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Photo taken from the Politics Outdoors blog of UCI Sociology professor David S. Meyers, whom we hope will accept it as illustrating the link to his Oct. 17 post, which appears below, but if he wants it taken down, that's OK too.
We’re going to end up talking about it today anyway; might as well have a comments section dedicated to it.
Here are links to some stories that are worth reading, if you’re just catching up:
MAIN OCCUPY SITE:
http://www.occupy-oc.org/
http://www.occupy-oc.org/donations (hint)
OTHERS’ THOUGHTS ON OCCUPY IRVINE
http://politicsoutdoors.com/2011/10/17/occupy-irvine/ (A nice memoir by Prof. David S. Meyers of his visit to Occupy Irvine’s first weekend)
http://voiceofoc.org/countywide/this_just_in/article_1ab2cf2e-0bd8-11e1-af4b-001cc4c03286.html (Voice of OC’s “Open Government Consultant” Terry Francke politely advises Occupy Irvine to get off of the City Hall lawn and go protest at the officers of federal politicians.)
GENERAL LOCAL ISSUES BACKGROUNDERS
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/10/irvine_to_allow_occupy_orange.php
http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-11-10/news/occupy-irvine-santa-ana/
LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS (“LOOK OUT, IT’S THE NLG!”)
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/10/lawyers_guild_to_offer_assista.php (earlier article)
http://www.nlg.org/news/press-releases/nlg-mass-defense-committee-initiates-massive-occupy-legal-support-program%E2%80%94hundreds-of-attorneys-join-in-unprecedented-effort/ (more recent)
BECAUSE IT CAN’T BE REPEATED OFTEN ENOUGH, FROM MATT TAIBBI
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025
Feel free to suggest your own links, the best of which face the possibility of being swiped and inserted above.
About Greg Diamond
Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that.
Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too.
He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.)
His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)
Nice picture, reminds me that Irvine was a cattle ranch.
Mooo
Why is that? Did you find it sexually arousing?
(Note: above presented for comedic value only.)
Well I do think the cute women go to the Irvine occupy.
There is a huge difference between cute and smart and cute and dumb!
I have seen loads of cute fellas at the Occupy movement but as the old saying goes, “Thank god, I have my looks”. 🙂
The occupiers as was quoted are nothing but a bunch of ipod, ipad spoiled brats! Looks only go so far!
Ms Quinn,
You say……
I have seen loads of cute fellas at the Occupy movement but as the old saying goes, “Thank god, I have my looks”.
You may think with your good looks……. ” the odds are good”.
But, we’re thinking…….. ” the goods are odd”.
Michelle, us non-gays like cute gals, and don’t enjoy the smart ones reminding us what dumb jerks we be.
Hey Cooked,
You post….
Michelle, us non-gays like cute gals, and don’t enjoy the smart ones reminding us what dumb jerks we be.
Did you not understand how this blogging thing works?
My posted remarks were directed towards the Quintile.
Time to change the bong water you knuckle-dragger.
Now I know why you love the Occupy females! lol
I was talking about the fellas not I!
But yes, I am not bad looking and of course I am odd to you. Like I said liberals may have their looks but brains don’t seem to come hand in hand!
And of course I am unique to you!
So this weekend past, The Crescat and I visited both the Occupy Charlotte and the Occupy Asheville camps. I knew that if two women, wearing nice clothes and having showered, showed up with a camera and questions, they would view us suspiciously. So I fell back on a personal theory, which is that anyone with a British accent can pull off all kinds of shit. Having watched the former TV series Lie to Me, I channeled by inner Tim Roth and presented myself as a tourist visiting from Manchester.
And by gum, I got away with it.
If I can sum up what I saw and heard at both sites, it would be this word: futility. These people don’t know what the hell they are doing, what they actually believe, or where this is all going. All they know – or care to know – is that all politicians are bought by corporations, 1% of someone controls all of the wealth in America, and it’s unfair that they do. Lather, rinse, repeat.
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=20415192&postID=7968932104480211482
You’re a woman, Junior?
If I say I am – I am – right?
Isn’t that the way it works?
Not quite that simple. You may have to have your Inner Tim Roth removed.
They don’t know what they are doing, their protest is futile, and yet…
they have somehow managed to turn the entire national discussion from imaginary threat of deficit, to the real problem of inequality and injustice.
Just imagine what they will do once they DO know what they are doing!
The turn of the national discussion was just the purest coincidence, of course! 😉
In reverence to the one percent ‘ors.
My grand kid asked for 1 dollar so he would have 2.
I draw a circle, it represents my family, I draw a bigger circle around that circle representing the community I live in, and a bigger circle around those representing the city, and another for the county and another for the state, etc. etc.
Back to my circle, where I am the 1 percent, as I have money in my bank accounts, (business, personal, trust, etc.)
My grandkids want money to rent games, go to the moves and buy toys.
I will pay you money if you will help me rake up the leaves and pull down the morning glory plants.
Naaa, games, movies, and toys …. No working … is what they say.
Now these kids are under 10 years old and learning. Even now, one or two will ask what they can do to make money for themselves, they are learning.
WTF happened to the learning process with these people who are hanging out at the occupy zones?
As Greenwald sarcastically notes today;
“I really don’t understand what those angry, lazy losers in the Occupy movement are so upset about. America is a meritocracy; if you work hard and prove your skills, you get ahead. The winners deserve what they have because they have earned it. And when all else fails, we have a media filled with insurgent outsiders who will be relentless watchdogs over those in power because that’s what our media outlets are: true outsiders there to check the most powerful factions.”
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/americas_meritocratic_watchdog_news_media/singleton/
Take away the sarcasm and I think he has it right – funny thing is I read the whole piece and the sarcasm only comes through if you know his true beliefs which are pretty out there and wacko.
Yes, yes…observing that we really don’t live in a meritocracy and that class and privileged backgrounds give some people an automatic “in” is “wacko” and “out there”. Absolutely.
I feel like I have been a success. I do not come from a priviliged background and find little correlation between success in one generation carrying over to the next and certainly NO correlation at all if you look more than one generation forward or backwards – so yes I do find the perspective “wacko” and “out there.”
So the ONE example you site (yourself) allows you to conclude that wealth and privilege NEVER gives people a particular advantage or favored access?
Seriously?
Explain George W. Bush in that perspective.
Generations forward or backward.
Or the Kennedy’s.
Following up on Greenwald’s post;
Jenna Bush – English Major
Chelsea Clinton – History, Int. Relations Majors
Luke Russert – History and Communications
Meghan McCain – Art History
These people weren’t given jobs as journalists/correspondents because of their pedigree?
Of course you can always identify a few exceptions to the rule, especially in the short term, but they are exceptions and not statistically significant.
Therefore we can consider you an exception as well.
Ivy League schools are estimated to admit 10-30% of students based on legacy admissions policies.
Yes, yes, that’s just a “few”. That’s statistically insignificant.
You really have a knack for convincing yourself of things that don’t even come close to reflecting objective reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_preferences
I am strongly opposed to the kind of bias displayed by legacy admissions and find that every bit as abhorent as others forms of discrimination. If the facts are true (which I have no reason to doubt, but the source is only wikipedia) then I wonder why more attention isn’t paid to the problem? Having said that, I would love to see the numbers about the success rate of these legacies since my experience was that the folks that got into the good colleges because of perceived “breeding” instead of brains generally were not successes.
You’ve been allowed to become a success, Geoff, by channeling your talents and abilities in a particular direction. It’s not that hard to be a success as a hired gun for capital. All you have to be is able to come to terms with the moral implications — largely meaning ignoring them.
You may dispute this, of course, but we’d have to discuss your success on an, um, “case-by-case basis.”
Yes, I have been “allowed” to succeed. My intelligence, articulation, education, creativity and ambition had nothing to do with it. I know that you don’t believe that what I have done is part of God’s plan or that I have worked very hard to make sure that I support those in need in every way I can.
According to this patronizing and rude rant all anyone has to do is to check their morals at the hat check stand and wealth and honor just flows to them. If that were the case, our prisons would be empty and we would have a whole lot of ruthless people running around.
I actually feel sorry for you having to carry that huge chip on your shoulder around with you everywherer. It has obviously forced you to look at life in a sad and hostile way.
I
Geoff, that’s not a rant. Read my Gingrich piece for comparison. That is a rant.
It’s also a straw man, as I never said that “your intelligence, articulation, education, creativity and ambition had nothing to do with it.”
Obviously, not just anyone can be an effective hired gun for Capital. You have to be good at it — and you have to be OK with it. I don’t think that this is news to you, eh?
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in big corporate firms, mostly trying to stay no south of morally neutral. (I love “morally neutral,” in fact. “Morally neutral” pays the bills.) But lawyers are also usually very good at justifying their actions, under slogans such as “everyone deserves representation” and “if I didn’t do it someone else will.”
I am happy that I’m not good at that, no matter how lucrative it is. That’s not a chip on my shoulder; that’s my being able to hold my head high and believing, without having to torture logic, that nothing I’ve done as a lawyer has ever made the world a worse place.
Does this apply to you as well? I don’t know. As I said, it would need to be judged case-by-case.
Geoff, you appear to be smart, and a completely devoid of reason at the same time, or just intellectually dishonest.
The prisons don’t generally warehouse the smartest operators of our population. They are generally rather dim, and lacking in morals. Sometimes just not that smart.
Now someone who is smart, and lacking in morals can usually figure out how to keep themselves out prison. Bernie Madoff was able to stay out of prison for most of his life, but he is an example of hi IQ, low morals.
So if you are intelligent, articulate, erudite, creative, and ambitious, you can still sell your soul to the almighty dollar.
I think Mr. Diamond has struck a raw nerve of yours, with your insistent denials of any sort of a character flaw, which we all can plainly see that you have, in your posts.
And by the way, there ARE a whole lot of ruthless people running around.