Politicians in Washington, DC are using a form of disaster capitalism to push through drastic austerity measures that would hurt the 99%.

Protesters in Palo Alto today said they want to swing the national debate away from the debt ceiling to real talks about what the people actually want: help for people in need...not austerity for the 99% and bailouts for the rich.

The Raging Grannies led singing that questioned the reality of a fiscal "cliff" (see song above). Since this was a daytime event, most of the demonstrators were, like the Grannies, gray haired, but concerned citizens from ages 2 to 92 participated. The event aired on two local news channels.