Occupy Wall Street: Not on major media but worth watching!

[Headbandf1]

Founding Father knew that would happen and even instructed us -

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.


It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
Thomas Jefferson

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.
Thomas Jefferson


As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Thomas Jefferson

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Thomas Jefferson

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
Thomas Jefferson

______________________________________________________________________

The founder use the term equal, equality very often - there is not much Equal in America today

 

[dagnabit]

Hydro's just preempting the fallout by suggesting that protesters ie 'gangs' will be the transgressors. Never mind they have to be hired by, uh... the cops.

you really did not understand the man's post.
he never suggested OWS was a "gang" or the cops hire OWS

there is no semantical agrument.

just you misunderstanding(purposfully?)someone else's post.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

The First Amendment Upside Down: Why We Must Occupy Democracy

Robert Reich - Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Aftershock'

Posted: 11/22/11 01:17 PM ET

You've been seeing this across the country... Americans assaulted, clubbed, dragged, pepper-sprayed... Why? For exercising their right to free speech and assembly -- protesting the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top.

And what's Washington's response? Nothing. In fact, Congress's so-called "super committee" just disbanded because Republicans refuse to raise a penny of taxes on the rich.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court says money is speech and corporations are people. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision last year ended all limits on political spending. Millions of dollars are being funneled to politicians without a trace.

And a revolving door has developed between official Washington and Wall Street -- with bank executives becoming public officials who make rules that benefit the banks before heading back to the Street to make money off the rules they created.

Other top officials, including an increasing proportion of former members of congress, are cashing in by joining lobbying power houses and pressuring their former colleagues to do whatever their clients want.

Millionaires and billionaires on Wall Street and in executive suites aren't contributing all this money out of sheer love of country.

Their political spending is analogous to their other investments. Mostly they want low tax rates and friendly regulations.

Why else do you suppose tax rates on the super rich are now lower than they've been in three decades, and why -- even though the long-term budget deficit is horrendous -- those rates aren't rising? Why else do the 400 richest Americans (whose wealth is larger than the combined wealth of the bottom 150 million Americans) now pay an average tax rate of only 17 percent?

Why do you think Wall Street got bailed without a single string attached -- not even being required to help homeowners to whom they sold mortgages, who are now so far under water they're drowning? And why does the financial reform legislation have loopholes big enough for bankers to drive their Ferrari's through?

And why else are oil companies, big agribusinesses, military contractors, and the pharmaceutical industry reaping billions of dollars of government subsidies and special tax breaks?

Experts say the 2012 presidential race is likely to be the priciest ever, costing an estimated $6 billion. "It is far worse than it has ever been," says Republican Senator John McCain.

If there's a single core message to the Occupier movement it's that the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top endangers our democracy. With money comes political power.

Yet when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with all this, they're told the First Amendment doesn't apply. Instead, they're treated as public nuisances -- clubbed, pepper-sprayed, thrown out of public parks and evicted from public spaces.

Across America, public officials are saying Occupiers have to go. Even in universities -- where free speech is supposed to be sacrosanct -- peaceful assembly is being met with clubs and pepper spray.

The First Amendment is being stood on its head. Money speaks, and an unlimited amount of it can now be spent bribing and cajoling politicians. Yet peaceful assembly is viewed as a public nuisance and removed by force.

This is especially worrisome now that so many Americans are in economic trouble. The jobs recession grinds on, seemingly without end. Homes are being foreclosed upon. Qualified students cannot afford college. Or they're forced to take on huge debt loads they can't repay in a jobless economy. Schools are firing teachers. Vital social services are being axed.

How are Americans to be heard about what should be done about any of this if they are not allowed to mobilize and organize? When the freedom of speech goes to the highest bidder, moneyed interests have a disproportionate say.

Now more than ever, the First Amendment needs to be put right side up. Nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/occupy-protests-first-amendment_b_1108076.html

 

[SpasticGramps]

Check out some of the new, non-lethal weapons developed by the MIC. Brings new meaning to what might be used for future crowd control.

video at the link - non-lethal ways to use force

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/rachel-maddow-occupy-police_n_1107322.html?ref=media

I agree with her completely. New toys for the police state to enforce obedience under the nice pretext of "at least we aren't killing people."

 

[Headbandf1]

In addition to 33 protester killed in Cairo this weekend,

Second Egyptian Uprising News Update of the Day: In a story reminiscent of UCLA math student Chris Jeon’s sojourn among rebel fighters in Libya, three American college students were arrested in Cairo for allegedly throwing firebombs at security forces during the recent protests in Tahrir Square.
The young men were identified by American University spokeswoman Morgan Roth as 21-year-old Indiana University student Luke Gates, 19-year-old Georgetown University student Derrik Sweeney, and 19-year-old Drexel University student Greogry Porter.
“There’s a lot of very contagious passion right now,” said Roth, who told the Associated Press it was common for American students to get “caught up” in local politics.
The U.S Department of State said it was working on gaining access to the students. “I don’t believe that he would intentionally throw a bomb at anyone,” said Sweeney’s mother Joy.
The three were apparently in the country to study Arabic.
Click to see more… »

 

[dagnabit]

dude on the right looks like he is in the process of evacuating his bowels in fear.

 

[greenmatter]

he (dude on the right) is the only one out of the three that has seen Midnight Express ........ we americans just don't appreciate how nice our jails really are ...... really!

 

[ronbo51]

If I was given a plane ticket and a hotel room and you started slapping down hundreds you could not get me to go to Egypt. No amount of money. That goes for "hiking" along the Iraq/Iran border. There is no foreign country I would travel to now, no matter how seemingly safe it appears. The world is succumbing to Entropy and you leave your home at your own peril. What the hell were the parents of these kids thinking? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

[ilegalalien]

he (dude on the right) is the only one out of the three that has seen Midnight Express ........ we americans just don't appreciate how nice our jails really are ...... really!

really.. check this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...ama-prison-brutality_n_1107687.html?ref=crime

 

[dagnabit]

yes there are isolated instances of violence like the good ol' huff and puff(mostly puff)"reported" above but by and large american prison is cushy compared to other countries..
cable TV
air conditioning
1400 calories a day provided
working toilets

the list goes on

 

[Headbandf1]

Researchers who've investigated the way that "nonlethal" weapons like pepper spray and tasers affect policing weigh in on the epidemic of callous and brutal police attacks on protesters. They conclude that the effect of giving police an "intermediate force" option isn't a reduction in lethal force, but rather to escalate situations where police might have negotiated with citizens into situations where those citizens are shocked or sprayed.

That the number of times police used force seemed disconnected from threats to public order led Friday and Lumb to hypothesize that having pepper spray could change how officers behaved.

“Do officers become more assertive in suspect confrontational situations when they are ‘armed’ with an additional tool? Does the possession of OC spray unreasonably increase the sense of self-confidence and security and thereby create a self-fulfilling prophecy of threat?” they wondered. “While OC spray, when used, reduced injuries, does its mere possession increase the potential for physical force being used?”

Two studies conducted in the Netherlands showed that pepper spray was useful for subduing violent subjects, but actually caused non-violent situations to escalate into violence — and about 10 percent of all uses were carried out against non-threatening subjects.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/pepper-spray-psychology/

 

[StRa]

yes there are isolated instances of violence like the good ol' huff and puff(mostly puff)"reported" above but by and large american prison is cushy compared to other countries..
cable TV
air conditioning
1400 calories a day provided
working toilets

the list goes on

yeah Guantanamo is another country!!!!and you forget the electric chair.........ahahahha........

Homer Simpson: This doesn't happen in America! Maybe in Ohio--but not America!

 

[greenmatter]

really.. check this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...ama-prison-brutality_n_1107687.html?ref=crime

i was not saying our prisons are nice ........ or staffed by human beings for that matter.

and i would still rather be in a cage here than a cage in egypt ....... these three are lucky they are on T.V., better to be used as a pawn (and you know they will be), than be thrown in the deepest darkest hole they could find in egypt. Mubarak was not known for being real nice to the guys in prison there.

"meet the new boss, same as the old boss" ........ i really doubt the game changed overnight

 

[Bobby Stainless]

 

[Headbandf1]

Mubarak was not known for being real nice to the guys in prison there.

"meet the new boss, same as the old boss" ........ i really doubt the game changed overnight

Not to be insulting but are you that out of touch? The military Junta that is in charge now is fucking insane. 33 peaceful demonstrator were kill last Sat and Sun. New Boss is 10 fold WORSE. They gave up a less than good functioning government, For military tyrants'.

That's why when our Sh*t goes south, it will be incumbent on those that survive/remain that they get something better than what all of us will give up. we no longer have liberty, freedom and or even the right to civil discourse. We seem to be a military republic

 

[greenmatter]

Not to be insulting but are you that out of touch? The military Junta that is in charge now is fucking insane. 33 peaceful demonstrator were kill last Sat and Sun. New Boss is 10 fold WORSE. They gave up a less than good functioning government, For military tyrants'.

That's why when our Sh*t goes south, it will be incumbent on those that survive/remain that they get something better than what all of us will give up. we no longer have liberty, freedom and or even the right to civil discourse. We seem to be a military republic

trust me man i am not that out of touch ......... all i was saying was that i would rather be in prison here.

not to be insulting either.

we agree on all the the things we no longer have here, i just think that we have been a military republic for so long nobody even sees it anymore... and just like Mubarak we have a prison system and cops that most of us think suck balls. but will the new boss control shit any better here than he does there? i am not seeing a revolution here being a "velvet" one by any means.

you have been in the military ..... do you think that they could pull off a junta/coup here? and if they could what do you think would happen after it was done? what would americans do to americans that disagreed with them if there was no higher power? what would they guys in uniform do if the generals told them to fire on a crowd with some of the good stuff? revolution here? do the generals agree with each other? who is on who's side?

this place would be fucking insane! ...... just like any other place. and geography, this country is fucking huge from any military standpoint ....... if all of america goes off the deep end, i have a feeling it will never get back to being the u.s.a. again.

 

[Headbandf1]

An Open Letter to the Winter Patriot

By Mitch Green, a Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives



Mitch Green, a US Army vet and economics PhD candidate, has written an open letter to members of the US armed forces, who, he believes, will soon be called upon to put down the Occupy movement in America:

Those that take this oath seriously are faced with a terrible conflict. You must battle internally between the affirmation that you will place your body between the social contract embedded in the Constitution and those that seek its destruction, while maintaining your loyalty to the government you serve and the orders issued by its officers. Sadly, society has placed a twin tax upon you by asking that you sacrifice both your body and your morality. This tax has been levied solely upon you overseas, and soon they’ll come to collect domestically. Your government in its expression of corporate interests relies upon your tenacity to endure, and your relentless willingness to sacrifice. And so you do.

Now, more than ever we need your sacrifice. But, I’m asking you to soldier in a different way. If called upon to deny the people of their first amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for a redress of grievance, disregard the order. Abstain from service. Or if you are so bold, join us. Make no mistake: The consequences for such decisions are severe. You will be prosecuted under the full extent of the law. But sacrifice is your watch word.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/an-open-letter-to-the-winter-patriot.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I support the above point. And to answer your question , unless they(US Military) can figure out how to implement forced inscription i think vets and other will build/grow an opposition force that could be far more lethal, than anything the US will be able to muster in a crisis of that scale.

Additionally the US has a warfare college at Fort Benning and they have run this scenario since our last civil war, and without fail this nation breaks down and the four branches will not be able to function without the retention of expert personnel and recruitment of new personnel. Then we move into regional militia or warlord type environments were their power and influence is limited to their numbers and resources.

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Somalia, here we come.

 

[SpasticGramps]

Syria here we come. Romeny admitted last night that we already had covert boots on the ground working with the rebels. Seems like a no-fly zone is imminent.

When the economy gets shitty and the proles get restless it's time for war. It's the American way. The great American distraction. Another war another Nobel Peace Prize.

WWIII here we come. This time we are taking over the Middle East. It's good training for when they come home and put down the American popular uprising that is inevitable.

Might be a dark winter.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

If Mitt knows something - it isn't covert.

I couldn't believe that Wolfowitz and Addington were actually participating. Lol, these two (along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and GWB) can't travel abroad for fear of being arrested as war criminals.