We Support the Wall Street Protests

The TSAP fully supports the Occupy Wall Street Protests.  The richest 1% of the population, who owns 42% of the nation's wealth, has for decades benefited tremendously at the expense of the other 99%.  This is especially true for the top 0.1% and applies a fortiori to the top 0.01%, many of whose bankers, stockbrokers, hedge fund managers, and corporate tycoons and CEOs are guilty of the following:

• Recklessly causing the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the resulting economic depression (yes, it's a depression, not a recession) that we are still stuck in.
• Ruthlessly foreclosing homeowners whose mortgages are underwater.
• Ruthlessly laying off employees they feel are redundant, while outsourcing jobs overseas.
• Demanding huge tax cuts and huge tax loopholes for themselves, promising to create jobs, then pocketing the savings in the form of 7 or 8-figure salaries and bonuses instead.
• Trashing the environment, and only cleaning it up later when it is a tax write-off.
• Allowing their own wealth and income to greatly outpace inflation, while leaving the majority of Americans behind, and having the audacity to call it "economic growth".

So of course the protesters have a right to be out in the street demanding our country back from the greedy.  However, there are some caveats we need to be aware of.  Some idiots out there have decided to resort to violence, which we do NOT support, and that has much potential to ruin the movement.  In fact we would not be surprised one bit if the violence (and threats of violence) was a false-flag operation by the authorities and lapdogs of the ultra-rich in an attempt to discredit the movement.  Also, some idiots and conspiracy nuts have been recorded making anti-Semitic remarks, which we also unequivocally condemn.  This protest really has nothing to do with any particular ethnic or religious group; it is fundamentally a socioeconomic class issue, and framing it as something that it is not can only hurt the movement.  But again, we would not be surprised if that was false-flag as well. 

Finally, we must note that there are several decent people and even philanthropists in the top 1% and even the top 0.01%, Warren Buffett being a notable example.  But there are enough parasites at the top for the current situation to be a problem for most of America, and for the sake of virtually everyone we absolutely MUST raise taxes on the top 1%--and dramatically so for the top 0.1%.  Taxes are the price we pay for civilization, and anything less would be uncivilized.