Tuesday, October 4, 2011

'Occupy Wall Street': Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton

UPDATE: Occupy Milwaukee: Protest Details
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Occupy Wall Street is branching out across the nation.

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.

Yippee!

Read proposed OFFICIAL DEMANDS of Occupy Wall Street.

1. Eliminate Corporate Rights as Persons

2. Repeal of the Patriot Act

3. Forced Acquisition of the Federal Reserve for $1Billion USD by the US Congress

4. Restructure Campaign Finance Legislation

5. Real Health Care Reform Real Health Care Reform

6. End the War on Drugs

7. Education Reform

8. National Repeal of Capital Punishment

9. End Gender Discrimination - Equal Pay

10. Office of the Citizen

11. The United States Must Comply With International Human Rights Law

12. Rights of victims must take precedent in courts

13. Prosecutions of the guilty

Keep in mind that these are proposed DEMANDS.
The Sovereign People's Movement, represented nationally through the people occupying the various Liberty Square locations across this great country, have laid out and democratically submitted and are currently voting on the list of following Demands to then be distilled into one Unified Common demand of the people.

Read their list of grievances.
Below are grievances from the group who has been protesting in New York's financial district this past week:
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

Oh, good grief.

The occupiers are demanding change now or else!

Question: Or else what?

I wonder.

In any event, the insanity is coming to Wisconsin.

(Haven't we had more than our share of protesters and weirdo demonstrations already this year? Yes, we have.)

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Local offshoots of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration that has taken over a park in New York's financial district are being organized in Wisconsin.

Participants have rallied near Wall Street for three weeks against what they perceive as corporate greed and economic inequality. A flash point sparked over the weekend when about 700 participants were arrested as they marched in vehicle travel lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Organizers in Milwaukee, Madison and Appleton are planning rallies Oct. 15 as part of an International Day of Action in support of the protests.

Organizers of the Milwaukee event plan a rally at the Chase Bank branch in downtown Milwaukee, according to Facebook page set up for the event. Those in Madison plan a rally "on or around" Oct. 15 at the State Capitol square. Both pages were linked to a site put together by organizers of the Wall Street rally that was featured in Monday's Wall Street Journal.

The Occupy Milwaukee Facebook page created a week ago had nearly 2,000 followers Monday afternoon while Madison's page had more than 2,200 followers. A page for Appleton has more than 500 followers.

Chase spokeswoman Christine Holevas said the bank was aware of the rally being planned for downtown Milwaukee.

“The branch at Water and Wisconsin isn’t open on Saturdays,” she said.

Yeah, "occupy" Chase Bank.

"Occupy" the State Capitol Square.

I think this is kind of funny, but also annoying if the protesters disrupt traffic or damage property.

I don't think it would take much for these loons to become violent.

Instead of bitching and moaning, the Occupy Wall Street crowd should expend their energy to achieve something positive. They should volunteer at some charitable organizations, do something concrete to help someone in need.

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