David : Listened to Jonah Goldberg and AFL - CIO prez, Richard Trumka, on C-SPAN yesterday. Today there was a report from MassResistance ( Mass Tea Party ) about OWS -Boston. Now have a better picture of the movement. My synthesis of these different views : ( 1 ) In at least some cities, Boston, NY, DC, and probably others, the great majority of protestors are young, mostly college age. This is to primarily refer to those in the encampments. But these are the people on the scene every day. ( 2 ) There is a larger number of protestors who only show up for important events, or on weekends. These are family people, are older and work-force age. A large segment of this population are union people. ( 3 ) A large segment of the US population is supportive of the OWS movement, some stats put the number in excess of 50 % or even closer to 70 %. Goldberg admits this, BTW. What he also says is that part of the reason for this level of support is the economic mess, is that, yes, part of it belongs to, uhhh, Wall Street. Goldberg blames most of the troubles on the gvt but he understands the complicity of High Finance. ( 4 ) We are not getting honest reporting from the MSM. ( I'm shocked ) The press and TV networks are spinning this in all kinds of ways and no-one, Left or Right is happy with the "news" Also, the NY press has gone into overdrive to discredit the movement. This includes the WSJ, which, while more-or-less conservative nonetheless is, well, part of Wall Street. ( 5 ) Some of the discredit is well -deserved. Among the young there is more evidence for Marxist influence than I initially estimated. I'm more inclined to put it in the 1/4th range now, not 15 % or so. This is for the young. For the "weekenders" I would lower the number to significantly less than 10 %. All in all, the public sees the movement as giving voice to their outrage and extreme unhappiness at the way the banks have screwed us all and have sacrificed little and their execs still live like kings. BTW, the rage of the Left is getting heated. Hardly could believe my ears. Democracy Now, the TV news show, today, seriously Lefty, was raking Obama over the coals. Not for the reasons of the Right, for their own reasons, as a sellout. The kicker , a quote : We were told "yes we can." What we got was " we are not even going to try." This keeps getting interestinger and interestinger. Billy
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