A Message From the Poor, Obscenely Rich Guy

[Your Humble Scribe has Flu. Please don't expect too much.]

Jamie Dimon, King of JPMorgan Chase, Wall Street, and a large piece of The World, politely chides me in an e-mail today:  "I don't understand why you didn't open my email before. Totally typical of the disrespectful behavior I've come to expect from people like you. People who refuse to understand how important I am. 

So listen up. I'm saying something REALLY IMPORTANT here and you need to pay attention. For your own good.

--Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase"

So here's what "HE" has to say -

"You people. You just won’t go away.

Once those Occupiers were finally cleared from our neighborhood in New York City in 2012, my fellow CEOs and I thought we’d finally get some peace. We were all about sending some token checks to a few distressed homeowners and then getting back to ruling the universe from atop our mountains of unprecedented wealth.

But no.

Last March when that impudent Senator Warren suggested that my bank should merit CRIMINAL prosecution, my friend Attorney General Eric Holder made the perfectly innocent observation we are simply too big and profitable to prosecute. YOU PEOPLE JUMPED ALL OVER HIM! You joined 333,000 others signing petitions and marching into my US Attorney Offices all over the country demanding “End to Big to Jail!”

Then in May you and your friends at the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes actually surrounded the Department of Justice, demanding that my friends and I go to jail. (I heard 32 of you were arrested. I don’t know why it wasn’t all 500 of you – I guess our justice system really is broken!)

When Occupy Our Homes asked for your help to keep former police officer, cancer survivor and foreclosure fighter Jacqueline Barber in her home, you stood with her signing petitions and flooding my good friends at Wells Fargo and GMAC with phone calls. Another perfectly good foreclosure spoiled.

And, OMG, this Local Principal Reduction thing? All sorts of Mayors and towns using eminent domain to reset mortgages? Not funny. My friends and I make the rules and if we want your opinion we’ll give it to you.

And that doesn’t even include the steady stream of reports, news articles, the “Bank Crime Spree” and“100 Days to Fix What Wall Street Broke” campaigns. Do you think I want to hear the stories of everyone who ACCIDENTLY got screwed over? What’s the expression about breaking a few eggs?

This sort of thing has real consequences, people. I totally had to pay $13 billion, the largest penalty by a corporation to a government ever in the history of the world. Not that I can’t afford it, but I so TOTALLY had other plans for that money.

So, look, whatever else you do to celebrate this holiday season, please DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE give ANY money to Action for the Common Good. Their so-called Campaign for a Fair Settlement has been enough trouble and now they are growing - joining up with low wage workers, immigrant rights groups, and who knows who else through this new Center for Popular Democracy thing. Well, I can tell you one thing for sure. It's not popular with me.

Grinchily yours,

Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorganChase


PS. Obviously, this isn’t really from JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon. Instead we had some fun thinking about all the problems that Chase is facing right now, much is which is due directly to your work, and thought it would be funny to share what Mr. Dimon might be thinking with you.

Happy holidays from all of us here at Action for the Common Good. – Brian Kettenring, Andrew Friedman, and Ana Maria Archila, Co-Executive Directors

PPS. If you want to continue to annoy Wall Street CEO’s like Jamie Dimon, you can contribute to Action for the Common Good here: https://acg-fairsettlement.nationbuilder.com/contribute_2013

Shocking Signs of Democracy on the Federal Bench

[Your Humble Scribe has some weird version of Da Flu this week, and is correspondingly not very fun.  So I'm just going to plant the seed on this one, and let you do the research.  "Bear with, Bear with...".]

France-24 this morning, and no doubt all the reliable, dedicated 1st Amendment lovers on your local and Network Stations, report that a Federal Judge described the NSA's information-trawling as unconstitutional, and its scope as "almost Orwellian".

We await President Spineless's decree that all the NSA's highly-paid computer nerds will be transferred to giving us all Health Care....

P.S. Spineless sent me a 3-dimensional Christmas Card this week, signed by his dogs. I'm not kidding.

GunFails: A Nasty Laugh a Minute

I mentioned  "GunFails" the other day, in Celebrating the Right to Bear Arms. It's a wonderful collection of "Firearm Follies", by David Waldman. Today Waldman reports that this has been "Just your basic, routine, 40+ GunFAIL events week".

There are 14 hunting "accidents", and four "accidents" occurring while someone was cleaning a still-loaded gun.

David Waldman has a wonderfully laconic style as he recounts this gruesome madness and mayhem. He tells us,

"Five "home invasion" shootings are among the entries this week, plus one that fell from the owner's pocket and shot his wife, one that shot its brand new owner immediately following its purchase, and one used to shoot yet another suspected "intruder" who turned out to be the gun owner's caretaker who'd come to check on him.
Continuing the Christmas shopping season's hottest trend, another gun carrier has accidentally discharged his weapon while out at the stores, this time shooting himself in the parking lot outside a Lowe's home improvement store in Pocatello, ID."

Then things get nasty.

"The child victims of GunFAIL were mercifully few last week. Just five were found, ages 5, 15, 15, 16 and 17. Many of you have, no doubt, by now become aware of the story of the 3-year-old killed in Indianapolis on Saturday. That particular tragedy does not go unrecognized, but it won't be included until our next installment."

I invite you to contemplate that for a moment. (Making a couple of assumptions here.) Imagine you're the parent of a 3-year-old, the bright-eyed, gurgling, apple of your eye. Your gunloving, right-to-bear-arms-believing spouse causes the "accidental" death of your baby. Do you forgive them? "Understand"? AGREE with them?

Or do you shoot the stupid cretin?

Gawd help us!

David Waldman is to be congratulated on an excellent, useful job.  You can get the details of each incident, well written-up, here.

As I, and no doubt millions of other sane people, have pointed out, you need a test, a license and regular checks, to drive a car, a machine that might, if things go horribly awry, kill someone. In God's chosen country, you can be a felon, an addict, a repeat offender, an idiot or a nutcase, and you can go right ahead and obtain a device whose only purpose is to kill people.

Duh!

One Law For The Poor, None For the Rich

"Teen Kills 4; Judge Lets Him Off Because He is Rich!" from the Daily Kos - read the story here.

.........................................................................

Daily Kos toots its own horn -

“Even CNN says we're awesome”

"This is what CNN said in their post-mortem on filibuster reform:

What was known as the nuclear option yesterday is known as the Reid Rule today. Time will only tell* if the Reid Rule is productive or destructive. But we'll leave that to the historians.

As for how it became the Reid rule, it took a coordinated and sustained effort from an unlikely place—progressive activists on the blogosphere.

Daily Kos was the first group to start organizing for filibuster reform, way back in 2010. People called us crazy when we did.

Well, three years and an astonishing 900,000 actions later, we made filibuster reform the mainstream Democratic policy position—and we won a vote on it on the floor of the United States Senate."

[*FOOTNOTE for CNN: The expression is "only time will tell".  How much are your writers paid?]

.................................

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog, The War On The 60s! - currently scoring record numbers of hits, thankyou very much!

Please enjoy, become a Follower, and see you soon!

[If you enjoy what you read here, have some computer expertise, and would care to volunteer an hour or two of your time to help organize this blog a little better, I'd love to hear from you! E-mail thewaronthe60s@gmail.com]

The birth of the Trendies: boutiques in Carnaby Street, London, in the 1960s; with the Post-War austerity finally over, young people now had massive spending power. (I'm pretty sure the bike in the foreground is a Triumph...)

"The War On The 60s" is the title of a book which I'm proposing to write.  The title is fairly evocative, I hope! - but let me explain a little more.

Ever since the 1960s happened, the “turbulent”, “sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll”, “We don't want your stinking war” decade has had a bad rap. “The War on The 60s” has ranged from verbal propaganda to actions that are not only sinister, but threaten our fundamental principles as a society.

This book I hope will help explain the 60s to the new young idealists, and perhaps remind those who shared the experience, what was so unique, beautiful and valuable about it - so good that it's been under attack ever since.

To those who dislike the 60s, it will help them to see that the period actually represented much of what is best in our humanity, with a magnificent heritage including the environmental movement, our first Black President and our first woman Secretary of State.

Then I hope you'll agree that “It’s time for a new 60s!”

Peace and Love,

Richard Lancaster.

Monsanto are still at it - of course

This just in from SierraRise:

`Senator Blanche Lincoln used to serve as Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She was sometimes called "the Senator from Wal-Mart," ^[7] and her other clients have included oil giants Valero and ConocoPhillips, everybody's favorite cable provider Comcast, and credit giant Experian. She's clearly an influential figure in Washington, and now she's ready to cash in for "the world's most evil corporation."'

Yes, she's sold her pathetic, shrivelled soul to Monsanto.

Read on - "It's easy to see why Monsanto was voted the world's most evil corporation for 2013. ^[1] Two examples from just the last 30 days might almost be enough to win the title all on their own.

Last week, 20 environmental activists were brutally assaulted for protesting the biotech giant in Argentina. ^[2] And in the November 5 election, Monsanto broke spending records to defeat a Washington ballot initiative that would simply label genetically engineered food (GMOs). ^{[3, 4]} What are they hiding?

But we've been shining a light on Monsanto's shady activities. Thanks to SierraRise supporters like you, it's not just the Big Ag corporation's products that are potentially toxic, but also their reputation.

Rather than fix these disastrous practices, Monsanto is trying to buy a better image. ^[5]

They recently hired former Senator Blanche Lincoln ^[6] and the high-powered PR firm FleishmanHillard to improve their reputation and help block more labeling initiatives in 2014. Now when you want to know what's in your food, the forces against us will be stronger than before.

This means we need to fight back against the Monsanto agenda harder than ever. Let's start by sending 75,000 letters reminding our government to listen to we the people, not them the corporations and PR firms, and label GMOs now!

Monsanto -- the maker of toxic chemicals like Agent Orange -- is also the largest producer of risky genetically modified seeds. Corn with built-in insecticides? Squash impervious to virus? We have a right to know what we're eating. Many other countries around the world do require GMO labeling -- but Monsanto is bringing in the big guns to make sure they can keep hiding that critical information from our families.

Senator Blanche Lincoln used to serve as Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She was sometimes called "the Senator from Wal-Mart," ^[7] and her other clients have included oil giants Valero and ConocoPhillips, everybody's favorite cable provider Comcast, and credit giant Experian. She's clearly an influential figure in Washington, and now she's ready to cash in for "the world's most evil corporation."

Corporations always do this -- why fix a problem if you can pay someone to hide it? That's why so many of us decided to join the SierraRise community. We're sick of corporate lobbyists running the show -- this is a democracy and all of our voices matter. By speaking up now, we can be louder than Senator Lincoln or any other Monsanto lobbyist or executive.

The FDA has the power to enforce labeling and protect our health -- but not if we let Monsanto's lobbyists go unanswered.

We deserve to know what's in our food. Send your letter to the FDA today demanding customer choice -- we need labels on GMO foods!

In it together,

Nathan Empsall
SierraRise Senior Campaigner

P.S. Five signatures are even more powerful than one -- after you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends, family, and colleagues!"

Nelson Mandela

As we duly mourn the South African hero, here's a very pertinent comment from Bill Fletcher, via the excellent organisation for Journalists, Institute for Public Accuracy (http://www.accuracy.org)

`Fletcher is a columnist for BlackCommentator.com and a former president of TransAfrica Forum. He just wrote: "Nelson Mandela will be mourned and celebrated. But something else will happen. There will soon, probably very soon, be efforts to reinterpret his life. I do not mean leaving things out, as happened in the otherwise excellent film just released about his life. Rather, as we have experienced here in the USA with great leaders like King and Malcolm, there will be efforts to convert Mandela into a very safe character in order to advance the ends of the global elite. We will, for instance, not hear much about Mandela’s refusal to renounce armed struggle against apartheid, even though such a renunciation could have resulted in his release much earlier. We will not hear much about his expressions of gratitude to the Cuban people for their consistent support to the people of Angola, Namibia and South Africa who were fighting the South African apartheid regime. We will not hear about Mandela’s consistent, unwavering support for the Palestinian people’s struggle for national liberation."'

 

I write at some length about the "cleaning" of Martin Luther King's image in my Book Proposal, "The War On The 60s".

Incidentally, this Blog scored a new record number of hits yesterday: 256.  And we're already at 173 today! Thanks, everyone!

Celebrating the Right to Bear Arms

1. FLOWOOD, MS, 11/24/13: Churchgoers got quite a scare at Pinelake Church in Rankin County Sunday morning. Flowood Police say a man's gun accidentally discharged as he was sitting down. Officers took Joseph Edgar Ray into custody. He was in possession of a 9mm handgun. According to police, Ray's gun was in his front right pocket and went off as he sat down. He's been charged with Discharging a Firearm in the City. Ray will appear in Flowood Municipal Court Jan. 9. MORE: Authorities tell us Ray has an enhanced carry gun permit, which gives him the right to carry a concealed weapon in public. Pinelake has posted signs prohibiting weapons on church property. The signs are not clearly visible so Ray may not have seen them, officials say. There were no injuries. But one woman was hit on the leg by the bullet after it ricocheted off the floor. [Ed. note: What?]

And this, boys and girls, is just story No. 18 in this week's wonderful crop of "Firearm Follies" collected by a writer called David Waldman under the heading "GunFails", and published by the Daily Kos - enjoy the rest of the madness here, including "the story from Chickamauga, GA, where a man who thought he was shooting at a home intruder killed a wandering, 72-year-old Alzheimer's patient. Or the story from Nashville, TN, where "outlaw country" singer Wayne Mills was shot and killed in a bar fight."

Wall Street Liars in Retreat

The other day I posted "Beating the Wall Street Liars", telling how "Wall Street is trying to marginalize Social Security champions like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tom Harkin and Sherrod Brown".

If you signed the Petition, thanks!  If you didn't - you'll have to answer to your grandchildren....

Now, Bold Progressives are reporting:

"You helped attack back against a corporate front group that attacked Elizabeth Warren's economic populism and her progressive ideas on Social Security.

In one day, over 70,000 of us demanded that Third Way disclose its Wall Street donors. Elizabeth Warren joined our pressure campaign, and we generated over 10 major headlines.

Our pressure got Third Way's own co-chair to publicly call their attacks on Warren "outrageous."

And the Wall Street Journal reports, "a spokesman for Third Way...declined to disclose the think tank’s donors." Instead of attacking Warren, they are now playing defense in the media!

We're continuing to shame Third Way with ads, more media outreach, and more grassroots pressure. Can you chip in $3 so we can continue this effective campaign?

Politico summarized yesterday's action-packed events:

It started with an op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.

Two leaders of the center-left think tank, Third Way, wrote that “economic populism is a dead end for Democrats” [and] liberals like Warren are irresponsible.

A chorus of groups aligned with the liberal wing of the party – from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to Howard Dean’s Democracy for America and Russ Feingold’s Progressives United – responded by attacking Third Way as a Wall Street-funded front group.

A liberal candidate running in a crowded Democratic primary [for Pennsylvania governor], John Hanger, then joined these groups Wednesday morning in calling on Rep. Allyson Schwartz, the early Democratic frontrunner in the race...to resign as an honorary co-chair of Third Way.

By lunch time, Warren jumped into the fray, [calling out Wall Street's] "financial contributions to think tanks.”

A few hours later, Schwartz condemned the piece for the Journal...“She read the op-ed and thought it was outrageous and strongly disagreed."

Each of the groups involved said this back-and-forth is an opening salvo in a debate among Democrats that will only become louder through 2014 and 2016.

Schwartz’s attempt to distance herself from Third Way emboldened the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to call on the centrist group’s other co-chairs to take public positions.

Chip in $3 so we can keep the pressure on Third Way -- and show the immense popularity of Elizabeth Warren's ideas.

Then, pass this email to others. Thanks for being a bold progressive.

-- Adam Green, PCCC co-founder"

Read The Socialist Pope

Well, I always said that Jesus was a Socialist Hippie -

Alan Grayson e-mailed this:  "It hurts me to say this, but I recognize that I'm not the only one who says things that are worth listening to. So, from time to time, I'm going to turn over this "bully pulpit" to someone else. Today, I turn it over to someone who knows a thing or two about pulpits, Pope Francis. A week ago, he released his first apostolic exhortation, called "The Joy of the Gospel." I respectfully request that you take a few moments to read an excerpt from it, below. I found it fascinating, and I think that you will, too.

No to an economy of exclusion

Just as the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say "thou shalt not" to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a "throw-away" culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society's underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised - they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the "exploited" but the outcast, the "leftovers".

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else's responsibility, and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

No to the new idolatry of money

One cause of this situation is found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Exodus 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise, in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies, and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.

No to a financial system which rules rather than serves

Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics - a non-ideological ethics - would make it possible to bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: "Not to share one's wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs". [Saint John Chrysostom, De Lazaro Concio, II, 6: PG 48, 992D.]

A financial reform open to such ethical considerations would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favors human beings.

No to the inequality which spawns violence . . . .

Today's economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to resolve. It serves only to offer false hopes to those clamoring for heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence, rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts. Some simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted generalizations, they claim that the solution is an "education" that would tranquilize them, making them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more exasperating for the marginalized in the light of the widespread and deeply rooted corruption found in many countries - in their governments, businesses and institutions - whatever the political ideology of their leaders.

To which I simply wish to add:

Amen,

Rep. Alan GraysonP.S. For more on this, please visit us at CongressmanWithGuts.com."

Jailed Whistle-blowers to Edward Snowden: Don't Come Home

Not exactly a surprise, but we need to hear it....

"President Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge of expanded government transparency, yet his administration has charged more Americans with violating the Espionage Act by leaking classified information than all previous administrations combined. Eight people have faced charges since 2008 under the nearly 100-year-old act, including Chelsea Manning, Shamai Leibowitz and Jeffrey Sterling."

see the full article, "Jailed whistle-blowers to Edward Snowden: Don'€™t come home", here.

A Chance to Hear Fritjof Capra

This morning on Pacifica/KPFK, Mitch Jesarich interviewed one of the great thinkers and writers on social and philosophical issues of our lifetime. Fritjof Capra, author of "The Tao of Physics", and inspirer of the fascinating film, "Mindwalk", proposes a whole new way of educating our young people in "systems thinking" - and he's written textbooks to do it.

You can hear the interview on the KPFK Archive, here. (Scroll down to "Letters And Politics")

Beating the Wall Street Liars

From Social Security Works:

"Wall Street is trying to marginalize Social Security champions like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tom Harkin and Sherrod Brown, and we need to bolster them.

Third Way -- a Wall Street-funded group that poses as a "progressive" think tank -- blasted Warren and her bold economic agenda in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.

They wrote that Warren's "economic populism [is] disastrous for Democrats," including the growing consensus that we must expand -- not cut -- Social Security.SIGN OUR PETITION WITH PCCC TELLING THIRD WAY: Reveal your Wall Street funders who oppose Elizabeth Warren's popular agenda.

Third Way receives a ton of money from Wall Street, but they don't publicize this on their website or in their attacks on Warren's agenda."

Interesting Source for This Leftish Comment....

We've seen unusual comments from Bloomberg News before; thanks to Eric P for passing on this report on the Banks and their Bailouts:

"This is an unfair and unintended transfer of wealth to bank
shareholders and executives, and it weakens market discipline by
desensitizing banks to risk. In effect, banks are being rewarded for
presenting a threat to the economy."

Full Article here. (No need to suppress your smile at the word "unintended".)