Contrarian billionaire Peter Schiff, who graduated from California’s flagship university, made a fortune in the finance and precious metal markets, and predicted our current economic free fall back in the halcyon days of 2007, went down to Zuccotti Park to engage with the Occupy Wall Street crewe for a little badinage with the squatters.
I am particularly enamored of the unselfconciously ironic comments of the young dude at 8:37 wearing the “V” fright mask atop his head, and a shemagh around his neck, telling Schiff – especially after he disagreed with his points about disbanding some entirely theoretical federal board of education – that “in all his years” he had learned “never to argue with a fool.”
It’s come to this, then: There are people out there who believe that more government will actually make them free. Or, if not that, then that there are American citizens willing to sacrifice their hard-won freedoms to ensure that no one anywhere is more successful than everyone, everywhere. Apart from the governing class, of course. Who will have earned their dachas.
“Never argue with a fool.” Then stop thinking pal cause you’re the biggest fool in town.
Cap’n, you do realize that you are making it hard for me to cut back on my ethanol consumption when you post stuff like this?
I want to be numb when they come for me, numb, I tell you…
JTG, you should be thankful to him for that.
“Eagle Squadron” has just come up on my Alford CD. There is something to be said, I think, for ignoring the discussions and just hoicking the stick over and turning into the fight, but not all of us are privileged to be able to do that.
So, yeah, I reckon I’ll have to type on this thing to get my small points across to y’all.
“The Mad Major” is now up. I think of that Major Donovan guy, with those two brains in that huge head, and somehow I feel all better.
The only parts of me that will be numb when they come for me, will be my ears, my shoulder, and my trigger finger.
Yepper!
Why isn’t the Guy Fawkes mask considered a death threat against the POTUS and Congress?
Ah yes. I believe there was some kaboomishness involved with the Original Guido.
It would be interesting to ask the people wearing them if they know who Guy Fawkes was.
They’ll respond it’s really the guy from V for Vendetta…
Which I had to look up.
Guy Fawkes masks: $9.99
Irony: it may have a price.
“in all his years”
What, both of them? One of the most dangerous things in the military is an O-1 who says “based on my experience…”
I am intrigued why an actual billionaire would take a microphone and camera, and spend 3 hours with OWS? Tell me why?
Actually listening to the whole 18 minutes, I found some good points made by both Schiff and the demonstrators. But his beef is not with the protestors. He even said he agreed with them. It is with Washington.
I did take note when this billionaire said he had “created 150 jobs.” Wow!
And at the end when he asked who here is “pro-capitalism? ” A vast majority raised their hands!
No, it is rather that many people realize that a certain level of government is absolutely necessary for a vibrant and healthy nation. The horse without reins, the motor without a governor, the neighborhood without cops, the river without flood control invites disaster! Just as does unfettered capitalism. Isn’t that what just caused most of our current recession? Deregulation of banks and loan institutions?
That is a canard, and binary thinking. Besides, Freedom is hardly the issue! Opportunity and fairness is. As is the health and welfare of our nation. Unfortunately the current system is gamed, which not only limits the freedom of opportunity for the majority, but it also penalizes them. It vanishes the American Dream and further divides the haves and have-nots.
BTW, does anyone want to comment on the Iraq war veteran who was hit point blank by a tear gas canister in Oakland with a serious skull fracture? Opinions?
“…the neighborhood without cops…”
You mean, like “Freedom Park?”
Peter has being doing videos on his youtube channel for a few years now. Its sort of his pulpit to criticize/comment on the politics and the economy as it relates to commerce regulation and wall street. He is also a CNBC expert that comes on pretty frequently and he is credited as one of the few people that saw the housing bubble that coming as back as 2006. I think his goal is to show who these people for what they really are. I think he has a bit of sympathy for them too.
To me there is a bit of broken promise lost in here somewhere. The part about opportunity, jobs working hard to get ahead, and some politician accepting a lobbyists check in exchange for some piece of legislation thats favorable to his (our) employer that might not serve the greater good of society. We all know some college kid, at least I do, thats struggling to find a job. Not all of them can get engineering degrees.
We used to be a country of lots of small businesses and some employment. Weve grown (scrathched and clawed) from there into a society dominated by big businesses. And that was all fine and dandy until we started exporting our companies, our jobs, our profits, and our wealth. These kids in these parks are merely just the group of kids, who really don’t understand how it all works, that have little opportunity outside of starbucks despite listening to their parents and going to college to get ahead. Some are older blue collar workers (here in my town) with a manufacturing background that saw their livelihoods disappear. After WWII we did not repeat the mistake of WWI and forgive most of Germanies war costs. We set them up to insure a strong economy with lots of employment. Because, as is the case here, idle hands do the devil’s work.
Because, as is the case here, idle hands do the devil’s work. A lesson we should take to heart to make sure some of these kids have opportunity and a career path and a future that has less obstacles than the path today. Sure, some of them will start small businesses. And a few of them will succeed while others will fail. But leaving them with nothing or not much as is the case today is not a great plan.
Here’s a little lobbyist side note. A friend of mine with an engineering degree used to do lobbying work for a defense contractor. Spent a lot of time in DC when congress was in session. Along the way he met the lobbyist that wrote the law that allowed for the creation of hedge funds. Hidden inside that law is a few lines that say that Hedge Funds are entirely exempt for corporate income tax and only pay capital gains tax (15% v 35%). Fast forward a decade and every major investment bank has hedge funds inside them as well as there being scores of independent hedge funds. So kids, who do think is behind the push to have capital gains taxes eliminated? Which virtually all Rep candidates are in favor of. Which has to be good for the country…
No. The recession was caused by innovation. Mortgage backed securities, credit default obligations, and credit default swaps are all recent creations, as such they cannot be subject to regulation. Because they’re new the market was ignorant as to their behavior, resulting in a mismatch between price and value. When that mismatch was discovered lending agencies had to stop supplying capital to the economy in order to shore up their own books. Viola, recession.
The fact that this whole mess is real estate based is the fault of the federal government sticking its finger into the housing market in the ’90′s in an attempt to increase the number of people owning homes.
You’re arguing against a straw man. Nobody is denying that government is necessary. The problem is that government at all levels, but especially the federal, is 1) paying too much for what it provides and 2) doing things that provide no benefit to society. Transfer payments are not stimulative, they are not fair, and they shouldn’t happen. Yet a major portion of government spending is exactly taking money from some and giving it to others. Our current spending is unsustainable. You simply cannot raise the money we’re spending out of the rich. You can barely do it with massive increases on the entire tax base. We must spend less. We will spend less. The only question is will the spending cuts be controlled and compassionate now, or will they be catastrophic and capricious later when the money runs out.
Any system will be gamed. The only way to have equality of opportunity is to have the fewest rules possible. When you add too many rules you favor those who can afford to hire people to do nothing but study the rules for advantage.
+100, on the gaming of the system.
Long-time reader, seldom poster. I’ll probably get some hate for this, but whatever…
Two years ago I was all down with the Tea Party people. Guns at political rallies! Less government! No new taxes! But I changed my mind after a while. Not because the Republicans infiltrated and co-opted the movement, making their most conservative members operatives and candidates for office, but because of the ease of finding bigots, homophobes, and idiots among nearly any Tea Partier given any airtime on the media I consume (NPR, local news, CNN, the BBC, and blogs).
A couple of weeks ago, I was all down to go attend some OWS protests. Big business is bad! Executive compensation is unfair! Healthcare for all! All that wealth in the hands of so few people! But I changed my mind after a while not because the Democrats claimed OWS as their own (they haven’t touched them so far), but because it’s so easy to find wing-nuts, socialists, and idiots among nearly any OWS person I see on the media I consume (see above). Big business is bad! Power to the people! Whatever…
The problem isn’t big business. The problem isn’t big government. The problem is that government is owned by big business, special interests, lobbyists,and professional politicians.
I am pro-gun rights, pro-abortion rights, pro-privacy (anti Patriot act), pro gay rights (any non-related, adult, consenting couple should be able to enter into the same potentially fortune-ruining union I can), anti-welfare (should be handled by local churches and charities), pro healthcare reform (we already have socialized medicine in the form of higher costs, higher insurance premiums, and more exclusions; we might as well make it more fair by standardizing it. Opposing health reform is merely supporting profits for private insurance companies), and I’m anti-incumbent. We need national term limits, and we need citizen legislators, not professional politicians, who make a career (and fortune) feeding first at the public trough and then making the problem worse working either as lobbyists, or for big business (or government contractors) perpetuating a cycle of waste, corruption, and graft.
The Tea Party is full of morons and sycophants, who are slaves to the Republican party line. They are, unfortunately, the most vociferous of the lot. They are the 1%.
OWS is full of morons who are slaved to the notion that big business and inequality are inherently evil (they’re not). They are, unfortunately, the most vociferous of the lot. They are the 1%
Professional politics (including lobbyists and our dear elected officials) is full of sociopaths, egomaniacs, and greedy fuckers intent only on their continued power & enrichment. They are the 1%.
I am too cynical, realistic, and busy to do anything about it (other than never vote for an incumbent). I am the 97%.
The best and brightest of the Tea Party and OWS need to get together and convince me – and the rest of us – to show up at Frank Ogawa Plaza and show some love for Scott Olsen. They have more in common than they know, if only they can get past the one-percenters (Hippies smell bad and smoke weed!) (Rednecks love guns and hate gays and Mexicans!).
I would love to see some Tea Partiers show up armed (unloaded, of course, this being California) in Oakland and provide some cover for the OWS people. The police are here to protect and serve. What they did to Scott Olsen is despicable, and that alone should be cause to bring the Tea Partiers into the breach.
We can only have change if we work together. The Internet makes it far too easy for like-minded people to band together, mock the other side, and affirm their own beliefs – whether they’re their own or not.
Seminar-commenter alert.
And what exactly was Mr. Olsen doing at the time he was injured?
There is a right to free speech and protest. It doesn’t extend to open rebellion against a lawful order to disperse.
It is unfortunate he was injured, but his injuries were a predictable result of choices he made with regard to where he was and what he and the others he was with chose to do in response to a lawful order to vacate.
Being a combat veteran does not buy you a license to be a lawbreaker.
There are former Marines, and ex-marines. Mr. Olsen, God speed his recovery, appears to be one of the latter.
…and, apparently, he did indeed receive an Admin Separation. But “Service-hating, druggy misfit” doesn’t sound half so noble as “US Marine combat war hero,” does it? Nonetheless, no matter what he believes or has done, I wish for him a full and speedy recovery, and that if indeed the OPD (who have a very nasty rep, even among other PD’s) did conduct actionable misconduct, such misconduct is also dealt with firmly.
Ew.
Too bad it wasn’t his stones that took the hit, instead of his head.
Such people must be allowed to speak, if for no better reason than to make known their nature, but there’s no reason at all they have to be allowed to breed.
Seems to me, that person was never a MARINE.
The delusion, “The Tea Party is full of morons and sycophants, who are slaves to the Republican party line. They are, unfortunately, the most vociferous of the lot. They are the 1%,” is attributable to, “…the media I consume (NPR…CNN…the BBC…).”
The result of gummint education/diversity/etc.,etc.
LBJ’s pogram failed. And here we are folks.
Grab some popcorn, and keep your AR close.
“No, it is rather that many people realize that a certain level of government is absolutely necessary for a vibrant and healthy nation. The horse without reins, the motor without a governor, the neighborhood without cops, the river without flood control invites disaster! Just as does unfettered capitalism.”
“That is a canard, and binary thinking.”
Q.E.D.
The founders firmly believed we had to have government. So did the Apostle Paul. The spiritual descendants of Marx, however, believe government has a place that only tyrants have been able to occupy.
Historically, tyrants have ridden the backs of what Lenin called “useful idiots.” The useful idiots have also been the first to the wall because as soon as they see they’ve been had they start kicking against the tyrants they put in power.
The OWS types are the useful idiots the astroturfers are using. the TEA party types of are of a completely different class. The GOP *is* trying to co-opt the TEA Party, but they haven’t done it yet. The blue bloods would love to be able to do so, but, so far, the TEA types realize the GOP left is just as much an enemy as the Democrats.
Thursday may be “gay rights” “pro abortion” rights type, but I see nothing in law or history that justifies anything like the special privileges the queers are demanding, or the right to snuff the life of a child in the womb simply because that child is an inconvenience (and that is what abortion rights is all about).
Thursday, I don’t hate you, you’re simply deluded. And for that I don’t hate anyone, although I do pity such a pathetic individual.
Thursday may be “gay rights” “pro abortion” rights type, but I see nothing in law or history that justifies anything like the special privileges the queers are demanding, or the right to snuff the life of a child in the womb simply because that child is an inconvenience (and that is what abortion rights is all about).
I think the 10th Ammendment covers this.
Actually it doesn’t. The 10th simply tells FedGov that what isn’t enumerated is reserved to the states and people. The right to kill a child for mere convenience is something called murder. There is no right to murder.
I would say there is a right to perversion, if that’s your thing. That’s not good for a society, but there are few people that care about that part. The founders would roll their eyes at such a contention, however.
I would say there is a right to perversion, if that’s your thing. That’s not good for a society, but there are few people that care about that part. The founders would roll their eyes at such a contention, however.
Well, by some accounts, old Ben and some of the other founders had a, um, healthy interest in anything two or more people could do together.
Yeah, Joe, but they believed in acting decently in public, and not scaring the horses, etc.
Professor Temple Grandin felt the need recently to remind her fellow Auties of the importance of formal good manners to help us avoid getting into un-necessary fights.
I think this is good advice for the normals, too.
Qm, would you like to be my Congressman? The current one is about to retire. You’d have to move to (ugh!) Southern Flarduh, though.
Sort of O.T. there is a snowstorm for the NE US today
That old hawk’s about get some OWS rodents…
I couldn’t sit through it the first try. I kept thinking of Scott Adams’ observation: “If you spend all of your time arguing with
people who are nuts, you’ll be exhausted and the nuts will still be nuts.”
If Berserkly is the flag ship of the UC system, then the UC system is degraded beyond words.
I don’t think there’s anything particularly remarkable about a protestor who got injured resisting the police just because he was a veteran, unless he was targeted because he was a veteran, which demonstrably he was not.
Thursday, I don’t know what blogs you read, but the rest of your media list would indicate you get a pretty biased and distorted picture of the Tea Party movement.
It seems to me that the Tea Party and the OWS are in agreement that the Federal government is bought and sold by moneyed interests. The OWS seeks to change this by convincing the people running the Federal government to change the way that it’s rules work and to use its powers in the fashion that they think will benefit the general populace – and that are less likely to benefit the people who they are asking to make the changes. The Tea Party figures that a powerful Federal government will always attract buyers and sellers and that the rules will always be gamed, so they seek instead to strip away power from the Federal government and push it down to the States as intended by the Founders. The concept being that the Federal government will attract fewer buyers and sellers if there is less to buy and sell.
It is telling, I think, that the OWS people are trying to influence the people in government to change things, whereas the Tea Party is trying to influence the people in government to change things by changing who the people in government are.
This cartoon came across the Facebook transom today and I just had to share. “When I was your age, I occupied Europe”!
http://i.imgur.com/5O18y.jpg