Since the Occupy Wall Street protest is growing by the day, with ongoing developments, this post will serve as an open thread for news and opinions related to the Occupy Wall Street protests.
It began as an internet-generated sit-in type protest, intended as a reflection of the democratic protests in Egypt and the Middle East, where the people of a nation came together to demand change from being oppressed by a powerful and wealthy elite. It was and is decentralized as true populist movements often are (they don’t have corporate and media sponsorship, you listening Tea Party?).
Initially, the corporately owned Mainstream Media, which covers Tea Party events attended by a less than a dozen oddballs, used the tactic of ignoring the protest to bury it. Then, after the YouTube video of police brutality against the peaceful protestors, specifically, the macing of young women who were helplessly penned in by police at the time, the MSM was forced to report on and recognize the protest but did so by ridiculing and trying to trivialize those participating in it, as whale and tree hugging hippies that don’t even know why they’re doing what they’re doing.
As more and more validation pushed back on this campaign to smother awareness and validity of the protest, greater coverage on more Progressive-friendly outlets grew and a large march took place. It resulted in the possibly illegal arrest of 700 people as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. This march and arrest was covered as the day’s top news story and obliterated the legitimacy of the MSM’s campaign to portray the protest as irrelevant and the participants as just a few nutty college brats…but that campaign continues for some in the MSM anyway.
In the aftermath of this march, companion protests began popping up around the nation, in 399 cities as of today (423 worldwide) according to Occupy Together, an unofficial organizing and clearing house site for these protests.
Another march has been taking place today in NY, the largest yet which is currently estimated at 10,000 to 17,000 people, joined by Chinatown Tenants Union, the Transit Workers Union and community organizations like the Working Families Party. Also, MoveOn.org is sponsoring an online protest and United NY. Organizers called for students at college campuses across the nation to walk out of class in protest.
As mentioned above, none of this however derails the continued but disqualified propaganda in the MSM to try and marginalize this growing movement. The latest meme which seems to be repeated by Wall Street and MSM hacks alike is that this protest IS NOT a legitimate populist movement like the Tea Party (huh?) and is instead more like the non-mainstream anarchic protests by radical youth against the World Bank, capitalism and reality. There is also a growing propaganda meme that the Wall Street protestors “clashed” with police and that “as opposed to protests in other cities, these protestors in Los Angeles say they want a peaceful protest” (BTW, this was reported on MSNBC)…the takeaway of course is to brand this protest as mindless and violent.
IMO, these continuing propagandist attempts to disqualify what is now a national protest that may already be bigger than the current membership of the Tea Party, are futile and desperate. It may also be a form of denial in those who simply don’t want to believe that a popular uprising is going on. These types actually believe that the message of, “We need to stop corporate greed from destroying us” can be spun into being an extremist and goofball sensibility.
Aside from the criticism on the Left that there is no specific set of demands, there needs to be more focus and leadership, the Occupy Wall Street movement doesn’t have to be a conventional protest. It can instead be what it seems to have evolved into, a philosophical umbrella under which most Americans can come together. Then, once unified, the majority that is being ignored on many issues by its government, chiefly by Republicans, will have the power and presence that requires attention and action on their pressing issues.
Bottom line, Occupy Wall Street is about the empowerment of the people over the top 1%. As hard as it is for most Americans to unite behind the same specific issue, there is a brilliance in getting people to unite behind a general issue that is the cause of most of the more specific issues.
There is no knowing at this point if this phenomena will continue to grow into a full fledged and influential movement of the people, by the people and for the people but at this point, it is an exciting prospect.
BREAKING: Eight Arrested In Midnight Raid on Chicago Apartment
National Lawyers Guild Condemns Preemptive Police Raids & Unlawful Searches
Early morning house raid in Bridgeport and harassment of activists indicates intolerance of free speech rights
And
Twitter is all lit up about a big police action against Occupy Oakland. Here is a collection of tweets at this time ( https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23occupyoakland ):
Seconded KQ, a very Happy New Year to OWS and thanks for the very cool and exciting map!
OWS is marching ahead and evolving despite all the attempts to crush it:
And many Union Longshoreman are not the least bit happy about their actions. I agree. What is the purpose of shutting down the ports and harming many the many workers, part of the 99%?
I have known many Longshoreman, and they don’t work daily with a 40 hour week, they work “on call” and need the job when called.
Exactly what did closing the ports accomplish? Were the Longshoreman part of selling sham mortgages, robo-signing, sending jobs overseas?
This made no sense to me.
Hey Bito, here’s the missing piece of the puzzle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/12/bloomberg_articlesLW4C5V6K50XT.DTL#ixzz1gOCQnJpA
That isn’t missing part of the puzzle for me, AdLib, I think the protest was misdirected and harmed workers vastly more than it did the multinational corporations and banks. Goldman-Sachs lost .00001 percent of the days profits over this action, the blue collar worker lost putting food on the table/ a Christmas present for their kid a days pay… and I stand by my thinking that it was misdirected and misguided.
A huge turnout for an “informational picket line” would have worked, been in the news, but this took a days wages out of the pockets of blue collar union workers and that doesn’t buy the baby new shoes!
All OWS protests impact fellow 99% workers. One of the RW’s favorite attacks on OWS in NYC was that their presence in the park was hurting local businesses, disrupting traffic, hurting cab drivers and lower paid office workers who had trouble getting to work.
How do you effectively hold a big enough or impacting enough protest against corporations to call attention to a wrong without also impacting fellow 99%ers who work in and around who and where you’re protesting?
If a majority of people oppose making sacrifices in the present to fight for a better future, then the ongoing decline of income and the standard of living for 99% of Americans, including those who don’t want to lose money due to a protest, would just continue.
Then, they would lose far more than a day’s pay as their salaries keep declining and the cost of living rises, as has been happening for the last 30 years.
On the other hand, if the movement OWS is pushing results in greater economic justice for most Americans, the benefits would far outweigh a day’s pay.
It is a fact that the 99% are entwined (and exploited) by the corporations and their myriad businesses. It’s also true that these same corporations are dedicated to decimating the incomes and futures of those who work for them (and the rest of the 99%).
Protesting at and disrupting any corporation’s business does necessarily mean that truck drivers, secretaries, sales reps, etc. could have their work and pay disrupted as well.
I don’t see how to target a corporation, even through boycotting, that doesn’t negatively impact other 99%ers in the short term who work for that corporation.
I would respectfully disagree on your proposition, I don’t think an informational picket line is very “sexy” to news outlets and would have gotten much if any coverage. Closing ports is news but picketing in front of them while business as usual continues, isn’t necessarily “news”.
I do think their protest was justified and not improper though I do agree that ideally, it would be best to find ways to protest that are newsworthy and high profile but minimize the pain on other 99%ers trying to get by in this plutocracy just like OWS.
Protests Boost Sales and Fears of Sonic Blaster
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/12-2
Gotta drown out those hippie drum circles, ya know.
I’m waiting for them to start using the “crowd dispersers that makes one’s skin feel like it’s burning. That will be next.
I thought they had started using the heat weapons for dispersing OWS.
Saw a 60 Minutes piece on non-lethal weapons and the take away was that, instead of them just substituting for lethal force, their non-lethal nature has resulted in far more frequent use of weapons by police on citizens.
They want to use sound weapons, OWS should surround NYPD stations with boom boxes turned up to 11 and playing “Welcome to the Jungle”.
Olympia’s budget-cutting special session begins
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016881758_legislature29m.html
About 2000 protesters went to our state capital of Olympia to protest the special session that the Gov. has called to solve the 2 billion dollar budget gap that plagues the state. Right now about 46% of the gap is expected to be solved by cuts, and about 7% by new revenues, with the rest unclear.
About 100 of those protesters camped out in the rotunda until they were forcibly removed by police, including 3 that were tased when they “advanced” on state troopers.
What’s interesting is that the Governor and Legislators seemed completely surprised by the showing and were unsure how to handle the various groups occupying the Governors office and committee meetings.
The missing context from this story is that Washington has experienced a rash of tax measures over the last 10 years that have severely hamstrung its budgetary flexibility. No fewer than 20 anti-tax measures have been proposed with many of them passing that takes tax control out of the legislature’s hands and puts it into the hands of the voters.
Nearly any change in the tax code has to be presented to the public for a vote. Not surprisingly (as my friends in CA know) WA has resoundingly voted to tax themselves like libertarians and live like socialists. Income tax measures have been defeated for the last 20 years with no end in sight, while the sales tax here in King County stand at an average of about 9%.
The fact that the public seems willing to shoulder an additional half-cent sales tax hike to help pay for things is commendable, but the protesters are correct that this solution comes on the backs of a populace already stressed by economic woes.
Interesting news. I think it’s a good decision to crackdown on local police this way because as the top executive Obama does not want to say something to make locals lose face. I know some progressives want Obama to “speak out” but I just don’t see where that helps more than having the DOJ look into it.
http://www.salon.com/2011/05/30/justice_department_civil_rights_police/
I see where MM and now N. Wolf are still pushing the meme that Obama had the DHS infiltrate OWS. Anything could be true but if I don’t see another source verify this story it sounds like it’s made up.
Highly interesting report from MSNBC — commentator Chris Hayes got hold of a lobbying firm’s memo to the American Bankers Association outlining a plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street. Quelle surprise!
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8884405-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street
WW That was quite a story wasn’t it? It was posted earlier here, but I suspect it was missed by a few people.
I always hope that I’m bringing something new, but perhaps repeating it is a good thing!
WW–when the threads move fast, stories get buried and we miss many. Important stories like that are always good to have posted again. 🙂
A Must-read! From the American Bankers Association via MSNBC:
(I can’t C&P any of this letter–it’s a screen shot)
Please read though.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/CLGF-msnbc.pdf
It looks like they are taking the OWS Movement very seriously and are pretty scared by it.
Sally, as you and I (everybody, really) know, this is only the beginning and as the campaign season heats up, this will seem quaint! I fervently hope the Dems really are ready!!
Cher, I read online that some Repubs are starting to embrace the OWS. Even Palin said she understand some of their arguments. Really? I doubt she understands them anymore than she did Paul Revere.
Well gee, Sally, someone had to warn the British that we had guns! 😉
Sally, I am skeptical.
Sally – this is sort of freaky. Apparently she did, some of the early Baggers have joined, and I remain deeply skeptical of their motivations AND their impact on the choices the movements they’ve infiltrated make because of their presence. Creeps me out.
I keep thinking “Fifth Column”, “Fifth Column”…
Well, CL, we know their motives are to look like something we know they aren’t.
“Well funded and George Soros”, now isn’t that a surprise mention!?!
Bogey man! BOO!
The profiles were interesting.
Occupy Tucson: the story thus far
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/occupy-tucson-the-story-thus-far/article_1e286e14-1640-52b7-be44-79d2dbfded11.html
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone pretty much captures where I stand on the movement (except for the 1st sentence–I was never mixed about it.):
http://m.rollingstone.com/entry/view/id/19309/pn/all/p/0/?KSID=879eecf721548198c3a57a9fcd1f81a1
Cher Taibbi is right about the politics and maybe even right about what most of the OWS is all about but like many on the left many on the left if he thinks this is what most Americans want, he’s completely wrong. Americans want it ALL and have always wanted it ALL. The most cars, the most houses, the most money, the most everything.
This was the point of that Daily Show video. While a big percentage perhaps even a majority of OWS protesters love drum circles and don’t mind camping out most Americans just want a bigger piece of the pie and most importantly want their kids to have a bigger piece of the pie than their parents had. This is the part of the American Dream Wall Street, Corporations and mostly Republicans have undermined for unprecedented greed.
I’m not saying Americans don’t want to value family, friends or even there belief systems but we’ve never been a society that values community like many parts of the world. While we’ve always been a country ravenous for wealth and possessions.
It’s also ridiculous to say America has become more dreary and predictable. He is talking about the way it was under the Soviet block. We have more freedoms now to pick our careers than even at the height of the middle class where most Americans were tied to jobs in manufacturing and farming where we just did repetitive tasks. Taibbi’s ability to have the career he has alone shows how untrue that statement is. The think most oppressive about our society is the millions of voices all screaming at once.
His statement about Marijuana is pure progressive naivete. For one I’m for at least decriminalizing Marijuana possession, but even CA voters rejected that when they had the change. To say State laws should trump Federal law just shows he doesn’t understand the system. Would he want red states to overturn Roe v. Wade via legislation? I think not.
Of course the system is corrupt and there are major changes needed. There are major changes needed just to bring back the American Dream.
I’m not trying to be negative. I just think he’s getting parts of the big picture wrong. Like most people on the left he has a hard time putting himself in middle America’s shoes. Most Americans don’t want a progressive Utopia. Not yet anyway.
KQ, I just wrote you a very long response that took me about 20 minutes and I pressed some stupid fucking button and it’s gone now. I am too discouraged by that to write again right now, so I’m going to do some chores, but I want to get back to you! Later, ok?
Gee, Cher and I channelled all that but I am too lazy to type it all out for you. Sorry, Buddy!
No problem I was agitated myself when the site went down in prime time. 👿
Well I do give him credit for coming up with “Supreme Reichskank!” It fits so well.
OK, came back from chores and just don’t have the energy to write all that again. The main point is that Taibbi didn’t say that most Americans feel the way the protesters do, but rather that is what the protesters feel, and those who support them. Also, I don’t know enough to speak for most Americans and only for myself and the people I know, so who know? You may be right about how Americans feel and what they want. But he does articulate how I feel.
Honestly his writing in this piece was all over the place (obviously train of thought writing). I’m still not sure about all the points he was trying to make. But some of his random shot taking and inferences where off the mark a number of times in my eyes. If he’s only talking about what the protesters want then he’s missing the whole point of the 99% completely. I thought OWS was suppose to be about what the 99% (the vast majority of Americans) feels or at least wants. Otherwise it’s just another left wing cause with a little anarchy mixed in for good measure. I know the real problem is there is no consensus for what the country feels or wants nowadays, save for more cheap goods and cheap gas.
America needs a new dream. “Most Americans” desire for trivial, unnecessary garbage is destroying the habitability of the planet. I for one don’t want any piece of the pie, let alone a bigger slice. That pie is poison.
Nothing like taking a full week to find something so utterly riveting. Cher, thanks so much for posting this. The whole Thanksgiving thing combined with work kept me from staying current.
But this is one hell of a beautifully written piece. And it totally resonates with me. I wish I had the courage and strength and ability to pull away from my job and commit that these young people have shown. (But — hey, someone has to take care of people who have been batonned in the bean, too.)
Taibbi’s so eloquent. E.g.:
People who don’t even know that they sympathize with OWS, sympathize with OWS.
Again, I say thanks, Cher, for getting this onto the site. It was well worth reading. Again and again.
Just for fun, let’s see what the larges newspapers across the country had on their front pages:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/nov/17/protesters/
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/CO_DP.jpg[/img]
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/FL_MH.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/GA_AJC.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/IL_CT.jpg
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/IN_IS.jpg[/img]
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/IA_DR.jpg
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/MA_BG.jpg[/img]
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/MI_DN.jpg
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/NY_NYT.jpg[/img]
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/OH_CPD.jpg[/img]
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/OR_TO.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/PA_PI.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/TX_DMN.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/TX_HC.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/USAT.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/WA_ST.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/WI_MJS.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/AK_ADN.jpg
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/AZ_AR.jpg
HAHA, and the L.A. Times calls itself a “news”paper:
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/CA_LAT.jpg[/img]
[img]http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg18/lg/DC_WP.jpg[/img]
Exactly how many people taking to the streets does it take for a front page article?
About 57 Tea Baggers.
Oh Snap! LOL!
From St. Louis
Home at last.
After last night’s pretty sad candlelight vigil/funeral at Keiner Plaza ended with a call to gather today at the Plaza….and 500 to 1000 did (depends on whose estimate you use).
About 20 arrested when they wanted to get past a police blockade, couldn’t so they sat down and were removed in plastic cable ties.
Kind of a weird crowd….young activists, a bunch of college folks from area universities, a big group of Teamsters, old folks like me, moms with strollers…..signs, chants, songs, speakers focus on First Amendment, culture of greed, concerns about the super-committee, fears re. loss of SS, medicare, medicaid
Next rally on Saturday….
Off to the side…..hard work going on around the need to focus on key demands.
Here’s a vid of Police Capt. being arrested in Philadelphia. And please listen to the conversation between another cop and a protester at the end:
I’m so proud of Lewis, Cher.
And — interesting, isn’t it?
Cops will usually go to any length to avoid arresting/embarrassing another cop in public.
Unless Wall Street is involved.
They. Run. Everything.
This happened in Portland today:
[img]http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/oregonian/owaznzCeuxzxDEgJCJAJfnmHEhfuzGjBEErkfxfeJcjyyoirGvhaJjjzgzki/Pepperspray.jpg.scaled1000.jpg[/img]
These guys seem to have a particular dislike for women.
Is anyone surprised?
Spray them in the face. Drag them around by the hair. Jab at their abdomens with batons.
That’ll teach ’em.
They have minuscule pee pees and we make even those shrink we scare them so.
😆
Notice how many it took!!!!
Aren’t they, um, manly?
Let me tell you, Mayor Adams has been bombed with tweets,emails, and phone calls on this one!
Cher, he probably hears just that from his girlfriend or wife. That is way he sprays females.