Wall Street Invaded

By Victor Thorn

Beginning on September 17, three organizations—Adbusters, Occupy Wall Street and U.S. Days of Rage-unleashed a campaign to radically disrupt, for two straight months, the heart of America’s financial sector, in New York City. Events are also planned in 10 other cities, including Washington, D.C.

One of these groups, Adbusters (aka Culture Jammers), envisions a scene reminiscent of the recent London riots that devastated England’s commercial district. On August 10, Adbusters proclaimed, “Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly and modestly. A revolution is an insurrection.”

When it comes to an honest appraisal of the Occupy Wall Street protests, radio talk show host Dave Orts of Push Back Now couldn’t have been more forthright about the participants. On September 13 he told this writer: “What most gets under their skin is that other people have more money than they do. Money is a great addiction, and today’s youth have a desire to ascend up the financial ladder. They know the money is already there, but it’s being held and not released by those on Wall Street.”

 
 
 

Orts provided a fitting example. “When a 22-year-old college kid paying taxes on a summer job sees Jeffrey Immelt working on President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board while his company General Electric didn’t pay a cent in income taxes last year, they know something’s wrong.”

Although many Americans don’t agree with the Days of Rage tactics, Orts gives them credit for being mobilized. “In order for us to remove a rock from our shoe, we have to take action. The rock doesn’t go away on its own.” However, he finds a certain amount of amusement in their naïve aspirations. “If anyone thinks they’re going to peacefully assemble and take down Wall Street,” Orts laughed, “on 9-11 both towers came crashing to the ground, but Wall Street still only remained closed for a few days.”

The end result may also be a bit misguided. Orts noted: “The Days of Rage icon used on their posters is a communist model. The name Days of Rage connotes a group of people that are deeply disturbed by a societal evolution that is not fitting to what they want. Yet they view President Obama’s political appointees and union leaders feeding off the top tier of government, and they feel betrayed. The promised redistribution of wealth isn’t coming their way, so in essence they’re saying, ‘If you keep screwing around, you won’t be around any longer.’”

WHAT THEY WANT

For their part, U.S. Days of Rage organizer Alexa O’Brien and her cohorts have made five demands:

1) Money should be removed from “buying politicians” who feed the Wall Street beast.

2) The resources of our nation shall no longer be used to coddle and benefit banksters and their minions.

3) The U.S. government should diligently rein in the parasitic destruction wreaked by Wall Street.

4) Our nation should no longer be held hostage by “too big to fail” banks.

5) Solutions should be found that stop the Federal Reserve from stealing our future.

O’Brien summarized their goals. “We have no choice but to focus on the sources of money. Both the Democratic and Republican parties set the bankster agenda because of the money.”

BRINGING THE YOUTH

When asked to describe why leftist youths were so frustrated that they’d try to occupy Wall Street, Eric Verlo of Not My Tribe told this writer on September 12: “Barack Obama promised hope and change, but it never happened. Now we’re taking real change to the streets to show him how it’s done.”

He continued: “Our eyes have been opened to the fact that presidents don’t have as much power as we thought they did. But compared to George Bush, Obama seems powerless.”

When asked about the possibility of violence during their Days of Rage event, Verlo stated matter-of-factly, “It’s hard to get people motivated if you say, ‘Hey, come out and get beat up or slaughtered.’ But when it comes to defending ourselves, if you want to swing back, that’s everyone’s free choice.”

As to the locale of these demonstrations, Verlo put their views into perspective: “The youth organizers are very anti-capitalist, and Obama isn’t delivering. Wall Street is where money changes hands, and they shouldn’t be so influential. They’re the real power center. They’re in charge, and we intend to camp out until somebody responds to us.”

PUPPETS

According to Greg Eddolls of the Strong Watchman website, Days of Rage organizers are parroting the Mideast’s “Arab spring” uprisings, with one exception.

He told this writer on September 13, “Participants from the younger generation want something, but it’s based on ignorance because they don’t even know what larger forces they’re dealing with.”

Specifically, Eddolls explained: “Mantras like ‘Government for the People’ sound like a noble cause until they start talking about redistribution of wealth. Those with a socialist mindset don’t know what comes with it. In an Orwellian scenario, the government provides everything, and in exchange they also control everything.”

Associated with this phenomenon, Eddolls sees radical transformations taking place in our nation: “Starting a business or going out and making a living are no longer the dominant theme in America. A new generation that still believes in individualism and hard work is fading, and instead they’re more accepting of a collectivist message that’s hidden within global government.”

The planners behind this Days of Rage event are exploiting this sentiment. Eddolls elaborated: “To destabilize our current government, major civil unrest is needed. A stated aim of the anti-capitalists is to prevent the rich from being rich. So, they want to create panic on Wall Street, resulting in, they hope, massive bank runs. People will then remove all their cash, with the financial strain creating a great deal of turmoil.”

When this reporter inquired as to whether this scenario is part of a plot to weaken our country, Eddolls answered, “The New World Order is now a conspiracy fact, not a theory, that’s been proven right over the past 15 years.”

OBAMA’S RADICALS

It should be noted that two of the figures who are helping organize the U.S. Days of Rage are Service Employees International Union (SEIU) union leader Stephen Lerner and ACORN founder Wade Rathke. Both have direct ties to Barack Obama.

This connection to the president has deeper roots in a group known as the October 2011 Movement that contains a host of former Students for a Democratic Society members among its ranks. On October 6, a “Seize DC happening” is planned where many of the above-mentioned groups intend to bring about a U.S. version of the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt.

Of note, the Weather Underground, a violent band of 1960-1970s anarchists, formed as a splinter group from the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The Weathermen were co-founded by none other than Bill Ayers. Not only did Obama launch his 1995 state senatorial career via a luncheon at Bill Ayers’s Hyde Park home, it’s commonly accepted in many circles that Ayers ghostwrote Obama’s “autobiography.”

On August 18, investigative reporter Danette Clark described a previous version of this year’s September 17 event organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago: “The [October 8] 1969 Days of Rage consisted of violent demonstrations and blowing things up. A commemorative statue of a murdered police officer in Haymarket Square was destroyed by a dynamite bomb. The blast scattered pieces of the statue onto the Kennedy Expressway and shattered nearly 100 windows. Weathermen and fellow demonstrators donning motorcycle and football helmets charged and attacked police officers [while] smashing windows in automobiles, buildings and homes.”

Lerner, who serves on SEIU’s International Executive Board, was President Obama’s guest at the White House on four separate occasions. He is also orchestrating, behind the scenes, the September 17 Occupy Wall Street rally.

Lerner’s stated goals are to destroy JPMorgan Chase, collapse the stock market and destabilize the American power structure by rebuilding a new movement. On March 23, Lerner told The Washington Times: “How do we bring down the stock market? How do we bring down their bonuses? How do we interfere with their ability to be rich?”

One of Lerner’s fellow organizers, Wade Rathke, founded the disgraced community advocacy group, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, while also acting as union president of the New Orleans branch of SEIU. Rathke referred to their coordinated Days of Rage efforts as an “anti-banking jihad.”

As a past SDS member affiliated with Ayers, Rathke voiced his disgust with what he called “rats” who notified Federal Bureau of Investigation agents about a left-wing plot to bomb the 2008 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. Coincidentally, Barack Obama began his career as the chief national trainer for Rathke’s ACORN.

But the most unapologetically extreme member of Obama’s reactionary force is Ayers, who described to Chicago magazine in August 2001 the goal of 1969’s Weather Underground Days of Rage: “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents. That’s where it’s really at.”

Later, he wrote joyfully of the widespread destruction: “The streets became sparkling and treacherous with the jagged remains of our rampage.”

Ayers’s literary flair is obvious, as his talents were later used to pen Obama’s autobiography Dreams From My Father. Although mainstream media lapdogs have largely ignored their ties, Obama lives in the same elite Chicago neighborhood as Ayers and served with him on the Woods Fund. Obama later appointed Ayers head of the prestigious Annenberg Challenge.

14 CITIES MOST PRIMED FOR RIOTS

On August 11, Chaz Valenza of Op-Ed News compiled a list of cities that, he felt, were powder kegs ready to erupt (as chronicled earlier this year in this newspaper, Detroit tops the list, suffering from 40% unemployment, a mere $14,000 average yearly income, 36% poverty and a 37% dropout rate, not to mention the nation’s third-highest crime rate): 1.) Detroit; 2.) Miami Beach; 3.) Cleveland; 4.) Memphis; 5.) New Orleans; 6.) Buffalo; 7.) Milwaukee; 8.) St. Louis; 9.) Baltimore; 10.) Atlanta; 11.) Cincinnati; 12.) Long Beach; 13.) Newark; 14.) Philadelphia.