Stop Me Before I Vote Again

I'm a supporter myself--discouragingly most of my lefty friends resident here in the City are turning their noses up. Yet I ain't seeing them attempting something better...and this is something--the occupiers did what the said they would: camped out as near Wall St. as they could. Fuck it if they didn't have coherent demands or whatever other shit they were supposed to!

By the way, we had one of them mobile surveillance towers (as depicted), courtesy of Brooklyn's 90th, for a while, observing "gang violence" and what not--I see they were able to put it to better use.

Yeah. Gentlemen in England, now a-bed -- if they can't say something nice about the occupiers, they should shut up. Even in the present mild weather, I would wake up very sore and unhappy after a night in that park -- assuming I slept at all. Particularly with the looming threat of the Knights Of The Nightstick to think about every minute. So my hat's off to the kids, and let's just hope it grows and grows.

Where do you suppose those cameras atop the pop-a-tower feed to? Screens inside the elevated box? Then why the windowed box at all? The cameras, perhaps, are aftermarket and theres no one in there at all. Poor pop-a-tower coppie were downsized last Thursday. Maybe hes sleeping in the park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA&feature=player_embedded

"We aren't leaving until there is a firewall between savings and investment! Put up a wall, Mr. Obama!"

I'd love to be there, but sciatica's acting up again and I don't have anyone to take care of my cat, Louie.

It's good to know that Mr. West is there, though, to lend some needed gravitas and class to the proceedings. God, just look at him blend in, like he's a normal person when we all know he's one of America's greatest intellectual gifts. It's like he isn't aware or doesn't care. What a hero!

I, for one, welcome as much silliness as possible. Humor and sarcasm make a movement fun, and fun is a quality that's much more important than your average liberal would have you believe. Granted, I speak with a bit of personal bias, being an old Yippie, and old Deadhead, and a cartoonist.

Sadly, though, "fun" and "silliness" seem to have become dirty words in the US Left these days. Jeezus, whatever happened to Merry Pranksters? Whatever happened to Revolution For The Hell Of It? There was a brief outbreak of silliness and fun during the antiglob mobes of the early/mid '00s with the street theater and costumes and puppets and all, but the US Left seems to have defaulted back to its normal attitude -- insufferably grim and self-serious. Yeah, I know, Code Weak... uh, Code Pink are supposed to be doing stuff that's silly and fun, but it all falls flat for me as I always get the impression that they're trying too hard at it.

Glad to see Cornel West putting in an appearance. He pretty much counteracts all the cheesy karma generated by the likes of Roseanne Barr and Michael Moore showing up and trying to glom onto the scene. Still, knowing what West gets into, I'm not sure that "gravitas" is really the word for what he brings; personally, I'm pretty much sick to goddamn' death of gravitas.

Peter Ward sez on 09.28.11 @01:06:
Fuck it if they didn't have coherent demands or whatever other shit they were supposed to!

Who says they didn't have coherent demands? Anyone who's been following the news for the past two years, or following OWS's Twitter feed, or following the news coming out of the protests, or anyone who's unemployed (or about to be) or trying to hang onto their homes (and failing) would know what the goddamn' demands are:

Stop gov't sucking up to Wall Street, bankers and corporations.
Bail out the People, for a fuckin' change.
End corporate dictatorship.

...basically, pretty much the coherent demands we had in in Seattle and at "A16" about ten or twelve years ago.

(Jeezus, has it really been that long? That really makes me feel old, especially considering that I was already in my forties when I was doing media work for A16. Yoiks!)

What would a protest movement be without the presence of college professors?

Besides successful, that is.

Flugenrock, what the fuck is *wrong* with you? Pepper spray, beatings, electric shocks, chains, cells, what part of that is *fun*? And to literally add insult to injury, see the comments thread whever video of police brutality is posted online. Meanwhile, Smith, who quite rationally does not wish for himself an encounter with the cops, takes voyeuristic pleasure in his younger, more naive brethren taking that chance. It's like a BDSM party but horrifyingly real--no safe word.

Who says they didn't have coherent demands?

Stop gov't sucking up to Wall Street, bankers and corporations. Bail out the People, for a fuckin' change. End corporate dictatorship.

I'll be in NJ till Sunday; but would be seriously interested in any other relevant ons goings as well as meeting sympathetic folk in the (NYC) area. Any you all have some suggestions...?

No telling what the state of play will be after the weekend. But stay tuned.

Perhaps that Holy Grail demand that the Wall Street occupiers have been seeking is public financing of campaigns. That's the only thing that will dilute the dominating influence of money (and with it, of the banksters and the oiligarchs) in the American political process. Unfortunately, the likelihood of this happening is remote, and not only because political campaigning is an industry in its own right in America. Dylan Ratigan et al., however, are circulating a petition for a constitutional amendment to this effect right now, a very worthy effort. http://www.getmoneyout.com/

In Europe, public financing is the norm. In France, for example, all candidates have equal TV air time and political ads on TV are banned. BTW, the French Socialists just won back the Senate for the first time in fifty years.

Patricia, public financing is an attractive left-liberal reform; part of the package of liberal reforms that attempts to limit corruption, e.g. proportional representation, abolishing the Senate, Federal Reserve accountability, etc. They're all worthy, as far as they go. But they still leave oligarchs in control of the means of capital allocation. That oligarchy is what the protesters oppose.

My own trip to the site of the occ
Was brief brutism solitary poor and poignant

My daughter an able professional demo organizer was silently charmed by
the Naive make shift

No
Bull horns allowed of course noise was out
" the old barrel of shot in water shaken near a mic gig ..a no go "

The tiling of an area with resting signs
Like anal retentive foliage
For a season of the witch

She noticed a list of Activities to volunteer for
On a sign
a homeless chap would consider too modest
too temporary
and overly tentative

"pops there's your slot ......comfort "

I thought she had procuring whores in mind
but no it was in fact distributing soft pillows

She pointed out maynard g Krebs
Handling one like an accordion
To our right under a sheltering beech
There was a abject looking pile of cushioning to select from

" plenty of skepticism about those candidates I bet ..
I'd say Needs your senior expertise over there to move em "

If you do a pan across the place The folks look young mostly
maybe post college but barely

Full of groundless spirit
Like a tent less encampment of sod buster pioneers

By all indications
Their politics had the unfledged cuteness of kitty cats

In general the challenge to laputa
was on the order of slight in among the shade trees there

Lots of sky blue rain repellent sleep sacks and very little conflagration

Framing ?

A line of commercial carts on one flank for the bystanders i guess
and a generous supply of city heat in campus cop mode..for the moment
Sharing coffee and poses ...a heavy sprinkle of gal officers

the site is nestled among. Heedless Rigid monsters of steel and glass
Lending that no set back gothic canyoning feel
you get in the Tim Burton bat man
The whole splendid little operation looks like it might get stepped on
By one of the giants and without notice rendered 2d mash
like a pinko who village

To be fair frosted steel giants were only on three sides
the fourth -behind the food carts-
Was one of those manhattan only pre modern Monsters worthy of respect
Like a turtle among tin men
At any rate my common law son in law
A cart man himself in earlier years
Pointed out a cart slowly using the streets incline
To slide over to a cross street
the operator using the " just Lean on it "braking method

"you conserve your energy ..that's rule one "

Too bad demos haven't got the gist of this principle upper most
You know
use the local terrain to maximizes the ease of mobilization

Too many mule pull hill climbs and up streaming without paddles

Mission improbable:

Find an orientation that with just a little leaning
might move the hub of high finance off it's universal groove

But alas ...

Good luck raw folks

L

I find myself agreeing with Op. Again.

But, there's this. This is something. This is more than idiot suburban white kid and grad student street theater:

New York City labor unions are preparing to back the unwieldy grassroots band occupying a park in Lower Manhattan, in a move that could mark a significant shift in the tenor of the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street protests and send thousands more people into the streets.

The Transit Workers Union Local 100's executive committee, which oversees the organization of subway and bus workers, voted unanimously Wednesday night to support the protesters. The union claims 38,000 members. A union-backed organizing coalition, which orchestrated a large May 12 march on Wall Street before the protests, is planning a rally on Oct. 5 in explicit support. And SEIU 32BJ, which represents doormen, security guards and maintenance workers, is using its Oct. 12 rally to express solidarity with the Zuccotti Park protesters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/29/nyc-transit-union-joins-o_n_987156.html

(h/t Seeing The Forest)

I get that people enjoy the festival. That's its own reward. But, the guys in the balcony sipping champagne aren't bothered. Or scared.

The may pole needs night raiders and thrown sabots, as accompaniment. The lords on the balcony need to feel some menace.

The build into union support looks promising

The protracted siege strategy here is a key feature
The brush with brutality during one Sally up toward union square
Had the right sparks flying

If My thumb nail memoir suggests my attitude is pessimistic ...it isn't

After all something has to set off a convulsion of job class off duty rage eh?

we are in the inter zone now the possible is expanding rapidly

This park hapenin could be the spark
May already have been the spark

That's why I went down there

I missed the pentagon march of fall 67
And the cambo surge of spring 70

At least as an old fool I can visit what is maybe
clio's improbable embryo

The right (even if it's on the left) always calls actions against being totally assimilated by Capital, 'silly'. Any leftist worth his or her salt knows this basic axiom of political psy-war. I first heard it used by Joe Pyne against Bernadette Devlin.

The point is to be amongst the movement against Capital's power and to put one's praxis into the flow. Class consciousness is more than critical awareness. Nobody says that everyone has to see Chris Hedges as an advocate for much more than another strand of radical liberalism. Just do it. Get involved. Add your wisdom and body to the mix and you'll be, 'right-on'.

You misunderstand the use of silly here, Mike B?