#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[Jeff]

Looking tense now. Riot police have returned, now threatening chemical weapons.

Portland live feed

[elfismiles]

Looking tense now. Riot police have returned, now threatening chemical weapons.

Portland live feed

Guy with that stream says his battery may go down at which point he says he'll be up at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pdx-nathanh

[Wombaticus Rex]

Most Train Wreck GA of all time going down in NYC right now ==> http://www.livestream.com/occupywallstnyc

[JackRiddler]

Most Train Wreck GA of all time going down in NYC right now ==> http://www.livestream.com/occupywallstnyc

I don't really get it. What's been the issue?

.

[Wombaticus Rex]

So far I've seen two facilitation teams step down, there's a faction of people who live there saying they're not represented by the GA. There's also been several folks from Sanitation saying they're being ignored, and a lot of randoms demanding that GA rules be explained and re-ratified through voting. Facilitation WG is saying they're grateful for the questions and it seems to be pulling back together. Best anthropology I've seen in awhile.

It really seems like there's a lot of people who want to "start over at step one" as they've put it and re-write the rules of both GA and #OWS.

[Jeff]

And from Boots Riley tonight:

It looks like they plan to evict Occupy Oakland tonight.
I've been asked by several people to spread the message and ask folks to be present to stop the eviction.

Longshoremen, the labor council, and various clergy are all rallying to 14th and Broadway to protect the camp.
It may happen late tonight.
See you there.

[temp-monitor]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/1 ... 90790.html

Frank Miller: Occupy Wall Street 'Louts, Thieves & Rapists,' Comic Writer Says

11/13/11 02:41 AM ET

Frank Miller has spent much of his famed comic book writing career creating dark, urban dystopias, but the groundbreaking scribe has little regard for the chaos he says reigns at Zuccotti Park.

The man behind such famed comic series as "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," "Sin City" and "300," in fact, is entirely against the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"'Occupy' is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness," Miller wrote in a blog entry last week. "These clowns can do nothing but harm America."

Though, for the most part, the participants in the now-global Occupy moment have protested the imbalances of the economy, corporate fiscal abuses and government officials' close ties to Wall Street, Miller mentions the War on Terror in his slamming of the nascent movement.

"Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy," he later continues. "Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you've been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you've heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism."

Miller then implores protestors to join the military, or otherwise, to go "back to your mommas' basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft."

In his work, Miller's protagonists often face off against corrupt government officials. Batman, in both "The Dark Knight Returns" and "The Dark Knight Strikes Again" is faced with heavy governmental opposition, with the latter featuring an especially oppressive and corrupt government.

In 2006, Miller announced that he would have Batman take on Osama bin Laden in "Holy Terror, Batman!" but later dropped Batman from the book; it became "Holy Terror," and has been highly criticized for being hatefully anti-Islam.

In a blog entry on his own site posted in September, Miller calls the book "propaganda," a sort of throw-back to when Captain America punched Hitler, rips the news media as slanted propaganda in its own right, and says, "3000 of my neighbors were murdered. My country was, utterly unprovoked, savagely attacked. I wish all those responsible for the Atrocity of 9/11 to burn in hell."

[JackRiddler]

.

Since "America is at war with a ruthless enemy" Frank Miller's argument has persuaded me to volunteer my labor for free to Bank of America, at least until I've donated my kidneys to Goldman Sachs.

.

[Jeff]

There are over 3,000 comments on Miller's blog to this, more mixed than I'd expected given how poorly written and reasoned it is. One fan: "Let the police open fire on these idiots. Raise my taxes? How about you EAT LEAD." So I guess Miller still has his base.

[temp-monitor]

I guess Miller still has his base.

His base of Neocon Chickenhawks who didn't serve their country while they demand war with anyone on the thinnest-of-evidence, paying for those wars with credit while simultaneously cutting taxes for the wealthiest, while simultaneously refusing to demand accountability for false war pretenses & war crimes.

Wish we could see the Batman demanding those tax cuts & austerity programs, with starving disabled & elderly in the streets of Gotham after their "welfare handouts" have been taken away, just to make Frank Miller's worldview clear.

[Elvis]

volunteer my labor for free to Bank of America

In a real way, that's what they've got everybody doing.
Paying tribute to the BoA constrictor.

[Allegro]

volunteer my labor for free to Bank of America

In a real way, that's what they've got everybody doing.
Paying tribute to the BoA constrictor.

GOOD One Elvis!

[Nordic]

I wish all those responsible for the Atrocity of 9/11 to burn in hell."

Really, Frank? ME TOO.

But you're barking up the wrong tree, you fucking moron.

[Gouda]

Makana played this over and over for over 40 minutes in support of “Occupy" at Obama's Pacific Rim free trade pact summit dinner in Hawaii. Apparently he varied the tempo and delivery with each repetition to keep under the radar just enough to stay on stage and out of a Navy brig. AFP reports that Obama did not really notice Makana occupying his deal-making dinner. Huh.

We are legion.



We Are The Many

Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

(...)

[82_28]

There are over 3,000 comments on Miller's blog to this, more mixed than I'd expected given how poorly written and reasoned it is. One fan: "Let the police open fire on these idiots. Raise my taxes? How about you EAT LEAD." So I guess Miller still has his base.

You know, the fucked up thing is that if police did "open fire" (which apparently they did on a small scale in Oakland) on OWS in any one of the places it is happening, it would easily be explained away, forgotten, support our troops rah rah rah, say, who's the batshit insane republican front runner? Ad infinitum.

Hate to say it, but shit be falling apart.

Occupy Seattle Disrupts Pro-Occupy Wall Street Forum, Drives Away Supporters

No sooner had the panel finished opening remarks last night than a woman scampered up onto stage and yelled, "Mic check!" It was an orchestrated effort by several dozen activists to use the People's Mic to interrupt a forum at Town Hall—a forum in favor of Occupy Wall Street, featuring three wonks and three activists from Occupy Seattle. Their stunt replaced what was supposed to be an informed discussion of the movement with an uninformative, shout-a-thon about process that consumed most of the evening. They booed opinions they disagreed with and drove supporters out of the building.

"I walked in supportive and left unsupportive," said 69-year-old Mary Ann, who declined to provide her last name. "I’m turned off by the negative shouts, repetition, and all I can think about is a cult. And I believe in every one of their damn principles."

Paula and Brian King also headed for the door early. "It was frustrating to listen to people shouting and interrupting," lamented Paula. Brian added, "We are leaving because they are looking inward at themselves and their eccentric process rather than reaching out to people."

Organized by Town Hall (and co-sponsored by The Stranger), the forum was intended to discuss the Occupy Wall Street movement, featuring three activists from Occupy Seattle and luminaries from labor, economics, and politics: Washington State Labor Council secretary-treasurer Lynne Dodson; Second Avenue Partners and progressive taxation activist Nick Hanauer; and GMMB political strategist Frank Greer. During opening remarks, JM Wong from Occupy Seattle declared that she wanted “no leadership from the Democratic Party or union bureaucrats. Nonprofits are trying to co-opt us."

Dodson, however, politely explained that labor unions are part and parcel with the Occupy movement's push for economic reform. "I like to consider myself a union activist, not a union bureaucrat," she said. "This is labor’s fight, this is our fight."

Whatever further insight the speakers planned for the 90-minute event was then cut short when the woman ran on stage. Activists had planned to interrupt the panel because, some said, they opposed the power dynamic created by speakers on stage talking into microphones. Although Occupy Wall Street uses the belabored people's mic—which involves one person speaking and the crowd repeating everything—to amplify the soft spoken and encourage free speech, last night it was used to silence the panel. The call and-response created an echoing cacophony. Despite pleas from several older audience members who couldn't hear well to let the panelists proceed, the Occupy activists demanded a vote to overtake the forum.

But Melanie Jackson got up on stage to protest: "Some of us who are old, we don’t understand when people are screaming. This process alienates people and takes a lot of time." By a show of hands, Nick Licata—the moderator, who some activists later claimed was a proxy for the partisan political establishment—determined the activists had been outvoted. The event would proceed as a planned, right? The activists refused to lose. They demanded another vote and even insisted that, before we could vote again, they would first explain how a General Assembly worked. So for 15 minutes, the activists read the rules and we repeated them back.

"Assembly time is precious," the man yelled without a hint of irony. "Assembly time is precious!" we all yelled back, wasting precious time.

Then they insisted that everyone discuss the issue among their neighbors. If people opposed, they were drowned out by the people's mic. So we talked about their proposal. One activist slept on the floor in front of the stage, spread eagle. The place reeked of BO. A man next to me worked through half a tin of chew. Eventually, we took another vote and activists demanded a count by hand.

It was 8:30 p.m. at this point, one hour after the event began, and we'd only heard opening statements. The forum was supposed to conclude by 9:00 p.m. "We have only a half hour left," Licata announced. "This is very interesting."

As the clock counted down, it was apparent that Occupy Seattle had repressed whatever thoughtful ideas the panelists brought to the stage and were willing to fill the time with chatter about unenlightening process. They wanted more power; they wanted to speak. They were also being rank hypocrites. Here is a group purporting to give people a voice and cut through the bureaucratic layers of government and capitalism. Instead, they silenced speech, quashed ideas, and replaced it with their own bureaucratic process reserved for a minority that wanted power. One gray-haired woman who was walking out put it like this: "It was very divisive. Now they are a little group, like the 1 Percent."

The activists lost the second vote, too. So the forum sort of proceeded, but now with occupiers booing speakers on stage when they disagreed and giving them the wrap-it-up hand gesture. For instance, Greer noted, "We learned in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement, you can attract support or turn of support, and basically fail, and I don’t want you to fail." Despite his support, many activists booed and gestured that he stop talking.

Lots of people were leaving, angry—it was a stark contrast with stellar activism the week before.

Wong justified the interruption, saying, "We need to respect the movement that uses this process. I stick to it because it is a democratic process." Some shouted, "This is what Democracy looks like."

But the Occupy activists came off as disrespectful, hostile, and woefully misguided about what democracy looked like. The activists added zero new content, but in the process, prevented the speakers from sharing their knowledge (that's some democracy). Let's think if the tables were turned: These activists would be outraged if Town Hall set up a stack of speakers at the General Assembly and blasted them with an amplified panel discussion. It was equally selfish to destroy the panel with their People's Mic.

On his way out the door, Brian King added, "They think it is more important to purify themselves rather than connect with people who are not like themselves. They probably can’t get much further than they are right now."

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archiv ... supporters

I care, YES, I care about what this is all about. However, I must say, I have a thanksgiving to plan for. And by "plan" I mean my bar/restaurant is having a dinner (well, during the day) for 85 poor or homeless (it's all we can probably fit) and we're going to be sending each guest home with food and such as well. I'm really looking forward to it. Actually, it's probably the first thanksgiving I've ever looked forward to other than in my early 20s telling my family, "sorry, can't make thanksgiving. Me and some friends decided we're gonna go to Vegas." I'm going to try and secure some portable recording equipment and hopefully get down some stories from people for the use at the station. But these people need to start doing something useful, if in fact, the Stranger's report is genuine -- which I just bet it is. OWS at least in Seattle, is beginning to wear a little thin, as far as this sympathizer goes.