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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) 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.