Today in Occupy Wall Street related news:
- An Occupy Wall Street rally today included around 1,000 Verizon workers.
- The OWS General Assembly tabled a proposal denouncing both political parties.
- New York mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that he will be adopting a tougher stance against the protesters. I suppose it's all been peaches and cream up until now?
- The owners of Zuccotti Park are facing a "dilemma". Sure, this is a public space—but you weren't meant to use it like that!
- In Washington DC, Occupy protesters interrupted a $1000 per plate fundraiser featuring Walmart's chairman, Rob Walton, being held at Union Station.
- In Chicago, on the other hand, bankers dropped leaflets on the protesters that said, simply, "WE ARE THE 1% PAYING FOR THIS." The meaning of the message is unclear:
But what does this dumb slogan mean? “WE ARE THE 1% PAYING FOR THIS.” It was printed on many sheets of paper, apparently by the Chicago Board of Trade. Paying for what? The office copier? The protests themselves? So is the Chicago Board of Trade somehow the real George Soros behind the Communist Insurrection?
And were any actual 1-percenters involved in this dumb fear stunt? We are thinking, “Ha ha, of course not, because this has all the marks of Asshole $100K Salaryman on it.” You need to have annual income of $2,196,124 to be in the Top 1% of U.S. earners, according to the latest federal statistics from the Social Security Administration. The people making $2 million plus are not running off copies in the office insulting the protesters [...]
- Eric Cantor cancelled his purported speech about income inequality because he learned that it was going to be open to the public, and because Occupy protesters were planning a march from City Hall to the campus where he was speaking. It is just as well, as his "income inequality" speech, when later released to the press, was a bunch of gawdawful dreck stitched together with meaningless non-statements and didn't actually address income inequality at all. So those protesters just saved an audience of 300 people from being bored to death.
- The "Tent Libraries" set up by protesters in Boston and other cities have been getting some attention. A firsthand account can be also be found here.
- It turns out a Wall Street protestor pointed to by right-wing groups as proof of OWS anti-Semitism has been a longtime fixture of the area. Occupy protesters have been engaged in ongoing clashes with him but also can't get rid of him (public park, after all), so "have taken to surrounding the man, who gave his name to me recently as David Smith, with rebuttal signs, including one that reads 'Asshole —>'."
- Al Giordano on the 1979 Wall Street occupation that won.
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