By spocko, on October 22nd, 2011% If it bleeds it leads.
– Old TV news saying
Say this weekend you turn on the TV and there is a teaser headline. “Occupy Wall Street Protests Turn Violent!” You tune in to hear the details. An anchorman says something like, “As with the protests in Greece and Egypt, it was only a matter of time before the protests in America turned violent. Today Occupy Wall Street protesters began throwing rocks and bottles at police. ”
Now what do you do?
Do you drop to your knees, like Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes and scream at the TV? “You Maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you!”
Do you cynically shake your head and think, “That’s it, the movement has been discredited with violence just like back in the old days. Now the police will have an excuse to shut down all the Occupy protests with this as an excuse.”
I’m going to suggest another approach when you hear of reports of violence at an Occupy Wall Street protests.
Photo by DavidyDave, Flickr Creative Commons
1) Challenge the assumption that the violent protester(s) are actually Occupy Wall Street protesters.
The media . . . → Read More: What To Do When The Media Says a Protester Attacked A Cop
By spocko, on October 18th, 2011%
The website occupytheboardroom.org was put together to give us 99% an opportunity to talk with the 1%. It lets you pick a “penpal” you can write to and tell your story. People can pick from dozens of top executives at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley
The stories will be sent to the actual email accounts of the executives as well as delivered by mail. You can read some of the funny, heartbreaking and passionate letters already written at the Occupy The Board Room Mail Bag.
The site encourages you to write your letter in a constructive manner that helps build the movement for a better world. From the site: “DO NOT intimidate, harass or threaten anyone, no matter what you might think of them. Think funny! The #OWS movement emphasizes peaceful, non-violent protesting.”
I think this is a great idea for people who can’t get down to the various OWS sites to participate. I’m always trying to think about what kind of actions are necessary to either change the configuration of someone’s thinking or to change people’s behavior.
This website is designed to reach the 1% but there are other . . . → Read More: Tell the 1% what You Think at Occupy The Board Room
By spocko, on October 16th, 2011%
Apparently the simple act of closing your account at a CitiBank can get you arrested. Watch as this nice woman in the business suit is manhandled and hauled away as she and some friends decided to close their CitiBank accounts at the same time.
My friends at New York Communities for Change have been behind a lot of actions like this. I don’t know if they are behind this one, but they have been convincing villages, towns and cities to remove their funds from Chase because of their poor response to the mortgage crisis.
I’m surprised CitiBank doesn’t just charge them a 50 dollar, “Closing your account fee.”
“Hello this is CitiBank, your business is important to us. If you would like to close your account press one and you will be transferred to our Account Closure specialist Helen Wate. At CitiBank when you talk, we listen and when you want to close your account you can go to Helen Wate.”
Personally I keep all my quatloos in a box under my bed. BTW, the quatloo is pegged to the Loonie, the world’s most elegant currency.
UPDATE 8:30 PM From the Guardian in the UK Earlier, 24 . . . → Read More: Closing Your CitiBank Account Can Get You Arrested
By spocko, on October 11th, 2011% It’s no secret that this old Vulcan is a fan of Elizabeth Warren. This is the video that she should have used to introduce herself and her run for Senate in Massachusetts.
By spocko, on October 6th, 2011% “Remember, the guy who suggests getting the dynamite is usually the Fed.”
– Old hippie saying
Yesterday morning a retired military officer friend (RMOF) and I were conversing about what might happen next with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Since Michael Westen of Burn Notice or Annie Walker from Covert Affairs weren’t available, he offered some thoughts from the point of view of a non-fictional character who studies this stuff. I, as a media watcher and activist wanted to talk about how the media and power players will deal with the various actions and what we can do to predict the media’s actions so we can get ahead of news and prepare. I also have delusions of influencing the narrative, but I’m afraid that shuttle craft might have left the ship.
Here are a few of his thoughts and some of my questions, predictions and suggestions.
RMOF:
I expect “trouble” soon. I don’t expect it from the protestors, but plants put in by the plutocrats or by violent individuals.
Spocko:
Definitely. The media LOVE plants because they will create the kind of action that makes for good TV. What they are not good . . . → Read More: The Guy who Suggests Getting Dynamite is Usually the Fed. Who will escalate violence at OWS?
By spocko, on September 28th, 2011% I’ve lived in at least four bubbles in the “bubble economy”. The Dot Com Bubble, The Housing Bubble, The Financial Toxic Waste Bubble and The Great Recession Bubble. I’ve observed people living in personal bubbles and I’ve created and popped my own. This last week I got to live in a different personal bubble than my usual Vulcan bubble while observing the impact of the bubble housing on people. It was interesting and it has briefly reconfigured my thinking.
When people talk about the bubble economy or people living in a bubble there is an underlying criticism that bubbles are a bad thing, and they often are. But I totally understand why people want them, create them and love them. Bubbles are GREAT — if they work for you. If there are no sanctions or consequences for the deleterious effects of bubbles when expanding rapidly or after popping, people will continue to create them as fast as they can. If they could, they would get a bubble gun.
All bubbles have winner and losers. Here in the future home of Star Fleet Academy I know some of the Dot Com Bubble winners and losers very well. For everyone who . . . → Read More: Is Your Bubble Filled with Despair, Hope, Anger or Soap?
By spocko, on September 17th, 2011% When Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” at the State of the Union address he got interviewed. Why not interview at least the two guys who wanted the uninsured to die? CNN and the Tea Party Express obviously know their names, why won’t they release them? Are they afraid of being found out? I think that they would be proud of their shouts. They clearly represent the views of many. Maybe they will end up hosting their own Fox News shows. . . . → Read More: No Brains. No Heart. The Tea Party/CNN debate.
By spocko, on April 6th, 2011% Today Fox and Glenn Beck’s production company said that Beck, “will be transitioning off his daily Fox News program.”
I’m very happy to hear this (don’t let Bones see me smiling). Beck and Fox are trying to spin this as some kind of, “moving on to greater things” action instead of what it is; a big defeat for them and huge win for us. Beck is going off the air at Fox because of a successful, sustained action to convince advertisers that Beck is bad for their brand.
The folks at Color of Change and Angelo Carusone of @stopbeck (now directing the DropFox program at Media Matters) did all the heavy lifting in this work and I hope that the media covering this story will talk to them about it. However, knowing the media as I do, I doubt it.
The media will talk to a Beck spokesperson, a Fox spokesperson and some “expert” who has no real knowledge of the real financial situation at Fox, who will dismiss it as no big deal since Murdoch is still richer than God and NewsCorp made their projected numbers. Later this year John Stewart will have Beck on the show when he . . . → Read More: Beck Out At Fox. What it Means.
By spocko, on April 2nd, 2011% I wonder why there are no "Red Shirt" robes? Nobody to wear them?
Spotted at WonderCon in SF via io9.com Available from Robe Factory
By spocko, on March 26th, 2011% March 25, 1911 was, as Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins recalled, “the day the New Deal began.” Watch this moving video to see how far America has come yet how far the world still needs to go regarding workers rights.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The thing that also gets me is what happened to the people who made it possible.
The company’s owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building’s roof when the fire began, were indicted on charges of first and second degree manslaughter in mid-April; the pair’s trial began on December 4, 1911.[33] Max Steuer, counsel for the defendants, managed to destroy the credibility of one of the survivors, Kate Alterman, by asking her to repeat her testimony a number of times — which she did without altering key phrases. Steuer argued to the jury that Alterman and possibly other witnesses had memorized their statements, and might even have been told what to say by the prosecutors. The defense also stressed that the prosecution had failed to prove that the owners knew the exit doors were locked at the time in question. The jury acquitted the two men, but they lost . . . → Read More: March 25th 1911, the day the New Deal began
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