Robert Steele: An Open Letter to Occupy/*
UncategorizedOccupy Wall Street [OWS], Decision Time: Movement or Mob?
For several weeks now I and others have been trying to identify electoral reform points of contact across all occupy groups, and in passing, finance points of contact. This has proven to be next to impossible, and revealed the dirty little secret of Occupy: outside of New York, Boston, Chicago, and Oakland, Occupy is more mob than movement.
Message to OWS Activists: Use Reddit to Organize
New York is the best of breed, and the New York spokes initiative is a superb model. I suggest that Occupy turn its attention inward for a week, get on Reddit, and get its shit together nationally.
Electoral Reform: the Best Way to Rein In Wall Street
1) Whether you agree with this idea or not, electoral reform is the one thing that the Independents, members of the 63 parties shut out of the process, and moderate Republicans & Democrats might agree with Occupy on. All other issues including corporate personality and campaign finance pale in comparison. I recommend that the entire “Movement” turn its attention to helping the NYC GA working group on Politics & Electoral Reform identify a point of contact in every Occupy movement, and they in turn should turn to identifying a point of contact in every Congressional district, all toward the day when we can organize a simultaneous Occupy of the offices of every Senator and Representive while they are home for the holidays fund-raising.
IndieGoGo: Ready Resource for the Fledgling OWS Movement
2) Finance is a mess, even in NYC where transparency is down the tubes and chaos reigns, at least in the perception of the public–this despite the fact that NYC is again a superb model in its relation with the community bank. I have spoken to the owner-managers of IndieGoGo via their business development chief. IndieGoGo is prepared to immediately create a campaign for every Occupy movement, and to provide the tools of accountability, transparency, and collective action that are needed to make the most of the public’s considerable interest in seeing Occupy succeed on substance. I believe that Occupy is capable of inspiring $500 million in donations if it will get its act together at the strategic, operational, tactical, and technical levels. Certainly I will help if asked.
To Build a Movement, Build Momentum: Adapting OWS Strategy to Changing Circumstances: Working Smart
In my view, Occupy needs to shift from encampments that got public attention and forced media attention, to a strategic winter campaign that focuses on movement building, electoral reform as the singular demand, and finance as the sustaining foundation for assuring that Occupy/99%'rs are elected in 2012.
Breathe New Life Into This Movement Before it Falters
Time is the one strategic variable that cannot be bought and cannot be replaced. In my view, Occupy has crossed the line from meaningful action and is now is a descending spiral toward impotence. That descent can be stopped. Occupy must ascend by FOCUSING.
Semper Fidelis,
Robert David Steele (Vivas)
Corporations Are Not People, Money is Not Speech: Repealing Corporate Personhood Throughout America
Uncategorized
In Boulder, CO “Measure 2H” is a call for reclaiming democracy from the corrupting effects of corporate control.
It's a show of support for the Move to Amend initiative, which wants to change the U.S. Constitution so that it overrides the Supreme Courts Citizens United decision that essentially granted personhood to corporations. The January 2010 ruling, which said that the First Amendment prohibits limits on corporate funding of political broadcasts in candidate elections, was criticized for equating money with free speech and giving companies carte blanche to outspend the competition on ads for their favored candidates. Opponents said that the city council should be focusing instead on local matters in its own jurisdiction, and that stripping corporations of rights would hurt the economy.
Berkeley’s mayor and City Council called for amending US & CA constitutions to declare corporations are not entitled to the rights of persons and that corporate money is not free speech and to request that other communities take a similar stand (April 2010).
On a related note, an experiment by Digital Democracy led to repealing corporate personhood as the top idea expressed as of the writing of the article.
Also see:
Event: Nov 9 – Nation-wide House Parties to Plan for the Two-Year Anniversary of Citizens United
Video: Hartmann – Have corporations overplayed their hand & a backlash is now underway?
Animation: Story of Citizens United vs. FEC
Constitutional Convention online idea + feedback collection(Lessig)
Robert Steele: In Praise of Eva Waskill & New Book by Gordon Cook, “The Privatization of Democracy”
UncategorizedReference: The 99% Declaration
Uncategorized
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” -Thomas Jefferson
The 99% Declaration
WHEREAS THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION PROVIDES THAT:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
BE IT RESOLVED THAT:
WE, THE NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in order to form a more perfect Union, by, for and of the PEOPLE, shall elect and convene a NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY beginning on July 4, 2012 in the City Of Philadelphia.
Full declaration below the line.
There is no assurance this is actually supported by any General Assembly.
Continue reading “Reference: The 99% Declaration”
Behavioural Conflict: Why Understanding People and Their Motives Will Prove Decisive in Future Conflict by Andrew Mackay and Steve Tatham ; foreword by Stanley McChrystal.
04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Information Operations (IO), Peace Intelligence, Public Intelligence, Uncategorized, Worth A Look
The Small Wars Journal Blog has a post previewing a new book by Andrew Mackay and Steve Tatham. Behavioural Conflict: Why Understanding People and Their Motives Will Prove Decisive in Future Conflict considers how the West's Post Cold War conflicts have been fought amongst people rather than between armies. From publisher's description:
“These people, amongst others, have been Mendes, Kissis and Konos (and the 13 other tribes of Sierra Leone), they have been Serbo-Croats, Bosnians, Kosovars, Albanians, Unizzahs, al-Ribads, al-Zobaids, Kurds, al-Montifig (and the other tribal groups of the nearly 40 that make up Iraq), Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbecks (and the other 6 ethnic groupings that make up Afghanistan's rich tapestry of population), they have been Sunni, Shia, Orthodox, Agnostic, Christian, Catholic; they have been farmers, politicians, police, administrators, businessmen, narco khans, war lords, men, women and children. In fact you can divide them in any one of a hundred or so different ways but the only certainty is that all of these groups and people will exhibit behaviour, that may appear utterly irrational but for better or worse will have profound effects upon the manner in which military missions are conducted.”
The book is based on a paper written in 2009 for the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. The tale of the lone Afghan farmer sowing seeds in a field near the Kajaki Dam should be a warning to those from the developed world who underestimate the intelligence of people just because they don't speak English or have grown up without electricity and running water.
This book will have utility for anyone working in military, peacekeeping, policing or any other other cross cultural situation.
