Fat Mike talks sense (as usual)!

Here you will find an excellent interview with Fat Mike from NOFX where he discusses why he supports the Occupy Movement and is cautiously optimistic about Spotify, among other things:

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2011/12/nofxs_fat_mike_on_cokie_the_cl.php

Mike makes a lot of sense for a regular guy, especially considering that he's a 25 years deep punk rocking alcoholic.

Stay classy cops

From Crooks and Liars: Pregnant #occupy protester miscarries after police abuse.

After being pepper sprayed and hit in the stomach, a Seattle woman miscarried.

Apparently, she questioned their authority.

Social control.

Michael Parenti:

There's really no economic interest involved in it.
They're not protecting the banks!
The police are just doing this because they're on a power trip,
or they're macho, or uh they're control freaks.
That's why they do it. No! Of course it's an economic,
of course they're defending the banks.
...
You see, there are people who believe that the function of the police is to fight crime.
And that's not true, the function of the police is social control,
and protection of property.

He's right, you know.

In which old grannies are pepper sprayed

Looks like the cops in Seattle have it in for little old ladies. I have a hard time believing she was resisting arrest.

From Olbermann via Crooks and Liars: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/occupy-seattle-octogenarian-activist-dorli-.

Grannies? Really?

Courts say Occupy Boston can stay.

From the Globe: Judge issues temporary restraining order barring city from evicting Occupy Boston protesters.

Just in case Mayor Menino was thinking of trying his Bloomberg pants on:

A Suffolk Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order this afternoon barring the city of Boston from evicting Occupy Boston protesters from their encampment in the downtown area.

The order applies unless there is a fire, medical emergency, or “outbreak of violence,” Judge Frances A. McIntyre ruled.

Menino made a statement saying he didn't know why the Occupiers would go to the courts about this, conveniently forgetting the 100+ people, including veterans arrested on the Greenway a few weeks ago.

Cop not beating the shit out of a protester

Nothing to see here folks:


Move along. The protester is about to start attacking the cop's fist with the back of his head.

From Yahoo News and the AP (caption to the above photo):

An Occupy Wall Street protestor draws contact from a police officer near Zuccotti Park after being ordered to leave the longtime encampment in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, in New York, after police ordered demonstrators to leave their encampment in Zuccotti Park. At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, police handed out notices from the park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous. Protesters were told they could return, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

As we all know, cops never, ever hit innocent civilians. And besides, this kid is obviously resisting arrest. Look at him try to flee!

Side note: cop looks a bit like Michael Keaton.

Some are oblivious to reality

If you actually can't see the correlation between what Occupy Wall Street is doing and the easily identifiable inequalities inherent in our system pictured above, I officially abandon hope for you. Cripes, its not that hard to stay informed. Look at a graph

They will call it judicial activism...

And they'll be assholes. It's called justice fuckers.

From Matt Taibbi: Finally, A Judge Stands up to Wall Street.

The amazing thing about the wave of corruption that has overtaken the financial services industry is that most of it couldn’t happen without virtually every player at every level signing off on these deals. From the ratings agencies to the law firms to the accounting firms to the regulators to the bank executives themselves, everybody had to be on board in order for a lot of these fraud schemes to work.

Judges are a part of that picture, and too often, members of the bench sign off on dirty deals made between banks and regulators when the law says that such settlements must be “fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest.”

It’s great that Rakoff is behaving as any decent human being would and rejecting these disgusting settlements. But equally disturbing is the fact that more judges haven’t done the same thing. Are people with backbones really that rare?

To those who still ask "WHY IS OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTING?"

Well, in simple terms I would say they want justice. Economic justice perhaps? Judge Rakoff understands that banks and financial firms are not above the law merely because they control vast sums of wealth, and through it, wield disproportionate amounts of political and social power. The people at the various Occupy Everywhere protests understand this as well and are tired of it. Their demand is economic justice, not handouts. Props to them and props to those like Rakoff who do the right thing.

I implore you to listen to Bill Moyers

He is a very good journalist.

Why New York’s Zuccotti Park is filled with people is no mystery. Reporters keep scratching their heads and asking: “Why are you here?” But it’s clear they are occupying Wall Street because Wall Street has occupied the country. And that’s why in public places across the country workaday Americans are standing up in solidarity. Did you see the sign a woman was carrying at a fraternal march in Iowa the other day? It read: “I can’t afford to buy a politician so I bought this sign.”

We know what all this money buys. Americans have learned the hard way that when rich organizations and wealthy individuals shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they get what they want. They know that if you don’t contribute to their campaigns or spend generously on lobbying,

WHY ARE THEY PROTESTING!!!!!???

Damn right!

Borrowed from :http://crooksandliars.com/bluegal-aka-fran/open-thread-165.