Bill Maher's message to OWS

[Lions_fan]

[freshwest]

1. 'An intractable block Obama can point to when not renewing the Bush tax cuts': Perfect ending!

Thanks for posting this video.

The new left wing of the Democratic Party?

I'm all for that.. bring it in all its glory!

[abelenkpe]

2. True

But OWS doesn't want to be labeled.

I had hope when the the pilots and other unions were standing with them. But then heard they don't want unions taking over the movement.

[iandhr]

3. YES

about time someone said it.

[rhett o rick]

4. I like Bill’s irreverence and don’t mind his mocking those in OWS

that are getting police batons poked into their livers for the movement. That’s what Bill gets paid for.

But when Bill leaves his penthouse to “hang” with the drum circle and smoke THEIR herbs, he doesn’t learn much.

I don’t speak for OWS but I hear them saying that the system is fucked up beyond repair. And Bill says to them, “why don’t you work within the system?” Rahmbo was much more direct when he told liberals to “sit down and shut up”. Same thing.

OWS is doing their part. Why would Bill or anyone expect them to do it all?

[me b zola]

7. In addition to what you said

I don't get why so may smart people don't get why the teabaggers are able to work within the system to create change that thy are seeking. Teapartiers are tools of the same system that is the very reason for the need for OWS.

For those who don't understand, one of the first clues was that teapartiers carried weapons and threatening signs to rallies and were allowed to carry on without harassment from the authorities. OWS was peaceful in actions and message yet met with arrests, pepper spray, batons, and "non-lethal" rounds from a weapon.

[TheWraith]

10. The Teapartiers are able to work within the system because they're actually trying.

It seems like most of the OWSers, especially those who are left over now, are of the "Boo hoo, politics is too corrupt, so we have to avoid the one means of actually creating change in order to remain pure" school.

Guess what? Every previous movement which has adopted that premise has been rapidly followed by the total death of that movement. Because you cannot have non-political politics.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. Agreed.

You can't expect to get anywhere if you turn your back on politics and refuse engage in it.

What change are you going to bring about if you lack political clout? The tea-party gained it because they got members elected to the U.S. Senate & House. Sure, a great deal of it was manufactured, but once it took off, and average voters, a great deal the base of the Republican Party, worked to elect some of these people to office, they were able to become a true political force.

Are the OWS folks working to register people to vote? Are they setting up GOTV efforts in cities, urging their members to actually vote this November?

Even the hippies got 'Clean for Gene'.

Is there a similar effort from OWS or are they only going to rail against the system and refuse to wade through the political mess? Yes, politics is political (surprise!), but do they understand what truly is at stake in this election - local elections? Was there an effort by OWS in Wisconsin to get out as much support for Barrett as possible? These are questions, I'm not claiming they didn't do it. I hope they did it. I hope a good majority of their members know how important the presidential election is in November.

Unfortunately, if many of their members are like some DUers here, they don't care because they don't really think Obama is any different from Romney. Okay. But when Romney sends Americans off to die in Iran, and then turns around and signs into law Paul Ryan's budget plan, OWS better not take to the streets.

[radiclib]

26. Don't confuse "politics" with our totally corrupt political system

OWS is very much political, but refuses to engage a system that's sold lock, stock and barrel to the highest bidder.
That's the point. You can't affect meaningful change trying to work within a system that only recognizes money and corporate power.
The entire system has to go.

[rhett o rick]

18. Repukes and others think the Tea Party is a successful grassroots organization.

IMO the Tea Party grassroots nitwits are pawns of Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity. The fact that some Repukes got elected calling themselves Tea Partyers can be attributed to big money and not a grass roots movement.

Conservatives disparage OWS and praise the Tea Party.

[90-percent]

31. My Sept 10, 2009 counter protest sign

at a Tea Party Rally at the Hartford Capitol

TEABAGGERS ARE ASTROTURF PUPPETS OF FASCIST CORPORATIONS

-90% Jimmy

[rhett o rick]

32. Absolutely. nm

[Voice for Peace]

23. The left needs to get billions of dollars, and look to the laws of nature

then no problem: money for organizing, education, etc.
and nature for wisdom and strategy.

He has a great point about how quickly the tea party has
taken over.

BUT look at who has funded and promoted them, Bill..
can the left really compete with that?

There is a huge machine out there, a propaganda machine.
It has nothing to do with truth, but everything to do with
making the left look silly, an embarrassment, lame, weak,
so that majority don't pay much attention to them. People
are embarrassed to stand up righteously, because they don't
want to look silly. They don't want people to think they are
gay, or lazy, or brainwashed, a pussy, or pathetic, or that
they're a feminist, or a nazi, or communist, or .....

It's an evil dark fog that's been cast over the land... just
like a movie but really going on, everywhere.

But no FEAR, OWS is here!



OWS' power I think has come precisely from its formlessness.

I believe it has a life of its own, it's just got different stages
it will go through, like anything else in nature.

If there were a tapeworm the length of Rte 66,
what would be the remedy in nature?
We have to think like the natural world thinks.

[iandhr]

5. "put on a nice shirt and their best teeth"

lol

[Jumping John]

6. And the police state rolls on, unimportant to those with enough bucks to not care.

[PatrynXX]

8. Not one of Bill's best moments

already had this one liner from the right too often. um they are actually canvasing. or didn't you notice

[ErikJ]

9. How the T-Party did it--Precinct Committeemen Concord Project

The local precinct committeemen choose which candidates are going to run. The TP took control of the Precincts and got their TP candidates in.

Thom Hartmann says this is what the Progressives need to do in the Dem elections. Or perhaps the OWSers?

[nineteen50]

11. " If voting worked it would be illegal"

[tnlurker]

12. I'll watch later

[hay rick]

13. Giving too much credit to the tea party.

The tea party without Koch money and slavish media devotion is just a joke. They are not a movement, they are simply tools of the kleptocracy.

OWS, on the other hand, will never see a fraction of the money available to the astroturfers and can expect their actions to be ignored or misrepresented in the media.

The current Democratic Party is dependent on corporate money to compete with the Republican Party and can not reasonably be expected to wander too far from its me-too corporate-friendly policies.

[wwytchwood]

14. boolsheet

OWS should NOT BE co-opted by the weak tea (at best) Dem Party

[JDPriestly]

15. Here's the problem, Bill.

The Tea-Baggers had big, fat sugar-daddies paying for their buses and their park permits and police protection.

The out-of-work, out-of-money, using-the-donations-to-feed-themselves-while-they protest OWSers didn't and don't.

Why do you think they camped out? Wouldn't any self-respecting Tea-Bagger just rent a room to meet in?

It's because the OWS crowd doesn't have the money to rent a meeting hall for several hundred people. And because none of them have apartments or houses big enough for 30, much less a couple of hundred people.

I know about the space issue because if my house was big enough to accommodate a crowd, I would be partying with the Obama campaigners in my yard right now and every day until the election.

It's the economy, stupid.

As for why aren't they working in mainstream politics, lots of erstwhile occupiers and their hangers-on are now organizing either for Obama or (unfortunately) for Ron Paul. That's one of the reasons that the numbers of the Occupiers seem smaller. But don't worry, if the election does not go well, these folks will be back in greater numbers than before.

So, Bill Maher, please apologize to OWS. You are showing your rich obliviousness. I never thought I would hear "Let them eat cake" from you, but . . . . you are getting awfully close there.

The reason things are the way they are because poor people don't have what you enjoy (Not that you don't deserve your relative wealth. I know you work hard, but that is another story).

And by the way, in my neighborhood, the Occupy movement is alive and well and still meeting in a park -- but not staying overnight as far as I can tell. The tents are gone, but I gather (as an occasional visitor and not a regular), the movement is quietly organizing based on friendships and connections formed during the camp-outs. It seems to be tightening its ranks, and while not as large as it was, doing quite well and moving toward more traditional forms of political activism.

By the way, Bill Maher, have you checked with the City Attorney's office to find out how much it costs to stage a small, local parade or march in Los Angeles? It is apparently prohibitive. Some schools and churches wanted to do something small for an uncontroversial cause for the good of the community -- but the permits and "security" were too expensive.

Don't pick on little guys, Bill Maher. Don't pick on poor guys either. It's beneath you. Please apologize. Even a funny apology would be appreciated.

[Cattledog]

17. No apology

Only spineless liberals apologize.

[JDPriestly]

22. I'm a huge Bill Maher fan, but this clip proved to me that he did not understand

what the Occupy movement was about.

You can't exercise free speech unless you have the space to do it in.

The City of LA makes it very expensive to organize demonstrations.

Unions can afford occasional mass meetings and demonstrations.

Corporations and their friends can underwrite occasional mass meetings and demonstrations, but if you aren't a union or a corporation, you have a hard time meeting anywhere.

Americans, especially those who are center-left, were delighted when the Egyptian students took over the main square and just camped out. But in this country where speech and the commons are supposed to free, we retaliate very harshly and demand huge fees if people just want to use our parks.

What do you expect? Do you think that the unemployed should rent hotel rooms and hold a convention to discuss their political options? While they are at it, why don't they just do like the Koch Brothers do and rent some venue out in Palm Springs?

I still ask for an apology. Please, Cattledog. Not everyone has a TV show where they can speak their mind. That is a privilege and an asset that should be used very wisely. Beating down struggling people is not a good use of it. I expect more from Bill Maher. He is smarter than that.

[SunSeeker]

19. K&R

[bettydavis]

20. Bill is not nearly as bright as he thinks he is....

So sick of dudes like him actual ENVY the right because he's a bully at heart himself. He doesn't hate how the right behaves, he just wishes they were on his side of the argument. maybe all HE did was hang out and feel good for a minute but those hippies actually turned the tide of the national conversation to income inequality and prosecution of Wall St criminals. NO ONE was talking about things in terms of the 99% and the 1% before them. They can't do everything Bill. how bout this, donating one million dollars to a superpac and giving smarmy ill concieved two bit opinions every week aint doing too much to change the system either. So shut your smug lil a$$ up. the Tea Party is a fake movement paid for by Dick Armey. A real movement is messy...get over it. And yes, APOLOGIZE to OWS.

[ZombieHorde]

21. I don't agree with everything he said, but I would like to see OWS continue

to use its vast resource of creativity, and try some new directions.

[Marr]

24. I came here ready to argue, but he makes a good point.

I think he's right.

[geefloyd46]

25. Believe me whatever OWS should do is not something Bill Maher has vocalized.

He is often a person who follows trends rather than creates them. He should look at Wisconsin, they pretty much followed his advise and how did that turn out. That's what happens when so much is slanted against you. If Occupy can manage to make themselves ungovernable believe me Maher will jump on the band wagon as it goes by.

[oh204]

27. Spam deleted by cyberswede (MIR Team)

[oh204]

28. Spam deleted by cyberswede (MIR Team)

[pam4water]

29. Love, Bill, but he can lose some of the attitude. He been trying to move stuff left for years

and he hasn't had any luck at it either.

[Warren DeMontague]

30. I think he's right.

The "Message is that there is no message" thing was vaguely thought provoking for a little while, but it remains to be seen what real-world accomplishments OWS will bring about. Summer is coming. We'll see.