Occupy Wall Street Movement - Alinksy, Marx, Lenin, and Mao

In today's edition of QH, we revisited OccupyWallStreet and some of the more current shenanigans being practiced by the OWS movement.  The movement is working to move itself from the direction of the summer and fall of 2011 where the focus was on the 'occupation' of public spaces to get their message out.  After not only prolonged 'occupations', but more importantly, after the efforts towards violence combined with the number of crimes that were rampant at the 'occupation' locations (rapes, assaults, drug overdoses and abuse, and thefts), Middle America turned away from the argument of the 99% versus the 1%.

Many saw this argument as being one based on the old battleground of class warfare - particularly as many of the organizers were shown to have strong ties and garner substantial support from Marxist and socialist organizations.  Organizations like the Communist Party USA, Revolutionary Communist Party, Socialist Party USA, 9/11 Truth Org, International Bolshevik Tendency, Communist Party of the People's Republic of China, International Socialist Organization, Marxist Student Union, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, International ANSWER, Party of Socialism and Liberation, and the World Workers Party have all worked to support the OWS movement, provide members to join the OWS protesters, and in some cases, provided funding.  Anti-American and white supremacist organizations / individuals are also involved.  Some of these include the American Nazi Party, David Duke, Hugo Chavez, the original Black Panther Party, the government of North Korea, Louis Farrakhan / Nation of Islam, CAIR, Hezbollah, Anonymous, White Revolution, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard / Government of Iran.

Virtually every major national union is also supportive of the effort of the OWS movement as are politically active individuals like George Soros who is leveraging virtually his entire portfolio of political activist groups to support the effort.  These groups are paying demonstrators and protesters in order to promote the movement as being far larger than the hard left fringe it represents.  Leading hard left progressives within the Democrat Party and the Democrat Progressive Caucus are also extremely supporting - ranging from President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to senior members in Congress, and present / former members of the Administration like Van Jones, Anita Dunn, and Elizabeth Warren are also strong advocates of the movement and its message.

Two of the 'leaders' of the 'Occupy' concept, one the Frenchman Stephane Frederic Hessel, and the other Kelle Lasn, both share extreme hard left views.  Lasn, the founder of 'Adbusters', is becoming increasingly outspoken as he attempts to shift the direction of the Occupy movement from the failed 'occupation' message towards one that is far closer to the socialist revolution he is now advocating. 

This approach started in early December as Lasn found a welcoming environment on NPR's All Things Considered when he was interviewed by NPR Robert Siegel.  In this interview, Lasn described how America was rope for a socialist revolution - bringing up comparisons to the movement / violence of 1968 - and the hope for a 'full fledged, full spectrum movement that operates on all levels'. 

More recently, the blog Weasel Zippers highlights a MSN Money article that flew under the radar screen on the 22nd of December where the battle plan for 2012 was being defined.  The term battle plan is also far more accurate than just a rhetorical device. 

Think Occupy Wall Street disappeared in winter’s cold? Wrong: The 99% just declared a new aggressive, covert special-ops war strategy to take back our democracy in 2012.


No more peaceful tent encampments in parks. No more Mahatma Gandhi nice-guy stuff. Not enough. Escalation time. Wall Street, the superrich and their Washington lobbyists are tone deaf, blinded by greed, trapped in their post-2008 business-as-usual bubble.


Warning; OWS tells us America’s going to be shocked by not one but hundreds of wake-up calls in 2012.


How? In a recent Washington Post column, OWS leaders say they are accelerating their battle strategy in 2012. In what amounts to a new declaration of war that promises to electrify the 2012 elections, OWS will be using new asymmetrical warfare strategies, write two of the men who have been the driving force behind the movement since early this year: Kalle Lasn, the editor-in-chief of Adbusters magazine, and senior editor Micah White.


Listen to some of the specific guerrilla tactics they warn will be used in their 2012 “American Spring” assault: A “marked escalation of surprise, playful, precision disruptions, rush-hour flash mobs, bank occupations, ‘occupy squads’ and edgy theatrics.”

These are the directions being communicated by Kelle Lasn. Here is Lasn's background from David Horowitz's excellent source, Discover the Network. Lasn is about as hard left as one gets - someone who embraces both Alinsky and Marx and is willing to use all of his power and platform to invoke both to establish those intellectually bankrupt ideologies. 

The less that the old or new flavor of the OWS movement grab the attention and support of Middle America, the more violent and disruptive the movement will become.  Lasn and others see this as a revolution and one that they see no challenges with the use of violence to achieve their means.  They are also growing in frustration that the efforts by Obama, his Administration, and Congress to deliver their political 'solutions' are failing - particularly after their excitement that this would be case in the glow of the Obama / Progressive electoral wins of 2008. 



The revolution they are advocating, like almost all previous revolutions save one, do nothing to solve the problems they claim to be solving - and in all but that one example, made things far worse, far more violent, far costlier in lives than of they were not undertaken - or those bankrupt ideals were provided with power.  These groups all say they stand in favor of the 'American  Dream', yet they embrace ideals that stand against all of the values of the 'American Dream'. 

This coalition of Marxists, socialists, and anarchists represent the modern day Jacobin - and are fundamentally no different in their thinking than William Ayers, Bernadine Dorhn, and the other 'intellectual revolutionaries', many from the great halls of American academia, who spent hours determining how to exterminate the 25 million unrepentant US capitalists they believed would exist after their "revolution".

Updates on Occupy Los Angeles

Some updates today on Occupy Los Angeles...

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa has called for major budget cuts in the City's operating budget to offset the significant costs the City incurred as a result of the Occupy LA protest and occupation of part of the City Hall grounds.  While the full costs to the City are still being tabulated, it is estimated that the total cost is well into the millions of dollars - perhaps even over ten million dollars.

Already cash strapped, additional cuts are needed to balance the City budget and cover costs like the $400,000 in estimate repairs needed to the grounds of City Hall, and the $700,000 in police costs just for the night that the LAPD evicted OccupyLA from the grounds.

OccupyLA has announced that they will be targeting the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, CA on January 2nd for a major demonstration.  Representatives Pasadena, the parade, and OccupyLA have been in negotiations regarding the form of that demonstration - which apparently will be an OccupyLA parade to follow the Rose Bowl Parade which will include floats and appearances by momma moonbat Cindy Sheehan and leftist film maker Michael Moore.

Protesters intend to march with large banners that decry wealth inequality in the United States and to unveil a few colorful "floats" of their own, including a giant people-powered octopus, said Pete Thottam, an Occupy spokesman. The octopus will be made out of recycled bags, stretching 40 feet from tentacle to tentacle, and is designed to represent the stranglehold that Wall Street has on the political process, he said.

Organizers are calling this event the kickoff of 'Occupy 2.0'....

Radio host and commentator Larry Elder writes today in the Investor's Business Daily about the Occupy protests and notes the stunning lack of racial diversity in the movement that supposedly is representing the 99%....

The problem is blacks reject the Occupy movement, but not the party whose values reflect its unifying "victicrat" theme. Yet Democrats and the Occupy movement share a common philosophy. Obama said to the Occupiers, "You're the reason I ran for office."


Both believe in empowering government to address "inequality" by redistributing wealth. Both believe that those who achieve great wealth do so through exploitation, which justifies the claim others make on the money.


The economy of the early '80s saw higher inflation, interest rates and unemployment than during the so-called Great Recession. But unlike Obama, President Ronald Reagan deeply and broadly cut taxes, continued deregulation and slowed down the rate of domestic spending. The result? Black adult and teen unemployment fell dramatically, much faster than it did for white adults and teens.


The real question is not why so few blacks belong to the Occupy movement. The real question is why so many blacks still belong to the Democratic Party.

#OccupyWallStreet Update - 12/4/11

The entire OccupyWallStreet movement seems to be sputtering out as they face challenges with lower numbers as well as being evicted from more cities - like Philadelphia and Los Angeles earlier this week.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that some OccupyLA protesters who were arrested last Tuesday morning are still feeling very traumatized from the LAPD's use of non-lethal force to clear City Hall Park.  The combination of these actions by the LAPD and the fact that those arrested had to wait hours in zip-tie handcuffs for processing has these protesters seeking therapy over the trauma they experienced.

Altogether now...Awwww

The OccupyLA folks were about as considerate and neat as all of the other Occupy groups...

"The city said it collected 30 tons of refuse, from vats of urine to old furniture to discarded food," Assistant City Editor Steve Marble said. "Some of the items that were left behind looked like they were actually personal items that people probably would have taken with them — had there been time. But the city was concerned enough about what was left behind that refuse workers were ordered to wear hazmat suits."

 Accompanying the above story on the LA Times was this LA Times photo...

Some critics of the LAPD and the decision to clean-up the park were upset that some of the materials left behind, like tents, sleeping bags, etc should have been given to the homeless of LA as opposed to being tossed out with the rest of the trash.  Why didn't the OccupyLA people take this step themselves - they had 2 full days after the city's ultimatum before they were evicted - if it was so important for these materials to go to the homeless, they could have done it themselves...but that wasn't their focus until it came time to toss more verbal stones at the LAPD and the City.

With all of the crimes, violence, trash, and other excesses from the OccupyWallStreet movement, one would think that politicians would be distancing themselves from the OWS movement.  Not the hard left politicians of the Democrat Party.  Maryland Democrat Congresswoman Donna Edwards is telling those of OccupyDC that 'It's time for us to OccupyAmerica!'.  That's all the country needs - although one can make the case that the Democrat majority in Congress from January 2009 to January 2011 combined with the Obama Administration has basically done the same to this country...

For all practical purposes, the OWS movement is a 'Dead Movement Walking' - regardless of the efforts of the OWS or their hard left political supporters to continue to promote the movement as a 'grassroots populist uprising'.  What has brought it to that point is not the Mainstream Media reporting, which has been supportive of OWS, but the efforts of the New Media - bloggers - who have done the reporting and investigative work that the Mainstream Media would not do. 

What are the Top 10 New Media moments that brought down the OWS movement?

10.  Photo of OWS protester defecating on police car

9.    OWS chant - 'You can have sex with animals' being recorded

8.    OWS protester exposed as Trust Fund baby

7.    NY Times Reporter busted as an OWS activist / organizer

6.    Anti-Defamation League exposes and condemns OWS anti-semitism

5.    Exposure of the number of OWS encampment sexual assaults - against women and men

4.    OccupyOakland protesters threaten reporter with physical assault

3.    OWS "Kent State Moments" that collapsed as 'moments' under New Media scrutiny

2.    The OWS Rap Sheet - particularly when compared to the Tea Party Movement

1.    Exposure of how OWS was astroturfed by unions and political organizations

All of these contributed to expose the OWS movement as a desperate attempt to emulate / steal the popular mandate of the Tea Party Movement - which unlike OWS is a real popular movement against the actions of the hard left in Congress and the Obama Administration.

'They've turned Occupy London into Animal Farm'

I've written a fair amount not only on the OccupyWallStreet movement, but on the OccupyLondon nitwits encamped outside St. Paul's Cathedral.

I've highlighted some of their excesses, like defecating inside the Cathedral, and the Regents of St. Paul's offering sanctuary to the OccupyLondon protesters despite their ill-treatment and disrespect towards the Cathedral.

From Hot Air, comes this story from London's Daily Mail newspaper - 'They've turned OccupyLondon into Animal Farm' highlighting how the anti-capitalist 'elite' of OccupyLondon are being accused of misusing funds, holding secret meetings, and generally conducting themselves as superior to the other schlubs that are in the encampment.  It's reminiscent of Animal Farm where the conflict starts between those of two legs vs four and soon evolves into the swine being superior to the other animals on the farm as ultimately defined in the sole remaining 'commandment' - 'all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.'


None of this should be surprising.  As George Orwell knew / foretold, all 'collective totalitarian' movements and organizations ultimately come down to embracing the concept that we are all equal within the collective, but some, the self appointed 'elite' leadership, are more equal than others.

This level of hypocrisy should no longer surprise us - those advocating fairness do not really want fairness, and those advocating equality never really want true equality. 

When will we finally learn this lesson?

Double Standards

Big Government and Gateway Pundit are leading the reporting of an interesting case of double standards being practiced by the Democrat leadership of Richmond, Virginia.

Two weeks ago, the Richmond Tea Party sent an invoice to the Richmond city government for their $8,500 in costs the organization incurred for permits, portable toilets, park fees, and police costs during Tea Party demonstrations at Kanawha Plaza in 2010 and 2011. 

This was after the City of Richmond declined to require the OccupyRichmond protesters to have to undergo or fund the same level of permits, park fees, sanitation, and police costs for their demonstrations and encampment at the same location for over 2 weeks.

The Mayor not only allowed the Occupiers to break the law, but he visited them in the city-owned park. “Jones said that as a ‘child of civil rights’ and protests, he had allowed the group to remain in the park but understands his mayoral responsibility to uphold laws of the city,” reported the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Apparently his mayoral duties included preferential treatment for a group he sympathizes with ideologically at the expense of the taxpayers.

Not only has the leadership of the City refused to treat the Tea Party in the same manner as they treat the OccupyRichmond protesters, but the City's response to the Tea Party invoice was to initiate a retalitary tax audit of the Richmond Tea Party. 

The double standard is a clear violation of the rights of the Richmond Tea Party and demonstrates the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the government of Richmond.

If the shoe was reversed, this would be one of the leading stories for the evening news for most of a week - but when it's a Democrat Mayor / City Government abusing their power and attacking the Tea Party, all we hear from the mainstream media is the sound of crickets chirping.

OccupyWallStreet Movement Like Tea Party? Not Hardly

Remember this?  President Barack Obama saying that Occupy Wall Street is 'not that different' from the Tea Party Protests?

JammieWearingFool brings us the latest update from the Occupy London movement - which is not only camping outside St. Paul's Cathedral, but also defecating inside St. Paul's Cathedral. 

We've had cases of Occupy protesters urinating and defecating on police cars, inside banks, and openly on the streets with no thought, consideration, or respect shown.  Now a Cathedral is their latrine.

Read JWF's link for the full story and link back to the original Daily Mail news article about the degenerates that comprise Occupy London....

Meanwhile, the City of London, is proceeding with their legal action to evict the degenerates from the plaza outside St. Paul's.  Eviction notices were served last week. 

This court case is similar in principle to the one decided in NYC where the rights of the City and the private owners of Zuccotti Park superseded the 'rights' of the demonstrators to occupy and trash the park.  In Toronto, Canada, a Superior Court Judge has also ruled that the Occupy Toronto demonstrators must leave St. James Park where they have been camping for more than a month. Their 'rights' also do not supersede the right's of others.

Not only is this an union / marxist / communist / anarchist astroturf movement - it is the 'Mirror Mirror' - opposite of the Tea Party Movement. To link these two as being fundamentally similar is intellectually bankrupt.

More Issues and Observations Regarding Unions

Yesterday I posted a commentary about Public Sector Unions and Fiscal Responsibility.  At the State and Local levels (County, City, Town, School District), many are facing significant fiscal challenges related to their deficit spending.  A major contributor to these levels of deficit spending are the costs associated with public sector unions and their employees.  For example, in Wisconsin, the Teacher's union required via their collective bargaining agreement that the school districts had to purchase their health insurance coverage for their employees from the teacher's union - and that the teacher's union leveraged this monopoly by charging far higher premiums than available in the marketplace.

On this 'Day of Action' called by the OccupyWallStreet protesters, its time to take a look at an substantially under reported aspect of the OWS protests - Union involvement.

Think back to the example above of Wisconsin's Teacher's union creating a system to reward and enrich themselves at the expense of the School Districts, their students, and taxpayers of Wisconsin.  Dollars that went to pay inflated healthcare premiums could not be used to provide more services and attention to students.  The destructive protests and occupation of the Wisconsin State Capital were the first shots of the Occupy movement that we see today.  These were directly done by not only the Wisconsin teacher's union, but by members of all of America's major unions.

“You can draw a direct line from the Wisconsin protests in the winter to Occupy Wall Street to the overwhelming rejection of an anti-union ballot question in Ohio,” said Teamsters president James P. Hoffa. “Occupy Wall Street is bringing new energy to a fight that labor has been engaged in from the beginning: The fight for an economy that works for everybody, not just the 1 percent.”

The Teamsters union “wholly supports and endorses Occupy Wall Street and opposes any effort to unreasonably restrict, contain or stop this lawful protest,” the union’s general executive board said in an official resolution.

We can look at the irony of someone like Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa  saying that he represents the 99%, when in 2009, 110 Teamster officials had a salary of $150,000 or more, and Hoffa received a salary of $383,000.  Union officials are far closer to the 1% than many who work in the financial services industry that the union officials despise.

In Washington DC, the National Nurses United Union, allied with the AFL-CIO, paid for the expenses of more than 1000+ members to march with Occupy DC and demand that the President increases taxes on the 'wealthy' - which I assume included the union leadership of the AFL-CIO.  That's right...in order to ensure turnout, the Union had to pay the expenses for their members to get to DC and provide numbers to support the demand for taxing some of the wealthy - but not, of course, the union wealthy.  For the rank and file, I wonder if they all supported that their union dues went to create a Potemkin village?

Another common message from the hard left / unions (which are basically one in the same), is that Washington is broken because of special interests.  This is quite ironic since Unions are the number 1 special interest group.  They are flooding Washington, nearly all to Democrats, will hundreds of millions of dollars to promote these bureaucrats and elected officials to create rules, regulations, and legislature that will favor and enrich unions. 

Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), boasted in May 2009 that his union, "We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama -- $60.7 million to be exact -- and we're proud of it." The SEIU, as noted in this piece by Michelle Malkin, also got a payoff from the Obama Administration for their investment....2 Cabinet appointments.   Other unions like the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Workers (AFSCME) have, over the last twenty years, spent $46 million in direct, non PAC contributions (94% to Democrats), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, over $34 million, the American Federation of Teachers, nearly $32 million - again in direct, non PAC contributions and over 90% of these amounts went to Democrats. 

As the Center for Responsive Politics shows, 11 of the top 20 organizations making more than $25 million in direct contributions between 1989 and 2912, are unions...with 90% of those contributions being made to Democrats to influence their pro-union stances.

Today's Day of Action activities intended to disrupt the cities the movement is active in comes from the mind of union thug, Obama supporter, communist Richard Trumka, the leader of the AFL-CIO.  He made the call for the occupiers to fill up bridges in cities around the nation today at 4PM local time.  The cause?  Well, in addition to promoting the progressive / communist 'worker paradise', he wants the President's $537 billion Jobs Bill, which died in the Democrat majority Senate, to be passed because that bill will flood millions of taxpayer dollars back into the union coffers....where they will be recycled as campaign donations to President Obama in 2012.

#OccupyWallStreet Update

While Mayor Mike Bloomberg has finally taken action to move the squatting protesters out of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, and a NY Judge has upheld the right for the private ownership of the Park and the City to define and enforce regulations which prohibit overnight camping, tents, and other structures, the OWS movement has not backed down from their protesting or threats.

OWS remains committed to shutting down the NY Stock Exchange and the Financial District tomorrow morning which could bring new confrontations between the protesters and the NYPD.  The City is bracing for 'tens of thousands' of demonstrators.  In fact, it appears that OWS has their sights on disrupting not only the Financial District but other parts of NYC, like the Brooklyn Bridge where over 800 were arrested early in the protest movement.

From the NY Post...

Organizers said they were energized by Mayor Bloomberg’s decision early to end the two-month-long camp-out at Zuccotti Park.


“We will shut down Wall Street,” a post on the movement’s Facebook page said. “We will ring the People’s Bell, and initiate a street carnival in which we rebuild and celebrate the neighborhoods that the Wall Street economy has destroyed.”


The march on Wall Street is slated to start at 7 a.m.


Other events scheduled for the day include “Occupy the Subways” in all five boroughs at 3 p.m., a takeover of Foley Square at 5 p.m. and another march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

In another NY Post article, the paper provides some additional answers as to why the Mayor finally acted early Tuesday morning to remove the OWS protesters from Zuccotti Park.

Some of the factors that affected the Mayor's decisions included"

• Pre-empt the planned effort for November 17th to shut down the Financial District
• Adverse comments from Wall Street officials as well as local businesses and landlords who were tiring of the disruption being caused by OWS on their businesses and tenants.  Some landlords reported tenants were contemplating breaking their leases to move away from the affects of the demonstration.
• Concerns over the park being a firetrap and reports that demonstrators were planning on building wooden structures in order to better handle the winter weather.
• Health concerns - reports of major outbreaks of scabies, lice, and lung ailments among the protesters in the part

But even with this list, the speculation is very strong that the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to taking action was that continued inaction towards OWS was causing significant damage to the Mayor's reputation - to the point that he was being compared to NYC Mayor Dinkins who was castigated for his mismanagement of the Crown Heights riots in 1991.

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani took Mayor Bloomberg to task for his failure to act against blatant lawbreaking by the OWS protesters.  Mayor Bloomberg also saw hard left liberal Mayors in Oakland and Portland tire of the violence and crime from their local OWS protests and act before he did.

With his ego being bruised, and subject to growing complaints and grumbling even from his friends of Wall Street, the Mayor finally found the will to act.  I suspect it would have happened far earlier if the Mayor had discovered they were preparing their meals with trans fats.  Nanny Bloomberg would have demanded action.

VDH - From Herman Cain to Blue Wall Street

One of my favorite modern authors, essayists, and commentators today is Victor Davis Hanson.

From writing about history, linking the experiences and lessons from the ancient Greeks or Romans to the current times, or providing a viewpoint towards modern politics on an international, national, or even state (California), VDH will make one think about the topic being presented regardless of one's political ideology or beliefs.

VDH writes and contributes to both the National Review and PJ Media with regular columns and essays.  I will be highlighting many of these from both sources because they are usually exceptionally good.  This week's essay for PJ Media, News Behind the News, exceeds that high bar. 

To discover a fine wine, one needs to taste the wine first.  Here's a taste of VDH's take on the 'News Behind the News' regarding the Occupy movement....

A Robert Rubin, George Soros, Franklin Rains or Jim Johnson can find insider ways to make tens of millions, regardless of the health of their corporation or the ethics of their conduct—and apparently expect to face little popular scrutiny, given their liberal fides. None of their pictures will show up on placards at Occupy Wall Street protests. You see, we live in an age where the biggest recipient of Goldman Sachs and BP cash, indeed the most successful Wall Street fundraiser in presidential history, who alone renounced public financing of presidential general election campaigns, can himself politick as an anti-Wall Street, anti-corporate jet, anti-“millionaires and billionaires” man of the people. What does Barack Obama do when he meets his own targets at the back nine on Martha’s Vineyard? Smile and say, “Nothing personal,” as he invites them over to a $50,000 a plate fundraiser?


The charge that many financial institutions are amoral may be true, but the charge that they are logical reflections of conservative greed is often a lie. Indeed, Wall Street is more deeply embedded within the Ivy League, and within the New York-Washington liberal nexus, than among the sorts who show up at a Tea Party rally. Exactly what financial brilliance earned Jamie Gorelick, a Clinton apparatchik, a $26 million take at Fannie Mae, as it imploded and nearly wrecked the country? Did she give back to the Fed any of her lucre? What sort of populist was a Sen. Chris Dodd (of Dodd-Frank reform fame) who used his office for low-interest personal loans? How in the world did Rahm Emanuel end up making $16 million as a “banker”—what financial genius had he previously shown, what Harvard MBA did he earn? How did Barney Frank go from a demagogue demanding no-background loans for the supposedly underprivileged overnight to a concerned legislator pontificating, after the fall, that renting for some might be preferable?

So until I see posters of a Gorelick or Rains in Oakland, I don’t put much stock in the occupy protests.

Another common topic for Professor Hanson is the discussion and debate around illegal immigration.  VDH authored a book I highly recommend on this topic, Mexifornia.  In the same essay listed above, here is his observation around the hypocrisy of the left when it comes to illegal immigration...

“Illegal immigration” is not about illegal immigration. I would have thought the issue was only about poverty, until realizing that $40-50 billion a year leave the U.S. in remittances to Latin America, in many cases from those who use American subsidies to free up cash to send home. It is not quite about moral justice, given that the U.S. is in near recession with millions of citizens out of work and whose earning power in the Southwest was eroded by cheaper workers here illegally. Nor is Mexico innocent, but by design seeks to export its own impoverished to win remittances, ease the burden of paying for social services, and build an expatriate community more sympathetic to Mexico the longer and farther it is away from it.


Instead, illegal immigration concerns most advocates not in the abstract sense of changing the law for all, but only in the concrete—solely in the sense of illegal immigration from Latin America in general, and Mexico in particular. In essence, the argument is that a common ethnic tie trumps federal law in a fashion that no others should dare emulate. Even the staunchest advocate of open borders would oppose 3,000 from Kenya or Chad landing in freighters on the American coast and demanding amnesty. Apparently, there is some sort of notion that past history or present ethnic solidarity privileges a distortion of the immigration law to such an extent as to render it ineffective. In other words, advocacy for blanket amnesty and open borders hinges on no one else taking up such an offer except those from Mexico and Latin America: there can be only so much controlled chaos before things get uncontrollably chaotic.

As I often say about the columns and essays from Victor Davis Hanson - Read it all.  In fact, read all of his columns and essays.  I believe you will find them as compelling and thought provoking as I do.

Tax the Rich Fallacy

Spurred on by the class warfare rhetoric promoted by President Barack Obama to get the 'rich' to 'pay their full share', elements of the hard left created the #Occupy movement to demonstrate and promote the meme that the 1% need to do more for the 99%.

Bill Whittle offers this video regarding the 'Tax the Rich Mentality'.....

Orwellian Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street movement is, as noted in Ed Morrissey's post on Hot Air, looking more and more like a blend of Animal Farm and Animal House.  The movement of marxists, socialists, fascists, anarchists, and more than a few criminals continues to be touted by many of the left as their version of the Tea Party.  Thinking of the Star Trek episode, Mirror Mirror, where Captain Kirk and others find themselves in a parallel universe, where Spock wears a goatee and the Federation is brutal dictatorship, the OWS movement is the parallel universe's Tea Party.

Projection from the hard left is nothing new.  It's standard operating procedure for the left to project their own actions onto their political opponents to both demonize them and provide the justifications for their actions.  Capitalism is derided in the world of OWS because the wealthiest 1% dictate and control the 99%.  But they will embrace marxism, communism, and statism where the 1% that control the state / party / government dictate to the 99% of the population pretty much everything that the population can or should do.

Hot Air and Instapundit both noted one of the latest examples of hypocrisy from within the OWS movement where a small population (the 1% - but actually far smaller) are defining themselves as the leaders of this 'leaderless' movement and trying to seize control not only of the movement, but it's funds all while dictating to the rest of the OWS participants (the 99%) what to do, say, act, while part of the OWS movement.  As Ed Morrissey noted, "Frankly, I think the 99% have a better chance in the system we have than in the neo-Stalinist model they're building in Zuccotti Park, and we have a century of experience on our side in that argument."

Highlighting some of the dysfunction that exists within the OWS ground zero of Zuccotti Park is this report by a New York Post reporter who spent a night in the anarchy that is OWS.

The parcel is now a sliver of madness, rife with sex attacks, robberies and vigilante justice.

It’s a leaderless bazaar that’s been divided into state-like camps — with tents packed together so densely that the only way to add more would be to stack them.

And despite an NYPD watchtower overhead and the entire north side of Zuccotti lined with police vehicles, it is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous places in New York City.

We are witnessing the social experiement of what the real progressive / hard left statist model will look like if it gains the control that they demand.  Richard Fernandez, author of the blog Belmont Club, writes a superb essay around the OWS movement, highlighting it's hypocrisy and disorder while asking the pertinent question for us to look at the one's who are running this movement from behind the scenes.  He starts with the habit of falsehoods that come from the OWS movement.

When the Occupy protesters in London’s St Pauls assured the public that they did not intend to use the cathedral as a latrine they lied. “We could make a unanimous statement for this entire camp – that we are not here to defecate on or in St Pauls Cathedral.” The disavowal came after church workers had to clean human waste off carpet when someone — presumably not the Occupy protesters — used it as a latrine.

But the key lie was in the use of the word “unanimous”. It was a fib sitting like cherry atop of a stack of lies, but it was the Rosetta Stone for that entire edifice of falsehood.

Labor leader David Miliband said events playing out in London’s St Paul’s cathedral werewere a “danger signal” that “only the most reckless” would ignore, referring to the ‘capitalist greed’ which he argues provoked the protesters to occupy the cathedral and use it — with some of the Church of England’s hierarchy backing — to broadcast a denunciation of ‘corporate greed’ to all of Britain.

The danger signal that we should be heeding is not that of 'capitalist greed', but of the agenda and actions of the hard left - this collection of marxists, communists, fascists, anarchists, and useful idiots which are showing us their values and principles every day in their actions as part of the OWS movement.  This essay is one of the 'read it all' recommendations that I have for those interested in the moral and ethical bankruptcy of the OWS movement.

Combining both the memes from Hot Air (and others) around the Orwellian actions of the OWS movement and the bankruptcy of those who are supporting the movement is Victor Davis Hanson in his latest essay, Occupy What?  In VDH's unique style, he skewers not only the actions and motivations of the OWS movement, but also that of the Democrat political establishment which, in their hypocrisy, provides considerable support for those of the OWS movement. 

Occupy Wall Street follows three years of sloppy presidential name-calling — “millionaires and billionaires,” slurs about Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, profit-mad, limb-lopping doctors, introspection that now is not the time for profits and at some point we should cease making money, spread the wealth, punish our enemies, and all the old Obama boilerplate. Someone finally got the message about the evil 1%.

When Ms. Pelosi and President Obama voice support for the protestors, we enter 1984. Does that mean that the Pelosis now pull their millions out of Wall Street, that the First Family eschews the 1% at Martha’s Vineyard and Vail? That Obama turns his back on Wall Street cash, and, for once, accepts public funding for his 2012 campaign?

Postmodern class warfare is an insidious business, and hinges on its advocates not looking in the mirror. 

No wise politician should invest in the bunch like those rampaging in Oakland.

This essay, like virtually all by Victor Davis Hanson, is another must read and one that should challenge one to some deep thinking about the values and choices we are being presented leading to the 2012 election season.

The 99% - The Official List of Occupy Wall Street's Supporters, Sponsors, and Sympathizers

Zombie at PJ Media compiles the official list of the supporters, sponsors, and sympathizers of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has received so much media coverage in recent weeks that it’s nearly impossible to keep abreast of all the developments. So many endorsements and criticisms coming from all directions enter the news cycle in such rapid succession that even the most dedicated news junkies may have missed out on many of the pronouncements. Supporters and detractors of OWS both might find it useful to have a handy all-inclusive list of who has endorsed or embraced the protest.


To satisfy that demand, we hereby present a list of groups, organizations, individuals and entities that have expressed their support for, sponsorship of, or sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

It's quite a list...one that the Mainstream Media is very quiet about. 

Do these groups and individuals seem mainstream to you? Do they represent you?

Rewarding Failure

As noted in today's Quick Hits, Jon Corzine, the former Goldman Sachs CEO, the former Governor of New Jersey, and the CEO of MF Global failed in his efforts to obtain a bailout for MF Global over the weekend.  MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection this morning.  Jon Corzine is now going to receive a $12 million severance package from the company his mismanagement bankrupted.  Nothing like rewarding failure.

Corzine, who was once touted as a candidate for Treasury Secretary under President Obama, pretty much did the same to the State of New Jersey as he did to MF Global.  The progressive / liberal tax and spend policies contributed significantly to New Jersey's substantial fiscal challenges - which includes one of the highest tax burdens in the country.  The only real winners of his fiscal mismanagement were the public sector unions of New Jersey.

Don't hold your breadth for #OccupyWallStreet to march on his home or complain about his actions.

NBC and ABC Tout Injured Protester as 'Rallying Cry' for Occupy Wall Street

NBC and ABC Tout OccupyWallStreet Protester Injured During Oakland Riots as a 'Rallying Cry' for the movement.

On Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams proclaimed: "Protesters across the country and a lot of Americans who are sympathetic to this Occupy Wall Street protest movement are tonight rallying around a 24-year-old Iraq war veteran who was seriously injured during a violent confrontation with police in Oakland, California on Tuesday."

On ABC's World News, fill-in anchor George Stephanopoulos echoed that sentiment: "...one young man has become a symbol of their resolve." Correspondent Abbie Boudreau followed by declaring: "With tensions mounting daily, the name Scott Olsen has become a national rallying cry for Occupy Wall Street....injured Tuesday night, as police began firing tear gas during the Oakland crackdown."

In a tragedy that is yet to be fully explained, the 24 year-old Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen, suffered a fractured skull during the riots in Oakland earlier this week.  His friends and fellow protesters claim he was struck in the head by a projectile fired by Oakland Police during the riots.  The Oakland PD doesn't accept that, saying that it remains possible that he was struck by some item or projectile (rock, bottle, etc) thrown by other protesters as they attempted to return to the plaza outside Oakland City Hall.  Nonetheless, the serious injury is a tragedy.  He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition - but thankfully, his condition has since been upgraded.

As noted by Newsbusters.org in the above link and quotes, NBC News and ABC News are using Mr. Olsen's injury, and status as a Iraq War veteran as a 'rallying cry' supportive of the Occupy movement and the violence that they are embracing.  Yet, they are also leaving out some interesting details about Mr. Olsen. 

As noted in this post on Gateway Pundit,  Scott Olsen is less than proud of his service, being the founder of the website, 'IHatetheMarineCorps.com'.  But even more worrisome, particularly with the level of support from Nazi and neo-Nazi organizations and sympathetic individuals, combined with the numerous examples of anti-Semitism that is rampant (but under reported) in many of the Occupy demonstrations, is his embracing of anti-Semitism as evidenced by the update in the Gateway Pundit post.  Olsen's words as quoted on the site are disturbing. 

I still wish him a quick recovery from his injuries - but he's not the rallying cry or hero that the media is trying to spin him as.  He is a person who holds reprehensible viewpoints and is one of far too many models available of what is fundamentally wrong with the Occupy movement.

Rioting in Oakland - Link with Updates

Another blogger who started a long time ago on LGF, Zombie, has provided exceptional reporting and photo-journalism on actions of the hard left in California - particularly the Bay Area. 

This is an exceptional report submitted by Zombie on PJ Media covering last night's riots in Oakland. 

These riots occurred as the Occupy sycophants attempted to return to the plaza outside Oakland's City Hall were they camped for several weeks as part of the astroturf movement.

The rioters confronted the police and began throwing rocks, bottles, and other debris towards the police as they charged the barricades in place to prevent the marchers from re-occupying the plaza.  The police responded with tear gas and flash bang grenades in their effort to disperse the rioters.

These photos and videos provide a stark contrast between the actions of the Occupy movement and those of the Tea Party - despite all of the efforts of the media to depict Occupy as being just a left of center mirror of the Tea Party.

Keep checking Zombie's reports for new information...and I will be opining more on the fallacy of the Occupy movement.....and it's links to the extreme left - or as I refer to them, the modern day Jacobins.

As a tease, here are some photos from some of these same groups marching in Hollywood in 2005...