Squirrel!

Occupy Omaha drew a police estimated 1000 folks which is about 900 more than I thought would show up. We marched around downtown amid catcalls from Teabaggers (hey old people, get a job, get a haircut or calling somebody a communist is really not clever nor relevant). Hey media, STOP equating us with the fucking Tea Party. Those codgers are not new, grass roots, or anti-anything except minorities, gays or eating salads once in a while.

I am not saying there weren't some Occupier kooks there with their hammer and sickle signs and the weed drawings. The Ron Paultards were there in full force with their Ayn Randian signs and deep desire for legal pot. Hey, maybe their kooks and our kooks have a common ground. There's a hookah store right up 13th. Check it out dudes. I can do without all of them.

It's a start. When there are 4 rallies in a genetic red state like Nebraska, it means something. Perhaps the fact the Huskers were not playing gave a bunch of people something to do, including the Occupiers and the scooter riding tea party. I am still baffled by the Tea Party Animal who told me he was there to show people "the other side". The other side? Looks like the Koch Bros have spent their money well distracting these dementia infected pensioners. Hey hey hey, over here! Snap! Focus, teabagger guy! They remind me of Doug, the dog in Up. SQUIRREL!!!

Occupy What? Everywhere!

I turned the corner in front of the City County building in Omaha around 9 am and was met by a burly older man (and by "older" I mean at least my age) in a Husker shirt who asked me "What side are you on?". Huh? "Over there or over here?". To my right (how appropriate) were about 6 or so Tea Partiers with "creative" signage about getting a job and how much they love capitalism. To my left were hundreds of folks ranging in age from 10 to 80 who were "occupying Omaha" much to the chagrin of this official Tea Party "greeter". This is not going to be pretty.

I could not resist telling this man how disappointed I was at his movement becoming just the same old out of the UN, John Bircher freaks they've always been. "Did you know the organizer of this event is an avowed communist?" he asked me. Where did this alleged "avowing" occur? "In the paper". When? "I don't know a couple of weeks ago" He said he was an avowed communist? "well he may as well have".......Ok pal, I get it. Thanks for proving my point.

Arguing is my weakness. I cannot resist arguing with someone I perceive as being wrong because of their own lack of knowledge. Not that I am so smart, but because I read. A lot. And the person I'm arguing with can read also. I urge them to. But Fox News inevitably wins. It's easier. To be misinformed and comfortable is easy. To be informed is power. Facts often have a liberal bias.

A 14 year old kid wandered over to talk to the Tea Party MC and I was gone. Over to my people. The 1%. But not before a young man (by young I mean younger than me) held up a sign that said "discrimination against 1% is still discrimination". Once again I couldn't resist. Maybe it was my "carrying water for the plutocrats" or the "bet you're a Yankees fan" or "what's it like to be a Kochsucker" that made him angry but we did not part as buddies.

The rally, for a red state, was organized and peaceful. Lots of cool people all fed up with the status quo and the legalized thievery that goes on everyday on Wall Street. Let's keep it up. No letting up of the pressure. As the old saying goes. First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.

More later.

Chop! Chop!

Is That Guy Fawkes Over There?

I hate Wall Street. When I was much younger I got into arguments with my mother about Wall Street because my Dad made his living dealing with Wall Street. I think Dad despised Wall Street also but as they say hey, it's a living.

Couple of years back in my only trip to New York, my brother took Max and I down to Wall Street where I quipped in my oh so hyperbolic way that behind that GIANT American flag the greedheads had placed on the front of the Stock Exchange lay more criminals than your average state penitentiary. I meant it then and I mean it now. These people are less than human in their self indulgence and lack of humanity. Ripping off hard working Americans for their own benefit and having the gall to place an American flag in front of their monetary crack house as a diversion to what goes on in there. It made me want to vomit.

The occupiers of Wall Street are real patriots. Not that you could tell from the coverage on the mass media, whether it be Fox or MSNBC. The occupiers are portrayed as clueless hippies and kids with not much to do. Fox News and their millionaire yakkers have resorted to the 1960's tactic of telling protestors to take a shower, get a job, and get a haircut. Really? That old line. Well I have news for those self preservationists at Fox. The unwashed, jobless long hairs won in the 1960's and hopefully will win now.

I don't know which scene I have eyeballed is worse. The NYC Police treating the occupiers as street thugs by macing them, tasing them or roughing them up, the disgusting sight of tuxedoed hedge fund creeps and their ho's sipping champagne high above Wall Street mocking the 99%, or the stunning lack of fair coverage from the news media. The sight of the Wall Street slavemasters mocking protesters from high above on the balcony of the Stock Exchange should be shown on every network newscast from now until the time that shithole comes tumbling to the ground. They are laughing at you, America. They know you will do nothing. They know half of you are so brainwashed by religion, Fox News, and economic advice from millionaires, you will look at the occupation of Wall Street as commies coming to take your Christmas fund away. Wake up!. Learning about economics from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or O'Reilly or the Kochs is like going to a charm school run by Bo Pelini (sorry Big Red fans). These millionaires aren't telling you anything that doesn't benefit THEM. I have no idea why that's so hard for Middle America to grasp. So stop being their cannon fodder for chrissakes.

The Tea Party (yes I can call them that if I have to) is portrayed as a bunch of populist grass roots normal everyday folks fed up with out of control spending and big government. The occupiers of Wall Street are portrayed as nuts. Hey look, I've been to two Tea Parties. These are definitely everyday folks. But what they are fed up with is welfare and government aid to children and food stamps and black people, I mean poor people, and not being able to own a bazooka and black people in the White House ,I mean Democrats in the White House and the changing of the demographics of the country they grew up in. You know, the one where white folks ruled and the rest of those other people stayed in their own neighborhoods and shut their yaps.

Wall Street miscreants steal more on a daily basis than the entire poor population does in a year. Yet the teabaggers continue to carry water for the Kochs and the Limbaughs. I really don't know if it's possible to change that perception of the thieving minorities for these people. Racism is an inbred thing. Most of them don't even know they are. They deny it so much they've convinced themselves THEY are the victims. But whatever. The occupation of Wall Street may change minds. Not many, but some. If it changes one, it's worth it.

Occupy away kids! Tear that fucking place down if you have to. The American economic system is doing 99% of us no good anyway.