My time at Occupy Oakland. Hanging with the 99 percenters. 2011

I spent a few weeks at the occupy movement in Oakland, camped out like a forest ranger in the park by the civic center. It is normally called Frank Ogawa Plaza, but for the time of the protest it was always referred to as Oscar Grant Plaza. Why? Who the fuck knows? The dead delinquent had nothing to do with Wall Street or politics. I am told he was a victim of “The Man.” I thought he was shot by a dumb cop who couldn’t tell the difference between his Taser and his Glock. A lot of people tried to convince me what a noble fellow Oscar was. Each time it came up I asked if they knew him personally; no one did. “How do you know what an honorable and noble fellow he was?”

Yeah, there were Oscar Grant fans there. There were a lot issues besides Oscar that were brought to the forefront each day. Some were there to protest their growing student debt. I asked them, “Are you still going to college?” Yes. “Why don’t you quit and stop going into debt?” Invariably, the answers were that “The Man” will eventually forgive all student debt so there was no need to drop out of school. “Dude, when this revolution is done, no one will owe a dime on a student loan.” Shit, I paid my student loans years ago. I should have let them ride and let “The Man” take care of them.

A typical day at the camp started just after midnight when the first of two or more drunks/stoners fell on my tent, keeping me wide awake. I never had a good night’s sleep there. I’d fall asleep for a little while and then the guys in the tent next to mine would start making love, usually about 3am. They sounded like hogs going at it. Their tent would shake and the poles would rattle. Sometimes they had an audience who would stand next to my tent and clap and cheer for their orgasms.

A couple of times I went to the community kitchen to see what there was to eat for breakfast. There was a lot of organic this and natural that cooking in pots. It wasn’t the food that I distrusted; it was the people cooking it. It was hardly a sanitary affair. I am still surprised there was not an E-Coli outbreak. I knew a lot of folks who had the trots. That caused a real crisis for our toilet facilities. I noticed a few guys and gals squatting like dogs on the lawn as the lines at the porta potties were too long and the urge of their diarrhea too great! I think this pissed off a lot of dogs as they spent their time trying to reclaim that territory with their own poop.  

The morning porta potty wait became a ritual. I would often find myself with the same people in line day after day at sun up. Sometimes we’d sing songs. There were a lot spontaneous chants that would arise. “Get the fuck out of the toilet!’ was my favorite. It tended to move the line along.

Well, in the mornings I usually took a walk to McDonalds or a coffee shop for some eggs and good ol’ processed meats. I was told by many that there was not enough food for all thru the community kitchen. It ran out often. When it didn’t run out, the food was very bad. After a while some of the nearby coffee shops closed during the protest and I had to walk farther for lunch and dinner. I’d be damned if I was going to eat anything made by “Natural Dan” and “Constantly Stoned and Happy Katey.” I was talking to “Constantly Stoned and Happy Katey” while she was making a dinner dish one night. She suddenly sneezed into the pot. She winked at me and said, “You didn’t see that.” Yeah, I did. I nearly threw up my Big Mac thinking of all the folks who were going to be dining on that later.

There were anti-war protesters there in droves. “Out of Afghanistan” read many signs. I talked to a nice couple who were singing some old protest songs. The guy looked like a young version of Pete Seeger and the lady looked like any other Dead Head/Phish Following Spin dancer. Should I say she had an “earthy” scent about her? “We gotta pull our troops out now!”

Another group out there at Occupy was the Tree Huggers contingent. This consisted of various backwoods types of hippies. Some were more concerned with global warming, others were the true tree hugger who literally save trees. One guy was very proud of the Redwood Trees he had spiked. Spiking a tree is hammering a metal spike deep into a tree so when a chainsaw hits the spike it breaks the chain injuring or possibly killing the lumberjack. The most creative of this group was the fellow who occupied a tree, calling himself an Ohlone Indian and declaring the tree his reservation or tribal property.

Many of the people I describe above were affiliated with socialism or socialist parties. There were people there who called themselves socialists and some who referred to themselves as communists. There were even those who called themselves anarchists and openly promoted the violent overthrow of the United States Government. All three of these groups advocated distinct and sudden changes to be made to our government. According to many in these particular groups, the current system of government provided through the U. S. Constitution is antiquated and unresponsive to the needs of the 99%.

Yep, I said, “Hey, good luck with that!”

American Economic Weakness

September 13, 2012

   

Sept. 7^th we had a very disappointing jobs report. Another disappointing report is expected Friday the 14th. Hewlett Packard has announced thousands of lay offs to start before the end of the year. The Fed has initiated a new round of Quantitative Easing (QE) whereby they purchase mortgage bonds in order to grow the economy.  This could be known as QE 3, but QE’s 1 and 2 both had definitive dollar amounts and dates attached to them. This QE does not have anything definite related to it; no dates and no dollars. No expectation of $40 billion in monthly bond purchases ever ending.

The intent is to weaken the dollar and increase the amount of money available in the economy. Printing money is a trick that third world countries use to heat up their economies and generate inflation. A weak dollar will generate inflation by increasing the costs of anything we import. Part of the intent of QE is to make American made products more attractive pricewise. Does that work? Did the first two rounds of QE help? Can anyone say, “QE 2 was a Godsend! I could not have hired so many employees without it!”

I also have not heard any business owners, small or otherwise, speak highly about our President’s economic policies. These four million jobs that were created under his watch sure seem to be under the radar. How can that be if there has been a constant 11 million unemployed since the end of the recession three years ago? Statistics are tricky. It all depends on when you look at the job market. If you look at the bottom of the market in 2009 and compare it to today, I suppose you could say four million jobs were created. But how many were really lost in this recession since 2007?

Let’s consider a very cogent statistic; the job seekers vs. available jobs. As of July 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows it at 3.5 seekers per job. At the height of the recession in July 2009, it was 6.7 to 1! The numbers changed dramatically over the past three years. Why? Not because four million jobs were created, it is because millions dropped out of the job market. 

Check this out. The ratio of unemployed as a percentage of the population is cogent. In 2007, over 63% of the job aged population was employed. By August of this year, it wsa just barely over 58%. How about those out of work for six months or more? In 2007, less than 20% of unemployed Americans were out of work for six months or more. As of August 2012 that number stands at 40% per the BLS. So, of the 11.5 million+ Americans currently out of work, about 5 million have been out of work for more than six months. Ouch. One stat that is hard to track is the statistic of those who have dropped out of the workforce and ended their job search. The percentage of Americans who have been out of work and dropped out of the workforce keeps growing. This is a statistic our government does not want everyone to know about. If you did, you might want to question their abilities at job creation. 

Huffington Post recently called the government jobs reports a “Jobs Mirage.” The unemployment rate dropped because hundreds of thousands of Americans drop out of the job market each month and are no longer looking for work.  
 
Quantitative Easing may work. It may work very slowly. It could also cause a greater disaster in relation to inflation. How about unleaded gas going for $5 or $6 or more per gallon? Not just in California but in the Midwest? A weak dollar makes imported oil more expensive. If you were a Saudi Prince, you would be thanking Bernanke right now! “Allah, has blessed me! Thank you, Mr. Chairman.” 

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A final tidbit for you….Our car manufacturers are not very smart. QE will increase the prices of Japanese, German, and Korean automobiles. GM, Chrysler, and Ford will see the prices of foreign cars going up and raise the price of American Cars. Why? “We need to remain competitive even in price!” It happened in the 70’s during Jimmy Carter’s regime. History can repeat.  

Prior to the bailout, GM and Chrysler let the UAW run their businesses into the ground for them. The unsustainable union pensions and pay plans were doomed, but no fear. Our government was there to bail them out and make them whole. Now the UAW manages their holdings like GM and Chrysler from the White House. C’mon, our President is in the pocket of unions. We all know it. It’s no secret. The millions in government owned auto manufacturer shares are meaningless without some real negotiations with the unions. Those negotiations won’t start until our President’s second term. As a lame duck, will he be tough on the unions? Will he do the right thing to support the sustainability of our auto manufacturing here in the U.S.? Simple answer: No.

The Socialists Among Us

I have some acquaintances who are socialists. No joke. These are folks who are very serious about big government, free healthcare, dynamic regulation, elimination of the military budget, and, especially, the redistribution of wealth through taxation. There is one fellow who advocates the complete elimination of the U.S. Banking system. He would replace it with a People's Equity Union.


The fellow's name is Mike Morin and he lives in Oregon. His website is http://peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com/2009/08/demise-of-supply-side-economics.html.

Mike is one of the premier socialist thinkers on the west coast. He has a strong following and at every turn does what he can to promote socialist ideals. He is very well educated and has worked in both the public and private realms. Mike and I have corresponded and we seldom agree on a course of action for our nation and economy. However, I find him to be a fascinating free thinker who does not let external stimuli deter him from his personally accepted mission of being the evangelist for modern socialist thought.

The People's Equity Union concept is his and it is a very interesting idea. It is the alternative to the status quo. From Mike, "The Peoples' Equity Union would be a worldwide united equity system with cooperating inter-community entities. It would preclude the use of loans, which are fundamentally usurious. It would place the most destitute, the most in need, and all children (which Mike defines as about 25 years old or less) as the highest priority. However, the Plan would include the needs of everybody. As the old Socialist slogan goes, "for all according to their needs, by all according to their abilities"."

Essentially, all banks would become not for profit. Profits made beyond a pre-determined return to the poor workers, would be re-invested in worker/community betterment hybrid businesses (preferably cooperatives).

Much of this depends on massive changes to our economy. Ending what Mike calls the inflationary spiral. So, we must have a 100% stable currency. Any inflation throws off the equilibrium of the concept. Thus, all other countries must also buy into the Equity Unions. Massive re-education programs would be required to eliminate capitalist thought. Keep in mind, all Americans who have been used to making profit in a business or investment and retaining that profit must return their profits to the community. Over time, all business services and consumer products will be provided through cooperatives where everyone in the community benefits.

My main question regarding the re-education program is whether it is voluntary or compulsory? In most of the socialist/communist countries in our immediate past, the re-education was compulsory at the point of a bayonet. USSR, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar come to mind. Many of these countries were closed societies at one point in their histories. North Korea and Myanmar are still closed societies, maintaining their distance from the rest of the world and keeping their foot on the neck of the peasant lest he gather himself up and think for himself for once.

This certainly flies in the face of Darwinist Economics. But, then again, our government's actions during the beginning of the crisis flew in the face of the Darwinists. We threw money everywhere to save banks and auto manufacturing. Now, we have nationalized a major insurance company, several banks, and two of three auto makers. We may be on our way to having de facto People's Equity Unions on every corner. Mike's Utopian dream is not over as long as our government continues to move toward nationalization of various industries and businesses.

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Excerpted from Bloomberg.com:

Man Up Obama
Commentary by David Reilly

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is starting to look like the second coming of Jimmy Carter. If he’s going to avoid that fate, the president had better take radical action -- and fast.

That means doing more than offering belated talk about jobs, or waging ineffectual on-again, off-again bank warfare. What, after all, is the point of bashing Wall Street only to then blow bonus kisses to JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. head Lloyd Blankfein?

Obama needs to ditch his professorial, community-organizer mien and start cracking some heads. Unless, that is, he is intent on paving the way for a Palin presidency in 2013.

Read the entire column here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a4hIeftRVyvE
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Oh, lord save us from a Palin Presidency. Democratic Commentator Ken Bauer recently wrote, "If Palin is nominated, it would the best thing to happen to Obama for his reelection. She's a clown. Yes, she has a strong and vocal following. I think a lot of people will see through her act. Romney, on the other hand, is a different story."

Commentator David Reilly really tells it like it is in his column. He is right in many ways. One day Obama is raising hell about Wall Street bonuses and now he does not begrudge a bonus. He wants to regulate the banks and when the bank lobbyists get pissed and try to make him look bad, he reneges. He goes to Copenhagen to build the case for Global Warming, cap and trade, etc. For all his Green rhetoric, he comes back empty handed (which was a good thing for our Nation). Is it the concept that the less he does the less he can be blamed? He sequesters himself to consider the changes he wants in the strategy of Afghanistan. He essentially gives the generals all they asked for when the process started. (Sure, they asked for 40K troops and got 30K troops, they always ask for too many so they eventually get what they need). So far, it is a fairly weak presidency leaving much fodder for the likes of Hannity, Beck, Letterman, Leno, et al.
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Geitner and Larry the Econ Guy need to go. Rahm should stay. Rahm will remind people about all the things they dislike about slimey lawyer politicians from Chicago. He is the poster child for political A**holes. (Everyone has a little Rahm Emanual in them. We sit on it everyday!) Geitner has lost his credibility as has Summers. Can anyone really take these guys serious? I personally have a hard time having someone leading the Treasury who has cheated on his taxes. It’s Turbo Taxes Fault? No way! I have used Turbo Tax and Tax Cut and will use Tax Cut again this year. The software does not allow you to make mistakes. It warns you repeatedly when something isn't right with big red marks. Geitner lied and cheated on his taxes, end of story. If Timmy falls in the well, let’s hope Lassie ignores it.

Until we meet again, Happy Trails!