SFBG Radio: A left-wing tea party?

10.01.11 - 6:50 pm | Tim Redmond |

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In this episode, Johnny and economist Johnny Venom talk about the Wall Street protests, what will and won't work, whether the system is too rigged -- and possibly the birth of a left-wing tea party. Check it out after the jump.

FivePointsOfVenom by endorsements2011

SFBG Radio

Comments

Guys.....

When you start hearing Chuck Schumer going along with this, then maybe the shut downs will have worked.

As is the Democratic Party isn't gonna do diddley.

Posted by Beast Of Bourbon on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 7:05 pm

When the right wingers protest

Funny they don't arrest people when the right wing Tea Baggers protest. Funny how that is.

Posted by Greg on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 7:14 pm

The Tea Party went from nothing to winning the House

for the GOP in about 2 years. Whatever you think of them, they've changed the dynamic of political discourse in the US, as you appear to acknowledge by this hoped-for analogy, Tim.

So I guess the crucial question here is this. Do 500 people on the Brooklyn Bridge amount to a force that can win the House back in 2012?

We'll know in 13 months but i have to say it doesn't seem too likely. Not that I blame you for such wishful thinking.

Posted by PaulT on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 7:18 pm

In related protests elsewhere

In related protests elsewhere in the country, 25 people were arrested in Boston for trespassing while protesting Bank of America’s foreclosure practices, according to Eddy Chrispin, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department. The protesters were on the grounds and blocking the entrance to the building, Mr. Chrispin said.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/police-arresting-protesters...

Posted by Armando on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 7:31 pm

Tea Party Won The House

According to the resident "arse-licker" here.

In reality, high unemployment won the House.

As far as the Tea Party went, how'd their candidates do in Colorado, Alaska, Delaware and Nevada, arse-licker?

Republicans may be genetically pathetic, but you're like some disaster that slid off a Petrie dish.

Posted by Perkins on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 8:03 pm

Perky, my point is that the Tea Party has been successful

in a very short time period, so it's understandable that Tim would seek to emulate that success for his own side.

Posted by PaulT on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 10:25 am

The Tea Party IS the Republican Party, Period

They're all Republicans, Arse-licker.

90% of them voted for McCain, 90% white, 90% Republican.

And they cost the GOP the Senate, so a "success"?

Nope.

Posted by Perkins on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 10:32 am

Deeper Analysis - Tea Party Is Corporate Manipulation To Fascism

The Tea Party is a dangerous fiction. It doesn't even actually exist as a real movement.

In reality, it is massive funding from very powerful corporations and industries being used to manipulate middle class conservatives (who are pissed off at their screwed lives) into becoming a dangerous wedge with which to leverage a fascist state upon us.

If we are to fight an enemy, we need to properly identify that enemy.

In this case the Kochs and others, who are very dangerously manipulating the United States and its people, in just the same way that corporations manipulated Germany and -its- people in order to bring about the rise of the Brown Shirts and the Third Reich.

Posted by Eric Brooks on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 11:06 am

Middle class conservatives

Elderly white people that can't believe they can't call minorities names anymore in public = Tea Party.

Posted by guest on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 11:18 am

That's Just The Facade That The Kochs Want You To Fixate On

That's just the facade that the Koch brothers and others want you to fixate on and obsess about, while they manipulate both the Democrats and Republicans, in order to take complete corporate control of this country.

Posted by Eric Brooks on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 12:05 pm

All differences apart, Eric, I believe that one of the key

aspects of the Tea Party is that it is a ground-up movement, and not a top-down corporate initiative. That is presumably why Tim sees a similar possibility with a grassroots liberal movement.

It is also my understanding that the Tea Party is funded mainly by individuals. And indeed, the TP opposed many of the corporate bailouts as being "big government", so that doesn't jive with them being corporate lackeys.

Note: I'm not a Tea Party member and am a registered Democrat. I was even a registered Green at one point.

Posted by PaulT on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 11:52 am

Good lord...

It is most assuredly a corporate initiative.

To wit:

MADISON-The Koch Brothers-funded "Tea Party Bus," a front group for corporate special interests that seek the end of Wisconsin's middle class, is coming in Sunday along with other out-of-state special interests to prop up Luther Olsen and his support for the radical overreach of Scott Walker.

Olsen, who has slavishly followed the Koch Brothers/Scott Walker agenda to cut education, health care and vital services to preserve tax cuts for out-of-state corporations that kill Wisconsin jobs, was already benefiting from hundreds of thousands of dollars in shady special interest money in advance of his recall election Tuesday.

"Luther Olsen does not have the support of the people of his district, so he has to bus in a carnival of lies in the form of the corporate "Tea Party." These phony Washington operators don't have the best interests of Wisconsin in mind and neither does Luther Olsen," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Sunday. "On Tuesday, it will be time for voters of the 14th Senate District to choose someone who listens to them, and not those out-of-state corporations that are killing Wisconsin's middle class."

And this:

That is presumably why Tim sees a similar possibility with a grassroots liberal movement.>>

Where in the webcast does Tim say this?

Posted by guest on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 12:40 pm

It's natural perhaps that business would get behind any

movement that has as it's priority a reduction in the role of the government.

But the point I was arguing, and that I think Tim meant, was that the TP was initially a grassroots initiative. Obviously, once it quickly became established and influential, corporations might reasonably see the point in giving them support, in much the same way as Unions might give financial support to a movement like Tim hopes for.

Posted by PaulT on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 2:51 pm

Tim's wishes

Tim isn't on this thing.

You're commenting on something you haven't even heard.

Posted by Guest on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 4:04 pm

Tim wrote the piece. Take it up with him if you

thinks he is wrong about the parallels and analogies he cited. But, for once, I agree with Tim.

Posted by PaulT on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 4:17 pm

Left-wing Tea Party

Your point is spot-on.

There would be no Tea Pary without the Koch Brothers.

Posted by Guest Dahlia Blair on Oct. 03, 2011 @ 4:51 pm

The problem with the organization of the Occupy movement is....

....message creep. Johnny Venom nailed it when he said that they need to unite around five core principles. They need to focus on a small number of issues to get their mission across to the widest possible group.

Posted by Lime Spider on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 7:22 pm

These are five demands I

These are five demands I would put in the manifesto rather than the ones that Johnny Venom recommends:

1. An end to all current US wars.
2. Repeal of the Patriot Act,
3. An end to Wall Street bailouts and corporate welfare.
4. Legalization of cannabis ; amnesty for those convicted of drug crimes.
5. Cutting the defense budget.

Posted by Lime Spider on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 7:34 pm

Awesome...

but don't forget: Tax the Rich!

Posted by Lisa on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 3:54 pm

And, Local Decentralized Clean Energy & A Green Jobs New Deal

Localizing and decarbonizing is actually key to evolving grassroots democracy because it puts control of the most fundamental necessity, energy, into the hands of the people instead of corporations.

Posted by Eric Brooks on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 4:11 pm

Great suggestion, Eric!

That's what's so exciting about this uprising~ how the ideas are percolating as people dream up alternatives to the current system of capitalist greed and exploitation. This is grassroots democracy at its best.

David Graeber wrote a great article about this in the Guardian ("Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination")~

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/25/occupy-wa...

Prenez vos rêves pour des réalités!

Posted by Lisa on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 5:35 pm

har

How do you plan on getting your clean en energy plans past the "environmentalists"?

Posted by meatlock on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 7:22 pm

To The Naysayers

Chew on this:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/10/01/semper-fi-marines-coming-to-prot...

Posted by Johnny Wendell on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 9:10 pm

Beast of Bourbon

Regardless of your politics, LOVE YOUR HANDLE.
Yeah, the Democrats are almost as useless as the rest of them.

Posted by Paul T on Oct. 01, 2011 @ 9:45 pm

Semper Fi

Check here for original post
http://www.reddit.com
Search under:-
theenemywasme
We've had the Arab Spring
Time for the Amerikan Fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHI9BTpGkp8

Posted by Patrick Monk RN on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 12:16 am

Jail the Wall Street Gangsters !!!!

Jail the Wall Street Gangsters and all the politicians who aided and abetted their looting of America!!!

Posted by SF T Party on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 7:45 am

Jail the Wall Street Gangsters !!!

Jail the Wall Street Gangsters and all the politicians who aided and abetted their looting of America!!!

Posted by SF T Party on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 7:46 am

Uh, isn't this called jumping

Uh, isn't this called jumping the shark? The bay guardian mentioning the possibility of a left wing tea party?
Maybe headed by
Marcos
Erik Brooks
Pat monk

Just maybe

Posted by Guest on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 8:32 pm

Wouldn't the left wing Tea party be

the greens?

Or perhaps people who identify themselves as progressives?

Posted by meatlock on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 10:41 pm

You missed Greg Kamin

Guest,

You got my other buddies whom I side with 90% of the time but you missed Greg Kamin who used to post as 'Westsider' and now posts as simply 'Greg' and denies his surname. He's the worst of the lot. Threatens lawsuit at the drop of a hat. He once came into a balcony empty but for my videographer (Tony De Renzo) at the Chris Daly roast and went over to where Tony was set up already and put his camera right next to Tony's and then knocked Tony's equipment down (Greg has a stout little body that could be - I'm no expert - steroid enhanced) ...

So, the guy breaks Tony's equipment and then threatens lawsuit because we complain?

Yeah, I'm a 67 year old Lefty who first worked on Adlai Stevenson's '52 campaign and I don't want these guys carrying our mantle.

Go Niners!

Posted by h. brown on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 9:14 pm

I used to cringe at h's posts

Back when people saw you as progressive, I used to cringe at your posts. I mean, here we are trying to build a movement to make people's lives better, and every so often we have to explain why there's a crazy little sexist, anti-semitic alcoholic turd running around in our midst. You're an embarrassment h, a boil on the body of progressive politics.

But now that nobody can mistake you for a progressive anymore, I don't cringe so much. In fact, I say, please post some more! When I look at your posts filled with delusional obsessions with other people's identity and irrelevant crap about sports, I think about how happy I am that you're shilling for Gascon, Miyamoto, Adachi and his union-busting initiatives.

Please, tell us again why you hate women and Jews, and why Gascon Miyamoto and Adachi are the candidates we should vote for, in the same breath. I'm sure they'll appreciate the advertising from one so eloquent as you.

Oh yeah, and be sure to tell everyone Go Giants ...for the umpteenth time.

Posted by Greg on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 9:58 pm

I hate to get into the middle of your little pissing contest

Thanks for the um, compliment??? Well I do try to eat right and go to the gym, but, nope, no steroids.

It may come as a complete shock to you, but not every Greg in the world is me. But I will agree with this much: you're not making much sense these days, not on your speculations about people's identity, or on the candidates who you support. Can't say I'm a big Gascon fan. I'm glad you're not carrying my mantle, 'cause I'm sure not carrying yours.

Posted by Greg K on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 11:13 pm

Where are Mirkarimi's aides' testimony?

Gregs 'X' and Kamin,

Where are the testimonies of Mirkarimi's paid legislative assistants assuring us that he is not in fact an abusive and narcissistic boss who'd be a disaster were he given control of 950 deputies and nearly 2,000 prisoners?

Kamin, you can curse me from behind 'Guest' or 'Kamin' or 'Westside' or 'X'. One thing that you'll never be man enough to do is carry my jock. On any level.

So, let's hear those testimonials from Ross' aides.

Been a couple of days now.

And, never forget, it was your slandering of Miyamoto who'll make a hell of a Sheriff that brought this on your brow. Whatever you're calling yourself today.

Adachi for Mayor!

Baum for Mayor!

Avalos for Mayor!

Hall for Mayor!

Gascon for DA!

Miyamoto for Sheriff!

Anonymous posters for the trash bin.

Go Niners!

Posted by h. brown on Oct. 02, 2011 @ 11:49 pm

They probably have more important things to do

than mix it up with you. Do you have any testimony from any of them to back up *your* slanderous statements about Ross? C'mon h, let's see it. Not just you saying it's so, because we all know that you're prone to making shit up on the fly. Do you have any actual "testimony" where you can drag someone to the Guardian board to say it? I'm not the one who started that idiocy, but if you want to play that game, put up or shut up.

As for Miyamoto... my guess is he comes in third. Cunnie's the real threat here. But he'll be happy to know that a certain alcoholic, sexist anti-semite is just wild about him. Tell me h, do you hate Ross so much because he's half Jewish? Maybe when all this is done you can ask Miyamoto to "carry your jock," whatever that means. Just leave me out of that.

Posted by Greg on Oct. 03, 2011 @ 8:02 am

Reliable source ?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-02/koch-brothers-flout-law-getting...

Posted by Patrick Monk RN on Oct. 03, 2011 @ 11:36 am

No free ride for you Greg Kamin

You do have a mouth on you,

As long as you attack Miyamoto baselessly, I'll go after Ross. I've personally witnessed Ross' behavior for the last decade. I don't hate him at all. He's simply not qualified for the post and he'd be deserting the D-5 supe position in all liklihood to London Breed for 9 years.

You really can't find a former paid staffer to deny Ross is an abusive narcissist?

And, if you want to get around my using your name then stop using 'Greg'.

NIners real?

Could be. Could be.

Posted by h. brown on Oct. 03, 2011 @ 12:46 pm

Actually I don't really care

And neither does Ross, I'm sure.

Actually I kind of find your antics funny.

-You're not that great about figuring out people's identity, because I'm really not who you think I am.
-Ross is probably more than happy to not have you on his side, because your endorsement is like the kiss of death.
-The only people who you're actually harming is the candidates who you support. You make anti-semitic remarks and harass women, and then you talk about how lovely it would be for Miyamoto and Gascon to be elected.

Next time I see them in a public forum, I'll have to ask them what they think about having your endorsement! My guess is that it will work out for them about as well as it did for Meeko in D6.

Posted by Greg on Oct. 03, 2011 @ 2:46 pm

I loved Naomi Klein's response

"...when another protester asked: 'Some Democrat leaders say this is the answer to the Tea Party. Why do you disagree with that?', Klein's answer was terse: 'I think this is the answer to the Democratic party.'"

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/10/naomi_klein_to.php

Posted by Lisa on Oct. 08, 2011 @ 4:19 pm