Occupy

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Jonah Goldberg has an interesting article up on the National Review titled, OWS Needs a Republican President where he cites Immortal Technique, makes a few good points, and concludes voting Republican is a suitable punishment for the Democrats.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

yesssssssssssss I can't wait to see what signs santacon brings


also,





something I've been thinking about


if I could just continue that starry-eyed optimistic chord for a moment:


Even after this thing ends, there will be a global brotherhood of occupiers.

      &
If this protest lasts through the winter,
the campers will have become the
best of friends forever.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I think the best thing the Occupy movement could do is avoid standing behind a clearly stated goal or demand. The reason the press and politicians are so vocal about mocking/decrying them for their lack of a message is that lack is extremely threatening, in that it opens the movement to anyone who's dissatisfied. Which is nearly everyone.

THIS.

The more, the merrier. 

[trix]

I am almost ready to give up on this whole Occupy thing.  Between the tactics used by the opposition to paint us all as fools, and the willingness of so many extremists that have attached themselves and their agendas to the cause to grab all of the media attention and use it to make us all look like fools and clowns, I honestly don't see how those of us that are not there just to join the crowd and fight with cops can push past all of the bullshit.

I've seen people blatantly start fights with the police, get arrested as they should, and watched the vast majority of the occupy crowd surrounding them scream FUCK THE POLICE and POLICE BRUTALITY and all other sorts of ridiculous bullshit at them for it.  I have no doubt that at many of these things such as Oakland the police overstepped their authority, but when people scream POLICE BRUTALITY at every instance of the police doing their job, it makes legitimate claims go unnoticed, and makes the movement as a whole look retarded.

There are a lot more things I've been seeing that cause me to feel this way as well, but the bottom line is, the incredible amount of stupid people with all the attention in the Occupy Movement are making me question my own support of what is, underneath the BS, a worthy cause.

Thoughts?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am almost ready to give up on this whole Occupy thing.  Between the tactics used by the opposition to paint us all as fools, and the willingness of so many extremists that have attached themselves and their agendas to the cause to grab all of the media attention and use it to make us all look like fools and clowns, I honestly don't see how those of us that are not there just to join the crowd and fight with cops can push past all of the bullshit.

I've seen people blatantly start fights with the police, get arrested as they should, and watched the vast majority of the occupy crowd surrounding them scream FUCK THE POLICE and POLICE BRUTALITY and all other sorts of ridiculous bullshit at them for it.  I have no doubt that at many of these things such as Oakland the police overstepped their authority, but when people scream POLICE BRUTALITY at every instance of the police doing their job, it makes legitimate claims go unnoticed, and makes the movement as a whole look retarded.

There are a lot more things I've been seeing that cause me to feel this way as well, but the bottom line is, the incredible amount of stupid people with all the attention in the Occupy Movement are making me question my own support of what is, underneath the BS, a worthy cause.

Thoughts?

Keep in mind that each city's version of Occupy has a different basic nature, and that you can simply ignore your city's main encampment and organize on your own.

[The Wizard Joseph]

I am almost ready to give up on this whole Occupy thing.  Between the tactics used by the opposition to paint us all as fools, and the willingness of so many extremists that have attached themselves and their agendas to the cause to grab all of the media attention and use it to make us all look like fools and clowns, I honestly don't see how those of us that are not there just to join the crowd and fight with cops can push past all of the bullshit.

I've seen people blatantly start fights with the police, get arrested as they should, and watched the vast majority of the occupy crowd surrounding them scream FUCK THE POLICE and POLICE BRUTALITY and all other sorts of ridiculous bullshit at them for it.  I have no doubt that at many of these things such as Oakland the police overstepped their authority, but when people scream POLICE BRUTALITY at every instance of the police doing their job, it makes legitimate claims go unnoticed, and makes the movement as a whole look retarded.

There are a lot more things I've been seeing that cause me to feel this way as well, but the bottom line is, the incredible amount of stupid people with all the attention in the Occupy Movement are making me question my own support of what is, underneath the BS, a worthy cause.

Thoughts?

A few Trix.

Several of the organizers (or at least the more organized Occupiers) that I spoke to were consistently voicing concerns about the image of the movement and whether it would be taken seriously or not.  This seems to be a thememe running all over the movement.  I think that this may be the least of things that the Occupiers need to focus on.  All the Occupiers need to do for now is persist, and recruit.  Let the little brush-fires and embarrassing stories happen. They will happen no matter what. The appearance of incompetence can be an incredible asset if backed up by actual resolve and competence.  To me this is best demonstrated by sheer durability right now.  If the Occupy Movement comes out of this winter intact I believe it will grow much stronger again over the spring.

Keep in mind that each city's version of Occupy has a different basic nature, and that you can simply ignore your city's main encampment and organize on your own.

Listen to what Nigel's saying here Trix.  This means that even if a sector where something truly stupid and counter-productive happened were disbanded for some reason there's still the ability to re-assemble, and choose the ground on which to do so.  It's Sun Tzu's wet dream.  The Occupy Movement is formless, draws it's resources from it's environment, and wins without fighting.  Let the police lay siege and the media play spin the battle.  The resources used in these shenanigans vastly outweigh the costs to the Occupiers in terms of cash.  The primary cost to the Occupiers involves creativity and determination.  These are difficult to purchase.

I'm not going to encourage you to "Fight the good fight, RAHH!"  There are an unlimited number of idiots in the world.  If you feel frustrated by what you see then I'd say take a break and focus on what you need to for your life.  If they're gonna win this they'll still be there when you are ready to get back into itRep for Eris and start some shit. 

[Laughin Jude]

Notes From Jamison Square

Version with pics and links here.

There were 27 arrests at Jamison Square in Portland's Pearl District last night. Yours truly wasn't one of them, but I did spend some time at the park before the police moved in. Here's my understanding of what happened.

A splinter group (I'm told 13 individuals strong at the beginning), perhaps frustrated at a perceived lack of action on behalf of the greater Occupy Portland movement, decided to take up residence in a new location: Jamison Square, a small park in the Pearl District of northwest Portland. This was the major topic of discussion at the general assembly last night, and after talking over the options, a spur-of-the-moment consensus was reached at around 9pm: we would move the GA to Jamison Square so the splinter group could be part of the discussion and add their voices to any conversation we had about the matter.

The mainstream news vans were already parked along the south edge of Jamison Square when I got there, perched like vultures waiting for the corpses to drop. The police seemed to enforce a bit of a double-standard once the 12:01am curfew passed–the mainstream media was allowed (for a time) to remain in Jamison Square proper, while members of the independent media, including the official Occupy Portland livestream, were told they had to stand behind a line of trees; the combination of darkness and distance made it harder to make out what was happening in the park over the low definition live feed from the webcam. "Shenanigans," I heard the cameraman from the live feed say, and I had to agree.

Eventually the mainstream media was forced to move back as well, and there was some consternation over the fact that they turned off their lights (and possibly cameras) as the police began to bring in reinforcements around 12:30am. Was this a conscious decision on the various news channels' parts to enforce media censorship, or simple conservation of electricity in the face of needing energy for the hours of what was coming? It's hard to say, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way and made me a bit suspicious. The majority of the mainstream media has been pretty poor at keeping objectivity in their reporting of the Occupy movement thus far, and I'm not willing at this point to cut them much slack.

The police, too, had already made their presence felt by the time I arrived at Jamison Square. There were mounted police (who, let's face it, serve little purpose at a function like this outside their use for propaganda and intimidation) and park rangers. The livestream caught footage of a sniper on a rooftop at one point, though apparently s/he moved either down or out of sight as the evening waned. Portland mayor Sam Adams made an appearance just a bit after the 12am curfew, though he claimed he was only present to observe and had little to do with the decision to break up the protest (though if it wasn't his decision, whose was it?). A few protestors made cursory attempts to speak with the police and attempt to dissuade them from making arrests, citing the refusal of other officers to arrest protestors at Occupy Albany, though these arguments fell on ears that were, if not deaf, apparently uninterested.

At about 12:50am, a loud and obviously inebriated man entered the park and began shouting at the protestors, telling them that they were breaking the law. It didn't seem to occur to him that he was not only breaking the 12am curfew but also drunk and disorderly. I have no idea whether the police bothered to arrest him or not; they may have saved all the room in their squad cars for the people trying to exercise their First Amendment rights.

For their parts, the protestors walked and chanted but offered no resistance to arrest when the police cruisers and mounted officers moved in a few minutes after 1am. "We're going to have to be like Gandhi going Super Saiyan," I'd heard one of the protestors say earlier, and while I'm not sure I'd make the comparison based on what happened last night, per usual, the Occupy movement held up its end of the non-violence bargain. Perhaps thinking on the recent example of the police violence against Occupy Oakland, the state response didn't seem particularly brutal (beyond the legalized-kidnapping-and-caging-of-a-human-being-like-an-animal-under-threat-of-legalized-assault that passes for arrest), but word is they did leave horse dung all over the park.

I've written a bit before about the search for meaning in this movement and the importance that symbols will have to Occupy as the movement grows. I saw both factors at work here, as well as another that I've been meaning to write more on–the idea of the Occupy movement as a social networking platform in the offline world, a place where people can come together to have rational, adult discussions about why and how America has crashed and burned so spectacularly over the course of the past few decades (or, one could argue from a broader historical perspective, century). Was last night's occupation of Jamison Square meaningful to the movement as a whole? I can't say that it was from my own perspective, at least not in an immediate sense, but I understand the need that other Occupiers feel for a symbolic victory.

There may be a sense that Occupy Portland has stagnated a bit the past few weeks, and talking to people at both the GA and the square last night left me with the impression that people are ready to do something besides sit in meetings and hold marches. It says a lot to me about the dedication and self-control of the Occupiers that they held a peaceful demonstration last night in the face of that frustration; that said, I'm not sure walking in circles in the dark and letting the police put your fingerprints in a database is the "something" that needs to be done. Those who were arrested have my support–I'm just not sure that this was the symbol we needed at the moment. It's important to let the world know this movement has teeth, yes, but let's choose where, when and how we bite with a taste for the meal still to come instead of filling up on empty calories.

[Bruno]

For the second night in a row, protesters in Nashville were arrested and immediately released by a night court judge.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2011/10/29/night-court-magistrate-throws-the-book-at-haslam-troopers-over-occupy-nashville-arrests

Night Court Magistrate Throws the Book at Haslam, Troopers Over Occupy Nashville Arrests
Posted by Jim Ridley on Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 4:47 AM

"It's not every day you get to see a night court magistrate smack down the governor of Tennessee," a legal observer said outside the Metro Courthouse at 2:30 a.m. today, as fog shrouded downtown in mist.

Yet that's what happened in the early morning hours, as Metro Night Court Judge Tom Nelson told the troopers who arrested 25 peaceful Occupy Nashville protesters at midnight on Legislative Plaza — along with Scene reporter Jonathan Meador, who was attempting to get off the plaza when he was cuffed and hauled off — that the curfew being enforced at the Capitol had no constitutional grounds whatsoever.

"I have reviewed the regulations of the state of Tennessee, and I can find no authority anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza," Judge Nelson told a grimacing trooper, before ordering the immediate release of everyone arrested.

Some 30 additional protesters greeted those released with cheers and chants of "This is how democracy works!" They were last seen at 4 a.m. marching victoriously up Deaderick Street — back to Legislative Plaza.

Meador, meanwhile, greeted news of his imminent release with a tweet from custody: "Can I go home now?" His request of a ride home from Gov. Haslam for the inconvenience was met with silence.

[BadBeast]

Seems to be kicking right off in NYC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v-26TERHsmA#!

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Here it is gentlemen, the official right wing response to this:

http://the53.tumblr.com/

Apparently 53% of the country are rugged individualists who are being leeched off of by the other 47%.

[Laughin Jude]

I am up to my eyeballs in debt trying to keep my head above water because the system is stacked against me by the sociopaths at the top and I see nothing wrong with this: I am the 53%!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am up to my eyeballs in debt trying to keep my head above water because the system is stacked against me by the sociopaths at the top and I see nothing wrong with this: I am the 53%!

[the last yatto]

only on page six but I've rather enjoyed occupt seattle, offering support to their nightly general assemblys. While the mayor gets it, he off course is merely just trying to get relected when Nickles runs again next time. We just moved up to the college so I've been able to visit the internets again. To counter the influnce of Zeistards (venus project is so pagan ) who seem to be on a serious destrustive trip, I made an erisian working group so my team might be visiting this thread.

I've been thinking of quitting my job and moving to port townsend & starting a church with my retirement check. Anyways a lot on the forum to catch up on.

[BadBeast]

I've been thinking of quitting my job and moving to port townsend & starting a church with my retirement check. Anyways a lot on the forum to catch up on.

A Church? Are you now washed in the blood of the Lamb, Pastor Yatto? 

[Kai]

I've been thinking of quitting my job and moving to port townsend & starting a church with my retirement check. Anyways a lot on the forum to catch up on.

A Church? Are you now washed in the blood of the Lamb, Pastor Yatto? 

I think he was referring to a Discordian church, not one of the Christian mythology.