FedUpUSA

Archive for November 3rd, 2011

Ah, something the far right doesn’t bother with…… evidence.

- The Black Bloc (what the “Oakland Liberation Front” mimics) is an intentionally disruptive tactic which has infiltrated and radicalized protests world wide. The core principles and tactics are: Vandalism, rioting, and street fighting. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, ongoing protests, and movement on the whole has defined itself in self stating principles at every assembly from the very beginning as “non violent”. Search Google for Black Bloc to find out what it is. Here, I’ll do it for you. It will probably look like the photos you’ll see all day on the sensationalist corporate owned media that is trying to divert the message away from corporate influence and corruption in government:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=black+bloc&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=1081059l1082734l0l1083007l10l7l0l1l1l0l123l686l2.5l8l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1055&bih=974&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

Here’s the problem: It didn’t work very well.  The link above shows a couple of examples, and I saw a couple more on the network feeds I was watching yesterday.  I saw demonstrators link arms and form human walls to prevent attacks on property – at personal risk to themselves.  There’s video evidence here that the handful engaged in this activity were actively stopped with proportionate physical force — only that necessary to suppress (as opposed to simply beating the hell out of people.)

This is also consistent with what I saw in real time.

Anyone who claims that the presence of a few people who infiltrate a peaceful group and stir up crap somehow taints the entire organization must, to be fair, then call the entire Tea Party a bunch of dope-dealing felons, since a handful of infiltrators have also incited and committed various criminal acts on the other side!

For instance, felony election fraud in Michigan, felony fraud charges in NY, violence at a Tea Party rally in Fort Lauderdale and if you like dope dealers a Tea Party leader in Indiana was charged with that offense too.

Yet you haven’t — and won’t — hear me allege that the Tea Party (in its various forms) is in some way condoning crime of various forms, including dope dealing and violent demonstrations.

That’s because they’re not, any more than Occupy {whatever} is.

It just simply isn’t true folks.  Were it true these agitators would have immediately turned this demonstration into an all-on riot.  The opportunity and density of people necessary was certainly there, if the people demonstrating were disposed to do so — there was little or no police presence and literally nothing other than the desire of the demonstrators that kept the demonstration almost-entirely peaceful.  Were that not true Oakland would have been sacked last night.

Were the criminals in the crowd?  Yes.  There are at the local beach too on any given Sunday.

That doesn’t make the entire group of people on the beach crooks.

I have said since the beginning of this movement that if I discern that it has violent intent that my position will shift instantly.

So will virtually everyone else’s, and in my opinion it should.

Thus far the evidence to support such a position is entirely absent and evidence to the contrary — that these demonstrations are lawful and peaceful expressions protected under The First Amendment — is overwhelming.

The true test of whether you actually believe in the fundamental right of free speech and peaceful assembly comes when the person(s) exercising it express an opinion that you personally disagree with.

You see, nobody ever tries to censor speech or shut down assemblies they agree with.

Hell hath frozen.  This article is a MUST-READ! ‘He has a right to speak,’ said the cop to the banker.’

Like most bullies, the banks are cowards. They talk a big game, but if confronted with their crimes, they run for cover and go whining to “mommy.”

Today, I walked up and down a sidewalk, in front of a branch of Chase and a branch of BofA. I handed out about 250 flyers during lunch hour.

They panicked and called their private security people, then more private security and finally the cops. That’s when they found out that they didn’t have a leg to stand on.

A dedicated leftist (he’s posting on Kos, right?) trumps The So-Called “Tea Party” AGAIN.

Where are you folks?  Why aren’t you in front of these banks?

Oh, that’s right — you stand for The Constitution and they didn’t break any laws, right?

Except for all the ones they have admitted to under oath — or where someone other than a bankster went to jail, like:

• Jefferson County Alabama

• Money laundering for Mexican drug cartels.

• Intentionally and knowingly peddling crap loans

• Filing over 100,000 known perjured affidavits

• And selling crap CDOs as “good investments.”

And that’s just a “quick list” of a few examples, and by no means is exhaustive.  Every one of those is a criminal act by the way, ranging from fraud to perjury to knowingly assisting in a criminal enterprise that has been buying guns and planes to run drugs with.

So where is the insistence on the “Rule of Law”?  You know, the one you want to enforce when it comes to “One man, one woman” with marriage?  Or “no gays in the military”?  Or, for that matter, The Second Amendment?

Ah, I get it.  The rule of law only matters when it applies to a particular thing you like.  The rest of the time, it doesn’t count at all.  In fact, you’ll willfully close your eyes and ignore the lawbreaking when your buddy does it; the screaming only commences when your political enemy is a participant.

My objection, ladies and gentlemen, is that this is no different than what the Democrats do.  “Health Care reform” anyone?  The Rule of Law will be enforced to make you buy health insurance, but not to protect your right to own and bear a firearm or to choose NOT to engage in commerce.

No difference here folks.  The so-called “Tea Party” is a black-sharpie marker 10 Commandments serial violator just as are the die-hard liberals on the left.

But to see someone actually engage in First Amendment speech in front of a bank and document it on The Daily Kos, which is about as far removed from my political views as one could be and still manage to find the points on the vector within the orbit of Mars, well, that’s remarkable.

What’s disgusting is that this story appeared on The Daily Kos before it appeared on a Tea Party-affiliated web site.

Pack it up or reform folks, because as things stand here and now you’ve no right to use the visage and memory of Sam Adams.

Ah, now we’re playing Sam Adams’ tune…….

The Constitution Working Group of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has produced the following Statement of Beliefs as a platform for recommended future actions to solve the Nation’s problems, including BAILOUTS, CORPORATE PERSONHOOD, WAR, UNSOUND MONEY AND DEBT.  

The Constitution Working Group asks that these Beliefs now be considered by ALL People in and out of the Occupy movement.  Ponder these and make known your approval: 

·         All People have Natural Rights — Simply Because They Are Alive;

• We the People have Instituted Government to Secure our Rights;
• According to our Governing Documents, Sovereignty rests with the People - 
  Here in America, the People have the Ultimate Power;
• The Constitution & Declaration of Independence are inextricably intertwined;
• Every Principle, Prohibition, Restriction and Mandate of our Governing Documents represents a Guaranteed, Individual Right;
• The People are the Source of All Political Power – no one gets into office unless WE put them there;
• All Elected Officials are limited by our written Constitutions – If Not Authorized in writing, such acts are UNLAWFUL;
• The Constitution is not a Menu;
• The Constitution cannot Defend Itself;
• Individuals and Small Groups cannot prevail in attempts to hold government accountable to their State and Federal Constitutions;
• A Critical Mass is needed, i.e., 3-5% of population;
• Very few in and out of public office can recognize when government is obeying or violating the Constitution;
• The way our system of governance is working is in sharp contrast to the way it is designed to work;
• We don’t change the Constitution by ignoring it; there are provisions within it to make changes;
• All that is happening is our fault; the People have allowed it to happen;
• The People have always had the ultimate power in America and have always been the final arbiters of constitutionality;
• Most of what is causing our National distress NOW can be traced back to violations of the Constitution.

Where are those alleged bomb-throwing anarchists eh?

Yes, this is one of many working groups and has no force of consensus in the form of having passed a General Assembly.

Yet.

But this ought to make those of you who have claimed that the “Occupy” movement is somehow intended to remove our Constitution and replace it with Marxism (or worse) sit down and smell the coffee.

Why not tea?  Because the so-called Tea Party couldn’t be bothered to put this at the forefront of what they stood for.  They turned into “Guns” (that one’s actually in the Constitution), “Gays” (uh, that’s not, and in fact is exactly the opposite of what the tea party claims in this regard!) and “God” (uh, again, First Amendment; freedom of religion is not we choose, you obey when it comes to religion is it?)

The flame-out you’ve seen among those who claim to be in the linear descendant chain of Sam Adams’ political thought comes from the fact that they couldn’t be bothered to actually call a general strike.  To actually interrupt commerce so as to protest taxation.  To engage in proportional response to the looting that has taken place — for instance, by handing out fliers in front of every TBTF bank branch across the country asking people to boycott and naming their admitted crimes (you have so many to pick from and the best part of choosing from the ones admitted to is that it’s in their own words!) and more.  In short, to do as Sam Adams did, and believe not in the tired old divisive politics of BS and hate but rather to focus on The Constitution and its restoration.

Hell, among so-called “Tea Party” folks I can’t recall any, other than a handful of bloggers (myself and FedUp included) who have called for or participated in any sort of direct action.  We have a few over on Tickerforum sporting American Flags next to their names — they have participated in some sort of peaceful and lawful direct demonstration.  But where are the so-called “Tea Party” on this score? 

Absent, that’s where.

So into the vacuum steps “Occupy Wall Street”, and out of the Constitution working group comes this.  Not bomb-throwing anarchy, not some sort of wild proposal to re-write The Constitution to be a leftist, Marxist dream ticket, but an actual statement of principles that is fully in concordance with SAM ADAMS, THOMAS JEFFERSON and the rest of those who were part of the REAL Tea Party.

If you recall when I first started blogging about “OWS” I pointed out that there was about a two week period where I hadn’t written anything as I was feeling my way around the edges of what this movement really was — doing my own investigation, my own background work.  Since that time I’ve been a supporter predicated on it being a lawful exercise of one’s Constitutionally-recognized rights.

I also pointed out that there was real risk in this movement — that the people there had gotten the “who dunnit” right, but that most of them didn’t understand how it happened.  This is not surprising; the “how” is difficult and those who did the scamming made it intentionally so. 

Well, this Statement of Beliefs is not the end of the debate as to whether OWS will turn into something both powerful and positive, but it is a clear statement of purpose in the right direction.

Those of you on the right who have claimed that this is all some sort of anarchist or communist movement have egg on your face this morning.  The knee-jerk reaction will undoubtedly be to both ignore this document and work product and sling mud.

The constructive thing to do is what I’ve been trying to do since I made my decision on how to proceed — engagement, education and promotion of both a positive and lawful message and set of principles.

You now have a a platform from an actual OWS working group that no true Sam Adams’ political devotee can argue with.

We will now find out from the commentary and actions of these groups within the next days and weeks whether those who claim to be “Tea Partiers” really are Constitutionalists or whether they are in fact defecating on Sam Adams’ grave.

Ps: Yes, before you ask, I am well-aware of who owns that domain.  This is called engagement folks, and it’s what I’ve been preaching.  See….. it works!

How does a country end up 15 trillion dollars in debt?  30 years ago, we were just a little over a trillion dollars in debt.  How in the world do supposedly rational people living in “the greatest nation on earth” allow themselves to commit national financial suicide by allowing government debt to explode like that?  It almost seems like there should be some sort of official ceremony in Washington D.C. to commemorate this achievement.  It really takes something special to be able to roll up 15 trillion dollars of debt.  To get to this level, we really had to indulge in some wild spending.  For example, did you know that the U.S. national debt grows by more than 2 million dollars every single minute?  All of this debt has fueled an unprecedented boom of prosperity for the last 30 years, but now that prosperity is drying up.  Today, there are over 45 million Americans that are on food stamps.  America is being deindustrialized at a blinding pace and there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.  Poverty is exploding all over the nation, and millions of families have lost their homes to foreclosure.  Unfortunately, there are zero solutions on the horizon.  The leaders of both major political parties seem even more clueless right now than in past years.  We really could use some hope, but hope is in very short supply.

When evaluating the health of America’s economy, it is important not to look at the short-term numbers.  Rather, the key is to look at the long-term trends and the balance sheet numbers.

For example, if a mother and a father gave their teenage kids a bunch of credit cards and told them to go out and buy whatever they wanted, that would create a lot of “economic activity”, but it would also send that family to the poorhouse really quickly.

Well, we have basically done the same thing as a nation.  We are drowning in debt, and all of this debt is going to destroy us financially.

Unfortunately, the federal government continues to spend money as if there was no tomorrow.  Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

When you are running up a credit card, it can be a lot of fun and it can seem like there aren’t any consequences.

But when it comes to debt, there are always consequences.  The following is what former Republican Senator Alan Simpson (of the Simpson-Bowles Commission) recently had to say about the horrific debt crisis we are currently facing….

“It’s very simple. If you spend more than you earn, you lose your butt”

In the United States, we love to have the government spend money on all sorts of things, but we never want to pay for it.

So the debt just keeps piling up higher and higher.

A lot of Republicans say that spending on social programs has gotten out of control.  A lot of Democrats say that spending on the military has gotten out of control.

They are both right.  As I have written about previously, the U.S. military accounts for close to half of all the military spending in the world.  In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of the next 15 countries combined.

Yes, we will always need a very powerful military, but we can have one without going broke in the process.

But an even larger problem is our rampant spending on social programs.

The following comes from a recent article by Janet Tavakoli….

In 1950 spending for social programs was only one percent of the total Federal Budget. As the economy grew, social programs expanded to include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment Compensation, Supplemental Security for the Disabled, and educational programs. In 1983 as the United States pulled out of an ugly recession and brought inflation under control, social programs consumed 26% of the budget. In fiscal year 2012, they’ll eat up an estimated 57% of the budget.

Tens of millions of Americans have become absolutely addicted to government money.  Nobody ever wants “their government benefits” to be cut, but nobody ever seems to want to have their taxes raised to pay for them.

To get a really good idea of how government transfer payments have absolutely skyrocketed over the years, just check out this chart.

Obviously, the course that we are on is not anywhere close to sustainable.

To say that the “war on poverty” was a failure would be a huge understatement.

The more money we seem to spend on social programs, the more that poverty seems to grow.

Right now, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.  The economy is supposed to be “recovering”, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by over 8 percent in just the past year.

Food stamps are the modern equivalent of the old-fashioned bread lines.  The federal government is now feeding an almost unbelievable number of Americans.

According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.  That means that approximately one out of every seven Americans is dependent on the federal government for food.

That is not just a crisis – that is a total nightmare.

So what can be done?

Well, we certainly shouldn’t let our people starve in the streets.

But handouts should only be a temporary solution.

What these people really need are good jobs.  Unfortunately, our “leaders” have created a business environment in this country that is incredibly toxic, and they have stood by as millions upon millions of good jobs have been shipped out of the country.  That is one of the reasons why I write about the insane trade policies of the globalists over and over and over.  The American people need to understand that globalization is going to mean a continuing loss of jobs for this country and it is going to result in the destruction of the middle class.

If we are not going to provide good jobs for American workers, then we are going to have to pay higher taxes in order to feed them and take care of them.

But what happens when the “safety net” breaks?

Even now, a lot of state and local governments all over the country are flat broke and they are cutting back on assistance for the poor.

The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article about this issue that was posted on the Fiscal Times….

For years, hundreds of thousands of people in dire straits – mentally or physically disabled, homeless and unemployed, ineligible for federal welfare, disability, or food subsidies – could generally count on state or local government largesse for modest handouts of cash to help scrape by. Under the rubric of “General Assistance,” these down-and-out Americans received modest payments – often no more than a few hundred dollars a month – to help defray the cost of necessities including rent, food, clothing, toilet paper, aspirin, phone cards, and bus tickets.

But in the midst of the worst recession of modern times and changing attitudes about the poor, many states have been gradually chipping away at general assistance programs or eliminating them altogether. Only 30 of 50 states currently offer any form of general assistance – down from 38 in 1989. And just this week, Washington State formally ended its “Disability Lifeline” program for an estimated 18,000 to 22,000 economically desperate residents.

Sadly, even more of us may be joining the ranks of the poor soon.  The layoffs just keep on coming.

Normally, most major store closings do not happen until after the holiday season.  You see, the reality is that most troubled retailers tend to want to bring in one more year of holiday sales before they finally shut the doors.  If you announce store closings before the holidays, that is going to make holiday shoppers less likely to shop at those stores.

So that is why some of the recent store closing announcements have been so troubling.

For example, it just came out that all 46 Syms and Filene’s Basement stores are closing.

Also, Gap recently announced plans to close 189 stores in the United States.

So if this is what we are already seeing now, what is going to happen after the holidays?

That is a very good question.

So many jobs are being lost all around the nation.  These days, there is massive competition for just about any job that is available.

People are getting desperate.  They just want to be able to pay the bills and take care of their families.

The other day, thousands upon thousands of people lined up to apply for casino jobs in south Florida.  Scenes like this are going to become even more frequent in the years ahead.

So do our politicians have any solutions?

Of course not.

The worst of the Republican candidates are actually at the top of the polls.  The cold, hard truth is that Romney, Cain and Perry are all clueless when it comes to the economy.

Of course you might as well call Barack Obama “Captain Clueless” when it comes to the economy.  Obama keeps giving great speeches about jobs while at the same time signing more “free trade” agreements that will send thousands more businesses and millions more jobs out of the country.  Even the CEOs on Obama’s jobs creation panel are shipping huge numbers of jobs out of the United States.

Obama gave a speech in Washington D.C. today that exemplified his clueless approach to the economy.  During the speech, Obama made the following statement….

“If Congress tells you they don’t have time, they got time to do it. We’ve been in the House of Representatives, what have you guys been debating? John, you’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball? You have legislation reaffirming that In God We Trust is our motto. That’s not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work”

First of all, Obama is not putting people back to work.  He has been helping big corporations ship jobs out of the country at a record pace.

Secondly, how does he know what God wants?

A lot of people actually think that the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” is in the Bible.

But it isn’t.

A while after the Obama speech, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made matters worse when he told reporters the following….

“I believe the phrase from the Bible is ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves”

But once again, there is no such verse in the Bible.

Okay, so quoting a “mystery verse” from the Bible is not that big of a thing at the end of the day, but this is yet another example of how the Obama administration just can’t seem to get anything right.

Look, everyone makes mistakes once in a while.  I know that I certainly do.

But when you are wrong about almost everything almost all of the time, that is a major problem.

Especially when you are the president of the United States.

But both political parties are to blame for the mess that we are in.  Budget deficits exploded during Republican administrations just like they have under the Democrats.

Both political parties are responsible for us being 15 trillion dollars in debt.

Both political parties are responsible for 45 million Americans being on food stamps.

Both political parties are responsible for the fact that there are not nearly enough good jobs.

If Barack Obama, Mitt Romney or Rick Perry is elected in 2012, we are just going to have more of the same.

America is running out of time.  If we are going to change course, we need to do it immediately.

The borrower is the servant of the lender.  We are enslaving ourselves and we are enslaving future American generations by going into so much debt.

Shame on the politicians that have rolled up so much debt in our name and shame on us for continuing to send those same politicians back to Washington D.C. time after time after time.

It is so sad to watch what is happening to America.

The Economic Collapse