Showing posts with label Occupy Wall Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occupy Wall Street. Show all posts
Monday, January 7, 2013
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
One World, from Tahrir Square to Wall Street to Oakland
[Demonstrators marched on Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday, in a protest against the continuing military rule of their country and the perpetual state of emergency their government has maintained since 1958.
But there was another item on their agenda today: the recent violence in Oakland, California.
In the photos below, taken by Egyptian journalist Mohammed Maree and published on Twitter, demonstrators hold up signs showing solidarity with “Occupy Oakland,” urging President Barack Obama to intervene on behalf of the people...]
But there was another item on their agenda today: the recent violence in Oakland, California.
In the photos below, taken by Egyptian journalist Mohammed Maree and published on Twitter, demonstrators hold up signs showing solidarity with “Occupy Oakland,” urging President Barack Obama to intervene on behalf of the people...]
"How Can You Sleep at Night?"
Welcome back to A-Merry-Ca, soldier, in which past decades have seen increasing adoption of military tactics by civilian police: use of overwhelming force, automatic weapons, and shock and awe inherent in use of flash bang grenades againssst peaceful protesters.
Note to Occupy Orlando, now you now how it feels to live without a home in the City Mean.
Note to Occupy Orlando, now you now how it feels to live without a home in the City Mean.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Regularly Scheduled Outrage Resumes Tomorrow; Scott Olsen in stable condition
[Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who suffered serious head injuries after being hit by a projectile fired by police during the Occupy Oakland protests, has woken up and is lucid as he awaits surgery, hospital officials and family members have said.
Olsen, a 24-year-old former US Marine, was struck in the head during anti-Wall Street protests on Tuesday night. He has been upgraded from critical to fair condition.
Olsen "responded with a very large smile" to a visit from his parents, Highland General hospital spokesman Warren Lyons said. "He's able to understand what's going on. He's able to write and hear but has a little difficulty with his speech," Lyons said.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/27/occupy-oakland-scott-olsen-surgery?CMP=twt_fd
[OAKLAND -- Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, stood calmly in front of a police line as tear gas canisters that officers shot into the Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday night whizzed past his head.
"He was standing perfectly still, provoking no one," said Raleigh Latham, an Oakland filmmaker shooting footage of the confrontation between police and hundreds of protesters at 14th Street and Broadway. "If something didn't hit him directly in the face, then it went off close to his head and knocked him down."
The something was a projectile that apparently came from police lines, fractured Olsen's skull and put him in Highland General Hospital. Doctors upgraded his condition Thursday from critical to fair, and said they expect him to make a full recovery.]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/27/BAD61LN3LM.DTL
Olsen, a 24-year-old former US Marine, was struck in the head during anti-Wall Street protests on Tuesday night. He has been upgraded from critical to fair condition.
Olsen "responded with a very large smile" to a visit from his parents, Highland General hospital spokesman Warren Lyons said. "He's able to understand what's going on. He's able to write and hear but has a little difficulty with his speech," Lyons said.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/27/occupy-oakland-scott-olsen-surgery?CMP=twt_fd
[OAKLAND -- Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, stood calmly in front of a police line as tear gas canisters that officers shot into the Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday night whizzed past his head.
"He was standing perfectly still, provoking no one," said Raleigh Latham, an Oakland filmmaker shooting footage of the confrontation between police and hundreds of protesters at 14th Street and Broadway. "If something didn't hit him directly in the face, then it went off close to his head and knocked him down."
The something was a projectile that apparently came from police lines, fractured Olsen's skull and put him in Highland General Hospital. Doctors upgraded his condition Thursday from critical to fair, and said they expect him to make a full recovery.]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/27/BAD61LN3LM.DTL
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Occupy Forever
[The global revolution that keeps making the headlines looks like it's just getting started.
Let me clarify something at the outset: I don't like it. It's human nature to resist profound upheaval, particularly when it's international. Change of this magnitude - even positive change - can be scary.
But dramatic change, and the growing desire for it, is now the defining characteristic of our era because we find ourselves living in an age where our government - both sides - seems increasingly incapable of governing well, where our faceless corporations have been ruled 'people' by our Supreme Court, where those same corporations seem to have more power than elected officials, where social inequality is off the charts and where special interests apparently hold more sway than the voting public.
Our democratic institutions look increasingly bought and paid for, or merely unresponsive when they're not paralyzed.
President Barack Obama was elected with a historic mandate to reform our political culture and has already scored some historic victories but his mandate has been constrained by one half of a contemptuous Congress and by the deliberate misuse of the Senate filibuster.
Observe how Obama's unremarkable plans to cut spending in defense and entitlement programs - coupled with modest tax increases on the rich - have been stonewalled by Republicans, who have clearly demonstrated they would rather damage our international credit rating that concede an inch on taxes for the richest one percent.
What's that if not an admission of how deeply unequal our society has become?]
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/ent/manhattan_diary/occupy-wall-street-is-just-getting-started-132520793.html
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/ent/manhattan_diary/occupy-wall-street-is-just-getting-started-132520793.html#ixzz1bpUrJElR
Let me clarify something at the outset: I don't like it. It's human nature to resist profound upheaval, particularly when it's international. Change of this magnitude - even positive change - can be scary.
But dramatic change, and the growing desire for it, is now the defining characteristic of our era because we find ourselves living in an age where our government - both sides - seems increasingly incapable of governing well, where our faceless corporations have been ruled 'people' by our Supreme Court, where those same corporations seem to have more power than elected officials, where social inequality is off the charts and where special interests apparently hold more sway than the voting public.
Our democratic institutions look increasingly bought and paid for, or merely unresponsive when they're not paralyzed.
President Barack Obama was elected with a historic mandate to reform our political culture and has already scored some historic victories but his mandate has been constrained by one half of a contemptuous Congress and by the deliberate misuse of the Senate filibuster.
Observe how Obama's unremarkable plans to cut spending in defense and entitlement programs - coupled with modest tax increases on the rich - have been stonewalled by Republicans, who have clearly demonstrated they would rather damage our international credit rating that concede an inch on taxes for the richest one percent.
What's that if not an admission of how deeply unequal our society has become?]
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/ent/manhattan_diary/occupy-wall-street-is-just-getting-started-132520793.html
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/ent/manhattan_diary/occupy-wall-street-is-just-getting-started-132520793.html#ixzz1bpUrJElR
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Update for Why Occupy Wall Street
Why Occupy Wall Street.
Found this link to Securities and Exchange Commission form 8-K filed by the Hewlett Packard Corp. detailing the compensation for the failed and essentially fired Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker.
For years, this humble ant working with high hopes to knock over that rubber tree felt scared of writing satire.
From whence would inspiration and material spring?
Dang, dudes, it leaps off the printed newspaper page, TV and 'net news, so much so some times the tide of outrage threatens to drown my sense of humour and love of the British language.
To paraphrase the bard, Bruce (Local Hero
), sometimes find it hard to tell my satire from my desperation.
Yet you almost have to chuckle at the idiocy and irony implicit in RepubliKKKans defending Apotheker, the schlub, cretinous cancer of the commonweal, this morally bankrupt businessman, poltroon and punk, protecting his stock options with preferential tax treatment of capital gains.
In addition to a severance payment of $7.2 MILLION and stock options paid under the contract between Leo and H-P, we find several goodies worh more MILLIONS, including this gem: "In addition, the Separation Agreement provides Mr. Apotheker will receive the following benefits not specifically provided for under the Employment Agreement:
An annual bonus of $2.4 million under the Hewlett-Packard Company 2005 Pay-for-Results Plan (the “PfR Plan”), reflecting his nearly 11 months of service with HP, payable at the time that payouts are made to other executives of HP for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2011..."
empasis added.
Hey, the guy showed up for work for some time for 11 months, so let's give him a boatload of bucks that we don't even HAVE TO PAY HIM!
Where do I get a deal like that?
Surely do not begrudge any human their dollars but strongly suspect he feels no qualms about cash for failure and feels entitled to opulent wealth as blessed by Tea Party Jesus.
Found this link to Securities and Exchange Commission form 8-K filed by the Hewlett Packard Corp. detailing the compensation for the failed and essentially fired Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker.
For years, this humble ant working with high hopes to knock over that rubber tree felt scared of writing satire.
From whence would inspiration and material spring?
Dang, dudes, it leaps off the printed newspaper page, TV and 'net news, so much so some times the tide of outrage threatens to drown my sense of humour and love of the British language.
To paraphrase the bard, Bruce (Local Hero
), sometimes find it hard to tell my satire from my desperation.Yet you almost have to chuckle at the idiocy and irony implicit in RepubliKKKans defending Apotheker, the schlub, cretinous cancer of the commonweal, this morally bankrupt businessman, poltroon and punk, protecting his stock options with preferential tax treatment of capital gains.
In addition to a severance payment of $7.2 MILLION and stock options paid under the contract between Leo and H-P, we find several goodies worh more MILLIONS, including this gem: "In addition, the Separation Agreement provides Mr. Apotheker will receive the following benefits not specifically provided for under the Employment Agreement:
An annual bonus of $2.4 million under the Hewlett-Packard Company 2005 Pay-for-Results Plan (the “PfR Plan”), reflecting his nearly 11 months of service with HP, payable at the time that payouts are made to other executives of HP for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2011..."
empasis added.
Hey, the guy showed up for work for some time for 11 months, so let's give him a boatload of bucks that we don't even HAVE TO PAY HIM!
Where do I get a deal like that?
Surely do not begrudge any human their dollars but strongly suspect he feels no qualms about cash for failure and feels entitled to opulent wealth as blessed by Tea Party Jesus.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Why Occupy Wall Street?
"Well, a young man ain't got nothing in the world these days," quote from "Young Man Blues," written by Pete Townsend.
This quote turns out as factually true at this particular point in our economic history.
You really have to look at the plethora of presented graphs to get a picture how modern American pirate capitalism has taken money from the middle class and given it to the top 1% of Americans. Although numbing in number, the numbers prove modern corporate capitalism has gone beyond piracy, for pirates at least had a code to live by, to scorched earth raping of every economic resource in our land.
What remains so special about this moving money to top tier of elites continues as their hubris in feeling themselves entitled by divine right to live like kings while unemployment runs rampant in the US of A, ignoring the fact preferential tax treatment of investments and capital gains and tax code loopholes combine to put more money in their pockets rather than their moral superiority.
These people who serve on corporate boards form a seamless web of interlocking corporations and capital interests, what C. Wright Mills called, The Power Elite
. Besides the egregious example of failed Bank of America executives receiving 11 MILLION DOLLARS for stinking at their jobs, we have the egregious example of a failure of an executive, Leo Apotheker, getting 23 MILLION DOLLARS as a going away present after screwing up his stewardship of the company. He had less than a year leading Hewlett Packard.
Or take the case of former CA US Senate candidate, Meg Whitman, the stingiest billionaire alive, who oversaw a 54% loss in value of Ebay: "But Whitman's early success was not matched later on, when the maturing company faced weakness in its core business and new types of competitive threats. Two actions in particular — the purchase of Skype, the Internet phone service, and a foray into China that ended in defeat — turned out to be major mistakes that helped crush eBay’s stock price and even led to some quarterly losses. From a historic high on December 29, 2004, until March 31, 2008, the day Whitman retired from the company, eBay shares dropped by 54 percent. Over the same period, the Nasdaq technology index, which includes eBay, finished up 4.6 percent.
Even the best CEOs make bad acquisitions. What’s notable about Whitman’s career at eBay, however, is how her record cleaves into two neat parts: She did well during the company's go-go growth stage, but much less well as the company became large and mature. The state of California, of course, is likely more analogous to the latter than the former." emphasis added
http://www.baycitizen.org/meg-whitman/story/ebays-lost-years/
Ebay overvalued Skype by 900 MILLION Dollars, "In October, eBay announced it would take a $900 million write-down in the value of telecommunications division Skype. That charge, for what accountants call impairment, essentially acknowledged that eBay executives drastically overvalued the $2.6 billion Skype acquisition, completed in October 2005."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22782796/ns/business-us_business/t/ebay-ceo-meg-whitman-retire/#.TphlMJuImU8
She made 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS off Ebay for costing the company half th value: "Hell, Meg even has a Borat son named Griffin, who’s been accused of rape, racism, and violence — and just like a Kazakh oligarch, Meg Whitman bought her son’s way into Princeton by “donating” $30 million just when Griff was applying to school there. That $30 million so graciously donated to Princeton — which, you know, when all’s said and done, no one in American needed that $30 million like the desperate Slumdog Millionaires of Princeton — and that $30 million went to constructing a brand new 500-student dormitory at Princeton named after Whitman. See, she kinda had to do that because he had already been booted out of two expensive prep schools as a kid. You know, what would Meg have done with a son like that if she hadn’t soaked eBay of $1.3 billion?" emphasis added, http://exiledonline.com/meg-whitman-stingiest-billionaire-in-america-or-top-8-reasons-why-borat-would-vote-for-meg-whitman/
Great Adam Smith's ghost, when did the invisble hand of the markeet change to include a fist on the scale rather than just a thumb so abject failure gets rewarded handsomely?
Middle class people know this.
Even though they may not know the numbers of the charts, they know the numbers of so many adult children moving in with their parents, the number of empty and foreclosed upon homes on their block, in the record numbers of children going hungry or undernourished.
Those numbers explain why Occupy Wall Street has become Occupy Everywhere.
You gotta love synchronicity coming with rerun of Big Valley 1966 episode, "The Midas Man." From IMDB: "Audra falls for a shrewd financier who has come to the Valley to capitalize on a drought that has left most of the ranchers in need of loans.When he is about to foreclose and seize the land used as collateral,the ranchers blame the Barkley's-Audra offers herself as a "sacrifice" to hold off the financier. Written by Anonymous"
You see, this has all happened before; history shows us examples of investment bubble after bubble after failure and fraud, from the housing bubble to the internet boom and bust to the savings and loan crisis back through recorded human history.
Absent governemnt regulation like Glass Steagall Act, we will hae burst bubbles one after another.
The United States of America ought to once more regulate financial industries.
This quote turns out as factually true at this particular point in our economic history.
You really have to look at the plethora of presented graphs to get a picture how modern American pirate capitalism has taken money from the middle class and given it to the top 1% of Americans. Although numbing in number, the numbers prove modern corporate capitalism has gone beyond piracy, for pirates at least had a code to live by, to scorched earth raping of every economic resource in our land.
What remains so special about this moving money to top tier of elites continues as their hubris in feeling themselves entitled by divine right to live like kings while unemployment runs rampant in the US of A, ignoring the fact preferential tax treatment of investments and capital gains and tax code loopholes combine to put more money in their pockets rather than their moral superiority.
These people who serve on corporate boards form a seamless web of interlocking corporations and capital interests, what C. Wright Mills called, The Power Elite
. Besides the egregious example of failed Bank of America executives receiving 11 MILLION DOLLARS for stinking at their jobs, we have the egregious example of a failure of an executive, Leo Apotheker, getting 23 MILLION DOLLARS as a going away present after screwing up his stewardship of the company. He had less than a year leading Hewlett Packard.Or take the case of former CA US Senate candidate, Meg Whitman, the stingiest billionaire alive, who oversaw a 54% loss in value of Ebay: "But Whitman's early success was not matched later on, when the maturing company faced weakness in its core business and new types of competitive threats. Two actions in particular — the purchase of Skype, the Internet phone service, and a foray into China that ended in defeat — turned out to be major mistakes that helped crush eBay’s stock price and even led to some quarterly losses. From a historic high on December 29, 2004, until March 31, 2008, the day Whitman retired from the company, eBay shares dropped by 54 percent. Over the same period, the Nasdaq technology index, which includes eBay, finished up 4.6 percent.
Even the best CEOs make bad acquisitions. What’s notable about Whitman’s career at eBay, however, is how her record cleaves into two neat parts: She did well during the company's go-go growth stage, but much less well as the company became large and mature. The state of California, of course, is likely more analogous to the latter than the former." emphasis added
http://www.baycitizen.org/meg-whitman/story/ebays-lost-years/
Ebay overvalued Skype by 900 MILLION Dollars, "In October, eBay announced it would take a $900 million write-down in the value of telecommunications division Skype. That charge, for what accountants call impairment, essentially acknowledged that eBay executives drastically overvalued the $2.6 billion Skype acquisition, completed in October 2005."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22782796/ns/business-us_business/t/ebay-ceo-meg-whitman-retire/#.TphlMJuImU8
She made 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS off Ebay for costing the company half th value: "Hell, Meg even has a Borat son named Griffin, who’s been accused of rape, racism, and violence — and just like a Kazakh oligarch, Meg Whitman bought her son’s way into Princeton by “donating” $30 million just when Griff was applying to school there. That $30 million so graciously donated to Princeton — which, you know, when all’s said and done, no one in American needed that $30 million like the desperate Slumdog Millionaires of Princeton — and that $30 million went to constructing a brand new 500-student dormitory at Princeton named after Whitman. See, she kinda had to do that because he had already been booted out of two expensive prep schools as a kid. You know, what would Meg have done with a son like that if she hadn’t soaked eBay of $1.3 billion?" emphasis added, http://exiledonline.com/meg-whitman-stingiest-billionaire-in-america-or-top-8-reasons-why-borat-would-vote-for-meg-whitman/
Great Adam Smith's ghost, when did the invisble hand of the markeet change to include a fist on the scale rather than just a thumb so abject failure gets rewarded handsomely?
Middle class people know this.
Even though they may not know the numbers of the charts, they know the numbers of so many adult children moving in with their parents, the number of empty and foreclosed upon homes on their block, in the record numbers of children going hungry or undernourished.
Those numbers explain why Occupy Wall Street has become Occupy Everywhere.
You gotta love synchronicity coming with rerun of Big Valley 1966 episode, "The Midas Man." From IMDB: "Audra falls for a shrewd financier who has come to the Valley to capitalize on a drought that has left most of the ranchers in need of loans.When he is about to foreclose and seize the land used as collateral,the ranchers blame the Barkley's-Audra offers herself as a "sacrifice" to hold off the financier. Written by Anonymous"
You see, this has all happened before; history shows us examples of investment bubble after bubble after failure and fraud, from the housing bubble to the internet boom and bust to the savings and loan crisis back through recorded human history.
Absent governemnt regulation like Glass Steagall Act, we will hae burst bubbles one after another.
The United States of America ought to once more regulate financial industries.
Occupy Wall Street Wins: Bloomberg backs down
[...Protesters last night surrounded Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan as the Mayor was at dinner in an effort to hand him a petition with 310,000 signatures supporting their right to remain in Zuccotti Park.
Their anger was triggered by the Mayor's endorsement of a planned clean-up of the 'unsanitary' Occupy Wall Street encampment which was postponed at the last minute today.
The city's deputy mayor made the announcement after protesters, who viewed the clean-up as an 'eviction notice', streamed into the plaza this morning.]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048754/Occupy-Wall-Street-Bloomberg-backs-dawn-eviction.html
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048754/Occupy-Wall-Street-Bloomberg-backs-dawn-eviction.html#ixzz1amJIhlhr
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Reformed Broker Explains Why We Hate Bank Fraudsters
Because they get paid millions of dollars for failing.
FOR FREAKIN' FAILING!
Great Adam Smith's ghost, the free market should operate to reward success, not those who fail ignominiously. Will add more to this manana once outrage subsides.
[Elevenmilliondollars? What the hell world are you inhabiting? Eleven million dollars for two departing executives because things didn't work out? I'm sorry, but were these two executives of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez-level importance for your organization? Is that why there are severance deals like this in place? Or are you just completely psychotic?
It's not that this isn't your prerogative as a private company - it is. But seriously, numbers like these at a time when you're instituting added fees on customer accounts just sound farcical, almost like you're making these payments to get a reaction out people.
You look completely ridiculous with news like this at a time when thousands of people are massing in every major city in the country to make the case that you don't deserve to exist.]
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2011/10/09/this-is-why-they-hate-you-and-want-you-to-die/
http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/11/news/economy/unemployment_benefits/index.htm
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19023/leo_apotheker_gets_23m_handshake_how_much
FOR FREAKIN' FAILING!
Great Adam Smith's ghost, the free market should operate to reward success, not those who fail ignominiously. Will add more to this manana once outrage subsides.
[Elevenmilliondollars? What the hell world are you inhabiting? Eleven million dollars for two departing executives because things didn't work out? I'm sorry, but were these two executives of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez-level importance for your organization? Is that why there are severance deals like this in place? Or are you just completely psychotic?
It's not that this isn't your prerogative as a private company - it is. But seriously, numbers like these at a time when you're instituting added fees on customer accounts just sound farcical, almost like you're making these payments to get a reaction out people.
You look completely ridiculous with news like this at a time when thousands of people are massing in every major city in the country to make the case that you don't deserve to exist.]
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2011/10/09/this-is-why-they-hate-you-and-want-you-to-die/
http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/11/news/economy/unemployment_benefits/index.htm
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19023/leo_apotheker_gets_23m_handshake_how_much
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Occupy Wall Street RATM
http://occupywallst.org/
C;mon y'all bitch ass punks complaining about our first "black" president, organize
"I stand to fall right here in my country in my home
I used think I was alone, well I ain't alone no more"
Quote from the Nightwatchman, "Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine."
C;mon y'all bitch ass punks complaining about our first "black" president, organize
"I stand to fall right here in my country in my home
I used think I was alone, well I ain't alone no more"
Quote from the Nightwatchman, "Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine."
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Unions Support Occupy Wall Street
[New York City labor unions are preparing to back the unwieldy grassroots band occupying a park in Lower Manhattan, in a move that could mark a significant shift in the tenor of the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street protests and send thousands more people into the streets.
The Transit Workers Union Local 100's executive committee, which oversees the organization of subway and bus workers, voted unanimously Wednesday night to support the protesters. The union claims 38,000 members. A union-backed organizing coalition, which orchestrated a large May 12 march on Wall Street before the protests, is planning a rally on Oct. 5 in explicit support. And SEIU 32BJ, which represents doormen, security guards and maintenance workers, is using its Oct. 12 rally to express solidarity with the Zuccotti Park protesters.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/29/nyc-transit-union-joins-o_n_987156.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=093011&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief
The Transit Workers Union Local 100's executive committee, which oversees the organization of subway and bus workers, voted unanimously Wednesday night to support the protesters. The union claims 38,000 members. A union-backed organizing coalition, which orchestrated a large May 12 march on Wall Street before the protests, is planning a rally on Oct. 5 in explicit support. And SEIU 32BJ, which represents doormen, security guards and maintenance workers, is using its Oct. 12 rally to express solidarity with the Zuccotti Park protesters.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/29/nyc-transit-union-joins-o_n_987156.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=093011&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Occupy Wall Street Receives International Support
[It's Day 5 of the occupation of Wall Street and the activists have settled in for a while.
Their camp in Zuccotti Park, formerly Liberty Plaza Park, shouting distance from Goldman Sachs bankers, is fully stocked with blankets, a kitchen, a medic table, and even a childcare center. A couple hundred people (hard to get a count as people milling in and out also included local folks on their lunch break and some curious construction workers from the World Trade Center site) are hanging out in the park, chatting, napping, chanting, talking to reporters or trying to recruit passersby.
"We've got everything to sustain us for months," Lily, working at the medical table, told me. She's an EMT, and she said that they have a full committee of people with some sort of medical background to be prepared for emergencies, as well as all sorts of medical supplies, some donated and some bought with money that Lily said was being donated from all over the world.
"So far we've given out lots of Band-Aids, because everyone has blisters, lots of cough drops because nobody has a voice," she said...
Monica Lopez was part of a small crew huddled around laptops with portable wifi, keeping in touch with the rest of the world--and I do mean world. Monica is from Spain, having flown in a few days ago to join the occupation after taking part in her own country's occupations of public squares in protest at austerity measures imposed by the government.
"We did this in Spain four months ago," she told me. "I'm the happiest person now--my life changed. It started with a big demonstration--300,000 people were there, and about 1 AM people decided to stay..."
"We were so scared but we were so many they couldn't stop us," she said. "We built a mini city, created assemblies."] emphasis added
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/669889/%22occupy_wall_street%22_protest_has_international_support%3B_setting_up_for_long_haul/
Their camp in Zuccotti Park, formerly Liberty Plaza Park, shouting distance from Goldman Sachs bankers, is fully stocked with blankets, a kitchen, a medic table, and even a childcare center. A couple hundred people (hard to get a count as people milling in and out also included local folks on their lunch break and some curious construction workers from the World Trade Center site) are hanging out in the park, chatting, napping, chanting, talking to reporters or trying to recruit passersby.
"We've got everything to sustain us for months," Lily, working at the medical table, told me. She's an EMT, and she said that they have a full committee of people with some sort of medical background to be prepared for emergencies, as well as all sorts of medical supplies, some donated and some bought with money that Lily said was being donated from all over the world.
"So far we've given out lots of Band-Aids, because everyone has blisters, lots of cough drops because nobody has a voice," she said...
Monica Lopez was part of a small crew huddled around laptops with portable wifi, keeping in touch with the rest of the world--and I do mean world. Monica is from Spain, having flown in a few days ago to join the occupation after taking part in her own country's occupations of public squares in protest at austerity measures imposed by the government.
"We did this in Spain four months ago," she told me. "I'm the happiest person now--my life changed. It started with a big demonstration--300,000 people were there, and about 1 AM people decided to stay..."
"We were so scared but we were so many they couldn't stop us," she said. "We built a mini city, created assemblies."] emphasis added
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/669889/%22occupy_wall_street%22_protest_has_international_support%3B_setting_up_for_long_haul/
Sunday, September 25, 2011
NY Times Finally Covers Occupy Wall Street Protests
Of course, the Times--bastion of the so called liberal media, whose publisher actively worked for and collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency--waited until protesters got arrested to report on the movement and occupation.
If they would have been teabaggers in Zuccotti Park, you can beat the Times would have screamed out that fact with huge headlines.
[The police made scores of arrests on Saturday as hundreds of people, many of whom had been encamped in the financial district as part of a lengthy protest, marched north to Union Square. As darkness fell, large numbers of officers were deployed on streets near the encampment in Zuccotti Park, at Broadway and Liberty Street, where hundreds more people had gathered...
Protest organizers estimated that about 85 people were arrested and that about five were struck with pepper spray. Among those was Chelsea Elliott, 25, who said that she was sprayed after shouting “Why are you doing that?” as an officer arrested a protester at East 12th Street.
“I was on the ground sobbing and couldn’t breathe,” she said. The continuing protests, against a financial system that participants say favors the rich and powerful over ordinary citizens, started last Saturday and were coordinated by a New York group called the General Assembly.
Many of those taking part have slept in Zuccotti Park, which is private, using it as a base. In the early afternoon hundreds of people left the park and moved north toward Union Square. Witnesses said that for much of the route, protesters spilled from sidewalks onto streets and added that the police used long orange nets at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street in an apparent attempt to block the march from proceeding.] emphasis added
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/80-arrested-as-financial-district-protest-moves-north/?hp
If they would have been teabaggers in Zuccotti Park, you can beat the Times would have screamed out that fact with huge headlines.
[The police made scores of arrests on Saturday as hundreds of people, many of whom had been encamped in the financial district as part of a lengthy protest, marched north to Union Square. As darkness fell, large numbers of officers were deployed on streets near the encampment in Zuccotti Park, at Broadway and Liberty Street, where hundreds more people had gathered...
Protest organizers estimated that about 85 people were arrested and that about five were struck with pepper spray. Among those was Chelsea Elliott, 25, who said that she was sprayed after shouting “Why are you doing that?” as an officer arrested a protester at East 12th Street.
“I was on the ground sobbing and couldn’t breathe,” she said. The continuing protests, against a financial system that participants say favors the rich and powerful over ordinary citizens, started last Saturday and were coordinated by a New York group called the General Assembly.
Many of those taking part have slept in Zuccotti Park, which is private, using it as a base. In the early afternoon hundreds of people left the park and moved north toward Union Square. Witnesses said that for much of the route, protesters spilled from sidewalks onto streets and added that the police used long orange nets at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street in an apparent attempt to block the march from proceeding.] emphasis added
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/80-arrested-as-financial-district-protest-moves-north/?hp
Friday, September 23, 2011
Fight the Power of the 1%; Occupy Wall Street
[Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore criticized the media for ignoring what they saw as an important new political movement currently forming on Wall Street.
The Occupy Wall Street group has been camped out in a plaza a block from the New York Stock Exchange for nearly a week. In a statement posted on its website, the group laid out why it is protesting:
{We are unions, students, teachers, veterans, first responders, families, the unemployed and underemployed. We are all races, sexes and creeds. We are the majority. We are the 99 percent. And we will no longer be silent. As members of the 99 percent, we occupy Wall Street as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the current economic and political climate and as an example of a better world to come.}
Olbermann sent a producer and a camera to speak to people in the encampment. He played that footage on his Thursday show before speaking to Moore. Olbermann said that, for some reason, the protesters had been "Ignored by those who presumably support them, by those who oppose them, by those who seemingly should just be reporting on them."
He asked Moore, "that's 2,000 or 500 or 50 Tea Partiers there...it's on the evening news, isn't it?"
"Oh, absolutely," Moore responded. "It would be the top story."]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/keith-olbermann-michael-moore-occupy-wall-street_n_978052.html
[What if the Tea Party Occupied Wall Street?
Corporate media skip anti-corporate protests
9/23/11
In an action called Occupy Wall Street, thousands of activists took to the streets of Lower Manhattan on September 17.
The protests are continuing, with demonstrators camped out on the Financial District's Liberty Street in support of U.S. democratization and against corporate domination of politics (Adbusters, 9/19/11).
But you wouldn't know much about any of this from the corporate media--outlets that seem much more interested in protests of the Tea Party variety.
The anti-corporate protests have been lightly covered in the hometown New York Times: One piece (9/18/11) largely about how the police blocked access to Wall Street, and one photo (9/22/11) with the caption "Wall Street Protest Whirls On."]
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4405
Live stream for Wall Street occupation.
https://occupywallst.org/
The Occupy Wall Street group has been camped out in a plaza a block from the New York Stock Exchange for nearly a week. In a statement posted on its website, the group laid out why it is protesting:
{We are unions, students, teachers, veterans, first responders, families, the unemployed and underemployed. We are all races, sexes and creeds. We are the majority. We are the 99 percent. And we will no longer be silent. As members of the 99 percent, we occupy Wall Street as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the current economic and political climate and as an example of a better world to come.}
Olbermann sent a producer and a camera to speak to people in the encampment. He played that footage on his Thursday show before speaking to Moore. Olbermann said that, for some reason, the protesters had been "Ignored by those who presumably support them, by those who oppose them, by those who seemingly should just be reporting on them."
He asked Moore, "that's 2,000 or 500 or 50 Tea Partiers there...it's on the evening news, isn't it?"
"Oh, absolutely," Moore responded. "It would be the top story."]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/keith-olbermann-michael-moore-occupy-wall-street_n_978052.html
[What if the Tea Party Occupied Wall Street?
Corporate media skip anti-corporate protests
9/23/11
In an action called Occupy Wall Street, thousands of activists took to the streets of Lower Manhattan on September 17.
The protests are continuing, with demonstrators camped out on the Financial District's Liberty Street in support of U.S. democratization and against corporate domination of politics (Adbusters, 9/19/11).
But you wouldn't know much about any of this from the corporate media--outlets that seem much more interested in protests of the Tea Party variety.
The anti-corporate protests have been lightly covered in the hometown New York Times: One piece (9/18/11) largely about how the police blocked access to Wall Street, and one photo (9/22/11) with the caption "Wall Street Protest Whirls On."]
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4405
Live stream for Wall Street occupation.
https://occupywallst.org/
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