The real difference between the TEA Party and OWS

[Amelia]

What exactly are the merits of occupy wall streets movement ? And on what issues do they agree ?

Opposition to corporate bailouts, opposition to the undue influence of lobbyists in the political process, opposition to politicians being sold to the highest bidder, ....

Opposition to John Lewis speaking ....

 

[rightwinger]

how much did obama raise from wall street in 2008?

$4.28

You are sorely misinformed:

Barack Obama owes Wall Street bankers a debt of gratitude for generous campaign donations as he ponders how to cope with a financial crisis that poses challenges over government aid and regulation for the banking industry.

Staff at banks, Silicon Valley technology companies and universities topped the list of contributors to Obama's record treasure chest of $640m (£406m).

Goldman Sachs was linked to more donations than any other company as its employees and their families provided $847,207 to the successful Democratic candidate's fundraising machine.

People associated with JP Morgan provided $581,460 and donors linked to Citigroup gave $581,216 according to figures culled from public disclosures.

Bankers and academics at top of donor list | World news | The Guardian


The race is far from over, but Obama's difficulties speak to his contentious relationship with Wall Street. After raising $43 million from the financial industry in 2008, he has spent much of his first term railing against its excesses. He made a reference to "fat cat bankers" that still has executives smarting.

Obama has made three campaign visits to Manhattan in the past few months, raising money from financial industry leaders on each visit. He wants the banking industry's support. The question is whether the bankers still want him.

Obama struggling to raise donations from Wall Street | cleveland.com

Then why did you ask the question if you didn't like my answer?

I think $4.28 is more realistic

 

[California Girl]

The real difference is OWS is an educated group with a firm grasp of issues.

The TP are useful tools.

See the difference?

Say what again?

 

[Londoner]

The OWS is a disorganized group of people with little understanding of why they are there. They have zero corporate backing because no corporation would support a movement that wants to roll back the political, tax, and regulatory advantages that business has accumulated since Reagan. When OWS members go home, it's over. Their issues - if they have any - are dead. When Tea Party members go home, their issues are kept alive and cultivated by an insanely well funded interlocking set of institutions.

Meaning: the Tea Party is a powerful national organization with massive support from corporate America through organizations like "Freedom Works", which funnels corporate profits into think tanks, publishing groups, television, radio, election funding, political action committees, marketing campaigns, robo-calling, etc. You can find advertising for the Tea Party in every corner of the universe, on every conceivable print and electronic medium. By comparison, the OWS is a bunch of hapless idiots who don't know where to go to the bathroom. Such is the fate of the no-longer-professional Left, which abandoned politics after LBJ & Vietnam. (If you think ACORN is proof of a powerful well-funded Left, just go into one of their offices, which is staffed by toothless, illiterate morons, i.e., the Left is dead)

The Tea Party directly represents Wall Street in their struggle for lower taxes and fewer regulations. The Tea Party represents the interests which, through criminal risk mismanagement, caused the meltdown. Big Wall Street firms love the Tea Party tax agenda because the Tea Party signals Wall Street's "astroturf" victory over Teddy Roosevelt's great malefactor populism. Meaning: because of corporate America's investment in the Tea Party, the populist demon is no longer the fat cat Wall Street guy - nope! The populist demon is now the Government which is trying to tax Wall Street on behalf of the middle class, which receives entitlements and public services from those taxes. MEANING: The Tea Party - if you look at their political agenda and funding carefully - is THE populist weapon of Wall Street. Follow the money. Look at how effectively large corporations wash money through organizations like "Freedom Works" into the Tea Party.

Regarding media coverage. The Tea Party basically owned the presidential debate on CNN - with Wolf Blitzer reading questions from "Tea Party" members. Tea Party members are bussed to ObamaCare Town Hall meetings with money washed through "Freedom Works" from Big Insurance. Other than MSNBC prime time, the Tea Party owns the Big Three networks, which constantly over-publicize their rallies and concerns. Why? Because the Big Three are mega-corporations that want lower taxes and less regulations.

The Tea Party represents corporate America in their attempt to roll back the policy advantages awarded to the middle class during the postwar years. The actual members of the Tea Party are as clueless as the OWS. They think they are "fighting" power. In truth, they are power's greatest weapon.

 

[Trajan]

OWS are better spellers

so obama aint a loosely-woven cotton fabric

 

[boedicca]

He's definitely a polyester blend.

 

[Trajan]

That the TPM may be treated unfairly by the press is an issue between the TPM and the press – it has nothing to do with the merits of the OWS’s issues or the fact both the OWS and TPM have the same position on many issues.

an issue bwteeen the tp and press?...yes I see, repeat after me- BBBBAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH




whatever gets you through the night....

 

[Trajan]

#1 difference? OWS hasn't yet been hijacked and steered away from their initial purpose and converted into shills for corporate America.

what is their purpose again?


and one difference appears to be that the TP was made up of folks who by and large contribute TO society as a net plus......as opposed to those that may not and are a net minus, or demand what they have not worked for etc.

but I could be wrong....

 

[Meister]

Employees of banks shouldn't be allowed to donate to candidates? I think you are confusing PACs with donations from individuals. You know the difference, right?

Is it okay for unions to donate to candidates, or is that entirely different?

 

[Meister]

Prove that guy was shitting as claimed.

Where was the shit?


The pictures of trash were not trash.

WHY did this article call a sleeping person trash?

Maybe he's just a pervert?

 

[Meister]

IMO, the real difference is that the Tea Partiers are not Cognitively dissonant hypocrites as are OWSers:

So true, Bo. These people don't have a clue what exactly what makes up Wall St.

 

[boedicca]

IMO, the real difference is that the Tea Partiers are not Cognitively dissonant hypocrites as are OWSers:

So true, Bo. These people don't have a clue what exactly what makes up Wall St.

Wall Street is different than the corporations named in the pic.

Wall Street is made up of Monetarists (not Capitalists) who basically create paper profits. We need to get back to Capitalism and make real goods and services instead.

For the past couple of decades, the way wealth has been generated is via monetary policy, not productivity. That is the root of the problem.

 

[Meister]

IMO, the real difference is that the Tea Partiers are not Cognitively dissonant hypocrites as are OWSers:

So true, Bo. These people don't have a clue what exactly what makes up Wall St.

Wall Street is different than the corporations named in the pic.

Wall Street is made up of Monetarists (not Capitalists) who basically create paper profits. We need to get back to Capitalism and make real goods and services instead.

For the past couple of decades, the way wealth has been generated is via monetary policy, not productivity. That is the root of the problem.

Yes, but all those names are part of what is bought and sold in stocks on Wall St.

 

[boedicca]

Yes, which just further underscores the intellectual incoherence of OWS. Their biggest beef is student loan debt - why aren't they protesting against the Universities that duped them into expensive, worthless degrees?

 

[Meister]

Yes, which just further underscores the intellectual incoherence of OWS. Their biggest beef is student loan debt - why aren't they protesting against the Universities that dupes them into expensive, worthless degrees?

The student loans are not part of this administrations mantra, after all, they took over that sector already.
Now, it's the evil corporations, capitalism, and profits.

 

[Trajan]

Yes, which just further underscores the intellectual incoherence of OWS. Their biggest beef is student loan debt - why aren't they protesting against the Universities that dupes them into expensive, worthless degrees?

The student loans are not part of this administrations mantra, after all, they took over that sector already.
Now, it's the evil corporations, capitalism, and profits.

true, but the next big bubble will be student loan debt. and we'll be told how the evil......uhmmm gov. took advantage of them till a dem congress passes a bill forgiving their debt.

 

[Meister]

Yes, which just further underscores the intellectual incoherence of OWS. Their biggest beef is student loan debt - why aren't they protesting against the Universities that dupes them into expensive, worthless degrees?

The student loans are not part of this administrations mantra, after all, they took over that sector already.
Now, it's the evil corporations, capitalism, and profits.

true, but the next big bubble will be student loan debt. and we'll be told how the evil......uhmmm gov. took advantage of them till a dem congress passes a bill forgiving their debt.

The way they throw money around on failed policies and loans, I can't argue your point. I really wish I could.

 

[Zander]

They are feculent, hypocritical, swine that are shitting and pissing in the streets like farm animals. They have the nerve to condemn banks and corporations, all while wearing corporate manufactured GAP clothing, using Apple phones and i-pods, and getting cash from ATM machines.

They are a bunch of whining losers that have nothing better to do than complain and blame others for their own sorry lives. I'd like to see them hosed down and deloused like the filthy, dirty pigs that they are.

PS- i apologize in advance to any Pigs or other Farm animals that may be offended by being associated with these losers....

 

[Londoner]

what is their purpose again?

Agreed. I don't think they know. Which is a shame because there are reasons to be frustrated. You should research some of the specifics, like Goldman Sachs betting against positions they were pushing on customers, or the actual dollar amount AIG burned in the derivative market, or the Wall Street "capture" of the ratings agencies (so they could manufacture higher returns off what they knew to be garbage), or the perverse incentives that allowed our largest financial players to profit wildly off risky bets which they knew they could not cover.

But it gets even worse. When they realized the value of additional mortgages to their security and derivative markets (which they were selling around the globe), they incentivized the production of more mortgages, which resulted in the extension of mortgages to a whole new category of borrowers, the non-credit worthy. FYI: this turned into the perfect storm because pressure was also coming Washington (which likes to hand out candy to poor voters). Remember: the post 9/11 economy was dismal. The housing bubble - specifically the products it was enabling Wall Street to create - was "the only game in town": it not only stimulated economic activity (for Bush), and expanded home ownership to the poor (for liberal democrats), but it allowed Wall Street to benefit the most because they were able to fabricate a multi-trillion dollar industry (through securitization coupled with insurance bets against the securities they were pushing on customers). This is why we saw a tsunami of cash flow into Wall Street from every corner of the globe.

You've been told that the incentive to expand mortgages came strictly from Washington social engineering, but you need to ask a more essential question: who benefited most from these mortgages? Follow the money. The poor were foreclosed on while Wall Street was bailed out (whereas, typically, lenders and buyer share the risk. And Wall Street - because they were buying these mortgages - was absolutely the de-facto lender. They walked away, by virtue of the bail-out, with the assets of those who were foreclosed on. It was the crime of the century - and everybody lost except the puppet politicians and their Wall Street donors). I feel terrible for the Rightwing voters because their information sources are not telling them the full story how these mortgages were used by Wall Street. Needless to say, you might want to look into the behavior of Bear, Lehman, Goldman, and AIG (to name only a few). Be careful getting this information from political sources (Talk Radio, television pundits, internet news groups, etc). Try to find an in-depth source for the way the mortgage securities and derivative market operated - and look into the collusion of the mortgage industry with Wall Street. All you need to do is follow the money. Look at where the profits were made. Capitalism is about incentives, right? Follow the incentives and look at who made the big money. Everything else is partisan hackery. Take the time.

and one difference appears to be that the TP was made up of folks who by and large contribute TO society as a net plus......as opposed to those that may not and are a net minus, or demand what they have not worked for etc.

I'm not sure this is a case of class envy where the poor lazy slob wants to steal what John Gault worked for. The major financial players on Wall Street took the global pool of money and destroyed it with stuff they knew to be garbage . . . and then their political servants - who they put in office through targeted election funding - bailed them out. This was bipartisan collusion between Big Government and Big Business, yet the Tea Party is only given half the story. But I also agree with you. I think it's more than possible that the OWS folks are there for the wrong reasons. They seem very disorganized, so you are probably right about your assumptions.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

That looks like occupied space, not abandoned space. It looks like people plan on returning to sleep, doesn't it?

Can you show me a single picture of an TEA Party site that looked anything like this? When the those angry, armed, racists ever feel a need to camp out?

The Tea Party was not protesting, they were rallying. People who rally to support the status quo and the plutocracy are not going to be pepper sprayed, are they QW?

When order is paramount...

OWS is not protesting, they are occupying.

You should stop now. I used to follow a principle that I would not get into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent, but I got cynical.