An Infiltrator At Occupy Wall Street?

Oct 22nd, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

You may have heard about the "young man" who climbed the statue in Zuccotti Park early this morning and issued a series of delusional demands. Many believe this to be the work of an infiltrator. I certainly think so. Read further and judge for yourself.

© copyright 2011 F. Grey Parker

First let's review recent events:

Quote Of The Day - Here and Now Edition

Sept 3rd, 2011

"Over the last four decades, the Republican Party has transformed from a loyal opposition into an insurrectionary party that flouts the law when it is in the majority and threatens disorder when it is the minority."

-- John B. Judis, senior editor for The New Republic, telling it like it is not long ago.

GOP Sabotaging America, Ctd...

July 26th, 2011

You can call Trump a clown all you want. But he's a dangerous clown. Also, he has openly iterated what I think a lot of the "stop-Obama-at-all-costs" crowd is actually thinking. They are more than willing to destroy America in order to "save" it.

From McClatchy:

"Donald Trump has some advice for the Republican Party. The New York real estate tycoon went on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning and told the hosts that if the GOP wants to ensure that President Barack Obama isn't re-elected, all it has to do is not make any deals with Democrats and default on Aug. 2.

Trump seems to think that using the country's sparkling AAA credit rating as a sacrificial lamb and letting the nation default would damage Obama, who has been willing to put everything including entitlements on the table, more than it would hurt Republicans, who have refused to raise revenues on the richest Americans and companies during the debt ceiling negotiations.

"When it comes time to default, they're not going to remember any of the Republicans' names. They are going to remember in history books one name, and that's Obama," Trump said.

The billionaire doesn't seem at all concerned about the damage such an unprecedented U.S. default could do to Wall Street and other financial markets. Trump's casual approach is not shared by financial experts.

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, said that if Congress can't get it together, the results could be tragic as banks would slow down on lending and investors might pull their money out of the market.

"If we got to a crush point where we couldn't come to a deal, that would wipe out the financial sector," Baker said."

A Note To McConnell...

July 14th, 2011

Today, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made a remarkable pronouncement regarding public perception of the President's culpability should our nation fail to raise the debt ceiling. From HuffPo:

"If the President wants to threaten seniors or veterans or rattle the world economy by pretending he can’t pay our bills, let him," McConnell said. “But he’s not going to implicate Republicans in these efforts

With all due respect, Mitch, the facts on the ground via the most recent Quinnipac poll show that the public already knows who to blame:

"Obama outscores congressional Republicans on several points in the deficit reduction battle:

Voters will blame Republicans over Obama 48 - 34 percent if the debt limit is not raised

Voters say 67 - 25 percent that an agreement to raise the debt ceiling should include tax hikes for the wealthy and corporations, not just spending cuts"

This is now... before the resultant explosion of inflation and interest rates that would follow a failure to treat the raising of the debt limit as, in the words of former George W. Bush budget director and current Republican governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels, "the housekeeping matter it is."

Enjoy your place in the history books, Sen. McConnell. 

Sabotaging America, Ctd

June 23rd, 2011

A couple of weeks ago, I commented on an article by Robert Parry and made the supposition that the GOP may well be attempting to directly sabotage our country's economy. 

Yesterday, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) had the nerve to suggest this publicly. The process continues. Ezra Klein notes that Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) departure from the debt-limit talks today is not just irresponsible, it is also dangerous. Frankly, I think Klein is easy on the man, but his conclusion is clear and correct.

From WaPo:
"...if you had to write a plausible scenario for how America defaults on its debt, or at least seriously spooks the market, this is how it would start. After insisting on using the debt limit as leverage for a budget deal, the Republican leadership finds they can’t actually strike a deficit-reduction deal, but nor can they go back on their promise to vote against any increase in the debt limit that isn’t accompanied by a deficit-reduction deal. What follows is a lot of jockeying and fingerpointing, a short-term increase or two, and eventually, a market panic.

Cantor is putting personal power before country here, and in a very dangerous way. If Boehner actually does manage to cut a decent deal despite Cantor’s effort to throw him under the bus, he may not hold on as leader of his party, but unlike Cantor, he’ll deserve to. For better or worse, this is when we learn whether anyone on the Republican Party’s leadership team is actually prepared to lead."

When we look back years from now, this may be one the most important moments in our history. And one of its most devastating. No foreign enemy has ever put the United States in a position of defaulting on its obligations. The GOP now has.

GOP Sabotaging America

June 23rd, 2011

Some of us have been suggesting for months that the Republican Party is actively trying to injure ordinary Americans and limit any potential recovery for ballot leverage in 2012. At last, some senior elected Democrats are willing to call them out for their tactics.

Ryan Witt writes for The Washington Examiner:
"President Obama is generally considered the favorite to win re-election in 2012, as he consistently leads all Republican candidates in the polls, but there are some who believe the President could still be vulnerable if the economy continues to weaken. Today Talking Points Memo reported that Senate Democrats accused the Republicans of purposefully blocking any measures to improve the economy in order to better their chances of beating Obama in 2012.

To support their case the Democrats point to the most recent debt ceiling negotiations. The Democrats have proposed a temporary reduction in the payroll tax, which would theoretically free up more money and generate some more economic growth. Democrats generally favor more direct economic investment, such as spending for infrastructure projects, but were willing to meet the Republicans on their terms by proposing a tax cut.

Democrats had assumed that the Republicans, who generally have never met a tax cut they did not like, would accept the measure. However, the Republicans have said they oppose the temporary tax cut as a "gimmick." The Republican position has caused Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to make the following bold accusation against Republicans,

"Would Republicans really oppose a tax cut for business that created jobs? This is sort of beyond the pale. So if they'd oppose even something so suited to their tastes ideologically, it shows that they're just opposing anything that would help create jobs. It almost makes you wonder if they aren’t trying to slow down the economic recovery for political gain."

With all due respect and in consideration of the fact that the single largest barrier to domestic growth currently is demand, there's no "almost" about it.

A Frightening Perspective

June 10th, 2011

Augusto Pinochet and Henry Kissinger

Yesterday, Robert Parry wrote a piece drawing an analogy between the tactics of elites in Chile prior to the deposition of Salvador Allenede, particularly under the guidance of their U.S. sponsors, and the efforts we see today from groups like ALEC, The Koch enterprises and the GOP.

It really isn't as far-fetched as it should sound. There are dramatic similarities, for example, between El Mercurio and FOX News.