Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents
Because in about two days there will be claims that spitting on service members is a Right Wing urban legend.
An Occupy Boston “spokesman” claims that the spitters weren’t, of course, with Occupy Boston. Splitters.
The Occupy Boston crowd also disavows association with the “anarchists” who clashed with the police earlier in the week.
No word from the Popular Front. He was panhandling for cigarette money.
Weird that a movement that is so focused and organized has so much trouble with people who don’t want to play the same game.
It appears that, if the protests go through the end of the month, it will cost the city of Boston $2 million in police overtime. That’s really helping, folks. Thanks.
Anyway, once the faddish hope that college loans will be erased disappears, most of the kids will go back to class. That will leave mostly just the typical hippyish anarchist wannabes milling around and everyone else can get on with their lives.
Via Instapundit.
Occupy L.A. Speaker: “One of the speakers said the solution is nonviolent movement. No, my friend. I’ll give you two examples: French Revolution, and Indian so-called Revolution.
Gandhi, Gandhi today is, with respect to all of you, Gandhi today is a tumor that the ruling class is using constantly to mislead us. French Revolution made fundamental transformation. But it was bloody.
India, the result of Gandhi, is 600 million people living in maximum poverty.
So, ultimately, the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class.
Long live revolution! Long live socialism!”
Crowd: [Cheers.]
Once the last hopes for student loan forgiveness wear off, the kids will eventually get bored and go back to their lives. Guys like this idiot, of course, only have a life where they stand around and talk about socialist revolution. Must be a sad way to live.
A commenter on an earlier post about the protesters’ demands pointed out this story: Some Say Occupy Wall Street Protesters Aimless; Facts Say Otherwise
There has been a lot said about the lack of vision, lack of specific demands, and a disparity of beliefs and goals among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in the media in the past several weeks. A survey of the protestors shows that none of these criticisms are true.
The idea that this guy could talk to 50 people and show “that none of these criticisms are true” is just plain silly, even if we all choose to ignore the various claims and lists and opinions and ideas put forward by others.
Ignore all those other people with different goals! I can assure you we all have the same goals!
Seriously, this isn’t the playground during 2nd grade recess, kids.
Anyway, here are the ideas that scored 90% or better and are probably safe bets about the sort of thing the crybabies want:
- 98% believe that health care should be free
- 98% believe that Insurance companies make too much money and some of their profits should be taken to pay for more healthcare for others
- 95% believe that drug prices should be controlled
- 93% believe that communications like cell phone and internet access be a right and not just reserved for the rich and we should have free internet and cell phone service as a national goal.
- 93% say that student loan debt should be forgiven
So 98% think healthcare should be free. Murdoc thinks clean waster should be free. Neither is at all reasonable in reality. Nothing is FREE. Nothing. Deal with it. If something relatively simple like clean water cannot possibly be provided to anyone anywhere on the planet for free, how can something complicated like healthcare be provided for free?
Oh, they don’t really mean “free,” they mean someone else should pay for it. Keep this in mind; it’s a recurring theme with this bunch.
98% also think health insurance companies make too much money, and they’ve been tapped to pay for healthcare. Murdoc thinks labor unions make too much money and should be required to funnel lots of their profits into my health care. If insurance companies and labor unions are required to put X into health care, what do we think will happen to insurance premiums and unions dues? Anyone? Anyone?
95% think drugs should be “price controlled.” Now, without more info it’s hard to know exactly what respondents actually think about this, though we’ve been assured they all think the same thing. And Murdoc’s pretty sure they’re all on a similar page and agree that drugs should be cheaper. Murdoc thinks food should be cheaper. If we make drug companies and food producers cut their profits by 75%, what will happen to drug research/production and food supplies? Big pharma and little farmers are both motivated by the same thing, folks. And if less money is coming in, the answer won’t be to double output.
93% think cell phones and internet access is some sort of right. Sorry, no little counterpoint from Murdoc on this one. Cell phones and internet access are NOT basic human rights. Period. That’s stupid.
And then we have the 93% who think student debt should be forgiven. Again, that’s just stupid. Not a different, yet legitimate, opinion. Not even socialism or un-American. Just plain stupid. You don’t want to pay off a loan? Don’t take out the damn loan.
If Murdoc hadn’t seen photos of these people, he’d swear they were five-year olds.
So while there are claims that the protesters are “aimless,” no one is trying to convince anyone that they aren’t all agreed on the idea that they want everyone else to pay for their crap. No one I’ve heard of thinks otherwise. That is a crystal clear unifying force behind this big crybaby movement.
That’s a double-duty title, folks.
Air and Space Museum closed after guards mace anti-war protesters
When told they could not bring their protest signs into the museum, the crowd apparently got a little out of hand.
The group that arrived at the museum Saturday included individuals affiliated with the October 2011 Stop the Machine demonstration, which has been going on in the city’s Freedom Plaza and has an anti-war and anti-corporate greed message.
The group also included protesters affiliated with Occupy D.C., a group modeled on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City. Occupy D.C. has been holding marches and meetings in Washington’s McPherson Square.
They wanted to protest a museum. Though I believe that many of the protesters have got legit gripes about things and that many of them just want what’s right, the movement seems to be just a bunch of people running around doing what the queen bees tell them to.
What a bunch of jackasses.
Incidentally, Murdoc suspects that the list of thirteen demands on OccupyWallSt.com was put up by those attempting to undermine the efforts of the occupiers.
Seriously, they seem to have been written by a second-grader.\
We want free stuff! We want more money! We want more of what other people have! And if we can’t get it, we’ll have a hissy fit right here in front of everyone!
Lots of college kids skipping class to demand free college. Brilliant.
Once you figure out why your cell phone gets better and cheaper every year but your public schools get more expensive and less effective, you can apply that model to answer a great many questions about public policy.
And he closes with this:
And to the kids camped out down on Wall Street: Look at the phone in your hand. Look at the rat-infested subway. Visit the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, then visit a housing project in the South Bronx. Which world do you want to live in?
Again with the debit card fiasco:
After Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., successfully added his “swipe fee” amendment to last year’s Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, he promised, “By requiring debit card fees to be reasonable … small businesses and their customers will be able to keep more of their own money.” That was the theory, at least.
Here’s a good bit:
And it is not at all clear that consumers are going to recover any of the $6.6 billion more they will be paying banks in the form of lower prices from retailers. A study of Australian retail outlets after a similar regulation passed in that country found that none of the swipe-fee savings was passed along to consumers. So all the Durbin amendment really accomplished was a multibillion-dollar-a-year income redistribution from consumers to retailers, who have given more than $90,000 to Durbin this election cycle.
No doubt he’s counting on Illinois voters to forget who is costing them $5 each month between today and his next election day in three years. Let’s try to make sure everyone remembers.
Meanwhile, Murdoc still thinks people should try to find a bank who isn’t adding a new debit card fee.
Gallup finds that Obama’s overall approval rating is down to 39%, the lowest of his Presidency. My gut tells me that whatever the polls tell me his approval rating is publicly, it’s probably a bit worse. I’m sure internal polling at the White House has them in a panic.
The people who worked so hard to get this guy elected should be ashamed. The people who voted for him should be embarrassed.
Speaking of being ashamed and embarrassed, why don’t the Conservatives have someone who is a slam-dunk winner over Obama?
And it turns out that Wilson was right all along. The president was lying.
“Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask about or collect data on citizenship or other matters not related to the treatment needs of the patients seeking health services at the center,” [Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews] said.
ObamaCare to cover all comers. US residents or otherwise. Despite assurances from the President.
This only makes sense because of the inexpensive nature of the program and the fact that the government is running such large surpluses these days.
A few days back MO pointed out that Tennessee legislator Joe ‘Crybaby’ Armstrong whined about the Disappoint-Mints poking fun at Barack Obama. Now the whiner has his own:
Joe Armstrong Strong Arm Censored Mints
Good stuff.
