Scratch a conservative, find a fascist. Get some liberals out into the streets throwing an actual protest, and the inner fascist will come jumping out right away.

The world is witnessing the end of American democracy.

Ain’t life grand?

What made them think that shutting off the news feeds would keep video of this cowardly act from being immediately shown worldwide? They still think it’s the 60′s and there’s only Cronkite and Brinkley.

I hope this is a Bull Connor moment.

Dear Mr. Bogg, SIX snark filled posts on my birthday. YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

Well, it was easier than baking you a cake. Happy birthday.

What’s next? Breitblart’s Big Tanks?

Oh shit I have work to do, and a cross-country trip for family visit weekend, but something tells me … the street’s thataway

In the late ’70s it was rumored the government flooded the street with ‘ludes to pacify the populace. The system they have now, overburdening everyone with debt and fearful of loosing their jobs and possessions keeps people of the streets much more effectively.

Actually, that’s closer to the truth than you may think, though for different reasons.

I think at some point in the not-too-distant future, all of the protestors and their supporters are going to wake up to the fact that the more effective protest in this case isn’t to march, or camp, but to collectively refuse to pay back debt. The people who own the system won’t own it for long if they all go bankrupt due to the collective default of some 10 or 20 million people, and they’ll go bankrupt so quickly they’ll never get the chance to take anyone’s stuff before they go under. Bank of America wouldn’t last more than a month and probably the same goes for Citibank, Chase, and the other “too big to fail unless we drive a stake into their hearts” institutions. Congress won’t do it, so it’s up to us.

“DON’T TREAD ON ME.”

Unless, of course, it’s some filthy scumbag hippie socialist.

Here’s a Twitpic of Navy veteran Joshua Shepherd, member of IVAW and Veterans For Peace, facing off against OPD (Oakland Pig Department) while holding a copy of the Constitution.

When the tear gas attack began, a canister was thrown right at his feet. 00:59 of KTVU video of event

Great video, thanks!

And, remember, that song was banned on several radio stations for being an incitement to riot.

So what is that photo in “Mr. Super American Patriot who Worships the Constitution But Only When It Applies to Old Angry White People in Cheap Colonial Costumes” @diggrbill’s twitter twat? Is that supposed to be a guard tower? Or his tree house? Or, since he apparently identifies with the Erik Son of Erik’s proud-to-be-fucked-over-by-our-wealthy-overlords-thank-you-may-I-have-another “53%ers”, where he’s been staying since his mom finally threw him out of the basement?

I’m all about paying your debts but when they made usury legal….

That picture is responsible for one of my favorite Onion headlines, something like “Stirring Symbol of Human Spirit Difficult to Clean Out of Tank Treads.”

A good place to start would be with private health insurance. Take your monthly premium and put it in a private health insurance savings account – just like the Republicans suggest! Of course, that wouldn’t nearly cover you if you have to actually use medical services, but the points are (1) we can sink for-profit healthcare insurance by withholding revenue and (2) when that system goes down, the only solution will be single payer. We do have the power to change things if we take collective action.

I think that’s the gun tower on the prison wallimmigration fence. When Republicans get their multi-billion dollar, 50 ft electrified wall in place, all around the US perimeter…it’ll be the American people who’ll be on the inside. diggerbill and the rest of the Koch employees are cool with this concept, as long as they get to man the towers with machine guns trained on the prison population illegal immigrants trying to get into our prison our paradise. The wannabe kapos have been promised twice the chocolate rations to enforce the conservative idea of law and order.

Yeah, I’m all about paying my debts too. But don’t think they don’t use it against us. Who can forget the keening over homeowners who made the smart financial decision to just mail in the keys on homes that were worth less than was owed on them? Horrible people, those. But a large company that does the same thing…well, it’s just being financially prudent. Why should one party to a contract be castigated for being dishonorable by not honoring the terms of the contract, when the other flouts them whenever it’s convenient and changes them on a whim?

Here’s an example from personal experience: in summer 2008, Chase sent me a consolidation offer on a credit card I had with a $20K credit line. Said, “consolidate all your debt here for a rate of 3.9% which will never increase.” Ok, fine. So I consolidated about $10K worth of debt. I pay it on time every month, more than the minimum payment, which gets harder to do after I lose my job when Chase puts the economy in the shitter in late 2008. So I find another job making about half as much but, I’m still making that payment on time every month, over the minimum. Come summer 2009, I get this letter from Chase saying, “fuck you very much, we’re going to double your minimum monthly payment because we put the economy in the shitter and we need more money NOW, so, pay us double or we’re going to jack your interest up to 20%.”

So I get on the phone to Chase and say, “here’s your choice: continue the account as is, or I’ll just go file bankruptcy and you can get at the end of the fucking line, which is I’m sure where the judge will put you when he finds out that I wouldn’t have had to file if not for you breaking the contract YOU offered to ME, which I have honored in each and every particular, and which is only difficult to repay because of the bullshit YOUR company pulled that put the whole economy – and my income – in the shitter. Motherfucker.”

Chase decided that wasn’t the best way to get money out of me, and instead lowered the interest rate on the balance to 1.9% in return for a pledge that I would continue to pay at least $175 per month until the balance was paid off.

These guys don’t understand anything that doesn’t cost them. They will continue to fight tooth and nail for every unfair advantage they can glean from their wholly-owned subsidiary in Congress, and ultimately, if we want it fixed, it will only get done because of mass default on our part or the threat of one.

I have a big favor to ask. I have a few creditors I’d like you to speak with on my behalf. Thank you very much.

I also write a helluva piss off letter. Chase got one of those, too, after the agreed-to arrangement was implemented and they had the nerve to send me some preachy letter about “learning to manage your finances.” It included words even worse than the ones I used on the phone. I remember sending one to someone else one time who didn’t post a payment on time and then wanted to charge some outrageous late fee on a balance of like $100; I told them that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of having brought a multi-billion dollar company to its knees by sending the payment on time rather than two or three weeks early, so their employees could be more leisurely in posting and deposting it, and as such, I would pay their late fee but was closing the account, since I just couldn’t live with the stress of knowing that, should I fail in the future to send in my $15 minimum several weeks in advance, their once-proud business concern would be ruined. And I cut the card in half and enclosed it with the letter.

Two weeks later, I get an apology letter from some muckety-muck with a replacement card and a credit for the late fee.

I’m good at guilting the guilty.

My wife’s pretty good at it, too. She’s had a few choice words with credit card company flaks but, if you don’t mind, I’ll be passing along to her a few of your techniques.

“What if everybody decided to default on their debts?” reminds me of Edward Abbey’s response to such questions: “Well, I’d be a fool not to also.”

Hell, that’s the reason home ownership has been promoted so heavily in the US ever since the 1930s: Debt-encumbered home owners don’t go on strike. (See here and watch, or just skip to 2:50 and start there.)

PW – that video is head-spinningly awesome.

And good on you, JennOfArk – I just grumbled and changed to a credit union after getting scrod by Chase.

I was saying I agree with you. One thing to pay your debts, another when they rig the game so heavily that that’s all you do. Not to mention all the fees everyone in every service industry tacks on.

Typical. The 1% enablers from the 99% – who identify with their corporate overlords in the brainwashed notion that somehow someday they, too, will be insanely wealthy and free to abuse & bully everyone & anyone (the goal of every “good Christian” these days apparently) – find everything great under the rubric of IOKIYAR.

But as we know well, once citizens – whether they are, in reality, lefties or righties – actually stand up for the rights of the 99%: look out! Constitution? WHAT constitution?? Go eff yourselves, ya losers.

Time will tell.

Good commentary about fighting back against corp greed. I do similar, but a friend of mine is a real PRO when it comes to fighting those bastards. Nearly always “wins,” too. Just goes to show that if you fight ‘em, you often get what’s rightfully yours.

I like it when we have homeowners in our neighborhood, though. When there are rentals the landlords do the bare minimum upkeep and the renters have no desire to upkeep or improve their homes.’Course I’m sure we could fix that if we eliminated some more regulations and zoning laws….

Oh, exactly. I think rentals are fine, so long as the landlord is made to live in or near the property. Something about not wanting to foul one’s own nest and all that.

Meanwhile, I suspect Breitbart et al are upset that Americans generally approve of the Occupiers and their message, much more than they do of the Koch-Bircher Tea Partiers.

“What if everybody decided to default on their debts?” reminds me of Edward Abbey’s response to such questions: “Well, I’d be a fool not to also.”

Right. But you go first, okay?

That’s the thing: it needs to be collective action. Such as, “there are 10 million people pledged to default next month if you don’t pass a constitutional amendment stipulating that corporations aren’t people.” Or reforming campaign finance. Or breaking up “too big to fail” institutions. And so on and so forth.

Seriously, we wouldn’t really ever want this to come to pass, though as a last-ditch measure it would accomplish taking out the TBTF banks. The economic fallout would be truly horrific – though it probably wouldn’t include people having houses repossessed, etc, because the institutions that were owed on them would be kaput, and what would a receiver do with millions of houses…sell them to the 10 million people who just took a big dump all over the credit rating system? Not likely. But if we all take the attitude that “no way would I go along with such a strategy” then we play right into their hands – staying the same beaten down debt slaves who keep bending over to take it. We have to at least entertain the notion of cooperating on drastic measures. I can tell you this much – as helpful as OWS has been on re-focusing the discussion, people camping in public places won’t in and of itself change anything. Richie Rich doesn’t give a shit how many people spend the winter shivering in tents – it’s no skin off his nose. He only starts to care when it starts to look like he might end up as Richie Not-So-Rich. They aren’t going to give an inch on anything just because some people are camping in urban squares.

BofA is only ‘profitable’ because of the credit-card interest and the fee they’re charging, If they had to do mark-to-market on all the mortgages they hold, they’d have been seen publicly as bankrupt years ago. I’m pretty sure that Chase and WF are in the same boat, but they’re not willing to admit even that they have problems with mortgages. (I bailed from WF earlier this year, except for the plastic.)

I’m sure those machine guns will have a 360-degree range. Once you get rid of enemies from without, you still need something to shoot at.