occupy oc·cu·py/ˈäkyəˌpī/Verb: 1. Reside or have one's place of business in (a building). 2. Fill or take up (a space or time). Synonyms: take - seize - hold - inhabit
but how is it effective? why are they occupying public parks? why not occupy a town hall meeting or a boardroom, create some discussion or public debate? what about simple city ordinances that ban these types of gatherings? i just don't get their broad messages and demands. different splinter groups and factions within themselves , they don't have a coherent endgame. will they just camp out until change happens? I am trying to be empathetic to their cause, butI don't know what their cause is, 40 days after it has begun. is there anyone on this board camping out and occupying areas who could shed some light? I'm all ears.
They just use the politics to justify acting in a hedonistic manner. They don't work, they sit around playing drums and smoking pot in the park. The way a person justifies such behavior to themselves is to say that they are doing it to fight some injustice.
At this point it's not about the end game. It's about committing, inertia and momentum, entering the popular culture. For this to work, we have years to go. The first real target is probably the Congressional elections of 2014. The Viet Nam War protest just beat on the issue for 8 years. 1. You always think you can assign your conceptions to this group of people and their motivations, and you can't. 2. But yeah, doing that is pretty cool. It's great to feel allied with people as opposed to alienated from them sometimes. 3.As a Darwinian Capitalist, don't you have work to do?
When you say "they," you're applying that to everyone, and you're incorrect- my cousin is an NYPD police officer, and as much as some are a pain in the *** to her, they're not all like that- and that's coming from a police officer. So, maybe you want to be careful how you word things so as not to showcase your ignorance of the situation.
Will demonizing OWS win elections? The GOP is trying to turn their criticism of the protesters into a campaign weapon. It's a risky move By David Sirota (Credit: AP/Salon) For a few weeks now, national Republican Party leaders have been insulting the Occupy Wall Street movement as everything from “dangerous… class warfare” to “mobs… pitting of Americans against Americans” to “an attack on freedom.” These general rhetorical attacks attempt to distract from the fundamental — and wildly popular — messages of OWS. It’s a bait-and-switch that harkens back to the tactics of Richard Nixon, who during the Vietnam conflict sought to distract from the popular anti-war message by focusing anger on the unpopular anti-war messengers. Until this week, the GOP hadn’t pulled the full Nixon by trying to turn their cultural criticism of Occupy Wall Street into a campaign weapon against Democrats. But, over the last two days, the Republicans have attempted that exact move in two hotly contested campaigns, one in Colorado another in Massachusetts. It began on Monday with Republican Ryan Frazier, a citycouncilman now running in a heated race for mayor of Aurora, one of Colorado’s biggest cities. Frazier, who just made a failed bid for Congress and has been billed as a rising GOP star, blasted out a robo-call to thousands of Colorado voters not only touting his endorsement by fringe-right-wing talk show host Sean Hannity, but also lashing out at his opponent for standing with the “Occupy Wall Street crowd.” A day later, the Washington Post reported that an even more overt version of this line of attack is emerging against Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D): Warren was asked by the Daily Beast for a comment on the protests. She said: “I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. I support what they do.” Now the NRSC has opened fire on Warren for the comments, blasting out an email containing links to stories about protesters in Massachusetts battling with cops… The NRSC is also circulating that Doug Schoen Op ed painting protesters as wild-eyed extremists and arguing that Dems who embrace the protests risk driving away independents and moderates, even though it was subsequently proven that Schoen’s conclusions were not supported by his own data… National Republicans are placing their bet. They are wagering that the cultural instincts of the working class whites and independents who will decide this race ensure that the excesses of the protesters will make them less inclined to listen to her populist economic message, which is also directed at those voters. If the OWS protests were the same as the anti-Vietnam War ones, this Republican bet would probably work. However, there’s a big difference at play here. Unlike the protests of the 1960s against our imperial military adventures in Southeast Asia, OWS isn’t nearly as susceptible to being pulverized by the patriotism cudgel. Indeed, while military actions almost inherently evoke red-white-and-blue-drenched tensions about loyalty to our beloved troops, OWS is going up against faceless, universally hated multinational corporations. That makes it harder to paint OWS as unpatriotic or unsympathetic to our fellow countrymen. This is why for all the GOP’s overheated anti-OWS rhetoric, a new poll shows Americans strongly support the movement. The Republicans likely realize this, of course, which would explain their redoubled efforts to demonize the movement in election settings. But as any blackjack player knows, doubling down can just as easily deliver big losses rather than gains — especially when you are making a risky wager. During a crushing recession that has seen economic inequality skyrocket, vilifying OWS would seem to be a particularly dangerous bet. http://www.salon.com/2011/10/26/ows_republicans_elections/
New numbers: Income for top 1 percent skyrocketed over last 30 years By Zachary Roth Source: CBO So you already know that the gap between rich and poor has been widening lately. But some new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office put the issue into stark relief. As the chart at right shows, between 1979 and 2007, the share of after-tax income going to each of the bottom four income quintiles--the bottom 80 percent--has dropped. The only quintile that has increased its share is the top 20 percent. And the top 1 percent has more than doubled its share. That top 1 percent saw its income skyrocket by 275 percent. Those between the 80th and 99th percentile--that is, the top 20 percent, excluding the very top 1 percent--also did pretty well, seeing their income rise by 65 percent. Income for the bottom 20 percent, meanwhile, grew by just 18 percent... http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...-percent-skyrocketed-over-last-153005722.html
i know pastors and fellow church members who have been out there who would disagree with your take. not sure if you know anyone who's been involved.
My understanding is that the problems they saw won't be solved by the government, or the current system, including the town hall meetings...They think the whole government is bought. They are against the banks, which account for near 70% of whole USA economy. IMO, they do not know what they are doing. They need to stop the protests and learn how to be slaves.
Which conception are you referring to? You don't think people who spend all day in the park for weeks are probably not working? You don;t think they play drums? or you don't think they are smoking pot?
Those aren't the people you're worried about though, is it? Who you are really afraid of is that large middle portion of the bell curve that identifies and agrees with the message, regardless of the messenger. Adrenaline, tastes like fear...
Colbert is on the case for the Multinationals: <div style="background-color:#000000;width:520px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:400560" width="512" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b>The Colbert Report</b> <br/>Get More: <a href='http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/'>Colbert Report Full Episodes</a>,<a href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href='http://www.colbertnation.com/video'>Video Archive</a></p></div></div>
Are you kidding? I love these protesters. They couldn't be better for the Republicans. I hope they keep breaking the law and keep getting their ass kicked by the police as they ask for other people's money. It's hilarious. You make the argument that corporations aren't people in a thread talking about how greedy corporations are. Do you not see the mistake? You have turned this thread into a contradiction. Corporations are now greedy non-humans.
Put dividend income, muni bond income, and long term cap gains at regular income tax rates. End loopholes in the tax code. Cut top marginal tax rate to 30%. Cut estate tax exclusion to 3 million. Raise estate tax rate to 45%. Cut tax on repatriation of overseas cash to 5%. Seems like a pretty reasonable straighforward plan to stimulate the economy and make the tax code more even. What do you say?
OWS has already been extremely effective at changing the national conversation and raising awareness about the massive concentration of wealth and power that has occurred over the last 30 years or so. This is going to make it much harder for Republicans to push through austerity policy and legislation that pretends to reduce the deficit by cutting taxes for the rich.
