OCCUPY WHAAAT?.......

Canada's cadre of professional demonstrators couldn't resist the call to bring the Occupy Wall Street project to a city near you, but what exactly they were protesting is not particularly clear, even to them.

Canada had nothing to do with the conditions of manifest greed and stupidity that brought down the once mighty US economy. The mortgage debacle, the housing collapse and the related liquidity crisis passed us by, but not without collateral damage.  Of all the western economies, Canada weathered the storm the best.

With all our complaining, our country seems to be run pretty well.

Interestingly, Anglo Montrealers participating in the OCCUPY MONTREAL demonstrations were vastly over-represented as compared to francophones. I don't really have an explanation for that.

At any rate, I downloaded a bunch of pictures of the protesters in Montreal to see what was on their mind.

It seems that the protesters were divided by several different agendas, the largest was the anti-capitalist set, those who wish to re-write the rules of economic order.....
These are the nasties, who had some pretty aggressive signs. Amir Khadir, dressed very appropriately as Lenin's kid brother, let lose a rant in television interview, reminding viewers that capitalism doesn't work anymore.

 

Then there were the unions, who took advantage of a demonstration to push for a greedy agenda that wasn't entirely in sync with the spirit of the event. Front and center were the Air Canada stewardesses, postal workers and the striking McGill University support staff.

Then there were various immigrant and workers groups, most of the organizations of which I had never heard of.
Dignidad Migrante and the International Migrants' Alliance are two militant groups organizing to improve the situation of refugees, immigrants, migrants and illegal immigrants people without status in Canada.

The International League of Peoples' Struggle is "an international formation of more than 350 organizations from 40 countries promoting, supporting and developing the anti-imperialist struggles of the peoples of the world."

Of course no demonstration would be complete without the perenial whiners, the Palestinians, the Separatists and the Indians.

 

And then there is this unfortunate wedding party who after planning their wedding for months, ran smack dab into the demonstration on a rainy and dreary afternoon.

Oh well, they'll have quite a story to tell their grand kids!

As with any radical new movement (Tea Party?)  the 'Occupy Wall Street" movement is generating a lot of pushback.

Protesters are now being derisively referred to as 'Fleabaggers,' and are getting a rough ride in Twittersphere.

Here's a sampling of what is being said on  #YouMightBeAFleabagger


YOU MIGHT BE A FLEABAGGER IF;

• If you think wealth is so evil you're going to protest until you get more of it. 

• If you say our system is broken and want to replace it with the perennial totalitarian failure that is Marxism, 

• If you're raging against capitalism from your iPhone, 

• If you think the immigrant guy who owns the convenience store should pay for your interpretive dance classes

• If you believe getting your third PhD is a basic human right... 

• don't accept god because lack of evidence but accept global warming despite lack of evidence

• If your entire political philosophy fits on the front of a T-shirt - which you don't wash... 

• if you're a conscientious objector to being a productive member of society. 

• If you think stinking up parks and crapping on cop cars will persuade the populace to give you the levers of power 

• If you feel you deserve the material benefits of work without actually ever having worked. 

• If you think you're entitled to someone else's money without working for it, 

• If you're still a student and you're over 30 

• If your dog secretly hates you for giving him vegan dog food,

• If you believe paying taxes is patriotic especially if you don't have to do it 

• If you think a few thousand protesters in a city of millions equals "ninety-nine percent." 

• If you think you should be paid to protest since it is the only steady "job" you ever had. 

• If nothing is ever your fault 

• If you feel markets fail because there is no market for PhD in Library Science who specializes in lesbian poetry

• if you feel superior when people accept your position of victimhood 

• If you think you should still get an allowance 

• If you thought a masters in "minority womens studies" was an economically viable degree, 

• if you think your incompetence and worthlessness should be subsidized 

• if you despise money but love spending other peoples 

• If you chant "Eat the Rich!" but think meat is murder, 

• if you think mimicking the homeless makes you feel better inside. 

• If the last thing you heard before you left the house was your mom asking if you cleaned your room. 

• If you think "common sense" means you have rights to other peoples wallets 

• If you hate Bank of America, which employs 285,000 Americans, but love Apple, which makes its products in China

•  If you think that men are bigger, stronger and faster than women because our society is sexist 

• If you hate pollution but turn a park into a landfill, 

• If you rail against "greed" while demanding government take more money from others. 

• if you think wealth is so evil you're going to protest until you get more of it. 

• If you believe the world (or your country) owes you anything merely because you take up space in it