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PoliGAF 2013 |OT1| Never mind, Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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K

kingkitty

Member
Hillary is definitely the one to beat, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and pull a Romney. A little bit of Diablosing is healthy, but only a little.
 
L

lednerg

Member
Maybe I'll make a blog post out of this someday, I dunno.

I can only really speak about my experience at Occupy Trenton, not the situation in NYC, Oakland, or elsewhere. Our site was directly across the street from the State Capital building, and we had people there 24/7 for over 4 months straight, livestreaming the whole thing. Around the time we ended the vigil, we got together donations and leased an office space just a little bit down the street. I'm pretty sure the active members still use that spot for various meetings; I know they hosted Occupy Sandy Relief there last month.

The way we ran the Occupy site was like a public forum, where everyone was encouraged to come sit and have an open dialog with us and each other. This included residents of the surrounding area, politicians, lobbyists, Tea Partiers, charity organizers, gang members, civil rights leaders, union members, the homeless, students, teachers, business owners... you name it. In those four months, I got to hear so many perspectives from so many walks of life, it was truly awe-inspiring. Still, as different as we all were, when we actually talked to each other we were always able to find common ground. That was the point. We just don't do that enough in this country; we keep ourselves 'safe' within our own little groups and tend to assume the worst about the other groups. We don't listen as much as we put words in each other's mouths.

Occupy Trenton didn't do our own "direct actions" (walking protests) like they did in Zuccotti, we opted instead for a vigil, and a place for others to comfortably exercise their own First Amendment rights. We never egged on the cops or whatever. In fact, plenty in the city police dept supported us, though they obviously couldn't do so officially. Other groups approached us wanting help for a protest, such as Occupy the Highway, the 99 Mile March, anti-fracking demonstrators, the March Against the War on Women, MoveOn, and the Progressive Democrats. Even if our members didn't necessarily agree with what they were about, we would always do what we could to help, which usually meant sharing our equipment and internet connection. We weren't there to play king of the mountain, after all. Everyone had as much of a right to be there as we did.

We got some local news coverage from newspapers, websites, and TV. I suppose the biggest story was when the State Police confiscated everything on the site. We took them to court and won everything back, which set a precedent for other Occupy sites in similar situations. NJ State Senator Shirley Turner, after stopping by a couple times to talk with us, introduced a Resolution that "Supports Occupy movement's protest against economic inequality and excessive money in politics, and their right to assemble peaceably," which also got some notice in the local news. Of course we weren't expecting anything to happen with it, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. One of our members hosted a discussion with local Tea Party and Libertarian leaders in an effort to get people to focus on what these 'diametrically opposed' groups have in common rather than what divides us. As it turns out, none of us are thrilled about how corporations and special interests are running the government, and we're equally frustrated that banks have been given carte blanche. That story got very favorable local TV news coverage, and helped bring in people who had previously assumed we were radical hippies.

I'm leaving out a whole slew of things, of course. Memories keep flooding back faster than I can type them. So I'll just say, and this isn't directed at anyone in particular: If your local Occupy group wasn't doing what you think they should have, then what did you do about it? What were the proposals that you brought forward to them? How did you help the situation? I know exactly what I did, what it accomplished, and I'm perfectly fine with all of it. I also wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
Click to expand...
 
V

Vicetrailia

Member
Tennessee lawmaker wants families on welfare (with children) to get passing grades or face a cut in their welfare check.

Republican state Sen. Stacey Campfield last week introduced the legislation, which calls for the state to cut welfare benefits to parents whose kids don't do well in class. Critics are already panning the proposal as unfair, and one that could hurt students in the end -- but Campfield is defending his idea, which he says would force parents to take a more active role in their children’s education.

“We’re not asking children to re-write the Magna Carta,” Campfield told FoxNews.com Monday. “A D-minus gets you through.”
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Link

Helping to turn children in poverty into bonafide breadwinners.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
Oblivion said:
Oh man, I can't wait to see this clip when I get home:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/...sterity-how-many-times-do-i-have-to-be-right/

Kthug spittin troof.
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Joe actually sounds more like a curious student who heard things and is asking questions.

Richard haas was the one who got schooled and came off ignorant. INFLATIONARY PRESSURE!!!

I like Krugman's arrogance of late.

He also schooled Ryan in his recent post. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/failures/
 
C

Chichikov

Member
Oblivion said:
Oh man, I can't wait to see this clip when I get home:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/...sterity-how-many-times-do-i-have-to-be-right/

Kthug spittin troof.
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Damn, kthug was in top form, nice destruction of the stupid ass "this is like climate change" analogy I've been hearing lately.
Black Mamba said:
Joe actually sounds more like a curious student who heard things and is asking questions.
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That weird student at the end of the class who licks the radiator.
 
A

Averon

Member
Tim-E said:
When are liberals ever confident about anything? They are typically the biggest bunch of defeatist babies in politics.
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Yup. Remember the first presidential debate? Liberals were damn near committing seppuku, and PoliGAF caught the Diablos disease to an absurd degree.
 
T

Trouble

Banned
Chichikov said:
That weird student at the end of the class who licks the radiator.
Click to expand...
TAbpFsb.jpg
 
C

ClassyPenguin

Banned
ssolitare said:
Tennessee lawmaker wants families on welfare (with children) to get passing grades or face a cut in their welfare check.



Link

Helping to turn children in poverty into bonafide breadwinners.
Click to expand...

Ugh, and it's always in the States with high poverty rates.

Gotchaye said:
I see poligaf is not free from posters whose posts I have to read twice because they don't avoid awkward negatives.
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My college essays always read more like a Cormac McCarthy novel than an academic paper.
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
We're barely a week into this presidential term and you guys are already talking about 4 years from now.

FFS you guys, this is why America lags behind the rest of the developed world in so many areas. The elctions are over. Stop talking about them and start talking about issues.
 
C

ClassyPenguin

Banned
GaimeGuy said:
We're barely a week into this presidential term and you guys are already talking about 4 years from now.

FFS you guys, this is why America lags behind the rest of the developed world in so many areas. The elctions are over. Stop talking about them and start talking about issues.
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This is not the time to talk about such things.
 
P

pigeon

Banned
APKmetsfan said:
Can you name one specific policy proposal and not a really simplistic stance like pro 99%? I seriously don't know any.
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There was a lot of talk about an anti-corporate personhood amendment in Oakland. We also wanted to repeal Prop 13, but that's California-specific.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
pigeon said:
There was a lot of talk about an anti-corporate personhood amendment in Oakland. We also wanted to repeal Prop 13, but that's California-specific.
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Ok I wasn't really trying to just provoke, I literally didn't know any. I'm not the biggest fan of OWS but that's at least something (that I'd btw support). I never really heard that any time during the campaign though and I think thats why they failed.
 
K

KtSlime

Member
APKmetsfan said:
Ok I wasn't really trying to just provoke, I literally didn't know any. I'm not the biggest fan of OWS but that's at least something (that I'd btw support). I never really heard that any time during the campaign though and I think thats why they failed.
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Hmm, I wonder what might have corporate interests yet be in a position to stifle OWS' message.

OWS is viewed as a failure because it is in 'news' corporations best interest to make sure it is viewed as such. Report the negative, ignore the positive. Corporations have great power to shape public opinion, they will continue to use it to stay in power.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
ivedoneyourmom said:
Hmm, I wonder what might have corporate interests yet be in a position to stifle OWS' message.

OWS is viewed as a failure because it is in 'news' corporations best interest to make sure it is viewed as such. Report the negative, ignore the positive. Corporations have great power to shape public opinion, they will continue to use it to stay in power.
Click to expand...

I am active on the internet and don't just rely on the "news corporations" its not like these voices couldn't have gotten to me. Its that they were never formulated. I watched a bunch of OWS videos but they were always vague ideas "stand up for main st.", "anti 1% BS". Nobody ever needed to fight back because nothing ever was brought forth in any meaningful way for which they needed to fight. All I saw was a bunch of creepy hand waving and call-reponses which didn't ask for anything that anybody in washington could have proposed and fought for.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
It's scary how right Krugman is re: United Kingdom and it's not being played up.

I mean, the UK was doing the same as we were, basically. They installed the austerity via spending cuts people here asked for (specifically on welfare). the UK hit recession and now is threatening to be in recession again for the 2nd time in the past 12 months. The IMF is warning them about this. It should be big news!

And yet, Paul Ryan goes on TV and touts the same BS.

I get that the GOP is willing to sacrifice some of the economy to lose the middle class protections like SS and medicare and UE and also to hurt the poor. I get it.

What's troubling is how little play the failure of not just austerity measures around the world but specifically in the UK, since they were like a mini-version of us, has gone. The media should be hammering this home constantly to educate people. And why aren't Democrats pounding on this? And Obama? And anyone who gives a fuck about jobs in this country that has a voice?

It's like the US got a free experiment out of the UK which never happens in economics and no one is paying attention.

That is what is so scary.

hm, maybe a blog post is needed.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
The most troubling thing about that Morning Joe segment is how casual and accepted the austerity/cut entitlements argument has become among democrats and republicans. It went beyond conventional, Beltway wisdom into smug territory that is really off putting...and I'm glad Krugman was there to offer a counter point.

Especially Mika. I understand she is essentially paid to act stupid but come on. She's smarter than that, or at least should be.
 
M

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Black Mamba said:
What's troubling is how little play the failure of not just austerity measures around the world but specifically in the UK, since they were like a mini-version of us, has gone. The media should be hammering this home constantly to educate people. And why aren't Democrats pounding on this? And Obama? And anyone who gives a fuck about jobs in this country that has a voice?
Click to expand...

It is astounding how Republicans have got away with essentially repeating "We don't want to end up like Greece! Let's do exactly what Greece did!" over and over again for years with nobody calling them out on it.
 
TheLaughingStock

TheLaughingStock

Member
Black Mamba said:
It's scary how right Krugman is re: United Kingdom and it's not being played up.

I mean, the UK was doing the same as we were, basically. They installed the austerity via spending cuts people here asked for (specifically on welfare). the UK hit recession and now is threatening to be in recession again for the 2nd time in the past 12 months. The IMF is warning them about this. It should be big news!

It's like the US got a free experiment out of the UK which never happens in economics and no one is paying attention.
Click to expand...

Japan is also free experiment for the US. Edit: Btw didn't the IMF request austerity in the first place?
 
T

TacticalFox88

Banned
Mario said:
It is astounding how Republicans have got away with essentially repeating "We don't want to end up like Greece! Let's do exactly what Greece did!" over and over again for years with nobody calling them out on it.
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I can guarantee that if the media wasn't afraid of being liberally biased and did their jobs the republicans would've been utterly massacred last November. I'd put fucking money on that.
 
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