Thursday, December 1, 2011
Protest What Occupy Wall Street has accomplished
Posted by Max Brantley on Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 6:36 AM
NY Times today writes about one very solid accomplisment of the Occupy movement in just a couple of months:
Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting “We are the 99 percent,” referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, “You are the one percent” referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon.
This useful shorthand is powerful. Scoff if you want. But Republicans understand messaging better than anyone. It is not a coincidence that right-wingers have devoted so much time, energy and social media attention to tearing down the Occupy protestors and any who'd send them an encouraging word. Republicans have governed — and still govern — for the 1 percent down. See U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, who speaks openly of ending public pensions, of privatizing Social Security, of ending Medicare as a government health program, of opposing payroll tax relief for workers, of enhancing tax breaks for the wealthy. He's a one percenter.
Impromptu "occupations" at all sorts of places are also in vogue. It's a healthy thing to stand up and be counted.
Republicans, again, made a lot of political mileage out of the silent majority message once upon a time. If you believe the polls — and I generally do — today's silent majority thinks millionaires should share the 99 percent's pain; that there's merit in protecting the environment; that universal health care should be a part of the promise of our democracy; that the bankers have gorged themselves without accountability.
Which side are you on? The 1 percenters or the 99 percenters? The honing of that message is a good legacy.
Speaking of...
-
Tim Griffin making plans? UPDATE
March 9, 2012Tim Griffin's name has popped up in domain names suggesting races for governor and Senate. His spokesman says the campaign didn't buy them and has no knowledge who did. /more/
- More »
Comments (40)
Showing 1-40 of 40
Vote cager alert! Tim Griffin is on C-SPAN right now, blathering on about doing away with Congressional pensions.
http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/
like
dislike
All you get out of 'class warfare' when it is taken to its inevitable conclusion is totalitarianism and anarchy. You might look to the French Revolution as one example. 'A Nation divided cannot stand'. However, I know that I am speaking to a mob of Madam Defarges so I shall leave it at that.
Look at the end result- legislating, regulating, and politicking for a small minority. Not just congress. The middle class has been stagnant since 1979. Look at oversight failures- S&L, Enron, Worldcom, dot com , then mortgages. Look at Quitman with 'we didn't do it' EARTHQUAKES, for goodness sakes. And now calls to set up S Security just like the folks who brought you all of the above.
Occupy's most basic message is not class warfare, it is a call for a new status quo. The 1% aren't the job creators or innovators, it is the middle class, until recently.
If the current folks ran things in 1932 S Arkansas would have STARVED. The RedCross fed 200,000 for 2 years. Hoover begged Red Cross NOT to act, as it might cause folk to think things were 'bad'. In 1945 they would have decried Daddy Diogenes the GI bill. In the 60's they oposed Medicare for Momma Diogenes.
Evil Gov'mint-
Let's turn ths clock back, un invent communication and weather satellites, bring back polio paralysis, measles pneumonia, TB, meningitis and smallpox, remove the continental rail road, ocean navigatin, disappear the Internet, put lead back in paint and gasoline, put kerosene lights back in rural Ark, Take out seatbelts, shut the CDC so SARS, Ebola, the next epizootic arrive un opposed. Exchange it for trust in the fellas that brought you CDO, default swaps, heads we win tails you lose. "your chickens died".
Those people have declared class warfare, have increased their wealth and incomes 5-8x greater than upper middle class, and the middle middle is flat. Flat. And the next generation, Son and Daughter Diogenes are flat. Flat. Prospects flat.
I am a home owning, kids debt free out of college, paid my own way through 8 years and 3 degrees oh higher Ed, employed, married to 1st and only Ms Diogenes, church going, pledge paying member of organized religion, and like Max an Eagle Scout, ( as is young Mr Diogenes) mainline true blue A'murican. Southern Diogenes family been here 6 generations, so don't call me an interloper
Sholmes, you make me sick.
And I am an Ocuppier of LR.
Loves me some Diogenes!
Sherlock, you are right about one thing. When people have "nothing left to lose" they revolt. OWS wants us to save ourselves while there is still time before blood runs in the streets.
The oligarchs realized this in the 30's and let FDR make a beginning on leveling the playing field. All sorts of radical movements of the time were disturbing their sleep. They have been hell bent on undoing those gains ever since, so we've got to disturb their sleep again. OWS is doing just that and have certainly changed the conversation that we hear from the MSM.
The only "class war fare" that is occurring today is the rich against the middle class, the elderly and the poor. I re-post this link from my comment on the Wednesday night thread which explains it all for you, with charts if you are reading comprehension impaired.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernst…
The wealthy have been making war on the 99% for the last two decades.
The Bush tax cuts and the decision to go to war on borrowed money in order to kill government were like Japan and the rape of Manchuria.
It is not just an analogy. There are thousands of Americans dead because of this class war, whether it be from IEDs in the Middle East, being denied health care in America because of lack of insurance, or suicide because the pensions all disappeared into some banker's pocket during the LBO.
Rwingers have attempted to discredit the Occupy movement by demonization, but that familiar tactic hasn’t worked this time. Over the past three months, the political discourse in this country has changed, and the Occupy movement triggered that change. I’m proud of the Occupiers and grateful they were willing to take a high-profile stand.
Just back from Florida...'eh Sherlock?
"How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?"
...
"I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death," said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. "They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."
Luntz offered tips on how Republicans could discuss the grievances of the Occupiers, and help the governors better handle all these new questions from constituents about "income inequality" and "paying your fair share."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republi…
Luntz...teaching the 'dunzes' how to be 'scared·z-cat '
The kids have done political discourse a huge favor, actually moved it off of DEAD center. Of course we gave them good enough cause. You can't get a decent education in America today without rich parents or a huge loan. We used to invest in our future. Now we ask our kids to pay the bill for our excess (while we give them preferred terms.)
You can't tax the dead and you can't have class warfare in a classless society. It's only the plutocrats that want to impose class in America. America was founded on the equality of man. The so-called patriots should be ashamed, if they had any shame. They're political sociopaths.
Fullthrottle-
"you can't have class warfare in a classless society."
amen and amen
Congratulations to the Occupy movement for this great achievement. After all of the media attention, the marches, the camp-outs, the Facebook postings, the pepper spray - it has accomplished a slogan.
Everyone needs to read that Yahoo link from bejeeus. Then note the words coming from rethug mouths. Trouble is a lot of people are on to their little game of semantics. I remember going to a candidate's forum when Bryan King was running for the statehouse. All that came out of his mouth was prefab republican talking points. If he ever had a thought of his own, I never heard it. I guess he used up all his creative thinking when he decided that KKK would be a dandy brand for his livestock.
I have asked a couple of simple questions on here several times and no one has answered it. Not once. So, I have thought of another question to ad to it. Please liberals, respond away. Three simple questions:
1. What is your fair share
2. If increasing the taxes on the rich brings the federal deficit down from 1.5 trillion per year to 1.4 trillion, what good does it do
3. If every CEO in America never made another cent, what would it do for you and your life
Brock, spoken like a true believer and one who aspires to be a 1%er.
1. A level playing field for the able among us, and a leg up for the disabled (for whatever reason). This would include out and out support for those who can't "do" for themselves.
2. Raising taxes on the rich won't begin to solve our problems so why bother? Let them continue to loot the country and the middle class.
3. Nobody cares that people are rich or well paid IF they deserve it. We care a lot about the thriving good old boy (make that white boy) system that is heavily rigged in their favor. The rigging is very detrimental to the country since it rewards the lucky sperm club, no matter how incompetent, and hinders those who may have a genuine contribution to make, but never get the chance.
1. The average citizen's "fair share" of the war is somewhere between $8000 and $12,000, plus interest. Start there.
2. It does no good. But we're all familiar with calculations in which someone with an agenda started with the answer they wanted to get. Exxon Mobile or General Electric consider it good that I pay more taxes than they do, so you carry their water. $100M is chump change to them, probably a year's worth of lobbying.
3. I would have seen probably 5,000 people keep their jobs at a corporation I worked at if the CEO and management team at a competitor had not cooked their books in order to pump up their bonuses, causing my company to shed people in the quest to match the competitors balance sheet and stock appreciation. Turns out it was all for nothing! Oh well, just the free market at work.
If the health insurance CEOs never made another cent, I'd be jubilant because it would mean those leeches would be gone and we'd have single payer.
1. The middle class and working poor pay, by far, the largest percentage of their income in taxes. Why do you think it is more fair to take $30K from a family making $100K than taking $100K from a family making $500K?
2. Voodoo ecomomics has failed. That should be obvious even to those watching Fox News. Even the teaparty know it's time to pay the bill.
3. Nothing. This isn't about income. It's simply about math and shared responsiblity. Everyone will pay. People with more money will pay more.
There has been a class war going on since at least 8/23/71, when Lewis Powell issued his manifesto. http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_acco…
The war is all but over, and the 99% have all but lost. We might as well go down swinging.
The reason that the 1% have won is that half of the half of the 99% who bother to vote have been played for fools and used as tools, accepting short-term personal pleasure in exchange for long-term evil for their children.
We haven't lost yet Silver, Obama's just doin' his rope-a-dope.
Of course, you see how well that worked for Ali.
Wow, Silverback. Powell was literally peeing in his pants with fear when he wrote that memo wasn't he? All of this talk about class, class warfare, 1% vs 99%, etc. reminds me of Edwin Markham's 19th century poem written at a time when there were also whirlwinds of rebellion. The American people are not yet that "dumb terror" he wrote about, but we are headed down that path if we don't reverse the tide.
I saw a young Egyptian journalist on Up with Chris Hayes recently. She was talking about the upcoming elections and the difficulty facing reformers. She said so many of the Egyptian people are so poverty stricken and ill-educated that they aren't moved by the promise of a better life in the future---their problems are so urgent that they can't see beyond today making them easy targets for those whose goal is power and money. Their vote is too easily "bought" by solving their very immediate needs.
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~wyllys/manw…
It's true outlier,
Indecision 2011 - Let My People Vote
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
"In an effort to include illiterate voters in the 2011 Egyptian parliamentary election, symbols ranging from guitars to assault weapons represent each political party."
Please watch...
In no small part the successes of OWS up until now are because they stepped outside of the two party one money criminal box and refuse to consider either party worthy of anything but contempt. They do this in many ways, but most of all because they are focused on issues.. a large number of issues... The focus on issues clarifies the fact both parties are failing the country so consistently, so miserably, across the board. The fact the issue of corporate personhood and our bribed based party, campaign, lobby electoral system must not stand... and yet neither party is doing a damn thing about it... while a vast majority of brutal police actions upon occu-sites, upon the first amendment, all across the land are led by D Mayors... says SO much.
The party of Griffin only wishes it received the same amount of bribes from Banksters and the rest of the FIRE sector the the leading party of neoliberals receives.
I see a Republican yesterday suggests paying for the reduced SS tax into next year by cutting the number of federal workers by 200,000.
Those 200,000 federal workers come from the 99% ranks and once again, the 99% are targeted by law makers.
Its not the uneven distribution of wealth between the 1 and 99%'s that the problem, its the heavy handed and inequitable regard lawmakers have for the 99% that's the problem.
For this past year I have enjoyed the extra takehome pay because of the reduced SS tax. But, I'm not buying not buying more stuff with it as the lawmakers have hoped. I've used it to pay down CC debt.
Nonetheless, I think its unwise to contribute less to the SS fund. It will only serve to shortchange the fund and leave it empty on down the road affecting SS claims. It'd be like me planning to save $100 each month for a year to pay for Christmas, but deferring the deposit each month instead for other expenses. Then come December, I have to borrow the money thereby increasing my debt.
I keep harping on this, but the Powell memo linked to by Silverback, illustrates why who holds the Whitehouse for the next 4 years is so important---SUPREME COURT. I'm not going to argue President Obama's accomplishments (or lack thereof in some minds), but can you honestly say that McCain would have given us Sotomayor or Kagan? How do you think appointments by President Newt or President Mitt will lean? Not in our favor, I guarantee it.
- it has accomplished a slogan.<<
It takes years for Republicans to drill slogans into America's mindset. They own the media to boot so they can repeat, repeat, repeat. They have huge resources of wealth to guide and promote a slogan-message and they have done it over and over via the media or think-tank institutions that train others to do it over and over.
Why does it take repetition? Because most times they're drilling in a message that is contrary to the actual interests of the targets. So, it must be said often. They must also attach other beliefs to their message so that it resonates with the common man even though it is not in the common man's interest.
Consider Lake Maumelle watershed. Koch-paid operatives are doing the message/slogan of property rights being trampled as opposed to regulating for a safe water supply. Just the bottom line tells a simpleton that if your water supply is contaminated and unsafe what's the value of property? For example, after the water pollution of Lake Hamilton in the 1970s by unregulated septic tanks and development lakeside properties took quite a dive in value. Then the Fed-EPA had to come in and solve a local problem, many resented it, property values around Lake Hamilton soared in the following decades. You didn't have to swim or ski around turds floating along the shoreline.
Whether it's bidnessmen as victims of government or Christians as victims of a secular, civil society, they drill daily in their sock-puppet game of find the pea under our numerous shells.
So, given the odds of never having the funding to repeat, indoctrinate and instill a slogan I would say Occupy has done well in a few short months.
"Only YOU can prevent forest fires."
The arc of history is on our side, the side of the people, the side of freedom, the side of human rights.
Tyrants always have money, power and boot-lickers who follow them, yet they always fall.
It is not the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning. Credit to someone for that.
"If increasing the taxes on the rich brings the federal deficit down from 1.5 trillion per year to 1.4 trillion, what good does it do"
...Which is why the deficit needs to be handled with a combination of meaningful cuts and revenue increases.
When 200,000 federal workers are laid off, revenue decreases.
When The House leaves for a break without FAA funding agreements resolved and 30 million a day in taxes are not collected - that's a revenue decrease. (In which case firing Congress would be a meaningful cut)
Highly profitable oil companies, the same ones who have testified before congress in the past they don't need tax incentive to find more oil, don't need tax breaks. This an example of a meaningful cut.
When the DoD plans to reduce military personnel, they don't need to simultaneously spend money advertising on NASCAR vehicles - this is an example of a meaningful cut.
on and on
eLwood - I'm not sure its even a good slogan. What does it mean? We, the Occupiers, are the self-proclaimed representatives of 99% of all Americans? That seems to be what they believe.
More importantly, so far they have failed to create a workable infrastructure for a sustainable political movement. They feel that lack of organization and ineffectiveness are virtues. The biggest debates seem to be about whether the general assembly meetings should happen every night, every other night or weekly. Well, most people can't personally attend the meetings every night, so they will be disenfranchised from the decision-making process. It doesn't really scale up as a workable process for people who have other responsibilities in life besides protest rallies.
The movement started out with considerable energy, but has lost a lot momentum since then. One of the Occupy Little Rock Facebook pages is rumored to be controlled by someone in Iowa. Some local Occupiers have made a decent technical effort at starting a local web site - but the traffic is very light, and the content is weak. The live video broadcasts and publication of general assembly proceedings have dwindled to nothing, because no one wants to watch hours of video of a dozen people sitting in the dark making inaudible speeches drowned out by freeway traffic. They have no leaders, no accountability, no coherent policy direction, etc. I don't see a legal entity in Arkansas to handle donations, so someone may have personal tax consequences for handling the money.
(Actually, there is a lone "Occupy Society, LTD." incorporated in Fort Smith. Their website - OccupySociety.org - seems to be about domain name speculation.)
So, not a great way to organize a political movement, but whatever.... Of course, organization and leadership aren't worth much if the leaders are dumb. Secure Arkansas was "well-organized", but Jeannie Burlsworth can't do simple math on a petition drive, so she wasted thousands of man-hours for her followers. Other groups should learn from her example of how NOT to run a movement.
I have to feel a little sympathy for the professional politicos who would like to harness all of that energy and channel into something productive, but the Occupier's high-risk tactics are fraught with peril. The politicians who might share some affinity are afraid to become too closely associated with them if the situation gets out of control. Who else has visited the camp besides Mark Darr?
http://www.occupylr.org/blog/
Today's entries include a call to action over Lake Maumelle.
The occupy movement has been and is a joke. Classic leftist tactics of violence and mayhem. Nobody cares about their blathering. 99% BS :-)
Yes, check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NftnCk87Qes…
Wow. Nice job liberals. At least a few of you offered answers to my questions this time. Funny as they were, they were in fact answers. So thanks. Another question that came to mind is this.
1.Would you guys be angry and mad about this ceo pay unless liberals in power and the media told you about it?
Seems to me the fear mongering by the left is the entire basis for them ever getting elected. Liberals such as Obama rarely run on their own plans. They are always going to look out for the little guy. They are going to make one group of Americans hate on another group. He says that people who have money should not earn another dime. They have made their wealth. Never mind that many inventions we love today (pc, macs, iphones, ipads) came along well after Gates and Jobs "made theirs". What if they had taken their ball and went home?
2. Why don't you guys get mad about Hollywood people and athletes making millions of dollars of off you supporting them?
Those 1% have everything they have because 99% consumers flock to their product. Why arent you mad when a Kardashian becomes famous for filming herself have sex or make a mockery of marriage?
The liberal has run for years on the basis of helping the little guy. yet, they take millions in campaign money and hire their worthless interns to high paying gigs. Why are these politicians raising millions for a job that pays $200K? Because they help themselves to millions of dollars worth of contacts through that job. Our congress and President accepting money from the same people they blast is the number one problem that I see. Yet somehow, liberals convince other liberals that CEO's are the bad guys. The companies that hire you and gives you the opportunity to afford things is life is the bad guy. Liberals want to rip away opportunity while conservatives want to preserve it. Are there bad cases with wealth and money? Sure, but there are much worse case scenarios in congress.
BlueFriction you mean "Classic rightwing tactics of violence and mayhem". Now close your whore mouth and wipe off your chin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4
I am liberal democrat, but I see a lot Republican Bashing on this site that is unfair and unwarranted. We have Mike Beebe, a Democrat who was elected with a Democrat majority legislature as was Dustin McDaniel. Beebe served as AG prior to being elected Governor. Although both politicians have had every opportunity to pass laws to protect Arkansans, they will not take meaningful measures to hold Banks accountable for fraud. In contrast, in Nevada, they have a real attorney general by the name of Catherine Cortez Masto who pushed for a law making robo signing and falsification of foreclosure documents a criminal offense. After this practice was criminalized in Nevado, Ms. Catherine Cortez Masto put banks on notice and gave them one warning. When the law was violated, criminal charges were filed. One notary who was a witness, Ms. Tracy Lawrence committed suicide prior to her court appearance. Criminal charges for foreclosure fraud are pending against Gary Trafford and Gerri Sheppard of Lender Processing Services in Nevada. The reason we do not have such a law in Arkansas, is that this female AG in Nevada, appears to have more balls than the men in Arkansas, McDaniel and Beebe who are supposed to be providing for the general welfare of Arkansans. Considering this, I see no reason why I would want Dustin McDaniel as governor and every reason to support Mike Ross, or another suitable opponent. By the way, did McDaniel ever pay his $6000 back for the video? Probably not. Will Beebe do anything about it, probably not. Some of you want to bash Republicans and completely ignore those who have had the power to make a difference and have not done so. I do not believe this is a Democrat-Republican issue. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts Absolutely.
Hopefully it brought a little attention to police militarization, but I wouldn't count on much else.
MarkKyle64 "BlueFriction you mean "Classic rightwing tactics of violence and mayhem". Now close your whore mouth and wipe off your chin."
Thank you for making my point MarkKyle64. Spot on.
nonan, democrats get beat up plenty on this blog. I doubt the first 4 words of your comment.
@notanonymous
A liberal Democrat would not say "Democrat majority legislature." They would say "DemocratIC majority legislature."
Right wingers do this all the time, because of their conditioning by the media they watch and listen to. They don't know the difference between a noun, Democrat, and an adjective, Democratic. It can be ignorance, but it's usually a dig. It puts all conversations into a lack of basic respect mode by the right wingers, deliberately trying to put down anyone that is not a right winger, showing a total lack of good faith and a huge amount of sleaziness.
I appreciate your viewpoint rablib and perspective. While I may not agree with all comments or viewpoints posted on these forums, I defend the right of everyone to say and express their viewpoint.
I want to add to my above remark wherein I discuss mortgage fraud and express my supreme disappointment with those that have had the power to make a difference and have not done so. Recently I and another family member considered a mutual acquaintance who would be considered a conservative Republican, a professional, and certainly a man of intelligence with whom we have quite lively discussions on various political issues. We remarked that our friend was certainly a man of integrity, a person who would vigorously oppose any kind of fraud, and a person who would likely favor criminal penalties such as those in Nevada for mortgage fraud. Regardless of party, we must ensure that American values consist of honesty and integrity so that we do not have the best government that can be bought and paid for. The Democratic party in Arkansas is in no shape divorced from big business, big banks, insurance companies, the Nursing Home Lobby, and the list goes on and on. Look at who gave money to the candidates. Catering to special interests has served as a catalyst to fuel the fires of fraud. It took years to pass the "truth in caller id act." US Fidelis, a company with an "F" Better Business Bureau rating operated in the open in Missouri for months making illegal Robo Calls to people on the do not call list and to most of us with no repercussions. There are big banks in Arkansas making payday loans. Our Attorney General could push for criminal penalties for such crimes however, he is working on a "get out of jail free" pass for people who have money and power, and who also took government money, and are implicated in foreclosure fraud.
More by Author
-
Tonight's the night for an open line
Over to you at midweek. Final notes: * NO, NO, A THOUSAND TIMES NO: An academic calls for public subsidies of news outlets.
- Apr 11, 2012
-
Friday night line
It's done. Slow day.
- May 11, 2012
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: Judge orders new trial in $1 million dollar lottery ticket dispute
Proves the adage that nothing is free, nothing is simple.
- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: Surgeon general strikes deal on disturbance charges
This whole mess stinks.
- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: Yarnell's scooping again; reveals flavor list
I couldn't agree more! But the flavor I love the most is Death by Chocolate!…
- on May 25, 2012
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Slideshows
-
Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
