# What are the Occupiers up to?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [April 27, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117 "2012-04-27T12:24:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/41 "2012-04-29T08:32:02Z")
I know of at least one old school anti-war activist that’s given a talk at Occupy, Father Berrigan. The General Assembly I went to (LSX) was quite positive too: they established by consensus that the camp should move towards self-sufficiency by pooling funds to buy a solar panel generator and they should begin growing their own crops. Utterly disjointed from reality (there’s no way they’d be able to grow enough to feed over one hundred people bar the second coming), but positive nonetheless - until the camp was shut down anyway.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2012, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/42 "2012-04-29T08:48:48Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#):
>
> they established by consensus that the camp should move towards self-sufficiency by pooling funds to buy a solar panel generator
Were any funds actually “pooled”? Who held the money, and what happened to it?
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/43 "2012-04-30T00:31:09Z")
The Occupiers are doing what they always have: they engage in hard hitting actions based upon solid research and tough-minded investigation. Let the Tea Party crazies prance in their costumes and expect the congressional republicans to pamper their plutocrats. Occupiers believe in vigilance and hard work.
The cutting edge involves a full scale [occupation of the regulatory system](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/occupy-the-regulatory-system/2012/04/27/gIQAjo21lT_blog.html?wprss=rss_ezra-klein). Republicans have succeeded in removing many of the teeth of Dodd-Frank, so occupiers must redouble their efforts as the regulations are codified. Many of the Occupy wonks once worked on Wall Street, and some of them still do. They’re former derivatives traders, risk analysts, compliance officers and hedge fund quants. They hail from Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Bear Stearns, D.E. Shaw, Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase — and at least one is a former Securities and Exchange Commission regulator. They’re more likely to use a flowchart than protest signs to fight big banks. But they identify with the movement’s animating belief that America’s financial heavyweights wield too much power, and that its political leaders are too eager to do their bidding. They’ve set up a website: [Occupy the SEC](http://www.occupythesec.org/). They are diving into the details of the rulemaking around the Volker rule. They deserve the highest praise and acclaim.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/44 "2012-04-30T01:11:55Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> They’ve set up a website: [Occupy the SEC](http://www.occupythesec.org/).
Probably a bunch of whiners from the Big 10 and PAC 12.
What? Oh…that Other SEC. The one that doesn’t have 6 consecutive BCS titles.
Meh. Never mind,
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/45 "2012-04-30T07:43:07Z")
> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Were any funds actually “pooled”? Who held the money, and what happened to it?
I’m guessing the general assembly funds were monitored by the general assembly. Kind of hard to pool funds once the camp was disestablished by the authorities.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/46 "2012-04-30T07:58:11Z")
Aw, hell, just tell hlm the truth! We blew it all on hacky-sacks and organic yoghurt.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/47 "2012-04-30T09:48:22Z")
QUite by chance I passed by Finsbury Square in London on Saturday, and the Occupy crowd are still there despite being ousted from the primary site outside St Pauls. They looked very wet and miserable, but then so did everyone else on Saturday.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/48 "2012-04-30T14:18:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Aw, hell, just tell hlm the truth! We blew it all on hacky-sacks and organic yoghurt.
Ha! I KNEW it!
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/49 "2012-04-30T18:04:39Z")
We saw a group of Occupiers still on Wall Street early last month. They were occupying a sidewalk right across from Federal Hall and the NYSE and had a sign promoting the May Day action.
We saw a small group of them in Philadelphia near Independence Hall. And some in Washington, although we’re not 100% sure the DC ones weren’t just regular homeless.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/50 "2012-04-30T20:14:36Z")
There was an Occupy the Justice Department rally on April 24, outside the Justice Department. The OWS website described its [objectives](http://occupywallst.org/article/today-dc-occupy-justice-department/): “Short term goal: release Mumia. Long term goal: end mass incarceration.”
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/51 "2012-05-01T00:20:41Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> We saw a group of Occupiers still on Wall Street early last month. They were occupying a sidewalk right across from Federal Hall and the NYSE and had a sign promoting the May Day action.
>
> We saw a small group of them in Philadelphia near Independence Hall. And some in Washington, although we’re not 100% sure the DC ones weren’t just regular homeless.
Oh yeah, and in New Haven, Connecticut. They were occupying a square by Yale University. Our friends who were showing us around said they’d not been evicted because there was some legal dispute over exactly who was responsible for the square – Yale or some other party.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/52 "2012-05-01T02:47:22Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> The Occupiers are doing what they always have: they engage in hard hitting actions based upon solid research and tough-minded investigation. Let the Tea Party crazies prance in their costumes and expect the congressional republicans to pamper their plutocrats. Occupiers believe in vigilance and hard work.
Are you quoting an article from The Onion here?
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/53 "2012-05-01T04:23:39Z")
> [@elfkin477](#):
>
> Are you quoting an article from The Onion here?
A significant fraction of Occupiers hails from the professional class. A decent example might be [Simon Johnson](http://baselinescenario.com/), a former IMF employee who knows a sclerotic financial oligarchy when he sees it. And it is a good idea for [Occupy the SEC](http://www.occupythesec.org/) to crowdsource some of the dry regulatory scrutiny.
Finally, if the Tea Partiers don’t like it when people call them crazy, they should stop dressing like Napoleon.
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/54 "2012-05-01T07:56:00Z")
> [@Tom Tildrum](#):
>
> Short term goal: release Mumia. Long term goal: end mass incarceration.
I cringed. However, even Cecil had his doubts about [Mumia’s conviction](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2401/mumia-abu-jamal) in the first column on the site.
They could argue [bipartisan support](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRDlCgNm2KM) on the latter issue too.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/55 "2012-05-01T08:18:56Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Sure we do - at this time in 2010, Tea Partiers were heavily involved in the primary process, supporting people like Rand Paul and trying to get candidates elected to Congress that supported their views. That effort was successful to some extent.
>
> So what Occupiers have been challenging in the primaries lately, with realistic chances of getting the nomination and standing in the general? What Occupy Pledge have they been circulating to candidates to try to get them to commit to Occupy principles, whatever they might be?
>
> If the Occupiers are to influence the elections, we’d see them in action now.
Didn’t the Tea Party start earlier, though? As in, wasn’t it around since 2008 or at least early 2009?
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/56 "2012-05-01T13:29:10Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Didn’t the Tea Party start earlier, though? As in, wasn’t it around since 2008 or at least early 2009?
Early 2009. Within a month of Obama’s inauguration, Tea Party protests began.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/57 "2012-05-01T14:57:20Z")
Occupy Oakland is leading the charge with… [anti-patriarchy](http://strikemay1st.com/oakland-strike-station-2-anti-patriarchy/) protests.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/58 "2012-05-01T15:36:27Z")
> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> There is absolutely nothing significant about this “movement”. They’ve accomplished nothing, and they aren’t going to accomplish anything.
Time Mag included them among the Persons of the Year didn’t they? What does that say about them…or the rag itself, then?
I could be wrong…as with the 100 Most Influential in the World I just looked at the pictures. How would you assign the Occupier’s credit for being part of that designation relative to the Middle East Protesters or even the Tea Baggers who the Occupiers were compared to by many (still are). They should get some points for starting it.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/59 "2012-05-01T15:40:18Z")
[Guide to the May Day events.](http://www.thenation.com/blog/167622/guide-may-day)
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-occupiers-up-to/620117/60 "2012-05-01T15:41:40Z")
“And you know something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is! Do you, Mr. Jones?”
- _Ballad of a Thin Man_, Bob Dylan
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