Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

[sicksubie]

And your paycheck currently is having 4.2% witheld for SS tax but as of January it will revert back to the 6.2%

[NikFu S.]

Occupy Wall Street: The First Quarter and Beyond
Posted: 12/16/11 01:19 PM ET

In the world Wall Street has made, quarterly results are the measure of all things. And so, with the three-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street just passed, it is, inevitably, time to take stock of the movement.

...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george...b_1152334.html

[sunvalleyray]

Great article, very well written. Thanks for posting.

Ray

[NikFu S.]

This is a good one.

Analysis: Occupy 2.0 Emerges Lean and Mean
... Transformed movement spotlights Wall Street church
by Victor Epstein
Published: December 18, 2011


A group of handcuffed Americans sat inside a fenced enclosure in Lower Manhattan on a blustery Saturday afternoon, their hands bound tightly behind them as fellow Occupy Wall Street protesters shouted words of support and thanks.

...

http://www.cynicaltimes.org/articles...lean-and-mean/

[LetItSnow]

"F*** overdraft fees"? I've got an idea... "Balance your checkbook correctly". It's just addition and subtraction, guys.

[sunvalleyray]

Don't confuse the forest from the trees, it is not about banking fees, it is about fairness and equal opportunities. See - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/op...ines&emc=thab1

The Brandeis Ratio!!

Ray

[LetItSnow]

Losing focus, are we?

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by LetItSnow

Losing focus, are we?

Cherry-picking interviews, are we?

Didn't watch; too boring.

Unrelated-




-


'Occupy' protests trigger envy, ire in Generation X
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...eet/52046498/1

[NikFu S.]

Here's an image that might be a fun talking point.

[NikFu S.]

Slight diversion from the norm here.



"An Occupy Wall Street activist explains why he thinks it is very important to spread knowledge about psychopaths and psychopathy. Find out about the important connection between psychopaths and the ruling 1%. This is not taught in schools (but should be)."






"Good overview of how corporate power and the system within which corporation operate is causing major problems for society and the environment.

See book by Joel Bakan - University of British Columbia Law Professor - The Corporation - for more details."



Full "free version" of the documentary starts here:

[LetItSnow]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

Cherry-picking interviews, are we?

Doc only points out the cancer where it shows up, yes?

Either way, I'm almost certain that drug reform isn't a 99%/1% issue.

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

Didn't watch; too boring.

Absolutely. The useful parts could probably have been compiled to two minutes.

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by LetItSnow

Doc only points out the cancer where it shows up, yes?

False analogy.

Either way, I'm almost certain that drug reform isn't a 99%/1% issue.

No, it's more of a racism issue according to Ron Paul.

Absolutely. The useful parts could probably have been compiled to two minutes.

Care to give me the gist?

[LetItSnow]

That's not a false analogy.

Naturally, you can see the awesome progress that this thread has achieved for the cause.

"We're in tents fighting the system!"
"You're in tents making a mess of and destroying public property, harassing and assaulting innocent citizens, costing taxpayers millions in necessary law enforcement and making a great case for why your unemployed are unemployed."
"We're in tents fighting the system!"

Seriously, no. Have fun camping.

[NikFu S.]

Originally Posted by LetItSnow

Naturally, you can see the awesome progress that this thread has achieved for the cause.

Information is the most powerful tool of this, or any age.

"We're in tents fighting the system!"

Severe over-simplification.

"You're in tents making a mess of and destroying public property, harassing and assaulting innocent citizens, costing taxpayers millions in necessary law enforcement and making a great case for why your unemployed are unemployed."

Might be true in some cases, but not all. Definitely not the majority of cases.

I don't think you can claim a loss of tax dollars here. Whatever number these police rack up is insignificant compared to wasteful government entities and corporate tax dodging. You will pay taxes regardless of where the money goes, and the money will be wasted regardless of whether it is on ridiculous legislation, Presidential comforts, police overtime, the military-industrial complex, whatever you can think of. This is not a valid argument against OWS.
The destruction of public property is extremely rare. The police have actually done more of this than the protesters. Not a valid argument.
"Harassing and assault", also rare as far as I know. Have yet to see one case of assault from a protester, but I guess it's within probability.
As for the case of the unemployed... you are showing a lack of sympathy here.

The U.S. economy is designed to create as much cheap labor as possible. It is this way because that is the effect corporations have had. The people believe a high gain with a small loss is a success, and success should be both rewarded and sustained. I can agree with that in concept, but in practice the gain of one often tends to be a great loss for another, sometimes of many.

So who is losing and who is the primary beneficiary of these losses?

Regular people are losing. Regular people are not to be given the opportunity to win, because that would create a loss for those whom are already successful. That is why unemployment must be sustained. Sounds far-fetched?
If there was no unemployed the business sector would be over-run with qualified people who refuse to take dead-end jobs that pay very little. Wages would remain high. They would be unable to fire people because the positions would remain vacant. Wealth inequality would not be an issue, taxes would be plentiful, the economy would be sustainable.

In order to believe in the current corporate system we have to make at least 2 assumptions:
- 1) The corporation will look out for it's own interest.
- 2) The interest of the corporation is of greater importance than those from whom it gains.

The first is absolutely required, the second just happens to be the reality we are facing. When the OWS protesters protest crony corporatism they are in spirit protesting the machinations of this system, which includes the unemployment cycle.
Jobs are few, education is increasingly expensive, morale is low, or at least it is low until some kind of hope is injected, as with the case of OWS.

Aside from that, self-importance of the corporation has lead to the abuse of government, squandering of resources, unethical transactions in which the lives of many people were negatively affected.

As a Constitutionalists my main beef with self-important corporatism is the praise of a system in which the liberty of real-working class people is superseded and even sometimes eradicated for the sake of this gain/loss game in which the working class never wins, sometimes because a building with a logo is treated as an entity with human rights that supersede the rights of actual people.

I eagerly await your response. I hope you think out your response a little next time.

---
Slightly unrelated:


OWS and Arab Spring are closely associated, so I'm putting this here.


Maybe some of you enjoy this, or think the people deserve it.

[sicksubie]

I had a meeting go late a couple weeks back and was waiting for the next train home. So, with some time to kill, I decided to walk over and snap some pictures of the slum also known as "Occupy Boston". Any internet warrior can post links to sites, reports, blogs etc. etc. in regards to what the occupiers are wanting to accomplish. The pictures below are a few of the signs declaring what Occupy Boston actually wanted to see happen...









P.S. The smell wafting out of the camp was pretty repulsive too...