Showing posts with label Tea Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tea Party. Show all posts

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Border Guards Armed with AR-15s at Occupy Phoenix

Just like the Tea Party, the Occupy Wall Street movement is now locked and loaded.

A citizen militia group armed with AR-15s were defiantly standing in front of the local police. The U.S. Border Guard is making its presence felt at the Occupy Phoenix demonstration to protect free speech rights, arguing that the second amendment prevents the state from abusing the first amendment. (Original video and article posted at Alex Jones InfoWars).

The article says the group has been labeled “neo-nazis” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is usually a demonization tactic, but this particular individual (shown in the video clip below and known as J.T. Ready) has attended neo-nazi rallies in the past and is supposed to be "closely affiliated" with the "fringe" National Socialist Party.

Wiki says there is no clear definition of national socialism, and that the term has been used to mean many different things. Here it says, "National Socialism is the opposite of international finance capitalism, i.e. the opposite of globalization. Under National Socialism, engineers would not lose their jobs to outsourcing, and great industrial cities would not be disintegrating and turning back to farmland."

But regardless...the man being interviewed in the video sounded very articulate, he didn't spew hate or racism, and he was just but one member in the group of U.S. Border Guards at the Occupy Phoenix protest.

Occupy Wall Street now seems to have but another commonality with the Tea Party, and is beginning to look more and more like the ORIGINAL Tea Party movement everyday (i.e. government corruption, corporate greed, "hands off my Medicare", and now guns.)

The major difference between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement? One might argue that The Tea Party went home every night to their comfortable homes, while the Occupy protesters are toughing it out in the cold while living in tents.

(Below) U.S. Border Guard J.T. Ready with U.S. Republican Arizona Senator Russell Pearce (left) and at the protest (right).

(Below) Supporters for Joe Miller, the Tea Party favorite for Alaska in 2010 and the Republican Party nominee.

(Below) Even Tea Party presidential candidate Rick Perry was publicly exercising his Second Amendment Right.

(Below) More Second Amendment Tea Party enthusiasts

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And just like with the Tea Party (or any other group, "fringe" or otherwise, even the police and military) there will always be a segment of racists. But even THEY are part of the 99%.

IT'S SIMPLE MATH, 1 + 1 + 1 = PROTESTS

NO JOBS and BUDGET CUTS - The immediate crisis facing the United States economy is the jobs deficit, not the federal debt -- and budget cuts may make matters worse.

+

A WORSENING ECONOMY - On most major measures of economic health, the economy is still worse today than it was before the recession began.

+

INCOME INEQUALITY - The current protests on Wall Street effectively calls attention to the extreme and growing income inequality in the United States, an economist writes. "Storming the Capitalist Castle"

=

PROTESTS - Today "Occupy" protesters clashed with police in Denver, Portland, and Austin: Police use rubber bullets and pepper spray on demonstrators as Occupy Denver protest turns ugly.

  • Denver: Police shot rubber bullets and used pepper spray - 20 arrested.
  • Austin: Police arrested at least 38 protesters.
  • Portland: At least 30 protesters were cuffed after they refused to leave Jamison Square.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Occupy Wall Street - The Next Greatest Generation

Some say the Occupy Wall Street movement was first inspired by the uprisings in the Middle-East known as Arab Spring, while the current protest that was first initiated in New York City was started with the Canadian-based advocacy group called Adbusters. But I believe that the underlying sentiment, both here and around the world, has been brewing and simmering for decades. Anybody my age can remember their parents telling them when they were children, "The rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer."

According to new data from Reuters, in 2010 there were fewer jobs, and they paid less, than the year before... except at the very top where, the number of people making more than $1 million increased by 20 percent. But there were also 10 million people who didn't have a single hour of paid work last year.

Today America has 30 million people that are under-employed, struggling with one or more part-time and low-paying jobs to earn a living wage to support themselves and their families; while another 21 million Americans can't find any work at all. That's twice as many as there were during the height of the Great Depression.

There are also 46 million Americans who need food stamps just to eat and Medicaid for healthcare, but the Republicans want to cut these programs in the middle of a job crisis. Now there's a Super Committee that might take an axe to those programs (and to our cherished Social Security and Medicare as well). And there are still 50 million Americans without any healthcare insurance either.

But instead of jobs, the focus on Capitol Hill this year has been on tax cuts for corporations with untaxed profits held offshore. Just the non-financial companies alone are sitting on more than $2 trillion of cash. (The Republicans introduced seven pieces of legislation to limit abortions, but not a single jobs bill).

And let's not forget the banks. The conservatives continue to tell us we are heading toward socialism or even worse, communism, but this is far from the truth. The fact is, according to the Government Accountability Office and an investigation by Senator Bernie Sanders, it turns out our country’s economy is actually being run by Wall Street itself. A recent report shows that the Federal Reserve board is filled with business and financial executives, even though the law requires that common workers and consumers be represented.

And no, we didn't forget Goldman Sachs and AIG and the derivatives they sold that collapsed the housing market, and in turn, the economy. We didn't forget the bailouts. We didn't forget the millions of illegal and unfair foreclosures either. Nor did we forget the big banks' relationship with the Federal Reserve and our politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle. That's something that both the Right and the Left can agree on, even though both sides may hate to admit this aspect of their similarities.

There's one thing I did notice though, the Occupy Wall Street movement isn't comparing themselves to the Tea Party, and the Tea Party says the Occupy Wall Street movement has nothing in common with them. The Tea Party calls the protesters "anarchists" and that they are "terrorizing New York City". But they must remember the Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights movement...to the Tea Party, they may have also been terrorists. But in reality, they are all just Americans expressing their grievances.

And to the best of my knowledge, the Tea Party never actually "occupied" anything. And I presume that most had jobs to go to the next day. But I can clearly see similarities to both the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You see, as a former Reaganite who once sympathized with the Tea Party in 2009, and who now defines himself as an Independent Progressive, but who now sympathizes with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, I see their sameness. I was on both sides of their grievances at one time or another.

In a recent newsletter, the Tea Party railed against "rampant cronyism and corruption in Washington, D.C.", which is also something the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting. So are they and the Tea Party really that far apart? After all, both groups (and everyone else in between, and at all the other OCCUPY protests around the country) make up the whole 99% together.

And maybe a few of the OWS protesters are communists and against capitalism, but they're still Americans. And by the way, with "free markets" and "free trade agreements", and when jobs go to China for cheap labor, maybe capitalism works very well over in China; but after closing 40,000 factories over the last decade, to be fair, capitalism really hasn't fared very well for most average Americans. Whole towns have died.

America's 99% has been on the losing side of a class war that's been waged against them for the past 40 years. But after the collapse of the economy by the reckless bankers in 2008, Americans began waking up. That's why protests like Occupy Wall Street have so quickly gained momentum around the country.

They were fed up of being lied to, cheated, and used. Their politicians were in bed with the large corporations and big banks, beholden to special interest's demands while THE PEOPLE suffered. The 1% had over-played their last card and had inflamed the rage of American citizens from coast to coast. People from every segment of America's neighborhoods, cities, towns, and rural areas were mad as hell and rose up in defiance to their government and the Wall Street mobsters. (See the documentary, Inside Job: The Film that Cost Over $20 Trillion to make!)

At first, it was the Tea Party on the Right. And then, almost three years later, we had the Occupy Wall Street movement on the Left. The two groups appeared polarized, both politically and ideologically, but they shared a common outrage against government corruption and the biggest and greediest banks. And America being ruled by corporations, not REAL people.

While the Tea Party was made up largely of middle-class middle-aged folks, the Occupy Wall Street movement first captured the younger generation's imagination, and quickly spread throughout the country. People from all walks of life joined in the protests. Old and young alike, from every background of race, color, and creed. And they were all in agreement...the unrestricted and corrupted power in the highest offices of government, the biggest of the banks, and the largest multi-national corporations, all had to be completely reformed.

Of course the media was slow to report on this phenomena at first. Especially Fox News, with their ultra-conservative view-points. They didn't want to see the apple cart overturned...they LIKED the status quo, because after all, they represented the politicians who worked for banks and corporations...the 1%...millionaires representing the view-points of other millionaires.

But THE PEOPLE have spoken. Enough was enough. They started declarations, petitions, and chain mails. Web sites and Facebook groups for the OCCUPY movement sprang up all over the internet. It became a central discussion on talk shows, even later, Fox News began muttering about the protests (but in the most deplorable way).

Bill O'Reilly had cited a poll and skewed the results to make all the protesters look like sex-crazed communists trying to destroy America, but I recently attended an OWS protest in Las Vegas, and the people I met there could have easily been at the mall or Wal-Mart...just a normal cross section of the average American public. Admittedly, yes, there were a few "colorful" people there, but that's the nature of any protest...even Tea Party protests. (That's yours truly there on the left...no pun intended.)

But now the real work begins. THE PEOPLE of the Occupy Wall Street movement will also have to organize and mobilize politically to accomplish their well-meaning and well-deserved goals...much like the Tea Party did.

In order for the will of THE PEOPLE (on both the Right and the Left) to be heard and acted upon, they might need to first eliminate the Senate, get money out of politics (repealing Citizens United and outlawing SuperPacs), reform the banking system, and reform the House of Representatives. (Read this article before you say it sounds too crazy).

A Constitutional Convention, may, or may not be the answer to getting money out of elections. It would mean first getting rid of the Senate, so as to have a more proportionate form of representative government. Only after that, can we amend the Constitution to get money out of elections.

Then they would need to nationalize the Federal Reserve, reign in the commercial banks to meet the needs of the people (such as borrowing at the federal rate), and properly regulate investment banking by repealing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, reinstate the Glass–Steagall Act, and give the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act it's full measure.

Yes, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank fell asleep at the wheel when they were supposed to be watching Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but at least they tried to belatedly fix part of the problem (and that business with Chris Dodd and Countrywide wasn't forgotten either).

Maybe THE PEOPLE might also want a Congressional Reform Act to be implemented as well, and also eliminate life-time positions to the Supreme Court. (Outlaw monopolies too! We need fair competition for goods and services! End those damn mega-mergers!)

I would even go a step further than most people, and nationalize big oil too...a natural resource of the country that's being exploited for profit by a very few. Or at the VERY LEAST, I would end taxpayer subsidies for them. Now THAT'S what I'd call really crazy! (Even though one big oil executive called ending oil subsidies "un-American".)

One more thing...if a politician lies about their college education or military duty, they should be fired on the spot. They don't work in the private sector, and should not be able to lie on their resumes. They hold public office and work for THE PEOPLE. If they lie to get their job, they should be immediately subjected to termination...just like anyone else would. Members of the Supreme Court and Congress should not be "above the law", and should be held accountable for their actions, just as we would.

THE PEOPLE would need to do ALL those things that were previously mentioned, and not just one or two of them. And it begins by getting our elected officials to actually represent the will of THE PEOPLE. After all, in any representative form of government, in a true democracy, your VOTE is the most important and valuable Right you'll ever have. Do you remember when they risked their lives to vote in Iraq?

But if your vote is not counted, or it is being constantly ignored (or suppressed like the GOP is attempting to do now), and the politicians continue representing only special interests, then nothing can ever change to make America better for any one of the 99%. Then only the top 1% will continue to prevail, while the other 99% (both on the Right and the Left) will continue to be shackled into an increasingly impoverished and miserable existence.

THE PEOPLE would need to elect 60 new Kamikaze-like Senators, those who would be willing to run for only one term of office, and sign a legally binging document to vote on the above proposals, or agree to be immediately impeached (fired). And before their first and only term in office has expired, pass legislation that abolishes the Senate along with their own jobs. (Now those people would be true patriots, not like our present self-serving politicians, whose only concern is their own pockets.)

For the last 40 years they (politicians, bankers, and corporations) have had everything their way, and where did that get us, the 99%? Here. Right here, right now. This government and our economic system is broken and needs fixed, and very soon. It's already been far too long as it is.

Since those days many years ago, when my father first complained, the rich are still getting richer while everybody else is still getting poorer. Sure, we've had a few more millionaires in the last ten years, but we've also had millions of others who lost their jobs in the process, while those with jobs continued to see their wages remain stagnate while prices on everything kept going higher.

The politicians on the Right are always telling us to "take our country back!", and the politicians on the Left are calling for the same thing too. We, THE PEOPLE, need to take our country back from ALL the politicians if we want to be truly self-governing.

Before the economy crashed in 2008, most people would have thought this all sounded crazy (e.g. nationalizing the banks, etc), but not so much anymore. Maybe that crazy Chávez in Venezuela wasn't so crazy after all. Some of the greatest changes made in U.S. history were much more radical than this.

It's been a long time since the Civil Rights movement or the Vietnam War protests. Maybe this generation (with Occupy Wall Street) will be the ones to make another great and fantastic change for this country --- and mark their place in history and on this nation as well. If they do, they will have a grateful nation, and they will be the next "Greatest Generation".

If there were ever a book or movie, I'd like to see this, a David and Goliath story where the underdog triumphs...

Occupy America

ALSO READ: Occupy Wall Street: My One Demand

Friday, October 14, 2011

Tea Party Exposed - Against Small Business

The Tea Party stated in their newsletter today that "Small businesses have created more than 64 percent of all new jobs over the last 15 years, according to the Small Business Administration. Yet today they are unable to do so as a result of government regulations, taxes, and tight business credit."

But according to this article from Think Progress (and in a subsequent research of their sources) it seems that contrary to these claims, small businesses say taxes and regulation aren’t holding them back.

And in page 2 of this article from Mother Jones it asks, "Are American businesses paralyzed by fear of a tidal wave of new regulations?" (Read the whole article Rich People Create Jobs! and the 6 myths)

When McClatchy reporter Kevin Hall went out and asked small-business owners about this, he got a clear answer. "Absolutely, positively not," said one.

"Government regulations are not choking our business," said another.

In its most recent quarterly survey (PDF) of small-business trends, the National Federation of Independent Business reports that sales — i.e., lack of demand — is the #1 concern, beating out taxes, regulations, inflation, and everything else.

The Koch brothers Tea Party, in its early days, might have represented the wishes of the middle-class...until they were hijacked and financed by a large corporation. Now BIG BUSINESS is all they stand for.

Also read:

Millionaire Tax Plan Hurts Job Creators - DEBUNKED!

Will Eliminating Tax Cuts for the Rich Hurt Small Businesses?

The Tea Party Loved Medicare, before they Hated It

Tea Party's Health Care Compact

The Tea Party - Just Another Damn Corporation

Tea Party Radical Mike Pence - "Shut it down!"

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Tea Party - Just Another Damn Corporation

I'm not anti-business, I'm anti-corporation. As a modern society we need big businesses to provide us with the essentials of living, to produce in mass quantities all the things we rely on - - - our cars, our food, and even our cell phones made in China. Things such as personal computers have become a necessity in our daily lives. My mom used to call them toys, my brother argued, "No, they're not toys, they're tools." Even many working people will tell the unemployed that computers are extravagances, that they should sell them for food. Idiots.

I don't like corporations because it's too hard to punish the individuals who run them - those who personally ruined so many lives when they made decisions that hurt us; it's difficult to obtain justice and punish them, and send them to jail for their criminal activities. The only way we can exact our "revenge" is to either sue them (which most of the time is almost impossible), or we can hit them where it really hurts the most, in their personal wallets, not their corporate wallets.

The only way we can do that is to collectively use the greatest power we still wield as individual citizens, our vote. We can vote to raise their corporate taxes, but even more specifically, their capital gains taxes...taxing the CEOs and hedge fund mangers and bankers who destroyed our economy and the middle class.

The problem is, the GOP (and by proxy, the Tea Party) wants to reward these people by completely eliminating capital gains taxes entirely. They've been lying to us and telling us it will good for the economy and more jobs can be created. Why would we vote for politicians who only have corporate interests as their primary concern? Which brings me to my next question...

Why is the Tea Party "incorporated"? Could it be that, just like the Republicans (the GOP), they only represent corporate interests? Is that why the Koch brothers bussed them in to the Wisconsin protests? Isn't it true that in fact, it is THEY who are the true "astro-turfers", and not really a "grassroots movement" or the "political activists" or the "government reform advocates" that they claim to be?

While they may have started out that way (with a lot of help from a wealthy CEO named Glenn Beck* back in 2009), since then the Tea Party has become just another corporate tool to influence the masses and public sentiment. The Tea Party has become just another political force representing special interests, not average working people. But I'll bet many of them probably feel in their heart that they still do - - - but they've been corrupted, just like our politicians have. Money and power does that to people too. It's only natural I suppose when sometimes, what was initially a good cause, runs afoul.

* Since his “Restoring Honor” rally, Mr. Beck has lost over a third of his audience on Fox News - mostly younger viewers - and 300 sponsors have ditched him. Fox may not renew his contact again this year.

I refrain from using the expletive "tea-baggers" (like some on the far-left do) because not only do I not categorize a whole group of people in such derogatory terms, but also because I'm polite. And I don't consider myself to be a Socialist either, nor am I anti-government per se. And I'm not a "radical left-wing anarchist" either. I'm just a regular guy who happens to be anti-corporate. I think ALL limited liability corporations who duck personal responsibility and evade the laws should all be dismantled, and many of their officers put in prison. They are not for America's best interests, but just their own.

And the Tea Party supports them.

Now the Tea Party would just have you believe that they only want "smaller government", such as less intrusive governmental regulations (like stricter banking laws), lower taxes (such as those corporate and capital gains taxes on JUST the wealthy), less government spending (for the poor and elderly), and free trade for "a better environment for conducting business" in America (but not necessarily for small "mom-and-pop" businesses, but for the HUGE multi-national corporations that outsource jobs overseas for cheaper labor, destroying the middle-class of America).

Tea Party "patriots"?

And if you read the Tea Party's Mission Statement, one of their 3 core values if free markets."This inherent definitional bias allows many to advocate strong governmental actions that promote corporate power, while advocating against government actions limiting it." Now think of all the free trade agreements that allowed all our jobs to go to Mexico, India, and China (just to name a few), and then let that sink in for a moment.

Smaller government?

We have 100 million more people living in America today than we did 40 years ago, so now we also have "bigger government". With a third more people to care for and all the related bureaucracy that's needed to govern the government, it only makes sense. If a corporation doubled in size, would they only need half as many managers to manage twice as many workers?

What is this "smaller government" that the Tea Party and ultra-conservatives are demanding? We ARE the government, all of us, including them. Are they demanding that we enforce population control, or just reduce the size of the bureaucracy that manages us? Or do they really just want to reduce the services that only the poor, sick, and old people need? Hmmmm?

What exactly is this "smaller government" they keep ranting about? Do they even know?

Is the Tea Party demanding that with the naturally occurring proportionate amount of low-income, poor, and unemployed people (that would naturally increase in size and scope with any equally larger population base) that we should just drastically reduce the help and care that the disadvantaged once received? (instead of raising the taxes proportionately to the amount of wealth that the uber-rich has been hoarding over the years?)

It is WE THE PEOPLE who are the government (the rich and the poor alike), so what part of this government does the Tea Party want to reduce or eliminate? Just the greed, waste, abuse, and fraud in our government bureaucracy? I could go along with that. Just like large corporations also have greed, waste, abuse, and fraud. Greed can be found everywhere, not just in government bureaucracy or among the poor, but also inside large corporations and among the very rich.

Greed, waste, abuse, and fraud can also be found in the Tea Party too.

When they say "smaller government", does this mean that those in the Tea Party wouldn't mind waiting in longer lines at the DMV to renew their drivers licenses? Or do they really mean cut off the heat for the elderly and food for poor children?

In case the Tea Party didn't know this, the larger our population base grows, the more beggars and worthless old people we'll also have living amongst us - - - the ratio of these "drags on our economy" also grows in respect to our population.

What exactly does the Tea Party mean by "smaller government"? Less taxes for the rich so that there will be less resources for the poor, elderly, disabled, blind, mentally challenged, homeless, sick, and starving? Is that God's America, the one we "trust in"?

Oh, and where's all that down home good Christian charity you claim to have? Do you really think that enough cash could have been collected in the baskets on Sunday mornings to feed 15 million unemployed Americans? Would the pastors have personally distributed these funds among everybody? Get real!

If the Tea Party just means eliminating congressional earmarks, do they realize that not ALL are waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption. Senators represent the citizens of their States to bring federal tax dollars to their communities for other things besides "bridges to nowhere". But I agree, there must be reform here.

I usually think of a starving child with sad eyes living in Africa, India, or Asia - and holding out an empty bowl when I think of people in need. Would the Tea Party accuse that poor child of being lazy and just looking for a free government "hand-out"? Would they deny foreign aide to those children, but at the same time, agree to expand taxpayer-paid oil subsidies worth billions of dollars? Or lower the taxes but raise the salaries for members of Congress like they've always done for themselves?

When they say "smaller government", is the Tea Party advocating for the size of government that we had in 1929 when the Great Depression first started? Or the size of government that we had during our Founding Fathers' time? Just how small should this government (us) be in 2011 with 309 million people now living here?

And what about all those greedy government workers...how much should they earn? Would the teachers be paid $7.25-an-hour, the federal minimum wage? Will the Tea Party send all their children to expensive private schools? Does the Tea Party also want to pay their police and firefighters that too? If so, and if I were them, I wouldn't call 911 the next time I needed a smaller government!

Smaller government. How many Republicans and Tea Party people have elderly parents who busted their asses all their lives and got paid piss-poor wages by their corporate masters, and now rely on Social Security and Medicare to survive? Will the Tea Party cut or reduce their parents "government hand-outs"?

Between the mid-1950s up until the Vietnam War were some of the best days in America's history. From 1954-1963 the highest tax rate was subject to a maximum effective rate limitation equal to 87% of statutory "taxable income." Capital gains taxes were 25% (today they're now 15%, but the GOP now wants them set at 0%). But people kept getting rich, even back in those days, and our nation became the strongest economic and military force than any other country ever had in human history. Really? That's odd, how did that happen? And we didn't even have a Tea Party back in those days!

Today the Republicans (and by proxy, the Tea Party) want to make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent, reduce corporate income taxes even more, and completely eliminate the estate and capital gains taxes for the uber-wealthy entirety. If this is allowed to happen, then the Tea Party is right...we WILL need "smaller government". Much smaller.

Cut the budget...cut, cut, cut!

If the Tea Party truly believes that State workers are paid more than they are, then maybe it's not the State workers who have been earning too much, but it is THEY who have been earning far too little all these years. Maybe you too should have joined a labor union with collective bargaining rights instead of always having to beg that corporate stingy boss of yours for a raise. Remember Ebenezer Scrooge? They're all over the place, in every damn corporate boardroom in this country.

This is what the Tea Party considers to be an average American worker's attack on the GOP and their corporate interests (posted by a moderator on the Tea Party Patriots Facebook wall): Wisconsin: Left's war on democracy. Of course it comes from the same propaganda machine as Fox News. The words used in that article to describe labor unions: rogue, hostage, stunt, attack, flee-baggers, illegal, sore-loser party, temper tantrum, danger - just like in my post: The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

But if the Tea Party and GOP leaders still insists on "smaller government" (without raising taxes on the uber-rich), I suggest we start off by laying off all the government sanitation workers in the Tea Party's and GOP's neighborhoods first; and they can live with their own garbage, because they want much "smaller government". Those damn sanitation guys make far too much money anyway, right? So cut the budget! Cut, cut, cut!

And then let's reduce all the Republican congressional wages and benefits to match those of our BIG government's measure of poverty - - - about $10,000 year. Only THEY (the Tea Party whiners) won't be getting any healthcare, food stamps, or welfare either. Because, after all, we need smaller government - - - just so that the uber-rich can have more tax breaks and pay for less "government hand-outs".

In a recent Tea Party Patriots newsletter that I just received in an e-mail, they claim that "95% of the American public wants the deficit reduced" (but they didn't say by how much, or how, or where to reduce or cut the budget). So this could be a little misleading.

And in that same Tea Party newsletter they say "a majority of Americans favor spending cuts over tax hikes". This last part is deliberately and outright misleading in many ways. What the Tea Party newsletter didn't tell me was that most Americans DO prefer tax hikes, but just for the wealthiest 2%. (Why didn't the Tea Party tell me that?)

Their newsletter offered no links to back-up their statements or numbers - or any supposed poll results...they just put their own slant on what they wanted me to think and believe.

So I looked it up: According to a New York Times/CBS News poll the general public's preference for spending cuts dissolves when they are asked about cuts to Medicare and Social Security. And a majority by a large margin said cuts in Pentagon spending was much more preferable. (Oops! Don't big corporations profit from defense spending?)

The Tea Party wants to eliminate our Social Security and Medicare so we will die old, sick, and broke on the street. And the Tea Party will have the Wall Streeters pay ZERO in capital gains taxes to make them all even more rich. And the Tea Party will eliminate programs to feed starving kids...just so we'll have "smaller government".

The Tea Party doesn't just represent average middle-class income hard-working folks who believe in the right to bear arms, strict immigration laws, and "fair" government. I believe in all those things too. And I don't believe most of the Tea Partiers are necessarily racists either. But the Tea Party also represents the big corporations, whether the so-called "members" realize this or not. They might not like BIG government, but they represent the interests of BIG multi-national corporate conglomerates (i.e the Koch brothers).

At all the Tea Party rallies you'll see many of those yellow flags that reads, "Don't Tread On Me", as if it were government tyranny that was oppressing the masses. But tell me, just who exactly is treading on who? Hasn't it really been corporate tyranny that has been keeping us down? The rich have been treading on the working-class for centuries.



The Bail-Outs of 2008-2009 Re-visited (Lest we forget)

The corporate and banking bail-outs were just that, bail-outs. They all went bankrupt, they weren't too big to fail, they really did fail. Only instead of going through the normal federal bankruptcy courts, special provisions were made by our government leaders for them by people at the Federal Reserve, those very people who also used to work for those very same banks, such as Goldman Sachs and AIG.

Essentially, our government leaders allowed the printing of more fiat dollars (maybe not actually printed money, as in physical currency, but in "digital dollars" - as a promissory note, that they just entered as 0's and 1's of binary code into a computer to the credit of all those big banks and corporations.

By "monetizing", this devalued the dollar more, hurting common working Americans. And the Chinese, who hold so much of our debt, weren't very happy either.

And the talk was, that the price of oil was no longer going to be pegged to the U.S. dollar because of this "monetizing", because America had lost her credibility - the once almighty dollar, now like a junk bond. President Obama just said in a news conference today that [paraphrased] "Because of emerging markets such as China, the demand for more oil has driven up the cost." TRANSLATED TO MEAN: "Because of big corporate American factories in China, the cost of your home-heating fuel and gasoline prices are going up, while we also continue to lose more jobs to China." Meanwhile common American taxpayers are forced to pay for HUGE oil subsidies to oil companies that have been making billions of dollars in profits every year...WTF?

And because of the social unrest in Libya, the commodities traders are manipulating the "futures" on the price on a barrel of oil to profit further, never letting a "crisis" go to waste. Meanwhile, Obama also announced that he'll also consider tapping into our national emergency petroleum reserves, which will have to be replaced with ever higher oil prices. So then, tell me again: "What's the big difference between Obama and Bush?"

So long as BIG oil corporations can profit, we'll never see low-cost hydrogen energy!

The banks then got billions of dollars in all this fake "monopoly" money as a loan by the government to pay them (us) back at 0.25% interest while they turned around and loaned it out to big businesses and American consumers for 10.0% to 20.0% interest...hence their higher stock prices and big bonuses (and only paying a 15% capital gains taxes on those, taxes that the GOP now wants to make 0% on capital gains taxes).

While they bought yachts and mansions, we lost jobs and homes.

The corporations and big banks had trillions of dollars on the books with credit-default swaps, but using accounting trickery (mark-to-market rules) to hide all those lost assets that essentially disappeared into thin air. And the taxpayers just refunded them for all their losses, while at the same time, had paid them ever more profits on top of that. And out of gratitude, we saw what the big banks and corporations gave us in return.

After destroying the housing market and the middle class - and putting millions of Americans out of work, now these same banks and corporations want more...to pay less corporate income taxes and to pay no capital gains taxes at all, while at the same time reducing or cutting the national budget that further hurts the very people they had destroyed, those who are now homeless, poor, sick, disabled, unemployed, hungry, and suicidal.

But today the FEDS are telling us that the banks did nothing wrong!

This is who the Republicans and the Tea Party support - the corporations and big banks, those that hid their greed by deceivingly trying to cloak it in American patriotism, and fleecing us like ignorant third-world beggars.

God bless America, but good bye to the American Dream forever.

Full Disclosure from the Tea Party Patriots Newsletter

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TPP Support email: support@teapartypatriots.org
TPP Support phone number: 404-593-0877

Jenny Beth Martin (jennybethm@gmail.com, Twitter @jennybethm, Facebook)
Dawn Wildman (dmwlaw1@cox.net)
Mark Meckler (mark@teapartypatriots.org)
Debbie Dooley (debbie0040@yahoo.com)

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