Evolution Occupy

"If a congressman learns that his committee is about to do something that would affect a company, he can go trade on that because he is not obligated to keep that information confidential.... He is not breaching a duty of confidentiality to anybody and therefore would not be liable for insider trading." ~March 3, 2006 - STOCK Act Fact Check


 The occupy protest has come to and end in Oakland. just this morning I watched as the protesters were removed from Frank Ogawa Plaza. There was no teargas, no graffiti, no rubber bullets, and no rocks thrown.
  Watching you couldn't help but see even the protesters knew it was time to move on. There were several factors that came into play when the choice was made to shut down the protest. A group of anarchists had spawned from the occupy group and were calling for violence against not only police but against reporters too. There was a shooting and a man was killed this week during an altercation (it's not clear whether those involved were part of occupy)
  I know some people have a vision of tent cities popping up across the land as the people gather in a peaceful protest against the evil corporations and as the tent cities grow we watch the corporate monsters crumble and fall around our feet. That's not going to happen. I would hope that other cities do have occupy protests and they send their opening message to the companies that do not have our best interests in mind as they use our own money against us. I also hope the people involved are intelligent enough to know when that leg of the protest has run its course. What turned out to be a good beginning now needs to evolve into something that takes action from as many people as possible. Many people supported the issues represented by occupy protests but they could not just drop everything and go to live in tents outside city hall.

   People have been critical about my opinion that the tent cities were not effective. They seem to think just because people are living in tents it will force companies and politicians to change their behavior. I don't see that happening. I do see them paying attention, waiting to see if maybe the occupy protests have something in mind that would effect them. Now we are in a few months the only thing that has happened is more protests have popped up in more cities. That's a good thing, it shows the sentiment is widespread. but even if protests were to occur in every single city across the country what else is that going to achieve?

  I don't have all the answers to solve our problems but I have some ideas. I also believe that sooner or later some of these ideas will have to become a reality or our nation will no longer be around for us to demand to be changed.
  We need to start voting. The highest percentage of voter turnout in 2010 was 56% in Minnesota and the lowest was in the District of Columbia at about 29%. Pathetic to say the least. How can we complain about the way our country is being run when at least half of us don't care enough to do anything that would have an effect on it? http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.html
  Move your bank account to a credit union
   I consider this the first real productive action coming  from the occupy protests. People are moving their accounts from big banks like bank of America to smaller banks or credit unions. The way banks make their money these days is on bullshit fees like the $5 fee they put on us when legislation was enacted to limit the fees that could be charged for using your card at the time of purchase. Take the time to move away from that big bank, if losing a charge of a few cents worried them enough to blatantly try and screw us in public then losing customers all together will have some effect. http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/11/bank-transfer-day-rally-targets-bank-america
 
   Stop buying from the big chains. Start shopping at that independently owned store and support small businesses whenever possible. If you drive across the country you may notice that every city is starting to look exactly alike. There are shopping centers which contain stores like Home Depot or Lowes (sometimes both) Walmart, Taco Bell, KFC, Barnes & Noble, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond. In many of these same cities you will also find what used to be a busy downtown that looks like a ghost town. All the businesses run by the people who lived in town are closed due to people helping the corporations grow bigger and bigger. As a business get larger it tends to lose any personal relationship with it's employees, instead treating them as a number. How easy is it to be concerned for the number 34617? If I were to tell you number 34617 was late to work because their child had a cold how much care could you muster up?


 The last thing I am going to address this time around is the way our elected representatives are cashing in on inside information about companies. This information is being used to effect stock purchases.There is legislation written to help stop this practice but there is very little support for it by congress....I wonder why.http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=433&Itemid=106
 CBS did a story on this and you all need to read it and act accordingly. Congress: Trading stock on inside information?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/
Send an email to your representative and make it clear how you feel. Here's a link to help you do that https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Ask them if they support the Stock Act and tell them to co-sponsor it. If they don't, go camp on their lawn

Across The Board Game

I know this has been talked about a little bit, seems towards the end of last year a lot of local and state governments were actually doing it.
  I am wondering why we are not even discussing it.
   Cut the budget across the board. There should be very little if anyone spared from this cut. I would like to see programs for the disabled and elderly left alone. Those people either can't do anything to help themselves or shouldn't have to, they have paid their dues.
     I don't know what percentage this cut would have to be I have heard 5% but even if it was 10% so what?
I have taken a paycut over the last 3 years that is at least equal to 10%. My company has not given a raise in pay for the last 3 years. The lowest percentage I could have received was 3% that alone comes close to 10%. If you factor no longer matching 401k contributions, and no bonuses due to the drop in business hurting our bottom line then that number goes even higher.
  Is there any one elected leader out there who has even suggested this type of plan?  Why not?
   Don't get me wrong, I think their are plenty of other things we need to take a close look at such as the taxes on the rich. I wonder when we are going to stop fucking around and allowing the Republican idiots make stupid excuses for why they don't want to tax the rich. Every time I listen to some idiot try to rationalize his stand on tax cuts for wealthy Americans  it makes me embarrassed for them and for us as a country. It's like we have lost the ability to use our voices in any type of intelligent manner. Instead we allow big mouth idiots  to distract us, we waste countless hours debating stupid suggestions made by ignorant people, and we blunder along trying to figure out how to move forward instead of backwards.
   Any moron who thinks it will be helpful to anyone if we spend more time trying to repeal health care needs to shut the hell up. To spend more time working to repeal it is foolish and then if that effort was successful what do we do? Go back to the old way? Work out and debate yet another plan? Come on, let's at least be realistic. Even if you are not happy with the plan it is something different rather than doing the same damn thing over and over. Let's see how it goes, and then get rid of what does not work, I can't believe every aspect of the health care reform bill is doomed to utter failure. Is it perfect? Probably not. Is anyone out there going to tell me we shouldn't make any changes until we have a perfect plan to put in place?
  If we make cuts to everything equally across the board  no one can complain. Everyone tightens their belt the same amount and best of all....It keeps those insane half-witted republicans from trying to cure the deficit by sacrificing the elderly and the poor to their god of the almighty dollar. I'll tell you this I'm not going to lump all republicans in a pile but the vast majority (and on some days all) of the small-minded, bigoted, self-righteous,intolerant, homophobic crap I read and hear about these days comes from the mouths of republicans. People are not going to keep putting up with it fellas, get with the times or get out of the way.
 

Obama Apple Seed

I won't claim to be a political guru. I am smart enough to know what I don't know much about. I don't have time to listen to all the information on all the issues. Part of me thinks the government makes sure they keep us busy in order to assure we don't have time to pay too much attention. If we were to have too much time on our hands and start learning exactly how inept, greedy and stupid or leadership was we would also have time to protest about it.The way it is now even if we get good and pissed who has time to even write a letter much less attend any type of demonstration?
Despite my ignorance on some of the workings of the political system I have observed some things. One of those things is that when a person is running for the position of president they say things, make promises and have lofty goals. If it is a run for second term the promises are usually a bit more subdued there is a reason for that I think. When someone is running for the office the first time no matter how old and wise they are, they are ignorant. There really is no way they could know what they can achieve while in office because they don't know what is in store for them. I have always accepted this fact and taken any political promises for what they are worth....luck. My dad has always said "the president has very little power" I agree with that mostly. The president has selective power, there are times and issues in which the president is the most powerful person you can find find involved. Then there are times when he is nothing more than a bouncer, allowing certain people into the party and keeping others outside and when the party goers start getting rowdy he can advise them to chill or get their asses kicked out. It seems the current commander and chief is getting a thumbs down from a lot of people these days.He is accused of not following through on promises, making an about face on others and not even trying to address some issues at all.
I think maybe some of these people are not taking into account the presidents ignorance before taking office. Another reason for the presidents lack of desired results could be because he had faith. He had faith that the people who he had to deal with on these issues were people who had some common sense, he was mistaken. Many of the people who must co-operate on the change we would like to see happen, are stupid. Many have their own agenda and change does not help them move towards their own desired result.Some are stuck in the old ways of doing things and nothing can make them do it different. In your daily dealings with people you come across people who do things in the slowest way possible, right? You come across people who couldn't figure out how to assemble a sandwich, right? You come across people who wouldn't do things different if you cut of both arms and a leg, am I right about that? Well those are the same kind of people we are talking about. I have said this before THE SAME PEOPLE YOU DEAL WITH IN YOUR LIFE EXIST EVERYWHERE. They look different, dress different and even speak a different language maybe but the same types of people are everywhere. There is not a special type of attitude that people who work in government have, that is just people's incorrect perception. Trying to force this perception into being reality is another part of the problem.
The other thing that bothers me a lot is the lack of patience. Who in their right mind thinks that YEARS of our country being run into the ground can be reversed at a snap of the fingers? What takes years to tear down, will take that many years, at least, to repair in most cases. What I have seen is a definitive change in direction. Even on issues that have not been effected at all, there has been positive dialog started. Sometimes all you can do is plant a seed and wait for it to grow into responsible and progressive change. Obama has been planting seeds like crazy. He has said things that you would never imagine coming out of the mouth of a president. Even if those statements do not result in a instant result, the seed has been planted.
Is Obama perfect? Um, no he isn't he is still a politician but then again who is being realistic to expect him to be ideal? I mean after all the presidents we have had leading our country shouldn't we be a bit more intelligent in what we expect? It seems foolish to complain about the exact same types of things that have been said of every previous president, and then act as though we have been betrayed.I don't think we have been betrayed by anything but our own unreasonable expectations in most cases. It is true, you reap what you sow but you don't plant corn on a Wednesday and eat it on Friday. It takes some responsible actions to care for your crops first, like getting rid of those pesky republicans....I mean weeds.