Is The Occupy Wall Street Movement an Answer to The Tea Party Movement?

[Gaspar]

Gaspar, I am a little disappointed in you.  Judging a group of people because they have a tattoo or 7 or because they may wear a shirt that is not a white button up with a blue/red tie?  Is this all you can pull together?  They are doing what they believe to be bettering themselves and the world, just like the Tea Party.  And isn't who you choose to stand with a big determining factor on who you are as an individual?  I am sorry that you cannot seem to see that there may be other answers in this world other than what you think is right.

You've got me all wrong. I'm not judging, I'm observing. I am positive that there are other answers, and there are groups offering answers, but we haven't seen that with this group.  They obviously have things that they are against, but besides peace, love, and fellowship, they don't offer solutions.

Watch the interviews and you see that most of them are participating for the sake of participating. 

[Townsend]

You've got me all wrong. I'm not judging, I'm observing.

Well kids, I guess it's time to get your boots.

[guido911]

Perhaps they share similar goals, just different means?
Do you think most of them understand what they are protesting?

It seems like a very confused group, organized under several causes without a clear goal.


















But what is the goal?  

I'll raise you:











Where do these morons come from?

[Gaspar]

They have now compiled a list of grievances.  But sill no demands, or offerings of solutions, or working ideas aside from the platforms of the groups supplying many of the signs.  So if they want to end capitalism, what would they suggest in it's place?

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

[Conan71]

Love the sign which refers to President Obama as another Bush war criminal.

Classy.

[Gaspar]

I stand corrected.  They do have a list of demands on the Occupywallst.org website.  Demand #3 is interesting.  Aww hell, they're all interesting!

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.

Lloyd J Hart 508-687-9153

Reads like an old FOTD post!

[Ed W]

I'll raise you:



Where do these morons come from?

Where can I find a pair of those glasses?

[Townsend]

Short memories.

Remember pics of the tea party rallies?



You get the point.  All sides have their wackos.

[Gaspar]

Where can I find a pair of those glasses?

Those aren't glasses. . .you may take it with however many grains of salt that you wish. That the brown acid that is circulating around us isn't too good. It is suggested that you stay away from that.

[Conan71]

I stand corrected.  They do have a list of demands on the Occupywallst.org website.  Demand #3 is interesting.  Aww hell, they're all interesting!

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.

Lloyd J Hart 508-687-9153

Reads like an old FOTD post!

Quick!  Someone call Lloyd Hart and see if he's in the middle of smoking a big fat spliff.

Really?  Forgive all debt immediately and that will create jobs everywhere?  Open borders, but tariff the crap out of all foreign goods.

Yeeesh.  

I'm actually not opposed to tariffs and I do believe college should be more affordable.  I think that's a better investment than lifetime enslavement in social programs.

[Gaspar]

If I had made up a fake list of demands for this group as a joke, I couldn't have done a better job.

Basically they are demanding a guaranteed $40,000 a year income, having their credit cards payed off, and never having to work again. 

I have a feeling if you called Lloyd J Hart, his mom would have to yell at him down in the basement, but he might not be able to take your call if he is in the middle of a serious Battlefield Earth match on the Xbox.

[Townsend]

Could you at least link the lists so we can see their origin?

[Gaspar]

Could you at least link the lists so we can see their origin?

http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/

[Townsend]

http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/

So this guy represents the entire movement?  He's their leader?

[Gaspar]

So this guy represents the entire movement?  He's their leader?

I assume not, but he's offering the only set of demands they have.  I'm sure if you disseminated this list through the crowd they would all fall into agreement. 

Ralph Nader where are you?