Occupy: There’s An App For That, What is the OWS Agenda?, Busted For The Cause
October 31st, 2011 - by: danny
Read and Rage: Occupied Raids Nationwide
Essay: Occupy: There is an App For That!
Al Jazeera English: Occupy Protests: There’s an App For that
When Apple introduced the iPad, most of its advertising focused on the applications it could showcase. Their most popular ads ended with the catchy slogan, “There’s an App For That”.
Now there’s an App for Occupy Wall Street, as up to date and tech savvy as any of the top of the line offerings available through Apple stores. This one not only aggregates news – or at least some of it – in the world press, but offers access to social media to Twitter feeds and Facebook….
“Media hypocrisy is pervasive in outlets that relentlessly attack Occupy Wall Street with biased and snarky reporting while taking ads from the financial institutions that deserve to be investigated.
So there are more good reasons for the protest to sharpen its own media that also includes its own newspaper and a live stream so anyone can watch online as the occupations unfold.
As a media person, I know how powerful and seductive media attention can be – and it is essential to communicate, in however flawed a manner, with the public at large.
But this movement is more than its image, more than its media impact. It’s appeal is an opportunity for direct participation, not as a spectacle for others to watch from a distance…
See the full essay on the Al Jazeera English Website
I also wrote this essay on the question of the OWS agenda for the News Dissector blog and US websites:
The Question OWS Hears Most: “What’s Your Agenda?”
One of the most frequently repeated, recycled and dismissive questions about Occupy Wall Street is its supposed lack of an “agenda.”
The “what do you people want” question has featured in media interviews almost to the exclusion of all others.
It’s as if the movement won’t be taken seriously by some, unless and until, it enunciates list of “demands” and defines itself in a way that can allow others, especially a cynical media, to label and pigeonhole it.
Many are just frothing at the mouth for some political positions they can expose as shallow or absurd. Teams of pundits are being primed to go on the attack once they have some bullet points to refute.
(Many police departments don’t need bullet points to go on the attack. They have been having a field day arresting occupiers in many cities, while collecting overtime and readying their own bullets as needed.)
Some on Wall Street already denounce these adversaries as “unsophisticated” for their formulation of the 99% versus the 1%. You’d expect the 1 % to reject this way of seeing the world.
On the right, there is no factual inaccuracy or bizarre incident they won’t invoke to dismiss a movement they lack the mental tools to understand.
The Drudge Report was delighted to expose an incident involving public masturbation in one city. A group of gun nuts blasted away a group of people who in their majority are deeply disappointed with President Obama’s non-leadership on economic issues.
They write: “Don’t be mistaken. The Wall Street protestors aren’t peaceful hippies congregating about greed or social inequality. They are uniting to destroy America and everything we stand for. Their model is the “Arab Spring” which discharged their Governments in favor of anti-Israel agitators and Muslim fundamentalists. …They are NOT about freedom, but about World domination and total control. And Obama is supporting them……….fully.”
Hmm.
Others like Reverend Jesse Jackson want more engagement with legislative issues and even the backing of candidates. Democratic Candidates, even progressive ones like Elizabeth Warren, seem ambivalent about backing the occupations. Most are taking their cue from President Obama who only say he understands their “frustrations.”)
Some on the left, including friends of mine, seem to suffer from undisguised vanguardism and want the Movement to raise the red flag right away, despite all the anarchists, libertarians and Democrats among them. Here’s Bill Bowles writing from London:
“Although many on the established Left are claiming OWS as their own, latching on to the anti-capitalist theme that figures prominently, at least in some locations, it’s clear that the focus of the OWS ‘movement’ varies greatly from place to place. Thus where it all started, in downtown Manhattan, the focus is very much on capitalist criminals rather than criminal capitalism. But little or no mention of the dreaded word- socialism, ironically for fear of alienating even those who occupy, never mind what the rabid corporate/state media does with that which shall remain nameless.”
These are old and, in many instances, predictable debates but what they miss is what’s new and so vital about this decentralized, mostly leaderless movement that has captured the worlds imagination.
Judging by the media attention it has received and polls that show large numbers of supportive Americans. it is touching a global nerve and changing the national, even international conversation. It seems to be doing a lot that’s right!
Not only have they survived mass arrests and continuing harassment, they showed they could brave what Mother Nature threw their way. They are in the best tradition of the post office which still projects this creed despite the spectre of cutbacks:”
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”
Occupy’s “couriers” have self-appointed rounds in self managed occupations run by work groups and guided by participation in a daily General assembly where activists listen to each other and disagree without being disagreeable.
They have raised a war chest of several hundred thousand dollars. They keep their sites clean with their own sanitation department. In New York, they feed their own with their own kitchen that also serves homeless people in the neighborhood. They even have their own “people’s library.”
In many ways, they are creating ways of cooperative living that they want society to be like. The key to it all is commitment and engagement on the individual level. This way of fusing pragmatism and idealism is what makes it so impressive.
Movements that function from the top-down are more controlled but not necessarily more effective.
At this point, the Occupy movements is still growing, and still spreading its aura more than its message. When you think of how many unemployed people there are and how many others are coping with foreclosures or student debt you can see its potential for organizing and outreach.
Already activists in Oakland where attacks by police from 19 different jurisdictions has galvanized a mass reaction, are calling for November 2 “general strike.”
Are they well organized enough to pull this off and to shut down a whole city?
This may be a case of overreaching in reaction to a brutal police action. But, bear in mind that since it occurred, no one is cheering. The City’s Mayor says she now supports Occupy. The Police are now supposedly investigating their own conduct, and the occupiers are back in the plaza they were forced to abandon.
Thee police attacks often boomerang with the public siding with citizens, not cops.
There is a lot to be optimistic about.
Slavoj Zijek writes in In These Times, “The Western Left has come full circle: After abandoning the so-called ‘class struggle essentialism’ for the plurality of anti-racist, feminist, gay rights etc., struggles, ‘capitalism’ is now re-emerging as the name of THE problem.’
Let’s put the emphasis on words like “emerging” and “awakening,” Politics is always a process. Give people time to distinguish their friends from their enemies. Let’s trust the wisdom of the people. They seem to “get it” much more than the media or the pols.
It is significant that there has been talk of National Convention in Philadelphia on July 4th next year.
Right now, as for a definitive agenda, action always speaks louder than words.
Your comments on these essays to dissector@medachannel.org
NY Times Conforms Occupy’s Analysis of the One Percent
Alternet, Barbara Schneider Reilly, Busted for the Cause; Occupy Wall Street Protester, Arrested and Jailed for 30 Hours, Tells Her Story for the First Time
I spent a weekend in jail.
On Saturday, October 15, I went to Washington Square
Park to take a closer look at the Occupy Wall Street
movement. There were many young people who could be my
children or rather grandchildren, but many older people,
too, all generations united, it seemed, under the
banner: “We are the 99 percent.”
Different groups decided to go to a bank. I joined one
that went to Citibank at La Guardia Place and Bleecker
Street. As we entered, there were a couple of customers
and a few banktellers inside. A teach-in ensued. The
story the students told, surprisingly calmly and
politely, was shocking.
“I am $100,000 in debt. The costs Citibank charges me go
up and up. I do not know how I can repay it. I find it
deeply irresponsible that Citibank makes the kind of
profit they do from our indebtedness.”
Another student said, “I’m not $100,000 in debt, only
$30,000. So far. And I still have two years to go. This
kind of profit-taking cannot go on. We are here to say
we will not tolerate it. We need fundamental change.”
And so it went. After we were told to take our action
outside, some people stayed and continued to tell their
stories.
Read the Rest:
Occupy Ft Lauderdale at The Boat Show
Occupy That Yacht
In Fort Lauderdale, a good-natured movement takes the
fight to the decks of the one percent.
If America’s ultra-rich are feeling unappreciated, a
trip to this weekend’s Fort Lauderdale International
Boat Show seemed to offer some solace. After all, it’s
the world’s premier annual showcase for yachts, and the
city bills itself unabashedly as the “Yachting Capital
of the World.”
But this year, not all the residents were in a welcoming.
Occupy Ft Lauderdale was there.
And, Now, Occupy The Rose Bowl Parade
We are a one day affinity project of the international “Occupy Wall Street” movement . Please share the URL for the site with other 99%ers via Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms.
6 am Dec. 31, 2011 to 2 pm, Jan. 2, 2012: We are striving for 40,000 national & international occupiers converging at Pasadena’s Norton Simon (by Orange Grove Blvd & Colorado Blvd). . Further details pending (see website also). (Note: If you can purchase tickets for the event in front of the Norton Simon for Jan, 2, 2012, please strive to do so. We will have costumed viewer “stand” actions as well. Details will provided listserve in two weeks regarding OWS/OLA “Human Float” , Banner Drops and other actions).
Primary Goals: (1) Legislate real Wall Street Accountability; & (2) Mobilize “We Are the 99%” support for real and truly systemic reform.
Facebook Page (please share w/ others & ‘Like’): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-the-Rose-Parade-Mon-Jan-2-2012/27976381205556
Pat Buchanan, Occupy Wall Street Will End Badly
OWS at Valley Forge?
Tom Englehardt Speaks To Occupy Wall Street: One book editor’s personal view of just why Zuccotti Park offers us hope in a tarnished century —
Tom Engelhardt, “OWS at Valley Forge, A (Self-) Graduation Speech for the Occupiers of Zuccotti Park” http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175460/ To listen to Timothy MacBain’s latest Tomcast audio interview in which Engelhardt discusses the Occupy Wall Street movement and what hope means in our time visit http://tomdispatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/whats-your-occupation.html
My latest post offers a personal view of what the Occupy Wall Street movement means (and specifically what it means to me) as the winter of all our discontents bears down on us. It’s written in the form of a (self-) graduation speech from a 67-year-old book editor (and sometime activist) to the young occupiers of Zuccotti Park and particularly the “librarians” there who have made the book with paper pages a central icon of their movement. (“Who would have expected that the old-fashioned, retro book would be at the heart of this country’s great protest movement of a tarnished new century?”)
FT: Calls for EU lead on Tobin tax….When Will US Adopt This Reform?
Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, wants the European Union to take the global lead in introducing a financial transaction tax to curb speculative trading, along with tougher regulation of big banks and the “shadow” banking sector, such as hedge funds. If the UK blocked agreement on such a tax in the full EU, he said in an interview with the Financial Times, the eurozone should press ahead on its own
CLG: U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After ‘Exit’ From Iraq
Plans under discussion for months…The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. After unsuccessfully pressing both the Obama administration and the Iraqi government to permit as many as 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011, the Pentagon is now drawing up an alternative. In addition to negotiations over maintaining a ground combat presence in Kuwait, the United States is considering sending more naval warships through international waters in the regio
666–LBN: HERMAN CAIN TO CUT BACK ON 2012 CAMPAIGN EVENTS TO AVOID GAFFES :
Presidential candidate Herman Cain is full of confidence about his 2012 prospects. Its been weeks since hes set foot in first-voting Iowa or New Hampshire, yet he said Saturday he said expects to finish first or second in each state. The latest Des Moines Register poll out Saturday showed Cain statistically tied with Mitt Romney for the lead in the GOP primary. Cains also predicting victory in South Carolina, which will hold the Souths first presidential contest in 2012. And then, look out, Cain said Saturday before plunging into a crowd of football tailgaters at Samford University, a Baptist-affiliated school in Alabama. That win, he says, will set the stage for him to capture the GOP nomination.
Cains campaign, however, said he plans to dial back his campaign and media appearances in order to avoid missteps. Since climbing in the polls, he has had a series of fumbles, forcing him to clarify comments on abortion, immigration and terrorism suspects.
His campaign also is dealing with (and denying) charges of inappropriate conduct on his part in a past job toward two women.
Obama Discloses “Bundlers”
President Barack Obama’s policy of fully disclosing the list of his top supporters who bundle campaign cash is ironically responsible for a recent New York Times story hitting him for taking contributions from people who are effectively lobbyists, despite a campaign pledge to shun such money.
“At least 15 of Mr. Obama’s ‘bundlers’ — supporters who contribute their own money to his campaign and solicit it from others — are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies. They have raised more than $5 million so far for the campaign,” the Times reported on Friday.
The story noted that the 15 are not registered lobbyists.
David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama, told CNN on Sunday that it was the president’s own practice of disclosing his bundlers’ names that made the story possible. Republican candidates, who have not sworn off cash from registered lobbyists, are likely signing up bundlers from the same crowd, but voters won’t be able to find out as long as they decline to disclose the
Fluent News, ‘U.S. warned about Afghan prison abuse, officials now say’ :
Letters
Alan Tobias writes:
Did you see today’s NY Times Review section back pages? The idea of the OWS that has caught on most around the world is that of the 99% … because it is true. In the US, the top 1% earners earn more annually than the bottom 50+%.
There are many economists who appear on TV to poo-poo the effect of these numbers, arguing that entrepreneurship means inequality and inequality incentivizes hard work and progress, but to the man in the street, as to many leading (to call them Nobel laureates is for me hoaxster stuff) vocally agree. The TV economists are a mirror of the TV evangelists, and the understanding on the street is that what they have in common is their hand in the jar.
A corollary to the greed mystique at CITI and Goldman is that the fed prosecutors have asked the SEC why no finding and no settlement with admission of guilt for fraudulent entrapment?
Wesley Brown:writes:
I believe this is the country whose ruler set a “first” for a full court Whitehouse “PARTY” with President Bush and all the trimmings. I think it is also the country that Hilliary Clinton immediately flew to for a week the first day that Wikileaks started publishing. (If not one and the same it is another right near with a very similar name.) There should be also a story on “Smoking Gun” or similar about this country about 2007-2008. The story will be about 10,000 or more Mercenaries guarding a “newly built complex” very similar to Ft. Knox. (Let alone what is in it. Unknown to the Guards.)
During the Bush Presidency Ft Knox GOLD was moved to a newly built complex on the North side of Dublin, Ohio both Knox & Dublin complexes still have the guards, but the contents were moved to I believe the following country to another complex that mirrors the other two. President Obama apparently checked the Dublin complex when he got and email, but found “cobwebs”. Meanwhile in the last two weeks China has demanded their GOLD that the US was storing for them returned to their country, the “STALL” is on. It gets more sticky: Former Sec of Treasury Snow sold 125% of America to other countries, all the Railroads, Panama, and the West Coast Ports to the Chinese, Then Chrysler to Cherry Motors and their bailouts. Paulson flew $ 2 Billion to China out of Fannie & Freddie, and Buffett bought a railroad(from whom or was it another payment (All of this makes the GOLD markets even more interesting, exactly what are they selling – subprime gold) If anyone has a serious reporter near they may wish to investigate this. REALIZE if all the DEBTORS realize the “KEYS TO THE CASTLE” are right beside them there will be a serious “GOLD RUSH” to retrieve their missing funds, especially by the 25% that bought a PIG IN A POKE. WWIII will immediately begin except it will be all sides against the middle. It will get even more interesting when the “BOOKRUNNERS” are found out, they repackaged the Subprime Homes each 52 times with different names and Commercial each 12 times with different names and sold them throughout the WORLD. Meanwhile
Source: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696
FULL PDF on GAO server: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf
$ 5 Trillion can be added to the above $ 16 Trillion since the date of the initial audit. (Suddenly why off-shore parties got particle payments start to make sense. Total within US appears to be about $ 66 Trillion to-date, not counting missing funds of other countries.) World Forensic Accountants estimate total $ 2.2 Quadrillion but that number is two years old.
Robert Simon writes:
All the discussion about an agenda for the occupy movement and the Worldwide support and engagement for the movement makes it apparent that what should form from the movement is a Multi-National Political Party or movement to confront the Multi-National Corporate hegemony that is controlling world economy and current world governments.
Establishing common principals can unite the People’s movements around the World. I list these visible People’s movements as follows: The Occupy Wall Street Movement, in America, The Economic Occupation Movement of Greece and Europe, The Arab Spring, across the Islamic Nations, The Free Speech and Democracy Movement, in China.
As common, unitingCornerstone Principals for a People’s Earth Party, I offer these broad concepts; Human Rights, Environment, Disarmament, Innovation.
Human Rights: Must promote tolerance of gender, religion, race and culture, nonviolently.
[women and sexual equality, freedom of worship, ethnic pride]
Environment: Must promote clean air, clean land, and clean water.
[no more acid rain, no more Love Canals, clean the garbage from the seas]
Disarmament: Must end the wasting of resources and capital on nuclear and heavy arms.
[the cost of 1 nuclear missile could feed 100,000 people for 1 year]
Innovation: Must promote free thinking, invention, eduction, creativity.
Adopting these principals as the cornerstones for building a united Earth with mutual respect for all our fellow World Citizens can insure that we continue to pass along a sustainable Planet for the next and future generations. Look past the current or next crisis. Take the long view to creating universal peace, common understanding, acceptance and cooperation so we can live forever with our fellow human beings.
Marcus Brandt writes:
I appreciate the thoughtful column about “agenda”.
“Agenda” has been used for 250 years in this country to pacify dissent. Not drawing OWS into bullet points is essential to the movement, because what the bullet points really are is not mollified by the rhetoric of false hope. I find what small amount of governmental faith I have left not surprisingly appalled by the absence of co-option by Presidential candidates and the President. Normally, co-option would be the bribe, but they cannot and will not address the true price to the rich elite that is inevitably coming. The contradictions of our political system have come home to roost.
Gore Vidal said (and I paraphrase hugely) that FDR was one of the most significant Presidents ever because he saved capitalism. I’m not so sure that the public has the capacity for suspension of dis-belief required for that to happen again. Occasionally cynicism becomes realized as the truth, and so here we stand.
Andreas Classens sends this must-read along”
EJC: British government and industry computer systems are facing a “disturbing” number of cyber attacks, including a recent serious assault on the Foreign Office’s network, the head of Britain’s communications spy agency said on Monday. Iain Lobban, director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), said the attacks posed a threat to Britain’s economic well being. Lobban’s GCHQ agency, a big eavesdropping operation similar to the National Security Agency in the United States….
Yuks From Britain, Another Failure: My Blackberry Is Not Working
Going, Going….
Former Goldman Sachs chief and NJ Governor, Jon S. Corzine, spent the weekend trying to unload his failing Wall Street firm, MF Global. “a powerhouse in commodities and derivatives.” The alleged problem: Europe’s debt crisis
Is This What We Need From The Citizens Online Network?
Shelly Palmer: Google announced that YouTube would become home to around 100 channels of content. Many channels will feature content by celebrities .
Follow me on Twitter at DissectorEvents. On Face Book: Danny Schechter The News Dissector
Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
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Ice and Rain On Wall Street, Protests Today, National Roundup
October 30th, 2011 - by: danny
My latest essay on Al Jazeera English: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize Watch for a new one today.
I will be joining Reverend Jesse Jackson this morning at 9 AM EST on his weekly radio show, KeepHopeAliveRadio.com
Listen to this week’s News Dissector Radio Show on our podcast on iTunes and on the Progressive Radio Network website. Jeremy K. Kessler of Yale and the really cool N/1 literary magazine, and comic Lee Camp joined me to discuss the problems and prospects at Occupy Wall Street.
——————————————————————————-
It was Raining, It’s Freezing, It’s Yukky
When I got up yesterday morning, it seemed as if the storm everyone was expecting might have fizzled. It was cold and wet but nothing like the snow storm that Occupy Wall Street feared.
I went back to sleep.
By the time I woke up, the ice and snow was here. Was it ever. And did it come down. It was 31 degrees. I was worried about the people in Zuccotti Park.
Time Magazine filed this report of how the occupiers braved the adverse conditions:
THIS SUNDAY, Rev. Herbert Daughtry and Kevin Powell lead march from Downtown Brooklyn to Wall Street area.
NEW YORK CITY-To commemorate the 33th anniversary of the historic march he led on Wall Street on November 6, 1978, and to show solidarity?with the current Occupy Wall Street movement.
Famed and long-time Brooklyn pastor the Reverend Herbert Daughtry of House of the Lord Church is leading a march from his base to Zuccotti Park this Sunday, October 30, beginning at 2pm SHARP.
The march will start in Downtown Brooklyn, at 415 Atlantic Avenue, between Bond and Nevins. Rev. Daughtry is producing this action along with activist and writer Kevin Powell, and they will be joined by a number of elected officials, interfaith leaders, community organizers, concerned citizens, students, the unemployed, labor leaders, and protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The march will cross the Brooklyn Bridge, and end with a rally at Zuccotti Park at approximately 3:30pm.
AFL-CIO Video on Occupy Wall Street
Jon Stewart Challenges Fox’s Libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano
Ralph Nader on OWS:
The question confronting the Occupy Wall Street encampments and their offshoots in scores of cities and towns around the country is quo vadis? Where is it going?
This decentralized, leaderless civic initiative has attracted the persistent attention of the mass media in the past five weeks. Television cameras from all over the world are parked down at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan,
But the mass media is a hungry beast. It needs to be fed regularly. Apart from the daily pressures of making sure the encampments are clean, that food and shelter are available, that relations with the police are quiet, that provocateurs are identified; the campers must anticipate possible police crackdowns, such as that which has just occurred in Oakland, and find ways to rebound.
Another Crazed Right-Wing Attack
“The Wall Street Protestors Aren’t Peaceful Hippies! – The Second Amendment to our United States Constitution is under international attack by the United Nations and Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton
Don’t be mistaken. The Wall Street protestors aren’t peaceful hippies congregating about greed or social inequality. They are uniting to destroy America and everything we stand for. Their model is the “Arab Spring” which discharged their Governments in favor of anti-Israel agitators and Muslim fundamentalists.
They are NOT about freedom, but about World domination and total control. And Obama is supporting them……….fully. The radical leftist bent of Democrats like Obama and their Saul Alinsky tactics of trying to use mob rule when they otherwise would lose at the voting booth is also demonstrated quite clearly, here….
The real reason for the Wall street protestors is actually quite simple; they will be used as an excuse for total gun confiscation because of the so-called ‘death threats’ being issued against Government officials and other violent acts they commit. The entire affair is a sham, a hoax. …
Protest In New York Sunday Night
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is hosting an intimate dinner at Gracie Mansion on Sunday night for Senators and corporate executives to urge the SuperCommittee to “go big” and cut $4 trillion in federal spending.
To eliminate the budget deficit, the SuperCommittee could simply tax the top 1% through a Millionaires Tax and a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street speculation.
But instead they plan to slash Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and everything else essential to the survival of the 99%.
Their joyful champagne toast will be “Let them eat cake!”
Naturally, the 99% were not invited to dine with the 1% at Gracie Mansion. So we’ll just have to @OccupyGracie.
At 6 p.m. we’ll gather at 88th Street and 1st Ave (outside the Bagel Mill) and march 2 blocks to Gracie at 88th and East End.
Come dressed as Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, or a Peasant – and bring the family. We’ll vote for the best costumes and they will serve us all cake!
Fluent News: Is it Teatime for the Occupation?
Other Cities:
Occupy Denver Under Attack
Occupy Oakland: In the wake of recent Police Brutality, Occupy Oakland sees itself as “center of Occupy movement”; holds vigil for Scott Olson and calls for General Strike on November 2nd. (Olson is out of his coma but cannot currently speak!)
Video #1: Claire Chadwick – who was next to Scott Olson when he was struck down by Police, speaks out:
Video #2: Occupy Oakland Calls for a General Strike, asks for support from #OccupyEverywhere:
Occupy Columbia Writes to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley
“On Thursday, Governor Nikki Haley said that unions are behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. We contest that accusation.
This is a leaderless movement that welcomes participation from all groups, but neither bows down nor endorses any.
We’ve publicly invited all people or organizations, whether they be Unions or the Tea Party, to come take part in a conversation about economic injustice and a system that is rigged to benefit the 1% at the direct expense of the 99%.??We challenge Governor Haley to produce evidence to back up her claim.
If she would attend one of our General Assemblies (held every day at 10:00am and 7:00pm), she would realize that all decicions made by Occupy Columbia are voted on by those in attendence. We require a 90% threshold for consensus, and no group, Union or otherwise, has the ability to control that.??On the other hand, it was the Governor herself who said, earlier this morning, that she is the “number one employee” of a pharmaceutical company and that their success is her “number one goal.”
Protesters arrested in Nashville for second day’
Naked Capitalism: The New York City General Assembly website has a section for a recently-formed Alternative Banking group, which has started meeting on Sundays from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. You can read the notes from last week’s session here.
Despite the title, this is NOT about moving your money. An alternative economics committee had already started on that effort and the alternative banking committee agreed to let them run with that ball. Although this group is still in the process of deciding what it is about, it appears to be moving towards making fundamental, wide-ranging critiques and proposals.
Anyone is welcome, and the group would particularly benefit from the input of people with capital markets, regulatory, and wholesale banking expertise. The group already has some members with relevant experience (SEC, major hedge fund, investment banking) but more depth would be of great benefit.
Please sign up at the NYCAG webpage to find the meeting location. There is also a dial in number if you are not in NYC and would still like to take part.
Sam Smith: Change the culture; the politics will follow
One sign that the occupiers are doing well is that their target – and its fankids in the media – can’t figure out what the hell is going on. The Wall Street elite is not used to dealing with problems without an agenda, talking points and a strategic vision, or at least something that passes for one. That’s not the way things work when it manipulates a labor union, offers too little to buy some business, forecloses on someone, or twists a merger its way. What are its lawyers meant to do with a crowd without policies and procedures, best practices or a bottom line? One that sits around listening to some 92 year-old singing folk songs like it was the 1960s?
But that’s precisely the secret. The establishment is used to setting the rules for change, blocking, modifying or postponing as the case may be. The occupiers, on the other hand, are not playing by those rules. Rather than attempting to change the politics of the situation, they are changing the culture that created the politics.
Under the present political rules there is virtually no chance of decency, fairness or common sense prevailing, because these rules function in a culture that is largely devoid of such values. To change anything, you have to change the culture, in this case a culture of greed, social indifference, arrogance and cruelty that has thrived for some three decades.
This culture was not just a matter of law, or even of corporate propaganda and manipulation. It has also included distorted education by supposed intellectuals and their universities, sleazy business school concepts so pervasive that even virtuous non-profits adopted them, and selfish values passed on by a media that thought it was just saying the obvious.
This is not new. Every major change requires a cultural transformation. Sure, the politicians will ultimately inscribe it as law, but before that there must be a massive alteration in how people see, understand and believe things…..Undernews.
NYT via Daily Beast: Companies Pay More to CEOs than Taxes
At least 25 companies paid more to their CEOs last year than they paid in federal taxes, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. These include big corporations like General Electric, Boeing, Verizon, and eBay. The companies paid their executives an average of $16.8 million in 2010. Meanwhile, many of these companies actually receive tax refunds from the federal government valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Verizon, for example, gave its CEO an $18 million package while reaping a $705 million tax refund.
LBN: Cain in the Money;
Call him the new Mr. October. Herman Cains chief of staff, Mark Block, said that the GOP candidates campaign has raised over $3 million this month. The money, which doubles the entire funds of the operation, is reportedly from 65 donors. Previously, from July to September, Cain s camp raised $2.8 million$175,000 of which was from Cain himself. Block pointed to the grassroots activism thats kept Cains campaign afloat, despite reports that hes not as active in key primary states. In recent months, Cain has surged to the front of several GOP polls.
Media
Pernicious Attacks to Brand Occupy Wall Street as Anti-Semitic Continue
is A New York Times Reporter Speaking at an Event Calling for an Attack in Iran a form of Bias?
Ragida Dergham writes:The West is Hijacking Arab Revolutions to the Benefit of Islamists
!2 More Americans Killed in Afghanistan
WP: Kabul bombing reflects Taliban strategy
The insurgency is increasingly relying on high-profile bombings in the Afghan capital and targeted assassinations.
Resources
Occupy Wall Street News: There is Now An iPhone App For That!
Crooks&Liars Announces New Site: Occupy America:
All Things Occupy in One Place Occupy America to post stories, misinformation, speeches, protests, and reactions from the beltway and beyond
Letters: Bryant Jordan writes:
Great column, Danny. If reporters don’t understand what’s going on it’s because they choose to remain clueless.
Your comments welcome. Write dissector@mediachannel.org
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AM Update: Severe Weather Threatens Occupy Wall Street, Remembering Paul Goodman
October 28th, 2011 - by: danny
Viva Los Cardinales—St Louis Takes Down Texas in the World Series…Eat Your Heart Out Rick Perry
Listen to this week’s News Dissector Radio Show on our podcast on iTunes and on the Progressive Radio Network website. Jeremy K. Kessler of Yale and the really cool N/1 literary magazine, and comic Lee Camp joined me to discuss the problems and prospects at Occupy Wall Street.
Paul Goodman Changed My Life Too
I am thinking of Paul Goodman Tonight, the great author of Growing up Absurd and many, many other books, a public intellectual before that term developed currency, and an anarchist who would I suspect be very happy with the Occupy Movement despite his disillusion with late sixties radicalism.
Paul is memorialized in a much see documentary, Paul Goodman Changed My Life. (At the Film Forum in Manhattan). In some ways he changed mine too even if he once reprimanded me, probably correctly, back in the early 60’s at a Civil Rights forum at Columbia University at which we both spoke. He was always provocative and yet many of his ideas were rooted in common sense. It was good to see Taylor Stoer who collected all of Paul’s literary work in the film. We knew each other at Cornell where Paul also spoke.
Paul was an adviser to our Northern Student Movement and a great influence on the educational side of our movement and me personally. Seeing the film which didn’t really explore his politics (or for that matter his own views on his up front bisexuality) is worth seeing, Check out the film website..
11:AM, New York: An Icy Rain Is Falling.
Weather Alert
The weather is changing. Many of the Occupy Wall Street community spent yesterday marching against the banks, bringing 6000 signed letters from Americans pissed off at their practices. They made copies of the letters into paper airplanes which they hurled at the buildings. (And then cleaned them up. Many New Yorkers cheered them on with applause and donations.
Early in the morning, the NYPD and the Fire Department raided the park and seized six generators which a day earlier seemed to survive an inspection. The City Of New York, Michael Bloomberg, emperor, seems to want to help the weather make life as miserable as possible for the occupiers. (This is the same city that refused to allow a dumpster for garbage and porta potties for you know what!)
True to form, Da Mayor is slated to host a dinner for 1% biggies Sunday night up at the mansion to win support to pressure Congress’s so-called Supercommitee to make even more savage cuts in human services, according to Democrats.com.)
The NY Daily News reported: “”The city has stripped Occupy Wall Street protesters of their power. Dozens of firefighters and police officers entered Zuccotti Park Friday morning to confiscate generators and gas canisters. Fire trucks and police vans pulled up on the corner of Broadway and Liberty St. at about 8:30 a.m. and asked the encamped demonstrators to bring the items to them, saying they were a health and fire hazard.”
The nasty weather is already a negative impact. I spoke to a doctor from the Medical tent who confirmed many cases of colds and poor health thanks to a lack of sleep and over exposure to the elements. Many are dehydrated because they don’t drink as much as they should because of the lack of ready to use toilets. The City knows this. During Thursday’s storm, they forced the library to pull down a tent, putting many books in danger of water damage.
Nasty! Nasty! Nasty!
Good News: No Snow or Storm As of 6 Am This Morning,
Move On sent out an Urgent Appeal:
“The weather forecast for this weekend here in New York is bad—snow or icy rain is expected to hit tomorrow.
Occupy Wall Street’s ability to keep speaking up for the 99% depends in part on their ability to hold out against the winter weather. And that depends on their having the right supplies—sub-zero sleeping bags, long underwear, and warm hats and gloves.
If you have any of these items—or can go buy them today—and are willing to donate, please bring them to 52 Broadway (at the corner of Exchange Pl, next to the Amalgamated Bank). Items can be dropped off there until 9 p.m. tonight or from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. tomorrow. (Donations outside of these hours can be brought directly to the Comfort table on the east side of Zuccotti Park.)
Your contributions will make a huge difference in ensuring that Occupy Wall Street can keep up their good work. Let us know you’re bringing supplies by clicking this site:
Greg Palast, Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street’s Bank
Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street’s Bank: The Real
Story
When Goldman got huffy at a credit union honoring OWS and pulled its anniversary dinner funding, much more was at stake
Mega-bank Goldman Sachs (assets $933bn), has declared
war on one of the smallest banks in New York (assets
$30m), the customer-owned community bank that happens to
also be the banker for Friends of Liberty Plaza, Inc,
also known as Occupy Wall Street. And you thought
Goldman didn’t care.
The trouble began three weeks ago when the occupiers
suddenly found their donation buckets filling with
thousands of dollars, way more than needed for their
pizza dinners. Suddenly, the anti-bank protesters needed
a bank. Citibank and Chase certainly wouldn’t fit. So
OWS opened an account at the not-for-profit Lower East
Side Peoples Federal Credit Union. Peoples has a unique
federal charter – designated to open accounts for low-
income folk from all over NewYork, available to those
families earning less than $38,000 per year…=
Trick or Treat? Halloween is coming
Press Advisory:Unemployed Superheroes Kick Off Occupy Halloween Events in Zucotti Park
Working Class Superheroes Fight for the 99%?: “We are the Heroes We’ve Been Waiting For”
Who: Unemployed Man, Wondermother, Master of Degrees, Zilch, and other heroes-for-hard-times.
What: A comic showdown on Halloween morning to kick off the activities of Occupy Halloween in New York City.??
When & Where: Zucotti/Liberty Park at 10 am, 1 Liberty Square, New York, NY?
Why: Costumed working class and unemployed superheroes will convene at Occupy Wall Street to confront corruption and lawlessness in the form of street theater. Their intention is to celebrate the heroic nature of the daily struggle that millions of everyday people are enduring during the economic crisis, while taking to task economic supervillains running the economy. “Change will not be brought about by politicians. We are the heroes we’ve been waiting for,” states The Master of Degrees, an unemployed grad student superhero shackled by debt.
?”Isn’t it time that superheroes started fighting the real criminals?” adds Unemployed Man. This event is an official event of Occupy Halloween, an official project of the Arts & Culture Working Group of the Occupy Wall St. NY General Assembly. The Public is invited to participate.
LBN: Oakland Activists Re-Occupy Plaza
Anti-Wall Street protesters in Oakland have re-occupied the plaza after being forcibly evicted Tuesday pitching more than two dozen tents despite a ban on overnight camping. Last night, over 1,000 people attended a vigil for Iraq War vet Scott Olsen, who was injured by a projectile during protests following the Tuesday eviction. Meanwhile, an attempt to clear a Nashville protest encampment was blocked by a judge who refused to sign warrants for 30 protesters who had been arrested.”
I had a conversation with a journalist in Oakland who expressed the hope that Occupy Wall Street Will send some of their activists out because the local media is interviewing every spaced out and incoherent protester they can find.
• A sign in New York signaled that Occupy Tiajuana Needed help.
• Drudge reports: ‘Occupy Madison’ loses permit due to public masturbation.”
• There were incidents by police and arrests reported in Nashville and Rochester, N.Y.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: Backs Occupy Wall Street
An Iraq War veteran who survived two tours of duty gets his skull fractured in … Oakland! ?53 activists arrested in Atlanta. SWAT teams deployed to boot out peaceful protesters. ??Recent actions against Occupy protesters are irresponsible and tragic. They’re an assault on our democracy.
These protesters are bravely exercising their right to freedom of expression, to bring attention to a political and economic system that’s rigged against most Americans. I stand with them; and, all Americans — left and right — should join me in protecting their freedom to non-violently create change. ??
This isn’t a Democratic or Republican movement. It’s not about one party or one policy. It’s about standing up to a financial system that’s completely backwards. Wall Street banks get billions in bailouts and emerge with massive profits. Most Americans see a program of austerity in a painful economic climate — benefit cuts, high unemployment, declining wages, and crumbling infrastructure. Congress moved swiftly to “save” banks (something I strongly opposed), and now Congress is paralyzed, unable to create jobs and to save our middle class. ??
It’s no surprise Americans are standing up. Our country’s economic policies have consolidated and accelerated wealth to the top. One percent of Americans now control 42% of our wealth. It’s not radical to think this is out of balance or to demand a government that is of the people and for the people. I’ve been to these protests, and I can tell you they’re filled with honest, hard working Americans who are concerned with the direction of our country and our economic future.
Read Whatever Mike Davis Writes
Essay Via Portside:org– Mike Davis writes “No More Bubble Gum”
Who could have envisioned Occupy Wall Street and its
sudden wildflower-like profusion in cities large and
small?
John Carpenter could have, and did. Almost a quarter of
a century ago (1988), the master of date-night terror
(Halloween, The Thing), wrote and directed They Live,
depicting the Age of Reagan as a catastrophic alien
invasion. In one of the film’s brilliant early scenes,
a huge third-world shantytown is reflected across the
Hollywood Freeway in the sinister mirror-glass of
Bunker Hill’s corporate skyscrapers.
They Live remains Carpenter’s subversive tour de force.
Few who’ve seen it could forget his portrayal of
billionaire bankers and evil mediacrats and their
zombie-distant rule over a pulverized American working
class living in tents on a rubble-strewn hillside and
begging for jobs. From this negative equality of
homelessness and despair, and thanks to the magic dark
glasses found by the enigmatic Nada (played by “Rowdy”
Roddy Piper), the proletariat finally achieves
interracial unity, sees through the subliminal
deceptions of capitalism, and gets angry.
Very angry.”….
Overseas
Headlines That Tell The Story
NY TIMES: WEST SEES LIBYA AS RIPE AT LAST FOR BUSINESS: Rebuilding After War
And This: Al Qaeda Flag Flies Over Benghazi
Rory here from VICE. Wanted to kick this over ASAP. Our fixer for the Vice Guide to Libya has been sending me little dispatches from Benghazi. Good guy; worked as a translator for in Iraq, etc. He wrote up a little thing about the Al Qaeda flag (which started, I think, as the Al Qaeda in Iraq flag) flying atop the Benghazi courthouse, the headquarters of the revolution in the east.
“Prosecutors Cursed”
NY Times: Officers Unleash Vitriol As Peers Are Charged in Ticket Fixing
Chants from the NY Finest: “Down With The DA” and “Ray Kelley, hypocrite.” Kelley is the Police Commissioner in the land of Bloomberg,
NT Times: CANDIDATES PART OF 1 PERCENT: “Almost All of The Presidential Candidates Rank At The Very Top Of The Country’s Earners
Media: Salon Asks Why Iran is Intensely Covering Occupy Wall Street. It does not ask why the U.S. Media is Not. The OWS press people told me yesterday that US coverage is in a “lull” and falling back,
Leslie Griffith, former Oakland TV Anchor, writes on Reader Supported News: “‘Occupy Oakland’ participants are taking a few rubber bullets to the butt at this very moment. One thing is clear, the people are mad and they are not going to take it anymore. This is not satire, this is real. And, when all is said and done … we are in this mini-revolution in no small part because there are precious few reporters allowed to do their jobs.”
That’s the News Dissector Blog for this Saturday. Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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