The book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It has the following explanation for political apathy:

The old and tired oscillations between “liberals” and “conservatives,” between Democrats and Republicans, remain the basis of mainstream US politics. Pendulum swings work now for Republicans, now for Democrats. What the swings leave unchallenged and unchanged is the class structure of the country – the capitalist arrangements of production that divide people and products into workers versus capitalists and wages versus profits. No significant political force connects this capitalist system of production to social problems. No such force advocates changing the class structure as part of a solution to those problems.

When class structures neither change nor even seem open to change, the endless political oscillations eventually convey their superficiality to the public. Politics then loses all contact with basic questions of choosing among alternative social structures and among alternative goals and strategies for social change. At best, politics interests specific sub-groups only if, when, and so long as some specific issue of immediate personal concern is at stake (abortion, gun control, gay marriage, oil prices, etc.). At worst – and the worst is what we increasingly experience – politics pits irrelevant tweedledums against tweediedees, cynically advertised candidate #1 vs public-relations-driven #2. People then turn away first from political activism, then from participation and information, and finally even from the passivity of mere voting. A mass alienation from politics altogether deepens, immune to the vapid exhortations to civic duty. Politics descends into a special branch of business where politicians make money and advance careers by mutually profitable relations with other businesses. This alienation – and the caricature politics it both reflects and enables – will remain unless and until a class-based politics emerges to contest for power.

In this video, Robert Reich explains how the OWS movement has already succeeded.

The very fact that I am reading Capitalism Hits The Fan and The “S” Word is a direct result of hearing about these things from OWS.

The video below was interesting enough.

I found one comment on the post to be eye-opening about a previously unrecognized by me valuable impact of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

gypski, Wouldn’t you like to know!!!

Well now the academics are coming out with the truth and an honest assessment of what happened. The banks and financial institutions are the cause and should be facing criminal charges. Shake the tree, fruit is bound to fall out.

NJOsprey Collapse

Not as long as Tim Geithner is Treasury Secretary.

Citibank just paid a $280 million fine to the SEC. One junior employee is under further investigation. No executives are under investigation. OWS is having an effect. The comment above was made by Charles Osgood on WCBS, a New York news station.

Slowly, the mainstream media is starting to talk about the Wall Street scandals. Its like the coverage of the Vietnam war; slowly the media was forced to see it for what it was in response to all the demonstrations and calls for withdrawal.

Like the Vietnam “anti-war,” this will take years to correct. Hang in there and we will be able to “hang” the banksters.

The article from Nation Of Change is Leaked Memo: The Corporate Board Rooms Fear the Occupy Movement Occupying Their Board Rooms Targeting Individual Executives.

Corporations fear their lead­ers being held personally accountable for the actions of concentrated corporate interests.  They especially fear their names and addresses being known and their board rooms being invaded by OccupyTheBoardroom.org.

Do you think this is a sign that the Occupy Movement is having an impact? If it doesn’t have a direct impact on some politicians, it may be having a direct impact on the people who supply funds to these politicians. I think they will deliver the message to the politicians they own.

I always felt that the attempts to accuse China of currency manipulation were phoney baloney. Watch the video below to see exactly how phoney it is.

Michael Hudson: Senate proposal based on junk economics and is illegal under international law

Between what Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff in Capitalism Hits the Fan are saying, the days of US dominance are numbered.

I found this video in the article Romney: ‘Don’t Try And Stop The Foreclosure Process’.

If you had any doubts about my title for this post, look at the video

Besides being an a$$hole, he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

For instance, Medicare has a managed care program run by private insurers called Medicare Advantage. I know because I use it. It costs the government 15% more to get the private insurers to do the same job that Medicare does.

As for the trouble in the housing industry, Romney seems to be unaware that a big problem was the liar loans that the largest banks in this country foisted on unsuspecting borrowers. According to William Black, 90% of the lying was done by the mortgage brokers, not the borrowers. One authority calls this a fraudulent conveyance that got the borrower to put a house up for collateral for a loan that was designed to be unsustainable. His solution would be to make the contract null and void and just wipe out the debt owed to the originator of the fraud.

From a bank officer’s point of view, a liar loan had a lot going for it. It had a low, introductory, teaser rate of interest so the buyer could afford a home beyond his or her wildest dreams. The mortgage could then be packaged into a derivative and sold as if the mortgage had been issued at the final rate (which the buyer would never be able to afford). The bank’s officers got wonderful bonuses for making it look like the bank and the investors were making huge profits while the borrower didn’t have to pay much. When the whole thing collapsed, the bank’s officers got to keep the bonuses and the banks, the investors, and the borrowers were left holding the bag.

You may or may not think much of the analysis in the article, Dems In Tug-Of-War Over Occupy Wall Street, however, I believe the following quote explains the necessity of the Occupy Movement.

As time goes on individual Democrats will be the object a tug of war, with the corporate and business wing of the party pulling one arm, and progressives and grassroots activists yanking at the other.

If we don’t tug on our side of the rope, where do you think the Democratic Party will go?

Maybe our government ought not be telling other governments how to deal with their own people. It makes us look rather foolish to say “Do what we say, not what we do.”

Marisa DeFranco and I had a little conversation on the Meet The Democratic U.S. Senate Candidates WBUR web page.  It went something like this:

steve13565 1 week ago

I am a Warren supporter, but sitting in the audience for the debate, I thought that Marisa DeFranco had more good answers to more questions than just about anybody else.

Elizabeth Warren was not that impressive.

For the format of this “debate”, the skill you need is to quickly come up with a short answer to a surprise question that finds the pithiest reflection of your deepest beliefs.

I was having a hard time thinking about how I would answer those questions.  DeFranco’s answers surprised me in a positive way.  She was able to come up with an answer that I would not have thought of, but one that hit the mark almost every time.

——————-

Marisa DeFranco 51 minutes ago
Hello Steve–I just wanted to say that I really appreciate your feedback on my answers at the “debate”.  I like the way you describe the format…that sentence perfectly encapsulates it.  Thank you, Marisa DeFranco

———————————

steve13565 0 minutes ago

Marisa,

I just listened to the sound bite they have for you on this web page.  You say it exactly as I believe it.  Show me you have fighting chance in this campaign and I will switch my allegiance to you.

Here is the sound bite I meant:

You can look at the Marisa DeFranco campaign web site.

Capitalism Hits the Fan Film Screening and Q&A with Professor Richard Wolff | The New School is another version that also screens a shortened version of his movie.

This video shows the 35 minute version of the movie from Wolff’s DVD. The DVD also has a 55 minute version. After the showing of the movie, Wolff talks and talks and talks for another hour or so. Some of it rehashes what was in my other post, but some of it covers new material that is just as shocking as the old material.

If you thought you learned it all from watching the other hour and 45 minutes, well you just have no idea.