Interesting . . .
YOU'D THINK THAT WORD OF DRUGS AND HOOKERS AND BOOZE WOULD BE GREAT ADVERTISING FOR MORE PARTY PEOPLE TO JOIN UP WITH OCCUPY KC . . . BUT IT DIDN'T WORK OUT THAT WAY!!!
Sad . . .
OCCUPY KC WAS FINALLY STARTING TO SOUND LIKE AN INTERESTING PARTY!!!
CURRENTLY . . .
The group seems to be splintering . . .
The struggle for leadership is in full effect . . .
The camp site is looking VERY empty and also kinda dirty when I drove past last night . . .
From last week the "sleep over" (or whatever) numbers are down . . .
And compared to other towns and cities the "OCCUPY" movement doesn't seem to be taking hold in Kansas City.
What's strange is that censorship mode is has kicked in on the group social media presence . . . Most of the threads, flamewars and arguments are disappearing fast.
At the risk of seeming insensitive . . .
THE OCCUPY KC MOVEMENT IS OVER AND IT WAS PROBABLY DOWNTOWN HOBOS WHO KILLED IT!!!
Of course there will be people who won't give up the ghost AND THAT'S ENCOURAGING!!!
But the fact is that a really great cause has JUMPED THE SHARK in Kansas City and maybe more productive methods of protest and A BIT OF EDUCATION REGARDING LOCALS DEALING WITH WEALTH DISPARITY is in order . . . And all of this is probably more productive than just playing along with Cable TV news.
Went off of message, went off of the tracks.
ReplyDeleteSomeone suggested city hall is paying the hobos, druggies, and hookers to join Occupy KC on another site. I doubt it though since City Government has so much integrity and is always looking out for the little guy.
ReplyDeleteIt's a train wreck alright. Replace the current wrongs with new ones. Yeah that'll work out swell.
ReplyDeleteThe anger is still out there.
Sent a forwarded email to my terrible trio, McCaskill, Cleaver & Blunt. You probably get it every three days too about Congress pay & perks.
So almost two-weeks have gone by and only Blunt responded. Those stalwart defenders of the 99% are too busy trying to put KCIR out of business I guess.
IF THE OCCUPIERS WANT TO REALLY TAKE A STAND AGAINST CORPORATE GREED IN KC, GO OCCUPY THE COURTYARD AT POWER AND LIGHT. CORDISH COMPANY IS THE GOLD STANDARD OF PATHETIC CORPORATE BS IN KC.
ReplyDelete"It's a train wreck alright. Replace the current wrongs with new ones. Yeah that'll work out swell.
ReplyDeleteThe anger is still out there."
That is true Orphan, but I think they should have narrowed the agenda and stuck to Wall Street issues, not try to right every perceived wrong in teh world.
I went down there, and it was a mess.
The encampment is near the top of a very windy hill and the wind and rain did a serious tap dance on the camp. WHich is why a satellite expansion camp is being made...ahead of a potential move. I hardly recognized the place last night.
ReplyDeletehttp://radiomankc.blogspot.com/2011/11/occupy-kc-plans-to-move-into-downtown.html
Wow. Something sure must have happened between Tony and the occupy folks over the last week or so.
ReplyDeleteTony is usually a sucker for any anti-government crackpot, from Tracy Ward through Ron Paul. or any anti-government cause, from red light cameras through the zoo tax.
And now he is upset with a movement for not being "on message" enough for him?
He mostly gets his stuff offa facebook pages. And looks for dirt. Its one of the drawbacks to transparency.
ReplyDeleteImagine if you could be a little birdie on the wall, and read emails and listen to phone calls within the corporate community!!!!
But media doesn't have private property access, so they over-cover government and movements like this one.
For example, Tony's still raging on about one allegation by one old, suspicious guy who claims there's drugs and sex going on among the homeless down at the encampment.
It was hardly worth a news story, much less a week's worth! But hey. IT sells during TV ratings sweeps and brings hits for bloggers who never let the facts get in the way of a good, sexy story. You read it, didn't you?
Rman, I neverr saw any indication of any untoward activities when I was there.
ReplyDeleteIt was only a couple of hours, but it was a snoozer.
I do think Tony is right, teh movement jumped the shark.
Totally co - opted.
gotta ago...
The point isn't whether the movement has "jumped the shark." The point is whether the movement has changed the political conversation in this country, and it certainly has.
ReplyDeleteLast summer, the entire conversation was about the national debt to the point that Congress took the entire nation to the brink of default to score political points about "gummint spending." While they all had their hands out for spending on pet projects in their districts.
Now, as a direct result of the Occupy movement, we've got a conversation going about the increasing share of the nation's wealth that has been grabbed by the top 1 percent --- the very people who wrecked the economy in the first place.
And let's hope that the conversation continues, at least through the presidential election cycle. If it does, then the Occupy movement -- worldwide -- has been quite successful, even if people in Kansas City prefer not to live in tents during the winter.
But as usual, Tony can't see beyond the shallowness of this exact moment to the broader picture.
I am also guessing that his sudden change of heart reflects something deeply personal that happened between him and the Occupiers. Did he offer them his sage advice about exactly what they should do next and exactly how they should do it, and they told him to take a hike?
Or was it the fact that his newfound enemies in the unions have joined and endorsed the movement in a sort of "with me or against me," "friends of my enemies" sort of thing?
And radioman? Tony is after a niche audience and found one by mixing linkes to other media around pictures of nearly naked women.
Unfortunately, he also has the illusion that this audience of post-adolescent, anti-government, anti-establishment libertarians makes him a force in KC politics to be reckoned with, when all he provides is the diversion of a clown between acts in a three-ring circus.
the movement is over and didn't last half as long as the dimwit tea party.
ReplyDeleteGo fuck yourself Rachel Maddow.
It is funny that the upper middle class Occupy people don't like it when the actual poor (homeless) show up.
ReplyDeleteApparently equality doesn't apply to the homeless.
This "99%" stuff is nonsense in context with how Occupy KC behaves. OKC cannot continue jumping on to every single left-wing bandwagon (favored by 25% of the population, tops) and ever expect any kind of mass appeal.
ReplyDeleteOccupations nationwide in different cities are either irrelevant (like OKC is apparently determined to be) or scaring the hell out of normal Americans (like Oakland) and losing any opportunity to expand and become a real mass movement.
OKC: Drop the anti-Israel propaganda, the vigils for convicted rapists, and the pathetic marches on minority neighborhoods or bask in freezing cold obscurity.
It's the banks, stupid. Hammer that.
Despite what you think are side issues, OKC is getting press where it needs to be, like Saturday for the bank transfer day.
ReplyDeletePeople are starting to get the message; it takes time. YOu proteseth too much.
I have been up to the camp a number of times this week. The conduct issues took up two entire GAs. Being public property, it makes it tough to outright ban individuals for misbehaving. But they seem to be quite serious about ending that kind of crap.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, they need focus. And to spiff up the camp storage issues along with their planned expansion. So far unions have shown some support but not so much in terms of warm bodies.
The bank protest starting at 1:00 was truly a fail on the part of whoever decided the start time. And I told them so. Waiting until the bank is closed to start the party..... Priceless. But heck, they're new at this.
I left before hearing what they decided on the expansion Friday night.
I see Tony has desisted with the whitey only rhetoric and thanks for that. There is quite a rainbow of humanity involved.
The horizontal collective governing, hamstrings progress, though. When a individual 'block' derails an issue, that is a flaw in the process. The good news: they are having it proved to them first hand that a pure democracy of one person one vote is untenable. And hence our representative Republic.
Mic check sucks and doubles the length of a GA. Somebody buy them a bull horn.
Let them be proud that they have not had a single arrest yet.
I'm not sure that Occupy intended to model "pure democracy" as a form of government. But I don't see how you can have a movement unless there is consensus on the issues and the tactics to draw attention to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Occupy movement has been very successful about that, as noted earlier. They've changed the conversation.
@Radioman: Yes, people are getting the message. They are getting the message that Occupy is just another far-left interest group and a fairly radical one on that (but mercifully non-violent). People are avoiding it. Look:
ReplyDeleteFirst march: 580
Second march: 400
Third march: 200
See a pattern here?
10:17,
ReplyDeleteA 90% concensus? Meeting after meeting after commission on this and then that. 4 hours and two days on conduct in camp by people who never sleep there. Today, 8 hours of meeting on expansion and more meeting on conduct.
But hey, the camp got cleaned up today. But it wasn't by anybody in the 8 hour meeting.
No, it's not 'pure democracy' they're after. It's something else. I was being nice.
Is this still being called a 'protest' with 'demands'?
ReplyDeleteI thought that was pretty funny. If your demands aren't met, you will do what, exactly?
I thought you were camping out to show solidarity with the homeless. I guess not.
As long as you treat the homeless like lepers, you don't get it.
As long as you see prostitutes as somebody to fuck, you don't get it.
Once they discover GoToMeeting.com the movement is finished.
ReplyDelete