Blanket the Earth
The Rude Pundit Has a Brilliant Suggestion. OWS didn’t expect to be in Zucotti Park for more than two months. It looks as if they’ll be there a lot longer.
UPDATE: Michael Swanwick shows how easy it can be:
It’s Halloween! So Marianne and I went down to City Hall to donate a case of water, a box of granola bars, and some M&Ms (for the seasonality) to the Occupy Philadelphia people.
This presents some issues; that summer sleeping bag isn’t really adequate for NYC winters:
[W]inter’s coming, fast up here in the Northeast. And while the Rude Pundit is convinced that the true flourishing of the Occupy movement will occur next spring (and into the awful summer and awfuller fall of an election year), there’s a core of the protesters who are gonna stay, no matter what.
Here’s what the Rude Pundit proposes, an action in the spirit of OWS:
On Friday, November 25, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, as marketers force us to know, let’s give to our local Occupy encampments what they need to stay warm for the winter.
The deal: check out your local Occupy website. There’s a list of all the things they need in order to flat out survive into the Spring. [links to NY, Buffalo, Chicago, Nashville, and SF lists in original]
Having shoveled snow this weekend—and knowing people in NJ, MA, and CT who are without power, and (especially in MA) don’t expect to have it back until the weekend at least—my only concern with this plan is that 25 November may be late.
Speaking of marketing, we could call this “Blanket the Earth.” We could organize this on, say, a Facebook page or perhaps a Twitter feed or a hastag.
Blanket the Earth it is. Just make certain there are no smallpox virus cultures in them this time.
Who is kidding who here?
This is America…this whole thing will be already forgotten by Christmas, and rightfully so!
Ken,
Just remember who ‘the man’ is. That would be Democrat President Obama. The guy who championed the catfood commission (thanks Bruce – I love that name), the guy who led the surge in Afghanistan, the guy who attacked Libya, the guy who followed Bush’s time-table in Iraq almost to the letter and then tried to extend our stay(!), the guy who’s the #1 donation target for Goldman-Saks, and of course a big fan of Geitner. All of course with full support of the Democrat party (who also backed Bush whole-heartedly on the relevant topics above).
So given that your protesting the Democratic party, the guys in power, exactly how are you going to vote in November?
No one is going to primary Obama (D) and that leaves either an R (TBD) or Nader (3rd party de jure).
And of course the OWS people are throwing out the undesirables from their little unorganized comunity, not reporting rapes and assaults to the police, defecating and masterbating in public, and destroying the business and livelihoods of the local small businesses around them. All while twittering on their IPods and Ipads and their $5,500 MacBooks (which sometimes get redistributed to the more needy at great consternation of people who wish to redistribute others wealth). Oh and don’t forget the complaints that the undesirables are eating their food!
Its cold in London and 90% of the tents are not occupied at night – yea that’s devotion
So exactly what’s the OWS plan again? Have they started working on candidates for the 2012 election yet? Heck, do they even know what the candidates should be legislating yet? Other than a debt forgiveness becuase they were too stupid to get $100K in debt for a worthless degree? (BTW, why are you not occupying the colleges????)
Call me when you have more the a few out-of-work BA in womyn studies majors who want to work for a non-profit and can’t find any. Plus have purged the socialist, communists and anarchists who think that it would be a good thing to destroy society.
The election is almost a year away – a lot of work needs to be done – but all in all the OWS will vote for Obama – see first paragraph. Bwahahaha!
Islam will change
All that typing and no logic………………..
Why not move all your money from the Lockheed Federal Credit Union to Bank of America to show us at OWS how committed you are to the banksters?
Bwahahaha……… precisely the way a retired USAF B-52 driver reacts!
Occupy wall st.
Wall St will change.
And don’t forget the list of sponsers for teh OWS:
http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2011/10/31/the-99-official-list-of-ows/
Islam will change
Buff,
Remember at the very beginning when we called it? Anyway…….the Democrats are gonna have a hell of time getting away from this one.
Oh Buff, all you need to do was click on some of those links at the pjmedia to see that they are mostly news stories about OWS. Nothing more, unless you think that globalization of news reporting is something more than simply reporting the news.
Then of course you have those who will jump at any opportunity to turn an event into their own personal cause. You know, the type. They are ones who would point to a list of entities that are considered negative to the American Way and suggest that such a list is tied to an event or entity as a means of discrediting said entity or event because of their own ill will or interpretation of the entity or event.
Sound familiar?
buff,
We should to talk more………………
Daniel,
We have documented proof of who’s involved with the OWS. Heck just look at the pictures of the people marching and the signs they are holding. This shouldn’t be a big surprise to you guys at all. The link is just it all in one place for convenience. That’s all. Doesn’t change the facts of who the OWS is working with and supported by.
So when is the OWS going to purge these types? Right now they seem quite happy to take money and march with these people. But they seem to really want to purge the homeless who come by…
Islam will change
ilsm,
As my personel stalker I’m pleased your upping your game with the pictures. Thanks – gives me much more credibility when I get stalked by a wild nut. You do still need to work on your text though. Try to be a little more coherent would be appreciated.
But thanks again – I know I’ve made it now in the blogosphere when I have my own personel stalker!!!
Islam will change
What documents. You have a list of people representing various ideologies and organizations commenting on OWS through their own biases, and some of which are doing nothing more than reporting the event.
Try this on for size regarding OWS’ funding and it’s growing pains.
http://www.observer.com/2011/10/more-money-more-problems-how-occupy-wall-street-is-really-funded/
Then there is this site that has the break out of the funding: http://www.dailydot.com/news/new-data-occupy-wall-street-funding/
“Folks making between 50K and 75K a year made up the largest percentage, at 25%. The top two income brackets making over 200K a year, combined, donated less than the income bracket below 15K. A telling statistic; the rich do feel antagonized by the Occupy movement.”
As to the homeless, seems the NYPD is using those people just as those of the list of donors you presented are using OWS. OWS is finding ways to resolve the issue of the homeless to the homeless’ benefit while not detracting from OWS’ activities:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/occupy-wall-street-bans-h_n_1044548.html
Daniel ,
Great for them. But the OWS has still not(to date) stood up and thrown those people out of the movement. Of course it would help if they had some kind of leaders or a list of objectives even. But until the OWS does, those Socialist or Communist or Nazi’s who are marching and living with the OWS group are just as representitive of them as anything else.
You say growing pains…growing to what? for what? to accomplish what???? I understand they have north of $500K in the bank. Who’s the CFO of the OWS? Who can write checks from that account? Who does the IRS paperwork?
And the real bottom line is your protesting a Dem President. He’s part of the 1% (as are every R candidate I beleive). He’s the guy leading the country the OWS wants to modify/change/destroy (depending on which person you talk to). Which is what makes the OWS a farce. Nothing is going to change on Wall Street unless legislation is passed down in Washington. Since it looks like (though we can’t be totally sure) that the OWS is morphing into a lefty Tea-Party (at best). I don’t see where this will go. The OWS is not going to overthrow the US gov. So its left to running candidates for Congress (I will make the assumption they won’t run anyone against Obama). But these candidates will be running as Dems or primarying sitting Dem candidates. And you back to where we started – protesting your own side. Lefty fratricide if you will.
If you run as a third party you split the left vote and gareentee even Gingrich could win in 2012. Same with individual Congressional races. So your only hope of ANY change is to run under the banner of the Dem party with President (Goldman-Sachs) Obama at the head of the ticket. And now your part of the system….
To be honest, the best thing that could happen for the left wing fringe would be for Obama to LOOSE in 2012 so they could, you know actually protest against the now R President. This might revive the anti-war movement which only cares about wars if an R is in power. It also might save SS since everyone saw what happened when Bush tried to do something on SS. Pres Obama (D) on the other hand keeps trying mightily to ‘save’ SS without nary a squeek from the left – heck even on this site his name always seem to be missing from SS discussions. So call me when the OWS actually has a goal, other than a feel-good look -ma I’m protesting vibe and actually tries to change something.
But that would require working against a Dem President. Not gonna happen…
As for the homeless. If I ware the NYPD, I’d drop everyone off at the park after booking (who then get released) and aim every homeless guy that way (and provide free transpo!). Remember its a public park and all are welcome – the OWS doesn’t own the park and is basically staying there at the grace of the owner. So all are welcome!
Islam will change
Buff
The idea was put forward that the various OWS phenomenon across the country, all of which are mildly analogous to the Arab spring phenomenon that had broken out much earlier, could use the support of the rest of the people who might empathize with their general complaints and aims. Ken is only reminding us that it might be of value to show support for a spontaneous out pouring of public emotion regarding the fiscal crisis, the government’s uneven approach to its resolution, an absence of any balanced plan to correct the inequities (that so many other than yourself seem to be aware of) in our economic system and the abysmal choices that we have in any election.
And all you can do is rant about the crowd and what you have determined to be its true identity. You remind me of all the hair brained fools who called any Viet Nam era protester a “hippy, weirdo, commie, pinko freak.” Take your choice of the appelation you used most often. The OWS protest serves the best purpose of such public displays of dissatisfaction with the status quo. It keeps us focused on the fact that our system is seriously broken. Yes, it works fine for a very small number of Americans, but it isn’t working for the other 99% as we’re being called. Those near the top of the 99% are angry because they know too well that they are carrying the major burden of government expenditure. Those below them are angry because they know that they are fully out of the game and have no share in the just deserts. If you identify more with the One Percent Club then you’re a bigger fool, a tool as it were, than I have ever thought you to be. Or are you only concerned about you’re own very small sliver of the pie. That’s the attitude that keeps the One Percent in control and out from under their fair share of the burden of supporting their government.
Jack,
OK, its dissatisfied with the status quo. So is the Tea Party. So if I show support for the Tea Party I would also be showing support for people disatisfied with the system, I assume you did, correct? I got the disatifaction. Lots of people are disatisfied with the system. Sitting in the cold and defacting on police cars won’t change anything.
But the OWS isn’t going to bring ‘the system’, with Obama at its head, down. (The analogy with the Arab Spring is a super stretch if I’ve ever seen one – the Arab Spring was a violent overthrow of dictatorships and we are still seeing what replaces these dictatorships).
So given that the system isn’t going to sytemically fail or be violently overthrown. Tell me the end state that OWS would be satisfied with and how do they plan to get there?
Other than a goal of ‘soak the rich’, repeated here at AB at least once or twice a week, I don’t see anything coherent from them. Even that goal has no objective – soak the rich to do what?Maybe a whine about ‘give me more freebies from the Fed’, but even that isn’t a steady message.
You say people should support them. Great. What am I supporting?????
Islam will change
“Other than a goal of ‘soak the rich’, repeated here at AB at least once or twice a week, I don’t see anything coherent from them. Even that goal has no objective – soak the rich to do what?Maybe a whine about ‘give me more freebies from the Fed’, but even that isn’t a steady message.” Buff
That paragraph is so misguided as to suggest that you aren’t even bothering to listen to any of the discussions that do find their way into the media and the news more specifically. Soak the rich? The entire point of the protest is that the masses are tired of having their life’s blood rung out of them inorder to provide a yet greater and greater share of the wealth to those rich who are far from b eing soaked. It is they who are soaking up so much of the eocnomy and then complaining bitterly of any effort to have them pay a fair share of the cost of running our economy and the country in general. It is that misguided perspective on who is asking what from whom that is indicative of the our Tea Party friends who seem to think that the elected government is seperate and apart from the power structure that is the rich.
The only valid point that you make is that there is a poor choice to make. We have Obama, who has been a serious disappointment to progressive democrates finding every way to compromise the benefit of the middle class in making deals with the rich through the machinations of the congressional legislative process. On the other hand we may have one of the absurd group that parades as the Republican Party nominees to oppose Obama. Several seem barely capable of putting an intelligent policy statement together. And what policies they present are poorly explained because they are not evedn defensible. How do you take Perry, Cain or Gingrich serioulsy? Romney can speak English, but he can’t stay on a single track long enough to predict where he may be traveling to. It is a very sad scene.
So the OWS phenomenon exists as a reflection of the serious dissatisfaction of so many Americans with their government on all sides of the aisle. That frustration may, hopefully, open peoples eyes to a need for significant change. I don’t see that happening before the economy gets even more seriously damaged by the continuation of a process of greed that is persistent and resistent to change. No Buff, no one is soaking the rich. It is the One Percent at the top that is soaking up the wealth of the nation. Bad things happen when nothing is left for the bottom 90.
buff,
Quiz, what logic fallacy is “ad hominem”?
“As for the homeless. …………………………..”
You are easily pleased.
wall st will be bailed again.
occupy wall st.
Jack,
buff ought to know about soaking the US.
He is retired B-52 pilot now working at a revolving door military industrial complex jobs program.
Keynesianism is good when it hires retired military guys to sell the soon to be retired new jobs.
buff’s concern is SS tax surpluses are no longer funding his job.
I guess that since the airlines stopped paying good wages to their crews it pays to go with the consultancy racket. I don’t begrudge any retiree his/her earned retirement benefits. I just have a hard time understanding why too many who have their thin slice want to support the aristocracy in their effort to eat the whole damn pie. Do they not understand that they may son be asked to accept a yet thinner slice in that process? Sooner than later its your turn to sacrifice.
I am retired military, as well. Been where buff is. It is a very expensive charade for the serfs not in the CON.
Content serfs “toiling” in the CON think they have better cottages than those who don’t work for the MICC masters. The “good” serfs don’t want to be outlaws or other less well endowed serfs.
The manor decides who is outlaw or “good” serf.
Jack,
I retired in 2004. Did my 24 in uniform. Airlines were not hireing (and considering the industry changes since 9/11 I’m glad I didn’t go that route). I’m not a consultant. I have been offered jobs with everything from a roofing building company to NASA subcontractor. Mostly I ended up where I am (DFW) becuase that’s where we wanted to live. I loved teh job I had in DC and had lots of friend – great life. Except we hated the actual ‘living.’ Commute sucked up 2 hours a day, just going to the mountains on Sunday afternoons took 3 hours just to clear Fairfax county. To crowded, to expensive, and too political. Down here we have friends from an ex-CFO for Radio Shack to a guy who runs (owns) three hardware stores to a couple of school teachers. No one cares. Much more laid back and easy going. Obviously YMMV.
Islam will change
jack,
I agree there is a lot of disatisfaction.
But you asking me to support the OWS. So what am I supporting?
Other than they are mad at the system. Graet I’ll go support someone who actually can make things change. That is NOT the OWS. Which is my point. You say we need significant change – I agree. But I bet big bucks we don’t agree on just what that change is.
(As for the R nomines – I don’t take them seriously, but randomly picking from the group (or the Dallas White pages) would get us better off than giving Obama another 4 years).
Islam will change
Jack,
Considering what’s going on in Greece and the G20 summit, I may have to back off the system systemically failing…
Any bets on Greece staying in the Euro? Will Portugal or Spain be next?
Islam will change
Greece is a good example of the roots of dissatisfaction across the globe. I asked on this site a week or two past for an answer to the question regarding who got what money from who in Greece? How did the Greek government get so deep in debt. The media would have had us believe that it was a welfare mentality amongst the working Greeks. Too much public employment. Too early and generous a retirement system. Etc, etc. What you find when you look real close is that Greece bailed out its banks early on, about 2008, and has been going deeper into debt since that time. You also come to understand that Greeks in general, and wealthy Greeks in particular, saw no reason to pay taxes. Sounds very much like the American Dream, but the bottom line is once again that the wealthy have scammed the system with the abetment of their selected government representatives. The One Percenters, with the four percent just below them, are up to the same game her in the US. I don’t know anyone who has done anything in our life times to justify a king’s ransom in wages, but its done none the less. Well they don’t need a tax system that says that their earnings are more sacrosanct than ours. The welfare system in this country has to do with aid to corporations. The expenses run up by military adventurism is out of sight. That’s where the dissatisfaction comes from. Pay attention to what people have to say when they complain about their government and our economy. Don’t simply accept a Fox News presentation nor a Rush Who’s Flush interpretation of the situation.
Jack,
The governments of the PIIGS should have let the banks swing…………… Or turned them over to the ECB (the fed runs the US banking system).
The end result is the ECB bails the governments or the governments swing.
Why did the PIIGS act like the US treasury, when the US treasury did only part of the job with the fed doing multiples to TARP in 08, what the ECB won’t do now?
I suspect the autocrats in the new reich.
Really, Buffpilot? Herman Cain, who doesn’t know that China has nuclear weapons, would be better than Obama? And he’s not even the worst of them …