Things are heating up in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Yesterday two different cities responded in different ways to the protests. New York City, where it all began, and where people have been camping out in a tent city almost a month ago, decided that the right to free speech and the right to assemble would be upheld. Denver, where it began a little over a week ago, decided to close its parks to citizens, forcibly remove both protestors and their possessions, and ignore people camping out for the commercial purpose of buying one of Steve Job’s last sexy phones.

Today has been declared a day of global action, with protests organized world-wide, including right here in Grand Junction.

Locally, the Sentinel issued an editorial which dismissed the protests by saying, “But it’s unfortunate that the Occupy Wall Street movement — and its offspring in places like Denver and Grand Junction — has become a mish-mash of hangers-on, aging revolutionaries, young wannabes, homeless people and publicity seekers.” Local County Commissioner, Janet Rowland, proactively asked if people could be arrested for hanging out at the old county courthouse.

The Constitution of the United States starts with “We the people “not “We the CEOs of global companies.” The U.S. Supreme Court and Mitt Romney got it wrong when they said that corporations are people. They aren’t. They don’t have mothers. They can’t walk into a voting booth. They can’t assemble in a protest. They can’t go to jail. They can’t be cremated and/or buried.

I am one of the 99% of Americans who support this democratic demonstration against the corporate take-over of our government. I don’t fit the definition of protestors printed in the Sentinel. I am a retired banker, with a pension from Wells Fargo Bank. I am involved in several local organizations that are all working to make Grand Junction a better place to live. I am not homeless. In fact, I own homes in two states.  You can decide if I’m an “aging revolutionary” or “publicity seeker” but I plan on being at the Grand Junction protest today. I hope you’ll join me.

Homework:

Protestors in New York Allowes to Stay in Park

ColoradoPols First Hand Report from Candidate About Denver Arrests

Sentinel Editorial

Day of Global Action

Western Colorado Congress

Today is the annual meeting for Western Colorado Congress. There has been a lot of press about the entertainment part of the program: Lee Stetson will be impersonating John Muir in his show Conversations with a Tramp: An Evening with John Muir, which starts at 6:30. Admission is $15, and can be purchased at the door. I’ll be there to sell them to you! The event is being held at the Moss Performing Arts Center at Colorado Mesa University.

Occupy Wall Street

If you live in Grand Junction, you are part of the 99% who have watched your wages stagnate while corporate CEO’s got an increasing piece of the pie. You can show your support for workers in the war for equality and justice by going to 12th and North today for a demonstration of solidarity. On October 15 you can show up at City Hall for another demonstration.

Or you could eat Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. They issued the following statement in support of Occupy Wall Street:

To those who Occupy: We stand with you.
We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity. The issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us. These include:

• The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.
• We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed.
• Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.
• Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.
• Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.

We know the media will either ignore you or frame the issue as to who may be getting pepper sprayed rather than addressing the despair and hardships borne by so many, or accurately conveying what this movement is about. All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes. And we have not even mentioned the environment.

We know that words are relatively easy but we wanted to act quickly to demonstrate our support. As a board and as a company we have actively been involved with these issues for years but your efforts have put them out front in a way we have not been able to do. We have provided support to citizens’ efforts to rein in corporate money in politics, we pay a livable wage to our employees, we directly support family farms and we are working to source fairly traded ingredients for all our products. But we realize that Occupy Wall Street is calling for systemic change. We support this call to action and are honored to join you in this call to take back our nation and democracy.

   — Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors

Homework

John Muir

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Although little has been said about the protests against the madness of Wall Street by major media outlets, or our local news, the protests are growing and business leaders are noticing. Although most cable news yesterday was focused on the passing of Steve Jobs, an American icon, Businessweek finally noticed that the protests are growing.

Protesters have been saying “we are the 99%.” In shining a light on the continued unemployment, lack of jobs for recent college graduates, economic inequality, and excessive salaries of the Wall Street elite, they are representing the reality of 99% of Americans.

Yesterday labor unions joined ranks with the students and unemployed who have been occupying a park near Wall Street for weeks. The New York Times reported, “members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council had a conference call in which they expressed unanimous support for the protest. One A.F.L.-C.I.O. official said leaders had heard from local union members wondering why organized labor was absent.”

Students across the nation also showed their solidarity by walking out of classes at an organized time.

Frequent readers of my blog know that I’ve been saying that we are engaged in class warfare, and that I’ll stand with workers in this war. Obama has been saying that he is a warrior for the middle class. It is about time that labor joined with the students, and that the rest of us 99 percenters stopped carrying water for the richest 1% of our citizens. As I’ve said before, there are a lot more of us—about 98% more.

Homework

Businessweek Notices Protests

Unions Join Protests

My “favorite troll” is back with more conspiracy theory crap. He’s been missing in action for a while, probably because he could post anonymously at the Sentinel’s online edition. But evidently the Sentinel banned anonymous posting, so he had to come back to my stomping grounds. Welcome back, Kevin, but you are still misguided and misinformed.

Just for you, Kevin, here are my responses to your comment and questions:

First CAMELS was created by banking regulators, not legislators, so it is hard to call it government speak. Your response was that of a typical wingnut: If you know nothing about the subject, make fun of it. CAMELS is a tool that allows regulators to measure the safety and soundness of a bank. It is designed to protect YOUR money. Learn about it instead of mocking it.

Kevin’s Question: Can you explain fractional reserve banking used today by all banks and how it works?

Claudette’s Answer: Banks are required to keep a percentage of their depositor’s money in reserve for purposes of liquidity. The amount of money that is kept in reserve is dictated by a formula where the riskier a bank’s portfolio of investments (loans and bonds) is, the higher the reserves. This is designed to keep your money available. Banks should be able to honor their depositors’ demands for their own money as soon as a draft of check is presented. Hence there are reserve requirements, forcing liquidity on the bank.

Without reserves, you might present a check and the bank would tell you to wait for 30 years until the mortgage loan they made with your money is paid back. As a bank depositor you should be glad there are reserve requirements.

Because every depositor does not want all of their money at the same time, there is money above and beyond the reserve requirement deposited in banks. That money is used by banks to invest in AAA-rated investments and/or U.S. Treasuries and/or loans. There is nothing sinister about making loans, which does create “money.” I’m sure you got a loan to buy that SUV you drive around town.

Kevin’s Question: Can you explain FIAT money and what or who backs it since it is no longer backed by gold or silver or anything tangible?

Claudette’s Answer: FIAT money is money that is only backed by the full faith and credit of the government issuing it. (That’s is one of the reasons it was so stupid of the Tea Party to celebrate the downgrading of U.S. debt.) We’ve been using FIAT money since we went off the gold standard, under Richard Nixon (a Republican) in 1971.

If it ain’t broke, why fix it? So long as people are willing to accept dollar bills, checks, and electronic blips to pay for goods and services, who gives a rat’s ass that there isn’t gold or silver sitting in Fort Knox in an amount equal to the money in circulation. Seems counterproductive and more like a Pirate’s treasure to require a government to hoard gold, silver, and jewels.  Get back to me about the problems with FIAT money when you can’t use the cash or credit cards in your wallet to buy something. In the meanwhile I’m going to worry about more pressing issues.

Kevin’s Question: Do you know who is really behind the Federal Reserve Cartel and who actually created it and why?

Claudette’s Answer: Your tinfoil hat is really showing here, Kevin. Federal Reserve Cartel? You’re about to be swallowed by a Ron Paul myth that the Federal Reserve Bank was created and is owned by a bunch of foreign bankers.

Let’s start with who owns the Fed. The Federal Reserve Bank is technically owned by member banks, which are required to buy stock in order to use Fed services. But this stock isn’t like any you’ve ever owned. For starters, you can’t sell it to anyone else. Fed profits, over and above a minimal amount that is paid to member banks, go into the U.S. Treasury. Member banks don’t get to vote on who sits on the Federal Reserve Bank Board of Directors.

The board was set up to be independent of both congressional interference and member bank interference. The Chairman of the Board of the Fed is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by congress. I’ll grant you that member banks have greater access to congress than the average depositor does, but for damn sure, the Fed is controlled Americans who are liked by American politicians, not by foreign bankers. American bankers aren’t all that fond of the regulations imposed on them by the Fed, either—they are designed to protect depositor’s money, not bank profits.

And this brings me back to the Occupy Wall Street protests, which have now expanded into several major money centers, and have attracted youth, the unemployed, the Marines, and organized labor. I think we are beginning to see the protests of the sixties all over again. Only this time they are armed with twitter and facebook. Is this the Wall Street Fall?

Homework:

Everything You've Never Wanted to Know about the Federal Reserve Cartel

Forbes Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

Official Occupy Wall Street Website