The "Occupy" Movement

[Danjanou]

Maybe the infantry in WInnipeg should do their winter indoc in the park with the protestors??

Just a thought.... >

now that I'd pay to see  >

 

[Fishbone Jones]

 

[cupper]

That's gonna make the whole human megaphone thing a little difficult.

"I BELIEVE...."

"WOOF WOOFWOOF...."

 

[OldSolduer]

We had about 50 people occupy my house on November 11th - a well behaved crowd they were.
;D

 

[jollyjacktar]

And I'll bet they all smelled good and most if not all were gainfully employed.

 

[OldSolduer]

And I'll bet they all smelled good and most if not all were gainfully employed.

Yes that is true of everyone of them. For the life of me I can't remember what we were protesting against.......

 

[jollyjacktar]

The high cost of alcohol?

 

[OldSolduer]

The high cost of alcohol?

That's how it started but after a few drinks that all went away -

 

[mariomike]

EMT Assaulted at Occupy Wall Street: 

MYFOXNY.COM - A wild scuffle at Zuccotti Park early Thursday morning ended with an Occupy Wall Street protester under arrest for assault and an FDNY EMT in the hospital.

Officers and EMTs were called to the park for a report of a disturbed person. While trying to approach 20-year-old Joshua Ehrenberg, sources tell Fox 5 that other protesters locked their arms and legs to stop Ehrenberg from being loaded into an ambulance.:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/ows-incident-sends-emt-to-hospital-20111110-lgf

 

[Edward Campbell]

Here is good "connect the dots" summary, by Gwyn Morgan,* reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/gwyn-morgan/why-big-spending-governments-are-on-the-brink/article2234985/

Why big-spending governments are on the brink

GWYN MORGAN
From Monday's Globe and Mail

Last updated Monday, Nov. 14, 2011

My past week began with a speech at a Western Canadian university, followed by business meetings in Montreal where I walked past an Occupy protest encampment. Meanwhile, the Greek disease threatened to spread from Athens to Rome, bringing economic Armageddon to the entire euro zone. It struck me that these seemingly disconnected events are intrinsically related. Here’s how.

At the university, I spoke to an audience that included vice-presidents, deans, professors and representatives of the student’s union. My theme was two-fold. First, undergraduate teaching quality is dismal, an inevitable result of a systemic misalignment wherein professor recruitment, tenure and compensation decisions are dominated by research credentials rather than teaching performance. Second, universities are failing to allocate precious taxpayer resources to faculties that graduate students with the knowledge and skills needed by our country.

Education faculties, for example, continue to churn out large numbers of teachers even as schools close due to lower birth rates, driving the unemployment rate for teaching graduates to more than 60 per cent. And large numbers of qualified applicants are turned away from medical schools due to “lack of capacity,” while millions of Canadians can’t find a family doctor.

My critique of teaching quality was met with calm denial, but the call for reallocation of resources to programs in demand generated real indignation. In response to statistics showing the majority of arts graduates either end up in low skill-level jobs, I was told that “there’s more to getting an education than turning out workers for corporations” (as if my advocacy of programs focused on where the jobs are were part of some sort of a capitalist plot).

A few days later, I walked by Montreal’s expansive Victoria Square, which has been taken over by Occupy Montreal protesters. Police kept a watchful eye over an anti-capitalist/anti-Group of 20 rally; later, TV reports carried interviews with participants including a McGill University philosophy graduate who blamed the “system” for her inability to find a job. Another railed against the “capitalist predators” driving the poor Greeks into bankruptcy. Both called on governments to fix things by “changing the system.”

Well, governments have changed the system, with disastrous consequences. Greece has built a bloated, overpaid, underworked public service. It’s a universal truth that bigger government means more business-stifling red tape and regulation. And more corruption. Unless palms of public servants are “Greece’d” it can take years to start a new business there. This has not only crippled private-sector job creation, but has also resulted in countless unregistered businesses that pay no taxes.

Euro zone leaders decided to pour billions into this dysfunctional state. Now, like a father who has diminished his fortune supporting a son’s ever-more profligate ways, the entire euro zone’s financial stability is crumbling.

The Greek tragedy is a symptom of the lethal delusion shared by Europe and the United States – the belief that governments are able to counter the forces of economic reality by pouring in borrowed cash. Like an alcoholic with a huge hangover, they believe they can recover from their debt addiction by downing more hair of the dog. But every euro, and every dollar, of government debt must be borrowed from another person or another country. For the first time in modern history, the sovereign debt ratings of Western, developed countries teeter on the edge of an abyss.

Big-spending governments are collapsing under mountains of debt. The result will be decades-long economic stagnation, ravaged social programs and civil unrest. The key to harnessing the natural potential of people to create prosperity was stated succinctly more than two centuries ago by Adam Smith, whose epic work, The Wealth of Nations, stands as the timeless foundation for economic freedom and prudent government. As he noted: “Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of affluence ... but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice ...”

History clearly shows that free-market capitalism is the only system that has ever created prosperity. But you would have a hard time finding that historical fact mentioned in any of our academic ivory towers. No wonder our students believe bigger government is the answer to every problem.

The thing that surprises me least is the reaction of the university 'communities' which, in my (limited) experience are filled with people who are disconnected from the reality of the world off campus. That's one of the reasons so many Canadian universities are so poor - I mean money poor. The top tier are from the great and the good and they are, by and large, poor fundraisers.

For the rest, Morgan is right: "decades-long economic stagnation, ravaged social programs and civil unrest" are in our collective future. The social unrest will, I fear lead to the rise of populist movements in America and Europe and populist movements, which includes the Tea Party, most often turn to violence and either fascism or communism, which are just two sides of the same coin.


__________
*

Bio:

A nationally recognized business leader, an ardent community champion, a lover of the great outdoors, and a wellness enthusiast, Gwyn Morgan devoted three decades to building Canada’s largest energy company. EnCana is one of North America’s leading oil and natural gas production companies, with an enterprise value of approximately $50-billion (U.S.). He led the creation of EnCana Corporation through a merger which is widely viewed as the most significant transaction in Canadian energy sector history. He stepped down as founding CEO at the end of 2005.

Gwyn has been recognized as Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the YearTM and also as Canada’s Most Respected CEO. He has a strong belief that a corporation should be a positive social, community and environmental force.

Gwyn serves as a non-executive Chairman of Montreal based SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and he is a director of London based HSBC Holdings plc. He is an Honourary Colonel (retired) of the 410 Tactical Fighter Squadron, Canadian Air Force. He has received leadership awards from several Canadian Business Schools, two honourary degrees and has been appointed Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He was also recently inducted as a member of the Order of Canada.

Discipline, ethics and integrity are the key values driving his endeavors. Working to improve public policy in wellness and education characterizes Gwyn’s public service record.

 

[Haletown]

Occupy this, dude.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/take_out_the_trasher_TuMpvuv7PYzeL0vKMOjS4H#.TsE8GF53jQN.facebook

 

[OldSolduer]

Occupy this, dude.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/take_out_the_trasher_TuMpvuv7PYzeL0vKMOjS4H#.TsE8GF53jQN.facebook

We need a few of those guys in Vancouver, adn I'm pretty sure there are a few in Winnipeg as well.

Personally I'd like to occupy a seat in the MTS Centre tonight to watch an NHL game.

The "occupiers" here are upset with the decision to close the Legislature to the "occupiers".

Maybe we could supply them with the porta potties from the tent groups........ >

 

[Fishbone Jones]

:nod:

 

[a_majoor]

#occupy seen as battlespace preparation:

http://www.dailypundit.com/2011/11/13/counterforce-and-countermeasure-preparing-the-election-battlespace/

Counterforce and Countermeasure: Preparing the Election Battlespace
Posted on November 13, 2011 8:30 pm by Bill Quick
» They Are the One Percent… and We Should Be Worried – Big Government

To the extent that the Occupy Wall Street crowd has a core cause, it is an economic one.  However, its title and location are the only real clues, because when it comes to demonstrating their vast economic knowledge, these people cannot.

They claim to be among the 99% of Americans who are victims of various legal and moral crimes committed by the financial sector, and that has risked their futures.

There are two Occupy movements. The one that matters is the Marxist hard core that is astroturfing the movement as part of the battlespace preparation for Obama’s reelection campaign. The second is the much larger outer ring of dupes and useful tools who are genuinely upset over economic issues, but because they view themselves as liberals, they automatically eschew participation in the Tea Parties.

The Marxist organizers are less concerned with what happens to the encampments over the next few weeks than they are with establishing the ability to roll out sizeable numbers of useful tools into the streets as a strategic countermeasure to the much larger Tea Parties, which will begin to make their presence public again as the election draws closer.

They foresee bands of black-masked Occupiers attacking and scattering any legally organized demonstrations the Tea Party may arrange for. The cops can’t do it, but these new Obama Brown Shirts can, while the cops look the other way.

Since the TEA Party movement is past the mass rally stage, this may turn out to be counterproductive for the Left; their armies of brownshirts and useful tools will be out creating mayhem while their opponents are busy working the electoral process, and voters will only "see" the crowds of dirty, incoherent "protesters" out for one side....

 

[a_majoor]

#occupyfail:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/sacramento-state-professor-leaves-class-because-no-one-brought-snacks/38068

Sacramento State Professor Leaves Class Because No One Brought Snacks
November 13, 2011, 1:47 pm

A psychology professor at Sacramento State University walked out of an undergraduate class last week because the student responsible for bringing snacks that day had not done so, The Sacramento Bee reports. The professor, George Parrott, defends the snack requirement as a way of encouraging students to work collectively. A handout they receive on the first day of class makes the requirement clear, offers examples of acceptable snacks, and suggests that two people take responsibility for each day’s snack, in case one forgets. Still, students are crying foul, saying they were denied an opportunity to review material for a midterm examination. University officials say they will investigate.

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Ever wonder about the intellectual foundation of the Occupy movement? This is probably as good of an example as any in a nutshell...(heh)

 

[OldSolduer]

#occupyfail:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/sacramento-state-professor-leaves-class-because-no-one-brought-snacks/38068

Ever wonder about the intellectual foundation of the Occupy movement? This is probably as good of an example as any in a nutshell...(heh)

Is this university or f&c*ing day care?

 

[jollyjacktar]

The way they are whining here in Halifax, one would think it was a second "Kent State".    I am shaking me head at it all.

 

[RangerRay]

I thought the whole point of "civil disobedience" was to face the consequences of breaking the law?  Or am I missing something?

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I thought the whole point of "civil disobedience" was to face the consequences of breaking the law?  Or am I missing something?

Some of them may not be able to afford it, financially.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I well recall the very real physical and moral courage that the civil rights workers of the 1950s had to display - some of them displayed it as they were killed for daring to speak the truth, freely, to power.

On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers—a 21-year-old black Mississippian,
James Chaney, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and
Michael Schwerner, 24—were murdered near Philadelphia, in Nashoba County,
Mississippi. They had been working to register black voters in Mississippi during
Freedom Summer and had gone to investigate the burning of a black church.


We were, rightly, in awe of these young men and women, black and white, but disproportionately, amongst the whites, Jews. They risked everything - life, liberty and their futures - to secure basic civil rights for others.

In 1963, civil rights demonstrator were attacked by police dogs during
protests in Birmingham, Ala.

I have nothing but the greatest contempt for the "occupiers" and for all of their supporters and apologists. They, and their dupes and fellow travelers, disgrace the memories of real protesters.