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

"In ___ I Trust"

 Congress passed a law making "in god we trust" the national motto. This resulted in the following  comment from President Obama “You’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball. You’ve had legislation reaffirming that ‘In God We Trust’ is our motto. That’s not putting people back to work,” Obama said. “I trust in God, “but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work.”

 I'm sick to death of republicans (and in this case democrats too) wasting time on bullshit. I'm sick of republicans voting down anything that could create jobs. The republicans claim that what we need to create jobs is 'new leadership'. Couldn't they try and find out what the 'new leadership' would do to create jobs and propose those ideas now? I don't think they can for one simple reason THEY ARE FULL OF SHIT. What have the republicans offered so far? Relaxing regulations and boosting offshore oil exploration and drilling.That's right, those ideas are what the republicans think we need to create jobs. Do the republicans think the population of this country is retarded? It seem s that way to me. Trouble is, we aren't.
 The whole 'in god we trust' thing was the brainchild of Congressman Randy Forbes. Forbes represents a handful of people in VA.
 I wanted to give the congressman my thoughts on his lame ideas so I went to his website. He tried to make it a little harder to relay my thoughts to him but where there is a will there is a way. If you would like to inform Congressman Forbes of what you think I'd like to make it as easy as possible for you to do so.

  The congressman is not interested in hearing from anyone who does not live in his district even though he wants to make law that effects all of us. It seems a bit unreasonable and irresponsible for Randy Forbes to be unavailable to the people his actions have an effect on. I sent Randy Forbes a reply anyway, you can too.

Here is how. 
Send email to Congressman Randy Forbes

When Randy asks you for a zip code so you can prove yourself worthy of his time type in this
23083-2172
 

Here is what I sent to Congressman Forbes-

Sir with all due respect I believe it is ignorant to make the claim that all Americans are equally represented by the phrase 'in god we trust'
 For you to assume 'in go we trust' does in fact represent everyone in the country shows you are out of touch with much of the population and it's belief system(s)
 Why not embrace a phrase that encourages all Americans to join in unity instead of one that alienates over 15% of the population?
 Please refrain from proposing anything that effects the nation as a whole until you gain the ability to understand its diversity. You do not represent much of the country, from your actions I would assume there is a valid reason for that.
 How does using "E pluribus unum" as a national saying harm or alienate anyone? It doesn't. Your worry about the president using it reeks of racism and fundamentalism. Those two traits have no place in society. Can't you think of something more productive to do? 

The 99%

Listen to this-
"Don't blame Wall Street. Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job, and you're not rich, blame yourself," ~Herman Cain candidate for president.

Now this-
“The fact is these people are anarchists. They have no idea what they’re doing out there,” ~Long Island Republican Congressman Peter King 

And this-
"I regard the Wall Street protests as a natural outcome of a bad education system teaching them really dumb ideas." ~ Former Speaker of the House and 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich

Republicans, just when I thought they couldn't get any more stupid. Besides their dismissive belittlement of the Occupy Wall-Street protesters they also seem to be blind too. Among the groups who are a part of these protests you can find labor unions, airline pilots, librarians, students, the handicapped, the elderly, and just your typical everyday citizens. The Republicans can't see anything but bored kids with purple hair. I keep hearing the Wall- Street protesters compared to hippies from the 60's. I wasn't around in the 60's and a lot of the protesters weren't either. They haven't just been protesting the wars, they have more than that on their minds.I can't tell you every issue that the Occupy Wall Street protesters are upset about but I can speak to my frustrations. I spent $75.00 at the grocery store last night. Among the few bags I left the store with were several products that had been quietly downsized. The trend lately is to lower the amount of product you bring home as if by magic. One of the magic tricks is changing the container shape a little cone shape at the bottom of the jar or bottle can saves lots of money. You are hardly going to notice that bottle of katsup only gave you 17 servings instead of 20, right? The katsup makers are counting on that. take a good look at all the items you purchase next time you go shopping and you will see what I mean. From Oreos that lack the filling they had in the past to laundry soap that comes with a 'easy pour' spout which also includes a bottle that holds just a few ounces less detergent.
 Making products using the cheapest materials, changing the unit of measurement so that even though the package reads the same, you are  getting less and paying more. Another trick is to make things look like they are being made easier for you because the company cares about your quality of life. Those little Coke bottles that are 'serving size'? Yea, that 'convenience' is costing you.
  Do you have medical coverage from your employer? Do you have to pay for part of it? Most of us do now. In fact the 'medical coverage' offered by most companies should be called 'medical coupon' since some aren't getting much more than a slight discount from what they would pay if they got coverage on their own.
   The Feds put some rules down on banks, pretty mild rules IMO. One of these rules regulated the amount a bank could charge you for using your card at a store. It really bothered me I would drive around to save $.02 per gallon on gas only to come out even cause of those charges.  The banks considered the amount of revenue they would lose because of the new regulations and figured they needed that money. Now you can pay the bank a lump sum of $5.00 per  month to use your bank card on top of the lowered fee they charge you at the time of your purchase.
 Gas prices go up hand in hand with oil prices. Even though the oil has been purchased ahead of the price hike you can expect the price to instantly rise if oil prices go up. Now if you think about that then you could expect that gas prices would go down along with the current oil prices, right? Hell no. IF gas prices go down it is at an incredibly slow pace. As a result of this practice and the raising of prices "just because" every so often the oil companies have been making record profits. When anyone complained about it the oil companies would reply "supply and demand" expecting that to shield them from any further negative image caused from their price gouging. Well yea there is a demand because people have to use their cars to get  to work to pay their bills, like gas for the car. Public transit is not even close to being an alternative for most people so they have no choice but to drive. The demand is forced and that is a bit unfair. I can understand if the oil companies were looking at some hardship that was going to hurt them if prices didn't go up but that's not the case because they are making record profits. Making record profits at a time when so many people are struggling to get a job and keep their homes seems a bit cold. I'm not saying they stop making money, make a profit, but RECORD PROFITS? The raise in gas prices also costs us more in increased price for goods and services because companies pass the rise in overhead down to the consumer.
  At this time about half the country has heard about the Occupy protests. Of those people 19% disagree with the protesters on their basic core issues, one of  which is corporate greed.
 19%....that is a very small percentage. In this country how many issues can you think of that only 19% of the population disagree with it? That figure alone should strike fear in the hearts of every politician in office and especially those who are sitting on their stupid fat asses talking shit (republicans)
   That idiot Newt has some nerve saying the 99% are a result of a 'bad education' cause obviously his math skills are shit.   

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.