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Platinum NO RATINGS 
Given the extensive covereage of OWS, I find it surprising that they've only received $435,000 in donations.
Either this number is about to get much, much larger; or we've WAY overestimated the sympathy for this movement in the nation at large.  User Rank
Silver NO RATINGS
I wuld have though that the collections would at least be in the tens of millions by now just off of the popularity and novelty of it all. It seems as though it is starting to wane, and support for OWS is becoming a "passing fancy."
 User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
That number just represents the manhattan collections. Who knows how much was collected in other cities.
User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
I'm enjoying the photographs and stories you're posting about this protests. They give me a better idea of what's really going on than anything else I read about the whole thing.
 User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Joe Klein of Time magazine had a ruthless take on the protests in the issue that came out today.
"The OWS movement...includes a generous measure of weirdos, ideologues and free-range troublemakers. A recent unscientific New York magazine poll of 100 demonstrators found that 34% believed the U.S. government is no better than al-Qaeda. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the OWS protesters managed, before long, to destroy the credibility of a worthy political complaint in a spasm of puerile extremism." Now, I realize that I'm taking the conversation away from cupcakes, but my larger point, and I think Klein's as well, is that all the cupcakes in the world may not be able to keep these folks from shooting themselves in the foot unless they coordinate their message a bit more--and a bit more quickly.  User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
I walked through the OWS campground here in Philly for the first time. It was interesting ... in that it was empty and very quiet. Not sure if everyone was sleeping, at work, or moved on to another protest site (Eric Cantor was in town at U Penn). But my point it is will peeter out because "normal" people are too busy, too stressed to worry about their crap. The OWS folks need to take a page out of the teabaggers and harrass politicians, not people working for a living.
 User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
OWS makes me sad. A basic good premise lost in a mish mash of extremism and hyperbole. Oy vay.
 User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
I agree driven. I want more: I need an adenda, an outline of proposed policy, ideas to debate. A lot of rhetoric is just noise.
 User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
I can tell you one thing--if I had little kids, I would not have taken them to a sleepover in Zuccotti Park. What if something had happened? Why put the kids at risk?
 User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
I agree- having kids there is a bad idea- it is just too unpredictable.
 User Rank
Gold NO RATINGS
I also feel it was a bit too risky to have kids there in the protests. You never know when things could turn ugly. The protests also seem to drag on and on without a clear focus. So many different agendas for a wide variety of causes have been put up and I think this creates too much confusion.
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Blogger NO RATINGS
Really, I can't think of anything sadder than getting denied cupcakes. Unless they're one of the 34% that think the US government is worse than Al Qaeda. They deserve nothing.
 User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
You're right. They don't deserve anything. But neither does Joel Klein, just on the basis of his annoying use of big words.
User Rank
Blogger NO RATINGS
I'll personally ensure that Joe Klein ever eats a cupcake again.
User Rank
Iron
Noreen, I don't think anything can be changed in one or two months. Everything has to be happen in its own course of time. Let time prove it….
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
One aspect of the Zuccotti Park experience that hasn't gotten much press is that it really seems like the protesters are working to create THEIR version of a utopian society. Sure, it's a little (OK, a lot) rough around the edges: A REAL utopia would include cupcakes for all and some NEW drum riffs every half hour or so...
But still, one can't help but be impressed by the hot meals, the medical tents, the library, the craft booths, the general spirit of the place--and the genuine sense of good spirit that has come to exist between the "residents," those who walk past as tourists or on their way to work, and the NYPD. The problem such as it is, seems to come with the weight of expectation that the outside world is putting on the protesters to DO SOMETHING--or more accurately to do something MY WAY. It's that weight that will sink this thing, not the rain, not the lack of cupcakes, not the bad drumming.  User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
It can be Utopian right now because in the first month OWS received , $485000 donated by roughly 8000 individual, anonymous donors.
When the novelty of the situation and donations dry up it will turn dystopian fast. As a British observer noted: 'The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money." Find anyone who attended the Summer of Love in Haight Ashbury and ask them what happened when all the freebies were used up. There's an old saying "When the moneys gone - love flies out the window." I have mingled with and like the OWS folks. But they are wasting major momentum by focusing on problems and offering little in the way of solutions. User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Oh, @AskAsa, I love both of your quotes about the effects of the money running out on subsidized protest. Never heard either of them before, but both are SO true!
I completely agree with you that the days of wine and roses are numbered for the protesters. I came to the SF Bay Area in in 1970 (the so-called Summer of Love in the Haight-Ashbury was in 1967) and things were pretty ugly by then. But why do I think that when OWS's "vision" crumbles that they will blame the establishment for THAT, too? Strikes me that we may be needing that Obamacare socialized medicine in the years to come. Just think of the monster therapy bills those cupcakeless kids are likely to rack up as they move into adulthood! User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
Lol street smart!
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Interesting post in rolling stone that debunks the myth ows is about jealousy of the rich. Rather it suggests the protests (at their core) are about dissent over a lot of dubious practices. Take a look and see what you think: http://m.rollingstone.com/entry/view/id/18620/pn/all/p/0/?KSID=a002561ed3218427c75326046495ddae&ints_viewed=1
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
@cat tail, I really enjoyed the Rolling Stone article. Thanks so much for the link! If memory serves, the author, Matt Taibbi, is the one who called Goldman Sachs "the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
My only reaction is that Taibbi, rather than the OWS protesters, seems to be the one articulating the "all we want is a level playing field" arguments. I find them really convincing. I just wish I were more convinced that he wasn't putting words (however worthy) in their mouths. User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
@cat tail, must agree with @Street Smart on this one. Rolling Stone lays out an interesting view that this should be about corruption and an unfair playing field, but this isn't what I see from OWS, which still seems to ooze greed and envy.
Why do I think so? All the talk about 99% and 1% makes no distinction between rich people who've come by their money honestly versus those who profited from corruption. So it's not about how they got so much money; it's about inequality and the fact that they have so much money. For OWS, inequality is wrong and seems to be growing. This is what makes the OWS cupcake incident so laughable. The idea that cupcakes would be for only some - kids. How can an OWS cupcake lady exclude anyone? User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
I don't disagree. Perhaps I'm projecting what I sense from the sincere members of ows against the cluttered messages I've been hearing.
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
People aren't jealous and they don’t want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes
@Cat tail - I think we both have more empathy for the above quote from the Rolling Stone article than we do for just blaming the 1% for being wealthy. If the OWS protesters agreed with us, they would see that the playing field is made unfair by the people who make the rules. And then the center of the protest would move to Washington DC. User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Really interesting editorial today from Nicholas Kristoff in the NY Times that comes at the level playing field argument from another angle.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/opinion/kristof-crony-capitalism-comes-homes.html?_r=1&ref=nicholasdkristof Really made a lot of sense to me, and I highly recommend it. User Rank
Blogger NO RATINGS
All that is impressive, but I think the scrutiny is justified, considering what they started out as and what they've turned into. Let's be honest, they could use to be streamlined a little. Wall Street isn't exactly the right place to proest hyrdofracking.
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Sounds like the demonstrators in New York City got pretty frisky last night in solidarity with the protests in Oakland, CA that resulted in over 100 arrests and tear gassing of the crowds earlier yesterday.
As I watched on the news last night, over 500 protesters left Zuccotti Park and took to the streets heading north, totally gridlocking traffic and resisting NYPD efforts to herd them onto the sidewalks. In fact, a group of about 200 headed back north again, running wildly through the streets as cops on motor scooters chased them. NOT very family friendly! Hope the younguns were nowhere to be found for THIS particular activity! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/nyregion/occupy-wall-street-march-to-support-oakland-protests.html User Rank
Blogger NO RATINGS
"In fact, a group of about 200 headed back north again, running wildly through the streets as cops on motor scooters chased them."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Very funny, @Bargain Bin! Perfectly captures the complete absurdity that this entire thing is taking on.
For your encore, I want to hear "Fiddling While Europe Implodes." User Rank
Blogger NO RATINGS
Sorry Street Smart, I'm a one trick pony :(
 User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
People may not know that the Oakland incident referred to involved an Iraq war vet whose skull was fractured by a rubber bullet as police tried to disperse a march. I'm willing to find the humor in any situation, but the show of force on both sides I think should push people towards working for a resolution.
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
@Heinrich Coup-de-Suite, thanks for shedding some more light on the Oakland protest. I knew that it had involved a head injury via rubber bullet, but not the Iraq vet back story.
However, just because the fellow who was shot was a vet, doesn't mean he's not entitled to break the law. I have no idea if the cops acted responsibly or not, but if they did not, hopefully video exists and they will be quickly judged and disciplined. As for the old adage of two wrongs not making a right, I don't like the idea of the NY OWS activists taking to the streets and recruiting bar patrons to swell their ranks as they worked their way north. That doesn't seem like a mission; it seems closer to a drunken brawl. I certainly don't have all the answers but I think the longer the movement goes without providing at least a discussion framework, the more potential for dangerous misunderstanding there is. User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
Class conflict is sadly lacking in a history of useful discussion. Relations between rich and poor are the only ones in civil society where the word 'strike' is in common usage.
The somewhat adversarial relationship between the ten articles and first ten amendments of the US constitution are an example of things politely being worked out. Even though it's still kind of a stand-off, when both sides abide by this document, things work out rather nicely. Despite the long history of conflict, rich and poor somehow find ways to get along through collective bargaining and the ballot box. This assumes republican ideals prevail.  User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
CBA's don't work too well in pro sports... as we have seen over the past few months.
User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
Class is difficult to define in these protests--a good portion of the protesters seem to be well educated, fairly wealthy individuals. I've walked through the park several times. It almost seems class lines are being drawn with some new dynamic I haven't quite determined.
User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
I've been thinking much the same--the protesters in their blazers and scarves don't exactly seem like they've been shopping at Walmart.
User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
Call me stupid Phil--but what the heck do you mean?
User Rank
Iron NO RATINGS
Collective Bargaining Agreement = CBA. It was mentioned in a previous post and I was responding to the fact that when the time comes to renew or renegotiate CBA's, the worst in people comes out. A la the NFL & NBA, the public has become more aware of those negotiating evils.
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Does Occupy Wall Street still exist?
User Rank
Platinum NO RATINGS
Good question. OWS really seems to have lost momentum.
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