No Money to Pay the Bills

So, I took a little break from my blog because...well...I'm lazy. But, at any rate, I came back on today.

Anyway, I won't have a great deal to say today, except to point out that we're so far in the shithole as far as money goes that at least one city in Michigan can't even pay its electric bill so they've resorted to ripping out street lights.

And the Republicans still won't allow a tax increase to get through.

Halloween

It's my favorite holiday ever again. That satanic night when all the little heathens get dressed up as spawns of Satan and go around trying to coerce good Christians away from the Lord and into occult wickedness!

Nah, it's the night when kids get dressed up and go around asking for candy and adults make their houses all scary. I love this night, it's fun. And when you take it in the historical context of the sabbat Samhain, it gets even better. It's a fun night of sweets and candy and scares and good times and it can also be a time of remembrance for those who aren't with us anymore. That can be almost as important as anything else on this night.

Happy Halloween, everyone. And a merry Samhain for those of that belief.

Valley Wall Pictorial

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, here's ten thousand worth.

Valley Wall

I was reading an article on BBC.com about Occupy Wall Street and this caught my eye:

On the US East Coast, many of those taking part in Occupy protests are preparing for an unseasonally cold storm due to hit this weekend.

As much as 10in (25cm) of snow is expected in some areas on Saturday, with between two and four inches forecast for New York City.

Protesters are raising money and floating ideas for how to cope as the temperature drops.

Suggestions reportedly include stockpiling donated coats and blankets, trying to find more secure tents and turning to possible indoor locations.

"Everyone's been calling it our Valley Forge moment," Michael McCarthy, a former Navy medic in Providence, Rhode Island, told the Associated Press news agency, referring to a harsh winter during the American War of Independence.

I had to reflect on the validity of that statement for a little while. I've been out of school for a long time now and the History Channel is more interested in informing me about UFOs in the Mona Lisa and how Hitler really worshiped the occult to spend any real time on it. I haven't been to a public school since my mid-teens, so my knowledge of the events at Valley Forge are fuzzy at best.

But there are a few things I do remember. I remember hearing about how that winter was a badly wet one and how the constant freezing and thawing of ice and snow made it hard to stay dry. I remember hearing about how the soldiers had to hurry to construct log cabins to keep from freezing to death and how frost bite was a problem even with shelter. Food was scarce and came at irregular intervals for both soldiers and their horses. I remember hearing about how disease was rampant in the camp from the close quarters and found a nice breeding ground in the soldier's dirty uniforms. They shivered and starved all through the while continuing to fight the British. These were soldiers who had so much that was asked of them that a risk of mutiny was a very real possibility. In a letter to the President of Congress, George Washington wrote in part:

"Sir: Full as I was in my representation of matters in the Commys. departmt. yesterday, fresh, and more powerful reasons oblige me to add, that I am now convinced, beyond a doubt that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that line, this Army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things. Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can; rest assured Sir this is not an exaggerated picture,"

Washington managed to hold his army together and with better training from Major General Baron von Steuben and better food provided by Baker General Christopher Ludwick, he was able to not only keep his army together through the winter but was able to turn back the British and win a major victory.

The problems that face the Occupy Wall Street protestors are different, but no less real and these are problems of both civilization as well as the elements. It's going to be a cold winter for them, but that is not the worst thing they face. The enemy they face is the status quo, and the operatives of the status quo won't attack them with muskets and ambushes, they're more insidious. As reported by the LATimes;

It's also clear they don't want the demonstrators to get too comfortable.

City fire and police officials on Friday confiscated gas tanks and half a dozen generators being used for electricity in the makeshift kitchen and for media equipment. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had declared them a safety hazard. Organizers were baffled; they said fire marshals had inspected the park the day before and hadn't mentioned any violations.

"It's strange that this happens on the first really cold morning," said Bill Dobbs, a volunteer with the press operation. But rather than prompt calls for further rebellion — plans already were underway Friday for an action targeting Midtown banks — organizers said they would ask for the generators back. Several protesters said cooperating with the city at this point in the season seemed important.

OWS is facing a different war with different rules; rules set up to put the advantage to those who hold power and the only people who can hold power are those who either are members of the 1% or people who are supported by the 1%. Unlike the officials in Oakland, a lot of cities have decided to leave the protestors alone because, as the SeattlePI points out;

But other cities have rejected aggressive tactics, at least so far, some of them because they want to avoid the violence seen in Oakland or, as some have speculated, because they are expecting the protests to wither anyway with the onset of cold weather.

They know that society today is very, very different than the society that bred the soldiers who suffered through the events at Valley Forge 234 - 233 years ago. We're a society that can find relative warmth during the bitter cold and we're not used to the hardships that were so common among the American colonies. The type of common work has shifted from very labor intensive to fairly automated and repetitive. The people who have the best chance at a long campaign are the soldiers and veterans who've been trained to have the discipline needed to see themselves through the extreme weather. And, to top it off, OWS doesn't have a George Washington, Friedrich von Steuben or Christopher Ludwick to help see them through and boost their morale.

Occupy Wall Street is, indeed, facing their own Valley Forge moment; and with the absence of an inspiring figurehead the only thing the protestors can rely on to see them through is how badly they want things to change and how badly they want the status quo to fall.

But what the protestors will need to keep in mind is that, while the Continental Army had George Washington to lead them; during Valley Forge they were poorly trained to the point of being little better than the militias that supplemented them. They were citizens with muskets, but they suffered, fought and stood their ground because they believed in what they were doing.

Occupy Wall Street can do the same thing just as well.

Spent

On the FSTDT forums, the user Smurfette Principle posted a link to the browser game Spent. In this game you apply for a job that will put you below the poverty line. It'll give you a random daily choice with the ultimate goal of being able to make it through one month.

I've played it four times so far, only ran out of money once and the other three times I've ended the month with triple digit funds. Even though I'd be able to make it through the month three times out of four, it's enough to give you an insight into what it is like to try and make it not just month-to-month, but paycheck-to-paycheck.

People go a long time without needed medical treatment, proper food or housing and basic necessities. Back in the '50's, the idolized time for Republicans, there was a 90% tax rate on the top earners and people lived.

These days, there's a 34% tax rate on the top earners and people can't even survive.

OWS, Cities and the First Amendment

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and a part of the Bill of Rights. You'll hear a lot of idiots screaming Freedom of Speech and citing the First Amendment in arguments that don't call for it and I am convinced that a lot of people can't be assed to read more than that when the Bill of Rights is taught in school. And it seems often, people think the First Amendment only covers the freedom of speech. There is more to it than just freedom of speech. It also gives you the right to print what you want without fear of government retribution. It allows you to gather in large groups to give a united voice to actions you disagree with. It allows you to demand that your government put right an injustice to yourself or to others.

These are things often forgotten but which must be remembered.

In Atlanta, GA a while back, Mayor Reed gave the Occupy Wall Street protestors until November 7th before they'd need to leave. Then he reneged on that and sent the police to clear the protestors out.

Over in Oakland, CA they ended up launching tear gas, flash/bang grenades, rubber bullets and 12-gauge beanbag rounds at the protestors. The reason sited? "Health and sanitation issues." So for those reasons, this is how they deal with it.



And the part that shows us the cops either think people are too stupid to think or that they just have more ignorance than is justified for police officers; when asked about the use of flashbangs during the protests, the was;

No, the loud noised that were heard originated from M-80 explosives thrown at Police by protesters.

Boy, people will fall for a lot; the world is flat, rabbits chew their cud, Piltdown Man shows science is wrong, Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. But when the video evidence is right in front of you and available for everyone to see?

Man, that's just fucking stupid to expect us to buy that.

Other mayors have tried to get OWS protests disbanded by saying that camping in city parks was illegal. This is where we need to remember that the Bill of Rights guarantees us the right to peacefully assemble and petition the government for a redress of our grievances.

It does not set a time limit on how long those assemblies can last.

The Revolution Will Be Trademarked!

I know I've been talking a LOT about Occupy Wall Street, and this actually makes me something of a hypocrite because I was criticizing IrregularTimes.com for getting a case of tunnel vision and only reporting on a select few things, such as Americans Elect to the exclusion of most everything else. Now here I am, reporting on little else besides Occupy Wall Street. However this post, while involving Occupy Wall Street, is less about the movement and more about people using them for a money grab. Capitalism strikes again! The revolution will not be televised! It will be trademarked!

Robert and Diane Maresca of Long Island are seeking trademark protection for the phrase “Occupy Wall Street,” with the intention of placing it on products, according to a report on The Smoking Gun website, which recently obtained a copy of the couple’s application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Robert Maresca said the OWS slogan is “important,” and expressed interest in having the supporters of the movement get the benefit of the trademarked brand, going so far as to say it is his hope to transfer ownership of the trademark to OWS, “if it’s feasible,” CNN reported.

They know damn well that it isn't feasible. OWS doesn't have a central leadership or anything resembling a hierarchy, so there's no entity to transfer the trademark to. This is such a transparent money grab I can't even laugh about it. As reported by CNN.com;

"The goal of OWS is not to become a profitable business," said Tyler Combelic, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman. "Anything that misconstrues it as such, such as trademarking for the sake of profiting, is missing the point of protest."

This seems to be a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. And maybe this guy has all the best intentions of trying to protect OWS (doubtful, considering he wants to put it on T-shirts and bumper stickers and all sorts of shit to sell), but how can one not see the mind-boggling money grab behind this?

He's trying to profit off of people who are protesting income inequality.

Florida's Welfare Drug Testing Halted

A law in Florida would have required anyone on welfare to submit to drug testing. The law, however, was blocked by a Federal judge.

Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the measure into law on May 31, touted it as a way to ensure taxpayer money isn’t “wasted” on those who use drugs. “Hopefully more people will focus on not using illegal drugs,” he said then.

But, in her order, Scriven issued a scathing assessment of the state’s argument in favor of the drug tests, saying the state failed to prove “special needs” as to why it should conduct such searches without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, as the law requires.

“If invoking an interest in preventing public funds from potentially being used to fund drug use were the only requirement to establish a special need,” Scriven wrote, “the state could impose drug testing as an eligibility requirement for every beneficiary of every government program. Such blanket intrusions cannot be countenanced under the Fourth Amendment.”

This is one of those things you'd expect the people who crafted the law to maybe give some thought to before drafting and passing it. Maybe, just maybe, being poor isn't reason enough to force needy people to piss into a cup.

But then again, that is the kind of mentality that views being impoverished as a crime. This is what they spend your tax dollars on.

Brad and the Future of Occupy Wall Street

A very dear person to me linked me to a post by The Infamous Brad. In this post he examines the history of political protests and what that history may show for the future of Occupy Wall Street. A lot of good points were raised about the differences between the protests that worked in the past and what the focus is of the current Occupy Wall Street protests. And while I readily acknowledge the validity of the points raised, I have to disagree with the overall sentiment that the Occupiers are going about things the wrong way and that they're going to fail because of it.

This conclusion is drawn from the history of the Wobblies, better known as the Industrial Workers of the World. The IWW was most active around the Industrial Revolution though they are still an organized active union. The way that the Wobblies got the right to strike was by busing around to protest sites and giving so many numbers to the protests there that the cops couldn't jail them all. Without dedication and sacrifice like that, the article says, OWS is going to fail. Unless all the protestors support the main OWS body in New York by donating time, money or more protestors and not being so spread out over the USA that the numbers are easily dealt with, OWS will fail. That is the part I disagree with.

The protests over in Greece started around the 5th of May in 2010 for many of the same reasons that OWS has sprung up and, to my surprise, they're still going on, over a year later. When I first heard about the riots, I supported them in their cause but beyond that, it was just something going on far, far away. When I hear about protests going on in New York, be it OWS or the various antiwar protests from Bush's era, I'd support them too, but it was still this far removed thing so none of it was actually real to me. Even when OWS protests sprung up in Boston and Philly, I was surprised, but it was still this thing happening in distant lands.

What changed that was when I found out that OWS had finally reached the bastion of conservative ideology known as Oklahoma City. Suddenly, the protests weren't some far removed thing in distant lands; they had landed right into my backyard. I got to see people so disgruntled, so upset with the status quo that they were going to camp out in protest through bitter cold nights, rain, hail and a very near miss with a Tornado cell-cloud. They want change that badly.

Something that wasn't around back in the days of the Industrial Revolution was, obviously, the internet. The internet is a wonderful thing and something we largely take for granted, as evidenced by the article Infamous Brad wrote. The internet makes instant, wireless communication possible; not just text and voice communication, but also images and video. Ever see a movie set in the '40's or '50's, a big news story would break and you'd see reporters beating each other with severed limbs to be the first into the row of phone booths to call their editor?

It's funny, but transported to the 2000's and those same reporters won't be clawing their way to the phone booths; they'll be on their laptops, iPhones or Blackberries to let their editor know the scoop, the only determining factor in how fast the story gets out is by who has the quickest fingers. But with the advent of social networking, such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Skype and whatever else you can think up, you won't even need reporters anymore. Anyone with a camera phone can break a story happening anywhere in the world. We now have phones with 12-megapixel digital cameras built into them. It is now within the power of every John Q out there to be the first to report a revolutionary protest or post topless photos of himself on Craigslist so his can cheat on his wife.

One of the ideas behind the Wobblies' strategy was to gain public awareness for their cause to bring about change. But while they had to rely on the good graces of the Old Media to get their message out to the masses, we now have the internet.

So far, instead of dwindling, we've seen OWS spread to Europe, the Tundra and Antarctica. There are stirs being felt in India and Putin has Russia scrambling to stave off protests there while China has put a gag order on it's media regarding OWS content.

I'm not sure how far OWS will go when all is said and done, but even if it does fade out, it will have made people and governments take notice that the status quo is on shaky ground. It has spread to levels the IWW of the Industrial Revolution could have only dreamed of and over a third of America supports them.

Eight Bells and All Is Well

Harold Camping came up with a prediction that the world would end tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is yesterday and as I look out of my window, I see the world is still here and everything is just fine.

Well, Obama did sign three Free Trade deals. Maybe that's what Camping meant when he said the world would end?