#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[wordspeak2]

"conditions are nonetheless radically better in material terms than most of the rest of the world, although we might argue about what "bad" and "better" really means."

Right... I hear that. Although the situation in the ghettos right here in the U.S. is comparable to second or third world poverty. It's the "third world within." It's tricky to fit within a 200-word LTE format. I'd love to see some other well-crafted letters. The LTE section is the second most-read section of the newspaper, after the front page. The point I'm trying to make is that it's very clear to see why folks are protesting- class war- that is, *us* being warred on by *them.* Us being the 99%. It's not hard to see, media dummies (you're just playing dumb, really).

Maybe I'll take another stab at it tomorrow to a different newspaper.

Anyway, I *love* how we have our own "Occupy" newspaper already; that is absolutely dope. Still, gotta be savvy in influencing the mainstream press; that's what most people are going to see. Soundbytes, message discipline, all that... we the left have the chance to reach most of the country right now. What say we?

[Bruce Dazzling]

I think the tattoo is real, though, as were his threat that towards his accused "fascist" / censor occupier that he was "a black, dominican, irish, veteran communist," and if he "wants to take this star off of [his] back, you'll have to kill [him] first."

My vote for him being an agents provocateur is a cautious "no," he's probably just an ideologue. A very loud and intimidating one.

Yeah, that's what my gut tells me too, Luther, but I was really just responding to Plutonia with all of the info and images at my disposal, and making the point that IF the Occupy Wall Street Journal broadsheet is in any way a provocateured poison pen, then Red Star Tattoo guy was certainly in the right place at the right time to provide loud and intimidating support for its validity.

It's also entirely possible that he's just a lone wolf communist idealogue who believes that the movement needs more of a public voice.

This is one of the problems with spontaneous movements like this one. There are so many people floating in and out from the periphery that it's impossible to get to know everyone well enough to understand their intentions.

I still have a copy of the broadsheet, but not with me. I'll have to read it later and see if I can spot any subtle well-poisoning. Unfortunately, there ain't enough hours in the day lately to do everything I'd like to do.

[2012 Countdown]

Thanks to all who continue to contribute! We are all in each others' debt!
Good eye on potential party crashers...

This thing is now bigger than anyone could have imagined, and there is no sign of stopping. ONWARD! Tomorrow it gets turned up to 11. Many, many more are joining the fight. Nationwide University/school walkouts, Unions will be going to Liberty Square, Nurses...11.

Watch for poopers...posting once more, as I feel the alternative right is fucking up big time. We are NOT your enemy, dumbasses. We are NOT going to promote Obama, nor ANY politician/candidate for the presidency (unlike YOU). It seems you are incapable of winning the arguement, and have been unsuccessful in taking over to push your own pet person or agenda, so you bash. Get over your self centerdness and attention seeking and JOIN US!
AJ is LYING to you. What a crock of shit.

JOIN US!

=========

Rush Limbaugh’s Occupy Wall St. Rant Proves The Protesters Are Winning
October 3, 2011By Jason Easle
---
Their worst nightmare is that conservatives will join with liberals to form a mass movement that cuts across partisan lines in an effort to fix the broken political system and give the government back to the people. In order to prevent the message from spreading to the hard right, Limbaugh and Fox News are trying to frame the protests as strictly a left wing affair.

The truth is that there are people on the left, right, and middle involved in Occupy Wall Street. The idea that conservatives might catch on that unless they are the super-rich, they are also part of the 99% terrifies the political right. Rush Limbaugh thinks the protesters are idiots because he is a part of the 1%. The right wing is scared.

They are afraid that the message of Occupy Wall Street is spreading. They are terrified Occupy Wall Street will become a truly revolutionary movement that will topple the power structure that has allowed them to own and manipulate the American political system for decades.

Deep in his heart, Rush Limbaugh is most worried that Occupy Wall Street is coming for him.
--
Reply
Greg on October 4, 2011 at 1:06 am

I’m just amazed that so many so-called independent, non-establishment people such as Alex Jones have eagerly jumped on the bandwagon and proclaimed this a tool of Obama.

Great masses of people have been brought together by a desire to end the parasitic exploitation by the corporate elite– it doesn’t matter who is trying to coopt the movement. Those people are power all on their own, and those who are against the corporate oligarchy are not going to suddenly change their minds and support corporate tool Obama just because Obama desperately hopes they’ll help him. They won’t.

I really am starting to think many of those right wing, so-called anti-establishment figureheads might be in bed with the corporate oligarchy themselves.
--
Reply
Shiva on October 4, 2011 at 9:10 am
“RUSH: These people are out marching for big government. They’re advocating for Obama’s reelection. They are marching against Wall Street. Who’s in bed with Obama? Wall Street.”

I am going to assume that rush has no idea of what he just said in the above paragraph. If Wall Street is in bed with Obama, then wouldn’t the people be marching in favor of Wall Street in order to get Obama reelected?

Just proves that rush can say anything stupid and his people will go right along with it.
---
http://www.politicususa.com/en/rush-lim ... susa/fJAl+(Politicus+USA+

===


Also-I do not know the truth or untruth, just passing on...

Anonymous: Is Invade Wall Street a false flag operation?

Michael Stone, National Anonymous Examiner
October 4, 2011

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ANONYMOUS Message concerning Invade Wall Street
Citizens of the world

We are Anonymous! Recently something very disturbing has come to our attention. You must take all notices and information claiming to be 'Anonymous' with a grain of salt. Consider EVERYTHING.

Operation Invade Wall Street is bullshit! It is a fake planted operation by law enforcement and cyber crime agencies in order to get you to undermine the Occupy Wall Street movement. It proposes you use depreciated tools that have known flaws such as LOIC.

Anonymous would never tell you to use LOIC - Not after the arrests and failures of Operation Payback.

Anonymous wouldn't attack NYSE on a HOLIDAY - It is debatable if Anonymous would ever even attack NYSE.

Be wary friends!

We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We do not Forgive
We do not Forget
Expect Us
Be wary of imitations!

---
http://www.examiner.com/anonymous-in-na ... -operation

[Nordic]

Sure, most people don't want to get arrested, if they had a choice, but I think one of the decisions you make when you go to a protest is that you might get arrested, and that's okay.

Maybe I'm wrong about that, I hope not.

One of the biggest things wrong with people in this country is their unwillingness to risk anything. Most people would rather have their Constitutional rights constantly violated than even have their beloved "credit score" take the slightest ding.

"Nooooooo, don't hurt my credit score! Over my dead body!"

People need to get away from that kind of thinking.

I mean, c'mon, who controls your credit score? Oh right, the banks.

Just a similar thing here. "Your record". Who gives a shit at this point about their "record".

Edited to add: We all have records now. Everything you've ever posted on Facebook, every text you've ever sent, every e-mail, and everything you've posted here is now ON RECORD on some computer, somewhere.

It can all be looked up.

So who gives a shit?

[JackRiddler]

.

Has anyone posted this guy yet?

http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/market ... SM_clm_sum

TRADECRAFT
OCTOBER 3, 2011, 11:42 A.M. ET

Occupy Wall Street: A Sad Display

The occupation and threats amount to little more than mob rule, writes Jonathan Hoenig

By JONATHAN HOENIG

There's something rather sad about the "Occupy Wall Street" protests which have been underway for over two weeks in New York, Chicago, Boston and other major US cities.
See Also:
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In earlier generations, civil disobedience like the Montgomery Bus Boycott or women's suffrage movement used nonviolent protest to combat blatant violations of individual rights.

The dreadlocked bands of youth camping out in New York's Zuccotti Park, however, are hardly Freedom Riders. Their demands range from "ending the modern gilded age" to "ending joblessness," although as an asterisk on their "Declaration of the Occupation notes, "these grievances are not all-inclusive."


The blog n+1 reported proposals ranging from a lifetime guaranteed income to the removal of the New York's iconic Wall Street bull sculpture.


And while it would be easy to write off these so-called protests as diffuse expressions of general twentysomething malaise, as they have grown, they have developed into something more dangerous: Organizing and promoting an "occupation" distinguishes this effort as that of a mob.

There is no right to disrupt traffic or occupy other people's property, no matter if it's one lunatic individual or the 99% of the public protesters claim to represent. What's so lamentable about "Occupy Wall Street" isn't even their collectivist goals but the means by which they go about to achieve them: force and intimidation.


Merriam-Webster defines "occupy" as "to take or hold possession or control of," which is exactly what the protestors have done. Just yesterday, 700 people were arrested in New York blocking cars on the Brooklyn Bridge. "These are our streets, we will occupy them" proclaims the Chicago group's fliers. Yet it's not the ideas they hope will persuade onlookers, but their obstruction. For more than two weeks they've camped out in front of the Chicago Board of Trade and other financial centers, banging drums, barking demands and disrupting people working in neighboring offices.

Capitalism, the system "Occupy Wall Street" so feverishly wants to bury, operates on the principle of voluntary trade, not occupation and threat. Capitalism treats men not as sacrifices for the public good, but as independent individuals with their own lives. From the professional on the trading floor to the kid selling lemonade, investors know that if you want something from someone else, you can't simply demand it by occupation, you have to trade for it, just as others must trade with you.

That's the justice protestors are seeking to destroy.

Jonathan Hoenig is managing member at Capitalistpig Hedge Fund LLC.

By the way, here's the kid selling lemonade who must be the one Hoenig mentioned.

[Bruce Dazzling]

/\/\/\ Jonathan Hoenig is a complete jackass, but he's exactly the type of jackass that gets 50% of the population nodding heartily in approval.

Ugh.

So anyway, here are some of today's photos, which, as usual, can all be linked to from here:







Here's another from my favorite "Fox News" reporter, who I spoke with today for quite a while. He's really smart, well-spoken, and totally engaging.







This guy was sort of preaching stream of consciousness style, and he had a bunch of quotes on a board on the ground in front of him. He seemed to be representing an organization calledThe Global Movement, but I didn't get a chance to ask him about it.



Here are some of the quotes:

[wintler2]

..This guy was sort of preaching stream of consciousness style, and he had a bunch of quotes on a board on the ground in front of him. He seemed to be representing an organization calledThe Global Movement, but I didn't get a chance to ask him about it.

Interesting website, not for the superstraight demographic maybe but effective for others i think.
Given some of the logos and twitter feeds its probably produced by indymedia folk.
links to http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution which is streaming from wall st.

[Luther Blissett]

Just got back from the occupyphilly general assembly in a church that seats 900, but was WAY beyond capacity. It was amazing. The Philly folks are out for blood and the crowd was a great cross section of our vehemently working-class population. Tons of passion, tons of optimism, and tons of desire to fuck things up. I was expecting like 100 or so, the occupation hasn't even started yet. I saw my former professors, former co-workers, my literal next-door neighbor, my lawyer friend, people whom I'd seen at Wall Street, ministers, and other activists that I've been seeing around for years. And we already have the support of two local unions.

But we used real active democracy to get over 1000 people to agree on a date and location, and we chose this Thursday, October 6, at 9am at our city hall.

I'm fucking psyched. Philly is going to be fucking wild, and we're hungry to use the symbolism of our city as leverage - we basically want every citizen to "occupy."

[N8wide]

Washington finally notices!

We are pretty sure this exchange at today’s briefing with Jay Carney represents the first time the White House has been asked to weigh in on the Occupy Wall Street protests — yet another sign of the movement’s astonishing growth in recent days:

Full article here : http://anonops.blogspot.com/2011/10/whi ... e.html?m=1

[Free]

For those who can't pick up a copy of te Occupied Wall St. Journal, here is the lead article:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/28-6


Published on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 by The Indypendent
The Revolution Begins at Home: An Open Letter to Join the Wall Street Occupation

by Arun Gupta

What is occurring on Wall Street right now is truly remarkable. For over 10 days, in the sanctum of the great cathedral of global capitalism, the dispossessed have liberated territory from the financial overlords and their police army.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr.com/pweiskel08)

They have created a unique opportunity to shift the tides of history in the tradition of other great peaceful occupations from the sit-down strikes of the 1930s to the lunch-counter sit-ins of the 1960s to the democratic uprisings across the Arab world and Europe today.

While the Wall Street occupation is growing, it needs an all-out commitment from everyone who cheered the Egyptians in Tahrir Square, said “We are all Wisconsin,” and stood in solidarity with the Greeks and Spaniards. This is a movement for anyone who lacks a job, housing or healthcare, or thinks they have no future.

Our system is broken at every level. More than 25 million Americans are unemployed. More than 50 million live without health insurance. And perhaps 100 million Americans are mired in poverty, using realistic measures. Yet the fat cats continue to get tax breaks and reap billions while politicians compete to turn the austerity screws on all of us.

At some point the number of people occupying Wall Street – whether that’s five thousand, ten thousand or fifty thousand – will force the powers that be to offer concessions. No one can say how many people it will take or even how things will change exactly, but there is a real potential for bypassing a corrupt political process and to begin realizing a society based on human needs not hedge fund profits.

After all, who would have imagined a year ago that Tunisians and Egyptians would oust their dictators?

At Liberty Park, the nerve center of the occupation, more than a thousand people gather every day to debate, discuss and organize what to do about our failed system that has allowed the 400 richest Americans at the top to amass more wealth than the 180 million Americans at the bottom.

It’s astonishing that this self-organized festival of democracy has sprouted on the turf of the masters of the universe, the men who play the tune that both political parties and the media dance to. The New York Police Department, which has deployed hundreds of officers at a time to surround and intimidate protesters, is capable of arresting everyone and clearing Liberty Plaza in minutes. But they haven’t, which is also astonishing.

That’s because assaulting peaceful crowds in a public square demanding real democracy – economic and not just political – would remind the world of the brittle autocrats who brutalized their people demanding justice before they were swept away by the Arab Spring. And the state violence has already backfired. After police attacked a Saturday afternoon march that started from Liberty Park the crowds only got bigger and media interest grew. 

The Wall Street occupation has already succeeded in revealing the bankruptcy of the dominant powers – the economic, the political, media and security forces. They have nothing positive to offer humanity, not that they ever did for the Global South, but now their quest for endless profits means deepening the misery with a thousand austerity cuts.

Even their solutions are cruel jokes. They tell us that the “Buffett Rule” would spread the pain by asking the penthouse set to sacrifice a tin of caviar, which is what the proposed tax increase would amount to. Meanwhile, the rest of us will have to sacrifice healthcare, food, education, housing, jobs and perhaps our lives to sate the ferocious appetite of capital.

That’s why more and more people are joining the Wall Street occupation. They can tell you about their homes being foreclosed upon, months of grinding unemployment or minimum-wage dead-end jobs, staggering student debt loads, or trying to live without decent healthcare. It’s a whole generation of Americans with no prospects, but who are told to believe in a system that can only offer them Dancing With The Stars and pepper spray to the face.

Yet against every description of a generation derided as narcissistic, apathetic and hopeless they are staking a claim to a better future for all of us.

That’s why we all need to join in. Not just by liking it on Facebook, signing a petition at change.org or retweeting protest photos, but by going down to the occupation itself.

There is great potential here. Sure, it’s a far cry from Tahrir Square or even Wisconsin. But there is the nucleus of a revolt that could shake America’s power structure as much as the Arab world has been upended.

Instead of one to two thousand people a day joining in the occupation there needs to be tens of thousands of people protesting the fat cats driving Bentleys and drinking thousand-dollar bottles of champagne with money they looted from the financial crisis and then from the bailouts while Americans literally die on the streets.

To be fair, the scene in Liberty Plaza seems messy and chaotic. But it’s also a laboratory of possibility, and that’s the beauty of democracy. As opposed to our monoculture world, where political life is flipping a lever every four years, social life is being a consumer and economic life is being a timid cog, the Wall Street occupation is creating a polyculture of ideas, expression and art.

Yet while many people support the occupation, they hesitate to fully join in and are quick to offer criticism. It’s clear that the biggest obstacles to building a powerful movement are not the police or capital – it’s our own cynicism and despair.

Perhaps their views were colored by the New York Times article deriding protestors for wishing to “pantomime progressivism” and “Gunning for Wall Street with faulty aim.” Many of the criticisms boil down to “a lack of clear messaging.”

But what’s wrong with that? A fully formed movement is not going to spring from the ground. It has to be created. And who can say what exactly needs to be done? We are not talking about ousting a dictator; though some say we want to oust the dictatorship of capital.

There are plenty of sophisticated ideas out there: end corporate personhood; institute a “Tobin Tax” on stock purchases and currency trading; nationalize banks; socialize medicine; fully fund government jobs and genuine Keynesian stimulus; lift restrictions on labor organizing; allow cities to turn foreclosed homes into public housing; build a green energy infrastructure.

But how can we get broad agreement on any of these? If the protesters came into the square with a pre-determined set of demands it would have only limited their potential. They would have either been dismissed as pie in the sky – such as socialized medicine or nationalize banks – or if they went for weak demands such as the Buffett Rule their efforts would immediately be absorbed by a failed political system, thus undermining the movement.

That’s why the building of the movement has to go hand in hand with common struggle, debate and radical democracy. It’s how we will create genuine solutions that have legitimacy. And that is what is occurring down at Wall Street.

Now, there are endless objections one can make. But if we focus on the possibilities, and shed our despair, our hesitancy and our cynicism, and collectively come to Wall Street with critical thinking, ideas and solidarity we can change the world.

How many times in your life do you get a chance to watch history unfold, to actively participate in building a better society, to come together with thousands of people where genuine democracy is the reality and not a fantasy?

For too long our minds have been chained by fear, by division, by impotence. The one thing the elite fear most is a great awakening. That day is here. Together we can seize it.

© 2011 The Indypendent

A founding editor of The Indypendent, Arun Gupta writes about energy, the economy, the media, U.S. foreign policy, the politics of food and other subjects for The Indypendent, Z Magazine, Left Turn and Alternet. Gupta is a regular commentator on Democracy Now! and GritTV with Laura Flanders. He’s writing a book on the decline of American Empire to be published by Haymarket Books. From 1989 to 1992 he was an international news editor at the Guardian Newsweekly.

[Wombaticus Rex]

My own take: http://www.skilluminati.com/research/en ... py_itself/

"I Am the 99%" is powerful stuff, and it's also a heavy responsibility. There are a huge amount of voices to be taken into account to justify rhetoric like that. Building consensus is a whole different box of tools than organizing protests, it's true. That doesn't necessarily mean that some folks in Topeka, Kansas need to read up on Saul Alinsky in order to start a local #Occupy chapter. The room for mutation is a big part of what makes this phenomenon so interesting. As Burroughs croaked: "Any number can play."

Still, giving advice on "building successful movements" is dishonest. It all boils down to the same tautologies in a numbers game -- the further your movement spreads, the more leverage you'll have. That's not unlike Wall Street's advice for the unemployed and foreclosed: the key to making more money is just increasing your monthly income. There's a lot of free advice out there, and none of it is much more helpful than that.

#Occupy will become what it will. All that's left is waiting and watching and holding the square.

[Plutonia]

Good read WR. A nice hat-tip to social engineering at the end there.

~~~~~~~

I haven't finished reading that Occupy Wall Street rag. So far the lead article looks fine.

~~~~~~~~

We Are All Human Microphones Now http://www.thenation.com/blog/163767/we ... phones-now

~~~~~~~~

Greetings Fellow Anons: As brothers and sisters, we have to look out for one another in times like these.

We have taken notice to a planned attack which has been named #InvadeWallStreet, which is to be held out on October 10 th.

We strongly advise against this action and everything it entails to.

Many of our brothers and sisters have gone down in the fight for using such tactics, like the wikileaks defendants who took down Visa, Paypal, and Mastercard which led to mass arrests.

We do not want history to repeat itself, and are sincerely worried.

Using such a tool such as LOIC to get your message across would deemed irresponsible and you would be signing your own ticket to jail.

Please change these tactics for this Op to spare our movement the loss and to spare OccupyWallstreet of the bad press.

Thank you and we hope we have made our point.

We are anonymous.[etc]

http://pastebin.com/MKVjuBUG

~~~~~~~~

A call for corpse-wear:

DownWithTheBull DownWithTheBull
by flyingmonkeyair
#occupywallstreet PLEASE DONATE USED OR NEW BUSINESS SUITS, at http://www.occupywallst.org WE NEED THEM SOON , THANK YOU plz RT
3 hours ago

[Plutonia]

Some quick Occupy Wall Street links

*Joseph Stiglitz and Jeff Madrick stop by.
*David Graeber chats with Ezra Klein.
*Sarah Jaffe and the class implication of “know your history” and Mike Konczal, on Actions Become Beliefs, Participation and Class Bias in #OccupyWallStreet Debates
*Also Mike Konczal on The Young Are #OccupyingWallStreet Because They Have the Most to Lose
*And also Mike Konczal on Fifteen Definitions of Freedom from #OccupyWallStreet.
*‘Occupy Wall Street’ gains institutional cheerleaders
*On the Occupy Wall Street ‘media blackout’
*In Solidarity With Occupy Wall Street, Transport Union Refuses To Bus Protesters Arrested By New York Police
*Saturday on the Brooklyn Bridge and Then on a Police Bus
*‘We haven’t had a shortage of demands and solutions. We’ve had a shortage of mass movements.’
*“How to Occupy an Abstraction.”
*be realistic, demand the impossible

*The story of the Brooklyn Bridge ‘trap’
*From the Brooklyn Bridge to One Police Plaza and back again
*We Are All Human Microphones Now
*It’s easy to mock, but this is how real change begins

https://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2011/1 ... eet-links/

[Twyla LaSarc]

My kid has just informed me that he is going to start attending occupy Seattle on his time off from school.

Man, I'm almost in tears. I'm so lucky to have him for a son.

I'm hoping they can get established, I have a shit ton of spare camping stuff and clothing to give. I'm culling the desert island books for a potential library donation. I'll even sacrifice my copy of 'Valis' for the cause.

[Plutonia]

Getting bigger every day.

This is a US only list: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/0 ... C2%A0pages

And international: http://www.occupytogether.org/events/international/