{"id":62,"date":"2011-04-01T13:38:25","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T17:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/?p=62"},"modified":"2011-08-06T22:16:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T02:16:02","slug":"sneaky-socialist-sez-back-at-you-beck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/01\/sneaky-socialist-sez-back-at-you-beck\/","title":{"rendered":"Sneaky Socialist Sez: Back at You, Beck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stephen<\/a><\/p>\n

Crazy Socialist union organizer Stephen Lerner explains his comments caught on tape in which he aims to destabilize Wall Street.<\/p>\n

Back at You, Beck<\/a><\/p>\n

funny thing happened on the way home from the forum. Overnight I was transformed by Glenn Beck into an all-powerful agent of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153economic terrorism.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz called for a federal investigation of me, and right-wing blogs claimed that my comments revealed a vast conspiracy to take over the country and the economy.<\/p>\n

What did I say that led Beck to spend two nights attacking me and defending big banks and Wall Street CEOs?<\/p>\n

I think I may have found part of the answer in what disgraced former Wall Street stock analyst Henry Blodget admitted when he echoed Beck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wild theories on Business Insider<\/em>. Describing my remarks, he wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Many Americans will undoubtedly sympathize with and support them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

So that was it: Beck, right-wingers and Wall Street sympathizers went ballistic because they knew the ideas I talked about are far from being a secret leftist conspiracy; in fact, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in sync with the thinking of most Americans. In my talk, I raised a very simple yet powerful idea: that homeowners, students, citizens and workers should make the same practical decisions Wall Street and corporate CEOs make every day\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthey should reject bad financial deals.<\/p>\n

Beck and Wall Street are terrified that regular Americans will begin to challenge the double standard that allows one set of rules for the rich and another for the rest of us. They are petrified of the growing understanding, among people of diverse political backgrounds, that our country isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t broke; that the tiny elite at the top has manipulated the economic crisis it created to grow even richer and more powerful while the rest of us suffer the consequences; and that Wall Street and corporations, sitting on record profits, are holding the country hostage, essentially threatening a capital strike if they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get further tax and regulatory breaks.<\/p>\n

As long as Wall Street and the superrich feel secure and confident, they have no reason to negotiate a fair deal with the rest of us. Only by creating uncertainty and instability for them\u00e2\u20ac\u201dby disrupting unfair business as usual\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcan we build the strength to challenge their stranglehold on our economy and our democracy.<\/p>\n

But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it was just my theorizing about power relationships and the economy that set off such a frenzy. It was the prospect that average Americans could take a series of concrete and practical steps, including direct action and civil disobedience, to make Wall Street pay for the trillions it stole from us. Ordinary Americans have the power and the opportunity to go on offense right now\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwith the immediate goals of keeping millions of people in their homes and raising revenue for cities and states to save jobs and critical services.<\/p>\n

Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how we can start:<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a7 Homeowners and students can stop paying unfair debt. If growing numbers of homeowners and students organize toward a loan strike\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthreatening to refuse to pay their toxic mortgages and student loans unless banks agree to negotiate lower rates\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit could force banks to modify loans and provide relief to our families.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a7 Citizens can demand that our governments stop doing business with bandit banks. Local governments conduct trillions in business with Wall Street banks. That leverage can be used to force the banks to pay their fair share in taxes, renegotiate high-cost deals that are bankrupting taxpayers with astronomical interest rates, and stop foreclosures by reducing mortgage principals.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a7 Public employees can use their collective bargaining power to protect taxpayer dollars. Teachers, nurses and other public employees can go to the bargaining table armed with solutions that would save billions, like renegotiating the toxic interest rate swaps that are costing taxpayers at least $1.8 billion a year nationally. Swaps were supposed to save taxpayers money, but they backfired when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates after the financial crash to help the banks. Now, as taxpayers deal with devastating cuts, the banks are using these swaps to suck millions out of government coffers. Imagine public employees voting to strike in order to pressure the city or state to use its power to protect taxpayers and critical services while also stopping foreclosures and stabilizing the housing market and tax base.<\/p>\n

So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s give Wall Street, Glenn Beck and the right something to be scared about. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to use our collective power to challenge the economic and political stranglehold they have on our country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Glen<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

But Glenn Beck’s not afraid of you! He’s not afraid of Obama or the government. Because he knows he has the moral authority to be above the government.<\/p>\n

He hates you and all you stand for. He hates social and economic justice. As he’s said before:<\/p>\n

I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words.<\/p>\n

\"Let<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crazy Socialist union organizer Stephen Lerner explains his comments caught on tape in which he aims to destabilize Wall Street. Back at You, Beck funny thing happened on the way home from the forum. Overnight I was transformed by Glenn … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,135],"tags":[48,50,52,54,49,53,51],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-comedy","category-troutboysblog","tag-glenn-beck","tag-jason-chaffetz","tag-mortgage","tag-social-justice","tag-stephen-lerner","tag-unions","tag-wall-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishandcheese.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}