November 17 NYSE market volume: 1,024,669,206.

It doesn’t sound that effective.

Actually, speaking as a reactionary crackpot, I must admit OWS has two actually reasonable complaints:

1) The bleeping bailouts. (The Tea Partiers are also on this case.)

2) The fact that student loans are non-bankruptable. (As far as I know, the Tea Partiers are not yet on this case.) Student loans became non-bankruptable in 1998. The very next year a long-dormant student protest movement came back from from the dead, filling a much-needed gap in the political spectrum. The non-bankruptable nature of student loans is a recent and regrettable innovation. It’s not a traditional feature of capitalism.

What to the protestors intend to do when the snow, hail, and freezing rain arrive?

It already has and many stayed out there until the police (under orders) forced them out who then destroyed and stripped away all their warm tents.  This isn’t lazy tea baggers we’re talking about.

The thing is, the corporatists are slowly starting to understand that the American people (at large) are badasses.  Once the first winter storms hit, they thought the OWS movement would have ended.  When it didn’t, they went into panic-mode because it finally dawned on them that the OWS movement is playing for keeps… AND WE ARE.

That’s why we’re now seeing Homeland Security (a Nazi term, by the way) coordinate with lackeys around the nation to squash freedom of assembly.  They say it’s for public safety, but that’s what every fascist has always said.

We know the real reasons…  they don’t want their LIES that destroy American lives to be exposed.  They are rich from the status quo and they don’t want change at any cost (to themselves).

They want us all to talk quietly amongst ourselves about our increasingly serf-like status and do nothing.  Get in line, serfs.  Basically, they want United States citizens to be weak cattle.

They want you to be a coward.  The only question is… will you comply?

You have the right to free speech.  As long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.

Get a life people!

Thanks, and hopefully through our struggles we’ll get one for you as well.

It would look like effing chaos. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen.

Wow, that’s cowardice, I’m sorry.

In places in the country where the police already HAVE stood down, there’s been relative calm and peace.

In places in the country where the police are stomping all over our right to freedom of assembly, there’s been growing chaos.

They only people that need be afraid of the American public are the faces of evil.

You want to see chaos?  Look at what the corporatists have done to this country since the American public stood down.

I had a life once but the banks foreclosed on it.

Now the bank owns your life. Until they sell it to a shadowy mega-corporation on the secondary market.

There is a trust that has to exist between rich and poor that they are working for the betterment of the country without working behind the scenes to subvert it. I believe the poor have, for the most part, kept their part of the bargain. They didn’t give in to communism, as was once feared, but fought bravely against the fascism and imperialism that threatened the freedom loving world. If you’re not one of these people, chances are you’re a descendant of one.

But these days, I’m not so confident to say the same of the rich. They can’t all be painted with the same brush, of course, but it’s discouraging to see the power grab. Money = speech. Corporations = people (except when it comes to incarceration). Communist China is now the market that has their rapt attention; the market of their own people holds little interest, except if it can be used to grow their Chinese interests. They (most, not all) demand lower taxes while taxing the poor further, and giving themselves even more ridiculous bonuses with the savings. You can’t even get on a plane without being treated like a suspected terrorist; not so for the rich. Pretty much every program of the New Deal that has kept the United States stable for decades is planned to be dismantled or severely scaled back. Unions busted. Minimum wages repealed. Healthcare non-existent. No Social Security for the elderly. The clean air and water you enjoy are about to be polluted if the EPA goes away as planned. And the “vision of hope” we’re given to justify this is to think about all the money the rich will get as a result, and maybe, if they’re feeling charitable, they might give you a job (if you’re still healthy enough somehow). Record-breaking wealth that they currently have be damned; they must have more money before they start hiring!

WTF.

Aha – with this bit of info, you now know how to avoid arrest by the police! Until they make paddy wagons ADA compliant, they can’t haul you to jail very well.

I purpose one solution to this issue: Embrace these people and show them that we need them! We look to these officers for help in the most dire of situations. They look for our loved ones when they are missing, they search for our stolen property. They rescue us from violence, accidents and harm. They help keep or cities safe by putting their lives at risk every day trying to capture violent criminals. They do these and other countless things for us. And at the end of the day they take off their uniforms and go home to their families, worry about their bills, just like the rest of us. They ARE us. That’s what we need them to realize. They are part of the 99%. One of the most important parts. They are the part that have vowed to protect and watch over us. We need to convince them that with their help we can win this. We need to remind them why they do what they do. I’m sure it can’t feel good to go home after launching rubber bullets into crowds innocent people, to pepper-spray 80 year old women, to baton young girls and boys just asking for a better tomorrow. Some of these officers must truly feel terrible inside, having done these things. It’s up to us to let them know they have a choice. They don’t have to be pawns of Wall Street and Big Industry, that they can fight for the rights promised us all, they just have to choose it.

IF the manufactured stampede to the 2012 Electoral Farce doesn’t sap people’s time and resources as it did that of the Anti-War movement last time.  Yeah, it’s an awfully big “IF,” but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  The Democrats have proven repeatedly, beyond a doubt, that the only good activist is one they can keep in their own hip pocket.  I don’t want to see protesters fall for their worthless threats/blandishments again.

and if that were to happen, the people that were elected in the name of that party would have the lobbyists with TRUCKLOADS of cash backed up to their office doors within a week. The system is broken. We have to start from scratch.

One thing I noticed was that the NYPD’s bullhorns were nearly inaudible, so any directions they gave went mostly unnoticed. They should probably have asked if they could use the People’s Mic, which seemed much more efficient.

On Twitter, @Breaking911:twitter , which seems to be basically summaries of NYPD and FDNY radio traffic, is worth following for live-tweets of OWS-related activity.

It would be great to see a new political party arise from this, and consequently rise in power to challenge the existing ones.

Anyway, it’s all very interesting to watch, and I really wonder how this is going to end – will you get your freedom and rights back, as a nation, or will you be quashed with a show of power and new laws that reduce further what little rights you still have. Your oligarchs are a far more educated, wealthy and powerful force than the puny middle eastern chaps that were recently deposed.