Feb. 29th, Big Day of Action for Occupy Nationally

Feb 29th was organized as a big day of action. As much of the public has begun to think occupy is over, the occupiers decided to do a big day of action to inform the general public that occupy is still in business.

Reporters on twitter have shown a number of arrests, as occupiers in NYC have tried diverse actions such as attempting to shut down a Bank of America branch, apparently protesting outside the New York Public library in Bryant Park, and protesting outside Pfizer.

Vocal New York, an HIV advocacy group that has affiliated itself with OWS, protested outside the home of HRA Commissioner Robert Doar's home. They were protesting the cutbacks in funding for the welfare programs that support HIV clients, the drug testing requirements recently instituted, and the fact that said clients will be referred to jobs programs. For more info, go to Vocal New York

There were protests in Los Angeles as well, and arrested, according to posts from twitter.


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Why Are Occupiers Wasting Their Time Provoking the Police

In a clear provocation of the police, occupiers for some bizarre reason decided to bring in sleeping bags to Zuccotti Park late night Feb. 28, 2012. This action, according to news from twitter, resulted in 10 people being arrested few hours later on Feb 29th. But what was the point of it? Do some people get off on being in handcuffs? Really, if you're into kink, can't you do that privately, instead of having the cops do it for you? In the beginning, street actions that led to confrontation with the police got media attention. So yes, it was necessary in the beginning. But as time goes on, Occupy needs to evolve, and this is something its had trouble doing.

On a more serious note, occupy should be rallying itself behind causes that the public cares about. Nader has suggested that they support a minimum wage increase, to keep the minimum wage up with inflation. This is some a big percentage of the public could support. Or there are other causes to do with labor, environmentalism, etc, that yes, the public could and would support activists on. But randomly picking fights with cops? What nonsense is this? Occupy is squandering its chance to have a big impact on elections.

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Ron Paul, Wolf in Sheep's Clothes

Ron Paul, in order to push an extremely right wing agenda, has decided to cloak it in anti war and anti war against drug platform. Superficially, it sounds so wonderful to have a President who is against war and who would end US militarism. Superficially, it sounds good to have a President who claims he would stop locking people away for drug use.

Until you pay attention to his domestic agenda. Paul is a strict late 18th century constitutionalist. Essentially, anything done by our government since then he opposes. Paul is opposed to the civil rights act, environmental regulations, and pretty much any business or government regulations. This is so anti government that you'd essentially have lawlessness. Businesses need laws and regulations in order to do business with each other, and other entities. Contracts that are signed have to be backed up by laws and enforced by the courts if need be. I don't think I need to get into the positive changes that took place because of the civil rights act and environmental laws.

In essence, Paul is far worse than a Bush or a Romney. If one must go Republican, pick a sane businessman.


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Nan Terrie and Sage Have Shaped and Ruled Occupy Wall Street

In many ways, both Nan Terrie and Sage have shaped Occupy Wall Street. Nan frequently spoke of the marginalization of certain groups of people, as did Sage. Ms. Terrie blocked a number of proposals, earning her the hatred of a number of occupiers. Many of the proposals she blocked were proposals that simply asked the GA for money. Arguably, without Nan's fall and winter blocks, the GA would have already spent all of its money. So those who get metrocards and food from Occupy need to thank her and fight to bring her back to spokes. Its appalling how ungrateful people can be. Because of the arguments she and a couple of others had at Spokes when it was at 56 Walker Street, OWS was kicked of this space allegedly too much noise. Note that this writer was not there and he cannot verify whether the last statement is true. Most likely it is just a conspiracy of vile perverts who were doing S&M to each other. These perverts wanted to do unspeakable things to unsuspecting young ladies, and Ms. Terrie was trying to rescue them. Its why Nan was misunderstood.

As dislike of Nan grew, attempt after attempt to ban her from OWS was hatched. Finally, Nan was banned from the Spoke Council in January for punching someone, and her working group, Strong Women's Rule, was delisted as a working group. As she attempted to dissolve spokes, a confrontation broke out in the general assembly. This lead to a proposal to ban her from the GA itself, but that was tabled. All this was really because certain men had inner women and were jealous that they could never be the woman Nan is.

As for Sage, with his interruptions, he's been pretty influential too. At one GA, when both facilitators where white men, Sage complained of the lack of women and men of color until they replaced one of the facilitators. Sage has also gotten into his share of fights, and there was an attempt to ban him as well. The proposal didn't pass, and it lead to another fight which didn't involve Sage. But still, Sage dominated GA's for about a week. He's more than willing to interject himself into any conversation in any working group at any time. But the true reason he is despised is because Sage is a smooth operator who stole their girlfriends. Dudes were just upset because they couldn't give their ladies enough pleasure.

Ms. Terrie is the occupier who's name is mentioned the most if one googles it. She was the reigning Queen of Occupy until her ouster. I wouldn't count Ms. Terrie out, though. I'm sure she'll continue to find ways to work her magic and perhaps regain her crown. If only there were jukeboxes at 60 Wall Street, Zuccotti, or any of the places where the Spokes met. They should have played this song whenever Nan spoke. Queen of the Night As for Sage, he is the King. When the King does his things stealing occupier's girlfriends, he sings Sensual Seduction


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WikiLeaks Digs Up the Dirt On US Intelligence

Wikileaks has obtained 5 million e-mails from Stratfor, which it plans on summarizing and releasing to various media outlets. Apparently, according to wiki on its press release of the matter, Stratfor is a global intelligence company that analyzes information for the US and allied governments and private corporations. Still, despite wikileaks claims that it would like to keep things honest by revealing hidden truths, its true agenda is a bit of a mystery. Do Mr. Assange and his associates get of causing chaos? Or they simply against anything Western or American? How does Mr. Assange expect to cause change by getting himself locked up for who knows how long? Or does Mr. Assange even expect to cause change.


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Big Cuts on Aids Housing in NYC

On Friday, Feb. 23, 2012, Vocal New York, a community organization that has ties to occupy wall street, held an emergency meeting. Many of the participants were concerned about the cutbacks to HASA, a welfare program administered by New York City's Human Resources Administration. HASA essentially paid for the housing of HIV victims, gave them food stamps and medicaid, and gave them monthly cash assistance. Some HASA clients lived in private residences, others lived in welfare motels where the city paid upwards of $1500 a month for their rent. Many of these people were apparently drug addicts, and this came to the attention of the Bloomberg administration. HASA will now require drug testing of its clients. Recipients who test positive for drugs will lose their eligibility to receive assistance from the city. While they have the option of going to rehab, after completely said program they cannot test positive for drugs or else they will lose all their benefits.

Participants at Vocal discussed their anger and outrage. They plan on protesting outside the HRA's commissioner's home with the help of any interested occupiers, as well as protesting outside HRA headquarters. But some leaders at vocal essentially told the crowd to be resigned to these cuts being permanent, and to prepare for them and deal with them.

NYC is making other cuts to Aids programs, as the fees they pay brokers have been reduced in half. Many brokers no longer work with city programs. Other welfare programs which have nothing to do with Aids are also being cut. New York's City Advantage Program, a welfare program that paid the rent of clients who previously lived in shelters for two years, was terminated in March 2011. Advocates for the poor sued the city in order to force it to continue payments, but so far the court system has sided with the city.

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Big Decline in Occupy Wall Street Participation

You may notice there aren't many police incidents with occupy in New York these days. That's because not only has the number of events and rallies declined dramatically, in the few that occupy has, participation has also decline rapidly. There are a number of factors, but an important factor is there is a sociopathic element of male that hangs around occupy. Instead of kicking out lunatics, the most radical amongst the occupiers, the anarchists and the communists, insisted that everyone be included. They were very adamant that there be no exclusion. What happened? Due to incidences of violence and bullying, the number of female participants dropped dramatically. Gay males and females largely left occupy as well. The current base of operations, 60 Wall Street, for occupy, has had a dramatic decline in the number of people who showed up. As time went on, a number of straight males left the movement as well, as unstable homeless people attacked anyone with a job and a place to stay as privileged. The General Assemblies, the foundation of Occupy's direct democracy, have been marred by violent outbursts and fights and participation has plummeted. The same people repeatedly assaulted other people and nothing was done about it. Other incidences of bullying and assaults occurred as well.

In short, occupy is a perfect example of why socialism and communism do not, and simply cannot work. The “anarchist” model they use shouldn't be used to run a goose farm, much less any group of people. With their tolerance of all behaviors, it drove away everyone except the worst people. In doing this, occupy has lost its ability to connect to the 99%, because most people do not want to be associated with sociopaths, criminals, and severe addicts. There were once good things about occupy, but since occupy was built on a bad foundation, it collapsed on itself. In the process, anything that was once good about occupy was destroyed.

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Occupy Broadway Street Performances, Dec. 2-3, 2011

As a follow up to the ruling of New York State Judge Stallman, Occupy is taking advantage of the ruling that people have the right to assembly in privately owned public spaces 24 hours a day. For 24 hours, Occupy has a number of non stop performances near the red steps on Times Square. This makes Occupy's street theatre very visible to theatre goers and tourists. It goes along with the New York City Occupy movements making themselves visible all over the city.

Occupy Broadway also brings attention to how theatre has lost space in NYC, as venues for theatre have become shopping stores and bank branches. As low cost theatres have disappeared, the common person who cannot spend hundreds of dollars on a Broadway ticket gets cut off. Occupy Broadway's street performances make music and theatre available for all. The importance of street theatre for culture is enormous. Many who later on became Hollywood actors, directors, and screenwriters started out in community theatre. Other musicians started out doing small musicals. The effect small scale artistic spaces have on our culture is enormous, as trends on the scene can become mainstream.

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World Aids Day Protesters Arrested Near NY City Hall

Vocal New York led an Occupy March from Zucotti Park to City Hall as a part of a protest against the lack of funding of diseases that have disproportionate impact on the poorest people. Vocal NY advocates for those suffering from HIV, Mental illness, substance abuse hepatitis C, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. Vocal advocates for an extension and expansion of taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers (and on the federal level). They would have this money spent on healthcare on and the research, treatment, and cures of the above mentioned diseases. They also advocate more funding for the housing of the poorest of New Yorkers, such as the homeless, mentally ill, and aids victims. The poorest and the sickest of people tend to respond much better to treatment for mental and physical illnesses if they have stable housing. Vocal New York has joined forces with the occupation to bring attention to these issues.

As for the march itself, protesters met at Zucotti Park at 11am on Dec. 1st, 2011. After having different HIV patients and services providers speak, the group proceeded to march to city hall. On Broadway across from city hall, around 10 protesters chained themselves together in the middle of the street in an act of civil disobedience. Traffic was blocked and the police arrested the protesters. Vocal New York has done a great job in making the needs of the poorest and sickest segments of the population visible.

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OWS Encourages The Growth Of Independent Media

Occupy Wall Street Protests have increased the traffic flow to independent news source. It has done so by creating the demand for information outside the official corporate sources. A curious public wants to get closer to the real source of information on the protests themselves, and not have this information filtered out by ceos and politicians. OWS has pushed public distrust of the establishment media to the forefront.

The official news outlets are owned by just a few large companies. These companies support a pro corporate agenda politically, and are reluctant to cover anything that opposes the pro corporate agenda. They have acted as gatekeepers to information, and often they squash viewpoints that they don't like. In the beginning, social media such as Facebook, google plus, and twitter spread news of Occupy. At this time, mainstream media sought to ignore the movement. Mainstream media only covered the protests after the Union Square and Brooklyn Bridge incidents. At this point the protests had become so big they had no choice to do so. A cover up would have been too suspicious. The mainstream media is aware that it cannot go too far in abusing the trust of the public. To do so would cost them their viewers and render them obsolete. The mainstream media becoming obsolete started when the majority of the public got high speed internet, as it made more news available. The establishment newspapers also not only lost readers, but over the years they've lost classified advertising revenue to craigslist. In addition, newsstand prices of newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal continue to rise. This means they lose readership among the 99%. OWS speeds up the process in which readers flock to new media and the old establishment loses readers and therefore advertising revenue.

As Occupy movements spread around the world, independent media typically made more detailed and fair coverage of the protests. Those who sought to learn more about the protests went to various media outlets that post on youtube, or other sites that host videos. People posted videos on Facebook, google plus, and twitter. When people used google or other search engines to find more news on OWS, they learned of various blogs, sites, and newspapers that weren't apart of the biggest corporations. Moxnews and Russia Today, with their postings on youtube, are excellent examples of this. In essence, OWS is rejuvenating the media. Media consolidation in the past 20 years in the United States has lead to loss of diversity in viewpoints expressed on the media, the over politicization of news in the United States, and led to increased partisanship in the political domain. The former concept of fair and balanced coverage, which previously had existed in the United States, died out in the 90s with the birth of 24 hour cable news and the media consolidation which occurred then. By helping independent media to grow, OWS is restoring the concept of fair and balanced coverage to the United States. OWS has created its own media as well. There's Occupy Wall Street Journal and Occupy Gazette. As the new media expands, it will gain advertising revenue and subscriptions. Some new media exists on donations, which also increase when a sites profile rises. OWS is fostering the growth of new businesses and launching new careers.

OWS also is creating the next generation of reporters. Today's current modern technology has made potential reporters of everyone. When police brutalized protesters, other protesters took out camcorders, digital cameras, smart phones, and other electronic recording devices. Protesters submitted these videos to media across the board. Others are being inspired to write about what they've seen and experienced about the movement. Bloggers, who have blogged about culture or politics are now getting a lot more exposure because of the protests. A good example of a blogger in the process of becoming famous is Pavel Podolyak, whose blog can be found at http://pavelpodolyak.blogspot.com/ And Facebook, twitter, and google plus have become a serious source of info. A number of unemployed and underemployed are unleashing their creativity and connecting with each other. As the old monopolies find themselves in danger of ultimate collapse, today's activists will build new institutions. In much the same way, unemployed and underemployed engineers and tech hobbyists created tech companies in the 80s and 90s that changed the world.


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Occupy Wall Street's Dialog With Uptown Justice Movements

On Nov. 7, 2011 at 7pm, Movement for Justice in el Barrio had a meeting in the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center in East Harlem. The meeting showed various films about the struggle that the community in East Harlem had. As developers try to gentrify the neighborhood, an already marginalized community is further marginalized. When older buildings with cheaper rent are torn down, they are replaced by much more expensive newer buildings. New buildings may have rents from 2000 to 4000 or more.

On top of this, the new corporate landlords will demand that potential tenants make 40 times one month's rent. This disqualifies most people in uptown Manhattan. Many of these people fled circumstances from their home countries and came to the United States in search of what they thought were a better life. But instead, they were exploited. They felt that a combination of bad governments and capitalism ruined their countries of origin and also made their lives equally miserable in the United States. And for them, to be rendered homeless by the real estate developers is the last straw.

The organizers of Movement for Justice in the Barrio have reached out to all ethnic groups in East Harlem, and they have organized various tenant associations. In some cases they have battled landlords for control of the buildings. They also talked about the campaign to out city council member Melissa Mark Viverito, a latina city council member representing this district. The members of Movement for Justice en el barrio see her as an enemy. According to them she supports a river to river redevelopment of 125th street that would see luxury buildings built across Harlem. This would quite obviously displace many poor people. Participants in the documentary shown felt that this was Bloomberg's plan for a whiter and richer New York City. They do not at all feel comfortable or welcome in Bloomberg's vision for NYC.

Movement for Justice in El Barrio has allied itself with a number of related organizations that fight for the rights of marginalized people. One such organization, The Justice Will Be Served Campaign, is organizing service workers. These workers are mainly in the restaurant, deli, car service, and nail salon sectors. These service workers are often immigrant, and are generally marginalized due to low income in NYC. Many of them are paid under the minimum wage at times, worked long hours, not paid overtime, aren't given time to rest or eat, and are violated in other ways. JWBS organizes protests and boycotts against businesses abusing their workforce, as well as pushing for legal remedies against abusive employers.

The next campaign they have is against Domino's Pizza. Domino's apparently underpaid their workers, and also Domino's didn't give them lunch or rest breaks. JWBS seeks to ensure Domino's stores and franchises comply with all labor laws.

An organizer from Movement for Justice in el Barrio named Mikey came to Zuccoti Park to recruit participants in Occupy Wall Street. A number of them attended this meeting. Announcements in the meeting were made in English and in Spanish. The bilingual meeting was for the residents of the neighborhood and for their allies in Occupy Wall Street. Various members of the Movement for Justice in El Barrio are also in the working groups of Occupy Wall Street.

Several members are working in the Occupy Wall Street en Spanish group. Mikey and one other individual are working on translating the Occupy Wall Street Journal into an Occupy Wall Street Journal in Spanish. Another woman at the meeting announced the future general assembly meeting of Occupy Harlem. She noted that the people in West and Central Harlem faced the same struggles against gentrification in East Harlem. She invited people at this meeting to attend Occupy Harlem. One of the documentaries there showed the struggles of black and latino lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Those speakers felt undervalued not just because of sexual orientation or ethnicity, but because of youth. In the current economic climate, many young people are finding it much harder than their parents to get established. Those speakers felt Bloomberg is only interested in the older white couples more likely to be able to afford new luxury housing. Overall this meeting highlighted the struggles the uptown crowd has. It goes along with the Occupy Movement's chief slogan. "We are the 99%."

More recently, there have been rallies and marches in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx as protestors demonstrated against the killing of an young unarmed black teenager at the hands of the police. They have also protested against the closing of public schools in Brooklyn, as certain schools are being closed by the Bloomberg administration without any input from the parents or the community.

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The Tragic Legacy of Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston has a legacy that is both inspiring and tragic. She came from the Newark, NJ area. She was related to musical giants Dionne Warwick and Aretha was her godmother. She went from singing African American church music to being the queen of pop. Sadly, Ms. Houston's inner demons took her down. She had major issues with depression and substance abuse. While being married to an abusive Bobby Brown certainly made things worse, Ms. Houston's family life was no stranger to drama outside Mr. Brown. In the 2002 Diane Sawyer interview of Whitney it was revealed her two brothers were drug users and dealers. Her father divorcing Whitney's mother for the household's young maid, and then he proceeding to sue Whitney.

With all of that drama and her untimely death at the age of 48, Ms. Houston's life mirrors that of many rock stars who also died untimely deaths. Her best legacy is that she inspired a number of other singers, such as Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, and Christina Aguilera.

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Mitt Romney, Our Next President?

Its early in the political reason, and its too early to declare Mitt Romney the winner of the Republican primaries. Still, Romney is well ahead of his rivals, and barring an upset, he seems posed to at least win the Republican primaries. Romney, during his victory speech, was pretty energized. He hammered President Obama on his weak spot, the economy. Romney is an old school Northeastern Republican. He's pro business, but his strongest base isn't tea party extremists. The Republicans seem to be gathering around him as their parties best chance of unseating President Obama.

Mind you, even if Romney wins the Republican Primary, he will not take Obama down easy. Recent stats have shown unemployment claims down considerably. President Obama will say the economy was collapsing just as he took office, and that it took years of action for him to finally put the economy on track. Ideologically, Romney is the closest candidate to President Obama, so it should be interesting to see these two candidates battle it out. One other thing in Obama's favor, since the Reagan years, with the exception of Bush I, no matter what is said about the President, whoever the President is generally wins a second term. This may even be a flaw in our system.