Occupy Wall Street was boosted immensely by the world scale cleverness of a young man, Mark Read, who organized a Bat-signal on the side of the Verizon Building in New York using a loaned expensive piece of equipment, a 12K Lumen Projector. The team handed out fliers to a low-income high rise across from the Verizon wall, and a young single mother with three children, Denise Vega, offered her apartment. Product, success and joy. The NYPD figured out where the projections were coming from, but they did not interfere. A work of genius, grace, grit, New York perfection.
San Francisco Sun Valley.
Meantime, Jeff Bliss, Bliss Index, reports that San Francisco authority will likely move in tandem with Cal Berkely and Oakland to sweep through and reorganize the Occupier encampments. The Occupiers can and will rally at will on occasions, and the rallying tools of social media make the next phase unpredictable. The authorities may weigh interrupting wifi and phone services in order to control the flow at large events. The encampments may rise again in less public places, where the private owners grant permission for the enterprise. The underlying ironies persist. Grotesque income inequality in the US is part of the problem, not part of the solution. The tax code means that less than half of the population pays income tex; while 100% of the citizenry is subject to sales tax, excise tax, property tax, fees. There is a goofy disequilibrium in the news. The aging super celebrity Bruce Willis Hollywood bauble of a $15 million dollar Sun Valley ranch now on the market makes the point again that a democracy struggles to account for the fruits of crony capitalism for the 1% and fear of joblessness and homelessness for the 99%. "We're winning!"
