During Occupy Orlando, I experienced representative democracy in a form that Thomas Jeffersonwould recognize. I saw peaceful assembly as envisioned by the "despicable rabble" of 1765 as they gathered around their Liberty Trees to protest undue corporate influence.
Small business was thriving in the colonies but British corporate conglomerates encouraged the Crown to tax, tariff and parasitize the rapidly growing small business community. Eventually, John Hancockwould be considered a smuggler and Sam Adamswas a fugitive the Redcoats intended to hang as a traitor.
The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court has declared corporations as persons and this act is similar to the Stamp Tax of 1765 as a final straw. No one is objecting to wealth, but disgust at the grandiose gluttonous greed unleashed in the last 30 years. Occupiers love capitalism and completely understand how it has been hijacked by rapacious resource extraction and the monopoly money debt system.
Along with the growing rise of corporatism there is the undue influence and stealth coup of the Republican False Witness Party. I saw every American demographic represented at Occupy Orlando BUT, the moral high ground hypocrites are out in full force, dissimulators trying to misrepresent peaceful protest. I met bright people with good jobs that have come on hard times due to the gangrenous greed of our banking system or corrupt health care &an d misdiagnosis. I have paid 60,000 dollars of interes t on my house and the bank has made more than all the contractors put together with this usurious interest. How much more do they need? How did they earn it?
The only reason corporations make jobs is because the entire structure of Main Street Small Business was crushed after WW2. Unions had brought dignity to the American worker bringing us out of our Third World conditions, but the misnamed Greatest Generation were willing dupes to profiteers who clear cut southern forests to ignite the cheap housing boom of the 50's, and bought stocks in companies such as GM who dumped toxins into rivers and poured industrial solvents down wells. Many who are sitting pretty today were beneficiaries of the high wages of the government subsidized weapons industry, or investments with companies whose toxic sites need a taxpayer cleanup. We have an EPA because large companies will not do the right thing, ever.
I realize that union wages priced many American goods beyond the reach of most people in the world by the 70's. Corporations then fled to look for the most obedient and servile labor force they could find. One result of the occupy movement will be foreign workers demanding better pay and safe working conditions with unions, because the unions have not outlived their usefulness. Wal Mart heirs have $80,000,000,000 in the bank and could afford an across the board three dollars an hour raise for all non-salaried workers. With or without a union this would be an instant stimulus package and the many industrious, underpaid, unhappy Wal Mart workers would agree.
In 1788 the new government of the United States had many bills and loans to be paid. Many of our states' rights issues were studied and discussed and a limited federal government was agreed upon. To provide a common defense was understood by George Washington to mean wewould not be a meddlesome component in the world's conflicts. "Government can be a handy servant, but a terrible Master." I agree with the Tea Party and their opinions on government over reach, Departments of Education and Energy are state issues and these departments can be eliminated. We disagree on defense cuts. In 1788 most tax revenue was generated from tariffs. A 25% tariff on all products from China would embolden workers there, in their fight for higher wages, as we demand that China end slave labor and worksite tyranny and focus on environmental abuses and pollution.
If our government won't do it, the civic groups we belong to will do it. During the Orlando General Assembly the motion to list corporations to boycott was tabled to decide whether ethical safe companies should be promoted instead. The General assembly's are a pure form of representational democracy as any person could have input into decisions. To read the disparaging comments of those trying to malign the Occupy Movement is to see ignorance on display. Our civic groups are the high thread count in the fabric of freedom and our voices around the world will be heard.
People sitting pretty today very likely have gained this security from investments in polluting industries, their portfolios swelling from profits in companies like Kimberly Clark who cut down 150 foot ancient spruces to make tissue paper. Unseen is the environmental devastation as hillsides erode. Those mocking protestors may also be part of the corporate cabal of lawyer politicians who profit greatly from government projects. Many don't realize that 40% of Congress are lawyers and it is them that have created the law debilitated nightmare we have today. This lackey system of sycophants will do the best they can to halt liberty from emerging.
Little known is that the Revolutionary Sons of Liberty were roughnecks and gang members. Paul Revereeventually became a renowned silversmith but was known as just another wharf rat to the British sympathizers known as Tories. Sam Adams organized these gangs. Groomed for the clergy, he chose another path and was considered by the governor a troublesome pest and "leader of this group of Mohawks." In fact the clergy seemed conspicuously absent during the actual revolutionary struggle but were always usurping political power with their bogus 'great awakenings'.
The first revolution was accomplished by the 99%. A Black Native American, Crispus Attucks, was the first casualty during the Boston Massacre. Atheists were not discriminated against as they are today and many independent voices influenced events. One of the little people was an important advisor to George Washington. In fact, Washington D.C. and its breathtaking architecture was designed by a flamboyant gay dude. You are being sold a pack of lies and you really need to look hard for the truth. Occupy Wall Street may not resemble the window smashing, effigy hanging, cannon hauling, tavern singing patriots of 1776 but in some ways the pursuit of Liberty and Justice for all is exactly similar. The second American Revolution will include women this time giving us the energy needed to defeat coercive authority. Or as The platform of the Progressive Party in 1912 said in their mission statement, their stated goal was to defeat "the unholy alliance between business and government." TheBull Moose Party was led by Theodore Roosevelt and though they didn't win, T.R. was carved into Mount Rushmore for a reason. Trust buster extraordinaire.
Thomas Paine from his poem Liberty Tree. "Unmindful of names or distinction they came, for freemen like brothers agree, with one spirit endow'd , they one friendship pursued, a their temple was Liberty Tree. "
From November 10, 2010 post "Reform Platform" Garden Greenhammer blog
Condensed and updated
I proposed a 10 10 9 1% plan long before Herman the Huckster announcedhis plan during the 2012 Presidential race.
First, the 1 in the plan. A 1% National Property Tax on all properties valued over ten million dollars. 10% on all properties valued over a billion dollars. One half goes into infrastructure and the other half goes into preserving land to restore wildlife populations. The Wall Street economy has allowed many people to accumulate far more money than they need and an income not earned but stolen.
Remember the real estate credo; Buy land, they ain't making any more of it. The uber rich have accumulated land around the world, and I want to suggest that all countries charge a 1% National Property Tax so there is nowhere to hide. Remember at this level we are taxing people with a hoarding disorder.
Then a 9% state sales tax to fund all government functions. All states need to eliminate their state income tax which is complicated bullshit that wastes people time. Also the American federal government freezes its budget at 3 trillion dollars. Everybody else in every other country too. No more tax breaks for the monopolist oligarchs. Within 5 years income would be up to 3.5 Trillion with surpluses as the norm in the US. A uniform higher state sales tax for all 50 states is needed so the Federal government over reach can be curtailed. The Department of Energy and Education can be eliminated. These are state concerns. The Tea Party is right on that one.
10% Flat tax will be enough. Here is where I need economists; Imagine GE makes 20 billion in 2014. Will it be like last year where they get a refund,........ or should they pay 10 per cent? No deductions. That would be like, 2 billion in taxes dude! No deductions, no more gobbling land grab purchases as tax losses. These are the worst kind of people to be the stewards of our earth.
Every company with over a billion in sales also pays the flat tax, no bullshit--just layoff the tax accountants and send a check starting in 2015. No write offs or deductions. Remember, GE will also be paying a one percent property tax on their buildings and land. Five billion in real estate would yield another 500 million in taxes. Wal Mart is in competition with the Vatican as one of the largest landowners of the world and would contribute a lot in taxes. There wouldn't even be a need for lobbyists anymore. Vaporize thetax breaks.
That reminds me, I am a tax the religions advocate and would subject them to the Federal Property tax and ten percent flat tax for all revenue. The tax code assumes religions are do gooders who will help people. Balderdash! No more 501-c's period. We can live without all that paperwork and bureaucracy. Pen should be hitting paper for all you math minds, have we balanced the budget yet?
The next ten is ten dollars an hour. For all companies that have over a billion dollars in sales and revenue. Eight dollars an hour for all companies whose sales and revenue are over a million dollars and a six dollar an hour minimum wage for small business under a million. Call it an apprentice wage to get more people working and trained. This wage would be universal and worldwide. All worker/citizen/voters will have dignity at work. Also, restaurants all would follow this 10-8-6 plan. No one makes less than six an hour. McDonalds over a billion pays 10/hour. Smaller chains like Applebees pays 8 for a minimum and Mabels Diner on the corner pays $6.00. This would allow small mom and pop eateries to compete again.
See where I'm going here? Small business is reborn. A flat tax deduction will be for all businesses under a million in sales. All workers have a deduction of their first 10,000 dollars of income. Anyone making less than 10,000 a year doesn't have to declare taxes..period! The Household Industry exemption idea was inspired by Peter Drucker. Uh huh, that Peter Drucker.
The 10 -8 6 plan is called Escalating minimum wage.
The Occupy Orlando General Assembly tabled a motion to list companies to boycott because if time is taken to compile a list, make it a list of honorable companies that could be encouraged instead. Solutions to problems may be simpler that we realize. Woodlot management and paper recycling can be two growth industries. Reduce power of the large corporations as much as possible, returning it to people (citizen voter worker). The founding principle of 17th century agrarian anarchy "the foundation of authority rests with the free consent of the people."
Havea group that lists companies that are polluting or harrasing labor or are involved with animal cruelty or other crimes. Let's say Voortman is paying workers in it's cookie factory 75 cents an hour. As difficult as it may be, we have to boycott Voortman and not buy any shortbread cookies till wages go up to the minimum of 2 dollars an hour. I've made my own shortbread. Give it a try. Smithfield Farms had a giant spill of pig feces and excrement. It got in the river and there was a fishkill. Their slaughter houses employ many sadistic people who slam animals on the floor and poke their eyes out for the redneck shits and giggles it produces. Kimberly Clark clear cuts a Canadian Forest and hopes no one notices, but Greenpeace does. They challenged them and won, now kimbertly Clark uses 40% recycled in their products in Canada and the Boreal Forest is being partially preserved.
Boycott Kimberly Clark here in the US because we need to make corporations tend to the full price of a product. The clear cut degraded ecosystems of the last 50 years will take at least 100 years to restore to halfway mature ecosystems. These destroyers of the earth have gotten away with it so far. What do you think about banning clear cutting? I would say any more than three trees an acre is clear cutting. You see, if Kimberly Clark is forced to follow international guidelines that say no more than 3 trees per acre per year can be cut, the quick easy profits of the past are gone. Clear cutting is why recycling hasn't taken off the way it should. Till Greepeace started a boycott against them, they found no problem with grinding up a 150 foot spruce for toilet paper. Grind up a whole hillside of them and then there is erosion and another degraded ecosystem. Another slaughter of animals for profit. This is the greed i am talking about. Not the guy with the plumbing business that hires 50 people. What will happen is the following; recycling becomes viable and woodlot management begins to grow as a burst of small business activity begins on different fronts. People are out there on their properties cutting up to three trees an acre per year and they are sold to a mill to make lumber. There's another start up. Small time saw mills which will of course lead to mom and pop furniture makers. Instead of the really large trucks with many tons of trees on them wearing out our roads there are many people starting businesses that have medium sized trucks that start taking logs to the newly opened mills. It's been a rape of Mother Nature and I can believe people are not up in arms about it. There are alot of trees out there but they are being recklessly clear cut and in another 35 years there won't be any mature trees left at this ferocious pace of clear cutting. Prices are unnaturally low because this extraction insanity exists. A few make a lot of money and not many are employed by these few, because very large machines are used and alot of fuel etc. Big Business is too destructive. IT'S OKAY TO REGULATE SHIT THAT'S TOO BIG AND MONOPOLISTIC.
WHAT BULLSHIT CORPORATIONS GOT AWAY WITH
A TIME FOR PEACE, I SWEAR IT'S NOT TOO LATE
Small business begins recycling in earnest as price per pound determines ALL markets. All capitalism here, no socialism or government needed so far. A worldwide goal of good pay and safe worksites. Jobs created, recycling and reusing of all products, and sawmills open up again locally in most communities and companies begin producing mulch with waste wood, lumber with bigger trees and fine furniture from the best wood. Furniture makers return to American communities as we boycott furniture made by companies that are on the boycott list who pollute, or violate safety standards or minimum wage standards or use an undue amount of natural resources. The Citizen/voter/worker can wield the biggest weapon in the world, boycott. That's all fine and dandy to encourage good companies but the way you get a rising tide of real prosperity, not the illusion it is in 2014, is to make it tough in the marketplace if you sell cheap mass produced shit and unhealthy food that is almost not food any more.
John and Jane Doe create a business called Diversions. Various service oriented entertainment, catering, flower arrangements and other activities. John Doe cuts 50 trees a year on his 40 acre homestead. Total income for the year was 98,000 dollars. Minus the 10,000 and we are left with 88,000. 8,800 is due for income tax .
And that's it! No accountants or lawyers or investment brokers or depreciation or deductions or penalties. We begin to eviscerate the parasitical white collar class. With computers, how hard would it be to kept a track of taxes due and payments received in a flat tax system? If the total owed goes over 100,000 dollars you get a visit from the IRS to investigate to see if you can pay.
A registry to qualify for the simple plan. Diversions registers and all those tax headaches float away like smoke from a doused fire. All you have to do is keep track of sales! No exemptions or deductions, just a record of all sales. Receipts and such. Imagine then how many people would start their own business in this country. Hiding income wouldn't be fair play, an honor system where we pay our fair share. 10% isn't enough to run the government you say? You're wrong. 20 million Americans suddenly making small business income that would eat away at corporation sales. For instance, local humanely raised bacon is what 50% of the population purchases by 2018 instead of the Smithfield Farms torure bacon fill with feces and contaminanats and chemicals.
The cheap food policy is destroying our resources and gives us an illusion of prosperity. So here is your teabagger complaining about the price of Codfish in 2014, but bought cod 500 times from 1950 to 1970 when they were overfished and relatively cheap. North Atlantic stocks crashed as much as 90%! Star Kist had cute commercials with Charley the Tuna but they killed probably millions of dolphins and other sealife, selling their product. Same Tea bagger bought stock in Star Kist and makes out very well as profits are through the roof and stocks rockets up in price from his initial investment in 1950. What underlies the whole foundation of it all is overfishing and pollution and reduced fish populations worldwide and less people able to survive. At least our world should be able to have people catch fish to eat, but ecosystems are so degraded by dams and sewage and waste, that survival is no longer viable. Natural flowing streams and rivers have become ditches or "retention ponds" and are no longer real systems because so much profit has been made that I feel that most wealth is illegitimate, hence the National Property tax.
Inflation is the problem here you are beginning to realize, but it's what I call the Float Up theory of economics. Prices of goods will float up to a realistic level as people around the world begin to get paid a better wage and damage to natural resources begins to level off.
“yar” JETTISONED RUSH, “Throw me them pataters ya piece a crap”
Hannity threw the platter of potatoes then grabbed the jar of caramel syrup and began chugging it down, squeezing the sauce down his throat. He threw the empty plastic container in the fire. “Run...... toxic fire. Ha ha ha ha.”
Chris Matthews was invited to the party for balance, but Anne Coulters plan was to get Him off balance by hitting him behind the knees with t a baseball bat. When he was on the ground grabbing his knee in pain, she squatted down and started farting on his head and everyone had a good laugh. But are these appropriate dinner manners for a dinner party?
I’d say it’s not, but this is how republicans treat the environment. Nature is for us to plunder, our time here is short, and Armageddon has to happen soon.
Tuna is probably the most popular fish to buy. Everyone had to experience it because of the cheap cost. But how did tuna stay so cheap? Last year I got 2 cans for a dollar. Great for me and anyone on a budget but many of those years there were these mile long nets catching the tuna And killing dolphins and birds and turtles and this is so completely wrong.
Many compromised ecosystems and many people around the world unable to catch the fish they were used to. It’s as if we still don’t see how the world works. Thank the goddess the kids understand and every generation will be more inclined to a gentle stewardship. Nets were banned but a lot of poor practices persist.
imagine how tangled up a ten mile net can get. Sometimes the seamen had to cut away parts of these monster nets to get everything back on the ship. So here are these 1000 foot pieces of nets floating around the ocean entrapping plastic garbage and killing sea life. These floating webs of death are called ghost nets. Then some right wing gasbag says th6e Vikings depleted the ocean of Codfish and the bobbleheads all agree. Dipshitheads.
So here is your teabagger complaining about the price of Cod but b ought cod 500 times from 1950 to 1970 when they were overfished and relatively cheap. Star Kist had cute commercials with Charley the Tuna but they killed probably millions of dolphins selling their product. Tea bagger buys stock in Star Kist and makes out very well as profits are through the roof and stocks rockets up in price. What underlies the whole foundation of this wealth is overfishing and pollution and reduced fish populations worldwide and less people able to survive. At least our world should be able to have people catch fish to eat, but ecosystems are so degraded by dams and sewage and waste that survival is no longer viable.
Here’s your American guy out fishing tells his kids that plastic comes from th e earth as he throws tangled line into the water. Why should he care or recycle when the big guys don't do this? (Note: see the lesson here? With corporations as high profile examples of behavior? Why should he care about a tangled line? “What, maybe one fish will get tangled in it. In five years it will be deep in the mud, besides plastic comes from the earth anyways.”
“Yeh in a hundred years,” his child states. “There’s styrenes and PCB’s and other chemicals created in laboratory's that the earth will have to assimilate.”
“All right” he says reaching into the water to retrieve the twisted ball. He did more research and found out that many towns were installing fishing line recycling tubes. He called and the parks director got them approved for all the fishing lakes in town.
This is green ethics, this is cultural reform. With the way things are now we are farting on Mother Nature when she’s down. Digging out diamonds and metals, scooping the ocean clean of fish, reckless clear cuts when recycling is going to be able to take care of 50% of our paper needs if we can manage
Our whole perspective of priorities is skewed. Look at what I am suggesting. People cutting trees sustainably on lots they own. a family company making money off trees on their properties.
People at recycling centers turning trash into recyclables and People growing kenaf or hemp because of the high cellulose content. Small paper companies starting up.Small business is the answer. The high carbon footprint corporations can be taxed 1% per year for all property *buildings and land) that is valued over 1 million dollars. White collar wealth is an invisible economy with imaginary money, but it allows them to buy up the land of the world. We need to teach our children the value of the land not land values.
Ghost nets, we need to replace legacies of greed with Lessons on sustainability. Ghost nets.
Do we follow the 9th commandment ……or the 9th amendment of the Bill of rights, constitution thingy? In the case of tea party ‘patriots’, the answer is neither.
Remember in 2009 when the national discussion was energy self-sufficiency and Infrastructure Repair? The price of gasoline had gone upto $4.25. We needed a fresh, optimistic new start, and it had nothing to do with Republicans and Democrats. It had to do with Liberty and our ability to create without coercion. We would invent our way out of the near-depression created by the real estate bubble. Small business creates more jobs than the big corporations, let’s remember, and as I often say, “the innovations of the future are going to come from the garages of America, not the boardrooms of corporations.”
The cranky Donut Shop Pundits are trying to be the fulcrum of power and falsely claim to represent America. Donut shop pundits are who glennbeck and rushlimbaugh emulate, the charismatic right-wing jackbag at the donut shop or breakfast place, holding court as teens sling the donuts or home fries, and slack-jawed yokels nod as these ‘pundits’ jettison dissension from their pulpits of powdery hate. This week the word has gone down from the 1% to the Donut Shop Pundits. 'If Obama is re-elected it will be the end of America.' So they all begin working it into anything they can.
They have wanted to go back to 1950 since 1962 and they influence public opinion more than we’d like to admit. The only problem is that; their world has died, and the Old Order refuses to admit it. At the donut shop you hear, "I earned that lifetime pension defending our country, not like those welfare queens and food stamp moochers". What the alcoholic military pensioner doesn't like to talk about is that he or she worked 18 of those 20 years, selling boots in the commissary. Hardly defending our country, but thoroughly enjoying the perks of a socialistic, overly huge military. No offense of course. I'm all for a military closer to the homeland. Higher pay, no more lifetime pensions, More Seals, less salesman. Fewer lifers, more Coast Guard
George Washington (upper right)sits around with 13 goddesses from this fresco on the ceiling of the Capital building. Minerva and Ben Franklin confer below
We could cut troop strength down to 750,000. More warriors, less shoe salesman at the commissary. and pencil pushers. Too much Veteran benefits for some, terrible health care for others. My children will be paying disability for those injured in the Bush Wars. This is what the so-called greatest generation will be known for---bankrupting the future with golden promises and unsustainable payouts. Highways, bridges, hospitals, wetlands, inner cities, all need workers to repair and maintain, and we are truly wasting our money on a worldwide military and costs will dog federal budgets nearly to the 22nd century. We are truly wasting our money on a worldwide military. Too many lifers milking their jobs to get to twenty years. The soldier who shot 16 Afghanis was 18 years into his stint---he was only 2 more years away from retirement. It is conceivable that someday, someone who retired from the military at 40, collects a pension till they are 110, we’ll be living longer they say, so, therefore, 20 years of work will yield 70 years of pension.
We need to evolve socially also. United States sells weapons to 100 countries, what’s that all about? Weapons help boost the economy? Or would money be better spent on hospitals, bridges, restoring wetlands, health care, have blighted inner cities rejuvenized. Building or adapting roads to accommodate slower 25 MPH traffic as we create a more diverse transportation system . It is such an irony that taxes are being used instead to bomb hospitals, bridges, wetlands and creating bombed neighborhoods that need repair.
Instead of using the 9th amendment to support the effort to balance the foundation of authority:: Instead of heeding the spirit of the 9th commandment that demands we speak truth about other people, the closed minded right wingnuts persistently plunge forward, jettisoning their appalling display of ignorance, their fecal contamination of half-truths and an insurmountable pile of lies from their pulpits of hate.
What does bearing false witness mean you ask? False witness can be described as making up deceptions to make a person appear sinister or crooked or un-American in the teabag rulebook. Gossip campaigns that bring people down, this is bearing false witness but they seem to revel in it. Do not lie about your neighbor or relative, ALWAYS SPEAK TRUTH, this is what the 9th commandment states.
The credit collapse will clear the path for the final industrial and military destruction of what’s left….that’s any good. Resource bankruptcy will be our grandchildren’s birthright. THEY WILL MERELY BE A POOL OF WORKERS THAT WILL PAY OFF BANK, INSURANCE, AIRLINE, INDUSTRIAL AND GOVERNMENT PENSIONS.
Our founding fathers are accused of being slave owners and that, but the foundation of liberty had to begin somewhere and it had to begin somehow, it couldn’t arrive full blown out of nowhere. Let's see you leave a constitution that is still admired 235 years later.
Environmental wacko is the term used by Rush Limbaugh to describe people involved in earth stewardship. He thinks that the only good tree is a dead tree. Furniture, decking, house frames, sports equipment; trees are a product exclusively. All good utilizations, but many of us feel trees need to be forests too, and not just baseball bats. The best wood has been harvested, the old trees incinerated to grow monoculture crops.
People who say this is a Christian nation are bearing false witness; most Christians therefore break the 9th commandment. Spreading lies, half-truths, and defying the spirit of the 9th commandment while they pass out NObama stickers at Bob Evans, speaking lies out of both sides of their mouths. While at the same time they are using the 9th amendment in the wrong way.
But that is Lesson 2. How to use the 9th Amendment the way the founding revolutionaries intended.
Asanother strong squall blew in from the east, on September 21st 1938, my dad bent down and grabbed the cap that had blown off his head; tucked it under his arm, and ran the rest of the way home. Although far out to sea when he went to school, the undetected and untracked hurricane had picked up speed, slamming into the Connecticut coast around 3 o’clock with 115 MPH winds.
The winds were still blowing over 90 MPH as the dangerous quadrant of the storm went through Hartford where my dad lived. His mom, sister and he looking out the window as trees flapped like the neighbors laundry on the line, my grandmother barely having time to bring hers in. The Long Island Express it was called and this unseen hurricane was the strongest storm to ever hit New England in recent memory.
Just south of Hartford in Wethersfield, where my mother lived, the Great Elm, pictured above and recognized as the largest in the United States, held onto most of its large branches but was heavily damaged.
People sitting pretty today very likely have gained this security from investments in polluting industries, their portfolios swelling from profits in companies like Kimberly Clark who cut down 150 foot ancient spruces to make tissue paper. Unseen is the environmental devastation as hillsides erode. Those mocking protestors may also be part of the corporate cabal of lawyer politicians who profit greatly from government projects. Many don't realize that 40% of Congress are lawyers and it is them that have created the law debilitated nightmare we have today. This lackey system of sycophants will do the best they can to halt liberty from emerging.
