Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, September 29, 2011

The US Fall?

Commentary By Ron Beasley


There has been little attention payed to the Wall Street protests by the MSM.  That is in spite of the fact that participation has been growing.  While this should be news we are not hearing much about it.  Why?  Because the oligarchs are afraid and the MSM is part of the oligarchy.  Why are they afraid?  Because it looks too much like the Arab spring.  The neo-liberalism that started with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan has resulted in a shift of wealth from the middle class to the top one percent.  When the financial system collapsed in 2008 the banking oligarchs were bailed out at the expense of the ordinary tax payer in spite of the fact the bankers were responsible for the problem.  Instead of being marched off to prison the bankers were rewarded.  And yes, this is bipartisan. 


After the NYPD acted like storm troopers for Wall Street and it was documented on YouTube people started paying attention but MSM still tried to minimize it.  Yes, this is the same MSM that would send out reporters to a Tea pary event with 100 people.  While the MSM continues to pass it off as no big deal Mike Kreiger says not so fast:



I will be the first to admit that I faded the whole idea of this �Occupy Wall Street� protest. I had already seen several failed attempts at protest in NYC come and go and I just sadly assumed the spirit of that once great city had died forever. I am extraordinarily happy to report that I was wrong. When I watched some video of police brutality at NYC protests this weekend I was stunned. Not because the cops acted like some mercenary storm trooper thugs, but because this protest that has started the week before still had momentum! Check out this link regarding what is going on. It has two must watch videos. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=194965 The first one already has over 400k watches on youtube. This is the spark I have been waiting for and I am pleased beyond belief that it happened in Manhattan right where it should. How about this appearance of Cornel West at the protest on Tuesday. http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/09/cornel-west-at-occupy-wall-str... I am proud of my old home today. This is a big deal. The serfs are coming together. Keep it up.


Most of you reading this right now are thinking that this is interesting but he is exaggerating and this will blow over. I am here to assure you that it is not and this whole thing is about to grow exponentially as the economy continues to stagnate and people climb the learning curve. Are you aware that the founder of Salon.com, David Talbot, is publicly calling for an �American Spring?� This of course is a reference to the Arab Spring, in which revolution swept across North Africa earlier this year and led to the collapse of the Tunisian and Egyptian governments and then major government bribes to the people living in the oil rich kingdoms. Mr. Talbot writes �In these increasingly hard times, Salon is dedicating itself to an American revival. Our editorial mission will become more explicitly and aggressively populist. We will be publishing more investigative pieces, exposing the shadow dance of power. And both Democratic and Republican targets will be fair game, since both parties are increasingly under the control of the same corporate forces.� His full piece is here http://www.salon.com/about/american_spring/index.html?story=/about/insid... You need to read it if you want to understand where all of this is headed. How about journalist Chris Hedges talking about �Occupy Wall Street� http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/09/chris-hedges-occupy-wall-street... We the people now understand it is not �rich vs. poor,� businessperson vs. teacher.� It is serf vs. oligarch. They are 0.1% and we know what they are up to. GAME ON.



The oligrcachs are afraid. 



3 comments:

  1. Why are these protesters focused on Wall Street for buying off the government and taking advantage of government policies, when they should be focused on and directing their anger at the government which allowed itself to be bought off and which created the policies that enriched Wall Street.
    Wall Street is where Obama and the Democrats have been pointing their collective finger of blame, so that is where protesters direct their anger.

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  2. Bill, because if you protest the government you are a terrorist.

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  3. I don't know Bill, even you agree that the problem is the kind of money those Wall Street folks are putting into the political system to keep their own asses out of jail. You don't blame the hand for striking you, but rather the mind behind it, so focusing on the people calling the shots rather than the people they're paying to carry out their orders seems eminently reasonable to me.

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