10 Ways OWS Can Improve Their Success

Informed Comment gives the OWS movement 10 ways to improve their influence:

1) Pick a color to represent your movement and wear it daily in public places (work, restaurant, etc.). Remember, this is a numbers game. You want maximum visibility, and to bring your movement into everyday life.

2) Have an all-inclusive strategy. Accept people with different views who are willing to join you in protest. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to know what you want as a movement yet. The goal at this stage is to point to your opponents and say that they have been lying to you; that the show they have constructed is false and that you are sick of it.

3) Demonstrate peacefully. Committing violence during demonstrations leads to ruptures within your movement, diminishes public sympathy, and gives the security forces a reason to violently suppress your protest.

4) Be rigorous. Security forces, dressed as civilians, may commit public acts of violence in order to have an excuse to squash protests. Find footage of those that police accuses of acting violently. Make sure they are legitimate protestors. Expose them if they are not.

5) Be creative. During demonstrations in Iran, security forces dressed a male protester in female attire in a bid to embarrass him. The next day, hundreds of male protesters came out in female attire.

6) Record protests with your mobile phones and send to television stations. Many broadcasters are owned by the very people who are in the 1%. But every now and then, there are producers and news workers who are willing to get in trouble for showing the truth. This happened in Iran on many occasions. News websites have an e-mail address and they generally ask you to send them footage. Do IT.

7) Send your footage of acts of violence committed by the police to foreign television broadcasters like Al Jazeera, RT, etc. When they show the footage, it puts pressure on American broadcasters to do the same. (Iranian protestors used BBC very effectively, even though it is a British outlet).

8) Write, “I am 99%” or “OWS” on all dollar bills that you circulate. Remember, you are fighting on the plane of the symbolic, and cash circulates widely and quickly.

9) Do not let politicians co-opt your movement. Many politicians, domestic or not, may hope to use your movement to their advantage. Allow them to join your movement, but DO NOT let them lead or act as spokesperson.

10) Write arguments and op-eds that aim at the logic of the system that has robbed you of opportunities and comfort. Do not aim at a particular person. People can be replaced; it is the system that is hurting you.

I think that we should let Republican-controlled Congress pass this bill, let it be rejected by either the Senate or Obama, and then use it as campaign fodder against Republican Representatives in the 2012 election.
The Iraq War was not a mistake.

Colbert on Cain

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Why the Teabaggers are in love with Herman Cain:

A 2010 CBS News/New York Times poll of Tea Party members found that just one percent are African American, and that more than half (52%) believe that too much has been made of the problems facing African Americans. This view could explain the Tea Party’s love affair with Herman Cain. Essentially he kills two birds with one stone. Herman Cain believes that racism is a thing of the past. Supporting a Cain ticket is a great cleanser for the conscience and gives the Tea Party an opportunity to say, “See, we were right. Racism is in their imagination. My new black friend says so.”

Source

Signature Shatner

If you ever need a video definition of "over the top", just refer to this masterpiece:



Wow

Bits and Pieces for the Week of October 16 - 22

Amazing discovery at Stonehenge (Mike)

More shameful behaviour by NYPD against OWS (Mike)

This is a fantastic step! Occupy Wall Street's first victory, in two charts. "...Occupy Wall Street has made an undeniable impact in shifting the terms of debate on our current economic woes away from a focus on spending cuts, and toward a focus on unemployment and the culpability of Wall Street. That is a big deal." - Chris Bowers (7 of 6)

Another potential life-saving device to carry. (Mike)

You've seen, read and laughed hysterically at the Teabaggers' nearly incomprehensible protest signs. Now, check out the OWS signs. (Mike)

Take a break from everything and enjoy one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Matthew Gair:

Two views of OWS: A call for compassion and a call for understanding

Watch as a U.S. Marine humiliates recently over-aggressive N.Y. police:



Noam Chomsky explains the anger driving OWS

Bits and Pieces for the Week of October 9 - 15

It's Rapture time. AGAIN. (Mike)

As you have heard by now, only 53% of Americans pay federal income tax. Who are the 47% deadbeat Americans leeching off the system? Why, it's those lazy-ass elderly, handicapped and poor! And let's also ignore the fact that 70% of those loafers do pay payroll taxes. (Mike)

Why the FBI's accusations of Iran in a plot to assassinate the Saudia Arabian ambassador in the U.S. are just complete BS. (Mike)

We live in a democracy deficit (Mike)

How Occupy Wall Street works. Also, how to respond to OWS critics. (Mike)

Well, that sure backfired. This summer California stopped giving hybrid vehicles (such as my Prius) single-occupant-access to HOV (car-pool) lanes. It turns out that, not only are the non-HOV lanes now slower, but so are the HOV lanes! (Mike)

Paul Krugman is spot on. Panic of the Plutocrats. "The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is... So who’s really being un-American here? Not the protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth." (7 of 6)

Elizabeth Warren Announces Bid for U.S. Senate

Bits and Pieces for the Week of October 2 - 8

This is huge and 2 1/2 long years overdue. Reid triggers ‘nuclear option’ to change Senate rules, end repeat filibusters. "In a shocking development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules... Reid and 50 members of his caucus voted to change Senate rules unilaterally to prevent Republicans from forcing votes on uncomfortable amendments after the chamber has voted to move to final passage of a bill... Reid’s coup passed by a vote of 51-48, leaving Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fuming... The surprise move stunned Republicans, who did not expect Reid to bring heavy artillery to what had been a humdrum knife fight over amendments to China currency legislation... “Just wait until they get into the minority!” one GOP staffer growled." Poor babies! (7 of 6)

"...researchers "pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative." Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive "to damage their opponents." I guess as long as they tell themselves, "We didn't break any "real" laws," they can sleep soundly at night. (7 of 6)


VERY bad news for sufferers of chronic pain, AIDS and certain other ailments. (Mike)

"Welcome to Australia, the petri dish of climate change..." "...the prosperous nations of the world have failed to take action to reduce the risk of climate change, in part because people in prosperous nations think they're invulnerable... one need only look at Australia, a prosperous nation that also happens to be right in the cross hairs of global warming." (7 of 6)

Obama Announces He’s Going To Gut The GOP’s War On Voting. I hope he does... time for President Obama to start fighting back... he has the people on his side if he just fights, welcome the rightwing hatred! (7 of 6)

First electric motorcycle to go over 200 MPH. and the coolest looking motorcycle based on the movie "TRON". Put them together, and create some cars... (7 of 6)

If you need to pick one point in time to explain why we are where we are today, you can choose that fateful day in December, 2000 when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the election and appointed George Bush as President.

Source

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Steve Jobs

Hey Republicans, I dare you to watch this video!