It’s my MARKet, so I’m gonna Share…As 2011 comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back on the year.  A year of “winning” for Charlie Sheen and a year of losing, especially if you were a sworn enemy of the USA like Osama…..The word of the year was “Occupy.”  We saw squares occupied, we saw park occupied, we saw Wall St. occupied and we found out the Penn State locker room was occupied in a very disturbing way.  One thing not occupied were jail cells by pretty white girls such as Lindsay Lohan, Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox.  Maybe before they freed her, we could have traded the cast of Jersey Shore to stay in Italy in Knox’s place?  Nope, they didn’t want them either…The Occupy Wall Street movement began as a protest against corporate greed with one small problem, they were bankrolled and supported by the greedy corporations they were railing against.  The very park they claimed to occupy was owned by a real estate company who gave their permission for the protesters to stay.  This hypocrisy of a movement quickly spread across the country as others heeded the call to get out of mom and dad’s house and make a stand.  At least until the police got too unfriendly and the weather turned cold.  Despite massive media coverage that tried to give this movement legitimacy, Occupy Camps quickly eroded into drug-fueled party scenes with numerous reports of violence and attacks against women.  The leaders of the movement weren’t much help.  They were spending their nights in luxury hotel rooms telling the press “They don’t do tents.”  How could the disenfranchised and silent majority fighting corporate greed afford a luxury hotel room you ask?  Simple.  At last count, the Occupy Wall Street movement has banked in over $750,000,  money raised to support a movement to aid the “99%” made the movement itself part of the 1%.  And who is accountable for all that money?  The same guys “leading” the street protest from their hotel rooms.  Am I the only one seeing something wrong with this picture?  Of course a movement is only as good and popular as the celebrities who support it.  A number of the rich and famous came down to lend support, offering pizzas like Kevin Smith did or cleaning supplies from Russell Simmons.  And after all the pepperoni slices and brooms were handed out, the celebrities got back in their chauffer driven cars and went on their way.  Susan Sarandon stopped by but only briefly.  As the protesters were all in their 20’s, none knew who she was and she had to catch a flight for a European vacation, but hey, it was great of her to visit.  The biggest joke of the whole movement against “corporate greed” though were the sights of all these protesters on their iPhones and blackberries and computers using media like Twitter and Facebook to get their message out there and across.  Yes, the protesters supported the very companies they were against.  Now that winter is here, the protesters have all packed up and went home.  The media has moved on and so has this farce.  You want to protest against greedy companies, feel free.  Just make sure you deliver your message via carrier pigeon so as to not support all the companies who are making the products overseas with cheap labor that are now in your hands and pockets.  It dilutes the impact of your message…The train wreck of the year was a tough contest.  Is it Kim Kardashian, who had the mis-fortune to cast the role of groom in her wedding to an uncooperative dolt basketball player?  Is it Amy Winehouse who showed us she did have the last word and wouldn’t go back to rehab?  Is it the divorces of Demi and Ashton and Maria and Arnold after cheating scandals?  No.  While all were fodder for ridicule, the biggest train wreck and melt down of the year belonged to former NY Congressman (and unfortunately named) Anthony Weiner.  The married Weiner attempted to send a shot of his same-named body part via a direct message on Twitter to a college girl he had been communicating with.  However, technology failed him when instead of it being a private message, his picture went out to all his followers.  Weiner quickly claimed he was hacked but then refused to answer any questions about the issue or ask for police to look into the matter. Hmmmmm.  As the questions became more insistent and louder, Weiner finally broke down and admitted yes, he did send the picture and yes, he had been communicating with a number of women.  He promptly resigned from Congress, left Twitter and went into the marriage repair business.  His wife, who was pregnant at the time of the scandal, remained icily silent.  She by the way works for Hillary Clinton, another woman who knows a little something about political husbands being naughty.  This was a man who was being touted as the next possible Mayor of NYC or Governor of the state and now he just hopes to go a week without hearing his name from late-night comics.  Congratulations Anthony.  You are the train wreck of the year……The scariest trend of 2011 is a tie.  Instead of flash mobs dancing in train stations, 2011 bought us flash thefts taking place in 7-11’s and other stores across the country.  Groups of thugs invade a store en masse, terrorize the workers, take what they want and leave.  The other new trend was the emergence of fast food customers taking their dissatisfaction to a whole new level.  Gone are the days or complaining to the manager when you didn’t get your fries.  Now customers just hop over the counter and try to beat the employee to death.  Or each other.  Customers took out their anger on each other almost as often as they did servers.  When I stop somewhere for a Big Gulp or a cheeseburger, I want to worry about my waist line, not the line to the emergency room…Lastly, the “Boo” of the year goes to Congress.  Never has an organization hired, elected really, to serve a group of people failed so miserably and worked so hard in a concerted effort to work against the same people who put them in place.  Party fighting trumped all as time after time Congress put the country on the verge of economic collapse.  America may be the greatest country on the planet, but if our so-called leaders don’t start doing more for the citizens than they do themselves, 2012 will sadly see a continuation of the economic hardships of 2011 instead of the recovery we all so desperately want……2011 is gone.  2012 is here.  No clue what is on the horizon, but at least once a month, I’ll stop by here to share my thoughts on it.  It is my MARKet after all….Here’s to wishing all of you a save, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  Thank you for sharing a few minutes with me every month……OK, I’ve shared. Now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Have at it. See you next month…and year.