A Manifesto for the Occupation

Manifesto for 2012

We are a free people. Our rights are inalienable. The source of laws is greater than any individual, any legislative body, any society. All humans by virtue of their existence as sentient beings are entitled to a life with dignity; a life free from oppression and exploitation.

Throughout history, the powerful few have dominated the weaker masses. In the time of cavemen, might made right. As primitive societies developed, the most powerful members of a tribe would subjugate others. Empires grew and fell; feudalism begot monarchy. Wars were fought over territory, resources and slaves. Marxism and fascism are the dictatorship of the ideological architects over the masses. Capitalism and democracy, as they exist in America today, have merely become the dictatorship of the extremely wealthy over everyone else. Our political system is completely beholden to those who control the economic levers. Most politicians are mere pawns that will do anything for their small piece of corruption and power. With few exceptions, they are more interested in corporate campaign contributions and staying in office than doing what is right for the country. They do not represent us. They do not represent the 99%.

America skips happily down the slippery slope towards a police state. Jack-booted thugs pour pepper spray down the throats of peaceful protesters exercising their most fundamental rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Tents are burned and belongings smashed and the courts say protests are not protected speech--even as we scream "I reject this social compact, I am taking back my country!" Meanwhile, corporations can make unlimited donations to political campaigns and that is protected as free speech. The coercive power of the state, the monopoly of force, has been built up and concentrated. The police protect and serve—but who do they protect? Who do they obey? The overwhelming power of the state is being wielded to subjugate the population it ostensibly serves.

The methods and tools have changed throughout history, but the overall structure remains the same. A very few at the top have outrageously concentrated power and use it to their own constant benefit while everyone else suffers. This kind of "power" being exerted by the oligarchs to oppress and exploit the 99% is nothing short of psychopathy. It is a pathological disregard for the well-being of fellow-man, a greed that borders on insanity, an abhorrent refusal to recognize and end the suffering that is created by the lust for power and money.

What are the consequences of this pathological greed exhibited by the 1%? The costs are high and widely dispersed across society. A few get ever richer and more powerful. Everyone else pays. When the financial system collapses due to reckless risk-taking, the criminals who caused the mess get bailouts while the average American loses first a job, then a home. When pollution contaminates our water and poisons our air, ordinary people suffer while polluters reap record profits. When wars are fought over oil and American families lose their military sons and daughters, oil executives run away with eight-figure paychecks. Everywhere one looks, the public goods of society are given away for nothing to the already rich, looting the equity built up by past generations as social programs are cut, real wages decline and the poor and jobless become ever more desperate.

Some have accused us of being vague. Does this sound vague? Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just enormous. Maybe it is because we are taking on the whole corrupt system. This is a call for revolution. Not a violent one, but a democratic one. One that takes power back from the few and puts it in the hands of the many. This is a call for true representation of the people. This is a call for an end to milksop politicians and their corporate masters, an end to corporate campaign contributions, corruption and lobbyists writing the laws. This is not right wing or left—we reject your labels. This is a cry to the people of the world to wake up and demand our rights, to demand a return to our values: democracy, freedom, plurality, the sanctity of life and respect for others. To demand that these ideals are the motivating forces of our society—not money, not power, not greed.

This is our planet. We are occupying it. We are many. They are few. We will overcome. We will succeed. We will take back our world.

Why is U.S. taxation so unfair?

Seems unreasonable that many corporations are spending more on lobbying than on taxes. And if reducing corporate taxes is good for job creation, why do the biggest beneficiaries of tax breaks--companies making billions of dollars of profits--keep laying off workers? Why are these corporations paying negative taxes? They are literally being paid by the government to make profits, while average people pick up the tax burden. All this while executive pay is now 343x that of the average worker and median household income fell $3,719 between 2000 and 2010, when measured in 2010 dollars.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/264481/20111209/30-major-u-s-corporations-paid-lobby.htm

(Thanks to Max for the link)

Pepper Spray Nation

‎"[It] is the bizarre bifurcation of America's First Amendment freedoms, with one virtually unlimited form for 1%, who really don't need any protection, and another, carefully constricted form for the 99%, who really do need it. For the 1%, "money is speech", an absurd proposition that effectively transforms democracy into plutocracy. But for the 99%, actual speech, along with the closely-linked right of assembly, is subject to all sorts of restrictions as to "time, place and manner". Tents may cost money, but that doesn't make them speech. Don't be ridiculous. We're not talking about the kind of money that the 1% has."

--Paul Rosenberg

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111124103714508499.html

Bizarre TSA Rituals - Snowglobes of DOOOOM

Yes. Safety is our priority. I mean, did you SEE that Twilight Zone where the guy gets like stuck INSIDE the snow globe? And then right at the end the evil little kid picks it up and starts shaking while it fades to black?!? THE HORROR.

How the Economy has become Hostage to the Rich

Click through for an amazing in-depth look at how the economy has become the hostage of the rich and how Republicans pandering to the 1% have adopted the strategy of "We're going to get what we want or the country can go to hell" by following up on the ideology of Grover Norquist (the "fiscal terrorist") and other anti-tax pro-rich ideologues. Article is kind of long, but I promise it's worth the read.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109

(thanks to Sarah for the link)

Sarah Palin on Occupy

So, never thought I'd say this, but Sarah Palin is making sense:

"I've learned from local, state and national political experience that the only solution to entrenched corruption is sudden and relentless reform. Sudden because our permanent political class is adept at changing the subject to divert the public's attention—and we can no longer afford to be indifferent to this system of graft when our country is going bankrupt. Reform must be relentless because fighting corruption is like a game of whack-a-mole. You knock it down in one area only to see it pop up in another...

This call for real reform must transcend political parties. The grass-roots movements of the right and the left should embrace this. The tea party's mission has always been opposition to waste and crony capitalism, and the Occupy protesters must realize that Washington politicians have been "Occupying Wall Street" long before anyone pitched a tent in Zuccotti Park."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577040373463191222.html

Why does everyone always ask the same question?

Image by Dan Piraro

Peter DeFazio takes on OWS

Peter DeFazio, the congressman from Oregon's 4th district and one of a very few politicians I respect, gets real.

Yeah Fozzy, you tell 'em!

Elizabeth Warren = My Hero

‎"I hear all this, 'well, this is class warfare, this is whatever'. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear:

You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.

Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific? Or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

- Elizabeth Warren

<3 <3 <3

Jeb Corliss - Grinding the Crack (Soundtrack by AWOLNATION)

This is extreme. Who has a wingsuit I can borrow? I need to go find a cliff to jump off of.

Also--AWOLNATION is my new favorite band. Just downloaded the album this song is on and have been compulsively listening to it on repeat.

The Weight

Been stuck in my head for days.