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Whether you realize it or not your philosophy embraces anarchy mirroring the philosophy of the 1% being grieved. It's an abandonment of principles that founded this nation. Whatever complaints middle class has about the bottom 1% they're failing to see them following the lead of top 1%. Civilization doesn't exist for the purpose of having fish in a barrel to shoot. Those 'fish' have the right to self defense. Once select individuals elevate themselves above the law by legalizing theft in one way contracts, they no longer deserve the protections of said civilization. It shouldn't matter who you are or what alias you're hiding behind.
By the standards of current business paradigms running amok, thanks to SCOTUS, Al Qaeda & Taliban ought to be a corporation and enjoy defense & representation from US Government. When a crime is too large not many can see it for what it is, but that doesn't make it less of a crime. All of western civilization is suffering from what amounts to be financial terrorism. The system must change & ethical standards for commerce restored. Failing to do so is permission for a million Enron's to displace legitimate commerce into extinction. This new age definition of capitalism peddled by propaganda on the right is a celebration of organized crime.
What ability do ordinary citizens have to say no to what has positioned itself to hold their monetary system hostage? Must we all covert to Amish, only to find ourselves paying property taxes to Chinese? The pile of money these people have isn't the issue. What they're doing with the money manipulating commodities markets & making a mockery of the rights of all others on the globe is. "Free trade" is a misnomer for piracy.
The last rally I had posted was difficult to pin down because the base camp for the occupation in Charleston that was located in Haddad Park (on Kanawha blvd) was not an agreeable place to city officials for whatever reasons they had. They sat down with the deputy mayor in good faith to work out where they might relocate. They expressed they have no intention to impede business or be a drain on city resources. Matter of fact they've already taken it upon themselves to do some trash patrols since this all began. Haddad's waterline had accumulated lots of trash floating down river prior to the occupation but they ran out of trash bags to get the job done completely. Davis park has rules closing it after dark that the mayors office agreed to waive. I think it's ultimately a much safer location for the occupiers and the visitors as well. It's also drawing more people to Capitol street businesses and some of the neighbors are glad to walk their dogs after dark without risking a fine.
There were complications with rally permitting last Saturday making it confusing for people to meet up with the rally. One permit was for part of the day, another permit for another part of the day, stipulations for stationary rally or moving march weren't clear, and well, these things happen among inexperienced. Clear decisions weren't stated days in advance & facebook was lagging badly. Some posts took as long as 4 hrs to register, others never went through. "Strange" was a comment from the computer geek who is chalking it up to bandwidth problems. The cross talk between occupier issues and rally location had muddied the water significantly, but despite that I counted 40 heads at one location and about 20 at another. The occupiers were tied up with logistics & sweeping up behind Haddad.
The nature of the confusion- as of thursday pm 20th the understanding was that Occupiers would have to move from Haddad to their new location in Davis Park (boxed by Lee, Capitol, Summers, Washington st) in downtown at 7pm friday but there was a snafu, the park was promised to a christening ceremony am Sat, so the city delayed the move to pm Saturday overlapping the rally. I and a few others dropped the rally in favor of ferrying over a carload of their gear to the new location & set up some tents after the party was all clear. At this point the occupiers had already been rained on for 2 days straight + precipitous declines in temps so they were run down but undeterred. The christening party heard the occupiers were following them and gave their blessing by donating all their party food. Dinner was solved. Mighty kind of them.
So much has been going on since Saturday it's hard to recall. There are meetings every night they call general assemblies (GA). Saturday nights meeting had notable guests native WV'ns will likely know well. Allen Johnson of Christians for the Mountains | Home came to lend his voice of support and encouragement to the cause. It's very rare to meet gentlemen like that in this day and age. He did a bit more than just applaud occupiers- he brought out his sleeping bag and slept outdoors without a tent overnight. That's a mountain man alright. My bones can't take that anymore, but hat's off out of respect.
I had a fascinating conversation with him and we compared notes about how eroded American communities have become since all these business philosophies/ paradigms have displaced all other human priorities. The every man woman and child plan isn't compatible with life. This conversation was happening with about 4 generations present so while putting all our stories in a time line it revealed a steady decline & loss of quality of life with no end in sight. I had a joke I forgot to tell. "Allen, you might not rank a spot in my time management appointment book unless you can prove you're trickle up cost effective." Well, on second thought, it's just as well I forgot. Most WV'ns don't get my dry NY sarcasm.
Anyhoo, another notable character most will recognize was Jesse Johnson of the Mountain Party lending his voice of support. He's traveling around this week with an independent studio film folks from San Fran with plans for documentaries in WV. Jesse and I were talking about how disenfranchised 3rd parties are in the 2 party system. I let him know he won that debate with Manchin & Raece hands down, THE most intelligent person at the table with meaningful solutions in hand, but... Raece was just too nutter to risk him winning. He told me (loosely paraphrased) if we stay stuck in the lesser of evils contest we've been in, it's only giving them permission to turn every election into a limbo contest lowering the standard to nothingness. I know he's right but I don't see a permanent way off the crazy train until the money cord is cut.
I mentioned the only campaign I've ever volunteered for in my life was for Independence/reform party Ross Perot, and expressed my wish that 3rd parties would have level ground based on nothing more than merits of debate. I changed registration from indie to Dem to vote for Hillary. He let me know I shouldn't feel pressured into registering dem or repub because laws were changed in WV. When primaries are held no matter what party you belong to you may vote for any- you aren't limited just to the party you're registered in primaries anymore. I've had to change registry so many years it became routine. A WV'n that made wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_J..._(politician)- I checked. No corporate money in his campaign. He told me he's invested most, if not all, of what he's made in his life to his cause.
He mentioned support for 99%/Occupiers is coming from Up The Holler and Randi Rhodes (a liberal leaning radio show I've not heard before). Randi Rhodes and rattled off a few other names I can't remember. The Pulse M(something) show. He's since come to a few meetings but most of the business they've been dealing with is logistics/ establishing security/ a means of maintaining hygiene. They break things up into work groups and get it done. This location is very nice but it's a little creepy knowing they're surrounded by security cameras 24/7. Perhaps if someone is looking for missteps they'll note the occupiers politely escorting any drunks stumbling into the park to wherever else they meant to go or sharing the food that gets donated with actual homeless that wander by. I'll post the good neighbor policy they set up as rules for themselves in another post.
The security guards for the neighboring buildings (BB&T, a county blg, etc) were very leery seeing them move into the park. Everyone assured them they have no intention of violence or destruction of property etc. Hard to convince one of them who was acting like rioters were gathering. He knows by now he doesn't have to worry. "Patience" (yes that's her real name) got him to crack a smile for 2 seconds. He might be smitten.
Oh speaking of notable guests, tuesday another WV'n who made it to wikipedia Charlotte Pritt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaCharlotte Pritt came to lend her support, encouragement, and suggestions. I was impressed by her warmth and intelligence. Unfortunately I was minding some technical chores and didn't have the chance to get into any in depth conversation with her. I hope she'll come by again soon.
It's clear that you are way left of center, with your opinions as to which candidates are "nutty" and which are sage. Although I certainly don't share your opinions, I tend to agree that there are serious problems that need to be addressed. The free enterprise system has enabled our country to thrive and prosper for several decades, but it can only work for us as a country if we keep it "in house", so to speak. Competition promotes industry and striving to do better.
However, there must be reasonable limits to insure our continued prosperity. The notion that we can somehow determine the entire world's destiny is rediculous on the face. Heck, ... even Europe, austensibly the most enlightened and developed area outside of our own, can not get it together. We are so far apart from notions of government that prevail in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East that true coordination is absolutely impossible. Besides, most of those areas have no desire to participate in coordinated action in any event. Even attempts to "aid" them are resented and seen as foolish from their perspective.
We must take steps to insulate ourselves from foreign economies, and from unfair foreign competition with American workers. Our ancestors, and many of us still living, have invested mightily to insure peace and prosperity for ourselves and our offspring. It did not come without massive sacrifice. The rest of the world has no right to expect to get it from us on the cheap by slipping in our back door uninvited, and the flood of illegal aliens has created major negative pressure on the labor market reducing American wages and putting our own people out of work. The fact that these people either pay no taxes, or they steal identities and wreck havoc with peoples lives in that manner puts huge unfunded liabilities on state and local governments that they are ill equipped to handle. That's why states are starting to take immigration enforcement seriously, to do the job the elitists controlling our Federal government refuse to do.
Open borders has resulted in a flood of cheap goods (what American worker can work for 80 cents per hour) and services (that's why you can't understand the bank "employee" when you call them with a problem). It has also caused massive damage to our economy, and our people, ruining entire cities. No group has suffered more from these foreign invasions than our minority populations.
It is one thing to carp about the problem, and Charlotte Pritt can sympathize as she will with the protestors, but she is barking into the wind unless she actually starts to address the real causes of the problem. Just pointing fingers at the wealthy will only make them laugh at her. And, the solution does not lie in simply taxing them more... they have 10,000 ways to dodge those taxes in the "global" economy they have fashioned for themselves. There is no way you can tax their money sitting in a bank in Singapore that they have accumulated with their cheap child labor in China.
You see, the left leaners have been conditioned by years of elitist propoganda to believe that "global" is not only desirable, but is an absolute necessity today. They have also been conditioned to believe that we can somehow be responsible for everything that happens in the world that can possibly affect their economic power base... energy in Libya, labor in Viet Nam. Those are blatantly false notions that only serve to increase the disparity between the 1% and the rest of us.
You see, Charlotte, and probably you since you have been listening to PBS and CNN for a long time, will have to rethink your worldview to truly come up with a solution. And, that is not just a liberal matter. The right with has been similarly conditioned to come to the same conclusions using different terminology... "free market"... "open market" and so forth on Fox News. They have been conditioned to accept the very same mistakes for different reasons.
That's why everyone recognizes the problem. It is also why nobody is really offering a viable solution. As long as the 1% can freely move their capital into and out of our country, and as long as they have free access to cheap foreign labor here and abroad, there is little we can do to help our own middle class. And, as long as the wealthy can create "not for profit" corporations they can use to dodge taxes and give their relatives and supporters jobs at inflated salaries on the backs of our middle class taxpayers, or can pay for a building for elderly Tel Aviv residents or Kenyan schools with money they should have paid in taxes to help our own people, our middle class will continue to bear the cost in every way possible.
I think many of the folks protesting actually do get the big picture. What you won't hear from the politicos though, are any real answers because it is in their best interests (and it really doesn't matter which party they represent) to protect the status quo of the 1% super rich. In politics... always follow the money.
The only way the present situation of a declining middle class would be reversed would be a groundswell of populist support for non elitist candidates. It would be very difficult to bring about because the super rich basically make sure they stay in power by making it impossibly expensive to be a player in the game, and by having no term limits in the legislative branch of government.
I'm amazed by how little the people in Philly know about the Federal Reserve. They seem to think its a private corporation run by the illuminati (or something insane like that). Really, it's governed by a board of directors that tell the banks exactly what to do and those directors are put in place by the president and confirmed by congress. If you disagree with how its been run recently, sure, criticize...but these people are just making things up about how it is structured. And I don't really understand why it is all of a sudden their new boogeyman.
Personally, I'm waiting for the Tea people and the Occupy people realize that they are "against" the same thing. Stratification of power into the hands of too few people. 'Cause that's the real problem. There needs to be a more grand democratization of both capital/economic leverage and governmental authority. And to pretend the two aren't linked is naivety. I like what the Germans have done. Each corporation MUST have labor representatives on the board of directors. There is a large union membership...and their unions are actually useful, hard-nosed organizations that get things done for their members. It is as if there is a labor, corporate, and governmental influence...and they keep each other in check. Here is it just the government and monied interests...and they have nuzzled up to each other so closely that it is hard to tell them apart. The decision between Democrats and Republicans today in America is just a decision on which corporations we want getting an easy road towards exploiting us.
This insistence on the existence of a left-right dichotomy right now is the next big obstacle to tackle. Destroy that and you destroy the typical American-clinging-to-failed-ideology mindset. That needs to be the goal going forward. There needs to be a middle-class workers' movement independent of the current political parties. If the Tea and Occupy people "teamed up" to destroy the current dichotomy of power, things could get interesting.
I'm amazed by how little the people in Philly know about the Federal Reserve. They seem to think its a private corporation run by the illuminati (or something insane like that). Really, it's governed by a board of directors that tell the banks exactly what to do and those directors are put in place by the president and confirmed by congress. If you disagree with how its been run recently, sure, criticize...but these people are just making things up about how it is structured. And I don't really understand why it is all of a sudden their new boogeyman.
Personally, I'm waiting for the Tea people and the Occupy people realize that they are "against" the same thing. Stratification of power into the hands of too few people. 'Cause that's the real problem. There needs to be a more grand democratization of both capital/economic leverage and governmental authority. And to pretend the two aren't linked is naivety. I like what the Germans have done. Each corporation MUST have labor representatives on the board of directors. There is a large union membership...and their unions are actually useful, hard-nosed organizations that get things done for their members. It is as if there is a labor, corporate, and governmental influence...and they keep each other in check. Here is it just the government and monied interests...and they have nuzzled up to each other so closely that it is hard to tell them apart. The decision between Democrats and Republicans today in America is just a decision on which corporations we want getting an easy road towards exploiting us.
This insistence on the existence of a left-right dichotomy right now is the next big obstacle to tackle. Destroy that and you destroy the typical American-clinging-to-failed-ideology mindset. That needs to be the goal going forward. There needs to be a middle-class workers' movement independent of the current political parties. If the Tea and Occupy people "teamed up" to destroy the current dichotomy of power, things could get interesting.
Bingo! That's exactly right. The elitists have virtually absolute control over the media, except for internet media and they are trying to get control over that. With this stranglehold, they choke off any attempts that threaten their ability to manipulate everything in their favor. "Rogue" outlets are simply cowered into submission with threats of withdrawal of advertising funding. Right leaning citizens are fed one line of horsecrap using right sounding terminology (free choice... open market...individual freedom and responsibility, etc.) and left leaning citizens are fed the same line of horsecrap using different terminology (one happy world... fairness... global responsibility... victims of poverty... victims of anything you can imagine...) but the result is always an advancement of elitist goals at the expense of the middle class.
They keep the middle class occupied with arguments that really mean next to nothing to them. Mandatory healthcare? It won't matter one way or another to the super rich because they will always have the very best healthcare anyway and won't have to pay for the lowest common denominator mandatory stuff because they don't really pay taxes. Illegal immigration? The super rich actually benefit from it to the detriment of our middle class. They get cheap labor, and insulate themselves from the consequences by sending their children to private schools in exclusive neighborhoods. The list goes on and on.
Bingo! That's exactly right. The elitists have virtually absolute control over the media, except for internet media and they are trying to get control over that.
They are trying to get control of it today. A community meeting is in place about the Stop Online Privacy Act which would destroy Google, Wikipedia, Youtube, and even City Data forum. I highly urge you to write to the sponsors of the bill who seek to destroy the one and only last bastion of free speech and truth in this country.
OWS was so successful that they kicked the protestors out of Zuccotti Park. At first the people in power though they could ignore them, but once it became clear they were serious and it was growing you see them actually combating it.
The game is up. We the people want a government that serves us. I have known what has been going on for a long time, and so have many posters, but mainstream America was in the dark. Now an awakening is happening. People are realizing the truth. At this point there is 2 possibilities. We change government for the better or we become apathetic and give them more power to suppress us and erode democracy.
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