THE USUAL COURSE – The "occupy" movement had a big day yesterday, demonstrating in this country and around the world.  But the big day fell strangely flat.

The demonstration in Rome was particularly violent.  In New York, 70 were arrested, and many demonstators were arrested around the country.

The signs displayed are getting uglier and uglier.  In Washington, Frances Fox Piven, a Marxist academic, called for revolution.  She and her late husband are "credited" with developing a plan to flood governments with welfare applicants in an attempt to bring down the "system."

Dan Rather threw his support behind the "anti-greed" campaign of the protesters yesterday.  Does anyone remember Dan Rather?

Again, in New York, demonstrators have amassed a considerable war chest, so money does not seem to be an object.  You can be sure that more will be coming from Hollywood stars eager to polish their radical credentials.  From the New York Post:

The Wall Street protesters have amassed a $230,000 war chest and a warehouse full of supplies for their long-haul campaign.

And the money continues to pour in -- through online donations, money orders and about $1,000 a day dropped in a plastic jug and paint buckets in Zuccotti Park.

Occupy Wall Street has also been flooded with goods -- everything from peanut butter to tampons -- at a rate of about 100-400 new packages a day that has overwhelmed the local UPS branch.

Most of the supplies are being stashed in a United Federation of Teachers storage facility near the park.

Those are the people who teach our children.

The movement’s CFO is a 21-year-old art student at Cooper Union with no financial experience -- though it’s unclear how Victoria Sobel wound up with the lofty post.

But she has plenty of help with money matters, as any expenditure greater than $100 requires a vote by the hundreds who gather for daily “general assembly.”

COMMENT:  There are plenty of things to criticize about Wall Street.  We've published our fair share of criticisms here.  But this crowd will come up with nothing because they've thought nothing through.  They have no real solutions that Americans will accept.  These mass movements make the same mistakes every time.  They think they know, vaguely, what they're against, but they never know what they're for.  And, along the way, they make some ugly alliances. 

I don't see, yet, that this "movement" is catching fire.  But, with the help of the press, they may be able to go on through the election.

October 16, 2011