This is why Westboro Baptist Church is a joke

[kandrathe]

I'm with Treesh here. Does it surprise you, if these things have nothing to do with each other, that they are all operating under the same brand (Occupy Wherever), complaining about the same things (bailouts for the rich, cutbacks for the poor) and are happening at the same time? Or that the original call to protest was from Adbusters, which is Canadian?

I'm all for protesting against policy. Maybe there is some equivalents in US, and in many nations in Europe. The 99% versus the 1% feels more like protesting against people, for which I'm not very supportive.

I'm having trouble seeing how persistent 9% unemployment counts as "coddled," unless watching your jobs evaporate, your one key asset devalued, and your debts spiral out of control constitutes some kind of pampered existence.

Right, it is counter-intuitive though. The more you give unemployed people, the more people are unemployed. The government is like the worst venture capitalist ever. It's like we gave them some billions of dollars and they blew it on a big party, instead of careful investments in things that would grow the jobs market.

... I think it's pretty clear the economy sucks, people are suffering, and they're sick of seeing the "rescue" being something reserved for AIG and Goldman Sachs. Tax policy is some piece of this, but mostly, it's about the response to the crisis: Save the rich, let the poor go hang.

Much of the bailouts happened on Obama's watch, the "Stimulus I" in February 2009, "Stimulus II" 6 months later were Obama, Reid and Pelosi, then in 2010, "Stimulus III" was Obama, Reid, and Bohner. The Stimulus bills all included more unemployment, and tax cuts across the board. Cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, cash for quackers, whatever. You can't say that there wasn't a ton of crap in there that was meant to help out "the little guy" and the average citizen. Bailing out the States, meant the states could continue their social services. Then, the feds increased the Student Loan budget as well. Everybody got a big piece of the trillions of dollars borrowed from tomorrows prosperity.

And, it's hilarious how mad these people are at the banks. The banks are suffering the most and are all about to go under due to new cash reserve requirements, zero percent interest and the imposition of Dodd/Frank restricting their income.

The bailouts for GM, AIG, Goldman-Sachs, were management by Obama. But, Paulsen, and Geitner, and Bernancke were all there from Bush to Obama's watch. The Fed hasn't changed policies much, nor has the Treasury department. And... correct me if I'm wrong, but the TARP ($700 billion) recipients need to pay it back. Citigroup and BOA subsequently also had their toxic assets backed by FDIC & Feds for up to 422 $billion, but there is uncertainty how much of those mortgages will default. Fannie/Freddie were nationalized and backed by $400 Billion.

But, when the government keeps BOA, Citigroup, Freddie and Fanny afloat, don't people realize that it's their mortgages that are being propped up? Otherwise, some bureaucrat would be foreclosing left and right. I'm sure the reason I'm still in my home is due to probably due to TARP. People don't see that because of the governments policy, the banks have been able to allow people to stay in their homes rather than be foreclosed upon?