Occupy Wall Street, Part 2: What & Why are they protesting? Some answers.

There is no excuse for any confusion about the concerns / demands / objectives of #OccupyWallStreet, as we have heard so frequently from the propagandists for the status quo. The issues are obvious to the 99%. Further, we recognize the mainstream media protestations that "they have no spokesman" and "they have no list of demands" as feeble excuses to avoid an open discussion of issues that would threaten an insecure and corrupt establishment, a status quo whose illegitimacy increases by avoiding and denying open discussions. Here are some explicit expressions of our concerns.

Alan Grayson explains it to the nihilistic right-winger P.J. O'Rourke:
"Alan Grayson on Occupy Wall Street," Real Time with Bill Maher, 07 October 2011.
Here's a longer excerpt from that episode showing the other panelists wallowing and festering in their snide faux ignorance: link.

Some articles by Digby and from her blog Hullabaloo:

• Heather Digby Parton, "The class warfare the rich don't understand," Al Jazeera English, 10 October 2011.
• Digby, "Dissonance among the peasants," Hullabaloo, 12 October 2011.
• David Atkins, "Poor widdle babies," Hullabaloo, 12 October 2011.

Some video reports:

• Hip-Hop Artist Immortal Technique: No More Free Passes for Our Government, Democracy Now!, 11 October 2011.
  This is only a small sampling of Democracy Now!'s excellent reporting on Occupy Wall Street.
• Andre Damon and C. W. Rogers, "Youth speak on the Democratic Party and socialism," World Socialist Web Site, 11 October 2011.
  Don't fear the S-word. Check out Roy Zimmerman's song "Socialist!"

A website for general education:
Connect the Dots: Civics & Policy Basics for the Busy Majority

The editors of Foreign Affairs get it:

• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, "The Fight for 'Real Democracy' at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street: The Encampment in Lower Manhattan Speaks to a Failure of Representation," Foreign Affairs, 11 October 2011.
• Sidney Tarrow, "Why Occupy Wall Street is not the Tea Party of the Left," Foreign Affairs, 10 October 2011.
• George Packer, "The Broken Contract," Foreign Affairs, 11 October 2011.

Paul Krugman gets it:

• Paul Krugman, "Confronting the Malefactors," The New York Times, 06 October 2011.
• Paul Krugman, "Panic of the Plutocrats," The New York Times, 09 October 2011.

Henry Blodget at The Business Insider gets it; he explains things perhaps more simply, and with lots of charts:

• Henry Blodget, "CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...," The Business Insider, 11 October 2011.
• Henry Blodget, "Finally, A Clear Explanation Of What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About," The Business Insider, 09 October 2011.
• Henry Blodget, "KRUGMAN: Hurray For The Wall Street Protests — Finally Americans Are Angry At The Right People," The Business Insider, 07 October 2011.
  But this article doesn't mention the massive frauds practiced by people in the mortgage industry, that was instigated and encouraged by the banks.

An unfortunate but necessary concern: that #OccupyWallStreet may be co-opted by the status quo:

• Glen Greenwald, "Can OWS be turned into a Democratic Party movement?," Salon.com, 11 October 2011.
• Rick Klein, "Democrats Seek to Own 'Occupy Wall Street' Movement," ABC News / Yahoo! News, 11 October 2011.
• Eric Lichtblau, "Democrats Try Wary Embrace of the Protests," The New York Times, 10 October 2011.
• Bill Van Auken, "Ex-SDS leader seeks to herd Wall Street protest behind Obama," World Socialist Web Site, 12 October 2011.