Is laying the ‘intellectual foundation’ of OWS something one ought to brag about?
I got a chuckle when I saw this Associated Press story:
WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is taking some credit for the Occupy Wall Street protests.
The Democrat and longtime consumer advocate says her work over the years against Wall Street abuses created much of the intellectual foundation for the demonstrators.
Because I immediately remembered reading this, from New York Magazine’s Daily Intel:
Over the past month, the crusaders at Zuccotti Park have braved the elements, tussled with police, and stood their ground against Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg. But how much do the protesters actually know about the economic system that they’re fighting to change? To find out, we asked 50 occupiers a series of questions about Wall Street, taxes, and government. The results were mixed.
To call the results “mixed” is to put it charitably. Here are some of the results:
- Q: What is the Dodd-Frank Act? Most common answer: “Don’t know,” with 84 percent of the vote.
- Q: What is the “S.E.C”? Most common answer: “Don’t know,” with 68 percent of the vote (though I smiled to see 4 percent, in New York, answer “The Southeastern Conference?”).
- Q: What is the top marginal income tax rate for the richest 1 percent? An astonishing 30 percent actually thought it was “Zero to 10 percent,” and another 32 percent said “10 to 25 percent.” Add the 26 percent who admitted not knowing, and there’s a whole lot of ignorance among the Occupiers about the 1 percenters they so detest.
- Q: What does the government spend more on? Health care and pensions, education, or the military? The answer by 94 percent of those polled: the military. Which, in fact, takes up less than half the spending that health care and pensions do.
The Occupiers were more knowledgeable about whether we’re experiencing inflation or deflation, and about whether President Obama controls the Federal Reserve (although just 38 percent knew that Ben Bernanke is the Fed’s chairman). But my favorite answer, given the aforementioned boasting by a certain Democratic candidate for the Senate from Massachusetts?
Q: Who is Elizabeth Warren?
Don’t Know: 64 percent
“Warren Buffett’s wife?”: 10 percent
“First female president/hero”: 2 percent
Warren will, I’m sure, be flattered to know that the rest of her alleged intellectual offspring actually recognized her name.
Suggested new name for Warren’s Army: “We are the 24 percent!”
– By Kyle Wingfield
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247 comments Add your comment
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
4:28 pm
prof skeptic: “Kyle, that was the most childish entry I believe you’ve ever posted”
And that’s covering some ground. Man.
duke
October 26th, 2011
4:45 pm
The intellectual foundation for OWS is the strategy of world communism. It goes all the way back to Plato, whose “Republic” is the model for totalitarian socialist dictatorship. Karl Marx was a student of Plato. Plato taught that enlightened activists should use any means available to destabilize existing society, to clear the way for the New World Order.
Saul Alinsky was an advocate of this strategy. See, for example, his “Rules for Radicals”. Google the connections between Alinsky and Hillary Clinton for some interesting insights into what’s going on. He was a major mentor of hers; I think she wrote her senior college thesis about him. ACORN, with whom Obama has a long and intimate association is heavily involved in this sort of thing.
Here is a quote from Wikipedia about one typical example: “The Cloward–Piven strategy is a political strategy outlined in 1966 by American sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward (1926–2001) and Frances Fox Piven (b. 1932) that called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to a replacement of the welfare system with a national system of ‘a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty’. Cloward and Piven were a married couple who were both professors at the Columbia University School of Social Work. The strategy was formulated in a May 1966 article in left-wing magazine The Nation entitled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty”.”
The housing bubble which led to the financial collapse was part of the same strategy. Sympathetic Congressmen enacted laws which enabled radical lawyers like Barack Obama to sue banks for discrimination if they denied loans to people who were not credit-worthy.
These people just might succeed. They have often succeeded in other countries. No one in the United States has yet confronted them successfully. The sympathetic news coverage is a powerful weapon indeed. They are positioned to use sophisticated vote fraud; and if riots break out, which is the next stage of the plan, we can be sure that President Obama will not use the Army to suppress them.
During the post-Katrina looting in New Orleans, the Police, mostly Black, confiscated weapons from homeowners who were trying to defend their lives and property. Black homeowners got no special treatment; it is not about race. But international socialists have successfully radicalized our Black communities.
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
4:54 pm
duke: “Plato taught that enlightened activists should use any means available to destabilize existing society, to clear the way for the New World Order.”
Well, we can see from this that your name doesn’t refer to the school. I doubt you could have gotten in with shabby reasoning skills like that.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 26th, 2011
5:05 pm
She already admits to being a dummycrat so how much of a leap is this?
Nothing says I’m gullible, ate up and lazy more than being an OWS’er.
So how do you tell them apart?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 26th, 2011
5:39 pm
When the Wild West was won, guaranteed, the liberals of the day rode in the back of the wagon blubbering and whining all the way across the country.
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
5:49 pm
“Well, we can see from this that your name doesn’t refer to the school. I doubt you could have gotten in with shabby reasoning skills like that.”
So what school did you graduate from?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
6:08 pm
” No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama’s policies.”
—————————-
Incorrect. Obozo raised everyone’s taxes in his fascist healthcare power grab:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/24/healthy-tax-increases-not-only-on-wealthy/?page=all
MarkV
October 26th, 2011
6:15 pm
Welcome to the occupation @4:54 pm
Is the duke’s fantasy(@ 4:45 pm) even worth debating?
gkingii
October 26th, 2011
6:15 pm
The whole system of living on credit is the basis of the financial problem in our country. Banks get the lion’s share of the blame. Consider the housing debacle since banks moved into the mortgage business. Politicians pushed them, they saw a way to make more money and still wind up with the properties, and went for it. In face, the mortgage process is a full-blown scam. Compound interest serves only to enrich mortgage holders unfairly. If houses were sold for a flat, one-time interest rate, buyers wouldn’t have to pay twice the price for the privilege of borrowing money. The papers say it’s 4%, but the payback is closer to 100%.
Tealiban Party
October 26th, 2011
6:24 pm
The Tea Partiers – CLUELESS
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002529-503544.html
They’re white. They’re older. And they’re angry.
CBS News and the New York Times surveyed 1,580 adults, including 881 self-identified Tea Party supporters, to get a snapshot of the Tea Party movement.
Fifty-three percent of Tea Party supporters describe themselves as “angry” about the way things are going in Washington, compared to 19 percent of Americans overall who say they are angry.
Asked what they are most angry about, the top four answers among Tea Party supporters who identify as angry were the health care reform bill (16 percent), the government not representing the people (14 percent), government spending (11 percent) and unemployment and the economy (8 percent).
Eighty-eight percent disapprove of President Obama’s performance on the job, compared to 40 percent of Americans overall. While half of Americans approve of Mr. Obama’s job performance, just seven percent of Tea Party supporters say he is doing a good job.
Asked to volunteer what they don’t like about Mr. Obama, the top answer, offered by 19 percent of Tea Party supporters, was that they just don’t like him. Eleven percent said he is turning the country more toward socialism, ten percent cited his health care reform efforts, and nine percent said he is dishonest.
Sixty-four percent believe that the president has increased taxes for most Americans, despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans got a tax cut under the Obama administration.
Sixty-three percent say they get the majority of their political and current events news on television from the Fox News Channel.
*********************************
TEA PARTY — NOT SURE WHY WE ARE MAD, EXCEPT WE HATE OBAMA, WE MISTAKENLY, IGNORANTLY THINK OBAMA RAISED OUR TAXES, AND WE GET OUR INFO FROM FOX.
What an itelligent movement!!!
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
6:27 pm
MarkV: “Is the duke’s fantasy(@ 4:45 pm) even worth debating?”
No, not really. But to paraphrase Mr. Perry, it’s kind ‘a fun pokin’ at him.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
6:31 pm
“They’re white. They’re older. And they’re angry.”
————————–
And America agreed and voted for a whole bunch of their candidates in 2010.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
6:33 pm
Tealiban Party: WE MISTAKENLY, IGNORANTLY THINK OBAMA RAISED OUR TAXES, AND WE GET OUR INFO FROM FOX.
———————
He did. Maybe Fox News is why they know this.
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
6:45 pm
“They’re white. They’re older. And they’re angry.”
Herman Cain is white? Alan West is white? Don King is white? Tim Scott is white?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
6:47 pm
Billy, stoking their cognitive dissonance isn’t very nice!
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
6:48 pm
“They’re white. They’re older. And they’re angry.”
Marco Rubio is white? Nikkie Haley is white?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
6:48 pm
Enter your comments here
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
6:49 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
These left wingers are all crybabies who want the nanny state to take care of them. They need their diapers and formula from Obama or they won’t survive. They’re also desperate.
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
6:50 pm
“Sixty-four percent believe that the president has increased taxes for most Americans, despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans got a tax cut under the Obama administration.
CBS: The same news organization that falsified documents about President Bush.
Great source there, tard.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
6:51 pm
And they’re so lame that they can’t repay their student loans in 20 years…Obozo has to forgive the loans, sticking the productive with the loss.
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
6:57 pm
“And they’re so lame that they can’t repay their student loans in 20 years”
Especially when they get degrees in pottery making and poetry.
Tealiban Party
October 26th, 2011
7:04 pm
“Gauging the scope of the tea party movement in America”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102304000.html
A new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process.
The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research.
Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, said: “When a group lists themselves on our Web site, that’s a group. That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence – we don’t know. We have groups that I know are 15,000 people, and I have groups that I know are five people.”
There is little agreement among the leaders of various groups about what issue the tea party should be most concerned about. In fact, few saw themselves as part of a coordinated effort.
The most common responses were concerns about spending and limiting the size of government, but together those were named by less than half the groups. Social issues, such as same-sex marriage and abortion rights, did not register as concerns.
Eleven percent said that Obama’s race, religion or ethnic background was either a “very important” or “somewhat important” factor in the support their group has received.
************************
Billy Bane
October 26th, 2011
7:06 pm
“A new Washington Post”
Love it when left wingers post garbage from left wing rags.
lil barry burn out
October 26th, 2011
7:08 pm
intellectual foundation… OWS?
marty
October 26th, 2011
7:10 pm
The difference between Bookmans’ blog and this guys’ is that Jay will respond to challenges. Debbie from Athens made cogent points early on in this thread and Wingfield simply avoids engaging. Speaks volumes.
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
7:33 pm
Brainout, Billy our Bane: “And they’re so lame that they can’t repay their student loans in 20 years…Obozo has to forgive the loans, sticking the productive with the loss.”
Seriously, is that the best you can do?
The free market system you’re so dedicated to had its day, and it was a miserable failure, as everyone can see. And the fact that people are coming around to the scam in greater numbers now seems to have you in a lather.
Guess you’ll just have to keep calling the movement antisemitic like your washed out movement leaders Kristol and Gingrich and Beck. The only thing you have is baseless smears. So have at it boys.
sarah kathryn pookie smith
October 26th, 2011
7:37 pm
Kyle – great article. I’m starting to wonder if the tea party and the OWS could join forces. They both are sick of government waste and both have been victims of media mockery. I’m the first to admit that I don’t know enough current events. But am thrilled that 4% recognized the SEC – South Eastern Conference! Go Dawgs!
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
7:42 pm
By the way, Billy Bane, when you say : “Love it when left wingers post garbage from left wing rags.” What do you mean?
Do you really think the WaPo is a left wing rag? Seriously? Wow. Do you know what they had in their coverage today of the Oakland police thuggery? They featured a large picture of an anti-riot cop petting a kitten. It was absolute pro-police whitewashing.
The fact that you think of WaPo as left wing tells us all we need to know about where you’re coming from. Just a tad provincial in your right wing paranoia, lol.
JKL2
October 26th, 2011
8:37 pm
tealiban-
So the gist of your article is the Tea Party is angrier with obama than the average citizen? It took a real Eistein to come up with that conclusion.
The Tea Party want’s government to listen to the people who elected them and do the job they were originally intended to do. (crazy talk I know)
OWS wants the government to steal all the money from anyone they deem “rich” and give it to them.
People wanting elected officials to do their job v. people wanting bigger handouts.
I can see how you could confuse them…
JKL2
October 26th, 2011
8:41 pm
welcome- The fact that you think of WaPo as left wing tells us all we need to know about where you’re coming from. Just a tad provincial in your right wing paranoia, lol.
You don’t think WaPo is a left wing rag? That tells us all we need to know about where you’re coming from.
Maybe obama should call the police idiots and then invite everyone to the White House for a beer.
Don't Tread
October 26th, 2011
8:47 pm
“No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama’s policies”
Yes they have…it’s called a permanent tax hike covered up with a temporary tax cut (aka “Making Work Pay”). Once that expires, voila….tax increase.
@@
October 26th, 2011
8:59 pm
Too funny!
Note to self: Send Ms. Warren one of those T-shirts with a left-pointing finger that says “I’m With Stupid”.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
9:01 pm
“The free market system you’re so dedicated to had its day, and it was a miserable failure…and the fact that people are coming around to the scam in greater numbers now seems to have you in a lather.”
———————–
In the free market, businesses that fail go away and the capital and labor they’re consuming are freed up for more productive uses. The scam was the taxpayer bailing out the banks, car companies, insurance companies, and the scumbags who chose not to pay their mortgages.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 26th, 2011
9:12 pm
Here is what the OWS morons are complaining about:
———————
If Suzy Creamcheese gets into George Washington University and borrows from the government the requisite $212,000 to obtain an undergraduate degree, her repayment schedule will be based on what she earns. If Suzy opts to heed the president’s call for public service, and takes a job as a city social worker earning $25,000, her payments would be limited to $1,411 a year after the $10,890 of poverty-level income is subtracted from her total exposure.
Twenty years at that rate would have taxpayers recoup only $28,220 of their $212,000 loan to Suzy.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/26/obama-taps-taxpayers-for-student-stimulus/#ixzz1bwMKQMKl
Dusty
October 26th, 2011
9:22 pm
Welcome to the Occupation
How’s the job hunt going? When are you planning to go to work?
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
9:48 pm
JKL2: “You don’t think WaPo is a left wing rag? That tells us all we need to know about where you’re coming from.”
Proud home of George Will, Jennifer Rubin, Marc Thiessen, a very right-friendly main editorial board? Uh, yeah, I’d say that’s anything but a left-wing rag.
Barry Bailout: “In the free market, businesses that fail go away and the capital and labor they’re consuming are freed up for more productive uses. The scam was the taxpayer bailing out the banks, car companies, insurance companies, and the scumbags who chose not to pay their mortgages.”
But if AIG had been allowed to go the way of Lehman, there would have been people in bread lines probably numbering into the hundreds of thousands. And that wouldn’t have been a very nice send-off for Georgie at the end of his two terms, now would it?
So the decision was taken to avoid all-out depression. Not that it wasn’t entirely bipartisan. It was.
So are you saying we should have gone ahead and braved depression?
Dusty
October 26th, 2011
9:54 pm
Well, I guess WELCOME had to get over to Centennial Park and get new orders.
Has anybody seen the Georgia Pacific building being lifted? I believe the Atlanta OWS leader said he had made arrangements with gurus, mediums and fortune tellers to raise that building right off the ground. Abra ca dabra! Upsy!
Crenshaw8
October 26th, 2011
9:58 pm
Here we go again.
Moral blind spots in Obama mortgage refinancing scheme
Why try to base the economic recovery on dubious financial information from borrowers under Obama’s latest home refinancing plan?
The president’s plan may reflect a last-ditch attempt to boost the housing market before the 2012 election. Many of Mr. Obama’s efforts so far have done little to slow down the pace of foreclosures or achieve significant numbers of refinancing.
But his latest plan makes short-term ethical compromises that could lead to negative long-term consequences for the economy, taxpayers, and the federal deficit.
Dusty
October 26th, 2011
9:59 pm
Welcome to the occupation
Were you in the bread lines over at Woodruff Park? That’s not a very good show off for Obama.
Welcome to the occupation
October 26th, 2011
10:04 pm
Hi Dusty, good to see you’re reading deep into my posts. It’s god fer ya. And I appreciate it.
Dusty
October 26th, 2011
10:09 pm
Crenshaw8
“Short term ethical decisions” by Obama? I thought most people knew by now that President Obama does not mind giving away taxpayer money or adding another trillion or two to the national deficit. He doesn’t worry about such trifles as that.
Dusty
October 26th, 2011
10:19 pm
Yes, WELCOME, I’ve been wading through your posts. Amazing the amount of time and effort wasted on mob efforts. Not to mention the thousands spent by the city just to keep order and prevent lawliness by unemployable people.
How did you say the job hunt was going? I guess you’ve been too busy. Are you also homeless? I understand the Salvation Army will take in almost anybody. Gonna get cold tomorrow night.
JKL2
October 27th, 2011
12:01 am
Dusty- Not to mention the thousands spent by the city just to keep order and prevent lawliness by unemployable people
I think the police should just leave all those “peaceful” protestors alone to rape, kill, and steal from each other as they see fit. Be careful what you wish for in your Demwit utopia.
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
2:21 am
I’m surprised 24 percent knew who the hell she was. Shows you the extreme sensitivity of socialist/communist goons for catching an internet virus.
And “virus” is the perfect name for it.
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
2:21 am
Good article, Kyle.
I like it.
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
2:24 am
Yeah Sarah,
We could join forces with OWS. We tea partyers could order pay toilets, obtain demonstration permits, reserve the space and arrange transportation. The OWSers could show up late, complain loudly, crap on police cars, get arrested and garner all the good press coverage.
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
2:25 am
I can’t help but notice that intellectual foundations and OWS are mutually exclusive. So too often are intellectual foundations and ivy-league progressives.