One snap indication of just how malicious life has become in public discourse was the incident yesterday when a Mitt Romney supporter, 77, gagged a rally protester by shoving a handkerchief into the 25-year-old union worker’s mouth. Just civil rights, that’s all: “He seemed thirsty, so I tried to shove the bottle in his mouth,” Brysac said. “I thought it was wrong to interfere with [Pawlenty's] freedom of speech. “I Read More ...
Chump change: A trivial sum of money, a trivial matter. For example, Dave was sick of working for chump change, he wanted a decent salary, or, ‘Don’t put that on the agenda, it’s chump change.’ This expression uses chump in the sense of “a fool or sucker who should be ignored.” [Slang; 1960s] Also see chicken feed. (Illustration/artwork by Michael Katz — “impressions of the scene” at Zuccotti Park — Read More ...
My apologies to one of Forrest‘s most-beloved quips, but US politics has become so much more than stupid talking, it’s mean-spirited pure ugly — especially amongst Republicans. Hence, the supposedly GOP presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich on OWS: “Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to Read More ...
Ralph Waldo Emerson, America’s greatest philosopher, visited Thoreau in jail. Emerson asked: “Henry, why are you here?” Thoreau replied: “Why are you not here?” – In protest of the Mexican War, 1846 In those crackdowns this week on the OWS, a deep, sinking feeling of nefarious, dark workings: Questions about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) potential involvement in the violent crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street protests nationwide continue to Read More ...
Another brick in the wall: In the midst of a seemingly worldwide occupation-movement, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. Reportedly, about 147 super-connected corporations — out of 43,000 studied in recent research — carry disproportionate power over the global economy. This from NewScientist on research by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich into transnational corporations — TNCs — that’s Read More ...
Still kicking, one of the most wonderous of public movements has recharged and re-directed even asshole Republicans, but Occupy Wall Street should hopefully turn its intense focus to the dreadnaught of humanity — climate change. Robert Reich on Wednesday: “I mean the mere fact that we have this occupation of Wall Street movement that is extending around this country is changing the tenor of the conversation in Washington…It is already Read More ...
Even as the wide-spreading Occupy Wall Street movement enters its second month, a major protest point has been nearly forgotten, or at least hasn’t been placed near/at the top of the list — climate change. The shit on Wall Street is nestled right in with the globe’s quickly-spinning out-of-control climate. A major case in point is the horror still going in Michigan — in July of 2010, 819,000 gallons of Read More ...
Such a great graph — and a great h/t The Big Picture. (Illustration found here). I hope the graph is readable — if not, it originates from Spiegel Online at the link just above. One can readily see George Jr. did more than his fair share, but to all those big-yapped GOPers, the real shit didn’t start until Saint Ronnie opened the floodgates — compared to the nowadays, the debt Read More ...
(Illustration found here). As the entire world gears itself into the mesh of the Occupy Wall Street movement today — marching on Broadway en route to police headquarters last month, the photo above depicts the singular, unique wonder of an ageless, non-political protest — and there are events scheduled from London, Cologne and Zurich to Johannesburg, Taipei, Seoul and Hong Kong, including sites in between, in total solidarity with those Read More ...
This morning, a possible confrontation of some importance in the ground swelling/breaking Occupy Wall Street phenomenon as Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan has been ordered cleared for cleaning — zero hour was set for 7 a.m. EST (about right now (3 a.m. PST). The protestors have vowed to remain, even the powers that be: “You want to clean up something? Clean up these crooks on Wall Street,” said City Council Read More ...
