Citizens Dumping Personal Junk on Wall Street to Protest Bailout

[tannybogus]

An e-mail that began as a rallying cry from a lone journalist to an influential circle of friends to protest the U.S. government bailout of Wall Street has ignited a national day of street protests. Some demonstrators plan to dump their rubbish in front of the bronze bull sculpture near Wall Street in downtown Manhattan Thursday.

"People are going to bring their own personal junk that they think is worth as much as the junk financial instruments that the government is proposing to buy from the Wall Street banks," says Andrew Boyd, an activist and freelance online-video artist for nonprofit groups in Manhattan. "We're hoping that people show up with their 8-track cassette collections, their old Spice Girl CDs, their surf boards that got bit by sharks and old Enron stock certificates."
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/100230

email: http://september252008.wordpress.com/

This could be interesting.

[magellan]

1. Now THAT'S the American spirit I know and love!

:rofl:

[tpsbmam]

2. All this does is cost NYC money to clean up their "junk"

at a time when NYC revenues to pay for this kind of thing have gone down. Protest? Great! Leave your junk for the city, not the Wall Street Corporations, to pay for cleaning up? Stupid & thoughtless. Hope they plan to pick up their junk and take it back home with them -- if not, this gets two thumbs down from me.

[zeemike]

3. And protests cost the city in overtime pay for cops

So let's just STFU and roll over.

[tpsbmam]

13. Good point.....

and did I ever say anything about don't protest? No, I didn't. Yes, it costs extra for cops -- so lets double that now by dumping crap on the streets requiring extra gas for big carbon-spewing trucks, more person hours, etc. Protest away -- I heartily support it and say it's well worth the police hours. I don't support dumping junk on the streets unless they're going to pick it up and take it back where it came from -- that's unnecessary hours and use of resources IMO.

[Sydnie]

15. Think of it as this weeks job security for the garbage collectors.

At least this week they can still earn a paycheck. Who knows what next week might bring.

[MrModerate]

4. Don't agree. The societal benefit from such a protest . . .

Far outweighs the cost of cleaning up the trash.

[Dogtown]

21. You do get the concept of civil disobedience, don't you?

Your side issue fails. Cruise the threads for another scab to pick at.

[msanthrope]

28. "Don't throw that tea overboard.....the British Crown can ill-afford cleaning

up that mess.".....

[tama]

44. LOL n/t

[cliffordu]

45. Yeah, and it turns all the flounder brown.....

[99th_Monkey]

35. ... with that kind of logic, the Boston Tea Party would never have happened.

it's often this kind of stark & graphic symbolism in direct actions that best "makes the point" in a way that
gets widespread attention that is commensurate with the magnitude of the problem being addressed.

I say it's high time for Americans to begin engaging in precisely these kinds of actions..

[Dover]

5. They ought to start a hedge fund that wagers 1000 people will show up

at Wall Street with their junk. I think that ought to start the stampede.
They can make enough to pay themselves and the city to clean it up.

They can call it the Revolution Hedge

[readmoreoften]

14. duzy.

[barbtries]

6. can't wait for the video

keep us posted.

[pnutbutr]

7. as much as I

despise this bailout and the reasons it is necessary, it has to happen. We cannot let those banks fall. They will take the US economy and all the citizens right along with them. Lending cannot stop, it is the cornerstone of our fiat economy. If lending stops so does the economy, our jobs, futures, everything.

[Dover]

The economy will fall regardless. This is just one of MANY more bailouts me thinks.

At any rate, I don't buy the reasons or the proposed solutions to this bank issue.

[pnutbutr]

17. not completely

It won't fall completely if something is done. There will most certainly be a significant decline though. If the banks fall there is no lending, if there is no lending there is no money, if there is no money there is no economy. If the banks are bailed out there is still lending, there is still money and there is still an economy. It sucks that we are stuck in this position but we have to do something. This is the downside of fiat money as compared to commodity backed money like gold which has it's own set of problems.

[Javaman]

20. What worries me about this bailout is actually quite simple...

the additional flood of money into the system to accomplish two things 1) the value of the dollar plummet and the value of our t-bonds will also plummet. both of which far outweigh any need for a bailout.

if you think inflation is bad now? wait till 700+ billion dollars are dumped into this fiat economy of ours and see how bad it will get.

[Spike from MN]

24. The CBO seems to think this could backfire as well.

Ironically, the intervention could even trigger additional failures of large institutions, because some institutions may be carrying troubled assets on their books at inflated values.

http://www.economicpopulist.org/?q=content/budget-ultimate-credit-card-paulson-wants-have

We've already spent $800B bailing out Wall Street and what good has that done?

The current debate seems to be centered around whether to spend $700 Billion taxpayer dollars bailing out the Wall Street crooks that have been stealing from us for decades, or to spend a smaller amount.

No one is asking the question of: Will this bailout do any good?

Here's a point you should all understand: We've already spent more than that bailing out Wall Street this year, and we have nothing to show for it. Why should this latest bailout be any different?

http://www.economicpopulist.org/?q=content/over-800-billion-already-spent-bailing-out-wall-street

Lots of good info at the EP site for those that want to do some digging around.

[Dover]

9. ..dupe

[ixion]

10. borrowing another trillion is not going to avert the mess you speak of, only make it worse

we don't actually have the money to bailout a canoe, much less wall st. We're borrowing it all, which hurts the bottom line, devaluing the dollar, and ultimately bringing about a collapse. This collapse is inevitable. The so-called bailout only makes it worse.

[Owl]

11. I agree.

[Dogtown]

23. no, pnutbutr

it's a shell game and *you* will always know exactly which one the pea is under...

[tomreedtoon]

8. To be authentic, the junk has to be TOXIC.

Old fluorescent light tubes (poisonous if you get cut by the broken glass). Old TV picture tubes...heck, old TV's, now that the FCC and the electronics companies have made all our old TV's obsolete. Old cans of paint and insecticide. Broken thermometers.

These things are clogging up our world, and what better place to dump them than the people who supported their manufacture? Let those little soulless traders get a whiff of mercury and feel their brain cells dying (what brain cells they have left).

[shadowknows69]

12. YES!!!

I was actually going to suggest this the other day (honest I wuz) But I thought I might get Skinner and company in trouble for inciting to dump. If I had the money I'd drive to NY just to dump my garbage on their front step.

[Spike from MN]

25. We can't all go to NY but our Congresspeeps have local offices.

I'm just sayin'...

[shadowknows69]

29. Garbage day was tuesday unfortunately

I'd be hard pressed to fill a sandwich baggie right now.

[Spike from MN]

30. Time to dumpster dive.

After all, it will be good practice for later on when the shit really hits the fan. You'll know where the best dumpsters are to get the best stuff before the rest of the rabble gets to them.

[countryjake]

40. There are events going on all over the country, today & later...

America Says NO Bush Bailout!
http://truemajority.wiredforchange.com/event/distributedEventCalendar.jsp

[AndyA]

16. I love it! Symbolism at its finest!!

Wish I could be there to participate. I have some old car parts I could dump.

Thanks to everyone who participates...you are representing so many of us who can't be there! :thumbsup:

[Batgirl]

18. That alternet article has a link to find other protest events around the country today

http://truemajority.wiredforchange.com/o/8/t/107/event/search.jsp?distributed_event_KEY=5

[Mme. Defarge]

19. Move over Boston --

New Yorkers have got this one covered!

[hvn_nbr_2]

37. The Wall Street Tea Party! nt

[dysfunctional press]

22. they should pile the junk elsewhere- the bull should be inundated with actual SHIT.

because the bailout is the biggest pile of bullshit going.

[malaise]

26. Any coverage anywhere on TV? n/t

[tannybogus]

31. It's at 4pm in NYC. There oughta be enough cameras if the MSM wants to cover it. nt

[malaise]

32. Thanks n/t

[countryjake]

38. They showed the demo and talked about in on CNN, said 27 other cities, too.

Evidently, this protest is not confined to the bull of Wall St. They showed many union signs, working people signs, but CNN said nothing about dumping personal junk or anything like the OP reported. Just lots of angry people. And that protests are happening at 27 other sites throughout the nation.

[MadrasT]

27. Too bad we can't ship them the Ike debris from Texas...

[Sequoia]

33. Let's have a Bonfire of Vanities...well, junk will do of course.

[The Backlash Cometh]

34. I never thought I'd live to see this day.

Would be interesting to see if it amounts to anything.

[Native]

36. our local protest event has already reached max. # of participants!

[countryjake]

39. To find this protest near you...

America Says NO to the Bush Bailout!
http://truemajority.wiredforchange.com/event/distributedEventCalendar.jsp


There's a zip code form and a search to locate your closest action.

[countryjake]

41. More than 200 events planned nationwide...

Act Now! Protest the Bailout Today
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/364315/protest_the_bailout_today

~snip~

There are more than 200 events planned coast to coast for today, September 25, protesting the Bush Administration's proposed bailout. There's a big rally scheduled for 4:00pm on Wall Street in New York City and similar activities nationwide. Find an event near you:

http://truemajority.wiredforchange.com/event/distributedEventCalendar.jsp

If you can't make it out to a protest, you can still contact your elected reps and implore them to reject Paulson's plunder and enact a plan that bails out Main Street as well as Wall Street and provides for investment in a new productive economy:

http://www.capwiz.com/thenation/issues/alert/?alertid=11969006

And check out this new Wired.com article about today's Wall Street action, and the nationwide protest movement sparked by New Yorkers over email:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/outrage-online.html

[gatorboy]

42. And that's why Republicans are bailing on the bailout.

The Dems would be wise to do the same.

[countryjake]

43. Labor unions protest bailout in New York

People lay underneath the iconic Wall Street bull during a rally against the proposed U.S. government bailout - September 25, 2008

http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=838614

NEW YORK -- Hard hats, transit workers, machinists, teachers and other labor unionists railed against the U.S. government's proposed bailout of Wall Street on Thursday in a protest steps from the New York Stock Exchange.

Several hundred protesters yelled their enthusiastic support as union leaders decried a proposed $700-billion plan aimed at reinvigorating the credit markets by relieving financial institutions of distressed debt.

"The Bush administration wants us to pay the freight for a Wall Street bailout that does not even begin to address the roots of our crisis," said AFL-CIO National President John Sweeney.

"We want our tax dollars used to provide a hand up for the millions of working people who live on Main Street and not a handout to a privileged band of overpaid executives."

Signs read "No Blank Checks For Wall Street" and "Our Hard-Earned Pensions Are Not Up For Grabs." Protesters cheered repeated calls for the government to spend money on education, health care and housing as freely and readily as it was proposing to do for Wall Street.

"We know that the economic situation has to be solved. But we want a responsible rescue, not an opportunistic bailout," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten...

read more:
http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=838614