Message To Humanity: The Time is Now – The Revolution Is Coming! From
October 14th
Jim Garrison on Arab Spring/American Fall – current
An insidious bill in the Senate – imprisoning without due process
Theophilis Goodyear: Republican Talking Points Against Occupy – Flip the List for Occupy Talking Points Against Republicans
Uncategorized
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Republican Governors Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up: How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?
“I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. “They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
Luntz offered tips on how Republicans could discuss the grievances of the Occupiers, and help the governors better handle all these new questions from constituents about “income inequality” and “paying your fair share.”
Yahoo News sat in on the session, and counted 10 do's and don'ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.
1. Don't say ‘capitalism.'
“I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either ‘economic freedom' or ‘free market,' ” Luntz said. “The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem.”
2. Don't say that the government ‘taxes the rich.' Instead, tell them that the government ‘takes from the rich.'
“If you talk about raising taxes on the rich,” the public responds favorably, Luntz cautioned. But “if you talk about government taking the money from hardworking Americans, the public says no. Taxing, the public will say yes.”
Josh Kilbourn: Occupy 2012=1968?
Uncategorized
Excerpt: It’s perfectly possible that this perception will be borne out, that the raucous events of November 17 were the last gasps of a rigor-mortizing rebellion. But no one seriously involved in OWS buys a word of it. What they believe instead is that, after a brief period of retrenchment, the protests will be back even bigger and with a vengeance in the spring—when, with the unfurling of the presidential election, the whole world will be watching
2012=1968?
In 2008, Barack Obama lit a fire among young activists. Next year, Occupy Wall Street could consume him.
Tom Atlee: Origins & Future of Occupy
Uncategorized
Where did the Occupy Movement come from and where is it going?
The following New Yorker article is a good complement to the Bloomberg Businessweek article on David Graeber that I referred to in an earlier blog post. It gives more background on how the original Occupy Wall Street idea emerged from Adbusters magazine. It describes some of the de facto leaders who became particularly influential in OWS's LEADERFUL unfolding. (Note that I believe the adjective “leaderless” misses the whole point of the Occupy movement's power, which involves inviting anyone and everyone into whatever diverse and often ad hoc leadership roles they have passion or competence for.)
I appreciate the article's concluding insight that the recently forced evacuations of so many Occupy encampments – particularly the Wall Street one – is stimulating the Occupy movement to shift gears into new form(s) that are currently barely perceived and largely unpredictable. The author helps us see all this through the eyes of the anarchists who have been its visionaries and facilitators. We begin to sense how they can face the uncertain future of their movement with such positive – even thrilled – expectation.
It seems to me that OWS has for months been an inkblot – a Rorschach test – upon which diverse commentators project their individual hopes, fears, judgments and assumptions. I wonder if now OWS is about to become an empty loom upon which diverse actors weave ten thousand strands of transformation that we can only vaguely sense but not fully see. I suspect that loom, being merely an idea and an invitation, will not be readily suppressed.
Blessings on the Journey.
Coheartedly,
Tom
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Pre-Occupied: The origins and future of Occupy Wall Street
by Mattathias Schwartz
November 28, 2011
Joel Hirschhorn: Occupy Next Step Convergence
Uncategorized
The US Occupy movement is at a critical point. To succeed it must develop a message of specific solutions to fix our broken system. People are seeing the next step as advocacy for constitutional amendments proposed through an Article V convention.
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(libertarian)
Monday, November 28, 2011
There is a growing convergence of thinking about where the US Occupy movement should go as a next step to turning its values, concerns and commitments into changing what most Americans see as broken government under control of corporate interests. When it comes to political and social movements, history shows us that they usually fail not because they disappear, but rather because they become marginalized, unimportant despite a core group of committed people and groups.
Koko: First State-Wide Occupy Convention – Florida
Uncategorized
Orlando to be site of Florida's first Occupy convention
Fri, 11/25/2011 – 04:15 – Anonymous Member (not verified)
Occupy Wall St. …main street to around the world.
Orlando to be site of Florida's first Occupy convention
ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) – Orlando will host the nation's first state-wide conference of the Occupy Movement to develop what organizers are calling “The People's Plan.” The event is scheduled for the weekend of December 9 through 11.
The purpose of the conference will be to devise a list of desired legislative changes to be delivered on the first day of the Florida legislative session. A spokesperson with Occupy Orlando said that those involved in protests from all over the state will march on Tallahassee to deliver the plan directly to the State Capitol on January 10, 2012.
Occupy representatives from at least fourteen Florida cities will be attending the conference. Those cities include: Orlando, Bradenton, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Daytona, Tavares, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Miami, Palm Beach, Naples, Sarasota, and Key West. There will also representatives from Florida's Space Coast.
“The first working day of the convention will focus on generating a list of proposals,” read a statement from Brook Hines, an Occupy spokesperson. “On the second day, a General Assembly will convene to consider which of the proposals to adopt.”
Hines said the convention will be broadcast live via the Occupy Orlando Livestream website . The location has not been announced.
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On the web:
Occupy Florida Facebook
Occupy Orlando
Phi Beta Iota: Posted anonymously, this announcement has not yet been verified but is interested as one of the early signs that Occupy may be maturing.
Brief OWS Reflections
UncategorizedRecent Communications Regarding Some Personal Occupied Wall Street Involvements
by Jason Liszkiewicz
November 26, 2011
(This is an edited email)
Corporation$ = Persons + Money = $peech is a commonly agreed upon absurdity from what I've witnessed.
“Electoral reform” is language that I think turns many people off and perhaps it's time for a makeover name-wise. I've seen semantics become a problematic issue many times yet I've also seen that after speaking about ideas and actions beyond particular terms (and emotions), agreement could be found and a breakthrough achieved. Overall, I don't think the world is interested in becoming an anarchists' “utopia” or any group's “utopia.” I doubt it will ever happen effectively, but I think that anarchists and “reformists” need to come together.
In my opinion, human relations cannot be rushed when it comes to “building community” which I think is absolutely essential. But the fact is that more people need to become involved in order for strength in numbers to reach critical mass which is a long ways away. I see meetings where people never bring up outreach or working with multiple working groups as if the small amount of people who show up to meetings is enough for some sort of “revolution,” or that someone else is taking care of that need. It is finally being discussed more online and in-person. Patience and persistence is essential.
The memes and demonstrations of discontent are burning globally but the vision and strategy needed to fuel effective acceleration and spreading is questionable.
There are complexities with the General Assemblies and spokes-council that are frustrating (and lack of info being uploaded to nycga.net such as finance and past GA proposals) but I think the kinks can be worked out; it will take a lot of work + it's only been alittle over 2 months + winter creeping in.
Even Russell Simmons has proposed an amendment to the Constitution in Boston and L.A. In my opinion, it should be looked upon as a sign of new opportunities towards new forms of collaboration and not an end. Getting more people involved throughout the nation is important while figuring out how to effectively “crowd-source” and develop better understanding about how to achieve “consensus.”
We must overcome the barriers of ignorance, poverty, and mistrust.
Also See: Dear Occupiers: A letter from anarchists
