Follow Occupy Buffalo

I support the protesters but I don't support their mission.
I agree with the protesters that they will eventually be successful at collapsing the system. What will that actually mean to our individual lives? What does collapsing the system include and how long should we be prepared to endure until whatever new system is ready to take its place?

Will it be a hardship like living during the October surprise without roads, heat, and power? Or, will it simply be a minor inconvenience and something new that people interested in politics can read about?

The likes of Michael Moore and Kanye West are now literally voicing the same opinions as homeless people, unemployed middle class folks, and members of various unions for public service workers.

So what are these two filthy rich 1 percenters doing to help, other than opening up their big mouths and getting free publicity.

Hey Michael, while your making millions on your movies, the guy selling popcorn at the theater is making 8 bucks an hour. What are you going to do about it, you big phony.

It's not going to "collapse the system". The street lights aren't going to suddenly stop working. It is already raising the level of conversation, and the most obvious injustices will be the first to go:
- Repealing the Bush tax cuts
- End the incredible expense/WASTE of war. It is cheaper to give jobs to soldiers coming home to do things like fix roads and bridges, then to occupy foreign land.
- Eventually, the affordable health care plan will become single payer
- Invest in the education instead of putting kids in debt for the rest of their lives
- Make the banks a crucial part of the system instead of letting them work it.
- And a lot more
In short - DO THE RIGHT THING

Hey dude in the photo with the messy beard and mustache and two fingers in the air - that is NOT how you go about getting a job.

end the Federal Reserve and Fractional Reserve Banking.

establish public banks that put profits back into their respective communities.

bring back the Glass-Steagall act.

ban all financial derivatives.

use the state chartered Bank of North Dakota as a model, North Dakota has no budget problems, it's running a surplus.

a better world is possible.

Out of all the Occupy groups, I think Buffalo's chose the most attractive location. I wouldn't mind camping out in Niagara Square for a couple days, just for the view!

But on an effectiveness note, I'm glad they're taking the message to some of the corporate leaches (like BoA) and not just City Hall. Buffalo certainly has its fair share of government caving in to the specific interests of corporations, at the expense of the city as a whole.

I don't mind the city giving perks to companies like F'N who are trying to be good citizens, but we've all suffered because of situations like BassPro and HSBC where residents and job seekers have to pay bill for extortion-like tactics.

Great to see this grass roots effort for change. We have allowed corporate America, Wall St, and the other powerful interests to hijack our democracy for far too long. The right has attempted to minimize and discredit this movement but they are as usual dishonest and again on the wrong side of history. The policies of the past 30 years have decimated the middle class and transferred our nations wealth to the top while ignoring the needs of average Americans. The people have finally realized the "class war" has been going on for decades and average people have been the ones under attack. I hope this resonates with our tone deaf leadership and results in real reform.

I think that groups of people banding together to acheive a goal is great, but I have to say that this "Occupy XXXX" stuff can be a little frustrating because a good majority of the people protesting don't know a thing about what they're talking about. I'm not saying you need to in detail the ins-and-outs of the securities markets, but don't protest outside M&T and FN about it, when these two companies didn't get in that mess. And Buffalo is not the place to protest "the 1%". Frankly, Buffalo could use a few more "1%-ers" to bring some money here.

Bottom line: The ability to protest is what makes this country great, but people jumping on the bandwagon to protest something they don't really understand is what makes this country ignorant.

Let's see if their "movement" survives February....

And who is going to pay for the clean up of Niagara Square? MY tax dollars?

You want a better world? Stop expecting handouts.

What a bunch of ninnies America has become. Polarized and jealous of what the other guy has.

Man, I'd love to hang out in Niagara Square and wax philosophical...but I get out of bed each day and go to work. I've been downsized 4 times in the past 20 years by those MF corporate bastards, so don't tell me about inequality and unfairness, you wusses. Don't like it? Start your own corporation and donate your profits to this bowel movement of an "occupation".

Kanye West and Michael Moore. Gimme a break. Captivating people of all backgounds? Uhm sure. What hypocrites. Seriously. My FATHER came to this country with nothing. Zero. How many of these "occupiers" are first generation Americans? I bet very few. Show me the demographics...

Three years into this flimsy Obama regime and the best we can do is blame republicans and Bush? Get over it already.

Had any jihadist cowards blow up any skyscrapers lately? Those were MY friends in that building who died, you naive twerps.

Yeah. Let's just stand out in the rain and protest that life is unfair and sucks and hope you get more free government handouts paid for by a shrinking polulation of people who actually suffer the indignity of working. God help us.

Who forced you to live large and rack up debt diguised as student loans? Now you want the government to give you a free pass because you wanted to live large? What about others who worked their way through school, or who worked at unfulfilling and extra jobs to help their kids get degrees without debt? Is the government gonna bail them out for their sacrifice?

What about "your fellow Americans" who live within their budget and did not fall victim to the allure of a subprime mortgage trap. Is the "government" going to bail them out, too?

What crap.

Try taking some responsibility for your own life and let's see how you like that February wind in Niagara Square, you selfish lazy wussy phonies.

I'm glad Buffalo Rising is finally covering this exciting and inspiring movement. I kind of wish Occupy Buffalo didn't feel the need to riff off of Carl Paladino's campaign slogan, though!

mmmmm...Buffalo: Have you talked to the people down at Niagara Square? The ones I talked to were quite articulate about their concerns and complaints. And I don't believe they have been actively protesting against M&T or FN (beyond reminding people that those banks are publicly-traded corporations that are not ultimately accountable to their communities). There have been protests aimed at Chase and Bank of America here.

I agree with you that everyone should educate themselves about the issues and not simply jump on the bandwagon. From what I saw and heard at Niagara Square, there was a lot of informed conversation and education going on there.

I love protests as much as the next guy, but the real power brokers don't work on Wall St. or head up GM, IBM, Archer-Daniels. The few people who really pull all of the strings are largely hidden from the public view. Mostly the Bilderberg group, and they're all sitting back, feet on the desk laughing at these protests.

Oh please. Get over yourselves.

There is a GREAT bank that advertises on this website AND they pay YOU 3% on you checking account! What a deal, check out Evans Bank, they're great.

is anyone talking about corporate dollars in politics. In a time when we need campain reform and term limits a republican congress voted to open the door to even more coprorate dollars and secrecy in campain donations and lobbying. LIMIT THE LOBBYISTS IMPACT ON POLITICS AND SET TERM LIMITS FOR ALL GOVERNMENT POSITIONS. This will take care of a lot of issues.

I do believe in the bottom line ethics of this protest, but whatever happened to hard work getting where you need to go. Maybe I am idealistic, but I chose to take out loans, I chose to go party while I could have worked/internship/TA to reduce my loans and I chose to pursue a career that is not well paid.

The system might be flawed, but individual's decisions might be flawed as well.

2 little odd things:

1) The DOW is up almost 1000 points since occupy Buffalo.

2) As I was passing the protest, I saw someone typing on a typewriter.

Not sure if anyone's questioned this, but has Occupy Buffalo obtained permission from the NFL to use the Buffalo Bills logo as their advertising mascot? Have to believe someone in the Niagara Square food tent's going to be getting a corporate call on that one real soon.

Something is wrong with how the "system" values employees and certain career paths versus others. Its not to say some are not more valuable or risky than others but I really think the focus has become an extremely greedy one focused solely on the top and the shareholders return on investment, overlooking the employees and the human capital as positive things but rather as expendable liabilities or drains on more and more profit. How much is enough? Its apparent over the last few decades that profit expectations are becoming unsustainable and ridiculous at the expense of most and the communities those people live in. If I had one hope it would be that business schools started stressing social and community responsibility and ethics rather than money is the be all end all and employees are just replaceable drags on the bottom line, placing all priorities at the top decision making level where money rains and reigns torrentially. What happened to loyalty? I hear of customer loyalty but dont get alot of sense of corporate loyalty to an area really. Small business and locally based business tends to be far more loyal than some large conglomerate raking in more and more dollars. Ultimately the pay structure and pay priorities need to change. An across the board recognition that a business like a machine is only as good as the SUM OF ITS PARTS and all those parts deserve to be valued and supported is crucial. How is it that the CEO's 5 minute pee break is 10,000 times more valuable than the janitor who keeps the facility clean and presentable for a client? Not to say there shouldnt be a pay ladder based on experience and education but perhaps the top needs to be reigned in and down and the bottom and middle needs to gain value. If everyone was of the opinion that no worker was worth more than 10 times the value of the least paid worker then everyone would be able to move up together and dollars could be more equitably be distributed among workers, their families, and their neighborhoods, helping rebuild and put some hope in people's future rather than this entitled class elitist BS glass ceiling we now experience where a few hoard money and the rest get to pick up what extra has fallen out of the top dogs overstuffed pockets. In many ways our system is run by little greedy me me me children who want what everyone else has, its like the kid who goes to Thanksgiving dinner with his family and decides he wants 3/4 of the turkey for himself, leaving 1/4 for the rest of the family. Obviously the kid cant eat it all so he throws it out while everyone else starves. Thats alot like our current situation really. If you are pulling in 10 Million a year you are living significantly above the minimum amount of funds necessary to support basic life necessities and yet the guy who makes 20K annually is pretty damn near the breaking point and yet is expected to accept higher insurance premiums, work til later in life to retire, etc. with only a few examples of upward mobility leaving much sense of hope that hard work will truly pay off in the end here on earth. All in the name of making shareholders more money? At what expense? We need a socially responsible system, not the complete downfall of it.

This story is a great example of what the 99% have a problem with. Right wingers like to believe that this is just out of work lazy people protesting. That is not the case. It is about time people started calling attention to how our system is being warped to feed money into the pockets of a few and if it takes some out of work people to get the ball rolling I applaud them:

See this story:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-sox-bacardi-20111027,0,7705637.story

When the Tea Party carried weapons to rallies they were called patriots by the right. When they carried pictures of Obama as Hitler, as a Witch Doctor, and as the Devil, that was "free speech". When they repeatedly made blatantly racist statements that was just a few "bad apples".

Now we have a true grass roots movement not funded by the Koch brothers or supported by the Fox opinion channel and they are called un-american, dirty hippies, or other derogatory names. I think the right and their wealthy enablers are quite afraid of this movement. They realize Americans have had enough of the greed, dishonesty, and extortion that has come to define our system.

Finally, those that claim the right is not more responsible for our problems are either naive or purely partisan. It is the right that has and continues to advocate for the wealthy. It is the right that has and continues to advocate for tax cuts for the wealthy. It is the right that has and continues to advocate for deregulation. It is the right that has and continues to disregard the rights and needs of the 99%.

Interesting 2-way exchanges at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGL-Ex1CD1c

...maybe at least a little common ground between OWS and TP views.
If no time for whole thing, there's good exchanges around minutes 12 to 14

I had a discussion with my parents about this. While certainly not the 1%, they pretty much typify being "part of the problem if you're not part of the solution".

After they got done complaining about all the deadbeats and whiners, I reminded them of exactly what they said during the protests in Egypt that "sooner or later, that's going to happen over here".

Well, it's happening over here. We may not (exactly) have dictators and repressive overlords, but we sure as hell know that there's something not quite right about the way things are going down. There might not be a precise plan on what would be better, but nothing's going to change if everything stays the same.

There's still a lot to be seen about what happens in the middle east, Just as there's no way to know whether Occupy will be crushed, ignored, or prompt a change for the good (or the bad). Isn't the first of the 12 steps "recognize that you have a problem"? There will be a lot more action to come, but I think this whole movement is simply America's way of recognizing that we do indeed have a problem.

It's about time the people of this country took a stand for something. The Federal Reserve and IMF (International Monetary Fund) have been stealing from the people for decades (See The Rockefeller Family or Henry Kissinger) and they are not about to stop. The Federal Reserve is a private institution which in fact has no ties to the federal government as well as the IMF and it needs to be abolished for permanent change. The Corporations should not be able to influence government and should not be allowed to donate funds to campaigns. It's a bought system and needs to change because it highly favors big businesses who are NOT adding jobs in the USA, they are adding jobs in China, India & Mexico. Tax breaks need to stopped and should be taxed at a higher percentage for companies who do not create jobs in the USA.

Keep fighting the good fight!

I'm 50/50..I've worked for everyting I've had in my life throughout my teens and college...(Extremly hard in college) and have nobody to thank but myself, but conversely I don't think it should be as difficult as it was. I pay nearly 45% of my income towards health care and student loans..and housing...I am not in a high paying industry and I realize that I will never be a millionare..but really?? Is this it??

And at the opposite side of the spectrum, I realize it is completly unaffordable to subsize others way of life and personal choices..and irresponsbile as well. I get really frusturated when I read articles about these occupiers in larger cities makin very little doing insignficant jobs...(if they're employed at all)and I just can't help to think that..like hey you're a barista in NYC...ya you make 30k a year..that sucks...why don't you move to Buffalo or Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Florida instead of living in NYC or Chicago and LA. You could rent a crappy studio (the same one you're living in how with 6 of your friends) make the same amount of moneny and buy a house anywhere in any of the places listed above you want. I, as a hard working individual am not here to subsdize your lifestyle...even if I don't like how the sytem works.

I don't know....form a party...back a candiate...do something..if there has been anything that has been proved in the last couple of years its that the government is not going to fix the world for you. You have to go out and fix it for yourself. I fear that if these "occupiers" don't organize in the very near future..they'll become a nuisance and drift into irrevalance.

Organize or die...change the world or move on.

I am the 53%.

The next debt to crash the economy will be student loan debt now surpasses total credit card debt in the United States. While you hear horror stories about credit card debt and loan morgages all the time there is very little discussion on the epidemic of student loan debt because these debts get deferments. The western civiliation way of doing things seems like is coming to need a change in way we think or do things.

I am the 53% .... Since when, did Americans citizens deserve something for doing nothing? If you have a job and dont like how much you make, find another job or work harder for a possible promotion, educate yourself in your field, make "you" more attractive...someone will notice. You cant complain or blame someone else for your shortfalls. As far as corporations go, if a CEO make $5 or $5 million how does that effect you or me? It doesnt, never has and never will. Who are we to say how much a CEO could earn? ...So you blame banks? The same banks that were forced to loan money to people by our federal government? To people that could never pay back what they owe. Why are you not standing outside of the White House?

I grew up in Buffalo, worked since I was 16. When I was 20 I was hired to do deliveries for a local company. I started at the bottom $7 hour. I worked hard, came on time, rarley called off, and I was promoted to the service department. I eventually became service manager for $11hour. I was underpaid and I knew it but I never complained. I did all of this while going to ITT for my AOS in electronics. Eventually I started my own service company and today I have 5 employees. I will continue to grow & hire, and have even through this recession. Should I stop growing and remain just a small company? Should I fear that one day I will punished for my success? Should I fear that one day the FED will dictate what I pay my employees? Why are we blaming another persons success for our failures?

The bigger government gets, the more crony capitalism there will be. I don't get why people aren't protesting Obama. Such a double standard.

This large grassroots effort is quickly being taken over by special interests including most of the major labor unions. These unions are not interested in changes to the government, in fact they are some of the largest contributors to campaign funds and lobbying efforts. The AFT, NEA, Teamsters, CWA, SEIU, CSEA, and other local and national unions are doing their best to steer the momentum from Occupy Wall Street towards the empowerment of the Working Families Party. This is similar to the Conservative Party hijacking the Tea Party Movement.

Take a moment to look at the signs from the early days of the Tea Party movement, and compare them to many of the signs from the early days of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Many are almost identical in their condemnation of large corporations and their influence on government through their donations. It is just looking at things from a different political perspective but with the same mission and end goal in relation to the discontent in Washington.

Like the Tea Party, OWS is starting to lose focus with hundreds of small factions forming and fighting over which agenda is the most important. The local GA meetings are ripe with dissension and turmoil as leaders argue to have their voice and agenda heard over the others. I fear that what will be left in a few weeks is a core group that is being funded by special interests (labor unions and a few wealthy sympathizers) who want to use OWS as their bullhorn and the most passionate protesters will carry out their political agenda going forward. Unfortunately, this will result in the creation of a splinter political party that weakens the Democratic Party, but gives a new voice to Washington and local governments.

Follow the money trail and you'll see where the OWS movement is heading and why they don't want to upset the apple cart in Washington.

Eliot Some points to consider:

Total outstanding student loan debt recently topped $1 trillion (e.g. see link [time.com]).

Student loan debt now exceeds household credit card debt (see link [www.good.is]).

It isn't possible to escape student loans via bankruptcy - they will follow you your whole life, no matter what. This puts them in a class by themselves.

Obviously, the current system is badly broken.

The problem is that the federal student loans, while genuinely useful to some, have been exploited pretty much to death by the for-profit colleges. Those do powerful marketing and have pretty much established the idea that everyone should go to college, no matter what. It's the same with diamond jewelry: somehow a semi-rare rock is elevated to cult status, and every woman in the U.S. feels that getting a big one on a golden ring is cool and shit. The colleges merely took a good marketing lesson from DeBeers and applied it to a different market. The outcome is pretty much the same. Couples get into debt for shiny rocks. Students get into debt for college education that can be very well useless to them. I guess Nothing new here.

The thing that gets me about this whole 99% thing, is if 99% didn’t like there banks, they could all withdrawal all their money and set up their own credit unions or even charter their own bank. But what they seem to be demanding is they want all the services the bank provides, plus they want those big interest rates, plus loans at 4%. There demanding they make money on their investment while damning the way to do it. People don’t seem to recall the days of 18% interest rates home mortgages. Point being if 99% though this they could easily change the banking industry in a matter of days.

If you talk about income inequality there again, the 99% could buy local, buy from small business and guess what peoples income would go up. But the 99% wanted cheaper goods, they wanted to toss them out and buy the next latest and greatest iPhone. So its not that the leading American’s aren’t producing the kind of wealth they use to, it’s that the far east has felt hat improvement of there quality of life, were the American quality isn’t going nearly as fast.
Point being if this were the 99% they could change all this stuff without much effort.

The top 10% of earners include those who make 50K per year....Did you know that?

Jag is offically a clown

Local a**holes made national news today. Did everyone catch this column in the NY Times about the lack of compassion on display at Steven J. Baum, P.C.'s office Halloween party last year? I guess the firm is a local "foreclosure mill" and photos show a poverty themed Halloween party with employees mocking those who are being foreclosed upon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/what-the-costumes-reveal.html?_r=4