Occupy the Globe

[Carbizene]

Seems that Murdoch et al have woken up to the threat Occupy represents to the CCE and have now turned off the spotlight, Australian media now has propoganda pieces on Russian protests instead.

[Zack Morris]

I'm no fan of our elite overlords but I think the Occupy movement has mostly itself to blame for this. They haven't even generated any ideas yet! Every now and then I still see self-proclaimed Occupy emissaries invited to talk about the "working groups" they're involved with and which they assure us are coming up with innovative and practical ideas. I'll believe it when I see it. The term "working groups" reminds me of academic conferences and student government bodies -- colossal wastes of time for the most part.

[Typhoon]

Is the Occupy movement still actively occupying anywhere?

[Enki]

I'm no fan of our elite overlords but I think the Occupy movement has mostly itself to blame for this. They haven't even generated any ideas yet! Every now and then I still see self-proclaimed Occupy emissaries invited to talk about the "working groups" they're involved with and which they assure us are coming up with innovative and practical ideas. I'll believe it when I see it. The term "working groups" reminds me of academic conferences and student government bodies -- colossal wastes of time for the most part.

You probably shouldn't speak about things you don't bother to educate yourself on.

[Enki]

Is the Occupy movement still actively occupying anywhere?

Sure, and the police in various places are still pepper spraying and arresting people when they do.

There are actions involving hundreds of people every single day in New York.

[Enki]

Occupy Congress

[Enki]

http://www.truth-out.org/small-occupy-m ... 1324565239

Demonstrators don't have nicely packaged sound bites; there's no go-to spokesperson; Occupy DC is one of the last camps standing. But the movement is far from dead.

Here in California, the movement is exploding. In a recent study called "Diffusion of the Occupy Movement in California," UC Riverside researchers surveyed 482 incorporated towns and cities in California and found that 143 - nearly 30 percent - had Occupy sites on Facebook between December 1 and December 8.

According to the study, many of the small and medium-sized towns are active with likes, posts and events on their Facebook pages. For example, the town of Arcata has about 17,000 people and 2,950 subscriptions on their page.

"The Occupy Barstow website proclaimed that Barstow is 'about as far from Wall Street as you can get.' But the Barstow occupiers probably did not know that there were also Occupy actions in Weaverville, Idyllwild, Calistoga, El Centro and many other small California towns, even in very remote areas," write professor of sociology Christopher Chase-Dunn and graduate student Michaela Curran-Strange.

And the majority of Occupy cities are not in the Northern, more liberal, part of the state. They are almost equally divided between the north and south.

"The north-south finding is interesting because most people believe that the political culture of Northern California is much more Leftist than that of Southern California," Chase-Dunn and Curran-Strange write. "Our findings suggest that this is no longer true, at least as indicated by the propensity to establish Occupy sites."

The study also listed several success stories within individual movements. Occupy Riverside activists helped an ex-Marine reoccupy the home that he and his family were evicted from as a result of foreclosure. Occupy Petaluma protesters successfully petitioned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend evictions during the holidays. Occupy Redding is supporting postal workers who are protesting job cuts.

[admin]

I'm no fan of our elite overlords but I think the Occupy movement has mostly itself to blame for this. They haven't even generated any ideas yet! Every now and then I still see self-proclaimed Occupy emissaries invited to talk about the "working groups" they're involved with and which they assure us are coming up with innovative and practical ideas. I'll believe it when I see it. The term "working groups" reminds me of academic conferences and student government bodies -- colossal wastes of time for the most part.

You probably shouldn't speak about things you don't bother to educate yourself on.

No.

If you disagree, then you should provide arguments and/or evidence for your position [as you did later in the thread].

The Occupy movement is not sacrosanct.

ZM, and all other posters, are free to question and to express opinons about the Occupy movement [or any other topic].

Please review noting [2].

[Zack Morris]

Where are the Occupy candidates, then? Liberal news outlets like MSNBC and the NYT sympathize with Occupy, based on the time they've spent covering the movement, interviewing various pro-Occupy talking heads, and hand-wringing over income inequality. Where is the intellectual proselytization, the policy suggestions? Where are the op-eds that lay out the ideology and its vision? The Tea Party had these things. They were able to co-opt establishment conservative commentators to disseminate their message.

[Enki]

Where are the Occupy candidates, then? Liberal news outlets like MSNBC and the NYT sympathize with Occupy, based on the time they've spent covering the movement, interviewing various pro-Occupy talking heads, and hand-wringing over income inequality. Where is the intellectual proselytization, the policy suggestions? Where are the op-eds that lay out the ideology and its vision? The Tea Party had these things. They were able to co-opt establishment conservative commentators to disseminate their message.

Get the money out of politics. That's the core of it. Everything else is details. Lots of actions going on.

Funny how I just had a conversation with someone saying that the Tea Party doesn't have a solid vision like Occupy does.

End Corporate Personhood is one of the big agenda items that is agreed upon by OWS.

I can tell you who many Occupy candidates are. In the New York City Council you have Ydanis Rodriguez, Leticia James, and Juumane Williams. For Congress...well...still not playing my hand, Occupy Congress is in January. Jerold Nadler is pretty popular among OWS.

i think it's funny how you compare the Tea Party since the Tea Party wasn't even an electoral force until about two years after the Tea Party was getting started, four years before it really made a big splash. OWS is not even four months in the making.

People keep treating OWS like it should resemble a party machine or be organized in a singular fashion like billionaire funded corporate astroturf. It is what it is, and it's having a very big impact on the political landscape. So...whenever people repeat the tired old, "They don't have a vision.", I just know that it's the person speaking who is ignorant.

[Zack Morris]

Get the money out of politics.

Then why, when given air time, do none of the Occupiers ever mention this? Why aren't they focusing their protests on Washington D.C., where we are governed by a Congress of millionaires? Why are they occupying parks and why do they seem to be most zealous about shutting down ports? What I have heard actual protestors say is that they think the top 1% are hoarding money and depriving them of income and (while clutching his iPad) that they are against the idea of private property.

No, it's not about money and politics. It's ostensibly about income inequality. But the intellectual incoherence of the movement, its confused rhetoric, and its misguided attempts at disrupting economic activity only tell us that it's really about self-deluded brats lashing out at a changing world that isn't going their way.

Funny how I just had a conversation with someone saying that the Tea Party doesn't have a solid vision like Occupy does.

The Tea Party platform is simple: lower taxes, de-fund the government (except the military), and outlaw abortion. I'm not saying I agree with it or that it's novel but it's pretty simple. They can put up candidates that promise to slash spending, gum up the system by refusing to pass an Obama budget, repeal Obamacare, etc.

What would Occupy do? Probably more Consumer Protection Agencies and more free hand-outs. Bailouts not only for home owners but fresh graduates unable to find work in their (useless) major. And you can bet they'd be all about bailing out big corporations (even if they've now decided they dislike banks) because the same people who are praising Occupy were clamoring for bailouts for the auto industry and the banks, "because the experts said it's necessary."

End Corporate Personhood is one of the big agenda items that is agreed upon by OWS.

Okay now we're cooking. What does this mean? How (and for what) could corporations be held liable in an Occupied world? What sorts of punishments will be meted out? And how would this make US-based corporations more competitive than those abroad? Because if it doesn't, then that's where those corporations are going to go.

I can tell you who many Occupy candidates are. In the New York City Council you have Ydanis Rodriguez, Leticia James, and Juumane Williams. For Congress...well...still not playing my hand, Occupy Congress is in January. Jerold Nadler is pretty popular among OWS.

City Council doesn't count. City councils have always been a playground for weirdos. Look at San Francisco or Seattle. New York's no less insular. So it sounds like Occupy might have one potential candidate for Congress.

[Carbizene]

I'm no fan of our elite overlords but I think the Occupy movement has mostly itself to blame for this. They haven't even generated any ideas yet! Every now and then I still see self-proclaimed Occupy emissaries invited to talk about the "working groups" they're involved with and which they assure us are coming up with innovative and practical ideas. I'll believe it when I see it. The term "working groups" reminds me of academic conferences and student government bodies -- colossal wastes of time for the most part.

I agree, if Occupy doesn't devise a coherent platform it will end up having as much effect as the Hippies did, that is zero.

[Typhoon]

Occupy: based on the crowd estimates, it appears to be more of a media event than a movement.

[Enki]

Occupy: based on the crowd estimates, it appears to be more of a media event than a movement.

*shrugs* I went to my hometown which is a small little town in central New Mexico and there was an Occupy there, I hung out with those people for a little while.

Crowd estimates are misleading, because if you consider that there was stuff going on all the time every day for several months, it wasn't always the same 30,000 people in the crowds. I am pretty sure a couple of events in particular were larger than 30,000 people. That list does not convey meaningful information at all. As you will note...Oakland where all the riots were...is not even mentioned. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oc ... California

Also, it denies the netroots aspect of it. One of the ways people have been judging has been based on the Facebook groups for various Occupations and the amount of traffic on them.

So nationwide we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people as a low estimate. Not arguing it's mainstream at all, but there is a lot of sympathy for it all around the country.

[Typhoon]

Occupy: based on the crowd estimates, it appears to be more of a media event than a movement.

Similarly, judging by the Republicrat race, the Tea Party is marginal.

[Enki]

Occupy: based on the crowd estimates, it appears to be more of a media event than a movement.

Similarly, judging by the Republicrat race, the Tea Party is marginal.

Judging by the number of Tea Party candidates that took actual political office, I would have to disagree with that. But marginal groups wield disproportionate influence in America being that Americans largely do not vote. Since voter turnouts on non-Presidential general elections are in the 10-15% range.

[Typhoon]

Occupy: based on the crowd estimates, it appears to be more of a media event than a movement.

*shrugs* I went to my hometown which is a small little town in central New Mexico and there was an Occupy there, I hung out with those people for a little while.

Crowd estimates are misleading, because if you consider that there was stuff going on all the time every day for several months, it wasn't always the same 30,000 people in the crowds. I am pretty sure a couple of events in particular were larger than 30,000 people. That list does not convey meaningful information at all.

So nationwide we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people as a low estimate.

The disparity between media reports and your anecdotal estimates is rather large.

So either 1/ the media is colluding to downplay the movement - unlikely given the coverage protests received; or 2/ your anecdotal estimates are optimistic.

The latter seems more likely.

[Typhoon]

Occupy: based on the crowd estimates, it appears to be more of a media event than a movement.

Similarly, judging by the Republicrat race, the Tea Party is marginal.

Judging by the number of Tea Party candidates that took actual political office, I would have to disagree with that.

Well, they may have have called themselves Tea Party candidates, but it appears to be business as usual in the US Congress.

FP | Worst. [US] Congress. Ever

But marginal groups wield disproportionate influence in America being that Americans largely do not vote.

Yes, that does appear to the be case.

Since voter turnouts on non-Presidential general elections are in the 10-15% range.

Then the next round of non-Presidential general elections will be a test case for the influence, or not, of the Occupy movement.

[Enki]

Well, they may have have called themselves Tea Party candidates, but it appears to be business as usual in the US Congress.

Congress has been anything but since 2010.

Since voter turnouts on non-Presidential general elections are in the 10-15% range.

Then the next round of non-Presidential general elections will be a test case for the influence, or not, of the Occupy movement.

Yes, definitely. Though there is an anti-voting streak in the Occupy Movement, so we'll see how it goes.

[Enki]

Wait for it...wait for it...

[Mr. Perfect]

You always say that, then nothing happens.

[Enki]

Sorry it doesn't happen within your short attention span.

[Carbizene]

NEW YORK — Authorities say dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested as they tore down the barricades surrounding New York City's Zuccotti Park just before midnight on New Year's Eve.

Police say 68 people were arrested during the scuffle. At least one person was accused of assaulting a police officer, who suffered cuts on one hand. Other charges include trespassing, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment.

Protester Jason Amadi says he was pepper-sprayed when police tried to prevent the crowd of about 500 demonstrators from taking down the barricades. Amadi says the crowd piled the barricade pieces in the center of the park and stood on top of them, chanting and singing.

Police are still processing arrests but say some protesters have been released. No other details were available Sunday.

MSNBC

[Enki]

Bloomberg has been sending the NYPD to raid Globalrevolution Livestream Media NOCs around the city. He's attacking the infrastructure of the media core even when they are doing nothing at all illegal.

[Enki]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/01/03 ... ivestream/

These are the Palmer Raids all over again.

This is why I get kind of upset when people glibly talk about whether the Occupy movement has legs. It would be a genuflecting tragedy of monumental proportions if it didn't. Because it would mean that Americans are completely and totally apathetic to the fact that the government is simply arresting people whenever it feels like it.

To me this isn't some intellectual exercise in political messaging. This is real people, people I know personally, or am only one degree of separation from being persecuted by their own government. This isn't supposed to happen in America. It has happened throughout our history, but it's not supposed to.