An awesome video from D.C. Douglas. Could well become an anthem for the movement…
The video is brilliant. Please crank up your speakers and watch it. You won’t be sorry. But just to highlight the four items Douglas, no enemy of capitalism, calls for changing — each of which would make very worthy demands for Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, should they decide to create specific ones…
- Reinstate Glass-Steagall: Restore the firewall, created during the depression to avoid a similar mess in the future, then abolished in 1999, which kept banks out of the business of risky investment and speculation schemes.
- Audit The Fed: Force transparency for the trillions of tax-payer dollars given away in corporate bailouts and/or manipulated by the currently unaccountable public/private “national bank”.
- Reverse Citizens United via Constitutional Amendment: End the absurdity of corporate “personhood” and unlimited (and secret) corporate money in politics, as established by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
- Overhaul the Tax Code for Corporations & Top 1%: They often pay less of their income than you do. Sucker. That is simply obsene.
End the Fed is more like it.
Can someone tell me why there is no mention of
Wars?
Yes, Fusion add war, military-industrial complex, so-callled “free trade” = freedom for billionaires to trade domestic, union wage jobs for foreign slave wage ($2/day) jobs. I’m sure others could come up with dozens of others.
It all comes down to government for the 1% vs. government for the 99%.
Great demands, but is anyone listening? – not the prez except to pretend to care in order to get a few votes. – not the congress because they are all bought and pay for. The only way to get people to pay attention is when they start hurting – particularly in the pocketbook. Corporations know how to get people to pay attention – buy them. Might as well have a completely different Constitution.
Brad, Ernest and all the other saner members of society,
The fact that DC Douglas rocks and that we are discussing this here is the first concern. These requirements have been so obvious so long, that talking about them here leads to the thought that they are still not likely to happen.
While glad to see the idea that 99% (actually a higher percentage) of us are being screwed by the richest folk is finally getting through to a larger percentage of folk, the same was easily said of apartheid south africa, argentina, peru,….
Even less reassuring is that OWS requires funding and organizing that could easily be cut off by the richest folk and has not. In fact it looks more daily like some of if most of the main funding and organizing is coming from gates, rockefeller and ford foundation entities.
As skilled at sounding liberal as the neo-lib chicago school boys currently in charge are, who falls for the idea that they are ever going to make change intelligent and wise folk can believe in.
No worries about the perception that bradblog rocks mind you. Just seems like OWS becomes another item in a long list of future archived topics for the site. It is more than a little disheartening to see how little progress we can claim in topics like vote integrity, sibel edmonds, okeefe, fukushima,…..
Beside all that, how much of climate change and peak oil are factored into this ecologic/economic depression. Bankster fraud does contribute to the problem. It can hardly be as much to blame as peak resources globally.
if we knew anything about military/industrial/petro/pharma imperial strategy (and we were prone to betting) one might bet that the neocons and neolibs are frothing up the 99% after years of beating us into submission purposefully. To what purpose? An excuse for martial law? Further hardening of the soft fascism we were raised with? A hard shutdown of society to justify a culling of the herd? All of the above?
Please do respond and lay out all the reasons for easier sleep at night for all of us eh?
Yes, you were completely right that the video is worth seeing!
Like, ditch the hippies and their, like, soon to disappear parades and, like, sitins to appeal to the, like, establishment, dude.
The video is great.It worth seeing for sure!
Outstanding video! It made my day.
To Renzoku (#5): I hear ya…I think about it every day. But, lemme ask you, what’s the alternative? I gotta love the energy and enthusiasm generated by OWS. Best I’ve seen in decades. That counts for something. And so does the intelligent dialogue coming from the people involved, in a form accessible by many if not most of the good folks in this country. This is a counter-brainwashing movement that may help clear the earwax out of the unfortunate AM talk radio listener zombies. (Well, that’s probably overly optimistic, but I’m a half-full kind of person.)
It sure beats despair!
It is a great video even with my going into it thinking I would like it because it is posted here. There is even some mention of the electoral process in the video. For me, that is the bottom line and where our energy should be focused. I think we could have real and lasting positive social, economic and environmental justice if our votes were counted as cast. That isn’t going to happen until we have Hand Counted Paper Ballots. Peace
Let’s face it, we need a better theory of government that meets modern needs.
Yes, the success of OWS now depends on its finding a way to move from “occupation” as in end in itself to tangible goals, and ideally, at least one victory. If the encampment stagnates into an end in itself, that will be the end of its relevance.
hey lora,
half full half empty? that glass is full. what is it full of?
trading one brainwash theme for another is virtuous? what if marie antoinette had been savvy enough to avoid looking like part of the problem? sort of the same way the rothschild family avoided it.
funny the banksters are part of the problem. relatively speaking they are probably a small part. interesting that in all this debt, no one has ever discussed just who it is all this money is owed to. for all this debt to be owed there needs to be someone other than crazy debt ridden governments and debt ridden banks that it is owed to. some one or some group who has no debt and holds notes on the majority if not all of this crazy debt.
another question is if the ptb are that powerful, then where are they going with this? from this limited perspective it looks like they are preparing to retool the entire financial establishment at a huge cost to the 99% and another huge profit to the banksters (and whoever is the world’s creditor).
what? I am shocked. shocked I say. the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency? well then, we must reset the world economic system and institute a new world currency ….yadayadayada…blahblah. and then we all live happily ever after with the one world system new world order rockefeller and all have been working with cfr to bring online for decades.
and incidently, those few dollars we currently earn and buy groceries with are now worth about half what they were when exchanging them for that new wonder currency.
max keiser and matt taibbi get into it a bit. would love to see either of them interviewed on malloy’s show when some sage guest host sees fit.
@ Renzoko writes:
Wha…? Do you have a link for me? Cuz I’m on the ground in LA and I can tell you we’re being funded almost exclusively through THE PEOPLE…if at all! So, if you know something about the NYC funding that I don’t – please share!
#occupywallstreet NYC has been EXTREMELY open and transparent with their funding allocation (100% better job than the RED CROSS) / posting everything they’ve received and where the funding will go. Tho’ I haven’t tracked the source of donations, the idea that we’re being funded by the Rockefellers or Fords would be news to me!
Actually the biggest concern we have right now is that we’re being hijacked by MOVEON.ORG, who has already FRANCHISED us. They bought occupytogether.org – much to my chagrin – and now we see the same drab, pre-manufactured logos popping up on all the different cities occupy sites.
Ren – don’t know what to tell you to make you sleep better at night. But I DO have a solution – join (or visit) the occupation nearest you. Action your grief and dispair via community building and collective democracy.
Amazing. Beautiful. Things are happening. Something is shifting.
This thought / moving it forward with my time and energy directs me, heals me, and sure does helps ME sleep…when I eventually do.
Great video, Brad! Thanks for posting / hadn’t seen it yet. Will share wide.
Ugh…for those of us here and elsewhere pre-determining the demise of our relevance due to the “lack of cohesive demands”…ugh. I am so so very sick of that question.
My standard response is
a) we’re whittling down our demands BY GROUP CONSENSUS and that is a slow and tedious process. It’s not a hostage situation. If we can camp out while we’re working on it non-stop – then everyone can just CHILL on the demanding our demands!
b) We would LOVE to have one concise demand within one month that addresses and puts a fix on this; but as all Bradblog readers know that this is a multi-headed hydra horror we’re fighting; one or two single demands does not cover the corruption we are trying to address. It took YEARS to get us into this mess…why is everyone expecting us to come up with solutions (vetted solutions) in one month?
c) Anyone who thinks this is over come Winter, is going to be in for a BIG shock.
Brad, your recommended list above is wonderful. You’ll be happy to know the occupyLA demands committee has just about every single one of ’em in our living document.
I’m bringing the above down with me on Sunday to see where the demands committee stands. Citizens United overturned by Constitutional Amendment is really good…don’t think they’ve added that amendment part, which makes it VIABLE.
Thanks!
(Oh! And Brad – you have a devoted, long time listener on the #occupyLA DEMANDS committee! Mentioned your name the other day and he launched into a detailed diatribe on his top ten “BEST OF BRAD” reports …you may have some mighty pull down there!)
I’ve been trying not to overstay my limit at the Occupy SLC events, but I’ve been on two marches here and talked with a lot of people here. We had a very impressive march here last night and local politicians and officials were invited to hear our concerns yesterday.
Two political rivals showed up. Mark Shurtleff, (attorney general), and Rocky Anderson, (former mayor of Salt Lake and bravest politician in the US following the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan).
Anderson emphatically said he was with the occupy movement and even brought up the “Military Industrial Congressional Complex”, which he admitted wasn’t exactly what Eisenhower said. I believe the media only covered the part about supporting the occupy movement.
Mark Shurtleff was shown on our local TV newscasts saying that we could participate by becoming delegates and voting. 🙂
All I know is that I had a great time and got to hear what a lot of people had to say!
P.S. When Anderson was condemning the attacks on Iraq shortly after the invasion, Shurtleff said that Anderson “had the right to be stupid”.
From what I’ve seen, here’s a video that I think portrays what’s going on in SLC.
Sorry. Here’s the video.
Hate it when I do that!
Larry B – what a great video! Thank you for posting that…will share it with the LA peeps.
Jeannie:
The disjointed will gradually become jointed; with a little help from our friends and the Veterans For Peace.
I never, personally, served, but I once got to march with them – proudly – carrying a flag draped coffin down the streets of Salt Lake. I will never forget the honor!
Also, the video doesn’t portray the size of the marches we had here. Cars kept stopping and people lept out of their cars because they wanted to take pictures of us marching down the street. It wasn’t a small gathering that was marching and shouting at the banks.
Of course, the people in the banks knew we shouting at them. they’re not ignorant.
If you’ve never done it, it’s not real easy to walk and yell at the same time for miles, but it’s great exercise.
People in the restaurants cheer you on.
Loads of fun!
Damn!
I have to remaster this sentence…
Of course, the people in the banks knew we were NOT shouting at them. they’re not ignorant.
Another good Video from
DC Douglas: http://youtu.be/wK1MOMKZ8BI
And this one ranks as one of my faves so far
http://youtu.be/zjfhOPCPJnE
Enjoy and share please
Jeannie Dean – Love that your so active!
A man not given to frivolous words, in public anyway, Robert Gates, recently said:
(speech given at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where he received the Liberty Medal).
Thanks, Shortbus! Thanks, all…
…Hey, and MSNBC aired an interview with me last night from occupyLA:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/44909854#44909854
…and Marianne Williamson! Ha! So cool!
Yes, something is shifting for SURE if I can walk down to my City Hall and talk to MSNBC about the criminal bankers who’ve hijacked our economy.
Jeannie Dean and all,
thank you repeatedly.. I sleep well at night. Learned the beauty and wisdom of living without hope years ago. Tomorrow we may die. Today, well that is bonus. as a wise teacher of ninja turtles said, we all die. only some with honor.
ok enough deep water. thank you for being you. most heartening fact learned recently is that you guys are carefully avoiding leadership. consensus rocks. regardless of time taken it is the only way that will work.
leadership, regardless how virtuous it is made out to be, is always the weak point most easily exploited. stick with consensus and our deluded corporate and govt leaders will eventually need to come around to catch up to their herd – or be leaders of nobody.
in terms of coming up with demands. whatever. like the abuses that have been foisted on us for all these decades need to be itemized and explained. criminettly. if the abusive spouse needs a list of abuses they can no longer do, then they do not get it yet. how bout this for a demand: MAKE US HAPPY.
making a list implies that we are asking them to do unreasonable tasks. all we all want from them is to be reasonable. so all they have to do is BE NICE. is it nice to loot and pillage? is it nice to do any of the crimes we can spend decades listing that they have been doing for decades? besides, what about all the abuses these bums have not allowed us to see?
so yeh. you go girl. meanwhile, please know that the above comments on funding and support from the ptb is not to say that ows is not self funding and not self supporting.
it is to say that adbusters is a foundationally supported entity supported by the same chicago school boys that took their time setting up systems in developing countries that made them easier to victimize by the likes of pinochet, peron, fujimori, suharto, marcos, abdullah, hussein, the shah,……who the chicago school boys much more actively funded and supported. if all ford, gates and rockefeller foundations need to do show us a rock while the rest of the ows does the heavy lifting, the ptb are more than happy with that. especially since they will not be giving any more support when america’s tiananmen hits. ask naomi klein if she is still around in ny.
the fact that cops and provacateurs have not gotten dirty yet is in itself significant. the fact that troops have not been sent in yet is too. posse comitatus is long gone. the knuckleheads we know have been modelling their domestic policies on china for more than a decade now. so yet seems the operative word here.
while ows might be something new for most of us, we have plenty old and recent experience to draw on. maxkeiser.com is yelling raucous good stuff on arab spring, greece, ows and he and stacey herbert are on the ground everywhere.
in terms of practicallity, he put forward a wild idea for all those who support the effort. buy and hold physical silver in whatever quantity possible. pool funds whatever. jpmorgan and all are naked shorting silver to keep the price down and the dollar up way beyond their funds and the fed’s printing presses can keep up. his call is BUY SILVER BANKRUPT JPMORGAN.
only one way to end the fed. take their wealth. obusha might remake the system so he can look progressive. ending the fed eliminates his biggest donors.
until fed and the parasitic banksters are jailed and return all our wealth, it is all pointless. the odds of them doing that are low. obusha knows who his biggest donors are and were.
so yeh protest and like keiser says, bankrupt them at the same time. either that or protest and watch them bankrupt us even as we insist they stop doing it.
thank you again and hang in there.
r
ps. jeannie.
if all those cautionary tales seem too depressing. look to iceland. even with their success in throwing the bums out, the bums are still trying to get back in. perhaps if iceland lets the banks fail a few more times, the banksters will learn to leave iceland be. meanwhile at least icelanders are not paying for the banksters looting for the next three generations. and they just rewrote their constitution simliarly to what ows is doing right?
Jeannie Dean,
First time I tried to watch the link to you being interviewed I couldn’t get it. Then my computer kinda froze. Then when I got it working again I came back and tried your link again. This time it worked but the whole thing is Larry Kudlow interviewing Rick Perry. Did you put that up by mistake or is someone fucking with us?
#30
I also got the Rick Perry interview. Will check back tomorrow.
Thank you Larry Bergen , Jeannie and all for occupying . Am with you in spirit.
Thank you all, my BradBlog tribe – for all the cyber hugs! I love this place…
Rezoku – I loved your feedback; no, not at all depressing to me, just realistic. And I appreciate you pointing out the potential pitfalls re: outside funding…
Interesting timing, because last night we FINALLY had a decent, streamlined General Assembly (our GA’s have been a total mess in terms of process / finally getting that straightened out) – and funding was the main discussion. At issue: whether to piggy back on a 501c3 so folks can make tax deductible donations (like occupywallstreet has done via Alliance for Global Justice) – or to be a 501c4 so we can have more wiggle room to engage in political efforts.
Thing is, we have to find SOME way to fund ourselves outside of private donations (tho’ I wish we didn’t) mostly to pay for our sanitation (we have portopotties that run us about 3,000 dollars a week) and other needs that will help maintain the City Hall grounds.
It’s quite a sight to see, 400 tents now all packed into the city hall green – hardly any room to move! As we have the full support of City Hall / our City Council, and even our MAYOR here in LA, we have a real opportunity to be the ONLY occupied city that can fully focus on sustainability and green living (our generator is run by solar panels during the day!) in addition to all the marches / actions / declarations we’re organizing in solidarity with all the other occupied cities…we hope to make City Hall OccupyLA a permanent community!
So, yes, we do need to figure out our funding.
The discussion on this topic was respectfully “shelved’ last night so we could all do some research and weigh this more carefully…
As for infiltrators – oh, boy do we have them in DROVES down there! It’s been a HUGE problem since day 1 – police agitators especially / trying to pick verbal fights with our LAPD, who have actually HELPING out around the encampment when and where they can. LAPD seems to be in full support (for now). Can’t get over it! We’ve had 0 arrests!
Very tense within the group, lots of infighting (maybe because we’re still a baby occupation? Maybe because we’re getting NO friction from the outside? …not sure, but we have some serious security issues which is starting to make everyone paranoid.)
Plus we have LOTS of homeless, which is good – we want them to join us – but we’re only blocks from SKID ROW, so many of these peeps have mental issues that keep everyone on edge. Good news is we already have a “Skid Row reachout team” – vetted experts in how to incorporate our homeless / mentally challenged peeps without putting anyone in danger….fascinating.
Still, we have high hopes that these infiltrators will be meted out / identified and ignored as we grow. The group tends to SELF-VET through the democratic process…which I”m LOVING!
Okay trying the link to my MSNBC interview again, this one should work:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/44909854#44909854
Don’t mean to flame the thread, but wanted you all to know that we could really use some ELECTION INTEGRITY books and DVD’s in our OccupyLA library – or anything you guys think is relevant to our cause(s).
I’ve contacted some of our silver-back EI veterans to help us out with this, make it a coordinated EI effort in ALL the occupations. You can find your local occupation donation address at http://www.occupytogether.org.
Our LA donation address: The UPS Store – Attn: Occupy LA, 645 W. Ninth St, Unit 110-253, Los Angeles, CA 90015
Also, we have a GREAT action in the works – Sue Wilson (of BradBlog fame / filmmaker “Broadcast Blues”) is joining us at our GA tonight to propose a march on CLEAR CHANNEL for WEDNESDAY~! We plan on showing her film TUESDAY NIGHT on a large projector we just acquired – can play DVDs screened directly onto the gorgeous white marble walls of City Hall (only LA would have a city hall that doubles as a movie screen!)
…then we march on WEDNESDAY (if the action is approved by the GA)/ will try to get Sue’s proposal on film so we can all see it. She’s gonna set the place on FIRE!
Also WEDNESDAY, comedian JEFF ROSS is joining us to ROAST the 1%!! If anyone’s in the area, would love to see you for these amazing actions / entertainment events!
Jeannie Dean –
Had been off the grid for a bit, so hadn’t noticed your incorrect link to MSNBC. Thanks for posting the correct one, and I fixed the previous one, just for good measure. (And good work in the interview!)
There should be 3 more items that need to be changed:
5) Ensure fair and auditable elections – paper ballots for all elections
6) Allow independent reporting on all cable and airwave stations and increase the number of companies that own news outlets
7) Re-instate a functional Fairness Doctrine to ensure that prime time stations have to present more than one viewpoint
go jeanie. looks good.
do not bother trying to purge the plants.
worse than catching water in a sieve.
plan them into the process.
for sure the 1% have planned ows into their’s.
take a look at videos posted on ows ny.
and talk to those guys. they are connected too right?
noteworthy:
white collar cops (higher ranks) are doing the unprovoked violence.
blue collar (obviously more aware of their own 99% status) are standing back mostly pissed and amazed and knowing they can do nothing to stop their supervisors.
seen no evidence of undercover cops assaulting everyone yet as we did at 2000 presidential coronation parade protests.
best bet so far seems to be cameras everywhere all the time.
anyone there practice aikido? (only half funny)
to be sure the monied bums will send in private contractors too.
kind of surprised breitbart and okeefe are not there yet.
funding will be interesting.
either way keep in mind how banksters, paypal and all screwed julian assange the first chance they got.
even google is in bed with koch brothers now.
(creepier and creepier)
paper ballots seem best. brad, does not germany still do it with exit polls accurate a week in advance to within a couple tenths of a percent?
still think go for one item at a time and keep it simple on demands. ok “be nice” might be too simple.
either way a list will lead to negotiating.
the 1% have intentionally made the necessary list too long.
kind of like a filibustering criminal plan.
negotiating with a greedy suicidal seems pointless.
so go for one point. once that point is secure go for the next.
someone mentioned going for the right to free speech affirmation of constitution?
in terms of practicality. any one consider yet how to communicate when they shut down electronics? like they did on BART recently? awesome cool that your decisions are glacial. keeping in touch and coordinated might be helpful when higher ranked cops start kettling dirty – like they did to those 700 arrested after cops kettled them on to brooklyn bridge.
wise sheep might be able to minimize damage from malevolent shepherds. good luck kids and have fun storming the castle. (ok dhs that was a princess bride reference – nothing more)
thank you again.
r
ps. hey ernest. did not some mayor in florida recently require all journalists to register as lobbyists? perhaps now it is acceptable for journalist lawyers to help out folk in the news (like OWS LA) with lawyerly type stuff on funding and organizing?
too funny.
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/10/16/keiser-baggins/
ows and bradblog – meet max keiser baggins
keiser baggins – meet bradblog and friends
dudes and dudettes,
why is bloomberg waiting until 7am monday morning?
http://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/afl-cio-alert-go-to-wall-street-now-stop-the-eviction/
Jeannie Dean:
Glad you liked the video I found. The creativity of the young people who are making videos of the occupy movement is amazing.
Congratulations for getting on the national media. That was a respectful report by NBC.
You guys/gals in LA seem to a bit more sophisticated then we are in SLC if you can show movies. We had a really interesting forum where anybody could say what they wanted to, but there weren’t any microphones and most don’t know that you have to talk really loud to be heard by everybody, but “people in the street” have some remarkable things to say.
The times got a lot more interesting a few weeks ago, and I love it!
If there’s one thing that connects SLC with LA, it’s the police. There hasn’t been a single incident.
I am only one voice, but the anthem I would recommend is this.
The song was written for the true emergence of the modern movement for democracy, which happened in Egypt, but has certain roots in America also.
No surprise here, this is what the Reich wingers are trying to LIE about now.
Apparently that is ALL the Reich wing has, is to continuously LIE, LIE, LIE and of course whom can blame them when it works so well to lead their brain dead minions around.
http://www.tvally.com/showthread.php?16267-False-Picture-for-2007-protests-circulated-as-Occupy-Protest
When I said above that Rocky Anderson, former mayor of SLC, was the bravest politician in the US, I wasn’t kidding. He led huge protests against Bush here when not a single other politician had the guts to support him.
I was standing just a few yards away when this video was made, but had a very hard time hearing what was said. Shame on the media for only showing a tiny clip of what he says here.
Very happy to have found this video of Rocky Anderson speaking at the Occupy Salt Lake camp.
http://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/occupy-wall-street-a-trojan-horse-for-nazi-revival/
The controllers of the Matrix flip our understanding of it one more time.
nk,
take a second. what if they did set it up like a trojan horse. if the greeks had known that fact, the horse could have been used to the greeks’ advantage. to be sure riots in greece are being used to germany’s and the powers that be’s advantage.
riots will come to the u.s. too as soon as riot police are told to ramp up the violence. and that is exactly as neocon repubs and obusha corp neolib dems want it. need it in fact. so take a page from wise assymetric warriors everywhere and always. sometimes the best tactic is to not be there. let the violent authorities sit quietly looking for their victims. come back another day. occupy is not the only means.
besides all that, has anyone made any effort at all yet to understand just who it is that all these trillions are owed to? who comprises the one super entity with no debt and that much wealth that they can be the world’s creditor to that extent?
http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock
who owns the economist?