Posted by Guest (Post 416712)

What is absurd is that you highlighted the part of my post where I said I was finding common ground and then put in YOUR two cents of suggesting that it was selling dope and excreting on police cars.

There are a lot of posters here that I disagree with but still respect.

Think about what you said. You basically accused me of being a dope-selling, mentally handicapped indigent.

Yeah. I take offense at that.

Posted by Guest (Post 416136)

Tea party people=mostly employed normal Americans.

Occupiers= mostly unemployable bums and dropouts who will never be good citizens.

Posted by Guest (Post 416712)

What is absurd is that you highlighted the part of my post where I said I was finding common ground and then put in YOUR two cents of suggesting that it was selling dope and excreting on police cars.

There are a lot of posters here that I disagree with but still respect.

Think about what you said. You basically accused me of being a dope-selling, mentally handicapped indigent.

Yeah. I take offense at that.

Posted by Guest (Post 417224)

Where do you get your information?
Some months ago Greenspan called this a two tiered recovery. The middle class is not participating. We have lost eight million jobs in this recession that have not yet come back. The rest of us have to endure with zero percent raises and a fear that things won't get better. Many of these people that you call occupiers had solid jobs ten years ago or were in college five years ago. They are not bums they are extremely unlucky.

I think that you right wingers are devoid of empathy for this new underclass because you are ignorant of the new economic reality. Your parents are no longer around to tell you just how bad things were in the Depression.

Posted by Guest (Post 417239)

We are ignorant? LOL Have you read some of the left's posts here? Have you really dissected yours?:loco:

Posted by Guest (Post 417224)

Where do you get your information?
Some months ago Greenspan called this a two tiered recovery. The middle class is not participating. We have lost eight million jobs in this recession that have not yet come back. The rest of us have to endure with zero percent raises and a fear that things won't get better. Many of these people that you call occupiers had solid jobs ten years ago or were in college five years ago. They are not bums they are extremely unlucky.

I think that you right wingers are devoid of empathy for this new underclass because you are ignorant of the new economic reality. Your parents are no longer around to tell you just how bad things were in the Depression.[/QUOTE]

Yes, Mr. Katz' mother is still around. She is pretty sharp too...she says "None of this foolishness of protesting went on. People who needed help were helped by the community. Everyone worked hard at whatever work they could find. People were still clean and behaved themselves...and they made do with what they had."
Her cousing is 90ish and pretty sharp also. Will get her opinion when she joins us for Thanksgiving!

Posted by Guest (Post 417255)

You may want to ask her how bad things were and would have been if it wasn't for Roosevelt.

Posted by Guest (Post 417255)

You may want to ask her how bad things were and would have been if it wasn't for Roosevelt.

Posted by Guest (Post 417344)

Don't try to put me on the defensive. There is a great deal of misery out there through no fault of the victims, and you have no sympathy for them.
Put this in context. You've called these people bums.

They are instead victims of a shrinking share of an economy that is growing painfully slowly. I submit that you are safe in your sunny utopia and have a fundamental disconnect with the problems of America because you have no reason to look at the economic realities.

Posted by Guest (Post 417355)

I said the people who were at that occupy were bums, not the people who are trying to make a life for themselves. I lived through the Carter years, I know hard times. Waiting in lines for hours for gas in my 10 year old car, no cell phone, iphone, ipad, color television, food stamps, welfare money.

Posted by Guest (Post 417398)

I said that the occupiers are those who had jobs or who were promised jobs at graduation. These occupiers have lost hope. Our education system prepares people for jobs at corporations and little else. My education didn't prepare me to open a store and move inventory. My education didn't teach me how to do day trading. It prepared me for a job in one of America's thousands of corporations.

Posted by Guest (Post 417355)

I said the people who were at that occupy were bums, not the people who are trying to make a life for themselves. I lived through the Carter years, I know hard times. Waiting in lines for hours for gas in my 10 year old car, no cell phone, iphone, ipad, color television, food stamps, welfare money.

Posted by Guest (Post 417422)

I've yet to see anyone respond directly when I've pointed out that, when I went to Occupy Boston, I saw cops, firefighters, teachers, *veterans* and kids with degrees (and I say 'kids' because I'm 49 and they were in their 20s). Are all of THEM 'bums'?

Posted by Guest (Post 417636)

So by the same toke, I should listen to all the "Tea Partiers are racist bigots" characterizations?

In other words, you're going to believe sensationalist news reporting instead of eye-withness accounts?

You're going to concentrate on a few isolated incidents and ignore the HUNDREDS of other protests that are going on without a hitch?

I saw *two* Communists in Boston. TWO. They were basically being laughed at by the rest of the crowd - one was the ridiculously-name "Anarchist Communist" and the other was carrying around a Che Guevara flag and *every* *single* other protestor I talked to wondered if that guy even KNEW what ended up happening to Che.

Posted by Guest (Post 417636)

So by the same toke, I should listen to all the "Tea Partiers are racist bigots" characterizations?

In other words, you're going to believe sensationalist news reporting instead of eye-withness accounts?

You're going to concentrate on a few isolated incidents and ignore the HUNDREDS of other protests that are going on without a hitch?

I saw *two* Communists in Boston. TWO. They were basically being laughed at by the rest of the crowd - one was the ridiculously-name "Anarchist Communist" and the other was carrying around a Che Guevara flag and *every* *single* other protestor I talked to wondered if that guy even KNEW what ended up happening to Che.

Posted by Guest (Post 418831)

All of you anti OWS need to stop and think about what words you are using and what you call people. Words mean things and you are judging people you don't know. In fact, there is only one entity who can judge and it's not you.

The media skews news and depending on your political belief, it's easy to find a media that supports your belief. I'm assuming Fox is your news of choice. Of course, I don't watch Fox because it doesn't correlate with my beliefs. Yet to each our own because I don't judge.

I am a retiree who has an advanced degree. I'm in the 99% and live here in The Villages. I am not a druggie, hippie, yahoo, or doper. I do not smack my partner nor do I knock my partner to the ground. I don't have a little head (at least I don't think I do) nor am I wimpy or try to create chaos. I also do not consider myself part of a drama group.

I am well respected among my peers. I am a board member of a professional group club. I have grown children who are productive and successful. I have grandchildren whom are the sunshine in my life.

I may be your neighbor whom you socialize with and like...being unaware of my stance because I don't discuss it for fear of getting into a nasty debate and being judged.

Don't judge me because I believe in, support, and participate in OWS. In fact, I will be at LSL tomorrow night protesting. Come visit our group and talk to us. I may even hug you...because I don't judge you even if we disagree.

We are individuals who can believe however we want. I am not going to get nasty and call you names because I am on opposite sides. It's too bad all of us can't accept opposite points of view without putting nasty tags or words to each other.

Shame on you!

Posted by Guest (Post 418823)

This is my first post but my wife has been keeping me posted. We are one of the 99% that protest down at the square. She's been called a hippie, part of a drama group, whimpy, a doper and so on and so on. That's fine. You can call us whatever you want. The reality is, we're trying to make a statement on your behalf. I know, I know, most of you are republicans and conservative and don't like liberals. But, I'm thinking that most of you aren't in the 1% and probably not even in the 5%. If you are, good for you. If you're not, the republicans are looking to increase your medicare costs and cut your social security. You don't have to believe me, you can search on John Boehner quotes. Eric Cantor too. My wife and I happen to believe that the bottom 155 million people in America should have more than 2 1/2% of the nations wealth. We believe that 12% of American's shouldn't go to bed hungry every night. We happen to believe that in the richest country in the world that 1.5 million people are living on the streets. But, you can believe what you want to. This is America after all. I won't call you names. I'll just feel sorry for you and your lack of empathy for people who are struggling.

Posted by Guest (Post 418954)

Richie: Have you seen the video of the Berekley 'break up'? The one where the cop starts wailing on people with his club when they are just standing ther. Oh, and for good measure, he picks on the shortest woman in the line - a 4' 10" Asian student instead of the beefier males around her.

There's a LOT of blame to go around.

Posted by Guest (Post 418954)

Richie: Have you seen the video of the Berekley 'break up'? The one where the cop starts wailing on people with his club when they are just standing ther. Oh, and for good measure, he picks on the shortest woman in the line - a 4' 10" Asian student instead of the beefier males around her.

There's a LOT of blame to go around.

Posted by Guest (Post 419005)

I won't blame the undermanned and crowd harassed police that are just trying to keep the peace in difficult circumstances. The only other outcome would be complete anarchy.

If I was a cop on the line and I was threatened I would immediately make my power known to make my antagonist think again about escalating the situation. I would make it clear that his head is the first one I crack open if he persists in fanning the flames.

The biggest danger to the keeping of the peace is for the police to show weakness.

You didn't mention the threat to burn down NYC, and Macy's in particular. Why?

Posted by Guest (Post 420026)

Bill: I have no trouble believing that there's a lot there at OWS that doesn't represent you.

But you *are* one of the 99% when it comes to the effects of things like obscene bailout and golden parachute packages, ever increasing drug costs to finance executive compensation, lobbyists from these same corporations buying influence that you could never hope to have access to.

It's not about confiscating wealth. It's far more about curbing the unbridled avarice that has become evident in our society.

We look at other countries and their high tax rates and laugh at them. It used to be that we could point to so many things that we had better than they did - but those things are going away. Look at the economies in Northern Europe. They have higher standards of living, better health care, lower unemployment, etc. It's damn scary when you look at it.

Have we spent so much time patting ourselves on the back for WWII that we forgot some of what GOT us to that lofty position?

Our infrastructure is falling apart, health care costs are going through the roof and have been for 20+ years, education is becoming optional (sometimes because we threw so much 'aid' at the problem and the prices just kept being hiked) - we are falling behind. The only thing it seems we're still #1 in is the stereotypical fatcats. What other country tolerates the behavior we do? The bank bailouts were just one part of it. At least with the bailout of GM and Chrysler, it helped repair a dysfunctional MANUFACTURING sector. The banks? They got their bailouts and continued on their merry ways without so much as a 'thank you'.

You ARE the 99% in one way or another. I wouldn't expect you to agree with everything that was going on in the parks, just as I don't. But when you look at some of the charts that have been produced and see the kind of vile corruption in Washington - you have to wonder what it's going to take to even SLOW DOWN what's going on - much less stop and FIX it.

The "99%" is a slogan - I grant you that. But these days you need a slogan to at least start to catch someone's attention.

Take a look at who some of the 99% were in New York City:

The Philadelphia police lieutenant or captain: http://i.imgur.com/rFPgD.jpg

Or how about something from https://www.democracynow.org/2011/11...py_wall_street



That's right - a retired New York Supreme Court justice.

That's one reason I've been "defending", if you can call it that, these protests. I haven't seen such a wide range of people since the Vietnam protests - and that's a little fuzzy since I was young and living in San Francisco at the time.

Posted by Guest (Post 420130)

The OWS protests are farcical. These people couldn't find their arse in the dark with both hands. They have no coherent message and demonstrate with their pitiful congregations that their vision is unworkable and anarchy.

A great article in the WSJ says it better than me: "The Brain Dead Left"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...p_mostpop_read