What are the Issues Being Raised by Occupy Movement?

The Citizens United decision prohibits limits on campaign contributions. The Court reasoned that campaign contribution limits violate a corporation's First Amendment right of unlimited free speech. (As if corporations are persons and have rights under the US constitution).

Corporate personhood goes back to 1819, Dartmouth College v. Woodward. Thom Hartmann's book, Unequal Protection: The rise of corporate dominance and the theft of human rights, explains this subject in detail.

 

Whether corporations are individuals or not, the success of capitalism (for the upper levels of capitalist society) has created a concentration of wealth and power in a small core group of multinational corporations. This is based on research that came out of a Swiss Economic Research Organization in late 2010 (I have several links to articles about this but I will have to find them). This is not just the US, this is global.

This core group is knitted together by cross-shareholdings, and formed because---well, if you were Chief Investment Officer of your large multinational company, and didn't want to put your job in jeopardy, you too would choose to invest in the best and biggest companies out there. The study tracked ownership and revenue streams. This does not mean that there is collusion between all the members of this group or that there is a concerted super corporate conspiracy. But the group does directly and indirectly control 80% of the global revenues.

Few people realize this but this is a serious threat to capitalism. It is a centralized structure that adds the potential of implosion or collapse in a way that we have never had to deal with before. It means that----there is no longer a problem of whether some companies are too big to fail---the answer is yes and it is too big for one government to decide. It also adds a more global significance to whether or not the US can solve its deficit problems (not that it wasn't a global problem to begin with, but now there is an added question of how would this global multinational structure survive a collapse of the US government (an awful lot of corporate money is both parked and invested in US Treasuries)).

Regardless of your political leanings, a collapse of capitalism is not a good thing. You think losing a home, health care benefits, being able to eat is important---with the sudden collapse of capitalism, you would probably have only one thing on your mind: securing the next meal. (Anyone up for some roasted rat?).

The OWS Movement was right on the threat of the big corporation. It needs to be protested. Solving the problem is a whole nother issue...

 

I'm up for it...
...and from the ashes of capitalism may there rise a Pheonix,
The Anarchic Brotherhood of Man.

Hey, a guy can dream can't he? irate:

 

I like to believe that we would evolve---Kropotkin-style---into an anarchy of mutual aid. But we are rapidly approaching a point where, how we resolve the Post-Modernistic dilemna, will determine whether the tools of the future will be a quantum computer, or a pointed stick.

In either case I see a return to a philosophy akin to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, though in the latter case, the survivors of what will probably be a resource-deprived earth, will probably actually be hunter-gatherers.

 

From what can be seen here in Tucson, our local Occupy movement has become obsessed with the old Bircher thing about flouridation of drinking water. It is now a useless organization (here, at any rate), that mostly consists of a few kooks camped out 4 miles from the city center.

Occupy Tucson has managed to get completely off-message, thus neutralizing itself. It was bound to happen...We do everything Portland does, 6 months later.

 

I saw similar shit here. One dude pretty much took over occcupy Missoula, at one point everyone kinda just let him run shit, do the media interviews and what-not too...I didn't like his style, he was straight out of the military and well, let's just say he knew how to 'motivate the staff'...

No one else seemed to think anything of my suspicions but I eventually got him talking about why he moved to montana (straight outta Bremerton Air Base) and he reveals to me he believes 'Nebaru' or 'planet x' or some shits gonna hit earth (his 'inside sources' from the military told him) and the west coast is not safe, Western MT is one of the safe zones, bla bla bla... :smoking:


...and then you got the GP
walkin' by asking, "are y'all liberals?" :leaving:

 

Interesting. Especially since there's no Air Base in Bremerton. There's a Navy Station. And JBLM is about 50-60 miles east south east.

 

Nibiru. LOL.

Anyway, just like the hippies of the 60s, Occupy seems to have neutrized itself with very little help from Big Bro.

Which is a real shame, because they had some momentum going.

 

yeah navy army air force marines what fucking ever.

 

As far as I can see, while Occupy initially started out as a decentralized movement protesting economic conditions in the wake of the 2008 credit crunch crisis, in particular the criminal acts certain banks got away with and the lack of jobs, it quickly metamorphosed into yet another anarchist/antiglobalization/vegan talking shop, with "General Assemblies" that never get around to deciding things and a lack of action from all.

It's enough to make a man look on Lenin with a bit of fondness.

 

Yeah, at least Lenin was SERIOUS about having a good time.

 

Then let us rise up and do whats right. Wherever I'm needed I will go. Im looking for any excuse to leave my materialistic life behind. As long as its goal is world peace.