quote:Occupy Wal Street ook in Europa
De protestbeweging Occupy Wall Street begon een week of twee geleden in New York met enkele tientallen demonstranten. De aanhang groeit razendsnel, niet alleen in New York, maar ook elders in de Verenigde Staten. Het protest breidt zich nu ook uit naar Europa. Het heeft Ierland al bereikt en ook Nederland komt aan de beurt.
Verenigde Staten: Occupy Wall Street
Op Wall Street in New York begon het drie weken geleden als een bescheiden protest van een kleine groep activisten. Inmiddels is de beweging enorm gegroeid. Vorige week demonstreerden zo'n 5000 mensen bij Wall Street: tegen zelfverrijking in de financiële sector en de ongelijke verdeling van de welvaart.
Vakbonden, studentenorganisaties en bewonersgroepen hebben zich aangesloten bij het protest. De demonstraties verspreiden zich nu ook over het hele land. Op dit moment zijn er in 25 Amerikaanse steden betogingen.
Ierland: Occupy Dame Street
Geïnspireerd door de betogingen in de VS demonstreert een kleine groep activisten sinds dit weekend ook in de Ierse hoofdstad Dublin. Ze hebben zich verzameld op Dame Street, voor de Centrale Ierse bank.
De groep is nog klein, volgens de Irish Times waren er dit weekend zo'n tachtig mensen. Enkele demonstranten bivakkeren in tentjes voor de bank.
UK: Occupy the London Stock Exchange
Op de Facebookpagina Occupy the London Stock Exchange wordt opgeroepen om komend weekend deel te nemen aan een demonstratie in het financiële district van Londen. Meer dan 3000 mensen hebben zich via Facebook al aangemeld voor de demonstratie.
Kai Wargalla, een van de oprichters van de Occupy Londen Facebookpagina, vertelde over de acties aan de Amerikaanse zender NBC: "De protesten op Wall Street zijn de inspiratie geweest. Het is nu tijd om hier te beginnen. We hebben mensen nodig die opstaan en zich uitspreken".
Nederland: Occupy Amsterdam
Ook in Amsterdam en Den Haag worden in navolging van Occupy Wallstreet acties georganiseerd. Op 15 oktober willen demonstranten het Amsterdamse beursplein bezetten. De aanmeldingen voor de actie stromen binnen. Via de Facebookpagina Occupy Amsterdam hebben ruim 1200 mensen zich al aangemeld.
Madrid-Brussel: Mars van de Verontwaardigden
Tachtig dagen geleden begon een groep jongeren in Madrid aan een 1600 kilometer lange 'Mars van Verontwaardiging'. Ze liepen van Madrid naar Brussel waar ze gisteren aankwamen. De mars komt voort uit de Spaanse studentenprotesten.
Die protesten begonnen al veel eerder dan de protesten op Wall Street en de 'mars van verontwaardigden' verbindt zich dus niet direct aan de Occupy Wall Street beweging. Maar het sentiment van beide bewegingen is hetzelfde - beide ingegeven door de economische crisis en gericht tegen de elite die de macht heeft.
De Spaanse jongeren die nu in Brussel bivakkeren hebben op 15 oktober een grote demonstratie gepland voor het Europees Parlement. Die dag wordt beschouwd als een wereldwijde actiedag. Op de site 15oktober.net is te zien dat er in meerdere steden in de wereld acties staan gepland in navolging van Occupy Wall Street.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201028.htmlquote:NY police arrest 80 Wall St. protesters
The New York police have arrested at least 80 people protesting against Washington's management of the American financial system as well as Wall Street practices.
The demonstrators took to the streets Saturday during the “Occupy Wall Street” protest and gathered near the New York Stock Exchange, the Associated Press reported.
The demonstrations, which began about a week ago, have brought hundreds of Americans to the most important US financial district, protesting against a number of economic issues, including bank bailouts, home loan crisis, and the widening gap between the very rich and those struggling in the aftermath of the US financial crisis.
"We've got a whole bunch of people sitting in Washington that can't figure it out," said Bill Csapo, a protest organizer.
As of June 16, 2011, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 395 banks have been seized by the US government. At least 46 US banks have failed in 2011 so far, compared to 157 in 2010, 140 in 2009, and 25 in 2008.
Another incident that provoked protesters into action was the Wednesday execution of Troy Anthony Davis, an African American, in the State of Georgia over his alleged role in the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer.
His execution by lethal injection took place despite many legal holes in his case as well as Davis's insistence until his execution that he did not commit the alleged murder.
The police forces tried to corral the demonstrators using orange plastic nets at Manhattan's Union Square.
According to police sources, most of the arrests were made for blocking traffic, though one person has been charged with attacking an officer.
Protest spokesman Patrick Bruner has lambasted the police response as "exceedingly violent,” emphasizing that protesters sought to remain peaceful.
"They're being very aggressive ... half the people here have no idea what's going on ... I'm actually very ashamed to be a New Yorker," said Ryan Alley, a New York resident.
Statistics published by the Stolen Lives Project estimate that the number of cases in the United States relating to police brutality has reached thousands.
Most Americans that suffer abuse by the police do not report the case. Those who do file complaints, soon discover that police departments tend to be self-protective and that the general public tends to side with the police.
In 2010, there were at least 2,541 reports of misconduct and brutality perpetrated by US police.
In landen met een inferieure regering inderdaad.quote:Op woensdag 19 oktober 2011 21:13 schreef arucard het volgende:
In andere landen worden ze doodgeschoten.
Lekkere bende bij de Fed.quote:GAO Finds Serious Conflicts at the Fed
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - A new audit of the Federal Reserve released today detailed widespread conflicts of interest involving directors of its regional banks.
"The most powerful entity in the United States is riddled with conflicts of interest," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said after reviewing the Government Accountability Office report. The study required by a Sanders Amendment to last year's Wall Street reform law examined Fed practices never before subjected to such independent, expert scrutiny.
The GAO detailed instance after instance of top executives of corporations and financial institutions using their influence as Federal Reserve directors to financially benefit their firms, and, in at least one instance, themselves. "Clearly it is unacceptable for so few people to wield so much unchecked power," Sanders said. "Not only do they run the banks, they run the institutions that regulate the banks."
Sanders said he will work with leading economists to develop legislation to restructure the Fed and bar the banking industry from picking Fed directors. "This is exactly the kind of outrageous behavior by the big banks and Wall Street that is infuriating so many Americans," Sanders said.
The corporate affiliations of Fed directors from such banking and industry giants as General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, and Lehman Brothers pose "reputational risks" to the Federal Reserve System, the report said. Giving the banking industry the power to both elect and serve as Fed directors creates "an appearance of a conflict of interest," the report added.
The 108-page report found that at least 18 specific current and former Fed board members were affiliated with banks and companies that received emergency loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.
In the dry and understated language of auditors, the report noted that there are no restrictions in Fed rules on directors communicating concerns about their respective banks to the staff of the Federal Reserve. It also said many directors own stock or work directly for banks that are supervised and regulated by the Federal Reserve. The rules, which the Fed has kept secret, let directors tied to banks participate in decisions involving how much interest to charge financial institutions and how much credit to provide healthy banks and institutions in "hazardous" condition. Even when situations arise that run afoul of Fed's conflict rules and waivers are granted, the GAO said the waivers are kept hidden from the public.
The report by the non-partisan research arm of Congress did not name but unambiguously described several individual cases involving Fed directors that created the appearance of a conflict of interest, including:
quote:To read the full GAO report, click here.
Voor wie de documentaire nog niet kent:quote:Op donderdag 20 oktober 2011 05:30 schreef NorthernStar het volgende:
How to Regain Our Democracy
28th Amendment
Corporations are not people. They have none of the constitutional rights of human beings. Corporations are not allowed to give money to any politician, directly or indirectly. No politician can raise over $100 from any person or entity. All elections must be publicly financed.
Now, it's our time. Get up, it's time to get them back.
----
super initiatief
Bah, wat een kruiperigheid.quote:Op donderdag 20 oktober 2011 10:53 schreef Aether het volgende:
Leuke reacties op http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/(...)naar-de-53-beweging/
Artikel of reacties?quote:
Het artikel vind ik een slechte poging om alle mensen die protesteren weg te zetten als tuig waar je niet naar zou moeten luisteren. Veel van de reacties zijn dan weer om te smullenquote:Op donderdag 20 oktober 2011 10:53 schreef Aether het volgende:
Leuke reacties op http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/(...)naar-de-53-beweging/
quote:Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world
AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.
The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere (see photo). But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).
"Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it's conspiracy theories or free-market," says James Glattfelder. "Our analysis is reality-based."
quote:Something’s Happening Here
When you see spontaneous social protests erupting from Tunisia to Tel Aviv to Wall Street, it’s clear that something is happening globally that needs defining. There are two unified theories out there that intrigue me. One says this is the start of “The Great Disruption.” The other says that this is all part of “The Big Shift.” You decide.
twitter:AnonymousPress twitterde op donderdag 20-10-2011 om 15:56:53✔ #OWS News: SF Police Commission decided will no longer raid #OccupySF camp 1st Amendment Rights take precedence #Winning v @CalFireNews reageer retweet
A Sincere Proposalquote:Anonymous Calls On Occupy Wall Street To Form A New Political Party Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/anonymous-is-against-a-revolution-and-wants-a-new-political-party-2011-10#ixzz1bLB8BnAv
Anonymous central just posted a notice on its website calling for the Occupy Wall Street Movement to avoid a full blown revolution and put its weight behind forming a new political party.
The statement says a vote for either party is a vote for the status quo and the two party system is entirely insufficient to carry the country through its problems and into the future.
This new party would work in the interests of th 99%.
The full proposal is below.
Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)011-10#ixzz1bLAy7eRw
quote:What the NYPD Really Thinks of Occupy Wall Street
As midnight approached in New York City's Washington Square Park on Saturday, 14 occupiers sat in the center of an empty fountain playing Woody Guthrie songs. "If you would like to remain in the park past midnight, you will be subject to arrest," a policeman had just broadcast through a bullhorn, sending thousands who'd come for a political rally fleeing. Backed by some 100 riot cops in face shields, an exhausted-looking community affairs officer moved in to try to talk reason. "We marched with you guys; we treated you with respect," he said, pointing out that some officers had been on duty since 3 a.m. "We understand your cause. We understand your voice. We understand what you are saying. But all we want is for you to vacate the park."
"This is political," said a man in black glasses, between drags on a cigarette.
"C'mon guys," the officer pleaded. "Why get arrested?"
quote:And it seems like every time the police are learning to get along with the occupiers, they overreact in one way or another. On Tuesday night, it was the arrest of well-known feminist author Naomi Wolf, who was hauled off in plastic zip cuffs for doing nothing more than standing on a sidewalk in an evening gown in front of a Huffington Post event in SoHo, where sheand Gov. Andrew Cuomowere invited guests.
Angry at police for barring anti-Cuomo protesters from assembling there, Wolf occupied the sidewalk herself in solidarity. She was tossed in a police van and hauled off to a "faeces- or blood-smeared cell," she later wrote. The protesters responded by marching on a nearby police station, the same one where I'd interviewed Jim, to demand her release.
When they got there, they found that the police had calmed down. A community affairs officer used the "people's mic," a method of group communication devised by the protesters, to announce that Wolf had been released. Then the occupiers asked him for a "temperature check" on whether they should go back to Zuccotti. Adopting their hand signal for "yes," the officer held his hands up in the air and wiggled his fingers.
quote:
ING zit er ook bijquote:The top 50 of the 147 superconnected companies
1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Société Générale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company
En AEGON.... de grootste criminelen van de lage landenquote:
Comment:quote:From:NPR Communications
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 6:12 PM
Subject: From Dana Rehm: Communications Alert
To: All Staff
Fr: Dana Davis Rehm
Re: Communications Alert
We recently learned of World of Opera host Lisa Simeone’s participation in an Occupy DC group. World of Opera is produced by WDAV, a music and arts station based in Davidson, North Carolina. The program is distributed by NPR. Lisa is not an employee of WDAV or NPR; she is a freelancer with the station.
We’re in conversations with WDAV about how they intend to handle this. We of course take this issue very seriously.
As a reminder, all public comment (including social media) on this matter is being managed by NPR Communications.
All media requests should be routed through NPR Communications at 202.513.2300 or mediarelations@npr.org. We will keep you updated as needed. Thanks.
##
quote:This is how they do it. It was how it was done under McCarthy, for those not old enough to remember. It was also how it was done in the Soviet Union after they effectively shut down the Gulag. This is how they do it.
Beide eigenlijk. Eerst heeft de NRC de demonstraties op Wall Street volledig genegeerd, terwijl Wall Street natuurlijk niet afgelegen gebied is waar zoeits onopgemerkt blijft, om dan vervolgens braaf mee te gaan miepen met de Amerikaanse mainstream media dat het allemaal niet concreet is.quote:
Ik denk dat het probleem algemener is. De media volgen al jaren de logica van Wall Street, waarschijnlijk omdat die lekker simplistisch is en in hapklare brokken wordt aangeleverd. "En dan gaan we nu naar het economisch nieuws, de beurs... " Volgens mij is er op de beurs zelden nieuws in die zin dat het weerbericht met een temperatuursverandering van 2 graden ook geen nieuws is, en de economie is heel wat anders dan de beurs.quote:Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2011 14:37 schreef deelnemer het volgende:
Het NRC is zelf ook uitgekleed door Apax. Heeft het iets te maken met de nieuwe eigenaar van het NRC, de private equity maatschappij Egeria?
http://weblogs.nrc.nl/gel(...)-van-private-equity/
Luister soms naar de podcast met Kees de Kort. Hij is vaak wat kort door de bocht maar is meestal wel lekker duidelijk na alle euforische nieuwsberichtenquote:Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2011 17:11 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:
[..]
Ik denk dat het probleem algemener is. De media volgen al jaren de logica van Wall Street, waarschijnlijk omdat die lekker simplistisch is en in hapklare brokken wordt aangeleverd. "En dan gaan we nu naar het economisch nieuws, de beurs... " Volgens mij is er op de beurs zelden nieuws in die zin dat het weerbericht met een temperatuursverandering van 2 graden ook geen nieuws is, en de economie is heel wat anders dan de beurs.
Bijt niet de hand die u voed... Sterker steun ze... hebben ze bij het NRC met de pillenmaffia ook gedaan.quote:Op vrijdag 21 oktober 2011 14:37 schreef deelnemer het volgende:
Het NRC is zelf ook uitgekleed door Apax. Heeft het iets te maken met de nieuwe eigenaar van het NRC, de private equity maatschappij Egeria?
http://weblogs.nrc.nl/gel(...)-van-private-equity/
quote:Occupy Wall Street: Washington Still Doesn't Get It
I'll have more coming out about this in a few days, but there have been two disgusting developments in the realm of plutocratic intervention on behalf of Wall Street that everyone protesting should take note of.
The fact that both of the following things took place in the middle of the full fever of OWS, when everyone is supposedly trying to placate anti-banker sentiment and Obama and the DCCC are supposedly pledging support of the protesters, shows how completely bankrupt this system is and how necessary street-level protests have become. Popular uprising is probably the only move left to stop developments like the following:
Damn....quote:
quote:http://www.occupationalist.org/
Occupationalist is an impartial and real-time view of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Covering history as it unfolds. No filters. No delays.
quote:Police brutality charges sweep across the US
From Naomi Wolf's arrest in New York to shootings in Tucson and Florida, forces face allegations of abuse of power
Officer Michael Daragjati had no idea that the FBI was listening to his phone calls. Otherwise he would probably not have described his arrest and detention of an innocent black New Yorker in the manner he did.
Daragjati boasted to a woman friend that, while on patrol in Staten Island, he had "fried another nigger". It was "no big deal", he added. The FBI, which had been investigating another matter, then tried to work out what had happened.
According to court documents released in New York, Daragjati and his partner had randomly stopped and frisked a black man who had become angry and asked for Daragjati's name and badge number. Daragjati, 32, and with eight years on the force, had no reason to stop the man, and had found nothing illegal. But he arrested him and fabricated an account of him resisting arrest. The man, now referred to in papers only as John Doe because of fears for his safety, spent two nights in jail. He had merely been walking alone through the neighbourhood.
The shocking story has added to a growing sense that there are serious problems of indiscipline and law-breaking in US police forces. Last week the feminist author Naomi Wolf was arrested outside an awards ceremony in Manhattan. She had been advising Occupy Wall Street protesters of their rights to continue demonstrating outside the event. Instead, as she joined the protest, she was carted off to jail in her evening gown. That incident is only the most high-profile of many apparently illegal police actions around the protests. One senior officer, deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, created headlines worldwide when he pepper-sprayed young women behind a police barricade.
A report from the New York Civil Liberties Union recently looked at police use of Taser stun guns in the state, and revealed that in 60% of incidents where they were used, the incident did not meet the recommended criteria for such a weapon. Some cases involved people already handcuffed and 40% involved "at risk" subjects such as children, the elderly or mentally ill. "This disturbing pattern of misuse and abuse endangers lives," said the NYCLU's executive director, Donna Lieberman.
In Los Angeles, officers in the sheriff's department are accused of physically abusing some prison inmates and having sex with others. An internal report, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, revealed allegations that included beating people visiting relatives in jail. In Pittsburgh, there is the case of Jordan Miles, a high-flying high-school student stopped by three plainclothes policemen. Miles, 18 at the time, was walking to his grandmother's house and had no idea who the men were, as they did not identify themselves. He ran, but the officers caught him and beat him so badly that he ended up in hospital. He is undergoing neurological treatment for memory problems and has had to drop out of college.
Yet it was Miles who was charged with aggravated assault – a case that a judge later threw out. His mother, Terez Miles, said: "We are no strangers to police brutality in the city of Pittsburgh, but what they did was terrible and then they lied about it."
In Chicago, Jimmel Cannon, 13, was shot eight times by police who claimed that he had a BB gun in his hand. His family said that he had his hands in the air. In Tucson, Arizona, former marine Jose Guerena was killed by a Swat team on a drugs raid. They found nothing illegal, but Guerena was shot 23 times.
The list goes on. Miami is still dealing with the fallout of the fatal shooting of Raymond Herisse. He had been driving a car out of which police claimed gunshots came. However, it took three days before they produced a weapon. They also confiscated and destroyed the phones of people trying to record the incident.
"There is a widespread, continuing pattern of officers ordering people to stop taking photographs or video in public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply," said Chris Calabrese, of the American Civil Liberties Union. Campaigners say the spread of camera phones is why so many incidents of brutality are appearing.
In another recorded call, Daragjati complained to a friend: "I could throw somebody a beating, they catch me on camera, and I'm fired." Some activists have taken that to heart. Diop Kamau, a former officer, runs the Florida-based Police Complaint Centre, which investigates allegations of police abuse nationwide. "Police are now facing an onslaught of scrutiny because everyone has a cellphone," he said.
Kamau said that many police departments still had a culture of secrecy and many officers believed that there was little likelihood of punishment even if caught. "The police fill in the blanks. They say what happened and they will be believed," he said.
One weakness is that there is no central organisation for the police, and local departments do not release data on complaints or allegations of abuse. "The problem is that there is an absence of research," said Professor John Liederbach, an expert in American policing at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. As the list of complaints and incidents grows, that might be about to change.
"Pak de fascist, pak je mobiel."quote:
Ja, dat is hetquote:"[The protests] will end when they tire out or when they start getting jobs"
quote:Op zondag 23 oktober 2011 12:42 schreef Aether het volgende:
Suits Who Work Around Occupy Wall Street Tell Us What They Really Think
[..]
Ja, dat is het
Hoezo, het niet willen snappen...
quote:"Everyone of us suits has debts and everything else," said Alex Malano of New Jersey. "Just because you wear a suit doesn't mean you have money."
quote:Chicago police arrest 130 Occupy protesters
Demonstrators erected tents and refused to leave Grant Park at its closing time, police say
About 130 protesters have been arrested at an Occupy Chicago demonstration after they erected tents and refused to leave a park at its closing time, police said.
The breakup of the protest in Grant Park, next to Lake Michigan, was the second mass arrest of demonstrators from Occupy Chicago in the past week. Last weekend, about 175 protesters were arrested.
The protesters were charged with violating a city ordinance and most were released after agreeing to appear in court, Chicago police said.
Grant Park, the site of major anti-war protests during the Democratic convention in 1968, is closed after 11pm.
The Occupy protests began more than a month ago in New York and focus on anger at government bailouts of big banks and persistent high unemployment.
Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have been arrested in New York and there have also been numerous arrests in Tampa, Cincinnati, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Denver and other cities.
quote:http://youranonnews.tumbl(...)-bail-chicago-police
We posted funds for bail. Chicago Police Department refusing to allow us to post bond, forcing protesters to stay overnight for a noncriminal citation and exercising their 1st amendment rights. Arrestees are being denied phone call, legal counsel, food, sleep basic human rights.
quote:Message To Occupy Wall Street: You’ve Already Won…
You’ve already won occupiers because there are more of you then there are of “them”. You’ve already won because you are right, and the folks in the media who have been pretending all along that they simply did not know what has been happening to this country over the past thirty years are going to be, one-by-one, shamed by you into admitting that they know that yes, our economic and political systems have been dominated all this time by the worst of the worst.
You’ve already won because the time has finally come where everybody in the nation has got to stop pretending that they did not know all along that the Emperor indeed has no clothes. The time has finally come when it is no longer permissible for polite (and otherwise) people to make believe that we were not all living in a monstrous and kleptocratic system where wholesale theft, abuse, and outright political fraud was simply business as usual. We played out that game all the way to the point where we became occupiers of a foreign country for no reason at all, and in it, we built our own style of prison camps where we tortured both the people in it, as well as the logic that we used to justify everything that we did in connection with it.
We as Americans created an economic system where the primary business model was based on fraud. Our banks lied to potential borrowers in order to get them to take out expensive mortgage products, and we as borrowers lied to the banks about our incomes so we could quality for these mortgages. We took out these mortgages so that we could speculate in the rapidly rising real estate market, and when that bubble burst, we all looked at each other in astonishment and wonder at how this all could have all happened to us.
A bank cannot do very much with one or two bad loans issued to borrowers who lack the ability to repay them, but if you have enough of them, then you can pool them up in a very large portfolio of mortgages and get them rated “Triple A” so that they are fit to be used as collateral for very large bond offerings. “Triple-A” of course, — as safe as U.S. Government treasury securities. And why not? We are the people who created Hollywood and Disneyland are we not?
You have already won Wall Street occupiers because after much more time it will be too ridiculous for any of us to think that we can go back to pretending that nothing was wrong all this time. Our banks have gotten bigger, and much more ill-behaved than they were before they got bailed out. Our political leaders are at the present time looking increasingly foolish as they continue to play the game of pretending that they are leading us and crafting laws that serve and protect us, and not the corporations who buy them at auction. Your victory has come about because the images of you on the television make us all quite aware that the real truth can no longer be ignored and obfuscated by the weaselly language of the media message crafters and their corporate whores. It is too late now, and the jig is up.
It started about thirty years ago. The slow, grinding process of making the middle class go away. They did it gradually in order to make the game last a while longer, and they did it in the same way that a Monopoly game winner doles out cash to the losers to keep the game from ending too soon. They wouldn’t let you earn more money at your job to support your illusionary lifestyle because they wanted that for themselves. Instead, they relied upon you to figure out how to work two jobs and take on more personal debt in order to finance it that way. When the credit cards got maxed out, we turned to the equity in our homes, and after that, to the equity in our second homes that we did not own yet, but might be able to if we could find a bank with “flexible” enough terms.
Sooner or later, and I am betting that it will be sooner, it will come to our collective realization that there is no actual solution to what we are going through at present other than to accept what we have done to ourselves and make the best of it. We are not going back to what we thought we had over the past 30 years, and even if we could, what intelligent person would want that? Once it becomes apparent that we are never going back to what we once had, then it will become apparent to the politicians that govern us that they no longer have the power to motivate us to do anything, because there is nothing that they can offer us by way of policy that will make our lives any better than they are right now. Once that happens then they will have no choice but to admit that we are on our own, and when that happens what do we need them for?
The corporations did this, and they are not coming back to save us any time soon. They are done with us and have gone to other “markets” in other hemispheres where the population is eager to make buck or two is not so “whiny”. The corporations did this, and they do not feel any sense of urgency to fix what they did. Corporations do not need clean air to breathe. They do not need safe food to eat, and they do not need any good schools to send the kids they don’t have to.
If you are a young person with a student loan, you have to ask yourself what you are going to do about that loan if the job that you anticipated getting after graduation simply does not exist anymore. This is something that has never happened in this country before, and as such, we have no answers for it. When the dimmest among us starts to realize that nobody is coming to save us, then indeed everyone will know for sure that it is time to give up pretending that we had a fair and honest system all along. When that happens, then everyone will know that you have won.
Much has been written about in the empty-headed media about your own “lack of a purpose”. They cannot see that your purpose is to simply shame THEM into understanding that you (the 99%) know that the emperor has no clothes, and that THEY can now stop pretending that we don’t live in a system that is steeped in corruption.
Do not allow yourselves to become suckered or bullied into generating some kind of “manifesto” or declaration of principles. They will only pick that apart. The only weapon you need is shame, and your objective is to simply shame everyone into admitting that yes, they know that the game was rigged all along, and we can now all stop pretending. That is all.
Much good luck in your praiseworthy struggle. You are the best among us.
J. Mark. Soveign
quote:Marines Are Calling In Reinforcements To Occupy Wall Street Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/occupy-marines-shamar-thomas-2011-10#ixzz1be5BojU6
Last week's dressing down of the NYPD by Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas at Occupy Times Square has started a movement of its own.
Thomas unleashed on the police at length about the use of abusive tactics on unarmed civilians and the YouTube video of the exchange went viral.
Since then, #OccupyMARINES has sprung up, calling for former Marines to don a civilian uniform and join the Occupy protests.
OccupyMARINES have now called on veterans of other branches of the military to lend their support to help "talk sense" to police and recruit them into supporting the Occupy movement.
Because active members of the armed forces are prohibited by military law from joining the protests, only former servicemembers are being called upon and even they have restrictions. (via Jill Klausen and Addicting Info)
Veterans may wear their uniforms, but only if they do not protest. The OccupyMARINES website says:
Should Non-Active Military Supporters Present Themselves At Demonstrator Groups In Military Dress Uniform We Ask They Do Not Actively Participate With Group Activities; We Will Honor Our Military Uniforms And The Sacrifices Of Our Brothers And Sisters. Only Non-Dress Uniform Supporters May Actively Participate.
The dress code for protesting veterans is:
- An OccupyMARINES shirt or sweatshirt with military service affiliation and Occupy Wall Street logo
- Dicky's EMT black cargo pants
- Ranger Joe's Corcoran Boots-I XC Jump Black Aviator Boots
- And blouse bands. Elastic bands used by military members to fold the hem of their pants up and drape over the top of their boots.
While requesting donations, the group's website asks that contributors wait until OccupyMARINES has achieved 501(c)(3) status.
In addition to the Marines' initiative, the police have formed a separate organization called #OccupyPolice that is "for police in support of the 99%." The OP website goes on to say that "Police in America are part of the 99 too #OccupyPolice."
Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)011-10#ixzz1be5K42jl
Veel snappen het wel; maar denken dat ze daar kamperen omdat ze een baan willen is wel simpel gedacht.quote:
Maar de eerste scheuren in het regime zijn er al:quote:Op maandag 24 oktober 2011 21:41 schreef ComplexConjugate het volgende:
De verenigde fascistische staten van Amerika
quote:http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/24/new-york-cops-defy-order-to-arrest-hundreds-of-occupy-protesters/
Occupy Albany protesters in New York’s capital city received an unexpected ally over the week: The state and local authorities.
According to the Albany Times Union, New York state troopers and Albany police did not adhere to a curfew crackdown on protesters urged by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Albany mayor Gerald Jennings.
Mass arrests seemed to be in the cards once Jennings directed officers to enforce the curfew on roughly 700 protesters occupying the city owned park. But as state police joined the local cops, moved past the property line dividing city and state land.
With protesters acting peacefully, local and state police agreed that low level arrests could cause a riot, so they decided instead to defy Cuomo and Jennings.
“We don’t have those resources, and these people were not causing trouble,” a state official said. “The bottom line is the police know policing, not the governor and not the mayor.”
Occupy Albany, an offspring of Occupy Wall Street, has seen its protesters remain as committed as those located at its parent site. At least 30 tents have remained in the park over the weekend.
quote:Police, Wall Street protesters fall into uneasy truce
(Reuters) - After a rough start marked by mass arrests and allegations of heavy-handed behavior, the New York Police Department has settled into an uneasy standoff with the protesters of Occupy Wall Street.
Officers say they are frustrated by people they think are willfully flouting the law -- protesters marching without permits, erecting tents, breaking noise and curfew regulations, publicly defecating and so on. Meanwhile, protesters say the cops should be with them, not against them, in their fight.
Five weeks after the first protest in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, a nervous stalemate has evolved as the movement mushroomed and drew the world's scrutiny.
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association of the NYPD and a 30-year veteran of the force, finds the mixed messages from above frustrating. "At times we don't have to - or they don't want us to - do things, and at times they do want us to do things. There's no real clear message as to what right and wrong is," he said. "In many ways we are almost the pawns in this situation."
The early days of the protest, which routinely draws at least a few hundred people, were marked by more contentious relations. There was a high-profile incident of an occupier being pepper-sprayed by a senior officer, who has since been disciplined. On October 1, more than 700 people were arrested after a march on the Brooklyn Bridge; many accused the police of entrapping them.
Paul Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman, was widely quoted after those arrests saying the protesters had been given ample warning to get off the bridge's roadway before being detained.
Browne did not return phone calls or emails over the course of a week seeking comment on the police's relations with the protesters or its tactics in dealing with the movement.
But as the Occupy Wall Street protests have grown larger and drawn more attention, the tone of relations has changed.
When a group of protesters was arrested in Washington Square Park in Manhattan early on October 16 for an act of civil disobedience - failing to obey a midnight curfew - the atmosphere, by all accounts, was relatively calm.
A branch movement has even popped up - OccupyPolice - to try and convince officers to join the protests. Its website lists contact information for police departments and attorneys general nationwide to further the effort.
CAUGHT ON FILM
The police are also under pressure because they know they are potentially on film at all times. The overwhelming majority of demonstrators have smartphones, and many have handheld cameras as well, such that anything the police do, day or night, can be captured from multiple angles.
One expert on policing policy said the constant scrutiny by protesters and the media had a clear effect.
"Police departments around the country and the world, and that includes the NYPD ... are very much concerned with visible accountability," said Maki Haberfeld, the chairwoman of the department of law and police science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Still, she said that despite the presence of cameras "you cannot demand of police officers that they perform their duties in an emotionless manner."
One officer who has become something of a media darling over the course of the protests said there was an unease between the sides but behind that there was also dialogue.
"There's mistrust on their end, there's mistrust on our end, but we're trying to maintain a relationship," said Detective Rick Lee, a non-uniformed officer who has been dubbed the "hipster cop" by a number of websites for his trendy dress and ongoing dialogue with the protesters.
Some protesters are willing to concede that not all the police guarding them are against them.
"They're asking people questions, they're intrigued, they want to know," said protester Andrew Carbone of Brooklyn. "The cops, you see them a lot of times smiling, laughing at stuff."
RUNNING COUNT
In keeping with the core role social media plays in the Occupy movement, a Twitter account has popped up, @OccupyArrests, to keep a running count of those who have been arrested for participating in some capacity. As of Monday afternoon, the account tallied 2,382 arrests worldwide, though that figure is not independently verified.
Fears of a crackdown have spawned parody. A Facebook page called "Occupy Lego Land," urging peaceful protests by the popular children's' toys, carried pictures of toy police roughing up toy protesters during a "demonstration."
Joke or not, cops chafe at such images.
"If anything rankles a police officer it's that kind of stuff, it's the kind of stuff that makes the cops look like they're out of control," said one retired police official now involved with an association of officers.
The protesters tell police they too are "the 99 percent" -- working and middle-class Americans who struggle to pay bills and chafe at the inequities in the financial system.
For the dozens of cops circling the park, who spend most days doing little more than standing cross-armed and staring at the crowd, there is some financial upside.
"There's so much of this stuff going on, our guys tend to look at it as 'great I'll get some overtime,'" the retired official said.
(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, editing by Martin Howell)
Dat roep ik al meer dan tien jaar, de VS is al jaren een staat dat weinig op heeft met mensenrechten en democratie.quote:Op maandag 24 oktober 2011 21:41 schreef ComplexConjugate het volgende:
De verenigde fascistische staten van Amerika
quote:
That puts a smile on my face.quote:
quote:Bloomberg says Occupy Wall Street is good for tourism
It's not easy to describe Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attitude towards the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
On October 17, Bloomberg said they were trying to "take the jobs away from people working in this city" and that the demonstrations were "not good for tourism."
On October 21, Bloomberg said, in response to a caller on his weekly radio show who wanted to know why the mayor couldn't just force the protesters out of Zuccotti Park, "It's a tourist attraction."
Today, when a reporter asked the mayor about these two comments, the mayor said, "In some sense it is good for tourism."
He then went on to repeat a point he's made before: complaining about a problem isn't the same as coming up with a solution to the problem.
Liberty Boundquote:Op maandag 24 oktober 2011 21:41 schreef ComplexConjugate het volgende:
De verenigde fascistische staten van Amerika
quote:Goldman Sachs v. Occupy Wall Street: A Greg Palast Investigation
A controversy in the banking community has arisen around the Occupy Wall Street movement. Greg Palast investigates the story behind Goldman Sachs’ recent decision to pull out of a fundraiser for the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union in New York City after it learned the event was honoring the protesters at Occupy Wall Street. The investment bank withdrew its name from the fundraiser and also canceled a $5,000 pledge. Was the $5,000 a Goldman Sachs donation or actually American taxpayer bailout money Goldman set aside for community banks?
quote:GREG PALAST: Its not about $5,000 donation. First of all, its not a donation. The issue is about a multi-billion-dollar battle over TARP money and the finance community. Back in 2008, Goldman Sachs, which is an investment bankthat meant that all their losses were therewas turned into a commercial bank, within 24 hours, so they could qualify for $10 billion in bailout funds. But as part of the dealas part of the deal, Amy
AMY GOODMAN: And explain commercial bank.
GREG PALAST: OK, commercial bank is the types where you put in your savings, and we, the taxpayers, and the government guarantees the profits, or guarantees the solvency of that bank. So, for Goldman to get into the $10 billionto get their $10 billion check for bailout, they had to becomego from a gambling house, an investment bank, into a nice commercial bank. But they had to agree that they would then be subject to whats called the Community Reinvestment Act and return some of that money, a chunk of itmost banks put in a billion dollarsreturn a chunk of it back into low-income communities. Well, Goldman doesnt have any branches, so they gave money to the designated low-income bank of New York, Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union, andbut theyve been giving out the money in eyedroppers, like this $5,000. Now remember, its not a donation. Its a required payment under the law that they got in return for our $10 billion, OK? So its not a donation. This is mischaracterized. Its a payment required by law, with an eyedropper.
But what they are doing is starting off something very dangerous and new, which is to saythere are literally tens of billions of dollars in these funds for community reinvestment, boosted by the bailout funds. They see this as a political weapon, as a hammer to control the political discussion. These community development credit unions have been joining the Occupy Wall Street movement nationwide. Its about moving your money from the big banks to the small banks. And theyre not worried about losing little deposits. What they are worried about is losing political control of the discussion. Right now, people like Paul Volcker are calling for removing the rights of banks like Goldman, now a commercial bank, to stay in the gambling trading business. Well, Goldman is very much afraid of that. So the Occupy Wall Street movement has put back on the table these issues of bank deregulation, these issues of community reinvestment.
And Goldman, I think theyre actually quite smart. They figured out, "Well, weve gottheres like a hundred billion dollars on the table here. Why dont we start saying, Youre not going to get any of it unless you dance to our tune?" And I have to tell you, from inside, it wasnt minor. It wasnt just, "Oh, takegive us back our donation money." It was legal threats saying, if youyou cannotif youre going to get our money, you may not back Occupy Wall Street and the "move your money" movement, without getting approval from us at Goldman Sachs. Thats a whole new business. So, its very dangerous, because it involves billions of dollars in public money. Its not Goldmans money. Its our money. And thats what theyre doing with it.
quote:Bill O’Reilly Admits That Fox News Is Waging A War Against Occupy Wall Street
By trying to defend the Fox News smear campaign against Occupy Wall Street as self-defense, Bill O’Reilly accidentally admitted that Fox is waging war on the 99%.
ehm...quote:
Klopt, ik krijg nog meer dan 3000 euro van ze, van hun kutspaarplan. Eigenlijk moet ik eens een briefje schrijven naar TROS Opgelicht, misschien kunnen ze eens bij deze grote oplichters binnen stappen.quote:Op donderdag 20 oktober 2011 18:49 schreef ComplexConjugate het volgende:
[..]
En AEGON.... de grootste criminelen van de lage landen
quote:The OccupyUSA Blog for Wednesday (Oct. 26), With Frequent Updates
1:10 Atlanta newspaper report on arrests there a few minutes ago -- including a state senator. Now they are searching tents for more. "Some of the people waiting to be arrested waved small American flags. About 40 to 50 people remained inside the park after midnight, including Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), former Atlanta city councilman Derrick Boazman and Joe Beasley, the southern regional director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Several hundred others were in the street, chanting and carrying signs. Fort was arrested around 1 a.m."
Ooh... dat valt dan nog mee... ik ben voor heel wat meer geld het AEGON schip ingegaan. Nederland heeft heel veel van dit soort criminele organisaties, er is geen verzekeraar of tussenpersoon te vinden in dit land die zijn klanten niet met voorbedachte rade genaaid heeft. Klagen heeft weinig zin, deze bedrijven hebben de politici en rechtelijke macht in hun zak. Het enige wat je kan doen is je tegoeden terughalen (wat er nog van over is) en nooit meer zaken doen met deze organisaties. Slaap je meteen weer een stuk beterquote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 05:50 schreef Linkse_Boomknuffelaar het volgende:
Klopt, ik krijg nog meer dan 3000 euro van ze, van hun kutspaarplan. Eigenlijk moet ik eens een briefje schrijven naar TROS Opgelicht, misschien kunnen ze eens bij deze grote oplichters binnen stappen.![]()
Vieze criminelen daar op het Aegonplein nabij station Mariahoeve in Den Haag (het hele stationsplein is beveiligd met camera's overigens zodat wanneer je bij Billie en Bessie een patatje bestelt, je het best bewaakte patatje van de regio Haaglanden hebt)
quote:How the Rich Subverted the Legal System and Occupy Wall Street Swept the Land
..that catches the mood of America in 2011. It may not explain the Occupy Wall Street movement, but it helps explain why it has spread like wildfire and why so many Americans seem instantly to accept and support it. As was not true in recent decades, the American relationship with wealth inequality is in a state of rapid transformation.
It is now clearly understood that, rather than apply the law equally to all, Wall Street tycoons have engaged in egregious criminality—acts that destroyed the economic security of millions of people around the world—without experiencing the slightest legal repercussions. Giant financial institutions were caught red-handed engaging in massive, systematic fraud to foreclose on people’s homes and the reaction of the political class, led by the Obama administration, was to shield them from meaningful consequences. Rather than submit on an equal basis to the rules, through an oligarchical, democracy-subverting control of the political process, they now control the process of writing those rules and how they are applied.
Today, it is glaringly obvious to a wide range of Americans that the wealth of the top 1 percent is the byproduct not of risk-taking entrepreneurship but of corrupted control of our legal and political systems. Thanks to this control, they can write laws that have no purpose than to abolish the few limits that still constrain them, as happened during the Wall Street deregulation orgy of the 1990s. They can retroactively immunize themselves for crimes they deliberately committed for profit, as happened when the 2008 Congress shielded the nation’s telecom giants for their role in Bush’s domestic warrantless eavesdropping program.
It is equally obvious that they are using that power not to lift the boats of ordinary Americans but to sink them. In short, Americans are now well aware of what the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Illinois’s Dick Durbin, blurted out in 2009 about the body in which he serves: the banks “frankly own the place.”
quote:OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating
Think about it: there have always been rich and poor people in America, so if this is about jealousy, why the protests now? The idea that masses of people suddenly discovered a deep-seated animus/envy toward the rich – after keeping it strategically hidden for decades – is crazy.
Where was all that class hatred in the Reagan years, when openly dumping on the poor became fashionable? Where was it in the last two decades, when unions disappeared and CEO pay relative to median incomes started to triple and quadruple?
The answer is, it was never there. If anything, just the opposite has been true. Americans for the most part love the rich, even the obnoxious rich. And in recent years, the harder things got, the more we've obsessed over the wealth dream. As unemployment skyrocketed, people tuned in in droves to gawk at Evrémonde-heiresses like Paris Hilton, or watch bullies like Donald Trump fire people on TV.
Success is the national religion, and almost everyone is a believer. Americans love winners. But that's just the problem. These guys on Wall Street are not winning – they're cheating. And as much as we love the self-made success story, we hate the cheater that much more.
We cheer for people who hit their own home runs in this country– not shortcut-chasing juicers like Bonds and McGwire, Blankfein and Dimon.
That's why it's so obnoxious when people say the protesters are just sore losers who are jealous of these smart guys in suits who beat them at the game of life. This isn't disappointment at having lost. It's anger because those other guys didn't really win. And people now want the score overturned.
quote:Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, Study Finds
WASHINGTON — The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, in a new report likely to figure prominently in the escalating political fight over how to revive the economy, create jobs and lower the federal debt.
quote:In its report, the budget office found that from 1979 to 2007, average inflation-adjusted after-tax income grew by 275 percent for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income. For others in the top 20 percent of the population, average real after-tax household income grew by 65 percent.
By contrast, the budget office said, for the poorest fifth of the population, average real after-tax household income rose 18 percent.
quote:Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters in Oakland, Calif.
8:38 a.m. | Updated Riot police in Oakland dispersed hundreds of protesters with tear gas on Tuesday night as crowds tried to re-enter a plaza outside of City Hall that the authorities had cleared of an encampment earlier in the day.
The forceful response by the police to protesters in Oakland came as the police in Atlanta moved in early Wednesday morning to clear an encampment from the city’s central Woodruff Park. At least 53 people connected to the protest group Occupy Atlanta were arrested, and the park was cleared by 2 a.m. Eastern time, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
By Wednesday morning in downtown Oakland, a dim cloud of gas still hung in the air over Frank Ogawa Plaza, according to images broadcast on CNN. A small number of police in riot gear stood by barricades around the plaza and a handful of protesters held signs nearby.
“It sounded like bombs,” said Joaquin Jutt, 24, a digital animator who was among the protesters on Tuesday night. “There was a stinging and burning in my throat, eyes and nostrils. My eyes burned like there was hot sauce in them.”
Protesters, many affiliated with the group Occupy Oakland, can be seen scurrying away from billowing clouds of gas and what appear to be flash grenades in video recorded from a high vantage point in a nearby office building:
Ik ben blij dat je de drogredenen even opsomt die gebruikt worden om democratie af te schaffen.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 15:17 schreef popolon het volgende:
Ah, een linkdump topic is het geworden.
Maar goed, niet zo raar dat ze er wat opgepakt hebben: Hele parken werden ondergescheten, tentenkampen in openbare parken met enorm veel troep wat men dus niet netjes wist op te ruimen met als gevolg een plaag van ongedierte (raccoons, eekhoorns, ratten), verfbommen gooien naar de politie etc. Ja, zo kweek je veel sympathie!
Wat zijn precies de drogredenen volgens jou en wat heeft dit met democratie te maken?quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:00 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Ik ben blij dat je de drogredenen even opsomt die gebruikt worden om democratie af te schaffen.
Ik mis ook wat blijkbaar.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:17 schreef Bananenman het volgende:
[..]
Wat zijn precies de drogredenen volgens jou en wat heeft dit met democratie te maken?
In een democratisch land mag je demonstreren. In een ondemocratisch land gebruikt met Thugs of leugens als alibi om de veiligheidsdiensten de demo's op te laten breken.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:17 schreef Bananenman het volgende:
[..]
Wat zijn precies de drogredenen volgens jou en wat heeft dit met democratie te maken?
Volgens mij ken jij het verschil tussen democratie en rechtsstaat niet zo goed.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:20 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
In een democratisch land mag je demonstreren. In een ondemocratisch land gebruikt met Thugs of leugens als alibi om de veiligheidsdiensten de demo's op te laten breken.
Wat is precies het verschil volgens jou en wat heeft dit met het opbreken van demonstraties te maken?quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:21 schreef Bananenman het volgende:
[..]
Volgens mij ken jij het verschil tussen democratie en rechtsstaat niet zo goed.
Een democratie zonder een rechtsstaat is natuurlijk niet denkbaar. Dan mag je stemmen op volksvertegenwoordigers die dan vervolgens wetten maken waar de overheid zich niet aan hoeft te houden....quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:21 schreef Bananenman het volgende:
[..]
Volgens mij ken jij het verschil tussen democratie en rechtsstaat niet zo goed.
Je hebt duidelijk die beelden van de achtergelaten troep en de ondergescheten openbare parken niet gezien.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:24 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Wat is precies het verschil volgens jou en wat heeft dit met het opbreken van demonstraties te maken?
Ik vind dat je best wat mag over hebben voor je grondrechten.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:36 schreef popolon het volgende:
[..]
Je hebt duidelijk die beelden van de achtergelaten troep en de ondergescheten openbare parken niet gezien.
Ik kan me best vinden in wat ze proberen te doen, echter sommigen overdrijven het en gaan veel te ver: Einde oefening dan.
quote:BREAKING PHOTOS: Images CONTRADICT Oakland PD Press Release on Rubber Bullets
A press release said that the Oakland Police Department DID NOT use rubber bullets. They said the "bangs" heard at the protesters were M80s thrown at police officers by the protesters.
Unfortunately for the OPD, it the press release seems to be wrong. I'll let the images speak for themselves:
Here's an empty shell and the cap of a fin stabilized rubber slug from a 12 gauge shotgun:
Hetzelfde verschijnsel dat men zich vreselijk druk maakt als iemand ten onrechte voor een paar duizend aan bijstand heeft getrokken maar de schouders ophaald als banken voor miljarden frauderen.quote:Op woensdag 26 oktober 2011 16:41 schreef Perrin het volgende:
Een beetje troep op straat maken of een enorme troep van de economie maken.. het is maar wat je erger vindt.
quote:The film shows, for example, that Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia were flown out to luxury resorts at the expense of the Federalist Society in order to hobnob with the people attending the infamous political strategy conferences hosted by the billionaire Koch brothers, whose partisan goals are no secret (and whose companies are frequently in federal court). Thomas went in 2008 and Scalia in 2007. David Koch himself explains these meetings are for "combating the multitude of public policies that threaten to destroy America as we know it." One may reasonably ask which public policies Scalia and Thomas were there to combat in these closed-door Koch conclaves.
Er is al iemand in zijn gezicht geschoten.quote:Op dinsdag 25 oktober 2011 17:49 schreef Resonancer het volgende:
[..]![]()
Ik vrees met grote vreze dat dit uiteindelijk heel bloedig gaat worden.
Gelukkig hebben de Amerikanen hun wapens nog.
quote:Last night, a group of 1,000 protesters in Oakland, CA were gassed and shot at by the local police after they allegedly "started throwing bottles, paints, beer, eggs" at officers. Late into the night, officials deployed tear gas on the crowd and began arresting people for disrupting the peace. But things took a turn for the worst when the police started using either rubber bullets or bean bag rounds to bring the chaos to order. (The police are saying one thing, the protesters another.)
Unfortunately, things ended badly for one young man who was actually shot in the face during the mayhem. Video capturing the gruesome scene has gone viral, but it isn't for the faint of heart. The video contains NSFW language and disturbing images of the man being carried by his comrades in the streets searching for help, blood pouring from his face that was wounded.
twitter:wiljago twitterde op donderdag 27-10-2011 om 06:12:14National Guard is here at #occupyoakland getting ready. #StandwithOakland if you can tonight. #occupy reageer retweet
quote:Latest round of Occupy Oakland protests to be closely watched
Until this week, the movement had been disciplined -- then the Oakland police eliminated the encampment outside City Hall, Heaney said.
"People are going to respond to that in a not-peaceful way," Heaney said. "Either they (law enforcement officials) expected that this would be the response or they were incompetent not to expect this response.
"When you engage in (more than) 100 unjustifiable arrests, basically what you do is give credibility to the people you're trying to stop," Heaney said. "The smarter strategy on the part of police is to ignore them and it would eventually burn out and people would go home."
quote:NY Times: Crony Capitalism Comes Home
Whenever I write about Occupy Wall Street, some readers ask me if the protesters really are half-naked Communists aiming to bring down the American economic system when they’re not doing drugs or having sex in public.
The answer is no. That alarmist view of the movement is a credit to the (prurient) imagination of its critics, and voyeurs of Occupy Wall Street will be disappointed. More important, while alarmists seem to think that the movement is a “mob” trying to overthrow capitalism, one can make a case that, on the contrary, it highlights the need to restore basic capitalist principles like accountability.
To put it another way, this is a chance to save capitalism from crony capitalists.
quote:Occupy first. Demands come later
What to do after the occupations of Wall Street and beyond – the protests that started far away, reached the centre and are now, reinforced, rolling back around the world? One of the great dangers the protesters face is that they will fall in love with themselves. In a San Francisco echo of the Wall Street occupation this week, a man addressed the crowd with an invitation to participate as if it was a happening in the hippy style of the 60s: "They are asking us what is our programme. We have no programme. We are here to have a good time."
Carnivals come cheap – the true test of their worth is what remains the day after, how our normal daily life will be changed. The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work – they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message is: the taboo is broken; we do not live in the best possible world; we are allowed, obliged even, to think about alternatives.
quote:Washington Post Under Fire For Occupy Wall Street Coverage
While the police crackdown of Occupy Oakland has made international news, the Washington Post is coming under criticism for how it covered the story. On Wednesday, it ran a story titled, "Protesters wearing out their welcome nationwide." Above the photo was a photo of a police officer petting a cat. The caption read: “A police officer in Oakland, Calif., pets a cat that was left behind by Wall Street protesters who were evicted from the grounds of City Hall.”
quote:http://videocafe.crooksan(...)ext-straw-attack-ows
OLBERMANN: First, the protesters were drugged up hippies. Then, they were anti-Semitic. Then, yesterday they were part of the Muslim Brotherhood. In our number one story now, the right wing has grasped at its next straw; the Occupy movement is actually being organized by the most vile of community organizations... ACORN.
twitter:Leemtee twitterde op donderdag 27-10-2011 om 17:49:31RT “@iRevolt: Egyptians plan to march from Tahrir Square to the US Embassy in Cairo tomorrow in solidarity with @OccupyOakland #OWS” reageer retweet
quote:Immunity and impunity in elite America
The top one per cent of US society is enjoying a two-tiered system of justice and politics.
As intense protests spawned by Occupy Wall Street continue to grow, it is worth asking: Why now? The answer is not obvious. After all, severe income and wealth inequality have long plagued the United States. In fact, it could reasonably be claimed that this form of inequality is part of the design of the American foundation - indeed, an integral part of it.
Income inequality has worsened over the past several years and is at its highest level since the Great Depression. This is not, however, a new trend. Income inequality has been growing at rapid rates for three decades. As journalist Tim Noah described the process: "During the late 1980s and the late 1990s, the United States experienced two unprecedentedly long periods of sustained economic growth - the ‘seven fat years’ and the ‘long boom’. Yet from 1980 to 2005, more than 80 per cent of total increase in Americans' income went to the top one per cent. Economic growth was more sluggish in the aughts [the first decade of the new century], but the decade saw productivity increase by about 20 per cent. Yet virtually none of the increase translated into wage growth at middle and lower incomes, an outcome that left many economists scratching their heads."
The 2008 financial crisis exacerbated the trend, but not radically: the top one per cent of earners in the US have been feeding ever more greedily at the trough for decades.
quote:Marine, Navy, Army and Airforce Vets and Police Vow to Protect Innocent Protesters
In response to the police brutality against peaceful American protesters – here, here, here, here, here and here – military and police groups are forming to protect American citizens.
In fact, many in the military support the protests (and see this).
As of today, OccupyMarines, Occupy Police, Occupy Navy, Occupy Airforce, and Occupy Army have formed to protect the people against police brutality.
After Veterans for Peace member Scott Olsen – a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed to Iraq – was critically wounded in the Occupy Oakland protest, Occupy Marines tweeted:
WHEN YOU SHOOT ONE MARINE, YOU SHOOT AT ALL OF US. OORAH. Do It Peacefully Occupy We Stand In Solidarity
Zie je wel dat je fraude en corruptie aan kan pakken?quote:Fraude van 1 miljard dollar bij spoor VS
Amerikaanse aanklagers in New York meldden vandaag een fraude van 1 miljard dollar (700 miljoen euro) te hebben ontdekt. Honderden spoorwegmedewerkers blijken onterecht een uitkering voor arbeidsongeschiktheid te krijgen.
De medewerkers hadden drie artsen omgekocht voor valse verklaringen. De 'arbeidsongeschikte' medewerkers bleken ondertussen vrolijk te tennissen of te golfen, aldus de aanklacht. Door arbeidsongeschikt te worden vlak voor hun pensioen, kregen ze een hoger pensioen van een bedrijfsfonds.
quote:NYPD sergeants threaten to sue Wall Street protesters
"Deeply concerned" police sergeants are coming out swinging today against obnoxious Wall Street protesters, saying they plan to "pursue legal action" against demonstrators who injure any of its members.
Ed Mullins, president of the NYPD's Sergeant’s Benevolent Association, said his group plans to pursue legal claims against Occupy Wall Street protesters should they cause injury to any of its 5,000 members.
“In light of the growing violence attendant to the 'Occupy' movements across the country, particularly as evidenced by the recent events in Oakland, I am compelled to place these so-called 'occupiers' on notice that physical assaults on police officers will not be tolerated," he said.
Mullins added that any "assault on a police officer is not only punishable as a felony in the State of New York, but will also be met with swift and certain legal action by the SBA, which will seek monetary damages against any individual who causes injury to a New York City Sergeant.”
He said over 20 cops have been injured in Occupy Wall Street-related incidents.
"I am deeply concerned that protesters will be emboldened by the recent rash of violent acts against police officers in other cities. New York’s police officers are working around the clock as the already overburdened economy in New York is being drained by 'occupiers' who intentionally and maliciously instigate needless and violent confrontations with the police," said Mullins.
"In response, I have instructed the SBA’s attorneys to pursue the harshest possible civil sanctions -- including monetary damages -- against any individual protester who causes injury to my members. Protesters are not immunized from civil liability merely because their victims are wearing the uniform of the New York City Police Department."
This comes as the charges against hundreds of protesters who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge or Union Square over the past six weeks could be dropped if the protesters accept a deal from the Manhattan DA's office.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/n(...)bSQeMI#ixzz1c0xY1Tt4
Bill Maherquote:
quote:Sgt. Shamar Thomas Is Back And He Brought The Marines With Him To #OWS
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators marched in a show of solidarity with Occupy Oakland Wednesday night. Leading the march front and center was none other than Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas sporting his uniform proudly.
twitter:Op_ESR twitterde op vrijdag 28-10-2011 om 18:36:59#SFSD ESU Officer #Bergstresser = Officer Who Injured #ScottOlson ~ #OpESR #A99 #AntiSec #ProSec #InfoSec #OWS reageer retweet
quote:Doctors: Scott Olsen suffered brain damage and is unable to speak
The Iraq veteran seriously wounded Tuesday night at “Occupy Oakland” sustained minor brain damage and has been rendered unable to speak, doctors said Friday, adding that he will likely be able to make a full recovery in time.
Scott Olsen, 24, was said to be otherwise lucid and able to communicate with his family by writing notes, but his ability to spell is also damaged, according to sources who spoke with The Guardian. He is, however, able to understand what’s being communicated to him.
Keith Shannon, Olsen’s roommate who served with him in Iraq, explained that “He cannot talk right now, and that is because the fracture is right on the speech center of his brain,” the paper added. “However, they are expecting he will get that back.”
quote:bron
Uit een deze week verschenen opiniepeiling van de New York Times en CBS News, blijkt dat inmiddels 43 procent van de Amerikanen de ideeën van Occupy Wall Street steunt.
De cijfers wijzen op een snelgroeiende steun onder het volk voor Occupy Wall Street vergeleken met twee weken geleden, het moment waarop de grote media verslag begonnen te doen van de protesten. In een opiniepeiling die half oktober werd gehouden door onderzoeksbureau Gallup, bleek dat slechts 22 procent van de bevolking de doelen van de demonstranten "goedkeurde." Vijftien procent keurde die af en 63 procent zei er te weinig vanaf te weten om een mening te hebben.
"In slechts een maand tijd hebben de demonstranten het nationale debat weten om te buigen van een focus op het begrotingstekort naar de onderwerpen waar mensen werkelijk mee te maken hebben: gebrek aan fatsoenlijk werk, groeiende ongelijkheid, schulden en de verderfelijke invloed van geld in de politiek die ons tot die punt gebracht heeft", schreef Joshua Holland, redacteur van de progressieve website Alternet, in een reactie op de uitslag van de opiniepeilingen.
Van de ondervraagden gaf twee derde aan dat de welvaart in het land eerlijker verdeeld moet worden. Zesentwintig procent had geen problemen met de huidige verdeling.
Doet me denken aan een Anonymous video aan het begin van de protesten: "We've reached critical mass."quote:
quote:Blockade Port of Oakland During Nov 2 General Strike
resolution passed unanimously by the Occupy Oakland strike assembly on Friday October 29
On Wednesday, November 2nd as part of the Oakland General Strike, we will march on the Port of Oakland and shut it down. We will converge at 5pm at 14th and Broadway and march to the port to shut it down before the 7pm night shift.
We are doing this in order to blockade the flow of capital on the day of the General Strike, as well as to show our commitment to solidarity with Longshore workers in their struggle against EGT in Longview, Washington. EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture longshore jurisdiction. The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD, a leading agribusiness and food company which reported 2.4 billion dollars in profit in 2010; this company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street’s corporate attack on workers.
The Oakland General Strike will demonstrate the wide reaching implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The entire world is fed up with the huge disparity of wealth caused by the present system. Now is the time that the people are doing something about it.The Oakland General Strike is a warning shot to the 1% – their wealth only exists because the 99% creates it for them.
quote:Marine Says Oakland Used Crowd Control Methods That Are Prohibited In War Zones
Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)011-10#ixzz1cADhsPIs
As the events that led to Oakland protester Scott Olsen's head injury continue to unfold and investigations begin, we thought it important to offer some perspective.
This comment is from a former Marine with special operations in crowd control.
He points out that shooting canisters such as those that likely hit Scott Olsen is prohibited under rules of engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Regardless of any political position on the Occupy protests, these are some Interesting insights:
Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)011-10#ixzz1cADepAl2
quote:Occupy Oakland: mayor sorry for clashes that injured Scott Olsen
Jean Quan says she is deeply saddened by violence between police and demonstrators in which former marine was badly hurt
The mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, has apologised for the clashes between police and demonstrators that left Scott Olsen badly injured.
Quan, who has drawn withering criticism for her handling of the Occupy protests against economic inequality, said she had met Scott Olsen and his parents and was concerned about his recovery.
Olsen, a 24-year-old ex-marine who served in Iraq, was struck in the head during Occupy Oakland protests on Tuesday night and his plight has galvanised the worldwide Occupy movement.
A spokesman for Oakland's Highland General hospital said Olsen remained in "fair" condition on Friday, upgraded from "critical" one day earlier, and had been visited by his parents.
"I am deeply saddened about the outcome on Tuesday," Quan said in a video statement posted online in which the shouts of protesters rallying outside City Hall could be heard in the background.
"It was not what anyone hoped for. Ultimately, it was my responsibility, and I apologise for what happened," she said. "We can change America, but we must unite and not divide our city. I hope we can work together."
Oakland has become one of the focal points of the Occupy movement, which began in Wall Street last month to protest against economic disparities, high unemployment and government bailouts of major banks.
Makeshift camps sprouting up in cities across the country have forced local officials to balance the facilitation of peaceful assembly while addressing concerns about trespassing, noise, sanitation and safety.
On Thursday, Quan attended a rally and speakers' forum organised by protesters at Frank Ogawa Plaza, a public square near the mayor's office that has been the fulcrum of demonstrations. She was greeted with a hail of angry boos and catcalls and hastily retreated with her staff back to City Hall, followed by protesters shouting, "Get out, go home!" and "Resign!"
In Friday's statement Quan pledged to work with the Occupy Oakland activists and asked for "direct communications" between city staff and Occupy representatives.
Quan asked protesters to refrain from sleeping overnight in the makeshift plaza campsite, which was forcibly dismantled by police on Tuesday. Protesters were marching to retake it when Olsen was critically injured in the confrontation with police.
Protest organisers said the ex-Marine was struck in the head with a teargas canister fired by police. City and police officials have not said how they believe Olsen was hurt but police have opened an investigation.
Protesters reclaimed the plaza on Wednesday night when police kept their distance.
On Friday, hundreds of protesters returned to the square for a rally attended by filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore, who was loudly cheered as he addressed the crowd.
"We've seen the militarisation of our local police departments because Congress has spent billions to buy them armaments … even spying systems to prepare them for what they believe is the inevitable," Moore said. "Sooner or later the people aren't going to take it anymore."
Organisers have called for a general strike in Oakland one day next week over what they called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters.
Mijn onderschrift is meteen mijn reactie. 50jr geleden werd hier al voor gewaarschuwd.quote:
quote:Officers Jeer at Arraignment of 16 Colleagues in Ticket-Fixing Investigation
A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.
As 16 police officers were arraigned at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors and investigators, chanting “Down with the D.A.” and “Ray Kelly, hypocrite.”
As the defendants emerged from their morning court appearance, a swarm of officers formed a cordon in the hallway and clapped as they picked their way to the elevators. Members of the news media were prevented by court officers from walking down the hallway where more than 100 off-duty police officers had gathered outside the courtroom.
The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.
The unsealed indictments contained more than 1,600 criminal counts, the bulk of them misdemeanors having to do with making tickets disappear as favors for friends, relatives and others with clout. But they also outlined more serious crimes, related both to ticket-fixing and drugs, grand larceny and unrelated corruption. Four of the officers were charged with helping a man get away with assault.
Jose R. Ramos, an officer in the 40th Precinct whose suspicious behavior spawned the protracted investigation, was accused of two dozen crimes, including attempted robbery, attempted grand larceny, transporting what he thought was heroin for drug dealers and revealing the identity of a confidential informant.
The case, troubling to many New Yorkers because of its implication that the police officers believed they deserved special treatment, is expected to have long tentacles. Scores of other officers accused of fixing tickets could face departmental charges. Some officers have already retired. Moreover, the indictments may jeopardize thousands of cases in which implicated officers are important witnesses and may be seen as untrustworthy by Bronx juries.
The contentious scene in the Bronx concluded a week of deep embarrassment for the New York Police Department and Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who at a news conference acknowledged the difficulty of having “to announce for the second time this week that police officers have been arrested for misconduct.”
Federal agents earlier in the week arrested eight current and former officers on accusations that they had brought illegal firearms, slot machines and black-market cigarettes into New York City. Recently, other officers have been charged in federal court with making false arrests, and there was testimony in a trial in Brooklyn that narcotics detectives planted drugs on innocent civilians.
quote:The outpouring of angry officers at the courthouse had faint echoes of a 1992 march by off-duty officers on City Hall to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins’s call for more independent review of the police. And it raises unsettling questions about the current mind-set of the police force.
“It is hard to see an upside in the way the anger was expressed, especially in Bronx County, where you already have a hard row to hoe in terms of building rapport with the community,” said Eugene J. O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The Police Department is a very angry work force, and that is something that should concern people, because it translates into hostile interactions with people.”
quote:On Friday morning, on the street outside the courthouse, some 350 officers massed behind barricades and brandished signs expressing sentiments like “It’s a Courtesy Not a Crime.”
Ik krijg er ook een "Told you so"-gevoel bij, net als bij die hele occupy-agenda. Alsof het allemaal recentelijk ontdekt is.quote:Op zaterdag 29 oktober 2011 12:22 schreef Resonancer het volgende:
[..]
Mijn onderschrift is meteen mijn reactie. 50jr geleden werd hier al voor gewaarschuwd.
Zekers, er was er nog eentje die het WEL durfde te zeggen op de historische symbolische datum 11 sept 1941.:quote:Op zaterdag 29 oktober 2011 13:03 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:
[..]
Ik krijg er ook een "Told you so"-gevoel bij, net als bij die hele occupy-agenda. Alsof het allemaal recentelijk ontdekt is.
Het was oorlogsheld en republikein Eisenhower die waarschuwde voor de macht van het militair-industrieel complex.
Tja, hij kreeg het verwijt anti semitisch te zijn, maar oh..oh. wat heeft hij volgens mij gelijk.quote:It is now two years since this latest European war began. From that day in September, 1939, until the present moment, there has been an over-increasing effort to force the United States into the conflict.
That effort has been carried on by foreign interests, and by a small minority of our own people; but it has been so successful that, today, our country stands on the verge of war.
knip
Do you find these crusaders for foreign freedom of speech, or the removal of censorship here in our own country?
knip
The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration.
Behind these groups, but of lesser importance, are a number of capitalists, Anglophiles, and intellectuals who believe that the future of mankind depends upon the domination of the British empire.
knip.
Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.
twitter:CabinCr3w twitterde op zaterdag 29-10-2011 om 01:25:34Ohai Officer ESU Aparicio, why did you teargas innocent people? http://t.co/IdI4RdtE #CabinCr3w #Anonymous reageer retweet
Read more: http://gawker.com/5854118(...)my-job#ixzz1cBDkkBSIquote:How Occupy Wall Street cost me my job.
I was standing beneath a news ticker near West 43rd Street and Broadway, and people began cheering as a headline about the movement scrolled across the ticker. I looked up, and at that moment a photographer took a photo of me holding the sign, and posted it to Twitter shortly thereafter.
The next day, Boing Boing co-editor Xeni Jardin posted the photo as the site's Occupy Wall Street sign of the day, the post circulated around Tumblr, Friedersdorf himself saw it and wrote about it, as did Felix Salmon at Reuters, who called me "one of those protestors that photographers dream of" and the sign "true, and accurate, and touching, and grammatical, and far too long to be a slogan, and gloriously bereft of punctuation, and ending even more gloriously in a mildly archaic preposition."
Beyond that, Salmon noted, the sign's internet notoriety showed that there was something about it that resonated with people. Which was really the whole point of why we made the sign, and of Friedersdorf's piece.
I thought all of this could be fodder for an interesting segment on The Takeaway—a morning news program co-produced by WNYC Radio and Public Radio International—for which I had been working as a freelance web producer roughly 20 hours per week for the past seven months. I pitched the idea to producers on the show, in an e-mail.
The next day, The Takeaway's director fired me over the phone, effective immediately. He was inconsolably angry, and said that I had violated every ethic of journalism, and that this should be a "teaching moment" for me in my career as a journalist. The segment I had pitched, of course, would not happen. Ironically, the following day Marketplace did pretty much the exact segment I thought would have been great on The Takeaway, with Kai Ryssdal discussing the sign and the Goldman Sachs deal it alluded to in terms that were far from neutral.
quote:Meet the anthropologist, activist, and anarchist who helped transform a hapless rally into a global protest movement
quote:When Graeber and his friends showed up on Aug. 2, however, they found out that the event wasnt, in fact, a general assembly, but a traditional rally, to be followed by a short meeting and a march to Wall Street to deliver a set of predetermined demands (A massive public-private jobs program was one, An end to oppression and war! was another). In anarchist argot, the event was being run by verticalstop-down organizationsrather than horizontals such as Graeber and his friends. Sagri and Graeber felt theyd been had, and they were angry.
What happened next sounds like an anarchist parable. Along with Kohso, the two recruited several other people disgruntled with the proceedings, then walked to the south end of the park and began to hold their own GA, getting down to the business of planning the Sept. 17 occupation. The original dozen or so people gradually swelled, despite the efforts of the events planners to bring them back to the rally. The tug of war lasted until late in the evening, but eventually all of the 50 or so people remaining at Bowling Green had joined the insurgent general assembly.
The groups that were organizing the rally, they also came along, recalls Kohso. Then everyone stayed very, very late to organize what committees we needed.
While there were weeks of planning yet to go, the important battle had been won. The show would be run by horizontals, and the choices that would followthe decision not to have leaders or even designated police liaisons, the daily GAs and myriad working-group meetings that still form the heart of the protests in Zuccotti Parkall flowed from that.
quote:Graebers problem with debt is not just that having too much of it is bad. More fundamental, he writes in his book, is debts perversion of the natural instinct for humans to help each other. Economics textbooks tell a story in which money and markets arise out of the human tendency to truck and barter, as Adam Smith put it. Before there was money, Smith argued, people would trade seven chickens for a goat, or a bag of grain for a pair of sandals. Then some enterprising merchant realized it would be easier to just price all of them in a common medium of exchange, like silver or wampum. The problem with this story, anthropologists have been arguing for decades, is that it doesnt seem ever to have happened. No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money, writes anthropologist Caroline Humphrey, in a passage Graeber quotes.
People in societies without money dont barter, not unless theyre dealing with a total stranger or an enemy. Instead they give things to each other, sometimes as a form of tribute, sometimes to get something later in return, and sometimes as an outright gift. Money, therefore, wasnt created by traders trying to make it easier to barter, it was created by states like ancient Egypt or massive temple bureaucracies in Sumer so that people had a more efficient way of paying taxes, or simply to measure property holdings. In the process, they introduced the concept of price and of an impersonal market, and that ate away at all those organic webs of mutual support that had existed before.
Occupy Beijng. Hebben ze daar nu ook al hippiesquote:
Dat is wel een ongelukkig voorbeeld... Het is gewoon de gebruikelijke nazi-propaganda ('joodse kapitalisten storten de wereld in een oorlog'). En los van de gebruikelijke clichés over joods Wallstreet etc: natuurlijk wilden de Britten en joden destijds dat de VS aan de oorlog mee gingen doen, maar wel om een fundamenteel andere reden dan die achter de huidige oorlogen-zonder-einde (waaronder die tegen drugs) schuilgaat.quote:Op zaterdag 29 oktober 2011 14:42 schreef Resonancer het volgende:
[..]
Zekers, er was er nog eentje die het WEL durfde te zeggen op de historische symbolische datum 11 sept 1941.:
[..]
Tja, hij kreeg het verwijt anti semitisch te zijn, maar oh..oh. wat heeft hij volgens mij gelijk.
quote:Oakland mayor under siege from all sides
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has experienced poverty, racism and gender discrimination. As a student she went on strike at UC Berkeley in support of ethnic studies and boycotted grapes to support farmworkers. She fought to prevent the eviction of poor Asian seniors from the International Hotel in San Francisco, and she considers Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr., her heroes.
But after Tuesday's predawn raid on the Occupy Oakland camp at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, followed that night with police in riot gear shooting tear gas, bean bags and rubber bullets into large crowds of protesters, Quan finds herself in an unusual position. After less than year in office she is being criticized and booed by the working class, underemployed and unemployed -- the so-called 99 percent she has supported, fought for and defended her entire life.
"I'm pretty sad, and obviously it's very painful," she said Friday. Somebody in the national media "said I should have resigned. But I don't have time to think about politics. I have to keep people safe.
"I've been able to organize the communities and balance the budget. It's painful to have all your work defined by one thing. The city probably did make some mistakes. That's why I apologized to the family of Scott Olsen."
Occupy Obama.twitter:LOrion twitterde op maandag 31-10-2011 om 00:02:56WTF? RT @Smiling_Gem: In response to the police brutality against #occupyWallStreet protesters,tunisian facebookers are invading Obama's FB reageer retweet
De Thugs komen nu niet met kamelen.quote:But while officers may be in a no-win situation, at the mercy of orders carried on shifting political winds and locked into conflict with a so-far almost entirely non-violent protest movement eager to frame the force as a symbol of the oppressive system they’re fighting, the NYPD seems to have crossed a line in recent days, as the park has taken on a darker tone with unsteady and unstable types suddenly seeming to emerge from the woodwork. Two different drunks I spoke with last week told me they’d been encouraged to “take it to Zuccotti” by officers who’d found them drinking in other parks, and members of the community affairs working group related several similar stories they’d heard while talking with intoxicated or aggressive new arrivals.
quote:FT: Why America is embracing protest
These are fluid times. Leaders do not so much lead as dance to the unexpected tunes of others. Record numbers of Americans are pessimistic about their economic future and say their political system is broken. They seem to have developed an accordingly higher tolerance than normal for the politics of street protest.
That also adds to the volatility. A few months ago it looked like the 2012 debate would pivot around which candidate could show the least unpalatable path to fiscal discipline. That dimension remains. But others are being added. Take Mitt Romney, a trusty barometer of public opinion, and the least unlikely Republican nominee. Mr Romney initially dismissed the Wall Street protesters as “dangerous”. Then he changed his emphasis: “I worry about the 99 per cent,” he said. “I understand how those people feel.”
The protesters have already rebalanced the national conversation. Brace for a grand debate in 2012 in which both the Tea Partiers and the Occupy crowd are likely to be setting the pace.
quote:ANALYSIS: Legal confusion at heart of Wall Street protests
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Early Friday morning, under a looming forecast of unseasonable cold and snow, a cadre of firefighters and police officers swept through the Occupy Wall Street camp at Zuccotti Park, confiscating generators and gasoline cans that the city considered a safety hazard.
While the operation was notable for its lack of confrontation, it highlighted once again the uneven application of rules at the park, where its status as a privately owned public plaza has left the protesters' legal advisors scouring the law for potential arguments to combat any eviction efforts.
"There are a number of contingencies," said Samuel Cohen of the Law Offices of Wylie M. Stecklow, a member of the protest's working legal group. "There are literally dozens of excellent attorneys to try to figure out legally what the status of the space is, what the parameters are that the protesters can work within, and how best to sustain this unprecedented act of First Amendment expression. We've got a lot in our holster right now."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg acknowledged that no one knows how the occupation of the park -- now entering its seventh week -- will end, though he said the status quo would continue "at the moment" as long as protesters did not break the law.
"What will happen down the road?" he said during his weekly radio show, without offering any predictions.
The answer to that question could very well lie inside a Manhattan courtroom, with a confusing backdrop of zoning regulations, First Amendment law and rules governing privately controlled public spaces.
'LOOKS LIKE THE CITY HAS BACKED OFF'
Unlike city parks, which have curfews, Zuccotti Park is open 24 hours a day. That condition was imposed in a deal with the city that allowed the developers to exceed certain zoning restrictions on a nearby office building.
Bloomberg and the city have taken the position that the park property's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, would have to make a complaint before police could consider evicting the protesters. Since Brookfield abandoned plans to clean the park and force protesters to leave two weeks ago, the company has remained silent.
"When it comes to the rules of conduct in the park, the city is taking the position that it's Brookfield's call," said Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which has urged city officials to respect Occupy's right to demonstrate. "It looks like the city has backed off and Brookfield has backed off."
Brookfield instituted new rules regarding the park's use soon after the protests began, including a ban on tents. But those regulations have not been enforced, with demonstrators erecting tents as the weather worsens, and Brookfield appears reluctant to ask the city to step in.
A Brookfield spokeswoman did not return a call for comment Friday.
Cohen, meanwhile, said he does not believe the new rules are legitimate, both because of their intent and because they have not been properly promulgated.
If the park's rules were governed by the city's planning department as a public space, there would be notice requirements and public hearings, he said. If Brookfield has the unilateral authority to impose new restrictions, on the other hand, Occupy could argue that the rules are intended as an attack on free speech.
NO PRIOR RESTRICTION ON PUBLIC ACTIVITY
Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell University, said he believes that park rules against tents and other measures might withstand a First Amendment challenge.
"Occupy Wall Street can make a plausible argument that because these rules were just made up now, they aren't content-neutral," he said. "But most observers probably would say the owners are not actively hostile to the message -- they just don't want people to camp in their park. And if that's what they're objecting to, they're allowed to object to that."
Dunn, however, said the plaza's history as a public space with few regulations would strengthen the argument that the protesters should be allowed to stay.
"There's never been any restriction on public activity there," he said. "I don't even know if they have what you could describe as rules."
The city itself could also petition to have the zoning rules changed for all parks similar to Zuccotti -- that is, privately owned public spaces -- to include a curfew, just as city-owned parks have. That process would be governed by the city's uniform land-use review process and would require public hearings and reviews by the planning commission and possibly the City Council over a period of weeks, if not months.
In recent days, some cities have grown more aggressive in their efforts to prevent long-term encampments. In Oakland on Tuesday, police used tear gas and stun grenades in a violent skirmish with demonstrators who refused to leave a city plaza. Atlanta evicted dozens of protesters from a downtown park on Wednesday, while Baltimore and Providence demonstrators also face possible eviction.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; additional reporting by Erin Geiger Smith and Joan Gralla)
quote:1994, Smoking-Gun Document Ties Policy To Housing Crisis Under Clinton Regime
news.investors.com — Under President Clinton's direction, 10 federal financial regulatory agencies in 1994 demanded that lenders ease credit for low-income minorities. That spurred banks to lower underwriting standards and triggered the subprime mortgage boom, culminating in the housing and credit crisis in 2008. 9 hr 28 min ago
Ben ik niet geheel met je eens. Ik denk niet dat hij ´n spreekbuis van de Nazi´s was, lijkt mij eerder n keuze uit twee kwaden. Hij prefereerde op dat moment Hitler boven Stalin.quote:Op zaterdag 29 oktober 2011 22:33 schreef Scribent het volgende:
[..]
Dat is wel een ongelukkig voorbeeld... Het is gewoon de gebruikelijke nazi-propaganda ('joodse kapitalisten storten de wereld in een oorlog'). En los van de gebruikelijke clichés over joods Wallstreet etc: natuurlijk wilden de Britten en joden destijds dat de VS aan de oorlog mee gingen doen, maar wel om een fundamenteel andere reden dan die achter de huidige oorlogen-zonder-einde (waaronder die tegen drugs) schuilgaat.
En natuurlijk was er ook toen al een machtig militair-industrieel complex in de VS dat graag een oorlog wilde, maar daarvoor hoef je Lindbergh niet aan te halen. Ben verder niet zo bekend met hem, maar ik vraag me bv af of hij dit soort speeches ook hield als het ging om oorlogen tegen communisten (Korea, Vietnam).
Het anti-communisme van lieden als Lindbergh was nu juist de reden dat de VS na WWII feitelijk niet ontwapende, maar de boel met het oog op de nieuwe vijand lekker liet zoals die was en waar nodig intensiveerde. Exit de socialistische tegenkrachten die er in de eerste helft van de 20e eeuw in de VS nog waren.
quote:"This Act establishes the most gigantic trust on Earth. When the President signs this bill, the invisible government by the Monetary Power will be legalized, the people may not know it immediately but the day of reckoning is only a few years removed.... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking bill."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_August_Lindbergh
http://www.ots.treas.gov/_files/25022.pdfquote:
quote:Lenders must continue to ensure that there lending practices are consistent with safe and sound operating policies.
quote:Noam Chomsky Speaks to Occupy
Noam Chomsky Speaks to Occupy: If We Want a Chance at a Decent Future, the Movement Here and Around the World Must Grow
In a speech to Occupy Boston, the linguist and icon hailed the "unprecedented" first weeks of OWS. He cautioned protesters to build and educate first, strike later.
quote:Arrestaties na bezetting haven Oakland
Betogers en politie zijn vannacht slaags geraakt in de stad Oakland in de Amerikaanse staat Californië. De politie hield tussen de 30 en 40 mensen aan. Een betoger raakte gewond.
Dat heeft de krant Oakland Tribune vandaag gemeld op gezag van de autoriteiten. Circa 5000 betogers van de Occupy-beweging bezetten woensdagavond (lokale tijd) de haven van Oakland, een van de drukste containerhavens van de Verenigde Staten. De activiteiten in de haven kwamen stil te liggen.
Diverse wegen van en naar het havengebied werden geblokkeerd. De actie begon vreedzaam maar liep uit op een confrontatie tussen gemaskerde actievoerders en de politie. Ordetroepen gebruikten traangas tegen de betogers.
Oakland was woensdag ook al de hele dag het toneel geweest van protesten tegen uitwassen van het kapitalisme.
quote:In front of the stock exchange several mounted police blocked the route. We heard one of the policeman say: "why are they (the vets) allowed to protest down here and no one else is?"
quote:people-v-goldman-sachs trial and march
On November 3rd, the People, the 99 percent, will hold A People’s Hearing of Goldman Sachs in Liberty Square Park and march on Goldman Sachs! The people will bring to justice perhaps the single most egregious perpetrator of economic fraud and corruption in the United States. The Hearing will include testimonials from individuals directly affected by Goldman’s fraudulent manipulation of financial markets, including victims of housing foreclosures, pension losses, public lay-offs and untenable student debt.
quote:Protesters arrested outside Goldman Sacks
Over a dozen Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested today outside Goldman Sachs, where they had marched with 300 others after holding a mock trial of CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
Earlier, in Zuccotti Park, "prosecutors" conducting the mock trial demanded "the return of billions of taxpayer dollars to the 99 percent and criminal sentences for those Goldman Sachs executives who carried out the fraud." They then marched en masse to the firm's headquarters, led by four drummers and chanting "Goldman Sucks!", to deliver the verdict and demand Blankfein's imprisonment. On the way, they chanted Goldman Sucks. The Daily News reports that some construction workers sitting along Church Street gave them the thumbs up , while a businessman muttered, What a bunch of idiots."
quote:More americans supporting occupy wall street.
The survey, taken Oct. 28-31, shows more adult Americans saying they have heard of Occupy Wall Street than when the question was asked in early October. Sixty-four percent of respondents now say they've heard of the movement, compared to only 51% in the earlier poll.
The new poll also shows more Americans supporting the movement. Thirty-six percent say they agree with the overall positions of Occupy Wall Street, while 19% say they disagree.
quote:The Wisconsin News Photographers Association issued a statement defending Wentz-Graff, stating the association "finds today's arrest of Kristyna Wentz-Graff entirely unacceptable. This is the second time this year that Milwaukee Police officers have arrested a photographer legally going about their job. It is time for the Milwaukee Police to recognize that photography is not a crime. Journalists provide a public service, but in Milwaukee they are being treated like a public threat."
quote:On Sunday, October 23, a meeting was held at 60 Wall Street. Six leaders discussed what to do with the half-million dollars that had been donated to their organization, since, in their estimation, the organization was incapable of making sound financial decisions. The proposed solution was not to spend the money educating their co-workers or stimulating more active participation by improving the organization’s structures and tactics. Instead, those present discussed how they could commandeer the $500,000 for their new, more exclusive organization. No, this was not the meeting of any traditional influence on Wall Street. These were six of the leaders of Occupy Wall Street (OWS).
quote:Rupert Murdoch's tabloid runs three covers in a row attacking the movement
quote:Occupy Mumbai
Mumbai joined the worldwide 'Occupy' movement where thousands are protesting in streets against greed in financial services that ruined many economies. But the protests in Dalal Street ended rather quickly with the police bundling out protesters including Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi.
Although India did not suffer as much as the West due to the 2008 credit crisis, there is lobbying to ease many controls which, if done, could lead to a similar situation. The RBI resists mindless speculation in financial instruments.
The AIBEA had called for the movement, alleging, "The government's economic policies are for the super- rich corporates and against the interest of aam aadmi. We call upon the bank employees and the masses to join in the big movement of fighting the policies of the government and RBI by coming together through the Occupy Dalal Street movement."
'Occupy Wall Street' has gripped the imagination in 82 countries and 1,500 cities worldwide as the excesses by the financial services industry had left millions jobless as economies come to grips with trillions of dollars in losses. The industry is resisting new laws that would make them behave and prevent future privatising of profits and socialisation of losses.
quote:Occupy Rio
Zo’n tweehonderd jongeren protesteren permanent op het Cinelândiaplein, een van de belangrijkste pleinen van Rio de Janeiro, tegen consumentisme, sociale ongelijkheid en het financiële systeem. Ze hebben 125 tenten opgezet tussen het gemeentehuis, het theater en de nationale bibliotheek.
De beweging, geïnspireerd op Occupy Wall Street, heeft sinds 22 oktober ook voet aan de grond gekregen in Brazilië. Net als in de andere steden is ook in Rio de groep activisten uiterst divers. Zonder hiërarchie proberen ze overeenstemming te bereiken over allerlei politieke, culturele en economische thema’s.
quote:Protesters disrupt Chicago speech by Gov. Scott Walker
Sixty protesters crashed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers speech at the Union League Club Thursday to offer an alternate picture of how well his controversial budget cuts and union restrictions are working in the Dairy State.
Nearly every week Ive got a new opening up in Kenosha County, in Pleasant Prairie Industrial Park and places like that, Walker told the business owners and civic leaders. Any of you looking to grow and expand your business and get to a safer state, come on up.
But while Walker said his strict tonic of cuts has helped catapult Wisconsin from No. 41 to No. 24 on national rankings of business-friendly states, the Stand Up, Chicago! protesters said Walkers policies are harming Wisconsin residents.
Walker has wreaked havoc on the lives of working families, the protesters shouted in unison about five minutes into Walkers speech. Its ironic that we give Gov. Walker free rein to say what he wants while the mayor has ordered the arrest of over 300 people in Occupy Chicago, who have simply tried to express the rights of freedom and assembly.
The protesters took up about six tables and shouted loud, in unison, frustrating efforts of moderator Chris Robling to quiet them, though he did get attendees to applaud loud enough to drown them out for a minute.
They finally filed out chanting, Union busting its disgusting and We are the 99 percent.
Robling said, Ladies and gentlemen, this is what free expression is all about and sometimes its pretty messy. Fanning through questions submitted by members of the audience, Robling quipped, Alright, Im going to take out a few of the questions from those tables.
The protesters had to pay $20 for each of their reservations, so the club made $1,200 off them.
The remaining guests gave Walker a standing ovation and he resumed his speech.
When union members from around the Midwest descended on Madison to protest Walkers crackdown on unions, Walker called them out-of-towners.
If I needed to make the case earlier this year that a lot of the people in the state capital were not really from Wisconsin point made, Walker said to applause. Walker said he would welcome some of the protesters back to Wisconsin as tourists as they join their union brethren in the recall effort to try to oust Walker from office a fight he thinks hell win.
During the expected recall effort, Walker said he would contrast with what he called Wisconsins strong economy as a result of cutting spending with Illinois cash-strapped economy where tax hikes dwarfed spending cuts.
With all due respect to people of Illinois, Im going to use Illinois as a good example [of bad economics], Walker said.
I found it amusing to be referenced in the same vein as Rahm Emanuel, the mayor, but, really, some of the reforms hes trying to do here echo the things we try to do in the state of Wisconsin and I give him credit for that despite the fact Im a Republican and hes a Democrat, Walker said. He understands you cant look this in the face and not make major changes.
quote:Occupy Oakland: second Iraq war veteran injured after police clashes
Kayvan Sabehgi in intensive care with a lacerated spleen after protests in Oakland, a week after Scott Olsen was hurt. He says police beat him with batons
A second Iraq war veteran has suffered serious injuries after clashes between police and Occupy movement protesters in Oakland.
Kayvan Sabehgi, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is in intensive care with a lacerated spleen. He says he was beaten by police close to the Occupy Oakland camp, but despite suffering agonising pain, did not reach hospital until 18 hours later.
Sabehgi, 32, is the second Iraq war veteran to be hospitalised following involvement in Oakland protests. Another protester, Scott Olsen, suffered a fractured skull on 25 October.
On Wednesday night, police used teargas and non-lethal projectiles to drive back protesters following an attempt by the Occupy supporters to shut down the city of Oakland.
Sabehgi told the Guardian from hospital he was walking alone along 14th Street in central Oakland – away from the main area of clashes – when he was injured.
"There was a group of police in front of me," he told the Guardian from his hospital bed. "They told me to move, but I was like: 'Move to where?' There was nowhere to move.
"Then they lined up in front of me. I was talking to one of them, saying 'Why are you doing this?' when one moved forward and hit me in my arm and legs and back with his baton. Then three or four cops tackled me and arrested me."
Sabeghi, who left the army in 2007 and now part-owns a small bar-restaurant in El Cerrito, about 10 miles north of Oakland, said he was handcuffed and placed in a police van for three hours before being taken to jail. By the time he got there he was in "unbelievable pain".
He said: "My stomach was really hurting, and it got worse to the point where I couldn't stand up.
"I was on my hands and knees and crawled over the cell door to call for help."
A nurse was called and recommended Sabehgi take a suppository, but he said he "didn't want to take it".
He was allowed to "crawl" to another cell to use the toilet, but said it was clogged.
"I was vomiting and had diarrhoea," Sabehgi said. "I just lay there in pain for hours."
Sabehgi's bail was posted in the mid-afternoon, but he said he was unable to leave his cell because of the pain. The cell door was closed, and he remained on the floor until 6pm, when an ambulance was called.
He was taken to Highland hospital – the same hospital where Olsen was originally taken after being hit in the head by a projectile apparently fired by police.
Sabehgi was due to undergo surgery on Friday afternoon to repair his spleen, which would involve using a clot or patch to prevent internal bleeding.
Thousands of protesters had attended the action in Oakland on Wednesday, taking over the downtown area of the city and blockading Oakland's port.
As demonstrations continued near the camp base at Frank H Ogawa plaza during the evening, a group of protesters occupied a disused building on 16th Street at around 10.30pm, with some climbing up onto the roof.
There had been little police presence during the day, but more than 200 officers arrived after 11pm. Some protesters had set fire to a hastily assembled barrier at the corner of 16th Street and Telegraph, in a bid to prevent access to the occupied building, but police drove demonstrators away from 16th Street using tear gas, flashbang grenades, and non-lethal rounds.
Sabehgi said he had not been in the occupied building, and was walking away from the main area of trouble when he was injured.
He said he had his arms folded and was "totally peaceful" before being arrested.
A spokeswoman for Highland hospital confirmed Sabehgi had been admitted. Oakland police were not immediately available for comment.
quote:Move Your Money
In a national effort to make the so-called one per cent listen, hundreds of thousands of people have withdrawn money from leading banks in the United States. National Bank Transfer Day may be a grassroots movement but its definitely making a move.
The idea behind the movement is simple: close accounts with the big guns and move your money to smaller players like credit unions. And its catching on as statistics show that since September 2011, over 650,000 people have made the swap, tired of hidden charges, poor customer service and overall corporate greed. Many say that despite the large number of people switching to credit unions, the impact of Move Your Money will not be felt by giants such as Chase, which holds nearly 30 million accounts nationwide.
quote:Koch brothers: secretive billionaires to launch vast database with 2012 in mind
David and Charles Koch, oil tycoons with strong right-wing views and connections, look set to tighten their grip on US politics
The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.
The database will give concrete form to the vast network of alliances that David and Charles Koch have cultivated over the past 20 years on the right of US politics. The brothers, whose personal wealth has been put at $25bn each, were a major force behind the creation of the tea party movement and enjoy close ties to leading conservative politicians, financiers, business people, media figures and US supreme court judges.
The voter file was set up by the Kochs 18 months ago with $2.5m of their seed money, and is being developed by a hand-picked team of the brothers' advisers. It has been given the name Themis, after the Greek goddess who imposes divine order on human affairs.
In classic Koch style, the project is being conducted in great secrecy. Karl Crow, a Washington-based lawyer and Koch adviser who is leading the development, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did media representatives for Koch Industries, the brothers' global energy company based in Wichita, Kansas.
But a member of a Koch affiliate organisation who is a specialist in the political uses of new technology and who is familiar with Themis said the project was in the final preparatory stages. Asking not to be named, he said: "They are doing a lot of analysis and testing. Finally they're getting Themis off the ground."
The database will bring together information from a plethora of right-wing groups, tea party organisations and conservative-leaning thinktanks. Each one has valuable data on their membership – including personal email addresses and phone numbers, as well as more general information useful to political campaign strategists such as occupation, income bracket and so on.
By pooling the information, the hope is to create a data resource that is far more potent than the sum of its parts. Themis will in effect become an electoral roll of right-wing America, allowing the Koch brothers to further enhance their power base in a way that is sympathetic to, but wholly independent of, the Republican party.
"This will take time to fully realise, but it has the potential to become a very powerful tool in 2012 and beyond," said the new technology specialist.
Themis has been modelled in part on the scheme created by the left after the defeat of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. Catalyst, a voter list that shared data on supporters of progressive groups and campaigns, was an important part of the process that saw the Democratic party pick itself off the floor and refocus its electoral energies, helping to propel Barack Obama to the White House in 2008.
Josh Hendler, who until earlier this year was the Democratic National Committee's director of technology in charge of the party's voter files, believes Themis could do for the Kochs what Catalyst helped do for the Democrats.
"This increases the Koch brothers' reach. It will allow them to become even greater co-ordinators than they are already – with this resource they become a natural centre of gravity for conservatives," Hendler said.
Though Charles, 75, and his younger brother David, 71, are very rarely seen or heard in public, their political importance in the US is hard to exaggerate. They have been steadily investing their wealth in projects designed to drive the country ever more to the right – they have backed the tea parties, funded incubators of radical conservative ideology such as the Mercatus Center at the George Mason University and hosted twice-yearly gatherings of some of the richest and most powerful figures in the country.
"What makes them unique is that they are not just campaign contributors; they are a vast political network in their own right," said Mary Boyle of the watchdog group, Common Cause.
They are estimated so far to have given more than $100m to right-wing causes. Kert Davies of Greenpeace estimates that the sum includes $55m since 1997 funding climate change deniers.
Many of the causes backed by the brothers clearly chime with their own self-interests. To encourage the denial of global warming science is obviously advantageous to businessmen who have made their fortunes in drilling and piping of oil; low taxation suits billionaires wanting to cut their own tax contributions; a bonfire of state regulations over business and the environment would be beneficial to a multinational corporation like Koch Industries, which is the second largest private company in the US.
But the two men are also anti-government ideologues who believe in what they preach, an inheritance from their fiercely anti-communist father Fred, who was a founder of the radical right-wing John Birch Society. David Koch stood as vice-presidential candidate for the Libertarian party in 1980 on a platform of doing away with a host of public bodies including the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI, the CIA, social security, welfare, taxation and public schools.
Though the Kochs have already stamped their influence on the American right, their impact to date looks like small beer compared with their ambitious plans for 2012. According to Kenneth Vogel of Politico, the brothers intend to use their leverage among billionaire conservatives to pump more than $200m into the proceedings, focusing in particular on the presidential race.
Their potential to sway the electorate through the sheer scale of their spending has been greatly enhanced by Citizens United, last year's controversial ruling by the US supreme court that opened the floodgates to corporate donations in political campaigns. The ruling allows companies to throw unlimited sums to back their chosen candidates, without having to disclose their spending.
That makes 2012 the first Citizens United presidential election, and in turn offers rich pickings to the Koch brothers. They have already made clear their intentions. At their most recent billionaires' gathering in Vail, Colorado in June, Charles Koch described next year's presidential contest as "the mother of all wars". A tape of his private speech obtained by Mother Jones said the fight for the White House would be a battle "for the life or death of this country".
Exhorting the 300 guests in attendance to open their sizeable wallets and donate to the Koch election coffers, he went on: "It isn't just your money we need. We need you bringing in new partners, new people. We can't do it alone. We have to multiply ourselves."
Which is where Themis comes in. Karl Crow, the spearhead of the new database, was one of the speakers at the June 2010 Koch gathering in Aspen, Colorado, where he described his mission under the heading "Mobilising Citizens".
"Is there a chance to elect leaders who are more strongly committed to liberty and prosperity," he said, adding that he wanted to put forward a "strategic plan to educate voters on the importance of economic freedom".
At the same gathering, the kernel of the idea for Themis was unveiled as a "micro-targeting" initiative that would allow a more thorough understanding of the electorate. "How can we take advantage of this advanced technology?" the agenda asked.
By dint of the secrecy surrounding the project, it is not known which bodies have signed up for the database. But it is a reasonable guess that groups that are highly influential within the tea party movement such as Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks, as well as right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, will be among the participants. Between them, they have tentacles that extend to millions of voters.
Lee Fang, a blogger at the Center for American Progress, thinks the combination of the Kochs' capital and their new voter files could have an immense impact in 2012. "This will be the first major election where most of the data and the organising will be done outside the party nexus. The Kochs have the potential to outspend and out-perform the Republican party and even the successful Republican candidate."
quote:Cops Step Up Efforts Against Occupy Wall Street, Intimidate CP Reporter, Others For Videotaping
Already working to deal with certain security issues, the Occupy Wall Street camp is now grappling with another problem—police crackdowns.
Late last week, activists saw a whirlwind of police activity against the protests in New York City, including a handful of arrests and several instances of police interfering with video recordings.
On Thursday afternoon, undercover police officers confiscated a gas generator owned by the Occupy Wall Street movement from one of the park’s nearby street vendors. Activists had worked out a deal with the sympathetic vendor; the Occupy camp would supply gas, and the vendor got to use the generator so long as he let occupiers run power cords to essential areas of the site, like the medical and media stations.
Plainclothes officers seized the generator, which protesters claim was an illegal seizure of personal property; the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which has worked to represent the rights of some occupiers, has asked police to return other generators seized the previous week, saying the officers gave no legal justification for the confiscation. The vendor was issued two tickets for “failure to provide a permit for the storage of gasoline and failure to have a permit to change out propane tanks.”
Legal issues aside, the officers involved in the confiscation clearly had issues with being filmed, as captured in the unedited video I took below. Highlights include an officer giving a likely-false badge number and threatening one videographer with arrest if he touches a door, a pair of officers aggressively chasing me and others down the block for filming and chanting, and another officer grabbing the wrist of a videographer while he tries to back away
quote:THE CALL FOR DEMOCRACY 2.0
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the past, information, decisions and opinions could not be transmitted within seconds accross a country, much less the entire world. As a consequence, citizens elected regional representatives to serve as the voice of the people in parliament.
Such a representative system, reflecting the economies and the societal structures of a world long gone, is still in place today, but no longer serving the fundamental idea and ideal of democracy as a system for the people and by the people.
Instead, the elected representatives have become compromised by lobby interest, corrupted by corporations, have lost touch with those they are supposed to represent, serving only those who want people to serve them, be it as employees, voters or soldiers sent off to wars to kill or die for profit.
We have reached a time of change as too much power is concentrated in the hands of the few, becoming a "representation" in name only.
Such is the corruption that these representatives have now repeatedly turned against those they are supposed to represent, that they are fearing the tools, the technology that would allow a more direct participation of those that they are supposed to govern: the internet.
The internet allows us all to work together in a new form of democracy, a true 21st century version it that is still true to its ideas and ideals, giving everyone a chance to have their voices heard, to participate in the shaping of ideas and laws on regional, national or even global levels.
There is no excuse for denying this chance to us, the people.
There is no excuse for not allowing us, the citizens, to be educated, to formulate informed opinions, to vote on those issues that directly affect us, not only in our daily lives but also decide the future of our children and of the very world itself.
Decisions like these can no longer allowed to be made by those who don't listen to us, who only listen to those who promise them money or power or both, who offer them consulting contracts, places on corporate boards, who have sold the voices of the people to Big Oil, to Big Pharma, to anyone "Big" enough to pay them enough to make them believe that corporations are people, and people are consumers.
These few, they fear us, the citizens. Those few, they fear our thoughts, our thoughts and opinions, as the example of the proposed referendum in Greece on the Euro has shown, aborted under pressure of not only an unelected body like the EU but also bowing to the pressure of the so-called markets, behaving more irrationally than any informed citizenship would ever be able to do
There is no reason to fear us. We are your brothers, we are your sisters, we are your fathers and mothers, your daughters and sons. We are your neighbors. And we are all in this together. That is what is at the heart of democracy. Us.
And for the first time in the history of mankind, technology has given us the tools, the chance and opportunity to live up to those ideals that were formulated ages ago, by men and women smart enough and kind enough and trusting enough to see that we are the same, by men and women who believed that this is what it's all about.
The opportunity to not only have your voice heard, but listened to.
The opportunity to educate and in turn be educated.
From the first book printed, those in power have fought the flow of free information, out of of fear, scared of no longer being able to control those they governed. In every age, the people who have fought for this freedom have been called terrorists, have been called criminals, have been oppressed.
Do not fear us.
Do not fear information.
Do not fear the necessary change.
This is our time. This is your time. This is your future.
It is the time that democracy can finally live up to the promise given to mankind all those centuries ago. A free exchange of ideas. An educated citizenship.
To those who fear the redesign of democracy. Have the past months not proven that today's system is at the point of collapse? That parliaments like those of the United States and even Germany have abandoned even the illusion of representation by appointing secret committees, deciding on budgets, budget cuts, on your life, without even being held responsible to those who are supposed to hold this power by the virtues of our constitutions?
Has it not proven that the laws that were written, the laws that were repealed, that were neutered, blocked and scrapped not only served the interested of big corporations beholden to no ideal, but were in fact written by them and voted upon by Members of Parliament who not only didn't know what they were voting on, but also didn't seem to care about the obvious incompetence?
In the United States, only 8% trust Congress anymore to represent them. In Germany, it is 9%. Similar numbers are to be found in every country that is supposedly a democracy. We have been sold out, have been silenced, have been pushed aside.
We didn't stop believing in the system.
The system stopped believing in us.
We believe there are more competent people out there. We believe that they have not been given a voice, have been silenced by a system where money talks and ideas are silenced.
These people are not only out there.
These people are you and me.
And it us who can change this world. Bit by bit.
Discussion by disccusion. Debate by debate. Decision by decision.
We know you are disillusioned. We know you are afraid. We know you are angry.
But most of all, we know this... We know you care.
We think we not only can, we need to change the way democracy works, not only for a better today, but a better tomorrow. A man, a politician, once said to us to "hope" and "change", and we hoped that he would be the change.
But he wasn't. We are this hope. We are this change.
The "Occupy" Movements around the world, they are the first voice. It is loud. It is unshaped. But it is a beginning. It voices your anger. It voices your disillusion. And it has been critized for not offering a plan, a Powerpoint presentation, a memo... by the very people who have had years and decades to come up with solutions and failed time and again.
We cannot wait on those who stand against us anymore.
We cannot wait for them to represent us anymore.
We believe in democracy. They do not.
We believe in the intelligence of our citizens. They do not.
We believe in the ideals of our constitutions. They do not.
And to change this world, to fight for a better tommorrow, we must take back our democracies from them. Technology has given us not only the tools, but also the ideas on how to tap unused potentials. Ideas that can start as a single thought and transported to millions of people at the touch of a button through technologies like BitTorrent, thoughts that can spread through 140 characters or less on Twitter, plans that can be worked on in open and fair exchanges on Public Pads.
The ideas are out there. The ideals are out there.
Because you are out there. And waiting to be listened to.
We are calling on all of you.
The dreamers. The realists. The experts. The people.
Because that is how democracy starts
With just a single sentence. A single thought.
"We, the people..."
It was important enough to begin every call for democracy since the American Revolution.
We are all in this together.
Let's start the debate.
Let us create a democracy that is transparent, that is again for the people and this time by the people, representing the best of us and no longer represented by the worst of us.
Let us build a democracy that deserves this name. That evolves. That is ours to shape and guided by the principles that our leaders have forgotten but that we still carry in our hearts.
Let us build Democracy 2.0.
De 21e eeuw wordt een mooiequote:
quote:How the rich rig the system
From low capital gains taxes to stock buy-backs, here are the ways the elites ensure the markets benefit them
A growing number of Americans suspect that the American economic system is rigged in favor of the rich and merely affluent. That growing number of Americans is right.
Here are three of the many ways that markets for compensation are rigged to benefit not only the top 1 percent but also the top 10 percent, a group that includes many well-paid professionals:
quote:Riot police break up "Occupy Cal" protest
(CBS/AP)
BERKELEY, Calif. - Police in riot gear moved Wednesday night to break up a demonstration at the University of California at Berkeley that started when anti-Wall Street protesters tried to establish an encampment on campus.
Television news footage from outside the university's main administration building at 10 p.m. showed officers pulling people off the steps and nudging others with batons as the crowd chanted, "We are the 99 percent!" and "Stop Beating Students!"
The university reported earlier in the evening that an administrator had told the protesters they could stay around the clock for a week, but only if they didn't pitch tents, use stoves or other items that would suggest people were sleeping there.
The protesters voted not to comply with the demand and to go ahead with setting up a tent site they dubbed "Occupy Cal" to protest financial policies they blame for causing deep cuts in higher education spending.
Occupy protesters start march from NYC to DC
Squeezing profit out of Occupy Wall Street
VIDEO: Politics of "Occupy Wall Street"
As the evening wore on, the crowd appeared to be swelling as protesters debated whether to stay overnight. The student newspaper The Daily Californian reported that some people from the Occupy Oakland protest were joining the Berkeley demonstrators.
Earlier Wednesday, campus police assisted by Alameda County sheriff's deputies dismantled a small encampment students had set up near Sproul Hall despite official warnings that such encampments would not be allowed.
The move to create a campus off-shoot of the Occupy Wall Street camps around the country came after hundreds of students, teachers and Berkeley residents rallied on campus before marching peacefully to a Bank of America branch.
quote:Tuberculosis Breaks Out At Occupy Atlanta’s Base
ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) – The home base for Occupy Atlanta has tested positive for tuberculosis.
The Fulton County Health Department confirmed Wednesday that residents at the homeless shelter where protesters have been occupying have contracted the drug-resistant disease. WGCL reports that a health department spokeswoman said there is a possibility that both Occupy Atlanta protesters and the homeless people in the shelter may still be at risk since tuberculosis is contracted through air contact.
“Over the last three months were have been two persons who have resided in this facility who have been diagnosed with confirmed or suspected infectious tuberculosis (TB),” said Fulton County Services Director Matthew McKenna in a written statement to CBS Atlanta. “One of these persons was confirmed to have a strain of TB that is resistant to a single, standard medication used to treat this condition. All person(s) identified as positive have begun treatment and are being monitored to ensure that medication is taken as directed.”
The Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has indicated that two cases have been made public knowledge to the group, the first coming from someone who contracted the disease in September. The identities of the people who have contracted the disease, however, have not been disclosed by the health department to this point.
The news of the tuberculosis contractions could force Occupy Atlanta to move once again. WGCL reports that more than 100 protesters made the move to the homeless shelter Oct. 30 after Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed evicted Occupy Atlanta from Woodruff Park, citing that they were no longer allowed to camp out overnight. The homeless shelter is also facing an eviction of its own from the city.
Messages left by CBS Atlanta for Occupy Atlanta and the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless were not immediately returned.
quote:davec
Look at the LIES in the headline!
It did NOT break out in the Occupy movemment, it was a HOMELESS SHELTER.
What the hell i the media so scared of OWS for?
November 10, 2011 at 3:32 pm | Reply |
quote:The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen
Our common treasury in the last 30 years has been captured by industrial psychopaths. That's why we're nearly bankrupt
If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you weren't responsible. Many of those who are rich today got there because they were able to capture certain jobs. This capture owes less to talent and intelligence than to a combination of the ruthless exploitation of others and accidents of birth, as such jobs are taken disproportionately by people born in certain places and into certain classes.
The findings of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of a Nobel economics prize, are devastating to the beliefs that financial high-fliers entertain about themselves. He discovered that their apparent success is a cognitive illusion. For example, he studied the results achieved by 25 wealth advisers across eight years. He found that the consistency of their performance was zero. "The results resembled what you would expect from a dice-rolling contest, not a game of skill." Those who received the biggest bonuses had simply got lucky.
Such results have been widely replicated. They show that traders and fund managers throughout Wall Street receive their massive remuneration for doing no better than would a chimpanzee flipping a coin. When Kahneman tried to point this out, they blanked him. "The illusion of skill … is deeply ingrained in their culture."
So much for the financial sector and its super-educated analysts. As for other kinds of business, you tell me. Is your boss possessed of judgment, vision and management skills superior to those of anyone else in the firm, or did he or she get there through bluff, bullshit and bullying?
In a study published by the journal Psychology, Crime and Law, Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon tested 39 senior managers and chief executives from leading British businesses. They compared the results to the same tests on patients at Broadmoor special hospital, where people who have been convicted of serious crimes are incarcerated. On certain indicators of psychopathy, the bosses's scores either matched or exceeded those of the patients. In fact, on these criteria, they beat even the subset of patients who had been diagnosed with psychopathic personality disorders.
The psychopathic traits on which the bosses scored so highly, Board and Fritzon point out, closely resemble the characteristics that companies look for. Those who have these traits often possess great skill in flattering and manipulating powerful people. Egocentricity, a strong sense of entitlement, a readiness to exploit others and a lack of empathy and conscience are also unlikely to damage their prospects in many corporations.
In their book Snakes in Suits, Paul Babiak and Robert Hare point out that as the old corporate bureaucracies have been replaced by flexible, ever-changing structures, and as team players are deemed less valuable than competitive risk-takers, psychopathic traits are more likely to be selected and rewarded. Reading their work, it seems to me that if you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a poor family, you're likely to go to prison. If you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a rich family, you're likely to go to business school.
This is not to suggest that all executives are psychopaths. It is to suggest that the economy has been rewarding the wrong skills. As the bosses have shaken off the trade unions and captured both regulators and tax authorities, the distinction between the productive and rentier upper classes has broken down. Chief executives now behave like dukes, extracting from their financial estates sums out of all proportion to the work they do or the value they generate, sums that sometimes exhaust the businesses they parasitise. They are no more deserving of the share of wealth they've captured than oil sheikhs.
The rest of us are invited, by governments and by fawning interviews in the press, to subscribe to their myth of election: the belief that they are possessed of superhuman talents. The very rich are often described as wealth creators. But they have preyed on the earth's natural wealth and their workers' labour and creativity, impoverishing both people and planet. Now they have almost bankrupted us. The wealth creators of neoliberal mythology are some of the most effective wealth destroyers the world has ever seen.
What has happened over the past 30 years is the capture of the world's common treasury by a handful of people, assisted by neoliberal policies which were first imposed on rich nations by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. I am now going to bombard you with figures. I'm sorry about that, but these numbers need to be tattooed on our minds. Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.
In the UK, the money earned by the poorest tenth fell by 12% between 1999 and 2009, while the money made by the richest 10th rose by 37%. The Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, climbed in this country from 26 in 1979 to 40 in 2009.
In his book The Haves and the Have Nots, Branko Milanovic tries to discover who was the richest person who has ever lived. Beginning with the loaded Roman triumvir Marcus Crassus, he measures wealth according to the quantity of his compatriots' labour a rich man could buy. It appears that the richest man to have lived in the past 2,000 years is alive today. Carlos Slim could buy the labour of 440,000 average Mexicans. This makes him 14 times as rich as Crassus, nine times as rich as Carnegie and four times as rich as Rockefeller.
Until recently, we were mesmerised by the bosses' self-attribution. Their acolytes, in academia, the media, thinktanks and government, created an extensive infrastructure of junk economics and flattery to justify their seizure of other people's wealth. So immersed in this nonsense did we become that we seldom challenged its veracity.
This is now changing. On Sunday evening I witnessed a remarkable thing: a debate on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral between Stuart Fraser, chairman of the Corporation of the City of London, another official from the corporation, the turbulent priest Father William Taylor, John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network and the people of Occupy London. It had something of the flavour of the Putney debates of 1647. For the first time in decades – and all credit to the corporation officials for turning up – financial power was obliged to answer directly to the people.
It felt like history being made. The undeserving rich are now in the frame, and the rest of us want our money back.
A fully referenced version of this article can be found at www.monbiot.com/
quote:occupy movement inspires unions to embrace bold tactics
Union leaders, who were initially cautious in embracing the Occupy movement, have in recent weeks showered the protesters with help — tents, air mattresses, propane heaters and tons of food. The protesters, for their part, have joined in union marches and picket lines across the nation.
Labor unions, marveling at how the protesters have fired up the public on traditional labor issues like income inequality, are also starting to embrace some of the bold tactics and social media skills of the Occupy movement.
quote:Occupy Wall Street and Obama
In sum, conditions are ripe for the Occupy movement to grow and deepen into the kind of large, determined popular movement that strikes fear in the hearts of economic and political elites. If Occupy plays its cards right, it could bring about a profound, much-needed change in American society. And although Obama and his advisers might not realise it, the emergence of such a movement could also be the best thing that has happened to him as president.
[..]
Already, the political conversation has changed in the US. Although much of the media coverage of the Occupy movement has been simple-minded or even hostile, there has been a great deal of it, and the effect has been to amplify the movement's message and gain it followers. Now, budget cuts for workers and pensioners are no longer the sole focus of political debate; requiring corporations and the rich to pay their fair share of taxes is also on the agenda.
The Occupiers are adamant they will not be co-opted, by the president or anyone else. That is the right instinct. If this movement can remain an independent force, continue growing in numbers and diversity and keep the pressure on, it could cause both Republican and Democratic politicians to think twice about favouring the one per cent over the 99 per cent. And that could create the political space for Obama, like FDR before him, to champion policies that benefit the many over the few - which in turn might help save him from defeat in 2012.
Volgens mij zijn veel van hen (de meeste?) dat dan ook niet hoor..quote:Op vrijdag 11 november 2011 12:05 schreef Homey het volgende:
Ik snap niet dat die Occupiers nog zo fan zijn van Obama.
quote:UC cops' use of batons on Occupy camp questioned
A debate over the use of police force has reignited at the UC Berkeley campus after videos surfaced showing officers repeatedly shoving and jabbing screaming students who tried to keep officers from dismantling a nascent Occupy encampment.
quote:Occupy Wall Street is winning
Whatever the objectives of protesters involved in Occupy Wall Street, they have succeeded in engaging the country in a conversation about income inequality.
quote:Public Opinion Snapshot: Americans Favor Action on Inequality
Occupy Wall Street has put inequality back in the national conversation. Reflecting this change, pollsters have started to ask more questions about this issue. And they are finding—surprise!—the public doesn’t like current levels of inequality and wants action to correct the situation.
In the most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 76 percent agreed and 60 percent strongly agreed that “The current economic structure of the country is out of balance and favors a very small proportion of the rich over the rest of the country. America needs to reduce the power of major banks and corporations and demand greater accountability and transparency. The government should not provide financial aid to corporations and should not provide tax breaks to the rich.”
quote:Morningfile: Occupy eviction, occupy legal landscape, occupy politics and HRM Council
Halifax has survived a stormy weekend. On Remembrance Day, quiet reflection was replaced with a clash between police and protesters on the grounds of Occupy Nova Scotia. Police were enforcing an order from the Halifax mayor, to clear the tents out of Victoria Park.
But the Mayor’s decision may have actually helped the Occupy Nova Scotia morale.
Protesters are looking into legal challenges, and their numbers at rallies are swelling. Police are facing brutality accusations and increased hostility from some of the people forced out of Victoria Park.
The Mayor is stuck defending his perceived duplicity (Peter Kelly on Oct. 22: “As long as people are respectful and doing their democratic right, that’s fine. Just maintain the aesthetics of the property—it is public space. As long as you’re being respectful and abiding by the peace and not causing problems, you have the right to protest. But from time to time, as we have different events occurring, we’re just asking for a bit of cooperation as things transpire, that’s all.” Peter Kelly on Nov. 11: “At no time were they told that they could come back. If you review my commentary over the last number of days it has said that they’re not welcome back.”)
The Chronicle-Herald’s editorial board thinks all that is “hogwash,” and the protesters didn’t even deserve the extraordinary lee-way they had already enjoyed. Forty thousand dollars is already too much for free assembly to cost us. Enough is enough!
For people interested in the legal angle, I’d recommend these links:
quote:Thursday November 17th National Day of Action
On Thursday November 17th, the two month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, we call upon the 99% to participate in a national day of direct action and celebration!
BREAKFAST: Shut Down Wall Street - 7:00 a.m.
LUNCH: Occupy The Subways - 3:00 p.m.
DINNER: Take The Square - 5:00 p.m.
quote:Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s Legal Advisor Resigns In Support Of Occupy Oakland
In a raid this morning, the city of Oakland used riot gear-clad police to evict the Occupy Oakland tent city. “It feels pretty sad because we built a community here, and now they can just come and destroy it,” said Lisa Bitar, one of the protesters.
Outraged by the action taken against Occupy Oakland, Dan Siegel, who had been serving as mayor Jean Quan’s legal advisor, decided to resign today. On Twitter, he wrote that he was resigning to support Occupy Oakland and oppose the 1 percent:
quote:Occupy-kampement in Oakland ontruimd
De politie heeft vandaag in het Californische Oakland het kampement van betogers van de Occupy-beweging ontruimd. De afgelopen dagen was het herhaaldelijk tot ongeregeldheden gekomen in of rond het kamp. De politie verklaarde het verzamelpunt vanmorgen (plaatselijke tijd) voor schoongeveegd.
Vrijdag is bij een ruzie tussen demonstranten in Oakland een man doodgeschoten. Bij het kamp waren eerder al problemen, waardoor een oorlogsveteraan in het ziekenhuis opgenomen moest worden. De demonstranten bezetten ook enige tijd de drukke haven, waardoor die 24 uur stil kwam te liggen.
Betogers tegen de macht van het grote geld en het economische systeem verzamelen zich op tal van plaatsen in de VS, in Oakland sinds ruim een maand geleden. Ze noemen dat 'Occupy' (bezetting). Oakland is een van de belangrijkste havensteden aan de Amerikaanse westkust.
Hehe, nee. Het is geen Egypte, of Tunesië, of Libië, of Syrië, of Jemen. Dit soort 'scheuren' zitten in het Amerikaanse systeem ingebouwd. Daar zijn zowel burger als politici dolblij mee.quote:Op maandag 14 november 2011 19:02 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Meer scheuren in het regime:
[..]
Leugens, geweld, tijdrekken, pesten, ...quote:Op dinsdag 15 november 2011 10:06 schreef waht het volgende:
[..]
Hehe, nee. Het is geen Egypte, of Tunesië, of Libië, of Syrië, of Jemen. Dit soort 'scheuren' zitten in het Amerikaanse systeem ingebouwd. Daar zijn zowel burger als politici dolblij mee.
quote:http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)t-police-action-live
10.34am: Protesters have now reached Zuccotti Park. Our correspondent Paul Harris says there are about 200 of them, some brandishing copies of the court order they say allows them back into the plaza. There are chants of "let us in!".
quote:Demonstranten Occupy Wall Street mogen tentjes weer opzetten
De demonstranten van Occupy Wall Street mogen, mét hun tentjes, terugkeren naar het ontruimde Zuccoti Park in New York. Dat heeft de rechter bepaald, meldt persbureau AP.
Vanochtend vroeg ontruimden honderden politieagenten het park waar de beweging al sinds 17 september verblijft. Burgemeester Michael Bloomberg liet eerder weten dat de ontruiming ‘tijdelijk’ was en dat de demonstranten mochten terugkeren, maar dan wel zonder tentjes en slaapzakken. Volgens een groep advocaten die de demonstranten steunen heeft de rechter nu besloten dat de demonstranten wel hun tentjes mogen opzetten. Bloomberg heeft laten weten in beroep te gaan tegen de beslissing.
Het kamp werd ontruimd omdat het onhygiënisch en gevaarlijk zou zijn geworden. Bij de ontruiming werden zeventig actievoerders gearresteerd die niet wilden vertrekken.
quote:Brookfield Properties' letter to Michael Bloomberg
Read the letter from Brookfield CEO Ric Clark on the 'substantial adverse impact' the property firm believes the Occupy Wall Street camp is having on the local community
quote:Op dinsdag 15 november 2011 10:06 schreef waht het volgende:
[..]
Hehe, nee. Het is geen Egypte, of Tunesië, of Libië, of Syrië, of Jemen. Dit soort 'scheuren' zitten in het Amerikaanse systeem ingebouwd. Daar zijn zowel burger als politici dolblij mee.
twitter:AnonymousPress twitterde op dinsdag 15-11-2011 om 20:29:51LOL -> #ows protester: "the cops have occupied #Zuccotti Park, we're just trying to figure out what their demands are ..." v @juliacreinhart reageer retweet
quote:Zuccotti Park’s OWS cleared out while the media is blacked out
Zuccotti Park was cleared of Occupy Wall Street protesters overnight by the order of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
While there are plenty of livestream videos and reports on the scene now (see Melissa Bell’s liveblog here), that wasn’t the case a few hours ago. Continuous firsthand media accounts of the process during the park’s clear out were largely lacking. If you read carefully, you can see a 3 1/2 hour gap in the timeline from the AP’s report otherwise fully fleshed out report:
Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement clash with New York police after being removed from Zuccotti Park. (Lucas Jackson - Reuters)
“At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, New York City police 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.
Paul Browne, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, said the park had been cleared by 4:30 a.m. and that about 70 people who’d been inside it had been arrested, including a group who chained themselves together. One person was taken to a hospital for evaluation because of breathing problems.”
That gap is the result of a de facto media blackout conducted by the city government. There is no mention of the media policy in the early morning official release from the mayor’s office, but in response to questioning during his 8 a.m. press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said: “The NYPD routinely keeps some members of the press off to the side during police actions.”
He added that it was done to “provide protection” to the press.
Most reporter’s felt stifled, not protected. Media members started lighting up twitter last night with their observations on being forced out of the Zuccotti park area and their reactions to the blackout.
Mother Jones’s Josh Harkinson recounted being shoved out of the park by police. Reuters’ Anthony DeRosa reported that the CBS newsdesk was told to have its helicopter leave the airspace above the park. The Village Voice’s Rosie Gray related the following curt exchange as she was denied access to the park: “Me: ‘I’m press,’ Lady cop, ‘not tonight.’”
Two reporters were arrested. Matthew Lysiak tersely blogged on the New York Daily News Web site, “I’ve been arrested.” Julie Walker, a freelance reporter for NPR tweeted her arrest after she was released from custody.
View Photo Gallery: The movement, which started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange, has spread to cities around the world.
A Connecticut college junior, Ben Doernberg, rounded up a collection of reporter reactions on Twitter into a fairly comprehensive storify, embedded below.
Bloomberg’s actions overnight are the latest in a wave of actions taken by municipalities across the country to start scattering various “Occupy” encampments. But this appears to be the first one with such an orchestrated media strategy.
quote:2.58pm: The number of journalists arrested during today's events has risen to at least seven, by my count. Six were carrying NYPD accreditation, and one had UN accreditation.
quote:5.07pm: The full ruling is in. The judge says that, notwithstanding the First Amendment obligations to freedom of speech and assembly, "the owner has the right to adopt reasonable rules that permit it to maintain a clean, safe, publicly accessible space consonant with the responsibility it assumed to provide public access according to law." He goes on:
To the extent that City law prohibits the erection of structures, the use of gas or other combustible materials, and the accumulation of garbage and human waste in public places, enforcement of the law and theo wner's rules appears reasonable to permit the owner to maintain its space in a hygienic, safe, and lawful condition, and to prevent it from being liable by the City or others for violations of law,or in tort It also permits public access by those who live and work in the area. who are the intended beneficiaries of this zoning bonus.
The movants have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park, or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely.
Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the City's enforcement of laws so as to promote public health and safety.
Therefore, the petitioner's application for a temporary restraining order is denied.
quote:Update: 'Occupy' crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials
Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict "Occupy" protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night's move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.
The official, who spoke on background to me late Monday evening, said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement.
According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.
quote:84-year-old #OccupySeattle participant Dorli Rainey, pepper sprayed by #Seattle Police #Nov15
She later wrote about the incident: “Something funny happened on my way to a transportation meeting in Northgate. As I got off the bus at 3rd and Pine I heard helicopters above. Knowing that the problems of New York would certainly precipitate action by Occupy Seattle, I thought I better check it out. Especially since only yesterday the City Government made a grandiose gesture to protect free speech. Well free speech does have its limits as I found out as the cops shoved their bicycles into the crowd and simultaneously pepper sprayed the so captured protesters. If it had not been for my Hero (Iraq Vet Caleb) I would have been down on the ground and trampled. This is what democracy looks like. It certainly left an impression on the people who rode the No. 1 bus home with me. In the women’s movement there were signs which said: “Screw us and we multiply.’”
quote:Exclusive Video: Inside Police Lines at the Occupy Wall Street Eviction
By about 4 a.m. today, New York City police had pushed the media out of Zuccotti Park and were preparing to evict the few dozen protesters who remained. Yet there I was, standing in the park amid a gaggle of high-ranking officers, quietly watching the whole thing unfold.
"You gonna occupy awhile?" one officer cracked to another.
"Yeah," the other guy smiled.
quote:Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.
2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.
3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.
5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.
8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.
9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.
10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.
11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.
13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.
quote:Occupy protesters prepare for day of 'solidarity' across US
Series of events planned to support evicted Zuccotti Park activists by highlighting growing inequality and need for jobs
Supporters of the Occupy movement are gearing up for a national day of protest and direct action across America, taking in dozens of events from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles.
Thursday has been declared a day of "solidarity" with the Occupy Wall Street activists in New York after their camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park was raided and dismantled by police. But it is also aimed at highlighting several of the movement's broader aims in terms of income inequality and a desperate need for job creation in America's floundering economy.
The Occupy movement, which began two months ago with the occupation of Zuccotti Park, has since spread to scores of cities and towns across the country, with varying success. It has often rejuvenated left-leaning political activists but also brought down a heavy police response, frequently at the behest of city mayors.
In recent days, police evictions and crackdowns on protesters in New York, Seattle, Berkeley, Portland and other places have caused widespread condemnation of alleged heavy-handedness by police.
In New York, protesters are planning actions all day in each of the city's five boroughs. A potential early flashpoint will be a rally planned to begin at 7am that will target Wall Street itself, as the protesters seek to disrupt the operations of the New York Stock Exchange before the ringing of the opening bell that signals the start of trading at 9.30am.
Since the protests began, Wall Street has become a virtual permanent protest zone, ringed by steel fences and heavily policed. Later actions are planned to take place across the city's subway system, as marchers will enter at 16 different stations and begin protesting.
Finally, the day will end with a rally at Foley Square, near New York's Town Hall, and then a march to the Brooklyn Bridge, where hundreds of protesters were arrested in a previous headline-grabbing mass action.
Bridges will be the focus of some actions in other cities too. In Boston, Detroit, Washington DC, Portland and Seattle, protesters, some allied with union workers and community groups, will march on high-profile bridges in order to highlight the problem of America's crumbling and underfunded infrastructure.
"We don't want to make this about police and protesters," said Stephen Squibb, an organiser with Occupy Boston, whose group will target the city's North Washington Street bridge. "It is about jobs and other things. That has been our message for two months and we are going to keep saying it," he added.
The range of activities across America spans a spectrum from the dramatic to the small-scale, including teach-ins, rallies and direct actions aimed at banks and corporations. In Portland, Oregon, protesters plan to target a city bridge and then try to organise flashmobs to go to local banks. In Detroit, protesters are marching from their camp downtown to the city's municipal centre, where they aim to highlight the brutal impact of government cuts on ordinary citizens.
"Poor and middle-class people can't afford this. The rich are using austerity because they don't want to pay more in taxes," said Todd Brady, a Detroit organiser.
Elsewhere, protesters in Atlanta will hold events targeting two major corporations in the form of Home Depot and Verizon. In Las Vegas, protesters have vowed to set up an early morning encampment outside a federal building downtown and stay until police remove them. In Chicago, a major rally is planned with local union workers and community groups.
In Memphis, a "midnight march" is planned through the city centre. In Phoenix, local members of the movement are targeting the city's light rail network during the morning rush hour. They then plan to hold a flashmob that will protest at a secret target in the city's business district.
Occupy activists in Phoenix said that the action showed the movement was taking hold, even in conservative areas of the US. "There is a discontent that moves beyond party lines as more people get involved," said a local Phoenix organiser, Diane D'Angelo.
Occupy supporters across the country also believe that the recent crackdowns, especially in New York, have rejuvenated the movement despite the evictions and loss of equipment.
"It is just what the movement needed. It was like throwing rocks on a hornets' nest," Squibb said.
quote:Rijke Amerikanen vragen om hogere belastingen
Een groep van 138 miljonairs uit de Verenigde Staten wil meer belast worden op hun inkomen. De ‘Patriottische miljonairs voor Fiscale Kracht’ schrijven in een brief aan Barack Obama en het parlement dat een dergelijke maatregel slechts positieve gevolgen heeft.
De vorige president George W. Bush voerde belastingverlagingen in voor rijke Amerikanen. Obama wil dit wel terugdraaien, maar strandt op tegenstand van de Republikeinen.
“Doe wat wijs is en verhoog onze belastingen”, zo stellen de rijke Amerikanen, die hun krachten een jaar geleden bundelden in de actiegroep. De miljonairs richten zich nu tot een speciale parlementscommissie. Die moet binnen een week met een plan komen om de Amerikaanse schuld terug te dringen.
quote:Video: hardhandige arrestaties bij Occupy Wall Street-demonstratie
Twee dagen nadat de Occupy Wall Street-beweging het kampement in Zucotti Park in New York moest verlaten vond er vandaag opnieuw een protestmars plaats in het financiële district van de stad. De politie trad hard op tegen demonstranten die de straten blokkeerden.
Sommige politieagenten sloegen en arresteerden betogers die op straat zaten en weigerden te vertrekken. Zoals hieronder te zien valt:
Spannend!quote:9:14 AM: PROTESTERS CAN SEE THE NYSE. THEY ARE ON WALL ST.
quote:9:56 AM: We can confirm that the NYPD arrested one woman in a wheelchair.
The Guardian:quote:10:20 AM: The woman in the e-mail was not arrested because the NYPD couldn’t figure out HOW to arrest her. They ticketed her instead.
quote:
Police arrested a woman in a wheelchair at the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Photograph: Michael Moore
quote:Occupy Wall Street day of action – live coverage
12.17pm: The number of people arrested today is rising. The New York Daily News says it's 60, while the New York Times puts it at 75. Reporter Ryan Deveraux has been among those who thronged back into Zuccotti Park after the demonstrations near Wall Street.
As many as 1,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters returned to Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, flanked by scores of police on motor-scooters and on foot. When they reached the plaza, some demonstrators took drastic measures to enter.
Since the mass eviction earlier this week the NYPD ringed the park with metal barriers. Access has been carefully monitored by private security guards employed by the park's owners, Brookfield Properties, allowing people in one by one. When protesters returned to the park today a number of them began pushing against barricades, while police shoved back. Ultimately the demonstrators managed to wrest one metal barricade from the officers, opening a space for people to pass through.
There were scuffles between officers and protesters, before police moved back into the street. In the park, protesters celebrated with music and dancing. The plaza, which has near-empty over the last two days, is now filled with protesters preparing for further actions planned throughout the city.
quote:Activist Michael Kink managed to get inside the New York Stock Exchange this morning. It appears he was an invited guest on CNBC
twitter:mkink twitterde op donderdag 17-11-2011 om 16:18:55In a suit, I made it through security to the floor. Everyone in here talking about #OWS and #N17 http://t.co/MBl3WZIo #weird reageer retweet
We gaan zeker weer ontruimen, maar nu zonder smoesjes?twitter:AnonOpsUS twitterde op donderdag 17-11-2011 om 19:57:11BREAKING LIVE: #NYPD are now entering #Zuccotti Park en masse. Large Police vehicles arriving with sirens.. http://t.co/jP9Uma9E #OWS #N17 reageer retweet
quote:Bankers Evicted From Nation’s Economy
STATEMENT FROM THE MAYOR
At 1 o’clock this morning, on my orders, the New York City Police Department and Department of Sanitation removed the bankers from the U.S. economy.
The Constitution that created the economy requires that it be open to the public for the pursuit of their livelihood 24 hours a day. Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the economy has been taken over by bankers, making it unavailable to anyone else.
Inaction was not an option. The bankers had occupied the economy for well over a decade. It had become covered in collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, derivatives of derivatives, and other cumbersome financial instruments, making it next to impossible to navigate for the public–and for the regulators who are responsible for guaranteeing the public’s safety. The dangers posed were evident in an incident in 2008 in which bankers crashed the economy, doubled unemployment, reduced household wealth by trillions of dollars, threw millions of Americans out of their homes, widened the gap between rich and poor, and triggered the worst global downturn since the Great Depression. While this may have been an isolated incident, I became increasingly concerned that the occupation might come to pose a hazard. Make no mistake—the decision to act was mine.
No right is absolute and with every right comes responsibilities. The Constitution gives every American the right to pursue wealth, but it does not give anyone the right to take over the economy to the exclusion of others—nor does it permit anyone in our society to live outside the law.
During the operation this morning, the bankers were told that they could return to the economy after it had been thoroughly cleaned, which it has not been since the 1930s. They were informed, however, that they could not bring their exotic financial instruments with them. As for instruments removed today by the Sanitation Department, these are being held at the Manhattan District 7 Garage on West 56th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues and may be recovered on presentation of proof of ownership and a valid bank debit card.
Oh, occupy is een oud ideequote:
En nu worden ze tegen gehouden. Wel druk daar.quote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 00:01 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:
In New York is nu echt een redelijk grote manifestatie aan de gang. Zo'n 15 tot 20 duizend man die richting de Brooklyn Bridge trekken. Volgens mij willen ze de brug bezetten.
NYPD: "Please stay on the sidewalk, thank you for your cooperation."quote:6.36pm: Marchers have started to throng onto the pedestrian walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge now. Unlike in September, when some spilled over into the roadway, they are keeping to the pedestrian section. But the general chaos in the area means that no traffic is able to get onto the Brooklyn-bound section anyway, so it's going to be a long commute home for many people. The scenes are dramatic: many protesters are carrying candles (possibly battery-operated). It should be quite a picture.
dat heeft dus geen zak met Occupy te maken.. raar dat het wel zo gebracht wordt.quote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 01:51 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)ing-Californie.dhtml
quote:De man werd neergeschoten in de Haas School of Business, een kilometer van de plaats van de betoging op Sproul Plaza.
Criminaliserende propaganda van het onderdrukkende regime, tell me something new.quote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 01:55 schreef Nemephis het volgende:
[..]
dat heeft dus geen zak met Occupy te maken.. raar dat het wel zo gebracht wordt.
[..]
quote:http://www.guardiannews.c(...)t-day-of-action-live
7.06pm: Ryan Devereaux writes: A massive projection is being displayed on the Verizon building south of the Brooklyn Bridge. In a series of shots it reads, "We are the 99%, Look around, you are a part of a global uprising...We are unstoppable, another world is possible...We are a cry from the heart of the world...It is the beginning of the beginning." The projection then goes on to display the names of occupations around the country in rapid-fire succession with the final name reading, "Occupy Earth." With a chorus of honking cars in the background, the crowd erupts in cheers and reads the display in unison as they pass.
Ik mis Tim Pool ookquote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 02:36 schreef Nemephis het volgende:
De livestreams doen het niet meer. Men vraagt zich af of signalen geblokkeerd worden.
twitter:OperationLeakS twitterde op vrijdag 18-11-2011 om 02:53:47It's been Confirmed that Phone service is indeed out at Liberty Plaza. There's no Live Feed at the moment. #N17 #OWS #PoliceState reageer retweet
Het wachten is nu op het moment dat de betogers/bevolking de overhand krijgen op de politie. Net zoals toen in Caïro op die brug: dat was het keerpunt.quote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 09:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Pardon?![]()
Hevige rellen bij Occupy-protest Wall Street
Er zitten toch ook duizenden mensen op een kluitje in die beursgebouwen? En in die beursgebouwen gebeuren ook verkrachtingen en andere zaken die het daglicht niet mogen zien.quote:Op woensdag 19 oktober 2011 21:35 schreef arucard het volgende:
Ik bedoel, het is toch logisch dat er arrestaties plaatsvinden, als je duizenden mensen op een kluitje hebt voor 3 weken. De politie moet ze maar babysitten, ook voor de veiligheid van de andere demonstranten, maar o wee als ze eens een keer ingrijpen.
Raar hè. Op de live-streams (die het nog deden) was te zien dat er niks aan de hand was, wel demonstranten, maar alles vreedzaam. En dan dat nieuws, en het wordt ook klakkeloos overal overgenomen.quote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 09:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Pardon?![]()
Hevige rellen bij Occupy-protest Wall Street
True. Het is domheid uit egoisme. Dat is niet zo verwonderlijk, want volgens de markt ideologie is egoisme de bron van al het goede.quote:Op vrijdag 18 november 2011 11:21 schreef RetepV het volgende:
Anyway, de rijke bovenlaag in de VS is niet helemaal goed wijs, wat dat betreft. Die willen nog steeds rijker worden. Maar des te rijker die worden, des te armer de normale mens daar wordt. Ook in deze crisis heeft de gewone man daar weer het meeste te leiden en worden de rijken nog steeds rijker.
De VS produceert vrijwel niks op dit moment. Het enige dat wij op dit moment aan de VS hebben is eigenlijk dat het een afzetmarkt is voor ons. Een hele grote afzetmarkt. Maar als de 'gewone man' daar geen geld heeft, valt er voor ons niks te verkopen in Amerika. Die paar rijke mensen daar zijn niet genoeg om voor ons een interessante afzetmarkt te vormen. Dus gaan wij op een gegeven moment stoppen met het maken van goederen voor de Amerikaanse markt. De transportsector zal het zwaar krijgen, en het zal gewoon niet meer lonend zijn om met Amerika te handelen.
Dus des te kleiner en rijker de bovenlaag daar wordt, des te armer het land eigenlijk wordt, zelfs als de hoeveelheid geld gelijk blijft. De VS is zichzelf op dit moment geen dienst aan het bewijzen. Des te meer controle de rijke bovenlaag naar zich toetrekt, des te minder interessant het land wordt voor Europa, Japan en China.
Het artikel gaat verderquote:Bloomberg’s office admits to arresting journalists for covering OWS
Arrests in the Occupy movement nationally have surpassed 1,000, with 177 being charged by the NYPD this Thursday in only the first few hours.
Now New York is admitting that journalists that they credentialed are among those that were cuffed by cops. In a statement to the press released from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office on Thursday, November 17, spokesperson Stu Loeser addressed the media about reports relating to the growing number of journalists who have been arrested by the NYPD during Occupy Wall Street protests, a now-international movement which began in Lower Manhattan two months to the day of Loeser’s memo.
“Like all of you, I’ve heard and read many reports of reporters who supposedly were wearing valid NYPD press credentials, yet allegedly encountered problems on the streets of New York,” writes the spokesman. Loeser goes on to direct recipients of the memo to a roster of reporters published by independent outlet The Awl that has chronicled the names and affiliations of journalists that have been arrested across the country so far, which as of this writing totals 26.
“Not being familiar with many of the media outlets for which The Awl says these reporters work, I had the list of ‘26 arrested reporters’ checked against the roster of reporters who hold valid NYPD press passes,” Loser adds. “You can imagine my surprise when we found that only five of the 26 arrested reporters actually have valid NYPD-issued press credentials.”
With that sentence alone, Loeser manages to shoot himself in the foot. Twice.
quote:(And for those wondering how a reporter can obtain an official NYPD pass, The Observer notes that the qualifying factors require a journalist to prove that they covered six or more events in the city on separate days in the 24 months before asking for a pass implying that in order to be valid in the eyes of the law, one must break it first.)
quote:Justice Dept: Homeland Security Advised Raids On Occupy Wall Street Camps
President Obama's "position" regarding the NYPD's raid of Zuccotti Park, is that "every municipality has to make its own decision about how to handle" the issues of free speech and the concerns of the community. But according to Rick Ellis at the Examiner, a Justice Department official says that the recent evictions of Occupy movement across the country including Salt Lake City, Denver, Portland, Oakland, and New York City were "coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies."
Ellis reports that his source says though the decision to evict protesters ultimately rested with each individual jurisdiction, the local police departments "had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies" from the feds.
Oakland's mayor Jean Quan told the BBC yesterday that she had participated in a conference call with the leaders of 18 other cities to discuss their shared "situation where what had started as a political movement and a political encampment ended up being an encampment no longer in control by the people who started them."
Mother Jones reports that the US Conferences of Mayors has stated that two conference calls, one on October 13, the morning before the aborted raid on Zuccotti Park, and the second on November 10, were held with "mayors and police top brass." They discussed "issues of concern" and how to "maintain public health and safety" during the occupations. The USCM official "denied that there was any coordination or planning between mayors and police officials about breaking up Occupy protests or tearing down encampments." Mayor Bloomberg denies participating in these conference calls.
The AP reports that another set of conference calls on October 11 and November 14 were organized by the Police Executive Research Forum and included representatives from 40 different cities. A spokesman for the group said that the timing of the calls were "completely spontaneous" and had nothing to do with the recent raids. "This was an attempt to get insight on what other departments were doing." Including the maxim: "Don't set a midnight deadline to evict Occupy Wall Street protesters, it will only give a crowd of demonstrators time to form."
In our recent interview with Glenn Greenwald, a former civil rights attorney and current Salon columnist, we asked him a question regarding the expanding powers of the federal government.
Typically, new powers are often applied in ways that people will feel comfortable with. So if the government wants to restrict speech they will pick the most hated person in the society and restrict their speech and nobody will care...The problem is that these things proliferate far beyond their original applications, in every instance that's true. Historically, that's how power functions.
According to a Presidential directive issued by George W. Bush in 2003, the DHS's responsibility is to "develop all-hazards plans and capabilities, including those of greatest importance to the security of the United States homeland, such as the prevention of terrorist attacks and preparedness for the potential use of weapons of mass destruction, and ensure that state, local, and federal plans are compatible." Is assisting to coordinate the eviction of mostly-peaceful protests what the DHS was designed to do?
quote:Occupy Oakland: Iraq war veteran Kayvan Sabehgi beaten by police - video
Protester and three-tour American veteran Kayvan Sabehgi was beaten by Oakland police during the Occupy protest's general strike on 2 November. Sabehgi, who was 'completely peaceful', according to witnesses, was left with a lacerated spleen
quote:Occupy Wall Street: 250 arrestaties, 7 agenten gewond
De politie heeft donderdag in New York in totaal 250 personen opgepakt bij manifestaties van de protestbeweging 'Occupy Wall Street', die nu twee maanden bestaat. Zeven agenten raakten gewond, aldus een nieuwe balans van de politie.
In de loop van de avond werden nog 64 personen opgepakt bij een manifestatie met duizenden deelnemers die eindigde op Brooklyn Bridge.
Volgens organisatoren hebben 30.000 manifestanten (studenten en vakbondsmensen) deelgenomen aan de manifestaties. De politie onthoudt zich van elke raming.
quote:Lobbying firm made plan to deal with OWS
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “UpChris Hayes.”
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association.
CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
Het plan
quote:Video: agent spuit studenten plat bij opruimen Occupy in Californië
Een protest van de Occupy-beweging bij de Universiteit van Californië in Davis zijn meerdere studenten gearresteerd. In een video zijn zittende studenten te zien die platgepeppersprayed worden.
Te zien is hoe een groep studenten op een rij zit als vreedzaam protest. Een agent loopt op z’n gemak op de studenten af, richt z’n bus pepperspray en spuit. De studenten worden vervolgens weggesleurd. De meesten werden gearresteerd.
Over de video is ophef ontstaan, vanwege de kalmte van de agent die z’n pepperspray spuit alsof hij zich wil ontdoen van wat lastige insecten. De video is, zelfs na enkele uren al, hard op weg een soort emblematische video te worden voor de manier waarop de Amerikaanse politie omgaat met de Occupybeweging. Eerder dook er al een foto op van een bejaarde vrouw die pepperspray in haar gezicht kreeg:
quote:Confirmed: Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) coordinating Occupy raids
Many of us have been wondering why the raids on Occupy camps across the country have had such a coordinated feel. If only the official response to real social ills could have been as timely and widespread as the crackdown on peaceful demonstrators expressing their freedom of speech, assembly, and the press covering their protest. An article at Examiner.com was understandably derided as being under-sourced for a charge as serious as a national DHS crackdown on non-violent protests. However, we have now received confirmation via Amy Goodman's interview on the 11/17 episode of Democracy Now! with PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler that this private NGO coordinated high-level conference calls amongst 40 police chiefs, distinct from the mayoral "therapy session" referred to by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, in order to broadcast advice and documentation about cracking down on the Occupy social movement.
Die sprayende agent:quote:
dox dox doxtwitter:Anon_Central twitterde op zaterdag 19-11-2011 om 21:39:54Salary Details of John A. PikePOLICE LIEUTENANT - MSPUC Davis http://t.co/Vmxa5oUf reageer retweet
quote:California Penal Code Section 12403.7 (a) (8)
(g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable byimprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, except that, if the use is against a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, engaged in the performance of his or her official duties and the person committing the offense knows or reasonably should know that the victim is a peace officer, the offense is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months or two or three years or by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.
quote:Occupy HOPE
This image represents my support for the Occupy movement, a grassroots movement spawned to stand up against corruption, imbalance of power, and failure of our democracy to represent and help average Americans. On the other hand, as flawed as the system is, I see Obama as a potential ally of the Occupy movement if the energy of the movement is perceived as constructive, not destructive. I still see Obama as the closest thing to “a man on the inside” that we have presently. Obviously, just voting is not enough. We need to use all of our tools to help us achieve our goals and ideals. However, I think idealism and realism need to exist hand in hand. Change is not about one election, one rally, one leader, it is about a constant dedication to progress and a constant push in the right direction. Let’s be the people doing the right thing as outsiders and simultaneously push the insiders to do the right thing for the people. I’m still trying to work out copyright issues I may face with this image, but feel free to share it and stay tuned…
-Shepard Fairey
quote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding[1] scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" (…OBEY…) sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His work became more widely known in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, specifically his Barack Obama "Hope" poster.
twitter:londonmoan twitterde op zaterdag 19-11-2011 om 23:07:25It just goes to show its not about changing the leader you need to change the system. #Egypt #Tahrir reageer retweet
quote:https://bicyclebarricade.(...)or-linda-p-b-katehi/
18 November 2011
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Linda P.B. Katehi,
I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.
You are not.
I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:
1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today
2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality
3) to demand your immediate resignation
Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.
What happened next?
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.
What happened next?
Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
This is what happened. You are responsible for it.
You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.
One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.
You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.
On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”
I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”
I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.
Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.
Sincerely,
Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis
quote:Anger at Walmart heiress's $1.4bn gallery as art market becomes focus for protests
Crystal Bridges Museum for American Art is built at vast expense in rural Bentonville as supermarket giant cuts benefits for workforce
When Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart supermarket fortune and the the 10th richest woman in the United States, opened a spectacular fine art museum in her home town, she might have expected plaudits and gratitude. It hasn't quite worked out that way.
The long-awaited opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum for American Art in Walton's home town of Bentonville, Arkansas, has provoked mixed reactions. Some have celebrated the unveiling of a significant new private art institution, but many have criticised the decision to spend $1.4bn of company and family foundation money as the retail colossus cuts back its workers' benefits.
Protesters at the museum have informally joined forces with the Occupy Wall Street camps across the US and point to growing ties between the Occupy movement and established trade unions.
The museum, which opened last weekend and features a survey of American art from Benjamin West to Georgia O'Keefe, from Norman Rockwell to Andy Warhol, and from Joan Mitchell to Walton Ford, has also come under criticism from within the art establishment for both inflating values and buying masterpieces from impoverished art institutions without giving local institutions a chance to match Walton's offer.
While historians point out that this is little different from 19th-century robber barons such as Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie amassing vast collections of European art and bringing it to America, the prospect of hundreds of masterpieces in rural Bentonville, two hours' drive from Tulsa, is still controversial.
Walton, at 62 the youngest of Walmart founder Sam Walton's four children, started buying specifically for the project in 2005. The Moshe Safdie-designed institution, which sits in 120 acres of dogwood trees and trails minutes from downtown Bentonville, already has 440 works on display and 800 in storage.
"We set market records for very few pieces that we purchased," says curator, David Houston. "But there is latent criticism from an east coast elite that bringing a famous painting like Thomas Eakins's [$68m] Gross Clinic to Arkansas is itself an act of cultural vandalism. We're bringing art to the public, but it's a different kind of public, and there are social and political connotations to that."
In the week since Crystal Bridges opened, it has already seen 5,000 registered visitors. "Sheer curiosity and hunger for an institution like this bears out Alice Walton's vision," Houston says.
Ben Waxman, spokesman for the union-affiliated Making Change@Walmart, said: "Opening a huge, opulent museum in the middle of nowhere while the company is cutting health insurance for its employees is troubling. It sends the message Wal-Mart doesn't care about them."
The issues of wealth distribution that have brought art into conflict with the labour movement at Crystal Bridges have also been on display at Sotheby's during the billion-dollar modern, impressionist and contemporary sales earlier this month in New York.
Since August, when Sotheby's dismissed 43 unionised art handlers, its salesrooms have been besieged by Teamsters union members, bearing an inflatable rat and a fat cat banker with a cigar in one hand and throttled worker in the other. "The company is having its most profitable year in 267 years and they locked us out in the middle of our contract," said Teamsters member Phil Cortero. "Sotheby's represents the richest people in the world. When you lose your shirt down on Wall Street you come and hock your stuff here."
Increasingly, the Teamsters are joined by Occupy Museum activists, chanting "We are the 99%!" They protest that the multimillion dollar art handled by auction houses is used to maintain and transfer the wealth of the 1%.
Outside Christie's, which is not involved in the dispute, Los Angeles property developer Eli Broad, one of America's wealthiest men, confirmed as much to the New York Times. "People would rather have art than gold or paper," he said.
OWS Labor Outreach member Mike Friedman said that Occupy had no problem with the art itself. "But at a time when we're seeing cutbacks in health and education spending, we're seeing the transfer of wealth by way of tax cuts and subsidies to an elite who use excesses of that transfer to buy these magnificent works of art."
With the end of the Zuccotti Park sit-in, Occupy says it plans to initiate focused protests against cultural institutions associated with big Wall Street donors. It has singled out Lincoln Center, home to the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and New York fashion week, which is financially supported by Tea Party funder David Koch.
Back at Crystal Bridges, Houston argues that it will take years to see the full effect of how the Walton family has used its wealth. The family foundation is active in a whole variety of charitable activities, many of them educational, he says. "Their intent is not to create a shrine to an individual or even a family. Their goal is to create a tremendous cultural resource in this part of the world."
Ik wil het onderwerp niet groter en zwaarder maken dan het is, maar kijkend naar de daadwerkelijke betekenis van begrippen en de verhoudingen waar het op slaat, begin ik me af te vragen wat hier niet fascistisch aan is.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 10:37 schreef PalmRoyale het volgende:
Het is nu toch wel erg duidelijk dat de gevestigde orde de beweging wel degelijk als een grote bedreiging ziet, waarom zouden ze anders steeds weer geweld gebruiken tegen mensen die hun grondwettelijke recht uitoefenen. Amerika roept altijd dat ze voor vrijheid en democratie zijn maar als je iets doet dat het systeem bedreigd krijg je een wapenstok in je nek.
Mussolini: Corporatism = fascism.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 11:03 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:
[..]
Ik wil het onderwerp niet groter en zwaarder maken dan het is, maar kijkend naar de daadwerkelijke betekenis van begrippen en de verhoudingen waar het op slaat, begin ik me af te vragen wat hier niet fascistisch aan is.
Make love, not war.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 11:13 schreef PalmRoyale het volgende:
Het heeft idd fascistische trekken. Als de politie zo doorgaat dan kunnen ze als een binnenlandse agressor gezien worden en dan hebben de betogers het grondwettelijke recht om wapens tegen hen op te nemen.
Occupied amendment (pdf)quote:Rep. Deutch Introduces OCCUPIED Constitutional Amendment To Ban Corporate Money In Politics
In one of the greatest signs yet that the 99 Percenters are having an impact, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today introduced an amendment that would ban corporate money in politics and end corporate personhood once and for all.
Deutch’s amendment, called the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment, would overturn the Citizens United decision, re-establishing the right of Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance laws, and to effectively outlaw the ability of for-profit corporations to contribute to campaign spending.
“No matter how long protesters camp out across America, big banks will continue to pour money into shadow groups promoting candidates more likely to slash Medicaid for poor children than help families facing foreclosure,” said Deutch in a statement provided to ThinkProgress. “No matter how strongly Ohio families fight for basic fairness for workers, the Koch Brothers will continue to pour millions into campaigns aimed at protecting the wealthiest 1%. No matter how fed up seniors in South Florida are with an agenda that puts oil subsidies ahead of Social Security and Medicare, corporations will continue to fund massive publicity campaigns and malicious attack ads against the public interest. Americans of all stripes agree that for far too long, corporations have occupied Washington and drowned out the voices of the people. I introduced the OCCUPIED Amendment because the days of corporate control of our democracy. It is time to return the nation’s capital and our democracy to the people.”
Dat zou niet best wezen.. ik hoop het niet.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 11:13 schreef PalmRoyale het volgende:
Het heeft idd fascistische trekken. Als de politie zo doorgaat dan kunnen ze als een binnenlandse agressor gezien worden en dan hebben de betogers het grondwettelijke recht om wapens tegen hen op te nemen.
Dat is niet te hopen. Laten ze het zo vreedzaam mogelijk houden.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 17:08 schreef PalmRoyale het volgende:
Ik hoop het ook niet maar het zou me niks verbazen dat gewapende milities zich bij de beweging aansluiten als de politie zo doorgaat. Ze slaan nu nog op vreedzame betogers in maar als dat gebeurd en ze goed getrainde gewapende milities tegenover zich hebben dan piepen ze wel anders.
Het is in ieder geval wel duidelijk dat het politieke en sociale landschap aan het veranderen is. De gevestigde orde voelt zich langzaam maar zeker in het nauw gedreven en zal nog hele rare sprongen maken in een poging hun macht te behouden.
Denk je dat de gewone mensen van Occupy, arbeiders en studenten, daar wat tegen zouden kunnen doen? Want zoiets kan natuurlijk nooit de bedoeling zijn.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 18:59 schreef PalmRoyale het volgende:
Het is bekend dat vele milities in de VS een grote afkeer hebben van de overheid en sommige van de meer extreme milities zijn bereid de grondwet met hun leven te verdedigen. Als het georganiseerde geweld tegen de beweging door blijft gaan zou dat het excuus zijn wat ze nodig hebben om met wapens tegen de overheid te vechten.
Ik hoop en denk niet dat het zal gebeuren maar het is wel degelijk een reeël gevaar.
quote:Occupy wall street Oakland neemt bezit van een nieuwe locatie
Anti-Wall Street protesters in Oakland pushed down a chain-link fence surrounding a city-owned vacant lot where they planned a new encampment.
Natuurlijk willen ze dat niet. Ik zeg alleen dat het geweld tegen de betogers een excuus voor milities kan zijn om wapens op te pakken.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 19:07 schreef Barbusse het volgende:
[..]
Denk je dat de gewone mensen van Occupy, arbeiders en studenten, daar wat tegen zouden kunnen doen? Want zoiets kan natuurlijk nooit de bedoeling zijn.
Heel ranzig indd.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 15:05 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:
Wat een smeerlappen om die jongeren zo te pepperen.
Het regime bepaald het geweldsniveau.quote:Op zondag 20 november 2011 19:07 schreef Barbusse het volgende:
[..]
Denk je dat de gewone mensen van Occupy, arbeiders en studenten, daar wat tegen zouden kunnen doen? Want zoiets kan natuurlijk nooit de bedoeling zijn.
quote:US Occupy: officers in pepper spray incident placed on leave
YouTube footage from University of California, Davis protest sparks investigation as Occupy protests spread across state
Two University of California, Davis police officers involved in pepper spraying seated protesters are being placed on administrative leave as the chancellor of the school accelerates the investigation into the incident.
Chancellor Linda Katehi said she has been inundated with reaction over the incident, in which an officer dispassionately fired pepper spray on a line of sitting demonstrators.
Video of the incident was circulated widely on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, and the university's faculty association called on Katehi to resign, saying in a letter there had been a "gross failure of leadership".
Katehi said she takes "full responsibility for the incident" but has resisted calls for her resignation, instead pledging to take actions to make sure "that this does not happen again".However, a law enforcement official who watched the clip called the use of force "fairly standard police procedure".
In the video, an officer dispassionately pepper-sprays a line of sitting protesters who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop.
The protest was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed with batons by police on 9 November.
Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.
"When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them," Kelly said. "Bodies don't have handles on them."
After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of "active resistance" from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques, Kelly said.
Images of police actions have served to galvanize support during the Occupy Wall Street movement, from the clash between protesters and police in Oakland last month that left an Iraq war veteran with serious injuries to more recent skirmishes in New York City, San Diego, Denver and Portland, Oregon.
Some of the most notorious instances went viral online, including the use of pepper spray on an 84-year-old activist in Seattle and a group of women in New York. Seattle's mayor apologised to the activist, and the New York Police Department official shown using pepper spray on the group of women lost 10 vacation days after an internal review.
In the video of this week's UC Davis protest, the officer, a member of the university police force, displays a bottle before spraying its contents on the seated protesters in a sweeping motion while walking back and forth. Most of the protesters have their heads down, but several are hit directly in the face. Some members of a crowd gathered at the scene scream and cry out. The crowd then chants, "Shame on you," as the protesters on the ground are led away. The officers retreat minutes later with helmets on and batons drawn.
Ten people were arrested at the protest. Nine students hit by pepper spray were treated at the scene, two were taken to hospitals and later released, university officials said.Elsewhere in California, police arrested six Occupy San Francisco protesters early on Sunday and dismantled a tent encampment in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Officer Albie Esparza said police and city crews took down about 12 tents. The six were arrested on charges of interfering with officers.
The raid came several hours after police and public works crews removed dozens of tents from the nearby Occupy camp at Justin Herman Plaza.
Earlier, several hundred protesters in Oakland tore down a chain-link fence surrounding a city-owned vacant lot and set up a new encampment five days after their main camp near City Hall was torn down.
"They obviously don't want us at the plaza downtown. We might as well make this space useful," Chris Skantz, 23, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Occupy Oakland protesters breached the fence and poured into the lot next to the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue, police said in a statement.
The protesters passed a line of police surrounding the lot without a struggle, used wire cutters to take down the fence and pulled down "no trespassing" signs, the Chronicle reported.
Police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said surrounding streets had been closed and officers were protecting nearby buildings
Watson said there had been no arrests or citations, but the city's position remains that no camping will be allowed and protesters cannot stay overnight.
quote:NYPD cops block Occupy Wall Street protestors from drumming outside Mayor Bloomberg’s townhouse
Occupy Wall Street protesters who were kicked out of their downtown “home” last week moved uptown Sunday, to lay siege to Mayor Bloomberg’s swank Upper East Side townhouse with drumming and chanting.
But cops closed down the block, one of the city’s most exclusive, forcing Bloomberg’s neighbors on E. 79th St. between Fifth and Madison to show ID to get past barricades.
City Hall officials did not say if the billionaire mayor was home to hear the commotion.
quote:‘Anonymous’ targets pepper-spraying policeman
The online “hacktivist” group Anonymous published the personal contact details on Monday of a California university policeman who used pepper spray on protesters, and it urged supporters to flood him with phone calls and emails.
YouTube videos of Friday’s incident on the campus of theUniversity of California, Davis have gone viral and led to the suspension of the college police chief, two police officers and calls for the chancellor to step down.
In the YouTube videos, one of which has received 1.44 million views, two university police officers in riot gear are seen spraying an orange mist on protesters sitting peacefully on the ground.
Following the spraying, the crowd begins chanting “Shame on you!”
A YouTube video on Monday purportedly from Anonymous published the home address, the home telephone number, the cellphone number and the email address of one of the policeman who allegedly used the pepper spray on protestors.
In the video, an artificially altered voice tells the “police forces of the world” that “brutalization of our citizens is both unjust and uncalled for.”
Specifically addressing the officer involved in the Davis incident, it said: “You are a coward, and a bully.”
“Flood his phones, email and mailbox to voice your anger,” it said.
A call to the cellphone number listed identified it as that of the police officer involved and said his voicemail box was full.
Anonymous has been involved in scores of hacking exploits including the recent defacing of a website of Syria’s Ministry of Defense to protest a bloody crackdown on anti-government protestors.
Last year, the shadowy group launched retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
quote:Op woensdag 19 oktober 2011 21:35 schreef arucard het volgende:
Ik bedoel, het is toch logisch dat er arrestaties plaatsvinden, als je duizenden mensen op een kluitje hebt voor 3 weken.
twitter:allisonkilkenny twitterde op dinsdag 22-11-2011 om 17:07:39RT @JeffSharlet: Egyptian activists ask Americans to go to Zuccotti Park for solidarity
Tahrir Square at 3 pm today. #ows reageer retweet
quote:http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/22/pregnant-seattle-protester-miscarries-after-being-kicked-pepper-sprayed/
A woman who was pepper sprayed during during a raid on Occupy Seattle last week is blaming police after she miscarried Sunday.
Jennifer Fox, 19, told The Stranger that she had been with the Occupy protests since they started in Westlake Park. She said she was homeless and three months pregnant, but felt the need to join activists during their march last Tuesday.
“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” Fox recalled. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.’”
She claimed that police hit her in the stomach twice before pepper spraying her. One officer struck her with his foot and another pushed his bicycle into her. It wasn’t clear if either of those incidents were intentional.
“Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” Fox said.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer Joshua Trujillo snapped a picture of Fox in apparent agony as another activist carried her to an ambulance.
Seattle fire department spokesman Kyle Moore told The Washington Post that a 19-year-old pregnant woman was among those that were examined by paramedics.
While doctors at Harborview Medical Center didn’t see any problems at the time, things took a turn for the worst Sunday.
“Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out,” she explained.
When Fox arrived at the hospital, doctors told her that the baby had no heartbeat.
“They diagnosed that I was having a miscarriage. They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the fetus], too,” she said.
“I was worried about it [when I joined the protests], but I didn’t know it would be this bad. I didn’t know that a cop would murder a baby that’s not born yet… I am trying to get lawyers.”
The Scoville heat chart indicates that U.S. grade pepper spray is ten times more painful than the blistering hot habanero pepper, according to Scientific American. While law enforcement officials regulary claim that the spray is safe, researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University found that it could “produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurologic effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death.”
http://www.huffingtonpost(...)kelly_n_1107332.htmlquote:Bill O'Reilly On UC Davis Pepper Spray: We Shouldn't Second-Guess Police (VIDEO)
First Posted: 11/22/11 08:27 AM ET Updated: 11/22/11 11:01 AM ET
Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly discussed the shocking pepper-spray incident that rocked the UC Davis campus on Monday's "O'Reilly Factor."
Kelly called the pepper spray "a food product, essentially," but both wondered whether the particular mix the campus police used to repeatedly spray student protesters had been diluted. "A lot of experts are looking at that and saying, is this the real deal?" Kelly said, though she added that the spray was "obviously abrasive and intrusive."
She then said that it was not clear that the police had overstepped their boundaries, since they were trying to disperse a crowd practicing civil disobedience.
"I know that the tape looks bad," she said. "I agree it looks bad. All I'm saying is from a legal standpoint, I don't know that the cops did anything wrong."
O'Reilly was a tad less nuanced in his comments. "I don't think we have the right to Monday-morning quarterback the police," he said.
quote:Reporters For Right-Wing Publication Daily Caller Beaten By NYPD, Helped By Protesters
The right-wing Daily Caller website has been anything but kind to Occupy Wall Street, even going so far as to condemn the protest movement as generating riots, murder, and arson.
But when a couple of Daily Caller employees were at Occupy Wall Street this morning, it was the very protesters they had been demonizing who ended up helping them out. Daily Caller reporter Michelle Fields — who faced off with actor Matt Damon earlier this year over education policy — and videographer Direna Cousins both claim they were attacked by the New York Police Department (NYPD) while covering the raucous protests in the Financial District today. Fields added that Occupy Wall Street protesters immediately came up to her to offer their help:
Het werkende bestanddeel komt inderdaad uit peper.quote:Op dinsdag 22 november 2011 20:19 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Nog even en pepperspray is groente. Let maar op.
quote:Politie New York moet media ongestoord laten werken
De politie in New York mag vertegenwoordigers van de media niet op onredelijke wijze lastigvallen tijdens hun werk. Die boodschap van hoofdcommissaris Raymond Kelly is gisteren voorgelezen op alle politiebureaus in de Amerikaanse stad.
De mededeling volgt op de arrestatie van verschillende journalisten die de protesten versloegen van de beweging Occupy Wall Street. Sommigen waren, samen met betogers, opgepakt terwijl ze zich bevonden op privéterrein. Dat is volgens Kelly voortaan uitdrukkelijk verboden, tenzij de eigenaar van het perceel de politie vraagt in te grijpen.
Protestbrief
Na de arrestatie van ten minste zes journalisten ontving de politie vorige week een gemeenschappelijke protestbrief van verschillende mediabedrijven, waaronder het persbureau AP, dat een verslaggever en een fotograaf opgepakt zag worden. 'Het politieoptreden was vijandiger tegenover de pers dan bij elke andere gebeurtenis uit het recente verleden', stond onder meer in de brief.
Vertegenwoordigers van onder meer AP, de New York Times, de New York Post en de Daily News hebben gisteren een gesprek gevoerd met hoofdcommissaris Kelly. In de dienstmededeling die op de bureaus is voorgelezen, staat onder meer dat de politie in haar omgang met de media 'de principes van een vrije pers en een geïnformeerde burgerij' moet respecteren.
quote:Occupy Seattle occupies Wal-Mart
On Friday, November 25th, Occupy Seattle will join Occupy Tacoma, Occupy Bellingham and Occupy Everett in a statewide protest at Wal-Mart in Renton at 2:00pm.
With its long history of mistreating workers and suppliers, its recent announcement of significant cutbacks on employee health care, and its obscene profits, Wal-Mart is a prime example of how the 99% are suffering at the hands of the 1%.
Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in the world and proof positive of how big business is destructive to our democracy. While Americans are shopping at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart is buying Congress. Last year, Wal-Mart paid over $4.3 million in campaign contributions (not to mention the monies funneled through donations to lobbying organizations) to protect its interests.
Unfortunately, its interests are not those of its employees. With $14.3 billion in profits in 2010, Wal-Mart still saw fit to eliminate health insurance coverage for part time employees, cut company contributions to employee health savings accounts by 50% and increase health care premiums 17% to 61% for over 2.1 million employees worldwide. According to an article in the Huffington Post, the average Wal-Mart worker makes $8.81 per hour, while the CEO makes $8990.00 per hour.
The Walton family (the largest shareholders of Wal-Mart stock and descendants of its founder) is the wealthiest family in the United States with an estimated net worth of $92 billion (according to Forbes’ latest ranking). That’s more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined. They directly gave $7,000,000 in political contributions in 2010 and billions more through their family foundations in an effort to buy our legislative process.
twitter:Anon_Central twitterde op vrijdag 25-11-2011 om 09:59:56#DirectAction call to all #Occupy Movements on Twitter || Lets trend #OccupyBlackFriday! ty @OWS_Live Full support from #Anonymous! reageer retweet
quote:The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality
Naomi Wolf
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 November 2011 17.25 GMT
Article history
US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.
But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."
In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.
To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.
I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.
Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.
That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.
The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.
The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.
For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).
In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.
But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.
Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.
So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.
Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.
quote:Dear Michael: Shut Down The Protests Now (An Email From Goldman Sachs’ CEO to Bloomberg)
Dear Michael Bloomberg:
You must shut down these protests, they are creating a negative psychology. We need the people to remain submissive to the financial doctrine and I am sure you understand this. Our business has been suffering from the political pressures abroad and now political pressures at home are making the future seem very bleak.
Goldman Sachs needs political stability and we count on you to bring back this stability to the city of New York. I am sure you understand the consequences of a prolonged people’s movement: less shopping, less consumption, less submission, less control. You and I know that protests kill the consumerist drive because they give the common people a new outlet for their emotions, shut this new outlet before it’s too late.
You need to squash these protestors, you need to wipe them out by any means necessary. Change the laws if you must, change the rules, change the platform. The longer the protestors stay in the streets, the bigger the dent will be in the common people’s consumption habits.
I have full confidence in you Michael as a prominent businessman, I am sure you know what will happen if consumption goes down, we will lose massive amounts of capital.
We know you understand this and we put our trust and confidence in you you. Let’s get rid of these street urchins, let’s bring back business as usual. Let’s create harmony and passive peace so that our businesses can grow, yours and ours.
Lloyd Blankfein
Goldman Sachs’ CEO
November 12th, 2011
quote:Occupy Wall Street Protesters Propose A National Convention, Release Potential Demands
WASHINGTON -- While an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters flooded into Times Square on Saturday, there was still a regular New York general assembly at 7 p.m. During that meeting, according to sources who contacted The Huffington Post, the Zuccotti Park General Assembly -- though at a reduced presence due to the Times Square march -- saw the formation of a new working group.
This “Demands Working Group” then immediately “established a website and fairly educated/articulated list of solutions.” A separate group out of Zuccotti Park has also been working on a list of possible proposals, but a member of the Education and Empowerment Working Group said he suspects the Demands Working Group’s list might become the national platform.
They’ve posted the list online but they’ve also made this announcement under the radar -- a national convention to be held July 4, 2012:
WE, THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in order to form a more perfect Union, by, for and of the PEOPLE, shall elect and convene a NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY beginning on July 4, 2012 in the City Of Philadelphia.
Their plan includes to elect delegates by direct vote, one male and one female per each of the 435 Congressional Districts. The office would be open to any United States citizen over the age of 18. The 870 delegates would then compose a petition of grievances that would be non-partisan.
The posted “demands” are only a working list of “suggestions,” however. Number one and two are a ban on private contributions to politicians seeking or holding federal office and instead public financing for campaigns, and a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court.
The list then goes on to suggest single-payer national health care, immediate passage of the DREAM Act, a jobs plan, a deficit reduction plan and recalling military personnel at all non-essential bases.
The movement would also reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, increase regulation and increase taxes by way of eliminating corporate tax loopholes.
The idea of coming up with a list of demands has been controversial among protesters.
David Sauvage, who directs videos for the Occupy Wall Street protests and supports the movement, said he viewed demands as being too similar to talking points.
But Daniel Lerner, a physicist and member of the Demands Working Group, argued to Mother Jones that their demands would have wide appeal.
In their list, however, they close with one last warning: if Congress, the President and the Supreme Court do not act on the settled grievances the movement eventually comes up with, its members are prepared to form a third, independent political party to run in every Congressional seat in 2014 and 2016.
Update at 10:50 a.m.: As mentioned above, the working group's suggestions and website have not been adopted by the movement as a whole, or approved by the NYC General Assembly as a whole. The debate over whether or not to even have "demands" within the Occupy Wall Street movement has continued.
One person involved, Andy Stepanian, told HuffPost that this particular declaration has not been approved by the General Assembly in New York and so it can't be said this reflects the movement's feelings as a whole.
"Everyone is entitled to make their own blog or website to post their opinions about how OWS should operate or what they think the OWS demands should be, this 99% group is no different," Stepanian said in an email. "However, all of OWS's official statements are agreed upon by way of consensus-based general assemblies. This matter was not submitted or agreed upon by the NYC general assembly, and therefore by-passed the process all OWS plans have been made through."
So far, the General Assembly has accepted a "Declaration of the Occupation" back on Sept. 29.
"Demands have come up before," wrote Ryan Hoffman in another email to HuffPost. "They were shot down vociferously under the argument that demands are for terrorists and that is not who we are. From that debate however, another proposal was passed: that we table all talk of demands until future notice! Therefore, any talk about demands, posts of demands, etc. are null and void. We already tabled those discussions using consensus."
Hoffman said the Declaration took a while to edit and revise with everyone putting in their own contributions and ideas before they could arrive at a final product the group agreed on. He explained that the General Assemblies have set up an entire process by which something like these "demands" could be agreed to, but the way this working group bypassed the process has caused some frustration.
"There is a 'demands working group' out there right now," Hoffman said, adding that the way they met in secret with The New York Times infuriated many members of the General Assembly. "There is a lot of internal dissent due to the manner in which this group was created and conducted its meetings."
Het zou echt moeten zijnquote:Op zondag 27 november 2011 11:10 schreef deelnemer het volgende:
Dat briefje is niet echt Papierversnipperaar.
quote:Op zondag 27 november 2011 18:39 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
[..]
Het zou echt moeten zijn
quote:Occupy L.A.: More than 200 arrested in peaceful sweep
Without resorting to large-scale violence, Los Angeles police successfully cleared out the Occupy L.A. camp at City Hall early Wednesday, managing to avoid fierce confrontations that marred sweeps in Oakland and New York.
Hundreds of police officers swarmed the large camp at City Hall’s south lawn shortly after midnight, encircling the demonstrators in less than 10 minutes. By quickly establishing a perimeter, police managed to take control of the scene in the first moments of engagement.
No tear gas was used in the shutdown of what was the nation's largest remaining Occupy camp. More than 200 people were arrested in the operation that involved 1,400 officers.
“They were like storm troopers. They encircled us,” said protester Cheryl Aichele, who was sitting in the middle of the south lawn in a circle with other protesters when police first entered the camp.
The protesters largely kept to their promise of confronting the police peacefully. While some taunted police verbally and a few rocks were thrown, most protesters either left on their own or nonviolently submitted to arrest, with many going limp and forcing the police to carry them out.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck was satisfied in the first few moments after the raid.
“That was the hardest part,” Beck said of the first rush of officers into the park. “That first contact: You learn if your officers are going to break ranks and if people are going to get physical. It went as well as we could have expected.”
In a matter of minutes, officers poured out of City Hall and from streets in all directions, encircling the park as protesters linked arms and chanted, "We are peaceful" and "We are the 99%."
It was a stark departure from old LAPD crowd control techniques, Beck said. In years past, police would have used a single skirmish line to sweep through the park and push people out.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appeared proud and relieved after the eviction, and thanked officers in a brief predawn news conference.
“I said that here in L.A., we’d chart a different path. And we did,” Villaraigosa said.
Speaking with the mayor, Beck said he had established a relationship with the protesters early on in the seven-week demonstration.
Most protesters seemed to eschew violence, and downtown did not see any of the violence of the kind that erupted in Oakland last month, when protesters started fires, police used tear gas and some protesters suffered serious injuries.
By early Wednesday, the last remaining protesters had holed up in a palm tree just outside Villaraigosa's office. The protesters smoked cigars as they joked with police, at one point asking police to bring them beer.
The moment spoke to the generally light tone of the eviction. Moments before police entered the park, protesters were setting off fireworks. After they entered, a man who refused to leave told an officer: "If you give me a hug, I will leave right now."
"Are you serious?" the officer asked with a smile. He appeared for a moment ready to comply, but then moved away.
Still, there were some moments of tension. A confrontation built early in the evening on the corner of 1st Street and Broadway, where a crowd approaching from the west, seeking to join protesters at City Hall, was stopped by a line of police wearing face masks and armed with batons.
On Main Street, one protester yelled at police: "Remember your mother! You're not here to beat up citizens."
Twenty-eight-year-old Sam Gray, an Army veteran, said he is angry that the city "took its word back."
"I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and in my opinion, the police are trampling on it," he said.
Toward the end of the operation, a large group of protesters that had locked arms in the middle of the south lawn chanted to police making arrests: “You’re sexy. You’re cute. Take off your riot suit.”
Earlier in the night, at the police staging area outside Dodger Stadium, a supervisor told a group of officers that they needed to be prepared for some protesters to fight back.
"They've got a bunch of concrete gravel and other [things] they're going to throw at us," he said. "Please put your face masks down and watch each other's back."
Amid fears protesters had stored urine and feces to throw at officers, some were wearing white protective body suits.
The conclusion of the raid marked the end of a two-month tent city that the City Council initially welcomed, with then-Council President Eric Garcetti telling protesters they could "stay as long as you need."
But city leaders began withdrawing their support as the demonstrators seemed determined to stay indefinitely.
By 5 a.m., the protest site was in shambles, and what was left of the tents was strewn across the ground.
quote:Philadelphia police force occupy protesters out, arrest dozens
Occupy Philadelphia has been cleared out of Dilworth Plaza next to City Hall. The eviction came more than two days after a city-imposed deadline for getting protesters to leave.
Civil Affairs Captain William Fisher read out the warnings shortly after 1 a.m., telling protesters they would be arrested if they refused to leave. The protesters split into two groups, one staying near City Hall, the other taking police on a two hour march through much of Center City. Eventually about 50 protesters were arrested.
Gwen Snyder of Occupy says even though they have been evicted their fight isn't over. "We'll continue to fight for economic justice in this country and this world and we will continue to do it whatever happens, that's what we've said and that's what we will continue to say," said Snyder.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey was pleased with his officers and how they handled the protesters. "We work with people the best we can but sometimes people cross the line and wind up getting arrested," said Ramsey.
Sanitation and fire department workers joined together to clean up the plaza and power wash it with fire hoses to prepare for the $50 million renovation of Dilworth Plaza.
UPDATE 8 a.m.:
The Associated Press reports that near 50 protesters have now been arrested.
More than 40 Occupy Philadelphia protesters were arrested overnight outside City Hall as police moved in to enforce the eviction notice given last week.
After reading warnings starting at 1 a.m., officers moved in to arrest people who would not leave Dilworth Plaza. Four men and two women were taken into custody about 3 a.m. The city wants the protesters out so a long-planned $50 million dollar renovation can move forward.
As officers moved in to make arrests, many Occupy protesters left and starting marching through the streets. About 5 a.m. police arrested about 40 more people near 15th and Hamilton Streets. Police still did not have exact arrest numbers.
A splinter group of Occupy Philadelphia has taken out a permit for daytime protests at Paine Plaza, across the street from the original location. But many members did not want to move to the new location since the permit bars them from camping overnight. They say without a 24 hour presence the "occupy" part of the movement would be lost.
quote:Training alongside the American police departments at Urban Shield was the Yamam, an Israeli Border Police unit that claims to specialize in “counter-terror” operations but is better known for its extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders and long record of repression and abuses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Urban Shield also featured a unit from the military of Bahrain, which had just crushed a largely non-violent democratic uprising by opening fire on protest camps and arresting wounded demonstrators when they attempted to enter hospitals. While the involvement of Bahraini soldiers in the drills was a novel phenomenon, the presence of quasi-military Israeli police – whose participation in Urban Shield was not reported anywhere in US media – reflected a disturbing but all-too-common feature of the post-9/11 American security landscape.
quote:When a riot squad from the New York Police Department destroyed and evicted the Occupy Wall Street protest encampment at Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, department leadership drew on the anti-terror tactics they had refined since the 9/11 attacks. According to the New York Times, the NYPD deployed counterterrorism measures to mobilize large numbers of cops for the lightning raid on Zuccotti. The use of anti-terror techniques to suppress a civilian protest complemented harsh police measures demonstrated across the country against the nationwide Occupy movement, from firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into unarmed crowds to blasting demonstrators with the LRAD sound cannon.
Given the amount of training the NYPD and so many other police forces have received from Israels military-intelligence apparatus, and the profuse levels of gratitude American police chiefs have expressed to their Israeli mentors, it is worth asking how much Israeli instruction has influenced the way the police have attempted to suppress the Occupy movement, and how much it will inform police repression of future upsurges of street protest. But already, the Israelification of American law enforcement appears to have intensified police hostility towards the civilian population, blurring the lines between protesters, common criminals, and terrorists. As Dichter said, they are all just crimiterrorists.
quote:Farmers Join Occupy Wall Street, Calling for Food Justice
As Wall Street’s corrupt influence on the economy has grown, the corporate ownership of our food system has hurt the health and livelihood’s of some of our most vulnerable communities. This Sunday, December 4th food justice activists and occupiers will be traveling from as far as Colorado, Iowa, Maine and Upstate New York to join together for the Occupy Wall Street FARMERS’ MARCH.Through a day of dialogue, musical performances, and a march, farmers and their urban allies working for food justice in their communities will form alliances to fight and expose corporate control of the food supply.
Events throughout the day will call and inspire participants to fight against the corporate manipulation of the agriculture system. An industry that is responsible for using chemical toxins tied to soaring obesity rates, heart disease and diabetes and limiting access to affordable, wholesome food to the country’s poorest citizens.
The event will kick off at 2pm at La Plaza Cultural Community Gardenwith a musical performance followed by remarks from food justice activists and occupiers. They will share their stories and listen to their peers as they highlight the role of urban-rural solidarity in building a sustainable food system as well as challenges of family-scale farmers in a culture of corporate dominance.
At 4pm, musicians will be among those leading the Farmers’ March in a colorful parade from La Plaza to Zuccotti Park/Liberty Plaza, the site of a Solidarity Circle at 5pm. Stories of struggle, triumph and ruminations about the role OWS might assume in the food justice movement will help form the circle. The circle will close with a Seed Exchange.
Participants are encouraged to express their dissent creatively, donning fruits hats, wearing burlap sacks, carrying brightly colored signs and moving in time to the beat of the drums.
Please join us, farmers, ranchers, farm workers, urban gardeners, foodies and supporters of all kinds in the Occupy Wall Street FARMERS’ MARCH.
Speakers will include:
George Na ylor - Iowa farmer and president of the National Family Farm Coalition. Karen Washington - Founder of City Farms Market and board member at NYC based organization Just Food. Jim Gerritsen - Maine based farmer who was named one of 20 world visionaries by Utne Reader in 2011 and is the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Monsanto.
Severine von Tscharner - Food advocate and producer of the film “Green Horns”, profiling young farmer entrepreneurs. Jim Goodman - Wisconson Farmer, organizer of the tractorcade to Madison to speak out against Governer Walker’s union legislation. Jalal Sabur - Founding member of the Freedom Food Alliance and advocate working on the alliance of black urban communities with black rural farmers. Mike Callicrate - Colorado cattle rancher, entrepreneur and rural advocate . Andrew Faust - World renowned permaculture expert and educator.
quote:Yasha Levine Released From Jail, Exposes LAPD’s Appalling Treatment of Detained Occupy LA Protesters…
I finally got home Thursday afternoon after spending two nights in jail, and have had a hard time getting my bearings. On top of severe dehydration and sleep deprivation, I’ve got one hell of pounding migraine. So I’ll have to keep this brief for now. But I wanted to write down a few things that I witnessed and heard while locked up by LA’s finest…
First off, don’t believe the PR bullshit. There was nothing peaceful or professional about the LAPD’s attack on Occupy LA–not unless you think that people peacefully protesting against the power of the financial oligarchy deserve to be treated the way I saw Russian cops treating the protesters in Moscow and St. Petersburg who were demonstrating against the oligarchy under Putin and Yeltsin, before we at The eXiled all got tossed out in 2008. Back then, everyone in the West protested and criticized the way the Russian cops brutally snuffed out dissent, myself included. Now I’m in America, at a demonstration, watching exactly the same brutal crackdown…
While people are now beginning to learn that the police attack on Occupy LA was much more violent than previously reported, few actually realize that much—if not most—of the abuse happened while the protesters were in police custody, completely outside the range of the press and news media. And the disgraceful truth is that a lot of the abuse was police sadism, pure and simple:
* I heard from two different sources that at least one busload of protesters (around 40 people) was forced to spend seven excruciating hours locked in tiny cages on a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. prison bus, denied food, water and access to bathroom facilities. Both men and women were forced to urinate in their seats. Meanwhile, the cops in charge of the bus took an extended Starbucks coffee break.
* The bus that I was shoved into didn’t move for at least an hour. The whole time we listened to the screams and crying from a young woman whom the cops locked into a tiny cage at the front of the bus. She was in agony, begging and pleading for one of the policemen to loosen her plastic handcuffs. A police officer sat a couple of feet away the entire time that she screamed–but wouldn’t lift a finger.
* Everyone on my bus felt her pain–literally felt it. That’s because the zip-tie handcuffs they use—like the ones you see on Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib—cut off your circulation and wedge deep through your skin, where they can do some serious nerve damage, if that’s the point. And it did seem to be the point. A couple of guys around me were writhing in agony in their hard plastic seats, hands handcuffed behind their back.
* The 100 protesters in my detainee group were kept handcuffed with their hands behind their backs for 7 hours, denied food and water and forced to sit/sleep on a concrete floor. Some were so tired they passed out face down on the cold and dirty concrete, hands tied behind their back. As a result of the tight cuffs, I wound up losing sensation in my left palm/thumb and still haven’t recovered it now, a day and a half after they finally took them off.
* One seriously injured protester, who had been shot with a shotgun beanbag round and had an oozing bloody welt the size of a grapefruit just above his elbow, was denied medical attention for five hours. Another young guy, who complained that he thought his arm had been broken, was not given medical attention for at least as long. Instead, he spent the entire pre-booking procedure handcuffed to a wall, completely spaced out and staring blankly into space like he was in shock.
* An Occupy LA demonstrator in his 50s who was in my cell block in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center told us all about when a police officer forced him to take a shit with his hands handcuffed behind his back, which made pulling down his pants and sitting down on the toilet extremely difficult and awkward. And he had to do this in sight of female police officers, all of which made him feel extremely ashamed, to say the least.
* There were two vegetarians and one vegan in my cell. When I left jail around 1:30 pm, they still had not been given food, despite the fact that they were constantly being promised that it would come.
* There were 292 people arrested at Occupy LA. About 75 of them have been released or have gotten out on bail, according the National Lawyers Guild. Most are still inside, slapped with $5,000 to $10,000 bail. According to a bail bondsman I know, this is unprecedented. Misdemeanors are almost always released on their own recognizance, which means that they don’t pay any bail at all. Or at most it’s a $100.
* That means the harsh, long detentions are meant to be are a purely punitive measure against Occupy LA protesters–an order that had to come from the very top.
quote:Occupy Oakland: police use teargas after protesters force port to close
Police in Oakland use teargas on three separate occasions as tensions flare after protesters occupied building during protest
Leuk dilemma voor extreem rechts Amerika. Wat is belangrijker, de haat tegen hippies of het beschermen ongeboren leven?quote:
West Coast port shutdown announcement on Dec. 12quote:Meer dan dertig Occupy manifestanten opgepakt in Washington.
In Washington heeft de politie 31 mensen opgepakt bij een operatie in het kamp van de protestbeweging tegen Wall Street. Het kamp zelf werd niet ontruimd.
Tientallen politieagenten trokken naar het kamp nabij het Witte Huis om een door de betogers opgetrokken houten chalet te ontmantelen. De operatie leidde tot een urenlange zenuwoorlog tussen de politie en de ongeveer 400 betogers. Daarbij pakte de politie manifestanten op die de afgezette zone betraden of weigerden te gehoorzamen aan politiebevelen.
De politie ontruimde het hoofdstedelijke kamp van de Occupy Wall Street-beweging niet. Ook de kampen in Boston en Pittsburg ontsnappen voorlopig aan ontruimingen. In New York is het kamp midden november ontmanteld en in Los Angeles en Pittsburg zijn de antikapitalistische betogers vorige week uit hun kampen verwijderd.
quote:the next phase of occupy wall street: Occupy the universities
Once upon a time, our colleges and universities in the United States were forces for progressive social change. I'm not sure that's the case any longer. As someone who has been on the inside of higher education now for over 15 years, I see our universities more and more becoming tools of the corporatocracy.
Recently, my own college decided to toss 2/3s of the entire philosophy collection of our library (apparently the ability to think critically is no longer required in the United States). This compelled me to write a post about "The University as Corporation:"
http://www.michaelsrusso.(...)-as-corporation.html
Needless to say, the post didnt win me any fans among our administrators (or even among many of our faculty, for that matter).
I really do believe that the next phase of Occupy Wall Street has to involve an effort to radicalize students and reclaim the academy for what it was originally intended to provide the kind of education that actually empowers students and teaches them to think critically about our social problems. I really dont think that we are doing this any longer.
Id like to know what other people think about this. Have American colleges and universities become so corrupted by American capitalism that they are beyond hope at this point?
quote:Op zaterdag 3 december 2011 12:32 schreef Bolkesteijn het volgende:
Ik heb voor mijn werk (bij een universiteit nota bene) ook wel eens meegeschreven aan een stuk waarvan de uitkomst al vooraf vast stond. De opdrachtgever wilde een bepaalde uitkomst en daar hebben wij een economisch verhaal omheen getimmerd.
Simpel: Hippies zijn geen vorm van (menselijk) leven.quote:Op maandag 5 december 2011 13:21 schreef Viajero het volgende:
[..]
Leuk dilemma voor extreem rechts Amerika. Wat is belangrijker, de haat tegen hippies of het beschermen ongeboren leven?
quote:NAACP warns black and Hispanic Americans could lose right to vote
Civil rights group petitions UN over 'massive voter suppression' after apparent effort to disenfranchise black and Hispanic people
The largest civil rights group in America, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is petitioning the UN over what it sees as a concerted efforted to disenfranchise black and Latino voters ahead of next year's presidential election.
The organisation will this week present evidence to the UN high commissioner on human rights of what it contends is a conscious attempt to "block the vote" on the part of state legislatures across the US. Next March the NAACP will send a delegation of legal experts to Geneva to enlist the support of the UN human rights council.
The NAACP contends that the America in the throes of a consciously conceived and orchestrated move to strip black and other ethnic minority groups of the right to vote. William Barber, a member of the association's national board, said it was the "most vicious, co-ordinated and sinister attack to narrow participation in our democracy since the early 20th century".
In its report, Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America, the NAACP explores the voter supression measures taking place particularly in southern and western states.
Fourteen states have passed a total of 25 measures that will unfairly restrict the right to vote, among black and Hispanic voters in particular.
The new measures are focused – not coincidentally, the association insists – in states with the fastest growing black populations (Florida, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina) and Latino populations (South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee). The NAACP sees this as a cynical backlash to a surge in ethnic minority voting evident in 2008.
In that year, black and Hispanic voters turned out in record numbers, partly in a wave of enthusiasm for Barack Obama. More than 2 million extra black voters turned out over 2004, an increase of 15%.
Among Hispanics, the upturn was even more pronounced. Two million additional voters attended the polls – a rise of 28% on the previous presidential election.
The scale of the assault on voting rights is substantial, according to experts on electoral law. The Brennan Center for Justice, based at New York University law school, estimates that the new measures could bar as many as 5 million eligible voters from taking part in choosing the occupant of the White House next year.
The 14 states that have embarked on such measures hold two-thirds of the electoral college votes needed to win the presidency. Put another way, of the 12 battleground states that will determine the outcome of the presidential race, five have already cut back on voting rights and two more are in discussions about following suit.
Ethnic minority groups are not the only sections of society at risk of losing their voting rights. The Brennan Center warns that young voters and students, older voters and poor income groups are also vulnerable.
The NAACP says voting rights are being whittled down at every stage of the electoral process. First of all, the registration of new voters is being impeded in several states by moves to block voter registration drives that have historically proved to be an important way of bringing black and Hispanic people to the poll.
Four states – Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia – continue to withhold the vote from anyone convicted of a criminal offence. In Florida, offenders who have completed their sentences have to wait at least five years before they can even apply to restore their right to register to vote.
Across the US, more than 5 million Americans are denied the right to vote on grounds that they were convicted of a felony, 4 million of whom have fully completed their sentence and almost half of whom are black or Hispanic.
Other measures have reduced the ease of early voting, a convenience that is disproportionately heavily used by African-Americans. Even more importantly, 34 states have introduced a requirement that voters carry photo ID cards on the day of the election itself.
Studies have showed that the proportion of voters who do not have access to valid photo ID cards is much higher among older African-Americans because they were not given birth certificates in the days of segregation. Students and young voters also often lack identification and are thus in danger of being stripped of their right to vote.
In Texas, a law has been passed that prevents students from voting on the basis of their college ID cards, while allowing anyone to cast their ballot if they can show a permit to carry a concealed handgun.
Benjamin Jealous, the NAACP's president, said the moves amounted to "a massive attempt at state-sponsored voter suppression." He added that the association will be urging the UN "to look at what is a co-ordinated campaign to disenfranchise persons of colour."
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