Who Paved the Roads to Riches in America?

 clipped from www.youtube.com
Elizabeth Warren on Debt Crisis, Fair Taxation


Elizabeth Warren on the debt crisis and fair taxation. To support her Massachusetts Senate Campaign, visit http://www.ElizabethWarren.com

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5 Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans

At what point does James 5 come into play for Christians?

“And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment. All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it. James 5:1-6 from THE MESSAGE translation

 clipped from www.alternet.org

5 Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans

It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is.

As the ongoing occupation of Wall Street by hundreds of protesters enters its third week — and as protests spread to other cities such as Boston and Los Angeles — demonstrators have endorsed a new slogan: “We are the 99 percent.” This slogan refers to an economic struggle between 99 percent of Americans and the richest 1 percent of Americans, who are increasingly accumulating a greater share of the national wealth to the detriment of the middle class.


It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is. ThinkProgress has assembled five facts about this class of super-rich Americans:

1. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Owns 40 Percent of the Nation’s Wealth

 As Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz points out, the richest 1 percent of Americans now own 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. Sociologist William Domhoff illustrates this wealth disparity using 2007 figures where the top 1 percent owned 42 percent of the country’s financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one’s home). How much does the bottom 80 percent own? Only 7 percent.



As Stiglitz notes, this disparity is much worse than it was in the past, as just 25 years ago the top 1 percent owned 33 percent of national wealth.

2. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Take Home 24 Percent of National Income

While the richest 1 percent of Americans take home almost a quarter of national income today, in 1976 they took home just 9 percent — meaning their share of the national income pool has nearly tripled in roughly three decades.

3. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Own Half of the Country’s Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds

 The Institute for Policy Studies illustrates this massive disparity in financial investment ownership, noting that the bottom 50 percent of Americans own only .5 percent of these investments.



4. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Have Only 5 Percent of the Nation’s Personal Debt

Using 2007 figures, sociologist William Domhoff points out that the top 1 percent have 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt while the bottom 90 percent have 73 percent of total debt:



5. The Top 1 Percent are Taking In More of the Nation’s Income Than at Any Other Time Since the 1920s

Not only are the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans taking home a tremendous portion of the national income, but their share of this income is greater than at any other time since the Great Depression, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities illustrates in this chart using 2007 data:



As Professor Elizabeth Warren has explained, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody…Part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

More and more often, that is not occurring, giving the protesters ample reason to take to the streets.

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True Friendship

 clipped from www.naphill.org

True friendship acknowledges imperfections, accepts them as part of our individual makeup, and focuses on our positive aspects instead of expounding upon our faults. Your friends don’t like you to comment upon their failings any more than you like them to criticize you. When your friends are discouraged or disappointed in themselves, a word of encouragement will serve much better than a sermonette. To be the kind of friend you would like to have, be a good listener, offer advice when you are asked for it, and treasure the trust that your friends have placed in you. Praise them for their achievements and sympathize when they fall short, but avoid offering “constructive criticism” or playing devil’s advocate. Most of us expect more from ourselves than anyone else ever would, and we are painfully aware of our shortcomings. We don’t need to be reminded of them by our friends.

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Occupy Main Street 06 Oct 2011

 

IT HAS BEGUN. KEEP IT REAL AND GO LOCAL!

UNITED WE STRIKE MARATHON THIS SAT, MUSICIANS FOR FREEDOM SUNDAY

http://www.unitedwestrike.com STAY TUNED, STAY PEACEFUL!

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government

06 Oct 2011 – Early Edition

http://www.legitgov.org

All links are here:

http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news 

 

Occupy Main Street By Michael Rectenwald 06 Oct 2011 The deregulation, the bailouts, the hoarding, the investment boycott, the austerity measures, the imperialist wars, the political and economic inaction and indifference – these are all symptomatic of the same crisis and cannot simply be attributed to individual character flaws or even to political desiderata. Certainly the system produces the very monsters and policies that the protesters declaim. But their existence and behavior is an utterly predictable product of objective historical conditions.

 

Outraged protesters clash with police in Greece By Jonathan Woods 05 Oct 2011 Riot police engaged protesters in Athens, after a small group of protesters started throwing rocks in Syntagma Square on Wednesday. Meanwhile, thousands of striking workers marched to parliament, protesting austerity measures. (Photo essay)

 

Occupy Wall Street Arrests; Fox 5 Crew and Protesters Hit by Pepper Spray, Batons –Protest broadens scope 06 Oct 2011 While covering the Occupy Wall Street protests on Wednesday night, Fox 5 photographer Roy Isen was hit in the eyes by pepper spray from a police officer and Fox 5 reporter Dick Brennan was hit by an officer’s baton. The protests on Wall Street continued to grow all day. The rallies and their participants are showing no signs of slowing down. In the evening, crowds surged past barriers and NYPD officers moved in to contain the protesters. Officers, many wearing white shirts [although donning black shirts would have signalled a wardrobe more reflective of their behavior] indicating supervisor rank, swatted protesters with batons and sprayed them with mace, video from the scene showed.

 

Thousands march in Occupy Wall Street protest05 Oct 2011 Thousands of people waving signs and chanting slogans marched Wednesday afternoon from Occupy Wall Street‘s encampment in Lower Manhattan‘s financial district to Foley Square in front of the courthouse to press their anti-greed message. It was by far the biggest march yet in New York since the movement began Sept. 17 and was helped by the presence of people representing various labor groups, among them transportation union workers, nurses and teachers.

 

The political issues in the fight against Wall Street By Bill Van Auken 05 Oct 2011 The Occupy Wall Street protest, now in its third week, has struck a powerful chord throughout the US, with similar occupations developing in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities and towns across the country. The demonstrators and their demand for social equality have given expression to the growing hostility of millions towards capitalism, the banks and the corporations, and the burning need for jobs, decent living standards and a guarantee of health care, education and other basic social necessities.

 

‘Occupy Boston’ protesters set up tent city By Kate Randall 05 Oct 2011 “Occupy Boston” protesters have set up a tent city in response to the Wall Street protests in New York. About 200 people have been camping out overnight in Dewey Square, opposite South Station and the Federal Reserve building in Boston’s financial district… “Occupy Boston” reached an agreement with the Conservancy Trust, which owns the private land where the action is taking place, to set up the camp.

 

Occupy Philly Takes a Stand Against “Corporate Greed” –Protesters are critical of politicians in Washington and Harrisburg. 06 Oct 2011 Several hundred people rallied outside PhiladelphiaCity Hall on Thursday as part of an Occupy Philadelphia rally modeled after the ongoing protest on Wall Street in New York. The crowd began gathering on Thursday morning and swelled through the noon hour. The event on DilworthPlaza was a mix of speakers, demonstrators carrying signs, chanting and some musicians. An afternoon march was planned around City Hall, with police on standby to temporarily stop traffic in CenterCity.

 

Occupy Wall Street spreads to Philadelphia, 250 at City Hall06 Oct 2011 Occupy Wall Street-style protesters swarmed PhiladelphiaCity Hall Thursday with messages of anger and hope. An estimated 250 people amassed on the 15th Street side, holding banners, picket signs and props. Teresa Shoatz of West Philadelphia held a poster-board sign saying, “Jail bankers for fraud.”

 

Los Angeles lawmakers cheer on protesters outside City Hall04 Oct 2011 During Tuesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, a speaker stood and told lawmakers they were ignoring an obvious fact: “You are surrounded by tents.” He was referring to the large group of protesters camped a few hundred feet away, on a grassy lawn outside City Hall. The group, which calls itself Occupy L.A., has been there since Saturday in a demonstration against economic policies that benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The speaker, John Walsh, invited the council members to tour the tent city outside. So when the meeting adjourned, several of them did.

 

Nurses to Join March on Wall Street October 5, Demand Wall Street Transaction Tax – an ‘FTT’ 03 Oct 2011 National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association of nurses in the US – with 170,000 members, will be represented at the Wall Street March on October 5 by contingents including from Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Washington, D.C., Illinois and New York. NNU is joining other unions, organizations and community groups in support of Occupy Wall Street. NNU is pressing for a financial transaction tax (FTT) which was in effect in the US from 1914 to 1966.

 

‘Occupy DC’ protesters rally in Freedom Plaza 06 Oct 2011 A couple of hundred social justice protesters launched an “occupation” of Freedom Plaza Thursday, the area’s first major demonstration against rising inequality since the Occupy Wall Street movement began last month in New York and spread around the country. Decrying corporate greed, ineffective political leaders and a rising gap between the haves and the have nots in the United States, protesters unfurled sleeping bags and raised tents in the public plaza in the shadow of the White House, vowing to stay indefinitely — or until their voices are heard.

 

October 6: Occupation of Washington DC begins (october2011.org) 05 Oct 2011 Starting on October 6, 2011, thousands of concerned Americans will assemble in FreedomPlaza, in WashingtonDC to take control of our country and our lives. We will occupy the plaza and hold a People’s Assembly where we come up with just and sustainable solutions to the crises we face and demand that these solutions be presented and that the people’s needs be addressed. [Citizens for Legitimate Government endorses the October 6 events. CLG is building toward Seize DC, spring 2012!]

 

Bank of America website remains down [Anonymous, why not make sure it *stays* down?] –Speculation swirls as angry customers try to withdraw their money 04 Oct 2011 There is a lot of speculation about why Bank of America’s website remains down as outraged customers try to get their money out of the bank following an increase in fees. Adding to the frustration, BofA’s home page has an error message and the online service has been slow since Friday, sending thousands of customers to the web to complain and petition the fees.

 

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CLG Editor-in-Chief: Lori Price. CLG Chair: Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. Copyright © 2011, Citizens for Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.