"99 Percenters Occupy Wall Street" By Amy Goodman

[G_j]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/99_percenters_occupy_wall_street_20110920/?ln

Posted on Sep 20, 2011


99 Percenters Occupy Wall Street


By Amy Goodman

If 2,000 tea party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them. Yet 2,000 people did occupy Wall Street on Saturday. They weren’t carrying the banner of the tea party, the Gadsden flag with its coiled snake and the threat “Don’t Tread on Me.” Yet their message was clear: “We are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.” They were there, mostly young, protesting the virtually unregulated speculation of Wall Street that caused the global financial meltdown.

One of New York’s better-known billionaires, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, commented on the protests: “You have a lot of kids graduating college, can’t find jobs. That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kinds of riots here.” Riots? Is that really what the Arab Spring and the European protests are about?

Perhaps to the chagrin of Mayor Bloomberg, that is exactly what inspired many who occupied Wall Street. In its most recent communique, the Wall Street protest umbrella group said: “On Saturday we held a general assembly, two thousand strong. ... By 8 p.m. on Monday we still held the plaza, despite constant police presence. ... We are building the world that we want to see, based on human need and sustainability, not corporate greed.”

Speaking of the tea party, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has caused a continuous fracas in the Republican presidential debates with his declaration that the U.S.’ revered Social Security system is a “Ponzi scheme.” Charles Ponzi was the con artist who swindled thousands in 1920 with a fraudulent promise for high returns on investments. A typical Ponzi scheme involves taking money from investors, then paying them off with money taken from new investors, rather than paying them from actual earnings. Social Security is actually solvent, with a trust fund of more than $2.6 trillion. The real Ponzi scheme threatening the U.S. public is the voracious greed of Wall Street banks.

..more..

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. Whatever happened about those wall street protestors. I forgot all about that.

Nary a peep here on DU about them after they were getting rounded up by the police on monday evening.

[Luminous Animal]

8. They are still there and the movement has spread to...

San Francisco, Madison, Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago. DUers post about it here every day.

[KansDem]

2. Ms. Goodman is spot on with this comment!

If 2,000 tea party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them. Yet 2,000 people did occupy Wall Street on Saturday.

Where's the corporate media with its "Rage in the Heartland" stories? We know they weren't at the ceremonial homicide of Troy Davis...

[G_j]

6. sort of reminds me of when well over 11 million people

around the world rallied to prevent the Iraq war, a truly historic event.
For the US media... it never happened.

[Tsiyu]

3. Thank you, Amy

K&R

If this doesn't show the COWARDICE and biases and blatant obfuscation of the media in America, nothing does.

[WillyT]

4. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

:kick:

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. K&R!

[me b zola]

7. K&R