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Scheer begins: "In the pantheon of billionaires without shame, Michael Bloomberg, the Wall Street banker-turned-business-press-lord-turned-mayor, is now secure at the top. What is so offensive is that someone who abetted Wall Street greed, and benefited as much as anyone from it, has no compunction about ruthlessly repressing those who dare exercise their constitutional 'right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances' that he helped to create."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (photo: NY Daily News)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (photo: NY Daily News)

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Occupy Wall Street: Take the Bull by the Horns

 

 

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+22 # LessSaid 2011-11-17 19:18
Look, stop being so hard on Micheal Bloomberg, afterall he was only trying to look after the 1/3 of his 1%. Isn't it bad enough he is falling on his face. He is most likely regretting paying out that 250 millions for the third term as mayor.
 
 
+37 # DPM 2011-11-17 21:09
Occupy the USA!
 
 
+8 # CL38 2011-11-17 22:07
Well written and right on target!
 
 
+15 # seeuingoa 2011-11-18 03:19
Bloomberg "whose personal wealth
increased with 4,5 billion Dollars
the first year...."

There are 2000 working hours in one
year, meaning, that he increased his wealth with 2,2 million Dollars per hour
without even working.

Kick him out and hire instead an
unemployed with no money who needs a
job and a salary.
 
 
+7 # Gurka 2011-11-18 03:49
Thanks to Robert Scheer for column! One of the best I have read in a long time!
 
 
+10 # tinkertoodle 2011-11-18 03:52
Extremely well written and the absolute truth! I wish when they interview the OWS people on camera what their objectives are someone would tell the camera Glas-Steagal need to be put back and the CEOs who maliciously enginered the mortage meltdown to line their own pockets need to haveevery penny of their assets seizedand be thrown in jail for at the very least fraud preferably treason!
 
 
+1 # mjc 2011-11-18 08:24
Agree, tinkertoodle, but sometimes the OWS folks are their own worst enemy because they DON'T know about Glass-Steagall or cannot articulate the Occupy goals.
 
 
+11 # giraffee2012 2011-11-18 04:12
Warren Buffet is the man to stand up for the OWS and then see how the Blumbergs, Limbaughs, Cantors, etc. shrink and give a path for the OWS to attract more people who can lead them. They can get one of their own to step up and make demands such as "Congress to modify the TAX CODE" -- BTW, the top 1% are getting breaks "as if" they are poor! And we buy the line "they can create jobs" - except those jobs are not in USA.

And we sanction those who abuse labor but our companies go overseas and use the same workers to make more money.

Oh there is more - such as these police are not regular cops. They are contractors (mercenaries.) It was printed by the NY Times that the Koch brothers gave the NY PD millions the first weekend of the OWS!

The mantra of those in charge is no different than the rise of Hitler ---- and instead of Jews they will go after all who are not in the top 1%

Get registered early *and help minorities, poor, etc get registered" - with mail-in ballots. Never vote Republican
 
 
+10 # walt 2011-11-18 05:20
How interesting! Billionaire Bloomberg is both the source of the problem and the tyrant who ruthlessly suppresses those who expose the greed. The time is right for him to be scrutinized along with many other Wall Street criminals for crimes against the American people.

Does NYC have a recall provision in their election laws? If so, the time may be perfect based on the NYPD thug behavior he is authorizing against peaceful protesters.

The movement seems to grow daily and the time is right nation-wide to take action to save the nation from the greedy clutches of the 1%.
 
 
+3 # Torvus 2011-11-18 12:18
I thought the whole prime objective of OWS essentially was to hold the WS criminals and their aiders and abettors to account. Why has this not been done? The causes of a ruined world economy sit tight and spout sneering condescending re-directions, wasting/marking time while everyone else runs around trying to deal with their ruined lives and futures, and hoping to see a change in the status quo. Those responsible for the disaster will do their damndest to see THEIR lives aren't ruined, as they deserve to be. The people who are supposedly now pontificating and 'dealing' with economic problems are still the ones who started them. OUT with the lot of them. And let's see some justice starting with those smug idiots at the TOP who think they are safe and shielded. Are they?
 
 
+13 # mwd870 2011-11-18 05:31
The one concept everyone in the 99% (Americans around the country) can rally around is the need to bring back trust in elected officials, Congress, the Administration, and the Supreme Court.

The Occupy Movement will not end until trust in the government is restored.

GET MONEY OUT
 
 
+2 # in deo veritas 2011-11-18 07:19
In the picture you see the image of consummate evil and greed. Trust no one but God. What is it going to take for the people to learn their lesson?
 
 
+8 # jamminon 2011-11-18 07:28
For a guy who has 19.5 Billion now to have his wealth increase 4.5 Billion during the first year of the meltdown, that had to be at least a 30% increase in wealth, which he could have only accomplished by betting AGAINST the economy. So, he knew that bad things were going on before most people did.
 
 
+4 # Billy Bob 2011-11-18 07:31
Remember when bloomberg was the odds on favorite as our next President? I don't think he'll be able to play his "I'm a moderate" act anymore.
 
 
+3 # mjc 2011-11-18 08:21
It seems that is the mantra of those Wall St fans who shout loudly and clearly that we are lucky to be a nation founded on capitalist values...not often specified but one can assume from the behavior that getting wealthy is worth any price...or bribe?...and not being regulated the focus of the business relationship with government. We heard from other Wall St fans like Tim Geithner who from the beginning blamed the meltdown on the American public who borrowed sooooo much and went bankrupt. This tune is the one that apparently Bloomberg sings as well only it is Congress that is to blame for spending too much money that they didn't have! Okay, how do we finance two wars and twice that many intrusions...occupations?...in the rest of the world? The answer is DON'T RAISE TAXES ON THE WEALTHY. THEY CREATE JOBS. No taxes, no regulation are prime weapons, and...lately...repress any right to assembly or free speech that might wake the rest of this country to the real problem.
 
 
+2 # Torvus 2011-11-18 12:21
"DON'T RAISE TAXES ON THE WEALTHY. THEY CREATE JOBS."
Sure they've created jobs. In the armed forces and armaments industry. They'll probably create more in the police forces . . .
 
 
+1 # Buddha 2011-11-18 09:58
If you think the 99%, at these protests or not, are angry now, just wait until you see what the Congressional SuperCommittee does to us all next week. Guaranteed there will be no real tax increases on the 1% or Corporations, or cuts in Military Spending, but one whole lot of "austerity" for us in the 99%, cuts in Social Insurance, cuts in education and research and infrastructure, etc.
 
 
+2 # km0591 2011-11-18 11:31
This is only going to get worse. Much worse. The wealthy, propertied classes will not let go of their privilege without a serious fight that threatens their power and interests. They will whine, of course about people promoting "class warfare." Bring it on, suckers. These sniffing plutocrats ain't seen nothing yet.
 
 
+1 # Holyone 2011-11-18 14:34
This is a very insightful article. The wrong people are going to jail.
 
 
+1 # jwb110 2011-11-18 15:03
Neither Bloomberg nor his progeny will ever be safe in this country again.
 
 
+1 # fantailkoi 2011-11-18 18:33
I hope New York City has a way to recall the mayor, it's time.
 
 
+1 # mrbadexample 2011-11-19 09:06
Mr. Scheer--it's long past time to shine the light on Bloomie. Mike Bloomberg'­s whole personal fortune is built on Wall Street--it­'s the brokerage houses paying $1500 a month per terminal to get Bloomberg News piped in. It's Bloomberg who has given unpreceden­ted deals to real estate moguls, allowing them to condemn whole blocks of the outer boroughs under eminent domain in order to throw up office towers that get tax abatements (Chase alone got tens of millions in help for its space at Metrotech in exchange for a promise of 5,000 jobs. That promise has gone begging for five years, but Chase still enjoys the tax breaks). And Bloomberg'­s prominence in media has kept the rest of the NY press away from investigat­ing the ties. Whether it's the Times or the Daily News or even the Post, all those publishers have avoided looking at all of his insider deals.

And bloomie lead the way on using kid gloves on Wall Street's real criminals at the big banks and brokerage houses--wh­en Obama threatened a crackdown on the Bankster bonuses after the bailout, it was Bloomberg and the other 'liberals' like Schumer and Gillibrand and Paterson who lobbied the president to stop talking like that.

Asking Bloomberg to investigat­e Wall Street is like asking the Gestapo to investigat­e the SS.”
 
 
-3 # Martintfre 2011-11-21 07:39
So once you fools have eaten the 1%
(which after liquidating the major employers like Microsoft, Apple etc would wipe out our economy) and powering the government for about a year while eating the seed corn in the process... who will then become the next 1% to be served up?

Once one has chosen to justify cannibalism picking the victims is actually a secondary issue.
 
 
-3 # Martintfre 2011-11-21 07:45
//It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp.”//
Bloomberg was correct in making that statement.

With the risk of bad loans being adsorbed by the tax payers rather then the lenders the failure was inevitable.

If your a thinking person rather then a puppet you have to place a lions share of the blame on those who wrote the bail out checks rather then those who cashed them.
 

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