The #OccupyWallStreet Megathread - Post all new updates here - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Glaber;32661895]Christian Science Monitor brings up a valid concern: [url=http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/1005/Occupy-Wall-Street-If-protesters-don-t-list-demands-will-they-get-anything]'Occupy Wall Street': If protesters don't list demands, will they get anything?[/url] This might be why the media took that list and ran with it, they're trying to figure out what their goals are and how to report on them.[/QUOTE] They're having a meeting to draw up official demands on Saturday, they announced it on the livestream. [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;32662299]Its weird, he hasn't shown his typical ultra-conservative style. He's actually been rather moderate on this topic from what I've seen.[/QUOTE] -snip, made an unfair assumption based on the name-

[URL="http://www.tauntr.com/blog/occupy-sesame-street-gets-violent"]In other news Occupy Sesame Street has gotten violent[/URL] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/yiBBs.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Lambeth;32662970][URL="http://www.tauntr.com/blog/occupy-sesame-street-gets-violent"]In other news Occupy Sesame Street has gotten violent[/URL] [/QUOTE] [img]http://i.imgur.com/tK61X.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/KeIYJ.jpg[/img] hippies and scene kids, the whole lot of em

[url]http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?fp[/url] Sign this lads

[QUOTE=Haxxer;32666165][url]http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?fp[/url] Sign this lads[/QUOTE] Signed, also watching the little feed of signers is amazing, it's just continuously being signed.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32661632][I]Source: [url]http://thehill.com/video/house/186103--gop-congressman-wall-street-protests-are-attack-upon-freedom[/url][/I] I find it quite sad that he thinks all bills the House GOP produces are job-creating bills.[/QUOTE] I like how he talks about the American people being fed up with what Obama and Harry Reid are doing. ...but not those people on wall street who hate freedom of course. You know. The REAL American people.

Someone was wondering why there was no reporting in Australia. I found a fantastic one! [release] [B]t's like a '60s commune with iPhones as protesters against corporate greed take to the streets, writes Nick Miller in New York.[/B] 'So you're in favour of a more even distribution of wealth?'' asks the long-haired, casually dressed guy with the camera. It's unclear if he's a protester, a member of the underground media, an amateur video blogger, or most likely a modern ''all of the above''. Just about everyone at Occupy Wall Street has mastered the art of waving a banner with one hand and recording their surroundings with an iPhone in the other. His interviewee, a 40-something marching proudly with his wife and a Brooklyn drawl, winces a bit. ''Uh, to a degree,'' he says. ''I, uh, think you should be allowed to accumulate a bit of money. To encourage people.'' The modern American dream is marching through downtown Manhattan, up from the newly coined Liberty Plaza where for almost three weeks a protest movement dubbed OWS has surprised itself and the rest of the country with its virility. Advertisement: Story continues below On this day, almost 20,000 have joined the hundreds of diehards to march up to a union rally, hastily organised in the hope of getting a sprinkle of OWS's fairy dust. The marchers' banners are diverse. ''It's not a recession, it's a robbery''; ''Wall St should buy stocks not politicians''; ''corporate greed is un-American''; ''Bob Dylan please show''; ''I agree''; ''love sees'' and ''group meditation for peace''. There are a couple that are apparently unironic: ''I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more''. They chant ''banks get bailed out we get sold out'' and ''I am the 99 per cent''. On paper (the cheekily named [I]Occupied Wall Street Journal[/I]), OWS's Declaration of the Occupation is a grab-bag of complaints that covers corporate profits, discrimination, the environment, animal testing, privacy and corruption. But once you start chatting to the protesters, their woes are more unified, overwhelmingly centred on money. Students with minimal job prospects are buckling under $US50,000-plus loans. Families are underwater on home loans and face repossession. The uninsured despair at massive healthcare bills. As they pour into the park where the union rally is under way, it's clear that whatever the message is, thousands like it, and it is still gaining momentum. OWS was thought up in mid-July when the Vancouver anti-consumerist magazine [I]AdBusters[/I] proposed the ''occupation'' with an eye-catching poster of a ballerina on Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull statue. In a sign of the times, it was born with a ready-made Twitter hashtag, creating an immediate online community. Other protest movements signed up to the idea - including the shadowy Anonymous online activists - and day one, September 17, saw thousands show up. But barely 200 stayed for that night's occupation, which could have ended there. Somehow, it didn't. Protesters Chris and Ray were there from the start. ''On day three it was pouring with rain and there were just 30 of us,'' Chris says. ''But a few days after that it was clear it had sparked a movement, which is why we stayed. I didn't expect it to turn into this.'' Chris puts its staying power down to the way it is organised - a protest element combined with a new community structure with a distributed power network that puts no one or everyone in charge. Liberty Plaza has the feel of a '60s-style commune. ''I think that's really important,'' he says. It's not a power-trip for young would-be politicians, it feels like a groundswell. Asked where he wanted the movement to go from here, he said: ''We want to occupy everywhere, we want to occupy the Earth.'' But, practically speaking, efforts to contain the protest have been a big factor in spurring it on. A march of a few hundred people gained widespread publicity when police used pepper spray to break it up. Half a dozen people around every incident were recording it on smartphones: police ''brutality'' was displayed on YouTube. It was grist to the Twitter mill. The same happened again on Wednesday - it could tar the protests with a violent reputation, but it helps gain more air time. Then a march across Brooklyn Bridge broke from the footpath and police arrested 700 - many of them involved for the first time, some of them journalists. This week the idea caught fire in other cities: Washington, San Francisco, Houston, Austin, Philadelphia, Portland, even Iowa City. In Seattle police arrested 25, but in Los Angeles the mayor distributed ponchos. On Thursday, President Barack Obama was forced to take notice. It was an awkward moment: for next year's presidential race he must recapture the disillusioned centre, not link himself to electorally unsavoury extremes. Enough voters think he is ''un-American'' already . But the most coherent demand of OWS, that top earners should pay more in tax, chimes very closely with Obama's stated policy. ''I think people are frustrated and, you know, the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works,'' Obama said cautiously. The media was cautious about giving space to OWS, though that has changed, spearheaded by London's [I]Guardian, [/I]which set up a live blog from the occupation. Right-wing media were happy to take notice. The movement has been mocked as the ''Hippie Spring'' in [I]The Wall Street Journal[/I], implying it is a hipster shadow of a genuine democratic upsurge in Arab countries, the left's splintered and rootless reaction to the rise of the right's Tea Party. But journalist Nicholas Kristof, who covered the Arab uprisings for [I]The New York Times[/I], raised eyebrows when he tweeted that the feeling in Downtown reminded him of Tahrir Square in Cairo, the centre of the protests that toppled Egypt's president. ''True, no bullets are whizzing around, and the movement won't unseat any dictators,'' Kristof wrote. ''But there is the same cohort of alienated young people, and the same savvy use of Twitter to recruit more participants. Most of all, there's a similar tide of youthful frustration with a political and economic system that protesters regard as broken, corrupt, unresponsive and unaccountable.'' The [I]WSJ[/I] columnist, James Taranto, is less impressed. He rates the protesters as a mix of ''(1) airheads, and (2) basically just big-government Democrats with an authoritarian streak''. He predicts: ''This will all fizzle out as the weather gets cooler'' which, by the current forecast, means next Wednesday. There is certainly a war for the middle classes going on. At Wednesday's rally, a union leader raised a cheer when he urged ''let's not let the Tea Party be the voice of the working people in America''. But the biggest cheer greeted a quote from Martin Luther King, who had mused on why Rosa Parks had sparked a national movement by refusing to get up from her seat on a bus. ''She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn,'' Luther King wrote. ''She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny. She had been tracked down by the zeitgeist, the spirit of the time.'' Only time will tell whether OWS has been tapped on the shoulder by the zeitgeist, or is just a distraction in a recession-racked superpower. [/release] Looks like the protests are building up speed. We can all clearly see what is going on with Fox.

Speaking of Australia and Occupy Wall Street: So I'm at uni this morning, it's maybe 8:45 or so, just chilling out with a few friends prior to our physics lab and waiting for the rest of the guys to turn up. I stood up to stretch my legs, and get some crotch space (because I was terribly uncomfortable on the sofa) and saw a guy through the window enter our building. I sat back down again, and a moment later the same dude walked into the room we were in and sort of stared at me for 5 or so seconds as I stared right back at him. "What's up, guys?" he asks. Thinking it was a bit weird I replied, "not much, you?" This guy proceeds to welcome himself into our area and its at this point that I first realise that he's most likely a complete and utter nutcase. He looks like, for a lack of better terms, a filthy hippie. He had a beer gut (not too large), an orange t-shirt that was muddy... or covered in food/bodily fluids (fuck, I dunno) and said t-shirt riddled with tears and holes. In his backpack he had a small tree. Let that sink in. Not a small potted plant or anything. It was a legitimate, honest to god, out of the fucking ground, small tree. So he starts talking to us about 'Occupy Melbourne' because they want to spread awareness of what's happening in the US and make a change here too if they can (in hindsight who's 'they'? The conspiracy nuts who want to protect us all from the Jewish Lizardmen who are working with Obama the treacherous Muslim to bring an end to Capitalism?). That all seemed perfectly legit I guess, but I was still a little thrown off by the tree... Then all of a sudden, and I can't remember how, he veered off course. He went from talking about the situation in Wall Street to how the American Government and/or big American Banks were somehow responsible for precipitating the Libyan revolution, which he claimed was unfair because Libya was prosperous under Gadaffi's reign and that the Libyan people loved him for it (and he also stated that the Western world and the American government were unfair to Gadaffi... somehow). At this point I finally had the necessary evidence to conclude that the guy was in fact a complete and utter loony and that there was no point in even attempting to point out how stupid, let alone insulting to the Libyan rebels these accusations were so I and my friends all exchanged a few looks of, "this guy is coo-coo!", nodded at what he said, basically said, "no," and then told him goodbye. Was a bit weird, but that's as close to home that this whole Occupy Wall Street thing has been brought to me.

[QUOTE=Haxxer;32666165][url]http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?fp[/url] Sign this lads[/QUOTE] Signed.

Does Occupy have a set and definitive set of demands now?

[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;32667591]Does Occupy have a set and definitive set of demands now?[/QUOTE] I think it depends on the person you ask. It might depend on location. IDK Im just know learning about this movement. Anti-Corporate lobbying in government, new voting system, and opposition to privitization of government functions seem to be common things. Tells you something when this is in the south too. [url]http://www.facebook.com/#!/OccupyNOLA[/url]

[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;32666645]Someone was wondering why there was no reporting in Australia. I found a fantastic one! Looks like the protests are building up speed. We can all clearly see what is going on with Fox.[/QUOTE] Link to the story? I'd like to share it

[QUOTE=N-12_Aden;32667812]I think it depends on the person you ask. It might depend on location. IDK Im just know learning about this movement. Anti-Corporate lobbying in government, new voting system, and opposition to privitization of government functions seem to be common things. Tells you something when this is in the south too. [url]http://www.facebook.com/#!/OccupyNOLA[/url][/QUOTE]Yeah, the Birmingham (Alabama, you Brits) branch is really active and seeing a lot of participation. On Sunday, they're having some kind of mass potluck on Sunday and had a couple hundred people turn out at a meeting last night. [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] Also, this just saddens me: [url]http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Zionism/184318854976496[/url]

Man I keep seeing people asking these protesters if they have any solutions to the problem. That isn't their job. You don't take a car to a mechanic and expect him to need long, drawn out instructions on how to fix your car for you.

[QUOTE=Lambeth;32669236]Man I keep seeing people asking these protesters if they have any solutions to the problem. That isn't their job. You don't take a car to a mechanic and expect him to need long, drawn out instructions on how to fix your car for you.[/QUOTE] It is a car analogy. It is also a very good point. [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] I'm actually really proud of my city right now, at least the Occupation movement for it anyway. They're organizing a large potluck to feed anyone that comes through, especially the homeless. The area has a particularly large homeless population that is constantly ignored, even though the area itself is very popular and sees a lot of new renovations, none of which go to help said homeless. The city itself has a serious homeless problem that only ever seems to get worse.

[QUOTE=OvB;32660802]This is a good example of not how to act: You don't need more negative media fuel like that.[/QUOTE] And how not to dress.

What is really starting to frighten me is that I'm seeing more and more Ron Paul supporters trying to wedge themselves in as if Ron Paul is some godsend for the movement and will fix anything. He's is not any better than the rest and will just make these problems worse. More and more, I'm seeing conservatives trying to worm in to it and turn things in to a conservative nut house.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;32670683]What is really starting to frighten me is that I'm seeing more and more Ron Paul supporters trying to wedge themselves in as if Ron Paul is some godsend for the movement and will fix anything. He's is not any better than the rest and will just make these problems worse. More and more, I'm seeing conservatives trying to worm in to it and turn things in to a conservative nut house.[/QUOTE] Among the actual protesters, I've not seen that at all. In the chat on the livestream maybe, but not on the ground.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32670725]Among the actual protesters, I've not seen that at all. In the chat on the livestream maybe, but not on the ground.[/QUOTE]I guess I'm seeing it more because I live in predominately conservative Alabama. One of the biggest radio stations in the state is 100.5 WAPI, which is all conservative/libertarian bullshit, with Matt Murphy as the loudest and most popular of them. I can't begin to describe how many times I've heard Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul or Mitt Romney bullshit on there. Its just terrifying. Or later in the day when they start playing shit like Mark Levin. It drives me fucking crazy because I can't escape it, it seems like, no matter what I do, there is always someone listening to their shit. I don't want to live here anymore, but I wouldn't feel right abandoning the rest of the people to these wolves.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;32670897]I guess I'm seeing it more because I live in predominately conservative Alabama. One of the biggest radio stations in the state is 100.5 WAPI, which is all conservative/libertarian bullshit, with Matt Murphy as the loudest and most popular of them. I can't begin to describe how many times I've heard Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul or Mitt Romney bullshit on there. Its just terrifying. Or later in the day when they start playing shit like Mark Levin. It drives me fucking crazy because I can't escape it, it seems like, no matter what I do, there is always someone listening to their shit.[/QUOTE] Well of course in Alabama you're probably more prone to it. New York and D.C. are pretty Progressive places, I don't think you'll see it too much there.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32661632]“It’s just inane, it’s insanity to continue doing the same thing over and over again expecting to get different results, and that’s exactly what this president continues to propose,” Broun said.[/release] [I]Source: [url]http://thehill.com/video/house/186103--gop-congressman-wall-street-protests-are-attack-upon-freedom[/url][/I][/QUOTE] For the record, I have a lot to say on that, especially regarding the GOP's insane support of Regeanomics. :v:

[QUOTE=Coridan;32657940][video=youtube;ELEBAGIool0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELEBAGIool0&feature=player_embedded[/video] Coming from someone who is in support of the protests: I think people need to shut the fuck up about all this police brutality crap. Judging from the video, obviously a huge group of people were rushing the barricade (or trying to carry it away (wtf?)) which is AT LEAST disorderly conduct. The cops weren't even beating on anyone. The cop swinging with the batton was beating on a guys backpack (which from the other video it looked like he WAS bashing someone, so it could have been spun as "OMGZORZ POLICE BRUTALITAYYY). Other cops were pushing people away. Other cops were using pepper spray, and coming from someone who has been sprayed with OC multiple times before, it's not that bad. You'll get over it. Imagine yourself as a cop in that crowd. There's 20 of you and hundreds of batshit angry people screaming at you, being crazy, and all they are trying to do is contain the situation. It's a stressful time for everybody involved and people do stupid things. I am in no way defending Mr. Bologna who sprayed the group of women sitting there doing nothing, or any of that shit. I am in the United States Marine Corps, I have buddies in the police, and I have also been to many protests, rallies etc. in support of gay rights, anti-wall street and anti-government being assholes. So I have experience on both sides of the fence. I'm just trying to view things realistically. Remember that most of the police forces are part of the 99% as well. They (most) are only doing their jobs.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Megafanx13;32658019]I'm aware that not all police are corrupt and there are those genuinely trying to do their job as best they can. However, I must congratulate you on managing to not only marginalize police brutality as an issue and dismiss any claims of it in regard to this particular incident as "OMGZORS POLICE BRUTALITAYYY". I was watching the livestream when it happened, people were being beaten by those high-ranking officers. In fact one from the media team had a camera inside the police wagon and one of the arrested explained how he was shoved against a wall, had his nose smashed, and his glasses broken. To say that there was no police brutality, and the police in this scene were just "doing their jobs" is naive at best and dishonest at worst.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Coridan;32658122]I understand what you're saying. And, since I did not see the livestream, I was only speaking of what I saw in that particular clip. Not the entire event. From what I saw, it looked like people attacking the barricade. Please correct me if I am wrong. However, if you are going to partake in a violent protest, be prepared to get your ass beaten. It goes with the territory.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Megafanx13;32658475]I'm sure there was at least [I]somebody[/I] who did something physical, I'm not psychic, but based on the camera near the front, it was largely peaceful, and it was the high-rank cops that struck first. Additionally, the "you should expect to be beaten" argument is not an argument at all, just so you know.[/QUOTE] Because you were kind of being an arrogant asshole, when I was merely trying to have an intelligent debate, I felt compelled to show you this video([URL]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6f0_1318015121[/URL]). Obviously it was the other way around from what you believed, and the police officers were completely justified in defending themselves from protestors charging the barricade. [I]Just so you know.[/I]

[QUOTE=Coridan;32672761]Because you were kind of being an arrogant asshole, when I was merely trying to have an intelligent debate, I felt compelled to show you this video([URL]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6f0_1318015121[/URL]). Obviously it was the other way around from what you believed, and the police officers were completely justified in defending themselves from protestors charging the barricade. [I]Just so you know.[/I][/QUOTE] Oh, I was being an arrogant asshole? The "you should expect to be beaten" guy is calling me an arrogant asshole? It certainly was not "obvious" that the police were justified, for one thing the video only shows the group on the right making a push towards the police, and the white shirt swinging the baton comes in from the center, so if anything it's not obvious. Second, do you even know what they're barricading? The police, for whatever reason, set up a barricade to keep protesters on the sidewalk, and away from Wall Street and the NYSE itself. What is legal about this? How is this in any way fair towards those protesting?

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32673213]Oh, I was being an arrogant asshole? The "you should expect to be beaten" guy is calling me an arrogant asshole? It certainly was not "obvious" that the police were justified, for one thing the video only shows the group on the right making a push towards the police, and the white shirt swinging the baton comes in from the center, so if anything it's not obvious. Second, do you even know what they're barricading? The police, for whatever reason, set up a barricade to keep protesters on the sidewalk, and away from Wall Street and the NYSE itself. What is legal about this? How is this in any way fair towards those protesting?[/QUOTE] When taking part in a violent protest, and charging at police, yes. I don't see why they wouldn't defend themselves? If you are going to take violent action against someone else, they usually retaliate. So no, stating a fact does not make me arrogant or an asshole. However, adding interjections such as [I]just so you know[/I] at the end of mocking statements using the fearsome quotation marks to point out words I used, IS arrogent and IS something an asshole does. You aren't even using quotation marks in the correct way, because you keep misquoting me. But, I digress. Again, thinking realisticly, the government is allowing them to protest in places where they will have the least amount of impact on vehicular/pedestrian traffic. Apparently you have the view point of whatever the protestors do is right and whatever the police do is wrong and you will not change this viewpoint. So, again, I digress.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32673213] Second, do you even know what they're barricading? The police, for whatever reason, set up a barricade to keep protesters on the sidewalk, and away from Wall Street and the NYSE itself. What is legal about this? How is this in any way fair towards those protesting?[/QUOTE] You still need to let people who aren't protesting move about and conduct their daily business. Anyways I can see these protests petering out within a couple of months.

[QUOTE=Coridan;32673529]When taking part in a violent protest, and charging at police, yes. I don't see why they wouldn't defend themselves? If you are going to take violent action against someone else, they usually retaliate. So no, stating a fact does not make me arrogant or an asshole. However, adding interjections such as [I]just so you know[/I] at the end of mocking statements using the fearsome quotation marks to point out words I used, IS arrogent and IS something an asshole does. You aren't even using quotation marks in the correct way, because you keep misquoting me. But, I digress. Again, thinking realisticly, the government is allowing them to protest in places where they will have the least amount of impact on vehicular/pedestrian traffic. Apparently you have the view point of whatever the protestors do is right and whatever the police do is wrong and you will not change this viewpoint. So, again, I digress.[/QUOTE] So because a group of people at the front of a march of thousands of people pushed the police barricade, it's now a violent protest? Mind explaining how that logic works? You call me biased, but continue to misconstrue the actions of the protests to sounds violent in every regard. The government "allowing them to protest"? I'm pretty damn sure right to assembly is guaranteed in the constitution. Also, how does blocking their entrance to the stock exchange have anything to do with traffic? [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Sobotnik;32673866]You still need to let people who aren't protesting move about and conduct their daily business.[/quote] Uh, okay. Still not seeing why they aren't allowed to enter the building. [QUOTE=Sobotnik;32673866]Anyways I can see these protests petering out within a couple of months.[/QUOTE] Yes, I'm sure the thousands of people protesting against injustice will just pack it in after a while.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32673914]Uh, okay. Still not seeing why they aren't allowed to enter the building.[/QUOTE] Because they are going to disrupt the people working inside who have nothing to do with or want to do with the protests, along with trespassing. [QUOTE=Megafanx13;32673914]Yes, I'm sure the thousands of people protesting against injustice will just pack it in after a while.[/QUOTE] Like the student riots in London.

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;32673967]Because they are going to disrupt the people working inside who have nothing to do with or want to do with the protests, along with trespassing.[/quote] Stock traders have nothing to do with what they're protesting about? [QUOTE=Sobotnik;32673967]Like the student riots in London.[/QUOTE] Not even comparable. A bunch of disconnected riots with little more going on but looting after one man was shot by the police is nothing compared to a thousands-strong protest movement going on across the country about years of deepening economic problems.

[QUOTE=Megafanx13;32673996]Stock traders have nothing to do with what they're protesting about? Not even comparable. A bunch of disconnected riots with little more going on but looting after one man was shot by the police is nothing compared to a thousands-strong protest movement going on across the country about years of deepening economic problems.[/QUOTE] Firstly, only a few of the stockbrokers had anything to do with it, the rest are simply humans doing their day to day business. Secondly, the student riots that came about as a result of cuts in education. Not only did the Tories and Whigs join in an unholy union but both ended up pissing everyone off. The student protests in London were meant to do something, but for some reason they aren't protesting anymore. Those people were protesting pretty big things.

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;32673967]Because they are going to disrupt the people working inside who have nothing to do with or want to do with the protests, along with trespassing. Like the student riots in London.[/QUOTE] That is a shitty comparison. Two MAJOR different things. [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] Sobotnik, I don't think you know what the fuck you're on about.