Occupy Wall Street

[Peas Maker 10]

I would argue though, that over the past 30 years, the centrists in politics have become extremists. Thatcher was a corporate extremist, Blair was a neoconservative extremist, Brown was also a corporate extremist etc etc. They've just hidden these elements of their policies behind the older divisions of right and left of centre party politics. But this isn't a question of left and right- elements of both political sides are angry at what has occurred and both sides are protesting. This is a wealthy elite vs working masses issue- a financial class issue. It's the same in the UK as it is in the US and Europe.

 

Here here !

 

Good post , please explain to these people on this forum that the people protesting are not extremists !

 

They are normal folk who whant real change from the corporate greed which has completely taken over nearly every aspect of American government !

 

The fact is wall street controls the American government , this fact can be proven by the bankers who always hold high level government positions ,

[Peas Maker 10]

It's quite funny that you describe it as 'communist hyperbole' as it's a view that I share with John Gray having read his book 'Black Mass' which examines utopian thinking in modern politics. John was the School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and describes himself as a conservative political thinker. Again, I'll reiterate, this isn't a far left or far right issue, it's the people against a corrupt political system that is enabling the banks and insurance companies to steal flabbergasting amounts of money from us.

 

I hope he gets it now ?

You may need to resort to beating some drums if he don't understand again!

 

 

S

Edited October 2, 2011 by Peas Maker

[Wildcat 10]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — It had to be a case of mistaken identity.

 

Protesters had been swarming Wall Street and Lower Manhattan for a week.There were at least six arrests the first day Occupy Wall Street camped out and chanted near the New York Stock Exchange. There were dozens more by the weekend.

 

By Saturday, the hundreds of protesters appeared to have lit a fuse with New York City police. There were rough arrests that bordered on brutality. Pepper spray brought tears and pain. Watch YouTube video of female protesters penned and pepper sprayed .

 

And to a nation’s shock, not one of the police targets was a banker.

 

So much for law and order.

 

If you want to know how a nation supposedly by and for the people has become uprooted, one only needs to see how common young people, who are suffering so badly in this recession, were humiliated further by trying to exercise their given right to peacefully protest.

 

If this is justice, I’d rather break the law.

 

The bankers who brought us this mess not only walk free, they drive free in Bentleys paid for by money looted through toxic mortgages, trading debacles and derivative madness. Regulators, prosecutors and an administration patsy to big finance do nothing except hand out $1.3 trillion in bailout cash and guarantees.

 

Consider how sick this narrative has become. A counter protest was planned in which bankers and traders said they would douse the “dirty hippies” of Occupy Wall Street with champagne, to give them “a bath.” Watch YouTube video of police arresting protesters .

 

These are the people police are protecting.

 

The ones outraged by greed run amok, reckless behavior and fraud are getting wrestled to the pavement and arrested.

 

Now, let’s not pretend that every protester was well behaved last week. Let’s not suggest these are librarians and clergy on the march (though there were some of both kinds in the ranks). There was cursing. There was defiance. Some provoked the police.

 

But ask yourself how you might act if you were in school or fresh out of it or young and unemployed. What future has Wall Street, the heart and brain of our capitalist country, promised you? How does it feel to be the sons, daughters and grand kids of a “me” generation that's run up the debt and run down the economy?

 

Unemployment is between 13% and 25% for people under 25. Student loans are defaulting at about 15% at a time when more young people have no alternative but to borrow to pay for school.

 

Meanwhile, Wall Street bonuses continue to be paid at close to all-time highs. Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -5.33% , took home $13.2 million last year, including a $3.2 million raise.

 

Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America Corp. BAC -3.62% , got $10 million in stock and salary. Thomas Montag, Moynihan’s lieutenant actually got more, $14.3 million. Their bank has lost $14 billion during the last year. Shareholders — that’s you moms and pops, widows and orphans with 401(k)s — are holding the bag.

 

Enter the New York City police, who were just lauded for their bravery on 9/11 On that day they rushed in to save anyone and everyone, putting their own lives at risk.

 

We must have lost a lot of “heroes” that day because what’s left of the NYPD are out there pummeling the young and disenfranchised. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, a front-runner for mayor in 2013, has, by blessing this behavior, ingratiated himself to the moneyed crowd that doesn’t want a way of life disrupted by dirty hippie riffraff.

 

Just watch the donations roll in.

 

OK, maybe I’m wrong about all of this. Perhaps police thought that the black guy they shoved was Stan O’Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch. Maybe they thought they had penned Erin Callan, the former CFO of Lehman Brothers, when they shot her eyes full of pepper spray.

 

That kid with the bandana who was thrown to the ground? Could have been Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM -4.05% or Joe Cassano, who ran American International Group Inc.’s AIG -4.11% cowboy outfit, the financial products unit, that caused $60 billion in losses.

 

Maybe those protesters were planning a new mortgage-backed security doomed to fail.

 

This could all be just one big mistake.

 

After all, this country wasn’t founded to serve a bunch of elitists. Government wasn’t intended to be bought and paid for by financial interests. Our nation’s economy wasn’t supposed to be built on fraud and abuse. If that came to pass, you’d expect people to be angry. You’d expect people to get roughed up. You’d expect a revolution.

 

And you’d expect the system would fight like hell to keep it down.

 

David Weidner covers Wall Street for MarketWatch

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-elites-enjoy-police-protection-2011-09-27

[sheffruss 10]

15,000 marched in New York earlier:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/05/occupy-wall-street-new-york-march?newsfeed=true

 

These people are right.

[rickiethecat 10]

Here here !

 

Good post , please explain to these people on this forum that the people protesting are not extremists !

 

They are normal folk who whant real change from the corporate greed which has completely taken over nearly every aspect of American government !

 

 

Anyone who takes part in a violent demonstration is by definition an extremist.

 

I suspect most of those there didn't even know what they were supposed to be protesting against, they just fancied a ruck with the police.

[sheffruss 10]

Anyone who takes part in a violent demonstration is by definition an extremist.

 

I suspect most of those there didn't even know what they were supposed to be protesting against, they just fancied a ruck with the police.

 

How funny: you seem to be suggesting that anyone who ever takes part in a demonstration that has ANY violence in it (e.g. the 100,000 who took part in the anti-cuts demo earlier this year) are extremists.

 

Is that what you're suggesting - anyone who demonstrates about anything is an extremist?

 

Seems a bit of an extreme view to me.

 

If you watched the videos you'll see that the pepper spraying of some rather harmless looking women doesn't seem to constitute people who fancy a 'ruck' with the police.

 

Feel the love brother wildcat! They're trying to make a better future for you too - unless you're happy to see the bankers bailed out for messing up our economy, livelihoods and future!

[LeMaquis 10]

Anyone who takes part in a violent demonstration is by definition an extremist.

 

I suspect most of those there didn't even know what they were supposed to be protesting against, they just fancied a ruck with the police.

 

rickiethecat opposes violence and extremism but doesn't mind siding with Hitler in supporting forced sterilisation of innocent people as he said in this quote from another thread;

 

I think many people have misunderstood the OP's perfectly reasonable point. He's not saying that those unable to work should be killed, he's simply suggesting that people unwilling to work should not be allowed to breed. As we live on such an overpopulated planet, that seems a perfectly fair point. Having unnecessary kids shouldn't be a right, it should be a privilege reserved only for those in society capable of bringing them up the right way.

[Harleyman 12]

A good way to express disgust at the tax dodging extremely wealthy, the banks, finance and lending institutions who still give huge bonuses to CEOs who cant even do the job they're there to do, the chronic unemployemnt which was initially caused by sendong millions of jobs off shore just to increase the bottom line and scumbags like the Tea Party who would if they could only further the distress already being suffered by the middle class. the working poor and the chronically poverty stricken

 

As a further thought we have now in the US the worst do nothing Congress in recent history. The Tea Party came to Washington with only one agenda to destroy Obama and any of his programs along with it the most recent being his jobs program which House Speaker John Boehner and Republican Minority Leader Mike Cantor immediately gave the thumbs down to.

 

The only thing that could be called good in any of this awful crap going on on Capitol Hill is that the approval rating of Congress is now at only 11 percent.

 

A major house cleaning is on the way in 2012 and long overdue.

Edited October 6, 2011 by Harleyman

[wednesday1 10]

The bankers who brought us this mess not only walk free, they drive free in Bentleys paid for by money looted through toxic mortgages, trading debacles and derivative madness. Regulators, prosecutors and an administration patsy to big finance do nothing except hand out $1.3 trillion in bailout cash and guarantees.

 

Consider how sick this narrative has become. A counter protest was planned in which bankers and traders said they would douse the “dirty hippies” of Occupy Wall Street with champagne, to give them “a bath.” Watch YouTube video of police arresting protesters .

 

These are the people police are protecting.

 

The ones outraged by greed run amok, reckless behavior and fraud are getting wrestled to the pavement and arrested.

 

Now, let’s not pretend that every protester was well behaved last week. Let’s not suggest these are librarians and clergy on the march (though there were some of both kinds in the ranks). There was cursing. There was defiance. Some provoked the police.

 

But ask yourself how you might act if you were in school or fresh out of it or young and unemployed. What future has Wall Street, the heart and brain of our capitalist country, promised you? How does it feel to be the sons, daughters and grand kids of a “me” generation that's run up the debt and run down the economy?

 

Unemployment is between 13% and 25% for people under 25. Student loans are defaulting at about 15% at a time when more young people have no alternative but to borrow to pay for school.

 

Meanwhile, Wall Street bonuses continue to be paid at close to all-time highs. Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS -5.33% , took home $13.2 million last year, including a $3.2 million raise.

 

Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America Corp. BAC -3.62% , got $10 million in stock and salary. Thomas Montag, Moynihan’s lieutenant actually got more, $14.3 million. Their bank has lost $14 billion during the last year. Shareholders — that’s you moms and pops, widows and orphans with 401(k)s — are holding the bag.

 

 

 

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

[peakma 10]

Skimmed through this, some people really need to wake up, and stop believing the spoon fed media, do a little research of what's going on in the world.

I haven't got the time or energy to begin joining any debates on the Sheffield forum, I have tried before, but it's too full of morons with closed minds, who look no further into what's going on in the world than what the BBC choses to tell them... Whenever qn interesting or controversial subject is begun, it is inevitably removed or turns into some silly tit for tat argument about spelling!!

Any way I only came on to look if there was any occupy Sheffield protests planned yet, I thought I saw a thread last night on the main page, but it seems to of gone..

This world needs change, and people are speaking out.

Human greed has taken over, we need to remember what we are here for, in my opinion, as intelligent human beings, the most important thing we can do is protect and respect all life on earth...

If anyone hears of positive action going on in Sheffield, I would appreciate a pm, as no doubt it will be removed!

[rickiethecat 10]

I don't really see what these clowns are so angry about. The banks have been around for years, the financial markets have been around for years, top people getting large end of year bonuses has been around for years.

 

Some people get paid more than me, it doesn't bother me in the slightest, it's all relative. For example, starving families in Africa might look at the amount the average worker in Sheffield gets paid and be disgusted at how greedy we are.

 

Violent demonstrations like this threaten the stability of our society and I fully support the American police in protecting decent people from these activists who threaten our way of life.

[NorthernStar 11]

I don't really see what these clowns are so angry about.

 

These 'clowns' are losing their jobs, buisinesses, houses and their way of life as you put it.

 

The banks have been around for years, the financial markets have been around for years, top people getting large end of year bonuses has been around for years.

 

The financial markets have never been so dishonest before, the rewards have been growing exponentially well beyond anything that could be described as reasonable for the last 2/3 decades most recently actually rewarding failure and dishonesty.

 

Some people get paid more than me, it doesn't bother me in the slightest, it's all relative. For example, starving families in Africa might look at the amount the average worker in Sheffield gets paid and be disgusted at how greedy we are.

 

It is indeed relative, the cost of food, land etc. in many of the poorer countries is also relative. I agree that we are a greedy nation and when faced with this reality I'm sure most people would feel a little disgusted at these inequalities too.

 

Violent demonstrations like this threaten the stability of our society and I fully support the American police in protecting decent people from these activists who threaten our way of life.

 

The most violence I've seen on the media has been from the NYPD using pepper spray on none violent protesters. I also see that J P Morgan have also supported the NYPD to the tune of $4.6m - how very decent of them.