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

Eric Cantor of the Republican Rhetoric Party

     Allow me to start out by sending out a message directly to and for Eric Cantor....  

Eric Cantor with all due respect would you please shut your fucking big stupid mouth and go the fuck away. Your ego is far too inflated with your own hot air for you to ever be helpful, insightful, or mindful enough so that you can qualify as any type of leader. I suggest you move on to a crew leader position at a Mc Donalds since your style reminds me of a teenager who just got his first chance to boss other people around. The United States is not comprised of kids who are working their first job and haven't had enough life experience to see you are a dick. Wait ,I did say "with all due respect" so let me rephrase that.... Fuck off idiot. 

     Let's watch this video so everyone can get an idea why I think Eric Cantor is an inept little weasel. 

 
    

    Besides the fact Eric has the look and demeanor of a punk ass preppy who spends the first 30 minutes of each day popping zits on his face and treating his acne, he is stuck-up. Eric Cantor thinks the possibility of his being wrong is less than zero. If you watch the way he holds his head and the mannerisms he uses Eric clearly thinks he shits gumdrops, and if he allows you to have one of those gumdrops you should be thankful, very thankful. Eric first referred to the protesters by saying they were 'mobs'. Isn't the word 'mob' a historically negative term when used by politicians? If a politician says 'mob' then don't you have a vision of money laundering, illegal gambling and corruption or other criminal activities? 

    It plain that Eric didn't see the protests as positive. He didn't even see them as people exercising their freedoms, they were 'mobs' , out of control and dangerous. Then when he is called on it does he back off the term? NOPE. Instead he says there are other things more important than his use of the word. Eric is in a huff because the Democrats are supporting the protesters position that big business is also to blame for the problems we are currently having. His position is not enough blame is being put on Washington. We can safely assume Eric does not plan on taking his plate of blame and trying to force it down. No, Eric seems to think he has a nice clean plate with some golden etching on it spelling out "COOL CANTOR" in a graceful arch. Well Eric Cantor I hope very soon someone or something comes along plops a nice big helping of 'you re not helping' on that pretty little plate. 

   All Eric does is support something that becomes more and more clear each day. The Republicans are not out to see this country come back and support the people who live in it. The Republicans want to see America come back riding on the backs of the American people.They should give as much and work as hard as possible, not for a better life for themselves but for a bigger America. A bigger America represented by corporations and bottom lines instead of the voices of honest hard working happy people. 

     If you are a Republican or a Democrat I want you too look at what is happening. This bullshit need to stop. The two parties can not get anything done and while the Republicans are acting like the biggest racist, greedy, male chauvinist, two-faced idiot dick-heads on the planet the fact remains they are just the worser of two evils. The Democrats are just smart enough to know when to shut the fuck up and do what is needed to keep the people happy enough so marching through the street seems a silly thing to do when there is football, internet, and i pads to be attended to and shopping to be done. 

   I don't know where this is all going to end up when it's done but I would like to see Eric Cantor at a fast food counter asking me what size fries I want when it's through. I don't know if he realizes the possibility these protests could go very wrong he doesn't seem to see that but then you wouldn't be able to spell Cantor without C-A-N-T.

Suicide

I have never seriously thought about killing myself. I have been pissed about life at times but to take my own life has never been one of the choices to deal with any issues. Having said that, I have never known any serious hardship, I have been lucky.
Some people are not as lucky as I.
The unemployment rate in this country continues to grow and the suicide rate for people without work is 2 to 3 times that of the national average. The longer the rate stays high the more likely it is that a person who has taken their own life is someone who has lost a job and can not find another.
People work to buy a home and build a family, to grasp the American dream. That dream is going away quickly for a lot of Americans. The sad part is.. they had the dream and it has been snatched away by the economy.
We have young men fighting overseas, they are looking at things worse than our nightmares. The problem is they can not wake up from it, get a drink of water and go back to sleep in a warm bed. They have to live it. And as I have said before...I don't know about these things in real life, I can only imagine....and that itself disturbs me.
The little voice in the back of my head is the reason I am writing this.....it tells me some people don't realize what is going on in our country, it tells me we are too detached from the war now... we are calloused.
We need to understand even though we have not known real hardship that does not mean others are not going through things we only dream about in our nightmares.
This country is still in bad shape. We need to make sure, as we sit on our nice couches and watch CNN, while sipping on wine and eating a nice steak, others are suffering. We need to take at least some small action to acknowledge these facts.
When people are killing themselves while we sit back and watch......we have bad tendencies

Knee Jerk Theory

The pres is getting a earful theses days. Quit borrowing all that money! Let those banks go under! Screw those auto makers! We hate socialism in any form! CUBA?! Those are COMMUNISTS!!! Are you crazy? We tortured people? DON'T SAY THAT! We hate TAXES!I can say I think we are overtaxed too, but it sure as hell didn't start with Obama.I think a flat tax would be the way intelligent people would collect what we give to the government. As far as the bailout of banks and automakers, I hear a lot of people who don't like it but I don't hear alot of other good ideas what to do if we were to let these corporate failures to play out. I wonder if people who would watch the automakers go under realize the massive effect it would have on industries. It wouldn't just effect the automakers it would effect everyone. If anyone has an alternate plan or idea then I would like to hear it. Am I happy about the amount of money we are borrowing in order to get the economy under control? NO. Another question follows. Who is to blame for what is being done? US. Yep we are to blame. How much money have we allowed to go to Iraq? How long did we allow Bush to let us spiral out of control? I think we still are yet to realize just how bad the last 8 years have hurt us and as our newest leader addresses these issues we should be careful to place the blame where it belongs, on us. We have for too long been asleep at the wheel.It is good that so many more have begun to wake up and pay attention. Its like we have been asleep for ten years and when a fella comes along and says "Hey buddy, wake up. While your asleep your house is falling apart. I called a roofer for you. A plumber is on the way cause the pipes are about to spring a leak, and you have termites, if you don't start thinking about what will result from that your whole house will fall down and you will awaken to a pile of ruble"Do we wake up and with some embarrassment thank the guy? Nope. We begin to smack him upside the head and yell at him "You son of a bitch! I can't afford a new roof! And what did you do to cause those pipes to fail? And those termites, I don't like the kind of insecticide your using on them!" People are waking up and demonstrating the reaction we have become well known for....the old knee-jerk reaction. Yep the reaction that always comes back to bite us on the ass.And often costs us some of our freedoms. In your day to day life choices would you say it is wise to act instantly to a given situation or should we think about or coarse of action first? Wouldn't we do better to allow emotions to ease and gather our thoughts and consider options?The president has something we do not, an incredible amount of resources, despite the fact most of us have not been thinking about how to address our problems, that does not mean no one has.Obama is our leader now and we need to give him a break, we do not have to be happy about the actions he is taking but we should lay the blame where it belongs. And we do not have to agree with the methods he is using to solve the problems we have but if we are to be critical then it should be have some basis not "just because I don't like it" People like that loud mouth Limbaugh who make statements saying "I hope he fails" and then trying to defend himself by saying "that's not how I meant it" That idiot knows exactly what he said and intelligent people know exactly what he meant. We don't all have to think alike but we should all have everyone's best interests in mind with well thought out arguments as the basis for any disagreement. We can not afford to wake up only to put on blinders and start throwing punches.