Yep, the lefties are at it again. Seething with impotent rage over their inability to capture the spirit of the Tea Party they are making yet another attempt at imitation. I’ve documented previously how Leftists’ responses to the Tea Party have resembled the Five Stages of Death and Dying. The coffee party fizzled, the “No Labels” movement was anything but, and jumping up and down and screaming “Racist terrorist tea bagging downgrade!” until they were red in the face hasn’t changed the dynamic. Now almost three years into their savior’s presidency they have taken to the streets protesting not the man whose policies have left them more likely to be unemployed and with more debt to pay, not the man who lied about his promises for an immediate and unconditional surrender in Iraq, to close Guantanamo, transparency, and end to lobbyists running Washington. Instead they are out protesting…. businesses. Yes, their anger is focused at the entities that provided their clothing, transportation to Wall Street, the iPhones needed to tweet heir self-righteous indignation, the pizzas that do-gooders are sending over, not to mention actual jobs that some of them are willing to work. The whole affair looks like The Left in America is so desperate that they are throwing up the proverbial “Hail Mary” pass.
For those of you who are non-football fans the Hail Mary is primarily a last ditch effort play used by a football team that is losing at the end of a game. If a team is losing by one score or less and is too far away from the opposing team’s end zone to run a carefully planned and executed play it will make a desperation pass. So from halfway down the field the team will send several players into one section of the end zone and throw a ball in their general direction in hopes of it being caught for the winning score. Naturally, the defenders are aware of this and will send several of their players as well to stop this pass from being caught. Given the predictability of the play and the fact that there will be more defenders than offensive players this play rarely works. In fact, its low probability of success has gotten it unofficially nicknamed after the prayer since the quarterback is throwing the ball up for grabs and needs a prayer if he is to have any hope of the play succeeding.
That’s what the Wall Street protests seem to resemble. The left worked so hard to get into power and now faces the harsh reality that their policies don’t work in the real world. The biggest liberal they could hope to elect has not delivered on all of the unrealistic dreams that were promised to be fulfilled. Right now would be a good time for the left to take some time for introspection. Among a number of places where their introspection could be directed:
- Why simply apologizing to the rest of the world for The United States’ existence has not transformed the world into a happy place
- Green jobs are a myth
- On that note, reasons why more people are turning their backs on the cult of Climate Change might be because those pesky things like scientific methodology and math don’t support it
- Passing laws designed to restrict health care insurance choices and drive up premiums might actually result in fewer choices and higher premiums
- The reason that Keynesian economics didn’t work for FDR, didn’t work for Japan in the 90’s and aren’t working today might be that…. they don’t work
- And to follow up on the last point, maybe ever increasing regulation, bureaucracy and threat of higher taxes actually hurt economic growth
- Take a serious look at the demands being drawn up and look at why none of them would work if attempted out in the real world
- And maybe, just maybe, placing all of your hopes and dreams into a leftist with neither any meaningful leadership experience nor any aptitude for leading and putting him into the most important leadership role in the world might not be a good idea.
But that would mean taking time for hard introspection and self-reflection, a skill set that leftists sorely lack. Since none of their ideas or philosophies can be at fault for their failure, they are forced to create these bogeymen known as the “wealthy” or businesses”. And just like all of the other efforts to ignore, ridicule, rationalize, disrespect, curse, and imitate the Tea Party, the whole thing just comes off as pathetic. Instead of reflecting on the error of their ways, the left has to instead launch an angry tantrum in hopes of waking up its base of predominantly white hangers on. They are genuinely scared that the party for them may be coming to an end with the 2012 elections so they are taking their ball and throwing it up for grabs. And since it would be unconstitutional for them to pray on the public bridges that they occupy it looks like they haven’t, if you’ll pardon the pun, got a prayer.
While proofreading this post, I see that I got one point dead wrong. I stated that leftists are incapable of self-reflection, which clearly does not apply to all liberals. Some of them are capable of self-examination and thinking through the realities of their beliefs. And there is a technical term for them – Former Liberals, or more commonly, Conservatives.
Curt,
You rightly point out that 1. [t]he left worked so hard to get into power and now faces the harsh reality that their policies don’t work in the real world.
And 2. Take a serious look at the demands being drawn up and look at why none of them would work if attempted out in the real world.
Darn!
And their ideas looked so good on paper!
LOL!
The Wizbang blogger expands on point 2:
LOL!
There’s a name for a logic fallacy where you best see the problem with a premise if you expand it out to everyone doing it.
The OWS fall for that fallacy quite often.
And, as that same blogger notes, they will need magical money pixies for all the extra cash they insist be spent.
And the Lions haven’t had Monday night football in ages! Of course, as a Giants fan, they earned it by beating the Cowboys!
Cary, I see you’ve figured out that we’re not talking about you and your friends. We’re talking about the rest of the Occupy movement — which is to say the other 99.9% of it. Your 0.1% of the action is righteous.
You don’t own the creepy call-and-response human
centipedemegaphone technique, nor the Soros and ACORN and SEIU sponsorships, nor the participation of top left wing democrats and avowed communists, nor the hardcore bums come for drug purchases and free feed, nor the poop on the patrol car and on the ground. That’s not your problem. Go in peace my son.@Wm T Sherman:
Snicker.
@Wm T Sherman:
Thank you, I appreciate that. Listen, when I’ve been down there, I honestly haven’t seen any of the stuff you guys have been referring to. Not a bit of it. The degree of which it is being reported is clearly enormously exaggerated. I’m not saying that that type of objectionable behavior isn’t happening here and there, I simply have not seen ANY of it. Zero. Zip. When I do, and it’s more than an isolated incident, I’ll bail.
One more thing about football… I, as a rule, never ever celebrate or take joy in an athlete getting injured, even on teams I hate. But I did make an exception for Michael Vick. Just wish it was his throwing hand…
Oh, and I LOVE horror movies, but the Human Centipede is just torture porn. Not entertaining in the least. If you haven’t seen it, don’t bother. Rent Evil Dead 2 instead!
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/10/10/bloomberg-occupy-wall-street-can-stay-indefinitely/
One eyewitness said this:
I was just at OWS saturday night.
There were many junkies and vagrants interspersed with the protesters.
People I spoke to there said morale was low after some thefts occurred among the campers (notebooks full of writings, journals, laptops)( kids were crying), probably by junkos or homeless.
The OWS should embrace them all, hold them up on their shoulders and cry out to wall street that this is what they want to see an end to.
OWS is about the 99%, if they wanted to leave druggies and homeless and prostitutes out of it they should be calling themselves the 77%.
Some of the ”rainbow” (GLBT) people call the druggies, homeless and criminals among them the ”drainbow people.”
The Unions are involved and one NY based groups affiliated with ACORN and SEIU are taking out ads in Craigslist to hire protesters in New York.
@Nan G: Have you ever been to New York City? Sights of homeless people, drug addicts, and prostitutes aren’t uncommon in any part of it. And in the Wall Street area on a Saturday? There’s usually almost nothing but that down there at that time! Heck I once worked at restaurant down there that CLOSED on the weekends! There are some tourists around the WTC site, but that’s it. The majority of actual NYers paid their respects long ago, and tend to return really when they have visitors. And if anyone left out their belongs trusting they wouldn’t be stolen, they’re probably not New Yorkers, either. I love this city, and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but it does require a certain awareness of your surroundings at all times and a thicker skin. That’s not news.
The right is truly showing their ignorance by not supporting the protestors as your neighbors are getting laid off in droves and houses foreclosed while the banks light their cigars with hundred dollar bills. Unless you guys are freakin’ millionaires, you’re one step away from this. And the sad part is, I’m betting many of you know people like this.
@liberalmann:
We are well aware of the disaster that has unfolded, and the larger disaster about to unfold.
“The banks” are not the source of the problem. They are a symptom. A government that has a symbiotic relationship with rent-seekers is the problem. Whatever looting occurred during the previous administation is dwarfed by the grotesque scale of the theft enabled by the current one. Until the current crop of out of control social justice grifters are corralled things will get worse.
Why are the Democrats sponsoring and supporting this? You know, the Democrats, who have taken massive campaign donations from “The Banks” and “Wall Street,” the largest recipient being the the jug-eared SCOAMF-in-Chief himself.
Kind of makes the whole thing look like a calculated distraction or something.
There are two large political problems now:
1. The Democrat Party that pretends to fight for social justice, and its camp followers.
2. The GOP establishment that pretends to fight for the Constitution, prosperity, and the rule of law. And its camp followers.
They both have to go.
“NOT SO”: What is happening is a well constructed thoughtout strategy financed by the leftist power structure elite. Those hand held signs are the giveaway, each costs over ten dollars to produce unless printed in the thousands. What is happening is agressive agiprop, Alinsky style, for the Charllotte and Tampa conventions in August with the planned purpose to seize captive audience and shut those cities down. The striking, pun intended issue, is card check and union dues collection. Workers work, dues collected, money invested, union bosses get rich; the center of the flow chart is the George Soros-Goldman Sachs nexus which controls the Democrats and finance the UOM (Urban Occupation Movement). The presidential campaign replacing the current power structure is to be a fifeteen round kicking cage fight to the death and this is only the second month. The current eruption is to divert attention away from the administration malfeasance surrounding Holder and Jarrett so our strategy must be to attack biting constantly at their heals.
Are the liberals desperate, and in dire straights? Of Course. But would I count them out. No. They over reached this time around, before Obi they had done an excellent job in the previous 3 decades at remaking this country, through the judges, unions, politicians, mainstream media, apathy, and with the energetic help of the Rhinos, etc… but their egos became too inflated with the election of the anointed one, and the hopes that he could get all their hair brained ideas passed since they now had their main man in office. “Once one has had power and tasted that power, no substitute will suffice.” So now all the stops will be pulled out, and the fight is on! Past elections will look like altar boy exercises compared to this one. They, the liberals are on the ropes. And their leaders have to realize that this is a fight that must be won, no matter the consequences. That if they lose, especially to someone like Cain that all those years of hard work could be partly undone. If they can figure out how to capitalize on these so-called protests that would be a great start. Perception is everything. Not the truth. The liberal elites are masters at it, or some of them anyway. Thats the trick. Can they this late in the game? It ain’t over till the skinny bald man sings. I can say that because I am skinny and bald by the way. So as not to hurt someones inner child.
The Occupiers have netted their first death….at least the first one I have read about.
It happened in San Diego, CA overnight.
A man was trying to place posters on the outside of a multi-level parking structure for “Occupy San Diego.”
He fell to his death.
A few of the overnight’ers saw and/or heard him as he fell.
At first the coroner thought it was a suicide.
Then it became clear what he was doing up there in the dark.
It was an accidental death.
I imagine that 11-story parking structure has plenty of rules posted about how you are not supposed to climb around on the outside of the building.
Sad.
http://www.10news.com/news/29444195/detail.html
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_E9VQugSUBfo/TNi-9OWcI9I/AAAAAAAABkA/eZBou_Vc2Ko/s1600/imgp5372.jpg
@Wm T Sherman:
Completely agree with this statement. This illustration sums it up perfectly:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=247837271929063&set=a.173311446048313.31695.135026906543434&type=1&theater
In the first place, the OWS Movement is not trying to replicate
the Tea Partiers–the Left has been initiating demonstrations before the Tea Party was even dreamed of. By its nature, Conservatism is focused on maintaining the status quo–or, in the case of Reactionaries, going back to a previous conservative option. Progressives are distinguished from conservatives by their emphasis on going forward, to new solutions. The conservative purpose is to serve to rein in liberal motion, so it doesn’t move forward too fast.
The favored conservative model for impeding liberal change is by discrediting it–generally by calling its participants names and casting insults. But what they don’t understand is that this tactic only serves a amusement for right-wing elements. It didn’t stop women from gaining the right to vote, racial integration, the struggle for women’s rights, or gay rights in the military.
Now we are fighting against the Right-wing curtailing some people’s voting rights–including those of active duty service members–on the basis of reducing voter fraud (which, to my understanding, according to a 2007 study, amounts to something like 0.00000003%).
The conservative ‘strategy’ consists of pointing out the obvious failure of obvious failures and proposing that the actions that guarantee failure be halted.
The Left owns misdirection and ad hominem. It’s what they’re all about.
‘Progressive ideas’ generally consist of reckless feel-good innovations, and belief in them requires willfully ignoring the past – things the human race has learned over thousands of years by painful trial and error. “Progressive’ ideas tend to be bold and extensive new ideas for social engineering, built from the ground up with no learning or feedback mechanism, requiring the basic assumption that everything will go according to the original plan that was crafted in relative isolation from the real world.
Humanity has developed actual successful novel ideas like domesticated animals, agriculture, sailing ships, machine tools, vaccination, computers, space travel, and antibiotics. These innovations would never have happened without effective mechanisms for rejecting failed approaches. ‘Progressives’ get angry at skeptics who point out failure – they simply do not want corrective mechanisms for rejecting ill-advised or failed social experiments, and attribute opposition to ignorance, prejudice, and greed. And when their ideas fail, it’s because they didn’t think big enough, or they were sabotaged by counter-revolutionaires, or “shut up, that’s why.”
Because of wealth made following from all the real innovations made possible by a skeptical approach, in the Western world people don’t starve to death right away when a big progressive idea fails. In poor countries though, where life is closer to the edge, people do get killed by this feckless crap, often and in large numbers.
@Wm T Sherman:
Liberal1 listed the following examples as progressive ideas that were fought for and won:
Women gaining the right to vote, racial integration, women’s rights, & gay rights in the military.
Are these things reckless feel-good innovations which require ignoring history to believe in?
Just a question.
@Liberal:
Not sure what the point of your post was. By your definition lemmings going off a cliff are progressive as well, and the conservatives who try to stop them aren’t bad guys for it.
“Names and insults”? That’s how the left behaves toward anyone who disagrees with them. Are we making fun of the protesters? Of course! What little we’ve seen of the has been substanceless socialist pap. If you have something with some meat to it I’m certainly interested in it, but I don’t see these protests about preserving the dead’s right to vote.
I heard Sean Hannity interviewing via the phone, some young libs (women) who were apparently at one of these occupyings…. the one young woman, when asked about her education since she was ‘boasting’ about it, ‘at first’ said she “went” to an “Ivy League” school (and “I” (she) owe 80,000 dollars on a student loan) sorry I didn’t hear what school she was going to, [I hit a microwave valley and the radio went to static mode] then when asked what she studied it was some kind of Liberal Sociology type courses, and when asked well where do you work now or what do you want to do….. well, umm, I am still pursuing my studies……
….She was 37 years old and had an eight year old child and did not work….. hmmm… Oh, and her last response was that “she did not have any problem with the “state paying for things” and that they should pay for more “things” hmmm….
Anyone remember “Octuplet Mom”??… Nadya Suleman admitted to using her “student loans as income”. Gee… I wonder if ‘that’ ever caught on….
….Perhaps that’s why many of the occupiers want to ‘default’ on their student
incomeer..loans.. Paid for by the Taxpayers…??Check out this stupid commie Wall Street Protester Fox News interviewed!
Fox News never aired it.
@liberalmann:
Exactly my point about cherry picking. They’re not making stuff up when they post one guy crapping on a car, it’s just what they choose to show instead of this guy, and I’m sure others with an intelligent voice whom they simply don’t agree with.
Um.. yeah…. This is worthy of an embed because we all need a guffaw.
What was that in the first four seconds?
LOL!
Ironic he complains about the media when he discusses “patching the hole in the tire”. Now how many times has the conservative world talked about “kicking the can down the road?”.
Fox is a parent company of News Corp, so the Greta staff interviewer is not an “employee” of News Corp. duh But didn’t hear him asking for investigations into Fast & Furious. Now why is that, I wonder? Or Solyndra. Oh, WAIT! He thinks that Solyndra (which he pronounced “soo lan tra”) is a waste of time.
Funny, I thought “soo lan tra” was an herb….
His “living standard is decreased”, and he’s upset that the wealthy’s standard hasn’t. Well how the heck does he know what financial finagling the wealthy have had to do over this duration? Chit chat with his wealth friends at the local cocktail parties, perhaps? Did he bother to check the stats of jumbo loan homeowners in default in foreclosure? Or would that be just too much beyond research abilities?
So Greta’s staff gives him the chance to get his message out. What is it? “My living standard has decreased”. Glenn Beck was “a low moment in America’s history” (never realizing he isn’t engaging in negative opinions himself….). He’s part of “the other 99% of Americans” not being paid attention to… it’s those “far right fringe” who would “love to destroy the middle class entirely”.
????
So only the top 1% of the nation is the “far right fringe”? Apparently math ain’t this one’s strong suit.
Yeah… real bright and unbiased incandescent bulb, that one is. Fox probably didn’t air it in a compassionate moment of not wanting to publicize what a fool he is. Nothing there save the same ol’ same ol’ crap… Fox is the devil. The wealthy are the devil.
So what does he want? More “economic and social justice”…. yeah, real conservative Tea Party phrases there. Try William Ayers instead.
Oh wait… Cary assures us this isn’t about “left vs right”. Larry W assures us it’s all about “tax policies”.
Get a grip….
What I especially love is this “comrade” tops the kepi with a Confederate style hat. Nice touch…. LOL
This photo essay of OWS attendees is very funny.
It is titled:
Ditch the Coke Nail: Advice for the ’99 Percent’ Movement
It has a photo of several OWS’er holding up his/her excuses for failure then a Fisking of the issues.
And look out for the ringer!
This guy got a lot of coverage:
Look at all those cameras swarming around him.
Everyone should be sure to watch the video clip I posted in #23…
There are really wonderful and interesting things about the guy getting arrested that I will reveal to you later on.
@Aye: The Blaze (Glenn Beck’s web site, btw) claimed it called his mother, Mrs. Stephens, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and she said they were actually selling their house in a “short sale” due to a “reduction in income.”
The bank didn’t ”take” it.
See, lying is all part of the Alinsky method.
@Nan G:
Precisely what I was alluding to. Precisely.
This guy’s parent’s owe less than one year of their son’s tuition (less than $70K) on their half million dollar home…yet they’ve chosen to go the short sale route rather than simply pay off the remaining balance or try and put the house up for sale the normal way.
The truth is not at all what this street performer tried to get everyone to believe.
@ Mata: I was wondering if anyone else noticed the Confederate style hat =8^)
But Aye, Nan G… didn’t he (whiner #2) say the “wealthy” weren’t having a decline in their standard of living??
Chutzpah…
@Brother Bob, truth be told I had to stop my arse from laughing so hard before I hit play as soon as the camera panned down enough to see the head gear!
Okay, gonna have to call “pause” on this one.
First of all, the majority of banks will not okay a “short sale” when the owners are current on their mortgage.
Secondly, a “short sale” is when the mortgage on the home is worth more than the current market value. Even if a seller is current on the mortgage… prohibiting a short sale via bank standards… that doesn’t mean that a sale of a home doesn’t leave a homeowner short. This isn’t surprising and entirely likely that they cannot sell the home to pay off the student loan. Thus most homeowners who have to sell have to start deliberately defaulting in order to either attempt a short sale (of which only 20-25% actually go thru), or get foreclosed upon.
This is a reality for most of us who are homeowners. Most are underwater in value, and it’s not going to improve any time soon.
What would be nice is, instead of the parents attempt to sell a house for a loss, is if the offspring would get out of the park protests and get a job….
Sometimes things are self explanatory:
All of these horrible vile criminals hanging down on Wall Street…. How should they be dealt with?!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817
Cary, I know drama is your business, but puleeze… no one is suggesting that dodo protestors be shot for treason. Again, get a grip.
As far as the criminals on Wall Street and cover ups, why don’t you talk to your guy in the WH and his AG, Eric Holder? Of course, since Obama is a huge beneficiary of the financial institutions for campaign donations, that may crimp his fundraising style…
Aye… too funny. Yup… that woman would be out of business if she did it to me while sitting in the chair.
@Cary: Things like voting for women and ending segregation (i) were good things (ii) happened a long time ago (iii) were not phenomenally costly and destructive, and (iv) were implemented by classical liberals who would be considered right wing by the progressives of today. Gays in military is a quite trivial issue compared to the crisis that is overtaking us.
The progressive ideas of today are killing us. You studiously avoid mentioning progressive victories such as the ruinous social effects of the the Great Society programs and its descendents, the impending and predictable bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare systems, the hounding of the private sector with a mass of ever-increasing regulations, the government home-ownership initiatives that led to the housing meltdown, the unsustainable bloat and privilege of the government sector, the desire to limit carbon dioxide emissions despite the shakiness of the scientific support for the idea. All of these things are the result of a stated intention to help and make things better. At best, some people benefitted at the cost of social damage and financial ruin.
Children of the poor grow up without fathers. That’s what the system produces. Try to change the system and get called a racist.
The vast sums owed to Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries and state government pensions will simply not get paid – there’s not enough money in the world. Try to tell people this and get called stingy and selfish.
Unintended consequences.
Why is it always a convenient moment of senility to ignore that DADT was promoted and signed into law by Clinton – a Dem POTUS – then magically reversed by another Dem POTUS, Obama?
This has what to do with anything?
Not sure what you read in my comments that you thought I implied as such…
I did address that, in regards to my own opinion, with you.
It was the best he could get under compromise with the opposition, which he had hoped to not become a permanent solution. But that is indeed a different discussion.
Perhaps, since we were discussing the OWS, I misunderstood that’s what you meant by “criminals”… and, of course, since those protestors are engage in illegal activity. If I’m wrong, and that’s not what you meant. So sorry… but it sure was a bizarre tangent.
So sorry… I didn’t realize “gay” was like a cold … a temporary affliction. LOL
@MataHarley:
It was sarcasm, coupled with a link.
And DADT was the temporary affliction, not gay.
Perhaps I should hone up on my writing skills if I’m confusing you that much! (not sarcasm. I really do attempt to make my meanings clear.)
@Wm T Sherman:
It always amuses me when the leftist Dims try and take credit for the success of the Civil Rights movement and the ensuing demise of segregation.
Segregation, after all, was brought to us by leftist Dims like Woodrow Wilson.
The Civil Rights movement was blocked and hampered at every turn by leftist Dims such as Al Gore Sr., Bull Connor, Robert Byrd, and Herman Talmadge.
Yet the leftists attempt to take credit for removing the very social policies that they created and fought bitterly to uphold.
It’s worth mentioning the famous progressive Margaret Sanger and her desire to make birth control universally available — to keep undesirable brown-skinned minorities from reproducing. Very innovative and unconventional thinking, right Cary?
What hasn’t been working in the real world for 80% of America is the bullshit that got those people out on the streets in the first place.
The UK Daily Mail has a great article about the privileged backgrounds of some of the protestors.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047664/Occupy-Wall-Street-Children-1-good-time-protests.html
@Greg: What got the protesters out is the BS that they believe. Check the points at the end of the post – I’d be angry too if my beliefs didn’t work in reality, but instead of throwing a tantrum I’d ask questions as to why my beliefs weren’t working.
Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals suggests mocking the opposition.
It certainly worked excellently when Obama set up AttackWatch.
The Tweets were merciless!
Well, I don’t know if this will work as well because the Tweets are pick-up lines you might hear at an OWS event.
What do you think?
#OWSPickupLines
@Aye: almost forgot to mention – love the pic of the unemployed cosmetologist!
Joe McCarthey was right all along about these commie pigs