Tag: Occupy Wall Street

Under the orders of Mayor Bloomberg, hundreds of police officers raided and cleared out Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in the middle of the night. Many Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested as they were rousted from their tents and sleeping bags.

At 6:30 a.m. this morning, Justice Lucy Billings issued an order requiring the protesters to be readmitted to Zuccotti Park with their tents. ThinkProgress just spoke to one of the plantiff’s attorney’s, Gideon Orion Oliver, who confirmed that the order was served on Mayor Bloomberg and the other defendants via fax at 7:50 a.m.

During his 8 a.m. press conference, Mayor Bloomberg seemed to acknowledge he was familiar with the temporary restraining order, but claimed he had not been served and was keeping the park closed. As of this writing, Zuccotti Park remains closed to protesters in direct contradiction of Justice Billing’s order.

For more info and updates, go to ThinkProgress

From Occupy Berkeley.

I don’t know what happened before this video, but the police don’t seem to be in any danger. From the video, it looks like they make the decision to just attack.

Wow.

When Wisonsin Governor gave a speech at Chicago’s Union League Club the morning of Nov 3rd, he has some unexpected guests: Stand Up! Chicago

I think this is great. All the folks participating paid to get in, and then used their voices to make a point.

I have no problem with people getting rich, but when the gap between average workers and CEOs grows and grows at an incredibly exponential rate, there’s a problem.

According to the AFL-CIO, in 1980, CEOs at the largest companies received 42 times the pay of the average worker. In 2000 the gap hit a high, with CEOs making 525 times the average worker.

In 2010, the gap narrowed a bit with CEOs making 343 times the average worker.

“Despite the collapse of the financial market at the hands of executives 3 years ago, the disparity between CEO and workers’ pay has continued to grow to levels that are simply stunning,” said Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president.

Why can’t average worker’s salaries keep pace with CEOs? Or at least something closer to parity? Yes, CEOs are running the companies, but clearly the vast majority of profits are going to the very top execs and the folks doing the actual labor are NOT seeing a fair share of profit through their participation.

Now does any of that sound unreasonable?

Herman Cain recently gave an interview in which he said about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement:

““I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated, to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration,” Cain said.

“Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks — if you don’t have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!”

If you would like to read countless stories of people who went to school, went to work and found their employers or Wall Street or lots of others DIDN’T live up to their end of the bargain, check out WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT website.

There you can read many, many stories of people do did the “right” things only to have big business, Wall Street or others not hold up their end of the bargain.

The bargain: you study hard, work hard – you get rewarded for such.

The equation is broken.

Like a lawyer in a courtroom, reporters with a bias should probably know who they are talking to and what they’re going to hear when they interview someone.

This is the footage FOX News didn’t air. I’m guessing because it doesn’t play to their “core audience.”

Plus, the folks they usually interview aren’t usually this articulate about what they believe.