it!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 05 2016, @12:53AM
Mad? Over a weak-shit troll on the Internet? You'd have to come to my house and spill my beer to get me mad. You simply do not have the skills to anger anyone over the Internet.
Now how about you? You reply to everything I say, antagonistically. You're like a little girl chasing around the boy she likes on the playground and harassing him. Do you want to be my special friend or something? Well, maybe. Send tits. Good tits and a ball gag and we might could make something work for a night.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 05 2016, @02:50AM
Good Lord, *so* mad! And now you're down to pornographic harassment...this is most unbecoming from a staff member of a well-respected (*snerk*) internet forum of free and open discourse. :D Keep going; this is a Trump-level cascade of escalating self-destruction!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 05 2016, @10:37AM
Harassment? Funny, that's exactly what the snowflakes over in the SJW camp always claim when they hear something they don't like. I knew you weren't just any old liberal retard. No, you gotta go full on SJW and claim your fee-fees got hurt and someone must pay. Thank you for so perfectly illustrating that nobody should ever take you seriously.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday September 06 2016, @04:30PM
Oh, don't get the wrong impression; I think you're hilarious :D In fact that one *was* a mild troll; I was checking to see if you were going to respond the way I thought you would (and further damage your credibility...) and lo and behold, you did it.
This is actually getting a bit boring now...still funny though.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 06 2016, @08:59PM
Bzzzt, you must make a different argument than I made in the post you are responding to. You are fined 500 Internets and your trolling license is suspended for a week. Please try to be semi-original next time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 07 2016, @03:53AM
Would heaven you were actually funny...that's the worst part of this, you can't even be witty while you're being a perambulating trashfire of a human being :(
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 07 2016, @10:22AM
See, that wasn't that difficult, was it? Now if you'd just learn to troll at a level above what my nephews in grade school can manage...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 07 2016, @04:27PM
Why do I need to troll? You seem to think anyone calling you out for your complete lack of basic human decency is a troll. No, honey, that's not how it works. Besides which, you go abso-frackin'-lutely nuclear when someone points out the obvious (that you're a shameless oxygen thief), so you do all the work for me anyway :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 07 2016, @09:20PM
You seem to not even know what you are. That's just sad. Own it. Hell, take pride in it. Trolls are the only ones demanding objectionable speech be kept free right now. Ah, I almost forgot you're doing this in some sad, misguided attempt to get people not to pay any attention when I say something relevant. Good luck with that. All you're managing to this point is the opposite.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 08 2016, @03:43AM
...this isn't even funny any more. I'm trying to imagine your state of mind and it's making me throw underflow and div/0 errors. How can you be this completely un-self-aware, especially at your age?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 08 2016, @04:00AM
Well, that was a given. You were never going to win with your utter lack of style and talent. Thankfully I am a graceful winner and shall allow you to continue practicing your trollcraft here in my house on the lesser talents. You really should consider an apprenticeship with aristarchus or Ethanol-Fueled.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 08 2016, @04:29AM
Uh...wow. You're just proving my point all the harder every time you reply. I guess Dunning and Kruger were right: incompetents are not competent to know they're incompetent :/
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 08 2016, @10:24AM
No, I said practice on other people. We've already established you're not yet ready to play in the big leagues. I mean it's kinda cute watching you try but it's also sad watching you fail every single time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:27PM
I am still morbidly curious as to how long this level of projection can be kept up. Not to mention, for the--what, fifth, sixth?-- time here, I'm not trolling. Calling you out for your utter sociopathy isn't a troll, and the fact that you think it is only underscores my point.
How long are you going to keep digging yourself into that hole? You've gotta be most of the way to China by now.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 09 2016, @01:09AM
Awe, don't be sad. So you're not as good as me at trolling (or anything else), that just means you have a goal to work towards!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 09 2016, @04:22PM
You don't read so good, do ya, boy...? Or spell so good either. That's okay, I've had experience dealing with the learning-disabled before. Just...uh, keep doing what you're doing I guess?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 10 2016, @01:28AM
Are you still going on? Haven't you had enough of a thrashing yet? Take the loss, go have a good cry, and try again another time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 01 2016, @11:51PM
Mightly Buzzaired, you are in error. Ethanol_fueled does not troll, that is just who he is. He cannot pretend, or dissemble, or prevaricate. If you want to brag up the quality of trolling here on SoylentNews, you should choose better role models.
(Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 02 2016, @02:20AM
Well there's now way she'll ever manage anything approaching your level of skill. I didn't want to falsely get her hopes up.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday September 02 2016, @04:34AM
So you are admitting you are an easy catch? Perhaps you do not realize that I spent a significant part of my life teaching on the isle of Lesbos. And Azumi is probably a dude. She is a very convincing dyke, whether a dude or not, but that does not take away from the fact that you cannot resist. MMMMmmmm. Bait! Minimum wage increases!!! Free speech for gamers! Milo! C'mon, Buzz, you are lowering the reputation of our trolls by being so easy and predictable! Man up, man, if you really are a man!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @05:51AM
I am very much a woman, thank you. This body just got done forcefully reminding me of that not even a week ago. If it helps, I have what I suspect are past-life memories that seem to indicate I was male last time, and have heard theories to the effect that gays are people who switched genders between incarnations and didn't fully make the transition. It makes as much sense as anything else, right? My own mother says she could tell at age 4 I was going to be into girls, somehow.
And, yeah, Uzzard is so completely easy. I wasn't even *trying* to troll him up there and he bit anyway. He's just such a rotten person i can't help but slap him around for it, and he neeeeeever knows when to cut his losses and shut up, which means the longer any exchange goes on between us, the more likely he is to let his guard down and say something that makes *everyone* look side-eyed at him.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday September 02 2016, @06:31AM
So you see, Azuma, that you are equally easily trolled? I am on your side in all battles, but as little as it takes to bait the Utter Lizzard, it only takes slightly more to get a response from you. Of course, I am well beyond the age of ever being reminded of what gender I might once have been. This is a perspective that I encourage others to take. Equality, that is the main thing, we are all human.
And I seem to recall the ancient myth, was it of Aesclepius, the ancestor of all healers? You will notice that on the Caduceus there is a pair of intertwining snakes. You can find this on the badges of EMTs, for example. Sign of medicine, or healers. Why? Did early physicians only treat snake bite? OK, here is the story.
Aesclepius, walking down a road, come across two snakes intertwined. (For the children among us, and jmorris, they were copulating. Oh, for jmorris, that means they were having sex. Are we good on that?) He struck the snakes with his staff, because, you know, they might be SJWs! Snakes, it turns out, are sacred to Hera, the Queen of the Gods, wife to Zeus (do you remember the whole "Heracles in the crib" episode? No? Is your degree from ITT?). So Hera turns Aesclepius into a woman. He lives as a woman for a long time, I think it was seven years, and then Hera relents, and turns him back.
So later, people as Aesclepius, "who enjoys sex more, the man or the woman?" I mean, he should know, right? His response: "The woman enjoys it nine times more than the man." So there is that. Now I feel sorry for the Buzzard, because birds, you know, like Catholics, only have sex to reproduce, and to create a libertarian paradise by having relations with Ayn Rand, who is dead, and whom we are not really sure was actually female.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @06:43AM
Uh...that was the blind seer Tiresias in that story, not Aesclepios. And the doctor wand is supposed to be a single snake; the double-snake wand is the symbol of Hermes, specifically of Hermes in his aspect of a sneak-thieving son of a bitch =P
The rest of this post...is Kurenai-off-her-meds-level WTF.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday September 02 2016, @06:51AM
See? Easily trolled! Which means, thanks for the corrections, as they were what I meant for you to find. Now if only the Mightly Condor were so easy to direct! And you may be right about Hermes. But I always thought he was kind of a metro-sexual.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @07:00AM
That was a troll? I couldn't tell. You're known for posting quirky stuff, though usually more coherent than that. I actually like your posts.
Uzzard's very easy to direct: he only goes in one direction, that being straight to Hell riding on a flaming exhaust plume of his own sociopathic flatulence.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday September 02 2016, @07:25AM
That was a troll? I couldn't tell. You're known for posting quirky stuff, though usually more coherent than that. I actually like your posts.
Like yours, too! So compliment returned. But that is the point, real trolls are not seen to be trolls. Trolling is the art of putting out bait, but the main quality of bait is that it not be seen as bait. So you bit. No harm, no foul. But if we can get people to bite who have to change their ideas as a result of being hooked and dragged through waters unfamiliar to them, that is what trolling is all about. So here we are, in a thread about shared prosperity, trying to share the prosperity by hooking up the libertarian chum, and pointing out that there is a a world beyond their myopic vision. We are agreed?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @07:32AM
I thought the point of trolling was to be a useless jackoff who delights in the pain and misery of others...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday September 02 2016, @07:45AM
Common misconception! Trolling is to hook someone in a way that they know they have been hooked, after the fact, of course, in order to educate them about the error of their ways. You may remember a FA a while ago, allegedly by the philosopher Aristotle? https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/05/09/0326228 [soylentnews.org] It came to me when someone suggested that Socrates was just a pre-internet troll. It rang true.
Now most of our neo-con, alt-right trolls fit your description, but I never thought the pain and misery of others is something one should delight in, unless it led to greater wisdom, self-awareness, and less need to be to be trolled. So I appreciate this, Azuma, very infrequently I can catch you in a troll! And even better, I have learned in the process.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 02 2016, @10:27AM
You should change your sig to make sure everyone knows that's what you are. Your trolling skills aren't up to the job.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @05:04PM
You seem upset.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:42AM
So you can neither troll nor read people over the Internet? Noted. You want to see me upset, get some Python included in the codebase. Silly comments playing doesn't even come close to evoking any emotion from me besides a very mild amusement.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:22AM
If you weren't upset, you wouldn't continue replying to every...single...post. And you wouldn't be devolving into crude sexual insults, either.
You let your guard down, AGAIN, and did something that's making everyone reading your posts give you the side-eye, AGAIN. God, you suck so hard at the internet.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 04 2016, @01:06PM
Really? Had you paid attention you'd have seen by now that I pretty much reply to every comment here directed remotely my way, regardless of source. You're not special, snowflake.
As for saying you're a cunt? Well, stop being a cunt and I'll stop saying it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 05 2016, @12:13AM
Nope, you're madder than hell, and every response gives it away. It's not THAT you're responding alone; it's HOW you respond, what words you choose to use, and the intent behind them. You're making yourself look worse and worse every time, and the best part is, I don't need to do a thing but exist! You're burning from the inside.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 05 2016, @12:42AM
Ya, I'm all foaming at the mouth here. Watch me foam. No, not yet, that foam was from my beer. I'll start any minute.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 02 2016, @10:24AM
That would be because he's good at it. Unlike you.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @05:07PM
You reply to eeeeeeevery siiiiiingle oooooone of my posts. You're mad as hell. You can't hide it. And yet you're going to insist I don't get to you?
I *am* a poor troll in the sense that *that's not what I'm fucking doing.* And yet...you're getting so upset still. It's like some kind of autoimmune disease of the mind. Or have you gone insane like J-Mo? Are we gonna see a news story about you going up a clock tower and sniping random people?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:47AM
Nah, your skills aren't up to making me feel anything. I've no doubt I'm not even close to the first person to say those words to you either.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 02 2016, @10:21AM
Eh, there's a big difference between getting a response from me and getting me to actually care about the subject in question. I just talk a lot. You're fined two Internets for forgetting the difference.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday September 02 2016, @04:21PM
Yeah, always seemed like the Mightering Buzz was more catch and release! :)j
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:48AM
Oooh, you right bastard. You earned your Internets back for that one.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 02 2016, @05:11PM
And now you opened up a war on TWO fronts, one of whom (aristarchus) actually DOES seem to be trying to troll, unlike me.
That's...positively Republican. "Oh hey, we're losing an unnecessary, pointless, and ill-equipped war of aggression! Let's get involved in another one!" Dumbass. And you're staff, that's the hell of it. Is there a Stupid Evil alignment? Because if there isn't, they should make one for you.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday September 03 2016, @02:39AM
Okay, that was just stupid. I demand you troll better or I'm going to have to break out "I'm rubber, you're glue".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday September 04 2016, @04:21AM
That's what you're doing already, I thought...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 04 2016, @01:08PM
That's because you're not very smart. Were you remotely intelligent you would have better troll game.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 05 2016, @12:11AM
I'm not trolling, though; think of it like internet aikido, where the aikido-ka allows the opponent's haste, anger, and force to be used against him. Remember, the fulcrum does not resist the load, rather it merely pivots with it. You're doing it all for me, and a million times better than I ever could :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 05 2016, @12:44AM
You're pivoting alright. Enough that it's got you dizzy as hell. Or is that ditzy? Oh well, either works I suppose.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday September 05 2016, @02:51AM
0/10, try harder. I'm going to have to start marking your failed trolls as Spam, since they're not successful enough to count as -1 Flamebait mods either.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 05 2016, @10:31AM
You go right ahead with that, big'un. You'll have a month of no moderating to cool down the first time and six months the second. Spam is not to be played with.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday September 06 2016, @04:32PM
Okay, Troll and Flamebait it is then. Still, I could probably write a shell script and hook it up to a Markov generator, then train it on your post history, and it would be indistinguishable from the real deal; what does that say about the quality of your posts?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 06 2016, @08:57PM
Yours would be easier. You have very little in the way of unique thought between posts. As long as the comment were insulting someone, poorly, nobody would ever know it wasn't you.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.