Lots of good stuff on http://www.alternet.org/

MX has been running a not too subtle smear campaign against the movement as of late. It's shocking the lack of coverage this is getting.

there are only 2 types of reactions you give these people. #1 - NOTHING #2 - ARREST.

there was a really interesting post on The Awl that sort of covers a few bases here.

Occupy Sesame Street

Seriously does anyone in Australia really care? The GFC is an American and European problem, not an Australian one. If you penalise the banks and financial institutions for the world's financial woes then you cut off the flow of credit which keeps economies growing. The media have done the right thing but ignoring this fiasco.

People in America are poor because they WANT to be poor. Work two jobs and get out of poverty, its the American dream. If a crack whore is resourceful enough to find cash for a hit, then why don't they use those same skills to do a job and put food on their families tables?

Wall Street bankers pay more tax than the rest of America combine, does anyone ever think about that???

Err, no they don't dickhead.

Warren Buffet has stated publicly that he pays less tax than his secretary.

But, y'know, don't let facts get in the way of your pathetic trolling.

See here, for instance

Oh Myles you wag!

Warren Buffet draws an annual income of around $100K p.a. I'm sure Berkshire Hathaway Inc pays a considerable company tax. Anyway, let this thread fade away into obscurity, Kimbra is more important thank god!!!

''If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot,'' Buffett wrote. ''To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.''

Warren Buffet has stated publicly that he pays less tax than his secretary.
See here, for instance

Thanks, I've been looking for that. Excellent.

The Daily Show did a segment on this a couple of weeks ago concerning the problems the local businesses have been having due to the protesters taking massive hippie dumps en masse in their toilets without paying for anything.

Well, at least my feeding the troll was good for something.

Whatevs. Go back to your cushy jobs.

Myles, I heard the Tok H was open and party central again, just like the good old days, please confirm this for me.

Fuck you.

x post

ed is right. The protesters are just messing up the street with their hippy shit and foul language. Maybe if they got JOBS instead of trying to shut down the global supply of capital and cripple the world then they would have something more constructive to do with their time.

Tok H was more for the Grammar crowd.

so she wears the tent when she goes in to seek an intervention order

Maybe she could wear a sleeping bag under the tent so when she is stripped again she is prepared. Light weight for summer I'd suggest....Ray's will probably have that.

come see what we've got.

1% of 90s boy bands have reunited to occupy 100% of opening slots on the New Kids On The Block world tour. Occupy Backstreet. lulz

25% of 'classic lineup' Beatles members occupy 100% of death conspiracy theories surrounding the band. Occupy Paul St

forgot about these guys, are they still at Flagstaff?

100% of 80s 'rock n soul' duos have atleast one member with a killer moustache. Occupy Hall Street

Now known as Occupy Melbourne 2.0, or similar...

LOLZ!

''I've got a one word question for you: aid workers.''

That kid's just angry because someone gave him a reverse mohawk on his chin.

Occupy Adelaide packed up before Christmas.

I'm only assuming it's because they were scared they wouldn't get the presents that Father Christmas was bringing them if they weren't at their home.

urgh... that video is disturbing. if you don't like the herald sun, don't read it.

Occupy Troy Holm

to make it brief Tom Holm was running a blog & myspace page purporting to be ''life in my own words'' or that kind of thing.

Yesterday, Comedian Doug Stanhope found out Troy Holm had plagarised his work (and that of other comedians) & Twittered about it & the shit totally hit the fan for Tom - within 20 mins there were over 600 abusive messages on Tom Holm's facebook & myspace page (which have been subsequently taken down)

here is ''Occupy Tom Holm'' the facebook page that is still running hot
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Troy-Holm/217011661714006?skip_nax_wizard=true

urgh... that video is disturbing. if you don't like the herald sun, don't read it.

I agree, however it's still pretty alarming how many people do read it, and actually consider it to be news.

100% of female hipsters in Newtown wear blankets over their shoulders 100% of the time regardless of the weather. Occupy Shawl St

sydney got raided this morning

noticed a smattering of people at the city square in melbourne last night, is it back on?

it's kinda of on and off now in Melbourne I think, 'Occupy Friday' is their big thing i think

Reading through this thread (which was really pretty interesting), I still can't quite see why people who claim to be putting the good of the world before their own well-being can't see past their own ideological hang-ups and look at things objectively for half a minute. You would think that applying caution and reason would eliminate most of the misunderstandings that arise between people and allow them to form a set of pragmatically-determined goals and strategies for affecting real change. Instead they just get fervent and adopt some bullshit us-v-them mentality which substitutes a set of simplistic rationales and unrealistic aims for any real understanding of the broader social context and the human element which sustains this wretched existence, all because they want to be friends with someone and fight the bad guys together.They also neglect strong leaders because they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, failing to realise that in matters of life and death the first law is always to do what you must to survive. This is why the bad guys usually win - because they are willing to adopt means that we consider beneath us. Instead these idiots just let a massive amount of potential be disippated by time and general apathy.

It's especially annoying because there was an obvious solution all along - set fire to every major city in the world at once and the grow avocados in the dark, corpse-fertilised earth.

I am really quite genuinely surprised that fire isn't used more by terrorists. Maybe it doesn't occur to them because they all live in those little stone houses and deserts are notoriously lacking in firewood.

Saw a banner in city square last night, it read 'apathy is a form of passive genocide'.

I laughed, then wrote it down cos I'm gonna use it at parties.

cute piece of snark in the Age yesterday about the impotence of the melbourne occupiers

Occupy Melbourne has failed to foster its own ''collective voice''.

Walking home late last night, the park's canopy broke and the city of Melbourne came into relief: dark giants wearing neon headbands. My God, it was beautiful. An unabashed declaration of civilisation, not at war with the stars, but in a defiantly awkward choir with them.

If you're Occupying Melbourne at the moment, rather than just living in it, you might see it differently. As some vulgar and stupefying thing, perhaps. A citadel of capitalism, a cardboard edifice buckling under the collective breath of The People.

''Opening a dialogue in our public spaces for Real Democracy. It's time Australians reclaimed our collective voice!'' So says the Occupy Melbourne website, but it's unclear from what or whom the public space is being reclaimed.

Capitalism is, by its very nature, dynamic. Sometimes destructively. But Occupy Melbourne has done nothing to distinguish the Australian experience from the United States', instead making a baneful conflation based upon myth and simplicity.

It's an ignorant and offensive comparison, dismissing our strong institutions, 5.1 per cent unemployment rate, steady growth, low GDP-to-debt ratio, a culture far more egalitarian than our American brothers, and a response to the GFC which was applauded by the International Monetary Fund.

Here in Australia we had far less of Alan Greenspan's almost religious optimism in the rationality of the banking sector, and much more of Adam Smith's suspicion of its ruinous volatility. We'd do well to note this and, wary of growing prideful and complacent, give thanks to a system reasonably untouched by the darker practices of American capitalism.

Domestically, Occupy Melbourne has been a hilarious communications disaster. For something which had sprung powerfully from Wall Street, interest groups here have attached themselves parasitically to the body. At Occupy Fridays held in City Square, you can watch seminars on feminism, Palestine, Latin American politics, cyber security, and ''critical theory''. It's a preposterous, self-important mess which has diluted - if not destroyed - the message completely.

Among claims of ''real democracy'' and fostering a ''collective voice'', there appears to be scant interest about the country in which they protest. When discussion of Chavez's Venezuelan utopia gets higher billing than Australian economics, you realise that you're through the looking glass. And if you think the best and most inclusive way of winning over regular folks is lecturing them with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, then there's a good chance syphilis has destroyed your frontal lobe, and I would quit practising free love immediately.

The truth is, capitalism has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. But, as The New Yorker's John Cassidy notes, with the development of economies, inequality and environmental degradation have increased. It's a powerful point to be made by protesters, but it's inexcusable to excise the figures on poverty and standards of living while making it.

Given the world's awesome economic interdependence, Australian protesters are also right to take note of international trends - economic shocks are felt throughout the world. As China emerges as a great rival to the US, and is close to becoming the world's largest economy, hard discussions about global values must be had, but we can do without the misguided moral sanctimony of Occupy Melbourne.

But, please, don't get me wrong. I'm not calling for the eviction of the Occupy Fridayers. Just someone hand them some history and economics textbooks, please.

Martin McKenzie-Murray is a regular contributor.

another hilarious example of the band wagon thread. the top posts are the best.

go rudd! i mean julia!.. i mean rudd! fuck, who's the cool one now?

Occupy Melbourne was deserted during Rainbow Festival, but the assorted gaggle of stoner hippies are gathering back at the corner of Collins and Elizabeth street dissing us hard working financial sector employees.