Excellent new documentary on the Occupy movement from my friend / key organizer / kick ass filmmaker @DennisTrainorJr…
“Shot on the front lines and meeting spaces of the Occupy movement in NYC, Boston, and Washington, DC from the earliest days through the end of January 2012 American Autumn: an Occudoc is an inside looking out view of the occupy movement.
With interviews and insight from key organizers, thinkers and activists including Medea Benjamin, David DeGraw, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Lee Camp, Naomi Klein, Nathan Schneider, Ashley Sanders, Vlad Teichberg, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, Dr. Cornel West, Kevin Zeese and many more. Writer/ director Dennis Trainor Jr weaves commentary and a fearless style that often puts the viewer right between police and protesters.”
Despite the mainstream media eulogies / lack of coverage, the Occupy movement is still very active. The organizing activity currently happening is a thousand times more than it was one year ago. Every day people are engaging in protest. Decentralized guerilla armies are confronting the corrupt and bringing much needed attention to injustice. Major props to our sisters & brothers out on the frontlines!
Here’s the catch though… as necessary as all of these protests against the corrupt are, people now know what the problems are. Yes, even a critical mass of the propagandized masses are now generally aware that the banks are greedy parasites destroying our communities and that politicians are paid off puppets. This mass awareness is Occupy’s greatest success. Occupy has effectively evolved national discourse and shifted the cultural mindscape / popular consciousness.
However… we now need to evolve past the phase of raising awareness about what is wrong, corrupt, broken and unsustainable, and start focusing attention on solutions to these problems.
It’s time to flip the protest script »
Instead of protesting what we are against, let’s rally around what we are for.
We need to occupy & amplify the solutions. Let’s occupy the forces that are evolving our society to a sustainable and prosperous future, for the 100%.
Let’s hold rallies around successful alternative monetary systems, alternative energy, alternative education, alternative media, alternative food, alternative healthcare, alternative systems of governance.
Let’s occupy the alternatives.
Our biggest problem is that we have an entrenched oligarchy clinging to obsolete, old world systems and techniques that have become more harmful than helpful to society and our communities as a whole.
We have an outdated system of incentives.
We live in a time that necessitates mass transformation. It’s time to evolve.
These giant banks and corporations are dinosaurs in the days after the meteor hit. They are convulsing and clinging to life, destroying everything in their path. Don’t interact with them, let them die, don’t support them in any way, ignore them, focus on and embrace the evolvers.
Show that another way, another world is not only possible, it’s happening.
There are solutions & answers bubbling under the surface. Let’s occupy & amplify the alternatives!
#OccupyEvolver»
Set it off…
Supreme Court Upholds Citizens United; Tightens Corporate Stranglehold on Campaign FinanceHa! Now that’s some serious tragic comedy.
In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court has struck down (pdf) Montana’s 100 year old law that banned direct corporate political campaign spending in state and local elections. The court reversed a lower court ruling, but did so without allowing full briefing or argument in the case.
Previously, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the law due to the state’s dramatic history of corruption, but the Supreme Court’s ruling today rejected that decision, arguing that ‘independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.’” [read full report]
As Vince Vaughn put it, “Well, well, our little boy is all grows up.” My brother from another mother, Dylan Ratigan is doing his last show on MSNBC today. Congrats on one hell of a run!!
It has been inspiring to watch the “young hotshot” reporter from CNBC evolve into the “Mad As Hell” newsman on MSNBC. From reporting & ranting about “the greatest theft of wealth in history” to “get money out” to “the 30 million jobs tour” to “more for less, sustainability,” Dylan has helped evolve the narrative far past the Left Vs. Right, Republican Vs. Democrat divide & conquer groupthink trap. I think I would be in an insane asylum if it wasn’t for Dylan boldly speaking truth to power in the sea of bullshit that passes for TV “news.”
While some may consider it sad to see him leaving his show, I’m excited to witness his evolution from caged cable newsman trapped inside a dying medium, to a free, pioneering, trailblazing champion of sustainability in whatever forms that may take. I don’t know many people who have the guts, or vision, to walk away from a boatload of cash and a national TV gig. The way I see it, this is what separates the shortsighted self-obsessed careerist talking heads from the real warriors who want to get their hands dirty and truly help evolve our society from an unsustainable disastrous path to a sustainable and prosperous future.
Here’s a tribute to Dylan I posted back in October, 2009:
One Person in the Mainstream Media Who Gets It: ‘The Greatest Theft in History!’As a refugee from CNBC, financial reporter Dylan Ratigan has found his voice on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting. He speaks truth to power in a way very few others in the mainstream media are capable of. His economic reporting background and understanding of complex financial issues led him to the realization that
a financial coup has occurred in the US, and he’s not afraid to take on the Economic Death Squad from his cable news outlet. He’s done such an amazing job of educating the masses on this issue that we used audio clips from his show in our new Economic Death Squad video. Here are some insightful recent clips. Show them to your friends and family to educate them on this crime against humanity.Wall St Gangsters: The Largest Theft in History
Goldman Sachs magic trick
How the Federal Reserve Enabled the Greatest Theft in American History
Taxpayers Need To Get “Their Pound Of Flesh” From Bailout Banks
Pay Czar Offers No Solution on Executive Pay
Dark Pools, The Banksters Trying to Subvert Financial Reform
America Has a Disease, Will You Rise Up?
Here’s our video featuring audio clips from Dylan:
The Greatest Theft in History – Wall Street Economic Death Squad – Part II
Here’s his famous “Mad As Hell” moment:
Evolving from the Mud to Become a Positive & Unifying Force For Change
I have spent far too much energy and time dealing with issues of co-option and fighting “the battle for the soul of Occupy” and the 99% Movement. It’s been incredibly disheartening to see many people that I know agree on several key issues get completely caught up and bogged down in what they disagree on. We have several powerful factions within this movement for justice.
To name a few:
The hardcore people within each one of these factions have very little interest in working with any of the other factions, and as soon as you work on a campaign with any of the other factions, they dismiss, attack or ignore you. In a situation like this, all the factions become paralyzed by their own incestuous groupthink and ideological purity. The pre-existing power structure can then rest assured in their continued dominance and continue their plunder of our future, as we are all too preoccupied with dividing and conquering (marginalizing) ourselves, expending too much energy engaging in turf wars and too little energy focused on the dominant power structure.
So, what is it that we ALL agree on?
We ALL agree that we need to get money out of our political process!
That being said, no matter what your ideology or political leanings are, if you want to get money out of politics, I’m willing to put aside our differences, extend an olive branch and work with you toward this goal.
Ending the auction of our democracy has clearly emerged as the most unifying issue, and it is at the root of the many problems that we are currently working to solve. Whatever issue is of most concern to you — healthcare, education, taxes, debt, war, environment, jobs, etc — it has become self-evident that the underlying cause of that particular problem is the corrupting influence of money in politics. Through a system of legalized bribery — campaign finance, lobbying and the revolving door between Washington and the most powerful global corporations — our government has devolved into a rigged system of exploitation.
It doesn’t matter what your political views are — left, right, center, democrat, republican, independent, conservative, liberal, progressive, libertarian, anarchist, communist, capitalist, socialist — if you believe in self-governance, self-determination, freedom and justice, ridding our governmental process of the corrupting influence of money must be an urgent strategic priority.
Our strategy moving forward inevitably needs to run on two tracks. Track one is achieving legitimate democracy by getting money out of our political process. Track two is creating the alternatives, so once we claim our rights new ways of living can flourish and evolve our obsolete system of rule to a participatory, sustainable and prosperous future, for the 100%.
For those of us paying attention, as Tom Paine explained, this is all “common sense.”
So let’s get to work and make this happen already!
Join this online community dedicated to cause: http://MoneyOutPack.org
[video]
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again…Lookin’ for a new fool
Don’t follow leaders…Get born…