TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross

Dollars from heaven

July 5, 2012 @ 7:31 am (Updated: 9:18 am - 7/5/12 )

Free cash always captures your attention and it doesn't take a lot.

When Abbie Hoffman brought the New York Stock Exchange to a halt in 1967 by scattering dollar bills, he only had $300.

There's just something irresistible about flying currency, whether it's scattered accidentally from an overturned Brinks truck, or deliberately by the U.S. Treasury. Which is why Wednesday, members of a group called MicCheckWallStreet went into an upper room of the Seattle's Roosevelt Hotel, and according to a video they posted, unzipped a duffel bag, one of them says "go", and they start flinging handfuls of cash out the window.

Five thousand genuine dollar bills printed with the message "Money as speech silences us all" with a black X over George Washington's mouth.

The idea was to protest the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that's dropped untold millions into the presidential campaign.

Now, you may agree or disagree with the Occupy Movement, but as a member of the masses who these various groups are trying to sway, I just want to say I heartily endorse the concept of scattering cash to do it.

In fact, I think our Personified Corporations should do it too!

Why buy all that TV time? We're just gonna blip past your ads anyway. Print your message on real money and toss it from a building. WE WILL READ THAT! And we will spend it with someone else who will read it. This is the kind of advertising America has been waiting for, where we the audience gets reimbursed for our attention. It's also the one way of infusing some cash into this economy that might actually work.

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Comments (9)


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  • Lonestar wrote...
    Obviously SEIU money
    July 5, 2012 9:01 am
    Any SEIU members out there? How do you feel about your mandatory union dues being tossed out a hotel window?
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  • restlessoul18 wrote...
    NOT SEIU money
    July 6, 2012 9:16 am
    Just so it's clear, the money that was thrown off the hotel was donated money. The groups ethos function in a manner that we do NOT collect money and then spend it on anything we see fit. We gather donations per specific action.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Interesting concept of protest. But self defeating in the end.
    July 5, 2012 9:03 am
    Using money as speech to protest using money as speech. Yet, if successful in their protest, these MicCheck guys would only be able to protest by throwing away their OWN money - not their group's.

    I would assume that if corporations (and unions) are to be barred from free speech (and, yes, donated man hours IS equal to money), then ANY other organization should be so barred. A personified corporation can just as easily be a personified Elks club or a personified Joe's Bar. .. Be careful what you wish for.

    Of course, Dave, if it's true that citizens are just going to 'blip past' paid TV ads anyway (and those who don't are probable kids or people who can't or won't vote), that Occupy/99% crowd should be HAPPY corporations are wasting so much money for no generated votes.

    But if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Perhaps the occupy people can get jobs passing out political hand bills with dollar bills attached to those who blip past TV ads. --- Bet THAT would work out real well.

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  • maplefish wrote...
    OWS
    July 5, 2012 9:10 am
    Are still a bunch of fools. And giving away money to protest money is stupid. Why not give that money to starving children or the elderly? Or use the money for some soap?
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  • Roark wrote...
    Defacing money? Isn't that illegal?
    July 5, 2012 9:51 am
    Great. Now everybody will start throwing money out of tall buildings instead of running it through the Marketing industry and creating jobs. Come to think of it, that's a good idea based on what I've seen from the Marketing industry lately. But if everyone starts defacing the money that would probably not be a good thing. Dollar bills would be so covered in advertising we wouldn't be able to use them.
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  • Moondoggie wrote...
    Cash for Clunkers
    July 5, 2012 10:15 am
    My first thought was that this was just like Cash for Clunkers because the $5,000 was about the same as what the Government wasted on each car sold, but I was wrong. In the Cash for Clunkers program the used cars that people turned in were destroyed,thus the $5,000 evaporated. But here the $5,000 was just transfered to someone else.
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  • rational wrote...
    sounds like litering
    July 5, 2012 5:38 pm
    to go along with loitering.
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  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    How about some "Stimulus" money?
    July 6, 2012 12:59 am
    Except it would be thrown up from a hole as opposed to down from a building.
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  • myopinion wrote...
    Maplefish
    July 6, 2012 7:27 am
    The same can be said of the coporations that are dumping untold millions into the coffers of the politicians to sway votes because that is why they try and get someone voted into office. Why don't they take all that money and sponsor dental car for the elderly and children, or healthcare for elderly and children. Don't be caught up in this why dont they spend thier money on feeding people when the same can be said for the companies. These coporations want something for their money they are not buying a seat in congress for nothing. So don't be stupid.
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