Some Facts on Occupy in the Net

Dear Folks, I sent the following to Michael Moore in reply to one  of  his pitches for the Occupiers.

Dear Michael, You are certainly one of my heroes. Your books have given me a strong voice Now OWS has given you, I and millions a public voice we have desperately needed. Is there a plan for an Occupy Congress? In a Friday November 25th page A 20 New York Times article, entitled, "Protesters look for ways to feed the web." I read there of a national day, Dec. 6th to protest foreclosures. This is the kind of focused agendae we need. In this article, leaders of the movement hold that building "a large network on social media sites" needs also the "on the ground face to face actions" to buttress the growing network info. Agreed. However it is worth noting, as this article points out, that video on YouTube helped enormously to spread the word and pictures of the U of Calif Davis pepperspraying of peaceful students. YouTube is "now a formidable digital presence with l.7 million videos, viewed 73 million times....tagged with the word, 'occupy.' ....in the YouTube's News and Politics category." Also, "The movement counts more than 400 Facebook pages with 2.7 million fans around the world." People can go to such sites as above noted YouTube site, as well as Tumblr.com and GlobalRevolution.tv and finally 140elect.com

OWS - Some perspectives

Dear Folks, I want to share some perspectives on OWS. For one thing, I get irritated when individuals say, "Its objectives are vague." My response is simply: "Its the economy and its injustices, stupid." The disperity between the rich and the poor is the greatest since l928. However, then, we did not have a supreme court made up of five mental dunces that have declared corporations and unions "persons" and so controlling the money they spend politically is against the first amendment's free speech. Put these two realities together and we face a danger to our democracy that our founding fathers never fathomed.

Deep down millions of us know this and about l00,000 are now voicing their voices on the streets of cities on various continents. Here is an irony, however, as Robert Reich recently talked about at Univ of Cal, Berkley, where he was asked to speak, honoring Mario Savio, the voice of the l950-and l960s Student Freedom Movement that then morphed into Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam. All of these issues are dwarfed by our present threat to democracy. Yet, says Reich, even as one hand the supreme court gave to corporations such a powerful voice, we watch as Mayors and cops are thwarting the voices of all of us, who have lacked a collective voice.

The Economists and Paul Volcker

Dear Folks, We always need clarity in this confusing world. The economy has crushed billions of people. Two corrections are needed: (l) Bringing more and more of the Wall St criminals to justice and supporting the Occupy Wall St movement. Its vital power is based on the enormous sense of injustice that has befallen so many and has left unpunished the mighty few. A turn around is coming, via two Attorney Generals, both from states where so many of the big corps have their headquarters, New York and Delaware. They are on the attack. The AG from Delaware is Beau Biden, son of Joe. He is initiating a suit that will have a sweeping consequence for many of the Wall ST. companies.

Wall Street Protesters

Dear Folk, How long will the American people tolerate the absurd inequalities that our wall street traders and banks have laid on the American people. As Nicholas Kristof has written in the New York times this Sunday, the inequalities that they and conservative politics has spawned since Reagan do not only damage billions but may do damage to the very essence of democracy. There are reasons to ask, therefore, that the what the protesters are now saying in hundreds of cities and towns not only this country but throughout the globe, represents a need for a fundamental re-structuring of our very democracy. The forces that played out in the great depression are occurring in this very time: immense wealth piled up for a few. Yet when these few fail, we the many have had to bail them out. These same destructive forces also has made it possible now for 400 families and individuals to control the wealth of l50,000,000 of us and the top ten percent, 90 per cent of us, as noted to day in Kristof's article. Add to these realities the power of five men in the US Supreme Court who have made it possible ---as already seen in the 20l0 election, for conservative forces to now paralyze Washington and in many states seeing these forces seeking as many obstacles to prevent people from voting, which strikes at the very core of a democracy.

Occupy Wall Street

Dear Folks, This is a historic time, The anti-wall street movement is very understandable. We middle class people have now for thirty years lost our status as the core of any democracy and the authentic basis for a solid economy. Why because we use our money for goods and services, which makes us customers and a which causes industry large and small sell and so hire more workers. But when l percent of our population owns 40 percent of the wealth, comparable to the lowest l50,000,000 million of us, we have been significantly diminished in both voice and spending power. So what is happening all over the country is what is happening all over the world when autocracy drowns out the voices and the hopes of a people. This is a legitimate surge of strength and energy, that frightens the power brokers and their political supporters such as Erik Cantor who called the protesters a "MOB." These folk in Congress and also Fox News said this also of the people in Egypt, and other awakened populaces. We are no longer sitting home alone. We have found a common voice, that first must get the attention of those in power and then must lead to policy changes. They must be big ones: change in the electoral process in which candidates both in Washington and in the States receive public money in elections. This will offset the Supreme Court decision that opened up unlimited monies for corporations to win elections, which they won in droves in 20l0 in states. This is it. Spread the word. I believe the internet has a declaration from the Wall St Protestors. John G

AND I WELCOME THEIR HATRED

Dear Folk,

I wrote Obama after reading an article in New York Times Sunday review, entitled "What Happened to Obama," by Prof Drew Westen, Emory U, and author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. Because of the brilliance of his article, I am going to buy his book though I have stayed away from any more political books. He writes that Obama has not told the right story. 

The author writes what the story should have been: "Dear citizens, I know you are angry and frustrated because of loss of jobs and homes, etc. The collapse was not natural; it was done by Wall St. and conservatives who eliminated regulations and rewarded the greedy and the reckless. 80 years ago (the great depression) we learned what to do, by first putting people to work with public programs (remember what FDR did: WPA and CCC put millions to work). We will also restore integrity to the financial market (recall that FDR took over big banks for a while)."

The above story would have powerfully impacted all of us, so that the President would have had more leverage in exposing the Republican minority in the House and Senate, both of which were the absolute party of NO, as you recall. Also, because of the stupid functioning of the Senate, Republicans there used used the Filibuster over 120 times in contrast to previous annual averages of about 40. As a result, 400 plus bills died in that ineffectual body.

Unlike FDR and Martin L. King, Obama did not face the bullies, which in both cases made "the bully show his true and repugnant face in public." He did not say, as did FDR, about his opponents: "They are unanimous in their hatred of me" and then he, like Thunder said (I watched this on TV): "AND I WELCOME THEIR HATRED" and the listeners yelled a great approval.

Crucial, says author, how he handled the stimulus. Instead of listening to Nobel-prize winning economists --one I know Paul Krugman, and other named Steigler --the amount spent was meager and "diluted it further with tax cuts."

I wrote him, saying, that I had read every word of his life story, Dreams of My Father.  I felt it was an authentic story. Now, I said, tell the authentic American story. It is not too late. Lay out the truth and force the basters [sic] to show their true face.  - John G

The Wrong Worries

Inspired by my father, here are my own two cents. 

As the global financial system sinks, as every single person I know in the know about ecology and peak oil and sustainability has been correctly predicting for a long time...

Krugman writes about The Wrong Worries in the New York Times (see link).

However, he also has the wrong worries....  as he implies that there is a way back to jobs and 'growth' and business-as-usual.

There simply isn't.  Not in the framework, the worldview, nor according to the priorities or ideas of this 'mainstream' thinking; this corporate agenda, capitalist nonsense.

Capitalism has become 'non sense' because it does not observe the world, the Earth as a whole system, and all of its wholeness. 

If the world's non-renewable resources, its health, human population numbers, biodiversity and so on are all strained way beyond their limits; if we are living beyond the world's carrying capacity; if we are, in a word, living 'unsustainably', then, logically, inextricably, this situation is...  unsustainable.  It can't go on.  The game is up. 

When will the mainstream get it? 

Krugman hasn't at all hit on the bigger picture.  He too believes that some miraculous recovery can occur if Obama and Co just get it right and do the right thing. 

Well perhaps.  But it better involve:

•     Developing the Green Economy
•     Supporting the Local, Ecological, Sustainable, Creative, Supportive, Spiritual...
•     Building Community Resilience
•     Celebrating our Shared Human Values (across religions, cultures and borders)

Hopefully,

Martin (John's son)

To Obama [Unedited]

DEAR FOLKS, SEE BELOW MY LETTER TO WHITEHOUSE. YOU CAN WRITE THE WHITEHOUSE ON WEBSITE / CONTACT ALSO CALL 2O2-456-1111.

Critique of Supreme Court [Unedited]

Dear Folks, this is the strongest and longest letter I have ever written to a
government body. I have no idea whether any of it will sink in, but
represents my greatest concern about the condition of our nation today.

Power Wins over Compassion and Common Sense

Dear Folks,

These are recent impressions about destructive power dominating our country: last night, I saw an ad by the oil industry, each big co. making billions and with billions of tax breaks, arguing that increased taxes on them would raise oil and gas prices. I watched Rachel Maddow wailing with John McCaine's daughter through this great gathering of gun buyers: mostly big men looking at assault weapons, and then a switch to a Pittsburg alderman taking Rachel to the street which at one time was considered the most violent street in the nation. Instead now we see literally miles of boarded up six and eight flats. In his area, five thousand houses are boarded up. All of this happening because of gun wars, with assault weapons dominating.

He says: "We are powerless because now our state legislature is totally controlled by the gun lobby."

In Newsweek, March 28-April 4, "What's Killing NPR," NPR top reporters such as Steve Inskeep and Ira Glass are arguing that its management has lost its guts, that it's not fighting for its moderate stance and caliber of programs that service the conscience and common sense of our nation. Same issue, "Obama's War on Schools, " He's still allowing The No Child Left Behind Act to stand even if "it has been deadly to pubic education."

I know several creative teachers, some here in our new system. One recently went to a conference of art teachers, 3,500 in number on West Coast. They feel that they have to be subversives in our school systems, in order to awaken the imagination and the critical thinking of their kids. Each of us are challenged to speak up.

Danger: we will drown as a democracy in a sea of money and power.

John G