Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is still alive and kicking to director Uwe Boll and actor Dominic Purcell. Even though the OWS movement didn’t even last for a full year, Boll had decided to make a film depicting an outsider violently attacking and murdering Wall Street Executives.

“Assault on Wall Street,” set to be released in limited theaters on May 10, 2013, depicts a man who decided to get his life back after the market crash by strapping on a mask, entering a bank with bombs and guns, and blowing the bank to smithereens while killing lots of people. 

Just when we thought Occupy Wall Street was over, DC Comics decided to resurrect and give it new life. In a new comic book series set to release in May titled “The Movement,” readers will be able to “Meet the 99%… They were the super-powered disenfranchised — now they’re the voice of the people!”

In an interview with Wired Magazine’s Graeme McMillan, “The Movement” writer Gail Simone explained the vision behind the series. “It’s a book about power.” She went on to elaborate on how essential information and the internet were to her vision. “Because the sources of that information are so dispersed and nameless, it’s nearly impossible to shut down.”

For many Americans, ABC, NBC and CBS are the major source of news on business and the economy. Unfortunately, this is like depending on the middle school student newspaper for information about important local school board deliberations.

Network reporters are either ill-prepared to discuss complex issues of economics, finance and business or choose to be advocates for viewpoints rather than objective reporters who strive for balance. Liberal preferences for government solutions and interventionism as well as hostility toward wealth and profit dominate network coverage.

In what appears to be the latest homage to the moribund if not completely defunct Occupy movement, Los Angeles Times writer Frank Shyong chronicled the lasting impact of the movement in a December 7 article, gushing that in its heyday it had “enjoyed widespread popularity, and politicians responded with resolutions of support.” 

Shyong lamented, however, that “as demonstrations wore on and public sentiment shifted, cities got tougher with protesters.” Oddly enough, Shyong failed to note a huge factor in the shifting public sentiment: Occupy camps were plagued with violent crimes, including rape. What's more, on at least one occasion, a child was left abandoned in one of the squalid squatters' camps.

On Nov. 28, 2012, Forbes released a report on the 25 highest paid musicians of the year. Ironically enough, four of this year’s top earners were outspoken supporters of the Occupy Wall Street Movement last year. Apparently they didn’t see hypocrisy of being a top earner in an industry while speaking out against other top earners.

In a transparent effort to yet again applaud the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams introduced the broadcast's Making a Difference segment by proclaiming: "We all remember the Occupy Wall Street movement. We covered them here a lot....Whatever you think of their agenda and them, they've re-formed now, into Occupy Sandy. They're redirecting their energy into helping hurricane victims..."

In the report that followed, correspondent Katy Tur announced: "Remember the Occupy Wall Street movement famous for taking over New York's Zuccotti Park and coining the term 1%? Well, now they have Occupy Sandy. Within days after Sandy hit, Occupy went to work."

Proudly claiming the legendary outlaw Robin Hood as their inspiration, liberal groups and past Occupy Wall Street supporters are pushing for a “Robin Hood Tax” on corporate transactions. George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, Bill Moyers’s Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and the liberal Tides Foundation and Proteus Fund have given over $4 million to organizations that support the tax, according to the official Robin Hood Tax website.

Support for The Robin Hood Tax has come from both Europe and the United States. Although they haven’t gotten specific about which corporate transactions would be taxed, advocates claim such a tax would raise hundreds of billions of dollars, which could then be used to promote social programs or climate change prevention initiatives. Many of its proponents also have ties to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The Washington Post proved on Tuesday that it will promote “Occupy DC” protests as real “news events” no matter how poor the turnout. “About 50 protesters took to the streets waving signs, chanting and singing,” wrote the Post’s Annie Gowen. “They were trailed by a large cadre of D.C. police, in vans, on foot and on Segways, who obligingly shut down streets for them.”

And the Post obligingly awarded the protest with three splashy color photos, two on the front page of Metro, and a large 5-by-8-inch photo on the section’s back page. The paper's headline was “Occupy D.C. plans to stage its Act 2.” And it didn’t matter if this “stage” is sparsely attended, and only 30 people show up for events: 

With Occupy Unmasked being released today in select theaters, this morning’s edition of CNN’s Early Start with Zoraida Sambolin invited David Bossie, producer of the film and President of Citizens United to discuss the film.  However, things got hazy towards the end of the interview where Sombolin shamelessly tried to convey the narrative that Occupy is a “peaceful” movement.

The New York Times celebrated the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in a fashion that vindicates former Public Editor Arthur Brisbane's concern that the paper celebrates left-wing movements like Occupy "more like causes than news subjects."

First was Sunday's "Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives..." by Mark Greif, the founding editor of n+1 magazine and editor of “The Trouble Is the Banks: Letters to Wall Street." His article in the Times featured illustrations by Mike McQuade of letters written to the big bad banks. Greif introduced the letters:

Reuters has noted the one year anniversary coming this Monday of the Coffee Party, oops, I mean Occupy Wall Street. I can be forgiven for the error since both proved to be as big a flop as Joe Scarborough's No Labels. All of these failed movements had one other thing in common: they were given a boost at birth with extreme media hype. However, first the anniversary/obituary from Reuters:

(Reuters) - Occupy Wall Street marks its first anniversary on Monday, and, in a bid to rejuvenate a movement that has failed to sustain momentum after sparking a national conversation about economic inequality last fall, activists plan once again to descend on New York's financial district.

And you thought there’d never be a challenger to the popular juggernaut of Occupy Comics. Well, a plucky upstart has jumped into the market for comic books about pointless, failed social protests.

In an attempt to legitimize the “Occupy Wall Street” cause, Valiant Comics plans to release an over the top story underscoring OWS’ morality. An inherently evil organization known only as the “The One Percent” makes an appearance in the first issue of “Armstrong & Archer,” scheduled to be released to the public on Aug. 8.

Chris Matthews, who has repeatedly denounced the "hateful" Tea Partiers and once compared them to the Muslim Brotherhood, admitted on Thursday that the conservative protesters have "a point." The admission came during an attempt to suggest that both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have failings. [MP3 audio here.]

The Hardball host conceded, "I may surprise some people with this, but both of the movements, right as well as left, had a point, a good point to make. Both of them. Government is spending too much money. If you mean it's spending more than people are willing to finance in taxes." Could it be that Matthews is souring on the Occupy crowd, now that there are reports of defecating on cars and rapes?