I can see your point about the protestors being bad for business. Although they have to eat and buy their stuff somewhere. Some of them actually do have money. But it probably depends in part on locale. In our town the protesters were occupying two city block-sized parks right next to each other and were not blocking anything including the sidewalks going through the two parks. At any rate the camp thing has probably served its purpose and is becoming secondary. To the extent that the jackboots are helping that process along they are aiding the cause. The UC Davis students certainly took one for the team. But the protests are already manifesting themselves in other ways. It's all developing apace. As for the article I posted I think the main point is that the corporate state seems to be a whole lot more concerned about what they are insisting is a dying movement of unwashed, shiftless tatterdemalions than would be justified if that was really what it was.
I doubt the flea baggers business off-sets the normal traffic many small retailers rely on to stay in business.
Retailers!? Really?? What is at issue here is the very control of our own government and you are worried that some retailer might see a temporary slump in sales. Unreal.
Yes, retailers. Small business owners are part of the "99%," are they not? And you do realize that in this economy that small businesses have only a very small cushion against adversity, if any at all, right? While large businesses might experience a "temporary slump in sales" and recover over the next quarter, small businesses that suffer that "temporary slump" might find themselves unable to recover at all and face going out of business. However, your post exemplifies the tunnel vision that I feel grips the protestors, who believe that "business ownership" equals "wealth." My late husband and I once owned a small business and we were never more impoverished in our married lives.
I prefer this quote from your link: "...what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence..."...since it's the authorities who are getting violent.
I ask you, what is the greater good here? Is it the sales of a handful of small businesses or getting money out of our politics? You really have to reexamine your priorities.
As I think Moen said at some point, this would indicate that OWS is upsetting our Corporate Masters a little bit more than they will admit verbally. Actions do speak louder, don't they?
Really? In an economy with a nearly 10% unemployment rate you think losing more jobs is a good thing? . . . and *whose* priorities are out of order?
And these handful of local businesses are going to make any difference at all to the 9% current unemployment rate or the job market in general? Really? Now who is doing the hyperbole dance? So we shouldn't protest something as important as our only political system because we might inadvertently affect our the unemployment rate in a statistically insignificant infinitesimally minute direction? Wow! You got some serious standards.
If you're talking about a handful of businesses in a single city then you're right. There won't be much of an effect on anything but the local economy. And, if the OWS folks had stayed localized on Wall Street, then all would be a tempest in a teapot. However, if you're talking about a handful of businesses in a number of cities, then yes, you are talking about a significant number of jobs lost and at a horrible time of year for anyone to lose a job. I just wonder, though: you keep making exceptions about for whom the Occupy movement should be concerned. The small business owner is indeed one of the 99%. If the small business owner is not part of the 99%, then clearly they have to go (by that reasoning). If the so-called movement is unconcerned with the health of the small businesses directly affected by their protests and "corporate America," presumably including big business chains like Walmart, must go--then where is America supposed to spend their money? I'm not playing doomsayer and predicting the end of American business--I'm just trying to figure out *what* businesses are supported by OWS supporters.
The flea baggers are representing hypocrisy at it's worst...and the obamabots here seem to be following in lock step. The baggers HQ is a park created by the benevolence of a large corporation. They are in conflict with fellow 99%ers & union members (police). They protest against big corporations (who seem uneffected by their tactics) while forcing many small businesses to close. Anyone see a pattern? These people are fueled by envy and a sense of entitlement, not any sense of a greater good. They want what others have but they don't want to earn it, they want the government to give it to them.
Looks like the flea baggers are starting to wake up: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/occupy-protesters-mobilize-for-obamas-visit/
Haz mat suits needed to clean up behind the protestors? http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...ebris-left-behind-at-city-hall-tent-city.html And who says they aren't a danger to society?
An excerpt from the article you referenced: Demonstrators held signs that leveled some of the Occupy protest’s most pointed criticism to date of the president. “Obama is a corporate puppet,” one said. “War crimes must be stopped, no matter who does them,” read another, beside head shots of President George W. Bush and President Obama. One man, wearing a mask of the president’s face and holding a cigar, carried a sign that read, “I sold out!” Ben Campbell, 28, one of the march’s organizers, said he hoped to prove to skeptics of the protests that the demonstrators were political critics of equal opportunity. “President Obama is coming to town solely to raise money from the richest of the rich,” Mr. Campbell said. Hey, I'm beginning to agree with the Flea Baggers!
There was an interview on NBC news this morning with a DC flea bagger. He said his refusal to get a job was his way to protest our economy. Typical of the "movement"?