Posts I Like
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Expensive photo shoot (Taken with instagram)
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…except for the guy thats gotta clean this.
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in a san francisco alley.
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this is just too cute.
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Pattern!
NY, NY
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Never forget.
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good morning.
i wanna give thanks to Mike Kearny for putting together MCA DAY yesterday.
i feel like a bunch of us been walking around lonely...
Tag Results
18 posts tagged Occupy Wall Street
“I now have an issue with Occupy Wall Street
This isn’t to say that before this I was extremely happy with them. I believed, as many have already stated, that the movement had indeed accomplished a great feat by shifting the conversation to income inequality and the ways the 1% profit while the rest are left to survive by whatever means are left. Not that their framing of the 99% was unique–there are other groups such as the other 98% that have been attempting this for a while but have yet to receive the headlines. I had a run-in with members of DC Occupy while covering the #99inDC march last December, and found their commentary and actions problematic. I was still very careful in my criticism of their methods because I didn’t want to be seen as attacking the burgeoning movement. Amongst progressives, Occupy is spoken of mostly with kind words and respect. Those who have critiqued it have often been given harsh words and had their own merits and commitment to change questioned. I caught a bit of this flack when I tweeted a sarcastic comment about violence committed against them in NYC.
I participated in the #MillionHoodies march in New York City’s Union Square this past Wednesday, March 21st. When I arrived I noticed a lot less hoodies than I thought I was going to see. I assumed this was simply because of the warm weather. There was still an enormous crowd of people there to deal with the tragedy that was Trayvon Martin.
With chants of “We are the 99%” and signage to that effect as well, I was a little thrown off. I thought the purpose of this march was to bring awareness to the death of a young boy. Soon after the march started confusion was all around. Which way were we marching? Who was leading the charge? After we walked a few blocks members of the Occupy section of the march started running down the street knocking down trash cans. I was told later that some attempted to knock down police barricades and police scooters used to guide the marchers. I immediately became uncomfortable because that’s not what I signed up for. I wanted to speak out against injustice—just causing general destruction wasn’t on my agenda. Soon some Occupiers started chanting “F**k the POLICE,” one young white male wearing skinny jeans and a Justin Bieber haircut started yelling “THIS IS WAR, WE WANT WAR!” To which a hoodie-clad young black adult said “Hey, uh we don’t really want war, why don’t you tone that down. I’m about to graduate college in a few months.” The white male kind of laughed and kept moving forward yelling something else.
At various points in the march, as organizers tried to make statements, they were drowned out by Occupiers chanting whatever they saw fit at the time. It didn’t matter if there was a full-on people’s mic happening, they would attempt to push things their way. I asked Daniel Maree, one of the organizers of the #millionhoodies march what he thought of the co-option by Occupy and their actions.”Honestly,” Maree replied “I feel like this is what happens when these emotions build up and they go unchecked and you know, injustice continues, you get it boiling over like this. I’m just happy nobody got hurt.” And while Occupy did help swell the ranks of marchers, I found their actions unacceptable.
This isn’t simply about emotions. This is a consistent streak within certain sections of Occupy. Their goal isn’t a specific action within our current system. Often they want to make a point, show that they’re movement is doing things. In DC, their goal was to get arrested. In NYC, they seemed less concerned with marching for Trayvon and more concerned with occupying as much space as possible with whatever issue that would gather folks to their cause. Occupying.
When Occupy Wall Street first got the national spotlight they were so worried about the co-option of their message, yet they have no problem co-opting others. A couple of Occupiers recognized me and asked if I noticed some of the nonsense that was happening. I said yes and one of them explained that after this march and two months of working with Occupy, she and her friends no longer wanted to be associated with them.
Every time I attempt to have a conversation about issues within Occupy, I’m told that there are no leaders, and that some people do crazy things, but “that’s not OCCUPY.” I grow weary of actions without consequences and disrespect without anyone being held responsible. Just because a movement did some good doesn’t mean that it’s infallible. Occupy chapters have serious issues and there have been serious discussions about its relations with women and people of color. With incidents like what occurred on Wednesday, I see a clear reason why people of color don’t flock to the movement.
We don’t have enough privilege to carry us through it.”
-Elon James White
This is an example of some of the stuff that I find negative about OWS. I beg of everyone involved in this movement to make sure to self-police and tighten up before this whole thing gets completely derailed. It might be time for a leader.
OWS-SOTU
As much as everyone has argued about how effective Occupy Wall Street has been—I just want to point out Obama’s State of the Union Address for 2012. I would guarantee it would have been a much different speech if the Occupy movement didn’t happen. I am proud of Americans for standing up and changing the conversation about politics. Our country is in this position not only because of the selfish greed of the people representing us, but also for our citizens turning a blind eye. 2011 was a year that the American people started talking about the real problems with our government and economy. And even if you hated the movement, you were still talking and learning about things that our politicians would love for us to go back to ignoring. This is proof of progress to me. But most importantly—proof to keep going because we are far from where we want to be. As citizens we must keep our government in check. We must not take a breather.
I blame both parties for the mess we are all in. But I have to say that I’m still happy for giving my vote to Barack Obama. If you didn’t watch last night’s address. I recommend watching it. Even though it felt like he was trying to win the Republican nomination at certain times.
“I think what they’re doing is great. Occupy Wall Street has done more in the short time they’ve been out there than I’ve been able to do in more than the last eleven years trying to draw attention to some of the same problems we have to address.”
Bill Clinton (Read the article here)
npr:
Answering The Question ‘What Was It A Good Year For?’
We asked for your input — and hundreds of readers responded with their suggestions of the things that had a good 2011. Then we took the results and used them to seed a Word Cloud.
I love this.
Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, there’s a deeper understanding about the power that corporations wield over the great majority of us. It’s not just in the financial sector, but in all facets of our lives. The disparity between the top 1 percent and everyone else has been laid bare — there’s no more denying that those at the top get their share at the expense of the 99 percent. Lobbyists, loopholes, tax breaks… how can ordinary folks expect a fair shake? No one knows this better than family farmers, whose struggle to make a living on the land has gotten far more difficult since corporations came to dominate our farm and food system. We saw signs of it when Farm Aid started in 1985, but corporate control of our food system has since exploded. From seed to plate, our food system is now even more concentrated than our banking system. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios hovering around 40 percent, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40 percent of the market. Anything beyond this level is considered “highly concentrated,” where experts believe competition is severely threatened and market abuses are likely to occur. Many key agricultural markets like soybeans and beef exceed the 40 percent threshold, meaning the seeds and inputs that farmers need to grow our crops come from just a handful of companies. Ninety-three percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the United States are under the control of just one company. Four companies control up to 90 percent of the global trade in grain. Today, three companies process more than 70 percent of beef in the U.S.; four companies dominate close to 60 percent of the pork and chicken markets. Our banks were deemed too big to fail, yet our food system’s corporations are even bigger. Their power puts our entire food system at stake. Last year the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Justice (DOJ) acknowledged this, hosting a series of workshops that examined corporate concentration in our farm and food system. Despite the hundreds of thousands of comments from farmers and eaters all over the country, a year later the USDA and DOJ have taken no action to address the issue. Recent decisions in Washington make clear that corporate lobbyists have tremendous power to maintain the status quo. In November, the Obama administration delivered a crushing blow to a crucial rule proposed by the USDA (known as the GIPSA rule), which was meant to level the playing field for independent cattle ranchers. The large meatpackers, who would have lost some of their power, lobbied hard and won to leave the beef market as it is — ruled by corporate giants. In the same month, new school lunch rules proposed by the USDA that would have brought more fresh food to school cafeterias were weakened by Congress. Food processors — the corporations that turn potatoes into French fries and chicken into nuggets — spent $5.6 million to lobby against the new rules and won, with Congress going so far as agreeing to call pizza a vegetable. Both decisions demonstrate that corporate power wins and the health of our markets and our children loses. Despite all they’re up against, family farmers persevere. Each and every day they work to sustain a better alternative — an agricultural system that guarantees farmers a fair living, strengthens our communities, protects our natural resources and delivers good food for all. Nothing is more important than the food we eat and the family farmers who grow it. Corporate control of our food system has led to the loss of millions of family farmers, destruction of our soil, pollution of our water and health epidemics of obesity and diabetes. We simply can’t afford it. Our food system belongs in the hands of many family farmers, not under the control of a handful of corporations.
This good man told me that the reason for his service is to protect our people and our rights. And that is why he also supports Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Boston, and the entire movement.
Canada Does This Right (What I Want My Country To Do)
Contribution Limits to Election Participants
While the historic approach has been to limit spending by participants in a federal election, reforms under the 2003 amendments to the Canada Elections Act and the 2006 Federal Accountability Act have sought to bring greater regulation to private contributions. Key rules regarding contributions are as follows:
- Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents may make contributions to registered parties, registered electoral district associations, leadership and nomination contestants of registered parties, and all candidates.
- Individual contributions to these political participants are limited to a maximum of $1,000 annually (adjusted for inflation).
- Individuals may also make contributions that do not exceed $1,000 (adjusted for inflation) in total per contest to the leadership contestants of a registered political party. This is an aggregate cap applying to all the contributions given by one individual to all leadership contestants in the same leadership contest.
- Corporations, trade unions, and other unincorporated associations are prohibited from making contributions to registered parties, registered electoral district associations, leadership and nomination contestants of registered parties, and all candidates.
Public Disclosure for Election Participants
Federal campaign finance laws also impose disclosure and reporting requirements on election participants. Election candidates must submit an audited electoral campaign return to the Chief Electoral Officer within four months of election day. In the return, the candidates must show all electoral campaign expenses incurred; the amounts of all contributions; and the names, addresses and dates the contributions were provided for all contributions exceeding $200.
Within six months of election day, registered political parties are also required to submit an audited return of their election expenses to the Chief Electoral Officer (this is in addition to annual fiscal returns and by-election expense returns). In these various reports, registered political parties must submit the amount and sources from all contributions; the names and addresses of those whose aggregate contributions exceeded $200; and the dates upon which the contributions were provided.
Summaries of these election campaign returns for election candidates and registered political parties are then published by the Chief Electoral Officer. Copies of election candidate returns are kept by Elections Canada and available to the public.
Disclosure and reporting requirements are not limited to just election candidates and registered political parties. Contestants for the leadership of a registered political party must also publicly disclose the names and addresses of each person who contributed a total amount of more than $200 to their leadership campaign, the total amount from each of these contributors, and the date on which the contestant received the contribution. Registered electoral district associations must also provide regular financial reports to the Chief Electoral Officer in which they must disclose such information as the names and addresses of all contributors of more than $200 and statements of assets and liabilities and revenues and expenses. Furthermore, contestants for a registered political party’s nomination in an electoral district must report contributions and expenses to Elections Canada if they exceed $1,000.
NPR - Can Occupy BOS Continue Without Dewey Sq?
Radio Boston: Can Occupy Boston Survive Without Dewey Square?
I heard this earlier while driving. I think everybody should listen to the whole thing. It applies to the whole movement, not just Boston.
0 Plays
Harvard Yard is closed off to the public for the first time in… All because of the Occupy protesters. They must be scared of our ivy league members educating the public.
This pretty much says it all. Doesn’t it? We must force our government to actually represent the American people. The whole system needs a good power washing. Stand the fuck up, people.
Ha! I found the Wired.com video I’m on for Occupy Wall Street. I was interviewed at 6am with only an hour of sleep for the day. I look rough and was too tired for my brain to function properly… so I ended up not saying anything worthwhile or even close to what I wanted to. Forgive.
