14 replies to this topic

[spirograph]

we are getting very little coverage in the UK, so basically, whats going on? is it as small as the media is making it out to be?

[bassintom]

Murkans are pissed at Obama and are rising up.....Haha..they were at the bank in my town protesting something or other. I told them I think they got the wrong instructions and should go to Washington D.C NOT! Washington, N.J.(my town). They didn't think that was funny. I thought it was funny.

[spirograph]

Murkans are pissed at Obama and are rising up.....Haha..they were at the bank in my town protesting something or other. I told them I think they got the wrong instructions and should go to Washington D.C NOT! Washington, N.J.(my town). They didn't think that was funny. I thought it was funny.

yea i think the uprising is probly a bit overdue.
and i think thats funny! even if they didnt.
maybe they have been smoking the wrong cigs?!?

[bassintom]

yea i think the uprising is probly a bit overdue.
and i think thats funny! even if they didnt.
maybe they have been smoking the wrong cigs?!?

Seriously, I'm not sure why they're protesting. When reporters ask them why they are there, each person gives a differnt reason. Some don't even have a reason, they're there for the party. Some seem to just want to "stick it to the man" whatever that means. If it was the Tea Party I'm sure it would be plastered all over the news about how violent they are. Since from what I understand, George Soros is putting up big bucks backing whatever it is they're protesting the media is not really jumping on this. I'm not here to argue about this, I'm only saying what I heard. Politics and religion never get on good in guitar forums. My 2 cents....

[spirograph]

dont see why we cant argue, constructively. i think its a general protest against the federal reserve, which i would be supporting but i cant afford to be in new york anyway. i think everyone can see that the banks are totally running the show these days (when didnt they?!?), and the rich/poor divide has been getting wider and wider for a long time now. i guess going straight to the source of the problems is a good idea. and i think people can see that it aint worth voting about it anyway, i mean didnt obama get in office on all his monetary policies, which havent really helped anyway? theres certainly a lot of poor and angry people around, in england we had a bit of rioting recently, that was triggered by the police shooting an innocent man (they can never shoot the right guy, the uk armed police - see jean-charles de'menezes), but it didnt turn into the full-on revolution that some thought it would.

[Richie]

I've been following The Young Turks coverage of it, which seems to be the only honest account of what's actually happening. CNN and Fox have both been simply trying to mock the protestors, but then CNN are bought and Fox are just a massive right wing propaganda machine.

The protest is essentially over, as spirograph touched on, how Wall Street banks can buy politicians, and are thus able to control the US government and rig the game so that the richest percentile pay next to nothing in taxes while earning vastly more than the other 99% of the country. Though obviously it's a bit more in-depth than that.

The official Occupy Wall Street declaration is as follows:

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*
To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

[spirograph]

i think its fair to say that the mainstream media has a vested interest in keeping the world as it is, regarding corporate ownership of everything. so its not surprising they are trying to play it down - they dont want more people to catch on to how close to slavery the current economic climate (i hate those words) is beginning to look. anyone seen a documentary called Foxed Out?

[polychorus100]

its not as cool as it seem, this inst some 1960s ####, it trying to be that but its failing hard, doesnt have a true message, doesnt have a soul behind it

[spirograph]

its not as cool as it seem, this inst some 1960s ####, it trying to be that but its failing hard, doesnt have a true message, doesnt have a soul behind it

youre right, its not cool at all. it never should have come to this. i think the true message is one of dissatisfaction with our representitives, for not representing us properly. as for soul, id say there are/is a lot of soul. the political movement of the 60s was crap anyway - what did it really achieve? if they had achieved much, i doubt this occupy thing would be happenning now.

[Richie]

its not as cool as it seem, this inst some 1960s ####, it trying to be that but its failing hard, doesnt have a true message, doesnt have a soul behind it

What the fresh fvck are you talking about? The message is so abundantly clear it's blinding.

The richest 1% of the population, not just in America but in the whole world, control over 40% of the overall wealth. On top of that they continue to buy politicians and lobbyists to affect policy such as corporate regulation and taxes so that that top percentile pay far less in taxes than the rest of us, and on top of that in the case of major corporations are able to get away with gross negligence of both their employees and the environment, cutting corners in the name of saving a few extra dollars. Koch Industries pay the regulators to turn a blind eye to them dumping toxic waste, making backdoor deals with the Iranian government and funding institutionalised racism within schools. GOP candidate Herman Cain is on their payroll. Bank of America and Goldmann Sachs sold thousands of people mortgages that they knew they couldn't afford so that the government would have to bail them out, and made bets on share prices using tax payer money that wasn't theirs. Banking executives get millions in bonuses every year for effectively gambling away the country's money and the government is entirely complicit.

Banks and corporations OWN the American government. This is NOT a fvcking secret. And then they pay disingenuous cvnts like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh and Erin Burnett to tell morons like you that the protestors "don't know what they're protesting against" and that they're "disorganised" and "jobless hippies". And you BELIEVE them! I despair, I really do.

The people in the Occupy movement aren't trying to be cool, they're trying to effect political change and put power back into the hands of the people. They're being demonised by the media and beaten by police (an Iraq war veteran was shot in the head with a teargas canister by a cop in Oakland last week) for something that they, and I, and you SHOULD, believe is worth fighting for. This is the most important social and activist movement in years and the full extent of your input is "booooo it's not like the 60s". What are you, 15? Shut the hell up.

[Richie]

[polychorus100]

whoa........... sorry for the comment yesterday, im deeply sorry if that affended you, forgive me. but hear me out dear friend. i just feel that you cant trust any part of this goverment. on both sides, evil repulicans and crazy democrats, all who just want to win elections and dont actually give a crap about the future of this country. i just feel we need a more soild movement, and yes im am only teenager (17) but as a musician and an artist i feel like our society has become trash hole of lies. our culture is more worried about kim kardashin then losing their social sercurites,liberties, and their freedoms and all the music is about getting ####ed and parting with money that people honestly dont have, that frustrates me.... but forgive me for the comments im post ingnorace but i feel our generation has nothing to live for, it needs hope and understanding. the protesting is good , but it has to really push the limits to change something.....

[Richie]

Right. Well I apologise for being hostile. BUT, to be perfectly honest you haven't really said anything that anyone in the movement would particularly disagree with; both political parties are indeed corrupt, that's near enough the point of the whole thing.

Understand that the goal of the protestors is not to bring a whole other political agenda to the table, merely fix the broken parts of the system. That's to say, they want measures taken to pass new legislation that will prevent banks and large corporations from giving politicians "donations" in order to affect policy in their favour. At the moment there are Wall Street banks like Bank of America and Goldmann Sachs, oil companies like Koch Industries, defence contractors like Halliburton and pharmaceutical companies who all have lobbyists, both Republican and Democrat, as well as the news media like Fox, CNN and MSNBC, and in some areas they even have the police, in their back pockets, rigging the game so that they get richer while the remaining 99% of the population get crushed financially.

When corporations run the state, you have fascism.

And ultimately, like I say, if you agree and aren't happy with the system, you can't sit there saying "there needs to be change" and not doing anything about it. So far the protestors continue to do all they can in terms of public demonstration, peaceful protest, general strikes, networking and union action. Resorting to violence would damage the cause and wouldn't solve anything. What they're doing may work, it may fail, but it's everything we can do to be heard so if you don't like the status quo, I suggest you either make yourself a sign and join them, or keep your naive pessimism to yourself.

For the record by the way I'll be joining the Occupy groups in London as soon as I can afford the travel costs.

[spirograph]

thank you ritchie, i was holding back a little bit cos im fairly new round these parts, and iv got a pretty cold response to even posting such a topic, but im glad im not the only person who thinks the world is run by morons. actually, thats not right, theyre very clever, and have managed to hypnotise most people into believing the lies that the bbc, nbc etc etc feed to us.
theyre doing it on every level too. dunno who here has read 1984 by george orwell, but in that book, its saying how if the language we use is diminished, therangeof thought open to us is diminished also. language and semantics is a very big factor in influencing ppls opinions (most ppl dont have one, they repeat what the telly tells em)

a good example... "the erosion of civil liberties" is a phrase used a lot in mainstream media. but the problem is that it implies that its a natural progression, and that its inevitable - which it isnt. its a man-made design that takes away our liberties.

anyway, i could type about this stuff all night, so ill stop for now.
peace and love to you all.

[thehiddenjagawag]

My sister went to a couple of these protests, she went to the ones in San Fran