The Toilet Paper Revolution

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

(cross-posted at dKos– go there and rec it if you like it)

Good morning, Ameeeeeriiiiica!

People are waking up to the incredible fraud that is being perpetrated by the investment banksters, the former Goldman Sachs bankster, Henry Paulson, and the complicit Democratic Congressional leadership.

Now this abomination is on the fast track to passage just like what happened with the Patriot Act after another “unforeseeable” crisis.

And your cards, letters, calls and emails will have about as much impact as they did with Alito and FISA.

So here’s an idea that might get some media attention and put some pressure on these thieves and their accomplices.

People keep misstating that under the Paulson Plan (and that’s what it should be called), we, the taxpayers will now “own” something.  That’s wrong.  Read the bill.  You’ll find it in one or more recommended diaries.

The taxpayer is not buying a piece of these companies.  The taxpayer is buying paper that no one else wants.  These are the securities that these banksters bought, and now they’re afraid even to try and sell them because a failure to find a buyer or get a bid will prove once and for all that they’re bankrupt.

So Henry Paulson’s idea is to have the taxpayer buy up this paper from his old firm, Goldman Sachs, and other banks at whatever price he feels is “fair.”

What will it cost you?  A simple way of calculating that is to divide the number of people in the U. S. into $700 billion.  I’m no math genius, but Ilargi over at The Automatic Earth did it and came up with $2,333 per person.

Now I’m not anxious to hand over $2,333 to buy some paper that the investment bankers don’t think is worth wiping your ass with, to put it crudely.

We would be better off if the banksters brought Paulson jumbo rolls of toilet paper instead of these securities.  At least then the government could distribute them to people, and we would get something of value for our money–money that’s being handed over to losing gamblers so they can gamble some more.

That realization that we’d be better off with toilet paper gave me an idea about a protest idea that might make a splash.

When you get paid next time, don’t deposit your check in the bank.  If you’re paid with paper check, take it to the bank and cash it.  If you’re paid by direct deposit, go to the bank and withdraw the amount of your check in cash.

And while you’re at the bank, give them a jumbo roll of toilet paper.  Just to make a point.  Sing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant if you feel like it.

People should treat their Social Security checks the same way.

Have bills to pay?  Just for this one month, pay them in cash or by money order.

Will it be inconvenient?  Maybe.  But it’s less risky than going on strike at work and getting fired.  It’s a hell of a lot less risky than taking to the streets and facing those Terminator cops and their tazers.

But it just might scare the hell out of them.  It will certainly make the banksters feel uneasy.

All we need to do is publicize it.  Then each of us carry out our little protest when the check comes.

Just an idea concocted in the face of overwhelming power and arrogance.