This could well be a good first step on this issue. A reboot of the OWS mojo, if you will.
Now. The next step is to organize and vote accordingly. It doesn’t matter if the protest created page views and Twitter trends. Take it to the ballot box. That’s where OWS lost its mojo, and why the movement fizzled.
trolley does not know when he is being trolled. Awesome!
I was flippantly suggesting a hypothetical scenario. But, point taken. That being said, IMO ,even attempting in vain to schedule a meeting with a senator or HR would be more productive than the alternative. It is no longer 1950. Getting a “march” covered on CBS or written up in TIME Magazine are no longer effective ways of furthering a movement. But it could also just be my poor understanding of things generally.
I always wanted someone in OWS, or more appropriate black block take some thermite and decapitate the bull.
+1 internets to you sir.
A linear shaped charge would do the job much faster. With thermite, there will be a problem of getting it stick around the circumference of the neck for long enough, especially at the bottom part of the neck where gravity plays the biggest role. (That said. some composition/assembly that would make a hot, erosive plasma jet could do the job; think of a cutting torch. Which is a general case of which the shaped charge one is a special subgroup with highly specific design and very short time of operation.[1])
Linear shaped charges are fairly often used for separating of materials. Some police (or police-like) squads use them for making entry holes in walls. They can be also used for cutting things in industry.
[1] The jet in this case is not plasma. X-ray analysis says it is a solid metal, which under extreme shear flows like liquid. Many materials behave counterintuitively under sufficiently extreme conditions.
Don’t worry. The nasty hippies won’t bother you for long. They’ll get a beat down.
“Bloc” is not “Block.”
See, now I was thinking “thermite lined clothing” coupled with self-immolation. I mean, it’s one thing to douse yourself in gasoline, but to do it with thermite and take out your oppressor’s idol with you? Now, that’s real showmanship.
=sigh= We just don’t do martyrs the way we used to…
That’s what they said about Occupy.
Three years later, we’re regularly hearing about “income inequality” and “the 1%,” conversations which were almost unheard of in mass media and government due to some combination of apathy and misguided loyalty to our super-wealthy overlords. Picketty’s book wouldn’t be a best-seller without Occupy. There are even some not-entirely-fanciful conversations happening about guaranteed minimum income here and there.
Yeah, the People’s Climate March was joined by the Secretary General of the United Nations and got front-page above-the-fold coverage in the “liberal” (ha!) New York Times. But of course it also got some predictable reactions from people who think their poseur cynicism is evidence of their oh-so-worldly wisdom.
This is hilarious. My senator doesn’t meet with members of the public. Neither does my congressman (the level at which it’s supposed to be possible, at least in theory). Actually, my congressman doesn’t even have public constituent meetings.
That’s how it works now. It would be a very good idea to enlarge the congress, but of course representatives will never vote to dilute their own power.
I must admit, I lean towards cynicism. But I think we can both recognize the importance of such a large demonstration, and critique the details of it.
FUCK YOU AND YOUR “RULES”! 
No Gods! No Masters of Spelling and Grammar!
1 - really? Legislating? Lately?
2 - I thought it was all district tax money, that the citizens of D.C. don’t get to control because Congress runs D.C.
(1 is snark, 2 is serious)
(3 times is a spanking.)
Seriously, why is there no final “k” in “black bloc” ?
Even in the original German there was a “k” - der schwarze block.
Somebody got better google-fu than moi?
From a cursory search it’s from French and the current meaning of a political group might stem from the use of the term “en bloc” meaning “all together”. It’s one of those weird loan-words from French that became popular during the 19th century (like “en masse”) and has mutated a little.
There’s no reason why it shouldn’t have a “k” other than the fact it doesn’t have one and it helps distinguish a Bloc Party from a Block Party.
Along with maybe one other poster here, I’m a little skeptical of the effect protests like this have. I think they may be polarizing for folks in the center, in the same way that Minutemen Militia marches are polarizing for the same center folks.
Without the proper knowledge base, the average voter doesn’t have a framework through which to understand the outrage in a march like this. It just comes off as a bizarre, threatening spectacle.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t have protests. I think they’re critical. But without a broader, non-threatening voter education and outreach initiative, these protests just can’t achieve much.
I think the first step is to educate American voters on just how utterly corrupt our political system is. That means calling out Republicans and Democrats alike, identifying political donors and the results their donations produce. It’s not enough to fill the web with this information, where a motivated person can find it if they’re looking. This needs to be disseminated door-to-door. Walking block after block handing out fliers and getting doors slammed in your face is hard work. It’s not as glamorous as storming the ramparts of capitalism wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and getting pepper sprayed. But I think educating one or two voters may have a longer-lasting effect than a night in jail.
I’m surprised, since the origin of the phrase/idea seems to be German; how did the French spelling come to the fore?
Fashion/style perhaps? The use of French phrases casually dropped in to written English was a sign of education, a way of showing that you had a certain je ne sais quoi about you and that your audience was also sufficiently educated to understand you. Multilingualism is a good way of establishing intellectual cred (e.g. - the use of Latin abbreviations).
I’m just speculating here. No evidence as such. 
