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.
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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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