PinkTank - Latest Comments

Re: Ten Good Things About a (Not So) Bad Year

jzag — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:47:16 -0000

This list was inspiring and hopeful, thank you!

Re: Ten Good Things About a (Not So) Bad Year

Redwoodhippie — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:42:56 -0000

Thank you Medea for this year end review and thank you for all you do. You are truly one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. peace and hugs and civil liberties for all

Re: OWS Takes a Road Trip for Bradley Manning, Brings Baggage

John Penley — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:04:49 -0000

The Anti-War movement, Code Pink etc etc have been virtually all white for years as anyone who has been to many protests can see and it has been a failure on our part to bridge the divide on these issues. OWS as well has a problem with it but much less so than other groups. Through the OWS movement people of color have come in contact with the national anti-war movement as was evident at the recent rally for Bradley Manning at Ft. Meade. More non white people were at Ft. Meade than any other protest I can remember. We need to work hard to keep this happening. Let's all keep on getting on those buses together !!!

Re: OWS Takes a Road Trip for Bradley Manning, Brings Baggage

NoBigGovDuh — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 08:52:00 -0000

Outside Activists Need To Understand 99% Means 99% And New Methods Need To Be Found So That Everyone Is Included From All Parts Of Society.

Which means we need a way to make these rowdy people understand that their freedom can't be harmful to the freedom of others. They have not processed these ideas before and hopefully they can learn to understand empathy better.

Oh, BTW thanks for all your work on Bradley Manning CodePink!!!

Re: OWS Takes a Road Trip for Bradley Manning, Brings Baggage

Mark Daniel Snyder — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:52:30 -0000

Great article. Keep up your amazing inspiring work. Thank you!

Re: OWS Takes a Road Trip for Bradley Manning, Brings Baggage

LOrion — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:45:11 -0000

I saw this on INDY blog sent to Noah Michelson editor HUFFPO Gay Voices. He wants to post needs photo/blog permissions. Here is email.
noah.michelson@huffingtonpost.com

Re: How Do CODEPINKers Remember the Iraq War?

Linda Elder — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:57:57 -0000

Iraqi civilians are honoured but Iraqi soldiers are not .. why? What message does this send?

Re: Why is CODEPINK part of the Occupy Movement?

pamela bennett — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:08:04 -0000

SUCH an awesome banner can we get more?
I will take it to the Occupies in SF and Oakland

Re: This Week in #Accountability, November 11, 2011

Diane Siriani — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:28:47 -0000

Great Videos!

Re: Are We Bonobos or Chimpanzees? Evolution and Occupy Wall Street

Iam Notaslave — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:02:23 -0000

Cool. If the main issue is food...LET'S PLANT FOOD EVERYWHERE!!! #Permaculture

Re: My Confrontation with Dick Cheney today

dpict — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:03:10 -0000

Brilliant stuff, you spoke for people the world over. He is a scary dude, you kicked his arse with fact, that took ingenuity and balls.

Keep up the good work!

Re: Stormy Nights & the Winds of Change

Nalliah Thayabharan — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:21:02 -0000

Wall Street is a confidence trick, a dazzling edifice built on paper promises, gambling, bets and rampant speculations. Wall Street doesn’t manufacture or produce anything. Wall Street , however attractive it may appear, is built on paper.
Wall Street speculation caused a 70% increase in the price of wheat from June to December 2010 and severed food crisis in more than 35 countries. However, there was no significant change in the global food supply or in food demand. The total value of Wall Street speculative financial derivatives reached more than $600 trillion – about 10 times global GDP. Wall street's speculative derivatives are virtually untaxed and banks often avoid paying tax on profits from selling derivatives. Every consumer is paying more for commodities including food and fuel due to the excessive speculation by Wall Street.
Modern day bank robbers are at Wall Street but they wear grey suits and not masks. Rampant speculators, propagandists and financiers of Wall Street are all given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers and the cumulative effect of the people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the public’s trust in the present US government. There’s no question that Wall Street is rigged against the average consumers and taxpayers. Wall Street has a lot more information. Wall Street jerry-rigged the system so that Wall Street always win. If Wall Street loses trillions, the US Treasury will bail the Wall Street out so it can go back and do it again.
50 trillion dollars in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including 7 trillion dollars in the US stock market, 6 trillion dollars in the US housing market, 8 trillion dollars in the US retirement and household wealth, 2 trillion dollars in the US individual retirement accounts, 2 trillion dollars in the US traditional defined benefit plans and 3 trillion dollars in the US nonpension assets. Greed, arrogance and incompetence created a massive meltdown, cost trillions, and still Wall Street comes out richer and more powerful.
There are trillions dollars of new money taken again from Americans to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out, Wall Street will come back for more until the dollar becomes junk. The value of the US dollar declined very significantly during the last 70 years. The value of the US dollar in 1940 was worth 2,000% more than the value of the US dollar now.
The USA emerged from the World War II as the richest and most industrialized country in the world, with 50% of world’s manufacturing facilities. But today the USA is basically approaching bankruptcy. Many big US manufacturers are outsourcing to Mexico and China to increase their profits, adding more unemployment in the USA. Manufacturing jobs in the USA declined 37% between 1998 and 2010. Since manufacturing industries has declined in the USA, the US competitiveness in the global marketplace has also declined.
Robust financial markets don’t imperil capitalism. In the early 1980′s Wall Street began to escape reasonable important regulations of the marketplace. The US government gradually adopted a “too big to fail” policy for the Wall Street, saving lenders with failing businesses from losses. The demise of Glass Steagall act helped spawn the credit crisis by allowing the Wall Street to create financial instruments that allowed them to escape reasonable limits, including constraints on speculative borrowing and requirements for the disclosure of important facts. The extremely lucrative hedge funds and other risk management derivatives including credit default swaps don't fund or invest in successful growing businesses. The credit default swap market was the single biggest cause of the crash 4 years ago.
Wall Street's suicidal capitalism built on rampant speculation eventually posed an untenable risk to the US economy—a risk that culminated in the trillions of dollars’ worth of the US government bailouts and guarantees that the US government scrambled starting in late 2008. But in 2008 the US government was compelled to replace private risktakers at the Wall Street with government capital so that money and credit flows wouldn’t stop, precipitating a depression. As a result, these Wall Street became impervious to the vital market discipline that the threat of loss provides. Wall Street lenders of the financial markets continue to understand that the US government would protect them in the future if necessary. This implicit guarantee by the US government harms capitalism and economic growth.
The top 6 US banks had assets of less than one fifth of US GDP in 1995. Now they have two third of US GDP. The financial crisis was created by the biggest US banks to consolidate power. The big banks became stronger as a result of the bailout by the US Treasury. The big banks are turning that increased economic clout into more political power. Wall Street has undue influence on the US government policies and this situation reflects a failure of democratic representation for the other 99 percent Americans.
Oligarchy is the political power based on economic power. And it’s the rise of Wall Street in economic terms, that it’d turn into political power.Wall Street will then continue to feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and capture trillions of dollars.
Wall Street only has the lobbyists. Today more than 42,000 Wall Street lobbyists manipulate USA's 537 elected officials with huge campaign contributions that fund candidates who support their agenda. It no longer matters who's the President of USA.
The political and economical leadership of the US has chosed to cartel profits and transformed the US economy to serve the colluding and unlawful oligarchy. The political and economical leadership of the US is bailing out failed paradigms with trillions of dollars while committing social injustice to its people. The political and economical leadership of the US including the US Congress have now become Wall Street's "Trojan Horses". The US banks are borrowing money at near zero interest from the US government, then lending it back to the US government at even mere fractions higher interest than they are paying. The net interest margin made by the US banks by lending the money back to the US federal government in the first 6 months of 2011 is 210 billion dollars.
The organizers and profiteers of war and death - the past four generations of Bush family - Samuel P Bush, Prescott S Bush, George H W Bush and George W Bush along with a group of international investment bankers and corporate executives, have been instrumental in creating and profiting from extremely costly and destructive wars. Four generations of Bush family have reaped tremendous profits from the wars they orchestrated. The war profiteers of Wall Street are pushing the US towards a war with Iran.
Due to the oligarchs’ rapacious looting and their purchase of a politically protected luxurious lifestyle, the people of the US are on the road to permanent serfdom under a police state. Tens of millions in the US live desperate slave like existences and they hold little hope for a better life. The democracy was not given to the people of the US on a platter. It is not theirs for all time, irrespective of their efforts. Either people of the US organize and they find political leadership to take this on or they are going to be in deep trouble.
The failure of governance to address the current critical issues have already produced catastrophic consequences. Now we are experiencing a major global paradigm shift and it is still unfolding. Thirty-two US states including California, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, New Jersey and Michigan are on the brink of insolvency as their tattered and fading economy is now more dire than ever. Inevitably in very near future the US government will order police or military to martial law which may lead to a second American revolution.

“There is no calamity greater than lavish desires, no greater guilt than discontentment and no greater disaster than greed”
- Laozi
"Greedy desire is endless and therefore can never be satisfied"
- Buddha

Re: My Confrontation with Dick Cheney today

Lisa Savage — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:12:17 -0000

I want to hug you also! Thanks for a brilliant action and a great, inspiring report. Rock on Bay area PINKs!!!

Re: My Confrontation with Dick Cheney today

Meditheraces — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:06:16 -0000

Thank you Brave Pink! Too many Criminals in governments.
Listening and watching them is like watching a Fellini movie.

Re: Occupy Oakland – General Strike!

C. Cope — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:54:31 -0000

The rugged, independent frontiersman...

It is as simple as this: Do you live in an area where the OWS is
protesting? Tea Party? Protest du jour? Yes? Good. If you have any
copies of III to Liberty,
when you get off work, or on the weekend, grab a few copies, head on
down to the whatever protest site and hand them out. And don't forget to
hand a few out to the cops. You don't have to do this alone. Call your
buddies. Compel them to go with you. If they won't ... because they have
better things to do ... like drinking beer, watching the booboisie
tube, or just "chillin", then tell them to "Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds them." Maybe take off your sandal and shake the dust off at their doorstep.

It's okay. You can still be bestest of buddies. Just give them the cocked-eye every time you see them.

Of course, you don't have to use copies of III to Liberty. You
can pass out pocket constitutions. Make your own fliers and pass them
out. Engage in peaceful conversations and make your case for liberty.
And again, if you are feeling really spunky, you can do the same with
the cops.

Look, I know we are all rugged, independent frontiersmen. Right? We just
want to be left alone, stake out some ground, build our cabins, tend to
our crops, hunt, and trade. We are not interested in picking others
pockets or breaking others legs for that which does not belong to us.

But that is not the case, is it? Your rugged frontier life has been
encroached upon by people who think you are too rugged. Too independent.
They want you to share your land, your cabin, your crops, your meat,
and your trade. In fact, they want to take that all from you, then loan
it back to you at interest and fill their pockets.

Welcome to the world of serfdom.

So what do you do? Crouch down and lick the hands of your lords? Say,
"Maybe if I just ignore them, they'll all go away?" Maybe they'll all
just implode on themselves? Or maybe you'll just pretend that you can be
that rugged, independent frontiersman within the system?

Still feel rugged? Still feel independent? Still feel like you are
living up to your rugged, independent potential? Still feel like your
own man?

As it stands right now, you are a serf to your lords ... no matter how
much you want to pretend that you are a rugged, independent
frontiersman. If you have to look over your shoulder while doing that
which free men do by natures law... you are not a free man... you are an
outlaw. And outlaws are always on the run. And free men don't run. Free
men have no reason to run. Only serfs run when they have insulted their
lords.

You need to understand something. Free men do not engage their lords
because they are free men. They engage their lords to gain their
liberty and become free men because, as it stands ... they are serfs.

No man gained his freedom by licking his lords hands. And no outlaw won
his freedom by running ... the outlaw is always looking over his
shoulder running from his lord.

Look, redress of grievances never work peacefully. It didn't work in
England, and it didn't work for our Patriot Founders. But... you have a
chance to reason the cause of liberty with others. You have a chance of
bringing people to the light of liberty. Whether it is one, a hundred, a
thousand, or a million ... that is more than we had yesterday.

There were a lot of people sitting on the fence licking the hand of the
King ... until Thomas Paine and others showed up. And it made a big
difference when throwing the yoke of the King off their shoulders.

There is strength in numbers.

Re: Occupy Oakland – General Strike!

Anne G. Woodhead — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:20:10 -0000

Great post with great pics.

Re: Are We Bonobos or Chimpanzees? Evolution and Occupy Wall Street

Bonobo Conservation — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:58:18 -0000

I was very interested in this article and hoped that it would be well researched and informative. However, first line in I was cringing at the page! Bonobos and Chimps are not almost exactly the same type of monkey. In fact that is exactly what they are not. They are APES as are we. Monkeys have tails and separated from the great apes over 15 million years ago in evolutionary history.

Re: LA City Council In Solidarity with OccupyLA and OccupyTogether…

gg54_ — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:52:08 -0000

Yea, L.A.!! At least, they are saying pretty words..publicity is good for all. And they are not quite crackin heads like Oakland. Keep it up. Keep it united.

Re: LA City Council In Solidarity with OccupyLA and OccupyTogether…

David Guidero — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:17:16 -0000

we have been living under a social justice government it was social justice that bailed ou the banks and the auto makers capitalism would have let them fail

Re: Mic Check: There Is No Voting in Consensus

Craig Toennies — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:38:41 -0000

Since I had the unique joy of observing the particular GA in question, I can only say: Hear! Hear!

Thank you for this.

Re: Sunday, Occupying Wall Street.

Kirk the Conservative Jerk — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:19:23 -0000

This movement is OPENLY calling for a revolution, and it's portrayed as a good thing?
When the TEA Party was heavily mobilized in 2009-2010, it was portrayed as a bad thing. Some suggested the TEA Party was "calling for a revolution". We were told this would destroy the fabric of America.

What has changed?

Re: Tax The Rich…But Not For War!

Kirk the Conservative Jerk — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:48:56 -0000

Oh come on!
We have to pay for Obama's wars somehow.

Re: The Ignorance of Imperialism

Wernerlll — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:53:46 -0000

With the vast rare earth minerals discovered in Afghanistan, I doubt that we can afford to leave and lose our second source of critical metals needed for our defense. So we just make it into a colony. After all the sunk costs, we need a return on investments. I for one think this will never end.

Re: Visit to the Office of Congressional Ethics about AIPAC Junkets to Israel

Jessica Clay — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:08:32 -0000

Thank you for doing this! Way to fight the good fight!

Re: Occupy Wall Street Day 5: This is What Democracy Looks Like

Traci Miller — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:38:02 -0000

This is all so wonderful. I love what you and everyone Occupying Wall Street is doing and accomplishing! Keep it up! I wish I could be there with you all. I may not be able to be there with everyone in body, but I'm there with you in spirit. <3!!