Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 25, 2011

One goal at a time or should I say no goal?

Gets rid of that annoying soccer announcer guy!

@ Thirdguy, that’s your GO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OAL!

Citizen X may not have any goals but let me suggest some for the OWS crowd:

1- Restoration of a law similar to Glass-Steagall.2- Return the tax rates to what they were under Bill Clinton.3- A 3% surtax on income above $1 million.

By making him say “We’ve already achieved [our goal,” GBT makes Citizen X sound smug. The OWS protesters don’t seem ready to proclaim victory over the banks yet. They’re just getting started, and so is the rest of the country.

One more thing: Reversal of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.

I would rather be around mad people than ones that think it is alright for ceos to make 360 x the amount of their workers and think corporations are people.

Making laws against “stealing” and “fraud”, and employing regulators and police to enforce those laws are just government interference in the natural way of things. In nature, if a man is smart enough or strong enough to take your money away from you, then he obviously deserves to have it more than you do! Or are you against Nature, and the simple natural order of things? Why should “society” take from a so-called thief what he has earned and give it back to you who were too much of a loser to hang onto it? Isn’t that just another liberal scheme to “redistribute wealth” by taking it from those entrepreneurs who have it, to give it to those who don’t?

Republicans say they want to people to keep what they earn, and are against the redistribution of wealth.

Their essential mistake is to equate “get” with “earn,” and “legal” with “honest.” There are many things that were once legal, that are now illegal. Once in my state it was legal to defraud a corporation because the law against fraud only protected persons, and corporations were ruled not to be persons. A new law was enacted to give corporations the status of persons when it came to protecting their assets. Once in my state it was legal for one person to own another. Taking the slave from his master and giving him to himself was a massive redistribution of wealth. Nobody favors an UNJUST redistribution of wealth, and nobody opposes a JUST redistribution (as in the case of the thief returning the stolen property or the slave being freed). What we disagree on is what is just and what is unjust, but nobody is actually talking about that!

No leaders? Not even from behind?

Actually, OWS has put out a list of goals. It’s on their website and everything. The fact Trudeau hasn’t bothered to find out is part of the problem. The three-card monte game played by Wall Street is being guarded by the media for a cut of the take. (Check out a video by Jay Smooth on YouTube which explains the issue in very good detail. I got the analogy from him.)

I wonder which evil corporation the paper bag comes from? I bet it’s chinese made.

“Why is GT making fun of OWS?You’d think he—of all people—would be in support of the movements.”

You think he can’t do both? If nothing else, it deflects accusations that Trudeau treats the left with kid gloves.

Oh no. You must be mistaken. The Tea Party is a natural uprising of the overtaxed. Everyone knows the Koch brothers are just concerned citizens with no personal agenda whatsoever. (I will try to remove tongue from cheek in a minute.)

Making fun of the OWS movement is not funny because the mainstream media already did that, until they realized that it wasn’t going away. Sorry T, you blew it.

Interesting parallel between OWS and UN: They both represent a lot of people who don’t get much in the way of representation AND they both get a lot of opposition from right-wing people who think the world would be better off without such organizations.

“You’d think he—of all people—would be in support of the movements” He is, babygirl, he is. Be patient. (Notice I didn’t say “a” patient.) And boot all the behind you can, on-line and off.

“[OWS] sounds like the current crop of Repugnant candidates” They [including Romney] want to “create” the conditions necessary for cross-country jobs by giving even more and more and more taxpayer $$$$$$$$$ to the lamo CEO companies of the reich-wing “captains of industry”. This so that they “reverse Robinhood” (not to mention Jesus the Christ or the great Tanakh). Some of these fascists [read libertarians] even admit that their reason for their multi-million-dollar is their “greed is good”, and “helping out each other” is bad ideology/practice. Camelot? Meh. Garsh darn Camelot all to heck and back riding on an interest-free loan from “the Fed” at future taxpayer expense. And IF you, dear reader, think that our great-great-great grandchildren are going to pay for such “borrow and spend” follies by the sweat of their brow, if you REALLY believe that (and I doubt that you do), THEN have I got some fantastic ocean-front property in Kansas [where I was born (in Wichita)] to sell you. For pennies on the dollah!

The cruel evil greedy and unjust hirelings are all over this list of comments…and that’s fine. Why should the unjust agree to be fair,when doing THAT would avoid the next phase of real guillotines? I say, let them go on ahead, it will come to a head, and 99% of us will be ahead of the game…

“As any good 8th Grade Civics student already knows, the Supreme Court IS NOT subject to ‘public demand’.”

Yes, of course, did I say anything which leads you to believe that I do NOT understand that?

As far as a Constitutional Convention goes, I’m aware of that option too, but that’s further off the scale of probability than a simple Amendment. A Constitutional Convention would more or less have the effect of shaking the Etch-A-Sketch and starting from scratch. Do you REALLY think that’s a good idea? It would take 40 years to reach an agreement on how (or whether) to reword the 2nd Amendment. Let alone the Right-to-Life Amendment, the English-Only Amendment, the Anti-Flag Burning Amendment, and everything else that would crawl out of that particular can of worms.

I chose my words carefully when talking about “reversing” Citizens United, that was the word used in the comment to which I was responding, and “reversal” of a court ruling (at any level) has a specific meaning. It ain’t gonna happen, because there is no authority which can reverse a SCOTUS decision except another SCOTUS decision, and even if the current Court were replaced tomorrow by a new crop hand-picked by Obama or Trudeau or Michael Moore or whomever they couldn’t simply say “OK, we’re just going to wipe that one off the books.” For all practical purposes, it’s now carved in stone (for good or for ill).

Perhaps the best approach for the Left to take regarding Citizens United is the approach the Right has taken with Roe vs Wade; chip away at it bit by bit, find the loopholes, rip as many teeth out of it as possible, even if it takes 40 years…

The only outcome of a Constitutional Convention which I can predict with 100% certainty is a 1000% increase in the demand for Constitutional Lawyers.

For a nonpartisan, purely economic explanation of why OWS has been unable to rouse more public anger, see today’s NYT piece on banks (large and small) that are turning away depositors:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/business/banks-flooded-with-cash-they-cant-profitably-use.html?ref=todayspaperThe banks are flush with cash printed for them by the Fed but it’s their job to lend it at a small profit, not to give it away (even OWS can understand that). But you can’t afford to borrow at any rate if you have no job to pay back the loan.Rick Perry wants to give more of the country’s diminishing wealth to the rich so they can “create jobs.” But why should they create jobs—-or increase production—-when nobody can afford new products? The only “person” who can hire people without having to show a profit for their entrepreneurship is the Federal government.

A lot of people believe Federal Reconstruction ended 200 years too soon, and If elected I promise to re-emplement reconstruction on a case by case basis beginning with South Carolina … cause I use to live there and they started everything. Call Bachmann’s bluff and send her a “big government” message, “I’ve got yo big government …”

OWS is a diverse movement full of ideas. Some of them shake out while others are ridiculed to death, but I’ve really got my eyes squeezed tight and my fingers crossed on this one.

A well trained parrot is birdbrained and inarticulate.