OCCUPY WALL STREET

[SugarFemme]

I forgot to add that 1 in 5 children in my community go to bed hungry. It makes me so angry. Trillions of dollars for wars and banks and very little to feed hungry kids. "We" collectively as a society should be ashamed of ourselves they we have not held big business and the government accountable sooner. Just my opinion.

[greeneyedgrrl]

ish is going down at ows.
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

[atomiczombie]

I am watching. The are cops are raiding Zucotti Park. Asshat police. Grr....

[Ebon]

Watching and listening to police scanner.

[greeneyedgrrl]

i think that it would be so easy for me to get angry.....and to feel justified in that anger...and then i remember that we're all on the same side.
we're burning two ends of the same candle.

...and we have to stop.

[Corkey]

Like a thief in the middle of the night. Sad for the OWS.

[atomiczombie]

What really pisses me off is that they are taking all the protestor's things and throwing them away. All these things that have been donated to OWS and things bought with donated money, all destroyed without notice. And this is private property, not public property. So this is illegal. Shame shame.

[Ebon]

Flash Bombs!! Those evil motherfuckers!!!

[greeneyedgrrl]

yes it sucks that their things are being destroyed, but i'm more concerned about what is happening to the people, their bodies, minds and spirits. i'm praying for the safety of all.

i hear the protestors get increasingly violent in their speech... and i know it's difficult not to, i'm not confident i'd do better and i know that this is not going to help their situation or relations with the police.

[Ebon]

Per the police scanner the cops are following the people to city hall.

[SoNotHer]

Wow. Just wow. I'm amazed what people are posting and just nonplussed by the police response.

Originally Posted by greeneyedgrrl

ish is going down at ows.
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

[ruffryder]

Originally Posted by persiphone

i think Obama recently passed a cap on student loan payments of 10% of your income maximum. i think the whole thing is now based on your current income, actually. i could be wrong. it's been a minute since i read about it and it was a buried story and i haven't seen anything about it since.

I hope this is true. I heard something was gonna change and students can at least consolidate into one loan. Not sure about 10% though. Wouldn't mind a link or more information if anyone has it. I just got my bachelors degree and owe loans and am unemployed so yeah.. not sure they are gonna get any of my money for awhile until I am employed.

Originally Posted by OneOfAKind

I forgot to add that 1 in 5 children in my community go to bed hungry. It makes me so angry. Trillions of dollars for wars and banks and very little to feed hungry kids. "We" collectively as a society should be ashamed of ourselves they we have not held big business and the government accountable sooner. Just my opinion.

I saw in one of the occupy areas, (I think Denver) a church was feeding the homeless and offered food to the occupy protestors as well. I don't understand why we should be ashamed of ourselves for people going to bed hungry when you can be a part of the solution and offer what you have to the hungry. If we haven't been able to rely on big corporations to help with homelessness and starvation in the U.S. why should we now? Or why should we be ashamed because of it? You already know what they are about, helping themselves and making money. I think if people got together at the occupy movements and included the homeless and hungry it could make a difference in our world. Afterall isn't learning about teaching and setting an example and being the 1% difference.

Originally Posted by guihong

Okay, that's enough of this. Now I have "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out of the thread". I'm done; and OWS has lost a supporter.

Not sure what happened here, but if someone said that that is rude and I'm sorry you feel you don't have a voice here. I, for one appreciate the questions you have. Not everyone understands everything going on or agrees with everything about OWS. So I appreciate differing views and questions so that people can understand. Sorry again.

[atomiczombie]

Mayor Bloomberg shuts Zuccotti Park as he reviews court order issued hours after police cleared the park of protesters

NEW YORK — Hours after police officers descended on Zuccotti Park in a surprise sweep of the Occupy Wall Street headquarters, protesters were locked in a standoff Tuesday morning with police over a court order that would allow them to return with their tents.

A hearing on the temporary restraining order, filed by a New York City judge, was under way Tuesday afternoon. The city filed court papers opposing the order and claiming that giving protesters free rein over the park would cause unsafe and unsanitary conditions. They also claimed occupiers were stockpiling makeshift weapons including metal-pipes inside cardboard tubes.
Earlier, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Tuesday that he had not received the order and that the park would remain closed "until we can clarify the situation," he said.

Tuesday's court order, which was published on The New York Times website, said authorities were prohibited from "preventing protesters from re-entering the park with tents and other property previously utilized." But Bloomberg closed the park while lawyers reviewed the order.

PhotoBlog: Dispatches from the disputed streets

The park had become a health and fire safety hazard and that "unfortunately ... (it) became a place not to protest, but to break the law," Bloomberg said Tuesday.
"Inaction was not an option," he said. "We could not wait for someone in the park to get killed."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said around 200 were arrested overnight, including dozens who tried to resist by linking arms at the center of Zuccotti Park or chaining themselves together with bicycle locks.

NBC New York's Jonathan Dienst, who was at the scene in Lower Manhattan, reported that he had counted a further 40 arrests along Broadway.
Jay-Z and others who are profiting from Occupy Wall Street
A few protesters, who appeared to resist and shove officers, were thrown to the ground and placed in handcuffs, he reported.

Ryan Peters, 29, from Chicago, who took a leave of absence from the advertising agency where he works to tour different Occupy protests, cried as he told msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger that about 30 people had chained themselves up inside the Occupy protest's kitchen area.
"People want to fight for something that's really important," he said. "It makes me cry every time I think of them (the people in the kitchen) getting locked down in the park … these guys are patriots."

Another protester, Luc Baillargeon, 29, told Leitsinger that "a few" people were treated for pepper burns and minor lacerations but he added there were no apparent signs of serious injuries. NYPD told WNBC three people were injured during the evacuations, one of whom was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Meanwhile, a message on the @OccupyWallSt Twitter account said that city council member Ydanis Rodriguez was "beaten by nypd and bleeding from head."

Police confirmed Rodriguez was part of a group arrested near Cortlandt Street and Broadway as they tried to push through a barricade around 1:45 a.m., NBC reported.

Josh Harkinson, writer for Mother Jones magazine and one of the few journalists present during the eviction, reported on Twitter that he heard from several sources that police felled a tree in the park in order to remove protesters who had climbed to safety.

John Minchillo / AP

Trash is piled high near Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street's longtime encampment in New York, during the cleanup effort early Tuesday. AP Photo/John Minchillo
Regrouping?

After being evicted, several hundred demonstrators regrouped in nearby Foley Square to discuss their next move, setting up a new Twitter account.
Nicholas Frechette, 25, said he had been pepper sprayed during the eviction but was undeterred.

"We broke the night together doing something truly revolutionary," he said in Foley Square.

Protesters also grouped at Duarte Square, a city park at Canal Street and Avenue of the americas, about a mile north north of Zuccotti park. Two people with bolt cutters allegedly snipped a lock to a fenced-off lot at nearby Trinity Church aroud 11 a.m. EST. Police came in and cleared them out, arresting about two dozen people in the process, The New York Times reported.

After the church-lot was swept, a group of protesters marched back to Zuccotti Park, blocking Broadway traffic along the way. They circled the park while awaiting the outcome of the court hearing.

The police operation in the park — known by the demonstrators as Liberty Park or Liberty Square — comes just two days ahead of a massive planned demonstration Thursday marking the movement's two-month anniversary.
Earlier, Mayor Bloomberg defended the move to evict the protesters and tear down their tent city, saying in a statement that the park was "becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others."

"Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags," he added. "Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments."

The park was cleared in less than three hours in what appeared to be a highly coordinated action, prompting firebrand left-wing film-maker and activist Michael Moore to ask on Twitter whether President Obama or federal agencies had been involved in planning the clearance and similar evictions of Occupy camps elsewhere in the US.

Letters to protesters

After the raid, thousands of dollars worth of computer and camera equipment, tents and sleeping bags could be seen piled in the center of the park by sanitation workers. Police said in a statement that the items would be brought to a sanitation garage where they could be collected later.
By 9 a.m. ET, the park had been power-washed clean by city workers and stood empty — as seen in this picture from msnbc.com's Jonathan Woods — as police in riot gear waited for orders to reopen it.

Police earlier handed out notices from Brookfield Office Properties, owner of Zuccotti Park, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous.

Justin Stone-Diaz, a member of the "Think Tank" policy group set up by the protesters, told msnbc.com that police had used a Long Range Acoustic Device — a powerful speaker that disperses crowds by producing an uncomfortable sound.

Story: Police dismantle Oakland camp, protesters on march
Another protester, Nan Terrie, an 18-year-old law student, told msnbc.com that a number of people had also chained themselves up in the women's tents.

"This is an illegal eviction (that) they are trying to do to us," she said.
Thorin Caristo, 37, whose eyes appeared red and swollen, told msnbc.com he felt stinging in his eyes for several minutes after being cleared from the camp.

"I feel like this (action) will be a catalyst for the movement," he said.

Mary Altaffer / AP
A demonstrator yells at police officers as they order Occupy Wall Street protesters to leave Zuccotti Park, their longtime encampment in New York, early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Protester John Murdock told msnbc.com he was arrested and held for four hours. "Shame on America, shame on the police," he said. "This is not okay. This is an embarassment for the country.

"We're just getting started. We changed the conversation of the nation. This is just another chapter."

Crowds chanted "The people united will never be divided" in Foley Square.
Protester Han Shan, 39, left his job to work on the movement full time. He was at the park helping get out media equipment and supplies as the eviction took place and then moved one block away to "bear witness."

PhotoBlog: Occupy Wall Street

"I think obviously people are angry. We see like thousands ... of police amassing around a peaceful protest," he told msnbc.com.

"It's one night in what is a growing movement ... this is a movement now that is much, much larger than one square in downtown Manhattan," Shan added. "We've seen sweeps of occupations in Oakland and Denver and other places, but I don't think that it's going to affect the momentum of this movement."

LINK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45299622.../#.TsLG8WDmHWk

[Corkey]

Update: Zuccotti park reopened through a bottleneck, barricades still in place.

[atomiczombie]

This is from Occupy News on FB:

DEFEAT: OWS is no longer allowed to camp at Zucotti Park. Now it is up to see if Mayor Bloomberg keeps his promise and opens the park up for protests during the day. The restraining order protecting the protesters has been repealed.

[VintageFemme]

via twitter:

SalmanRushdie Salman Rushdie Nazis destroyed books to "purify" German culture. Bigots do it in the name of God, or Allah. What's Bloomberg's excuse? "Hygiene"? #ows


...a little smirky but he says what he thinks and makes no excuses. i'm ok with that.

[dykeumentary]

Occupy Phiadelphia this afternoon

[dykeumentary]

Originally Posted by VintageFemme

via twitter:

SalmanRushdie Salman Rushdie Nazis destroyed books to "purify" German culture. Bigots do it in the name of God, or Allah. What's Bloomberg's excuse? "Hygiene"? #ows


...a little smirky but he says what he thinks and makes no excuses. i'm ok with that.

I can't get behind that.
A reasonable and fair discussion/response to what is happening requires that people use language that is NOT a wild exaggeration to provoke a reaction.

Since this thing started I've had to point out how outlandish and fear-based the claims of "who the protectors are" and "what their goals are" that were being spread by the media. I'm surrounded by people who don't have an analysis about OWS that shows them it is in their interest.

Comparing Bloomberg to a Nazi is as useless and counterproductive as comparing "the 99%" to wild anarchists who just want free marijuana.

We have to do better. Rushdie should know better.

[theoddz]

I looked and looked, but there's no way I can see to share this on social media (Facebook). It's too good not to share, so I'm going to cut and paste the text of the article/blog here and then paste the link to the blog page at the bottom. Thanks for your patience. I know it's a long read, but I think it's worth it.
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Saturday 19 February 2011

by: George Lakoff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

What Conservatives Really Want
(Photo: Patrick Feller / The New York Times)

Dedicated to the peaceful protestors in Wisconsin, February 19, 2011.

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The central issue in our political life is not being discussed. At stake is the moral basis of American democracy.

The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting and on and on.

Budget deficits are a ruse, as we've seen in Wisconsin, where the Governor turned a surplus into a deficit by providing corporate tax breaks, and then used the deficit as a ploy to break the unions, not just in Wisconsin, but seeking to be the first domino in a nationwide conservative movement.

Deficits can be addressed by raising revenue, plugging tax loopholes, putting people to work and developing the economy long-term in all the ways the president has discussed. But deficits are not what really matter to conservatives.

Conservatives really want to change the basis of American life, to make America run according to the conservative moral worldview in all areas of life.

In the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama accurately described the basis of American democracy: empathy — citizens caring for each other, both social and personal responsibility — acting on that care, and an ethic of excellence. From these, our freedoms and our way of life follow, as does the role of government: to protect and empower everyone equally. Protection includes safety, health, the environment, pensions. Empowerment starts with education and infrastructure. No one can be free without these, and without a commitment to care and act on that care by one's fellow citizens.
The conservative worldview rejects all of that.

Conservatives believe in individual responsibility alone, not social responsibility. They don't think government should help its citizens. That is, they don't think citizens should help each other. The part of government they want to cut is not the military (we have 174 bases around the world), not government subsidies to corporations, not the aspect of government that fits their worldview. They want to cut the part that helps people. Why? Because that violates individual responsibility.

But where does that view of individual responsibility alone come from?

The way to understand the conservative moral system is to consider a strict father family. The father is The Decider, the ultimate moral authority in the family. His authority must not be challenged. His job is to protect the family, to support the family (by winning competitions in the marketplace), and to teach his kids right from wrong by disciplining them physically when they do wrong. The use of force is necessary and required. Only then will children develop the internal discipline to become moral beings. And only with such discipline will they be able to prosper. And what of people who are not prosperous? They don't have discipline, and without discipline they cannot be moral, so they deserve their poverty. The good people are hence the prosperous people. Helping others takes away their discipline, and hence makes them both unable to prosper on their own and function morally.

The market itself is seen in this way. The slogan, "Let the market decide" assumes the market itself is The Decider. The market is seen as both natural (since it is assumed that people naturally seek their self-interest) and moral (if everyone seeks their own profit, the profit of all will be maximized by the invisible hand). As the ultimate moral authority, there should be no power higher than the market that might go against market values. Thus the government can spend money to protect the market and promote market values, but should not rule over it either through (1) regulation, (2) taxation, (3) unions and worker rights, (4) environmental protection or food safety laws, and (5) tort cases. Moreover, government should not do public service. The market has service industries for that.

Thus, it would be wrong for the government to provide health care, education, public broadcasting, public parks and so on. The very idea of these things is at odds with the conservative moral system. No one should be paying for anyone else. It is individual responsibility in all arenas. Taxation is thus seen as taking money away from those who have earned it and giving it to people who don't deserve it. Taxation cannot be seen as providing the necessities of life for a civilized society, and, as necessary, for business to prosper.

In conservative family life, the strict father rules. Fathers and husbands should have control over reproduction; hence, parental and spousal notification laws and opposition to abortion. In conservative religion, God is seen as the strict father, the Lord, who rewards and punishes according to individual responsibility in following his Biblical word.

Above all, the authority of conservatism itself must be maintained. The country should be ruled by conservative values, and progressive values are seen as evil. Science should have authority over the market, and so the science of global warming and evolution must be denied. Facts that are inconsistent with the authority of conservatism must be ignored or denied or explained away. To protect and extend conservative values themselves, the devil's own means can be used against conservatism's immoral enemies, whether lies, intimidation, torture or even death, say, for women's doctors.

Freedom is defined as being your own strict father - with individual, not social, responsibility, and without any government authority telling you what you can and cannot do. To defend that freedom as an individual, you will, of course, need a gun.

This is the America that conservatives really want. Budget deficits are convenient ruses for destroying American democracy and replacing it with conservative rule in all areas of life.

What is saddest of all is to see Democrats helping them.

Democrats help radical conservatives by accepting the deficit frame and arguing about what to cut. Even arguing against specific "cuts" is working within the conservative frame. What is the alternative? Pointing out what conservatives really want. Point out that there is plenty of money in America, and in Wisconsin. It is at the top. The disparity in financial assets is un-American - the top one percent has more financial assets than the bottom 95 percent. Middle-class wages have been flat for 30 years, while the wealth has floated to the top. This fits the conservative way of life, but not the American way of life.

Democrats help conservatives by not shouting out loud, over and over, that it was conservative values that caused the global economic collapse: lack of regulation and a greed-is-good ethic.

Democrats also help conservatives by what a friend has called "Democratic Communication Disorder." Republican conservatives have constructed a vast and effective communication system, with think tanks, framing experts, training institutes, a system of trained speakers, vast holdings of media and booking agents. Eighty percent of the talking heads on TV are conservatives. Talk matters, because language heard over and over changes brains. Democrats have not built the communication system they need, and many are relatively clueless about how to frame their deepest values and complex truths.

And Democrats help conservatives when they function as policy wonks — talking policy without communicating the moral values behind the policies. They help conservatives when they neglect to remind us that pensions are deferred payments for work done. "Benefits" are pay for work, not a handout. Pensions and benefits are arranged by contract. If there is not enough money for them, it is because the contracted funds have been taken by conservative officials and given to wealthy people and corporations instead of to the people who have earned them.

Democrats help conservatives when they use conservative words like "entitlements" instead of "earnings" and speak of government as providing "services" instead of "necessities."

Is there hope?

I see it in Wisconsin, where tens of thousands citizens see through the conservative frames and are willing to flood the streets of their capital to stand up for their rights. They understand that democracy is about citizens uniting to take care of each other, about social responsibility as well as individual responsibility, and about work - not just for your own profit, but to help create a civilized society. They appreciate their teachers, nurses, firemen, police and other public servants. They are flooding the streets to demand real democracy - the democracy of caring, of social responsibility and of excellence, where prosperity is to be shared by those who work and those who serve.
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http://www.spiritualprogressives.org...10219190836960

~Theo~