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Media, Internet and Government Censoring Wall Street Protest?

Posted on September 30, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

Mainstream Media Censoring Wall Street Protests

The mainstream media is refusing to cover the Wall Street protests.
Google and Twitter are both alleged to be censoring the protests.
As an op-ed in China Daily notes, the "US media blackout of protest is shameful".
While China is hardly a bastion for free speech or a free media, the pot is in this case correct in calling the kettle black.

Government Censorship?

Governments have ordered YouTube to take down protest videos.
America has engaged in massive censorship in recent years, and the elites have openly pined to crack down even more … and to emulate China. For example, Senator Joe Lieberman lamented:
Is the U.S. government censoring coverage of the Wall Street protests? Only time will tell.

Posted in Politics / World News | 3 Comments

Wall Street Protest: Time for Conservative Endorsements

Posted on September 30, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

Big Liberal Endorsements for Wall Street Protest

Given that numerous unions (and see this) and progressive luminaries like Cornell West, Michael Moore, Bernie Sanders and Russel Simmons are joining the Wall Street protest, this may be painted by some as a "left-wing movement".

Conservatives Support Protests

Of course, United Airlines pilots are not a particularly liberal group, but they joined in.
Indeed, conservatives such as Dylan Ratigan, Karl Denninger, and supporters of Ron Paul have also joined in to the protests.

The Divide-And-Conquer Technique Is Failing

I've repeatedly warned that there is a scripted, psuedo-war between Dems and Repubs, liberals and conservatives which is in reality a false divide-and-conquer dog-and-pony show created by the powers that be to keep the American people divided and distracted. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this,this and this. (In fact, the Founding Fathers warned us about the threat from a two party system.)
The Tea Party was quickly co-opted by the Republican Party:
Don't let the Wall Street protests get hijacked by the mainstream Democratic Party.

Time for Big Conservative Endorsements

This is not a liberal or a conservative cause … it is both.
It is time for some big conservative endorsements, to rally around the non-partisan issues important to all Americans.
The Tea Party should endorse the protests, but so should the Oath Keepers, taxpayer rights groups, conservative Christians, limited government groups, and all other conservative groups.
A sign from the Wall Street protest shows that the people on the ground get it:
Posted in Politics / World News | 1 Comment

AFL-CIO Chief Backs Wall Street Protest

Posted on September 30, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

AFL-CIO Boss Supports Wall Street Protest

[Note: Many other unions are supporting the protests as well.]
By leading anti-war activist David Swanson, author of Day Break and War Is A Lie, who runs the websites DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org (formerly AfterDowningStreet.org).

AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka Backs Occupy Wall Street
Video on C-Span.
Rough transcript:
okay. let's take questions from the audience. in the very back there's a question with his hand up, and if you can give us your name, and if you're with an organization and also keep your questions brief so we can get to as many people as possible.
certainly. lloyd chris, america's democratic action. my question actually has to do with the occupied wall street protests that are going on in new york city, and there's been some recent activity where some union locals are kind of becoming involved in that, and I was wondering if you have an opinion on some of the AFL-CIO national member organizations, kind of beginning to take a role in that because I sort of think that that street demonstration activity is sort of forcing dialogue on the issues that you're talking about. just wondered if you have any thoughts on that, thank you.
I happen to agree with you. I think being in the streets and calling attention to issues is sometime the only recourse you have because god only knows you can go to the hill, and you can talk to a lot of people and see nothing ever happen because it doesn't happen. in the streets, I think, a lot of people are there. our international unions are involved. our locals are involved, and you'll see a lot of working people. you'll see a lot of small business people. you'll see a lot of manufacturing people who actually produce in this country that are being stepped on the same way by multinationals in wall street. I think it's a tactic and a valid tactic to call attention to a problem. wall street is out of control. we have three imbalances in this country. the imbalance between imports and exports. the imbalance between employer power and working power, and the imbalance between the real economy and the financial economy. we need to bring back balance to the final economy and calling attention to it and peacefully protesting is very legitimate way of doing it. god only knows i've done it thousands of times myself, and i'll do it again.

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We've Fought Too Hard to Abandon Our Ground

Posted on September 30, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog
We've been down this road before
Shown worse devils to the door
Throw off our chains of slavery
Now is the time to set ourselves free
And reclaim our liberty
We've come too far to give up now
We've fought too hard to abandon our ground
Though the battle may be long
And the oppressors are strong
In time, the battle will be won
Tyrants have come, tyrants have gone
Ever since the days of Babylon
The chance of winning may seem low
But there is something I know
Something that gives me hope…
We've come too far to give up now
We've fought too hard to abandon our ground
Though the battle may be long
And the oppressors are strong
In time, the battle will be won
They bought the politicians and the news
They've got all the weapons (which they like to use)
But they are few and we're billions strong
We are the giant … been sleeping for too long
Time to wake up and sing our victory song
We've come too far to give up now
We've fought too hard to abandon our ground
Though the battle may be long
And the oppressors are strong
In time, the battle will be won
Words and music Copyright © 2005-2011 George Washington/Washington's Blog.
For more inspiration, read this, this and then this.

Posted in Politics / World News | 1 Comment

Wall Street Protest Starting to Look Like Egypt

Posted on September 30, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

Wall Street Protest Starting to Look Like Tahir Square, Egypt

Alexander Higgins reports:
Here are some additional photographs from a helicopter.

Who Are the Protesters?

Wall Street is trying to write all of these people off as being "hippies" who "need to get a job" (to which the protesters would respond: That's the point There are no jobs, because Wall Street has destroyed the economy.)
The poor and the desperate, formerly-middle class people participating in the protests are not taking well to Wall Street's "Let them eat cake" response.
But all types are marching, including grannies and pilots:
Wealthy folks such as Russel Simmons and Alec Baldwin.
Liberals and conservatives.
On the other side of the protest line, Mayor Bloomberg is whining that the protesters are targeting bankers who "are struggling to make ends meet". He has a point: if Wall Street is reined in so that the rest of the country has a chance, the bankers might have to cut back on their mistresses, prostitutes and solid gold toilets.

Class Warfare?

Yes, this is class warfare. But it is class warfare by the 1% against the other 99% (and see this). Specifically, it is the looting of the country by the top .1% through fraud.
As Warren Buffet one of America's most successful capitalists and defenders of capitalism points out:
Indeed, given that inequality in America is worse than Egypt (or Tunisia, or Yemen or mostLatin American banana republics), and that social mobility is lower in America than in most European countries (and see this), we have predicting these types of protests for years.
If Wall Street is starting to look like Tahir Square, it is because America is starting to look more and more like Egypt with a handful of super-rich, and crumbs for everyone else.

Posted in Politics / World News | Leave a comment

Well, things seem to be picking up 'steam' and growing.....thank goodness. The PTB must be getting nervous now. The next week will tell if some dirty trick on the part of the Police will end it all - or this does blossom into some American Spring.....no country needs it more!

Quote: or this does blossom into some American Spring.....no country needs it more!

Well,there's a problem here,because this will soon turn into an American Winter.This movement will disappear with the coming snows.........

Occupy Wall Street Protest: Police Arrest 700 on Brooklyn Bridge

By Times Staff Reporter | October 1, 2011 8:45 PM EDT

Protesters closed the Brooklyn Bridge in one direction, and police arrested hundreds of people Saturday as the Occupy Wall Street protest entered its third week.

The protesters were arrested for standing in the middle of the road and blocking the Brooklyn-bound lanes of the bridge, which more than 130,000 vehicles cross every day.

Police arrested more than 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters on Saturday for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.

About 1,500 marchers passed City Hall and approached the bridge just after 4 p.m. They had planned to take the pedestrian walkway, but the mass of protesters created a bottleneck, so some people started to walk into the vehicle lanes. Police officers with bullhorns announced that if the protesters continued to block traffic, they would be arrested.

"Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested," Paul Browne, head spokesman for the New York Police Department, told The New York Times. "Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway and impeded vehicle traffic were arrested."

Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said he thought protesters in the back of the line might not have been able to hear the warnings, but Browne responded that those protesters had not been arrested.

Witnesses also said police supervisors had walked ahead of the marchers in the vehicle lanes, as though they were actually leading the marchers. But about a third of the way across the bridge, the police took out orange nets and used them to surround and trap protesters, who were then arrested.

"It seemed as if they deliberately moved back to allow people onto the roadway," Etan Ben-Ami, a psychotherapist from Brooklyn, told the Daily News.

The marchers had planned to cross the bridge and then hold a rally in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The protesters have been camped out in Lower Manhattan since Sept. 17. They had initially intended to camp out on Wall Street itself, but when they were blocked by the police, they moved to Zuccotti Park between Trinity Place and Broadway, a few blocks south of the World Trade Center site.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the NYPD did not plan to forcibly remove the protesters from the park. "We see it as our job to make certain that people can demonstrate peacefully," he told Forbes.

But there have been complaints of excessive police force, particularly by officer Anthony Bologna, whom a video captured pepper-spraying protesters this week.

[URL="http://news.vivasoft.hu/the-news/266601-wall-street-protests-spread-to-other-cities.html"]U.S. anti-corporate movement expands
[/URL]The Occupy Wall Street protest movement spreads to other cities and gains big-name supporters.

In the two weeks since activists with Occupy Wall Street began protesting in New York, the movement has gained traction nationwide with events in almost every major U.S. city. Meanwhile, more mainstream allies are joining the cause, including unions, members of Congress, celebrities, pundits, and academics.

Demonstrators and sympathisers oppose "corporate greed and corrupt politics," the "gangsterism of Wall Street," and the disproportionate effect the global economic downturn has had on "the other 99 percent."

In a sign that the movement is gaining traction, some of New York's biggest labour unions have now joined protestors (or are planning to join later this week). The city's 38,000-member transit union pledged its support and is planning to encourage members to join the street demonstrations early next week. Unions representing teachers, doormen, security guards, maintenance workers, postal workers, healthcare workers, and other labour sectors have also pledged support and hinted at future involvement.

Organisers hope that union involvement will swell the ranks of protestors from a few hundred to a few thousand, though it remains unclear whether organisers will be able to reach their initial goal of 20,000 on-the-ground activists in New York City.

Congressman Bernie Sanders also expressed support for the movement. Actors and filmmakers, musicians, academics, and other famous faces have shown their support for the movement, either by appearing in person or speaking to the media.

The protests, which began Sept 17, were inspired by a Vancouver-based group that opposes consumerism. The hacktivist group Anonymous helped promote the first organised protest event.

Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out in support of protesters on Sept 29.

Some of New York's labour unions pledged their support for the cause. Below, airline pilots march on Wall Street.

Celebrities have also become involved. Below, actress Susan Sarandon, speaking to a camera crew.


Activist and academic Cornel West.


Filmmaker Michael Moore.


Crowds stage a sit-in in New York's financial district.


Protestors in San Francisco tell Jaime Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase: "You will not get my home!"

Netizens have set up a Tumblr to share stories about "the other 99 percent" of Americans, who they say are struggling to get by while the top one percent remain entrenched in the elite.

The blog, 'We Are the 99 Percent,' links to two Occupy Wall Street organisation pages.

I heard there were 700 arrested and that the police had directed them on to the bridge. Sounds like an ambush.

Magda Hassan Wrote:I heard there were 700 arrested and that the police had directed them on to the bridge. Sounds like an ambush.

'Tis true - see two posts above. Standard Police tactic....pied piper move....its on page 12 of their dirty tricks book. Sad that the Police don't realize that they too are part of the 99%.....

The BBC has just discovered the Occupy Wall Street Protests. It was presented neutrally.

Maybe it now exists.....:pope: However, the propaganda arm of the Oligarchy in America still is trying to blacken the image of the protests....for example this hit piece in the NYT:

:lol:Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim :darthvader:

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times:wirlitzer:

TO THE STREET Many downtown workers encountered demonstrators last week at Zuccotti Park, some with a group called Occupy Wall Street.
By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Published: September 23, 2011

By late morning on Wednesday, Occupy Wall Street, a noble but fractured and airy movement of rightly frustrated young people, had a default ambassador in a half-naked woman who called herself Zuni Tikka. A blonde with a marked likeness to Joni Mitchell and a seemingly even stronger wish to burrow through the space-time continuum and hunker down in 1968, Ms. Tikka had taken off all but her cotton underwear and was dancing on the north side of Zuccotti Park, facing Liberty Street, just west of Broadway. Tourists stopped to take pictures; cops smiled, and the insidiously favorable tax treatment of private equity and hedge-fund managers was looking as though it would endure.

"I've been waiting for this my whole life," Ms. Tikka, 37, told me.

"This," presumably was the opportunity to air societal grievances as carnival. Occupy Wall Street, a diffuse and leaderless convocation of activists against greed, corporate influence, gross social inequality and other nasty byproducts of wayward capitalism not easily extinguishable by street theater, had hoped to see many thousands join its protest and encampment, which began Sept. 17. According to the group, 2,000 marched on the first day; news outlets estimated that the number was closer to several hundred.

By Wednesday morning, 100 or so stalwarts were making the daily, peaceful trek through the financial district, where their movements were circumscribed by barricades and a heavy police presence. (By Saturday, scores of arrests were made.) By Thursday, the number still sleeping in Zuccotti Park, the central base of operations, appeared to be dwindling further.

Members retained hope for an infusion of energy over the weekend, but as it approached, the issue was not that the Bastille hadn't been stormed, but that its facade had suffered hardly a chip. It is a curious fact of life in New York that even as the disparities between rich and poor grow deeper, the kind of large-scale civil agitation that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently suggested might happen here hasn't taken shape. The city has two million more residents than Wisconsin, but there, continuing protests of the state budget bill this year turned out approximately 100,000 people at their peak. When a similar mobilization was attempted in June to challenge the city's budget cuts, 100 people arrived for a sleep-in near City Hall.

Last week brought a disheartening coupling of statistics further delineating the city's economic divide: The Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans, which included more than 50 New Yorkers whose combined net worth totaled $211 billion, arrived at the same moment as census data showing that the percentage of the city's population living in poverty had risen to 20.1 percent. And yet the revolution did not appear to be brewing.

Most of those entrenched in Zuccotti Park had indeed traveled from somewhere else; they had come from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Missouri, Texas and so on with drums, horns, tambourines and, in the instance of one young man, a knee-length burlap vest, fur hat, ski goggles and tiny plastic baby dolls applied to the tips of his fingers.

One of the few New Yorkers I met, a senior at Bronx High School of Science, was stopping by in fits and spurts, against the wishes of his psychiatrist mother, who feared the possibility of tear gas and had chastised her son for giving his allowance to the cause.

That cause, though, in specific terms, was virtually impossible to decipher. The group was clamoring for nothing in particular to happen right away not the implementation of the Buffett rule or the increased regulation of the financial industry. Some didn't think government action was the answer because the rich, they believed, would just find new ways to subvert the system.

"I'm not for interference," Anna Katheryn Sluka, of western Michigan, told me. "I hope this all gets people who have a lot to think: I'm not going to go to Barcelona for three weeks. I'm going to sponsor a small town in need.' "

Some said they were fighting the legal doctrine of corporate personhood; others, not fully understanding what that meant, believed it meant corporations paid no taxes whatsoever. Others came to voice concerns about the death penalty, the drug war, the environment.

"I want to get rid of the combustion engine," John McKibben, an activist from Vermont, declared as his primary ambition.

"I want to create spectacles," Becky Wartell, a recent graduate of the College of the Atlantic in Maine, said.

Having discerned the intellectual vacuum, Chris Spiech, an unemployed 26-year-old from New Jersey, arrived on Thursday with the hope of indoctrinating his peers in the lessons of Austrian economics, Milton Friedman and Ron Paul. "I want to abolish the Federal Reserve," he said.

The group's lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out. But what were the chances that its members were going to receive the attention they so richly deserve carrying signs like "Even if the World Were to End Tomorrow I'd Still Plant a Tree Today"?

One day, a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Adam Sarzen, a decade or so older than many of the protesters, came to Zuccotti Park seemingly just to shake his head. "Look at these kids, sitting here with their Apple computers," he said. "Apple, one of the biggest monopolies in the world. It trades at $400 a share. Do they even know that?"

E-mail: bigcity@nytimes.com

Reframing the story and shifting the blame.