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Occupy Wall Street (1 Viewer)

Lobbying firm's memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street

By Jonathan Larsen and Ken Olshansky, MSNBC TV

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.”

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association.

CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.

According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

The memo also suggests that Democratic victories in 2012 should not be the ABA’s biggest concern. “… (T)he bigger concern,” the memo says, “should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies.”

Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly “tight” with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.

Jeff Sigmund, an ABA spokesperson, confirmed that the association got the memo. “Our Government Relations staff did receive the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” he said in a statement to "Up."

CLGC did not return calls seeking comment.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the memo. But he responded to its characterization of Republicans as defenders of Wall Street by saying, “My understanding is that President Obama is the single largest recipient of donations from Wall Street.”

The CLGC memo raises another issue that it says should be of concern to the financial industry -- that OWS might find common cause with the Tea Party. “Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism,” the memo says. “…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

The memo outlines a 60-day plan to conduct surveys and research on OWS and its supporters so that Wall Street companies will be prepared to conduct a media campaign in response to OWS. Wall Street companies “likely will not be the best spokespeople for their own cause,” according to the memo. “A big challenge is to demonstrate that these companies still have political strength and that making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.”

Part of the plan CLGC proposes is to do “statewide surveys in at least eight states that are shaping up to be the most important of the 2012 cycle.”

Specific races listed in the memo are U.S. Senate races in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico and Nevada as well as the gubernatorial race in North Carolina.

The memo indicates that CLGC would research who has contributed financial backing to OWS, noting that, “Media reports have speculated about associations with George Soros and others.”

"It will be vital,” the memo says, “to understand who is funding it and what their backgrounds and motives are. If we can show that they have the same cynical motivation as a political opponent it will undermine their credibility in a profound way.”

 
'pantagrapher said:
Since it's all over the news this morning,

Click to expand...
Since the police officer is almost certainly a unionized 99%er, this incident clearly proves that there's too much wealth and power in the top 1%. :rolleyes: Seriously, if he'd used a machine gun instead it doesn't validate anything that the protesters are allegedly arguing. I really don't understand the "bad thing happen to protester=validates, proves or shows anything" theory. This really just seems like the final stage of this thing--the battle of the ideas failed, so let's just appeal to sympathies. :shrug:

 
'guderian said:
Since it's all over the news this morning,

Click to expand...
I don't think this incident proves anything about #OWS really.I do think it says something about what the authoritarian fringe out there will not tolerate and how disproportionate their response is. And then seeing these protesters suffer makes some people happy. They go straight to the nearest message board and start pounding their chests about it. Likely because they disagree with these people anyway, so the more harshly they're dealt with, the more pleasing it is to them. "Won't listen to a cop? Too bad. Suck on some pepper spray, #####. Hahahahaha!" It's like post-9/11 chickenhawk tough guy syndrome all over again. I haven't been in this thread much lately, but I think this aspect of the protests has been interesting. I'm watching it unfold from the sidelines and it's alternately fascinating and saddening to me.

 
'pantagrapher said:
Whether this is the confrontation they wanted or not, it's still sad to me that a peaceful protest culminates in a violent resolution. Then to see people gleefully cheer it on. It's disappointing.
Click to expand...
Your definition of 'peaceful protest' or 'violent resolution' does not fit most people's definition.
 
'pantagrapher said:
Since it's all over the news this morning,

Click to expand...
Thanks. After reading it, I don't really know how to feel. On one hand, it sounds like the administration believed (whether rightly or wrongly) that there was a threat posed by the people camping out, and they were seemingly breaking the law (per the article). It also sounds like they had ample time to break down the tents...the article mentions (1) a campout ban that went into effect on Thursday night, which the university didn't enforce, (2) a letter from the Chancellor on Friday morning asking them to disperse, and (3) 3 warnings from the police officer before they took action.I don't know the full situation, but it seems like the administration wasn't disallowing the protests altogether, they just didn't want people camping out? In my opinion, that's not an unreasonable request.

Still, though, the scene is ugly. It's hard to watch those people just sitting there getting pepper-sprayed in the face. What's even uglier though, for me, is the massive crowd of bystanders around the police officers with their cameras out, just waiting. I mean, look at this picture - link. Is this the kind of society we live in?

Just an ugly situation all around. I think that's the best word for it. Ugly.

 
Look at this stat

68% of the Sons of the 1% Work at Their Dad's Company

Nepotism and wealth go together according to a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics. The researchers found that 68 percent of the sons of top-percentile income earners have at some point by the time they're age 33 taken a job at a firm their father also worked. That's significantly higher than the 55 percent rate for the sons of the second-highest percentile of earners and the 40 percent average for all income levels. Though the data was limited to Canadian males, the researchers were able to point to several factors that could be at play, some nepotistic and some not. While high earners tend to be self-employed or at least tend to hold sway over hiring decisions at their companies, the pattern could also involve "the formation of values and preferences" -- basically, that fathers tend to raise kids who would fit into their companies well. Whichever hypotheses turn out to be the most important, one of the study's authors, Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa, thinks it proves that something other than meritocracy is at work. He writes on his blog:

If the members of the top 1 percent are there because of connections or political power—rather than by the force of their talent, energy, and motivation—then we should be rightly critical about claims that they merit their fortunes, and question the contribution they make to economic productivity.

Make your own assessment with the chart from the study below, which graphs that father-son "same firm employment" rate for each income percentile.

 
'cr8f said:
Look at this stat

68% of the Sons of the 1% Work at Their Dad's Company

Nepotism and wealth go together according to a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics. The researchers found that 68 percent of the sons of top-percentile income earners have at some point by the time they're age 33 taken a job at a firm their father also worked. That's significantly higher than the 55 percent rate for the sons of the second-highest percentile of earners and the 40 percent average for all income levels. Though the data was limited to Canadian males, the researchers were able to point to several factors that could be at play, some nepotistic and some not. While high earners tend to be self-employed or at least tend to hold sway over hiring decisions at their companies, the pattern could also involve "the formation of values and preferences" -- basically, that fathers tend to raise kids who would fit into their companies well. Whichever hypotheses turn out to be the most important, one of the study's authors, Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa, thinks it proves that something other than meritocracy is at work. He writes on his blog:

If the members of the top 1 percent are there because of connections or political power—rather than by the force of their talent, energy, and motivation—then we should be rightly critical about claims that they merit their fortunes, and question the contribution they make to economic productivity.

Make your own assessment with the chart from the study below, which graphs that father-son "same firm employment" rate for each income percentile.
Click to expand...
OCCUPY YONGE STREET
 
'cr8f said:
Look at this stat

68% of the Sons of the 1% Work at Their Dad's Company

Nepotism and wealth go together according to a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics. The researchers found that 68 percent of the sons of top-percentile income earners have at some point by the time they're age 33 taken a job at a firm their father also worked. That's significantly higher than the 55 percent rate for the sons of the second-highest percentile of earners and the 40 percent average for all income levels. Though the data was limited to Canadian males, the researchers were able to point to several factors that could be at play, some nepotistic and some not. While high earners tend to be self-employed or at least tend to hold sway over hiring decisions at their companies, the pattern could also involve "the formation of values and preferences" -- basically, that fathers tend to raise kids who would fit into their companies well. Whichever hypotheses turn out to be the most important, one of the study's authors, Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa, thinks it proves that something other than meritocracy is at work. He writes on his blog:

If the members of the top 1 percent are there because of connections or political powerrather than by the force of their talent, energy, and motivationthen we should be rightly critical about claims that they merit their fortunes, and question the contribution they make to economic productivity.

Make your own assessment with the chart from the study below, which graphs that father-son "same firm employment" rate for each income percentile.
Click to expand...
I would think the better job your dad has the more likely you are to follow suit. Not as likely if your dad is a bricklayer.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
'cr8f said:
Look at this stat

68% of the Sons of the 1% Work at Their Dad's Company

Nepotism and wealth go together according to a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics. The researchers found that 68 percent of the sons of top-percentile income earners have at some point by the time they're age 33 taken a job at a firm their father also worked. That's significantly higher than the 55 percent rate for the sons of the second-highest percentile of earners and the 40 percent average for all income levels. Though the data was limited to Canadian males, the researchers were able to point to several factors that could be at play, some nepotistic and some not. While high earners tend to be self-employed or at least tend to hold sway over hiring decisions at their companies, the pattern could also involve "the formation of values and preferences" -- basically, that fathers tend to raise kids who would fit into their companies well. Whichever hypotheses turn out to be the most important, one of the study's authors, Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa, thinks it proves that something other than meritocracy is at work. He writes on his blog:

If the members of the top 1 percent are there because of connections or political power—rather than by the force of their talent, energy, and motivation—then we should be rightly critical about claims that they merit their fortunes, and question the contribution they make to economic productivity.

Make your own assessment with the chart from the study below, which graphs that father-son "same firm employment" rate for each income percentile.
Click to expand...
:lmao:
 
'pantagrapher said:
Since it's all over the news this morning,

Click to expand...
I don't see a lot of the "mistreated protester" links posted by the anti-OWS crowd. As in this case, it's almost always done by their supporters. One can only presume they post the links because they think that the mistreatment somehow advances their argument. That forces people to point out that the protesters were warned or that the mistreatment was perpetrated by 99%ers. In this case a campus police officer. Most of the links posted by the anti-OWS crowd is related to violence, destruction, idiocy or hypocrisy.

 
'cr8f said:
Look at this stat

68% of the Sons of the 1% Work at Their Dad's Company

Nepotism and wealth go together according to a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics. The researchers found that 68 percent of the sons of top-percentile income earners have at some point by the time they're age 33 taken a job at a firm their father also worked. That's significantly higher than the 55 percent rate for the sons of the second-highest percentile of earners and the 40 percent average for all income levels. Though the data was limited to Canadian males, the researchers were able to point to several factors that could be at play, some nepotistic and some not. While high earners tend to be self-employed or at least tend to hold sway over hiring decisions at their companies, the pattern could also involve "the formation of values and preferences" -- basically, that fathers tend to raise kids who would fit into their companies well. Whichever hypotheses turn out to be the most important, one of the study's authors, Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa, thinks it proves that something other than meritocracy is at work. He writes on his blog:

If the members of the top 1 percent are there because of connections or political power—rather than by the force of their talent, energy, and motivation—then we should be rightly critical about claims that they merit their fortunes, and question the contribution they make to economic productivity.

Make your own assessment with the chart from the study below, which graphs that father-son "same firm employment" rate for each income percentile.
Click to expand...
Redistribute the babies!!!
 
'cr8f said:
Look at this stat

68% of the Sons of the 1% Work at Their Dad's Company

Nepotism and wealth go together according to a study published in the Journal of Labor Economics. The researchers found that 68 percent of the sons of top-percentile income earners have at some point by the time they're age 33 taken a job at a firm their father also worked. That's significantly higher than the 55 percent rate for the sons of the second-highest percentile of earners and the 40 percent average for all income levels. Though the data was limited to Canadian males, the researchers were able to point to several factors that could be at play, some nepotistic and some not. While high earners tend to be self-employed or at least tend to hold sway over hiring decisions at their companies, the pattern could also involve "the formation of values and preferences" -- basically, that fathers tend to raise kids who would fit into their companies well. Whichever hypotheses turn out to be the most important, one of the study's authors, Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa, thinks it proves that something other than meritocracy is at work. He writes on his blog:

If the members of the top 1 percent are there because of connections or political power—rather than by the force of their talent, energy, and motivation—then we should be rightly critical about claims that they merit their fortunes, and question the contribution they make to economic productivity.

Make your own assessment with the chart from the study below, which graphs that father-son "same firm employment" rate for each income percentile.
Click to expand...
That goes hand-in-hand with the poverty trap. Parents in poverty hand down their poverty to their kids by neglecting them. They aren't active in their kids' lives. They don't closely monitor their progress in school. Don't attend PTA meetings. And they certainly don't help them learn a trade, profession, or help them land a job.Wealthy parents are more likely to guide their children growing up and get them jobs when they are adults.

 
'pantagrapher said:
I don't think this incident proves anything about #OWS really.

I do think it says something about what the authoritarian fringe out there will not tolerate and how disproportionate their response is. And then seeing these protesters suffer makes some people happy. They go straight to the nearest message board and start pounding their chests about it. Likely because they disagree with these people anyway, so the more harshly they're dealt with, the more pleasing it is to them. "Won't listen to a cop? Too bad. Suck on some pepper spray, #####. Hahahahaha!" It's like post-9/11 chickenhawk tough guy syndrome all over again. I haven't been in this thread much lately, but I think this aspect of the protests has been interesting. I'm watching it unfold from the sidelines and it's alternately fascinating and saddening to me.
Click to expand...
Is that like how Michael Moore threatened violence against the rich?"The smart rich know they can only build the gate so high. And, and, sooner or later history proves that people when they've had enough aren’t going to take it anymore. And much better to deal with it nonviolently now, through the political system, than what could possibly happen in the future, which nobody wants to see,"

And how about when democrats wanted to waterboard republicans to prove a point? Since democrats categorized waterboarding as torture, they are wishing violence on republicans saying that.

Yah democrats do PLENTY of wishing of treating those who they disagree with harshly. So get off your high horse and point to your own crowd first before looking across the aisle.

 
'Thunderlips said:
'Soonerman said:
'Thunderlips said:
What can you say....?...Sometimes that tree of liberty needs to be refreshed.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Let's get rid of big government.
Click to expand...
Aside from the poopers and rapers and pee throwers and people of the such....couldn't your sentiment be a facet of what these people are looking for....that big business is too intricately tied into big government?
Click to expand...
Anything and everything, not matter how incoherent or contradictory, could be what some of these people are looking for.
 
'Soonerman said:
'Thunderlips said:
'Soonerman said:
'Thunderlips said:
What can you say....?...Sometimes that tree of liberty needs to be refreshed.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Let's get rid of big government.
Click to expand...
Aside from the poopers and rapers and pee throwers and people of the such....couldn't your sentiment be a facet of what these people are looking for....that big business is too intricately tied into big government?
Click to expand...
Anything and everything, not matter how incoherent or contradictory, could be what some of these people are looking for.
Click to expand...
In other words, this occupation has no purpose. Nobody in here can even articulate it, let alone make much of an attempt.
 
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