The Absurd Times

OCCUPY WALL STREET – JACK LONDON AND THE WORLD V. 1%

Illustration: Keith Tucker has been especially brilliant lately. Visit him, and perhaps advertise, on www.whatnowtoons.com.

Jack Olson, a vet who survived two tours of duty fighting against the a-symmetric bloodthirsty Iraqi citizens, was no match for the Oakland (THE TOWN OF Jack London) Police force who critically wounded him and put him in critical condition. Friends tried to help, but police attacked them with tear gas. He is now recovering at a hospital. Oh yes, it was a part of Occupy Oakland.

Speaking of Jack London, two of his books are especially relevant today for the U.S., and especially for Oakland: The Iron Heel, and Martin Eden. Neither of them is ever likely to be in the school curriculum or even widely read. The Iron Heel talks about government and, although it was discussing Corporate practice at the turn of the Century so bad that even Teddy Roosevelt moved against it (J.P. Morgan, Jay Gould, that crowd), it is descriptive of how our country is moving today. Even the police are becoming a part of it. Martin Eden is autobiographical and sheds insight into the publishing business, even as it operates today. Were he alive today, London would be very supportive of the movement, part of it, and might run from governor, this time.

Anyway, I mentioned recently that we are receiving international support, at least as much as after the twin-towers assault, and the Egyptian woman’s interview is below.

Remember Bra-Burning here? I do. I marched with some of them back then and burned a jock-strap for support. Well, in Yemen, women are burning their veils, in solidarity with others, especially those in Bahrain.

Two more members of the Jan25 movement were at the Occupy Wall Street Movement and, if a transcript of their interview becomes available, we will pass it along.

Gregg Palast is doing a documentary on Wall Street and his interview is below as well.

Michael Moore was scheduled to appear on CNBC at 11 in from of Chase bank, but CNBC was warned against it. Moore said he would be there anyway. Show up if you can.

The people of Iran are marching in support of OWS, even carrying images of the Ayatollahs as a sign of approval.

There is evidence that Gaddafi was starting to build an African bank, one that would save African countries from what had happened in Central and South America and which Chavez handled. The IMF, through which the global corporate forces control developing countries, were frozen out and became independent. Look at Brazil’s status today compared to before Chavez. No way that was going to be allowed in Africa. Especially not with all those black shepherds that supported Gaddafi. BTW: watch out. Saif is still free and seems to want to appear at the World Court. He would have subpoena power and he is very bright and articulate.

You will not get this on corporate media, but it is being covered live-stream here 24/7 (the last I saw was a feed from Frankfurt, Germany that would have made Horkheimer proud. It is being covered by Free Speech Television, Press TV, and RT over the web, you know, beatnick countries that believe in weird things like the First Amendment and “due process”.

We will mention more about it when things develop over the “Trial by Jury” of Wall Street movement develops, but it is still in pre-developmental stages.

It is mentioned that the police, even though they are part of the 99%, are the best recruiters for the Occupy Wall Street Movement. It is much the same with this pack of fools running in the Republican primaries to oppose Obama – they are his best chance for re-election. Nutty Rick Perry has decided not to debate anymore because, somehow, “they never seemed to come out right.”

Anyway, back to the real world:

Here are the interviews:

AMY

GOODMAN: A tweet posted just before we went to air said police in riot gear have surrounded Occupy Oakland protest encampment and begun firing flash grenades and rubber bullets into the camp. We’re trying to reach someone for further updates.

Meanwhile, here in New York, Occupy Wall Street’s Liberty Plaza received a surprise visit from several leading Egyptian activists, including 26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz. She is one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, which is the group credited with organizing the January 25th protests that eventually toppled President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Democracy Now! went down to Occupy Wall Street yesterday and spoke to Asmaa Mahfouz. I want, though, to return first to a video we played in January. It was a recording made by Asmaa Mahfouz, which was posted to Facebook on January 18th, before the Egyptian uprising, that then went viral across Egypt and the world. In her video postings, Asmaa’s head is covered. She speaks directly to the camera, and she identifies herself. Again, this is when Mubarak is in power. The boldness of this act, speaking out so forcefully as a woman, inspired many others to start posting their images online, as well. Let’s go to that videotape. This is Asmaa Mahfouz.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: [translated] Four Egyptians have set themselves on fire to protest humiliation and hunger and poverty and degradation they had to live with for 30 years. Four Egyptians have set themselves on fire thinking maybe we can have a revolution like Tunisia, maybe we can have freedom, justice, honor and human dignity. Today, one of these four has died, and I saw people commenting and saying, "May God forgive him. He committed a sin and killed himself for nothing."

People, have some shame.I posted that I, a girl, am going down to Tahrir Square, and I will stand alone. And I’ll hold up a banner. Perhaps people will show some honor. I even wrote my number so maybe people will come down with me. No one came except three guys—three guys and three armored cars of riot police. And tens of hired thugs and officers came to terrorize us. They shoved us roughly away from the people. But as soon as we were alone with them, they started to talk to us. They said, "Enough! These guys who burned themselves were psychopaths." Of course, on all national media, whoever dies in protest is a psychopath. If they were psychopaths, why did they burn themselves at the parliament building?I’m making this video to give you one simple message: we want to go down to Tahrir Square on January 25th. If we still have honor and want to live in dignity on this land, we have to go down on January 25th. We’ll go down and demand our rights, our fundamental human rights.I won’t even talk about any political rights. We just want our human rights and nothing else. This entire government is corrupt—a corrupt president and a corrupt security force. These self-immolaters were not afraid of death but were afraid of security forces. Can you imagine that? Are you going to kill yourselves, too, or are you completely clueless? I’m going down on January 25th, and from now 'til then I'm going to distribute fliers in the streets. I will not set myself on fire. If the security forces want to set me on fire, let them come and do it.If you think yourself a man, come with me on January 25th. Whoever says women shouldn’t go to protests because they will get beaten, let him have some honor and manhood and come with me on January 25th. Whoever says it is not worth it because there will only be a handful of people, I want to tell him, "You are the reason behind this, and you are a traitor, just like the president or any security cop who beats us in the streets." Your presence with us will make a difference, a big difference. Talk to your neighbors, your colleagues, friends and family, and tell them to come. They don’t have to come to Tahrir Square. Just go down anywhere and say it, that we are free human beings. Sitting at home and just following us on news or Facebook leads to our humiliation, leads to my own humiliation. If you have honor and dignity as a man, come. Come and protect me and other girls in the protest. If you stay at home, then you deserve all that is being done, and you will be guilty before your nation and your people. And you’ll be responsible for what happens to us on the streets while you sit at home.Go down to the street. Send SMSes. Post it on the net. Make people aware. You know your own social circle, your building, your family, your friends. Tell them to come with us. Bring five people or 10 people. If each one of us manages to bring five or 10 to Tahrir Square and talk to people and tell them, "This is enough. Instead of setting ourselves on fire, let us do something positive," it will make a difference, a big difference.Never say there’s no hope. Hope disappears only when you say there’s none. So long as you come down with us, there will be hope. Don’t be afraid of the government. Fear none but God. God says He will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. Don’t think you can be safe anymore. None of us are. Come down with us and demand your rights, my rights, your family’s rights. I am going down on January 25th, and I will say no to corruption, no to this regime.AMY

GOODMAN: Again, that video posting by the Egyptian activist Asmaa Mahfouz. She’s 26 years old. She did it on January 18th, one week before the start of the Egyptian uprising. On the eve of the protest, Asmaa posted a follow-up video outlining some of her expectations. The next day after that recording, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Liberation Square, to call for the ouster of President Mubarak, an end to the regime. The turnout was unprecedented, even among the organizers, including the April 6 Youth Movement. Asmaa Mahfouz kept posting YouTube videos, calling for people to protest January 25th in Tahrir. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ultimately resigned February 11th.

Well, Asmaa Mahfouz flew into the United States and visited Occupy Wall Street’s Liberty Plaza yesterday, where she and other Egyptian activists held a teach-in regarding the Egyptian revolution and the similarities to the Occupy movement and the current steps forward. We spoke with Asmaa Mahfouz just after she stepped down from the teach-in. I began by asking her why she flew all the way from Cairo, Egypt, to attend Occupy Wall Street.ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Many of U.S. residents was in solidarity with us. So, we have to keep going all over the world, because another world is possible for all of us.

AMY

GOODMAN: January 25th—you were sending videos before January 25th to say, "Join me, alone, in Tahrir." What gave you that strength?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Because I saw many people died because there were demanding their rights, and actually all of our rights, but they’re dead. So I decided to go to the street and demand all of our rights and our freedom, even if I being alone, and just make a video and said to all the men in our country, "If you are a real man, you have to come with me to protect me and protect our country." And I can’t believe it when I saw million of people go and join in the Tahrir Square. And now I believe that I’m not be afraid—I’m not a more brave, because I saw my colleagues, Egyptian, were going towards the policemen, when they just pushing us, and they died for all of us. So they are the one who are really brave and really strong.

AMY

GOODMAN: Where did you grow up? And what is the April 6 Movement?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: From 2008, and 6 April Movement were established by 6 of April. Six of April was the first general strike in Egypt, and it was in solidarity with the co-workers of Mahalla. They were just demanding one thing: to raise our salaries to get our food. And then we were generalized, our—this strike, all over the country. And we succeeded. So, we are trying more and more. And every day—or every month, we have been creating and organizing events to make the resistance.

AMY

GOODMAN: Mubarak was fully in power when you put up these videos calling for people to protest his power. You risked your life. Also, you’re a woman in a male-dominated society. What gave you the strength to do that? You faced great danger.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Yeah, the freedom is very expensive. So, you have—

UNIDENTIFIED

: The freedom is very costly.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Yeah, you have to sacrifice something. And then, when I make this video, all of—everybody in Egypt come, solidarity, and protected me. I saw people, really, died in front of me, because they were protecting me and protecting others. So, they were the most brave, bravest men.

AMY

GOODMAN: Did you have any thought that what happened in Tahrir would happen?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: I was believe that change is coming. I was really believing this. And we were calling. But I don’t believe that it will come very fast. I couldn’t realize when I saw on 25th, on 2:00 p.m., million of people just raise up the Egyptian flag and just say one chant. It’s "food, dignity, humanity, equality."

AMY

GOODMAN: What do you say to the U.S. government today, to President Obama, who spoke in Cairo?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: You promised the people that you are the change and "yes, we can." So we are here from the Wall Street Occupy, and we are saying the same word: "yes, we can." We can make the freedom, and we can get our freedom, even it’s from you.

AMY

GOODMAN: What about the U.S.’s support for the Mubarak regime, the money that was sent, the weapons that were sent?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: The U.S. were sending every day for Mubarak regime, and now the SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces]. While they giving money and power and support to Mubarak regime, our people, Egyptian people, can success against all of this, against the U.S. power. So, the power to the people, not for the U.S. bullets or bombs or money or anything. The power to the people. So that I am here to be in solidarity and support the Wall Street Occupy protesters, to say them, "the power to the people," and to keep it on and on, and they will success in the end.

AMY

GOODMAN: How old are you?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Twenty-six.

AMY

GOODMAN: Are you a university student?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: No, I graduated, business administration.

AMY

GOODMAN: And what do you do now?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: I just left my job to come on to the revolution and to continue.

AMY

GOODMAN: And what do you think needs to happen in Egypt right now?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: To get off the SCAF away, and to get very democratic elections, and to build a strong organization to build our new country.

AMY

GOODMAN: Do you think you might run for president, now or someday?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: I’m now—I’m running for parliament elections. Maybe someday I can run for the presidency.

AMY

GOODMAN: And what platform are you running on? What are you promising?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: My policy is called Egyptian Stream. Its ideology for the Egyptian Stream is very neutral.

AMY

GOODMAN: Egyptians...?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Stream. Yeah, and we believe that we can make any change, [if] the people is coming with us, and to become one hand to build our new Egypt.

AMY

GOODMAN: What do you think of Occupy Wall Street? You’re looking at it right now. You just addressed it.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: It’s a small—

UNIDENTIFIED

: Tahrir Square.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Yeah, it’s a small Tahrir Square, really.

UNIDENTIFIED

: As soon as she came—I was talking to her—she was like, "Oh, no, let me go. Let me go around. Let me go and feel it."

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Yeah, I would like to go to—under any tent here, to join, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED

: She wants to go, like, in any tent, so she can get her memories back.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Yeah, it’s great. Really, it’s great. And all the people here is great and very brave and strong.

AMY

GOODMAN: And what message do you have for young women today?

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: You are very strong. Women are stronger than men, really. This is not just words. But the reality is the women have many things can do, in life and for change and for freedom. So don’t—you have to believe in your own power. If you don’t believe in your own power, you couldn’t change anything. So you have to believe in yourself, because you are very, very strong.

AMY

GOODMAN: Thank you very much.

ASMAA

MAHFOUZ: Thank you.

AMY

GOODMAN: That was Asmaa Mahfouz, 26 years old, now at Liberty Plaza, speaking last night shortly after holding a teach-in on the similarities between the Egyptian revolution and the Occupy movement. She is flying back to Egypt today.

In an update on the developments at Occupy Oakland, the

Mercury News is reporting, at 5:00 a.m., Oakland police moved in. Police donned gas masks. Some kind of smoke has been released. Ring of police around the plaza, police blocking off the intersection of 14th and Broadway, police dismantling the barricades, throwing them into the streets, also tearing down signs, ripping them up. Protesters are sitting down. Police are now leading them away handcuffed. Police in masks are moving in on the camps. Again, that from the Mercury News. The Chronicle also reporting, the San Francisco Chronicle, that flashbang grenades were used. We’ll have an update later in the broadcast. This is Democracy Now! Back in a minute.

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AMY

GOODMAN: We turn now to a controversy in the banking community around the Occupy Wall Street movement. Recently, the financial giant Goldman Sachs pulled out of a fundraiser for a small Lower East Side bank that caters to poor people after it learned the event was honoring the protesters at Occupy Wall Street. The investment bank withdrew its name from the fundraiser and also canceled a $5,000 pledge.

But did Goldman Sachs actually use U.S. taxpayer bailout money to attack Occupy Wall Street’s not-for-profit community bank? Investigative reporter Greg Palast filed this report from Wall Street.GREG

PALAST: Downtown New York, near Wall Street, these are the towers of Goldman Sachs, the mega-bank. With over $933 billion in assets, nearly a trillion dollars, Goldman has declared war on one of the smallest banks in New York City.

The story begins here at Occupy Wall Street. It all started here, with these buckets. Unexpectedly, the donation buckets were filling up with thousands of dollars in cash, and the anti-bank protesters suddenly needed a bank.BOBBY

"BAILOUT": We basically started out here just thinking we were going to a protest, and maybe some people would come out. Then, very soon, we were collecting large amounts of donations, and we were in way over our head.

GREG

PALAST: Occupy Wall Street chose to bring their bucket of bills to the nearby Latino neighborhood. This is New York’s Lower East Side, and this is the not-for-profit community bank, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union.

Inside, the bank was serving lines of residents from housing projects, bodega owners, other locals, most of whom had been refused service by the big commercial banks. In their cramped back office, the only space to speak with the bank’s leader was inside their vault.DEYANIRA

DEL RIO: So this is our old-fashioned safety deposit boxes that many of our members still use.

GREG

PALAST: People’s Credit Union chairwoman, Deyanira Del Rio.

DEYANIRA

DEL RIO: So, our membership is 80 percent low income, approximately, and we also have about, I would say, 65 percent or so of our members are Latino.

GREG

PALAST: What makes you different—

DEYANIRA

DEL RIO: Right.

GREG

PALAST: —from Capital One or Goldman Sachs—

DEYANIRA

DEL RIO: Yeah.

GREG

PALAST: —or any of the other big, giant banks?

DEYANIRA

DEL RIO: We started off when the last bank branch in a hundred-block radius of the neighborhood was closing its doors. And community residents came together to initially protest the closure of that bank, and ultimately did something very different, which was start their own institution, an alternative to the mainstream bank.

GREG

PALAST: They’re holding a dinner next week, and they’ve announced they’re honoring their new big member owner, Occupy Wall Street, to celebrate Occupy’s call for its supporters to move their money out of big banks to people’s and other community banks.

UNDERCOVER

POLICE OFFICER: You were inside with everybody else.

CUSTOMER

: I’m a customer. I’m a customer.

WITNESS

1: She is a customer.

CUSTOMER

: I’m a customer.

UNDERCOVER

POLICE OFFICER: You were inside. Yes, but you were inside with the whole—no, no, no.

WITNESS

2: What are you doing?

WITNESS

1: Hey, what the—hey!

WITNESS

3: What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?

GREG

PALAST: Twenty-three protesters protesters were arrested at a branch of Citibank following the call to move their money.

WITNESS

3: Oh, my god! This is wrong! This is wrong! This is wrong! What you’re doing is wrong! This is wrong!

GREG

PALAST: And Goldman Sachs, which had donated $5,000 to the credit union, threatened legal action over the little bank’s honoring Occupy Wall Street. When the credit union refused to back down, Goldman took back its $5,000. The credit union members we spoke with backed their little bank.

LYLE

WALFORD: I mean, it was a courageous thing to do. It’s their saying, that "We have members who are part of us. We are part of the community. We are people-oriented. We are the people’s institution, not the money’s institution." So, yes, I think it was a great thing for them to do.

GREG

PALAST: We waited all day and night for an answer to our calls to Goldman.

Were you trying to threaten the credit union for its support for Occupy Wall Street? We’re waiting outside your building.Back at the Wall Street occupation, a street performer showed Goldman’s system of the old give-and-grab-back.STREET

PERFORMER: There you go, buddy!

GREG

PALAST: Thank you.

STREET

PERFORMER: For your boys. All right, all right, take care. Make sure you spend it the right way. Adios. Excuse me, I want my money back, please. Give me back my money!

GREG

PALAST: Oh, no!

STREET

PERFORMER: Give me back my money!

GREG

PALAST: From the Occupied territory, Wall Street, New York, this is Greg Palast for

Democracy Now!, news for the 99 percent.

AMY GOODMAN: Greg Palast, investigative reporter with the BBC, author a number of books, including

Armed Madhouse, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. His new book, out in November, is called Vultures’ Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores. We are joined by Greg Palast right now.

Continue to explain what exactly happened.

GREG

PALAST: It’s not about $5,000 donation. First of all, it’s not a donation. The issue is about a multi-billion-dollar battle over TARP money and the finance community. Back in 2008, Goldman Sachs, which is an investment bank—that meant that all their losses were there—was turned into a commercial bank, within 24 hours, so they could qualify for $10 billion in bailout funds. But as part of the deal—as part of the deal, Amy—

AMY

GOODMAN: And explain commercial bank.

GREG

PALAST: OK, commercial bank is the types where you put in your savings, and we, the taxpayers, and the government guarantees the profits, or guarantees the solvency of that bank. So, for Goldman to get into the $10 billion—to get their $10 billion check for bailout, they had to become—go from a gambling house, an investment bank, into a nice commercial bank. But they had to agree that they would then be subject to what’s called the Community Reinvestment Act and return some of that money, a chunk of it—most banks put in a billion dollars—return a chunk of it back into low-income communities. Well, Goldman doesn’t have any branches, so they gave money to the designated low-income bank of New York, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union, and—but they’ve been giving out the money in eyedroppers, like this $5,000. Now remember, it’s not a donation. It’s a required payment under the law that they got in return for our $10 billion, OK? So it’s not a donation. This is mischaracterized. It’s a payment required by law, with an eyedropper.

But what they are doing is starting off something very dangerous and new, which is to say—there are literally tens of billions of dollars in these funds for community reinvestment, boosted by the bailout funds. They see this as a political weapon, as a hammer to control the political discussion. These community development credit unions have been joining the Occupy Wall Street movement nationwide. It’s about moving your money from the big banks to the small banks. And they’re not worried about losing little deposits. What they are worried about is losing political control of the discussion. Right now, people like Paul Volcker are calling for removing the rights of banks like Goldman, now a commercial bank, to stay in the gambling trading business. Well, Goldman is very much afraid of that. So the Occupy Wall Street movement has put back on the table these issues of bank deregulation, these issues of community reinvestment.And Goldman, I think they’re actually quite smart. They figured out, "Well, we’ve got—there’s like a hundred billion dollars on the table here. Why don’t we start saying, ’You’re not going to get any of it unless you dance to our tune?’" And I have to tell you, from inside, it wasn’t minor. It wasn’t just, "Oh, take—give us back our donation money." It was legal threats saying, if you—you cannot—if you’re going to get our money, you may not back Occupy Wall Street and the "move your money" movement, without getting approval from us at Goldman Sachs. That’s a whole new business. So, it’s very dangerous, because it involves billions of dollars in public money. It’s not Goldman’s money. It’s our money. And that’s what they’re doing with it.AMY

GOODMAN: And explain the significance of this credit union.

GREG

PALAST: Well, the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union, and I—listen, my ex is the CEO, and so I hope she’s not mad at me doing this report. But I’ve got to tell you, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union has been designated by federal charter to be the bank for all New Yorkers of low income, if you own—if you earn less than $38,000 or work or live on the Lower East Side. What’s happened is, is that the big banks give Lower East Side a few dollars and then send all the poor people to that bank. You walk in poor, you say, "I’m in a housing project and on public assistance," "Oh, go down to Lower East Side." So they dump the poor there. They can’t even open bank accounts, let alone get loans at these big banks. So it’s a dumping ground so that the—it’s a brilliant bank. It does very well, and it serves all the entire poor community of New York. It’s got branches in Harlem.

But what the banks now want to do is say, as this bank is growing not only as an economic force, but a political force, in the low-income communities in New York, and they are being used as the model nationwide, they are taking a political stance, saying, "We honor Occupy Wall Street, because we are against people putting their money in these commercial banks. It’s time that banking become for the people, not for the money." And that message is a no-go with the banking community.So it’s not, by the way, just Goldman Sachs. Capital One said, "Take our name off." You’ve had basically Goldman has started a kind of run on low-income banks that will associate with Occupy Wall Street. This is a dangerous use of public money. I’ve got to emphasize this: it’s TARP money, that is bailout money that we gave these banks in 2008. They were required, as part of the deal—in Goldman Sachs’ case, explicit—that they give back some of the money to low-income communities and reinvest there. It’s our money. It’s not a donation. And this is just little bits. And they’re withholding these payments. I haven’t seen Goldman put out—they’ve put out less than half a cent on the dollar we gave them, the lowest of any bank. But they are setting a—they’re basically setting a course that all of the other banks are now following, saying, "Hey, you want our money? You have to clear your political positions with us at the big banks." This is a very dangerous new business. And I hope that with this report here on

Democracy Now!, that the regulators are going to step in and say, "No, no. This is not your money. This is our money. This is not a political weapon." It’s a very dangerous new thing that the banks are doing.

AMY

GOODMAN: You tried to speak to Goldman Sachs.

GREG

PALAST: Boy, we tried to speak to Goldman. We actually staked them out, if you saw me at night in front of their big office buildings just outside Wall Street on the West Side Highway. So we’ve tried. They won’t speak to us, at all. They certainly won’t speak to

Democracy Now! They gave a good spin of a little story that went on the front page of the Wall Street Journal about, "Oh, this little credit union, they were slapping us around by taking our money and then backing Occupy Wall Street." It’s not about that. It’s about the billions of dollars at stake with community reinvestment funds, out of the bailout money, and who has political control.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re not just a journalist, Greg. You started off in finance. You got your degree in finance.

GREG

PALAST: Yeah, believe it or not. I was a protégé of a little guy named Milton Friedman. Pretty strange stuff. Yeah, and I was—

AMY

GOODMAN: University of Chicago.

GREG

PALAST: And before I was a journalist, as an investigative journalist, I was actually an investigator. And then I said, no one is putting out the news of the real stories, so maybe I’ll do something for U.S. news, and ended up having to leave the country, work for BBC.

AMY

GOODMAN: So, what do you think has to happen right now?

GREG

PALAST: What has to happen right now is that the regulators in the Obama administration, the Federal Reserve Board, has to step in and tell Goldman, "No, it’s not your money. You may not use the community reinvestment funds as a political hammer to beat up the small community groups, credit unions, community banks, to which you’re giving this money." It’s a very dangerous thing to be saying, "We’re going to be giving out money based on your political positions and based on whether you are telling people that the banking system has to change," because community banks like Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union are taking the position that the commercial banking system is rotten and should be replaced by a people’s banking system. So it’s not just—they don’t want to be the little safety valve, "Just send us your poor people." They want to replace the banking system. And believe me, Goldman, and the other banks following them, don’t want to hear that message.

AMY

GOODMAN: Greg Palast, I want to thank you for being with us. We will continue to talk to you. His new book coming out just in a few weeks is called

Vultures’ Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores. Thank you very much.

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

OCCUPY WALL STREET – JACK LONDON AND THE WORLD V. 1%

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