[Cog]

As I predicted some time ago, when the snows fall this protest is over.

RIP OWS.

Time for your members to get a job flipping burgers or whatever a sociology degree will land you these days.

[AgentR11]

Please take a bath/shower first though.
A haircut would be good too; "#2 razor all around", works like a charm.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'I')ts almost like OWS has been infiltrated and taken over, with provocateurs directing OWS away from their original anger at the banks, and diverting them into useless and even harmful attacks on the working class.

OWS needs to be smarter. They should attacking the bosses---not the workers!

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'T')hat's the saddest thing I've heard in a while.

The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot

So are you telling me it's true that Republicans don't feel feelings of Compassion, Righteousness, and Good?

Or perhaps prefer not to. Or maybe can't. Help me understand.

This is kind of why we get the idea that you're Evil. You don't act in ways that show these things.

[rangerone314]

A more simple comparison would be that Democrats are undisciplined, incompetent and stupid, while Republicans are clever but evil sociopaths.

My beau ideale would be seeing both groups of leaders strung up on lampposts after being convicted of treason against the Constitution and the American people, and left to rot there until there's no more flesh for vultures to pick off.

[SeaGypsy]

Whatever happened to the class war of 2008? Where is reversengineer hiding in Alaska still or is he in an Occupier Lynch mob in waiting...?

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'P')lease take a bath/shower first though.
A haircut would be good too; "#2 razor all around", works like a charm.

[PrestonSturges]

RedState has two diaries about how Willard's tenure with Bain makes him unelectable.

Gee. only a couple months ago the conversation was all about austerity.

Go on, tell me again how OWS has failed.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', '
')Go on, tell me again how OWS has failed.

[Cog]

Cid has failed in his role as a progressive saviour. He disrespected Jesus and his loyal servant Tebow in another thread and this is pay-back for his lack of faith.

[SeaGypsy]

In Australia and NZ along with most of Europe, Occupy is solidly funded by taxpayers through the social security system. Their 1st job in the USA is to get endless extensions through, equaling their comrades, doing away with the need to ask for money. It appears their comrades are saying "Well you are American, so your government and it's laws are your problem and your responsibility; time to go panhandling!"

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '[')url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577165423192946892.html]OWS organizer whines that OWS is shutting down because it is bankrupt---even though it has $170,000 in the bank[/url]

I can't believe that you and Cid and the millions of OWS supporters across the US are all so cheap you won't give more money to the good people in the OWS finance committee to keep the moochers movement going.

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '[')url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577165423192946892.html]OWS organizer whines that OWS is shutting down because it is bankrupt---even though it has $170,000 in the bank[/url]

I can't believe that you and Cid and the millions of OWS supporters across the US are all so cheap you won't give more money to the good people in the OWS finance committee to keep the moochers movement going.

[Keith_McClary]

Measuring the Top 1% by Wealth, Not Income
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he wealth gap, as measured by net worth, is much more extreme than the chasm as measured by income.

The Times had estimated the threshold for being in the top 1 percent in household income at about $380,000, 7.5 times median household income, using census data from 2008 through 2010. But for net worth, the 1 percent threshold for net worth in the Fed data was nearly $8.4 million, or 69 times the median household’s net holdings of $121,000.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '[')url=http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by-wealth-not-income/?source=patrick.net#entry-141295]Measuring the Top 1% by Wealth, Not Income[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he wealth gap, as measured by net worth, is much more extreme than the chasm as measured by income.

The Times had estimated the threshold for being in the top 1 percent in household income at about $380,000, 7.5 times median household income, using census data from 2008 through 2010. But for net worth, the 1 percent threshold for net worth in the Fed data was nearly $8.4 million, or 69 times the median household’s net holdings of $121,000.

[Cog]

Its his money. He is under no obligation to make it do anything. Except in some fantasy redistribution world that the progressives live in.

[SeaGypsy]

When I meet these people it's like reality just snuck up and bit them on the ass; among the leadership it seems a little knowledge goes a very long way, when the PR packaging is done right. I think Cog is correct that this is centrally a movement of brats with the only commonality being a sense of envy and some theory about their supposed disenfranchisement from the establishment. The world is starting to tick to a different clock and these guys are a bit slow to catch on.

Edit to add:

The groups in Melbourne can be broken down to the following main camps:

Student activists: average age 21ish, diploma level on the way to bachelors. Love nothing better than a good whine. (pun intended).

Hippie spawn ferals: in need of personal hygiene instruction and birth control. Average age 30ish. Average time in the workforce near enough to zero. Education, if any, arts/ social diploma or bachelors with a major in a subculture they have yet to meet a member of. Serious marijane habit.

Disgruntled urban trade unionists: could go bush and work rotating shifts and make $120k+ but like to go home to a root a 6 pack and a few bongs at the end of an 8 hour shift with 2 hours actual work involved. They want more than the $70k odd they earn in that lifestyle in the city.

Individually it's hard to take any of these collectives seriously, collectively all the moreso.

The objectives of the movement which are worthwhile have been part of mainstream dialogue for several decades. Transparency, accountability, honest and realistic reappraisal of the whole economy. These are salient points and worth fighting for. But without participating in the mainstream in a productive and upright manner, any protest' purpose is easily open to being subverted by those who hold authority under the status quo.

I am old enough and experienced enough in the protest movement to know the subtle manipulations which are now part of the ordinary mechanics of political collectives. I believe the more potent action is to use ones spare time to write letters, articles, make documentary films, demand law enforcement by officials and honesty in the media, to get educated and lobby for change in the mainstream method. Signing petitions and yelling at cops through megaphones really just annoys the general public, gets the cops backs up and gives fuel to the enemies' fire.

[rangerone314]

I thought it was kind of ludicrous when the OWS people were talking crud about having their student loans forgiven. Almost about as ludicrous as the preceding 2 or 3 generations tossing a mound of debt onto them that they didn't incur and expecting them to bend over to receive more love.

If anything, the older generations ought to be glad the younger generations don't implement "Logan's Run". Would serve them right, handing over a debt-ridden, oil-depleting, global-warming, soil-depleted, heavily-armed clusterf**k world and expecting younger people to fund social security with their paychecks all the with the likelihood of the younger generations getting no social security and facing "Mad Max".

If there are any records in 10,000 years that aliens can peruse though, they'll probably conclude that certain older generations alive now were vile monsters comparable to the generation of German's that oversaw the Holocaust.

Charming.

[Plantagenet]

Hundreds of OWS demonstrators were arrested in Oakland last weekend after they broke into city hall, trashed and vandalized the building, and brought out several US flags to be burned for the media on the steps of the building.


I wonder if Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other leading democrats who boasted about their role in the OWS movement still support them now that they are trashing government buildings and burning US flags?

[rangerone314]

Flag burning, destroying the symbol of our freedoms and nation, is a deplorable act.

Kind of like how deplorable it is that the members of both parties in Congress are passing or trying to pass one law after another to take away our Constitutional freedoms and destroy this nation by annihilating the middle class and trading our prosperity away to foreign countries.

P.S. The flag was probably made in China.