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15 Apr, 2009 09:03

Americans’ sudden love of ‘tea-parties’ paid for by corporations?

US taxpayers in more than 500 cities in 50 states are preparing rallies – dubbed ‘tea parties’. They are protesting against government policies on Wednesday – the deadline for filing income tax returns.

Financial frustration has reached boiling point in America and is now transforming into action.

Most Americans find themselves engaged in a fight against government intervention and growing tax burdens. President Obama remains relatively popular in the States, but his promise of change is no longer enough.

Hundreds of the ‘tea parties’ are due to take place on Tax day, creating an unprecedented nationwide backlash.

This is not a specifically anti-Obama protest. Although many are seeing the ‘tea parties’ as a protest against growing tax burdens, others believe that they are a grassroots anti-establishment protest that originated on the internet and focuses mainly on the corporate bailouts. This idea is fuelled by the refusal to allow ‘professional politicians’ to speak at some of the rallies.

There is, however, also a growing contention whether the talk of the grassroots nature of the ‘tea parties’ is true. Liberal media claims that corporations are funding the websites, the rallies, the advertising and even the merchandise: t-shirts, teacups and stickers.

Predicted in 2008

Back in 2008 trend forecaster Gerald Celente predicted the protests. Now he calls them just a build-up to something bigger.

“The Tea Parties are just the beginning. The tax revolts are just the beginning. We’re going to see a revolution in this country that’s going to rival the Founding Fathers revolution. People know they’re getting ripped off. They don’t want to bail out bankers and the ultra rich,” Celente told RT.

In Washington, where the protest in scheduled to start 14:00 GMT, the declared goal of the federal funded bailouts is to get lending and borrowing back on track. Celente says the initial catalyst for the crises is being disguised as the solution.

“Now what president Obama is saying ‘Let’s free up the credit markets so that banks can lend and people can borrow.’ Oh, borrow more! The public is $14 trillion in debt! Median household income is below 1999 levels. This is insanity! And they’re passing it off as normal? It’s abnormal,” Celente said.

US taxpayers sinking in their own debt are funding federal bailouts to keep the auto industry, banks, and life insurance companies afloat. Meanwhile, more than five million jobs have evaporated since 2007.

With retail, real estate, and manufacturing expected to worsen Celente expects one sector of the national economy will skyrocket: crime.

“Gangs are spreading throughout this country. There’s no amount of police that’s going to be able to protect these people from all these gangs. You’re going to start seeing kidnappings. People are going to gravitate toward crime as their new political families – as their infrastructure for support,” he said.

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