Heads up, everyone: make sure you know what ”neo-liberal” means.
(Hint: it’s not the opposite of ”neo-con”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

”We need independent platforms that are not going to be gamed and co-opted by people like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, as Facebook and Twitter are being right now”
at 5:00 in the first clip
Very well said! Use Facebook, use Twitter, etc. But don’t use them exclusively…

Full transcript of this interview: http://ampedstatus.org/network/activity/p/7402/

From 10:49:

”Libertarians and Progressives can find common ground.

”But at this point — still — they’re refusing to take a step back and concede a little bit to find the common ground!

”Look: Libertarians and Progressives have to come together on campaign finance, and lobbying — and, most importantly — they can come together on breaking up the banks!

”Why aren’t they doing this? This is ridiculous that they’re not coming together to break up the banks…”

This is one of the best fundamental points you make in the interveiw, @ddegraw

Why AREN’T the people working together to break up the banks?

What can be more important than that… what we are arguing about instead of that?

The only bank that needs broken is the Federal Reserve Bank. The rest will have no choice but to act as any bank in a free market would. Without the protection of the Federal Reserve System, even large banks are vulnerable to bank runs and insolvency. Start from the source!

Max asked about Ireland, and he’s right. Here in Ireland the new Fine Gael/Labour government walked away from their promises to defy the IMF/EU/ECB** loan conditions and drop the deal agreed by the former government. But they are conducting a charade of ’renegotiating’ the interest rate, which keeps people passive to some extent, plus there’s always that honeymoon period of expectation by the people that the government will deliver something positive.

Well, it won’t. The EU and IMF overlords, sent in to the Department of Finance to run things last winter, are still there, still overseeing and still giving orders. In fact, you could say that in respect of fiscal, economic and monetary policy, we have NO GOVERNMENT. Just the overlords.

So why aren’t there a million Paddies surrounding the government complex in Dublin insisting on change? That’s one that has been puzzling many of us here, because people have been savaged over the past two years — pay cuts, pension cuts, tax surcharges, levies and most recently a new double tax called the ’Universal Social Charge’, which is a poll tax levied on all income at a flat but increasing rate BEFORE any other tax is calculated. And much more…

Take-home incomes for most working people have fallen by anything from 25% to 35% in two years; but the rich keep raking it in and the bankers keep getting their bonuses.

One reason why Paddy is so passive is the trade union leaders. They play Duke of York with the workers, dissipating their anger and energy with useless, purposeless marches from time to time. These are huge, but they have no objective, no political purpose, and in the event they are reduced to urban walks. Many of us suggested, demanded, exactly what Max stated — that we surround the Gov complex, camp there, and refuse to leave until the IMF/EU/ECB overlords were escorted to the airport, the rotten deal torn up, and the bank debt to bondholders repudiated. But would the union leaders do anything effective? Even entertain organising something like that? No. That step will have to wait until privation bites deeper, I’m afraid.

Believe me, though, it’s very frustrating to see the French, the Greeks, the Egyptians, Tunisians, Yemenis, Libyans, Bahreinis, Wisconsinites and Uncle Tom Cobley and all out there in front (power to them!) while Passive Paddy sits at home watching it all on TV and calling radio phone-ins to complain…

** EU = European Union; ECB = European Central Bank (Bundesbank in new guise)

I absolutely agree, David. So few are like you in not mincing the words and calling the truth in clear semantic language. GENOCIDE is the right word! Thanks, and Peace

@kapitalcon Sorry brother, but the Fed is not a bank as distinct from the megabanks… I know it claims it is, but it is not…. The Fed is staffed by men who will protect the megabanks, and it makes no sense to end only the Fed.

Politics and parties and elections is just nonsense. Real power comes from two places: money and authority. Elections and politicians are just there to be puppets for the people to love or get mad at, while the real power and money players hold the strings.

Read about what a ”primary dealer” bank is. You will soon realize that the Fed is not an independent body. It is a puppet body with the power to give money to the primary dealer banks. The U.S. Government gets its money from the primary dealers… The Fed is just the sham the banks use to pretend that they don’t own the whole place themselves…

@ofarmer @karlmarcks I’m sending you guys friend invites.