Occupy Wall Street

[David Craik]

My idiot brother in law has some "Occupy" link in his PS3 profile comment. Here is a guy that dropped out of school and has been doing drugs and digging swimming pools his whole life with a 9th grade education. It seems to me that many of these people involved were professional losers long before the economy tanked. Wall Street had nothing to do with their lot in life. As he was just laid off, he will have lots of time to protest I guess.

Though going global, this "movement" has no central leadership and mixed goals. If they had a Gandhi or an MLK; and a clear, consise, singular objective then it would have a hope of having any effect. I don't ever recall a more mindless and scatterbrained protest, perhaps someone else does. Crapping on police cars and being a general nuisance is not going to improve anything or achieve anything.

[Don Roley]

I do not have religious faith, so could someone help me out here.

I am seeing a lot of stuff referencing Christianity and how we as a Christian nation are supposed to help those less fortunate.

My understanding of Christianity was always that Christians were supposed to give from their own money to help others to show their devotion to God and show mercy. When did it become Christian to force others to give?

[Erik]

When did it become Christian to force others to give?

That's a medieval church invention, I think....

[Abbax8]

I do not have religious faith, so could someone help me out here.

I am seeing a lot of stuff referencing Christianity and how we as a Christian nation are supposed to help those less fortunate.

My understanding of Christianity was always that Christians were supposed to give from their own money to help others to show their devotion to God and show mercy. When did it become Christian to force others to give?

Your interpretation is right Don, at least according to my understanding. However, there are over 30,000 different Christian sects currently and each interprets scripture differently. Social Justice has become a code word for tax payer funded charity. When money is extorted from you as in taxes there is nothing charitable about it even if some of the money ends up helping the needy.

Dennis

[Don Roley]

http://news.yahoo.com/why-nazis-comm...191900304.html

[Jonathan Randall]

I just don't see anything good coming out of this. The effective unemployment rate is more than double the official rate of 9.1% and many of the decent paying jobs have gone overseas and will not be returning. You have two sides with legitimate grievances - "The Tea Party" with their complaints of confiscatory taxation and a Federal Government out of control, and you have, if not the current "Occupy Wall Street" protestors, the legions of unemployed, underemployed, foreclosed upon, etc. who see the gross corruption within the financial and governmental sectors. These two will clash, the powers-that-be will clash with both; no one in power wants to see their fiefdom scaled back, their ability to spend promiscuously cutrailed, by the Tea Partiers or anyone else, and too many politicians have a vested interest in the corrupt financial/banking/Federal Reserve System, etc. to allow it to be upset without a serious, and even violent, fight.

I know many don't believe me, and I probably went too far when I talked about unrest in the U.S. previously, but I seriously do not see good things down the road for this country: the fundamentals are bad in too many areas, the country too polarized, the citizenry too soft overall, and too lacking in the basic survival skills of those of the period of 1929-1945, etc. to handle seriously rough times.

[Abbax8]

I am actually optimistic about the future of our country. Tough times are here and times will tougher before they get better. The radicals of OWS are stirring the pot like they always do, hoping they can bring about change to their liking. The powers behind these masses do have a plan and hope to reach critical mass with enough protests, so that the majority of the people will give them what they want.

They are misreading the majority of American Citizens in my opinion. The Tea Party Peole will not give in. Nor will the people who are not Tea Partiers but who generally agree with their stance. These people are busy going to work and taking care of their family like the Tea Party but do not show up for rallies, you could say I'm in this group. Then there are huge a number of young people who look at the OWS crowd and say, take a bath and get a damn job. I'm talking about kids from 18 to 26 who are working and can see right through the B.S. complaints of these whiners. No - the USA is not going down, indeed when the smoke finally clears we might be a more sane nation than before.

Along the way we need to prosecute the Bankers, Political Activists, Politicians and Corporate Fatcats who have broke the law.

Dennis

[TonyU]

I am actually optimistic about the future of our country.

Dennis

I wish I had the same positive outlook, but I don't.

[Erik]

I am actually optimistic about the future of our country. Tough times are here and times will tougher before they get better. ...No - the USA is not going down, indeed when the smoke finally clears we might be a more sane nation than before.

I hope to God you're right. I'd be delighted to hear you tell Tony and me "Oh ye of little faith, I told you so!"

I'm concerned that the ride will be very, very rough. I don't want to be like those born at just the right time to die off during the Great Depression without seeing the recovery. Still, so long as it recovers for my kid(s) I don't have to know it.

Along the way we need to prosecute the Bankers, Political Activists, Politicians and Corporate Fatcats who have broken the law.

YES. But they're like a firmly entrenched mafia. I don't see it happening. Still, perhaps we get a candidate who, influenced by a bunch of lazy, stoned OW protesters, does actually go after them. That would be an interesting irony.

[Ramirez]

Count me in with Tony and Erik.

I was just looking at the leverage level of European banks last night, some of them are up to 50 times capital. Lehman IIRC was just 12 times when it failed.

Global finance is so interconnected these days that I just can't see how the US (or Canada) can escape the consequences of global problems.

In the past two days, Sunlife financial reported 610 million dollar loss, Goldman Sachs 400 million, I would say all due to the problems in Europe.

Add to that no political will to regulate derivatives or rein in the financial sector.

Somehow economies have to be put back on a manufacturing basis, companies producing real value and wealth, not based on the giant casino that the financial sector is now.

[Erik]

The adjustment period is going to hurt....

[Webmaster]

President Obama throws his support behind the occupying idiots...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...de_598251.html

I know that everyone has heard the saying, "Those that forget history are bound to repeat it"? Well history is in the works now. In the late 60's, the Dems threw their support behind the anti-war protestors. What did that give us? A landslide victory for Richard Nixon who ran on a platform of "law and order". Not that Nixon turned out to be "Mr. Law n Order", but it shows that American's don't want to get behind a bunch of slimy stinky maggot infested hippie types and instead prefer order rather than chaos.

[Webmaster]

Hmm, it would seem that the Dems supporters on Wall Street aren't very happy with their party's support of the Occupy Idiots.

Wall Street to Dems: you can't have it both ways

[Abbax8]

I am optimistic, BUT, there is going to be much pain. worse than now. But it will be like labor pains for a woman who endures them then is blessed with a wonderful gift. Our country ( and others) has strayed to far from the principles that make it strong, Individualism, Charity, Frugality, Honor, a Strong Work Ethic . At this point in time there are beacons of hope and good examples to follow, but too many are looking for freebies and chasing the latest gizmo. I see bank failures, higher unemployment, a severe monetary crisis, riots and upheaval. Yes, much worse than this unless people, governments and companies get their act together in every way. By every way I mean no more worrying only about profits, no more being a totally consumer driven society, no more ignoring those truly in need, no more acceptance of junk science, political correctness and the bad policies that come from them. I see the country as a whole returning to a more family centered, church centered way of life. Individuals will still have total freedom in their personal beliefs but I believe the pendulum will swing back to where more than most will say their faith is important to them and I believe in the West that faith will Judeo-Christian in nature.

Dennis

[Erik]

So, interesting article on the radio today. Reporter went to survey the Occupy Santa Rosa group (about an hour outside San Francisco, where my favorite aunt lives, and in California's wine country).

She said she has no idea why the press is describing these protestors as aimless dirtbags (my word) as these people were teachers, contractors who had never been to a protest before, store owners, etc., and they were pretty clear about what they want.

As much as I hate hippies, I think we (myself included) are being a bit one-sided in this thread and should look a little harder for some counter-examples. Just my two cents on this.

[Webmaster]

Democrat Steve Wynn goes on a big rant. Not his first one either, but he's calling it as he sees it. Our government is what is dragging down the economy and demonizing anyone that is successful.

http://www.businessinsider.com/steve...rnment-2011-10

[Jonathan Randall]

Well, it looks like Alec Baldwin is going to add his sleaze power to the movement:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/19/politi...eet/index.html

[Jonathan Randall]

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day:

http://www.infowars.com/state-depart...cupy-movement/

Zbigniew Brzezinski and George Soros are involved in the ICG. Surprise, surprise; they are the ones who turned the Dark Horse candidate, junior Senator Obama, into President-Elect Obama.

[David Craik]

She said she has no idea why the press is describing these protestors as aimless dirtbags (my word) as these people were teachers, contractors who had never been to a protest before, store owners, etc., and they were pretty clear about what they want.

And did the reporter say specifically what it is they want, Erik? I was reading an interview in the New York Post with a guy occupying Zuccotti Park - a dude working on his PhD in English, no less - and even he couldn't elucidate his goal very well. He finally said something like "he just wants the world to be more just". Well, that's special. Who would have thought all we had to do to make the world just is sit in a park and take up space? A lot of these people seem quite divorced from reality.

We have a group "occupying" the state capitol in Columbia. They're picketing a largely empty building - they don't go back in session til January.

[TonyU]

When I was unemplyed many years ago I didn't have time to sit around. I pounded the sidewalk for hours looking for a job. I sure as hell wouldn't have had time to sit around bitching because I was unemployed and blame everyone else for it.
As bad as the economy is there are jobs out there. Might not be the glamorous job they expect but it's a job. The problem is we live in a society of entitlement.
Case in point. Story.