While much has been posted here, [and to my mind the most comprehensive source for info, data and opinion on OccupyWallStreet is here at the Daily Kos] not much is known about what the point is. There seems to be a mish mash of ideas being mulled over as to the actual goals.
Here's October2011's [DC gathering] demands:
1.Tax the rich and corporations
2. End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
3. Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
4. End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
5. Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
6. Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
7. Get money out of politics
http://october2011.org/....
Here's the Coup Media poll wish list so far [NOT formally associated with the General Assembly of OccupyWallStreet, but people are finding it at the top of google so it is very relevant, whether we like it or not]:
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 Political Campaign Finance Programs
5. Forgive Student Loan Debt and reconstruct the education system
6. End the War on Drugs
7. Free Education Kindergarten Through College
8. National Repeal of Capital Punishment
9. Equal rights for women
10. Office of the Citizen
11. The United States must sign and ratify all human rights agreements with all other countries
12. Rights of victims must take precedent in courts.
13. Prosecutions of the guilty
The http://coupmedia.org/....
And what do all of these things have in common?
They require legislation. Or they require elections of people willing to support legislation, which TAKES TIME. We really don't have the luxury of time. Lots of pointy heads say we're headed toward a greater recession this 4th quarter, right in the middle of winter......we don't have time to be all egalitarian and lovey flowery about it. Previous estimates of the amount of toxic assets were at $60-$120T, now sums as great as $600T are being bounced about. [Keeping in mind the the GDP of the entire planet is $60T.]
So what can we do now? We can support Eric Schneiderman, AG of New York in his investigations of the MERS issue and Housing Crisis/Bubble. I thought this was OccupyWallStreet. Why ask for the ERA amendment to be ratified? It's been on the shelf for 30 years. Why ask for any of these things when a sixth of the country is on food stamps? Why ask for these things when 11 million mortgages are underwater? Why ask for these things when there are tent cities of foreclosed families? Why ask for these things when we have 18% real unemployment?
We need to look under the rock that is Wall Street. We can do that now. Right now.
Eric Schneiderman is uniquely situated to lead the charge on the horrendous fraud on Wall Street. Other State Attorneys General, Beau Biden of Delaware, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada [Nevada being slammed by the foreclosure crisis like no other state], and Jack Conway of Kentucky are all ready to refuse the settlement being offered on the Federal level to the tune of about $20B. That's a slap on the wrist when it is estimated some $2T to $6T was sucked out of the citizenry's collective wealth through the housing bubble.
Ultimately, all of our woes lead back to Wall Street. Globally. We hear about Greece getting to feel more pain, their public commons sold off to satisfy those greedy bankers that gambled and lost and now they don't want to pay up......that's Wall Street. Iceland went bankrupt on derivatives.....they went through Wall Street. Greece's woes will put pressure on us to prop up the Euro via Germany.....with what money? Ours of course, the Republicans are not demanding higher tax rates on the wealthy, just the rank and file......we're going to prop up the Euro because the wealthy siphoned off the social safety nets already. More austerity. Now they're coming for our commons, disaster relief and our social safety nets to pay off their bad bets. But it all went through Wall Street, carved up and sliced and diced and thrown into many smaller pots so as to obscure their treachery.
It's all tied up in Wall Street and we need to investigate and prosecute and shine a light on the theft.
Flashing your boobs and wanting a hippie utopia is not going to sell. I know it's true that the majority encamped is definitely more serious, but the easier task for our rag tatters of what's left of a Fourth Estate is plucking the low hanging fruit, and it runs with it.every.damn.time. So cut it out.
Right now the swells are comfortably insulated in their glass towers doing what they do, some aren't even aware of the bivouac on Zucotti Plaza. The Koch Bros. and their ilk are smiling snarly smiles while they are on the phone supporting ALEC and Chris Christie, happy in the knowledge the MSM is painting you as a bunch of beatniks and freeloaders.
Get Eric Schneiderman some popular weight and he can proceed.....so then can the other 3 AGs. Kentucky isn't exactly a bastion of liberal thought.......but we have a champion there, help his ass out. Minnesota's AG is on the precipice.......the idea is to get more to follow. We've got 4 out of 50.
What's going to get you noticed? Boobs and tie dyes, or Law & Order. I have to go with the latter, it's our last chance. Winter's coming. Call Albany. Get Schneiderman on the horn. Tell him you will put his face on posters. Tell him you will hound the internets with Prosecute Wall Street until the swells get nervous. He isn't going to come just because you're having a sit in. YOU HAVE TO ASK.
And while Schneiderman and the other AGs are bolstered by national and international support, we can get down to crafting strategies for all the other demands that make sense......like sustainability and remaking our monetary and financial systems and 350.org and alternate energy and taking money out of elections.
But it's all for naught if we let them get away with the biggest theft in human history when we have the tools and the people to get it done and we get bogged down in minutiae.
Rome is burning. This minute. Now.