The Krugman Army
On Friday, James Taranto described Occupy Wall Street as “Krugman’s Army,” and the former Enron advisor certainly has gone all in with the movement:
“Some commentators have tried to play down the mob aspect of these scenes, likening the campaign against health reform to the campaign against Social Security privatization back in 2005. But there’s no comparison. I’ve gone through many news reports from 2005, and while anti-privatization activists were sometimes raucous and rude, I can’t find any examples of congressmen shouted down, congressmen hanged in effigy, congressmen surrounded and followed by taunting crowds. And I can’t find any counterpart to the death threats at least one congressman has received. So this is something new and ugly. What’s behind it?”–former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Aug. 7, 2009
- “ ’Kill the Cops!’ Shout Reported During ‘Occupy New Orleans’ Protest”–headline, DailyCaller.com, Oct. 7
- “Occupy Wall Street is starting to look like an important event that might even eventually be seen as a turning point. … Now, it’s true that some of the protesters are oddly dressed or have silly-sounding slogans, which is inevitable given the open character of the events. But so what? I, at least, am a lot more offended by the sight of exquisitely tailored plutocrats, who owe their continued wealth to government guarantees, whining that President Obama has said mean things about them than I am by the sight of ragtag young people denouncing consumerism.”–Krugman, New York Times, Oct. 7, 2011
- “Almost all the bankers and hedge-fund managers on Wall Street are Jewish. There is a conspiracy in this country in which Jews control the media, finances–if you Google, Google ‘Wall Street Jews.’ Google ‘Jewish billionaires.’ Google ‘Jews in the Federal Reserve Bank.’ The Jews, who represent 2% of the population–it’s similar to Russia, the oligarchs and the plutocrats–a small ethnic minority, they have pooled their money together, amassed their money, to take control of America’s finances. I ask the Russian people to Google ‘Jewish billionaires’ in this country. You’ll find out that half the billionaires in this country are Jewish.”–Occupy Wall Street protester in YouTube video, Oct. 3, 2011
- “When I said that it was the job of policy intellectuals to fill in the details for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, I didn’t mean ‘don’t worry your pretty little heads about it, we’ll work it out,’ I meant job literally as in responsibility: people like Joe Stiglitz and me have an obligation to work on this, helping to translate what justifiably angry citizens are saying into more fleshed-out proposals.”–Krugman, New York Times website, Oct. 7, 2011
Meanwhile, Noel Sheppard responds at Newsbusters to Krugman’s latest column:
It seems New York Times columnist Paul Krugman thinks the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been better behaved than Tea Party attendees.
Read the following paragraph from Monday’s “Panic of the Plutocrats” and you be the judge:
Consider first how Republican politicians have portrayed the modest-sized if growing demonstrations, which have involved some confrontations with the police — confrontations that seem to have involved a lot of police overreaction — but nothing one could call a riot. And there has in fact been nothing so far to match the behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009.
Maybe Krugman has missed images like these:
Click over for multiple shots of Occupy Wall Street types living in homeless-style squalor, being carted off by the police, etc. And as Noel adds, “As most folks are aware, there are worse pictures as Britain’s Daily Mail reported Saturday including a protester defecating on a police car.”
As Taranto quips today, “Remember when Krugman was making up lies about conservatives employing ‘eliminationist rhetoric?’ He now commands an army that is engaged in a campaign of actual elimination.”
Krugman is our very own Lord Haw Haw.
I say play the ‘It’s FREE to Swipe Yo EBT’ video on FOX News everyday til election day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII
The Soros-bots are out in full force lately!
I can’t recall any episodes, ever, of mace or pepper spray being employed against tea party demonstrations.
I can’t recall any episodes, ever, of Tea Party members illegally occupying public spaces, blocking traffic, making messes, or verbally harassing police or passers-by.
I guess the hippie movement refuses to “go gentle into that good night”. They are getting old, and just when I thought they were about to disappear, we have a new hippie movement. (sigh)
My college-aged son – a Dungeons & Dragons master – offered the opinion that Paul Krugman is the best fantasy writer in America.
Marc, don’t think of them as hippies. Rather, think of them as patchouli-scented reactive targets.
Actually, has anyone a way to speak with mr krugman? b/c he’s frightening. in his puff piece profile, he can’t even imagine asking a store clerk a fairly obvious question- underwear for extended travel-times. Any lowly store clerk at a travel store, or a half- trained clerk at a regular store would know an answer to this question, and he can’t even think to ask a normal person. He asked his wife, who didn’t think to ask people who actually make a living on knowing about travel clothes. Why is this man who is so out of touch with any reality and any notion that others might have competency he doesn’t have- allowed to speak about anything.
and, honestly, what are his plans re: final exit. B/c the way he sounds, I fear for his wife’s life, should he become mortally ill, or even just uncomfortable with aging. In all of his speeches and interviews, there isn’t any anchor to this moral world. really, honestly, even though she has degrees, she sounds exactly like the sort of person who feels she won’t be anything without him. I worry that I’ll see some two or three page spread in the paper in a few years, about his and hers elegant send off with plastic bags on chaise lounges, holding hands, or their flight to a switzerland euthanasia clinic. I think they are appalling human beings, but they are human, and created in God’s image, whether or not they agree about that.
Tea Party rallies were always, Always, orderly and neat. It is another indication of the pathological behavior and minds of leftists like Krugman & others that they can atempt to compare the two types of groups, lying and recreating reality offers the deranged no problems.
Does anyone recall a Tea Party rally that went on for days, never mind the slop and dirt?
The whole bunch should be real glad for the police protection.
What almost puzzles me is why these young people don’t enlist. It’s a job that will boost their pay for even a BA in Studies Studies; provide free housing, clothing, food, and health care; possibly pay for much schooling and student loan debt, and give them opportunities for domestic and international travel (plenty of oportunity to study Islamic culture now, too). No more picking up dog droppings for $6/hour, no more avoiding the dentist you can’t pay, no more stealing food. They get work for the greater good and march in unison; moreover, it’s a *government job*, which the Presidentress wants college graduates to choose over the private sector so they can “give back.” The <99% need to be all they can be, for you and me and The Children™.
For all the <99% who have non-fiscally-rewarding or exploiter-unappreciated BAs/MAs/PhDs, why don't they go teach English overseas? There are plenty of jobs that pay very well in the local currency in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. They know America sucks, so they should leave and be paid to do so, with airfare to destination often paid. A progressive nation, China in particular is very eager for English teachers. If they marry over there, they can stay there forever and live in a different culture probably devoid of Progressive Enemy #1 of the Day. That's a win-win for everyone, although the recipient country might not agree.
I understand they have no money and thus cannot put it where their maws are, but they could put their mouths where some money is. (I have carefully avoided using the hate speech word "work," which might cause depression and other afflictions leading to permanent disability.)
Please don’t ask them to enlist. Would you want to serve with them? I was in the infantry in W.W.II (I am 89 now.) There were always shits (that’s what we called them) who could not be relied upon or trusted, and were more of a burden than a help. The armed forces should not be burdened with people like these. The best thing (maybe the only thing) is to put up with them, to cope with them. There will always be people like that in society. The great economist, Joseph Schumpeter, described people of this ilk as people who were made possible by a prosperous capitalistic society but were unable themselves to be the innovative, industrious, entrepreneur types, and so were shunted automatically into fringe activity (academic, theater, and the like) where they became an articulate crowd devoted to hostility to capitalism. Schumpeter was pessimistic, predicting that these parasitic non-producers would eventually destroy a capitalistic society, which had lost confidence in itself. Let’s hope he was wrong.
The Tea Party is for America, through and through.
The OWS layabouts want America destroyed. (“Non-workers of the World, unite! — Mark Steyn)
Seems a significant difference to me.
Ed, Mr. Simmons would like a word with you …
Hey, don’t besmirch a perfectly good glam rock band with Krugman’s dreck.
“And there has in fact been nothing so far to match the behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009.”
What is he talking about?
Please read the sentence you quoted again, you’ll see that Krugman’s actually telling the absolute truth!
There has in fact been nothing so far to match the behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009.
The behavior of Tea Party crowds in the summer of 2009 was ever and always clean and well-mannered.
See, just like Messrs. Obama and Arafat, this inveterate dissimulator didn’t win a Nobel Prize for nothing.
ok, I get it, it’s Leftist billionaires who are the problem. pooling all that money.
good luck trying to punish them.
There are big differences between Krugman’s fleabagers and the Tea Party. The first is the Tea Party were better disiplined than the police and receiver respect form the police. The Tea Party organized parties to policed the areas of their demonstrations before they left them. Anyone who does not understand why the Tea Party scares the newsmen whity only has to realize that discipline reveals just how tough the Tea Party really is.