First We Take Manhattan … – Moon of Alabama

October 3, 2011

First We Take Manhattan …

#OccupyWallStreet is a quite amazing open source insurgency which has a good potential to grow into something much bigger.

That it is already fought by the establishment, paid by the banks, is a sign that the powers that are are afraid of it and take it seriously.

For some serious success the movement has to be copied and extended to every financial district all over the world. That seems to be starting now.

Learn from Tahir. Do not allow any agenda. Accept no leadership. Just occupy.

I’m guided by a signal in the heavens
I’m guided by this birthmark on my skin
I’m guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

Just block the corrupt and inhuman business that Wall Street symbolizes and that has affected and injured so many people all around the world. Others will follow. I do.

Posted by b on October 3, 2011 at 18:32 UTC | Permalink

Comments

I too, hope this movement takes off, but, I think it’s only a matter of time until the power brokers send in the morons to create violence and ruin the movement. Hopefully, it will stay non-violent, and the movement will grow. This is the kind of grass-roots protest America, and the world need right now.
b, when I came to the site this morning, I was hoping to mention the “Occupy Wall Street”, you beat me to it. Thanks!

Posted by: ben | Oct 3 2011 19:01 utc | 1

some good stuff here. http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
how long until they bring out the snipers? anyone want to start a pool?

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 3 2011 19:08 utc | 2

Re: ben @1
Worried about this, also. It would be nice if groups of ‘white cell’ protestors could immediately isolate any agents provocateur and march them to the nearest constable.

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Oct 3 2011 21:56 utc | 3

What’s the point, or the goal of this “movement?” Is it an appeal? If so, to whom? If it’s to the Government, what is the point of appealing to it at this point? We know it’s corrupt beyond repair, so appealing to a corrupt Institution is not going to have a positive effect. At this point, if you want something, you’re pretty much going to have to take it. Nothing will be granted.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 3 2011 23:22 utc | 4

Thanks, b, for keeping this blog alive. Haven’t been here for a while, but it seems like the same good place. Would love to hear from our old friend Billmon.

Posted by: coral | Oct 3 2011 23:35 utc | 5

It used to be that the elites reacted only when movements grew to a certain size. But changed with the War on Terrorism and Dick Cheney’s 1% doctrine. Now the USG goes into action when there is a 1% probability of resistance.
The Occupy Wall Street was ignored by the media but aggressively targeted by the NYPD, even though it was a minuscule movement.
We can expect repression to ratchet up quickly as the elites tolerate no dissent. But that will lead to over-reaction, which will piss off large swaths of the society, who will join the protests. I expect that will lead to widespread, militarized repression sooner rather than later (yes, it can happen here. The legal and military frameworks have been established over the last decade. Bush ended posse comitatus.)
Even though US police departments have been heavily militarized over the last decade, the scope of operations in the US will put a big strain on US global military operations, forcing a real predicament about the scope of the empire.
Any sign of weakness abroad will embolden allies to become independent and start looking out for their own interests for a change. Any serious repression at home will shake the economic foundations at home and lead to even more resistance.
The elites have dug themselves a mighty hole, as have Americans in general, who have been content to let their government destroy their civil liberties.

Posted by: JohnH | Oct 4 2011 0:34 utc | 6

A different type of occupation is supposed to start later this week in Washington, D.C., with a specifically anti-militarism/end the wars/cut the war spending focus. I believe the intent is similar in that it is an open-ended occupation of a central plaza in downtown DC just a couple of blocks from the White House.
After observing what has been happening between the NYPD and the #OccupyWallStreet initiative in NYC, thoughts of the bonus army from the 1930’s came to mind. I doubt if TPTB in DC will let the DC version grow and become as entrenched as the bonus army became before removing it – forcibly or otherwise.

Posted by: Maxcrat | Oct 4 2011 0:54 utc | 7

Talking about corporate, govt and Pentagon psychopathy…
This is the blurb about one of the panellists on the ABC TV (au) program Q & A screened on October 3, 2011.
“Jon Ronson is a writer and television presenter. His column in The Guardian, ‘The Human Zoo’, ran successfully for many years. He has written and presented a number of television documentaries on subjects ranging from the Rev. Ian Paisley to the Ku Klux Klan to TV critics.
His first book, Them: Adventures With Extremists, which describes his encounters with some of the world’s craziest megalomaniacs and conspiracy theorists, was published in 2001. It received highly laudatory reviews, and spent seven weeks in the top ten of the Bookwatch/Sunday Times bestseller list.
The Men Who Stare at Goats describes the extraordinary practices of a secret unit in the US Army who believe that a soldier can adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and kill goats just by staring at them.
His latest title, The Psychopath Test, asks serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges.”
………..
A Bloomberg review of the last-mentioned book is here:
I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t elicit nods of agreement AND make your hair stand on end.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-stack-the-psychopath-test-by-jon-ronson-07212011.html

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 4 2011 3:55 utc | 8

What with Leonard being a Zionist and all . . . . that lyric might have a very different meaning than you seem to think it has 😉
“Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you’re worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin”

Posted by: hu bris | Oct 4 2011 10:36 utc | 9

@9, a pretty good rule of thumb, is to reject anyone holding themselves up as a Leader in this insidious system. In today’s technical world there are myriad sycophantic minions with resumes a mile long holding themselves out as administrative leaders, when in fact, they are quite the opposite. They are nothing but followers, Little Eichmans if you will, executing the apparatus of a morally decayed and bankrupt System where White is Black, Freedom is Servitude, Peace is War, Dignity is Abuse and Equality is Privilege for a few.
We know that this System is failing everyone but a very few, therefore, anyone currently holding a leadership position within this System, barring a few miraculous exceptions, is a miserable failure for the many, but a success for the few. It is why it is crucial for the many to reject all those, with few exceptions, who currently hold themselves out as leaders. They are part of what should be considered the enemy because they are at the heart of what perpetuates the toil and misery that is contemporary existence. You don’t appeal to this, and plead your case with it, you reject its legitimacy, you call it out as a failure, you see it as part of a much larger System that is a failure, and you starve it and depose it.
I’m envisioning a world where responses like this are not only obsolete and nonsensical, but also quite anathema to the System in place.

Thank you very much for your interest in the position of Head of School. I appreciate your taking the time to submit your materials for consideration. Regretfully, we are not able to offer you a semi-finalist interview at this time. We received applications from more than 25 very qualified candidates, many with extensive leadership experience in independent schools. It was very difficult for the search committee to select only seven individuals from such an impressive pool of candidates.
Please accept the committee members’ and my best wishes as you pursue your professional goals.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 4 2011 11:01 utc | 10

“What’s the point, or the goal of this “movement?” Is it an appeal? If so, to whom?”
I think it’s an appeal to the American public to “wake up”, not that it’ll do any good, but, at least it isn’t complete and total apathy, which is the usual american public response to corporatism.

Posted by: ben | Oct 4 2011 13:28 utc | 11

I think b’s optimism is justified.
#OccupyWallStreet is a clever idea, with demonstrable ‘purity’. If they’ve got the grit to keep showing up at demos after the USG starts spilling blood, they’ll eventually win imo. State violence always radicalises people, forcing them to make hard choices.
Choices don’t get any harder than the one’s Americans will have to make if they want to save their country.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 4 2011 13:43 utc | 12

“open source insurgency.”
You’re not from around here, are you b…..

Posted by: Jeremiah | Oct 4 2011 14:04 utc | 13

@Jeremiah – You’re not from around here, are you b…..
No, I am not, but have been to the U.S. many times and have worked with many U.S. companies. I have a somewhat learned opinion about the States.
@Morocco Bama – What’s the point, or the goal of this “movement?” Is it an appeal? If so, to whom?
Question that shows you didn’t get the point. The point is to occupy wall street. Everything else is unimportant and irrelevant. The point in Egypt was to occupy Tahir, and to hold it. Everything flows from there. No demands, no leaders, no program. That only makes one vulnerable. Just occupy. From that something will follow.
It is the same on Wall Street.

Posted by: b | Oct 4 2011 17:58 utc | 14

@hu bris – that lyric might have a very different meaning than you seem to think it has 😉
No. I linked to the original Jennifer Warnes 1987 version of that song which does not include the lines you cite. Those were added in a later version that Cohen released. You can read Cohen’s later version, which is a stupid attempt to make a revolutionary song about the pre-Red Army Fraction movement in Germany into a love song, and compare it to the lyrics in the song linked above. Those stupid lines do not appear in the original.

Posted by: b | Oct 4 2011 18:24 utc | 15

It is the same on Wall Street.
I don’t agree. An apple isn’t an orange, although both are fruits. And, exactly what has transpired in Egypt after the dust has settled? Are we to assume it’s all said and done? Egypt is now the Merry Old Land of Oz? Hardly. There was no revolution in Egypt. Justice has not been meted out properly. It’s far from over if it even began, and maybe that’s because there never was a plan, and there isn’t much of a plan now. If truly lasting change doesn’t come to Egypt, then it’s a shame all of that time and sacrifice is wasted……and that’s my POINT. Make your sacrifice count, and in order to do that, have your ducks in order, otherwise, you’re more than likely going to get….Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss.
Don’t Be Fooled Again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6-wG5LLqE
That’s what must be avoided.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 4 2011 21:43 utc | 16

Oh, and I might add, or will add, Wall Street is more than just a physical location….it’s a shifting Egregore that doesn’t render itself to occupation. It requires all our energy though, and the way you evaporate an Egregore is to starve it of your life energy. Don’t feed it, and don’t let it feed you.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 4 2011 22:45 utc | 17

Morocco Bama, at least they’re doing something, and a relatively small number of occupiers have pushed this into the reluctant corporate media’s lens. the #occupy meme is catching, spreading. you want to snuff the spark with your cynicism?
i saw a sign being held by a marine that’s worth repeating here:
2nd time I’ve fought for my country
1st tim I’ve known my enemy

Posted by: lizard | Oct 5 2011 0:10 utc | 18

you want to snuff the spark with your cynicism?
I don’t believe anything I say or do will have an effect on it one way or another, so I’m not trying to snuff anything. I’m trying to understand it.
I saw a sign right next to the one you’re describing that said Evolve to Communism. That’s cannon fodder for the conservative crowd, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy holding it was a plant put there for that purpose.
My cynicism. Let me tell you about all the little things one can do in their lives that do, and will, add up if everyone did/does them. My son was told he was required to write a letter to a soldier in school. It happened a second time in as many weeks. We held a conference with the administration and expressed our principles and that we did not want our son participating in this endeavor. They didn’t give us a hard time, and will respect his refusal in the future without penalizing him. We know other parents who won’t rock the boat because they don’t want their kid singled out as “different.” You may scoff at this and think it is nothing, but you’re not a nine year old kid having to face this, and let’s face it, that’s when the indoctrination is strongest, and that’s a place where the pressure needs to be applied…before the brain damage occurs.
This “movement” is too early to tell what’s what and who’s who. Until I can gain a more clear picture, I’m going to remain skeptical and question everything and criticize when I see inconsistency and incoherence.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 5 2011 1:01 utc | 19

you don’t need to tell me about the little things one can do, though i do appreciate the reasoned response. i’ve got kids as well, and it’s a massive responsibility to help them navigate our crude consumer culture, which tries to hook them cradle to grave with the confusion between need/want.
and i agree that this “movement” is in its infancy, which is why i think the healthy aspects of it need to be supported and nurtured, which means the provocateurs who will try to infiltrate and disrupt must be quickly identified and booted.
it certainly has been fun watching those who were hating on these neo-hippies who were supposedly all from Burning Man (especially from what passes for the “left” in the states) start changing their tune as the occupation started getting traction (with opportunists like Michael Moore showing up to hog a few headlines to peddle his new book).
but i agree a bit of skepticism isn’t a bad thing. who knows how many anonymous groups are honeypots, and how many #occupy spinoffs are just chances for the security state to see who is willing to show their faces in opposition to their greedy endgame play for all the marbles.

Posted by: lizard | Oct 5 2011 2:55 utc | 20

lizard, I think we’re on the same page….and certainly in the same chapter. I am a revolutionary….but I’m not a groupie or a joiner. I crave solidarity, but not at the expense of compromising core principles that should never be compromised. Also, because I’ve been burned so many times in life, as most of us have, I remain cautious about aligning myself with anything, or any movement until I have a modicum of assurance it’s “clean”, meaning devoid of the remnants/shards/seeds of destruction that mitigate our socio/political/economic evolution. This article sums up my concerns nicely.
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/10/03/against-the-institution-a-warning-for-occupy-wall-street/

While I fully endorse the efforts and actions of the Occupy Wall Street protests, now emerging internationally, there are concerns which need to be addressed and kept in mind as the movement moves forward.
The process through which a potentially powerful movement may be co-opted and controlled is slight and subtle. If Occupy Wall Street hopes to strive for the 99%, it must not submit to the 1%, in any capacity.
The Occupy movement must prevent what happened to the Tea Party movement to happen to it. Whatever ideological stance you may have, the Tea Party movement started as a grass roots movement, largely a result of anti-Federal Reserve protests. They were quickly co-opted with philanthropic money and political party endorsements.
For the Occupy Movement to build up and become a true force for change, it must avoid and reject the organizational and financial ‘contributions’ of institutions: be they political parties, non-profits, or philanthropic foundations. The efforts are subtle, but effective: they seek to organize, professionalize, and institutionalize a movement, push forward the issues they desire, which render the movement useless for true liberation, as these are among the very institutions the movement should be geared against.
This is not simply about “Wall Street,” this is about POWER. Those who have power, and those who don’t. When those who have power offer a hand in your struggle, their other hand holds a dagger. Remain grassroots, remain decentralized, remain outside and away from party politics, remain away from financial dependence. Freedom is not merely in the aim, it’s in the action.
The true struggle is not left versus right, democrat versus republican, liberal versus conservative, or libertarian versus socialist. The true struggle is that of people against the institution: the State, the banks, the central banking system, the corporation, the international financial institutions, the military, the political parties, the mainstream media, philanthropic foundations, think tanks, university, education, psychiatry, the legal system, the church, et. al.
The transfer of power from one institution to another does not solve the crisis of our ‘institutional society,’ whereby a few have come to dominate so much, to concentrate so much power at the expense of everyone else having so little. True liberation will result only from opposition to ‘the institution’ as an entity. Placating power from one institution to another renders resistance ineffective. The power structures must be discredited, and power must be distributed to the people, through voluntary associations, communal groupings, and people-powered (and people-funded!) initiatives.
In order to survive as a movement, money will become a necessity. Do not turn to the non-profits and philanthropic foundations for support. The philanthropies, which fund and created the non-profits and NGOs, were themselves created to engage in ‘social engineering’: to ‘manufacture consent’ among the governed, and create consensus among the governors. The philanthropies (particularly those of Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller) fund social movements and protest organizations so as to steer them into directions which are safe for the elites. The philanthropies are themselves run by the elite, founded by bankers and industrialists striving to preserve their place at the top of the social structure in the midst of potentially revolutionary upheaval. As the president of the Ford Foundation once said, “Everything the foundation does is to make the world safe for capitalism.”
Rest at link.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 5 2011 11:31 utc | 21

From the penultimate par @ #21…
Placating power from one institution to another renders resistance ineffective.
What, if anything, is that supposed to mean?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 5 2011 12:43 utc | 22

@22 tips his/her hand with the following:
Choices don’t get any harder than the one’s Americans will have to make if they want to save their country.
Yet another Reformationist. There’s nothing to save. The country wasn’t designed for the many, it was always designed for the few. It’s a Plutocratic Oligarchy, and it is operating as conceived. You don’t save that, you depose it.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 5 2011 13:04 utc | 23

@Morocco Bama
I am with you…
I certainly support any movement that would even try to stop this madness…But I have more questions than answers at this stage…
Is it going to grow (and takes Europe and others too)? Is it going to be hijacked? Can this in any way unite people with left and right political views because it affects 99% of people?
What is the point? Where it could go? Who is to organize it (if it’s not orchestrated already)? What are demands and where exactly they are directed? We have asked before: where is the outrage in USA? Is this it? Could it be stopped having in mind that future predicted is so grim?
I have been burned before too. I once protested (sometimes putting my life in danger) against Milosevic in Serbia. If I knew what I know now I wouldn’t bother to protest with some opposition leaders at the time. It is very often big disappointment after we “win”…
But this could be different…especially if it spreads around the world, because I have never seen world in turmoil like this before. Who knows…It’s to be seen.

Posted by: vbo | Oct 5 2011 14:41 utc | 24

Thanks for sharing that, vbo. Yes, the Balkans was a Rattlesnake’s Nest of Western Intelligence operations, and no doubt, whatever resistance to tyranny there was on both sides of the somewhat fabricated conflict, it was bound to either have been spearheaded by those sinister forces, or in the least, eventually funded and co-opted by them.
It speaks to the ability of Tito, despite all his misgivings, to hold the thing together against formidable outside forces for as long as he did. Of course, the Death Knell started before his death, when he agreed to accept Western Financing disguised as aid. A Dance With The Devil, is a Waltz of Death & Destruction.
How’s this for a Flashback?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flash/sept/yugo71.htm

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 5 2011 15:27 utc | 25

Case In Point
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFz1VVXsWRU&feature=player_embedded#!
This is classic Disinformation and Misdirection. It is sprinkled with truth, but for the wrong ends, and he’s pushing the Gold agenda. Yeah pal, that’s it, let’s go back to the Gold standard and as a result, a mere 5-10 million more can be murdered in the Congo for the Plutocratic Mine Owners.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 5 2011 16:58 utc | 26

Re Morocco Bama @ #23.
Yet another Reformationist. There’s nothing to save. The country wasn’t designed for the many, it was always designed for the few. It’s a Plutocratic Oligarchy, and it is operating as conceived. You don’t save that, you depose it.
There’s some truth in all the above. But it’s tone confirms that it’s an unhelpful and defeatist construct. Or, to put it more bluntly, a lofty and irrelevant perch from which to pour cold water on a new and positive development in US politics which, if successful, won’t be ‘good for the Jews’.
Americans have been sold a style of democracy exemplified by the phrase of the people, by the people for the people and that’s what this movement wants to save. Pretending that you don’t understand that, and declaring your lack of support or sympathy, makes you seem a bit … anti-American.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 6 2011 2:49 utc | 27

@27, you can’t save something that never was, so until you change your wording, your wording is misdirectional. Also, I’ve been told in this thread this “Movement” is by design, undefinable, but yet, on several occasions, in rebuttal to my inquiries and criticisms, I’ve been told what this “Movement” stands for…so, which is it, because we all know one can’t have their cake and eat it, too?

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 6 2011 11:40 utc | 28

makes you seem a bit … anti-American.
Ooooh….there we have it. Oh My God! Please don’t let it be. I sound anti-American? Why, I never!! I feel like Aaron Burr right about now.
Ummm…wait a second, what exactly does “American” sound like? Is it a Baritone, a Tenor….or is it an incoherent Cacophony?

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Oct 6 2011 12:12 utc | 29

The OccupyWallStreet-ers are coming up with some good poster slogans. TomDispatch refers to this one…
The American Dream – you have to be asleep to believe it

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 8 2011 5:35 utc | 30

@b
B, Leonard wrote the song originally – so for all you or I know those lines you referred to could have been in the original version but removed for some reason known only to Warnes or Cohen themselves – at the end of the day Cohen included those lines in HIS version – and may have had them there originally.
ALSO: I have long played with the theory of the RAF as essentially a Gladio-type operation, run through Markus Wolf with possible help from Mossad – certainly it had exactly the same effect on German society as the Italian Gladio-ops run buy NATO had on Italian Society
And though others may scoff at the notion, the central Emblem on the flag of the DDR is, for me at least, astoundingly Masonic – check it out here http://images.vector-images.com/133/g_ddr.gif

Posted by: Hu Bris | Oct 11 2011 23:42 utc | 31

Back to Main