Occupy Wall Street

[kw11333]

Please "Comfortably_Numb" read a book, and stop preaching what you hear on the news. Everyone here has made you look like a fool, your embarrassing yourself

[HockeyNut30]

If the goal is to replace the current economic system with something that is likely to prevent excessive unequal wealth distribution, then shouldn't complete collapse be the short term goal? How else do you replace a century of economic theory? You wouldn't put a skyscraper where a house still stands trying to tack on to the wooden frame, you'd demolish it an start anew.

[Carpe Diem]

I am a generally a free market guy, the wall street is seriously out of control.

heres is Bank of America's CEO trashing our central bank governor for having the galls for call for some banking reforms after the last crisis

http://www.huffingto...y_n_980873.html

here is Goldman's CEO claiming he is doing "God's work"

http://blogs.wsj.com...oing-gods-work/

their arrogance of are at the point of delusion. But this is hardly surprising given their remarkable influence to the US congress.

Hard to imagine people still apologizing for them

[JonnyDraft]

I am a generally a free market guy, the wall street is seriously out of control.

heres is Bank of America's CEO trashing our central bank governor for having the galls for call for some banking reforms after the last crisis

http://www.huffingto...y_n_980873.html

here is Goldman's CEO claiming he is doing "God's work"

http://blogs.wsj.com...oing-gods-work/

their arrogance of are at the point of delusion. But this is hardly surprising given their remarkable influence to the US congress.

Hard to imagine people still apologizing for them

[German_Canucks_Supporter]

The free market can't be the answer to all questions. I am happy to live in a country with a "social free market" (can't think of a better translation of "Soziale Marktwirtschaft"). In the German constitution, we have a small phrase that reads: "property is an obligation." If you have more than most people, you have a social responsibility for the rest of society. It's a small barrier that saves us from excessive greed as we see it in the U.S. these days.

Of course, we do have our share of greedy executives, but at least we don't have crowds of homeless academics, a broken health care system and a non-existing social security.

[nucklehead]

I respect the fact that you consider yourself to be basically a -market guy, but ideologically speaking, things would make a lot more sense for yourself if you weren't. People have a tendency to apologize for our economic system during every crisis. It is easier to do this than to be faced with a complete re-examining of our social fabric. Yet, if this is done, the mystery of crisis, and the endless claims of failed human-nature vanish; allowing for the real causation to reveal itself, opposed to the mere symptoms of the very system to which we exist under.If anyone is interesting in what I am saying please send me a pm and i will send you scholarly reviewed, relatively easy to read journals which can assist in shedding light on our current situation.I have no problem addressing these issues on this forum, but I must be prompted to do so, as my response will likely be lengthy; and I'd hate to waste my, and your, time.

[aGENT]

I respect the fact that you consider yourself to be basically a "free-market guy", but ideologically speaking, things would make a lot more sense for yourself if you weren't. People have a tendency to apologize for our economic system during every crisis. It is easier to do this than to be faced with a complete re-examining of our social fabric. Yet, if this is done, the mystery of crisis, and the endless claims of failed human-nature vanish; allowing for the real causation to reveal itself, opposed to the mere symptoms of the very system to which we exist under.

If anyone is interesting in what I am saying please send me a pm and i will send you scholarly reviewed, relatively easy to read journals which can assist in shedding light on our current situation.

I have no problem addressing these issues on this forum, but I must be prompted to do so, as my response will likely be lengthy; and I'd hate to waste my, and your, time.

[JonnyDraft]

That's never stopped Wet and you're not charged for the extra bandwith yet. So give us an example, edited for brevity if you wish.

[Satan's Evil Twin]

[Humble Rodent]

haha wrong thread.

look forward to part two, JohnnyDraft.

[Navyblue]

The title is a little sensational

[Common sense]

The title is a little sensational

[Navyblue]

brave fellows, with bandanas and ski masks over their faces.

Reminds me of the cowardly Black Blok.

[KoreanHockeyFan]

Sigh...this is turning into another fiasco just like the one in Toronto with the G8/20 summit (forget which "G" but you get the point). Peaceful protest at first, and then with a few episodes of slight police aggression, people who come into the protest use it as an excuse to create havoc and make it into a complete riot.

I hope the true sentiment behind these protests really spread through the U.S. I don't need to repeat what everyone else has said here, we all know or should know what's wrong with this terrible economic gap in the states. The two-party system they have going on down there doesn't really help either. Hopefully these protests will go back to their peaceful state where it's just people expressing their anger towards the government in a peaceful way, but of course, that's a hard thing to maintain.

It's quite amazing to see Tea Party Rallies getting no attention from the police while this one has instant police response. It's amazing how the mainstream media labels Tea Party Rallies as an expression of opinion against the Obama administration while this one gets the label of "Left-Wing Lunatics," "Riots erupt in NYC."

If some of you really think that this is just some kind of a crazy pack of stoners and young people who are just bored out of their minds, you really need to take a second look at the mirror. There is something wrong in America, and it needs to be fixed.

[Navyblue]

[Humble Rodent]

[key2thecup]

Sex, drugs and hiding from the law at Wall Street protests

The criminals are crashing the party.

Lured by cheap drugs and free food, creepy thugs have infiltrated the crowd of protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park for Occupy Wall Street, The Post has learned.

“I got warrants. I’m running from the law,” boasted Dave, 24, a scrawny, unshaven miscreant in filthy clothes from Stamford, Conn. “I’m not even supposed to be here, but it’s as good a spot as any to hide.”

Wanted for burglary, the drug-addled fugitive said some of his hard-partying pals clued him in that the protest was a good place to be fed, get wasted and crash.

IN PLAIN SIGHT: A protest attendee named Dave (above) relaxes in Zuccotti Park, where he said he’s been getting high while running from warrants.

Meanwhile, a crowd yesterday learns to pick open handcuffs.

“I’ve been smoking and drinking in here for eight days now,” said Dave, booze on his breath and his eyes bloodshot as he lay sprawled on a tattered sheet of cardboard. “I need to get some methadone. Every day, I wake up, and I’m f--ked up.”

Drugs can be easy to score -- a Post reporter was offered pot for $15 and heroin for $10.

They’ve already fueled at least one violent incident, when a wasted nut job socked a medical volunteer in the face before others hauled the attacker away.

“We are trying to keep everything calm and work with the police, but there are some crazies in here,” said Paul, a security volunteer.

“The other day, there was a guy charging people $5 to use the McDonald’s bathroom. He was on LSD or high on something.”

But the creeps can’t give a bad name to the group’s overall anti-greed message, protesters said.

A coalition of religious leaders and their followers yesterday marched from Washington Square Park to the encampment with a makeshift golden calf in the shape of the Wall Street bull, leading protesters in such spirituals as “We Shall Overcome” and “Down by the Riverside.”

The crowd chanted, “We are the 99 percent!” -- referring to the millions of Americans not among the top 1 percent of the country’s earners -- along with priests, rabbis and imams.

“You are fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah. You have thrown off the yoke. Occupy, occupy, occupy!” shouted Warren Goldstein, chair of the history department at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

The golden calf sat atop a brown platform that marchers carried on their shoulders. On the platform were the words “false idol.”

The clerics -- some holding signs that read, “Jesus is with the 99%” -- said they were there to support the movement.

“You have woken up all of us ... We will stand with you in every city, every state and every country across this globe,” said Michael Ellick, minister at Judson Memorial Church near Washington Square.

Hundreds gathered around philosopher Slavoj Zizek as he gave a speech and answered questions.

“They tell us we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are,” he said. “We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself.”

Some protesters have said that in addition to being against Wall Street greed, they also are for a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and more help for Haiti.

But as the protest ground on for a 23rd day, it was evident that there were challenges.

Zuccotti Park smelled like an open sewer -- with people urinating and defecating in public.

And some couples have taken advantage of the free condoms distributed by organizers to do the nasty in full view of other protesters.

“It kinda makes me think of what Woodstock must have been like,” said one protester, Sarah, 19 from the Upper West Side.

“I haven’t hooked up with any guys ... but one of my friends did have sex in a tarp with a guy last night.”

The free chow offered to protesters was boosting the crowd.

“People say they are here for the cause, but the real reason is the free food,” quipped Cameron, 26, of Jersey City.

“On my third day, they had smoked salmon with cream cheese. You know how much smoked salmon is a pound? Sixteen dollars. I eat better here than I do with my parents!”

Many of the protesters said they are here for the long haul -- and predicted trouble if cops try to clear the park.

“When the weather starts getting cold, we’re already talking about bringing tents in here,” said Robert, 47, of Pennsylvania. “I’m not going anywhere.

“I lost my job of 22 years, and someone has gotta pay,’’ he said. “Civil disobedience is something we may need to keep this site occupied. If everyone does it at once, the cops won’t be able to do anything.”

Three protesters took their sleeping bags and tried to camp out on Wall Street near Nassau Street last night. When police told them to move, one demonstrator, Zachary Miller, 20, from California, was arrested for disorderly conduct, cops said.

At one point yesterday, a speaker from Washington, DC, told protesters how to break out of zip ties and handcuffs in case they get collared.

The protest vet, Ryan Clayton, 30, demonstrated how use a bobby pin to spring the cuffs open -- while claiming he was “not encouraging people to break out of restraints.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/it_nyc_lam_sterdam_bmE4vlV5aDUWhBRv9IbaiK#ixzz1aPSRDYPK

[kyledude]

You know... as my grandfather used to say, "the more things change, the more things stay the same."

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both. One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them. All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.

[kw11333]

Hundreds of riot police going to different major cities at this moment. Conveniently right at 11pm AFTER local news has gone off the air.

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/l7z3r/help_occupy_boston_under_attack_by_riot_police/

Reports (and videos) from Boston show riot police arresting several American war veterans who were participating in a peaceful protest.

[Satan's Evil Twin]