Stucky’s Magnificent NYC Occupy Wall Street Adventure

Posted on 21st October 2012 by Stucky in Economy

STUCK’S OWS VISIT POSTED ONE YEAR AGO. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.

A PROMISE
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First, let me say I promise to give you a 100% honest and accurate appraisal of what I saw. No bullshit. No embellishments. No hype. Of course, it is impossible (for me) to not interject my own opinions when writing a piece like this — I trust you’ll be able to tell the difference between objective reporting and personal opinions.
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GETTING THERE
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We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day – I think it was about 83 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, the air magnificently still. We took the train from Westfield, NJ to Penn Station. Since my son (SJ) hadn’t seen NYC before we decided to WALK from midtown (34th Street) to the southern tip of Manhattan. (“You dumbfuk!”, said my feet later in the day.) We walked down 5th Avenue. Wow, what a beautiful walk that was. Within ten minutes we came upon our first open-air street fair — a wonderful collection of about 30 restaurants and bakeries from throughout the city setting up little booths to attract business to their main locations. I bought a box of small fried doughnuts, 28 of ‘em of for just eight bucks. I gave nine each to SJ and Christine (my sister) and, capitalist pig that I am, kept ten for myself. Ha! Fifteen minutes later we came across another fair and we each had something called a Red Velvet Cupcake … a cream cheese and gooey hot chocolate concoction that gave me a woody. We also passed several iconic well known NYC neighborhoods; Soho, Tribeca, made a small detour to Little Italy, and of course Greenwich Village where we stopped in a tiny little bistro for coffee and a almond biscotti.
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As we walked down West Broadway and turned left on Vessey Street all three of us just stopped in our tracks, looked up, and said, “Holy shit!”. It was the new World Trade Center … even at only half way built it just took our breath away. Don’t even bother googling it. Static pictures can NOT do it justice. It’s going to be a stunningly beautiful piece of real estate when it’s all done. We stayed there about 20 minutes watching the workers before we could tear ourselves away. OK, on to Zuccotti Park …
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ZUCCOTTI PARK (ZP)
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It’s not really a park, it’s more like a plaza. In place of grass there is concrete. There are a few trees. It’s a small place occupying one city block … a small city block. I’m guessing the dimensions are no greater than 150 feet by 300 feet, about the size of a football field. The place was packed with wall-to-wall people. You could hardly turn left or right without bumping into someone. I’m terrible at estimating … so I’m guessing the crowd was more than 2,000 but less than 4,000. One needs to take into account many areas that were ‘reserved’ for tables, sleeping areas, food booths, etc.
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SANITATION
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I have read that the authorities may use “sanitation issues” as a reason to evict the protestors. This is a bullshit lie. Considering the amount of people packed into this little area, I was amazed at how clean it was. Yes, there were a lot of posters and other PAPER on the ground. But, there was NO garbage. There was tons of actual garbage on Canal Street … trash bags broken and their crap strewn on the streets, 5 bags high by 40 bags long … but none of that at Zuccotti Park. I was following a fatty who just threw her hot dog wrapper on the ground. My tree-hugging sister was ready to pounce on her ass (seriously!) but almost immediately a kid sitting nearby picked up the wrapper, took it back to his area and put it in a bag. I was amazed. I walked up to the kid (I talked to everybody and anybody) and asked him why he did that. He said the cops are just looking for any excuse to shut them down. He said for the past several days various ‘leaders’ have been making an all out effort to go from table to table, and person to person, telling everyone that if they see garbage to just pick it up. And it’s working like a charm. There is no “sanitation problem” from what I could see.
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But, there is no place to pee or poop. At first they would just go across the street to the Burger King. They have since been banned, even if they go in to buy a coke or something. They’re now walking five city blocks just to take a crap. Ouch. There was that one picture of some guy taking a crap on a cop car. First of all, what’s wrong with that? Second, there is no way to validate that picture. It could be anybody, in any city, from any time. You probably won’t believe this but we saw some guy in the Little Italy area got out of his van … the light was red … whipped out his dick, and he just took a piss right there. Public urination in the city is a rite of passage. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take more than just a few people peeing and pooping before the smell becomes prevalent. There was no such odiferous problem in Zuccotti Park.
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DEMOGRAPHICS
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By Race —- The first thing immediately obvious was that the overwhelming majority were white. I’d say 90%., if not greater, where white. I’d say there were more Asians than blacks. I saw very very few blacks.
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By Age — Clearly, mostly young people. But not as big a majority as you might think. I’ll estimate that 25% were thirty years old and older. I’ll even go out on a limb and say 10% were old farts like me.
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By Hippies — I thought the 70’s were trying to make a comeback in Zuccotti Park. Old Hippies don’t die, I guess. Where the fuck does one buy tie-dyed t-shirts these days? Or skinny leather head bands? lol There were more than just a few older hippies scattered throughout the park. The only thing missing was the sweet smell of Mary Jane.
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THE POSTERS and SIGNS
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Holy Crap. There were a LOT of posters and signs. 95% of them home-made and individualistic. There were just a couple of mass-produced ones. Interestingly, one of them was a picture of Che Guevara. But I saw just maybe 10 or so people carrying them.
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When we got to the middle of the park it became clear why there were so many signs. There was an entire area reserved for sign making. It was open to anyone. The poster paper, paint, sticks, and ink were all free of charge. There was a small bucket for donations. It was full of one dollar bills. My sister threw in five bucks. There were two girls offering their help in making the posters. My guess is they were professionals or art students … some of the signs were really quite creative and attractive.
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At a whim, I decided to make my own “poster”.
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But I didn’t want to use their stuff. Thought I would leave that to more serious “protestors”. I had with me a pocket-sized notepad to make notes … index-sized 5”x3”. So, I took my ball point pen and scribbled, “Fuck Bankers”, and then proudly held it up. My sister laughed so hard at this spectacle, she almost cried. My son just shook his head.
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Not one minute passed before I was accosted by a middle aged woman angrily demanding what I meant. I swear to God. I decided to milk it. It went something pretty much like this according to my notes;
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“Why would you write such filth?”
“Because it’s true!”
“What’s true?”
“We need to fuck the bankers. It’s our only hope.”
“But without banks where would we put our money?”
“You don’t need money. Money is evil.”
“That’s stupid. You’re stupid.”
“You’re even stupider. Do you have money?”
“Yes. And you’d have money too if you got a job instead of wasting your time here.”
“I don’t need to work.”
“Again with another stupid comment. How will you get money to survive?”
“Me and people like me are going to steal money from rich people like you.”
“Go fuck yourself. I’m not rich. I just work hard for my money unlike you!” (She’s pretty much screaming at this point.)
“Fuck you too. You don’t know me. I’m just visiting from out of town”
“Where are you from?”
“Iowa. I raise pigs.”
“You are so full of shit. I’m done with you.”
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That’s pretty much almost verbatim. SJ and Chris of course were right behind me and they both were laughing their asses off. My son said, “Dad you’re nothing but a kid in an older body.”. I said, “Yeah, and I love it.”.
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Here are just some of the posters I saw (there were literally hundreds) …
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The people are 2 Big 2 Fail ———- Live Simply So We Can Simply Live ———- $30k in student loans just to get an imaginary job ———- Jesus is with the 99% ———- I am a fucking human being not a commodity ——— When injustice becomes law RESISTANCE becomes duty ———- we will leave Wall Street when you leave our pockets ———- You Can’t Bomb A Nation Into Democracy ———- The people are too big to fail ——— and my favorite, —- “I’ll bet you pay more attention to ME than to WALL STREET”.
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THE TABLES AND POLITICS
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There were quite a few “tables” set up throughout the park. Sometimes the table would be just a cardboard box with flyers or other printed material the person would hand out. The majority of the tables were manned by just one person. A true Public Square event. Anybody with a soapbox and something to say was free to do so. From what I could surmise there was no censorship. Think of it as The Burning Platform in a park. Any asshole with an opinion about whatthefuckever was free to give it. As for me, I absolutely loved it. Never saw anything quite like that before.
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I talked to everyone. If I were to write about every conversation I had then this post would be twenty pages long. Not only that, but you still wouldn’t have a “feel” for what it was about. Hell, I was there, and I still have no idea what the hell it was that I just witnessed. On the train ride back to Jersey my potty-mouthed sister asked me, “What the fuck did we just see??”. Hell, I dunno.
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All I can do is describe some of the tables and their materials. You’ll have to draw your own conclusions. But, in so doing you will inevitable draw the WRONG conclusions. Just like concluding that these people are “mobs” (by Fox News) because ONE lone guy supposedly took a shit on a cop car … you too would be making a wrong conclusion based on one table, two tables, or whatever. This movement isn’t about just one issue or even several issues …. or about one person’s opinion or several people’s opinion.
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Nay, it’s all of that, more than that, and sometimes none of that. Believe me, I know that sounds like nonsense. I used to make this hodge-podge stew with a TON of ingredients in them — several types of beans, spices galore, various meats, vegetables – sounds like shit but my kids loved it and when they were little they’d play this game with me; “Dad, does it have ‘X’ in it?” – “Yes, it has ‘X’ in it!!” — and it would get louder with each ingredient so by the end we were shouting at the top of our lungs. This movement seems to be like that. If you the movement to be “X” … then we’ll throw “X” in there just for you.
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1—The Commie Table

Actually, I saw two commie tables. One was pushing a book; “Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America” from the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. The guy urged me to go to revcom.us and get involved before it’s too late. The guy was kind of a dick so I told him I’m just a poor pig farmer from Iowa. He said the revolution in Russia started with workers just like me. Sigh. Whatever. So, I took his pamphlet and promised I’d raise pigs for the revolution if needed. He didn’t think I was very funny. Fuckin commie bastard.
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The other commie was much more interesting. Very well spoken. Dressed nicely. VERY passionate … handing out his commie paper to every person who walked by. Told me I MUST read the book BAsics by Bob Avakian. Excerpt from BAsics 3:1 – “Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit.” He spoke with an accent. Where you from, I asked. Russia, was the answer. He was in his 40’s … been in the USA for 15 years. So I asked him how he could possibly think Communism is the answer when it failed so miserably in his own country. He said there is nothing wrong with Communism itself, that it is the most just system available IF it is implemented correctly. He said communism in the old Soviet Union and elsewhere didn’t work because of greed and corruption. How odd, I thought, to be having this discussion on Wall Street. I asked him how would the same mistakes be prevented from occurring again. He said because he had faith in people being able to learn from past mistakes … “We’ll get it right this time!!”, he enthusiastically insisted. I didn’t know if I should admire his faith in humanity, or feel sorry for him. As I thanked him for his time he said, “Look, anything is better than what we have now.”.
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Shit, if I spend this much time on every table I’ll be here till tomorrow. I must be much more brief.
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2) — The End The Wars table

Manned by two Afghan War vets. Sharp guys … VERY sharp. Still had their military style haircuts. Cleanly shaven. Nicely dressed. Spoke with them only briefly. Asked them what kind of support they were getting. “Overwhelmingly for us”, said one. “20-1” said another. I put ten bucks in their coffee can. I wish I could have given more.
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3) — Grannies Against Wall Street table

Manned by three older grannies. No literature. But they had cookies. Sweet ladies gently telling people about evil bankers. It was like being at the First Baptist Church potluck and being gently told about the evils of sin.
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4) — Nurses for 99% table

Great looking babes there. TOO great looking for nurses. I think they were hookers.
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5) — Eradicate Student Debt table

I wasn’t able to ask any questions. Too many people in front of me. VERY lively discussions going on. Some of the kids felt the government should bail them out just like they bailed out the banks. Other kids shouted them down saying they just wanted a job so they could pay their bills. I would guess it was 60% for a bailout to 40% for a job.
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6) — The Obama table

Manned by two black guys. Had a big poster that said; “One Brilliant American Moving America Upward – a Standard of America”. In other words, OBAMA-USA …. get it? They were in the northeast corner of the park, near the street intersection so it was a busy area … we hung out there for about half an hour …. didn’t see even one person talking to them … neither did they solicit anyone. A dead zone. There were NO other political tables in terms of candidates. None. I saw one guy carrying a Ron Paul poster. I saw no other political candidate posters. None.
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7) — The Constitution Reader

In the same corner as above one guy was standing on a milk crate reading the Constitution. His voice was so hoarse he must have been doing it for hours. Could barely hear him even standing next to him. A few people asked him questions. His only response was, “Read the Constitution! There’s your answer! Three bucks! Costs less than a coffee!” (He was selling a “Constitution” pamphlet for three bucks.) Then he would go right back to reading from his pamphlet.
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8) Then there was ….

The Keep Post Offices Open table — the Energy Independence Table —- the One World Government table —- the Green Energy Table ……… the Restore Glass-Steagal table ……… the Sustainable Agriculture table ……… so many tables, so little time. I gotta go back next week.
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9) The Union table

NOT!!!! Not even one table. I keep hearing from the MSM how this movement has been, is, whatever … infiltrated by union groups. Bull-fucking-shit. Unlike Yojimbo’s post, I didn’t even see any marchers or other people in the crowd with pro or even ant-union shirts, posters, etc. Bull-fucking-shitters and cocksucking liars … that’s what the MSM is.
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THE COPS
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Police presence was clearly visible EVERYWHERE. ALL four sides of the park. I counted 63 just on the Liberty Street side. At various times throughout the day and night a police helicopter hovered directly above the park for 10 – 15 minutes at a time. A guy sitting next to me holding a “Democracy Not Plutocracy” sign said it was an intimidation tactic. “Are cops intimidating the protestors?”, I asked. “Absolutely.”, he said. So, I watched them for a while.
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In fact, I followed two of them for about twenty minutes as they walked around. Walking around like they owned the joint. Not once ever taking their hands off their guns or batons. I taller more muscular cop was a real prick. Several times he’d walk up to one of the tables and bark out an order for them to pick up some papers on the ground. Not in a nice way … I mean he barked them out … like, if you don’t obey this lawful order I will bust your ass. When he was walking around the perimeter he’d tell anyone who was just standing there to “Move along!!”. I was no more than five feet behind him. At one point he turned around and asked if I was following him. I said, “No, but I am taking notes.” Holy shit. He glared long and hard at me. I glared back. Christine pulled me back into the main area and we walked away. I turned around a minute or two later and the fucker was still staring at me.
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I tried starting a friendly conversation on three separate occasions. Two of them gave me one word answers. One didn’t even do that, but just stared at me. He must have been related to the cocksucker above.
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Most of you know I can’t stand cops. So, maybe you should take this section of my report with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I got a distinctly uneasy feeling about these guys and their hardass attitudes. If and when the order comes to disperse the crowds, I’m pretty sure most of them will do so with glee and gusto.
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On the other hand, the protestors were peaceful. Except for the commie guy who wanted a revolution, I didn’t see a single sign or poster espousing even a hint of violence. When the muscle-bound douchebag cop ordered folks to pick up pieces of paper they complied immediately. The protestors I talked too were friendly and even respectful when I disagreed with them, which was often. If this erupts into violence you can bet your last dollar that it was instigated by the cops.
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THE TV CAMERAS
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We saw two News Crews filming. Channel 7 and 5. I think they’re local affiliates of ABC and Fox respectively. Funny thing happened once the cameras started rolling. People starting acting all batshit crazy. It was really really funny to see how people react to a rolling camera. I’ve always known that people do weird ass shit on camera — but, it’s another thing to see it in person. As soon as the cameras stopped rolling it was back to being a church picnic. So, please, next time you see some …gasp!! … *** BREAKING NEWS*** horsehit from Fox, CNN, etc., please do take it with a very large grain of salt. It’s almost always staged bullshit.
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THE CONFRONTATION
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Some guy was standing next to us as we sipping our Starbucks coffee. I turned to him and said, “This is pretty amazing, isn’t it?”. He took that as an opportunity to go into a 5 minute long monolog about everything wrong with America. He said Obama is destroying this motherfucking country. “Motherfucking” was used every other word. I wanted to ask him if he ever logged on to TBP but I couldn’t get in a motherfucking word. So, Christine says she’s an Obama supporter. That’s OK he says, the Republicans are all motherfuckers as well. Then he went through every single candidate. Motherfucking Romney. Motherfucking Cain. Motherfucking Paul. And so on.
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At this point SJ says he wants to go and that he’s not comfortable with the situation. Well, now the guy goes off on SJ. Calls him a motherfucking moron for not wanting to be involved in the motherfucking process. “Hold on,” I say, “that’s my son you’re talking too.”. I wasn’t in the least bid angry at this point. I was kind of enjoying the show. Anyway, he says, “That’s OK. My son is a motherfucking moron also.”
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Right at that very moment my son, SJ, threw his coffee at the guy. Hit him right in the eye. Fortunately, the cup was practically empty … there was just a small coffee stain on the guys shirt. But the guy went absolutely motherfucking apeshit. “You’re dead you motherfucking moron!!!” the guy literally screamed at the top of his voice. Everyone one near us stopped and looked. He lunged at SJ. I jumped in between them. His fists are flailing wildly and he lands a couple body shots. No big deal … didn’t feel a thing.
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It took about a minute but I was able to get the guy calmed down. I apologized profusely. I told him were from out of town and I would punish my son severely when we got back to the pig farm. I don’t know why I like to fuck with people even when there’s danger involved, but I just do. Anyway, the pig farm seemed to intrigue him and I answered a few questions about pig farming. I apologized again, and we even shook hands as we departed. I did give SJ a pretty harsh and loud tongue-lashing right there and then in front of everyone. I was truly pissed. Jeezus H Crist. What a stupid thing to do!!! But, we laughed about it on the train ride home.
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CONCLUSION

My sister and I just couldn’t come to any kind of “bottom-line” conclusion of what we just witnessed. There were just so many issues being displayed … often conflicting. It seemed there were as many opinions as there were people … often conflicting.

There is absolutely nothing I can point to and say, “OWS is this.”. And anyone who claims they can do so is full of shit, in my humble opinion.

I’m not even sure half of them could accurately explain WHY we got here. I’m pretty sure not even 5% can explain HOW to get out of this mess.

That being said, I feel safe in saying that everyone I spoke with would agree with this simple statement;

“I’VE BEEN FUCKED OVER, I DON’T SEE A WAY OUT, AND I’M REALLY PISSED ABOUT IT.”

THAT — to me – is what this movement is all about at this point in time.

I spoke with smart people and people I thought were dumbassess. I spoke with young, middle-aged, and old folks. And with people with jobs and without jobs. I spoke with people who probably don’t have a pot to piss in and with people who obviously weren’t hurting for money. The people who just wanted free shit were relatively few so, the MSM can go fuck themselves when they lie about this being a “class envy” movement. I defy the motherfucking morons who try to pin a label on this movement.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Good luck and good night.

138 Comments

KaD says:

Well done Stucky.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 25 1

21st October 2012 at 9:57 pm
DavosSherman says:

Super read. Your kid has passion. Wish the coffee cup was full and scolding hot. The guy was a douchebag.

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21st October 2012 at 10:07 pm
Smokey says:

How long did it take you to write that?

BTW, I laughed my ass off at the dialogue between you and the lady.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 26 1

21st October 2012 at 10:08 pm
platoplubius says:

Nice observations..
“I’VE BEEN FUCKED OVER, I DON’T SEE A WAY OUT, AND I’M REALLY PISSED ABOUT IT.”
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I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 17 1

21st October 2012 at 10:26 pm
Yojimbo says:

“My sister and I just couldn’t come to any kind of “bottom-line” conclusion of what we just witnessed. There were just so many issues being displayed … often conflicting. It seemed there were as many opinions as there were people … often conflicting.”

I agree with Stuck. There is no one predominant political view in this movement. Everyone knows they’ve been fucked. They know it involves money, banks, government, and thievery. Everyone has a different opinion about what should happen. But they definitely know that the government no longer represents them, it represents the lobbyists and corporations.

Anyone who says they can pigeon-hole this movement is a liar.

Excellent reporting. I hope we can see more reports like this from anyone who wishes to contribute, even if they are not TBP regulars.

Anecdotes are important. They tell more truth than the news does these days.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 21 1

21st October 2012 at 10:38 pm
Dragline says:

Really great report.

But you were really stupid to walk from Penn Station all the way downtown! Glad you saw/ate some interesting things on the way.

Now, which corner was that Nurse’s table on?

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 18 1

21st October 2012 at 10:43 pm
llpoh says:

Stuck – you are damned lucky the old lady didn’t kick your ass up and down the street. I don’t blame her one bit. Telling her you were going to steal her money was cause enough.

Thanks for the post.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 13 0

21st October 2012 at 11:09 pm
Goldorack says:

a bunch of softies if compared with angry Greeks equiped with standard gas bottle and steel rod.

but I have no doubt it will go postal at the first spray of teargas.
it will be delayed until the printer runs out of paper

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21st October 2012 at 11:20 pm
Zara says:

That was a terrific, insightful and hilarious writeup Stuck.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 18 1

21st October 2012 at 11:24 pm
TeresaE says:

Thank you so much for sharing this with us Stuck. Just thanks.

You crack me up, an Iowan pig farmer. Reminds me of when I was young and my best friend and I would venture to a “big city” and take on alternative identities, I always used my using my local cop shop number as my home phone number for those douches that don’t give up. I’m sure that the cops hated me for that.

“I’VE BEEN FUCKED OVER, I DON’T SEE A WAY OUT, AND I’M REALLY PISSED ABOUT IT.”

WE’VE been fucked over, There is NO way out, and it is about fucking time somebody else got pissed about it. Amen.

The commies are classic, faith in people indeed. Reminds me of the far right that insists criminalizing personal morality will eventually work. Trillions of dollars, thousands of jails, and cops like the dick you encountered in the park, haven’t worked, but we surely believe that it will. Yep, yep, yep. And we’ll demonize single moms trying to pay their bills to do so. Just like commies will take everything you work for today, to give to the non-workers, and you will still be stupid enough to go to work tomorrow. Sure we will.

I’m glad you enjoyed a break from your new lifestyle and enjoyed the street treats. We don’t have those here – pretty much never allowed “for our safety” – so I am a sucker for the warm smells and my sugar demon kicks in.

Your kid has gumption, I applaud it. I hope it doesn’t get his ass kicked eventually. Smartasses, quick to the trigger eventually meet people tougher and faster than they are. Not that I would know anything about that, nope, not me.

Hugs you big ole American, thanks for the quality field reporting and examples proving how dangerous our “news” has become.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 21 0

21st October 2012 at 11:32 pm
Stucky says:

Thank you all for the nice comments, folks.

Smokey, it took me about four hours to write. Not the fastest typer in the world. I started out just writing random thoughts as they popped in my head. Then I read it over and thoiugt, “Shit, this makes no sense.”. So, I had to cut and paste for an hour. Probably a dumb way to do it.

I need to call it a night. I’ve ignored Ms Freud for too long today. She is a needy person. lol

I’m looking forward to hopefully even more responses tomorrow.

If there are any questions I’ll be delighted to answer them tomorrow.

G’night.

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21st October 2012 at 11:49 pm
Stucky says:

One more pic.

Stucky with his AWSOME home made “Fuck Bankers” sign !!!

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21st October 2012 at 11:50 pm
Stucky says:

That’s small. (So she said!)

Maybe this one is bigger. (So I said). If not … so solly.

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21st October 2012 at 11:52 pm
SSS says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5M_Ttstbgs

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 12:14 am
AKAnon says:

Thanks Stuck-great read: informative and amusing as hell. I’m glad to hear the unions aren’t running the show.

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21st October 2012 at 12:41 am
Colma Rising says:

Her StuchenMeister:

Thank you and your crazy old ass. You did it. You went and saw for yourself and you told us what is.

It is incumbent on us all to turn off the fucking television, snap that radio dial to music and at the very least, do some legwork… if not in person, then on the net.

Good for you, man. You did a great service. We need more folks like you to counter the spoon fulls of utter shit being fed to the hypnotized masses.

Her StuchenMeister the Bavarian Beatnick.

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21st October 2012 at 12:43 am
ecliptix543 says:

Awesome tale!! So, contrary to MSM storyline in just about every conceivable way, hmm? That figures. Alright guys and girls — we’ve now had first hand real reporting from a few cities. I’m planning on checking out the Jax, FL protests this weekend. Who else is nearby to one of these events? We could put together stories and pictures/videos and compile it into a truthful report, then send to all the major alt media sites and get the word out in a major way. Fuck the MSM, fuck the MAN, fuck the COPS, and FUCK BANKERS!!!! (Classic sign there, Stucky )

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 14 1

21st October 2012 at 1:47 am
Terry says:

Outstanding report, Stucky.

OWS is jello that can’t be nailed to a tree …and the American media hates that.

Being a musician, I sometimes get songs stuck in my head. All day I’ve had Bob Dylan’s “Ballad Of A Thin Man” lodged there:

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

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21st October 2012 at 3:41 am
zara says:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynlW5_rnRVE

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21st October 2012 at 4:17 am
Stan says:

“”I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount of that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn’t help, then being beheaded”

Rosanne Barr

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21st October 2012 at 5:24 am
bigargon says:

Brilliant work Stucky! Gotta love the Pig Farmer routine.

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21st October 2012 at 5:26 am
Yojimbo says:

Where are the reports from other Occupy sites around the country? Does the Burning Platform have NO readers in Austin, or Seattle, or DC, or Chicago?

And participate! March with them and bring signs that challenge their beliefs and scope them out.

I brought a pro-capitalist sign to see if the reports were true, as Herman Cain lied, that the protesters were all anti-capitalists.

I was at the Tea Party Protest on Boston Common when it began, and I have been at the Occupy Boston protest on Boston Common.

Ignore the left-right paradigm! The left-right model only will calcify into being when the movement gets co-opted. Stop it from beng co-opted by bringing your views and wisdom to the marches.

I especially want to hear of the Chicago Occupy. If there is anywhere that will be co-opted by the Democratic Machine, it will be Chicago.

How many members does this site have? Is there no one brave enough to go and take pictures and ask questions and then post their anecdotes here?

This is direct participatory democracy! This is what the Sons of Liberty did when they fought tyranny. They compiled reports, and communicated, and printed missives filled with ideas and philosophy, and agitated, and actually got physical by designating liberty poles and LIBERTY TREES. These are physical acts. Did no one watch Johnny Tremain? Google Liberty Tree – there is still a building in Boston on Washington Street with the image of the Liberty Tree at the location where it stood.

At some point, dissent must become physical, not just blogosphere ranting and moaning.

This movement is a train, and the train will leave the station soon, and either the train will reflect your beliefs and concerns and understanding, or it won’t because YOU DIDN’T PARTICIPATE.

If you’re worried about the movement being too leftist and run by college kids, then get involved.

At some point, like the original founding fathers, YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOME SKIN IN THE GAME.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 1

21st October 2012 at 6:12 am
Anonymous says:

Great read Stuck.
What the commie said about collectivism working if it were only implemented properly mirrors waht Cain and Romney is saying about TARP .TARP would have worked if it had been implemented properly.
Yeah, those last guys didn’t know jack, but you can trust US.
Einstein absolutely nailed it the definition of insanity when he described it as doing the same thing over and over, each time expecting different results.
People who put their faith in government are fucking insane.
Thanks for a little clarity , but it will not get you in a a Faux Newz contribution, beside the fact you hair isn’t peroxide blonde, your boobs aren’t pumped enough and you haven’t offered to blow Rupert Murdoch .

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 2

21st October 2012 at 7:30 am
flash says:

the last post. yep, mine.

Hot debate. What do you think? 6 2

21st October 2012 at 7:31 am
Welshman says:

Stuck,

Good story, and the undercover pig farmer was a hit. I would have loved to see you and the older lady having a love fest arguement on U-Tube.

You watch the resentment grow, it will go like this 99%, 98%, 97%, etc. Greece is most likely 60% feel and see the “Free Shit” being pulled off the table. Feeling poorer and having no back stop in a society like ours is gut wrenching. At least you Stucky can go back to the pig farm and make a living.

A lot of these people see their “station in life” is being eroded away with the back stops vanishing and no gainful employment on the horizon. Then they see the cops on O/T, politicians, bankers, and corporation titans living the good life, and not one of these fuckers in jail.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 0

21st October 2012 at 8:21 am
Administrator says:

Stuck

Fantastic, truthful analysis of what is really happening. Following that cop and telling him you were taking notes takes some pretty big balls.

Avalon, myself and my two Millenials are headed to OWS on Saturday morning. I’ll be bringing TBP cards and Ron Paul flyers to hand out.

Thanks for your great write-up and example of doing something and getting involved rather than just bitching on a website.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 15 0

21st October 2012 at 8:25 am
newsjunkie says:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 15 0

21st October 2012 at 8:37 am
newsjunkie says:

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21st October 2012 at 8:49 am
Thinker says:

Yojimbo, I’ll head over to Chicago’s today and will report back. The issue here is that multiple protests have all combined with the Occupy movement, so it’s difficult to see who’s protesting what. We’ve had marches on conferences (bankers and financial brokers), but there are also hotel-union protests going on that have commingled with the real Occupy movement. SEIU is funding the Chicago protesters with food and materials; last report is that they’ve given $3000 so far.

I’ll check it out and see if it’s being co-opted yet or not.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 0

21st October 2012 at 9:17 am
eugend66 says:

Zara, +1 ! Keep the faith. Stucky, +2.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 0

21st October 2012 at 9:26 am
jmarz says:

Stuck

You are the man. Thanks for sharing your experience with everyone. Your story really helps put this movement into perspective. Very, very interesting story. By the way, I agree with Smokey on how hilarious the dialogue was between you and that lady. I was laughing my ass off as I read that dialogue. I thought it was funny that you decided to run with the pig farm in Iowa idea. Pretty damn funny.

It’s cool that you were exposed to so many different ideas and beliefs. I would have never thought I would have seen what I have seen in the past few years happen in this country. I’m a young fella so I haven’t been around very long but I would have never imagined our country talking openly about ending the Fed or even the American people creating a Tea Party movement. Times are changing and I feel blessed that I can at least witness the change. I’m a realist when it comes to economics but at heart, I’m an optimist when it comes to life. I do believe our country will have a bright future. We are just going to have to go through much pain and suffering before we can become great again. The question politicians and Americans need to ask themselves is do we want to drag this out and make the transistion worse and harder to implement or do we want to deal with it NOW and get down to business. I know the Boomers (TBP members excluded) and the FSA want to drag this out so they can milk the system as long as possible at the cost of future generations but I’m ready to buckle up now. Fuck it. Vote for Ron Paul and there is hope. Vote for anybody else and we will have long bumpy road.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 13 0

21st October 2012 at 9:52 am
matt says:

Thanks Stuck, great reporting!

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 11 0

21st October 2012 at 10:34 am
Maddie's Mom says:

Just superb, Stucky!!!

A huge “Thank You!” for taking the time to be there and then share with all of us.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 0

21st October 2012 at 10:41 am
Thunderbird says:

Thanks Stucky for the informative article. My take from it is we are difinately living in a police state where the people have no representation or mechanism to air their grievances with the government. There are so many issues that need to be addressed and no one in government is listening. How sad.

The police are the enforcers of government policy. Since the bankers now control everything (because they control the money) and so they control government policy. The police might as well be robo-cops because they are operating; it seems, under mind control. Why is it that they cannot be kind to people? It is simple; they are empty human shells with no love in them; just like their masters.

There is no denying it; we the people have lost our representation in this country. The police reflect this reality. The only place we have left to air our grievances is in public displays as our letters and emails with our concerns go unanswered. The ruling elite don’t like this form of public display of the peoples’ grievances; especially if it attracts more attention from the people. You can bet that many administrative laws and regulations are available that will be used to break up these assemblies. The “rule of law” will be used (misused) to their advantage to break up these calls of the people for justice.

The ruling elite have made the police the enemy of the people. The police have been made into the instruments of the ruling class to enforce their policies. My friend, it is when the police no longer “serve and protect” but become enforcers of arbitrary laws, rules, and regulations, that they become an enemy of the people. We are there in many cities.

What happens next is the call of the ruling elite. Either they begin to listen to the grievances of the people and deal with them in a positive way or trouble is coming to town. It seems from your report that the people are bending over backwards to comply with all the rules being imposed upon them. But being under the shadow of authority; if this authority decides to impose it’s will over the calls of the people for justice; then the situation may get nasty… stupidity on the part of the authorities could spread the seeds of revolution. And the commies are there to take advantage.

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21st October 2012 at 11:20 am
Colma Rising says:

Stuck victoriously plants a flag at OWS…

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 11:24 am
Stucky says:

I’d like to second what Jojimbo said …. and what Admin and Thinker (so far) are gonna do ….

and that is, GO to one of these events in your city.

Really, I can’t urge my fellow TBPers strongly enough to try to find the time to go to an event if you can.

First, I promise you will enjoy it.Second, I would LOVE to hear from folks in cities all over the country details on THEIR city’s OWS. It would be so beneficial for all of us — the thousands who log on to TBP weekly — to get a taste of the REAL truth, and not MSM lies. You would be doing all of us a great service.

Again, please consider it while you still can.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 11:32 am
Stucky says:

T-bird

The authorities will not allow bullhorns in the park. So, the kids built a giant bullhorn out of paper mache’ —- about 6 feet long by 4 feet high. A nice, quiet “fuck you” and your rules. It was precious.

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21st October 2012 at 11:37 am
Muck About says:

Great tale, Stucky. Your icon does not do justice for the real thing!

MA

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 12:12 pm
Thunderbird says:

Wouldn’t it be something if these assemblies of people now gathering to air their grievances against the establishment includes grievances against their own local governments and all the arbitrary regulations made against the activities of people living in their local juristictions. Activities like setting up lemonade stands, haunted houses on ones own property, and many other activities on one’s own property. City council people are unfairly using administrative law to limit the constitutional activites of the people. This is arbitrary rule that used to be alien to our society. It is not right. It has to be turned around and respect for law abiding people has to return.

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21st October 2012 at 12:51 pm
AWD says:

Stuck:

Good job. You forgot to mention the smell of piss in NYC.

You could have knocked out a cop or two by swinging those man-titties into action.

Keep going to the gym, I recommend bench presses and dumbell flies.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 2

21st October 2012 at 12:54 pm
brann says:

stuck—this is why i read this site faithfully–the unvarnished truth–no holds barred—fucking masterpiece!

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 0

21st October 2012 at 4:25 pm
Stucky says:

The OWS people are aware of attempts to co-opt and/or infiltrate the movement.

This is their first statement in that regard.

================================================================

Welcome to the #OWS 99% Movement “We Will NOT Be Co-Opted” Working Group

October 7th, 2011

This is not an official statement from the #OWS 99% Movement. As a decentralized leaderless movement, in our opinion, there is no one group, organization, website or individual who can speak for the movement as a whole.

We, a working group of people currently occupying Liberty Park and many other locations throughout the US, are growing increasingly concerned about divide and conquer attempts being made to co-opt the movement. In the following message, we are issuing our first proposed statement. If you agree with the statement, please post it to your website and/or spread it throughout your social networks, both online and offline at occupations throughout the country. If you would like to read this statement at your local GA meetings and vote or edit it, feel free. If you disagree with the statement, please air your disagreements – this is what democracy looks like.

We appreciate, respect and encourage endorsements from individuals and organizations. We invite them. However, just because an individual or organization endorses our movement, does not mean that they in any way have a leadership role in deciding the future direction of this movement. We will not be co-opted by hierarchical organizations. No matter how wonderful their cause may be.

There are many people, organizations and media outlets within both the Democratic and Republican parties who are trying to label us as the Democrat’s version of the Tea Party. In this working groups opinion, not only is this incorrect, but in labeling us this way, you are, whether you realize it or not, undermining the very essence of this movement with your obsolete divide and conquer groupthink propaganda. Just as the mainstream media and both political parties aided and abetted the co-option of the Tea Party by the Republican Party, there is an attempt being made to do the same to us within the Democratic Party.

We the People, We the 99%, are not the pawns of either wing of the two-party oligarchy.

We emphatically reject the attempted leadership of any political party, organization or individual. If there are elected officials or organizations who endorse our movement, we welcome them.

However, they must do so knowing this: Your voice will be just as loud as any other voice. We are led by no one. You cannot co-opt We The People.

Respect Us.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 0

21st October 2012 at 4:28 pm
Stucky says:

Well, folks

It looks to me like SHIT WILL HIT THE FAN

sometime tomorrow

A classic standoff;

—– Bloomberg: Leave the park. It’s unsanitary.
—– OWS; “We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.”

I don’t have a crystal ball. I generally hate predictions. But I think it will be a Bloody Friday.

Crying in my heart.
.
====================================================================

EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION: Prevent the Forcible Closure of #OccupyWallStreet’s Liberty Park!

October 13th, 2011

Tell Bloomberg: Don’t Foreclose the Occupation.

NEED MASS TURN-OUT: 6AM FRIDAY EVICTION DEFENSE

This is an emergency situation. Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. “Cleaning” was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere.

Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants must follow the “rules”. These rules include, “no tarps or sleeping bags” and “no lying down.”

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that they will move in to clear us and we will not be allowed to take sleeping bags, tarps, personal items or gear back into the park.

So, seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION:

1) Call 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK if you’re out of town) and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS.

2) Come to #OWS on FRIDAY AT 6AM to defend the occupation from eviction.

Occupy Wall Street is committed to keeping the park clean and safe — we even have a Sanitation Working Group whose purpose this is. We are organizing major cleaning operations today and will do so regularly.

If Bloomberg truly cares about sanitation here he should support the installation of portopans and dumpsters. #OWS allies have been working to secure these things to support our efforts.

We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street. Billionaire Bloomberg is beholden to bankers.

We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.

.
http://ampedstatus.org/emergency-call-to-action-prevent-the-forcible-closure-of-occupywallstreets-liberty-park/

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 4:39 pm
Stucky says:

Maybe me and my flying man titties should go and bitch slap the cop that glared at me.

Actual photo of my Moobs.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 4:43 pm
llpoh says:

Stuck – if you keep posting photos of yourself you are gonna run off all the members. Have some consideration. We aren’t blind you know. We have to actually look at that shit to get to the next post.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 11 0

21st October 2012 at 4:47 pm
Zara says:

Looks like SHTF on Friday. Bloomberg has ordered the park cleared for “cleaning.” http://occupywallst.org/forum/emergency-call-action-prevent-forcible-closure-occ/

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 4:50 pm
Administrator says:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 14 1

21st October 2012 at 4:51 pm
Yojimbo says:

Thinker has stated that he will report from Chicago.

Who will be next? Who will stand up and attend an event of OWS and truthfully report?

Who will march with them and see if they will tolerate conservative and alternative views to the left-leaning philosophies?

Who among us (as John Kerry would say) will step forward and volunteer to observe, participate and report back truthfully?

Who among us will begin to take OWS viral by posting signs and placards in open public spaces, photographing it, and posting it on TBP?

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 4:58 pm
Administrator says:

Protesters – And Perhaps States – Consider Launching Their Own Currency

Posted on October 13, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

Protesters Consider Launching Their Own Currency

David DeGraw – a key organizer in the Occupy Wall Street protests – reports:

From last night’s GA [Occupy Wall Street "General Assembly"] meeting: “Work began today on a proposal trying to implement a currency for this movement. The Wall Street banks and their best customers, the multinational corporations control the source and flow of $$$$. This is an open invitation for you to join us in this process! We will be meeting at 11am every day, every week, until we’re done, at the red cube in the Southeast corner of Liberty Park.”

The Powers-That-Be Don’t Like Competitive Currencies
As I’ve previously noted, the average life expectancy for a fiat currency is 27 years … every 30 to 40 years the reigning monetary system fails and has to be retooled.

Uncle Sam obviously benefits enormously – and is able to get away at least temporarily with trade deficits, costly wars, etc. – because the dollar has been the world’s reserve currency (although that role is quickly slipping away).

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, experts say that the current money-creation system is the exact opposite of what everyone thinks. In fact, loans are created first, and then “money” is created second to fund the loans. And some experts say we don’t even need money in the traditional sense.

As such – even though the Fed doesn’t like competition (all of our bills are “Federal Reserve Notes”) – there is actually tremendous flexibility in creating currency systems, as long as there is agreement by enough people to use them and accept them as payment.

Local Currencies Help Get Money Flowing … Especially In Tough Times

USA Today pointed out in 2009 that local communities are printing their own currencies in a Depression-era move to keep cash flowing.

And John Stossel noted in March:

The Cleveland Federal Reserve notes that private currencies have even helped the economy function in the past: During the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve failed to keep enough currency in the economy – so some companies issued their own currencies and helped fill the void.

We are in tough times, so alternative currencies could be helpful.

But the Department of Justice prosecutes people who make currency which resembles official U.S. coins or bills – and labels them terrorists. So the protesters should stay away from any currency which looks like U.S. dollars or coins.

States Starting to Break Away Monetarily?

In potentially related news, Ron Hera claims:

Earlier this week I attended the Utah Monetary Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah [here's the list of presenters]. As you may know, the state of Utah passed a Legal Tender Act earlier this year authorizing the use of federally minted gold and silver coins as money in the state of Utah. Now, legislators in other states, many of whom attended the Monetary Summit, are evaluating similar legislation.

Among other things, this means … states are beginning to financially break away from the federal government…. The Utah Monetary Declaration … is a financial declaration of independence whereby states are beginning to opt out of the Federal Reserve System.

Time will tell whether or not he is right.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 5:03 pm
Stucky says:

“But the Department of Justice prosecutes people who make currency which resembles official U.S. coins or bills ”

You mean like this?

OK. No problem.

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21st October 2012 at 5:09 pm
Thinker says:

Headed out in about an hour, Yojimbo.

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21st October 2012 at 5:14 pm
Punk in Drublic says:

Great post Stucky.

It was sad to see the tea party get bashed relentlessly by the liberals, just as it is to see the OWS get bashed by the conservatives. You have done a real service.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 1

21st October 2012 at 5:50 pm
ecliptix543 says:

Bright and early Saturday morning – Occupy Jax.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 6:03 pm
Stucky says:

Here is a very well written report from a NYC protestor.

=======================================================================

Reflections from a Wall Street Occupier: We Are Winning – What Do We Want?

October 13th, 2011
By Yotam Marom

The Movement Is Growing

Liberty Plaza is teeming with people gathering for assemblies, talking politics, or meeting in work teams. 300 occupiers are listening intently to a lecture on participatory economics, while others are posing for pictures with the enormous golden calf made and donated by local interfaith leaders. There are people passing by on their way to work, travelers getting off tour buses to take pictures, students from local high schools being toured around. There are people from the Bronx and Bed-Stuy, Minneapolis and Madrid. There are drag queens networking with transit workers, Rabbis leading a thousand people through a Yom Kippur ceremony, and members of the People of Color Caucus planning to “Occupy the Hood.” People are doing yoga, teaching composting techniques, cleaning the square, and livestreaming the occupation to its million viewers worldwide. Some even manage to steal a few hours of sleep amidst all the commotion.

Last night, while on the phone with a journalist (who wouldn’t have returned our phone calls two weeks ago but is now begging us to say something, anything), I stumbled upon an impromptu demonstration at the famed Charging Bull. This was only blocks away from a pop-up Occupy Wall Street art exhibition, which happened to be across the street from a towering financial building newly donned with a banner reading – “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.” Downtown Manhattan is an occupied zone, a bustling revolutionary city-center. People are taking the struggle on the road, expanding it, pushing it forward. We are making the movement part of our lives, and our lives part of the movement.

Over 100 cities in the US have active occupations right now, with more than 1,300 cities hosting formal meetings to plan for them. At the rate of change in this movement today, by the time this piece gets edited and published in a day, the numbers will be higher. Hundreds of cities around the country and the world will be carrying out actions in unison on October 15th. Unions and community organizations have joined the fight, and national organizations are trying to decide how to best join the movement without thwarting or co-opting it (which frankly, they couldn’t do, even if they tried). The pundits are conjecturing their heads off, while politicians of all stripes scuttle about, trying to figure out just how to try to use us. And yes, they are talking about us in Congress and in the White house, even sending their messengers to the occupation itself.

They would be fools not to. We are winning.

We Are Winning

Every once in a while, in the course of some enormous struggle, those driven, tired, frazzled fighters have a moment or two to stop and think, to pick our heads up and look ahead. I had a moment like that a few days ago, and that’s when it hit me – like a blow to the head: We are winning. We are winning.

Sure, we haven’t captured government institutions, haven’t smashed the banks and the classes that control them, haven’t even won concrete reforms or come up with solid institutions to protect our gains. We aren’t even close to finishing the fight or creating the world we wish to live in. But – alongside revolutionaries around the world – we have helped to unlock the hidden and slumbering potential of millions of people, ready to believe again that there is an alternative. We have reignited hope in the possibility of a free society, punctured a small hole in the hegemony of cynicism, liberated some space in our hearts and our minds to gather the strength to fight and to dream. What was inconceivable just a month ago is now so very real.

And then the second part of the thought hit me: If we are winning, then what do we want?

What Do We Want?

The media and politicians call us muddle-headed, and confused. They claim we have no demands or purpose. Well, let’s set the record straight. It’s not that we don’t have demands; it’s that we speak them in a different language. We speak them with our struggle. Our movement is made up of people fighting for jobs, for schools, for debt relief, equitable housing, and healthcare. We are resisting ecological destruction, imperialism, racism, patriarchy, and crony-capitalism. We are doing it all in a way that is participatory, democratic, fierce, and unwavering. There is nothing very vague about that.

But we do not stop there. That, perhaps, is what sets us apart from those who wish to use our tremendous and growing power for small gains or modest reforms. We want more. We want it all. We want a political and economic system that we all actually control together, one that is equitable and humane, one that allows for people to self-manage but act in solidarity, one that is participatory and democratic to its core. We want a world where people have the right to their own identities, communities, and cultures, and the freedom from oppression and constraint. We want a world with institutions that take care of our youth, our elderly, and our families in ways that are nurturing, liberating, and consensual. We want a world in which community is not a hamper on individual freedom, but rather an expression of its fullest potential.

If that’s not a clear enough statement of demands for you, CNN, I don’t know what to tell you. And you know what? We’re only getting warmed up.

As we keep fighting, we will continue to ask ourselves difficult questions. What world do we envision? What values do we want to live by? What institutions do we need in order to live those values? What structures will we build to protect what we’ve won and create a platform for continued struggle? What will we win for ourselves, and what will we win for generations to come? How will we fight these enormous battles in a way that is both effective and reflective of the new world we are ushering in?

October 15th and Beyond

Make no mistake about it, we are not aimless; we simply speak a different language – a language of mutual respect, participation, self-management, and action. We make our demands in this language that screams that we are here for the long-run, that our goal is not merely reform, that our vision is deep and radical, that we will not be bought off or co-opted, and that we are prepared to struggle in order to win not only those gains we can pronounce now but also those we can’t even fully articulate yet. We claim our space through actions that shout that we are here to stay, that this movement isn’t going home, that we are winning already, and that there is no turning back. We build this movement through the firm and fearless declaration that another world is possible, and that anything less is unacceptable.

You will see our demands plastered on subway walls, scrawled on hanging banners, tweeted across oceans, marched on the shoulders of hundreds of thousands, shouted in unison from millions of streets, windows, and computers screens. You will see them all over the world, from post-industrial cities to the country-sides, from capitals to shanty-towns. You will see them expressed in the streets of New York City on October 15th, when we bring the battle straight to the banks – those shiny little storefronts of finance capital. You will see our demands when we descend on the fluorescent decadence of Times Square and re-decorate it with our humanity.

Yes, we speak a different language, a fearless and visionary one. We are shouting, with every ounce of passion and strength we can muster: Of course there is an alternative. It is us.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 6:47 pm
Thinker says:

Just left Occupy Chicago and jotting this down from the bus before I forget it. So forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

Mostly Millies, but very diverse. Signs about everything __ “we are the 99%” to Constitutional quotes. Peaceful assembly, right to abolish our government if it no longer fits us, etc.

Talked to a few of the kids. Most can’t find work despite doing all the right things. Many working part-time jobs. Feel sold out by their gov’t who focuses on business at the expense of Americans. Want change. But not sure what, just yet. Putting bankers in jail or investigating fraud would be a good start.

Expected to find a number of unuion supporters but didn’t. Saw no Police. But then, it was pouring down rain. About 100 people/protesters overall, camped on a corner bwtn BoA HQ and the CBOT. Will go back in a couple of days when the weather is better; they’re supposed to be moving to avoid fines for being in the public way.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 0

21st October 2012 at 7:04 pm
Colma Rising says:

Stuck, you lied. The news says that the park is unsanitary. The news says that the Occupants have rendered the park to be in dire need of pressure-washing.

You should be ashamed of yourself as you are now EXPOSED as a communist, anti-semitic, leftist plant.

The news said so.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 8:07 pm
Administrator says:

I think they are cleaning the park because they heard I was going on Saturday.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 8:14 pm
Colma Rising says:

Admin… I think it’s going to be a tear-gas pressure wash. Stay safe.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 0

21st October 2012 at 8:22 pm
AWD says:

Stucky:

You’re lucky, you can drop by the protests whenever you want. I am utterly amazed what a non-issue the protests are around here. Not surprising though. Good reporting, keep it coming.

I was thinking about your moobs while I was at the gym today, for some reason. They aren’t as big as the back-boobs on this chick at the gym. She was as wide as she was tall. Kinda puts a damper on a work-out. Keep the faith my friend, the moobs will disappear soon enough. Sometimes a little negative feedback is good for motivational purposes. Then again, maybe not.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 8:25 pm
Pirate Jo says:

AWD, at least she was at the gym. I am not in fighting shape yet, but I will NEVER, and I mean NEVER!!! – diss on a fat person who made it to the gym. You know what they are going through, being all fat and shit, going to work out with a bunch of barbie-doll bitches who sneer down their noses at them. If they are there, working to improve themselves, especially considering the kind of crap they must be feeling, I am in their corner every step of the way. And I hope that when they emerge strong, after doing all those exercises while carrying more weight than the rest of us, they THROW DOWN on those barbie doll bitches. Serves em right. I’m just middle of the road myself, and quiet, but I’d be cheering.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 1

21st October 2012 at 8:37 pm
Pirate Jo says:

I’d maybe keep the security people at bay, while the mean girls got themselves smacked down. Then, I’d offer free services to the former fatties, in the form of financial management, clothing shopping, and resume updating. I’m never going to be down on someone who is trying to improve themselves.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 8:39 pm
Novista says:

Stucky, thanks +infinity

I’m dropping the URL lots of places — especially where there are fact-free opinions about OWS. Newsletters and private email will have the opportunity to learn from a real-life report.

And every site I can comment on will get the link. Heh.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 1

21st October 2012 at 8:43 pm
Smokey says:

AWD,

When I work out at the gym, I look at all those useless fat fucks (excluding Stuck ) with pity.

When I see a 350 lb cow waddle up to the bicycle, I automatically know that after her twenty minute workout she will gorge on jelly donuts, Klondike Bars, frozen pizza, potato chips, Twinkies, cupcakes and Diet Pepsi as soon as that worthless blob of shit arrives back at her trailer park.

I also know that I’ll probably never see that unmotivated blob of shit at the gym ever again. She’ll tell her friends that she can’t exercise because of medical reasons.

Then she’ll drive her fat ass up to the grocery and plop her two tons down on that motorized cart. She’ll drive down every aisle as that poor cart aches with the pain of all that shit on top of it. She’ll buy white bread, cases of diet soda, Snickers Bars, margarine, bacon, ham, Ho Ho’s, Doritos, Planter’s cashews, cartons of eggs (for her arteries ) and pay for every goddamn cent of it with food stamps. Much of the shit will be generic, since that ensures that it will be filled with artificial flavors and other poisons.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 3

21st October 2012 at 9:08 pm
AWD says:

Pirate Joe:

I live in small shit-stain town. Sorry, no barbie dolls, just free range heifers. You have to realize something is amiss when you can barely touch your belly button. People let themselves go beyond recognition. My friend Susan was training her, which means she tells people she is going to the gym, but doesn’t even break a sweat. The only thing that got any exercise was her mouth.

Something has to be done. It’s official now, the boooomers life expectancy will be lower than the great generation because of obesity. Obesity is going to bankrupt healthcare in this country. We’re going back to the health dark ages, everyone, not just obese people, thanks to obese people.

Stucky is hitting it hard, 6am gym workouts. He’s serious, unlike most people.

Stucky hitting the bench press hard:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 9:13 pm
Novista says:

Here’s a free download link, possibly the best book to educate those who need it [.pdf]

http://www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson/

Print out one and take with you and a page of the links 8

Like or Dislike: 5 1

21st October 2012 at 9:16 pm
AWD says:

Smokey:

I was rolling on your comment. I love all the people saying “oooh, we gotta help these people, they need our pity”. They need a kick in the ass. They have no respect for themselves or other people. They don’t care if they’re bankrupting healthcare. What most people don’t realize is their healthcare costs go up because of obesity. Soon enough (two years) when obesity kills more people than tobacco or anything else, it’s going to mean the average joe can’t get healthcare anymore, or can’t afford it. It’s a crisis, but let’s accept size, the size acceptance movement. Just like the cancer acceptance movement, or the death acceptance movement. For fuck sake.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 2

21st October 2012 at 9:20 pm
Thinker says:

Okay, back, dried out and sipping a scotch to warm up. (Makes me feel like the freakin’ 1%, though.)

Forgot a couple of signs — “End the Chicago Pyramid Scheme” — protesting the level of corruption here. The guy who carried it was a treat to talk to; sounded like our Captain Midnite guy.

Another was, “We already collect enough money; spend it better / end the wars.”

Then there was the printed, four-color sign discarded in the corner, clearly paid for by some union / labor group. Guess they disappeared when the rain came.

The rest of the kids were beating plastic pails and chanting, “Stand up for and fight. Fight for your rights!”

Oh, and the sign — “We are the 1%” — that reportedly hung in a window at the Board of Trade earlier this week has been removed.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 0

21st October 2012 at 9:26 pm
Smokey says:

Novista,

I scanned your link. What a crock of fucking shit.

It says right there on page one, “BUY ME “. Reminds me of my ex-sister in-law. The fruity bitch told me about 15 years ago that she was in a book store and one of the books said “buy me ” to her.

Fucking psychotic bitch.

Tell you what. Instead of providing links to 50 yr old economic texts, why not just provide links to Batman or Aquaman comics. Or maybe to Spongebob Squarepants videos.

Like or Dislike: 1 6

21st October 2012 at 9:32 pm
AWD says:

I vote for spongebob, at least it’s funny.

Like or Dislike: 4 1

21st October 2012 at 9:35 pm
Smokey says:

AWD,

Novista and I have a feud. I ignore him, but every couple of months he ambushes me like he did a few days ago because he is a cocksucker.

But I am a REDDY FREDDY.

I say to Novista, in the immortal words of Tom Jordache to Faconetti in Rich Man Poor Man:

YOU WANT IT YOU GOT IT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF9QwyYoJ0Y

Like or Dislike: 1 5

21st October 2012 at 10:06 pm
Novista says:

Smoko

You are pathetic. Of course they sell a printed and bound version of a book. Do you think Hazlitt’s text is obsolete due to age? Is there a use-by date for knowledge?

Bastiat’s “The Law” is smaller … and older, 1850, People still recommend it too.

As for Hazlitt’s, it’s a 8 meg file sitting on my desktop as I write in hopes of educating you.

Or … maybe you prefer the collected wisdom of Paul Krugman?

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 1

21st October 2012 at 10:07 pm
Smokey says:

Novista,

Don’t be dissin’ my favorite columnist.

Hot debate. What do you think? 5 3

21st October 2012 at 10:14 pm
Colma Rising says:

I have read that the authorities may use “sanitation issues” as a reason to evict the protestors. This is a bullshit lie. Considering the amount of people packed into this little area, I was amazed at how clean it was. Yes, there were a lot of posters and other PAPER on the ground. But, there was NO garbage. There was tons of actual garbage on Canal Street … trash bags broken and their crap strewn on the streets, 5 bags high by 40 bags long … but none of that at Zuccotti Park. I was following a fatty who just threw her hot dog wrapper on the ground. My tree-hugging sister was ready to pounce on her ass (seriously!) but almost immediately a kid sitting nearby picked up the wrapper, took it back to his area and put it in a bag. I was amazed. I walked up to the kid (I talked to everybody and anybody) and asked him why he did that. He said the cops are just looking for any excuse to shut them down. He said for the past several days various ‘leaders’ have been making an all out effort to go from table to table, and person to person, telling everyone that if they see garbage to just pick it up. And it’s working like a charm. There is no “sanitation problem” from what I could see.
.
But, there is no place to pee or poop. At first they would just go across the street to the Burger King. They have since been banned, even if they go in to buy a coke or something. They’re now walking five city blocks just to take a crap. Ouch. There was that one picture of some guy taking a crap on a cop car. First of all, what’s wrong with that? Second, there is no way to validate that picture. It could be anybody, in any city, from any time. You probably won’t believe this but we saw some guy in the Little Italy area got out of his van … the light was red … whipped out his dick, and he just took a piss right there. Public urination in the city is a rite of passage. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take more than just a few people peeing and pooping before the smell becomes prevalent. There was no such odiferous problem in Zuccotti Park.
-Her StuchenMeister

Admin: Thanks for displaying this awesome article front and center. Seriously, it is top-frickin’-notch.

Like or Dislike: 3 1

21st October 2012 at 1:59 am
RT says:

http://digitaljournal.com/article/312720
Excerpt:

…

OWS is not representative of 99 percent of the American people. Ninety-nine percent of the American people do not take a crap on the top of a cop car. Ninety-nine percent of the American people do not have the time or inclination to sleep out in the open, smoke dope, and field test free condoms (they may think about it, but that’s a topic for another day). Ninety-nine percent of the American people do not want to make life harder for others by clogging streets, disrupting security, or making it difficult for those hard-working Americans OWS professes to support to get to their jobs and put in an honest day’s work.
And, 99 percent of Americans do not, repeat, do not advocate, nor give rousing approval to, calls for the US version of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror as did one goofy guy this week.

OWS is not a directionless and leaderless movement. Not anymore. Nature abhors a vacuum. So do organized labor and political action groups. That’s precisely why labor and liberal groups have moved in, sometimes by the bus loads. What better way to get media coverage and snare hundreds, maybe thousands, of well-meaning individuals who truly care about what’s happening in their country than by co-opting their leaderless movement?

And OWS is not against rich folks, just some rich folks, those easy targets for sloganeers and people who react before they think. In fact, OWS demonstrators regularly welcome with open arms (maybe even dope and free condoms) the usual rich-folk celebrities in search of a cause and a camera. Just this week, Kanye West showed up, resplendent in gold chains and designer clothes. Kanye West who last year earned an estimated $10 million. Kanye West who has an estimated net worth of $70 million. And the same Kanye West who tweeted that he spent more than $87,000 during the first six days after activating his Twitter account.

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/312720

Hot debate. What do you think? 3 10

21st October 2012 at 9:25 am
Administrator says:

The Fox News channel responds through RT

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 1

21st October 2012 at 9:33 am
DavosSherman says:

“Ninety-nine percent of the American people do not take a crap on the top of a cop car.”

That’s really too bad —- douchebag!

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 2

21st October 2012 at 9:44 am
DavosSherman says:

And 99% of Americans don’t do this fucking bullshit either.

Man, some people are fucking MORONS and have SHIT FOR BRAINS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ05rWx1pig

Yup, 99% of Americans adult males DON’T fucking pepper spray little un-armed non violent girls.

RT- Go fuck yourself, go to some skank commie blog with your fucking moronic bullshit.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 1

21st October 2012 at 9:47 am
Stucky says:

RT

Your article is SPECIOUS GARBAGE.

I did take the time to create an account on that website and then replied to the author. It’s under the “Digital Journal” comments section.

Here is what I wrote;

=================================================================

The author said — “I cannot speak for OWS organizers and participants, so I cannot tell you who they are. I can, however, offer some examples of who they are not.”

How hypocritical!! You admit you can’t speak for them …. and then you proceed to trash them with outright lies! Amazing.

Do yourself a favor and read this UNBIASED account of someone who actually went there!

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=22937#comment-87168
=========================================================================

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 10:21 am
howard in nyc says:

what’s happening, bitches!

stuck, great essay. sunday was such a beautiful day, it was a magnet for folks to come down and see for themselves. it was my fourth visit to zuccotti park since sept.17. and as a bonus, the ‘millionaires home tour’ through the upper east side tuesday afternoon stopped on my block. i live across the street from jamie fucking dimon (chase ceo). damn, i really have moved on up.

like stuck, i have not been able to engage the cops in much conversation. maybe one out of ten attempts yields polysyllabic answers. the best moment–on the first sunday, i asked two patrolmen and a white-shirt supervisor/lieutenant if they would arrest a gray-haired dude in a tie-dyed shirt. “that dude, arrest him–i’m pretty sure he sold me some bad acid at the Fillmore East in 1972 at a Santana concert.”

i split because the racist comments were bumming me out and alternatively pissing me off. i needed a time out, mainly for blood pressure control. but at least i’ve found a method for handling Admin’s shanty irish envy-based anti-black racism. i just remember that he is a philly sports fan, and i am filled with pity and compassion. still working on the rest of you.

ok, i’ll fess up–i missed Admin’s 30 blocks updates, and shaniqua chicken-eating photos.

i’ll offer some more of what i have seen of this movement. if you all are nice. and can maybe restrain from such frequent, gratuitous ‘monkey/nappy headed/niggas’ references. …right. who the fuck am i kidding? the platform is the platform–and i’ll defend to the death the right of tbp to be exactly what it is.

(oh great. i left cuz i the racism got me down. and now, smokey is back. fucking great. welcome back, simon bar sinister.)

http://badthingsman.blogspot.com/

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 13 0

21st October 2012 at 10:51 am
Colma Rising says:

Hey, you know, sometimes being/listening to LYING SACKS OF SHIT is easier than not. In my opinion, it makes the ANGRY INCH a little more able to pop a pill and look at their proverbial ugly face in the mirror every morning.

Like or Dislike: 3 0

21st October 2012 at 10:56 am
Colma Rising says:

Last comment not directed at Howard…

Howard: I got your back. I’ll rout the mullet-clad, middle America, Sanger-mongering, pointy-hooded goose-stepping with gusto… Thank lawds you’re back.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 11:08 am
AWD says:

Howard:

Glad to see you back, I missed you. Just scroll over Smokey comments, that’s what God invented a scroll button for. I’ll be interested to hear your take on Hermann “the Fed” Cain. Also, missed your perspective on where medicine is going (into the toilet). Why get pissed about the racism crap? What difference does it make. As always, it shows the ignorance of those spewing rather than those listening.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 0

21st October 2012 at 11:18 am
Thinker says:

Howard, welcome back. You’ve been missed. We’re not all racists, you know. We are, however, monkeys…

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 0

21st October 2012 at 11:21 am
Stucky says:

howard

I am DELIGHTED to see you back. I have missed your commentary tremendously.

You are a REAL asset to this site.

I certainly can understand why you needed to take some time off. Please just try to ignore the shit that pisses you off. Like this ….

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 11:23 am
AWD says:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 11:28 am
Smokey says:

Welcome back howard in nyc.

Many people have been whining and moping about because you abandoned the blog.

I wasn’t one of them. ( j k )

llpoh mentioned you by name the other day and said he sure wished you’d return, as have several others.

Hey, nothing wrong with taking a couple or a few months off from the blogging.

You wouldn’t be human if the occasional racist comment didn’t bum you out.

Like you say, TBP is what it is.

Having said that, you and I may well do battle at some point going forward.

Govern yourself accordingly.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 1

21st October 2012 at 11:29 am
howard in nyc says:

i’m not sure we have ever battled, smoke. if we have, i don’t recall. because i do not remember ever, EVER, being miffed, pissed, disgruntled or in any way bummed out by any racial comment or illusion i have ever read from you.

mostly because i am laughing too hard.

something about your tone, the timbre of your commentary, always hits me just right. keep ‘em coming.

(shit, now i’m kissing that wrinkled pasty ass. must. stop.)

racial comments only get to me when they aren’t funny. and there is no bigger racist than me. what familiarity breeds, and all that. if i could take a break from myself occasionally, i would.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 0

21st October 2012 at 11:47 am
Administrator says:

Welcome back Howard

If it makes you feel any better, I feel like throwing in the towel on TBP every other day. But there is too much to do and too many criminals to reveal. And despite the racists, homophobes, neo-cons, and meatheads on this site, it is still an open forum where you find nuggets of wisdom and common sense. You make the site better.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 12 0

21st October 2012 at 11:51 am
Administrator says:

Howard

I don’t think I’ve done a 30 Blocks of Squalor post since you left. Hmmm. I must be losing my edge.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 1

21st October 2012 at 11:58 am
AWD says:

Howard sayz: “there is no bigger racist than me”

I posted that picture to make fun of that very fact. I have a good memory. I love it when you make people squirm and wiggle. Missed it.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 12:01 pm
newsjunkie says:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 10 0

21st October 2012 at 12:18 pm
Smokey says:

newsjunkie,

True story.

It’s about a fellow I went to high school with. His mom had just bought a brand new Cadillac. Their pet cat tramped mud all over the hood and roof of the new car.

The guy I went to school with (I did not say he was a friend ) took the cat to the back yard and buried it up to it’s neck. Then he went and got the lawnmower. Then he cranked it up and used it.

Hot debate. What do you think? 3 5

21st October 2012 at 12:27 pm
newsjunkie says:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 1

21st October 2012 at 12:35 pm
Stucky says:

Smokey just loves the N-word. Nigger this and nigger that.

But, I’m guessing he is probably one of the LEAST racist persons on this site. He is always fully transparent. I like that about him.

It’s the people who smile in your face while holding a dagger behind their back who make for the best racists. (I have no one on TBP in mind …. just sayin’).

But I DO get sick and tired of his anti Ron Paul bullshit. He’s probably going to go to hell for that. Sigh! Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 12:37 pm
platoplubius says:

I appreciate all of the first hand reporting going on from TBP’s shit throwing monkeys! Great personal persepective and insight! Thank you! This is the kind of stuff that makes me a bit hopeful in a time of doom and gloom.

@ Admin et al

I recently gave out a copy of your latest article referencing V for Vendetta to a co worker…Retired airforce pilot who is a Special education teacher now….I gave it to him last friday…i asked him the other day if he had taken sometime to read it and he said he got to about page two…his excuse was “I can’t read a bunch of stuff about the real world, it gets to me”…..(paraphrasing)….My response was, “Yep, apathy is a silent killer isn’t it.” His reply was SILENCE….no response….another co worker, a P.E. teacher and football coach and I were talking during lunch about Occupy Wall St. and his quip was, “Yeah, I got an email the other day that was pretty funny, It showed the protestors protesting “corporations” and then it showed their Nikon cameras built by corporations and tents made by Coleman, etc….and I thought that was pretty funny”

My reply was, yeah I don’t think they are just protesting corporations, more like they are protesting Big Business and its overt influence on our political system…….It is very difficult to discuss these issues with many in my line of work, education….they don’t take the time to do their own due diligence(many don’t have extra time) and they are still getting their paychecks so they think this is just an isolated occurence of young lefties who don’t want to find a job, bitching and moaning.

Anyways, I will continue my discussions with co workers, atleast, if anything, to challenge their comfort levels! Just as Plato, or Socrates might do if they were alive. Pop their comfort bubbles! Wake their asses up and thrust them into adulthood whether they want to or not.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 8 1

21st October 2012 at 1:15 pm
Smokey says:

Stuck,

I can name at least sixty African Americans that I’m friends with. And they would say the same about me. In fact, I named roughly that many in a comment I made here a month or so ago.

But we all know I have made comments that could be construed as racist. As have many of my black friends.

I agree with you and howard.

It’s the intent behind the words that matters.

I have laughed until tears streaked my face from watching Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy diss white people on x-rated videos. Neither of them are racist.

I’ll discontinue dissing Ron Paul when the last cur on TBP renounces their support for him.

Like or Dislike: 4 1

21st October 2012 at 1:35 pm
Colma Rising says:

Smokey: I wouldn’t change any of your dissin’ for a second!

That being said, don’t think for a minute that I will offer you or the greybush crew an ounce of mercy when we do battle on a BBES thread… It’s going to be like taking candy from a baby for me… or from a snoozing geriatric for that matter.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 1:51 pm
howard in nyc says:

if smokey leads the site in use of nigger, i would guess i am making good pace in second place.

i have never seen that race card image, that is freaking hilarious. i’m stealing it right now.

a great experience at making people uncomfortable dropped into my lap on tuesday afternoon. the OWS gang marched through my neighborhood, pausing in front of the addresses of four billionaire CEOs. murdoch was one. jamie dimon, chief of jp morgon-chase bank and thief* par excellence. literally around the corner from my apartment.

the marchers were about 300-400 in number, and seemed more union types than zuccotti park types, to grossly stereotype.

i had just come from work, with jacket and briefcase, looking quite conservative**. i chatted with neighborhood folks who stopped to watch, and with some reporters seeking out neighborhood types.

they seemed surprised by what came out of my mouth. support for the marchers. enumeration of the misdeeds and crimes of my neighbor jamie, and the rest of the banker-politician nexus of screwing and raping america.

sorry to confuse you, homies. next time i’ll wear an NWA t-shirt and a dredlock wig. and sorry i let my voice carry. i really have too much fun making privileged people uncomfortable, extra fun when they are wealthy and white. one of my myriad character flaws.

*when bear stearns was dying, jamie dimon engineered a hostile seizure of their assets. would’ve been a risk, as many securities could’ve resulted in a loss for jpmorganchase. but jamie is no dummy. he was handed a $29 BILLION taxpayer guarantee against losses to his bank. and got to keep all the profits. it was in all the papers, and only 3 1/2 years ago. so few people remember. and so many people see him as a bold risk-taking free market capitalist, not the government abetted thief that he is.

**as to my ‘looking conservative’. n.b. i was an original denninger-ite tea partier (http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=195841). again, back in spring/summer 2008. before lehman. before the big collapse. before obama’s election. yeah, i walked with the tea party when it started. i walk with OWS in these early days. i don’t give a fuck right or left; i’m looking for awake and aware of the realities we are facing.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 11 0

21st October 2012 at 2:00 pm
Smokey says:

Colma: I am trembling, paralyzed with fear. Please let me back out while I still can……….

Please show some mercy.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 2

21st October 2012 at 2:04 pm
AWD says:

Yea, it’s good to have Howwy back, even if he is mega-rich.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 9 0

21st October 2012 at 2:11 pm
Stucky says:

Bloomberg and/or the owners of Zuccotti Park backed down on the cleaning. Damn, that surprised me,

Short 2 min video showing the happy crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9D33hr4CW0&feature=player_embedded

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 3:17 pm
Stucky says:

“Solidarity hero Lech Walesa is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.”

Cool. I hope he brings some genuine Kielbassi.

.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/occupy_wall_street/2011/10/12/2011-10-12_lech_walesa_former_polish_president_to_visit_new_york_in_support_of_occupy_wall_.html

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 3:20 pm
Colma Rising says:

Stuck:I am glad. I was sincerely worried. Before my mid-term I wrote the text to the 1st ammendment on the white board and underlined the peaceful assembly and petition of grievances part. I Didn’t sleep well, either. Seriously.

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 3:25 pm
Stucky says:

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? —- LIBERTARIANS AND OCCUPY WALL STREET

by KEVIN CARSON

Occupy Wall Street has come under fire from some libertarians, on the grounds that it’s relatively silent about the role of big government, and its proposed remedies lean heavily toward increased government intervention.

But it’s quite understandable that many in the Occupy movement position themselves in opposition to the “free market” and in favor of government intervention. After all, ever since they were born they’ve heard loathsome cretins like Dick Armey, Tom Delay, along with the usual suspects on CNBC and the WSJ editorial staff, defend corporate capitalism as we know it and the unbelievable concentration of wealth and power as the result of “our free market system.”

Every time you look at a debate on economic policy, the liberal is saying the free market can’t be left to itself because the inevitable result is polarization of wealth and corporate tyranny. And the conservative is saying corporate tyranny and polarization of wealth are good things, and that government should stay out of it.

All the things the Occupiers are rightfully against, like the plutocratic oligarchy and abusive corporate power, they’ve seen defended — or attacked — in terms of “our free enterprise system.” If I thought the free market meant what Dick Armey said it was, I’d hate it too.

It’s not their fault they’ve never heard a free market critique of corporate power, never heard someone pointing out that big business is the biggest beneficiary of big government, and never heard an argument for why genuine, freed market competition would operate as dynamite at the foundations of corporate power.

Even many libertarians who at least sometimes pay lip-service to condemning corporatism, it seems, are inclined to react defensively when they see what Nixon used to call the Dirty Effing Hippies criticizing big business.

There’s a virally popular graphic making the rounds, a wide-angle photo of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, with objects tagged “Cameras from Canon,” “Phone from Apple,” etc. This is just the umpteenth iteration of a recurring meme, each time presented with a knowing smirk as if it were some sort of original or witty observation — despite the fact it’s already been dragged out by everyone, including a third-rate hack reporter at CNN.

It’s a right-wing mirror image of the popular liberal “argument”: “But how would we get our roooaaads?!!” To look at the technological products which arose within a corporate-state economy, and to argue that anyone who uses those products is a hypocrite for criticizing corporate statism, is about as wooden-headedly stupid as Elizabeth Warren arguing for some sort of “social contract” where everyone’s obligated to pay “their fair share” because they rely on taxpayer-funded roads or police.

One might as well take a photo from Tiananmen Square or from Moscow in the last days of the Soviet Union, and attach tags like “Bauxite from the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy,” “Cameras from Ministry of Consumer Electronics,” etc.

As Charles Johnson, of the advisory board at the Center for a Stateless Society, puts it: ”… if your aim is to use visual rhetoric to lodge a criticism of the people at Occupy Wall Street, then an image whose upshot is, roughly, ‘the activities of giant corporations inescapably pervade absolutely every aspect of your everyday life’ … may not actually be as effective a criticism as you think it is.”

There’s nothing hypocritical about making the best choice available from the limited range of alternatives, despite paying rents in the process to companies in whose interest that range of alternatives was restricted, and simultaneously criticizing the injustice of hooking those companies into this system of state-enforced monopoly. That’s for the very same reason that there’s no hypocrisy involved in using state roads or post offices as the best alternative given one’s limited choices, while still criticizing the state.

The folks occupying Wall Street are right on the mark when it comes to identifying the central evil in our economic system, regardless of sometimes fuzzy perceptions of the causality at work and wrongheaded proposals for remedying it: The unholy alliance of big business with the state, and the plutocracy that’s enriched itself beyond human comprehension by extracting rents from the rest of us.

There are libertarians who get mad when they see Dirty Effing Hippies attacking big business, and there are libertarians who get mad when they see “libertarians” defending it. Whether or not libertarianism is a relevant movement for our time depends on which side wins the battle for its soul.

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 3:31 pm
Thinker says:

Another good one, Stucky. Keep ‘em coming. I get the sense popular opinion of the Occupy movement is starting to turn.

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 3:40 pm
Colma Rising says:

Someone needs to photoshop that picture with “Made In China” under the captions.

Like or Dislike: 1 0

21st October 2012 at 3:41 pm
Stucky says:

Good article from a writer in Spain, comparing OWS to the Spanish protests.

The article is too long to copy. (I’m not flash, lol)

The article is critical of the OWS movement …. but in a genuine helpful manner. The author clearly wants the movement to succeed.

So, some excerpts ..

==========================================================

The United States is also a country with inspiring histories of popular struggle. But it is a country with a case of social amnesia like no other. It seems that to a certain extent, the Occupy Wall Street actions exist more as a trend than anything else. The slight extent to which they draw on, or even make reference to, earlier struggles, even struggles from the past twenty years, is worrying. The fact that a present awareness of US history would shatter certain cornerstones of the new movement’s identity, for example this idea of the 99% that includes everyone but the bankers in one big, happy family, is not a sufficient excuse to avoid this task. The historical amnesia of American society must be overcome for a struggle to gain the perspective it needs.
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It seems that in many cities in the US, the occupy movement is marked by a certain chauvinism that at most takes some inspiration from struggles in other parts of the world, without taking any critical lessons. The idea of “taking back America” is a tried and true strategy for self-defeat: creating a fictive community that in reality includes conflicting interests and conflicting desires and will inevitably be directed by its most powerful elements.
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Actually, one need not even look to other countries to find the problem with this sort of populism. George Washington and James Madison were among the richest inhabitants of the North American colonies. They used a unifying patriotism to whip the farmers and laborers into a frenzy, do the fighting and dying for them, kick out the 1% represented by the British overlords, and then when it was all done they wrote a Constitution that preserved their privilege and power, subsequently crushing several farmers’ rebellions that rose up to contest this quiet counterrevolution. Neither did they blink, so soon after their pretty talk about “liberty,” while continuing their policy of genocide against Native Americans and enslavement of kidnapped Africans.
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The American identity needs to be challenged as one of the oldest tools for getting the middle and lower sectors of US society to betray themselves and help push down those who are even lower in the hierarchy. The US could not possibly have created the largest wealth gap in the so-called developed world without the complicity of large parts of the population. Just below the 1%, there are plenty of people looking for a leg up, and they’re more than happy to pretend they’re just like everyone else if it lets them shake a few more apples from the tree.
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Another disadvantage that needs to be overcome in the US is the near total absence of place. Hardly anyone is from anywhere, and most places are built according to the needs of planned obsolescence, so that local identities barely have any common foundation from one decade to the next. The landscape itself is constantly dissolving. In the US, people are born into precarity and forced mobility. In the past, the most extreme cases, the tramps, developed their own nomad culture, and these tramps were a major force in US labor struggles at the beginning of the 20th century, making up a large part of the Industrial Workers of the World, to name an example. But even this has been marginalized or made to disappear.

This alienation of place cannot be accepted with resignation as a simple feature of American society. It is the direct result of capitalist strategies of accumulation and State strategies of repression. How many times has the US government used the forced internal relocation of oppressed groups as an explicit strategy for social control? The only country I can think of that has done this more is China (going back, interestingly enough, through the Communist period all the way to the early dynasties).

In order to overcome the severe disadvantages created by the denial of place, American rebels and revolutionaries need to hold on to their locale for dear life, prevent its periodic reconstruction or gentrification, and put down roots. The idea of “American” as a homogenous, uniting ideal and xenophobic sense of specialness needs to be eroded in favor of local cultures and global awareness. The progressive bumper sticker cliché about “thinking globally” is not enough. People also need to understand themselves as part of those global struggles, able to influence and be influenced by them.
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The US, once again, is at a disadvantage in this respect. Whereas all European cities were originally designed for defense and at a certain point they had to be redesigned to put the would-be invader at an advantage, thus allowing armies to easily reoccupy cities—it wasn’t only Paris, after all, that had its commune—US cities were designed from the start according to the needs of Capital. It is no coincidence that Capital and the police forces of social control experience converging needs.

Nonetheless, public space does exist in the US, however inconvenient its shape, and it must be taken for popular struggles to advance. The occupy movement is clearly breaking ground in this respect, although the embarrassing habit in several cities of asking for permission for what is supposed to be an occupation endangers any gains that have been won.
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The United States is the oldest continuous democracy on the planet. People there have no excuse for misunderstanding the nature of democracy. In fact, among the apolitical majority, there may well be a greater contempt for politicians and for government in general than in most other countries.

The welfare states of northern Europe, for example, have successfully undermined popular autonomy and created a population of dependents and sycophants that, even today, in the face of growing abuse and governmental fascism, seem unable to constitute popular struggles. This innate American antiauthoritarianism, though it tends to remain in self-destructive or inert forms, could transform into an important ingredient for popular struggles.
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In general, people in the United States face severe disadvantages in fighting power. The popular struggles of past generations were brutally crushed and critical lessons were not passed on. People have to start from scratch in a society constructed to meet the needs of money. In part because of this, people in the US have a unique opportunity to influence struggles worldwide, should they overcome the obstacles and turn these protests into something powerful.

One thing is for sure: in the neighborhood assemblies in Barcelona, people have been whispering to each other, “Now, there’s even occupations starting in the US. Something really big must be happening!”
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/14/reflections-for-the-us-occupy-movement/

Like or Dislike: 3 0

21st October 2012 at 4:08 pm
Stucky says:

Wonderful stories from Occupy Hartford

=====================================================================

At Occupied Hartford

Live from Obamaville

by VIJAY PRASHAD

I. Hooverville.

Poor Herbert Hoover. A multimillionaire by thirty from the vast profits of gold mining, Hoover went into public service as retirement. His early administrative work was in agriculture, but he spent the longest time of his career in the Department of Commerce. In 1925, Hoover warned Calvin Coolidge about the dangerous speculation in Wall Street. Coolidge was not interested (he had a witlessness about economics, having once said, “When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results”). It was Hoover’s cross to bear that the stock market crash of 1929 came on his watch. It is a sad fact that just before the October 29 debacle on Wall Street, Hoover told the country, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.”

The final triumph never came. By 1933, the jobless rate was twenty five per cent. In May 1932, seventeen thousand veterans came to Washington on a Bonus March. They were fed up. Their friends and relations had been thrown by the wayside, and promises made to them had been betrayed. Across the Potomac from Washington’s offices, the Bonus Army created an encampment. It would soon be given the name, Hooverville, and it was soon to be imitated across the country. Hoover sent General Douglas MacArthur (later of the wars in Asia) to quell the peaceful Bonus Army. MacArthur unleashed tanks and tear gas.

But the Hoovervilles continued.

II. Hartford.

The Occupied Hartford encampment has a significant view. If you stand in the middle of the camp at the intersection of Broad and Farmington, you can see Richard Upjohn’s dazzling Connecticut State Capital (the Government), the plantation of Aetna and various office buildings of the major insurance firms (the Corporations), the office of the Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in America (the Media) and the Connecticut State Armory (the Military). The ensemble of power is within sight of the protestors.

So too is the city’s heartbreaking poverty (the official jobless rate is thirty-three percent, the highest in the nation).

I asked a group of Occupiers whether they have formed Obamaville, the 21st century’s Hooverville. It was fitting that they missed the point of my question. Brian leapt in. “I’m not here for any politician,” he said, “I’m against all political parties. Our politics are the problem.” Talk of the Occupy movement being co-opted by the Democratic Party had come here, and it had been rejected. “This is not for Obama,” Dave interjected, “but it is our fight against the corporations.”

I heard much the same thing at Wall Street. There is no appetite for Obama.

What unites the Occupiers is that they are in general not coming into the movement for the first time. Most of those in Hartford came from the more beaten up side of the tracks, raised in Hartford’s streets where the bonds of community battle daily with the temptations of the drug economy and the itchy fingers of the police department. For many that I spoke with the reality of poverty and inequality led them to despair until they found each other, to work together in groups like Food Not Bombs, anti-war organizations, and in ad hoc groups to defend their communities’ right to survival. “When we struggle, it’s therapy,” raps M1 of the dead prez. So it was for many of the Occupiers.

Hartford struggles to survive. Chronic joblessness, with a collapse of state institutions to expand the social wage, is met by an increase in the means of repression (police and jails) and the ideology of consumerism. It is the same condition along the Interstate 91 corridor, from Hartford to Springfield to Holyoke. The future along the Freeway has been left to the resilience of families and communities and to the underground economies (legal and illegal). Michaelann Bewsee of Springfield’s Arise for Social Justice calls these neighborhoods “an economic dustbowl.”

Angelo, born in Hartford to Puerto Rican parents who worked in a factory and in the lunchroom of a school in the North-End, came from economic poverty but social dignity. His father’s political roots lay in Puerto Rican socialism, and pictures of Fidel Castro decorated the walls of his home (Angelo inherited these pictures). At seven, Angelo joined his father on the picket line. It took years for Angelo to put these memories into focus and to find the confidence to believe that change was possible (getting a computer helped, he says, as it “opened up the world to me”).

Victoria, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, found her hope in prayer. But it was not enough. One day she was listening to an interview with the band members of Me Without You, when one of the musicians mentioned a book (Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, written by Shane Clairborne). Victoria read this book, which tells the story of Clairborne’s radical faith community house from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia called A Simple Way. This house was in the same neighborhood as the Kensington Welfare Rights Organization, whose long-time leader, Cherie Honkala is running for sheriff of Philadelphia on a Green ticket, with the express purpose of fighting foreclosures. Visiting A Simple Way and then other intentional communities, Victoria came to Hartford to be part of a movement that engenders this form of social living (there is a Catholic Worker house in the North-End of Hartford, held down by the remarkable Brian Kavanagh who should have a cell in the Hartford jails named for him).

Jeffrey Harris had recently lost his job, and then his wife died. Returning home from the hospital on the public bus, Jeffrey saw the tent city. He got off at the nearest bus stop, walked over and has stayed. The epidemic of foreclosures in the city angered and saddened Jeffrey, a pleasant man who wore his life’s tragedies with grace. “It’s crazy,” he said of the inequality in the city. “It’s a bunch of bullshit. These guys, the corporate elite, have to back down and give us something. It’s crazy man. When the system’s not working, then it has to be fixed.”

Such sentiments are commonplace at the Occupied camps that I have visited. John Pitman, standing near Jeffrey concurred. “People that are out here are here to bring back the country from the corporates,” he said. I asked John what gave him hope through his agitation. “Hope?” he said, “It’s not hope. It’s survival. I want to take back what belongs to us.”

III. Banks.

On August 31, George Magnus, the senior economic advisor to UBS in London, published a letter in the Financial Times, which the newspaper titled, “Capitalism is having a very Marxist crisis.” Magnus pointed out that Marx “analyzed and explained insightfully how and why capitalism would succumb to recurrent crises, and especially big ones after a credit bust.” In light of this analysis, Magnus from his perch in the well-appointed glass towers at Finsbury Square, wrote that we need to “reboot intellectually and think about how to address a very Marxist crisis of capitalism, starting with job creation, income formation, and money gross domestic product targeting.” It is sensible stuff, but rather odd coming from the same building where a Delta One desk was busy conducting the kind of prop trading that has given bankers an especially ugly image problem.

Magnus is an unusual banker. Most have battened down the hatches, ready to weather out this storm toward the Seas of Business As Usual.

Up the river from Hartford, in Springfield, a significant coalition of community activists and survivors of foreclosure named No One Leaves had pushed for a far-sighted city ordinance. Banks would have to jump through some cleverly crafted hoops before sending in the sheriff to eject people from their homes. Among these are a mandatory mediation program and a $10,000 bond to secure and maintain properties that had been foreclosed upon. This is the kind of innovation that one has come to expect from community organizations, and it is the kind of policy that we have come to expect would be pushed by local politicians such as Springfield’s Amaad Rivera and Hartford’s Luis Cotto.

The banks did not take this quietly. The Massachusetts Bankers Association sent a seven-page document to the city, saying that the council was not on firm legal footing. Florence Savings Bank, one of the parties to the letter, has made much of its localness since the credit crisis, with its slogan, “Don’t Blame Me, I Bank Locally.” But that does not stop this Northampton institution from getting into the fight against the residents of Springfield. On Monday, October 17, No Ones Leaves and Councilor Rivera will hold a rally against the banks’ maneuver in front of city hall in Springfield.

“We believe that this is the strongest anti-foreclosure ordinance in the entire country,” said Councilor Rivera (who is up for re-election this year, and needs all the help he can get). I think he is right. No One Leaves is effectively Occupied Springfield.

IV. Counterrevolution Cometh.

The Boston police, in the name of protecting flowers, has already clobbered and arrested the residents of Occupied Boston. They are unmoved.

The New York mayor has threatened to remove Occupied Wall Street to “clean the area.” There is an emergency mobilization to defend Liberty Park.

The patience of the elite has been tested, and found wanting. They want their country back.

In 1786, the farmers of western Massachusetts were angered by the denial of the right to vote in their new republic and by the shoddy treatment of the veterans of the revolutionary wars. One farmer, Daniel Shays, led his band of veterans and farmers to Springfield, where they marched around with fife and drum to prevent the court from hearing cases against rioting farmers. The Shays’ movement then marched toward Boston, where the Senate’s President, Sam Adams, signed a Riot Act and sent General Benjamin Lincoln to crack some heads. Northampton, where I live, was the home of the trials of the captured rebels, many of whom were put to death.

From Paris, France, America’s Ambassador, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison about Daniel Shays’ rebellion. “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, & as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/14/live-from-obamaville/

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 4:17 pm
Kill Bill says:

Stucky, you look like my little [younger] brother.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 4:50 pm
Punk in Drublic says:

Ok, newsjunkie. How do I make those pictures? I know you know.

Like or Dislike: 0 0

21st October 2012 at 4:56 pm
Smokey says:

Don’t tell him newsjunkie. He’ll go after me.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 5:03 pm
llpoh says:

Howard – welcome back. I was about to ask the Admin to send out the coon dogs looking for you (sorry – I can’t help myself sometimes). The last time I saw you post was on rge Michele Obama thread. It was over the top with some of the shit put up so I understand your position.

Do not get mad get even. Works for me. Good to see you.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 6 0

21st October 2012 at 5:59 pm
newsjunkie says:

Punk,

Go here:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Make an acct, then go to LOL builder. There are thousands of pics to choose from, plus you can upload your own. Have fun!!

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 6:40 pm
Kill Bill says:

With much more media attention on the occupy wall street protestors than the anti-war protests you can bet that foundations, lobbyist groups, etc, are trying to, or have, co-opted the movement.

Like or Dislike: 2 1

21st October 2012 at 6:44 pm
ssgconway says:

I went to the OWS-Lansing, Michigan campsite today. The event is tomorrow. I spent 30 minutes there and spoke with two people for an extended period of time. (I have a couple of pics, BTW, but haven’t figured out how to post them here yet.)
Impressions:
The campsite, in its’ second day, was clean and there was only minimal disorganization, and no litter. There were a couple of dozen people there when I stopped by. The signage was non-violent and no trendy leftist hobbyhorse issues were mentioned.
The people were polite and clean. One was a Vietnam vet, wearing a ‘VFW National Home for Children’ t-shirt. He was old enough to be retired. His concerns, aside from general unhappiness at un-representative gov’t, centered around how veterans were being mistreated in Michigan’s two state-run vets homes – warehoused, treatment regimens not followed, staff reductions, etc. He invited me to hearings at the local courthouse (there must be a lawsuit). The other was a man in his 20s, employed, there when off work. He seemed to be an organizer of things there. He said that they’d refused union help, as they want to stay independent and have no debts to anyone else’s agenda. He was very informed about the issues, didn’t like Goldman Sacks ruling the country, wanted Glass-Stegall reinstated, opposes the Fed giving bailouts to big banks w/o accountability of any kind, distrusts both parties and pressure groups in general, etc. He organizes a local meetup-type OWS group that is working on common goals. it will be consensus-based, with no one allowed to insert anything that all do not agree to.
While we talked, a woman dropped off some vegetables for the campers to cook. She was a vegetarian, and the young man said that several of the campers were, too. He mentioned that a local bakery had donated bread, that other people gave blankets, and that the local homeless population had been very helpful with cold- and wet-weather outdoor survival tips.
Conclusions:
I detected no particular ideological bias, only great concern over what’s happening as our country is taken from us in broad daylight. The only hint of leftist activism I noted was his raised arm/fist salute when our picture was taken together by the ’99%’ sign.
I found nothing that alarmed me here, and I doubt that other RP supporters would, either.

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 7:19 pm
Punk in Drublic says:

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 7:41 pm
newsjunkie says:

Hee hee!

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 8:14 pm
Colma Rising says:

Uh-oh, StuchenMeister…

I was just talking to my girlfriend’s friend abot OWS and she just read your article and liked it, emailed it to herself for later.

You did good.

Like or Dislike: 3 0

21st October 2012 at 9:20 pm
AWD says:

For Newsjunkie and Punk:

Freak ya out on Friday night…

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 7 0

21st October 2012 at 9:27 pm
Stucky says:

Colma

That’s strange. I gave it to her myself last night.

=====

Admin

I heard some former cop who’s a regular on Fox this evening. He said OWS is full of drug use, prostitution, sex, and rats. lmfao Please be careful if you go tomorrow. If it was up to him he’s raize the place. Nice little piggy, ain’t he?

=====

ssgconway

Nice report. Hope you have a chance to go tomorrow. I’m quite familiar with Lansing. Where is it being held? I hope you have a chance to go.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 9:30 pm
Hollow man says:

http://dollarcollapse.com/the-economy/why-we’re-ungovernable-part-2-battle-lines/

What doyou think about this read, anyone?

Like or Dislike: 1 0

21st October 2012 at 9:37 pm
howard in nyc says:

llpoh.

coon dogs.

you crack me up, man. good one.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 1:20 am
Novista says:

howard in nyc

Good to have you back.I think this whole racism thing has grown out of proportion because of political correctness. The knee-jerkers talk about sensitivity training; maybe there should be anti-sensitivity intervention. Case in point:

Once on IRC, talking to a friend (who ended up as my dauther-in-law … for eight years.) … anyway, she was carping about someone we both knew, and I said, Yeah, he’s got a niggardly attitude.”

She went spaz. WTF? Context, the one we were speaking of was white, she was white. I said to her, “Don’t you people in Montreal have any English dictionaries?” Well, she stormed off to prove me wrong — and returned abjectly to apologize, tempered with “but it doesn’t sound nice!” Sigh.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 8:28 am
Novista says:

Hollow man

Hmm, well, Rubino has many of the dots connected. And yeah, 1913 was a landmark year — Wilson getting his special session of congress to implement the 16h amendment; the 17th amendment also on his watch, which eviscerated state sovereignity; and the signing of the Federal Reserve Act. Soon to be followed by entry into WW1.

But! there’s a back story. And it is how the Populist movement in the 1890s was unwittingly co-opted by the banking class, with an assist from academics and a segment of the soon-to-be accounting profession knowing a good thing for them when they saw it.

The collusion on Jekyll Island in 1910 was the penultimate chapter to the Aldrich plan.

Now, we have a very active divide-and-conquer stategy that is working well on the useful idiots. I think this OWS movement is something TPTB is not prepared for.

I’m not so sure Rubino’s closing paragraph is a mortal lock. And he’s wrong about 170 years, the first sellout of the Republic was in 1791 — the establishment of the Bank of the United States, engineered by Alexander Hamilton.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 9:11 am
ssgconway says:

They held it at the Capitol, Stucky, and I had to pass – two daughters playing two sports in two different cities necessitated that. However, the paper reports that Virg Bernero, a very partisan Democrat and union tool, was the featured speaker. (I don’t trust the local paper, either, but if he was a featured speaker, it bodes ill for OWS staying free of the co-opting influence of unions.) The OWS folks are camped out in the little park across Capitol Ave. from the library, three blocks south of the Capitol grounds. I expect that I’ll stop by next week to see what they have to say. If anything of value comes of that, I’ll write about it here.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 2:42 pm
Hollow man says:

Thats why I really
Ike old hickory, he stood and stopped the centeral bank even at the risk of his life. I think Ron Paul would do the same.

Like or Dislike: 3 0

21st October 2012 at 3:15 pm
Novista says:

OK, it’s not an official statement but it sure ‘feels’ determined …

http://ampedstatus.org/welcome-to-the-ows-99-movement-we-will-not-be-co-opted-working-group/

[snip] from the close:

We are led by no one. You cannot co-opt We The People.

Respect Us.

Like or Dislike: 1 1

21st October 2012 at 6:37 pm
Novista says:

Our sterling MSM …

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/v-for-vague-occupy-sydneys-faceless-leaders-20111014-1loy6.html#poll

http://www.theage.com.au/world/democrats-back-occupy-protesters-20111011-1lizw.html?gclid=CP64rt_j66sCFcJKpgod222XIg

Like or Dislike: 0 1

21st October 2012 at 6:55 pm
Stucky says:

I just watched the dummest fucking movie of my life. I’m not even going to name it. Because I already forgot.

Last post of the day.

Akanon posted a WONDERFUL review from Alaska. Just wanted it here for posterity.

=================================================================

Well, I attended the Farthest North OWS rally, here in Fairbanks, Alaska. Surprisingly, it was announced yesterday in the local newspaper. I estimate 200 or so folks gathered at City Hall, and progressively marched up the main drag to a furniture store parking lot, the downtown post office, the courthouse, veteran’s memorial park, back to the furniture store lot and finally back to the City Hall lawn. At each stop, folks spoke to the crowd via bullhorn, and there was chanting during each march-e.g., “Banks got bailed out-We got sold out; No small business Saturday-Small business Everyday; What do we want? End the wars. When do we want it? Now; etc.”. By the end of the marching, numbers were dropping off. I bailed out back at City Hall after 2 1/2 hours, as the crowd thinned to about 50 and the speaking turned into a poetry slam.

Demographics: Mostly 20-somethings, but probably 30-40% 30+, quite a few my age (48) or older, quite a few greybeards. Zero pro-communist, pro-socialist or union signs. Quite a few union members, some wearing union jackets or hats. Several speakers supported the unions. Quite a few veterans, both older ‘Nam era and recent vets from the sandbox Several spoke-sometimes pretty moving. Several were semi-pro protestors, bragging about other protests they had been in. A few claimed to have been in Boston recently. I tried to visit with a variety near the end-I got the sense that a good percentage were just caught up in the opportunity to protest, but most thought what they were doing was important, even if they couldn’t articulate specifically what they were looking for.

Signs: Like I said, none commie, mostly addressing corporate greed & the 99% power. Several Ron Paul signs, but they were gone by the end of the march. My sign read “Indict Bernanke/Restore States’ Rights/Defend the Constitution/Visit theburningplatform.com” on one side, “Fed Up with the Fed” on the other. (Sidebar-”Fed up with the Fed” was the slogan of a states’ rights rally last winter-the Fed represented the Federal Gov’t, not the Federal Reserve, but I figure I got double duty from the slogan). I got several compliments and thumbs up on both sides of the sign. A few others about corporations not being “persons”. Quite a few anti-war signs.

“The Man”-zero police presence. I was looking, and never saw any cops anywhere. Fairbanks is a pretty chill town.

Media coverage-Lots of folks taking pics, a couple asked to photo my sign. Both local TV news channels had reporters & cameras on site. My sign was shown on the evening news twice on one station, including fairly long coverage of “visit TBP” Who knows, might get a few new members. Media coverage on that station was very favorable-they started with scenes from back east and described violence & arrests, and segued into how low key the Fairbanks rally was. They interviewed some of the event coordinators and more intelligent speakers. Overall, they came off as rational and intelligent. The other station doesn’t have local news on weekends-will check Monday.

Philosophies-Near the end, the organisers asked the remaining folks to break into groups, discuss and write down issues and solutions. I didn’t see any coherent “list of demands”, but it was interesting. Rather than participate with one group, I floated, and asked each group what they had discussed. Bottom line-MSM is bullshit, OWS is important, big corporations control gov’t, etc. The discussion seemed pretty tame & simplistic to me-all old news for TBP members. But I suppose it is an awakening to a lot of folks. I asked a few groups if they were familiar with 4th Turning-I didn’t push it, just noted that it was a fascinating read, and I observed that S&H would see the OWS movement as inevitable, because “it is time”.

Overall impressions: Not the most dedicated group, sort of a “hey, we can play too” attitude, but that is OK. I experienced no hostility with my relatively conservative message. Maybe I should have tried Yojimbo’s “not ant-capitalist” message to see, but I don’t think it would have mattered. Several speakers acknowledged that some of the “1%” got there by hard work and deserved to be rich, and others declared it wasn’t about entitlements; they weren’t looking for free shit. A few did drift into a “share the wealth” socialist argument, however.

Sorry this report is less entertaining than Stucky’s-it is what it is. [Stucky says, "Bullshit!"] Also sorry no pics attached, Yojimbo. I took some with my phone, but need to round up the hardware to download. Not sure I am technologically proficient enough to post anyway, but will try-if any good pics come out, will post later. Bottom line-it was interesting and a kind of fun, and I can say I participated. I know my daughter would have been there if she wasn’t off in Sweden, so I felt like I was holding up her end.

Like or Dislike: 1 0

21st October 2012 at 1:20 am
Stucky says:

Welcome back from NYC, Jim.

Stossel did a full hour report on OWS. Had a lot of shots and “interviews” from Zucotti Park. Holy Shit. It came across that these people are all mostly total dumbasses when it comes to economics …. which he basically said they are.

As I said in my conclusion above — I spoke to smart people and more than a few dumbasses as well. But nowhere NEAR as bad as Stossel made it seem. I am truly looking forward to your take on this.

Lastly, I still stand by what I said — I’m not quite sure exactly what the hell it is that I witnessed. Here also, I am sure you’ll be able to articlulate it better than I.

Don’t keep us waiting too long tomorrow to post!!!!

Like or Dislike: 4 0

21st October 2012 at 1:29 am
Linus Huber says:

SCARE 20.12.2012
(Stop Corruption And Repression Effective 20.12.2012)
Banks were given a very important privilege to create money in the form of extending credit. This function requires diligence and careful consideration in regard to individual credit risks as well as to overall credit levels in the system. The financial crisis revealed that the banks were operating at too high a leverage and with too much risk. They were used to be saved by the Central Banks and certain that in times of difficulties the Central Banks were there to save them. They were like trained dogs and their master Greenspan or Bernanke would always be there to rescue them when unforeseen difficulties arose.
That may be true but that does not absolve them from their obligation to monitor overall debt levels in the system as well as being diligent in evaluating the debtors ability to not only service a debt but to be able to repay it over time. The banks clearly failed in this function that is the core function of banking but focused mainly on their compensation packages. The way these bankers enriched themselves in the process of driving the financial system into a wall was appalling and the average income earner was never able to comprehend their schemes but preferred to simply ignore them. Of course, the bankers explained their outrages income levels with free market principles of supply and demand, where the best simply could be hired with those kinds of benefits only. In hindsight those superior managers seem to have missed their mark considerably. The most interesting aspect of all of this is the fact that, after we have been more than 3 years in this financial crisis, the bankers continue to loot the system as if nothing ever happened.
True to form the Central Banks “saved” the financial system by saving those great financial institutions without whom the system would have collapsed, as was argued. Hardly were we out of the danger of collapse, the banks immediately went back to their old ways and were certain that this was a problem that would occur just once in a lifetime and now all was clear again. The real problem, however, had not been addressed but had simply been muddied.
In actuality, the losses produced of extending unsustainable levels of credit by the banks have been transferred to the public. Different ways were chosen to achieve this task in the form of free money for the banks, injection of government funds into some institutions, increase of basic money supply and so on.
The threat of system collapse would have been labelled blackmail if it would have occurred in another setting. However the bankers were able to influence the media, the legislators and regulators in their favour with all the financial resources available to them. Nobody was made to take any responsibility and no one was taken to account.
This represents a serious violation of the spirit of the Rule of Law that is the basis of western society. It seems that now the new rule is Might is Right. This changes many parameters in the compass of the social system within the western world. No one can be sure on what level and when one will be subjected to the financial abuse of those elites. Presently, the people in charge are trying to enhance financial repression of which one form is to keep interest rates below the level of inflation which affects mainly those that lived within their means over the past many years; another clear violation of the spirit of the Rule of Law as it transfers losses from bad investments to the innocent and decent part of the population. In addition, the increased level of government debt puts in doubt all those benefits promised by governments the world over.
It is interesting how the banks were able to confuse the public who was/is unable to grasp the actual situation. But considering the banker’s great financial resources, it seems not that much of a miracle to influence the media and the legislator and having politicians do their bidding. The question is what the heck can WE, THE PEOPLE do about it.
Usually, we could address such things on a political level as we are a democracy, right? But it seems that the system has been corrupted by all the money sloshing around and it is extremely difficult to find any electable person that will act against those powerful interests. In addition, it will take many years until sufficient numbers of persons with the new thinking and with integrity not to be corrupted by those lobbying efforts will be elected to office that will implement the changes needed. So, what should we do? Start a revolution?
Well, the blackmail used by the banks may be the only way to address the injustices that have occurred over the past few years. They showed us how to leverage one’s limited resources to achieve one’s goal. Therefore the following proposal to start the movement “SCARE 20.12.2012” should be seen in this context. The idea is that if by that time (20.12.2012) some serious injustices have not been removed from the system, people will start to withdraw their money from all financial institutions driving them into default. And it might work, because those who hesitate to support this threat may be left with no money as the banks will have to close down before all has been paid out.
Now, what demands are made if that scenario is to be avoided.
1. Bankers and past Bankers (all those working in the financial industry that earned in excess of $500k plus annually for more than 2 years during the past 15 years and this without any downside risk i.e. risk of financial losses, except the possibility of losing their job) have to be made personally accountable for their past activities and be removed from any such position that might directly or indirectly have influence on the money creation and lending aspects of the economy (this includes regulating agencies and politics) before 20.12.2012.
2. Present and past regulators have to be made personally accountable for their past activities and be removed from any such position that might directly or indirectly have influence on the money creation and lending aspects of the economy (this includes financial institutions and politics) before 20.12.2012.
3. Politicians that accept any financial support from institutions that are involved in the money creation and lending aspects of the economy will have to face a jail term of no less than 2 years without the possibility of parole.
When these 3 points are implemented before 20.12.2012, we the public will not destroy the financial system but support the way to find back to the RULE OF LAW and away from the idea of MIGHT IS RIGHT.

Well-loved. Like or Dislike: 5 0

21st October 2012 at 6:10 am
Stucky says:

Memories ……… damn …………. brought a tear to my eye remembering my son’s balls ……. that was a GREAT day !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for re-posting, Jim ….. as well as your thread about your experiences. Wish our paths would have crossed.

I do wish you would delete the two pics showing my moobs.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 10:05 am
Administrator says:

Stuck

If my fat ass picture stays in my article, your pictures stay too.

Only you, myself and Howard saw firsthand what OWS was. The rest of the idiots who got their storyline from the MSM can blow me.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 10:12 am
Kill Bill says:

http://th1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd460/StuckInNJ/th_MeOccupyWallStreet.jpg[/img

I cant make out what this sign says, Stucky, you damn thief!!

/in jest

Like or Dislike: 0 0

21st October 2012 at 1:08 pm
Kill Bill says:

Trying again.

Like or Dislike: 2 0

21st October 2012 at 1:09 pm
AKAnon says:

Ahhh, Stucky’s infamous moobs. Good times. Sad to think in a few years, those really will have been the good old days.

Like or Dislike: 1 0

21st October 2012 at 3:27 am
sensetti says:

Like or Dislike: 0 2

21st October 2012 at 12:07 pm
Administrator says:

Do the brainless twits who mouth the BS about OWS being a Soros controlled Democrat party plot ever actually use their brains? The Democratic party controls the White House, NYC and Oakland. Both cities are the bastion of liberal thought.

So why the fuck would Democrat mayors crush OWS if it was a movement created by Soros, one of the biggest liberal socialist pricks on the planet?

Some people are just too stupid to believe.

Like or Dislike: 1 0

21st October 2012 at 12:20 pm

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