Occupy Wall Street

[Fast Gunn]

Does anybody really understand what is up with the recent movement called

"Occupy Wall Street"?

The common denominator seems to be anger, but there doesn't seem to be a leader which I find surprising.

[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/us/the-occupy-movements-common-thread-is-anger.html?_r=1&hp"]] Occupy Wall Street

[Sensia]

http://action.workingamerica.org/c/5..._page_KEY=6075

[CuteOldGuy]

I think it is a lot of unfocused anger. People know things aren't right in this country, but they don't know the way out. They think they are attacking the evildoers, but can't fully decide who the evildoers are. Most of them don't even know what Wall Street does. It's like the movie "Network" - "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

We have to get rid of this crony capitalism, aka fascism, where the government and big business are hopelessly interwoven. The people have no say in what goes on. Elections are an illusion, nothing ever changes.

In many ways, the protesters are dumb as rocks. In other ways, they expose a fatal flaw in the elitist agenda. People will not be pushed down forever, at some point something is going to give. The elites will either have to capitulate, or enforce a police state. Unfortunately, I expect them to opt for the police state.

[Fast Gunn]

I think you're right about the unfocused anger, but how do so many people get together without a leader?

You would think that some of our leaders would make political hay out of this movement by going there and addressing their concerns and quieting them down, but they all seem to be ignoring the angry mobs which seems like the wrong approach to deal with it.

It all seems totally weird to me!

[Whirlaway]

It is about alot of things; that is the problem, everyone seems to have a differnt beef with the system.......

I am waiting for Obama and the Democrats to make the political mistake of embracing the noise (no message) coming out of Occupy America......

The next step will be the MSM annointing a "spokesperson" for Occupy America and give it a voice and message......

[30 is the new 20]

Romney was in front of a small audience and was taped saying how he understood the movement. Sad because 1) he is removed from that movement as he possibly could be. And 2) the movement is mostly college kids who know nothing about the real world and career left wing protesters.

[Sensia]

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

The elites will either have to capitulate, or enforce a police state. Unfortunately, I expect them to opt for the police state.

If it comes to a police state in that sense it will get "bloody" as hell. I think the majority will take up arms if that happens and it won't be pretty in this country.

Can anyone say "Let them eat cake"???

[nevergaveitathought]

there are a mish mash of reasons.

some are complaining abt owing student loans and the schools are the ones charging the hell out of them, the banks only loan the money..those kids are stupid and lazy ..cell phones, eating out..partying..taking a few classes over 6 years...never working...clothes, etc... and they wake up owing $100,000 and they want it off them.

but then there those who know...

to them it boils down to what is the higher value: 1. equality and jealousness or 2. liberty

there are those who "feel" equality is a higher value than individual liberty and freedom. And then there are those who understand that progress is really only made through liberty

the commited left needs a police state to effectuate their goals.

[Whirlaway]

Her name is Lisa Fifthian...she is one of the main organizers of the Occupy America movement. She is legendary within the anarchist community ....Fifthian was responsible organizing the 1999 Seattle WTO protest that turned violent.......here she is in Chicago............it is unclear what her links are to Obama but they both hail from the community organizing radicalism of Chicago....and connected by the violence of groups like the WeatherUnderground, Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn....

http://biggovernment.com/publius/201...ts-in-chicago/

Originally Posted by Fast Gunn

The common denominator seems to be anger, but there doesn't seem to be a leader which I find surprising.

[WTF]

Fastgunn the wallstreet protesters are pissed about cuts in education while bankers were bailed out. They are just like tgheir counterparts , the tea folks who were oissed that medicare was being cut while bankers were bailed. The only difference in the groups is their age. They are both properly pissed off imho. It would be like if your parents said everybody in the family was going to have to tighten their belts because say the mother had run the credit card and then your father asking all the kids to pitch in to get that bitch another credit card!

[Texas Contrarian]

As several others have pointed out, yes, there is a lot of unfocused anger and people are upset about myriad issues.

For some time, it seems that there's been an abiding feeling that things aren't going well -- and that the system isn't working for most people, who are pissed off that it's being gamed by politically-connected big players who become very, very wealthy from the practice of crony capitalism.

Part of the concern, of course, involves skyrocketing wealth disparity. You see people with signs saying "we are the 99%", implying that the top 1% of the income or wealth distribution is the problem. But the vast majority those in the top 1% are people such as attorneys, doctors, dentists, CPAs, and small business owners of one kind or another. They're not the problem, and should not be scapegoated. They are not wealthier, generally speaking, than their counterparts were a few decades ago.

The focus of resentment should be some of those in the top one-hundreth of one per cent, who have been able to exploit the system in unethical ways, such as using banks to play "heads I win, tails taxpayers lose" games with other people's money. Wealth disparity in that very upper portion of the top 1% has become truly staggering in recent years. These people are many times wealthier than they were a generation ago, and produce nothing.

(It should be noted that not all of the top one-hundreth of one percent should be painted with this brush. Creators and producers -- such as the late Steve Jobs, for example -- are not the subject of these protesters, many of whom carry iPhones and iPads!)

People don't have to have a nuanced understanding of how the prop-trading desks at the big houses work, or how the carry trade works, to realize that something's wrong. Everybody knows that the financial services industry serves itself more than ever, and that everyone would be better off if finance served producers and exporters more and speculators less. That's how you get "more for Main Street, and less for Wall Street."

Some of the OWS protesters carry signs saying "end the Fed", so they have that in common with the Tea Party. They know that continual ZIRP allows banks to borrow at near zero and buy riskless longer-dated Treasuries, knowing that either the Fed or Treasury will backstop them if the longer-dated markets suddenly tank. Nice work if you can get it!

I think the test will be how quickly this phenomenon grows. The anti-war protests of the late '60s started out with just a few disaffected leftists and people who might have been termed "professional radicals." But the anti-Vietnam War sentiment, of course, tapped into the deepening concerns of tens of millions of Americans. When middle class college students started protesting in very large numbers, the Johnson and Nixon administrations realized they had far bigger problems than they had expected just a short time earlier.

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

It's like the movie "Network" - "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDt...eature=related

[Sensia]

Originally Posted by CaptainMidnight

Part of the concern, of course, involves skyrocketing wealth disparity. You see people with signs saying "we are the 99%", implying that the top 1% of the income or wealth distribution is the problem.

The focus of resentment should be some of those in the top one-hundreth of one per cent, who have been able to exploit the system in unethical ways, such as using banks to play "heads I win, tails taxpayers lose" games with other people's money. Wealth disparity in that very upper portion of the top 1% has become truly staggering in recent years. These people are many times wealthier than they were a generation ago, and produce nothing.


People don't have to have a nuanced understanding of how the prop-trading desks at the big houses work, or how the carry trade works, to realize that something's wrong. Everybody knows that the financial services industry serves itself more than ever, and that everyone would be better off if finance served producers and exporters more and speculators less. That's how you get "more for Main Street, and less for Wall Street."

Some of the OWS protesters carry signs saying "end the Fed", so they have that in common with the Tea Party. They know that continual ZIRP allows banks to borrow at near zero and buy riskless longer-dated Treasuries, knowing that either the Fed or Treasury will backstop them if the longer-dated markets suddenly tank. Nice work if you can get it!

I think the test will be how quickly this phenomenon grows. The anti-war protests of the late '60s started out with just a few disaffected leftists and people who might have been termed "professional radicals." But the anti-Vietnam War sentiment, of course, tapped into the deepening concerns of tens of millions of Americans. When middle class college students started protesting in very large numbers, the Johnson and Nixon administrations realized they had far bigger problems than they had expected just a short time earlier.

Right, and to add to what you said, alot of folks want money out of politics. Big corporations able to buy their politicians who care little for the people who are the majority.

[Whirlaway]

The OWS gathering is NOT a small government protest. They want more government, more debt, more taxes, open borders, more multi-culturalism, more gun control, more regulation. They are not conservative and they are not libertarian (except on the issue of drugs and some social issues).

[Sensia]

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

The OWS gathering is NOT a small government protest. They want more government, more debt, more taxes, open borders, more multi-culturalism, more gun control, more regulation. They are not conservative and they are not libertarian (except on the issue of drugs and some social issues).

God forbid we have more multiculturalism..lmao

I am all for a more diversified multicultural America. That IS what we are all about..! I would like to see less intolerance in this country with regard to that.

[Fast Gunn]

So what are the demands that this Lisa Fifthian is making or is her main motive simply to stir up anarchy?

Someone in power needs to defuse this situation before it blows up, but folks in Washington seem to be ignoring the entire bad scene!

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Her name is Lisa Fifthian...she is one of the main organizers of the Occupy America movement. She is legendary within the anarchist community ....Fifthian was responsible organizing the 1999 Seattle WTO protest that turned violent.......here she is in Chicago............it is unclear what her links are to Obama but they both hail from the community organizing radicalism of Chicago....and connected by the violence of groups like the WeatherUnderground, Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn....

http://biggovernment.com/publius/201...ts-in-chicago/