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Occupy Wall St - Occupy Everywhere, Occupy Together!

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K

Karakand

Member
quadriplegicjon said:
Can someone explain this image? I don't understand it.

:(
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It is a very convoluted (and disingenuous) corporate structure Google uses to defer paying tax to the IRS on foreign-derived income, which in turn forces them to participate in the "social cause" of lobbying for a repatriation amnesty in D.C.
 
L

LOCK

Member
Marleyman said:
Are there any parts of what you have seen they are pissed off about that you agree with?
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Yeah, sure. Like probably most Americans. Maybe because I have no local connection to this movement, but I'm really finding it hard to care. Maybe that just shows that it may need to grow more? idk
 
B

Bloodbeard

Member
DOO13ER said:
Until MSNBC or the like starts advertising upcoming live coverage of Occupy Wall Street 2011: Live from Times Square Live* on November 5 (LIVE!) then I think the Tea Party should probably keep its mouth shut.

*
sponsored by Doritos brand corn chips, ACORN (yes, we're back bitches!) George Soros, Mao Zedong and the fallen angel Lucifer.
Click to expand...

I chuckle at the possibility that behind “We follow all these rules and we’re happy to do that" is an frustration for being too stupid at the time to realize that they didn't need permits to have a protest.
 
R

Rocket Scientist

Member
Bloodbeard said:
Anyone seen this....
watch


How to deal with junk mail
Click to expand...
THIS IS GENIUS. THIS IS GENIUS. THIS IS GENIUS.
 
L

LuchaShaq

Banned
Verano said:
Not sure if I can take the Occupy wall st. seriously anymore. I passed by the city hall in downtown L.A. few days ago just to see whats up so far and read numerous "9/11 was an inside job"-like propaganda signs around the lawn area. Honestly wtf.
Click to expand...


Find me any political group/movement that doesn't have a decent chunk of psychos/assholes on either side of the aisle in any country in the history of earth.

The junk mail thing is brilliant, and as someone with dozens of half broken roofing shingles in my basement destined for trash I'm going to start doing that. You canceled my credit card when I paid every month 100% balance so fuck off with your offers.
 
K

kame-sennin

Member
Deku said:
Even granting that he was rather selective in his use of evidence

Iceland also went through austerity, but he doesn't mention it.



Krugman has been on the 'spend more now' train for a few years now, and I understand his position, but his articles of late have been more about cheerleading a particular policy than a good analysis of the situation. It's increasingly partisan, and frankly, I'm not even saying he's wrong. Some stimulus will still be needed.

Just bad form.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.
 
J

Jak140

Member
Judges Are for Sale -- and Special Interests Are Buying


The Occupy Wall Street movement is shining a spotlight on how much influence big-money interests have with the White House and Congress. But people are not talking about how big money is also increasingly getting its way with the courts, which is too bad. It's a scandal that needs more attention. A blistering new report details how big business and corporate lobbyists are pouring money into state judicial elections across the country and packing the courts with judges who put special interests ahead of the public interest.

A case in point: West Virginia. In 2007, the West Virginia Supreme Court, on a 3-2 vote, threw out a $50 million damage award against the owner of a coal company. Funny thing: the man who would have had to pay the $50 million had spent $3 million to help elect the justice who cast the deciding vote. The West Virginia ruling was so outrageous that in 2009 the United States Supreme Court overturned it. But that was unusual. In most cases, judges are free to decide cases involving individuals and groups that have paid big money to get them elected.

So who is paying? The new study — by New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, and the Justice at Stake Campaign, a non-partisan reform group — found that a small group of super spenders plays the biggest role, using their money to buy the kind of judges they want hearing their cases. These super spenders are the usual suspects: mainly big business, corporate lobbyists, and trial lawyers. Also high on the list: a disturbing category called "unknown." In many states, disclosure laws are so weak that special interests can buy judicial elections without the public even finding out.

There is also a lot of one-issue money sloshing around. In 2010, three Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage were voted out of office — after a bitterly fought campaign dominated by money from out-of-state groups like the National Organization for Marriage and the American Family Association. Much of the special interest money is used for attack ads, which leverage hot-button issues to demonize judicial candidates. Has a sitting judge ever reversed a criminal conviction because the law was not followed? Then they must be soft on crime — and not care about victims.

Why does all this matter? Because as money floods into judicial elections, we are getting courts that are filled with judges whose first loyalty is not to justice — or to the general public — but to insurance companies, big business and other special interests. It's not hard to guess what insurance companies want their judges to do. They want them to rule against people who have been injured — even when they deserve compensation, and they want damage awards to be slashed. Big business wants weak enforcement of laws against discrimination and pollution. On the other side of the political spectrum, trial lawyers want verdicts for plaintiffs — and large damage awards.

The report's authors have some suggestions for minimizing the impact of payola. They want to see more public financing of judicial campaigns, although it is unclear how much the current United States Supreme Court will allow. (The conservative majority has been recklessly striking down campaign finance rules in recent years.) Many reformers think that the answer lies in ending the direct election of judges, and switching to a system (which some states already have) of appointing judges. That takes away the problem of elections, but special interests can shift their strategy to lobbying governors to appoint sympathetic judges.

Clearly, this is not a problem with easy solutions. But there need to be solutions. The American ideal of justice requires neutral judges, whose only commitment is to the law. Judicial elections that are dominated by special interest money make a mockery of that ideal.
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http://news.yahoo.com/judges-sale-s...RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3
 
E

Enron

Banned
Occupy Wall Street organizers apply for Trademark.

$$$$

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Even anarchic movements like to have some legal protections: Occupy Wall Street's organizers have applied to trademark their movement's name.
In an application dated October 24, the unincorporated association "Occupy Wall Street" applied for the trademark to "Occupy Wall Street." The trademark application says the group would like to use the phrase on merchandise such as clothing and bags, in periodicals and newsletters, and on a website featuring "photographic, audio, video and prose presentations" about the Occupy movement.

The Occupy group has been screen-printing t-shirts and other items in Zuccotti Park, and plans to continue doing so once it has trademark protection, according to a representative.
But Occupy Wall Street is not the only entity to apply for the trademark to its name.
In an application with the same filing date, Arizona-based Fer-Eng Investments, LLC, applied for the same trademark. Fer-Eng's trademark would cover many of the same kinds of clothing ("t-shirts, sweatshirts, headwear, and jackets") and bags (backpacks, gym bags, overnight bags and "bum bags" all make the list) as would Occupy Wall Street's, but would not cover periodicals or newsletters.

Vince Ferraro of Fer-Eng Investments said he applied for the trademark as a business proposition and is not in any way affiliated with Occupy Wall Street. Information, including domain names and trademarks, "is the chattel of the 21st century," he said.

But Occupy Wall Street's lawyer said he doesn't think Ferraro will get the trademark.
"We're confident that Occupy Wall Street will be awarded the trademark simply because they are the first and the ones using their mark," said Samuel Cohen of the Law Offices of Wylie M. Stecklow, one of the attorneys handling Occupy Wall Street's application.

According to the trademark office, priority is generally given to whomever applied for the trademark first. In this case, Occupy Wall Street applied for its trademark at 3:54 p.m. and Fer-Eng Investments applied for the trademark at 6:41 p.m. the same day.

In the case of two applications filed the same day, the trademark office says the application with the lowest serial number -- meaning it was filed first -- earns the trademark, according to Steven Berk, senior supervisory attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That would give Occupy Wall Street preference: Its serial number is 281 numbers lower than Fer-Eng's.

There is also a pending trademark application for a variation on the name of the movement: "Occupy Wall St."

Robert and Diane Maresca applied for that trademark after Robert had spent several days at the protest in Zuccotti Park making t-shirts for free with a permanent marker.
"I made about 20 on the second day, and then it went up to 80 by the fifth day. And then I realized it's not very healthy to smell the fumes, so then I decided that I should get in touch with a silk-screener," Robert Maresca said.

The minimum order was 200 shirts and the couple was concerned that they might be sued if someone else obtained the trademark, so they applied for it. Robert has said he would sell it to the Occupy Wall Street group for $1 after his costs are covered.
There's also a wave of trademark applications for slogans related to the movement. Applications have been filed for the trademarks to "We are the 99%," "I am the 99%" and "Occupy D.C. 2012," among other phrases.

Merchandise with those and similar slogans is on sale all over the Internet. Self-described "entre-protester" Ray Agrizone sells t-shirts, hats and stickers emblazoned with "Occupy Wall Street" and some of the movement's mantras on his website, TheOccupyStore.com.
Agrizone says he is not concerned about a potential lawsuit because he is using his sales to give money to the cause. He says 10% of his proceeds go to Occupy Wall Street.
"The main thing I have with this website is a tool to give a voice to the movement," Agrizone said. "I'm not too worried about cease-and-desist letters down the line."
There are pages of t-shirts, posters and pins in support of the movement on Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500), and a search of "Occupy Wall Street" on eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) yields roughly 5,000 results.

Amid of one of the biggest activist uprisings in the U.S. in a generation, it didn't take long for people to want to own pieces of it.
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D

dave is ok

aztek is ok
Someone completely unrelated attempted to trademark the name to profit off of it, most likely they are just attempting to block that.

Nice try though Enron
 
D

Deku

Banned
Part of the plan to make royalties when they're balding, with children living in suburbia and selling the 2011 experience to their hipsterino kids protesting corporate control of air.
 
S

sangreal

Member
How did OWS file the trademark first? I swear I read an article about that other guy applying for the trademark several days ago
 
E

Enron

Banned
dave is ok said:
Someone completely unrelated attempted to trademark the name to profit off of it, most likely they are just attempting to block that.

Nice try though Enron
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Maybe you should read the article. Specifically the first paragraph, where the Occupy organizers say they want to use it on MERCHANDISE in their application.

Moichandizing!

film_spaceballsyogurt.jpg
 
A

Azih

Member
LuCkymoON said:
you should direct your anger at the governments for allowing it to happen. (some willingly allow it) If they had stopped this loophole when it first appeared it would not be a standard industry practice today.
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And we are, we're just doing it at the source. At the people who pushed for this sort of shit and used their influence to make it happen.

I mean it's this weird argument of going after the coruptee (Washington) while the corruptor (Wall Street) gets no flack. You need to go after both but if you just go after Washington then even if you get some concessions Wall Street will still retain all the levers they used to get things in this messed up state to just roll things back again.
 
B

badcrumble

Member
Enron said:
Maybe you should read the article. Specifically the first paragraph, where the Occupy organizers say they want to use it on MERCHANDISE in their application.

Moichandizing!

film_spaceballsyogurt.jpg
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That would be really hypocritical of them if they were calling for the end of exchange of goods for money and not specifically targeting the corrupt collusion between Wall Street and the government.
 
E

Enron

Banned
badcrumble said:
That would be really hypocritical of them if they were calling for the end of exchange of goods for money and not specifically targeting the corrupt collusion between Wall Street and the government.
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I doubt they want to MAKE MILLIONZ. They probably want to use it for fundraising. But still. So much for anti-capitalism!

Spaceballs_1987.jpg
 
A

Azih

Member
Enron said:
I doubt they want to MAKE MILLIONZ. They probably want to use it for fundraising. But still. So much for anti-capitalism!
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It's anti crony lassiesz faire corporatism capitalism.
 
P

Power Glove

Member
Check out the cover of the new Bloomberg Businessweek. Just got it in the mail.
43d18c2c74.jpg


I've been getting the magazine for free for the past couple of months and they usually have really cool covers, the kind I would post up on my wall.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Is Anonymous heavily associated with OWS or are they just combining recognizable imagery now?
 
P

Power Glove

Member
Halycon said:
Is Anonymous heavily associated with OWS or are they just combining recognizable imagery now?
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Anon outed Tony Bologna. They are heavily involved and showed interest in the movement before it launched.
 
A

Alpha-Bromega

Member
lol, it's like ya can't tell the difference between disliking capitalism, and disliking corrupt crony capitalism nearing friedmanite levels of unregulation that undermines democracy.
 
C

Chichikov

Member
SpectreFire said:
Scumbag Occupy Wall Street:

Says Capitalism is Bad
Trademarks Name in Order to Sell Merchandise

:lol

Fucking cocks.
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I did not see a whole lot of people protesting trademarks or the very concept of commerce.

Again, it's not like our two only options are exactly what we have now or an abolition of money and trade.
 
W

Wazzim

Banned
SpectreFire said:
Scumbag Occupy Wall Street:

Says Capitalism is Bad
Trademarks Name in Order to Sell Merchandise

:lol

Fucking cocks.
Click to expand...
Keep fighting the good fight, you don't want to lose your high interest loans and Gold Credit Cards!
 
J

Jak140

Member
SpectreFire said:
Scumbag Occupy Wall Street:

Says Capitalism is Bad
Trademarks Name in Order to Sell Merchandise

:lol

Fucking cocks.
Click to expand...


Your inability to distinguish the difference between opposing governement corruption spawned by undue corporate influence in a capitalist system and capitalism itself does not reduce the credibility of OWS; rather it just exposes you as a fool incapabale of comprehending even the most obvious nuance.
 
J

jamesinclair

Banned
Another day, another example of an industry that isnt regulated, so they cheat, lie, and abuse customers to bring in 40% profit margins.

But I guess the OWS protesters are protesting against the act of buying and selling amirite?
Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments.

...

Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered. Lee figured she had no choice. She put $3,000 down and drove off in a 2007 Ford Fusion, agreeing to pay $387 a month for four years. The interest rate: 20.7%, nearly triple the national average for a used-car loan.

...

A year and a half later, Lee fell behind on her payments and filed for bankruptcy. So she was relieved when the dealership called and offered to make her loan more affordable. The sales manager even promised to throw in a free smog check. Lee, 35, drove back to Repossess Auto on a rainy Monday evening, handed the keys to an attendant and sat down with the manager.

Moments later, she said, employees parked four cars tightly around the Ford, blocking it in.

...

CNW estimates that there are more than 33,000 such lots nationwide, compared with about 20,000 dealerships selling new cars. Buy Here Pay Here dealers make $80 billion in loans every year, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Although dealers are loath to open their books, profit margins average nearly 40%, according to a trade group, the National Alliance of Buy Here Pay Here Dealers. That's twice what new-car dealers make.

...

About 1 in 4 buyers default. In the real estate and credit card industries, that would be bad news. In the world of Buy Here Pay Here, it's just another avenue for profit: The car can be repossessed and put back on the lot for sale in short order. A new buyer makes a down payment, takes on a high-interest loan and the cycle starts anew.

Provided they don't get wrecked, these recycled vehicles just keep paying dividends. At some dealerships, cars have been sold and resold over and over -- three, four, even eight times apiece, motor vehicle records show.

What's more, these hand-me-down wheels hold their value remarkably well. The sale price is sometimes higher the second or third time a car is sold, records show -- a testament to the desperation of buyers and the market power of Buy Here Pay Here lots as lenders of last resort.

Default and repossession are so central to the business that many dealers plan on both. They equip cars with hidden GPS devices and remote-control ignition blockers to make the repo man's work easier.

...


“We're helping people manage money that aren't good at doing it on their own,” he said.

...

“Their credit is so bad they can't even get subprime financing, and they're going to be stuck in that hole for years, unable to get out,” Schwarz said of Buy Here Pay Here customers. “That's the profile.”
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http://www.latimes.com/business/buy...re-pay-here-part1-storyb,0,4616431,full.story
 
empty vessel

empty vessel

Member
Marleyman said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0&feature=player_embedded#!
Cops infiltrating protests - I knew this was happening but proof is always helpful.
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A pretty standard tactic. Much violence at protests is induced by police. Kind of like how most terrorist plots that the FBI foils are created by the FBI. One would think the police wouldn't have a "point of view" about protests, but they do. They actively oppose the goals of OWS and seek to discredit it. And that is because the police are the front-line enforcers of the political and economic status quo, notwithstanding that individual police officers would benefit from (and might even personally be sympathetic to) the movement. That's just the institutional role the police play in society. (One could see this clearly--though obviously on a far different scale and degree--in Egypt.)
 
R

rohlfinator

Member
Chichikov said:
I did not see a whole lot of people protesting trademarks or the very concept of commerce.

Again, it's not like our two only options are exactly what we have now or an abolition of money and trade.
Click to expand...
Along those same lines, can anyone explain why this movement keeps getting labeled as "anarchist"?

So far I haven't seen much evidence for that, and the people slinging that terminology tend to come off as complete Wall Street apologists.
 
CHEEZMO™

CHEEZMO™

Obsidian fan
rohlfinator said:
Along those same lines, can anyone explain why this movement keeps getting labeled as "anarchist"?

So far I haven't seen much evidence for that, and the people slinging that terminology tend to come off as complete Wall Street apologists.
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I think you answered your own question there.
 
J

jamesinclair

Banned
rohlfinator said:
That's been my assumption, I just wasn't sure if there was some strong anarchist faction involved that I was missing.
Click to expand...

Its the same people who keep claiming that the protesters want to end capitalism and become marxists.

Or those that thing that Nazis = socialists

Generally, idiots.
 
W

_woLf

Member
Dunno if it's been said, but Michael Moore is going to be here in Portland tonight with the occupy Portland people.

Oh boy!
 
M

maharg

idspispopd
rohlfinator said:
Along those same lines, can anyone explain why this movement keeps getting labeled as "anarchist"?

So far I haven't seen much evidence for that, and the people slinging that terminology tend to come off as complete Wall Street apologists.
Click to expand...

A lot of the organizational strategies used in the Occupy camps are anarchist in origin, afaik. I think a lot of the organizers have roots in that movement.
 
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