Tea Party vs. US Uncut: A San Francisco Tax Day Showdown
The San Francisco April 15 US Uncut rally
The group’s own event listing for the rally said:
Location: meet at St. Mary’s Square park – Quincy St. (just north of Grant Ave.) b/n California & Pine St. in SF. We’ll be visiting infamous tax dodgers in this neighborhood
Time: 5pm – let’s show the rush hour crowd how Uncutters like to make noise!
Who: All ages show – Bring friends, neighbors, grandparents, teachers, union workers, students, and all others
But I showed up at exactly 5:01pm and the picture above shows what St. Mary’s Square looked like. Absolutely deserted.
Confused, I asked the guy in the blue shirt if there had been a rally or a group of people of any sort in the park recently. He said yes, in fact, a small group of people with a marching band had briefly been in the park but had left about ten minutes prior.
From the event description I guessed they were marching to the nearby Bank of America world headquarters, so I headed off to look for them. But halfway down the block I encountered this guy. Judging from his sign, I assumed he was also looking for the US Uncut event. We fell into a conversation and I told him that the park was completely deserted. He was like, WTF??? It’s still five o’clock!” I said I was going off in search of the rally and invited him to join me, but he instead continued up to the park in a futile quest for the elusive rally.
I went to the Bank of America but I was too late — they had already come and gone. A guard there confirmed that about 40 people had shown up and left after about five minutes. Although I missed all the action, I luckily was able to track down US Uncut’s own video of their “flash mob” invading the B of A main branch:
As you can see, the entire event is highly rehearsed — all the Uncutters have practiced their dance moves together ahead of time along with the marching band. At 1:55 into the video you can get an overview of all the protesters — I counted around 45, to be generous.
US Uncut advertised this as the true populist uprising rally, as a contrast to the phony astroturfed Tea Party. But if you invite the public to a rally beginning at 5pm and running to 6:30pm, and the organizers show up as a group early at the assigned place and then depart ten minutes before the public even has a chance to join in; and then go on a flash-mob march that features rehearsed choreographed dances; then it becomes completely obvious that this isn’t a mass movement, but rather just a small activist group doing political skits which they had practiced ahead of time, with no public involvement whatsoever.
But wait — it gets much much worse. Another one of US Uncut’s official in-house videographers was also filming the day’s event, and put together a 13-minute video of the day’s entire protest. You can watch the whole thing here if you’re interested; but to save you time I took their own video and excerpted two crucial parts which reveal the utterly phony populism of the whole affair.
The two-minute video is presented below: the first minute shows the SF US Uncut troupe doing their rehearsed and choreographed dance routine. As you watch it, pay close attention and note one of their members wearing a light beige shirt, sunglasses hanging around his neck, with a balding pate and a five-o’clock shadow. You can’t miss him in the crowd. But then keep watching. The second minute shows US Uncut about 15 minutes later after they have exited the bank and are now walking down the street. The videographer asks the exact same guy, “Are you here for this demonstration?”, to which he replies, “No, I’m just wandering by, but I think all corporations should pay their taxes!” Not satisfied that the performance was believable, the videographer then asks him to repeat the lie so that she can get a better take. Busted!
Watch:
Here’s the transcription starting at 1:08:
US Uncut videographer: Why doesn’t B of A pay their taxes? Do you agree?
US Uncut member: I agree completely.
US Uncut videographer: Are you here for this demonstration?
US Uncut member: Say that again?
US Uncut videographer: Are you here for this demonstration?
US Uncut member: No, I’m just wandering by, but I think all corporations should pay their taxes. All of us have to.
US Uncut videographer: Thank you for joining us! Great! That’s great.
[pause]
US Uncut videographer: Say that again — I cut you off. Say it again.
US Uncut member: I said, I was just wandering by, but I couldn’t agree more, all corporations should pay their taxes.
US Uncut videographer: And how about all the banks?
US Uncut member: Especially the banks. They make lots of money and they don’t really do anything.
US Uncut videographer: They don’t.
US Uncut member: They just hold it for us and give it back to us, and make a profit off of it. They should pay taxes. We pay taxes.
US Uncut videographer: And the Republicans want to steal all the money from the poor. They’re not asking for the corporations or banks to pay taxes.
US Uncut member: I bet they wouldn’t call it that. They wouldn’t call it stealing.
US Uncut videographer: What would they call it, do you think?
US Uncut member: They call it budget cuts.
US Uncut videographer: Yeah! Alright! Very astute! Thank you for coming!
Now, if an organized Tea Party group got caught interviewing one of their own members who falsely claimed to be just a random passerby who joined the protest on the spur of the moment, the left-leaning blogs and media would make it front page news, proof positive that Tea Party populism is fake and that it’s not really an authentic populist uprising.
What do you think the response will be to this evidence? (No need to reply — we already know the answer.)
It seems the only two unrehearsed members of the public who wanted to join the UN Uncut rally were me and the guy with the bicycle. And at least one of us was only there to observe skeptically. Mass movement!
Anyway, I had missed their invasion of the B of A headquarters, but as I wandered around the financial district in search of the protest, I heard a ruckus in the distance and ran in the direction of the sound.
I caught the 45 or so protesters as they approached Market Street, and I snapped a few pictures.
They carried a huge banner condemning “Corporate Tax Cheats” and the US Uncut logo.
Their other slogan was “Chop from the top.” Notice that by chance I captured the same faux-passerby among the marchers (right center of the photo).
We went to another Bank of America branch and repeated the same dance that had been done earlier.
How mainstream is US Uncut? Well, one of their members thought it was a good idea to wear a shirt honoring Assata Shakur, the convicted murderer, Marxist revolutionary and Black Liberation Army member who escaped from a life sentence in jail and managed to flee to Cuba where she remains a fugitive protected by the communist regime there. Mainstream populism, here we come!
I eventually bailed out on US Uncut and went back to the Embarcadero to see if I could catch the tail end of the Tea Party event.
Thanks.
Interesting timing. I was listening to New York’s NPR affiliate this morning, and a “US Uncut” person was being interviewed; apparently, they did a fake website/press release announcing that GE had decided to voluntarily pay the taxes it was recently exposed as having not had to pay. The interviewer, sometimes intelligent, did actually make mention of Obama’s past praise for GE and its CEO, but naturally did not push the point to where people would realize that there is a very close sweetheart relationship between GE and the Administration.
Ultimately, of course, if the Obama Administration were to propose some intelligent changes/simplifications in the tax code to close some corporate tax loopholes, it could possibly be a basis for some common-ground cooperation with the Republicans towards moving forward on the debt. But it is clear that the Administration would rather draw a divisive line so that it can run for re-election on the bogus claim that Republicans “want to give the corporations a free ride”—even as the Administration itself shakes down corporations for campaign contributions as the price of keeping tax breaks.
Oddly, when I saw the other rally was “US Uncut” in San Francisco, I was not expecting a rally about tax policy.
Me neither.
Ditto. I hesitated before clicking on it.
I was expecting Uncut Us to be something like: “We dont need bo stinking bris, teabaggers or zionists.” Anarchist-communist rally with stone throwing and molotov cocktails galore….
US Uncut sounds more like an anti-circumcision group. It should feel right at home in SF.
@#4 Zev – ROTFL – You Are FUNNY!! – Thanks I needed that!
That’s exactly what I thought it was too, until I read the article.
As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Thanks for the coverage Zombie. Look forward to your posts, keep them coming.
Ok, first of all, the name – “S.F. Uncut” has punny problems, don’tcha know.
Do they refer to themselves as Assless Chaps”, one wonders…
If those chaps were assless, the folks in SF wouldn’t have much use for them, would they?
Awesome! Will get you linked up later ….
I wonder how much that hair cut costs the Assata Shakur supporter. I figure, at least a month’s wage in the workers’ paradise where AS is hiding.
Tax the rich, you can find them in the govt workers unions. If Obamaconomy stays its course, they and Obamacronies in Citibank, Bank of America, Google, GE, Diane Fienstein, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, George Soros and the academia, will be the only rich people to be taxed. Of course Diane Fienstein will get her taxes back in earmarks for her husband, Pelosi will get her earmarks, Soros would make another couple of billions in his Petrobra “investments” stimulated by Obama’s $20 billion Petrobra stimulus. Oh, John Kerry has done his part to teach those rich boat builder bastards a lesson by having his ginormous yacht built in New Zealand.
Hmmmm…that’s very interesting. There’s a group called UK Uncut over here (in the UK, duh) that’s been making a lot of noise and kicking up a lot of fuss. Same issue — taxing corporations more. I didn’t realize there was a US Uncut as well.
That’s no coincidence. Somebody with better investigative skills than me could probably mine a rich vein of something here — my guess is Socialist Workers or somebody behind it.
The whole point is that US Uncut is consciously copying UK Uncut — as I discuss in the essay. It’s not a coincidence.
Ahem. Sorry. I skim too much — I’m a looking-at-the-pitchers sort of gal.
bottom line is the lefties hate that they didnt “invent” the tea party for themselves
the fact that the tea party formed itself “spontaneously and organically” (to steal some of the libs’ favorite buzzwords) drives them bonkers
while the glory days of the 60′s (bunch of crazy nazi-feminists burning their brassiere’s being flanked by naked men thinking that being a hippie was the shortest distance to a girl’s crotch) are replaced by rent-a-union-slob-mob that cant even show up to an event on time or have a clue about the current “issue” of the day must give wasserman-schultz tighter curls at night
You forgot to show us “After” shots of the two locations after the rallys.
It’s always so interesting to see how much Garbage the Left leaves behind.
Mostly the Pre-Printed signs that no one in the crowd made themselves but were given to each of them by the organizers. Funny how the Hand Made signs seem to stay with the maker when they go home…
I didn’t care much for the hippy drippy anti war mob protesters back in the 60′s and care even less for what they evolved into today; the mob like union thugs and organizers who gather together and are bussed to their so called “spontaneous” demonstrations and mouth and chant prepared slogans that they themselves don’t understand and don’t live up to. They are deadly afraid of Tea Party members and Tea Party ideals because they are afraid of losing their entitlements and being forced to actually work and take care of themselves instead of having big brother government taking care of them. We simply must clear out the communist rabble that have taken control of our colleges and universities and bring us back to the fundamental and simple truths of our Founding Fathers. As that one sign stated: SOCIALISM SUCKS
@#13 Naddy Bumpko – You nailed it! But, as we saw in the Pics above – the first few… those folks were clever enough to give them a taste of their own medicine and give the message right back at em’! -(Grow up and take care of yourself)LOL – I love it!!.
One other thing. When the Tea Party has a rally in DC they are 110 times “Cleaner” and ‘neater’ than any Liberal, or Union Thug rally in Washington DC – these guys literally “do” ‘trash’ the place – litterally.
Isn’t it strange how those of us who work for a living and pay taxes are called “greedy” and “selfish” for wanting to keep more of what we earned but those who demand ever larger shares of our money (welfare and government employees alike) aren’t? They’re the truly greedy, selfish ones.
Here is a story about MoveOn.org protesting at Bank of America in Irvine, CA.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/-296948–.html
Organized? Ya think?
It is amazing how the left stays develops a consistent message from top to bottom. The congressmen Face the Nation all the way down to the art students in San Francisco all beat the “tax the corporations” drum.
Excellent work by Zombie as usual.
I drove by the BofA in Pensacola FL today on my way to the airport. 8 or 9 people protesting banks and corporations and accusing BofA of tax cheating. Wondered what that was about. Thanks for filling us in Zombie.
Thanks Much Zombie – Always enjoy your pics and captions! Please keep them coming!
Hey,
Thanks for this, next best thing to being there.
D.
WOW! So US Uncut isn’t some sort of pro-circumcision group then? Bet it would draw a bigger crowd….
Still, it’s off to a more robust start than the coffee party. Y’all remember that, right?
Zombie, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again -
you are a national treasure. Thank you for another informative essay.
Reminds me of when the Chinese and Tibetans were marching in two different protests in San Francisco prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics when that torch was running through town on two legs.
Did anyone see the 60 Minute’s segment recently about US corporations moving their HQ staffs by the thousands overseas to countries like Ireland and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes in the US since taxes on profits in the US are the highest in the world?
It isn’t that these corporations are not paying taxes, they are just paying taxes in another country. Instead of paying 35% in the US, they are paying less than half that in another country.
What we need is for these two groups (the Tea Party and Uncut) to get together and strike a compromise.
Lower the corporate tax rate so it is at least 1% lower than countries such as Ireland and Switzerland then we do not need to raise taxes on anyone else since American corporations would move home and pay taxes here instead of over there.
Then the two groups work together to see where to cut entitlement programs to both corporations and individuals that do not have jobs. If a corporation needs bail out money from the government to survive, let it fail and go out of business.
A good place to start would be to stop paying millionaire farmers subsidies to grow corn for biofuels or to not grow anything. How much does that cost the US annually?
The US could also save hundreds of billions by stopping Federal foreign aid to other countries—let private nonprofits help those that cannot help themselves outside the US such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Then cancel all food stamp programs to the underpaid and unemployed and if people can’t afford to buy food, give them a fifty pound bag of beans and rice each month and an empty cup with the word “WATER” printed on the side and maybe a jar of peanut butter along with a few loafs of the cheapest bread on the market. The peanut butter could have some vitamins in it. That’s it. No food stamps that allowed the unemployed to eat anything… If the unemployed or underemployed get tired of beans, rice, peanut butter and water, they can take back the eleven million jobs that go to undocumented illegal aliens from south of the US. That way, the unemployed will be working again instead of sitting around eating food stamp purchased food while watching TV and getting fatter.
For Medicare, if a person lives an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or too much fat around the middle, cut them out of the program unless they change to a healthy lifestyle. I’ve read that at least 60% of Americans are overweight so that would lower the number of people on Medicare and other Federal and state funded health programs.
Those with unhealthy lifestyles that refuse to change would die off faster removing that burden from the taxpayers that have jobs.
As for the FAILING schools. That could be solved quickly too. When kids don’t do homework or read the assignments as many don’t and fall behind academically, the parents go to jail for on the days they aren’t working and the kids are sent to juvenile boot camps where they are drilled as if they are in the Marines and can only get out when they study and catch up academically.
I had a neighbor once that was the second in command of a juvenile facility such as this in Los Angeles country and the hard core dysfunctional kids sent to those camps learned really fast when the only way of that juvenile prison facility was to catch up.
In fact, after these kids got out by catching up, the only way to go back was if they misbehaved and didn’t keep a C average in the regular public school classrooms.
The recidivism rate was the lowest in the country.
The only way for the family to stay reunited, was for the kid to do the schoolwork and behave while in a regular public school classroom keeping that C average or better.
“For Medicare, if a person lives an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or too much fat around the middle, cut them out of the program unless they change to a healthy lifestyle.”
And then, where does that stop? Everyone forced to get together in the morning to do exercises? Everyone forced to buy a stationary bike, and use it once a day for an hour? The health Nazis making routine rounds of homes and apartments to weigh, prod and measure? And then, no more soda and junk foods, only vegetables and fish. And then we can force everyone to save 10% of theirs income so the government has access to it, for the good of the nation. And on, and on. Be careful about how much liberty you give up to the government. They will always want to take more. Like taxes.
“What we need is for these two groups (the Tea Party and Uncut) to get together and strike a compromise”
No, Lloyd, what we need to do is get them together for a FIGHT TO THE DEATH.
There is no compromise with Lefties…they will never get off the gravy train, ever.
Teachers unions, Governmtment workers, punk slacker “students” in love with the smug coolness of being hipster left wing complainers…with the secret hope they will eventually BE on the inside just like Professors and Professional Agitators.
They’re not productive people….thet’re virtually unemployable outside of the Welfare System(s) of Tenure, Red Tape, and guaranteed student loans.
Their very existence depends on theivery, lies, and lies about the lies.
They need to be DEFEATED, not “compromised” with.
Hear, hear! I am sick unto death of hearing people tell the Republicans (the Right, the Tea Party, whoever) that *they* need to compromise with the Democrats. NO NO NO!!! This has been going on all my life–Democrats meet with Republicans and say, “sure, we’ll meet you halfway. We’ll cut spending.” Spending is NEVER cut and that is the root problem. Yes, there are problems with taxes being ridiculously complex, and problems with regulations on businesses that are mind-boggling, but the only way to solve the problem with the deficit is to CUT SPENDING.
Maybe the ‘pubs can steal a leaf from the democraps of 30 years ago, and promise to raise taxes in the future, but we need to shave just a teensy bit–ten percent?–off the budget right now.
More on the “Wanderer”: If you look at the video of all the line dancing in the B of A building, the video posted by U.S. Uncut itself, from 2:10 – 2:18, there he is, keeping time with the rest of them, as rehearsed, right in the middle.
The lameness of that flash mob proves once again that “message” art always sucks. I’d rather see the Hallelujah Chorus in the Canadian shopping mall or even people standing stock still in Grand Central any day. In fact, here’s an antidote to the anti-bank sentiment: a flash mob in Times Square put on by Wells Fargo: http://www.youtube.com/user/wellsfargo?v=xjG9ggZmttk&feature=pyv&ad=10615632692&kw=dance
I just did a pretty extensive search for evidence of the Albany, NY USuncut protest and here’s what I found:
Images – 0
Videos – 0
News stories – 1, NBC, referencing a protest 30 miles away – #’s ignored.
Facebook pages – 1, last updated 5 days before the protest.
By my unscientific estimates there are about 2000 people across the country who give a crap.
“Hey lady — stop making sense! Get back in the stereotype box the white liberals have built for you!”
Priceless.
Nice work as usual, Zombie.
I have tried to find some support for the claim that B of A pays no taxes, but couldn’t find any. It appears to be a false claim, or one that is strictly anecdotal. I found B of A’s last annual report on the web and they have been recording billions of dollars in tax expense since 2006, though I can’t tell if those taxes were all paid, or paid to the US or to other countries.
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=67562604-8280-4d56-8af4-a27f59d70de5 HERE A LINK TO INFO
Stogie
I have tried to find some support for the claim that B of A pays no taxes, but couldn’t find any. It appears to be a false claim, or one that is strictly anecdotal. I found B of A’s last annual report on the web and they have been recording billions of dollars in tax expense since 2006, though I can’t tell if those taxes were all paid, or paid to the US or to other countries.
Do not worry Moon Beam will light your way, he has obama juice!
I would be overjoyed if Obama would make like a good leftie and start a jihad to claw back a trillion dollars from Wall Street, but he can’t even get that right.
I don’t think they know what a flashmob is.
“The Infiltrator” seems to be a nice (looking) lady who only recently has become active. Some other young lady was labeled an infiltrator because of this video http://youtu.be/chwjQGNJ1sY. This attitude reminds me of my incessant “rally” hopping lefty friends who thought of these events as substitutes for actually organizing. It will have to become known amongst ourselves that rallies are not popularity contests but fun ways to network, much as I did in Sacramento. http://www.youtube.com/user/NeoLiberalPoverty Is the “Infiltrators” website, judge for yourself. Let me know when we start an apology thread for this “Just and Holy” lady.
Here’s her other video, showing her posing with her ta-tas hanging out in front of a crucifix on an American flag:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaKAW6McnLc
Who would do that in all seriousness? My “charlatan-meter” is registering. Also, the way she holds up the Glenn Beck book at the end — stagey.
Either something’s fishy, or they’re so kooky that they’re not worth deciphering.
I did judge for myself, and I agree with the girl who IDed her as an infiltrator of some kind.
What the hell is wrong with you? She’s an amateur with a camera; much like the rest of America who isn’t an employee of the lamestream media. Maybe if people didn’t make fun of her hoop skirts she would be inclined to forgo her skimpy tee. Of course its “stagey” she’s trying to pace her presentation without having to just hold up her book and looking too awkward. Here is my list for things that must be setting you off.
1. She’s very hot.
2. She uses the word Neoliberal, which you don’t know and or want to look up.
3. She isn’t interested in making “ironic” signs.
I suppose you might object to quoting Jeff Davis paraphrasing Romans; but I didn’t know that phrase was his until I was 35. If your serious about having a problem with it you should have explained it in your “article” but you didn’t. I consider her sign an ERROR, only for a moment; because our cause IS “just and holy” and now it will associated with us and not that other long forgotten fool. As it is the lamestream only has to overhear one reference to socialism and Obama to freak the F out, too which we respond “if the shoe fits”. I consider your charlatan meter underwhelming.
See this morning’s S.F. Chronicle.
To most politicians, “cut spending” means they spend more, but less than planned.
This year’s budget for program X: 4 billion
Original plan for next year: 9 billion
Revised plan: 6 billion
To the media: “As a champion of fiscal responsibility, I have cut spending on program X by 3 billion dollars!”
No one ever points out that spending INCREASED. A cut in pol-speak is more, but less more than originally planned.
What’s really needed are actual cuts. This year, program X: 4 billion. Next year: 3 billion. THAT’S a cut. Don’t hold you breath waiting for any politician to work like that though.
Well I guess us Tea Party Patriots might as well give up and go back home. How could we ever hope to compete with a huge turnout of 20 people in Chicago, LOL.
In my state, the entire Legislature is up for election this fall, so will will not be staging any rallies until the fall, and they will be local. We may be less noticeable in public, but we have become very active in local and state politics. So much for the premise that all we do is complain about things.
Favorite slogan remains “You tax us : We kill you”
Tea Party / NRA
Hey Jeffcoat! Nice to see you.
“When kids don’t do homework or read the assignments as many don’t and fall behind academically, the parents go to jail for on the days they aren’t working and the kids are sent to juvenile boot camps where they are drilled as if they are in the Marines and can only get out when they study and catch up academically.”
I love the idea of juvenile boot camps because it help instill good study and attendance habits in juveniles who are failing in school and could not keep up with school work..
Most juvenile boot camps are designed for mostly teenage boys, with very few targeting females. There are short term and there are long term boot camps for teens with more serious and in depth problems.
Here is an article which discusses the purpose of juvenile boot camps: http://www.teenbootcamps.org/boot-camps/what-is-the-purpose-of-juvenile-boot-camps.html