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A Further Perspective
The Importance of Seeming Earnest
The Wall Street protests ramble on, but is there a unifying theme to any of it?
My neighbor poisoned my cat. Therefore, I’m going to travel to New York City, sleep in the streets indefinitely, and surf the web on my MacBook. I am going to be just like hundreds of other people who are now “occupying” Wall Street.
Voluntary homelessness is on the rise in the Big Apple thanks to “Occupy Wall Street,” a self-described “leaderless resistance movement” representing just about everyone. “We are the 99 percent,” it humbly claims on its website. But even as its numbers have grown, Occupy Wall Street is as message-less as it is leaderless. More and more people are occupying Wall Street, and fewer and fewer people know why.
The stated grievances range from corporate greed and social inequality to housing, health care and pollution. The 99 percenters say they “are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything.” Occupy Wall Street is an anti-greed crusade by self-interested individuals with a long list of nonspecific wishes. They are the non-silent majority taking aim at a minority.
The protesters have been camping out in Lower Manhattan since September 17, and they have no plans to stop. With no exit strategy in sight or mind, they have made “occupation” their occupation.
It seems odd to target Wall Street, a small strip of land with no leaders of its own. It is not an institution but represents a large and diverse collection of interests and individuals. But — as a 19-year-old protester said — “people on Wall Street have all the power.”
According to the protesters’ logic, the best way to wrest power from Wall Street is by moving Halloween up a few weeks. Hundreds recently descended on the New York Stock Exchange dressed as “corporate zombies,” much as anti-nuclear activists did in the early 1980s. But unlike today’s protesters, they at least knew why they were protesting.
“I’m angry because I don’t have millions of dollars to give to my representative, so my voice is invalidated,” said 21-year-old college student Amanda Clarke. Among her complaints are “that I’m graduating with tens of thousands of dollars in loans and there’s no job market.”
The fight, however, is not merely between college students and their future bills. It is so broad that it is indecipherable. “This is not about left versus right,” said Christopher Walsh, a 25-year-old photographer. “It’s about hierarchy versus autonomy.”
What makes the Wall Street occupiers so frivolous is their utter lack of purpose. Their deep-sounding words mask their arrant superficiality. Furthermore, anyone who uncritically claims to speak for 99 percent of the populace is — 99 percent of the time — deluded and incorrect. Occupy Wall Street is less for the downtrodden than it is for the bored and self-important, which explains why so many kids and actress Susan Sarandon are getting involved.
In an interview this week, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said the protests are “about freedom of speech [and] the right to assemble.” In other words, the protests are about protesting.
What the late Irving Kristol observed about the student radicalism of the 1960s applies to the events in New York. There is “a passion behind the protests that refuses to be satisfied by the various topics which incite it.” That’s because the only thing Occupy Wall Street is about is itself.
Occupy Wall Street is for those who romanticize the act of protesting. These are people to whom protesting over an issue is more important than the issue itself. They see protests not as a means but as an end.
The protesters in New York talk incessantly about getting their “message” across, yet they have no intelligible message. They want their “voices” to be heard, but all their voices say is that their voices should be heard. Yet again, it is those who have the least to say who are saying the most.
Rarely does a protest succeed in persuading people outside its ranks. What protests do is give protesters what P.J. O’Rourke called “a nice sense of false accomplishment.” When they go out and “do something,” they feel as if they are (actually) doing something. For such people, nothing feels better than an inflated sense of one’s importance.
Annie Duke, a 34-year-old protester, when asked what she did for a living, replied, “I’m a revolutionary.” Her answer is simultaneously flippant and over-serious. When you fill out a form and list “revolutionary” as your vocation, you are giving no information as well as too much information.
About the Author
Windsor Mann is a writer living in Washington, D.C., and the editor of The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (117) | Leave a comment
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POST American| 10.7.11 @ 7:11AM
---Mega milionaire Michael Moore takes
it all in with his Rockefellow eyes.
while Roseanne struts cluelessly about
in a MAO jacket spouting vapid Oprahisms.
Such is the face of the 'REAL' opposition.
Incredibly, one heard not a murmur,
not a hiss, on the subject of the ILLEGAL
foreign owned, USURY driven FED,
OR the 4 decades finishing off CFR-RED
China sellout and TREASON OP ---or a
single mention of its perps!
All this under CHEM-trailed autumn skies
saturated with FALL-out from the greatest
world nucear disaster in human history
-----------------FUKISHIMA--------------------
Again, not a word, not a murmur.
NO photos of TAX FREE Globalist
sellout artist Jeff I-Melt-down ---nothing!
Somehow these NGO provocateured
FAKE OPs just don't have the well-funded,
deeply scripted zing they once had.
MEANWHILE, those free men in the
know will be following ALEX JONES'S
lead in occupying FED offices nationwide
this weekend.
ALL non rectum worshiping Americans
should follow suit.
------------------------SEE YOU THERE!
Timothy L. Pennell| 10.7.11 @ 7:33AM
I still don't get this guy.
Maybe, that's a good thing?
RND | 10.7.11 @ 8:49AM
The crazy thing is that he gets up early just to be the first one to post.
CESC| 10.7.11 @ 10:33AM
I don't think PA gets himself. Just a daily weird post for his own strange pleasure.
Alan Brooks| 10.7.11 @ 11:25AM
(with all the methamphetamine PostAmerican ingests, he has no difficulty staying up all night to be the first to comment).
The protesters are doing the right thing; they sense you will elect a Romney or a Perry 13 months from now and it will be the same old same old. They also sense Herman Cain is an uncle Tom saying:
"don' you boys get all uppity, y'hear? Dey brough us here from Africa, 'n' even do dem librals helped free us in de Civil War, ahm a conservatiff who provides don Corleoni's Piza,
witch is betta dan dat table scraps Massa used to give dem slaves back in de old days before dem librals went to war wiff de Cornfederacy.
SHO NUFF!
Wheel about 'n' turn about
'n' do just so
whenever I wheel about
I jump Jim Crow"
CESC| 10.7.11 @ 11:33AM
Brooks revealing his racism once again......
Alan Brooks| 10.7.11 @ 11:53AM
Watch outs or de Brooksman'll
burn dat ol' rugged cross on yer lawn.
Tina B| 10.7.11 @ 5:27PM
Wow, you are definitely an equal opportunity offender, aren't you, A.B.
dede| 10.8.11 @ 11:45AM
yawn.... really? You still don't know sarcasm when you see it?? Lighten up, Francis.
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:19PM
Yup, Tim, it's a good thing.
KyMouse| 10.7.11 @ 9:22AM
PA, ever notice how airliner contrails appear longer a day or two before rain moves in? They work pretty well as barometers. That's because they are condensation, and as humidity builds in, they take longer to evaporate. That's why they appear longer. When the air is dry, they are very short.
david c| 10.7.11 @ 10:39AM
But I'm still not happy,
I feel like
there's something wrong.
I got the revolution blues,
I see bloody fountains,
And ten million dune buggies
comin' down the mountains.
Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon
is full of famous stars,
But I hate them worse than lepers
and I'll kill them
in their cars.
Neil Young
Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:55AM
I may not know much, at least not in PostAmerican's world, but one I DO know: I'm not a rectum worshiping American.
Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:55AM
I may not know much, at least not in PostAmerican's world, but one I DO know: I'm not a rectum worshiping American.
Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:55AM
I may not know much, at least not in PostAmerican's world, but one I DO know: I'm not a rectum worshiping American.
Ivan Ivanovich| 10.8.11 @ 5:14AM
Well Bill, you sure do know how the click send! Maybe a little less meth.
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:19PM
Hey, the send button just spazzes out sometimes.
Bill| 10.10.11 @ 9:00AM
I guess I can say THAT again!
Or maybe not...
Appleby| 10.7.11 @ 7:14AM
Meet the new revolution, same as the old revolution; bored, unoccupied kiddies whining that someone must *amoose* them, when what they really need is someone to give them something to do. They should each get a large bag and a pair of plastic gloves and told to pick up the trash on a square city block. Then mops could be handed out, and finally they should be sent to take a nap.
People who were brought upwith the vague sense that *they owe us* now mill aimlessly about, whining for they know not what...if your baby is toddling about in this mob, are you proud of your handiwork?
USSAlabama| 10.7.11 @ 9:04AM
Wasn't it Barack Obama who said 'Pick up a mop." ?
Ivan Ivanovich| 10.8.11 @ 5:25AM
That's the part I can't understand. Don't these people have anything to do? Why do I have to give them something to do? At 8 years old I was down at the YMCA working in the wood shop. At 12 to 16 I was delivering papers, then I worked in a store for a year. Then I finished HS and got a job, bought a car, met a girl, got married, bought a house, had 2 kids, went to college at night until I was supervising 3 engineers. I did go to a protest in 67, but it was stupid. Never went back.
b bayliss| 10.9.11 @ 7:20PM
The part that I don't understand is why you don't understand that all they want is the same opportunities you had. The world was a different place in 1964 than it is now, try to imagine where you'd be if there were no jobs, you had two kids and you couldn't afford a place to live or food to eat. My guess is you'd be frustrated enough to protest. I commend you on your success and agree that protests are stupid (especially the drumming),but something must change. We need to get money out of politics and reinstate Glass-Steagall for starters.
Timothy L. Pennell| 10.7.11 @ 7:36AM
"The Wall St. Protests ramble on, but is their a unifying theme to all of it?
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.
You have to be blind, not to see it.
loulou| 10.7.11 @ 9:32AM
More accurately, George Soros.
oldfart| 10.7.11 @ 7:37AM
I see the SDS (Students for a Dumb Society) is at it again.
Anthony| 10.7.11 @ 7:43AM
These kids have been inculcated with this Marxist crap by their Marxist professors.
The only things we really need to know here is that Obozo and the D party are encourging these riots as a precurser to 2012. That brain dead fool Nancy Pelosi "blessed" them.
I suppose the only good thing to come from these protests is the fact that some of these brain washed college numbnuts have figured out that their college administrators and professors are grossly overpaid.
That for their $40,000 a year, all these kids are getting is enormous debt and no jobs. Of course, majoring in gender equality won't get the doors of success opened.
So finally they walked out of class to protest this scam perpetuated by the D party to keep their collegues in cushy jobs and keep up the indoctrination.
Folks, 2012 is going to be ugly!!
oldfart| 10.7.11 @ 7:48AM
Ugly is a mild term for what we are going to see. Once the Pretender in Chief figures out there is no way he will be re-elected he will adopt an attitude of 'If I can't have it - no one will'. Between November and January he will be signing executive orders that will leave poison pills everywhere. Also, don't be surprised if he skips the inauguration of the new President. He is that 'small' personally and professionally.
Claypoole| 10.7.11 @ 9:58AM
Why are the taxpayers funding college tuition at all? Get the government out of the lending business, so that students and their families have to go to a private lending source, and I think we'll see the cost of a college education come down fast. And while we're at it, let's get the taxpayers out of the mortgage business as well.
oldfart| 10.7.11 @ 10:57AM
Taxpayers are funding college tuition so they can control what is taught in the schools. When I earned by undegraduate degree I worked during the summer to cover half my tuition and my books. My parents covered the other half of the tuition. If I did not work - I did not go to school. I also self funded by graduate degree. It is amazing if you are moticated for something, like Mr. Cain, you can make it work. You also develope a fine appreciation of making choices of what is important, and what is not. Something today's graduates do not seem to grasp. Not having a mountain of student debt is freedom.
Ivan Ivanovich| 10.8.11 @ 5:29AM
These kids think they are Too Big To Fail and they will get bailed out. That's what this is about.
b bayliss| 10.9.11 @ 7:33PM
Your parents paid half?!!!?? Well aren't you the self reliant one. Tell me, how does the cost of your tuition compare to today's cost? What did you learn? That it's fine to make unfounded statements such as "Taxpayers are funding college tuition so they can control what is taught in the schools." I'm afraid whatever was spent on your education was wasted. It's never too late though, you can learn logic and critical thinking on the internet
Martin| 10.9.11 @ 11:12PM
I suppose it is satisfying when coming to the defense of other snotty, cop-car defecating juvenile-minded persons to assume that affectation for oneself, eh? Unseemly nonetheless, and typical.
Pecos Pete| 10.7.11 @ 7:50AM
Community organizing by King O. Only 13 months to election day.
Brian Mc| 10.7.11 @ 8:02AM
When these revolutionaries return to their parent's basements, who will clean up? And the bill most likely will dwarf that of Madison not to mention the mall after the alien's oath.
hardcard| 10.7.11 @ 8:04AM
I smell a soros
Indy| 10.7.11 @ 8:42AM
Hop over to The Blaze, they are digging into the organizers
http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....f-america/
you are correct, these are Soros funded groups
moey| 10.7.11 @ 1:56PM
You're darned right they are!
POST American| 10.7.11 @ 8:21AM
"----Everyone goes on about George Soros.
George Soros is nothing more than a
front man for the Rothchilds --just like
the Rockefellows."
-ALAN WATT
Really kiddies ----get with WATT.
WATT's got the goods.
Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:39AM
Do you mean the Rothschilds?
aware| 10.7.11 @ 6:20PM
And Rockefeller?
Ivan Ivanovich| 10.8.11 @ 5:34AM
Rothschilds, AKA Joooos. Go to Wikipedia and look up Kristallnacht.
RND | 10.7.11 @ 8:46AM
Here's a newsflash (eyes roll): Why males between 19 - 35 show up at "demos."
It's THE place to snag babes.
For the male who is unathletic, has no musical talent, no proper job, no top education pursuit, where else is he to go?
The demo offers his opportunity. Show that 24 year old zealous, cute, idealistic liberal former coed that you're really "down with the cause," and your chances are good.
Dixie Pixie| 10.7.11 @ 11:44AM
Greeting RND
The lustful breeding with the clueless to procreate the next generation of Socialists.
And “Post American” is worried about an”Eugenics” conspiracy?
LOL...At the absurdity of it all.
Maybe TAS Online should hire Post American to infiltrate the “Occupy Wall Street” groups.
The comedic possibilities are endless when such great intellects collide.
It would be like intellectual antimatter and matter interacting.
Film at 11:00 pm.
Alan Brooks| 10.7.11 @ 3:14PM
News at 11 ought to be hosted by PostAmerican and Ozzie Osbourne.
Then they can each bite off the head of a bat.
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 3:45PM
Brooks, I agree with you, that would be an improvement. Best to ignore Post since his style is what we could call Post-English speaking.
Dixie Pixie| 10.8.11 @ 12:47PM
Actuality Al and Alan, I was thinking more on the line of a reality show.
What would happen if the moonbats of the Left collided with the wingnuts of the Right?
An even better question who would be their presidential candidate?
For your humorous consideration:::::
http://www.gocomics.com/pricklycity/2011/10/04
Al Adab| 10.8.11 @ 3:08PM
Dixie,
Thanks for the link. One of the comments under it is smart to recognize that Left and Right meet in totalitarianism. As to the reality show, I'm afraid it is going to be played on the nightly news once these "protests" move on to the primary states and the perty conventions next year. Remember 1968 and 1972? Be sure to look up the OWS.org website to read the thirteen point manifesto of demands behind these people.
Ivan Ivanovich| 10.8.11 @ 5:37AM
Yabut, who in his right mind would want to screw these skags?
Dan Mathewson| 10.8.11 @ 2:54PM
Ah, that's where condoms and beer goggles come into play.
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:22PM
Yup, indeed. Of course, going to medical school can also help.
Helen| 10.7.11 @ 8:56AM
NO wonder Annie Dukes is unemployed. Windsor Mann is wise beyond his years and an excellent writer!
Helen Cochran
Wichita KS
martin j smith| 10.7.11 @ 8:58AM
This about International Socialism and George Soros.
Big bucks are behind this as they were behind Obama.
Is it not interesting you have the kids in rags ( just like the 1960s ) but behind them are extremely rich people--millionaires and billionaires no less. Amazing.
b bayliss| 10.9.11 @ 7:45PM
Are you familiar with the concept of projection?
The mindless "conspiracy theories" on this site are hilarious.
Did you know that George Soros and George W. Bush once served on the same board?
The Koch Bros. Dick Armey and Fox news co-opted the tea baggers.
All these references to hippies really date you people.
scythe| 10.7.11 @ 9:35AM
When no one paraded an effigy of Barney Frank clad in an orange jumpsuit, manacled and shackled that was the only clue needed to determine if these dunderheads were serious. Want to protest? Take it to DC people. Because Wall Street has many strings all tangled up with the outlaws in DC. One feeds off the other and the two are inseparable at this point. Those responsible for the housing meltdown are hiding and attempting to deflect attention away from their hands in the mess. The bankers feasted but DC set the table. Why have there been no attempts to hang this travesty around the necks of Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, his "boyfriend" and others? And if you really want to feel the burn, get a load of Mr. Cuomo, the architect of the HUD swamp and swindle, the scion of his sanctimonious father, another preening piety, now elevated to an even HIGHER position rather than facing the consequences of his thievery and lies. Everything goes back to the shitheads we have in the Federal government and yet NOTHING is being done about it. The more they gather on Wall Street, the more relieved the SOBS are in Washington.
loulou| 10.7.11 @ 9:38AM
I wonder if Soros/Obama are going to live to regret forcing this genie out of the bottle. The loonie tunes are crazy enough that this "movement" may take on a life of its own.
Maybe they'll go down to Charlotte and riot at the Democrat convention.
Teaghan| 10.7.11 @ 11:16AM
Now THAT would be rich!
Tina B| 10.7.11 @ 5:34PM
Yes, Teaghan, and send in the clowns.
Oldefarte| 10.7.11 @ 10:06AM
I have reguritatingly observing these worthless little punks all of my adult life. Yes, they existed in my 20's [remember the Kent States?] and are no different now. They're scum, worthless, valueless little urchins who contribute absolute nothing to the overall society. College graduates? Yeah, liberal arts degreed punks able to quote Shakespere, contemplate the meaning of IS, adolize Jimmy Hendrix and Janice Joplin, sniff cocaine up their nostrils, whine for government welfare-assistance, etc. They are not military members servicing their country, accountants, doctors, lawyers, engineers, janitors, farm laborers, street cleaners, garbage collectors, ministers, Salvation Army employees, etc. In essence, they are simply NOTHING [but entirely worthless scum-sucking little selfish PIGS]. And their fearless leaders, you ask? Why the current occupant of 1600, that who [who trained them in Chicago and legally established their protesting guidelines].........AND SADLY '''''WHO''''' THE STUPIDS OF THIS COUNTRY ELECTED ON 11/4/08!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
loulou| 10.7.11 @ 10:15AM
It's deja vu all over again.
Oldefarte| 10.7.11 @ 10:47AM
Please please forgive me, for I have sinned! I forgot to mention the MOST IMPORTANT among the group of society's contributors and that is......MOMS/MOTHERS WHO RAISE/CARE FOR THEIR CHILDREN 24-7 [and their jobs are the most difficult of all]!!!!
Seek| 10.7.11 @ 1:49PM
Gee, you wouldn't be engaging in any ad hominem caricaturing, by any chance, in your radiation of hatred, not wisdom? As an aside, you managed to misspell William Shakespeare's last name, and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin's first names. What are we to make of your education? Can't wait for your denunciation of "John Lenin."
Simon Templar| 10.7.11 @ 2:55PM
Well, maybe you are rubbing off on the old guy. Suffered from any Palin Derangement Syndrome lately? People who invented the ad hominem and live in ad hominem should not throw ad hominem.
Oldefarte| 10.7.11 @ 3:34PM
Jimi, Janis and John were all worthless [so-called] musicians and drug addicts and sociatal pigs; and you're obviously an artsy-fartsy liberal/progressive indigent propagandizing for increased governmental welfare at the expense of taxpayers. Did I misspell any words here that are a cocaburr up your idiotic anal cavity, perhaps [if so, please excuse and STICK IT WHERE THE SUN WILL NEVER SHINE!].Have a nice day!!!!!!!!
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:23PM
Well, Seek, since their names will last for less than 50 more years, who cares?
b bayliss| 10.9.11 @ 7:50PM
And you, oh wise one, how did you contribute after Mom and Dad paid half your tuition?
Brubaker| 10.7.11 @ 10:15AM
Obama and his minions have looked to the future and they have seen defeat. They're in a panic, grasping for any straw that might save their corrupt regime, and they've resorted to class warfare.
In doing so, Obama is playing with fire. The people who have turned out for Occupy Wall Street have little notion what they are protesting or why. They are an instable and potentially explosive mix that may ultimately bring literal class warfare to this country.
Steve A| 10.7.11 @ 10:23AM
Want some good news? Look at the 10 day foreacst for NYC. Now, we all know how these things can go, but, it would be soooooo sweet to see these morons drenched with rain for about a 4 day stretch. You would have a degenerating moron mud mosh pit of colossal ignorance in full view.
We can only hope.
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:23PM
Steve A:
Yeah, but then we would have to cover their influenza costs.
Bill| 10.7.11 @ 10:38AM
Well, I don't qualify as one of the One Percenters by a long sight, but I'm not one of the 99%ers, so I humbly submit, from near the bottom of the economic pyramid, that the 99%ers would be more accurately characterized as something like the 99.99999%ers.
OldSeabee| 10.7.11 @ 10:53AM
Chicago, 1968: Hubert Humphrey is given his party's nomination in spite of a very large and disruptive crowd of "peace demonstrators" who wanted Eugene McCarthy as the nominee. And, then the anarchists took over the demonstration and the rioting began. Charlotte, NC, 2012: will history be repeated if Obama does not get endorsed as the nominee? Or, if the current economic tangle remains, will we see brownshirt-type demonstrations ala The Weimar Republic?
The list of currrent events reminds me of an old newsreel. "It's deja-vu all over again." (Yogi Berra)
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 1:13PM
Absolutely SeaBee, they have to practice up to storm the convention next year. Remember Walter Cronkite, "The kids, oh the poor kids" which was his contribution during the '68 DEM convention.
Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 11:04AM
You can not convince me that this isn't the left trying to neutralize the effect of the Tea Party. The Tea Party has them very nervous, so the powers that be generate a Astroturfed opposing view points of clueless idiots.
To bad for them that it simply show their hypocrisy and will bite them in the ass. Especially once (not if) some of these protest turn violent. 700+ arrest and counting. How many Tea Partiers were arrested again?
J.C.Eaton| 10.7.11 @ 11:20AM
Couple that with the ineluctable verity that these turd-burgers are terminally STUPID....just plain STUPID. The parents are probably looking for a warm tub and a razor blade.
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 11:38AM
Understand this is in part an attempt to recreate the mythological 60's, the glory days of protests.
Then, to find out what is really at stake visit the Occupy Wall Street. org site to read the thirteen point manifesto of their demands. The thinking there reveals just how dangerous this cancer is to our way of life and to that of the protesters themselves although they don't understand it. In the world they demand, they would be in prison or against a wall.
All that said, it is about time to call them what they are and get them off the front page and the airwaves. It just encourages them.
Drunken Sailor| 10.7.11 @ 12:11PM
Are you surprised by the Manfesto when you have parties like the Communist party USA and the Socialist Party USA?
Then you have top Democrats supporting them and yet most of their voters will still not believe that the Democrat Party has become the Socialist party.
Stock up on scotch, guns and ammo my friend. It's going to be a long, bumpy ride.
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 1:02PM
The coming street riots, aided and abeted by the Unions and DEM party (who are handing out drinks and food to these people) will certainly be a convenient excuse to rid ourselves of the annoying and expensive elections so we can rule the country as it should be.
Never fear my friend, this is the precursor to Ceasat or Bonaparte. Remember the "whiff of grapeshot"? The those who hate war so much and wealth so much will discover that the world they create has no room for them. They will, under the regime they hope to see, find themselves truely occupying a wall...albeit momentarily until the shots ring out.
b bayliss| 10.9.11 @ 7:58PM
HA! The tea baggers approval ratings are lower than those for atheists. As for Astroturf, you make me laugh and laugh!
Petronius| 10.7.11 @ 12:00PM
One thing puzzles me. Where is the first string? The black-bloc anarchists aren't there smashing store fronts and paralizing commerce. Usually, the UN brings them in, boards them at local universities, and pays their fines when they get busted. Oh, I forgot. That money went to their building fund this year and Ted Turner has his feet up in Patagonia.
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 1:05PM
The Left is simply using these people to get the ball rolling. Once in motion they will be all over it. Street riots and urban warfare will be of great use to them. See my above to DS.
Scott B| 10.7.11 @ 1:06PM
You have your tin foil hat isn't working.
Simon Templar| 10.7.11 @ 2:34PM
Troll, take a walk.
Scott B| 10.7.11 @ 12:03PM
Is it so hard to understand that people don't want businesses writing their own regulations and controlling the government rather than the people. They are protesting to get people talking before the elections next year. If you don't think you'll hear tons about Wall St. now, your delusional. Keep up your hate though.
The corruption from both parties is so evident. The news doesn't mention the protest until the liberal media jumps onboard when unions join in and try to co-opt the movement. Twitter still is censoring the #ows hashtags. Why are you so happy accepting this? Do you really think this is what is best for our country?
Simon Templar| 10.7.11 @ 2:49PM
Yeah, it is hard to understand because it is a fantasy. You have everything half ass backwards. It is big government and the progressive ruling class that controls this nation not the business sector. Big government picks the winners and losers, it writes regulations for its advantage and yes, does this with the collusion of those corporations willing to play footsy with big government, fill their campaign and party coffers, and do what they are told. If big business and wall street controlled this nation there would be no taxes, no big unions, no regulations, and no democratic party.
These so-called protestors are out there to distract useful idiots and the general public away from the government's responsibility for this mess and direct the attention and blame towards the business sector.
Tina B| 10.7.11 @ 5:40PM
Exacto mundo, Simon T.
Jabber3| 10.7.11 @ 12:08PM
My grandmother used to say "idle hands are the tools of the devil".
Listening to some of the interviews with the protesters, I would say “idle minds” are the result of our budding entitlement society. They seem to be saying, "They (Wall Street) got theirs. Where's mine?”
moey| 10.7.11 @ 1:53PM
Right on!
moey| 10.7.11 @ 1:53PM
The unification of this group that is going to spread around the country is many but the main two are called: George Soros and Van Jones plus labor unions of all shapes and sizes. They should get off their duffs and get a job. It might not be a high eschelon job but there are beginning jobs out there - just hunt for them. Or start your own business - look at what Steve Jobs did and he was a college drop out. No one has any incentive, they are so used to being handed everything on a platter with a big bow!!!!
Ron| 10.7.11 @ 2:15PM
Why are they protesting, again?
These knuckleheads have their precious "Knucklehead-In-Chief" as POTUS...Wasn't everything going to be hunky-dory when NerObama took over? Oh, that's right...he is supposed to become dictator to make everyone equal and is not moving fast enough to suit them...Oh, wait, they are protesting big government's involvement in Wall Street and the greedy people getting all of the say in government...Oh, wait the Senate and the White House are dominated by Democ-rats, so they are really protesting the Democ-rats? Or are they protesting that the Demo-crats do not have the House as well?
The protesters have me really confused...
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 3:38PM
They have themselves confused too. The irony here is that they agree with the TEA Party who opposed the bailouts from the start. Wall Syreet contributed millions to the Obama campagin which makes this all the sweeter.
Sadly though, their solution is just bailouts for themselves instead of support for those who wish to grow the economy, not otherwise tax (in both senses of the word) it into oblivion.
Simon Templar| 10.7.11 @ 3:53PM
Great observation, Al. You are a very intelligent and nuanced thinker.
Al Adab| 10.7.11 @ 5:58PM
You're a Saint, Simon.
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:26PM
I'm not the only one who has noticed these nice things about you, Simon. See?
Occam's Tool| 10.8.11 @ 6:26PM
Correct, as usual, Al. I would say "ditto," like Slim Pickens, but I'm afraid you would then "Hedley Lamarr" me. (Pickens response to THAT is worthy as a description of Obama)
Simon Templar| 10.7.11 @ 2:28PM
The only thing these few hundred dregs, losers, and incredibly inarticulate slackers represent is just how far this nation has fallen culturally and politically. They do not even represent the majority of college students who despite their public higher education marxist education could at least form a few coherent sentences and explain why they would be there.
This is what a welfare state produces. You saw the same thing on a larger scale in England just a month ago.
As usual, the real story is COMPLETELY missed here. That story is a corrupt government and media that is so willing to use these misfits for political gain and political mainpulation. It slanders, attacks, libels, and discredits tax paying average working Americans and families that have a clear message and legitimate greivances who orgainize and demonstrate peacefully and respectfully. Then out of the other side of its collective mouth, it praises and illiterate, disorganized, inarticulate small group of misfits that create disruption, sponge off of the city, spew hatred for Jews, and carry signs that call for the destruction of our economic system.
No one, including the conservative press, bothers to ask who might be behind these "spontaneous" protest and who these people really are. No investigative journalism. No clear rebuttal to their crazy assertions. No accountability or focus on the government officials supporting such anarchy and anti-American rhetoric. No confrontation or questioning about the double standards here.
Tom| 10.7.11 @ 4:08PM
I can understand how unemployment would be a concern for this bunch. What person in their right mind would ever hire any of these left-wing losers?
POST American| 10.7.11 @ 11:30PM
Speaking of INTER-national USURY
and its currently unfolding phase--
"----Do you understand? --the government's
rewarded them for plundering us. Literally,
thse guys have had NO punishment for the
thousands and thousands of people they've
destroyed, whole nations they've ruined.
You CANNOT bring cancer into a healthy
body. This is a DEVIANT system. Nothing
good, normal or healthy can come of it.
And ALLLL they are is gangsters."
-ALAN WATT
(yesterday's online coverage)
Michael Moore's Rockefellow eyes
as he calls for bankster 'Marksism'
---while Roseanne further neutralizes
ANY revelation, ANY perception
of our enmeshment with the
RED Chinese Halocaust by
modelling a MAO jacket.
And ROT-child front man, George Soros
said to be scripting and funding the whole
media circus.
SO, as FUKISHIMA fallout mixes with
those CHEM-trails over our heads---
-----Keep a goin' ---Keep a goin'
-------Globalism is Glow-Ball-ism
-----------and the U.N. is your END
----------------Just keep a goin'...
al bundhii| 10.7.11 @ 11:52PM
A very brief video clip of a group of these young vanguarders which was shown on fxn this morning showed some kid trying to organize his cohort, and oh horror the kid was smoking a Cigarette!! No video of any goresyndicalists trying to reeducate the winstonite deviationist; maybe the right to a cig in NYC is what the whole Movement is secretly about.
sirbourbon| 10.8.11 @ 12:03AM
The OWS protest has the official sanction of the US government; the USDA stamp of approval and bipartisan funding. One group gets directly funded by congress on a regular basis and they are at the Occupy fest. Planned Parenthood has a presense.Wouldn't you know that an outfit whose job it is to keep tiny little voices forever quiet would be at this anti-Adam Smith party.
Now the unions have gotten sweet deals by laws passed over the years by congress. and it can be argued that when you give the collectivists in the unions a inch they'll take a mile by thanking congress by using the union label to march alongside other collectivists like the communists who are experts at finagling a government grant asslong as it's got an innocent-sounding title. But who knows now that HUAC and the Senate Internal Security committee have both been voided by a congress too eager to please the sensitivites of leftwingers that want to overthrow the government instead of taking care that we aren't funding our own enemies.
martin j smith| 10.8.11 @ 9:37AM
I follow these so called protesters from a distance for my own sanity's sake. Here is stuff I have picked
up about them that I keep in mind:
Why does NYC tolerate their never ending presence when the cost of Police OT is astronomical ? A reminder Bloomberg "predicted" riots if there is not more employment( i.e if Obama's so called Jobs Bill is not passed .
These so called "protesters have Obama's personal and his allies support ( Unions for instance ). The money to support these people comes from somewhere--that would be tax payers.
And, as others have said this is merely practice for the real riots as we get closer to election day.
What does all this mean?: It means that even if Republicans win and win BIG, we will be in a virtual civil War on one level or another ( in fact we are right now ). The issue will be how much blood will be spilled ?
It also means this: The Republican establishment will be challenged to show how it will deal with the political opposition that has no intention of letting up its viscous smears,encouragement of and actual violence to the point that ( and its exists right now ) that you cannot do business with them ( Socialists formerly the Democrat Party ). Is the Republican Establishment prepared for this ? NO !!!!!!!!!
Mimi| 10.9.11 @ 7:52AM
Most of these types won't VOTE...also are there enough COPS left to "MIND" the TERRORISTS ?
shipley130| 10.8.11 @ 7:05PM
Didn't Glenn Beck say this kind of thing was going to happen? You know, the guy from Fox News that seems to be getting ALOT of predictions correct.
Pelligrino| 10.8.11 @ 7:57PM
In the article above we read:
"I'm angry because I don't have millions of dollars to give to my representative, so my voice is invalidated," said 21-year-old college student Amanda Clarke.
Young Ms. Clarke is actually quite right.
Any casual observation of professional politicians (and, yes, that is exactly what your US Congressman, Senator and state house reps are) have eyes keener than hawks when working rallies, gatherings, conventions, or any other political assembly.
They can spot within seconds the "monied" and influencial in the room.
They know who has the checkbooks. They know who to bow to and curry favor from.
And if "monied and influencial" does not include you? Said politician eyes and attention (and ears) you will never have.
You are as useless as a dead skunk on the county road.
Just watch your congressman, governor, or senator "work" a room the next time you have a chance.
rongordo | 10.8.11 @ 9:30PM
A good chunk of these kids are probably just trying to impress the opposite sex.
Dimitri Aleksandrovich| 10.9.11 @ 6:55AM
You are right. The protesters lack a definable cause and they lack leadership. They lack discipline. That's the problem when you let a bunch of smoked out college kids run the show. What this protest needs is a Jimmy Hoffa. It needs a stated goal of organizing American workers and small business owners into a European like general strike where we shut down all commerce in the country until the corporate and political elite are forced to give the average "Joe American" a seat at the table. That can only be done with the force of numbers hitting the corporate and political elite in the place where it hurts and that's the wallet. The hippies regardless of how pure their intentions are need to get to the back of the bus and the angry Middle Class American who is about to (or has all ready) lost his job, his house or his business needs to get to take the wheel. We don't need people with hula hoops and banging on annoying drums while dressed up like the Easter Bunny, what we need is vigilant American workers and small business owners putting fear in the hearts of the elite. I'm a union member, a husband, and a father of two young children. In some ways I'm very conservative, but I cannot stand by while the American Middle Class is decimated and our wealth is transferred to the monstrous Multi-National corporations that have no loyalty to the United States and much less loyalty to the American people.
martin j smith| 10.9.11 @ 7:36AM
Here is another matter that I am sure . There very people who this crowd to teenagers rails about are the very same people who contribute hundreds of thousands if not millions to the Socialist Party. You know in NYC there was an Obama fund raiser at 35+ thousands dollars a plate. These guys ( mostly ) were the same people that the teenies hate. And this also includes those evil banks. What this mob does not understand is what we have is CRONY Capitalism. Its the Crony part that escapes them.
Mimi| 10.9.11 @ 8:01AM
It's the crony capitalist, Wall St., bankers that finance OBAMA . The kids are biting the hands that feed them!!! The pennies and nickels these kids throw in the POT are peanuts.....Yahoo, the hippies are BACK and who got elected in 1968?
Remember?.....It was NIXON !!!
Mimi| 10.9.11 @ 8:12AM
Maybe some WALL STREETERS should go down and give them 100 BUCKS to shower and buy a suit and come back for an interview! A job, would do wonders....Get the economy going...spend...! You would think Mayor Bloomburg had a better way to spend his money than for COPS to watch "The Kids" on Wall St.!
martin j smith| 10.9.11 @ 4:37PM
Please note the article on the DC standoff has attracted a bunch of nut jobs --trolls that is who are behaving like anti-social teenagers. If you have not seen it have a look. I believe you will see how stupid the LEFT has come to be.
This shows clearly who these people are.
Tina B| 10.9.11 @ 4:56PM
you ain't kidding Martin. Whew! It's a jungle over there.
b bayliss| 10.9.11 @ 6:58PM
Where has the article gone? First it was rewritten now it's been taken down. Isn't A. S. willing to stand behind one of their assistant editors? What does this mean?
Mike| 10.9.11 @ 8:42PM
"The Wall Street protests ramble on, but is there any unifying theme to it?"
Yes. Those on Wall Street are crooks. And, those at AmSpec are their toadies.
Osamas Pajamas| 10.10.11 @ 2:21AM
OHBUMMER'S "WALL STREET OCCUPIERS" AND OTHER OHBUMMER STREET GANGS
Oh, the corporations! Oh, the banks! Oh, BOO HOO! Most of these demonstaters and rioters have a wind-up key sticking out of the middle of their backs with OhBummer's fingerprints all over it. He shat upon their brains and they LOVED it, crying, "Oh! Oh! More poo, please! More poo!"
These are the ideological blackshirts, brownshirts, redshirts and no-shirts thugs tasked and directed in their riots by OhBummer allies Michael Moore, David Astroturf Axelrod, and Van Jones, by MoveOn.org, the SEIU, the Huffington Post, and OhBummer's former employer, ACORN --- and, naturally --- by Barak Hussein Hushpuppy Hoover OhBummer, himself. Oh, and with a cameo appearnce by Roseanne Barr-The-Beheader, that scabrous dopehead rugmuncher.
This so-called "spontaneous, leaderless civil unrest" is a White House operation, conceived in the bowels of Barak Hushpuppy OhBummer's fetid little mind, in the bowels of the White House, and enacted by OhBummer's chosen proxies, surrogates, cronies, and confederates.
OhBummer and the OhBummer Wrecking Crew have been promoting envy [mental illness] and trying to shift blame to "Greedy Wall Street" and away from themselves --- they who are what novelist Ayn Rand called "greedy for the unearned."
I advocate that the police shoot and kill every one of OhBummer's rioting troops who obstructs traffic or trespasses on private property or in any way threatens or attempts to intimidate any of their critics or victims.
These are the lying, arrogant, greedy-for-the-unearned, bloodsxcking, tax-eating Democrat hoods, thugs, and gangsters. I advocate and I seek their destruction.
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
Oh. By the way. In 2008, the top 1% of earners paid more than 38% of all Federal income taxes.
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-.....taxes.html
And so to the President of the United States of America and to the so -called "99-percenters" in OhBummer's street gangs who claim victimhood --- go blow smoke up your own ass.
JCH| 10.10.11 @ 9:50PM
BIG difference between Tea Party and Occupyers:
GOD. God is welcome at Tea Party rallies, is prayed to and honored. Very clearly not so at Occupation--only anger and resentment. Good luck with that.
cynthia| 10.10.11 @ 11:39PM
Amazing that in the midst of all this "enlightenment" they are so blind to the fact that they are dupes for the likes of George Soros and Barack Obama. Like puppets on a string...carrying on the traditions of the Jane Fondas of the world.
Wendy| 10.12.11 @ 12:37PM
Brilliant. Love it. Dead on.
George F.| 10.18.11 @ 3:41PM
What they are protesting about is nobody is taking charge of their lives and they refuse to face the fact that taking charge of their lives is their responsibility.