The Sad Demise of the Occupy Movement

Remember when the Democratic Party saw the Occupy movement as the Left’s equivalent of the Tea Party? That lasted until it became obvious that 1) Occupy wasn’t actually much of a movement, and 2) to the extent it existed, it was an embarrassment. Occupy is in the process of fading away, not with a bang but a whimper, and with more criminal prosecutions to its credit than normal citizens converted to the leftist cause.

But, much as a dead frog’s legs will continue kicking for a while, a few remnants of Occupy cling to a fitful existence. To see what the “movement” is up to these days, check out this online diary that documents the Occupy Caravan. The Caravan is a group of nine leftists who are driving, in two minivans, from California to Philadelphia. The diary, by one James Jennison, is hilarious but sad. You can’t help feeling sorry for this ragtag band of misfits who evidently think they are making some kind of political statement.

Jennison was worried about how many people would show up in Oakland, but not for the reason you might expect:

My fears were also abated when I started seeing people start to show up. I don’t know how many people I was expecting to show up, but I have to admit, I was worried that we would not have enough room to bring everyone.

Fortunately, we left Oakland with 9 people. We have 4 people in each van, and one person traveling in his own vehicle.

Jennison is candid in expressing concerns about one of his fellow travelers:

Well, it’s been an interesting past couple of hours. I’m really having some doubts regarding one of the people in the van I am in. He is extremely confrontational, controlling, and, in my humble opinion, thinks way to [sic] highly of himself.

I don’t know what is going to come out of this with him. I’m definitely not comfortable with having him on this trip. I’m really wishing I had voiced my concerns about him before we left yesterday. Now I worry about how miserable I am going to be for most of this trip.

I have the option of switching to the other van when we reach Elko, however the van I am in is the only one with a power inverter, and I need to be able to charge the phone and battery pack to be able to stream.

This is going to be a very long trip

Little did he know! Here is the photo of the whole group at the beginning of their “road trip;” I’m guessing the unwelcome Caravaner is either Guy Fawkes or the guy in the Uncle Sam hat. I’m not sure what is going on with the woman (?) with the breathing apparatus:

The Caravan group continued to have interpersonal as well as technical issues:

So, I apologize for not being able to finish my blog post from yesterday, but the place we camped out last night had absolutely no cell coverage at all.

So, I am doing today a little differently today as I am not riding in either of the caravan minivans. I’m actually riding with Roy today, primarily because I want to avoid the problems I had with Allred yesterday.

One wonders: this blog probably has fewer than 15 readers; isn’t Allred one of them?

The Caravan photos are priceless. I wouldn’t want to suggest that these well-subsidized liberals partake of illegal drugs, but these two–I think maybe the blog author and his girlfriend, but I am not sure of that–definitely look like members of the Choom Gang:

Who said the hippie era is done and gone? In OccupyWorld, it is still 1969:

By now, you may wonder what the skeleton crew who comprise the Occupy Caravan think they are accomplishing. The early days of their Road Trip featured a fair amount of sightseeing and camping out, but no political activism. Finally, on day 6, they reached Wichita, Kansas, and swung into action:

The big excitement for us today was the protest we did at Koch Industries. Granted, it was a Saturday, and there was nobody there other than a few security guards, we did get some honks of support from vehicles that were passing by.

Their “big excitement” was visiting Koch Industries when it was closed? That is sort of like David Axelrod dispatching protesters to heckle Mitt Romney the day after he gave a speech. And I wouldn’t assume that anyone who honked his horn necessarily intended to express support for the Occupy Caravan.

The building that houses Koch Industries, as you can see from the photo above, to me, seemed to be very monolithic. It was this huge, black glassed building, that to me, looked like it came directly from the belly of the beast.

Here is the accompanying photo. To me, it looks like a really typical corporate headquarters:

Our bold Occupiers were willing to defy the law to make a political statement:

We were only on the property for about 10 minutes, before security came out and told us we had to leave and that we were trespassing.

There were 4 security officers that came out to confront us. When they told us that we were on “private property”, and that if we refused to leave, they would call the police [sic]. Most of the folks who were there in protest stepped back from the property, however, there were a few of us, myself [sic] included. who refused to leave. When I asked for the security officer to show me a prominent sign posting that we were on “private property”, they [sic] were unable to do so.

Eventually, Wichita Police showed up, and also stated that we were trespassing on “Private Property.”

I love the scare quotes around “private property.” No doubt if someone trespassed on our Occupier’s lawn, he would call the cops. Private property is only a questionable concept when it is someone else’s.

For some reason Mr. Jennison, our online diarist, didn’t post any photos of his confrontation with the Wichita authorities. But we got a couple of pictures from a third party who happened by. Here you see the Caravaners engaging in a sort of Socratic dialogue with the Wichita police:

The Left has poured a lot of money into the Occupy “movement.” Is this pathetic performance really the best they can buy? Evidently so. Looking on the bright side, this gang isn’t committing any felonies; for the moment, at least. This photo sheds light on the Caravan’s ideology:

These signs are funny in a couple of respects. First we have have the guy who says, “Where’s my bailout? Too small to fail!” He may be under the misapprehension that Koch has been the beneficiary of a bailout. That is untrue, of course. On the contrary, the Koch brothers a) make money, and b) have consistently opposed all bailouts. Liberals, on the other hand, have supported all of them. Does this guy understand whose side he is on?

Then we have the woman who says, “Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.” This is a mean-spirited reference to the fact that Charles and David Koch have given hundreds of millions of dollars to charities of various kinds. Charity I understand, but what is “justice withheld”? I suppose that refers to the fact that the Kochs haven’t given any of their money to the woman who holds the sign. Except indirectly, through taxes, of course; but she, as a good liberal, wants more.

The Occupy movement started out pathetic and went downhill from there. It is easy to feel sorry for the last remnants, like the Caravaners, who have nothing better to do than to drive across the country pretending to be involved in some kind of political activism so as to keep their sponsors’ cash flowing. Such natural sympathy, however, shouldn’t be allowed to obscure what a malignant phenomenon the dying Occupy movement has been.

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