Quote of the Day

Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man,
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Pastorale

Henri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre, 1905

Occupy The Democratic Party

Robert Reich has a good cautionary essay that points out that today's Democratic Party has precious little in common with its populist progressive prior incarnations, that this President is very friendly with Wall Street.

Perhaps it is time for the Democratic Party in Washington to get with its historic constituencies or get out of the way. It seems to me that many state level Democrats are way out ahead in this respect.

If this really does turn into an influential political movement, the spearhead of a return of left populism, then I'll take back everything I ever said about Americans being passive peasants.

The lesson of the Arab Spring is that when leaders and institutions fail, people can take matters into their own hands. Some very solid and entrenched mountains got moved in the Middle East, and others are getting very shakey. I see no reason why similar oligarchies here can't be brushed aside.

And So It Spreads

Occupy Boise! Protesters on the steps of the Idaho state capitol

Occupy Wall Street is now Occupy DC, Boston, LA, Tampa, Austin, Seattle, etc. Here's a great series of pictures from all of them posted at The Atlantic.

Our own Grandmere Mimi leaves Thibodaux to join the hippies in New Orleans.

And unlike the Tea Party, this is spreading without Koch brothers' money or free broadcast time from Fox News.

Damn hippies.


Occupy Wall Street spells it all out, and Keith Olbermann just reads it:




UPDATE:

I now have reliable reports of "Occupy Casper, Wyoming" and "Occupy Syracuse." I've also heard stories of Canadians wanting to get in on the act. Fine with me. Hands across the border.

FURTHER UPDATE:

The protests have indeed begun in Canada. Check out Occupy Vancouver. Thanks Janet Murray.

Photos From the Front

Went down to Zuccotti Park downtown today to see the hard core Occupy Wall Street contingent camped out there. I went with my friend David Kaplan to donate a pair of blankets I bought for them. The nights are starting to get cold. I stayed only briefly, but I took some photos.



Zuccotti Park viewed from Liberty Plaza. In the background is a Di Suvero sculpture. In the foreground are throngs of people, protesters, gawkers, tourists, sympathizers, and street folk.




Zuccotti Park viewed from Broadway. Despite the apparent chaos, the whole thing was well organized with donations of food, blankets, and clothing constantly coming in. In the foreground in this picture is an impromptu library. There were kitchens, and a remarkably sophisticated press office fielding interviews and managing what appeared to be internet broadcasting equipment.




Here is dangerous radical attorney David Kaplan, who volunteered his services as a legal observer.




Here I am looking like warmed over death with sinus irritation. I have a terrible cold. I had a wonderful time despite that, and I hope I didn't donate my cold with the blankets.




Some of the young campers, most of which looked very young.




The police seemed very relaxed considering all the news about police brutality at the rallies, possibly because of signs like this, possibly too because most of the violence is committed by police supervisors who tend to be resented by the rank and file cops.





Making signs.




Various signs. There were a number of spreads of signs around the park.




A favorite sign.




Another favorite sign




Meditating to wake up.




Even more people camped out in the park




And what's a protest without drummers?





The park is right next to the World Trade Center site. Here is #4 WTC from the park.




And behind #4 World Trade Center, #1 rises.




Here is a collection of hardhat union signs at the WTC site. Could the slow-motion plutocratic coup d'etat threatening our country drive those old enemies hard hats and hippies together? Could be. Unions were a big presence in the park with the hippies; SEIU, TWU the transit workers, the UAW, and the teachers' union.

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

-- Justice Louis D. Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court


UPDATE:

Paul Krugman sides with the hippies this morning, and why not? The Very Serious Guys in Suits have been lying or stupid for 30 years.

The Perils of Occupy Wall Street, and The Perils of Dissing Them

I notice that there's been a lot of discussion in the press and the blogs about the sustainability of Occupy Wall Street (something that remains to be seen, but so far has proved remarkably durable), and its seriousness and credibility. Here is a splendid essay by Douglas Rushkoff that addresses those very issues. He suggests that the Establishment patronizes them at their own peril.

Like the spokesmen for Arab dictators feigning bewilderment over protesters' demands, mainstream television news reporters finally training their attention on the growing Occupy Wall Street protest movement seem determined to cast it as the random, silly blather of an ungrateful and lazy generation of weirdos. They couldn't be more wrong and, as time will tell, may eventually be forced to accept the inevitability of their own obsolescence.

He goes further and I think hits the nail on the head:

Anyone who says he has no idea what these folks are protesting is not being truthful. Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they are upset about, and we all know that there are investment bankers working on Wall Street getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher. What upsets banking's defenders and politicians alike is the refusal of this movement to state its terms or set its goals in the traditional language of campaigns.

Steve Jobs

Rest In Peace




Jobs in 1984


The inventor of the personal computer, a brilliant innovator and visionary who democratized technology.