News Sep 30, 2011 at 1:59 pm

Comments

1
They should protest at the Amazon building: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…
2
We're working on it down here in Portland, as well. Small, so far, but spreading. i think that the more cities that participate, the more attention this will get in the media. And the more that people will feel, though our cries may go unheeded, at least our voices were heard.
3
Good point, Ian.

Remember, only You can stop the Rich from removing your Rights as a Citizen.

President Obama is the best Republican President since Ike.
4
I'm irritated that they're protesting at the Federal Building (except Saturday, when they're at Westlake Center). They need to pick a financial target. The problem is, Seattle doesn't really have any prominent financial targets because it's not really an important part of our local economy. WaMu was, but they're gone, and Russell Investments isn't the right kind of financial target.

Corporate targets like Amazon aren't really the right target, either, but mobilizing against their worker safety and tax policies is at least consistent with the overall theme of the Occupy protests.

I wonder with the lack of a national financial target in this area if the focus shouldn't be on state/local issues. What's really screwing over the 99% in Seattle and Washington state? I'd say it's low taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
5
I'm THERE!!! But not until the afternoon; morning run, morning masterbation, morning work out and stuff.
6
I'm in favor of this movement, provided it can make itself coherent and effective. Westlake offers visibility, but does anything about it relate to Wall Street?

Goldman Sachs has a Seattle office at 2nd & Columbia. Why not take some legal direct action that impedes their ability to operate?

Goldman Sachs & CO
719 2nd Avenue # 1300 Seattle, WA 98104-1731

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=719+2nd+Av…
7
Remember the WTO glory days...good times.
8
Be sure to wear your "People Hate Me On Slog" buttons so we can pick each other out of the crowd, and to make it easier to identify us after the police have beaten the Mexican piss out of us.
9
I'm so angry! If only I could find someone to be angry to!

Maybe if someone had an idea for what changes we should implement? You know, instead of pointlessly meandering around complaining.
10
@9 - There'll be some incoherent chanting into bullhorns. That'll be fun.
11
"It's much better to watch liberals get pissed off and try to do something instead of bitching about how Obama has let everyone down."

I just don't know what to do, if we were better organized it might help.

That, and the complete destruction of the cable and network news system. It's fucking ridiculous, tear it all down.
12
My problem with this movement is that they aren't sending a clear message. Some of them want rich people to pay more taxes, some of them are pissed off (and rightly so) because major financial institutions weren't punished for the mortgage debacle. Others are upset because the government has cut funding for nearly all social services and now we've got crazy rapists roaming the streets of lower Queen Anne.

The Occupiers message is that they don't like greed and corruption. That is an incredibly broad statement - and honestly, who is going to come out in favor of greed and corruption? What they need to do is choose a specific target (banking, taxes, or whatever) and protest against that. Evil doesn't deal in generalities.
13
According to a friend, there is ALSO a planning committee meeting tonight (Friday) at the Seattle Public Library. Painfully, I'm told everyone must agree on everything before anything moves forward.

He was under the understanding that the protest would not be until mid-October. I'm getting the sense there are many versions of "Occupy Seattle."
14
Man, I was really sympathetic but this is stupid. Westlake center? Way to make a powerful idea a fucking joke, liberals. And I bet every fucking identity group under the sun will be there making a mockery of the bigger picture.

I agree that Goldman Sachs would be a little better place to occupy. But honestly if your going to do it GO TO WALL STREET.

Doing this pathetic local shit renders you inert. It basically soaks up bandwidth and makes people feel they've done something. Just like those idiotic peace marches that did jack and shit to stop the invasion of Iraq.

Unfocused "protest' marching says you're fucking lazy and want to do some sort of easy peace-pot luck solution that fits in with your lifestyle.

In other words it means to the powers that be you won't sacrifice shit and met with the slightest resistance your cause will fold. They can ignore you.

I know. Somebody will say: "B...b..but not everybody can afford to go to Wall Street!"

Then send the people who DO go money and some sort of REAL material support. I don't know about you but I'm giving what money I can.

The entire point is not to mindlessly march, but to OCCUPY - for as long as it takes. Like the people in Tahir Square. Who traveled thousands of miles in some cases to go there. And they didn't leave until they got what (they thought) they wanted.

If people can't or won't do that then they demonstrate they have too much to lose and things aren't really that bad.

When people actually stay at Goldman Sachs in Seattle for a couple weeks or more... I'll join them. But sorry i'm not falling for this shit again and wasting more time and effort on a joke movement. I'm too old and life is too short.

Frankly, things are not so bad for me. I can hold out until I have nothing to lose. And I think most of the country feels about the same way.
15
Define greed? Why is wanting to keep what is rightfully mine (say, my inheritance) called 'greed', whereas demanding the state use it's power to appropriate what's mine and give it to you, is not greed?

Anyway, expect the usual 50 bored white kids with Macs.
16
My understanding of the different protests is the following:

1. There's an ongoing protest at the Federal Building during the week to attempt to build momentum.
2. There's a gathering on Saturday at Westlake (10am to whenever) that *might* become a full occupation if enough people show up and follow through.
3. The "mid-October" thing refers to the October2011.org occupation planned for Washington DC, which starts October 6, began planning long before the Wall Street protests, and is originally focused on opposing the war in Afghanistan. But thanks to the ongoing economic crisis its scope has been expanding and so there's lots of talk of joining the two mobilizations.
17
@14: "I know. Somebody will say: "B...b..but not everybody can afford to go to Wall Street!"

Then send the people who DO go money and some sort of REAL material support. I don't know about you but I'm giving what money I can."

People can afford time a lot more than they can afford funds and THAT much time off work.

I'm somewhat with you in that the media doesn't give two shits about local protests unless they're anti-obama Tea Partiers, but at least be fair about "And I bet every fucking identity group under the sun will be there making a mockery of the bigger picture."

It's not liberals' fault that the Anti-vaxers and the Larouches and the Truthers cling to any protests they can, parasitically.

19
Oh boy, oh boy, let's all go out and join this leaderless unfocused mob. Yeah burn it down, burn it down.
20
@18, you're confusing consumerism with unrestrained corporate capitalism. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to consume entertainment, nor is there anything inherently wrong with buying electronic gadgets and other toys. But there is something deeply and inherently wrong with an economic system dominated by a narrow sliver of the population, where the vast majority are barely scraping by and yet those with the resources to improve things for that majority refuse to do anything that doesn't make the problem worse.

For 30 years, income has been shifted from the 99% to the 1% (more accurately, the 80% to the 20%, but gains for most of the 20% are minor.) Programs to alleviate poverty and provide a safety net for the middle class have been shredded, and those that remain are under constant political attack. What little social democracy we have is being dismantled. Now millions of people are out of jobs and the government is actively taking steps to prevent job creation because Wall Street doesn't want to lose its profits. They looted the economy for trillions of dollars and have the temerity to complain about the moral hazard of helping people keep their jobs and homes. All of this is justified by a pervasive ideological system that is constantly trumpeted on network and cable news (and not just Fox).

That's the problem. Not iPads.
21
@18: "Of course one could simply not buy buy buy crap like I-pods, I-phones, I-pads, I-this, I-that, I-crap."

Hahahhahahahh, posted from their computer, in the midst of consumer whoredom and wasted time.

What a stupid statement, buying things has very little to do with financial manipulations.

Do you seriously think that products and end-consumers and *actual* work is what this is about? Have you been paying any fucking attention for the last ten years or so?
22
@17

These cries of poverty from the most coddled, richest, humans in the history of humanity - American college educated liberals - falls on deaf ears. It's a lie.

People have enough money to buy $3 coffee, iPhones, video games, laptops, cable tv, and yoga classes. But not enough to sacrifice to send an occupation movement to change our broken system.

Nor does it seem they have enough time to go themselves.

I'm sending what little money I have to people who are actually placed to make a possible impact rather than waste time on these token Seattle passive-agressive feel-good fests.

I'm still pretty cynical as to what good it will all do. But it's better than wasting it on another idiotic Seattle march.

People in times past or in other countries who have literally NOTHING, seriously, nothing, have been able to change their systems. Crying poverty isn't an excuse. Revolutions don't happen when everybody is rich.

The fact is things are not that bad here. So people only kinda care. Things will have to get worse before most people will sacrifice to change anything.
23
99%? You think being in the top 15% in income and assets I'm gonna throw my lot in with the bottom 50%?
24
Again, the Wall Street people are doing it wrong. Get 10,000 pair of handcuffs. Handcuff 5,000 people together as tightly as possible in clusters of hundreds, blocking all access in or out of the NYSE and similar buildings, and into/out of all the nearby subway stations. Repeat indefinitely.
25
@22: "People have enough money to buy $3 coffee, iPhones, video games, laptops, cable tv, and yoga classes. But not enough to sacrifice to send an occupation movement to change our broken system.

Pumping all the money in the world into a broken system isn't going to fix it.

"People in times past or in other countries who have literally NOTHING, seriously, nothing, have been able to change their systems. Crying poverty isn't an excuse. Revolutions don't happen when everybody is rich."

Revolutions happen when the MAJORITY of a populace can't handle their daily lives. Just enough Americans are content with television, porn, Call of Duty and their McJobs that there's never going to be a revolution in the United States unless a Ron Paul level fuckup gets into office and stops pretending to play one side off the other.

You have a ton of bluster, but no substance to offer, and no more solutions other than "give money to someone who doesn't have any more solutions".

Don't be such a sanctimonious tool, I'd give money and effort if something was well-organized and offered direct action. I'm not going to give my money to something in the hopes that it'll one day be productive, that's for utopians and naifs.
26
Seriously, the people aren't going to care as long as they have their local, network, and cable news and terrible newspapers keeping them at an arm's length from reality.

If you had a plan to systematically dismantle the United States media in most all of its forms, then I'd be interested.
27
@ 12 - Agree. This has been my biggest gripe about the Ds all along. Every rally, protest, even I've attended has been overly diversified to where there's not really any cohesive message/goal. There's definitely some truth to the idea that all our causes are connected in some way, but focus, people!! The vegans, the socialists, the pro-choicers, and everyone else come to every event bringing their own message, often without trying to form any connection with the issue at hand. Good causes, all - but we need to get our act together and unify if we want to see results, instead of just showing up with our own agendas.
28
@25 You won't actually do anything material - like donate money - to a cause unless it's "well organized" because it may never be productive.

But you defend useless marching in support of the EXACT same cause. Which costs nothing. You defend marching in a completely un-organized protest... in the hopes it... may one day... what? Be productive?

What?

In other words you don't want to really do anything that cost you anything.

Mission Not Accomplished! Great job everybody!
29
As long as Fox News doesn't take over and start calling this a populist conservative movement, I'm in.
30
Here's an idea. Draft legislation for campaign reform, financial accountability, and whatever else. Demand that it gets passed or we start voting people out of office. Make it huge. Make it consume whatever media that doesn't get directions from the supercorporations, and call out those that don't report it.

Or you can yell into the wind and people can continue ignoring you. And if you must protest, stop looking like a bunch of potheads. Potheads are the easiest thing in the world for this country to ignore.
31
@28: "You won't actually do anything material - like donate money - to a cause unless it's "well organized" because it may never be productive.

But you defend useless marching in support of the EXACT same cause. Which costs nothing. You defend marching in a completely un-organized protest... in the hopes it... may one day... what? Be productive?"

I don't believe in either futile effort.
32
@14: "Frankly, things are not so bad for me. I can hold out until I have nothing to lose."

Well, bully for you. Now, if you'll just give those of us who aren't doing so hot a chance to speak before shouting us down...
33
I'm tired of this signs and slogans bullshit. If you want change, work for change. Don't skip work (if you have a job) and spend your days chanting and blocking traffic while the people in all levels of our government could give a fuck either way about what you're yelling about.
35
@34: We're talking about the FINANCIAL SYSTEM which is propped up by intangible bubbles, not physical products.
36
Seriously "you HAVE been manipulated into thinking YOU must have it, NOW." are you some sort of invalid?

This isn't about gizmos. You have no idea what the world economy is built upon. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

I agree that we'd all be better off if you sold your computer and lived off the grid.
37

I'll be occupying Chipolte at Kent Station tomorrow.

I'm protesting that they charge extra for guac on their burritos.

The Man has got me down.
38
Simple. Think local. Know your famer. Know your banker. Fund your community instead of overseas wars and occupations. Turn off the TV. Stop feeding the tapeworm. There are loads of local organizations doing community networking. Learn about resilience circles.
39
Hi paul! to clarify, i think a lot of what is exciting about the occupy wall st protest is that folks are rejecting the title of "liberal" and the whole liberal/conservative binary as part of the same broken, corrupt system. time to think outside the liberal box!
40
Here's an idea:

When Obama came to Seattle, he didn't go to the CD looking for donations. He went to Medina. Why don't we all meet up at the Home Depot parking lot, buy some 5 gallon buckets and fill them with concrete. Drive to Medina in flatbed trucks and then get out and lay down stripes of wet concrete in front of every entrance and exit. Then put the FULL buckets upside down in the wet concrete and sit on them. That way they can't drive their SUVs in or out and they have to walk the gauntlet to get to the public transportation they should be taking like the rest of us. If you think that after a couple of days of that, they won't be able to raise some political will to pay attention to the protesters, you are wrong. There is no one that deserves the blame more than these people. They don't pay their taxes and they are LITERALLY the richest people in the world. We live right here next to them and we let them do whatever they want. We have AT LEAST as much power in this fight as the people on wall street. Let's just have the guts to take the fight to the right neighborhood and stop burning our own houses down like Jimi Hendrix said.
41
Jesus. The dramatics in this place. I'm not shouting anybody down. And your not hurting that bad or you'd be down there camped out right now. No. A useless march is the extent of your big contribution while OTHER people actually sacrifice and put something real on the line.

God. Shout you down? All you people do is talk. You won't actually DO shit except talk. Talk and march. Er. I mean "Raise awareness." Go. March. I really hope it helps you all "grow as people." After all it's about how you feel, right? Until your willing to actually sacrifice or have nothing left to lose you won't do shit and you know it.

Same bullshit everytime, same weak tired tactics, same lazy half measures. And nothing is accomplished. Nothing. I'm not falling for it again. I'm not wasting my time again.

Good luck though. This time it might be different. Right?
42
@42:

If you're through being a dick on the internet, there's a meeting at Westlake at 10am. Come on down.
43
"It's much better to watch liberals get pissed off and try to do something instead of bitching about how Obama has let everyone down." FINALLY ....
44
As far as I see it, there's only one way to mount an effective protest for change. Take your money out of your 401k, stocks, bonds, cd's, mutual funds, ect. Get your money out of the system and the hands of Wall Street. If you do not have any of those things, the system will not notice anything you do because to them you are irrelevant.
45
@42 why did you just call yourself a dick? Hey how'd it go?

I'll tell you.

To my great shame and against my better judgement I went to that stupid fucking meeting and there was nearly no one there. The only thing i was inspired to think was: Why? Why do i fall for this shit? I felt like an idiot.

I waited for about an hour whille they "organized" ... and organized... and organized... and it was EXACTLY as I predicted. Same exact people involved as during the gulf war marches, the WTO marches, the iraq war marches and everyother Seattle protest all FAILURES. The exact same people. "its not right left issue!" my ass. Finally LESS THAN two hundred people wandered up and there was a great deal of sub-group forming... and nothing else. It was a joke.

I couldnt even talk i was so depressed. I despaired for thinking it would be different and left.

There wasnt even any "go get'um" speeches or a ralling cry or a single cohesive galvanizing plan. Literally no center.

I have been humiliated for last time with the "organizers" of the Seattle left. You guys are on on your own.
46
You all are so depressing,

how can you be ok with be stuck with a limitless bill from the federal govt. to support these brutal corporations, banks and endless wars?

How hypocrtical can you get? You somehow think you are clever bitching about being who are complaing?

Do you think things are magically going to fix themselfes?

If things are going to change, it's not going to be just new york that does it, if the country wants to change, the country has to make that change happen.

If you all get tired of sitting on your ass bitching, you should join the people that are still at westlake at this very hour, the same people that will be there for as long as it takes.

and FYI the people in new york are not actually protesting in fron of wall strett, thet are occupying a place called liberty park, a public space, very much like Westlake.
47
@45: "I have been humiliated for last time with the "organizers" of the Seattle left. You guys are on on your own."

The problem, as always, is that there are no "organizers of the seattle left". Granted, we don't have money on our side as the neoliberals do, but excuses aside, we have very little to work with.
48
@46: "how can you be ok with be stuck with a limitless bill from the federal govt. to support these brutal corporations, banks and endless wars?"

We're not, but while we feel a measure of solidarity, it's severely disheartening when every newspaper, television, and radio station is all in on the propaganda. We're not corporate-sponsored like the teabaggers. We know our numbers are great, but it's hard to sell products and advertising on our ideology.
50
@20

4 thumbs way up, you should give a speech. :)
51
We should be at the Goldman Sachs office or anywhere CHASE has an obvious banner.
52
Follow Occupy Seattle on your smartphone: http://m.JetCityOrange.com/
53
I just can't believe all of this talk of, "really doing something by by fucking going to wall street, or financially supporting some kind of phantom revolutionary organization that des not exist, or pulling money out of your 401k." This whole movement is based around the truth. Tgat to most americans the idea of having any expendable income is equivalent to hilarity. Tragic comedy. And financing a trip to wall street? C'mon.

Just stop sitting behind your computers and criticiiizing. This movement is composed of largely intelligent and compassionate peoplle who are TRYING. And when you are oppressed by such a relentlessly corrupt and greedy political system, that just has to be enough. Don't be an asshole. Show some fucking love. This thing, at least, is happening on the pavement. You won't change anything on the internet... at leadt tgese people are smart enough to know that, and to put themselves out there. It is a small and disorganized lot, yes, but new york started with just a few dozen.

Jyst don't be a fucker, stop armchair judging, and give people credit for simply trying to explore an outlet for change which dies not include
54
People should protest at Whole Foods due to their illegal union busting tactics.
55
I would like to know what the needs of the "occupiers" of Seattle are/will be and where items can be delivered.

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