{"id":57143,"date":"2012-05-19T03:32:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T07:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=57143"},"modified":"2012-05-19T22:01:10","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T02:01:10","slug":"wall-street-main-street-your-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/wall-street-main-street-your-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street, Main Street: Your Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a week when the difference between reality and the distorted worldview of various political camps has created a murky potion of chaos and confusion. It brings to mind Macbeth’s witches, chanting over their dark recipe while incanting, “Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble.” <\/p>\n

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Yes, there’s burning and bubbling in the Empire, and a nasty little brew of circumstance to offer up to the gods as we anticipate a mutable Solar eclipse at zero degrees Gemini this Sunday. What’s that cooking in the pot, you wonder? Old fears, dashed hopes, a handful of determination, a pinch of defiance. I suspect there’s some eye of newt in there as well, and other things that have gone missing, like honest debate, journalistic ethics and perhaps even the 4+ billion bucks J.P. Morgan Chase’s Jaime Dimon lost in another fit of hubristic Wall Street dice throwing.<\/p>\n

Either those who most egregiously push the envelop have shown their hand in the last few weeks, or we’re getting better at noticing; perhaps both. Who can argue that, as consumer advocate and senatorial hopeful Elizabeth Warren quickly pointed out, this Morgan-Chase incident proves why banks can no longer be trusted to police themselves? In a hastily convened board of directors meeting, 60% of J.P. MC gave Dimon a vote of continued confidence, something the shareholders later rejected but to no avail. Tim Geithner, representing the government, used financial-speak to send a clear message to Dimon that he should step down from the Board of the New York Fed, a declaration considered by economists to be a direct strike at Wall Street.<\/p>\n

This appears to be a warning shot across Wall Street’s bow from the Obama administration. The winner of such a struggle, representing the Wall Street vs. Main Street dialogues and illustrative of what the president calls “a clear choice” in governance, is anybody’s guess. The banksters still live, breath and behave as if nothing went wrong in the first place. This is essentially the philosophical smack down between commonwealth and corporate power, starkly outlined between Obama’s followers and Romney’s, although the particulars are more nuanced. The Pubs don’t have to pick a side — they ARE the corporate party — but the Dems must once again pit their better instincts to serve the public interest against the ever-present cronyism that offers them lobbying money to fund a vicious re-election cycle.<\/p>\n

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This has been the liberal Achilles heel for generations and another reminder why the Supreme Court attacks against the McCain-Feingold (campaign financing) Act, prohibiting the use of “soft” money and advocacy ads, was prelude to weakened protections against buying influence with Citizens United<\/em>. The big money has traditionally rested in conservative hands, now gone radical, which is no doubt why the American brand of Christianity has been hijacked by “prosperity” pastors and avaricious wealth judged as a sure sign of Almighty Gawd’s approval. In truth, that’s a kind of New Testament blasphemy, reminding us old-timers of bling-sporting, Caddy-driving Reverend Ike, the first of the prosperity hacks, who should have served as warning, but didn’t. The politicos are laughing all the way to the bank, the prosperity folks are wildly trying to tithe their way to that winning Lotto ticket, while the rest of us are forced to lick our financial wounds while pondering the gospel of Billie Holiday: them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose and God bless the child that’s got their own.<\/p>\n

In a world gone topsy-turvy, Jamie Dimon has been crowned the “gold standard” in CEOs, who aggressively went after proposed regulations in the Dodd-Frank legislation, which was an anemic replacement for the tough and largely successful banking regulations of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, repealed under the Clinton administration. For those with big money (and those who want it,) Dimon is king of the hill and seems unshakeable, even in the light of this new scandal. He is now set to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on this loss — an echo of previous reckless behavior that required bail-out — the total cost of which remains in flux. The SEC is scrutinizing J.P. Morgan-Chase to see if securities laws were violated, and the FBI is investigating. Still, at this writing, Dimon seems less than willing to give up any power at all. He’s already apologized for his epic fail, confessing to overreach, while arrogantly indicating that the multi-billion dollar loss was just a pittance in the big world of financial speculation that he enjoys. And although he’s behaving as if he’s Teflon-coated, Dimon is quickly becoming the poster boy for a return to the “Too Big To Fail” dialogues.<\/p>\n

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders<\/a> — who refers to himself as a Democratic Socialist — wants to put an end to big money houses and CEOs with Midas-aspirations. He’s been a dynamo lately, proposing populist reforms and going after the “foxes guarding the hen house.” According to Bernie, ” … at a time when the six largest financial institutions have assets worth $9 trillion, which is the equivalent of two-thirds of the GDP of the United States, and when the top six banks provide half of the mortgages in America and over two-thirds of the credit cards, it is clearly time to break them up.” The ghost of FDR would agree, and, I suspect, so would you. That these big institutions have been allowed to grow to unrealistic proportions, entangled in a maze of irregular and confusing practices that seemingly solidify their need to exist, is no excuse to sustain them if they continue to hold the economy hostage and victimize the population.<\/p>\n

Last week, we looked at the Hole in the Sidewalk hypothesis; you can review it here, mid-page<\/a>. Essentially, our undiscovered patterns keep leading us back to the same set of challenges and dark circumstances until we become aware that this represents our life-choice, rather than some random victimizing event. It takes time to notice patterns and learn how to avoid them, and it takes a bit of spiritual maturity to suspend judgment in order to take a thorough internal inventory. The last decade has led many of us to do just that, allowed us to examine our relationships in light of subconscious programming, and given us practice in freeing repressed emotions and making better choices.<\/p>\n

As always, understanding that the personal is political, and vice versa, remains critical to our growth as a species as well as our personal experience. When we are preoccupied with personal angst and relationship quandaries, we divert ourselves from the systemic issues that influence our life experience for good or ill: concerns like worker and civil rights, salaries and safety issues. We feel more empowered to deal with what is personal than what is political, even though both are tempered by social conditions that we may or may not have approved. What political holes have we dropped into, unaware? Having climbed out of some, are we in danger of falling back in? What dark wells of victimization have we accepted as simply part of life, as unworkable circumstances that we are powerless to effect? What situation do we still use as an excuse to wallow in our limitations?<\/p>\n

You and I have awakened in the last years to discover a deep hole in the sidewalk of our national lives. Think of it as the 7 percent hole, with no easy way out. According to a 2010 study — the most recent — 93 percent of all new income created in 2009 went to the top one percent, while the bottom 99 percent got the leftovers. You and I, everyone we know and almost everyone we’ve ever heard of are sharing that meager portion of the national good. That’s a hell of a hole, friends. It’s going to take a real understanding of what #occupy is all about, a sincere look at what the future will hold for ourselves and the generations ahead under this kind of economic bullwhip, if we are to usher in a new era of peace and security. If the “love of money” is the root of all evil, we can only balance the inappropriate adoration of money if we are able to democratize its distribution. We can only succeed in consciousness-changing if we come together in awareness of this problem, if we care about our neighbor as our self, if we climb out of this hole on each other’s shoulders.<\/p>\n

I went slogan hunting recently and found this quote: they only call it class war when we fight back. Those without money are pitted against dire problems of survival; those with money are not obsessed with class war in this society because they seldom feel its ramifications. We need them to feel it. If the Pubs continue to insist on austerity, there will be an enormous backlash that will shake the foundations of this county. You can’t cancel health care and food stamps and put people out on the streets without expecting chaos. I don’t think that’s a street we want to walk down, but it would certainly wake up what’s left of the sleepers.<\/p>\n

I want to segue a moment and make some personal comment on the eclipse in Gemini. I am very early Sagittarius, so this eclipse opposes my Sun, and this business of opposites has been a lifelong theme for me. I have had three major relationships in my life, all Geminis. It got to the point where I literally ran when introduced to a Gem. For a long time I thought of the sign of the Twins as inhabiting the holes in my sidewalk, until I came to understand that the sidewalk was my expectation of relationship, and the Gems were my gurus. My opposites taught me everything I needed to know about myself. They all had some compelling quality I didn’t think I had, but once I discovered that missing piece in myself, I found that I’d completed the circle of self-empowerment. These kinds of teaching relationships are holy ground, and an eclipse can trigger the same sense of discovery, quick, like a lightning strike. It’s a bridging event, capable of bringing us closer to what we long for, what we need — who we are. It brings us change.<\/p>\n

If we successfully negotiate awareness of our patterns and how they work, we leave the street behind us strewn with empty holes. From a political standpoint, sometimes I think the name of this street we’re on is capitalism. More often, I think our challenges are less about the system and more about the human condition that fosters such darkness. People who yap about the broken system and the dreadful government don’t realize they ARE the system, they ARE the government. It isn’t us and them; us and them is a game we play in order to get a clearer picture of ourselves. Surely we’ve gotten enough of that in the last decade.<\/p>\n

The street we’ve all been down since the turn of the century is as pock-marked as a game of Whack-a-Mole. So many holes, so many people feeling victimized, so many unsure about how to climb out. We’ve got a way to go yet before we all realize these challenges are not accidents but choices we’ve made, with no one to blame but ourselves. And perhaps, before we’re done, we’ll also realize how holy it was to make this tempestuous journey, well remembered as we cross to take up residence on a brand new street.<\/p>\n

Each bridging event can bring us renewed personal power, a new level of authenticity if we’re willing to work with it. I wish you all an easy passage and a Light-filled weekend, then, along with insight, encouragement and discoveries that will lift you along your path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves It’s been a week when the difference between reality and the distorted worldview of various political camps has created a murky potion of chaos and confusion. It brings to mind Macbeth’s witches, chanting over their dark recipe while incanting, “Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble.” … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}