Frustrated by Wall Street bailouts and inspired by seemingly spontaneous demonstrations in New York City, protesters plan to take to the streets in Florida this week.
“Occupy” groups in Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville say they are joining a populist movement that’s spreading to cities across America.
Organizing via Facebook and Twitter (#OccupyWallStreet), protests are being spawned by a small group of demonstrators rallying in New York City. A gathering of more than 400 peacefully rallied in Tampa last weekend.
With similar protests sparking in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and other U.S. cities, Occupy Tampa is planning an all-day demonstration Thursday at Lykes Gaslight Park, beginning at 9 a.m.
Liberal and progressive groups, including St. Pete for Peace, said they will march on Tampa’s financial district.
On Saturday, demonstrations are planned in Jacksonville (noon at Hemming Plaza) and Fort Lauderdale (5 p.m. at 100 S. Andrews Ave.).
The action moves to Gainesville and Ocala next week, with protests scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 12, at Bo Diddley Plaza in Gainesville and Saturday, Oct. 15, in downtown Ocala.
Franco Ripple, a progressive activist in South Florida, said, “In the last few years we’ve seen the tea party lay claim to the populist idea that they are speaking for ‘the majority of Americans’ or ‘the American people’ with calls for dramatic cuts and absolutely no tax increases of any kind, regardless of income.
“The tea party misguidedly believes the government is screwing us through so-called ‘wealth redistribution,’ while the Occupy protesters believe that corporate/financial kleptocracy is screwing us,” said Ripple, who said he is not involved in the Occupy movement.
“The way I see it, the Occupy protests are possibly the beginnings — not the fully fleshed-out, fully organized end result — of the same populist sentiments that caused the tea party’s rise: feelings of economic insecurity leading to a sense that someone, somewhere is screwing us.”
Bart Naylor, with the Washington, D.C.-based Public Citizen, called the Occupy movement America’s “Arab Spring” against a corporate elite.
“The [global] economic mess started as a financial crash. It’s legitimate to vent passion that this is unjust and that repair is necessary,” Naylor said.
Zeroing in on the growth and complexity of high finance, Naylor noted that America’s financial sector accounted for 10 percent of GDP after World War I, whereas it absorbs 20 percent of GDP today.
“As an intermediary that tries to collect capital and direct its best use in the economy, this should be a service industry whose success is enlarging the economy, not itself,” Naylor states.
“University of Florida summa cum laude graduates are having trouble finding jobs that involve more than waiting tables,” he added.
Robert Harris, author of a forthcoming novel, “The Fear Index,” said financial markets have become so intentionally complicated that economics majors are considered too “soft” for increasingly technocratic work on Wall Street.
“One extremely successful hedge fund manager — with $12 billion in assets under management — won’t hire anyone without a top Ph.D. in math or physics,” Harris related.
Unlike traditional demonstrations whipped up by labor unions or established political organizations — the ever-active Progress Florida said it has no role in the Florida protests — the emerging “Occupy” movement appears to be sui generis.
“It’s college students facing recession,” Naylor said.
Angry over stubbornly high unemployment and disparate income gaps in the wake of a U.S. taxpayer-funded bank bailout estimated at $3.4 trillion, more than 700 protesters were arrested on or near the Brooklyn Bridge last weekend.
Protesters still camping out in Manhattan’s financial district represent an eclectic mix of young and old, with secular progressives finding solidarity with moralizing “social justice” activists armed with a broad sense of history.
One erudite placard quoted from English political philosopher and Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton:
“An enormous amount of modern ingenuity is expended on finding defenses for the indefensible conduct of the powerful.”
“So far, the Occupy protesters’ message has been a little muddled, but that’s because the sentiment that we need to return to a more just, equal society is harder to distill into sound bites,” Ripple observed.
But even amid muddled messages and a largely uninterested mainstream media, he recalled, “Rome eventually collapsed in large part due to wealth inequality. Without knowing it, the Occupy protesters are fighting to ensure that we don’t go down that same path. No society this unequal can last.”
Ripple, who describes himself as a “moderate center-left Democrat,” concluded, “These protests are just and legitimate as long as they remain nonviolent. The situation on the ground is moving fast, I’m sure, but there is absolutely no place for violence in our American democracy whatsoever.”
With America’s jobless ranks increasing, the “Occupy” movement appears to have a wealth of foot soldiers.
One New York protester, Kira Moyer-Sims, 19, of Portland, Ore., told the Associated Press that demonstrators are in for the long haul
“They thought we were going to leave and we haven’t left,” she said of city officials.
In an email response to a Sunshine State News inquiry, a representative of Occupy Tallahassee wrote that the local movement “is centered around standing in solidarity with our fellow protesters on Wall Street, but also addressing specific issues pertinent to the state of Florida.
“As the city housing the capital, we are very critical of the Legislature and Governor Rick Scott and what they have done to the people in terms of allowing corporations to come into Florida and receive these incredible tax breaks that mean balancing the budget by cutting the salaries of teachers, hiking tuition, cutting funding to projects that would create more public-sector jobs, gutting the Department of Children and Families and criminalizing poverty by requiring welfare applicants to be drug tested.
“In the end the movement here is about recognizing how corporate greed and capitalistic consumption has specifically affected the lives of those living in the Sunshine State and how we, the 99 percent, can stand up against that and support the movements happening all over the globe at the same time,” wrote the representative, who declined to be named.
–Kenric Ward, Sunshine State News
Contact Kenric Ward at [email protected] or at (772) 801-5341.
Kip Durocher says
Congressman John Boehner, 8th District of Ohio, current speaker of the House of Representatives
got $100,000.00 in contributions from Goldman Sachs and its senior partners in 2010 alone.
I wonder what for ~ must be all the legislation he sponsored.
Charles Ericksen, Jr says
By chance are any of the protestors, over age 21, and employed?
Pierre Tristam says
Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Now can’t you see that your question answers itself? It is because they’re young, because their employment future is in doubt, that the protests are relevant. Unlike their more tea-stained elders, they’re not protecting their riches, they’re indignant over what’s being made of their nation’s wealth (by the nation’s wealthiest) and wondering what the hell kind of piece of the pie’s going to be left for them, when all is said and plundered. Crusts, like crusty judgments, don’t count.
Johnny Taxpayer says
Barack Obama will raise $1 billion for his re-election campaign… he ain’t collecting $20 bills when he’s holding daily fundraiser luncheons at $35,000 per plate… He raised in excess of $700 million last election,
I wonder what all those campaign contributions buy?
Stan Buchholtz says
It’s certainly about time for something like this to begin. Those who cry for less government regulation must be oblivious to the consequences of unfettered Wall Street and Banking greed., which is rapidly eroding the fabric of the American dream.
Some guy says
The nations wealth?? it is not the Nations wealth they want but other peoples weath. what the hell kind of a piece of pie will be left for them ??? I say none as you need to make your own pie. The ones “protesting” are just what they where called in the past by there unseen leaders usefull idiots!!!
Prescient33 says
If the protestors interviewed on TV are an example, I’d protest too, but not against Wall Street, rather I’s take to the streets at the so called “institutions of higher learning” where they allegedly earned their degrees. They should get a refund for the useless scraps of paper masquerading as degrees, as they evince an ignorance of basic economics, English, spelling and geography (last I looked, Wall Street is in NYC!). To a person they appear to be unemployable, except possibly as rabble rousing community organizers.
No wonder the Democrats, in Obamacare, extended family coverage to age 26-these “children” appear totally unprepared for the real world. I shudder to think of what employer would hire this riff-raff, except for grunt work, and even then, it would take hours of training to make them productive.
dealingwithidiots1 says
These are the wrong people to be protesting…most of them don’t have any idea about the real world and working for a living etc etc…they are all too young…the ones that should be protesting are the rest of us…those of us who have seen all our lifes hard work and our life savings evaporate before our eyes while Washington continues to flounder about like a box of rocks…the wall streeters continue to laugh at them and us all the way to the bank with their latest bonus checks!
Christie 2012 says
I for one hope they extended this protest for some time. Some of the greatest sound bits I ever heard come these protesters. No one could script such dump answers as these people give. It makes me understand why they need other peoples money. Maybe Van Jones and the unions should explain to these idiots why their protesting.
Kip Durocher says
Republican Rick Scott gave his campaign another $11.6 million in the final 12 days, bringing his total personal spending to more than $73 million and making this far and away the most expensive governor’s race in history.
I wonder what is ROI spreadsheets look like.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/30/1900437/scotts-spending-hits-73m.html#ixzz1ZwwH1DhZ
palmcoaster says
I am surprised… at Charlie’s words. Yes they are young under and over 21 and of course most or all unemployed as we have 30 million plus of them now. They are worried about their future if any left for them in our country. I see also many over 40 and barely under 80 on the crowds as well and I appreciate them rallying for us, the middle society, workersand the elderly as well ! I am out to join them in support! They are our neighbors, our friends and maybe some of our family members and our customers claiming for justice overdue.
Carol Stewart says
I’m neither 21 nor unemployed. I’m 66 and retired, but I’m looking for someplace to protest these bastards. Democrat, Republican, tea party, Bank of America, you name it, I’m sick of ’em! All they care about is their smug, arrogant selves. What this country needs is some serious protest, like in the ’60s. I hope this is the beginning of a movement to take back the country. Count me in. I’m old, but I’m ready!
Ralph says
The protests you are witnessing are being organized by Van Jones, White House guru, MoveOn.Org., and SEIU.
The “populist” movement is being spear headed by the administration and its interests in advance of the coming election.
NortonSmitty says
Charles, these kids and the many older participants that look to make up about half of the crowds are right where they belong. Wall Street, where the big banks, brokerages and corporate thieves work. The ones that stole all of the money, and then told their lapdogs of both political parties to give them a no-strings trillion dollar bailout so they could steal THAT money.
They are the ones that destroyed those kids lifetime prospects and put all of us in ball-crushing debt for the next thirty years. Everyone with a shred of common sense and love of country should be packing the mini-vans with pitchforks and torches and heading north with their neighbors to join in.
This is the protest the original Tea Party had in mind at it’s inception before it was hijacked by the corporatist wing of the Republican party, The original impetus for the Tea Party was the Bush Bailout of the Banksters. The grass-root organizers were pissed at this corporate welfare and their message and membership took off. But they were soon overwhelmed with offers of “support” in the form of cash and “professional organization” from such grass roots populists as the Tea Party Patriots (Funded by the Koch Brothers Oil billions) FreedomWorks(led by former Senator Dick Armey who wrote the very bank deregulation bills in the ’90s that started this whole mess) and others. The original organizers and their silly anti-Wall Street message were squeezed out and the righteously angry peasants were steered towards the anti tax/spending/government horseshit they spout today.
Which is really a shame, because we are all angry, we all know were getting screwed and we all are ready to do something about it. The difference is, the Tea Partiers are angry at the Government. The people occupying Wall Street are angry at the OWNERS of what used to be Our government. The are going to the top where the people who give the politicians they bought their marching orders to fleece us and make themselves richer. In the immortal words of The Master George Carlin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
And your all invited. Your country needs you. All of us, including the Tea folks. Pack your silly hats and white wigs and go to New York to stand next to your Grandchildren and take our country back from the greedy arrogant pigs that stole it. With Citizens United allowing unlimited corporate money to buy elections and shit like this happening already http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1 , this is probably our last chance. And it’s a long shot.
Geraldine says
And these are EXACTLY the kind of comments why I am going out there and protest! The disrespect of some people. YES, I am over 21 and YES, I am unemployed and have no health insurance. And you think I WANT it that way???? I have two small kids to care for, I have always worked from the moment I was allowed to, so don’t come to me with this crap that this is only a protest of the unemployed (and thus in your book “irresponsible”). This makes me want to throw up. It’s lucky this is a post on a website, otherwise I would use a whole lot more expletives in relation to what’s been said here.
And no, it is not spearheaded by Van Jones. His movement and MoveOn.org only joined the protests yesterday – while the protests have been going on already for 2 weeks started by a totally independent bunch of people.
And Mr “dealingwithidiots” – YOU happen to be the one barking up the wrong tree. The protests are against corporate power. And you know why Washington is such a mess? Exactly because of corporate power: all politicians are in the pockets of companies. What is called “lobbying” here, would be called “bribery” in any other country in the world! And I think you’re mistaken if you think the protesters are not angry at Washington! Of course they are – Washington/politicians and corporate power are both in this together.
Outsider says
Actually Geraldine, Van Jones’, communist, revolutionary, suspected author of STORM’s (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement) “Recaliming Revolution” and former Obama appointed green jobs czar arrival is right on time. The lack of coherence when inquiring as to what the movement is all about is intentional; if the real organizers told the protesters what they were protesting for they would head for the hills. This is no more a spontaneous mob than is an AP photographer’s appearance in Target as Michelle Obama shops undercover pretending to be just like one of us. As another poster said, these people are being used as “useful idiots.” Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it.
beachcomberT says
More power to those willing to wave signs on a street corner and do something. It’s not surprising to me that most are students. They’ve been brainwashed that student loan debts of $50,000 are normal, that tuition should go up at 2 to 3 times the inflation rate, that internships should be unpaid. Now they’re discovering the jobs that corporations once dangled are being sent overseas or turned into temp deals with no benefits. No wonder they’re angry. Hopefully, as they brandish their banneers, they’ll talk about challenging the two-party establishment by backing a third party. Tragically, as the discontent rises, the Florida legislature and those of many other states are tightening up voting rules to make it harder for students to vote. And incumbents keep piling up millions in campaign contributions, the net effect of which is to keep the military-industrial-medical system entrenched.
JIM.R says
Ralph
Move On and Van Jones are Democrats and this protest recognizes the guilt of both parties They may try to high jack this movement to get votes for the Democrats but they will not succeed. You people that are criticising the protesters being interviewed by the MSM don’t seem to understand the function of the MSM is to look for anyone that might cast the protesters in a bad way. That’s their job.
Maria Colombia says
Why should these young people not protest. They are the future of America – and will they have a good future the way the economy is going…..no jobs and no money no education and no healthcare! What what kind of a future is that for the young people of America! Besides it not only about young people. Today there wereboth young and older people demonstrating on Wall Street. Shame on the CEOs and the banks and the corporations who have brought about the crisis. They should take responsibility for it now!
palmcoaster says
Lets be aware that Flagler county is the residence and vacation home for many of these millionaires that comprise the one percent lobbying and controlling our elected ones for their personal benefit.
Then some of the posting here logically will be against these brave protesters. Hope these rallies grow sufficiently to make the change that over 30 million unemployed, many more millions homeless and the 40 million without health care, deserve. Are we suppose to be the leaders of human rights…?
some guy says
“Brave protesters” PLEASE What is/was BRAVE are the ones that in China stood in front of tanks the ones in Iran who took to the streets the first ones in Poland and the rest of the Soviet block. They where ‘brave’ they knew their LIFE was at risk and for what well for but the Liberty’s we have. The ones on the streets we see now ARE lead by the same type of people that the above where protesting against!! They do not want to build up this Nation but destroy it and what has made it a GREAT Nation.
NortonSmitty says
Outsider, you and the rest of your Fox watching buddies are the real useful Idiots, capital I. You can’t believe people would spontaneously get tired of being fucked and rise up against the ones anybody with half a brain can see are responsible? They must be dupes led by Soros or Commies or someone!
It doesn’t occur to you that at the start, there were only 700 people there. If there were one-tenth that in Teabagger regalia they would have been the lead story on every newscast that night. Instead it was ignored by TV, Papers, magazines, everything but the ‘net. It grew by word of mouth, not orchestrated by the corporate media like your Tea Party rallies because it is a true grass-roots movement not aligned with any one Party or Ideology.
So not that they can’t ignore or control it, the lapdog media only has the tactic of discrediting it.
Which is where your sorry asses come into the picture. They broadcast the most inane and inarticulate person they can find, you sheep bleat that they are all stupid. The show a young person rumpled and disheveled from living in a tent or on the ground for a week, they are dirty Hippies. They are supported by unions or progressive elements, they are communist tools.
They are none of these things. They are concerned angry citizens standing up to the lions in the lions den and getting beat and arrested for it for doing nothing more than exercising their constitutional right to protest. You want to know who is a threat to the powers that be show me one time when your precious Teabaggers were treated that way.
The fact these asswipes see the protesters as a threat give me some hope: http://politics.salon.com/2011/10/05/erin_burnett_voice_of_the_people/
Kevin says
I knew the same lot would be out there glorifying these useful idiots and condeming tea partiers. The tead partiers in fact were concerned about the spending of the governement and stimulus waste not just their own wealth, lies fabricated by the usual idiots you see here and elsewhere who enjoy straw man arguments as much as they like their vodka on the rocks by noon.
Jack says
Any reporter can shape whatever narrative he or she chooses by simply selecting whom to interview and which parts of those interviews make the cut. This interview never made it on the air and it’s a damn shame, but that’s Faux News for you, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCW-ZIPrBYY
palmcoaster says
Thank you Norton Smitty for your description of the pathetic reality that these demonstrators are protesting against. I applaud them and you.
I am fed up of not only seeing the unemployment increasing, but also of being gouged at the pump and at the grocery store needless to say at the pharmacy. People is out of work and inflation is rampant thanks to all the deregulation increases since 2000. Open imports have taken our jobs away and they do nothing to tax imports. No jobs, no homes, no healthcare and raising inflation. Stop the greed because kills people.
palmcoaster says
That is the way to document the true roots of these brave ones in these rallies. Thank you Jack.
Here a pic that proves that not only under 21 are protesters….why don’t they find better excuses these detrimental social porks?
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
and then also the fat porcine next ;
http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Protests+against+Wall+Street/G2792
NortonSmitty says
Kevin, I knew the same damn knee-jerk fools would be out there regurgitating the Fox/Republican Right Wing dog drool that they swallow uncritically and beg for more. I figured this might bring you out from under your rock. where ya’ been?
NortonSmitty says
This just in: Tomorrows Headlines- Police Crack Down on Protesters After Black-Masked Anarchists throw Garbage Cans through office windows on wall Street. Police were forced to move in with Tear Gas and other weapons to disburse the crowds after the Occupy Wall Street protests turned violent today. A group of what appears to be unusually fit and muscular Anarchists wearing black masks broke windows at some of Wall Streets most prestigeous firms and then somehow slipped through the police lines baaa baaaaa baa baaaah…….
If not tomorrow, soon. Remember, you read it here first at FlaglerLIve
Outsider says
That’s right Norton, anyone with half a brain knows who’s responsible….oh wait, I bet you are gonna say it’s the Wall Street crowd that’s responsible. I bet you weren’t even gonna mention Janet Reno threatening banks with legal action if they didn’t make loans to people who couldn’t pay them back. Of course you weren’t going to mention that George Bush’s administration tried 13 times to reign in FNMA, with regulators warning of an impending meltdown for years before it actually happened, only to be rebuffed by Franklin Raines’ cronies in Congress like Maxine Waters, Meeks, and Barney Frank, protecting their man Raines so he could walk with $100,000,000. It was only after that the Wall Street crowd jumped on the bandwagon and started selling the toxic mortgage backed securities with their bogus AAA ratings from their crony credit rating companies. But then again, what the hell else were they supposed to do with the junk the liberals shoved down their throats? Certainly this is a spontaneous, grass roots movement; if there was someone leading this movement, there would be talking points popping up in the protesters’ lexicon, like “99% vs. 1%,” and that’s not happening. I’ve noticed the universities are jumping on the protest parade, urging their brainwashed students to join in against the evil bankers who are the ones responsible for the students’ inability to find jobs. It wouldn’t be possible that they would do this to deflect the attention away from themselves would it? After all, they’re the ones that sold them that useless $100,000 degree in basket weaving, coveted by employers all over the world. Frankly, I’m tired of hearing these re-programmed graduates yearning for a job with a “non-profit.” How the fuck do you think you’re gonna get paid if the company doesn’t make a profit, you dumb-ass? Go get a job with a profitable business plan so your pay check doesn’t bounce, idiot! Believe it or not, they actually had one of the “organizers” of the event on TV today; she clearly stated that there needs to be a “new financial system” that makes sure people don’t make too much money. She favors the government taking any “excess” profit from individuals to give to the government. No, certainly no Marxist, communist connatations there. And what about all those calling for “revolution?” Revolution; really? That’s great, as long as you stick to burning down your own house; remember, us right-wing nuts “cling to our guns and religion.” Actually, I’m not very religious.
Liana G says
I’m heading to Jacksonville Saturday. Maybe we can get a group together…
—– And from the world of independent reporting. Here’s what’s worth reading. Shame on you folks for believing corporate news whose interest are align with and are part of Wall Street – the owners of our gov’t, both parties.
Democrats / Republicans = same difference
Something Big Is Happening: Occupy Together
by Jim Hightower
“To paraphrase one of Bob Dylan’s songs of youthful protest, “Something’s happening here, and you don’t know what it is, do you Ms. Bellafante?”
A New York Times writer, Ginia Bellafante, is but one of many establishment reporters and pundits who’ve been covering the fledgling “Occupy Wall Street ” movement — but completely missing the story. Instead of really digging into what’s “happening here,” they’ve resorted to fuddy-duddy mockery of an important populist protest that has sprouted right in Wall Street’s own neighborhood.
In a September article, Bellafante dismissed the young people’s effort as “fractured and airy,” calling it a “carnival” in an “intellectual vacuum.” Their cause is so “diffuse and leaderless,” she wrote, that its purpose is “virtually impossible to decipher.” No wonder, she concluded, that participation in the movement is “dwindling.”
Whew — so snide! Yet, so wrong.
While the establishment is befuddled by the plethora of issues and slogans within the protest, confused by the absence of hierarchical order and put off by its festive spirit, that’s their problem. The 20- and 30-somethings who are driving this movement know what they’re doing and are far more organized (but much differently organized) than their snarky critics seem able to comprehend.
It’s silly to say that the protestors’ purpose is indecipherable. Hello — they’re encamped next door to Wall Street. Isn’t that a clue? Their cause is the same as the one boiling in the guts of America’s workaday majority: Stop the gross greed of financial and corporate elites, and expel a political class that’s so corrupted by the money of those wealthy elites that it has turned its back on the middle class and the poor.
Such movements don’t begin with a neat set of solutions pre-packaged for The New York Times, but with roiling outrage focused directly on the plutocratic perpetrators of an unjust economy and an unresponsive politics. The movement will find agreement in due time on specific ideas for stopping the injustice, but now is the time for the passion and creative, nonviolent confrontation that will energize others to stop moaning and join the rebellion.”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/05-2
Anonymous says
What is the difference in them from the teaparty do they both not want our government not to give our tax $$ to corps.
palmcoaster says
Jacksonville Florida this Saturday at what time?
BW says
Basically what everyone that opposes these protests is saying is that you apparently have to reach a certain age to be able to protest anything. That’s pretty absurd. In fact, we actually should be looking to the youth. Google and Facebook alone are huge employers and extremely successful businesses run by young people.
If this was a movement by the Tea Party retirees, any one speaking out against it would be wrong correct? The problem is that what they are protesting makes more sense than just finding new politicians and the Tea Party people are being drowned out.
palmcoaster says
The “anti” Wall Street protesters need to have a better reason for their stand and please do not listen the bashing of this female reporter now, that used to work for Goldman S…..
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/taken-task-occupy-wall-street-nattering-nabobs-negativity-180512423.html#more-id?sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
Christie 2012 says
The taxpayers of NYC already have to pay for more than $2 million dollars for police overtime for this waste of time and supplies, now there is a growing concern of health issues as the park where the protesters are headquartered it is becoming a cesspool. It is always evident where the left has a protest, just look on the ground.
Remember this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AZ8nHHR-P0
Pierre Tristam says
Christie, the taxpayers of the United States, you and me included, are paying $350 million a day (a day) to keep the two cesspools of war in Iraq and Afghanistan going. I think the taxpayers of New York City can afford the pittance of the last few weeks, especially since the cops can also use the overtime. Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, where we’re paying to have Americans wasted and help waste about ten time more Iraqis and Afghans (who don’t count, of course, being Arabs, terrorists, and whatever it is Afghans are), at least with this spending here, everybody wins. Except of course for niggardly ideologues looking for the cheapest pretext to de-legitimize any essence of democracy that doesn’t come wrapped in tea stains and Medicare benefits.
NortonSmitty says
OK P Explain why. He bragged about his weapons first.
NortonSmitty says
Christie, your boy surrendered. Your turn.
NortonSmitty says
Anybody want to explain to me why the Mormon Great White Hope, Mr. Romney, who has been DOA in the Republican Race was given so much air time on every news outlet today? CNN, MSNBC, and of course FOX broadcast his entire speech. Just because the motherfucker gives a speech saying that he will NEVER allow the Defense budget to be cut and wants to increase the Defense budget, somehow he is suddenly on every news channel as if it were real NEWS! This is NEWS? When for the last five years he could fuck a Cub Scout in the ass at high noon on the steps of the Capitol Building and not make page 8 of the National Inquirer?
But a campaign speech where he says we must not ever for any reason cut the defense budget puts him in your face all day across the media, cable, radio, satellite whatever? When his normal press conference doesn’t even draw flies? And you sheep swear the deck isn’t stacked?
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
NortonSmitty says
Check.
BW says
Christie 2012, how is it a ‘waste of time’? It’s a ‘waste of time’ for citizens to get together in a grass-roots movement and speak out against the moral depravity and bad practices of the minority of individuals that is negatively effecting the majority?
So the Tea Party and so-called “conservative” movements have been a “waste of time” in your opinion? So their rallies have not cost tax payer dollars when they take place?
Here’s what the Tea Party people need to realize in my opinion . . . don’t speak out negatively against this protest. Why? Your just coming off as hypocrits, elistists, and damaging your reputation further. All of which will reflect upon the GOP candidate in 2012 because the Tea Party is . . . a Republican faction. (Call it what it is and cut out this “we’re not behind any one party” stuff.) The real smart move would be to speak about it in a positive manner and find the “common ground” pieces focusing on them. If this group can’t voice a good message then make one for them that enhances your own. All the while use that to focus on the best candidate who can bring about those solutions against who you don’t want to see in office. You guys are supposed to be the smart ones with all the time and experience, and in many ways you’re being handed a gift. Or simply snub your noses at it, continue to ridicule it because it wasn’t your idea, and then see how that works out for you.
I personally see this group as truly “non-party” or ideology focused. In many ways it’s what the Tea Party “sold us” on what is was to be but wasn’t formed with truth in it’s purpose.
Liana G says
Heading out to OccupyWallStreet, Jacksonville now. Supporting the Ron Paul Revolution. Yep, these folks are part of the movement too. It’s not just a liberal thing!
YOGI says
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046586/Occupy-Wall-Street-Shocking-photos-protester-defecating-POLICE-CAR.html
Social justice?
NortonSmitty says
I prefer the term “Scatological Critique”.
nanci whitley says
Occupy Orlando Oct 15th.
Christie 2012 says
Hey “nutty smith” were you in CA Thursday night? Is this you organizing the event there?
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/10/07/some-%E2%80%98occupy-sacramento%E2%80%99-protesters-lash-out-at-questions/?occupy-sacramento?-protesters-lash-out-at-questions/
Liana G says
Got back a ittle while ago from OccupyJax. That’s what the folks are calling it. Fantastic turnout even with the rain! One sign captured the spirit of the movement well “Rain or Shine we are the 99%. And boy did it rain. But the organizers were well prepared by giving out large black trash bags. I was soaking wet by the time they got to me – but it was pouring rain already when I left home so what the heck. It’s being held again next Saturday, Rain or Shine!.
Sorry to disappoint you Mr Ericksen but the crowd was a very, very, very diverse age group. And the cops here were friendly. I couldn’t remember where I had parked when I was ready to leave, and they were most helpful. One even told me not to feel bad because I was not the only one.
I took lots of pictures, hope to be able to post them on FL FB. Now I’m off to help my daughter get ready for homecoming dance.
Pierre Tristam says
Liana, can you email me as soon as you can? Thanks. [email protected]
Kevin says
And it’s not only them “damn bankers” that is destroying America. It is the slow erosion of a country being sold out down to its foundation by both sides of the isle, republicans and democrats, furthering their self interests by seeing to the satisfaction of the desires of the private interests of every sort but mainly those of unions, education, lawyers, corporations, and best of all those damn bankers.
There are a variety of enemies from within, visible to those able to apply critical thinking skills. This probably isn’t something those raging in the streets aimlessly ( as per the embarrassing poor commentaries I heard) wearing their hoodies and facemasks, who just unplugged from their God of War video game after 18 hours a day are very good at. They sort of remind me of the Wisconsin public unions when I think back to those events hmmmm….
Anyone watching these dolts doing what they do best, nothing of consequence. In the end, all they will have accomplished is cause insurance companies to have to pay out claims and allow for sanitation employees to make some extra money cleaning up after their refuse.
Having listened to them at length on various media outlets, I have found very little to praise them for and I did have hope for them—in the beginning. Now it is the same kind of hope we have left from the man who would be King, literally, foreign mentality, social justice—Mr. Hope and Change Barrack Hussein Obama.
NortonSmitty says
Kevin, how in the hell did you go from such a beautiful first paragraph to the hateful regurgitation based on the targeted speculation the powers that be are feeding you denigrating the motives of these citizens putting their ass on the line to force the changes we all agree we need to preserve middle-class working America?
We know the financial leeches are bleeding our country dry without providing the jobs we used to get from the manufacturers.
PLEASE don’t’ buy into the horseshit propaganda that these are “Job Providers”. They are parasites that produce nothing but profits for the hedge fund and Goldman Sachs slicksters that make billions trading exotic paper transactions they scrape lucre off of every transaction that passes through their hands.
For time immemorial they were looked down upon as the greedy unproductive vermin that somehow a society had to tolerate for capital loans to finance large factories and public projects. An evil necessity we tolerated for the good of society for seed money and wealth creation that benefited us all.
Now, they just make money for themselves by trading unproductive paper in the form of derivatives, options, shorts, scams, whatever. The whole reason for the Wall Street trading houses existence is no longer to provide capital to entrepreneurs who need funding to create products, which usually necessitates putting people to work to make Things. No. Now the game is to make money by having money and shuffling it in a way that makes more money. For the money shufflers.
Gordon Gekko was meant to be a sarcastic example of greed gone wild, a golem to show that money can’t buy happiness or peace in your life. An allegory. Instead he became the goal for a nation of MBA’s raised to believe in Reaganomics and Ayn Rand.
This recently metastasized form of capitalism is unsustainable. In the last thirty years it has sucked the lifeblood out of the middle class society that we came to believe was America. All of the money our parents raised our generation on isn’t available for us to have that kind of life today. It is all been sucked out of our reach and delivered to the top 1% of our societal pyramid.
Labor today has no value here. At least not above what it can be had for anywhere else on this planet. If Fruit of the Loom finds that they can hire someone to make their underwear in Sri Lanka for two fisheads and a cup of rice, they will shut down their factory in Haiti where they have to pay $3.00 a day. And we swallow the horseshit about a Global Economy and NAFTA and are amazed that we can’t find good jobs here? And all we hear on all the News and all the politicians is we MUST do all we can to give the rich whatever we can! No, don’t call them The Rich, that is a class warfare term. They are the Job Providers!
Jobs my pasty white ass. Slaves had jobs. How about some decent wages. Because if we really want a job today, it’s there the moment we learn to be happy eating fisheads and rice.
That’s why we all should be supporting the Wall Street Patriots.
NortonSmitty says
I saw a beautiful sign that I am going to plagiarize and stand in front of my polling place this election day. It said:
VOTE DEMOCRATIC! BETTER TO SUPPORT THE SPINELESS THAN THE EVIL!
I figure it’s the least I can do. Especially since the monumentally overachieving thief all of you elected Governor of this over developed swamp has decided to rescind my voting rights.
NortonSmitty says
Christy2012, No I was here.
Hey, since the Fat One left you at the alter even after you and the rest of the showgirl Republican boosters begged him to run. Hell even Nancy Reagan and Cockeyed Barbara Bush gave him a geriatric prostate tongue-massage trying to get him to run.
Evidently, like you they didn’t get the memo.
Barack the Trojan Horse has to get four more years to dismantle all of the social programs that a Republican would never be able to do without the Proles raising hell. Like Nixon was the only one able to go to China, a black “Liberal” like Obama is getting four more years to gut all of the social programs the workers fought for the last 100 years fighting for.
And he will be in charge while we tank the whole American economy ’til we beg for a savior. Just like Germany in ’33, we will scream for our savior. And he will come.
Get on the bandwagon now Christie boy! Repeat after me:
JEB BUSH/MARCO RUBIO in 2016!! God Bless America!
Kevin says
“Hey, since the Fat One left you at the alter even after you and the rest of the showgirl Republican boosters begged him to run. Hell even Nancy Reagan and Cockeyed Barbara Bush gave him a geriatric prostate tongue-massage trying to get him to run.”
Norton is profane and ignorant yet some people here consider him as someone worthy of admiration. It makes me sad for the world seeing this mentality condoned by seemingly intelligent people.
As I’ve gone from a boy to a man, I have watched and listened to the debates (if they can be loosely associated to that definition) the differences between liberals and conservatives on many occasions. It seems that on the whole, those on the left, the gauche, seem to enjoy and applaud vile, crude, and most socially unacceptable comments as long as the repugnant comments are directed at conservatives. Nortonsmitty’s comments prove my observations to have merit.
The full time spin Drs like Rachael Madcow, Chris Matthews (an obviously ugly mouthed individual if ever there was one, even beating Norton Smitty) and the worst in terms of unabashed hatred and vitriolic language Lawrence O’Donnell are undeniably to any intellectually honest, objective individual to top of the list along with having big megaphones. I honestly read or watch various opinionated media: The NY Times, Washington Post, MSNBC and those hosts mentioned and then everything else such as FOX business News, Investor’s Business Daily, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Al Jazeera, The telegraph, etc., so that I have facts to support my beliefs unlike those erroneously presumed by Norton Smitty.
Speaking from the heart, I recognize much of what Fox News and their viewers are attacked for is more representative of what the left does. Is everything they have on their station a lie because any honest opinion maker would know that in itself is a bold faced lie? Really, to speak of baseless accusations….what about when Fox opinion shows are compared to the commentators such as the ones I previously mentioned? They don’t compare to the radical, bold faced liars mentioned who are unabashedly lacking in social etiquette, speaking pejoratively and impugning the conservatives with a hateful energy, exponentially harsher than those they attack.
Can anyone think of the last time Bill Maher was punished for the ugly, insensitive attacks he has made on women??? Example you ask—Countless disgusting references and insults about Sarah Palin for one. And the Left’s hypocrisy is recently displayed when Scott Brown makes a quip about thanking the Lord for his female opponent keeping her clothes on. Then this becomes front page news and he is personally attacked and admonished without end even though the woman opened up the issue to begin! Thus liberalism is fairly deemed a mental disorder from when I apply my clinical training to the issue (yes I have clinical training for those assholes who have something to say about it).
The leftist is just that– someone one the left, gauche, a participant of deceitful practices, enjoying of a gangster mentality, aggressive, combative and certainly against free speech and open to opinions different from their own. Example: Today’s college campuses where hoards were indoctrinated to believe in violent opposition with hose they disagree with. All anyone has to do is watch any meeting where the Left has “demands” and then sit back watch the heads get cracked open. The Wisconsin rallies are a good recent example. Lets not forget propagandists at their bests is the greatest accomplishments today!
Kevin says
I realize my writing is atrocious but can this be ignored in order to communicate the desired feelings and ideas I have inside of me?
In summary, specifically to you NortonSmitty, it doesn’t swell my heart with pride or happiness to feel such an anger and revulsion towards possibly decent people such as you, your ilk, and unfortunately a growing bulk of Americans. I guess I do pray for our country but inside I know that probably the best of times are behind us, never to be seen again because so many today are not holding President Obama accountable for his activities which have had EVERYTHING to do with much of the mess we are in today. Without change from the top down we are doomed to a worsening future where our leaders are controlled by the special interests of all wealthy groups or individuals rather then working for the interests of truly free markets and liberty, virtue, and in essence The Golden Rule.
Shit, Obama still blames Bush whenever he can. I noticed recently there has been some occasions where he states the obvious, accepting things went wrong in some way or another but then doubles down on the mistake knowing nothing will happen to him because the banks are his master and they will make sure he is well cared for when his presidency has ceased. Two miserable misused and abused stimulus’s(?:) and now he wants another? He has shown to be clandestine in his meetings and policies, works for banking and lendings best interests, and adamantly works to crush the middle class and stifle growth and creativity through expanded legislation in every area except those that matter– such as doing something more to promote the family unit. There is much to say about the benefits of a woman, man, and child/children bound by marriage, exclusively belonging and defining their relationship. (Let all other forms be unions)
My one day off and this is how spend it?!
Custom IDX solutions says
I think occupy is going to have troubles after the debacle in Oakland. Kind of funny the dems made the Tea Parties to look to be anti social and rednecks. Looks like the occupy buildings that do not belong to me has dropped a big egg for the dems to eat.
Kip Durocher says
pro newt pacs have been given 10 million dollars by one man in one month
shelton adelson ~ a nevade casino billionaire.
he likes newt’s new history “palestinians are a made-up people”
asked what he would do if he, as president, got a call from israel that they
were bombing iran, he said he would say, “what can we do to help?”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/30/adelson-denies-involvement-in-special-nevada-caucus-for-jews/
go and see for yourself just what the rigged businessmen and the banksters think USA is worth
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/index.php