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Tag: Occupy Wall Street

  • Tom Perkins: Another Person Clueless About Holocaust

    Tom Perkins represents a number of people who have this annoying tendency to make references to historic events without bothering to know what it is they are actually talking about.

    A person who is a stickler for perfect grammar or who calls themselves a feminist might be referred to as a “Nazi”. If someone thinks of you as a tyrant might refer to you as “Adolf Hitler”. If you are one of the tiny pool of Americans that controls most of the country’s wealth, you might think of the people who question the blatantly lopsided socioeconomic situation as on the threshold of sending you to concentration camps.

    ….And you might just be bold or silly enough to voice such opinions in public.

    Tom Perkins is not the first individual to say something questionable regarding the suffering of the Jewish people in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s (and beyond of course, but that’s a separate matter).

    What’s unique about his comment is that it demonstrates a level of detachment from reality that is most remarkable. Not to mention a lack of appreciation for what sheer terror feels like.

    Perkins should note no one is throwing rocks through the glass windows of the 1%. I doubt that an average American could get anywhere near the residents of where such individuals live, lest the police be informed.

    There are no Star of David to be found on the expensive clothing of these individuals, forcibly distinguishing them from the good WASP citizens. Singling them out for abuse and violence that will go unpunished.

    There are no trains taking them to concentration camps.

    They have not been forcibly separated from their mothers, fathers, children and siblings. And they will not be butchered in the unspeakable manner as those who suffered and died during the Holocaust.

    Hating someone for reaching a level of wealth that it is practically questionable as to how they amassed so much money is not the same as using power to exploit a need for a scapegoat, feed fear and hatred, and then create a climate where it is acceptable to murder millions of people.

    At worst it’s petty.

    Still Tom Perkins and the willfully ignorant need not fear anything truly terrible. Because they have the wealth and the power that goes with it.

    If anything, the masses have more to fear from those with wealth, privilege and the power that goes with it. Because that trifecta is what enabled the horrors of what was seen during WWII in Nazi-ruled Germany.

    To throw a bone to Perkins and his ilk, if he wants to make references to historical events that would justify his fear without him looking foolish, he might want to back up a few centuries and make a reference to the French Revolution.

    Image via Bloomberg

  • Buy Your Occupy Wall Street Poster at Wal-Mart

    Since its conception by anti-consumerist Canadians Kalle Lasn and Micah White on September 17, 2011, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protested against the widening income gap between the rich and the poor, as well as many other economic injustices in America.

    Wal-Mart is the perfect example of what the Occupy Movement is against: High CEO-to-worker pay ratio; Michael Duke, Wal-Mart’s CEO makes an estimated $5.6 million dollars a year in total cash compensation, while the company’s sales associates average $18,000 per year. Occupy participants have protested labor conditions at Wal-Mart before.

    An influential symbol of capitalism in America, Wal-Mart pulls no punches where it sees profits; Wal-Mart marketplace, a vendor page of the corporation’s site that allows third-party vendors to sell their items, has a special product on sale.

    A vendor called The Poster Corps is selling a large panoramic poster print for $52.25 on the Wal-Mart marketplace. The poster shows a shanty town set up by the many protesting peoples of the Occupy Wall Street movement at Zuccotti Park, Lower Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City. There’s also another poster of an Occupy member holding up the American flag.

    Though the print is published by art wholesaler Liebermans, the photograph was taken by Tom Sheckels of Moorestown, New Jersey. Sheckles told The Village Voice on Tuesday that he had “no idea” that his picture was being sold on the Wal-Mart website, and that he “didn’t have any control” of where it would end up being.

    Sheckles, a retired environmental engineer, licensed his Occupy Wall Street photo to a company called Panoramic Images.

    “They feed pictures off to many different agencies, stock agencies like Getty and All Posters,” Sheckels says. “Apparently, this is just one of the pictures that, in the mix of pictures, ended up at Wal-Mart.

    The sole comment on the item’s page mentions that the panorama poster is “Rated excellent for the incredible irony.”

    The Huffington Post received a statement from Wal-Mart spokesperson Ravi Jariwala, who said, “We are a retailer and we provide a broad assortment of products and we have a diverse customer base.”

    The posters are currently out of stock.

    Pictures via Wal-Mart, Reddit, Wiki Commons

  • Occupy Wall Street Buys Debt at 50-1, Abolishes It

    Reuters and the Guardian both report one of Occupy Wall Street’s spinoff groups, the Rolling Jubilee Project, announcing this week that they have successfully bought $14.7 million in healthcare debt accumulated by Americans for roughly $400,000.

    Rolling Jubilee was set up by the OWS debt group Strike Debt! after the widespread financial protests in 2011. Andrew Ross, a member of Strike Debt! and a sociocultural analysis professor at New York University, said “We thought that the ratio would be about 20 to 1. In fact we’ve been able to buy debt a lot more cheaply than that.”

    Bigger lenders that deal with failed bills from loans, insurance, or credit cards often sell the debt at a loss to a third party for a fraction of the debt’s actual value. Debt-buying companies will pay pennies per dollar, then try to collect from the debtors for a profit. Strike Debt! has managed to relieve 2693 people of debts they owed for medical services that OWS believes should be universal. The remainder of their funds will likely go to relieving some student loan debt.

    Ross acknowledged the seemingly futile objectives of Strike Debt! when he said, “We’re under no illusions that $15m is just a tiny drop in the secondary debt market. It doesn’t make a dent in the amount of debt. Our purpose in doing this, aside from helping some people along the way – there’s certainly many, many people who are very thankful that their debts are abolished – our primary purpose was to spread information about the workings of this secondary debt market.”

    When the OWS offshoots purchase debt, they receive no information about the person who’s debt they are abolishing other than an address. They mail a letter to explain how the person’s debt was cancelled; that letter is the group’s only direct contact with debtors. However, Ross noted that “one person wrote back and said that he had gone through periods of being homeless and he was trying to get back on his feet.”

    If you want learn more about economic inequality in the United States, check out these enlightening charts from Business Insider.

    [Image via RollingJubilee.org]

  • $10 Minimum Wage to be in California by 2016

    Reuters reported via NBC News this morning that minimum wage workers in California would see their wages rise a dollar a year from $8 today to $10 in January 2016.

    California Republicans argued that hiking minimum wages would hurt the smaller employers, or the “mom and pop operations” as they said. Many business-friendly Democrats were also skeptical, as was Gov. Brown at first. But when the bill was amended to give the specific date of January 2016 to have a $10 minimum wage, most found themselves in support. One Democrat assemblyman who was initially against the bill, Al Muratsuchi, said that “this time I’m supporting this bill because it is a compromise… It gives employers predictability to plan for the higher labor costs.”

    Although no states currently legislate a minimum of $10 wages, the highest minimum is currently Washington with $9.19, and several states are thinking about following in California’s footsteps.

    Regardless of what businesses California Republicans are claiming will take a hit from increased wages, it is giant multinationals like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart that possess the loudest voices in the room. The 24/7 Wall St. version of the story via Yahoo Finance has the big corporations painting a higher minimum wage as wrecking their profits and making it impossible to take care of shareholders, but pressure from voters can have an interesting effect when it comes to reducing the power of lobby dollars.

    Some businesses are even thinking they can just wait out the fury, because worker-friendly movements like Occupy Wall Street have a tendency to fizzle and fade away like a forgotten trend. But the biggest problem with Occupy Wall Street revolved around their leaderless lack of direction and focus with regard to any one societal ill. The California wage fight has a focused goal (the transformation of a minimum wage into a living wage), and businesses should go ahead and acknowledge the writing on the wall: that $7.25/hour is not a living wage for anyone, and that’s a fact.

    [Image via a PBS news story on YouTube about Jerry Brown’s budget balancing initiatives]

  • Twitter Finally Gives Up Occupy Protester’s Tweets

    The saga of New York criminal court, Twitter, and #Occupy protestor Malcolm Harris appears to have come to a close, as Twitter has officially handed over tweets that they had been fighting to protect for months.

    The story, which begins with an arrest stemming from Occupy Wall Street protests, has a few twists and turns. Here’s the recap:

    In October of 2011, Malcolm Harris was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after participating in an #OWS protest on the Brooklyn Bridge. On January of 2012, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office sent a subpoena to Twitter, demanding that the company release user information and past tweets related to Harris. It later came out the prosecutors wanted Harris’ old (and currently inaccesible) tweets to try to undermine his argument that police led protesters to the Bridge and then arrested them for obstructing traffic.

    A few days after receiving the subpoena, Twitter notified Harris (which is a common practice for the social network). Harris then decided to file a motion to quash that subpoena.

    In a ruling handed down in April, Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. denied Harris’ motion to quash the subpoena. In short, the Judge concluded that Harris had “no proprietary interests” in his tweets. Basically, Twitter owns your tweets and because of that, even your deleted tweets can be obtained without a warrant.

    Less than a month after this decision, Twitter shocked everybody when they went to bat for Harris. They filed their own motion to quash the original subpoena, arguing that Harris did in fact have proprietary interest “in the content he submits to Twitter.” Twitter also cited the Stored Communications Act, the Fourth Amendement, and the lesser known Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without a State in Criminal Proceedings. Heavy-hitting legal stuff from the folks at Twitter.

    In July, the Judge said no dice, and ordered Twitter to hand over the tweets. An appeal also went nowhere, and Twitter faced a Friday, September 14th deadline to comply with the subpoena. Otherwise, the company would face a hefty fine.

    And today, Reuters reports that Twitter has complied and turned over the desired tweets.

    Good on you, Twitter, for going to bat for privacy rights. Even if this failed battle only centers on some disorderly conduct charges, it sets a precedent for Twitter (and other social) networks to be forced into giving up user information on the whim of a court order. Your tweets aren’t really yours – remember that.

  • Twitter Appeals Occupy Wall Street Tweet Ruling

    When a New York judge ruled that Malcolm Harris did not have fourth amendment protections for his tweets because they are not physical property, Twitter had every reason to just give up and let the courts have the tweets. Instead, the company challenged the court ruling, stating that the subpoena of Harris’ tweets violates its terms of service, the Stored Communications Act, and the fourth amendment to the U.S. constitution.

    Unfortunately for Harris and Twitter, the challenge was rejected back in July, on the basis that Harris could not assert privacy rights to tweets that were formerly public. Twitter was once again ordered to hand over the tweets.

    Today it has been confirmed that there is yet another twist in the case. Twitter has filed their appeal of the decision, taking the matter to the New York Supreme Court. Benjamin Lee, Twitter legal counsel and Litigation & IP lead at Twitter, announced the filing this afternoon through Tweets:

    In its appeal, Twitter makes many of the same arguments that it made in its initial motion. In short, the company states that Twitter users own their tweets, and argues that Harris certainly has a proprietary intrest in his formerly public tweets. It also asserts that the subpoenas issued by the trial court violate both the U.S. and New York state constitutions.

    The ACLU has filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Twitter. In a post to the ACLU blog, ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Aden Fine outlines his organizations reasoning for weighing in on the matter. From the blog post:

    Under the First and Fourth Amendments, we have the right to speak freely on the Internet, safe in the knowledge that the government cannot obtain information about our communications or our private information unless law enforcement first satisfies First Amendment scrutiny and obtains a warrant showing probable cause. The DA didn’t do that here. Instead, it has tried to avoid these constitutional hurdles by issuing a mere subpoena for Harris’s Twitter information.

    Whether the New York Supreme Court is likely to side with the trial court or with Twitter is unknown at this point. The court’s decision, though, will help set far-reaching free speech and privacy precedents. It will decide the matter of what rights Twitter users, and users of social media in general, have to their data and other information they have posted.

    (via TechCrunch)

  • Judge Orders Twitter to Hand Over Protest Tweets

    A New York judge this week ordered Twitter to hand over months of tweets from an Occupy Wall St. protester. Malcolm Harris, the protester, was arrested while trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge with hundreds of other protesters in October of last year. The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that the prosecution for his case want his tweets to prove that he and his fellow protesters knew that they were not allowed on the roadway of the bridge.

    Twitter has so far refused to hand over the tweets, which were originally public, but have since been pushed off Harris’ Twitter page by subsequent tweets. The crux of the conflict is over whether the tweets are Harris’ property or Twitter’s. Twitter maintains, as it does in its user agreement, that all content posted to its platform is owned by its creator, and therefore Harris has the right to challenge the subpoena of his tweets.

    The judge in the case decided that Harris did not have a “proprietary intrest” for the tweets and does not have standing to challenge the subpoena. Prosecutors also argued that, as the tweets were originally posted publicly, Harris could not now invoke privacy rights to them.

    Another worry for Twitter is that, if it is forced to supply the tweets in this case, it will have to comply with more requests in the future and have to go to court to defend more of its members. As its recent transparency report shows, Twitter has been receiving an increasing number of requests from governments for user data, and overwhelmingly so from the U.S.

    It is laudable and perhaps rare to see a company go to court for its members the way Twitter is in this case. Twitter, whether or not it is correct in this case, deserves praise for not simply rolling over for a prosecutor’s subpoena. According to the AP, the company is currently evaluating its next legal move regarding the case.

  • Occupy Wall Street Twitter Death Threat Spurs NYPD Probe

    Occupy Wall Street returned to its ideological home at Zuccotti Park this past Saturday to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the movement and, not much later after they arrived, police evicted the occupying protesters. As you may expect, the protesters did not go quietly into the night and an ensuing clash with police resulted in 73 arrests.

    While this is becoming frighteningly common when Occupy protesters and police lock horns, later that night one supporter tweeted this troubling message: “we wont make a difference if we dont kill a cop or 2.” The tweet has since been deleted but the user, whose Twitter user name is @Smackema1, the name anonCan0n, and a bio that lists the user’s location with the abbreviation for the state of Florida, has continued to retweet articles quoting the tweet and other comments regarding what was said.

    According to New York Daily News, the New York Police Department is seeking a subpoena to learn the identity of the person who managed the Twitter account.

    The Daily News managed to locate the user and, speaking with the news outlet, the unidentified man shared the following explanation: “It’s not like I meant anything of it. Who takes anything like that seriously? I’m in Florida, what am I going to do?”

    Uh, it would appear that police will take very seriously not-so-subtle calls for murder. The Floridian Twitterer might still be learning how this confounded Twitterscape works since the account was only created on November 10, 2010, and didn’t really start becoming active until earlier this month.

    @Smackema1 added more tweets and retweets after the incendiary comment from Saturday. They’re not exactly the most pacifying words you’ll read today, but he appears to be having a relatively small cultural second or two.

    @joebrooks
    Joe Brooks    NYPD investigating Twitter user @Smackema1 for this tweet on @TimCast‘s stream –> https://t.co/1xSIjTZo article: http://t.co/Nseaq2oE 17 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @TheOccupyCult @joebrooks that’s me I’m not worried lol I didn’t do anything wrong and am lisenced for weapons 16 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @TheOccupyCult
    TheOccupyCult    .@joebrooks you mean the guy in this pic –> @Smackema1 ? http://t.co/VozjifJm 16 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Note: going all militia-style by stating how you’ve got a license for weapons isn’t exactly the best way to mollify the antagonism and convince people you didn’t mean anything by what you said.

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @Anon_Rabbit being investigated by nypd and trying to get my records @AnonymousPress @AnonyOps @common_squirrel @jeffrae @YourAnonNews 16 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    Holy shit y’all are 5 years old smackem out deactivating 15 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @IloiloKano I love how you guy can watch cops brutally beat people push citizens and I make one comment all you old fucks care now shut up 15 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @easygoer132 LOL pathetic you guys cant read the rest of the tweets around what i said . shows what you are. id never do that 14 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @davidwebbshow figures why dotn you guys tweet the cops that were doing the real violence last night? 14 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    All this twitter stuff is funny 14 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @CrazyLittleOwl please explain if its over the comment its taken out of context 14 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @gdthomp01 for what you bald prick a comment taken out of text in a chat room? I already talked to nypd all is good read before you speak 14 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    Comment taken out of context nypd says thanks guys 13 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    Deactivating to many messages for one night ill be back bright and early 9 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    A Journalist will spin a story any way to make himself have “Story” Ask questions and investigate before you slander foolsOUTOFCONTEXT 3 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @DittoPost @testeux1 @rushlimbaugh if I said something wrong I’d apologize that comment is taken out of context for media hype 2 hours ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @virgiltexas
    Andy Borehol    NYPD pointed to this guy’s “threat” to kill cops to justify harassing #OWS @Smackema1 Man With Guy Fawkes In Sunglasses Avatar Deemed Threat 1 hour ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @Smackema1
    anonCan0n    @virgiltexas nypd what pct says that I’ve called them all none have said that 37 minutes ago via Twitter for Android ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    As of this morning, @Smackema1 was futilely trying to shout down the internet in an ensuing flame war that’s undoubtedly giving him a brutal lesson in this internet thing. Anybody want to take bets on whether @Smackema1 was surprised to find out that people can actually read what he says on the internet?

  • Scott Olsen, Marine Vet Injured During #OccupyOakland, Finds Support Online

    Scott Olsen, Marine Vet Injured During #OccupyOakland, Finds Support Online

    Unless your head has been buried deeply in the sand, you are aware of the #Occupy movements going on all over the world. The movement, responsible for the “we are the 99%” mantra, began in New York with #OccupyWallStreet and has moved to cities everywhere.

    One of those cities is Oakland, California. During an exchange between Oakland PD and the protestors, a United States Marine and veteran of the Iraq War was injured when a projectile hit him in the head, causing injury to his skull.

    The police used rubber bullets, teargas, and flash canisters on the crowd of protestors. Nothing can explain the scene better than a video can, so here are a couple:

    The guy being carried off is 24-year-old Scott Olsen. He was in critical, but stable condition for hours following the incident, but has now been upgraded to fair condition.

    When the details began to emerge shortly after the videos began to go viral, it didn’t take long for the incident to strike a chord with Olsen’s fellow marines. This photo became huge on Reddit, and garnered hundreds of comments.

    Other Marines, as well as members of the other branches of service took to the site to express their solidarity –

    As a fellow (Active Duty) vet as well, though never a Marine. I can’t stand this hypocritical stance that the elected officials are taking this horrible event. Though I was never a Marine, he is a brother in arms. As a family, we must stand together. I do recall that when I took my oath of enlistment that no where did it say that I will protect corporate greed. I know for one, if shit gets out of hand, I stand with the people and not the corporate lackeys.

    Former Marine Corpsman here (Desert Storm, Somalia, 1st Med Btn, BSSG 7, 7th Engineers)-
    Absolutely disgusting. Is it enough yet? Have we had enough? What’s left? I loathe anything that harms a Marine, especially one exercising his rights, unarmed and peaceful. Get well my brother, we’re thinking of you.

    Semper Fi From a Brother Marine, this country of mine is really starting to piss me off. I didn’t serve my country to come home and see the Banks and Greedy Corporations bailed out with my tax money. All the while CEO’s are banking million dollar bonus’s for laying off hundreds of thousands of workers, and banks who were bailed out with my tax dollars are foreclosing on the same people who’s money bailed them out. now the police are acting as jack booted thugs who seem to work for the corrupt elites. and beat the shit out of my brother.

    A group called #OccupyMARINES, has also flooded the web with support for Olsen.

    @OccupyMARINES
    OccupyOMC    HM1 “Doc J” says WHEN YOU SHOOT ONE MARINE, YOU SHOOT AT ALL OF US. OORAH. Do It Peacefully Occupy We Stand In Solidarity 2 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    They have listed a series of demands on their site,

    In Response To The Oakland Shooting Of Scott Olsen OccupyOMC Request The Following:

    Identify the 3 SFSD ESU riot officers by name, photo, and badge number with boots on the ground engaging in illegal excessive force acts against peaceful American for prosecution

    Identify the officer responsible for harming Scott Olsen by name and photo for prosecution

    The honorable resignation of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and CCSF Sheffir Michael Hennessey

    A public apology from California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. for the unlawful injury of our brother Scott Olsen

    The whole OccupyMARINES movement of service members backing the #OccupyWallStreet protestors seems to have spawned from his viral video that has over 2.2 million hits. It shows a Marine, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, unleashing on NYC police for their handling of the protestors.

    It’s clear that many on the interwebs feel strongly about what happened to Scott Olsen. What are your thought? Let us know in the comments.