Occupy Wall Street

[CynicalC]

Originally Posted by almost40

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...965745362.html

Douglas Schoen, a veteran Democratic Party pollster who has also worked for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, sent a researcher from his polling firm down to Zuccotti Park last week to conduct what appears to be the very first professional survey of the protesters in New York. The face-to-face interviews with 198 people.

Did you find anything particularly interesting about that article? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from it. Seems like all this guy cares about is the democrats securing the upcoming election and saying that won't happen if they support the protesters? Terribly narrow minded.

[shiroganeshinobi]

Give me a third party please!

Link to original page on YouTube.

[CynicalC]

Another very good article. Not sure if it posted yet or not.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44973689.../#.TqIxdbKAiUl

'Occupy' protesters find allies in ranks of the wealthy -
'Tax me, I’m good for it,' some in the richest 1 percent say in support of the protest

The “Occupy Wall Street” protesters — also known as the “99 percent” — have struck a chord with at least a few members of an unexpected audience: America’s rich and privileged.

United under the banner “We are the 1 percent: We stand with the 99 percent,” a band of entrepreneurs, trust fund babies, professionals and inheritors has taken to the web to share their abhorrence of corporate greed and support for tax code changes that would see them pay a higher share of their considerable wealth.

Among other things, they’re posting their stories on a Tumblr page created by Wealth for the Common Good and Resource Generation, two groups dedicated to working for "fair taxation and just wealth distribution."

Some are probably not actually in the top 1 percent wealthwise — calculated at earning a yearly salary of more than $506,000, according toThe Wall Street Journal— but all are certainly well off and supportive of reforms that would narrow the widening gap between America's elite and poorest citizens.
Msnbc.com contacted some of the posters and others affiliated with the website’s creators to hear what they had to say. Here, in their own words, is what they told us:

Farhad A. Ebrahimi, 33, who shares his inherited wealth through a charity that he founded, says he attends the Occupy Boston protest every day. He has donated tents, helped with organizing, raised funds and written for the protesters' blog. He said that his inheritance put him squarely in the top 1 percent, plus he makes enough on investment income every year to be in the highest tax bracket. But he lives what he calls a “Spartan” life compared to other members of his family.

At the protest, he often wears a homemade T-shirt that reads: “I’m a member of the 1 percent and I fully support the 99 percent” on the front, and, “Tax me, I’m good for it,” on the back.

Why are you at Occupy Boston?

“I think my taxes are at a historical low … and also, I think that the ability for someone like me who has financial privilege to influence our government is at an all-time high. I’ve never been comfortable with those ideas. They’ve always seemed like to me things that should change and to ... play a role in the movement and to try to advocate around those issues was just a tremendous opportunity.”

What specific changes would you like to see?

“The big picture for me personally is any sort of restructuring, any demands that can be met that make our tax code more progressive. So campaign finance reform in general would be another one, to make the ability for money — whether it’s personal or corporate — to play a role in politics, anything that diminishes that would be on my list of goals to see out of this movement.”

What kind of role can 1 percenters play in a movement of the 99 percent?

“Participating in any way that does not directly involve my privilege. … And I think one of the things I find very compelling about the occupation (movements) is that by practicing direct democracy through the general assemblies every day, we’re essentially trying to practice what we preach and trying to make decisions as a group, where various kinds of privilege don’t have the sort of outside influence that they have in society as a whole.”

“... I think for me it’s very important to be visible and it’s very important that everybody there be comfortable with the idea of somebody like me being there. So far I’ve received nothing but positive feedback for being sort of honest and transparent about that.”

Courtesy of Burke Stansbury

Burke Stansbury is sympathetic with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Burke Stansbury, a 35-year-old communications specialist for nonprofit groups, has been loosely involved with the protests in Washington, D.C. (known as Occupy K St), donating homemade food, tarps and money. He inherited a little more than $1 million and stands to inherit more. He doesn't believe he officially qualifies to be in the top 1 percent, but says he grew up with all the advantages of being wealthy.

Why did you get involved with the 'Occupy' protests?

"I think it’s a beautiful movement of people that really gets at the heart of what's wrong with our country right now in terms of the really obscene level of inequality that exists and the institutions that have sort of influenced that."

What would you like changed?

"A lot of us have honed in on the tax code piece as something that’s tangible, that can be changed and we have a kind of unique role in speaking out on, as people in the 1 percent. So certainly I feel really strongly that people with wealth, high income people, should be taxed at higher levels and not just in terms of income tax but in terms of the ... capital gains tax as well."

You said you worked with your parents to start a foundation and have given money to nonprofits and grassroots groups. Can't the wealthiest Americans make a difference that way?

"It's all well and good that we maybe have family foundations for giving away a lot of money ourselves to good causes, but that’s not enough, like that isn't going to change the big problems, the really extreme inequality that exists. … It has to come from the government, it has to be a sort-of involuntary ... redistribution of wealth because the few altruistic wealthy people giving (away) their money isn't going to do it."

Were other protesters aware of your status?

"I don’t go around telling everyone, 'I'm a millionaire.' But I'm also pretty and fairly open about it if it comes up. A lot of people have signs, you know, targeting the 1 percent, oftentimes really angry messages. ... I don’t think people would like jump up and attack me, but I think I would just want to be able to like really talk through it with them and explain what that means to me and have that conversation."

"... I think it’s a great opportunity to kind of bridge that class divide and it’s going to hopefully lead to great things in terms of building a bigger movement.”

[Lil_Green_Demon]

Making history, motherf*ckers!





No, really, what do you guys think about it? Political views locking horns ITT.

[PsychoNinja]

An uncoordinated effort to try to change the very foundation of how our society operates.

I agree with the fact that there is too much corporate greed and corporations have too much power, but camping in a park like a bunch of homeless hobos expecting things to change by whining about it isn't going to change a damn thing!

[mrlmd]

It will if it educates people and gets them to put pressure on their congressman to do the right thing and get big money out of poilitics and lobbying, and gets people out to vote for what and who they believe in rather than who makes false promises just to get elected and who have another agenda in mind. This movement can accomplish a lot, it's waking up the politicians, and whether you support their beliefs or not, look what the Tea Party accomplished, both good and bad.

[CynicalC]

Originally Posted by mrlmd

It will if it educates people and gets them to put pressure on their congressman to do the right thing and get big money out of poilitics and lobbying, and gets people out to vote for what and who they believe in rather than who makes false promises just to get elected and who have another agenda in mind. This movement can accomplish a lot, it's waking up the politicians, and whether you support their beliefs or not, look what the Tea Party accomplished, both good and bad.

Your politicians aren't going to get money out of politics. Why do you think they became politicians in the first place? That's the whole point. The PEOPLE need to make this change themselves. Writing or calling your politicians isn't going to do ****.

[mrlmd]

How do PEOPLE make a change if not this way, by promoting or publicizing information or a point of view and trying to educate those around them so they can vote appropriately next time around to make their voice heard? If not a widespread peaceful demonstration/protest, what do you suggest - armed violence?

[PsychoNinja]

Originally Posted by mrlmd

It will if it educates people and gets them to put pressure on their congressman to do the right thing and get big money out of politics and lobbying, and gets people out to vote for what and who they believe in rather than who makes false promises just to get elected and who have another agenda in mind. This movement can accomplish a lot, it's waking up the politicians, and whether you support their beliefs or not, look what the Tea Party accomplished, both good and bad.

Educating the people and putting pressure on your congressman is the logical approach to what the Occupy movement is trying to accomplish. The thing is most if not all of our congressmen and women have too many special interests with the corporations to make any major steps to resolve these issues.

Money talks. Corporations have most of our politicians in their pockets. There is just too much corruption and greed on both sides to make any major changes to how the system works. It sucks, but unless we can get everyone voted out and put in new, uncorrupted people we are screwed no matter what! Even if we could get a fresh start that's no guarantee either.

[kyrider]

Rand Paul won a statewide election here going against the establishment and he won by a good margin.

[mrlmd]

This will stir it up a little more on here (as if it needs more stirring).

["A"]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[alex.s]

this is probably the first, and probably the last time i'll say...

nice post, "A".

[sombo]

Originally Posted by alex.s

this is probably the first, and probably the last time i'll say...

nice post, "A".

You should also watch the video in his signature. We may have had our arguments about motorcycles and such, but I can still agree with him on both videos.

[Cuongism]

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by Cuongism

That would be 11% if they still counted Pluto.

[kyrider]

Another big supporter of Occupy Wall Street Dr. David Duke.(p.s. He disgusts me!)

Link to original page on YouTube.

[shiroganeshinobi]

Well that's one way to spin a message Mr. Duke. Jesus.

Link to original page on YouTube.

[CynicalC]

Originally Posted by kyrider

Another big supporter of Occupy Wall Street Dr. David Duke.(p.s. He disgusts me!)

Link to original page on YouTube.

That guy is a creep. I couldn't even watch the whole thing.

[Xoulrath]

Originally Posted by sombo

Unregulated capitalism is a destructive system that has proven time and time again to be a faulty system that can not support itself.

Non participation of consumers has proven time and time again to be a faulty interaction with capitalism which allows people to be taken advantage of. STOP BUYING $h!7!!!

The government TAKES your money. Corporations are GIVEN money voluntarily. Take personal responsibility and take care of your needs first. Stop whining because you don't have this, that, or the other. All you NEED is some food and water, with reasonable shelter for protection from the elements and a place to sleep safely. That's it. EVERYTHING else is icing.

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by mrlmd

This will stir it up a little more on here (as if it needs more stirring).

well thats not obviously bias...

I didnt see anything about shitting on cop cars and in the street and breaking laws..



They also are racist if you wanna say that, Ive heard so many sound clips about get the ****ing jews out of here and **** like that... uhhh racist much? I think so.

[shiroganeshinobi]

Originally Posted by massacremasses

well thats not obviously bias...

I didnt see anything about shitting on cop cars and in the street and breaking laws..

They also are racist if you wanna say that, Ive heard so many sound clips about get the ****ing jews out of here and **** like that... uhhh racist much? I think so.

You mean kinda like the tea party in a way right?

Stop believing the anti-semitic lies.

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by shiroganeshinobi

You mean kinda like the tea party in a way right?

Stop believing the anti-semitic lies.

uhhhh yeah dude Ive definitely heard the sound clips, on multiple radio shows.

The media had their fair share of picking on the Tea Party as well. I never even defended the tea party, so its funny you think I care....

The picture he had, had all negatives of one side and all "positives" of the other, saying thats not bias is pretty ridiculous.



I will say though both sides have radicals spouting off nonsense, but to say the tea party was the only one is inaccurate and misinformed...

[kyrider]

To be fair someone post up racist remarks(video)made at Tea Party events.

[kyrider]

OWS who is more dangerous to the U.S.A. Rush Limbaugh or Al Qaeda?

http://mrctv.org/videos/ows-quiz-who...sh-or-al-qaeda

[mrlmd]

Now read this too, see if it doesn't upset you.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...ating-20111025

[massacremasses]

ill just leave this here.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...TC9.DTL&ao=all

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by kyrider

To be fair someone post up racist remarks(video)made at Tea Party events.

uhhh you did read my comments that the Tea Party had some nuts in it did you not?

Your picture already accounted for that, yet did not account for the negatives of the OWS movement.... soo yeah... I was making it even..

[CynicalC]

Originally Posted by massacremasses

ill just leave this here.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...TC9.DTL&ao=all

Man these protests are going to start getting ugly soon if they're breaking out the tear gas.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by shiroganeshinobi

Well that's one way to spin a message Mr. Duke. Jesus.

Link to original page on YouTube.

Talk about spin

Cenk Uygur of TheYoungTurks (the one conducting the interview) has been saying that all along without ever acknowledging that correlation does not equal causation. Getting an engineer to make the same gross error on camera to "prove" something unprovable is laughable. I'm not kidding. Right after pointing out the correlation, the man said "The numbers don't lie" and I laughed out loud.

He goes on to call the guy a genius which is really to call himself one. Good greif.

Now, here's the MAJOR misconception that is obvious and smacks me in the face when I see that: A corporation is a legal entity which can be taxed and sued. Reinvesting in the corporation does not avoid a tax on their wealth ("92% No one pays this."). Lower taxes and higher profits spur investment which has been proven time and time again. Showing an opposite correlation does not change that and only shows how manipulative they are being with their data sets. Higher taxes and lower profits logically and historically promote taking LESS risk. Because every investment is a risk, that directly translates into LESS investment (less jobs, less expansion, less spending, etc).

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by CynicalC

Man these protests are going to start getting ugly soon if they're breaking out the tear gas.

I hope they break out the rubber bullets!!

[kyrider]

The way I look at it is the OWS folks are wanting socialism and communism and the tea party folks want a constitutional government. I side with the tea party folks.

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by kyrider

The way I look at it is the OWS folks are wanting socialism and communism and the tea party folks want a constitutional government. I side with the tea party folks.

ha I totally misquoted you I got you confused with the other guy, your avatars are similar. My bad.

[kyrider]

Originally Posted by mrlmd

This will stir it up a little more on here (as if it needs more stirring).

The Tea Party got mostly negative press and the press told us that they were racist without proof. There were lies about being spit on and no one has ever come up with proof that that happened but you see clip after clip of anti-Semitism all over the country at these OWS gatherings. What do you think the main stream media would be saying if the same remarks came from the right?

Biased BullSh*t!!!!!!!

http://www.mediaite.com/online/coult...llenge-on-cnn/

[kyrider]

Originally Posted by massacremasses

ha I totally misquoted you I got you confused with the other guy, your avatars are similar. My bad.

His bike is facing the left and my bike is facing the right.

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by kyrider

His bike is facing the left and my bike is facing the right.

I am not that observant apparently



BTW

reports of shooting rubber bullets in Oakland as its turning into a small (for Oakland) riot.

No reports of looting yet, but I feel like thats eminent...

[kyrider]

Check this video out.

http://mrctv.org/videos/former-sovie...nguage-warning

[massacremasses]

Originally Posted by kyrider

Check this video out.

http://mrctv.org/videos/former-sovie...nguage-warning

He did pick the stupids out of the bunch though... hahaha

[kyrider]

Originally Posted by massacremasses

He did pick the stupids out of the bunch though... hahaha

Apparently that is not a hard thing to do.

[massacremasses]

Its not but there was a lot of idiots at the tea party rallies too..

Im not defending OWS idiots or tea party idiots or idiots in general, but i think the OWS folks with their Socialism> Capitalism ideals are gravely misinformed and mistaken. Idealists imho are stupid. Ideas are great, but when we look at history what do we see? Socialism and communism both dont have a very good track record... especially when it comes to human rights... as well as their economies.