1. Did he/she support renaming “french fries” to “freedom fries”?

2. Does  he/she refer to the Koch brothers by their first name?

3. Does he/she wear a little american flag pin EVERY DAY?

4. Did he/she mysteriously become a millionaire after starting their tenure with Congress?

5. Does he/she wear a cashmere v-neck sweater without sleeves EVER?

6. Does he/she think that God and/or Jesus think the U.S. of A. is somehow “special”?

7. Does he/she think God and/or Jesus thinks that he/she are “special”?

8. Are they getting a tad over-the-hill?  Do they shuffle and blather like John McCain did when Obama went Christmas shopping?

9. Do they truly believe the corporations are people?

10.  Did they support Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann?

If any of the above are true, you are in trouble.  Time for a new representative.

James Wilson

A recent study from Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen shows that the most successful of the global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths.

As the website Newser reported, the researchers “pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative.” Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive “to damage their opponents.”

“with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers.”

Great.  I guess now when a stockbroker wants a career change, he/she knows what will fit well with their personalities.

In 2004, the award-winning documentary “The Corporation” used World Health Organization metrics (questionnaires)  to show that if companies really are “people,” as our Supreme Court insists, then many of them are mentally ill.

So if you have been feeling kind of paranoid lately, like the elites in our country are out to get you, you are probably right.

Rock on Occupy Wall Street.  Let’s get the crazies back in the asylum.

************************************************************************

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

NOTE: if you have a picture of a sign(s) that you think is noteworthy, please send us your email address and we will be back in touch with you with details on how to send us your picture.  Send your email address by going to:   http://www.techimoto.com/contact-us/  Your pictures  will get published in a followup series of such articles.  Thanks!

Anonymous says; “On October 10, Nyse shall be erased from the Internet,” a computer-generated voice tells viewers. “On October 10, expect a day that will never, ever be forgotten.”

It would be cool if they could bring down the NYSE ticker system, but that is highly improbable as it is close to impossible.  Bringing down the NYSE website may be doable, but won’t effect the NYSE exchange operations in any meaningful way.

Perhaps the website attack is a diversion, and they have something grander planned?  We can always hope.

BTW: On the video above they provide instructions for anyone with any basic computer skills to participate in the attack.  If you are such a person, and an activist, have at it!

While you are undergoing this effort, which of these two objectives is at the top of your mind?

1. “I want to get this idea off the ground so that I can go out and hire a whole bunch of people.  I want, more than anything, to be a ‘job creator’.  In fact, I don’t care if I’m selling products or not, I’m going to hire a bunch of people anyway. ”        OR
2. “I believe in myself and my abilities.  I believe in my product, and that it will sell and hopefully make a positive difference in my customer’s lives.   I will also make a comfortable living from my profits.”

If you chose #1, you are lying to yourself.  Let’s face it; anybody starting such a business is not doing so to make a bunch of employees happy by giving them a job.  In fact, if you could, you would just a soon hire/build/rent a bunch of robots to do the jobs.  They are cheaper, easier to maintain (don’t have to go to lunch, use the restroom, or require expensive medical insurance.  They will work 24×7 without so much as a whimper).  Sure, maybe in general you like people, but probably not THAT much.

Corporations are sitting on an unprecedented pile of cash.  They are not hiring because they need even more cash, they are not hiring because there is no demand for their services or products. (BTW: I always thought the right wing economists were major “supply and demand” freaks.  You know, “free markets” and all.  Do they only hold to that theory when it is politically convenient?).

The Wall Street Journal’s July survey of business economists found, “The main reason U.S. companies are reluctant to step up hiring is scant demand, rather than uncertainty over government policies, according to a majority of economists.”

So, forget the argument that taxing corporations will harm the “job creators”.  Nonsense.  They will only create jobs when they absolutely have to create jobs, and when  they do they will create jobs in accordance with “free market” principles, i.e., most likely in somebody else’s country.

Elizabeth Warren has it right, when she talks about taxes and the absurd accusation of “class warfare”:

“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.”

How about some kind of tax on corporations for corporate money that just sits in the bank doing nothing.  Now THAT makes sense.

Through the last few decades, the American public has become conditioned to think in increasingly black-and-white terms.   Consider George W. Bush’s infamous statement: “you’re either with us, or against us”.    The implied consequence of not joining the team effort is to be deemed an enemy.

Our two party political system invites division and derision.   Our TV and radio media are constantly bombarding us with “us vs. them” mentality.  If you are a republican, anything negative that occurs is the democrat’s fault.  If you are a democrat, the republicans are at fault.  Finger pointing is commonplace and accepted.  The absurdity has reached new heights.  After Obama’s election when McConnell could have/should have mentioned any number of priorities (since our country was and is in  a huge crisis mode) but chose to say that the “number one priority would be defeating President Obama in 2012”.   How ridiculous.

One of the reasons that the Wall Street Protests has been slow to gain media attention is that the “goals” are not black and white.  This is very confusing to today’s media.  How can we have a movement that isn’t “against” some other side?   How can we frame a story if it is this nebulous?

The Wall Street protesters have a much deeper agenda that is not partisan politically, and has no direct discernible enemy.   They are simply fed up with the system.  It is a SYSTEMIC problem.  It has affected republicans as well as democrats.  It is not rooted in race, religion, or geography.  In fact, the malaise is so deeply imbedded, it is not just in our country, it has become a global issue.   Do you think that just republicans or just democrats make up the unemployed?   Is it just the democrats that loosing their homes at an alarming rate?  Is it just republicans that have experienced an erosion of their middle class?   Is it just democrats who have seen their medical insurance costs either unobtainable or spiral out of control and out of reach?

And “the enemy” is, unfortunately, us.  We, the People (in fact, that wouldn’t be a bad name for the movement).  We have created, sustained, and used the brutal financial mechanisms that have nearly bankrupted our country.  We have allowed the empowerment of corporations, become slaves to easy credit and allowed the drug of consumption to lull us into a false state of comfort and satisfaction.  How do you write about that?  How do you frame a 1 minute news piece around an enemy that is us?

None the less, it is just this kind of movement that is direly needed.  The Tea Party, is NOT the answer.  They have a specific set of solutions (“reduce debt”, bla, bla, bla), for a specific set of problems.  None of these solutions will seriously address the deep systemic problems that we face.

This is nothing short of a cultural rebellion.  We have allowed ourselves to take the wrong path, and we must endure the pain, and muster the courage to admit our mistake, and take the actions needed to realign our social compass.

How much more “proof” do we need that our health care system is a train wreck.

A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group that tracks employer-sponsored health insurance on a yearly basis, shows that the average annual premium for family coverage through an employer reached $15,073 in 2011, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year.

Are you surprised?  What did people expect, that the Health Insurance Industry would take pity on us because 50,000,000 U.S. citizens can no longer afford health insurance?   Did we expect that once Corporations gained “personhood” via the Supreme Court ruling that they would miraculously, like the Tin Woodman in the Wizard of Oz., be awarded a heart?   When will we see that big business has one, and only one objective: money, money, and did I mention money?   They don’t give a rip about you, and they don’t give a rip about me.  We are commodities.  Either they make money on us (if we aren’t sick), or they loose money on us (if we are sick).  If they loose money on us, then they will “divest” themselves of their loosing investment, and throw your ass out on the street.

Up until last year, we saw very hefty increases — double digits,” said Heather Gombos, an executive for R. M. Jones & Company and affiliated businesses in New Britain, Conn. a group that insures about 50 of its 80 employees.

Our Health Care friends did give us a bout a 1 year reprieve.  Swell bunch of guys.  But just like our new 2010 government, health care can be officially declared “broken beyond repair”.   And no, Obama Care won’t fix it.  His system is still tied into private insurance companies that DO NOT have your best interest in mind.

As long as our personal health care is linked to some corporations bottom line, we are doomed to a health system that only the very rich can afford.

“Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the [U.S.] media.”

Noam Chomsky, American linguist and US media and foreign policy critic

In spite of history making protests on Wall Street, where 1000’s of people  have gathered for over a week,  mainstream media has yet to provide very little if any air time for any of the events unfolding there.  Today, 9/24/2011, over 2,000 protesters were present, resulting in 80 arrests.  Reportedly law enforcement officers have used taser guns and plastic nets in an effort to subdue and encapsulate protesters.

At the top of his Current TV show (9/21/11), Keith Olberman said:  So five days of clogging downtown Manhattan, protesting corporate control of the economy, and you haven’t heard a word about it on the news? He later remarked, “If that’s a Tea Party protest in front of Wall Street about Ben Bernanke … it’s the lead story on every network newscast.”

Small wonder, when the majority of our media is controlled by a handful of companies (see below).

When major figures in media were asked about the absence of coverage, here are some of the responses:

Rachel Maddow:  “Were any gay people arrested?”

Phil Griffin, the head of MSNBC:  “Um, did any of the protesters happen to mention General Electric?”

CNN:  “Well, we only like to cover democratic efforts in anywhere but the US.   Hey, was there any blood?”

Michele Bachmann:  “God loves Wall Street!  He told me the other day how he has read every book Ayn Rand has written.  ‘Kick ‘em while they’re down’, He (God) laughed.  God probably told all the media chiefs not to cover it.  BTW: I’m starting a new SuperPAC called ‘Rich Americans for Rich Americans’ “

Since the start of the Occupy Wall Street protest last week, at least five people have been cited for violating a little-known New York law that bans masks at gatherings of two or more people unless it’s “a masquerade party or like entertainment.”  (Message to protesters:  say you are part of a Halloween parade).

Here’s a list of the major company’s controlling what you are allowed to see and read:

Parent Company