A Night with Occupy Wall Street

A call went out over the Internet stating that the city of New York was preparing to “clean” the park where the Occupy Wall St protests were taking place and that the protestors would have to leave the park during this cleaning. The occupiers were cognizant that this was a thinly veiled attempt to evict them from the park. They asked for people to converge on the park to defend it from the NYPD who would be charged with clearing it.

Having watched this movement from its inception, their message of eliminating the influence of money on our government resonated deeply with me. Their message of corporate and Wall St greed also resonated with me. I remember the horror I felt at the spraying of the penned in protestors, I recall the anger I felt when I viewed the videos where the police entrapped the demonstrators on the bridge and then arrested hundreds of them. The time had come for me personally to take action.

I quickly gathered together a folding chair, a tarp, (the weather called for heavy rain), and my video camera and hopped on the last bus leaving Chinatown. I arrived at the park close to midnight and witnessed several hundred occupiers. I found an empty spot to “camp out” and setup my small site. The next hour was spent in discussion with many of the people in the park. They were very welcoming and friendly. I thought of the many videos I had seen that showed the fringe element of the occupiers in their attempts to try to discredit the movement. While I did see a few fringe types, they were a very small minority. Instead what I discovered was that these mostly young people were both articulate and committed. They clearly outlined the problems within our system as they perceived them.

At approximately 1:00 AM, a light rain started falling and I decided to sit on my chair, using the tarp for shelter. I watched as the crowd quickly adapted and almost instantly everyone seemed to wearing ponchos or utilizing umbrellas. Then I received the first real surprise of the visit. The skies opened up and almost instantly started pouring heavily. Immediately a great cheer went out among the crowd that reverberated between the large buildings that surround the park. This sent a chill down my spine. These people were so used to being wet that they actually welcomed the rain.

At this time I noticed my tarp which was only 1 season old and had been sitting in the sun for the summer, was not water tight. Some of the lining had deteriorated and water was entering. It was not long before I was sitting in the chair fully soaked. I looked around and saw how these young people adapted to the rain and to not being allowed to have tents in the park. Many of them covered their sleeping bags with tarps and the openings to the bags with umbrellas. I knew that this was not completely watertight and that they were sleeping in wet conditions. Here I was wet and uncomfortable for one single night and these amazing people put up with this discomfort for weeks in order to protest what they believed in. I felt anger at those who would not allow them to post tents. The arrogance of these people subjecting someone’s child to have to endure this sort of indignity. Would they do the same if their sons or daughters were here?

After a while the rain let up, and normal activity returned to the park. It was now around 2:00AM and I would estimate that less that ¼ of the people were sleeping. There was an electricity in the air and a great concern about the pending confrontation with the NYPD, the enforcers and protectors of the money powers. During this time I explored the park and found that the levels organization were truly impressive. This park had: an information booth, a kitchen, a media center, a first aid station, a general assembly area, and a lost and found. So much for all the media propaganda on how these people are disorganized anarchists. They actually have their own newspaper!

During this time a member of their community gave me a small flyer and I was impressed with what I saw. Please excuse the poor quality of the scan, but this flyer got soaked during the rains.

On the back was a map with all the information people would need to navigate the park.
On the front, the flyer stated that being intoxicated in the park was not acceptable behavior, that everyone needed to respect others and property rights, and that it was important to keep the park clean and to protect the flowers and other plants.

After the rains, crews were immediately dispatched to start sweeping the areas to both clean them and to eliminate puddles that had gathered in low lying areas. This park was clean. There was absolutely no reason to have to have outside crews come in and “clean” the park. During the rest of my night there, the sound of sweeping could always be heard in the background.

Around 3:00AM it started to rain again and even though my tarp was not totally watertight, it still kept most of the water off of me. Again a sudden deluge came down and again a great cheer went out among the crowd. A huge clap of thunder was heard and then another cheer rang out and echoed throughout the park. It truly obvious to me that these people really did not care about being wet. I had also reached that point, once you are soaked, it doesn’t matter how much more you get wet. If the authorities thought that by making these people uncomfortable by denying them tents they would break their spirit, they badly miscalculated. This had the exact opposite effect and made them stronger. I could feel it. I again felt anger at the authorities for their arrogance in this. I thought about all the ignorant people who posted comments on the Internet about the “dirty hippies, “flea bags” and “smelly” people at these protests. These ill informed people have no idea of what is happening here beyond the propaganda they are hearing. When was the last time any of them suffered this sort of discomfort and indignity to protest something they believed in? These ignorant rants were coming from people who are empty shells who simply parrot what they have heard on the corporate media.

These protestors were forced into these degrading conditions by our elected leaders, the paid servants of the money powers. The city did not even provide toilet facilities. Don’t most cities provide them when they know large crowds will be in a public place? This was another one of the sad attempts to try and suppress this protest. The city resourcefully dug up a law that was over 160 years old about not wearing masks in public as an excuse to arrest protestors. Another one of the sad and shameful attempts to try and suppress this protest. Each obstacle thrown in front of these people ultimately only strengthens their resolve. There were so many of these attempts.

The irony of the situation is that the corporate controlled media had been ignoring this protest for weeks until the video of the indiscriminate pepper spraying of the penned in women went viral on the Internet. Then the NYPD tried to go after people with cameras, but there were so many of them, their efforts also went viral on the Internet and even the corporate media started broadcasting some of the clips. The movement grew in strength every time the authorities responded with force. Then came the mass arrests on the bridge and the movement grew even stronger with more and more people coming to the park and with protests spreading to hundreds of other cities across the nation and even the world. The resolve of these occupiers was strengthening and they had lost their fear of arrest. This was being compared to Egypt’s Tahrir Square. Violence against the demonstrators was backfiring and having the opposite effect the authorities desired. Donations of food, supplies, and support were pouring in from around the world. Worldwide news coverage had turned negative against the authorities.

The time was now around 5:00 AM in the park and I had slept little during this night. The vast majority of demonstrators were also awake awaiting the General Assembly meeting to determine what the collective response to the NYPD would be. All decisions are made democratically in this community. (All the people who call this anarchy, please take note.) All night more and more people were entering the park and it was soon obvious that the number of people in the park was increasing rapidly.

At approximately 6:00AM the park was so full that you could hardly fit another person into it. Why did the police not open up the barriers that were trapping so many people into such a small area? They could easily have closed the 2 minor small streets on either side of the park to accommodate the swelling numbers. This would have kept traffic flowing smoothly on Broadway and Church Streets while having a minimal amount of officers to control traffic flow. Instead the authorities have directed the NYPD to use large numbers of manpower to enforce the ever tightening barricades. This is another example of the arrogant and poor decision making on the part of the authorities, another sad and ineffective attempt to dispirit this movement.

During the General Assembly meeting, I witnessed their system of spreading the speakers’ words throughout the crowd by having everyone repeat what they heard. All announcements were proceeded with “mic check” and this would be repeated throughout the park. The sound of the repetition reverberating throughout the park provided an empowering feeling. You could feel the energy in the air. This is another example of how the decision to prohibit amplified loudspeakers backfired on the authorities. It seemed that every obstacle that was thrown in the way of these protestors, only seemed to make them stronger and more resolved. My admiration for them just kept growing. Then a large group of additional protestors entered the park and a great cheer went up and resonated throughout the park. You could feel the energy levels were climbing.

It was decided that those who had been assigned specific tasks within the community would stay at the core of the park, with supporters on the perimeter and they would all lock arms together. A vote was asked on how many were willing to get arrested and a sea of hands went up into the air by both the occupiers and their supporters. The speaker warned that anyone remaining inside the park was at risk of arrest and if they were not prepared for that they should leave the park. Anyone willing to stay in the park was asked to find a “buddy” so that there was always someone else who would look out for them when the showdown came. A cry of “solidarity” rand out among the crowd. I was impressed by the concern the Occupy Wall St protestors had for each other and for those who came in support. I was again impressed with the concern they had for those who could not risk arrest.

Then you heard “mic check” being repeated across the park. An announcement from the deputy mayor was read stating that the “clean up” of the park had been cancelled. A great crescendo of cheers from the thousands in the park rang out and echoed between the buildings. The protestors had faced down the authorities.

As I am writing this article, I believe that the authorities had made a wise decision in not confronting this movement’s epicenter. Every single time they moved with force, the movement only got stronger. Breaking up thousands of the supporters with arms locked, and then going after the protestors themselves would have been a total public relations nightmare. The mainstream media was out in force, anticipating the showdown. The independent media was out in force. The entire world was watching. The authorities surely did have the power to accomplish an eviction: they have the combined might of the entire NYPD, state police, national guard and US military at their disposal, all to be used against people committed to peaceful protest. But there would have been a very high cost to such an action.

Should such an eviction have taken place, the international condemnation of the United States would have been strong and broad, similar to the condemnation of the Arab regimes’ repression. There is the probability that the outrage could have fueled hundreds of thousands to converge on NY in anger. At such a point the movement would have reached a critical mass and would have been unstoppable short of total police and/or military suppression. So the showdown was averted, however the movement continues to grow.

Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize winner from the Polish Solidarity Movement, has announced that he will be visiting with Occupy Wall St. They have stated that he will be warmly welcomed. The movement continues to gain support.

There are those who would criticize the tactics of this movement, but what these protestors have been very successful in is to shine a light on many of the problems in this country. Finally now these problems are being discussed and a national conversation is starting to take place. To all those who are reading this article and/or are following the events on the Internet or even just corporate news, I ask you the following questions:

The bankers on Wall St gambled with other peoples’ money and brought our economy to its knees.
Are you OK with that?

These same bankers then received a taxpayer bailout.
Are you OK with that?

These same bankers then paid themselves huge bonuses for job well done.
Are you OK with that?

We have self serving special interests giving unlimited money ANONYMOUSLY to our corrupt politicians.
Are you OK with that?

If not, what are YOU doing about it?
At least these protestors care enough to do something about it.

This is not a liberal cause, this is not a conservative cause, this is a common cause.

Addendum to this article:
The Oakland Police tried to violently supress the occupation in their city and the numbers of demonstrators grew significantly the next day. The city leadership is under attack by its own people with over 70% of the residents disapproving the mayor’s handling of the situation. (CBS poll)

“More”, is never enough!

For over a week now, citizens have been gathering in Liberty Plaza in New York City to protest the greed and corruption of Wall Street and its corrosive effects on our nation’s economy and well being.

This last week we witnessed the spectacle of police guarding the bronze bull statue located on Wall Street. This sight is almost biblical in its significance, where the powers that be order their enforcers, the police, to guard the Golden Calf in front of the Temple of Greed where the elites worship their great gods: money, power, greed, envy, and lust.

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs and one of the many high priests in this Temple of Greed, once stated that he “was doing God’s work”. It is likely that much of this selfless and charitable work takes place at this Temple of Greed. It is easy to envision the rituals of this Temple, where with hands in the air, the high priests and their followers chant “more, more”, but “more”, is never enough.

Understanding the significance of this Temple and the Golden Calf makes it very easy to comprehend why the elites and their high priests ordered their enforcers to protect the Golden Calf. Should anything happen to it, the people outside the Temple would lose the grace and love of their gods resulting in an abyss of plague and famine. Those inside the Temple would be protected from this plague and famine because of their devotion to the gods, but those outside the Temple would be devastated.

As those outside the Temple, we should be grateful to these High Priests for their concern and for recognizing the importance of guarding the Temple and Golden Calf. They demonstrated bravery and wisdom by calling out the enforcers restrain those who would challenge the Temple and its values. We applaud those among the police who responded with additional vigor and without question to protect the values of the Temple. While many of the enforcers practiced restraint, it is so comforting to know that there were those who showed their devotion and loyalty to the Temple and Golden Calf by ignoring the rights our nation’s founding fathers fought so hard to provide us. These enforcers who showed this initiative and loyalty to the High priests understand that when it comes to matters of the Temple, that civil liberties and other rights are irrelevant.

We should be grateful to those among the enforcers who prevented the protestors from assembling in front of the Temple.

We should be thankful for those among the enforcers who took away the protective tarps that sheltered the protestors from the rain.

We should admire those among the enforcers who were resourceful enough to dig up a law that is over 150 years old that forbids masks in public and to use this obscure law as a reason to arrest some of the protestors.

We should appreciate that there were those among the enforcers who had the courage and integrity to ignore the First Amendment rights of the independent press and prevented as many as they could from reporting on this protest.

We should be comforted that the corporate controlled media obediently follow the commandments of the high priests and largely suppressed this story.

The audacity of these protestors thinking that they have the right to petition for jobs so they can support their families! The nerve of these protestors thinking they have the right to call for prosecution of the High Priests of the Temple!

These demonstrators who are so ignorantly challenging the morality of these High Priests need to be taught the lesson that it is unwise to challenge the Temple and its High Priests. Hundreds have been arrested, but more arrests are needed. A lesson on blind obedience to the overlords with bowed head needs to be reinforced. Again we are truly indebted to those among the enforcers who had the courage to educate them.

Only by blind devotion and faithful obedience to the commandments of the High Priests can we as people be brought out of the wilderness.

Website for Occupy Wall St: https://occupywallst.org

New Jersey Betrayal

Once upon a time in the State of New Jersey, we had a situation where the public workers (of the state) such as teachers, nurses, police, and others were blatantly violating the laws of NJ by not contributing into their pension funds. In fact for 11 of the last 15 years, these irresponsible public employees paid ZERO DOLLARS into the funds. During this time the State of New Jersey has been paying its full share amount into each pension fund all along. Now the pension system is severely underfunded and it is time for those who have not been paying into the system to pay up. Why should the State/taxpayers have to make up the difference when these public employees were so irresponsible? Those who have been paying their fair share should not be made to bear the burden for the irresponsibility of those who did not.

In an admirable bipartisan spirit, Governor Chris Christie (Republican) has worked closely with Senate President Stephen Sweeney (Democrat) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (Democrat) to forge a Pension-Benefits Reduction Bill that will restore solvency to the pension system. This bill will hold those who have not paid their fair share responsible for restoring solvency to the system through additional deductions, reduced health care benefits, no cost of living increases for pensioners, the establishment of a board that would offer plans with fewer benefits as well as increased co-pays and prescriptions and most importantly the stripping of the unions’ right to negotiate their health-care insurance coverage and contribution levels.

THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THE ABOVE PARAGRAPHS IS THAT THE ROLES ARE EXACTLY REVERSED AND IT WAS THE STATE THAT WAS PAYING ZERO FOR 11 OUT OF THE LAST 15 YEARS. THE WORKERS WERE PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE DURING THIS ENTIRE TIME! Unfortunately it is the workers who have been responsible all along that are now the victims of this bill.

So again, why should those who have been paying their fair share be made to bear the burden of the irresponsibility of those who did not? The pensioners will no longer receive cost-of-living increases until the system is “determined to be solvent”. These are people who paid faithfully into the system their entire professional lives. While this might sound like a reasonable concession on the surface, if you look deeper, it will devastate this group. According to a well respected data site, shadowstats.org, the current annual inflation rate is 12% and is climbing. This means that pensioners will lose half their buying power in 4 years. In 8 to 12 years they will be living in poverty!

During the courtship of Governor Christie, Senator Sweeney and Sheila Oliver failed to strong arm their Democratic Caucuses to support the bill and were not successful at getting a majority to do so. However, in North Jersey (Essex area) and in Southern New Jersey, the very powerful party bosses were able to order enough Democrats to betray their principles, so that when combined with the Republican minority in both houses, the Pension-Benefits Reduction Bill was able to pass.

In a cynical move, to protect themselves from the inevitable backlash for their betrayal, the vote on this Pension-Benefits Reduction Bill was purposely withheld until after the primary elections had been completed and the deadline had passed for adding names to the coming election ballot.

This betrayal of organized labor by the South Jersey Democrats has ignited a firestorm among this core constituent group as well as others who recognize the injustice of making some pay for the irresponsibility of others. Meetings were called and the NJ Progressive Democrats of America (no affiliation to the Democratic Party) charted a strategy. During these meetings the Democratic legislators who betrayed their constituents were renamed “Christiecrats”.

These Christiecrats claim that they are looking to make the fund solvent, but where were they during all the years the Democrats controlled the Senate and Assembly and the state was not making its contributions into the fund? Their silence was deafening.

On Monday, August 8, at the War Memorial in Trenton, the NJ Progressive Democrats of America will be starting a petition drive for the removal of Stephen Sweeney from the Senate Presidency and Sheila Oliver from the Assembly Speakership. The petition will be presented to NJ State Democratic Committee chair John Wisniewski.

In these times when public workers are under increasing attack by the corporate controlled media, it is important to remember that:

1. it was not the public workers who instigated multi $trillion bond fraud on Wall Street
2. it was not the public workers who lobbied for financial deregulation
3. it was not the public workers who gambled in derivatives with other peoples’ money
4. it was not the public workers who accepted $billions in bailouts
5. it was not the public workers who paid themselves huge bonuses
6. it was not the public workers who brought the economy to its knees

Remember, the media will try to redirect your anger away from the Wall Street aristocracy. In a classic case of divide and conquer they will try to turn you against other middle class workers, and then place the question in your mind, “why does the bus mechanic who works for the state have full benefits?” WRONG QUESTION! You should be asking why you do not have them.

What Organizers and YOU Can Do For Effective Change

People seeking change have attended countless rallies, demonstrations, meetings, and get togethers and have witnessed negligible results. The usual occurrence is that like minded people talk, discuss, give and listen to speeches, and complain about the injustices of our ruling elites, corrupt government, and the shrinking economy. At the conclusion of these events, little changes and inertia prevails. Consequently frustration grows, and both interest and commitment wanes. Momentum is lost.

If a movement is to have any effect, it needs to address the peoples’ needs. So what are these needs?

The critical missing component seems to be a blueprint, a plan that specifically outlines what individuals can do bring about the desired change. Perhaps organizers of these events would do well to have speakers that not only address the problems, but also address concrete solutions that can be implemented by interested parties – simple steps that individuals can take to bring about change. Nothing breeds success like success, and it is time to start realizing success that is commensurate with the amounts of efforts being expended. Inspiration and determination are only springboards, mobilization is tantamount.

Written talking points and directions should be distributed not only to all attending the event, but also to passersby who have already witnessed the mobilization. These points would outline specific strategies and steps to accomplish the desired goals.

So, what could be included in this outline? I present the following recommendations as a starting point that can be modified and appended as the circumstances or situations warrant.

What is the ROOT CAUSE of the problem we are dealing with?
Organizers need to be careful to keep themselves focused. When veering off in too many directions the effect is a dilution of the message and effectiveness of any actions taken. Too often we attack the SYMPTOMS of a problem, rather than the ROOT CAUSE of the problems themselves.

Doctor Analogy:
Consider this, if you went to a doctor because you were experiencing abdominal pain, and he gave you pain killers to ease the pain, you would rightly question the doctor for treating only the SYMPTOMS of the problem (the pain). However, what is the ROOT CAUSE of this pain? Is it disease, blockage, ulcers, or something else? Why is this not being addressed?

Yet, we often focus on the SYMPTOMS, rather than ROOT CAUSES when it comes to dealing with the many social, economic, environmental, and political problems we face. The evidence for this is the fact that our elected officials no longer represent the peoples’ interests, but rather the interests of a financially elite few. For instance – bailouts for banks, tax cuts for the corporations and millionaires, lack of prosecution for Wall St bond fraud, endless wars, and many others. What these all have in common is that they help the “interests” in our nation. All of this is taking place while people suffer program cuts for elderly, veterans, homeless people, families being foreclosed upon, food aid for women with children, those needing medical care, students, and others finding themselves near the bottom of the economic pyramid. However, these are all SYMPTOMS of the problem, not the ROOT CAUSE. Demonstrating against any of these issues is demonstrating against the SYMPTOMS without addressing the ROOT CAUSE.

So, just what is the ROOT CAUSE of the issues mentioned earlier? It is MONEY IN POLITICS! It is an illusion that our elected politicians are running this country. They merely act as the hired servants and puppets of the “interests” who really run the country. Our politicians are like drug addicts and are totally addicted and dependent upon the money that the “interests” provide them. This money is provided by the “interests” to politicians who are compliant with their agenda, on order to keep them in positions power, where they can continue to serve the “interests”. With this money, the “interests” can purchase access to the legislative and appropriations processes that will benefit them directly, through wars, government contracts, deregulation, tax havens, and other things that increase their profits.

The irony is that the “interests” then recycle a small amount of these profits paid for by the taxpayers back into additional lobbying and “contributions” so that they expand their influence even more. These “interests” are actually using taxpayer money to game the system to their advantage and to the disadvantage of the people. The endless wars provide an efficient conduit for corporate welfare for the war suppliers. Deregulation allows unhindered exploitation of private and public resources regardless of consequences. Influence protects the financial elites from prosecution for multi $trillion bond fraud on Wall Street. And these are just a few of the benefits that this money in politics provides to the “interests”. In the end the politicians do what is best for the “interests”, not for the people.

Until we attack money in politics, we are only nibbling at the edges of the problem and at best solve one small symptomatic issue, but the ROOT CAUSE remains to create other problems. Movement organizers should focus on the ROOT CAUSE of their issues to increase effectiveness of any mobilization.

So what can YOU, the average person do about the ROOT CAUSE?

VOTE WITH YOUR POCKETBOOK!

Individually we cannot match the economic clout of the financial elites, but collectively we can make a huge difference by starving the machine of money.

1. Do not patronize the big banks. Withdraw your money and deposit it into a credit union, local bank, or small regional bank. These smaller banks did not engage in the massive fraud that brought our economy to its needs, and they did not take bailout money. These small banks reinvest your deposits in the local community, providing jobs and prosperity. The large banks send their profits out of your community and into corporate headquarters or into off shore tax havens. This money leaves your community, impoverishing it as well as the nation. The starving of the big banks by the public would send a HUGE message to Washington about their relationship with the financial industry.

2. Put away the credit card. Make as many of your purchases as possible with cash rather than using a credit cards. Most credit cards are issued by the 4 largest banks and they charge merchants an average of 3% for everything you place on that card. Since the costs of this are passed on to the consumer, you are literally paying a 3% bank tax for your credit card purchases. With 609 million credit cards being held by US consumers and with credit cards being used for more than $2.5 trillion in transactions every year. 3% of $2.5 trillion is a lot of money, and this does not include all the fees and interest they charge YOU. This money also gets shipped out of your community and is used by the bankers to help pay for their lavish bonuses. Stop feeding those who are fighting against us! Pay cash whenever possible.

3. Patronize your local merchants. Buy from your local hardware store rather than Home Depot. Buy from your local garden center rather than WalMart. Eat at a local restaurant, rather than the big chain. These large corporate outlets ship their profits to some out of state corporate headquarters or out of country to a tax haven, again removing money from your community and impoverishing it. The job you save may be your own. These local merchants will keep the money in your community enriching it. With 2 out 3 corporations paying no taxes, this means YOU are paying for the police to protect their business, YOU are paying for the military to protect their overseas profits. Then these corporations keep their profits, pay exorbitant CEO compensation, and ship the money into tax havens leaving YOU with the bill for the services they utilized.

4. Do not patronize corporations fighting against social justice. Know what the company you are buying from will do with your money. Are they using it to buy influence with the politicians? Are they contributing vast sums to unfriendly political candidates? Stop feeding your enemies by patronizing them! Here are some suggested sites that will provide you with specific information:
http://www.followthemoney.org
http://www.opensecrets.org
http://www.campaignmoney.com
Educate yourself!

5. Support organizations fighting for clean and transparent government. There are well respected organizations that are fighting to restore democracy and to limit the influence of money in our government. They will keep you up to date on legislative, lobbying, and other activities you can take. Here are some suggested organizations:
Common Cause – http://www.commoncause.org
Public Citizen – http://www.citizen.org
Again, educate yourself!

There are other very worthy organizations fighting for important causes, but again, take the time to consider whether they are fighting a SYMPTOM or a ROOT CAUSE. Use the SYMPTOMS as a tool to highlight why the ROOT CAUSE needs changing, but do not make the SYMPTOM the focus. If we are successful in addressing money in politics, many of the other problems that are SYMPTOMS will either disappear or be significantly reduced. There are also certainly additional root causes to our problems. The 5 steps outlined can also be used as tools to address other root causes as they are identified. As the movement develops we must remain focused to be certain that we are addressing root causes and not symptoms of problems.

Organizers should be providing people at every rally, demonstration, meeting, lecture etc with the specific steps they can take to address specific root causes. Once citizens know the steps they can take to bring about change, we will see the effectiveness of our actions increase significantly. Stop the machine by starving it.

http://www.endtheillusion.org

New Jersey throws pensioners under the bus

The state of NJ has thrown its pensioners under the bus. The recent “agreement” reached between Governor Christie and the “leaders” of the Senate and Assembly have decided to forgo cost of living increases for those retirees receiving NJ pensions. While on the surface this may seem a reasonable and “acceptable” compromise, closer scrutiny reveals that this is an insidious plan that will leave pensioners who had worked their entire lives and paid their agreed to amounts into the system faithfully, (unlike the state of NJ) with a rapidly decreasing standard of living or potentially totally broke.

Courtesy of shadowstats.com

Let’s analyze what will happen. We all know that inflation is increasing and will continue to accelerate as the Federal Resereve continues to print more dollars to protect the interests of Wall Street and the “too big to fail” banks. The official government figures for inflation stand at approximately 2.5% to 3%, but everyone who has to support a family knows that these highly manipulated figures do not represent the real rate of inflation. Shadowstats.com, a highly regarded website that calculates the real rates has determined that the current inflation rate is at 12%, not the much lower government figure.

Now consider this: if the true rate of inflation is 12%, IN 4 SHORT YEARS PENSIONERS WILL LOSE HALF OF THEIR BUYING POWER! Consider how much buying power will be lost over 8 years, or 12 years. These pensioners will have close to NOTHING!

Governor Christie talks about “shared sacrifice”, but in reality he gave tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires while cutting programs for those who need it the most and now the pensioners. This is Robin Hood in reverse, he is taking from the poor to finance tax cuts for the rich. Where is the shared sacrifice here? Will the millionaire bankers, hedge fund managers, and corporate executives suffer a 50% cut in their income in 4 years? You can bet you would hear howls of protest from them if he tried to do that.

This “pension” reform needs to be exposed for what it really is. This is nothing less than a total reneging on their social contract with the people who worked their entire lives in service to the public. Let’s not forget that it was not the police, public nurses, teachers, and firefighters who caused the state’s economic problems. The problem was caused by a percipitous drop in revenue and the ones responsible for that are the Wall Street types, the big bankers, and the speculators. These people paid themselves $millions in bonuses for a job well done and they still get tax cuts from the governor while the pensioners will be left with nothing?

Wake up America, what happens here affects everyone. Think Social Security and don’t think that YOU will not be the next target of the financial elites and their hired politicians.

The Corporate States of America

Americans have long had a sneaking suspicion that there was a “hidden hand” directing our government in Washington and the states, and they were right. The “hidden hand” was actually the corporations, unions, and other special interests that contribute literally $billions to our politicians in order to influence legislation that will favor them. This has happened even with the limits that have been placed on these groups that prevented them from directly contributing to campaigns.

Thursday January 21 2010, will go down in history as a dark day. This is the day that a divided Supreme Court, in a case of unbelievable overreach removed all limits on corporate political campaign spending. If you thought our politicians were corrupt and beholden to corporations before, things are about to get a LOT WORSE now that all limits have been removed. Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy swept aside decades of legislative restrictions on the money from corporations in political campaigns and ruled that companies can use corporate funds to support or oppose candidates. These 5 justices have just opened the floodgates and the strangle hold the banks have over the nation’s wealth will now be amplified by this Supreme Court ruling that has totally removed all limits on campaign financing by corporations. This black day will go ultimately go down in history where the Supreme Court officially validated the takeover of the government by the corporations. The amounts of money spent on the 2010 midterm elections was a record, and the amounts that will be spent on the 2012 presidential elections are projected to total $BILLIONS!

In its impartial majesty the Supreme Court rules that the poor as well as the rich can spend unlimited money to influence elections

The flawed logic they used was that this was a freedom of speech issue. These 5 justices have just declared corporations now have 1st amendment rights, the same as individuals. It is ironic that it is the conservative wing of the court, the same wing that consistently calls for “judicial restraint” and rails against anything not specifically mentioned in the constitution, was the one that overturned decades of precedent. Where in the constitution did our founding fathers give corporations the right to freedom of speech? Where were corporations even mentioned in the constitution?

We all know too well what happened when our nation deregulated the financial industry and told us that “the market” will regulate itself. These 5 men have now totally deregulated money in politics and have left it to the “market” to regulate itself. We have already seen what deregulation of the financial industry did to our economy. These deregulators said the market could regulate itself.It does not take much forward thinking to envision the consequences of this disastrous decision. The special interest groups were handed a late Christmas present and are already gearing up to flood the political campaigns with money from their profits. The corporations will move quickly to complete their stranglehold on the media and then leverage this to their advantage. Fred Werthheimer, president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to making democracy work for all Americans stated: "With a stroke of the pen, five justices wiped out a century of American history devoted to preventing corporate corruption of our democracy"

If the nation does somehow survive this handing of the government to the corporations, this decision will go down in history as even worse than the Dred Scott v. Sandford and Plessy v. Ferguson monumental errors of the past. The 5 justices that recklessly voted for removing all limits to corporate campaign spending: Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia, Kennedy will rightly be held in the same regard as those who voted for these other two decisions.

In the 2008 election cycle, nearly $6 billion was spent on all federal campaigns, including more than $1 billion from corporate political action committees, trade associations, executives and lobbyists. This $6 billion figure does not include state and local races. Now consider how much money we will be talking about here, now that the labor unions and corporations can spend unlimited amounts in both Federal and State elections. We will now have wholesale buying of elections by corporations with their vast financial resources. The door has also been opened for foreign corporations to have a say in our elections now. You can now also expect these corporations to move quickly to attempt to finalize their control of the media and use the media along with their money to “inform” the citizenry of the issues. While the electorate was distracted by the staged left vs right, Democrat vs Republican, conservative vs liberal fights, we have actually just had a coup take place where the corporations have taken over the country. This ruling does not really favor any party because in the end it will not matter what party the candidate is from, they will have been bought. Have you noticed that the corporate media did not give this huge event much coverage?

Monica Youn, who directs the campaign finance reform/money in politics project at New York University’s Brennan Center for Law and Justice, said that with this decision the Supreme Court has essentially armed the corporations with a potent weapon, these corporations may not even have to spend that much money. What could easily happen is that the corporations will now have the THREAT of a massive media campaign against politicans that may not do their bidding. This mere potential of a massive campaign of negative ads will probably be enough to make the majority of politicans reconsider their positions. This is like having a negotiation between 2 parties in a room where one of the parties has a weapon and the other does not. The party with the weapon does not need to actually need to wield it to get the desired results, just knowing that it is there is enough. So much for politicians doing the right thing. The corporations will now have even more clout in the legislatures than before and this is without even spending any additional money.

With the broad language that the Supreme Court opinion was written, it may well be almost impossible to draft new legislation to overcome this ruling. Of course, do you really believe that our politicians will even be willing to do pass effective reform legislation now that this new ruling is in place and it favors incumbents even more strongly than before? Our politicians are like drug addicts that are totally dependent on these large sums of special interest money to maintain themselves in power. They will do almost anything to maintain their power.

As if this Supreme Court decision was not bad enough, the nation suffers from a lack of transparency when it comes to trying to follow the money. Deliberate attempts are made to hide and obfuscate the information so that the electorate remains uninformed.

• Did you know that the Senate deliberately exempted itself from filing campaign finance reports electronically? This slows down the process of determining who is actually making contributions and expenditures by making research a very arduous process of having to read thousands of pages by hand, or having to retype them into a form that can be indexed and readily searched.
• Did you know that the government’s new “open government” site http://www.data.gov, doesn’t even contain data on campaign contributions, lobbyist filings, statistics on warrantless searches or even committee assignments?
• Did you know that here is no indexing of the thousands of hours of House and Senate recordings? You would have to listen for days before you could find what you are searching for.
• Years after the problems with electronic ballots not having a voter verifiable paper audit trail were made public, we still allow these machines to count votes without verifiable paper trails despite the fact that it has been proven that they are easily manipulated. Regardless of your political beliefs, it is crucial for our democracy that the integrity of election results be considered fair and impartial.

It may well be that we have now lost our democracy, but there may still be some hope. Since we can no longer place limits on corporate campaign funding, we need to do the following:

1. We need to demand TOTAL TRANSPARENCY. We need legislation passed immediately before the next election cycle goes into full swing, where all campaign funding is placed on the Internet and this data must be completely indexed. It is vital that these databases be directly searchable by each and every sort of variable contained in the original documentation. This will make it easy to cross reference the information and find out exactly who is receiving what and from whom. By creating this standard the American people will be able to make informed decisions about the candidates running for office and whose interests these politicans are really representing.
2. We need passage of the “Fair Election Now Act” immediately. This legislation has been cosponsored by 120 members in the House, however its companion bill in the Senate has a pitiful 5 cosponsors. It has also been supported by many business leaders who sent a letter to the House Speaker and to the Senate Majority Leader. They understand the need for this reform and are getting tired of politicians constantly calling them for money. This bill would create a voluntary system of public funding of campaigns by supplementing small donations of $100 or less. During an election cycle the voters would be able to determine if a candidate was going to serve the people by using the public system or serve the special interests by not participating in it. Check here to see if your congressional representative is a cosponsor. Check here to see if your Senator is a cosponsor. If they are not, call them and ask them why not.
3. It is time to pass legislating that any corporate money used for political spending be approved by a majority of the shareholders. This will give the shareholders the ability to control corporate political expenditures. (While we are at it, let’s include language in the legislation about shareholder approval of all compensation and bonus payments as well.)

While passage of the above legislation would not stop all of the corruption of money in politics, it would go a long way to limiting its influence and making it apparent to the voters who is trying to influence their candidates. To make the passage of these legislative bills more likely, it is now incumbent on us to actively support organizations that have been fighting for campaign finance reform and government transparency. The time to mobilize is now, while the issue is hot. If we wait too long, the entrenched interests will put additional barriers in place making harder and harder to enact meaningful reforms. There are many organizations working for political finance reform and government transparency, some of these organizations would include:
Common Cause
Public Citizen
Democracy 21
Follow the Money
Open Secrets
Fair Elections Now

These organizations now need your efforts and financial support more than ever. Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher once said, “the price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." If we do not lift ourselves up from our collective apathy, Plato’s words will most certainly become a reality.

Private Corporate Court System

There is a country where Big Business can completely bypass the court system and have cases brought by employees, customers, and individuals heard by a private court system that is overwhelmingly funded by the corporations themselves. In this country they can even totally prevent the bringing of any class action suits for any damage, fraud, or other illegal practice they may engaged in. These suits can only be brought individually and must be heard by this private court system. So what country is this in? Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Myanmar? No, this country is the United States!

Our “independent” Supreme Court has AGAIN sided with the huge corporations and just delivered the working people of the United States another body blow. In this new ruling, AT&T v. Concepcion, the Supreme Court has overturned lower federal Court decisions and given Big Business the ability to deprive you of your most potent weapon to fight back if you have been cheated or harmed by a corporation. In this ruling you will now no longer be able to use class action suits for redress against a corporation. This new ruling comes on top of the Citizens United v. FEC case where the Supreme Court declared that corporations have the same rights as individuals and were entitled to free speech where they were free to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. In fairness to the impartiality of the Supreme Court, the poor as well as the rich both have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money for political purposes.

Consider this: If your phone company illegally charges you $10 on your bill and also does this to another million customers, the Supreme Court’s ruling allows companies to force consumers or employees into arbitration agreements that prevent them (you) from joining with the others to hold the company accountable. Big Business with its myopic focus on profits often cross the line into fraud, discrimination, and other illegal practices.

How many people have the money and time to take on the task if suing a corporation for $10 or even $1000? The only way this was possible was through the use of class action suits where the customers would join together and take on the wrongs of the corporations. This ruling will now make it nearly impossible to fight against Big Business’ malevolent behavior, and leaves consumers powerless to stop them if they do. This Supreme Court decision, basically allows the major corporations to ignore the law and because of the Citizens United case, to create corporate-made law for the rest of us as they use their economic might to hire the politicians to write laws that favor them.

The use of arbitration agreements on the surface sounds like a reasonable solution because no one wants to go through the turmoil of a lawsuit, and it does streamline any grievance process. However, in reality this amounts to a private corporate controlled court system. The largest arbitration firms are heavily biased in favor of Big Business and against consumers. Since an arbitration company must keep future possible cases in mind, it is in its interests to rule for Big Business and against consumers, and this fact is a blatant violation of any stated impartiality that they may profess.

The Citizens United v. FEC and the AT&T v. Concepcion cases, our Supreme Court has tilted the playing field heavily in favor of the corporations and against working people. The impliciations of such a radical tilt will certainly be felt as time goes by. Think of this, if AT&T decided to “make a mistake” of $10 on 1 million customers bills, it would make $10 million because of this mistake with probably only a small handful of people challenging it, and they would have to challenge it in the private corporate arbitration courts. What do you think are the odds that practices such as this will become common in the future as the nation marches closer and closer to a corporatocracy?