I’m sick as a fucking dog, and don’t have the strength in me to write anything even remotely interesting, let alone meaningful, on the subject, but I wanted to remind people that the occupation of Wall Street is now in its eighth day. According to what I’m reading, approximately 100 of the protesters were hauled away by police today. Today was also notable because it was the first day that the venerable New York Times took notice. (Most news outlets have still to recognize the peaceful protests in New York’s Financial District.) The NYT article, entitled Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim, does an admirable job, if nothing else, of putting forward what I’ll call the “naive hippie” narrative. Here’s a clip:
…The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face — finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out. But what were the chances that its members were going to receive the attention they so richly deserve carrying signs like “Even if the World Were to End Tomorrow I’d Still Plant a Tree Today”?…
Looking at the photos, it’s easy to be dismissive. I suspect, however, that will change. These are just the early adopters. They’ll be followed shortly by the debt-ridden college grads who can’t find jobs, and the people who are being forced out of their jobs at Bank of America, is spite of the company’s profitability. No, this isn’t going to stop anytime soon. The rock is just starting to crack, and the magma is just starting to flow. If you thought the Tea Party was a force to be reckoned with, just wait. Soon, the smart people are going to be taking to the street.
Here’s video footage of seemingly peaceful women being corralled on a public sidewalk by orange construction fencing, and then sprayed in the eyes with pepper spray by police.
[The photo above was taken by Peter Harris.]
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“No, this isn’t going to stop anytime soon.”
“Soon, the smart people are going to be taking to the street.”
So, when does the Ypsi caravan leave for NY (or Chicago, as things are shaping up)? It’s easy for us to read about it and post about it, but how many of us are actually going to be there and “taking to the street”? I’m game and I’m hoping to get there this week.
It’s easy to write these people off as bozos, too easy, really.
We need more activity like this. If I believed in God, I’d pray for them. If I weren’t out of town, I’d consider going myself and giving Jiggs a ride.
Peter,
So are you admitting that a believer’s prayers are effective? What if you prayed first? Wouldn’t God’s answers be reason to believe?
At first, the corporate-0wned media seemed to want to ignore the Wall Street protests, as if ignoring them would make it go away.
Now, as evidenced by this NYT piece, they have entered the dismissive phase, taking great pains to paint the protesters as “fringe” or as merely a bunch of ne0-hippies who are protesting for the sake of protest.
But the real story isn’t on Wall Street. The real story is brewing, right now, in Washington, and Brussels, and Paris and Berlin … and directly down to the public squares of Athens, Greece.
Anybody who’s been paying attention seems to know — even if they don’t want to admit it — that the trillions of Dollars (or Euros, or whatever) of interlocking debt obligations that are owed by (and to) a multitude of governments, banks and corporations can never, and will never, be repaid.
When this house of cards begins to fall — when “to-big-to-fail” banks begin to do just that, and when governments realize they are too broke to bail them all out … the resulting economic consequences, and resulting political fallout, will make the handful of protesters in New York look a mere historical footnote.
An interesting story of that time is Erich Maria Remarque’s “The Road Back”. Of course, we’re not WWI vets who lost, still possibly too timely to miss.
The image of the young man holding the American flag with the knee on his neck is absolutely chilling. And I agree that this isn’t stopping anytime soon. It will be led by the students getting out of college with no prospects and incredible amounts of debt.
Chomsky:
http://roarmag.org/2011/09/chomsky-speaks-out-in-support-of-wall-street-protests/
The cop who maced the young women has been identified:
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2011/09/26-1
I read a quote from a Wall Street trader who when down to check out the protests a few days ago on his lunch hour. He said he went to check out the tits on the young women. I don’t, as a rule, advocate for violence, but would have liked to have seen him get pepper sprayed and taken to the ground with a knee to his throat.
None of this would have been necessary if Obama had held people accountable.
Watch this video also and then reply:
http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=56573
The following comment was made by someone on Reddit today who was likewise expressing frustration with the fact that they NYC protesters had no coherent agenda. Here’s what he had to say.
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/krl3y/i_am_just_so_absolutely_inexplicably_proud_of/c2mob9l
Anonymous is going after the policeman who sprayed the women.
This should be fun.
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/145523/anonymous-publicly-identifies-nypd-officer-who-cowardly-pepper-sprayed-protesters/#3
NPR responds to claims from some that “Occupy Wall Street” isn’t adequately covered: “The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective.”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2011/09/26/140815394/newsworthy-determining-the-importance-of-protests-on-wall-street?ft=1&f=17370252
Maybe if these crazy people had the Koch brothers’ money behind them, like the Tea Party, it would be a different matter.
That NYPD officer, Anthony Bologna, has a history too. Reports out today say that he was accused of civil rights violations at the 2004 Republican National Convention protests as well.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/26-8
Here in NYC, the NPR affiliate has had pretty good coverage of the protests. And this evening, “All Things Considered” had a segment on the police brutality.
Wait,
The cop’s name is Tony Bologna? Where I’m from, we say bologna, “baloney.”
Here’s how Barbour recalled the group:
“You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders.
No need to venture far – occupation is coming to YOU! Or Lansing and Detroit…
http://occupytogether.org/