Occupy Wall Street

[PeterPan09]

I agree that the issues are not political, but the marches are being orchestrated with political goals in mind. Just as the Tea Party protests were hi-jacked, so has this been.

That's my point. BOTH sides have a vested interest in the status quo because it's making them rich and powerful and they're using well meaning folks on both sides of the political spectrum.

However, even if movements are co-opted that does not mean that the issues behind them are completely irrelevant or we should tell them that they cannot protest. We certainly got enough coverage of Tea Party protests, why did this take 14 days to reach people?

 

[PrincessKsMom]

I think the media's ignoring them might have led to some of the changes in their MO. Had CNN been there on day 1, they might not have decided that they needed to do more to get noticed.

And yet one of them is carrying around a sign saying Turn Off The TVs? Even if they media had shown up on Day 1, had we listened to them we still wouldn't know they were there.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

I will give them credit, for being completely left out of the media, it seems I'm hearing more and more about it every day.

Perhaps this political cartoon may have it correct? (I'm a big fan of pol cartoons, regardless of what they say).

 

[Acklander]

No, it is about getting Obama re-elected.

BS.
Many of the protestors are to the extreme left, just As the tea party is to the extreme right.
The progressive groups are not happy with Obama at all. They feel he has sold them out by continually giving into the right without receiving anything in return.

 

[PeterPan09]

This isn't just about banks charging a 5.00 fee to use debit cards. It's about investment bankers manipulating the markets so we pay twice as much for gas while they take all the profits, it's about banks receiving billions in bailout money from the taxpayers and then paying themselves millions in bonuses, it's about hedge fund managers who earn over a billion a year but pay a smaller tax rate than someone earning 50k a year. It's about citizens united where corporations are allowed to openly buy our politicians from both sides of the aisle.

 

[PeterPan09]

And yet one of them is carrying around a sign saying Turn Off The TVs? Even if they media had shown up on Day 1, had we listened to them we still wouldn't know they were there.

Guess logic isn't that one's strong suit.

 

[PeterPan09]

Careful folks. If you want this to stay open let's keep the politics OUT.

 

[Princess Dolly]

And yet one of them is carrying around a sign saying Turn Off The TVs? Even if they media had shown up on Day 1, had we listened to them we still wouldn't know they were there.

Perhaps they want you to buy a newspaper.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

Guess logic isn't that one's strong suit.

And that's why I'm confused about what it is they're trying to accomplish. Some of them (NOT ALL) look like homeless people some just picked up and dropped off in the park and handed them a sign and said, stay here. Even on the TV interviews I've seen (and since I'm local I see it on the TV every day), many of them seem confused about what exactly it is they're doing and what they want. Was when a local TV station interviewed Michael Moore when he was there last week talking about how "the system" is screwing people. He refused to answer the reporter's questions about how he made a great living from "the system". He tried to backpedal and say "the system" destroyed his hometown of Detroit and that he was Detroit. BS. He also said he didn't make any money from "the system" but rather from "the people" who comed out to see his movies. It was like watching a merry-go-round. And FWIW I'm wondering how much money Michael Moore has chipped in toward the cause and if he's still there camping out?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

...We certainly got enough coverage of Tea Party protests, why did this take 14 days to reach people?

There are protests in NYC every day. All over the city. Everywhere. It is not surprising that this has flown under the radar. But now that it is starting to pick up steam and has been taken over by Obama's team, you can expect it to start getting headlines. With Obama's professiona team of organizers, a different sort of protester has started to arrive on scene. The rhetoric will escalate, and the pressure on the police will increase. It is all being orchestrated.

Again, I agree in principle with what they are protesting, but not with how they are going about it. The banks and corporations are not the real threat - it is the federal reserve system. We have handed over our economy to a handful of men. Most Americans know nothing of what I speak, and they don't care to learn.

Not long after signing the Federal Reserve Act into law, Woodrow Wilson said, ""I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

 

[Uncle Remus]

Careful folks. If you want this to stay open let's keep the politics OUT.

Yeah, but this was such a simple answer!:

No, it is about getting Obama re-elected.

This isn't just about banks charging a 5.00 fee to use debit cards. It's about investment bankers manipulating the markets so we pay twice as much for gas while they take all the profits, it's about banks receiving billions in bailout money from the taxpayers and then paying themselves millions in bonuses, it's about hedge fund managers who earn over a billion a year but pay a smaller tax rate than someone earning 50k a year. It's about citizens united where corporations are allowed to openly buy our politicians from both sides of the aisle.

 

[PeterPan09]

I live in FL now and we have seen NOTHING of this protest. I knew about it because of the internet sites I frequent-other than this one.

I find the same thing happens down here when they interview Tea Party folks-which they do OFTEN because that group is on TV every time they protest. One lady said, "I'm here because my husband says that these people are right and I want my country back!" She had ZERO clue what she was protesting or what the group stood for.

Every group has their blind side, but again-that does NOT mean that everyone there is blind or that they have no right to protest.

As for MM, he did a better job on Bill Maher's show talking about it. Maybe he just can't ad lib.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Some quotes about the Federal Reserve:

"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependant on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class." -- Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws" -- Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

"Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States" -- Sen. Barry Goldwater (Rep. AZ)

"This [Federal Reserve Act] establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President[Wilson] signs this bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized....the worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill." -- Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr. , 1913

"The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board asministers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money" -- Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., 1923

"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it". -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932 (Rep. Pa)

"The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa)

"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers" -- Congressional Record 12595-12603 -- Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency (12 years) June 10, 1932

"I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs....I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices in doing something terrible and unforgiveable to our wonderful country. Deep down in our heart, we know that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected." -- John Danforth (R-Mo)

"These 12 corporations together cover the whole country and monopolize and use for private gain every dollar of the public currency..." -- Mr. Crozier of Cincinnati, before Senate Banking and Currency Committee - 1913

"The [Federal Reserve Act] as it stands seems to me to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency... I do not like to think that any law can be passed that will make it possible to submerge the gold standard in a flood of irredeemable paper currency." -- Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., 1913

This is what Americans should be angry about.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

One thing is for sure, do not try and follow #occupywallstreet on your TweetDeck. There are so many tags flying by you can't read any of them!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

A few weeks ago I opened a blog that normally deals with regulatory matters. To my surprise, it was an impassioned plea from a devout Republican to oppose a certain candidate's campaign and possible nomination for Presidency. The the blogger was of the opinion that the closest thing to a Manchurian Candidate this country has ever seen. The blogger was in the habit, for her own personal use, of looking at campaign finances of candidates and using that as part of her selection process for choosing who she supports.

One particular candidate who has some rather extreme views and is/was popular seems to be mainly supported by a PAC that isn't just Wall Street Bankers; it's people even the Wall Street Bankers say "whooooaaaa you're going too far, that's crazy talk" It's basically (I'm severely understating their position, mind) a PAC made up of people who think that all the deregulation and missteps that brought you the mortgage crisis were a good thing because it made them a lot of $$$$$. This PAC really doesn't care what this candidate's views on ethics are, although that's what's getting attention with this candidate.

Just a head's up. If I say more this will turn into a political statement; right now, I'd say it's more a civics lesson.

If you are a Republican, check the PACs that are funding the election, ignore the sound bites, and then vote based on what PACs you want running our country - because that's what it comes down to.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

...If you are a Republican, check the PACs that are funding the election, ignore the sound bites, and then vote based on what PACs you want running our country - because that's what it comes down to.

This applies to both parties, equally.

 

[Planogirl]

This isn't just about banks charging a 5.00 fee to use debit cards. It's about investment bankers manipulating the markets so we pay twice as much for gas while they take all the profits, it's about banks receiving billions in bailout money from the taxpayers and then paying themselves millions in bonuses, it's about hedge fund managers who earn over a billion a year but pay a smaller tax rate than someone earning 50k a year. It's about citizens united where corporations are allowed to openly buy our politicians from both sides of the aisle.

If it was actually about that, what will a handful of protestors accomplish? I guess that I dislike those things too but how will this protest help?

It's a confusing mess.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

This applies to both parties, equally.

But in this particular election there really won't be a primary, so the advice won't apply until 2012.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

I had been talking about this type of situation with friends a long time ago. Like several years and I said, the time for Americans to worry is when people start to UNREST. Even though it is a very small group that is what is happening right now.

It actually has been happening in Wisconsin and even New Jersey (Trenton) but no one covers it. It's going to get worse when people start to realize this and then it will become scarey. This is NOT about political sides. This about right and wrong.

Let me tell you, I support them 1000% but what the cops are doing is disgusting and very wrong. They are abusing their power.

I do agree that MM did say it much better on Bill Maher then that interview.

The more unemployment that is going to occur and when the rich keep getting richer and a new year comes and those big ups get those million dollar bonuses and yet still say "Our Company isn't making any money" then you are going to see some crazy stuff happen. Mark my words. You will be coming back to this thread, and I will be saying I told you so. I had hoped this would not happen but I fear that its going to.

The cost of living is going up, yes gas has come down but everything is going up and we that are working and do have jobs for the past few years are not getting any type of raise and are expected to do more. There is going to be a straw that will break the middle classes back. It's coming just not sure when its going to break.

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

http://ow.ly/6JmFE

Gave me a little understanding of our banks today.