Seattle Occupy group drops $5,000 from hotel to protest money in politics

[cynatnite]

Occupy protesters in Seattle marked the Fourth of July by throwing $5,000 out of a hotel window in a protest against the influence of money in politics.

MicCheckWallStreet, an offshoot of the Occupy movement, staged the demonstration at 5pm. The group's website declared that it is "time we declared independence from Citizens United" – citing the supreme court case which effectively ruled that corporations can make political contributions.

A video posted to YouTube shows two people tossing the cash – which MicCheckWallStreet said was in $1 and $5 bills – out of a window above downtown Seattle.

The group had signalled its intentions on its website, asking for donations to a wepay.com account. The wepay page shows that McCheckWallStreet exactly met its $5,000 goal, collected from just 37 donors.

"Every dollar you donate is guaranteed to be thrown off a building and is tax deductible, what more could you ask for?!," said a statement on MicCheckWallStreet's website.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/05/seattle-occupy-protesters-drop-money

On one hand, I see this as monumentally stupid as the Citizens United ruling. On the other hand, I still see this as monumentally stupid and a complete waste of time since it's unlikely to get enough attention to make even the smallest amount of difference. They couldn't have found something more worthwhile to do with this money in the name of Citizen's United?

Of course, I do support the Occupy movement all the way. I felt I had better say that so no one would think I don't. It's possible someone will still think that since I had the audacity to criticize this one thing that's been done.

[randome]

1. Yes, watch what you say. And what you think.

At least they showed there is a different way to look at money. It won't change the world but maybe somebody, somewhere, will re-think their allegiance to paper.

[drm604]

2. How does anyone know if they really threw all of it out the window?

Maybe it was a scam by people claiming to represent OWS.

[HopeHoops]

3. Well, it probably helped out a bunch of people who needed food - well, and the winos.

[cynatnite]

4. How do you know that it was the hungry who got the money? n/t

[HopeHoops]

6. It's a fair bet that at least some winos did. Can't be sure about the hungry.

[-..__...]

5. The Yippies - 1967

It remains perhaps the most striking act of guerrilla theater in American history, certainly in the financial world.

On a steamy summer morning forty years ago - Aug. 24, 1967 - about a dozen young men and women led by James Fourrat and Abbie Hoffman entered the visitors' entrance to the New York Stock Exchange at 20 Broad Street. (The trading floor gallery had been open to visitors since 1939.) They waited while a member of the security staff approached; the group had previously phoned the exchange and asked for a tour, but the guards became nervous about the way that some in the group were dressed.

Still, the group went up to the visitors' gallery, two stories above the busy trading floor. They snaked their way past exhibits showing the virtues of the industrial revolution and the development of modern capitalism. As they turned the corner, they encountered a horde of reporters and cameras.

This made exchange officials nervous. John Whighton, the captain of the exchange's security force, told the group that no demonstration of any kind would be tolerated. Whighton asked the group for a name, and Fourrat said: "George Metesky," and identified his group as ESSO, the East Side Service Organization (the first a reference to New York's "Mad Bomber" from the 1950s, the second to the successor to Rockefeller's Standard Oil). The guard wrote "George Metesky and friends" on a pad, and escorted the group up to the railing directly above the trading floor.

Immediately, the group of pranksters began throwing handfuls of one-dollar bills over the railing, laughing the entire time. (The exact number of bills is a matter of dispute; Hoffman later wrote that it was 300, while others said no more than 30 or 40 were thrown.)

http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/17/news/funny/abbie_hoffman/index.htm