Wall Street's Tricks & Unequal Justice Must Come to an End

Boys down on Wall Street are up to their Tricks
Because there's always a way to put in the Fix - Halloween 2009, Loudon Wainwright III

Theft of Property exceeding $1,000,000 in value is a Class X Felony. - Theft as described in 720 ILCS 5/16-1 (b) (6.3)

Theft of Billions garners Stadium Naming Rights. - Bank of America's Legal Code

Woe, be to the petty thief or criminal. Bruce Judson points out thousands of #Occupy Protesters have been forcibly and oft times violently beaten, pepper sprayed and then arrested yet the Bankers and Wall Street Criminals are not only not being paraded to jail in silver bracelets but continue to enjoy the financial fruits of their crimes.

Almost 3,000 people have been arrested for activities that caused minimal, if any, injury to our society. At the same time, no financiers have been arrested for blatant legal violations, probably including extensive fraud, which have led millions of people to suffer and have practically brought our great nation to its knees.

They went after Bernie Madoff only because he stole from the Rich. Remember the Rich operate by a different set of rules. And it's these Different Rules (i.e. Laws) which have allowed these Banking Criminals and DoD Defrauders to amass huge fortunes. It is NOT as the Republican Party would have you believe that Wall Street succeeds by superior drive, work ethic, motivation, talent and gumption.

Matt Taibbi points out Wall Street Hoods and Thieves aren't winning by working harder or smarter, they are getting ahead by Cheating and by paying off Policing agents and by rewriting laws to make their crimes legal.

[I]nequities are what drive the OWS protests. People don't want handouts. It's not a class uprising and they don't want civil war -- they want just the opposite. They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It's amazing that some people think that that's asking a lot.

For instance, the changes I would like to see are:

1) End Corporate Personhood.
2) Tax Capital Gains Income as Ordinary Income, increase and collect taxes from Corporate cheats like Verizon, Boeing, BP, and Halliburton, raise the top tax rate to pre-Reagan era levels.
3) Reinstitute the Stock Trade and Exchange Tax at around 0.25%. Make Banks and Wall Street gamblers pay for their own bailouts. We had one from 1914 to 1966.
4) Empower the Consumer Protection Agency, Security and Exchange Commission, DoD Oversight and any other committee which will enforce laws and actually regulate and hold accountable these corrupt Corporate Criminals.

But, despite the obvious appeal to natural law, US legal precedents, equal treatment, and economic fairness, the 1% are deploying their Rightwing Smear Merchants and handpicked Republicans to obfuscate, distort and Lie.

As every Conservative knows when the narrative doesn't conform to your bigoted rightwing views simply manufacture quotes, attribute them to your liberals and propagate them amongst the conservative blog-o-sphere. Meet Jeremy, 38 year old slacker from Occupy Toronto or Occupy Wall Street,

“It’s weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it’s time to go, they’re still there. I guess that’s why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That’s the power of greed.”

Ha! Take that Marxist Libtards! Except like all things conservative it's a completely made-up quote from a "satirical" (rightwing code for Lies) piece written by Mark Schatzker.

Of course, that didn't stop Rick Perry from repeating it at an erstwhile campaign stop, and from it becoming Internet Fact amongst Rightwing Liars.

The 1% are not going to stop. They have been oppressing people and stealing for so long, they hold it to be their Right. The Divine Right of the One Percent. We have a chance, a slim chance to reserve the flow and strike a blow against the Oppressor Class now. But, to succeed We the People are going to have to suffer beatings, smears, arrests and the indifference of those who cater to the Rich and Elite.

Don't back down, don't give in. Get off of the Sidewalks and Into the Streets!

Update:
Here's what the 1% think of the 99%, from Oliver Willis:

NY Times columnist Joe Nocera has revealed pictures from last year’s Halloween party for the Steven J. Baum law firm, a law firm that has been a key ally of the big banks in foreclosing on homes and evicting people. They represent Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. When people attack the Occupy protesters or President Obama or Democrats or Liberals for “waging class warfare” that’s because we’ve only just now joined the war. We’ve been under attack, from the inside, for a long time. We’ve only begun now to fight back.

My Portfolio is Bottoming Out while Banks are raking in the Profits

So, my quarterly financial investment portfolios came the other day. My modest 401k, 457 and Roth IRA all lost 20% of their value. Hurrah, the Free Market does everything better.

But, do you know who did not lose 20% of "their" money? Why the casinos we refer to as Banking Firms. These racketeers, gamblers, cheats, swindlers and criminals all reported Record Profits for the 3rd Quarter of 2011:

Bank of America: $6.2 Billion

JP Morgan Chase: $4.3 Billion

Wells Fargo: $4.1 Billion

Citigroup: $3.8 Billion

Where is all this money coming from? The Giant Banking Casinos are not investing in technology, they are not investing in small start-ups, they are not moving funds into the depressed areas of the United States.

What they are doing playing games shuffling electronic figures from one column to another and calling it business, conducting millions of stock-trades a second in High-Frequency Stock Trading, they're gouging people with transaction fees, they're placing "bets" and taking out hedged insurance claims on derivatives and commodities. If they guess right about a drop in the price of corn, they make money! But, no tangible good is produced. Additionally, BofA provides no benefit to the average American with his small savings account because BofA is currently providing an interest rate of 0.05%. As of the 11Q3, BofA has $53 Trillion in Total Derviatives and $1.5 Trillion in total assets.

But, wait a moment! Wow! It's appears, Bank of America has moved it's derivatives from Merril Lynch to a FDIC insured subsidiary Now why would they do that? Perhaps, because when the scope of their criminal toxic asset peddling and credit default swaps becomes known and the reckless gambling they've engaged in bottoms out, the Banksters will be bailed out once more by the American Taxpayer. Reagan Be Praised, for Government Bailouts of the criminal financial sector.

Just remember whom BofA has pledged, "to help out", with it's considerable profits :

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom, errr... I mean Citigroup has agreed to pay a $285 Million dollar fine to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle a Fraud Complaint for their toxic housing market rebuilding scheme. Please scroll back up the page to refresh your memory that Citigroup posted a $3.8 Billion dollar profit in the 3rd Quarter alone.

Last year, Goldman Sachs paid a record $550 Million Dollar fine to the SEC.

It seems, part of the problem is the Banksters are still treated with respect because they wear sharp suits and cutting edge business fashion, we would all be better off, if Banksters had to wear the traditional garb of the people they are behaving like; The Yakuza. Wouldn't you be more wary of the corrupt gambling banking institutions if they were sitting around in the elaborate ceremonial diapers.

But, listen! A few Republicans say Homeowners should get some help. What a crock of shit! After transferring Trillions of tax payer dollars upwards to the off-shore bank accounts of Warmongers, Thieves and Murderers. The Republican Party and the Business Friendly Democrats are trying to avoid the backlash of the 99%, by throwing the Middle Class a gnarly, cracked, meat-stripped bone, in the hopes the people will continue to support the Wall Street Swindlers and the Yakuza-Banksters who have nearly sucked all the marrow out of the bones of the USA.

It's because the 1% desire that last little bit, the last morsel, Social Security and the Post Office. If the Republicans succeed in taking control of the White House and the Senate the push to privatize the money-making aspects of the Post Office will be un-stoppable, and the Trillions of Social Security will be neatly rolled into Wall Street where the natural flucuations of Free Market will ensure a few thousand people can steal those funds and funnel them into a secret UBS account in Switzerland.

No more Bank bailouts. Bring back the SEC transaction tax, you make Hedge Bets, you conduct High-Frequency trades you pay a fee per each stock moved, each commodity leveraged. Move Your Money to Your Local Credit Union or Small Town Bank!

Related - Here's what I had to say about Wall Street, the Republicans and the 99% in April 2010:
Capitalism is... Socialism for the Rich.

Now the American people want Banking Reform and who stands with the Wall Street Thieves and against Main Street Americans? The Republicans. The Republicans will not let Congress and President Obama endanger the institutional Thievery which the Republican Party was created to cement into law and protect at all costs.

This is fortunate because since the Reign of Chickenhawk Reagan the Republicans have gotten away with their anti-human plans of financial deregulation to destroy and Impoverish the American Middle Class. Because the Klepotcrats in America who control the Republicans want all American workers ground down to the level of the powerless in Indonesia or Guatemala. Republicans want Americans to work and die once their "productive" years are done.

Ask yourself: Who wanted to roll Social Security into Wall Street? The Republicans. Why? So Wall Street could steal those funds as well. Who during the midst of the Bush/Cheney Depression wanted to destroy Social Security and Medicare? Michele Bachmann and the Republicans. Why? Because Michele Bachmann wants Americans to die when they get old.

Republicans act as the attack dogs for the Wealthy and their conservative slime merchants gleefully absorb the message and willfully propagate it to delude themselves and others.

How do the Republicans get away with their anti-human plans? They've done an excellent job of dividing Americans by religion and race and by non-stop lying.

For years the demographics allowed Republican victories but now more and more Americans are aware there is a club and 99% of the American People aren't in it. The American People have seen that the Republicans serve a gaggle of Kleptocrats who view their supporters as nothing more than paving stones for their luxuries.

Disaffected Presents: Tales of the Classacre

James Mahoney, Director of Public Policy for Bank of America Executive was the Criminal who told Rick Perry "We're going to help you out."

Wells Fargo creates a $3 fee everytime you have a Debit card transactions. Is this worse than screwing minorities during the Housing Scam, Credit Fault Defaults, and Sub-Prime Mortgage banking fraud?

Speaking of the Republican crafted Sub-Prime Loan Fraud Crime, 100 million dollar man Sean Hannity just found out, in 2011, that there is this thing called a "housing bubble" and people are losing their homes! Of course, Hannity doesn't have to worry because the 100 person staff he employs to maintain his multi-million dollar mansion reside in shacks on the grounds of his Upper New York palatial estate.

Quarter Billionaire Mitt Romney bemoans the poor economy decides to blames Jimmy Carter (so much for the conservative demands of a time limit on blaming past Presidents, that the only demand when it's a REpublican) and Barack Obama. As for Reagan and the Bushes, Romney knows nothing of the 20 Trillion dollars the Republicans added to the debt. Romney then decides to bulldoze his puny mansion and have a one 3 times larger built in it's place.

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is still mad at Obama. In a Salon article she propounds her status as an ardent "lifelong Democrat", who supported McCain/Palin in 2008 and Jon Huntsman in 2012. She then explains Politics belongs to the Upper classes not to losers.

But, the gist of her comments haven't changed in 3 years: From July 2008: "Frankly I don't like him,” so says Lynn Forester de Rothschild of Obama in a July 2008 interview with CNN’s Joe Johns.

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild went on to state, “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”

The thrice married Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who met her third husband, Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild, at a Bilderberg Meeting in 1998.

Oh Irony! Elitist and trust issues from a member of the Bilderberg?

"[N]ot all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again." ~ Jeb Hensarling (REPUBLICAN) Ahem, are you poor or middle class? Well, the Republican Party has a message for you go to work in the salt mines and die you fucking peasant.

Covering Up Wall Street Crimes: Matt Taibbi Exposes How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations

And here is the final measure of the working man, the ENTIRE Deficit comes from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. So, when Republicans bring up the necessity of slashing Pell Grants, the EPA, Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid, Liberals and Democrats should consistently state the Republicans not only want to kill your children but, your grandparents and eventually you.