The difference now is that unlike the 60's, there will be a hard core of experienced protesters with nothing but time on their hands to help organize and directly educate them in the art of civil disobedience. Right on Brother.

Someone else called them "kleptocrats." That's about right. It's hard to imagine all that power and treasure monopolized by persons whose moral compasses are pointing the way to hell.

Scanner, it will be interesting to see where it goes from here! I'll be down in that part of the city next week checking the protest out. Thanks for the great piece about this important topic!

Scanner: the "problem" with the protest is the lack of demands--understandable when the issue is both confusing and so entrenched. Nicholas Kristoff came up with some very concrete suggestions in the NY Times yesterday--worth a look. Also worth a look is our friend Greg Correll on doesthismakesense.com. He's got a list of demands/solutions that are so practical, so humane, so fair that...well, NO one will ever adopt them (sigh)

It's about time we take to the streets! When I learned over the weekend that banks are going to starting charging a fee for debit-card usage I was livid. First they installed ATM's to cut down on bank tellers. Then they parked them in every nook and cranny they could find, making it ever-easier for us to access our own money. Then, bam! Here come the added fees. I am sick of it.

Lezlie

Nikki raises a good point. I haven't read Greg's piece yet on Does This Make Sense, but I will. Will also read Kristoff's piece. Problem is, as Nikki points out, there's little chance, if any, the plutocracy will give anything more than lip service to the right solutions, yielding any privilege or power from their barely regulated governance. This is why the threat of a messy uncontrollable Class War that takes its energy from rage in the streets might be the only course we have toward forcing concessions from these greedy sanity-challenged bastards.

Unless it is taken to the streets nothing will change.

"If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal"

E. G. / R

The Streets:

Were abandoned by Americans
In favor of BMWs and ticky tacky houses
Subsidised by a Government that had been
Subverted by criminals who have never spent a night in jail

The Jobs went to those willing to work for rice
The bills went unpaid
The Cites went to hell
As Soccer Moms burned Saud Oil in the 'burbs

Will the jails filled
With Blacks and Browns
No one from suburbia came Around
Until The whole deal came tumbling Down

Now those Soccer Kids are College bound
upset that their ticky tacky world is coming down
And wow, they coming back to town
But not to rescue the Blacks and Browns

ChickenMaaaaan, I agree, I've read papers all over the country and the world, about solutions, but until you have someone to negotiate with, what good are they. I'll swing by and read Greg's piece, but until this country makes the powers that be sit down and agree that the rich have to pay more taxes, and keep your hands off of entitlements to the poor, it's just more information I'll pack away until later. The poor cannot pay anymore deductibles at the doctor's offices or hospitals, we haven't had a Cost-of Living raise in almost 3 years. Meanwhile, gas has went up 150% and groceries and other needed items 25 %. Meanwhile, you have these idiots running around talking about "not" raising the ceiling debt, when they have no idea what it would do to this nation and the world. These people are in Congress, the Senate, and they have no idea how capitalism works. Now, they are going to shut down the government, again. Morons, All. The solutions are the easy part, getting these pigheaded morons to the bargaining table to at least listen before saying NO is the hard part, and that is going to involve People Power I'm afraid. Gotta go, thanks Nikki and everyone, be back later, alligators (that is so lame)

Thanks for the heads up; this is the first I've heard of this one which seems to be separate from occupy Wall Street but perhaps just as worthwhile on a separate subject.

If there is a lot of confusion about what they're protesting about it is only because the government and the corporations are doing so many things wrong and it may be hard to know where to start. The truth seems to be that they're doing very little if anything right.

I'll have to take a closer look at this Evolt site. It looks like it might turn out as big as the Occupy Wall Street but of course the Mass Media can't be trusted to acknowledge it until they have no choice like they did with Occupy Wall Street. They didn't do this with the Tea Party a couple years ago; in fact the Tea Party had major boost from the enormous amo0unt of political coverage they received even after it became clear that other movements had more actual grass roots support and rational supporters. Presumably this is because they served the purpose of the corporations better.

Also the concern expressed by Nikki is a legitimate one; however it is to be expected with any truly grass roots movement and I suspect there will be some progress on that before too long. I haven't looked at the NYT yet but I would be surprised if they came up with the best suggestions; after all they are part of the establishment that could have, but didn't, do a much better job getting the story out and pointing out many of these problems.

You're right on ScanMan. It's going to come down to the streets. I was appalled at the comments of the New Jersey Governor over the weekend about how this is all about people who have gone out and "gotten theirs" (my phrase) wanting to make sure that they get to keep it even if it means that people with needs get nothing. There's just something about that which I find repulsive.
Yeah, it's going to end up in the streets and I fear that it will be up to our generation to do it--the "youngs" are just to full of themselves and too busy texting and tweeting about the inane and banal to actually "do" anything.

Once again you have nailed it

I wish I could find it, but I haven't been able to so far: Kemstone once wrote a post about how what the majority of Americans favor according to polling data on several issues isn't at all what we're getting in policy. I'm wondering about the prospect that voting isn't working all that well and I'd like to know why.

The current protests are necessary if for no other reason than that those in power start to worry that enough people are sufficiently galvanized to bother.

My marching days are long since; I can write. And promote writers such as you, Kenny. Bless you for this.

r.

Scanner--I understand and support the passion and the hope. However, I have to be a Debbie Downer on this. Remember the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999? Way bigger than these current protests and what happened? Nothing. People protesting is not going to get Wall Street to take their greedy hands from around the neck of American people. Only legislation will do any good. And throwing a few of the bastards in jail.
I trust very few in the media.

Greenwald's words would carry more impact for me if he actually lived in this country. He resides in Brazil. I can't get passed that.

Its about time but they still wont know what to do properly unless they have one of us..
HUGGGGGGGGGGGG

MARCH IN THE STREETS, AND ONE VOICE BECOMES THE ROAR OF MANY....

There is a post on DailyKos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/02/1022210/-2nd-time-Ive-fought-for-my-country-1st-time-Ive-known-my-enemy-OccupyWallStreet?via=siderec) of a young Marine at the Wall St. protests with a sign that reads "2nd time I've fought for my country. 1st time I've known my enemy."

An outstanding comment by someone who has risked his life to defend the clowns on Wall St. who likely have never humped a ruck and a rifle in their lives out beyond the wire. It's a near certainty their kids haven't either.

I've read a number of places that more and more of us vets are joining the protest. I'd like to hear one of those rich fucks tell me I'm treasonous and unpatriotic because I want the burden of sacrifice shared by all. Show me your DD214 you bastard and then maybe we'll talk.

As Greenwald says and you cite, the demands are easy enough to see. The reason there's a diversity of issues being raised by people's signs and comments is because a) the manifestations of the illness are multitudinous and b) people are commonly moved to act politically by different issues and concerns, with certain ones the ones that are most likely to be uppermost in their minds.

Having said that, what is striking to me is how widespread the understanding is among the protesters that what they are fighting against is a hydra-headed monster, the system of capitalism/imperialism. As someone who participated in the 1960s, these protests are the nearest thing to the 1960s as I've seen since the 1960s. As I told them at the Occupy LA rally on October 1, "you folks have a chance to hopefully finish what we couldn't finish in the 60s!"

People who complain about the amorphousness of the movement aren't yet recognizing what this movement is. It's not a movement that is trying to simply get politicians and corporations to agree to certain demands. It's a revolutionary movement that has not yet congealed around a fully coherent program, a movement that in its cutting edge and main thrust is for an entirely different kind of world and system. Its participants are seeking to find the best ways forward, and in their insistence on staying and not just being content with one day's march, are making history. The 1960s' draft and the international insurgencies that sparked political insurgency here at home are finding their political equivalent today in the terrible employment situation for youth, the cutbacks and rising costs of higher education, and Arab Spring.

Watch what authorities are doing and how they are responding to this. The fangs are out from the right-wing media and police agents: they know what they see and they fear it profoundly - as they should, because it threatens their continued predatory presence in everyone's lives and on the deepest levels.

Many, many veterans are out of work, and are joining the movement. Spud, there were protest across this country yesterday, and I've read article after article, in newspapers, magazines and all over the web, and this seems different somehow. A lot of kids have graduated from college a few years ago, and can't find a job parking cars. Their credit is shot because they can't pay their student loans and they are mad. Now, medicare is raising rates and cutting benefits, and medicine that used to cost a few dollars, you can't even get now. People are getting madder across the spectrum, and it has to reach a boiling point. I have no idea how they are going to solve this, unless corporations and the rich who run them not only pay more taxes, but start investing in jobs. Where are all these "Job creators" that have had their taxes cut for 10 years now, every since Bush took office? They are living on yachts, while we are at the local food bank begging for food. A real shame, a real "patriotic" shame!

"Where are all these "Job creators" that have had their taxes cut for 10 years now, every since Bush took office?"

The way I've been feeling, if I had my way, they'd all be face down floating in some river somewhere!!!!!!!!

GROWLING!!!!

When Vietnam was protested, those protesting it had a clearly defined objective. Webster Tarpley just wrote a piece about how this whole movement is in danger of redirection, just like the Koch’s redirected the tea party, unless it defines its goals. His suggestion is a debt jubilee:

http://tarpley.net/2011/09/29/emergency-program-for-anti-wall-street-protestors/

To that should be added:

1: The immediate reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act

2: The immediate rescinding of NAFTA

3: The overturning of the Citizens United “decision” and the immediate arrest on charges of treason for the Bush cronies masquerading as judges that are responsible for it.

4: A reopening of the NIST “investigation” of 9/11 chaired by an impartial panel of architects and scientists.

Amen to that! A sleeping giant awakes, some 40 years later. But better late than never. I've been waiting since some in our generation copped out and sold out--though I didn't, and it looks like you didn't either.

The time is now or never. If the police state continues to develop its tactics and weapons for crowd and individual control over and above what they have already, we will be in big trouble.

Good post!

"What they should know is Wall Street is just the beginning."

I hope you are right. It's time!

Good post. One tactic the protesters are figuring out (from the history books on the Vietnam Protests) is putting Veterans in the front lines of the protest, in their dress uniforms, and daring the police to club and mace and gas them, in full view of the video cameras.

If the protesters had dispersed, nothing would have happened. But since they are sticking to their guns and not leaving, the passion is escalating all over the internet and throughout the country. As of yet, many Baby Boom conservatives still have no idea what's going on. Indeed, many of them mock the feelings and demands of the youth and don't take us seriously.

I wish someone could set up a state by state DAILY protest. If someone could organize that and make it ongoing so people with families, jobs, students could arrive Any Time they have free and every day they can... DAILY PROTEST, all day. New faces, new conversations, hordes of people coming together for change. Fighting for change, demanding it every damn day. On On On Ongoing, not just one day, one week. Not just in one city.

Give people the freedom to arrive when their schedule permits and they will wind up coming even when it doesn't. A protest this vast could not be ignored by the MSM. I would show up every other day and make sure my friends did too. We would bring signs, food, water and our anger for change. It would spread...

The inconvenient truth about this entire protest is that it’s occurring in the wealthiest country in the world. In other words, Cuba and Zimbabwe aren’t very nice places, but they do a hell of a job at socialism/taxing the rich. Assume for a moment you’re right, name me one country where their economic system is superior to ours?

I hope this protest movement catches on like wildfire.

A few months ago, I asked could it happen here? I was poo pooed all over the place. So all I can say now is, "I told you so?!
I really hope this gains momentum. We need to show the teabags that NO they do not rule!

Me again, Scanman. Just received a PM from someone named Johnny Fever who told me this is America and if I didn't like the bank's fees I could stop using the ATM. It was only then that I realized I misspoke in my previous comment. It is the new debit card fee that had my ire up, not the ATM fees. Forgive my senior moment, but don't expect them to cease any time soon.

Lezlie

ScanMan--WTF? You got an EP! You got the Cover! I know that Emily said that changes were happening but I didn't expect good judgement to be among them. If ever there was a writer deserving of multiple EP's it is you. Glad to see the recognition, my friend.

You beat me to the punch this morning. I'm working on a blog supporting them as well. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

So the pols, the corporatists, the military and the police leadership are all SUPER-COLLUDING IN DICTATORSHIP willing to devastate anyone willing to step over the LINE for basic human and civil rights if need be. How many but naive young angry kids and a small minority of non-youth are willing to cross that line, the same kids who cross the LINE to trust that joining the military has anything to do with protecting democracy. They need us in the older generations to be willing to step over the LINE and stop betraying the youth of the country for our own safety and convenience and FIGHT WITH THEM. Three types of people, 1) those who make things happen, 2) those who watch things happen, and 3) those who ask, "WTF happened?" Time for those of us in the middle watching things happen to say ENOUGH and join the RISK TAKERS. There is NOT critical mass to make change, inspiring as Wall Street is. Arresting 700 they did easily with little media hoopla. It will take millions. Not yet is there serious momentum, not really, not enough for what we are up against. And the clock is ticking fast. The 3 As, awareness, acceptance, action. Some are fighting denial and grasping the awareness. Some are getting to the acceptance phase, as to the reality of what is happening and what risks are involved in stepping out and how traumatizing that may be, and committing seriously to the action in deciding to commit and fight for our democracy no matter what serious consequences. We are the 99% getting screwed, but how many of the 99% are willing to step up? There is something called the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule. 20% of the people do 80% of the heavy lifting. 80% of the people do 20% of the lifting. Would be nice to challenge that and reach a tipping point of citizens who are willing to stop watching and really have the backs of those risking so much. If people are expecting the youth and a few intrepid oldsters to be on the vanguard and make it safer to protest, then it is too late. Then we are lost. If that is how it will be, so be it. But no one should feign surprise or dismay when we are a full out fascism. If you -- we -- are not an active part of the solution, YOU -- we -- ARE A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM. I am not preaching only out there, I am saying this to myself, too. I am still working on the courage required. I want to safely cherry-pick my involvement if I can. I am glad there are people in my life role-modeling full-out courage and commitment. libby [r]

Very informative post, Scanner and great discussion. I'm going to check out the other links people have left also.

Trilogy, thank you and that's all I want to do, start a discussion and exchange ideas. Out of all the smart, some brilliant, people on OS, we should have great ideas about how to help the protesters anyway we can. I'm not anti-American like some would portray me, I'm All-American, and love this country and just want everyone to live with dignity, because when the rubber hits the road, that's what everything comes down to, living a dignified life, hopefully with people you love. If I can have that, the rich can have all the luxuries they can buy, I could care less. Thanks everyone and Emily, Moi', an EP, I like this "NEW" OS~ Thanks, hah!

Wanted to add a p.s. ... only later after commenting does one say to oneself ...oh, I wish I had put it this way or that way.

Someone had a T-shirt at a single payer health care rally that read "Democracy is NOT a spectator sport." The media treats it so as does too much of our citizenry, including me.

I left the media out of the dictators in my first line. They should be included.

Finally, I wish I had said, "If you are not an ACTIVE part of the solution, you are contributing to the DEAD WEIGHT of the problem."

My additional 2 cents. Now I am up to 4. libby

Libby, I don't know about anything else, but I do know the goddamn media is part of the problem, and we should all start boycotting these new high-dollar programs they have coming on this fall by not watching this crap they call entertainment!

Scanner,
I'm curious. Who has ever said you were anti-American?

This isn't about being anti-American. Those who are firing everybody, exporting jobs, cutting back benefits for the elderly, refusing to help sick veterans, giving all the money America has to the wealthy while they aren't creating jobs in return, subverting the constitution, brutalizing Americans who protest legally and peacefully, sending American troops to kill and die for no apparent reason, and in general refusing to sacrifice for their country like everyone else is expected to, are anti-American. We're pro-American.

Never forget that.

It was actually true of most of us in the sixties. The idiots who burned flags gave the opposition a propaganda tool they still haven't given up over forty years later.

Oh, and congratulations on the EP.

and those not able to join the march should put their computers to use on something besides entertainment and flood every office of every person, congressman, bank with e-mails millions of e-mails shut there their servers down. Relentless is the word. Fuck them, great post Scanner......o/e

Scanner: Woot! EP!

A well deserved one, at that.

Might I humbly suggest that, what we who cannot attend the protests directly, write to our representatives, the media outlets, tell our friends (who'll listen -- not all of mine will) and look for other places that support and defend the constitution against all threats, foreign or *domestic* and let those who are protesting hear us support them.

Additionally, this post of mine:
http://open.salon.com/blog/dunniteowl/2011/07/14/democracy_20_or_throw_them_all_out_no_exceptions

Is a clarion call in an idealistic way that promotes the idea:
The only way to get politicians to listen to the people is for the people to keep getting rid of them with new incumbents.

It doesn't really matter if they are Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party (and you know, I am aware that they are trying to hearken to the idea of the Boston Tea Party when folks actually went out and practiced civil acts of disobediance, but the only Tea Party that comes to mind with them is the one sponsored by the Mad Hatter) Libertarian (those who want the freedom to do as they please, but not pay for it) or Green, Indpedendant or whatever -- vote their asses out with new incumbents of whatever stripe. It won't matter until we, the People, take an active interest in making sure our representatives are actually, you know, representing us.

If we're going to have a peaceful revolution, then let it start on Wall Street where "blood in the streets" has a less sanguine meaning of losing money when the market hemorrhages red ink.

Our political process has been captured. How did that happen? Apathy.

What is the price of freedom?
Vigilance and vigilance begins with vigilantism where we take the laws into our own hands. Not with violence, not with guns, but with the will to see things change and to change them in the face of laws that are not written to represent the interests of people, but the interests of corporations and the fat cats that operate them.

Politicians get retirement benefits for the rest of their lives after just one session as a Senator or Congressman. You know what my benefits are after serving my country for four years? I have a piece of paper that says I mustered out (DD Form 214) and that's it.

Right now, the demands of the protestors should be that our government be there, listening to any of our demands to be heard. That lobbyists, corporate donations, and the freewheeling Beltway methods stop for the sake of doing what's right for the people of this country.

And goddamn it, corporations are not people, too. You cannot knife corporation in the back, withold sex from it, teach it to share, or even train it to roll over and play dead. They're not even beasts of burden or chattel. What they are: Giant money sucking machines to funnel it away from those who have precious little to lose, into the hands of those who already have so much that losing even three fourths of it would make them still the wealthiest in this country -- even if no-one else lost any of their cash but them.

Democracy 2.0: Throw Them All Out is beginning to sound more and more appealing every day the news shows me exactly what we aren't getting out of our government and the stranglehold against competition that corporations exact.

You are a voice we need to hear from others, repeating it, shouting it, from the rooftops.

I want you all to go to your windows and throw them open. Do it! Do it right now. I want you to go to your windows and open them up and scream at the top of your lungs, "I'm Mad as Hell and I won't stand for it!"

rated

Gotta love Greenwald.

Rated.

Great post, Scanner and congrats on the EP.

The seams on the 5 lb. sack are splitting open Scanner.
10 lbs. won't fit.

Bravo! Well said,

Spud - as I understand it, Greenwald's Brazilian lover was not able to get U.S. permission to immigrate, so Greenwald went to Brazil.

(Now - why is Gordon Osmond in Brazil??)

Scanner, If you want to do away with crony capitalism, you are going to have to boot the president out of office. He and Wall Street own each other. Look who got all the stimulus money, and tell me what they did with it that helps the common good.

Arthur Louis, I am not writing politics here. This is about people finally taking back their government. I don't care who did it, I won't argue politics, it's like kicking a dead dog. The only thing that happens is you get a sore foot. This government is corrupt, and WE THE PEOPLE need to fix it. I could care less what Obama is doing and with who, I going to bed and dream that everyone suddenly starts giving a rat's ass about the poor. I used to dream about beautiful women, I hate getting old~~

Oh, it did seem that you were writing politics, especially in the early paragraphs. Don't give up on dreams. What else do we have?

Here's to, "the times they are a changin' "!!!!

Sorry Scanner, but there you again, mentioning and blaming only the Conservatives. You do realize that liberal ideology has lost all credence. The violence in the streets is abhorrent and sooner or later is going to be met with resistance and then all hell is going to break loose. Why do you refuse to mention the Obama cronyism with his whore corporations? Why not mention the “Green Scandals”? Why do you refuse to mention the Democrat scandals? How about Congressman Weiner showing his wiener? How about Charlie Rangel not paying his taxes while going after everyone else that did not pay their taxes? I could right a book on the “Scandals of the Left”. Come on scanner, fair play is a two way street. Stop pandering to the left in Salon and be Truthful and Honest to yourself. These kids in the streets are being played by an agenda much larger than themselves. Evidently, you have bought into it to.

If you want the wealthy and corporations to begin to invest in America again, go call Obama and his administration with all of their neck wringing taxes and regulations. Why should Corporate America invest in a Socialist government? If you want to see improvement in America, go talk to your leader in the Oval Office. Everything Obama and his flunkies do, stops companies from investing in America. Don’t you get it? This is what Obama wants, to nationalize all Free Enterprise into a socialist owned and run America. The more he stops free enterprise and brain washes the youth into becoming progressive puppets and attacking business’, law enforcement and innocent Americans, the closer he gets to realizing his dream. If his dream is realized, do you think you and everyone in Salon is going to have free speech?

Think again, grasshopper.

I guess when liberals do not get what they want, they resort to becoming animals.

Oh, I get it, We The People, this is a faux Tea Party movement. Liberals cannot even be original.

I've said many times it is quite easy to observe who is in the so-called tea part: old klan members, the tri-tip hat wearers who have always been a fixture of US politics, and, some good people who are really scared. Well, today I saw something hopeful, a big southerner with a cowboy hat at the protest on wall st.- the sooner more of them get down there, the better. What they will find is a big warm welcome from kids who want to get to know them and share a great big country. No more divide and conquer- citizens unite!!!

@Tommy T: "This is what Obama wants, to nationalize all Free Enterprise into a socialist owned and run America."

If that was true, what's wrong with it? We've seen how capitalism failed.

tt ,your same old same crap. go pet your wife and play with your dog.

@Kosh: I didn't know Greenwald lived in Brazil. You think he's neighbors with Gordon Osmond?

My take on this is similar to Nikki's. Without a clear set of demands, this becomes like the movie Network - "I'm mad as hell and I'm not taking it anymore!" That's useful and powerful, but it's not enough to say what you don't want, you have to say what you DO want. Otherwise, the protest ends up as nothing more than a minor nuisance to the Wall Street honchos.

Scanner, you problem starts with people like L who is upset about a new bank fee. She is upset at the bank not Sen Durbin who had a measure put into the Dodd-Frank bill that limited the transaction fee that banks charge merchants to use debit cards. See the banks developed a great infrastructure where you can swipe that card almost anywhere in the world and pay for something. Until now they charged merchants an average of 44 cents per transaction. Now, by law, they can only charge 21 cents. Where do you think they are going to make up the money to keep that massive computer operation going?

Even you are complaining about the price of gas. The Obama administration has shut down our own oil and gas production. Now we have to get it from places in the world where they are unstable and then we have to bring it here and pay the shipping costs. All our oil rigs are in South America drilling for Soros invested companies.

He is giving money to his buddies to invest in projects such as solar panels that they were told before they gave the money was a doomed project, but Obama did it anyway.

The people who took it to Wall Street don't have a clue what they want. They just want to cause problems and point fingers. To get their point across instead of telling true stories you have the law student who is crying that Chase took his parents home. BTW, his own mother said that's a lie. Tell me why he shouldn't like this economy. He has a $40,000 a year degree and is paying $70,000 a year to go to law school. His parents both have upper level degrees and he has a better idea on how to make this country work? He got arrested and is all over the media with his big lie. Good luck on getting that law license with that as moral standings.

If the kids on Wall Street want to make things better maybe they should start in their own liberal house where they are using a message of keeping people down. You can't make it, the deck is stacked. The guy who started BET just called Obama out on his message.

I also don't know what they are complaining about. Obama told us he was going to do this before he got elected. He said electrical rates were going up, that coal was going out of business, that everything was going to be unproven green, that the government was going to nationalize the student loans they can't pay back.

You asked for it, you got it.

Love this. Made me feel just a glimmer of hope.

I wish them and for the time being am OK in giving a pass to their inchoate agenda. The legislative process is certainly bot addressing the rich and poor issue. Corporate media has done wonders in demonizing any reforms that might benefit the greatest numbers while the New Jerusalem is always held to be just around the corner if only we give the free market a little more freedom.

That is right, ScanMan, and what Nikki Stern said. Excellent and timely post. R

scanner - I assume when you say millions of people are saying they want to be taxed more, you mean the literally want THEIR taxes to be higher. OK. I accept the statistic.
So it is real easy. All those millions can figure out how much moe they want to pay and send in to the Treasury.
Oh, I am sure the IRS is not equipped to actually handle such a thing. But all it would take is Obama having a little talk with Geithner then coming on tv and letting all those millions know the IRS is ready to accept checks.

Never going to happen.

Scanner~ As usual, a beautiful piece- this time with the sage of another generation who experienced it close-up. It's a great reminder that the 60's were more than one long acid trip...but the real birth of the grass roots organizing that made the people have a collective voice and work for our dreams together. Well done...a pleasure to read.

Scanner, your comment on crap tv gave me an idea. I wonder if people who care about the Wall Street protesters and the occupation would be willing to do their own protest in boycotting TV. TV media has been IGNORING or minimizing the protest, even the 700 arrested so easily. Do you think if 7 tea partiers were arrested it wouldn't be on all channels 24/7???

I think if we as consumers turned our backs on the kleptocrats with their profit over people product-mongering and propaganda-mongering as a way of joining in solidarity with the protesters against corporatism for a set number of days. Nielsen rating sweeps are coming up the end of October. Or start now for the duration of the occupation? Just the germ of an idea.

People who put down the protest because they don't have the exactly perfect agenda for this protest? Hell, I see it as OUTRAGE AT LONG LAST. It is saying, "We are madder than hell ... FINALLY ... and we DON'T WANT TO TAKE IT ANY MORE." Some of us non-Stockholm syndrome types, anyway!

I am going to ponder the tv boycott idea. I know a lot of people won't inconvenience themselves but some may. Ya never know.

libby

Agree with you, Cranky, Nikki...the time has come to speak of many things and use the frustration and anger to lean our collective weight into change. You're beautiful when you're angry. Thanks Scanner!

Being late has advantages, from the comment stream, it sounds like people should express their righteous discontent, but need some central message or it's all just white noise.

Ok, how about demanding the right "of no confidence". That option can remove CEO's, it certainly has removed more than one unaffective university president. It's what professionals do when the leadership is tanking the enterprise, you need a 2/3 majority.

Need to have a process to recall ALL under such circumstances. They do it in England, they all get six weeks to meet with their constituents and then everybody votes. There is only so much campaign money you can throw around in six weeks. Two years is way too long a process, no wonder we can't get out of the woods.

Excellent! Congrats on the EP and most viewed in the last 24 hours. I can see why on both counts. Power to the people!

I do not worry about the lack of a specific agenda here.

Step one is to get strong. You lift your weights and learn your martial arts first, then you choose which bully gets it first. This movement is in its fetal development stage.

To quote an admittedly corny lyric form Jefferson Airplane:

"One generation got old
One generation got sold
This generation got no destination to hold"

I am proud to share our national heritage with these brave young people.

Anyone who says they don't understand what this protest is about is either (a) lying or (b) willfully ignorant. It doesn't take much digging to find out that Wall Street is the "ground zero" of our economic blast zone.

Congrats on the cover.

Excellent post, Scanner. Congratulations on the EP.
♥R

I have to admit, I am often surprised that there is significantly less violence around these issues than I think we'd expect (historically), but that may change faster and sooner than we think. We can't fix the system we have, it is inherently corrupt, and deconstructing it would take major social and economic revolutions that no one is willing to put into place. As long as men want kings and superheroes, there will be wars and pyramid politics.

The corporate elite and banksters have been robbing blue-collar folks forever, and they could probably have continued to get away with it. But in their infinite greed, they forked up and went after the middle-class and white-collar workers. Sooner or later -- and it's beginning to look more and more like sooner -- that's gonna bite them in their corpulent corporate asses.

Congrats. I gotta get. I'll save and read comments off line. I recall in the early seventies.
Fox propagandist?
The dead walkers.
Carrion dead stink.
We sensed they dead.
`
We folk can be walking dead.
I remember wounded Veterans.
If they were Lied to they Resented.
Some tossed medals oner Fences.
The White House Remembers.
If Vets gathered at the V.A..
Crony was a propagandizer?
Some Vets took off their leg!
Vet distinctly learned`Truth.
Lies smell like dead pond carp.
Vets tossed medals and limbs.
I laid in a hospital bed. O, sigh.
I was too weak to get out of bed.
I could go on and on. It's been said.
`
I think I will sip a dry Berry Wine.
On Feb 10th I was wounded bad.
I remember a poem written then.
Wendell Berry was grieving a war.
I didn't know Mr. Berry at the time.
Later I read his thoughts in essays.
`
Read:
`
THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA.
There are other commonsense folk.
It's wise to not serve as a demonic `
`
as in devil
as a darken
Evil Fool`
Devil's Tool.
`

Greart post, Scanner. I think you and Greenwald have said what needs to be said very clearly and succinctly. I hope this is the beginning of a movement that spreads like wildfire and doesn't burn out.

"It's time for the youth of this country to do what we did when we stopped a war in Vietnam."

except you didn't stop it. you traded lbj for nixon, and those protests may have been the reason humphrey didn't win. the war didn't stop, it expanded. and those protests were not against the war anyway, they were against the darlings of the middle class being sent to fight beside the poor whites and black americans after the supreme court ended academic exemption.

protest is easy and fun. real political action is boring, sustained and unglamorous. women fought for three generations to get the vote, and protest was part of it, but the core of real change is threatening politicians with loss of votes.

Thanks Big Al, for straightening that out for me. The guy marching beside me must have been a liar, him and his wife, assholes!

Just because MSM won't tell us, four boring but oft cited goals of the Wall Street protest are:
1.) reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act
2.) audit the Federal Reserve
3.) Reverse 08-205 (corporate personhood) by amendment
4.) overhaul the corporate tax code

“It is time to stop the corruption and theft of our national treasury by paid-off, power hungry politicians. At one time, the rich had it all. They had their hands in the pockets of the middle class, allowing them to go in debt to buy new, over-priced homes and new cars, along with boats and pools and every other luxury imaginable, that they could not afford, but were available if you had the "right" credit score. The middle class were sucked in, many not believing that what goes up, as always, must come down."
Scanner

Wonderful, if misdirected, passion, scanner. The only “authority” that can put its hands into the pockets of the middle class, or any class for that matter, is the Federal Government. Washington IS the root of our problems past, present, and probably in the future too.
I don’t know ANYONE who purchased a car, a flat screen TV, the air-conditioning, or a house, with a gun held by a corporation at their head...do you?

The financial industry is one of the most highly regulated in the country, and if you want to look for “truth” and not “bumper sticker” Bush, Cheney, etc etc....and go back to the social engineering that the liberal pols in Congress pushed on the country.
You might start with hearings held by Barney Frank, you know the guy that everone on the right , and honest people on the left, know railroaded FannieMae and FreddieMac into taking on more and more “sub-prime” debt, after first threatening th e banks with the possible loss of their charters and even civil actions, if they continued NOT to make loans in risky neighborood, “red lining”, was the definition used.
And so the democrats opened another source of campaign contributions from the government sponsored institutions, and down the chain to banks, mortgage brokers and Wall Street investment banks.
Institutions like Morgan, Stanley that maintained debt/equity ratios well under 10-1, soon had blown up their balance sheets to well over 30-1. Hindsight is useless, but I wonder if anyone ever asked the question of derivitave,MBS, CDO and CDS's where they aware of the risk if the portfolio went just 3% against them, there would zero equity in the business?

When government analysts at OFHEO warned the government “oversight committee” chaired by Mr. Frank, they were cut off at the knees.
From that point onward, the corruption of our financial system went on steroids, Frank Raines and other democrat operatives running Fannie Mae made tens of millions of dollars...and where were you protesting that rape of the public purse?
No question Wall Street firms went well-beyond what prudent management would dictate, betting the balance sheet of their companies, making hundreds of millions of dollars collectively, without ANY” personal risk.

I agree with the protestors that those Wall Street Firms should be investigated for any criminality in their actions. Why did some firms do better than others; who in each of the Firms has been “under the radar” and carrying on a lovely life, while their Firms or former Firms slowly die?
There is a group, a silent majority, whose voice also needs to be heard. Hundreds of thousands of middle class and upper middle class workers in the Street, from brokers, to traders who had nothing to do with synthetic producs, CDO’s, CDS’s, etc, to retired folk who have lost their entire, or most of their life savings.
So I agree with a part of the message of the OWS project, but not the civil disobedience that you and I both know is coming.
Economic downturns, recessions, are normal in a competitive, capitialist society. The economy “self-corrects’ excess and after six months or 18 months, we are usually back on the upswing. It is when politicians and bureaucrats get involved in the lives of the citizens of our country that REAL, long-term problems are created.
The collapse of the financial markets generated by the breakdown in the over-blown residential home markets, could have easily cast the country into a depression. The issue is not “imagine how bad things would be if Obama didn’t have a stimulus, Omnibus, Cash for Clunkers, and on and on programs of wasteful, non-transparent spending , adding three trillion dollars to the debt.
The issue is, his “big government” agenda, save the planet with tens of billions in grants and government guarantee’s being given to supporters of this President. Solyndra is just the tip of the ice berg of waste, fraud and abuse that will be found, I am sure. Already, there is some discussion of over a billion dollar grant to a company where management has a relationship with Pelosi. I am not forgiving the excess of Wall Street, but they were playing with stockholders money, not taxpayers. It was a political decision to use TARP money to save the banks, and that might have been the only decision to make at the time. Bailing out GM to protect the UAW pensions, hoever, was not constitutional, however, since TARP money was never approved to be used to bail out a motor company, but maybe I’m missing something.
And that is what Newt was referring to when he said, Barney Frank should go to jail too, along with the Wall Streeters found guilty of a crime. Where is it written that politicians can use the public treasury for THEIR” benefit?


Anyway, I gotta think OWS is probably helping the tourist business in the Wall Street area since it is now ‘international” and no one is going to go home and say they never saw this “happening.” Oi vey, the children of the left have been wanting all their lives for OWS so...here we go again “dancing like its 1965!”

Joe Buddy, you missed Limbaugh to tell me this?