Princeton, U.S.A. — A recent ORC International survey of American adults has found that awareness of the Occupy Wall Street movement is unchanged since the intense media coverage of the movement’s events through fall and winter of 2011 but that support for the movement has declined.

ORC International updated a series of questions about Occupy Wall Street asked in late 2011 and found that seventy-one percent of Americans remain aware of the movement, even while media coverage has significantly declined. Protesters have largely dispersed from the parks and fronts steps of the world’s financial capitals.

The continued awareness is in part to the ongoing social dialogue that continues by both supporters and protesters of the movement. According to ORC’s social analytics product, Social Buzz, Occupy Wall Street conversations continue to steadily appear with an average of 156,000 posts daily in the social universe since mid-December. This is mostly driven by specifically timed events including the six month anniversary to re-occupy Zuccotti Park in New York City on March 17-18, mass arrests on March 22, and a May Day Protest.

Overall agreement with the movement’s position regarding the financial inequities continues to hold steady at thirty percent since the fall, however, those who disagree has risen seven percentage points to twenty-eight percent over the past six months.

While levels of coverage in both social media and traditional media have varied, the combination has continued to keep this movement in front of the American public. Long-term sustainability of the movement, however, remains a question.

The poll was conducted using ORC International’s CARAVAN service from June 9-11, 2012. The poll interviewed 1005 US Adults by telephone.

ORC International is a leading global research firm with offices across the U.S.A., Europe and Asia Pacific. The company has been a partner of CNN on the CNN/ORC International poll since 2006 and is a founding member of the CASRO.

Image Courtesy of  Atomische • Tom Giebel

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A little over a week ago, Greg Smith, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s largest investment banking and securities firm, resigned from his position after publishing a letter in the New York Times Opinions section.

The letter, entitled “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs,” details Smith’s observations of the current state of the company.

Smith, who joined Goldman fresh out of college and has worked at the firm for twelve years since, describes the main problem as the culture of the company, that is, “the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money.”

He outlines three quick ways to rise to the top in the company, two of which involve tricking the client into making moves that will benefit Goldman the most, with no concern for how they will—if at all—profit the client.  Using Goldman jargon, these are executing on the firm’s “axes,” which consists of having someone invest in stocks that Goldman is trying to get rid of. “Hunt Elephants” is another code, for getting clients to make a trade that will bring in the biggest profit for Goldman.

The third secret is to get lucky and find yourself dealing with and trading gas. Keeping in line with this blatant disregard for clients, many employees refer to their own clients as “muppets.”  Although Smith said he did not know of any illegal activities happening at the company, he lamented the eroding moral fiber of the company, stating, “I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.”

Although Smith is not the only Wall Street banker to recently resign, he is the most high profile one, and the only one to leave in such a spectacular and outspoken manner.  Goldman’s stock has not gone up or down much since his resignation, making many believe the situation would blow over and be forgotten.

Others, however, believe that these insiders fail to think about the long term effects.  Matt Taibbi, the journalist who christened Goldman a “Vampire Squid,” thinks this marks the beginning of something bigger than any of the movements currently in the United States—and that includes Occupy Wall Street.  Taibbi optimistically writes, “this incident may turn Goldman into such a pariah that the best young bankers won’t want to work there anymore.”

At this point Goldman’s future is unclear, but there is no denying need for reform within Wall Street.  And with Smith’s explosive words, it may well start there.

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Twenty years before the Occupy movement began, author, musician, activist, visionary, spiritual leader, and co-founder of one of the world’s largest EcoVillages, Gabriel of Urantia, started teaching civil disobedience against evil and injustice, encouraging people to quit “wrong jobs” with companies based on greed – particularly working for banks, nuclear plants, and weapons factories – to find like-minded individuals, form communities, grow your food, have a good water source, and trust the Creator to provide a job in service to humanity or a career within the community you joined or founded.

In 1996 Gabriel of Urantia developed his concept of  ”Spiritualution (SM) – Justice to the People,” a spiritual revolution for and by the earth’s citizens – not the raising of arms but the raising of consciousness and each individual’s commitment and willingness to change, to quit “wrong jobs” or go on strike.

To Gabriel, true spirituality involves action and being your brother’s/sister’s keeper – not necessarily belonging to a church but actively fighting evil, wherever it exists. His teachings on unity without uniformity challenge dogmatic, antiquated religious thinking and concepts.

Many who follow Gabriel of Urantia’s teachings believe they’re the inspiration for the Occupy/99% movement sweeping the world. “Gabriel of Urantia’s wisdom and fidelity to teaching truth have placed him into a distinct position as a leader among people hungry for change,” said Zarath Giannangelo, a protester at New York’s Occupy Wall Street in Zucotti Park, one of thousands taking part in the Spiritualution.

“I have great respect for him because his activism is not tokenism; he lives and breathes it. His actions are clear indications of his lifelong struggle to bring positive and lasting global change.”

Susan Sarandon, actress, activist, and participant in the Occupy Wall Street movement, when asked her thoughts on Gabriel of Urantia’s Spiritualution message and the need for radical unity among people, said, “There’s not much choice other than looking at it that way, and if we can’t start to blend in a positive way, the earth will get rid of us just like a little pus ball and regenerate itself in a better way. ‘Radical unity,’ that’s good!”

Chris Hedges, journalist for truthdig.com and also a participant in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, when interviewed in New York by Amadon DellErba of Global Change Television, said this about Spiritualution, “When you stand up against injustice, and you are willing to put your life on the line to see that justice is done, that for me embodies true spirituality.”

In 1989 Gabriel of Urantia co-founded Global Community Communications Alliance and Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage, currently with 100 international change agents. Gabriel encourages people to come to the Creator and follow His voice over institutionalized churches or religions. Worldwide people need to escape the stronghold religions and corporations have upon them. They can only do this with a faith in the Creator.

For more information: http://spiritualution.org or contact BenDameean Steinhardt, (520) 576-2890,info@spiritualution.org.

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Even as presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, readies for the South Carolina primary after soundly winning the New Hampshire primary, both the Obama reelection campaign and the Occupy Wall Street crowd he hopes to capitalize on are sharpening the knives of wealth envy.

As the 2011 year closed, the media remained obsessed with the Occupy Wall Street protests. Not a day went by without video of the protesters camping out, clashing with police, or some soft-peddled story on the merits of the protests. Absent are all the admonitions hurled toward the Tea Party for loudly denouncing the Obama Care Law or the president’s insistence on spending more and more money in debt to somehow magically create a positive economy.

Make no mistake, however, just as the Tea Party galvanized opposition against the policies of the Obama administration from fiscal conservatives, so too, does the president hope to utilize the Occupy movement in a similar fashion in the 2012 presidential election. The contrast between the two movements is stark.

There were hundreds of Tea Party rallies, marches, and protests throughout the country in 2010. Yet, not a single venue was trashed, the streets, avenues, and parks were left in pristine condition, and the only reported police arrest occurred in the beginning of the movement, when three white Union members attacked an African-American male in a wheelchair.

Occupy Wall Street, however, has had rapes, shootings, drug use, assaults, and have pretty much used the parks as their own private bathrooms. There has been violence in every city in which an Occupy movement has occurred, and the only word from the mainstream media has been the talking point of not unfairly assessing the Occupiers through the actions of a few bad apples. The hypocrisy is larger than the increase in the national debt, but is not even the worse problem.

There is no single overwhelming theme or idea from Occupy Wall Street, but the one thing they do seem to hate is what they consider to be income inequality. That they are the 99 percent versus the 1 percent has become the mantra, and the 1 percent are not paying their fair share. There is a call for a more even distribution of income and assets.

The ideas for this range from higher taxes to socialism and to out-right communism. What I find annoying is the idea that there should be income equality to begin with and the underlying idea that the rich have an unfair advantage. The reality, of course, is that life is not fair. We are not all given the same or equal attributes.

Some people are born ugly and others beautiful. Some people are born smart, others have average intelligence, and some people are just born dumb. Some are tall; some are small. And yes, some people are born rich, and some are born poor. It is a fact of life. What is also a fact, however, is that the vast majority of people in the top one percent of income earners were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

In the 1920′s, well over 80 percent of the wealth in the country was gained through inheritance. A person was born, and if they hit the cosmic lottery, their parents were a Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, or a Kennedy. In 2010, the percentage of wealth gained through inheritance is two percent. The vast majority of the people in the top income and asset brackets were not born that way. They earned it in their lifetimes.

They did this through opening businesses or obtaining professional degrees, like becoming doctors (doctors make up most of people in the top one percent), or by savvy and patient investment. Any way you cut it, they were not handed their incomes and wealth through some lotto ticket. However, the occupiers, which are more like ‘whiners’, act as if someone handed these millionaires and billionaires their money.

They never stop and ask themselves whether they are willing to do the things, make the sacrifices, risk their capital, their health, and or their marriage in pursuit of a business or profession that leads to wealth. The answer to that question is clearly no. If they were willing to do those things, they would not be camped out in a park, defecating in the street, and bitching about someone else’s money.

Yet, it is obvious from the calls for “income equality” that these people want the money that the one percent have. Thus far, none have given a single logical reason why they deserve it. Sure, the general idea of fairness can make many people sympathize with the protesters. After all, no one feels sorry for a billionaire.

However, what is fair about someone working 70 hours a week to start a business that takes ten years to build, having to shell over their money to a twenty-something or thirty-something year old that does not want to make the same sacrifices?  If you use a sports analogy, why would an NFL team with the worse record deserve a part of the Super Bowl trophy? We all know the answer is a that they do not deserve it. Yet, many are duped into thinking that they have some divine right to the fruits of someone else’s labors.

It is unimportant that the top 1 percent owns upwards of 25 percent of the wealth in the country. They deserve it, and they own it because when you “own” as opposed to being a worker bee, your wealth and income are magnified. The beauty of America is that if you do not like what you earn, you can do things to earn more. Nowhere else in this world is it so easy to move up in both income and class without the right political or social connections.

Can you do that in China, Cuba, Russia, or India? No! In America, you can, and the proof of that is the people who make up the one percent. Go back 10 or 15 years, and the people there today were not there back then.

If you are part of the 99 percent, then the question is, “What have you done today, this week, this month, and this year to increase your wealth? What have you done to affect your income level?” If the answer is nothing, then Herman Cain is right, and you are poor because of yourself. It is no one’s fault, but your own.

As we have seen over the last few years, personal accountability has become a lost value for many in this country, especially for the spoiled children of baby boomers who expected the world to give them a silver spoon- even if it means taking it by force from someone else.

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It’s another day at Occupy Wall Street, as the DA (Direct Action) group tackles the issue of police brutality. One member of the group stated that the Municipal Labor Community, which is a bargaining committee that negotiates all municipal contracts together, was going to raise $25,000 for OWS. However, they were unable to, because it was blocked by the police and firemen’s union.

They did not allow them to raise the money, which called for another breakout session to discuss the matter more in depth. The DA’s direction is about finding your allies and becoming more solidarity. During this breakout session, another member proposed discussing a need for expansion whether it is in physical spaces, open spaces or indoor spaces.

He says it’s a big city and he feels like a lot could be done long term. They will be conducting a 4 hour strategy discussion for expansion on Sunday. Following December 6th’s Occupy foreclosed homes day, which will take place in 50 cities across the country is, Occupy Ports on December 12. The occupations in Oakland and Los Angeles have called for a west coast port shutdown. It does not mean to occupy the actual ports one said jokingly, although he said he would have no objection to it.

He claims that it would be the biggest thing to a west coast general strike. According to the New York Occupy movement, if they don’t seize the opportunity to be in solidarity with the other movements, then New York movement will fall behind. People out in the west have really been pushing forth, shutting things down and causing disruption for the 1%, which is what the message for Occupy Ports is about.

The occupiers are growing tired after their victory that took place on their 2 month anniversary of OWS, but New York occupiers will continue to push themselves in order to shut the 1% down. One man from Chile said to another that, “What we did on November 17 was something we did for 7 years” referring to a struggle against dictatorship in Chile, which was said as encouragement to boost morale.

One New York Occupier also suggested that being more proactive was in order, saying that more is necessary of the DA and that New York rather than just being reactive to just working on projects brought to them, they should establish affinity groups that would create major action, having them take it on piece by piece.

More is expected to come from the 99% as they continue to fight against the 1%. To learn more about what is on their agenda visit http://occupywallst.org/

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A new poll suggests that over a third of Americans support the Occupy Wall Street protests while 58 per cent are enraged by the protests. In Albuquerque, a 48-year old man was arrested for throwing a knife at protesters near the University of New Mexico on Friday 21. The attack was directly related to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The poll, conducted by Associated Press-GFK, revealed that 37 per cent of Americans support that the protests have spread from New York to numerous cities across the country and globe. Occupy Wall Street which originally began as a lower manhattan protest consisting of a few hundred marchers, has rapidly expanded across the nation and soon all over the globe.

Influenced by ‘Occupy Wall Street’, protesters have taken a stand in nearly 30 cities in the U.S as well as parts of Asia and Europe. Over five thousand people marched through the streets of Los Angeles and congregated peacefully outside City Hall on October 15. Marchers also travelled from Wall Street to the West Village and settled in Times Square on October 15.

Times Square is a notorious tourist spot and having these marchers crowd the streets affected store owners, businesses, tourists and shoppers. A tourist travelling from south Florida with his family, Mark Bryan, said “This is really unfair of those who came all the way to New York to see the city.

It is intimidating and my children are scared of the marchers. I don’t understand why the can’t protest outside governmental buildings instead.” The protesters chanted, “We got sold out, banks got bailed out” and “All day, all week, occupy Wall Street.” The protest continued last weekend and took place on the Upper West Side and travelled to Columbus Circle Friday 21.

The marchers were joined once again by a celebrity in favour of the protests; this time Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. Seeger, 92, is a famous and hugely popular American folk singer marched and sang and performed with the protesters all night. The protesters, who come from all walks of life, are settled in Zuccotti Park, Manhattan.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has told protesters to leave the park as tourists who do not want to pay for hotel rooms, may camp in the park as an alternative. He also claimed they were damaging the park with their trash. School teacher, Shawn Johns, responded to this statement saying “We are not causing an damage to this park.

Each person cleans up after themselves and we have volunteers who are circling the park with trash bags to ensure the park is not left in an undesirable way.” The clean up after the weekends protest has taken place all this week in Manhattan, amongst other cities and although the damage may be at large, so was the message prevailed.

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Rage against the politicians and capitalists who have driven the global financial system into the ground is being aired today from one end of the world to the other in a massive coordination of support protests to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Under the banner #GlobalChange, today has seen people from Sydney to Manila, to Rome and London, take to the streets to claim justice in their financial and political system.

In London, UK, up to 300 people gathered in front of St Paul’s Cathedral for the Occupy the London Stock Exchange. Organizers had garnered support through social media sites and were hoping to occupy Paternoster Square in a tribute to the original Occupy movement which is occupying Zuccotti Park in New York City.

The demonstration walked peacefully to the square where they chanted “We are the 99%,” according to Lisa O’Carroll from The Guardian, who was at the scene. The 99% refers to the so-called percentage of society who had to suffer for the profit of the last 1%. The 1% represents the wealthiest people who benefitted, and still do, from the financial crash and bailout of the banks.

Around 2PM GMT, the mood of the protest, which had been conducted fairly cheerful and calm, changed and The Guardian could report that apparently Julian Assange had joined the proceedings in London. The international day of action, October 15, was marked in other cities through marches and gatherings.

In Manila, the Philippines, demonstrators held up outside the U.S. embassy with banners, denouncing “U.S.-led wars and aggression,” according to the Associated Press and Reuters. Hundreds of people gathered in the main street of Auckland, New Zealand, banging drums and chanting against corporate greed.

Around 2000 protesters gathered outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia in Sydney and a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org told Reuters about the Melbourne event: “I think people want real democracy.” In Tokyo, Japan, the demonstration included anti-nuclear protesters.

Both Greece and Italy also joined in the global rally, with students in Milan opening up early for pandora’s box on Friday, vandalizing Goldman Sachs’ offices and headquarters of the bank UniCredit. In Rome, organizers were expecting the biggest show-up of around 100,000 people.

One participant told Reuters “At the global level, we can’t carry on any more with public debt that wasn’t created by us but by thieving governments, corrupt banks and speculators who don’t give a damn about us.” Back in London, the Metropolitan Police informed the media that they’ve only made one arrest today.

The demonstration failed to occupy Paternoster Square and have moved back to St Paul’s Cathedral. The sudden arrival of the notorious Wikileaks founder brought a bit of grassroots celebrity star power to the event. Mark Townsend of The Guardian said that Assange made his way to the crowd and “began attacking a greedy and corrupt system that had united individuals from Cairo to London.”

He also argued that the movement is about the construction of law and not its destruction. As participants hit the streets in cities around the US, the movement will see the circle completed this October 15. Click here to watch pictures from the events around the world.

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After the local unions and celebrities such as Susan Sarandon and Kanye West have shown their support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement, Ben & Jerry’s, the world famous ice cream company, has become the first big company to join the cause as of last weekend.

“To those who Occupy: We Stand with you” is the slogan chosen by the ice cream maker to show its sympathy and “deepest admiration” to all the people “who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity”, as is stated on the Ben & Jerry’s website.

In the solidarity statement written by the company Board of Directors, they make it clear that according to the company’s values “the issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us”, and for that reason they decided to “support this call to action and are honoured to join you in this call to take back our nation and democracy”.

These “issues” are no other than inequity, unemployment, education and political corruption. In their press release, the Board cited the following ground for their support:

The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.

We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed. Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.

Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.

Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.

They also took this opportunity to remind the American society about their compromises towards the environment, human rights and fair trade, among others: “We have provided support to citizens’ efforts to reincorporate money in politics, we pay a liveable wage to our employees, we directly support family farms and we are working to source fairly traded ingredients for all our products.”

The Occupy Wall Street movement that started nearly a month ago has quietly but steadily grown a following that has inspired similar demonstrations in over 70 other cities, including some in Canada, Great Britain, Greece and Australia.

For the full statement visit their website.

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The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests are still continuing and have now expanded to a second park in New York City, Washington Square Park. Roughly 1,000 protesters marched away from the financial district and headed into the park. After the commotion of the impact the protesters had in Central Park, there are worries the same problems will occur in the Greenwich Village park.

The protesters were blamed for causing environmental damage to Central Park and as a result the park was left in an ‘unsanitized’ condition for over a week. The protests began over three weeks ago and have been going strong ever since, extending out of the island of Manhattan. The protests that originally began in the lower east side of manhattan has now led to 25 cities nationwide.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has criticized the Occupy Wall Street protesters for unfairly blaming ‘hard-working’ people for problems facing America. Bloomberg said ‘I don’t appreciate the bashing of all the hard working people who live and work here and pay the taxes that support our city.’

But there has been some support from Washington for the protesters cause, House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi said “I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen.”

While there has been support from diplomats for the protesters there has undoubtedly been criticism. Herman Cain, Republican presidential contender spoke about the expansion of ‘Occupy wall Street’ and called the protesters “jealous’ Americans who “play the victim card” and want to “take somebody else’s” Cadillac.

Protester Katie White told Toonari Post “All we are looking for is for union workers and college graduates to have equal employment opportunities and for those who have become very wealthy in America to give their fair share back.” When asked about how the media is portraying the protesters she replied;

“All those accusations are false, we are engaged in a peaceful protest and are causing no harm. We are teachers, fire-fighters, plumbers etc not drug-using bums.” Tuesday 11th marched peacefully protested outside Rupert Murdoch’s Manhattan home as part of a ‘Millionaires March’. They chanted outside his home on 59th street ‘enough is enough!’, and ‘Mr.Murdoch pay your fair share!’.

The protest later moved on towards other millionaires homes, including JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon and David Koch and Howard Mileston. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests have become a symbolic protest of union workers and college graduates fighting for the inequalities of the U.S. These 26 day protests has been captured daily by national and international media.

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You might have not heard of the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. I wouldn’t fault you if you haven’t. The media has primarily chosen to ignore the growing protests in lower Manhattan. The police have not ignored the protesters, however. Using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators seems to be par for the course in America.

Let’s focus on the mainstream media first. The coverage of the protests on Wall Street has been rather sparse. A quick mention here and there. When any media outlet dives into the occupation in more detail, they inevitably use words such as “unorganized” or “eccentric” about the protests and the people occupying Wall Street.

They point out that the protests is leader-less, (I guess that is a bad thing) and made up of some rag tag weirdos. The mainstream media, forced to cover the growing movement in Egypt earlier this year, used the same terms to describe that demonstration as well. The media clearly does not like citizens using the same rights that pundits hide behind whenever something they say is deemed inappropriate.

Freedom of speech is not just for those on television. The “Occupy Wall Street” protesters are beginning their second week of protests, camping out in Lower Manhattan. Although the protests have generally been peaceful, the police have not responded as such. Over the weekend, over 80 people were arrested by police. Often, these protesters were doing nothing illegal.

A police officer decided to pepper spray the protesters on Saturday.  Think about that for a moment. A police officer sprays a group of protesters while walking by for no reason at all. The video of the incident has been slowed down in super slow motion; there was no reason for the excessive force. Other videos of the weekend are just as shocking.

Protesters are tackled to the ground for using a video camera. An unarmed woman is grabbed over the police barricade by an officer. There was nothing about this protests that seemed American. And I, like others, have wondered why we no longer protest much in this country. Clearly, I have found my answer.

We are no better than other countries despite our desperate beliefs. We execute people. We arrest protesters. We allow the rich to get away with murder while asking more of the middle class. The government controls the media and the corporations control the government.

If we saw these same scenarios in other countries, we would puff out our chests and state how “proud we are to be American.” Yet, in our own backyard, we ignore the injustices. Although the protests in Manhattan are encouraging, they will be silenced. Millions of people protested the Invasion into Iraq but that movement was silenced as well.

I guess the revolution will be televised, or at least broadcast on Youtube. The media may ignore the growing outrage, but with social media—we may be heard anyway.

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