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Author Topic:   Top Ten Things You Don't Know About Occupy Wall Street
crashfrog
Member (Idle past 1466 days)
Posts: 19762
From: Silver Spring, MD
Joined: 03-20-2003


(3)
Message 1 of 1 (640653)
11-11-2011 12:33 PM


1) In mid-2011, the Canadian-based Adbusters Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis....The internet group Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street."[10][11] Other groups began to join in the organization of the protest, including the internet group, Hacktivists Anonymous, the U.S. Day of Rage, and the NYC General Assembly, the governing body of the Occupy Wall Street group.[12]
2) According to the Congressional Budget Office, between 1979 and 2007 incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%.[21] In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.[22][23][24]
3) Americans, including the wealthy, overwhelmingly support more equitable wealth distribution. This support is bipartisan, including Democrats, Republicans and independents as well as all levels of the income distribution scale.[28]
4) According to a survey of Zucotti Park protesters by the Baruch College School of Public Affairs published on October 19, of 1,619 web respondents, 1/3 were older than 35, half were employed full-time, 13% were unemployed and 13% earned over $75,000. 27.3% of the respondents called themselves Democrats, 2.4% called themselves Republicans, while the rest, 70%, called themselves independents.[38]
5) When asked, "What frustrates you the most about the political process in the United States?," 30% said, "Influence of corporate/moneyed/special interests." Only 6% said "Income inequality" and 3% said, "Our democratic/capitalist system." When asked, "What would you like to see the Occupy Wall Street movement achieve?," 35% said "Influence the Democratic Party the way the Tea Party has influenced the GOP" and 11% said, "Break the two-party duopoly." Only 4% said "Radical redistribution of wealth."[40][41]
6) A separate area is set aside for an information area which contains laptop computers and several wireless routers.[62][63] These items were powered with gas generators until the New York Fire Department removed them as a fire hazard on October 28.[64] Since then, bicycles rigged with a motor and one-way diode are used to charge batteries that power the protesters' laptops and other electronics.[65]
7) Bloomberg News reported on October 10 that "[t]he ground is mostly free of litter" and committees had formed to handle sanitation and comfort issues.[73] As of October 11, a special 311 hotline set up by the Department of Sanitation had not received a single complaint about sanitation at the park.[74]
Many protesters have taken to using the bathrooms of nearby business establishments;[75] one nearby McDonald's restaurant "has become the movement's unofficial latrine."[76] Supporters in New York have also donated use of their bathrooms for showers and the sanitary needs of protesters.[73][76] The protesters have constructed a greywater treatment system to recycle dishwater contaminants.[77][78] The filtered water is used for the park's plants and flowers.
8) The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a counter revolution yesterday -- because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for professional homeless people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters....Protesters staying in Zuccotti Park are dealing with a worsening security problem with reports of multiple incidents of assault, drug dealing and use, and rape and attempted rape.[153] The sanitation team has reported finding needles in tents, and reports of crack and crystal meth use have surfaced. But most protesters say that the most serious concern is the risk of assault, especially for women and at night. Demonstrators have complained of thefts of assorted items such as cell phones and laptops. Thieves also stole $2500 of donations that were stored in a makeshift kitchen.[154] On October 10, a "methadone-addled man freeloading off the Wall Street protest" was arrested for groping a woman.[153]
9) U.S. Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX) stated, "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the FedI would say, 'good!'"[175] In a GOP debate, mentioning the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protesters, he stated that crony capitalists are those that benefit from contract from government, benefit from the Federal Reserve, benefit from all the bailouts. They don’t deserve compassion. They deserve taxation or they deserve to have all their benefits removed."[176]
10) On October 15, tens of thousands of demonstrators staged rallies in 900 cities around the world, including Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, So Paulo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and many other cities.[259] In Frankfurt, 5,000 people protested at the European Central Bank and in Zurich, Switzerland's financial hub, protesters carried banners reading "We won't bail you out yet again" and "We are the 99 percent." Protests were largely peaceful, however a protest in Rome that drew thousands turned violent when "a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe" caused extensive damage.[260] Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Times Square in New York City and rallied for several hours.[261][262]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street
Call it a curated cut and paste.

  
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