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The aim of #OCCUPYWALLSTREET is to draw protesters to New York's financial district in a non-violent protest to spark a mass movement against corporate dominance. While the corporate media ignores the protest, Reader Supported News will continue to report on the latest developments.

A demonstrator holds a sign during an Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan. The protests moved into their third week on Monday. (photo: Reuters)
A demonstrator holds a sign during an Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan. The protests moved into their third week on Monday. (photo: Reuters)



Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Together, Occupy D.C., Occupy Oakland, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Boston, Occupy San Francisco , Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Live Streams

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Occupy Worldwide

Reader Supported News Special Coverage Archive 8

17 November - 22 November

This page is an archive. Future OWS updates will go on the new page.

Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?

By Michael Moore, Open Mike Blog

22 November 11

his past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

READ MORE

Pepper-Spray Incident Reveals Weakness Up Top

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

22 November 11

To recap for those who haven't seen it: police in paramilitary gear line up in front of a group of Occupy protesters peacefully assembled on a quad pathway. Completely unprovoked, police decide to douse the whole group of sitting protesters with pepper spray. There is crying and chaos and panic, but the wheezing protesters sit resolutely in place and refuse to move despite the assault.

Finally, in what to me is the most amazing part, the protesters gather together and move forward shouting "Shame On You! Shame On You!"

READ MORE

Occupy L.A. Offered Office Space, Farmland, Housing to End City Hall Encampment

By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times

22 November 11

Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.

The details of the proposal were revealed Monday during the demonstration's nightly general assembly meeting by Jim Lafferty, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who has been advocating on behalf of the protest since it began seven weeks ago. Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.

READ MORE

Occupy This: Learning From the Dark Side

By Steve Weissmann, Reader Supported News

12 November 11

Over the past several years, the American government has encouraged, tutored, and funded nonviolent destabilization efforts and color revolutions from Burma and the countries around the former Soviet Union to Venezuela, Iran, and Egypt. Most of the local activists involved had righteous grievances and deserved international solidarity.

But, American and allied European interventions pursued their own interests and agendas, whether to extend control over oil, gas, and other natural resources, secure oil and gas pipelines, expand NATO into Eastern Europe, or privatize local economies.

READ MORE

UC Davis Students Are Role Models

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

22 November 11

It would have been easy for students at UC Davis to riot after watching their classmates being assaulted with pepper spray. Instead, they remained nonviolent. That simple act gave them the moral high ground. And that's how social change movements grow.

Rewind a couple of weeks.

Occupy Oakland was in a similar situation. Police had violently cracked down on their encampment. Iraq War veteran Scott Olson almost died.

READ MORE

'It's a Food Product, Essentially': Fox News Starts Spinning Pepper Spray Cops

By Max Read, Gawker

22 November 11

Tonight, Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly got to talking about a UC Davis police officer's appalling use of pepper spray on nonviolent protesters over the weekend. Guess what direction the conversation took! If you guessed "needlessly deferential to authority and dismissive to the suffering of protesters," you guessed correctly!

READ MORE

Occupy Seattle Protester Claims Police Caused Her Miscarriage

By Haroon Siddique, Guardian UK

22 November 11

A pregnant woman who was pepper sprayed during the Occupy Seattle protests in the US claims she had a miscarriage five days later as a result of injuries allegedly inflicted by the police.

Jennifer Fox, 19, claims that she was also struck in the stomach twice - once by a police officer's foot and once by an officer's bicycle - as police moved in to disperse marchers on 15 November.

READ MORE

Occupy Boston Gets Legal Cover, But Not All Protestors Like It

By Quinn Norton, WIRED

22 November 11

Occupy Boston finds itself in an odd position - it's actually protected from eviction by a judge, but some participants aren't selling out by signing on to the authority of a system they are protesting.

On Nov. 15, the same day that the NYPD raided and evicted Occupy Wall Street, the National Lawyers Guild and Massachusetts ACLU went to court to get an order preventing Boston police from evicting Occupy Boston from its space at Dewey Square, underneath Boston's iconic Federal Reserve building.

READ MORE

Occupy L.A. Receives Offer to Decamp

By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times

22 November 11

Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.

READ MORE

City University of New York Attacks Tuition Hike Protest

By Occupywallst.org

21 November 11

Occupy CUNY and allied protestors who gathered Monday at Baruch College to express opposition to CUNY tuition hikes, unfair labor practices, and privatization were met with an increasingly familiar response: violent suppression of their basic right to dissent. Protestors were barred from attending a so-called "public" meeting of the school's trustees and ordered to disperse. CUNY security and NYPD moved in with nightsticks drawn, turning a nonviolent protest into a chaotic melee.

READ MORE

Journalists protest Occupy Wall St police handling

By Deepti Hajela, Bloomberg

21 November 11

Media organizations are speaking out against police handling of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street protests. They say New York City police blocked journalists from seeing when authorities cleared out the Occupy camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park last week. They also say New York Police Department officers used force and arrested some journalists as they were trying to do their jobs.

The media organizations and journalist groups on Monday sent a letter to chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne seeking a meeting. Browne says he's "happy" to work together to "iron out" misunderstandings.

READ MORE

California�s Campus Movements Dig In Their Heels

By Jennifer Medina

21 November 11

LOS ANGELES � It has become something of an annual tradition on California college campuses, in what is perhaps the most prestigious state university system in the country: the state makes large cuts in public universities, they in turn raise tuition, and students respond with angry protests.

But this year, propelled in part by the fervor of the Occupy Wall Street movement and in part by the state of the economy and California�s mountainous budget woes, the battle is sharpening. Indeed, the Occupy movement � on campuses, at least � is transforming itself into a student-led crusade against increases in tuition.

READ MORE

Vet Brutally Beaten by Oakland Cops Finally Surfaces

NeedToAwaken

20 November 11

Vet Brutally Beaten by Oakland Cops Finally Surfaces(image: NeedToAwaken)

SANTA ROSA CA OCCUPY RAID REPORTED:

11/22/11 - 8:25:am:pdt

An RSN Reader reports: The police are doing something at the occupy camp. They won�t let pedestrians into the area, presumably to stop photos being taken. If anyone gets this, I have contacted some local new stations. I hope there is someone observing the situation.

Police partially clear Occupy Santa Rosa camp

The Associated Press

22 November 11

Police have cleared more than half the tents from the Occupy Santa Rosa encampment around city hall that some protesters say had morphed into a homeless camp.

KTVU-TV reports that officers on Tuesday morning evicted campers from 26 tents that did not have permits.

READ MORE

Occupy Santa Rosa to picket downtown mall Friday

By Steve Hart

20 November 11

Occupy Santa Rosa will picket Santa Rosa's downtown mall on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that's traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year.

It's part of Occupy's anti-corporate message, members said Sunday. The �Buy Nothing Day� demonstration will be followed by a community festival at City Hall with music, crafts and a free gift exchange.

The encampment continued to shrink Sunday as some Occupiers folded their tents after a night of cold rain and police checks. Still, more than 30 tents remained and diehards vowed to stay until at least Nov. 30, when city permits expire.

READ MORE

The 99% "Mic Checks" the 1%

By Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News

21 November 11

As the lead Republican negotiator during the manufactured debt crisis, Eric Cantor had the podium all summer long. He walked out of the early debt talks, insisting on a cuts-only solution. The House Majority Leader readily dismissed sensible proposals like ending billions in wasteful tax giveaways for corporations and the super-rich.

Cantor's callousness is legendary - he even withheld FEMA assistance to his own and other hurricane-ravaged districts until disaster-relief spending was offset by cuts.

READ MORE

Occupy Oakland Calls for Total West Coast Port Shutdown on 12/12

By OccupyWallSt

20 November 11

In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation:

Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th.

The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.

READ MORE

UC Davis Campus Police Put on Leave After Pepper-Spraying

By Brian Stelter, The New York Times

20 November 11

The University of California, Davis, said on Sunday that two police officers had been placed on administrative leave after using pepper spray on seated protesters in a widely recorded encounter on Friday afternoon.

Reflecting widespread anger over the police behavior, the university chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi, said Sunday that she would insist that the investigation be completed in 30 days. A day earlier, she had said it would take 90 days.

READ MORE

Toronto Occupy Camp Must Go, Judge Rules

By David Rider, Toronto Star

21 November 11

The City of Toronto can move in and dismantle the five-week-old Occupy Toronto camp in St. James Park, a judge ruled Monday morning.

In a written ruling, Justice David Brown rejected Occupy's request for an injunction on the basis that the makeshift tent village is a protected form of protest under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

READ MORE

Mellower Occupy Movement Grows in the Suburbs

By Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle

20 November 11

Gerri Field stood with hundreds of protesters in front of Tiffany's in Walnut Creek this week, railing against economic injustice at the top of her lungs and drawing approving honks from passing cars with her sign, "Heal America, Tax Wall Street."

For two sunny midday hours, the crowd did its best to "occupy" the busiest intersection in town, Mount Diablo Boulevard and North Main Street, singing "This Land Is Your Land" and denouncing corporate greed and the ultrarich 1 percent.

READ MORE

Whose Police?

By Philip Gourevitch, The New Yorker

20 November 11

An eighty-four-year-old woman is looking straight into a camera. Her eyes are wide, her mouth is agape, and she is drenched in a filmy white fluid: it flattens her white billowing hair, it glazes her flushed cheeks, it runs off her chin onto her scarf.

This is Dorli Rainey, minutes after being doused with pepper spray by police at an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday.

Joshua Trujillo shot the picture for seattlepi.com. Trujillo also took pictures of the police doing the dousing - hosing the protesters down with what look like fire extinguishers full of the noxious, blinding, stinging pepper spray.

READ MORE

Interview With a Pepper-Sprayed UC Davis Student

By Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing

20 November 11

22-year-old UC Davis student W. (name withheld by request) was one of the students pepper-sprayed at point-blank range Friday by Lt. John Pike while seated on the ground, arms linked and silent.

W. tells Boing Boing that Pike sprayed them at close range with military-grade pepper spray, in a punitive manner. Pike knew the students by name from Thursday night when they "occupied" a campus plaza. The students offered Pike food and coffee and chatted with him and other officers while setting up tents. On Friday, UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi told students they had to remove their #OWS tents for unspecified "health and safety" reasons.

"Move or we're going to shoot you," Pike is reported to have yelled at one student right before delivering pepper spray. Then, turning to his fellow officers and brandishing the can in the air, "Don't worry, I'm going to spray these kids down."

READ MORE

OCCUPY The Highway: March from OWS to DC

By Moveon

20 November 11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm9yLUqlfY

DC, Other Cities Liberate Unoccupied Buildings for the 99%

By OccupyWallStreet

20 November 11

Today, Occupy K St./DC liberated the empty, city-owned Franklin School. The school was closed several years ago and initially reopened as a homeless shelter. Despite widespread public opposition, the city government later closed the shelter. Next -- in blatant disregard of social safety net programs that are necessary for the very survival of the people who are most directly impacted by economic injustice -- announced plans to turn the building either into luxury condos or a hotel for the 1% lobbyists on K St.

Police -- including the Metropolitan Police and federal Protective Services -- responded with full force. A massive police presence blocked all of 13th St and declared the area a "crime scene." Police then moved into the building and arrested all inside, carrying out people cuffed at the arms and legs. Some protesters banged on the police vans from inside and outside, while others tried to block the vehicles altogether. Police declared they would charge all those inside with unlawful entry, and threatened others with felony charges if they interfered.

READ MORE

Bloomberg's One Percent Solution

By Chris Smith, New York Magazine

20 November 11

On September 16, Mayor Bloomberg did his weekly radio show with John Gambling. The Friday - morning chats are usually fairly sedate. But this time, when Gambling asked Bloomberg about a historic rise in the national poverty rate, the mayor made headlines.

"You have a lot of kids graduating college who can't find jobs," he said. "That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."

READ MORE

Occupy Oakland Rousted Again

By Will Kane, SF Chronicke

20 November 11

Around 8 am a few dozen OPD officers in riot gear raided the Occupy Oakland camp that they set up Saturday night in the Uptown neighborhood at 19th Street and Telegraph Avenue, next to the Fox Theater in Oakland Sunday, November 20, 2010.

READ MORE

Memo: DC Lobbying Firm Spells Out Plan to Undermine OWS

By Jonathan Larsen and Ken Olshansky, MSNBC TV

20 November 11

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program "Up w/ Chris Hayes."

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC's clients, the American Bankers Association.

READ MORE

Occupy Minneapolis Protesters Arbitrarily Evicted From Hennepin County Property

By OccupyMN.org

12 November 11

Cited for "trespassing" after altercation, protestors forcibly removed by police from The People's Plaza during evening, November 19, 2011.

READ MORE

Occupy Oakland Plans Entire West Coast Port Shutdown Day

By OccupyWallStreet.org

20 November 11

Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on 12/12.

READ MORE

UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

19 November 11

In response to the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street and the pepper-spraying of an 89-year-old woman in Seattle I wrote, "Fanning the Flames of the Revolution." Quite simply, I argued that each violent crackdown by the police against non-violent protesters does little more than "fan the flames" of Occupy protests and, in many cases, adds fuel to the fire of the Occupy movement.

It happened again on Friday afternoon.

This time the scene of the crime was the University of California, Davis. Police once again sprayed fuel on the fire in the form of pepper spray, and lots of it. The target?

READ MORE

10 Occupy Protesters Arrested at UC Davis Quad

By Cathy Locke, Ed Fletcher and Laurel Rosenhall, Sacramento Bee

18 November 11

A confrontation between police and Occupy protesters at UC Davis ended Friday afternoon with the arrest of 10 students after police officers used pepper spray to force protesters from an encampment in the campus quad, according to protest supporters and a campus spokeswoman.

READ MORE

Police Defend Use of Force on 'Occupy UC Davis'

By CBS-13 Sacramento

19 November 11

Law enforcement officials defended the tactics used Friday to dismantle an encampment set up by "Occupy Wall Street" sympathizers on the UC Davis quad, a raid that drew accusations of excessive force from students after sitting protesters were subjected to pepper spray at point-blank range.

READ MORE

On Black Friday, a New Target: Occupy the Malls!

By Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, CommonDreams.org

19 November 11

I propose that this Black Friday, Americans should link arms with our family and friends and Occupy the malls of America. Instead of driving ourselves ever deeper into debt with those credit cards, we should protest the corporate policies of outsourcing that have made it so unusual to see American-made products for sale in American stores.

READ MORE

Occupy Wall Street Isn't Going Anywhere

By Adrian Chen, Gawker

19 November 11

Believe it or not, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's para-military crackdown on Zuccotti Park earlier this week only energized the movement, as yesterday's massive day of action proved. Now there's tons of dramatic footage, public outrage, and a new sense of momentum for the 99%.

READ MORE

Occupy Bloomington Rallies, Marches in Solidarity

By Diana Petrova, The Bloomington Alternative

19 November 11

About 75 protesters gathered at IU's Sample Gates on November 17 for a solidarity march on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A mix of students and local residents, the demonstrators condemned corporate influence and the social ills it perpetuates.

As they marched down Kirkwood to the Monroe County Courthouse, the protesters chanted, "The people, united, we will never be defeated" and sang, "Everybody pays their tax, everyone but Goldman Sachs!"

READ MORE

Rights Group Concerned Over Occupy Media Arrests

By Associated Press

19 November 11

The Washington-based Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for authorities to guarantee and protect the practice of journalism at public demonstrations.

The office alleged in a statement that at least three journalists have been assaulted since October by police officers, and two others by participants, in demonstrations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Oakland, California.

READ MORE

Next Up: 'Occupy Congress'

By Greg Sargent, The Washington Post

19 November 11

One of the enduring questions about Occupy Wall Street has been this: Can the energy unleashed by the movement be leveraged behind a concrete political agenda and push for change that will constitute a meaningful challenge to the inequality and excessive Wall Street influence highlighted by the protests?

A coalition of labor and progressive groups is about to unveil its answer to that question. Get ready for "Occupy Congress."

The coalition - which includes unions like SEIU and CWA and groups like the Center for Community Change - is currently working on a plan to bus thousands of protesters from across the country to Washington, where they will congregate around the Capitol from December 5-9, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry tells me in an interview."

READ MORE

Introducing the LRAD Sound Cannon

By Max Blumenthal, Al-Akhbar English

18 November 11

Yesterday, the New York Police Department deployed a strange new weapon against the tens of thousands of demonstrators who converged downtown for the largest protest in Occupy Wall Street's two month history: the LRAD sound cannon. NYPD officers reportedly blasted Occupy protesters with rays from the LRAD cannon while they sang the American national anthem near Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park (photos here), establishing an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that lasted throughout the evening.

Designed and manufactured by the San Diego-based LRAD Corporation, which was formerly known as the American Technology Corporation, the Long Range Acoustic Device sound weapon is the latest innovation in crowd suppression technology. It is portable and powerful, capable of transmitting a focused ray of 140 decibels of sound at a crowd of people, generating painful cranial vibrations so profound ear plugs become useless. According to LRAD promotional material, the sonic weapon "provides military personnel with a powerful, penetrating warning tone that can be followed by clear voice broadcasts in host nation languages to warn and shape the behavior of potential threats."

READ MORE

Looking Ahead: A Handbook for Occupiers on Winter Days

By Henry Banta, Nieman Watchdog

18 November 11

According to live blogging by the Guardian, candle-bearing protesters are currently flooding the bridge. Earlier, Ryan Devereaux reported arrests: The NYPD is moving in to arrest 99 protesters who have chosen to seat themselves in the street at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstrators-which include prominent New York City council members and senior union leaders-are wearing white t-shirts that read 99%, chanting "We are the 99%!"Since the police have turned nasty and winter is coming it might be worth considering adding some indoor activities. Like going to public town hall meetings � the kind that the Tea Party got so much press for misbehaving at.

This is not to suggest an imitation of the Tea Party tactics even though hurling witty bumper sticker slogans can be effective. Remember �death panels?� But getting beyond firing up ignorant hostility takes much more. The trick is to confront the political leadership with the real questions they�d rather avoid. It may also be a good idea to keep the confrontation focused on facts and avoid ideological conflict. Getting to the facts is hard enough without trying to bring the other guys to some kind of spiritual epiphany.

READ MORE

Police Captain Joins Occupy Protest, Arrested

By Kevin Pinner, Death and Taxes

18 November 11

The day was January 17th, 1991.

Today 200-plus people were arrested before 1:00 p.m. in New York City for participating in peaceful, non-violent protests related to Occupy Wall Street, which has seen perhaps its most trying turn of events in the past week. Among those arrested was retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis (pictured above), who said, "All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don't even realize they're being exploited."

Ray Lewis, who retired in 2004, has a lot of interesting things to say, and I want you to hear as much of it as possible.

�They complained about the park being dirty," he said over the OWS Livefeed last night. "Here they are worrying about dirty parks when people are starving to death, where people are freezing, where people are sleeping in subways and they're concerned about a dirty park. That's obnoxious, it's arrogant, it's ignorant, it's disgusting."

READ MORE

Woman Gets Jail for Food-Stamp Fraud; Wall Street Fraudsters Get Bailouts

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

17 November 11

The day was January 17th, 1991.

Had a quick piece of news I wanted to call attention to, in light of the recent developments at Zuccotti Park. For all of those who say the protesters have it wrong, and don't really have a cause worth causing public unrest over, consider this story, sent to me by a friend on the Hill.

Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.

Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.

READ MORE

The Fight Is Far From Over

By Sarah Jaffe, Nick Turse, Sarah Seltzer, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and Kristen Gwynne, AlterNet

18 November 11

New York City showed its billionaire mayor and the rest of the 1 percent that the fight is far from over, just two days after the violent crackdown on Liberty Plaza in the middle of the night Tuesday.

From a 7 a.m. march on Wall Street itself to subway speak-outs around the city, from student walk-outs at universities like CUNY and Columbia to a giant, permitted rally in Foley Square that had a reported 30,000-plus attendees to a march across the Brooklyn Bridge with projections on the Verizon building declaring, "We are Winning" and "Occupy Earth," - the 99 percent showed up around the city to stand in solidarity with the evicted occupiers and express their support for a growing, expanding, living movement.

READ MORE

Occupy Wall Street "Bat-Signal" Projections During Brooklyn Bridge #N17 March

By AnonOps1337

17 November 11

(image: AnonOps1337)

Click here to read the interview with creator of Occupy Wall Street "bat-signal" projections during Brooklyn Bridge #N17 march.

REPORT: Marchers 'Throng' Pedestrian Walkway on Brooklyn Bridge

By Guardian UK

17 November 11

According to live blogging by the Guardian, candle-bearing protesters are currently flooding the bridge. Earlier, Ryan Devereaux reported arrests: The NYPD is moving in to arrest 99 protesters who have chosen to seat themselves in the street at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstrators-which include prominent New York City council members and senior union leaders-are wearing white t-shirts that read 99%, chanting "We are the 99%!"

READ MORE

Occupy LA: Police Arrest Protesters at Bank of America Plaza (Brookfield Properties)

By The Los Angeles Times

17 November 11

Los Angeles police began arresting dozens of Occupy Los Angeles protesters who refused to leave Bank of America Plaza in in the financial district Thursday afternoon in the second major protest of the day. Police ordered the protesters to disperse at 4:10 p.m., a request that was greeted with chants of "Shame on you."

The protesters began taking over the plaza about 1 p.m. after a march from City Hall. They set up tents on a grassy area and locked arms, where they faced down police. But the property owner informed the LAPD that it was closing the park, which is private property, and requested that anybody who remained be arrested for trespassing. READ MORE

Note: The property owner who did not allow the protesters to stay is Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park (liberty Plaza).

Occupy Portland Arrests on Steel Bridge

By The Oregonian

18 November 11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm9yLUqlfY

Bloomberg: The Villain OWS Has Been Waiting For

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig

17 November 11

The day was January 17th, 1991.

In the pantheon of billionaires without shame, Michael Bloomberg, the Wall Street banker-turned-business-press-lord-turned-mayor, is now secure at the top. What is so offensive is that someone who abetted Wall Street greed, and benefited as much as anyone from it, has no compunction about ruthlessly repressing those who dare exercise their constitutional �right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances� that he helped to create.

You would think that a former partner at the investment bank Solomon Brothers, which originated mortgage-backed securities, a man who then partnered with Merrill Lynch in the high-speed computerized trading that has led to so much financial manipulation, would have some sense of his own culpability. Or at least that someone whose Wall Street career left him with a net worth of $19.5 billion would grasp the deep irony of his being the instrument for smashing Occupy Wall Street, the internationally acknowledged symbol of opposition to corporate avarice.

READ MORE

Lessons of a Police Chief: Militarization Is a Mistake

By Norm Stamper, Yes! Magazine

17 November 11

The day was January 17th, 1991.

They came from all over, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world, protesting the economic and moral pitfalls of globalization. Our mission as members of the Seattle Police Department? To safeguard people and property�in that order. Things went well the first day. We were praised for our friendliness and restraint�though some politicians were apoplectic at our refusal to make mass arrests for the actions of a few.

Then came day two. Early in the morning, large contingents of demonstrators began to converge at a key downtown intersection. They sat down and refused to budge. Their numbers grew. A labor march would soon add additional thousands to the mix.

�We have to clear the intersection,� said the field commander. �We have to clear the intersection,� the operations commander agreed, from his bunker in the Public Safety Building. Standing alone on the edge of the crowd, I, the chief of police, said to myself, �We have to clear the intersection.�

READ MORE

REPORT: Thousands of Marchers Converged on Foley Square, Now Approaching Brooklyn Bridge.

By CBS News

17 November 11

A CBS aerial shot showed thousands of protesters and Union members massed at Foley Square. The assembled protesters are now marching to the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge where NYPD is prepared to meet the marchers. SEE the current CBS aerial livestream here.

READ MORE

Fanning the Flames of Revolution

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

17 November 11

The day was January 17th, 1991.

About 500 of us marched out of Lafayette Park, peacefully taking to the streets of Washington, DC without a "permit" to do so. By the time we got back to the White House our numbers had swelled to over 2,000. The reason for our "un-permitted" march? The start of the first Gulf War. We'd gathered in front of the White House and began marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, but were met by a row of mounted police. They ordered us to disperse and clear the street. When we refused, police drove us out of the street with their swinging batons.

Fast forward to August of 2001.

READ MORE

Protester Beaten, Then Arrested at Zuccotti Park, Nov. 17, 2011

By austintool

17 November 11

(image: austintool)

Wall Street: Stocks in Sharp Sell-Off

17 November 11

The CNN report offers as the cause of the unexpected market decline concern over European markets, making little mention of the throngs of protesters and police massed in the streets outside the New York Stock Exchange.

READ MORE

Report Injuries @ Zuccotti Park

17 November 11

The Guardian UK is reporting injuries at Zuccotti Park to protesters and at least one minor injury to a police officer.

"2.13:pm:est: The scene at Zuccotti Park appears to have turned ugly. After earlier allowing protesters to re-enter the square, police have attempted to retake the plaza. There were violent scenes, a number of arrests, and there are reports that protesters and a police officer were injured. Ben Moran, a producer with Al Jazeera English, said police took away an Occupy Wall Street protester, his head covered in blood. The New York Daily News said a police officer was injured. Police on the scene suggested he was stabbed in the hand by a protester wielding glass."

READ MORE

Occupy Protesters March Nationwide; Many Arrested

By Karen Matthews, AP

17 November 11

Thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators took to the streets around the U.S. on Thursday to mark two months since the movement's birth and signal they aren't ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police.

At least 175 people were arrested in New York, many for blocking streets near the New York Stock Exchange. One man was taken into custody for throwing liquid, possibly vinegar, into the faces of several police officers, authorities said. Police in Los Angeles arrested 23 people.

Demonstrations were also planned or under way in such cities as Washington, St. Louis, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore.

READ MORE

31 Occupy Sacramento Court Cases Dropped by Prosecutors

By Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee

17 November 11

Prosecutors on Wednesday dumped 31 cases involving protesters arrested for violating city curfew law in the Occupy Sacramento demonstrations, but left nine on the books to handle people such as Cathy Grahnert, who was taken into custody on multiple occasions.

Grahnert, 57, recently laid off from a legal clinic that served low-income clients, said it was her revulsion over home foreclosures that drew her to Cesar Chavez Plaza as part of the national protest against income disparities and other issues.

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Police Clear Occupy Cal Encampment

By Justin Berton, San Francisco Chronicle

17 November 11

Police surrounded the 40 or so campers at 3:30 a.m. in front of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley's main administration building, and gave them 10 minutes to grab their gear and go. All but two did.

Alex Kim, 24, an English major, was arrested after he stood in front of police officers and flashed peace signs with both hands.

"We're coming back," said Kim, who confronted officers with his cat on his shoulder. Other protesters took the cat as Kim was being led away.

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San Francisco Police Arrest 100 in Bank of America Protest

By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times

17 November 11

Protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement seized a Bank of America branch in the city's financial district Wednesday, a demonstration that forced jittery customers and employees to flee and ended in nearly 100 arrests.

It took about 40 police officers in riot gear nearly four hours to clear the bank, but no one was injured. Police said many of those arrested were UC Santa Cruz students who were protesting fee increases and budget cuts.

Police removed the protesters methodically, placing them in plastic handcuffs, citing them for misdemeanor trespassing and sending them off in police wagons for further processing."

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REPORT: All Entryways to NY Stock Exchange Blockaded

By Occupywallst.org

17 November 11

Thousands marched on Wall Street this morning, blockading all entry points to the New York Stock Exchange. 'People's mics' have been breaking out at barricades, with participants sharing stories of struggling in an unfair economy.

"I paid taxes and took care of my responsibility, and I'm struggling," said participant, Leah Lackner, 27, who had taken the day off work as a mental health counselor to join the protest. Her sign read: "I played by the rules."

57-year-old bond trader Gene Williams joked that he was �one of the bad guys� and said supportively, �The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it's getting wider."

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Occupy Wall Street Needs Michael Bloomberg

By Keith Olbermann, Countdown/Current TV

16 November 11

First, as promised, a special comment on the events of Monday night at Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park:

For the entirety of the life of our nation, democracy has been protected -- not merely by the strenuous efforts of those of us who cherish it, but mostly, and most profoundly, by the limitless stupidity of those who would ration it, keep it for themselves and themselves alone, or destroy it.

The protests that ended the war in Vietnam reached critical mass only in 1970, when Governor James Rhodes of Ohio pounded on a desk at a news conference and called the student protesters at Kent State University un-American. They were not un-American, they were unarmed. And the next day, four were shot and killed by the National Guard and 10 days later, two more were killed at Jackson State.

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Occupy Day of Solidarity Across US

By Paul Harris, Guardian UK

17 November 11

Supporters of the Occupy movement are gearing up for a national day of protest and direct action across America, taking in dozens of events from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles.

Thursday has been declared a day of "solidarity" with the Occupy Wall Street activists in New York after their camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park was raided and dismantled by police. But it is also aimed at highlighting several of the movement's broader aims in terms of income inequality and a desperate need for job creation in America's floundering economy.

The Occupy movement, which began two months ago with the occupation of Zuccotti Park, has since spread to scores of cities and towns across the country, with varying success. It has often rejuvenated left-leaning political activists but also brought down a heavy police response, frequently at the behest of city mayors.

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Repression Expands Resistance

By Ralph Nader, Reader Supported News

17 November 11

From Oakland, California to New York City, the police, ordered by politicians, have smashed through Occupy encampments. Noted for their rigorous non-violence and orderly arrangements - tents with medical assistance, legal aid, libraries, media relations and sanitation controls - the Occupy protestors are being shoved out of their public places all over the country.

The Mayor of Oakland admitted to the BBC in an interview that mayors, police and other security officials have been in contact with each other regarding how to deal with the removal of the protestors, including an 18 mayor conference call she participated in recently.

The police power is always the first response to a mobilized citizen action that refuses to go away. Even a protest against corporate greed and governmental complicity shattering the economy and millions of livelihoods, which has widespread support by the American people, faces police intervention.

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+86 # DPM 2013-05-03 08:48
This should no longer surprise anyone.
 
 
-14 # FDRva 2013-05-03 12:37
Quite right.

Palast promoted Obama's candidacy when the relevant Anglo-American corporations--a nd allied intell agencies--favor ed Barry.

Now 'investigative journalist' Palast has suddenly discovered Barry's well-known pro-Wall Street dark side, right after a small-scale terrorist action--in Boston.

Should we expect that sometime very soon--an untraceable British intelligence asset or two--maybe with an Al-Qaeda profile--will make an attempt on our President's life?

Might we expect widespread Boston-style martial law regardless of how those British intell assets perform?

I am told that many pious members of our intelligence community get unduly aroused when told that the hand of God is waving.
 
 
+17 # engelbach 2013-05-03 18:09
This isn't about Palast, but Obama.

There's nothing in Palast's article that you refute.

You just can't stand to have anyone criticize Obama.
 
 
0 # FDRva 2013-07-30 00:34
Greg and Barry are what we call 'deeply compromised intell community assets..'

Not the sort worth defending on political grounds.

Truth be told, Joe Biden, just might be able to run for President as an incumbent.
 
 
-1 # FDRva 2013-07-30 00:47
I am committed to keeping the elected President of the USA alive. Many of his putative friends are not.

Several of the President's nominal Wall Street allies have a different agenda. Duh.
 
 
+3 # wantrealdemocracy 2013-05-03 22:56
Surprise anyone? No. In a psychological fit of denial, loyal Democrats can not even consider the truth of the situation of the blatant corruption of the Democratic party. They will resist to their death any thought that the Democrats are not the good guys. Anything that Barry Soetoro does is good.
 
 
+11 # RnR 2013-05-04 19:00
Not true. I know plenty of used-to-be loyal democrats who have had epiphanies. More than the democratic party would like I think.
 
 
-1 # karenvista 2013-05-04 19:44
Quoting wantrealdemocracy:
Surprise anyone? No. In a psychological fit of denial, loyal Democrats can not even consider the truth of the situation of the blatant corruption of the Democratic party. They will resist to their death any thought that the Democrats are not the good guys. Anything that Barry Soetoro does is good.


Democrats are agreeing here that Obama is acting like Bush III. Why do you have to make an azz out of yourself with your birtherism?
 
 
+120 # earthmama 2013-05-03 08:49
And a Monsanto lobbyist as the head of the FDA despite all kinds of "clean food" promises in his campaign. What a disappointment. Who/what to trust these days?
 
 
+46 # RLF 2013-05-03 16:06
He is not a disappoinntment ...he is a traitor to those that voted for him and a bastard.
 
 
+13 # RMDC 2013-05-03 17:51
"But thar she blows!"

Oh good. Maybe Obama will get a blow job in the Oval office and he can be impeached.

Clearly he will never be impeached for his real crimes like this appointment or his terrorist wars around the world. I'd settle for a blow job impeachment this time.
 
 
+37 # tswhiskers 2013-05-03 08:55
Mr. Palast, how is it that you aren't in a perpetual state of depression? Thank God for you since you break the stories the U.S. press won't touch. It is no surprise that Obama is in thrall to big money, what politician isn't? And I too was disappointed to hear that he has appointed a billionaire to his cabinet; one of his attractions has been that he grew up away far from eye-bulging wealth. Ok. he's more like a moderate Rep. than a true Dem, which isn't all bad; remember the 1960's and early '70's when the justice system was impossibly liberal and the unions had begun to run amuck, striking every time a contract came up for renewal. Unfortunately now, at a time when we need stronger unions and courts willing to take on bullying Rep. legislation, we bemoan the rosy past that we remember. But, times change and we need to remember that over-conservati ve Reps. are doing themselves in, just as over-liberal Dems. did in the 60's and 70's. We have in Obama a man who I believe is trying to do his best to operate between a bullying Rep. Party and a still weak-minded Dem. Party. And, as I have repeatedly said, whatever he has done, the Reps. would have been and will be far worse for this country. I hope that we the electorate will remember that despite our disappointment with Obama.
 
 
+2 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 21:56
Obama is "more like a moderate Rep...? Really? Who do you think of as a "moderate" republican?

Obama is more like a Tea Party Republican than he is like anything humanoid.

He is totally devoted to ungoverned profiteering, no matter what the cost or to whom.

He has nothing for anybody to the left of Dick Cheney, except pretty rhetoric, which, of course, is nothing but hollow sales talk to the easily sastified & hollow headed left half of the US citizenry.
 
 
+6 # phrixus 2013-05-04 06:53
@tswhiskers: "Ok. he's more like a moderate Rep. than a true Dem."

Certainly beauty (or in this case homeliness) is in the eye of the beholder but the cloak of "moderate" does not even begin to fit this President. He has repeatedly proven himself via his actions (or inactions) to be firmly ensconced with even the extreme right wing factions of the GOP to the neglect of civil rights, justice and plain human decency. He has earned a place for himself in history which can only be described as a not-so-slowly-m oving train wreck.
 
 
+65 # Trueblue Democrat 2013-05-03 09:04
Remember back in 2008 when all the media greats were talking about the "miracle" of the Obama grass-roots movement that was sweeping the country?

Couldn't find anyone writing about who Obama was or what he stood far. No, all we got was that Obama was a shoo-in thanks to the millions of little folk that wanted him and were sending him $5 and $10 donations.

I can't believe that mega-buck media pundits didn't know then what is so clearly apparent now: that Obama was a creature of mega-buck banksters and Wall Street fraudsters.

I can't believe and I don't -- not for one minute.
 
 
+27 # Majikman 2013-05-03 10:28
How bad and slimy does one have to be to use Goldman Sachs as a cover? "...reducing her to hosting an election fundraiser at her Gold Coast digs, which she had to bill as a Goldman Sachs PAC event".
If there are any of us still harboring any doubts or even hope that Obama is on the side of the 99%, I submit that you are so far up da Nile that you're in jeopardy of being crocodile lunch.
I've wondered who Obama's "rabbi" was and now we know...a piece of garbage too toxic for a dump.
I'm done with him and most of the dems. Check out the article in Truth-out for Apr 30..."Another Government is Necessary".
 
 
+22 # DeadlyClear 2013-05-03 12:21
 
 
+12 # Phlippinout 2013-05-03 14:25
Thats because our media fills us up with garbage and lets the good stuff go under the carpet. This is exactly what the media is supposed to do when owned by our slave masters, the rich. We are supposed to know very little and spend lots of money. Feed the pig, feed the pigs everyday of your hard working life so they can own your mind, your thoughts and your inability to think out of the box ever again.
 
 
+82 # Linda 2013-05-03 09:14
Frankly I think Obama has made too many of these poor decisions to be just a mistake on his part!
I think we have been scammed into thinking we had voted for someone on our side !
I am done with voting until someone runs who really has a liberal agenda and really is on the side of the average citizen !
What a disapointment Obama is turning out to be . Cuts to SS,appointing crooks to his cabinet, I hate to see whats next on his agenda .
Somehow I think whatever is next it will be aimed at the most vulnerable in our society like it always is !
I for one will not make any more excuses for Obama's decision making!He is not the man I thought he was !
 
 
+50 # geohunt1 2013-05-03 10:02
Linda you are right. In 2008 (and 2012) Barak Obama told we of the GRASS ROOTS that we were giving record amounts of money to his campaign; and we were. But so were the millionaires and billionaires giving record amounts of money to his campaign. WHAT A SCAM!

Where are the liberals when we need them? Well, maybe they were being gerrymandered out of office by the Republicans (like Dennis Kuchinich) at the same time.

I hate having to choose the lesser of two evils.

I also hate getting scammed!
 
 
+28 # cymricmorty 2013-05-03 11:09
Ditto, ditto, ditto. I was a True Believer and donated what I could to his campaign (I'm a break-even wage slave). Linda is right. He's made too many horrific choices now to write off as mistakes. The best thing I can say about Obama right now is that he's not Romney.
 
 
+11 # theory?opinion 2013-05-03 12:14
Or chased out of politics because people make fun of their enthusiasm (Dean). How we ended up with Kerry running in that election is beyond me. I guess he was the most wooden candidate we could find after Gore got hosed by the Supreme Court.
 
 
+3 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-04 17:29
So don't fall for the evils of either of those lessers.
 
 
-23 # Robt Eagle 2013-05-03 10:27
Wow, you folks are finally seeing him for what he is. Obama is exactly what the Republicans and FOX News had said all along. I guess the truth is something that you avoid until it hits YOU where it hurts. Start listening to the TRUTH and stop with all these promises of helping the little guy, Obama is sinister, but sure talks a good game.
 
 
+26 # djnova50 2013-05-03 13:49
If Obama is exactly what the Republicans and FOX News had said all along, why would they be so strongly against him? It makes no sense to me. What he wants is pretty much what the Republicans say they want. Why are they against him?
 
 
+18 # cymricmorty 2013-05-03 14:21
I'd never know if FOX "News" was right or not because I don't watch that lying media extension of the republican party.
 
 
+15 # womyn 2013-05-03 13:55
Obama is just as corrupt and part of the same club!
They are all on the same league, just differing teams.
All corrupt.
 
 
+13 # tswhiskers 2013-05-03 14:18
You are wrong! Obama is indeed right of center, but he is not the socialist monster the Right-wing media make him out to be, nor is he sinister. He is in an impossible situation, having to deal with a Rep. Party that doesn't give a damn for anyone except wealthy and corporate interests and with the maddening super majority necessary to pass anything in the Senate. Reps. are inhuman in their indifference to real suffering and need. Obama is a political realist and too prone to compromise. Fox News and most conservative media are nothing but propaganda. If the Reps. take over the federal govt. they will give huge tax breaks to the top 5% or so, gut funding for education and all social programs, and tax everyone else to the hilt to pay for the wars and tax giveaways that they want. This country will become like Mexico and S. American countries where the top 2% own all the land and live like kings off the backs of the peasant farmers. Here, instead of farming, burger-flipping will be respectable work except for the jobs that can't be outsourced to Bangladesh. If this is your idea of Heaven on earth, you're welcome to it; the rest of us want a little more from life.
 
 
+15 # Selwick 2013-05-03 17:12
tswhiskers, it's all a big laughing game for them. When they all meet at the golf course - and all includes the deceiver of the century - they are laughing their behinds off about how they are scr.... the little people. All just a show for us to think we have a choice. We don't!
 
 
+3 # karenvista 2013-05-04 20:06
Quoting Selwick:
tswhiskers, it's all a big laughing game for them. When they all meet at the golf course - and all includes the deceiver of the century - they are laughing their behinds off about how they are scr.... the little people. All just a show for us to think we have a choice. We don't!


Wasn't it Boris Berezovsky who was trying to propose a fake two party system like we have here in the U.S. to Putin?

He explained that they could hold all the power, make all the decisions, control all the money, campaign for office and pass it back and forth and the stupid people would think that they actually had a choice.

Apparently Putin likes things the way they are since Berezovsky was found hanged in his bathroom just outside of London.
 
 
+10 # engelbach 2013-05-03 18:14
It's already happening, with Obama in the driver's seat and the Democratic Party of today to the right of the GOP of yesteryear.
 
 
+6 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 22:01
You have to be a paid Obama PR staffer. No one else would devote so much effort to apologizing for such a total sleazy pile of dog doo.
 
 
+8 # phrixus 2013-05-04 07:02
He certainly has a choice on whom he appoints to various posts e.g. Pritzker. Why then go with all these snakes?
 
 
+16 # Michael Lee Bugg 2013-05-03 15:14
They said hewas a Socialist, not a 'help only the rich at any cost' capitalist. You are correct only in that he is not what hee was potraid to be. You still don't see what he really is either! I had my eyes blinded only until he picked his first cabinet and then left unemployed workers and people losing their homes high and dry while he pursued his version of the 'health insurance protection Act' a.k.a. "Obamacare"! And for the record, I see Hillary as more of the same. She is no FDR or even LBJ either!
 
 
+9 # engelbach 2013-05-03 18:13
You're a little confused.

The right accuses Obama of being a socialist and a class warrior, not a tool of Wall Street and the banks.

That criticism comes from those of us who are still on the left.
 
 
+7 # gaby2122 2013-05-03 10:58
Had people actually paid attention to his record and what he actually said they would have noticed he was at best a centrist on a good day.
 
 
+21 # womyn 2013-05-03 13:58
I didn't vote for Obama, nor McCain, nor Romney.
They are all on the same corrupt league!

Until the US allows third and forth parties, there will be no change. The fascism, gov't in bed with corps, changes, there will be no improvement.

More and more, the 99% suffer!
 
 
+15 # Mrcead 2013-05-03 09:38
It's an exclusive club and the guest book is quite full.
 
 
+10 # womyn 2013-05-03 13:59
Yes, and that club is the Bilderberg club!
The globalists!
 
 
+28 # obx1212 2013-05-03 10:15
I worked for Senator Obama's election in 2008. What a disappointment from the git-go. Or is it Gitmo. There have been too many disappointments to catalogue and so many others have already. Just let me say that the "lesser of two evils" is still evil. I voted for Jill Stein and I'm proud of it. It's too bad that not enough people did so.
 
 
+15 # Susan W 2013-05-03 11:45
I too voted for Stein. What I find hard to stomach is all the people who were duped by O the second time around. Well we are all now stuck with their lesser evil.
 
 
+16 # djnova50 2013-05-03 13:52
In 2008, I voted for Obama. In 2012, I voted for Jill Stein. The thing with most 3rd party candidates is that they don't get the public exposure that the candidates from the Democrat and Republican parties.
 
 
+25 # giraffee2012 2013-05-03 10:46
All quiet on the black front? Few, if any, racist, birther, etc remarks against President Obama. Is he part of the club or is he threatened by "them" and afraid for his and his family's lives?

Is he another Rove puppet? There is definitely something fishy here.

And, btw, where are the jobs, infrastructure repairs, education money, etc?

With our eyes wide open we watch (quietly, silently) as the Nazi like people take over everything we have or could have. And there is no USA to rescue us as the USA did for "allies" in WWII.

I hope Elizabeth Warren or somebody with her standards runs for President. The PRESS is pushing for Hilary by gigantic numbers BUT, as good as she could be, I believe she is too connected to the same creeps that are over-taking our government (have taken - maybe more accurate.

YOU and I can keep voting for ONLY a Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and a handful of other Congress people who we KNOW are on the "straight and narrow" - for the 99%.

Don't hesitate to call you reps and Senators with your opinions and threats to vote them out unless they vote the WAY YOU WANT THEM TO VOTE (this is actually working in some very RED states over the gun registration voting)
 
 
+3 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 22:07
Agree with all but voting for any Bernie Sanders. For all his happy talk, he is blindly devoted to that Pentagon mega-waste boondoggle, the F-35, that trillions of dollars in, still doesn't fly well enough to call even remotely anything like a promising
military tool.

The Democratic Party is so devoted to Hillary it is sickening; she is just as devoted to Wall Street as Billy and Barack.
 
 
+7 # ganymede 2013-05-03 10:50
So what are we suppose to do? Withdraw our support for Obama and insure that the out and out fascists take over the country. That doesn't seem very smart. I'm beginning to think that it's time to build up the Green Party, and do everything possible to let Obama know how unhappy we are with much of what he's doing. Also, not to forget that he is keeping us out of more Bush-type wars and he is the first American politician to at least open the door and get us on the road to socialized medicine. A lot of the anti-Obama progressive/lib eral people are being irresponsible in doing withever they can to destroy Obama. They truly underestimate how crazy and awful the rightwingers are. These people in their anger, hatred and confusion would destroy our country and the world in their desire to get rid of Obama.
 
 
+17 # womyn 2013-05-03 14:03
Obama is a fascist ruler.
Pay close attention.

Until Americans do their due diligence, their homework, and pay close attention to "independent media" not corporate controlled media (including PBS), there will be no change.

Americans have proven themselves to be gullible and easily influenced by propaganda (hello! Weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq? 80-90% were in support of the wars!
 
 
+6 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 22:08
RE: "So what are we suppose to do? Withdraw our support for Obama and insure that the out and out fascists take over the country."

Obama IS an out-and-out fascist!

Where have you been for the last four and a half years?

99% of his efforts are on behalf of Wall Street, if not more.
 
 
+16 # James Marcus 2013-05-03 11:33
'Breaks' into.....Give me a break!!
That is, no 'Breaking' necessary! How about 'buys into'?. 'Welcomed into'?...etc
It's 'payback time', in American Politics, as usual. Nothing new. Ho Hum......I hope no one reading this column is shocked, or surprised. More Representation for the .01%, like they need more...
Mind you he has this right, to appoint whom he pleases.
How about HIM? He is the 'one', and The Bought-and-Paid -For ....Cronies in Congress.
All need replacement. The System is Broken.
'Piecemeal correction' of this Absurdity, is pointless.
 
 
+20 # womyn 2013-05-03 14:42
I agree 100%!

Anyone who still holds onto the belief system that Obama or the Cronies in Congress have our, the 99%, best interests at heart has their head in the sand!

Congress just passed a bill which Obama signed that ALLOWS CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS TO USE INSIDER TRADING TO THEIR FINANCIAL ADVANTAGE, NO PENALTY. However, if you or I did it (remember what happened to Martha Stewart!), we'd be committing a crime and punished and imprisoned.
 
 
+16 # MsAnnaNOLA 2013-05-03 11:38
We have black box voting in this country we can't have a recount of any vote because most states have electronic voting systems that can be hacked rather easily according to computer science experts.

So how do we even know that the two party oligopoly is not just trading off the presidency every eight years? We don't know if our votes even count at all. In the last presidential election the corporate controlled media did not even bother doing exit polls in my state and many others that are not battle ground states.

I find it very curious that there is hardly any light between the actions of the two corporate oligopoly parties. Real independents like Buddy Roemer are not even given a slot in the debates. The oligopoly parties do not want an independent person who might get support because it would expose the fact that there are other ways beside the corporatist way.
 
 
+12 # kitster 2013-05-03 11:50
who now believes that obama cares anything about the "middle class" (read people one paycheck away from poverty)? who now believes that obama doesn't care more about cash than anything? and the "piggy bankers" like pritzker...they own the presidency and congress combined.

oh, and did i forget the ownership of a majority of the supreme court?

in fact, i heard there's a new proposal to change the great seal of the u.s. in one of the eagle's talons will be a pig and in the other a wad of cash.

power to the plutocracy, to be accurate, should also replace e pluribus unum.
 
 
-5 # FDRva 2013-05-03 12:00
I think Palast is the best investigative reporter of his generation.

That is a polite insult that identifies Palast's across-the-pond intell community origins--and suggests that the gentleman knew all about the stuff he is reporting today--about the Pritzger family, Obama and corruption--rou ghly 5 years ago.

Funny that the British agencies who apparently employ him--choose to burn Palast--and Obama--now.

Should we expect an impending 'lone assassin' attack on the President?

Perhaps by a 'terrorist' with an impeccable Al-Qaeda resume--that is the way Brit agencies do things--unless they farm the job out to their junior partners--the Saudis--or maybe some desperate Israeli network.

If I have said it once--I have said it twice--Presiden t Obama has much to fear from his alleged intelligence community friends.
 
 
+3 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 22:12
Geez, are you a constantly recycling recording of yourself?

You already said that stuff above.
 
 
+1 # Lennie 2013-05-03 12:29
I give up.
 
 
-6 # poetmarinerray 2013-05-03 13:35
Obama's pick for his new Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzer(longtim e Obama political supporter) could be the surprise 'test' to see if Republicans are really serious about strengthening the U S economic position in the world . Keep in mind that Obama also nominated Michael Froman as U S trade representative( a far more important position vis-a-vis our relations with the fastest growing developing Third World economies. )

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/penny-pritzker-commerce-secretary-90854.html#ixzz2SG9cmuoS
 
 
+2 # phrixus 2013-05-04 07:14
"...could be the surprise 'test' to see if Republicans are really serious about strengthening the U S economic position in the world.

You cannot possibly be serious. This is just cleverly disguised satire, right?
 
 
+19 # womyn 2013-05-03 13:54
Unlike Obama's predecessor, more than 1500 banker criminals were arrested, prosecuted, convicted
and imprisoned due to their criminal roles in the S&L scandal.

The S&L scandals are a drop in the bucket in comparison to the 2008 Wall Street Bankster's economic collapse
which has harmed billions of innocent
persons world wide, and continues to harm folks, deplete pensions, etc., etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Golly, gee-whiz! I am so shocked that Obama would appoint a billionare bankster into his cabinet.
(That statement was sarcasm! )
Of course, Obama would appoint a bankster to his cabinet and continue to protect Wall Street Banksters.
By the way, to date, not one single corrupt banker has been arrested, much less prosecuted. Further, new laws have been implemented to protect these banksters.
 
 
+4 # mim 2013-05-03 19:51
As if that weren't enough, this news has a snowball in hell's chance of reaching the mass of American people, even if they're sensible people of good will. I woldn't know about it if I weren't on the RSN e-mail list.

Has there been a 1934-style business plot that we don't know about?
 
 
+5 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 22:15
You can always send the link to your friends and contacts.

How else does "word of mouth" news get around?
 
 
+1 # mim 2013-05-03 20:13
I have one question: was this a recess appointment, or was the Senate allowed to have its say?
 
 
+5 # Walter J Smith 2013-05-03 22:15
The Senate is so deep in moral & ethical coma it long ago reduced itself into a club of self-promoting & ineffectual grand standers.
 
 
+7 # Linwood 2013-05-05 10:09
The only differences between the Dems and Repubs lie in relatively minor social policies, such as access to birth control, gay rights, etc. On the big important issues that affect everyone, both parties are owned by the banksters, their lobbyists write the laws, and the people have no representation. It's how the system works. I don't know what Obama stands for, or truly believes in, but I do know that nothing will change until the system does. Let's not waste our breath criticising, let's put our heads together and change the system. Solidarity!
 
 
+1 # corey 2013-05-05 13:28
Perfectly stated!!!
 
 
+7 # corey 2013-05-05 13:28
Linwood said it perfectly so I'll repeat it if you missed it:


Linwood 2013-05-05 08:09
The only differences between the Dems and Repubs lie in relatively minor social policies, such as access to birth control, gay rights, etc. On the big important issues that affect everyone, both parties are owned by the banksters, their lobbyists write the laws, and the people have no representation. It's how the system works. I don't know what Obama stands for, or truly believes in, but I do know that nothing will change until the system does. Let's not waste our breath criticising, let's put our heads together and change the system. Solidarity!
 
 
+3 # indianfirst 2013-05-05 16:52
Analysis of the Obama and Clinton senatorial voting record showed Obama on a scatter map to be to the right of Clinton. And Clinton was a known conservative on some financial policy issues. I think it troubled progressives that we were likely to get one of two pretty conservative democrats. Political comparisons made the choices tough. Would Clinton have been better? Would she have won over McCain or Romney? Business had no big worries from Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, or John Kennedy for that matter. There have been no progressives to win the Democratic nomination or run in a third party successfully. This country is known across the seas as a capitalist enterprise. We are hogs of consumption and as long as we are willing to step on the rest of the world, we will not achieve a progressive political dominance.
 
 
-1 # Malcolm 2013-07-06 17:29
I have some female friends who voted for the warmongering man-woman-hilar y, for nomination as the demoratic party's presidential candidate. Know why? "It may be the only time before I die that we will have a chance to have a female president"

(!)

Two of these gals are, or were anyway, active in the local OFFICIAL Democratic Party. I THOUGHT they were politically savvy, so this was pretty astounding.

I feel sure that there were plenty of people who voted for Obombya at least in large part due to he's supposedly "black".

This whole situation makes me even more than normally convinced that primates are incapable of governing themselves.
 

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