You are always so thorough! And always with the in depth linkage which I appreciate. "obama and his hopey-changey schtick" -I warned everyone nonstop that his record did not back up his claims. I begged friends to please vote for the person with an extensive record proving her care for the citizens of America. Too bad so many people don't pay attention until it's too late (repeatedly). And that's why America has been f*cked and is f*cked.

[r] whew, you are awesome in collecting some important homework for us all. thank you!!! re the war machine, when I went to Times Square on Saturday for the anti-war rally, the occupiers marched in after half an hour which brought new energy but the chanting was all about we are the 99 percenters and occupy Wall Street. Great, but I was hoping for some specific anti-war chanting. When I first got there a nice guy was passing out flyers about military expenditures and said, "Wall Street is War Street". I thought that one was worth chanting, a nice tie in. Anyway, I hope people can begin to comprehend globalization means economic terrorism domestically and economic terrorism and physical terrorism and destruction globally from the same corrupt US government, codependently colluding with other oligarch-driven countries bullshitting about humanitarianism and R2P when it is all about raping and pillaging weaker nations for profit. Last night on Olbermann Bill Press was bragging about how many kills Obama had compared to Bush and it turned my stomach. How no Americans had been killed in Libya but of course never a mention of the number of civilians killed there by NATO and the US armaments! Whoa. Is this the drumbeat of progressive media? Macho Obama? I think consciousness raising is important. I see everyone at various levels of education on the corrupt reality about us. I like your fish analogy. So little transparency also. But we needed some passion from all this economic terrorism horror! Someone to say OUCH and make it to the media saying so. The corporate media is really good at stifling the truth. But critical mass seems to have begun. But it also had begun upon Obama's election and look at how fast that spirit got snuffed out or turned into zombie denial on just how betraying Obama was determined to be while razzle dazzling the opposite or trying to. my more than two and a half cents. :) libby

hi CK, Im just a little bummed out because I like your other av more =) ... yeah I was a little skeptical of the obama hype, I knew it was overdone at the time, but I endorsed him as the best in the field, and unfortunately I kinda still feel the same way, that anyone else elected would have been a disaster, but he's still a disappointment.

LLNYC-- homework? ouch! hey people are intimidated by all my links even though I put them in smaller font.... the idea is just to browse on the ones you like, much in the same way that one would browse the headlines of a newspaper. yes I agree with you that economic terrorism/warfare exists but that the public and even govt officials are only weakly aware of its existence. if you want a wild trip read the classic conspiracy document "silent weapons for quiet wars" and try to imagine who wrote it and for what purpose.... I have a whole section on economic warfare in one of my other posts. you reemphasize the media/MSM and I was realizing after I wrote this that I said nothing on the subj. the MSM did finally overcome its initial silence/disparagement and cover it all in a serious way. [Im still amazed at how long it apparently took huffpost to say *anything*... and wordy/ editorializing arianna, I still have not seen her say much or anything so far.... maybe I missed that or maybe the silence is indicative of something.... ] anyway in this case the MSM is starting to react and its inherent resistance has been overcome largely, but yeah I will always be the 1st to say the MSM is not your friend, and the attempts at distortion, cooption, propaganda etc are probably just now kicking into full swing.
thx both for dropping by

ps re economic warfare, that reminds me of the Tobin tax which is a proposal to put a small tax on currency swaps, which I think makes a lot of sense, and at times I wonder if I would even support a small share trading tax. I suspect it would decrease volatility in the market. Im also extremely suspicious of short selling.

Great stuff......tho a bit overwhelming.

I want to get out and re-visit our local Occupiers and hear what they have to say, now that (for them) it's been a week, and a week of unpleasant camping in the cold and wind. Unfortunately I slipped on some dog shit in the yard and have sore ligaments in one leg - semi-crippled. It might have to wait a few days...

I had been depressed and pessimistic about how the world was going. I now...well, I don't know about a light at the end of the tunnel...maybe not out, maybe a little stronger now...but flickering...

Yes, Obama is a screw up, but what's your choice? Perry? God forbid. Romney-two faced jerk. Cain? Maybe, just to let the Tea Partiers see what disasters will befall them.

At least Ron Paul gets it, and he's a nut case. Hmmm.

myriad-- thx for dropping by. what you said about your leg could apply to our economy.
"Unfortunately we slipped on some [finance] s--- in the [real estate] yard and have sore ligaments in one [govt reg] leg - semi-crippled. It might have to wait a few years..."
hey keiko I hate to admit but of everyone Ive heard of, I kind of want ron paul to win based on his philosophy of [military] noninterventionism and vehement anti fed stance. the bummer is that both of those might be his most ineffective policies given the massive structural pushback that would occur. but despite his popularity the MSM & elites are pushing back feverishly against him with near propaganda & coverups [eg of his poll ratings] as usual so you probably dont have to worry.

Hello Brotester, I disagree about my former avatar (a painting by Daniela Uhlig, so pffffffft on you, meanie). OH and disagree triplefold about you saying Hillary Clinton would have been a disaster. But If I go further into the Hillary thing, it could get... [I'll say no more.] Let's just party like it's 1999 and deal with the rest of this crap later! {my bar tab is open}

heh heh hey CK, I have an extremely open comment policy. if you want to write a brief piece how we could have achieved political nirvana under hillary clinton, Im listening. uh, since we're on the subj, I found her campaign to be disorganized and mainly reactive instead of organized and proactive. but, Ill admit, she does have balls of steel and shes very good at clicking up a zillion frequent flier miles.

What an amazing compilation. I will spend quite a bit of time here...
And I also have a love/hate relationship with Obama, but he seems to be the lessor of all the evils to choose from right now. Who knows what will happen in the future.

Wow, thanks so much for this. Once we get this occupy thing settled, can we start working on the better media filters thing?

Thanks for send me your link. Julian Assange used almost exactly the same words on the BBC: that OWS is like "a dream come true."

R

Hello veezy...I just read your recent 9/11 post and I am touched that you remember me, CA, your ole buddy. Now look, for the last time, I didn't delete my account, I was expunged by management on here for some baloney mud wrangling with the hick Okie brothers for something I can't even remember. Anyway, I iz back. I read your 9/11 post and I have to hand it to you...you are a remarkably tenacious fella. As you know, we disagree. But about this OWS bizness...

I'm pretty impressed by a people's movement like this, and let's see if they can continue to raise the consciousness of more and more of the masses. It's a torturously long process, but I will make one prediction....any change to the political system that might come from this social movement, like starting a third political party, or pulling the Democrats to the left as the Tea Party pulled the Republicans to the right, and initiating campaign finance reform, or placing wealth inequality reform measures on the agenda...all of this kind of progressive change will have to happen within the confines of the present electoral system. There will be no spontaneous people's revolution, for one simple reason...too many middle of the road people, themselves members of the electorate, will call for this progressive social movement to enter the political contests in order to make their point, and let elections determine the outcome. There is no American secret police preventing these people from organizing politically, as was the problem in the Arab Spring countries...so there is only one possible outcome here...organize yourselves politically somehow and contest the present power structure in an open campaign before the public...period. So, let the cards fall where they may.

Oh, and a point about our wrangling over AI. I was always amazed how lackadaisical you were about the problem of 'consciousness.' Positing that mechanical robot dogs could possibly be conscious like a living flesh and blood doggie. Consciousness will continue to be an intractable problem for a long time to come, but meanwhile society will be transformed with machine-processed pseudo intelligence, like the Google driverless car that's being road tested all through the state of Nevada presently. Within 10 years the majority of vehicles on the road will be driverless, because initially the big trucking companies will convert to the new technology so as to save on labor costs, and state governments and insurance companies will promote it strongly because of the tremendous decrease in auto accident deaths and damage and economic savings therein to the health care system... leading quickly to the unemployment of literally hundreds of thousands of truck, bus and taxi drivers across the country. Put that in your twinkie and smoke it...winkee doodle

Thank you for all the time and energy you put into this post.
rated

I've been roaming concert halls and rock festivals all summer. Last week I opened the newspaper and said, "... occupy?!? the fck is that?"

Sad case, right?

fact: Nate Silver postulates that with Obama v. Romney in a flat economy in 2012, Obama has a 17% chance of getting re-elected. If the economy is declining, cut that number in half.

fact: From 1Q to 2Q in 2011, the value of over-the-counter derivatives and other exotic financial instruments increased 18% to $703T. This compares with a 3% increase from the same period last year.

@old new lefty, if you're still checking in here, could you explain the significance of the figures in your second comment as to their relevance to questions of the OWS movement? I'm not being snarky, good ?G-d?. It's just I'm trying to follow the OWS discussions on a lot of different blogs to see what I can learn. Are you just offering a straw-in-the-wind additional piece of information on the nature and dimension of the underlying money issues, or what?

Thanks and hello all! I'm a much more active reader than comment-er and I want to tell all of you I've read various of your comments various times and pay more attention to what you think and say than you'd have any way of knowing!! ;-)
R

What a resource for the post-occupie-ee ... I loved the line about about so much being posted and written, it's almost as if the world were writing it all done for you. I don't have that feeling, but, I appreciate that kind of sense of being alive right now. The mind, overwhelmed, needs to balance time between the uploading and downloading of information. It's the difference between a placid lake and a deep, dark, well ... Thanks for the notice.

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
Bob Dylan

We are unfortunately, truly in a prerevolutionary condition from now on in the USA. OWS has, is, and will be a game changer. The US government will be extremely slow to respond to the crisis that the banksters have created, and discontent will intensify as economic conditions go further downhill. Very interesting times? We've got 'em now!

I think I know what will satisfy me, Occupationally speaking: A removal of the GOP Tea Party voting block in Congress and exile for Bush and Cheney in a specially built, secure, and fully downloadable 24-hours-a-day Youtube.com surveillance site on the Dark Side of the Moon!

... and maybe a more appropriate farewell tour from REM.

Is that too much to ask?

Jeepers...all this research is so great. It always seems to have to get bad for people to wake up....rising expectations dashed and then they look around with thatold wtf

Thanks for posting the link to "Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street on Vimeo!"

Otherwise it's all just a bucket of worms.

Useful! This is like a reference book or edited anthology dealing with many of the same issues I'm trying to inform myself about lately. This must have been a hell of a lot of work. Thanks.