Apparently, the scene inside The Venetian last night turned into a complete and utter train wreck. Mitt Romney continued to call for MORE foreclosures and more families losing their homes to the big banks. He also fought with Rick Perry over which of them hates Latinos more. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann desperately begged to stay relevant by throwing out empty emotional platitudes as Newt Gingrich effectively told us in Nevada to “suck it up” and enjoy the nukes at Yucca Mountain. Oh, and of course Herman Cain threw more pot shots at the formerly middle class workers who have been taking to the streets as part of the #OccupyWallStreet movement.
So should it really come as a surprise that the winner of last night’s debate (other than Barack Obama) was #OccupyLasVegas? ProgressNow Nevada started the festivities outside The Venetian with a rally and quick press conference on what the Republican candidates were about to talk about.
Afterward, the Occupy Las Vegas activists began to show up and protest alongside the folks who showed up earlier. I know we’ve all heard plenty about what can be found at Occupy/99% movement events, but I wanted to give you a chance to see for yourself who makes the Occupy/99% movement.
No really, look closely at these photos (and the ones I posted at the top).
Yes, there were a few conspiracy nuts. And there were some Ron Paul fans. And there were some genuine socialists.
However, there were also unemployed workers. And there were frustrated students. And there were union workers. And there were angry seniors. And there was an amazing cross-section of Southern Nevada present outside The Venetian. For all of Wall Street’s efforts to smear and denigrate the Occupy/99% movement, there’s obviously far more to it than just the small radical fringes that’s really resonating with the strong majority of Americans. And that scares the corporate powers that be.
This is what scares them.
They just can’t lump together all the Occupy/99% protesters as “crazies”. It’s easy to zoom in on one person and try it, but it’s not so easy to dismiss this kind of crowd. And it’s not easy to dismiss the policy ideas that most in Occupy support that most Americans also support, such as making the super-rich pay their fair share so we can make better investments in taking care of our seniors, putting people back to work, and educating our future leaders. The big corporate powers that be simply can’t spin that as “fringe” or “extreme”, and that scares them.
The Republicans on the stage inside The Venetian last night may be in love with Wall Street robber barons, but the American people are not. That’s the key takeaway from last night. And over time, it may just show that Occupy has more staying power than any of the clowns on the GOP stage in The Venetian.
(This can also be found at Nevada Progressive & The Nevada View)
I do not know who ‘won’. I saw it and I thought of the Gong Show.
Just look at what those #Occupy Las Vegs hooligans did to CNN and that ‘snooty’ Erin Burnett! 🙂
CNN news Interrupted by Occupy Las Vegas protesters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ex96s5Hudg0#!
Two articles:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/10/19/in_which_occupy_las_vegas_ruins_improves_a_cnn_live_shot.html
http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/the-99-percent-effect-on-the-media/?post_type=progress-report
I just happened to see her on CNN when she was first promoted for her new gig there and she was talking about the jobs act and just happened to throw in “Well, I haven’t actually read it.” Huh, your on the TV and reporting about it and just causally dismisses it? #mediafail
Bito
Infotainers do not need to read the bills, they are talkers, not reporters. She was just as lazy on CNBC
I was there! I was there! We were the 99% who couldn’t be silenced. Yes, the revolution really is being televised. 😀
I thought that was your voice, atdnext! 🙂
You guys did good! Very good.
Way to go atdnext! Indeed, the MSM can’t silence the 99% even if they lamely try to talk over it as if it isn’t there.
Thanks, AdLib & bito! It really felt like poetic justice. After what Erin Burnett said and CNN tried to do in smearing Occupy (and kissing up to the TEA potty), it couldn’t have happened to a better network.
WTG, Atdnext! We here on the East Coast never get to see what is really happening! Thanks for posting your article and for the good pix! It’s great to think the the Planet has some representation there!
Wow this says it all…
The CNN talkers are ignoring the real news
happening right next to them so they can
do their infomercial of the lame GOP
Here’s a major problem that led to the OWS movement –
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/19/new-york-fed-student-loan-debt-now-over-1-trillion/
I don’t understand all the problems with student loans per se, but do know that it never used to be this way.
From my understanding, so many of these kids will never be able to pay off their loans, even if they’re lucky enough to find jobs.
I understand that if a kid files for bankruptcy, that the student loan is not included, meaning that the debt is never erased.
Is that true?
How can these kids be expected to re-pay their loans as interest keeps compiling at such exorbitant rates?
How can they garnish wages when so many of the kids can’t find jobs?
Are we on the cusp of debtors’ prison?
Have the speculators once again bundled the student loans, as they did with the mortgages, and sell them to unsuspecting banks around the world?
I don’t understand much of this, but seems to me that there should be regulation against derivatives or bundling of loans.
And perhaps people should think twice before enrolling at over-priced private, for-profit schools.
The 2005 Bankruptcy Law the Repub Congress passed was a brutal assault on Americans’ rights to claim bankruptcy and you’re right, it included a section that denied people the ability to have their student loans cleared.
As I just read up on it to double check, I was struck by how awful that law was for the 99%, how much it benefited the 1% and how Joe Biden, being from DE where many banks are, was one of the few Dem supporters of it.
We need drastic financial reforms including getting rid of that law and all its terrible provisions.
Basically AdLib, that 2005 Bankruptcy Reform took away Bankruptcy. No credit card debit can be forgiven either. You might get away from Medical debt but not much else. You may lose your belongings but not the debt that remains on them should they not bring enough in the sell of them. All the rest is just rewritten and you pay forever. No one wants to file bankruptcy for the heck of it. Situations in life make some situations necessary. We never know when that last paycheck was the last because the company closes, health causes us not to be able to work, or the job is just eliminated or moved over seas. Yes, we may not have looked forward enough to the dangers we were accumiating in our acts of survival. We may have made wrong turns because we thought the road would go on forever. But, the cliff was just around the corner. We all ask for a second chance but seldom get one. And, this law made sure of it.
Javaz
I don’t think student loans were ever a write off in a BK. These for profit colleges are making money and the professors in these schools also made money in the credit bubble by writing papers on certain corporations, of course, saying how stable they were. And not one professor I saw thought they did anything wrong collecting upwards of 40k for one paper. Take a look at some of the big ivy league schools and see how much their professors are making on the side with their various side jobs. It is almost criminal. If you have not yet seen it, watch Inside Job. It will open your eyes for sure. There is still losses that need to be written off and not just student loans. The Fed cannot hold those toxic assets forever.
I worked in a hospital for a period in registration with many young mothers who had tuition help from the hospital. They all starting taking classes to get into nursing school ( they had not been accepted) and they all got the max from the student loan programs. I only knew one woman that got in the program and got in a degree, she was actually older. They others dropped in and out, used the money for living expenses and were never admitted to the nursing program but ended up with a huge debt – it was almost like a scam.