Occupy Will Eclipse the Activism of the 1960s

[georgephillip]

Because one party encourages economic success and freedom, while the lefties hate anything that smells like success.

Both parties get most of their campaign funds from the richest 1% of the voters.
Wall Street gave more to Democrats in 2008 than Republicans.
Possibly that was the result of all the "economic success and freedom" Bush encouraged?

Currently both parties support a political economy where unregulated banks place uncovered bets (derivatives) that are 15 times larger than the US GDP.

Who will you blame when that blows up the same way housing and credit did in 2008?
Occupy or Wall Street?

Why blame OWS for anything? You guys are a bunch a whining losers. You can damage public and private property, you can piss and moan like champs, but you will never accomplish anything more(either positive or negative). Your like the bearded lady in a freak show. After the initial shock of seein something so horrible, there's not much more to you.

How much damage to public and private property did Shadow Banking produce?
Do you blame Occupy or Wall Street?

"There is strong evidence that the riskiest, worst performing mortgages were funded through the 'shadow banking system' and that competition from the shadow banking system may have pressured more traditional institutions to lower their own underwriting standards and originate riskier loans.[6]

"In a June 2008 speech, President and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank Timothy Geithner—who in 2009 became Secretary of the United States Treasury—placed significant blame for the freezing of credit markets on a 'run' on the entities in the 'parallel' banking system, also called the shadow banking system."

2007

Don't start whining about partisan politics.
Republicans AND Democrats serve the same 1%.

 

[MikeK]

The shitters in the occupy movement have discovered that sitting around getting stoned talking about the occupy bowel movement is just as good as doing something.

I for one hope they do get out in those streets and show us what they got. The hey day of the 60s summer of love is that it followed the 50s years of relative complacency. It's not like that today and less like that every day.

The shitters did exactly what they were permitted to do by indulgent adults. No more. No less. When the adults decided not to be indulgent anymore the shitters had to go and they did.

Your defamatory reference to participants in OWS as "shitters" is a perfect example of focusing on the minor negative as a means of obscuring the major positive and one can only wonder why you, and others like you, do that. There really are only two possibilities; either you are among the One Percent or you are the precise equivalent of a Colonial Tory. My guess is the latter.

The "shitters," as you call them, represented a small percentage of the gathering of citizens who chose to actively express their anger at those who endeavored and conspired to acquire wealth at the expense of our Nation's economic stability, thereby condemning millions of ordinary workers into homelessness, unemployment, and poverty. But people like you prefer to focus on the "shitters," the misfits, the dregs, rather than devoting the same amount of time and space to such positive examples as (retired) Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis who traveled to Wall Street in uniform to be arrested in solidarity with the protesters. Ret. police captain: To be arrested in solidarity ‘was the proudest moment of my life’ | The Raw Story

There were many such examples of very ordinary, decent Americans who joined the Occupy movement. The fact that you were not among them is one thing but the fact that you choose to focus on the "shitters" is quite another. And it speaks volumes about who and what you are.

 

[georgephillip]

The shitters in the occupy movement have discovered that sitting around getting stoned talking about the occupy bowel movement is just as good as doing something.

I for one hope they do get out in those streets and show us what they got. The hey day of the 60s summer of love is that it followed the 50s years of relative complacency. It's not like that today and less like that every day.

The shitters did exactly what they were permitted to do by indulgent adults. No more. No less. When the adults decided not to be indulgent anymore the shitters had to go and they did.

Your defamatory reference to participants in OWS as "shitters" is a perfect example of focusing on the minor negative as a means of obscuring the major positive and one can only wonder why you, and others like you, do that. There really are only two possibilities; either you are among the One Percent or you are the precise equivalent of a Colonial Tory. My guess is the latter.

The "shitters," as you call them, represented a small percentage of the gathering of citizens who chose to actively express their anger at those who endeavored and conspired to acquire wealth at the expense of our Nation's economic stability, thereby condemning millions of ordinary workers into homelessness, unemployment, and poverty. But people like you prefer to focus on the "shitters," the misfits, the dregs, rather than devoting the same amount of time and space to such positive examples as (retired) Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis who traveled to Wall Street in uniform to be arrested in solidarity with the protesters. Ret. police captain: To be arrested in solidarity ‘was the proudest moment of my life’ | The Raw Story

There were many such examples of very ordinary, decent Americans who joined the Occupy movement. The fact that you were not among them is one thing but the fact that you choose to focus on the "shitters" is quite another. And it speaks volumes about who and what you are.

Mike, thanks for the link to Inside Job
That was the most useful 1:40 I've spent lately.

If nothing else Occupy and what's coming next has shown anyone who isn't afraid to look how income inequality is killing society in at least 11 fundamental ways:

"The mysterious SocProf, who writes The Global Sociology Blog, offered a nice review of Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett‘s book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.

"Wilkinson and Pickett offer transnational research showing how, exactly, income inequality is related to bad outcomes on average.

"In other words, as SocProf puts it, '…egalitarianism is not a bleeding heart’s wet dream but rather the only rational course of action in terms of public policy.'

"The 11 graphs, available at the Equality Trust website, speak for themselves."

Income Inequality is Bad for Society. Really Bad. » Sociological Images

 

[GHook93]

Occupy movement definitely beats the 1960 hippies in:
(1) Cluelessness: At least the 60s hippies knew what they were arguing against, not one of the clueless OWS people knows why their there,
(2) Drug Quality: That goes along with it be a half century later, but listen to these dopes and you can see the drugs are better.
(3) Uselessness: LOL, they are getting ignored by both parties and viewed as clueless!

No one has taken them seriously from the beginning!

Are you ready for Wall Street meets Jim Crow in the Gulf of Tonkin?
Occupy is.

"A tsunami of citizen activism, initiated by Occupy Wall Street, is poised to wash over American society.

"The coming battle to correct the grotesquely unequal distribution of wealth and power in this country is likely to have an even more profound impact on our society than what occurred in the 1960s.

"Fifty years ago, a few white students like me were outraged to find that the sugarcoated view of America we had been taught in the 50s did not match reality.

"The notions of justice and human rights we had internalized motivated our actions, and as idealists, we opposed the Jim Crow laws in the South and the needless killing in Southeast Asia.

"Young activists taking to the streets today harbor no illusions about justice in America. They are cynical, worldly wise and unemployed; many are weighed down by debt..."

"In 1958, when I entered the elite University of Chicago, annual tuition was $870. Inflation would make that $6,945 today. But tuition at the U of C this year is $43,851, more than six times as much, making crushing debt inevitable for most students."

The Aftermath of Occupy Will Surpass the Gains of 1960s Activism

 

[georgephillip]

Do you have any clue what's coming?

When every $10 bill in your possession transforms into a $5, will you have a clue, fool?

Turn off that damn television!

"That would involve using multiple sources. Hypothetically, they could include the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the Guardian's Seumas Milne alongside Russia Today's the Keiser Report and the Baseline Scenario by ex-IMF chief economist Simon Johnson.

"There are plenty of others. People could turn off their radio and TV news and turn instead to websites such as the New Economic Foundation and Positive Money.

"They might also read books by the likes of Ha-Joon Chang and watch documentaries such as Client 9 and Inside Job.

"The prize for finding workable solutions would be to wrestle back unaccountable power from the hands of banks and finance. We would also relegate financial market stories back to the business pages and specialist wire services, where they belong."

How to save yourself from the media's metaphors of financial mayhem | Patrick Chalmers | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk