slides: Tom Sgouros: Views From The Occupy Movement
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Saturday, October 08, 2011
Tom Sgouros, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™
Tom Sgouros went on the road to experience the Occupy Wall Street movement first hand. Here's what he saw.
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Police Presence
A different kind of theatre: Police questioning a woman about a slingshot that I believe someone had quietly placed next to her. I did not see someone place it, but I was there and its sudden appearance was as mysterious to me as it appeared to be to her.
The police threatened, but moved on while about 30 people took pictures.
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Polite Signs
Some of the signs were perhaps a bit too polite.
Not exactly fire-breathing here.
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Who's To Blame?
The protesters seem like a rag-tag bunch, easy to disparage. But well-dressed people with excellent reputations have led our nation (and our state, for that matter) to financial and fiscal disaster.
Why is their credibility intact? Whose opinions are more valuable? If you believe the answer to that question is obvious, you might be part of the problem.
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Pig In Suit
And lots of people find it easier to protest in costumes.
Though this guy was routinely pushed around by the police.
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Donations
The food table was filled with donations.
Donations have been coming in from all over, and range from food to sleeping bags.
The home page is asking for food donations today.
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Silkscreening
This guy was silkscreening patterns on anything people had. Lots of visitors took their shirts off to get an imprint.
I would have, too, but my shirt was purple, and already fully covered.
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Living Statue
As you'd expect there was street theatre.
This was more a living statue, really, but safer from arrest that way.
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Practical Idealists
These are idealists, though many of them have a practical turn of mind. The are was quite clean.
The disposal area demanded people not only separate recyclables from trash,
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Library
They even have a library.
Lots of books about finance and business, but also lots of fiction and Roget's Thesaurus, too.
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Daily Meetings
The protesters have twice-daily general assemblies, where they talk about managing the site and the protest, and schedule events.
On Friday they scheduled a seminar about the Bank of North Dakota, the nation's only state-owned bank.
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Comments:
joe bernstein
6:35pm on Saturday, October 08, 2011
Sgouros having a wet dream about Chicago 1968.
One of my cousins was a Chicago cop there and the next year for "Days of Rage".He and his buddies got to put the wood to the radicals as well as sap gloves and other goodies.
I left for Vietnam just after the Chicago riots of 1968 ended,and to tell the truth I wondered where the war really was(until I got over there).
These people are just enjoying playing at revolution as mental masturbation.Not too hygienic either.
Tom Sgouros
10:58am on Sunday, October 09, 2011
Sneer all you want, Joe. Then take some time with these folks: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
joe bernstein
11:27am on Sunday, October 09, 2011
Sneer?I find it offensive to see these protesters jumping on "the jooos did it"bandwagon.
Having Michael Moore as a spokesman says it all-he's a hypocritical bag of sh*t.
BTW I'm not a member of the Tea Party because my problem with taxes is that they are used poorly.i don't expect a free ride,but i don't want to subsidize waste.
And the Wall Street pirates?Many belong in prison.So do many in the Obama administration,starting with Eric Holder.
Chris Fortin
11:41am on Sunday, October 09, 2011
“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.” ― -Murray N. Rothbard
joe bernstein
12:04pm on Sunday, October 09, 2011
I personally slept through economics-I can't say the "big" economists have very good answers though-just look around.
Does Mr.Sgouros have an academic/practical background in eonomics?
He certainly likes to hold forth.
I usually stick to immigration/criminal justice where I do actually have academic/practical credentials.
Tom Sgouros
8:25pm on Monday, October 10, 2011
@Chris: Presumably you'd include such luminaries as Milton Friedman, who, it turned out, had only one idea about economics. Paul Samuelson said he was like the little boy who learned how to say "banana" but didn't know when to stop. Galbraith had it right: economics ought to be the study of power relations, but is instead thought to be a branch of mathematics. And how about Doug Holtz-Eakin? Lots of credentials of the usual kind, except for the part about getting the analysis right. Larry Summers comes to mind here, too.
And Joe: If you slept through economics, where do you get off sneering at others who didn't? I make it a habit only to write about stuff I know about.
Tom Sgouros
9:14pm on Monday, October 10, 2011
More @Chris: Something an engineer will appreciate. Economists are all about equilibrium and lots of analysis is about finding the restoring forces pushing back to equilibrium. But when an engineer sees a force pushing towards equilibrium, they might also ask where's the damping, where are the limits, what makes me think this is going to go to equilibrium and not just oscillate chaotically? These are not questions that economists ask, or haven't until quite lately. The IS-LM business, for example, is a good framework, but once you see from that analysis that there is a restoring force on interest rates, that should be the beginning of the inquiry, not the end result of it.
joe bernstein
10:32pm on Monday, October 10, 2011
@Tom-how do you know so much about economics?What are your credentials?
I was sneering(as you call it)at the assemblage of trust fund kids,bums,and professional protesters-what I've heard and seen is mass incoherence from them.
All I ever hear from you is a parrot like refrain-"more taxes,more taxes,cracker,please".
And you're pretty smug,you know that?
Joshua Rechter
1:51am on Tuesday, October 11, 2011
"trust fund kids,bums,and professional protesters"
Ah the parroted refrain/criticism based on prejudicial assumptions, misinformation and blatant untruths, and bias by the media whack job on this movement (all the criticism sounds EXACTLY the same...how odd) ...and then goes on to call Tom a parrot. Way too funny.
joe bernstein
7:36am on Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Joshua-I looked at the people,heard some of them,and then listened to Michael Moore go on and on with his hypocritical denunciation of people who make a lot of money(check out his personal way of doing things if you get the chance)and knew right then that people choosing him as a spokesman had little worthwhile to say.
I was an adult in 1968 and remember very well the SDS type scumbags holding their demonstartions and setting off bombs.There's something very similar with these people minus the explosives.
I grew up with some SDS folks and to this day I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.
The "parrot"remark about Tom refers to his default position on almost anything-"raise taxes,raise taxes".I have to wonder if he has a family and financial responsibility for anyone but himself.
BTW he constantly tries to talk over other panelists when he's on Lively Experiment.He should leave that to Cicilline,the reigning talk over expert.
Joshua Rechter
11:11am on Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Since WHEN is Michael Moore the spokesman? Why do you need to MAKE STUFF UP to prove a point? Is there no inherent and intrinsic value without making stuff up? How is his denunciation hypocritical? You see if you ACTUALLY listened instead of just heard, Michael Moore has or the OWS people have NO PROBLEM with people with money- they problem lies in the way SOME PEOPLE MAKE THAT MONEY. But ad hominem attacks are much easier, aren't they?
joe bernstein
1:16pm on Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Joshua-WHY would I make somethng up?Like I give a shit to impress you ?
Fact is,Moore was on some cable channel(NOT Fox)for about 20 minutes speaking from ,and apparently for the crowd.
Moore is a disgusting piece of shit who should drop dead and improve the general quality of life by doing so.
I have no love for the greedy wall Street pigs running "hedge funds",etc.I just won't ever throw in in with internationalist left wing scum.They want the government to run every aspect of our lives.
I want sensible government and believe it or not,sensible taxes used properly.
I DO want the government to inspect food products;protect the borders;defend us against enemies,etc.
I DON'T want the Federal government to do things they aren't empowered to do.