In June, Anonymous declared war on the system, a plan that contained three phases. The first phase included hacker attacks on what Anonymous sees as internet criminals. Information is free, the internet is information. phase two should be announced pretty soon. one claim Anonymous has made is that it will shut down, perhaps erase the social network site called Facebook.
I don't know that Anonymous planned the occupy Wall Street movement, but it promoted it and I'm sure members are all over there. So far the movement has endured several acts of police brutality without a violent response. Women standing on the sidewalk sprayed with pepper spray for no reason. Mopeds running over people, nightstick beatings and random arrests. Last night, Oakland police smashed the tents in the park after the protesters refused to leave. A few people threw rocks and bottles at the police during this attack. The people refused to leave still, stood in the streets, then riot police used flash grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
The media distorts the truth, as they always do to suit their agenda and protect the 1%. There are a lot of angry people, but the movement is peaceful. But I wonder...I worry...how far can we be pushed before we push back? I'm sure the establishment is eager for violence to break out. The media tries to label any movement in a way to get one party for it and the other party against it, to minimalize the support. Which is why I like the 99% message. If anyone should pay to fix the mess we are in, it is the criminals who created the mess and the criminals who profited on it. It isn't that I hate rich people or think they don't deserve to be wealthy, the evidence shows that a certain level of wealth turns a corporation into a thing of evil. Money doesn't have to be the root of all evil, it's the abuse of power that comes with excessive wealth that makes it evil.
This isn't an American problem, it is global. We still have it good compared to most other nations. But unchecked greed has wasted an incredible amount of resources. A quick example: it is cheaper to pay for fruit grown in South America and waste fuel shipping it to Washington, but it would be better for the environment to grow it locally and better for the long term economy to save that fuel. Concern for profit outweighs everything and we are paying the price. Not in a philosophical sense, but a real physical sense. Oil is getting harder to find, we've past Peak Oil, and there will be less available, making everything more expensive. Our way of life is unsustainable...as long as profit for the few is the power that runs the world. We have the technology and resources to feed and house everyone. We can make an i-phone 4 for everyone. we have materials, we have a population, we have people willing to work, we have machines that can do almost everything humans can do. We can have a paradise world. Instead we are heading into a crash, an Epic Depression.
Will the 99% put the small differences aside and see our common enemy, avoid food riots, homeless people starving, and avoid an actual class war? Will Anonymous be able to shut down our most powerful enemies? Will their weapons defeat our numbers? We will find out. There's gotta be a way, a better way, a better tomorrow for my daughter's generation. Let's find that way.
If you can't occupy a city, write a few letters to your congressmen and senators. state your opinion, your worries, your demands...talk about it with a neighbor, an old friend and think about what you want to see changed in the world, but do something about it. something small, something big, something brief or something risky. be the 99%
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
the 99%
I am a single father that couldn't afford to finish college and become a math teacher. I support myself by fishing in Alaska despite major back problems and other health issues related to the dangerous work. I write stories and self published a few mini-comics that haven't really sold. I rent an apartment with fading dreams of owning a home, having a yard. I have no retirement fund and am aware of our nation's tax problems, debt problems and the looming failure of the social security systems that simply won't exist a decade from now. My daughter is almost in high school and I fear there will be no solution to our economic problems by the time she graduates. We are the 99% and we have equal right to life, liberty and the freedom to seek our own happiness.
Why march on Wall Street? What will bodies on the streets and sidewalks and in jail actually change? Over three weeks before the protest got any media attention, all slanted to make the movement seem weird, angry and pointless. Waiting for the peaceful protest to be pushed to outbursts of violence...but so far, all over the country it remains peaceful. The Occupy Wall Street movement growing in numbers, spreading awareness. When the media dismissed the crowd as being unfocused, socialist, anarchists, jobless hippies, they stated some of the issues that need attention and real solutions.
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-issues-first-official-declaration.html
This isn't a left vs right issue, unions vs corporations, socialist vs conservative type of game. Ignore the button pushing of the mainstream media that wants to create labels and have people remain ignorant of the truth. These are real people, the 99% of us that don't make tens of millions of dollars a year, that don't get billion dollar bailouts, that don't get to take home profits of over 2 billion and tax loopholes that allow us to pay zero in taxes, that don't get to make the laws. Half of the world's wealth is in the hands of the other 1% but somehow more than half of us willingly or ignorantly believe this economic game is the only way of life.
Debt has no place on the periodic table, it has no atomic weight, is invisible and does not exist. You may not agree with my views but I hope you can agree with that last statement. Debt is not real. Yet we allow it to control us, we give it so much power, and we think paper money will one day be our ticket out. We pretend that the Earth is a place of infinite space, of endless resources, and that everything will always work out. Too many of us believe that we are powerless, that a person can't do anything to change. But we are not a person. We are the 99%.
I am not too far away from Portland, but haven't been able to go to the Occupy Portland event, which was said to be a 24 hour march and is starting day six with a smaller crowd still camping out. From what I've seen and read, all has been peaceful and no arrests. Things weren't so calm in New York last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1bYVMwg8k
700 arrested in all that day for protesting. I am a full time single dad and can't be arrested right now. My heart is with those that are doing the brave and important thing. Being out there, sharing what happens with the world over the internet. I'm sure I'll get a chance to put my feet on the street in the near future but for now my support comes in words. I am part of the 99%. My voice is my power. My mind is my own. My time shouldn't be for sale, forced into a rigged monetary that creates money and debt out of thin air, printed on worthless paper or backed by horded heavy metals.
For six or seven years now I've been discussing the problems our nation, our world, our very species faces. As time goes on, the same statements make more sense. Fears have become fact. The machine continues to betray us, to diminish us, and to fail us. My advice remains the same. Secure property with land that will grow food, with space to raise chickens and hopefully cattle. Invest in real things, canned food and water, solar power options...prepare to live off the grid. Prepare to create an abundance of goods. Invest in tools, in green technology and the end of oil. Free yourself from the monetary system. Or take steps in that direction. Get family members and friends to help buy this land, to travel to it and work on bringing it online and self sustaining. Find a job that is a real skill that serves a real and meaningful purpose in the world and help eliminate what is wrong with the world. Educate yourself on what it would be like to lose your job, your home, and imagine where you would be if all your debt was called in vs your tangible assets and realize that you are part of the 99%.
If you earn tens of millions every year, this blog post is not for you, this movement is not for you. Unless you have compassion and choose to do your part and help end this massive imbalance of resources. The elite have the money to create the technology that would end poverty, provide health care, to house everyone, to end the evil that is created by money and cure the world of this cancerous concept of debt. But I doubt any multi-millionare will read these words.
I don't think capitalism itself is the problem, but the criminal activity it allows, that we don't challenge and in fact encourage, is the problem. Money was a decent idea, when it was relevant and regulated by the people. The system has grown out of our control and it basically enslaves us.
You have the right (and I believe the duty) to speak your voice. I think Ron Paul is the treatment our government system needs in 2012 but I believe we need to transition into a new kind of social system, the resource based economy of Jacque Fresco as shown in the Venus Project and promoted by the Zeitgeist Movement. We are as close to a new successful system as we are to failure. The next ten years will make or break us. The beginning is near.
We are the 99% and this world is ours to make.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth
(from wikipedia) A PBS report by Solman on Aug. 16, 2011 now found that financial gains over the last decade in the United States have been mostly made at the "tippy-top" of the economic food chain as more people fall out of the middle class. The top 20 percent of Americans now holds 84 percent of U.S. wealth.[2], the 2nd 20 % holds 11%, the third 20 % 4 %. The following figure shows the actual distribution of wealth in the US. The 4th 20% (0.2%) and the Bottom 20% (0.1%) are not visible:
Why march on Wall Street? What will bodies on the streets and sidewalks and in jail actually change? Over three weeks before the protest got any media attention, all slanted to make the movement seem weird, angry and pointless. Waiting for the peaceful protest to be pushed to outbursts of violence...but so far, all over the country it remains peaceful. The Occupy Wall Street movement growing in numbers, spreading awareness. When the media dismissed the crowd as being unfocused, socialist, anarchists, jobless hippies, they stated some of the issues that need attention and real solutions.
http://www.care2.com/causes/occupy-wall-street-issues-first-official-declaration.html
This isn't a left vs right issue, unions vs corporations, socialist vs conservative type of game. Ignore the button pushing of the mainstream media that wants to create labels and have people remain ignorant of the truth. These are real people, the 99% of us that don't make tens of millions of dollars a year, that don't get billion dollar bailouts, that don't get to take home profits of over 2 billion and tax loopholes that allow us to pay zero in taxes, that don't get to make the laws. Half of the world's wealth is in the hands of the other 1% but somehow more than half of us willingly or ignorantly believe this economic game is the only way of life.
Debt has no place on the periodic table, it has no atomic weight, is invisible and does not exist. You may not agree with my views but I hope you can agree with that last statement. Debt is not real. Yet we allow it to control us, we give it so much power, and we think paper money will one day be our ticket out. We pretend that the Earth is a place of infinite space, of endless resources, and that everything will always work out. Too many of us believe that we are powerless, that a person can't do anything to change. But we are not a person. We are the 99%.
I am not too far away from Portland, but haven't been able to go to the Occupy Portland event, which was said to be a 24 hour march and is starting day six with a smaller crowd still camping out. From what I've seen and read, all has been peaceful and no arrests. Things weren't so calm in New York last week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1bYVMwg8k
700 arrested in all that day for protesting. I am a full time single dad and can't be arrested right now. My heart is with those that are doing the brave and important thing. Being out there, sharing what happens with the world over the internet. I'm sure I'll get a chance to put my feet on the street in the near future but for now my support comes in words. I am part of the 99%. My voice is my power. My mind is my own. My time shouldn't be for sale, forced into a rigged monetary that creates money and debt out of thin air, printed on worthless paper or backed by horded heavy metals.
For six or seven years now I've been discussing the problems our nation, our world, our very species faces. As time goes on, the same statements make more sense. Fears have become fact. The machine continues to betray us, to diminish us, and to fail us. My advice remains the same. Secure property with land that will grow food, with space to raise chickens and hopefully cattle. Invest in real things, canned food and water, solar power options...prepare to live off the grid. Prepare to create an abundance of goods. Invest in tools, in green technology and the end of oil. Free yourself from the monetary system. Or take steps in that direction. Get family members and friends to help buy this land, to travel to it and work on bringing it online and self sustaining. Find a job that is a real skill that serves a real and meaningful purpose in the world and help eliminate what is wrong with the world. Educate yourself on what it would be like to lose your job, your home, and imagine where you would be if all your debt was called in vs your tangible assets and realize that you are part of the 99%.
If you earn tens of millions every year, this blog post is not for you, this movement is not for you. Unless you have compassion and choose to do your part and help end this massive imbalance of resources. The elite have the money to create the technology that would end poverty, provide health care, to house everyone, to end the evil that is created by money and cure the world of this cancerous concept of debt. But I doubt any multi-millionare will read these words.
I don't think capitalism itself is the problem, but the criminal activity it allows, that we don't challenge and in fact encourage, is the problem. Money was a decent idea, when it was relevant and regulated by the people. The system has grown out of our control and it basically enslaves us.
You have the right (and I believe the duty) to speak your voice. I think Ron Paul is the treatment our government system needs in 2012 but I believe we need to transition into a new kind of social system, the resource based economy of Jacque Fresco as shown in the Venus Project and promoted by the Zeitgeist Movement. We are as close to a new successful system as we are to failure. The next ten years will make or break us. The beginning is near.
We are the 99% and this world is ours to make.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth
(from wikipedia) A PBS report by Solman on Aug. 16, 2011 now found that financial gains over the last decade in the United States have been mostly made at the "tippy-top" of the economic food chain as more people fall out of the middle class. The top 20 percent of Americans now holds 84 percent of U.S. wealth.[2], the 2nd 20 % holds 11%, the third 20 % 4 %. The following figure shows the actual distribution of wealth in the US. The 4th 20% (0.2%) and the Bottom 20% (0.1%) are not visible:
Okay, so 40% of our population shares .3% of the wealth, not even visible on the chart. almost half our people. then the middle class shares 4%, the upper middle class has 11% to share. This doesn't state what the richest 1% has, but in 2007, they had 38% and only the mega rich have been getting richer since 2008 and the upper middle class has shrunk, so let's say 40% of the wealth is owned by 1% of the population and 44% of the wealth is shared by the remaining 19%, but not evenly, the top part of that would have more. Let's see if I can make these numbers make more sense.
Imagine $100 and 100 people.
The rich person gets $40.
the next 4 get $6 each
the next 5 get $2
the next 10 get $1 each
and that is the top 20% of the population taking 84% of the money.
the next 20 people get about .50 each
the next 20 people get about .25 each
the last 40 people get .02 or .01 each
But keep in mind, these all have a range. in that middle class range, some are getting .80 and some are getting .35. but we are the 99% and are here to take a look at the top 1% that guy who gets $40 when we should each get $1 and find ourselves working hard and have only .50 or so as our reward. Imagine going to school as a kid and you get to go to the candy store with 99 other kids and one kid gets $40 and you get .32. Or maybe you are poorer than that and only get a nickel. or a penny. and all you can get is a piece of a broken mint. when you wanted a chocolate bar, but that costs .35 or maybe the giant sucker that costs $1. The kid with $40 is known by the shop owners and gets free samples that are bigger than the nickel sized mint. He has more than he can carry and hasn't spent $10 yet. 80 kids have about .50 or less and we fight amongst each other? We envy the 10 with $1 and imagine we could be there, or maybe even in the $2 or $6 crowd and so we don't want to ask them to share. Plus when they eat their candy, some pieces might trickle down onto us. But this is about the 99% of us and that one kid with $40.
Imagine that kid had the field trip rigged, a game set up by his powerful parents, the school, the candy shop all benefitting. Most of the kids who received $1 or more also cheated the game. The kids know they could've each had a dollar, but they were tricked into thinking they didn't earn it and that the elite 10 kids deserved what they got. But on that first day of school, you noticed how different things were for those certain kids, the advantages they had. You could see the horrible conditions that most kids suffered, the scraps of food they had. You had an ok lunch, not a fancy meal like a few, not a private chef like the one richest, and you were afraid to end up with the 40 really poor kids so you didn't want to complain. It's just how things are. You believe in the promise that if you work hard, you can be a kid who gets a dollar, who gets their fair share. You have text books and calculators. A few have laptops and tutors and answer sheets and siblings and parents who can influence the teacher. They get caught cheating and no punishment, in fact, sometimes the teacher will bail them out and cheat for them.
Do you ignore those that have a penny or two? Do you play the game, knowing they make the rules and that they can't lose and that you probably will never "earn" that dollar? Or do you tell your teacher you have had enough, that she needs to stop being blind and start being fair? Do you let them cheat the system into giving ten kids more than their fair share? Or do we do our duty as Americans and rebel against a corrupt fascist government that is no longer of the people, by the people, or for the people?
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