Business Insider looks at the rise and fall of Occupy Wall Street 10 years later

I'm taking a break from entertainment to look back at a major subject during the first year of this blog, Occupy Wall Street. Watch Business Insider's retrospective, Why Occupy Wall Street Failed 10 Years Ago | Rise And Fall.

Ten years ago, it seemed like Occupy Wall Street would change America. The movement that started in New York City's Financial District spread across the nation in weeks. But it died out as quickly as it started. What happened to Occupy Wall Street and did it even make a difference?

I pretty much agree with former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, that the movement was good at attracting attention and directing it to the economic, social, and political problems, but didn't have a strategic goal or activists who would work to achieve it. However, it wasn't a waste of effort.

As I wrote on the first anniversary of my blogging about the protests, "One year later, the participants may no longer be camping out in Zuccotti Park, but they did turn economic inequality into a major subject of conversation..." Reich and others pointed out that it made the candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren possible and served as a model for the Black Lives Matter and Climate Strike protests, all of which I supported. So, Occupy Wall Street failed in the short term, but set up other long-term movements that have goals and strategies to achieve them. It also showed what not to do. That's just as important a lesson as its successes.

The science of tear gas from Discovery News

Bardarbunga erupts, maybe was the topic I picked as last night's top story for Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday at Daily Kos, but it wasn't the one that got the most attention from the readers.  Instead, it was this video from Discovery News: How Tear Gas Affects Your Body.

The use of tear gas on crowds by police in Ferguson, Missouri has made recent headlines. SourceFed’s Reina Scully explains what tear gas does to your body and how treatment works after tear gas exposure.

That spawned two threads.  The first thread was about how using tear gas would a violation of the laws of war, but it's OK to use on your own population for riot control, while the second was about how to protect oneself from tear gas.  I'd reproduce them, except that in the spirit of a picture being worth 1000 words, I posted the image from Occupy Wall Street instead.  The only difference was that the person starting the second thread recommended Milk of Magnesia instead of Maalox.  Both threads combined had 12 comments.  The entire diary only received 30 comments, so tear gas was the subject of 40% of the comments.  Looks like I hit a nerve, just like I did when I posted The science of sarin gas from Discovery News.

I might have more about the issues raised by Ferguson later this week, after my Sunday entertainment entry and something about the Ebola epidemic.  Stay tuned.

CNN Money on income inequality

I concluded CNN Money on Occupy Wall Street two years later by writing "stay tuned for more from CNN Money on income inequality."  This morning, I present two clips from CNN Money's Annalyn Kurtz show featuring former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, former Lehman Brothers VP Lawence McDonald, and Occupy Wall Street protester Mark Bray about income inequality.

The first asks Why is the U.S.A. so unequal?

With higher income inequality than in other developed economies, is the U.S. safety net broken, or is it to blame?

I'm with Reich and Bray.  The problem is that wages are too low, not that the safety net is too comfortable.

The second asks Who's to blame for income inequality?

From Wall Street to Washington, our panelists list a number of factors contributing to income inequality.

Again, I agree with Reich and Bray.  Income inequality is a political problem at both ends of the economic spectrum.  The effect of big money in politics, which was mentioned in the previous entry in this series, is the major issue for the Coffee Party.  As such, it's an issue for me.

Tonight, I'll conclude this series by embedding the clip about organizing fast food workers and showing how it's played out locally through Occupy Detroit.  Stay tuned.

CNN Money on Occupy Wall Street two years later

In CNN Money on Lehman Brothers five years later, I pointed out that this week was the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street and to "stay tuned for more clips...discussing Occupy Wall Street."  It's time to follow through.*

First, a retrospective from the producers of "99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film" about how Occupy flamed out, but issues still burning.

Two years after the Occupy Wall Street protests started, documentary filmmakers discuss why their new film on the movement still carries weight.

Next, former Occupy Wall Street protester Mark Bray joins CNN Money's Annalyn Kurtz and her other guests Labor Secretary Robert Reich and former Lehman Brothers VP Lawence McDonald to explain Why Occupy Wall Street fizzled out.

Did the anarchists kill the Occupy Wall Street movement with a lack of organization? Our Occupy panelist defends the success of the protests.

Stay tuned for more from CNN Money on income inequality and organizing fast-food workers.

*To read last year's retrospective, click on Occupy Wall Street one year later.  It has links to all my entries about Occupy Wall Street from my first until I started blogging about Occupy Detroit.

CNN Money on Lehman Brothers five years later

This week marks the anniversaries of two events I've written about in this blog, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of Occupy Wall Street.  CNN Money has been covering both stories.  In this entry, I present two clips about Lehman Brothers five years later.

First, a former Lehman employee describes How I bounced back after Lehman collapsed.

Lynn Gray worked at Lehman Brothers for 11 years. Hear her story of the fateful day 5 years ago, and how she was able to start a business at the age of 60.

Next, Annalyn Kurtz asks Since Lehman, has Wall St. culture changed?  Her panel of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, former Lehman Brothers VP Lawence McDonald, and and former Occupy Wall Street protester Mark Bray answer.

Our financial panelist says there is a lot less risk taking on Wall Street, but everyone agrees the fundamentals of the system have not changed.

Stay tuned for more clips from this show discussing Occupy Wall Street, income inequality, and the next labor movement, organizing fast food workers.

ETA:  For those of you coming here from Kunstler's blog, here are the links to the rest of the entries in this series.

• CNN Money on Occupy Wall Street two years later
• CNN Money on income inequality
• Fast food worker strikes and organizing

Public service announcements about cybercriminals and Sandy plus bonus coverage

Purdue University: You can avoid being scammed in donating to Hurricane Sandy victims
October 31, 2012

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The many pictures and news reports of massive destruction and loss of life and property from Hurricane Sandy is triggering an urge for people to help. But it's important that donors know where their money is actually going, says a Purdue University cybersecurity expert.

"We've seen it time and again, and con artists and scammers are continually coming up with advanced methods to take people's money through contributions - often online," says Eugene H. Spafford, professor and executive director of CERIAS - Purdue's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security.

Researchers at CERIAS know that criminals will take advantage of the most tragic of circumstances, counting on people's sense of urgency to "do something" to overcome their normal caution, Spafford says.

"Be alert to fraudulent but sincere-sounding appeals for aid from hurricane victims or from what appear to be charities," he says. "These solicitations may be sent as email to you or a group to which you belong, as postings or messages on a social newsgroup such as Facebook or Twitter, as a phone call from someone soliciting donations, or as a website to which you are directed or that pops up when visiting a site."

I used to give out a "Gene Spafford 'Usenet Samaritan' Award" to recognize the good guys online, so I found it a pleasant surprise to run across his name while looking for articles to include in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Sandy's aftermath edition).

Spafford was delivering the bad news. For the good news, I found this diary on Daily Kos: AMAZING: Occupy Wall Street Leading Massive, Volunteer-Powered Recovery Efforts in New York. Here are two videos from that diary documenting Occupy's work.

Sam Corbin, an Occupy Sandy organizer, guides us through the volunteer hub emerging at 5406 4th Ave in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Occupy is doing more than just protesting inequality. Good for them!

Follow over the jump for more on Sandy from last night's Science Saturday.

Occupy Wall Street one year later

Today marks the anniversary of the day that I first started blogging about Occupy Wall Street in Occupy Wall Street is sequel to Anonymous vs Scientology, in which I opined:

I've seen this movie before. This is the sequel to Anonymous vs. Scientology and it's recycling the first film's plot, but with a bigger budget, more special effects, and a group of villains who are less comic, better known, and more dangerous. At this stage of the protests against Scientology, the long-time anti-Scientologist activists discovered Anonymous and found a way to jump in front of the movement. The same thing is happening here, with Michael Moore and others realizing that there is now a mob they can get in front of and (pretend to) lead. In reality, they're following from the front, which is the opposite of leading from behind.

As for how the first movie ended, it resulted in opening Scientology to reporters investigating the organization like it hadn't seen in a long time and tarnishing its reputation among the young. It also gave the members of Anonymous a taste of organizing and a realization that they can take on something bigger than themselves. Now they're ready for something bigger than a fringe cult that runs themselves like a business. Whether they're up to this task is another question.

As for how this installment of the franchise ends, stay tuned. They may be rehashing the plot so far, but there is no script.

One year later, the participants may no longer be camping out in Zuccotti Park, but they did turn economic inequality into a major subject of conversation, just like Operation Chanology exposed Scientology to public scrutiny. Also, I find it an appropriate coincidence that the 47% video, the highlight of which was Romney addressing the question of inequality in a very condescending way, was released on September 17th, the anniversary of the beginning of Occupy Wall Street.

Follow over the jump to read what Canada's Globe and Mail made of Occupy Wall Street's legacy.

Lou Dobbs thinks "The Lorax" and "The Secret World of Arrietty" are liberal propaganda

Time to be a good environmentalist and recycle.

The Hollywood Reporter via MSNBC: FOX's Lou Dobbs attacks 'Lorax' and 'Arrietty' as left-wing brainwashing

During his Tuesday night show, Dobbs dubbed Disney’s "Arrietty" and Universal’s "Lorax" “insidious nonsense from Hollywood,” then he announced: “Hollywood is once again trying to indoctrinate our children.”

"Arrietty," about four-inch people who “borrow” what they need from normal-sized humans, encourages class envy and redistribution of wealth, according to Dobbs, while "Lorax" is just another example of environmental radicalism.

“So, where have we all heard this before?” Dobbs asks after showing a clip from each of the two films.

Then he answers himself: “Occupy Wall Street forever trying to pit the makers against the takers and President Obama repeating that everyone should pay their fair share.”

It's Obama's fault! Never mind that "The Lorax" is from 1973 and "The Borrowers" is from 1952, as Keith Olbermann pointed out. Bonus snarking from Time.

In the case of "The Lorax," Lou Dobbs must really believe green is the new red. Just to tick Dobbs off some more, here is the trailer for "The Lorax," which definitely is a cautionary tale about overexploitation of the world's resources.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Occupy the Rose Parade, plus an astronaut on gardening in space

While this is a Detroit-based blog (I brand it as a sustainability blog with a science-fiction slant and a Detroit perspective) and I have adopted Detroit as my home town, it's no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm originally from Los Angeles, which I left 23 years ago to move to Michigan. So, I'll occasionally stray from my Midwestern focus to look back at the places and events where I grew up. One of those is the Rose Parade, which I went to just about every year from the late 1960s (I can't even remember the first one I watched in person) until 1983. It turns out that the Rose Parade is back in the news in two ways that I can't resist blogging about.

First up, from KTLA: 'Occupy' Organizers Putting Last Touches on Rose Parade Human Float

PASADENA (KTLA) -- Bystanders hoping to catch a glimpse of the brightly decorated floats at Monday's Tournament of Roses Parade might notice something a bit unusual if they stick around to the end.

Occupy activists this weekend are putting the finishing touches on Occupy Octopus, a 70-foot squid puppet that will be paraded alongside thousands of protesters.

The so-called "Octupy Rose Parade" float is made entirely of recycled plastic bags and powered by 36 humans, with tens of people carrying the arms and a smaller group of people holding up the central body.

"We're calling it 'The People's Parade' to contrast against the corporate parade that the Rose Parade has become," an organizer said.

"It will represent Wall Street, the financial sectors [as] vampires, [with a] squidlike stranglehold," one organizer said.

If you were wondering when Matt Taibbi's "vampire squid" would make an appearance in an Occupy protest, wait no longer. It will make its debut in a few hours.

Demonstrators, flanked by a 250-foot recreation of the U.S. Constitution, will be gathering at 7 a.m. at Singer Park and are set to begin marching near the parades end at 9:30 a.m.

Those times are Pacific, thus three hours behind the time zone here in Detroit.  You have time to watch the end of the parade and catch the Occupy Octopus.

The Occupiers will not disrupt the parade, as the Los Angeles Times reports.

Protesters will march the parade route after the floats and marching bands have passed. The group has been working with Pasadena police and Tournament of Roses officials on how not to disrupt the parade.

"Our goal is to put Occupy's best foot forward," Thottam said, adding that activists expect more than 1,000 participants. "We recognize that this is a historic, iconic event geared toward middle America and the family."

The group says the protest will be "G-rated" and will stick to nonviolence in expressing Occupy's messages against income inequality and corporate power.

The organizers expect there will be no trouble with police and that thousands will show up. I believe the first, but am sceptical about the second.

KTLA has two videos showing Occupy the Rose Parade's efforts as part of the preparation for the Rose Parade. Unfortunately, neither is allowing its embed code to be shared. The first one is at the L.A. Times site and the second is hosted at KTLA.

Now, something a little more conventional--an astronaut riding on a float courtesy of MSNBC.

Astronaut stops to smell the roses
By Alan Boyle

One of the last astronauts to ride on a space shuttle will be riding a totally different vehicle on Monday: a flower-bedecked float in the 2012 Rose Parade.

Say what?

The 5.5-mile journey down the parade route in Pasadena, Calif., doesn't hold a candle in distance or danger to the 5.3 million-mile journey that NASA astronaut Rex Walheim made in July during STS-135, Atlantis' program-ending mission. But it's a perfect follow-up for several reasons:

• Walheim will be riding on the "Garden of Imagination" float with his brother, Lance, a horticulturist who wrote the book "Roses for Dummies." Lance is the go-to garden guy for Bayer Advanced, an arm of the chemical conglomerate that makes lawn and garden prducts.
• With Lance's encouragement, Rex carried up a dried rose as one of his personal items during a 2008 mission on Atlantis. That rose was featured on Bayer Advanced's trophy-winning Rose Parade float in 2009.
• This Rose Parade appearance gives Rex a chance to smell the roses, literally, after a high-pressure spaceflight. It also gives him an opportunity to reflect on how a little gardening could come in handy for future generations of space explorers.

"If you think about it, that's one of the things we need to develop on our long-term vehicles," he told me this week. "We need to have a self-supporting ecosystem, environmental control systems for recycling air and water, and you have to grow your own food. We're doing that in space. ... These skills that any astronaut has as a young child when they work in the garden and help their parents, well, those turn out to be important on the most advanced vehicles ever made, and on the most complex exploration missions."

I told you this blog was about sustainability with a science-fiction slant!

Occupy Psychopaths video

From Mr. PinkWhiteBlack on YouTube:

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).

For those who have trouble listening to the split sound (one channel voice, the other music): You can see a differently audio-mixed version of the same video in HD here.

This video echoes a theme from Blast from the past: Pathology on the Right, a commentary on Krugman's "Two speeches and an editorial".

Dave from Wisconsin is onto something. If the editorial position of The National Review, which has a strong claim to be the leading magazine of conservative opinion, is that empathy is merely a code word for liberal activism, then a proper response would be to point out that lack of empathy is a criterion for diagnosis of both anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. Other diagnostic criteria of these conditions that you and your readers might find of interest include the following, which readers should check against the behavior of their favorite political figures.

For Dissocial Personality Disorder, the World Health Organization's equivalent to Anti-Social Personality Disorder--

1. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others and lack of the capacity for empathy.
2. Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations.
3. Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships.
4. Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.
5. Incapacity to experience guilt and to profit from experience, particularly punishment.
6. Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the subject into conflict.
7. Persistent irritability.

Only three criteria need to be satisfied for a diagnosis.

For Narcissistic Personality Disorder--

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. Requires excessive admiration
5. Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

At least five criteria must be present for a diagnosis.

A friend of mine (editorial note--actually Kossack G2Geek, not really a friend, but someone I'm a fan of nonetheless) once suggested that people who wish to protest the appearance of a political figure who denigrates empathy as a trait should repeatedly show up with pickets bearing only the diagnostic code for one or both of these disorders (301.7 for ASPD, 301.81 for NPD) and say nothing until someone asks about the numbers. The response might be interesting, to say the least.

The time to pull that stunt may be at hand.

By the way, there is a follow-up to the video above, but I'm not embedding it. The narrator of that one takes too conspiratorial a tone (Knights Templar? Oh, please), which does his otherwise worthwhile message no good. Too bad, as he's mostly right.

This is why yesterday was Buy Nothing Day for me

My Facebook status yesterday was "As far as I'm concerned, today is Buy Nothing Day." It was the most popular status update I can ever remember posting, with 21 likes and three additional people commenting. Based on how American shoppers behaved, I'm glad I didn't venture off my property to buy anything yesterday!

From ITN on YouTube.

Black Friday sales turned into a shopping frenzy in the US. 20 people were left injured after a woman sprayed pepper spray in a bid to get a bargain. Report by Melanie Hill.

ITN wasn't the only British news source that reported yesterday's appalling behavior. BBC chimed in with US Black Friday marred by shootings, pepper-sprayings, which is currently the most popular news item of the week for North America on the site. In addition to the incidents described in the ITN video above, BBC listed the following.

• A man was reportedly detained for resisting arrest after a fight at the jewellery counter in the early hours at a Walmart in Kissimmee, Florida
• Police are looking for two suspects after gunfire erupted early on Friday at a shopping centre in Fayetteville, North Carolina; there were no reports of injuries
• Security workers reportedly used pepper spray on shoppers who began grabbing at goods before they were unloaded from pallets at a Walmart in Kinston, North Carolina
• A woman was shot in the foot by a robber as she loaded her purchases into her car in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; the gunman fled as one of the victim's companions brandished a revolver and fired warning shots

PolitcusUSA weighed in on the Black Friday mayhem with two articles: Not Even Pepper Spray Can Stop The Walking Dead Of Wal-Mart Black Friday and Wal-Mart Black Friday Shoppers Prove Themselves More Dangerous Than OWS. In the latter piece, Sarah Jones connects the dots between yesterday's violence and police mistreatment of Occupy Movement protesters.

Obviously, there’s a difference between police using pepper spray against dangerous elements in a crowd and a citizen using it to gain the upper hand at a Black Friday Sale, but just where do they think she got the idea?

Just like the constant drum beat for “second amendment remedies” by conservatives in the press leaks into the subconscious of the unstable, so too do the constant stories of police using pepper spray on citizens leak into the national consciousness.

And let’s not forget that too many times, police have used pepper spray on Occupy protesters who were not dangerous, were sitting still, were already kettled, and/or were not escalating violence.

Customers using pepper spray on other customers, robberies, and shootings are not things that have been seen at Occupy Wall Street protests. Republicans told us that it was patriotic to shop after 9/11, and these same people have demonized OWS, but what we have seen is that the corporate giants like Walmart and the shoppers who get whipped into a frenzy by their charms are more dangerous than Occupy Wall Street.
...
Thanks, Occupy Police. You just ratcheted up the level of general insanity another notch.

Speaking of the juxtaposition of the Occupy Movement and Black Friday, what did they do yesterday? Huffington Post has the story.

Black Friday: Occupy Protests Discourage Shopping On One Of Retail's Biggest Days

It's an Associated Press story, which means I don't quote it on general principles, but it does describe how the Occupiers in San Francisco and Sacramento told shoppers to not shop yesterday, especially at the large corporate-owned chain store, but instead shop at the locally owned stores today (Saturday).*

Occupy Detroit also urged a boycott of Black Friday, as detailed in this story from Huffington Post's new Detroit Edition: Occupy Detroit Plans Thanksgiving, Black Friday Actions

More Occupy activism can be expected on the day following Thanksgiving. The Detroit chapter of Occupy the Hood, a wing of the Occupy Movement focused on people of color, is calling for a boycott on Black Friday, the biggest retal sales day of the year that traditionally launches the Christmas shopping season.

"Black Friday is one of the busiest, biggest days for corporations," said Ife Johari Uhuru, a founder of Occupy the Hood who lives in Detroit.

Occupy the Hood's request to refrain from shopping joins a long tradition of post-Thanksgiving activism. Adbusters, the magazine that originally called for the Occupy Wall Street protests, has been organizing Black Friday boycotts and pranks for 20 years. They are celebrating this year's anniversary of the effort, which they call "Buy Nothing Day," with a new campaign called "Occupy Christmas."
...
Occupy Detroit also plans to support the Black Friday boycott.

"We are coordinating with Occupy the Hood. We will be working together to carry out [actions on Friday]," Teed said. "We want a lot of people at multiple shopping venues to hear our message."

Teed echoed Uhuru's focus on education, saying that Occupiers hope to contrast predicted sales figures with statistics about Detroit's debt and wages of Walmart executives with those of employees.

She hopes the call to boycott will inspire people to stay at home, or to spend their money with local businesses.

"Hopefully with more energy and involvement around Occupy, we can build that into a bigger thing next year," Teed said.

I did something in solidarity with Occupy Detroit, and I didn't even have to leave the house!

As for what else I think of Black Friday, may a picture truly be worth 1000 words.




*Small Business Saturday should be the subject of the next post.

Pepper spray as a vegetable product: fat-free or fact-free?

Time for a silly to serious rant.

First, from NMATV on YouTube comes this video on the modest proposition in the title.

Pepper spray is a yummy and delicious form of crowd control. Just ask Lt. John Pike or Anthony (Tony) Bologna! Old women (like Dorli Rainey) and pregnant ladies (like Jennifer Fox) LOVE pepper spray.

That's because pepper spray is essentially a food product. Megyn Kelly eats it every day. In China, pepper spray is used in Sichuan hot pot.

Therefore, it's not very effective as a form of crowd control and more traditional means are required.

But if pepper spray is a food product, how does it stand up to Tapatio? ... Tapatio is the bomb!

Speaking of Megyn Kelly, here's what the International Business Times has to say about her claim.

Kelly came on "The O'Reilly Factor" late Monday to discuss the Occupy Wall Street protest that broke out this weekend at UC Davis. Police Lt. John Pike sprayed pepper spray on non-violent protestors sitting on the ground in an act that has been called into question as "excessive force." Kelly has a slightly different opinion.

"First of all, pepper spray," O'Reilly said to Kelly. "That just burns your eyes, right?"

"Right," Kelly replied. "I mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper. It's a food product, essentially."

Kelly's comment that pepper spray is little more than "a food product" has sparked outrage from protestors and commentators online.

There is a Funny or Die video on the subject embedded at the IBT page, but you can also watch it here.

My friend nonnie9999 at Hysterical Raisins had her own take on Kelly's remarks.




About that "Freedom from Facts" line, David Frum had his own take on that at New York Magazine, one that was quoted by Paul Krugman at the New York Times.

Extremism and conflict make for bad politics but great TV. Over the past two decades, conservatism has evolved from a political philosophy into a market segment. An industry has grown up to serve that segment—and its stars have become the true thought leaders of the conservative world. The business model of the conservative media is built on two elements: provoking the audience into a fever of indignation (to keep them watching) and fomenting mistrust of all other information sources (so that they never change the channel). As a commercial proposition, this model has worked brilliantly in the Obama era. As journalism, not so much. As a tool of political mobilization, it backfires, by inciting followers to the point at which they force leaders into confrontations where everybody loses, like the summertime showdown over the debt ceiling.

But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy ­errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he’s a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action ­phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) “the only place in the world where it doesn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from.”

We used to say “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.” Now we are all entitled to our own facts, and conservative media use this right to immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information.

I told you this was a silly-to-serious rant. I've done that before, although I'm just as likely to do the reverse. In either event, enjoy the remainder of Buy Nothing Day, and be sure to read Frum's article in New York Magazine. It's well worth it.

Frank Rich on the Class War and Occupy Wall Street

New York Magazine: The Class War Has Begun

I highly recommend reading the entire article.

Occupy Comics

While my wife and I are traveling, click on the link in the image below to see a video about a new front in the Occupy Movement--Occupy Comics.




The explanation is here. Personally, I think this is geeky as Hell, and I love it.

Hat/tip to Chris Bowers on Daily Kos.

Occupy Detroit may have to move Monday

From Occupy Detroit's YouTube channel.

John Royal, President of the National Lawyers Guild addressed an emergency General Assembly of the Detroit Occupation to discuss the legal status of the camp. While we had obtained a permit, that permit would expire on Monday, November 14.

The assembly discussed their options and reactions to the announcement and resolved to meet again at their Saturday GA to decide what will happen when the permit expires.

For more details, including quotes from Sarah Coffeey and Jessica Dawl, read the Free Press article.

The good news is that Occupy Detroit got a permit. The bad news is that it expires at Midnight at the end of Monday. There will be a General Assembly tonight to decide what to do next. I'll have to miss it. My wife and I will be leaving town tomorrow to swat a hornet. Good thing I can program entries in advance to post in my absence. I would hate to not be able to participate in NaBloPoMo.

Huffington Post on Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street

Original here

Another on my continuing series about the connection between Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street. It highlights what I stated in Occupy Wall Street is sequel to Anonymous vs Scientology.

Occupy Wall Street And Anonymous: Turning A Fledgling Movement Into A Meme

Two weeks ago, Cornel West, Princeton professor and activist, showed up at a tent city erected by Occupy Wall Street protesters across the street from the Federal Reserve building in Boston. As he finished delivering an impromptu speech, a man who had been standing off to the side leaned in and gave him a hug. He was in his mid-thirties, with gray-dusted hair, a round face and dimples. Most people who witnessed this moment probably didn't think anything of it -- but then, most people aren't familiar with the faces of the online movement known Anonymous.

The man was Gregg Housh, an Internet technology consultant and one of the few people associated with Anonymous whose real name is known to the public. Housh occupies a special place in Anonymous lore. In 2008, he was among a small group of "Anons" who came up with the idea of releasing a video that declared war on the Church of Scientology, which in turn led to thousands of people protesting outside of Scientology centers around the world and heralded the moment when Anonymous first coalesced into something resembling a political movement.

Back then, Housh couldn't have been less interested in political or social change. Scientologists had provoked Anons by removing an embarrassing and, to the Anons, hilarious video of Tom Cruise from the Internet, and the Anons thought it would be funny to get back at them by standing around outside their centers wearing masks and shouting insults.
...
Housh is one of many participants in the Occupy Wall Street protests who trace their roots in the movement to the constellation of online networks and chat rooms that make up the Anonymous universe.

I told you so. I should know; I was a supporter of the protests and a hanger-on in their main forum, which back then was called "Enturbulation" and is now "WhyWeProtest." The high point of my involvement was driving past a protest across the street from the Detroit area headquarters of Scientology, seeing a sign held by one of the protesters, and asking, "So, does your sign mean L. Ron Hubbard is PedoBear?" The protesters roared in approval that someone got it. Here's to those protesters being all grown up and supporting an effort against something that really matters.

A link a day: Annabel Park of Coffee Party USA in Huffington Post

I'll be out of town all next week, so I'm scheduling all my posts after this one in advance. I'm also making them short--just a link and some brief commentary.

Today's post features a story by Coffee Party USA founder Annabel Park, who posted in yesterday's Huffington Post about today's Enough is Enough Citizens' Intervention, which was organized by the Coffee Party.




Occupied America: Bridging the Divide

Americans find themselves in a struggle for the soul of our nation yet again. Some see it as an economic struggle that pits the wealthiest one percent against the 99 percent rest of us. Some see it as a social struggle about whether it is the responsibility of government to provide the resources to help the neediest among us -- resources that encompass everything from healthcare to education to employment. And some see it as a political struggle, between the right and left, between a vision of bigger or smaller government and which path will right our struggling economy.

But really it comes down once again to a moral struggle -- how do we define ourselves as a nation and how do we fix what isn't working in America today? This is what has motivated so many Americans to occupy Wall Street and Main Street from coast to coast. It is a belief among people from all parties and all backgrounds that we need to join together to fight for a common cause -- and that cause is the American people.
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While Americans argue and divide over entitlements, rights, race, type and size of government, multi-national corporations are busy buying our government. They are indeed occupying Washington.

With billions spent on lobbying and the rise of shadowy tax-exempt issue advocacy groups that can spend unlimited cash with no accountability, our government leaders are held hostage to the will of the few. And those few have poured money into the political machine to promote deregulation, corporate loopholes, and other policies that favor the wealthy and the powerful. And the divide in our country grows wider.

It's time for the American people to wake up, stand up, and speak out. We need to reform our laws to close these loopholes to power and concentrated wealth. These are not partisan issues -- these are common sense issues, American issues. We must do our part to be informed and engaged citizens, break out of the constructed partisan gridlock that stymies our thinking, and move forward on solutions, united as a country.

America is at another turning point. The American people are ready to stand up against a political system that allows powerful special interests and party ideologues to have more influence with our elected Representatives than average people. That is why Americans across the nation are joining together across party lines and saying enough is enough. We are not going away. The challenges we face as a country are many.

I left three comments on this article:Thanks for writing this, Annabel. Here's to an epic rally tomorrow, despite the prediction­s of cold and snow.In response to someone claiming that the Occupiers were "spoiled children who have either has everything given to them either by a enabling parent or government welfare agency" and that the divide was between the producers and the parasites, I posted.

The people behind this rally have no problem with people becoming wealthy and with the existence of corporatio­ns. They do have a problem with those same entities buying the government­.

That garnered another response to effect that "the people that are "buying the government­" are the ones that do not provide jobs, that hug the trees and kiss the ground, that feel we should not use anything the earth provides for our living or prosperity­." As an environmentalist, I couldn't let that one go, but as a part of Coffee Party leadership who has signed the organization's Civility Pledge, I couldn't flame him. So I eventually replied with the following.

Show me the dollar amounts. I rather doubt that all the environmen­tal organizati­ons in the country combined have as much money to spend on lobbying and campaign contributi­ons as the Koch Brothers and Koch Industries and the organizati­ons they support all by themselves­. And if you're not talking about the environmen­tal organizati­ons, then who are you talking about?

If I get a response before bedtime tonight, I'll be very surprised. I also won't be able to read it for a week.

This Guy Fawkes Day is Bank Transfer Day

From Next Media Animation on YouTube.

Mark your calendars. Bank Transfer Day is November 5. That is the day when consumers are encouraged to close their accounts at big corporate banks and take their funds to credit unions.

Previously, when paying by debit card, 44 cents would go to banks. The Durbin amendment cut those fees in half. This upset large corporate banks. They vowed to make back the fees somehow.

Some banks such as Bank of America are doing so by hitting ATM card users with new monthly fees. Customers such as Kristen Christian are outraged.

Christian has declared November 5 shall be Bank Transfer Day. Will it be enough to get the attention of big banks?

My wife and I are ahead of the curve on this one. As soon as Bank of America announced the $5/month fee for debit card users, we opened two accounts at a local credit union, then closed two of our three accounts at Bank of America, something we'd been meaning to do for almost two years. We'll close our remaining account at BofA ahead of Guy Fawkes Day.

Occupy Wall Street is now an MTV reality show

Original here

New York Magazine reported Monday that Occupy Wall Street Is Coming to MTV.

MTV announced today that True Life: I'm Occupying Wall Street will air in less than two weeks...On the night of November 5, we'll be treated to a well-edited version of the protests we've been watching for more than a month, starring college students Kait and Caitlin, and Bryan, a member of the Zuccotti Park sanitation team.

It looks like what the late Joe Bageant called The Hologram wins again. What is The Hologram? I'll let Joe describe it for you.

We suffer under a mass national hallucination. Americans, regardless of income or social position, now live in a culture entirely perceived inside a self-referential media hologram of a nation and world that does not exist. Our national reality is staged and held together by media, chiefly movie and television images. We live in a "theater state."

In our theater state, we know the world through media productions which are edited and shaped to instruct us on how to look and behave and view the outside world. As in all staged productions and illusions, everyone we see is an actor. There are the television actors portraying what supposedly represents reality. Non-actors in Congress perform in front of the cameras, as the American empire's cultural machinery weaves and spins out our cultural mythology.

Cultural myth production is an enormous industry in America.

And now that enormous industry has turned its eye onto Occupy Wall Street and converted it into entertainment. MTV has already released a preview of its reality show. Watch the clip at MTV's site.

For those who think that television and movie coverage is the ultimate validation of what you are doing, and that does seem to be a lot of people, congratulations, Occupy Wall Street has "made it." On the other hand, becoming famous is not the point. Changing the society, economy, and politics of the United States is. Keep up the good work, and remember that character is what one does when no one, including MTV's cameras, is watching.

Occupy Detroit in the Free Press yesterday

Original here

Occupy Detroit cold and wet, but upbeat

The past week's weather hasn't always been conducive to their cause, with rainy days and cold temperatures, but members of the Occupy Detroit movement say they're undeterred and will stay the course at their encampment in Grand Circus Park downtown.

"We're still basically a work in progress, but I continue to remain wildly optimistic about what we're accomplishing here," Sarah Coffey, 38, one of the volunteers in charge of organizing the group's informational meetings, said late Sunday afternoon.

"In order for us to transform society, we have to bridge the differences between the races and classes. And when you stop to think about it, is there any better spot to begin than in Detroit?"

I've run into Sarah Coffey on Facebook, so I find it intriguing, but not surprising, that she's one of the organizers. Now I'm tempted to pay her a visit. After all, I'm listed as "attending" on Occupy Detroit's Facebook page.

As for her sentiment, I couldn't agree more. Great things are going to happen here in Detroit, and Occupy Detroit might just help make them happen.