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PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:54 am
  

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My friend wonders the same thing.

I will tell you the same thing I told him, and it is a bit harsh. I'm sorry in advance.

Really, you have no idea what they are protesting? Any of them?

1)Do you want to try to find out?

2)If so what is the next step to finding out?

But most of all, Happy Thanksgiving Cheryl.


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 Post subject: Bad things man...
PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:57 am
  

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The U.S. Government — in the name of Terrorism — has aggressively para-militarized the nation’s domestic police forces by lavishing them with countless military-style weapons and other war-like technologies, training them in war-zone military tactics, and generally imposing a war mentality on them. Arming domestic police forces with para-military weaponry will ensure their systematic use even in the absence of a Terrorist attack on U.S. soil… It’s a very small step to go from supporting the abuse of defenseless detainees (including one’s fellow citizens) to supporting the pepper-spraying and tasering of non-violent political protesters

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/bl ... z1edNf8djl


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:03 pm
  

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Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show Monday night and seemed to downplay the impact of pepper spray while commenting on the UC Davis protests. She said of the substance, “it’s like a derivative of real pepper. It’s a food product essentially.”
(Well put your money where your mouth/eyes/face is)

Now, a petition is calling for Kelly to test her theory by ingesting pepper spray on television. More than 11,000 people have signed the pledge.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blo ... _blog.html

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/megy ... 58156.html


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:47 am
  

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I have some idea. I think they are protesting banks and the rich getting richer while the poor are still poor and taxes. Hope I'm right. I did read where an 84 yr old woman was in the protests and got pepper sprayed. That is not right pepper spraying an elderly person. Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. We did.


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 8:57 am
  

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Hey Cheryl,
Once you are starting to think about it you are right. We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope your was the best.


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 3:38 am
  

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Mine was pretty good other than missing Mike. Hope ya'll had a good one. :)


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:03 pm
  

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LOS ANGELES — Wall Street protesters declared a minor victory Monday when they defied a midnight deadline to leave their tent city encampment around City Hall and police withdrew after surrounding the camp for six hours without moving in.

Four people were arrested as police cleared downtown streets to make way for morning rush hour traffic, but police said the event was largely peaceful.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said it remains unclear when the nearly two-month-old Occupy LA camp would be cleared. About half of the 485 tents had been taken down as of Sunday night, leaving patches of the 1.7-acre park around City Hall barren of grass and strewn with garbage.

"There is no concrete deadline," Beck told reporters Monday morning after hundreds of officers withdrew without moving in on the camp. The chief said he wanted to make sure the removal will be done when it was safe for protesters and officers and "with as little drama as possible."

Protesters chanted "we won, we won" as riot-clad officers left the scene.

"I'm pretty much speechless," said Clark Davis, media coordinator for Occupy LA.

Police turned back after hundreds of Occupy LA supporters showed up at the camp Sunday night as the midnight deadline for evacuation neared.

As the night drew on, many demonstrators left.

Protester Julie Levine said she was surprised that police did not move in as the numbers dwindled. "We were fearful," she said. "But we held our numbers and police were on their best behavior."...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/2 ... 15891.html


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:34 pm
  

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o.k. i'm back.so A and C say hi...occupy EVERYTHING....thank you arlo you said it so well...right now i am occupying C's birthday cake :D and they are occupying st. louis....


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:24 am
  

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http://www.theroot.com/buzz/police-raid ... d-la-sites




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/3 ... 19686.html


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy LA Chant
PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:13 am
  

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Last cluster of protesters chant "You're sexy, you're cute, take off your riot suit". Too funny.

Woody quoted by Ron Kovic at the end of this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 4WZvNZg4Gc


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:53 am
  

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From my friend, singer/songwriter/player of all things with strings and social activist John McCutcheon:

Random Acts of Outrage

Don’t know much about history…

One of the great blind spots in political discussion in America is a seeming belief that everything is happening for the very first time. To reference an ani difranco song, we’re like that little goldfish that, every time it swims around its little bowl and sees the little blue castle, says, “Wow! Look at that cool castle!”

Whether we’re talking about past trends in job recovery in the wake of recession or the history of empires fighting in Afghanistan, there are lessons to be learned that make you wonder if our leaders really are ignorant or that they’re simply willing to sacrifice long-range solutions for your vote in the next election. Either way, they are not worthy of support. And with recent indicators putting their approval rating in the signal digits (just edging out Fidel Castro’s popularity in this country…wow!), I’m not alone in that assessment.

There are ebbs and flows in economic and political trends. After the 2006 mid-term elections the death knell was sounding for the Republican Party. After 2008 it was over, for good. A mere two years later, it’s the Dems on life support.

Similarly, and not un-coincidentally, the financial collapse of recent years mirrors earlier…and repeating…events in the 20th century. In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, economist Jeffery Sachs (author of The End of Poverty and other fascinating tomes) connected the dots between previous periods of gross income disparity and public and governmental responses. (As a subscriber to the Times I have access to their archives, so I don’t know if everyone can follow this link, but it’s well worth the read: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opini ... chs&st=cse). For those of you unable to read it directly, let me paraphrase.

The late 19th/early 20th century saw the ascendance of the trusts and the robber barons, whose incredible affluence was the photographic negative of most Americans. Seeking to level the playing field (and avoid the kind of chaos that public outrage can spawn…anyone connecting further dots?), Theodore Roosevelt and, after him, Woodrow Wilson intervened (Tea Partiers, take a deep breath here…) to create child labor laws, federal income tax, the direct election of Senators, women’s suffrage, trust busting.

The big change didn’t last long. The business-friendly administrations of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover reinstituted an era of financial influence and corruption that led to the next Roosevelt pushing through strict financial regulation, steeper tax rates, reduced income inequality. The New Deal.

Important to remember in all this is how long it took to recover from the damage done. It took twenty years to recover from the Gilded Age of the early part of the century, a decade (and a World War) to emerge from the Great Depression. These days we want our solutions to be quick, painless, and sacrifice-free. Just like the wealth managers that got us into this mess, huh?

My son, Peter, had a history teacher in middle school that, during a parent/teacher conference, confided in me that the reason he loved teaching history is “that it’s all settled and done.” I spent the next two weeks getting Peter out of that class.

History is written by the victors, but studied by the wise. It is anything but “settled and done.” There is still vigorous discussion over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the legacy of Ronald Reagon, and, hell, why Oliver North is still making a bundle appearing at events as “an American hero.” So I know an historian of a different stripe could interpret the period that Sachs cites differently. But the situational similarities, the cause-and-effect analyses, the ebb and flow can foster both frustration and hope. Frustration, that we make the same mistakes over and over. Hope, that solutions, however slow and difficult, are out there and that this, too, shall pass.

But, at least as important, is the reminder that public outrage matters. No matter the age, extreme income disparity is not capitalism’s reward; it is its most dangerous consequence. When it becomes clear that elected officials are more beholden to lobbyists and donors than they are to those they’re charged with representing is it any wonder people take to the streets? There is no one to represent us, then, expect ourselves. And whether you think that sounds like the folks in Zuccatti Park or the Tea Party depends on whether or not you think money’s influence should be taken out of government or whether government itself is the problem.

And this ain’t the first time that argument has happened either. Look it up. It’s right there in your history books.


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 6:41 pm
  

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thanks kevin!


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:13 am
  

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Really!


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:07 pm
  

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Well said, Kevin.

Given the treatment of the OWS supporters and the shutout by commercial media to the point that we have to use Facebook to get the news, the most important demonstration of street power will be the upcoming election. We can be distracted by the two dog Presidential race as if it settles all bets, but a more important action will be to roll Congress and shake the bad apples off the tree. A very large defeat of the current incumbents, a real Fire Them All action can be the single demonstration that Americans still have power over their leaders and still bring their will to choose to bear on the problems we are facing.

In my opinion, and it is just that, the one to start with is Peter King, NY.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_T._King


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 Post subject: Re: Occupy America
PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 4:23 pm
  

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Thanks for sharing Kevin, and so true.

In my occupy education thread you will find many public protests referenced. A big one is the Bonus Army Protest. check it out if you have not had a chance.

Lynn, I don't know the best way forward in the bigger picture.

I think we need to learn as much as we can about each pol we can choose from, to do the greatest good.


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