wall st.

Sunday, October 16, 2011
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OCCUPY WALL STREET
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A single anonymous slogan
strikes me as more eloquent
than a hundred academic analyses
by learned economists.
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“Wanted: corporate accountability.”
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“Where is the penalty for financial incompetence?”
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“I can’t afford my own politician.”
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And the one that must strike fear
in all presidential candidates:
“We are the 99%.”
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By the time this thing is over,
there may be enough slogans to fill a volume.
I for one am looking forward to it.
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As for the Republicans who dismiss the movement
as leaderless (as if that were a liability)
or class warfare:
all I can say is that
no matter how rotten the status quo,
it will have its supporters and defenders.
From Nero and Caligula to
Idi Amin Dada, Stalin, and Saddam:
they all had their supporters and beneficiaries.
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Monday, October 17, 2011
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FROGS AND ELEPHANTS
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Anyone who decides to depend
on the kindness of strangers
must sooner or later come to terms with the fact that
most strangers are not kind.
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We cannot speak of the moral failings of a volcanic eruption
or the questionable logic of an earthquake.
Neither can we speak of justice
for victims of massacres.
As far as they are concerned,
what’s done is done and cannot be undone.
As for those who editorialize and speechify endlessly
about genocide recognition:
they remind me of a certain American presidential candidate
who promised “Yes, we can!”
and delivered, “No, I can’t!”
*
What a book one could write
on the promises of politicians!
“When I hear 9-9-9
I want to dial 9-1-1.”
To which I can only say,
“It takes one to know one.”
The good news is,
so far no one has dared to say
“It ain’t 99%. It’s only 98.5%.”
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They call it class warfare
and hope to win with their 1%?
That’s not optimism.
That’s megalomania run amok.
Reminds me of our revolutionaries
at the turn of the last century:
“A frog trying to rape an elephant,”
to quote one of our elder statesmen.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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WALL STREET
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Leaderless?
With leaders like them, who needs one?
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“Incoherent, confused, and self-contradictory?”
What about “LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE?”
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A commentary Headline in the Op-Ed page:
“Ballot is still the best way to bring change.”
Not if the choice is between bad and worse,
or between the gutless and the greedy.
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“National Media, Corporate PR.”
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"Against Politics, Bankers, Gangsters.”
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“Eat the Rich.”
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“Greed is the opium of the Rich.”
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“99% of the world unite –
you have nothing to lose but your bloodsuckers.”
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
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COMMENTS
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We are told “Thou shalt not kill!”
but we are also coerced into killing
in the name of God and Country.
Power structures and organized religions
are full of #$@% -- if you will forgive my French.
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You are free as long as you do what you are told?
Try to make sense of that!
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Can you really know someone
who doesn’t himself?
What about an institution
that contradicts itself?
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Wars become inevitable only
when we do nothing to prevent them.
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