Occupy PDX

Sorry for the momentary black out… I was down the way in PDX (Portland for the uninformed… ;> D) doing the Occupy Portland in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I could not do the four or more hours it would have taken to be a part of the longer march through the streets.

The police estimated that 5-6000 people were part of the crowd. From what I saw there were possibly more than that involved. The police seemed cool to the proceedings and the way everything was done showed a lot of forethought in keeping everything focused. What I really loved was that the message is still nicely fractured and there are not leaders to co-opt.

As Randi Rhodes said today on the radio, “Accept no money, accept no help.” The funniest takes I heard in the last couple of days was Thom Hartmann quoting Gandhi, “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they listen to you and then you win.” It is funny because it is true. Seeing Faux Nooz trying to get ahead of what they cannot get ahead of is warming me all over.

One would have to be really, really stupid (I am talking on the order of single digit I.Q.’s) to ask a protester why they were there. There were so many creative signs explaining that WE (the 99%) have been marginalized by the current system. We have been so co-opted by corporate messaging that, oh gosh, what don’t you get? I have seen Nooz-casters flummoxed by the odd responses they get from protesters. All I can say is that if we do not get money out of our politics and reverse the Citizens United decision making corporations people there will be a festering wound for a very long time. The signs I saw being carried were varied but here is a short list of topics:

Jobs – Pass the American Jobs Act now

End corporate personhood

End the wars in Afghanistan & Iraq

We need single payer health care for all

Get the money out of the political process

Stop the corporate greed take over

Bring back the middle class

Jail the Banksters

Fix the Supreme Court (Recall Justices Thomas & Scalia)

Stop the lobbying carousel

Put Congress on the same medical & retirement system as everyone else

Re-regulate everything

Support planned parenthood

Support the unions

Well, you get the idea. It is all about undoing the Republican agenda of the last thirty or so years. The R’s have become the John Birch Society without anybody noticing. It was such a slow process that started with undermining the party with social issues. Being paid for by remote control by the richest individuals and corporations through a variety of lobbying/advertising firms the corruption is very, very clear now.

I will be at other future protesting planned for the next few weeks and hope that I can fill in and help channel positive change. Keep in mind that this is a lot like the anti-Viet Nam protests but even more important and broad based. Here we have literally dozens of issues (likely more) that need attention right now. This form of protestation is the best sort… rooted in deep unrest that it will not be held back once started. 

Next week - Occupy Vancouver 

The Slow Burn Speeds Up

In taking a few days off this extended weekend I missed the blow by blow description of what happened all over the country.  The protests that I have been expecting really took off.  There are just so many things wrong and there is a broken, disconnected group that was elected in 2010 that is further exacerbating and magnifying the problems while offering NO solutions.

The Keystone XL pipeline approval by the State Department has been exposed to be a lobbying, insider, job by Big Oil.  The protests are just getting larger despite the large number of arrests.


New York Times Op-ed

The Occupy Wall Street group has been maced, arrested and grown to a nationwide protest.  There are the beginnings of media coverage.  The fact that it has grown from taking place in New York to twelve or more cities across the country speaks volumes about the brokenness of the system.

For the Rebuild the American Dream movement the underpinnings for intellectual change and framework to correct the Constitution to take corporate person-hood out of the law.  The move to take the lobbying money out of the election system will, more than anything else, fix many of the problems we have in this country.  Unwittingly the Tea Party is helping by being so intransigent and saying, “No” to every proposal.  The truly large part in this is what should make the richest of us concerned that they will be brought to justice.

In the states, like Ohio, Wisconsin and the like, the Republican Governors that have developed union busting laws, voter disenfranchisement, cutting education and other negatives are getting their constituents riled enough to start recall elections.  This is a very different atmosphere than back in May when the disgust was only slightly on the surface.

Malcolm X Had it Right

Again, there are so many issues that are tied together through the politics that it is now clear that things WILL change.  It is as strong as evolution.  It is as inevitable as sunrise.

From AnonOps

 Here's the deal... the video that went with this was DELETED from YouTube.  That is to say it was CENSORED.  Ponder THAT for awhile.

The video was censored, but you can read the content here:

Greetings, people of the world. We are Anonymous.

As many of you are aware, over the past several days, significant demonstrations have been held in protest of the corrupt financial system that favors the richest 1% of our nation; while the remaining 99% have to deal with things such as abuse of our civil rights, overseas outsourcing of our jobs, and living off minimum wage while gas hovers around $3.50 a gallon. The minimal attention given to these demonstrations has caused growing concern, with rumors of media blackouts and repealed news coverage becoming increasingly harder to deny.

We would like to thank those in our national media that chose to cover the truth about the events of the wall street occupation. Your contribution to society will not go unrecognized.

Unfortunately, this coverage has not been sufficient, we must now take efforts to spread the truth into our own hands. It is now up to us, the people of this great nation, to act for ourselves. We must share the truth through our social networks, by texting, instant/private messaging, posting, and blogging to our friends and relatives. We must take to the streets and speak of the truth in our coffee shops and mall outlets. Our voices will be heard.

Bloggers, dedicate your blogs to Occupy Wall Street,

Website owners, Write an article about Occupy Wall Street,

People in urban areas, Pass out and post up flyers about Occupy Wall Street,

Social network users, Flood your twitter accounts with OccupyWallStreet hashtags, post videos, articles, and any news about Occupy Wall Street.

Share this call to action, and encourage others to do the same.

To those currently occupying, stay strong, always know that you have our support.
We will not allow tyrannical police to oppress and bully you. Stay peaceful, stay vigilant, and know that you are making our nation proud.

To the police who wish to remain tyrannical, we will continue to show our support for the peaceful protesters. You will be exposed for the inhumane offences you commit, and everyonewill know just who you are and what you have done. Your information will be posted everywhere and mirrored everywhere.

If you strip the freedom away from our peaceful protestors, then we shall strip your privacy away from you.

To the people of the world:

You are Anonymous.
You are Legion.
You are the media.
You are the voice of truth.
You can not forgive.
You can not forget.
They should expect us.

Voter Suppression

Clearly there have been several efforts to suppress voter registration this last year.  The Wisconsin installation of a required ID card that is supposed to be free but only if you know to check a box on the application; otherwise there will be a charge that staff will not prompt you on.  Similar things have been happening in Texas, Alabama and other states.  The effort to put polling in difficult to access places were the poor will wait for long periods to vote... unlike rich areas where there is no waiting.  Some bills have even been introduced to undo mail in voting.

 

The Slow Burn Revolution

The last few weeks has seen the resurgence of public protest over many issues.  The tar sands Keystone XL pipeline where over 1200 people were arrested in Washington D.C. while exercising their first amendment rights to protest was a kickoff a few weeks back.  Currently the Occupy Wall Street protest is a good deal more violent (perpetrated by the NYPD) than others that are going on.  I have been to four protests (some called rallies) of a smaller scale here in Vancouver.  None of these has received national media attention until there was violence.  The media then tried to say that protest is by its nature violent and should we allow it.  Allow it?

Wait, it is a right we have in this country to protest.  It is a right we have to have access to our representatives.  The summer recess by Congress had representatives going to their home districts and having various pay-to-access schemes going on to limit the representatives access.  Many in the Tea Party did NOT want to face the electorate and many did NOT want to hear complaints of their performance during the debt "crisis".  

This activist surge will continue.  It has been building for thirty years and is about to become more and more visible despite the major media trying to minimize it.  Hopefully it will not get more violent but the longer this goes the harder that will be to carry out.    

 

NYPD officer who did the macing... prior incidents.

Getting Your Arms Around the Issue

Briefly said, there are two articles that may help one visualize the problem of not taxing the richest 400 families in the country.  (Taking the rich off of welfare).

The Tea Party Refuses to See Common Sense 

Visualizing the Size of the Money! 

A Climate Change Deniers Nightmare

Imagine that you woke up in the morning and there was widespread acceptance that Global Warming / Climate Change was real!  You may already know that it is real because you have read enough of the scientifically based information to KNOW that it is real.  It is not a matter of dogma or ideology; it is not a matter of right thinking; it is not even a matter of conflicting scientific information (because there is not any).  

We have examples every day now that the change is occurring and will continue to occur.  So, why does anyone fight the notion that climate change is happening?  If you own an oil company you pretty much have a vested interest is denying that anything remotely like climate change is happening because of the products you sell.  And that is where the misdirection and misinformation comes from.  Oil companies have, indeed, hired people (I hesitate to say scientists) to refute the claims of scientists.  When you look at the poor examples of information and fuzzy thinking they offer in their "refutations" you come away with a sense of disbelief that anyone can think that all the people can be fooled.

Here's an article that explores a bit of this:

Global Warming: Why Americans Deny 

So, when you wake up and there are no more deniers around... what will you DO today that is different than yesterday?