“Occupy Wall Street”

[CalicoPenn]

BTW - about that report of an OWS protester defecating on a NYC police car. The report is based on a photo printed by the Daily Mail, a newspaper from the UK, and story alleging the photo is of a protestor. Only one problem - the NYC police car is clearly marked that it's from the 81st Precinct - and the 81st Precinct is in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. Now before someone decides that the officer must have been there helping with crowd control, standard operating procedure for big city police departments like NYC, Chicago, LA, etc. is for police to be called in to that duty off-shift, and to provide their own transportation to the area - they do not take patrol cars from other parts of the city, or other boroughs, to do crowd control somewhere else - and they wouldn't be parking them on the street if they were there for a long term assignment like that. Also, notice the green post office storage box. Unless they put them back, the Post Office removed them from Wall Street and environs after 9/11 so that they coudn't be used to hide a bomb. The shoes are quite a bit out of date as well - frankly, the guy looks to be a homeless guy and not a protester. Allegedly, the police ignored people who told them some guy was defecating on their car - does that sound like any police officer you know or have heard of? It appears someone is playing fast and loose with the facts here.

[JoeBob]

Sherminator:

 

I'm only chipping in here because I agree with you.

It'll probably NEVER happen again, so I had to mark the occasion!

 

JoeBob

[nolesrule]

I came across this last night. Thought it would be relevant to the discussion at hand.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-four-charts-that-explain-what-the-protesters-are-angry-about-2011-10

[Beavah]

Yah, to follow up on nolesrule's post, I found this piece a pithy summary. Yeh have to get past da language; it is Rolling Stone.

 

Wall Street is Cheating

 

B(This message has been edited by Beavah)

[packsaddle]

Back in the 80s while waiting for Leonard Nimoy to speak, the student crowd spontaneously started chanting, "Reagan, Bush...four...more..years!" again and again. That was essentially the future of the country being spoken out loud and the global market has operated in a completely rational manner. So let's keep cutting the taxes so there can be continued job growth in some other place on the planet!

What gets me is that this outcome was obvious and yet today people seem surprised. What the heck did they THINK was going to happen? I watched with amazement as textile workers enthusiastically voted FOR political and economic policies which were shutting down their own livelihoods, and then blamed the other side. Fascinating!

 

...and poor Leonard, he was probably backstage thinking, "Beam me up, Scotty, no intelligent life here.."

[BadenP]

pack

 

gotta agree with you, when it comes to political reality and the economic reality there really seems to be no inteligent life left on this planet. The Wall Street protesters can not seem to get organized under a cohesive message and have lost much of the publics support. They are now being looked at as an expensive nuisance that has dragged on way too long. Our country is truly being run by an inept and nonfunctioning government who really hasn't got a clue what to do to make things better, either side.

[packsaddle]

We get the government and economy that we ask for, and possibly deserve. To cue off the Rolling Stone article, I suppose it all means that the average American is less intelligent than the average chimpanzee.

But I'd sure like for someone to put together a comprehensive list of the alleged culprits in the banking debacle: names and addresses and what they are alleged to have done to deserve the accusation.

[CalicoPenn]

For those still puzzled about Occupy, perhaps the following from someone far wiser than most of us will ever be can help:

 

First:

"I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, He would have made them with mouths only and no hands; and if He had ever made another class that He intended should do all he work and no eating, He would have made them with hands and no mouths."

 

And then:

"And, inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened in all ages of the world, that some have labored and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government."

 

This wise man that has so eloquently encapsulated what Occupy is all about? Abraham Lincoln.

[NealOnWheels]

And what does Abraham Lincoln have to do with Occupy Wall Street?

 

I must have missed the news report about him speaking at one of their protests.

[CalicoPenn]

Did you read Lincoln's words? Do you understand that his words indicate he's on the side of the people who labor and not the people who profit off of other people's labor that don't actually labor themselves? Of course, if you can't understand that Occupy is a movement opposed to people who profit off of other people's labor, then you won't get the reference at all.

[packsaddle]

Calico, I understand the emotional response and sympathy you have and I think a sense of empathy toward others is commendable. The problem is that the OWS folks are suffering from the illusion that there is still a chance to 'win' or somehow to change things when, in fact, the train left the station long ago - I mark the year when Reagan took office but it might have been long before that, maybe during the days of Rockefeller and Carnegie.

 

We have fully embraced a Darwinian society in which self-interest - greed if you want to call it that - is the fundamental force for social structure. It is the capitalist model and it won. The OWS people don't seem to have gotten the message. There's no credible alternative out there. If the OWS people really wanted to change things, they would form an economic co-op/union/commons or something along those lines and make their 'utopia' be the one that really works for humanity. None of the other attempts have succeeded but who knows, maybe they can pull it off.

They are going to have to act like something other than a bunch of derelicts to do it, though.

[scoutingagain]

Listened to a short reponse Barney Frank had on the OWS crowd. I can't quote it but to paraphrase it went something like;

 

My colleagues in government could care less who or how many people campout some place and wave signs. They care about people that show up and vote. Until the OWS folks get that, they are excess noise.

 

SA

[83Eagle]

To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government.

 

Lincoln the Libertarian....now who woulda thunk that OWS was all about LESS government!

[scoutingagain]

I think a lot of folks are projecting or being told what the OWS crowd is for or against. Much of that is thier own fault because they havn't done a good job of communicating a specific message.

 

SA

[Eagledad]

>>I think a lot of folks are projecting or being told what the OWS crowd is for or against. Much of that is thier own fault because they havn't done a good job of communicating a specific message.>They are going to have to act like something other than a bunch of derelicts to do it, though.