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The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Chris OConnor

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The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Chris OConnor

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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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This girl thinks making over $200,000 makes a person ridiculously rich.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Pay my tuition? LOL
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Hi Chris, I watched these videos. I still don't get the "we are the 99%" slogan. When Ralph Nader stood for President in 2004 he got 0.38% of the vote. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nade ... aign,_2004 Last time I counted, the difference between 99% and 0.38% was 98.62%. But then, Nader's vote of 2.74% in 2000 was more than the difference between Bush and Gore. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nade ... e_election

The Occupy movement has a valid point that American politics has been corrupted by money. What is needed is better regulation of capitalism. The anti-capitalist comments from these protesters are just a romantic dream. Capitalism is the only thing that reduces poverty.

An interesting paper by Michael Porter on Creating Shared Value exploresg how there is a need for reform of capitalism. It was published by the Harvard Business Review in January 2011.

Booktalk's current fiction selection, The House of the Spirits, explores the paradox of how conservative politics generates wealth but alienates the poor. I will shortly post about this in the thread on the second chapter, The Three Marias.
Last edited by Robert Tulip on Sat Nov 19, 2011 5:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Chris OConnor wrote: Pay my tuition? LOL
That's embarrassing. He should get paid something not to go to college, so as not to waste any more resources.

Hilarious expose of the elitist section of the protestors:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-n ... et-divided
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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I think I used to work with the guy with the black bandanna. These videos show that most people don't grasp the nuances of the problem.

I was taking care of the pool here at the YMCA a while back, and the pH was a bit high. The solution is to add a bit of acid, to lower the pH. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but I'll keep it simple. So I went to the pool to add the acid, and member walks up behind me and starts yelling at me out of the blue. Granted, this guy was a moron.

He said he didn't want to be swimming in acid. "What kind of an idiot are you that you think you won't be caught! That's terrorism!" But of course, adding a little acid is different from filling the entire pool with acid. In fact, the water would be healthier to swim in, after the pH was adjusted.


Asking for politicians to address inequality is not at all the same as asking for the entire country to be "equalized". An adjustment is what is needed. Yes, the adjustment is moving in the direction of a hazardous end of the spectrum, but only the foolish believe we intend to travel all the way to the end, rather than move a step at a time. Behind the gap-toothed mumbling of bandwagoners is a very real problem, and looking to these idiots to express that problem is a setup for misunderstanding.


It's extremely frustrating to see people thinking in terms of dichotomies. I understand it takes less brain power than to think of things in terms of spectrums.

Another nuance that's missed is that simply raising taxes on the rich is not the solution to inequality. Unseen within the 700 page monstrosity of our tax code are loopholes for every special interest in the country. I think some loopholes for renewable energy, scientific ventures, infrastructure, and perhaps food, are all that are needed. That "criteria" by which we pick the interests that get a break must be structured with an innate paranoia of corruption. Other interests that have no business receiving a tax break should not be able to buy an audience for their voice. Breaks should only be given to those industries where the general public will benefit as much or more than the "interest" receiving the break.
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Robert Tulip wrote:The Occupy movement has a valid point that American politics has been corrupted by money. What is needed is better regulation of capitalism. The anti-capitalist comments from these protesters are just a romantic dream. Capitalism is the only thing that reduces poverty.
I agree completely. We definitely have some serious problems with how wealth is distributed in the United States. But these "Occupy Wall Street" people are hurting their cause more than helping it. I think the problem is that camping out in the park was just too much like Woodstock without the great music. The people out there are hippies, Socialists, and unemployed whiners. They're beating on drums, singing songs, flipping off cops, screaming at buildings, showing off for the media and generally looking like completely unproductive losers. They're making the real 99% look like idiots.

I think New York was wise to get rid of the tents, generators, tables, furniture, box houses, and camp stoves. These "occupiers" were enjoying the camaraderie and excitement of camping somewhere crazy and for no cost at all. But the fact is they are costing the city and local businesses money. They are harming their fellow 99 percenters because their senseless camping trip happens to be preventing local businesses from conducting their normal business activities. They are also costing the city and state plenty of money because law enforcement has to be provided to keep the place under control.

Again, we have some serious problems but we don't need a bunch of hippies abusing our law enforcement officers, dirtying our city streets and parks and blocking businesses from operating. There are better ways to get attention and get things done.
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=600_1321731331

It really pisses me off to hear these losers calling police officers Nazis. These people risk their lives every day keeping our country safe and this is how these people show their appreciation. Disgusting. There is no correlation between Nazi Germany and the US need to keep people from camping in various parks as if they own the damn place. We have the freedom to speak out, blog, do interviews, say and publish whatever we want, but we don't have the right to light campfires and erect tents on Wall Street and verbally abuse the people that serve and defend us.

Watch these videos. These people are standing in cops faces calling them losers and terrorists. It is amazing one of these cops hasn't just flipped out and started shooting these people. Not that it would be right or justified but I am impressed with the constraint these police officers are showing in the face of such verbal abuse.
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Interbane wrote: Another nuance that's missed is that simply raising taxes on the rich is not the solution to inequality. Unseen within the 700 page monstrosity of our tax code are loopholes for every special interest in the country. I think some loopholes for renewable energy, scientific ventures, infrastructure, and perhaps food, are all that are needed. That "criteria" by which we pick the interests that get a break must be structured with an innate paranoia of corruption. Other interests that have no business receiving a tax break should not be able to buy an audience for their voice. Breaks should only be given to those industries where the general public will benefit as much or more than the "interest" receiving the break.
This is almost literally my two cents, not speaking to the substance of what you said. I think breaks, exemptions, concessions are written into the tax code. Loopholes I think of as features not in the code, but which represent ways that lawyers have found to legally circumvent the written code.
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Re: The socialist agenda behind all of the "Occupy" groups

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Again, we have some serious problems but we don't need a bunch of hippies abusing our law enforcement officers, dirtying our city streets and parks and blocking businesses from operating. There are better ways to get attention and get things done.
I think you're too optimistic. I think that even though there are Occupy protests all over the country, we will still not have meaningful change. Things are simply too entrenched. Where will change come from?

If you see the protestors as a sort of evil, do you rate them as a lesser or greater evil than the problems they're attempting to give voice to? I can't see how anything they could do would be worse than the injustices that are structured into the system. But those injustices are difficult to see and integrated into a complex system. How many hundreds of thousands of people have died in revolutions within countries in an attempt to root out corruption? It's almost as if Americans are so used to corruption, they no longer care about it. Money wins campaigns... yeah, that's just the way it is!

Occupy Grover Norquist might be a better idea, now that I think about it. The entire Republican party has signed a pledge of allegiance to Norquist. Perhaps that represents corruption in some form?
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