"Mic Check" & Other Merry Pranks

The Occupy movement needs good ideas & energies. Activists hoping to shake up the status quo and promote reform by culture jamming might try some of the below strategies:

1) Of course, illegal actions & pranks that threaten life, liberty or pursuit of happiness are best avoided.

2) Intimidation by authorities is very spooky. State Stormtroopers easily generate fear (each darkly wants to be Vader; serenade them with the Star Wars Imperial March). Try to insert levity. Smile, laugh & foster a sense of humanity as darkness surrounds you.

You'll be scared. Laugh at the cold! Prepare to get dragged & be violently clubbed. You may lose property, and may suffer stress & pain. It's fun!

3) It's a great idea to publicly confront deceitful businesspeople & corrupt government officials who've raped our national treasuries. But how to do it? Activists politely deferring to wealth & power are ignored. The "Mic Check" and human megaphone strategies of cascading disruptors have energized participants.

4) During "serious" meetings, hidden phones can laugh, or cry... From assorted concealed places, phones can amplify a message. Cellphones can be programmed to ring together.

5) It's important to encourage drop-in visitors to our Occupy venues at any hour. Motley tent cities & roped-off private territories frighten newcomers; it's easier to join assemblies gathering in places not allowing camping. Any Occupy assembly is a shifting assortment of people. Most can sleep elsewhere. Potential mobility is tactically superior to a rooted encampment Thanks Billy! (see below)

6) Build memes, motto, slogans, catchphrases, and battle cries. Hopefully we'll not see another "Boston Massacre" or "Remember Pearl Harbor" but imagery work is essential. For a start, recognize the unusual elegance of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg by dubbing him " Billy "
-- short for Billionaire --

7) The key contest is a battle for minds. Corporate media (so-called "News") regularly portrays unsavory actions & doubtful people, and seeks to thus emasculate the Occupy movement. But it's a small 1%, the rabid megarich, who are extreme. Stay on message:

-- Megawealthy banksters & corrupt politicians suckered us for $7 trillion dollars of public money (US$7,000,000,000,000).
Stop.   Indict.   They stole our future.   Claw back.

-- Public spaces are for public use, and are not the private domain of government or the police. Where possible, public spaces should always be open & accessible. Our societies run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; the public should be able to meet & play freely, and not be shutout of our own spaces by Puritanical operating hours or nanny-state cost-cutting.

-- Overseas US military adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan (Vietnam, and elsewhere) are brutalizing & too expensive.
Unaffordable.   Stop.

8) Handout key web addresses to passers-by, who'll go home and lookup information. Many who might be sympathetic are as yet unprepared for confrontation. Start by recommending:

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com   [ speak up now ]
http://www.occupywallst.org
http://www.adbusters.org
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.mindwatch.com
http://www.cooltownstudios.com
http://www.pps.org

9) Record what happens. Archived records protect both demonstrators and law enforcement officials from unjust abuse. The bottom line remains: too little justice, too many cops.

... more later

Hawaii - A New Iraq?

Last Saturday at 3AM, a US Federal agent allegedly shot & killed a local Hawaiian man inside a Waikiki McDonalds.

Quarreling with authority might lead to summary death in Iraq or Pakistan or Afghanistan, but Hawaiians expect better treatment.

This incident recalls the case of Raymond Davis, an American government employee who in January 2011 on the streets of Lahore, Pakistan, shot & killed two men (a third was crushed by a car driven by his colleagues). After Davis was released & returned to the USA, he was arrested for reportedly brawling over a parking space (link) and charged with felony second-degree assault.

Last weekend's Honolulu event was no less murky and tragic. After an argument, Federal agent Chris Deedy reportedly stated "How would you like to get shot tonight?" before knocking down local 23-year old Kollin Elderts with a kung-fu kick and shooting him in the chest. (He fired two more shots that went elsewhere). Both men reportedly had consumed alcohol. This event was a horrific catastrophe for all concerned; both families suffer loss, the government loses an important staff member, lives are shattered.

Christopher W. Deedy, 27, an off-duty special agent with the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security, has been charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Deedy is reportedly married & lives in Arlington VA; he's a Tulane Univ. graduate originally from Holden, MA. He's now free on bail (after being held two days).

Meanwhile, Hilo Hawaii's Roger Christie, a 62-year-old U.S. Army veteran, remains incarcerated without bail on marijuana charges. Rev. Christie, an ordained minister with no history of violent crime, was refused bail & jailed as a danger to the community. Since 8 July 2010 he's been held in the Honolulu Federal Detention Center awaiting trial (as of today, for 496 days).

This is unjust & unreasonable. An accused murderer with no local ties is freed in two days. A peaceful local pot smoker is jailed 18 months without trial...

Samaras as Tyrant

Right-wing Greek leader Antonis Samaras Αντώνης Σαμαράς is a hugely ambitious Harvard boy. His rebellion from his party's government in 1992-93 caused it to collapse. Now he's toying with Greek debt and the euro. His brinksmanship serves American big corporate interests: to destabilize the euro & the European Union.

Greece tried all kinds of democracy in its long history. The politics of Samaras -- "New Democracy" -- might be labeled "No Democracy"

Samaras is a weasel.   Expect bad things from him.

Baddies Among Us

Due to a supposed presence of a few scoundrels, drug users & thieves, political authorities are urging the shutdown of assorted Occupy camps (Portland OR, Oakland CA, Burlington VT, Salt Lake City UT, and New York City). The argument of danger & "we care" is aimed at stay-at-home couch potatoes -- don't be scammed.

Democracy activists know any community is composed of all types of people. Activists live with the homeless and derelict, while the mayor whisks past in a motorcade; police dumbly process the downtrodden, though there aren't enough prisons to warehouse us all.

The worst baddies are those who've raped our treasuries & savings: smarmy banksters such as Robert Rubin (who took US$126 million in cash & stock from Citigroup), flim flam artists such as Bernard Madoff and the Enron gang, assholes like Larry Summers. War criminals responsible for untold death & destruction brazenly base themselves in well-sheltered enclaves. Are their yacht clubs, coops & neighborhoods shut down or under threat? I don't think so...

Occupy Deaths

The Wall Street Journal (link) and hundreds of other corporate media outlets today published an open letter from the Oakland Police Officer's Association telling Occupy demonstrators to quit their encampments: "Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime..."

Condescending?   Bet your life.

Since 17 September 2011, when Occupy Wall Street began in New York City's Liberty Square, hundreds of civilians have been killed & injured, along with many government officials. These tragedies happened not in Occupy camps across America, but rather as collateral deaths around colossal U.S. military encampments nicknamed Occupy Iraq & Occupy Afghanistan.

Deadly MILITARY Occupy too much of our world!
Global military empire costs too much. We have vital projects at home.
We should withdraw our armies & munitions from foreign lands.

Victims of Limited Liability Corporate Greed -- We are the 99%.

American People: Don't Give Up Democracy... Keep our Occupy Camps active in parks & city squares! Encourage Freedom. Resist brutal military & police provocations. Question corporate media. Undermine the crushing financial systems ruling us with uncaring deadly power. The Big Crime is an Inside Job, brazenly commissioned by the greedy 1% against the rest of us. Go home? I lost my home & homeland.

Give up now to live as pets or slaves or corrupted human scum.

U.S. Debt Clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Continuing Casualties of Occupy Afghanistan (link)
http://icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx

Ongoing Casualties of Occupy Iraq (link)
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

Every violent death is a human tragedy. Stop this brutality now.

Corporate Criminals

Capitalism has twisted to become devilish. The system of incentives and exchange was always dangerous for having no in-built safety net for the weak or the outmaneuvered. It is all worse thanks to corruption.

Business must police itself against corporate thieves, and the public must also be vigilant.

Big money & lobbyists undermine our governments. When corporate bureaucracies are guilty of criminal activity or fraud, they're often able to negotiate payment of minor fines without admitting guilt - and avoid civil and criminal proceedings.

See Edward Wyatt's article in the NY Times (link) "Promises Made, Then Broken, By Firms in S.E.C. Fraud Cases" 8 Nov 2011, p A1.

These payoffs enter the public record, often rating a quick article in the corporate mouthpiece-of-record (e.g., Wall Street Journal or The New York Times). Then no more is said, and abuse begins afresh.

We need an official archive of record, a place where we can quickly see what fines and penalties have been paid by Goldman Sachs, Philip Morris, Bank of America, and other repeat offenders. Our communities allow these organizations to operate in our midst - we need to understand their behaviour. We must all be vigilant. Officers and staff, retired employees and their families have no socially-granted immunity from their employer's transgressions. They should struggle against antisocial behaviour, or be shunned.

Hypocrite Zionist?

Too many American political leaders loudly claim sympathy with Zionism, but ultimately fail to follow-through. A hypocrite politician votes to support Zionist expansionism, and pledges U.S. public funds, but refuses to open his or her own personal wallet.

This shows shallowness and lack of genuine concern. Wealthy members of Congress and outspoken press pundits truly dedicated to strengthening Israel should step forward: AIPAC's distinctive "Minyan" membership is a mere US$100,000 (link). Donations to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces or the American Zionist Movement are welcome. Hillary Clinton? Joe Biden? Barack Obama? Bill O'Reilly? Sean Hannity? Rick Perry? Herman Cain? Mitt Romney? Cough up yo' own money, or you speak with forked tongue...

Speculation Surcharge

Demands grow stronger for a financial transactions tax. The financial industry, accustomed to gambling with our money, is against such taxation. But financial speculation should be more costly - a surcharge discourages the possibility of sudden runaway machine trading. It also raises funds for our wider society, now impoverished by the mega rich.

Our trading systems have ballooned such that speculative transactions are some $1.5 trillion per day, or fifty times more than global trade.

Read more on the "Tobin Tax" (link) or see this article from the rather conservative Center for Economic and Policy Research, CEPR, in Washington (link).

My Dad Li Gang !!

Tragedy in Greece?

Greece is the focus of huge financial & political attention as they struggle to maintain payments on sovereign debt. Should they be bailed out with public funds? What's involved here?

Greek debt, in the form of bonds, is an agreement between borrower (Greece) & lender - for the most part large European banks. The banks lend money and receive interest for their risk & opportunity costs. Such investments are a gamble to an unknown extent; interest is higher or lower depending on market perception.

If a borrower appears unsteady, and seems unlikely to pay, lenders withdraw what they can and refuse new loans. Borrower negotiates with existing lenders for new terms. The interest rate rises to potentially attract new money.

Lender banks take a financial hit. If their exposure were large, perhaps the bank would fail & close. But since the 2008-09 USA bailout (of many large banks, finance firms & manufacturers), it became more possible for banks to seek assistance from government and ultimately the public. Public funds might be provided to both borrower & lender, allowing disentanglement from agreements. Government can negotiate new requirements as a fee for participating. In the USA bailout, the terms were easy -- private interests got huge public subsidies at little cost, and this greatly undercut normal market mechanisms. For Greece, discussion among EU governments has steadily demanded more from private interests in exchange for new public help. A larger part of the original loan would be written-off ("haircut") and when bonds mature, lenders would rollover the funds - reinvesting in Greece.

So we have governments supporting each other, governments supporting private investors, and the common people paying the bills. A major trouble with activist government involvement is markets becoming skewed to political relationships. The process is inherently corrupt.

Blame for the scale of Greece's public debt resides with assorted Greek governments over past decades, who've hidden the scale of their budget deficits (Eurozone requirements of maximum 3% deficit were mocked).

Recognize also foremost a fundamental animosity by USA financial officials toward the euro - America has always hoped the euro would disappear and the US dollar become an unrivaled reserve currency. The UK has parallel rivalries with continental Europe. Beware financial news filtered through the lenses of Anglo-American interests; subsequent events may consistently seem illogical.

More on this will follow...

The 1% First, All Pay

Though (sadly) rooted in "economy class" I haven't a gripe against travel firms upgrading services to those paying more. But it's wrong when government treats 99% of citizens as shit, while coddling the rich. Police & necessary security checks are paid for by everyone. There shouldn't be a special underutilized upper class line through airport security (TSA check in the US) -- while we pee-ons line up like sheep & wait in frustration. Mingle rich folk with the rest of us to speed the process overall. Richie shouldn't jump the queue for public services.

Messenger as Devil

A media organization not yet charged with crime is reportedly blackballed by PayPal, VISA, MasterCard, Western Union & Bank of America. Yet I suppose these financial firms have merrily done business with tyrants such as Mubarak, Suharto, the Iranian Pahlavi clan, Dick Cheney, the Gaddafi family, and other despots...

These big corporations throttle Wikileaks.

What of Cablegate tone & content? Was the leaked information solely embarrassing, or did Wikileaks report crimes?

Corporate censorship? Spooky !

Why shoot this messenger?
And nonetheless there are ways to donate:
http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate

Step Forward & Learn

Step forward, outside your comfort zone. Meek people, beaten-down, afraid to lose your scraps - protest now & learn from one another. Don't crawl into the bushes & die quietly. Occupy a street corner with your friends & display protest signs - even for an hour. Let others know you're sickened by our social corruption.

"This is no time to hang back."

Awakening Sheeple

There's been no counterbalance to aggressive wealth. Vast majorities of people around the world are belittled. Obedience is developed & valued by our education systems above creativity. Many successful people recognize: this can't continue - but most ignore it. We're ushered to a world of wage slavery & unemployment, and shit on by trust fund brats ("born on third base believing I hit a triple")...

Too many hardworking people are damaged by this system. Small businesses are crushed by governments in service to megacorporations. Municipal workers, teachers, hospital staff, police, military, etc., our contributions undervalued, must struggle to survive in an abused state of health.

We pass a bleak future to our children... While a few handfuls of greedy people herd us closer to collapse...

The megawealthy are likely to find Social Darwinism makes a bad & dangerous world.
99% pee-ons
 Organizing
 Robin Hood

How The 1% Force Austerity

Workplace efficiency & austerity are weapons used by employers to master employees. Those seeking to maximize profits demand increased work at lowest possible compensation. Reducing public officials & taxes, the wealthy pay only for selected services.

Stress invades every workplace. We pee-ons struggle to keep meager jobs.

But this can be different.

To add more workers may cut profits, but to improve customer & worker satisfaction can boost revenues & profits. Employers may argue high payroll is unsustainable, but so is worker enslavement. Where labor can demand & achieve minimal standards, more people can be employed. Those threatening to take production overseas should be encouraged to personally pull out as well - let them emigrate to China. Why should our communities harbor & support a selfish 1% undermining our health?

Corporate-owned media paints progressive change in the workplace as socialistic, communistic, or worse. But the bottom line is not shared wealth - it is a shared demand for minimal standards of health & safety. This is attainable & affordable, but don't wait for the greedy and those of hallowed wealth to lead the way - too many of the 1% are now parasites.

Mental Pollution

 
Mental Pollution: A chronic syndrome causing great damage to human life & communities, and often infecting large groups of people.

Sheepsighted: when mental pollution victims are surrounded by others in similar conditions, and fail to recognize extreme distress.

Bullshitter: those deliberately inflicting mental pollution upon others.

The Corporate Parasite

A cancer runs amok throughout our world. We must curtail the corporate parasite. Humane living is more than competitiveness, bickering among ourselves & least cost short-term profits.

HallowedWealth has pee-on fighting peon, while these weasels & hired buttboys make the 99% of us pay their bills.

Occupy Your Future

Interested in money?   How about talking & having fun in English or Swedish -- even at 4AM? Got questions on Sweden you'd like answered? Looking for love? Don't miss this great chance to Occupy Your Future any time, day or night.

Brunkebergstorg is one block southeast of T-Centralen in Stockholm. An international group of people is encamped in front of Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's National Bank Building, the world's oldest central bank). In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, it's an informal gathering to build awareness of big banks unfairly taking huge wealth from 99% of the population. Dodging accountability & disregarding lesser folk, mega-wealthy Financiers overplayed their hand. Don't allow bankers & politicians to again betray us.

All people welcome - bring a snack for the campers or air your opinions. Or talk about something else (yesterday morning's discussants included a Swedbank banker, a homeless dude and some friendly cops). Drop in and hang out and interact with cool people. Bring your own sleeping bag if you'll camp - tents are set-up & available as of now, and private supporters have donated free food. Again, it's informal and without controlling leadership. All welcome. Check it out now -- b there or b □

Visit Camp 99% yourself. English widely spoken!

Key websites (mostly in Swedish):
• Occupystockholm.org (link)
• Occupy Stockholm - United for global change (Facebook link)

Wider background (links):
• Adbusters.org
• We are the 99 percent.
• CommonDreams.org   (progressive news consolidator)
• Project for Public Spaces

Bushwhacked & more...

 

Live stream from independent journalists

 
        Turn it up!      (this opens muted)
Nonviolent protest around the world.

Poem for The President

 
Madelyn Dunham meets Nancy Hanks
    by   Genki

If Tutu Madelyn
Returned as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of the one she loved most,
She'd ask first
Of her grandson:
"Was Barry successful?
What has he done?"

"Can I now rest,
With God above?
My family's pride
A sign of love?
Is Barack strong,
To help the weak?
Could he find lasting
wealth to seek?"

"I wonder now
How he's got on...
Help light a path,
When hope is gone."
 

Hillary Clinton on the Fence

Weeks have passed, and the movement to Occupy Wall Street has become bigger & more determined.

Hillary Clinton, former Senator for New York, has been largely quiet about the 99% movement. She sits on the fence, expecting to scavenge useful morsels. Disgusting !     Poorly imitated emotion... She's an animated dancer solely for those who fund her wealth. Hi Sugar Daddy!

A Man Called Boy

Dear Diary,
I go to work everyday, happy to be employed. My employer knows of many hungry outside willing to work, so while this job sucks -- it'll probably get worse. My duties require wearing a jacket & tie (what's the function of a necktie anyhow?) and dealing with the public. Always professional, our clientele looks at me with a mix of respect, fear & envy. I read of friendly small town life, but here all is sterile, semi-efficient, & dull.

My boss and her boss speak to me in flat measured tones. They also seem to dislike their jobs. I'm ordered to complete work tasks and follow directions. My boss's boss's boss once visited our branch and ordered me: "Boy! - help me with this copier!" He yelled "Boy!" though I'm 41 years old and he's younger... I ran to help him. I dislike the name boy, but I heard him angrily yelling at my boss & called her "slut" - so I feel lucky in comparison.

When my wife & I go out to dinner, we wear nice clothes and look prosperous. Walking from our car to a restaurant, or for shopping, I notice more & more ill-dressed people eying us, perhaps with revulsion. Recently one asshole cursed me for no reason. When I told him to "Get a life!" he sort of choked & sobbed.

I sometimes wonder: Is this a Wonderful Life?

Death of Jobs

Is there a lesson?
Why's our world so tough?
dog eat dog & death

Understand the Press as Parasite

"The press of the United States? It is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class. Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion..."
    -- Jack London (1908) The Iron Heel. Macmillan, Ch.7


"The revolution will not be televised."
    -- Gil Scott-Heron (1970)


(On the Occupy Wall Street movement) "Sure we're scared. But admitting weakness is suicidal. We've got strategy teams working round-the-clock developing ways to defuse this situation."
    -- Anonymous source (2011) Speaking 'on background' to avoid responsibility & accountability, and to increase the sinister fear of unseen forces quickly ready to powerfully strike & stifle dissent

Our Unknown World

It is worthwhile to think about & appraise how much in our world we do not understand. Those with great hubris might imagine almost all is known. The more realistic will acknowledge that many systems and processes are still poorly understood, or almost wholly unrecognized. Curious scientists, trained to recognize anomaly, seek regularly to refocus their perspectives. We re-explain to a better fit reality.

Perhaps we actually understand just a small percentage of that happening around us. We create hypotheses and stories, but are largely blind.

This scenario better explains mass foolishness. And deliberate mis-education to perpetuate mass bewilderment. Ignoring a few key processes can result in virtual enslavement. Many enter a world with no right to rest peacefully - from the instant of conception starts a struggle to exist in a world "owned" by others. Immersed in Social Darwinist survival strategies, we eke out life. Personal well-being requires addressing a few central elements, including health care, freedom of communications, equal opportunity vs. the social impact of inheritance & privilege, investment in community, etc.

This explains how exploitation can exist in a systematic way. We're delivered at birth into a world of institutionalized criminality - many accept it, some exploit it; a few will always fight it.

Occupy Wall Street

rejoice
have fun !
freedom to disapprove
dissent without aggression
identify contradiction
decline conform
hinder violence

Land of the Cree
Home of the Slave

McDonalds News Network

Would you be well-informed if all your nutritional news & background information were supplied by McDonalds fast-food franchises?

An independent press is essential - but most media outlets in the USA are owned by wealthy corporations. Americans are typically unfamiliar with press independence, and 99% of the media consumed is owned & controlled by the 1% richest people.

Too many people unthinkingly rely on the huge corporate news machines -- which clearly distort, omit & manage information. In the USA, official brutality is deliberately hidden when possible. Democracy is threatened when a large proportion of people are fooled, deluded or deceived.

Pre-digested infosnacks offered by corporatist networks are not "free news" -- docile media endangers the health of the world & the survival of future generations.

Neglecting media's importance is costly, but blame yourself. Civic media is an available alternative in many nations, but people are captivated by corporate-supplied buzz.

The below site offers a different view of the news:
http://commondreams.org

I Feel Different About Obama

I had some envy for Barack Obama. He's younger than I am, and he is The President of the United States. I've a far simpler life.

Yet Barack Obama is a hypocrite, and he surely knows it.

He's dirtied our world in significant, highly important ways. He's clever & must deeply feel his deceit.

His grandmother would be shocked, his parents disgusted. His wife should feel shame.

So happy I ain't Barack Obama.

Let My People Go

Palestine leader Mahmoud Abbas raised havoc this week at the United Nations in seeking statehood for his people. But efforts for Palestine were no surprise. A year ago (25 Sept 2010) Abbas spoke to the UN General Assembly,  seeking to end escalating Zionist settlements in the Israeli military-occupied West Bank. Over this past year ... the world did nothing.

World Crisis: UNSC Reform

Why should a handful of nations enjoy non-elected membership in the United Nations Security Council? It is wrong.

Ten elected members must contend with the five fat noblemen, each with unilateral veto power. This anti-democratic system emasculates decision-making & stifles debate.