When Tea Party conservatives protest? The voice of Real America that all must obey. When Occupy Wall Street protests? Violent class warfare that pits “American versus American”.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took to the stage at the 2011 Voter Values Summit in Washington to do a little fear-mongering about the growing Occupy Wall Street protests.
“If you read the newspapers today, I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country,” he said.
Cantor appeared try and connect the protests to the cries of “class warfare” Republicans are lobbing at President Obama’s jobs bill and his Buffett Rule.
“Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans,” Cantor said.
Think the 1% is getting concerned? Enough to have the House majority leader attack them as a “growing mob”. Which is funny, I thought the Tea Party was in fact proud of saying “We are the mob!”
Now of course when people are actually protesting the folks that really did destroy the country’s economy, now being a mob is bad. Republicans are having a field day by projecting all the criticisms of the Tea Party over the last two years onto OWS, and laughing them off as the unfortunate poor who probably shouldn’t even have the right to vote. Take Rep. Steve King for instance.
As I roll this thing back and I think of American history, there was a time in American history when you had to be a male property owner in order to vote. The reason for that was, because they wanted the people who voted — that set the public policy, that decided on the taxes and the spending — to have some skin in the game.
Now we have data out there that shows that 47 percent of American households don’t pay taxes, 51 percent of American wage-earners don’t have an income tax liability. And it’s pretty clear that there are a lot of people who are not in the workforce at all. In fact, of our unemployment numbers — that run in the 13 or 14 million category — when you go to the Department of Labor Statistics and you look at that data, you can add up those that are simply not in the workforce of different age groups, but of working age, add that number to the number of those who are on unemployment and you come up with a number that was just a few months ago 80 million Americans. Just over a month ago that number went over 100 million Americans that aren’t working.
Now I don’t think they’re paying taxes. But many of them are voting. And when they vote, they vote for more government benefits.
The 1% is now fully playing into the fears of “class warfare” and the GOP is leading the way in continuing to marginalize the vast majority of Americans.
cleek
except, of course it’s only “class warfare” when the shots are coming from below.
Rafer Janders
As I roll this thing back and I think of American history, there was a time in American history when you had to be a male property owner in order to vote.
Oh, happy days! And note how he skips right over that “male” thing.
The reason for that was, because they wanted the people who voted — that set the public policy, that decided on the taxes and the spending — to have some skin in the game.
Wait, you only have skin in the game if you’re a man? And you don’t have skin in the game by the mere fact of being born or choosing to immigrate here, living and working in this country, living your life, raising a family, etc.?
Now we have data out there that shows that 47 percent of American households don’t pay taxes,
Actually, we have no such data. Since it’s just made-up.
51 percent of American wage-earners don’t have an income tax liability.
You know why? Because THEY’RE TOO POOR! THEY DON’T EARN ENOUGH MONEY!!! Do you think it’s a fact for or against you that half the country is so poor that we don’t even bother to collect federal income tax from them?
And it’s pretty clear that there are a lot of people who are not in the workforce at all. In fact, of our unemployment numbers — that run in the 13 or 14 million category — when you go to the Department of Labor Statistics and you look at that data, you can add up those that are simply not in the workforce of different age groups, but of working age, add that number to the number of those who are on unemployment and you come up with a number that was just a few months ago 80 million Americans. Just over a month ago that number went over 100 million Americans that aren’t working.
Again, do you imagine this is an argument IN FAVOR of Republican policies?
Now I don’t think they’re paying taxes.
Wait, is not paying taxes a good thing or a bad thing now? Aren’t taxes bad — but not paying taxes is also bad? Ow, my head hurts…
But many of them are voting.
My god, the monsters. The monsters.
And when they vote, they vote for more government benefits.
Huh. Imagine. Middle and working class people actually voting in their own economic self-interest. Can’t have that, can we?
kindness
Funny that Teahaddists openly carried guns, AR-15s & Glocks strapped to their hips but it’s the Occupy Wall Street protesters that are a mob and trying to terrorize people.
How the MSM can twist itself into such pretzels is getting harder & harder to fathom.
Alice in Wonderland here we are. I must have eaten too much of that shroom…..
Villago Delenda Est
If Eric Cantor were to, oh, I don’t know, fall down a flight of stairs or something, I would not be too distressed.
Menzies
@Villago Delenda Est:
Far as I’m concerned, I hope he ends up getting his wedding tackle amputated.
Barry
Alas, in Virginia, history teaches that the “Real Americans” are The Saint Ronald of Reagan and Pat Robertson.
The one who said, “The gentlemen may cry, Peace! Peace! but there is no Peace. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? Is life so sweet or peace so dear to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know what others may say but as for me, give liberty or give me death” is long forgotten in the Virginia of Eric Cantor.
As is the one who wrote “Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Freedom”
cathyx
Power to the people.
jayjaybear
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m waiting for a house to fall on him, myself…
wrb
These goings on present a chance to do some sweet jujitsu with some of the right’s most irritating memes: class warfare, job creators etc.
Before, there was.n’t enough energy to flip them
Villago Delenda Est
@kindness:
If they want to continue to collect their six to eight figure salaries, they know that it’s very important to keep themselves twisted into pretzels.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
If wages were higher, more people would pay taxes.
Omnes Omnibus
Fuck Eric Cantor. Just fuck him. Asshole.
Rick Massimo
Well, if it takes a “mob” to get Eric Cantor “concerned,” let it be a “mob.” He should be concerned. He should be scared shitless.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Eric Cantor is a well-known Pepsi drinker.
.
.
Ecks
At least Cantor is conceding that the protesters are, in fact, Americans. That’s a real victory against conservatives these days.
Roger Moore
@kindness:
No, it’s easy. The people at the top of the media- not just the owners but many of the anchors and name reporters- are part of the 1%. The ones who aren’t are close enough that they’re starting to think like 1%ers. Naturally they’re going to see and report things the way the 1% does.
wrb
@Omnes Omnibus:
I hate it when I come up with witticisms that are too offensive to post.
BGinCHI
Please tell me this is the last gasp of the stupidest fucks to ever rise as politicians in this country.
Please also tell me it’s the last gasp, and a desperate one, of privileged white people (mostly men), who are so afraid of anything in the world that’s different that they would wreck the country they live in to “save” it.
Please tell me the media can no longer sustain the contradictions that are leading us to ruin our economy and our culture simultaneously.
It’s like the GOP is Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (John Wayne’s character). They will stop at nothing from finding and killing what they love (or fetishize) no matter the cost.
Cat Lady
If carrying guns in these marches is too incendiary, then it will have to be guillotines. Those suckers look great on wheels, and glint in the sun. Don’t need permits to “carry” either.
BGinCHI
@Roger Moore: Yes. The status quo. The MSM lives and breathes to keep things exactly as they are. Aiding and abetting, at your service.
Gilles de Rais
Call Tea Partiers a mob and the fainting couches come out –
evenmost especially on our side. Can’t do that, tut tut, bad form, lads.Don’t bitch about the MSM when we pre-censor, and then pre-kneecap ourselves.
Next step from the 1%: the guns come out. I am going to the protests downtown tomorrow and Sunday. Given this town’s history of police brutality, I am more than a little concerned.
Zifnab
But is anyone really buying it? OWS approval numbers aren’t half bad given the whole party just started this week.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/10/05/poll_occupy_wall_street_starts_off_with_favorable_ratings.html
Maybe the FOX’n’Friends networks and newspapers are going after the protesters in force. But are they really painting them in a negative light? Or are they just stoking the flames?
Liberty60
If a group is judged by their enemies, then I am delighted to have Eric Cantor as an enemy.
Or in the words of another dirty fucking hippy, “I welcome their hatred.”
batgirl
Theda Skocpol has a new book being published in 2012 by Oxford UP called The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism that Publishers Weekly just reviewed:
Nope, no class war (or race war) there, yes siree. Just a classic case of IGMFU!
Rosalita
@jayjaybear:
I think a pack of wolves getting a hold of him would be satisfying…
cathyx
Mayor Bloomburg is threatening to layoff city workers if the protests don’t stop. He says it’s costing the city too much money and they can’t afford to pay the wages of city workers.
jl
“there was a time in American history when you had to be a male property owner in order to vote.”
Not true. Of course, the Mid Atlantic states were always pit of corruption, since forever.
I guess we started going down hill when Madison argued that in a democratic republic, property was not the sole criteria of whether a person ‘had skin in the game’.
It’s all Madison’s fault, and Hamilton’s for getting out the N * g r * vote in NY elections.
These GOP pols are sure eager to win the next election with the male property owner vote. Let’s hope the sane people in this country continue to get ever luckier in their enemies, then we might have a chance.
Maude
Does anyone pay any attention to Cantor and King?
It seems like when they say stuff like this, it falls into a sink hole.
sherifffruitfly
Uh…. the rest of us 99% WOULD LOVE to have “skin in the game”.
That’s, like, the entire point of fairly taxing that 1%.
Durr.
Lysana
Swear to the gods, if I still harbored doubts about the Occupy momement, they’d be purged utterly by the nature of the opposition. I worry more about possible subornment than effectiveness now.
jl
@Maude: I will certainly remember what these GOPers said when I work the next election, and will be very eager to explain their wisdom to potential voters.
4jkb4ia
Despite this being a completely typical Balloon Juice comment and lashon hara to boot, Steve King really is a moron. In Steve Kingworld, the Depression never happened. In the world of truth, the income tax in the days of the Depression was for a relatively few wealthy individuals.
Zandar, you have been kicking butt since you got here.
Napoleon
@cathyx:
Link?
Bill Arnold
@efgoldman:
In New York at least, pitchforks and torches are probably illegal. Mock guillotines are probably legal. (Particularly for the annual village Halloween parade, which often has displays that would be offensive to much of red state america.) A stage set carpenter could make a pretty decent one in a couple of days. (I’m not advocating such gauche street theater.)
eemom
@jayjaybear:
Evil married stupid and begat Eric Cantor. It is the stupid that will do him in. He is very, VERY stupid.
Just look at his eyes — they are the vacuum Bob Dylan once sang about.
Maude
@jl:
We will remember, but I was thinking about people who don’t pay attention that much to the politicos.
I think that the ones like Cantor are wasting their breath.
We outnumber the 1%. By a lot.
It won’t play in Peoria.
BGinCHI
@cathyx: Good.
Let’s get the city workers out there too.
This shit has got to stop. Blaming the victim and punishing the most vulnerable is not how we are going to run this country anywhere but into the ground.
boss bitch
Jay Carney today:
Southern Beale
Some Libertarian idiot I’ve never heard of on Twitter who’s running for president (I know, I know), when I said there’s no such thing as a free market because we live in a global economy just said this:
Can someone explain what the fuck that’s supposed to mean?
wrb
It is nice that Cantor and friends are so willingly accepting their assigned role as defenders of the 1% against the 99%
“We are the 99%” is a brilliant slogan.
jl
Maybe if the 99 percenters acted more like the tea party, say
walk around with guns at rallies,
shout down anyone who they disagree with, even before they get a sentence out,
threaten armed violence if they don’t get what they want,
then they would be more appreciated by the GOP as real Americans exercising their right to assemble for redress of grievances.
I’m sure Rush would agree.
Note: I very sincerely hope that nothing remotely like that never ever happens, but just made the observation to highlight the hypocrisy of the Kings and the Cantors, and rest of their sleazy crew, which when it comes down to it, includes supposed moderates like Bloomberg.
cleek
until the 1850’s, even.
no, it wasn’t. it was because it ensured that the voting population was composed of the right kind of people. it’s the same elitist bullshit that gave us the Electoral College, indirect election of Senators, and denied women the right to vote.
and WTF does it mean that a poor person doesn’t have any “skin in the game” ?
Villago Delenda Est
@Rosalita:
I can’t imagine him going into that situation well, as Ernest Borgnine (as Ragnar) did in The Vikings
Villago Delenda Est
@cleek:
Please. Actual historical accuracy is so shrill!
Nomad
Write “I am the 99%” on any postcard (will get through security faster than an envelope) and send it to that SMARMY FUCKING HYPOCRITE CANTOR:
Representative Eric Cantor
303 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
cathyx
@Napoleon: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bloomberg_accuses_wall_economy_protesters_RVVkvakoiVqG68eSGrynrO
singfoom
Shorter Eric Cantor: “Let them eat tribalism.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
No, can’t. Because it’s typical libertarian bullshit that can’t be explained unless you have received wisdom direct into your brain from St. Ayn.
The dumbshit can’t comprehend that a less regulated financial sector got us into this mess, which is the exact opposite of what their cant tells them should happen.
Anoniminous
Emphasis is correction for historical accuracy.
Gilles de Rais
@Southern Beale: You should be arguing with a table instead.
And there’s no such animal as a “Libertarian”, those are just Republicans who lack the courage of their convictions.
burnspbesq
I console myself by thinking that there is a special place in Hell reserved for the likes of Eric Cantor.
Southern Beale
@Villago Delenda Est:
Also I was confused as to whether he was refuting me that we live in a global economy or not. He’s got two double negatives in there or something.
Anyway he’s trying to engage people on Twitter to boost his presidential profile which is just so … sad. And funny.
Well, speaking of Libertarians, Rand Paul has resorted to forwarding anti-United Nations SPAM e-mail conspiracy theories debunked on Snopes a year before.
Villago Delenda Est
@boss bitch:
It’s exactly like one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
It’s all a matter of perspective.
In this case, it shows the rank hypocrisy of the Eric Cantors of the world…especially since no one at OWS is sputtering about “Second Amendment remedies.”
Southern Beale
@Gilles de Rais:
I thought they were Republicans who liked to smoke pot and screw hookers?
The Other Bob
Maybe my sign will say:
“Hell yes, it’s class warfare, and the 99% are taking all the casualties.”
OR
“Hell yes, it’s class warfare, and the 1% are doing all the shooting.”
Chuck Butcher
If you earn WAGES less than $106K you and “your employer” automatically pay more in SS/FICA than the Capital Gains Tax on billionaires… Every politician loves to ignore that hidden employer part of SS/FICA, the one that isn’t written down on your pay stub so you don’t know you’re paying it.
Martin
@burnspbesq: Unfortunately, that’s part of the problem in this country. Most Americans feel that judgement will come after we die and that it’s not our place to do it now. I’d much prefer we reserve a special place on Earth, that is as bad as that place in Hell, and get Eric Cantor there ASAP.
Cat Lady
@Nomad:
Fuck, yeah. Every gooper, for that matter.
Southern Beale
@jl:
Funny hats. Really, that’s what they want.
jl
@cleek: IIRC, it was the 1840s that saw an emphasis on white male property owning franchise around the country. Several states had wider franchises from the Revolution up the early 1840s.
Not sure why. Maybe economic turmoil of the 1830s, or religious revival and early stirrings of what became modern Xtianism, or success of free soil parties in several states managed to increase property ownership (by white males who were eager to narrow the franchise as soon as they got some).
The politics in the early US was much more varied than the reactionaries portray. Their history of the US is mythical, and every time they lie about it, I think they should be called out.
Mino
@eemom: I used to think the cruelest eyes were those ice blue/near colorless ones, but Cantor’s show the soul of a rat. And Ryan’s are much the same but a smarter rat.
Southern Beale
@Martin:
Umm, bullshit. Sorry. that’s just absolute, 100% bullshit. Not even evangelicals think that.
Roger Moore
@cleek:
It means the asshole who said it cares more about money than about people. Because poor people aren’t at risk of losing their (nonexistant) savings and property, they don’t deserve a say in the way things are run. Things are supposed to be run to protect the interests of those who already have stuff, not to help those without get some. It’s more of the same from the people who would like to repeal American history since 1861.
jl
@Southern Beale: Thanks. I forgot about the funny hats. Please consider funny hats added to my list.
Also, signs with bad spelling.
Maybe it is the good spelling I have seen so far on the protest signs that scares the GOP so much, besides the number of people showing up, in so many places around the country, and they don’t even have corporate buses, or even complimentary corporate brunches!
Catsy
@Southern Beale:
“Could you repeat that in English? Because I don’t speak the language of the square-jawed cum puppets.”
Roger Moore
@Mino:
One that hasn’t been pithed yet?
Jager
@batgirl:
well-off white Republicans fiercely protective of their social security and Medicare benefits and fiercely against social spending on “undeserving” younger people and immigrants; they are canny about politics but misinformed about public policy,
and with serious spelling issues
Pangloss
AGAIN, with the 27% figure? Its recurrence as a measure of people against something good or for something bad is almost comical.
Southern Beale
@Catsy:
OMG we LOVED that show! I could never believe that it was on Fox, it was so anti-corporate.
Thanks for reminding me of an old favorite!
trollhattan
Aaaaaand, there it is:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/pastor-calling-mormonism-a-cult-says-perry-welcomed-his-endorsement.php?ref=fpa
Catfight! Getcher popcorn here.
BGinCHI
@Martin: You mean the parts of Texas that aren’t Austin?
Southern Beale
@Pangloss:
Oh my fucking God. I hate this shit. No, Americans are not “divided” on the protestors, except in the most banal sense of the word. If 33% are in favor, 27% are not, and 40% could give a shit, that doesn’t mean ANYTHING. Jesus.
You could have 299 million people supporting something and ONE PERSON against it and Americans would be “divided.” Jesus.
PeakVT
@Menzies: I hope he drives off the abutment of a washed-out bridge.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan:
Ok, somewhere Salvador Dali is laughing his ass off right now.
A denomination made up of right-wing extremists.
The cretinous stupid. It burns.
Southern Beale
@jl:
How long before some wannabe James O’Keefe type shows up at an Occupy Wall Street event with a misspelled sign comparing Mitt Romney to Hitler so everyone on Fux News can be all like, “oooohhhh those big mean liberals!” and the Villagers can soberly stroke their chins and agree that both sides do it?
Where there are liberals there will be ratfucking.
Catsy
@Southern Beale: And it’s all on Netflix streaming.
My friends and I like to call it “Aperture Science: The Sitcom”.
Southern Beale
@cleek:
My Repuke governor said that of poor people in relation to healthcare. I mean, the irony. People are DYING because they can’t access healthcare so I think they have skin in the game. Also blood, bones, muscle, tissues … etc.
handsmile
On the subject of corporate media contortionism, Media Matters has now posted “Erin Burnett Should Just Apologize”, a link-laden article that reveals how Burnett, CNN’s new evening anchor “quickly became a symbol of how media elites tend to instinctively write off liberal activists as being not important, as being naive as to how the world really works”:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201110070005
The article includes the video clip of Burnett’s now notorious report of her noblesse oblige visit among the peasants and DFHs of “Occupy Wall Street.”
Clicking on the word “embarrassment” (highlighted in blue) in the article’s third paragraph will connect you to a Youtube clip of Cenk Uygur’s righteous denunciation of Burnett’s report and a review of her past career working for Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and CNBC. (Might such a history have anything to do with her mockery of the OWS protest?)
Another link connects to a Forbes Magazine (!) website article rebuking Burnett’s journalistic record.
Svensker
OK, this is getting to the Dead Honkey! setting on my Richard Pryor (RIP) Pissed-Off-O-Meter.
NonyNony
@cleek:
Let me get out my “Wingnut to English” dictionary…
Ah here it is – it says “if he doesn’t have money then fuck him – why should anyone give a shit about him? If God had wanted me to give a fuck he would have given the guy some money.”
Sounds about right.
David in NY
@Anoniminous:
Culture of Truth
No he means poor people should consider donating their skin to the rich.
cleek
@Roger Moore:
yeah.
IMO, a poor person has more skin in the game than just about anybody else: hell, he’s practically naked. the rich can always buy influence and protection, the poor can … try to navigate the world the rich create and then vote for the people the rich put on the ballot.
elftx
@Uncle Clarence Thomas:
o noes..don’t say that…I LURVES my Pepsi..
JCT
@Southern Beale: No! That was Bush’s Interior Dept (Mineral Management Services) in CO.
handsmile
@batgirl: (#26)
(Forgot to append to my last comment): Thanks much for the alert about Theda Skocpol’s upcoming book. She is a contemporary political theorist of the very first rank, and her writings for a non-specialist audience are invariably accessible and illuminating.
David in NY
@jl: Interesting. I just knew the high school version that King mangles.
trollhattan
@cleek:
I don’t suppose it occurred to King that that “property” might have well included other humans? “Skins” indeed.
eemom
@PeakVT:
you see, that is the GOOD thing about Eric Cantor. He is SO fucking stupid, that all of these prospective demises are perfectly plausible.
Svensker
Also, too, King says that he wouldn’t change anything about American history, including slavery, because:
via Thinkprogress
Honkey honkey. (Sorry, my head is exploding. Such hatred is wrong, right? Sure ain’t healthy for my blood pressure.)
David Koch
What we were thinking about the crowds was planting some troublemakers.
BGinCHI
@David Koch: Well, until you get you a new war you have to send those annoying fuckers somewhere.
Cat Lady
@David Koch:
On camels?
Martin
@BGinCHI: I was thinking Oklahoma actually. And for Coburn and Inhofe, San Francisco.
John O
If I can hang on at work a couple more years, I can see some full-time activism in my future. I know I would enjoy it.
Beware The Man.
Cat Lady
@David Koch:
On camels?
John O
If I can hang on at work a couple more years, I can see some full-time activism in my future. I know I would enjoy it.
Beware The Man.
Great post, Zandar.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’m just waiting for our besieged Wall Street Overlords to order their minions to piss out of the windows onto the protesters while yelling “Here’s some trickle down economics for you!”
I’m sure that would be followed by bonuses for everyone.
David Koch
@Southern Beale:
Jon Stewart did that last night. He did a long segment complaining that protesters are littering.
Love that Jon. He’s our man, you know.
Corner Stone
@BGinCHI: Low. That’s low man.
Southern Beale
@David Koch:
Think I read about that in the Grapes Of Wrath. That’s so 1930’s. Don’t you people have any new ideas? Then again, you are the party of Grumpy Old People.
Scott
One thing that should be mentioned is that a good chunk of those who don’t pay taxes are senior citizens. Short distance to: Senior citizens shouldn’t have the right to vote according to Republicans.
Southern Beale
@David Koch:
Think I read about that in the Grapes Of Wrath. That’s so 1930’s. Don’t you people have any new ideas? Then again, you are the party of Grumpy Old People.
David Koch
@Southern Beale:
Jon Stewart did that last night. He did a long segment complaining that protesters are littering.
Love that Jon. He’s our man you know.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Here’s the Occupied Wall Street Journal.
Scott
One thing that doesn’t get mentioned is that a good chunk of people who don’t pay Federal taxes are senior citizens. Short distance to: Senior citizens shouldn’t have the right to vote, according to Republicans.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est:
The Secret Committee would like a word with you now. They seem to be carrying some kind of list with them.
Scott
One thing that doesn’t get mentioned is that a good chunk of people who don’t pay Federal taxes are senior citizens. Short distance to: Senior citizens shouldn’t have the right to vote, according to Republicans.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Pat Lang on Cantor, wear your flak jacket.
David Koch
@Cat Lady: Camels have low carbon foot prints. So no. We always use diesel engines.
Svensker
OT: But why are there duplicate posts all over the place. Is FYWP melting?
Villago Delenda Est
OK, the commenting system appears to be borked…comments are being reposted a couple more down.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Southern Beale: You need to read the story of Tommy the Traveler.
BGinCHI
@Corner Stone: Anything for you, sweetheart.
I could have excepted parts of Denton and a few neighborhoods in San Antonio, but my dander was up.
J. Michael Neal
@Liberty60:
Fortunately, Cantor should be in the process of shutting the fuck up for 24 hours, giving the rest of us a day of relative peace.
Sly
Divide and conquer. The power of conservatism is derived from its adherents ability to scare enough people who have something (even if its very little) that they’ll lose it all once the people with nothing get their way. Successful revolutions only happen when the people with very little and the people with nothing are on the same page.
David Koch
@Southern Beale:
We have freshen up the idea. Today, we send troublemakers disguised as “True Liberals” on blogs to disrupt and poison communities.
We also establish and finance front organizations. These false flag liberal campaigns, blogs, and groups establish a foot hold with the public and media, and then they engage in destructive actions which allows us to tar and discredit everyone associated (directly and horizontally). We call it digital flypaper.
We learned this from the CIA and FBI. During Viet Nam, they would establish fake anti-war organizations and periodicals which would later engage in activities to alienate public support and turn off individual participants.
Divide and conquer will always be a timeless and successful tactic.
Villago Delenda Est
From the following site:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/07/8206043-cantor-says-hes-concerned-by-mobs-at-occupy-wall-street
Uh, Ron, I don’t think these people are arguing YOUR case, but OTOH you are a seriously deluded git…
squirrelhugger
It’ll have to be Agway. For some reason China doesn’t want to produce them, so Walmart doesn’t carry them.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@David Koch: In Dubious Battle is even better than the Grapes of Wrath.
Darkrose
Funny thing about that…my great-grandfather was male, and I’d say he had plenty of skin in the game. Of course, since that skin was dark brown, and was was the owned property rather than the property owner, he didn’t get to vote.
Fuck you, Steve King. Fuck you with a rusty pitchfork up your shriveled pasty ass.
Corner Stone
@BGinCHI: SA is kinda blah but Denton fer God’s sake? It’s like Hell on earths version of a slice of hell on earth.
Anything that close to Dallas should be nuked from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
wrb
@Villago Delenda Est:
Actually a lot of them seem to be. Lots of talk about ending the Fed and of the wickedness of fiat money and deficits.
Weird, the thought channels.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Darkrose: Almost all great-grandfathers are male.
Renie
And now a bigger asshole, my rep, Peter King from NY3CD during a break from hunting down Muslim terrorists in the US, had this to say about the OWS protestors:
“The fact is these people are anarchists. They have no idea what they’re doing out there,” King said. “They have no sense of purpose other than a basically anti-American tone and anti-capitalist. It’s a ragtag mob basically.”
King, dismissed the demonstrators as “a bunch of angry 1960s do-overs” trying “to create chaos and take away the focus on the Obama record.”
God I wish the local Democrats would put some money up to run someone against him who can win.
Roger Moore
@Southern Beale:
Fuck no! The whole point of conservatism is to avoid any new ideas. That and punching hippies.
Linda Featheringill
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Occupied wall street journal. Cute. :-)
David Koch
Too bad we don’t have a man like Herbert Hoover in the White House. He knew how to deal with anarchists and anti-capitalists. He didn’t fuck around. He sent MacArthur in to burn them out.
Villago Delenda Est
@wrb:
The problem, though, is the Fed functioned perfectly well for decades before all this happened. There was a Fed back when the income gap was dramatically narrower than it was here.
So I don’t think the Fed is actually central to the issue, although it’s a great diversion from the actual problems, which include deregulation, something that Ron Paul LOVES.
BGinCHI
@Corner Stone: I wouldn’t want to kill anyone from the Old 97s or Centro-Matic, or any other good Denton bands.
But if we could get rid of Dallas I might reconsider.
Villago Delenda Est
OvenMitt is a dumbass alert (fair warning…link to Orange Satan)
Satanicpanic
@Pangloss: You beat me to it- it can’t just be confirmation bias that is making me notice that number so often. Well, I guess it could. But it’s still creepy.
MikeJ
@wrb:
The thought channels are wrong, but not particularly weird. They hear that unelected people somewhere are in charge of the economy, it’s easy for low information people to see the downside of it and hard to explain the upside.
cleek
@Villago Delenda Est:
yeah, even even-handed NPR couldn’t help but note that Obama hasn’t actually cut military spending but that “you’d never know it from listening to Romney.” me-ow!
wrb
@Villago Delenda Est:
The Fed is central, imo. It could cure this sort of problem.
But it won’t because it is perhaps both the most spectacular and unrecognized case of regulatory capture there is.
The regional Feds get seats on the FOMC. The boards of the regional feds are elected by the banks in the region.
It is an industry lobby, that has captured control of the money supply.
It is as if the Homebuilders gained control of the money supply.
It represents creditors. Creditors are served by low interest rates and don’t give a damn about unemployment, regardless of what the stinkin’ charter says.
So, of course, they spend trillions in emergency funds to rescue the banks, but are disinterested in the suffering of the rest of the economy.
The makeup of the FOMC needs changing, but an institution with those powers is a good thing.
agrippa
I am glad that Cantor is concerned.
I want this emotional state to go far beyond concern.
I want Cantor to feel fear; real and palpable fear.
agrippa
@Rick Massimo:
I want Cantor to feel fear.
Proximate immobilizing fear.
Villago Delenda Est
@wrb:
The thing is, the Fed doesn’t need to be that way…and was not in the past.
The regulatory capture might well be an issue, but that can be fixed by…specific regulations…that Ron Paul and his moronic ilk have been trying to get to go away.
They are INTENT on throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and leaving us with a neo-feudal state.
Which is why tumbrels may become necessary.
wrb
agreed
Lurking Canadian
The “skin in the game” thing is just a euphemistic way of stating the golden rule: Them as has the gold should get to make the rules.
It goes back to Justice John Jay, who said “The people who own the country should run it” and of course that variously sourced old saw about how democracy only lasts until the people learn to vote themselves largesse from the treasury.
TenguPhule
I approve of any Secret Committee that votes to drop a Hellfire missile on Steve King.
TenguPhule
I want him to feel Madam Gullet’s blade on the back of his neck to the jeers of the union crowds.
marginalized for stating documented facts
Good.
When the mob breaks down the doors and finally strings up Cantor and his corrupt thieving ilk, I’ll bet he’ll be even more concerned.
Villago Delenda Est
@TenguPhule:
With our own Sarah Proud and Tall knitting in a rocking chair, providing color commentary.
TenguPhule
I understand that Cantor could possibly commit suicide by stabbing himself 22 times in the back.
TenguPhule
“And Cantor loses points for losing his head too early. They didn’t even pull the lever yet.”
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule:
The Secret Committee would like a quick word with you please.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Can she knit? I mean, does she know how? Perhaps lessons are in order. These things must be sorted out, you know.
agrippa
@TenguPhule:
Tengu Phule: After he has been given a fair trial. For our sake, not his.
Failing that, for the VA Democratic Party to make him a special case and beat him umercifully in the Nov 2012 election.
Cantor, being so mortified by that humiliating defeat, he takes hermit lessons.
Karen
It’s interesting how the GOP mentions the 60s. Yes, it may bring images of the hippies, which of course is code for “dirty stinking Communist/liberals.” However they don’t remember what happened in the 60s. As more and more people saw the protests and the over-reaction by the law and military (Kent State anyone?) and more people were affected by having loved ones die in the Vietnam War, public opinion turned against the war.
“We are the 99 percent” is turning into “The Whole World’s Watching” and that is what scares the 1 percent to death.
Origuy
He’s got a lot of atoning to do; I hope he’s rested up.
Corner Stone
@agrippa:
Why start now?
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
And honestly, it’s not like the Fed has been doing a really good job of running the economy to benefit the little guy. The Fed seems a lot more interested in the controlling inflation side of their mandate than the full employment side. Unemployment is currently running at almost twice the desired full employment rate, but the Fed is being very cautious about doing anything too radical to bring it down. If inflation were running almost twice its target rate, the Fed would be doing everything in its power to fix it. It doesn’t take a genius to notice the difference and hate the Fed for it.
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, besides that worldwide there are about twice as many Anglicans as there are Southern Baptists….
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste:
I think the “No True Protestant” logical fallacy is probably in play here…
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Svensker:
I wonder if King has asked himself how things could get so screwed up after god formed the perfect union. Did god make it all happen with his pawns around the world and then just walk away from it? If he meant for it to be perfect why would he do this? It’s been well established in the bible that Man has his head up his ass and will screw everything up anyway, so why would god even attempt this futile exercise?
I know, King would have to be smart enough to ask this question of himself and the poor guy is just too stupid to do that. King would probably reason that the United States is like the garden of Eden and now that god has abandoned us because we have become a nation of heathens and sought our own course, all we have to do is make the place Christian perfect again and god will come running back with roses and candy for all (Christians).
Just like what happened to Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden!
Ruckus
@Southern Beale:
I thought it was Greasy Old Poop
Neo
The elephant in the room is that the target of the demonstrations, the banks, while getting capitalization through “bridge loans” from the government, had to pay back the money they got from the government, while many of the recipients of the largesse of TARP and the “stimulus” (i.e the unions) are rushing to join the demonstrators.
Ruckus
@TenguPhule:
The blade should first hit the front of the neck. Face Up.
Always Face Up.
They should always get to see it coming. It’s much more satisfying.
Chris T.
@wrb:
Um, no, this is quite backwards. The rentier class is served by high interest rates. (Specifically, high real rates, so during periods of inflation, nominal rates have to be very high, and during periods of flat prices, such as today, they need only be around five or six percent to do pretty well.)
DanielX
“Believe it or not, some in this town have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans,” Cantor said.
You don’t say! So do I…in point of fact I remember it very well, back during the debates over the Affordable Care Act. “Barack Obama’s soshulist agenda”. etc. I remember it back oh, all those years ago (circa 2005) when George W. Bush was The Greatest President Evar, Anointed By God…and anyone who was not willing to fellate George W. Bush…in Yankee Stadium…on the pitcher’s mound…at the top of the third…during a game with the Red Sox…was a traitor, and definitely ought to Watch What He/She Said.
Yep, I remember that and more too, like when St. Ronald of Reagan announced (after the passage of one of the TEN tax increases during his administration) that said deal would put “Social Security on a sound financial basis in perpetuity”. Which of course it didn’t, because we had to pay for imperial adventures and the biggest expansion of the Federal government since the 30s.
Sidebar: new motto of the Transportation Security Administration – BOHICA! which, for the uninitiated, stands for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
So, yeah, I believe it, and then some, which is why pearl clutchings by Messrs. Cantor and King about turning Americans against each other, and class warfare, tend to leave me…unmoved. Occupy Wall Street is getting Cantor and King’s panties in a twist? More of this, please.
Little Dreamer
I’m amazed to find Peter King say that workers who pay taxes but don’t own homes have no skin in the game. WOW, just wow! Perhaps they should just stop paying taxes then?
priscianusjr
I’m not surprised they’re trying to marginalize the vast majority of Americans. Thing is, you can’t marginalize the vast majority of Americans. What they;re going to end up marginalizing is themselves.