What took you so long MSNBC: Protesters invade NYC Financial District

[cal04]

Demonstrators invoke Mideast rallies, call for end to corporate greed favoring rich
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44564317/ns/us_news-life/

More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on New York City's Financial District on Saturday for what could be a days-long protest of what they said was corporate greed favoring the rich at the expense of ordinary people.

The rally, dubbed #OccupyWallStreet on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook where word was spread, spurred the New York Police Department to lock down Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, local media reported.

Police set up checkpoints to allow only those who could prove they lived or worked on Wall Street to enter, the New York Daily News reported.

(snip)
"It's a worthy cause because people on Wall Street are blood-sucking warmongers," Bill Steyerd, 68, a Vietnam veteran from Queens, told the New York Daily News. "I'm here, and in spite of these dinky barricades, we're going to shut down Wall Street with people power."

[deminks]

1. First they ignore you,

then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.

If this had been a teabagger rally, the police would have been pitching their tents, and there would have been more MEdia than teabaggers, 'cause the teabaggers are astroturf.

[butterfly77]

53. Protest in front of fox...

everyday...

[Meeker Morgan]

2. And empty gesture.

No amount of publicity will make this white middle class hippie camp-out into anything of consequence. This is a feel good field trip not a revolution.

[greytdemocrat]

6. But they have pretty graphics...n/t

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

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[Meeker Morgan]

30. Yeah sure buddy, I'm paid by Koch ...

... wait a minute. I'm a unionized public employee.

So much safer to protest Wall Street on Saturday when no one is there to see you, let alone be inconvenienced.

[dotymed]

52. Morgan

I get to use my ignore button for the second time. Not bad for three years.

[me b zola]

75. So are lots of Paul-idiots: "I'm a unionized public employee"

I see lots of followers of Paul and other rwers bash unions and the idea of government while working for the government and/or working union jobs. They love to reap the benefits of the blood sweat and tears of others while tearing us down.

It takes a special kind of :wtf: to ridicule those out in the streets demanding real change.

[sabrina 1]

84. You really should not hit post when you are making stuff up

out of your 'hippie hating' fantasies. Those hippies really got people riled, didn't they? I mean it's history, and the far right appears to be haunted by them. What on earth did they do to get them so scared?

And why would a democrat be repeating chickenhawk, Limbaugh hippie bashing nonsense? Unless you forgot your snark tag.

But back to some facts. They had a reason for BEGINNING this protest on the weekend. Look it up, google isn't hard to use, I promise.

They will be on Wall St. tomorrow when it opens having stayed there for two days so far. I hear the numbers were bigger tonight than last night, and I know a lot of people who are planning to be there over the next few days.

Really, I wish someone would explain to me why hippies scared the living daylights out of so many righties, and why anyone on the left would do anything but laugh at the cowardly morons, like drug addled Rush Limbaugh. Some great, charismatic, handsome, hippie must have stolen all his girlfriends or something.

[Name removed]

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[nadinbrzezinski]

9. rethorical I know, but I still am curious...

why the minimizing?

We saw the same with Wisconsin... and we have seen this all across US History...

[Imajika]

13. This is not the same thing as Wisconsin..

Not even remotely close. Wisconsin had thousands upon thousands of actual middle class, relatively non partisan workers out fighting to protect the paycheck and benefits they use to take care of their families. Yes there were students and drums and costumes, but what made people pay attention is the masses of regular Mom's and Dad's out trying to defend their children and families.

What we saw near Wall Street today is mostly a collection of college kids and the same old protest groups that go to all of these sorts of rallies. A rally/protest simply has to have far broader appeal to get anyone to even take it seriously. The minute you see the Ron Paul, Free Bradley Manning and Code Pink signs you know the protest is doomed to irrelevance. It's not that any of those causes are necessarily bad (with the exception of Paul who is about the most anti-progressive politician around), it's that you end up an unfocused mish mash of causes represented by the same old protest groups that turn out for all of these things. The only thing missing (at least I didn't see them) were the Free Mumia crowd.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. You are right of course

except that it did NOT turn out to start with thousands...

And that is the point.

MOVEMENTS have their own logic.

Time will tell about this one.

Oh and in the very early days of WI, here, people poopoed that one too.

As I said, rhetorical It seems to me... take it or leave it, don't matter, that some people are actually committed to diminishing anything that the people do. I get it why by the way.

[starroute]

17. It would only take a few steps to turn it into something real

The middle class part is true but not particularly important, because revolutions in general tend to start with the middle class while the poor are busy just surviving. And I did laugh at the yoga and the drum circles. But I also saw a few differences from the protests of the last 15 years or so.

Perhaps the biggest is that this was directed at Wall Street and not at the government.

A second is that although some of the fringe causes were still along for the ride, the organizers worked really hard at keeping the focus on corporate personhood / money in politics and to a fair degree succeeded.

A third is that it included a teach-in on what seemed to be fairly heavy-duty economic topics earlier in the afternoon.

And a fourth is that there was no speechifying or musical acts -- just people trying to throw themselves into the gears of business-as-usual.

All that said, they still need a few more things to become a serious movement: Some arrests to weed out the tourists. A clearer sense of what they want and how they might get it. Specific issues around which they could form alliances with labor unions and anti-poverty groups. And a laser-like focus on class warfare in the place of the identity politics of the last generation.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few days -- whether anyone is still there on Monday morning, what happens when the bankers show up for work, and how the cops react. I'm also curious about the October 6 protest planned for Washington.

All in all, this one seems far more promising than anything else we've seen lately.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. I noticed that too

why it had a slightly but important different feel.

Do you read Adbusters? Highly recommended to see where this is going.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

22. One never knows what spark will turn into a wildfire,

and yes, it does matter what the cops tactics are, they can put out the flames, or fan them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. The #1 thing they need is staying power, they need to be there for DAYS.

I have long complained about the pattern of protests here.

They usually last one day.
On a Saturday, at most on a weekend.
In front of empty buildings.
Then poof! all gone from the public consciousness.

The old union movement would last for weeks and even months.
Dr. King did not have a couple of marches and then go back to writing out his complaints about racial inequality.
The Viet Nam War protest did not last one whole weekend in front of the White House.

There is a HUGE difference between a "protest" and a "movement".
I know, I was active in several of them back in the 70's. For long time.

[Fire Walk With Me]

76. Exactly!

[leveymg]

54. You're raising the important points and asking the right questions.

Thanks. :hi:

[socialist_n_TN]

39. Yep and that's the point nadin........

Wisconsin didn't start out to even be this big. But they were persistant and it grew. Once again, THAT IS THE POINT! IF it's a movement, it will only grow with the persistance of the occupiers.

And you're also right about the naysayers on here about the Wisconsin protests. There were quite a few and all the usual suspects.

[MADem]

19. Ah, one of those "Hodge Podge" demonstrations--you are right, totally meaningless.

For every "cause" to which a person wants to associate themself, there are ten others that they don't want to touch with a ten foot pole. Diluted to the point of irrelevance.

[truedelphi]

58. So how do you justify the fact that the same ol' tired crowd of

TeaBaggers shows up, and maybe it is only a mere handful of them, and then C Span and the other Major Networks fawn over those two hundred people like they were royalty?

C Span will actually devote two or three hours talking to almost everyone in that RW crowd?

I have no way of knowing if it is or isn't the same tired group of protesters on Wall Street, but if two hundred people on the far Right get the attention of the media, then tens of thousands of people should be able to do that on the Left (Especially given that we are always told the media is so "extremely Liberal.")

[sabrina 1]

87. Looks like your predictions of doom and gloom turned out to wrong.

Bigger crowds there today and hopefully even bigger tomorrow. And why would a Democrat be so derogatory towards Code Pink? I know the right hates them, but that is simply because they have never given up doing what all of us should have been doing, exposing the crimes of the right, protesting the War Criminals every chance they get.

What have you been doing?

This 'movement' will grow, but only if the left doesn't shoot itself in the foot as it always does by focusing on trivia and losing sight of the big picture. Fyi, people who were actually there saw very few, maybe three or four Ron Paul supporters, and I say, welcome to them, they are bodies to fill out the crowd.

The Egyptian demonstrations became a coalition of so many diverse groups, Islamists, college students, Christians, people who normally didn't get along but came together on one issue that mattered to all of them, removing a brutal dictator from office.

We can do the same thing. All those people who are being denigrated here, are US Citizens and if on this one issue they can come together, all the better for the this country. Most of the people there, I am told, did not care about party politics or ideologies. They are there because this country is in trouble. We can go back to fighting each other AFTER we wrest this country back from the Global Cartels who are currently driving it into the third world status, OR we stick our noses in the air and stay home because we don't like Ron Paul's few supporters being there.

[Name removed]

69. Deleted message

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[TBF]

70. Yes, but we're not allowed to advocate for that on this site.

Many may agree with you in theory, but they aren't going to strongly voice it here because it's against the rules.

[Imajika]

10. Yup..

These protesters look like well fed college kids complete with all manner of capitalist luxuries out for a good time. They won't be able to take over Wall Street, and this sort of street theater will have no impact on anything.

[fasttense]

28. Some people will denigrate any effort to confront the powers that be.

Some people think it is so much easier to sit behind keyboards and throw spitballs than it is to get up and actually do something.

[cheapdate]

77. Yeah, worthless "well fed college kids". Who cares?

[rainy]

83. That's the same way the Egyptians looked. Cell phones and all.

[napoleon_in_rags]

12. Ooh, middle class?

That's something of consequence right there, middle class are becoming so endangered any gathering of them is quite a site indeed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Yup, agreed

something is happening.

And it is not limited to the US...

[fasttense]

26. Easy for some people to sling insults at protesters, while they sit comfortably behind their

keyboards throwing spitballs.

I'll bet you that RepubliCONS, Koch-loving, teabaggers are getting paid big bucks right now to post on liberal media to insult and denigrate the protesters.

They get money for every post. While protesters actually get out and do something.

[Bluenorthwest]

32. You do understand it is not binary? The choices are not 'feel

good trip' or 'revolution'. There are many stations of theater and protest that are worth a visit that are not about 'revolution'. This is the latest in a long series of protests at Bowling Green, which is the place Patriots tore down the statue of George the Third, at what was not even close to the first Bowling Green protest. Now that one had revolution in mind, clearly, a Declaration was read and the works, you make have heard about that.
The Yippees famously dumped money onto the trading floor in a piece of media theater that was not intended to cause a revolution like the first one, but was intended to gather attention for the huge social changes that were afoot.
This one is more like the Yippees, it is a media event in a media world.

[lsewpershad]

48. Go cut you hair or something

[Mojorabbit]

55. It is a start. Little by little

I have a feeling that these things are going to increase in number. I don't think for a moment that wall street will be inconvenienced by this but it might just put a bit of fear in their hearts. They are not throwing way enough bones to the rest of the populace.

[sudopod]

71. OH those nasty hippies. nt

[ixion]

3. poor reporting, too little, too late.

Under-counting, using the blocked twitter account rather than the active one. That's the MSM: Doing everything they can to promote the Big Lie.

[ChandlerJr]

11. There was no blocked twitter account

Trending topics on twitter follow hashtags not individual accounts. They screwed themselves by switching tags all day based on rumors of Twitter blocking.
They diluted the effect with two many tags, all of the following worked

#takewallstreet #occupywallstreet #usdor #sep17

[ixion]

25. by twitters own admission, there was

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. It's the weekend

and they can't be bothered with more than Lockup (wallstreet).. Yes we can dream.

Hey CNN was on air and it took all of the day, and just 90 seconds on air. Not like they are that far.. they could have sent down the cub reporter.

[msongs]

lol we had more than that at our farmer's market n crafts fair this morning nt

[DrunkenBoat]

79. I doubt it. Take a look at the pictures from the march. Other than the cherry-picked ones from the

msm.

you can see a bit at the start of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfuvDr2wJQ&feature=related

[RB TexLa]

5. Wow, they are going to shut it down! On a Saturday. LOL

:rofl:

[fasttense]

29. Because we all know doing absolutely NOTHING will work.

Yeah everyone, just stay home. Do nothing. That will change the way the idle rich crap on you.

Just sit behind a keyboard and make fun of any effort. Because do nothing always wins every time.:rofl:

[RB TexLa]

33. I don't think "occupying" wall street helps anyone.

[KoKo]

34. It's the seat of the corruption. Banksters brought down the financial system, bailed themselves out

and now people all over the globe suffer for it. This is the heart of the beast ...err BULL....

[RB TexLa]

37. Banksters?

I guess they could impeade traffic in the area some today.

[KoKo]

68. You are not "familiar" with the term?

figures... :eyes:

[cheapdate]

78. Maybe it's about sending those criminals a message

I can't leave my job and travel 1,000 miles to New York, but if I could I would and I'd give those "well-fed, white college kids" all the support I could.

[blank space]

72. No one is saying this except you.

Dont be so sure of yourself.

[Coexist]

40. maybe check into why they chose September 17th

:eyes:

[RB TexLa]

41. no concern why they chose it

[Coexist]

43. that comment tells me everything I need to know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Oh and numbers (per MSSM) have doubled!

GASP... it was 500 per CNN on the air.

So by their math, this was 10K... yup media takes a zero off as a matter of course. And yes I heard this from a local paper editor a few years back...

[midnight]

8. K&R

[Historic NY]

16. 1000......no wonder they were able to check them at the gates....

come back in business suits on Monday.

[MADem]

18. MSNBC is now working on weekends? That's a step UP, actually....

I quit watching the OpinioNews channels--got tired of the talking heads during the week and "LOCKUP" on the weekend...

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. I had CNN all day in the background, going

YOU GUYS HAVE A NEWS BUREAU blocks from this... SEND the cub reporter! They need to get themselves into writing a story now and again.

When they finally did, for 90 seconds... oh boy...

[StarsInHerHair]

82. we have a censored media in the U.S., just like Fiji, they too, dont report certain things

[mfcorey1]

23. Law enforcement blocked thed media trucks from getting close to the protestors.

[nenagh]

24. Chris Hayes on MSNBC tomorrow from 8-10 am, on MSNBC..

will interview Rachel Maddow...

Just a reminder, because I missed a lot of his first show today...

It is a step forward..

:)

[davidwparker]

56. Forgot this. I was watching CSPAN.

[Coexist]

35. .

[Exilednight]

38. Only 1000? That's a drop in the bucket in a city of 8,000,000. Tens of thousands of people work on

Wall Street alone. In the financial district you're probably looking a few hundred thousand people working. Over 50,000 people worked in the WTC alone.

This has always been the problem with protests against large entities, we just can't draw the numbers. It also doesn't help that we throw our lot in with groups like Anonymous.

[treestar]

42. What are they protesting?

The doing of business? Let's go back to the farms!

Nothing is going to happen.

[Shining Jack]

46. :facepalm:

[cheapdate]

80. Are you serious? What are they protesting?

Those financial firms paid themselves more than $100 billion in bonuses last year to reward themselves for taking over complete control of our government and you don't have any idea what they might possibly be protesting?

[webDude]

44. Have the "Powers That Be" called it Terrorism, yet? Suggest we start a betting...

...pool as to when they will. We could have the proceeds go to DU.

[Plucketeer]

45. I sure hope this doesn't fizzle out

I'd be there, were it not for the logistics and the daily commitments I have on the left coast.

[LynneSin]

47. If these were white racist assholes the news would be over this 24x7

:grr:

[FarLeftFist]

49. IF YOU ARE AGAINST WALL STREET GREED AND YET ARE AGAINST PEOPLE PROTESTING WALL ST.

YOU MAY BE LYING TO YOURSELF.

[treestar]

50. Protesting Wall street

in general is meaningless. What are the protesting? The Stock market?

Somebody has to be doing some business somewhere or we all starve.

[DrunkenBoat]

57. The stock market is mostly irrelevant to "doing business". If by business you

mean actually producing goods & services.

The stock market is mostly about rearranging ownership chits.

[treestar]

59. The companies on the stock exchange produce goods and services

and employ a lot of people. While there may be bad elements, just protesting "Wall street" is just vague and meaningless.

[DrunkenBoat]

60. They don't produce goods & employ people because of the existence of the stock market.

When financialization crowds out & dismantles real production, protesting Wall Street is neither vague nor meaningless.

[chrisa]

64. Wall Street is very important to our economic health. Don't kid yourself.

However, nobody is opposing Wall Street itself - just the corruption as of late that has turned our economy against the people.

[DrunkenBoat]

65. Please explain why, as you're so sure. Particularly the part about how it

produces goods & services.

[chrisa]

62. I believe the purpose is the recent practices of Wall Street, not Wall Street itself

Such as deregulation, throwing the Middle Class to the wolves to satisfy their own greed, a government that can be bought which no longer serves the people.

[DrunkenBoat]

67. Those aren't just recent practices. They're the nature of the beast.

[Mosaic]

73. How about we end the private enterprise paradigm

And have only a comprehensive public business environment for our country? That is the future, not this toxic dead end of a system.

[sudopod]

74. If you did more than five seconds of work you'd know that the two main points are :

1) Ending corporate person hood

and

2) Reducing wealth inequality

But hey, you've got your D sticker on your car and your Biden avatar, you're changing the world, lol.

[FarLeftFist]

81. Maybe they're opening peoples eyes. That's not a bad thing.

Whats wrong with enlightening people? Imagine this had major media coverage, how many eyes would open.

[valerief]

51. The pro-rethug T people are out in droves on this thread. nt

[Gin Blossom]

85. This is all so frightfully useless and tiresome, I almost spilled my cognac on my dinner jacket.

The same old tired, boring young people who have no idea that we need wall street in order to have well-paying jobs. I may not agree with everything the Tea Partier's had to say, but their rallies had pizazz. At least their rallies got the media's attention and got us true-blue democrats to compromise with them. If these young ralliers wanted to interest anybody, they would have held this silly rally on Monday, so I could at least be amused by the fact they couldn't get a foothold because they would have been shut down immediately. They would interest me a lot more if they just started looting and the police would shoot some of them.

Most Americans aren't like the fringe here on DU. They're in the middle, and we need to woo them, with a hefty campaign war-chest. Most Americans in the middle want better schools, better environment, more wars etc. for the rich, because the reason they're rich is because God loves them and the rich and powerful is what makes America great. Anything else is *yawn* old tired boring class warfare by these tiresome useless young people who only want to have a good time.

Sensible Democrats all know it's useless to fight for anything unless you have comfy majorities in Congress, so why bother? Sensible Democrats all know that a primary challenge to Obama is laughable, because we just need to fear those crazy Republicans, and move into a land of bipartisanship, where we recruit more Republicans to run as Democrats, and then we win! Those tired, boring kids have no idea. Damn, I'm going to have to take my dinner jacket to the cleaners tomorrow.

[valerief]

86. Give up. Yeah, that's the way. And all those good paying jobs Wall St. is giving Americans? Uh,

where are they?

[Matariki]

61. "Police set up checkpoints to allow only those who could prove they lived or worked on Wall Street..

Police set up checkpoints to allow only those who could prove they lived or worked on Wall Street to enter"

Seriously? That's what we've become?

[The Wizard]

63. Want to make Wall Street crazy?

Throw fifty one dollar bills on the floor of the exchange and watch the traders step on each other to grab some cash.

[Uncle Joe]

66. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cal.