I'll second that!

We Are Not Your Human Resources

by David Michael Green

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about Occupy Wall Street.  She said to me “This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life”.  I told her I feel exactly the same way.

The only difference is that she’s in her early twenties, and I’m in my early fifties.

I’m not sure which is better.  She’s had an entire lifetime full of nothing but the downsizing of her country, and the theft of her future.  The only two presidents a person her age could have had any mature appreciation of were George W. Bush, the thief and liar, and Barack Obama, another thief and liar.  She has never known an America that wasn’t reeling under the assault of Wall Street plutocrats and the kleptocrats they hire to do their bidding in Washington.

On the other hand, people her age could at most have suffered with the pain of being under this siege for a mere five years or so, unless they happen to have been astonishingly attentive and precocious preteens.  My generation, on the other hand, has been living this nightmare for three solid decades now, through Republican abominations and – in many ways, worse – Democratic as well.  We have known indisputably throughout this era that a better country is not just a pretty aspiration or a theoretical proposition.  We know that because we once lived there.  I’m glad I had that experience.  But, that said, carrying around the heartache of observing our national suicide by greed for more than thirty years’ time has also been a painful, soul-numbing burden I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I don’t know what will come of Occupy Wall Street, and its brother an sister movements in cities across the world.  On the one hand, this is the most hopeful development I’ve seen since the dark finale to the year 1980 gave us Ronald Reagan and took away John Lennon.  

Read more at Common Dreams and see more about the author at his website The Regressive Antidote

Occupy will not be co-opted

If you're wondering just who these liberal hippies are that are protesting, you should know that Occupy is a NOT a progressive or liberal group. In fact, they have stated categorically on their website that "We Will NOT be co-opted" not by any organization. They are not progressive, they are not libertarian. But most specifically, according to an email sent to Washington of Washington's Blog, Occupy is making it clear that they have no ties-- either to the Daily Kos or to MoveOn.org. MoveOn.org is seen by them to be a mainstream democratic organization whose business it is to pull voters into the democratic party, convincing them to settle for the party's center right politics.

I cannot say that I disagree with the stance that Occupy has taken considering the emails I received in the primary months from MoveOn and some of the other progressive groups. At that time, there were several candidates to consider, yet MoveOn only ever offered Obama or Clinton as a choice when considering who to support with finances. For that matter, many of the progressive media organizations that I received emails from did little to investigate who the candidates really were they never asked hard questions about whether they had strong corporate ties, or if they would really change things in Washington- except 'The Progressive.' They were the only progressive media outlet that looked critically at the would-be king and the wanna-be queen.

Which leads us to where we are today.

We have a President who said he would bring change but it was not the change that people expected because it was not change that would help the people- it would not help the 99%- it was change that would only help his friends: His corporate friends, his insurance friends, his banker friends and his oil friends. But why are we surprised? Because the liberal media was not honest with us about WHO HE WAS. They fed us a bunch of lies and have never been honest about their complicity in the matter. And the reason they continue to lie about their friends in Washington is that they get money from them. They don't survive on the donations of the poor people! They survive on the donations of the wealthy (I mean geez, I can't send money in these hard times and I will wager most of the people in my income bracket can't either. So who does keep all these damn liberal groups going? They are always asking for money!!!). And if that's who is shoveling them cash, why would they criticize the very people they feed off of? They are parasites who feed off the system and it's a bad system A BAD SYSTEM! And it is time to change the system. And I am going to keep blogging on #OWS because it's time to remind everyone that WE ARE THE 99%.

And if you want to know more about Occupy-- go here and see for yourself.

#Occupy Wall Street!

Occupy Denver and beyond...

So as you may surmise from my letter to Governor Hickenlooper (below), there was a ban in place on camping in front of the capitol building downtown which Occupy Denver petitioned to have waivered in order to keep on with their protests in the same way the Occupy Wall Street protests have been. They continue to wait for an answer as far as I know but I don't expect they will be allowed to sleep there. The reason this ban exists? The short story about is that several years ago a homeless group wanted to protest in front of the Capital Building by pitching tents and camping to portray the plight of the homeless. Unfortunately for them, homelessness isn't a circumstance too many people want to see as they drive by the Capital Building or want to have visuals of on their main drag so nobody really cared when the state banned camping on the property. After all it made sense that it was a "safety issue." That it was an assault on their first amendment right to keep them from protesting and that it would have the added bonus of stifling future protests... well, no one really gave that much thought. In the heat of the moment, it was just a bunch of stupid homeless people who wanted to clutter up the front of the Capital Building. So now...

Occupy Denver is downtown and they have been protesting in the same way that the protesters have in New York have been. They are setting up a community to remind us all that what is going on on Wall Street is hurting us all. They have no particular demands or agenda. They are not of a particular party line- not left or right. They are just tired of the wealthiest 1% (or 5% depending on which chart you're looking at) having the ability to control our political party and steal the American dream and they want things to change. And they aren't going to allow the democratic party or the republican party to lie to them anymore and tell them that they are going to change things when all they continue to do is bend over further for the wealthiest 1-5%. That's it! That's all it is about.

But this is incredibly threatening to the powers that be. Here in Denver, the Mayor is looking with disdain upon the protesters. Our governor threatened, and did follow through, with having them arrested. Friday morning, state troopers, dressed in riot gear carried them out and then arrested them for being on state property after the allotted time. It was all quite quiet and there was no macing (probably attributable to this being the state troopers and NOT the Denver Police as they are far more aggressive in their tactics- that story for another time) but the real story here is:

They don't want any of us to speak up and say that what is going on on Wall Street and in our government is wrong. They don't want things to change, not one iota. And if you will note that when there were the first signs of dissent, they tried to ignore it. Then they tried to marginalize it and make fun of it (just a bunch of hippies and dope smokers, lazy people who won't find a job!), now they are becoming more aggressive and they are trying to shut it down. Some on the left are trying to pull the message of Occupy into the party and quash it the way the republicans did the Tea-party (and you might try to say the Republicans are ruled by the tea-party but tea-partiers will tell you differently. This is not the Republican party they wanted in many respects) But what they'd really rather have us doing? watching football or obsessing about Jen and Brad and Angelina or getting a new iphone and being too obsessed with our new toy to care about the government and those guys in New York. And they want you to believe that if you keep quiet- even though you may be buried in debt (school, mortgage, credit card, etc.)- that as long as you play fair, they'll give you a fair shot at being the next big millionaire, JUST LIKE THEM!
But here's the dirty little secret: They've rigged the game. The odds are better that you'll win the lottery than be a millionaire by playing fair with the boys on Wall Street. And odds are better that you'll get hit by lightening than you'll win the lottery! And that's what the people that are protesting have finally had enough of... a rigged game. They want a fair game. And so do I. And we should be allowed to protest on our streets and sleep there if necessary.  We should be allowed to exercise our first amendment rights.
Governor Hickenlooper- Please allow the protestors to camp in front of the Capital Building!  

Occupy Wall Street

There are protesters gathered in New York today and have been for a couple of weeks now to remind us that Wall Street has purchased our government. Over a thousand have suffered arrest in the process. They are there to say simply: We are the 99%. There is a young man holding up a sign that says "I have to choose between an education or a meal." A retired gentleman that says, "Wall Street stole 25% of my 401k" And an elderly woman peaking over the top of a piece of paper that says, "I am weeks within running out of unemployment-- can't find a job-- and soon will not be able to pay my rent. Retirement eaten up by medical bills for my-- now deceased-- partner. I'm one of the 99%" 

I consider myself fortunate. I have a city job that has paid sick and holidays. I have decent health insurance (although it will increase once again this year). I don't make a lot of money but it pays the bills. I'm a single mother (no child support) with more than my share of health care costs and my son also has asthma and needs medicine. At this moment I am rubbing my tongue on a chipped tooth in the back of my mouth. It's broken and needs fixed but I can't afford a root canal and I don't want it yanked out. I pay more for food, gas... basic survival and will lose out on money I have paid into Social Security and Medicare (when I get to that stage in my life) if things continue to go in the direction they are going because 1% of the population feels they are above the rules of society. I am the 99%. 

Many stories but all there to remind America that Wall Street is stealing the American dream out from under us. We can't all be there to protest but we can support them in our own way-- from our blogs, from our tweets, from our pictures. After all YOU ARE ONE OF THE 99%. 

#Occupy Wall Street!!  

Upload an "I'm the 99%" story.

Send a message of support to those occupying Wall Street. 

Check out and share the stories and messages posted by others.  

There's a pretty powerful video of people who are at the protests: http://vimeo.com/29953676

and another from Robert Greenwald on Youtube here: