Forum Post: How OWS can improve...
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 8, 2011, 2:01 a.m. EST by thomasmiller
(163)
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Whats dumb is there seems no point to these protests....most protests have an obvious purpose. Martin Luther King had an obvious purpose...did anyone have to ask what King's purpose was in life...did anyone have to guess or have a discussion about what he wanted to accomplish?
OWS has no singular purpose and it seems its existence is not to "protest", but to shame the banks and wealthy people. OK, shame on you banks! Bad Banks!...but how does that really help with anything. How does angry words ever help with anything? Disbanding, over-regulating or nationalizing the banks will have a disasterous effect on the economy and won't improve the jobs situation any so there needs to be a better dialouge besides demonizing them.
What is really needed in this country is leadership, but not negative leadership with solutions which do not work. Obama's leadership style is not a positive one and obviously is not working...
So how can OWS improve? They can come forward with some solid solutions rather then just a bunch of signs which exude some negative discourse. Yelling, screaming, shaming, etc. is not going to help matters any. Ok guys, I know the economy is crap...I know that somehow the financial mess was caused in part by the banks...I am an intelligent human being and you dont need to drill it into my head...what I need to know is how will this be solved and the solution is not to ban banking throughout the world.
Read the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City. Seems pretty pursposeful to me.
A large majority of the 99% are still living in la la land and that is why the voice even though it could be done more effectively. It's a wake up call (screaming)
This. And this awakening is long overdue. But someone will need to take responsibility soon, or people will nod off again - or, worse, be lead astray and dispersed by false and divisive ideologies.
We are not yet at the cusp of a societal awakening. We have only been gifted with a chance to create the potential. We are a wave of anger set against a high barrier; like so many before us, we can throw ourselves mindlessly against it, and subside. Or we can climb it with purpose and direction, and overcome. Soon, people will have to choose.
I have made suggestions on how to attract the 99% to our movement, but they are ignored I guess.
It's not that they are intentionally ignored, it's that the decentralized, disorganized chaos ensures that ideas don't gain traction based on merit, they only gain traction based on luck.
This, believe it or not, is by design. The fundamental flaw is reinforced every time someone cries, "no leaders!" and "everyone's a leader!"
You want some REAL solutions...
Make Campaign Finance Reform the dominant political issue in 2012. Get the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 750 and H.R. 1404) passed into law where political candidates for federal office would raise a large number of small contributions from their communities in order to qualify for Fair Elections funding. Contributions are limited to $100.00. Strictly voluntary by the candidate to avoid legal issues.
Require new FCC regulations granting 100% FREE air time to all federal candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to get on the ballot and participate in the primaries and/or electoral process.
Once you start electing politicians that have voluntarily taken a maximum donation of $100.00 and are not tied to special interests, you will begin to get a more responsive federal government that will actually carry out the will of the people.
You can begin to solve big problems in an open and rational way. Solutions like...
Create a fair federal tax code. The marginal tax rate ought to be raised to 50 percent on income between $500,000 and $5 million, 60 percent on income between $5 million and $15 million, and 70 percent on income over $15 million. There should be a 2 percent annual surtax on all fortunes over $7 million. The estate tax should be 55 percent and kicks in after $2 million. Capital gains should be taxed at 35 percent. End the home mortgage deduction on all homes over $750,000. Corporations should be taxed by a variable amount based on the percentage of payroll going to US workers. A small business employing 100% US workers should be taxed somewhere between 15-20% while a company that has completely shifted its production overseas should be in the 50% range. Eliminate corporate loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and deductions, subsidies and end offshore tax haven abuse.
Break up the biggest banks. Reenact Glass-Steagall. Abolish credit default swaps. Derivatives must be traded on transparent exchanges. Tax all Wall St. financial transactions at 1%. Damp down speculation and raise $400 billion a year.
A ten-year federal program that involves a New Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to create millions of jobs rebuilding America that includes infrastructure banks run by engineers, not politicians to extricate ourselves from the Great Recession now and increase productivity later.
Seriously address the housing crisis where one in four mortgages are underwater in America. The Congress should give bankruptcy judges the right to amend mortgages in order to pressure lenders to reduce principle owed.
End the wars. Reduce the military budget by half ($275 billion).
Medicare For All. Allow Medicare to purchase drugs directly. Give the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC) more authority to drive down medical costs.
End the "revolving door" of politicians and their staffs from ever becoming becoming lobbyists and prohibit all federal public employees, officers, officials from ever being employed by any corporation, individual or business that they specifically regulated while in office.
Increase upward mobility in an increasingly stratified society, the federal government should pay tuition and fees for all students, part and full time, who are enrolled in two-year public institutions in the United States.
i hear you loud & clear. check out tocamu.com - it offers a solution - it offers a uniting symbol - it offers a book - it offers a sensible political/social/economic alternative put together by a real academic that will make us all happier. http://www.tocamu.com/
Only a few days after it began the NYC General Assembly based at the Occupy Wall Street occupation at Zuccotti Park passed the Declaration of the Occupation of New York. This is a very short but very comprehensive document and it is on this website. It very clearly articulates the position of OWS and its greivances. Yet the news media and many individuals in the public continue to scratch their heads and wonder what OWS stands for. This is perhaps understandable for people who don't often watch the news, don't have a computer or computer skills or really don't have much interest in the issue, but it is astonishing to me that the news media and people who frequent this list can continue to assert that they don't know what OWS is for. The only reason that I can figure out for this is that OWS is so far outside the continuum of Republican to Democratic party politics and that anything outside that frame is incomprehensible to those who remain intellectually trapped within it.
401k- Why do they get commision when they are not 'earning' any money for me? Why should I shoulder the fees associated with their 'profession'? My free bank acct. isn't free- so it won't be my bank acct for much longer.
Why post twice? Just curious.
401k- Why do they get commision when they are not 'earning' any money for me? Why should I shoulder the fees associated with their 'profession'? My free bank acct. isn't free- so it won't be my bank acct for much longer. When given the choice of the lesser of two evils- choose neither. Write in 'none of the above' when election time rolls around. It won't win, but with enough -it would be heard very loudly. (I really don't expect a viable candidate to come forth) Corporate greed, congressional greed..... Health care reform had the teeth taken out of it before it ever got officially 'discussed'. Big money vs. big money making the decisions. A scrip that costs me 400$, costs insurance 85$/and my 50$- from Kroger- go figure cash money is worth less I guess. Why is my 'group' so small, when the Health Insurance Company is so huge?? Anarchy- not based on reality. 1800's living- it'd be brutal. Big money needs to be 'socially' responsible. Why? DDT for breakfast seems to be a recurring theme in the past 50yrs......(show me the money- big oil/coal/nuclear should build alternativeE, not the 'we the people', etc. etc.-don't need no 'Nike' cancer glue shoes...). Bail on the blatantly obvious- obfuscate the not so obvious.
rant....
lulz stop posting this. I already commented on a post of yours that was saying Martin Luther King was a "real" movement, implying that this is not... Then I told you what we want to accomplish and then you asked me what we want to accomplish. I told you that this movement has brought about global attention. Do you think civil rights happened in one month?
H.R. 2990 National Emergency Employment Defense Act of 2011
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112%3AH.R.2990.IH:
Thank you for reason. This OWS GROUP IS fucked up beyond repair. They are arrogant. They know it all.
cool story brah
[Removed]
You fail to understand the concept and structure of Occupy.
Its criminal. OWS is clueless. They think this is nursery school.
http://overthecoals.blogspot.com/
Corzine/MF Global ripped off customer funds. II
CNBC broadcasters reported that the CME Group is searching for $600,000,000 that vanished from customer segregated accounts that no one except Corzine had the power to rip off unless Corzine specifically involved other people. CNBC broadcasters actually believe that the $600,000,000 might be hiding someplace and might magically reappear from its hiding place. Also CNBC reported that the Obama appointed commissioner of the CFTC, Gary Gensler recused himself (after he spoke with Corzine) from his own job.
This will be the same as the NYC Judge and DA who protected Strauss-Kahn from a trial for raping the black hotel maid. They are going to protect ex NJ governor, ex US Senator, ex Goldman Sachs colleague Corzine from being arrested for his crime. If OWS sitting in the park near Wall Street (as if being blocks away from Wall Street gives them some knowledge) had any idea of why they are protesting, they would be screaming about the Corzine $600,000,000 crime and his privileged status by the FBI.
America has become a nation of dolts in a trance. The most powerful American leaders and their shills reporting on TV are ignorant crooks. Go back and read prior SCREWED AGAIN reporting about the CFTC and CME Group as it concerns the PIMCO fraud. The OWS protest actually believe that sitting and freezing on the ground in the park will magically force a happy ending for the misery of 50,000,000 Americans whose work is now being done by Chinese slaves. The 50,000,000 Americans have been told by the privileged to go back to school and learn a new occupation so they can return to the middle class life they had enjoyed.
Stevemiller, OWS has provided you with a platform to bring this to the attention of people who might have otherwise known.
That is part of what OWS is about. Without the people 'camping' in a park, this forum would not be receiving the attention it does.
Bring on the issues about which you are concerned.
Yesterday I spent 7 hours in the park -- listening. Here is a composition I wrote in 2008. It is much long than these 1st 3 paragraphs because I don't want to hog the forum.
An Informed, Reasoned Solution for America’s Economic Disaster
By Steve Miller
Man, stop flooding the forum with copy/pasted links. It's lame.
The only thing I know about all the Canadians who come to FL is they are cheap tight ass people. We all know that. Its a fact.
You aren't the forum cop.
It seems to me copy/pasting is a cheap activity. It's meant to save you time, thereby money.
However, I can see how you would perceive Canadians as being tight ass. After all, Americans are much fatter so it's obvious their asses can't possibly be as tight since their excrements are much larger; cow excrement size I hear.
Another reason my ass seems tight is because I don't insert carrots inside it, nor do I let big fat cheeseburger eating Jerry Springer watching American nitwits try to insert their dongs inside my ass. We all have different ass tightnesses. I respect the fact that yours is loose, so you should respect the fact that mine is tight. Multicultural diversity is the talk of the town. It's all the rage these days.
In brief, you won't be occupying my ass anytime soon. Sorry.
You're a loser
Joe Paterno proves Americans are creeps read more -- http://overthecoals.blogspot.com/
Joe Paterno allowed a kid to be molested. When a kid is being molested you don't report it to a college president, you report it to law enforcement. For law enforcement to now protect Joe Paterno from the same justice they are pursuing with all of Paterno's staff involved in the molesting incident because Paterno won or lost football games proves that the American people are nasty, stupid, and ignorant creeps.
The fact that the American people allow the entire government to be bribed on the record because they call bribes "campaign finance" is glaring proof that Americans are irrational. They laugh at the jokes by SNL, Jon Stewart, and Steven Colbert while they ignore the reality of those jokes.
I'm not American. My whereabouts are indicated just after my name. Please learn to read.
You're butting into our politics. Learn to think.
I'm not butting into your politics. Occupy is a worldwide movement. In any case, you are on a Canadian owned website. By being here, you read the ideas of Canadians which influence your thought whether you like it or not. If you don't want your vote to be influenced, you should not read anything written by foreigners. In any case, I do not have the power to vote in your country, so don't worry. We are all expressing ideas. Everybody is welcome.
If Canadians bother you so much, I suggest you use another website, or ignore posts coming from them. You are free to limit yourself to the ideas of big fat cheeseburger eating Jerry Springer watching politically uneducated Americans. That is your choice.
You will never influence my thought. I never said you weren't welcome. Learn how to read.
You are so simple minded. It's cute.
OWS concept is to lose the protest. Can you understand that concept?
The OP is asking for Occupy to issue clear demands. This is not within the concept and structure of Occupy. Read up on what Occupy is and how the ideas of David Graeber have shaped it. Here is my three step reading program. Read everything.
http://anarchistnews.org/node/16624
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/topics/David_Graeber.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain
Losing is your concept.
Like I said, take some time to read the links and understand Occupy.
This is not my concept. In any case, I do not fully support Occupy and its ideas. I'm only giving out the links in case some people are interested in learning what it is and what it's not. It's not about agreeing or disagreeing with it, only about learning what it is.